by Joséphine during his absence. He gave her the money to complete the
purchase of Malmaison, and settled with the decorators their account of
over a million francs, which, after a careful scrutiny of the bills,
he reduced by one-half, for over-charges and articles not actually
furnished. On the 12 November he also paid over a million francs for
the national property in the department of the Dyle, which she had
contracted to purchase. Five years later this estate was to furnish the
dot for Adèle, the natural daughter of Alexandre de Beauharnais, when
Joséphine arranged her marriage with a Captain Lecomte.
A husband willing to pardon his wife’s infidelity, and at the same time
pay over two millions of her debts, is one not often found, and if
Joséphine was incapable of fully appreciating such generosity, she at
any rate, up to the time of her divorce, gave no further grounds for
public scandal. In her own words, she was too much afraid of losing
“her position.”
During the weeks of preparation for the coup d’état of the 18 Brumaire
(9 November), Joséphine played an important rôle. In spite of all the
precautions that were taken it was impossible to prevent rumors from
reaching the ears of the three Directors who were not in the plot.
Barras received warnings; also Gohier and Moulin, but they all ignored
the reports. In order to keep Gohier out of the way on the critical
day, Bonaparte took advantage of his admiration for Joséphine, to
have his wife invite the Director to déjeuner. At midnight on the
17 Brumaire she wrote a short note, and sent it by Eugène to the
Luxembourg:
Will not you and your wife, my dear Gohier, come to breakfast
with me to-morrow morning at eight o’clock. Do not fail, for
there are some very interesting matters which I would like to
talk over with you. Adieu, my dear Gohier. Believe me always
your sincere friend
LAPAGERIE-BONAPARTE
But Gohier was alarmed over an invitation for so early an hour in the
morning, and remained home, sending his wife in his place. While the
stirring events of the morning were taking place, Joséphine used all of
her charm to keep Madame Gohier at her house. The wife of the director
finally succeeded in making her escape; and with some difficulty
reached the Luxembourg, through the streets thronged with spectators
and encumbered by the movements of the troops. As a profound secret,
Joséphine had informed her visitor of the intention of Talleyrand to
see Barras and demand his resignation. This information led Gohier to
think that only Barras was to be eliminated, and from that moment he
made no further efforts to oppose the plans of the conspirators. So
this little plot did not entirely fail.
Late in the evening Bonaparte returned from the Tuileries to the Rue
de la Victoire, and gave Joséphine a full account of the events of
the day. The night passed quietly. Lannes guarded the Tuileries, and
Moreau, the Luxembourg. The troops occupied all the strategic points
of the capital. The theatres were crowded, as usual. Without, the rain
fell in torrents, and the streets were practically deserted.
On Sunday morning, the 19 Brumaire, the air was clear and cool, after
the storm of the night before. At dawn the troops began their march
from Paris to Saint-Cloud, where the Councils were to meet at midday.
The “army of generals” gathered at Bonaparte’s house to receive his
final orders. He soon appeared upon the steps of the hôtel, in his
uniform of general, wearing the little hat which was already legendary.
Entering his carriage, with his aides de camp, he set out for
Saint-Cloud, escorted by a small detachment of cavalry.
The day was long and tiresome, and for many hours the result was in
doubt. It finally ended in the dissolution of the Directory, and the
appointment of three temporary Consuls: Bonaparte, Sieyès and Ducos. It
was after midnight before all the legislative work was finished, and
the new Consuls took their oath of office.
“At three in the morning,” writes Bourrienne, “I accompanied Bonaparte
in his carriage to Paris. Extremely fatigued after so many trials, and
absorbed in his reflections, he did not utter a single word during
the journey.... Back in the little house in the Rue de la Victoire he
kissed Joséphine, who was in bed, and told her all the incidents of the
day. Then he rested for a few hours, and woke up in the morning, the
master of Paris and of France.”
The day following the 19 Brumaire, the 11 November by our calendar, was
a décadi, or Republican day of rest. At ten o’clock in the morning,
Bonaparte, dressed in civilian costume, left his house, and in a
carriage, escorted only by six dragoons, proceeded to the Luxembourg,
to join his two colleagues and set the new government in operation.
During the course of the day Joséphine also left the little hôtel in
the Rue de la Victoire, and moved across the Seine. In all but name,
the “little Creole” was now sovereign of France!
CHAPTER TEN
1800
THE CONSULAR COURT
The Luxembourg--Important Rôle of Joséphine--Her Devotion to
Napoleon--Secret of Her Power--Her Royalism--Assistance to the
Émigrés--Importance to Napoleon’s Policy--Marriage of Caroline
and Murat--The Tuileries--Life There--The New Society--Visits to
Malmaison--The Château--Napoleon at His Best
At the Petit-Luxembourg Napoleon occupied the former apartment of
Moulin on the ground floor, on the right as you enter from the Rue
Vaugirard. His cabinet was near a private staircase which led to the
first floor, where Joséphine was installed in the old quarters of
Gohier. The dinner was served at five o’clock, and the table was always
set for twenty persons. Joséphine did the honors with her usual grace.
If Bonaparte was tired, or absorbed, and refused to talk, no one felt
neglected. Since the rude shock which she had received on the return of
Bonaparte, Joséphine had conducted herself with so much tact that she
had entirely regained her former place in his esteem. She was no longer
loved with the same blind devotion, but she had become a very important
element in the new Consular Court. By nature and by experience she was
admirably adapted to serve her husband’s interests in rallying all
parties and all factions to the support of the new government. The
nobles of the old régime who had frequented the hôtel in the Rue
Chantereine, such as Caulaincourt, Just de Noailles and Ségur, began
to encounter in her salon at the Luxembourg men of the Revolution like
Monge, Réal and Cambacérès.
[Illustration: NAPOLEON, FIRST CONSUL]
No one was received except upon a written invitation, and formal notice
was served by Bonaparte that the dress, or rather undress, of the
ladies who frequented the Court of the Directory, would no longer be
tolerated. In the _Moniteur_ appeared a report worded as follows:
“During the month of December past there was a large assembly at the
Luxembourg. When every one was in the reception room, Bonaparte ordered
the servants to make a large fire. He even repeated this order two or
three times. When some one made the remark that it was impossible to
put more wood in the fireplace, he said, ‘That will do. I wanted a good
fire because the cold is excessive, and _these ladies are nearly
nude_.’” Advice to readers: decency is the order of the day; and
decency in dress would bring in its train decency in morals.
For their trips to Malmaison, as for every other function in life,
Joséphine has the rare faculty of being always ready, and ever
submissive to her husband’s orders. Her hours of rest, of meals, of
every kind, are arranged so as not to interfere with his work. As soon
as his task is finished, Joséphine is always ready, at any hour of day
or night, to eat, to go out, to start on a journey without previous
notice, in a costume which becomes her, and is suitable for the
occasion. She has constantly on her lips the same smile, which always
seems natural, and never forced; her voice is ever soft and soothing,
with her pretty Creole accent, which pleases the ear, and is like the
caressing touch of a loving hand. To this man of thirty years, who has
never known a home, who has always lived in an inn or a tent, she gives
the delightful experience of a well-ordered and luxurious household, a
touch of domestic life.
At this time Joséphine has no official rôle to play: she has no
recognized place in the State; she is present on occasions of ceremony
only as a distinguished guest, who looks on from window or balcony. She
makes a point of seeming to exercise no influence over her husband,
except in deeds of good-will. This is the real secret of her power, and
she knows it. The day that she even attempted to direct his actions,
her power would be lost. Bonaparte would tolerate no Pompadour, no
Marie-Antoinette at his side. As for the rest, he cares little. She can
have all the money she wants, to pay for her toilettes and her jewels,
to settle her old debts; but political influence, never! Her indirect
power, in the form of charity and social duties, receives his entire
approbation, as it is directed to the same object which he himself is
striving to attain.
In all her sentiments, Joséphine is a royalist, both from natural
inclination and from reasons purely personal to herself. She has the
most tender attachment to the name of the King, and the Ancien Régime.
The reason is not hard to find. If Bonaparte plays the rôle of Monk
and recalls the Bourbons, he will have at least the title of duc and
peer, the dignity of marshal or constable of France, a great position
at Court, and she will have the assurance of sharing his fortune and of
never being repudiated. “Indeed,” remarks one of her historians, “how,
in 1799, only seven years after the fall of the Throne, could Joséphine
have any other ideas? What was there greater in ancient France, after
the king--and no one then thought that he could become king, because
one does not become king--what was there greater than duc and peer,
maréchal de France? What was there higher than these dignities to
which, in the most dizzy dream of ambition, a private individual could
aspire?”
She does not suspect, she cannot imagine, that this new society demands
a new form of government, that the man who is to accomplish this task
has appeared on the scene, and that that man is her husband!
Bonaparte is by no means displeased with the royalist sympathies of
his wife. He wishes to gain time in his negotiations with the rebels
in the Vendée, to endeavor to rally them to his cause, and enlist them
in his armies. For this reason he does not wish to break too abruptly
with the Pretender, who has already made advances to him. He knows that
the émigrés are only too anxious to return to France and recover at
least a part of their property. Joséphine is practically the retained
advocate of the Royalists and the Émigrés, and the favors which she
solicits, and is accorded, one by one, are not calculated to excite the
alarm of the purchasers of the national property, or arouse the wrath
of the Jacobins. “Little by little this immense social force, lost for
the France of the Revolution, will flow back from every part of Europe
towards the France of the Consulate, and bring back, with the habits of
courtesy and elegance, administrators for the departments, magistrates
for the superior courts, diplomats for the legations, officers for the
troops, _causeurs_ for the salons, personages for the Court....
Bonaparte feels that the glory of the past, represented by illustrious
names, is necessary to the splendor of the future; and to create a
France worthy of the destiny which he prepares for her, he has need of
all her children.” Without in the least suspecting the fact, Joséphine
thus played a most important rôle in that policy of fusion, which was
one of the greatest principles of Napoleon’s administration, and one
which specially characterized it.
* * * * *
On the 20 January 1800, at Mortefontaine was celebrated the marriage,
by civil forms only, of Caroline Bonaparte and Joachim Murat. According
to Madame Récamier, Caroline, although not so beautiful as her sister
Pauline, was very attractive. She strongly possessed the Napoleonic
type of countenance, and had much intelligence, and a strong will.
Murat, who at that time was only a general of division, was the most
striking cavalier in the French army. Young, handsome, full of life,
with his brilliant uniforms, on the field of battle or in a review, he
attracted universal attention.
Napoleon at first was very much opposed to the match. When Murat was
sent to Paris after the armistice of Cherasco, he was too attentive to
the wife of his general-in-chief, and boasted rather indiscreetly of
his _bonne fortune_. Later he fell in love with Caroline, during
her visit to Milan, and was accepted by her. To secure the consent of
Napoleon, they solicited the good offices of Joséphine. What better
means of convincing Bonaparte that, if Joséphine had ever favored
Murat’s suit, all was now over? Joséphine warmly espoused his cause,
with the double object of putting an end to Napoleon’s suspicions, and
of securing in Murat a strong ally in her constant struggle against the
enmity of the Bonapartes.
On the occasion of her marriage Caroline received from her brothers
a dot of forty thousand francs, the same amount that they had given
to Pauline. In addition she had a trousseau and presents of the value
of twelve thousand francs. Nearly all the members of the family were
present at the ceremony, but no mention can be found of the First
Consul and his wife. The young couple took up their residence in the
Hôtel de Brionne, near the Tuileries, and continued to be on the
warmest terms of intimacy with Joséphine.
* * * * *
After living for three months at the Luxembourg, on the 19 February
1800 Napoleon moved to the Tuileries, which became his principal place
of residence during the Consulate and the Empire. He occupied the suite
of Louis the Fourteenth on the first floor, facing on the Gardens,
while Joséphine lived below him on the ground floor, in the former
apartment of Marie-Antoinette.
As at the Luxembourg, life at the Tuileries at first was very simple.
It was too soon for the appointment of chamberlains and ladies of the
palace. On the day of the formal entrance of the First Consul to the
Tuileries, Joséphine, who had preceded him in a private carriage, was
modestly placed in a window of the Pavilion de Flore, to view the
ceremony. But two days later, when Bonaparte received the diplomatic
corps, she had all of the members presented to her, and held a court
which recalled that of the queens.
During the early days, it was not easy to constitute a new society at
the Tuileries. Bonaparte himself had had no experience in the world.
Having passed all his time in the army, he had but few acquaintances
at Paris, and found it necessary constantly to call upon his colleague
Lebrun for information regarding persons and things. There would also
have been a great outcry from the Republicans if he had immediately
received the personages of the Ancien Régime, the royalists and the
émigrés. These persons, at first, affected to draw a line between the
First Consul and his wife. While they did not mount the steps to the
apartment of Bonaparte on the first floor, they filled the rooms of
the former Vicomtesse de Beauharnais on the floor below. Each décade,
the First Consul gave in the Galerie de Diane a grand dinner with two
hundred _couverts_. As the Russian Princesse Dolgorouki wrote at
this time: “It was not exactly a Court, but it was no longer a camp.”
[Illustration: CHÂTEAU OF MALMAISON]
As often as he could lay down the cares of office, generally three
or four times a month, Bonaparte went to Malmaison for a day’s rest.
This estate, purchased by Joséphine during his absence in Egypt, had
become his favorite place of recreation. The château was situated in
a fine location, near the village of Rueil, on the left bank of the
Seine, about nine miles from Paris. The building, which has recently
been restored and presented to the State as a museum of Napoleonic
souvenirs, consisted then, as now, of three stories, with a plain
façade, and a tile roof. On the ground floor, at the left of the
large vestibule, were the dining-room, the council chamber and the
library; in the other wing, the billiard-room, the boudoir, the salon
of Joséphine, and the gallery. From the library there was access to the
garden by a little bridge thrown across the moat which runs along this
side of the château.
From the billiard-room there was a staircase to the first floor. Here,
at the right, an antechamber opened into Joséphine’s bedroom, which was
oval in form, and hung in red. For many years this was their common
chamber, and here Joséphine drew her last breath while Napoleon was in
exile at Elba. Two other adjoining rooms, and a bath-room, completed
the private suite. In the other wing were the rooms occupied by
Hortense after her marriage. In the middle there was a long corridor,
from which opened several small rooms, occupied by the aides de camp on
duty, or invited guests.
Malmaison was for Joséphine what the Petit-Trianon had been for
Marie-Antoinette. In her time the grounds extended as far as the
village of Rueil, and were beautifully decorated with exotic trees,
rare plants, exquisite flowers, and small lakes with their white and
black swans.
At Malmaison, Napoleon always appeared at his best. The great man
relaxed, and threw off his cares; he was amiable, familiar, indulgent.
He took part in the games with the ardor of a youth. He joked, he told
stories with a spirit which astonished everybody. He was an admirable
host, affable, spirituel, putting all his guests at their ease. At that
time he had not yet abandoned his republican simplicity, and adopted
the tiresome and chilling etiquette of the Imperial Court.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
1800
THE QUESTION OF HEREDITY
The Season of 1800 at Paris--Problems of the First
Consul--Success of His Administration--His Reception
after Marengo--The “Conspiracy of Marengo”--Part Taken by
Lucien and Joseph--The Meeting of Auteuil--Alliance of
Fouché and Talleyrand--Joseph in Italy--Napoleon Answers
the Pretender--Decision to Amend the Constitution--Alarm
of Joséphine--The “Parallel”--Disgrace of Lucien--Louis
Chosen--Joséphine’s Plan
The winter season of 1800 in Paris was very brilliant. On the 26
January the new Minister of the Interior, Lucien Bonaparte, gave
a grand ball in honor of his sister Caroline and her husband, at
the magnificent Hôtel Brissac, Rue de Grenelle, which he occupied
at the time. Dinners and balls, which recalled the fêtes of the
_fermiers-généraux_ under the monarchy, were also given by the
great bankers of the day. All classes of society took part in the
social whirl, and the dance was never so popular. For a period of ten
years the Parisians had been deprived of the popular masked balls of
the Opéra, and their reopening was one of the features of the Carnival.
But while Paris danced and played the First Consul was occupied with
very serious problems. The internal affairs of France were in very bad
shape: the treasury was empty; civil war still raged in the Vendée; the
soldiers were ill-fed and ill-clad; and the armies were demoralized
from frequent defeats. The foreign situation was equally discouraging.
The English Government had declined his pacific overtures, and with
Austria it was clear that there was no chance of peace except through
victory.
During the winter the energy and activity of Bonaparte were everywhere
in evidence, and the sudden resurrection of France at this time is one
of the most remarkable events in modern history. “Instantly, as if by
enchantment,” writes the English historian, Alison, “everything was
changed; order reappeared out of chaos, talent emerged from obscurity,
vigor arose out of the elements of weakness. The arsenals were filled,
the veterans crowded to their eagles, the conscripts joyfully repaired
to the frontier. La Vendée was pacified, the exchequer began to
overflow. In little more than six months after Napoleon’s accession,
the Austrians were forced to seek refuge under the cannon of Ulm, Italy
was regained, unanimity and enthusiasm prevailed among the people,
and the revived energy of the nation was launched into a career of
conquest.”
On the 6 May, Bonaparte left Paris for Italy; two weeks later he
crossed the Grand-Saint-Bernard; on the second day of June he entered
Milan; on the fourteenth he decisively defeated the Austrians at
Marengo, and at one stroke regained nearly all of the territory in
northern Italy which had been lost during his absence in Egypt.
On his return to France, Napoleon received a perfect ovation at every
stage of his journey. When he entered Paris the night of the second
of July, after an absence of less than two months, the enthusiasm was
indescribable. An innumerable crowd gathered in the Tuileries Gardens
to cheer him, and he expressed his pleasure to Bourrienne by saying:
“The noise of these acclamations is as sweet to me as the sound of the
voice of Joséphine!” Twenty years later, on the rock of Saint Helena,
he spoke of this as one of the happiest days of his life.
During Napoleon’s absence occurred the so-called “Conspiracy of
Marengo,” the details of which are little known. While he was still
engaged in putting down the civil war at home, and repelling the
foreign invaders from the frontiers of France, his brothers Joseph
and Lucien had already begun the struggle for the supreme power in
the event of his death. The question of heredity, which was to be the
source of his greatest troubles, and one of the causes of his final
downfall, had already been raised, before his supreme power was even
definitely established.
As early as the month of February, Lucien was exchanging views with
Bernadotte, who, during the Consulate and the Empire, never lived a day
without plotting to overthrow Napoleon. A month before the departure
of the First Consul for Italy, in his cabinet at the Tuileries,
Fouché, regarding Lucien with his terrible eyes, exclaimed: “I will
have the Minister of the Interior himself arrested, if I learn that
he is conspiring!” A contemporary who endeavors to find excuses for
Lucien, and to defend him from the charge of conspiracy, is forced to
admit that: “The political immorality, the civil dishonesty of his
administration; the disgraceful peculations, the insatiable cupidity of
the agents by whom he was surrounded, did much to injure his brother’s
government.”
Joseph, for his part, acted much more discreetly, but he let his
brother know that he wished to be designated as his successor. Nothing
in the new Constitution gave this power to the First Consul, who had
been elected for ten years, and was reëligible. With his childish
vanity, Joseph could see no reason why he should not be as acceptable
to the French nation as the conqueror of Italy and Egypt, and thought
that it only needed a word from Napoleon to amend in his favor a
Constitution adopted by the practically unanimous vote of three million
citizens!
In a conversation with the First Consul, the day before his departure
for Italy, Joseph seems to have raised for the first time the question
of the Consular heredity, and he showed his hand more clearly in a
letter written on the 24 May. In all Corsicans there is a strong
sentiment of the clan, from which Napoleon himself was not exempt.
Joseph felt that, as the eldest, he was the chief of the clan, the head
of the family; therefore, it was not a favor which he solicited: it was
a right which he claimed.
But he did not rely entirely upon the support of Napoleon to gain his
point. Upon the suggestion of his friend Miot, a council was held at
Auteuil, at which were present nearly all the leading members of the
former Assemblies. The possibility of the death of Bonaparte, and the
question of his successor, were discussed; but the name of Joseph was
not even mentioned. After wavering between La Fayette and Carnot, they
decided in favor of the “organizer of victory,” whom Napoleon had
recalled from exile and made Minister of War.
At this same time an alliance was formed between Talleyrand and
Fouché, which was to bear its full fruit fourteen years later, when
these two arch-conspirators and under-handed enemies of Napoleon were
to precipitate his fall and bring back the Bourbons. At this time,
however, their plans only contemplated the formation of a triumvirate,
consisting of themselves and one accommodating colleague.