he lost his wife; and for at least ten days he retired to his country
estate, abandoning entirely the direction of his department.
In the meantime, Joseph was so anxious to obtain an immediate response
from his brother that he could not remain quietly at Paris, and set out
for Italy. When he arrived at Milan, the victory of Marengo had settled
the whole question. Napoleon was now the absolute master of France, and
the decision of the matter was entirely in his own hands. He was fully
informed of the plots and counter-plots, but chose to ignore them all.
The only outcome was that Carnot lost his portfolio.
Leaving for Italy in the costume of the Institute, on his return
Napoleon presides over the Council of State in the uniform of general.
It is only after Marengo that he feels his place secure as head of the
State. It was not until the 7 September that he finally and definitely
replied to the proposals of the Pretender:
“I have received, sir, your letter; I thank you for the polite things
you say to me. You can not hope to return to France; it would be
necessary for you to march over five hundred thousand dead bodies.
Sacrifice your interests to the repose and happiness of France.
History will give you credit for your action.”
The “Conspiracy of Marengo” is interesting because it marks the first
grouping of factions which on several occasions were again to come
to the front during the Empire; and because it reveals the principal
weakness of Napoleon’s personal régime. These plots convinced him
of the necessity of providing for the Consular succession. The new
Constitution, perhaps intentionally, had left the matter in very vague
shape. For the first time Napoleon now fully realized the necessity
of facing this question of heredity, so important to himself, to his
brothers, and, above all, to Joséphine.
Napoleon, at the age of thirty-one, could not abandon the hope of an
heir--hence the constant menace of divorce for Joséphine, who, after
four years of marriage, could hardly expect to bear another child. Her
hope also of a restoration of the Bourbons had now been extinguished
by the action of her husband. In this dilemma she naturally sought the
support of such former Jacobins as Fouché and Réal, who were opposed to
the extension of the powers of the First Consul, and above all to the
designation of his successor.
As for Napoleon’s brothers, they felt that there could be no question
of their _rights_ to the succession. One would think, as Napoleon
once expressed it, that he, as the younger brother, had usurped the
place and the rights of Joseph, as successor to their father the late
king! They were also so convinced that it was impossible for Napoleon
himself to have any children, that they could not conceive of his
repudiating Joséphine, and marrying a younger woman in the hope of
having an heir.
Lucien apparently recognized the rights of Joseph, as the elder, and
was willing to await his turn as heir presumptive, especially as his
brother had no children. The two brothers therefore sought, each in his
own way, to secure the adoption of the principle of designation, after
which each one hoped to be chosen.
With the death of his charming wife, Catherine Boyer, who,
notwithstanding her common origin, had finished by gaining the love of
all the family, as well as the general esteem of society, Lucien had
more and more neglected his official duties, and plunged into all kinds
of dissipation. Napoleon was obliged to call him to account, and there
were several unpleasant scenes between the brothers.
Matters were finally brought to a head by the publication of the famous
“Parallel.” One morning, towards the end of October, Fouché entered the
cabinet of the First Consul and handed him a little pamphlet entitled
_Parallèle entre César, Cromwell et Bonaparte_. Two paragraphs
were specially marked, which suggested the idea of heredity and pushed
the candidacy of the brothers of the Consul.
This brochure, written by Lucien, although he denied it, and widely
distributed under the frank of the Minister of the Interior, had caused
a great sensation in all the departments. Lucien is summoned from his
country place, Plessis, and there is a violent scene between him and
Fouché in the presence of the First Consul. Napoleon remains a passive
spectator of the discussion. Joséphine enters the room and takes part.
She seats herself upon Napoleon’s knees, and runs her fingers gently
through his hair and over his face. “I beg you, Bonaparte,” she says,
“do not make yourself a king. It is this wretch Lucien who urges you to
it; do not listen to him.”
With much regret, Napoleon asked for Lucien’s resignation, and to cover
his disgrace sent him as ambassador to Madrid, with an enormous salary.
This exile in disguise of Lucien is not all that Joséphine gains from
the publication of the Parallel and the opportune intervention of
Fouché. Napoleon is now fully convinced of the necessity of adopting
the principle of the right of designation, but the choice of the
individual presents many difficulties. He puts aside Joseph, a most
worthy man, but with no application, and no capacity for public
affairs. Lucien is now out of the question. For a moment he thinks of
Eugène de Beauharnais, who would have been the best choice of all, but
decides that he is too young and inexperienced. The next day he makes
his decision. “It is not necessary,” he says, “to cudgel our brains to
find a successor. I have found one: it is Louis. He has all of the good
qualities, and none of the faults of his brothers.”
Joséphine was delighted when Napoleon informed her of his choice, in
which, unconsciously, he may have been influenced by his wife. “Louis
has an excellent heart, a very superior mind,” she said. “He loves
Bonaparte as a lover loves his mistress.”
From that moment her plan was settled: Louis _must_ marry
Hortense!
CHAPTER TWELVE
1800–1802
MARRIAGE OF HORTENSE
Louis Bonaparte--His Early Years--Change in His Character--His
Life in Paris--He Avoids Marriage--Hortense de Beauharnais--Her
Appearance and Character--Love of Her Mother--Pride
in Her Father--Early Dislike of Bonaparte--Fancy for
Duroc--The Infernal Machine--Narrow Escapes of Napoleon and
Joséphine--Public Demand for an Heir--Josephine’s Dismay--Louis
Goes to Spain--Joséphine’s Visit to Plombières--Return of
Louis--His Marriage to Hortense
Louis Bonaparte, who was born on the 2 September 1778, was nine years
younger than Napoleon, who regarded him very much in the light of an
adopted son. In February 1791, when Napoleon returned from his home
in Corsica to his regiment at Auxonne, after an absence of nearly
seventeen months, he brought with him his favorite younger brother. On
his meagre pay of one hundred francs a month he had undertaken this
care in order to relieve to some extent the financial difficulties
of his widowed mother. In his shabby little room, with its sparse
furniture, there was no place for Louis, and he slept on a mattress in
an adjoining cabinet. Napoleon himself prepared their frugal meals. He
gave his brother lessons in mathematics and generally supervised his
education. At a later date he complained of his brother’s ingratitude,
and reminded him that for his sake he had deprived himself even of the
necessaries of life. The blindness of Napoleon to the faults of his
brothers and sisters is almost the only weak point in his character, as
it also reveals one of the most attractive sides of his heart. He never
could do too much for his family, who, almost without exception, repaid
him with the basest ingratitude. They all seemed to think that their
good fortune was due entirely to their own merits, and not at all to
the senseless partiality of their great brother.
In 1795, Napoleon procured for Louis admission to the military
school at Châlons. At this time he wrote in the warmest terms of his
brother’s fine qualities of heart and mind. The following year Louis,
who was then only eighteen years of age, was one of Napoleon’s aides
de camp in Italy. He was his messmate, his private secretary, his
man of confidence. At this time Louis was splendid company--always
full of life and spirits. At Milan, he contracted a disease which
in a short time not only affected his health, but seemed to change
his moral character. For the rest of his life he was a regular
hypochondriac--constantly worrying about his health and persuaded that
he was doomed to an early death.
During the Egyptian expedition, Louis again acted as aide de camp to
his brother, but was sent back to France with despatches some time
before the return of Napoleon. In January 1800, when only twenty-two
years of age, he was appointed chief of brigade. He then took up
his residence in Paris, where he associated with men of letters and
occupied himself with everything except his military career. He took
no part in the Marengo campaign, during which he remained at Paris,
occupied with his literary pursuits. None of his friends seemed to
understand the radical change in his character. Napoleon thought that
a journey might rouse him from his melancholy, and proposed a trip to
Germany, which Louis eagerly accepted, “to escape,” he said later, “the
solicitations for his marriage with Hortense.”
It is impossible, however, for us to believe that Hortense was so
disagreeable, or the plans of Joséphine so objectionable to him at this
time as he tries to make out in his _Reflections upon the government
of Holland_, drawn up twenty years later. Even if Joséphine, as
early as August 1800, had formed in her secret heart the project which
she carried out a year later, she certainly had not made any moves
which could arouse in Louis the apprehension that she had designs upon
his independence.
At that time Hortense was only seventeen years of age. She was not
very pretty, but was singularly attractive from the beauty of her form
and the grace of her movements. Her nose was large and her mouth ugly,
with her mother’s poor teeth, but her blond hair and soft violet eyes
gave to her face an expression of exquisite tenderness: the _tout
ensemble_ was one which attracted and fascinated everybody. She had
been educated at the fashionable school of Madame Campan and possessed
all the accomplishments of a young lady of good family. She sang and
danced well, she played the harp and the piano, she embroidered, she
excelled in all the little tasks of the salon, she was quite literary
in her tastes. She was a fine equestrian, and took a leading part in
the sports and pastimes of the château life. In character, she was very
sweet and amiable, but became very obstinate when she was crossed. Her
finest trait was her life-long adoration of her mother, which, it must
be confessed, Joséphine had done little to deserve.
After their return from Martinique, her mother had placed her at the
age of seven in a convent; when that was closed during the Revolution,
she was apprenticed to a sempstress. Later she was practically
abandoned for four years by her mother in the school at Saint-Germain.
On the few rare occasions that Joséphine visited the school she was
prodigal in her demonstrations of affection, with her kisses which cost
her so little, for this mother was “coquette even with her children.”
Hortense regarded her mother as a wonderful being, and returned
her affection a hundred fold. In her innocence she knew nothing of
her mother’s worldly life, of her struggle for existence, of the
connections she formed, either from taste or necessity.
She knew that her father was the Vicomte de Beauharnais, a handsome
cavalier, who attended the Queen’s balls, was president of the
Constituent Assembly, general-in-chief of the Army of the Rhine, and
guillotined under the Terror. Her conception of her father’s career was
similar to that which we find in many of the histories, and equally far
from the truth. She was proud of her name, one of the finest in France,
and also of her mother, whom she considered worthy of her father.
Hortense had therefore been much chagrined when her mother married
an obscure Republican general, of doubtful nobility, who had been
absolutely unknown before the Revolution. She had only seen him once
before the marriage, at a dinner given by Barras at the Luxembourg in
January 1796. Hortense, who was then not quite thirteen, had been
taken from school for the occasion. She was jealous of the attentions
to her mother of the little general, whose name she did not even know.
She said: “He talked with great vivacity, and seemed only interested in
my mother.”
She next saw Bonaparte, for a few days only, on his return from Italy,
and then again at the painful scene in the Rue de la Victoire, when she
implored him to pardon her mother, without very clearly understanding
what her mother had done. Under all the circumstances, would it not be
strange if she had any love for her step-father?
Like most young girls, Hortense had a very sentimental side to her
nature. She wished to marry for love, and to find love in her marriage.
It has often been said that Duroc, the favorite aide de camp of
Napoleon, loved her, and that she reciprocated his affection. The First
Consul had thought of him for one of his sisters: he certainly would
have accepted him for his step-daughter. Duroc was a gentleman--perhaps
not of an illustrious family, but of better birth certainly than
Bacciochi, Leclerc, or Murat. But Duroc was sent on a diplomatic
mission to Berlin, and nothing came of this incipient love affair.
With her usual selfishness, Joséphine, in considering the _partis_
who presented themselves, never thought of the happiness of her
daughter, but only of her own personal interests. But this was usual
in those days. Her aunt, Madame Renaudin, certainly had not thought of
Joséphine’s happiness when she married her to Alexandre de Beauharnais.
Even if Joséphine had not already made up her mind to bring about the
marriage of Louis and Hortense, she would have been decided by the
attempt to assassinate the First Consul on Christmas eve 1800. The
conspirators knew that he expected to be present at the Opéra that
evening to hear the new oratorio of _The Creation_, by Haydn, the
most popular composer of the day. They expected that his carriage would
take the usual route by the Rue Saint-Nicaise, which is no longer in
existence. This was a long narrow street bordering the Carrousel and
running from the Seine to the Rue Saint-Honoré, where it ended near the
Rue Richelieu in which the Opéra was then situated. In this street an
infernal machine, installed in a one-horse cart, was placed at a point
which Bonaparte’s carriage would pass, and the time that it would take
him to come from the Tuileries was carefully calculated so that the
machine would explode at the right moment.
After dinner, Napoleon, who was fatigued from a hard day’s work, had
fallen asleep on a sofa, and was with difficulty aroused and persuaded
to start by the ladies of the Tuileries, Joséphine, Caroline and
Hortense, who did not wish to miss the performance. At eight o’clock
he set out, accompanied by Lannes, Bessières and an aide de camp, and
followed by a small escort of mounted grenadiers. The coachman, who had
already begun his Christmas celebration, was half-drunk, and drove at
a furious rate. This fact alone saved Bonaparte’s life. The carriage
passed the infernal machine, and had just rounded the corner into the
Rue Richelieu when the explosion occurred. Lannes and Bessières wished
to stop, but Bonaparte ordered the coachman to proceed. A minute later
he entered the _loge_ with his usual calm face, and demanded a
copy of the libretto.
The life of Joséphine was also saved by an incident equally trivial.
She was wearing that evening for the first time a magnificent Oriental
shawl presented to Bonaparte by the Sultan. Rapp, the aide de camp on
duty, who was to escort the ladies, ventured to remark to Joséphine
that she had not arranged the shawl with her usual grace. At her
request he showed her how the shawl was draped by the Egyptian ladies.
The party then descended the staircase of the Pavillion de Flore,
and entered their carriage. They traversed the Carrousel, and had
just turned into the Rue Saint-Nicaise when the machine exploded. The
windows of the carriage were shattered and the arm of Hortense was
slightly cut by a piece of glass. Rapp descended to see if the First
Consul had been injured, and the carriage continued its way by another
street. When the three ladies entered the box, Napoleon greeted them
with a smile, as if nothing unusual had happened.
The news of this dastardly outrage, in which over fifteen people
lost their lives, soon spread through the hall, and the oratorio was
interrupted while the audience arose and frantically applauded the
First Consul. A few minutes later the party left the Opéra and returned
to the Tuileries, where Bonaparte received the reports of the police
and the congratulations of his ministers.
This attempt on Napoleon’s life was a terrible shock to Joséphine: it
gave new impetus to the public demand for an heir to the First Consul,
as necessary to the security of the State; and this for Joséphine
aroused again the dreaded spectre of the divorce.
This conspiracy, following so closely on that of Aréna only two months
before, which the police had discovered in time, convinced everybody
that it was desirable to give the First Consul the right to designate
his successor, and thus assure the heredity of the Consulate, or at
least the continued existence of the government as established by him.
It was no longer an academic question, to be debated and postponed from
time to time, but an actual, urgent public necessity, which demanded
immediate action. Joséphine realized that the crisis had come, and was
more determined than ever to carry out her plan for the union of Louis
and Hortense. If she herself could not give Napoleon an heir, he might
find one in her grandchild and his nephew, the son of his favorite
brother. Although Joséphine did not live to see her dream come true,
all of Napoleon’s plans came to naught, and it was the son of Louis and
Hortense who occupied the Imperial throne as Napoleon the Third.
* * * * *
Louis was already tired of his tour of Germany, and asked permission of
his brother to return to Paris. No sooner was he back than the strange
idea possessed him of buying a country place, where he went to bury
himself in mid-winter. The house which he purchased was a simple rural
mansion, in the woods, a league from the highway, about midway between
Mortefontaine and Plessis, the country estates of Joseph and Lucien.
He had hardly taken possession of his new home, and begun some
alterations, when he again became uneasy, and set out for Bordeaux to
rejoin his regiment, which at his request had been included in the
army of observation under the command of Leclerc which was going to
Portugal.
In July 1801, Joséphine, who had not yet entirely abandoned all hope,
went again to Plombières to take the waters, which the year before had
succeeded so well in the case of Madame Joseph that, after seven years
of marriage, she was just on the point of presenting her husband with
their first child. A month later Joséphine returned to Malmaison to
await in vain the miraculous effects of her _cure_.
At the end of three months Louis was tired of his military duties, and
asked for a leave of absence. After spending several weeks at the baths
of Barèges, to cure his rheumatism, at the end of September he came to
Malmaison for a visit. There he fell in love with Hortense, and finally
decided upon the marriage which he had previously dreaded.
There is absolutely no truth in the statements so often made by Louis
in after years that the marriage was forced upon him. Three months
elapsed between his return and the ceremony. During this period Louis
showed himself very devoted to Hortense, while she seemed resigned to
her lot. On the 3 January 1802 the contract was signed at the Tuileries
in the presence of the whole family, and the following day the civil
marriage took place, followed the same evening by a religious ceremony
at the hôtel in the Rue de la Victoire.
The nuptial benediction was pronounced by Cardinal Caprara, who was
then negotiating the Concordat with the French Government. At the same
time Caroline and Murat, who had only been united by a civil bond, had
their marriage blessed by the Church. Joséphine ardently desired the
same privilege, but Napoleon absolutely refused, either from reasons of
public policy or in order to keep the way open for a divorce if in the
future he desired one.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
1802–1803
THE CONSULATE FOR LIFE
Bonaparte Made Consul for Life--He Takes Possession of
Saint-Cloud--His Apartment in the Château--Court Etiquette
Established--Trip to Normandie--Joséphine at Forty--Her Life at
Saint-Cloud--A Scene of Jealousy at the Tuileries--Marriage of
Pauline and Borghèse--Unfortunate Connection of Lucien--Jérôme
Marries Miss Patterson
On the second day of August 1802 the Senate declared Napoleon
Bonaparte Consul for Life, with the power to name his successor. The
decree conveyed to him, in its official terms, the expression of “the
confidence, the admiration, and the love of the French people.” In
the plébiscite he received the votes of over three and a half million
Frenchmen, with less than nine thousand in the negative.
At the same time the government gave him as a summer residence the
royal château of Saint-Cloud. This palace was built at the edge of a
magnificent park, on a long terrace overlooking the Seine, with the
city of Paris at a distance in the background. The main building and
the two projecting wings framed the court of honor; in the rear was
a beautiful French garden, bordered on one side by an extension of
the palace, and on the other by an alley shaded by magnificent trees.
The property, which had previously belonged to private parties, was
purchased by Louis the Fourteenth and presented to his brother
the Duc d’Orléans. In 1785, Calonne, the prodigal controller of the
finances, bought the château for six million francs, and the King gave
it to Marie-Antoinette. She made extensive alterations in the building,
and frequently resided there before the Revolution. Her last visit was
in the summer of 1790, at which time she had her celebrated interview
with Mirabeau. During the Revolution all of the furniture and hangings
disappeared, and the palace had to be refurnished for the First Consul.
As soon as the work was completed, Napoleon moved there, on the 20
September.
[Illustration: CHÂTEAU OF SAINT-CLOUD]
At Saint-Cloud, Joséphine occupied the apartments of Marie-Antoinette
in the left wing. The suite of the First Consul was on the ground
floor in the other wing. His cabinet was a large room, with the walls
covered with books from floor to ceiling. He usually sat on a small
sofa, placed near the mantel, which was decorated with two bronze
busts of Scipio and Hannibal. Behind the sofa, in the corner of the
room, was the desk of his secretary, Méneval, who had taken the place
of Bourrienne, discharged for dishonesty. Adjoining the cabinet was a
small salon, where the First Consul received his ministers and gave
private audiences. In this salon there was a fine portrait of Gustavus
Adolphus, the favorite hero of Napoleon. The only ornament of his
bedroom, which faced on the garden, was an antique bust of Cæsar.