The Man from Corsica
Born on August 15th, 1769, Napoleon Buonaparte found himself surrounded
from his first hours by all the tumult and the clash of war. Ajaccio,
on the rocky island of Corsica, was his birthplace, though his family
had Florentine blood. Letitia Ramolino, the mother of Napoleon, was of
aristocratic Italian descent.
Corsica was no sunny dwelling-place during the infancy of this young
hero, who learned to brood over the wrongs of his island-home. The
Corsicans revolted fiercely against the sovereignty of Genoa, and were
able to resist all efforts to subdue them until France interfered in
the struggle and gained by diplomatic cunning what could not be gained
by mere force of arms. This conquest was resented the more bitterly by
the Corsicans because they had enjoyed thirteen years of independence
in all but name under Paoli, a well-loved patriot. It was after Paoli
was driven to England that the young Napoleon wrote, "I was born when
my country was perishing, thirty thousand Frenchmen vomited upon our
coasts, drowning the throne of Liberty in waves of blood; such was the
sight which struck my eyes."
Corsican Napoleon declared himself in the youth of poverty and
discontent, when he had dreams of {169} rising to power by such
patriotism as had ennobled Paoli. Charles Buonaparte, his father, went
over to the winning side, and was eager to secure the friendship of
Marboeuf, the French governor of Corsica.
Napoleon, the second of thirteen children, owed assistance in his early
education to Marboeuf for it was impossible for his own family to do
more than provide the barest necessities of life. Charles Buonaparte
was an idle, careless man and the family poverty bore hardly on his
wife Letitia, who had been married at fifteen and compelled to perform
much drudgery.
Napoleon entered the military school at Brienne in April 1779, and from
there sent letters which might well have warned his parents that they
had hatched a prodigy. All the bitterness of a proud humiliated spirit
inspired them, whether the boy, despised by richer students, begged his
father to remove him, or urged, with utter disregard of filial piety,
the repayment by some means of a sum of money he had borrowed.
"If I am not to be allowed the means, either by you or my protector, to
keep up a more honourable appearance at the school I am in, send for me
home and that immediately. I am quite disgusted with being looked upon
as a pauper by my insolent companions, who have only fortune to
recommend them, and smile at my poverty; there is not one here, but who
is far inferior to me in those noble sentiments which animate my soul.
. . . If my condition cannot be ameliorated, remove me from Brienne;
put me to some mechanical trade, if it must be so; let me but find
myself among my equals and I will answer for it, I will soon be their
superior. You may judge {170} of my despair by my proposal; once more
I repeat it; I would sooner be foreman in a workshop than be sneered at
in a first-rate academy."
In the academy Napoleon remained, however, censured by his parents for
his ambitious, haughty spirit. He was gloomy and reserved and had few
companions, feeling even at this early age that he was superior to
those around him. He admired Cromwell, though he thought the English
general incomplete in his conquests. He read Plutarch and the
_Commentaries_ of Caesar and determined that his own career should be
that of a soldier, though he wrote again to the straitened household in
Corsica, declaring, "He who cannot afford to make a lawyer of his son,
makes him a carpenter."
He chose for the moment to disregard the family ties which were
especially strong among the island community. "Let my brothers'
education be less expensive," he urged, "let my sisters work to
maintain themselves." There was a touch of ruthless egotism in this
spirit, yet the Corsican had real love for his own kindred as he showed
in later life. But at this period he panted for fame and glory so
ardently that he would readily sacrifice those nearest to him. He
could not bear to feel that his unusual abilities might never find full
scope; he was certain that one day he would be able to repay any
generosity that was shown to him.
The French Revolution broke out and Napoleon saw his first chance of
distinction. He was well recommended by his college for a position in
the artillery, despite the strange report of the young student's
character and manners which was written for the private perusal of
those making the appointment. {171} "Napoleon Buonaparte, a Corsican
by birth, reserved and studious, neglectful of all pleasures for study;
delights in important and judicious readings; extremely attentive to
methodical sciences, moderately so as to others; well versed in
mathematics and geography; silent, a lover of solitude, whimsical,
haughty, excessively prone to egotism, speaking but little, pithy in
his answers, quick and severe in repartee, possessed of much self-love,
ambitious, and high in expectation."
Soon after the fall of the Bastille, Napoleon placed himself at the
head of the revolutionary party in Ajaccio, hoping to become the La
Fayette of a National Guard which he tried to establish on the isle of
Corsica. He aspired to be the commander of a paid native guard if such
could be created, and was not unreasonable in his ambition since he was
the only Corsican officer trained at a royal military school. But
France rejected the proposal for such a force to be established, and
Napoleon had to act on his own initiative. He forfeited his French
commission by outstaying his furlough in 1792. Declared a deserter, he
saw slight chance of promotion to military glory. Indeed he would
probably have been tried by court-martial and shot, had not Paris been
in confusion owing to the outbreak of the French war against European
allies. He decided to lead the rebels of Corsica, and tried to get
possession of Ajaccio at the Easter Festival.
This second attempt to raise an insurrection ended in the entire
Buonaparte family being driven by the wrathful Corsicans to France,
which henceforth was their adopted country. The Revolution blazed
forth and King and Queen went to the scaffold, while treason that
might, in time of peace, have served to send an {172} officer to death,
proved a stepping-stone to high rank and promotion. It was a civil
war, and in it Napoleon was first to show his extraordinary skill in
military tactics. He had command of the artillery besieging Toulon in
1793 and was marked as a man of merit, receiving the command of a
brigade and passing as a general of artillery into the foreign war
which Republican France waged against all Europe.
The command of the army of Italy was offered Napoleon by Barras, who
was one of the new Directory formed to rule the Republic. A rich wife
seemed essential for a poor young man with boundless ambitions just
unfolding. Barras had taken up the Corsican, and arranged an
introduction for him to Josephine Beauharnais, the beautiful widow of a
noble who had been a victim of the Reign of Terror. He had previously
made the acquaintance of Josephine's young son Eugene, when the boy
came to ask that his father's sword might be restored to him.
Josephine pleased the suitor by her amiability, and was attracted in
turn by his ardent nature. She was in a position to advance his
interests through her intimacy with Barras, who promised that Napoleon
should hold a great position in the army if she became his wife. She
married Napoleon in March 1796, undaunted by the prediction: "You will
be a queen and yet you will not sit on a throne." Napoleon's career
may then be said to have begun in earnest. It was the dawn of a new
age in Europe, where France stood forth as a predominant power.
Austria was against her as the avenger of Marie Antoinette, France's
ill-fated Queen, who had been Maria Theresa's daughter. England and
Russia were in alliance, though Russia was an uncertain and disloyal
ally.
{173}
Want of money might have daunted one less eager for success than the
young Napoleon. He was, however, planning a campaign in Italy as an
indirect means of attacking Austria. He addressed his soldiers boldly,
promising to lead them into the most fruitful plains in the world.
"Rich provinces, great cities will be in your power," he assured them.
"There you will find honour, fame, and wealth." His first success was
notable, but it did not satisfy the inordinate craving of his nature.
"In our days," he told Marmont, "no one has conceived anything great;
it falls to me to give the example."
From the outset he looked upon himself as a general independent of the
Republic. He was rich in booty, and could pay his men without
appealing to the well-nigh exhausted public funds. Silently, he
pursued his own policy in war, and that was very different from the
policy of any general who had gone before him. He treated with the
Pope as a great prince might have treated, offering protection to
persecuted priests who were marked out by the Directory as their
enemies. He seized property everywhere, scorning to observe
neutrality. Forgetting his Italian blood, he carried off many pictures
and statues from the Italian galleries that they might be sent to
France. He showed now his audacity and the amazing energy of his plans
of conquest. The effect of the horror and disorders of Revolutionary
wars had been to deprive him of all scruples. He despised a Republic,
and despised the French nation as unfit for Republicanism. "A republic
of thirty millions of people!" he exclaimed as he conquered Italy,
"with our morals, our vices! How is such a thing possible? The nation
wants a chief, a chief covered with glory, not theories of {174}
government, phrases, ideological essays, that the French do not
understand. They want some playthings; that will be enough; they will
play with them and let themselves be led, always supposing they are
cleverly prevented from seeing the goal toward which they are moving."
But the wily Corsican did not often speak so plainly! Aiming at
imperial power, he was careful to dissimulate his intentions since the
army supporting him was Republican in sympathy.
Napoleon had achieved the conquest of Italy when only twenty-seven. In
1796 he entered Milan amid the acclamations of the people, his troops
passing beneath a triumphal arch. The Italians from that day adopted
his tricolour ensign.
The Directory gave the conqueror the command of the army which was to
be used against England. The old desperate rivalry had broken out
again now that the French saw a chance of regaining power in India. It
was Napoleon's purpose to wage war in Egypt, and he needed much money
for his campaign in a distant country. During the conquest of Italy he
had managed to secure money from the Papal chests and he could rely,
too, on the vast spoil taken from Berne when the old constitution of
the Swiss was overthrown and a new Republic founded. He took Malta,
"the strongest place in Europe," and proceeded to occupy Alexandria in
1798. In the following February he marched on Cairo.
England's supremacy at sea destroyed the complete success of the plans
which Napoleon was forming. He had never thought seriously of the
English admiral Nelson till his own fleet was shattered by him in a
naval engagement at Aboukir. After that, he understood that he had to
reckon with a powerful enemy.
{175}
The Turks had decided to anticipate Napoleon's plan for securing Greece
her freedom by preparing a vast army in Syria. The French took the
town of Jaffa by assault, but had to retire from the siege of Acre.
The expedition was not therefore a success, though Napoleon won a
victory over the Turkish army at Aboukir. The English triumphed in
Egypt and were fortunate enough to win back Malta, which excluded
France from the Mediterranean. Napoleon eluded with difficulty the
English cruisers and returned to France, where he rapidly rose to
power, receiving, after a kind of revolution, the title of First
Consul. He was to hold office for ten years and receive a salary of
half a million francs. In reality, a strong monarchy had been created.
The people of France, however, still fancied themselves a free Republic.
War was declared on France by Austria and England in 1800, and the
First Consul saw himself raised to the pinnacle of military glory. He
defeated the Austrians at Marengo, while his only rival, Moreau, won
the great battle of Hohenlinden. At Marengo, the general whom Napoleon
praised above all others fell dead on the field of battle. The
conqueror himself mourned Desaix most bitterly, since "he loved glory
for glory's sake and France above everything." But "Alas! it is not
permitted to weep," Napoleon said, overcoming the weakness as he judged
it. He had done now with wars waged on a small scale, and would give
Europe a time of peace before venturing on vaster enterprises. The
victory of Marengo on June 14th, 1800, wrested Italy again from
Austria, who had regained possession and power in the peninsula. It
also saved France from invasion. Austria was obliged to accept an
armistice, a humiliation she had not {176} foreseen when she arrayed
her mighty armies against the First Consul. Napoleon gloried in this
success, proposing to Rouget de Lisle, the writer of the
_Marseillaise_, that a battle-hymn should commemorate the coming of
peace with victory.
The Treaty of Luneville, 1801, settled Continental strife so
effectually that Napoleon was free to attend to the internal affairs of
the French Republic. The Catholic Church was restored by the
_Concordat_, but made to depend on the new ruler instead of the Bourbon
party. The Treaty of Amiens in 1802 provided for a truce to the
hostilities of France and England.
With the world at peace, the Consulate had leisured to reconstruct the
constitution. The capability of Napoleon ensured the successful
performance of this mighty task. He was bent on giving a firm
government to France since this would help him to reach the height of
his ambitions. He drew up the famous Civil Code on which the future
laws were based, and restored the ancient University of France.
Financial reforms led to the establishment of the Bank of France, and
Napoleon's belief that merit should be recognized publicly to the
enrolment of distinguished men in a Legion of Honour.
The remarkable vigour and intelligence of this military leader was
displayed in the reforms he made where all had been confusion. France
was weary of the republican government which had brought her to the
verge of bankruptcy and ruin, and inclined to look favourably on the
idea of a monarchy.
Napoleon determined that this should be the monarchy of a Buonaparte,
not that of a Bourbon. The Church had ceased to support the claims of
Louis XVI's brother. Napoleon had won the _noblesse_, too, {177} by
his feats of arms, and the peacemaker's decrees had reconciled the
foreign cabinets. It ended, as the prudent had foreseen, in the First
Consul choosing for himself the old military title of Emperor.
His coronation on December 2nd, 1804, was a ceremony of magnificence,
unequalled since the fall of the majestic Bourbons. Napoleon placed
the sacred diadem on his own head and then on the head of Josephine,
who knelt to receive it. His aspect was gloomy as he received this
symbol of successful ambition, for the mass of the people was silent
and he was uneasy at the usurpation of a privilege which was not his
birthright. The authority of the Pope had confirmed his audacious
action, but he was afraid of the attitude of his army. "The greatest
man in the world" Kléber had proclaimed him, after the crushing of the
Turks at Aboukir in Egypt. There was work to do before he reached the
summit whence he might justly claim such admiration. He found court
life at St Cloud very wearisome after the peace of his residence at
Malmaison.
"I have not a moment to myself, I ought to have been the wife of a
humble cottager," Josephine wrote in a fit of impatience at the
restraints imposed upon an Empress. But she clung to the title
desperately when she knew that it would be taken from her. She had
been Napoleon's wife for fourteen years, but no heir had been born to
inherit the power and to continue the dynasty which he hoped to found.
She was divorced in 1809, when he married Marie Louise of Austria.
Peace could not last with Napoleon upon the throne of France,
determined as he was in his resolution to break the supremacy of the
foe across the Channel. {178} He had not forgotten Egypt and his
failure in the Mediterranean. He resolved to crush the English fleet
by a union of the fleets of Europe. He was busied with daring projects
to invade England from Boulogne. The distance by sea was so short that
panic seized the island-folk, who had listened to wild stories about
the "Corsican ogre." Nelson was the hope of the nation in the year of
danger, 1805, when the English fleet gained the glorious victory of
Trafalgar and saved England from the dreaded invasion. But the hero of
Trafalgar met his death in the hour of success, and, before the year
closed, Napoleon's victory at Austerlitz destroyed the coalition led by
the Austrian Emperor and the Tsar and caused a whole continent to
tremble before the conqueror. The news of this battle, indeed,
hastened the death of Pitt, the English minister, who had struggled
nobly against the aggrandisement of France. He knew that the French
Empire would rise to the height of fame, and that the coalition of
Russia, Prussia, and Austria would fall disastrously.
"The Prussians wish to receive a lesson," Napoleon declared, flushed by
the magnificence of his late efforts. He defeated them at Jena and
Auerstadt, and entered Berlin to take the sword and sash of Frederick
the Great as well as the Prussian standards. He did honour to that
illustrious Emperor by forbidding the passage of the colours and eagles
over the place where Frederick reposed, and he declared himself
satisfied with Frederick's personal belongings as conferring more
honour than any other treasures.
By the Treaty of Tilsit, concluded with Alexander of Russia on a raft
upon the River Niemen, Prussia suffered new humiliations. The proud
creation of Frederick's military genius had vanished. There was {179}
even undue haste to give up fortresses to the conqueror. The country
was partitioned between Russia, Saxony, and Westphalia, created for the
rule of Jerome Buonaparte, Napoleon's younger brother. He set up kings
now with the ease of a born autocrat. His brother Joseph became King
of Naples, and his brother Louis King of Holland.
A new nobility sprang up, for honours must be equally showered on the
great generals who had helped to win his victories. The new Emperor
was profuse in favour, not believing in disinterested affection. He
paid handsomely for the exercise of the humours, known as his
"vivacités," entering in a private book such items as "Fifteen
napoleons to Menneval for a box on the ear, a war-horse to my
aide-de-camp Mouton for a kick, fifteen hundred _arpens_ in the
imperial forests to Bassano for having dragged him round my room by the
hair."
These rewards drained the empire and provided a grievance against the
Corsican adventurer who had dared to place all Europe under the rule of
Buonaparte. The family did not bear their elevation humbly, but
demanded ever higher rank and office. Joseph was raised to the exalted
state of King of Spain after the lawful king had been expelled by
violence. The patriotism of the Spanish awoke and found an echo in the
neighbouring kingdom of Portugal. Napoleon was obliged to send his
best armies to the Peninsula where the English hero, Sir Arthur
Wellesley, was pushing his way steadily toward the Pyrenees and the
French frontier.
The expedition to Russia had been partly provoked by the Emperor's
marriage with Marie Louise of Austria. There had been talk of a
marriage between Napoleon and the Tsar's sister. Then the {180}
arrangement of Tilsit had become no longer necessary after the humbling
of Austria. Napoleon wished to throw off his ally, Alexander, and was
ready to use as a pretext for war Russia's refusal to adopt his
"continental system" fully. This system, designed to crush the
commercial supremacy of England by forbidding other countries to trade
with her, was thus, as events were to prove, the cause of Napoleon's
own downfall.
The enormous French army made its way to Russia and entered Moscow, the
ancient capital, which the inhabitants burned and deserted. In the
army's retreat from the city in the depth of winter, thousands died of
cold and hunger, and 30,000 men had already fallen in the fruitless
victory at Borodino.
Napoleon was nearing his downfall as he struggled across the continent
in the dreadful march which reduced an army of a quarter of a million
men to not more than twelve thousand. He had to meet another failure
and the results of a destructive imperial policy in 1814, when he was
defeated at Leipzig by Austria, Russia, and Prussia, who combined most
desperately against him. The Allies issued at Frankfort their famous
manifesto "Peace with France but war against the Empire." They
compelled Napoleon to abdicate, and restored the Bourbon line. A court
was formed for Louis XVIII at the Tuileries, while Napoleon was sent to
Elba.
Louis XVI's brother, the Count of Artois, came back, still admired by
the faded beauties of the Restoration. The pathetic figure of Louis
XVI's daughter, the Duchess of Angoulême, was seen amid the forced
gaieties of the new régime, and Madame de Stäel haunted the court of
Louis XVIII, forgetting her late revolutionary sentiments.
{181}
Napoleon grew very weary of his inaction on the isle of Elba. He had
spent all his life in military pursuits and missed the companionship of
soldiers. He thought with regret of his old veterans when he welcomed
the guards sent to him. Perhaps he hoped for the arrival of his wife,
too, as he paced up and down the narrow walk by the sea where he took
exercise daily. But Marie Louise returned to her own country.
Napoleon found some scope for his activity in the government of the
island, and gave audiences regularly to the people. He might seem to
have lost ambition as he read in his library or played with a tame
monkey of which he made a pet, but a scheme of great audacity was
forming in his mind. He resolved to go back to France once more and
appeal to the armies to restore him.
The Bourbons had never become popular again with the nation which was
inspired with the lust for military successes. The life in the
Tuileries seemed empty and frivolous, wanting in great figures. There
was little resistance when the news came that Napoleon had landed and
put himself at the head of the troops at Grenoble.
He had appealed to the ancient spirit of the South which had risen
before in the cause of liberty. Feudalism and the oppression of the
peasants would return under the rule of the Bourbons, he assured them.
They began to look upon the abdicated Emperor as the Angel of
Deliverance. The people of Lyons were equally enthusiastic, winning
warmer words than generally fell from the lips of Napoleon. "I love
you," he cried, and bore them with him to the capital. He entered the
Tuileries at night, and again the eagle of the Empire flew from steeple
to steeple on every church of Paris.
{182}
The Hundred Days elapsed between the liberation from the Bourbons and
Napoleon's last struggle for supremacy. The King made a feeble effort
against the Emperor. It was, however, the united armies of England and
Prussia that met the French on the field of Waterloo in 1815. From
March 13th to June 22nd Napoleon had had time to realize the might of
Wellesley, now Duke of Wellington. The splendid powers of the once
indefatigable French general were declining. Napoleon, who had not
been wont to take advice, now asked the opinions of others. The
dictator, so rapid in coming to a decision, hesitated in the hour of
peril. He was defeated at Waterloo on June 18th, 1815, by Blücher and
Wellington together. The battle raged from the middle of morning to
eight o'clock in the evening and ended in the rout of the French
troops. The Emperor performed a second time the ceremony of
abdication, and, his terrible will being broken, surrendered on board
the _Bellerophon_ to the English.
The English Government feared a second return like the triumphant
flight from Elba. No enemy had ever been so terrible to England as
Napoleon. He must be removed altogether from the continent of Europe.
St Helena was chosen as the place of imprisonment, and Sir Hudson Lowe
put over him as, in some sort, a gaoler. A certain amount of personal
freedom was accorded, but the captive on the lonely rock did not live
to regain liberty. He died in 1821 on a day of stormy weather,
uttering _tête d'armée_ in the last moments of delirium.
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