We set out for Potsdam; and we were overtaken by a storm: it was so
violent and the rain fell in such torrents, that we took refuge in a
neighbouring house. Napoleon was wrapped in his grey military great
coat, and, on entering the house, he was much astonished to see a
young female, who seemed to be much agitated by his presence. She
proved to be a native of Egypt, and she evinced for Napoleon all the
religious veneration which he had been accustomed to receive from
the Arabs. She was the widow of an officer of the army of the East;
and fate had conducted her to Saxony, and to the very house in which
the Emperor was now received. Napoleon granted her a pension of 1200
francs, and undertook to provide for the education of her son, who
was the only dowry her husband had left her. “This,” said Napoleon,
“is the first time I ever took shelter against a storm. I felt a
presentiment that a good action awaited me.”
We found Potsdam uninjured. The Court had even fled so precipitately
that nothing had been removed. Frederick the Great's sword and belt,
and the cordon of his orders, all were left. Napoleon took possession
of them. “I prefer these trophies,” said he with enthusiasm, “to all
the King of Prussia's treasures. I will send them to my veterans who
served in the campaign of Hanover. I will present them to the governor
of the Hospital of Invalids, by whom they will be preserved as a
testimony of the victories of the great army, and the revenge it has
taken for the disasters of Rosbach.”
No sooner had we entered Potsdam than we were besieged by deputations;
they came from Saxony, from Weimar, and from all quarters. Napoleon
received them with the utmost affability. The envoy of the Duke of
Brunswick, who recommended his subjects to the generosity of the
French, was, however, received less courteously than the rest. “If,”
said Napoleon to the person who presented the deputation, “I were to
demolish the city of Brunswick, if I were to leave not a stone of the
walls standing, what would your Prince think of me? And yet would not
the law of retaliation authorize me to do in Brunswick what the Duke
would have done in my capital? To announce the design of destroying
cities may be the act of a madman; but to attempt to sully the honour
of a whole army of brave troops, to wish to mark out a course for us
to quit Germany merely on the summons of the Prussian army, is a fact
which posterity will with difficulty credit. The Duke ought not to
have attempted such an outrage. When a general has grown grey in the
career of arms, he should know how to respect military honour. It was
not, certainly, in the plains of Champagne that the Duke acquired the
right of insulting the French standard. Such a proposition can reflect
dishonour only on him who made it. The disgrace does not attach itself
to the King of Prussia; but to the general to whom, in the present
difficult circumstances, he resigned the care of his affairs; in
short, to the Duke of Brunswick, whom France and Prussia will blame
for the calamities of the war. The violent example set by the old
General served as an authority for impetuous youth, and led the King
to act in opposition to his own opinion and positive conviction.
However, Sir, you may assure the inhabitants of Brunswick, that the
French will prove themselves generous enemies; that it is my desire,
as far as regards them, to alleviate the miseries of war; and that the
evils which may arise from the passage of the troops through their
territory, is contrary to my wish. Tell the Duke of Brunswick that he
shall be treated with all the consideration due to an enemy's officer;
but that I cannot acknowledge one of the King of Prussia's generals as
a sovereign. If the House of Brunswick should forfeit the sovereignty
of its ancestors, the blame must rest with the author of the two wars;
who, in the one, wished to sap the very foundation of the great French
capital; and, in the other, attempted to cast disgrace on 200,000
brave troops, who, though they may perhaps be defeated, will never
be found to depart from the path of glory and honour. Much blood has
been shed within a few days. Prussia is the victim of great disasters;
and she may justly blame the man who, with a word, might have averted
them, if, like Nestor, raising his voice in the Council, he had said:—
“Inconsiderate youths, be silent! Women, return to your domestic
duties. And you, Sire, listen to the companion of the most illustrious
of your predecessors. Since the Emperor Napoleon does not wish to
maintain hostilities, do not oblige him to chose between war and
dishonour. Do not engage in a dangerous conflict with an army, which
prides itself in fifteen years of glorious achievements, and whom
victory has accustomed to subdue every thing.
“Instead of holding this language, which would have been so well
suited to the prudence of his age and the experience of his long
career, he was the first to raise the cry of war. He had even violated
the ties of blood, by arming a son (Prince Eugène of Wirtemberg)
against his father. He threatened to plant his standard on the palace
of Stuttgard; and accompanying all these acts by imprecations against
France, he declared himself the author of that wild manifesto, the
production of which he had disavowed for the space of fourteen years,
though it was out of his power to deny having affixed his signature to
it.”
Spandau had been surrendered to Marshal Lannes. Napoleon visited the
fortress, and inspected it minutely. He sent me to Berlin, which had
been entered by Davoust, and directed me to present his compliments
to old Ferdinand and his wife. I found the Prince very melancholy
and dejected: he had just lost his son. The Princess appeared more
calm and resigned. I also went to pay compliments to the Prince Henry
and the Princess of Hesse, sister to the King of Prussia. The former
appeared very sensible to the attention evinced by Napoleon; the
latter had retired to a wing of the castle, where she lived tranquilly
in the society of her grand-children. The situation of this Princess
inspired me with interest and veneration. She appeared to take
courage, and she begged me to recommend her to Napoleon, who paid her
a visit immediately on his arrival. She inspired him with the same
favourable sentiments which I had conceived for her.
The Emperor fixed his head-quarters at Charlottemburgh. On the
following day, he made his entrance into the capital, and addressed
the following proclamation to the army:—
“Soldiers!
“You have fulfilled my expectations, and fully justified the
confidence of the French people. You have endured privation and
fatigue with courage, equal to the intrepidity and presence of
mind which you evinced on the field of battle. You are the worthy
defenders of the honour of my crown, and the glory of the great
French people. So long as you continue to be animated by the
spirit which you now display, nothing can oppose you. I know not
how to distinguish any particular corps.... You have all proved
yourselves good soldiers. The following is the result of our
exertions in this campaign.
“One of the first powers in Europe, which lately proposed to us
a dishonourable capitulation, has been overthrown. The forests
and defiles of Franconia, the Saale, and the Elbe, which our
fathers would not have crossed in seven years, we have traversed
in seven days; and in that short interval we have had four
engagements, and one great battle. Our entrance into Potsdam
and Berlin has preceded the fame of our victories. We have made
60,000 prisoners, taken sixty-five standards, (among which are
the colours of the King of Prussia's guards), six hundred pieces
of cannon, and three fortresses. Among the prisoners, there are
upwards of twenty generals. But notwithstanding all this, more
than half our troops regret not having fired a single musket. All
the provinces of the Prussian monarchy, as far as the Oder, are
in our power.
“Soldiers! the Russians boast of coming to meet us, but we will
advance to meet them; we will save them half their march: they
will meet with another Austerlitz in the midst of Prussia. A
nation which can so soon forget our generous treatment of her,
after that battle, in which the Emperor, his court, and the
wrecks of his army, owed their safety only to the capitulation
we granted them, is a nation that cannot successfully contend
with us.
“While we march to meet the Russians, new corps, formed in
the interior of our empire, will repair hither, to occupy our
present stations, and protect our conquests. My people all
rose indignantly on hearing the disgraceful capitulation which
the Prussian ministers, in their madness, proposed to us. Our
frontier roads and towns are filled with conscripts, who are
burning with eagerness to march in your footsteps. We will not
again be the dupes of a treacherous peace. We will not lay down
our arms until we compel the English, those eternal enemies of
France, to renounce their plan of disturbing the Continent, and
to relinquish the tyranny which they maintain on the seas.
“Soldiers! I cannot better express the sentiments I entertain for
you, than by assuring you that I bear in my heart the love which
you daily evince for me.”