Paris, August, 1805.
MY LORD:--The household troops of Napoleon the First are by thousands
more numerous than those even of Louis XIV. were. Grenadiers on foot and
on horseback, riflemen on foot and on horseback, heavy and light
artillery, dragoons and hussars, mamelukes and sailors, artificers and
pontoneers, gendarmes, gendarmes d’Alite, Velites and veterans, with
Italian grenadiers, riflemen, dragoons, etc., etc., compose all together
a not inconsiderable army.
Though it frequently happens that the pay of the other troops is in
arrears, those appertaining to Bonaparte’s household are as regularly
paid as his Senators, Counsellors of State, and other public
functionaries. All the men are picked, and all the officers as much as
possible of birth, or at least of education. In the midst of this
voluptuous and seductive capital, they are kept very strict, and the
least negligence or infraction of military discipline is more severely
punished than if committed in garrison or in an encampment. They are
both better clothed, accoutred, and paid, than the troops of the line,
and have everywhere the precedency of them. All the officers, and many
of the soldiers, are members of Bonaparte’s Legion of Honour, and carry
arms of honour distributed to them by Imperial favour, or for military
exploits. None of them are quartered upon the citizens; each corps has
its own spacious barracks, hospitals, drilling-ground, riding or
fencing-houses, gardens, bathing-houses, billiard-table, and even
libraries. A chapel has lately been constructed near each barrack, and
almoners are already appointed. In the meantime, they attend regularly
at Mass, either in the Imperial Chapel or in the parish churches.
Bonaparte discourages much all marriages among the military in general,
but particularly among those of his household troops. That they may not,
however, be entirely deprived of the society of women, he allows five to
each company, with the same salaries as the men, under the name of
washerwomen.
With a vain and fickle people, fond of shows and innovations, nothing in
a military despotism has a greater political utility, gives greater
satisfaction, and leaves behind a more useful terror and awe, than
Bonaparte’s grand military reviews. In the beginning of his consulate,
they regularly occurred three times in the month; after his victory of
Marengo, they were reduced to once in a fortnight, and since he has been
proclaimed Emperor, to once only in the month. This ostentatious
exhibition of usurped power is always closed with a diplomatic review of
the representatives of lawful Princes, who introduce on those occasions
their fellow-subjects to another subject, who successfully has seized,
and continues to usurp, the authority of his own Sovereign. What an
example for ambition! what a lesson to treachery!
Besides the household troops, this capital and its vicinity have, for
these three years past, never contained less than from fifteen to twenty
thousand men of the regiments of the line, belonging to what is called
the first military division of the Army of the Interior. These troops
are selected from among the brigades that served under Bonaparte in Italy
and Egypt with the greatest eclat, and constitute a kind of depot for
recruiting his household troops with tried and trusty men. They are also
regularly paid, and generally better accoutred than their comrades
encamped on the coast, or quartered in Italy or Holland.
But a standing army, upon which all revolutionary rulers can depend, and
that always will continue their faithful support, unique in its sort and
composition, exists in the bosom as well as in the extremities of this
country. I mean, one hundred and twenty thousand invalids, mostly young
men under thirty, forced by conscription against their will into the
field, quartered and taken care of by our Government, and all possessed
with the absurd prejudice that, as they have been maimed in fighting the
battles of rebellion, the restoration of legitimate sovereignty would to
them be an epoch of destruction, or at least of misery and want; and this
prejudice is kept alive by emissaries employed on purpose to mislead
them. Of these, eight thousand are lodged and provided for in this city;
ten thousand at Versailles, and the remainder in Piedmont, Brabant, and
in the conquered departments on the left bank of the Abine; countries
where the inhabitants are discontented and disaffected, and require,
therefore, to be watched, and to have a better spirit infused.
Those whose wounds permit it are also employed to do garrison duty in
fortified places not exposed to an attack by enemies, and to assist in
the different arsenals and laboratories, foundries, and depots of
military or naval stores. Others are attached to the police offices, and
some as gendarmes, to arrest suspected or guilty individuals; or as
garnissaires, to enforce the payment of contributions from the unwilling
or distressed. When the period for the payment of taxes is expired, two
of these janissaires present themselves at the house of the persons in
arrears, with a billet signed by the director of the contributions and
countersigned by the police commissary. If the money is not immediately
paid, with half a crown to each of them besides, they remain quartered in
the house, where they are to be boarded and to receive half a crown a day
each until an order from those who sent them informs them that what was
due to the state has been acquitted. After their entrance into a house,
and during their stay, no furniture or effects whatever can be removed or
disposed of, nor can the master or mistress go out-of-doors without being
accompanied by one of them.
In the houses appropriated to our invalids, the inmates are very well
treated, and Government takes great care to make them satisfied with
their lot. The officers have large halls, billiards, and reading-room to
meet in; and the common men are admitted into apartments adjoining
libraries, from-which they can borrow what books they contain, and read
them at leisure. This is certainly a very good and even a humane
institution, though these libraries chiefly contain military histories or
novels.
As to the morals of these young invalids, they may be well conceived when
you remember the morality of our Revolution; and that they, without any
religious notions or restraints, were not only permitted, but encouraged
to partake of the debauchery and licentiousness which were carried to
such an extreme in our armies and encampments. In an age when the
passions are strongest, and often blind reason and silence conscience,
they have not the means nor the permission to marry; in their vicinity it
is, therefore, more difficult to discover one honest woman or a dutiful
wife, than hundreds of harlots and of adulteresses. Notwithstanding that
many of them have been accused before the tribunals of seductions, rape,
and violence against the sex, not one has been punished for what the
morality of our Government consider merely as bagatelles. Even in cases
where husbands, brothers, and lovers have been killed by them while
defending or avenging the honour of their wives, sisters, and mistresses,
our tribunals have been ordered by our grand judge, according to the
commands of the Emperor, not to proceed. As most of them have no
occupation, the vice of idleness augments the mass of their corruption;
for men of their principles, when they have nothing to do, never do
anything good.
I do not know if my countrywomen feel themselves honoured by or obliged
to Bonaparte, for leaving their virtue and honour unprotected, except by
their own prudence and strength; but of this I am certain, that all our
other troops, as well as the invalids, may live on free quarters with the
sex without fearing the consequences; provided they keep at a distance
from the females of our Imperial Family, and of those of our grand
officers of State and principal functionaries. The wives and the
daughters of the latter have, however, sometimes declined the advantage
of these exclusive privileges.
A horse grenadier of Bonaparte’s Imperial Guard, of the name of Rabais,
notorious for his amours and debauchery, was accused before the Imperial
Judge Thuriot, at one and the same time by several husbands and fathers,
of having seduced the affections of their wives and of their daughters.
As usual, Thuriot refused to listen to their complaints; at the same time
insultingly advising them to retake their wives and children, and for the
future to be more careful of them. Triumphing, as it were, in his
injustice, he inconsiderately mentioned the circumstance to his own wife,
observing that he never knew so many charges of the same sort exhibited
against one man.
Madame Thuriot, who had been a servant-maid to her husband before he made
her his wife, instead of being disgusted at the recital, secretly
determined to see this Rabais. An intrigue was then begun, and carried
on for four months, if not with discretion, at least without discovery;
but the lady’s own imprudence at last betrayed her, or I should say,
rather, her jealousy. But for this she might still have been admired
among our modest women, and Thuriot among fortunate husbands and happy
fathers; for the lady, for the first time since her marriage, proved, to
the great joy and pride of her husband, in the family way. Suspecting,
however, the fidelity of her paramour, she watched his motions so closely
that she discovered an intrigue between him and the chaste spouse of a
rich banker; but the consequence of this discovery was the detection of
her own crime.
On the discovery of this disgrace, Thuriot obtained an audience of
Bonaparte, in which he exposed his misfortune, and demanded punishment on
his wife’s gallant. As, however, he also acknowledged that his own
indiscretion was an indirect cause of their connection, he received the
same advice which he had given to other unfortunate husbands: to retake,
and for the future guard better, his dear moiety.
Thuriot had, however, an early opportunity of wreaking his vengeance on
this gallant Rabais. It seems his prowess had reached the ears of Madame
Baciocchi, the eldest sister of Bonaparte. This lady has a children
mania, which is very troublesome to her husband, disagreeable to her
relations, and injurious to herself. She never beholds any lady,
particularly any of her family, in the way which women wish to be who
love their lords, but she is absolutely frantic. Now, Thuriot’s worthy
friend Fouche had discovered, by his spies, that Rabais paid frequent and
secret visits to the hotel Baciocchi, and that Madame Baciocchi was the
object of these visits. Thuriot, on this discovery, instantly denounced
him to Bonaparte.
Had Rabais ruined all the women of this capital, he would not only have
been forgiven, but applauded by Napoleon, and his counsellors and
courtiers; but to dare to approach, or only to cast his eyes on one of
our Imperial Highnesses, was a crime nothing could extenuate or avenge,
but the most exemplary punishment. He was therefore arrested, sent to
the Temple, and has never since been heard of; so that his female friends
are still in the cruel uncertainty whether he has died on the rack, been
buried alive in the oubliettes, or is wandering an exile in the wilds of
Cayenne.
In examining his trunk, among the curious effects discovered by the
police were eighteen portraits and one hundred billets-doux, with
medallions, rings, bracelets, tresses of hair, etc., as numerous. Two of
the portraits occasioned much scandal, and more gossiping. They were
those of two of our most devout and most respectable Court ladies, Maids
of Honour to our Empress, Madame Ney and Madame Lasnes; who never miss an
opportunity of going to church, who have received the private blessing of
the Pope, and who regularly confess to some Bishop or other once in a
fortnight. Madame Napoleon cleared them, however, of all suspicion, by
declaring publicly in her drawing-room that these portraits had come into
the possession of Rabais by the infidelity of their maids; who had
confessed their faults, and, therefore, had been charitably pardoned.
Whether the opinions of Generals Ney and Lasnes coincide with Madame
Napoleon’s assertion is uncertain; but Lasnes has been often heard to say
that, from the instant his wife began to confess, he was convinced she
was inclined to dishonour him; so that nothing surprised him.
One of the medallions in Rabais’s collection contained on one side the
portrait of Thuriot, and on the other that of his wife; both set with
diamonds, and presented to her by him on their last wedding day. For the
supposed theft of this medallion, two of Thuriot’s servants were in
prison, when the arrest of Rabais explained the manner in which it had
been lost. This so enraged him that he beat and kicked his wife so
heartily that for some time even her life was in danger, and Thuriot lost
all hopes of being a father.
Before the Revolution, Thuriot had been, for fraud and forgery, struck
off the roll as an advocate, and therefore joined it as a patriot. In
1791, he was chosen a deputy to the National Assembly, and in 1792 to the
National Convention. He always showed himself one of the most ungenerous
enemies of the clergy, of monarchy, and of his King, for whose death he
voted. On the 25th of May, 1792, in declaiming against Christianity and
priesthood, he wished them both, for the welfare of mankind, at the
bottom of the sea; and on the 18th of December the same year, he declared
in the Jacobin Club that, if the National Convention evinced any signs of
clemency towards Louis XVI., he would go himself to the Temple and blow
out the brains of this unfortunate King. He defended in the tribune the
massacres of the prisoners, affirming that the tree of liberty could
never flourish without being inundated with the blood of aristocrats and
other enemies of the Revolution. He has been convicted by rival factions
of the most shameful robberies, and his infamy and depravity were so
notorious that neither Murat, Brissot, Robespierre, nor the Directory
would or could employ him. After the Revolution of the 9th of November,
1799, Bonaparte gave him the office of judge of the criminal tribunal,
and in 1804 made him a Commander of his Legion of Honour. He is now one
of our Emperor’s most faithful subjects and most sincere Christians. Such
is now his tender conscientiousness, that he was among those who were the
first to be married again by some Cardinal to their present wives, to
whom they had formerly been united only by the municipality. This new
marriage, however, took place before Madame Thuriot had introduced
herself to the acquaintance of the Imperial Grenadier Rabais.