_Siege of Toulon--Recapitulation--Buonaparte appointed to the
Command of the Artillery at Toulon--Finds every thing in
disorder--His plan for obtaining the Surrender of the
Place--Adopted--Anecdotes during the Siege--Allied troops
resolve to evacuate Toulon--Dreadful Particulars of the
Evacuation--England censured on this occasion--Lord
Lynedoch--Fame of Buonaparte increases, and he is appointed
Chief of Battalion in the Army of Italy--Joins Headquarters at
Nice--On the Fall of Robespierre, Buonaparte superseded in
command--Arrives in Paris in May, 1795, to solicit
employment--He is unsuccessful--Retrospect of the Proceedings of
the National Assembly--Difficulties in forming a new
Constitution--Appointment of the Directory--of the Two Councils
of Elders and of Five Hundred--Nation at large, and Paris in
particular, disgusted with their pretensions--Paris assembles in
Sections--General Danican appointed their
Commander-in-Chief--Menou appointed by the Directory to disarm
the National Guards--but suspended for incapacity--Buonaparte
appointed in his room--The Day of the Sections--Conflict betwixt
the Troops of the Convention under Buonaparte, and those of the
Sections of Paris under Danican--The latter defeated with much
slaughter--Buonaparte appointed Second in Command of the Army of
the Interior--then General-in-Chief--Marries Madame
Beauharnais--Her Character--Buonaparte immediately afterwards
joins the Army of Italy._
[Sidenote: SIEGE OF TOULON.]
The siege of Toulon was the first incident of importance, which enabled
Buonaparte to distinguish himself in the eyes of the French Government,
and of the world at large.
Buonaparte's professional qualifications were still better vouched than
the soundness of his political principles, though these were
sufficiently decided. The notes which the inspectors of the Military
School always preserve concerning their scholars, described his genius
as being of the first order; and to these he owed his promotion to the
rank of a lieutenant-colonel of artillery, with the command of the
artillery during this siege.
We have already mentioned that a general diffidence, and dread of the
proceedings of the Jacobins, joined to the intrigues of the Girondists,
had, after the fall of the latter party, induced several of the
principal towns in France to take arms against the Convention, or rather
against the Jacobin party, who had attained the complete mastery in that
body. We have also said that Toulon, taking a more decided step than
either Marseilles or Lyons, had declared for the King and the
Constitution of 1791, and invited the support of the English and Spanish
squadrons, who were cruising upon the coast. A disembarkation was made,
and a miscellaneous force, hastily collected, of Spaniards, Sardinians,
Neapolitans, and English, was thrown into the place.
This was one of the critical periods when vigorous measures, on the part
of the allies, might have produced marked effects on the result of the
war. Toulon is the arsenal of France, and contained at that time immense
naval stores, besides a fleet of seventeen sail of the line ready for
sea, and thirteen or fourteen more, which stood in need of refitting.
The possession of it was of the last importance, and with a sufficiently
large garrison, or rather an army strong enough to cover the more
exposed points without the town, the English might have maintained their
footing at Toulon, as they did at a later period both at Lisbon and
Cadiz. The sea would, by maintaining the defensive lines necessary to
protect the roadstead, have been entirely at the command of the
besieged; and they could have been supplied with provisions in any
quantity from Sicily, or the Barbary States, while the besiegers would
have experienced great difficulty, such was the dearth in Provence at
the time, in supporting their own army. But to have played this bold
game, the presence of an army, instead of a few battalions, would have
been requisite; and a general of consummate ability must have held the
chief command. This was the more especially necessary, as Toulon, from
the nature of the place, must have been defended by a war of posts,
requiring peculiar alertness, sagacity, and vigilance. On the other
hand, there were circumstances very favourable for the defence, had it
been conducted with talent and vigour. In order to invest Toulon on the
right and left side at once, it was necessary there should be two
distinct blockading armies; and these could scarce communicate with each
other, as a steep ridge of mountains, called Pharon, must interpose
betwixt them. This gave opportunity to the besieged to combine their
force, and choose the object of attack when they sallied; while, on the
other hand, the two bodies of besiegers could not easily connect their
operations, either for attack or defence.
Lord Mulgrave,[37] who commanded personally in the place,
notwithstanding the motley character of the garrison, and other
discouraging circumstances, began the defence with spirit. Sir George
Keith Elphinstone[38] also defeated the Republicans at the mountain
pass, called Ollioules. The English for some time retained possession of
this important gorge, but were finally driven out from it. Cartaux, a
republican general whom we have already mentioned,[39] now advanced on
the west of Toulon, at the head of a very considerable army, while
General Lapoype blockaded the city on the east, with a part of the army
of Italy. It was the object of the French to approach Toulon on both
sides of the mountainous ridge, called Pharon. But on the east the town
was covered by the strong and regular fort of La Malgue, and on the west
side of the road by a less formidable work, called Malbosquet. To
support Malbosquet, and to protect the entrance to the roadstead and
harbour, the English engineers fortified with great skill an eminence,
called Hauteur de Grasse. The height bent into a sort of bay, the two
promontories of which were secured by redoubts, named L'Eguillette and
Balagnier, which communicated with and supported the new fortification,
which the English had termed Fort Mulgrave.
Several sallies and skirmishes took place, in most of which the
Republicans were worsted. Lieutenant-General O'Hara arrived from
Gibraltar with reinforcements, and assumed the chief command.
Little could be said for the union of the commanders within Toulon; yet
their enterprises were so far successful, that the French began to be
alarmed at the slow progress of the siege. The dearth of provisions was
daily increasing, the discontent of the people of Provence was
augmented; the Catholics were numerous in the neighbouring districts of
Vivarais and Lower Languedoc; and Barras and Fréron wrote from
Marseilles [Dec. 1] to the Convention, suggesting that the siege of
Toulon should be raised, and the besieging army withdrawn beyond the
Durance.[40] But while weaker minds were despairing, talents of the
first order were preparing to achieve the conquest of Toulon.
When Napoleon arrived at the scene of action, and had visited the posts
of the besieging army, he found so many marks of incapacity, that he
could not conceal his astonishment. Batteries had been erected for
destroying the English shipping, but they were three gun-shots' distance
from the point which they were designed to command; red-hot balls were
preparing, but they were not heated in furnaces beside the guns, but in
the country-houses in the neighbourhood at the most ridiculous distance,
as if they had been articles of easy and ordinary transportation.
Buonaparte with difficulty obtained General Cartaux's permission to make
a shot or two by way of experiment; and when they fell more than
half-way short of the mark, the general had no excuse but to rail
against the aristocrats, who had, he said, spoiled the quality of the
powder with which he was supplied.[41]
The young officer of artillery, with prudence, and at the same time with
spirit, made his remonstrances to the member of Convention,
Gasparin,[42] who witnessed the experiment, and explained the necessity
of proceeding more systematically, if any successful result was
expected.
At a council of war, where Gasparin presided, the instructions of the
Committee of Public Safety were read, directing that the siege of Toulon
should be commenced according to the usual forms, by investing the body
of the place, in other words, the city itself. The orders of the
Committee of Public Safety were no safe subject of discussion or
criticism for those who were to act under them; yet Buonaparte ventured
to recommend their being departed from on this important occasion. His
comprehensive genius had at once discovered a less direct, yet more
certain manner, of obtaining the surrender of the place. He advised,
that, neglecting the body of the town, the attention of the besiegers
should be turned to attain possession of the promontory called Hauteur
de Grasse, by driving the besiegers from the strong work of fort
Mulgrave, and the two redoubts of L'Eguillette and Balagnier, by means
of which the English had established the line of defence necessary to
protect the fleet and harbour. The fortress of Malbosquet, on the same
point, he also recommended as a principal object of attack. He argued,
that if the besiegers succeeded in possessing themselves of these
fortifications, they must obtain a complete command of the roads where
the English fleet lay, and oblige them to put to sea. They would, in the
same manner, effectually command the entrance of the bay, and prevent
supplies or provisions from being thrown into the city. If the garrison
were thus in danger of being totally cut off from supplies by their
vessels being driven from their anchorage, it was natural to suppose
that the English troops would rather evacuate Toulon, than remain within
the place, blockaded on all sides, until they might be compelled to
surrender by famine.
The plan was adopted by the council of war after much hesitation, and
the young officer by whom it was projected received full powers to carry
it on. He rallied round him a number of excellent artillery officers and
soldiers; assembled against Toulon more than two hundred pieces of
cannon, well served; and stationed them so advantageously, that he
annoyed considerably the English vessels in the roads, even before he
had constructed those batteries on which he depended for reducing forts
Mulgrave and Malbosquet, by which they were in a great measure
protected.
In the meanwhile, General Doppet, formerly a physician, had superseded
Cartaux, whose incapacity could no longer be concealed by his
rhodomontading language; and, wonderful to tell, it had nearly been the
fate of the ex-doctor to take Toulon, at a time when such an event
seemed least within his calculation. A tumultuary attack of some of the
young French Carmagnoles on a body of Spanish troops which garrisoned
fort Mulgrave, had very nearly been successful. Buonaparte galloped to
the spot, hurrying his reluctant commander along with him, and succours
were ordered to advance to support the attack, when an aide-de-camp was
shot by Doppet's side; on which the medical general, considering this as
a bad symptom, pronounced the case desperate, and, to Buonaparte's great
indignation, ordered a retreat to be commenced. Doppet being found as
incapable as Cartaux, was in his turn superseded by Dugommier, a veteran
who had served for fifty years, was covered with scars, and as fearless
as the weapon he wore.
From this time the commandant of artillery, having the complete
concurrence of his general, had no doubt of success. To ensure it,
however, he used the utmost vigilance and exertion, and exposed his
person to every risk.
One of the dangers which he incurred was of a singular character. An
artilleryman being shot at the gun which he was serving, while Napoleon
was visiting a battery, he took up the dead man's rammer, and, to give
encouragement to the soldiers, charged the gun repeatedly with his own
hands. In consequence of using this implement he caught an infectious
cutaneous complaint, which, being injudiciously treated and thrown
inward, was of great prejudice to his health until after his Italian
campaigns, when he was completely cured by Dr. Corvissart; after which,
for the first time, he showed that tendency to _embonpoint_ which marked
the latter part of his life.[43]
Upon another occasion, while Napoleon was overlooking the construction
of a battery, which the enemy endeavoured to interrupt by their fire, he
called for some person who could write, that he might dictate an order.
A young soldier stepped out of the ranks, and resting the paper on the
breast-work, began to write accordingly. A shot from the enemy's battery
covered the letter with earth the instant it was finished. "Thank
you--we shall have no occasion for sand this bout," said the military
secretary. The gaiety and courage of the remark drew Buonaparte's
attention on the young man, who was the celebrated General Junot,
afterwards created Duke D'Abrantes.[44] During this siege, also, he
discovered the talents of Duroc, afterwards one of his most faithful
adherents. In these and many other instances, Buonaparte showed his
extensive knowledge of mankind, by the deep sagacity which enabled him
to discover and attach to him those whose talents were most capable of
rendering him service.
Notwithstanding the influence which the commandant of artillery had
acquired, he found himself occasionally thwarted by the members of the
Convention upon mission to the siege of Toulon, who latterly were
Fréron, Ricord, Salicetti, and the younger Robespierre. These
representatives of the people, knowing that their commission gave them
supreme power over generals and armies, never seem to have paused to
consider whether nature or education had qualified them to exercise it,
with advantage to the public and credit to themselves. They criticized
Buonaparte's plan of attack, finding it impossible to conceive how his
operations, being directed against detached fortifications at a distance
from Toulon, could be eventually the means of placing the town itself
with facility in their hands. But Napoleon was patient and temporizing;
and having the good opinion of Salicetti, and some intimacy with young
Robespierre, he contrived to have the works conducted according to his
own plan.
The presumption of these dignitaries became the means of precipitating
his operations. It was his intention to complete his proposed works
against fort Mulgrave before opening a large and powerful battery, which
he had constructed with great silence and secrecy against Malbosquet, so
that the whole of his meditated assault might confound the enemy by
commencing at the same time. The operations being shrouded by an olive
plantation, had been completed without being observed by the English,
whom Buonaparte proposed to attack on the whole line of defence
simultaneously. Messrs. Fréron and Robespierre, however, in visiting the
military posts, stumbled upon this masked battery; and having no notion
why four mortars and eight twenty-four pounders should remain inactive,
they commanded the fire to be opened on Malbosquet without any farther
delay.
General O'Hara, confounded at finding this important post exposed to a
fire so formidable and unexpected, determined by a strong effort to
carry the French battery at once. Three thousand men[45] were employed
in this sally; and the general himself, rather contrary to what is
considered the duty of the governor of a place of importance, resolved
to put himself at their head. The sally was at first completely
successful; but while the English pursued the enemy too far, in all the
confidence of what they considered as assured victory, Buonaparte
availed himself of some broken ground and a covered way, to rally a
strong body of troops, bring up reserves, and attack the scattered
English both in flank and rear. There was a warm skirmish, in which
Napoleon himself received a bayonet wound in the thigh, by which, though
a serious injury, he was not, however, disabled. The English were thrown
into irretrievable confusion, and retreated, leaving their general
wounded, and a prisoner in the hands of the enemy. It is singular, that
during his long warfare, Buonaparte was never personally engaged with
the British, except in his first, and at Waterloo, his last and fatal
battle. The attack upon Acre can scarce be termed an exception, as far
as his own person was concerned.
The loss of their commandant, added to the discouragement which began to
prevail among the defenders of Toulon, together with the vivacity of the
attack which ensued, seem finally to have disheartened the garrison.
Five batteries were opened on fort Mulgrave, the possession of which
Buonaparte considered as ensuring success. After a fire of twenty-four
hours, Dugommier and Napoleon resolved to try the fate of a general
attack, for which the representatives of the people showed no particular
zeal. The attacking columns advanced before day, during a heavy shower
of rain. They were at first driven back on every point by the most
determined opposition; and Dugommier, as he saw the troops fly in
confusion, exclaimed, well knowing the consequences of bad success to a
general of the Republic, "I am a lost man!"[46] Renewed efforts,
however, at last prevailed; the Spanish artillerymen giving way on one
point, the fort fell [Dec. 18] into the possession of the French, who
showed no mercy to its defenders.[47]
Three hours, according to Buonaparte, after the fort was taken, the
representatives of the people appeared in the trenches, with drawn
swords, to congratulate the soldiers on their successful valour, and
hear from their commandant of artillery, the reiterated assurance, that,
this distant fort being gained, Toulon was now their own. In their
letter to the Convention, the deputies gave a more favourable account of
their own exploits, and failed not to represent Ducos, Salicetti, and
young Robespierre, as leading the attack with sabre in hand, and, to use
their own phrase, showing the troops the road to victory.[48] On the
other hand, they ungraciously forgot, in their despatches, to mention
so much as the name of Buonaparte, to whom the victory was entirely to
be ascribed.[49]
[Sidenote: EVACUATION OF TOULON.]
In the meantime, Napoleon's sagacity was not deceived in the event. The
officers of the allied troops, after a hurried council of war, resolved
to evacuate Toulon, since the posts gained by the French must drive the
English ships from their anchorage, and deprive them of a future
opportunity of retreating, if they neglected the passing moment. Lord
Hood alone urged a bolder resolution, and recommended the making a
desperate effort to regain fort Mulgrave, and the heights which it
commanded. But his spirited counsel was rejected, and the evacuation
resolved on;[50] which the panic of the foreign troops, especially the
Neapolitans, would have rendered still more horrible than it proved, but
for the steadiness of the British seamen.
The safety of the unfortunate citizens, who had invoked their
protection, was not neglected even amid the confusion of the retreat.
The numerous merchant vessels and other craft, offered means of
transportation to all, who, having to fear the resentment of the
Republicans, might be desirous of quitting Toulon. Such was the dread of
the victors' cruelty, that upwards of fourteen thousand persons accepted
this melancholy refuge.[51] Meantime there was other work to do.
It had been resolved, that the arsenal and naval stores, with such of
the French ships as were not ready for sea, should be destroyed; and
they were set on fire accordingly. This task was in a great measure
intrusted to the dauntless intrepidity of Sir Sydney Smith, who carried
it through with a degree of order, which, everything considered, was
almost marvellous. The assistance of the Spaniards was offered and
accepted; and they undertook the duty of scuttling and sinking two
vessels used as powder magazines, and destroying some part of the
disabled shipping. The rising conflagration growing redder and redder,
seemed at length a great volcano, amid which were long distinctly seen
the masts and yards of the burning vessels, and which rendered obscurely
visible the advancing bodies of Republican troops, who attempted on
different points to push their way into the place. The Jacobins began to
rise in the town upon the flying Royalists;--horrid screams and yells of
vengeance, and revolutionary chorusses, were heard to mingle with the
cries and plaintive entreaties of the remaining fugitives, who had not
yet found means of embarkation. The guns from Malbosquet, now possessed
by the French, and turned on the bulwarks of the town, increased the
uproar. At once a shock, like that of an earthquake, occasioned by the
explosion of many hundred barrels of gunpowder, silenced all noise save
its own, and threw high into the midnight heaven a thousand blazing
fragments, which descended, threatening ruin wherever they fell. A
second explosion took place, as the other magazine blew up, with the
same dreadful effects.
This tremendous addition to the terrors of the scene, so dreadful in
itself, was owing to the Spaniards setting fire to those vessels used as
magazines, instead of sinking them, according to the plan which had been
agreed upon. Either from ill-will, carelessness, or timidity, they were
equally awkward in their attempts to destroy the dismantled ships
intrusted to their charge, which fell into the hands of the French but
little damaged. The British fleet, with the flotilla crowded with
fugitives which it escorted, left Toulon without loss, notwithstanding
an ill-directed fire maintained on them from the batteries which the
French had taken.
It was upon this night of terror, conflagration, tears, and blood, that
the star of Napoleon first ascended the horizon; and though it gleamed
over many a scene of horror ere it set, it may be doubtful whether its
light was ever blended with those of one more dreadful.
The capture of Toulon crushed all the hopes of resistance to the
Jacobins, which had been cherished in the south of France. There was a
strong distrust excited against England, who was judged only desirous to
avail herself of the insurrection of these unhappy citizens to cripple
and destroy the naval power of France, without the wish of effectually
assisting the Royalists. This was an unjust belief, but it cannot be
denied that there were specious grounds for the accusation. The
undertaking the protection of a city in such a situation as that of
Toulon, if the measure was embraced at all, should have been supported
by efforts worthy of the country whose assistance was implored and
granted. Such efforts were not made, and the assistance actually
afforded was not directed by talent, and was squandered by disunion. The
troops showed gallantry; but the leaders, excepting the naval officers,
evinced little military skill, or united purpose of defence. One
gentleman, then in private life, chancing to be in Toulon at the time,
distinguished himself as a volunteer,[52] and has since achieved a proud
career in the British army. Had he, or such as he, been at the head of
the garrison, the walls of Toulon might have seen a battle like that of
Barossa, and a very different result of the siege might probably have
ensued.
So many of the citizens of Toulon concerned in the late resistance had
escaped, by the means provided by the English, that Republican vengeance
could not collect its victims in the usual numbers.[53] Many were shot,
however, and it has been said that Buonaparte commanded the artillery,
by which, as at Lyons, they were exterminated; and also that he wrote a
letter to Fréron and the younger Robespierre, congratulating them and
himself on the execution of these aristocrats, and signed Brutus
Buonaparte, Sans-Culotte. If he actually commanded at this execution, he
had the poor apology, that he must do so or himself perish; but, had the
fact and the letter been genuine, there has been enough of time since
his downfall to prove the truth of the accusation, and certainly enough
of writers disposed to give these proofs publicity. He himself
positively denied the charge; and alleged that the victims were shot by
a detachment of what was called the Revolutionary Army, and not by
troops of the line.[54] This we think highly probable. Buonaparte has
besides affirmed, that far from desiring to sharpen the vengeance of the
Jacobins, or act as their agent, he hazarded the displeasure of those
whose frown was death, by interposing his protection to save the
unfortunate family of Chabrillan, emigrants and aristocrats, who, being
thrown by a storm on the coast of France, shortly after the siege of
Toulon, became liable to punishment by the guillotine, but whom he saved
by procuring them the means of escape by sea.[55]
In the meanwhile, the young general of artillery was rapidly rising in
reputation. The praises which were suppressed by the representatives of
the people, were willingly conferred and promulgated by the frank old
veteran, Dugommier. Buonaparte's name was placed on the list of those
whom he recommended for promotion, with the pointed addition, that if
neglected, he would be sure to force his own way.[56] He was accordingly
confirmed in his provisional situation of chief of battalion, and
appointed [March] to hold that rank in the army of Italy. Before joining
that army, the genius of Napoleon was employed by the Convention in
surveying and fortifying the sea-coast of the Mediterranean; a very
troublesome task, as it involved many disputes with the local
authorities of small towns and villages, and even hamlets, all of whom
wished to have batteries erected for their own special protection,
without regard to the general safety. It involved him, moreover, as we
shall presently see, in some risk with the Convention at home.
The chief of battalion discharged his task scientifically. He divided
the necessary fortifications into three classes, distinguishing those
designed to protect harbours and roadsteads, from such as were intended
to defend anchorages of less consequence, and both from the third class,
which were to be placed on proper situations, to prevent insults and
partial descents on the coast by an enemy superior at sea. Napoleon
dictated to General Gourgaud[57] hints on this subject, which must be of
consequence to the sea-coasts which need such military defences.[58]
Having made his report to the Convention, Buonaparte proceeded to join
the headquarters of the French army, then lying at Nice, straitened
considerably and hemmed in by the Sardinians and Austrians, who, after
some vain attempts of General Brunet[59] to dislodge them, had remained
masters of the Col de Tende, and lower passes of the Alps, together with
the road leading from Turin to Nice by Saorgio.
[Sidenote: SAORGIO.]
Buonaparte had influence enough to recommend with success to the
general, Dumerbion,[60] and the representatives of the people, Ricord
and Robespierre, a plan for driving the enemy out of this position,
forcing them to retreat beyond the higher Alps, and taking Saorgio; all
which measures succeeded as he had predicted.[61] Saorgio surrendered,
[April 29,] with much stores and baggage, and the French army obtained
possession of the chain of the higher Alps, which, being tenable by
defending few and difficult passes, placed a great part of the army of
Italy, (as it was already termed, though only upon the frontier,) at
disposal for actual service.[62]
While directing the means of attaining these successes, Buonaparte, at
the same time, acquired a complete acquaintance with that Alpine
country, in which he was shortly to obtain victories in his own name,
not in that of others, who obtained reputation by acting on his
suggestions. But, while he was thus employed, he was involved in an
accusation before the Convention, which, had his reputation been less
for approved patriotism, might have cost him dear.
In his plans for the defence of the Mediterranean, Napoleon had proposed
repairing an old state prison at Marseilles, called fort Saint Nicholas,
that it might serve as a powder Magazine. This plan his successor on the
station proceeded to execute, and by doing so, gave umbrage to the
patriots, who charged the commandant of artillery then at Marseilles,
and superintending the work, with an intention to rebuild this fort, to
serve as a Bastile for controlling the good citizens. The officer being
summoned to the bar of the Convention, proved that the plan was not his
own, but drawn out by Buonaparte. The representatives of the army in
Italy, however, not being able to dispense with his services, wrote to
the Convention in his behalf, and gave such an account of the origin and
purpose of the undertaking, as divested it of all shade of suspicion
even in the suspicious eye of the Committee of Public Safety.[63]
In the remainder of the year 1794, there was little service of
consequence in the army of Italy, and the 9th and 10th Thermidor (27th
and 28th July) of that year, brought the downfall of Robespierre, and
threatened unfavourable consequences to Buonaparte, who had been in
close communication with the tyrant's brother, and was understood to
have participated in the tone of exaggerated patriotism affected by his
party. He endeavoured to shelter himself under his ignorance of the real
tendency of the proceedings of those who had fallen,--an apology which
resolves itself into the ordinary excuse, that he found his late friends
had not been the persons he took them for. According to this line of
defence, he made all haste to disclaim accession to the political
schemes of which they were accused. "I am somewhat affected," he wrote
to a correspondent,[64] "at the fate of the younger Robespierre; but,
had he been my brother, I would have poniarded him with my own hand, had
I been aware that he was forming schemes of tyranny."
Buonaparte's disclamations do not seem at first to have been favourably
received. His situation was now precarious; and when those members were
restored to the Convention, who had been expelled and proscribed by the
Jacobins, it became still more so. The reaction of the moderate party,
accompanied by horrible recollections of the past, and fears for the
future, began now to be more strongly felt, as their numbers in the
Convention acquired strength. Those officers who had attached themselves
to the Jacobin party, were the objects of their animosity; and, besides,
they were desirous to purify the armies, as far as possible, of those
whom they considered as their own enemies, and those of good order; the
rather, that the Jacobinical principles still continued to be more
favoured in the armies than in the interior. To the causes of this we
have before alluded; but it may not be unnecessary to repeat, that the
soldiers had experienced all the advantages of the fierce energies of a
government which sent them out to conquest, and offered them the means
of achieving it; and they had not been witnesses to the atrocities of
their tyranny in the interior.
Before the downfall of Robespierre took place, Buonaparte had received
regular but secret instructions to examine the fortifications of Genoa.
M. Ricord, by whom these instructions had been signed, having now been
superseded, and the younger Robespierre guillotined, Albitte, Salicetti,
and Laporte, the new superintendents of the army of Italy, were pleased
to suspect that Buonaparte had engaged in some plot of betraying Genoa
to the enemy: he was arrested accordingly early in August; but his
papers effectually established his innocence, and after the lapse of a
fortnight he was released.[65]
In March 1795, he was sent to Toulon to take the command of the
artillery in an expedition destined against Rome; but this scheme was
not persevered in. During his visit to Toulon, however, he had the
opportunity of saving from the violence of the populace, a party of
unfortunate emigrants, including the noble family of Chabrillant, who
had been landed from a Spanish prize. His influence with some cannoneers
who had served under him during the siege, enabled him to rescue these
individuals; and he unhesitatingly did so, though at considerable risk
to himself. On his rejoining the troops in the Maritime Alps, near the
end of March, he found the army about to be altered in some parts of its
organization, and placed under the command of General Kellermann. A
recent arrangement had recalled to the service many officers of high
rank who had of late been unemployed; and he, as the youngest on the
list of generals, could not only not be allowed to retain his command of
the artillery in the army of Kellermann, but was removed to the
infantry. He repaired therefore to Paris, with the view of soliciting
professional employment elsewhere, and especially of remonstrating
against his permanent removal from the branch of the service in which he
had spent so many years. On his way to the capital he visited his mother
at Marseilles, and found his brother Joseph respectably married in that
city.
On reaching Paris in May, he found his pretensions thwarted by Aubry,
the President of the Military Committee, who was disposed to treat with
little attention his statement respecting the siege of Toulon, and his
two years of successful service in the army of Italy. When, in the heat
of discussion, Aubry objected his youth, Buonaparte replied, that
presence in the field of battle ought to anticipate the claim of years.
The president, who had not been much in action, considered his reply as
a personal insult; and Napoleon, disdaining farther answer, tendered his
resignation.[66] It was not, however, accepted; and he still remained in
the rank of expectants, but among those whose hopes were entirely
dependent upon their merits.[67]
It may be observed that, at a subsequent period, Aubry, being among
those belonging to Pichegru's party who were banished to Cayenne, was
excepted from the decree which permitted the return of those unfortunate
exiles, and died at Demerara.
Meantime, his situation becoming daily more unpleasant, Buonaparte
solicited Barras and Fréron, who, as Thermidoriens, had preserved their
credit, for occupation in almost any line of his profession, and even
negotiated for permission to go into the Turkish service, to train the
Mussulmans to the use of artillery. A fanciful imagination may pursue
him to the rank of pacha, or higher; for, go where he would, he could
not have remained in mediocrity. His own ideas had a similar tendency.
"How strange," he said, "it would be, if a little Corsican officer of
artillery were to become King of Jerusalem!" He was offered a command in
La Vendée, which he declined to accept, and was finally named to command
a brigade of artillery in Holland. But it was in a land where there
still existed so many separate and conflicting factions, as in France,
that he was doomed to be raised, amid the struggles of his contending
countrymen, and upon their shoulders and over their heads, to the very
highest eminence to which fortune can exalt an individual. The times
required such talents as his, and the opportunity for exercising them
soon arose.
[Sidenote: RETROSPECT.]
The French nation were in general tired of the National Convention,
which successive proscriptions had drained of all the talent, eloquence,
and energy it had once possessed; and that Assembly had become hateful
and contemptible to all men, by suffering itself to be the passive tool
of the Terrorists for two years, when, if they had shown proper
firmness, the revolution of the 9th Thermidor might as well have been
achieved at the beginning of that frightful anarchy, as after that long
period of unheard-of suffering. The Convention was not greatly improved
in point of talent, even by the return of their banished brethren; and,
in a word, they had lost the confidence of the public entirely. They
therefore prepared to gratify the general wish by dissolving themselves.
But before they resigned their ostensible authority, it was necessary to
prepare some mode of carrying on the government in future.
The Jacobin constitution of 1793 still existed on paper; but although
there was an unrepealed law, menacing with death any one who should
propose to alter that form of government, no one appeared disposed to
consider it as actually in exercise; and, notwithstanding the solemnity
with which it had been received and ratified by the sanction of the
national voice, it was actually passed over and abrogated as a matter of
course, by a tacit but unanimous consent. Neither was there any
disposition to adopt the Girondist constitution of 1791, or to revert to
the democratic monarchy of 1792, the only one of these models which
could be said to have had even the dubious endurance of a few months. As
at the general change of the world, all former things were to be done
away--all was to be made anew.
Each of these forms of government had been solemnized by the national
oaths and processions customary on such occasions; but the opinion was
now universally entertained, that not one of them was founded on just
principles, or contained the power of defending itself against
aggression, and protecting the lives and rights of the subject. On the
other hand, every one not deeply interested in the late anarchy, and
implicated in the horrid course of bloodshed and tyranny which was its
very essence, was frightened at the idea of reviving a government which
was a professed continuation of the despotism ever attendant upon a
revolution, and which, in all civilized countries, ought to terminate
with the extraordinary circumstances by which revolution has been
rendered necessary. To have continued the revolutionary government,
indeed, longer than this, would have been to have imitated the conduct
of an ignorant empiric, who should persist in subjecting a convalescent
patient to the same course of exhausting and dangerous medicines, which
a regular physician would discontinue as soon as the disease had been
brought to a favourable crisis.
It seems to have been in general felt and admitted, that the blending of
the executive and legislative power together, as both had been exercised
by the existing Convention, opened the road to the most afflicting
tyranny; and that to constitute a stable government, the power of
executing the laws, and administering the ministerial functions, must be
vested in some separate individuals, or number of individuals, who
should, indeed, be responsible to the national legislature for the
exercise of this power, but neither subject to their direct control, nor
enjoying it as emanating immediately from their body. With these
reflections arose others, on the utility of dividing the legislative
body itself into two assemblies, one of which might form a check on the
other, tending, by some exercise of an intermediate authority, to
qualify the rash rapidity of a single chamber, and obstruct the
progress of any individual, who might, like Robespierre, obtain a
dictatorship in such a body, and become, in doing so, an arbitrary
tyrant over the whole authorities of the state. Thus, loth and late, the
French began to cast an eye on the British constitution, and the system
of checks and balances upon which it is founded, as the best means of
uniting the protection of liberty with the preservation of order.
Thinking men had come gradually to be aware, that in hopes of getting
something better than a system which had been sanctioned by the
experience of ages, they had only produced a set of models, which were
successively wondered at, applauded, neglected, and broken to pieces,
instead of a simple machine, capable, in mechanical phrase, of working
well.
Had such a feeling prevailed during the commencement of the Revolution,
as was advocated by Mounier and others,[68] France and Europe might have
been spared the bloodshed and distress which afflicted them during a
period of more than twenty years of war, with all the various evils
which accompanied that great convulsion. France had then a king; nobles,
out of whom a senate might have been selected; and abundance of able men
to have formed a lower house, or house of commons. But the golden
opportunity was passed over; and when the architects might, perhaps,
have been disposed to execute the new fabric which they meditated, on
the plan of a limited monarchy, the materials for the structure were no
longer to be found.
The legitimate King of France no doubt existed, but he was an exile in a
foreign country; and the race of gentry, from whom a house of peers, or
hereditary senate, might have been chiefly selected, were to be found
only in foreign service, too much exasperated by their sufferings to
admit a rational hope that they would ever make any compromise with
those who had forced them from their native land, and confiscated their
family property. Saving for these circumstances, and the combinations
which arose out of them, it seems very likely, that at the period at
which we have now arrived, the tide, which began to set strongly against
the Jacobins, might have been adroitly turned in favour of the Bourbons.
But, though there was a general feeling of melancholy regret, which
naturally arose from comparing the peaceful days of the monarchy with
those of the Reign of Terror,--the rule of Louis the XVI. with that of
Robespierre,--the memory of former quiet and security with the more
recent recollections of blood and plunder,--still it seems to have
existed rather in the state of a predisposition to form a royal party,
than as the principle of one already existing. Fuel was lying ready to
catch the flame of loyalty, but the match had not yet been applied; and
to counteract this general tendency, there existed the most formidable
obstacles.
In the first place, we have shown already the circumstances by which
the French armies were strongly attached to the name of the Republic, in
whose cause all their wars had been waged, and all their glory won; by
whose expeditious and energetic administration the military profession
was benefited, while they neither saw nor felt the misery entailed on
the nation at large. But the French soldier had not only fought in
favour of democracy, but actively and directly against royalty. As _Vive
la République_ was his war-cry, he was in La Vendée, on the Rhine, and
elsewhere, met, encountered, and sometimes defeated and driven back, by
those who used the opposite signal-word, _Vive le Roi_. The Royalists
were, indeed, the most formidable opponents of the military part of the
French nation; and such was the animosity of the latter at this period
to the idea of returning to the ancient system, that if a general could
have been found capable of playing the part of Monk, he would probably
have experienced the fate of La Fayette and Dumouriez.
A second and almost insuperable objection to the restoration of the
Bourbons, occurred in the extensive change of property that had taken
place. If the exiled family had been recalled, they could not, at this
very recent period, but have made stipulations for their devoted
followers, and insisted that the estates forfeited in their cause,
should have been compensated or restored; and such a resumption would
have inferred ruin to all the purchasers of national demesnes, and, in
consequence, a general shock to the security of property through the
kingdom.
The same argument applied to the Church lands. The Most Christian King
could not resume his throne, without restoring the ecclesiastical
establishment in part, if not in whole. It was impossible to calculate
the mass of persons of property and wealth, with their various
connexions, who, as possessors of national demesnes, that is, of the
property of the Church, or of the emigrants, were bound by their own
interest to oppose the restoration of the Bourbon family. The
revolutionary government had followed the coarse, but striking and
deeply politic, admonition of the Scottish Reformer--"Pull down the
nests," said Knox, when he urged the multitude to destroy churches and
abbeys, "and the rooks will fly off." The French government, by
dilapidating and disposing of the property of the emigrants and clergy,
had established an almost insurmountable barrier against the return of
the original owners. The cavaliers in the great Civil War of England had
been indeed fined, sequestrated, impoverished; but their estates were
still, generally speaking, in their possession; and they retained,
though under oppression and poverty, the influence of a national
aristocracy, diminished, but not annihilated. In France, that influence
of resident proprietors had all been transferred to other hands,
tenacious in holding what property they had acquired, and determined to
make good the defence of it against those who claimed a prior right.
Lastly, the fears and conscious recollections of those who held the
chief power in France for the time, induced them to view their own
safety as deeply compromised by any proposition of restoring the exiled
royal family. This present sitting and ruling Convention had put to
death Louis XVI.,--with what hope of safety could they install his
brother on the throne? They had formally, and in full conclave,
renounced belief in the existence of a Deity--with what consistence
could they be accessory to restore a national church? Some remained
Republicans from their heart and upon conviction; and a great many more
of the deputies could not abjure democracy, without confessing at the
same time, that all the violent measures which they had carried through
for the support of that system, were so many great and treasonable
crimes.
These fears of a retributive reaction were very generally felt in the
Convention. The Thermidoriens, in particular, who had killed
Robespierre, and now reigned in his stead, had more substantial grounds
of apprehension from any counter-revolutionary movement, than even the
body of the representatives at large, many of whom had been merely
passive in scenes where Barras and Tallien had been active agents. The
timid party of The Plain might be overawed by the returning prince; and
the members of the Girondists, who could indeed scarce be said to exist
as a party, might be safely despised. But the Thermidoriens themselves
stood in a different predicament. They were of importance enough to
attract both detestation and jealousy; they held power, which must be an
object of distrust to the restored monarch; and they stood on precarious
ground, betwixt the hatred of the moderate party, who remembered them as
colleagues of Robespierre and Danton, and that of the Jacobins, who saw
in Tallien and Barras deserters of that party, and the destroyers of the
power of the Sans-Culottes. They had, therefore, just reason to fear,
that, stripped of the power which they at present possessed, they might
become the unpitied and unaided scapegoats, to expiate all the offences
of the Revolution.
Thus each favourable sentiment towards the cause of the Bourbons was
opposed; I. By their unpopularity with the armies; II. By the
apprehensions of the confusion and distress which must arise from a
general change of property; and III. By the conscious fears of those
influential persons, who conceived their own safety concerned in
sustaining the republican model.
Still, the idea of monarchy was so generally received as the simplest
and best mode of once more re-establishing good order and a fixed
government, that some statesmen proposed to resume the form, but change
the dynasty. With this view, divers persons were suggested by those, who
supposed that by passing over the legitimate heir to the crown, the
dangers annexed to his rights and claims might be avoided, and the
apprehended measures of resumption and reaction might be guarded
against. The son of the Duke of Orleans was named, but the infamy of his
father clung to him. In another wild hypothesis the Duke of York, or
the Duke of Brunswick, were suggested as fit to be named constitutional
Kings of France. The Abbé Siêyes is said to have expressed himself in
favour of the prince last named.[69]
But without regarding the wishes or opinions of the people without
doors, the Convention resolved to establish such a model of government
as should be most likely to infuse into a republic something of the
stability of a monarchical establishment; and thus repair at once former
errors, and preserve an appearance of consistency in the eyes of Europe.
[Sidenote: NEW CONSTITUTION.]
For this purpose eleven commissioners, chiefly selected amongst the
former Girondists, were appointed [April] to draw up a new Constitution
upon a new principle, which was again to receive the universal adhesion
of the French by acclamation and oath, and to fall, in a short time,
under the same neglect which had attended every preceding model. This,
it was understood, was to be so constructed, as to unite the consistency
of a monarchical government with the name and forms of a democracy.
That the system now adopted by the French commissioners might bear a
form corresponding to the destinies of the nation, and flattering to its
vanity, it was borrowed from that of the Roman republic, an attempt to
imitate which had already introduced many of the blunders and many of
the crimes of the Revolution. The executive power was lodged in a
council of five persons, termed Directors, to whom were to be consigned
the conduct of peace and war, the execution of the laws, and the general
administration of the government. They were permitted no share of the
legislative authority.
This arrangement was adopted to comply with the jealousy of those, who,
in the individual person of a single Director, holding a situation
similar to that of the Stadtholder in Holland, or the President of the
United States, saw something too closely approaching to a monarchical
government. Indeed, it is said, Louvet warned them against establishing
such an office, by assuring them, that when they referred the choice of
the individual who was to hold it, to the nation at large, they would
see the Bourbon heir elected.[70] But the inconvenience of this
pentarchy could not be disguised; and it seemed to follow as a necessary
consequence of such a numerous executive council, either that there
would be a schism, and a minority and majority established in that
pre-eminent body of the state, where unity and vigour were chiefly
requisite, or else that some one or two of the ablest and most crafty
among the Directors would establish a supremacy over the others, and use
them less as their colleagues than their dependents. The legislators,
however, though they knew that the whole Roman empire was found
insufficient to satiate the ambition of three men, yet appeared to hope
that the concord and unanimity of their five directors might continue
unbroken, though they had but one nation to govern; and they decided
accordingly.
The executive power being thus provided for, the legislative body was to
consist of two councils; one of Elders, as it was called, serving as a
House of Lords; another of Youngers, which they termed, from its number,
the Council of Five Hundred. Both were elective, and the difference of
age was the only circumstance which placed a distinction betwixt the two
bodies. The members of the Council of Five Hundred were to be at least
twenty-five years old, a qualification which, after the seventh year of
the Republic, was to rise to thirty years complete. In this assembly
laws were to be first proposed; and, having received its approbation,
they were to be referred to the Council of Ancients. The requisites to
sit in the latter senate, were the age of forty years complete, and the
being a married man or a widower. Bachelors, though above that age, were
deemed unfit for legislation, perhaps from want of domestic experience.
The Council of Ancients had the power of rejecting the propositions laid
before them by the Council of Five Hundred, or, by adopting and
approving them, that of passing them into laws. These regulations
certainly gained one great point, in submitting each proposed
legislative enactment to two separate bodies, and of course, to mature
and deliberate consideration. It is true, that neither of the councils
had any especial character, or separate interest which could enable or
induce the Ancients, as a body, to suggest to the Five Hundred a
different principle of considering any proposed measure, from that which
was likely to occur to them in their own previous deliberation. No such
varied views, therefore, were to be expected, as must arise between
assemblies composed of persons who differ in rank or fortune, and
consequently view the same question in various and opposite lights.
Still, delay and reconsideration were attained, before the irrevocable
fiat was imposed upon any measure of consequence; and so far much was
gained. An orator was supposed to answer all objections to the system of
the two councils thus constituted, when he described that of the Juniors
as being the imagination, that of the Ancients as being the judgment of
the nation; the one designed to invent and suggest national measures,
the other to deliberate and decide upon them. This was, though liable to
many objections, an ingenious illustration indeed; but an illustration
is not an argument, though often passing current as such.
On the whole, the form of the Constitution[71] of the year Three, _i.
e._ 1795, showed a greater degree of practical efficacy, sense, and
consistency, than any of those previously suggested; and in the
introduction, though there was the usual proclamation of the rights of
man, his duties to the laws and to the social system were for the first
time enumerated in manly and forcible language, intimating the desire of
the framers of these institutions to put a stop to the continuation of
revolutionary violence in future.
But the constitution, now promulgated, had a blemish common to all its
predecessors; it was totally new, and unsanctioned by the experience
either of France or any other country; a mere experiment in politics,
the result of which could not be known until it had been put in
exercise, and which, for many years at least, must be necessarily less
the object of respect than of criticism. Wise legislators, even when
lapse of time, alteration of manners, or increased liberality of
sentiment, require corresponding alterations in the institutions of
their fathers, are careful, as far as possible, to preserve the ancient
form and character of those laws, into which they are endeavouring to
infuse principles and a spirit accommodated to the altered exigencies
and temper of the age. There is an enthusiasm in patriotism as well as
in religion. We value institutions, not only because they are ours, but
because they have been those of our fathers; and if a new constitution
were to be presented to us, although perhaps theoretically showing more
symmetry than that by which the nation had been long governed, it would
be as difficult to transfer to it the allegiance of the people, as it
would be to substitute the worship of a Madonna, the work of modern art,
for the devotion paid by the natives of Saragossa to their ancient
Palladium, Our Lady of the Pillar.
But the constitution of the year Three, with all its defects, would have
been willingly received by the nation in general, as affording some
security from the revolutionary storm, had it not been for a selfish and
usurping device of the Thermidoriens to mutilate and render it nugatory
at the very outset, by engrafting upon it the means of continuing the
exercise of their own arbitrary authority. It must never be forgotten,
that these conquerors of Robespierre had shared all the excesses of his
party before they became his personal enemies; and that when deprived of
their official situations and influence, which they were likely to be by
a representative body freely and fairly elected, they were certain to be
exposed to great individual danger.
Determined, therefore, to retain the power in their own hands, the
Thermidoriens suffered, with an indifference amounting almost to
contempt, the constitution to pass through, and be approved of by, the
Convention. But, under pretence that it would be highly impolitic to
deprive the nation of the services of men accustomed to public business,
they procured [Aug. 22] two decrees to be passed; the first ordaining
the electoral bodies of France to choose, as representatives to the two
councils under the new constitution, at least two-thirds of the members
presently sitting in Convention; and the second declaring, that in
default of a return of two-thirds of the present deputies, as
prescribed, the Convention themselves should fill up the vacancies out
of their own body; in other words, should name a large proportion of
themselves their own successors in legislative power.[72]
These decrees were sent down to the Primary Assemblies of the people,
and every art was used to render them acceptable.
But the nation, and particularly the city of Paris, generally revolted
at this stretch of arbitrary authority. They recollected, that all the
members who had sat in the first National Assembly, so remarkable for
talent, had been declared ineligible, on that single account, for the
second legislative body; and now, men so infinitely the inferiors of
those who were the colleagues of Mirabeau, Mounier, and other great
names, presumed not only to declare themselves eligible by re-election,
but dared to establish two-thirds of their number as indispensable
ingredients of the legislative assemblies, which, according to the words
alike and spirit of the constitution, ought to be chosen by the free
voice of the people. The electors, and particularly those of the
sections of Paris, angrily demanded to know, upon what public services
the deputies of the Convention founded their title to a privilege so
unjust and anomalous. Among the more active part of them, to whom the
measure was chiefly to be ascribed, they saw but a few reformed
Terrorists, who wished to retain the power of tyranny, though disposed
to exercise it with some degree of moderation, and the loss of whose
places might be possibly followed by that of their heads; in the others,
they only beheld a flock of timid and discountenanced Helots, willing to
purchase personal security at the sacrifice of personal honour and duty
to the public; while in the Convention as a body, who pronounced so
large a proportion of their number as indispensable to the service of
the state, judging from their conduct hitherto, they could but discover
an image composed partly of iron, partly of clay, deluged with the blood
of many thousand victims--a pageant without a will of its own, and which
had been capable of giving its countenance to the worst of actions, at
the instigation of the worst of men--a sort of Moloch, whose name had
been used by its priests to compel the most barbarous sacrifices. To sum
up the whole, these experienced men of public business, without whose
intermediation it was pretended the national affairs could not be
carried on, could only shelter themselves from the charge of unbounded
wickedness, by pleading their unlimited cowardice, and by poorly
alleging that for two years they had sat, voted, and deliberated under a
system of compulsion and terror. So much meanness rendered those who
were degraded by it unfit, not merely to rule, but to live; and yet
two-thirds of their number were, according to their own decrees, to be
intruded on the nation as an indispensable portion of its
representatives.
[Sidenote: THE SECTIONS.]
Such was the language held in the assemblies of the sections of Paris,
who were the more irritated against the domineering and engrossing
spirit exhibited in these usurping enactments, because it was impossible
to forget that it was their interference, and the protection afforded by
their national guard, which had saved the Convention from massacre on
more occasions than one.
In the meanwhile, reports continued to be made from the Primary
Assemblies, of their adhesion to the constitution, in which they were
almost unanimous, and of their sentiments concerning the two decrees,
authorizing and commanding the re-election of two-thirds of the
Convention, on which there existed a strong difference of opinion. The
Convention, determined, at all rates, to carry through with a high hand
the iniquitous and arbitrary measure which they proposed, failed not to
make these reports such as they desired them to be, and announced that
the two decrees had been accepted by a majority of the Primary
Assemblies. The citizens of Paris challenged the accuracy of the
returns--alleged that the reports were falsified--demanded a scrutiny,
and openly bid defiance to the Convention. Their power of meeting
together in their sections, on account of the appeal to the people, gave
them an opportunity of feeling their own strength, and encouraging each
other by speeches and applauses. They were further emboldened and
animated by men of literary talent, whose power was restored with the
liberty of the press.[73] Finally, they declared their sittings
permanent, and that they had the right to protect the liberties of
France. The greater part of the national guards were united on this
occasion against the existing government; and nothing less was talked
of, than that they should avail themselves of their arms and numbers,
march down to the Tuileries, and dictate law to the Convention with
their muskets, as the revolutionary mob of the suburbs used to do with
their pikes.
The Convention, unpopular themselves, and embarked in an unpopular
cause, began to look anxiously around for assistance. They chiefly
relied on the aid of about five thousand regular troops, who were
assembled in and around Paris. These declared for government with the
greater readiness, that the insurrection was of a character decidedly
aristocratical, and that the French armies, as already repeatedly
noticed, were attached to the Republic. But besides, these professional
troops entertained the usual degree of contempt for the national guards,
and on this account alone were quite ready to correct the insolence of
the _pekins_,[74] or _muscadins_,[75] who usurped the dress and
character of soldiers. The Convention had also the assistance of
several hundred artillerymen, who, since the taking of the Bastile, had
been always zealous democrats. Still apprehensive of the result, they
added to this force another of a more ominous description. It was a body
of volunteers, consisting of about fifteen hundred men, whom they chose
to denominate the Sacred Band, or the Patriots of 1789. They were
gleaned out of the suburbs, and from the jails, the remnants of the
insurrectional battalions which had formed the body-guard of Hébert and
Robespierre, and had been the instruments by which they executed their
atrocities. The Convention proclaimed them men of the 10th of
August--undoubtedly, they were also men of the massacres of September.
It was conceived that the beholding such a pack of blood-hounds, ready
to be let loose, might inspire horror into the citizens of Paris, to
whom their very aspect brought so many fearful recollections. It did so,
but it also inspired hatred; and the number and zeal of the citizens,
compensating for the fury of the Terrorists, and for the superior
discipline of the regular troops to be employed against them, promised
an arduous and doubtful conflict.
Much, it was obvious, must depend on the courage and conduct of the
leaders.
The sections employed, as their commander-in-chief, General Danican, an
old officer of no high reputation for military skill, but otherwise a
worthy and sincere man. The Convention at first made choice of Menou,
and directed him, supported by a strong military force, to march into
the section Le Pelletier, and disarm the national guards of that
district. This section is one of the most wealthy, and of course most
aristocratic, in Paris, being inhabited by bankers, merchants, the
wealthiest class of tradesmen, and the better orders in general. Its
inhabitants had formerly composed the battalion of national guards des
Filles Saint Thomas, the only one which, taking part in the defence of
the Tuileries, shared the fate of the Swiss Guards upon the memorable
10th of August. The section continued to entertain sentiments of the
same character, and when Menou appeared at the head of his forces,
accompanied by La Porte, a member of the Convention, he found the
citizens under arms, and exhibiting such a show of resistance, as
induced him, after a parley, to retreat without venturing an attack upon
them.
Menou's indecision showed that he was not a man suited to the times, and
he was suspended from his command by the Convention, and placed under
arrest. The general management of affairs and the direction of the
Conventional forces, was then committed to Barras; but the utmost
anxiety prevailed among the members of the committees by whom government
was administered, to find a general of nerve and decision enough to act
under Barras, in the actual command of the military force, in a service
so delicate, and times so menacing. It was then that a few words from
Barras, addressed to his colleagues, Carnot and Tallien, decided the
fate of Europe for wellnigh twenty years, "I have the man," he said,
"whom you want, a little Corsican officer, who will not stand upon
ceremony."[76]
The acquaintance of Barras and Buonaparte had been, as we have already
said, formed at the siege of Toulon, and the former had not forgotten
the inventive and decisive genius of the young officer to whom the
conquest of that city was to be ascribed. On the recommendation of
Barras, Buonaparte was sent for. He had witnessed the retreat of Menou,
and explained with much simplicity the causes of that check, and the
modes of resistance which ought to be adopted in case of the apprehended
attack. His explanations gave satisfaction. Buonaparte was placed at the
head of the Conventional forces, and took all the necessary precautions
to defend the same palace which he had seen attacked and carried by a
body of insurgents on the 10th of August. But he possessed far more
formidable means of defence than were in the power of the unfortunate
Louis. He had two hundred pieces of cannon, which his high military
skill enabled him to distribute to the utmost advantage. He had more
than five thousand regular forces, and about fifteen hundred volunteers.
He was thus enabled to defend the whole circuit of the Tuileries; to
establish posts in all the avenues by which it could be approached; to
possess himself of the bridges, so as to prevent co-operation between
the sections which lay on the opposite banks of the river; and finally,
to establish a strong reserve in the Place Louis Quinze, or, as it was
then called, Place de la Révolution. Buonaparte had only a few hours to
make all these arrangements, for he was named in place of Menou late on
the night before the conflict.
A merely civic army, having no cannon, (for the field-pieces, of which
each section possessed two, had been almost all given up to the
Convention after the disarming the suburb of Saint Antoine,) ought to
have respected so strong a position as the Tuileries, when so formidably
defended. Their policy should have been, as in the days of Henry II., to
have barricaded the streets at every point, and cooped up the
Conventional troops within the defensive position they had assumed, till
want of provisions obliged them to sally at disadvantage, or to
surrender. But a popular force is generally impatient of delay. The
retreat of Menou had given them spirit, and they apprehended, with some
show of reason, that the sections, if they did not unite their forces,
might be attacked and disarmed separately. They therefore resolved to
invest the Convention in a hostile manner, require of the members to
recall the obnoxious decrees, and allow the nation to make a free and
undictated election of its representatives.
On the thirteenth Vendemaire, corresponding to the 4th October, the
civil affray, commonly called the Day of the Sections, took place. The
national guards assembled, to the number of thirty thousand men and
upwards, but having no artillery. They advanced by different avenues, in
close columns, but everywhere found the most formidable resistance. One
large force occupied the quays on the left bank of the Seine,
threatening the palace from that side of the river. Another strong
division advanced on the Tuileries, through the Rue St. Honoré,
designing to debouche on the palace, where the Convention was sitting,
by the Rue de Echelle. They did so, without duly reflecting that they
were flanked on most points by strong posts in the lanes and crossings,
defended by artillery.
The contest began in the Rue St. Honoré. Buonaparte had established a
strong post with two guns at the cul-de-sac Dauphine, opposite to the
church of St. Roche. He permitted the imprudent Parisians to involve
their long and dense columns in the narrow street without interruption,
until they established a body of grenadiers in the front of the church,
and opposite to the position at the cul-de-sac. Each party, as usual,
throws on the other the blame of commencing the civil contest for which
both were prepared. But all agree the firing commenced with musketry. It
was instantly followed by discharges of grape-shot and cannister, which,
pointed as the guns were, upon thick columns of the national guards,
arranged on the quays and in the narrow streets, made an astounding
carnage. The national guards offered a brave resistance, and even
attempted to rush on the artillery, and carry the guns by main force.
But a measure which is desperate enough in the open field, becomes
impossible when the road to assault lies through narrow streets, which
are swept by the cannon at every discharge. The citizens were compelled
to give way. By a more judicious arrangement of their respective forces,
different results might have been hoped; but how could Danican, in any
circumstances have competed with Buonaparte? The affair, in which
several hundred men were killed and wounded, was terminated as a general
action in about an hour; and the victorious troops of the Convention,
marching into the different sections, completed the dispersion and
disarming of their opponents, an operation which lasted till late at
night.
The Convention used this victory with the moderation which recollection
of the Reign of Terror had inspired. Only two persons suffered death for
the Day of the Sections. One of them, La Fond, had been a garde de
corps, was distinguished for his intrepidity, and repeatedly rallied the
national guard under the storm of grape shot. Several other persons
having fled, were in their absence capitally condemned, but were not
strictly looked after; and deportation was the punishment inflicted upon
others. The accused were indebted for this clemency chiefly to the
interference of those members of the Convention, who, themselves exiled
on the 31st of May, had suffered persecution and learned mercy.
The Convention showed themselves at the same time liberal to their
protectors. General Berruyer,[77] who commanded the volunteers of 1789,
and other general officers employed on the Day of the Sections, were
loaded with praises and preferment. But a separate triumph was destined
to Buonaparte, as the hero of the day. Five days after the battle,
Barras solicited the attention of the Convention to the young officer,
by whose prompt and skilful dispositions the Tuileries had been
protected on the 13th Vendemaire, and proposed that they should approve
of General Buonaparte's appointment as second in command of the army of
the interior, Barras himself still remaining commander-in-chief. The
proposal was adopted by acclamation. The Convention retained their
resentment against Menou, whom they suspected of treachery; but
Buonaparte interfering as a mediator, they were content to look over his
offence.
After this decided triumph over their opponents, the Convention
ostensibly laid down their authority, and retiring from the scene in
their present character, appeared upon it anew in that of a Primary
Assembly, in order to make choice of such of their members as, by virtue
of the decrees of two-thirds, as they were called, were to remain on the
stage, as members of the Legislative Councils of Elders and Five
Hundred.
After this change of names and dresses, resembling the shifts of a
strolling company of players, the two-thirds of the old Convention, with
one-third of members newly elected, took upon them the administration of
the new constitution. The two re-elected thirds formed a large
proportion of the councils, and were, in some respects, much like those
unfortunate women, who, gathered from jails and from the streets of the
metropolis, have been sometimes sent out to foreign settlements; and,
however profligate their former lives may have been, often regain
character, and become tolerable members of society, in a change of scene
and situation.
[Sidenote: THE DIRECTORY.]
The Directory consisted of Barras, Siêyes, Reubel, Latourneur de la
Manche, and Reveillière-Lepaux, to the exclusion of Tallien, who was
deeply offended. Four of these directors were reformed Jacobins, or
Thermidoriens; the fifth, Reveillière-Lepaux, was esteemed a Girondist.
Siêyes, whose taste was rather for speculating in politics than acting
in them, declined what he considered a hazardous office, and was
replaced by Carnot.
The nature of the insurrection of the Sections was not ostensibly
royalist, but several of its leaders were of that party in secret, and,
if successful, it would most certainly have assumed that complexion.
Thus, the first step of Napoleon's rise commenced by the destruction of
the hopes of the House of Bourbon, under the reviving influence of
which, twenty years afterwards, he himself was obliged to succumb. But
the long path which closed so darkly, was now opening upon him in light
and joy. Buonaparte's high services, and the rank which he had obtained,
rendered him now a young man of the first hope and expectation, mingling
on terms of consideration among the rulers of the state, instead of
being regarded as a neglected stranger, supporting himself with
difficulty, and haunting public offices and bureaux in vain, to obtain
some chance of preferment, or even employment.
From second in command, the new general soon became general-in-chief of
the army of the interior, Barras having found his duties as a director
incompatible with those of military command. He employed his genius,
equally prompt and profound, in improving the state of the military
forces; and, in order to prevent the recurrence of such insurrections as
that of the 13th Vendemaire, or Day of the Sections, and as the many
others by which it was preceded, he appointed and organized a guard for
the protection of the representative body.
As the dearth of bread, and other causes of disaffection, continued to
produce commotions in Paris, the general of the interior was sometimes
obliged to oppose them with a military force. On one occasion, it is
said, that when Buonaparte was anxiously admonishing the multitude to
disperse, a very bulky woman exhorted them to keep their ground. "Never
mind these coxcombs with the epaulets," she said; "they do not care if
we are all starved, so they themselves feed and get fat."--"Look at me,
good woman," said Buonaparte, who was then as thin as a shadow, "and
tell me which is the fatter of us two." This turned the laugh against
the Amazon, and the rabble dispersed in good-humour.[78] If not among
the most distinguished of Napoleon's victories, this is certainly worthy
of record, as achieved at the least cost.
Meantime, circumstances, which we will relate, according to his own
statement, introduced Buonaparte to an acquaintance, which was destined
to have much influence on his future fate. A fine boy of ten or twelve
years old, presented himself at the levee of the general of the
interior, with a request of a nature unusually interesting. He stated
his name to be Eugene Beauharnais, son of the ci-devant Vicomte de
Beauharnais, who, adhering to the revolutionary party, had been a
general in the Republican service upon the Rhine, and falling under the
causeless suspicion of the Committee of Public Safety, was delivered to
the Revolutionary Tribunal, and fell by its sentence just four days
before the overthrow of Robespierre. Eugene was come to request of
Buonaparte, as general of the interior, that his father's sword might be
restored to him. The prayer of the young supplicant was as interesting
as his manners were engaging, and Napoleon felt so much interest in him,
that he was induced to cultivate the acquaintance of Eugene's mother,
afterwards the Empress Josephine.[79]
[Sidenote: JOSEPHINE BEAUHARNAIS.]
This lady was a Creolian, the daughter of a planter in St. Domingo. Her
name at full length was Marie-Joseph Rose Detacher de la Pagérie. She
had suffered her share of revolutionary miseries. After her husband,
General Beauharnais, had been deprived of his command, she was arrested
as a suspected person, and detained in prison till the general
liberation, which succeeded the revolution of 9th Thermidor. While in
confinement, Madame Beauharnais had formed an intimacy with a companion
in distress, Madame Fontenai, now Madame Tallien,[80] from which she
derived great advantages after her friend's marriage. With a remarkably
graceful person, amiable manners, and an inexhaustible fund of good
humour, Madame Beauharnais was formed to be an ornament to society.
Barras, the Thermidorien hero, himself an ex-noble, was fond of society,
desirous of enjoying it on an agreeable scale, and of washing away the
dregs which Jacobinism had mingled with all the dearest interests of
life. He loved show, too, and pleasure, and might now indulge both
without the risk of falling under the suspicion of incivism, which, in
the Reign of Terror, would have been incurred by any attempt to
intermingle elegance with the enjoyments of social intercourse. At the
apartments which he occupied as one of the directory, in the Luxemburg
palace, he gave its free course to his natural taste, and assembled an
agreeable society of both sexes. Madame Tallien and her friend formed
the soul of these assemblies, and it was supposed that Barras was not
insensible to the charms of Madame Beauharnais,--a rumour which was
likely to arise, whether with or without foundation.
When Madame Beauharnais and General Buonaparte became intimate, the
latter assures us, and we see no reason to doubt him, that although the
lady was two or three years older than himself,[81] yet being still in
the full bloom of beauty, and extremely agreeable in her manners, he was
induced, solely by her personal charms, to make her an offer of his
hand, heart, and fortunes,--little supposing, of course, to what a pitch
the latter were to arise.
Although he himself is said to have been a fatalist, believing in
destiny and in the influence of his star, he knew nothing, probably, of
the prediction of a negro sorceress, who, while Marie-Joseph was but a
child, prophesied she should rise to a dignity greater than that of a
queen, yet fall from it before her death.[82] This was one of those
vague auguries, delivered at random by fools or imposters, which the
caprice of Fortune sometimes matches with a corresponding and conforming
event. But without trusting to the African sibyl's prediction,
Buonaparte may have formed his match under the auspices of ambition as
well as love. The marrying Madame Beauharnais was a mean of uniting his
fortune with those of Barras and Tallien, the first of whom governed
France as one of the directors; and the last, from talents and political
connexions, had scarcely inferior influence. He had already deserved
well of them for his conduct on the Day of the Sections, but he required
their countenance to rise still higher; and without derogating from the
bride's merits, we may suppose her influence in their society
corresponded with the views of her lover. It is, however, certain, that
he always regarded her with peculiar affection; that he relied on her
fate, which he considered as linked with and strengthening his own; and
reposed, besides, considerable confidence in Josephine's tact and
address in political business. She had at all times the art of
mitigating his temper, and turning aside the hasty determinations of his
angry moments, not by directly opposing, but by gradually parrying and
disarming them. It must be added, to her great praise, that she was
always a willing, and often a successful advocate, in the cause of
humanity.
They were married 9th March 1796; and the dowery of the bride was the
chief command of the Italian armies, a scene which opened a full career
to the ambition of the youthful general. Buonaparte remained with his
wife only three days after his marriage, hastened to see his family, who
were still at Marseilles, and having enjoyed the pleasure of exhibiting
himself as a favourite of Fortune in the city which he had lately left
in a very subordinate capacity, proceeded rapidly to commence the career
to which Fate called him, by placing himself at the head of the Italian
army.[83]
FOOTNOTES:
[37] His lordship died the 7th of April, 1831.
[38] In 1797 created Baron Keith. He died in 1823.
[39] See _ante_, vol. i., p. 300.
[40] This letter appeared in the _Moniteur_, 10th December, 1793. But as
the town of Toulon was taken a few days afterwards, the Convention voted
the letter a fabrication.--S.--"This was unfair; for it was genuine, and
gave a just idea of the opinion that prevailed when it was written,
respecting the issue of the siege, and of the difficulties that
prevailed in Provence."--NAPOLEON, _Memoirs_, vol. i., p. 22.
[41] Las Cases, vol. i., p. 140.
[42] It was to Gasparin that Napoleon was indebted for the triumph of
his plan over the objections of the committees of the Convention. He
preserved a grateful recollection of this circumstance, as appears by
his will. It was Gasparin, he used to say, who had first opened his
career.--LAS CASES, vol. i., p. 144.
[43] Las Cases, vol. i., p. 147.
[44] Las Cases, vol. i., p. 154.
[45] Napoleon says six thousand.--GOURGAUD, tom. i., p. 17.
[46] Gourgaud, tom. i., p. 24.
[47] Jomini, tom. iv., p. 223; Toulongeon, tom. iv., p. 88; Napoleon's
Memoirs, vol. i., p. 25; Rivington's Annual Register, 1793, p. 415.
[48] Moniteur, 28th December.
[49] "Amongst those who chiefly distinguished themselves are the
citizens Buonaparte, commandant of the artillery, Arena, and
Gervoni."--DUGOMMIER _to the Minister of War_.
[50] Rivington's Annual Register, 1793, p. 415.
[51] James's Naval History, vol. i., p. 115; Thiers, tom. vi., p.
59.--"The total number borne away amounted to 14,877."--_Mémoires de
Joubert_, p. 75.
[52] Mr. Graham of Balgowan, now Lord Lynedoch. He marched out on one of
the sorties, and when the affair became hot, seized the musket and
cartouch-box of a fallen soldier, and afforded such an example to the
troops, as contributed greatly to their gaining the object desired.--S.
[53] Jomini, tom. iv., p. 226; Lacretelle, tom. xi., p. 189.
[54] Montholon, tom. iii., p. 13; Jomini, tom. iv., p. 226; Las Cases,
vol. i., p. 153.
[55] Las Cases, vol. i., p. 152.
[56] "Dugommier wrote to the Committee of Public Safety, soliciting the
rank of brigadier-general for him, and concluded with these words,
'Reward this young man, and promote him, for should he be ungratefully
treated, he will promote himself.'"--NAPOLEON, _Montholon_, tom. iii.,
p. 15.
Dugommier was killed on the following November, by the bursting of a
field-piece. Napoleon bequeathed to his descendant 100,000 francs, "as a
testimonial of gratitude for the esteem, affection, and friendship of
that brave and intrepid general."
[57] Gourgaud, tom. i., p. 30.
[58] An Englishman will probably remember the sublime passage in "The
Mariners of England:"--
"Britannia needs no bulwark,
No towers along the steep;
Her march is on the mountain-wave,
Her home is on the deep."
[59] "Brunet being unjustly accused of favouring the insurrection at
Marseilles, was delivered up to the Revolutionary Tribunal at Paris, and
perished on the scaffold."--NAPOLEON, _Montholon_, tom. iii., p. 21.
[60] "An old and brave officer. His military knowledge was considerable,
but he was confined to his bed by the gout half his time."--NAPOLEON,
_Gourgaud_, tom. i., p. 42.
"Happily, he allowed himself to be directed entirely by the young
Buonaparte."--THIERS, tom. vi., p. 288.
[61] Gourgaud, tom. i., p. 42.
[62] Jomini, tom. v., p. 204; Thiers, tom. vi., p. 283; Montholon, tom.
iii., p. 30; Botta, tom. i., p. 190. General Dumerbion, in his despatch
to the government, describing his successes, says, "It is to the talent
of General Buonaparte that I am indebted for the skilful plans which
have assured our victory."
[63] Gourgaud, tom. i., p. 48.
[64] General Tilly. See _Nouvelle Biog. de Bruxelles_, 1822.
[65] "In the despatch of Salicetti and Albitte to the Government, dated
24th August, they declare, that there existed no foundation for the
charges made against him."--JOMINI, tom. vi., p. 114; _Bourrienne et ses
Erreurs_, tom. i., p. 27.
[66] Montholon, tom. iii., p. 50; Las Cases, vol. i., p. 155; Louis
Buonaparte, p. 14.
[67] Buonaparte is represented by some writers as having at this period
found his situation extremely embarrassing, even as regarded pecuniary
means, in the capital of which he was at no distant period to be the
ruler. Among others who are said to have assisted him was the celebrated
actor Talma; and such may have been the case; but the story of Talma's
having been acquainted with Napoleon at the Academy of Brienne, and at
that early period predicting the greatness of "_le petit Buonaparte_,"
has been expressly contradicted by Louis, the ex-King of Holland, who
was at this epoch in Paris along with his brother.
[68] See _ante_, vol. i., p. 164.
[69] The Memoirs published under the name of Fouché make this assertion.
But although that work shows great intimacy with the secret history of
the times, it is not to be implicitly relied upon.--S.
[70] "Peut-être un jour, on vous nommerait un Bourbon."--THIERS, tom.
viii., p. 10.
[71] "Its authors were Lesage, Daunou, Boissy d'Anglas,
Creuzée-Latouche, Berlier, Louvet, Lareveillèire-Lepaux, Languinais,
Durand-Maillanne, Baudin des Ardennes, and Thibaudeau."--THIERS, tom.
viii., p. 9.
[72] Thiers, tom. viii., p. 13.
[73] "La Harpe, Lacretelle, jun., Suard, Morellet, Vaublanc, Pastoret,
Dupont de Nemours, Quatremère de Quincy, Delalot, Marchenna, and General
Miranda, all either published pamphlets or made speeches in the
sections."--THIERS, tom. viii., p. 15.
[74] _Pekins_, a word of contempt, by which the soldiers distinguished
those who did not belong to their profession.--S.
[75] _Muscadins_, fops--a phrase applied to the better class of
_Sans-Culottes_.--S.
[76] "For several months, Napoleon, not being actively employed,
laboured in the military committee, and was well acquainted with Carnot
and Tallien, whom he saw daily. How, then, could Barras make them the
proposal attributed to him?"--LOUIS BUONAPARTE, p. 17.
[77] In 1796, the Directory appointed Berruyer commander of the Hôpital
des Invalides, which situation he held till his death, in 1804.
[78] Las Cases, tom. i., p. 161.
[79] Montholon, tom. iii., p. 82.
[80] See vol. i., p. 355.
[81] Buonaparte was then in his twenty-sixth year. Josephine gave
herself in the marriage contract for twenty-eight.--S.
[82] A lady of high rank, who happened to live for some time in the same
convent at Paris, where Josephine was also a pensioner or boarder, heard
her mention the prophecy, and told it herself to the author, just about
the time of the Italian expedition, when Buonaparte was beginning to
attract notice. Another clause is usually added to the prediction--that
the party whom it concerned should die in an hospital, which was
afterwards explained as referring to Malmaison. This the author did not
hear from the same authority. The lady mentioned used to speak in the
highest terms of the simple manners and great kindness of Madame
Beauharnais.--S.
[83] "It was I who proposed Buonaparte for the command of the army of
Italy, not Barras."--CARNOT, _Réponse à Bailleul_.
"Napoleon owed the appointment to the command of the army of Italy to
his signal services under Dumerbion."--JOMINI, tom. viii., p. 49.