Produced by David Widger
THE PROJECT GUTENBERG MEMOIRS OF NAPLEON
By BOURRIENNE, CONSTANT and STEWARTON
1.
MEMOIRS OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE
By LOUIS ANTOINE FAUVELET DE BOURRIENNE
His Private Secretary
Edited by R. W. Phipps
Colonel, Late Royal Artillery
2.
RECOLLECTIONS OF THE PRIVATE LIFE OF NAPOLEON, Complete
By CONSTANT
PREMIER VALET DE CHAMBRE
TRANSLATED BY WALTER CLARK
3.
MEMOIRS OF THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD
BY STEWARTON
BEING SECRET LETTERS FROM A GENTLEMAN AT PARIS TO A NOBLEMAN IN LONDON
MEMOIRS OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE
By LOUIS ANTOINE FAUVELET DE BOURRIENNE
His Private Secretary
Edited by R. W. Phipps
Colonel, Late Royal Artillery
1891
PREFACE
BY THE EDITORS OF THE 1836 EDITION.
In introducing the present edition of M. de Bourrienne's Memoirs to the
public we are bound, as Editors, to say a few Words on the subject.
Agreeing, however, with Horace Walpole that an editor should not dwell
for any length of time on the merits of his author, we shall touch but
lightly on this part of the matter. We are the more ready to abstain
since the great success in England of the former editions of these
Memoirs, and the high reputation they have acquired on the European
Continent, and in every part of the civilised world where the fame of
Bonaparte has ever reached, sufficiently establish the merits of M. de
Bourrienne as a biographer. These merits seem to us to consist chiefly
in an anxious desire to be impartial, to point out the defects as well as
the merits of a most wonderful man; and in a peculiarly graphic power of
relating facts and anecdotes. With this happy faculty Bourrienne would
have made the life of almost any active individual interesting; but the
subject of which the most favourable circumstances permitted him to treat
was full of events and of the most extraordinary facts. The hero of his
story was such a being as the world has produced only on the rarest
occasions, and the complete counterpart to whom has, probably, never
existed; for there are broad shades of difference between Napoleon and
Alexander, Caesar, and Charlemagne; neither will modern history furnish
more exact parallels, since Gustavus Adolphus, Frederick the Great,
Cromwell, Washington, or Bolivar bear but a small resemblance to
Bonaparte either in character, fortune, or extent of enterprise. For
fourteen years, to say nothing of his projects in the East, the history
of Bonaparte was the history of all Europe!
With the copious materials he possessed, M. de Bourrienne has produced a
work which, for deep interest, excitement, and amusement, can scarcely be
paralleled by any of the numerous and excellent memoirs for which the
literature of France is so justly celebrated.
M. de Bourrienne shows us the hero of Marengo and Austerlitz in his
night-gown and slippers--with a 'trait de plume' he, in a hundred
instances, places the real man before us, with all his personal habits
and peculiarities of manner, temper, and conversation.
The friendship between Bonaparte and Bourrienne began in boyhood, at the
school of Brienne, and their unreserved intimacy continued during the
most brilliant part of Napoleon's career. We have said enough, the
motives for his writing this work and his competency for the task will be
best explained in M. de Bourrienne's own words, which the reader will
find in the Introductory Chapter.
M. de Bourrienne says little of Napoleon after his first abdication and
retirement to Elba in 1814: we have endeavoured to fill up the chasm thus
left by following his hero through the remaining seven years of his life,
to the "last scenes of all" that ended his "strange, eventful
history,"--to his deathbed and alien grave at St. Helena. A completeness
will thus be given to the work which it did not before possess, and
which we hope will, with the other additions and improvements already
alluded to, tend to give it a place in every well-selected library, as
one of the most satisfactory of all the lives of Napoleon.
LONDON, 1836.
PREFACE
BY THE EDITOR OF THE 1885 EDITION.
The Memoirs of the time of Napoleon may be divided into two
classes--those by marshals and officers, of which Suchet's is a good
example, chiefly devoted to military movements, and those by persons
employed in the administration and in the Court, giving us not only
materials for history, but also valuable details of the personal and
inner life of the great Emperor and of his immediate surroundings. Of
this latter class the Memoirs of Bourrienne are among the most
important.
Long the intimate and personal friend of Napoleon both at school and from
the end of the Italian campaigns in 1797 till 1802--working in the same
room with him, using the same purse, the confidant of most of his
schemes, and, as his secretary, having the largest part of all the
official and private correspondence of the time passed through his hands,
Bourrienne occupied an invaluable position for storing and recording
materials for history. The Memoirs of his successor, Meneval, are more
those of an esteemed private secretary; yet, valuable and interesting as
they are, they want the peculiarity of position which marks those of
Bourrienne, who was a compound of secretary, minister, and friend. The
accounts of such men as Miot de Melito, Raederer, etc., are most
valuable, but these writers were not in that close contact with Napoleon
enjoyed by Bourrienne. Bourrienne's position was simply unique, and we
can only regret that he did not occupy it till the end of the Empire.
Thus it is natural that his Memoirs should have been largely used by
historians, and to properly understand the history of the time, they must
be read by all students. They are indeed full of interest for every one.
But they also require to be read with great caution. When we meet with
praise of Napoleon, we may generally believe it, for, as Thiers
(Consulat., ii. 279) says, Bourrienne need be little suspected on this
side, for although be owed everything to Napoleon, he has not seemed to
remember it. But very often in passages in which blame is thrown on
Napoleon, Bourrienne speaks, partly with much of the natural bitterness
of a former and discarded friend, and partly with the curious mixed
feeling which even the brothers of Napoleon display in their Memoirs,
pride in the wonderful abilities evinced by the man with whom he was
allied, and jealousy at the way in which he was outshone by the man he
had in youth regarded as inferior to himself. Sometimes also we may even
suspect the praise. Thus when Bourrienne defends Napoleon for giving, as
he alleges, poison to the sick at Jaffa, a doubt arises whether his
object was to really defend what to most Englishmen of this day, with
remembrances of the deeds and resolutions of the Indian Mutiny, will seem
an act to be pardoned, if not approved; or whether he was more anxious to
fix the committal of the act on Napoleon at a time when public opinion
loudly blamed it. The same may be said of his defence of the massacre of
the prisoners of Jaffa.
Louis Antoine Fauvelet de Bourrienne was born in 1769, that is, in the
same year as Napoleon Bonaparte, and he was the friend and companion of
the future Emperor at the military school of Brienne-le-Chateau till
1784, when Napoleon, one of the sixty pupils maintained at the expense of
the State, was passed on to the Military School of Paris. The friends
again met in 1792 and in 1795, when Napoleon was hanging about Paris, and
when Bourrienne looked on the vague dreams of his old schoolmate as only
so much folly. In 1796, as soon as Napoleon had assured his position at
the head of the army of Italy, anxious as ever to surround himself with
known faces, he sent for Bourrienne to be his secretary. Bourrienne had
been appointed in 1792 as secretary of the Legation at Stuttgart, and
had, probably wisely, disobeyed the orders given him to return, thus
escaping the dangers of the Revolution. He only came back to Paris in
1795, having thus become an emigre. He joined Napoleon in 1797, after the
Austrians had been beaten out of Italy, and at once assumed the office of
secretary which he held for so long. He had sufficient tact to forbear
treating the haughty young General with any assumption of familiarity in
public, and he was indefatigable enough to please even the never-resting
Napoleon. Talent Bourrienne had in abundance; indeed he is careful to
hint that at school if any one had been asked to predict greatness for
any pupil, it was Bourrienne, not Napoleon, who would have been fixed on
as the future star. He went with his General to Egypt, and returned with
him to France. While Napoleon was making his formal entry into the
Tuileries, Bourrienne was preparing the cabinet he was still to share
with the Consul. In this cabinet--our cabinet, as he is careful to call
it--he worked with the First Consul till 1802.
During all this time the pair lead lived on terms of equality and
friendship creditable to both. The secretary neither asked for nor
received any salary: when he required money, he simply dipped into the
cash-box of the First Consul. As the whole power of the State gradually
passed into the hands of the Consul, the labours of the secretary became
heavier. His successor broke down under a lighter load, and had to
receive assistance; but, perhaps borne up by the absorbing interest of
the work and the great influence given by his post, Bourrienne stuck to
his place, and to all appearance might, except for himself, have come
down to us as the companion of Napoleon during his whole life. He had
enemies, and one of them--[Boulay de la Meurthe.]--has not shrunk from
describing their gratification at the disgrace of the trusted secretary.
Any one in favour, or indeed in office, under Napoleon was the sure mark
of calumny for all aspirants to place; yet Bourrienne might have
weathered any temporary storm raised by unfounded reports as successfully
as Meneval, who followed him. But Bourrienne's hands were not clean in
money matters, and that was an unpardonable sin in any one who desired to
be in real intimacy with Napoleon. He became involved in the affairs of
the House of Coulon, which failed, as will be seen in the notes, at the
time of his disgrace; and in October 1802 he was called on to hand over
his office to Meneval, who retained it till invalided after the Russian
campaign.
As has been said, Bourrienne would naturally be the mark for many
accusations, but the conclusive proof of his misconduct--at least for any
one acquainted with Napoleon's objection and dislike to changes in
office, whether from his strong belief in the effects of training, or his
equally strong dislike of new faces round him--is that he was never again
employed near his old comrade; indeed he really never saw the Emperor
again at any private interview, except when granted the naval official
reception in 1805, before leaving to take up his post at Hamburg, which
he held till 1810. We know that his re-employment was urged by Josephine
and several of his former companions. Savary himself says he tried his
advocacy; but Napoleon was inexorable to those who, in his own phrase,
had sacrificed to the golden calf.
Sent, as we have said, to Hamburg in 1805, as Minister Plenipotentiary to
the Duke of Brunswick, the Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, and to the Hanse
towns, Bourrienne knew how to make his post an important one. He was at
one of the great seats of the commerce which suffered so fearfully from
the Continental system of the Emperor, and he was charged to watch over
the German press. How well he fulfilled this duty we learn from
Metternich, who writes in 1805: "I have sent an article to the newspaper
editors in Berlin and to M. de Hofer at Hamburg. I do not know whether
it has been accepted, for M. Bourrienne still exercises an authority so
severe over these journals that they are always submitted to him before
they appear, that he may erase or alter the articles which do not please
him."
His position at Hamburg gave him great opportunities for both financial
and political intrigues. In his Memoirs, as Meneval remarks, he or his
editor is not ashamed to boast of being thanked by Louis XVIII. at St.
Ouen for services rendered while he was the minister of Napoleon at
Hamburg. He was recalled in 1810, when the Hanse towns were united, or,
to use the phrase of the day, re-united to the Empire. He then hung
about Paris, keeping on good terms with some of the ministers--Savary,
not the most reputable of them, for example. In 1814 he was to be found
at the office of Lavallette, the head of the posts, disguising, his
enemies said, his delight at the bad news which was pouring in, by
exaggerated expressions of devotion. He is accused of a close and
suspicious connection with Talleyrand, and it is odd that when Talleyrand
became head of the Provisional Government in 1814, Bourrienne of all
persons should have been put at the head of the posts. Received in the
most flattering manner by Louis XVIII, he was as astonished as poor
Beugnot was in 1815, to find himself on 13th May suddenly ejected from
office, having, however, had time to furnish post-horses to Manbreuil for
the mysterious expedition, said to have been at least known to
Talleyrand, and intended certainly for the robbery of the Queen of
Westphalia, and probably for the murder of Napoleon.
In the extraordinary scurry before the Bourbons scuttled out of Paris in
1814, Bourrienne was made Prefet of the Police for a few days, his tenure
of that post being signalised by the abortive attempt to arrest Fouche,
the only effect of which was to drive that wily minister into the arms of
the Bonapartists.
He fled with the King, and was exempted from the amnesty proclaimed by
Napoleon. On the return from Ghent he was made a Minister of State
without portfolio, and also became one of the Council. The ruin of his
finances drove him out of France, but he eventually died in a madhouse at
Caen.
When the Memoirs first appeared in 1829 they made a great sensation.
Till then in most writings Napoleon had been treated as either a demon or
as a demi-god. The real facts of the case were not suited to the tastes
of either his enemies or his admirers. While the monarchs of Europe had
been disputing among themselves about the division of the spoils to be
obtained from France and from the unsettlement of the Continent, there
had arisen an extraordinarily clever and unscrupulous man who, by
alternately bribing and overthrowing the great monarchies, had soon made
himself master of the mainland. His admirers were unwilling to admit the
part played in his success by the jealousy of his foes of each other's
share in the booty, and they delighted to invest him with every great
quality which man could possess. His enemies were ready enough to allow
his military talents, but they wished to attribute the first success of
his not very deep policy to a marvellous duplicity, apparently considered
by them the more wicked as possessed by a parvenu emperor, and far
removed, in a moral point of view, from the statecraft so allowable in an
ancient monarchy. But for Napoleon himself and his family and Court
there was literally no limit to the really marvellous inventions of his
enemies. He might enter every capital on the Continent, but there was
some consolation in believing that he himself was a monster of
wickedness, and his Court but the scene of one long protracted orgie.
There was enough against the Emperor in the Memoirs to make them
comfortable reading for his opponents, though very many of the old
calumnies were disposed of in them. They contained indeed the nearest
approximation to the truth which had yet appeared. Metternich, who must
have been a good judge, as no man was better acquainted with what he
himself calls the "age of Napoleon," says of the Memoirs: "If you want
something to read, both interesting and amusing, get the Memoires de
Bourrienne. These are the only authentic Memoirs of Napoleon which have
yet appeared. The style is not brilliant, but that only makes them the
mere trustworthy." Indeed, Metternich himself in his own Memoirs often
follows a good deal in the line of Bourrienne: among many formal attacks,
every now and then he lapses into half involuntary and indirect praise of
his great antagonist, especially where he compares the men he had to deal
with in aftertimes with his former rapid and talented interlocutor. To
some even among the Bonapartists, Bourrienne was not altogether
distasteful. Lucien Bonaparte, remarking that the time in which
Bourrienne treated with Napoleon as equal with equal did not last long
enough for the secretary, says he has taken a little revenge in his
Memoirs, just as a lover, after a break with his mistress, reveals all
her defects. But Lucien considers that Bourrienne gives us a good enough
idea of the young officer of the artillery, of the great General, and of
the First Consul. Of the Emperor, says Lucien, he was too much in
retirement to be able to judge equally well. But Lucien was not a fair
representative of the Bonapartists; indeed he had never really thought
well of his brother or of his actions since Lucien, the former "Brutus"
Bonaparte, had ceased to be the adviser of the Consul. It was well for
Lucien himself to amass a fortune from the presents of a corrupt court,
and to be made a Prince and Duke by the Pope, but he was too sincere a
republican not to disapprove of the imperial system. The real
Bonapartists were naturally and inevitably furious with the Memoirs.
They were not true, they were not the work of Bourrienne, Bourrienne
himself was a traitor, a purloiner of manuscripts, his memory was as bad
as his principles, he was not even entitled to the de before his name.
If the Memoirs were at all to be pardoned, it was because his share was
only really a few notes wrung from him by large pecuniary offers at a
time when he was pursued by his creditors, and when his brain was already
affected.
The Bonapartist attack on the Memoirs was delivered in full form, in two
volumes, 'Bourrienne et ses Erreurs, Volontaires et Involontaires'
(Paris, Heideloff, 1830), edited by the Comte d'Aure, the Ordonnateur en
Chef of the Egyptian expedition, and containing communications from
Joseph Bonaparte, Gourgaud, Stein, etc.'
--[In the notes in this present edition these volumes are referred
to in brief 'Erreurs'.]--
Part of the system of attack was to call in question the authenticity of
the Memoirs, and this was the more easy as Bourrienne, losing his
fortune, died in 1834 in a state of imbecility. But this plan is not
systematically followed, and the very reproaches addressed to the writer
of the Memoirs often show that it was believed they were really written
by Bourrienne. They undoubtedly contain plenty of faults. The editor
(Villemarest, it is said) probably had a large share in the work, and
Bourrienne must have forgotten or misplaced many dates and occurrences.
In such a work, undertaken so many years after the events, it was
inevitable that many errors should be made, and that many statements
should be at least debatable. But on close investigation the work stands
the attack in a way that would be impossible unless it had really been
written by a person in the peculiar position occupied by Bourrienne. He
has assuredly not exaggerated that position: he really, says Lucien
Bonaparte, treated as equal with equal with Napoleon during a part of his
career, and he certainly was the nearest friend and confidant that
Napoleon ever had in his life.
Where he fails, or where the Bonapartist fire is most telling, is in the
account of the Egyptian expedition. It may seem odd that he should have
forgotten, even in some thirty years, details such as the way in which
the sick were removed; but such matters were not in his province; and it
would be easy to match similar omissions in other works, such as the
accounts of the Crimea, and still more of the Peninsula. It is with his
personal relations with Napoleon that we are most concerned, and it is in
them that his account receives most corroboration.
It may be interesting to see what has been said of the Memoirs by other
writers. We have quoted Metternich, and Lucien Bonaparte; let us hear
Meneval, his successor, who remained faithful to his master to the end:
"Absolute confidence cannot be given to statements contained in Memoirs
published under the name of a man who has not composed them. It is known
that the editor of these Memoirs offered to M. de Bourrienne, who had
then taken refuge in Holstein from his creditors, a sum said to be thirty
thousand francs to obtain his signature to them, with some notes and
addenda. M. de Bourrienne was already attacked by the disease from which
he died a few years latter in a maison de sante at Caen. Many literary
men co-operated in the preparation of his Memoirs. In 1825 I met M. de
Bourrienne in Paris. He told me it had been suggested to him to write
against the Emperor. 'Notwithstanding the harm he has done me,' said he,
'I would never do so. Sooner may my hand be withered.' If M. de
Bourrienne had prepared his Memoirs himself, he would not have stated
that while he was the Emperor's minister at Hamburg he worked with the
agents of the Comte de Lille (Louis XVIII.) at the preparation of
proclamations in favour of that Prince, and that in 1814 he accepted the
thanks of the King, Louis XVIII., for doing so; he would not have said
that Napoleon had confided to him in 1805 that he had never conceived the
idea of an expedition into England, and that the plan of a landing, the
preparations for which he gave such publicity to, was only a snare to
amuse fools. The Emperor well knew that never was there a plan more
seriously conceived or more positively settled. M. de Bourrienne would
not have spoken of his private interviews with Napoleon, nor of the
alleged confidences entrusted to him, while really Napoleon had no longer
received him after the 20th October 1802. When the Emperor, in 1805,
forgetting his faults, named him Minister Plenipotentiary at Hamburg, he
granted him the customary audience, but to this favour he did not add the
return of his former friendship. Both before and afterwards he
constantly refused to receive him, and he did not correspond with him."
(Meneval, ii. 378-79). And in another passage Meneval says: "Besides,
it would be wrong to regard these Memoirs as the work of the man whose
name they bear. The bitter resentment M. de Bourrienne had nourished for
his disgrace, the enfeeblement of his faculties, and the poverty he was
reduced to, rendered him accessible to the pecuniary offers made to him.
He consented to give the authority of his name to Memoirs in whose
composition he had only co-operated by incomplete, confused, and often
inexact notes, materials which an editor was employed to put in order."
And Meneval (iii. 29-30) goes on to quote what he himself had written in
the Spectateur Militaire, in which he makes much the same assertions, and
especially objects to the account of conversations with the Emperor after
1802, except always the one audience on taking leave for Hamburg.
Meneval also says that Napoleon, when he wished to obtain intelligence
from Hamburg, did not correspond with Bourrienne, but deputed him,
Meneval, to ask Bourrienne for what was wanted. But he corroborates
Bourrienne on the subject of the efforts made, among others by Josephine,
for his reappointment.
Such are the statements of the Bonaparists pure; and the reader, as has
been said, can judge for himself how far the attack is good. Bourrienne,
or his editor, may well have confused the date of his interviews, but he
will not be found much astray on many points. His account of the
conversation of Josephine after the death of the Due d'Enghien may be
compared with what we know from Madame de Remusat, who, by the way, would
have been horrified if she had known that he considered her to resemble
the Empress Josephine in character.
We now come to the views of Savary, the Due de Rovigo, who avowedly
remained on good terms with Bourrienne after his disgrace, though the
friendship of Savary was not exactly a thing that most men would have
much prided themselves on. "Bourrienne had a prodigious memory; he spoke
and wrote in several languages, and his pen ran as quickly as one could
speak. Nor were these the only advantages he possessed. He knew the
routine of public business and public law. His activity and devotion
made him indispensable to the First Consul. I knew the qualities which
won for him the unlimited confidence of his chief, but I cannot speak
with the same assurance of the faults which made him lose it. Bourrienne
had many enemies, both on account of his character and of his place"
(Savary, i. 418-19).
Marmont ought to be an impartial critic of the Memoirs. He says,
"Bourrienne . . . had a very great capacity, but he is a striking
example of the great truth that our passions are always bad counsellors.
By inspiring us with an immoderate ardour to reach a fixed end, they
often make us miss it. Bourrienne had an immoderate love of money. With
his talents and his position near Bonaparte at the first dawn of
greatness, with the confidence and real good-will which Bonaparte felt
for him, in a few years he would have gained everything in fortune and in
social position. But his eager impatience mined his career at the moment
when it might have developed and increased" (Marmont, i. 64). The
criticism appears just. As to the Memoirs, Marmont says (ii. 224), "In
general, these Memoirs are of great veracity and powerful interest so
long as they treat of what the author has seen and heard; but when he
speaks of others, his work is only an assemblage of gratuitous
suppositions and of false facts put forward for special purposes."
The Comte Alexandre de Puymaigre, who arrived at Hamburgh soon after
Bourrienne had left it in 1810, says (page 135) of the part of the
Memoirs which relates to Hamburg, "I must acknowledge that generally his
assertions are well founded. This former companion of Napoleon has only
forgotten to speak of the opinion that they had of him in this town.
"The truth is, that he was believed to have made much money there."
Thus we may take Bourrienne as a clever, able man, who would have risen
to the highest honours under the Empire had not his short-sighted
grasping after lucre driven him from office, and prevented him from ever
regaining it under Napoleon.
In the present edition the translation has been carefully compared with
the original French text. Where in the original text information is
given which has now become mere matter of history, and where Bourrienne
merely quotes the documents well enough known at this day, his possession
of which forms part of the charges of his opponents, advantage has been
taken to lighten the mass of the Memoirs. This has been done especially
where they deal with what the writer did not himself see or hear, the
part of the Memoirs which are of least valve and of which Marmont's
opinion has just been quoted. But in the personal and more valuable part
of the Memoirs, where we have the actual knowledge of the secretary
himself, the original text has been either fully retained, or some few
passages previously omitted restored. Illustrative notes have been added
from the Memoirs of the successor of Bourrienne, Meneval, Madame de
Remusat, the works of Colonel Iung on 'Bonaparte et Son Temps', and on
'Lucien Bonaparte', etc., and other books. Attention has also been paid
to the attacks of the 'Erreurs', and wherever these criticisms are more
than a mere expression of disagreement, their purport has been recorded
with, where possible, some judgment of the evidence. Thus the reader
will have before him the materials for deciding himself how far,
Bourrienne's statements are in agreement with the facts and with the
accounts of other writers.
At the present time too much attention has been paid to the Memoirs of
Madame de Remusat. She, as also Madame Junot, was the wife of a man on
whom the full shower of imperial favours did not descend, and, womanlike,
she saw and thought only of the Court life of the great man who was never
less great than in his Court. She is equally astonished and indignant
that the Emperor, coming straight from long hours of work with his
ministers and with his secretary, could not find soft words for the
ladies of the Court, and that, a horrible thing in the eyes of a
Frenchwoman, when a mistress threw herself into his arms, he first
thought of what political knowledge he could obtain from her.
Bourrienne, on the other hand, shows us the other and the really
important side of Napoleon's character. He tells us of the long hours in
the Cabinet, of the never-resting activity of the Consul, of Napoleon's
dreams, no ignoble dreams and often realised, of great labours of peace
as well as of war. He is a witness, and the more valuable as a reluctant
one, to the marvellous powers of the man who, if not the greatest, was at
least the one most fully endowed with every great quality of mind and
body the world has ever seen.
R. W. P.
AUTHOR'S INTRODUCTION.
The trading upon an illustrious name can alone have given birth to the
multitude of publications under the titles of historical memoirs, secret
memoirs, and other rhapsodies which have appeared respecting Napoleon.
On looking into them it is difficult to determine whether the impudence
of the writers or the simplicity of certain readers is most astonishing.
Yet these rude and ill digested compilations, filled with absurd
anecdotes, fabricated speeches, fictitious crimes or virtues, and
disfigured by numerous anachronisms, instead of being consigned to just
contempt and speedy oblivion, have been pushed into notice by
speculators, and have found zealous partisans and enthusiastic
apologists.
--[This Introduction has been reprinted as bearing upon the
character of the work, but refers very often to events of the
day at the time of its first appearance.]--
For a time I entertained the idea of noticing, one by one, the numerous
errors which have been written respecting Napoleon; but I have renounced
a task which would have been too laborious to myself, and very tedious to
the reader. I shall therefore only correct those which come within the
plan of my work, and which are connected with those facts, to a more
accurate knowledge of which than any other person can possess I may lay
claim. There are men who imagine that nothing done by Napoleon will ever
be forgotten; but must not the slow but inevitable influence of time be
expected to operate with respect to him? The effect of that influence
is, that the most important event of an epoch soon sinks, almost
imperceptibly and almost disregarded, into the immense mass of historical
facts. Time, in its progress, diminishes the probability as well as the
interest of such an event, as it gradually wears away the most durable
monuments.
I attach only a relative importance to what I am about to lay before the
public. I shall give authentic documents. If all persons who have
approached Napoleon, at any time and in any place, would candidly record
what they saw and heard, without passion, the future historian would be
rich in materials. It is my wish that he who may undertake the difficult
task of writing the history of Napoleon shall find in my notes
information useful to the perfection of his work. There he will at least
find truth. I have not the ambition to wish that what I state should be
taken as absolute authority; but I hope that it will always be consulted.
I have never before published anything respecting Napoleon. That
malevolence which fastens itself upon men who have the misfortune to be
somewhat separated from the crowd has, because there is always more
profit in saying ill than good, attributed to me several works on
Bonaparte; among others, 'Les Memoires secrets d'un Homnae qui ne l'a pas
quitte', par M. B-------, and 'Memoires secrets sur Napoleon Bonaparte,
par M. de B------, and 'Le Precis Historique sur Napoleon'. The initial
of my name has served to propagate this error. The incredible ignorance
which runs through those memoirs, the absurdities and inconceivable
silliness with which they abound, do not permit a man of honour and
common sense to allow such wretched rhapsodies to be imputed to him. I
declared in 1816, and at later periods in the French
and foreign journals, that I had no hand in those publications, and I
here formally repeat this declaration.
But it may be said to me, Why should we place more confidence in you than
in those who have written before you?
My reply shall be plain. I enter the lists one of the last I have read
all that my predecessors have published confident that all I state is
true. I have no interest in deceiving, no disgrace to fear, no reward to
expect. I ether wish to obscure nor embellish his glory. However great
Napoleon may have been, was he not also liable to pay his tribute to the
weakness of human nature? I speak of Napoleon such as I have seen him,
known him, frequently admired and sometimes blamed him. I state what I
saw, heard, wrote, and thought at the time, under each circumstance that
occurred. I have not allowed myself to be carried away by the illusions
of the imagination, nor to be influenced by friendship or hatred. I
shall not insert a single reflection which did not occur to me at the
very moment of the event which gave it birth. How many transactions and
documents were there over which I could but lament!--how many measures,
contrary to my views, to my principles, and to my character!--while the
best intentions were incapable of overcoming difficulties which a most
powerful and decided will rendered almost insurmountable.
I also wish the future historian to compare what I say with what others
have related or may relate. But it will be necessary for him to attend
to dates, circumstances, difference of situation, change of temperament,
and age,--for age has much influence over men. We do not think and act
at fifty as at twenty-five. By exercising this caution he will be able
to discover the truth, and to establish an opinion for posterity.
The reader must not expect to find in these Memoirs an uninterrupted
series of all the events which marked the great career of Napoleon; nor
details of all those battles, with the recital of which so many eminent
men have usefully and ably occupied themselves. I shall say little about
whatever I did not see or hear, and which is not supported by official
documents.
Perhaps I shall succeed in confirming truths which have been doubted, and
in correcting errors which have been adopted. If I sometimes differ from
the observations and statements of Napoleon at St. Helena, I am far from
supposing that those who undertook to be the medium of communication
between him and the public have misrepresented what he said. I am well
convinced that none of the writers of St. Helena can be taxed with the
slightest deception; disinterested zeal and nobleness of character are
undoubted pledges of their veracity. It appears to me perfectly certain
that Napoleon stated, dictated, or corrected all they have published.
Their honour is unquestionable; no one can doubt it. That they wrote
what he communicated must therefore be believed; but it cannot with equal
confidence be credited that what he communicated was nothing but the
truth. He seems often to have related as a fact what was really only an
idea,--an idea, too, brought forth at St. Helena, the child of
misfortune, and transported by his imagination to Europe in the time of
his prosperity. His favourite phrase, which was every moment on his
lips, must not be forgotten--"What will history say--what will posterity
think?" This passion for leaving behind him a celebrated name is one
which helongs to the constitution of the human mind; and with Napoleon
its influence was excessive. In his first Italian campaign he wrote thus
to General Clarke: "That ambition and the occupation of high offices were
not sufficient for his satisfaction and happiness, which he had early
placed in the opinion of Europe and the esteem of posterity." He often
observed to me that with him the opinion of posterity was the real
immortality of the soul.
It may easily be conceived that Napoleon wished to give to the documents
which he knew historians would consult a favourable colour, and to
direct, according to his own views, the judgment of posterity on his
actions: But it is only by the impartial comparison of periods,
positions, and age that a well founded decision will be given. About his
fortieth year the physical constitution of Napoleon sustained
considerable change; and it may be presumed that his moral qualities were
affected by that change. It is particularly important not to lose sight
of the premature decay of his health, which, perhaps, did not permit him
always to, possess the vigour of memory otherwise consistent enough with
his age. The state of our organisation often modifies our recollections,
our feelings, our manner of viewing objects, and the impressions we
receive. This will be taken into consideration by judicious and thinking
men; and for them I write.
What M. de Las Casas states Napoleon to have said in May 1816 on the
manner of writing his history corroborates the opinion I have expressed.
It proves that all the facts and observations he communicated or dictated
were meant to serve as materials. We learn from the Memorial that M. de
Las Casas wrote daily, and that the manuscript was read over by Napoleon,
who often made corrections with his own hand. The idea of a journal
pleased him greatly. He fancied it would be a work of which the world
could afford no other example. But there are passages in which the order
of events is deranged; in others facts are misrepresented and erroneous
assertions are made, I apprehend, not altogether involuntarily.
I have paid particular attention to all that has been published by the
noble participators of the imperial captivity. Nothing, however, could
induce me to change a word in these Memoirs, because nothing could take
from me my conviction of the truth of what I personally heard and saw.
It will be found that Napoleon in his private conversations often
confirms what I state; but we sometimes differ, and the public must judge
between us. However, I must here make one observation.
When Napoleon dictated or related to his friends in St. Helena the facts
which they have reported he was out of the world,--he had played his
part. Fortune, which, according to his notions, had conferred on him all
his power and greatness, had recalled all her gifts before he sank into
the tomb. His ruling passion would induce him to think that it was due
to his glory to clear up certain facts which might prove an unfavourable
escort if they accompanied him to posterity. This was his fixed idea.
But is there not some ground for suspecting the fidelity of him who
writes or dictates his own history? Why might he not impose on a few
persons in St. Helena, when he was able to impose on France and Europe,
respecting many acts which emanated from him during the long duration of
his power? The life of Napoleon would be very unfaithfully written were
the author to adopt as true all his bulletins and proclamations, and all
the declarations he made at St. Helena. Such a history would frequently
be in contradiction to facts; and such only is that which might be
entitled, 'The History of Napoleon, written by Himself'.
I have said thus much because it is my wish that the principles which
have guided me in the composition of these Memoirs may be understood.
I am aware that they will not please every reader; that is a success to
which I cannot pretend. Some merit, however, may be allowed me on
account of the labour I have undergone. It has neither been of a slight
nor an agreeable kind. I made it a rule to read everything that has been
written respecting Napoleon, and I have had to decipher many of his
autograph documents, though no longer so familiar with his scrawl as
formerly. I say decipher, because a real cipher might often be much more
readily understood than the handwriting of Napoleon. My own notes, too,
which were often very hastily made, in the hand I wrote in my youth, have
sometimes also much embarrassed me.
My long and intimate connection with Bonaparte from boyhood, my close
relations with him when General, Consul, and Emperor, enabled me to see
and appreciate all that was projected and all that was done during that
considerable and momentous period of time. I not only had the
opportunity of being present at the conception and the execution of the
extraordinary deeds of one of the ablest men nature ever formed, but,
notwithstanding an almost unceasing application to business, I found
means to employ the few moments of leisure which Bonaparte left at my
disposal in making notes, collecting documents, and in recording for
history facts respecting which the truth could otherwise with difficulty
be ascertained; and more particularly in collecting those ideas, often
profound, brilliant, and striking, but always remarkable, to which
Bonaparte gave expression in the overflowing frankness of confidential
intimacy.
The knowledge that I possessed much important information has exposed me
to many inquiries, and wherever I have resided since my retirement from
public affairs much of my time has been spent in replying to questions.
The wish to be acquainted with the most minute details of the life of a
man formed on an unexampled m del [?? D.W.] is very natural; and the
observation on my replies by those who heard them always was,
"You should publish your Memoirs!"
I had certainly always in view the publication of my Memoirs; but, at the
same time, I was firmly resolved not to publish them until a period
should arrive in which I might tell the truth, and the whole truth.
While Napoleon was in the possession of power I felt it right to resist
the urgent applications made to me on this subject by some persons of
the highest distinction. Truth would then have sometimes appeared
flattery, and sometimes, also, it might not have been without danger.
Afterwards, when the progress of events removed Bonaparte to a far
distant island in the midst of the ocean, silence was imposed on me by
other considerations,-by considerations of propriety and feeling.
After the death of Bonaparte, at St. Helena, reasons of a different
nature retarded the execution of my plan. The tranquillity of a secluded
retreat was indispensable for preparing and putting in order the abundant
materials in my possession. I found it also necessary to read a great
number of works, in order to rectify important errors to which the want
of authentic documents had induced the authors to give credit. This
much-desired retreat was found. I had the good fortune to be introduced,
through a friend, to the Duchesse de Brancas, and that lady invited me to
pass some time on one of her estates in Hainault. Received with the most
agreeable hospitality, I have there enjoyed that tranquillity which could
alone have rendered the publication of these volumes practicable.
FAUVELET DE BOURRIENNE
NOTE.
The Editor of the 1836 edition had added to the Memoirs several chapters
taken from or founded on other works of the time, so as to make a more
complete history of the period. These materials have been mostly
retained, but with the corrections which later publications have made
necessary. A chapter has now been added to give, a brief account of the
part played by the chief historical personages during the Cent Tours, and
another at the end to include the removal of the body of Napoleon from
St. Helena to France.
Two special improvements have, it is hoped, been made in this edition.
Great care has been taken to get names, dates, and figures rightly
given,--points much neglected in most translations, though in some few
cases, such as Davoust, the ordinary but not strictly correct spelling
has been followed to suit the general reader. The number of references
to other works which are given in the notes wall, it is believed, be of
use to any one wishing to continue the study of the history of Napoleon,
and may preserve them from many of the errors too often committed. The
present Editor has had the great advantage of having his work shared by
Mr. Richard Bentley, who has brought his knowledge of the period to bear,
and who has found, as only a busy man could do, the time to minutely
enter into every fresh detail, with the ardour which soon seizes any one
who long follows that enticing pursuit, the special study of an
historical period.
January 1885
R. W. P.
MEMOIRS of NAPOLEON BONAPARTE.
VOLUME I.
CHAPTER 1
1769-1783.
Authentic date of Bonaparte's birth--His family ruined by the
Jesuits--His taste for military amusements--Sham siege at the
College of Brienne--The porter's wife and Napoleon--My intimacy with
Bonaparte at college--His love for the mathematics, and his dislike
of Latin--He defends Paoli and blames his father--He is ridiculed by
his comrades--Ignorance of the monks--Distribution of prizes at
Brienne--Madame de Montesson and the Duke of Orleans--Report of M.
Keralio on Bonaparte--He leaves Brienne.
NAPOLEON BONAPARTE was born at Ajaccio, in Corsica, on the 15th of August
1769; the original orthography of his name was Buonaparte, but he
suppressed the during his first campaign in Italy. His motives for so
doing were merely to render the spelling conformable with the
pronunciation, and to abridge his signature. He signed Buonaparte even
after the famous 13th Vendemiaire.
It has been affirmed that he was born in 1768, and that he represented
himself to be a year younger than he really was. This is untrue. He
always told me the 9th of August was his birthday, and, as I was born on
the 9th of July 1769, our proximity of age served to strengthen our union
and friendship when we were both at the Military College of Brienne.
The false and absurd charge of Bonaparte having misrepresented his
age, is decidedly refuted by a note in the register of M. Berton,
sub-principal of the College of Brienne, in which it is stated that
M. Napoleon de Buonaparte, ecuyer, born in the city of Ajaccio, in
Corsica, on the 15th of August 1769, left the Royal Military College of
Brienne on the 17th October 1784.
The stories about his low extraction are alike devoid of foundation. His
family was poor, and he was educated at the public expense, an advantage
of which many honourable families availed themselves. A memorial
addressed by his father, Charles Buonaparte, to the Minister of War
states that his fortune had been reduced by the failure of some
enterprise in which he had engaged, and by the injustice of the Jesuits,
by whom he had been deprived of an inheritance. The object of this
memorial was to solicit a sub-lieutenant's commission for Napoleon, who
was then fourteen years of age, and to get Lucien entered a pupil of the
Military College. The Minister wrote on the back of the memorial, "Give
the usual answer, if there be a vacancy;" and on the margin are these
words--"This gentleman has been informed that his request is inadmissible
as long as his second son remains at the school of Brienne. Two brothers
cannot be placed at the same time in the military schools." When
Napoleon was fifteen he was sent to Paris until he should attain the
requisite age for entering the army. Lucien was not received into the
College of Brienne, at least not until his brother had quitted the
Military School of Paris.
Bonaparte was undoubtedly a man of good family. I have seen an authentic
account of his genealogy, which he obtained from Tuscany. A great deal
has been said about the civil dissensions which forced his family to quit
Italy and take refuge in Corsica. On this subject I shall say nothing.
Many and various accounts have been given of Bonaparte's youth.
--[The following interesting trait of Napoleon's childhood is
derived from the 'Memoirs of the Duchesse d'Arbranes':--"He was one
day accused by one of his sisters of having eaten a basketful of
grapes, figs, and citrons, which had come from the garden of his
uncle the Canon. None but those who were acquainted with the
Bonaparte family can form any idea of the enormity of this offence.
To eat fruit belonging to the uncle the Canon was infinitely more
criminal than to eat grapes and figs which might be claimed by
anybody else. An inquiry took place. Napoleon. denied the fact,
and was whipped. He was told that if he would beg pardon he should
be forgiven. He protested that he was innocent, but he was not
believed. If I recollect rightly, his mother was at the time on a
visit to M. de Marbeuf, or some other friend. The result of
Napoleon's obstinacy was, that he was kept three whole days on bread
and cheese, and that cheese was not 'broccio'. However, he would
not cry: he was dull, but not sulky. At length, on the fourth day
of his punishment a little friend of Marianne Bonaparte returned
from the country, and on hearing of Napoleon's disgrace she
confessed that she and Marianne had eaten the fruit. It was now
Marianne's turn to be punished. When Napoleon was asked why he had
not accused his sister, he replied that though he suspected that she
was guilty, yet out of consideration to her little friend, who had
no share in the falsehood, he had said nothing. He was then only
seven years of age" (vol. i. p. 9, edit. 1883).]--
He has been described in terms of enthusiastic praise and exaggerated
condemnation. It is ever thus with individuals who by talent or
favourable circumstances are raised above their fellow-creatures.
Bonaparte himself laughed at all the stories which were got up for the
purpose of embellishing or blackening his character in early life.
An anonymous publication, entitled the 'History of Napoleon Bonaparte',
from his Birth to his last abdication, contains perhaps the greatest
collection of false and ridiculous details about his boyhood. Among
other things, it is stated that he fortified a garden to protect himself
from the attacks of his comrades, who, a few lines lower down, are
described as treating him with esteem and respect. I remember the
circumstances which, probably, gave rise to the fabrication inserted in
the work just mentioned; they were as follows.
During the winter of 1783-84, so memorable for heavy falls of snow,
Napoleon was greatly at a loss for those retired walks and outdoor
recreations in which he used to take much delight. He had no alternative
but to mingle with his comrades, and, for exercise, to walk with them up
and down a spacious hall. Napoleon, weary of this monotonous promenade,
told his comrades that he thought they might amuse themselves much better
with the snow, in the great courtyard, if they would get shovels and make
hornworks, dig trenches, raise parapets, cavaliers, etc. "This being
done," said he, "we may divide ourselves into sections, form a siege, and
I will undertake to direct the attacks." The proposal, which was
received with enthusiasm, was immediately put into execution. This
little sham war was carried on for the space of a fortnight, and did not
cease until a quantity of gravel and small stones having got mixed with
the snow of which we made our bullets, many of the combatants, besiegers
as well as besieged, were seriously wounded. I well remember that I was
one of the worst sufferers from this sort of grapeshot fire.
It is almost unnecessary to contradict the story about the ascent in the
balloon. It is now very well known that the hero of that headlong
adventure was not young Bonaparte, as has been alleged, but one of his
comrades, Dudont de Chambon, who was somewhat eccentric. Of this his
subsequent conduct afforded sufficient proofs.
Bonaparte's mind was directed to objects of a totally different kind.
He turned his attention to political science. During some of his
vacations he enjoyed the society of the Abby Raynal, who used to converse
with him on government, legislation, commercial relations, etc.
On festival days, when the inhabitants of Brienne were admitted to our
amusements, posts were established for the maintenance of order. Nobody
was permitted to enter the interior of the building without a card
signed by the principal, or vice-principal. The rank of officers or
sub-officers was conferred according to merit; and Bonaparte one day had the
command of a post, when the following little adventure occurred, which
affords an instance of his decision of character.
The wife of the porter of the school,
--[This woman, named Haute, was afterwards placed at Malmaison, with
her husband. They both died as concierges of Malmaison. This shows
that Napoleon had a memory.--Bourrienne.]--
who was very well known, because she used to sell milk, fruit, etc., to
the pupils, presented herself one Saint Louis day for admittance to the
representation of the 'Death of Caesar, corrected', in which I was to
perform the part of Brutus. As the woman had no ticket, and insisted on
being admitted without one, some disturbance arose. The serjeant of the
post reported the matter to the officer, Napoleon Bonaparte, who in an
imperious tone of voice exclaimed: "Send away that woman, who comes here
with her camp impudence." This was in 1782.
Bonaparte and I were eight years of, age when our friendship commenced.
It speedily became very intimate, for there was a certain sympathy of
heart between us. I enjoyed this friendship and intimacy until 1784,
when he was transferred from the Military College of Brienne to that of
Paris. I was one among those of his youthful comrades who could best
accommodate themselves to his stern character. His natural reserve, his
disposition to meditate on the conquest of Corsica, and the impressions
he had received in childhood respecting the misfortunes of his country
and his family, led him to seek retirement, and rendered his general
demeanour, though in appearance only, somewhat unpleasing. Our equality
of age brought us together in the classes of the mathematics and 'belles
lettres'. His ardent wish to acquire knowledge was remarkable from the
very commencement of his studies. When he first came to the college he
spoke only the Corsican dialect, and the Sieur Dupuis,
--[He afterwards filled the pout of librarian to Napoleon at
Malmaison.]--
who was vice-principal before Father Berton, gave him instructions in the
French language. In this he made such rapid progress that in a short
time he commenced the first rudiments of Latin. But to this study he
evinced such a repugnance that at the age of fifteen he was not out of
the fourth class. There I left him very speedily; but I could never get
before him in the mathematical class, in which he was undoubtedly the
cleverest lad at the college. I used sometimes to help him with his
Latin themes and versions in return for the aid he afforded me in the
solution of problems, at which he evinced a degree of readiness and
facility which perfectly astonished me.
When at Brienne, Bonaparte was remarkable for the dark color of his
complexion (which, subsequently, the climate of France somewhat changed),
for his piercing and scrutinising glance, and for the style of his
conversation both with his masters and comrades. His conversation almost
always bore the appearance of ill-humour, and he was certainly not very
amiable. This I attribute to the misfortunes his family had sustained
and the impressions made on his mind by the conquest of his country.
The pupils were invited by turns to dine with Father Berton, the head of
the school. One day, it being Bonaparte's turn to enjoy this indulgence,
some of the professors who were at table designedly made some
disrespectful remarks on Paoli, of whom they knew the young Corsican was
an enthusiastic admirer. "Paoli," observed Bonaparte, "was a great man;
he loved his country; and I will never forgive my father, who was his
adjutant, for having concurred in the union of Corsica with France. He
ought to have followed Paoli's fortune, and have fallen with him."
--[The Duchesse d'Abrantes, speaking of the personal characteristics
of Bonaparte in youth and manhood, says, "Saveria told me that
Napoleon was never a pretty boy, as Joseph was, for example: his
head always appeared too large for his body, a defect common to the
Bonaparte family. When Napoleon grew up, the peculiar charm of his
countenance lay in his eye, especially in the mild expression it
assumed in his moments of kindness. His anger, to be sure, was
frightful, and though I am no coward, I never could look at him in
his fits of rage without shuddering. Though his smile was
captivating, yet the expression of his month when disdainful or
angry could scarcely be seen without terror. But that forehead
which seemed formed to bear the crowns of a whole world; those
hands, of which the most coquettish women might have been vain, and
whose white skin covered muscles of iron; in short, of all that
personal beauty which distinguished Napoleon as a young man, no
traces were discernible in the boy. Saveria spoke truly when she
said, that of all the children of Signora Laetitia, the Emperor was
the one from whom future greatness was least to be prognosticated"
(vol. i. p. 10, edit. 1883)]--
Generally speaking, Bonaparte was not much liked by his comrades at
Brienne. He was not social with them, and rarely took part in their
amusements. His country's recent submission to France always caused in
his mind a painful feeling, which estranged him from his schoolfellows.
I, however, was almost his constant companion. During play-hours he used
to withdraw to the library, where he-read with deep interest works of
history, particularly Polybius and Plutarch. He was also fond of
Arrianus, but did not care much for Quintus Gurtius. I often went off to
play with my comrades, and left him by himself in the library.
The temper of the young Corsican was not improved by the teasing he
frequently experienced from his comrades, who were fond of ridiculing him
about his Christian name Napoleon and his country. He often said to me,
"I will do these French all the mischief I can;" and when I tried to
pacify him he would say, "But you do not ridicule me; you like me."
Father Patrauld, our mathematical professor, was much attached to
Bonaparte. He was justly proud of him as a pupil. The other professors,
in whose classes he was not distinguished, took little notice of him.
He had no taste for the study of languages, polite literature, or the
arts. As there were no indications of his ever becoming a scholar, the
pedants of the establishment were inclined to think him stupid. His
superior intelligence was, however, sufficiently perceptible, even
through the reserve under which it was veiled. If the monks to whom the
superintendence of the establishment was confided had understood the
organisation of his mind, if they had engaged more able mathematical
professors, or if we had had any incitement to the study of chemistry,
natural philosophy, astronomy, etc., I am convinced that Bonaparte would
have pursued these sciences with all the genius and spirit of
investigation which he displayed in a career, more brilliant it is true,
but less useful to mankind. Unfortunately, the monks did not perceive
this, and were too poor to pay for good masters. However, after
Bonaparte left the college they found it necessary to engage two
professors from Paris, otherwise the college would have fallen to
nothing. These two new professors, MM. Durfort and Desponts, finished
my education; and I regretted that they did not come sooner. The
often-repeated assertion of Bonaparte having received a careful
education at Brienne is therefore untrue. The monks were incapable of
giving it him; and, for my own part, I must confess that the extended
information of the present day is to me a painful contrast with the
limited course of education I received at the Military College. It is
only surprising that the establishment should have produced a single
able man.
Though Bonaparte had no reason to be satisfied with the treatment he
received from his comrades, yet he was above complaining of it; and when
he had the supervision of any duty which they infringed, he would rather
go to prison than denounce the criminals.
I was one day his accomplice in omitting to enforce a duty which we were
appointed to supervise. He prevailed on me to accompany him to prison,
where we remained three days. We suffered this sort of punishment
several times, but with less severity.
In 1783 the Duke of Orleans and Madame de Montesson visited Brienne; and,
for upwards of a month, the magnificent chateau of the Comte de Brienne
was a Versailles in miniature. The series of brilliant entertainments
which were given to the august travellers made them almost forget the
royal magnificence they had left behind them.
The Prince and Madame de Montesson expressed a wish to preside at the
distribution of the prizes of our college. Bonaparte and I won the
prizes in the class of mathematics, which, as I have already observed,
was the branch of study to which he confined his attention, and in which
he excelled. When I was called up for the seventh time Madame de
Montesson said to my mother, who had come from Sens to be present at the
distribution, "Pray, madame, crown your son this time; my hands are
a-weary."
There was an inspector of the military schools, whose business it was to
make an annual report on each pupil, whether educated at the public
expense or paid for by his family. I copied from the report of 1784 a
note which was probably obtained surreptitiously from the War Office. I
wanted to purchase the manuscript, but Louis Bonaparte bought it. I did
not make a copy of the note which related to myself, because I should
naturally have felt diffident in making any use of it. It would,
however, have served to show how time and circumstances frequently
reversed the distinctions which arise at school or college. Judging from
the reports of the inspector of military schools, young Bonaparte was
not, of all the pupils at Brienne in 1784, the one most calculated to
excite prognostics of future greatness and glory.
The note to which I have just alluded, and which was written by M. de
Kerralio, then inspector of the military schools, describes Bonaparte in
the following terms:
INSPECTION OF MILITARY SCHOOLS
1784.
REPORT MADE FOR HIS MAJESTY BY M. DE KERALIO.
M. de Buonaparte (Napoleon), born 15th August 1769, height 4 feet 10
inches 10 lines, is in the fourth class, has a good constitution,
excellent health, character obedient, upright, grateful, conduct
very regular; has been always distinguished by his application to
mathematics. He knows history and geography very passably. He is
not well up in ornamental studies or in Latin in which he is only in
the fourth class. He will be an excellent sailor. He deserves to
be passed on to the Military School of Paris.
Father Berton, however, opposed Bonaparte's removal to Paris, because
he had not passed through the fourth Latin class, and the regulations
required that he should be in the third. I was informed by the
vice-principal that a report relative to Napoleon was sent from the
College of Brienne to that of Paris, in which he was described as being
domineering, imperious, and obstinate.
--[Napoleon remained upwards of five years at Brienne, from April
1779 till the latter end of 1784. In 1783 the Chevalier Keralio,
sub-inspector of the military schools, selected him to pass the year
following to the military school at Paris, to which three of the
best scholars were annually sent from each of the twelve provincial
military schools of France. It is curious as well as satisfactory
to know the opinion at this time entertained of him by those who
were the best qualified to judge. His old master, Le Guille,
professor of history at Paris, boasted that, in a list of the
different scholars, he had predicted his pupil's subsequent career.
In fact, to the name of Bonaparte the following note is added: "a
Corsican by birth and character--he will do something great, if
circumstances favour him." Menge was his instructor in geometry,
who also entertained a high opinion of him. M. Bauer, his German
master, was the only one who saw nothing in him, and was surprised
at being told he was undergoing his examination for the artillery.
--Hazlitt.]--
I knew Bonaparte well; and I think M. de Keralio's report of him was
exceedingly just, except, perhaps, that he might have said he was very
well as to his progress in history and geography, and very backward in
Latin; but certainly nothing indicated the probability of his being an
excellent seaman. He himself had no thought of the navy.
--[Bourrienne is certainly wrong as to Bonaparte having no thought
of the navy. In a letter of 1784 to the Minister of War his father
says of Napoleon that, "following the advice of the Comte de
Marbeuf, he has turned his studies towards the navy; and so well has
he succeeded that he was intended by M. de Keralio for the school of
Paris, and afterwards for the department of Toulon. The retirement
of the former professor (Keralio) has changed the fate of my son."
It was only on the failure of his intention to get into the navy
that his father, on 15th July 1784 applied for permission for him to
enter the artillery; Napoleon having a horror of the infantry, where
he said they did nothing. It was on the success of this application
that he was allowed to enter the school of Parts (Iung, tome i. pp.
91-103). Oddly enough, in later years, on 30th August 1792, having
just succeeded in getting himself reinstated as captain after his
absence, overstaying leave, he applied to pass into the Artillerie
de la Marine. "The application was judged to be simply absurd, and
was filed with this note, 'S. R.' ('sans reponse')" (Iung, tome ii.
p. 201)]--
In consequence of M. de Keralio's report, Bonaparte was transferred to
the Military College of Paris, along with MM. Montarby de Dampierre, de
Castres, de Comminges, and de Laugier de Bellecourt, who were all, like
him, educated at the public expense, and all, at least, as favorably
reported.
What could have induced Sir Walter Scott to say that Bonaparte was the
pride of the college, that our mathematical master was exceedingly fond
of him, and that the other professors in the different sciences had equal
reason to be satisfied with him? What I have above stated, together with
the report of M. de Keralio, bear evidence of his backwardness in almost
every branch of education except mathematics. Neither was it, as Sir
Walter affirms, his precocious progress in mathematics that occasioned
him to be removed to Paris. He had attained the proper age, and the
report of him was favourable, therefore he was very naturally included
among the number of the five who were chosen in 1784.
In a biographical account of Bonaparte I have read the following
anecdote:--When he was fourteen years of age he happened to be at a party
where some one pronounced a high eulogium on Turenne; and a lady in the
company observed that he certainly was a great man, but that she should
like him better if he had not burned the Palatinate. "What signifies
that," replied Bonaparte, "if it was necessary to the object he had in
view?"
This is either an anachronism or a mere fabrication. Bonaparte was
fourteen in the year 1783. He was then at Brienne, where certainly he
did not go into company, and least of all the company of ladies.