Bonaparte the General of the Convention[50].
[Footnote 50: For this chapter the Mémoires du roi
Joseph, I, and Böhtlingk: Napoleon Bonaparte, etc., I,
are valuable references, in addition to those already
given. The memoirs of Barras are particularly misleading
except for comparison. For social conditions, cf.
Goncourt, Histoire de la Société Française sous le
Directoire, and in particular Adolph Schmidt: Tableaux
de la Révolution Française; Pariser Zustände während der
Revolutionszeit.]
Disappointments -- Another Furlough -- Connection with
Barras -- Official Society in Paris -- Buonaparte as a Beau
-- Condition of His Family -- A Political General -- An
Opening in Turkey -- Opportunities in Europe -- Social
Advancement -- Official Degradation -- Schemes for
Restoration -- Plans of the Royalists -- The Hostility of
Paris to the Convention -- Buonaparte, General of the
Convention Troops -- His Strategy.
[Sidenote: 1795.]
The overhauling of the army list with the subsequent reassignment of
officers turned out ill for Buonaparte. Aubry, the head of the
committee, appears to have been utterly indifferent to him, displaying
no ill will, and certainly no active good will, toward the sometime
Jacobin, whose name, moreover, was last on the list of artillery
officers in the order of seniority. According to the regulations, when
one arm of the service was overmanned, the superfluous officers were
to be transferred to another. This was now the case with the
artillery, and Buonaparte, as a supernumerary, was on June thirteenth
again ordered to the west, but this time only as a mere infantry
general of brigade. He appears to have felt throughout life more
vindictiveness toward Aubry, the man whom he believed to have been
the author of this particular misfortune, than toward any other
person with whom he ever came in contact. In this rigid scrutiny of
the army list, exaggerated pretensions of service and untruthful
testimonials were no longer accepted. For this reason Joseph also had
already lost his position, and was about to settle with his family in
Genoa, while Louis was actually sent back to school, being ordered to
Châlons. Poor Lucien, overwhelmed in the general ruin of the radicals,
and with a wife and child dependent on him, was in despair. The other
members of the family were temporarily destitute, but self-helpful.
In this there was nothing new; but, for all that, the monotony of the
situation must have been disheartening. Napoleon's resolution was soon
taken. He was either really ill from privation and disappointment, or
soon became so. Armed with a medical certificate, he applied for and
received a furlough. This step having been taken, the next, according
to the unchanged and familiar instincts of the man, was to apply under
the law for mileage to pay his expenses on the journey which he had
taken as far as Paris in pursuance of the order given him on March
twenty-ninth to proceed to his post in the west. Again, following the
precedents of his life, he calculated mileage not from Marseilles,
whence he had really started, but from Nice, thus largely increasing
the amount which he asked for, and in due time received. During his
leave several projects occupied his busy brain. The most important
were a speculation in the sequestered lands of the emigrants and
monasteries, and the writing of two monographs--one a history of
events from the ninth of Fructidor, year II (August twenty-sixth,
1794), to the beginning of year IV (September twenty-third, 1795), the
other a memoir on the Army of Italy. The first notion was doubtless
due to the frenzy for speculation, more and more rife, which was now
comparable only to that which prevailed in France at the time of Law's
Mississippi scheme or in England during the South Sea Bubble. It
affords an insight into financial conditions to know that a gold piece
of twenty francs was worth seven hundred and fifty in paper. A project
for purchasing a certain property as a good investment for his wife's
dowry was submitted to Joseph, but it failed by the sudden repeal of
the law under which such purchases were made. The two themes were both
finished, and another, "A Study in Politics: being an Inquiry into the
Causes of Troubles and Discords," was sketched, but never completed.
The memoir on the Army of Italy was virtually the scheme for offensive
warfare which he laid before the younger Robespierre; it was now
revised, and sent to the highest military power--the new central
committee appointed as a substitute for the Committee of Safety. These
occupations were all very well, but the furlough was rapidly expiring,
and nothing had turned up. Most opportunely, the invalid had a
relapse, and was able to secure an extension of leave until August
fourth, the date on which a third of the committee on the reassignment
of officers would retire, among them the hated Aubry.
Speaking at St. Helena of these days, he said: "I lived in the Paris
streets without employment. I had no social habits, going only into
the set at the house of Barras, where I was well received.... I was
there because there was nothing to be had elsewhere. I attached myself
to Barras because I knew no one else. Robespierre was dead; Barras was
playing a rôle: I had to attach myself to somebody and something." It
will not be forgotten that Barras and Fréron had been Dantonists when
they were at the siege of Toulon with Buonaparte. After the events of
Thermidor they had forsworn Jacobinism altogether, and were at present
in alliance with the moderate elements of Paris society. Barras's
rooms in the Luxembourg were the center of all that was gay and
dazzling in that corrupt and careless world. They were, as a matter of
course, the resort of the most beautiful and brilliant women,
influential, but not over-scrupulous. Mme. Tallien, who has been
called "the goddess of Thermidor," was the queen of the coterie;
scarcely less beautiful and gracious were the widow Beauharnais and
Mme. Récamier. Barras had been a noble; the instincts of his class
made him a delightful host.
What Napoleon saw and experienced he wrote to the faithful Joseph. The
letters are a truthful transcript of his emotions, the key-note of
which is admiration for the Paris women. "Carriages and the gay world
reappear, or rather no more recall as after a long dream that they
have ever ceased to glitter. Readings, lecture courses in history,
botany, astronomy, etc., follow one another. Everything is here
collected to amuse and render life agreeable; you are taken out of
your thoughts; how can you have the blues in this intensity of purpose
and whirling turmoil? The women are everywhere, at the play, on the
promenades, in the libraries. In the scholar's study you find very
charming persons. Here only of all places in the world they deserve to
hold the helm: the men are mad about them, think only of them, and
live only by means of their influence. A woman needs six months in
Paris to know what is her due and what is her sphere."[51] As yet he
had not met Mme. Beauharnais. The whole tone of the correspondence is
cheerful, and indicates that Buonaparte's efforts for a new alliance
had been successful, that his fortunes were looking up, and that the
giddy world contained something of uncommon interest. As his fortunes
improved, he grew more hopeful, and appeared more in society. On
occasion he even ventured upon little gallantries. Presented to Mme.
Tallien, he was frequently seen at her receptions. He was at first shy
and reserved, but time and custom put him more at his ease. One
evening, as little groups were gradually formed for the interchange of
jest and repartee, he seemed to lose his timidity altogether, and,
assuming the mien of a fortune-teller, caught his hostess's hand, and
poured out a long rigmarole of nonsense which much amused the rest of
the circle.
[Footnote 51: Napoleon to Joseph, July, 1795; in Du
Casse: Les rois frères de Napoléon, 8, and in Jung, III,
41.]
These months had also improved the situation of the family. His mother
and younger sisters were somehow more comfortable in their Marseilles
home. Strange doings were afterward charged against them, but it is
probable that these stories are without other foundation than spite.
Napoleon had received a considerable sum for mileage, nearly
twenty-seven hundred francs, and, good son as he always was, it is
likely that he shared the money with his family. Both Elisa and the
little Pauline now had suitors. Fesch, described by Lucien as "ever
fresh, not like a rose, but like a good radish," was comfortably
waiting at Aix in the house of old acquaintances for a chance to
return to Corsica. Joseph's arrangements for moving to Genoa were
nearly complete, and Louis was comfortably settled at school in
Châlons. "Brutus" Lucien was the only luckless wight of the number:
his fears had been realized, and, having been denounced as a Jacobin,
he was now lying terror-stricken in the prison of Aix, and all about
him men of his stripe were being executed.
On August fifth the members of the new Committee of Safety finally
entered on their duties. Almost the first document presented at the
meeting was Buonaparte's demand for restoration to his rank in the
artillery. It rings with indignation, and abounds with loose
statements about his past services, boldly claiming the honors of the
last short but successful Italian campaign. The paper was referred to
the proper authorities, and, a fortnight later, its writer received
peremptory orders to join his corps in the west. What could be more
amusingly characteristic of this persistent man than to read, in a
letter to Joseph under date of the following day, August twentieth: "I
am attached at this moment to the topographical bureau of the
Committee of Safety for the direction of the armies in Carnot's place.
If I wish, I can be sent to Turkey by the government as general of
artillery, with a good salary and a splendid title, to organize the
artillery of the Grand Turk." Then follow plans for Joseph's
appointment to the consular service, for a meeting at Leghorn, and for
a further land speculation. At the close are these remarks, which not
only exhibit great acuteness of observation, but are noteworthy as
displaying a permanent quality of the man, that of always having an
alternative in readiness: "It is quiet, but storms are gathering,
perhaps; the primaries are going to meet in a few days. I shall take
with me five or six officers.... The commission and decree of the
Committee of Safety, which employs me in the duty of directing the
armies and plans of campaign, being most flattering to me, I fear they
will no longer allow me to go to Turkey. We shall see. I may have on
hand a campaign to-day.... Write always as if I were going to Turkey."
This was all half true. By dint of soliciting Barras and Doulcet de
Pontécoulant, another well-wisher, both men of influence, and by
importuning Fréron, then at the height of his power, but soon to
display a ruinous incapacity, Buonaparte had actually been made a
member of the commission of four which directed the armies, and Dutot
had been sent in his stead to the west. Moreover, there was likewise a
chance for realizing those dreams of achieving glory in the Orient
which had haunted him from childhood. At this moment there was a
serious tension in the politics of eastern Europe, and the French saw
an opportunity to strike Austria on the other side by an alliance with
Turkey. The latter country was of course entirely unprepared for war,
and asked for the appointment of a French commission to reconstruct
its gun-foundries and to improve its artillery service. Buonaparte,
having learned the fact, had immediately prepared two memorials, one
on the Turkish artillery, and another on the means of strengthening
Turkish power against the encroachments of European monarchies. These
he sent up with an application that he should be appointed head of the
commission, inclosing also laudatory certificates of his uncommon
ability from Doulcet and from Debry, a newly made friend.
But the vista of an Eastern career temporarily vanished. The new
constitution, adopted, as already stated, on August twenty-second,
could not become operative until after the elections. On August
thirty-first Buonaparte's plan for the conduct of the coming Italian
campaign was read by the Convention committee, found satisfactory, and
adopted. It remains in many respects the greatest of all Napoleon's
military papers, its only fault being that no genius inferior to his
own could carry it out. At intervals some strategic authority revives
the charge that this plan was bodily appropriated from the writings of
Maillebois, the French general who led his army to disaster in Italy
during 1746. There is sufficient evidence that Buonaparte read
Maillebois, and any reader may see the resemblances of the two plans.
But the differences, at first sight insignificant, are as vital as the
differences of character in the two men. Like the many other charges
of plagiarism brought against Napoleon by pedants, this one overlooks
the difference between mediocrity and genius in the use of materials.
It is not at all likely that the superiors of Buonaparte were ignorant
of the best books concerning the invasion of Italy or of their almost
contemporary history. They brought no charges of plagiarism for the
excellent reason that there is none, and they were impressed by the
suggestions of their general. It is even possible that Buonaparte
formed his plan before reading Maillebois. Volney declared he had
heard it read and commentated by its author shortly after his return
from Genoa and Nice.[52] The great scholar was already as profoundly
impressed as a year later Carnot, and now the war commission. A few
days later the writer and author of the plan became aware of the
impression he had made: it seemed clear that he had a reality in hand
worth every possibility in the Orient. He therefore wrote to Joseph
that he was going to remain in Paris, explaining, as if incidentally,
that he could thus be on the lookout for any desirable vacancy in the
consular service, and secure it, if possible, for him.
[Footnote 52: Chaptal: Mes souvenirs sur Napoléon, p.
198.]
Dreams of another kind had supplanted in his mind all visions of
Oriental splendor; for in subsequent letters to the same
correspondent, written almost daily, he unfolds a series of rather
startling schemes, which among other things include a marriage, a town
house, and a country residence, with a cabriolet and three horses. How
all this was to come about we cannot entirely discover. The marriage
plan is clearly stated. Joseph had wedded one of the daughters of a
comparatively wealthy merchant. He was requested to sound his
brother-in-law concerning the other, the famous Désirée Clary, who
afterward became Mme. Bernadotte. Two of the horses were to be
supplied by the government in place of a pair which he might be
supposed to have possessed at Nice in accordance with the rank he then
held, and to have sold, according to orders, when sent on the maritime
expedition to Corsica. Where the third horse and the money for the
houses were to come from is inscrutable; but, as a matter of fact,
Napoleon had already left his shabby lodgings for better ones in
Michodière street, and was actually negotiating for the purchase of a
handsome detached residence near that of Bourrienne, whose fortunes
had also been retrieved. The country-seat which the speculator had in
view, and for which he intended to bid as high as a million and a half
of francs, was knocked down to another purchaser for three millions
or, as the price of gold then was, about forty thousand dollars! So
great a personage as he now was must, of course, have a secretary, and
the faithful Junot had been appointed to the office.
The application for the horses turned out a serious matter, and
brought the adventurer once more to the verge of ruin. The story he
told was not plain, the records did not substantiate it, the
hard-headed officials of the war department evidently did not believe
a syllable of his representations,--which, in fact, were
untruthful,--and, the central committee having again lost a third of
its members by rotation, among them Doulcet, there was no one now in
it to plead Buonaparte's cause. Accordingly there was no little talk
about the matter in very influential circles, and almost
simultaneously was issued the report concerning his formal request
for restoration, which had been delayed by the routine prescribed in
such cases, and was only now completed. It was not only adverse in
itself, but contained a confidential inclosure animadverting severely
on the irregularities of the petitioner's conduct, and in particular
on his stubborn refusal to obey orders and join the Army of the West.
Thus it happened that on September fifteenth the name of Buonaparte
was officially struck from the list of general officers on duty, "in
view of his refusal to proceed to the post assigned him." It really
appeared as if the name of Napoleon might almost have been substituted
for that of Tantalus in the fable. But it was the irony of fate that
on this very day the subcommittee on foreign affairs submitted to the
full meeting a proposition to send the man who was now a disgraced
culprit in great state and with a full suite to take service at
Constantinople in the army of the Grand Turk!
No one had ever understood better than Buonaparte the possibilities of
political influence in a military career. Not only could he bend the
bow of Achilles, but he always had ready an extra string. Thus far in
his ten years of service he had been promoted only once according to
routine; the other steps of the height which he had reached had been
secured either by some startling exhibition of ability or by influence
or chicane. He had been first Corsican and then French, first a
politician and then a soldier. Such a veteran was not to be dismayed
even by the most stunning blow; had he not even now three powerful
protectors--Barras, Tallien, and Fréron? He turned his back,
therefore, with ready adaptability on the unsympathetic officials of
the army, the mere soldiers with cool heads and merciless judgment.
The evident short cut to restoration was to carry through the project
of employment at Constantinople; it had been formally recommended,
and to secure its adoption he renewed his importunate solicitations.
His rank he still held; he might hope to regain position by some
brilliant stroke such as he could execute only without the restraint
of orders and on his own initiative. His hopes grew, or seemed to, as
his suit was not rejected, and he wrote to Joseph on September
twenty-sixth that the matter of his departure was urgent; adding,
however: "But at this moment there are some ebullitions and incendiary
symptoms." He was right in both surmises. The Committee of Safety was
formally considering the proposition for his transfer to the Sultan's
service, while simultaneously affairs both in Paris and on the
frontiers alike were "boiling."
Meantime the royalists and clericals had not been idle. They had
learned nothing from the events of the Revolution, and did not even
dimly understand their own position. Their own allies repudiated both
their sentiments and their actions in the very moments when they
believed themselves to be honorably fighting for self-preservation.
English statesmen like Granville and Harcourt now thought and said
that it was impossible to impose on France a form of government
distasteful to her people; but the British regent and the French
pretender, who, on the death of his unfortunate nephew, the dauphin,
had been recognized by the powers as Louis XVIII, were stubbornly
united under the old Bourbon motto, "All or nothing." The change in
the Convention, in Paris society, even in the country itself, which
was about to desert its extreme Jacobinism and to adopt the new
constitution by an overwhelming vote--all this deceived them, and they
determined to strike for everything they had lost. Preparations, it is
now believed, were all ready for an inroad from the Rhine frontier,
for Pichegru to raise the white flag and to advance with his troops on
Paris, and for a simultaneous rising of the royalists in every French
district. On October fourth an English fleet had appeared on the
northern shore of France, having on board the Count of Artois and a
large body of emigrants, accompanied by a powerful force of English,
composed in part of regulars, in part of volunteers. This completed
the preliminary measures.
With the first great conflict in the struggle, avowed royalism had
only an indirect connection. By this time the Paris sections were
thoroughly reorganized, having purged themselves of the extreme
democratic elements from the suburbs. They were well drilled, well
armed, and enthusiastic for resistance to the decree of the Convention
requiring the compulsory reëlection of the "two thirds" from its
existing membership. The National Guard was not less embittered
against that measure. There were three experienced officers then in
Paris who were capable of leading an insurrection, and could be relied
on to oppose the Convention. These were Danican, Duhoux d'Hauterive,
and Laffont, all royalists at heart; the last was an emigrant, and
avowed it. The Convention had also by this time completed its
enlistment, and had taken other measures of defense; but it was
without a trustworthy person to command its forces, for among the
fourteen generals of the republic then present in Paris, only two were
certainly loyal to the Convention, and both these were men of very
indifferent character and officers of no capacity.
The Convention forces were technically a part of the army known as
that of the interior, of which Menou was the commander. The new
constitution having been formally proclaimed on September
twenty-third, the signs of open rebellion in Paris became too clear to
be longer disregarded, and on that night a mass meeting of the
various sections was held in the Odéon theater in order to prepare
plans for open resistance. That of Lepelletier, in the heart of Paris,
comprising the wealthiest and most influential of the mercantile
class, afterward assembled in its hall and issued a call to rebellion.
These were no contemptible foes: on the memorable tenth of August,
theirs had been the battalion of the National Guard which died with
the Swiss in defense of the Tuileries. Menou, in obedience to the
command of the Convention to disarm the insurgent sections, confronted
them for a moment. But the work was not to his taste. After a short
parley, during which he feebly recommended them to disperse and behave
like good citizens, he withdrew his forces to their barracks, and left
the armed and angry sections masters of the situation. Prompt and
energetic measures were more necessary than ever. For some days
already the Convention leaders had been discussing their plans. Carnot
and Tallien finally agreed with Barras that the man most likely to do
thoroughly the active work was Buonaparte. But, apparently, they dared
not altogether trust him, for Barras himself was appointed
commander-in-chief. His "little Corsican officer, who will not stand
on ceremony," as he called him, was to be nominally lieutenant. On
October fourth Buonaparte was summoned to a conference. The messengers
sought him at his lodgings and in all his haunts, but could not find
him. It was nine in the evening when he appeared at headquarters in
the Place du Carrousel. This delay gave Barras a chance to insinuate
that his ardent republican friend, who all the previous week had been
eagerly soliciting employment, was untrustworthy in the crisis, and
had been negotiating with the sectionaries. Buonaparte reported
himself as having come from the section of Lepelletier, but as having
been reconnoitering the enemy. After a rather tart conversation,
Barras appointed him aide-de-camp, the position for which he had been
destined from the first. Whatever was the general's understanding of
the situation, that of the aide was clear--that he was to be his own
master.[53]
[Footnote 53: My account of this momentous crisis in
Buonaparte's life was written after a careful study of
all the authorities and accounts as far as known. The
reader will find in the monograph, Zivy: Le treize
Vendémiaire, many reprints of documents and certain
conclusions drawn from them. The result is good as far
as it goes, but, like all history written from public
papers solely, it is incomplete. Buonaparte was only one
of seven generals appointed to serve under Barras. It
seems likewise true that his exploits did not bring him
into general notice, for Mallet du Pan speaks of him as
a "Corsican terrorist" and Rémusat records her mother's
amazement that a man so little known should have made so
good a marriage. But, on the other hand, Thiébault
declares that Buonaparte's activities impressed every
one, Barras's labored effort is suspicious, and then, as
at Toulon, there are the results. Some people in power
gave him credit, for they bestowed on him an
extraordinary reward. Then, too, why should we utterly
discard Buonaparte's own evidence, which corroborates,
at least as far as the text goes, the evidence drawn
from other sources?]
Not a moment was lost, and throughout the night most vigorous and
incessant preparation was made. Buonaparte was as much himself in the
streets of Paris as in those of Ajaccio, except that his energy was
proportionately more feverish, as the defense of the Tuileries and the
riding-school attached to it, in which the Convention sat, was a
grander task than the never-accomplished capture of the Corsican
citadel. The avenues and streets of a city somewhat resemble the main
and tributary valleys of a mountain-range, and the task of campaigning
in Paris was less unlike that of manoeuvering in the narrow gorges of
the Apennines than might be supposed; at least Buonaparte's strategy
was nearly identical for both. All his measures were masterly. The
foe, scattered as yet throughout Paris on both sides of the river,
was first cut in two by seizing and fortifying the bridges across the
Seine; then every avenue of approach was likewise guarded, while
flanking artillery was set in the narrow streets to command the main
arteries. Thanks to Barras's suggestion, the dashing, reckless,
insubordinate Murat, who first appears at the age of twenty-seven on
the great stage in these events, had under Buonaparte's orders brought
in the cannon from the camp of Sablons. These in the charge of a ready
artillerist were invaluable, as the event proved. Finally a reserve,
ready for use on either side of the river, was established in what is
now the Place de la Concorde, with an open line of retreat toward St.
Cloud behind it. Every order was issued in Barras's name, and Barras,
in his memoirs, claims all the honors of the day. He declares that his
aide was afoot, while he was the man on horseback, ubiquitous and
masterful. He does not even admit that Buonaparte bestrode a
cab-horse, as even the vanquished were ready to acknowledge. The
sections, of course, knew nothing of the new commander or of
Buonaparte, and recalled only Menou's pusillanimity. Without cannon
and without a plan, they determined to drive out the Convention at
once, and to overwhelm its forces by superior numbers. The quays of
the left bank were therefore occupied by a large body of the National
Guard, ready to rush in from behind when the main attack, made from
the north through the labyrinth of streets and blind alleys then
designated by the name of St. Honoré, and by the short, wide passage
of l'Échelle, should draw the Convention forces away in that direction
to resist it. A kind of rendezvous had been appointed at the church of
St. Roch, which was to be used as a depot of supplies and a retreat.
Numerous sectionaries were, in fact, posted there as auxiliaries at
the crucial instant.