Of eight more he has little good to say, but the Directory in acknowledging his letter of August 23rd remarks that he has forgotten several officers, and especially the Irish general Kilmaine.

About the same time Colonel Graham (Lord Lynedoch) was writing to the British Government from Trent that the Austrians, despite their defeats, were "undoubtedly brave fine troops, and an able chief would put all to rights in a little time."[47] On August 18th he adds—"When the wonderful activity, energy, and attention that prevail in the French service, from the commander-in-chief downward, are compared to the indecision, indifference, and indolence universal here, the success of their rash but skilful manoeuvres is not surprising."

No. 7.

Brescia.—Napoleon was here on July 27th, meeting Josephine about the date arranged (July 25th), and she returned with him. On July 29th they were nearly captured by an Austrian ambuscade near Ceronione, and Josephine wept with fright. "Wurmser," said Napoleon, embracing her, "shall pay dearly for those tears." She accompanies him to Castel Nova, and sees a skirmish at Verona; but the sight of wounded men makes her leave the army, and, finding it impossible to reach Brescia, she flees vi Ferrara and Bologna to Lucca. She leaves the French army in dire straits and awaits news anxiously, while the Senate of Lucca presents her with the oil kept exclusively for royalty. Thence she goes vi Florence to Milan. By August 7th the Austrian army was broken and in full retreat, and Bonaparte conducts his correspondence from Brescia from August 11th to 18th. On the 25th he is at Milan, where he meets his wife after her long pilgrimage, and spends four days. By August 30th he is again at Brescia, and reminds her that he left her "vexed, annoyed, and not well." From a letter to her aunt, Madame de Renaudin, at this time, quoted by Aubenas, we can see her real feelings: "I am fÊted wherever I go; all the princes of Italy give me fÊtes, even the Grand Duke of Tuscany, brother of the Emperor. Ah, well, I prefer being a private individual in France. I care not for honours bestowed in this country. I get sadly bored. My health has undoubtedly a great deal to do with making me unhappy; I am often out of sorts. If happiness could assure health, I ought to be in the best of health. I have the most amiable husband imaginable. I have no time to long for anything. My wishes are his. He is all day long in adoration before me, as if I were a divinity; there could not possibly be a better husband. M. Serbelloni will tell you how he loves me. He often writes to my children; he loves them dearly. He is sending Hortense, by M. Serbelloni, a lovely repeater, jewelled and enamelled; to EugÈne a splendid gold watch."

No. 9.

"I hope we shall get into Trent by the 5th."—He entered the city on that day. In his pursuit of Wurmser, he and his army cover sixty miles in two days, through the terrific Val Saguna and Brenta gorges, brushing aside opposition by the way.

No. 12.

"One of these nights the doors will be burst open with a bang."—Apparently within two or three days, for Bonaparte is at Milan on September 21st, and stays with his wife till October 12th. On October 1st he writes to the Directory that his total forces are only 27,900; and that the Austrians, within six weeks, will have 50,000. He asks for 26,000 more men to end the war satisfactorily: "If the preservation of Italy is dear to you, citizen directors, send me help." On the 8th they reply with the promise of 10,000 to 12,000, to which he replies (October 11th) that if 10,000 have started only 5000 will reach him. The Directory at this time are very poverty stricken, and ask him once more to pay Kellermann's Army of the Alps, as being "to some extent part of that which you command." This must have been "nuts and wine" for the general who was to have been superseded by Kellermann a few months earlier. On October 1st they advise him that Wurmser's name is on the list of emigrants, and that if the Marshal will surrender Mantua at once he need not be sent to Paris for trial. If, however, Bonaparte thinks that this knowledge will make the old Marshal more desperate, he is not to be told. Bonaparte, of course, does not send the message. For some time these letters had been signed by the President LareveillÈre LÉpeaux, but on September 19th there was a charming letter from Carnot: "Although accustomed to unprecedented deeds on your part, our hopes have been surpassed by the victory of Bassano. What glory is yours, immortal Bonaparte! Moreau was about to effect a juncture with you when that wretched reculade of Jourdan upset all our plans. Do not forget that immediately the armies go into winter quarters on the Rhine the Austrians will have forces available to help Wurmser." At Milan Bonaparte advises the Directory that he is dealing with unpunished "fripponeries" in the commissariat department. Here he receives from young Kellermann, afterwards the hero of Marengo, a prÉcis of the condition of the Brescia fever-hospitals, dated October 6th: "A wretched mattress, dirty and full of vermin, a coarse sheet to each bed, rarely washed, no counterpanes, much dilatoriness, such is the spectacle that the fever-hospitals of Brescia present; it is heart-rending. The soldiers justly complain that, having conquered opulent Italy at the cost of their life-blood, they might, without enjoying comforts, at least find the help and attention which their situation demands. Bread and rice are the only passable foods, but the meat is hard. I beg that the general-in-chief will immediately give attention to his companions in glory, who wish for restored health only that they may gather fresh laurels." Thus Bonaparte had his Bloemfontein, and perhaps his Burdett-Coutts.

On October 12th he tells the Directory that Mantua will not fall till February—the exact date of its capitulation. One is tempted to wonder if Napoleon was human enough to have inserted one little paragraph of his despatch of October 12th from Milan with one eye on its perusal by his wife, as it contains a veiled sneer at Hoche's exploits: "Send me rather generals of brigade than generals of division. All that comes to us from La VendÉe is unaccustomed to war on a large scale; we have the same reproach against the troops, but they are well-hardened." On the same day he shows them that all the marvels of his six months' campaign have cost the French Government only £440,000 (eleven million francs). He pleads, however, for special auditors to have charge of the accounts. Napoleon had not only made war support war, but had sent twenty million francs requisitioned in Italy to the Republic. On October 12th he leaves Milan for Modena, where he remains from the 14th to the 18th, is at Bologna on the 19th, and Ferrara from the 19th to the 22nd, reaching Verona on the 24th.

Jomini has well pointed out that Napoleon's conception of making two or three large Italian republics in place of many small ones minimised the power of the Pope, and also that of Austria, by abolishing its feudal rigours.

By this time Bonaparte is heartily sick of the war. On October 2nd he writes direct to the Emperor of Germany: "Europe wants peace. This disastrous war has lasted too long;" and on the 16th to Marshal Wurmser: "The siege of Mantua, sir, is more disastrous than two campaigns." His weariness is tempered with policy, as Alvinzi was en route, and the French reinforcements had not arrived, not even the 10,000 promised in May.

No. 13.

"Corsica is ours."—At St. Helena he told his generals, "The King of England wore the Corsican crown only two years. This whim cost the British treasury five millions sterling. John Bull's riches could not have been worse employed." He writes to the Directory on the same day: "The expulsion of the English from the Mediterranean has considerable influence on the success of our military operations in Italy. We can exact more onerous conditions from Naples, which will have the greatest moral effect on the minds of the Italians, assures our communications, and makes Naples tremble as far as Sicily." On October 25th he writes: "Wurmser is at his last gasp; he is short of wine, meat, and forage; he is eating his horses, and has 15,000 sick. In fifty days Mantua will either be taken or delivered."

No. 14.

Verona.—Bonaparte had made a long stay at Verona, to November 4th, waiting reinforcements which never came. On November 5th he writes to the Directory: "All the troops of the Directory arrive post-haste at an alarming rate, and we—we are left to ourselves. Fine promises and a few driblets of men are all we have received;" and on November 13th he writes again: "Perchance we are on the eve of losing Italy. None of the expected reinforcements have arrived.... I am doing my duty, the officers and men are doing theirs; my heart is breaking, but my conscience is at rest. Help—send me help!... I despair of preventing the relief of Mantua, which in a week would have been ours. The wounded are the pick of the army; all our superior officers, all our picked generals are hors de combat; those who have come to me are so incompetent, and they have not the soldiers' confidence. The army of Italy, reduced to a handful of men, is exhausted. The heroes of Lodi, Millesimo, Castiglione, and Bassano have died for their country, or are in hospital;[48] to the corps remain only their reputation and their glory. Joubert, Lannes, Lanusse, Victor, Murat, Chabot, Dupuy, Rampon, Pijon, Menard, Chabran, and St. Hilaire are wounded.... In a few days we shall make a last effort. Had I received the 83rd, 3500 strong, and of good repute in the army, I would have answered for everything. Perhaps in a few days 40,000 will not suffice." The reason for this unwonted pessimism was the state of his troops. His brother Louis reported that Vaubois' men had no shoes and were almost naked, in the midst of snow and mountains; that desertions were taking place of soldiers with bare and bleeding feet, who told the enemy the plans and conditions of their army. Finally Vaubois bungles, through not knowing the ground, and is put under the orders of Massena, while two of his half-brigades are severely censured by Napoleon in person for their cowardice.

No. 15.

"Once more I breathe freely."—Thrice had Napoleon been foiled, as much by the weather and his shoeless soldiers as by numbers (40,000 Austrians to his 28,000), and his position was well-nigh hopeless on November 14th. He trusts Verona to 3000 men, and the blockade of Mantua to Kilmaine, and the defence of Rivoli to Vaubois—the weakest link in the chain—and determines to manoeuvre by the Lower Adige upon the Austrian communications. He gets forty-eight hours' start, and wins Arcola; in 1814 he deserved equal success, but bad luck and treachery turned the scale. The battle of Arcola lasted seventy-two hours, and for forty-eight hours was in favour of the Austrians. Pending the arrival of the promised reinforcements, the battle was bought too dear, and weakened Bonaparte more than the Austrians, who received new troops almost daily. He replaced Vaubois by Joubert.

No. 18.

"The 29th."—But he is at Milan from November 27th to December 16th. Most people know, from some print or other, the picture by Gros of Bonaparte, flag in hand, leading his men across the murderous bridge of Arcola. It was during this visit to Milan that his portrait was taken, and Lavalette has preserved for us the domestic rather than the dignified manner of the sitting accorded. He refused to give a fixed time, and the artist was in despair, until Josephine came to his aid by taking her husband on her knees every morning after breakfast, and keeping him there a short time. Lavalette assisted at three of these sittings—apparently to remove the bashful embarrassment of the young painter. St. Amand suggests that Gros taking the portrait of Bonaparte at Milan, just after Arcola, would, especially under such novel conditions, prove a fitting theme for our artists to-day! From December 16th to 21st Bonaparte is at Verona, whence he returns to Milan. There is perhaps a veiled innuendo in Barras' letter of December 30th. Clarke had advised the Directory that Alvinzi was planning an attack, which Barras mentions, but adds: "Your return to Milan shows that you consider another attack in favour of Wurmser unlikely, or, at least, not imminent." He is at Milan till January 7th, whence he goes to Bologna, the city which, he says, "of all the Italian cities has constantly shown the greatest energy and the most considerable share of real information."

No. 20.

General Brune.—This incident fixes the date of this letter to be 23 NivÔse (January 12), and not 23 Messidor (July 11), as hitherto published in the French editions of this letter. On January 12, 1797, he wrote General Clarke from Verona (No. 1375 of the Correspondence) almost an exact duplicate of this letter—a very rare coincidence in the epistles of Napoleon. "Scarcely set out from Roverbella, I learnt that the enemy had appeared at Verona. Massena made his dispositions, which have been very successful; we have made 600 prisoners, and we have taken three pieces of cannon. General Brune has had seven bullets in his clothes, without having been touched by one of them; this is what it is to be lucky. We have had only ten men killed, and a hundred wounded." Bonaparte had left Bologna on January 10, reaching Verona vi Roverbella on the 12th.

No. 21.

February 3rd.—"I wrote you this morning."—This and probably other letters describing Rivoli, La Favorite, and the imminent fall of Mantua, are missing. In summing up the campaign Thiers declares that in ten months 55,000 French (all told, including reinforcements) had beaten more than 200,000 Austrians, taken 80,000 of them prisoners, killed and wounded 20,000. They had fought twelve pitched battles, and sixty actions. These figures are probably as much above the mark as those of Napoleon's detractors are below it.

One does not know which to admire most, Bonaparte's absence from Marshal Wurmser's humiliation, or his abstention from entering Rome as a conqueror. The first was the act of a perfect gentleman, worthy of the best traditions of chivalry, the second was the very quintessence of far-seeing sagacity, not "baulking the end half-won, for an instant dole of praise." As he told Mdme. de RÉmusat at Passeriano, "I conquered the Pope better by not going to Rome than if I had burnt his capital." Scott has compared his treatment of Wurmser to that of the Black Prince with his royal prisoner, King John of France. Wurmser was an Alsatian on the list of ÉmigrÉs, and Bonaparte gave the Marshal his life by sending him back to Austria, a fact which Wurmser requited by warning Bonaparte of a conspiracy to poison him[49] in Romagna, which Napoleon thinks would otherwise have been successful.

No. 24.

"Perhaps I shall make peace with the Pope."—On February 12th the Pope had written to "his dear son, General Bonaparte," to depute plenipotentiaries for a peace, and ends by assuring him "of our highest esteem," and concluding with the paternal apostolic benediction. Meanwhile Napoleon, instead of sacking Faenza, has just invoked the monks and priests to follow the precepts of the Gospel.

No. 25.

"The unlimited power you hold over me."—There seems no question that during the Italian campaigns he was absolutely faithful to Josephine, although there was scarcely a beauty in Milan who did not aspire to please him and to conquer him. In his fidelity there was, says St. Amand, much love and a little calculation. As Napoleon has said himself, his position was delicate in the extreme; he commanded old generals; every one of his movements was jealously watched; his circumspection was extreme. His fortune lay in his wisdom. He would have to forget himself for one hour, and how many of his victories depended upon no more! The celebrated singer, La Grassini, who had all Italy at her feet, cared only for the young general who would not at that time vouchsafe her a glance.

SERIES C

THE CAMPAIGN OF MARENGO, 1800

Elected to the joint consulate by the events of the 18th Brumaire (November 9), 1799, Napoleon spent the first Christmas Day after his return from Egypt in writing personal letters to the King of England and Emperor of Austria, with a view to peace. He asks King George how it is that the two most enlightened nations of Europe do not realise that peace is the chief need as well as the chief glory ... and concludes by asserting that the fate of all civilised nations is bound up in the conclusion of a war "which embraces the entire world." His efforts fail in both cases. On December 27th he makes the Moniteur the sole official journal. On February 7th, 1800, he orders ten days' military mourning for the death of Washington—that "great man who, like the French, had fought for equality and liberty." On April 22nd he urges Moreau to begin his campaign with the army of the Rhine, an order reiterated on April 24th through Carnot, again made Minister of War. A diversion to save the army of Italy was now imperative. On May 5th he congratulated Moreau on the battle of Stockach, but informs him that Massena's position is critical, shut up in Genoa, and with food only till May 25th. He advises Massena the same day that he leaves Paris that night to join the Army of Reserve, that the cherished child of victory must hold out as long as possible, at least until May 30th. At Geneva he met M. Necker. On May 14th he writes General Mortier, commandant of Paris, to keep that city quiet, as he will have still to be away a few days longer, which he trusts "will not be indifferent to M. de MÉlas."

No. 3.

This letter was written from Ivrea, May 29th, 1800. On the 30th Napoleon is at Vercelli, on June 1st at Novara, and on June 2nd in Milan. EugÈne served under Murat at the passage of the Ticino, May 31st.

M.'s; probably "Maman," i.e. his mother.

Cherries.—This fruit had already tender associations. Las Cases tells us that when Napoleon was only sixteen he met at Valence Mademoiselle du Colombier, who was not insensible to his merits. It was the first love of both.... "We were the most innocent creatures imaginable," the Emperor used to say; "we contrived little meetings together. I well remember one which took place on a midsummer morning, just as daylight began to dawn. It will scarcely be believed that all our happiness consisted in eating cherries together" (vol. i. 81, 1836).

No. 4.

Milan.—He arrived here on June 2nd, and met with a great reception. In his bulletin of June 5th we find him assisting at an improvised concert. It ends, somewhat quaintly for a bulletin, as follows: "Italian music has a charm ever new. The celebrated singers, Billington,[50] La Grassini, and Marchesi are expected at Milan. They say they are about to start for Paris to give concerts there." According to M. FrÉdÉric Masson, this Paris visit masked ulterior motives, and was arranged at a dÉjeÛner on the same day, where La Grassini, Napoleon, and Berthier breakfasted together. Henceforward to Marengo Napoleon spends every spare day listening to the marvellous songstress, and as at Eylau, seven years later, runs great risks by admitting Venus into the camp of Mars. At St. Helena he declares that from June 3rd to 8th he was busy "receiving deputations, and showing himself to people assembled from all parts of Lombardy to see their liberator." The Austrians had declared that he had died in Egypt. The date of No. 4 should probably be June 9th, on which day the rain was very heavy. He reached Stradella the next day.

SERIES D

No. 1.

The date is doubtless 27 Messidor (July 16), and the fÊte alluded to that of July 14. The following day Napoleon signed the Concordat with the Pope, which paved the way for the restoration of the Roman Catholic religion in France (September 11).

The blister.—On July 7 he quaintly writes Talleyrand: "They have put a second blister on my arm, which prevented me giving audience yesterday. Time of sickness is an opportune moment for coming to terms with the priests."

Some plants.—No trait in Josephine's character is more characteristic than her love of flowers—not the selfish love of a mere collector,[51] but the bountiful joy of one who wishes to share her treasures. Malmaison had become the "veritable Jardin des Plantes" of the epoch,[52] far better than its Paris namesake in those days. The splendid hothouses, constructed by M. Thibaut, had been modelled on those of Kew, and enabled Josephine to collect exotics from every clime, and especially from her beloved Martinique. No jewel was so precious to her as a rare and beautiful flower. The Minister of Marine never forgot to instruct the deep-sea captains to bring back floral tributes from the far-off tropics. These often fell, together with the ships, into the hands of the British sea-dogs, but the Prince Regent always had them sent on from London, and thus rendered, says Aubenas, "the gallant homage of a courtly enemy to the charming tastes and to the popularity already acquired by this universally beloved woman." Her curator, M. AimÉ Bonpland, was an accomplished naturalist, who had been with Humboldt in America, and brought thence 6000 new plants. On his return in 1804 he was nominated by Josephine manager of the gardens of Malmaison and Navarre.

In the splendid work, Le Jardin de la Malmaison, in three volumes, are plates, with descriptions of 184 plants, mostly new, collected there from Egypt, Arabia, the United States, the Antilles, Mexico, Madeira, the Cape of Good Hope, Mauritius, the East Indies, New Caledonia, Australia, and China. To Josephine we owe the Camellia, and the Catalpa, from the flora of Peru, whilst her maiden name (La Pagerie) was perpetuated by Messrs. Pavon and Ruiz in the Lapageria.

If the weather is as bad.—As we shall see later, Bourrienne was invaluable to Josephine's court for his histrionic powers, and he seems to have been a prime favourite. On the present occasion he received the following "Account of the Journey to PlombiÈres. To the Inhabitants of Malmaison,"—probably the work of Count Rapp, touched up by Hortense (Bourrienne's Napoleon, vol. ii. 85. Bentley, 1836):—

"The whole party left Malmaison in tears, which brought on such dreadful headaches that all the amiable company were quite overcome by the idea of the journey. Madame Bonaparte, mÈre, supported the fatigues of this memorable day with the greatest courage; but Madame Bonaparte, consulesse, did not show any. The two young ladies who sat in the dormeuse, Mademoiselle Hortense and Madame Lavalette, were rival candidates for a bottle of Eau de Cologne; and every now and then the amiable M. Rapp made the carriage stop for the comfort of his poor little sick heart, which overflowed with bile; in fact, he was obliged to take to bed on arriving at Epernay, while the rest of the amiable party tried to drown their sorrows in champagne. The second day was more fortunate on the score of health and spirits, but provisions were wanting, and great were the sufferings of the stomach. The travellers lived on in the hope of a good supper at Toul, but despair was at its height when on arriving there they found only a wretched inn, and nothing in it. We saw some odd-looking folks there, which indemnified us a little for spinach dressed with lamp-oil, and red asparagus fried with curdled milk. Who would not have been amused to see the Malmaison gourmands seated at a table so shockingly served!

"In no record of history is there to be found a day passed in distress so dreadful as that on which we arrived at PlombiÈres. On departing from Toul we intended to breakfast at Nancy, for every stomach had been empty for two days, but the civil and military authorities came out to meet us, and prevented us from executing our plan. We continued our route, wasting away, so that you might see us growing thinner every moment. To complete our misfortune, the dormeuse, which seemed to have taken a fancy to embark on the Moselle for Metz, barely escaped an overturn. But at PlombiÈres we have been well compensated for this unlucky journey, for on our arrival we were received with all kinds of rejoicings. The town was illuminated, the cannon fired, and the faces of handsome women at all the windows gave us reason to hope that we shall bear our absence from Malmaison with the less regret.

"With the exception of some anecdotes, which we reserve for chit-chat on our return, you have here a correct account of our journey, which we, the undersigned, hereby certify.

"Josephine Bonaparte.
Beauharnais Lavalette.
Hortense Beauharnais.
Rapp.
Bonaparte, mÈre.

"The company ask pardon for the blots."

"21 Messidor (July 10).

"It is requested that the person who receives this journal will show it to all who take an interest in the fair travellers."

At this time Hortense was madly in love with Napoleon's favourite general, Duroc, who, however, loved his master more, and preferred not to interfere with his projects, especially as a marriage with Hortense would mean separation from Napoleon. Hortense and Bourrienne were both excellent billiard players, and the latter used this opportunity to carry letters from Hortense to her lukewarm lover.

Malmaison, without you, is too dreary.—Although Madame la Grassini had been specially summoned to sing at the FÊte de la Concorde the day before.

No. 2.

This is the third pilgrimage Josephine has made, under the doctor's orders, to PlombiÈres; but the longed-for heir will have to be sought for elsewhere, by fair means or foul. Lucien, who as Spanish Ambassador had vainly spent the previous year in arranging the divorce and remarriage of Napoleon to a daughter of the King of Spain, suggests adultery at PlombiÈres, or a "warming-pan conspiracy," as the last alternatives.[53] Josephine complains to Napoleon of his brother's "poisonous" suggestions, and Lucien is again disgraced. In a few months an heir is found in Hortense's first-born, Napoleon Charles, born October 10.

The fat EugÈne had come partly to be near his sister in her mother's absence, and partly to receive his colonelcy. Josephine is wretched to be absent, and writes to Hortense (June 16):—"I am utterly wretched, my dear Hortense, to be separated from you, and my mind is as sick as my body. I feel that I was not born, my dear child, for so much grandeur.... By now EugÈne should be with you; that thought consoles me." Aubenas has found in the Tascher archives a charming letter from Josephine to her mother in Martinique, announcing how soon she may hope to find herself a great-grandmother.

No. 3.

Your letter has come.—Possibly the one to Hortense quoted above, as Josephine was not fond of writing many letters.

Injured whilst shooting a boar.—Constant was not aware of this occurrence, and was therefore somewhat incredulous of Las Cases (vol. i. 289). The account in the "Memorial of St. Helena" is as follows:—"Another time, while hunting the wild boar at Marly, all his suite were put to flight; it was like the rout of an army. The Emperor, with Soult and Berthier,[54] maintained their ground against three enormous boars. 'We killed all three, but I received a hurt from my adversary, and nearly lost this finger,' said the Emperor, pointing to the third finger of his left hand, which indeed bore the mark of a severe wound. 'But the most laughable circumstance of all was to see the multitude of men, surrounded by their dogs, screening themselves behind the three heroes, and calling out lustily "Save the Emperor![55] save the Emperor!" while not one advanced to my assistance'" (vol. ii. 202. Colburn, 1836).

"The Barber of Seville."—This was their best piece, and spectators (except Lucien) agree that in it the little theatre at Malmaison and its actors were unsurpassed in Paris. Bourrienne as Bartholo, Hortense as Rosina, carried off the palm. According to the Duchesse d'AbrantÈs, Wednesday was the usual day of representation, when the First Consul was wont to ask forty persons to dinner, and a hundred and fifty for the evening. As the Duchess had reason to know, Bonaparte was the severest of critics. "Lauriston made a noble lover," says the Duchess—"rather heavy" being Bourrienne's more professional comment. EugÈne, says MÉneval, excelled in footman's parts.[56] Michot, from the Theatre FranÇais, was stage manager; and Bonaparte provided what Constant has called "the Malmaison Troupe," with their dresses and a collection of dramas. He was always spurring them on to more ambitious flights, and by complimenting Bourrienne on his prodigious memory, would stimulate him to learn the longest parts. Lucien, who refused to act, declares that Bonaparte quoted the saying of Louis XVI. concerning Marie Antoinette and her company, that the performances "were royally badly played." Junot, however, even in these days played the part of a drunkard only too well (Jung, vol. ii. 256).

No. 4.

The SÈvres Manufactory.—After his visit, he wrote Duroc: "This morning I gave, in the form of gratuity, a week's wages to the workmen of the SÈvres manufactory. Have the amount given to the director. It should not exceed a thousand Écus."

No. 5.

Your lover, who is tired of being alone.—So much so that he got up at five o'clock in the morning to read his letters in a young bride's bed-chamber. The story is brightly told by the lady in question, Madame d'AbrantÈs (vol. ii. ch. 19). A few days before the Marly hunt, mentioned in No. 3, the young wife of seventeen, whom Bonaparte had known from infancy, and whose mother (Madame Permon) he had wished to marry, found the First Consul seated by her bedside with a thick packet of letters, which he was carefully opening and making marginal notes upon. At six he went off singing, pinching the lady's foot through the bed-clothes as he went. The next day the same thing happened, and the third day she locked herself in, and prevented her maid from finding the key. In vain—the unwelcome visitor fetched a master-key. As a last resource, she wheedled her husband, General Junot, into breaking orders and spending the night with her; and the next day (June 22) Bonaparte came in to proclaim the hunting morning, but by her side found his old comrade of Toulon, fast asleep. The latter dreamily but good-humouredly asked, "Why, General, what are you doing in a lady's chamber at this hour?" and the former replied, "I came to awake Madame Junot for the chase, but I find her provided with an alarum still earlier than myself. I might scold, for you are contraband here, M. Junot." He then withdrew, after offering Junot a horse for the hunt. The husband jumped up, exclaiming, "Faith! that is an amiable man! What goodness! Instead of scolding, instead of sending me sneaking back to my duty in Paris! Confess, my Laura, that he is not only an admirable being, but above the sphere of human nature." Laura, however, was still dubious. Later in the day she was taken to task by the First Consul, who was astounded when she told him that his action might compromise her. "I shall never forget," she says, "Napoleon's expression of countenance at this moment; it displayed a rapid succession of emotions, none of them evil." Josephine heard of the affair, and was jealous for some little time to come.

General Ney.—Bonaparte had instructed Josephine to find him a nice wife, and she had chosen Mlle. AglaÉ-Louise AuguiÉ, the intimate friend and schoolfellow of Hortense, and daughter of a former Receveur-GÉnÉral des Finances. To the latter Ney goes fortified with a charming letter from Josephine, dated May 30—the month which the EncyclopÆdia Britannica has erroneously given for that of the marriage, which seems to have taken place at the end of July (Biographie Universelle, Michaud, vol. xxx.). Napoleon (who stood godfather to all the children of his generals) and Hortense were sponsors for the firstborn of this union, Napoleon Joseph, born May 8, 1803. The Duchess d'AbrantÈs describes her first meeting with Madame Ney at the Boulogne fÊte of August 15, 1802. Her simplicity and timidity "were the more attractive inasmuch as they formed a contrast to most of the ladies by whom she was surrounded at the court of France.... The softness and benevolence of Madame Ney's smile, together with the intelligent expression of her large dark eyes, rendered her a very beautiful woman, and her lively manners and accomplishments enhanced her personal graces" (vol. iii. 31). The brave way in which she bore her husband's execution won the admiration of Napoleon, who at St. Helena coupled her with Mdme. de Lavalette and Mdme. LabedoyÈre.

SERIES E

No. 1.

Madame.—Napoleon became Emperor on May 18th, and this was the first letter to his wife since Imperial etiquette had become de rigueur, and the first letter to Josephine signed Napoleon. MÉneval gives a somewhat amusing description of the fine gradations of instructions he received on this head from his master. This would seem to be a reason for this uncommon form of salutation; but, per contra, Las Cases (vol. i. 276) mentions some so-called letters beginning Madame et chÈre Épouse, which Napoleon declares to be spurious.

Pont de Bricques, a little village about a mile from Boulogne. On his first visit to the latter he was met by a deputation of farmers, of whom one read out the following address: "General, here we are, twenty farmers, and we offer you a score of big, sturdy lads, who are, and always shall be, at your service. Take them along with you, General; they will help you to give England a good thrashing. As for ourselves, we have another duty to fulfil: with our arms we will till the ground, so that bread be not wanting to the brave fellows who are destined to destroy the English." Napoleon thanked the honest yeomen, and determined to make the only habitable dwelling there his headquarters. The place is called from the foundations of bricks found there—the remains of one of CÆsar's camps.

The wind having considerably freshened.—Constant tells a good story of the Emperor's obstinacy, but also of his bravery, a few days later. Napoleon had ordered a review of his ships, which Admiral Bruix had ignored, seeing a storm imminent. Napoleon sends off Bruix to Holland in disgrace, and orders the review to take place; but when, amid the wild storm, he sees "more than twenty gunboats run aground," and no succour vouchsafed to the drowning men, he springs into the nearest lifeboat, crying, "We must save them somehow." A wave breaks over the boat; he is drenched and nearly carried overboard, losing the hat he had worn at Marengo. Such pluck begets enthusiasm; but, in spite of all they could do, two hundred lives were lost. This is Constant's version; probably his loss is exaggerated. The Emperor, writing Talleyrand on August 1st, speaks only of three or four ships lost, and "une quinzaine d'hommes."

No. 2.

The waters.—Mlle. d'Avrillon describes them and their effect—the sulphur baths giving erysipelas to people in poor health. Corvisart had accompanied the Empress, to superintend their effect, which was as usual nil.

All the vexations.—Constant (vol. i. 230, &c., 1896) is of use to explain what these were—having obtained possession of a diary of the tour by one of Josephine's ladies-in-waiting, which had fallen into Napoleon's hands. In the first place, the roads (where there were any[57]) were frightful, especially in the Ardennes forest, and the diary for August 1st concludes by stating "that some of the carriages were so battered that they had to be bound together with ropes. One ought not to expect women to travel about like a lot of dragoons." The writer of the diary, however, preferred to stay in the carriage, and let Josephine and the rest get wet feet, thinking the risk she ran the least. Another vexation to Josephine was the published report of her gift to the Mayoress of Rheims of a malachite medallion set in brilliants, and of her saying as she did so, "It is the colour of Hope." Although she had really used this expression, it was the last thing she would like to see in print, taking into consideration the reason for her yearly peregrinations to PlombiÈres, and now to Aix, and their invariable inefficiency. Under the date August 14th, the writer of the diary gives a severe criticism of Josephine. "She is exactly like a ten-year-old child—good-natured, frivolous, impressionable; in tears at one moment, and comforted the next.... She has just wit enough not to be an utter idiot. Ignorant—as are most Creoles—she has learned nothing, or next to nothing, except by conversation; but, having passed her life in good society, she has got good manners, grace, and a mastery of that sort of jargon which, in society, sometimes passes for wit. Social events constitute the canvas which she embroiders, which she arranges, and which give her a subject for conversation. She is witty for quite a whole quarter of an hour every day.... Her diffidence is charming ... her temper very sweet and even; it is impossible not to be fond of her. I fear that ... this need of unbosoming, of communicating all her thoughts and impressions, of telling all that passes between herself and the Emperor, keeps the latter from taking her into his confidence.... She told me this morning that, during all the years she had spent with him, never once had she seen him let himself go."

EugÈne has started for Blois, where he became the head of the electoral college of Loir et Cher, having just been made Colonel-General of the Chasseurs by Napoleon. The Beauharnais family were originally natives of Blois.

No. 3.

Aix-la-Chapelle.—In this, the first Imperial pilgrimage to take the waters, great preparations had been made, forty-seven horses bought at an average cost of £60 apiece; and eight carriages, which are not dear at £1000 for the lot, with £400 additional for harness and fittings.

At Aix they had fox-hunting and hare-coursing so called, but probably the final tragedy was consummated with a gun. Lord Rosebery reminds us that at St. Helena the Emperor actually shot a cow! They explored coal mines, and examined all the local manufactories, including the relics of Charlemagne—of which great warrior and statesman Josephine refused an arm, as having a still more puissant one ever at hand for her protection.

When tidings come that the Emperor will arrive on September 2, and prolong their stay from Paris, there is general lamentation among Josephine's womenkind, especially on the part of that perennial wet blanket and busybody, Madame de Larochefoucauld, who will make herself a still greater nuisance at Mayence two years later.

No. 4.

During the past week.—As a matter of fact he only reached Ostend on April 12th from Boulogne, having left Dunkirk on the 11th.

The day after to-morrow.—This fÊte was the distribution of the Legion of Honour at Boulogne and a review of 80,000 men. The decorations were enshrined in the helmet of Bertrand du Guesclin, which in its turn was supported on the shield of the Chevalier Bayard.

Hortense arrived at Boulogne, with her son, and the Prince and Princess Murat, a few days later, and saw the Emperor. Josephine received a letter from Hortense soon after Napoleon joined her (September 2nd), to which she replied on September 8th. "The Emperor has read your letter; he has been rather vexed not to hear from you occasionally. He would not doubt your kind heart if he knew it as well as I, but appearances are against you. Since he can think you are neglecting him, lose no time in repairing the wrongs which are not real," for "Bonaparte loves you like his own child, which adds much to my affection for him."

I am very well satisfied ... with the flotillas.—The descent upon England was to have taken place in September, when the death of Admiral Latouche-TrÉville at Toulon, August 19th, altered all Napoleon's plans. Just about this time also Fulton submitted his steamship invention to Bonaparte. The latter, however, had recently been heavily mulcted in other valueless discoveries, and refers Fulton to the savants of the Institute, who report it chimerical and impracticable. The fate of England probably lay in the balance at this moment, more than in 1588 or 1798.

Napoleon and Josephine leave Aix for Cologne on September 12, and it is now the ladies' turn to institute a hunt—the "real chamois hunt"; for each country inn swarms with this pestilence that walketh in darkness, and which, alas! is no respecter of persons.

No. 5.

Two points are noteworthy in this letter—(1) that like No. 1 of this series (see note thereto ) it commences Madame and dear Wife; and (2) it is signed Bonaparte and not Napoleon, which somewhat militates against its authenticity.

Arras, August 29th.—Early on this day he had been at St. Cloud. On the 30th he writes CambacÉrÈs from Arras that he is "satisfied with the spirit of this department." On the same day he writes thence to the King of Prussia and FouchÉ. To his Minister of Police he writes: "That detestable journal, Le Citoyen franÇais, seems only to wish to wallow in blood. For eight days running we have been entertained with nothing but the Saint Bartholomew. Who on earth is the editor (rÉdacteur) of this paper? With what gusto this wretch relishes the crimes and misfortunes of our fathers! My intention is that you should put a stop to it. Have the editor (directeur) of this paper changed, or suppress it." On Friday he is at Mons (writing interesting letters respecting the removal of church ruins), and reaches his wife on the Sunday (September 2nd) as his letter foreshadowed.

I am rather impatient to see you.—The past few months had been an anxious time for Josephine. Talleyrand (who, having insulted her in 1799, thought her his enemy) was scheming for her divorce, and wished Napoleon to marry the Princess Wilhelmina of Baden, and thus cement an alliance with Bavaria and Russia (Constant, vol. i. 240). The Bonaparte family were very anxious that Josephine should not be crowned. Napoleon had too great a contempt for the weaknesses of average human nature to expect much honesty from Talleyrand. But he was not as yet case-hardened to ingratitude, and was always highly sensitive to caricature and hostile criticism. Talleyrand had been the main cause of the death of the Duc d'Enghien, and was now trying to show that he had wished to prevent it; but possibly the crowning offence was contained in a lady's diary, that fell into the emperor's hands, where Talleyrand is said to have called his master "a regular little Nero" in his system of espionage. The diary in question is in Constant's "Memoirs," vol. i., and this letter helps to fix the error in the dates, probably caused by confusion between the Revolutionary and Gregorian Calendars.

No. 6.

T.—This may be Talleyrand, whom Mdme. de Remusat in a letter to her husband (September 21st) at Aix, hinted to be on bad terms with the Emperor—a fact confirmed and explained by MÉneval. It may also have been Tallien, who returned to France in 1802, where he had been divorced from his unfaithful wife.

B.—Doubtlessly Bourrienne, who was in disgrace with Napoleon, and who was always trying to impose on Josephine's good nature. No sooner had Napoleon left for Boulogne on July 14th than his former secretary inflicts himself on the wife at Malmaison.

Napoleon joins Josephine at St. Cloud on or before October 13th, where preparations are already being made for the Coronation by the Pope—the first ceremony of the kind for eight centuries.

SERIES F

No. 1.

To Josephine.—She was at PlombiÈres from August 2 to September 10, but no letter is available for the period, neither to Hortense nor from Napoleon.

Strasburg.—She is in the former Episcopal Palace, at the foot of the cathedral.

Stuttgard.—He is driven over from Ludwigsburg on October 4th, and hears the German opera of "Don Juan."

I am well placed.—On the same day Napoleon writes his brother Joseph that he has already won two great victories—(1) by having no sick or deserters, but many new conscripts; and (2) because the Badenese army and those of Bavaria and Wurtemberg had joined him, and all Germany well disposed.

No. 2.

Louisburg.—Ludwigsburg.

In a few days.—To Talleyrand he wrote from Strasburg on September 27: "Within a fortnight we shall see several things."

A new bride.—This letter, in the collection of his Correspondence ordered by Napoleon III., concludes at this point.

Electress.—The Princess Charlotte-Auguste-Mathilde (1766-1828), daughter of George III., our Princess Royal, who married Frederick I. Napoleon says she is "not well treated by the Elector, to whom, nevertheless, she seems much attached" (Brotonne, No. 111). She was equally pleased with Napoleon, and wrote home how astonished she was to find him so polite and agreeable a person.

No. 3.

I have assisted at a marriage.—The bride was the Princess of Saxe-Hildburghhausen, who was marrying the second son of the Elector.

No. 5.

Written at Augsburg. On October 15th he reaches the abbey of Elchingen, which is situated on a height, from whence a wide view is obtained, and establishes his headquarters there.

No. 6.

Spent the whole of to-day indoors.—This is also mentioned in his Seventh Bulletin (dated the same day), which adds, "But repose is not compatible with the direction of this immense army."

Vicenza.—Massena did not, however, reach this place till November 3rd. The French editions have Vienna, but Vicenza is evidently meant.

No. 7.

He is still at Elchingen, but at Augsburg the next day. On the 21st he issues a decree to his army that VendÉmiaire,[58] of which this was the last day but one, should be counted as a campaign for pensions and military services.

Elchingen.—MÉneval speaks of this village "rising in an amphitheatre above the Danube, surrounded by walled gardens, and houses rising one above the other." From it Napoleon saw the city of Ulm below, commanded by his cannon. Marshal Ney won his title of Duke of Elchingen by capturing it on October 14th, and fully deserved it. The Emperor used to leave the abbey every morning to go to the camp before Ulm, where he used to spend the day, and sometimes the night. The rain was so heavy that, until a plank was found, Napoleon sat in a tent with his feet in water (Savary, vol. ii. 196).

Such a catastrophe.—At Ulm General Mack, with eight field-marshals, seven lieutenant-generals, and 33,000 men surrender. Napoleon had despised Mack even in 1800, when he told Bourrienne at Malmaison, "Mack is a man of the lowest mediocrity I ever saw in my life; he is full of self-sufficiency and conceit, and believes himself equal to anything. He has no talent. I should like to see him some day opposed to one of our good generals; we should then see fine work. He is a boaster, and that is all. He is really one of the most silly men existing, and besides all that, he is unlucky" (vol. i. 304). Napoleon stipulated for Mack's life in one of the articles of the Treaty of Presburg.

No. 9.

Munich.—Napoleon arrived here on October 24th.

Lemarois.—A trusty aide-de-camp, who had witnessed Napoleon's civil marriage in March 1796, at 10 P.M.

I was grieved.—They had no news from October 12th to 21st in Paris, where they learnt daily that Strasburg was in the same predicament. Mdme. de RÉmusat, at Paris, was equally anxious, and such women, in the Emperor's absence, tended by their presence or even by their correspondence to increase the alarms of Josephine.

Amuse yourself.—M. Masson (Josephine, ImpÉratrice et Reine, p. 424) has an interesting note of how she used to attend lodge at the Orient in Strasburg, to preside at a "loge d'adoption sous la direction de Madame de Dietrich, grand maÎtresse titulaire."

Talleyrand has come.—He was urgently needed to help in the correspondence with the King of Prussia (concerning the French violation of his Anspach territory), with whom Napoleon's relations were becoming more strained.

No. 10.

We are always in forests.—Baron Lejeune, with his artist's eye, describes his impressions of the Amstetten forest as he travelled through it with Murat the following morning (November 4th). "Those of us who came from the south of Europe had never before realised how beautiful Nature can be in the winter. In this particular instance everything was robed in the most gleaming attire; the silvery rime softening the rich colours of the decaying oak leaves, and the sombre vegetation of the pines. The frozen drapery, combined with the mist, in which everything was more or less enveloped, gave a soft, mysterious charm to the surrounding objects, producing a most beautiful picture. Lit up by the sunshine, thousands of long icicles, such as those which sometimes droop from our fountains and water-wheels, hung like shining lustres from the trees. Never did ball-room shine with so many diamonds; the long branches of the oaks, pines, and other forest trees were weighed down by the masses of hoar-frost, while the snow converted their summits into rounded roofs, forming beneath them grottoes resembling those of the Pyrenean mountains, with their shining stalactites and graceful columns" (vol. i. 24).

My enemies.—Later in the day Napoleon writes from Lambach to the Emperor of Austria a pacific letter, which contains the paragraph, "My ambition is wholly concentrated on the re-establishment of my commerce and of my marine, and England grievously opposes itself to both."

No. 11.

Written from Lintz, the capital of Upper Austria, where Napoleon was on the 4th.

No. 12.

Napoleon took up his abode at the palace of Schoenbrunn on the 14th, and proves his "two-o'clock-in-the-morning courage" by passing through Vienna at that time the following morning.

No. 13.

They owe everything to you.—Aubenas quotes this, and remarks (vol. ii. 326): "No one had pride in France more than Napoleon, stronger even than his conviction of her superiority in the presence of other contemporary sovereigns and courts. He wishes that in Germany, where she will meet families with all the pride and sometimes all the haughtiness of their ancestry, Josephine will not forget that she is Empress of the French, superior to those who are about to receive her, and who owe full respect and homage to her."

No. 14.

Austerlitz.—Never was a victory more needful; but never was the Emperor more confident. Savary says that it would take a volume to contain all that emanated from his mind during that twenty-four hours (December 1-2). Nor was it confined to military considerations. General SÉgur describes how he spent his evening meal with his marshals, discussing with Junot the last new tragedy (Les Templiers, by Raynouard), and from it to Racine, Corneille, and the fatalism of our ancestors.

December 2nd was a veritable Black Monday for the Coalition in general, and for Russia in particular, where Monday is always looked upon as an unlucky day. Their forebodings increased when, on the eve of the battle, the Emperor Alexander was thrown from his horse (Czartoriski, vol. ii. 106).

No. 17.

A long time since I had news of you.—Josephine was always a bad correspondent, but at this juncture was reading that stilted but sensational romance—"Caleb Williams;" or hearing the "Achilles" of PaËr, or the "Romeo and Juliet" of Zingarelli in the intervals of her imperial progress through Germany. M. Masson, not often too indulgent to Josephine, thinks her conduct excusable at this period—paying and receiving visits, dressing and redressing, always in gala costume, and without a moment's solitude.

No. 19.

I await events.—A phrase usually attributed to Talleyrand in 1815. However, the Treaty of Presburg was soon signed (December 2nd), and the same day Napoleon met the Archduke Charles at Stamersdorf, a meeting arranged from mutual esteem. Napoleon had an unswerving admiration for this past and future foe, and said to Madame d'AbrantÈs, "That man has a soul, a golden heart."[59] Napoleon, however, did not wish to discuss politics, and only arranged for an interview of two hours, "one of which," he wrote Talleyrand, "will be employed in dining, the other in talking war and in mutual protestations."

I, for my part, am sufficiently busy.—No part of Napoleon's career is more wonderful than the way in which he conducts the affairs of France and of Europe from a hostile capital. This was his first experience of the kind, and perhaps the easiest, although Prussian diplomacy had needed very delicate and astute handling. But when Napoleon determined, without even consulting his wife, to cement political alliances by matrimonial ones with his and her relatives, he was treading on somewhat new and difficult ground. First and foremost, he wanted a princess for his ideal young man, Josephine's son EugÈne, and he preferred Auguste, the daughter of the King of Bavaria, to the offered Austrian Archduchess. But the young Hereditary Prince of Baden was in love and accepted by his beautiful cousin Auguste; so, to compensate him for his loss, the handsome and vivacious Stephanie Beauharnais, fresh from Madame Campan's finishing touches, was sent for. For his brother Jerome a bride is found by Napoleon in the daughter of the King of Wurtemberg. Baden, Bavaria, and Wurtemberg were too much indebted to France for the spoils they were getting from Austria to object, provided the ladies and their mammas were agreeable; but the conqueror of Austerlitz found this part the most difficult, and had to be so attentive to the Queen of Bavaria that Josephine was jealous. However, all the matches came off, and still more remarkable, all turned out happily, a fact which certainly redounds to Napoleon's credit as a match-maker.

On December 31st, at 1.45 A.M., he entered Munich by torchlight and under a triumphal arch. His chamberlain, M. de Thiard, assured him that if he left Munich the marriage with EugÈne would fall through, and he agrees to stay, although he declared that his absence, which accentuated the Bank crisis, is costing him 1,500,000 francs a day. The marriage took place on January 14th, four days after EugÈne arrived at Munich and three days after that young Bayard had been bereft of his cherished moustache. Henceforth the bridegroom is called "Mon fils" in Napoleon's correspondence, and in the contract of marriage Napoleon-EugÈne de France. The Emperor and Empress reached the Tuileries on January 27th. The marriage of Stephanie was even more difficult to manage, for, as St. Amand points out, the Prince of Baden had for brothers-in-law the Emperor of Russia, the King of Sweden, and the King of Bavaria—two of whom at least were friends of England. Josephine had once an uncle-in-law, the Count Beauharnais, whose wife Fanny was a well-known literary character of the time, but of whom the poet Lebrun made the epigram—

"Elle fait son visage, et ne fait pas ses vers."

Stephanie was the grand-daughter of this couple, and as Grand-Duchess of Baden was beloved and respected, and lived on until 1860.

SERIES G

No. 1.

Napoleon left St. Cloud with Josephine on September 25th, and had reached Mayence on the 28th, where his Foot Guard were awaiting him. He left Mayence on October 1st, and reached WÜrzburg the next day, whence this letter was written, just before starting for Bamberg. Josephine was installed in the Teutonic palace at Mayence.

Princess of Baden, Stephanie Beauharnais. (For her marriage, see note, end of Series F.)

Hortense was by no means happy with her husband at the best of times, and she cordially hated Holland. She was said to be very frightened of Napoleon, but (like most people) could easily influence her mother. Napoleon's letter to her of this date (October 5th) is certainly not a severe one:—"I have received yours of September 14th. I am sending to the Chief Justice in order to accord pardon to the individual in whom you are interested. Your news always gives me pleasure. I trust you will keep well, and never doubt my great friendship for you."

The Grand Duke, i.e. of WÜrzburg. The castle where Napoleon was staying seemed to him sufficiently strong to be armed and provisioned, and he made a great depÔt in the city. "Volumes," says MÉneval, "would not suffice to describe the multitude of his military and administrative measures here, and the precautions which he took against even the most improbable hazards of war."

Florence.—Probably September 1796, when Napoleon was hard pressed, and Josephine had to fetch a compass from Verona to regain Milan, and thus evade Wurmser's troops.

No. 2.

Bamberg.—Arriving at Bamberg on the 6th, Napoleon issued a proclamation to his army which concluded—"Let the Prussian army experience the same fate that it experienced fourteen years ago. Let it learn that, if it is easy to acquire increase of territory and power by means of the friendship of the great people, their enmity, which can be provoked only by the abandonment of all spirit of wisdom and sense, is more terrible than the tempests of the ocean."

EugÈne.—Napoleon wrote him on the 5th, and twice on the 7th, on which date we have eighteen letters in the Correspondence.

Her husband.—The Hereditary Grand Duke of Baden, to whom Napoleon had written from Mayence on September 30th, accepting his services, and fixing the rendezvous at Bamberg for October 4th or 5th.

On this day Napoleon invaded Prussian territory by entering Bayreuth, having preceded by one day the date of their ultimatum—a rhapsody of twenty pages, which Napoleon in his First Bulletin compares to "one of those which the English Cabinet pay their literary men £500 per annum to write." It is in this Bulletin where he describes the Queen of Prussia (dressed as an Amazon, in the uniform of her regiment of dragoons, and writing twenty letters a day) to be like Armida in her frenzy, setting fire to her own palace.

No. 3.

By this time the Prussian army is already in a tight corner, with its back on the Rhine, which, as Napoleon says in his Third Bulletin written on this day, is "assez bizarre, from which very important events should ensue." On the previous day he concludes a letter to Talleyrand—"One cannot conceive how the Duke of Brunswick, to whom one allows some talent, can direct the operations of this army in so ridiculous a manner."

Erfurt.—Here endless discussions, but, as Napoleon says in his bulletin of this day—"Consternation is at Erfurt, ... but while they deliberate, the French army is marching.... Still the wishes of the King of Prussia have been executed; he wished that by October 8th the French army should have evacuated the territory of the Confederation which has been evacuated, but in place of repassing the Rhine, it has passed the Saal."

If she wants to see a battle.—Queen Louise, great-grandmother of the present Emperor William, and in 1806 aged thirty. St. Amand says that "when she rode on horseback before her troops, with her helmet of polished steel, shaded by a plume, her gleaming golden cuirass, her tunic of cloth of silver, her red buskins with golden spurs," she resembled, as the bulletin said, one of the heroines of Tasso. She hated France, and especially Napoleon, as the child of the French Revolution.

No. 4.

I nearly captured him and the Queen.—They escaped only by an hour, Napoleon writes Berthier. Blucher aided their escape by telling a French General about an imaginary armistice, which the latter was severely reprimanded by Napoleon for believing.

No battle was more beautifully worked out than the battle of Jena—Davoust performing specially well his move in the combinations by which the Prussian army was hopelessly entangled, as Mack at Ulm a year before. Bernadotte alone, and as usual, gave cause for dissatisfaction. He had a personal hatred for his chief, caused by the knowledge that his wife (DÉsirÉe Clary) had never ceased to regret that she had missed her opportunity of being the wife of Napoleon. Bernadotte, therefore, was loth to give initial impetus to the victories of the French Emperor, though, when success was no longer doubtful, he would prove that it was not want of capacity but want of will that had kept him back. He was the Talleyrand of the camp, and had an equal aptitude for fishing in troubled waters.

I have bivouacked.—Whether the issue of a battle was decisive, or, as at Eylau, only partially so, Napoleon never shunned the disagreeable part of battle—the tending of the wounded and the burial of the dead. Savary tells us that at Jena, as at Austerlitz, the Emperor rode round the field of battle, alighting from his horse with a little brandy flask (constantly refilled), putting his hand to each unconscious soldier's breast, and when he found unexpected life, giving way to a joy "impossible to describe" (vol. ii. 184). MÉneval also speaks of his performing this "pious duty, in the fulfilment of which nothing was allowed to stand in his way."

No. 5.

Fatigues, bivouacs ... have made me fat.—The Austerlitz campaign had the same effect. See a remarkable letter to Count Miot de Melito on January 30th, 1806: "The campaign I have just terminated, the movement, the excitement have made me stout. I believe that if all the kings of Europe were to coalesce against me I should have a ridiculous paunch." And it was so!

The great M. Napoleon, aged four, and the younger, aged two, are with Hortense and their grandmother at Mayence, where a Court had assembled, including most of the wives of Napoleon's generals, burning for news. A look-out had been placed by the Empress some two miles on the main-road beyond Mayence, whence sight of a courier was signalled in advance.

No. 7.

Potsdam.—As a reward for Auerstadt, Napoleon orders Davoust and his famous Third Corps to be the first to enter Berlin the following day.

No. 8.

Written from Berlin, where he is from October 28th to November 25th.

You do nothing but cry.—Josephine spent her evenings gauging futurity with a card-pack, and although it announced Jena and Auerstadt before the messenger, it may possibly, thinks M. Masson, have been less propitious for the future—and behind all was the sinister portion of the spae-wife's prophecy still unfulfilled.

No. 9a.

Madame Tallien had been in her time, especially in the years 1795-99, one of the most beautiful and witty women in France. Madame d'AbrantÈs calls her the Venus of the Capitol; and Lucien Bonaparte speaks of the court of the voluptuous Director, Barras, where the beautiful Tallien was the veritable Calypso. The people, however, could not forget her second husband, Tallien, from whom she was divorced in 1802 (having had three children born while he was in Egypt, 1798-1802); and whilst they called Josephine "Notre Dame des Victoires," they called Madame Tallien "Notre Dame de Septembre."

The latter was, however, celebrated both for her beauty and her intrigues;[60] and when, in 1799, Bonaparte seized supreme power the fair lady[61] invaded Barras in his bath to inform him of it; but found her indolent Ulysses only capable of ejaculating, "What can be done? that man has taken us all in!" Napoleon probably remembered this, and may refer to her rather than to the Queen of Prussia in the next letter, where he makes severe strictures on intriguing women. Moreover, Napoleon in his early campaigns had played a ridiculous part in some of Gillray's most indecent cartoons, where Mmes. Tallien and Josephine took with Barras the leading rÔles; and as Madame Tallien was not considered respectable in 1796, she was hardly a fit friend for the Empress of the French ten years later. In the interval this lady, divorced a second time, had married the Prince de Chimay (Caraman). Napoleon knew also that she had been the mistress of Ouvrard, the banker, who in his Spanish speculations a few months earlier had involved the Bank of France to the tune of four millions sterling, and forced Napoleon to make a premature peace after Austerlitz. The Emperor had returned at white heat to Paris, and wished he could build a gallows for Ouvrard high enough for him to be on view throughout France. Madame Tallien's own father, M. de Cabarrus, was a French banker in Spain, and probably in close relation with Ouvrard.

No. 10.

Written from Berlin.

The bad things I say about women.—Napoleon looked upon this as a woman's war, and his temper occasionally gets the mastery of him. No war had ever been so distasteful to him or so personal. Prussia, whose alliance he had been courting for nearly ten years, was now worthless to him, and all because of petticoat government at Berlin. In the Fifteenth Bulletin (dated Wittenburg, October 23rd) he states that the Queen had accused her husband of cowardice in order to bring about the war. But it is doubtless the Sixteenth Bulletin (dated Potsdam, October 25th) to which Josephine refers, and which refers to the oath of alliance of the Emperor Alexander and the King of Prussia in the death chamber of Frederick the Great. "It is from this moment that the Queen quitted the care of her domestic concerns and the serious occupations of the toilet in order to meddle with the affairs of State." He refers to a Berlin caricature of the scene which was at the time in all the shops, "exciting even the laughter of clodhoppers." The handsome Emperor of Russia was portrayed, by his side the Queen, and on his other side the King of Prussia with his hand raised above the tomb of the Great Frederick; the Queen herself, draped in a shawl nearly as the London engravings represent Lady Hamilton, pressing her hand on her heart, and apparently gazing upon the Emperor of Russia." In the Eighteenth Bulletin (October 26th) it is said the Prussian people did not want war, that a handful of women and young officers had alone made this "tapage," and that the Queen, "formerly a timid and modest woman looking after her domestic concerns," had become turbulent and warlike, and had "conducted the monarchy within a few days to the brink of the precipice."

As the Queen of Prussia was a beautiful woman, she has had nearly as many partisans as Mary Stuart or Marie Antoinette, but with far less cause. Napoleon, who was the incarnation of practical common sense, saw in her the first cause of the war, and considered that so far as verbal flagellation could punish her, she should have it. He had neither time nor sympathy for the "Please you, do not hurt us" attitude of a bellicose new woman, who, as Imogen or Ida, have played with edged tools from the time of Shakespeare to that of Sullivan.

As an antidote, however, to his severe words against women he put, perhaps somewhat ostentatiously, the Princess d'Hatzfeld episode in his Twenty-second Bulletin (Berlin, October 29th). A year later (November 26th, 1807), when his Old Guard return to Paris and free performances are given at all the theatres, there is the "Triumph of Trajan" at the Opera, where Trajan, burning with his own hand the papers enclosing the secrets of a conspiracy, is a somewhat skilful allusion to the present episode.

No. 11.

Magdeburg had surrendered on November 8th, with 20 generals, 800 officers and 22,000 men, 800 pieces of cannon, and immense stores.

Lubeck.—This capitulation was that of Blucher, who had escaped after Jena through a rather dishonourable ruse. It had taken three army corps to hem him in.

No. 13.

Written from Berlin, but not included in the Correspondence.

Madame L——, i.e. Madame de la Rochefoucauld, a third or fourth cousin (by her first marriage) of Josephine, and her chief lady of honour. She was an incorrigible Royalist, and hated Napoleon; but as she had been useful at the Tuileries in establishing the Court, Napoleon, as usual, could not make up his mind to cause her dismissal. In 1806, however, she made Josephine miserable and Mayence unbearable. She foretold that the Prussians would win every battle, and even after Jena she (to use an expression of M. Masson), "continued her music on the sly" (en sourdine). See Letters 19 and 26 of this Series.

No. 17.

December 2, the anniversary of Austerlitz (1805) and of Napoleon's coronation (1804). He now announces to his soldiers the Polish campaign.

No. 18.

Not in the Correspondence.

Jealousy.—If Josephine's letters and conduct had been a little more worthy of her position, she might have saved herself. Madame Walewski, who had not yet appeared on the scene.

No. 19.

DÉsir de femme est un feu qui dÉvore.—The quotation is given in Jung's "Memoirs of Lucien" (vol. ii. 62). "Ce qu'une femme desire est un feu qui consume, celui d'une reine un vulcan qui dÉvore."

No. 23.

I am dependent on events.—He says the same at St. Helena. "Throughout my whole reign I was the keystone of an edifice entirely new, and resting on the most slender foundations. Its duration depended on the issue of my battles. I was never, in truth, master of my own movements; I was never at my own disposal."

No. 26.

The fair ones of Great Poland.—If Berthier and other regular correspondents of Josephine were like Savary in their enthusiasm, no wonder the Mayence coterie began to stir up jealousy. Here is the description of the Duke of Rovigo (vol. ii. 17): "The stay at Warsaw had for us something of witchery; even with regard to amusements it was practically the same life as at Paris: the Emperor had his concert twice a week, at the end of which he held a reception, where many of the leading people met. A great number of ladies from the best families were admired alike for the brilliancy of their beauty, and for their wonderful amiability. One may rightly say that the Polish ladies inspired with jealousy the charming women of every other civilised clime. They united, for the most part, to the manners of good society a fund of information which is not commonly found even among Frenchwomen, and is very far above anything we see in towns, where the custom of meeting in public has become a necessity. It seemed to us that the Polish ladies, compelled to spend the greater part of the year in their country-houses, applied themselves there to reading as well as to the cultivation of their talents, and it was thus that in the chief towns, where they went to pass the winter, they appeared successful over all their rivals." St. Amand says: "In the intoxication of their enthusiasm and admiration, the most beautiful among them—and Poland is the country of beauty—lavished on him, like sirens, their most seducing smiles...." Josephine was right to be jealous, for, as the artist Baron Lejeune adds, "They were, moreover, as graceful as the Creole women so often are."

A wretched barn, reached over still more wretched roads. The Emperor and his horse had nearly been lost in the mud, and Marshal Duroc had a shoulder put out by his carriage being upset.

Such things become common property.—So was another event, much to Josephine's chagrin. On this date Napoleon heard of a son (LÉon) born to him by ElÉanore, a former schoolfellow of Madame Murat. M. Masson thinks this event epoch-making in the life of Napoleon. "Henceforth the charm is broken, and the Emperor assured of having an heir of his own blood."

No. 27.

Warsaw, January 3.—On his way from Pultusk on January 1, he had received a Polish ovation at Bronie, where he first met Madame Walewski. The whole story is well told by M. Masson in NapolÉon et les Femmes; but here we must content ourselves with the mere facts, and first, for the sake of comparison, cite his love-letters to the lady in question:—(1.) "I have seen only you, I have admired only you, I desire only you. A very prompt answer to calm the impatient ardour of N." (2.) "Have I displeased you? I have still the right to hope the contrary. Have I been mistaken? Your eagerness diminishes, while mine augments. You take away my rest! Oh, give a little joy, a little happiness to a poor heart all ready to worship you. Is it so difficult to get a reply? You owe me one.—N." (3.) "There are moments when too high rank is a burden, and that is what I feel. How can I satisfy the needs of a heart hopelessly in love, which would fling itself at your feet, and which finds itself stopped by the weight of lofty considerations paralysing the most lively desires? Oh, if you would! Only you could remove the obstacles that lie between us. My friend Duroc will clear the way. Oh, come! come! All your wishes shall be gratified. Your native land will be dearer to me when you have had pity on my poor heart,—N." (4.) "Marie, my sweet Marie! My first thought is for you, my first desire to see you again. You will come again, will you not? You promised me to do so. If not, the eagle will fly to you. I shall see you at dinner, a friend tells me. Deign, then, to accept this bouquet; let it become a mysterious link which shall establish between us a secret union in the midst of the crowd surrounding us. Exposed to the glances of the crowd, we shall still understand each other. When my hand presses my heart, you will know that it is full of thoughts of you; and in answer you will press closer your bouquet. Love me, my bonny Marie, and never let your hand leave your bouquet.—N." In this letter, in which he has substituted tu for vous, there is more passion than we have seen since 1796. The fair lady now leaves her decrepit old husband, nearly fifty years her senior, and takes up her abode in Finckenstein Castle, for nearly two months of the interval between Eylau and Friedland. "In order," says Pasquier, "that nothing should be lacking to characterise the calm state of his mind and the security of his position, it was soon known that he had seen fit to enjoy a pleasurable relaxation by calling to him a Polish gentlewoman of excellent birth, with whom he had contracted a liaison while passing through Warsaw, and who, as a consequence of this journey, had the honour of bearing him a son." Repudiated by her husband, she came to Paris, where she was very kindly treated by Josephine, who, having once seen her, found in her no rival, but an enthusiastic patriot, "sacrificed to Plutus," as Napoleon told Lucien at Mantua a few months later, adding that "her soul was as beautiful as her face."

No. 28.

Be cheerful—gai.—This adjective is a favourite one in letters to his wife, and dates from 1796.

No. 29.

Roads unsafe and detestable.—The French troops used to say that the four following words constituted the whole language of the Poles: Kleba? Niema. Vota? Sara. ("Some bread? There is none. Some water? We will go and fetch it.") Napoleon one day passed by a column of infantry suffering the greatest privations on account of the mud, which prevented the arrival of provisions. "Papa, kleba?" exclaimed a soldier. "Niema," replied the Emperor. The whole column burst into a fit of laughter; they asked for nothing more. Baron Lejeune, Constant, and MÉneval have variants of the same story.

No. 35.

Written from Warsaw, and omitted from the Correspondence.

I hope that you are at Paris.—Madame Junot hints that her husband, as Governor of Paris, was being sounded by Bonaparte's sister, Murat's wife (with whom Junot was in love), if he would make Murat Napoleon's successor, in lieu of EugÈne, if the Emperor were killed. If Napoleon had an inkling of this, he would wish Josephine to be on the spot.

T.—Is probably Tallien, who had misconducted himself in Egypt. Madame Junot met him at Madrid, but she and others had not forgotten the September massacres. "The wretch! how did he drag on his loathsome existence?" she exclaims.

No. 36.

Paris.—Josephine arrived here January 31st; Queen Hortense going to the Hague and the Princess Stephanie to Mannheim.

No. 38.

Probably written from Arensdorf, on the eve of the battle of Eylau (February 9th), on which day a great ball took place in Paris, given by the Minister of Marine.

No. 39.

Eylau.—The battle of Preussich-Eylau was splendidly fought on both sides, but the Russian general, Beningsen, had all the luck. (1) His Cossacks capture Napoleon's letter to Bernadotte, which enables him to escape all Napoleon's plans, which otherwise would have destroyed half the Russian army. (2) A snowstorm in the middle of the day in the faces of the French ruins Augereau's corps and saves the Russians from a total rout. (3) The arrival of a Prussian army corps, under General Lestocq, robbed Davoust of his glorious victory on the right, and much of the ground gained—including the village of Kuschnitten. (4) The night came on just in time to save the rest of the Russian army, and to prevent Ney taking any decisive part in the battle. Bernadotte, as usual, failed to march to the sound of the guns, but, as Napoleon's orders to do so were captured by Cossacks, he might have had an excuse rather better than usual, had not General Hautpoult,[62] in touch both with him and Napoleon, advised him of his own orders and an imminent battle. Under such circumstances, no general save the Prince of Ponte-Corvo, says Bignon, would have remained inactive, "but it was the destiny of this marshal to have a rÔle apart in all the great battles fought by the Emperor. His conduct was at least strange at Jena, it will not be less so, in 1809, at Wagram." The forces, according to Matthieu Dumas (PrÉcis des EvÉnements Militaires, volume 18), were approximately 65,000 French against 80,000 allies[63]—the latter in a strong chosen position. Napoleon saved 1500, the wreckage of Augereau's[64] corps, that went astray in the blizzard (costing the French more than half their loss in the two days' fight), by a charge of his Horse Guard, but his Foot Guard never fired a shot. The allies lost 5000 to 6000 dead and 20,000 wounded. Napoleon told Montholon that his loss at Eylau was 18,000, which probably included 2000 dead, and 15,000 to 16,000 wounded and prisoners. As the French remained masters of the field of battle, the slightly wounded were evidently not counted by Napoleon, who in his bulletin gives 1900 dead and 5700 wounded. The list of wounded inmates of the hospital a month later, March 8th, totalled only 4600, which astonished Napoleon, who sent back for a recount. On receipt of this he wrote Daru (March 15): "From your advices to hand, I see we are not far out of count. There were at the battle of Eylau 4000 or 5000 wounded, and 1000 in the combats preceding the battle."

No. 40.

Corbineau.—Mlle. d'Avrillon (vol. ii. 101) tells how, in haste to join his regiment at Paris, Corbineau had asked for a seat in her carriage from St. Cloud. She was delighted, as he was a charming man, "with no side on like Lauriston and Lemarois." He had just been made general, and said, "Either I will get killed or deserve the favour which the Emperor has granted me. M'selle, you shall hear me spoken of; if I am not killed I will perform some startling deed."

Dahlmann.—General Nicholas Dahlmann, commanding the chasseurs of the guard, was killed in the charge on the Russian infantry which saved the battle. On April 22nd Napoleon wrote Vice-Admiral DecrÉs to have three frigates put on the stocks to be called Dahlmann, Corbineau, and Hautpoul, and in each captain's cabin a marble inscription recounting their brave deeds.

No. 41.

Young Tascher.—The third of Josephine's cousins-germain of that name. He was afterwards aide-de-camp of Prince EugÈne, and later major-domo of the Empress EugÉnie.

No. 42.

After this letter St. Amand declares that Napoleon's letters to his wife become "cold, short, banal, absolutely insignificant." "They consisted of a few remarks about the rain or the fine weather, and always the same refrain—the invitation to be cheerful.... Napoleon, occupied elsewhere, wrote no longer to his legitimate wife, but as a duty, as paying a debt of conscience." He was occupied, indeed, but barely as the author supposes. It is Bingham (vol. ii. 281) who reminds us that in the first three months of 1807 we have 1715 letters and despatches preserved of his work during that period, while he often rode forty leagues a day, and had instructed his librarian to send him by each morning's courier two or three new books from Paris. Aubenas is more just than St. Amand. "If his style is no longer that of the First Consul, still less of the General of Italy, he was solicitous, punctilious, attentive, affectionate even although laconic, in that correspondence (with Josephine) which, in the midst of his much greater preoccupations, seems for him as much a pleasure as a duty."

No. 43.

I am still at Eylau.—It took Napoleon and his army eight days to bury the dead and remove the wounded. Lejeune says, "His whole time was given up now to seeing that the wounded received proper care, and he insisted on the Russians being as well treated as the French" (vol. i. 48). The Emperor wrote Daru that if more surgeons had been on the spot he could have saved at least 200 lives; although, to look at the surgical instruments used on these fields, and now preserved in the museum of Les Invalides, it is wonderful that the men survived operations with such ghastly implements of torture. A few days later Napoleon tells Daru on no account to begrudge money for medicines, and especially for quinine.

This country is covered with dead and wounded.—"Napoleon," says Dumas (vol. i. 18, 41), "having given order that the succour to the wounded on both sides might be multiplied, rode over the field of battle, which all eye-witnesses agree to have been the most horrible field of carnage which war has ever offered. In a space of less than a square league, the ground covered with snow, and the frozen lakes, were heaped up with 10,000 dead, and 3000 to 4000 dead horses, dÉbris of artillery, arms of all kinds, cannon-balls, and shells. Six thousand Russians, expiring of their wounds, and of hunger and thirst, were left abandoned to the generosity of the conqueror."

No. 50.

Osterode.—"A wretched village, where I shall pass a considerable time." Owing to the messenger to Bernadotte being captured by Cossacks, the Emperor, if not surprised at Eylau on the second day, found at least all his own intentions anticipated. He could not risk the same misfortune again, and at Osterode all his army were within easy hailing distance, "within two marches at most" (Dumas). Savary speaks of him there, "working, eating, giving audience, and sleeping—all in the same room," alone keeping head against the storm of his marshals, who wished him to retire across the Vistula. He remained over five weeks at Osterode, and more than two months at Finckenstein Castle, interesting himself in the affairs of Teheran and Monte Video, offering prizes for discoveries in electricity and medicine, giving advice as to the most scientific modes of teaching history and geography, while objecting to the creation of poet-laureates or CÆsarians whose exaggerated praises would be sure to awaken the ridicule of the French people, even if it attained its object of finding a place of emolument for poets. Bignon says (vol. vi. 227): "From Osterode or from Finckenstein he supervised, as from Paris or St. Cloud, the needs of France; he sought means to alleviate the hindrances to commerce, discussed the best ways to encourage literature and art, corresponded with all his ministers, and while awaiting the renewal of the fray, having a war of figures with his Chancellor of Exchequer."

It is not as good as the great city.—The day before he had written his brother Joseph that neither his officers nor his staff had taken their clothes off for two months; that he had not taken his boots off for a fortnight; that the wounded had to be moved 120 miles in sledges, in the open air; that bread was unprocurable; that the Emperor had been living for weeks upon potatoes, and the officers upon mere meat. "After having destroyed the Prussian monarchy, we are fighting against the remnant of the Prussians, against Russians, Cossacks, and Kalmucks, those roving tribes of the north, who formerly invaded the Roman Empire."

I have ordered what you wish for Malmaison.—About this time he also gave orders for what afterwards became the Bourse and the Madeleine, and gave hints for a new journal (March 7th), whose "criticism should be enlightened, well-intentioned, impartial, and robbed of that noxious brutality which characterises the discussions of existing journals, and which is so at variance with the true sentiments of the nation."

No. 54.

Minerva.—In a letter of March 7th Josephine writes to Hortense: "A few days ago I saw a frightful accident at the Opera. The actress who represented Minerva in the ballet of 'Ulysses' fell twenty feet and broke her arm. As she is poor, and has a family to support, I have sent her fifty louis." This was probably the ballet, "The Return of Ulysses," a subject given by Napoleon to FouchÉ as a suitable subject for representation. In the same letter Josephine writes: "All the private letters I have received agree in saying that the Emperor was very much exposed at the battle of Eylau. I get news of him very often, sometimes two letters a day, but that does not replace him." This special danger at Eylau is told by Las Cases, who heard it from Bertrand. Napoleon was on foot, with only a few officers of his staff; a column of four to five thousand Russians came almost in contact with him. Berthier instantly ordered up the horses. The Emperor gave him a reproachful look; then sent orders to a battalion of his guard to advance, which was a good way behind, and standing still. As the Russians advanced he repeated several times, "What audacity, what audacity!" At the sight of his Grenadiers of the Guard the Russians stopped short. It was high time for them to do so, as Bertrand said. The Emperor had never stirred; all who surrounded him had been much alarmed.

No. 55.

"It is the first and only time," says Aubenas, "that, in these two volumes of letters (Collection Didot), Napoleon says vous to his wife. But his vexation does not last more than a few lines, and this short letter ends, 'Tout À toi.' Not content with this softening, and convinced how grieved Josephine will be at this language of cold etiquette, he writes to her the same day, at ten o'clock at night, before going to bed, a second letter in his old style, which ends, 'Mille et mille amitiÉs.'" It is a later letter (March 25th) which ends as described, but No. 56 is, nevertheless, a kind letter.

No. 56.

Dupuis.—Former principal of the Brienne Military School. Napoleon, always solicitous for the happiness of those whom he had known in his youth, had made Dupuis his own librarian at Malmaison. His brother, who died in 1809, was the learned Egyptologist.

No. 58.

M. de T——, i.e. M. de Thiard. In Lettres Inedites de Napoleon I. (Brotonne), No. 176, to Talleyrand, March 22nd, the Emperor writes: "I have had M. de Thiard effaced from the list of officers. I have sent him away, after having testified all my displeasure, and told him to stay on his estate. He is a man without military honour and civic fidelity.... My intention is that he shall also be struck off from the number of my chamberlains. I have been poignantly grieved at such black ingratitude, but I think myself fortunate to have found out such a wicked man in time." De Thiard seems to have been corresponding with the enemy from Warsaw.

No. 60.

Marshal BessiÈres.—His chÂteau of Grignon, now destroyed, was one of the most beautiful of Provence. Madame de SevignÉ lived and was buried in the town of Grignon.

No. 63.

This was printed April 24th in the French editions, but April 14th is evidently the correct date.

No. 67.

"Sweet, pouting, and capricious."—Aubenas speaks of these lines "in the style of the Italian period, which seemed in fact to calm the fears of the Empress."

No. 68.

Madame ——. His own sister, Madame Murat, afterwards Queen of Naples. See note to Letter 35 for her influence over Junot. The latter was severely reprimanded by Napoleon on his return and banished from Paris. "Why, for example, does the Grand Duchess occupy your boxes at the theatres? Why does she go thither in your carriage? Hey! M. Junot! you are surprised that I am so well acquainted with your affairs and those of that little fool, Madame Murat?" ("Memoirs of the Duchess d'AbrantÈs," vol. iii. 328.)

Measles.—As the poor child was ill four days, it was probably laryngitis from which he died—an ailment hardly distinguishable from croup, and one of the commonest sequelÆ of measles. He died on May 5th.

The best account is the Memoirs of Stanislaus Giraudin. They had applied leeches to the child's chest, and had finally recourse to some English powders of unknown composition, which caused a rally, followed by the final collapse. King Louis said the child's death was caused by the Dutch damp climate, which was bad for his own health. Josephine hastens to join her daughter, but breaks down at Lacken, where Hortense, more dead than alive, joins her, and returns to Paris with her.

No. 69.

I trust I may hear you have been rational in your sorrow.—As a matter of fact he had heard the opposite, for the following day (May 15th) he writes to his brother Jerome: "Napoleon died in three days at the Hague; I know not if the King has advised you of it. This event gives me the more pain insomuch as his father and mother are not rational, and are giving themselves up to all the transports of their grief." To FouchÉ he writes three days later: "I have been very much afflicted by the misfortune which has befallen me. I had hoped for a more brilliant destiny for that poor child;" and on May 20th, "I have felt the loss of the little Napoleon very acutely. I would have wished that his father and mother should have received from their temperament as much courage as I for knowing how to bear all the ills of life. But they are younger, and have reflected less on the frailty of our worldly possessions." It is typical of Napoleon that the only man to whom, as far as we know, he unbosomed his sorrow should be one of his early friends, even though that friend should be the false and faithless FouchÉ, who requited his confidence later by vile and baseless allegations respecting the parentage of this very child. In one respect only did Napoleon resemble David in his supposititious sin, which was, that when the child was dead, he had neither time nor temperament to waste in futile regrets. As he said on another occasion, if his wife had died during the Austerlitz Campaign it would not have delayed his operations a quarter of an hour. But he considers practical succour to the living as the most fitting memorial to the dead, and writes on June 4th to De Champagny: "Twenty years ago a malady called croup showed itself in the north of Europe. Some years ago it spread into France. I require you to offer a prize of £500 (12,000 francs), to be given to the doctor who writes the best essay on this malady and its mode of treatment." Commenting on this letter Bignon (vol. vi. p. 262) adds, "It is, however, fortunate when, on the eve of battles, warlike princes are pondering over ways of preserving the population of their states."

No. 71.

May 20th.—On this date he writes Hortense: "My daughter, all the news I get from the Hague tells me that you are not rational. However legitimate your grief, it must have limits: never impair your health; seek distractions, and know that life is strewn with so many rocks, and may be the source of so many miseries, that death is not the greatest of all.—Your affectionate father, Napoleon."

No. 74.

I am vexed with Hortense.—The same day he encloses with this a letter to Hortense. "My daughter, you have not written me a line during your great and righteous grief. You have forgotten everything, as if you had nothing more to lose. They say you care no longer for any one, that you are callous about everything; I note the truth of it by your silence. This is not well, Hortense, it is not what you promised me. Your son was everything for you. Are your mother and myself nothing? Had I been at Malmaison I should have shared your grief, but I should have wished you at the same time to turn to your best friends. Good-bye, my daughter, be cheerful; it is necessary to be resigned; keep well, in order to fulfil all your duties. My wife is utterly miserable about your condition; do not increase her sorrow.—Your affectionate father, Napoleon."

Hortense had been on such bad terms with her husband for several months past that Napoleon evidently thinks it wiser not to allude to him, although he had written Louis a very strong letter on his treatment of his wife two months earlier (see letter 12,294 of the Correspondence, April 4th). There is, however, a temporary reunion between husband and wife in their common sorrow.

No. 78.

Friedland.—On this day he wrote a further letter to the Queen of Holland (No. 12,761 of the Correspondence): "My daughter, I have your letter dated Orleans. Your grief pains me, but I should like you to possess more courage; to live is to suffer, and the true man is always fighting for mastery over himself. I do not like to see you unjust towards the little Napoleon Louis, and towards all your friends. Your mother and I had hoped to be more to you than we are." She had been sent to take the waters of Cauterets, and had left her child Napoleon Louis (who died at Forli, 1831) with Josephine, who writes to her daughter (June 11th): "He amuses me much; he is so gentle. I find he has all the ways of that poor child that we mourn." And a few days later: "There remains to you a husband, an interesting child, and a mother whose love you know." Josephine had with women the same tact that her husband had with men, but the Bonaparte family, with all its good qualities, strained the tact and tempers of both to the utmost.

No. 79.

Tilsit.—Referring to Napoleon and Alexander at Tilsit, Michaud says: "Both full of wiles and devices, they affected nevertheless the most perfect sentiments of generosity, which at the bottom they scarcely dreamed of practising. Reunited, they were the masters of the world, but such a union seemed impossible; they would rather share it among themselves. Allies and rivals, friends and enemies, all were sacrificed; henceforth there were to be only two powers, that of the East and that of the West. Bonaparte at this time actually ruled from the Niemen to the Straits of Gibraltar, from the North Sea to the base of the Italian Peninsula."

SERIES H

No. 1.

Milan.—Magnificent public works were set on foot by Napoleon at Milan, and the Cathedral daily adorned with fresh marvels of sculpture. Arriving here on the morning of the 22nd, Napoleon goes first to hear the Te Deum at the Cathedral, then to see EugÈne's wife at the Monza Palace; in the evening to the La Scala Theatre, and finishes the day (to use an Irishism) by working most of the night.

Mont Cenis.—"The roads of the Simplon and Mont Cenis were kept in the finest order, and daily attracted fresh crowds of strangers to the Italian plains." So says Alison, but on the present occasion Napoleon was overtaken by a storm which put his life in danger. He was fortunate enough to reach a cave in which he took refuge. This cave appeared to him, as he afterwards said, "a cave of diamonds" (MÉneval).

EugÈne.—The writer in Biog. Univ. (art. Josephine) says: "During a journey that Napoleon made in Italy (November 1807) he wished, while loading EugÈne with favours, to prepare his mind for his mother's divorce. The Decree of Milan, by which, in default of male and legitimate children[65] of the direct line, he adopted EugÈne for his son and his successor to the throne of Italy, gave to those who knew how to read the secret thoughts of the Emperor in his patent acts the proof that he had excluded him from all inheritance in the Imperial Crown of France, and that he dreamed seriously of a new alliance himself."

No. 2.

Venice.—The Venetians gave Napoleon a wonderful ovation—many nobles spending a year's income on the fÊtes. "Innumerable gondolas glittering with a thousand colours and resounding with the harmony of instruments, escorted the barges which bore, together with the master of the world, the Viceroy and the Vice-Queen of Italy, the King and Queen of Bavaria, the Princess of Lucca, the King of Naples (Joseph, who stayed six days with his brother), the Grand Duke of Berg, the Prince of NeufchÂtel, and the greater part of the generals of the old army of Italy" (Thiers). While at Venice Napoleon was in easy touch with the Porte, of which he doubtless made full use, while, per contra, he was expected to give Greece her independence.

November 30th.—Leaving Milan, Napoleon came straight through Brescia to Verona, where he supped with the King and Queen of Bavaria. The next morning he started for Vicenza through avenues of vine-encircled poplars and broad yellow wheat-fields which "lay all golden in the sunlight and the breeze" (Constant). The Emperor went to the theatre at Vicenza, and left again at 2 A.M. Spending the night at Stra, he met the Venetian authorities early the next morning at Fusina.

No. 3.

Udine.—He is here on the 12th, and then hastens to meet his brother Lucien at Mantua—the main but secret object of his journey to Italy. It is most difficult to gauge the details—was it a political or a conjugal question that made the interview a failure? Madame D'AbrantÈs, voicing the rumours of the day, thinks the former; Lucien, writing Memoirs for his wife and children, declares it to be the latter. Napoleon was prepared to legalise the children of his first wife, and marry the eldest to Prince Ferdinand, the heir to the Spanish crown; but Lucien considers the Bourbons to be enemies of France and of the Bonapartes. These Memoirs of Lucien are not perhaps very trustworthy, especially where his prejudices overlap his memory or his judgment, but always instructive and very readable. When the account of this interview was written (early in 1812), Lucien was an English prisoner, furious that his brother has just refused to exchange him for "some English Lords." Speaking of Josephine, the Emperor tells him that in spite of her reputation for good-nature, she is more malicious than generally supposed, although for her husband "she has no nails"; but he adds that rumours of impending divorce have made life between them very constrained. "Only imagine," continued the Emperor, "that wife of mine weeps every time she has indigestion, because she says she thinks herself poisoned by those who wish me to marry some one else. It is perfectly hateful." He said that Joseph also thought of a divorce, as his wife gave him only daughters, and that the three brothers might be remarried on the same day. The Emperor regretted not having taken the Princess Augusta, daughter of his "best friend, the King of Bavaria," for himself, instead of for EugÈne, who did not know how to appreciate her and was unfaithful. He was convinced that Russia by invading India would overthrow England, and that his own soldiers were ready to follow him to the antipodes. He ends by offering Lucien his choice of thrones—Naples, Italy, "the brightest jewel of my Imperial crown," or Spain[66] (Madame D'AbrantÈs adds Prussia), if he will give way about Madame Jouberthon and her children. "Tout pour Lucien divorcÉ, rien pour Lucien sans divorce." When Napoleon finds his brother obdurate he makes EugÈne Prince of Venice, and his eldest daughter Princess of Bologna, with a large appanage. Lucien is in fresh disgrace within less than three months of the Mantuan interview, for on March 11, 1808, Napoleon writes brother Joseph, "Lucien is misconducting himself at Rome ... and is more Roman than the Pope himself. His conduct has been scandalous; he is my open enemy, and that of France.... I will not permit a Frenchman, and one of my own brothers, to be the first to conspire and act against me, with a rabble of priests."

I may soon be in Paris.—After leaving Milan he visits the fortifications at Alessandria, and is met by a torchlight procession at Marengo. Letters for two days (December 27-28th) are dated Turin, although Constant says he did not stop there. Crossing Mont Cenis on December 30th he reaches the Tuileries on the evening of New Year's Day (1808).

SERIES I

No. 1.

Bayonne is half-way between Paris and Madrid, nearly 600 miles from each. Napoleon arrived here April 15th, and left July 21st, returning with Josephine vi Pau, Tarbes, Auch, Montauban, Agen, Bordeaux, Rochefort, Nantes. Everywhere he received a hearty welcome, even, and especially, in La VendÉe. He arrives at Paris August 14th, hearing on August 3rd at Bordeaux of (what he calls) the "horrible catastrophe" of General Dupont at Baylen.

No. 2.

A country-house.—The ChÂteau of Marrac. Marbot had stayed there in 1803 with Augereau. Bausset informs us that this chÂteau had been built either for the Infanta Marie Victoire engaged to Louis XV., or for the Dowager Queen of Charles II., "the bewitched," when she was packed off from Madrid to Bayonne (see Hume's Spain, 1479-1788).

Everything is still most primitive.—Nevertheless he enjoyed the pamperruque which was danced before the chÂteau by seven men and ten maidens, gaily dressed—the women armed with tambourines and the men with castanets. Saint-Amand speaks of thirteen performers (seven men and six maidens) chosen from the leading families of the town, to render what for time immemorial had been considered fit homage for the most illustrious persons.

No. 3.

Prince of the Asturias.—The Emperor had received him at the chÂteau of Marrac, paid him all the honours due to royalty, while evading the word "Majesty," and insisting the same day on his giving up all claim to the Crown of Spain. Constant says he was heavy of gait, and rarely spoke.

The Queen.—A woman of violent passions. The Prince of the Asturias had designs on his mother's life, while the Queen openly begged Napoleon to put the Prince to death. On May 9th Napoleon writes Talleyrand to prepare to take charge of Ferdinand at ValenÇay, adding that if the latter were "to become attached to some pretty woman, whom we are sure of, it would be no disadvantage." A new experience for a Montmorency to become the keeper of a Bourbon, rather than his Constable. Pasquier, with his usual Malvolian decorum, gives fuller details. Napoleon, he says, "enumerates with care (to Talleyrand) all the precautions that are to be taken to prevent his escape, and even goes so far as to busy himself with the distractions which may be permitted him. And, be it noted, the principal one thrown in his way was given him by a young person who lived at the time under M. De Talleyrand's roof. This liaison, of which Ferdinand soon became distrustful, did not last as long as it was desired to."

No. 4.

A son has been born.—By a plebiscite of the year XII. (1804-5), the children of Louis and Hortense were to be the heirs of Napoleon, and in conformity with this the child born on April 20th at 17 Rue Lafitte (now the residence of the Turkish Ambassador), was inscribed on the register of the Civil List destined for princes of the blood. His two elder brothers had not been so honoured, but in due course the King of Rome was entered thereon. Had Louis accepted the Crown of Spain which Napoleon had in vain offered to him, and of which Hortense would have made an ideal Queen, the chances are that Napoleon would never have divorced Josephine. St. Amand shows at length that the future Napoleon III. is truly the child of Louis, and neither of Admiral Verhuell nor of the Duke Decazes. Louis and Hortense in the present case are sufficiently agreed to insist that the father's name be preserved by the child, who is called Charles Louis Napoleon, and not Charles Napoleon, which was the Emperor's first choice. In either case the name of the croup-stricken firstborn had been preserved. On April 23rd Josephine had already two letters from CambacÉrÈs respecting mother and child, and on this day the Empress writes her daughter: "I know that Napoleon is consoled for not having a sister."

Arrive on the 27th.—Josephine, always wishful to humour her husband's love of punctuality, duly arrived on the day fixed, and took up her abode with her husband in the chÂteau of Marrac. Ferdinand wrote to his uncle in Madrid to beware of the cursed Frenchmen, telling him also that Josephine had been badly received at Bayonne. The letter was intercepted, and Napoleon wrote Murat that the writer was a liar, a fool, and a hypocrite. The Emperor, in fact, never trusted the Prince henceforward. Bausset, who translated the letter, tells how the Emperor could scarcely believe that the Prince would use so strong an adjective, but was convinced on seeing the word maldittos, which he remarked was almost the Italian—maledetto.

SERIES J

Leaving St. Cloud September 22nd, Napoleon is at Metz on the 23rd, at Kaiserlautern on the 24th, where he sends a message to the Empress in a letter to CambacÉrÈs, and on the 27th is at Erfurt. On the 28th the Emperors of France and Russia sign a Convention of Alliance. Napoleon leaves Erfurt October 14th (the anniversary of Jena), travels incognito, and arrives St. Cloud October 18th.

No. 1.

I have rather a cold.—Napoleon had insisted on going to explore a new road he had ordered between Metz and Mayence, and which no one had ventured to say was not complete. The road was so bad that the carriage of the maÎtre des requÊtes, who had been summoned to account for the faulty work, was precipitated a hundred feet down a ravine near Kaiserlautern.

I am pleased with the Emperor and every one here.—Which included what he had promised Talma for his audience—a parterre of kings. Besides the two Emperors, the King of Prussia was represented by his brother Prince William, Austria by General Vincent, and there were also the Kings of Saxony, Bavaria, WÜrtemberg, Westphalia, and Naples, the Prince Primate, the Princes of Anhalt, Coburg, Saxe-Weimar, Darmstadt, Baden, and Nassau. Talleyrand, Champagny, Maret, Duroc, Berthier, and Caulaincourt, with Generals Oudinot, Soult, and Lauriston accompanied Napoleon. Literature was represented by Goethe, Wieland, MÜller; and feminine attractions by the Duchess of Saxe-Weimar and the wily Princess of Tour and Taxis, sister of the Queen of Prussia. Pasquier and others have proved that at Erfurt Talleyrand did far more harm than good to his master's cause, and in fact intended to do so. On his arrival he spent his first evening with the Princess of Tour and Taxis, in order to meet the Emperor Alexander, and said: "Sire ... It is for you to save Europe, and the only way of attaining this object is by resisting Napoleon. The French people are civilised, their Emperor is not: the sovereign of Russia is civilised, his people are not. It is therefore for the sovereign of Russia to be the ally of the French people,"—of whom Talleyrand declared himself to be the representative. By squaring Alexander this transcendental (unfrocked) Vicar of Bray, "with an oar in every boat," is once more hedging, or, to use his own phrase, guaranteeing the future, and at the same time securing the daughter of the Duchess of Courland for his nephew, Edmond de PÉrigord. "The Arch-apostate" carried his treason so far as to advise Alexander of Napoleon's ulterior views, and thus enabled the former to forestall them—no easy matter in conversations with Napoleon "lasting whole days" (see Letter No. 3, this Series). Talleyrand had also a grievance. He had been replaced as Foreign Minister by Champagny. He had accepted the surrender of his portfolio gladly, as now, becoming Vice-Grand Elector, he ranked with CambacÉrÈs and Maret. But when he found that Napoleon, who liked to have credit for his own diplomacy, seldom consulted him, or allowed Champagny to do so, jealousy and ill-will naturally resulted.

No. 2.

Shooting over the battlefield of Jena.—The presence of the Emperor Alexander on this occasion was considered a great affront to his recent ally, the King of Prussia, and is severely commented on by Von Moltke in one of his Essays. In fairness to Alexander, we must remember that their host, the Duke of Saxe-Weimar, had married his sister. Von Moltke, by the way, speaks of hares forming the sport in question, but Savary of a second battle of Jena fought against the partridges. The fact seems to be that all kinds of game, including stags and deer, were driven by the beaters to the royal sportsmen in their huts, and the Emperor Alexander, albeit short-sighted, succeeded in killing a stag, at eight feet distance, at the first shot.

The Weimar ball.—This followed the Jena shoot, and the dancing lasted all night. The Russian courtiers were scandalised at their Emperor dancing, but while he was present the dancing was conventional enough, consisting of promenading two and two to the strains of a Polish march. "Imperial Waltz, imported from the Rhine," was already the rage in Germany, and Napoleon, in order to be more worthy of his Austrian princess, tried next year to master this new science of tactics, but after a trial with the Princess Stephanie, the lady declared that her pupil should always give lessons, and never receive them. He was rather more successful at billiards, pursued under the same praiseworthy incentive.

A few trifling ailments.—Mainly a fearful nightmare; a new experience, in which he imagines his vitals torn out by a bear. "Significant of much!" As when also the Russian Emperor finds himself without a sword and accepts that of Napoleon as a gift: and when, on the last night, the latter orders his comedians to play "Bajazet,"—little thinking the appointed Tamerlane was by his side.

No. 3.

I am pleased with Alexander.—For the time being Josephine had most reason to be pleased with Alexander, who failed to secure his sister's hand for Napoleon.

He ought to be with me.—He might have been, had not Napoleon purposely evaded the Eastern Question. On this subject Savary writes (vol. ii. 297):—"Since Tilsit, Napoleon had sounded the personal views of his ambassador at Constantinople, General Sebastiani, as to this proposition of the Emperor of Russia (i.e. the partition of Turkey). This ambassador was utterly opposed to this project, and in a long report that he sent to the Emperor on his return from Constantinople, he demonstrated to him that it was absolutely necessary for France never to consent to the dismemberment of the Turkish Empire; the Emperor Napoleon adopted his views." And these Talleyrand knew. The whirligig of time brings about its revenges, and in less than fifty years Lord Palmerston had to seek an alliance with France and the house of Napoleon in order to maintain the fixed policy that sent Napoleon I. to Moscow and to St. Helena. "Alexander, with justice," says Alison, "looked upon Constantinople as the back-door of his empire, and was earnest that its key should be placed in his hands." "Alexander," Napoleon told O'Meara, "wanted to get Constantinople, which I would not allow, as it would have destroyed the equilibrium of power in Europe. I reflected that France would gain Egypt, Syria, and the islands, which would have been nothing in comparison with what Russia would have obtained. I considered that the barbarians of the north were already too powerful, and probably in the course of time would overwhelm all Europe, as I now think they will. Austria already trembles: Russia and Prussia united, Austria falls, and England cannot prevent it." Erfurt is the meridian of Napoleon's first thirteen years (1796-1808)—each more glorious; henceforward (1809-1821) ever faster he "rolls, darkling, down the torrent of his fate."

SERIES K

No. 5.

Written from Aranda.

No. 6.

Written from the Imperial Camp outside Madrid. Neither Napoleon[67] nor Joseph entered the capital, but King Joseph took up his abode at the Prado, the castle of the Kings of Spain, two miles away; while the Emperor was generally at Chamartin, some five miles distant. He had arrived on the heights surrounding Madrid on his Coronation Day (December 2nd), and does not fail to remind his soldiers and his people of this auspicious coincidence. The bulletin concludes with a tirade against England, whose conduct is "shameful," but her troops "well disciplined and superb." It declares that Spain has been treated by them as they have treated Holland, Sardinia, Austria, Russia, and Sweden. "They foment war everywhere; they distribute weapons like poison; but they shed their blood only for their direct and personal interests."

Parisian weather of the last fortnight in May.—In his bulletin of the 13th, he says: "Never has such a month of December been known in this country; one would think it the beginning of spring." But ten days later all was changed, and the storm of Guadarrama undoubtedly saved Moore and the English army. "Was it then decreed," groans Thiers, "that we, who were always successful against combined Europe, should on no single occasion prevail against those implacable foes?"

No. 8.

Other letters of this date are headed Madrid.

Kourakin.—Alexander Kourakin was the new Russian Ambassador at Paris, removed thence from Vienna to please Napoleon, and to replace Tolstoi, who, according to Savary, was always quarrelling with French officers on military points, but who could hardly be so narrow-minded a novice on these points as his namesake of to-day. This matter had been arranged at Erfurt.

No. 9.

The English appear to have received reinforcements.—Imagine a Transvaal with a population of ten millions, and one has a fair idea of the French difficulties in Spain, even without Portugal. The Spaniards could not fight a scientific battle like Jena or Friedland, but they were incomparable at guerilla warfare. The Memoirs of Barons Marbot and Lejeune have well demonstrated this. The latter, an accomplished linguist, sent to locate Moore's army, found that to pass as an Englishman the magic words "Damn it," won him complete success.

No. 10.

Benavente.—Here they found 600 horses, which had been hamstrung by the English.

The English flee panic-stricken.—The next day Napoleon writes FouchÉ to have songs written, and caricatures made of them, which are also to be translated into German and Italian, and circulated in Germany and Italy.

The weather is very bad.—Including 18 degrees of frost. Savary says they had never felt the cold so severe in Poland—and that they ran a risk of being buried in the snow. The Emperor had to march on foot and was very much tired. "On these occasions," adds Savary, "the Emperor was not selfish, as people would have us believe ... he shared his supper[68] and his fire with all who accompanied him: he went so far as to make those eat whom he saw in need of it." Napier gives other details: "Napoleon, on December 22nd, has 50,000 men at the foot of the Guadarrama. A deep snow choked the passes of the Sierra, and after twelve hours' toil the advanced guards were still on the wrong side: the general commanding reported the road impracticable, but Napoleon, dismounting, placed himself at the head of the column, and amidst storms of hail and driving snow, led his soldiers over the mountain." At the passage of the Esla Moore escapes Napoleon by twelve hours. Marbot, as usual, gives picturesque details. Officers and men marched with locked arms, the Emperor between Lannes and Duroc. Half-way up, the marshals and generals, who wore jack-boots, could go no further. Napoleon, however, got hoisted on to a gun, and bestrode it: the marshals and generals did the same, and in this grotesque order they reached, after four hours' toil, the convent at the summit.

Lefebvre.—As they neared Benavente the slush became frightful, and the artillery could not keep pace. General Lefebvre-Desnouette went forward, with the horse regiment of the Guard, forded the Esla with four squadrons, was outnumbered by the English (3000 to 300), but he and sixty (Lejeune, who escaped, says a hundred) of his chasseurs were captured. He was brought in great triumph to Sir John Moore. "That general," says Thiers, "possessed the courtesy characteristic of all great nations; he received with the greatest respect the brilliant general who commanded Napoleon's light cavalry, seated him at his table, and presented him with a magnificent Indian sabre."

No. 11.

Probably written from Astorga, where he arrived on January 1st, having brought 50,000 men two hundred miles in ten days.

Your letters.—These probably, and others received by a courier, decided him to let Soult follow the English to Corunna—especially as he knew that transports were awaiting the enemy there. He himself prepares to return, for FouchÉ and Talleyrand are in league, the slim and slippery Metternich is ambassador at Paris, Austria is arming, and the whole political horizon, apparently bright at Erfurt, completely overcast. Murat, balked of the Crown of Spain, is now hoping for that of France if Napoleon is killed or assassinated. It is Talleyrand and FouchÉ who have decided on Murat, and on the ultimate overthrow of the Beauharnais. Unfortunately for their plans EugÈne is apprised by Lavalette, and an incriminating letter to Murat captured and sent post-haste to Napoleon. This, says Pasquier, undoubtedly hastened the Emperor's return. Ignoring the complicity of FouchÉ, the whole weight of his anger falls on Talleyrand, who loses the post of High Chamberlain, which he had enjoyed since 1804. For half-an-hour this "arch-apostate," as Lord Rosebery calls him, receives a torrent of invectives. "You are a thief, a coward, a man without honour; you do not believe in God; you have all your life been a traitor to your duties; you have deceived and betrayed everybody: nothing is sacred to you; you would sell your own father. I have loaded you down with gifts, and there is nothing that you would not undertake against me. Thus, for the past ten months, you have been shameless enough, because you supposed, rightly or wrongly, that my affairs in Spain were going astray, to say to all who would listen to you that you always blamed my undertaking there, whereas it was yourself who first put it into my head, and who persistently urged it. And that man, that unfortunate (he was thus designating the Duc d'Enghien), by whom was I advised of the place of his residence? Who drove me to deal cruelly with him? What then are you aiming at? What do you wish for? What do you hope? Do you dare to say? You deserve that I should smash you like a wine-glass. I can do it, but I despise you too much to take the trouble." This we are assured by the impartial Pasquier, who heard it from an ear-witness, and second-hand from Talleyrand, is an abstract of what Napoleon said, and to which the ex-Bishop made no reply.

No. 12.

The English are in utter rout.—Still little but dead men and horses fell into his hands. Savary adds the interesting fact that all the (800) dead cavalry horses had a foot missing, which the English had to show their officers to prove that they had not sold their horses. Scott, on barely sufficient evidence perhaps, states, "The very treasure-chests of the army were thrown away and abandoned. There was never so complete an example of a disastrous retreat." The fact seems to have been that the soldiership was bad, but Moore's generalship excellent. Napier writes, "No wild horde of Tartars ever fell with more license upon their rich effeminate neighbours than did the English troops upon the Spanish towns taken by storm." What could be expected of such men in retreat, when even Lord Melville had just said in extenuation of our army that the worst men make the best soldiers?

Nos. 13 and 14.

Written at Valladolid. Here he received a deputation asking that his brother may reside in Madrid, to which he agrees, and awaits its arrangement before setting out for Paris.

At Valladolid he met De Pradt, whom he mistrusted; but who, like Talleyrand, always amused him. In the present case the AbbÉ told him that "the Spaniards would never thank him for interfering in their behalf, and that they were like Sganarelle in the farce, who quarrelled with a stranger for interfering with her husband when he was beating her" (Scott's "Napoleon").

He leaves Valladolid January 17th, and is in Paris on January 24th. He rode the first seventy miles, to Burgos, in five and a half hours, stopping only to change horses.[69] Well might Savary say, "Never had a sovereign ridden at such a speed."

EugÈne has a daughter.—The Princess EugÉnie-Hortense, born December 23rd at Milan; married the hereditary Prince of Hohenzollern Hechingen.

They are foolish in Paris—if not worse. Talleyrand, FouchÉ, and others were forming what amounted to a conspiracy, and the Empress herself, wittingly or unwittingly, had served as their tool. For the first time she answers a deputation of the Corps LÉgislatif, who come to congratulate her on her husband's victories, and says that doubtless his Majesty would be very sensible of the homage of an assembly which represents the nation. Napoleon sees in this remark a germ of aggression on behalf of his House of Commons, more especially when emphasised by 125 blackballs against a Government Bill. He takes the effective but somewhat severe step of contradicting his wife in the Moniteur, or rather declaring that the Empress knew the laws too well not to know that the Emperor was the chief representative of the People, then the Senate, and last the Corps LÉgislatif.

"It would be a wild and even criminal assertion to try to represent the nation before the Emperor."

All through the first half of 1809 another dangerous plot, of which the centre was the Princess of Tour and Taxis, had its threads far and wide. Many of Soult's generals were implicated, and in communication with the English, preventing their commander getting news of Wellesley's movements (Napier). When they find Soult cannot be traduced, they lend a willing ear to stirring up strife between the Emperor and Soult, by suggesting that the latter should be made King of Portugal. Madame d'AbrantÈs, who heard in 1814 that the idea had found favour with English statesmen, thinks such a step would have seriously injured Napoleon (vol. iv. 53).

SERIES L

1809.

The dangers surrounding Napoleon were immense. The Austrian army, 320,000 strong (with her Landwehr, 544,000 men) and 800 cannon, had never been so great, never so fitted for war. Prussia was already seething with secret societies, of which as yet the only formidable one was the Tugendbund, whose headquarters were Konigsburg, and whose chief members were Stein, Stadion, Blucher, Jahn. Perhaps their most sensible scheme was to form a united German empire, with the Archduke Charles[70] as its head. The Archduke Ferdinand invaded the Duchy of Warsaw, and had he taken Thorn with its park of 100 cannon, Prussia was to join Austria. In Italy the Carbonari and Adelphes[71] only waited for the French troops to go north to meet the Austrians to spread revolt in Italy. Of the former the head lodge was at Capua and its constitutions written in English, since England was aiding this chouanerie religieuse as a lever against Napoleon. England had an army of 40,000 men ready to embark in any direction—to Holland, Belgium, Naples, or Biscay, while the French troops in Portugal were being tampered with to receive Moreau as their leader, and to march with Spaniards and English for the Pyrenees. At Paris Talleyrand was in partial disgrace, but he and FouchÉ were still plotting—the latter, says Pelet, forwarding daily a copy of the private bulletin (prepared for Napoleon's eye alone) to the Bourbons. After Essling and the breaking of the Danube bridge, he hesitated between seizing supreme power himself or offering it to Bernadotte.

Up to the last—up to March 27th—the Correspondence proves that Napoleon had hoped that war would be averted through the influence of Russia. "All initiative," he declared, "rested on the heads of the court of Austria." "Menaced on all sides; warned of the intentions of his enemies by their movements and by their intercepted correspondence; seeing from that moment hostilities imminent, he wishes to prove to France and Europe that all the wrongs are on their side, and awaits in his capital the news of an aggression that nothing justifies, nothing warrants. Vain prudence! Europe will accuse him of having been the instigator on every occasion, even in this."[72] On April 8th the Austrians violated Bavarian territory, and during his supreme command for the next five days Berthier endangered the safety of the French empire in spite of the most elaborate and lucid instructions from Napoleon, which he failed to comprehend. "Never," says Pelet, "was so much written, never so little done. Each of his letters (Berthier's) attests the great difference which existed between his own correspondence and that which was dictated to him." An ideal chief of staff, he utterly lacked the decision necessary for a commander-in-chief. The arrival of Napoleon changed in a moment the position of affairs. "The sudden apparition of the Emperor produced the effect of the head of Medusa, and paralysed the enemy."[73] Within five days the Austrians were four times defeated, and Ratisbon, the passe-partout of Southern Germany and half-way house between Strasburg and Vienna, is once more in the hands of France and her allies. Pelet considers these operations as the finest which have been executed either in ancient or modern times, at any rate those of which the projects are authentically proved. He foretells that military men from every country of Europe, but specially young Frenchmen, will religiously visit the fields of the Laber. They will visit, with Napoleon's Correspondence in their hands, "much more precious than every other commentary, the hills of Pfaffenhofen, the bridge of Landshut, and that of EckmÜhl, the mill of Stangl, and the woods of Roking." A few days later the Archduke Charles writes a letter to Napoleon, which is a fair type of those charming yet stately manners which made him at that moment the most popular man in Europe. "Sire," he writes, "your Majesty's arrival was announced to me by the thunder of artillery, without giving me time to compliment you thereon. Scarcely advised of your presence, I was made sensible of it by the losses which you have caused me. You have taken many of my men, Sire; my troops also have made some thousands of prisoners in places where you did not direct the operations. I propose to your Majesty to exchange them man for man, grade for grade, and if that offer is agreeable to you, please let me know your intentions for the place destined for the exchange. I feel flattered, sire, in fighting against the greatest captain of the age. I should be more happy if destiny had chosen me to procure for my country the benefit of a lasting peace. Whichsoever they be, the events of war or the approach of peace, I beg your Majesty to believe that my desires always carry me to meet you, and that I hold myself equally honoured in finding the sword, or the olive branch, in the hand of your Majesty."

No. 1.

Donauwerth.—On the same day Napoleon writes almost an identical letter to CambacÉrÈs, adding, however, the news that the Tyrolese are in full revolt.

On April 20th he placed himself at the head of the Wurtembergers and Bavarians at Abensberg. He made a stirring speech (No. 15,099 of Correspondence), and Lejeune tells us that the Prince Royal of Bavaria translated into German one sentence after another as the Emperor spoke, and officers repeated the translations throughout the ranks.

On April 24th is issued from Ratisbon his proclamation to the army:—"Soldiers, you have justified my expectations. You have made up for your number by your bravery. You have gloriously marked the difference between the soldiers of CÆsar and the armed cohorts of Xerxes. In a few days we have triumphed in the pitched battles of Thann, Abensberg, and EckmÜhl, and in the combats of Peising, Landshut, and Ratisbon. A hundred cannon, forty flags, fifty thousand prisoners.... Before a month we shall be at Vienna." It was within three weeks! He was specially proud of EckmÜhl, and we are probably indebted to a remark of Pasquier for his chief but never divulged reason. "A noteworthy fact in connection with this battle was that the triumphant army was composed principally of Bavarians and Wurtembergers. Under his direction, these allies were as greatly to be feared as the French themselves." At St. Helena was written: "The battle of Abensberg, the manoeuvres of Landshut, and the battle of EckmÜhl were the most brilliant and the most skilful manoeuvres of Napoleon." EckmÜhl ended with a fine exhibition of a "white arm" mÊlÉe by moonlight, in which the French proved the superiority of their double cuirasses over the breastplates of the Austrians. Pelet gives this useful abstract of the Campaign of Five Days:—

April 19th.—Union of the French army whilst fighting the Archduke, whose base is already menaced.

April 20th.—Napoleon, at Abensberg and on the banks of the Laber, breaks the Austrian line, totally separating the centre from the left, which he causes to be turned by Massena.

April 21st.—He destroys their left wing at Landshut, and captures the magazines, artillery, and train, as well as the communications of the enemy's grand army, fixing definitely his own line of operations, which he already directs on Vienna.

April 22nd.—He descends the Laber to EckmÜhl, gives the last blow to the Archduke's army, of which the remnant takes refuge in Ratisbon.

April 23rd.—He takes that strong place, and forces the Archduke to take refuge in the mountains of Bohemia.

No. 2.

May 6th.—On May 1st Napoleon was still at Braunau, waiting for news from Davoust. Travelling by night at his usual speed he reached Lambach at noon on May 2nd, and Wels on the 3rd. The next morning he heard Massena's cannon at Ebersberg, but reaches the field at the fall of night—too late to save the heavy cost of Massena's frontal attack. The French lost at least 1500 killed and wounded; the Austrians (under Hiller) the same number killed and 7000 prisoners. Pelet defends Massena, and quotes the bulletin of May 4th (omitted from the Correspondence): "It is one of the finest feats of arms of which history can preserve the memory! The traveller will stop and say, 'It is here, it is here, in these superb positions, that an army of 35,000 Austrians was routed by two French divisions'" (Pelet, ii. 225). Lejeune, and most writers, blame Massena, referring to the Emperor's letter of May 1st in Pelet's Appendix (vol. ii.), but not in the Correspondence.

Between April 17th and May 6th there is no letter to Josephine preserved, but plenty to EugÈne, and all severe—not so much for incapacity as for not keeping the Emperor advised of what was really happening. On May 6th he had received no news for over a week.

The ball that touched me—i.e. at Ratisbon. This was the second time Napoleon had been wounded in battle—the first time by an English bayonet at Toulon. On the present occasion (April 23rd) MÉneval seems to be the best authority: "Napoleon was seated on a spot from which he could see the attack on the town of Ratisbon. He was beating the ground with his riding-whip,[74] when a bullet, supposed to have been fired from a Tyrolean carbine, struck him on the big toe (Marbot says 'right ankle,' which is correct). The news of his wound spread rapidly[75] from file to file, and he was forced to mount on horseback to show himself to his troops. Although his boot had not been cut the contusion was a very painful one," and in the first house he went to for a moment's rest, he fainted. The next day, however, he saw the wounded and reviewed his troops as usual, and Lejeune has preserved a highly characteristic story, somewhat similar to an experience of the Great Frederick's: "When he had reached the seventh or eighth sergeant the Emperor noticed a handsome young fellow with fine but stern-looking eyes and of resolute and martial bearing, who made his musket ring again as he presented arms. 'How many wounds?' inquired the Emperor. 'Thirty,' replied the sergeant. 'I am not asking you your age,' said the Emperor graciously; 'I am asking how many wounds you have received.' Raising his voice, the sergeant again replied with the one word, 'Thirty.' Annoyed at this reply, the Emperor turned to the colonel and said, 'The man does not understand; he thinks I am asking about his age.' 'He understands well enough, sire,' was the reply; 'he has been wounded thirty times.' 'What!' exclaimed the Emperor, 'you have been wounded so often and have not got the cross!' The sergeant looked down at his chest, and seeing that the strap of his cartridge-pouch hid his decoration, he raised it so as to show the cross. He said to the Emperor, with great earnestness, 'Yes, I've got one; but I've merited a dozen!' The Emperor, who was always pleased to meet spirited fellows such as this, pronounced the sacramental words, 'I make you an officer!' 'That's right, Emperor,' said the new sub-lieutenant as he proudly drew himself up; 'you couldn't have done better!'"

No. 3.

Almost an exact duplicate of this letter goes on to Paris to CambacÉrÈs, as also of No. 4. The moment the Emperor had heard that the Archduke had left Budweiss and was going by the circuitous route vi Krems to Vienna, he left Enns (May 7th) and reached Moelk the same evening. Seeing a camp of the enemy on the other side of the river he sends Marbot with a sergeant and six picked men to kidnap a few Austrians during the night. The foray is successful, and three are brought before Napoleon, one weeping bitterly. The Emperor asked the reason, and found it was because he had charge of his master's girdle, and would be thought to have robbed him. The Emperor had him set free and ferried across the river, saying, "We must honour and aid virtue wherever it shows itself." The next day he started for Saint-Polten (already evacuated by Hiller). On his way he saw the ruins of Dirnstein Castle, where Richard Coeur de Lion had been imprisoned. The Emperor's comments were interesting, but are now hackneyed, and are in most histories and memoirs—the parent source being Pelet (vol. ii. 246).

No. 4.

Schoenbrunn, situated a mile from Vienna, across the little river of that name. Constant thus describes it: "Built in 1754 by the Empress Marie ThÉrÈse, Schoenbrunn had an admirable position; its architecture, if defective and irregular, was yet of a majestic, imposing type. To reach it one has to cross the bridge across the little river Vienna. Four stone sphinxes ornament this bridge, which is very large and well built. Facing the bridge there is a handsome gate opening on to a large courtyard, spacious enough for seven or eight thousand men to manoeuvre in. The courtyard is in the form of a quadrangle surrounded by covered galleries and ornamented with two large basins, in which are marble statues. On both sides of the gateway are two huge obelisks of pink stone surmounted by gilt eagles.

"In German, Schoenbrunn means 'fair spring,' and the name is derived from a fresh and sparkling spring which is situated in the park. It wells forth from a little mound on which a tiny grotto has been built, carved within so as to resemble stalactites. Inside the grotto is a recumbent naiad holding a horn, from which the water falls down into a marble basin. In summer this little nook is deliciously cool.

"The interior of the palace merits nothing but praise. The furniture is sumptuous, and in taste both original and distinguished. The Emperor's bedroom (the only place in the whole edifice where there was a chimney) was upholstered in Chinese lacquer-wood of great antiquity, yet the painting and gilding were still quite fresh. The study adjoining was decorated in a like way. All these apartments, except the bedroom, were heated in winter by immense stoves, which sadly spoilt the effect of the other furniture. Between the study and the bedroom there was a strange apparatus called a 'flying chair,' a sort of mechanical seat, which had been constructed for the Empress Marie ThÉrÈse, and which served to transport her from one floor to another, so that she was not obliged to go up and down the staircase like every one else. The machine was worked in the same way as at theatres, by cords, pulleys, and a counter-weight." The Emperor drank a glassful from the beautiful spring, Schoen Brunn, every morning. Napoleon found the people of Vienna less favourable to the French than in 1805; and Count Rapp told him "the people were everywhere tired of us and of our victories." "He did not like these sort of reflections."

May 12th.—On May 13th is dated the seventh bulletin of the army of Germany, but none of the Bulletins 2 to 6 are in the Correspondence. It states that on the 10th he is before Vienna; the Archduke Maximilian refuses to surrender; on the 11th, at 9 P.M., the bombardment commences, and by daybreak the city capitulated, and the Archduke fled. In his proclamation Napoleon blamed him and the house of Austria for the bombardment. "While fleeing from the city, their adieux to the inhabitants have been murder and arson; like Medea, they have with their own hands slain their children." The Viennese had sworn to emulate their ancestors in 1683, and the heroes of Saragossa. But Alison (than whom none can do the "big bow-wow" style better) has a thoughtful comment on what really occurred. "All history demonstrates that there is one stage of civilisation when the inhabitants of a metropolis are capable of such a sacrifice in defence of their country, and only one; and that when passed, it is never recovered. The event has proved that the Russians, in 1812, were in the state of progress when such a heroic act was possible, but that the inhabitants of Vienna and Paris had passed it. Most certainly the citizens of London would never have buried themselves under the ruins of the Bank, the Treasury, or Leadenhall Street before capitulating to Napoleon." 1870 and the siege of Paris modify this judgment; but the Prussian bombardment came only at the last, and barely reached the centre of the city.

No. 5.

Ebersdorf.—Written five days after the murderous battle of Essling. Montgaillard, whose temper and judgment, as Alison remarks, are not equal to his talents, cannot resist a covert sneer (writing under the Bourbons) at Napoleon's generalship on this occasion, although he adds a veneer by reminding us that CÆsar was defeated at Dyrrachium, Turenne at Marienthal, EugÈne at Denain, Frederick the Great at Kolin. The crossing of the river was one which none but a victorious army, with another[76] about to join it, could afford to risk, but which having effected, the French had to make the best of. As Napoleon said in his tenth bulletin, "The passage of a river like the Danube, in front of an enemy knowing perfectly the localities, and having the inhabitants on its side, is one of the greatest operations of war which it is possible to conceive." The Danube hereabouts is a thousand yards broad, and thirty feet deep. But the rising of its water fourteen feet in three days was what no one had expected. At Ebersdorf the first branch of the Danube was 500 yards across to an islet, thence 340 yards across the main current to Lobau, the vast island three miles broad and nearly three miles long, separated from the farther bank by another 150 yards of Danube. Bertrand had made excellent bridges, but on the 22nd the main one was carried away by a floating mill.

EugÈne ... has completely performed the task.—At the commencement of the campaign the Viceroy was taken unprepared. The Archduke John, exactly his own age (twenty-seven), was burning with hatred of France. EugÈne had the impudence, with far inferior forces, to attack him at Sacile on April 16th, but was repulsed with a loss (including prisoners) of 6000 men. It is now necessary to retire, and the Archduke follows him leisurely, almost within sight of Verona. By the end of April the news of EckmÜhl has reached both armies, and by May 1st the Austrians are in full retreat. As usual, Napoleon has already divined their altered plan of campaign, and writes from Braunau on this very day, "I doubt not that the enemy may have retired before you; it is necessary to pursue him with activity, whilst coming to join me as soon as possible vi Carinthia. The junction with my army will probably take place beyond Bruck. It is probable I shall be at Vienna by the 10th to the 15th of May." It is the successful performance of this task of joining him and of driving back the enemy to which Napoleon alludes in the letter. The Viceroy had been reproved for fighting at Sacile without his cavalry, for his precipitous retreat on Verona; and only two days earlier the Emperor had told him that if affairs went worse he was to send for the King of Naples (Murat) to take command. "I am no longer grieved at the blunders you have committed, but because you do not write to me, and give me no chance of advising you, and even of regulating my own affairs here conformably." On May 8th EugÈne defeats the Austrians on the Piave, and the Archduke John loses nearly 10,000 men and 15 cannon. Harassed in their retreat, they regain their own territory on May 14th—the day after the capitulation of Vienna. Henceforward EugÈne with part of the army, and Macdonald with the rest, force their way past all difficulties, so that when the junction with the Grand Army occurs at Bruck, Napoleon sends (May 27th) the following proclamation: "Soldiers of the army of Italy, you have gloriously attained the goal that I marked out for you.... Surprised by a perfidious enemy before your columns were united, you had to retreat to the Adige. But when you received the order to advance, you were on the memorable fields of Arcola, and there you swore on the manes of our heroes to triumph. You have kept your word at the battle of the Piave, at the combats of San-Daniel, Tarvis, and Goritz; you have taken by assault the forts of Malborghetto, of Prediel, and made the enemy's divisions, entrenched in Prewald and Laybach, surrender. You had not then passed the Drave, and already 25,000 prisoners, 60 cannon, and 10 flags signalised your valour." This is the proclamation alluded to in this letter to Josephine.

No. 6.

May 29th.—The date is wrong; it should be May 19th or 24th, probably the latter. It sets at rest the vexed question how the Danube bridge was broken, and seems to confirm Marbot's version of a floating mill on fire, purposely sent down by an Austrian officer of JÄgers, who won the rare order of Maria Theresa thereby—for performing more than his duty. Bertrand gained his Emperor's lifelong admiration by his expedients at this time. Everything had to be utilised—anchors for the boat bridges were made by filling fishermen's baskets with bullets; and a naval contingent of 1200 bluejackets from Antwerp proved invaluable.

No. 7.

I have ordered the two princes to re-enter France.—After so critical a battle as the battle of Essling the Emperor's first thoughts were concerning his succession—had he been killed or captured. He was therefore seriously annoyed that the heir-apparent and his younger brother had both been taken out of the country without his permission. He therefore writes the Queen of Holland on May 28th from Ebersdorf: "My daughter, I am seriously annoyed that you have left France without my permission, and especially that you have taken my nephews out of it. Since you are at Baden stay there, but an hour after receiving the present letter send my two nephews back to Strasburg to be near the Empress—they ought never to go out of France. It is the first time I have had reason to be annoyed with you, but you should not dispose of my nephews without my permission, you should realise what a bad effect it will have. Since the waters at Baden are doing you good you can stay there a few days, but, I repeat, lose not a moment in sending my nephews back to Strasburg. If the Empress is going to the waters at PlombiÈres they may accompany her there, but they must never pass the bridge of Strasburg.—Your affectionate father, Napoleon." This letter passed through the hands of Josephine at Strasburg, who was so unhappy at not having heard from her husband that she opened it, and writes to Hortense on June 1st when forwarding the letter: "I advise you to write to him immediately that you have anticipated his intentions, and that your children are with me: that you have only had them a few days in order to see them, and to give them a change of air. The page who is announced in MÉneval's letter has not yet arrived. I hope he will bring me a letter from the Emperor, and that at least he will not be as vexed with me for your being at Baden. Your children have arrived in excellent health."

The Duke of Montebello, who died this morning.—The same day he writes to La MarÉchale as follows:—

"Ma Cousine,—The Marshal died this morning of the wounds that he received on the field of honour. My sorrow equals yours. I lose the most distinguished general in my whole army, my comrade-in-arms for sixteen years, he whom I looked upon as my best friend. His family and children will always have a special claim on my protection. It is to give you this assurance that I wished to write you this letter, for I feel that nothing can alleviate the righteous sorrow that you will experience." The following year he bestowed the highest honour on the MarÉchale that she could receive.

Thus everything ends.—The fourteenth bulletin says that the end was caused by a pernicious fever, and in spite of Dr. Franck, one of the best physicians in Europe. "Thus ends one of the most distinguished soldiers France ever possessed."[77] He had received thirteen wounds. The death of Lannes, and the whole of the Essling period, is best told by Marbot. The loss of Lannes was a more serious one to Napoleon than the whole 20,000 men lost in this battle. The master himself has told us that "in war men are nothing, a man is everything." They could be replaced: Lannes never. Like KlÉber and Desaix, he stood on a higher platform than the older Marshals—except Massena, who had serious drawbacks, and who was the only one of Napoleon's best generals that Wellington met in the Peninsula. Lannes had always the ear of the Emperor, and always told him facts, not flattery. His life had been specially crowded the last few weeks. Rebuked by Napoleon for tardiness in supporting Massena at Ebersberg, his life was saved by Napoleon himself when he was thrown from his horse into the flooded Danube; and finally, on the field of Essling, he had under his orders BessiÈres, the man who had a dozen years before prevented his engagement to Caroline Bonaparte by tittle-tattling to Napoleon.

No. 9.

EugÈne won a battle.—The remnant of the Archduke John's army, together with Hungarian levies, in all 31,000 men, hold the entrenched camp and banks of the Raab. EugÈne defeats it, with a loss of 6000 men, of whom 3700 were prisoners. Napoleon, in commemoration of the anniversary of Marengo (and Friedland) calls it the little granddaughter of Marengo.

No. 11.

The curtain of the war's final act was rung up in the twenty-fourth bulletin. "At length there exists no longer the Danube for the French army; General Count Bertrand has completed works which excite astonishment and inspire admiration. For 800 yards over the most rapid river in the world he has, in a fortnight, constructed a bridge of sixteen arches where three carriages can pass abreast."

Wagram is, according to Pelet, the masterpiece of tactical battles, while the five days' campaign (Thann to Ratisbon) was one long strategic battle. Nevertheless, respecting Wagram, had the Archduke John, with his 40,000 men, turned up, as the Archduke had more right to expect than Wellington had to expect Blucher, Waterloo might have been antedated six years.

Lasalle was a prime favourite of Napoleon, for his sure eye and active bearing. His capture of Stettin with two regiments of hussars was specially noteworthy. Like Lannes he had a strong premonition of his death. Marbot tells a story of how Napoleon gave him 200,000 francs to get married with. A week later the Emperor asked, "When is the wedding?" "As soon as I have got some money to furnish with, sire." "Why, I gave you 200,000 francs to furnish with last week! What have you done with them?" "Paid my debts with half, and lost the other half at cards." Such an admission would have ruined any other general. The Emperor laughed, and merely giving a sharp tug at Lasalle's moustache, ordered Duroc to give him another 200,000.

I am sunburnt, and, as he writes CambacÉrÈs the same day, tired out, having been sixty out of the previous seventy-two hours in the saddle.

No. 12.

Wolkersdorf.—On July 8th he writes General Clarke: "I have the headquarters lately occupied by the craven Francis II., who contented himself with watching the whole affair from the top of a tower, ten miles from the scene of battle." On this day also he dictated his twenty-fifth bulletin, of which the last portion is so skilfully utilised in the last scene of Act V. in L'Aiglon. One concluding sentence is all that can here be quoted: "Such is the recital of the battle of Wagram, a decisive and ever illustrious battle, where three to four hundred thousand men, twelve to fifteen hundred guns, fought for great stakes on a field of battle, studied, meditated on, and fortified by the enemy for many months."

A surfeit of bile.—His usual source of relief after extra work or worry. In this case both. Bernadotte had behaved so badly at Wagram, that Napoleon sent him to Paris with the stern rebuke, "A bungler like you is no good to me." But as usual his anger against an old comrade is short-lived, and he gives General Clarke permission to send Bernadotte to command at Antwerp against the English.

No. 16.

My affairs follow my wishes.—In Austria, possibly, but not elsewhere. Prussia was seething with conspiracy, Russia with ill-concealed hatred, the English had just landed in Belgium, and Wellesley had just won Talavera. Soult was apparently no longer trustworthy, Bernadotte a conceited boaster, who had to be publicly snubbed (see The Order of the Day, August 5th, No. 15,614). Clarke and CambacÉrÈs are so slow that Napoleon writes them (August 10th) "not to let the English come and take you in bed." FouchÉ shows more energy than every one else put together, calls out National Guards, and sends them off to meet the northern invasion. The Minister of the Interior, M. Cretet, had just died, and the Emperor had wisely put FouchÉ, the most competent man available, into his place for the time being.

No. 17.

August 21st.—The list of birthday honours (August 15th) had been a fairly long one, Berthier becoming Prince of Wagram, Massena of Essling, Davoust of EckmÜhl. Marshals Oudinot and Macdonald, Generals Clarke, Reynier, Gaudin and Champagny, as also M. Maret, became Dukes. Marmont had already, says Savary, been made delirious with the joy of possessing a bÂton.

No. 18.

Comedians.—Napoleon found relaxation more after his own heart in conversing with the savants of Germany, including the great mechanic MÄelzel, with whose automaton chess-player he played a game. Constant gives a highly-coloured picture of the sequel: "The automaton was seated before a chess-board, and the Emperor, taking a chair opposite the figure, said laughingly, 'Now, my friend, we'll have a game.' The automaton, bowing, made signs for the Emperor to begin. After two or three moves the Emperor made a wrong one on purpose; the automaton bowed and replaced the piece on the board. His Majesty cheated again, when the automaton bowed again, but this time took the pawn. 'Quite right,' said his Majesty, as he promptly cheated for the third time. The automaton then shook its head, and with one sweep of its hand knocked all the chessmen down."

Women ... not having been presented.—One woman, however, the mistress of Lord Paget, was quite willing to be presented at a late hour and to murder him at the same time—at least so says Constant.

No. 19.

All this is very suspicious.—For perfectly natural reasons CÆsar's wife was now above suspicion, but CÆsar himself was not so. Madame Walewski had been more than a month at Schoenbrunn, and on May 4th, 1810, Napoleon has a second son born, who fifty years later helped to edit his father's Correspondence.

No. 20.

Krems.—He left here to review Davoust's corps on the field of Austerlitz. Afterwards all the generals dined with him, and the Emperor said, "This is the second time I come upon the field of Austerlitz; shall I come to it a third time?" "Sire," replied one, "from what we see every day none dare wager that you will not!" It was this suppressed hatred that probably determined the Emperor to dismantle the fortifications of Vienna, an act that intensified the hatred of the Viennese more than his allowing the poor people to help themselves to wood for the winter in the imperial forests had mollified them.

My health has never been better.—His reason for this remark is found in his letter to CambacÉrÈs of the same date, "They have spread in Paris the rumour that I was ill, I know not why; I was never better." The reason of the rumour was that Corvisart had been sent for to Vienna, as there had been an outbreak of dysentery among the troops. This was kept a profound secret from France, and Napoleon even allowed Josephine to think that Corvisart had attended him (see Letter 22).

No. 23.

October 14th.—Two days before, Stabs, the young Tugendbundist and an admirer of Joan of Arc, had attempted to assassinate Napoleon on parade with a carving-knife. The Emperor's letter to FouchÉ of the 12th October gives the most succinct account:—

"A youth of seventeen, son of a Lutheran minister of Erfurt, sought to approach me on parade to-day. He was arrested by the officers, and as the little man's agitation had been noticed, suspicion was aroused; he was searched, and a dagger found upon him. I had him brought before me, and the little wretch, who seemed to me fairly well educated, told me that he wished to assassinate me to deliver Austria from the presence of the French. I could distinguish in him neither religious nor political fanaticism. He did not appear to know exactly who or what Brutus was. The fever of excitement he was in prevented our knowing more. He will be examined when he has cooled down and fasted. It is possible that it will come to nothing. He will be arraigned before a military commission.

"I wished to inform you of this circumstance in order that it may not be made out more important than it appears to be. I hope it will not leak out; if it does, we shall have to represent the fellow as a madman. If it is not spoken of at all, keep it to yourself. The whole affair made no disturbance at the parade; I myself saw nothing of it.

"P.S.—I repeat once more, and you understand clearly, that there is to be no discussion of this occurrence."

Count Rapp saved the Emperor's life on this occasion, and he, Savary, and Constant, all give detailed accounts. Their narratives are a remarkable object-lesson of the carelessness of the average contemporary spectator in recording dates. Savary gives vaguely the end of September, Constant October 13th, and Count Rapp October 23rd. In the present case the date of this otherwise trivial incident is important, for careless historians assert that it influenced Napoleon in concluding peace. In any case it would have taken twenty such occurrences to affect Napoleon one hairbreadth, and in the present instance his letter of October 10th to the Russian Emperor proves that the Peace was already settled—all but the signing.

No. 24.

Stuttgard.—General Rapp describes this journey as follows: "Peace was ratified. We left Nymphenburg and arrived at Stuttgard. Napoleon was received in a style of magnificence, and was lodged in the palace together with his suite. The King was laying out a spacious garden, and men who had been condemned to the galleys were employed to labour in it. The Emperor asked the King who the men were who worked in chains; he replied that they were for the most part rebels who had been taken in his new possessions. We set out on the following day. On the way Napoleon alluded to the unfortunate wretches whom he had seen at Stuttgard. 'The King of WÜrtemberg,' said he, 'is a very harsh man; but he is very faithful. Of all the sovereigns in Europe he possesses the greatest share of understanding.'

"We stopped for an hour at Rastadt, where the Princess of Baden and Princess Stephanie had arrived for the purpose of paying their respects to the Emperor. The Grand Duke and Duchess accompanied him as far as Strasburg. On his arrival in that city he received despatches which again excited his displeasure against the Faubourg St. Germain. We proceeded to Fontainebleau; no preparations had been made for the Emperor's reception; there was not even a guard on duty."

This was on October 26th, at 10 A.M. MÉneval asserts that Napoleon's subsequent bad temper was feigned. In any case, the meeting—that moment so impatiently awaited—was a very bad quart d'heure for Josephine, accentuated doubtless by FouchÉ's report of bad conduct on the part of the ladies of St. Germain.

SERIES M

No. 1.

According to the Correspondence of Napoleon I., No. 16,058, the date of this letter is December 17th. It seems, however, possible that it is the letter written immediately after his arrival at Trianon, referred to by MÉneval, who was, in fact, responsible for it. Thiers, working from unpublished memoirs of Hortense and CambacÉrÈs, gives a most interesting account of the family council, held at 9 P.M. on Friday, December 15th, at the Tuileries. Constant also describes the scene, but gives the Empress credit for showing the most self-command of those chiefly interested. The next day, 11 A.M., Count LacÉpÈde introduced the resolutions of the family council to the Senatus-Consultus.[78] "It is to-day that, more than ever before, the Emperor has proved that he wishes to reign only to serve his subjects, and that the Empress has merited that posterity should associate her name with that of Napoleon." He pointed out that thirteen of Napoleon's predecessors had broken the bonds of matrimony in order to fulfil better those of sovereign, and that among these were the most admired and beloved of French monarchs—Charlemagne, Philip Augustus, Louis XII. and Henry IV. This speech and the Decrees (carried by 76 votes to 7) are found in the Moniteur of December 17th, which Napoleon considers sufficiently authentic to send to his brother Joseph as a full account of what occurred, and with no further comment of his own but that it was the step which he thought it his duty to take. The Decrees of the Committee of the Senate were:—"(1) The marriage contracted between the Emperor Napoleon and the Empress Josephine is dissolved. (2) The Empress Josephine will retain the titles and rank of a crowned Empress-Queen.[79] (3) Her jointure is fixed at an annual revenue of £80,000 from the public treasury.[80] (4) Every provision which may be made by the Emperor in favour of the Empress Josephine, out of the funds of the Civil List, shall be obligatory on his successors." They added separate addresses to the Emperor and Empress, and that to the latter seems worthy of quotation:—"Your Imperial and Royal Majesty is about to make for France the greatest of sacrifices; history will preserve the memory of it for ever. The august spouse of the greatest of monarchs cannot be united to his immortal glory by more heroic devotion. For long, Madame, the French people has revered your virtues; it holds dear that loving kindness which inspires your every word, as it directs your every action; it will admire your sublime devotion; it will award for ever to your Majesty, Empress and Queen, the homage of gratitude, respect, and love."

From a letter of EugÈne's to his wife, quoted by Aubenas, it appears that he, with his mother, arrived at Malmaison on Saturday evening,[81] December 16th, and that it never ceased raining all the next day, which added to the general depression, in spite of, or because of, EugÈne's bad puns. On the evening of the 16th Napoleon was at Trianon, writing letters, and we cannot think that if the Emperor had been to Malmaison on the Sunday,[82] EugÈne would have included this without comment in the "some visits" they had received. The Emperor, as we see from the next letter, paid Josephine a visit on the Monday.

No. 2.

The date of this is Tuesday, December 19th, while No. 3 is Wednesday the 20th.

Savary, always unpopular with the Court ladies, has now nothing but kind words for Josephine. "She quitted the Court, but the Court did not quit her; it had always loved her, for never had any one been so kind.... She never injured any one in the time of her power; she protected even her enemies"—such as FouchÉ at this juncture, and Lucien earlier. "During her stay at Malmaison, the highroad from Paris to this chÂteau was only one long procession, in spite of the bad weather; every one considered it a duty to present themselves at least once a week." Later, Marie Louise became jealous of this, and poor Josephine had to go to the chÂteau of Navarre, and finally to leave France.

Queen of Naples.—For some reason Napoleon had not wanted this sister at Paris this winter, and had written her to this effect from Schoenbrunn on October 15th. "If you were not so far off, and the season so advanced, I would have asked Murat to spend two months in Paris. But you cannot be there before December, which is a horrible season, especially for a Neapolitan."[83] But sister Caroline, "with the head of a Cromwell on the shoulders of a pretty woman," was not easy to lead; and her husband had in consequence to bear the full weight of the Emperor's displeasure. Murat's finances were in disorder, and Napoleon wrote Champagny on December 30th to tell Murat plainly that if the borrowed money was not returned to France, it would be taken by main force.[84]

The hunt.—In pouring rain, in the forest of St. Germain.

No. 4.

Thursday, December 21st, is the date.

The weather is very damp.—Making Malmaison as unhealthy as its very name warranted, and rendering more difficult the task which Madame de RÉmusat had set herself of resting Josephine mentally by tiring her physically. This typical toady—Napoleon's Eavesdropper Extraordinary—had arrived at Malmaison on December 18th. She writes on the Friday (December 22nd), beseeching her husband to advise the Emperor to moderate the tone of his letters, especially this one (Thursday, December 21st), which had upset Josephine frightfully. Surely a more harmless letter was never penned. But it is the RÉmusat all over; she lives in a chronic atmosphere of suspicion that all her letters are read by the Emperor, and therefore, like Stevenson's nursery rhymes, they are always written with "one eye on the grown-up person"[85]—on the grown-up person par excellence of France and the century. The opening of letters by the government was doubtless a blemish, which, however, Napoleon tried to neutralise by entrusting the Post Office to his wife's relative, Lavalette, a man whose ever-kind heart prevented this necessary espionage degenerating into unnecessary interference with individual rights.

No. 5.

Date probably Sunday, December 24th.

King of Bavaria.—EugÈne had gone to Meaux to meet his father-in-law, who had put off the "dog's humour" which he had shown since the 16th.

No. 6.

Josephine had gone by special invitation to dine at the little Trianon with Napoleon on Christmas Day, and Madame d'Avrillon says she had a very happy day there. "On her return she told me how kind the Emperor had been to her, that he had kept her all the evening, saying the kindest things to her." Aubenas says, "The repast was eaten in silence and gloom," but does not give his authority. EugÈne, moreover, confirms Madame d'Avrillon in his letter to his wife of December 26th: "My dear Auguste, the Emperor came on Sunday to see the Empress. Yesterday she went to Trianon to see him, and stayed to dinner. The Emperor was very kind and amiable to her, and she seemed to be much better. Everything points to the Empress being more happy in her new position, and we also." On this Christmas Day Napoleon had his last meal with Josephine.

No. 7.

Tuileries.—His return from Trianon to this, his official residence, made the divorce more apparent to every one.

No. 8.

A house vacant in Paris.—This seems a hint for Josephine. She wishes to come to Paris, to the ÉlysÉe, and to try a little diplomacy of her own in favour of the Austrian match, and she sends secretly to Madame de Metternich—whose husband was absent. EugÈne more officially is approaching Prince Schwartzenberg, the ambassador. Josephine, like Talleyrand, wished to heal the schism with Rome by an Austrian alliance; while CambacÉrÈs, foreseeing a war with the power not allied by marriage, would have preferred the Russian match.

No. 9.

Thursday, January 4th.

Hortense.—Louis had tried to obtain a divorce. CambacÉrÈs was ordered on December 22nd to summon a family council (New Letters of Napoleon I., No. 234); but the wish of the King was refused (verbally, says Louis in his Historical Documents of Holland), whereupon he refused to agree to Josephine's divorce, but had to give way, and was present at what he calls the farewell festival given by the city of Paris to the Empress Josephine on January 1st. The ecclesiastical divorce was pronounced on January 12th.

No. 10.

January 5th. He duly visits Josephine the next day.

No. 11.

January 7th is the date.

What charms your society has.—Her repertoire of small talk and scandal. He had also lost in her his Agenda, his Journal of Paris. Still the visits are growing rarer. This long kind letter was doubtless intended to be specially so, for two days later the clergy of Paris pronounced the annulment of her marriage. This was far worse than the pronouncement by the Senate in December, as it meant to her that she and Napoleon had never been properly married at all. The Emperor, who hated divorces, and especially divorcÉes, had found great difficulty in breaking down the barriers he had helped to build, for which purpose he had to be subordinated to his own Senate, the Pope to his own bishops. Seven of them allowed the annulment of the marriage of 1804 on account of (1) its secrecy, (2) the insufficiency of consent of the contracting parties, and (3) the absence of the local parish priest at the ceremony. The last reason was merely a technical one; but with respect to the first two it is only fair to admit that Napoleon had undoubtedly, and perhaps for the only time in his life, been completely "rushed," i.e. by the Pope and Josephine. The coronation ceremony was waiting, and the Pope, secretly solicited by Josephine, insisted on a religious marriage first and foremost. The Pope suffered forthwith, but the other bill of costs was not exacted till five years after date.

No. 12.

Wednesday, January 12th.

King of Westphalia.—Madame Durand (Napoleon and Marie Louise) says that, forced to abandon his wife (the beautiful and energetic Miss Paterson) and child, Jerome "had vowed he would never have any relations with a wife who had been thus forced upon him." For three years he lavished his attentions upon almost all the beauties of the Westphalian court. The queen, an eye-witness of this conduct, bore it with mild and forbearing dignity; she seemed to see and hear nothing; in short, her demeanour was perfect. The king, touched by her goodness, weary of his conquests, and repentant of his behaviour, was only anxious for an opportunity of altering the state of things. Happily the propitious moment presented itself. The right wing of the palace of Cassel, in which the queen's apartments were situated, took fire; alarmed by the screams of her women the queen awoke and sprang out of her bed, to be caught in the arms of the king and carried to a place of safety. From that time forth the royal couple were united and happy.

No. 13.

Saturday, January 13th.

Sensible.—This was now possible after a month's mourning. In the early days, according to Madame RÉmusat, her mind often wandered, But Napoleon himself encouraged the Court to visit her, and the road to Malmaison was soon a crowded one. As the days passed, however, life became sadly monotonous. Reading palled on Josephine, as did whist and the daily feeding of her golden pheasants and guinea-fowls. Remained "Patience"! Was it the "General" she played or the "Emperor," or did she find distraction in the "Demon"?

No. 14.

D'Audenarde.—Napoleon's handsome equerry, whom Mlle. d'Avrillon calls "un homme superbe." His mother was Josephine's favourite dame du palais. Madame Lalaing, Viscountess d'Audenarde, nÉe Peyrac, was one of the old rÉgime who had been ruined by the Revolution.

No. 16.

Tuesday, January 23rd.

On January 21st a Privy Council was summoned to approve of Marie Louise as their "choice of a consort, who may give an heir to the throne" (Thiers). CambacÉrÈs, FouchÉ, and Murat wished for the Russian princess; Lebrun, Cardinal Fesch, and King Louis for a Saxon one; but Talleyrand, Champagny, Maret, Berthier, Fontanes were for Austria.

No. 17.

Sunday, January 28th.

No. 18.

Josephine had heard she was to be banished from Paris, and so had asked to come to the ÉlysÉe to prove the truth or otherwise of the rumour.

L'ÉlysÉe.—St. Amand gives the following interesting prÉcis: "Built by the Count d'Evreux in 1718, it had belonged in succession to the Marchioness de Pompadour, to the financier Beaujon, a Croesus of the eighteenth century, and to the Duchesse de Bourbon. Having, under the Revolution, become national property, it had been hired by the caterers of public entertainments, who gave it the name of L'ÉlysÉe. In 1803 it became the property of Murat, who, becoming King of Naples, ceded it to Napoleon in 1808. Here Napoleon signed his second abdication, here resided Alexander I. in 1815, and here Josephine's grandson effected the Coup d'État (1851). When the Senatus-Consultus fixed the revenue of Josephine, Napoleon not only gave her whatever rights he had in Malmaison, viz., at least 90 per cent. of the total cost, but the palace of the ÉlysÉe, its gardens and dependencies, with the furniture then in use." The latter residence was, however, for her life only.

No. 19.

February 3rd is the date.

L'ÉlysÉe.—After the first receptions the place is far worse than Malmaison. Schwartzenberg, Talleyrand, the Princess Pauline, Berthier, even her old friend CambacÉrÈs are giving balls,[86] while the Emperor goes nearly every night to a theatre. The carriages pass by the ÉlysÉe, but do not stop. "It is as if the palace were in quarantine, with the yellow flag floating."

No. 20.

BessiÈres' country-house.—M. Masson says Grignon, but unless this house is called after the chÂteau of that name in Provence, he must be mistaken.

No. 21.

Rambouillet.—He had taken the Court with him, and was there from February 19th to the 23rd, the date of this letter. While there he had been in the best of humours. On his return he finds it necessary to write his future wife and to her father—and to pen a legible letter to the latter gives him far more trouble than winning a battle against the Austrians, if not assisted by General Danube.

Adieu.—Sick and weary, Josephine returns to Malmaison, Friday, March 9th, and even this is not long to be hers, for the new Empress is almost already on her way. The marriage at Vienna took place on March 11th, with her uncle Charles,[87] the hero of Essling, for Napoleon's proxy; on the 13th she leaves Vienna, and on the 23rd reaches Strasbourg. On the 27th she meets Napoleon at CompiÈgne, spends three days with him in the chÂteau there, and arrives at St. Cloud on April 1st, where the civil marriage is renewed, followed by the triumphal entry into Paris, and the religious ceremony on April 2nd. This day Josephine reaches the chÂteau of Navarre.

SERIES N

Navarre, on the site of an old dwelling of Rollo the Sea-King, was built by Jeanne of France, Queen of Navarre, Countess of Evreux. At the time of the Revolution it belonged to the Dukes of Bouillon, and was confiscated. In February 1810, Napoleon determined to purchase it, and on March 10th instructed his secretary of state, Maret, to confer the Duchy of Navarre, purchased by letters patent, on Josephine and her heirs male. The old square building was, however, utterly unfit to be inhabited: not a window would shut, there was neither paper nor tapestry, all the wainscoting was rotten, draughts and damp everywhere, and no heating apparatus.[88] What solace to know its beautiful situation, its capabilities? No wonder if her household, banished to such a place, sixty-five miles from the "capital of capitals," should rebel, and secessions headed by Madame Ney become for a time general. Whist and piquet soon grow stale in such a house and with such surroundings, and even trictrac with the old bishop of Evreux becomes tedious. EugÈne as usual brings sunshine in his path, and helps to dispel the gloom caused by the idle gossip imported from Paris—that Josephine is not to return to Malmaison, and the like.

No. 1.

This was Josephine's second letter, says D'Avrillon, the first being answered viv voce by EugÈne.

To Malmaison.—Napoleon had promised Josephine permission to return to Malmaison, and would not recant: his new wife was, however, very jealous of Josephine, and very much hurt at her presence at Malmaison. Napoleon managed to be away from Paris for six weeks after Josephine's arrival at Malmaison.

No. 1a.

It is written in a bad style.—M. Masson, however, is loud in its praises, and adds, "VoilÀ donc le protocol du tutoiement" re-established between them in spite of the second marriage, and their correspondence re-established on the old terms.

No. 2.

This letter seems to have been taken by EugÈne to Paris, and thence forwarded to the Emperor with a letter from that Prince in which he enumerates Josephine's suggestions and wishes—(1) that she will not go to Aix-la-Chapelle if other waters are suggested by Corvisart; (2) that after stopping a few days at Malmaison she will go in June for three months to the baths, and afterwards to the south of France; visit Rome, Florence, and Naples incognito, spend the winter at Milan, and return to Malmaison and Navarre in the spring of 1811; (3) that in her absence Navarre shall be made habitable, for which fresh funds are required; (4) that Josephine wishes her cousins the Taschers to marry, one a relative of King Joseph, the other the Princess Amelie de la Leyen, niece of the Prince Primate. To this Napoleon replies from CompiÈgne, April 26th, that the De Leyen match with Louis Tascher may take place,[89] but that he will not interest himself in the other (Henry) Tascher, who is giddy-headed and bad-tempered. "I consent to whatever the Empress does, but I will not confer any mark of my regard on a person who has behaved ill to me. I am very glad that the Empress likes Navarre. I am giving orders to have £12,000 which I owe her for 1810, and £12,000 for 1811 advanced to her. She will then have only the £80,000 from the public treasury to come in.... She is free to go to whatever spa she cares for, and even to return to Paris afterwards." He thinks, however, she would be happier in new scenes which they had never visited together, as they had Aix-la-Chapelle. If, however, the last are the best she may go to them, for "what I desire above all is that she may keep calm, and not allow herself to be excited by the gossip of Paris." This letter goes far to soothe the poor chÂtelaine of Navarre.

No. 2a.

Two letters.—The other, now missing, may have some reference to the pictures to which he refers in his letter to FouchÉ the next day. "Is it true that engravings are being published with the title of Josephine Beauharnais nÉe La Pagerie? If this is true, have the prints seized, and let the engravers be punished" (New Letters, No. 253).

No. 3.

Probably written from Boulogne about the 25th. His northern tour with Marie Louise had been very similar to one taken in 1804, but his entourage found the new bride very cold and callous compared to Josephine. Leaving Paris on April 29th Napoleon's Correspondence till June is dated Laeken (April 30th); Antwerp (May 3rd); Bois-le-Duc; Middleburg, Gand, Bruges, Ostend (May 20th); Lille, Boulogne, Dieppe, Le Havre, Rouen (May 31st). He takes the Empress in a canal barge from Brussels to Malines and himself descends the subterranean vault of the Escaut-Oise canal, between St. Quentin and Cambrai. He is at St. Cloud on June 2nd.

Josephine has felt his wanderings less, as she has the future Emperor, her favourite grandson, with her, the little Oui-Oui, as she calls him, and for whom the damp spring weather of Holland was dangerous. She was also at Malmaison from the middle of May to June 18th. The original collection of Letters (Didot FrÈres, 1833) heads the letter correctly to the Empress Josephine at Malmaison, but the Correspondence, published by order of Napoleon III., gives it erroneously, to the Empress Josephine, at the ChÂteau of Navarre (No. 16,537).

I will come to see you.—He comes for two hours on June 13th, and makes himself thoroughly agreeable. Poor Josephine is light-headed with joy all the evening after. The meeting of the two Empresses is, however, indefinitely postponed, and Josephine had now no further reason to delay her departure. Leaving her little grandson Louis behind, she travels under the name of the Countess d'Arberg, and she is accompanied by Madame d'Audenarde and Mlle. de Mackau, who left the Princess Stephanie to come to Navarre. M. Masson notes that Madame de RÉmusat needs the Aix waters, and will rejoin Josephine (within a week), under pretext of service, and thus obtain her cure gratuitously. They go vi Lyons and Geneva to Aix-les-Bains. M. Masson, who has recently made a careful and complete study of this period, describes the daily round. "Josephine, on getting out of bed, takes conscientiously her baths and douches, then, as usual, lies down again until dÉjeuner, 11 A.M., for which the whole of the little Court are assembled at The Palace—wherever she lives, and however squalid the dwelling-place, her abode always bears this name. Afterwards she and her women-folk ply their interminable tapestry, while the latest novel or play (sent by Barbier from Paris) is read aloud. And so the day passes till five, when they dress for dinner at six; after dinner a ride. At nine the Empress's friends assemble in her room, Mlle. de Mackau sings; at eleven every one goes to bed." This programme, however, varies with the weather. Here is St. Amand's version (DerniÈres AnnÉes de l'ImpÉratrice JosÉphine, p. 237): "A little reading in the morning, an airing (le promenade) afterwards, dinner at eight on account of the heat, games afterwards, and some little music; so passed existence."

No. 4.

July 8th.—On July 5th, driving along the ChambÉry road, Josephine met the courier with a letter from EugÈne describing the terrible fire at Prince Schwartzenberg's ball, where the Princess de la Leyen, mother of young Taschre's bride-elect, was burnt. It is noteworthy that the Emperor makes no allusion to the conflagration. As, however, this is the first letter since the end of May, others may have been lost or destroyed.

You will have seen EugÈne—i.e. on his way to Milan, who arrived at Aix on July 10th. He had just been made heir to the Grand Duchy of Frankfort—a broad hint to him and to Europe that Italy would be eventually united to France under Napoleon's dynasty. This was the nadir of the Beauharnais family—Josephine repudiÉe, Hortense unqueened and unwed,[90] and EugÈne's expectations dissipated, and all within a few short months. EugÈne had left his wife ill at Geneva, whither Josephine goes to visit her the next day, duly reporting her visit to Napoleon in her letter of July 14th (see No. 5). Geneva was always the home of the disaffected, and so the Empress had to be specially tactful, and the De RÉmusat reports: "She speaks of the Emperor as of a brother, of the new Empress as the one who will give children to France, and if the rumours of the latter's condition be correct, I am certain she will be delighted about it."

That unfortunate daughter is coming to France—i.e. to reside when she is not at St. Leu (given to her by Napoleon) or at the waters. On the present occasion she has been at PlombiÈres a month or more. On July 10th Napoleon instructs the Countess de Boubers to bring the Grand Duke of Berg to Paris, "whom he awaits with impatience" (Brotonne, 625).

No. 5.

The conduct of the King of Holland has worried me.—This was in March, and by May the crisis was still more acute and Napoleon's patience exhausted. On May 20th he writes: "Before all things be a Frenchman and the Emperor's brother, and then you may be sure you are in the path of the true interests of Holland. Good sense and policy are necessary to the government of states, not sour unhealthy bile." And three days later: "Write me no more of your customary twaddle; three years now it has been going on, and every instant proves its falsehood! This is the last letter I shall ever write you in my life."

Louis at one time determined on war, and rather than surrender Amsterdam, to cut the dykes. The Emperor hears of this, summons his brother, and practically imprisons him until he countermands the defence of Amsterdam.

On July 1st Louis abdicated and fled to Toeplitz in Bohemia. Napoleon is terribly grieved at the conduct of his brother, who would never realise that the effective Continental blockade was Napoleon's last sheet-anchor to force peace upon England.

No. 6.

To die in a lake—i.e. the Lake of Bourget, shut in by the Dent du Chat, where a white squall had nearly capsized the sailing boat. Josephine had been on July 26th to visit the abbey Haute-Combe, place of sepulture of the Princes of Savoy, and the storm had overtaken her on the return voyage.

No. 8.

Paris, this Friday.—A very valuable note of M. Masson (Josephine RepudiÉe, 198) enables us to fix this letter at its correct date. He says: "It has to do with the exile of Madame de la T—— (viz., the Princess Louis de la TrÉmoille), which takes place on September 28th, 1810, and this 28th September is also a Friday: there is also the question of Mlle. de Mackau being made a baroness" (and this lady had not joined the Court of Josephine till May 1810); "lastly, the B—— mentioned therein can only be Barante, the Prefect, whose dismissal (from Geneva) almost coincides with this letter." It may be added that the La TrÉmoille family was one of the oldest in France, allied with the CondÉs, and consequently with the Bourbons. Barante's fault had been connivance at the letters and conduct of Madame de StaËl.

No. 9.

The only suitable places ... are either Milan or Navarre.—Milan had been her own suggestion conveyed by EugÈne, but Napoleon, two months later, had told her she could spend the winter in France, and in spite of danger signals ("inspired by diplomacy rather than devotion"[91]) from Madame de RÉmusat (in her fulsome and tedious "despatch" sent from Paris in September, and probably inspired by the Emperor himself) she manages to get to Navarre, and even to spend the first fortnight of November at Malmaison. Before leaving Switzerland Josephine refuses to risk an interview with Madame de StaËl. "In the first book she publishes she will not fail to report our conversation, and heaven knows how many things she will make me say that I have never even thought of."

No. 10.

In spite of the heading Josephine was at Malmaison on this day, and Napoleon writes CambacÉrÈs: "My cousin, the Empress Josephine not leaving for Navarre till Monday or Tuesday, I wish you to pay her a visit. You will let me know on your return how you find her" (Brotonne,721). The real reason is to hasten her departure, and she gets to Navarre November 22nd (Thursday).

The Empress progresses satisfactorily.—Napoleon writes to this effect to her father, the Emperor of Austria, on the same day: "The Empress is very well.... It is impossible that the wife for whom I am indebted to you should be more perfect. Moreover, I beg your Majesty to rest assured that she and I are equally attached to you."

SERIES O

No. 1.

The New Year.—On this occasion, instead of her usual gifts (Étrennes) she organised a lottery of jewels, of which Madame Ducrest gives a full account. Needless to say, Josephine worked the oracle so that every one got a suitable gift—including the old Bishop (see next note).

More women than men.—The Bishop of Evreux (Mgr. Bourlier) was the most welcome guest. He amused Josephine, and although eighty years of age, could play trictrac and talk well on any subject. Madame de RÉmusat wrote her husband concerning him, "We understand each other very well, he and I."

Keep well.—At Navarre Josephine lost her headaches, and put on flesh.

No. 2.

There is a full account of the birth of the King of Rome in Napoleon's letter to the Emperor of Austria on March 20 (No. 17,496). The letter of this date to Josephine is missing, but is referred to by D'Avrillon. It began, "My dear Josephine, I have a son. I am au comble de bonheur."

EugÈne.—Josephine much appreciated this allusion. "Is it possible," she said, "for any one to be kinder than the Emperor, and more anxious to mitigate whatever might be painful for me at the present moment, if I loved him less sincerely? This association of my son with his own is well worthy of him who, when he likes, is the most fascinating of all men." She gave a costly ring to the page who brought the letter.

On the previous day EugÈne had arrived at Navarre,—sent by the Emperor. "You are going to see your mother, EugÈne; tell her I am sure that she will rejoice more than any one at my happiness. I should have already written to her if I had not been absorbed by the pleasure of watching my boy. The moments I snatch from his side are only for matters of urgent necessity. This event, I shall acquit myself of the most pleasant of them all by writing to Josephine."

No. 4.

Written in November 1811.

As fat as a good Normandy farmeress.—Madame d'AbrantÈs, who saw her about this time, writes: "I observed that Josephine had grown very stout[92] since the time of my departure for Spain. This change was at once for the better and the worse. It imparted a more youthful appearance to her face; but her slender and elegant figure, which had been one of her principal attractions, had entirely disappeared. She had now decided embonpoint, and her figure had assumed that matronly air which we find in the statues of Agrippina, Cornelia, &c. Still, however, she looked uncommonly well, and she wore a dress which became her admirably. Her judicious taste in these matters contributed to make her appear young much longer than she otherwise would. The best proof of the admirable taste of Josephine is the marked absence of elegance shown by Marie Louise, though both Empresses employed the same milliners and dressmakers, and Marie Louise had a large sum allotted for the expenses of her toilet."

St. Amand says that 1811 was for Josephine a happy year, compared to those which followed.

SERIES P

No. 1.

Written from Konigsberg (M. Masson, in Josephine RepudiÉe, says Dantzig; but on June 11th Napoleon writes to EugÈne, "I shall be at Konigsberg to-morrow," where his correspondence is dated from henceforward). A day or two later he writes the King of Rome's governess that he trusts to hear soon that the fifteen months old child has cut his first four teeth.

No. 2.

Gumbinnen, June 20th.—From this place and on this date goes forth the first bulletin of the Grande ArmÉe. It gives a rÉsumÉ of the causes of the war, dating from the end of 1810, when English influence again gained ascendency.

On July 29th he writes Hortense from Witepsk to congratulate her on her eldest son's recovery from an illness. A week later he writes his librarian for some amusing novels—new ones for choice, or old ones that he has not read—or good memoirs.

Josephine meanwhile has permission to go to Italy. Owing to her grandson's illness she defers starting till July 16th. Through frightful weather she reaches Milan vi Geneva on July 28th, and has a splendid reception. On the 29th she writes to Hortense: "I have found the three letters from EugÈne, the last one dated the 13th; his health is excellent. He still pursues the Russians, without being able to overtake them. It is generally hoped the campaign may be a short one. May that hope be realised!" Two days later she announces the birth of EugÈne's daughter Amelia, afterwards Empress of Brazil. Towards the end of August Josephine goes to Aix and meets the Queen of Spain with her sister DesirÉe Bernadotte, the former "kind and amiable as usual," the latter "very gracious to me"—rather a new experience. From Aix she goes to PrÉgny-la-Tour, on the Lake of Geneva, and shocks the good people in various ways, says M. Masson, especially by innuendoes against Napoleon; and he adds, "if one traces back to their source the worst calumnies against the morals of the Emperor, it is Josephine that one encounters there." She gets to Malmaison October 24th. Soon after his return from Moscow Napoleon pays her a visit, and about this time she begins to see the King of Rome, whose mother has always thought more of her daily music and drawing lessons than of whether she was making her son happy or not.

1812 closed in gloom, but 1813 was in itself terribly ominous to so superstitious a woman as Josephine. Thirteen is always unlucky, and moreover the numbers of 1813 add up to 13; also the doom-dealing year began on a Friday. Every one felt the hour approaching. As Napoleon said at St. Helena: "The star grew pale; I felt the reins slipping from my hand, and I could do no more. A thunderbolt could alone have saved us, and every day, by some new fatality or other, our chances diminished. Sinister designs began to creep in among us; fatigue and discouragement had won over the majority; my lieutenants became lax, clumsy, careless, and consequently unfortunate; they were no longer the men of the commencement of the Revolution, nor even of the time of my good fortune. The chief generals were sick of the war; I had gorged them too much with my high esteem, with too many honours and too much wealth. They had drunk from the cup of pleasure, and wished to enjoy peace at any price. The sacred fire was quenched."

Up to August Fortune had smiled again upon her favourite. With conscripts for infantry and without cavalry he had won Lutzen, Bautzen, and Dresden; and even so late as September Byron was writing that "bar epilepsy and the elements he would back Napoleon against the field." But treachery and incompetence had undermined the Empire, and Leipsic (that battle of giants, where 110,000 soldiers were killed and wounded) made final success hopeless. In 1814 his brothers Lucien and Louis rallied to him, and Hortense was for the only time proud of her husband. She thinks if he had shown less suspicion and she less pride they might have been happy after all. "My husband is a good Frenchman ... he is an honest man." Meanwhile, Talleyrand is watching to guide the coup de grÂce. Napoleon makes a dash for Lorraine to gather his garrisons and cut off the enemy's supplies. The Allies hesitate and are about to follow him, as per the rules of war. Talleyrand, the only man who could ever divine Napoleon, sends them the message, "You can do everything, and you dare nothing; dare therefore once!" Hortense is the only man left in Paris, and in vain she tries to keep Marie Louise, whose presence would have stimulated the Parisians to hold the Allies at bay. It is in vain. Unlike Prussia or Austria who fought for months, or Spain who fought for years, after their capitals were taken:—

"Like Nineveh, Carthage, Babylon and Rome,

France yields to the conqueror, vanquished at home."