Other heads of states have similarly passed their lives in doing violence to mankind; but it was for something that was likely to last, and for a national interest. What they deemed the public good was not a phantom of the brain, a chimerical poem due to a caprice of the imagination, to personal passions, to their own peculiar ambition and pride. Outside of themselves and the coinage of their brain a real and substantial object of prime importance existed, namely, the State, the great body of society, the vast organism which lasts indefinitely through the long series of interlinked and responsible generations. If they drew blood from the passing generation it was for the benefit of coming generations, to preserve them from civil war or from foreign domination.12125 They have acted generally like able surgeons, if not through virtue, at least through dynastic sentiment and family traditions; having practiced from father to son, they had acquired the professional conscience; their first and only aim was the safety and health of their patient. It is for this reason that they have not recklessly undertaken extravagant, bloody, and over-risky operations; rarely have they given way to temptation through a desire to display their skill, through the need of dazzling and astonishing the world, through the novelty, keenness, and success of their saws and scalpels. They felt that a longer and superior existence to their own was imposed upon them; they looked beyond them-selves as far as their sight would reach, and so took measures that the State after them might do without them, live on intact, remain independent, vigorous, and respected athwart the vicissitudes of European conflict and the uncertain problems of coming history. Such, under the ancient rÉgime, was what were called reasons of state; these had prevailed in the councils of princes for eight hundred years; along with unavoidable failures and after temporary deviations, these had become for the time being and remained the preponderating motive. Undoubtedly they excused or authorized many breaches of faith, many outrages, and, to come to the word, many crimes; but, in the political order of things, especially in the management of external affairs, they furnished a governing and a salutary principle. Under its constant influence thirty monarchs had labored, and it is thus that, province after province, they had solidly and enduringly built up France, by ways and means beyond the reach of individuals but available to the heads of States.

Now, this principle is lacking with their improvised successor. On the throne as in the camp, whether general, consul, or emperor, he remains the military adventurer, and cares only for his own advancement. Owing to the great defect in the education of both conscience and sentiments, instead of subordinating himself to the State, he subordinates the State to him; he does not look beyond his own brief physical existence to the nation which is to survive him. Consequently, he sacrifices the future to the present, and his work is not to be enduring. After him the deluge! Little does he care who utters this terrible phrase; and worse still, he earnestly wishes, from the bottom of his heart that everybody should utter it.

"My brother," said Joseph, in 1803,12126 "desires that the necessity of his existence should be so strongly felt, and the benefit of this considered so great, that nobody could look beyond it without shuddering. He knows, and he feels it, that he reigns through this idea rather than through force or gratitude. If to-morrow, or on any day, it could be said, 'Here is a tranquil, established order of things, here is a known successor; Bonaparte might die without fear of change or disturbance,' my brother would no longer think himself secure.... Such is the principle which governs him."

In vain do years glide by, never does he think of putting France in a way to subsist without him; on the contrary, he jeopardizes lasting acquisitions by exaggerated annexations, and it is evident from the very first day that the Empire will end with the Emperor. In 1805, the five per cents being at eighty francs, his Minister of the Finances, Gaudin, observes to him that this is a reasonable rate.12127 "No complaint can now be made, since these funds are an annuity on Your Majesty's life."—"What do you mean by that?"—"I mean that the Empire has become so great as to be ungovernable without you."—"If my successor is a fool so much the worse for him!"—"Yes, but so much the worse for France!" Two years later, M. de Metternich, by way of a political summing up, expresses his general opinion: "It is remarkable that Napoleon, constantly disturbing and modifying the relations of all Europe, has not yet taken a single step toward ensuring the maintenance of his successors."12128 In 1809, adds the same diplomat:12129 "His death will be the signal for a new and frightful upheaval; so many divided elements all tend to combine. Deposed sovereigns will be recalled by former subjects; new princes will have new crowns to defend. A veritable civil war will rage for half a century over the vast empire of the continent the day when the arms of iron which held the reins are turned into dust." In 1811, "everybody is convinced12130 that on the disappearance of Napoleon, the master in whose hands all power is concentrated, the first inevitable consequence will be a revolution." At home, in France, at this same date, his own servitors begin to comprehend that his empire is not merely a life-interest and will not last after he is gone, but that the Empire is ephemeral and will not last during his life; for he is constantly raising his edifice higher and higher, while all that his building gains in elevation it loses in stability. "The Emperor is crazy," said Decrees to Marmont,12131"completely crazy. He will ruin us all, numerous as we are, and all will end in some frightful catastrophe." In effect, he is pushing France on to the abyss, forcibly and by deceiving her, through a breach of trust which willfully, and by his fault, grows worse and worse just as his own interests, as he comprehends these, diverge from those of the public from year to year.

At the treaty of Luneville and before the rupture of the peace of Amiens,12132 this variance was already considerable. It becomes manifest at the treaty of Presbourg and still more evident at the treaty of Tilsit. It is glaring in 1808, after the deposition of the Spanish Bourbons; it becomes scandalous and monstrous in 1812, when the war with Russia took place. Napoleon himself admits that this war is against the interests of France and yet he undertakes it.12133 Later, at St. Helena, he falls into a melting mood over "the French people whom he loved so dearly."12134 The truth is, he loves it as a rider loves his horse; as he makes it rear and prance and show off its paces, when he flatters and caresses it; it is not for the advantage of the animal but for his own purposes, on account of its usefulness to him; to be spurred on until exhausted, to jump ditches growing wider and wider, and leap fences growing higher and higher; one ditch more, and still another fence, the last obstacle which seems to be the last, succeeded by others, while, in any event, the horse remains forcibly and for ever, what it already is, namely, a beast of burden and broken down.—For, on this Russian expedition, instead of frightful disasters, let us imagine a brilliant success, a victory at Smolensk equal to that of Friedland, a treaty of Moscow more advantageous than that of Tilsit, and the Czar brought to heel. As a result the Czar is probably strangled or dethroned, a patriotic insurrection will take place in Russia as in Spain, two lasting wars, at the two extremities of the Continent, against religious fanaticism, more irreconcilable than positive interests, and against a scattered barbarism more indomitable than a concentrated civilization. At best, a European empire secretly mined by European resistance; an exterior France forcibly superposed on the enslaved Continent;12135 French residents and commanders at St. Petersburg and Riga as at Dantzic, Hamburg, Amsterdam, Lisbon, Barcelona, and Trieste. Every able-bodied Frenchman that can be employed from Cadiz to Moscow in maintaining and administering the conquest. All the able-bodied youth annually seized by the conscription, and, if they have escaped this, seized again by decrees.12136 The entire male population thus devoted to works of constraint, nothing else in prospect for either the cultivated or the uncultivated, no military or civil career other than a prolonged guard duty, threatened and threatening, as soldier, customs-inspector, or gendarme, as prefect, sub-prefect, or commissioner of police, that is to say, as subaltern henchman and bully restraining subjects and raising contributions, confiscating and burning merchandise, seizing grumblers, and making the refractory toe the mark.12137 In 1810, one hundred and sixty thousand of the refractory were already condemned by name, and, moreover, penalties were imposed on their families to the amount of one hundred and seventy millions of francs In 1811 and 1812 the roving columns which tracked fugitives gathered sixty thousand of them, and drove them along the coast from the Adour to the Niemen; on reaching the frontier, they were en-rolled in the grand army; but they desert the very first month, they and their chained companions, at the rate of four or five thousand a day.12138 Should England be conquered, garrisons would have to be maintained there, and of soldiers equally zealous. Such is the dark future which this system opens to the French, even with the best of good luck. It turns out that the luck is bad, and at the end of 1812 the grand army is freezing in the snow; Napoleon's horse has let him tumble. Fortunately, the animal has simply foundered; "His Majesty's health was never better";12139 nothing has happened to the rider; he gets up on his legs, and what concerns him at this moment is not the sufferings of his broken-down steed, but his own mishap; his reputation as a horseman is compromised; the effect on the public, the hooting of the audience, is what troubles him, the comedy of a perilous leap, announced with such a flourish of trumpets and ending in such a disgraceful fall. On reaching Warsaw12140 he says to himself, ten times over:

"There is only a step from the sublime to the ridiculous."

The following year, at Dresden, he exposes still more foolishly, openly, and nakedly his master passion, the motives which determine him, the immensity and ferocity of his pitiless pride.

"What do they want of me?" said he to M. de Metternich.12141 "Do they want me to dishonor myself? Never! I can die, but never will I yield an inch of territory! Your sovereigns, born to the throne, may be beaten twenty times over and yet return to their capitals: I cannot do this, because I am a parvenu soldier. My domination will not survive the day when I shall have ceased to be strong, and, consequently, feared."

In effect, his despotism in France is founded on his European omnipotence; if he does not remain master of the Continent," he must settle with the corps lÉgislatif.12142 Rather than descend to an inferior position, rather than be a constitutional monarch, controlled by parliamentary chambers, he plays double or quits, and will risk losing everything.

"I have seen your soldiers," says Metternich to him, "they are children. When this army of boys is gone, what will you do then?"

At these words, which touch his heart, he grows pale, his features contract, and his rage overcomes him; like a wounded man who has made a false step and exposes himself, he says violently to Metternich:

"You are not a soldier You do not know the impulses of a soldier's breast! I have grown up on the battle-field, and a man like me does not give a damn for the lives of a million men!"12143

His imperial pipe-dreams has devoured many more. Between 1804 and 1815 he has had slaughtered 1,700,000 Frenchmen, born within the boundaries of ancient France,12144 to which must be added, probably, 2,000,000 men born outside of these limits, and slain for him, under the title of allies, or slain by him under the title of enemies. All that the poor, enthusiastic, and credulous Gauls have gained by entrusting their public welfare to him is two invasions; all that he bequeaths to them as a reward for their devotion, after this prodigious waste of their blood and the blood of others, is a France shorn of fifteen departments acquired by the republic, deprived of Savoy, of the left bank of the Rhine and of Belgium, despoiled of the northeast angle by which it completed its boundaries, fortified its most vulnerable point, and, using the words of Vauban, "made its field square," separated from 4,000,000 new Frenchmen which it had assimilated after twenty years of life in common, and, worse still, thrown back within the frontiers of 1789, alone, diminished in the midst of its aggrandized neighbors, suspected by all Europe, and lastingly surrounded by a threatening circle of distrust and rancor.

Such is the political work of Napoleon, the work of egoism served by genius. In his European structure as in his French structure this sovereign egoism has introduced a vice of construction. This fundamental vice is manifest at the outset in the European edifice, and, at the expiration of fifteen years, it brings about a sudden downfall: in the French edifice it is equally serious but not so apparent; only at the end of half a century, or even a whole century, is it to be made clearly visible; but its gradual and slow effects will be equally pernicious and they are no less sure.

1201 (return)
[ See my "Philosophy of Art" for texts and facts, Part II., ch. VI.—Other analogies, which are too long for development here, may be found, especially in all that concerns the imagination and love. "He was disposed to accept the marvelous, presentiments, and even certain mysterious communications between beings.... I have seen him excited by the rustling of the wind, speak enthusiastically of the roar of the sea, and sometimes inclined to believe in nocturnal apparitions; in short, leaning to certain superstitions." (Madame de RÉmusat, I., 102, and III., 164.)—Meneval (III., 114) notes his "crossing himself involuntarily on the occurrence of some great danger, on the discovery of some important fact." During the consulate, in the evening, in a circle of ladies, he sometimes improvised and declaimed tragic "tales," Italian fashion, quite worthy of the story-tellers of the XVth and XVIth centuries. (Bourrienne, VI., 387, gives one of his improvisations. Cf. Madame de RÉmusat, I., 102.)—As to love, his letters to Josephine during the Italian campaign form one of the best examples of Italian passion and "in most piquant contrast with the temperate and graceful elegance of his predecessor M. de Beauharnais." (Madame de RÉmusat, I., 143).—His other amours, simply physical, are too difficult to deal with; I have gathered some details orally on this subject which are almost from first hands and perfectly authentic. It is sufficient to cite one text already published: "According to Josephine, he had no moral principle whatever; did he not seduce his sisters one after the other? "—"I am not a man like other men, he said of himself, "and moral laws and those of propriety do not apply to me." (Madame de RÉmusat, I., 204, 206.)—Note again (II., 350) his proposals to Corvisart.—Such are everywhere the sentiments, customs, and morality of the great Italian personages of about the year 1500.]

1202 (return)
[ De Pradt, "Histoire de l'ambassade dans le grand-duchÉ de Varsovie," p.96. "with the Emperor, desire springs out of his imagination; his idea becomes passion the moment it comes into his head."]

1203 (return)
[ Bourrienne, II., 298.—De SÉgur, I., 426.]

1204 (return)
[ Bodin, "Recherches sur l'Anjou," II., 325.—"Souvenirs d'un nonagÉnaire," by Besnard.—Sainte-Beuve, "Causeries du Lundi," article on Volney.—Miot de Melito, I., 297. He wanted to adopt Louis's son, and make him King of Italy. Louis refused, alleging that this marked favor would give new life to the reports spread about at one time in relation to this child." Thereupon, Napoleon, exasperated, "seized Prince Louis by the waist and pushed him violently out of the room."—" MÉmorial," Oct.10, 1816. Napoleon relates that at the last conference of Campo-Fermio, to put an end to the resistance of the Austrian plenipotentiary, he suddenly arose, seized a set of porcelain on a stand near him and dashed it to the floor, exclaiming, "Thus will I shatter your monarchy before a month is over!" (Bourrienne questions this story.)]

1205 (return)
[ Varnhagen von Ense, "Ausgewahlte Schriften," III., 77 (Public reception of July 22, 1810). Napoleon first speaks to the Austrian Ambassador and next to the Russian Ambassador with a constrained air, forcing himself to be polite, in which he cannot persist. "Treating with I do not know what unknown personage, he interrogated him, reprimanded him, threatened him, and kept him for a sufficiently long time in a state of painful dismay. Those who stood near by and who could not help feeling a dismayed, stated later that there had been nothing to provoke such fury, that the Emperor had only sought an opportunity to vent his ill-humor; that he did it purposely on some poor devil so as to inspire fear in others and to put down in advance any tendency to opposition. Cf. Beugnot, "MÉmoires," I., 380, 386, 387.—This mixture of anger and calculation likewise explains his conduct at Sainte Helena with Sir Hudson Lowe, his unbridled diatribes and insults bestowed on the governor like so many slaps in the face. (W. Forsyth, "History of the Captivity of Napoleon at Saint Helena, from the letters and journals of Sir Hudson Lowe," III., 306.)]

1206 (return)
[ Madame de RÉmusat, II., 46.]

1207 (return)
[ "Les Cahiers de Coignat." 191. "At Posen, already, I saw him mount his horse in such a fury as to land on the other side and then give his groom a cut of the whip."]

1208 (return)
[ Madame de RÉmusat, I., 222.]

1209 (return)
[ Especially the letters addressed to Cardinal Consalvi and to the PrÉfet of Montenotte (I am indebted to M. d'Haussonville for this information).—Besides, he is lavish of the same expressions in conversation. On a tour through Normandy, he sends for the bishop of SÉez and thus publicly addresses him: "Instead of merging the parties, you distinguish between constitutionalists and non-constitutionalists. Miserable fool! You are a poor subject,—hand in your resignation at once!"—To the grand-vicars he says, "Which of you governs your bishop—who is at best a fool?"—As M. Legallois is pointed out to him, who had of late been absent. "Fuck, where were you then?" "With my family." "With a bishop who is merely a damned fool, why are you so often away, etc.?" (D'Haussonville,VI., 176, and Roederer, vol. III.)]

1210 (return)
[ Madame de RÉmusat—I., 101; II., 338.]

1211 (return)
[ Ibid., I., 224.—M. de Meneval, I., 112, 347; III., 120: "On account of the extraordinary event of his marriage, he sent a handwritten letter to his future father-in-law (the Emperor of Austria). It was a grand affair for him. Finally, after a great effort, he succeeded in penning a letter that was readable."—Meneval, nevertheless, was obliged "to correct the defective letters without letting the corrections be too plainly seen."]

1212 (return)
[ For example, at Bayonne and at Warsaw (De Pradt); the outrageous and never-to-be forgotten scene which, on his return from Spain, occurred with Talleyrand—("Souvenirs", by PASQUIER Etienne-Dennis, duc, Chancelier de France. Librarie Plon, Paris 1893. I., 357);—The gratuitous insult of M. de Metternich, in 1813, the last word of their interview ("Souvenirs du feu duc de Broglie," I., 230).—Cf. his not less gratuitous and hazardous confidential communications to Miot de Melito, in 1797, and his five conversations with Sir Hudson Lowe, immediately recorded by a witness, Major Gorrequer. (W. Forsyth, I.,147, 161, 200.)]

1213 (return)
[ De Pradt, preface X]

1214 (return)
[ Pelet de la LozÉre, p. 7.—Mollien, "MÉmoires," II., 222.—"Souvenirs du feu duc de Broglie," I., 66, 69.]

1215 (return)
[ "Madame de RÉmusat," I., 121: I have it from Corvisart that the pulsations of his arteries are fewer than is usual with men. He never experienced what is commonly called giddiness." With him, the nervous apparatus is perfect in all its functions, incomparable for receiving, recording, registering, combining, and reflecting, but other organs suffer a reaction and are very sensitive." (De SÉgur, VI., 15 and 16, note of Drs. Yvan and Mestivier, his physicians.) "To preserve the equilibrium it was necessary with him that the skin should always fulfill its functions; as soon as the tissues were affected by any moral or atmospheric cause.... irritation, cough, ischuria." Hence his need of frequent prolonged and very hot baths. "The spasm was generally shared by the stomach and the bladder. If in the stomach, he had a nervous cough which exhausted his moral and physical energies." Such was the case between the eve of the battle of Moscow and the morning after his entry into Moscow: "a constant dry cough, difficult and intermittent breathing; the pulse sluggish, weak, and irregular; the urine thick and sedimentary, drop by drop and painful; the lower part of the legs and the feet extremely oedematous." Already, in 1806, at Warsaw, "after violent convulsions in the stomach," he declared to the Count de Loban, "that he bore within him the germs of a premature death, and that he would die of the same disease as his father's." (De SÉgur, VI., 82.) After the victory of Dresden, having eaten a ragout containing garlic, he is seized with such violent gripings as to make him think he was poisoned, and he makes a retrograde movement, which causes the loss of Vandamme's division, and, consequently, the ruin of 1813. "Souvenirs", by Pasquier, Etienne-Dennis, duc, chancelier de France. Librarie Plon, Paris 1893, (narrative of Daru, an eye-witness.)—This susceptibility of the nerves and stomach is hereditary with him and shows itself in early youth. "One day, at Brienne, obliged to drop on his knees, as a punishment, on the sill of the refectory, he is seized with sudden vomiting and a violent nervous attack." De Segur, I., 71.—It is well known that he died of a cancer in the stomach, like his father Charles Bonaparte. His grandfather Joseph Bonaparte, his uncle Fesch, his brother Lucien, and his sister Caroline died of the same, or of an analogous disease.]

1216 (return)
[ Meneval, I., 269. Constant, "MÉmoires," V., 62. De SÉgur, VI., 114, 117.]

1217 (return)
[ Marshal Marmont, "MÉmoires," I., 306. Bourrienne, II., 119: "When off the political field he was sensitive, kind, open to pity."]

1218 (return)
[ Pelet de la LozÉre, p.7. De Champagny, "Souvenirs," p.103. At first, the emotion was much stronger. "He had the fatal news for nearly three hours; he had given vent to his despair alone by himself. He summoned me.... plaintive cries involuntarily escaped him."]

1219 (return)
[ Madame de RÉmusat, I., 121, 342; II., 50; III., 61, 294, 312.]

1220 (return)
[ De SÉgur, V., 348.]

1221 (return)
[ Yung, II., 329, 331. (Narrated by Lucien, and report to Louis XVIII.)]

1222 (return)
[ "Nouvelle relation de l'ItinÉraire de NapolÉon, de Fontainebleau À l'Ile de l'Elbe," by Count Waldberg-Truchsees, Prussian commissioner (1885), pp.22, 24, 25, 26, 30, 32, 34, 37.—The violent scenes, probably, of the abdication and the attempt at Fontainebleau to poison himself had already disturbed his balance. On reaching Elba, he says to the Austrian commissioner, Koller, "As to you, my dear general, I have let you see my bare rump."—Cf. in "Madame de RÉmusat," I., 108, one of his confessions to Talleyrand: he crudely points out in himself the distance between natural instinct and studied courage.—Here and elsewhere, we obtain a glimpse of the actor and even of the Italian buffoon; M. de Pradt called him "Jupiter Scapin." Read his reflections before M. de Pradt, on his return from Russia, in which he appears in the light of a comedian who, having played badly and failed in his part, retires behind the scenes, runs down the piece, and criticize the imperfections of the audience. (De Pradt, p.219.)]

1223 (return)
[ The reader may find his comprehension of the author's meaning strengthened by the following translation of a passage from his essay on Jouffroy (Philosophes classiques du XIXth SiÉcle," 3rd ed.): "What is a man, master of himself? He is one who, dying with thirst, refrains from swallowing a cooling draft, merely moistening his lips: who insulted in public, remains calm in calculating his most appropriate revenge; who in battle, his nerves excited by a charge, plans a difficult maneuver, thinks it out, and writes it down with a lead-pencil while balls are whistling around him, and sends it to his colonels. In other words, it is a man in whom the deliberate and abstract idea of the greatest good is stronger than all other ideas and sensations. The conception of the greatest good once attained, every dislike, every species of indolence, every fear, every seduction, every agitation, are found weak. The tendency which arise from the idea of the greatest good constantly dominates all others and determines all actions." TR.]

1224 (return)
[ Bourrienne, I. 21.]

1225 (return)
[ Yung, 1., 125.]

1226 (return)
[ Madame de RÉmusat, I., 267.—Yung, II., 109. On his return to Corsica he takes upon himself the government of the whole family. "Nobody could discuss with him, says his brother Lucien; he took offence at the slightest observation and got in a passion at the slightest resistance. Joseph (the eldest) dared not even reply to his brother."]

1227 (return)
[ MÉmorial, August 27-31, 1815.]

1228 (return)
[ "Madame de RÉmusat," I., 105.—Never was there an abler and more persevering sophist, more persuasive, more eloquent, in order to make it appear that he was right. Hence his dictations at St. Helena; his proclamations, messages, and diplomatic correspondence; his ascendancy in talking as great as through his arms, over his subject and over his adversaries; also his posthumous ascendancy over posterity. He is as great a lawyer as he is a captain and administrator. The peculiarity of this disposition is never submitting to truth, but always to speak or write with reference to an audience, to plead a cause. Through this talent one creates phantoms which dupe the audience; on the other hand, as the author himself forms part of the audience, he ends in not along leading others into error but likewise himself, which is the case with Napoleon.]

1229 (return)
[ Yung, II., 111. (Report by Volney, Corsican commissioner, 1791.—II., 287.) (MÉmorial, giving a true account of the political and military state of Corsica in December, 1790.)—II., 270. (Dispatch of the representative Lacombe Saint-Michel, Sept. 10, 1793.)—Miot de Melito I.,131, and following pages. (He is peace commissioner in Corsica in 1797 and 1801.)]

1230 (return)
[ Miot de Melito, II., 2. "The partisans of the First consul's family... regarded me simply as the instrument of their passions, of use only to rid them of their enemies, so as to center all favors on their protÉgÉs."]

1231 (return)
[ Yung., I., 220. (Manifest of October—31, 1789.)—I., 265. (Loan on the seminary funds obtained by force, June 23, 1790.)—I., 267, 269. (Arrest of M. de la Jaille and other officers; plan for taking the citadel of Ajaccio.)—II., 115. (letter to Paoli, February 17, 1792.) "Laws are like the statues of certain divinities—veiled on certain occasions."—II., 125. (Election of Bonaparte as lieutenant-colonel of a battalion of volunteers, April 1, 1792.) The evening before he had Murati, one of the three departmental commissioners, carried off by an armed band from the house of the Peraldi, his adversaries, where he lodged. Murati, seized unawares, is brought back by force and locked up in Bonaparte's house, who gravely says to him "I wanted you to be free, entirely at liberty; you were not so with the Peraldi."—His Corsican biographer (Nasica, "MÉmoires sur la jeunesse et l'enfance de NapolÉon,") considers this a very praiseworthy action]

1232 (return)
[ Cf. on this point, the Memoirs of Marshal Marmont, I., 180, 196; the Memoirs of Stendhal, on Napoleon; the Report of d'Antraigues (Yung, III., 170, 171); the "Mercure Britannique" of Mallet-Dupan, and the first chapter of "La Chartreuse de Parme," by Stendhal.]

1233 (return)
[ "Correspondance de NapolÉon," I. (Letter of Napoleon to the Directory, April 26, 1796.)—Proclamation of the same date: "You have made forced marches barefoot, bivouacked without brandy, and often without bread."]

1234 (return)
[ Stendhal, "Vie de NapolÉon," p. 151. "The commonest officers were crazy with delight at having white linen and fine new boots. All were fond of music; many walked a league in the rain to secure a seat in the La Scala Theatre.... In the sad plight in which the army found itself before Castiglione and Arcole, everybody, except the knowing officers, was disposed to attempt the impossible so as not to quit Italy."—"Marmont," I., 296: "We were all of us very young,... all aglow with strength and health, and enthusiastic for glory.... This variety of our occupations and pleasures, this excessive employment of body and mind gave value to existence, and made time pass with extraordinary rapidity."]

1235 (return)
[ "Correspondance de NapolÉon," I. Proclamation of March 27, 1796: "Soldiers, you are naked and poorly fed. The government is vastly indebted to you; it has nothing to give you.... I am going to lead you to the most fertile plains in the world; rich provinces, large cities will be in your power; you will then obtain honor, glory, and wealth."—Proclamation of April 26, 1796:—"Friends, I guarantee that conquest to you!"—Cf. in Marmont's memoirs the way in which Bonaparte plays the part of tempter in offering Marmont, who refuses, an opportunity to rob a treasury chest.]

1236 (return)
[ Miot de Melito, I., 154. (June, 1797, in the gardens of Montebello.) "Such are substantially the most remarkable expressions in this long discourse which I have recorded and preserved."]

1237 (return)
[ Miot de Melito, I. 184. (Conversation with Bonaparte, November 18, 1797, at Turin.) "I remained an hour with the general tÊte-À-tÊte. I shall relate the conversation exactly as it occurred, according to my notes, made at the time."]

1238 (return)
[ Mathieu Dumas, "MÉmoires," III., 156. "It is certain that he thought of it from this moment and seriously studied the obstacles, means, and chances of success." (Mathieu Dumas cites the testimony of Desaix, who was engaged in the enterprise): "It seems that all was ready, when Bonaparte judged that things were not yet ripe, nor the means sufficient."—Hence his departure. "He wanted to get out of the way of the rule and caprices of these contemptible dictators, while the latter wanted to get rid of him because his military fame and influence in the army were obnoxious to them."]

1239 (return)
[ LarevelliÈre-Lepaux (one of the five directors on duty), "MÉmoires," II., 340. "All that is truly grand in this enterprise, as well as all that is bold and extravagant, either in its conception or execution, belongs wholly to Bonaparte. The idea of it never occurred to the Directory nor to any of its members.... His ambition and his pride could not endure the alternative of no longer being prominent or of accepting a post which, however eminent, would have always subjected him to the orders of the Directory."]

1240 (return)
[ Madame de RÉmusat, I., 142. "Josephine laid great stress on the Egyptian expedition as the cause of his change of temper and of the daily despotism which made her suffer so much."—"Mes souvenirs sur Napoleon," 325 by the count Chaptal. (Bonaparte's own words to the poet Lemercier who might have accompanied him to the Middle East and there would have learned many things about human nature): "You would have seen a country where the sovereign takes no account of the lives of his subjects, and where the subject himself takes no account of his own life. You would have got rid of your philanthropic 'notions."]

1241 (return)
[ Roederer, III., 461 (Jan. 12, 1803)]

1242 (return)
[ Cf. "The Revolution," Vol. p. 773. (Note I., on the situation, in 1806, of the Conventionalists who had survived the revolution.) For instance, FouchÉ is minister; Jeanbon-Saint-AndrÉ, prefect; Drouet (de Varennes), sub-prefect; ChÉpy (of Grenoble), commissary-general of the police at Brest; 131 regicides are functionaries, among whom we find twenty one prefects and forty-two magistrates.—Occasionally, a chance document that has been preserved allows one to catch "the man in the act." ("Bulletins hebdomadaires de la censure, 1810 and 1814," published by M. Thurot, in the Revue Critique, 1871): "Seizure of 240 copies of an indecent work printed for account of M. Palloy, the author. This Palloy enjoyed some celebrity during the Revolution, being one of the famous patriots of the Faubourg Saint-Antoine. The constituent Assembly had conceded to him the ownership of the site of the Bastille, of which he distributed its stones among all the communes. He is a bon vivant, who took it into his head to write out in a very bad style the filthy story of his amours with a prostitute of the Palais-Royal. He was quite willing that the book should be seized on condition that he might retain a few copies of his jovial production. He professes high admiration for, and strong attachment to His Majesty's person, and expresses his sentiments piquantly, in the style of 1789."]

1243 (return)
[ "MÉmorial," June 12, 1816.]

1244 (return)
[ Mathieu Dumas, III., 363 (July 4, 1809, a few days before Wagram).—Madame de RÉmusat," I., 105: "I have never heard him express any admiration or comprehension of a noble action."—I., 179: On Augustus's clemency and his saying, "Let us be friends, Cinna," the following is his interpretation of it: "I understand this action simply as the feint of a tyrant, and approve as calculation what I find puerile as sentiment."—"Notes par le Comte Chaptal": "He believed neither in virtue nor in probity, often calling these two words nothing but abstractions; this is what rendered him so distrustful and so immoral.... He never experienced a generous sentiment; this is why he was so cold in company, and why he never had a friend. He regarded men as so much counterfeit coin or as mere instruments."]

1245 (return)
[ M. de Metternich, "MÉmoires," I., 241.—"Madame de RÉmusat," I., 93: "That man has been so harmful (si assommateur de toute vertu...) to all virtue."—Madame de StaËl, "Considerations sur la Revolution FranÇaise," 4th part, ch. 18. (Napoleon's conduct with M. de Melzi, to destroy him in public opinion in Milan, in 1805.)]

1246 (return)
[ Madame de RÉmusat, I., 106; II., 247, 336: "His means for governing man were all derived from those which tend to debase him. ... He tolerated virtue only when he could cover it with ridicule."]

1247 (return)
[ Nearly all his false calculations are due to this defect, combined with an excess of constructive imagination.—Cf. De Pradt, p.94: "The Emperor is all system, all illusion, as one cannot fail to be when one is all imagination. Whoever has watched his course has noticed his creating for himself an imaginary Spain, an imaginary Catholicism, an imaginary England, an imaginary financial state, an imaginary noblesse, and still more an imaginary France, and, in late times, an imaginary congress."]

1248 (return)
[ Roederer, III., 495. (March 8, 1804.)]

1249 (return)
[ Ibid., III., 537 (February 11, 1809.)]

1250 (return)
[ Roederer, III., 514. (November 4, 1804.)]

1251 (return)
[ Marmont, II., 242.]

1252 (return)
[ "Correspondance de NapolÉon," I. (Letter to Prince EugÉne, April 14, 1806.)]

1253 (return)
[ M. de Metternich, I., 284.]

1254 (return)
[ Mollien, III., 427.]

1255 (return)
[ "Notes par le Comte Chaptal": During the Consulate, "his opinion not being yet formed on many points, he allowed discussion and it was then possible to enlighten him and enforce an opinion once expressed in his presence. But, from the moment that he possessed ideas of his own, either true or false, on administrative subjects, he consulted no one;... he treated everybody who differed from him in opinion contemptuously, tried to make them appear ridiculous, and often exclaimed, giving his forehead a slap, that here was an instrument far more useful than the counsels of men who were commonly supposed to be instructed and experienced... For four years, he sought to gather around him the able men of both parties. After this, the choice of his agents began to be indifferent to him. Regarding himself as strong enough to rule and carry on the administration himself, the talents and character of those who stood in his way were discarded. What he wanted was valets and not councillors... The ministers were simply head-clerks of the bureaus. The Council of State served only to give form to the decrees emanating from him; he ruled even in petty details. Everybody around him was timid and passive; his will was regarded as that of an oracle and executed without reflection.... Self-isolated from other men, having concentrated in his own hands all powers and all action, thoroughly convinced that another's light and experience could be of no use to him, he thought that arms and hands were all that he required."]

1256 (return)
[ "Souvenirs", by Pasquier (Etienne-Dennis, duc), chancelier de France. In VI volumes, Librarie Plon, Paris 1893. Vol I. chap. IX. and X. pp. 225-268. (Admirable portraiture of his principal agents, CambacÉrÈs, Talleyrand, Maret, Cretet, Real, etc.) LacuÉe, director of the conscription, is a perfect type of the imperial functionary. Having received the broad ribbon of the Legion d'Honneur, he exclaimed, at the height of his enthusiasm: "what will not France become under such a man? To what degree of happiness and glory will it not ascend, always provided the conscription furnishes him with 200,000 men a year! And, indeed, that will not be difficult, considering the extent of the empire."—And likewise with Merlin de Douai: "I never knew a man less endowed with the sentiment of the just and the unjust; everything seems to him right and good, as the consequences of a legal text. He was even endowed with a kind of satanic smile which involuntarily rose to his lips... every time the opportunity occurred, when, in applying his odious science, he reached the conclusion that severity is necessary or some condemnation." The same with Defermon, in fiscal matters]

1257 (return)
[ Madame de RÉmusat, II., 278; II., 175.]

1258 (return)
[ Ibid., III., 275, II., 45. (Apropos of Savary, his most intimate agent.): "He is a man who must be constantly corrupted."]

1259 (return)
[ Ibid., I., 109; II., 247; III., 366.]

1260 (return)
[ "Madame de RÉmusat," II., 142, 167, 245. (Napoleon's own words.) "If I ordered Savary to rid himself of his wife and children, I am sure he would not hesitate."—Marmont, II., 194: "We were at Vienna in 1809. Davoust said, speaking of his own and Maret's devotion: "If the Emperor should say to us both, 'My political interests require the destruction of Paris without any one escaping,' Maret would keep the secret, I am sure; but nevertheless he could not help letting it be known by getting his own family out. I, rather than reveal it I would leave my wife and children there." (These are bravado expressions, wordy exaggerations, but significant.)]

1261 (return)
[ Madame de RÉmusat, II., 379.]

1262 (return)
[ "Souvenirs du feu duc de Broglie," I., 230. (Words of Maret, at Dresden, in 1813; he probably repeats one of Napoleon's figures.)]

1263 (return)
[ Mollien, II., 9.]

1264 (return)
[ D'Haussonville, "L'Église Romaine et le premier Empire,"VI., 190, and passim.]

1265 (return)
[ Ibid., III., 460-473.—Cf. on the same scene, "Souvenirs", by Pasquier (Etienne-Dennis, duc), Chancelier de France. (He was both witness and actor.)]

1266 (return)
[ An expression of CambacÉrÈs. M. de Lavalette, II., 154.]

1267 (return)
[ Madame de RÉmusat, III. 184]

1268 (return)
[ "Souvenirs", by Pasquier, Librarie Plon, Paris 1893.-, I., 521. Details of the manufacture of counterfeit money, by order of Savary, in an isolated building on the plain of Montrouge.—Metternich, II., 358. (Words of Napoleon to M. de Metternich): "I had 300 millions of banknotes of the Bank of Vienna all ready and was going to flood you with them." Ibid., Correspondence of M. de Metternich with M. de Champagny on this subject (June, 1810).]

1269 (return)
[ "Souvenirs", by Pasquier, Librarie Plon, Paris 1893.—Vol. II. p. 196.]

1270 (return)
[ Madame de RÉmusat, II., 335.]

1271 (return)
[ Madame de RÉmusat, I., 231.]

1272 (return)
[ Ibid., 335.]

1273 (return)
[ M. de Metternich, I., 284. "One of those to whom he seemed the most attached was Duroc. 'He loves me the same as a dog loves his master,' is the phrase he made use of in speaking of him to me. He compared Berthier's sentiment for his person to that of a child's nurse. Far from being opposed to his theory of the motives influencing men these sentiments were its natural consequence whenever he came across sentiments to which he could not apply the theory of calculation based on cold interest, he sought the cause of it in a kind of instinct."]

1274 (return)
[ Beugnot, "MÉmoires," II., 59.]

1275 (return)
[ "MÉmorial." "If I had returned victorious from Moscow, I would have brought the Pope not to regret temporal power: I would have converted him into an idol... I would have directed the religious world as well as the political world... My councils would have represented Christianity, and the Pope would have only been president of them."]

1276 (return)
[ De SÉgur, III., 312. (In Spain, 1809.)]

1277 (return)
[ "MÉmoires du Prince EugÈne." (Letters of Napoleon, August, 1806.)]

1278 (return)
[ Letter of Napoleon to FouchÉ, March 3, 1810. (Left out in the "Correspondance de NapolÉon I.," and published by M. Thiers in "Histoire du Consulat et de l'Empire," XII., p. 115.)]

1279 (return)
[ De SÉgur, III., 459.]

1280 (return)
[ Words of Napoleon to Marmont, who, after three months in the hospital, returns to him in Spain with a broken arm and his hand in a black sling: "You hold on to that rag then?" Sainte-Beuve, who loves the truth as it really is, quotes the words as they came, which Marmont dared not reproduce. (Causeries du Lundi, VI., 16.)—"Souvenirs", by Pasquier, Librarie Plon, Paris 1893: "M. de Champagny having been dismissed and replaced, a courageous friend defended him and insisted on his merit: "You are right," said the Emperor, "he had some when I took him; but by cramming him too full, I have made him stupid."]

1281 (return)
[ Beugnot, I., 456, 464]

1282 (return)
[ Mme. de RÉmusat, II., 272.]

1283 (return)
[ M. de Champagny, "Souvenirs," 117.]

1284 (return)
[ Madame de RÉmusat, I., 125.]

1285 (return)
[ De SÉgur, III., 456.]

1286 (return)
[ "The Ancient Regime," p. 125.—"Æuvres de Louis XIV.," 191: "If there is any peculiar characteristic of this monarchy, it is the free and easy access of the subjects to the king; it an egalitÉ de justice between both, and which, so to say, maintains both in a genial and honest companionship, in spite of the almost infinite distance in birth, rank, and power. This agreeable society, which enables persons of the Court to associate familiarly with us, impresses them and charms them more than one can tell."]

1287 (return)
[ Madame de RÉmusat, II., 32, 39.]

1288 (return)
[ Madame de RÉmusat, III., 169.]

1289 (return)
[ Ibid., II., 32, 223, 240, 259; III., 169.]

1290 (return)
[ Ibid., I., 112, II., 77.]

1291 (return)
[ M. de Metternich, I., 286.—"It would be difficult to imagine any greater awkwardness than that of Napoleon in a drawing-room.—Varnhagen von Ense, "AusgewÄhlte Schriften," III., 177. (Audience of July 10, 1810): "I never heard a harsher voice, one so inflexible. When he smiled, it was only with the mouth and a portion of the cheeks; the brow and eyes remained immovably sombre,... This compound of a smile with seriousness had in it something terrible and frightful."—On one occasion, at St. Cloud, Varnhagen heard him exclaim over and over again, twenty times, before a group of ladies, "How hot!"]

1292 (return)
[ Mme. de RÉmusat, II., 77, 169.—Thibaudeau, "MÉmoires sur le Consulat," p. 18: "He sometimes pays them left-handed compliments on their toilet or adventures, which was his way of censuring morals."—"Mes souvenirs sur NapolÉon," 322 by le Comte Chaptal: "At a fÊte, in the HÔtel de Ville, he exclaimed to Madame——, who had just given her name to him: 'Good God, they told me you were pretty!' To some old persons: 'You haven't long to live! To another lady: 'It is a fine time for you, now your husband is on his campaigns!' In general, the tone of Bonaparte was that of an ill-bred lieutenant. He often invited a dozen or fifteen persons to dinner and rose from the table before the soup was finished... The court was a regular galley where each rowed according to command."]

1293 (return)
[ Madame de RÉmusat, I., 114, 122, 206; II., 110, 112.]

1294 (return)
[ Ibid., I., 277.]

1295 (return)
[ "Hansard's Parliamentary History," vol. XXXVI.,.310. Lord Whitworth's dispatch to Lord Hawkesbury, March 14, 1803, and account of the scene with Napoleon. "All this took place loud enough for the two hundred persons present to hear it."—Lord Whitworth (dispatch of March 17) complains of this to Talleyrand and informs him that he shall discontinue his visits to the Tuileries unless he is assured that similar scenes shall not occur again.—Lord Hawkesbury approves of this (dispatch of March 27), and declares that the proceeding is improper and offensive to the King of England.—Similar scenes, the same conceit and intemperate language, with M. de Metternich, at Paris, in 1809, also at Dresden, in 1813: again with Prince Korsakof, at Paris, in 1812; with M. de Balachof, at Wilna, in 1812, and with Prince Cardito, at Milan, in 1805.]

1296 (return)
[ Before the rupture of the peace of Amiens ("Moniteur," Aug. 8, 1802): The French government is now more firmly established than the English government."—("Moniteur" Sept.10, 1802): "What a difference between a people which conquers for love of glory and a people of traders who happen to become conquerors!"—("Moniteur," Feb. 20, 1803): "The government declares with a just pride that England cannot now contend against France."—Campaign of 1805, 9th bulletin, words of Napoleon in the presence of Mack's staff: "I recommend my brother the Emperor of Germany to make peace as quick as he can! Now is the time to remember that all empires come to an end; the idea that an end might come to the house of Lorraine ought to alarm him."—Letter to the Queen of Naples, January 2, 1805: "Let your Majesty listen to what I predict. On the first war breaking out, of which she might be the cause, she and her children will have ceased to reign; her children would go wandering about among the different countries of Europe begging help from their relations."]

1297 (return)
[ 37th bulletin, announcing the march of an army on Naples "to punish the Queen's treachery and cast from the throne that criminal woman, who, with such shamelessness, has violated all that men hold sacred."—Proclamation of May 13, 1809: "Vienna, which the princes of the house of Lorraine have abandoned, not as honorable soldiers yielding to circumstances and the chances of war, but as perjurers pursued by remorse.... In flying from Vienna their adieus to its inhabitants consisted of murder and fire. Like Medea, they have sacrificed their children with their own hands."—13th bulletin: "The rage of the house of Lorraine against the city of Vienna,"]

1298 (return)
[ Letter to the King of Spain, Sept. 18, 1803, and a note to the Spanish minister of foreign affairs, on the Prince de la Paix: "This favorite, who has succeeded by the most criminal ways to a degree unheard of in the annals of history.... Let Your Majesty put away a man who, maintaining in his rank the low passions of his character, has lived wholly on his vices."—After the battle of JÉna, 9th, 17th, 18th, and 19th bulletins, comparison of the Queen of Prussia with Lady Hamilton, open and repeated insinuations, imputing to her an intrigue with the Emperor Alexander. "Everybody admits that the Queen of Prussia is the author of the evils the Prussian nation suffers. This is heard everywhere. How changed she is since that fatal interview with the Emperor Alexander!... The portrait of the Emperor Alexander, presented to her by the Prince, was found in the apartment of the Queen at Potsdam."]

1299 (return)
[ "La Guerre patriotique" (1812-1815), according to the letters of contemporaries, by Doubravine (in Russian). The Report of the Russian envoy, M. de Balachof, is in French,]

12100 (return)
[ An allusion to the murder of Paul I.]

12101 (return)
[ Stanislas de Girardin, "MÉmoires," III., 249. (Reception of NivÔse 12, year X.) The First consul addresses the Senate: "Citizens, I warn you that I regard the nomination of Daunou to the senate as a personal insult, and you know that I have never put up with one."—"Correspondance de Napoleon I." (Letter of Sept.23, 1809, to M. de Champagny): "The Emperor Francis insulted me in writing to me that I cede nothing to him, when, out of consideration for him, I have reduced my demands nearly one-half." (Instead of 2,750,000 Austrian subjects he demanded only 1,600,000.)—Roederer, III., 377 (Jan.24, 1801): "The French people must put up with my defects if they find I am of service to them; it is my fault that I cannot endure insults."]

12102 (return)
[ M. de Metternich, II., 378. (Letter to the Emperor of Austria, July 28, 1810.)]

12103 (return)
[ Note presented by the French ambassador, Otto, Aug. 17, 1802.]

12104 (return)
[ Stanislas Girardin, III., 296. (Words of the First consul, Floreal 24, year XI.): "I had proposed to the British minister, for several months, to make an arrangement by which a law should be passed in France and in England prohibiting newspapers and the members of the government from expressing either good or ill of foreign governments. He never would consent to it."—St. Girardin: "He could not."—Bonaparte: "Why?"—St. Girardin: "Because an agreement of that sort would have been opposed to the fundamental law of the country." Bonaparte: "I have a poor opinion," etc.]

12105 (return)
[ Hansard, vol. XXXVI., p.1298. (Dispatch of Lord Whitworth, Feb.21, 1803, conversation with the First consul at the Tuileries.)—Seeley, 'A Short History of Napoleon the First." "Trifles is a softened expression, Lord Whitworth adds in a parenthesis which has never been printed; "the expression he made use of is too insignificant and too low to have a place in a dispatch or anywhere else, save in the mouth of a hack-driver."]

12106 (return)
[ Lanfrey, "Histoire de NapolÉon," II., 482. (Words of the First consul to the Swiss delegates, conference of January 29, 1803.)]

12107 (return)
[ Sir Neil Campbell, "Napoleon at Fontainebleau and Elba," p.201. (The words of Napoleon to Sir Neil Campbell and to the other commissioners.)—The MÉmorial de Sainte Helene mentions the same plan in almost identical terms.—Pelet de la LozÈre, "Opinions de NapolÉon au conseil d'État," p.238 (session of March 4, 1806): "Within forty-eight hours after peace with England, I shall interdict foreign commodities and promulgate a navigation act forbidding any other than French vessels entering our ports, built of French timber, and with the crews two-thirds French. Even coal and English 'milords' shall land only under the French flag."—Ibid., 32.]

12108 (return)
[ Moniteur, January 30, 1803 (Sebastiani).]

12109 (return)
[ Hansard, vol. XXXVI., p.1298. (Lord Whitworth's dispatch, Feb.21, 1803, the First Consul's words to Lord Whitworth.)]

12110 (return)
[ "Memorial." (Napoleon's own words, March 24, 1806.)]

12111 (return)
[ Lanfrey, II., 476. (Note to Otto, October 23, 1802.)—Thiers,VI., 249.]

12112 (return)
[ Letter to Clarke, Minister of War, Jan. 18, 1814. "If, at Leipsic, I had had 30,000 cannon balls to fire off on the evening of the 18th, I should to-day be master of the world."]

12113 (return)
[ "Memorial," Nov. 30, 1815.]

12114 (return)
[ Lanfrey, III.,—399. Letters of Talleyrand, October 11 and 27, 1805, and memorandum addressed to Napoleon.]

12115 (return)
[ At the council held in relation to the future marriage of Napoleon, CambacÉrÈs vainly supported an alliance with the Russians. The following week, he says to M. Pasquier: "When one has only one good reason to give and it cannot possibly be given, it is natural that one should be beaten..., You will see that it is so good that one phrase suffices to make its force fully understood. I am deeply convinced that in two years we shall have a war with that of two powers whose daughter the Emperor does not marry. Now a war with Austria does not cause me any uneasiness, and I tremble at a war with Russia. The consequences are incalculable." "Souvenirs", by PASQUIER (Etienne-Dennis, duc), Librarie Plon, Paris 1893. Vol I., p 293, p 378.).]

12116 (return)
[ M. de Metternich, II., 305. (Letter to the Emperor of Austria, Aug.10, 1809.)—Ibid. 403.. (Letter of Jan.11, 1811.) "My appreciation of Napoleon's plans and projects, at bottom, has never varied. The monstrous purpose of the complete subjection of the continent under one head was, and is still, his object."]

12117 (return)
[ "Correspondance de Napoleon I." (Letter to the King of Wurtemberg, April 2, 1814): "The war will take place in spite of him (the Emperor Alexander), in spite of me, in spite of the interests of France and those of Russia. Having already seen this so often, it is my past experience which enables me to unveil the future,"]

12118 (return)
[ Mollien, III., 135, 190.—In 1810 "prices have increased 400% on sugar, and 100 % on cotton and dye stuffs."—"More than 20,000 custom-house officers were employed on the frontier against more than 100,000 smugglers, in constant activity and favored by the population."—"Souvenirs", by PASQUIER (Etienne-Dennis, duc), Librarie Plon, Paris 1893.-, I., 387.—There were licenses for importing colonial products, but on condition of exporting a proportionate quantity of French manufactures; now, England refused to receive them. Consequently, "not being allowed to bring these articles back to France, they were thrown overboard."—"They began at first by devoting the refuse of manufactures to this trade, and then ended by manufacturing articles without other destination; for example, at Lyons, taffetas and satins."]

12119 (return)
[ Proclamation of Dec.27, 1805: "The Naples dynasty has ceased to reign. Its existence is incompatible with the repose of Europe and the honor of my crown."—Message to the Senate, Dec. 10, 1810: "Fresh guarantees having become necessary, the annexation to the Empire of the mouths of the Escaut, the Meuse, the Rhine, the Ems, the Weser, and the Elbe, seemed to me to be the first and most important.... The annexation of the Valais is an anticipated result of the vast works I have undertaken for the past ten years in that section of the Alps."]

12120 (return)
[ We are familiar with the Spanish affair. His treatment of Portugal is anterior and of same order.-" Correspondance." (Letter to Junot, Oct.31, 1807):—'I have already informed you, that in authorizing you to enter as an auxiliary, it was to enable you to possess yourself of the (Portuguese) fleet, but my mind was made up to take Portugal."—(Letter to Junot, Dec. 23, 1807): "Disarm the country. Send all the Portuguese troops to France.... I want them out of the country. Have all princes, ministers, and other men who serve as rallying points, sent to France."—(Decree of Dec. 23, 1807): "An extra contribution of 100 million francs shall be imposed on the kingdom of Portugal, to redeem all property, of whatever denomination, belonging to private parties... All property belonging to the Queen of Portugal, to the prince-regent, and to princes in appanage;.... all the possessions of the nobles who have followed the king, on his abandoning the country, and who had not returned to the kingdom before February 1, shall be put under sequestration."—Cf. M. d'Haussonville, "L'Église Romaine et le premier Empire," 5 vols. (especially the last volume). No other work enables one to see into Napoleon's object and proceedings better nor more closely.]

12121 (return)
[ "Souvenirs du feu duc de Broglie," p.143. (As a specimen of steps taken in time of war, see the register of Marshal BessiÈres' orders, commandant at Valladolid from April 11 to July 15, 1811.)—"Correspondance du Roi JÉrome," letter of Jerome to Napoleon, Dec. 5, 1811. (Showing the situation of a vanquished people in times of peace): "If war should break out, all countries between the Rhine and the Oder will become the center of a vast and active insurrection. The mighty cause of this dangerous movement is not merely hatred of the French, and impatience of a foreign yoke, but rather in the misfortunes of the day, in the total ruin of all classes, in over-taxation, consisting of war levies, the maintenance of troops, soldiers traversing the country, and every sort of constantly renewed vexation.... At Hanover, Magdebourg, and in the principal towns of my kingdom, owners of property are abandoning their dwellings and vainly trying to dispose of them at the lowest prices.... Misery everywhere presses on families; capital is exhausted; the noble, the peasant, the bourgeois, are crushed with debt and want.... The despair of populations no longer having anything to lose, because all has been taken away, is to be feared."—De Pradt, p.73. (Specimen of military proceedings in allied countries.) At Wolburch, in the Bishop of Cujavie's chateau, "I found his secretary, canon of Cujavie, decorated with the ribbon and cross of his order, who showed me his jaw, broken by the vigorous blows administered to him the previous evening by General Count Vandamme, because he had refused to serve Tokay wine, imperiously demanded by the general; he was told that the King of Westphalia had lodged in the castle the day before, and had carted away all this wine."]

12122 (return)
[ FievÉe, "Correspondance et relations avec Bonaparte, de 1802 À 1813," III., 82. (Dec. 1811), (On the populations annexed or conquered): "There is no hesitation in depriving them of their patrimony, their language, their legislatures, in disturbing all their habits, and that without any warrant but throwing a bulletin des lois at their heads (inapplicable).... How could they be expected to recognize this, or even become resigned to it?... Is it possible not to feel that one no longer has a country, that one is under constraint, wounded in feeling and humiliated?... Prussia, and a large part of Germany, has been so impoverished that there is more to gain by taking a pitchfork to kill a man than to stir up a pile of manure."]

12123 (return)
[ "Correspondance," letter to King Joseph, Feb. 18, 1814. "If I had signed the treaty reducing France to its ancient limits, I should have gone to war two years after"—Marmont, V., 133 (1813): "Napoleon, in the last years of his reign, always preferred to lose all rather than to yield anything."]

12124 (return)
[ M. de Metternich, II., 205.]

12125 (return)
[ Words of Richelieu on his death-bed: "Behold my judge," said he, pointing to the Host, "the judge who will soon pronounce his verdict. I pray that he will condemn me, if, during my ministry, I have proposed to myself aught else than the good of religion and of the State."]

12126 (return)
[ Miot de Melito, "MÉmoires,"II., 48, 152.]

12127 (return)
[ "Souvenirs," by Gaudin, duc de GaËte (3rd vol. of the "MÉmoires," p.67).]

12128 (return)
[ M. de Metternich, II., 120. (Letter to Stadion, July 26, 1807.)]

12129 (return)
[ Ibid., II., 291. (Letter of April 11, 1809.)]

12130 (return)
[ Ibid., II., 400. (Letter of Jan.17, 1811.) In lucid moments, Napoleon takes the same view. Cf. Pelet de la LozÈre, "Opinions de Napoleon au conseil d'etat," p. 15: "That will last as long as I do. After me, however, my son will deem himself fortunate if he has 40,000 francs a year."—(De SÉgur, "Histoire et MÉmoires," III., 155.): "How often at this time (1811) was he heard to foretell that the weight of his empire would crush his heir!" "Poor child," said he, regarding the King of Rome, "what an entanglement I shall leave to you!" From the beginning he frequently passed judgment on himself and foresaw the effect of his action in history." On reaching the isle of Poplars, the First Consul stopped at Rousseau's grave, and said: 'It would have, been better for the repose of France, if that man had never existed.' 'And why, citizen Consul?' 'He is the man who made the French revolution.' 'It seems to me that you need not complain of the French revolution!' 'well, the future must decide whether it would not have been better for the repose of the whole world if neither myself nor Rousseau had ever lived.' He then resumed his promenade in a revery."—Stanislas Girardin; "Journal et MÉmoires," III., Visit of the French Consul to Ermenonville.]

12131 (return)
[ Marmont, "MÉmoires," III., 337. (On returning from Wagram.)]

12132 (return)
[ On this initial discord, cf. Armand LefÈvre, "Histoire des Cabinets de l'Europe," vol.VI.]

12133 (return)
[ "Correspondance de NapolÉon I." (Letter to the King of Wurtemberg, April 2, 1811.)]

12134 (return)
[ Testament of April 25, 1821 "It is my desire that my remains rest on the banks of the Seine, amidst that French people I have so dearly loved."]

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[ "Correspondance de Napoleon I.", XXII., 119. (Note by Napoleon, April, 1811.) "There will always be at Hamburg, Bremen, and Lubeck from 8000 to 10,000 Frenchmen, either as employees or as gendarmes, in the custom-houses and warehouses."]

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[ "Souvenirs", by PASQUIER (Etienne-Dennis, duc), Librarie Plon, Paris 1893.-, II., 88, and following pages: "During the year 1813, from Jan. 1 to Oct. 7, 840,000 men had already been drafted from imperial France and they had to be furnished."—Other decrees in December, placing at the disposition of the government 300,000 conscripts for the years 1806 to 1814 inclusive.—Another decree in November organizing 140,000 men of the national guard in cohorts, intended for the defense of strongholds.—In all, 1,300,000 men summoned in one year. "Never has any nation been thus asked to let itself be voluntarily led in a mass to the slaughterhouse.—Ibid., II., 59. Senatus-consulte, and order of council for raising 10,000 young men, exempt or redeemed from conscription, as the prefects might choose, arbitrarily, from amongst the highest classes in society. The purpose was plainly "to secure hostages in every family of doubtful loyalty. No measure created for Napoleon more irreconcilable enemies."—Cf. De SÉgur, II., 34. (He was charged with organizing and commanding a division of young men.) Many were sons of VendÉans or of Conventionalists, some torn from their wives the day after their marriage, or from the bedside of a wife in her confinement, of a dying father, or of a sick son; "some looked so feeble that they seemed dying." One half perished in the campaign of 1814.—"Correspondance," letter to Clarke, Minister of War, Oct.23, 1813 (in relation to the new levies): "I rely on 100,000 refractory conscripts."]

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[ "Archives nationales," A F.,VI., 1297. (Documents 206 to 210.) (Report to the Emperor by Count Dumas, April 10, 1810.) Besides the 170 millions of penalties 1,675,457 francs of penalty were inflicted on 2335 individuals, "abettors or accomplices."—Ibid., A F.,VI., 1051. (Report of Gen. Lacoste on the department of Haute-Loire, Oct. 13, 1808.) "He always calculated in this department on the desertion of one-half of the conscripts. In most of the cantons the gendarmes traffic with the conscription shamefully; certain conscripts pension them to show them favors."—Ibid., A F.,VI., 1052. (Report by Pelet, Jan. 12, 1812.) "The operation of the conscription has improved (in the Herault); the contingents of 1811 have been furnished. There remained 1800 refractory, or deserters of the previous classes; 1600 have been arrested or made to surrender by the flying column; 200 have still to be pursued." Faber,—"Notice (1807) sur l'intÉrieur de la France," p. 141: "Desertion, especially on the frontiers, is occasionally frightful; 80 deserters out of 160 have sometimes been arrested."—Ibid., p.149: It has been stated in the public journals that in 1801 the court in session at Lille had condemned 135 refractory out of the annual conscription, and that which holds its sittings at Ghent had condemned 70. Now, 200 conscripts form the maximum of what an arrondissement in a department could furnish."—Ibid, p.145. "France resembles a vast house of detention where everybody is suspicious of his neighbor, where each avoids the other... One often sees a young man with a gendarme at his heels oftentimes, on looking closely, this young man's hands are found tied, or he is handcuffed."—Mathieu Dumas, III., 507 (After the battle of Dresden, in the Dresden hospitals): "I observed, with sorrow, that many of these men were slightly wounded: most of them, young conscripts just arrived in the army, had not been wounded by the enemy's fire, but they had mutilated each other's feet and hands. Antecedents of this kind, of equally bad augury, had already been remarked in the campaign of 1809."]

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[ De SÉgur, III., 474.—Thiers, XIV., 159. (One month after crossing the Niemen one hundred and fifty thousand men had dropped out of the ranks.)]

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[ Bulletin 29 (December 3, 1812).]

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[ "De Pradt, Histoire de l'Ambassade de Varsovie," p.219.]

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[ M. de Metternich, I., 147.—Fain, "Manuscript," of 1813, II., 26. (Napoleon's address to his generals.) "What we want is a complete triumph. To abandon this or that province is not the question; our political superiority and our existence depend on it. "—II., 41, 42. (Words of Napoleon to Metternich.) "And it is my father-in-law who favors such a project! And he sends you! In what attitude does he wish to place me before the French people? He is strangely deluded if he thinks that a mutilated throne can offer an asylum to his daughter and grandson.... Ah, Metternich, how much has England given you to make you play this part against me?" (This last phrase, omitted in Metternich's narrative, is a characteristic trait; Napoleon at this decisive moment, remains insulting and aggressive, gratuitously and even to his own destruction.)]

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[ "Souvenirs du feu duc de Broglie," I., 235.]

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[ Ibid., I., 230. Some days before Napoleon had said to M. de Narbonne, who told me that very evening: "After all, what has this (the Russian campaign) cost me? 300,000 men, among whom, again, were a good many Germans."—"Souvenirs", by PASQUIER (Etienne-Dennis, duc, Librarie Plon, Paris 1893. II. 110. (Apropos of the Frankfurt basis, and accepted by Napoleon when too late.) "What characterizes this mistake is that it was committed much more against the interests of France than against his own.... He sacrificed her to the perplexities of his personal situation, to the mauvaise honte of his own ambition, to the difficulty he finds in standing alone to a certain extent before a nation which had done everything for him and which could justly reproach him with having sacrificed so much treasure and spilled so much blood on enterprises proved to have been foolish and impracticable."]

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[ Leonce de Lavergne, "Economie rurale de la France," P.40. (According to the former director of the conscription under the Empire.)]