Memoirs of the Life, Exile, and Conversations of the Emperor Napoleon

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HARVARD
COLLEGE
LIBRARY

n

i \

1

MEMOIRS

OP THB

LIFE, EXILE, AND CONVERSATIONS

OF THB

EMPEROR NAPOLEON

BY

THE COUNT DE LAS CASES

WITH PORTRAITS AND OTHER ILLUSTRATIONS

A NEW EDITION IN POUR TOLUXXf

Vol. hi.

NEW YORK

WORTHINGTON 00.

747 Broadway

1890

p/v Itf-I7^>.,,r^

KRt) Co^^

I ^

1

2 BNOLISH AND FRENCH SHIPS.

on oar coasts to the violence of tempests, to the danger
of rocks, to all the hazards of disaster, while we, on the
contrary, had every chance of success, should any unfore-
seen catastrophe occur from natural events, or the faults
of their admirals, which could not fail to happen in the
course of time. What advantages should we not have
derived from the event ? We, fresh and in excellent con-
dition ; we, waiting only for the opportunity, always ready
to set sail and engage ! Should the English be tired out?
Our vessels would immediately put to sea for the pur-
pose of exercising and training their crews.

On the completion of our armaments and at the ap-
proach of the decisive moment, were the English alarmed
for the safety of their island, to collect their strength in
front of their principal arsenals, Plymouth, Portsmouth,
and the Thames, our three divisions of Brest, Cherbourg,
and Antwerp, would attack them, and our wings would
turn then upon Ireland and Scotland. Were they,
relying upon their skill and bravery, resolved to oppose
us in one great body, then the struggle would be reduced
to a decisive issue, of which we should have been at
liberty to choose the titne, the place, and the opportunity ;
— and this is what the Emperor called the battle of
Actium, in which, if we were defeated, we should expe-
rience but simple losses, while, if we proved victorious,
the enemy would cease to exist. But our triumph, he
maintained, was certain, for the two nations would have
to contend man to man, and we were upwards of forty
millions against fifteen. This was the favourite position
on which he uniformly dwelt. Such was one of his
grand ideas, his gigantic conceptions.

Napoleon has been the founder of so many establish-
ments, that his works and monuments are injurious to
each other by their number, variety, and importance. It
was my earnest wish to have given a full relation of his
works, which were executed at Cherbourg, as well as of
those which he had projected. A person precisely of
the profession best qualified to appreciate the subject, and
one of its brightest ornaments, has promised me a de-
scription of them Should he keep his word, it shall be
g^ven hereafter

MEMOIRS

OF

THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON.

TBB BILL RB8PSCTINO OUR BXILB. BBAUMARCHAI8.

THB WORKS OF CUBRBOURO.

July 15, 1816. About ten o'clock, the Emperor
entered my apartment : he came unawares, as he wished
to take a walk. I followed him, and he walked for some
time towards the wood, where we were taken up by the
calash. A considerable interval had elapsed since he
made use of it. I was the only person with him, and
the Bill, which related to him, and with the nature of
which we were unacquainted, was, during the whole
time, the subject of our conversation.

Upon our return, the Emperor, after some hesitation
whether he should breakfast under the trees, determined
to go in, and remained at home the whole oi the day.
He dined alone.

He sent for me after dinner : I found him engaged in
reading some Mercures or old newspapers. He found in
them various anecdotes and circumstances respecting
Beaumarchais, whom the Emperor, during his Consulate,
had, notwithstanding a]l his wit, uniformly discounte-
nanced, on account of his bad character and his gross
immorality. The difference of manners imparted a
poignancy to the anecdotes, although the difference of
times was so trifling. He found an account of Louis the
Sixteenth's visit to Cherbourg, on which he dwelt for
some time. He next adverted to the works of Cher^

4 CHERBOURG.

bourg, and took a rapid review of thera, with the clear-
ness, precision, and lively manner that characterized
every thing he said.

Cherbourg is situated at the bottom of a semicircular
bay, the two extremities of which are the Pelee Island
on the right, and Point Querqueville on the left. The
line, by which these two points are connected, forms the
chord or the diameter, and runs East and West.

Opposite to the North, and at a very small distance,
about 20 leagues, is the famous Portsmouth, the grand
arsenal of the English. The remainder of their coast
runs nearly parallel opposite to ours. Nature has done
every thing for our rivals ; nothing for us. Their shores
are safe and clear themselves daily from obstructions.
They abound in deep soundings, in the means of shelter,
in harbours and excellent ports ; ours are, on the con-
trary, full of rocks, the water is shallow, and they are
every day choking up. We have not in these parts a single
real port of large dimensions, and it might be said that
the English are, at the same moment, both at home and
on our coast, since it is not requisite for their squadrons,
at anchor in Portsmouth, to put to sea to molest us. A
few light vessels are sufEcient to convey intelligence of
our movements, and, in an instant, without trouble or
danger, they are ready to pounce upon their prey.

If, on the contrary, our squadrons are daring enough
to appear in the British Channel, which ought, in reality,
to be called the French Sea, they are exposed to perpe-
tual danger ; their total destruction may be effected by
the hurricane or the superiority of the enemy, because in
both these cases there is no shelter for them. This is
what happened at the famous battle of La Uogue, where
Tourville might have united the glory of a skUfiil retreat
with that of a hard fought and unequal contest, had
there been a port for him to take shelter in.

In this state of things, men of great sagacity and anx-
ious for the welfare of their country, prevailed upon
government, by dint of projects and memorials, to seek,
by the assistance of art, those resources of which we had
been deprived by nature ; and, after a great deal of hesi-
tation, the bay of Cherbourg was selected, and it wa.

CHBRBOURO. 5

determined to protect it by an immense dike, projecting
into the sea. In that way we were to acquire, even close
to the enemy, an artificial road, whence our ships might
be able, in all times and in all weathers, to attack his,
or to escape his pursuit.

" It was," said the Emperor, ** a magnificent and
glorious undertaking, very difficult with respect to the
execution and to the finances of that period. The dike
was to be formed by immense cones constructed empty
in the port and towed afterwards to the spot, where they
were sunk by the weight of the stones with which they
were filled.* There certainly was great ingenuity in the
invention. Louis XVI. honoured these operations with
his presence. His departure from Versailles was a great
event. In those times, a king never left his residence,
his excursions did not extend beyond the limits of a
hunting party ; they did not hurry about as at present,
and I really believe that I contributed not a little to the
rapidity of their movements.

" However, as it was absolutely necessary that things
should be impressed with the character of the age, the
eternal rivalry between the land and sea, that question
which can never be decided, continued to be carried on.
It might have been said in that respect, that there were
two kings in France, or that he who reigned had two
interests, and ought to have two wills, which proved
rather that he had none at all. Here the sea was the
only subject for consideration, yet the question was de-
cided in favour of the land, not by superiority of argu-
ment, but by priority of right. Where the fate of the
empire was at stake, a point of precedence was substituted,
and thus the grand object, the magnificent enterprise,
failed of success. The land- party established itself at
Pel^e Island and at fort Querqueville ; it was employed
there merely to lend an auxiliary hand to the construc-
tion of the dike, which was itself the chief object ; but
instead of that, it began by establishing its own predo-
minance, and afterwards compelled the dike to become

• The diameter of these cones, which were 60 feet high, wai
104 feet at tlie base, and 60 at the top.

b CHERBOURG.

the instrument of its convenience, and subservient to its
plans and discretion. What was the result ? The har-
bour, which was forming and which was intended to
contain the mass of our navy, whether designed to strike
at the heart of the enemy's ])ower, or to take occasional
shelter, could only accommodate fifteen sail at most, while
we wanted anchorage for more than a hundred, which
might have been effected without more labour and with
little more expense, had the works been carried more
forward into the sea, merely beyond the limits which the
land- party had appropriated to Hself.

" Another blunder highly characteristic, and scarcely
conceivable, took place. AH *he principal measures foi
completing the harbour were hxed upon ; the dike com
menced ; one of the channels, that to the eastward,
finished, and the other to the westward was on the point
of being formed, without an exact and precise knowledge
of all the soundings. This oversight was so great that
the channel already formed, that to the eastward, five
hundred fathoms broad, having been carried too close to
the fort, did not, without inconvenience, admit vessels
at low water, and that the other, which was about to be
constructed to the westward, would have been impracti-
cable, or at least very dangerous, but for the individual
zeal of one officer (M. de Chavagnac), who made that
important discovery in time, and caused the works on
the left extremity of the dike to be stopped at the dis-
tance of twelve hundred fathoms from fort Querqueville,
by which it was to be defended. This seems to me, and
is, in fact, too great a distance.*

" The system adopted in the works of the dike, which
is more than a league from the shore, and more than
1900 fathoms long by 90 feet broad, was also subjected
to numerous changes, suggested, however, by experience.

• It was not until 1789, five years after the commencement ol
these works, that orders were given by government for taking tlie
soundings of the harbour and ascertaining the state of the bottom.
Up to that time, the works had been carried on solely on vague
and imperfect notions!! (Memoire du Baron Cachin, Inspecteux
06n6ral des ponts et chauss^es.)

CHSRBOURO. 7

The cones, which, according to the estahlished principle,
ought to have touched each other at their hases, were«
in that respect, either separated hy accident or with a
view to economy. They were damaged by storms, eaten
by worms, or rotted with age. They were at length
altogether neglected, with the excq)tion of stones thrown
at random into the sea ; and when It was observed that
these were scattered by the rolling of the waves, recourse
was had to enormous blocks, which finally answered
every expectation.

"The works were continued, without interruption,
under Louis XVI. An encreased degree of activity was
imparted to them by our legislative assemblies ; but in
consequence of the commotions which soon followed,
they were completely abandoned, and at the time of the
Consulate, not a trace of that famous dike was to be
seen. Every thing had been destroyed for several feet
under low water level, by the original imperfection of
the plan, by the length of time, and the violence of the
waves.

•• The moment, however, I took the helm of aflairs,
one of the first things I did was to turn my attention to
so important a point. I ordered commissions of inquiry ;
I had the subject discussed in my presence ; I made my-
self acquidnted with the local circumstances ; and I
decided that the dike should be run up with all possible
expedition, and that two solid fortifications should, in
the course of time, be constructed at the two extremi-
ties ; but that measures should be immediately taken for
the establishment of a considerable provisional battery.
1 had then to encounter, on all sides, the inconveniencies,
the objections, the particular views, the fondness which
attaches itself to individual opinions, &c. Several
maintained that the thing certainly could not be done ;
I continued steady, I insisted, I commanded, and the
thing was done. In less than two years, a real island
was seen rising as it were, by magic, from the sea. on
which was erected a battery of large calibre. Until
that moment, our labours had almost constantly been
the sport of the English ; they had, they said, been con-
vinced, from their origin, that they would prove fruitless ;

8 CHEUBOURQ.

«hey had foretold that the cones would destroy them-
selves, that the small stones would be swept away by the
waves, and above all, they relied upon our lassitude and
our inconstancy. But here things were completely
altered, and they made a shew of molesting our opera-
tions ; they were, however, too late ; I was already
prepared for them. The western channel naturally con-
tinued very wide, and the two extreme fortifications,
which defended, each its peculiar passage, being incapa-
Me of maintaining a cross-fire, it was probable that an
enterprising enemy might be enabled to force the western
channel, come to an anchor within the dike, and there
renew the disaster of Aboukir. But I had already
guarded against this with my central provisional battery.
However, as I am for permanent establishments, I
ordered within the dike, in the centre, by way of support,
and which in its turn might serve as an envelope, an
enormous elliptical pate to be constructed, commanding
the central battery, ancl mounted itself in two casemated
stories, bomb-proof, with 50 pieces of large calibre and
20 mortars of an extensive range, as well as barracks,
powder-magazine, cistern, &c.

" I have the satisfaction of having left this noble work
in a finished state.

" Having provided for the defensive, my only business
was to prepare offensive measures, which consisted in
the means of collecting the mass of our fleets at Cher-
bourg. The harbour, however, could contain but fifteen
sail. For the purpose of increasing the number, I
caused a new port to be dug ; the Romans never under-
took a more important, a more difficult task, or one
which promised a more lasting duration ! It was sunk
into the granite to the depth of 50 feet, and I caused the
opening of it to be celebrated by the presence of Maria
Louisa, while I myself was on the fields of battle in
Saxony. By this means I procured anchorage for 25
sail more. Still that number was not sufficient, and I
therefore relied upon very diflFerent means of augmenting
my naval strength. 1 was resolved to renew the won-
ders of Egypt at Cherbourg. I had already erected my
pyramid in the sea ; I would also have my lake Moeris.

10 FRENCH PORTS*

period. He, therefore, retained the whole of his ship-
ping in port, and confined himself to the gradual aug-
mentation of our naval resources, without exposing them
to any further risk. Every thing was calculated on the
basis of a remote result.

Our navy had lost a great number of vessels, the
greatest part of our good seamen were prisoners in
England, and all our ports were blockaded by the
English, who obstructed their communications. The
Emperor ordered canals in Britanny, by means of which,
and in spite of the enemy, points of communication for
providing Brest with all kinds of supplies were esta-
blished between Bordeaux, Rochefort, Nantes, Holland,
Antwerp, Cherbourg, and that port. He was desirous
of having wet docks at Flushing or in its neighbourhood,
for the purpose of containing the Antwerp squadron,
completely equipped and ready to put to sea in four-and-
twenty hours, which was necessarily confined in the
Scheldt four or five months of the year. Finally, he
projected near Boulogne, or on some spot along that
coast, the construction of a dike similar to that oi
Cherbourg, and between Cherbourg and Brest, a suitable
harbour at the ile-k- Bois. AJl this was planned, for the
purpose of securing, at all times and without danger, a
full and free communication to our large ships between
Antwerp and Brest. To obviate the want of seamen,
and the great difficulty of forming them, it was ordered
that the young conscripts should be, every day, trained
in all our ports. They were, at first, to be put on board
small light vessels, and a flotilla of that kind was even
to navigate the Zuiderzee ; they were afterwards to be
turned over to large ships and immediately replaced by
others of the same class. The vessels were ordered tc
get under sail every day, to go through every possible
manoBuvre and evolution, and even to exchange shots
with the enemy, without exposing themselves to the
chance of an engagement.

The last point was the force and number of our ves-
fels ; they were considerable, notwithstanding all our
losses, ard the Emperor calculated on being enabled to
build 20 Dr 25 yearly. The crews would be ready an

IMPROVBMBNT OF THB NAVY. I I

fa9t as they were wanted, and thus, at the expiration of
four or six years, he could have relied upon having 200
sail of the line, and perhaps 300, had that number been
necessary, in less than 10 years. And what was that
period in comparison with the perpetual war, or the war
for life, which was declared against us ? The affairs of
the continent would, in the mean time, be brought to a
termination ; the whole of it would have embraced our
system ; the £mperor would have inarched back the
greatest part of his troops to our coast, and it was in
that situation that he looked with confidence to a deci-
sive issue of the contest. All the respective resources of
the two nations would have been called into action, and
we should then, in his opinion, subdue our enemies by
moral energy, or strangle them by our material
strength.

The Emperor entertained several projects for the im-
provement of the navy, and adapted to that end part of
his military tactics. He intended to establish his offen-
sive and defensive Hue from Cape Finisterre to the mouth
of the Elbe. He was to have had three squadrons with
admirals commanding in chief, as he had corps d'armee
with their generals in chief. The Admiral of the centre
was to establish his head quarters at Cherbourg ; of the
left, at Brest; and of the right, at Antwerp. Smaller di-
visions were to be stationed at the extremities, at Roche-
fort, and at Ferrol, in the Texel, and at the mouth ol
the Elbe, for the purpose of turning and outflanking the
enemy. All these points were to be connected by nume-
rous intermediate stations, and their respective com-
manders in chief were to be considered as constantly
present, by the assistance of telegraphs, which, lining
the coast, were to preserve an uninterrupted communica-
tion between the parts of the grand system.

Let us consider, however, what would have been the
conduct of the English during our preparations and the
progressive increase of our naval power. Would they
have continued the blockade of our ports ? Wc should
have had the satisfaction of witnessing the wear and tear
of their cruising squadrons ; we should have compelled
•"hem to maintain 100 or 150 vessels constantly exposed

13

LONG AUDIKNCB GIVEN TO THS GOVKRNOR. REMARK*

ABLE CONVBRRATION.

16th.— A1)out nine o'clock, the Emperor took an
airing in the calash. There was a vessel in sight, at
which he looked through the glass. He invited the
Doctor, whom he found employed in the same way, to
accompany him. On our return, we breakfasted under
the trees. He conversed at great length with the Doc-
tor respecting the Grovemor's conduct to us, his endless
vexations, &c.

About two o'clock, a person came to enquire if the
Emperor would receive the Grovemor. He gave him
an audience that lasted nearly two hours, and ran over,
without falling into a passion, he said, all the objects
under discussion. He recapitulated all our grievances ;
enumerated all his wrongs ; addressed himself, he ob-
served, by turns to his understanding, his imagination
his feelings, and his heart. He put it in his power to
repair all the mischief he had done, to recommence upon *
a plan altogether new, but in vain, for that man, he
declared, was without £bres ; nothing was to be expected
from him.

This Governor, said the Emperor, assured him that,
when the detention of M. de Montholon's servant took
place, he did not know he was in our service, and he
added that he had not read Madame Bertrand's sealed
letter. The Emperor observed to him that his letter to
Count Bertrand was altogether repugnant to our manners
and in direct opposition to our prejudices ; that if he,
the Emperor, were but a mere general and a private
individual, and had received such a letter h-om him, the
Governor, he would have called him out ; that a man so
well known and respected in Europe, as the Grand
Marshal, was not to be insulted, under the penalty of
social reprobation ; that he did not take a correct view
of his situation with regard to us ; that all his actions
here came within the province of history, and that even
the conversation which was passing at that moment
belonged to history ; that he injured every day, by his
rondiict, his own government and his own nation, and

15

•N THE BEAUTIFUL WOMEN OF ITALY. — MADAME GRAB-
8INI MADAME V . • . . AND BBRTHIBR.

17th. — ^The Emperor sent for me about two o'clock
he dressed himself and went out in the calash. Madame
de Montholon was of the party. It was her first appear-...
ance since her accouchement. The conversation turned
particularly on the Italian ladies, their character and
beauty.

The young General, who effected the conquest of It?Jy,
excited in that country, from the first moment, every
feeling of enthusiasm and ambition. This the £mperor
was delighted to hear and to repeat. Above all, there
was not a beauty who did not aspire to please and touch
his heart, but in vain. " My mind,*' he said, " was too
strong to be caught in the snare ; I fancied that there
was a precipice under the flowers. My situation was
singularly delicate ; I had the command of veteran
generals ; the task I had to execute was immense ; all
my motions were watched by jealous eyes ; my circum-
spection was extreme. My good fortune consisted in
my prudence ; I might have forgotten myself for an
hour, and how many of my victories,*' said he, " de-
pended on no greater length of time !"

Several years afterwards, at the time of his coronation
at Milan, his attention was attracted by Gra$si?ii, the
celebrated singer. Circumstances were then more aus-
picious. He desired to see her, and immediately after
her introduction, she reminded him that she had made
her debut precisely during the early achievements of the
General of the army of Italy. " I was then," said she,
** in the full lustre o( my beauty and my talent. My
performance in the Virgins of the Sun was the topic of
universal conversation. I fascinated every eye and in-
flamed every heart. The young General alone was
insensible to my charms, and yet he was the only object
of my wishes ! What caprice, what singularity ! When
I possessed some value, when all Italy was at my feet,
and I heroically disdained its admiration for a single
glance from you, I was unable to obtain it ; and now,
how strange an alteration ! you condescend to notice me

i6 berthibr's disappointmbnt.

— now, when I am not worth the trouble and am nc
longer worthy of you !*'

The celebrated Madame V was also among

the crowd of Armidas ; but, tried with losing her time,
she lowered her pretensions to Berthier, who, from
the first instant, lived but for her. The Commander-in-
Chief made him a present one day of a magnificent
diamond worth more than 100,000 francs. ** Here,'
said he, " take that ; we often play high, lay it up
against a rainy day." — Scarcely had four-and-twenty
hours elapsed, before Madame Bonaparte came to tell
her husband of a diamond which was the subject of her
admiration. It was the present that was to have been
laid up against a rainy day, which had already found its

way from Berthier's hand to Madame V 's head.

He has since, in all the circumstances of his life, been
uniformly governed by her.

The Emperor, having gradually heaped riches and ho-
nours upon Berthier, pressed him often to marry, but he
as constantly refused, deciaring, that Madame V . . .
could alone make him happy. The son, however, of

Madame V having got acquainted with

a duchess of Bavaria, who had come to Paris, with
the hope of obtaining a husband, through the Emperor's

favour, Madame V thought she was doing

wonders and advancing her son's fortune by the marriage
of her lover; and, with this impression, she prevailed
upon Berthier to espouse the Bavarian princess. But,
said the Emperor, there is no project, however excel
lent, which does not become the sport of fortune ; for
scarcely was the marriage concluded, when Madame

V 's husband died and left his wife at libertv.

That event proved to her and to Berthier the source of
real despair ; they were inconsolable. Berthier came with
tears in his eyes to communicate his wretched fate to the
Emperor, who laughed at his misfortune. To what a
miserable condition, he exclaimed, was he reduced ; with

a little more constancy, Madame V might

have been his wife !

17

FAUBOUse sAnrr gsbmain. — ammmtocwlacti

THB KMFBBOK's DrTKSmOH TO M AKKT

WOMAN.

18th. — ^About four o'dock« I was sent for br dftc
Emperor, who was in a tctt weak state. He haid, by
an absence of mind, remained three hours in a Tenr hot
bath and scalded his right thigh with the boOing water.
He had read two Tohnnes in the bath. He diared, bat
would not dress himsdf .

At half-past seren, the Emperor uideied two coren
to be laid in his cabinet, and was tctt moch out of tern-
per, becaose his papers were thrown into oonfitsion br
being removed for the pur pose of using the table on
whidi they lay. Hiey were replaced by his direction,
and tiie covers laid upon another small taJUe.

We conversed for a long time; he brought me back
to topics whidi c^ien suggnted diemsehres to him when
we were together, and upon whidi I must endeavour
not to be guilty of repetitions, the more so, as they pos-
sess attractions, whidi to me are peculiarly interesdng.
We talked a great deal about our youthful years and the
time we passed at tiie military schocd. TTus subject led
him again to notice tiie new sdiools which he had esta-
blished at St. Cvr and at St. Germain, and he finallv
recurred to the emigrants and those he called nas em-
crodUs, He became gay and Hvely in consequence <^
«ome anecdotes of tiie Faubourg St. Germain, respect-
ing his person, whkh I related, and as the slightest
things grew into importance the moment he touched
upon them, he said-—" I see plainly that my plan with
respect to your Faubourg St. Germain was ill-managed.
I did too much or too little. I did enough to dissatisfy
the opposite party, and not enough to attach it to me
altogether. Although some of them were fond of money,
the multitude would have been content with the rattles
ind sound, with which I could have crammed them, with-
dut any injury, in the main, to our new principles. My
lear Las Cases, I did too much and not enough, and yet
i was earnestly occupied with the business. Unfortu-
nately, I was the only one seriously engaged in the un«

18 ARISTOCRACr AND DEMOCRACY.

dertaking. All who were about me thwarted, instead of
promoting it, and yet there were but two grand measures
to be taken with regard to you ; — that of annihilating, or
that of melting you down into the great mass of society.
The former could not enter my head, and the latter was
not an easy task, but I did not consider it beyond my
strength. And, in fact, although I had no support, and
was even counteracted in my views, I nearly realized
them at length. Had I remained, the thing would have
been accomplished. This will appear astonishing to him
who knows how to appreciate the heart of man and the
state of society. I do not think that history can furnish
any case of a similar kind, or that so important a result,
obtained in so short a space of time, can be found. I
should have carried that fusion into effect, and cemented
that union by every sacrifice ; it would have rendered us
invincible. The opposite conduct has ruined us, and
may for a long time protract the misfortunes, perhaps
the last gasps of unhappy France. I once more repeat,
that I did too much or too little. I ought to have attach-
ed the emigrants to me upon their return ; I might have
easily become an object of adoration with the aristo-
cracy. An establishment of that nature was necessary
for me. It is the real, the only, support of monarchy —
its guide — its lever — its point of resistance. Without
it, the state is but a vessel without a rudder, a real bal-
loon in the air. But, the essence of aristocracy, its
talismanic charm, consists in antiquity, in age ; and
these were the only things I could not create. The in-
termediate means were wanting. M. de lireteuil, who
had insinuated himself into my favour, encouraged me.

On the contrary, M. de T , who certainly

was not a favourite with the emigrants, discouraged me
by every possible means. Reasonable democracy con-
tents itselSf with husbanding equality for all, as a fair
ground of pretension and possession. The real line of
conduct would have been to employ the remains of aris-
tocracy, with the forms and intention of democracy.
Above all, it was necessary to collect the ancient names,
those celebrated in our history. This is the only mode
of giving an instantaneous air of antiquity to the most
modern institutions.

ARISTOCRACY AND DEMOCRACY. 19

•' 1 entertained, upon that subject, ideas which were
altogether peculiar to myself. Had any difficulties been
started by Austria and Russia, I would have married a
French woman. I would have selected one of the most
illustrious names of the raonarchv. That was even mv
original thought, my real inclination. If my ministers
prevented me, it was only by their earnest appeals to
political views. Had I been surrounded by the Mont-
morencies, the Nesles, and the Ciissons. I should, bv
adopting their daughters, have united them with foreign
sovereigns. My pride and my delight would have been
to extend these noble French stocks, had they taken part
with us, or given themselves up to us altogether. They
and those belonging to me thought that I was influenced
by prejudice alone, when I was acting in conformity with
the most profound combinations. Be that as it will, your
friends have lost more in me than they are aware of!

They are destitute of soul, of the feeling of

true glory. By what unhappy propensity have they pre-
ferred wallowing in the mire of the allies to following
me to the top of mount Simplon, and commanding, from
its summit, the respect and admiration of the rest of
Europe. Senseless men ! — I had, however," he conti-
nued, ** a project in my portfolio ; time alone was want-
ing to mature it, which would have rallied round me a
great number of that class of persons, and which, after
all, would have been but just. It was that every des-
cendent of ancient marshals, ministers, &c., should be
considered at all times capable of getting himself de-
clared a duke, by presenting the requisite endowment.
All the sons of generals and governors of provinces were
upon the same principle, to be qualified to assume the
title of count, and so on in gradation. This would have
advanced some, raised the hopes of others, excited the
emulation of all, and hurt the pride of none ; grand, but
altogether harmless rattles, and lielonging, besides, to my
svstem and mv combinations.

** Old and cornipt are not governed like ancient and
virtuous nations. For one individual, at present, who
would sacrifice himself for the public good, there are
thousands and millions who are insensible to every th'ng

20 TITULAR DISTINCTlONb.

but their own interests, enjoyments and vanity. Tc
pretend, therefore, to regenerate a people in an instant,
or as if one were travelling post, would be an act of
madness. The genius of the workman ought to consist
in knowing how to employ the materials he has at hand,
and that is one of the causes of the resumption of all the
monarchical forms, of the re-establishment of titles, of
classes, and of the insignia of orders. The secret of
the legislator should consist in knowing how to derive
advantage even from the caprice and irregularities of those
whom he pretends to rule ; and, after all, these gewgaws
were attended with few inconveniences, and not destitute
of benefit. At the point of civilization to which we have
now attained, they are calculated to attract the respect
of the multitude, provided always that the person de-
corated with them preserves respect for himself. They
may satisfy the vanity of the weak, without scaring, in
the slightest degree, strong and powerful minds." It
was* very late, and the Emperor said, at parting, ** There
is another pleasant evening spent.'*

OUR HOUSE ON FIRE. ETIQUETTE AT LONGWOOD.

19th. — The chimney of the saloon took fire in the
night, but the fiaines did not break out until day- light.
Two hours sooner, and the building would have been a
heap of ashes.

The Emperor took a walk ; he was attended by several
of us, and we went round the park on foot.

One of his shoe- buckles fell out, and we all eagerly
strove to put it in again ; he, who succeeded, considered
himself the most fortunate. The Emperor, who would
not have permitted this at the TuilerierJ, seemed here to
feel a kind of satisfaction at our conduct ; he let us do
as we liked, and we were thankful to him for indulg-
mg us in an act, that did honour to us, in our own
opinion.

This leads me to observe that I have not yet spoken
of our customary manners when about his person, and I
am more peculiarly induced to notice them because we
have received several London newspapers, which circu-
late a thousand idle stories on this subject, and assert

1

80th.-— '1 lie Ciiiipt^rut ov«<v .w. ~.
found him reading an English work on the poor's rate.

22 ENGLISH POOR-RATKS.

the immense sums raised, and the vast numher of indi-
viduals maintained at the expense of their parishes ; the
account emhraced millions of men and hundreds of
millions of money.

The Emperor was apprehensive that he had not read
the work correctly, or that he had mistaken the meaning.
The thing, he said, seemed altogether impossible. He
could not conceive by what vices and defects so many
poor could be found in a country so opulent, so indus-
trious, and so abundant in resources for labour as
England. He was still, less capable of comprehending,
by what proiigy the proprietors, overloaded with an
oppressive ordinary and extraordinary taxation, were
also enabled to provide for the wants of such a multitude.
*' But we have nothing," he observed, ** in France to be
compared to it in the proportion of a hundredth or a
thousandth part. Have you not told me that I sent you
into the departments on a particular mission with regard
to mendicity ? Let us see, what is the number of our beg-
gars ? What did they cost ? How many poor-houses did
I establish ? What was the number they held ? What
effect had they in removing mendicity ?**

To this crowd of questions I was compelled to answer
that a considerable period of time had since elapsed, that
my mind had been occupied with several other objects,
and that it was impossible for me to enter into correct
statements from mere recollection ; but that I had the
official report itself among the few papers I had preserved,
and that, the first time he might be pleased to send for
me, I should be enabled to satisfy him. ** But," said he,
** go instantly and look for it, things are not profitable
unless seasonably applied, and I shall soon run it over
with my thumb, as Abbe de Fradt ingeniously said;
although, to tell the truth, I don't much like to think of
such subjects ; they remind me of mustard after dinner."

In two minutes the report was in his hand. " Well !**
said the Emperor to IPP. also, in a very few minutes, for
it might be really sftid thf^t be had not turned over the
leaves ; " well, this, iii fact, is i^ot at all like England.
Our organization, hQ^V^ver, had failed ; I suspected as
much, and it was on tbs^t account { entrusted you with

PLANS OF AMKL10RATI0N. 23

the mission. Your report would have been m perfect
conformity with my views You took up the considera-
tion frankly and like an honest man, without fear of
exciting the displeasure of the minister, by depriving him
of a great many appointmento.

** I am pleased with a great number of your details.
Whv did vou not come and converse with me about them
vourself ? Yoa would have satisfied me, and 1 should
have known how to value your services." — ** Sire, as
things were then situated, it would have been impossible
for me to do so ; we were then involved in the confusion
and embarrassment caused by our misfortunes." — '* Your
observation is perfectly correct; you establish an un-
questionable position. The fact is that, in the flourish-
ing state to which I had raised the empire, no hands
could any where be found destitute of employment. It
was idleness and vice alone that could produce men-
dicants.

'* You think that their complete annihilation was
possible ; and, for my part, I am of the same opinion.

** Your levy en masse, to build a vast and single prison
in each department, was equally adapted to the tran-
quillity of society and to the well-being of those confined
in it ; — your idea of making them monuments for ages
would have attracted my attention. That gigantic under-
taking, its utility, its importance, the permanence of its
results, were all in my way.

" With respect to your university for the people,. I am
very apprehensive that it would have been but a beautiful
chimera of philanthropy, worthy of the unsophisticated
Abbe de Saint Pierre. There is, however, some merit
in the aggregate of those conceptions ; but energy of
character, and an unbending perseverance, for \vhich we
are not generally distinguished, would be requisite to
produce any good result.

** For the rest, I every day collect ideas from you in
this place, of which I did not imagine you capable ; but
it was not at all my fault. You were near me ; why did
you not open your mind to me ? I did not possess the
gift of divination. Had you been minister, those ideas,
however fantastical they might at first have appeared to

14 MISSIONS OF THE AUTHOR

me, would not have been the less attended to, because
there is, in my opinion, no conception altogether unsus-
ceptible of some positive good, and a wrong notion,
when properly controlled and regulated, often leads to a
right conclusion. I should have handed you over to
commissioners, who would have analyzed your plans ;
you would have defended them by your arguments, and,
after taking cognizance of the subject. I alone should
have finally decided according to my own judgment.
Such was my way of acting, and my intention ; I gave an
impulse to industry ; I put it into a state of complete
activity throughout Europe ; I was desirous of doing as
much for all the faculties of the mind, but time was not
allowed me. I could not bring my plans to maturity at
fall gallop ; and, unfortunately, I but too often wasted
them upon a sandy foundation, and consigned them to
unproductive hands.

" What were the other missions with which 1 entrusted
you ?" — " One in Holland, another in lUyria.'* — " Have
you the reports ?"— " Yes, Sire."—** Go for them." But
I had not got to the door, when he said, " Never mind,
come back, spare me the trouble of reading such mat-
ters ! — They are henceforth., in reality, altogether useless."
— What did not these words unfold to me !

The Emperor resumed the subject of Illyria. ** In ob-
taing possession of Illyria, it was never my intention to
retain it ; I never entertained the idea of destroying Aus-
tria. Her existence was, on the contrary, indispensably
requisite for the execution of my plans. But Illyria was,
in our hands, a vanguard to the heart of Austria, calcu-
lated to keep a check upon her ; a sentinel at the gates
of Vienna, to keep her steady to our interests. Besides,
I was desirous of introducing and establishing in that
country our doctrines, our system of government, and
our codes. It was an additional step to the regeneration
of Europe. I had merely taken it as a pledge, and in-
tended, at a later period, to exchange it for Gallicia, at
the restoration of Poland, which I hurried on against my
own opinion. I had, however, more than one project
with regard to Illyria ; for I frequently fluctuated in m\
designty and had few ideas that were fixed on solid

ILLYRIA. 26

grounde. This arose rather from adapting myself to cir-
cumstances than from giving an impulse and direction to
them, and I was every instant compelled to shift ahout.
The consequence was that, for the greater part of the
time, I came to no absolute decision, and was occupied
merely with projects. My predominant idea, however,
particularly after my marriage, was to give it up to Aus-
tria as an indemnity for Gallicia, on the re- establishment
of Poland, at any rate, as a separate and independent
kingdom. Not that I cared upon whose head, whether
on that of a friend, an enemy, or an ally, the crown was
placed, provided the thing was effected. The results were
indifferent to me. I have, my dear Las Cases, formed
vast and numerous projects, all unquestionably for the ad-
vancement of reason and the welfare of the human race.
I was dreaded as a thunderbolt; I was accused of having
a hand of iron ; but the moment that hand had struck the
last blow, every thing would have been softened down for
the happiness of all. How many millions would have
poured their benedictions on me, both then and in future
times ! But how numerous, it must be confessed, the
fatal misfortunes which were accumulated and combined
to effect my overthrow, at the end of my career I My un-
happy marriage ; the perfidies which resulted fi'om it ;
that villainous affair of Spain ; from which I could not dis-
engage myself ; that fatal war with Russia, which occur-
red through a misunderstanding ; that horrible rigour of

the elements, which devoured a whole army ;

and then, the whole universe against me ! .... Is it not
wonderful that I was still able to make so long a resist-
eoice, and that I was more than once on the point of sur-
mounting every danger and emerging from that chaos
more powerful than ever! ..... O destiny of man! —
What is human wisdom, human foresight !" — And then
abruptly adverting to my report, he said, ** I obser\'ed,
that you travelled over a great number of departments.
Did your mission last long? Was your journey agreeable ?
Was it of real benefit to you ? Did you collect much
infoimation ? Were vou enabled to form a coi rect
judgment on the state of the country, on that of public
upinion ?

Vol.. III.— 2

26 THB author's tour

" I now recollect that I selected you precisely be-
cause y^u had just returned from your mission to Illyria*
raid I found in your report several things which made a
rtrong impression upon me ; for it is surprising how
many things at present are every day brought back to my
•nemory, which, at the time, struck me in you, and which,
by a singular fatality, were immediately afterwards com-
pletely forgotten. When any appointments were about
CO take place to those special and confidential missions,
the decree, with blanks for the names, was laid before
me, and I filled them up with persons of my own selec-
tion — I must have written your name with my own hand."

** Sire," 1 replied, ** there never was, perhaps, a mis*
sion more agreeable and satisfactory in every point of
view. I commenced it early in the spring, and proceed-
ed from Paris to Toulon, and from Toulon to Antibes,
following the line of coast and occasionally diverging into
the interior. I travelled nearly thirteen hundred leagues,
but unfortunately the time was short. The minister, in
his instructions, had strictly limited the period to three,
or at most, to four months. It would be difficult for me
to give an adequate description of all the delight, enjoy-
ments, and advantages which I derived from the journey.
I was a member of your Council, an officer of your
household. I was every where considered as one of your
7nissi dominici, and was received with suitable respect.
The more I behaved with discretion, moderation, and
simplicity, visiting myself the high functionaries, whose
attendance I was authorized to require, the more I was
treated with deference and complaisance. For one, whc»
shewed any distrust, or betrayed any symptom of ill-
hurnour or envy ; (for I afterwards learnt from themselves,
that my character, as a nobleman, emigrant, and cham-
berlain, formed three certain grounds for reprobation ;)
for one, I repeat, who looked upon me with a jealous eye,
I found many whose communications were altogether
anreserved, even upon subjects, respecting which 1
should not have presumed to make inquiry. They
assured me that they took pleasure in unbosoming
themselves to me with perfect opennesb . that they
viewed my situation, near the person of tiie sovereign,

OF INSPECTION OF PRISONS, &C. 27

as a favourable medium ; and considered me as the con-
fessor upon whom they relied for transmitting theb
most secret thoughts to the Most High, The more 1
endeavoured to convince thera that thev were mistaken
with regard to my situation and the nature of my mission,
the more they were confirmed in the contrary opinion.
In so short a period, what a lesson for me on mankind !
There were none of these high functionaries who did not
differ from each other with regard to the views, means,
and designs of all the objects under consideration ; and
yet they were all men selected with care, of tried ability,
and generally of great merit. Persons in private life
also looked up to me as to a ray of Providence, and
applied to me either publicly or in secret. How many
things did I not learn ! How numerous the denuncia-
tions and accusations communicated to me ! What a multi •
tude of local abuses, of petty intrigues, were disclosed to me !

" Altogether unacquainted with afiairs, and until then
absolutely ignorant of official proceedings, 1 made use of
that peculiar opportunity to obtain information. I did
not fail to make myself acquainted with all the objects
and particular circumstances of every party. I was net
apprehensive of shewing my ignorance to the first wh:;
presented themselves, for I was thus enabled to qualify
myself for discussing business with the others.

"It is true. Sire, that my special mission was re-
stricted to the mendicity establishments and the houses
of correction : but feeling, as I did, all the want of a
stock of knowledge, fit to render myself useful to the
Council of State, and taking advantage of my appoint-
ment, I coimected with it, of my own accord, the minute
inspection of prisons, hospitals, and beneficent institu-
tions, and I also took a survey of all our ports and
squadrons.

** How magnificent the combination which thus pie-
sented itself to my view ! I every where beheld the most
perfect tranquillity and complete confidence in the govern-
ment ; every hand, every faculty, every branch of indus-
try, was employed ; the soil was embellished by the
flourishing state of agriculture, it was the finest time of
the year ; the roads were excellent ; public works were

S8 THS author's TOUk

in progress in almost in every quarter ; — the canal of
Aries, the noble bridge of Bordeaux, the works of Roche-
fort, the canals from Nantes to Brest, to Rennes, to
Saint Malo ; the foundation of Napoleonville, intended
to be the key of the whole peninsula of Britanny ; the
magnificent works of Cherbourg, those of Antwerp, sluices,
moles, or other improvements in most of the towns of
the Channel such is the sketch of what I saw.

** On the other hand, the ports of Toulon, Rochefort,
L'Orient, Brest, Saint Malo, Havre, and Antwerp, dis-
played an extraordinary degree of activity ; our roads
were filled with vessels, and the numbers increased daily :
our crews w«re training in spite of every obstacle, and
our yoang t^onscripts were becoming good seamen, fit for
future service. I, who belonged to the old naval estab-
lishment, was astonished at every thing I saw on board*
so very great were the improvements made in the art,
and so far did they exceed, in every point of view, all
that I had witnessed.

" The squadrons belonging to the dififerent ports got
under sail every day, and executed their regular ma-
noeuvres, like the parades of garrisons, and all this took
place within sight of the English, who thought it a ridi-
culous farce, without foreseeing the danger with which
they were threatened ; for, never at any period was our
navy more formidable, or our ships more numerous. We
alieady had upwards of 100 afloat or on the stocks, and
we were making daily additions to the numbei. The
officers were excellent, and animated with zeal and
ardour. I had no idea whatever of the forward state of
our preparations, before I witnessed it in person, and
should not have believed it, had I been told of it.

** With respect to the mendicity establishments, the
special object of my mission, your intentions. Sire, had
been ill understood, and the plan was altogether unsuc-
cessful. In most of the departments, mendicity not
onKy remained with all its defects, but no steps whatever
had been taken for its annihilation. The fact was that
several prefects, so far from making the establishments a
terror to the mendicants, had merelv considered them as
a refuge for the poor. Instead of holding out confine-

OF IN8PBCT10N OF PRISONS, &C. 29

meut as a punishment, they caused it to be sought after
as an asylum ; and thus the lot of the prisoners might
be envied by the hard-working peasantry of the neigh-
bourhood. France might, in that way, have been covered
with ii^milar establishments, which might have been
filled without diminishing the number of mendicants,
who commonly make a trade of begging, and follow it
in preference. I was, however, enabled to judge that
the extirpation of the evil was possible, and the example
of some departments, in which the prefects had taken a
better view of the subject was sufficient to produce that
conviction. There were a few in which it had entirely
disappeared.

" It is an observation which makes an immediate and
striking impression, that, all other things fairly averaged,
mendicity is much more rare in tkose parts which are
poor and barren, and much more common in those which
are fruitful and abundant. It is also infinitely more
difficult to effect its destruction in the places where the
clergy have enjoyed superior wealth and power. In
Belgium, for instance, mendicants weve seen to derive
honour from their trade, and boast of having followed it
for several generations. These claims belonged peculiarly
to them, and that country was accordingly the rendez-
vous of mendicity." " Bui I am not surprised at it,*'
resumed the Emperor, " the difficulty of this important
consideration consists entirely in discriminating accurately
between the poor man who commands uur respect, and
the mendicant wlio ought to excite our indignation ;
besides, our religious absurdities confound these two
classes so completely that they seem to make a merit, a
kind of virtue, of mendicity, and to encourage it by the
promise of heavenly rewards. The mendicants are, in
reality, neither more nor less than monks au petit pied ;
so that in the list of them we even find the mendicant
monks. How was it possible for such ideas not to pro-
duce confusion in the mind, and disordar in society ? A
great number of saints have been canonized, whose only
apparent merit was mendicity. They seem to have been
transplanted to Heaven for that, which, considered as a
matter of sound policy, ought to have subjected them t»i

30 CHARITABLE BSTABLI8HMKNT8.

castigation and confinement in this world. This would
not, however^ have prevented them from being worthy of
Heaven. But go on." —

" It was not, Sire, without emotion that I observed
the details of the charitable establishments. In contem-
plating the anxiety, the cares, the ardent charity, of so
jvnany sympathetic hearts, I was enabled to ascertain that
jwe were far from yielding the palm, whatever might be
the consideration, to any other people, and that we
merely had less ostentation and made less use of artificial
means to enhance our merits. The South, above all, and
Languedoc, in particular, displayed a zeal and animation of
which it would be difficult to form an adequate concep-
tion. The hospitals and alms-houses were every where
numerous and well attended to. The foundlings had
increased tenfold since the revolution, and I instantly
ascribed it to the corruption of the times ; but I was
desired to remark, and constant reflection convinced me
of the truth, that the result was, on the contrary, to be
attributed to very satisfactory causes. I was assured
that formerly the foundlings were so wretchedly taken
care of, and so badly fed, that the whole of them were
diminutive, sickly, and short-lived, and that from seven
to nine perished out of ten ; while at present their food,
cleanliness, and the care taken of them, in every respect
are such that nearly all of them are preserved, and con-
stitute a fine race of children. They are thus indebted
for their numbers solely to their preservation. Vaccina-
tion has also contributed, in an immense proportion, to
their increase. These children are now treated with such
attention as to give rise to a singular abuse. Mothers,
even in easy circumstances, are tempted to expose their
infants ; they afterwards apply at the hospital, and,
under a charitable pretence, offer to bring up one them
selves ; it is their own which is restored to them with
the benefit of a small allowance. All this is carried on
through the favour of the agents themselves, and oft'.n
for the purpose of obtaining a trifling pension for one of
their relations. Another abuse of this kind, and uc t less
extraordinary, was that which I observed in Belgium, of
persons getting thei^ names entered a long time b^ore.

WANT OP CLASSIFICATION IN PRISONS. 31

for the purpose of entitling them to send their children
to the hospital. Any young couple, on their marriage,
strove to get their names entered for vacancies, which
fell to them some years afterwards, as a matter of right ;
it was a part of the marriage settlement." — ** O Jesus !
Jesus !'* exclaimed the Emperor, shrugging up his
shoulders and laughing, '* and after, this make laws and
regulations !" —

"But with regard to the prisons. Sire, they were
almost uniformly the scenes of horror and real misery,
the shame and disgrace of our provinces, absolute sinks
of corruption and infection, which I was obliged to pass
through with the utmost haste, or from which I was
Iriven back in spite of all my efforts. I had formerly
visited certain prisons in England, and indulged in a
smile at the kind of luxury which I observed in them ;
but it was quite a different thing with respect to ours,
and my indignation was excited by the contrary extreme.
There are no offences, I might even say crimes, that are
not sufficiently punished by such habitations, and those
who leave them should not, in strict justice, have any
further expiation to make. Yet after all those confined
in them were merely under a simple accusation, while
those who had been found guilty, the real criminals, and
hardened villains, had their special prisons, their houses
of correction, where they were, perhaps, too well taken
care of; and even, in the latter case, the honest day-
labourer might have reason to envy their lot, and make
comparisons injurious to Providence and society. Another
striking inconsistency was observable in these houses
of correction ; it was the amalgamation, the habitual
mixture of all the classes upon whom sentence had been
passed. Some being imprisoned for small offences only
for a vear, and others for fifteen, twentv vears, or for
life, on account of the dreadful crimes they had perpe-
trated, it necessarily followed that they would be all
reduced to one moral level, not by the amelioration
of the latter, but rather by the corruption of the
former.

" What struck me also verv forciblv in La Vendee
and the adjacent countiT was that maniacs had in-

82 MINDICITT BSTABLI8HMBNTS.

creased there, perhaps, tenfold more than in any other
part of the empire, and that persons were detained in
the mendicity estahlishments and other places of contine-
ment, who were treated as vagabonds, or likely to be-
come so, and who having been taken up in their child-
hood, had no knowledge of their parents or origin. Some
of them had marks of wounds on their persons, but were
ignorant how they* had been inflicted. They had, no
doubt, been made in their infancy. The opportunity of
employing these persons, who had not acquired a single
social idea, has been suffered to pass by ; they are now
unfit for any purpose." — ** Ah!" exclaimed the Emperor,
*' this is civil war and its hideous train ; its inevitable
consequences and its certain fruits ! If some leaders
make fortunes, and extricate themselves from danger, the
dregs of the population are always trodden under foot,
and become the victims of eveiy calamity !'*

** With respect to other matters, I found in the aggre-
gate of these establishments a considerable number of
persons who, I was told, whether right or wrong, were
prisoners of state, and were kept in custody by order of
the high, the intermediate, or the low, police.

" I listened to all those prisoners, I heard their com-
plaints, and received their petitions, certainly, without
any engagement on my part ; for I had no right to
contract any ; and besides, I was perfectly aware that,
having heard their testimony only, I could not attach
guilt to any person. With the exception, however, of
some notorious villains, they did not really, in general,
deserve more at farthest than the common punishments
of the correctional police.

" I found among them, in the prisons of Rennes, a
boy between twelve and fourteen, who had, when only
a few months old, been taken with a band of Chauffeurs,
They had been all executed, and the boy had remained
there ever since, without any decision on his case. His
moral capabilities may be easily appreciated. He never
saw, knew, or heard any but villains; they were the
only kind of people of whose existence he was able to
form an idea.

"At Mont Saint-Michel, a woman, whose name 1

FRENCH PRISONS. d3

have forgotten, particularly attracted my attention.
She had rather a pretty face, pleasing manners, and e
modest deportment. She had been imprisoned foarteeii
years, having taken a very active part in the troubles of
La Vendee, and constantly accompanied her husband,
who was the chief of a battalion of insurgents, and
whom she succeeded, after his death, in the command.
The wretchedness she suffered, and the tears she shed,
had sensibly impaired her charms. I assumed a severe
air during the recital of her misfortunes, but it was put
on for the purpose of concealing the emotions which
she excited. She had, by the kindness of her manners
and her other qualifications, acquired a kind of empire
over the vulgar and depraved women that were about
her. She had devoted herself to the care of the sick ;
the prison infirmary was entrusted to her, and she was
beloved by every one.

" With the exception of that woman, a few priests,
and two or three old Chouan spies, the rest exhibited
but a filthy compound of disgusting or extravagant
depravity.

" I met with a married man, possessing an annual in-
come of 15,000 livres, evidently confined in consequence
of his wife's intrigues, after the manner of the ancient
lettres de cachet ; and with prostitutes, who assured me
they were detained, not as a punishment for the indis-
criminate profusion of their favours, but out of spite at
their want of complaisance for a single person. They
told me lies, or they did not ; but in either case ought
they to be honoured with the title of prisoners of state,
to be maintained at the expense of two francs a day,
and contribute to render the government odious and
ridiculous ? Filially, I met with an unhappy man in a
town of Belgium, who had married one of those girls for
whom the municipalities provide marriage portions on
great occasions. He was imprisoned on a charge ol
havmg stolen the portion, because he had neglected to
earn it. He was positively required to discharge that
Important debt, and he as positively refused. He was,
perhaps, required to do what was absolutely impossible
for him.

2*

34 FRKNCII PRISONS.

** Iinmediately upon my return to Paris, I called on
M. Real, prefect of police of the district I had just visited.
I considered it mv dutv, I said, to communicate to him,
in a friendly manner, the result of my observations. I
must do him justice ; for whether he was far from hav-
ing a bad heart, whether he was impressed with my
plain dealing, or affected perhaps. Sire, by the magic
influence of your uniform, he thanked me, observed that
I was doing him a real service, and assured me that lie
would take immediate steps for relieving and redressing,
such were his words, the cases I had laid before him.
Meeting him, however, a few days afterwards at an
assembly, he said, with apparent grief» 'That is an un-
fortunate business, and very unfavourable to your Ama-
zon (he alluded to General Mallet's rash enterprise),
which I thought myself capable of doing a few days ago
of my own accord. I cannot now pretend to undertake it
without an order from a superior quarter.' — I do not
know how the thing ended."

The Emperor dwelt some time on the abu 'cs I had
pointed out, and then concluded : ** In the first place, in
order to proceed regularly, it was incumbent upon you
to ascertain whether your information was well founded,
and to hear the evidence against the persons accused ;
and then it must be franklv admitted that abuses are
inherent in every human establishment. You see that
almost every thing, of which you complain, is done by
the very persons who were expressly entrusted with the
means of prevention. Can a remedy be provided, when
it is impossible to see what passes every where ? There
is, as it were, a net spread over the low places, which
envelops the lower classes. A mesh must be broken and
discovered by a fortunate observer like you, before any
thing of the matter is known in the upper rp^glons.
Accordingly, one of my dreams would have been, when
the grand events of war were completely terminated, and
I returned to the interior in tranquillity and at ease, to
look out for half a dozen, or a dozen, of real philan-
thropistj*. of those worthy men who live but to do good.
I should have distributed them throuu^h the empire,
which they should have secretly inspected for the pur-

..-.:&£

PRKNCU PRIgONS. 35

pose of making their r^ort to me. They would have
been spies of virtue ! They should have addressed the ni-
sei \^es directly to me, and should have been my confes-
sors, my spiritual guides, and my decisions with them
should have been my good works done in secret. My
grand occupation, when at full leisure, and at the height
of my power, would have been the amelioration of every
class of society. I should have descended to the details
of individual comfort ; and, had I found no motive for
that conduct in my natural disposition, I should have
been actuated by the spirit of calculation ; for, after the
acquisition of so much glory, what other means would
have been left me to make any addition to it ? It was
because I was well aware that that swarm of abuses
necessarily existed, because I wished for the preservation
of my subjects, and was desirous of throwing every
impediment ia the way of subordinate and intermediate
tyranny, that I conceived my system of state prisons,
adapted to any crisis that might occur." — ** Yes, Sire,
out it was far from being well received in our saloons,
and contributed not a little to make you unpopular. An
outcry was every where raised against the new bastiles,
against the renewal of letlres de cachet/* — *' I know it
very well." said the Emperor, ** the outcry was echoed
by all Europe, and rendered me odious. And yet, ob-
serve how powerful was the influence of words, enve-
nomed by pRrfidy ! The whole of the discontent was
principally occasioned by the preposterous title of my
decree, which escaped me from distraction, or some
other cause : for, in the main, I contend that the law
itself was an eminent service, and rendered individual
liberty more complete and certain in France than in any
other country of Europe.

** Considering the crisis from which we had emerged,
the factions by which we had been divided, and the
plots which had been laid, and were still contriving, im-
prisonment became indispensable. It was, ill fact, a
benefit 5 for it superseded the scaffold. But I was de-
sirous of sanctioning it by legal enactments, and of
placing it beyond the reach of caprice, of arbitrary power,
of hatred, and of vengeance. Nobody, according to wy

36 FRENCH PRISONS.

law, could be imprisoned and detained as a prisoner of
state, without the decision of my privy council, which
consisted of sixteen persons ; the first, the most inde-
pendent and most distinguished characters of the state
Whajt unworthy feeling would have dared to expose
itself to the detection of such a tribunal ? Had I not vo-
luntarily deprived myself of the power of consigning in-
dividuals to prison ? No man could be detained beyond
ft year, without a fresh decision of the Privy- Councl, and
four votes out of sixteen were sufficient to effect his
release. Twd councillors of state were bound to attend
to the statements of the prisoners, and became from that
moment their zealous advocates with the Privy Council.
These prisoners were also under the protection of the
Committee of individual liberty, appointed by the Senate,
which was the object of public derision, merely because
it made no parade of its labours and their results. Its
services, however, were great ; for it would argue a
defective knowledge of mankind to suppose that Senators,
who had nothing to expect from ministers, and who
were their equals in rank, would not make use of their
))rerogative to oppose and attack them, whenever the
importance of the case called for their interference. It
must also be considered that I had assigned the superin-
tendence of the prisoners, and of the police of the pri-
sons, to the tribunals, which, from that instant, paralyzed
the exercise of every kind of arbitrary authority by the*
other branches of administration and their numerous su-
bordinate agents. After such precautions, I do not
hesitate to maintain that civil liberty was as effectually
secured by that law in France as it could possibly be.
The public misconceived, or pretended to misconceive,
that truth, for we Frenchmen must murmur at every
thing and on every occasion.

*• The fact is, that at the time of my downfal the
state prisons scarcely contained 250 persons, and I found
9000 in them, when I became Consul. It will appear,
from the list of those who were imprisoned, and upon
an examination into the causes and motives of their
confinement, that almost every one of them deserved
death, and would have been sentenced to it by regular

FKBNCH PUSONa. 37

process of law ; aod it oonseqaendj follows that theii
imprisonment was, on my part, a beoe6t conferred
upon them. Why is there nodiing published against
me on this subject at present ? Where are the serious
grievances to be found with which I am reproached?
There are none in reality. If some <^ the prisoners
afterwards made a merit of their sufierings with the
King, on account of their exertions in his favour, did
they not by that proceeding pronounce their own sen-
tence and attest my justice ? For what may seem a vir-
tuous action in the £ang's eye was incontestably a crime
under mc ; and it was only because I was repugnant to
the shedding of blood on account of political crimes, and
because such trials would have but tended to the conti-
nuance of commotion and perplexity in the heart of the
^^ountry, that I commuted the punishment to mere
imprisonment.

** I repeat it, the French were, at my era, the freest
people of all Europe, without even excepting the Elnglish ;
for, in England, if any extreme danger causes the sus-
pension of the Habeas Corpus act, every individual may
be sent to prison at the mere will of ministers, who are
not called upon to justify their motives, or to account
for their conduct. My law had very different limits."
He concluded with saying; — ''And then, at last, if, in
spite of my g^ood intention, and notwithstanding my ut-
most care, all that you have just said, and no doubt,
many other things, were well founded, it must not still
be considered so easy a task as it is thought to create
a beneficial establishment for a nation. It is a re-
markable circumstance that the countries which have
been separated from us have regretted the laws with
which I governed them. This is an homage paid to their
superiority. The real, the only, mode of passing a de-
cisive sentence upon me, with regard to their defects,
would be to shew the existence of a better code in any
other country. New times are drawing near, it will be
seen," &c.

About five o'clock, I was told by the Grand Marshal,
who had just left the Emperor, that he wished to see me.
He had staid at home the whole of the dav. I found hiir

38 FRENCH BOTPTIAN ARMY

engaged in examining the new billiard- table. He wat
apprehensive that the weather was too damp for walking,
and he played at chess until dinner. In the evening, he
read us CrebiUon's Atr^e et Thyeste. That piece seemed
horrible to us ; we found it disgusting, and by no means
of a tragic cast. The Emperor could not finish it.

EGYPT. ST. JEAN d'ACRE. THE DESERT. ANECDOTES

21st. About three o'clock, the Emperor called for his
calash. He sent for me, and we walked together to the
bottom of the wood where he had ordered the caTiage
to take him up. I had some particulars of no great
moment to communicate, which personally concerned
him. We observed, in the course of our ride, two ves-
sels under sail for the island.

At dinner, the Emperor was very talkative. He had
been just employed on his campaign in Egypt, which he
had, for some time, neglected, and which, he said, would
be as interesting as an episode of romance. In speaking
of his position at St. Jean d'Acre, he observed : — It was
certainly a daring thing to post myself thus in the heart
of Syria, with only 12,000 men. I was 500 leagues from
Desaix, who formed the other extremity of my army.
It has been related, by Sydney Smith, that I lost 18,000
men before Acre, although my army consisted but of

12,000. An obscure person, M , who had just

left college, as it seemed, who knows nothing of what he
describes, and whose only talent is that of tacking some
sentences together, with a view, no doubt, of converting
them to his emolument, the brother, however, of one
whom I have loaded with favours, and who was one of
my Council of State, has recently published something on
that subject, on which I have cast a glance, and which
vexes me on account of its silliness and the unfavourable
colouring which he endeavours to throw over the glory
and exploits of that army.

" Had I been master of the sea, I should have been
master of the East, and the thing was so practicable
that it failed only through the stupidity or bad conduct
of some seamen.

"Volney, who travelled in Egypt before the revolu

YBZATION OF THB BN0LI8H 39

laoii, had stated his opinion that that country could not
be occupied without three great wars, against England,
the Grand Signor, and the inhabitants. The latter, in
particular, seemed difficult and terrible to him. He was
altogether mistaken in that respect, for it gave us no
trouble. We had even succeeded in making friends of
the inhabitants, in the course of a short time, and of
uniting their cause with ours. A handful of Frenchmen
had thus been sufficient to conquer that fine country,
^hich they ought never to have lost. We had actually
accomplished prodigies in war and in politics. Our
undertaking was altogether different from the crusades ;
the crusaders were innumerable and hurried on by fana-
ticism. My army, on the contrary, was very smsdl, and
the soldiers were so far from being prepossessed in favour
of the enterprise that, at first, they were frequently
tempted to carry off the colours and return. I had, how-
ever, succeeded in familiarizing them with the country,
which supplied every thing in abundance, and at so cheap
a rate that I was one time on the point of placing them
on half-pay for the purpose of laying by the other half
for them. I had acquired such an ascendancy over them,
that T should have been able, by a mere order of the day,
to make them Mahometan. They would have treated it
as a joke, the population would have been gratified, and
the very Christians of the East would have considered
themselves gainers, and approved it, knowing that we
could do nothing better for them and for ourselves.

** The English were struck with consternation at see-
ing us in possession of Egypt. We exposed to Europe
the certain means of wresting India from them. They
have not yet dismissed their apprehensions, and they are
in the right. If 40 or 50,000 European families ever
succeed in establishing their industry, laws, and govern-
ment in Egypt, India will be more effectually lost to the
English by the commanding influence of circumstances
than by the force of arms."

In the course of the evening, the Grand Marshal put
the Emperor in mind of one of his conversations with
Monge, the mathematician, at Cutakie, in the midst of
the desert. ** What do you think of all this, citizen

M

40 THB EGYPTIAN DB8ERT.

Monge?" said Napoleon. — "Why, citizen general/'
answered Monge, " I think, if there are ever seen in this
place as many equipages as at the Opera house, there
must first be some wonderful revolutions on the globe."
The Emperor laughed very heartily at the recollection *
He had, however, he obser\'ed, a carriage with six horsea
on the spot. It was unquestionably the first of the kind
that travelled over the desert, and accordingly it very
much surprised the Arabs.

The Emperor remarked that the desert always had a
peculiar influence on his feelings. He had never crossed
it without being subject to a certain emotion. To him,
he said, it was an image of immensity : it seemed to
have no bounds, neither beginning nor end ; it was an
ocean on terra firma. His imagination was delighted
with the sight, and he took pleasure in drawing our
attention to the observation that Napoleon meant Lion
of the Desert !

The Emperor also told us that, when he was in Syria,
it was a settled opinion at Cairo that he never would be
seen there again, and he noticed the thievery and impu-
dence of a little Chinese, who was one of his servants.
** It was," said he, ** a little deformed dwarf, whom
Josephine once took a fancy to at Paris. He wa« the
only Chinese in France ; thenceforth she would always
have him behind her carriage. She took him to Italy,
but as he was in the constant habit of pilfering, she
wished to get rid of him. With that view, I too* him
with me on my Egyptian expedition. Egypt was a lift
to him half-way on his journey. This little monbVer was
entrusted with the care of my cellar, and I had no sooner
crossed the desert than he sold, at a very low price,
2000 bottles of capital claret. His only object was to
make money, convinced that I should never come back.
He was not at all disconcerted at my return, but came
eagerly to meet me, and acquainted me, as he said, like
a faithful servant, with the loss of my wine. The rob-
bery was so glaring that he was himself compelled to
confess it. I was much urged to have him hanged, but
I refused, because, in strict justice, I ought to have done
as much to those in embroidered clothes, who had k^iow*

NAP0LB0N*8 CHINE8B 8BRVANT. 41

ingly bought and drunk the wine. I contented myseli
with discharging and sending him to Suez, where he was
at liberty to do what he pleased."

On this subject 1 must observe that we were induced,
in this place, to give momentary credit to a very singular
coincidence. We were informed a few months ago, that
on board one of the Chinese traders, which were then
off the island, on their return to £urope, there was a
Chinese, who said he had been in the Emperor's service
in Egypt. The Emperor instantly exclaimed, that it
must be his little thief, whose story I have just told ;
hut it was, in fact, a cook of Kleber's.

The Emperor put a sudden stop to the conversation,
and, with more gaiety than usual, turning to Madame
Ikrtraiid, said with a smile, "When shall you be at
your apartments in the Tuileries ? When will you give
your splendid dinners to the ambassadors ? But you will
be obliged, at least, 1 am told so, to have new furniture,
for it is reported that the fashions have entirely chang-
ed." The conversation then naturally turned on the
magnificence and luxury which we had witnessed under
the Emperor.

PATERNAL ADVICE — REMARKABLE CONVERSATION — CAG-
LIOSTRO ; ME8MER, GALL, LAVATER, &C.

22nd. — The Emperor came to my apartment about
10 o'clock, and took me out to walk. We all break-
fasted under the trees. The weather was delightful, and
the heat, though great, was not unwholesome. The
Emperor ordered his calash; two of us were with him,
and the third accompanied us on horseback. The Grand
Marshal could not attend. The Emperor recurred to
some misunderstanding which had taken place among
us a few days before. He took a view of our situation
and our natural wants ; — " You are bound," said he,
•* when you are one day restored to the world, to con-
sider yourselves as brothers, on my account. My
memory will dictate this conduct to you. Be so, then,
from this moment !" He next described how we might
be of mutual advantage to each other, the sufferings we
had it in our power to alleviate, &c. It was, at once, i
family and moral lesson, a lesson of feeling and conduct.

42 DISCOURSB ON GALL, LAVATBR,

It ought to have been written in letters of gold. It lasted
nearly an hour and a quarter, and will, I think, never be
forgotten by any of us. For myself, not only the prin-
ciples and the words, but the tone, the expression, the
action, and above all, the heart with which he delivered
them, will never be forgotten by me.

About five o'clock, the Emperor entered my apartment
where I was employed with my son, on the chapter of
the battle of Arcole. He had something to say to me,
and I followed him to the garden, where he resumed, at
great length, the conversation that had taken place in
the calash

We now dined in the old topographical cabinet, ad-
joining to that of the Emperor, and the apartment
formerly occupied by Month olon*s family, which, with
the help of the books and shelves lately received from
England, was converted into a tolerable library.

As the damage done by the fire in the saloon was
long in repairing, we were obliged to continue at table
in our new dining-room until the Emperor withdrew.
This circumstance, however, gave additional interest to
the conversation.

The Emperor was very communicative to-day. The
conversation turned on dreams, presentiments, and fore-
sights, which the English call second sight. We ex-
hausted every common-place topic, ordinarily connected
with these objects, and came at last to speak of sorcerers
and ghosts. The Emperor concluded with observing,
" All these quackeries, and many others, such as those
of Cagliostro, Mesmer, Gall, Lavater, &c. are destroyed
by this sole and simple argument: Jll that may exist, but
it does not exist,

" Man is fond of the marvellous ; it has for him
irresistible fascinations ; he is ever ready to abandon
what is near at hand, to run after what is fabricated for
him. He voluntarily gives way to delusion. The truth
is, that every thing about us is a wonder. There is
nothing which can be properly called a phenomenon.
Every thing in nature is a phenomenon. My existence
is a phenomenon. The wood that is put on the fire
and warms me, is a phenomenon ; that candle yonder

CAGUOSTBO, MBSXEm, &C. 43

whicb gives me ligbt, is a pbenomenon. AH the first
causes, my anderstanding, my fisMMilties, are phenomena ;
for they all exist and we cannot define them. I take
leave of yon here," said he, " and lo ! I am at Paris,
entering my box at the Opera. I bow to the audience ;
I hear their acclamations ; I see the performers ; I listen
to the music. Bat if I can bound over the distance firom
Saint Helena, why should I not bound over the distance
of centuries ? Why should I not see the future as well
as the past ? Why should the one be more extraordi-
nary, more wonderful, than the other ? The only reason
is, that it does not exist. This is the argument which
will always annihilate, without the possibility of reply,
all visionary wonders. All these quacks d^ in very
ingenious speculations ; their reasoning may be just and
seductive, but their conclusions are fedse, because thev
are unsupported by facts.

" Mesmer and Mesmerism have never recovered from
tli*^ blow dealt at them by the report of Bailly on behalf
of the Academy of Sciences. Mesmer produced effects
upon a person by magnetizing him to his face, yet the
same person, magnetized behind, without his knowing
it, experienced no effect whatever. It was therefore, on
his part, an error of the imagination, a debility of the
senses ; it was the act of the somnabule, who, at night
runs along the roof without danger, because he is not
afraid ; but who would break his neck in the day, be-
cause his senses would confound him.

" I once attacked the quack Puysegur, on his som-
nabulism, at one of my public audiences. He would
have assumed a very lofty tone : I brought him down to
his proper level with only these words : If your doctrine
is so instructive, let it tell us something new ! Mankind
will, no doubt, make very great progress in the next
two hundred years ; let it specify any single improve-
ment which is to take place within that period ! Let it
tell me what I shall do within the follow ng week ! Let
t declare the numbers of the lottery, which will be
drawn to-morrow !

*' I behaved in the same manner to Gall, and contri-
buted very much to the discredit of hi? theory. Corvisart

^^^

44 FOLLY OF gall's STSTBM.

was his principal follower. He and his colleagues have
a great propensity to materialism, which is calculated to
strengthen their theory and influence. But nature is not
so poor. Were she so clumsy as to make herself known
by external forms, we should do our business more
promptly and know a great deal more. Her secrets are
more subtle, more delicate, more evanescent, and have
hitherto escaped the most minute researches. We find a
great genius in a little hunchback ; and a man, with a
fine commanding person, turns out to be a stupid
fellow. A big head, with a large brain, is sometimes
destitute of a single idea ; while a small brain is found
to possess a vast understanding. And observe the
imbecility of Gall. He attributes to certain protube-
rances propensities and crimes, which are not in nature,
but arise solely from society and the conventional usages
of mankind. What would become of the protuberance
of theft, if there were no property ; of drunkenness, if
there were no fermented hquors; and of ambition, if
there were no society ?

"The same remarks apply to that egregious charlatan
Lavater, with his physical and moral relations. Our
credulity lies in the defect of our nature. It is inherent
in us to wish for the acquisition of positive ideas, when
we ought, on the contrary, to be carefully on our guard
against them. We scarcely look at a man's features,
before we pretend to know his character. We should
be wise enough to repel the idea and to neutralize those
deceitful appearances. I was robbed by a person who
had grey eyes, and from that moment am I never to look
at grey eyes without the idea, the fear, of being robbed ?
A weapon wounded me, and I am afraid of it wherever 1
see it; but was it the grey eyes that robbed me? Reason
and experience, and I have been enabled to derive great
benefit from both, prove that all those external signs
are so many lies ; that we cannot be too strictly on our
guard against them, and that the only true way of ap-
preciating and gaining a thorough knowledge of man-
kind is by trying and associating with them. After all,
we meet with countenances so hideous, it must be
allowed," (and as an instance he described one ; it was

VEXATIONS OP MAPOLKON. 45

that of the governor,) " that the most powerful under-
standing is confounded, and condemns them in spite of
itself."

SINGULAR 8BRIB8 OF VEXATIONS, &C.

23d. — The Emperor called upon me ahout three
o*clock. He wished to take a walk. He had a gloomy
look, and had suffered much since yesterday. He wa*
seriously affected hy the intense heat during his ride in
the calash. He had observed a new outer door which
was making, and which would have altered the whole
interior of the topographical cabinet and of Madame
Montholon's former apartment. He had not been con-
sulted on the occasion, and was sensibly affected at it.
He sent instantly for the person who had given the
directions, and the wretched reasons he assigned served
only to vex him still more. We had come out to walk ;
but it seemed decided that every thing was to irritate
and put him in ill humour that evening. He saw some
English officers on his way, and turned aside from them
almost in anger, observing that shortly it would be im-
possible for him to put his foot out of doors. A few
paces off he was joined by the Doctor, who came to telJ
him, unseasonably enough, of some arrangements that
were making for him, (the Emperor) and to ask his
opinion on the subject. It was one of the topics which,
perhaps, hurt his feelings most. He made no answer,
his ordinary resource against disappointment ; but this
time ' he kept silence with a fretfulness which he could
not conceal. He came up with the carriage, and got in ;
but on our way we met some more English officers, and
then he suddenly ordered the coachman to drive off, at a
gallop, in another direction.

The new door-wav, however, which had been made in
the house without his knowledge, and which he found
so inconvenient, still lay heavy on his heart. He was
about to lighten the load by a lively playfulness with
the wife of the person who had ordered it, and who
happened to be in the calash. **Ah," said he, "are
you there ? You are in my power ; you shall pay the
penalty. The husband is the guilty person ; it is the

46 NAPOLKON RBCOVEtlS HIS TKMPKR

wife that shall answer for him." But instead of accom-
modating herself to the sense in which the words were
uttered, which she might have done without the least
inconvenience, and with the certainty of a satisfactory
result, she persisted in making lame excuses for her
husband, and repeating reasons, which served bat to
revive his dissatisfaction. Finally, to 611 up the chapter
of cross-purposes, one of us, on discovering the tents
of the camp, informed him that the evolutions and
manoeuvres of the preceding day were in celebration of
one of the great victories gained by the English in
Spain, and that the regiment which executed them had
been very nearly destroyed in that battle. " A regi-
ment. Sir, is never destroyed by the enemy ; it is im-
mortalized," was his onlv answer. It is true, that it
was delivered very dryly.

For myself, I meditated in silence on this accumula-
tion of contrarieties, which struck such repeated blows
in so short a time. It was a precious moment for an
observer. I estimated the mortification which they
were calculated to produce, and I remarked with ad-
miration, how little he betrayed. I said to myself:
This is the intractable man, this the tyrant ! One would
have supposed that he knew what was passing in my
mind, for, when we left the calash, and were a few paces
before the others, he said to me in a low tone, ** If you
like to study mankind, learn how far patience can go,
and all that one can put up with," &c.

On his return, he called for tea ; I had never seen him
take any. Madame de Montholon was, for the first
time, in possession of her new saloon. He wished to
see it, and observed that she would be much better ac-
commodated than any of us. He called for fire, and
j)layed at chess with several of us successively. He
gradually recovered his natural temper and ate a little at
dinner, which completely restored him. He indulged
in conversation, and again reverted to his e£H*ly years,
which always possessed fresh charms for him. He
spoke a great deal of his early acquaintances, and of the
difficulties which some of them experienced in obtaining
admission to him after his elevation, and observed that.

mSTAKB IN APPRECIATION OF CHARACTER. 47

"if the threshold of his palace was impassable, it vaa
in spite of himself. What then," said he, *' must be the
situation of other sovereigns in that respect V*

We continued the conversation until eleven without
noticing the lateness of the hour

MADAMS DB B — ANECDOTES RESPECTING

THB EMIGRANTS.

24th. — To-day the Emperor tried the billiard-table
which had just been placed, and went out, but the weather
being very damp, he returned almost immediately.

He conversed witli me in his apartment, before dinner,
on the emigrants, and the name of Madame deB . . .,
who had been dame d'atours to Madame, and was very
conspicuous in the commencement of our affairs, was
mentioned. The Emperor observed, " But is not this
Madame de B .... a very dangerous woman?" —
** Certainly not,** I replied; "she is. on the contrary,
one of the best women in the world, with a great deal
of wit, and an excellent judgment." " If that is the case,"
said the Emperor, '* she must have much cause to com-
plain of me. This is the painful consequence of false
representations ; she was pointed out as a very dangerous
character.*' — ** Yes, Sire, you made her very unhappy.
Madame de B . . . . placed all her happiness in the
charms of society, and you banished her from Paris. I
met with her in one of my missions, confined within her
province, and pining away with vexation, yet she ex-
pressed no resentment against your Majesty, and spoke
of you with great moderation.** *• Well, then ! why
did you not come to me, and set me right ?'* — *' Ah,
Sire, your character was then so little known to us,
compared with what I know it to be at present, that I
should not have dared to do so. But I will mention an
anecdote of Madame de B . . . . when in London, du-
ring the high tide of our emigration, which will make
you better acquainted with her than any thing I could
say. At the time of your accession to the Consulate, a
person, just arrived from Paris, was invited to a small
party at her house. He engrossed the attention of the
company, in consequence of all the particulars that he

^8 ARRIVAL or A SHIP OF WAR.

had to communicate respecting a place, which interested
us so very materially. He was asked several question?
respecting the Consul. He cannot, said he, live long,
he is most delightfully sallow. These were his words
He grew more animated by degrees, and gave as a toast
— ^The death of the First Consul ! Oh horrible ! was the
instantaneous exclamation of Madame de B . . . What,
drink to the death of a fellow creatiu-e ! For shame ! 1
will give a much better one : The King's health !**

•* Well," said the Emperor, " I repeat that she was
very ill used by me, in consequence of the representa-
tions which were made to me. She had been described
to me as a person fond of political intrigues, and remark-
able for the bitterness of her sarcasms. And this puts
me in mind of an expression which is perhaps wrongly
attributed to her, but which struck me, however, solely
on account of its wit. I was assured that a distin-
guished personage, who was very much attached to her,
was seized with a fit of jealousy, for which she clearly
l)roved that she had given no cause. He persisted
however, and observed that she ought to know that the
wife of Caesar should be free from suspicion. Madame
de B . . . . replied that the remark contained two
important mistakes ; for it was known to all the world
thiit she was not his wife, and that he was not Caesar."

After dinner, the Emperor read to us parts of the
comedies of the Dissipateur and the Glorieux, but he
was so little pleased with them that he left off; they
did not possess a sufficient degree of interest. He had
a severe pain in his right side. It was the eflfect of the
damp to which he had been exposed during his morning
walk, and we were not without apprehensions of its
being a symptom of the ordinary malady of this scorching
climate.

On my return home, I found a letter from England,
with a parcel, containing some articles for my toilet*
The Grifiin ship of war had just arrived from England.

49

THB KMPBROR RECRIVKS LKITERS FROM HIS FAMILT.

CONVERSATION WITH THE ADMIRAL. THB COMMU

6IONERS OF THB ALLIED POWERS.

25th. — Aboat nine o'clock, I received from the Grand
Marshal three letters for the Emperor. They were from
Madame Mere, the Princess Pauline, and Prince Locien.
The latter was enclosed in one addressed to me, from
Rome, by Prince Lucien, dated the 6th of March. J
also received two from my agent in London.

The Emperor passed the whole of the rooming in
reading the papers from the 25th of April to the 13th oi
May. They contained accounts of the death of the Lni*
press of Austria, the prorogation of the French Chamlxrm,
Cambrone's acquittal, the condemnaticm of General
Bertrand, &c. He made many remarks upon all thttte
subjects.

About three. Admiral Malcolm requested to be pre*
sented to the Emperor. He brought him a series of the
Journal des Debats to the 13th of May. The Emperor
desired me to introduce him, and he conversed with him
nearly three hours. He gave great pleasure to the Em*
peror, who treated him, from the first moment, with a
great deal of freedom and good nature, as if he had \)ten
an old acquaintance. The Admiral was entirely of his
opinion with respect to a great number tji suljject^. He
admitted that it was extremely difficult to escape from
St. Helena, and he could see no inconvenience in allow-
ing him to be at large in the island. He crnisidered it
absurd that Plantation-house had not been given up to
the Emperor, and felt, but only since his arrival, he con-
fessed, that the title of General might be ofi^ensive. It
struck him that Ladv Loudon's conduct had been ridi-
culous here, and would be laughed at in Ix>ndon. He
thought that the Governor had good intentions, but did
not know how to act. Ministers had, in his opinion,
been embarrassed with respect to the Em[)eror, but
entertained no hatred against him ; they did not know
how to dispose of him. Had be remained in England,
he would have been, and was still, a terror to the Conti-

Vol. 111.— 3

50 ADMIRAL MALCOLM.

nent ; he would have been too dangerous and efficient an
instrument in the hands of Opposition, &c. He was
apprehensive, however, that all these circumstances put
together would detain us here a long time ; and he ex-
pressed his confidence that it was the intention of
Ministers, with the exception of the necessary precau-
tions to prevent his escape, that Napoleon should be
treated with every possible indulgence at St. Helena, &c.
He delivered himself upon all these points in so satis-
factory a manner that the Emperor discussed the busi-
ness with him, with as little warmth as if he had not
been concerned in the matter.

At one moment, the Emperor produced a sensible
effect upon him ; it was when, alluding to the Commis-
sioners, he pointed out the impossibility of receiving
them. " After all. Sir," said he, "you and I are men.
I appeal to you, is it possible that the Emperor of
Austria, whose daughter I married, who implored that
union on his knees, who keeps back my wife and ray
son, should send me his Commissioner, without a line
for myself, without the smallest scrap of a bulletin with
respect to my son's health ? Can I receive him with
consistency ? Can I have any thing to communicate to
him ? I may say the same thing of the Commissioner
sent by Alexander, who gloried in calling himself my
friend, with whom, indeed, I carried on political wars,
but had no personal quarrel. It is a fine thing to be a
Sovereign, but we are not on that account the less en-
titled to be treated as men ; I lay claim to no other cha-
racter at present ! Can they all be destitute of feeling ?
Be assured. Sir, that when I object to the title of
General, I am not offended. I decline it merely because
>'t would be an acknowledgment that I have not been
Emperor ; and, in this respect, I advocate the honour of
others more than mv own. I advocate the honour of
those with whom I have been, in that rank, connected
by treaties, by family and political alliances. The only
one of those Commissioners, whom I might perhaps re-
ceive, would be that of Louis XVHI., who owes me
rK)thing. That Commissioner was a long time my sub-
ject, he acts merely in conformity to circumstances, in-

NAPOLBON*S COUBT. 51

dependent of his option ; and I should accordingly re-
ceive him to-morrow, were I not apprehensive of the
misrepresentations that would take place, and of the
false colouring that would be given to the circumstance.**
After dinner, the Emperor again alluded to the time
of his Consulate, to the numerous conspiracies which had
been formed against him, to the celebrated persons of
that period, &c. I have already noticed these topics at
considerable length. The conversation lasted until one
o'clock in the morning — a very extraordinary hour
for us.

THB BMPBROR's COURT. EXPENSES, SAVINGS, HUNTING

AND SHOOTING ESTABLISHMENT, MEWS, PAGES, SER-
VICE OF HONOUR, &C.

26th — 28th. Our usual mode of living, an airing in
the carriage in the middle of the day ; conversation at
night.

On the 27th the Emperor received, for a moment, a
colonel, a relation of the family of Walsh Serrant, who
was on his return from the Cape in the Haycomb, and
was to sail next day for Europe. He had been Governor
of Bourbon, and entertained us with many agreeable
particulars respecting that island.

After dinner, the conversation turned on the old and
new Court, with their arrangements, expenses, etiquette,
&c. I have already mentioned most of these points in
another place, and many of them were repeated on the
present occasion. I pass over what would seem but a
literal repetition.

The Emperor's Court was, in every respect, much more
magnificent than any thing seen up to that period, and
yet, said he, the expense was infinitely less. That vast
difference was caused by the suppression of abuses, and
by the introduction of order and regularity into the
accounts. His hunting and shooting establishment, with
the exception of some useless and ridiculous particulars,
he observed, as that of falconry and some others, was as
splendid, as numerous, and as striking, as that of
Louis XVI., and the annual disbursement, he assured us,
was but 400,000 francs, while the King's amounted to

62 NAPOLEON S STUD, &C.

seven millions. His table yras regulated according to
the same system. Duroc had, by his regularity and
strictness, done wonders in that respect. Under the
kings, the palaces were not kept furnished, and the same
articles were transferred from one palace to another ; the
people belonging to the Court had no furniture allowed
them, and every one was obliged to look out for himself.
Under him, on the contrary, there was not a person in
attendance who did no^ find himself provided as com-
fortably, or even more so, with every thing that was
necessary or suitable, in the apartment assigned to him,
than in his own house.

The Emperor's stud cost three millions, the expense
of the horses was averaged at 3000 francs a horse yearly.
A page cost from 6 to 8000 francs. That establishment,
he observed, was perhaps the most expensive belonging
to the palace, and accordingly the education of the pages
and the care taken of them, were the subjects of just
encomium. The first families of the empire were solici-
tous tc place their children in it, and they had good
reason, said the Emperor.

With respect to the etiquette of the Court, the Em-
peror said he was the first who had separated the service
of honour (an expression invented under him) from
that which was absolutely necessary. He had dismissed
every thing that was laborious and substantial, and sub-
stituted what was nominal and ornamental only. " A
king," he said, ** is not to be found in nature, he is the
mere creature of civilization. There are no naked kings ;
they must all be dressed," &c.

The Emperor remaked that it was impossible for any
one to be better informed of the nature and relation of
all these matters than himself; because they had been
all regulated by him, according to the precedents of past
times, from which he had lopped off whatever was ridi-
culous, and preserved every thing that appeared suitable.

The conversation lasted until after eleven o'clock. It
had been kept up with tolerable spirit ; and the Emperor
again observed, on leaving us, that, after all, we must be
a good-natured kind of people to be able to lead so con-
tented a life at St. Helena.

53

niESH INSTANCE OF THE GOVERNOR'S MALIONITT» &e
DESPERATE PROJECT OF 8ANTINI, THE CORSICAN.

29th. — The weather had been bad for some days ; the
Emperor took advantage of a fine interval to examine a
tent, which the admiral had, in a very handsome manner,
ordered to be erected for his accommodation by his ship's
crew, having heard him complain, in the course of con-
versation, of the want of shade, and of the impossibility
of enjoying himself in the air out of his apartment. The
Emperor conversed with the officer and men who were
putting the last hand to* the work, and ordered a napoleon
to be given to each of the seamen.

We learnt to-day that the last vessel had brought a
book on the state of public afiairs for the Emperor,
written, as it was said, by a Member of Parliament. It
had been sent by the author himself, and the following
words were inscribed in letters of gold on the outside, —
To Napoleon the Great, This circumstance induced the
Grovemor to keep back the work, a rigour, on his part,
which formed a singular contrast with his eagerness to
supply us with libeds, that treated the Emperor so dis-
respectfully.

During dinner, the Emperor, turning, with a stern
look, to one of the servants in waiting, exclaimed, to
our utter consternation : "So then, assassin, you in-
tended to kill the Governor ! — Wretch ! — If such a
thought ever again enters your head, you will have to do
with me ; you will see how I shall behave to you." And
then, addressing himself to us, he said, ** Gentlemen, it
is Santini, there, who determined to kill the Governor.
That rascal was about to involve us in a sad embarrass-
ment. I found it necessary to exert all my authority,
all my indignation to restrain him."

In order to explain this extraordinary transaction, it
18 necessary for me to observe that Santini, who was
formerly usher of the Emperor's cabinet, and whose
extreme devotion had prompted him to follow his master
and serve him, no matter, he said, in what capacity,
was a Corsican, of deep feeling and a warm imagination.
Enraged at the Governor's ill usage, no longer able tc.

54 CONTEMPLATED ASSASSIN ATION,

bear with patience the affronts which he saw heaped
upon the Emperor, exasperated at the decline of his
health, and affected himself with a distracting melancholy,
he had, for some time, done no work in the house, and,
under pretence of procuring some game for the Em-
peror's table, his employment seemed to be that of
shooting in the neighbourhood. In a moment of con-
fidence, he told his countryman Cypriani that he had
formed the project, by the means of his double barrelled
piece, of killing the Governor, and then putting an
end to himself. And all, said he, to rid the world of a
monster.

Cypriani, who knew his countryman's character, was
shocked at his determination, and communicated it to
several other servants. They all united in entreating
him to lay aside his design, but their efforts, instead of
mitigating, seemed but to inflame his irritation. They
resolved then to disclose the project to the Emperor,
who had him instantly brought before him : '* And it
was only," he told me some time afterwards, " by
imperial^ by pontifical authority, that I finally succeeded
in making the scoundrel desist altogether from his pro-
ject. Observe for a moment the fatal consequences
which he was about to produce. I should have also
passed for the murderer, the assassin, of the Governor,
and in reality it would have been very difficult to destroy
such an impression in the mind of a great number of
people."

The Emperor read to us La Mort de Pompee, which
was stated in the journals to be the subject of general
interest at Paris, on account of its political allusions.
And this gave rise to the remark that government had
been obliged to forbid the representation of Richard, and
that, certainly on the fifth and sixth of October, Louis
XVL little thought of its ever being prohibited for its
allusions to another. ** The fact is that times are
wonderfully changed," said the Emperor.

30th. — The Emperor, after a few turns in the garden,
went to General Gourgaud's apartment, where he was a
long time employed, with his compasses and pencil, in
laying down the coast of Syria, and the plan of Saint

NAP0LS0N*9 READINGS. 55

Jean d'Acre, which the general was to execute. In
marking some points about Acre, he said: — ** I passed
many unpleasant moments there."

In the evening we had Le Mariage de Figaro, which
entertained and interested us much more than we had
been led to expect. ** It was," observed the Emperor,
in shutting the book, " the Revolution already put into
action."

LA HARPr's MELANIB. NUNS. CONVENTS. MONKS

OF LA TRAPPB. THE FRENCH CLERGY.

3 1 St. — The weather was horrible about three o'clock,
and the Emperor could scarcely reach Madame de
Montholon's saloon. He amused himself for some time
there in reading the Thousand and One Nights, and
afterwards, perceiving a volume of the Moniteur on
which M. de Montholon was then employed, and which
lay open in the part relative to the negotiations for a
maritime armistice in 1800, his whole attention was
absorbed by them for upwards of an hour.

After dinner, the Emperor read first La M^re Coup-
able, in which we felt interested, and next the Melanie
of La Harpe, which he thought wretchedly conceived
and very badly executed. ** It was," he said, ** a turgid
declamation, in perfect conformity with the taste of the
times, founded in fashionable calumnies and absurd
falsehoods. When La Harpe wrote that piece, a father
certainly had not the power of forcing his daughter to
take the veil ; the laws would never have allowed it.
This play, which was performed at the beginning of the
Revolution, was indebted for its success solely to the
extravagance of pubHc opinion. Now, that the passion
is over, it must be deemed a wretched performance 1 La
Harpe*8 characters are all unnatural. He should not
have attacked defective institutions with defective wea-
pons."

The Emperor said that La Harpe had so completely
failed in )us object, with regard to his own impressions,
that all hiis feelings were in favour of the father, while
he was shocked at the daughter's conduct. He had
never seen the performance, without being tempted to

b6 TAKING THB YBIL.

start from his seat, and call out to the daughter : '* Yoo
have but to say. No, and we will all take your part ;
you will find a protector in every citizen."

He observed that, when he was on service with hip
regiment, he had often witnessed the ceremony of taking
the veil. " It was a ceremony very much attended by
the officers, and which raised our indignation, particu-
larly when the victims were handsome. We ran in
crowds to it, and our attention was alive to the slightest
incident. Had they but said, No, we should have carried
them off sword in hand. It is consequently false that
violence was employed : seductive means only were
resorted to. Those, upon whom they were practised,
were kept secluded perhaps, like recruits. The fact is
that, before they had done, they had to pass the ordeal
of the nuns, the abbess, the spiritual director, the
bishop, the civil officer, and finally the public spectators.
Can it be supposed that all these had agreed to concur
in the commission of a crime ?"

The Emperor declared that he was an enemy to
convents in general, as useless, and productive of de-
grading inactivity. He allowed, however, in another
point of view, that certain reasons might be pleaded in
their favour. The best mezzo termine, and he had
adopted it, was, in his opinion, that of tolerating them,
of obliging the members to become useful, and of allow-
ing annual vows only.

The Emperor complained that he had not had time
enough to complete his institutions. It had been his
intention to enlarge the establishments of Saint Denis
and Ecouen, for the purpose of affording an asylum to
the widows of soldiers, or women advanced in years.
*' And then," he added, *• it must also be admitted that
there were characters and imaginations of all kinds ; that
compulsion ought not to be used with regard to persons
of an eccentric turn, provided their oddities are harm-
less, and that an empire, like France, might and ought
to have houses for madmen, called Trappistes, With
respect to the latter,*' he observed, **that if any one
ev^** thought of inflicting upon others the discipline
«y) th they practised, it would be justly considered a

FRLNCH PRIESTS. 59

most abominable tyranny, and that it mignt, notwith-
standing, constitute the delight of him who voluntarily
exercised it on himself. Such is man, such his whims,
or his follies ! . . . He had tolerated the monks ot
Mount Cenis, but these, at least,*' he added, '* were use-
ful, very useful, and might be even called heroic."

The Emperor expressed himself in his Council of State
in the following words, when the organization of the
University was about to take place : "It is my opinion
that the monks would be fiar the best body for communi-
cating instruction, were it possible to keep them under
proper control, and to withdraw them from their depen-
dence upon a foreign master. I am disposed to be
favourable to them. I should, perhaps, have had the
power to reinstate them in their establishments, but they
have made the thing impossible. The moment I do any
thing for the clergy, they give me cause to repent it. I
do not complain of the old established clergy, for with
them I am sufficiently satisfied ; but the young priests
are brought up in a gloomy fanatical doctrine ; there is
nothing Gallican in the young clergy.

" I have nothing to say against the old bishops.
They have shewn themselves grateful for what I did for
religion ; they have realized my expectations.

" Cardinal de Boisgelin was a man of sense, a virtuous
character, who had faithfully adopted me.

"The Archbishop of Tours, Barral, a man of great
acquirements, and who was of essential service to us in
our differences with the Pope, was always very much
attached to me.

•• The worthy Cardinal du Belloy, and the virtuous
Bishop Roquelaure, had a sincere affection for me.

'* I made no difficulty whatever in placing Bishop
Beausset among the Dignitaries of the University, and I
am convinced that he was one of those who, in that
capacity, most sincerely conducted themselves in confor-
mity with my views.

"All these old bishops possessed my confidence, and
none of them deceived me. It is not a little singular
that those whom I had the greatest cause to complain of
were precisely those whom I had chosen mvself; so

3»

58 FRENCH PRIESTS.

very true is it that the holy unction, though it attrtcheft
us to the kingdom of Heaven, does not deliver us from
the infirmities of the earth, from its irregularities, its
obscenities, its turpitudes."

The conversation next turned upon the want of priests
in France, the obligation of engaging them at the age
of sixteen, and the difficulty, even the impossibility, of
finding any at twenty-one.

It was the Emperor's wish that they should be ordained
at a more advanced age. The answer of the bishops
«^nd the Pope himself was, ** It is very well : your reasons
are very just ; but if you wait for that period you will
find none to ordain, and yet you admit that you are in
want of them."

** I have no doubt," observed the Emperor, *' that,
after me, other principles will be adopted. A conscription
of priests and nuns will, perhaps, be seen in France,
as a military conscription was seen in my time. My
barracks will, perhaps, be turned into convents and
seminaries. Thus goes the world. Poor nations ! In
spite of all your knowledge, all your wisdom, you
continue, like individuals, the slaves of fashionable
caprice."

It was nearly one o'clock in the morning before the
Emperor retired. It was, he said, a real victory over
ennui, and a great relief for the want of sleep.

MARIA ANTOINETTE. THE MANNERS OP VERSAILLES.—

ANECDOTE. BEVERLEY. DIDEROT's PERE DE FAMILLB.

August 1. — The weather was dreadful. About three
o'clock, the Grand Marshal came to look for me ; but as
I had at that moment ventured out, I was not to be
found. It was on account of some English, whom he
had to present to the Emperor.

The Emperor sent for me at five ; he was in a bad
humour, and not a little so, he said, on my account.
Tlie visit of the English, the bad weather, the want of
the saloon and an interpreter, had all combined to
vex him.

He was reading the Veill6es du Chsiteau, which, he
observed, were tiresome, and he left them for the Tales
of Margaret, Queen of Navarre.

OOVBT OF LOUIS XTI. b3

He afterwards adverted to Versailles ; the Court, fbt
Qaeen, Madame Campan, and the King, were the prin-
cipal subjects of his remarks, and he said many things,
some of which I have already noticed. He concluded
with observing that Louis XVI. would have been a
perfect pattern in private life, but that he had been a
sorry King ; and that the Queen would no doubt have
been, at all times, the ornament of every circle, but that
her levity, her inconsistencies, and her want of capacity,
had not a little contributed to promote and accelerate
the catastrophe. She had, he remarked, deranged the
manners of Versailles; its ancient gravity and strict
etiquette were transformed into the free and easy man-
ners and absolute tittle-tattle of a private party. No
man of sense and importance could avoid the jests of the
young courtiers, whose natural disposition for raillery
was sharpened by the applauses of a young and beautiful
Sovereign.

One of the most characteristic anecdotes of that dav

was told. A gallant and worthy German general arrived
at Paris, with a special recommendation to the Queen,
from the Emperor Joseph, her brother. The Queen
thought she could not do him a greater favour than to
invite him to one of her private parties. He found him-
self, it may be easily imagined, a little out of his element
in such company, but it was every one's wish to treat
him with marked respect, and he was obliged to take
a leading part in the conversation. He was unfortunate
in the selection of his topics, and in his manner of intro-
ducing them. He talked a great deal about his white
marCf and his grey mare, which he valued above all
things. The subject gave rise to a number of arch inqui-
ries on the part of the young courtiers, respecting a
thousand firivolous points, which he had the good -nature
to answer, as if they were matters of importance. In
conclusion, one of them asked to which of the two he
gave the decided preference: "Really," answered the
general, with peculiar significance, ** I must confess,
that, if I were in the dav of battie on mv white mare,
I do not believe I should dismount to get on my grey
one." At length he made his bow, and the bursts d

AMUSING ANECD&TS

laughter that followed may be easily conceived. The con*
versation took another turn after his departure ; the
attractions of white and brown beauties were long and
ingeniously canvassed, and, the Queen having asked one
of the party which he preferred, he instantly assumed a
grave air, and imitating the solemn tone of the Austrian,
answered, " Really, Madam, I must confess, that if I

were in the day of battle on " "Enough,"

interposed the Queen, " spare us the remainder."

After dinner he read Beverley and the P^re de Famille
to us. The latter, in particular, excited his animadver-
sion. To us it seemed a paltry production. What
most amused the Emperor, as he said, was that it was
Diderot's, that Coryphteus of philosophers and of the
Encyclopedia. All it contained was, he said, false and
ridiculous. The Emperor entered into a long examin-
ation of the details, and concluded with saying, •' Why
reason with a madman in the height of a raging fever ?
It is remedies and a decisive mode of treatment that he
needs. Who does not know that the only safeguard
against love is flight ? When Mentor wishes to secure
Telemachus, he plunges him into the sea. When Ulysses
endeavours to preserve himself from the Syrens, he
causes himself to be bound fast, after having stopped the
ears of his companions with wax."

HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THB EMIGRATION TO COBLBNTZ.—

ANECDOTES, &C.

2nd. — Uninterrupted bad weather, with heavy rains*
The Emperor was not well; he felt his nerves very
much irritated.

He sent for me to breakfast with him. During the
whole of breakfast, and a long time afterwards, the con-
versation again turned on the emigration. I have
already remarked that he often brought me back to the
subject. His enquiries to-day were directed to the par-
ticulars of what had passed at Coblentz, our situation^
our disposition, our organization, our views, and our re-
sources, and at the end of all my answers, he concluded,
observing : ** You have already several times acquainted
me with a considerable part of those tilings, and yet I

THB KMIORATION. 61

do not retain them, because you communicate them
without regularity. Reduce them to a consistent histoi-
ical summary. How could you be better employed in
this place ? And then, my dear Las Cases, you will have
a piece ready at hand for your journal." This demand
was like that addressed by Dido to i£neas, and I to/
might have exclaimed, Infandum regina, jubes. . . .
however, 1 executed the sketch as completely as my
memor}- and judgment enabled me, for the subject began
to grow old, and I was, at that time, very young. I
give it as I read it, a short time afterwards, to Napoleon.
" Sire, after the famous events which overthrew the
Bastile, and set all France in agitation, most of our
Princes, who found themselves implicated in the conse-
quences, fled from the country, with the sole view, at
that period, of securing their personal safety. They
were soon after joined by persons of considerable rank,
and by a number of young men ; the former, induced by
the connection which they had with them, and the latter
by a persuasion that the measure of itself indicated, in
some degree, a striking, generous, and decided devoted-
ness. When a certain number were collected, the idea
suggested itself of converting to a political end that
which, until then, had been produced by zeal and chance
alone. It was thought that if, with the assistance of
these assemblages, a kind of small power could be created,
it might be enabled to re- act, with advantage, or the
interior, become a lever to insurrection there, make an
impression on the public mind, and restrain popular com-
motion ; while it would be, abroad, a title or pretext
for applying to foreign Powers and claiming their atten-
tion. This was the origin of the emigration ; and it is
confidently stated that this grand idea was conceived by
M. deCalonne,* as he passed through Switzerland, in
the suite of one of our Princes, who was on his way
from Turin to Germanv.

* Some one who considers himself well informed hbs assured
ine that this is erroneous, as M. de Calonne did not reach Germany
till the measure of emigration had been already decided upon;
ftdding that, so far from having contrived or instigated it, he had
actually censured it.

62 THE EMIGRATION.

'* The first assemblage took place at Worms, undcf
the Prince de Conde. The most celebrated was that a*
Coblentz, under the King's two brothers, one of whom
came from Italy, where he had at first found an asylum
in the Court of the King of Sardinia, his father-in-law,
and the other arrived by way of Brussels, after escaping
the crisis, which had made a captive of Louis XVI. at
Varennes.

•* I was one of the first of those who assembled at
Worms. The number about the Prince v/as scarcely
fifty when I arrived. In the entire efiervescence erf
youth, and with the first inspiration of what was noble,
I hastened to Worms with the most innocent simplicity
of heart. My reading and my prayer each morning
consisted of a chapter of Bayard. I expected, on
reaching Worms, to be, at the very least, seized and
embraced by so many brothers in arms; but, to my
great surprise (and it was my first lesson on mankind),
instead of this affectionate reception, I and a companion
were, all at once, examined and watched, for the pur-
pose of ascertaining that we were not spies. We were
afterwards carefully sounded with regard to our interests,
our views, and the pretensions by which we might have
been actuated, and, finally, great pains were taken to
prove to us, and to make the Prince perceive (and this
plan was renewed on every fresh arrival), that our
numbers increased greatly, and exceeded, no doubt,
already, the places and favours which he had to confer.
My companion was so shocked that he proposed to me
to return instantly to Paris.

'* We, who composed the assemblage, in order to
make oarselves useful or to acquire importance, under-
took, three or four of us by turns, to form a kind of
regular guard about the Prince's person night and day ;
for we dreamt already of nothing but conspiracies and
8«pass?i nation, so very powerful and redoubtable did we
thini ourselves, and when relieved, whilst on this kind
of voluntary guard, we had the honour of being ad-
mitted to the Prince's table. Three generations of
Conde constituted its ornament, a singular circumstance,
which was renewed with more striking efifect in the arm>

THB EMIGRATION. 6S

0f CoDde» in ^hich the grandfather fought in the centre,
while the son and grandson commanded the right and
left, where they were, I believe, both wounded, and on
the same dav.

" The Princess of Monaco had followed the Prince oi
Conde ; he married her afterwards, but she then governed
and did the honours of his establishment. We had the
opportunity of hearing at that table some of the guests
assert and re-assert to the Prince that we were already
more than enough to enter France ; that his name and
a white handkerchief were sufficient; that the star of
Conde was about to shine forth once more ; that the oc-
casion was singularly happy, and that it was necessary
to seize it ; and I would not pledge myself, that adula-
tion wsa not pushed so far as to suggest very interested
personal views to the Prince.

• Worms, from the nature of its meeting, and the
character of its chief, always evinced more regularity,
more austerity of discipline, than Coblentz, where there
was a display of more agitation, luxury, and pleasure.
Worms was accordingly called the camp, and Coblentz
the City or the Court.

" The importance of the leader was in proportion to
the force under his command, and of this the Prince of
Conde was so sensible that he never saw any one leave
bim without regret, and remembered it a long time. I
was not, on that account, the less eager to go to Cob-
lentz, the moment it acquired a certain degree of splen-
dour. I had relations and friends there, and it was,
besides, more attractive, from superior magnificence,
activity, and grandeur. Coblentz became in a short
time a focus of foreign and domestic intrigues. Two
distinct parties might be observed there ; Messrs.
d'Avaray, deJaucourt, and some others, were the confiden-
tial friends, the advisers, or the ministers, of Monsieur,
now Louis XVIII. The Bishop of Arras, the Count de
Vaudreuil, and others, were those of Monseigneur, the
Count d'Artois ; and it was confidently stated that, even
then, these Princes manifested distinctly enough the same
political differences which, it is pretended, have since
characterized them. M. de Breteuil, resident at Brussels,

$^ THE EMIGRATION.

and charged, according to his own declaration, with un*
limited powers by Louis XVI., had formed a third party,
and added to the complication of our affairs.

** M. de Calonne was relied on for our financial de-
partment, and the old Marshal de Broglie and the
Marshal de Castries were at the head of our military
establishment. The brave and able M. de Bouillv, who
had left France after the affair of Varennes, found
it impossible to remain with us, and followed King
Gustavus III. to Sweden.

'* The emigration had, however, assumed a grand cha-
racter, thanks to the care employed for its propagation.
Agents had traversed the provinces, circulars had been
distributed in the mansions and country-seats, summon-
ing every gentleman to join the Princes, and act in co-
operation with them for the security of the altar and the
throne, the revenge of their honour, and the recovery of
their rights. An absolute crusade had been preached,
and with so much more effect, as it made an impression
on minds disposed to attend to it. Among the whole of
the nobility and privileged classes there was not a single
person who did not feel himself cut to the quick by the
decrees of the Assembly. All, from him who filled the
highest rank to the lowest country squire, had been de-
prived of what they held most dear ; for the former had
lost his title and his vassals, and the latter had seen hift
turret and his pigeon-house invaded, and his hares shot.
Accordingly, the movement to begin the journey was
immediate and universal ; it could not be abandoned,
under the penalty of dishonour, and the women were
directed to send spindles to those who hesitated, or were
too tardy. Whether then from passion, pusillanimity,
or a point of honour, the emigration became a real infec-
tion ; multitudes rushed furiously beyond the frontiers ;
and what contributed not a little to increase the evil was
the means employed by the leaders of the Revolution to
promote it in secret, while they affected to oppose it in
public. They declaimed, in vague terms, against it from
the tribune, it is true ; but they took great care that all
the passages should be left open. Did the zeal of the
emigrants slacken ? — the declanners became more violent,

THK BMIGRANTS. 65

and it was decided that the harriers should he strictly
g^uarded. Then those who had heen left behind were re-
duced to despair, because they had not taken advantage
of the favourable moment. But, accidentally, or from
inattention, the barriers were again opened, and they
were passed with eagerness by those who were determin-
ed not to expose themselves to another disappointment.
It was by this dextrous management that the Assembly
assisted its enemies in plunging themselves into the
abyss.

" The able men of the faction had, from the beginning,
conceived that such a measure would deliver them from
the heterogeneous parts that checked thtir progress, and
that the property of all these voluntary exiles would se-
cure to them incalculable resources. The officers thought
they did wonders in stealing away from their regiments,
while the leaders of the Revolution, on their part, excited
the soldiers to revolt, in order to force them to it. They
got rid, by these means, of enemies who were highly
dangerous, and obtained, on the contrary, in the non-
commissioned officers, zealous co-operators, who became
heroes in the national cause ; it was they who furnished
great captains, and who beat all the veteran troops of
foreign powers.

*'The consequence was that Coblentz collected all
that was illustrious belonging to the Court in France, and
all that was opulent and distinguished belonging to the
provinces. We were thousands, consisting of every
branch, uniform, and rank of the army ; we peopled the
town and overran the palace. Our daily assemblages
about the persons of the Princes seemed like so many
splendid festivals. The Court was most brilliant, and
our Princes were so effectually its Sovereigns that the
poor Elector was eclipsed and lost in the midst of us,
which induced a person to observe to him, very plea-
santly, one day, whether from perfect simplicity or keen
raillery, that, among all those who thronged his palace,
he was the only stranger.

** During the grand solemnities, we occasionally had
public galas ; and the respectable inhabitants were per-
mitted to take a view of the tables. We then exulted at

66 THB EMItiHANrS

witnessing the admiration expressed by the people of the
country for the pleasing countenance and chivalrous ap-
pearance of Monseigneur the Count d'Artois, and wc
were proud of the homage paid by them to the acquire-
ments and talents of Monsieur. It was worth while to
see with what arrogance we paraded with us, as it were,
the whole dignity, the lustre of our monarchy, and,
above all, the superiority of our Sovereign and the eleva-
tion of our Princes. His Majesty the King, was the ex-
pression which we pompously used in the German circles
to designate the King of France ; for that was, or ought
to be, in our opinion, his title in point of pre-eminence
with respect to all Europe. The Abbe Maury, whom we
had at first received with acclamation, but who, by the
by, lost much of our esteem in a very short time, had
discovered, he assured us, that such was his right and
his prerogative. Shall I give another instance of over-
weening pride and conceit ?

** At a later period, during our greatest disasters, and
when our cause was completely ruined, an Austrian
officer, of superior rank, charged with despatches for the
Court of London, invited to dinner several of our officers
with whom he had formerly been acquainted on the
Continent. After dinner, and very near the time when
every truth comes out, the company began to talk poli-
tics, and he happened to say that, on his departure from
Vienna, one of the principal subjects of conversation was
the marriage of Madame Royale (now Duchess d'An-
gouleme) with the Archduke Charles, who at that mo-
ment enjoyed great celebrity. * But it is impossible !*
observed one of his French guests. ' And why ?* * Be-
cause it is not a suitable marriage for Madame.' — * How !*
exclaimed the Austrian, seriously offended, and almost
breathless, * His Royal Highness Monseigneur, the
Archduke Charles ! not a suitable match for vour Princess.
• Oh ! no. Sir, it would be but a garrison match for her !*

" Besides, these lofty pretensions were instilled into us
with our education ; they belonged to us as national
sentiments, and our Princes were not exempt from them.
With us the King's brothers disdained the title of Royal
Highness, they had the pretension of addressing all the

AT COBLBNTZ, &C. fjl

sovereigns by the title of brother ; the rest of the system
«vas carried on in a proportionate way, and there was
accordingly but one feeling in Europe against our Ver*
saiUes, manners and the presumption of our Princes.

** Gustavus III. said, at Aix-la-Chapelle — * Your Court
of Versailles was not accessible ; it indulged too much in
haughtiness and ridicule. When I was Tnere, there was
scarcely any attention paid to me, and, when I left it, 1
brought away the titles of booby and blockhead,*

** The Duchess of Cumberland, who was married to the
King of England's brother, had to complain, at the same
time and in the same city, that the Princess de Lamballe
did not grant her the honours of the folding- doors.

** The old Duke of Gloucester complained, on his own
account, at a later period in London, of one of our
Princes of the blood, and added that the Prince of Wales
laughed heartily, because he, the Prince of Wales, ad-
dressing the same Prince by the title of Monseigneur,
the latter studiously endeavoured to model his language
so as not to return the compHment.

" At Coblentz, however, when our circumstances were
altered, our Princes condescended to change their man-
ners in that respect, and to let themselves down to the
level of the foreign Princes. They were then with the
Elector of Treves, a Prince of Saxonv, their mother's
brother, whom, by way of parenthesis, we were at that
time eating up, and who was afterwards deprived of his
possessions on our account. They condescended to call
him their uncle, and he was allowed to call them his
nephews. It is confidently stated that he said to them
one day, ' It is to your misfortunes that I am indebted
for such affectionate expressions ; at Versailles you
would have treated me as plain M. TAbbe, and it is not
certain that you would have received my visits every
day.' It was added that he spoke the truth, and that
they had given melancholy proofs of it to his brother,
the Count of Lusatia, who was present.

** The Princes generally passed their evenings in the
company of their intimate friends. One of them was,
most of the time, at the house of Madame de Polastron,
to whom he paid attentions that were justified by liei

88 THE BMI0RANT8

conBtancy and her behaviour. Frequent attempts were
made to destroy the intimacy, but in vain, for Madame
de Polastron was above all the cabals employed for the
purpose ; and, in addition to her amiable manners and
excellent conduct, was completely disinterested, and
carefully avoided all interference in political a£[airs. She
saw but very little company. I was indebted to a
female relative for the pleasure of being admitted to it ;
but, as it was necessary to withdraw before the Prince's
arrival, I never had the honour of seeing him there.

" Monsieur passed his evenings at Madame de Balby's^
Dame d'Atours to Madame. Madame de Balby, who
was lively, witty, a warm friend and a determined enemy,
attracted all the most distinguished characters. It was
an honour to be admitted to her house, which was the
centre of taste and fashion. Monsieur sometimes re-
mained there until a late hour; and when, after the
crowd had slipped away and the circle was contracted,
he happened to be communicative, it must be confessed
that he was as superior to us by the charms of his con-
versation as by his rank and dignity.

** So much for our manner of living and our outward
appearance at Coblentz ; this was the fair side of our
situation ; but we were less happy in a political point of
view — that was the degrading side."

** Good !*' said the Emperor, " I begin to find your
drawing-room details too long. This is, however, excu-
sable in you. The subject is a pleasing one to you. You
were then young ; but go on."

** Sire, the whole of our number was but a noble and
brilliant mob, and presented the image of complete con-
fusion. It was anarchy striving without, to establish, it
was said, order within — a real democracy struggling for
the re- establishment of its aristocracy. We presented,
on a small scale, and merely with a few shades of dif-
ference, a copy of every thing that was passing in France.
We had among us zealous adherents to our ancient
forms, and ardent admirers of noveltv : we had our con-
stitutionalists, our intolerants, and our moderates. We
had our empirics, who sincerely regretted that they had
^' * made themselves masters of the King's person, foT

AT COBLBNTZ, 6lC. 69

the purpose of acting with violence in his name, or whf
frankly avowed that they entertained the design of de-
claring his incapability. Finally, we had also oui
Jacobins, who wished, on their return, to kill, to burU;
to destroy every thing.

" No direct authority was exercised over the multi-
tude by our Princes. — ^They were our Sovereigns, it was
true, but we were very unruly subjects, and very easily
irritated. We murmured on every occasion, and it was
particularly against those who joined us last that our
common fury was directed. It was, we declared, so
much glory and good fortune of which they deprived
our exploits and our hopes. Those who were once ad-
mitted considered every subsequent arrival too late. It
was maintained that all merit on that score was at an
end. If all continued to be received in the same way,
the whole of France would soon be on our side, and
the« would no longer be any person to punish.

" Denunciations of every kind, and from every quar-
ter, were then showered down upon those who joined us.
A Prince de Saint-Maurice, son of the Prince de Mont-
barey, found it impossible to resist the storm, although
he had the formal support of every distinguished charac-
ter, and that of the Prince himself, who deigned to
employ supplication in his favour, and said, ' Alas ! gen-
tlemen, who is there that has not faults to reproach
himself with in the Revolution ? I have been guilty of
several, and, by your oblivion of them, you have given
me the right of interceding for others.' This did not
spare M. de Saint-Maurice the necessity of making his
escape as soon as possible. His crime was that of hav-
ing belonged to the Society of the Friends of the Negroes,
and of having been violently attacked in the midst of us
by a gentleman of Franche Comte, who denounced
M. de Saint-Maurice for having caused his mansions to
be burnt. It was, however, discovered, a few days
afterwards, that the brawling assailant had no mansion,
and was neither from Franche Comte, nor a gentleman :
he was a mere adventurer.

" M. de Cazal^s, who had filled France and Europe
with the celebrity of his eloquence and courage in the

70 THE EMIGRANTS

National Assembly, had, notwithstancLug, i >8t the po-
pular favour at Coblentz. When he arrived at Paris, a
report was spread among us that the Princes would not
see him, or would give him an ungracious reception.
We collected eighty natives of Languedoc to form, in
spposition to his own wishes, a kind of escort for him.
M. de Cazales was the honour of our province ; we con-
ducted him to the Princes, by whom he was well re-
ceived.

" A deputy of the third estate, who had highly dis-
tinguished himself in the Constituent Assembly by his
attachment to royalty, was among us. One of our
Princes, addressing him one day in the crowd, said,

* But, Sir, explain to me then. — You are so worthy a
man, how could you, at the time, take the oath of the
jeu de paume ?* The deputy, struck dumb by the attack,
at first stammered out that he had been taken unawares
— that he did not foresee the fatal consequences — but
promptly recovering himself, he replied with vivacity :

* I shall, however, observe to Monseigneur that it was
not that which led to the ruin of the French monarchy,
but in fact the assemblage of the nobility, which joined
us in consequence of the very persuasive letter written
by Monseigneur.' — ' Stop there,' exclaimed the Princ^,
patting him on the stomach, ' be cool, my dear Sir ; I
did not intend to vex you by that question.*

** Something like a system of regularity, whether good
or bad, was, however, adopted in the course of time.
We were classed by corps and by provinces ; we had
cantonments assigned to us, and were suppHed with
arms. The King's body - guards were again formed,
clothed, equipped, and paid, and soon became a superb
corps in appearance and discipline. The coalition of
Auvergne and the marine corps, part on foot and part on
horseback, attracted peculiar notice by its discipline,
knowledge, and union. Our resignation and self-denial
could not be too much admired. Each officer was
henceforth but a private soldier, subject to exercises and
fatigues, very contrary to his former manner of life, and
exposed to the greatest privations, for there was no pay,
and many of that number had soon no resource to de-

AT COBLENTZ, &C. 7 .

^end on but the contributions of their more fortunate
comrades. We deserved a better fete, or, to speak more
correctly, we were worthy of a better enterprize. All
the officers belonging to the same regiments had been
collected together in separate bodies, in oider that they
might be ready to take the command of their soldiers,
who would not fail to join them, as we thought, on their
first seeing them. Such was our delusion ! It was from
a similar motive that the gentlemen were classed ac-
cording to their respective provinces, no doubt being
entertained of their eifficient influence over the mass of
the population. Our weakness consisted in the con-
viction that we continued to be wished for, respected,
adored.

"All these bodies were pubHcly exercised and ma-
noeuvred, and the diplomatic remonstrances which were
made on the subject were answered with a confident
assurance that no such thing existed, or that it certainly
should be prevented. We had generals appointed, a staff
formed, and every thing which distinguishes head-
quarters, even to the office of grand-provost, arranged.
Our Princes were gradually surrounded with aU that
constitutes a real government. They had Ministers for
the afiairs of the moment, and even for France, when we
should return, so certain and near at hand did that
time appear.

*' M. de Lavilleumois, who was afterwards so much
talked of, on account of the share which he had in a
royalist conspiracy, and who died at Sinnamary, in con-
sequence of the events of Fructidor, was intrusted with
the Administration of the Police. He set off at an early
period to perform its duties clandestinely at Paris. He
had conceived a sincere affection for me, and was deter-
mined to make me his son-in-law. He made use of the
most urgent arguments to induce me to follow him ; but
I refused : I disliked the nature of his office. Otherwise,
what different combinations in my destiny !

** We had also direct relations with almost every
Court. The Princes had envoys at them, and received
theirs at Coblentz. Monseigneur, the Count d'Artois,
visited Vienna, I believe, but I can state with certainty

7*2 TUB BMI0RANT8

that he was at Pihiitz. The nobility, in a body, ad
dressed a letter to Catherine, from whom we received
M. de Romansoff as An/bassador. That Empress saw,
with pleasure, the storm that was rising in the south o
Europe; she cheerfully fanned a flame, which might
prove very favourable to her views, without putting her
to any expense, and she accordingly shewed herself
ardent in her sentiments, and enthusiastic in her promises.
She did not despair, in that crisis, of making a dupe of
Gustavus III., whose contiguous activity was troublesome
to her; she had prevailed upon him, it is said, to under-
take the crusade, by flattering him with the rank of
Generalissimo. I do not know if this Prince, who
certainly was a very superior character for his time, and
possessed a great share of understanding and talent,
suflfered himself to be deluded by her. It is, however,
undeniable that he displayed great attachment to our
cause, and announced his wish to fight for it in person.
When he left Aix la Chapelle to arrange his ultimate
measures for that purpose in Sweden, I heard him say,
on taking leave of the Princess de Lamballe : " You
will see me again shortly, but I am, nevertheless, obliged,
on my own account, to adhere to certain proceedings, to
certain measures of caution; for the part I have to play
is of a very delicate nature. Know that I, who am desi-
rous of returning to fight at the head of your aristocrats
in France, am, at home, the first democrat of the
country.'

" We also received envoys from Louis XVI., who
presented public messages in reprobation of our conduct,
and had confidential conferences, perhaps totally dif-
ferent. At least, we acted as if that had been the case ;
openly declaring that he was a captive, and that we
ought to take no notice of any of his orders ; that we
were bound to take every thing he was compelled to say
in a contrary sense, and that, when he exhorted us to
peace, he was, in reality, calling upon us to go to war.
It is accordingly my opinion that we were very detri-
mental to the tranquillity of the unfortunate Monarch,
and that we had our special share in the pardon which
he bequeathed by his will to his friends, who, by an
indiscreet zeal, as he observes, did him so much injury.

AT COBLKNTZ, &C. 73

** Oar emigration, bowerer, was prolonged in spite of
all the promises which were made to us, and of all the
hopes with which oar fancy was flattered. With what
illusions, what idle tales, what absurdities, was our im-
patience mocked! whether those who invented them
anticipated our disappointment, or were themselves de-
ceived. It was pleasantly calculated that, according to
our letters and gazettes, we had, in less than eigh-
teen months, set in motion nearly two millions of men,
although we ourselves had seen none of them. But
those initiated in the mystery assured us, in special
confidence, that these troops marched only by night, for
the purpose of more effectually surprising the democrats,
or that they passed in the day-time only by platoons and
without uniform ; or told us some other story of a similar
kind. On the other hand, we shewed each other a heap
of letters from all countries and the best sources, written
in an enigmatical style, and which were thought to be
intelligible to us alone. One was acquainted that fifty
thousand Bohemian glasses had been just sent off for his
country ; another was informed that ten thousand pieces
of Saxon porcelain would soon be sent off; and a third
received intelligence that twenty-five bales of cocoa
would be addressed to him, with other fooleries of the
same kind.

" How was it possible, I now ask myself, that men of
understanding, for there certainly were a great many
among the number, that Ministers, who had formerly
governed us, and others who were destined to succeed
them, should be gulled by such wretched stuff, or that
the plain good sense, which we possessed as a multitude,
did not make us laugh in their faces ? But no ; we were
not the less convinced that we were near the accom-
plishment of our hopes ; that the moment was at hand ;
that it would infallibly happen ; that we had only to show
ourselves ; that we were eagerly expected, and that aU
would fall prostrate at our feet."

Here the Emperor, who had often interrupted me with
laughter and raillery, said, in a very serious tone, " How
very fairhful is the picture you have drawn ! I recognise
a crowd of vour friends in it. Trulv, my dear Las Cases,

Vol. III.-

74

THK EMTGRANTR

and I say it without meaning any offence to yea, vapour-
ing, credulity, inconsistency, stupidity itself, might be
said, in spite of all their wit, to be specially their lot.
When I occasionally wished to be amused, and divested
myself of all reserve, for the purpose of giving them full
Fcope, and encouraging their confidence in me, I have
heard, in the Tuileries, under the Consulate and the
Empire, things not less ridiculous than those which you
now relate. None of them ever entertained a doubt of
any thing. The love of the French for their Kings was
centered, they assured me, in my person. I could hence-
forth do what I pleased ; I had a right to use my power ;
I should never meet with any other obstacle but a hand-
ful of incorrigible persons who were the detestation of
all. That counter-revolution so much dreaded, observed
another, was but child's play to me ; I had effected it with
the utmost ease. And (will this be believed }) ' the only
thing wanting to it,' said he, in an insinuating tone, * is
the substitution of the ancient white colour for those
which have done us so much injury in all countries.'
The idiot ! That was the onlv blot which he could find
in our escutcheon. I laughed out of sheer pity, although
I felt some difficulty in restraining my feelings j but for
his part, his sincerity was unquestionable ; he was fully
persuaded that he spoke as I thought ; and still more
so that the generality thought as he did.* But go on."

* It is certainly an inherent weakness in our nature to deceive
ourselves with respect to the sentiments that are entertained of ui
by others. At Coblentz, where we threw away so much money,
where so many amiable and brilliant young men, more to be
dreaded, no doubt, from an excess than a want of education, filled
every house and visited every family, it was natural to believe that
we should be beloved, and accordingly we thought ourselves
adored. Well I at the time of my exile at the Cape of Good Hope,
I was placed by a singular chance under the guard of an inhabi-
tant of Coblentz, who had witnessed the brilliant moments of our
emigration. I felt great pleasure in renewing the subject with him.
We could not have any secrets on that head to conceal from one
another ; twenty-five years had elapsed. Well, then, " you were
not absolutely hated," said he, " but our real affection was reserved
for your adversaries, for their cause was ours. Liberty had slipped
in among us through you. There, in the midst of you, even
before your eyes, we had formed clubs, and God knows how ofteti

AT COBLBNTZ, &C. 7

*.

" The appearance of the Duke of Brui swick at Cob-
lentz, and the arrival of the King of Prussia at the head
of his troops, were subjects of great joy and expectation
to the whole of the emigrants. Heaven opens at length
before us ! was our exclamation, and we are about to
return to the land of promise. It was, however, the
opinion of persons of judgment and experience, from the
beginning, that our struggle would have the same result
as all those that resembled it in history, and that we
should be but instruments and pretexts for foreigners,
who only pursued their private interest, and entertained
no feeling for us.

" M. de Cazal^s, whom a short time much improved,
expressed himself to that effect with much energy. We
beheld, with delight, the Prussians, as they filed off
through the streets of Coblentz, on their march to our
frontiers. * Foolish boys,' he exclaimed, * you admire,
with enthusiasm, those troops and all their train. You
rejoice at their march ; you ought rather to shudder at
it. For my own part, I should wish to see these soldiers,
to the last man of them, plunged in the Rhine. Wo be
to them who incite foreigners to invade their country !
O my friends, the French nobility will not survive this
atrocity ! They will have the affliction of expiring far
from the places of their birth. I am more guilty than
any other, for I see it, and yet I act like all the rest ;
but my only excuse is that I cannot prevent the catas-
trophe. 1 repeat, wo to them who call in foreigners
against their country, and trust in them.'

** How oracular these last words ! Facts would have
speedily convinced us of their truth, had we been less

we laughed in them at your expense, &c." And it happened
to him more than once, he assured me, when mingled with the
crowd, which resounded with acclamations as we passed, to shout
with a considerahle number of his comrades, *' Long live the Frencli
Princes, and may they drink a little in the Rhine 1 You spoke of
the reception we gave you," said he, "it was that which we gave to
Cnstine, which you should have seen I There you would have had
an opportunity o^ appreciating our real sentiments. We ran with
enthusiasm to meet him : we crowned his soldiers ; a great number
of us enlisted in his army, and several of them became generals.
As for me. I missed the opportunity of making my fortune.'

76 THB EMIGRANTS

infatuated, or had the multitude heen capahle of reason-
ing and acting with propriety ; but we were destined to
enrich history with one of those lessons that are most
entitled to the meditation of mankind. We might be
estimated at 20 or 25,000 men under arms ; and cer-
tainly, such a force, filled with ardour and devotion,
fighting for its own interests, maintaining an under-
standing with the sympathetic elements of the interior,
acting against a nation, shaken to its foundation and
convulsed by the agitation of new rights, not yet estab-
lished and but imperfectly understood, might be capable
of striking decisive blows. But it was not upon our
strength, our success, our activity, that the foreigners
relied for the attainment of their views. Accordingly,
under the pretence of employing that influence and of
directing its operation, as they said, against several
points at once, they annihilated us by parcelling out our
numbers, and by making, as it were, prisoners of us in
the middle of their different corps. In this way, 6000
of us, under the Prince of Conde, were marched against
Alsace j 4000, under the Duke of Bourbon were to act
in Flanders, and from 12 to 15,000 continued in the
centre, under command of the King's two brothers, to
co-operate in the invasion of Champagne.

** It had been the plan and wish of our Princes, that
Monsieur, as heir to the crown and the natural repre-
sentative of Louis XVI., should, on account of his
captivity, proclaim himself Regent of the kingdom, the
moment he set foot on the French territory ; that he
should march with his emigrants at the head of the
expedition, and that the allies, in his rear, should be
considered only as auxiliaries. But the allies treated
the plan with derision, and confined us to a station at
their tail, under the orders and at the wiU and pleasure
of the Generalissimo, Brunswick, who caused us to be
preceded by the most absurd of manifestoes ; from the
ridicule and odium of which, however, he at least saved
us.

"It is but just, however, to acknowledge that this
treatment had not escaped the foresight of some expe-
rienced and better advised heads among us. They had

AT COBLBNTZ, &C. 77

accordingly sug^gested, it was said, in the Coancil of the
Princes, that we should throw ourselves, before the
arrival of the allies, on some point of France, and main-
tain a civil war there by ourselves. Others more
desperate, or more ardent, were of opinion that me
should nobly seize upon the states of the Elector of
Treves, our benefactor ; occupy the town and fortress of
Coblentz, and establish there a central nllying point, or
point of support, independent of the Germanic body ;
and when we exclaimed against such perfidy and ingra-
titude, their answer was : — ' Desperate evils called for
desperate remedies.' It is impossible to say what
might have been the result of such resolutions, which
were, however, more consistent with the bold spirit of
enterprize, that characterizes the present times, than
with the state of manners as they then existed. They
were, therefore, unattended to, and besides, the oppor-
tunity had slipped by ; we were too closely involved in
the midst of foreigners ; we were already in their power,
and our destiny was to be fulfilled ! . . .

" As for us who formed the multitude, we were far
from foreseeing the calamities that were to attend us.
We began our march in high spirits. There was not one
of us who did not expect to be, in a fortnight from that
moment, at home, triumphant in the midst of his sub-
missive, humiliated, and increased vassals. Our con-
fidence would not have endured a single observation or
doubt upon that head. Of this I am about to give an
instance, which though personal and very trifling in
itself, will not be the less characteristic with respect to
us all. We were marching through the city of Treves ;
one of my grandundes had, during the war of the suc-
cession, been Governor for Louis XIV. while were tained
possession of it. I went to see his tomb, which is in a
chapel, belonging to the Carthusians of that town. The
ardour of my youth and the emotion of the moment
determined me to erect a small monument to his me-
mory, with a superb inscription, suitable to the circum-
stances. I entertained no doubt of executing my wish.
The good friars were of a difiTerent way of thinking; the
prior wished me to arrange the matter with the Abbe, a

8 THE KMI0RANT3

kind of bishop, and of German bishop. His reservt
and coldness, in spite of his numerous coats of arms,
prepossessed me very much against him, when I com-
municated my chivalrous project ; but when, after some
circumlocution, he declared that under the present cir-
cumstances . . . prudence, — discretion, — if the French
were to enter the place — At these last words, my
indignation was extreme ; it was such that I did not
wait to utter a single word in reply. I instantly hurried
away, with a mingled laugh of contempt and anger,
convinced that I had left the most horrible Jacobin in
existence behind me ; and nothing but my natural
generosity and respect for my own character could have
prevented me calling in my comrades, who would have
certainly pulled down the chapel. But alas ! the abbot
saw farther than I did ! Three weeks had not elapsed
before the republicans were in Treves, the poor abbe put
to flight, and the ashes of my good uncle profaned by
the infidels.

** But no sooner were we in full operation, no sooner
had we set foot on French ground, than it became no
difficult matter, except in cases of downright stupidity
and blindness, to comprehend that it actually might be
just possible that we had been the dupes of our own
folly. We found ourselves in the midst of the Prussians,
who fettered all our movements ; we could not take a
step in advance, to the right or to the left, without their
permission, and they never granted it. Our subsistence,
all our resources, depended solely upon their will ; we
had the shame of appearing as slaves on the soil where
we aspired to reign.

** As for our countrymen, instead of receiving us as
their deliverers, as we had been convinced they would,
they only gave us proofs of dislike and aversion. With
the exception of a few country gentlemen or others who
joined us, the whole mass of the population fled at our
approach j we were treated as enemies, with the look oi
reproach and the stern silence of reprobation. They
seemed to say to us : * Do you not shudder then at thus
staining your country's soil ? Are you not Frenchmen
by birtl ? Do your hearts then make no appeal te you

AT COBLENTZ, &C. 79

in favour of jrour native land ? You say you are wrong-
ed ; but what wrong, what injury ever gave to a son
the right or the wish to tear open the bosom of his
mother ? . . . We are told that in ancient times a fiex y
patrician, Coriolanus, was infamous enough to fight
against his country, but he had at least the merit of
muting elevated sentiments with his furious passion ; he
came forward with a victorious arm; he imposed his
3wn conditions ; he was not dragged along at the tail of
barbarous foreigners ; he commanded them, and he also
suffered himself to be moved to compassion. Can you
be unsusceptible of that tenderness, and do you not
tremble at our maledictions, which will be perpetuatea
on you by our children ? At any rate, whatever may be
your success, it will not equal your mortifications ! You
pretend to come for the purpose of governing, and you
will have brought your masters with you.*

** At Verdun and at Estain, we were quartered in the
town. Some of my comrades and myself were lodged
in a handsome house, but all the furniture and all the
proprietors had disappeared, with the exception of two
very pretty young ladies, who put us in possession of it.
This last circumstance seemed a favourable omen, we
took the opportunity of remarking it to them, and were
desirous of ingratiating ourselves by our pohteness and
attentions. ' Gentlemen,' said one of the two amazons in
rather a sharp tone, * we have remained, because we
have felt that we had the courage to tell you, face to
face, that our lovers are in arms against you, and that
they have our prayers at least as much as our hearts.*
This was intelligible language ; we wished for no
more of it, and even shifted our quarters to another
house.

•* Be it as it may, we were at length in Franoe, and
in the rear of that Prussian army, which pushed forward
its brilliant successes, leaving us three or four marches
behind. And, whether their object was to turn us into
ridicule, because we had assured them that all the towns
would throw open their gates on our appearance, or to
rid themselves of our importunities, they charged ui
with the siege of Thionville. We made our approaches

80 THE BMI0RANT8

and, by a fantastical singularity, the marine corps found
itself precisely opposed to the national volunteers of
Brest. When they recognised each other, it is impos-
sible to describe the volley of invectives ancl insults that
was instantly exchanged.

" Thionville is, however, as it is known, one of the
strongest places, and we found the reduction of it im-
possible with our limited means, for we were in want of
every thing; and it absolutely required an important
negociation to obtain two 24-pounders from the Aus-
trians at Luxembourg. After a great deal of solicitation
and hesitation, the two pieces were at length brought in
triumph, and it was with this formidable train, that we
summoned the place, and fired at night, in pure waste of
powder, some hundreds of cannon shot. On my return
from emigration, having fallen by chance into company
with General de Wimphen, who commanded the fortress,
he asked me, ' what could have been our intention, or
the meaning of the jest we had thus attempted to play
off?' ' It was done, I believe,' said I, 'because reliance
was placed upon you.' ' But even had that been the
case,' said he, ' you still ought to have furnished me
with an excuse for surrendering ; you could not expect
that I should solicit you to attack me.' Every thing
was on a proportionate scale : the slightest sally spread
confusion through all our forces ; the most trifling cir-
cumstance was an event with us; the cause was obvious;
we were unacquainted with every thing, and accordingly,
setting courage aside, I do not scruple to believe that a
hundred picked men of the Imperisil guard would have
routed the whole of our army. Happily, our adversaries
were as ignorant as ourselves, all were pigmies then,
although in a very short time giants were found every
where.

" Meanwhile we were extremelv discontented with all
this, under our tents, and on our wretched straw ; but ik
la Fran^aise, we found relief in our gaiety ; our ill hu-
mour evaporated in puns and jests. All our principal
officers had nicknames, there was not one, even to our
Commander in Chief, the venerable Marshal de Broglie,
who escaped us, and this puts me in mind of a circum«

THE EMIOBATIOK. 81

itance, which gare rise to a nickname for one of his
lieutenants, which he never got rid of. Should any of
my comrades in the field ever read this, it may even
now excite a laugh.

** At a moment of a sally, which, as usual, made us
very uneasy, every one pressed forward. We had two
small pieces of cannon, which we had bought, and which,
for want of horses, were drawn by the officers of artillery
themselves." ** Well ! '* observed the Emperor, " I might
myself have been attached to these very pieces, and yet
what different combinations in our destinies and in those
of the world ! For it is incontestable that I have given
an impulse and direction to it, emanating solely from
myself. But go on."

*' Sire, our two small pieces were rolling along the
highway, when the general officer of the day arrived at
full gallop, and stopped with indignation at the sight
of our little cannon, as they were drawn towards the for-
tress, breech foremost. — ' How,* exclaimed he, * are these
really gentlemen, who draw their cannon in this manner
against the enemy ? And, if he were actually to present
himself, how could you contrive to fire upon him ? ' He
persisted in his blunder, refusing to comprehend what
the officers of artillery strove by every possible means
to explain ; that such was the mode of proceeding every
where, and that, unless he had some new invention to
communicate, there was no other mode to be adopted.
From that moment we dubbed him by a nickname, by
which be soon became universally known.

** But all this burlesque was soon exchanged for what
was serious in the extreme ; the scene shifted, as it were
by magic, and our misfortunes burst upon us in an in-
stant. Whether from treachery, weakness, political
interest, or sickness in his array, from the real superio-
rity offeree, or the mere dexterity of the French general,
the King of Prussia entered into secret negotiation with
him, suddenly faced about, and marching to the frontier,
evacuated the French territory. A most dreadful storm
now burst over our heads ; words are inadequate to ex-
press the scandalous treatment we experienced, as well
as the just indignution, which could not fail to animate

4»

d

B*2 THE EMIORATlOlf.

every generous heart against our allies, the Pnissiane
Our Princes degraded, disavowed, insulted, by them .;
our equipages, our most necessary effects, even our linen,
plundered ; our persons ill - used : and thus we were
basely driven and thrust beyond the frontiers by our
friends, our allies ! ! !

"For my part, sinking under the fatigue of too long
marches in the mud, and under torrents of rain ; bend-
ing under a musquet and a load of accoutrements, which
did harm to no one but to myself, I took advantage of
my privilege as a volunteer, to leave the ranks, and effect
my retreat as well as I could. I proceeded as occasion
served; I never sought the common halting place; I
took refuge in the nearest farm-yard, and whether it was
my own peculiar good fortune, or because the peasants
were in reality kind and not exasperated against us, I
passed the frontier without any unlucky accident. It
was not until some time afterwards that I was enabled
to form a correct estimate of the whole extent of the
danger to which I had exposed myself, when I read, in
the papers, that from fifteen to eighteen of us, stragglers
like mvself, and some of whom stood near me in the
ranks, had been seized, dragged to Paris, and executed
in public, in a kind of auto-da-fe, and, as it were, by
way of expiation.

" As soon as we were out of France, we received
notice to disband, but the intimation was superfluous,
for that measure was rendered absolutely indispensable
by our wants, and the privation of every necessary.
We dispersed, each taking his own way at random,
with despair and rage for our companions. We travelled
as fugitives, the greater part of the time on foot, and
some almost naked, over the scenes of our past splen-
dour and luxury ; happy when the doors were not shut
in our faces, when we did not receive a brutal repulse !
In a moment, we were officially driven from every quar-
ter ; we were prohibited from residing in, or from enter-
ing, all the neighbouring states ; we were compelled to
take refuge in distant countries, and to exhibit, through-
out Europe, the spectacle of our miseries, which ought
to have been a grand moral and political lesson to the
people, to the great, and to Kings.

THE EMIGRATION. 8S

*• The exploits of the French exacted, however, from
foreigners, a cruel expiation of the indignities with Arhich
they overwhelmed ns ; whilst, on our part, we experien-
ced a kind of consolation in seeing the honour of the
emigration take refuge in the army of Conde, which
displayed itself to public view, and inscribed itself in
history, as a model of loyalty, valour, and constancy.

" Such, Sire, is that too celebrated era, that fatal de-
termination, which, with respect to a great number, can
be considered only as the delusion of youth and inexpe-
rience. None, however, but themselves, possess the
right of reproaching them with the error. The senti-
ments by which they were actuated were so pure, so
natural, so generous, that they might even, were it ne«
cessary, derive honour from them ; and these dispositions,
I must say, belonged to the mass of which we consisted,
and more particularly to that crowd of country gentle-
men, who, sacrificing all and expecting nothing, without
fortune as well as without hope, displayed a devotion
truly heroic, because its only aim was the performance of
duties which they held to be sacred. In other respects,
our defect lay in our political education, which did not
teach us to distinguish our duties, and made us dedicate
to the Prince alone what belonged to the country at
large. Accordingly, in future times, when hostile pas-
sions shall be extinct, when no traces shall be left of
jarring interests or of party infatuation and fiiry, what
was doubtful with us will be positive and clear to others ;
what was excusable or even allowable in us, who were
situated between an ancient order of things that was on
the point of terminating, and a new one that was about
to commence, will be considered highly culpable in those
possessing established doctrines. Among them, the fol-
lowing will be held as articles of faith: — 1st. That the
greatest of all crimes is the introduction of a foreign
power into the heart of one's country. 2ndly. That the
sovereignty cannot be erratic, but that it is inseparable
from the territory, and remains attached to the mass of
the citizens. 3rdly. That the country cannot be trans-
ported abroad ; but that it is immutable and entire on
the sacred ipil which has given us birth, and which con-

f THE EMIGRATION.

cainf? the bones of our ancestors. Such are the gmud
maxims, and many others besides, which will remain the
offspring of our emigration ; such the great truths, which
will be collected from our calamities !"

" Very well !" exclaimed the Emperor, " very well !
This is what is called being free from prejudices ! These
are really philosophical views ! And it will be said of
you, that you were enabled to convert to your advantage
the lessons of time and adversity."

•* Sire, during our stay on board the Northumberland,
and the leisure hours of our passage, the English alluded
more than once to this delicate topic. Misled by the
war, which they had carried on with fury against us, as
well as by the maxims with which the interest of the
moment filled their journals, even in opposition to their
national doctrines, they conversed about the merits of
the emigration, and the virtues they had witnessed : and
condemned the nation for having resisted it. But when
the arguments became too complicated, or we were de-
sirous of putting a sudden stop to them, we gained our
point with a single word. We merely said to them :—

* Go back to the period of your own Revolution ; imagine
James II. threatening you from the opposite shore and
under French banners : although surrounded by faithful
subjects, what would you have done ? And if Louis XIV.
had brought him back to London at the head of 50,000
French, who should have afterwards maintained garrisons
in your country, what would have been your feelings ?* —

* Ah ! . . . But Ah ! . . . .' they exclaimed,

endeavouring to find out some difference, but not being
able to discover it, they laughed, and were silent." ** And
in fact," said the Emperor, ** there was not a word to be
said in reply."

He then began to review, with his accustomed rapidity
and talent, the different subjects I had noticed, and stop-
ped to reflect on the absurdity, the inconsistency, the
great mistake of our emigration, and the real injuries
that it had done to France, to the King, and to ourselves.
' You have established, and consecrated in political
France," he observed, " a separation similar to that which
the Catholics and Protestants introduced into religious

THB EMIGRATION. 85

Europe ; and to what calamities has it not given nse ! I
Had succeeded in destroying its results, but are they not
on the point of being revived ?" He next developed the
means which he had employed to annihilate that plague^
the precautions he had been forced to adopt, and the
effcicts which he had in view. How every thing that fell
from his tongue was changed in appearance I — how every
thing seemed magnified in my eyes in proportion as he
discussed the subject ! " And," he remarked, " a pecu-
liar singularity in my situation was that in the whole of
those transactions I held the helm myself constantly in
the midst of rocks. Every one, judging according to his
own standard, attributed to passion, to simple prejudice,
or to littleness, what in me, however, was but the con-
sequence of profound views, of grand conceptions, and
the most elevated state maxims. It might have been
said that I reigned only over pigmies with respect to
intellectual talent. I was comprehended by none. The
national party felt only jealousy and resentment at what
they saw me do in favour of the emigrants, and the latter,
on their part, were persuaded that I sought only to gain
lustre by their assistance. Poor creatures ! . . .

** I obtained, however, my object, in spite of reciprocal
infatuation and prejudice, and I had the satisfaction of
leaving every thing quiet in port, when I launched out to
sea in prosecution of my grand enterprises."

Having mentioned, since my return to Europe, these
expressions of Napoleon's to a great Officer of the Crown,
who had often the honour of conversing with him in
private (Le Comte de S . . . ), he related to me, in his
turn, a conversation precisely on the same subject. Its
coincidence with what has been just read is so very
striking as to induce me to insert it here. The Emperor
said to him one day : "What, think you, is my reason
for endeavouring to have about me the great names of
the ancient monarchy ?'* — " Perhaps, Sire, for the splen-
dour of your throne, and for the purpose of keeping up
certain appearances in the eyes of Europe." — " Ah !
That is just like you, with your pride and your preju-
dices of rank ! Well then, learn, that my victories and
Tiy power are much better recommendations for me in

86 THE EMIGRATION.

Europe than all your great names, and that my apparent
predilection for them does me a great deal of injury, and
renders me very unpopular at home. You attribute to
narrow views what arise from most extensive ones. 1
am engaged in renovating a society, a nation, and the
elements that I am obliged to employ are hostile to each
other. The nobility and the emigrants are but a point in
the mass, and that mass is inimical to them, and conti-
nues very much exasperated against them ; it hardly for-
gives me for ha\'ing recalled them. For my own part, I
considered it as a dutv : but if I suffer them to continue
as a body, they may one day be serviceable to foreign
powers, prove injurious to us, and subject themselves to
great dangers. My object, then, is to dissolve their
union, and to render them independent of each other.
If I place some of them about my person, in the different
branches of administration, and in the army, it is for the
purpose of consolidating them with the mass, and of
managing so as to reduce all classes into a whole ; for I
am mortal, and if I should happen to leave you before
that fusion is accomplished, you would soon see what
disasters would arise from these heterogeneous parts, and
the dreadful dangers of which certain persons might
become the victims ! Thus, then, Sir, my views are all
connected with humanity and elevated political conside-
rations, and, in no respect, with vain and silly preju-
dices."

When I observed to the person who related this anec-
dote, how little we were acquainted at the Tuileries with
Napoleon's real character, and the great and excellent
qualities of his soul and heart, he answered that, for his
own part, he had been personally more fortunate, and
that he would give me a proof of it, which he selected
out of ten : ** The Emperor shewed himself, one day, in
his Privy Council, very much incensed against General
La F . . . ., whom he attacked with great severity, and
whose opinions and principles, he said, were capable of
effecting the complete dissolution of a state : becoming
animated by degrees, he at length put himself into a
real passion. I was present as a member of the Council;
I had been reccntlv admitted, and was little accustomed

THR EMIGRATION. 87

to the Emperor's manners, and, although stopped by the
two members placed next to me, I undertook to speak in
defence of the accused, asserting that he had been ca-
lumniated to the Sovereign, and that he lived quietly on
his estate, with personal opinions which were productive
of no ill effect whatever. The Emperor, still in a passion,
resumed the charge for the purpose of pressing it with
vehemence ; but after five or six words, he stopped short,
and addressing himself to me, said : ' But he is your
friend, Sir, and you are right. I had forgotten that. —
Let us speak of something else.* * And why,' I asked,
' did you not make us acquainted with all this at the
time ?' — By a fatality which would seem to belong to
Napoleon's atmosphere, whether from prejudice or other-
wise, the impression on our minds was that it could only
be told to his intimate friends ; for whoever had said
much about it would only have passed for a clumsy
romancer of a courtier, who told not what he believed to
be true, but what he conceived best suited to obtain
favour and rewards."

Since I have mentioned this great Officer of the Crown,
who is no less distinguished by the graces of his mind
and the amenity of his manners than by his exalted cha-
racter, I shall notice one of his answers to Napoleon, re-
markable for its ingenious and delicate flattery. The
Emperor, at one of his levees, having been obliged to
wait some time for his appearance, attacked him on his
arrival, openly, in the presence of all. It happened to
be precisely at the time when five or six Kings (and
among others, those of Bavaria, Saxony, and Wurtem-
berg), were at Paris. ** Sire," replied the culprit, ** I
have, no doubt, a million of excuses to make to your
Majesty, but at this time, one is not at perfect liberty to
go through the streets as one pleases. I just now had
the misfortune to get into a crowd of kings, from which
I found it impossible to extricate myself sooner. This,
Sire, was the cause of my delay." Every one smiled,
and the Emperor contented himself with saying, in a
softened tone of voice: "Whatever, Sir, may be the
cause, take proper precautions for the future, and above
all, never make me wait again."

88

napoleon's sentimental journey. PUBLIC BPIR'

OF THE TIME. EVENTS OF THE IOtH OF AUGUST.

3rd. — The weather is somewhat improved ; the Em
peror attempted to take a walk in the garden. Genera
Bingham and the Colonel of the 53d requested to see the
Emperor, who kept them rather long. The appearance
of the Governor put us all to flight. General Bingham
disappeared, and, for our part, we went to the wood, for
the purpose of keeping away from the spot.

The Emperor, during his walk, conversed a great deal
ahout a journey which he took to Burgundy in the be-
ginning of the Revolution. This he calls his Sentimental
Journey to Nuitz. He supped there with his comrade
Gassendi, at that time captain in the same regiment, and
who was advantageously married to the daughter of a
physician of the place. The young traveller soon re-
marked the difference of political opinion between the
father and son-in-law ; Gassendi, the gentleman, was,
of course, an aristocrat, and the physician a flaming
patriot. The latter found in the strange guest a power-
ful auxiliary, and was so delighted with him that the
following day at dawn he paid him a visit of acknow-
ledgment and sympathy. The appearance of a young
officer of artillery, with good logical reasoning and a
ready tongue, was, observed the Emperor, a valuable
and rare accession to the place. It was easy for the
traveller to perceive that he made a favourable impres-
sion. It was Sunday, and hats were taken off to him
from one end of the street to the other. His triumph,
however, was not without a check. He went to sup at
the house of a Madame Maret or Muret, where another of

his comrades, V , seemed to be comfortably

established. Here the aristocracy of the canton were
accustomed to meet, although the mistress was but the
wife of a wine- merchant, but she had great property and
the most polished manners ; she was, said the Emperor,
the duchess of the place. All the gentlefolks of the
vicinity were to be found there. The young officer was
caught, as he remarked, in a real wasp- nest, and it was

SENTIMENTAL JOURNST. 89

necessary for him to fight his way out again. The con
test was unequal. In the very heat of the action, the
mayor was announced. ** I helieved him to he an assis-

m

tant sent to me hy Heaven in the critical moment, hut
he was the worst of all my opponents. I see this vil-
lanous fellow now hefore me in his fine Sunday clothes,
fat and hloated, in an ample scarlet coat ; he was a mise-
rable animal. I was happily extricated by the gene-
rosity of the mistress of the house, perhaps from a secret
sympathy of opinion. She unceasingly parried with her
wit the blows which were dealt at me ; and was a pro-
tecting shield on which the enemy's weapons struck in
vain. She guarded me from every kind of wound, and
I have always retained a pleasing recollection of the
services I received from her in that sort of skirmish.

" The same diversity of opinions," said the Emperor,
" was then to be met with in every part of France. In
the saloons, in the streets, on the highways, in the
taverns, every one was ready to take part in die contest,
and nothing was easier than for a person to form an
erroneous estimate of the influence of parties and opinions,
according to the local situation in which he was placed.
Thus a patriot might easily be deceived, when in the
saloons, or among an assembly of officers, where the
majority was decidedly against him ; but, the instant he
was in the street, or among the soldierSj^ he found him-
self in the midst of the entire nation. The sentiments
of the day succeeded even in making proselytes among
the officers themselves, particularly after the celebrated
oath to the Nation, the Law, and the King. Until that
time," continued the Emperor, '* had I received an order
to point my cannon against the people, I have no doubt,
that custom, prejudice, education, and the name of the
King, would have induced me to obey ; but, the national
oath once taken, this would have ceased, and I should
have acknowledged the nation only. My natural pro-
pensities thenceforth harmonized with ray duties, and
happily accorded with all the metaphysics of the As-
sembly. The patriotic officers, however, it must be
allowed, constituted but the smaller number ; but with
the soldiers, as a lever, they led the regiment and im-

.. j.^

9C THB 10th of august.

posed the law. The comrades of the opposite party and
the officers themselves, had recourse to us in every cri-
tical moment. I remember, for instance, having rescued
from the fiiry of the populace a brother officer, whose
crime consisted in singing from the windows of our
dining-room the celebrated ballad Richard ' O mon
Roi ! I had little notion then that that air would one
day be proscribed in the same manner on my account.
Just so, on the 10th of August, when I saw the palace
of the Tuileries stormed and the person of the King
seized, I was certainly very far from thinking that I
should replace him, and that that palace would be my
place of residence."

In dwelling upon the events of the 10th of August, he
said : ** \ was, during that horrible epoch, at Paris, in
lodgings in the Rue du Mail, Place des Victoires, On
hearing the sound of the tocsin, and the news of the
assault upon the Tuileries, I ran to the Carousel, to the
house of Fauvelet, the brother of Bourrienne, who kept
an upholsterer's shop. He had been my comrade at the
military school of firienne. It was from that house,
which, by the by, I was never afterwards able to find, in
consequence of the great alterations made there, that I
had a good view of all the circumstances of the attack.
Before I reached the Carousel, I had been met by a
group of hideous-looking men, carrying a head at the
end of a pike. Seeing me decently dressed, with the
look of a gentleman, they called upon me to shout Vive
la Nation ! which, as it may be easily believed, I did
without hesitation.

" The palace was attacked by the vilest rabble. The
King had unquestionably for his defence as many troops
as the Convention afterwards had on the 13th Vende-
miaire, and the enemies of the latter were much better
disciplined and more formidable. The greater part of the
national guard shewed themselves favourable to the
King ; this justice is due to them."

Here the Grand Marshal observed ** that he actually
belonged to one of the battalions which manifested the
most determined devotion. He was several times on the
point of being massacred as he returned alone to hip

TRK 10th of august. 9,

residence." We remarked, on our part, that in genera."
the national guard of Paris had constantly displayeu ^he
virtues of its class; the love of order, attachment to
authority, the dread of plunder, and the detestation oi
anarchy ; and that also was the Emperor's opinion.

*' The palace being forced, and the King having re-
paired to the Assembly," continued he, **I ventured to
penetrate into the garden. Never since has any of my
fields of battle given me the idea of so many dead bodies,
as I was impressed with by the heaps of the Swiss ;
whether the smallness of the place seemed to increase
the number, or because it was the result of the first im-
pression I ever received of that kind. I saw well dresaed
women commit the grossest indecencies on the dead
bodies of the Swiss. I went through all the coffee-
houses in the neighbourhood of the Assembly ; the
irritation was every where extreme ; fury was in ever}*
heart and shewed itself in every countenance, although
the persons thus enflamed were far from belonging to
the dass of the populace ; and all these places must ne-
cessarily have been frequented daily by the same visitors ;
for, although I had nothing particular in my dress, or
perhaps it was because my countenance was more calm,
it was easy for me to perceive that I excited many hos-
tile and distrustful looks, as some one who was unknown
or suspected."

MASKED BALLS. MADAMS DE MEGRIGNY. — PIEDMONT

AND THE PIBDMONTESB. CANALS OP FRANCE.

FLANS RESPECTING PARIS. VERSAILLES. FONTAINE-

BLEAU, &C.

4th. — ^The weather was much improved. The Empe-
ror ordered his calash, and walked a good way until it
took him up.

The conversation turned upon masked balls, which
the Emperor was peculiarly fond of and frequently
ordered. He was then always sure of a certain meeting
which never failed to take place. He was, he said, re-
gularly accosted every year by the same mask, who
reminded him of old intimacies, and ardently entreated
to be received and admitted at Court. The mask was a

92 MASKBD BALLS.

most amiable, kind, and beautiful woman, to whsm
many persons were certainly much indebted. The Em-
peror, who continued to love her, always answered ;—
** I do not deny that you are charming, but reflect a little
upon your situation; be your own judge and decide.
You have two or three husbands, and children by several
of your lovers. It would have been thought a happiness
to have shared in the first fault ; the second would have
caused pain, but still it might be pardoned; but the
sequel — and then, and then! . . . Fancy yourself the
Emperor and judge ; what would you do in my place, I
who am bound to revive and maintain a certain decorum."
The beautiful suitor either did not reply, or said : — ** At
least do not deprive me of hope \' and deferred her
claims of happiness to the following year. And each of
us," said the Emperor, "was punctual at the new
meeting."

The Emperor took great pleasure in getting himself
insulted at these balls. He laughed heartily at the house
of Cambacer^s, one day, on being told by a Madame de
St. D . . . ., *' that there were people at the ball who
ought to be turned out, and that they certainly could not
have got admittance without stolen tickets."

Another time, he forced the tender and timid Madame
de Megrigny to rise and retire in anger, and with tears
in her eyes, complaining that the freedom, allowed at a
masked ball, had, in her case, been sadly abused. The
Emperor had just put her in mind of a very remarkable
favour, which he had formerly granted to her, and added
that every one supposed she had paid for it by granting
him the lord's right. ** But there was," said the Em-
peror, " nobody but myself who could say so, without
insulting her ; because, although such was the report, I
was certain of its falsehood." The following is an
account of the circumstance.

When the Emperor was on his way to be crowned at
Milan, he slept at Troyes. The authorities were pre-
sented to him ; and with them was a young lady, on the
point of being married, with a petition, intreating his
protection and assistance. As the Emperor was, besides,
desirous of doing something which might produce a

KINGS OF PIEDMONT. 93

good effect, and prove agreeable to the countr}', the cir-
cumstance appeared favourable, and he took advantage ol
it with all imaginable grace. The young lady (Madame
de Megrigny) belonged to the first families of this pro-
vince, but had been completely ruined by the emigration.
She had scarcely returned to the miserable abode of her
parents, when a page arrived with the Emperor's decree,
which put them in possession of an income of 30,000
francs or more. The effect of such a proceeding may be
well imagined. However, as the young lady was very
charming and perfectly handsome, it was decided that
her fascinations had some share in his gallantry, although
he left the town a few hours afterwards, and never
thought more of the thing ; but the general opinion was
not a jot altered on that account. It is well known how
stories are formed ; and as she married one of his equer-
ries, and had consequently come to Court, all this had
been so well mingled together that, when she was after-
wards appointed sub-governess to the King of Rome, the
choice shocked, for a moment, the austere Madame de
Montesquiou, who suspected, said the Emperor, that it
was but a mere arrangement.

The Emperor said that he renewed at Turin, in the
person of Madame de Lascaris, the gracious gallantry
exercised at Troyes ; and that, in both instances, he had
reason to be gratified with the results of his liberality.
The two families gave proofs of attachment and gra-
titude.

We enquired what might have been the sentiments oi
Piedmont with regard to himself. He had, he said, a
particular affection for that province. M. de Saint-
Marsan, on whose fidelity he relied to the end, had
assured him, at the period of our reverses, that the
country would shew itself one of his best provinces.

•* In fact," continued the Emperor, " the Piedmontese
do not like to be a small state ; their King was a real
feudal lord, whom it was necessary to court, or to dread.
He had more power and authority than I, who, as Em-
peror of the French, was but a supreme magistrate,
bound to sec the laws executed, and unable to dispense
nith them Had 1 it in my power to prevent the arrest

94 TUB MBDITBRRANBAN AND BLACK 8Ea8.

^f a courtier for debt ? Could I have put a stop to th(
regular action of the laws, no matter upon whom they
operated ?**

During the conversation at dinner, the Emperor in-
quired whether the quantity of river water flowing into the
Mediterranean and the Black Sea had been calculated.
This led him to express a wish that a calculation of the
fluvial water of Furope should be made, and that the
proportion contributed by each valley and each stream,
should be ascertained. He regretted much that he had
not proposed this series of scientific questions. This
was, he observed, his grand system. Did any useful,
curious or interesting idea suggest itself to him : *' I
proposed, at my levees, or in my familiar communica-
tions, analogous questions to my Members of the Institute,
with orders to resolve them. The solution became the
subject of public inquiry ; it was analyzed, contested,
adopted or rejected ; and there is nothing which cannot
be accomplished ip this way. It is the grand lever of
improvement for a great nation, possessing a great deal
of intelligence, and a great deal of knowledge."

The Emperor also observed on this subject, that
geography had never been so successfully cultivated as
at present, and that his expeditions had contributed
somewhat to its improvement. He afterwards noticed
the canals, which he had caused to be made in France,
and particularly mentioned that from Strasburg to Lyons,
in which, he hoped sufficient progress had been made to
induce others to complete it. He thought that, out of
thirty millions, twenty - four must have been already
expended.

'' Communications are now established in the interior
from Bordeaux to Lvons and Paris. 1 had constructed a
great number of canals, and projected a great many
more." One of us having observed that a proposal for
the construction of a verv useful canal had been sub-
mitted to the Emperor, but that measures had been taken
to deceive him, for the purpose of preventing his accep-
tance of the offer : ** Without doubt," said the Emperor.
" the plan must have appeared advantageous only on
paper ; but I suppose it would have been necessary to

PLAN FOR A CANAL. 95

advance money, which was drawn from me with difli-
cnlty." — No, Sire, the refusal was but the effect of an
intrigne. Your Majesty was deceived." — " It was im-
possible with respect to such a subject. You speak
without sufficient information." — " But I am confident
of it. I was acquainted with the plan, the offers and the
subscribers ; my relations had put down their names for
considerable sums. The object was the union of the
Meuse with the Mame. The length of the canal would
have been less than seven leagues." — ** But you do not
tell us all ; it was, perhaps, required that I should grant
immense national forests in the environs, which I should
not have agreed to." — " No, Sire, the whole was an
intrigue of your Board of Bridges and Roads." — ** But
even then, it was necessary for them to allege some rea-
sons, some appearance of public interest. What reasons
did they assign }** — " Sire, that the profits would have
been too considerable." — ** But in that case the plan
ought to have been submitted to me in person, and I
would have carried it into execution. I repeat, that you
are not justified by the facts ; you are speaking now to a
man upon the very subject which constantly engaged his
attention. Tlie Board of Bndges and Roads were, on
their part, never better pleased than when they were
employed. There never was an individual who proposed
the construction of a bridge that was not taken at his
word. If he asked for a toll for twenty-five years, I was
disposed to grant him one for thirty. If it cost me
nothing, it was a matter of indifference whether it would
prove useful. It was still a capital with which I en-
riched the soil. Instead of rejecting proposals for canals,
I eagerly courted them. But, my dear Sir, there are no
two things that resemble each other so little as the con-
versation of a saloon, and the consideration of an Admi-
nistrative Council. The projector is always right in a
saloon ; his projects would be magnificent and infallible,
if he were listened to, and if he can, by some little
contrivance, but connect the refusal under which be
suffers with some bottles of wine, with some intrigue
carried on by a wife or a mistress, the romance is com-
plete, and diat is what you probably heard. But an

25D PLAN FOR A CANAL.

Administrative Council is not to be managed so, becauso
it comes to no decision but on facts and accurate mea-
surement. What is the canal you mentioned ? I cannot
be unacquainted with it." — "Sire, from the Meuse to the
Marne, a distance of seven leagues only." — " Very well !
mv dear Sir, it is from the Meuse to the Aisne vou mean,
and it would have been less than seven leagues. I shall
soon recollect all about it ; there is, however, but one
little difficulty to overcome, and that is that at this very
instant it is dorfbtful whether the project be practicable.
There, as in other places, Hippocrates says yes, and Galen
says no, Tarbe maintained that it was impossible, and
Jenied that there was a sufficiency of water at the point
\irhere it was to commence. I repeat,' that you are
speaking to him, who, of all others was the most atten-
tive to these objects, more especially in the environs of
Paris. It was the constant subject of my thoughts to
render Paris the real capital of Europe. I sometimes
wished it, for mstance, to become a city with a population
of two, three, or four millions, in short, something fabu-
lous, colossal, unexampled until our days, and with pub-
lic estabhshments suitable to its population."

Some one having then observed that, if Heaven had
allowed the Emperor to reign sixty years, as it had
Louis XIV., he would have left many grand monuments :
** Had Heaven but granted me twenty years, and a little
more leisure," resumed the Emperor with vivacity, "an-
cient Paris would have been sought for in vain ; not a
trace of it would have been left, and I should have
changed the face of France. Archimedes promised to
do any thing, provided he had a resting place for his
lever ; I should have done as much, wherever I could
have found a point of support for my energy, my perse-
verance, and my budgets ; a world might be created with
budgets. I should have displayed the difference between
a constitutional Emperor and a King of France. The
Kings of France have never possessed any administrative
or municipal institution. They have merely shown
themselves great Lords who were ruined by their men of
business.

** The nation itself has nothing in its character and
•ts tastes but what is transitory and perishable. Every

1IIFFICULTIE8 IN MAKING IMPROVBMKNT8. 97

thing is done for the gratification of the moment and of

caprice, nothing for daration That is our motto,

and it is exemplified by our manners in France. Every
one passes his life in doing and undoing ; nothing is ever
left behind. Is it not unbecoming that Paris should not
possess even a French theatre, or an Opera house, in any
respect worthy of its high claims ?

" I have often set myself against the feasts which the
city of Paris wished to give me. They consisted of din-
ners, balls, artificial fire- works, at an expense of four, six,
or eight hundred thousand francs ; the preparations for
which obstructed the public for several days, and which
afterwards cost as much for their removed as they had
for their construction. I proved that, with these idle
expenses, they might have erected lasting and magnifi-
cent monuments.

** One must have gone through as much as I have, in
order to be acquainted with all the difficulty of doing
good. If the business related to chimneys, partitions,
and furniture for some individuals in the imperial palaces,
the work was quickly accomplished ; but if it was ne-
cessary to lengthen the garden of the Tuileries, to render
some quarters wholesome, to cleanse some sewers, and to
perform a task l)eneficial to the public, in which particular
persons had no direct interest, I found it requisite to
exert all the energy of my character, to write six, ten
letters a day, and to get into a downright passion. It
was in this way that I laid out as much as thirty millionb
in sewers, for ^hich no body will ever thank me. I
pulled down a property worth seventeen millions in
houses in front of the Tuileries, for the purpose of form-
ing the Carousel, and throwing open the Louvre. What
I did is immense ; what I had resolved to do and what I
had projected was much more so."

A person then remarked that the Emperor's labours
had not been limited either to Paris or to France, but
that almost every city in Italy exhibited traces of his
creative powers. Wherever one travelled, at the foot as
well as on the top of the Alps, in the sands of Holland,
on the banks of the Rhine, Napoleon, always Napoleon*
was to be seen.

Vol. III.— 5

^

98 SFLUNDOUK OF LOUIS XI7.

Ii.' consequence of this remark, he observed that hi
had determined on draining the Pontine marshes.
" CiEsar," he said, *' was about to undertake it, when he
perished." Then reverting to France ; *' llie kings, he
said, had too many country-houses and useless objects.
Any impartial historian will be justified in blaming
Ijouis XIV. for his -excessive and idle expenditure at
Versailles, involved as he was in wars, taxes, and cala-
mities. He exhausted himself for the purpose of forming
after al but a bastard town." The Emperor then analy-
zed the advantages of an administrative city, that is to
say, calculated for the union of the different branches
of administration, and they seemed to him truly proble-
TDutical.

Ihe Emperor did not conceal his opinion that the
capital was not, at times, a fit residence for the sovereign;
but, in another point of view, Versailles was not suitable
to the great, the ministers, and the courtiers. Louis XIV.
therefore committed a blunder, if he undertook to build
Versailles solely for the residence of the kings, when
Saint Germain was, in every respect, ready for the pur-
pose ; Nature seemed to have made it expressly for the
real residence of the kings of France. Napoleon him-
self had committed faults in that respect : for it was not
right he said to praise himself for all that had been done
in this way He ought, for instance, to have given up
Compiegne, and he regretted having celebrated his mar-
riage there instead of selecting Fontainebleau. ** That,"
said he, referring to Fontainebleau, " is tiie real abode of
kings, the house of ages ; it is not, perhaps, strictly
speaking, an architectural palace ; but it is, unquestion-
ably, well calculated and perfectly suitable. It was
certainly the most commodious and the most happily
situated in Europe for a sovereign."

He then took a review of the capitals he had visited,
of the palaces he had seen, and claimed a decided superi-
ority in our favour. Fontainebleau, he further added,
was also, at the same time, the most suitable political and
military situation. The Emperor reproached himself
with the sums he had expended on V^ersailles, but yet
it was, he said, necessary to prevent it fr >m falling into

nafolkon's expknditu&b. 9%

ruin. The demolition of a considerable part of that
palace was a subject of consideration, during the Revolu-
tion ; it was proposed to take away the centre, and thus
to separate the two wings. " It would have been of
essential service to me," he observed ; ** for nothing is
so expensive or so truly useless as this multitude of pala-
ces : and if, nevertheless, I undertook that of the King
of Rome, it was because I had viewa peculiar to myself ;
and besides, in reality, I never thought of doing more
than preparing the ground. There I should have
stopped.*

" My errors, in disbursements of this kind, could not,
after all, be very great. They were, thanks to my bud-
gets, observed and necessarily corrected every year, and
could never exceed a small part of the expense occasioned
by the original fault."

The Emperor assured us that he experienced every
possible diflficulty in making his system of budgets intel-
ligible, and in carr}nng it into execution. Whenever a
plan to the amount of thirty millions, which suited me,
was proposed ; Granted, was my answer, but to be com-
pleted in twenty years, that is to say, at a million and a
half francs a- year. So far, all went on very smoothly ;
but what am I to get, I added, for my first year } For if
my expenditure is to be divided into parts, it is, however,
my determination to have the result, the work, as far as
it goes, entire and complete. In this manner, I wished
at first for a recess, an apartment, no matter what, but
something perfect, for my million and a half of francs.

♦ All the world knows, or ought to have known (if, by a fa-
tality, altogether peculiar to Napoleon, the greater part of his
most commendable actions had not been, at the time, stifled
under the weight of malignity and libels), the history of tha*
miserable hut, enclosed within the circuit of the palace of tlie
King of Rome ; the proprietor of which demanded successively
ten, twenty, fifty, and one hundred times its real value. When he
had reached that ridiculous price, the Emperor, whose directions
on that point were taken, suddenly commanded a stop to be put to
the bargain, exclaiming that that wretched stall, amidst all the
magnificence of the palace of the King of Rome, would be, after
all, the vineyard of Naboth, the most decisive testimony of bis
justice, the noblest trophy of his reiy;n.

^

loo FONTAINBBLBAU.

The architects seemed resolved not to comprehend m^
meaning ; it narrowed their exi)ansive views and thei;
grand effects. They would, at once, have willingK
erected a whole fa9ade, which must have remained for h
long time useless, and thus involved me in immense dis
hursements, which, if interrupted, would have swallowec
up every thing.

" It was in this manner, which was peculiar to myself,
and in spite of so many political and military obstacles
that I executed so many undertakings. 1 had collected
furniture belonging to the Crown, to the amount of fortv
millions, and plate worth at least, four millions. Ho\^
many palaces have I not repaired } Perhaps, too many
I return to that subject. Thanks to my mode of acting.
I was enabled to inhabit Fontainebleau within one vea.
after the repairs were begun, and it cost me no more
than 5 or 600,000 francs. If 1 have since exi)ended six
millions on it, that was done in six years. It would have
cost me much more in the course of time. My principal
object was to make the expense light and imperceptible,
and to give durability to the work.

'* During my visits to Fontainebleau," said the Empe-
ror, *'from 12 to 1500 persons were invited and lodged,
with every convenience; upwards of 3000 might be
entertained at dinner, and this cost the Sovereign very
little, in consequence of the admirable order and regu-
larity established by Duroc. More than twenty or five-
and - twenty Princes, Dignitaries, or Ministers, were
obliged to keep their households there.

** 1 disapproved the building of Versailles ; but in my
ideas respecting Paris, and they were occasionally gigan-
tic, I thought of making it useful and of converting it,
in the course of time, into a kind of fauxbourg, an adja-
cent site, a point of view from the grand capital ; and,
for the purpose of more effectually appropriating it to
that end, I had conceived a plan, of which I had a de-
scrintion sketched out.

" It was my intention to expel from its beautiful groves
those nymphs, the productions of a wretched taste, and
those ornaments d, la Turcaret, and to replace them bv
panoramas, in masonry, of all the capitaJ* into which w^

PK0F08BD ALTERATION AT VKRSAILLK8. 101

had entered victorious, and of all the celebrated battles^
which had shed lustre on our arms. It would have been
a collection of so many eternal monuments of our
triumphs and our national glory, placed at the gate of
the capital of Europe, which necessarily could not fail
if being visited by the rest of the world." Here lie
suddenly left off, and began reading Le Distrait, but he
almost instantly laid it aside, whether from the agitation
of his own thoughts, or from a nervous cougn, with
vhich he had, for a short time, been often affected aftei
dinner. He certainly gets considerably worse, and hit
health is altogether decUning.

PLAN OP A HISTORY OF EUROPE. SBLIM III.— FORCES

OF A TURKISH SULTArf. THE MAMELUKES. ON Til*

REGENCr

5th. — The Emperor did not go out until after five
o'clock. He was in pain, and had taken a bath, where
he remained too long, in consequence of the arrival
of Sir H. Lowe, as he would not leave it until the
Governor was gone.

The Emperor had been reading, while in the bath,
the Ottoman History, m two volumes. He had con-
ceived the idea, and regretted that he had been unable to
execute it, of having all the histories of Europe, from
the time of Louis XIV., composed from the docu-
ments belonging to our office for Foreign Affairs, where
the regular official reports of all the ambassadors are
deposited.

•* My reign,*' he observed, ** would have been a
perfect epoch for that object. The superiority of
France, its independence, and regeneration, enabled the
then government to publish such matters without incon-
venience. It would have been 4ike publishing ancient
history. Nothing could have been more valuable."

He next adverted to Sultan Selim HL, to whom, he
said, he once wrote : ** Sultan, come forth from thy
seraglio ; place thyself at the head of thy troops, and
renew the glorious davs of thy monarchy."

" Selim, the Louis XVL of the Turks," said the Em-
peror, " who was very much attached and very favour*

j<iS

102 THE IlKGENCY OP FRANCK.

tble to us, contented himself with answering-, that th€
advice would have been excellent for the first Prince<^ ol
his dynasty ; but that the manners of those times were
very different ; and that such a conduct would, at present,
be unseasonable, and altogether useless.

The Emperor added, however, that nobody knew how
to calculate, with certainty, the energy of the sudden
burst, which might be produced by a Sultan of Con-
stantinople, who was capable of placing himself at the
head of his people, of infusing new spirit into them, and
of exciting that fanatical multitude to action. At a later
period, he observed, that, for his own part, if he had
been able to unite the Mamelukes with his French, he
should have considered himself the master of the world.
** With that chosen handful, and the rabble," he added,
with a smile,** recruited on the spot, to be expended in
the hour of need, I know nothing that could have resist eri
me. Algiers trembled at it.

** * But should your Sultan,' said, one day, the Dey
of Algiers to the French Consul, ' ever take it into his
head to pay us a visit, what safety could we hope for }
For he has defeated the Mamelukes.' The Mamelukes,"
observed the Emperor, '* were, in fact, objects of vene-
ration and terror throughout the East ; they were looked
upon as invincible until our time."

The Emperor, while waiting for dinner in the midst of
us, opened a book, which lay at his side on the couch ; it
was the Regency. He stigmatized it as one of the most
abominable eras of our annals : and was vexed that it
had been described with the levity of the age, and not
with the severity of history. It had been strewed with
the flowers of fashionable life, and set off with the
colouring of the Graces, instead of having been treated
with rigorous justice. The Regency, he observed, had
been, in reality, the reign of the depravity of the heart,
of the libertinism of the mind, and of the most radical
immorality of every species. It was such, he said, that
he believed all the horrors and abominations with which
the manners of the Regent were reproached in the bosom
of his own family ; while he did not give credit to the
stories told of Louis XV, , who, although plunged in th?

THK REOKNCT OK FRANX'B. ^ *K

'cnlest and most frightful debauchery, afforded, however
ao grounds to justify his belief in such shocking and
snonstrous indulgencies ; and he vindicated him very
satisfactorily from certain imputations, which would have
^riously affected the person of one of his (Napoleon's)
former aides-de-camp. He considered the epoch of liie
Regent to have been the overthrow of every kind of pro-
perty, the destruction of public morals. Nothing had
been held sacred either in manners or in principles. The
Regent was personally overwhelmed with infamy. In
the affur of the legitimate Princes, he had exhibited the
most abject baseness, and committed a great abuse of
authority. The King alone could authorize such a deci-
sion, and he, the Regent, had felt pleasure in gratuitously
dishonouring himself in the person of his wife, the
natural daughter of Louis XIV., whom he had found it
nis interest, however, to marry, while that King was on
the throne.

6th. — As we wished to try the tent, which was just
finished, the table was laid there, and we invited the
English officers, who had superintended the work, to
breakfast with us.

The Emperor sent for me to his apartment; he
dressed himself, and, when he went out, I accompanied
him to the bottom of the wood, where we walked for
some time. He entered into the discussion of some
important subjects.

The Emperor returned to the calash for the purpose
of ordering it to be in readiness, and we resumed our
walk, until it took us up. On our return, the Emperor
visited the tent, and said a few words, expressive of his
satisfaction to the officer and seamen who were employed
in putting the last hand to it.

CAMPAIGNS OF ITALY, &C. EPOCH OP 1815, &C.

OUSTAVUS III. GUSTAVUS IV. BERNAEOTTB. PAUL I.

7th. — After breakfasting in the tent, the Emperor
took a fancy to review some chapters of the Campaigns
in Italy : he sent for my son, whose foot was at length
mending, and whose eyes were much better. He finished
the chapters of Pavia and Leghorn. He afterwards

;-J

104 OU8TAVU8 III. & IV.

walked towards the bottom of the wood, having ordered
the carriage to follow. On the way, the Emperor said
that he considered the Campaigns of Italy and Egypt as
completely finished, and in a fit state to be given to the
public, and it would, no doubt, he remarked, be a very
agreeable present to the French and Italians ; it was the
record of their glory and their rights. He did not think,
however, that he ought to put his name to it ; and he
repeated that the different epochs of his memoirs would
perpetuate those of his faithful companions.

On the arrival of the calash, the conversation, con-
tinuing on the same subject, he was earnestly pressed to
finish 1815; and its importance, interest, and results,
were warmly canvassed. *' Very well !" said he, with a
smile, ** I must give myself up to it entirely ; it is a
])leasure to be encouraged ; but it is also requisite to go
to work with a proper temper. We are surfeited here
with disgust and trickery ; we seem to be envied the air
we breathe."

He returned to his apartment, and I followed him,
when a conversation peculiarly interesting and remark*
able took place. It related to Gustavus III., to Sweden,
to Russia, to Gustavus IV., to Bernadotte, to Paul I., &c.

I have said that, at Aix-la-Chapelle, Gustavus III.
ived among us as a private individual under the name of
Count de Haga. He constituted the charm of society,
by the vivacity of his wit and the interest he imparted
to his conversation. I had heard from his own mouth
his famous Revolution of 1772, and I was in the happiest
situation to obtain a thorough knowledge of that epoch
of the history of Sweden. I was, at the same time, very
well acquainted with a Baron de Sprengporten, who,
after having displayed great zeal for Gustavus, bad the
misfortune to remove to Russia, and to return at the
head of foreigners to fight against his country. The
consequence was that sentence of death had been passed
upon him in Sweden. He was also at Aix-la-Chapelle
at the moment, and had banished himself from it, out
of courtesy, he said, on the arrival of Gustavus. He
had not, however, removed farther off than half a league,
80 that all I heard the King say in the evening was

n

OUSTAVUS IV. '05

controverted, modified, or confirmed for me the next
morning at breakfast by the Baron. Ht, had enjoyeu a
very considerable share of that Prince's confidence, and
he communicated the most numerous and minute par-
ticulars, as positive facts, respecting the romance of the
birth of Gustavus IV., who had been represented as
altogether unconnected by blood with Gustavus IJI.,
according to his full knowledge and his own desire.

The Emperor observed that this same Sprengporten
had been actually sent to him as envoy by Paul, at the
time of his Consulate. With respect to Gustavus IV..
he said that that Prince had, on his appearance in the
world, announced himself as a hero, and had terminated
his career merely as a madman, and that he had distin-
guished himself in his early days by some very remark-
able traits. While yet a boy, he had insulted Catharine
by the refusal of her grand - daughter, at the moment
even when that great Express seated on her throne,
and surrounded by her Court, waited only for him to
celebrate the marriage ceremony.

At a later period, he had insulted Alexander, in no
less marked a manner, by refusing, after Paul's catas-
trophe, to suffer one of the new Emperor's officers to
enter his dominions, and by answering, to the official
complaints addressed to him on this subject, that Alex-
ander ought not to be displeased that he, Gustavus,
who still mourned the assassination of his father, should
shut the entrance of his States against one of those,
accused by the public voice of having immolated his
(Alexander's).

" On my accession to the sovereignty,** said the Em-
peror, *' he declared himself my great antagonist ; it
might have been supposed that nothing short of renewing
the exploits of the great Gustavus Adolphus would have
satisfied him. He ran over the whole of Germany, for
the purpose of stirring up enemies against me. At the
time of the catastrophe of the Duke d'Enghien, he swore
to avenge it in person ; and at a later period, he inso-
lently sent back the black eagle to the King of Prussia,
because the latter had accepted my legion of honour.

•' His fatal moment at length arrived ; a conspirac\ ,

5*

d

?06 QUSTAVUS IV,

of no common kind, tore him from the throne and
banished him from his country. The unanimity evinced
against him is, no doubt, a proof of the blunders which
he had committed. I am ready to admit that he was
inexcusable and even mad, but it is, notwithstanding,
extraordinary and unexampled that, in that crisis, not a
single sword was drawn in his defence, whether from
affection, from gratitude, from virtuous feeling, or even
from stupidity, if you please ; and truly, it is a circum-
stance which does little honour to the atmosphere o2
Kings.'*

This Prince, tossed about and deceived by the English,
who wished to make him their instrument, and repulsed
by his relatives, seemed determined to renounce the world,
and, as if he had felt his existence disgraced by his con-
tempt of mankind and his disffust at things, he volunta-
rily lost himself altogether in the crowd.

The Emperor said that, after the battle of Leipsic, he
had been informed on the part of Gustavus, that he had
no doubt been his enemy a long time ; but that, for a
long time, he (Napoleon) was of all others the sovereign
of whom he had the least to complain, and that, for a long
time also, his only sentiments with regard to him were
those of admiration and sympathy ; that his actual mis-
fortunes permitted him to express his feelings without
restraint ; that he offered to be his Aide-de-camp, and re-
quested an asylum in France.* ** I was affected," ob-
served the Emperor; *' but I soon reflected that if 1
received him, ray dignity would be pledged to make
exertions in his favour. Besides, I no longer ruled the
world, and then common minds would not fail to discover

♦ It is right to remark that Colonel Gustafson (Gustavus IV.)
has declared this statement to be erroneous. But, from his letter
itself, one would be induced to think that the error proceeds solely
from misinterpretation of his real words : now every one knows how
easy, how common such inaccuracies are in regard to circumstances
transmitted through several intermediate persons. Fearful that the
misunderstanding might originate with myself, which is possible
enough, I should not have hesitated a moment to charge myself
with the error ; but every reader must judge that the length ot
Napoleon's conversation and the development of his ideas on this
subject, could not leave ne in any doubt.

BBRNADOTTV. 107

n the interest I took for him, an impotent hatred against
Bemadotte ; finally, Gnstavos had heen dethroned hy the
voice of the people, and it was the Toice of the peoplt
by which I had heen elevated. In taking np his cau.«e,
I should have been guilty of inconsistency in my own
conduct, and have acted upon discordant principles. In
short, I dreaded lest I should render affairs more com-
plicated than they were, and silenced my feelings of gene-
rosity. I caused him to be answered that I appreciated
what he offered me, and that I was sensible of it, but
that the political interest of France did not allow me
to indulge in my private feelings, and that it even impos-
ed upon me the painful task of refusing, for the moD*ent,
the asylum which he asked ; that he would, however,
greatly deceive himself, if he supposed me to entertain
any other sentiments than those of extreme good will and
sincere wishes for his happiness, &c.

** Some time after the expulsion of Gustavus, while
the succession to the Crown was vacant, the Swedes, de-
sirous of recommending themselves to me and securing
the protection of France, asked me to give them a King.
My attention was, for an instant, turned to the Viceroy ;
but it would have been necessary for him to change his
religion, which I deemed beneath my dignity and that of
all fhose who belonged to me. Besides, I did not think
vhe political result sufficiently important to excuse an
action so contrary to our manners. I attached, however,
too much value to the idea of seeing the throne of
Sweden in possession of a Frenchman. It was, in my
situation, a puerile sentiment. The r^l King, according
to my political system and the true interests of France,
would have been the King of Denmark, because I should
then have governed Sweden by the influence of my sim-
ple contact with the Danish provinces. Bemadotte was
elected, and he was indebted for his elevation to his wife,
the sister-in-law of my brother Joseph, who then reigned
at Madrid.

" Bemadotte, affecting great dependence on me, came
to ask my approbation, protesting, with too visible an
anxiety, that he would not accept the Crown, unless it
was agreeable to me,

•* I, the elected Monarch of the people, had to answei

108 BEKNADOTTB.

that I could not set myself against the elections of other
nations. It was what I told Bernadotte, whose whole
attitude betrayed the anxiety excited by the expectation
of my answer. I added that he had only to take advan-
tage of the good- will of which he had been the object ;
that I wished to be considered as having had no weight
in his election, but that it had my approbation and my
best wishes. I felt, however, shall I say it, a secret in-
stinct, which made the thing disagreeable and painful.
Bernadotte was, in fact, the serpent which I nourished
in my bosom ; he had scarcely left us before he attached
himself to the system of our enemies, and we were
obliged to watch and dread him. At a later period, he
was one of the great active causes of our calamities ; it
was he who gave to our enemies the key of our political
system and communicated the tactics of our armies ; it
was he who pointed out to them the way to the sacred
soil ! In vain would he excuse himself by saying that,
in accepting the Crown of Sweden, he was thenceforth
bound to be a Swede only ; pitiful excuse, valid only with
those of the populace and the vulgar that are ambitious I
In taking a wife, a man does not renounce his mother,
still less is he bound to transfix her bosom and tear out
her entrails. It is said that he afterwards repeniied, that
is to say, when it was no longer time, and when the
mischief was done. The fact is that, in finding himself
once more among us, he perceived that opinion exacted
justice of him; he felt himself struck with death. Then
the film fell from his eves ; for it is not known to what
dreams his presumption and his vanity might have incited
him in his blindness.

*' At the end of this and many other things besides, I
presumed to observe to him, as a very fantastical and
extraordinary matter of chance, that Bernadotte, the
soldier, elevated to a Crown, for which Protestantism was
a necessary qualification, was actually born a Protestant,
and that his son, destined, on that account, to reign over
the Scandinavians, presented himself in the midst of
them precisely with the national name of Oscar, ** My
dear Las Cases " replied the Emperor, ** it is because
that chance, so often citeo, of which the ancients made a

T B BMFXBOn PAUL. 109

deity, which astonishes us every day and strikes us every
instant, does not, after all, appear so singular, so capri-
cigus, so extraordinary, but in consequence of our igno-
rance of the secret and altogether natural causes, by which
it is produced ; and yet this single combination is suffi-
cient to create the marvellous and give birth to mysteries.
Here, for instance, with respect to the first point, that of
having been bom a Protestant, let not the honour of that
circumstance be assigned to chance ; blot that out. With
regard to the second, the name of Oscar; I was his
godfather, and, when I gave him the name, I doted upon
Ossian; it presented itself, of course, very naturally.
You now see how simple that is which so greatly
astonished you."

At the end of this conversation, the Emperor returned
to Paul ; he talked of the passionate fits brought upon
him by the perfidy of the English ministry. He had been
promised Malta » the moment it was taken possession of,
and accordingly, he was in great haste to get himself
nominated Grand Master. Malta reduced, the English
ministers denied that they had promised it to him. It is
confidently stated that, on the reading of this shameful
falsehood, Paul felt so indignant that, seizing the dispatch
in full Council, he ran his sword through it, and ordered
it to be sent back in that condition, by way of answer.
" If it be a folly," said the Emperor, '* it must be allowed
that it is the folly of a noble soul ; it is the indignation
of virtue, which was incapable, until then, of suspecting
such baseness."

At the same time, the English ministers, treating with
us for the exchange of prisoners, refused to include, on
the same scale, the Russian prisoners taken in Holland,
who were in the actual service and fought for the sole
cause of the English. " I had,'' said the Emperor, " hit
upon the bent of Paul's character. I seized time by the
forelock ; I collected these Russians ; I clothed them and
sent them back to him without any expense. From that
mstant, his generous heart was altogether devoted to
me ; and, as I had no interest in opposition to Russia,
and should never have spoken or acted but with justice,
there was no doubt that I should be able, for the future,

TO BSUNADOTTB. H.

foreign productions. This state of things is such that u
is impossible for me to decide whether French commerce
would gain much by peace with Engltaid.

"The maintenance, observance, or adoption of the
decree of Berlin is, therefore, I venture to say, more fi r
the interest of Sweden and of Europe, than for the
particular interest of France.

" Such are the reasons which my ostensible policy
may set up against the ostensible policy of England.
The secret reasons that influence England are the foUow-
ing : She does not desire peace ; she has rejected all the
overtures which I have caused to be made to her ; her
commerce and her territory are enlarged by war ; she is
apprehensive of restitutions ; she will not consolidate the
new system by a treaty ; she does not wish that France
should be powerful. I wish for peace, I wish for it in
its perfect state, because peace alone can give solidity to
new interests, and States created by conquest. 1 think,
that on this point, your Royal Highness ought not to
differ in opinion from me.

*' J have a great number of ships ; I have no seamen :
I cannot carry on the contest with England for the pur-
pose of compelling her to make peace ; nothing but the
continental system can prove successful. In this respect,
I experience no obstacle on the part of Russia and
Prussia ; their commerce can only be a gainer by the
prohibitive system.

*• Your cabinet is composed of enlightened men. Tliere
is dignity and patriotism in the Swedish nation. The
influence of your Royal Highness in the Government is
generally approved : you will experience few impedi-
ments in withdrawing your people from a mercantile
submission to a foreign nation. Do not sufltr yourself
to be caught by the too tempting baits which England
may hold out to you. The future will prove to you that,
whatever may be the revolutions which time must pro-
duce, the Sovereigns of Europe will establish prohibitive
laws, which will leave them masters in their own
dominions.

** The third article of the treatv of the 21st of Feb-
raary, 1802, corrects the incomplete stipulations of the

' 12 LETTER OF NAPOLEON.

reaty of Fredericsham. It must be rigorously observed
in every point which relates to colonial commoaities.
You tell me that you cannot do without these commo-
dities, and that, from the want of their introduction, the
produce of your customs is diminished. I will give you
twenty millions worth of colonial produce, which I have
at Hamburgh ; you will give me twenty millions worth
of iron. You will have no specie to export from Sweden.
Give up these productions to merchants ; they will pay
the import duties ; you will get rid of your iron ; this
will answer my purpose. I am in want of iron at Ant-
werp, and I know not what to do with the English
commodities.

** Be faithful to the treaty of the 24th of February :
drive the English smugglers from the roads of Gotten-
burg ; drive them from the coasts, where they carry on
an open trade : I give you my word that I will, on my
part, scrupulously observe the conditions of that treaty.
I shall oppose the attempts of your neighbours to appro-
priate to themselves your continental possessions. If
you fail in your engagements, I shall consider myself
released from mine.

"It is my wish to be always on an amicable under-
standing with your Royal Highness ; I shall hear with
pleasure your communication of this answer to his
Swedish Majesty, whose good Intentions I have con-
stantly appreciated.

*- My Minister for Foreign Affairs will return an official
answer to the last note, which the Comte d'Essen has
submitted for my perusal.

" This letter having no other end, &c.

Napoleon.'*

napoleon's patrimonial vineyard, &C. HIS NURSE

HIS PATERNAL HOME. TEARS OP JOSEPHINE DU-
RING WURMSER's SKIRMISHES IN THE ENVIRONS OF
MANTUA.

8th. — I went to the Emperor's apartment about eleven
o'clock. He was dressing himself, and looking over
with his valet, some samples of perfumery and scents,
received from England. He enquired about them all.

.H JOSEPHINE AT VERONA.

h jwever, extremely devout. Her husband was a coasting
trader of the island. She gave great pleasure at the
Tuileries, and enchanted the family by the vivacity of her
language and her gestures. The empress Josephine
made her a present of some diamonds."

After breakfast, the Emperor, adhering to his resolu-
tion of yesterday, proceeded with his work. He finished
the chapter of Castiglione, and then went to the wood,
with the intention of waiting for the calash. In continu-
ance of the conversation, which had been brought on bj
the chapter, he related that Josephine had left Brescia
with him, and had thus commenced the campaign
against Wurmser. Arrived at Verona, she had wit-
nessed the first shots that were fired. When she returned
to Castel-Nuovo, and saw the wounded as they passed,
she was desirous of reaching Brescia; but she found
herself stopped by the enemy, who was already at Pontc-
Marco. In the anxiety and agitation of the moment,
she was seized with fear, and wept a great deal, on
quitting her husband, who exclaimed, when embracing
her, and with a kind of inspiration : " Wurmser shall
pay dearly for those tears which he causes thee !"
She was obliged to ])ass in her carriage very close to
the fortifications of Mantua. She was fired upon from
the place, and one of her suite was even wounded.
She traversed the Po, Bologna, Ferrara, and stopped at
Lucca, attended by dread and the unfavourable reports,
which were usually spread around our patriotic armies ;
but she was internally supported by her extreme confi-
dence in her husband's good fortune.

Such was, however, already the opinion of Italy, ob-
served the Emperor, and the sentiments impressed by
the French General, that, in spite of the crisis of the
moment, and of all the false reports which accompanied
him, his wife was received at Lucca bv the Senate, and
treated with the same respect as the greatest princess.
It came to compliment her, and presented her with the
oils of honour. It had reason to applaud itself for that
conduct. A short time afterwards the couriers brought
intelligence of the prodigious achievements of her hus-
band, and the annihilation of Wurmser.

CATHBRINK II Il£

The Emperor returned to the saloon for the first time
ffiuce the fire. It is gradually furnished with articles sent
expressly from lion(k)n, which make it a little more
tolerable. After dinner, the Emperor began with read-
ing Turcaret, with which, he said, notwithstanding all
its wit, he felt himself disgusted, in consequence of its
vulgarity ; but it bore, he remarked, the impression of
Le Sage. He then took up TAvocat Patelin, and was
njuch amused with its genuine humour.

9th. — The Emperor breakfasted in the tent, and revi-
sed the chapter of the Brenta. At three o'clock, he took
an airing in the calash. The Governor called during oui
ride. It was understood that he wished to speak to the
Emperor on the celebration of the Prince Regent's birth-
day, which is to take place next Monday, the 12th inst.,
and to give him notice of the salutes and volleys that are
to he fired on the occasion at the camp, situated so
closely to us. It is said, on the omer hand, that he has
given directions for supplying the Emperor's table only,
and that each of us is to be put upon a particular allow-
ance, as he finds the expense very much beyond his
credit. At any rate, we shall see.

CATHERINE If. IMPERIAL GUARDS. PAUL I. &C.

PROJECTS ON INDIA, &C.

10th. — ^Tlie Emperor was indisposed and took a bath*
At three he walked out and called for the carriage. He
had just read the history of Catherine. " She was," he
said, " a commanding woman ; she was worthy of having
a beard upon her chin. The catastrophe of Peter and
that of Paul were seraglio revolutions, the work of janis-
saries. These palace- soldiers are terrible, and dangerous
in proportion as the Sovereign is absolute. My imperial
guard might also have become fatal under any other but
mvself."

The Emperor said that he and Paul had been on the
best terms together. At the time of his murder, in
which the public spared neither his relations nor his
Jillies, he had concerted a plan with him, at that very
moment, for an expedition to India, and he would have
certain!) prevailed upon him to carry it into execution.

lie LETTER OF PAUL I.

Paul wrote to him veiy often, and at great length. Hia
first communication was curious and original. ** Citizen
First Consul," (he had written to him with his own hand,)
* I do not discuss the merits of the rights of man ; but,
when a nation places at its head a man of distinguished
merit and worthy of esteem, it has a government, and
France has, henceforth, one in mv eves.*'

On our return, we found the Admiral and his lady ;
the Emperor took them in the calash and made another
tour. He afterwards walked for some time with Lady
Malcolm, to whom he behaved in a most gracious
manner.

After dinner, the Emperor turned over the leaves of
two volumes of the Theatre Fran^ais, without being
able to find any thing capable of fixing his attention.

THE EMPEROR BISHOP &C.

1 1 th. — After our breakfast in the tent and a few turns
in the garden, the Emperor read, for the last time, the
chapter of Arcole.

During our ride in tie calash, somebody observed that
it was Sunday, ** We should have mass,*' said the En;
peror, '* if we were in a Christian country, if we had a
priest ; and that would have been a pastime for us during
the day. I have been always fond of the sound of the
bells in the country. We should," he added in a gp.y
tone, ** resolve upon choosing a priest among us ; — the
curate of St. Helena." — But how ordain him, it was said,
without a bishop ? — " And am I not one," replied the
Emperor, '* have I not been anointed with the same oil,
consecrated in the same manner t Were not Clovis and
his successors anointed, at the time, with the formula of
Rex Christique sacerdos ? Were they not. in fact, real
bishops? Was not the subsequent suppression of that
formula caused by the jealousy and policy of the bishops
and popes ?"

I did not eat at dinner, the Emperor wished to know
the cause. I had a violent pain in my stomach, a com-
plaint to which I said I was very subject. " I am more
fortunate than you," he observed. " In all my life, I
never had either the head-ache or a pain in my stomach.'

NAPOLEON fi lIKATtH« 117

The Emperor often repea*-ed what he had said, and he
has pronounced these same words perhaps ten, twenty, or
thirty times, in the midst of us at different moments.*

CAMPAIGN OP 1809, &c.

12th. — The Emperor passed the morning in his hath,
reading the Journals des Dehats of March and April, re-
ceived yesterday by way of the Cape. The Emperor
was very much occupied with them ; they produced a
great degree of agitation in his system.

In general, since the Emperor had received books, and
particularly the Moniteur, he continued much more at
home ; he scarcely ever went abroad ; he no longer used
a horse, nor even the calash ; he hardly took the air for
a few moments in the garden ; he was not the better for
it^ his features and his health underwent a visible
alteration.

I found him to - day n.^ding Lee Croisades by Mi-
chaud, which he left to run over Les Memoires de
Bezenval. He stopped at the duel between the Comte
d*Artois and the Due de Bourbon. He found the details
curious, but they seemed to be very remote from us. "It
is difficult," he observed, " to reconcile times so close to
us with manners so different."

In the course of this day's conversations, the Emperor
happened to repeat, what I have mentioned elsewhere,
that his finest manoeuvre had been at Eckmuhl, without,
however, specifying it any further.

• I commonly pass over all details of this kind as trivial,
unless an occasion for their utility presents itself, and unfortu-
nately I have not time to look for, or to give rise to, such occa-
sions. The trifling circumstance, however, which I relate here
acquires hut too great a value hy the nature of the death and the
protracted and terrible agonies of the immortal victim, who expired
under the triple tortures of body, mind, and heart He would have
had much less to endure from the hands of cannibals ! . . . . And
these sufferings and these torments were coldly reserved for him by
a barbarous administration, which, by that proceeding, has stained
the annals of a people so justly renowned for the elevation of their
sentiments and their sympathy with misfortune ! . . . . But a sad
and painful celebrity will attach to the names of the executioners of
Napoleon. The indignation of the generous hearts of every age
and of every country strikes them for ever with eternal reprobation*

118

OK THB WAR WITH RUSSIA. FATALITIES. SlC. M. DS

TALLEYRAND, &C. MADAME DE STAEl's CORINNE —

M. NECKER, &C.

13th. At an early hour in the morning, I accompanied
the Emperor veiy far into the wood ; he conversed for up-
wards of an hour, on the situation of France, and then
reverted to the persons who had betrayed hira, and the
numerous fatalities which had hurried him along ; to the
perfidious security caused by his marriage with Austria ;
to the infatuation of the Turks, who made peace precisely
when they ought to have made war ; to that of Berna-
(lotte, who was actuated by his self-love and his resent-
ment, rather than by his real grandeur and stability ; to
a season severe beyond measure, and even to the supe-
riority of talent, evinced by M. de Narbonne, who, dis-
covering the designs of Austria, compelled her to take
active measures. Finallv, he reverted to the successes of
Lutzen and Bautzen, which, by bringing back the king
of Saxony to Dresden, put him. Napoleon, in possession
of the hostile signatures of Austria, and deprived her of
all further subterfuge. '* What an unhappy concurrence !"
he exclaimed in a most expressive tone, " and yet," he
continued, ** the day after the battle of Dresden, Francis
had already sent a person to treat. It was necessary,
that Vandamme's disaster should happen at a given
moment, to second, as it were, the decree of fate."

M. de Talleyrand, to whose conduct the Emperor fre-
quently alluded, for the purpose of discovering, he said,
when he had really begun to betray him, had strongly
urged him to make peace, on his return from Leipsic.
** I must,** he observed, '* do him that justice. He found
fault with my speech to the Senate, but warmly approved
of that which I made to the Legislative Body. He uni-
formly maintained, that I deceived myself with respect to
the energy of the nation ; that it would not second
mine, and that it was requisite for me to arrange my
affairs by every possible sacrifice. It appears that he
was then sincere. I never, from my own experience,
found Talleyrand eloquent or persuasive. He dwelt, a
great deal, and a long time, on the same idea. Perhaps

TALLEYRAND*8 EVASIONS. 119

also, as our acquaintance was of old date, he behaved in
a peculiar manner to me. He was, however, so skilful
in his evasions and ramblings that, after conversations
which lasted several hours, he has gone away, frequentll
avoiding the explanations and objects I expected u
obtain from him on his coming.**

With regard to the affairs of the moment and to the
contents of the last journals which described France in u
constantly increasing agitation, the result was that the
chances of the future seemed indefinite, multiplied, and
inexhaustible for all Europe, and that there existed, at
that instant, an incontrovertible fact, communicated to
us from all quarters, that nobody in Europe considered
himself in a permanent situation. Every one seemed to
apprehend or to foresee new events.

The Emperor kept me to breakfast with him in the
tent. He afterwards sent for Madame de Stael'sCorinne,
and read some chapters of it. He said that he could not
get through it. Madame de Stael had drawn so complete
a likeness of herself in her heroine, that she had succeed-
ed in convincing him that it was herself. *' I see her,"
said he, ** I hear her, I feel her, I wish to avoid her, and
I throw away the book. I had a better impression of
this work on my memory, than what I feel at present.
Perhaps it is because, at the time, I read it with my
thumb, as M. I'Abbe de Pradt ingeniously says, and not
without some truth. I shall, however, persevere ; I am de-
termined to see the end of it ; I still think that it was not
destitute of some interest. Yet I cannot forgive Madame
de Stael for having undervalued the French * in her ro-
mance. The family of Madame de Stael is unquestion-
ably a very singular one — her father, her mother and
herself, all three on their knees, in constant adoration of
each other, regaling one another with reciprocal incense,
for the better edification and mystification of the public.
JUadame de Staiil may, nevertheless, exult in surpassing
her noble parents, when she presumed to write, that her
sentiments for her father were such that she detected
herself in being jealous of her mother.

" Madame de Stael," he continued, ** was ardent in
ttor passions, vehement and extravagant in her expres

A

19^ MADAMB DB STABL.

siops. This is what was discovered by tie police, whilf
she was under its superintendence. * I am far from you /
(she was probably writing to her husband.) ' come in-
stantly ; — I command ; — I insist upon it ; I am on my
knees ; I beseech you, come. — My hand grasps a dag-
ger. If you hesitate, I shall kill myself; and you alone
will be guilty of my destruction." This was Corinne.

She had, said the Emperor, combined all her efforts
and all her means to make an impression on the General
of the army of Italy ; without any knowledge of him, she
wrote to him, when far off; she tormented him when
present. If she was to be believed, the union of genius
with a little insignificant Creole, incapable of appreciating
or comprehending him, was a monstrosity. Unfortunately
the General's only answer was an indifference which
women never forgive, and which, indeed, he remarked
with a smile, is hardly to be forgiven.

On his arrival at Paris, he was followed with the same
eagerness, but he maintained, on his part, the same re-
serve, the same silence. Madame de Stael resolved, how-
ever, to extract some words from him and to struggle
with the conqueror of Italy, attacked him face to face, at
the grand entertainment given by M. de Talleyrand,
Minister for Foreign Affairs, to the victorious General.
She challenged him in the middle of a numerous circle, to
tell her who was the greatest woman in the world, whe-
ther dead or living. ** She, who has had most children,"
answered Napoleon, with great simplicity. Madame de
Stael was, at first, a little disconcerted, and endeavoured
to recover herself by observing that it was reported that
he was not verv fond ot women. *' Pardon me. Madam,
again replied Napoleon, ** I am very fond of my wife.

The General of the army of Italy, said the Emperor,
might, no doubt, have excited the enthusiasm of the
Genevese Corinna to its highest pitch ; but he dreaded
her political perfidy and her thirst of celebrity ; he was,
perhaps, in the wTong. The heroine had, however, been
too eager in her pursuit and too often discouraged, not
to become a violent enemy. *' She instigated the person,
who was then under her influence, ani he," observed the
Emperor, " did not enter upon the business in a very

If

MADAME DB STABL. 121

honouidble manner. On the appointment of the Tribu-
nate, he employed the most pressing solicitations with
the First Consul to be nominated a member. At eleven
o'clock at night, he was supplicating with all his might ;
but at twelve, when the favour was granted, he was al-
ready erect and almost in an insulting attitude. The
first meeting of the Tribunes was a splendid occasion
for his invectives against me. At night, Madame de
Stael's hotel was illuminated. She crowned her Benja-
min amidst a brilliant assembly, and proclaimed him a
second Mirabeau. This farce, which was ridiculous
enough, was followed by more dangerous plans. At the
time of the Concordat, against which Madame de Staiil
was quite furious, she united at once against me the
aristocrats and the republicans. 'You have,' she ex-
claimed, but a single moment left; to-morrow the tyrant
will have forty thousand priests at his disposal.' "

" Madame de Stael," said Napoleon, ** having at
length tired out my patience was sent into exile. Her
father had seriously offended me before, at the time of
the campaign of Marengo. I wished to see him on my
way, and he struck me merely as a dull bloated college
tutor. Shortly afterwards, and with the hope, no doubt,
of again appearing, by my help, in public life, he pub-
lished a pamphet, in which he proved that France could
neither be a republic nor a monarchy. What it might
be," remarked the Emperor, '* was not sufficiently
evident. In that work, he called the First Consul,
the necessary man, &c. Lebrun replied to him, in a
letter of four pages, in his admirable style, and with all
his powers of sarcasm ; he asked him whether he had
not done sufficient mischief to France, and whether his
pretensions to govern her again were not exhausted by
his experiment of the Constituent Assembly.

" Madame de Stael. in her disgrace, carried on hos-
tilities with the one hand, and supplicated with the other.
She was informed, on the part of the First Consul, that
he left her the universe for the theatre cf her achieve-
ments ; that he resigned the rest of the world to her,
and only reserved Paris for himself, which he forbade
her to approach. But Paris was preciselv the object of

Vol. III.— 6

122 MADAME 1)K STAEL.

Madame de Stael's wislies. No matter , .he Consul was
inflexible. Madame de Stael, however, occasionally re-
newed her attempts. Under the empire, she wished to
be a lady of the palace. Yes or no might certainly be
pronounced ; but by what means could Madame de Stael
be kept quiet in a palace ?" &c.

After dinner, the Emperor read the Horatii, and was
frequently interrupted by our bursts of admiration. Never
did Corneille appear to us grander, more noble, more
nervous, than on our rock.

SHOOTING PxVRTY AT 8T. HELENA, &C. EVK OF THE

15th OP AUGUST, &C.

J 1th. The Emperor went out early. He sent for me
before nine o'clock. His intention was to mount his
horse, and endeavour to get a shot at some partridges,
which we saw every time we were in the carriage ; but
wliich never let any one with a fowling-piece come near
them. The Emperor walked on for the purpose of placing
himself in a convenient situation, but the partridges were
no longer to be found. He was soon fatigued, and got
on horbieback, observing that our shooting party was not
exactly after the fashion of those of Rambouillet and
Foiitaine])leau. We breakfasted, on our return, in the
tent. The Emperor placed little Tristan, whom he saw
crossing the meadow, at table, and was much amused
with him during the whole of the repast.

After breakfast, the Emperor had the chapter of
Rivoli read over again to him, and finished it. We had
gone through three-fourths of it, when the Governor
being announced, we made a precipitate retreat from the
tent, and each of us took refuge in his den. The Em-
peror was less inclined than any other person to let him-
self be seen : his conversations with the Governor are by
far too disagreeable and painful to him. ** I am deter-
mined,** he said, ** to have no more to do with him.
Harsh remarks escape me, which affect my character and
my dignity ; nothing should fall from my lips but what
is kind and complimentary.'* He found himself fatigued
with his exercise in the morning, and took a bath.

About five o*clock, he took a turn in the cala.sh, the
weather was delicious.

EVE OF AUGUST 15. 123

The Governor had expressed an earnest desire to set
ihe Emperor ; he wished, he said, to speak with him on
business. It is suspected that it was to tell him that he
had no more monev, that he had exhausted all, and that
he no longer knew how to act ; a matter of perfect in-
difference to the Emperor, who would not have failed,
once more, to entreat to be let alone.

The Emperor played at chess, before dinner, in the
sal(jon ; he had taken some punch. It was late wlien I
arrived ; he told me, on entering, to take my share ot
the i)unch ; but it was observed that there were no more
glasses. *' O yos," said he, handing me his, ** and he
will drink out of it, I am sure." He then added, ** This
is the English fashion ; is it not } In our country one
seldom drinks after any one but one's mistress."

It was remarked, during dinner, that it was the eve
of the 1 5th of August ; the Emperor then observed ;
" Many healths will be drunk to-morrow, in Europe, to
St. Helena. There are certainly some sentiments, some
wishes, that will traverse the ocean." He had enter-
tained the same thought in the morning when on horse-
back, and had said the same things to me.

After dinner, Cinna ; — Comeille appears to us divine.

THE emperor's BIRTH-DAT.

15th. — This day, the 15th of August, was the Empe-
ror's birthday. We had determined to wait upon him, in
a body, about eleven o'clock. He disappointed us by
aj)pearing gaily at our doors at nine. The weather was
mild , he went to the garden, and we all assem])led there
in succession. The Grand Marshal, with his wife and
children, joined us. The Emperor, surrounded by his
faithful servants, breakfasted in the large and beautiful
tent, which is a really fortunate acquisition. The tem-
perature was fine, and he himself cheerful and talkative.
He seemed, for some instants, to participate in our sen-
timents and wishes. He desired, he said, to pasc the
whole day in the midst of us. Accordingly, we continued
together, and spent the time in conversation, in different
pursuits, in walking, and in riding in the carriage.

24

l»OLYTECHNIC bCHOOL SUPPRES8BO, &C. INDECENCY OF

THK ENGLISH JOURNALS. ICK MACHINE.

1 6th. — My son and I went, at a very early nour, to the
tent, where the Emperor continued employed on difTerent
cha] iters of the Campaign of Italy until two o'clock, when
the Governor being announced, he retired, muttering
** T^c wretch, I believe, envies me vbe air 1 breathe."

ihiring breakfast, he had called for the Journal des
Ddbats, which contained the organization of the acade-
mies ; he wished to see the names of the members, who
had been expelled from the Institute. This led him to
revrri to the suppression of the Polytechnic School,
which was said to be useless and dangerous. The English
Journal, which we had received, was not of that opinion.
It maintained that the suppression alone was more valu-
able to the enemies of France than a signal victory, and
that nothing could more decidedly prove the real pacific
sentiments and the extreme moderation of the dvnastv,
which then governed France, &c. It also stated several
other things.

Somebody remarked, upon this subject, that the English
paj)ers shewed a malevolence against the French Govern-
ment, which extended to coarseness and indecency.

Lord or Lady Holland had, with a peculiar degree of
attention, sent to Longwood, for the Emperor's use, a
newly invented machine, adapted to the formation of ice.
It was delivered to us to-day, through the intervention of
Admirnl Malcolm. The Emperor went out about five
o'clock, and was desirous of witnessing the experiment ;
the Admiral was present, but the experiment proved very
imperfect.

The Emperor, after some time, took a walk, accom-
panied by the Admiral, and the conversation turned
upon a variety of subjects ; it was mEuntained in the
most affable and friendly manner on the part of the
Emperor.

125

RKLIGIOUS IDBA8 OF NAPOLEON. BISHOP OF NANTBS

(dB YOISINS). THB POPB. LIBBRTIB8 OF THB GAL*

Lie AN CHURCH. ANBCDOTBS. CONCORDAT OF FON-

TAINBBLEAU.

17th. — While the Emperor was at breakfast in the
tent, two persons described the excesses which they had
witnessed in the army, and which had not come to his
knowledge, Tliey noticed the numerous violations of his
orders, the violent abuses of authority, and other out-
rages. The Emperor listened ; but some were so shock-
iviSf that he could not, he said, give credit to them, and
observed : ** Come, gentlemen, these are libels."

The wind was very violent ; it blew a storm, with oc-
casional showers. The wet obhged the Emperor to go
in again.

After dinner Zaire and the beautiful scenes cf CEdipe
were read, among which he particularly pointed out that
of the discovery, which he pronounced the finest and the
most finished of the drama.

In speaking of priests and religion, the conversation
led the Emperor to say : " Man, entering into life, asks
himself : Whence do I come ? What am I } Whither am
I to go ? These are so many mysterious questions, which
urge us on to religion. We eagerly embrace it ; we are
attracted by our natural propensity ; but as we advance
in knowledge our course is stopped. Instruction and
history are the great enemies of religion, deformed by
human imperfection. Why, we ask ourselves, is the
religion of Paris neither that of London nor of Berlin r
Why is that of Petersburgh difierent from that of Con-
stantinople? Why is the latter diflferent from that of
Persia, of the Ganges, and of China ? Why is the reli-
gion of ancient times diflferent from that of our days ?
Then reason is sadly staggered ; it exclaims, O religions,
religions ! the children of man ! . . . . We very pro-
perly believe in God, because every thing around us
proclaims him, and the most enlightened minds have
believed in him ; not only Bossuet, whose profession it
was, but also Newton and Leibnitz, who had nothing to
do with it. But we know not what to think of tlie

126 RSLIOIOUS UELIKF.

doctrine that is taught us, and we find ourselves like the
watch which goes, without knowing the watchmaker that
made it. And observe a little the stupidity of those who
educate us ; they should keep away from us the idea of
paganism and idolatry ; because their absurdity excites
tlie first exercise of our reason, and prepares us for a
resistance to passive belief ; and they bring us up, never-
theless, in the midst of the Greeks and Romans, with
their myriads of divinities. Such, for my own part, has
literally been the progress of my understanding. I felt
the necessity of belief; I did believe, but my belief was
shocked and undecided, the moment I acquired know-
ledge and began to reason ; and that happened to me at
so early an age as thirteen. Perhaps, I shall agatin be-
lieve implicitly; God grant I may! I shall certainly
make no resistance, and I do not ask a greater blessing ;
it must, in my mind, be a great and real happiness.

*' In violent agitations, however, and in the casual
suggestions of immorality itself, the absence of that re-
ligious faith has never, I assert, influenced me in any
respect, and I never doubted the existence of God ; for,
if my reason was inadequate to comprehend it, my mind
was not the less disposed to adopt it. My nerves were
in sympathy with that sentiment.

" When I seized on the helm of afl^airs, I had already
fixed ideas of all the primary elements by which society
is bound together ; I had weighed all the importance of
religion 5 I was convinced, and I determined to re-esta-
blish it. But the resistance I had to overcome in
restoring Catholicism would scarcely be credited. I
should have been more willingly followed had I hoisted
the standard of Protestantism. This reluctance was car-
ried so far that in the Council of State, where I found
great difficulty in getting the Concordat adopted, several
yielded only by forming a plan to extricate themselves
from it. ' Well ! ' they said to one another, ' let us turn
Protestants, and that will not affect us.* It is unques-
tionable that, in the disorder which I succeeded, upon
which I found myself I was at liberty to choose
between Catholicism and Protestantism ; and it mav also
U said, with truth, that the general disposition, at the

PROTESTANTISM AND POl'ERV. 127

moment, was quite in favour of the latter : but, besides
my real adherence to the religion in which I was born,
I had the most important motives to influence my deci-
sion. What should I have gained by proclaiming
Protestantism ? I should have created two great parties,
very nearly equal, in France, when I wished for the ex-
istence of none at all ; I should have revived the fury of
religious disputes, when their total annihilation was called
for by the light of the age and my own feelings. These
two parties would, by their mutual distractions, have
destroyed France, and rendered her the slave of Europe,
when I had the ambition to make her the mistress of it.
By the help of Catholicism I attained much more effectu-
ally all the grand results that I had in view. In the
interior, at home, the smaller number was swallowed up
by the greater, and 1 relied upon my treating the former
with such an equality that there would be shortly no
motive for marking the difference. Abroad, the Pope
was bound to me by Catholicism ; and, with my influ-
ence, and our forces in Italy, I did not despair, sooner
or later, by some means or other, of obtaining for myself
the direction of that Pope, and from that time, what an
influence ! What a lever of opinion on the rest of the
world!" &c. He concluded with saying: "Francis I.
was really in a state to adopt Protestantism, at its birth,
and to declare himself the head of it in Europe. Charles V.,
his rival, was the zealous champion of Rome, because he
considered that measure as an additional means to assist
him in his project of enslaving Europe. Was not that
circumstance alone sufficient to point out to Francis the
necessity of taking care of his independence ; but he
abandoned the greater to run after the lesser advantage.
He persevered in pursuing his imprudent designs on
Italy, and, with the intention of paying court to the
Pope, he burnt Protestants at Paris.

** Had Francis I. embraced Lutheranism, which is
favomtible to royal supremacy, he would have preserved
France from the dreadful religious convulsions brought
on. at later periods, by the Calvinists, whose efforts, al-
together republican, were on the point of subverting the
throne and dissolving our noble monarchy. Unfortu-

i28 * THE BISHOP OF NANlKS.

nately, Francis I. was ignorant of all that; for he cooid
not allege his scruples for an excuse, he, who entered
into an alliance with the Turks, and brought them into
the midst of u?. It was precisely because he was inca-
pable of extending his views so far. The folly of the
time! The extent of feudal intellect! Francis I. was,
after all, but a hero for tilts and tournaments, and a
gallant for the drawing-room, one of those pigmy great
men.

*'The Bishop of Nantes (De Voisins), said the £mpc-
ror, made me a real Catholic by the efficacy of his
arguments, by the excellence of his morals, and by his
enlightened toleration. Marie Louise, whose confessor
he was, consulted him once on the obligation of abstain-
ing from meat on Fridays. — * At what table do you dine ?'
asked the Bishop. — * At the Emperor's.' * Do you give
all the orders there ?' — * No.* ' You cannot, then make
any alteration in it ; would he do it himself ?* — * I am
inclined to think not.' * Be obedient then, and do not
provoke a subject for scandal. Your first duty is to
obey, and make him respected ; you will not be in want
of other means to amend your life, and to suflfer priva-
tions in the eyes of God.*

'* He also behaved in the same way with respect to a
public communion, which some persons put into Marie
Louise's head to celebrate on Easter-dav. She would
not, however, consent, without the advice of her prudent
confessor, who dissuaded her from it by similar argu-
ments. What a difference, said the Emperor, had she
been worked upon by a fanatic ! What quarrels, what
disagreements might he not have caused between us !
Wliat mischief might he not have done, in the circum-
stances in which I was placed !"

The Emperor remarked to us, "that the bishop of
Nantes had lived with Diderot, in the midst of unbe-
lievers, and had uniformly conducted himself with con-
sistency ; he was ready with an answer to every one ;
and. above all, he had the good sense to abandon every
thing that was not maintainable, and to strip religion
of every thing which he was not capable of defending.—
He was asked, ' has not an animal, which moves, con-

THE POPE. 129

bines, and thinks, a soul ?* * Why not/ was his answer.

• But whither does it go ? For it is not equal to ours.*

• What is that to you ? It dwells, perhaps, in limbo.*
He used to retreat within the last intrenchments, even
within the fortress itself, and there he reserved excellent
means for defending himself. He argued better than
the Pope, whom he often confounded. He was the
firmest pillar, among our bishops, of the Gallican
hberties. He was my oracle, my luminary ; in religious
matters, he possessed my unbounded confidence. For,
in my quarrels with the Pope, it was my first care,
whatever intriguers and marplots in cassocs may say, not
to touch upon any dogmatic point : I was so steady in
til is conduct, that the instant this good and venerable
bishop of Nantes said to me, * Take care, tliere you are
grappling with a dogma,* I immciiately turned off from
the course I was pursuing, to return to it by other ways,
yirithout amusing myself by entering into dissertations
with him, or by seeking even to comprehend his mean
ing ; and, as I had not let him into my secret, how
amazed must he not have been at the circuits I made !
How whimsical, obstinate, capricious, and incoherent,
must I not have appeared to him ! It was because
I had an object in view, and he was unacquainted
with it.

** The Popes could not forgive us our liberties of the
Gallican church. The four famous propositions of
Bossuet, in particular, provoked their resentment. It
was, in their opinion, a real hostile manifesto, and they
accordingly considered us at least as much out of the
pale of the church as the Protestants. They thought us
as guilty as they, perhaps more so, and if they did not
overwhelm us with their ostensible thunderbolts, it was
because they dreaded the consequences — our separation.
The example of England was before them. They did
not wish to cut off their right arm with their own hand,
but they w©*e constantly on the watch for a favourable
opportunity ; they trusted to time for it. They are, no
doubt, ready to believe, that it has now arrived. They
will, however, be again disappointed by the lierht of thfl
age and the manners of the times.

6*

mo THIC POI'K.

" Some time before my coronation/* said the Emperor,
' the Pope wished to see me, and made it a point to
visit me himself. He had made many concessions. He
had come to Paris for the purpose of crowning me ; he
consented not to place the crown on my head himself ;
he dispensed with the ceremony of the public communion ;
he had, therefore, in his oj)nuon, many compensations to
expect in return. He had accordingly at first dreamt
of Romagna and the Legations, and he began to suspect
that he should be obliged to give up all that. He then
lowered his pretensions to a very trifling favour, as he
called it, my signature to an ancient document, a worn-
out rag, which he Held from Louis XIV. * Do me that
tavour, said he, in fact, it signifies nothing.' * Cheer-
fully, most holy father, and the thing is done, if it be
feasible.* It was, however, a declaration, in which Louis
XIV. at the close of his life, seduced by Madame de
Maintenon, or prevailed upon by his confessors, expressed
his disapprobation of the celebrated articles of 1 682, the
foundations of the liberties of the Gallican church. The
Emperor shrewdly replied, that he had not, for his own
part, any personal objection, but that it was requisite for
him, as a matter of form, to speak to the bishops about
it-; on which the Pope repeatedly observed, that such a
communication was b,y no means necessary, and that the
thing did not deserve to make so much noise. * I shall
never,' he remarked, * shew the signature, it shall be
kej)t as secret as that of Louis XIV.* * But, if it signifies
nothing,' said Napoleon, ' what use is there for my sig-
nature ? And if any signification can be drawn from it, I
am bound by a sense of propriety to consult my
doctors.' **

With the view, however, of avoiding the imputation
of a constant refusal of every r«»quest, the Emperor
wished to seem rather inclined to grant the favour,
** Tlie Bishop of Nantes and the other bishops, who were
really French, came to me in great haste. They were
furious, and watched me,*' said the Emperor, ** as they
w^ould have watched Louis XIV. on his death-bed, to
prevent him from turning Protestant. The Suipicians
were called in ; thev were Jesuits au petit pied, they

CONCORDAT OF PONTAINBBLKAU. 13)

strove to find out mv intention, and were reaJv to do
whatever I wished. The Emperor concluded with ob-
8"'rving ; — " The Pope had dispensed with the public
communion in my favour, and it is from his determi-
nation in that respect that I form my opinion of the
sincerity of his religious belief. He had held a congre-
gation of cardinals for the purpose of settling the
ceremonial. The greater number warmly insisted upon
my taking the communion in public, asserting the great
influence of the example on the people, and the necessity
of my holding it out. The Pope, on the contrary, fearful
lest I should fulfil that duty as if I were going through
one of the articles of M. de Segur's programme, looked
upon it as a sacrilege, and was inflexible in opposing it.
* Napoleon,* he observed, * is not perhaps a believer ;
the time will, no doubt, come, in which his faith will be
established, and in the mean time, let us not burthen his
conscience or our own.*

" In his Christian charity, for he reaily is a worthy,
mild, and excellent man, he never once despaired of see-
ing me a penitent, at his tribunal ; he has often let his
hopes and thoughts on that subject escape him. We
sometimes conversed about it in a pleasant and friendly
manner. * It will happen to you, sooner or later,* said
he, with an innocent tenderness of expression ; * you will
be converted by me or by others, and you will then feel
how great the content, the satisfaction of your own
heart,' &c. In the mean time, my influence over him
was such, that I drew from him, by the mere power of
mv conversation, that famous Concordat of Fontaine-
t'leau, in which he renounced the temporal sovereignty,
an act on account of which he has since shown that he
dreaded the judgment of posterity, or rather the repro-
bation of his successors. No sooner had he signed than
he felt the stings of repentance. He was to have dined
the following day with me in public ; but at night, he
was, or pretended to be ill. The truth is that, immedi-
ately after I left him, he again fell into the hands of his
habitual advisers, who drew a terrible picture of the
error which he had committed. Had we been left bv

•

ourselves, I miglit have done what I pleaded with him;

la? CONDUCT OF THE JOrK.

should have governed the religious with the pame
facility that I did the political world. He was, in truth,
a lamb, a good man in every respect, a man of real
\North, whom I esteem and love greatly, and who, on his
part, is, I am convinced, not altogether destitute of
interest with regard to me. You will not see him make
any severe complaints against me, nor prefer, in parti-
cular, any di.cct and personal accusation against me,
any more than the other sovereigns. There may, per-
ha])s, be some vague and vulgar declamations against
aiuhition and bad faith, but nothing positive and direct ;
because statesmen are well aware, that when the hour of
libels is ])ast, no one would be allowed to prefer a public
accusation without corroborative proofs, and they have
none of these to produce : such will be the province ot
historv. On the other hand, there will be at most but
some wretched chroniclers, shallow enough to take the
ravings of clubs, or intrigues, for authentic facts, or
some writers of memoirs, who, deceived bv the errors of
the moment, will be dead before they are enabled to
correct their mistakes.

** When the real particulars of my disputes with the
Pope shall be made public, the world will be surprised at
the extent of my patience, for it is known that I could not
put up with a ^"reat deal. When he left me, after my
coronation, he felt a secret spite at not having obtained
the compensations which he thought he had deserved.
But, however grateful 1 might have been in other re-
spects, I could not, after all, make a traffic of the
interests of the empire by way of paying my own
obligations, and, I was, besides, too proud to seem to have
purchased his kindnesses. He had hardly set his foot
on the soil of Italy, when the intriguers and mischief-
makers, the enemies of France, took advantage of the
di«i)osition he was in, to govern his conduct, and from
that instant every thing was hostile on his part. He no
longer was the gentle, the peaceable Chiaramonti, that
worthy bishop of Imola, who had at so early a period
shown himself worthy of the enlightened state of the
age. His signature was thenceforth affixed to acts only
'.^hich characterised the Gregorie<« anH Bonifaces mora

0/ER THE POPE. 18^

iiian him. Rome became the focus of all the plot«
hatched against us. I strove in vain to bring him back
by the force of reason, but I found it impossible to as-
certain his sentiments. The wrongs became so serious,
and the insults offered to us so flagrant, that I was im-
peratively called upon to act, in my turn. I, therefore,
seized his fortresses ; I took possession of some provin-
ces ; and I finished by occupying Rome itself, at the same
time declaring and strictly observing that I held hirfi
sacred in his spiritual c?.pj\city, which was far from being
satisfactory to him. A crisis, however, presented itself;
it was believed, that fortune had abandoned me at
Esslmg, and m«::Rsures were in immediate readiness for
exciting the population of that great capital to insurrec-
tion. The officer, Avho commanded there, thought that
he could escape the danger only by getting rid of the
Pope, whom he sent off to France. That measure was
carried into effect without my orders, and was even in
direct opposition to my views. I despatched instant or-
ders for stopping the Pope, wherever he might be met
with, and he was kept at Savona, where he was treated
with every possible care and attention ; for I wished to
make myself feared, but not to ill-treat him ; to bend him
to my views, not to degrade him ; — I entertained very
different projects ! This removal served only to inflame
the spirit of resentment and intrigue. Until then, the
quarrel had been but temporal ; the Pope's advisers, in
the hope of re-establishing their affairs, involved it in
all the jumble of spirituality. I then found it necessary
to carry on the contest with him on that head ; I had my
council of conscience, my ecclesiastical councils, and I
mvested my imperial courts with the power of deciding
n cases of appeal from abuses ; for my soldiers could be
of no further use in all this : I felt it necessary to fight
the Pope with his own weapons. To his men of erudi-
tion, to his sophists, his civilians, and his scribes, it was
incumbent upon me to oppose mine.

" An English plot was laid to carry him off from
Savona; it was of service to me; I caused him to be
removed to Fontainebleau ; but that was to be the period
of his sufferings, and the regeneration of his splendour.

S4 TllK FDPK.

All my grand views were accomplished in disguise and
mystery. I had brought things to such a .point, as to
render the development infallible, without any exertion,
and in a way altogether natural. It was accordingly
consecrated by the Pope in the famous Concordat of
Fontainebleau, in spite even of my disasters at Moscow.
What then would have been the result, had I returned
victorious and triumphant ? I had consequently obtained
the separation, which was so desirable, of the spiritual
from the temporal, which is so injurious to his Holiness,
and the commixture of which produces disorder in
society, in the name and by the hands of him who ought
himself to be the centre of harmony : and from that time
I intended to exalt the Pope beyond measure, to surround
him wfth gruhdeur and honours. I should have suc-
ceeded in suppressing all his anxiety for the loss of his
temporal power ; \I should have made an idol of him ;
he would have remained near my person. Paris would
have become the capital of the Christian world, and I
should have governed the religious as well as the politi-
cal world. It was an additional means of binding
tighter all the federative parts of the empire, and of pre-
serving the tranquillity of every thing placed without it.
1 should have had my religious as well as my legislative
sessions ; my councils would have constituted tlje repre-
sentation of Christendom, and the Popes would have
been only the presidents. I should have called together
and dissolved those assemblies, approved and published
their discussions, as Constantine and Charlemagne had
done ; and if that supremacy had escaped the Emperors,
it was because they had committed the blunder of letting
the spiritual heads reside at a distance from them ; and
the latter took advantage of the weakness of the princes,
or of critical events, to shake off their dependence and to
enslave them in their turn.

" But," resumed the Emperor, " to accomplish that
object, I had foimd it requisite to manoeuvre with a
great deal of dexterity; above all, to conceal my real way
of thinking, to give a direction, altogether differeiit to
gvjneral opinion, and to feed the public with vulgar trifles,
for the purpose of more effectually concealing the impor*

THE POPE, 136

tance and depth of my secret design. I accordingly
experienced a kind of satisfaction in finding myself ac-
cused of barbarity towards the Pope, and of tyranny in
religions matters. Foreigners, in particular, promoted
my wishes in this respect, by filling their wretched libels
with invectives against my pitiful ambition, which, ac-
cording to them, had driven me to devour the miserable
patrimony of Saint Peter. But 1 w^as perfectly aware,
that public opinion would again declare itself in my
favour at home, and that no means could exist abroad
for disconcerting my plan. What measures would not
have been employed for its prevention, had it been an-
ticipated at a seasonable period ; for how vast its future
ascendency over all the Catholic countries, and how great
its influence even upon those that are not so, by the
co-operation of the members of that religion who are
spread throughout these countries !**

The Emperor said, that this deliverance from the
Court of Rome, this legal union, the control of religion
in the hands of the isovereign, had been, for a long time,
the constant object of his meditations and his wishes.
England, Russia, the northern crowns, and part of Ger-
manv, are, he said, in possession of it. Venice and
Naples had enjoyed it. No government can be carried on
'vithout it ; a nation is otherwise, every instant, affected
ui itb tranquillity, its dignity, its independence. But
the task, " he added, ** was very difficult ; at every step
I was alive to the danger. I was induced to think, that,
once engaged in it, I should be abandoned by the nation.
1 more than once sounded and strove to elicit public
opinion, but in vain, and I have been enabled to convince
myself that I never should have had the national co -
operation. And this explains a sally, which I had
witnessed."

The Emperor perceiving, at one of those grand Sunday
audiences, which were very numerously attended, the
Archbishop of Tours (de Barral) addressed him in a very
elevated tone : ** Well ! Monsieur TArchev^que, how
do our affairs with the Pope go on ? — * Sire, the deputa-
tion of your bishops is about to set out for Savona.*
Very well ! endeavour to make the ^ope Usten to reason

156 THE ARCHBISHOP OF TOVBS.

prevail upon him to conduct himself with prudence;
otherwise the consequences will be unpleasant. Tell
him plainly, that he is no longer in the times of the
Grcgories, and that I am not a Debonnaire. He has the
example of Henry the VHIth., and, without his wicked-
ness, I possess more strength and power than he had.
Let him know, that whatever part I may take, I have
600.000 Frenchmen in arms, who, in every contin-
gency will march with me, for me, and as myself. The
peasantry and mechanics look to me alone, and reposte
unlimited confidence in me. The prudent and enlightened
part of the intermediate class, those who take care of
their interest, and wish for tranquillity, will follow me ;
the only class favourable to him will be the meddling and
talkative, who, will forget him at the end of ten days, to
chat upon some fresh subject."

And as the archbishop, who betrayed his embarrass-
ment by his countenance, was about to stammer out some
words, the Emperor added in a greatly softened tone :
*' You are out of all this ; I participate in your doctrines ;
I honour your piety ; I respect your character !"

The Emperor, I now understand him perfectly, had,
no doubt, merely thrown out those observations, in order
that we might give effect to them in other places ; but
he deceived himself with respect to our dispositions, or
at least to those of the palace. Some, the least reflect-
ing part, were decided and loud in censuring his conduct
on these occasions ; others, with the best intentions, were
extremely cautious not to let a word transpire, lest it
should prove injurious to him in the public opinion ; for,
such was, m general, our misconception, our singular
manner of understanding and explaining the Emperor's
meaning, that, although without any bad design, and
solely through levity, incoherency, or for fashion's sake,
instead of making him popular, we were perhaps the
very persons who did him most injury. I very well
remember that, on the morning when that famous con-
cordat of Fontainebleau unexpectedly appeared in the
Moniteur, some persons confidentially assured each other
in the saloons of St. Cloud, that nothing was less au-
thentic than that document, and that it was a base fabri-
cation. Others whispered, that it was, no doubt, genuine

THE OOVEKNOK. IS?

m the main points, but that it had been extracted fron*
the Pope by the Emperor's anger and violence. To that
I should not be surprised, if the piquant dramatic episode
of Napoleon, at Fontainebleau, dragging the father of the
faithful by his white hair, was not precisely the inven-
tion of the political proser who wrote it, but caught up
from the mouths of the courtiers and even of the Empe-
ror's servants themselves ; and this is the way in which
history is written !

WARM CONVERSATION WITH THE GOVERNOR, IN THE

admiral's PRESENCE.

18th. The weather was most dreadful during the whole
of the night and day. About three o'clock, the Empe-
ror took advantage of its clearing up a little and went
out. He came to my apartment, and we called on Gene-
ral Gourgaud, who was indisposed. We then visited
Madame de Montholon, who accompanied us to the
garden. The Emperor was in excellent spirits, whicii
enlivened the conversation. He undertook to persuade
^ladame de Montholon to make a general confession,
particularly insisting upon her setting out with her first
sin. " Come," said he, *' speak out without apprehen-
sion, do not let our neighbour constrain you ; consider
him merely as your confessor ; we shall forget it all in a
quarter of an hour."

And I really believe he would have succeeded in per-
suading her, when the Governor unfortunately came to
interrupt so pleasant a scene ; he made his appearance,
r-d the Emperor to avoid receiving him, hastily took
shelter in the bottom of the wood. We were joined in
a few moments by M. de Montholon, who acquainted the
Emperor that the Governor and the Admiral earnestly re-
quested the honour of speaking with him. He thought
that some communication was to be made on their part,
and returned to the garden, where he received them.

We remained behind, with the Governor's officers. The
conversation soon became animated on the part of tlie
Emperor, who, as he walked between the Governor and
the Admiral, almost uniformly addressed himself to the
bitter, even when he spoke to the former. We continued

|38 NAPOLEOW AND

at too great a distance to hear any thing distinctly ; bet
I have since learned, that he again repeated, and with,
perhaps, more energy and warmth, all that he said to
him in the preceding conversations.

In consequence of the favourable explanations, which
the Admiral, who acted the part of mediator, laboured to
give of the Governor's intentions, the Emperor observed;
" The faults of M. Lowe proceed from his habits of
life. He has never had the command of any but foreign
deserters, of Piedmontese, Corsicans, and Sicihans, all re-
negadoes, and traitors to their country ; the dregs and
scum of Europe. If he had commanded Englishmen;
if he were one himself, he would shew respect to those
who have a right to be honoured.'* At another time,
the Emperor declared, that there was a moral courage,
as necessary as courage on the field of battle ; that M.
Lowe did not exercise it here with regard to us, in dream-
ing only of our escape, instead of employing the only
real, prudent, reasonable, and sensible means for prevent-
ing it. The Emperor also told him that, although his
bodv was in the hands of evil-minded men, his soul was
as lofty and independent as when at the head of
400,000 men, or on the throne, when he disposed of
kingdoms.

To the article respecting the reduction of our expenses
and the money which was required of the Emperor, he
answered : ** All those details are very painful to me ;
they are mean. You might place me on the burning
pile of Montezuma or Guatimozin without extracting from
me gold, which I do not possess. Besides, who asks you
for any thing ? Who entreats you to feed me } When
you discontinue your supply of provisions, those brave
soldiers, whom you see there," pointing, with his hand,
to the camp of the 53d, ** will take pity on me ; I shall
place myself at the grenadiers' table, and they will not,
I am confident, drive away the first, the oldest soldier
of Europe."

The Emperor having reproached the Governor with
having kept some books, which were addressed to him,
he answered, that he had done so in consequence of their
having been sent under the address of Emperor, '* And

THB GOVERNOR. . 39

who, " replied the Emperor, with emotion, " gave yob
the right of disputing that title ? In a few years, your
Lord Castlereagh, your Lord Bathurst, and all the others
— you, who speak to me — will be buried in the dust of
oblivion, or if your names be remembered, it will be only
on account of the indignity with which you have treated
me, while the Emperor Napoleon shall, doubtless, conti-
nue for ever the subject, the ornament of history, and
the star of civilized nations. Your libels are of no avail
against me ; yun have expended millions on them ; what
have they produced ? Truth pierces through the clouds,
it shines like the sun. and like it, is imperishable.*'

The Emperor admitted that he had, during this con-
versation, seriously and repeatedly offended Sir Hudson
Lowe ; and he also did him the justice to acknowledge,
that Sir Hudson Tiowe had not precisely shewn, in a single
instance, anv want of respect ; he had contented himself
with muttering, between his teeth, sentences which were
not audible. He once said that he had solicited his
recal, and the Emperor observed, that that was the most
agreeable word he could possibly have said. He also
said, that we endeavoured to blacken his character in
Europe, but that our conduct, in that respect, was a
matter of indifference to him. The only disrespect, per-
haps, said the Emperor, on the part of the Governor, and
which was trifling, compared with the treatment he had
received, was the abrupt way in which he retired, while
the Admiral withdrew slowly, and with numerous salutes.
" The Admiral was precisely then," observed the Em-
peror, in a gay tone of voice, ** what the Marquis de
Gallo was at the time of my rupture of Passeriano." —
An allusion to one of the chapters of the Campaign in
Italy, which he had dictated to me.

The Emperor remarked that, after all, he had to re-
proach himself with that scene. '* I must see this officer
no more ; he makes me fly into a violent passion ; it i*;
beneath my dignity ; expressions escape rce which would
have been unpardonable at the Tuileries ; if they can at
all be excused here, it is because I am in his hands anC
subject to his power.**

After dinner, tlie Emperor caused a letter to be read

140 EFFKCT8 OF THB

*ii answer to the Governor, who had officiallv sent the
treaty of the 2nd of August, by which the allied Sovei-
eigns stipulated for the imprisonment of Napoleon. Sir
Hudson Lowe, by the same conveyance, asked to intro-
duce the foreign Commissioners to Longwood, Tlie
Emperor had, in the course of the day, dictated the letter
to M. de Montholon. It was his wish, that every one
of us should make his objections, and state his opinions.
It seemed to us a master-piece of dignity, energy, and
sound reasoning.

THR CONVERSATION WITH THE GOVERNOR AGAIN NOTI-
CED, &C. EFFECT OF THE LIBELS AGAINST NAPOL£ON.

- TREATY OF FONTAINEBLEAU. THB WORK OP

GENERAL S N.

19th. — The weather continued as dreadful as we had
ever seen it. It has been, for several days, like one of
our equinoctial storms in Europe. The Emperor ex-
posed himself to it, to come to my apartment about ten
o'clock ; in going out, he struck one of his legs against
a nail near the door ; his stocking was torn halfway down
the leg ; luckily the skin was only scratched. He was
obliged to return to change. ** You owe me a pair of
stockings,** he said, while his valet de chambre was
putting on another pair ; ** a pohte man does not expose
his visitors to such dangers in his apartments. You are
lodged too much like a seaman ; it is true, that is not
your fault. I thought myself careless about these mat-
ters, but you actually surpass me." — Sire,** I answered,
** my merit is not great, no choice is left me. I am
truly a hog in its mire, I must confess ; but as yoiu
Majesty says, it is not altogether my fault.**

We went into the garden, when it had cleared up for
a moment. The Emperor reverted to the conversation
which he had yesterday with the Governor, in the Adnii-
raVs presence, and again reproached himself with the
violence of his expressions. " It would have been more
worthy of me, more consistent and more dignified, to
have expressed all these things with perfect composure;
♦hey would, besides, have been more impressive." He
ecollectcd, in particular, a camo ^vLifh had escaped hiin

LIBELS AGAINST NAPOLEON. 141

B8 applied to Sir H. Lowe (scribe d'etat-major,) ^hich
must have shocked him, and the more so hccause it ex-
pressed the tnitn, and that, we know, is always offensive.
*' I have myself." said the Emperor, '* experienced that
feeling in the island of Elba. When I ran over the most
infamous libels, they did not affect me even in tlie slight-
est manner. When I was told or read, that I had
strangled, poisoned^ ravished ; that I had massacred my
sick ; that my carriage had been driven over my woun-
ded ; I laughed out of commiseration. How often did
I not then say to Madame : ' Make haste, mother, come
and see the savage, the man- tiger, tJie devour er of the
human race ; come and udmire your child ! * But when
tJiere was a sHght approach to truth, the effect was no
longer the same ; I felt the necessity of defending my-
self ; I accumulated reasons for my justification, and even
then, it never happened, that I was left Avithout some
traces of a secret torment. My dear I^as Cases, such is
man !

The Emperor passed from this subject to his protest
ngahist the treaty of the 2nd of August, which had been
rend to us after dinner. T presumed to ask him, whether
an<ir noticing in a conspicuous manner the acknowledg-
liient of his title of Emperor by the Eiighsh, during their
negotiations at Paris and Chatillon. he had not forgotten
that, which they must have made on occasion of the
treaty of Fontainebleau, and which, it struck me, was
omitted. " It was," he quickly replied, '* done on pur-
nose ; I have nothing to do with that treaty ; I disclaim
it , I am far from boasting of it, I am rather ashamed of
it. It was discussed for me. I was betrayed by N . , .,
who brought it to me. That epoch belongs to my his-
tory, but to my history on a large scale. If I had then
determined to treat in a sensible manner, I should have
obtained the kingdom of Italy, Tuscany, or Corsica, —
all that I could have desired. My decision was the re-
sult of a fault inherent in my character, a caprice on my
part, a real constitutional excer^s. I was seized with a
dislike and contempt of every thing around me ; I was
affected with the same fcehng for fortune, which I took
delight in defying. I o»st my eye ol a spot of land.

/42 CO*\VliRSAlluN WITH THE AUTHOR.

where T might be uncomfortable and take advantage of
the mistakes that might be made. I fixed upon the is-
land of Elba. It was the act of a soul of rock. I am,
no doubt, my dear Las Cases, of a very singular disposi-
tion but we should not be extraordinary, were we not oi
a peculiar mould; I am a piece of rock, launched intc
space ! You will not, perhaps, easily believe me, but I do
not regret my grandeur ; you see me slightly affected by
what I have lost."

'* And why. Sire,** 1 observed, ** should I not believe
vou ? What have vou to regrret ? . . . . The life of man
is but an atom in the duration of history, but with re-
gard to your majesty, the one i^? already so full, that you
scarcely ought to take any interest but in the other j if
your body suffers here, your memory is enriched a hun-
dred-fold. Had it been your lot to end your days in the
bosom of uninterrupted pro«^perity, how many grand and
striking circumstances would have passed away unknown !
You yourself. Sire, have assured me of this, and I have
remained impressed with the force of that truth. Not a
day, in fact, passes in which those, who were your ene-
mies, do not repejjt with us, who are your faithful ser-
vants, that ycu are unquestionablv greater here than in
the Tuileries. And even on this rock, to which you have
been transferred by violence and perfidy, do you not
still command ? Your jailors, your masters, are at your
feet ; your soul captivate^ every one that comes near you ,
you shew yourself \\)i-A\ history represents St. Louis in
the chains of the Saracen?, the real master of his con-
querors. Your irresistible ascendancy accompanies you
here. We, who are all about you. Sire, entertain this
opinion of you ; the Russian commissioner expressed the
same sentiment, we are assured, the other day, and it is
felt by those who guard you. What have you to regret V*

On our return the Emperor, in spite of the storm,
ordered his breakfast in the tent, and kept me with him.
The rain did not penetrate ; the only inconvenience was
a considerable degree of damp ; but the squalls of wind
and rain whirled round us, and vented themselves far
before us, towards the bottom of the valley ; the sj)ec-
tacle was not destitute of beaut v.

OKNERAL S K» 143

The Emperor retired about two o'clock ; he sent for
me some time afterwards to his cabinet. " I havp..** said

he, laying down the book, just read General S n ;

he is a madman, a hair-brained fellow, he writes noa
sense. He is. however, after all, readable and amusing ,
he cuts up, dissects, judges, and pronounces sentence
upon men and things. He does not hesitate to give
advice, in several instances, to Wellington, and asserts,
that he ought to have made some campaigns under
Kleber, &c. Kleber was no doubt a great general, but
the notice taken of Soult is not precisely the best part of
the book ; he is an excellent director, a good minister
at war.

'* This S n," he continued, " deserted from the

camp at lioulogne, carrying all my secrets to the Eng-
Jish ; that might have been attended with serious

consequences. S n was a general officer; his

conduct was dreadful and unpardonable. But obser\'e
how a man, in the monient of revolution, may be a bad
character, impudent, and shameless. I found him, on
my return from the island of Elba ; he waited for me
with confidence, and wrote a long letter lu which he
attempted to make me his dupe. The Engli'^H, he said,
were miserable creatures; he had been a l:)ng time
among them ; he was acquainted with their means and
resources, and could be very useful to me. lie knew
that I was too magnanimous, too great, to remember the
wrongs I had suffered from him. I ordered him to be
arrested, and as he had been already tried and condemned,
I am at a loss to know wliv he was not shot. Either

m

there was not time to carry his sentence into effect, or
he was forgotten. There can be no forbearance, no
indulgence for the general, who has the infamy to pros-
titute himseif to a foreign power.'*

The Grand Marshal came in ; the Emperor, after con-
tinuing the conversation for some time, took him away tc
play at chess. He suffered much from the badness of
the weather.

After diriTier. he read I^e Tartuffe ; but he was so
fatigued, that he could not get through it. He laid
down the book, and, after paying a just tribute of eulogy

«44 THB BAKONB38 DB 8 • • • •

to Moliere, he concladed in a manner which we liuU
expected. *' The whole of the Tartuffe," he remarked, ** is
unquestionably, finished with the hand of a master, it
*s one of the best pieces of an inimitable writer. It is.
however, marked with such a character, that I am not at
ail surprised, that its appearance should have been the
subject of interesting negotiations at Versailles, and of a
great deal of hesitation on the part of Louis XIV. If I
have a right to be astonished at any thing, it is at his
allowing it to be performed. In my opinion, it holds
out devotion under such odious colours ; a certain scene
presents so decisive a situation, so completely indecent,
that, for my own part, I do not hesitate to say, if the
cociedy had been written in my time, I would not have
allowed it to be represented."

THK BARONRSS DB 8. . . ., &C.

20th. — About four o'clock, I attended the Emperor,
according to liis orders, in the billiard-room. The wea-
ther still .,.'itinued dreadful ; it did not allow him to set
his foot out of doors, and he was, he said, nevertheless,
cb*iven fKun liis apartment and the safoon by the smoke.
My looks ''Id him, he said, that I was quite flustered ;
it was with the most hvely indignation, and he wished to
knov the cause of it.

'* Two or three years ago," said I, *' a clerk in the war
olfice, a very worthy man, as far as I know, used to com«
to my house to give my son lessons in writing and in
Latin. He had a daughter, whom he wished to make a
governess, and begged us to recommend her, should an
occasion present itself. Madame Las Cases sent for her ;
she was charming, and in every respect highly attractive.
From that moment, Madame Las Cases invited her occa-
sionally to her house, with the view of introducing her
into the world, and obtaining some acquaintances for her
who might prove useful. But, how strange ! this young
person, our acquaintance, our obliged friend, is actually

at this moment the Baroness de S the wife o!

one of the Commissioners of the allied powers, who
arrived nearlv a month since, in the island.

** Your Majesty may judge of my surprise and of all
mvjoy at this singular freak of fortune. I am then

INGRATITUDE TO THE AUTHOR. 145

about to have, I said to myself, positive, particular, and
even secret information respecting every thing that
interests me. Several days passed without any commu-
nication, but without any anxiety, and even with some
satisfaction on my part. For, I thought, the greater the
caution, the more I had to expect. At length, hurried
on by my impatience, I sent three or four days ago my
servant to Madame de S . . . . ; I had described her
very properly, and, as an inhabitant of the island, he
found no difficulty in gaining admittance. He returned
soon with an answer from Madame de S . . . . , that
she did not know the person who had sent him. I might,
under every circumstance, be still induced to think, that
this was an excess of prudence, and that she was
unwilling to place confidence in one unknown to her.
But this very day, I received notice from the governor,
not to attempt to form any secret connexion in the
island ; that I ought to be aware of the danger to which
I exposed myself; and that the attempt with which he
reproached me was not a matter of doubt ; for he was
put in possession of it by the very person to whom I had
addressed myself. Your Majesty now knows what has
confounded me. To find that so villainous a charge
should come from a quarter where I had a right to
expect some interest in my afiairs, and even gratitude,
has irritated me beyond measure ; I am no longer the
same person."

The Emperor laughed in my face : ** How little do
vou know of the human heart ! What ! her father was
your son's tutor, or something of that kind ; she enjoyed
your wife's protection when she was in want of it, and
she is become a German baroness ! But, mv dear I^as
Cases, you are the person whom she dreads most here,
who lay her most under constraint ; she will allege that
she never saw your wife at P»jris, and besides, this mis-
chievous Sir Hudson liowe may have been delighted
with giving an odious turn to the thing ; he is so artful,
so malignant." And he then began to laugh at me and
my anger.

After dinner, the Emperor resumed his reading of the
Tartuffe, which he had not finished vesterday, and there
Vol. III.— 7

146 Napol£on*s dislike to medicine.

was enough left for to-day. The Emperor was quite
dejected ; the bad weather has a visible effect upon him.

CORVISART. ANECDOTES OF THE SALOONS OF PARIS.

21st. — The weather as horrible as ever. — We are
seriously incommoded with the wet in our apartments ;
the rain penetrates every where.

The governor s secretary brought me a letter from
Europe ; it afforded a few moments of real happiness ;
it contained the recollections and good wishes of my
dearest friends. I went and read it to the Emperor,

The Emperor suffered seriously from the badness of
the weather. He went to his saloon about four o'clock ;
he thought that he was feverish, and found himself
much depressed ; he called for some punch, and played
a few games at chess with the grand marshal. The
doctor is come from the town. The two vessels just
arrived are from the Cape ; one of them is the Podargus,
which left Europe ten days after the Griffin ; the other,
a small frigate, on her way from India to Europe. There
was, it was said, a letter for the Emperor Napoleon, but
it was not delivered, and we did not know from whom
it came.

After dinner it was said that the medicines in the
island were exhausted, and it was remarked, that the
Emperor could not be accused of having contributed to
it. This led him to observe, that he did not recollect
having ever taken any medicine. At the Tuileries, he
had had three blisters at once, and even then he had not
taken any. He received a serious wound at Toulon; it
was, he said, like that of Ulysses, by which his old nurse
knew him again ; he had recovered altogether, without
taking physic. One of us taking the liberty to say ; *' If
your majesty had the dysentery to-morrow, woiUd you
still reject all kind of medicine?" The Emperor an-
swered ; ''Now that I am tolerably well, I answer, yes,
without hesitation ; but if I were to be very ill, I should,
perhaps, alter my mind, and should then feel that kind of
conversion, which is produced on a dying man through
the fear of the devil." He again mentioned his in-
credulity in physic, but he did not think so, he said, of

ANECDOTES. 147

surgery. He had three times commenced a course of
anatomy, but they had always been broken off by
business and disgust. ** On a certain occasion, and
at the end of a long discussion, Corvisart, desirous of
speaking to me, with his proofs in hand, was so abomina-
bly filthy as to bring a stomach, wrapped up in his
pocket-handkerchief, to St. Cloud, and I was instantly
compelled, at that horrible sight, to cast up all that
I had in mine."

The Emperor attempted, after dinner, to read 9
comedy, but he was so fatigued, and suffered so much}
that he was forced to stop and retire about nine o'clock.
He made me follow him, and as he felt no inclination to
sleep, he said ; *' Come, my dear Las Cases, let us see ;
let us have a story about your fauxbourg Saint Germain,
and let us endeavour to laugh at it, as if we were listen-
ing to the Thousand and One Nights* ! *' — ''Very well,
Sire ; there was, formerly, one of your Majesty's cham-
berlains, who had a grand-uncle, who was very old, very

old indeed, and I remember your Majesty telling

us the story of a heavy German officer, who, taken pri-
soner at the opening of the campaign in Italy, com-
plained that a young conceited fellow had been sent to
command against them, who spoiled the profession, and
made it intolerable. Well ! we had precisely his like-
ness among us ; it was the old grand- uncle, who was
still dressed nearly in the costume of Louis XIV. He
showed off, whenever you sent accounts of any extra-
ordinary achievements on the other side of the Rhine ;
your bulletins of Ulm and Jena operated upon him like
so many revulsions of bile. He was far from admiring
you. You also spoiled the profession, in his opinion.
He had, he frequently said, made the campaigns under
Marshal de Saxe, which indeed were prodigies in war,
and had not been sufficiently appreciated. ' War was,
no doubt, then an art ; but now ! ! ! ' he remarked,
shrugging up his shoulders .... * In our time we carried
on war with great decorum ; we had our mules ; we
were followed by our canteens ; we had our tents ; we
lived well; we had even plays performed at head-
quarters , the aripies approached each other ; admirable

i4d ANKCDOTSS.

•j.^ositions were occupied ; a battle took p. ace ; a siege
was occasionallv carried on, and afterwards we went into

winter- quarters, to renew our operations in the spring.
That is/ he exclaiired, with exultation, * what may be
called making war ! But now, a whole army disappears
before another in a single battle, and a monarchy is over-
turned ; a hundred leagues are run over in ten days ; aa
for sleeping and eating, they are out of the question.
Truly, if you call that genius, I am, for my own part,
obliged to acknowledge, that I know nothing about it ;
and, accordingly, you excite my pity, when I hear you
call him a great man.* "

The Emperor burst into fits of laughter, particulaily
when the mules and canteens were mentioned. He then
added ; " You were of course accustomed to say a great
many foolish things about me.*' — **0 yes, Sire, and in
/ast abundance." ** Very well ! We are alone; nobody
will intrude; tell me some more of them." "A fine
g-entleman, who had formerly been a captain of cavalry,
and who seemed perfectly satisfied with his own person
and accomplishments, was introduced to a select society
where I was present. * I come,* he said, * from the
Plain of Sablons. I have just seen our Ostrogoth ma-
noeuvre.' That, Sire, was your Majesty. * He had two
or three regiments, which he threw into confusion upon
each other, and they were all lost in some bushes. I
would have taken him and all his men prisoners with
fifty maitres (formerly troopers) only. An usurped
reputation ! ' he exclaimed. * Accordingly, Moreau was
always of opinion, that he would fail in Germany. A
war with Germany is talked of; if it takes place, we
shall see how he will get out of it. He will have justice
done to him.'

** The war took place, and your Majesty sent us, in
a very few days, the bulletin of Ulm, and that of Auster-
litz ; our fine gentleman again made his appearance in
the same company, and for the moment, in spite of our
malevolence, we could not help crying out all at once:
' And your fifty maitres ! ' * Oh ! truly,* said he, * it is
impossible to comprehend the thing; this man triumphs
over everv obstacle : Fortune leads him bv the hand*

ANECDOTES. 149

and, besides, the Austrians are so awkward ; such
tools !'"....

The Emperor laughed heartily, and wished for some
anecdote still more absurd. ** That would indeed, Sire,
be very difficult to find. I recollect, however, an old
dowager, who, to the day of her death, obstinately re-
fused to give credit to any of your successes in Germany.
When Ulra, Austerlitz, and your entrance into Vienna
were mentioned in her presence : — * So, you believe all
that,' said she, shrugging up her shoulders. • It is all
his fabrication. He would nof presume to set a foot in
Germany ; be assured, that he is still behind the Rhine,
where he is perishing from fear, and sends us those silly
stories : you will learn, in time, that I am not to be im-
posed upon.' "

And these stories being over, the Emperor sent me
away, saying : ** What are they doing, what must they
say, at present ? I am certainly now giving them a fine
opportunity."

22nd. — This was a day of real mourning for me : it
was the first, since our departure from France, in which
I did not see the Emperor. I was the only one, in con-
sequence of fortunate circumstances, who, until now, had
enjoyed that happiness. His sufierings were great, and
his seclusion complete. He did not ask to see a single
person.

THE EMPEROR CONTINUES ILL. REMARKABLE OFFICIAL

DOCUMENT, ADDRESSED TO SIR HUDSON LOWE.

23d. — The weather has continued wet and rainy.
About half-past three, the Emperor sent for me to his
chamber. He was dressing himself ; he had been very
seriously indisposed, but, thanks to his mode of treating
himself, he said, and to his hermetical seclusion of the
preceding day, his complaint was over. He was again
well.

1 dared to express my sincere grief ; I had inscribed,
I said, an unhappy day in my journal ; I should have
marked it in red ink. And when he learned what it
was : ** What indeed," he said, ** is it the only day,
since we left France, in which you have not seen me ?. . •

150 RKCOVERT OF THR EMPEROR.

And you are the only one ! . . . ." And after a silence
of some seconds, he added, in a tone peculiarly adapted
to make me amends, if that were possible ; ** But, my
dear Las Cases, if you set such a value on it, if you con-
sider it of so much moment, why did you not come and
knock at my door ? I am not inaccessible to you. "

The Doctor was introduced ; he assured us that the
Governor had promised never again to set foot at Long-
wood. It was ironically observed by one of us that he
began to make himself agreeable.

The Emperor then went to his library, where along
letter which I had written to Rome,* was read to him
by my son. He was driven out by the wet, and, on his
way to the saloon and billiard-room, he was tempted by
the sight of the steps to walk a little. ** I know,** he
said, ** I am doing what is not prudent.*' Luckily, the
wet weather forced him to return almost instantly. He
took a seat in the saloon, where there was a good fire,
called for infusion of orange -leaves, and played some
games of chess.

After dinner, the Emperor read Marmontel's Tales,
and stopped at that of the self-styled philosopher. He
still coughed a great deal, and again called for some of
the same drink. He entered into a long and most interest-
ing review of Jean Jacques, of his talents, his influence,
his eccentricities, his private vices. He retired at ten
o'clock. I regret very much, that 1 cannot now recollect
the particulars relative to all these sul)jects.

In the course of the day M. de Montholon addressed
the following official answer to the Governor, who had
sent a letter, respecting the commissioners of the allied
powers, and the embarrassed state of his flnances. It is
the letter, which I have already noticed on the 18th ol
this month.

• It was my letter to Prince Lucien, since so celebrated ir. the
history of my persecutions, and which will be found in its propel
place.

151

OFFICIAL DOCUMENT.

" General, — I have received the treaty of the 2d ai
August, 1815, concluded between his Britannic Majesty^
the Eraperor of Austria, the Emperor of Russia, and the
King of Prussia, which was annexed to your letter of the
23d of Julv.

**The Emperor Napoleon protests against the purport
of that treaty ; he is not the prisoner of England. After
having placed his abdication in the hands of the repre-
sentatives of the nation, for the benefit of the constitution
adopted by the French people, and in favour of his son,
he proceeded voluntarily and freely to England, for the
purpose of residing there, as a private person, in retire-
ment, under the protection of the British laws. The
violation of all laws cannot constitute a right in fact.
The person of the Elmperor Napoleon is in the power of
England ; but neither, as a matter of fact, nor of right,
has it been, nor is it, at present, in the power of Austria,
Russia, and Prussia ; even according to the laws and
customs of England, which has never included, in its
exchange of prisoners, Russians, Austrians, Prussians,
Spaniards, or Portuguese, although united to these powers
by treaties of alliance, and making war conjointly with
them. The Convention of the 2d of August, made
fifteen days after the Emperor Napoleon had arrived
in England, cannot, as a matter of right have any
effect ; it merely presents the spectacle of the coali-
tion of the four principal powers of Europe, for the
oppression of a single man ; a coalition which the opinion
of all nations disavows, as do all the principles of sound,
morality. The Emperors of Austria and Russia, and the
King of Prussia, not possessing, either in fact or by right
any power over the person of the Emperor Napoleon,
were incapable of enacting any thing with regard to him.
If the Emperor Napoleon had been in the power of the
Emperor of Austria, that prince would have remembered
the relations formed by religion and nature between a
father and a son, relations which are never violated witl
impunity. He would have remembered that four times
Napoleon re-established him on his throne ; at Leoben,
in J 797, and at Luneville in 1801, when his armies were

1 52 LKTTBR FROM COUNT MONTHOLON

under the walls of Vienna; at Presburgh in 1806, and
at Vienna in 1809, when his armies were in possession of
the capital and of three-fourths of the monarchy. That
prince would have remembered the protestations which
he made to him at the bivouac in Moravia in 1806, and
at the interview at Dresden in 1812. If the person of
the Emperor Napoleon had been in the power of the
Emperor Alexander, he would have remembered the ties
of friendship, contracted at Tilsit, at Erfurth, and during
twelve years of daily intercourse ; he would have re-
membered the conduct of the Emperor Napoleon the day
after the battle of Austerlitz, when, having it in his
power to take him prisoner with the remains of his army,
he contented himself with his word, and suffered him to
effect his retreat ; he would huve remembered the dangers
to which the Emperor Napoleon personally exposed him-
self to extinguish the fire of Moscow and preserve that
capital for him : unquestionably that prince would not
have violated the duties of friendship and gratitude
towards a friend in distress. If the person of the
Emperor Napoleon had been even in power of the King
of Prussia, that sovereign would not have forgotten that
it was optional with the Emperor, after the battle of
Friedland, to place another prince on the throne of Berlin ;
he would not have forgotten, in the presence of a dis-
armed enemy, the protestations of attachment and the
sentiments which he expressed to him in 1812, at the
interviews at Dresden. It is, accordingly, evident from
the 2d and 5th articles of the said treaty, that, being in-
capable of any influence whatever over the fate, and the
person of the Emperor Napoleon, who is not in their
power, these princes refer themselves in that respect to
the future conduct of his Britannic Majesty, who under-
takes to fulfil all obligations.

** These princes have reproached the Emperor Napoleon
with preferring the protection of the English laws to
theirs. The false ideas which the Emperor Napoleon
entertained of the liberality of the English laws, and of
the influence of a great, generous, and free people on its
government, decided him in preferring the protection of
these laws to that of his father-in-law, or of his old

TO SIR HUDSON LOWE. 15C

friend. The Emperor Napoleon always would have been
able to obtain the security of what related personally to
himself, whether by placing himself again at the head of
the army of the Loire, or by putting himself at the head
of the army of the Gironde, commanded by General
Clausel ; but, looking for the future only to retirement
and to the protection of the laws of a free nation, either
English or American, all stipulations appeared useless to
him. He thought that the English people would have
been more bound by his frank conduct, which was noble
and full of confidence, than it could have been by the
most solemn treaties. He has been mistaken, but this
error will for ever excite the indignation of real Britons,
and, with the present as well as future generations, it
will be a proof of the perfidy of the English administra-
tion. Austrian and Russian commissioners are arrived at
St. Helena ; if the object of their mission be to fulfil part
of the duties, which the Emperors of Austria and Russia
have contracted bv the treatv of the 2d of Auj'ust, and to
take care, that the English agents, in a smt^ll colony, in
the midst of the Ocean, do not fail in the attentions due
to a prince connected with them by the ties of affinity,
and by so many relations, the characteristics of these two
sover^i^s will be recognized in that measure. But you.
Sir, h4ye asserted, that these commissioners possessed
neither the right nor the power of giving any opinion on
whatever may be transacted on this rock.

** The English ministry have caused the Emperor
Napoleon to be transported to Saint Helena, two thou-
sand leagues from Europe. This rock, situated under
the tropic at the distance of five hundred leagues from
any continent is, in that latitude, exposed to a devouring
heat ; it is, during three-fourths of the year, covered
with clouds and mists ; it is at once the driest and wet-
test country in the world. This is the most inimical
climate to the Emperor's health. It is hatred which
dictated the selection of this residence, as well as the
instructions, given by the English ministry to the officers
who command in this country ; they have been ordered
to call the Emperor Napoleon, General, being desirous
of compelling him to acknowledge that he never reigned

154 LETTKR FROM COUNT MONTHOLON

in France, which decided him not to take an incognito
title, as he had determined on quitting France. First
magistrate for life, under the title of first consul, he con-
cluded the preliminaries of London and the treaty of
Amiens with the king of Great Britain. He received as
ambassadors, Lord Comwallis, Mr. Merry, and Lord
Whitworth, who resided in that quality at his court.
He sent to the King of England, Count Otto and General
Andreossi, who resided as ambassadors at the Court of
Windsor. Wlien, after the exchange of letters between
the ministers for foreign afiairs belonging to the two
monarchies, Lord Lauderdale came to Paris, provided
with full powers from the King of England, he treated
with the plenipotentiaries provided with full powers from
the Emperor Napoleon, and resided several months at
the court of the Tuileries. When, afterwards, at Cha-
tillon, Lord Castlereagh signed the ultimatum, which the
allied powers presented to the plenipotentiaries of the
Emperor Napoleon, he thereby recognized the fourth
dynasty. That ultimatum was more advantageous than
the treaty of Paris ; but France was required to renounce
Belgium and the left bank of the Rhine, which was con-
trary to the propositions of Frankfort and to the pro-
clamations of the allied powers ; and was also contrary
to the oath by which, at his consecration, the Emperor
had sworn the integrity of the empire. The Emperor
then thought these national limits were necessary to the
security of France as well as to the equilibrium of
Europe ; he thought that the French nation, in the cir-
cumstances under which it found itself, ought rather to
risk every chance of war than to give them up. France
would have obtained that integrity, and with it preserved
her honour, had not treason contributed to the success
of the allies. The treaty of the 2d of August, and the
bill of the British parliament, style the Emperor, Na-
poleon Bonaparte, and give him only the title of General.
The title of General Bonaparte is, no doubt, eminently
glorious ; the Emperor bore it at Lodi, at Castiglione, a
Rivoii, at Arcole, at Leoben, at the Pyramids, at Abou-
kir ; but for seventeen vears he has borne that of First
Con«'il and of Emperor j it would be an admission that

TO SIR HUDSON LOWS. 15^

he has been neither first magistrate of the republic, nor
sovereign of the fourth dynasty. Those, who think that
nations are flocks, which, by divine right, belong to some
families, are neither of the present age, nor of the spirit
of the English legislature, which has several times
changed the succession of its dynasties, because the great
alterations occasioned by opinions, in which the reigning
princes did not participate, had made them enemies to
the happiness of the great majority of that nation. Foi
kings are but hereditary magistrates, who exist but for
the happiness of nations, and not nations for the satis-
faction of kings. It is the same spirit of hatred, which
directed that the Emperor Napoleon should not write or
receive any letter, without its being opened and read by
the English ministers and the officers of St. Helena. He
has, by that regulation, been interdicted the possibility
of recei\ing intelligence from his mother, his wife, his
son, his brothers ; and when, wishing to avoid the in-
convenience of having his letters read by inferior officers,
he wished to send sealed letters to the Prince Regent, he
was told, that open letters only could be taken charge of
and conveyed, and that such were the instructions of the
ministry. That measure stands in need of no comment ;
it will suggest strange ideas of the spirit of the adminis-
tration by which it was dictated ; it would be disclaimed
even at Algiers ! Letters have been received for general
officers in the Emperor's suite ; they were opened and
delivered to you ; you have retained them, because they
had not been transmitted through the medium of the
English ministry ; it was found necessary to make them
travel four thousand leagues over again, and these
officers had the misfortune to know, that their existed
on this rock news from their wives, their mothers, and
their children, and that they could not be put in pos-
session of it, in less than six months ! ! ! — The heart
revolts.

Permission could not be obtained to subscribe to the
Morning Chronicle, to the Morning Post, or to some
French journals : some broken numbers of the Times
have been occasionally sent to Longwood. In conse-
se juence of the demand made on board the Northumber-

l56 LETTER FROM COUNT MONTHOLOK

land, acme books have been sent, but all those vhich
relate to the transactions of late years have been care-
fully kept back. It was since intended to opan a cor-
respondence with a London bookseller for the purpose of
being directly supplied with books which might be
wanted, and with those relative to the events of the day;
that intention was frustrated. An English author, having
published at London an account of his travels in France,
took the trouble to send it as a present to the Emperor,
but you did not think yourself authorized to deliver it to
him, because it had not reached you through the channel
of your government. It is also said, that other books
sent by their authors, have not been delivered, because
the address of some was — To the Emperor Napoleon,
and of others — ^To Napoleon the Great. The English
ministry are not authorized to order any of these vexa-
tions. The law, however unjust, considers the Empei or
Napoleon as a prisoner of war; but prisoners of war
have never been prohibited from subscribing to the jour-
nals, or receiving books that are printed; such a prohibi-
tion is exercised only in the dungeons of the Inquisition.

" The island of St. Helena is ten leagues in circum-
ference ; it is every where inaccessible ; the coast is
guarded by brigs ; posts within sight of each other are
placed on the shore; and all communication with the
sea is rendered impracticable. There is but one small
town, James Town, where the vessels anchor, and from
which they sail. In order to prevent the escape of an
individual, it is sufficient to guard the coast by land and
sea. By interdicting the interior of the island, one ob-
ject only can be in view, that of preventing a ride of
eight or ten miles, which it would be possible to take on
horseback, and the privation of which, according to the
consultations of medical men, is abridging the Emperor's
days.

** The Emperor has been placed at Longwood, which
is exposed to every wind ; a barren spot, uninhabited^
<vithout water, and incapable of any kind of cultivation
The space contains about 1200 uncultivated fathoms. At
the distance of 11 or 1200 fathoms, a camp has been
formed on a small eminence ; another has been since

TO SIB HUDSON LOWfi. 157

placed nearly at the same distance in an opposite direc
tion, 80 that, in the intense heat of the tropic, whichevci
way the eye turns nothing is seen hut camps. Admiral
Malcolm, perceiving the utility of which a tent would be
to the Emperor in that situation, has had one pitched hy
iiis seamen at tlie distance of twenty paces from the
house ; it is the only spot in which shade is to be found.
The Emperor, has, however, every reason to be satisfied
with tlie spirit which animates the officers and soldiers
of tlie gallant 53rd, as he had been with the crew of the
Northumberland. Longwood House was built for a
barn to the company's farm ; some apartments were
afterwards made in it by the Deputy- Governor of the is-
land J he used it for a country-house ; but it was, in no
respect, adapted for a residence. During the year that
it has been inhabited, people have always been at work
in it, and the Emperor has been constantly exposed to
the inconvenience and unwholesomeness of a house, in
which workmen are employed. His bedchamber is too
small to contain a bedstead of ordinary size ; but every
kind of building at Longwood would prolong the incon-
venience arising from the workmen. There are, however,
in this wretched island, some beautiful situations, with
fine trees, gardens, and tolerably good houses, among
others Plantation House ; but you are prevented by the
positive instructions of the ministry from granting this
house, which would have saved a great doal of expense
laid out in building, at Longwood, huts covered with
pitched paper, which are no longer of any use. You
have prohibited every kind of intercourse between us and
the inhabitants of the island; you have, in fact, converted
Longwood House into a secret prison ; you have even
thrown diflSculties in the way of our communication with
the ofl[icers of the garrison. The most anxious care
would seem to be taken to deprive us of the few resources
afforded by this miserable country, and we are no better
oflf here than we should be on Ascension Rock. During
the four months you have been at St. Helena, you have.
Sir, rendered the Emperor's condition worse. It was
observed to you by Count Bertrand, that you violated
the law of your legislature, that you trampled upon the

i68 LKTTKR FROM COUNT MONTIIOLOX

privileges of general officers, prisoners of war. You
answered, that vou knew nothing but the letter of vour
instructions, and that they were still worse than youi
conduct appeared to us.

I have the honour, &c.
(Signed) Count db Month olon.

'* P. S. — I had, Sir, signed this letter, when I received
vours of the 17th, to which vou annex the estimate of an
annual sum of 20,000/. sterling, which you consider in-
dispensable to meet the expenses of the establishment of
Longwood, after having made all the reductions which
you have thought possible. The consideration of this
estimate can, in no respect, concern us ; the Emperor's
table is scarcely supplied with what is necessary ; all the
provisions are of bad quality and four times as dear as at
Paris. You require a fund of twelve thousand pounds
sterling from the Emperor, as your government allows
you only eight thousand pounds for all these expenses. I
have had the honour of telling you, that the Emperor
had no funds ; that no letter had been received or writ-
ten for a year ; and that he was altogether unacquainted
with what is passing or what may have passed in Europe.
Transported by violence to this rock, at the distance of
two thousand leagues, without being able to receive or to
write any letter, he now finds himself at the discretion
of the English agents. The Emperor has uniformly
desired and still desires to provide himself for all his
expenses of every kind, and he will do so, as speedily
as you shall give possibility to the means, by taking off
the prohibition, laid upon the merchants of the island, of
carrying on his correspondence, and releasing it from all
kind of inquisition on your part or on that of any of your
agents. The moment the Emperor's wants shall be
known in Europe, the persons who interest themselves
for him will transmit the necessary funds for his sup-
plies.

"The letter of Lord Bathurst, which vou have commu-
nicated to me, gives rise to strange ideas ! Can your mi-
nisters then be so ignorant as not to know that the spec-
tacle of a great man struggling with adversity is the

TO 8IK HUDSON LOWK. 159

iDOst sublime of spectacles ? Can they be ignorant, that
Napoleon at St. Helena, amidst persecutions of every
kind, against which his serenity is his only shield, is
greater, more sacred, more venerable than on the first
throne of the world, where he was, so long, the arbiter
of Kings } Those, who, fail in respect to Napoleon, thus
situated, merely degrade their own character and the
nation which they represent ! "

MY ENGLISH FAMILY. JUST DEBT OP GRATITUDE TO

THE ENGLISH ON THE PART OP THE EMIGRANTS,

&C. — GENERAL JOUBERT. — PETERSBURG. MOSCOW ;

THE CONFLAGRATION. PROJECTS OF NAPOLEON, HAD

HE RETURNED VICTORIOUS.

24th. — I went, at two o'clock, to the Emperor, in his
apartment. He had sent for my Atlas in the morning.
I found him finishing his examination of the map of
Russia and of that part of America adjoining the Russian
establishments.

He had suffered, and coughed a great deal, during the
night. The weather had, however, become milder.
While he was dressing to go out, he often dwelt upon
the happy idea of the Atlas, the merit of its execution,
and the immensity of its contents. He concluded, as
usual, with saying ; ** What a collection ! what details !
How complete in all its parts !"

The Emperor went to the garden. I told him, that
I had written, in the morning, to England, and answered
the letter which I had read to him two or three davs
ago. ** Your English family," he then observed, ** seem
to be very good kind of people ; they are very fond of
you, and you appear very much attached to them.'* I an-
swered ; ** Sire, I took care of them in France, during
their ten years captivity, and they had taken care of me
in England, during my ten years emigration. It is
altogether the hospitality of the ancients which we ex-
ercise towards each other. I rely upon them, in every
respect, and they are at liberty to dispose of all I pos-
s.ess." — ** This," said he, is a very happy connexion.
How did you obtain it ? To what are you indebted for
it ? " I then told him how I became acquainted with
this family.

160 KINDNESS OF AN ENGLISH FAMILY.

"Never was the plank, by the assistance of which ai
unfortunate person, after shipwreck, preserved his lifC;
dearer to him than this family is to me. There are.
Sire, no favours, no treasures, which can compensate
the kindnesses I have received from it, and the happiness
it has conferred upon me.

** When the horrible excesses of our revolution com-
pelled us to take refuge in England, our emigration pro-
duced the liveliest sensation in that countrv ; the arrival
of so many illustrious exiles, their past fortunes, and
their then forlorn condition, were impressed on every
mind, and filled every heart. They became the subject
of consideration in political assemblies, in places of divine
worship, in fashionable circles, and in private families.
That catastrophe agitated every class, and excited every
sympathy. We were sun'ounded by a generous and
feeling multitude. We were the objects of the most
delicate attentions, and of the most substantial favours.
Such, it must be acknowledged, was the affecting sight
held out by a vast portion of English society, even in
spite of the difference of opinions. It is a testimony due
from our gratitude to the truth of history.

** I was then in London, with a cousin of my name,
whose situation at the court of Versailles had enabled
her to be of some service to the most distinguished
persons in Europe, where she was a lady of honour to
the Princess Lamballe, who was herself sub-intendant of
the Queen's household. That turned out a fortunate
circumstance for our family. My cousin experienced
proofs of the greatest benevolence ; a great number of
persons were eager to make a tender of their services^
and, among others, a certain young couple. The wife
was charming, and distinguished for the elegance and
dignity of her manners ; the husband was of an easy
temper, of a mild and honourable character. Their
house was almost instantly open to my cousin and to all
her relations, who bad every reason to find themselves
as much at their ease there, as if they had been in their
own families.

" This worthy couple took every occasion to oblige
and to be of use to our i*efugees Their house was fre-

AN ENGLISH FAMILY. 16

quented by the most distinguished emigrants. A great
number of us there contracted a debt of gratitude which,
notwithstanding all its extent, I should not despair of
paying, were I alone left to discharge it. I shall leave
it as a legacy to my children, who, if they resemble me,
will look upon it as sacred, and deem themselves happy
in redeeming the obligation.

•* Elevation of soul, and the emotions of a French
heart, characterized the conduct of Lady . . . When the
Prince of Conde (arrived in London,) was looking for a
country residence, she sent me to offer him the superb
mansion which she possessed, in the county of Durham.
The Prince, after hearing the particulars, having remarked
that it would, no doubt, cost him a King's ransom, was
agreeably surprised at learning that it was presented to
him by a French woman, who would, she said, consider
that she had received an inestimable price, should a
Conde condescend to inhabit it. He went, instantly, to
express his acknowledgments in person.

** Tliis family visited Paris after the peace of Amiens,
and it was in its bosom, and through its protection, that
I was enabled, a few days sooner, to breathe the air of
my country. I was exempted, through its means, from
the tedious and painful formalities required from me by
the act of amnesty on the frontier, and I felt it my duty
to provide for their accommodation at Paris, with much
more facility and less inconvenience than they could have
done themselves. I had also the happiness, when the
measure for detaining the English residents was carried
into effect, and this family was placed among the number,
of alleviating their condition in my turn, and becoming
their security.

** We were, at length, separated by time and circum-
stances ; but they have lost nothing in my recollection ;
and the needle is less constant to the pole, and less faith-
ful in its guidance, than are my thoughts and my gra-
titude, with respect to those good and valuable friends.
Such, Sire, is what your Majesty is pleased to call my
English family."

We had, however, during my relation, walktd to the
E table, and called for the calash. The Emperor ordered

162 GENERAL JOUBERT.

it to take us up at the bottom of the v/ood. We waited for
it a long time, because Madame de Montholon was seized
with a sudden indisposition. Her husband came to apolo-
gize for the delay, and the Emperor made him get in.

The conversation turned, during our ride, upon Genera]
Joubert, whose brother-in-law and aid-de-camp M. de
Montholon had been.

" Joubert," said the Emperor, *' entertained a high
veneration for me ; he deplored my absence at every re-
verse experienced by the Republic, during the expedition
to Egypt. He was, at that time, at the head of the army
of Italy } he had taken me for his model, aspired to imi-
tate my plans, and attempted to accomplish nothing less
than what I afterwards effected in Brumaire : he had,
however, the Jacobins to assist him. The measures and
intrigues of that party, to place the means of executing
that grand enterprise in his power, had raised him to
the command in Italy, after the disasters of Scherer ; of
that Scherer who was an ignorant peculator, and deserv-
ing of every censure. But Joubert was killed at Novi, in
his first rencounter with Suwarrow ; any attempt of his,
at Paris, would have failed ; he had not yet acquired a
sufficient degree of glory, of consistency, and maturity.
He was, by nature, calculated for all these acquirements,
but, at that moment, he was not adequately formed ; he
was still too young, and that enterprise was then beyond
his ability."

The Emperor could not take more than one round ; he
found himself too much fatigued, and was far from being
well.

At half past eight o'clock, the Emperor ordered me to
be called. He told me that he had been obliged to take
a bath, and thought he was a little feverish. He felt
that he had suddenly caught cold, but he had ceased to
cjugh since he was in the bath. He continued for a
long time in the water. He dined in it, and a small
table was laid for me by the side. The Emperor re-
verted to the history of Russia. " Had Peter the Great,*'
he asked, ** acted with wisdom in founding a capital at
Petersburgh at so vast an expense ? Would not the re-
sults have been greater, had he expended all his money
at Moscow ? What was his object } Had he accom

(CONFLAGRATION OF MOSCOW. IGS

plished it ?** I replied : "If Peter had remained at Mos-
c<iw, his nation would have continued Muscovite, a
people altogether Asiatic ; it was necessary that it
should be displaced for its reform and alteration. He
had, therefore, selected a position on the very frontiers,
wrested from the enemy, and in founding his ca])ital,
and accumulating all his strength, he rendered it invul-
nerable ; he connected himself with European society ;
he established his power in the Baltic sea, by which ne
could with ease prevent his natural enemies, the I'oles
and the Swedes, from forming alliances, upon occasion,
with the nations situated in their rear.

The Emperor said that " he was not altogether satis-
fied with these reasons. Be it as it may," he observed,
"Moscow has disappeared, and who can compute the
wealth that has been swallowed up there ? Let us con-
template Paris, with the accumulation of buildings and
of industry, the work of centuries. Had its capital, for
the 1400 vears of its existence, increased but a million a
year, what a sum ! Let us connect with that the ware-
houses, the furniture, the union of sciences and the arts,
the complete establishments of trade and commerce, &c.,
and this is the picture ol Moscow ; and all that vanished
ill an instant ! What a catastrophe ! Does not the bare
idea of it make one shudder ? ... I do not think that
it could be replaced at the expense of two thousand
milhons."

He expatiated at great length on all these events, and
let a word escape him which was too characteristic not
to be specially noted down by me. The name of Ros-
topchin having been pronounced, I presumed to remark
that the colour at that time given to his patriotic action
had very much surprised me, for he had interested me
instead of exciting my indignation : nay, I had envied
him ! . . . . The Emperor replied with singular vivacity,
and with a kind of contraction which betrayed vexation :
** If many at Paris had been capable of reading and feel-
ing it in that way, believe me, I should have applauded
it ! But I had no choice left me." Resuming the sub-
,*ect of Moscow, he said : — " Never, with all the powers
of poetry, have the fictions of the burning of Troy

IG4 CONFLAGRATION OF MOSCOW.

equalled the reality of that of Moscow. The city was of
wood, the wind was violent; all the pumpR had been
taken away. It was literally an ocean of fire. Nothing
had been saved from it ; our march was so rapid, our
entrance so sudden. We found even diamonds on the
women's toilets, they had fled so precipitately. They
wrote to us a short time afterwards that they had sought
to escape from the first excesses of a dangerous soldiery ;
that they recommended their property to the generosity
of the conquerors, and would not fail to re- appear in the
course of a few days to solicit their kindness and testify
their gratitude.

** The population was fai from having plotted that
atrocity. Even they themselves delivered up to us three
or four hundred criminals, who escaped from prison,
and had executed it." — ** But, Sire, may I presume to
ask, if Moscow had not been burnt, did not your Ma-
jesty intend to establish your quarters there ?" — " Cer-
tainly." answered the Emperor, " and I should then have
held up the singular spectacle of an army wintering in
the mmst of a hostile nation, pressing upon it from all
points ; it would have been the ship beset by the ice.
You would have been in France without any intelligence
from me for several months ; but vou would have re-
mained quiet, you would have acted wisely. Cambac^rcs
would, as usual, have conducted afluirs in my name, and
all would have been as orderly as if I had been present.
The wmter, in Russia, would have weighed heavy on
every one ; the torpor would have been general. The
spring also would have returned for all the world. All
would have been at once on their legs, and it is well
known that the French are as nimble as any others.

"On the first appearance of fine weather, I should
have marched against the enemy ; I should have beaten
them ; I should have been master of their empire. Alex-
ander, be assured, would not have sufiered me to pro-
ceed so far. He would have agreed to all the conditions
which I might have dictated, and France would then
have begun to enjoy all her advantages. And, truly, my
success depended upon a mere trifle. For I had under-
taken the expedition to fight against armed men. not

CONFLAGRATION OF MOSCOW. 167

of Russia, of the prosperity of which, he said, we had no
idea. He dwelt, at great length, upon Moscow, which
had, under every point of view, much surprised him, and
might bear a comparison with any of the capitals of
Europe, the greater number of which it surpassed.
Here unfortunatelv I can find but bare outlines in mv
notes, which it is impossible for me to fill up now.

He was particularly struck with the gilded spires of
Moscow, and it was that which induced him, on his
return, to have the dome of the Invalids regilt; he
intended to embellish many other edifices at Paris in
the same manner.*

As the city of Moscow seems to have been so different
from the idea which we have generally entertained of it
in our Western world, I am inclined to think that a
description of it in this place, supplied by an eye-witness,
a distinguished person, attached to the expedition, will
not prove disagreeable. It is by Baron liarrey, surgeon-
in-chief to the grand army. I take it from a work of
that celebrated character (Memoires de la Chirurgie Mili-
taire), in no great circulation, on account, perhaps, of its
peculiarly scientific nature.

The relation begins at the moment when the French
army was setting out for Moscow, after the battle of
Mozaisk or of the Moskowa.

** We were hardly a few miles off from Mozaisk, when
we were all surprised at finding ourselves, notwithstand-
ing the vicinity of the spot to one of the greatest capitals
in the world, on a sandy, arid, and completely desert
plain. The mournful aspect of that solitude, which dis-
couraged the soldiers, seemed an omen of the entire
abandonment of Moscow, and of the misfortunes which
awaited us in that city, from the opulence of which we
had promised ourselves such advantages.

* Since the first appearance of this work it has been remarked to
me that this is an anachronism ; as the gilding of the dome of the
Invalids was begun before the campaign in Russia. It was the
minarets of Cairo and not the steeples of Moscow which must have
suggested the idea to Napoleon ; and this was no doubt what he meant
to say : it is easy to imagine that a mistake of this kind might bo
made by him in a eonversation without any special object : in fact
every body is liable to such mistakes.

i68 CONFLAGRATION OF MOSCOW.

*' The army marched, with difficulty, over that tract.
The horses were harassed," and exhausted with hunger
and thirst, for water was as rare as forage. The men
had also a great deal to suffer. They were, in fact, over-
whelmed with fatigue, and in want of all subsistence.
The troops had not, for a long time, received any rations,
and the small quantity of provisions found at Mozaisk
was only sufficient for the young and old guard. A con-
siderable number of the former corps fell victims to
their abuse of the spirits of the country. They were
' observed to quit their comrades a few paces, to totter,
whirl round, and afterwards fall on their knees or sit
down involuntarily ; they r3mained immoveable in that
attitude, and expired shortly afterw^ards, without uttering
a single complaint. These young men were pre-disposed
to the pernicious effects of that liquor by languor,
privations and excessive fatigue.

" We arrived, however, on the evening of the 14th of
September, in one of the suburbs of Moscow ; we there
learnt that the Russian army had, in its passage through
the city, carried off all the citizens and public function •
aries, some of the lower classes and servants alone were
left ; so that, in going through the principal streets of
that great city, which we entered the following morning,
we scarcely met any one ; all the houses were completely
abandoned. But what very much surprised us was to
see the fire break out in several remote quarters, where
none of our troops had yet been, and particularly in the
bazar of the Kremlin, an immense building, with porti-
coes which have some resemblance to those of the Palais
Royal at Paris.

" After what we had witnessed on our passage through
Little Russia, we were astonished at the vastness of
Moscow, at the great number of churches and palaces
which it contained, at the beautiful architeoture of those
edifices, at the commodious disposition of the principal
houses, and all the objects of luxury which were found in
the greater part of them. The streets in general were
spacious, regular, and well laid out. Nothing had the
appearance of discordance throughout that city. Every
^tang announced its wealth, and the immense trade it

CONFLAGRATION OF BI08COW. 1 69

carried on in the productions of the four quarters of
the world.

"The variety displayed in the construction of the
palaces, houses, and churches, was an infinite addition to
the heauty of the city. There were places which, by the
peculiar kind of architecture of the different edifices,
indicated the nations that generally inhabited them ;
thus, the residence of the Franks, Chinese, Indians,
and Germans, was easily distinguished. The Kremlin
might be considered as the citadel of Moscow ; it is in
the centre of the town, situated on an eminence suffi-
ciently elevated, surrounded by a wall with bastions,
and flanked, at regular distances, by towers, mounted

with cannon. The bazaar, which has been alreadv

it

noticed, usually filled with the merchandize of India,
and valuable furs, had become the prey of the flames,
and the only articles preserved were those which had
been deposited in the vaults, where the soldiers pene-
trated, after the fire that consumed the whole of the
exterior of that beautiful edifice. The palace of the
Emperors, that of the senate, the archives, the arsenal,
and two very ancient churches, occupy the rest of the
Kremlin. These different buildings, of a rich style of
arclii lecture, form a magnificent appearance about the
parade. One might imagine one's self transported to
the public place of ancient Athens, where the Areopagus
and tlie temj)le of Minerva on one side, and the academy
and the arsenal on the other, were the objects of admi-
ration. A cylindrical tower rises betwewi the two
churches, in the form of a column, known by the name
of Yvan's tower; it is rather an Egyptian minaret,
within which several bells, of different sizes, are hung.
At the foot of this tower, is seen a bell of a prodigious
magnitude, which has been noticed by all the historians.
Tlie whole of the city and its environs are seen from the
lop of the towers ; it looks like a star, with four forked
ravs. The city has a most picturesque appearance, from
the variegated colours of the roofs of the houses, and
from the gold and silver which cover the domes and the
tops of the steeples, of which there is a considerable
number. Nothing can equal the richness of one of the
Vol. hi.— 8

170 OONFLAORA'ilON OF MOSCOW.

churches of the Kremlin (it was the burial-place of the
Emperors) ; its walls are covered with plates of silver
gilt, five or six lines thick, on which the history of the
Old and New Testament is represented in relievo ; the
lustres and candelabra, of massy silver, were particularly
remarkable for their extraordinary size.

•* The hospitals, to which my attention «va8 peculiarly
directed, are worthy of the most civilized nation in the
world ; I divide them into military and civil. The great
military hospital is divided into three parts, forming
altogether a parallelogram. The principal part was
constructed on the side of a great road, opposite to an
immense barrack, which may be compared to the military
school at Paris. Two lateral buildings, intersecting the
first at right angles, inclose tlie court, which communi-
cates with a fine and extensive garden appropriated to
the use of the sick. A portico, with columns of the
composite order, forms the front of this building, which
is two stories high. At the entrance is a spacious lobby,
with corresponding doors to the wards on the ground-
floor, and a large and magnificent staircase leading to
the upper stories. The wards occupy the entire length
of the building, and the windows on each side reach
from the ceiling to the floor ; they are made with double
sashes, as is customary throughout Russia, and are com-
pletely closed in winter ; stoves are placed in the inside at
suitable distances. The wards contain four rows of beds
of the same kind, separated by the requisite space for
wholesomeness : each row consists of fifty beds, and the
total number may be estimated at more than three
thousand ; the hospital contains fourteen principal wards
of very nearly the same extent. The offices, dispensary,
kitchen, and other accessories, are very commodiously
bituated, in separate places, at a convenient distance
from the wards.

" The civil hospitals are equally entitled to notice.
The four principal are those of Cheremetow, Gralitzin,
Alexander, and the foundlings.

** The first, remarkable for its form, its structure, and
its internal arrangements, was used to receive the sick
Mid w ounded belonging to the guard.

CONFLAGRATION OF MOSCOW 17]

•* This hospital, which is three stories high, is Loiilt in
the form of a crescent ; the requisite offices are situated
m the rear. A beautiful portico, projecting from the
centre of the half-moon, forms the entrance of a chapel
which occupies the middle of the edifice; this chapel,
surmounted by a dome, is the central point of all the
wards, and contains the mausoleum of the Prince who
founded the hospital : it is adorned with columns in
stucco, statues, and beautiful pictures. The dispensary
is one of the finest and best supplied that I know.

** The Foundling Hospital, situated on the banks of
the Moscowa, and protected by the cannon of the
Kremlin, is indisputably the largest and noblest establish-
ment of the kind in Europe. It consists of two masses
of building ; the first, where the entrance is placed, is
appropriated to the residence of the Governor, who is
selected from the old generals of the army, of the board
of management, of the medical officers, and of all those
employed in the service of the hospital. The second
forms a perfect square. In the centre of the court,
which is very spacious, is a reservoir, that supplies the
whole of the establisment with water from the river.
>Ach of the sides consists of four stories, round which
runs a regular corridor, not very broad, yet sufficiently
spacious for the admission of air, and the accommodation
of persons passing through it. The wards occupy the
remainder of the breadth, and the whole length of each
wing of the building. There are two rows of beds with
curtains in each ward, their size corresponds with that
c»f the children : the boys are kept separate from the
girls, and the greatest cleanliness and regularity are
observed.

" We had scarcely taken possession of the city, and
succeeded in extinguishing the fire, kindled by the
Russians in the most beautiful quarters, when, in con-
sequence of two principal causes, the flames again broke
out in the most violent manner, spread rapidly from one
street to another, and involved the whole place in one
common ruin. The first of these causes is justly re-
ported to have been the desperate resolution of a certain
class of Russians, who were said to have been confined

172 CONFLAGRATION OK MOSCOW.

in the prisons, the doors of which were thrown open on
the departure of the army ; these wretclies, whether
incited by superior authority, or by their own feelings,
with the view, no doubt, of plunder, openly ran from
palace to palace, and from house to house, settmg fire to
every thing that fell in their way. The French patroles,
although numerous and on the alert, were unable to
prevent them. I saw several of those miscreants taken
in the act ; lighted matches and combustibles were found
in their possession. The pain of death inflicted upon
those caught in the actual commission of the atrocity
made no impression on the others, and the fire raged
three days and three nights without interruption ; in
vain houses were pulled down by our soldiers, the flames
quickly overleaped the vacant space, and the buildings
thus insulated, were set on fire in the twinkling of an
eye. The second cause must be attributed to tne
violence of the equinoctial winds, which are always very
powerful in those parts, and by means of which the
conflagration increased and extended its ravages with
extraordinary activity.

** It would be difficult, under any circumstances, to
imagine a picture more horrible than that with which
our eyes were afflicted. It was more particularly during
night, between the 18th and 19th of September, the
period when the fire was at the highest pitch, that its
eflfects presented a terrific spectacle : the weather was
fine and dry, the wind continuing to blow from East to
North, or from North to East. During that night, the
dreadful image of which will never be eflfaced from my
memory, the whole of the city was on fire. Large
columns of flames of various colours shot up from every
quarter, entirely covered the horizon, and diffused a
glaring light and a scorching heat to a considerable dis-
tance. Tliese masses of fire, driven bv the violence of
the winds in all directions, were accompanied in their
rise and rapid movement, by a dreadful whizzing and by
thundering explosions, the result of the combustion of
gunpowder, saltpetre, oil, resin, and brandy, w^ith which
the greater part of the houses and shops had been filled.
The varnished iron plates, with which tljc buildings were

CONFLAGRATION OF MOSCOW. 173

covered, were speedily loosened by tlie heat, and whirled
far away ; large pieces of burning beams and rafters of
fir were carried to a great distance, and contributed to
extend the conflagration to houses which were considered
in no danger, on account of their remoteness. Every
one was struck with terror and consternation, llie
guard, with the head- quarters and the staff of the army,
left the Kremlin and the city, and formed a camp at
Petrowski, a mansion which belonged to Peter the Great,
on the road to Petersburg. I remained with a very
small number of my comrades, in a house built of stone,
which stood alone, and was situated on the top of the
quarter of the Franks, close to the Kremlin. I was
there enal)led to observe all the phenomena of that tre-
mendous conflagration. We had sent our equipage to
the camp, and kept ourselves constantly on the look-out,
to be prepared for, or to prevent, danger.

" The lower classes, who had remained at Moscow,
driven from house to house bv the fire, uttered the most
lamentable cries ; extremely anxious to preserve wliat
was most valuable to them, they loaded themselves with
packages, which they could hardly sustain, and which
they frequently abandoned to escape from the flames.
The women, impelled by a very natural feehng of hu-
manity, carried one or two children on their shoulders,
and dragged the others along by the hand ; and, in order
to avoid the death which threatened them on every side,
they ran, with their petticoats tucked up, to take shelter
in the corners of the streets and squares ; but they were
soon compelled, by the intenseness of the heat, to
abandon those spots, and to fly with precipitation by any
way that was open to them, sometimes without being
able to cxti'icate themselves from that kind of labyrinth,
where manv of them met with a miserable end. I saw
old men, whose long beards had been caught by the
flames, drawn on small carts by their own children, whc
endeavoured to rescue them from that real Tartarus.

** As for our soldiers, tormented with hunger and
thirst, they exposed themselves to every danger, to
obtain, in the burning cellars and shops, eatables, wines,'
Jiquors, or any other article more or less useful. They

174 CONFLAGRATION OF MOSCOW.

were seen running through the streets, pell-mell with
the broken-hearted inhabitants, carrying away every
thing they could snatch from the ravages of this dreadful
conflagration. At length, in the course of eight or ten
days, this immense and superb city was reduced to ashes,
with the exception of the Kremlin i)alace, some large
houses, and all the churches : these edifices are built of
stone.

** Tliis calamity threw the army into great consterna-
tion, and was a presage to us of more serious misfortunes.
We all thought that we should no longer find either
subsistence, cloth, or any other necessary for equipping
the troops, and of which we were in the most urgent
want. Could a more dismal idea suggest itself to our
imagination ? The head quarters w^ere, however, after
the fire, again established at the Kremlin, and the guard
sent to some houses of the Franks, quarter, which had
been preserved. Every one resumed the exercise of his
duties.

** Magazines of flour, meal, salt-fish, oil, wine and
liquors, were discovered by dint of perseverance. Some
were served out to the troops, but there was too great a
wish to spare or hoard up these articles, and that excess
of precaution, which is sometimes a mere pretext, in-
duced us to burn or leave behind us, in the end, pro-
visions of every kind, from which we might have derived
the greatest benefit, and w^hich would have even been
sufficient for the wants of the army for more than six
months, had we remained at Moscow. The same con-
duct was pursued with regard to the stuffs and furs,
which ought to have been immediately worked up foi
the purpose of supplying our troops with all the clothing
capable of preserving them, as much as possible, from
the inclemency of the cold that was at hand. The
soldiers, who never think of the future, so far from
obviating, on their part and for their own advantage,
that want of precaution, were solely engaged in searching
for wines, liquors, and articles of gold and silver, and
despised every other consideration.

•* This unexpected abundance, which was owing to the
indefatigable researches of the troops, was attended with

CONFLAGRATION OF MOSCOW. 175

ft bad effect on their discipline and on the healtii of those
who were intemperate. That motive alone ought to
have made us hasten our departure for Poland. Moscow
became a new Capua to our army. The enemy's generals
flattered ours with the hopes of peace ; the preliminaries
were to be signed from day to day. Meanwhile clouds
of Cossacks covered our cantonments and carried off
every day a great number of our foragers. General
Kutusoff was collecting the wreck of his army and
strengthening himself with the recruits who joined him
from all parts. Imperceptibly, and under various pre-
tences of pacification, his advanced posts drew near to
ours. Finally, the period of negotiation had arrived,
and it was at the moment in which the French am-
bassador was to obtain a first decision, that Prince
Joachim's corps d'armee was surrounded. It was with
difficulty that our general, the ambassador, surmounted
the obstacles which were opposed to his return to
Moscow. Several parties of our troops and some pieces
of cannon had been already carried ofi^. The different
corps of this advanced guard, which were at first disper-
sed, were nevertheless rallied, broke the Russian column
that hemmed them in, took up a favourable position, and
charged successively the enemy's numerous cavalry,
which they repulsed with vigour, retaking part of the
artillery and some of the soldiers made prisoners in the
first onset. At length, the arrival of General Lauriston,
and of the wounded, was to us, at head quarters, a con-
firmation that hostilities would be resumed. Orders
were immediately given for the sudden departure of the
army ; the drum beat to arms, and all the corps prepared
to execute that precipitate movement. Some provisions
were hastily collected and the march commenced on the
19thof October. "

ON THB CORONATION, &C. DECREES OF BKKLIN AND

MILAN. THB GRAND CAUSE OP THE HATRED OF THB

ENGLISH.

25th. — The weather has become fine in every respect.
The Emperor breakfasted in the tent and sent for us all.
The conversation turned upon the ceremonies of the

176 CORONATION OF NAPOLEON.

coronation. He asked for particulars from one of us,
who had been present, but was unable to satisfy hiin .
He made the same inquiries of another, but the latter
had not seen it. ** Where were you then at that time } *'
asked the Emperor. — '*At Paris, Sire." — ** How then i
vou did not see the coronation ! '* — '* No Sire. '* Tlie
Emperor, then casting a side glance at him, and taking
him by the ear, said ; " Were you so absurd as to carry
your aristocracy to that point .?" — " But, Sire, my hour
was not come. " — ** But at least you saw the retinue ? "
— *• Ah ! Sire, had my curiosity prevailed, I should have
hastened to witness what was most worthy and most
interesting to be seen. I had, however, a ticket of ad-
mission, and I preferred presenting it to the English
lady whom I lately mentioned to your Majesty, and who,
by way of parenthesis, caught a cold there, that nearly
killed her. For my own part I remained quietly at
home.** — ** Ah, that is too much for me to put up with, "
said the Emperor, *' the villanous aristocrat ! How !
And you were really guilty of such an absurdity? —
*Alas! I was,** replied the accused, **and yet here I
am near you, and at St. Helena.*' The Emperor smiled,
and let go the ear.

After breakfast, a captain of the English artillery, who
had been six years at the Isle of France, called upon me.
He was to sail for Europe the next day. He entreated
me in a thousand ways to procure him the happiness of
seeing the Emperor. He would, he said, give all he had
in the world for such a favour ; his gratitude would be
boundless, &c.

We conversed together for a long lime ; the Emperor
was taking his round in the calash. On his return, I
was fortunate enough to fulfil the English officer's
wishes. The Emperor received him for upwards of a
quarter of an hour ; his joy was extreme, as he was aware
that the favour became everv dav more rare. Everr
thing about tlic Emperor had struck him, he declared,
in a most extraordinai*y manner; his features, his af-
fability, the sound of his voice, his expressions, the
questions he had asked ; he was, he exclaimed, a hero,
a god !

The weather was delightful. The Emperor continued

KINDXKSS OF NAPOLKON. 177

to walk in the garden in the midst of us. He discussed
the failure of a negotiation undertaken by one of us ; a
business which the Emperor had judged very easy, but
which turned out to be of the most delicate nature for
the person entrusted with it. The object of it was to
prevail upon some English officers to publish a certain
paper in England.

The Emperor expressed his disapprobation of the
failure in his usual mode of reasoning, and with the in-
telligence and point that are familieu* to him: he was,
however, very much disappointed at it : his observations
were rather strong ; he pushed them to a degree of ill
humour of which the person he found fault with had
never, perhaps, before, received any proofs. At length,
he concluded with saying : " After all, Sir, would you
not have accepted yourself what you proposed to others,
had you been in their place ? " — ** No, Sire." — ** Why
not ? Well then," he added, in a tone of reproof, ** you
should not be my Minister of Police.*' **And your
Majesty would be in the right,'* quickly replied the other,
who felt himself vexed in his turn j " I feel no inclination
whatever for such an office.** The Emperor, seeing him
enter the saloon, a little before dinner, said : ** Ah! there
is our little Officer of Police ! Come, approach, my little
Officer of Police ; " and he pinched his ear. Although
hours had passed since the warm conversation took
place, the Emperor recollected it ; he knew that the per-
son who had been the subject of it was full of sensibUity,
and it was evident that' he wished to efface the im-
pression it had made upon him. These are characteristic
shades, and those which arise from the most trifling
causes are the most natural and the most marked.

After dinner, the Emperor was led, by the turn which
the conversation U ok, to review the special subject of his
maritime quarrel with England. ** Her pretensions to
blockade on paper, *' he observed, ** produced my famous
Berlin decree. The British council, in a fit of resentment,
issued its orders ; it established a right of toll on the
seas. I instantly replied by the celebrated Milan decrees,
which denationalized every flag that submitted to the
English acts ; and it was then that the war became, ic

8*

d

|78 POWRR OF THE ENOLISH.

p]ngland truly personal. Every one connected with
trade was enraged against me. England was exasperated
at a struggle and energy, of which she had no example.
She had uniformly found those who had preceded me
more complaisant. "

The Emperor explained, on a later occasion, the
means, by which he had forced the Americans to make
war against the English. He had, he said, discovered
the way of connecting their interests with their rights ;
for people, he remarked, fight much more readily for the
former than for the latter.

At present, the Emperor expected, he said, some ap-
proaching attempt, on the part of the English, on the
sovereignty of the seas, for the establishment of the right
of universal toll, &c. ** It is," said he, ** one of theprin-
cipal resources left them for discharging their debts,
for extricating thomselves from the abyss into which
they are plunged j in a word, for getting rid of their
embarrassments. If they have among them an enterpri-
sing genius, a man of a strong intellect, they will
certainly undertake something of that kind. Nobody
is powerful enough to oppose it, and they set up their
claim with a sort of justice. They may plead, in its justi-
fication, that it was for the safety of Europe they involved
themselves in difficulties ; that they succeeded, and that
they are entitled to some compensation. And then, the
only shipsof war in Europe are theirs. They reign, in
fact, at present, over the seas. There is an end to
existence of public rights when the ballance is the
broken, &c., &c.

** The English may now be omnipotent, if they will
but confine themselves to their navy. But they will
endanger their superiority, complicate their affairs, and
insensibly lose their importance, if they persevere in
keeping soldiers^ on the continent."

ACCOUNT OP THE CAMPAIGN OP WATERLOO DICTATED

BY NAPOLEON.

26th. — The Emperor went out early in the morning,
before seven o'clock ; he did not wish to disturb any of
us. He began to work alone in the garden leneath the

CAMPAIGN OF WATKULOO. 179

tent, where he sent for us all to breakfast with him. He
continued there until two o'clock.

At dinner, he conversed a great deal about our situa-
tion in the island. He would not, he said, leave Long-
wood ; he did not care for any visitors ; but he was
desirous that we should take some diversion, and find out
some means of amusement. It would, he said, be a plea-
sure to him to see us move about and get abroad more.

The narrative of the battle of Waterloo, which the
Emperor had dictated to General Gourgaiid,was read by
his desire. What a story ! It is painful to think of it.
The destinies of France suspended by so slight a thread !

This production was published in Europe in 1 820. The
measures contrived to transmit it clandestinelv from
St. Helena proved successful, in spite of every kind of
vigilance. The instant this narrative appeared, every
body was agreed as to its author. An exclamation burst
from every quarter that Napoleon alone was capable of
describing in that manner, and it is confidently stated
that the Generalissimo, his antagonist, expressed himself
precisely in the same way. What noble chapters ! It
would be impossible to attempt an analysis of them, or to
pretend to convey their excellence in terms adequate to
their merits. We literallv transcribe, however, in this
place, the last pages, containing, in the shape of a sum*
mary, nine observations of Napoleon, on the faults with
which he has been reproached in that campaign.

They are points which will become classic, and we
are of opinion that our readers will not be displeased at
again finding here subjects which become, every time
the occasion presents itself, topics of earnest and im-
portant discussion.

We shall preface these obse^^'ations with a description.,
also from Napoleon's dictation, of the resources which
France still possessed after the loss of the battle.

" The situation of France was critical, but not despe-
rate, after the battle of Waterloo. Every preparatory
measure had been taken, on the supposition of the failure
of the attack upon Belgium. Seventy thousand men were
rallied on the 27 th, between Paris and Laon; from 25
to 30,000, including the dep6ts of the guard, were od

180 CAMPAIGN OP WATKKLOO.

their march from Paris and the depots ; General Rapp,
v;ith 25,000 men, chosen troops, was expected on the
Marne, in the beginning of July ; all the losses sustained
*n the materiel of the artillery had been repaired. Paris
alone contained 500 pieces of field-artillery, and only
170 had been lost. Thus an army of 120,000 men, equal
to that which had passed the Sambre on the 15th, with
a train of artillery, consisting of 350 pieces of cannon,
would cover Paris by the 1 st of July. That capital pos-
sessed, independently of these means, for its defence,
36,000 men of the National Guard, 30,000 sharpshooters,
6000 gunners, 600 battering cannon, formidable en
trenchments on the right bank of the Seine, and, in a
few days, those of the left bank would have been entirely
completed. The Anglo-Dutch and Prusso- Saxon armies,
diminished, however, by more than 80,000 men, and no
longer exceeding 140,000, could not cross the Somme
with more than 90,000 ; they would have to wait there
for the co-operation of the Austrian and Russian armies,
which could not be on the Marne before the 15th of July.
Paris had, consequently, twenty-five days to prepare for
its defence, to complete the arming of its inhabitants, its
fortifications, its supplies of provisions, and to draw
troops from every point of France. Even by the 15th of
July, not more than 30, or 40,000 men could have
arrived on the Rhine. The mass of the Russian and
Austrian armies could not take the field before a later
period. Neither arms, nor ammunition, nor officers were
wanting in the capital; the number of sharpshooters
might be easily augmented to 80,000, and the field
artillery could be increased to 600 pieces.

** Marshal Suchet, in conjunction with General L^courbe,
would have had, at the same time, upwards of 30,00C
men before Lyons, independently of the garrison of that
city, which would have been well armed, well supplied
with provisions, and well protected by entrenchments.
The defence of all the strong places was secured ; they
were commanded by chosen officers, and garrisoned by
faithful troops. Every thing might be repaired, but de-
cision, energy, and firmness, on the part of the officers,
of the Government, of the Chambers, and of the whole

CAMPAIGN OP WATKKLOO. 18 >

nation, were necessan\ It was requisite that France
should be animated by the sentiment of honour, of glory,
of national independence; that she should fix her eyes
upon Rome after the battle of Cannae, and not upon
Carthage after that of Zaraa ! ! ! If France had raised
herself to that height, she would have been invincible.
Her people contained more of the military elements
than any other people in the world. The viaieriel of
war existed in abundance, and was adequate to every
want. .

•* On the 21st of June, Marshal lUuchcr and the Duke
of Wellington entered the French territory at the head of
two columns. On the 22nd, the powder magazine at
Avesnes took fire, and the place surrendered. On the
24th, the Prussians entered Guise, and the Duke of Wel-
lington was at Cambray. He was at Peronne on the
26th. During the whole of this time, the fortresses on
the first, second, and third line in Flanders were invested.
The two generals learned, however, on the 25th, th^
Emperor's abdication, which had taken place on the 22d,
the insurrection of the Chambers, the discouragement
occasioned by these circumstances in the army, and the
hopes excited among our internal enemies. From that
moment, they thought only of marching upon the ca-
pital, under the walls of which they arrived at the latter
end of June, with fewer than 90,000 men ; an enterprise
that would have proved fatal to them, and drawn on their
total ruin, had they hazarded it in the presence of Napo-
leon : but that Prince had abdicated ! ! ! The troops of
the line at Paris, more than 6000 men of the dep6ts of
the guard, the sharpshooters of the National Guard,
chosen from among the people of that great capital, were
devoted to him ; they had it in their power to extermi-
nate the domestic enemy ! ! ! But in order to explain the
motives which regulated his conduct in that important
crisis, which was attended with such ifatal results both
for him and for France, the narrative must go back to
an earlier period.

First Observation, —• ^' The Emperor has been re-
proached, 1st, With having resigned the dictatorship, at
the moment when France stood most in need of a die*

J 82 CAMPAIGN OF WATERLOO.

tator , 2nd, With having altered the constitutions of the
empire, at a moment when it was necessary to think only
of preserving it from mvasion , 3rd, With having per-
mitted the Vendeans to be alarmed, who had, at first,
refused to take arms against the imperial government ;
4th, With having assembled the Chambers, when he
ought to have assembled the army ; 5th, With having
abdicated and left France at the mercy of a divided and
inexperienced assembly ; for, in fine, if it be true, that it
was impossible for the Prince to save the country without
the confidence of the nation, it is not less true that
the nation could not, in these critical circumstances, pre-
serve either its happiness or its independence without
Napoleon.

Second Observation, — " The art, with which the move-
ments of the different bodies of the army were concealed
from the enemy's knowledge, on the opening of the
campaign, cannot be too attentively remarked. Marshal
Blucher and the Duke of Wellington were surprised ;
they saw nothing, knew nothing, of the operations which
were carrying on near their advanced posts.

** In order to attack the two hostile armies, the French
might have out-flanked their right or left, or ))enetrated
their centre. In the first case, they might have advanced
by the way of Lisle, and fallen in with the Anglo- Dutch
army ; in the second, they might have moved forward
by Givet and Charlemont, and have fallen in with the
PrusRo- Saxon armv. These two armies would have re-
mained united, since they must have been pressed the
one upon the other, from the right to the left, and from
the left to the right. The Emperor adopted the plan of
covering his movements with the Sambre, and piercing
the line of the two armies at Charleroi, their point of
junction, executing his manceuvres with rapidity and skill.
He thus discovered, in the secrets of the art, means to
supply the place of 100,000 men, whom he needed. The
plan was exer»uted with boldness and prudence.

Third Observation. — "The character of several gene-
rals had been affected by the events of 1814 ; they had
lost somewhat of that spirit, of that resolution, and that

CAMPAIGN OF WATERLOO. 183

confidence, by which they had gained so much glory and
80 much contributed to the success of former campaigns.

*' 1st. — On the 15th of June, the third corps was to
march at three o'clock in the morning, and arrive at
Charleroi at ten ; it did not arrive until three o'clock
in the afternoon.

** 2ndly, — The same day the attack on the woods in
front of Fleurus, which had been ordered at four in the
afternoon, did not take place until seven. Night came
on before the troops could enter Fleurus, where the
Commander in Chief had intended to establish his head-
quarters the same day. The loss of seven hours was
very vexatious on the opening of a campaign.

" 3rdly, — Ney received orders to advance on the 16th
with 43,000 men, who composed the left under his com-
mand, in front of Quatre-Bras, to take up a position
there at day-break, and even to entrench himself; he
hesitated, and lost eight hours. The Prince of Orange,
with onlv 9000 men, retained, on the 16th until three
o'clock in the afternoon, that important position. When
at length, the Marshal received at twelve o'clock at noon
the order dated from Fleurus, and saw that the Em-
peror was on the point of attacking the Prussians, he
advanced against Quatre-Bras, but only with half his
force, leaving the other half to cover his retreat at the
distance of two leagues in the rear ; he forgot it until
six in the evening, when he felt the want of it for his
own defence. In other campaigns, that General would
have made himself master of the position in front of
Quatre-Bras at six o'clock in the morning ; he would
have routed and captured the whole of the Belgic divi-
sion, and either turned the Prussian army by sending a
detachment on the Namur road to fall on the rear of
their line of battle ; or, by moving rapidly along the road
to Gennapes, he would have surprised and destroyed the
Brunswick division on its march, and the fifth English
division as it advanced from Brussels. He would have
afterwards marched to meet the third and fourth English
divisions, which were advancing by way of Nivelles, and
were both destitute of cavalrv and artillerv, and over-
whelmed with fatigue Ney, who was always f rst in

184 CAMPAIGN OF \« ATKRLOO.

the heat of battle, forgot the troops that were not directly
engaged. The courage which a Commander in Chief
should display is different from that of a general of
division, as that of the latter ought to differ from th<t
bravery of a captain of grenadiers.

**4thly. — The advanced guard of the French army
did not arrive on the 1 6th, in front of Waterloo, until
six o'clock in the evening; it would have arrived at
three but for some vexatious hesitations. The Emperor
was very much mortified at the delay, and, pointing at
the sun, exclaimed, ** What would I now give to have
the power of Joshua, and to stop its progress for two
hours !"

Fourth Observation, — ** The French soldier never
displayed more bravery, cheerfulness, and enthusiasm;
he was animated with the sentiment of his superiority
over all the soldiers of Europe. His confidence in the
Emperor was altogether unabated ; it had, perhaps, in-
creased: but he was suspicious and distrustful of his
other Commanders. The treasons of 1814 were always
in his thoughts, and he was uneasy at every movement
which he did not understand ; he thought he was be-
trayed. At the moment when the first cannon-shots
were firing near St. Amand, an old corporal approached
the Emperor and said : ** Sire, beware of General Soult ;
be assured that he is a traitor." — " Fear nothing,** re-
plied the Emperor, *' I can answer for him as for myself."
In the middle of the battle, an officer informed Marshal
Soult that General Vandamme had gone over to the
enemy, and that his soldiers demanded, with loud cries,
that the Emperor should be made acquainted with it.
At the close of the battle, a dragoon, with his sabre
covered with blood, galloped up to him crying, *' Sire,
come instantly to the division, General Dhenin is per-
suading the dragoons to go over to the enemy." — ** Did
you hear him ?" — ** No, Sire, but an officer, who is
looking for you, saw him and ordered me to tell your
Majest}'." During this time, the gallant General
;f; Dhenin received a cannon shot, which carried off one of

1 1! his legs, after he had repulsed the enemy's charge.

** On the 14th, in the evenipg, I^icuten ant - General

CAMPAIGN OF WATKRLOO. ISt

B . . . . , Colonel C . . . . , and V , an

officer of the staff, deserted and went over to the enemy.
Their names will be held in execration as long as the
French shall constitute a nation. The uneasy feelings
of the troops had been considerably aggravated by that
desertion. It appears nearly certain that the cry of
Sauve qui pent was raised among the soldiers of the
fourth division of the first corps, on the evening of the
battle of Waterloo, when Marshal Blucher attacked the
village of La Have. That village was not defended as it
ought to have been.* It is equally probable that seve-
ral officers, charged with the communication of orders,
disappeared. But, if some officers deserted, not a single
private was guilty of that crime. Several killed them-
selves on the field of Ijattle, where they lay wounded,
when they learned the defeat of the army.

Fifth Observation.—** In the battle of the 17th, the
French army was divided into three bodies; 69,000 men
under the Emperor's command, marched against Brussels
by the way of Charleroi ; 34,000, under the command of
Marshal Grouchy, directed their operations against that
capital by way of Wavres, in pursuit of the Prussians ;
7 or 8000 men remained on the field of battle at Ligny,
of whom 3000, belonging to Girard's division, were em-
])loyed in assisting the wounded, and in forming a reserve
for any unexpected casualty at Quatre-Bras ; and 4 or
5000 continued with the reserve at Fleurus and at
Charleroi. The 34,000 men under the command of
Marshal Grouchy, with 108 pieces of cannon, were
sufficient to drive the Prussian rear-guard from any posi-
tion it might take up, to press upon the retreat of the
conquered army, and to keep it in check. It was a
glorious result of the victory of Ligny, to be thus ena-
bled to oppose 34,000 men to an army which had con-
sisted of 120,000. The 69,000 men, under the Empe-

* General Durutte, who was mutilated on that disastrous day
and who commanded the fourth division here mentioned, declare:
that there must be some mistake in regard to the number specified
in this lictation of Napoleon's ; or thaf there was some inaccurao)
or mali jc in the report that was made to him.

186 CAMPAIGN OF WATKKLOO.

ror*s command, were sufficient to beat tlie Anglo-Dutch
army, composed of 90,000. The disproportion which
existed on the 15 th between the two belligerent masses
in the ratio of one to two, was materially chang;ed, and
it no longer exceeded three to four. Had the Anglo-
Dutch army defeated the 69,000 men opposed to it.
Napoleon might have been reproached with having ill-
calculated his measures ; but it is undeniable, even from
t\^e enemy's admission, that, unless General Blucher had
arrived, the Anglo-Dutch army would have been driven
from the field of battle between eight and nine o'clock at
night. If Marshal Blucher had not arrived at eight
with his first and second corps, the march on Brussels
with two columns, during the battle of the 17th, would
have been attended with several advantages. The left
would have pressed upon and kept in check the Anglo-
Dutch army ; the right, under the command of Marshal
Grouchy, would have pursued and restrained the opera-
tions of the Prusso- Saxon army ; and in the evening,
the whole of the French army would have effected its
junction on a line of less than five leagues from Mont
Saint Jean to Wavres, with its advanced posts on the edge
of the forest. But the fault committed by Marshal Grou-
chy, in stopping on the 17 th atGembloux, having march-
ed scarcely two leagues in the course of the day, instead
of pushing on three leagues more in front of Wavres,
was aggravated and rendered irreparable by that which
he committed the following day, the 18th, in losing
twelve hours, and arriving at four o'clock in the after-
noon in front of Wavres, when he should have been
there at six in the morning.

** 1st, — Grouchy, charged with the pursuit of Marshal
Blucher, lost sight of him for twenty-four hours, from
four o'clock in the afternoon of the 17 th until a quarter
past twelve at noon on the 18th.

** 2dly, — The movement of the cavalry on the plain,
while General Bulow's attack was not yet repulsed,
proved a distressing accident. It was the intention of the
Commander in Chief to order that movement, but not
until an hour later, and -then it was to have been sustained

CAMFAION OF WATERLOO. 187

by the sixteen battalions of infantry belonging to the
guard, with one hundred pieces of cannon.

** 3dly. — ^The horse grenadiers and the dragoons of the
guard, under the command of General Guyot, engaged
without orders. Thus, at five in the afternoon, the army
found itself without a reserve of cavalry. If, at half past
eight, that reserve had existed, the storm which swept
all before it on the field of battle would have been dis-
persed, the enemy's charges of cavalry driven back, and
the two armies would have slept on the field, notwith-
standing the successive arrivals of General Bulowand
Marshal Blucher : the advantage would also have been
in favour of the French army, as Marshal Grouchy's
34,000 men, with 108 pieces of cannon, were fresh troops
and bivouacked on the field of battle. The enemy's
two armies would have placed themselves in the night
under cover of the forest of Soignes. The constant prac-
tice in every battle was for the horse-grenadiers and the
dragoons of the guard never to lose sight of the Empe-
ror, and never to make a charge but in consequence of
an order verbally given by that Prince to the General
who commanded them.

** Marshal Mortier, who was Commander in Chief of
the guards, gave up the command on the 15th, at Beau-
mont, just as hostilities were on the point of commencing,
and no one was appointed in his stead, which was at-
tended with several inconvenient results.

Sixth Observation. — " 1st, The French armv manoBu-
vred on the right of the Sambre, on the 13th and 14th.
It encamped, the night between the 14th and 15th,
within half a league of the Prussian advanced posts ; and
yet Marshal Blucher had no knowledge of it, and when,
on the morning of the 15th, he learned at his head-quar-
ters at Namur that the Emperor had entered Charleroi,
the Prusso- Saxon army was still cantoned over an ex-
tent of thirty leagues ; two days were necessary for him
to effect the junction of his troops. It was his duty,
from the 15 th of May, to advance his head -quarters to
Fleurus, to concentrate the cantonments of his army
within a radius of eight leagues, with his advanced posts
on the Meuse and Sambre. His army might then have

188 CAMPAIGN OF WATEULOO.

been assembled at Ligny on the 15th at noon, It/ await
m that position the attack of the French anny, or to
march against it in the evening of the 15th, for the pur-
pose of driving it into the Sambre.

** 2dly. — Yet, notwithstanding this surprise of Mar-
shal Blucher, he persisted in the j)roject of collecting hia
troops on the heights of Ligny, behind Fleurus, exposing
himself to the hazard of being attacked before the arrival
of his army. On the morning of the 1 Cth, he had col-
lected but two corps, and the French army was already
at Fleurus. The third corps joined in the course of the
day, but the fourth, commanded by General Bulow, was
unable to get up in time for the battle. Marshal Blucher,
the instant he learned the arrival of the French at
Charleroi, that is to say, on the evening of the 15th,
ought to have assigned, as a point of junction for his
troops, neither Fleurus nor Ligny, which were under
the enemy's cannon, but Wavres, which the French could
not have reached until the 17th. He would have also
had the whole of the 16th, and the night between the
16th and 17th, to effect the total junction of his army.

'* 3dly. — After having lost the battle of Ligny, the
Prussian General, instead of making his retreat on
Wavres, ought to have effected it upon the army of the
Duke of Wellington, whether at Quatre-Bras, where
the latter had maintained himself, or at Waterloo. The
whole of Marshal Blucher*s retreat on the morning of
the 17th was contrary to common sense, since the two
armies, which were, on the evening of the 1 6th, little
more than three miles from each other, and had a fine
road for their point of communication, in consequence
of which their junction might have been considered as
effected, found themselves, on the evening of the 17 th,
separated by a distance of nearly twelve miles, and by
defiles and impassable ways.

'* The Prussian General violated the three grand nilea
of war ; 1 st, To keep his cantonments near each other ;
2dly, To assign as a point of junction a place where hia
troops can all assemble before those of the enemy ; Sdly
To make his reti'eat upon his reinforcements.

Seventh Observation. — *' 1st, The Duke of Wellington

CAMPAIOV OP WATKULOO. 18S

was surprised in his cantonments ; he ought to have
concentrated them on the 15th of May, at eight leagues
about Brussels, and kept advanced guards on the roads
from Flanders. The French army was for three day*
manoeuvring close upon his advanced posts ; it had com-
menced hostilities twenty four hours, and its head- quarters
had been twelve hours at Charleroi, and yet the English
General was at Brussels, ignorant of what was passing,
and all the cantonments of his army were still in full
security, extended over a space of more than twenty
leagues.

" 2dly. — ^The Prince of Saxe- Weimar, who belonged
to the Anglo-Dutch army, was, on the 16th, at four
o'clock in the afternoon in position before Frasne, and
knew that the French army was at Charleroi. If he had
immediately despatched an aide-de-camp to Brussels, he
would have arrived there at six in the evening ; and yet
the Duke of Wellington was not informed that the
French army was at Charleroi until eleven at night. He
thus lost five hours, in a crisis, and against a man, that
rendered the loss of a single hour highly important.

** 3dly. — ^The infantry, cavalry, and artilleiy of that
army were in cantonments, so remote from each other
that the infantry was engaged at Waterloo without
cavalry or artillery, which exposed it to considerable loss,
since it was obliged to form in close columns to make
head against the charges of the cuirassiers, under the fire
of fifty pieces of cannon. These brave men were
slaughtered without cavalry to protect or artillery to
avenge them. As the three branches of an army cannot,
for an instant, dispense with each other's assistance,
they should be always cantoned and placed in such a
way as to be able to assist each other.

*' 4th. — The English General, although surprised,
assigned Quatre-Bras, which had been, for the last four
and-twenty hours in possession of tlie French, as the
rallying point of his army. He exposed his troops to
partial defeats as they gradually arrived ; the danger
which they incurred was still more considerable, since
they came without artillery and without cavalry j he
delivered up his infantry to his enemy piece-meal, and

190 CAMPAIGN OF WATERLOO.

destitute of the assistance of the two other bran ;hes. He
should have fixed upon Waterloo for his point of junction •
he would then have had the day of the 16th, and the
night between the 16th and 17th, an interval quite
sufficient, to collect the whole of his army, infantry,
cavalry, and artillery. The French could not have
arrived until the 17th, and would have found all his
troops in position.

Eighth Observation, — " 1st, The English General
gave battle at Waterloo on the 1 8th ; that measure was
contrary to the interests of his nation, to the general
system of war adopted by the Allies, and to all the rules
of war. It was not the interest of England, who wants
so many men to recruit her armies in India, in her
American colonies, and in her vast establishments, to
expose herself, with a generous vivacity, to a sanguinary
contest in which she might lose the only army she had,
and expend, at the very least, her best blood. The plan
of the Allies consisted in operating in a mass and in
avoiding all partial actions. Nothing was more contrary
to their interests and their plan than to expose the success
of their cause in a doubtful battle with a nearly equal
force, in which all the probabilities were against them.
If the Anglo-Dutch army had been destroyed at Water-
loo, of what use to the allies would have been the great
number of armies that were preparing to cross the Rhine,
the Alps, and the Pyrenees ?

** 2ndly. — ^The English General, in accepting the battle
of Waterloo, placed his reliance on the co-oj)eration of
the Prussians, but that co-operation could not be carried
into effect until the afternoon ; he therefore continued
exposed alone from four o'clock in the morning until
five in the afternoon, that is to say, for thirteen hours ;
no battle lasts generally more than six hours ; that co-
operation was therefore an illusion.

** But, if he relied upon the co-operation of the
Prussians, he must have supposed that the whole of
the French army was opposed to him, and he must
consequently have undertaken to defend his field of
battle, during thirteen hours, with 90,000 men of dif-
ferent ncitions, against an army of 104,000 French.

CAMPAIGN OF WATERLOO. 191

That calculation was evidently false ; he could not have
maintained himself three hours ; the battle would have
been decided by eight o'clock in the morning, and the
Prussians would have arrived only to be taken in flank.
Both armies would have been destroyed in one battle.
If he calculated that a part of the French army had, con-
formably to the rules of war, pursued the Prussian army,
he ought, in that case, to have been convinced that he
could receive no assistance from it, and that the
Prussians, beaten at Ligny, having lost from 25 to
30,000 men on the field of battle, having 20,000
scattered and dispersed over the country, and pursued
by from 35 to 40,000 victorious French, would not have
risked any fresh operation, and would have considered
themselves scarcely sufficient to maintain a defensive
position. In that case, the Anglo-Dutch army alone
would have had to sustain the shock of 69,000 French
during the whole of the 18th, and there is no English-
man who will not admit that the result of that struggle
could not have been doubtful, and that their army was
not so constituted as to be capable of sustaining the
attack of the imperial army for four hours.

*• During the whole of the night between the 17 th and
18th, the weather was horrible, and the roads were im-
passable until nine o'clock in the morning. This loss of
six hours from day-break, was entirely in the enemy's
favour ; but could the English General stake the fate of
such a struggle upon the weather which happened in the
night between the 17 th and 18th? Marshal Grouchy,
with 34,000 men and 180 pieces of cannon, found out
the secret, which one would suppose was not to be
found out, of not being in the engagement of the 18th,
either on the field of battle of Mont St Jean or of
Wavres. But, had that Marshal pledged himself to the
English General to be led astray in so strange a manner ?
The conduct of Marshal Grouchy was as unexpected as
that his army should, on its march, be swallowed up by
an earthquake. Let us recapitulate. If Marshal Grouchy
had been on the field of battle of Mont St. Jean, as he
was supposed to be by the English General and the
Prussian General, during the whole night between thf!

92 CAMPAIGN OF WATERLOO.

17th and 18th, and all the morning of the 18th, and the
weather had allowed the French army to be drawn up in
order of battle at four o'clock in the morning, the
Anglo- Dutch army would have been dispersed and cut
in pieces before seven ; its ruin would have been com-
plete, and if the weather had not allowed the French
army to range itself in order of battle until ten, the fate
cf the Anglo- Dutch army would have been decided
before one o'clock ; the remains of it would have been
driven either bevond the forest or in the direction of
Hal, and there would have been quite time enough in
the afternoon to go and meet Marshal Blucher, and
treat him in a similar manner. If Marshal Grouch v
had encamped in front of Wavres in the night between
the 17 th and 1 8th. no detachment could have been sent
by the Prussians to save the English army, which must
have been completely beaten by the 69,000 French
opposed to it.

" 3dly. — ^The position of Mont St. Jean was ill
chosen. The first requisite of a field of battle is to be
without defiles in its rear. The Enghsh General de-
rived no advantage, during the battle, from his numerous
cavalry ; he did not think that he ought to be and would
be attacked on the left ; he beUeved that tlie attack
would be made on his ngnt. Notwithstanding the
diversion operated in his favour by General Bulow's
30,000 Prussians, he would have twice effected his re-
treat, during the battle, had that measure been possible.
Thus, in reality, how strange and capricious are human
events ! the bad choice of his field of battle, which pre-
vented all possibility of retreat, was the cause of his
success ! ! !

Nintk Observation, — •* It may be asked, what then
should have been the conduct of the English General,
after the battle of Ligny and the engagement of Quatre
Bras? On this point posterity will not entertain two
opinions: he ought, in the night between' the 17th and
I8th, to have crossed the forest of Soignes, by the road of
Charlcroi ; the Prussian army ought also to have crossed
it by the road of Wavres ; the armies would have effected
a junction by break of day in Brussels ; left their rear-

CAMPAIGN OK WATERLOO. 193

guards for the defence of the forest, gained some days in
order to give time to the Prussians, dispersed after the
battle of Ligny, to join their army ; reinforced them-
selves with fourteen English regiments, which were in
garrison in the fortresses of Belgium, or had been just
landed at Ostend, on their return from America, and let
the Emperor of the French manoeuvre as he pleased.

** Would he, with an army of 100,000 men have
traversed the forest of Soignes to attack in an open
country the two united armies, consisting of more than
200,000 men, and in position ? It would have certainly
been the most advantageous thing that could have
happened to the allies. Would he have been content
with taking up a position himself ? He could not have
long remained in an inactive state, since 300,000
Russians, Au3trians, Bavarians, &c. were on their march
to the Rhine ; they would have been in a few weeks on
the Mame, which would have compelled him to hasten
to the assistance of his capital. It was then that the
Anglo-Prussian army ought to have marched and effected
its junction with the Allies, under the walls of Paris. It
would have exposed itself to no risk, suffered no loss,
and have acted conformablv to the interests of the
English nation, and the general plan of carrying on the
war adopted by the Allies, and sanctioned by the rules of
the miUtary art. From the 15th to the 18th, the Duke
of Wellington invariably manoeuvred as his enemy
wished; he executed nothing which the latter appre-
hended he would, llie English infantry was firm and
solid ; the cavalry might have conducted itself better :
the Anglo-Dutch army was twice saved, in the course of
the day, by the Prussians — the first time before three
o'clock, by the arrival of General Bulow with 30,000
men, and the second time by the arrival of Marshal
Blucher with 31,000 men. In that battle, 69,000
French beat 120,000 men; the victory was wrested
from them, between eight and nine, by 150,000 men.

** Let the feelings of the people of London be
imagined, if they had been doomed to hear of the destruc-
tion of their army, and the prodigal waste of their best
blood, in support of the cause of kings against that of

Vol. III.— 9

194 CONTINENT.^L POLITICS.

nations, of privileges against equality, of the oligarchs
against the liberals, and of the principles of the
Holy Alliance against those of the sovereignty of the
people ! ! ! "

FLAN FOR A POLITICAL DEFENCE OF NAPOLEON ;
SKETCHED BY HIMSELF.

Tuesday, August 27 th. — About four o'clock 1
joined the Emperor in the garden : he had been en-
gaged in dictating during the whole of the rooming.
The wind was very rough, and the Emperor declined
riding out in the calash : he therefore walked about for
a considerable time in the great alley through the wood,
attended by all the persons of his suite. He jokingly
teased one of the party, by observing that he was sulky,
and accusing him of being very often discontented and
ill-humoured, &c.

The Emperor, on rising from the dinner table, ad-
verted to his recent protest against the treaty of the 2d
of August. He expatiated with warmth on the subject,
and remarked, while he walked rapidly about the apart-
ment, that he intended to draw up another protest, on a
more extensive and important scale, against the Bill
that had been passed in the British Parliament. He
would prove, he said, that the Bill was not a law, but a
violation of every existing law. Napoleon was pro-
scribed, and not judged by it. The English Parliament
had done, not what was just, but what was deemed to
be expedient ; it had imitated Themistocles, without
hearing Aristides. The Emperor then arraigned himself
before all the nations in Europe, and proved that each
would successively acquit him. He took a review of
the different acts of his reign, and justified them all.

'* The French and the Italians," said he, ** lament my
absence ; I carry with me the gratitude of the Poles, and
even the late and bitter regrets of the Spaniards.
Europe will soon deplore the loss of the equilibrium,
to the maintenance of which my French empire was
absolutely necessary. The Continent is now in the
most perilous situation, being continually exposed to the
risk of being overrun by Cossacks and Tartars. And

REMARKS ON FKNELON. 19«$

the English," said he in conclusion, " the English will
deplore their victory at Waterloo ! Things will be
carried to such a length that posterity, together with
every well-informed and well-disposed person among
our contemporaries, will regret that I did not succeed in
all my enterprises."

In course of his remarks, the Emj^eror occasionally
rose to a pitch of sublimity. I shall not follow him
into all his details. He promised to dictate the obser-
vations he had made, and said that he had already
sketched out a plan for his political defence, in fourteen
paragraphs.

CATINAT ; TURENNE ; CONDE. QUESTIONS RESPECTING

THE GREATEST BATTLE FOUGHT BY THE EMPEROR;
THE BEST TROOPS, &C.

28th. — The Emperor did not go out until four o'clock ;
he had spent three hours in the bath. The weather was
very unpleasant, and in consequence he merely took a
few turns in the garden. He had just written to inform
the Governor that henceforth he would receive no stran-
gers, unless they were admitted to Longwood by passes
irom the Grand Marshal as in the time of Admiral
Cockburn.

The Emperor proposed playing a game at chess ; but,
before he sat down to do so, he took up a volume of
Fenelon. It was La Direction de Conscience d*un Rot,
He read to us several articles, criticising them with con-
siderable spirit and gaiety. At length he threw down
the volume, saying that the name of an author had never
influenced him in forming an opinion of his writings ;
that he always judged of works according to the senti-
ments with which they inspired him ; being always
equally willing to praise or to censure. He added that,
in spite of the name of Fenelon, he had no hesitation in
declaring that the work he had just looked through was
a mere string of rhapsodies ; and truly it would be diffi-
cult to refute this assertion.

After dinner, the Emperor conversed about the old
marine establishment, and alluded to M. de Grasse, and
hie defeat on the 12th of April. He wished to learn

196 TURBNNE, CATINAT, &C.

Borce particulars on this subject ; and he asked for the
Dictionary of Sieges and Battles. He looked over it, and
it afforded him matter for a multitude of observationsi
Catinat came under his consideration, and the remarks
ae made on that commander lowered him infinitely in our
estimation. Napoleon said that he thought him very
inferior to the reputation he enjoyed, after viewing the
scenes of his operations in Italy, and reading his corres-
pondence with Ijouvois. ** Having risen from the tiers-
^tat/' said he, ** and being educated for the law, distin-
guished for urbanity of manners and moral integrity,
affecting the practice of equality, residing at St. Gratien,
at the gates of Paris, Catinat became the favourite of
the literati of the capital and the philosophers of the day,
who exalted him beyond his real merits. He was in no
way comparable to Vendome.'*

The Emperor said, that he had endeavoured, in the
same manner, to study the characters of Turenne and
Conde, suspecting that they were also the objects of
exaggerated eulogy ; but that he was convinced those
two men were fully entitled to all the commendation that
has been bestowed on them. With regard to Turenne,
he remarked that his intrepidity encreased in proportion
as he acquired experience ; as he grew old, he evinced
greater courage than he seemed to possess in early life,
llie contrary was observable in Conde, who displayed
so much dauntless valour at the commencement of his
career.

Now that I am alluding to Turenne, Conde, and other
distinguished men, I may mention, as a curious fact, that
I never, by any chance, heard Napoleon utter the name
of Frederick the Great. Yet many circumstances prove
that Frederick held a high rank in Napoleon's regard.
The large silver watch, a kind of alarum used by that
Prioce, which hangs by the fire place in the Emperor's
apartment at St. Helena ; — the eagerness with which
Napoleon, on his entrance into Potzdam, seized the sword
of the Prussian hero, exclaiming, "Let those who will
seek other spoil ; I value this beyond millions !" — finally,
his Icmg and silent contemplation of the tomb of Freda-

ERRORS OF AUTHORS. 19?

ric;k — suflSciently attest the deep interest which Napoleon
attached to every thing connected with that sovereign.*

In the Dictionary of Sieges and Battles, which the
Emperor was looking over to-day, he found his name
mentioned in every page ; but connected with anecdotes
either totally false, or at least misstated. This led him
to exclaim against the whole swarm of inferior writers,
and their unworthy abuse of the pen. " Literature," he
said, "had become the food of the vulgar, while it ought
to have been reserved exclusively for people of refined
taste.

'* For example,** said the Emperor, "it is affirmed
that, when at Arcole, I one night took the post of a
sentinel who had fallen asleep. This idea was doubtless
conceived by a citizen, by a lawyer, perhaps, but cer-
tainly npt by a soldier. The author evidently wishes to
represent me in a favourable point of view ; and he of
course imagined that nothing could reflect greater credit
on me than the story he has invented. He certainly
wrote it with the view of doing me honour ; but he knew
not that I was totally incapable of the action he describes.
I was much too fatigued for any such thing ; and it is
very probable that I should myself have fallen asleep
before the sentinel.'*

We then enumerated about fifty or sixty great battles
that had been fought by the Emperor. Some one present
having asked which was the greatest, the Emperor replied
that it was difficult to answer that question, since it was
first necessary to enquire what was meant by the greatest
battle. "Mine,** continued he, ** cannot be judged of
separately. They had no unity of place, action or design.
They formed merely a portion of extensive plans. They
can therefore only be judged of by their results. The
battle of Marengo, which was so long undecided, pro-
cured for us the dominion of all Italy ; Ulm annihilated a
whole army ; Jena threw the whole Prussian monarchy
into our hands ; Friedland opened to us the Russian

• After my removal from Longwood, Napoleon undertook a
special work on Frederick the Great, with notes and Commentaries
on his Campaigns.

. I

198 EXCELLENCY OF FRENCH TROOPS.

empire; and Eckmiihl decided the fate of a war. The
battle of Moscow was one in which the greatest talent
was displayed, and in which the fewest results were ob-
tained. Waterloo, where every thing failed, would, had
every thing succeeded, have saved France and re-esta-
blished Europe."

Madame de Montholon having asked what troopa
might be accounted the best, ** Those who gain victo-
ries. Madam," replied the Emperor. ** But," added he,
" soldiers are capricious and inconstant, like you ladies.
The best troops were the Carthagenians under Hannibal ;
the Romans under the Scipios ; the Macedonians under
Alexander ; and the Prussians under Frederick." He
thought, however, he might safely affirm that the French
troops were, of all others, those who could most easily be
rendered the best, and preserved so.

*' With my complete guard of 40 or 50,000 men, I
would have pledged myself to march through all Europe.
It may, perhaps, be possible to produce troops as good
as those who composed my army of Italy and Austerlitz ;
but certainly nothing can ever surpass them."

The Emperor, who had dwelt for a considerable time
on this subject, which was so interesting to him, sud-
denly recollecting himself, asked what it was o'clock.
He was informed that it was eleven. — *' Well," said
he, rising, "we at least have the merit of having got
through our evening without the help of either tragedy or
comedv."

MADAME DE COTTIN's MATHILDE, &C. ALL FRENCHMEN

INTERESTED IN NAPOLEON. DE8AIX AND NAPOLEON

AT MARENGO. SIR SIDNEY SMITH. CAUSE OF GE-
NERAL Bonaparte's return to France. — account

OF HIS voyage. INSTANCES OF THE CAPRICE OF

fortune.

29th. About two o'clock the Emperor desired me to
attend him in his chamber, and he gave me some private
orders. At four I rejoined hira. I found him sitting
under the tent, surrounded by all his suite; he was
swinging backward and forward on his chair, laughing,
talking, and making every effoit to be cheerful, while, at

KLEBER AND DB8AIX. 1 99

the same time, he continually repeated that he felt duU
and languid. He rose and took a drive in the calash.

After dinner, the conversation turned on romance
writing. Some one mentioned Madame Cottin's Ma-
thilde, the scene of which is laid in Syria. The Empe-
ror asked the person who had alluded to the work whether
he had ever seen Madame Cottin, whether she liked him
(Napoleon), whether her work was favourable to him,&c.,
but as he did not receive a ready answer he thus con-
tinued : ** But every body has loved me and hated me :
every one has been for me and against me by turns. I
may truly say that there is not a single Frenchman in
whom I have not excited interest. All must have loved
me, from Collot d'Herbois (had he lived) to the Prince of
Conde ; only not all at the same, time but at different
intervals and periods. I was hke the sun which crosses
the equator to travel through the ecliptic. According
as my influence was felt in each different climate, all
hopes expanded, and I was blessed and adored ; but when
I had departed, when I was no longer understood, unfa-
vourable sentiments arose."

Egypt next became the subject of conversation ; and
the Emperor again sketched the characters of Kleber and
Desaix. The latter joined the First Consul on the eve
of the battle of Marengo. Napoleon asked him how h«
could have thought of signing the capitulation of Egypt ;
since the army was sufficiently numerous to maintain
possession of it. '* We ought not to have lost Egypt,'*
he observed. — ** That's very true," replied Desaix, ** and
the army was certainly numerous enough to enable us to
retain possession of the country. But the General- in-
chief left us ; and at that distance from home, the Ge-
neral-in-chief is not a single man in the army ; he is the
half, the three-fourths, the five-sixths of it. I had no
alternative but to resign the possession of the country.
I doubt whether I could have succeeded had I acted
otherwise ; besides, it would have been criminal to make
the attempt, for in such a case it is a soldier* s duty to
obey, and I did so.**

Desaix, immediately after his arrival at Marengo, ob-
tained the command of the reserve. Towards the end o*

200 SIR SIDNEY SMITH.

the battle, and amidst the greatest apparent disorder,
Napoleon came up to him : — ** Well/* said Desaix,
*' afiairs are going on very badly, the battle is lost. I
can only secure the retreat. Is it not so ?" — *' Quite
the contrary/* said the First Consul ; " to me the result
of the battle was never for a moment doabtful. Those
masses, which you see in disorder on the right and left^
are marching to form in your rear. The battle is gained.
Order your column to advance : you have but to reap the
glory of the victory."

The Emperor afterwards spoke of Sir Sidney Smith.
He had, he said, just read in the Moniteur the docu-
ments relating to the convention of El-Arish, in which
he remarked that Sir Sidney had evinced a great share
of intelligence and integrity. The Emperor said he be-
wildered Kleber by the stories which he made him believe.
But when Sir Sidney received intelligence of the refusal
of the English Government to ratify the treaty, he was
very much dissatisfied, and behaved very honourably to
the French army. •* After all," said the Emperor, *' Sir
Sidney Smith is not a bad man. I now entertain a better
opinion of him than I did ; particularly after what I daily
witness in the conduct of his confederates."

It was Sir Sidney Smith who, by communicating the
European journals to Napoleon, brought about t^je de-
parture of the General- in -chief, and consequently the
denouement of Brumaire. The French, on their return
from St. Jean d'Acre, were totally ignorant of all that
had taken place in Europe for several months. Napoleon,
eager to obtain intelligence, sent a flag of truce on board
the Turkish admiral's ship, under the pretence of treating
for the ransom of the prisoners whom he had taken at
Aboukir, not doubting that the envoy would be stopped
by Sir Sidney Smith, who carefully prevented all direct
communication between the French and the Turks.
Accordingly, the French flag of truce received directions
from Sir Sidney to go on board his ship. He experienced
the handsomest treatment ; and the Enghsh commander,
having among other things ascertained that the disasters
of Italy were quite unknown to Napoleon, he indulged
in the malicious pleasure of sending him a file of news*
papers.

202 THB FRENCH AT CORSICA.

cheerfulness and ease, and conversed on the most in-
different subjects.

General Menou was the last person to whom Napoleon
spoke on shore. He said to him, " My dear General,
you nmst take care of yourselves here. If I have the
happiness to reach France, the reign of ranting shall be
at an end. '*

On a perusal of the papers furnished by Sir Sidney
Smith, Napoleon formed such an idea of the disasters of
France that he concluded the enemv had crossed the
Alps, and was already in possession of several of our
Southern Departments. When therefore the frigate ap-
proached the coast of Europe, Napoleon directed the
Admiral to make for Collioure and Port-Vendre, situated
at the extremity of the Gulf of Lyons. A gale of wind
drove them upon the coast of Corsica. They then en-
tered Ajaccio, where they obtained intelligence of the
state of affairs in France.

Ganthaume informed me that he saw, at Ajaccio, the
house which was occupied by Napoleon's family, the
patrimonial abode. The arrival of their celebrated
countryman immediately set all the inhabitants of the
island in motion. A crowd of cousins came to welcome
him, and the streets were thronged with people.

Napoleon again set sail, and the frigate now steered
towards Marseilles and Toulon. However, just as they
were on the point of reaching the place of their destination,
a new source of alarm arose. At sunset, on the larboard ot
the frigate, and precisely in the sun's rays, they observed
thirty sail making towards them with the wind aft.
Ganthaume proposed that the long boat of the frigate
should be manned with the best sailors, and that the
General should get on board, and under favour of the
night, endeavour to gain the shore. But Napoleon de-
clined this proposition, observing that there would always
be time enough for that mode of escape ; and he directed
the captain to continue his course as though nothing had
occurred. Meanwhile, night set in, and the enemy's
signal- guns were heard, at a distance, and right astern ;
thus it appeared that the frigate had not been observed.
Next day they anchored at Frejus. The rest is well
known.

SINGULAR CHANGES OF FORTUNE. 203

The Emperor concluded the evening's conversation, by
relating to us three curious instances of the caprice of
fortune, which took place in the same quarter of the
world, and about the same period.

A corporal, who deserted from one of the regiments
of the army of Egypt, joined the Mamelukes, and was
made a Bey. After his elevation, he wrote a letter to his
former General.

A fat sutler's wife who had followed the French army,
became the favourite of the Pasha of Jerusalem. She
could not write, but she sent a messenger with her com-
pliments to her old friends, assuring them that she
would never forget her country, but would always afford
protection to the French and the Christians. *' She
was," said the Emperor, ** the Zaire of the day."

A young peasant-girl of Cape Corso, being seized in a
fishing-boat by corsairs, was conveyed to Barbary, and
subsequently became the ruling favourite of the King of
Morocco. The Emperor, after some diplomatic com-
munications, caused the brother of this young girl to be
brought from Corsica to Paris, and, after having him
suitably fitted out, sent him to his sister ; but he never
heard of them afterwards.

It was late when the Emperor retired to rest ; he had
spent upwards of three hours in conversation.

30th. — I attended the Emperor at four o'clock. He
had been engaged in dictating under the tent. The
Governor had returned answers to the letters which M.
de Montholon addressed to him by the Emperor's
orders.

To the first communication, containing the protest
against the treaty of the 2d of August, and various other
complaints, no answer was returned, except that the
Governor wished to be informed what letter he had kept
back. This we could not tell him, since we had not seen
the letters. We had asked him that question ; and he
was the only person capable of answering it.

To the second letter, which stated that the Emperor
would not receive strangers at Longwood unless they
were admitted by the Grand Marshal's passes, as was
usual in the time of Admiral Cockburn, the Governof

204 THE OOTERNOR*8 LETTER.

replied that he had been sorry to see General Bonaparte
troubled by intrusive visitors at Longwood, and that he
wished to prevent such importunity for the future. This
was a most revolting piece of irony, considering the
situation in which the Emperor was placed, and the tenor
of M. de Montholon's letter.

After dinner the Emperor retired to the drawing-room,
and desired us all to seat ourselves round the table, to
form, as he said, an academic sitting. He began to dic-
tate to us on some subjects ; but when the parts that had
been written were read over to him, he resolved to cancel
them. Conversation was then resumed, and was kept up
for a considerable time, partly in a serious and partly in a
lively strain. It was near one o'clock when the Emperor
retired. For some time past we have sat up later than
we used to do. This is a good sign ; the Emperor feels
better, and he is more cheerful and talkative than he
lately was.

HISTORICAL DOUBTS. THE REGENCY OP THE DUKE OP

ORLEANS. MADAME DE MAINTENON. HER MARRIAGE

WITH LOUIS XIV.

3 1 St. — The Emperor rose very early, and took a turn
round the park alone. On his return, not wishing to
have any one disturbed, he desired my son, who had
risen, to sit down under the tent, and write from his
dictation : in this manner he employed himself for two
hours. We all breakfasted with him.

We took an airing in the calash. The conversation
turned on the doubts that were attached to various points
of history. The Emperor made some very curious re-
marks on this subject, and concluded with a circumstance
relating to the Regent. " If," said he, ** Louis XV. had
died in his childhood, and nothing was more possible,
who would have doubted that the Duke of Orleans had
poisoned the whole royal family ? Who would have
ventured to defend him } Had not one child survived,
that Prince would not have had justice done him." The
Emperor then alluded to the character of the Duke of
Orleans, and particularly to his errors in the affair of the
legitimate princes. '* There he degraded himself, " said

MADAME DE MAINTRNOK. 205

Napoleon ; •* not to say, however, that their cause was
good. Louis XIV. usurped a right in nominating them
to the succession. On the extinction of the Royal House,
the choice of a Sovereign is unquestionably the preroga-
tive of the nation. The act of Louis XIV. was doubtless
an error into which that Monarch was betrayed by his
own greatness. He conceived that every thing emana-
ting from liim must necdssarily be great. Yet he seemed
to entertain a suspicion that the world might not be
exactly of his opinion ; for he took precautions to con-
solidate his work by giving his natural children in
marriage to the legitimate princes and princesses of the
royal family. As to the Regency, it is very certain that
it devolved by right on the Duke of Orleans. Louis
XIV.*s will was a downright absurdity : it was a viola-
tion of our fundamental laws. France was a monarchy,
and he gave us a republic for a Regency."

The Emperor then mentioned Madame de Maintenon,
whose career, he said, was most extraordinary. She
was, he observed, the Bianca Capello* of her age ; but
less romantic, and not quite so amusing. Pursuing his
historical doubts, he said a great deal on the subject of
Madame de Maintenon's marriage with Louis XIV. He
declared that he was sometimes inclined to regard the
circumstance as very problematical, in spite of all that
was said about it in the Memoirs of the time.

** The fact is," observed he, "that there does not, and
never did, exist any official and authentic proof of the
marriage. What could be Louis XIV. 's object in keep-
ing the measure so strictly secret, both from his contem-
poraries and posterity ? and how happened it that the
Noailles family, to whom Madame de Maintenon was

* A noble Venetian lady of great beauty, whose adventure!
form a truly romantic and dramatic history. She eloped from
her father's house to follow a young Florentine pedlar, and whs
reduced to the greatest wretchedness. She subsequently became
Grand Duchess of Tuscany, and she closed her career by coolly
poisoning herself at table, in a fit of vexation at seeing the Grand
Duke, her husband, partake of a poisoned dish, which she had
prepared for her biother-in-law, Cardinal de Medicis, who, on hii
part, obstinately abstained from tasting it.

206 FRENCH FUNCTlONARIJiS.

related, suffered nothing to transpire on the subject ?
This was the more singular considering that Madame de
Aiaintenon survived Louis XIV."

The Emperor, feeling somewhat fatigued this evening,
retired to rest early. He seemed indisposed and low
spirited.

THE FRENCH MINISTERS, &C. ANECDOTE OF M. DARU.—

FADED FINERY AT ST. HELENA.

Sunday, September 1st. — The Emperor went out
about three o'clock : he said that he had felt feeble, lan-
guid, and dull the whole of the day. We all felt indis-
posed in the same way : it was the effect of the weather.
We strolled out to the great path in the wood, while the
calash was preparing ; but no sooner had we reached
the extremity of the path than a shower of rain came
on. It was so heavy that the Emperor was obliged to
take refuge at the foot of a gum-tree, the scanty foliage
of which, however, afforded but little shelter. The
calash soon arrived to take us up ; and we were return-
ing home with all speed, when we perceived the Gover-
nor, at some distance, making towards us. The Emperor
immediately ordered the coachman to turn, observing,
that of two evils he would choose the least ; and we took
a circuitous route homewards, in spite of the wind and
rain. We, however, escaped Sir Hudson Lowe : that
was an advantage.

Before dinner, the Emperor, in his chamber, took a
review of the individuals who had been attached to his
Household, the Council of State, and the different minis-
terial departments. Alluding to M. Dam, he observed
that he was a man distinguished for probity and for inde-
fatigable application to business. At the retreat from
Moscow, M. Dam's firmness and presence of mind were
remarkable, and the Emperor qften afterwards said that
he laboured like an ox, while he displayed the courage
of a Uon.

Business seemed to be M. Daru's element ; he was
incessantly occupied. Soon after he was appointed
Secretary of State, one of his friends was expressing a
fear that the immense business in which he would then(€«

INTERR8T1N0 ANKCDOTK. 207

forth be absorbed might prove too much for him. " On
the contrary," rephed Dam, ** I assure you that, since I
have entered upon my new functions, I seem to have
absolutely nothing to do." On one occasion only was
his vigour ever known to relax. The Emperor called
him up, after midnight, to write from his dictation :
M. Daru was so completely overcome by fatigue that he
Bcarcely knew what he was writing ; at length he could
hold out no longer, and he fell asleep over his paper.
After enjoying a sound nap, he awoke, and, to his aston-
ishment, perceived the Emperor by his side quietly en-
gaged in writing. The shortness of the candles informed
him that his slumber had been of considerable duration.
"While he sat for a few moments overwhelmed with con-
fusion, his eyes met those of the Emperor, who said to
him : " Well, Sir, you see I have been doing your work,
since you would not do it yourself. I suppose you have
eaten a hearty supper, and passed a pleasant evening ;
but business must not be neglected." — ** I pass a plea-
sant evening. Sire !" said M. Dam. " I have been for
several nights without sleep, and closely engaged. Of
this your Majesty now sees the consequence, and I am
exceedingly sorry for it." — ** Why did you not inform
me of this?" said the Emperor, ** I do not want to kill
you. Go to bed. Good night, M. Dam." This was
certainly a characteristic trait, and one that was well
calculated to remove the false notions which were gene-
rally entertained respecting Napoleon's harshness of
temper. But I know not by what fatality facts of this
kind were concealed from our knowledge, while any ab-
surd inventions unfavourable to the Emperor were so
actively circulated. Was it because the courtiers re-
served their flattery for the interior of the palace, and
sought to create a sort of counterpoise, by assuming
elsewhere an air of opposition and independence? Be
this as it may, had any individual related traits of the
above kind in the saloons of Paris, he would probably
have been told that he had invented them, or would have
been looked upon as a fool for giving credit to them.

The Grand Marshal and his lady came to dine at
Longwood, which they were accustomed to do every
Sunday.

208 JOCULARITY OF NAPOLEON.

During dinner, the Emperor jokingly alluded to the
faded finery of the ladies. He said that their dressea
would soon resemble the gay trappings of those old
misers who purchase their .wardrobes fi'om the dealers
in second-hand clothes; they no longer displayed the
freshness and elegance that characterized the millinery
of Leroi, Despeaux, Herbault, &c. The ladies craved
indulgence for St. Helena ; and their husbands reminded
the Emperor of his fastidiousness with regard to female
dress at the Tuileries, which, it was remarked, had
proved the ruin of some families. At this the Emperor
laughed, and said that the idea of his scrupulous taste in
dress was a mere invention of the ladies of the Court,
who made it a pretence, or an excuse, for their extrava-
gance. The conversation then turned on our splendour
at St. Helena. The Emperor said that he had told
Marchand he would wear every day the hunting-coat
which he then had on, until it was completely worn out :
it was already very far gone.

Both before and after dinner the Emperor played a
few games at chess : he felt low-spirited and nervous,
and retired to bed earlv.

THE CAMPAIGN OP SAXONY IN 1813. REFLECTIONS.

ANALYSIS. BATTLES OF LUTZEN AND WURTZEN.

NEGOTIATIONS. BATTLES OF DRESDEN, LEIPSIC, HA-

NAU, &C.

Sept. 2. — ^To-day there was some horse-racing at the
camp, at which one of the Emperor's suite was present.

The Emperor did not go out until late, and he walked
to the calash. The wind blew verv hard, and he re-
uounced his intention of taking a drive. He sat down
beneath the tent : but, finding it not very pleasant
without doors, he retired to his library, where he took up
the Letters of Madame de Chateauroux, looked through
the Expedition to Bohemia, and analysed the Life of
Marshal de Belle-Isle. He again went out to take a
walk in the garden ; but he returned almost immediately,
and directed me to follow him.

He took up a book relating to our last campaigns,
and, after perusing it for some time, he threw it dowiii

THB CAMPAIGNS OF 8AXONT. 209

saying, *• It is a downright rhapsody — a mere tissue of
contradictions and absurdities/' He conversed for a
considerable time on the two celebrated campaigns of
Saxony: his observations were principally moral, and
few or none military ; I noted down the following as
the most remarkable : ** That memorable campaign/'
said he, ** will be regarded as the triumph of courage in
the youth of France ; of intrigue and cunning in English
diplomacy ; of intelligence on the part of the Russians ;
and of effrontery in the Austrian Cabinet. It will mark
the period of the disorganization of political societies,
the great separation of subjects from their Sovereigns,
finally, the decay of the first military virtues — fidelity,
loyalty, and honour. In vain people may write and
comment, invent falsehoods and suppositions ; to this
odious and mortifying result we must all come at last:
time will develop both its truth and its consequences.

'* But it is a remarkable circumstance, in this case,
that all discredit is equally removed from sovereigns,
soldiers, and people. It was entirely the work of a few
military intriguers and headlong politicians, who, under
the specious pretext of shaking off the foreign yoke and
recovering the national independence, purposely sold
their own rulers to envious rival Cabinets. The results
soon became manifest : the King of Saxony lost half his
dominions, and the King of Bavaria was compelled to
make valuable restitutions. What did the traitors care
for that ? They enjoyed their rewards and their wealth,
and those who had proved themselves most upright jand
innocent were visited with the severest punishment.
Tlie King of Saxony, the most honest man who ever
wielded a sceptre, was stripped of half his territories;
and the King of Denmark, so faithful to all his engage-
ments, was deprived of a crown ! This, however, was
affirmed to be the restoration and the triumph of morality !
.... Such is the distributive justice of this world ! . . .

** To the honour of human nature, and even to the
honour of Kings, I must once more declare that never
was more virtue manifested than amidst the baseness
which marked this period. I never for a moment had
cause to complain individually of the Princes our allies

210 CHARACTERISTIC RKMAKK8

The good King of Saxony continued faithful to the
last; the King of Bavaria loyally avowed to me that
he was no longer his own master ; the generosity of
the King of Wdrtemburg was particularly remarkable;
the Prince of Baden yielded only to force, and in the
very last extremity. All, I must render them this
justice, gave me due notice of the storm that was
gathering, in order that I might take the necessary
precautions. But. on the other hand, how odious was
the conduct of subaltern agents ! Military history will
never obliterate the infamy of the Saxons, who returned
to our ranks for the purpose of destroying us ! Their
treachery became proverbial among the troops, who still
use the term Saxonner to designate the act of a soldier
who assassinates another. To crown all, it was a
Frenchman, a man for whom French blood purchased a
crown, a nursling of France, who gave the finishing
stroke to our disasters ! Gracious God !

** But in the situation in which I was placed, the
circumstance which served to fill up the measure of my
distress was that I beheld the decisive hour gradually
approach. The star paled ; I felt the reins slip from my
hands, and yet I could do nothing. Only a sudden turn
of fortune could save us : to treat, to conclude any
compact, would have been to yield like a fool to the
enemy. I was convinced of this, and the event sufii-
ciently proved that I was not mistaken. We had,
therefore, no alternative but to fight ; and every day, by
some fatality or other, our chances diminished. Treason
began to penetrate into our ranks. Great numbers of
our troops sunk under the efiects of fatigue and dis-
couragement. My lieutenants became dispirited, and,
consequently, unfortunate. They were no longer the
same men who figured at the commencement of the
Revolution, or who had distinguished themselves in the
brilliant moments of mv success. I have been informed

that some presumed to allege, in their defence, that at
first they fought for the Republic and for their country ;
while afterwards they fought only for a single man, fcr
his individual interests, and his ambition.

** Base subterfuge ! Ask the young and brave soldiers,
and the officers of intermediate rank in the French army.

OF NAPOLBON. 21 4

whether such a calculation ever entered their thoughts ;
—whether they ever saw before them any thing but the
enemy, or behind them any thing save the honour,
glory, and triumph of France ! These men never fought
better than at the period alluded to. Why dissemble ?
Why not make a candid avowal? The truth is that,
generally speaking, the officers of high rank had gained
every object of their ambition. They were sated with
wealth and honours. They had drunk of the cup of
pleasure, and they henceforth wished for repose, which
they would have purchased at any price. The sacred
flame was extinguished ; they were willing to sink to
the level of Louis XV. *s marshals."

If the words above quoted require any comment — if
the sense here, or in other similar passages of my
Journal, should be found to be incomplete, I must not
be held responsible. I have literally noted down what
Napoleon uttered, and I am accountable for nothing
more. I have already several times mentioned that,
when the Emperor spoke, I never ventured to interrupt
him by questions or remarks. On the subject of the
celebrated campaign of 1813, I may mention that, from
various detached conversations of Napoleon, which I
have not noted down at the time when they occurred,
he was far from being deceived as to the crisis which
threatened France, and he correctly estimated the full
extent of the risk by which he was surrounded in the
opening of the ca.npaign. Ever since his return from
Moscow, he had seen the danger, he said, and endea-
voured to avert it. From that moment he resolved on
making the greatest sacrifices; but the choice of the
proper moment for proclaiming these sacrifices was the
difficult point, anjd that which chiefly occupied his
consideration. If the influence of material power be
great, he said, the power of opinion is still greater;
it is magical in its effects. His object was to preserve
it ; and a false step, a word inadvertently uttered, might
for ever have destroyed the illusion. He found it in-
dispensable to exert the greatest circumspection, and
to manifest the utmost apparent confidence in his own
strength. It was, above sill, necceeary to look forward
to the future.

212 CONDUCT OF AUSTRIA.

His great fault, his fundamental error, was in sup-
posing that his adversaries always had as much judgment
and knowledge of their own interests, as he himself
possessed. From the first, he said, he suspected that
Austria would avail herself of the difficulties in which
he was placed, in order to secure great advantages to
herself; but he never could have believed that the
Monarch was so blind, or his advisers so treacherous as
to wish to bring about his (Napoleon's) downfall, and
thereby leave their own country henceforth at the mercy
of the uncontrolled power of Russia. The Emperor
pursued the same train of reasoning with regard to the
Confederation of the Rhine, which, he admitted, might,
perhaps, have cause to be dissatisfied with him ; but
which, he concluded, must dread still more the idea of
falling under the power of Austria and Prussia. Napo-
leon conceived that the same arguments were not
inapplicable to Prussia ; which, he presumed, could not
wish entirely to destroy a counterpoise, that was
necessary to her independence, and her very existence.
Napoleon made full allowance for the hatred of his ene-
mies, and for the dissatisfaction and malevolence which,
perhaps, existed among his allies ; but he could not
suppose that either wished for his destruction, since he
felt himself to be so necessarv to all ; and he acted ac-
cordingly. Such was Napoleon's ruling idea throughout
the whole of this important period. It was the key of
his whole conduct to the very last hour, and even to the
moment of his fall. It must be carefully borne in mind,
for it serves to explain many things, perhaps, all; —
his hostile attitude, his haughty language, his refusal to
treat, his determination to fight, &c.

If he should be successful, he thought he could then
make honourable sacrifices, and a glorious peace ; while
the illusion of his superiority would remain undiminished.
If, on the contrary, he should experience reverses, it
would still be time enough to make concessions ; and he
concluded that the interest of the Austrians and all true
Germans must secure him the support of their arms or
of their diplomacy ; for he supposed they wore convinced,
as he himself was, that his power had henceforth become
indispensable to the structure, repose, security, and ex.

RBCAPITULATICN OF THE CAMPAIGN. 213

Mtence of Europe. But that of which he had reason to
douht proved most prosperous : victory continued faith-
ful to him ; his first successes were admirable, and
almost incredible. On the other hand, that which he
believed to be infallible was precisely what failed him :-*-
his natural allies betrayed him, and hastened his downfall.

In support of what I have just alleged, and with the
view of throwing light on the Emperor's remarks above
quoted, I shall here insert a brief recapitulation of the
events of that fatal campaign. In France, at the time,
we were made acquainted only with its results ; the
bulletins gave us but little information, and we received
no foreign publications. Besides, the period is now
distant, and so many important events have since oc-
curred to occupy public attention, that these details may
be partly forgotten by those who once knew them.
They are here arranged in chronological order.

I extract this recapitulation from a work written by
M. de Montveran, which was published in 1820. The
author has bestowed great care on the collection of
official and authentic documents ; and he has availed
himself of the information furnished by preceding
writers. I am, therefore, of opinion, that this work
is, unquestionably, the best that has been written on the
subject. M. de Montveran is far from being favourable
to Napoleon ; however, it is but just to admit that he
maintains a tone of impartiality which does credit to his
character, while, at the same time, it enhances the merit
of his work.

** On the 2nd of May, Napoleon opened the campaign
of Saxony by the victory of Liitzen, a most surprising
event, and one which reflects immortal honour on the
conquerors. A newly embodied army, without cavalry
marched to face the veteran bands of Russia and Prussia ;
but the genius of the Chief, and the valour of the young
troops whom he commanded, made amends for all;
The French had no cavalry ; but bodies of infantry
advanced in squares, flanked by an immense mass c^
artillery, presenting the appearance of so many moving
fortresses. Eighty- four thousand infantry, consisting of
French troops, or troops of the Confederation, with only *

214 RBCAPilULATION OP THE CAMPAltiN.

4,000 cavalry, beat 107,000 Russians or PniseianB,
with more than 20,000 cavalry. Alexander and the
King of Prussia witnessed the conflict in person. Theif
celebrated guards could not maintain their ground against
our young conscripts. The enemy lost 18,000 men;
our loss amounted to 12,000, and our want of cavalry
prevented us from reaping the usual fruit of our con-
quests. However, the moral result of the victory was
immense. The enthusiasm of our troops resumed its
ascendency, and the Emperor recovered the full influence
of opinion. The Allies retreated before him without
venturing the chances of another battle.*

** On the 9th, Napoleon entered Dresden as a conque-
ror, conducting back to his capital the King of Saxony,
who, from the consciousness of his own interests, as well
as the wish to remain faithful to his engagements, had
retired on the approach of the Allies, whose proposals he
had constantly rejected.

" On the 21st and 2 2d, Napoleon again triumphed at
Wurtzen and Bautzen. The Allies had chosen their
ground, which the brilliant campaigns of Frederick had
rendered classic. They had intrenched themselves, and
they thought their position impregnable : but every
thing yielded to the grand views and well - conducted
plans of the French general who, at the very commence-
ment of the conflict, declared himself to be certain of the
victory.

" The Allies lost 18,000 or 20,000 men. They were
unable to retain their position, and they retired in dis-
order. The Emperor pursued them. He had already
passed through Lusatia, crossed Silesia, and reached the

* At tlie victory of Tiiitzen the Emperor sustained a severe ioss
in the death of the brave and loyal Marsha) Bessidres, Duke of
I stria, who was so sincerely devoted to Napoleon. The King of
Saxony raised a monument to his memory on tlie very spot where
he received his death-blow. By a glorious coincidence the monu-
ment is similar to that of Gustavus Adolphus, and is placed not
far distant from it. It consists of a simple stone surrounded by
poplars. Tliis is not the only instance in which foreigners have
rendered that homage to tlie memory of brave Frenchmen, which
their own countrymen have neglected.

RECAPITULATION OP TBB CAMPAIGN. 21t

Oder, when the Allies demanded an armistice to treat
for peace ; and Napoleon, thinking the favourahle mo«
ment had arrived, granted it.

•• On the 4th of June, the armistice of Pleissvitz was
scnclnded. This event had the most decisive influence
in producing oar misfortunes ; it was the fatal knot tc
which were attached all the chances and destinies of
tl.e campaign.

•' Should the Emperor have granted this armistice, or
have followed up his advantages } This was, at the mo-
ment, a problem which time, and the events that have
proved so fatal to us, solved when too late. The Empe-
ror, crowned with victory, halted before his fallen ene-
mies, to whom he could now make concessions without
compromising his dignity ; his sacrifices could be re-
garded only as moderation. Austria, hitherto uncertain
as to what course she should pursue, struck with our
success, rejoined us. Napoleon now reasonably hoped
to see the ratification of a peace which he wished for,
and he would not let slip so favourable an opportunity,
to run the risk of a check that might have lost all, and
which was the more likely to take place since his army
had marched forward in haste and in the utmost disorder,
and his rear was uncovered and harassed by the enemy.
He conceived that the armistice, at all events, afforded
him an opportunity of concentrating and organizing his
forces, and opening his communications with France, by
which means he should be enabled to receive immense
reinforcements, and to create a corps of cavalry."

Unfortunately, in spite of all the Emperor's calcula-
tions, this fatal armistice proved advantageous only to our
enemies : it was maintained for nearly three months, and
it served only to bring about their triumph anid our de-
struction. Austria, who was still our ally, by a decep-
tion, which history will justly characterize, availed herself
of that title to oppose us with the greater advantage-
Requiring delay, she obtained it. The Russians, who
were waiting for reinforcements, received them ; the
Prussians doubled their numbers ; the English subsidies
arrived, and the Swedish army rejoined. Secret associa-
tions were set on foot ; a general insurrection of the

216 RECAPITULATION OF TUB CAMPAIGN*.

whole German population was excited ; while, at the
same time, the defection of the Cabinets of the Rhenish
Confederation, and the corruption of the Allied officers,
were effected. Treason also began to creep into the
superior ranks. General Joraini, the Chief of the Staf!
of one of our army corps, went over to the enemy with
all the information he had been able to collect respecting
the plans of the campaign, &c.*

The result sufficiently proved to the Emperor all the
errors of the armistice, and convinced him that he would
have done better had he persisted in pressing forward ;
for had he continued successful, the Allies, alarmed at
finding themselves deprived of the aid of Austria, with
whom they could no longer have maintained intelligence,
cut off from the Prince of Sweden, who would have re-
mained behind, seeing blockades of the fortresses of the
Oder raised, and the war carried back to Poland, to the
gates of Dantzick, amidst a people ready to rise in a
mass — the Allies, I say, would infallibly have treated.
If, on the other hand, we had sustained a reverse, the
consequences could not have been more fatal than those
which were actually experienced. The judicious calcu-
lations of the Emperor ruined him : that which seemed
to be indiscretion and temerity would probably have
saved him.

CONGRESS OP PRAGUE ON THE 29tH OP JULY.

** After two months of difficulties and obstacles, the
Congress opened under the mediation of Austria; if,
indeed, the term Congress can be properly applied to an
assembly in which no deliberations took place, and where
one piarty had determined beforehand that none should
be held.

" The mediator and the adversaries were equally our
enemies : all concurred in their hostility to us, and they
had already decided on war. Why then did they wait ?
Because Austria still possessed a shade of modesty, and

• A reference to Count Montholon's Memoirs of Napoleon will
shew that the Emperor admits the falsehood of this chaise againot
Jomini, who he says was not even acquainted with his plans.

KBCAPITULATION OF THK CAMPAIGN. 219

she wished, in the debates, to gain a pretence for declar-
ing war against us. Prussia and Russia, on their part,
thought it necessary to preserve their credit in £urope
by this false manifestation of their desire and their efforts
to. preserve peace. All were merely affixing the seal to
their Machiavelian system.

m

** For them the real Congress was not the assembly at
Prague ; it had already taken place two months before.
Time has since thrown into our hands the authentic re-
cords of the intrigues, machinations, and even treaties,
in which they were engaged during that interval. It is
now evident that the armistice was resorted to by pre-
tended friends and avowed enemies, only for the sake ot
artfully cementing the union that was to effect the over-
throw of Napoleon, and creating the triumvirate destined
to oppress Europe while it pretended to deliver h.er.

" Austria had, from interested motives, long delayed
the opening of the Congress of Praaue. Resolved to
repair her losses at any price, she did not hesitate to
sacrifice her honour, the better to ensure her success
She masked her perfidy under, the disguise of friendship.
Declaring herself our ally, and eagerly complimenting us
on every new triumph, she msisted, with an air of the
warmest interest, on being our mediatrix when she had
already entered into an agreement to -make common
cause with our enemies. Her propositions were accepted.
But she wished to gain time for her preparations ; and
thus every day fresh obstacles were started, while the
utmost tardiness was evinced in settling them.

" Austria at first offered her services as a mediatrix ;
but, changing her tone in proportion as her warlike pre-
parations advanced, she soon signified her wish to be-
come an arbitress, at the same time intimating that she
expected great advantages in return for the services she
might render. At length, after an armistice of two
months, when Austria thought herself perfectly prepared,
and when every thing was agreed upon among the coa-
lesced powers, they opened the Congress, not to treat of
peace and to establish amicable relations, but to develop
their real sentiments, and to insult us unreservedly*.
The Russians, in particular, behaved with unusu^ iU

Vol. III.— 10

218 RKCAPITULATION OF THis, CAMPAIGN.

grace. They were no longer the Russians who anxiously
solicited an armistice after the routs of LUtzen, Wiirtzen,
and Bautzen. They now looked upon themselves as the
dictators of Europe, which, indeed, they have since really
become, by the spirit of their diplomacy, the blindness of
their allies, their geographical situation, and finally by
the force of things. But whom did Alexander select as
his minister to this Congress ? Precisely one who, by
personal circumstances, was, according to the laws of
France, unqualified for such a post ; — one who was by
birth a Frenchman. Certainly it would have been diffi-
cult to ofier a more personal and direct insult. Napoleon
felt it ; but he concealed his resentment.

" Under such circumstances much could not be ex-
pected from the Congress : during the few days of its
sitting, our enemies merely drew up a series trf notes
more or less acrimonious, while the conduct of Austria
was marked by the most odious partiality.

** On the 10th of August, only two days after the first
meeting of the negotiators, the Russians and Prussians
haughtily withdrew; and on the 12th, Austria, that
faithful ally, that obsequious and devoted friend, who
had shewn herself so eager to become our mediatrix and
arbitress, suddenly laid aside those titles to declare war
against us, allowing no interval save that required for
the signature of the manifesto, which she had been for
two months secretly concerting with her new allies, and
which will ever remain a record of her shame and degra-
dation, since it acknowledges the sacrifice of an Arch-
duchess to the necessity of crouching before a detested
ally. History will decide on these acts. However, to
the honour of the throne and of moralitv, there is reason
to believe that most of these transactions, and in particu-
lar the real course of affairs, was unknown to the Empe-
ror Francis, who is reputed to be the most gentle, up-
right, moral, and pious of princes. It has been affirmed
that many of these acts were determined on without his
knowledge, and that others were represented to him un-
der a totally false colouring. The whole of these dis-
graceful proceedings must be attributed to British gold
to the craftiness of Russian diplomacy, and to the pas-

RECAPITULATION OF THK CAMPAIGN. 2 IS

sions of the Austrian aristocracy, excited by the English
faction which at that time ruled Europe.

"The Congress broke up with mutual feelings of
irritation. The Emperor then expressed his sentiments
in official and public documents, in the most forcible
language, and in a tone of the highest superiority. But
this he did with the view of creating a favourable im-
pression on the public mind; for he remained so far
master of himself as that, though hastening to take up
arms, he nevertheless demanded a renewal of the nego-
tiations, which were resumed at Prague. He deemed it
advisable not to lose the advantages of constant commu-
nications : Austria would be easily detached if we obtain-
ed advantages, and she would be easily convinced if we
sustained reverses. Such was the Congress of Prague.

" It will perhaps be asked whether Napoleon was duped
l)y this Congress and the circumstances arising out of it.
The answer is that he was not, or at least not entirely.
If he had not a knowledge of every fact, he was never
for a moment mistaken as to the intentions and senti-
ments that were reallv entertained.

** Napoleon, from the moment of his first victory at
Lutzen, had authentically proposed a general congress.
This he conceived to be the only means of treating for a
general peace, insuring the independance of France, and
the guarantee of the modern system. Every other mode
of negotiation appeared to him merely a lure ; and if he
seemed to depart from this principle, in accepting the
mediation of Austria, and agreeing to the conferences at
Prague, it was because, as time advanced, affairs became
more complicated. The defeat of Vittoria, the evacuation
of Spain, and the spirit of the French people, which was
declining, had considerably diminished his prosperity.
He anticipated the result of the negotiations : but he
wished to gain time, in his turn, and to await the course
of events. He was not deceived as to the part which
Austria would act ; and, without knowing precisely how
far she would carry her deception, he could well discern,
from her mysterious conduct and delays, what was likely
to be her determination. At Dresden, he had even had
personal conversations with the first negotiator of the

*220 NBGOCIATIONS.

Austrian government, who had sufficiently .ndicated the
line of conduct he intended to pursue. The Emperor
having remarked that he had, after all, eight hundred
thousand men to oppose the enemy, the negotiator
eagerly added, ' Your Majesty may say twelve hundred
thousand ; for you may, if you please, join our force to
your own/ But what was tu be the price of this advan-
tage ? Nothing less than the restitution of Illyria, the
cession of the Duchy of Warsaw, the frontier of the
Inn, &c. * And after all,' said the Emperor, * what should
I have gained by this ? Had we made all these concessions,
should we not have been humbling ourselves for nothing,
and furnishing Austria with the means of making farther
demands, and afterwards opposing us with greater advan-
tage ?' He never relinquished the idea that the true
interests of Austria being closely connected with our
danger, we should be more certain of regaining her by
our misfortunes than of securing her by our concessions.
Napoleon was therefore deaf to every demand ; but he
had so little doubt of the engagements which Austria
had already contracted with our enemies that he is
described as having said, half good-humouredly and half
indignantly, to the Austrian negotiator : * Come now,
confess : tell me how much they have paid you for
this.'"

How severely did Napoleon suffer on this occasion !
What trials of patience did he not undergo ! And yet he
was accused at the time of not wishing for peace ! " Haw
was I perplexed," said he, "when conversing on this
subject, to find myself the only one to judge of the extent
of our danger and to adopt means to avert it. I wa^
harassed on the one hand by the coalesced Powers, who.
threatened our very existence, and on the other by the
jspirit of my own subjects, who in their blindness, seemed
to make common cause with them ; by our enemies, who
were labouring for my destruction, and by the importu-
nities of my people and even my Ministers, who urged
me to throw myself on the mercy of foreigners. And I
was obliged to keep up a bold look in this embarrassing
situation : to reply haughtily to some, and sharply ta
rebuff others, who created difficulties in my rear, en-;

NEGOC1AT10XS. 221

couraged the mistaken course of public opinion, instead
of seeking to give it a proper direction, and suffered me
to be tormented by demands for peace, when they ought
to have proved that the only means of obtaining it was
to urge me ostensibly to war.

'** However, my determination was fixed. I awaited
ihe result of events, nrmiy resolved to enter into no
concessions or treaties which could present only a tem-
porary reparation, and would inevitably have been attended
by fatal consequences. Any middle course must have
been dangerous ; there was no safety except in victory,
which would have preserved my power, or in some
catastrophe, which would have brought back my allies."

I beg to call the reader's attention to this last idea,
which I have already noticed on a former occasion. It
will perhaps be thought I attach great importance to it ;
but this is because I feel the necessity of rendering it
intelligible. Though 1 now enter into it completely, yet
it was long before I understood it, and it appeared to me
paradoxical and subtle.

" In what a situation was I placed ! " continued the
Emperor. ** I saw that France, her destinies, her
principles, depended on me alone! " — ** Sire ! " I ventured
to observe, ** this was the opinion generally entertained ;
and yet some parties reproached you for it, exclaiming,
with bitterness. Why would he connect every thing with
himself personally ? " — ** That was a vulgar accusation,"
resumed the Emperor warmly. ** My situation was not
one of my own choosing, nor did it arise out of any
fault of mine ; it was produced entirely by the nature and
force of circumstances — by the conflict of two opposite
orders of things. Would the individuals who held this
language, if indeed they were sincere, have preferred to
go back to the period preceding Brumaire, when our
internal dissolution was complete, foreign invasion
certain, and the destruction of France inevitable ? From
the moment when we decided on the concentration of
power, which could alone save us ; when we determined
on the unity of doctrines and resources which rendered
us a mighty nation, the destinies of France depended
solely on the character, the meas ires, and the principles

22t2 NBGOCIATIONS,

of him whom she had invested with this accidental dicta-
torship : from that moment the public welfare, the State j
was myself. These words, which I addressed to men
who were capable of understanding them, were strongly
censured by the narrow-minded and ill-disposed; but
the enemy felt the full force of them, and, therefore, his
first object was to effect my overthrow. The same out-
cry was raised against other words which I uttered in
the sincerity of my heart : when I said that France had
more need of me than I of her. This profound truth
was declared to be merely excess of vanity. But, my
dear Las Cases, you now see that I cmn relinquish every
thing; and as to what I endure here, my sufferings
cannot be long. My life is limited ; bujt the existence
of France ....!" Then, resuming his former idea,
he said: ** The circumstances in which we were placed
were extraordinary and unprecedented ; it would be vain
to seek for any parallel to them. I was myself the key-
stone of an edifice totally new, and raised on a slight
foundation 1 Its stability depended on each of my battles !
Had I been conquered at Marengo, France would have
encountered all the disasters of 1814 and 1815, without
those prodigies of glory which succeeded, and which
will be immortal. It was the same at Austerlitz and
Jena, and again at Eylau and elsewhere. The vulgar
failed not to blame my ambition as the cause of all these
wars. But they were not of my choosing ; they were
produced by the nature and force of events ; they arose
out of that conflict between the past and the future —
that constant and permanent coalition of our enemies,
which obliged us to subdue under pain of being subdued."
But to return to the negotiations of 1813, On a re-
ference to the documents and manifestoes published at
the time by the two parties, whether because we can now
peruse them with more impartiality, or because our eyes
have been opened by the conduct of those who triumphed,
it is impossible to avoid feeling astonished at the two-
fold error which led the Germans to rise so furiously
against him from whose yoke they pretended to free
themselves, and in favour of those whom they expected
to become their regenerators !

223

Renewal of Hostilities — Battle of Dresden — 26/^ and
27 th of August, — ** The hostile powers again presented
themselves on the field of hattle. The French, with a
force of 300,000, of which 40,000 were cavalry, occupied
the heart of Saxony, on the left hank of the Elhe ; ai.d
the Allies, with 600,000 men, of whom 1 00,000 were
cavalry, threatened them in three different directions,
from Berlin, Silesia, and Bohemia, on Dresden. This
prodigious disproportion of numbers had no effect on
Napoleon : he concentrated his forces, and boldly assumed
the offensive. Having fortified the line of the Elbe,
which had now become his point d'appui, and, protecting
his extreme right by the mountains of Bohemia, he di-
rected one of his masses on Berlin against Bernadotte,
who commanded an armv of Prussians and Swedes, while
another marched upon Silesia, against Blucher, who com-
manded a corps composed of Prussians and Russians, and
a third was stationed at Dresden, as the key of the posi-
tion, to observe the great Austrian and Russian army in
Bohemia. Finally, a fourth mass was placed as a reserve,
at Zittau, with the threefold object : — 1st, to penetrate
into Bohemia, in case we should gain advantages over
Hlucher ; 2d, to keep the great body of the allied force
confined in Bohemia, through the fear of being attacked
on their rear, should they attempt to debouch by the
banks of the Elbe ; 3d, to assist, if necessary, in assailing
Blucher, or in the defence of Dresden ; in case that
citv should be attacked.

"The Emperor, who had already made a rapid move-
ment against Blucher, kept him in action before him,
when he was suddenly called away for the defence of
Dresden, where 65,000 French troops found themselves
opposed to 180,000 of the allied forces. Prince Schwart-
zenberg, the General-in-chief, had on the 26th made a
faint attack upon Dresden, instead of making a precipi-
tate and decided assault ; which, it was affirmed, was the
intention of the deserter Jomini, who so well understood
the real state of things. Napoleon came up with the
rapidity of lightning and he combined a force of 100,000
French troops to oppose the 180,000 Allies. The afiair
was not for a moment doubtful ; and to his sagacity and

224 FRESH HOSTILITIES.

penetration the whole success must be attributed. Tlie
enemy was overwhelmed : he lost 40,000 men, and was
for some time threatened with total destruction. The
Emperor Alexander was present at the battle, and Mo-
reau was killed by one of the first balls fired by our
imperial guard, only a short time after he had spoken
with the Russian Emperor.*

Tiie happy chance, so anxiously looked for by Napoleon ,
which was expected to re establish our affairs, to procure
peace, and to save France, had at length arrived. Ac-
cordingly, on the ensuing day, Austria despatched an
agent to the Emperor with amicable propositions. But
such is the uncertainty of human destiny ! From that
moment, by an unexampled fatality. Napoleon had to en-
counter a chain of disasters. At every point, except that
at which he was himself present, we sustained reverses.
Our army in Silesia lost 25,000 men in opposing Blu-
cher ; the force which attacked Berlin was defeated bv
the Prince of Sweden with great loss ; and finally,
nearly the whole of Vandamme's corps, which, after the
victory of Dresden, was sent into Bohemia with the view
of assailing the enemy's rear and accomplishing his de-
struction, being abandoned to itself and to the temerity
of its chief, was cut in pieces by that part of the Allied
army which was precipitately falling back. This fatal
disaster and the safety of the Auslrians, were owing to
a sudden indisposition of Napoleon's, who, at the mo-
ment, was supposed to have been poisoned. His pre-
sence no longer excited the ardour of the different corps
in maintaining the pursuit ; indecision and dejection
ensued ; Vandamme*s force was destroyed, and all the
fruit of the splendid victory of Dresden was lost !

After these repeated checks, the spell was broken ; the
spirit of the French troops became depressed, while that
of the Allies was the more highly excited. The hostile
forces were now to be estimated only by their numerical

* The death of the celebrated Moreau, while fighting under the
Russian banner, and opposed to a French army, was and will evei
continue to be a source of affliction to his sincerest friends aod
warmest partizans.

NEW CONFERENCES. 2S5

value ; and a catastrophe seemed to be at hand. Napo-
leon, in despair, made vain efforts ; he hastened to every
threatened point, and was immediately cjeiUed away by
some new disaster. Wherever he appeared, the AlHes
retreated before him ; and they advanced again as soon
as his back was turned. Meanwhile, all the enemy's
masses were constantly gaining ground ; they had eflfected
communications with each other, and they now formed
a semicircle, which was gradually closing round the
French, who were driven back upon the Elbe, and
threatened completely to surround them. On the other
hand, our rear, which was uncovered, was assailed by
detached parties. The kingdom of Westphalia was in
open insurrection ; our convoys were intercepted, and we
could no longer maintain free communications with
France.

It was in this state of things that the negotiators
of Prague submitted to the Emperor the result of their
new conferences. In addition to numerous restitutions
required from Napoleon and his allies, two propositions
were made: 1st, the surrender of all the influence and
acquisitions of France in Italy ; 2nd, the resignation
of the French influence and acquisitions in Germany.
Napoleon was to take his choice of one of these two divi-
sions of power ; but the other was to be consigned to
the Allies, to be entirely at their disposal, without any
interference on his part. Neither friends nor enemies
entertained a doubt that Napoleon would eagerly accept
these proposals. ** For,** said those about him, " if you
choose Italy, you remain at the gates of Vienna, and the
Allies will soon dispute among themselves respecting the
division of Germany. If, on the contrary, you prefer
the surrender of Italy, you will thereby secure the friend-
ship of Austria, to whose share it will fall, and you will
remain in the heart of Germany. In either case you will
soon re-appear in the character of a mediator, or a ruler.**
Napoleon, however, was not of this opinion : he rejected
the propositions, and persisted in following up his
own ideas.

Qertainly, said he to himself, such proposals in them-
selves, and in the natural course of things, are most

10»

226 VIEWS OF NAPOLBOK

acceptable ; but where is the guarantee of their since*
rity ? He saw plainly that the Allies were only endea-
vouring to lure him into the snare. They determined
thenceforth to abide neither by faith nor law. They did
not conceive themselves bound bv anv law of nations, or
any rule of integrity in their conduct towards us. In
opposition to the suggestions of his counsellors, Napo-
leon said ; ** If I relinquish Germany, Austria will but
contend the more perseveringly until she obtains Italy.
If, on the other hand, I surrender Italy to her, she will,
!n order to secure the possession of it, endeavour to expel
me from Germany. Thus, one concession granted will
only serve as an inducement for seeking or enforcing new
ones. The first stone of the edifice being removed, the
downfall of the whole will inevitablv ensue. 1 shall be
urged on from one concession to another, until I am
driven back to the Tuileries, whence the French people,
enraged at my weakness, and blaming me for their
disasters will doubtless banish me, and perhaps justly,
though they may themselves immediately become the
prey of foreigners."

May not this be regarded as a literal prediction of the
events which succeeded the insidious declaration of
Frankfort, the propositions of Chatillon, &c. }

** It would be a thousand times better to perish in
battle amidst the fury of the enemy's triumph," con-
tinued the Emperor ; ** for even defeats leave behind
them the respect due to adversity, when they are attended
by magnanimous perseverance. I therefore prefer to
give battle ; for, if I should be conquered, we still have
with us the true political interests of the majority of our
enemies. But, if I should be victorious, I may save all.
I have still chances in my favour — I am far from
despairing.**

Intended movement on Berlin, — ** In this state of
things, the King of Bavaria, the chief of the Confedera-
tion of the Rhine, wrote to the Emperor, assuring him,
confidentially, that he would continue his alliance for six
weeks longer. *' This was long enough," said Napoleon,
** to render it very probable that he would no longer find
it necessarv to abandon us." He determined imme-

BATTLES OP LEIPSIC. 227

diatel\ to attempt a great movement, which he had long
contemplated, and which plainly indicates the resources
of his enterprising mind. Pressed upon the Elbe, the
right bank of which was already lined by the great mass
of the Allied force, and nearly turned on his rear, he
conceived the bold idea of changing positions with the
enemy, place for place ; to penetrate the enemy's line, to
form in his rear, and compel him to pass in his turn,
with his whole force, to the left bank of the river. If,
in this situation, he abandoned his communications with
France, he would have in his rear the enemy's territory,
a tract of country- not yet ravaged by war, and which
was capable of maintaining his troops, Berlin, Branden-
burg, and Mecklenburg, he would recover his fortresses,
with their immense garrisons, the separation and the loss
of which would be a great fault after a reverse of fortune,,
and would be regarded as resources of genius in case of
triumph. Napoleon now looked forward to new combi-
nations, and a new prospect of future success : he beheld
before him only the errors, the astonishment, and the
stupor of his enemies, and the brilliancy of his own
enterprise and his hopes.

Battles ofLeipsic, (16th, 18th, and 19th Oct.)— "At
first fortune seemed to smile on the Emperor. But soon
a letter from the King of WUrtemberg informed him
that the Bavarian army, seduced by the intrigues and the
prevailing spirit of the moment, had joined the Austrians,
against whom it was intended to be opposed ; that it
was marching on the Rhine to cut off the communication
with France ; and that the King of WUrtemburg was
himself under the necessity of yielding to circumstances.
This unexpected event obliged Napoleon to suspend his
preparations, and to fall back, in order to secure his
retreat. This complication of false movements proved
servicable to the Allies, who pressed and surrounded us :
a great battle seemed inevitable. Napoleon assembled
his forces in the plains of Leipsic. His army consisted
of 157,000 men, and six hundred pieces of artillery ; but
the Allies possessed 1000 pieces of artillery, and 350,000
men. During the first day, the action was furiously
maintained : The French remained triumphant and the

228 BATTLES OF LCIF8IC

victory would have been decisive, if one of the corp«
stationed at Dresden had taken part in the battle, as the
Emperor hoped it would. General Merfeld was taken
prisoner, but liberated on parole, with an intimation that
the Emperor was at length willing to renounce Germany.
But the Allies, who were encouraged bv the arrival of
an immense reinforcement, resumed the engagement on
the following day ; and they were now so numerous
that, when their troops were eiihausted, they were regu-
larly relieved by fresh corps, as on the parade. The
most inconceivable fatality was now combined with in-
equality of numbers; the most infamous treachery
unexpectedly broke out in our ranks ; the Saxons, our
allies, deserted us, went over to the enemy, and turned
their artillery against us. Still, however, the presence
of mind, energy, and skill of the French general, together
with the courage of our troops, made amends for all, and
we again remained masters of the field.

** These two terrible engagements, which history will
rec rd as battles of giants, had cost the enemy 150,000
of his best troops, 50,000 of whom lay dead on the field
of battle. Our loss amounted to 50,000 only. Thus the
difference between our forces was considerably dimi-
nished : and a third engagement presented itself, with
changes much more favourable. But our ammunition
wtis exhausted; our parks contained no more than 16,000
charges ; we had fired 220,000 during the two preceding
days. We were compelled to make arrangements for
our retreat, which commenced during the night, on
Leipsic. At day-break the Allies assailed us; they
entered Leipsic along with us, and an engagement com-
menced in the streets of the city. Our rear-guard was
defending itself vaHantly and without sustaining great
loss, when a fatal occurrence ruined all : the only bridge
across the Elster, by which our retreat could be effected,
was, by some accident or misunderstanding, blown up.
Thus all our forces on the Leipsic bank of the river were
lost, and all on the opposite bank marched in haste and
disorder upon Mentz. At Hanau we were compelled to
force a passage through 50,000 Bavarian troops. Only
the wrecks of our army returned to France; and, to

render the nusfortmie complete, tiiey brought contagion
along with dBem."

Sncfa was the fistal campaign of Saxonv, our last
national eflbrt, the tomb of oar gigantic power. Op-
posed to the united efibrts of all the forces of Ikurope,
and in spite €ji all the chances that were accoffiulated
against us, the genius of a single man had. in the course
of this campaign, been four timec on the point of restor-
ing our ascendancy, and cementing it by peace : after
the victories of Liitzen and Bautzen, after the battle of
Dresden, at the time of the la&t movement on Berlin,
and finally on the plains oi Leipsic.

Napoleon failed only by a complication of fatalities
and perfidies, of which history furnishes no example. I
here note down only those which occur to me on a
retrospective view of the events of this period.

F4TALITIBS.

(A.) Sudden indisposition of Napoleon.

(B.) Unexpected overflow of the Bober.

(C.) Confidential letter from the King of Bavana.

(D.) Orders which did not reach the corps at
Dresden.

(E.) Deficiency of ammunition after the two battles of
I^ipsic.

(F.) Blowing up of the bridge across the EUster.

PERFIDIES.

(G.) Machinations and bad faith of Austria, the first
and true cause of our disasters,

(H.) Violation of the armistice of Pleisswitz, relative
to our blockaded fortresses.

(I.) Desertion of the chief of tiie staflf of the 3d
corps.

(K.) Defection of the Bavarian government.

(L.) Treachery of the Saxons.

(M.) Violation of the capitulation of Dresden, &c.

Tlie following are a few lines of explanation : —

(A.) After the victory of Dresden, some one com-
plimented Napoleon on his great success. " Oh ! this
Is nothing," observed he, while his countenance beamed

230 FATALITIES AND PSRFIDIKR.

with satisfaction ; **^ andamme is in their rear, it is
there that we must look for the great result." The Em-
peror was proceeding in person to assist in accomplishing
this decisive operation, when, unfortunately, after one oi
his meals, he was seized with so violent a retching,
that he was supposed to have been poisoned, and it was
found necessary to convey him back to Dresden. Thus
the operations were interrupted. The fatal consequences
that ensued are well known. How trivial was the cause,
and how calamitous were the results !

(B.) A sudden overflow of the Bober in Silesia was
the principal cause of the disasters of Marshal Macdon-
ald. His corps, while in full operation, were overtaken
by the flood, which impeded their operations, and caused
the terrible losses which have been above described.

(C.) About the end of September, the King of Bavaria
addressed a confidential letter to Napoleon, stating that
he would maintain his alliance with him for six weeks or
two months longer; and that during that interval he
would obstinately refuse every advantage that might be
held out to him. The Emperor, who was placed in a
most critical situation, and who, but for this circum-
stance, might, perhaps, have lent an ear to the proposi-
tions that were made to him, now no longer hesitated,
but immediately determined on the bold movement which
he had contemplBted on Berlin. He conceived that six
weeks would be sufficient to change the state of aflairs,
and to remove the fears of his allies. Unfortunately,
military intrigues proved more powerful than the
wishes of the King of Bavaria. Napoleon was forced to
suspend his movement, and to give battle at Leipsic
with disadvantage. The consequences have already been
seen.

( D.) Napoleon, in making his arangements for the
battles of Leipsic, had relied on a diversion of those
corps of the army which he had left in Dresden. Their
co-operation might have rendered the victory decisive,
and have given a new turn to affairs. But, unfortunately
the enemy's force was so numerous, and we were so
completely surrounded, that the Emperor's orders could
not be transmitted to Dresden

FATALITIES AND PERFIDIES. Sdl

(F.) After the two temble engagements at Leipsic, the
French were eflfecting their retreat across th^ EUster by a
single bridge. An officer who was stationed to guard it
was ordered to blow it up if the enemy should present
himself in pursuit of our rear-guard. Unluckily this
officer was, bv some mistake or other, informed that the
Emperor wanted him. He immediately obeyed the sum-
mons, and in his absence a corporal of sappers, at the
first sight of some detached Russian corps, fired the train
and blew up the bridge, thus dooming to perdition that
portion of our force which still remained on the Leipsic
bank of the river. The whole of our rear- guard and
^^ff8^» two hundred pieces of artillery, and thirty
thousand prisoners (stragglers, wounded and sick), fell
into the hands of ihe enemv.

On the publication of the bulletins containing this
intelligence, a general outcry was raised by the discon-
tented party in Paris. It was asserted that the whole
was a fabrication, and that the Emperor himself had
ordered the blowing up of the bridge, with a view to
ensure his own safety at the expense of the rest of the
army. It was in vain to refer to the statement of the
officer, who confirmed the fact, while he attempted to
justify himself. This was declared to be another fabri-
cation or apiece of complaisance on the part of the officer.
Such was the language of the time.*

* When I visited London in 1814, public attention was occupied
by the recent events of the Continent^ and the battle of Leipsic was
tlie general topic of conversation. It was related that, at the
moment of the defeat, Napoleon's presence of mind completely for-
sook him. He wandered about the city, and lost his way in a
lonely street. Though on horseback, faintness obliged him to sup-
port himself against a wall, and in this situation he inquired his way
of an old woman, and asked her for a glass of water. The blowing up
of the bridge was not foi^otten, and the story was related precisely as
at Paris. These details, which were echoed in the drawing-rooms,
and circulated about the streets, were credited among the higher
ranks, as well as by the vulgar. Prints, representing' the different
events of the battle, were exhibited in the shop-windows. The sub-
ject of one of these engravings was the above described incident in
the street of Leipsic. Such a multitude of absurdities was dreolatcd
that people of common sense had no resource but to shrug up theif
shoulders and patiently endiure all that they heard

232 FATALITIES AND PRRFIDIBS.

(G.) Tlie duplicity and bad faith of Austria, the no*
merous contradictions between her acts and her profes*
sions, have already been mentioned. Unmindful of the
generosity of which she had been the object after the
battles of licoben, Austerlitz, and Wagram, she dischar-
ged her debt of gratitude according to the rules of
policy, by eagerly seizing the opportunity of repairing
her losses at any price.

She ruined us by making us consent to the armistice of
Pleisswitz; and her conduct was the more odious, as
she was determined to make war against us ; and a few
days afterwards, though still our friend and ally, and
offering herself as a mediatrix, she entered into engage-
ments hostile to us. Her participation in the conven-
tions of Rechembach about the middle of June, and in
the conferences of Trachenbergh, at the commencement
of July, is now well known. The necessity of maintain-
ing a certain appearance of decorum occasioned these
matters to be kept a secret for about a month after the
commencement of hostilities. They were at first propo-
sed to Francis merely as eventual and precautionary
measures ; and he was induced to affix his signature tc .
them only by the representations of his ministers, who
described Napoleon as the scourge of mankind, and at-
tributed to him the delays in the opening of the Con-
gress, which in reality were occasioned by themselves.
(Montveran, vol. vi. p. 262.)

But, in spite of the conduct of Austria, Napoleon still
cherished the hope of seeing her resume her alliance with
him ; not that he could calculate on any misunderstand-
ing between her and the other co lesced Powers, but be-
cause he supposed her to be sufficiently clear-sighted with
respect to her own interests. This idea never forsook
him until the moment of signing his abdication,*

• This supposition was not altogether ill- foundea; for it still re-
mains doubtt'uA whether the consent of Austria to the dethrone^
ment of the Emperor was coi-ipulsory or voluntary. By one of
those fatalities wliich attended the close of Napoleon's career, a
momentary success separated the Austrians and the Rnetians, and
the order for marchina: upon Paris, as well as the famous declara-
tion proscribing Napoleon and his family, proceeded solely froip

FATALITIES AND PERFIDIES. f!35

(H.) The fortresses occupied by French troops in those
places which were in the possession of the Allied forces,
were to have a clear circuit of one league, and to receive
supplies of provisions every five days ; but this article
was not honestly fulfilled.

When the Armistice was prolonged, the French com-
missaries demanded that ofiicers of their armv should be
sent to the commanders of the fortresses ; but the Rus-
sian General-in- chief objected to this, and circumstances
were such that we were obliged to give up the point.
(Montveran, vol. vi. p. 270.)

(I.) The chief of the staff of the 3d corps, a Swiss b>
birth, but educated in our ranks, went over to the enemy
a few days before the renewal of hostilities, taking with
him all the information he could collect. For this service
the Emperor of Russia rewarded him with particular fa-
vour and made him one of his Aides-de-camp. It has
been said that this officer, who was possessed of gi*eat
talent, had reason to complain of some injustice ; but
can any thing palliate such an act, or remove the dis-
grace attending it ?

(K.) Part of Napoleon's plan of Campaign was that
the Bavarian army, stationed on the Danube, should act
in concert with the army of Italy stationed in Illyria,
and that their combined efforts should be directed upon
Vienna. The important effect which these measures must
have produced on the fate of the Campaign may be easily
conceived. But the chief of the Bavarian army, under
some pretence or other, but in reality because he had
entered into an understanding with the enemy, remained
constantly inactive, and thus paralyzed the efforts of the
Viceroy, who had to oppose the great bulk of the Austrian
force. It has already been stated that the open defection
of the Bavarians, at the most critical moment of the
campaign, mainly contributed to bring about our disasters.

(L.) But nothing equalled the infamous and disgrace-
ful treachery of the Saxons, who, though they were then

Alexander. When Francis presented himself, he had no alternative
but to give his assent to measures which were already determined
on : but many circumstances induce the belief that he did so with
great repugnance and dissatisfactioii.

234 FATALITIES AND PERFIDIK8.

serving in our ranks and were our companions in dangei
and glory, suddenly turned against us. Whatever might
be the fatal effects of their desertion, the disgrace
Attached to themselves is greater than all the mischiei
they occasioned to us.

The conduct of Napoleon during this period, when he
was described as a monster of deception and bad faith
presents, on the contrary, an example of singular mag-
nanimity.

He had added a corps of Saxons to his Imperial
guard ; but, on the desertion of their countrymen, he
ranged them round their Sovereign, whom he left at
Leipsic,* releasing him from all his engagements. There
were also some Bavarians in his army, and he wrote to
their chief, informing him that, Bavaria having disloy-
ally declared war against him, this circumstance would
authorize him in disarming and detaining prisoners all
the Bavarians in his service ; but that such a measure
would destroy the confidence which Napoleon wished
that the troops under his orders should repose in him.
He therefore ordered them to be supplied with provisi-
ons, and dismissed.f

(M.) I have before me the notes of a distinguished
officer relative to the capitulation of Dresden. Estimat-
ing the number of troops which we had left behind us
in the fortresses from which we were separated, he
concludes that they must have amounted altogether to
177,000. The Emperor had but 157,000 men at Leip-
sic. How different, therefore, might have been our

* The venerable and faithful King of Saxony followed his ally
Napoleon, at whose head - quarters he established himself. The
coalesced powers, on their entrance into Leipsic, seized the person
of the King, and announced their design of disposing of his states.
His misfortunes are known throughout Europe; Uiey excited a
deep interest in every generous heart

f Amidst the general disloyalty, the conduct of the King of
Wiirtcmburg presents an honourable exception. That prince,
though already at war with us, broke the brigade of cavalry, and
th9 corps of infantry, who went over to the enemy, and at
the lame time withdrew the decoration of his Order from theiT
•fficers.

CAPITULATION OF ORSSDKK. 235

fete, had those masses, or even a portion of then^, been
at his disposal in this decisive event. But this onfortu-
nate dispersion was occasioned by extraordinary circum-
stances, and was not the result of any regular systen>
The foUowing particulars, relative to the violation of the
capitulation of Dresden, are literaUy quoted from the
notes above alluded to : —

" Above all, it is necessarv to understand that it was
determined in the plan of the coalition against France, of
which Prince Schwartzenberg had the cre*dit, that ac-
cording as offers were made for the capitulation of each
of our numerous garrisons, the conditions should be fairly
and honourably granted, but without any intention of
fulfilling them. This point being established, the rea-
son of the refusal of the capitulation, signed at Dresden
by Marshal St.-Cyr and Generals Tolstoy and Klenau,
was, that Prince Schwartzenberg could not ratify it,
because the Count de Lobau, Napoleon's aide-de-camp,
who was shut up in Dresden with the Marshal, had
protested against the capitulation. Some time after, the
capitulation of Dantzick, with General Rapp, was declined,
under the odiously false pretence that the garrison of
Dresden, in spite of the conditions of its capitulation, had
entered into service immediately on its arrival at Stras-
burg, and that, in consequence, the capitulation of
Dantzick could not be approved without incurring the
risk of similar inconveniences.

*• The following is an additional proof of the bad faith
of the Allies. The garrison of Dresden, which was
composed of two corps d'armie^ forming altogetlier
45,000 men, capitulated on the 11th of November.*

* The determination to surrender had been far from unaui-
mous in the garrison. Opinions were divided on this point*
Some were for returning to France by means of a capitulation,
which course was adopted ; others were in favour of an enter-
prise of a much bolder nature. This was nothing less than to
quit Dresden, with the chosen troops of the garrison, to descend
the Elbe by successively raising the blockade of Torgau, where
there were 28,000 men ; of Wittemberg, where there were 5000 1
of Magdeburg, where there were 20,000, and to proceed to Ham-
buiy where there wctre 32,000. The army tlius collected to*
gether, whish would have amounted to 60 or 80,000 men, «u

236 CAPITULATION OF DRESDEN'.

** According to the terms of the capitulation, the
French were to eracuate the fortress in six columns and
in six successive days, and to repair to Strasburgh.

"This capitulation was fulfilled, so far at least as
regarded our evacuation of the fortress and its occupation
by the enemy ; but our sixth column had scarcely made
a dav's march from the town when it was announced
that the capitulation was declined and rejected by the
General- in -^hief, Prince Schwartzenberg, by an order of
the 1 9th of November.

*' When Marshal Saint-Cyr remonstrated agiui.st this
conduct, it was proposed, by way of compensation for
the injustice, that he should be permitted to re-enter
Dresden with his troops, and be again placed in posses-
sion of all the means of defence which he had before the
capitulation : this was merely a piece of irony.

**In vain did the Marshal negotiate for the literal
fulfilment of the articles agreed upon by Count Klenau,
who had full powers for so doing; the unfortunate
garrison, broken up and dispersed, was under the neces-
sity of repairing to the different cantonments that were
assigned to it in Bohemia, instead of pursuing its march
towards the Rhine.

*' The Marshal, indignant at this flagrant breach of

to repair to France, cutting a passage through the enemy's
ranks, or compelling him to retrograde by manoeuvring on his
rear ; while the levies in mass that might have advanced to as-
sail our veteran bands would have been paralyzed. And even
had this plan failed, the issue was not likely to be more fatal than
the capitulation. This opinion was warmly advocated by the
Count de Lobau, Generals Teste, Mouton-Duvemet, and others.
The design was grand, worthy of our glory, and quite in har-
mony with our past acts. It was the Emperor's intention to
carry it into effect, and for this purpose he issued orders, which,
however, did not reach the place of their destination. The de-
spair occasioned by the thought of surrendering was such that
a portion of the troops urged the officer who was at the head off
the opposing party to take the command upon himself. Ilespect
for discipline at length prevailed over enthusiasm ; but the offi-
cer above alluded to expressed himself in the most violent way
in the council. It is said that, in his indignation, he exclaimed
to the General-in-chief ; — "The Emperor will tell me that, pisto^*
ia hand, I ouglit to have taken the command apoii myself."

CAPITULATIOV OF DRESDEN. 237

faith, despatched a superior officer to communicate the
circumstance to Napoleon ; but the Allies retarded his
progress under various pretences, and he did not reach
Paris until the 18th of December. Subsequent events
had by this time rendered the evil past all remedy."

After the series of deceptions and perfidies which ^
have here disclosed, and which the Allies had established
as a system, it is not surprising that Napoleon should
have placed no reliance on the famous declaration of
Frankfort, and that he should have felt indignant at the
blindness of our Legislative Body, the committee of
which, either from evil designs or mistaken views, com-
pleted the ruin of affairs. Napoleon assured me that he
was several times on the point of summoning the
members of this committee before him, in order to
consult with them confidentiallv and sincerelv on the real
State of things, and the imminent danger with which we
were threatened. Sometimes he thought that he should
undoubtedly bring them back to a right sense of their
dutv ; sometimes, on the contrarv, he feared that obsti-
nacy of opinion, or mischievous intention, might have
involved the affair in controversy, which, considering
the spirit of the moment, would have weakened our
resources and hastened our dissolution.

The Emperor frequently adverted to this critical point
in the destinies of France ; but I have hitherto refrained
from entering upon the detail of a subject which presents
nothing either agreeable or consolatory

BSNEVOLBNT ACTIONS PERFORMED BY THE EMPEROR.

BIS VISIT TO AMSTERDAM. — OBSERVATIONS ON THE

DUTCH, &C. THE MASSACRES OF THE THIRD OF

SEPTEMBER.' — REMARKS ON REVOLUTIONS IN GENE-
RAL. — UNHAPPY FATE OF LOUIS XVI.

3rd. About three o'clock, the Emperor sent for me
to attend him in his chamber. He had just finished
dressing ; and, as it was raining at the time, he went
into the drawing-room, where he communicated to me
some very curious particulars, which, as it may be sup-
posed, concerned ham, and in which I played a conspi*
cuous part.

^38 IXTEREbTINO ANECDOTES

Sorae time afterwards the Emperor took a turn on the
lawn contiguous to his library ; but, finding the wind very
violent, he soon returned to the house and played at
billiards, a thing which he very seldom thought of doing.

In the course of the day, the Emperor related that,
as he was once travelling with the Empress, he stopped
to breakfast in one of the islands in the Rhine. There
was a small farm house in the neighbourhood, and while
he was at breakfast he sent for the peasant to whom it
belonged, and desired him to ask boldly for whatever he
thought would render him happy ; and, in order to inspire
him with the greater confidence, the Emperor made him
drink several glasses of wine. The peasant, who was
more prudent and less limited in his choice than the
man described in the story of the three wishes, without
hesitation specified the object which he was ambitious to
possess. The Emperor commanded the prefect of the
district immediately to provide him with - what he had
made choice of, and the expense attending the gratifica-
tion of his wish did not exceed 6 or 7000 franca.

Napoleon added that, on another occasion, when he
was sailing in a yacht in Holland, he entered into con-
versation with the steersman, and asked him how much
his vessel was worth. **My vessel !*' said the man, **it
is not mine ; I should be too happy if it were, it would
make my fortune." — ** Well, then," said the Emperor,
** I make you a present of it ;'' a favour for which the man
seemed not particularly grateful. His indifierence was
imputed to the phlegmatic temperament natural to his
countrymen ; but this was not the case. ** What benefit
has he conferred on me V said he to one of his comrades
who was congratulating him ; " he has spoken to me,
and that is all ; he has given me what was not his own
to give — a fine present truly !** In the mean time Duroc
had purchased the vessel of the owner, and the receipt
was put into the hands of the steersman, who, no longer
doubting the reality of his good fortune, indulged in the
most extravagant demonstrations of joy. The expense
of this purchase was about the same as that attending the
present made to the countryman. ** Thus," said the
Elmperor, '* it is evident that human wishes are not so

NAPOLBON IN HOLLAND. 239

immoderate as they are generally supposed, and that it ia
not so very difficult to render people happy I These two
men undoubtedly found themselves completely happy."

When the Emperor visited Amsterdam, the people, he
said, were very hostile to him ; but he soon completely
ingratiated himself in the public favour. He declined
being attended by any other guard than the guard r4
honour belonging to the city ; and this mark of confidence
immediately gained him the esteem of the Dutch. He
constantly appeared among every class of citizens. On
one occasion he addressed a crowd of people in the fol-
lowing blunt manner : — '* It is said that you are discon-
tented — but why ? France has not conquered, but adop-
ted, you : you are excluded from no benefits which are
enjoyed by the French ; you are a portion of the same
family, and participate in all its advantages. Consider
now: I have selected my Prefects, Chamberlains, and
Councillors of State from amongst you in a just propor-
tion to the amount of your population, and I have aug-
mented my guard with your Dutch guard. You complain
of distress ; but, in this respect, France has still greater
reason to be dissatisfied. We all sufiTer, and we must
continue to do so until the common enemy, the tyrant of
the sea, the vampire of your trade, shall be brought to
reason. You complain of the sacrifices you have made ;
but come to France and see all that you still possess
beyond what we do, and then, perhaps, you will deem
yourselves less unfortunate. Why not raher congratulate
yourselves on the circumstances that have brought about
your union with France. In the present state of Europe,
what would you be, if left to yourselves ? — The slaves of
all the world. Instead of which, identified as you are
with France, you will one day possess the whole trade of
the great Empire.'* Then, assuming a tone of gaiety, he
said: — *• I have done every thing in my power to please
you. Have I not sent you as a Governor precisely the
man who suits you — the good and pacific liebrun. You
condole with him, he condoles with you : you bewail your
distresses together. What more could I do for you ?"
At these words the assembly burst into a loud fit of
laughter. The Emperor had secured the good graces of

S40 SENSIBLE REMARKS.

the multitude. — *' However," said he, " let us hope tlial
the present state of things will not last long. Believe
mc, I am as anxious for a change as you can be. Every
man of discernment among you must be aware that it is
neither my wish, nor for my interest, that matters should
remain as they now are."

The Emperor left the people of Amsterdam full of
enthusiasm for him ; and he, on his part, carried away
impressions decidedly in their favour. Previously to his
journey he had often complained that whosoever he sent
to Holland immediately became a Dutchman. After his
return, that circumstance occurred to his recollection in
the Council of State, and he said that he had himself
become a Dutchman. One dav, when a member of the
Council spoke slightingly of the Dutch, the Emperor said,
** Gentlemen, you may be more agreeable than they; but
I can wish you nothing better than to be possessed of their
moral qualities.**

After dinner, some one happened to mention the
date of the day, the 3rd of September ; upon which the
Emperor made some very remarkable observations ;
among which were the following : — "This,** said he, ** is
the anniversary of horrid and appalling executions, of a
repetition, in miniature, of Saint - Bartholomew's day :
less disgraceful, certainly, because fewer victims were
sacrificed, and because the atrocities were not committed
under the sanction of the Government, which, on the
contrary, used its endeavours to punish the crime. It
was committed by the mob of Paris ; an unbridled power,
which rivalled, and even controlled, the Legislature.

* The atrocities of the 3rd of September were the re-
sult of fanaticism rather than of absolute brutalitv : the
authors of the massacres put to death one of their own
party, for having committed theft during the executions*
This dreadful event,'* continued the Emperor, ** arose
out of the force of circumstances and the spirit of the
moment. No political change ever takes place unat-
tended by popular fury ; the people are never exposed
to danger, without committing disorders and sacrificing
victims. The Prussians entered the French territory ;
and the people, before they advanced to meet them, re-

ON REVOLUTIONS. 241

solved to take revenge on their adherents ia Paris.
Probably, this circumstance was not without its influence
on the safety of France. Who can doubt that if, during
recent events, the friends of the invaders had been the
victims of similar horrors, France would have fallen
under the yoke of foreigners ? But this could not have
happened, for we had become legitimate. The duration
of authority, our victories, our treaties, the re-establish-
roent of our old manners, had rendered our government
regular. We could not plunge into the same horrors
as had been committed by the multitude : for my part,
I neither could ngr would be a King of the mob.

*' No social revolution ever takes place unaccompanied
by violence. Every revolution of this kind is at first
merelv a revolt. Time and success alone can exalt and

w

render it legitimate ; but still it can never be brought
about without outrage. If people enjoying authority
and fortune are required to relinquish these advantages,
they of course resist : force is then resorted to ; they are
compelled to yield. In France this point was gained
by the lantern and public executions. The reign of ter-
ror commenced on the 4th of August, with the abolition
of titles of nobility, tithes, and feudal rights, the wrecks
of which were scattered among the multitude, who then,
for the first time, understood and felt reallv interested in
the Revolution. Before this period there was so much
of dependence and religious spirit among the people that
many doubted whether the crops would ripen as usual
without the King and the tithes.

** A revolution," concluded the Emperor, "is one of
the greatest evils by which mankind can be visited. It
is the scourge of the generation by which it is brought
about ; and all the advantages it procures cannot make
amends for the miserv with which it embitters the lives
of those who participate in it. It enriches the poor, who
still remain dissatisfied ; and it impoverishes the rich,
who cannot forget their downfal. It subverts every
thing ; and, at its commencement, brings misery to a]]
and happiness to none.

" Beyond a doubt, true social happiness consists in the
harmonv and the peaceful possession of the relative

Vol.' III.— 11

242 THB FRENCH REVOLUTION.

enjoyments of each class of people. In regular and tran-
quil times, every individual has his share of felicity : the
cobbler in his stall is as content as the King on his
throne; the soldier is not less happy than the general.
The best-founded revolutions, at the outset, bring univer-
sal destruction in their train ; the advantages they may
produce are reserved for a future age. Ours seems to
have been an irresistible fatality : it was a moral erup-
tion, which could no more be prevented than a physical
eruption. When the chemical combinations necessary
to produce the latter are complete, it bursts forth : in-
France the moral combinations which produce a revolu •
tion had arrived at maturity, and the explosion accord-
ingly took place."

We asked the Emperor whether he thought it would
have been possible to suppress the. Revolution in its
birth ; and he replied that, if not impossible, the attempt
would at least have been difficult. *' Perhaps," said he,
'* the storm might have been laid or averted by some
great Machiavelian act ; by striking with one hand the
great ringleaders, and with the other making concessions
to the nation, granting freely the reformation required
by the age, part of which had already been mentioned in
the famous royal sitting. And yet, after all," he ob-
served, ** this would only have been guiding and direct-
ing the Revolution.*' He thought that some other plan
of the same kind might perhaps have succeeded on the
10th of August, if the King had remained triumphant.
** These two periods," he said, were the only ones which
afforded any chance, however desperate ; for, at the
afikir of Versailles, the people had not yet entirely shaken
off their allegiance, and on the 10th of August they were
already beginning to be tired of disorder. But those
who were chiefly interested in quelling the revolutionary
spirit were not adequate to encounter the difficulties of
the moment."

The Emperor then rapidly ran over the series of errors
committed during this period. ** The line of conduct
then pursued," said he, " was truly pitiable. Louis XVI.
should have had a prime minister, and M. Necker under
him in the finance department. Prime ministers seem to

CONDUCl OF LOUIS X/I. 243

have been invented for the last reigns of the fVeoch
monarchy; and yet the prevailing false notions and
vanity of the time caused them to be dispensed with."

A great deal was said respecting the equivocal conduct
of several great personages during this critical period,
and the Emperor said : " We condemn Louis XVI. ;
but, independently of his weakness, he was placed in
peculiar circumstances. He was the first monarch on
whom the experiment of modem principles was tried.
His education, his innate ideas, led him to believe
sincerely that all that he defended, either openly or
secretly, belonged to him of right. There might be a
sort of honesty even in his want of £uth, if I may so
express myself. At a subsequent period, the same
conduct would have been inexcusable, and even repre-
hensible. Add to all this that Louis XVL had every
body against him, and one may form an idea of the
innumerable difficulties which Fate had accumulated on
that unhappy Prince. The misfortunes of the Stuarts,
which have excited such deep interest, were not more

severe."

THB BODT-OUARD OF THB KINO OF FRANCB.— A DBSBRTBft

IN THB BMPBROR's 8U1TB.

4th. — The Emperor sent for me after he had finished
his breakfast. He was stretched on a aoh, with several
books scattered about him. He wore his nightcap, and
looked pale. " Las Cases," said he, " I am unwell. I
have been looking over a g^eat many books, but I can
find nothing to interest me. I feel wearied." He fixed
his eye on* me ; that eye, naturally so animated, was now
dim, and its expression told me more than his eye had
uttered. *' Sit down," said he, pomting to a chair that
was beside him, loaded with books, " and let us chat.'*
He spoke of the Island of Elba, of the life he had led
there, of some visits which he had received, &c. He
then put some questions to me concerning Paris and the
fVench Court during the corresponding period. The
conversation having led to the mention of the King's
body-guard, some one present remarked, as a enrioat
circumstance, that there was a deserter firom the guard

H4 A COUSIN OP THE AUTHOR's.

ia Napoleoi/s suite at St. Helena. ** How ? explain
yourself,'* said the Emperor. — ** Sire," continued thf
person who had just spoken, ** at the time of the restora-
tion, one of the captains of the guard, for whom I enter-
tained great friendship, and who, in spite of the difference
r\f our opinions, had always evinced a high regard for me,
proposed to enter my son in his company, assuring me
that he would treat him as though he were his own.
I replied that he was too young, and that the appoint-
ment might retard the progress of his education ; but my
friend silenced all my objections. I however requested'
some time to consider of the matter ; and on my men-
tioning it to some persons of my acquaintance, they i?vere
astonished that I should have declined so good an offer,
and assured me that in a short time my son might attain
great advancement, without any interruption of his
education. I then waited on the captain of the guard,
and acknowledged that I had not shewn myself suffi-
ciently grateful for his offer ; and he replied that he was
fully aware I had not understood the extent of the
advantage he proposed to me. However, by one cir-
cumstance or another, your Majesty returned before my
son had the honour of being presented to his colonel,
and as I took him from his Lyceum on our departure
for St. Helena, he is clearly and truly a deserter.** The
Emperor laughed heartily and said ; ** This is another
effect of revolutions ! What new interests, connexions,
and opinions do they create 1 It is fortunate when they
do not disunite families, and set the best friends at
variance with each other.*' He then began to question
me concerning my family, and concluded by saying, ** J
saw in Alphonse de Beauchamp*s work, your name men-
tioned among the individuals who, on the 30th of
March, endeavoured to excite demonstrations in favour
of the Roval Familv in the Place Louis XV. I know it
was not you ; I think you once explained the matter to
me, but I have forgotten the particulars.** — *' Sire,** said
1, ** it was a cousin of mine, of the same name. The
circumstance vexed me a good deal at the time; I
insrerted contradictions in the journals ; and it wa» rather

ON RBVOLUTION8. 245

droll that ray cousin, on his part, addressed letteis to the
public prints, desiring that he might be particularly
specified as the individual alluded to. I believe that the
general way in which the name was introduced, in
Alphonse de Beauchamp's work, was kindly meant on th«
part of the author, who wished, by this means, to afford
me an opportunity of ingratiating myself in the favour
of the ruling party « if I had a mind to do so. I must do
my cousin the justice to say that, when I obtained an
appointment about your Majesty's person, I several times
offered to solicit for him a post in your household or
elsewhere ; but this he constantly declined. I wish he
may now enjoy the reward of his fidelity." The Em-
peror again repeated that all private interests were
subverted by revolutions. " And it is these private
wounds," said he, '* which occasion the genera] ferment,
and render the shocks so acute and violent."

The weather was so bad the whole of the day that it
was impossible to go out. The Emperor dismissed me
and sent for (Tcneral Gourgaud, to whom he dictated
in his library, from two to six o'clock, almost the whole
of Moreau's campaign during the Consulate. After
dinner, he read to us Madame de Maintenon's celebrated
sumptuary letter to her brother, in which she fixes her
household expenditure at six thousand francs a-year.
The Emperor had several volumes of the Grands Hommes
brought to him, and, after perusing some articles, he
amused himself by looking at the ouUine portraits at the
nd of each volume.

napoleon's RBPROOFS, &C. ^THB OOVBRNOR BAROArNS

FOR OUR BXI8TBNCE.

5th. — To-day, in the course of my morning conversa-
tion with the Emperor, I happened to mention some acts
of oppression and injustice, which excited dissatisfaction
in the public mind, and rendered him unpopular, because
they were executed in his name, and were by many sap*
posed to emanate from him. '* But how ?" said he, '* was
there no one among the multitude that surrounded me,
none of my chamberlains, who had sufficient spirit and
independence to complain and bring these matters to my

246 CAVILLING OF THE GOVERNOR,

knowledge ? I would have rendered justice wherever it
had been withheld/* — ** Sire, few would hsfve ventured
to call your attention to these things." — ** Did you really
stand so much in awe of me ? I suppose you dreaded my
sharp rebuffs ; but you ought to have known that I always
lent a ready ear to every one, and that I never refused to
administer justice. You should have balanced the reward
of the good action against the danger of the reprimand.
After all, I confess that my reproofs were in most instan-
ces the result of calculation. They were frequently the
only means I possessed of learning a man's temper, of
discovering by stealth the different shades of his charac-
ter. I had little time for inquiry ; and a reprimand was
one of my experiments. For example, I lately gave you
a repulse, and this enabled me to discover that you were
somewhat headstrong, extremely susceptible, sufficiently
candid, but sullen ; and, I may say, too sensitive," he
added, pinching my ear. ** I was," continued he, ** obli-
ged to surround myself, as it were, with a halo of fear ;
otherwise, having risen as I did from amidst the multi-
tude, many would have made free to eat out of my hand,
or to slap me on the shoulder. We are naturally inclined
to familiarity."

The weather continued very bad, and the Emperor
spent the chief part of the day in writing, as he did
yesterday.

The Governor has renewed his cavilling on the subject
of our supplies, descending into petty details about a few
bottles of wine, or a few pounds of meat. Instead of
eight thousand pounds, the sum fixed by Government, he
now applied for an allowance of twelve thousand, which
he himself declared to be indispensable ; but he insisted
on having the surplus delivered into his own hands, or
subjecting us to great retrenchments. He bargained for
our existence. When this was mentioned to the Emperor
he replied that the Governor might do as he pleased ; but
he desired, at all events, that he might not be troubled
about the business.

In the evening the conversation again turned on
Madame de Maintenon, and the Emperor made many
remarks on her letters, her character, her influence on tb*

KIND RKFBOOFS OF NAPOLXON. 347

affiurs ot her time» &c. He asked for the HiHtorical
Dictionary to read the articles on the NoaiUes fiusuly ;
and he retired to rest at eleven o'clock.

rONFIDSNTIAL CONVERSATION. — THB LBTTBRS OF MADAMB
DB MAINTBNON AND SbVTGNB.

6th. — ^The weather proved as bad as it had been on the
preceding day. After finishing his toilet, the Emperor
retired to his library, attended by one of hb suite, with
whom he held a long confidential conversation on a topic
intimately concerning us.

" We have now/' said he, " been at St. Helena more
than a year, and with regard to certain points we remain
just as we were on the first day of our arrival. I must
confess that I have hitherto come to no determination in
my owri mind upon these subjects. Thb is very unlike
me ; but how many mortifications have I to enix)unter I
A victim to the persecutions of Fate and man, I am
assailed every where and on all hands. Even you, my
faithful friends and consolers, help to lacerate the wound.
I am vexed and distressed by your jealousies and dissen-
sions." — "Sire," replied the individual to whom he
addressed himself, *' these things should remain unno-
ticed by your Majesty. In all that concerns you, our
jealousy is merely emulation ; and all our dissension ceases
on the expression of your slightest wish. We live only
for you, and will always be ready to obey you. To us
you are the Old Man of the Mountain ; you may com-
mand us in all things, except crime." — " Well/' said the
Emperor, " I will think seriously of the subject I have
just alluded to, and each shall have his own particular
task." He dictated a few notes, and afterwards wen*
down to the garden, where he walked about for a short
time alone, and then withdrew to his own apartment.

The Emperor did not quit his chamber until the mo-
ment dinner was announced. He resumed his remaika
on Madame de Maintenon, whose letters he had been
reading. '' I am charmed," said he, " with her style, her
grace, and the purity, of her language. If I am violently
ofiTended by what is bad, I am at the same time exqui-
sitely sensiUe to what is good. I think I prefei MadaoM

248 DOMAIRON*S GRAMMAR.

de Maintenon's letters to those of Madame de Sevigue
they tell more. Madame de Sevigne will certainly always
remain the true model of the epistolary style ; she has a
thousand charms and graces, but there is this defect in
her writings, that one may read a great deal of thenj
without retaining any impression of what one has read.
Thev are like trifles, which a man may eat till he is tired
without overloading his stomach."

The Emperor then made some observations on gram-
mar. He asked for* the grammar of Domairon, who had
been our professor at the military school at Paris. He
glanced through it with evident pleasure. ** Such is thfe
influence of youthful impressions,*' said he ; ** I suspect
that Domairon's is not the best of grammars, yet to me
it will always be the most agreeable. I shall never open
it without experiencing a certain pleasure."

ERRORS OF THE ENGLISH MINISTERS. MEANS OP WHICH

ENGLAND MIGHT HAVE AVAILED HERSELF FOR THE
LIQUIDATION OF HER DEBT. THE GOVERNOR'S REDUC-
TIONS.

7th. — The Emperor remained within doors the whole
of the day. The Governor appeared on the grounds
accompanied by a numerous party; hut we fled at his
approach. Several vessels have been observed out at
sea.

I was summoned to attend the Emperor, and 1 found
him engaged in perusing a work on the state of England.
This became the subject of conversation ; the Emperor
said a great deal respecting the enormous national debt
of England, the disadvantageous peace she had concluded,
and the difierent means by which she might have extri -
cated herself from her difficulties.

Napoleon possesses in an eminent degree the instinct
of order and harmony. I once knew a man who, being
much engaged in arithmetical calculations, confessed
that he could not enter a drawing-room without being
led irresistibly to count the people who were in it ; and
that, when he sat down to table, he could not help sum-
ming up the number of plates, glasses, &c. Napoleon,
though in a more elevated sphere, has ^so ^q irresistible

THE COLONIAL 8T8TBM. 249

habit of his own, which is to develop the grand and the
beautiful in every subject that comes under his attention.
If he happens to converse about a city, he immediately
suggests improvements and embellishments ; if a nation
be the object of his consideration, he expatiates on
the means of promoting her glory, prosperity, useful
institutions, &c. Many of his observations, that have
already been noted down, must have rendered this fact
obvious to the reader.

£ither the contents of the journals and other publi-
cations of the day, or the nature of our situation here,
occasioned the £mperor's attention to be constantly di-
rected to the state of Ekigland. He frequently adverted
to what she ought to have done, aa well as to what she
still had to do, and which might render her future con-
dition more prosperous. I subjoin here a few of this
observations, on this subject, which escaped him at
various times : —

'* The Colonial system," said he one day, ** is now at
an end for all ; for England, who possesses every colony,
and for the other powers, who possess none. The
empire of the seas now belongs indisputably to England ;
and why should she,- in anew situation, wish to con
tinue the old routine? Why does she not adopt plan9
that would be more profitable to her ? She must look
forward to a sort of emancipation of her colonies. In
the course of time, many will doubtless escape from hei
dominion, and she should therefore avail herself of the
present moment to obtain new securities and more
advantageous connexions. Why does she not propose
that the majority of her colonies shall purchase their
emancipation by taking upon themselves a poiiion of
the general debt, which would thus become specially
theirs. The mother-country would by this means relieve
herself of her burthens, and would nevertheless preserve
all her advantages. She would retain, aa plec^es, the
faith of treaties, reciprocal interests, similarity of lan-
guage, and the force of habit; she might moreover
reserve, by way of guarantee, a single fortified point, a
harbour foi the ships, after the manner <tf the ftu^torks oo

250 ON iNriA.

the coa»t of Africa. What would she lose ? Nothing i
and she woald spare herself the trouhle and expense of
an administration which, too often, serves only to render
her odious. Her ministers, it is true, would have fewer
places to give away ; hut the nation would certainly be
no loser.

** I doubt not," added he, '* that, with a thorough
knowledge of the subject, some useful result might be
derived from the ideas which I have just thrown out,
however erroneous they may be in their first hasty con-
ception. Even with regard to India, great advantages
might be obtained by the adoption of new systems. The
English who are here, assure me that England derives
nothing from India in the balance of her trade ; the
expenses swallow up, or even exceed, the profits. It is
therefore merely a source of individual advantage, and
of a few private fortunes of colossal magnitude; but
these are so much food for ministerial patronage, and
therefore good care is taken not to meddle with them.
Those nabobs, as they are styled, on their return to Eng-
land, are useful recruits to the aristocracy. It signifies
not that they bear the disgrace of having acquired for-
tunes by rapine and plunder, or that they exercise a
baneful influence on public morals by exciting in others
the wish to gain the same wealth by the same means ;
the present ministers are not so scrupulous as to bestow
a thought on such matters. These men give them their
votes ; and, the more corrupt they are, the more easilv
are they controlled. In this state of things, where is the
hope of reform ? Thus, on the least proposition of
amendment, what an outcry is raised ! The English aris-
tocracy is daily taking a stride in advance ; but, as soon
as there is any proposal for retrograding, were it only
for the space of an inch, a general explosion takes place.
If the minutest details be touched, the whole edifice
begins to totter. This is very natural. If you attempt
to deprive a glutton of his mouthful he will defend
himself like a hero."

On another occasion the Emperor said : — ** After a
twenty year's war, after the blood and treasures that

BLUNDERS OF CASTLBRKAOH* 25 i

were lavisbed in the common cause, after a triumph be-
yond all hope, what sort of peace has England concluded?
Lord Castlereagh had the whole Continent at his dis-
posal, and yet what advantage, what indemnity, has he
secured to his own country ? He has signed just such a
peace as he would have signed had he been conquered.
I should not have required him to make greater sacrifi*
oes had I been victorious. But, perhaps, England
thought herself sufficiently happy in having effected my
overthrow ; in that case, hatred has avenged me ! During
our contest, England was animated by two powerful
sentiments — ^her national interest and her hatred of me.
In the moment of triumph, the violence of the one caused
her to lose sight of the other. She has paid dearly for
that moment of passion !" He developed his idea, glan-
cing at the different measures which demonstrated the
blunders of Castlereagh, and the many advantage which
he had neglected. " Thousands of years will roll away,**
said he, " before there occurs such another opportunity
of securing the welfare and real glory of England. Was
it ignorance, or corruption, on the part of Castlereagh ?
He distributed the spoil generously, as he seemed to
think, among the Sovereigns of the Continent, and re-
served nothing for his own country ; but, in so doing,
did he not fear the reproach of being considered as tiie
agent rather than the partner of the Holy AUies ? He
gave away immense territories; Russia, Prussia, and
Austria acquired millions of population. Where is the
equivalent to England ? She, who was the soul of all this
success, and who paid so dearly for it, now reaps the
fruit of the gratitude of the Continent, and of the errors
or treachery of her negotiator. My continental system
is continued ; and the produce of her manufactures if
excluded. Why not have bordered the Continent with
free and independent maritime towns, such, for example,
as Dantzick, Hamburg, Antwerp, Dunkirk, Genoa, Slc,
which would of necessity have become the staples of her
manufactures, and would have scattered them over Eu-
rope, in spite of all the duties in the world. England
possessed tbe right of doing this, and her drcumstanoes
required it: her decisions would have been just, and

252 BLUNDERS OF CASTLEREAGH.

who would have opposed them at the momeDt of the
iberation ? Why did she create to herself a difficulty,
and, in course of time, a natural enemy, by uniting Bel-
gium to Holland, instead of securing two immense re-
sources for her trade, by keeping them separate ? Hol-
land, which has no manufactures of her own, would have
been the natural depot for English goods ; and Belgium,
which might have become an English colony, governed
by an English Prince, would have been the channel for
dispersing these goods over France and Germany. Why
not have bound down Spain and Portugal by a commer-
cial treaty of long duration, which would have repaid all
the expenses incurred for their deliverance, and which
might have been obtained under pain of the enfranchise-
ment of their colonies, the trade of which, in either case,
England would have commanded ? Why not have ^ipu-
lated for some advantages in the Baltic, and to balance
the States of Italy ? These would have been but the
regular privileges attached to the dominion of the seas.
After so long a contest in support of this right, how hap-
pened its advantages to be neglected at the moment
when it was really secured ? Did England, while she
sanctioned usurpation in others, fear that opposition
would be offered to hers ? and by whom could it have
been offered ? Probably England repents now, when it
is too late ; the opportunity cannot be recovered ; she
suffered the favourable moment to escape her! . . .
How many whys and ivherefores might I not multiply !
.... None but Lord Castlereagh would have acted
thus : he made himself the man of the Holy Alliance,
and in course of time he will be the object of execration.
The Lauderdales, the Grenvilles, and the Wellesleys,
would have pursued a very different course ; they would
at least have acted like Englishmen."

At another time the Emperor said ; — ** The national
debt is the canker-worm that preys on England ; it is
the chain of all her difficulties. It occasions the enor-
mity of taxation, and this in its turn raises the price of
provisions. Hence the distress of the people, the high
price of labour and of manufactured goods which are
not brought with equal advantage to the continental

THB ENGLISH DBBT. 253

markets. England then ought at all hazards to ccmtend
against this devouring monster ; she should assail it on
all sides, and at once subdue it negatively and positively,
that is to say, by the reduction of her expenditure and
the increase of her capital.

** Can she not reduce the interest of her debt, the
high salaries, the sinecures, and the various expenses
attending her army establishment, and renounce the lat-
ter, in order to confine herself to her navy ? In short,
many things might be done, which I cannot now enter
into. With regard to the increase of her capital, can
she not enrich herself with the ecclesiastical property
which is immense, and which she would acquire by a
salutary reform, and by the extinction of titular digni-
ties which would give offence to no one ? But if a word
be uttered on this subject, the whole aristocracy is up in
arms, and succeeds in putting down the opposition ; for
in England it is the aristocracy that governs, and for
which the Government acts. They repeat the favourite
adage, that, if the least stone of the old foundation be
touched, the whole fabric will fall to the ground. This
is devoutly re-echoed by the multitude; consequently
reform is stopped, and abuses are suffered to increase
and multiply.

'* It is but just to acknowledge that, in spite of a com-
pound of odious, antiquated, and ignoble details, the
English constitution presents the singular phenomenon of
a happy and grand result ; and the advantages arising
out of it secure the attachment of the multitude, who
are fearful of losing any of the blessings they enjoy.
But is it to the objectionable nature of the details
that this result must be attribued? On the contrary,
it would shine with increased lustre if the grand and
beautiful machine were freed from its mischievous
appendages.

*• England,'* continued the Emperor, " presents an ex-
ample of the dangerous effects of the borrowing system.
I would never listen to any hints for the adoption of that
system in France ; I was always a firm opposer of it. It
was said, at the time, that I contracted no loans for want
of credit, and because I could find no one willing to
lend ; but this was false. Those who know any thing

254 PROSPERITY OF FRANCE.

of mankind and the spirit of stock- jobbing, will be con*
vinced that loans may always be raised by holding out
the chance of gain and the attraction of speculation.
But this was no part of my system, and, by a special
law, I fixed the amount of the public debt at what had
generally been supposed to be conducive to the general
prosperity, namely, at eighty millions interest for my
France in her utmost extent, and after the union with
Holland, which of itself produced an augmentation of
twenty millions. This sum was reasonable and proper ;
a greater one would have been attended by mischievous
consequences. What was the result of this system?
What resources have I left behind me ? France, after so
many gigantic efforts and terrible disasters, is now more
prosperous than ever ! Are not her finances the first in
Europe ? To whom and to what are these advantages to
be attributed ? So far was I from wishing to swallow np
the future, that I had resolved to leave a treasure behind
me. I had even formed one, the funds of which I lent
to different banking-houses, embarrassed families, and
persons who held offices about me.

" I should not only have carefully preserved the sink-
ing fund, but I calculated on having, in course of time,
funds which would have been constantly increasing, and
which might have been actively applied for the further-
ance of public works and improvements. I should have
had the fund of the Empire for general works ; the fund
of the departments for local works ; the fund of the
communes for municipal works, &c."

In the course of another con\ersation, the Emperor
observed : — ** England is said to traffic in every thing :
why, then, does she not sell liberty, for which she might
get a high price, and without any fear of exhausting her
own stock ; for modem liberty is essentially moral, and
does not betray its engagements. For example, what
would not the poor Spaniards give her to free them from
the yoke to which they have been again subjected ? I am
confident that they would willingly pay any price to re-
cover their freedom. It was I who inspired them with
this sentiment ; and the error into which I fell might, at
least, be turned to good account by another government

DB8IRBABLENESS OF LIBERAL OPINIONS.

A.S to the Italians, I have planted in their hearts princi-
ples that never can be rooted out. What can England
do better than to promote and assist the noble impulses
of modem regeneration ? Sooner or later, this regenera-
tion must be accomplished. Sovereigns and old aristo-
cratic institutions may exert their efforts to oppose it,
but in vain. They are dooming themselves to the
punishment of Sisyphus ; but, sooner or later, some
arms will tire of resistance, and, on the 6rst failure, the
whole will tumble about their ears. Would it not be
better to yield with a good grace ? — this was my inten-
tion. Why does England refuse to avail herself of the
glory and advantage she might derive from this course
of proceeding ? Every thing passes away in England a.«
well as elsewhere. Castlereagh's administration will
pass away, and that which may succeed it, and which is
doomed to inherit the fruit of so many errors, may be-
come great by only discontinuing the system that has
hitherto been pursued. He who may happen to be placed
at the head of the English cabinet, has merely to allow
things to take their course, and to obey the winds that
blow. By becoming the leader of liberal principles, in-
stead of leaguing with absolute power, like Castlereagh,
he will render himself the object of universal benediction,
and England will forget her wrongs. Fox was capable
of so acting, but Pitt was not ; the reason is, that, in
Fox, the heart warmed the genius ; while, in Pitt, the
genius withered the heart. But it may be asked, why I,
all-powerful as I was, did not pursue the course I have
here traced out } — how, since I can speak so well, I
could have acted so ill ? I reply to those who make this
inquiry with sincerity, that there is no comparison be-
tween my situation and that of the English government.
England may work on a soil which extends to the very
bowels of the earth ; while I could labour only on a
sandy surface. England reigns over an established order
of things ; while I had to take upon myself the great
charge, the immense difficulty, of consolidating and es-
tablishing. I purified a revolution, in spite of hostile
factions. I combined together all the scattered benefits
that could be preserved ; but I was obliged to protect

256 PROPOBBD REDUCTIONS IN SXPBNOITURB.

them with a nervous arm against the attacks of all par
ties ; and in this situation it may truly he said that the
puhlic interest, the State, was myself,

** Our principles were attacked from without ; and, jc
the name of these very principles, I was assailed in the
opposite sense at home. Had I relaxed ever so little, we
should soon have heen brought back to the time of the
Directory ; I should have been the object, and France
the infallible victim, of a counter- Br umaire. We are in
our nature so restless, so busy, so loquacious ! If twenty
revo.iltions were to happen, we should have twenty con-
stitutions. This is one of the subjects that are studied
most, and observed the least. We have much need to
grow older in this fair and glorious path ; for here our
great men have all shewn themselves to be mere children.
May the present generation profit by the faults that have
hitherto been committed, and prove as wise as it is en-
thusiastic !"

To-day the Governor commenced his grand reduc-
tions, and it was thought proper to deprive us of eight
English domestics, who had formerly been granted to
us. To the servants this was a subject of deep regret,
and it was gratifying to ourselves to observe that we
won the regard of all who were permitted to approach us.
We are now absolutely in want of daily necessaries, to
supply which the Emperor proposes to dispose of his
plate ; this is his only resource.

After dinner the Emperor read the Cercle, and retired
immediately, although it was very early in the evening.
He was indisposed, and could not sleep. He sent for me
about midnight. By chance I had not retired to rest,
and I remained in conversation with him for two hours.

THE emperor's COURT AT THE TUILERIES. THE PRE-
SENTATION OF THE LADIES. ON WOMEN*S AGES.

MANUSCRIPT OF THE ISLAND OF ELBA.

8th. — The Emperor sent for me very early : he was
just finishing his toilet. He had had no sleep during the
night, and he seemed much fatigued. The weather aad
become somewhat tolerable, and he desired to have his
breakfast under the tent. While it was preparing, he
took a few turns about the garden, and resumed the

napoleon's court 257

conversation he had had with me on the preceding night.

He invited Madame de Montholon to breakfast, and
afterwards we took a drive in the calash, of which the
Emperor had made no use for a considerable time. He
had scarcely breathed the fresh air for several days.

The conversation once more turned on the subject ol
the Emperor's Court at the Tuileries, the multitude of
persons composing it, the spirit and address with which
Napoleon went through the ceremony of the presenta-
tions, &c. I pass over many of the observations that
were made, for the sake of avoiding repetition.

** It is more difficult than is generally supposed," said
the Emperor, ** to speak to every body in a crowded asy-
semblage, and yet say nothing to any one ; to seem to
know a multitude of people, nine-tenths of whom are
total strangers to one.'*

Again, when alluding to the period when he was in
the plentitude of his power, he observed that it was at
once easy and difficult to approach him, to communicate
with him, and to be appreciated by him ; and that it de-
pended on the merest chance in the world whether his
courtiers made or missed their fortune. ** Now that I
am myself entirely out of the question, *' said he, ** now
that I am a mere private individual, and can reflect phi-
losophically on the time when I was called to execute the
designs of Providence, without, however, ceasing to be a
man, I see how much the fate of those I governed really
depended upon chance ; and how often favour and credit
were purely accidental. Intrigue is so dexterous, and
merit often so awkward, and these extremes approximate
so closely to each other that, with the best intentions in
the world, I find that my benefits were distributed like
prizes in a lottery. And yet could 1 have done better ?
Was I faulty in my intentions, or remiss ih my exertions?
Have other sovereigns done better than I did ? It is only
thus that I can be judged. The fault was in the nature oi
my situation, and in the force of things."

We then spoke of the presentation of the ladies at
Court, their embarrassment, and the plans, views, and
hopes that were formed by some of them. Madame de
Montholon revealed the secrets of several of her ac*

258 ANECDOTUS RESPECTING

quaintance, by which it appeared that if in the saloous of
Paris some were heard to exclaim against the Emperor's
coarseness of manners, harshness of expression, and ugli-
ness of person, others, who were better disposed, better
informed, and differently affected, extolled the sweetnes:
of his voice, the grace of his manners, the delicacy of his
smile, and above all, his famous hand, which was said to
be ridiculously handsome.

These advantages, it was observed, combined with
great power and still greater glory, were naturally cal-
culated to excite and to give rise to certain romantic
stories. Thus at the Tuileries how manv endeavoured to
render themselves pleasing to the sovereign ! How
many sought to inspire a sentiment which it is probable
thev themselves reallv felt !

The Emperor smiled at our remarks and conjectures ;
and he confessed that, notwithstanding the mass of busi-
ness and the cloud of flattery in which he was enveloped,
he had oftener than once observed the sentiments to
which we alluded. A few of the least timid among his
admirers had, he said, even solicited and obtained inter-
views. We now laughed in our turn, and said that, at
the time, these stories had been the subject of a great
deul of mirth. But the Emperor seriously protested that
they were void of foundation. In a more private conver-
sation at the Briars, during one of our walks by moon-
light, the Emperor, as I have stated in a former part of
my Journal, made the same assertion, and contradicted
every report of this nature, except one.

Our next subject of conversation was the repugnance
of women to let their age be known. The Emperor made
some very lively and entertaining remarks. An instance
was mentioned^of a woman who preferred losing an im-
portant law-suit to confessing her age. The case would
have been decided in her favour, had she produced the
register of her baptism, but this she could not be pre-
vailed onto do

Another anecdote of the same kind was mentioned.
A certain lady was much attached to a gentleman, and
was convinced that her union with him wou d render
her happy ; but she could not marry withou*^ proving

THB AGB OF WOMEN ^59

the date of her hirth, and she preferred remaining
single.

The Emperor informed us that a distinguished ladvj
at the time of her marriage, had deceived her hushand,
and represented herself to he five or six years younger
than she really was, by producing the baptismal register
of her younger sister, who had been dead some time.

" However," said the Emperor, ** in so doing, poor
Josephine exposed herself to some risk. This might
really have proved a case of nullity of marriage.*' These
words furnished us with the key to certain dates, which,
at the Tuileries, were the subject of jesting and ridicule,
and which we then attributed wholly to the gallantry
and extreme complaisance of the Im])erial Almanack.

About four o*dock the Emperor took a short walk.
( did not accompany him. On his return, he informed
us that he had visited the Company's garden, where he
had met several very pretty women. " But I had not
my interpreter with me," he added pointing to me.
" The rogue left me, and nothing could be more pro-
voking, for I never felt more inclined to avail myself of
his assistance.'* This little walk, however, did the Em-
peror no good, for he was presently seized with a seve*%
tooth-ache.

A vessel, which had come from the Cape eome time
ago, saijied for Europe this day. Several English mili-
tary officers, who were passengers in this ship, had not
been permitted to wait on the Emperor, in spite of their
repeated solicitations. This was a new instance of the
Governor's spite. These officers were men of distinction,
and their reports on their return home might have had
some influence. The Governor, in defiance of all truth,
informed them that Napoleon had determined to receive
no one.

The Emperor some time ago analyzed to us a subject
which he said he intended to dictate in fourteen chapters,
and which had forcibly struck me by its truth, its force,
its just reasoning, and its dignity. I frequently alluded
to it when I happenend to be alone with him ; and he
laughed more than once at the perseverance I shewed,
which, he said, was not usual with me. To-day he

260 napoleon's WUHIC

informed me tliui he had at length ])roduced something,
though not in fourteen chapters, nor on the promised
subject; but that I must be content with it. I hav^
read it , and it is certainly a very remarkable fragment.
I do not believe that the Revolution has produced any
thing more comprehensive and energetic on the govern-
ments of the last twenty-five years in France, namely,
the Republic, the Consulate, and the Empire.

The exposition and development of the ten chapters
which compose this work may be regarded as a perfect
outline of the subject. The style is remarkably simple
and nervous. Each chapter is full and forcible, and the
whole, which consists of fifty pages, is struck ofl^ and
finished with a masterly hand. I have understood that
the substance of these ideas was to have formed the
Emperor's manifesto at the time of his landing from
Elba.

Since my return to Europe, this little work has
been published, under the title of Manuscrit de V lie
d* Elbe ; though I have reason to believe that at first
another title was intended for it. Be this as it may,
since the work is but little known, and as those who
have read it may be ignorant of its real origin, I here
transcribe almost literally several chapters, which will
serve to prove its source and its authenticity.

Chap. I. — In the sixteenth century, the Pope, Spain, and the
Sixteen, attempt in vain to raise a fourth dynasty to the throne
of France. Henry IV. succeeds Henry III. without an inter-
regnum: he conquers the League ; but finds that the only way
to secure himself on the throne is by sincerely joining the
party which constitutes the majority of the nation.

** Henry IV. was proclaimed King at St. Cloud, on
the day on which Henry HI. died. His sovereignty was
acknowledged by all the Protestant churches and by a
pait of the Catholic nobility. The Holy League whicl)
which had been formed against Henry III., in hatred of
the Protestants, and to avenge the death of the Duke of
Guise, was master of Paris, and commanded five-sixths of
the kingdom. The Leaguers refused to acknowledge
Henry IV., but they proclaimed no other sovereign.

ON THB FRENCH OOVERNMBNT8. 261

The Duke of Mayenne, the chief of the Leagae, exercised
authority under the title of Lieutenant-general of the
kingdom. The accession of Henry IV, produced no
change in the forms adopted hy the League for exer-
cising its power; each town was governed as in
disturbed and fetcdous times, by local or military
authorities. At no period, not even on the day
succeeding his entrance into Paris, did Henry IV.
acknowledge the acts of the League, and the latter
never set up any pretensions that he should do so.
No law, no regulation, emanated from the League.
The Parliament of Paris was divided into two parties ;
one for the Leaguers, which sat at Paris, and the other
for Henry IV., which assembled at Tours. But these
parliaments drew up and registered none but judicial acts.
The provinces retained their own organization and pri-
vileges, and were governed by their own common laws.
It has already been Observed that the League had not
proclaimed any other sovereign ; but it acknowledged for
a moment as King, the Cardinal de Bourbon, Henry's
uncle. The Cardimd, however, did not consent to second
the designs of the enemies of his house. Besides, Henry
had seized his person $ no act emanated from him, and
the League continued subject to the authority of the
Lieutenant-general the Duke of Mayenne. There was
therefore no interregnum between Hen. III. and Hen. IV.
"The League was split into several parties. The
Sorbonne had decided that the rights of birth could
confer no right to the crown on a Prince who was ah
enemy to the Church. The Pope had declared that
Henry IV. having relapsed, had forfeited his rights for
ever ; and that he could not recover them, even thcugh
he should return to the bosom of the Church. Henry IV .,
King of Navarre, was bom a Protestant; but on
the massacre of St. Bartholomew, he was compelled to
marry Margaret de Valois, and* to abjure the reformed
religion. However, as soon as he withdrew from tfad
Court, and found himself amidst the Protestants on Uie
left bank of the Loire, he declared that his aljuration
had been wholly compulsory, and he again embraced the
Protestant faith. This step caused him to be character-

262 napoleon's work

ized as an obstinate renegado ; but the majority of the
League were of opinion that it would be proper to
summon Henry to return to the bosom of the Catholic,
Apostolic, and Romish Church ; and acknowledge him
as sovereign, as soon as he should abjure Protestant-
ism and receive absolution from the Bishops.

** The leaguers convoked the States-general of the
kingdom at Paris. The Spanish ambassadors now un-
masked the designs of their sovereign, and urged the
States to establish a fourth dynasty on the throne of
France, on the ground that Henry and Conde, having,
by their apostacy, forfeited their rights to the crown,
the male line of the Capets was extinct. They accord-
ingly set forth the claims of the Infanta of Spain, the
daughter of Henry H. of France, who was the first in
the female line. Even supposing that, by the extinction
cf the male line of descent, the nation possessed the right
of disposing of the crown, they still insisted that its
choice ought to fall on the Infanta, for two reasons :
first, because it was impossible to select a princess of
more illustrious family ; and secondly, because France
was indebted to Philip II. for his exertions in supporting
the cause of the League. The Infanta was to marry a
French Prince, and mention was even made of the Duke
of Guise, the son of the Duke who had been assassinated
at Blois. There was already a body of Spanish troops
in Paris, commanded bv the Duke of Mavenne ; and it
was proposed that an army of 50,000 Spaniards should
be maintained in Paris by the Court of Madrid, which
would devote its whole power and resources to ensure
the triumph of this fourth dynasty. The sixteen sup-
ported these propositions, which were sanctioned by the
Court of Rome, and seconded bv the utmost efibrts of
the Legate. But all was vain ; public spirit was roused
at thts idea of a foreign nation disposing of the throne
of France. \ hat part of the Parliament which sat at
Paris addressed remonstrances to the Duke of Mavenne
the Lieutenant-general of the kingdom, and urged him
to enforce the observance of the fundamental laws of the
monarchy, and of the Salic law in particular. Had the
designs of the Spanish faction succeeded ; had the States-

ON THE FRENCH GOVERNMENTS. 263

general declared the crown forfeited by tlie descendants
of Hugues Capet ; had a fourth dynasty been raised to
the throne, accepted by the nation, and sanctioned by
the religion acknowledged among the powers of Europe,
tlie rights of the third dynasty would have been extinct.
** Henry conquered the League at Arques and on the
plains of Ivry, and he then besieged Paris. However, he
was convinced of the impossibility of reigning in France,
unless he joined the national party. He had conquered
with an army composed entirely of French troops ; if he
had under his command a small corps of English, the
Leaguers had a still more considerable number of Span-
iards and Italians. On both sides, therefore, the contest had
been maintained by Frenchmen against Frenchmen ; the
for^gners were merely auxiharies ; the national honour
and independence could not be compromised, whichever
party might be declared victorious. Ventre Saint-gris '
Paris vaut bien une messe ! were the exclamations by
which Henry used to sound the opinion of the Huguenots ;
and when, at the Council of Beauvais, he assembled the
principal leaders of the Protestant party, to deliberate on
the resolution which it was most expedient to adopt, the
majority, and in particular the most intelligent persons
among them, advised the King to abjure his faith and to
join the national party. Henry pronounced his abjuration
at Saint- Denis, and received absolution from the Bishops;
the gates of Paris were thrown open to him, and his
authority was acknowledged by the whole kingdom. He
now frankly espoused the national party. Almost all
the public posts were occupied by the Leaguers. The
Protestants, those who had constantly served the King,
and to whom he was indebted for his victories, frequently
raised complaints against him, and taxed him with in-
gratitude. Still, however, in spite of all the discretion
that was observed, the nation continued long to mistrust
the secret intentions of Henry. It was remarked that
what is bred in the bone will never be out of the flesh.

Chap. II. — The republic sanctioned by the will of the people, by
raligion, by victory, and by all the Powers of Europe.

Hugues Capet ascended the throne by the choice of

2G4 napoleon's wokk

the Parliament, consistiDg of Lords and Bishops whicl:
two classes then constituted the nation. The French
monarchy was never absolute ; the intervention of the
States General has always been necessary for sanction-
ing the principal acts of the Legislature, and for levying
new taxes. Subsequently, the French Parliaments,
^nder the pretence of being States General on a small
scale, and seconded by the Court, usurped the rights of
the nation. In 1788, the Parliaments were the first to
acknowledge them. Louis XVL convoked the States
General in 1789, and the nation exercised a portion of
the sovereignty. The Constituent Assembly framed a
new constitution for the state, which was sanctioned by
the approval of the whole French people, and which
Louis XVI. accepted and swore to maintain. The Legis-
lative Assembly suspended the King. The convention,
which consisted of the deputies of all the primary assem-
blies in the Kingdom, and which was invested with
special powers, proclaimed the abolition of the monarchy
and the establishment of the Republic. The adherents
of the royal party fled from France, and solicited the dd
of foreign arms. Austria and Prussia signed the con-
vention of Pilnitz ; and Austrian and Prussian armies,
joined by the French royalist forces, commenced the war
of the first coalition to subdue the French people. The
whole nation took up arms ; and the Austrians and Prus-
sians were conquered. The second coalition was after-
wards formed by Austria, England, and Russia ; but this
was destroyed like the first, and all the Powers in Europe
acknowledged the French Republic.

1st. — The Republic of Genoa, by an extraordinary em-
bassy, on the 15th of June, 1792.

2d. — The Porte, by a declaration, on the 27th of
March, 1793.

3d. — Tuscany, by the treat v of the 9th of February..
1795.

4th. — Hdland, by the treaty of 16th of May, 1795.

5th. — The Venetian Republic, by an extraordinary
embassy, on the 30th of December, 1795.

6th. — The King of Prussia, by the treaty signed at
B^e, on the 5th of April, 1795.

ON THB FRENCH G0YERNMBNT8. 269

7th. — The King of Spain, hy the treaty signed at
Bale, on the 22nd of July, 1795.

8th. — Hesse-Cassel, by the treaty of the 28th of
July. 1795.

9th. — Switzerland, bv the treaty of the 19th of August,
1795.

10th. — Denmark, by a declaration, on the 18th of
August, 1795.

1 1th. — Sweden, by an embassy, on the 23rd of
April, 1795.

12th. — Sardinia, by the treaty of Paris, on the 28th of
April, 1796.

13th. — America, by an extraordinary embassy, on the
30th of December, 1796.

14th. — Naples, by the treaty of the 10th of October,
1796.

15th. — Parma, by the treaty of the 5th of November,
1796.

16th. — Wurtemburgh, by the treaty of the 7th of Au-
gust, 1796.

17th. — Baden, by the treaty of the 22d of August,
1796.

18th. — Bayaria, by the treaty of the 24th of July,
1797.

19th. — Portugal, by the treaty of the 19th of August,
1797.

20th. — The Pope, by the treaty signed at Tolentino on
the 19th of February, 1797.

21st. — The Emperor of Germany, by the treaty of
Campio-Formio, on the 7th of October, 1797.

22d. — The Emperor of Russia, by a treaty signed on
the 8th of October, 1801.

23d. — The King of England, by the treaty signed at
Amiens on the 27 th of March 1802.

** The government of the Republic sent ambassadors to
all the Powers of Europe, and received envoys from those
powers in return. The tri-coloured flag was acknowledged
tn every sea, and throughout the world. At Tolentino,
the Pope had treated with the Republic as a temporal
sovereign ; but he acknowledged and treated with it as
head of the Catholic religion, by the Concordat which

Vol. III.— 12

266 napoleon's work

was signed at Paris on the 18th of April, 1802. Most
of the Bishjps, who had followed the Royalist party ,
abroad, now submitted to the Republican government, '
and those who refused forfeited their sees. In short,
the French Republic, which was sanctioned by the
citizens, and victorious by its armies, was acknowledged
by every sovereign, every power, and every religion, in
the world, and in particular by the Catholic Church.

" Not only was the Republic acknowledged by all
the powers in the world, after the death of Louis XVI.,
but none of these powers ever acknowledged a successor
to him. In the year 1800, therefore, the third dynasty
was ended as completely as the first and second. The
rights and titles of the Merovingians were extinguished
by the rights and titles of the Carlovingians ; the rights
and titles of the Carlovingians were extinguished by the
rights and titles of the Capetians ; and the rights of the
Capetians were, in like manner, extinguished by the
Republic. Every legitimate government supersedes the
rights and the legitimacy of the governments that have
preceded it. The Republic was a government, in fact
and in right, rendered legitimate by the will of the
nation, sanctioned by the Church, and by the adhesion
of all the world.

Chap. hi. — The Revolution rendered France a new nation : — ^it
emancipated the Gauls from the tyranny of the Franks: it
created new interests, and a new order of things conformable
with the welfare and rights of the people, and the justice and
knowledge of the age.

*'The French Revolution was not produced by the
jarring interests of two families disputing the possession
of the throne j it was a general rising of the mass of
the nation against the privileged classes. The French
nobility, like that of every country in Europe, dates its
origin from the incursion of the barbarians, who di-
vided the Roman Empire among them. In France,
nobles represented the Franks, and the Burgundians,
and the rest of the nation, the Gauls. The feudal system
which was introduced established the principle that all
'and should have a lord. All political privileges were

ON THE FRENCH GOYKRNMKNTS. 26*

exercised by the Priests and the Nobles ; the peasanti
were slaves, and in part attached to the glebe. The pro-
gress of civilization and knowledge emancipated the
people. This new state of things promoted indubtry and
trade. The chief portion o( the land, wealth, and in-
formation, belonjred to the people in the eighteenth
centurj'. The nobles, however, still continued to be a
privileged class: they were empowered to administer
justice, and they possessed feudal rights under various
denominations and forms : they enjoyed the privilege of
being exempt from all the burdens of the state, and of
possessinji; exclusively the most honourable posts. These
abuses aroused the indignation of the citizens. The prin-
cipal object of the Revolution was to destroy all privi-
leges ; to abolish signorial jurisdictions, justice being an
inseparable attribute of sovereign authority ; to suppress
feudal rights ; as being a remnant of the old slavery of
the people ; to bv.bjcct alike all citizens and all property
to the burdens of the state. In short, the Revolution
proclaimed equality of rights. A citizen might attain
any public employment, according to his talent and the
chances of fortune. The kingdom was composed of pro-
vinces which had been united to the Crown at various
periods: they had no natural limits, and were differently
divided, unequal in extent and in population. They pos-
sessed many law? of their own, civil as well as criminal :
they were more or less privileged, and very unequally
taxed, both with lespect to the amount and the nature
/.'f the contributions, which rendered it necessary to de-
tach them from each other by lines of custom-houses.
France was not a state, but a combination of several
states, connected together without amalgamation. The
whole had been determined by chance and by the events
of past ages. The Revolution, guided by the principle
of equality, both with respect to the citizens and the
different portions of the territory, destroyed all these
small nations : there was no longer a Brittany, a Nor-
mandy, a Burgundy, a Champangne, a Provence, or a
I^orraine ; but the whole formed a France. A division
of homogeneous territory, prescribed by local ciicum-
stances, confounded the limits of all the provinces. They

i i

I'

268 vapolbon's work

]ll possessed the same judicial and administrative organiza-

tion, the same civil and criminal laws, and the same
system of taxation. The dreams of the upright men of
all Bj^es '.vere realized. The opposition which the Court,
the Clergy, and the Nobility, raised against the Revolu-
11; tion and the war with foreign powers, produced the law

li' of emigration and the sequestration of emigrant pro-

perty, which subsequently it was found necessary to
sell, in order to provide for the charges of the war. A
great portion of the French nobility enrolled them-
selves under the banner of the princes of the Bourbon
family, and formed an army which marched in conjunc-
tion with the Austrian, Prussian, and English forces.
Gentlemen who had been brought up in the enjoyment
of competency served as private soldiers : numbers were
cut off by fatigue and the sword ; others perished of
want in foreign countries ; and the wars of La Vendee
and of the Chouans, and the revolutionary tribunals,
swept away thousands. 'Diree -fourths of the French
nobility were thus destroyed ; and all posts, civil, judi-
cial, or military, were filled by citizens who had risen
from the common mass of the people. The change pro-
j duced in persons and property by the events of the

l' Revolution, was not less remarkable than that which

i was effected by the principles of the Revolution. A

=h new church was created ; the dioceses of Vienne, Nar-

I H '

ji= bonne, Frejus, Sisteron, Rheims, &c., were superseded

I t by sixty new dioceses, the boundaries of which were

I |j circumscribed, in the Concordat, by new Bulls applica-

ble to the present state of the French territory. The
suppression of religious orders, the sale of convents and
of all ecclesiastical property, were sanctioned, and the
clergy were pensioned by the State. Every thing that
"Aras the result of the events which had occurred since the
1 ;. I , time of Clovis, ceased to exist. All these changes were

so advantageous to the people that they were effected
with the utmost facility, and, in 1800, there no longer
remained any recollection of the old privileges and so-
vereigns of the provinces, the old parliaments and baili-
wicks, or the old dioceses ; and to trace back the origin
of all that existed, it was sufficient to refer to the new

I

'I
I li

ON THE FRENCH GOVKRNMKNTS. 269

law by which it had been established. One-half of the
land had changed its proprietors ; the peasantry and the
citizens were enriched. The advancement of agriculture
and manufactures exceeded the most sanguine hopes.
France presented the imposing spectacle of upwards of
thirty millions of inhabitants, circumscribed within their
natural limits, and composing only a single class of citi-
zens, governed by one law, one rule, and one order. All
these changes were conformable with the welfare and
rights of the nation, and with the justice and intelligence
of the age.

Chap. iv. — The French people establish the Imperial throne, to
C )ns(lidate the new interests of the nation. The fourth dy-
nasty did not immediately succeed the third ; it succeeded the
Republic. Napoleon is crowned by the Pope, and acknowledged
by tlie Powers of Europe. He creates kings, and the armies of
all the Continental Powers march under his command.

The five members of the Directory were divided. Ene-
mies to the Republic crept into the councils ; and thus
men, hostile to the rights of the people, became con-
nected with the government. This state of things kept
the country in a ferment ; and the great interests which
the French people had acquired by the Revolution were
incessantly compromised. One unanimous voice, issuing
from the plains of France and from her cities and her
camps, demanded the preservation of all the principles
of the Republic, or the establishment of an hereditary
system of government, which would place the principles
and interests of the Revolution beyond the reach of fac-
tions and the influence of foreigners. By the constitu-
tion of the year VIII. the First Consul of the Republic
became Consul for ten years, and the nation afterwards
prolonged his magistracy for life : the people subsequently
raised him to the throne, which it rendered hereditarv in
his family. The principles of the sovereignty of the
people, of liberty and equality, of the destruction of the
feudal system, of the irrevocability of the sale of national
domains, and the freedom of religious worship, were
now established. The government of France, under the
fourth dynasty, was founded on the same principles at
the Republic. It was a moderate and constitutionaJ

270 napoleon's wohk

monarch V. There was as much difference between the
government of France nnder the fourth djmasty and the
third, as between the latter and the Republic. The
fourth dynasty succeeded the RepubHc, or. more pro-
perly speaking, it was merely a modification of it.

No Prince ever ascended a throne with rights more
legitimate than those of Napoleon. The crown was not
presented to him by a few Bishops and Nobles ; but he
was raised to the Imperial throne by the unanimous
consent of the citizens, three times solemnly confirmed.
Pope Pius VII. the head of the Catholic religion, the
religion of the majority of the French people, crossed
the Alps to anoint the Emperor with his own hands, in
the presence of the Bishops of France, the Cardinals of
the Romish Church, and the Deputies from all the dis-
tricts of the Empire. The sovereigns of Europe eagerly
acknowledged Napoleon : all beheld with pleasure the
modification of the Republic, which placed France on a
footing of harmony with the rest of Europe, and which
at once confirmed the constitution and the happiness of
that great nation. Ambassadors from Austria, Russia,
Prussia, Spain, Portugal, Turkey, and America, in fine,
from all the powers of Europe, came to congratulate the
Emperor. England alone sent no ambassador : she had
violated the treaty of Amiens, and had consequently
again declared war against France ; but even England
approved the change. Lord Whitworth, in the secret
negotiations which took place through the medium of
Count Malouet, and which preceded the lupture of the
peace of Amiens, proposed, on the part of the English
government, to acknowledge Napoleon as King of France,
on condition of his agreeing to the cession of Malta.
The First Consul replied that, if ever the welfare of
France required that he should ascend the throne, it
would only be by the free and spontaneous will of the
French people. In 1 806, when Lord Lauderdale came
to Paris to negotiate peace between the King of England
and the Emperor, he exchanged his powers, as is proved
by the protocol of the negotiations, and he treated with
the Emperor's plenipotentiary. The death of Fox broke
♦jp the negotiations of Lord Lauderdale The English

ON Tll£ FRENCH GOVERNMENTS. 27

Minister had it in his power to obviate the Prussian cam-
paign,* to prevent the battle of Jena. When, in 1814,
the Allies presented an ultimatum at Chaumont, Lord
Castlereagh, in signing this ultimatum, again acknow-
ledged the existence of the Empire in the person and tliC
family of Napoleon. If the latter did not accept the
propositions of the Congress of Chatillon, it was because
he did not conceive himself at liberty to cede a portion
of the Empire, the integrity of which he had, at his
coronation, sworn to maintain.

The Electors of Bavaiia, Wurtemberg, and Saxony,
were created Kings by Napoleon.

The armies of Saxony, Bavaria, Wurtemberg, Baden,
and Hesse, fought in conjunction with the French armies ;
and the Russian and French troops fought together in
1809, in the war against Austria. In 1812, the Empe-
ror of Austria concluded at Paris an alliance with Napo-
leon, and Prince Schwartzenburg commanded, under his
orders, the Austrian contingent in the Russian campaign,
in which he attained the rank of Field Marshal, on the
application of the French Emperor. A similar treaty of
alliance was concluded at Berlin, and the Prussian army
also fought with the French in the campaign in Russia.

* While Lord Lauderdale was in Paris, and negotiating with the
Emperor's plenipotentiaries, Prussia took up arms and assumed a
hostile attitude. Lord Lauderdale seemed to disapprove of this
conduct, and to consider the contest very unequal. Being inform-
ed that Napoleon intended to march at the head of the army, he
enquired whether the Emperor would consent to defer his depar-
ture, and to enter into arrangements with Prussia, if England
would accept the basis of the negotiations, that is to say, the uti
possidetis on both sides, including Hanover. Tlie discussion Wiis
maintained on the subject of Hanover, which England wished tu
recover independently of this basis. By the reply of the Cabinet
of St. James's, Lord Lauderdale was recalled. The Emperor set
out, and the battle of Jena took place : Fox was then dead.

We were, at this period, eye-witnesses to the regret and repugn
nance which Napoleon evinced at the necessity of going to war wifii
Prussia. He was disposed to leave Hanover in the possession of
ihat power, and to recognise a Confederation of the ' North of
Germany. He felt that Prussia, having never been beaten oi
humbled by France, and her power being still unimpaired, she could
ha\e CO interests hostile to his ; but tlint, if once she vera
subdued, ahe must be destroyed.

272 napolkon's work.

The Emperor healed the wounds which the Revolutioi
tiad inflicted : the emigrants returned, and the list of
proscription was obliterated. Napoleon enjoyed the
glory most gratifying to a monarch, by recalling and re-
establishing in their homes upwards of 20,000 families :
their unsold property was restored to them ; and, the
veil of oblivion being thrown over the past, persons of
every class, whatever line of conduct they might previ-
ously have pursued, were admitted to all public employ-
ments. Families who had distinguished themselves by
the services they had rendered to the Bourbons, those
who had shewn themselves most devoted to the Roval
Family, filled places about the Court, and in the ministry,
and held commissions in the army. All party denomi-
nations were forgotten : aristocrats and Jacobins were no
longer spoken of; and the institution of the Legion of
Honour, which was at once the reward of military, civil,
and judicial services, placed on a footing of unity the
Goldier, the man of science, the artist, the prelate, and
the magistrate ; it became the badge of concord among
all classes and all parties.

Chap. V. — The blood of the Imperial dynasty mingled with that
of all the monarchical Houses in Europe; with those of Russia,
Prussia, England, and Austria.

The Imperial House of France contracted alliances with
all the sovereign families of Europe. Prince Eugene
Napoleon, the adopted son of the Emperor, married the
eldest daughter of the King of Bavaria, a princess distin-
guished for her beauty and her virtues. This alliance,
which was contracted at Munich on the 14th of January,
1806, afforded the highest satisfaction to the Bavarian
nation. The Hereditary Prince of Baden, the brother-
in-law of the Emperor of Russia, solicited the hand of
Princess Stephanie, the adopted daughter of the Emperor
Napoleon ; this marriage was celebrated at Paris on the
7th of April, 1806. On the 22d of August, 1807, Prince
Jerome Napoleon married the eldest daughter of the King
of Wurtemburg, cousin-german of the Emi)eror of Russia,
the King of England, and the King of Prussia. Othei
alliances of this nature were contracted with sovereign

ON THB FRENCH GOVERNMENTS. 273

princes of Germany, of the House of HohenzoUeni
These marriages have proved happy, and all have given
birth to princes and princesses, who will transmit to
future generations the recol^«^ction of the Imperial govern-
ment of France.

*• When the interests of France and the Empire induced
the Emperor and the Empress Josephine to break bonds
which were equally dear to them both, the greatest sove-
reigns in Europe courted the Alliance of Napoleon. Had
it not been for religious scruples, and the delays occa-
sioned by distance, it is probable that a Russian princess
would have occupied the throne of France. The Arch-
duchess Maria Louisa, who was miarried to the Emperor
by procuration granted to Prince Charles, at Vienna, on
the 1 1th of March, 1810, and at Paris on the 2d of April
following, ascended the throne of France. As soon as
the Emperor of Austria learned that Napoleon's marriage
was in agitation, he expressed his surprise that an alliance
with the House of Austria had not been thought of. The
choice was hitherto divided between a Russian and a
Saxon princess : Francis explained his sentiments on this
subject to the Count de Narbonne, the Governor of
Trieste, who was then at Vienna ; and, in consequence,
instructions were forwarded to the Prince of Schwart-
zenberg, the Austrian ambassador at Paris. In February,
1810, a Privy Council was convoked at the Tuileries:
the Minister for Foreign Aflairs submitted to the Council
the despatches of the Duke of Vicenza, the French am-
bassador at the Court of Russia. These communications
shewed that the Emperor Alexander was very much dis-
posed to give his sister, the Grand- duchess Anne, in
marriage to Napoleon ; but he seemed to make it a point
of importance that the Princess should be allowed the
public exercise of her religious worship, and a chapel
appropriated to the Greek rites. The despatches from
Vienna developed the insinuations and the wishes of the
Austrian Court. There was a division of opinions in the
French Council : the Russian, the Saxon, and the Austrian
alliance, all found supporters j but the majority voted for
the choice of an Archduchess of Austria. As Prince
Eugene had been the first to propose the Austrian alliance^

12*

274 napoleon'^ work

the Emperor, breaking up the sitting at two in the morn-
ing, authorized him to make overtures with Prince
Schwartzenberg. He at the same time authorized the
Minister for Foreign Affairs to sign, in the course of the
day, the contract of marriage with the Austrian ambas-
sador ; and, to obviate all difficulties with respect to the
details, he directed him to sign, word for word, the same
contract as that which had been drawn up for the marriage
of Louis XVI. and the Archduchess Marie- Antoinette.
In the morning, Prince Eugene had an interview with
Prince Schwartzenberg : the contract was signed the same
day, and the courier who conveyed the intelligence to
Austria agreeably surprised the Emperor Francis. The
peculiar circumstances attending the signature of this
marriage contract led the Emperor Alexander to suspect
that he had been trifled with, and that the Court of the
Tuileries had been conducting two negotiations at once.
But this was a mistake : the negotiation with Vienna was
begun and concluded in one day.*

*' Never did the birth of any Prince excite so much
enthusiasm in a people, or produce so powerful a sensa-
tion throughout Europe, as the birth of the King of Rome.
On the firing of the first gun, which announced the

♦ A report was pretty generally circulated that the marriage
of the Archduchess Maria-Louisa with the Emperor Napoleon was
a secret article of the treaty of Vienna : this idea is void of
foundation. The treaty of Vienna is dated Oct 15, 1809, and
the marriage contract was signed at Paris on the 7th of Feb.
1810.

Every individual who was present at the deliberations of the
Privy Council can attest that the circumstances of the marriage
were such as they have bten above described; that no idea of the
Austrian alliance was entertained before the contents of the Count
de Narbonne's despatches were made known ; and that the marriage
with the Archduchess Maria-Louisa was proposed, discussed, and
determined on in the Council, and signed within the space of twenty-
'our hours.

The members of the Council were — the Emperor, the great Dig-
rwtaries of the Empire, the high Officers of the Crown, all the
Ministers, the Presidents of the Senate and the Legislative Body,
and the Ministers of State, Presidents of the sections of theCouniuJ
of State ; amounting, in all, to 2j»

ON THR FRBNCH GOVERNMENTS. 273

delivery of the Empress, the whole population of Paris,
was in the most anxious suspense. In the streets, the
promenades, at the places of puhlic amusement, and in
the interior of the houses, all were eagerly intent on
counting the number of guns. The twenty- second exci-
ted universal transport : it had been usual to discharge
twenty-one guns on the birth of a Princess, and a hun-
dred and one on the birth of a Prince. All the European
Powers deputed the most distinguished noblemen of their
Courts to present their congratulations to the Emperor.
The Emperor of Russia sent his Minister of the Interior ;
and the Emperor of Austria despatched Count Clary, one
of his highest officers of the crown, who brought, as pre-
sents to the young King, the collars of all the Orders of
the Austrian Monarchy set with diamonds. The baptism
of the King of Rome was celebrated with the utmost
pomp, in the presence of the French bishops, and deputies
from all parts of the Empire. The Emperor of Austria
was sponsor to the young king by proxy ; he was repre-
sented by his brother, the Archduke Ferdinand, Grand-
Duke of Tuscany.

Chap. VI. — Containing some accoant of the campaign of Sax-
ony,* and shewing &at the league of 1813 was in its object
foreign to the Restoration.

*• The victories of LUtzen and WUrtzen, on the 2nd and
22Dd of May, 1813, had re-established the reputation of
the French arms. The King of Saxony was brought back
in triumph to his capital ; the enemy was driven from
Hamburg ; one of the corps of the grand army was at
the gates of Berlin, and the imperial head-quarters were
established at Breslau. The Russian and Prussian
armies, disheartened by their d^eats, had no alternative

* I did not choose to suppress this summary of the campaign in
Saxony, although the same subject has already been particuJarlj
treated of at the commencement of this volume. If, however,
some readers should consider it merely a repetition, others will
find in it the means of comparing and verif^ng what has been
before stated: one of the accounts is drawn up from docnmentt
published in Europe, whilst the other was dictated at St. Helesa
by Napoleon himselfl

.J

276 napoleon's work

but to repass the Vistula, when Austria interfered and
advised France to sign an armistice. Napoleon returned
to Dresden, the Emperor of Austria quitted Vienna and
repaired to Bohemia, and the Emperor of Russia and the
King of Prussia established themselves at Schweidnitz.
Communications took place between the different Powers.
Count Metternich proposed the Congress of Prague,
which was agreed on ; but it was merely the shadow of
a Congress. The Court of Vienna had already entered
into engagements with Russia and Prussia, and intended
to declare itself in the month of May, when the unex-
pected success of the French army rendered greater cir-
cumspection necessary. Notwithstanding all the efforts
which Austria had exerted, her army was still inconsider-
able in number, badly organized, and ill prepared to enter
upon a campaign. Count Metternich demanded, on the
part of Aystria, the surrender of the lUyrian Provinces,
one half of the kingdom of Italy, (that is to say, Venice,
as far as the Mincio,) and Poland. It was moreover re-
quired that Napoleon should renounce the Protectorate
of Germany, and the departments of the thirty-second
military division. These extravagant propositions were
advanced only that they might be rejected. The Duke of
Vicenza proceeded to the Congress of Prague. The
choice of Baron d*Anstetten, as the Russian plenipoten-
tiary, shewed that Russia wished not for peace, but was
merely anxious to afford Austria time to complete her
military preparations. The unfavourable augury, occa-
sioned by the selection of Baron d*Anstetten as a nego-
tiator, was confirmed : he declined entering upon any
conference. Austria, who pretended to act as mediatrix,
declared, when her army was in readiness, that she ad-
hered to the coalition, though she did not even require
the opening of a single sitting, or the drawing up of a
single protocol. This system of bad faith, and of per-
petual contradictions between words and acts, was
unremittingly pursued, at this period, by the Court of
Vienna. The war was resumed. The brilliant victory
gained by the Emperor at Dresden, on the 27th of Au-
gust, 1813, over the army commanded by the three
"sovereigns, was immediately followed by the disastem

ON THE FRENCH GOVERNMENTS 277

which Macdonald, through his ill-concerted manoeuvres,
brought upon himself in Silesia, and by the destruction
of Vandamrae*s force in Bohemia. However, the »upe-
rioritv was still on the side of the French armv, which
supported itself on three points, viz : Torgau, Witten-
berg, and Magdeburg. Denmark had concluded a
treaty of alliance, offensive and defensive, and hei
contingent augmented the army of Hamburg.

'* In October, the Emperor quitted Dresden to proceed
to Magdeburg, by the left bank of the Elbe, in order to
deceive the enemv. His intention was to recross the
Elbe at Wittenburg and to march on Berlin. Several
corps of the army had already arrived at Wittenburg,
and the enemy's bridges at Dessau had been destroyed,
when a letter from the King of Wurtemburg informed
the Emperor that the King of Bavaria had suddenly gone
over to the enemy ; and that, without any declaration of
war or any previous intimation, the Austrian and Bava-
rian forces, cantoned on the banks of the Inn, had formed
themselves into one camp ; that these forces, amounting
to 80,000, under the orders of General Wrede, were
marching on the Rhine ; that he (the King of Wurtem-
berg) , seeing the impossibility of his opposing this united
force, had been obliged to add his contingent to it. The
letter farther added that 100,000 men would soon sur-
round Mentz, the Bavarians having made common cause
with Austria. Upon receiving this unexpected intelli-
gence, the Emperor found himself compelled to change
the plan of the campaign which he had projected two
months previously, and for which he had prepared the
fortresses and magazines. This plan had for its object
to drive the Allies between the Elbe and the Saale ; and,
under the protection of the fortresses and magazines of
Torgau, Wittemberg, Magdeburg, and Hamburg, to es-
tablish the seat of war between the Elbe and the Oder
(the French army being at that time in possession of the
fortresses of Glogau, Ciistrin, and Stettin), and, accord-
ing to circumstances, to raise the blockades of the for-
tresses of the Vistula, Dantzick, Thorn, and Modlin. It
was anticipated that the success of this vast plan would
have been the means of breaking up the coalition, and

278 napoleon's wokk

that, in consequence, all the German Princes would have
been confirmed in their allegiance and their alliance with
France. It was hoped that Bavaria would have delayed
for a fortnight to change sides, and then it was certain
that she would not have changed at all.

''The armies met on the plains of Leipsic, on the 16th
of October. The French were victorious ; the Austrians
were beaten and driven from all their positions ; and
Count Meerfeld, who commanded one of the Austrian
corps, was made prisoner. On the 18th, notwithstand-
ing the check sustained by the Duke of Ragusa on the
1 6th, victory was still on the side of the French, when
the whole of the Saxon army, with a battery of sixty
guns, occupying one of the most important positions of
the line, passed over to the enemy, and turned its
artillery on the French ranks. Such unlooked-for
treachery could not but cause the destruction of the
French army, and transfer all the glory of the day to
the Allies. The Emperor galloped forward with half his
guard, repulsed the Swedes and Saxons, and drove them
from their positions. This day (the 18th) was now
ended : the enemy made a retrograde movement along
the whole of his line, and bivouacked in the rear of the
field of battle, which remained in the possession of the
French. In the night, the French army made a move-
ment, in order to take its position behind the Elster,
and thus to be in direct communication with Erfurt,
whence were expected the convoys of ammunition that
were so much wanted. In the engagements of the 1 6th
and 18th, the French army had fired more than 150,000
discharges of cannon. The treachery of several of the
German corps of the Confederation, who were seduced
by the example of the Saxons on the preceding day, and
the destruction of the bridge of Leipsic, which was
blown up by mistake, occasioned the French army,
though victorious, to experience the losses which
usually result from the most disastrous engagements.
The French re-crossed the Saale by the bridge of Weissen-
fild: they intended to rally their forces, and await the
arrival of the ammunition from Erfurt, which had abim-
fiant supplies.

ON THE FRENCH GOVERNMENTS. 279

** Intelligence was now received of the Austro- Bavarian
army, which, by forced marches, had reached the Maine.
It was necessary therefore to repair thither, in order to
come up with the Bavarians ; and, on the 30th of
October, the French fell in with them, drawn up in order
of battle before Hanau and intercepting the Frankfort
roads. The Bavarian force, though numerous, and oc-
cupying fine positions, was completely routed, and driven
beyond Hanau, which was in the possession of Count
Bertrand. General Wrede was wounded. The French
forces continued their movement with the view of falling
back behind the Rhine, and they re-crossed the river on
the 2nd of November. A parley ensued : Baron de St.
Aignan repaired to Frankfort, where he had conferences
with Counts Metternich and Nesselrode and Lord
Aberdeen, and he arrived at Paris with proposals for
peace on the following bases : — ^That the Emperor Napo-
leon should renounce the Protectorship of the Confede-
ration of the Rhine, Poland, and the departments of the
Elbe; but that France should retain her boundaries of
the Alps and the Rhine, together with the possession of
Holland, and that a frontier line in Italy should be
determined upon, for separating France from the States
of the House of Austria The Emperor agreed to these
bases ; but the Congress of Frankfort, like that of
Prague, was merely a stratagem employed in the hope
that France would reject the terms which were proposed.
It was wished to have a new subject for a manifesto to
operate on the public mind; for at the moment when
these conciliatory propositions were made, the Allied
army was violating the neutrality of the cantons, and
entering Switzerland. However, the Allies at last
developed their real intentions ; they named Chatillon-
sur-Seine, in Burgundy, as the seat of the Congress.
The battles of Champ- Aubert, Montmirail, and Monte-
reau, destroyed the armies of Blucher and Witgenstein.
No negotiations took place at Chatillon; but the coalesced
Powers presented an ultimatum, the conditions of which
were as follows :

** 1st. That France should surrender the whole of Italy.
Belgium, Holland, and the departments of the Rhine ;

^80 NAPOLVON S WORK.

2nd, that France should return to her limits a? tiiev
existed previously to 1792. The Emperor rejected this
ultimatum. He consented to sacrifice Holland and Italy
to the circumstances in which France was then placed ;
but he refused to resign the limits of the Alps and the
Rhine, or to surrender Belgium and particularly Antwerp.
Treason secured the triumph of the Allies, notwithstand-
ing the victories of Arcis and St. Dizier. Hitherto the
Allies had intimated no design of interfering in th€
internal aflairs of France; this is proved by the ultimatum
of Chatillon, signed by England, Austria, Russia, and
Prussia. At length, however, some of the returned
emigrants, excited by the presence of the Austrian,
Russian, and Prussian armies, in whose ranks they had
long borne arms, imagined that the moment had arrived
in which their dreams were to be realized: some
mounted the white cockade, and others displayed the
cross of St. Louis. This conduct was disapproved by
the Allied Sovereigns ; and it was even censured by
Wellington at Bourdeaux, though in reality he secretly
favoured all who endeavoured to raise the ensigns of the
House of Bourbon. In the transactions which detached
Prussia from her alliance with France, and bound her to
Russia by the treaty of Kalisch ; in the treaty which
united Austria with the coalition ; in the diplomatic pro-
ceedings, public and private, which took place down to
the treatv of Chatillon ; and even in that concluded in
France, in 1814, the Allies never made any reference
to the Bourbons."

The Vllth, Vlllth, and IXth Chapters shew that the
Bourbons after their return ought to have commenced
a fifth dynasty, and not to have endeavoured to con-
tinue the third. The first course would have rendered
all easy, the second has involved every thing in diffi-
culty.

The Xth Chapter closes with $i passage of a few lines
which forcibly describe the magical effect of the Em-
peror's return on the 20th of March. Thes^ last chapters
contain the most nervous and energetic writing, but the
applications are direct, and indeed often personal. I
have suppressed the details, because I wish not to t^^off^

ON THE FRENCH GOVERNMENTS. 281

any ground for my being accused of bringing forward a
hostile statement. Time, which modifies all things, wiL
render this work merely an historical document, which is
the only light in which I wish it to be considered here,
as well, indeed, as all works of a similar nature that
I may think it necessary to quote. I have written in
France and other countries, under dificrent laws and cir-
cumstances, and I have always found the liberty of the
press existing for me.

I hope to experience its influence on the present
occasion, although my subject is one of a most delicate
nature. I now look forward to the speedy termination
of my voyage ; the port is within sight, and I hope to
reach it safely, in spite of all the shoals I may en-
counter.

MY DOMESTIC AFFAIRS. THE BMPEROR's VIEWS IN

HIS MUNIFICENCE.

9th — 10th. The Emperor passed a bad night. He
desired me to be called early in the morning. When 1
went to him, he told me that he was half dead, that he
had had no rest, and was feverish. He has continued
very ill for these two days, and has reclined almost con-
stantly on his couch, which in the evenings is drawn
near the fire. He has been unable to eat, and has drunk
nothing but warm lemonade. I have been in continual
attendance on him during these two days ; he has en-
joyed a little sleep at intervals, and the .rest of the time
he has spent in conversing with me upon various subjects.
He spoke of the expense of giving parties in Paris ; and,
passing from that subject to my domestic aflairs, he
expressed a wish that I should make him acquainted
with the minutest details on that point.

I told him that my income had amounted only to
20,000 francs a year, 15,000 of which were derived
from my own property, and 5000 from my salary as a
Councillor of State. On hearing this he exclaimed :
** You must have been mad ! How could you venture ♦c
approach the Tuileries with so straitened an income ?
The expenses of attending the Court were enormous I "
— *' Sire," I replied, " J contrived to keep up my dignity

28'i KNORHOUS GUATUITIB8

ad well as the rest : and yet 1 never solicited any thing
from your Majesty." The Emperor observed, ** I do not
say you did ; but you must have been ruined in less
than four or five years." — " No, Sire," I rejoined, " I
had been an emigrant during the greater part of my life :
I had lived amidst privations, and, with a few exceptions,
I still subjected myself to them. It is true that, in spite
of all my economy, I ran through 7 or 8000 francs of
my capital every year. But I calculated thus: it was
well known that every person about you must, by dint of
zeal and attention to their duties, sooner or later, attract
your notice, and that he who once gained your favour
might consider his fortune made. I had still four or
five years left to try this chance ; at the expiration of
which, if fortune did not smile on me, I was determined
to renounce the illusions of the world, and to retire from
the capital with an income of ten or twelve thousand
livres j poor enough, to be sure, but, nevertheless, richer
than ever I had been in Paris." — " Well," said the Em-
peror, ** your scheme was not a bad one, and the moment
had just arrived when you would have been indemnified
for all your losses. I was just about to do something
for you, and it was wholly your own fault that you did
not make a more rapid and brilliant fortune. I believe
I have told you before that you did not know how to
avail yourself of favourable opportunities for securing
your own advancement."

This conversation led us to speak of the enormous sums
which the Emperor had lavished on the persons about
him, and, gradually becoming animated, he said : — " It
would be difficult to estimate all that I bestowed in this
way. I might, on more than one occasion, have been
accused of profusion, and I am grieved to see that it
has been of little use in any respect. Tliere must cer-
tainly have been some fatality on my part* or some
essential fault in the persons whom I favoured. What
a difficulty was I placed in ! It cannot be believed that
my extravagance was caused by personal vanity. To act
the part of an Asiatic monarch was not a thing to my
taste. I was not actuated either by vanity or caprice*
every thing was with me a matter of calcukition.

or NAPOLEON. 283

rhough certain persons might be fev ourites with me, yet
I did not lavish my bounty on them merely because 1
liked them: I wished to found, through them, great
families, who might form rallying-points in great na-
tional crises. The great Officers of my Household, as well
as all my Ministers, independently of their enormous
salaries, often received from me handsome gratuities, —
sometimes complete services of plate, &c. What was
my object in this profuseness? I required that they
should maintain elegant establishments, give grand din-
ners and brilliant balls ! — And why did 1 wish this ? In
order to amalgamate parties, to form new unions, to
smooth down old asperities, and to give a character to
French society and manners. If I conceived good ideas,
they miscarried in the execution : for instance, none of
my chief Courtiers ever kept up a suitable establishment.
If they gave dinners, they invited only their party friends ;
and when I attended their expensive balls, whom did I
find there } All the Court of the Tuileries : not a new
face ; not one of those who were oflended at the new
system — those sullen malcontents, whom a little honey
would have brought back to the hive. They could not
enter into my views, or did not wish to do so. In vain
I expressed displeasure, intreated, and commanded:
things still went on in the same way. I could not be
every- where at once, and they knew that ; — and yet it
was affirmed that I ruled with a rod of iron. How, then,
must things go under gentle sovereigns ?*'

REMOVAL OF THE EMPBROR's BED. ANECDOTE OF A

GASCON SOLDIER. THE GUARDS OF THE EAGLE.

1 1th. — ^The Emperor continued unwell. I found him
very low-spirited. He had ordered the situation of his
bed to be changed — that bed, so long the constant com-
panion of his victories, was now a couch of sickness. He
complained that it was too small for him, that he could
hardlv turn himself in it ; but his chamber would not have
afforded room for a longer one. He ordered the camp-
bed to be carried into his cabinet, and placed beside a
couch ; so that the two combined formed a bed of tole-
rable size. To what an extremity is he reduced ! Thf*

284 ANECDOTES.

Emperor stretched himself on his sofa, and entered into
conversation, which revived him a little. Speaking of
his accession to the Consulship, and of the dreadful dis-
orders which he found existing in all the hranches of the
public service, he said that he had been compelled to
adopt numerous measures of reform, which caused a
great outcry, but which had not a little contributed to
strengthen the bonds of society. These measores exten-
ded to the army, among the officers, and even among the
generals, who, he said, had become such, Heaven knows
how. Here I took the liberty to relate an anecdote
which had at one time a£Forded great amusement to the
circle in which I moved. One of my friends, (who was
as dissatisfied with the then existing government as I
was myself,) travelUng in one of the small Versailles,
diligences with a soldier of the guard, maliciously excited
him to express his opinions. The man complained that
every thing went wrong, because it was required that a
soldier should know how to read and ¥rrite before he
CO aid be advanced from the ranks. '* So yon see/' he
exclaimed, " the tic has returned again,"* This phrase
pleased us, and was often repeated among us. ** Well,"
observed the Emperor, ** what would your soldier have
said when I created the Guards of the Ektgle? That
measure would, doubtless, have re-established me in his
good opinion. I appointed two sub-officers to be the
special guards of the Eagle in every regiment, one of
whom was placed on either side of the standard ; and,
lest their ardour in the midst of the conflict might cause
tliem to lose sight of the only object which they ought
to have in view, namely, the preservation of the E^le,
they were prohibited from using the sabre or the swsrd :
their only arms were a few braces of pistols ; their only
duty was coolly to blow out the brains of the enemy who
might attempt to lay hands on the Eagle. But, before
a man could obtain this post, he was required to prove
that he could neither read nor write, and of course you
guess the reason why." ** No, Sire." *' Why, sim*
pleton ! Every man who has received education is sore to
rise in the army, but the soldier who has not these

• Tic is the French term for anv bad habit.

ANECDOTES. 285

advai tages. never attains advancement except by dint ol
courao:e and extraordinarv circumstances.'*

As I was in the humour for gossiping, I related ano-
ther anecdote, which had also produced merriment in the
saloons of Paris. It was said that, a regiment having
.osf its Eagle, Napoleon harangued the men on the sub-
ject, and expressed great indignation at the dishonour
they had brought upon themselves by suffering their Eagle
to be taken. ** But we tricked the enemy," exclaimed a
Gascon soldier, ** they have only got the staff, for here is
the cuckoo in my pocket ;** and he produced the Eagle.
The Emperor laughed and said, ** Well, I could not
venture to affirm that this circumstance, or something
very like it, did not actually take place. My soldiers
were very much at their ease and made very free with
me; often addressing me familiarly by the pronoun thou,**

I mentioned having heard that on the eve of the battle
of Jena, or some other great engagement, as Napoleon
was passing a particular station, accompanied by a very
small escort, a soldier refused to let him pass, and, grow-
ing angry when the Emperor insisted on advancing,
swore that he should not pass even though he were the
Little Corporal himself. When the soldier ascertained
that it was really the little Corporal, he was not at all
disconcerted. The Emperor observed, ** That was be-
cause he felt the conviction of having done his duty j
and indeed the fact is that I passed for a terrible tyrant
in the saloons, and even among the officers of the army,
but not among the soldiers ; they possessed the instinct
of truth and sympathy, they knew me to be their pro-
tector, and, in case of need, their avenger."

THE EMPEROR CONTINUES UNWELL. HORRIBLE

PROVISIONS, EXECRABLE WINE, &C.

12th. — To-day the Emperor, although no better than
he had been for some days past, determined, as he said,
to nurse himself no longer. He dressed and repaired to
the drawing-room, where he dictated, for two or tliree
hours, to one of his suite. He had eaten nothing for
three days : he had not yet been relieved by the crisis
which he expected, and which is usually produced by the
lingular regimen which he prescribes for himself. He

286 OOOD-HCJMOUR OF NAPOLKON.

continued drinking warm lemonade. This circamstance
led him to inquire how long a person might live without
eating, and how far drink might supply the place of solid
food. He sent for the Encyclopedia Britannica, in which
he met with some very curious facts : for instance, he
found that a woman had existed for fiffy days without
solid food, and drinking only twice. Another instance
was mentioned of a person who had lived twenty days
upon water alone.

Somebody observed, in reference to this subject, that
Charles XII., out of pure contradiction to the opinions ot
those around him, had abstained from eating for the space
of five or six days, at the expiration of which, however,
he devoured a turkey and a leg of mutton, at the hazard
of bursting. Napoleon laughed at this anecdote, and
assured us that he felt no wish to run to such extremes,
however attractive the model might be in other respects.

The Emperor played a game at piquet with Madame
de Montholon. The Grand Marshal having entered, he
' left off playing, and asked him how he thought he looked.
Bertrand repHed, "Only rather sallow;** which was
indeed the case. The Emperor rose good-humouredly»
and pursued Bertrand into the saloon, in order to catch
him by the ear, exclaiming, ** Rather sallow, indeed !
Do you intend to insult me. Grand Marshal ? Do you
mean to say that I am bilious, morose, atrabilarious,
passionate, unjust, tyrannical ! Let me catch hold of your
ear, and I will take my revenge.'*

The dinner-hour arrived, and the Emperor for some
time was undecided whether he would sit down to table
with us, or dine alone in his own room. He decided
upon the latter plan, lest, as he said, he should be tempted
to imitate Charles XII. if he sat at the great table: but
he would have found it difficult to do that. He returned
while we were at dinner, and, from the scanty way in
which our table was served, he said he really pitied us,
for in fact we had scarcely any thing to eat. This cir-
cumstance induced the Emperor to resort to a painful
extremity : he instantly gave orders that a portion of his
plate should be sold every month, to supply what was
necessary for our table. The worst thing connected with
our wretched dinner was the wine, which had for some

BAD WINS, &C. 287

davs been execrable, and Had made us all unwell. We
were obliged to send for some to the camp, in the hope
that that which had been furnished to us would be chang-
ed, as we could not drink it.

In the course of a conversation which took place re-
specting the wine, the Emperor stated that he had
received a great number of instructions and directions
from chemists and physicians, all of whom had concurred
in declaring that wine and coffee were the two things
respecting which it was most necessary he should be on
his guard. Every professional man had cautioned him
to reject both wine and coffee if he found any unpleasant
flavour in them. Wine, in particular, he was advised to
abstain from, if he found any thing uncommon in the
taste of it. He had always been in the habit of get-
ting his wine from Chambertin, and had therefore, seldom
occasion to find fault with it ; but the case is different
now, if he had refused wine whenever he found any thing
uncommon in it, he must have abstained from it for a
considerable time past.

CRITICISM ON PRINCE LUCIEN's POEM OP
CHARLEMAGNE : HOMER.

13th. — ^The weather is very bad ; and it has continued
so for three weeks or a month. The Emperor sent for
me before one o'clock : he was in his saloon ; our Am-
phitryon had paid me a visit, and I took him to the Em-
peror, who spoke to him on matters of a private and
personal nature.

Napoleon is much altered in his looks. — To-day he
wished to set to work. I sent for my son, and he went
over the chapters relating to the Pope and Tagliamento.
He continued thus employed until five o'clock. He was
very low-spirited, and appeared to be suffering much ; he
retired, saying he would try to eat a little.

Two ships came within sight, one was supposed to be
the Eurydice, which was every moment expected to
arrive from Europe, having touched at the Cape : they
proved to be, however, one of the Company's ships and
another vessel that was accidentally passing the island.

The Emperor came to us while we were at dinner ; he

268 LUCIBN BONAPARTB*8 CHARLBMAGNK.

said he had eaten enough for four persons, and that this
had quite restored him.

He wanted something to read, and looked over h«i
brother Lucien's poem of Charlemagne. He analysed
the first canto, and afterwards glanced over a few others :
he then examined the subject and the plan of the work,
&c. " How much labour, ingenuity and time," he ob-
served, " have been thrown away upon this book ! what
a wreck of judgment an^ taste ! Here are twenty thou-
sand verses, some of which may be good, for aught I
know ; but they are destitute of interest, design, or effect.
It might have been regarded as a compulsory task, had
it been written by a professed author. Why did not
Lucien, with all his good sense, consider that \'^oltaire,
master as he was of the French language and the art of
poetry, failed in a similar attempt, though that attempt
was made in Paris, in the midst of the sanctuary ! How
could Lucien suppose it possible to write a French poem,
when living at a distance from the French capitid ? How
could he pretend to introduce a new metre ? He has
written a history in verse, and not an epic poem. An
epic poem should not be the history of a man, but of a
passion or an event. And, then, what a subject has
Lucien chosen ! What barbarous names has he introduced I
Does he think he has succeeded in raising the religion
which he conceived to be fallen ? Is his poem intended
as a work of re-action } It certainly bears the stamp ol
the soil on which it was written : it is full of prayers,
priests, the temporal authority of the Popes, &c. How
could he think of devoting twenty thousand lines to ab-
surdities which do not belong to the present age, to pre-
judices which he could not enter into, and opinions which
he could not entertain ! What a misapplication of talent !
He might undoubtedly have produced something more
creditable to himself; for he possesses judgment, facility,
and industry. He was in Rome amidst the richest ma-
terials, and with the means of satisfying the deepest
research. He under itands the Italian language : and, as
we have no good history of Italy, he might have written
one. His talents, his situation, his knowledge of affairs^
his rank, might have enabled him to produce an excelleut

SCARCITY OF PROVISIONS. 289

classic work. It would have been a valuable acquisition
to the literary world, and would have conferred honour
on its author. But what is Charlemagne ? What repu-
tation will it gain ? It will be buried in the dust of libra-
ries, and its author will obtain at most a few scanty and
perhaps ridiculous notices in biographical dictionaries.
If Lucien could not resist the temptation of scribbling
verses, he should have prepared a splendid manuscript,
embellished with elegant designs and superb binding, with
which he might now and then have gratified the eyes of
the ladies, occasionally allowing a few quotations from it
to creep into publicity ; and finally he should have left it
to his heirs, with a severe prohibition against committing
it to the press. One might then have been able to un-
derstand his taste."

He laid the work aside, and said : " Let us turn to the
Iliad.*' My son went to fetch it, and the Emperor read
a few cantos, stopping at various passages, in order, as
he said, to admire them at his ease. His observations
were copious and remarkable, tie was so deeply inte-
rested in what he read, that it was half- past twelve before
he retired to rest.

SCARCITT OF PROVISIONS. — RIDICULOUS ALLOWANCE OF
WINE. napoleon's RETURN FROM ELBA.

14th. — The terrible state of the weather still continued*
and confined us to our miserable huts. We are all
indisposed.

The Emperor dictated during part of the day, and he
felt himself much better.

At dinner we had literally scarcely any thing to eat.
The Governor continued his successive reductions. The
Emperor ordered some additional provisions to be pur-
chased and paid for out of the produce of the sale of his
plate.

The Governor intimated that the allowance of wine
should continue fixed at one bottle for each person, the
Emperor included. Will it be credited ? One bottle far
a mother and her children ! these were the words used
in the note.

The Emperor retired to his own apartment, and sent

Vol. ni.— 13

290 NARRATIVK OP THE

for me to attend him. ** I am not inclined to sleep, "
said he, ** and I sent for you to help me to keep my
vigil ; let us have a little chat together. *' The turn of
the conversation led us to speak of the Island of Elba, of
the Emperor's occupations, sensations, and opinions
while he continued there ; finally, his return to France,
and the brilliant success which attended him, and which,
he said, he never for a moment doubted. Many obser-
vations were repeated, which I have already noted down
at different times. At one moment he said : ** They
may explain this as they will : but I assure you, I never
entertained any direct or personal hatred of those whose
power I subverted. To me it was merely a political
contest : I was astonished myself to find my heart free
from animosity, and, 1 may add, animated by good will
towards my enemies. You saw how I released the Duke
d'Angouleme ; and I would have done the same by the
King, and even have granted him an asylum of his own
choosing. The triumph of the cause in no way depended
on his person, and I respected his age and his misfor-
tunes. Perhaps also I felt grateful for a certain degree
of consideration which he in particular had observed to-
wards me. It is true that, at the moment to which I am
now alluding, he had, I believe, outlawed me and set a
price upon my head ; but I looked upon all this as belong-
ing to the manifesto style. The same kind of denuncia-
tions were also issued by the Austrian government, with-
out, however, giving me much uneasiness; though I
must confess that my dear father-in-law was rather too
hard with the husband of his beloved daughter."

Since I have once more had occasion to mention the
Emperor's return from the Island of Elba, this is, perhaps,
the proper place to fulfil the promise I have made of
giving a narrative of the circumstances connected with
that extraordinary event. I here combine together the
statements that fell from him at different times.

Napoleon was residing at the Island of Elba, on the
faith of treaties, when he learned that at the Congress of
Vienna some idea was entertained of transporting him
from Europe. None of the articles of the treaty of Fon-
lainebleau were fulfilled. The public papers informed hiro

RMFEKOR*S RETURN FROM KLBA. 29!

of the state of feeling in France, and ) e accordingly
formed his determination. He kept the secret until the
last moment ;* and, under one pretence or another, means
were found for making the requisite preparations. It
was not until they were all on board that the troops first
conceived a suspicion of the Emperor's purpose : a thou-
sand or twelve hundred men had set sail to rega'n pos-
session of an empire containing a population of thirty
millions !

There were nearly five or six hundred men on board
the brig in which Napoleon embarked ; this was, he said,
the crew of a seventy- four. They fell in with a French
hrig of war, which they spoke. It was asserted that the
captain of the French brig recognised them, and at part
.ng cried out three times, " A good voyage to you !*'
At all events, the officer who commanded the Emperor's
vessel, proposed to pursue and capture the brig. The
Emperor rejected the idea as absurd J such a proceeding
could only have been excusable, had necessity demanded
it. •* Why,*' said he, "should I introduce this new in-
cident into my plan ? What advantage should I derive
from its success ? To what risks would its failure expose
me!"

After the check they experienced on landing, by the
capture of twenty men who had been sent to summon
Antibes, a variety of opinions was advanced, and urged
with some warmth. Some proposed that they should
make immediately an attack and carry Antibes, in
order to obviate the evil consequences which might ensue

_ - -

• I must take this opportunity of correcting an error which has
occasioned considerable pain to an individual whom I greatly esteem.
In a former part of this Journal it is mentioned that, eight day*
before the Emperor quitted Elba, General Drouot communicated
his intentions to the Princess Borghesse, &c. General Drouot,
however, affirms that he was not honoured with the Emperor's con-
fidence until the very last moment^ and that consequently he could
not have divulged the secret at the time alluded to. General
Drouot must of all others be the best informed, as well as most
interested, with regard to these facts : for my own part I have ODiy
to observe, that, in this instance, I merely noted down a current
report, which was repeated without any ill design, aud which bad
never been contradicted.

292 NAKKATIVB OK THE

horn the resistance of that place and the imprisonment ol
the twenty men. The Emperor replied that the taking
of Antibes would be no step towards the conquest of
France ; that, during the brief interval that would be
occupied in the execution of that project, a general alarm
would be raised throughout the country ; and that obsta-
cles would be opposed to them in the only course which
it was expedient they should pursue. He added that
time was valuable ; and that the ill consequences of the
afiair of Antibes might be effectually obviated by march-
ing forward with sufficient speed to anticipate the news.
An officer of the guard indirectly hinted that it was not
right thus to abandon the twenty men who had been
made prisoners ; but the Emperor merely observed that
he had formed a poor idea of the magnitude of the enter-
prise ; that, if half of his followers were in the same situa-
tion, he would not scruple to abandon them in the same
manner ; and that if they were all made prisoners, he
would march forward alone.*

A few hours before nightfall he landed at the gulf of
Juan, where he bivouacked. Soon after, a postilion in
splendid livery was conducted to him. It turned out
that this man had formerly been in the Imperial house-
hold. He had been a domestic of the Empress Jose-
phine's, and was now in the service of the Prince of
Monaco, who himself had been equerry to the Empress.
The postilion, on being questioned by the Emperor, in-
formed him, after expressing his great astonishment at
finding him there, that he had just come from Paris, and
that he was sure he would every where be joyfully greeted.
He affirmed that all along the road, as far as Avingnon,
he had heard nothing but regret for the Emperor's ab-
ence ; that his name was publicly in every mouth, and
that, when once fairly through Provence, he would
find the whole population ready to rally round him.

• It must not, however, be supposed that he shewed any unfeel-
ing disregard of these men ; for he directed the war commissioner,
Charles Vautier, who was with him, to repair with all haste to An-
tibes, and to release the prisoners by attempting to take the garrison.
When Vautier set out, he several times called after him." **Tak*
care you do not get yourself made prisoner toe "

bmfbuor's return from KLBA. 29o

The infill added, that his splendid livery had frequently
rendered him the object of odium and insult. This
was the testimony of one of the common class of so-
ciety : it was very gratifying to the Emperor, and entirely
corresponded with his expectations. The Prince of
Monaco himself, on being presented to Napoleon, was
less explicit. Napoleon refrained from questioning him
on political matters : there were persons present, and ho
did not wish to incur the risk of eliciting any detail which
might create unfavourable impressions on those about
him. The conversation therefore assumed a lively cha-
r icter, and turned entirely on the ladies of the Imperial
court of the Tuileries, concerning whom Napoleon made
the minutest inquiries.

As soon as the moon had risen, which was about one
or two o'clock in the morning, the bivouack broke up,
and Napoleon gave orders for proceeding to Grasse.
There he expected to find a road which he had ordered
during the Empire. However, the design had not been
executed, and he was reduced to the necessity of passing
through narrow defiles filled with snow\ He therefore left
behind him, in the charge of the municipality of Grasse,
his carriage and two pieces of cannon, which had been
brought ashore : this was termed a capture in the bul-
letins of the time.

The municipality of Grasse was devoted to the royalist
party ; but the sudden appearance of the Emperor af-
forded little time for hesitation, and they came to make
their submission to him. The Emperor, having passed
through the town, halted on a little height at some dis-
tance beyond it, where he breakfasted. He was soon
surrounded by the whole population of the town : and
went through this multitude as though he had been in the
midst of his Court circle at the Tuileries. He heard the
same sentiments and the same prayers as before he quit-
ted France. One complained of not having received his
])ension, another solicited an addition to his allowance,
a third represented that his cross of the legion of honour
had been withheld from him, a fourth prayed for pro-
motion, &c. A number of petitions had already been
drawn up and were preseated to him, just as though he

'2i}4 NABRATIVB Or THK

had come from Paris, and was making a tour through the

departments.

Some CTithusiastic patriots, who were well acquainted
witli the state of affiiirs, secretly informed Napoleon that
the authorities of the place were very hostile, i>ut that the
mass of the people were devoted to him, and that they
iinly waited until his back should be turned, in order to
lid themselves of the miscreants. " Be not too hasty, "
Siiid the Emperor. " Let them have the mortification of
seeing our triumph, without having any thing to reproach
u? with. Be tranquil and prudent."

The Emperor advanced with the rapidity of lightning,
■■ Victory," said he, depended on mv speed. To me
Fiance was in Grenoble. This place was an hundred
leagues distant, hut I and my companions reached it in
five days,* and by what roads and what weather ! I en-
tered the city just as the Count d' Artois, warned by the
telegraph, was quitting the Tuileriea.

Napoleon himself was bo perfectly convinced of the
Btate of affairs, and of popular sentiment, that he knew

• March Ist. The Emperor landed at Caunee, at the Gulf of

4th. Dined al

I

lud slept at ^[aligeai.
ind a little beyonil the

o»non therullow-
tT00|>8 of (he fth.
^dby Lab^day^re, at the head

I. Slept

Cth. Slept At Corps,
iiig day, Ihe Einpetor h
A few hours afterwards
oftherih.

7th. ArrivBd at Grenoble and balled.

9th. Slept at Buuntouill.

lOth. Itencbcil Lyons, where he remained three days.

13th. Slept bl Macon. Ney's f.imouE praclamatioa issued.

14lh. Slept at Chalons.

lS(h. Slept al Autun.

IGth. AtAvalon.

17Lh. At Auxcres, where he remained for a day, *-nd was joined
by the Prince of the Moskowa.

20ih. Arrived nt Fontainebleau, at four in the morning, an^
jiiiired the TuiLciies at nine in llie evening.

EMPKROR's return from BLfi4. 295

his success in no way depended on the force which he
might bring with him. A piquet of gendarmerie, he
said, was sJl that was necessary. Every thing turned
out as he had calculated : " Victory advanced au pas de
charge J and the national Eagle flew from steeple to steeple,
till at length it perched on the towers of Notre Dame."
Tlie Emperor, however, admitted that at first he was
not without some degree of alarm and uncertainty. As
he advanced, it is true, the whole population enthusiasti-
cally declared themselves in his favour ; but he saw nc
soldiers : they were all carefully removed from the places
through which he passed. It was not until he was
between Mure and Vizille, within five or six leagues of
Grenoble, and on the fifth day after his embarkation,
that he met the first battalion. The commanding officer
refused even to parley. The Emperor, without hesita-
tion, advanced alone, and one hundred of his grenadiers
marched at some distance from him, with their arms re-
versed. The sight of Napoleon, his costume, and in
particular his grey military great coat, produced a magi-
cal effect on the soldiers, and they stood motionless.
Napoleon went straight up to a veteran, whose arm was
covered with chevrons, and very unceremoniously seizing
him by the whisker, asked him whether he would have
the heart to kill his Emperor. The soldier, his eyes
moistened with tears, immediately thrust the ramrod into
his musquet, to shew that it was not loaded, and ex-
claimed, ** See, I could not have done thee any harm:
all the others are the same. ' Cries of Vive V Empereur !
resounded on every side. Napoleon ordered the bat-
talion to make half a turn to the right, and all marched
on to Paris.

At a little distance from Grenoble, Colonel Labedoyere,
at the head of his regiment, came to join the Emperor.
The impulse was then confirmed, and the question was
nearly decided.

The peasantry of Dauphiny lined the road- sides : they
were transported and mad with joy. The first battalion,
which has just been alluded to, still shewed some signs
of hesitation ; but thousands crowded on its rear, and
by their shouts of Vive V Empereur f endeavoured to

296 NARRATIVK OF TIIK

urge the troops to decision ; while others, who were id
Napoleon's rear, excited his little troop to advance, de-
claring that no harm whatever would be done to it.

In a valley through which they passed, a very affecting
spectacle presented itself: many communes were assem-
bled together, accompanied by their mayors and curates.
Amidst the multitude was observed a handsome young
man, a grenadier of the Guard, who had been missing
since the time of Napoleon's landing, and whose dis-
appearance had given rise to suspicion. He now ad-
vanced and threw himself at the Emperor's feet : the
tears glistened in his eyes, and he supported in his arms
an old man of ninety, whom he presented to the Em-
peror : — this was his father, in quest of whom he had
set off as soon as he landed in France. The Emperor,
after his arrival at the Tuileries, ordered a picture of this
circumstance to be painted.

It was night when Napoleon arrived before the walls
of Grenoble : his promptitude defeated all the measures
that were to have been taken to oppose him. There
was no time to cut down the bridges, nor even to put the
troops in motion. He found the gates of the city closed,
and the colonel commanding the fortress refused to open
them. *• A peculiar circumstance attending this extra-
ordinary revolution," said the Emperor, ''was that the
soldiers were not deficient, to a certain degree, in dis-
cipline and obedience to their commanding officers : their
only resistance was by inert force, of which they availed
themselves as of a right." Thus the first battalion
performed all the movements that were ordered, retired
and refused to communicate ; but the men did not load
their guns, and they would not have fired. When Na-
poleon arrived before Grenoble, the whole garrison,
assembled on the ramparts, shouted Vive V Empereur !
They shook hands with Napoleon's followers, through
the wickets ; but they would not open the gates, because
the commander had forbidden them to do so. The
Emperor found it necessary to force the gates ; and this
was done under the mouths of ten pieces of artillery on
the ramparts, loaded with grape-shot. To complete this

EMPBROR 8 RKTURN EROM ELBA, 397

union of singular circumstances, the commander of the
first battalion and the colonel, who had so openly oppo-
sed the Emperor, when aske^ by him whether he could
depend on them, replied that he could ; — that their troops
had deserted them, but that they would never desert
their troops ; and that, since the men had declared them-
selves for Napoleon, they also would be faithful to him.
The Emperor retained these officers in his service.

In none of his battles did Napoleon ever imagine
himself to be in so much danger as at his entrance into
Grenoble. The soldiers seemed to turn upon him with
furious gestures ; for a moment it might have been sup-
posed that they were about to tear him in pieces. But
these were merely transports of love and joy. The Em-
peror and his horse were both borne along by the multi-
tude ; and he had scarcelv time to breathe in the inn
where he alighted, when an increased tumult was heard
in the streets : the inhabitants of Grenoble came to
offer him the gates of the city, since they could not pre-
sent him with the keys.

" Being once established in Grenoble/* said the Em-
peror, " and having attained a positive power, I could
have maintained hostilities had it been necessary to
do so."

Napoleon, at this time, very much regretted not hav-
ing got his proclamations printed at the Island of Elba ;
but of course this could not have been done without the
ri«k of promulgating his secret designs. He dictated
his proclamations on board the brig, where every man
who could write was employed in copying them. It was
found necessary to transcnbe them over again during
the Emperor*s march to Paris, that they might be cir-
culated on the road, so eager was the demand for them.
They were then very scarce, often incorrect and even
illegible ; and yet the necessity of promulgating them
was felt at every step, for wherever they were read they
produced an immediate and powerful sensation. The
events of the last twenty years have contributed in a
high degree to enlighten the mass of the people , for,
notwithstanding the joy they felt at the Emperor's re*

13»

29S NARRATIVR OF THE

turn, they eagerly enquired what was his object. All
were satisfied with the national sentiments contained iu
the proclamations ; and the utmost joy was evinced when
it was understood that Napoleon had brought no foreign
troops with him. His advance had been so rapid and
his movements so unexpected, that a thousand reports
had been circulated respecting the amount and nature
of his forces. It was said that he w.as accompanied
by Neapolitans, Austrians, and even Turks.

From Grenoble to Paris, Napoleon may be said to have
made a triumphal march. During the four days of his
stay at Lyons, there were continually upwards of twenty
thousand persons assembled before his windows, and
their acclamations were incessant. It would never
have been supposed that the Emperor had for a moment
been separated from his subjects. He signed decrees,
issued orders, reviewed troops, &c. ; all military corps,
all public bodies, all classes ,of the citizens, eagerly
came forward to offer him their homage and demon-
strate their attachment. Even the national horse
guards, a corps composed of men w^ho had shewn them-
selves most ardent in the Royalist cause, solicited the
honour of forming his escort ; but these were the only
persons whom the Emperor treated with coldness. ** Gen-
tlemen," said he, ** I thank you for this offer of your
services ; but your conduct towards the Count d* Artois
sufficiently proves how you would act by me, were for-
tune to foisake me. I will not subject you to this new
trial." On quitting Lyons, the Count d* Artois, it is
said, found only one of the guards willing to follow him
to Paris. The Emperor, whose heart was so keenly
alive to every generous sentiment, on hearing of the
fidelity of this volunteer, ordered the decoration of the
legion of honour to be presented to him.

At Lyons, Napoleon issued orders, through the me-
dium of proclamations, with all that precision, firmness,
and confidence, which usually attend established and
uninterrupted power. His conduct indicated no trace of
the terrible reverses he had so lately sustained, or the
great risks he had yet to encounter. If it were possible
to mention every circumstance, that took place, I could

XMPKROr's return from ELBA. 299

relate a very pleasant private anecdote indicative of the
calmness of mind evinced by Napoleon, during the great
crisis which was about to change the face of France and
to rouse all Europe.

As soon as the Emperor quitted Lyons, he wrote to
inform Ney, who, with his army, was at Lons-le-Saunier,
that he must immediately march with his forces to join
him. Ney, amidst the general confusion, abandoned by
his troops, confounded ^y the Emperor's proclamations,
the addresses of Dauphiny, and the defection of the gar-
rison of Lyons, overpowered by the enthusiasm of the
people of the surrounding provinces — Ney, the child of
the Revolution, yielded to the general impulse, and issued
his famous order of the day. But the recollection of the
events of Fontainebleau induced him to write to the Em-
peror, informing him that, in his recent conduct he had
been guided principally by a view to the interests of his
country ; and that, convinced he must have forfeited all
claim to Napoleon's confidence, he solicited permission
to retire from the service. The Emperor again wrote, de-
siring that he would immediately come and join him, and
that he would receive him as he had done the day after
the battle of the Moscowa. Ney, on presenting himself
before the Emperor, was much embarrassed; and re-
peated that, if he had lost his confidence, he asked for
nothing but to be reduced to the rank of one of his
grenadiers. "Certainly," said the Emperor, *'hehad
behaved very ill to me ; but how could 1 forget his
brilliant courage, and the many acts of heroism that had
distinguished his past life ! I rushed forward to embrace
him, calling him the * bravest of the brave* — and from
that moment we were reconciled.**

The Emperor went nearly post haste all the way from
Lyons to Paris. He no where experienced opposition,
and no fighting took place. Literally his presence pro-
duced merely a theatrical change of scene. His advanced
guard was composed of the troops which happened to be
before him on the road, and to which couriers were sent
forward. Thus Napoleon entered Paris, escorted by tha
very troops who in the morning had been sent out to op-
pose him. A regiment posted at Montereau spontaneously

300 NARRATIVE OF TBB

crossed the bridge, repaired to Melun, and charged a
party of the body guards who were stationed at the lattei
place : this circumstance, it is said, occasioned the sudden
departure of the Royal family.

The Emperor frequently told us that, if he had chosen,
he might have brought with him to Paris two millions
of peasant^. On his approach the people every where
rose in a mass ; and he often repeats that there were no
conspirators excepting opinion.

On the day after Napoleon's arrival at the Tuileries,
some one having remarked to him that his life was a
succession of prodigies, but that the last surpassed all
the rest, I heard him say in rei)ly, that his only merit,
in this instance, consisted in having formed a just
opinion of the state of affairs in France, and in having*
been able to penetrate into the hearts of Frenchmen. At
another time he said to us, when conversing on this sub-
ject : ** If I except Labddoy^re, who flew to me with
enthusiasm and affection, and another individual who
freely rendered me important services, nearly all the
other generals whom I met on my route evinced hesitation
and uncertainty : they yielded only to the impulse of
their troops, if indeed they did not manifest a hostile
feeling towards me.

** It is now clear to every one," said he, ** that Ney
quitted Paris quite devoted to the King, and that if he
turned against him a few days afterwards, it was because
he thought he could not do otherwise.

" I was so far from relying at all on Massena that,
on my landing in France, I felt it necessary to get past
him with all speed ; and on my asking him some time
after, at Paris, how he would have acted, had I not leffc
Provence so precipitately as I did, he was frank enough
to reply that he should feel some embarrassment in
answering me ; but that the course I had pursued was,
at all events, the safest, and the best

** Saint-Cyr found himself in danger by attempting to
restrain the soldiers under his command.

'* Soult confessed to me that he had conceived a sin-
cere regard for the King, so much did he admire his
government ; a id he would not return to my senrice
until after the Champ de Mai,

KMPEROr's RKTURN ruOM KLBA. 301

^' Macdonald never made his appearance, and the Duke
of Belluno followed the King to Ghent. Thus/' said
he, "if the Bourbons have reason to complain of the
complete desertion of the soldiers and the people, they
certainly have no right to reproach with infidelity the
chiefs of the army, those pupils or even leaders of the
Revolution, who, in spite of twenty-five years* experience,
proved themselves, in this instance, mere children in
politics. They could neither be looked upon as emigrants
nor patriots V*

Napoleon seemed instinctively attached to his grand
principle of acting only on masses and by masses. Botii
at the commencement of the enterprise, and after his
landing in France, he was repeatedly urged to treat with
some of the authorities, but he constantly returned the
same excellent answer : '* If I still hold a place in the
hearts of the people, I need concern myself but little
about persons in authority, and if I could only rely on
the latter, what service could they render me in opposing
the great mass ?"

I^e following fact will shew how little communication
Napoleon had maintained with the capital. On the
morning of his entry into Paris, after his return from
the Isle of Elba, a hundred and fifty half-pay officers
quitted St. Denis, where they had been stationed by the
Princes, and marched to the capital, bringing with them
four pieces of artillery. They were met on the road by
some generals, who placed themselves at their head ; and
the little troop thus proceeded to the palace of theTuileries,
where they assembled together the heads of the difierent
^departments of the ministry, who all agreed to act in
vhe name of the Eknperor. Thus Paris was tranquilly
^vemed that day by the torrent of opinion and the
I'ransport of private afiPectiona. None of the great
partisans of the Emperor, none of his former ministers,
having received any communication from him, dared
sign an order, or assume any responsibility. The public
papers would not have appeared next day but for the
zeal of private individoals, who, spontaneously and
without authority, filled them imth . exprjessions of the
feelings by whidi they were animated, and with the

302 NARRATIVK OF THK

•tatements of passing events. In the same manner
Lavalette took possession of the post- office. Paris waa
that day without police and without government, and
yet never did greater tranquillity prevail in the capital.

The Emperor entered the Tuileries about nine o'clock
in the evening with an escort of a hundred horse, just
as if he had come from one of his country residences.
On alighting, he was almost squeezed to death by a
crowd of military officers and citizens, who thronged
around hint, and fairly carried him in their arms into his
saloon. Here he found dinner ready, and he was just
sitting down to table, when the officer who had been
despatched in the morning to Vincennes to summon the
fortress, arrived. He brought inteUigence of the capitu-
lation of the commandant, whoSe only conditions were,
that he should receive a passport for himself and his
family.

It is a very singular circumstance that, on the morning^
after the Emperor's arrival at the Tuileries, while a
messenger had gone out to procure a tri-coloured flag,
one was found at the pavilion Marsan, during the search
that was made, as a matter of prudence, through the
palace. This flag was immediately hoisted, it was
quite new, and larger than the usual size. No one could
guess how it had got into the Tuileries, and for whiit
purpose it had been intended.

In fact, the more light there is thro',\Ti on the subject,
the more evident it must be that there was no other
conspiracy than that of the nature of things. Pfeurty-
spirit alone can seek in the present age to raise a doubt
on this point ; history will have none.

A few days after Napoleon's removal to Longwoc^,
his return from Elba became the subject of conversation
among the officers who were presented to him, when
one of them observed that that astonishing evert
presented to the eyes of Europe the contrast of all that
was most feeble and most sublime, the Bourbons
abondoning a monarchy, and flying on the approach
of a single man, who by his own individual efforts boldly
undertook the conquest of an empire. ** Sir," ^aid th«
Emperor, ** you are mistaken, you have taken a wrong

\.N IMI*088IBIL1TIKS. 305

find little or no tmfossibility , But what do yoa complajn
of ? The want of a pestle, when the har of any chair might
answer your purpose ? The want of a mortar? Any thing
is a mortar that you choose to convert to that use ; this
tahle is a mortar ; any pot or kettle is a mortar. Do you
think you are still in the Rue Saint - Honore, amidst all
the shops in Paris ?"

The Grand Marshal here remarked that this circum*
stance reminded him of something that had occurred the
first time he had the honour of heing presented to Napo-
leon, and of the first words he had received from him.
When Bertrand was ahout to leave the army of Italy, to
proceed on a mission to Constantinople, the young Gene-
ral, perceiving that he was an officer of engineers, gave
him a commission relative to that department. " On my
return," said Bertrand, " I came up with you at a short
distance from Lead quarters, and I informed you that I
had found the thing impossible. On this your Majesty*
whom I had addressed with great diffidence, said with the
most familiar air — ' But let us see how you set to work,
Sir : that which you found impossible may not be so to
me. ' "Accordingly," continued Bertrand, •* when I
mentioned the means by which I had proposed to execute
what your Majesty wished, you immediately substituted
others. In a few moments I was perfectly convinced of
the superiority of your Majesty's plans ; and this circum-*
stance furnished me witli sentiments and recollections
which have since proved very useful to me.'*

The Emperor retired to rest early. We observed that
he is very much altered in his looks, particularly since
his last illness. He grows very weak, and feels fatigued
after two turns round the garden.

STATISTICAL CALCULATION. POPULATION OF TH«

ISRABUTBS IN BQTPT*

17 th — 1 8th. The fine weather has now completely
set in. The Emperor went into the garden, attended by
all his suite. After walking about for a short time, he
proceeded to the wood.

On his return from his walk, we all breakfasted toge-
tlier under the tent ; and, the weather being very fiivour-

M

306 P0PUL0U8NRSS OF

able, the Emperor expressed his wish to take a drive it
the calash.

Abjut five o'clock, he desired me to attend him in
his closet, to assist in searching {6r some documents
on the interior of Africa, bordering upon Egypt. This is
a point on which he has been engaged for some days
past, as he intends to make it the subject of some chap-
ters in his Campaign of Egjpt.

He complained of being unwell, and desired me to
order some tea for him. This was something extraordi-
nary. The Grand Marshal soon after came to take my
place in writing from his dictation.

After dinner, the Emperor was engaged with the pen
in his hand, in investigating the comparative production
of the soils of Egypt and France. He found the pro-
duction of France to be greatly inferior to that of Egypt.
This calculation was made from Peuchet's " Statistical
Surveys of France.'* The Emperor was satisfied with
the result at which he had arrived ; it corresponded with
the opinion he had previously formed. This naturally
gave rise to the consideration of several other subjects ;
for instance, what was the probable and possible popu-
lation of Egypt in ancient times ? — what might have been
the population of the Israelites, if, during the short
period that they remained in captivity, they had increased
to the degree mentioned in Scripture ? &c. The Empe-
ror desired me to present to him next day something on
this latter subject. A great deal was said on the proba-
bilities of human life, the tables of which were also found
in Peuchet's work; and on this subject the Emperor
made some very ingenious, novel, and striking remarks.

I presented to the Emperor the calculation I had
made on the problem which he had given to me the
preceding day. The result surprised him not a little ;
and it furnished a subject for considerable discussion. The
following is the substance of what I presented to him.

The Israelites remained two hundred years in Egypt
during which time we may calculate ten generations
they married early, and their marriages were very fruit-
ful. I supposed tlie children of Jacob, the twelve chiefs

THE ISRAELITES. 207

of tribes, to be all married ; I also supposed each of then
to have had the <iame number of children, or six couples,
and so on in succession. The tenth generation would
then have amounted to 2,480,064,704 persons. But the
ninth generation and even the eighth was still in exis-
tence. Hence what an awtul number of figures. Al
any rate, let an ample deduction be made from the num-
ber of children, for the mortality occasioned by accidents,
disease, &c., and still it is very certain that no calculation
can be brought forward to contradict the account of
Moses. The Emperor amused himself for a considerable
time in detecting and shewing the errors of my
reasoning.

Dunng dinner, he exercised himself in English, by
asking my son questions in that language, in history
and geometry. After dinner the Emperor took up
the Odyssey, the reading of which afforded a treat
to us all.

THE EMPEROR ALTERS VISIBLT, AND LOSES HIS
STRENGTH. SALE OF HIS PLATE.

19th. — Napoleon spent the morning in collecting
information on the sources of the Nile, from the works
of several modem authors, Bruce, &c. ... I assisted
him in this labour. At three o'clock, he dressed and
went out. The weather was tolerably fine. He ordered
the calash, and then went into the wood on foot, and we
walked till we came within sight of the Signal Hill. He
conversed with me on our moral position, and the vexa-
tions which even circumstances arising from our intimacy
with him could not fail to cause him. The calash came
up with us, and Monsieur and Madame Montholon were
in it. The Emperor was very glad of this, as he said he
did not feel strong enough to walk back to the house.
He evidently grows feeble, bis step becomes heavy and
lagging, and his features alter. His resemblance to his
brother Joseph is now striking ; so much so, that, on
going to meet him the other day in the garden, I could
have sworn it was Joseph, until the very moment when
1 came close to him. Others have remarked the like-
ness, as well as myself ; and we have often said, that, ii

308 SALE OF napoleon's platk.

we believed in the second sight of the Scotch High-
landers, we should be inclined to expect that some-
thing extraordinary would happen to Joseph or to the
Emperor.

On our return, the Emperor examined a large basket
full of broken plate, which was to be sent next day to
the town. This was to be for the future the indispen-
sable complement for our monthly subsistence, in conse-
quence of the late retrenchments of the Governor.

We knew that captains in the East India Company's
service had offered as much as a hundred guineas for a
single plate. This circumstance induced the Emperor to
order the arms to be erased and the pieces to be broken,
so as to leave no trace of the plate having belonged to
him. All the dish covers were topped with small massive
eagles ; these were the only things he wished to save,
and he had them put by. These last fragments were the
objects of the wishes of every one of us ; we looked upon
them as relics. There was something religious, and at
the same time mournful, in this feeling.

When the moment came for breaking up this plate, it
had produced a most painful emotion and real grief
amongst the servants. They could not without the
greatest reluctance, bring themselves to apply the
hammer to these objects of their veneration. This act
upset all their ideas ; it was to them a sacrilege, a
desolation. Some of them shed tears on the occasion.
After dinner, the Emperor continued the Odyssey, and
afterwards read some passages of Esmenard's poem, ** La
Navigation," which he was pleased with.

FRESH VEXATION FROM THE GOVERNOR. TOPOGRAPHr

OF ITALY.

20th. — The Emperor sent to wake me before eight
o'clock, desiring that I should join him with the calash
in the wood, where he was already walking with M. de
Montholon, conversing about the household expenses oi
the establishment. The weather had at last become fine
once more, it was like a delightful spring morning. Wc
took two turns.

W^e have experienced to-day a fresh and inconceivable

FRKSH VEXATIONS OF THE GOVERNOR. SOif

vexation from the Governor. He has forbidden us to
sell our plate, when broken up, to any other person than
the one he should appoint. What can have been his
intention in committing this new act of injustice ? To
make himself more obnoxious, and to give another
instance of the abuse of authority.

The Emperor breakfasted under the tent ; immediately
afterwards, he dictated the account of the Battle of
Marengo to General Gourgaud. He bade me remain
with them and listen. About twelve o' clock he retired
to his apartment to endeavour to rest himself.

Towards three o'clock, the Emperor came into my
room again. He found my son and myself engaged in
comparing and looking over the account' of the Battle of
Arcole. He knew that it was my favourite chapter, and
that I called it a canto of the Jliad. He wished to read
it again, and expressed himself also pleased with it.

The perusal of this account of Arcole awakened the
Emperor's ideas respecting what he called ** that beauti-
ful theatre. Italy." He ordered us to follow him into
the drawing-room, where he dictated to us for several
hours. He had caused his immense map of Italy, which
covered the greatest part of the drawing-room, to be
spread open on the floor, and having laid himself down
upon it, he went over it on his hands and his knees,
with a compass and a red pencil in his hand, comparing
and measuring the distance with a long piece of string,
of which one of us held one of the ends. ** It is thus,"
said he to me, laughing at the posture in which I saw
him, *' that a country should be measured in order to
form a correct idea of it, and lay down a good plan of a
campaign."

THE CELEBRATED BILLS OF ST. DOMINGO. INSPECTORS

OF THE REVIEWS, &C. — FLANS OF ADMINISTRATION,

&C. GAUDIN. MOLLIEN. DEFERMONT, LACUEK, &C.

MINISTER OF THE TREASURY. MINISTER SECRBTART

OF STATE. IMPORTANCE OF THEIR FUNCTIONS.

21st. — » Admiral Malcolm called upon me to-day. He
came to take leave of us all ; he was to sail the next day
for the Cape, and would be two months absent.

310 THK BILLS OF ST. DOMINGO.

We are sorry to. lose the Admiral; his mannerB^
always polite, and a kind of tacit sympathy existing
between us, contrast him continually in our mind with
Sir Hudson Lowe, who is so unlike him.

The Admiral had seen the Emperor, who is also partial
to him. They had taken together some turns in the
garden, and the Admiral told me had collected some ex-
cellent information respecting the Scheldt and the
Nievendip, a maritime establishment in Holland which
was entirely unknown to him, and which was founded by
Napoleon.

After dinner, the conversation turned upon what the
Emperor termed the celebrated bills of St. Domingo.
Tt gave rise to the following curious details. — ** The
administrator of St. Domingo,*' said the Emperor, **took
it into his head one day to draw from the Cape, without
authority, for the sum of sixty millions, in bills, on the
treasury in Paris, which bills were all payable on the same
day. France was not then, and had, perhaps, never
been, rich enough to meet such a demand. Besides,
where and by what means had the administration of St.
Domingo acquired such a credit? The First Consul
could not command any thing like it in Paris ; it was as
much as M. Necker could have done at the time of his
greatest popularity. Be that as it may, when these bills
appeared in Paris, where they arrived before the letters
of advice, the First Consul was applied to from the
treasury, to point out what was to be done. * Wait for
the letters of advice,' said he, * in order to learn the
nature of the transaction. The treasury is like a capi-
talist ; it possesses the same rights, and should follow
the same course. These bills are not accepted, they are,
consequently, not payable.* However, the necessary
information, and the vouchers, arrived. These bills
stated value received, but the receipts of the officers in
charge of the chest, into whose hands the money had
been paid, were for only one tenth, one fifth, one third
of the amount of the respective bills. The treasury,
therefore, would only acknowledge and refund the sum
really and boyid fide i)aid ; and the bills in their tenour
were declared to be false. This raised a great clamouTi

THE BILLS DF ST. DOMINGO. 311

and produced a terrible agitation amongst the merchants.
A deputation waited upon the First Consul, who, far
from endeavouring to avoid it, opened the business at
once, and asked * whether they took him for a child*
whether they thought he would sport thus with the
purest blood of the people, or that he was so indifferent
a guardian of the public interest ? What he refused to
give up/ he said, * did not affect him personally, did not
trench upon his civil list, but it was public property, of
which he was the guardian, and which was the more
sacred in his eyes on that account.* Then, addressing
the two persons at the head of the deputation, he said :
* You, gentlemen, who are merchants, bankers, men of
business, give me a positive answer. If one of your
agents abroad were to draw upon you for very large
sums contrary to your expectations and to your interests,
would you accept, would you pay his bills ? * They were
obliged to admit they would not. * Then,* said the First
Consul, * you, who are simple proprietore, and in the
right of your majority responsible for your own actions
only, you would wish to possess a right which you refuse
to allow to me, proprietor in the name of all, and who
am in that quality always a minor and subject to revision !
No, gentlemen, I shall enjoy your privileges in the name
and for the benefit of all ; the actual amount received for
your bills shall be repaid you and no more. I do not
ask the merchants to take the bills of my agents : it is
an honour, a mark of credit, to which I do not aspire ;
if the merchants do take them, it must be at their own
risk and peril ; I only acknowledge and consider as
sacred the acceptance of my Minister of the Treasury.'
Upon this they again expostulated, and a great deal of
idle talk ensued. They should be obliged, they said, to
declare themselves bankrupts ; they had received these
bills, for ready money ; their agents abroad had com-
mitted the error of taking them, through respect for, and
confidence in, the government. * Very well,' said the
First Consul, * become bankrupts. But they did not.*
observed the Emperor, * they had not received these bills
for ready money, and their agents had not committcil
ftnv error.*

2^12 INSPBCT0R8 OF RBVIBWS,

•' The members of the deputation left the First Consul,
convinced in their own minds of the validity of his
reasons; nevertheless, they filled Paris with their cla-
mours and with falsehoods, misrepresenting the affair
altogether.

•'This transaction," said the Emperor, "and its de-
tails, explain many other transactions which have been
much spoken of in Paris under the Imperial admmistra-
ticn.

**The commercial world had particularly said, and
repeated, that this proceeding was unexampled; that
such a violation of credit was a thing hitherto unheard
of ; but to that the First Consul replied that he would
set the question at rest by quoting precedents, and he
recalled to their minds the Bills of Louis XIV., the liqui-
dations of the Regent, the Mississippi Company the
liquidations of the wars of 17t)3 and of 1782, &c. ; and
proved to them that what they contended to be a thing
unexampled had been the constant practice of the
monarchy."

From this affair the Emperor turned to different
branches of the administration. He defended the insti-
tution of the post of Inspectors of Reviews. ** It was
only through them that the actual number of men present
could be ascertained ; through them alone had this ad-
vantage been obtained, and it was one of immense im-
portance in the active operations of war. And these
inspectors were not less useful in an administrative point
of view ; for, whatever trifling abuses might exist in the
details, and however numerous these abuses might be, it
is on a general principle that such things should be con-
sidered ; and, in order to estimate fairly the utility of this
institution, it should be asked what other abuses would
have taken place if it had not existed ? For myself, "
said Napoleon, ** I must say that, checking the expendi-
ture, by trying how much the total number of troops
ought to have cost according to their fixed rates of pay,
I have always found the sum paid by the treasury to hH
short of my estimate. The army, therefore, cost less
chan it ought to have cost ; what result more beneficial
could be required ?**

MOLLISN, DBPBBMOlITt &C. SIS

The Emperor quoted the administration of the navy aa
having .been the most regular and the most honest ; it
had become a master-piece. ** In that," said he, ** con-
sisted the great merit of Decrds." The Emperor con-
sidered that France was too large to have only one mi-
nister for the administration of the war department "^ It
was," he said, " a task beyond the powers of one man.
Paris had been made the centre of all decisions, contracts,
supplies, and organizations ; whilst the correspondents pi
the minister had been subdivided amongst a number of
persons equal to the number of regiments and corps
The contrary ought to have been the case ; the corres-
pondences should have been entered, and the resources
subdivided, by raising them on the spot where they were
required. I had long meditated a plan to establish in
France twenty or twenty-five military districts, which
would have composed so many armies. There would
have been no more than that number of accountants ;
these would have been twenty under-ministers ; it would
have been necessary to find twenty honest men. The
minister would have had only twenty correspondents ;
he would have centralised the whole and made the ma-
chine move with rapidity.

" Messieurs Gaudin and Mollien," said the Emperor«
" were of opinion that it was necessary that the receivers-
general, public financiers and contractors, shoiild have
very large fortunes, that they should have it in their
power to make considerable profits, and openly avow
them, in such a manner as to retain a degpree of consider-
ation which they might be careful not to endanger ;
and a character of honour, which they might be anxiouB
not to compromise. This could not be otherwise/* he
said, " in order to obtain from them support, service, and
credit, in case of need.

" Another set of men, Defermont, Lacuee, and Mar-
bois, thought, on the contrary, that it was impossible 'to
be too watchful, too economical, and too strict. For
my own part, I was inclined to be of the opinion of the
first, considering the views of the last to be narrow, and
such as were applicable to a regiment, but not to an
army ; to the expenses of a private householdt but not

Vol. hi.— 14

314 8BCRETARIK6 OP 8TATB.

to the expenditure of a great empire. I called them the
Puritans and the Jansenists of the profession."

The Emperor observed that the minister of the treasury,
and the minister secretary of state, were two oi his insti-
tutions on which he most congratulated himself, and from
which he had derived the greatest assistanoe. " The
minister of the treasury concentrated all the resources,
and controlled all the expenses of the empire. From the
minister secretary of state all acts emanated. He wqa
the minister of ministers, imparting life to all interme-
diate acts ; the grand notary of the empire, signing and
authenticating all documents. Tlirough the first I knew,
at every moment, the state of my affairs ; and through
the second I made known my decisions &nd my will in all
directions and every where. So that, with my minister
of the treasury and mv minister secretary of state aloue.
and half-a-dozen clerks, I would have undertaken to go-
vern the empire from the remotest parts of lUyria, or
from the banks of the Niemen, with as much facility as
in my capital."

The Emperor could not conceive how afiairs could go
on with the four or five secretaries of state of oar kings.
'* And, indeed, how did they go on V* said he. *' Elach
imagined, executed, and controlled his own operations.
They might act in direct opposition one to another ; for
as the kings only affixed their sign on the margin of the
plans proposed, or authenticated only the rough draft of
their ordinances, the secretaries of state could fill them
up, or act as they pleased, without fear of any great re-
sponsibility. Add to this that the secretaries of state
had the gTiffe^, a contrivance, which they wanted to
make me adopt, but which I rejected as a tool appropri-
ated to the Rois faineans. Amongst these ministers,
some might have money for which they had no employ-
ment, and others might be unable to proceed for want of
a farthing. There was no common centre to combine
their movements, provide for their wants, and direct the
execution of their measures.**'

* A kind of seal on which a signature is engraved.

ON THB CAMPAIGN OV ITALY* 314

The Emperor said that a minister secretary of state
was exactly suited for kings without talents, hut vain,
who would want the assistance of a prime minister and
not like to own it. " Had my minister secretary of state
been made president of the council of state/' said he, '* h^
would have been from that moment a real prime minister,
in the fullest acceptation of the term ; for he would have
carried his plans to the council of state to have them di-
gested into laws, and would have signed for the Prince.
Tliere can be no doubt that, with the manners and habits
of the first race of our kings, or with princes like them,
my minister secretary of state would have become in a
very short time a Mayor of the Palace.

REVISION OF THB CHAPTERS ON THB ARMY OF ITALY.

22d. — ^The Emperor resumed his researches respecting
Egypt. He gave me Strabo to look over ; it was the
edition which he had caused to be made. He commen-
ded the care and pains bestowed upon it, and said that it
had been his intention to give us, in course of time, edi-
tions of all the works of the ancients, through the o£Bcial
medium of the Institute. — Before dinner the Emperor
sent for me and my son, and spent at least six hoars with
us, reading over and recasting the chapters on the Tag-
liamento, Leoben, and Venice.

All is fine in these chapters on the Campaign of Italy.
In that on the Tagliamento, we see how one single dis-
position, made on the banks of that river and hardly
noticed, one of those movements which the Emperor calls
tke thought of the battle, must inevitably lead to the gates
of Vienna.

llie chapter on Venice is written after the manner of
the ancients. However, the last chapter read always
seems to be that which pleases most.

I was extremely unwdl and very tired, not so much
from fatigue occasioned by work» as from bodily indispo-
sition . We amused ourselves this evening by reading the
description of Ulysses' departure from the Island of
Calypso, and his arrival amongst the Pheacians.

S16 napoleon's attachmknt to

ON SENSIBILITY. — ON THR INHABITANTS OF THE BAST ANll
west; DIFrKKENCES OBSERVABLE BETWEEN THEM, &C.

23d. — This* morning the Emperor, conversing* in his
room, after touching on several subjects, spoke about
sentiment, feelings, and sensibility, and having alluded to
one of us who, as he observed, never pronounced the
name of his mother but with tears in his eyes, he said,
" But is this not peculiar to him ? Is this a general feel-
ing ? Do you experience the sanne thing, or am I unna-
tural in that respect ? I certainly love my mother with
all my heart ; there is nothing that I would not do for
her, yet if I were to hear of her death, I do not think that
my grief would manifest itself by even a single tear ; but
I would not affirm that this would be the case if I were
to lose a friend, or my wife, or my son. Is this distinc-
tion founded on nature ? What can be the cause of it ?
Is it that my reason has prepared me beforehand to ex-
pect the death of my mother, as being in the natural
course of events, whereas the loss of my wife, or of my
son, is an unexpected occurrence, a hardship inflicted by
fate, which I endeavour to struggle against? Perhaps
also this distinction merely proceeds from our natural
disposition to egotism. I belong to my mother, but my
wife and my son belong to me." And he went on mul-
tiplying the reasons in support of his opinion, with his
usual fertility of invention, in which there was always
something original and striking.

It is certain that he was tenderly attached to his wife
and his son. Those persons who have served in the in-
terior of his household now inform us how fond he was of
indulging his feelings of affection towards his family ; and
point out some shades in his disposition, the existence of
which we were far from suspecting at the time.

He would sometimes take his son in his arms, and em-
brace him with the most ardent demonstrations of pater-
nal love. But most frequently his affection would manifest
itself by playful teazing or whimsical tricks. If he met
his son in the gardens, for instance, he would throw him
down or upset his toys. The child was brought to him
eveiy morning at breakfast time, and he then seldom

HIS WIFE AND SON. 317

failed to besmear him with every thing within his reach
on the table. With respect to his wife, not a day passed
here without his introducing her into his private conver-
sations ; if they lasted any length of time, she was sure to
come in for a share in them, or to become the exclusive
subject of them. There is no circumstance, no minute
particular relating to her, which he has not repeated to
me a hundred times. Penelope, after ten years' absence,
in order to convince herself that she is not deceived, puts
some questions to Ulysses which he alone could answer.
Well ! I think that I should not find it difficult to present
mv credentials to Maria-Louisa.

In the course of the conversation hi the evening, the
Emperor, speaking of different nations, said he knew of
only two, — the Orientals and the people of the West.
" The English, the French, the Italians, &c.*' said he,
" compose one family, and form the western division ;
they have the same laws, the same manners, the same
customs ; and differ entirely from the Orientals, particu-
larly with respect to their women and their servants.
The Orientals have slaves ; our servants are free : the
Orientals shut up their women ; oar wives share in all
our rights : the Orientals keep a seraglio, but polygamy
has never been admitted in the West at any period.
There are several other distinctions," said the Emperor ;
'' it is said that as many as eighty have been reckoned.
The inhabitants of the East and of the West are there-
fore,'* observed the Emperor, " really two distinct na-
tions : — with the Orientals every thing is calculated to
enable them to watch over their wives and make sure of
them ; all our institutions in the West t&ad, on the con-
trary, to put it out of our powej to watch over ours, and
to make it necessary for us to rely upon them alone.
With us, every man who does not wish to pass for an
idiot must have some occupation ; and whilst he is atten-
ding to his business, or fulfilling the duties of his situa*
tion, who will watch for him ? We must therefore, with
our manners, relv entirdv on the honour of our women.
and place implicit confidence in them. For my part,*'
added he guod-humouredly, " I have had both wives and
mistresses ; but it never came into mv head to use any

318 ON POLTGAMT.

particular precaution to watch over thenij because I
thought that it was with these things as with the fear of
daggers and poison in certain situations of life ; the tor-
ment of guarding against them is greater than the
danger we wish to avoid : it is better to trust to one's
fate.

" It is, however, a very knotty question to decide,
which is the best method, ours or that of the Orientals ;
though, probably, not for you, ladies," said he, casting
an arch-look upon those who were present. ** Yet it
is certain that it would be a very great error to suppose
that the Orientals have fewer enjojrments than we have,
and are less happy than we are in the West. In the
East, the husbands are very fond of their wives, and the
wives are verv much attached to their husbands. Thev
have as many chances of happiness as we have, however
different they may seem ; for every thing is conv.^ntional
amongst men, even in those feelings which, one would
suppose, ought to be dictated by Nature alone. Besides,
the women in the East have their rights and privileges,
as ours have theirs : it would be quite as impossible to
prevent them from going to the public bath, as it would
be to prevent our women from going to church ; and
both abuse that liberty. You see, therefore, that the
imagination, feelings, virtues, and failings of haman
nature, are circumscribed within a very narrow compass ;
and that the same things, with few exceptions and
differences, are to be found everjrwhere."

He then proceeded to account for, or to justify, poly-
gamy among the Orientals in a very ingenious manner.
'* It never existed," he said, ** in the West : the Greeks, the
Romans, the Gauls, the Grermans, the Spaniards, the
Britons, never had more than one wife. In the East, on
the other hand, polygamy has existed in all ages : the
Jews, the Assyrians, the Tartars, the Persians, the
Turcomans, had all of them several wives. Whence
could this universal and invariable difference have arisen ?
Was it owing to accident and to mere caprice ? Did it
depend on physical causes in individuals ? No. Were
woman less numerous, in proportion, among us than in
Asia ? No. Were thev more numerous in the £k»t than

OM POLYGAMY. 319

the men ? No. Were the latter of superioi stature, to
us, or differently constituted ? No. The fact 's that the
legislator, or that wisdom from on high which supplies
hts place, must have been guided by the force of circum-
stances arising from the respective localities. All the
people of the West have the same form, the same colour;
they compose but one nation, one family : it has been
possible, as at the moment of the Creation, to assign to
them but one helpmate — happy, admirable, beneficent
law, which purifies the heart of the man, exalts the con-
dition of the woman, and assures to both a multitude of
moral enjoyments !

The Orientals, on the other hand, differ from one
another as much as day and night, in their forms and
colours : they are white, black, copper- coloured, mixed,
&c. The first thing to be thought of was their conser-
vation, to establish a consanguineous fraternity among
them, without which they would have been everlastingly
persecuting, oppressing, exterminating one another : this
could only be accomplished by the institution of poly-
gamy, and by enabling them to have at one and the same
time a white, black, mulatto, and copper-coloured wife.
The different colours now constituting part of one and
the same family, thus became blended in the affections
of the chief and in the opinions of each of the females
relatively to the others.

** Mahomet," he added, ** seems to have been acquain-
ted with the secret, and to have been guided by it :
otherwise how happened it that he, who treads so closely
in the steps of Christianity, and deviates from it so little,
did not suppress polygamy ? Do you reply that he re-
tained it only because his religion was wholly sensual ?
In this case, he would have allowed the Mussulmans an
indefinite number of wives, whereas he limited it to four
only, which would seem to imply a black, a white, a
copper- coloured, and a mixed.

Besides, let it not be supposed that this favour of the
law was put in practice for the whole nation ; or there
would not have been wives for them all. In fact, eleven
twelfths of the population have but one, because they
cannot maintain more, but polygamy in the chiefe is

320 ON POLTOAMT.

sufficient to attain the grand object : for, the confbsioa
of races and of colours existing, by means of polygamy,
in the higher class, it is enough to establish miion and
])erfect equality among all. We must, therefore admit,"
he concluded, " that if polygamy was not the offspring
of a political combination, if it owed its origin to chance
alone, that chance has in this instance, produced as much
as consummate wisdom."

The Emperor said that he had seriously thought of
applying this principle to our colonies, in order to har-
monize the welfare of the Negroes with the necessity for
employing them. He had even, he said, consulted
divines on this subject, to ascertain if there were not
means, considering local circumstances, of reconciling
our religious notions with this practice.

The Emperor continued conversing in this manner
until after midnight.

ON HOLLAND AND KING LOUIS. COMPLAINTS OF THB

BMPBROR AGAINST THB MBMBBRS OF HIS FAMILY.-^

MATTBRS OF HIGH POLICB, &C. LKTTBB TO KING

LOUIS, THB emperor's BROTHER.

24 th. — ^The Emperor sent for me at aboat half>past
twelve to his closet. Oar conversation turned unon the
succession of authors through which the light of history
has been transmitted to us from the remotest antiquity
down to the present time. This led him to read that
part of the first table of the Historical Atlas which gives
a recapitulation of them, and presents the whole at one
view.

The conversation turned on the diversities of the hmnan
species. The Emperor sent for Buffon, to throw light
upon the question ; and continued for some tf me employed
in seeking information on the subject.

Having dressed, the Emperor sent for my son, anc
we worked three or four hours at the chapters of the
Campaign of Italy.

When this was completed, the conversation, through
a variety of subjects, turned upon Holland and King
Louis, respecting whom he said some things worthy o1
observation.

LOUIS, KING OF HOLLAND. 321

" Louis is not destitute of intelligence," said the Em«
peror, •* and has a good heart ; but even with these qua-
lifications a man may commit many errors, and do a
great deal of mischief. Louis is naturally inclined to be
capricious and fantastical, and the works of Jean Jaqnes
Roubseau have contributed to increase this disposition.
Seeking to obtain a reputation for sensibility and bene-
ficence, incapable by himself of enlarged views, and, at
most, competent to local details, Louis acted like a Pre-
fect rather than a king.

" No sooner had he arrived in Holland, than, fancying
ihat nothing could be finer than to have it said ^at he
was thenceforth a true Dutchman, he attached himself
entirely to the party favourable to the English, promoted
smuggling, and thus connived with our enemies. It
became necessary from that moment to watch over him,
and even to threaten to attack him. Louis, then, seek-
ing a refuge against the w^^kness of his disposition in
the most stubborn obstinacy, and mistaking a public
scandal for an act of glory, fled from his throne, declaim-
ing against me and against my insatiable ambition, my
intolerable tyranny. Wb*** then remained for me to do ?
Was I to abandon Holland to mr enemies ? Ought I to
have given it another King ? But in that case could I have
expected more from him than from my own brother?
Did not all the kings that I created act nearly in the
same manner? I therefore united Holland to the empire;
and this act produced a most unfiavourable impression in
Europe, and contributed not a little to pave the way to
our misfortunes.

** Louis was delighted to take Lucien as his model :
Lucien had acted nearly in the same manner ; and if, at
a later period, he has repented, and has even nobly made
amends for his errors, this conduct did honour to his
character, but could not produce any favourable change
in our afiairs.

On my return from Elba in 1815, Louis wrote along
letter to me from Rome, and sent an ambassador to me.
It was his treaty, he said, the conditions upon whidi he
""^ould return to me. I answered that I would not make

14*

3i)2 LOUIS, KING OF HOLLAND.

any treaty with him, that he was my hrother, and that
if he came back he would be well received.

*' Will it be believed that one of his conditions was
^at he should be at libertv to divorce Hortense ! I

severely rebuked the negotiator for having dared to be
the bearer of so absurd a proposal, and for having believed
that such a measure could ever be made the subject of a
negotiation. I reminded Louis that our feimily compact
positively forbade it, and represented to him that it was
not less forbidden by policy, morality, and public opinion.
I farther assured him that, actuated by all these motives*
if his children were to lose their state through his fault,
I should feel more interested for them than for him,
although he was my brother.

** Perhaps an excuse might be found for the caprice of
Louis's disposition in the deplorable state of his health,
the age at which it became deranged, and the horrible
circumstances which produced that derangement, and
which must have had a considerable influence upon his
mind ; he was on the point of death on the occasion, and
has, ever since, been subject to most cruel infirmities :
he is almost paralytic on one side.

** It is certain, however," added the Emperor," that I
have derived little assistance from my own family, and
that they have severely injured me and the great cause.
The energy of my disposition has often been extoUed ;
but I have been a mere milksop, particularly with my
family ; and well they knew it after the first moment of
aiiger was over, they always carried their point by per-
severance and obstinacv. I became tired of the contest,
and they did with me just as they pleased. These are
great errors which I have committed. If, instead of this,
each of them had given a common impulse to the difierent
bodies which I placed under their direction, we should
have marched on to the poles ; every thing would have
given way before us ; we should have changed the fiuse
of the world ; Europe would now anj j/ the advantages
of a new system, and we should have received the bene*
dictions of mankind ! I have not been so fortunate ac
Gengis Khan, with his four sons, each of whom rivaile<!
the other in zeal for his service. No sooner had I made

napoleon's family. 323

a man a king, than he thought himself king by i,,t gracp
of God, so contagious is the use of the expression. He
was then no longer a lieutenant, on whom I could rely,
but another enemy whom I was obliged to guard against.
His efforts were not directed towards seconding me, but
towards rendering himself independent. They all im-
mediately imagined that they were adored and preferred
to me. From that moment I was in their way, I en-
dangered their existence ! Legitimate monarchs would
not have behaved differently ; would not have thought
themselves more firmly established. Weak-minded men !
who, when I fell, had occasion to convince themselves
that the enemv did not even do them the honour to demand
the surrender of their dignities, or even to allude* to it.
If they are now put under personal restraint, if they are
subject to vexation, it must proceed, on the part of the
conqueror, from a wish to impose the weight of power,
or from the base motive of gratifying his vengeance. If
the members of my family excite a strong interest
amongst mankind, it is because they belong to me and to
the common cause ; but assuredly there is not the least
danger of any movement being produced by any of
them. Notwithstanding the philosophy of several of
them (for some of them had said, after the fashion of
the chamberlains of the Faubourg St- Germain, that they
were forced to reign,) their fall must have been sensibly
felt by them, for they had soon accommodated themselves
to the pleasures and comforts of their station ; they were
all really kings. Thanks to my labours, all have enjoyed
the advantages of royalty ; I alone have known its cares.
I have all the time carried the world on my shoulders ;
and this occupation, after all, is rather fatiguing.

** It will perhaps be asked, why I persisted in erecting
states and kingdoms ? The manners and the situation
of Europe required it. Every time that another country
was annexed to France, the act added to the universal
alarm which already prevailed, excited loud murmurs,
and diminished the chances of peace. Then why, will it
be farther said, did I indulge in the vanity of placing
every member of my family on a throne ? (for the ge-
a-er^il* y of people must have thought me actuated by

324 napoleon's family.

vanity alone :) why did I not rather fix my choice upoD
private individuals possessing greater abilities ? To thia
I reply that it is not with thrones as with the fiinctionB
of a prefect ; talents and abilities are so common in the
present age, among the multitude, that one most be
cautious to avoid awakening the idea of competition. In
the agitation in which we were involved, and with our
modern institutions, it was proper to think rather of
consolidating and concentrating the hereditary right of
succession, in order to avoid innumerable feuds, factions,
and misfortunes. If there was any fault in my person
and my elevation, consistently with the plan of universal
harmony which I meditated for the repose and happiness
of all,^it was that I had risen at once from the multitude.
I felt that I stood insulated and alone, and I cast out
anchors on all sides into the sea around me. Where
could I more naturally look for support than amongst
my own relations } Could I expect more from strangers ?
And it must be admitted that if the members of m/
family have had the folly to break through these sacred
ties, the morality of the people, superior to their blind
infatuation, fulfilled in part my object. With them their
subjects thought themselves more quiet, more united as
in one family.

** To resume : acts of that importance were not to be
considered lightly ; they were involved in considerations
of the highest order; they were connected with the
tranquillity of mankind, the possibility of ameliorating
its condition. If, notwithstanding all these measures,
taken with the best intentions, it seems that no per-
manent good has been effected, we must admit the truth
of this great maxim, that to govern is very difficult for
those who wish to do it conscientiously.**

The following letter, of a very old date, will serve to
throw great light upon the words of Napoleon, men-
tioned a few pages back, respecting the conduct of his
brother in Holland.

At a later period. King Louis publishei a sort id
account of his administration, addressed to the Du^cfa
nation; it is particularly interesting, after havin* tsad
the above paragraph and the accompanying ^ttxip k

LETTER OF NAPOLEON. 325

take up that document of King Louis, in order to be able
to form an opinion ^n the subject founded on a due
knowledge of all the circumstances.

** Castle o/Marachy Sd April 1808.

** Sir and brother. — ^The auditor D 1 delivered to

me an hour ago your despatch, dated 2'2d March. I
send a courier who will take this letter to you in
Holland.

*'The use you have just made of the privilege of
mercy cannot but produce a very bad effect. This
privilege is one of the finest and noblest attributes of the
sovereign power. In order not to bring it into discredit,
it must be used only in cases when the royal clemency is
not detrimental to the ends of justice, or when it is cal-
culated to leave an impression of being the result of
generous feelings. The present case is that of a number
of banditti, who attacked and murdered several custom-
house officers, with the intention of smuggling afterwards
without interruption. These people are condemned to
death; and your Majesty extends the royal mercy to
them .... to a set of murderers, to men whom nobody
can pity. If they had been caught in the act of smug-
gling ; if, in defending themselves, they had killed some
of the officers, then you might perhaps have taken into
consideration the situation of their families, and their
own ; and have shewn an example of a kind of paternal
feeling, by modifying the severity of the law, by a com-
mutation of punishment. It is in cases of condemnation
for offences against the revenue laws, it is more particu-
larly in cases of condemnation for political offences, that
clemency is well applied. In these matters the principle
is that, if it is the Sovereign who is attacked, there is a
pertam magnanimity in pardoning the offender. On the
nrst report of an affair of that kind, the sympathy of the
public is immediately excited in favour of the offender,
8n 1 not of him who is to inflict the punishment. If the
fVlnce remits the sentence, the people consider him
r ip vrior to the oflfence, and the public clamour is directed
^Lgainst those who have offended him. If he follows the

326 LETTER OF NAPOLEON

opposite system, he is thought vindictive and tyrannical.
If he pardons atrocious crimes, ke is looked upon as
weak, or actuated by bad intentions.

** Do not fancy that the privilege of mercy can always
be used without danger, and that society will always
commend the exercise of it in the Sovereign. The Sove-
reign is blamed when he applies it in favour of murderers
or great malefactors, because it then becomes injurious
to the interests of the community. You have too
frequently, and on too many occasions, extended the
royal mercy. The kindness of your heart must not be
listened to when it can become prejudicial to your people.
In the afiair of the Jews, I should have done as you did ;
but in that of the smugglers of Middelburg, I should not
have pardoned on any account. Many reasons ought to
have induced you to let justice take its course, and give
the example of an execution which would have produced
the excellent effect of preventing many crimes by the
terror which it would have inspired. Public officers are
murdered in the middle of the night — the murderers are
condemned. Your Majesty commutes the punishment of
death into a few years* imprisonment ! How much will
this not tend to dishearten all the persons employed in
the collection of your revenue ! The poUtical effect pro-
duced by it is also very bad, for the following reasons : —
Holland was the channel through which England had»
for many years, introduced her goods on the Continent.
The Dutch merchants have made immense profits by this
trade ; and that is the reason why the Dutch nation is
partial to England, and fond of smuggling, and why it
hates France, who forbids smuggUng and opposes Eng-
land. The mercy which you have extended to these
smugglers and murderers is a kind of compliment which
you have paid to the taste of the Dutch for smuggling.
You appear to make common cause with them. — aad
against whom ? Against me.

** Tlie Dutch love you ; your disposition is amiable, your
manners are unaffected, and you govern them accor(;in|^
to their inclination ; but you would make a beneficial 'jam
of the influence you possess if you shewed yoursejf poa*-
tively determined to suppress smugglings and if yoA

TO rUB KINO OF HOLLAND. 327

opened their eyes to their real interests : they would then
think that the system of prohibition is good» since it is
observed by the King. I cannot see what advantage your
Majesty can derive from a species of popularity which
you would acquire at my expense. Certainly Holland is
no longer what it was at the time of the treaty of
Ryswick ; and France is not in the situation in which it
was placed during the last years of the reign of Louis
XIV. If, therefore, Holland is unable to follow a system
ot policy independent of that of France, it must fulfil
the conditions of the alliance.

" It is not to the present alone that sovereigns musi
accommodate their policy ; the future must also be the
object of their consideration. What is at this moment
the situation of Europe? On one side, England, who
possesses, by her sole exertions, a dominion to which the
whole world has been hitherto compelled to submit. On
the other side, the French Empire and the Continental
States, which, strengthened by the union of their powers,
cannot acquiesce in this supremacy exercised by England.
Those states had also their colonies and a maritime trade ;
they possess an extent of coast much greater than Eng-
land ; but they have become disunited, and England has
attacked the naval power of each separately : England
has triumphed on every sea, and all navies have been
destroyed. Russia, Sweden, France, and Spain, which
possess such ample means for having ships and sailors,
dare not venture to send a squadron out of their ports. It
is, therefore, no longer from a confederation amongst the
maritime powers — a confederation which it would be be-
sides impossible to maintain, on account of the distance,
and of the interference of the various interests of each
with those of the others — ^that Europe can expect its
maritime emancipation, and a system of peace, which can
be established only by the will of England.

'* I \nsh for peace ; I wish to obtain it by every means
compatible with the dignity of the power of France; at
Mie expense of every sacrifice which our national honour
can allow. Every day I feel more and more that peace
is. necessary ; and the sovereigns of the Continent are as
anxious for peace as I am. I feel no pasaonate prcgudicf

328 LBTTBR OF NAPOLKON

Against England ; I bear her no insurmountable hatred :
she has followed against me a system of repulsion ; I have
adopted against her the Continental system, not so much
from a jealousy of ambition, as my enemies suppose, but
in order to reduce England to the necessity of adjusting
our differences. Let England be rich and prosperous ;
it is no concern of mine, provided France and her allies
enjoy the same advantages.

" The Continental system has, therefore, no other object
than to advance the moment when the public rights of
Europe and of the French Empire will be definitively
established. The sovereigns of the North observe and
enforce strictly the system of prohibition, and their trade
has been greatly benefited by it : the manufactures of
Prussia may now compete with ours. You are aware
that France, and the whole extent of coast which now
forms part of the Empire, from the Gulf of Lyons to the
extremity of the Adriatic, are strictly closed against
the produce of foreign industry. I am about to adopt a
measure with respect to the affairs of Spain, the result of
which will be to wrest Portugal from England, and sub-
ject all the coasts of Spain, on both seas, to the influence
of the policy of France. The coasts of the whole of
Europe will then be closed against England, with the
exception of those of Turkey, which I do not care about,
as the Turks do not trade with Europe.

" Do you not perceive, from this statement, the ftital
consequences that would result from the facilities given
by Holland to the English for the introduction of their
goods on the continent .'* They would enable England to
levy upon us the subsidies which she would afterwards
offer to other powers to fight against us. Your Majesty
is as much interested as I am to guard against the crafty
policy of the English Cabinet. A few years more, nud
England will wish for peace as much as we do. Observe
the situation of your kingdom, and you will see that the
system I allude to is more useful to yourself than it is to
me. Holland is a maritime and commercial po\/er; she
possesses fine sea- ports, fleets, sailors, skilful command-
ers, and colonies, which do not cost any thing to the
3iother-country ; and her inhabitants understand trade aa

TO THE KINO OF HOLLAND. 329

well as the English. Has not Holland, therefore, an in-
terest in defending all those advantages ? May not peace
restore her to the station she formerly held ? Granted
that her situation may be painful for a few years ; but is
not this preferable to making the King of Holland a mere
governor for England, and Holland and her colonies a
vassal of Great Britain ? Yet the protection which you
would afford to English commerce would lead to that re-
sult. The examples of Sicily and Portugal are still before
your eyes.

*' Await the result of the progress of time. You want
to sell your spirits, and England wants to buy them.
Point out the place where the English smugglers may
come and fetch them ; but let them pay for them in
money and never in goods, positively never ! Peace must
at last be made ; and you will then conclude a treaty of
commerce with England. I may perhaps also make one
with her, but in which our mutual interests shall be
reciprocally guaranteed. If we must allow England to
exercise a kind of supremacy on the sea, a supremacy
which she will have purchased at the expense of her
treasure and her blood, and which is the natural conse-
quence of her geographical position and of her posses-
sions in the three other parts of the globe ; at least our
flags will be at liberty to appear on the ocean without
being exposed to insult, and our maritime trade will cease
to be ruinous. For the present we must direct our efforts
towards preventing England from interfering in the
affairs of the Continent.

** I have been led on, from the consideration of the
mercy which you have granted, to the above details, and
I have entered into them because I feared that your
Dutch Ministers may impress your Majesty's mind with
false notions.

" I wish you to reflect seriously upon the contents of
this letter, and to render the different subjects it treats
upon objects of the deliberations of your councils, in or-
der that your Ministers may give a proper direction and
tendency to their measures. Under no pretence what-
ever will France aUow Holland to separate herself from
the Continental system.

/*

330 ASSIDUITT OF NAPOLKON.

" With respect to these smugglers, since the fault hat
been committed, it cannot be undone. I advise you,
however, not to leave them in the prison of Middelburg;
it is too near the spot where the crime was perpetrated :
send them to the remotest part of Holland. The present
having no other object, &c.

(Signed) ** Napolkon."

During dinner the Emperor asked his groom how his
horse was ; the groom answered that it was well fed, in
good spirits, and in excellent condition. " I hope he
does not complain of me," said the Emperor, ** if ever
horse led the life of a canon, it is assuredly this." it
is now two or three months since the Emperor was on
horseback.

ZBAL FOR WORKING. — IDEAS AND PLANS OF NAPOLEON
RESPECTING OUR HISTORY, &C. ON THE WORKS PUB-
LISHED, &c. — m.meneval; curious particulars.

25th — 27th. The Emperor for some days past has
been remarkably assiduous. All our mornings have been
spent in making researches concerning Egypt, in the
works of the ancient authors. We have looked over
Herodotus, Pliny, Strabo, &c., together, without any
other intermission than that which we required to eat
our breakfast, which was served on his small table. The
weather continued unfavourable, and the Emi>eror dic-
tated every day and the whole day.

At dinner he told us that he found himself much better,
and we then observed to him that for some time past,
however, he had not been out of the house, and was oc-
cupied eight, ten, or twelve hours a day. ** That is the
very reason of my being better," said he : " occupation is
my element ; I was born and made for it. I have found
the limits beyond which I could not use my legs ; I have
seen the extent to which I could use my eyes ; but I have
never known any bounds to my capability of application.
I nearly killed poor Meneval ; I was obliged to relieve
him for a time from the duties of his situation, and place
him for the recovery of his health near the person of Maria
aouisa, where his post was a mere sinecure."

HIS PLAN FOR A B18T0BY. 331

The Emperor added that, if he were in Europe and
had leisure, his pleasure would he to write history. He
complained of the very indifferent manner in which his-
tory was written every where. The researches in which
he had lately heen engaged had proved this fact to him to
a degree heyond any thing he could ever have suspected.

** We have no good fistory,** observed he, ** and we
could not have any ; and the other nations of Europe
are nearly in the same predicament as ourselves. Monks
and privileged persons, that is to say, men friendly to
abuses and inimical to information and learning, mono-
polized this branch of writing ; they told us what they
thought proper, or rather that which favoured their
interests, gratified their passions, or agreed with their
own views! — He had formed," he said, "a plan for
remedying the evil as much as possible ; he intended,
fur instance, to appoint commissions from the Institute,
or learned men whom public opinion might have pointed
out to him, to revise, criticize, and re-publish our annals.
He wished also to add commentaries to the classic
authors which are put in the hands of our youth, to ex-
plain them with reference to our modem institutions.
With a good programme, competition, and rewards, this
end would have been accomplished; every thing," he
said, "can be obtained by sudi means."

He then repeated, what I believe I have mentioned
before, that it had been his intention to cause the history
of the last reigns of our kings to be written from the
original documents in the archives of our Foieign Office.
There were also several manuscripts, both ancient and
modern, in the Imperial Library, which he intended to
have printed, classifying and embodying them under their
different heads, so as to form codes of doctrine on science,
morality, literature, fine arts, &c.

He had, he said, several other plans of a similar nature.
And could any other period be found equally favourable
to the execution of such plans? When will there be
again united in the same man the genius to conceive and
the power to execute them ?

In order to check the production of the immense
number of inferior works with which the pubUo watt

332 napoleon's sbcrbtart.

inundated, without however trenching upon the liberty
of the press, he asked what objection there could have
been to the formation of a tribunal of opinion, composed
of members of the Institute , members of the University,
and persons appointed by the government, who would
have examined all works with reference to these three
points of view, science, morality, and politics ; who
would have criticized them, and defined the degree of
merit possessed by each. This tribunal would have been
the light of the public ; it would have operated as a
warranty in favour of works of real merit, insured theii
success, and thus produced emulation ; whilst, on the
contrary, it would necessarily have discouraged the
publication of inferior productions.

All our evenings were devoted to the Odyssey, with
which we are delighted. Polyphemus, Tiresias, and the
Syrens, have quite charmed us.

The following details relate to M. Meneval, to whom
the Emperor alluded above: they will be considered
invaluable, as they will serve to exhibit Napoleon in tlie
sphere of his private Ufe.

The Emperor, when First Consul, complained that he
had no Secretary. He had just dismissed the one he had
had during the campaigns of Italy and the expedition in
Egypt j he was an old college acquaintance of the Em-
peror's, a man full of intelligence, and to whom he was
very much attached ; but he had been obliged to part
with him. His brother Joseph then offered him his own
secretary, whom he had only had for a short time : Napo-
leon accepted the offer, and acquired a treasure. This the
Emperor has repeated several times since. It was Mene-
val, whom he has since made a baron, M (litre des Requites,
and Secrttaire des Commandemens to the Empress Maria
Louisa.

Meneval*s title, when attached to the Rrst Consul,
was Secretary of the Portfolio ; a long regulation was
even made expressly regarding him ; the principal article
of which was that he should never, under any pretence
whatever, have a secretary, or employ an amanuensis,
which condition was strictly observed.

M. Meneval was a man of gentle and reserved manner^^

napoleon's secrktart. 338

Tcrj' discreet, working at all times and at all hours. The
Sm iior never had reason to be dissatisfied or displeased
^ith him, and was verv much attached to him. The
Secretary of the Portfolio had generally all the current
business, all ailkirs that arose on a sudden emergency,
cr from a sudden thought. How many affairs, plans,
and conceptions, have been discussed and transmitted
through his medium ! He opened and read all letters
addressed to the Emperor ; classed them for the Emperor's
examination, and wrote under his dictation.

The Emperor dictated so fast that, most frequently, in
order to save time, the Secretary was obliged to endea-
vour to recollect the words, rather than attempt to write
them down at the moment they were pronounced. In
this, Meneval particularly excelled. In the course of
time, Meneval was authorized himself to return answers
on many subjects. He might easily have acquired great
influence ; but it was not in his disposition to seek to
obtain it.

The Emperor was almost always in his closet ; it might
be said that he spent the whole day and part of the night
in it. He usually went to bed at ten or eleven o'clock,
and rose again about twelve, to work for a few hours
more. Sometimes he sent for M. Meneval, but most
frequently he did not ; and, aware of his zeal, he would
sometimes say to him, ** You must not kill yourself."

When the Emperor went into his closet in the morn-
ing, he found bundles of papers already arranged and pre-
pared for him by Meneval, who had been there before
him. If the Emperor sometimes allowed twenty-four
hours, or two days, to elapse without going into it, his
Secretarv would remind him of it, and tell him that he
would suffer himself to be overwhelmed with the mass of
papers that were accumulating, and that the closet would
soon be full of them. To tliis the Emperor usually an-
swered good-humouredly : ** Do not alarm yourself, it
will soon be cleared ;" and so indeed it was, for in a few
hours the Emperor had despatched all the answers, and
was even with the current business. It is true that he
got through a great deal by not answering many things,
and tlirowing away all that he considered useless, even

334 napoleon's great labours.

whea coming from bis Ministers. To this they were
accustomed ; and when no answer appeared they knew
what it meant. He himself read all letters that were ad-
dressed to him ; to some he answered by writing a few
words in the margin, and to others he dictated an answer.
Those that were of great importance were always put by,
read a second time, and not answered until some time
had elapsed. When leaving his closet, he generally re-
capitulated those afiairs that were of the greatest conse-
quence, and fixed the hour at which they must be ready
for him, which was always punctually attended to. If at
that hour the Emperor did not come, M. Meneval followed
him about from place to place through the palace to re-
mind him of it. On some of these occasions the Emperor
would go and settle the affair, at other times he would
say, ** To-morrow ; night is a good adviser." This was
his usual phrase ; and he often said that he had indeed
worked much harder at night than during the day j not
that thoughts of business prevented him from sleeping,
but because he slept at intervals, according as he wanted
rest, and a little sufficed for him.

It often happened that the Emperor, in the course of
his campaigns, was roused suddenly upon some emergency ;
he would then immediately get up, and it would have
been impossible to guess from the appearance of his eyes
that he had just been asleep. He then gave his decision,
or dictated his answer, with as much clearness, and with
his mind as free and unembarrassed, as at any other mo-
ment. This he called the after -midnight presence oj
mind ; and he possessed it in a most extraordinary degree.
It has sometimes happened that he has been perhaps cal-
led up as often as ten times in the same night, and each
time he was always found to have fallen asleep again, not
having as yet taken his quantum of rest.

Boasting one day to one of his ministers (General
Clarke) of the faculty which he possessed of sleeping
almost at pleasure and how little rest he required, Clarke
answered in a jocular tone, ** Yes, Sire, and that is a
source of torment to us, for it is often at our expense ;
we come in for our share of it sometimes.**

The Emperor did every thing himself and through th«

napoleon's great labovhs. 335

medium of his Cabinet. He appointed to all vacant situ-
ations, and most frequently substituted new names to
those of the persons proposed to him. He read the plans
of his Ministers, adopted, rejected, or modified them. He
even indited the notes of his Minister for Foreign Afiairs,
which he dictated to Men^val, from whom he kept no
secret. It was through Men6val also that he wrote to
the different sovereigns ; in addressing whom he observed
a formula which he had had drawn up from the reports
of former times, and to the strict observance of which he
attached great importance. All the Ministers transacted
business with the Emperor together on one day of the
week, appointed for that purpose, unless something occur-
red to prevent it. The business of each Minister was
transacted in the presence of all the others, who were
allowed to give their opinions respecting it, and each of
them thus emptied his portfolio. A register was kept of
the deliberations, of which there must be many volumes.
Those documents that had been decided on were left to
have the signature affixed to them, which was done
through the medium of the Minister Secretary of State,
who countersigned them. Sometimes some of these pa-
pers, after they had been thus decided on, were still sent
to the Emperor's cabinet to be revised and modified be-
fore the signature was put to them. The Minister for
Foreign Afiiedrs was the only one who, independently of'
his share in the general business transacted by the other
Ministers, had besides, from the secret nature of his
functions, other business to despatch in private with the
Emperor.

One of the favourite aides-de-camp of the Emperor
was entrusted with all that related to the personnel of the
war-department. For a long time Duroc occupied this
confidential post; afterwards Bertrand and Lauriston;
Count Lobau was the last who filled it.

M. Men6val, being in a very indifierent state of health,
worn down by fieitigue from application, and requiring
some interval of repose, the Emperor gave him a sitoft-
tion in the household of the Empress Maria Louisa,
which was, he said, quite a sinecure. However, the
EmpercMT only parted with him on condition that he should

336 napoleon's closkt.

come back to him as soon as he was well ; and he neva
failed to remind him of it every time he saw him.

After Men^val's retirement, the business of the Empe-
ror's cabinet ceased to be conducted by one person only ;
Meneval had a great many successors at the same mo-
ment, and the cabinet became a kind of office, in which
several persons were employed. One of these persons,
whom the Emperor had taken on the recommendation of
others who had thought they could answer for him as for
themselves, received an order, at the time of the disasters
of 1814, to bum the documents that wei'e in the closet;
but, instead of obeying this order, he so far forgot his
dutv as to take them awav with him : and, after the
King's restoration, he wrote to one of his Ministers to
offer them to him. The Emperor found the proof of his
treachery amongst the papers left at the Tuileries at the
period of the 20th of March ; and one morning having
gone into his closet before any body was come, he wrote
several times on a piece of paper, as if he had been trying
his pen, ^uch a one (naming him) is a traitor — Such a
one is a traitor; and laid it on the table where sat one of
those who had recommended him, and who was himself,
said the Emperor, a man on whose zeal and fidelity every
reliance could be placed. This was the only reproach he
ever addressed to him, and the only revenge he ever
exercised on the offender.

Several traces may therefore still be found, and several
documents must exist, of the business transacted in the
Emperor's cabinet. Some of these documents have been
alluded to in the debates of the British Parliament ; bat
Napoleon solemnly declared, on his return at the period
of the 20th of March last, that these documents had been
falsified. And they are not the only documents that are
left of that ever- memorable administration.

There must be twenty or thirty folio volumes, and M
many in quarto, containing the correspondence of the
campaigns of Italy and of Egypt, collected and regularly
classed.

There must be also about sixty or eighty folio volmnes
of the deliberations of the Council Ministers, collected by
the Secretaries of State, the Duke of Bassano and Coimt

OBSBftVATIONS OP KAPaLSON. 3S7

Dam; and lastly, the minutes of tbe sittings of the
the Council of State, written and arranged by Sf . Locre.
These are real and proud titles of glory for Napoleon.
Upon these immortal monuments, all subsequent govern-
ments have modelled and directed their administration ;
and from them all future governments, of every country,
will henceforth inevitably seek and derive information :
so sure and solid have been the foundations which he has
laid — so judiciously placed the landmarks — so deep are
the roots — so much, in one word, does the whole bear
the stamp of genius, and the character of rectitude and
of duration.

OBSERVATIONS OP THB BMPBROR CONCBRNINO MT

WIFE. DICTATION OF THB BMPBROR FOR AMOTfiBR

PORTION OF HIS MBM0IR8.

28th. — The Emperor to-day availed himself of an in-
terval of fine weather to take two turns in the calash :
he said he wanted a littie jolting. His left cheek was
still swelled. About three o*clodk he returned ; and, a
short time afterwards, having nothing to do, he sent for
me, and we walked round the garden for some time.
Having perceived the Doctor, he beckoned to him. The
Doctor came up to us, and from him Napoleon heard that
the Russian and Austrian Commissioners had come ths
day before to the entrance to LongpRrood, from whidi they '
had been turned away by the centry placed by the
Governor.

When we were alone, the £knperor, after having con-
versed upon a variety of subjects, spoke of my wife,
conjectaring what she might be doing, what had become
of her, &c.

"Iliere is no doubt,*' said he, presently afberwarda*
" that your situation at St. Helena inspires a lively in-
terest, and must tend to cause your wife's company to be
sought after. Every thing rehiting to me is still dear to
many persons. From this rock I still bestow crowns !

. . . Yes, my dear friends, when you return to Europe,
yom will find yourselves crowned !"

Then, speaking again of my wife, he said, with an ex-
pression of tbe ntmoet kindness, " The b^t thing site

Vol. III.— 35

338 NAPOIJEON*8 PROMPT DICTATION.

could do would be to go and spend the time of her sepa-
ration from you with Madame, or some other meoibera
of my family. They would undoubtedly feel much plen^
sure in taking care of her," &c.

When we went back into the house, the Emperor sat
down to work The Campaign of Italy was nearly finished
but he provided me with a new subject.

*' Note, v)rite : " — These were the words which the
Emperor uttered abruptly when a new idea occurred.
What follows is literally what he dictated to me, in this
instance : nothing has been altered in it, and he has
never read it over.

" Note. — The Campaign of Italy being completed.
Las Cases will, in the course of a week, undertake the
period from the breaking of the treaty of Amiens to the
battle of Jena. In 1802 all Europe is at peace; shortly
afterwards all Europe begins war r the Republic is
changed, and becomes the Empire ; the maritime ques-
tion becomes the chief cause of the rupture of the peace
of Amiens.

'' Las Cases will begin by causing extracts to be made
from the Moniteur of that time, by little Emanuel, under
his directions : he must get through at least six or seven
a- day, which will make one hundred and eighty, or a
period of six months in one month. — There must be at
least a period of six months extracted before we begin.

*' The periods preceding and following that period
will be prepared and arranged by the other gentlemen,
in making the extracts, the plan already prescribed to
M. Montholon must be followed ; that is, of extracting
all that relates to one event, and referring to the page
and month.

The following will be the great events of this period :'—

" 1st, History of the flotilla.

** 2d, Declaration of Austria.

** 3d, Movements of the fleets.

*'4th. Battle of Trafalgar.

** 5th, Ulm— Austerlitz.

•* 6th, Peace of Vienna.

** 7th, Negotiation of Lord Lauderdale at Paris.

"8th, Battle of Jena.

HIS RBAOT B*SPROOV. 339

" To be inserted in their respective places : —

'• J 8l, Conspiracy of Georges.

'* 2d, Afl^r of the Due d'Enghien.

" 3d, Coronation of the Emperor, by the Pope.

" 4th, Imperial organization.

" This will be one of the most glorious periods of the
history of France ; for it exhibits, in the space of one
year, on one side a Pope coming to France to crown an
Emperor, — an event which had not taken place for one
thousand years before; and, on the other, the French
flag waving over the capitals of Austria and Prussia, the
Boman empire dissolved, and the Prussian monarchy
destroyed."

I take pleasure in transcribing literally the above dic-
tation of the Emperor's* with his first ideas and in his
first words, in order to shew his style and manner.

It will be easily conceived with what zeal and ardour
both my son and myself devoted ourselves to this our
task, the importance of which we fuUy appreciated. We
had not yet completed the analysis of our six months,
when I was torn from Longwood.

ON A HOLB IN THB GARDEN.

29th. — During dinner somebody mentioned a pcx)!
which stands in our gard^i, not far from the house, and
which is deep enough to admit of a lamb having once
been drowned in it, in attempting to drink. The Em*,
peror said on that occasion, to one of the inmates of the
house : " Is it possible, Sir, that you have not yet had
this pool filled up ? How guilty you would be, and what
would not your grief be, if your son were to be drowned
in it, as it might easily happen !*' The person thus cen-
sured answered that he had often intended to have it
done, but that it was impossible to get workmen. ''That
is not an excuse," said the Emperor sharply : " if my
son were here, I should go and fill it up with my own
hands."

!rhe Emperor was already in bed when he sent for me:
he wished, he said, to put some questions to me, and to
inquire concerning some dates connected with mattera
which concerned us materially. • •

340

KLOQURNT DICTATIONS OF THE BMPBROR. CHARACTSR-

I8TIC DETAILS, AND PARTICULABS.

30th. — ^Whenever the Emperor took up a subject, if
he was in the least animated, his language was fit to be
printed. He has often, when an idea struck him for-
cibly, dictated in an off - hand way to any one of us
who happened to be in his way, pages of the most
polished diction. The other gentlemen of his suite
must possess a great many of these dictations, which are
all most valuable. Unfortunately for me, the weak state
of my eyes, which prevented me from writing, most fre-
quently deprived me of this advantage.

On one occasion, when the English ministerial news-
papers adverted to the treasures which Napoleon must
possess, and which he, no doubt, concealed, the Em-
peror dictated as follows :

" You wish to know the treasures of Napoleon ? They
are immense, it is true, but they are all exposed to light.
They are : The noble harbours of Antwerp and Flushing*,
which are capable of containing the largest fieets, and of
protecting them against the ice from the sea, — the
hydrauhc works at Dunkirk, Havre, and Nice, — the im-
mense harbour of Cherbourg, — the maritime works at
Venice, — the beautiful roads from Antwerp to Amster-
dam; from Mentz to Metz; from Bordeaux to Bay-
onne ; — the passes of the Simplon, of Mont Cenis, of
Mont Genevre, of La Comiche, which open a communi-
cation through the Alps in four different directions ; and
which exceed in grandeur, in boldness, and in skill of
execution, all the works of the Romans : in these alone
you will find eight hundred millions ; — the roads from
the Pyrenees to the Alps, from Parma to Spezzia, from
Savona to Piedmont, — the bridges of Jena, Austerlitz,
the Arts, Sevres, Tours, Rouanne, Lyons, Turin, of the
Isere, of the Durance, of Bordeaux, of Rouen, &c. — the
canal which connects the Rhine with the Rhone bv the
Doubs, and thus unites the North Sea with the Mediter-
ranean ; the canal which connects the Scheldt with the
Somme, and thus joins Paris and Amsterdam ; the canal
which unites the Ranee with the Vilaine ; the canal of

NATIONAL WOBKft. 341

Aries, that of Pavi&» and liie c^nnl of tiie Rhrae-^— the
draining of the marshes of Burgoingj of the Cotentin, d
Rochfort — the rebuilding of the greater number of the
churches destroyed during the Revolution<^the building
of others-—the institution of niipnerous establishments ^
industry for the suppression df mendicity — the works at
the Louyre — the construction of public warehouses, of
the Bank, of the canal of the Ourcq-^the distr^ution of
water in the city of Paris — ^the numerous sewers, the
quays, the embellishments, and the monuments cf that
large capital — the works for the embellishment of Rome— -
the re-establishment of the manufactures of Lyons' — the
creation of many hundreds of cotton manufactories for
spinning and for weaving, which employ several millions
of hands — funds accumulated to (establish upwards of
400 manufactories of sugar from beet^rooti for the con-
sumption of part of France, and which would have
furnished sugar at the same price as^the West Indies,' if
they had continued to receiye enooaragement for onfy
four years longer — ^the substitution of woad for indigo,
which would have beoi at last brought to equal in
quality, and not to exceed in price, the indigo from the
Colonies— numerous nianufactories for all kinds of ob-
jects of art, &c. — fifty millions expended in repairing
and beautifying the palaces belonging to the Crown^'*-
sixty millions in furniture for the palaces belonging tr
the Crown in France and in Holland^ at Turin, and «:
Rome — sixty millions in diamonds for the Crown, all pur-
chased with Napoleon's moneyr— Me Regent (the only
diamond that was left belonging to ^e former diamonds
of the Crown) withdrawn fit>m the hands of the Jews at
Berlin, with whom it had been pledged for three mil-
lions — the Napoleon Museum, valued at upwards of foni
hundred millions, filled with objects legitimately acqmred
either by money or treaties of peace known to the whole
world, by virtue of which the master-pieces it oontaint
were given in lieu of territory or of contributions-Hieve-
ral millions amassed for the encouragement of agricoL-
ture, which is the paramount consideration for the in-
terest of France — the introduction into France of Merino
Aheep, ^c. these form a treasure of several thousand

342 REFUTATION OF CALUMNY.

millionB, which will endure for ages ! these are the
monuments that will confute calumny ! "

History will say that all these things were accom-
plished amidst perpetual wars, without having recourse
to any loan, and whilst the national deht was even
diminishing every day, and that nearly fifty millions of
taxes had been remitted. Very large sums still remained
in his private treasury ; they were guaranteed to him by
the treaty of Fontainebleau, as the result of the savings
effected on his civil list and of his other private revenues.
These sums were divided and did not go entirely into the
public treasury, nor altogether into the treasury of
France ! !

On another occasion, the Emperor reading in an
English newspaper that Lord Castlereagh had said, at a
meeting in Ireland, that Napoleon had declared at St.
Helena that he never would have made peace with
England but to deceive her, to take her by surprise, and
to destroy her j and that, if the French army was attached
to the Emperor, it was because be was in the habit of
giving the daughters of the richest families of his empire
in marriage to his soldiers : the Emperor, moved with
indignation, dictated as follows ; ** These calumnies
uttered against a man who is so barbarously oppressed,
and whose voice is not allowed to be heard in answer to
them, will be disbelieved by all persons well educated and
susceptible of feeling. When Napoleon was seated on
the first throne in the world, then no doubt his enemies
had a right to say whatever they pleased; his actions
were public, and were a sufficient answer to them ; at
any rate, that conduct now belonged to public opinion,
and history ; but to utter new and base calumnies against
him at the present moment is an act of the utmost mean-
ness and cowardice, and which will not answer the end
proposed. Millions of libels have been and are still pub-
lished every day, but they are without effect. Sixty millions
of men, of the most polished nations in the world, raise
their voices to confute them, and fifty thousand English,
who are now travelling on the Continent, will, on their
return home, publish the truth to the inhabitants of the

REFUTATION OF CALUMN7. 343

three kingdoms of Great Britain, who will blush at
having been so grossly deceived.

"As for the Bill, by virtue of which Napoleon has been
dragged to this rock, it is an act of proscription similar to
those of SvUa, and still more atrocious. The Romans
unrelentingly pursued Hannibal to the utmost extremities
of Bithynia ; and Flaminius persuaded King Prusias to
assent to the death of that great man ; yet at Rome
Flaminius was accused of having acted thus in order to
satisfy his personal hatred. It was in vain that he urged
in his defence that Hannibal, yet in the vigour of life,
might still become a dangerous enemy, and that his death
was necessary ; a thousand voices were raised, and
answered that acts of injustice and ungenerous actions
can never be useful to a great nation ; and that, upon
such pretences as that now set forth, murder, poisoning,
and every species of crime might be justified ! Succeed-
ing generations reproached their ancestors with this base
act. They would have paid a high price to efiace the
stain from their history, and, since the revival of letters
among modern nations, there is not a generation that
lias not added its imprecations to those pronounced by
Hannibal at the moment when he drank the fatal cup :
he cursed Rome, who, whilst her fleets and legions
covered Europe, Asia, and Africa, wreaked her vengeance
against a man alone and unprotected, because she feared,
or pretended to fear, him.

*' The Romans, however, never violated the rights of
hospitality : Sylla found an asylum in the house of
Marius. Flaminius, before he proscribed Hannibal, did
not receive him on board his ship and declare that he
had orders to treat him favourably ; the Roman fleet did
not convey him to the Port of Ostia ; and Hannibal,
instead of placing himself under the protection of the
Romans, preferred trusting his person to a King of Asia.
When he was proscribed, he was not under the protec-
tion of the Roman flag ; he was under the banners of a
king who was an enemy of Rome.

•* If ever, in the revolutions of ages, a King of
England should be brought before the awful tribunal of
his nation, his defenders will urge in his favour the

344 7ROPHBTIC REMARKS, AND

sacred character of a king* the respect doe to the throne,
to all crowned heads, to the anointed of the Lord ! Bat
his accusers will have a right to answer thus : ' One of
the ancestors of this King, whom you defend, hanished a
man that was his guest, in time of peace ; afraid to put
him to death in the presence of a nation governed by
positive laws and by regular and public forms, he caused
his victim to be exposed on the most unhealthy point of
a rock, situated in another hemisphere, in the midst of
the ocean, where this guest perished, after a long agony,
a prey to the climate, to want, to insults of every kind !
Yet that guest was also a great Sovereign, raised to the
throne on the shields of thirty-six millions of citizens.
He had been master of almost every Capital of Europe ;
the greatest Kings composed his Court; he was goierous
towards all ; he was during twenty years the arbiter of
nations ; his family was allied to every reigning fiunily»
even to that of England ; he was twice the anointed of
the I/ord ; twice consecrated bv the august ceremonies of
religion ! ! ! ' "

This passage is certainly very fine, for its truth, its
diction, and above all, for its historical richness.

The Emperor always dictated without the least prepara-
tion. I never saw him, on any occasion, make any
research respecting our history or that of any other
nation ; and yet no man ever quoted history more
faithfully, more apropos^ or more frequently. One might
have supposed that he knew history by quotations only,
and that these quotations occurred to him as by inspira-
tion. And here I must be allowed to mention a heX
which has often struck me, and which I never could
satisfactorily account for to myself; but it is so very
remarkable, and I have witnessed it so often, that I
cannot pass it in silence. It is that Napoleon seems to
possess a stock of information on several points, which
remains within him, in reserve as it were, to burst forth
with splendour on remarkable occasions, and which in
his moments of carelessness appears to be not only
slumbering, but almost unknown to him altogether.
With respect to history, for instance, how often has it
happened that he has asked me whether St. Louis reigned

PECULIARITIES OF NAPOLBOK. 345

before or after Philip the Fair, and other questions of the
same kind. But, when occasion offered, when his
moment came, then he would quote without hesitation,
and with the most minute details; and when I have
sometimes happened to be in doubt, and to go and
verify, I have always found him to be right and most
scrupulously exact : I have never been able to detect him
in error.

Another singular peculiarity in him of the same kind
is this : — In his common intercourse of life, and his
familiar conversation, the Emperor mutilated the names
most familiar to him, even ours ; yet I do not think that
this would have happened to him on a public occasion.
I have heard him many times, during our walks, repeat
the celebrated speech of Augustus ; and he has never
missed saying, ** Take a seat, Sylla."* He would fre-
quently create names of persons according to his fancy ;
and, when he had once adopted them, they remained
fixed in his mind, although we pronounced them as they
should be. a hundred times in the day, within his hear-
ing ; but he would have been struck if we had used them
as he had altered them. It was the same with respect
to orthography: in general, he did not attend to it;
yet, if our copies had contained any faults of spelling, he
would have complained of it. One day the Emperor
said to me ; ** You do not write orthographically, do
you ? " This question gave rise to a sarcastic smile from
a bystander, who thought that it was meant to convey
a reproach. The Emperor, who saw this, continued : —
''At least, I suppose you do not; for a Inan occupied
with public or other important business, a Minister, for
instance, cannot, and need not, attend to orthography.
His ideas must flow faster than his hand can trace ; he
has only time for hieroglyphics ; he must put letters for
words, and words for sentences ; and leave the scribes to
make it out afterwards." — The Emperor left a great deal
for the copyists to do ; he was their torment : his hand-
writing actually formed hieroglyphics ; he often could

* Instead of Cinna, in Corneille's tragedy of Cinna, net v hi one
Isc. — Evg. Ed*

15*

246 napoleon's hand-wbiting.

not decipher it himself. My sotk was one day reading to
him a chapter of the Campaign of Italy : on a sudden he
stopped short, unahle to make out the writing. " The
little blockhead/* said the Emperor, " cannot read his
own writing !" — " It is not mine. Sire." — ** And whose
then ?" " Your Majesty's."—" How, you little rogue !
do you mean to insult me?" The Emperor took the
manuscript, tried a long while to read it, and at last
threw it down, saying, " He is right : I cannot tell
myself what is written." — He has often sent the copyists
to me, to try to read to them what he had himself been
unable to decipher.

The Emperor accounted for the clearness of his ideas,
and the faculty of extremely protracted application which
he possessed, by saying that the different afiairs were
arranged in his head as in a closet. " When I wish to
turn from any business," said he, "I close the drawer
which contains it, and I open that which contains another.
They do not mix together, and do not fatigue me or in-
convenience me." He had never been kept awake, he
said, by an involuntary pre-occupation of mind If I wish
to sleep, I shut up all the drawers, and I am soon asleep."
So that he had always, he added, slept when he wanted
rest, and almost at will.

MT ATLAS. — PREDESTINATION, &C. THE OOYBRNOB

MAKES FRUITLESS ATTEMPTS TO BE RBCEIYBD BT
THE EMPEROR.

Tuesday, 1st October. When I entered the Emperor's
room, he had my Atlas in his hands. He turned over
several of the genealogical maps, whose relation and
correspondence with each other he now understands
remarkably well. On closing the book, he said, " What
a concatenation ! how each part results from and corro-
borates what goes before it! How every part unfolds
itself and remains fixed in the mind! Las Cases, if you
had done nothing more than point out the true mediod
for instruction, you would still have rendered a most
essential service. Every one may now clothe the
skeleton as they like; it will, no doubt, be improved
upon, but the first conception is yours,*' &c.

HIS IDEAS ON PRRDE8TINATI0N. 347

Amongst the numerous subjects of conversation which
followed, predestination was mentioned. The Emperor
made many remarkable observations on that subject ;
amongst others, ** Pray,** said he, " am I not said to be
given to the belief in predestination ? ** ** Yes, Sire, at
least by many people.** " Well, well ! let them say on ;
one may sometimes be tempted to imitate, and it may
occasionally be useful. . . . But what are men ! . . . .
How much easier it is to occupy their attention, and to
strike their imaginations, by absurdities than by rational
ideas ! But can a man of sound sense listen for one
moment to such a doctrine ? Either predestination admits
the existence of free will, or it rejects it. If it admits it,
what kind of predetermined result is that which the mere
will, a step, a word, may alter or modify, ad infinitum ?
If predestination, on the contrary, rejects the existence
of free will, it is quite another question ; in that case a
child need only be thrown into its cradle as soon as it is
born J there is no necessity for bestowing the least care
upon it ; for if it be irrevocably determined that it is to
live, it will grow though no food should be given to it.
You see that such a doctrine cannot be maintained : pre-
destination is but a word without meaning. The Turks
themselves, those patrons of fatalism, are not convinced
of the doctrine, or medicine would not exist in Turkey ;
and a man residing in a third floor would not take the
trouble to go down by the longer way of the stairs, he
would immediatelv throw himself out of the window :
vou see to what a string of absurdities that will
lead."

At about three o'clock, the Emperor was told that the
Governor wished to communicate to him some instruc-
tions which he had just received from London. The
Emperor replied that he was unwell, that the instructions
might be sent to him, or communicated to some of his
suite ; but the Governor insisted on being admitted,
saying, that he wished to communicate directly with the
Emperor : he added that he had also a few words to say
to us in private, after having spoken to the General,
The Emperor again refused ; upon which the Governor
retired, saying that he begged he might be informed when

348 napoleon's lbssons in SNOLisn.

he could see the General. This period may be distant
indeed ; the Eraperor, with whom I was at that moment,
having said to me that he was determined never to
receive him again.

After dinner, the Emperor had Bu£[bn and Volmont
de Bomare brought to him. He looked at what these
authors say respecting the diversities in the human
species, the difference between a negro and a white ; bat
he was not much satisfied with what he found in them on
the subject. He retired early to his apartment : he was
unwell.

2d. The Emperor having told me that he was deter-
mined to apply again to the study of English, and that I
must obUge him every morning to take his lesson, I
accordingly went to his apartment at about half-past
twelve. I was not fortunate in the choice of the moment,
for he was lying on his sofa asleep after his breakfost.
I must have vexed him, and was very much vexed
myself. However, he would not let me go away, and
read a little English for about half an hour. He was not
very well. He dressed. Having told him that we had
finished what he had given us to do, he at first proposed
to go to work on the chapters of the Campaign of Italy ;
but he afterwards altered his mind, and was busy the
whole dav on somethins: else. At about five o*clodc he
attempted to walk out, but found the weather too cold.
After dinner, he tried to read, but in vain ; he could not
go on : he felt tired, drowsy, indisposed, and withdrew
almost immediately.

JURISPRUDENCE ; THE CODE ; MERLIN, &C. MONUMENTS

IN EGYPT. — PLAN OF AN EGYPTIAN TEMPLE IN
PARIS.

3d. After breakfast, the Emperor took two or three
turns in the garden. We were all with him. He spoke
of the communications which the Governor had to make
to us, and took a review of the different conjectures —
some good, some bad — which each of us formed on the
subject. The weather was tolerable; he ordered the
calash, and we went round the wood. The heat and the
heaviness of the atmosphere, though the sun was ob*

ON LEGISLATION. 349

Kored, obliged him to go into the house again. He sat
down and dictated to mv son until five o'clock.

We again tried to take a few turns in the garden ; but
the air was cold and damp. He went in-doors again,
and made me go to converse with him. He turned over
an English book, and stopped at a part relating to juris-
prudence, and the criminal codes of France and England,
endeavouring to compare them. Every body knows how
extremely well versed he is in our codes; but he has
little knowledge of that of England, and, with the excep-
tion of some general points, I could not answer his ques-
tions. In the course of the conversation he said : Laws
which in theory are a model of clearness become too
often a chaos in their application; because men, with
their passions, spoil every thing they touch, &c. • . Men
can only avoid being exposed to the arbitrary acts of the
judge, by submitting to the despotism of the law, &c. .
I had at first fancied it would be possible to reduce all
laws to simple geometrical demonstrations; so that
every man who could read, and connect two ideas toge-
ther, would be able to decide for himself; but I became
convinced, almost immediatelv that this idea was absurd.
However," added he, '* I should have wished to start
from some fixed point, and follow one road known to all ;
to have no other laws but those inserted in the code ; and
to proclaim, once for all, that all laws which were not in
the code were null and void. But it is not easy to obtain
simplicity from practical lawyers : they first prove to you
that simplicity is impossible, that it is a mere chimera;
and endeavour next to demonstrate that it is incompatible
with the stability and the existence of power. Power,
they say, is exposed alone to the unforeseen machinations
of all : it must therefore have, in the moment of need,
arms kept in reserve for such cases : so that, with some
old edicts of Chilperic or Pharamond, ferreted out for the
occasion," said Napoleon, " nobody can say that he is
secure from being hanged in due form and according
to law,

** So long as the subjects of discussion in the Council
of State," said the Emperor, *• were referable to the code,
I felt Tery strong ; but when they diverged from it, I was

350 KAPOLBON IN EOTPT.

quite in the dark, and Merlin was then my resource — he
was my light. Without possessing much brilliancy. Mer-
lin is very learned, wise, upright, and honest ; one of
the veterans of the good old chise : he was very much
attached to me.

" No sooner had the code made its appearance, than it
was almost immediately followed by commentaries, expla-
nations, elucidations, interpretations, and the Lord knows
what besides. I usually exclaimed, on seeing this : Gen-
tlemen, we have cleaned the stable of Augeas ; for God's
sake do not let us fill it again !" &c.

During dinner, the Emperor made some very remark-
able observations respecting Egypt, which will be found
in the chapters dictated to Bertrand. He then reverted
to his expedition to Syria, and declared that the grand
object of the expedition to Egypt was to shake the
power of England in the four quarters of the world, by
effecting a revolution capable of changing the whole face
of the East, and giving a new destiny to India. Egypt,
he said, was to stand us in stead of St. Domingo, and our
American Colonies, to reconcile the libertv of the blacks
with the prosperity of our commerce. This new colony
would have ruined the English in America, in the Medi-
terranean, and even on the banks of the Ganges.

Then, answering the reproach preferred against him of
having deserted his army, he said : **I merely obeyed the
call of France, which summoned me to save her, and 1
had a right to do so. I had received from the Director)' a
carte blanche for all my operations in the basin of the
Mediterranean, in Africa, and in Asia. I had full powers
for treating with the Russians, the Turks, the Barbary
States, and the provinces of India. I was at liberty to ap-
point a successor, to bring back the army, or to return
myself, if I thought proper.**

The Emperor thought that all he had seen in Egypt,
and, particularly, all those celebrated ruins so much
talked of, were not to be compared with Paris and the
Tuilenes. The only difference between Egypt and us
was, in his opinion, that Egypt, thanks to the pureness
of its air and the nature of its materials, preserved her
ruins for ever : whereas the nature of our European at-

LOUIS-PHILIPPK AN BMIORANT. 351

mosphere would not admit of our having any for any
length of time, everything being soon corroded and gone.
Vestiges of a thousand years' date might be found or
the banks of the Nile ; but not one would subsist on the
banks of the Seine in fifty years. He, however, regret-
ted very much that he had not caused an Egyptian
temple to be erected at Paris : he could have wished to
adorn the capital with such a monument, &c.

RBSOURCBS DURING THB EMIGRATION : ANECDOTES, &C.
OFFICIAL COMMUNICATIONS. NEW OFFENCES.

4th. At about twelve o'clock, I went to the Empe-
ror's apartment. He took a good lesson of English in
Telemachus : ue resolved to take up my method again ;
he approves of it, he said, and derives great benefit from
it. He observed that he thought I had excellent dis-
positions for being a very good schoolmaster; I told
him it was the fruit of my experience. He then made
me enter into a great manv details respecting the time
when I gave lessons in London, during my emigration,
and he was very much amused by them. ** However,"
said he, ** you gentlemen, must have done credit to the
profession, if not by your learning, at least, by your
manners." I then told him that one of our Princes had
taught mathematics during his emigration. "And this
alone," said he, with animation, " would make a man
of him, and shew him to have possessed some merit ; that
is assuredly one of the greatest triumphs of Madame de
Genlis."

I then related to him the following curious anecdote,
which I had heard on that subject. " The Prince was in
Switzerland : and, being so circumstanced as to find it
advisable to conceal his existence, he wished to take a
name that might favour his disguise. One of our Bi-
shops, from the South of France, fancied that nothing
could be better than to give him the name of a young
man from Languedoc then at Nismes, who was a very
zealous Protestant ; which was just as it ought to be, the
Prince being in a Protestant canton. The Bishop added
that there was no appearance that the young man would
ever be in the way to falsify the Prince's assumption of

352 BESOUKCBS OF EMIGRANTS.

his name. But it had so happened that the yoang mac
had gone into the. army, and had become an aide-de-camp
to M. de Montesquioo, and that shortly afterwards he had
emigrated precisely into Switzerland with his general.
What w^as his surprise to find himself at the table d'hdte,
at dinner with a perso of his own name, of the same
religion, and who belonged to the same town ! It was
exactly like the scene of the two Sosias.* But the best
of the joke was that the young man had also changed
his name, and carefully concealed his own. Such inci-
dents are only to be mec with in novels ; they are
thought of impossible occurrence. Perhaps the present
story has been rather embellished ; yet, I think, I cau
affirm that I heard it from the young man himself."

" But," observed the Emperor afterwards, ** those
amongst you emigrants who had created for yourselves
resources abroad must have felt quite lost when you
returned to France, and ruined once more ?"-— " Cer-
tainly, Sire; for we found nothing of what we had
formerly left in France, and we had just abandoned the
little we had made ourselves. But we had not calculated :
our impatience to revisit our native land had over-
balanced every other consideration, and several amongst
us soon found themselves in the greatest distress, in
want of every thing, although acquainted and even inti-
mate with many of the great personages of the day—
with your Ministers, Sire, your Councillors of State, and
others. This circumstance gave rise to a bon mot from
one of our wits. Meeting one day, in the saloon of the
Minister for Maritime Afiairs, a friend who like himsielf
hardly knew how to manage to subsist, he exclaimed, by
way of consolation : ** Well, my friend, if we die of hun-
ger, we may still have two or three Ministers at our
funeral." The Emperor laughed heartily at the jest, and
admitted that it gave an exact description of the situation
of afikirs at the time.

After his lesson of English, and the conversaticn
which followed, the Emperor went out for a walk. We
walked to the end of the wood, where the calash drove
up to us.

* In Molierc*s Comedy of Amphitryon. Eng. Ed,

COLONEL READS VISITS NAPOLEON. 353

On the Emperor's return, the Doctor came to infonr
him that Colonel Reade, whom he had consented to
receive instead of the Governor, wished to be presented
to him. Colonel Reade delivered to the Emperor a note
of considerable length ; and I was sent for to translate
it It contained the communications which Sir Hudson
Lowe had for three or four days past been vainly endea*
vouring to make in person. The note was couched in
the most offensive terms, and the Governor wished to
have reserved to himself the satisfaction of communis
eating its contents to the Emperor. This is a character-
istic trait, and it requires no comment. The harsh terms
in which it was expressed, and in particular the repeated
threat that we should be separated from the Emperor,
vexed us exceedingly, and put us out of spirits for the
remainder of the day.

m

THE EMPEROR READS MY JOURNAL, AND DICTATES TO

ME. CONFERENCE BETWEEN THE GRAND MARSHAL

AND THE GOVERNOR.

5tli. — At an early hour this morning, before I had
risen, I heard some one softly open my chamber- door.
My apartment is so encumbered with my own bed and
thai of my son, that it is no easy matter to enter it.
I perceived a hand drawing aside my bed- curtain : it
was the Emperor's. I was reading a book of geometry,
a circumstance which amused him very much, and, as he
said, saved my reputation. I instantly rose, and soon
rejoined the Emperor, who was proceeding to the wood
alone. He conversed for a considerable time on the
events of the preceding day. He then returned to the
house for the purpose of taking a bath : he was very ill,
and had passed a bad night.

He sent for me at one o'clock. He was in the
drawing-room, and he expressed a wish to take his Eng-
lish lesson. The weather was very hot and close. The
Emperor felt languid and dispirited : he could not bend
his mind to study, and several times fell asleep. At
length he rose, saying he was determined to shake oft
his lethargy, and he proceeded to the billiard- room tc
breathe a little fresh air.

354 THB author's journal.

Conversing on the subject of the Campaigns of Italy.
he enquired what I had done with the first rough
draughts, observing that all the chapters had been
several times re-copied. I told him that I had carefully
preserved them. He desired to have all the manuscripti
brought to him, and, laying aside two complete copies, he
sent the rest into the kitchen to be burnt.

I have already several times mentioned that the Em-
peror knew I kept a Journal. This was a secret, and
therefore he never spoke to me on the subject, except
when we happened to be alone together. He often
asked me whether I still continued my Journal, and what
I could find to set down in it. ** Sire," I replied, *• all
that your Majesty does and says, from morning to
night.*' ** Then,'* said he, ** you must have a monstrous
deal of repetition, and must tell many useless things !
But no matter, go on, some day we will look it over
together."

When he visited my chamber, he frequently found the
faithful Aly engaged in re- copying my Journal ; for he
had kindly ofiered to employ himself in this way, during
his leisure hours. The Emperor sometimes cast his eyes
upon Aly*s writing, and, after reading a few lines, that
is to say, as soon as he ascertained what it was, he would
turn away and speak about something else, without ever
alluding to the subject. This is precisely what had occur-
red this morning ; and the Emperor, recollecting the cir-
cumstance, said that he wished at length to have a sight
of this famous jumble of trifles. My son brought a por-
tion of the manuscript, and the Emperor spent upwards
of two hours in perusing it. The introduction, which
relates to myself personally, fixed his attention ; he read
it over twice, and then said : " Well, very well; this is a
fine inheritance for little Emanuel.*' As to the Journal,
he approved of its form and general plan. He made seve-
ral corrections with his own hand, on those parts which
related to his familv and his childhood. He desired mv
son to take the pen, and he dictated to him some detailA
respecting Brienne, Father Patrault, &c. When be had
done, he desired me to continue mv labours; as he was
pleased with them ; and he promised to furnish me with

COMPLAINTS OF THK OOVEKNOR. 355

many anecdotes, particularly concerning Alexander and
the other sovereignis.

He afterwards took a drive in the calash, in which I
accompanied him, and the Journal again became the topic
of conversation. The Emperor said a great deal on the
subject, and expressed himself very much pleased with
the idea. He gave me several hints respecting it, and
concluded by observing that, from the peculiar circum-
stances under which it was produced, it might become a
work truly unique in its character, and an invaluable
treasure to his son.

On our return to Longwood, we found the Grand Mar-
shal, who had just returned from Plantation House, where
he had been to hold a conference on the subject of the
communications of yesterday. We anxiously awaited the
answer he might bring back. He informed us that a
proposition had been made, which was nothing less than
that four of us should be separated from the Emperor.
There were many other minor points of a very vexatious
nature ; but this one caused us to lose sight of all the rest.
The Governor had, however, finally agreed to remove
only the Pole and three of the domestics. According to
the report of the Grand Marshal, I was the individual
upon whom the storm had lowered, of whom the Gover-
nor most particularly complained, and whose removal, he
said, he should certainly have decided upon, had he not
thought me too useful to the Emperor. He complained
that I was constantly writing to Europe, declaiming
against the Government and the injustice and oppression
which I alleged were exercised towards us. His other
subjects of complaint were, that I spoke of the Emperor
to the strangers who visited Longwood in such a way as
to excite their interest ; that I was constantly endeavour-
ing to establish communications with different individuals
on the island (and he mentioned the instance of Mrs.
Bturmer) ; that I had addressed, or endeavoured to trans-
mit, various documents to Europe, &c. However, after
having spoken of me in the most angry terms, for some
reason or other, he endeavoured to soften down what he
had said by a few complimentary observations. He re-
marked that he could scarcely have expected such con-

356 FECULIARITT OF NAPOLBON.

duct in a man possessing so much information, and whose
good character was established throughout Europe.

After dinner, the Emperor amused himself by solving
some problems in geometry and algebra: this, he said,
reminded him of his youthful days ; and it surprised us
all to find that the subjects were still so fresh in his re-
collection.

PECULIAR CIRCUMSTANCE CONNECTED WITH MY JOURNAL.
THE EMPIRE OF OPINION. TALMA, CRESCENTINIy &C.

6th — 7 th. During these two days, a circumstance has
occurred, which is so nearly connected with the nature of
the present work, that I cannot omit noticing it. I have
just mentioned that the Emperor had expressed himself
well satisfied with my journal : he alluded to it several
times in the course of the day, assuring me that he should
feel great pleasure in perusing and correcting it. This
information, as it may be supposed, was highly gratify-
ing to me. The moment which I had so long and ar-
dently looked for had at length arrived. That which I
had hastily, and, perhaps, inaccurately, collected, was now
about to receive an inestimable correction and sanction.
Imperfect points would be developed, chasms filled up,
and obscurities explained. What a fund of historical
truths and political secrets was I about to receive ! Ela-
ted by these expectations, I the first day presented myself
to the Emperor at the usual hour, having my journal
with me ; but he began to dictate to me on a totally dif-
ferent subject, and I was obliged to put up with the dis-
appointment. Next day, the same thing occurred again.
I now wished to call the Emperor's attention to my Jour-
nal ; but he did not appear to understand me, and I took
the hint. I know Napoleon so well ! He possesses in the
highest degree the art of not seeming to understand ; he
resorts to it frequently, and always for some particular
object. In the present instance I understood him suffi-
ciently, and I did not again attempt to draw his attention
to the subject. At first I was much puzzled to guess the
motive that had induced him to act thus ; and I made
several conjectures, which have probably occurred to the
rwider, as well as to myself. A few days afterwards I

HONORARY DISTINCTIONS. 35?

was forced away from him, though I had not the least
cause in the world to anticipate this fatal event.

I have dwelt on this circumstance with scrupulous
exactness, because I conceive that it affords a new guar-
antee of my sincerity, and serves to explain precisely the
nature of my Journal. Of the great bulk of its contents,
and in particular the important events described in it, no
doubt can be entertained. Some involuntary errors may,
however, have crept into the details, from the hasty
manner in which they were collected, and from my being
deprived of the advantage of having the manuscript
revised by the only individual who was capable of cor-
recting its inaccuracies.

The Emperor, while he was dressing and waiting for
the Grand Marshal to take his turn in writing, amused
himself by conversing on different subjects.

He spoke of the influence of opinion, to which he so
frequently alludes. He traced its secret progress, its
uncertainty, and the caprice of its decisions. He then
adverted to the natural delicacy of the French, which he
said was exquisite in matters of decorum, the laudable
susceptibility of our manners, and the graceful action
and gentleness of touch which authority must employ,
if an attempt is made to interfere with the national
feeling.

'* In conformity with my system," observed he, of
amalgamating all kinds of merit, and of rendering one
and the same reward universal, I had an idea of present-
ing the cross of the Legion of Honour to Talma ; but I
refrained from doing this, in consideration of our capri-
cious manners and absurd prejudices. I wished to make
a first experiment in an affair that was unimportant, and
I accordingly gave the Iron Crown to Crescentini. The
decoration was foreign, and so was the individual on
whom it was conferred. This circumstance was less
likely to attract public notice or to render my
conduct the subject of discussion ; at worst, it could
only give rise to a few malicious jokes. Such," con-
tinued the Emperor, **is the influence of public opinion.
I distributed sceptres at will, and thousands readily
bowed beneath their sway: and yet I could not give

358 ANBCDOTB ON CRESCBNTINI.

away a bit of ribbon without the chance of incnrriDg
disapprobation; for I believe my experiment, with re-
gard to Crescentini, proved unsuccessful.*' ** It did.
Sire," observed some one present. ** The circumstance
occasioned a great outcry in Paris ; it drew forth a gene-
ral anathema in all the drawing-rooms of the metropolis,
and afforded ample scope for the expression of malignant
feeling. However, at one of the evening parties of tht
Faubourg Saint- Germain, a bon - mot had the efiect of
completely stemming the torrent of indignation. A
pompous orator was holding forth, in an eloquent strain,
on the subject of the honour that had been conferred on
Crescentini. He declared it to be a disgrace, a horror,
a perfect profanation, and inquired what right Crescentini
could have to such a distinction ? On hearing this, the

beautiful Madame G who was present, rose

majesticaliy from her chair, and, with a truly theatrical
tone and gesture, exclaimed, • Et sa blessoure Monsieur!
do you make no allowance for that ? ' This produced a
general burst of laughter and applause, and poor

Madame G was very much embarrassed by

her success.*'

The Emperor, who now heard this anecdote for the
first time, was highly amused by it. He often after-
wards alluded to it, and occasionallv related it himself.

At dinner, the Emperor informed us that he bad
worked for twelve hours; and we observed that his
day was not yet ended. He seemed to be ill and
fatigued.

THE ODT88EY. COMBAT BKTWBEN ULYSSES AND IRU8.

8th. When I entered the Emperor's apartment thi»
morning, I found him engaged in reading the files of the
Journal des Debats, which had latelv arrived. At three
o'clock he began to dress. His first valet de chambre
was ill ; and he observed that those who acted as his
substitutes were not equal to him in address.

The weather was tolerable, and we walked to the ex-
tremity of the wood, where the calash was to take us up.

I had a disposable sum of money in London, which I
had conveyed thither in 18)4. The recollection of the

ULYSSES AND IRUS. 359

privations I had endured during my emigration, and the
chance of being exposed to future want* had prompted
me to this act of prudence, and I was now reaping the
fruits of it. Owing to this circumstance, I was more at
my ease, as to pecuniary affairs, than any other indivi-
dual of the Emperor's suite at St. Helena ; but what led
me to regard this sum as an inestimable treasure was
the happiness of being able to lay it at the feet of the
Emperor. I had already several times proposed that he
should accept it; and I now once more repeated the
offer, while I adverted to the renewed outrages which
we had just experienced from the Governor. At this
moment we were joined by Madame de Montholon, who
had set out after us. She observed that the Emperor
walked so fast that she should certainly have lost sight
of him, had not my gesticulations enabled her to keep
her eye upon us ; and that she had been puzzled to guess
the cause of my vehemence of manner. '* Madam," said
the Emperor with the most captivating grace, ** he has
been trying to make me accept his bounty ; he has been
offering to support us here.*'

We returned almost immediatelv to the house, as the
weather was very damp and the Emperor complained of
tooth- ache. For some time past he has been troubled
with a profuse secretion of saliva.

After dinner he resumed the reading of the Odyssey :
we had arrived at the passage describing the combat be-
tween Ulysses and Irus, on the threshold of the palace,
both in the garb of beggars. The Emperor very much
disapproved of this episode, which he pronounced to be
mean, incongruous, and beneath the dignity of the King.
** And yet," continued he, *' independently of all the faults
which, in my opinion, this incident presents, I still find
in it something to interest me. I fancy myself in the
situation of Ulvsses, and then I can well conceive his
dread of being overpowered by a wretched mendicant.
Every prince or general has not the broad shoulders of
his guards or grenadiers ; every man has not the strength
of a porter. But Homer has remedied all this by repre-
senting his heroes as so many giants. We have no such
heroes now-a-days. What would become of us," ht

^0 THB POLB ARRESTKO.

added, glancing round at us all, "if we lived in those
good times when bodily vigour constituted real power r
Why, Noverraz (his valet- de-chambre) would wield the
sceptre over us aU. It must be confessed that civiliza-
tion favours the mind entirelv at the expense of the
body."

THE POLE ARRESTED BY THE GOVERNOR. THE EAIPKROk's

RKKLECTIONS ON HIS SON AND ON AUSTRIA. NEW

VEXATIONS. REMARKS ON LORD BATHURST. OBSER-
VATIONS DICTATED BY NAPOLEON.

9th. — As we were walking to come up with the calash,
we received information that the Pole had just been put
under arrest by the Governor. This was, of course,
merely a first step — a warning of what we all had to ex-
])ect. Intimidation seems to be the system to which the
Governor has resorted since the arrival of his last instruc-
tions, which he endeavours to fulfil to the utmost of his
ingenuity. We shall see how far he will go.

When I waited on the Emperor, before dinner, I found
him dull and apparently absent. The conversation led
him to mention Austria, and he alluded to the wrongs
which he had received from that Power, and the errors
of her policy. He described the weakness of the mo-
narch, who, he said, had never evinced energy, except
when it tended to ruin him in the estimation of his sub-
jects. He dwelt on the venality and want of principle
which distinguished the men who had advised and exe-
cuted the measures of the Austrian cabinet. He spoke
of the blind policy of Austria, and described her dange-
rous situation. ** She now stands,'* said he, *' in the
most imminent peril, advancing to meet the embraces of
a colossus in her front, while she cannot recede a single
step, because an abyss is yawning on her flank aad
rear."

This turn of the conversation naturally led the Empe-
ror to speak of his son. ** What education will they give
him }'* said he. " What sort of principles will they incul-
cate in his youthful mind ? On the other hand, if he
should prove weak in intellect — if they should inspire him
with hatred of his father ! These thoughts fill me witih

PACKET FROM THE GOVERNOR. 36

horror ! and where is the antidote to all this ? Hence-
forth there can be no certain medium of communication —
uo faithful tradition between him and me ! At best mv

•

Memoirs, or perhaps your Journal, may fall into his hands.
But to subdue the false precepts imbibed in early life, to
counteract the errors of a bad education, requires a cer-
tain capacity, a certain strength of mind and decision of
judgment which fall not to the share of every one.** He
appeared deeply affected ; and, after a pause of a few mo-
ments, he said, suddenly and with emphasis, '* But let us
talk of something else;'* however, he still continued
silent. I sat down to write, and after an hour or two the
Grand Marshal came and took my place.

Just after I had quitted the Emperor*s apartments, I
was again sent for to translate to him a large packet of
papers which had been received from the Governor. The
state of my eyes, which are now altogether failing me,
obliged me to avail myself of M. de Montholon*s assis-
tance in reading the papers.

Their contents were 1. Some of the new restrictions
that have been imposed on us, in which the Emperor is
treated in a way that may be termed curious ; for indecen-
cy and indecorum are carried so far as to prescribe the
nature and limits of the conversations which he is to be
permitted to hold. This will scarcely be credited !

2. The form of the declaration which was presented for
our signature. This was merely a series of arbitrary
and useless vexations, heightened by every irritating
circumstance that vengeance could suggest.

3. Finally a letter from the Governor to the Grand
Marshal, founded on the note presented by Colonel
Reade, which I translated to the Emperor, and which
the colonel had refused to leave behind him ; the reader
will recollect my having already noticed it. However,
in the letter now transmitted to the Emperor certain
essential points were very ingeniously suppressed or mo-
dified : the Emperor frequently remarked that the Go-
vernor possesses a peculiar talent for business of this
sort. I will here retrace this note from recollection.
Though I read it only once, namely, at the time when 1
1 unRlated it to the Emperor, yet I think 1 can vouch for

Vol. III.— 16

362 THB oovbrnor'b notb

the following being an accurate representation of its
contents.

•* The Frenchmen who wished to remain with Genera]

Bonaparte, were required to sign the formula which
should be presented to them, and by which they would
subject themselves to all the restrictions imposed on the
General. This obligation was to be regarded as per-
petual. Those who should refuse to enter into this
agreement were to be sent to the Cape of Good Hope.
Four individuals were to be removed horn the suite of
General Bonaparte, Those who might remain were to
be considered as though they were Englishmen by birth,
and to be subject to the laws established for securing
the safe custody of General Bonaparte ; that is to say,
they would incur the punishment of death by conniving
at his escape. Any Frenchmen who might use insulting
language or reflections, or behave so as to give ofience
to the Governor or the Government, would be immedi-
ately removed to the Cape of Grood Hope, without being
provided with the means of returning to Europe : the
whole expense of the voyage devolving on himself."

During dinner, and the greater part of the evening
these documents became the subject of conversation.

We were much amused by that passage in the Govcr
nor's letter which transmitted the ministerial instruc-
tions, and informed us that those who might be wanting
in respect for the Governor, or render themselves obnox-
ious, would be removed to the Cape, and the expense
attending their return to Europe was to be defrayed by
themselves. We thought this very droll, and the Em-
peror said, "Of course this threat appears to you very
extraordinary and ridiculous ; but no doubt it was per-
fectly natural to Lord Bathurst. I dare say he could
not imagine a more terrible punishment. It is a true
shopkeeper idea ! "

The Emperor concluded the evening by reading to ua
Adelaide Duguesclin, which contains a fine rhodomontade
upon the Bourbons.

After reading it, the Emperor said, ** During the time
of my power, an order was given for suppressing the per-
formance of this drama, under the idea that it would be
oflfeusive to me. This circumstance accidentally came to

FRESH RESTRICTIONS. 363:

my knowledge, and I ordered the piece to be revived.
Many things of the same kind took place ; people often
acted very unwisely under the idea that they were ser-
ving or pleasing me.*'

I ti*anscribe here the restrictions to which I have just
alluded. They are carious in themselves, and will serve
better than volumes of description, to give a just idea of
our situation ; but what enhances the value of this docu-
ment is that the observations which accompany each
article were made by the Emperor himself.

Restrictions drawn up by Sir Hudson Lowe, and
transmitted to Longwood on the 19th of October, 1816,
but which he had already put into execution by different
secret orders, since the preceding mouth of August,
though he never communicated them to the English
officers on duty, doubtless, because he was ashamed of
them.

TEXT OF THE RESTRICTIONS.

** 1st. — Longwood, with the road by Hut's Gate,
along the hill, as far as the signal-post near Alarm-
House, are to be fixed as boundaries."

Observation. Sir Hudson Lowe's predecessor had
extended the boundary line to the summits of the hills ;
but in about a fortnight, he perceived that, by removing
the sentinels to a little further distance, the house and
garden of Secretary- general Brook would be included
within the boundaries, and he immediately gave orders
for the change.

At about forty fathoms from the road-side is Corbett's
garden, which contains about eight or ten oak trees and
a fountain ; thus affording a cool and agreeable shade.*
According to the new restrictions, which confined him to
the high-road, a line is substituted for a surface, and the
secretary's house and Corbett's garden are excluded
from the boundaries.

** 2d. — Sentinels will mark the boundary Hues, which
nobody must pass to approach tlie house or grounds oi
Longwood, without the Governor's pennission."

* In the very spot here described by Napoleon is his giftve.

364 FRK8H RESTRICTIONS.

Obskrvation. By the regulations which were first
laid down, respecting our establishment at St. Helena^
and which were approved by the English Governor,
persons were admitted to Longwood in the following
manner : The Governor, the Admiral, the Colonel com-
manding the regiment and the camp, the two members
of the East India Company's Council, and the Secretary-
genenJ, who were the persons highest in authority on
the island, might pass the line of sentinels without any
order or permission whatever. The inhabitants of the
Island were required to have a pass from the Governor ;
naval men to be furnished with one from their Admiral,
and military with one from their colonel ; and finally, the
inhabitants, sailors, and officers might all come to Long-
wood bv the permission of Count Bertrand, when the
Emperor wished to receive them. This arrangement,
which continued for eight months, was attended by no
inconvenience. By the present regulation (which has
been in force since the month of August, though it was
not formallv communicated to us until we were furnished
with the list of new restrictions,) we may be said to be
kept in solitary confinement, and cut ofi^ from all inter-
course with the inhabitants. The latter, the officers and
seamen are all equally averse to the idea of being obhged
to solicit the Governor's permission to visit Longwood,
and to subject themselves to an interrogatory respecting
the motive of their visit. Strangers, whether civil or
military, officers, touching at St. Helena on their passage
from India, and who might be desirous of seeing the
Emperor, usually applied to Count Bertrand, who ap-
[)ointed the day and the hour when they would be re-
ceived. During their stay in the island they were
regarded as citizens, and with the permission of Count
Bertrand, thoy might when they pleased visit Longwood;
and it may once more be observed that this arrangement
subsisted for eight months without being attended by any
inconvenience. If any strangers toucliing at the island
might excite the suspicion of the Governor, he could
prevent them from landing, or passing the first post.
Finally, the Governor, by the report of the sentinels, was
daily made acquainted with the names of the persons who

FRESH RESTRICTIONS. 365

visited Lon^ood. But in the month of August, the
Governor sought to impose on us the obligation of re-
ceiving strangers, to whom he wished to render himself
agreeable, and also of receiving them at the time he
might think proper to appoint. This was putting the
finishing stroke to all his offensive conduct ! To put a
stop to all these insults, the Emperor found himself
obliged to declare that he would in future receive no
one.

** 3d. — The road to the left of Hut's Gate, which turns
off by Woodridge to Long wood, never having been fre-
quented by General Bonaparte since the arrival of the
Governor, the post by which it was observed, will be in
a great measure withdrawn. But whenever the General
may wish to ride on horseback in this direction, on giving
timely notice to the officer he will experience no ob-
stacle."

Observation. — In the first observation it was proved
that the limits had been contracted in this quarter ; and,
by this third article, they are still more circumscribed.
To say that the valley has not been frequented for six
months is a strange reason for adopting this decision.
It is certainly true that Napoleon has for several months
declined going out, in consequence of the harassing
conduct of the Governor ; but it must also be observed
that one part of the valley is not accessible in rainy
weather, and that in the other part a camp has been
formed. Yet Lord Bathurst stated, in his speech in
Parliament, that ** this road had been prohibited, when
it was found that he (General Bonaparte) had abused the
confidence which had been reposed in him, and had
endeavoured to corrupt the inhabitants of the island."
But here Lord Bathurst contradicts Sir Hudson Lowe.
The oflcr of permission to ride in the valley, whenever it
may be wished, is a mere pretence ; the forms prescribed
for the attainment of this permission render it impossible.
This offer never has been, and never can be, fulfilled.
The ride in the valley being thus prohibited, it has become
impossible to visit Miss Mason's garden, in which there
are some large trees which afford agreeable shade.
Within the boundaries to wh^h the captives are now

^66 FRB8H RESTRICTIONS.

restricted, there is not a single spot in which they caii
enjoy the sight of trees or water : sentinels are posted
at different distances throughout the boundaries; and*
under the pretence of misunderstanding in the orders,
&c., any individual may be arrested. This, has fre-
quently happened to the French officers.

*' 4th. If he (General Bonaparte) should wish to
prolong his ride in any other directions, an officer of
the Governor's staff ( if he receives timely notice) will be
in readiness to attend him. If the notice should be
short, the officer on duty at Longwood may take the
place of the staff- officer.

** The inspecting officer has orders not to approach
General Bonaparte, at least unless he be asked for ; and
not to watch him in his rides, except so far as his duty
requires ; that is to say, he must observe that the estab-
lished rules are not violated ; and if they should be
transgressed, he must intimate the circumstance in a
respectful way.**

Observation. This regulation is useless. The Em-
peror will not go out so long as he sees there is a wish
to subject him to direct and public inspection. Besides,
the staff- officers have orders to report all that the French
may say when in conversation with them. This affords
opportunities for calumny. Several English officers
have refused to act this dishonourable part, declaring
that they would not degrade themselves to the level of
spies, and repeat the conversations that may take place
in the unguarded confidence of a ride or walk.

*• 5th. The rules already in force, for preventing
communications with any one whatever, without the
Governor's permission, must be strictly enforced. Con-
sequdntly, it is requisite that General Bonaparte should
abstain from entering into any conversation (except such
as the interchange of customary salutations may demand)
with the persons whom he may happen to meet, unless
it be in the presence of an English officer/'

Obskrvation. — Hitherto this extremitv of insult had
been avoided. The Emperor does not acknowledge,
either in the Governor or his agents, the right of im-
posi"-^ any restrictions on him. But what is il e object

FRESH RESTRICTIONS. 367

of this article ? To insult and degrade the character of
the captives ! — to give rise to disputes between them and
the sentinels. To prohibit them from speaking to any
one, or entering any house, is, in fact, a moral annulment
of the circuit allowed them. This is so extraordina^'v
that we are now actually induced to believe, what many
persons have already suspected, that Sir Hudson Lowe
is occasionally subject to fits of lunacy.

** 6th. — Those persons who, with the consent of Gene-
ral Bonaparte, may receive the Gk)vernor's permission to
visit him, must not communicate with any individual of
his suite, unless a permission to that effect be specially
expressed.**

Observation. — ^This is useless ; for nobody has been
received since the present Governor aboHshed the regu-
lations which were established by his predecessor. How-
ever, the consequence of this restriction is that, if Napo-
leon should receive a stranger, as none of his officers can
be present, and none of his servants in attendance, he
would be reduced to the necessity of opening the doors
himself. Besides, as the Emperor does not understand
English, it follows, if the individual admitted to him
should net speak French, that they must both remain
mute, and thus the interview would be reduced to a mere
exhibition.

" 7 th. — At sunset, Jthe garden round Longwood is to
be regarded as the extent of the boundaries. At that
time sentinels will be posted at the limits of the garden ;
but so as not to incommode General Bonaparte by ob-
serving his motions, should he wish to continue his
walks. During the night, sentinels will be stationed
close to the house, as they formerly were ; and all ad-
mission must be prohibited until the sentinels are with-
drawn from the house and garden on the following
morning.*'

Observation. — During the excessively hot season,
the only time when it is possible to walk is after sun-set.
In order to avoid meeting the sentinels, the Emperor
finds it necessary to return to the house while it is still
broad day- light ; though the heat of the sun has rendered
it impossible for him to go out during the day, as the

368 FRBSU RESTRICTIONS.

grounds round Longwood are without shade, water, or
verdure. According to this new restriction, the Em-
peror cannot enjoy a walk in the evening ; while he is
likewise deprived of the exercise of riding on horseback.
He is confined in a small house, in all respects insufficient
for his accommodation, badlv built, unwbolesomelv
situated, and without a supply of water ; and, in addition
to all this, ever} opportunity is taken to expose him to
insult and disrespect. His constitution, though naturally
robust, is very much enfeebled by the treatment he
experiences.

** 8th. — Every letter for Longwood will be enclosed
by the Governor in a sealed envelope, and forwarded to
the officer on duty, to be delivered, sealed, to the officer
of General Bonaparte's suite to whom it is addressed,
who by this means will be assured that nobody except
the Governor knows its contents.

"In like manner, letters from any of the residents of
Longwood must be delivered to the officer on duty, en-
closed in a second sealed envelope and addressed to the
Governor, which will be a security that no individual
except the latter can peruse its contents.

** No letter can be written or sent, and no communis
cation of any kind whatever can be made, except in the
manner above mentioned. No correspondence can be
maintained with any individual in the island, except for
the necessary communications to the purveyor. The
notes containing these communications must be de-
livered open to the officer on duty, who will forward
them to the proper quarter.

** The above-mentioned restrictions will be observed
from the date of the 10th inst.

" H. Lows."

" St, Helena, October ^th, 1816."

Observation. — ^This last restriction has no reference
to the Emperor, who neither writes nor receives letters.
A simple explanation is, therefore, all that is required
Will the observations that may be contained in the con-
fidential letters from the Emperor's officers to their
friends be regarded as offensive } When those who maj

FRESH RESTRICTIONS. 369

read these letters shall be convinced that they are in no
way hostile to the safety or policy of the state, will they
forijet their contents, so that thev mav never become the
subject of conversation or abuse ? This explanation will
decide whether all correspondence is, or is not, to be
considered as prohibited. The seizure of the person of
Count Las Cases completely justifies this observation.

The object of the 8th article of the restrictions, as the
inquisitorial system established on the island sufficiently
proves, is to prevent the European journals from giving
publicity to the criminal conduct that is pursued here. A
vast deal of trouble is taken to secure this object : it would
have been far easier to have acted in such a way as to
render concealment unnecessary. A letter addressed to
Count Bertrand, dated the 1st of July, 1816, goes tostil!
greater lengths ; for it prohibits even verbal communica-
tions with the inhabitants of the island. This is the deli-
rium of fury and hatred ; or rather, it may b? said to be a
proof of downright madness. The regulation here alluded
to is but a trifling example of the vexations to which we
are exposed, and the invention of which seems to be the
sole occupation of the present Gk)vernor. Can Lord Ba-
thurst now affirm that Sir H. Lowe has imposed no
restriction ; that the instructions of the English ministry
were of a nature advantageous to Napoleon and his suite,
and had no other object than that of securing their safe
custody ? In consequence of this absurd and insulting
treatment, the Emperor has not enjoyed exercise without
doors for several months. His medical attendants fore-
see that this confinement will prove fatal to his constitu-
tion. It is a more certain, and far more inhuman, mode
of assassination, than poison or the sword. [What a
horrible prophecy !]

ANXIETY OCCASIONED BY THE NEW RESTRICTIONS.

ANECDOTES OP CAMPO-FORMIO. MM. DE COBENTZBL,

GALLO, AND CLARKB. THE COUNT D*ANTRAIGUES.

iOth. — This morning we had agreed to meet together
at -he Grand Marshal's, to deliberate on the restrictions
which the Governor had recently transmitted to us, and
to adopt a uniform resolution. I was unwell, and could

16»

370 NBW INDISPOSITION OF NAPOLBON.

not attend. I, however, wrote down my opinion: I
stated that in the delicate situation in which I was placed
I could do nothing ; I could arrive at no positive con-
clusion ; 1 always found — 0.

The point in question was, indeed, of the most serious
and difficult nature. We were required to subject our-
selves to new restrictions, to place ourselves under the
dependence of the Governor, who shamefully abused his
power, employed the most insulting language towards the
Emperor, and announced that we must submit to every
grievance, under pain of being immediately separated from
Napoleon, sent to the Cape, and thence to Europe.

On the other hand, the Emperor, indignant at the
mortifications to which we were exposed on his account,
insisted that we should no longer submit to them. He
urged us rather to quit him, and to return to Europe,
to bear witness that we had seen him absolutely buried
alive.

But how could we for a moment endure this thought !
Death was preferable to separation from him whom we
served, admired, and loved ; to whom we daily became
more and more attached, through his personal qualities,
and the miseries which injustice and hatred had accumu-
lated upon him. This was the real state of the question.
In these distressing circumstances, we knew not what
determination to adopt. I closed my letter by stating
that, if left to myself alone, I would sign, without scru-
ple, any thing that the Governor might present to me ;
and that, if a collective resolution were taken, I would
implicitly adopt it.

The Governor had now found out a method of attack-
ing us in detail : he declared his intention of removing
any individual of Napoleon's suite according to his will
and caprice.

The Emperor was indisposed : the Doctor has observed
incipient scurvy. He desired me to attend him, and we
conversed on the subjects which chiefly occupied oar at-
tention at the moment. He wanted something to amuse
him, and he took up the chapter of Leoben, which hap-
pened to be beside him. When he had finished reading
it, the conversation turned on the conferences which

M. DB COBENTZEL. 371

brought about the treaty of Campo-Formio. I refer to
the chapters on that subject for the portrait and charac-
ter of the first Austrian negotiator, M. de Cohen tzel,
whom Napoleon surnamed the ** great northern hear,**
on account of the influence which, he said, his heavy
paw had exercised on the green table of the conferences.

'* M. de Cobentzel was at that time/' said the Empe-
ror, •* the agent of the Austrian monarchy, the main
spring of its plans, and the director of its diplomacy. He
had been appointed on all the principal European embas*
sies, and had been long at the Court of Catharine, whose
peculiar favour he enjoyed. Proud of his rank and im-
portance, he doubted not that his dignified and courtly
manners would easily overawe a General who had just
issued from the revolutionary camp. Thus," observed
Napoleon, " he shewed a want of respect in addressing the
French General : but the first words uttered by the latter
sufficed to reduce him to his proper level, above which
he never afterwards attempted to rise."

The conferences at first proceeded very slowly; for M.
de Cobentzel, according to the custom of the Austrian
Cabinet, proved himself very skilful in the art of retarding
business. The French General, however, determined to
bring matters to an issue : the conference, which he had
declared should be the last, was maintained with great
warmth. Napoleon came, resolved to have a decisive
answer to his propositions ; they were rejected. He then
rose in a fit of passion, and exclaimed energetically:
** You wish for war then ? — You shall have it :" and lay-
ing his hands on a magnificent piece of porcelain (which
M. de Cobentzel used with great complacency to boast of
having received as a present from the great Catharine),
he dashed it with all his force on the ground, where it
v/as broken into a thousand pieces. " There,*' he ex-
claimed, " such, I promise you, will be the fate of your
Austrian monarchy in less than three months : '* and, so
saying, he rushed out of the apartment. M. de Cobent-
zel stood petrified ; but M. de Gallo, who was of a mor«
conciliatory temper, followed the French General to his
carriage, endeavouring to detain him. *' He Almost
dragged me back by main force/' said the Emperor, " and

37S

M. DK OALLO.

with so pitiable an air, that, in spite of my apparent
anger, I could not refrain from laughing in my sleeve.*'

M. de Gallo was the ambassador from Naples to
Vienna, whither he had conducted the Neapolitan Prin-
cess, the second wife of the Emperor Francis. He
possessed the full confidence of the Princess, and she, in
her turn, ruled her husband : thus the ambassador enjoy-
ed great influence at the Court of Vienna. When the
army of Italy, marching on Vienna, dictated the armis-
tice of Leoben, the Empress, at this critical juncture,
cast her eyes on her confident, and charged him to avert
the danger. He was to gain an interview with the
French General, as if accidentaHy, and to endeavour to
prevail on him to accept his services as a negotiator.
Napoleon, who was well acquainted with every circum-
stance, determined to turn his knowledge to a good
account. Accordingly, on receiving M. de Gallo, he
inquired who he was. The favourite courtier, discon-
certed to find himself under the necessity of telling his
name, replied that he was the Marquess de Gallo, and
that he had been charged by the Emperor of Austria to
make overtures to Napoleon. ** But," said the latter,
"your name is not German." "True,** replied M. de
Gallo, '* I am the Neapolitan ambassador." ** And how
happens it," said Napoleon drily, '* that I have to treat
with Naples ? We are at peace. Has the Emperor of
Austria no negotiators of the old school ? Is the old
aristocracy of Vienna extinct ?" M. de Gallo, alarmed at
the idea of such observations being officially communi-
cated to the Cabinet of Vienna, now became intent
on ingratiating himself into the favour of the young
General.

Napoleon enquired what news had been received fron
Vienna, and spoke of the armies of the Rhine, the Sam
bre, and the Mcuse. He obtained all the intelligence hi
could ; and, when he was about to withdraw, M. de
Gallo, in the most suppliant tone, inquired whether he
might hope to be accepted as a negotiator, and whethei
he should proceed to Vienna to obtain full powers. Na-
poleon had no wish to decline this proposal ; he Yuut
gained an advantage which he was uot willing to loee

GENERAL CLARKE. 373

M. de Gallo, who subsequently became ambassador from
Naples to the First Consul, and also ambassador from
Joseph to the Emperor Nnpoleon, frequently mentioned
this scene, and frankly avowed that he had never been so
frightened in the whole course of his life.

In the French negotiations, Clarke acted the same
kind of secondary part which M. de Gallo maintained
with regard to Austria. ** Clarke," said the Emperor,
** had been sent to Italy by the Directory, which had
begun to consider me as dangerous. He was charged
with an ostensible and public mission ; but he had secret
orders to keep an eye upon me, and to ascertain if, in
case of necessity, it would be possible to arrest me. But
little reliance could have been placed on the officers of
my army, in an affair of this kind, and therefore the first
inquiries were addressed to the Cisalpine Directory. The
answer was that it would be as well to spare trouble on
this point, and to give up all idea of it. As soon as I
waf made acquainted with Clarke's real instructions, I
frankly told him all I knew ; at the same time assuring
him that I should concern myself but very little about
any reports that might be made. He was soon convinced
of this. When, on his mission to Austria, he was dis-
missed, by that Power, I offered to find employment for
him, and he afterwards remained with me; though
perhaps there was, in reality, but little sympathy between
us. I should undoubtedly have again taken him into
my service, after my return, if I had found him in the
ranks along with the rest. You know that I could not
easily rid myself of those to whom I had become accus-
tomed : when people had once embarked with me, I
could never prevail on myself to throw them overboard.
Nothing but absolute necessity could force me to such a
course. Clarke's chief merit was that of being a good
man of business."

After Brumaire, Clarke naturally came in contact
with the First Consul as his aid- de- camp, &c. There
was then little etiquette observed at the palace ; the du-
ties were not distinctly separated, and the whole pre-
sented a kind of family circle. The officers immediately
connected with the Consul dined at a general table.

374 OBNSRAL CLARKE.

Clarke, who was extremely susceptible and punctilious,
got involved in quarrels with one of these persons, llie
circumstance having reached the ears of the First Consul,
he appointed Clarke ambassador to Florence, to the court
of the Queen of Etruria. This post was in itself highly
agreeable ; but Clarke had been appointed to it by way
of disgrace. He urgently solicited his recal ; and, at
length, to his great satisfaction, he received an order to
return to France. But his punishment was not yet at an
end. The First Consul took but little notice of him : he
sent him to the Tuileries, to St. Cloud, and to the camp
of Boulogne, without explaining his intentions, or grant-
ing him any thing. Clarke, in despair, told one of his
friends that he had no alternative but to throw himself
into the Seine, as he could no longer endure the con-
tempt to which he was exposed, added to the mortifica-
tion of being deprived of his situation. Just at this time
he was unexpectedly made Secretary of the Topographical
Cabinet, Councillor of State, and appointed to some other
posts, which altogether produced him a salary of 60 or
80,000 francs. This was Napoleon's way: his first
favour was usually followed immediately by several others.
In these cases his bounty was overwhelming. But it was
necessary to take advantage of the interval of favour ;
it might be endless, or it might be instantly and irre-
trievablv lost.

I knew General Clarke well ; he had been my com-
rade at the Military School. He informed me that, some
days before the battle of Jena, the Emperor, from whose
dictation he had just written numerous orders and in-
structions, entering into a familiar conversation, while he
walked up and down his chamber, said : ** In three or
four days 1 will fight a battle, which I shall gain : it will
bring me at least as far as the Elbe, and perhaps to the
Vistula. There I will fight a second battle, which I
sha"' also gain. Then .... then . . . , " said he
with a meditative air, and placing his hand on his fore-
head ....** but that is enough ; it is useless to invent
romances, — Clarke, in a month you will be Governor of
Berlin ; and history will record that, in the space of one
year, and in two difierent wars, you were Governor of

GKNERAL CLARKE. 375

Vienna and Berlin ; that is to say, of the Austrian and
Prussian monarchies. By the bye, " continued he,
smiling, " what did Francis give you for governing his
capital ? " — ''Nothing at all, Sire.*' — ** How, nothing at
all ? — That was hard indeed ! Well, in that case, I must
pay his debt." And he gave him, as far as T can recollect,
a sum sufficient to purchase an hotel in Paris, or a coun-
try house in the vicinity of the capital.

The course of events exceeded even Napoleon's ex-
pectations. He fought but one battle, which brought
him to Berlin, and enabled him to advance to the
Vistula.

'* Clarke," said Napoleon, ** possessed a strong taste
for family parchments. At Florence he spent a great
portion of his time in investigating my genealogy. He
also took great pains to trace out his own, and I believe
he at length persuaded himself that he was related to tht
whole Faubourg Saint- Germain. Doubtless he has a
much higher opinion of his own dignity, now that he is
the Minister of a legitimate King then he had when he
was merely the Minister of an upstart Emperor. It is
said that he at present enjoys great favour ) I wish it may
last. It commenced a few days before my arrival at Paris,
when the cause of the King was desperate. It certainly
appeared useless to accept a ministry when all was lost ;
but I have nothing to say against that. This sort of
conduct may have its fair side ; yet it is necessary to ob-
serve some degree of decorum, and in that Clarke was
wholly wanting. However, I willingly forgive him in
all that concerns me . . . In 1813 and 1814 some per-
sons endeavoured to inspire me with doubts of Clarke's
fidelity ; but I never would listen to any thing of the
kind. I always beheved him to be an honest man." The
intimate friends of the Duke de Feltre can bear witness
that Napoleon was correct in the opinion he had formed
of the character of his minister.

The Duke de Feltre, on communicating to the Emperor
the intelligence of the arrival of the Count d' Artois in
Switzerland, advised him to make peace. Napoleon re-
phed, under date of 22d of February, 1814 : — **As toyoul
idvice of making peace, it is too absurd : it is by cherish^

376 THK COUNT D*ANTRAIGUK8.

ing such notions as this that public spirit is destroyed.
Besides, it is supposing me either mad or stupid to
imagine that, if I could conclude peace, I would not
immediately do it. To the prevailing notion that it has
been in my power to make peace for four months past,
but that I declined doing so, must be attributed all the
misfortunes of France. I expected, at least, to have
been spared the pain of hearing such sentiments
expressed. "

ITie Emperor, reverting to the events of Campo-For-
mio, alluded to the arrest of the Count d'Antraigues, the
papers that were found upon him, and the discoveries to
which they gave rise ; he also mentioned the indulgence
which the Count experienced, and the treachery with
which that indulgence was repaid.

The Count d'Antraigues, who was a man of consider-
able talent, fond of intrigue, and endowed with personal
advantages, had acquired a certain degree of importance
at the commencement of our Revolution. He was a
member of the right hand side of the Constituent As-
sembly, and he emigrated at the time of its dissolution.
At the period when the French were about to assail Ve-
nice, the Count d'Antraigues was residing there, where
he held a diplomatic appointment from the Russian
Government, and was the main spring and agent of all
the machinations that were plotting against France. On
seeing the danger of the Venetian Republic, he attempted
to escape ; but he fell in with one of our posts, and was
seized, with all his papers. The General-in-chief ap-
pointed a special commission to examine these documents,
and the secrets which they unfolded were the subject oi
great astonishment. They contained, among other things,
full proof of the treason of Pichegru, who had sacrificed his
troops to faciliate the operations of the enemy. ** Piche-
gru," exclaimed the Emperor indignantly, '* was guilty
of the most odious crime that can possibly be conceived,
that of coldly sacrificing the men whose lives had been
entrusted to his honour smd discretion."

The Count D'Antraigues, finding that all his secrets
were discovered, conducted himself with so much address
and apparent candour, that Napoleon, conceiving he had

THE COUNT D ANTRAIGUKS. S77

gained him over, or, to speak more properly suffering
himself to be gained over by the Count, treated him with
the utmost indulgence. He defended him against tlie
])roceediug8 of the Directory, which insisted on having
him shot, and the Count was allowed to proceed to Milan
on his parole. But what was Napoleon's surprise on
learning that M. d'Antraigues had escaped to Switzer-
land, and had published an infamous libel against him,
reproaching him with ill-treatment, and complaining of
having been confined in chains ? These falsehoods oc-
casioned so much indignation that several foreign diplo-
matists, who knew how Napoleon had really acted
towards the Count, spontaneously made a public declara-
tion of what they had witnessed.

So late as the year 1814, the Count d'Antraigues died
in England, in a horrible way, being assassinated by his
valet-de-chambre in the presence of his wife, who was
the celebrated singer Saint Huberti.

At the time of the seizure of the Count d'Antraigues*
papers, Pichegru was at the head of the Legislative
Body, and was almost at open war with the Directory.
It may well be supposed that the members of the
Directory were highly gratified by thus obtaining impor-
tant and authentic documents against their adversaries.
This discovery greatly influenced Napoleon in the course
which he adopted in the events of Fructidor : it was one
of the principal causes of his famous proclamation,
which brought about the triumph of the Directoi*y.

Desaix, who was serving under Moreau in the army of
the Rhine, having taken advantage of the armistice to
introduce himself to the General-in- chief of the army of
Italy, for whom he had conceived the highest admiration,
was with Napoleon at the time of the important dis-
covery above mentioned. Napoleon having informed
him of the treason of Pichegru, Desaix observed ; " But
we knew all this on the Rhine three months ago. A
waggon, belonging to General Klinglin*s corps, which
fell into our hands, furnished us with all Pichegru's cor-
respondence with the enemies of the Republic.**—** And
did Moreau give no intimation of this to the Directory ?"
•* No." — " Then he is very blameable/' exclaimed Napo-

378 SINGULAR DRBAM .

leon ; *' when the safety of one's country is at stake
silence is guilt ! " After Pichegru's fedl, Moreaa oom-
muuicated to the Directory all he knew respecting the
conspiracy, at the same time pronouncing a severe repro-
bation on those who were concerned in it. '* This was
but another instance of misconduct/' said Napoleon; " by
not speaking earlier, he betrayed his country; and by
speaking so late, he merely struck a blow at one who
was already fallen."

THB EMPBROR's DRBAM.

1 1th — 12th. The produce of the sale of a portion of
plate, amounting to 6000 francs, was this day received.
This sum the Emperor considered indispensible to make
up our deficiencies at the expiration of every month »
and he ordered the sale to be repeated reg^arly.

The Emperor continues very ill, and is in very low
spirits. To-day he did not leave his room until dinner-
time. He conversed very little, and did not apply him-
self to any kind of occupation. J remained with him the
greater part of the day. He spoke frequently of the
situation in which we stood with respect to the Go-
vernor, and made some very remarkable observations on
that subject ,

After dinner he mentioned a dream which he had had
during the night. A lady with whom he had been but
little acquainted (Madame Clarke, Duchess de Feltre
appeared to him in his dream, and told him she was
dead, at the same time adding several observations whicli
were expressed in language perfectly connected and
intelligible. "Every thing was so clear and distinct/'
suid the Emperor, ** that it has made a forcible impression
un me ; so much so that if I were really to hear of the
death of the Duchess de Feltre, I must confess that my
established ideas would be shaken ; and perhaps/' aaid
he, smiling and looking at one of the company, " I
too should become a believer in dreams and ap-
paritions."

The Emperor ate little; his spirits were depressed*
and he was evidently very ill. He retired almost im*

CLAIMS ON BUOBNK. 379

mediately, and his manner affected us greatly. We
could not help remarking how much he was altered.

PRIVATIONS TO WHICH THE EMPEROR IS SUBJECTED.

HIS CLAIMS ON PRINCE EUGENE.

13th. — ^The Emperor came to me about ten o'clock.
He looked in at my room -door, and blamed me for not
having risen earlier. He found me using the foot-bath
for I was not well. I soon joined him beneath the tent,
where he wished to breakfast. He told me he had given
orders for drawing up some notes relative to the new
restrictions, to prevent condemnation being passed on us
without a sort of responsibility being attached to those
who passed the sentence. He then proceeded to calcu-
late the lots of plate which remain to be sold, and the
period during which they would serve to maintain us. I
repeated the offers which I have already several times
made, telling him that it was hard he should be reduced
to the necessity of disposing of his plate ; but he replied,
— ** My dear Las Cases, under whatever circumstances I
may be placed, those articles of luxury are never of any
importance to me ; and as far as regards others, that is
to say, as far as regards the public, simplicity will always
be my best ornament." He added that he could, after
all, claim the assistance of Prince Eugene ; and that he
was even inclined to write to him for the loans which
would be necessary for his subsistence when the plate
should be exhausted. He also expressed his intention
of commissioning Eugene to forward to him some im-
portant books which he wished to have sent from
London, together with a small quantity of choice wine,
which it was necessary he should take as a medicine.
"This commission for wine,*' said he, will make our
enemies in Europe say that we think of nothing here
but eating and drinking." He said that he should feel
no hesitation in addressing himself on this subject to
Eugene, who owed to him every thing he possessed ;
and that it would be insulting the character of the
Prince to doubt his readiness to serve him, particularly
us he had, besides, a legal claim upon him for about ten
or twelve millions.

380 REQUIRED DECLARATION.

While we were at breakfast, the Emperor sent for
the Pole, who is soon to leave us. After breakfast be
wished to employ himself in reading or dictating ; but
he felt very drowsy, and fell asleep several times.
He retired to his chamber, to lie down for a while,
desiring me to attend him at one o'clock for hts English
lesson. But when the appointed hour arrived, he was
still in the same state of drowsiness; and he only
succeeded in rousing himself by taking a bath, in which,
according to custom, he remained for a long time. It is
surprising that this practice, joined to that of taking
very hot baths, does not prove injurious to him.

The Emperor ate but little dinner, and he complained
of not enjoying regular and sound rest. He conversed
for some time on the subject of balloons, and laughed
at those biographical notices which represent him as
having forced himself, sword in hand, into the balloon
of the military school. He mentioned, as a sort of
prodigy, the circumstance of the balloon which ascended
at his coronation having fallen, in the space of a few
hours, in the neighbourhood of Rome, bearing intelli-
gence of the ceremony to the inhabitants of that
city.

The Emperor took up Don Quixote ; but he closed
the book in about half an hour ; he cannot now apply
himself to reading for a longer interval. His health
visibly declines. He often observes to me that we are
both growing very old, and that he is much the older of
the two : these words tell a great deal.

THE REQUIRED DECLARATION IS SENT TO THE GOVERNOR.
— THE EMPEROR REMARKS THAT MANY MODERN BOOKS

ARE MERELY BOOKSELLERS* SPECULATIONS. FALSB

NOTIONS CREATED BY PARTY SPIRIT. GENERAL

MAISON.

14th. — To-day the Grand Marshal forwarded to the
Governor the new declarations which he required us to
make. They were all alike, and were as follows :

'* I, the undersigned, hereby declare that I wish to
remain at St. Helena, and to share the restrictions which
are imposed on the Emperor Napoleon personally/'

NAPOLEON CORRECTED. «381

Abciut one o'clock I went to attend the Emperor in his
chamber. I gave him an account of some private com-
missions. He was reading a work on the government
of France. He thought it very indiflferent, and observed
that, since he had been in the habit of perusing new
publications, he had found them, for the most part, to be
merely matters of speculation, — things got up for sale
by booksellers. The world, he said, was now threatened
with a deluge of bad books, and he saw no remedy that
could effectually counteract so great an evil.

After having dressed, the Emperor repaired to the
drawing-room, where he looked over a few English
newspapers, and read some lines of Telemachus. But he
felt fatigued and low-spirited, and suspended his reading.
We discoursed on several subjects which intimately con-
cerned the Emperor, who closed the conversation by
several times repeating, — ** Poor human nature !"

During another interval of conversation. Napoleon,
taking a review of several well-known individuals, on
whom he pronounced his opinion, alluded to one, whom
he represented as being a most immoral and base charac-
ter. I happened to be acquainted with this person, and
I observed that I knew him to be quite the reverse of
what I had just heard described. I ,was defending the
individual in question with considerable warmth when
the Emperor interrupted me, saying : " I give full credit
to what you say ; but I had heard a different account of
him : and though I generally made it a rule to hear
things of this kind with suspicion, yet you see I could
not always avoid retaining some impression of what I
heard. Was this my fault ? When 1 had no particular
motive for inquiry, how could I arrive at the knowledge
of facts ? This," continued he, " is the inevitable conse-
quence of civil commotions : there are always two repu-
tations between the two parties. What absurdities,
what ridiculous stories, are related of the individuals who
figured in our Revolution !* The saloons of Paris are

* I take this opportunity of correcting an error of the nature
aere alluded to. In a preceding part of this work, it is stated that
Mr.Monge ascended the Jacobinical tribune, &c. The friends and

882 8HUPFLINO OP THK GOTBRNOR.

full of them. I have had my full share of this kind of
scandal. After me who can have any right to complain ?
Yet I protest that nothing of this sort ever produced any
influence on my mind, or occasioned me in any instance
to alter my determinations, &c."

After aUuding to several military officers, the Empe-
ror mentioned General Maison. " His manoeuvres," said
he, "round Lille, in the crisis of 1814, attracted my
attention, and fixed him in my rea"»llection. He was
not with us in 1815. What became of him? Where
was he at that time?" — I could not answer these
questions, as I did not know the General.

DIFFICULTIES STARTED BY THE GOVERNOR RB8PECTIN6

OUR DECLARATIONS. THE EMPEROr's SENTIMENTS

ON THAT SUBJECT. THE GOVERNOR'S rONVERSATION

WITH BACH INDIVIDUAL OF THE EMPKROR'r SUITS.

napoleon's remark. CONSUMMATION OF OUR

SLAVERY.

15th. For some time past I have found if i^ppoRsible
to sleep; and I have passed whole nights without
closing my eyes. About eight o'clock this morning, as
I was endeavouring to compose myself to rest, the Grand
Marshal entered mv chamber, to inform me that the
Governor had sent back our declarations, and was
coming himself to oblige us to sign that which he had
sent as a model, and which differed from ours only with
respect to the title which we gave to the Emperor. It
was wished that we should designate him merely by the
name Bonaparte.

The Grand Marshal proceeded to the Emperor's
apartments, whither I was almost immediately sum-
moned. On entering, I found the Emperor walking
about and expressing himself with great warmth. All

relatives of that distinguished man have, however, assured me that
all who knew him at the time in question can bear witness that be
never appeared among them, and that he never spoke in any public
assembly. I feel pleasure in mentioning this circumstance ; for
nothing aiFords me greatei happiness Uian to be the means o*
developing truth.

INSULTING CRUBLTT. 383

the individnals of the suite were afisembled together.
** The insults," said he, " which are daily heaped upon
those who have devoted themselves to me, insults which,
it is very probable, will be multiplied to a still greater
extent, present a spectacle which I cannot and must not
longer endure. Gentlemen, you must leave me ; I can-
not see you submit to the restrictions which are about to
be imposed on you, and which will doubtless soon be
augn)ented. I will remain her alone. Return to Eu-
rope, and make known the horrible treatment to which
I am exposed ; bear witness that you saw me sinking
into a prtmature grave. I will not allow any one of you
to sign this declaration in the form that is required. I
forbid it. It shall never be said that hands which I had
the power to command were employed in recording my
degradation. If obstacles are raised respecting a mere
foolish formality, others will be started to-morrow for an
equally trivial cause. It is determined to remove you in
detail ; but I would rather see you removed altogether
and at once. Perhaps this sacrifice may produce a result."
With these words he dismissed us, and we withdrew
overwhelmed with dismay.

In a few moments the Emperor again sent for me.
He was walking up and down, through the whole length
of his two little rooms. There was a peculiar tenderness
in the tone of his voice, and I never observed more easy
familiarity in his manner. ** Well, my dear Las Cases,"
said he, " I am going to turn hermit," *' Sire," said I,
"are you not one already? What resources does our
society present to you ? We can only offer you prayers
and good wishes ; which, though they can contribute but
little to your consolation, are every thing to us. Our
present situation is the most distressing that can possibly
be conceived ; for, in the question under consideration,
we now perhaps, for the first time, find it difficult to obey
your Majesty. You hold the lauguage of reason ; while
we are guided only by sentiment. The arguments which
you just now addressed to us admit of no reply. Your
determination is in unison with your character ; it will
astonish no one, but its execution is beyond our power.
The thought of leaving you here alone exceeds in horror

384 KINDNESS OF NAPOLBON.

all that our imagination can picture." — " Such, howevei ,
is my fate," replied the Emperor calmly, ;* and I must
prepare for the worst : my mind is strong enough to
meet it. Thev will cut short my life ; that is certain."
— ** Sire/* I observed, ** the step which yon command is
not to be thought of. To the last moment I will speak
out as your Majesty has done : on this point I will resist
to the utmost ; but I shall fiud it impossible to act as I
speak."

The Emperor seated himself, and desired me to sit
down beside him. He observed that he was much
fatigued ; and he ordered breakfast, desiring me to stay
with him. For a considerable time past, 1 had not been
in the habit of dining with him : he told me the reason
why I had been denied this happiness ; and I considered
it as a favour that he should condescend to tell me.
When the coffee was brought in, there was no cup for
me. Marchand was going to fetch one ; but the Empe-
ror called him back, saying : ** Take that one from the
mantel- piece : he shall drink out of my handsome gold
cup. •

Just as breakfast was over, the Grand Marshal entered
and told us that the Governor had arrived, and had ex-
pressed a wish to see him at his (Bertrand's) new house,
which is a very short distance Irom our establishment,
and is at length on the point of being completed. The
Emperor desired him to attend the Governor. The
Grand Marshal, as he was about to withdraw, seemed
desirous to know whether the Emperor still persisted in

^— ^^ ■ ^i^-^— ■■■■■■■ ■■ ■ I a^— — ^11^^^^^— ^^^■^■^^■^^M^ I ■ !■ — ^^M^—

• This was the cup belonging to liis dressing-table, which stood
on the chimney-piece as an ornament.

I have now the happiness of possessing the saucer belonging to
this cup. M. Marchand, that faithful servant, to whom Napoleon
declared himself so much attached, on his return from St. Helena,
came and presented this saucer to me, in a manner that forcibly
roused my gratitude and sensibility. ** The beautiful cup," said
he, " out of which you sometimes drar4, belonged to the Emperor's
dressing-table, and was accordingly restored to its place. The
saucer, however, among oilier articles, fell to my share ; and I now
present it to you, being assured that you will feel as much pleasurt
lb receiving as I have in giving it"

INTERVIEW WITH THB OOV£RNOR. 385

the orders he had given us this morning, in case the
Governor should not yield. The Emperor sharply ob-
served ; ** I am not a child j when I have once thoroughly
considered a question, I no longer entertain two opinions
upon it. I have directed battles which have decided the
fate of empires, and the orders I issued were always the
result of my mature deliberation. In this instance I am
alone concerned. Go 1"

The Grand Marshal soon returned with an account
of the interview, which he had closed by his refusal. The
Governor, he said, had desired to see the other three per-
sons of the suite together ; but we thought that it would
be more proper to present ourselves in succession.

1 went to wait on the Governor. I found him, sur-
rounded by several of his attendants, in the garden, near
the path leading to the Grand Marshal's house. He
withdrew on perceiving me ; but I joined him in the
court before the house.

As he had expressed himself ' very much irritated
against me, I went as well fortified as I possibly could.
He, however, conducted me with great politeness into the
house, leaving the officers of his suite on the outside ,
and, having told me that he awaited the arrival of Messrs,
de Montholon and Gourgaud, to enter upon the business,
I asked him whether he had any objection to treat imme-
diately with me. He replied that he had not ; and, cal-
ling in his officers, he told me, in their presence, that I
had no doubt learned from the Grand Marshal what he
had to propose on the subject of my declaration. I re-
plied in the affirmative, at the same time observing that
I regarded the Grand Marshal as my model and guide,
on account of his rank, as well as the respect and esteem
I entertained for him, and therefore it was natural to ex-
pect that my answer should correspond with his. I added
tliat 1 could not conceive why so much importance was
attached to a mere matter of form, which was so painful
to our feelings, while it could be of no service to those
who insisted on it. ** It is out of my power," said the
Governor, ** to make the alteration you wish. I am di-
rected to present to you for signature the declaration
written in my hand : now I, being an Englishman, can-
VOL. III.— 17

386 INTBRVIRW WITH THE GOVBRNOft.

not write the title vou wish.** — ** I was not aware of that"
replied I ; ** to that argument I have no reply to make.
You, as an Englishman, must write thus ; but I, being a
Frenchman, must sign in my language ; that is to say,
with the translation from yours. Allow me, therefore,
to add to my signature any phrase that you may think
proper to dictate to me, in which I can express myself
in my own language. You may now judge,*' added I,
** whether I deal candidly, and whether I seek to create
difficulties." This proposal seemed to claim his atten-
tion. ** We are now," I continued, ** merely disputing
about words, which may appear very silly, considering
the important circumstances in which we are placed ; but.
Sir, who created these difficulties ? Who will suffer from
them } Your refusal places us in a most distressing situa-
tion ! You see me reduced to the utmost despair I To me
separation from the Emperor would be worse than death ;
vet I would rather submit to it than suffer my hand to
be the instrument of his degradation. The Emperor
unites in himself all that constitutes an august character,
in the eyes of God and man : to deny this would be to
deny the light of the sun.**

The Governor observed that he, as an Englishman,
could not acknowledge the Emperor ; and I replied that I
could urge no objection to that. I added that however
much I might be hurt by his mode of designating the
Emperor, yet I did not mean to question his right of usin^
whatever terms he might think proper ; and that, for the
same reason, he ought not to object to my opinions and
expressions, considering that I was a Frenchman, and
that he demanded my signature.

Here Sir Hudson Lowe angrily alluded to some past
circumstances relating to himself personally ; and he ob -
served that, after all, moral character was the only real
title to respect. *'At that rate, Governor," replied I,
with some warmth, and turning to the Officers who were
in attendance, " the Emperor may divest himself of all
his titles, and he will but gain in the opinion of the
world, if his character be estimated bv the scale to which
you allude.*' The Governor was silent : 'then, after a
pause of a few moments, he observed that we still tr^fite^^

INTERVIEW WITH THil «OVKRNOK. t387

our General as though he were an Emperor. " And
how can we treat him otherwise ?" — ** I mean to sav,
that you continue to look upon him as a Sovereign." —
** Governor, you talk of revering him as our Sovereign ;
we do more — we worship him ! We now consider the
Emperor as removed from this world ; we view him as

though he were in Heaven ! When you leave

us a choice that is ii^ opposition to him, it is like the
choice given to martyrs, when they are commanded to
renounce their faith or die. '* Death, therefore, must be
our alternative." These words produced a visible im-
pression on the officers who were present, and even on the
Governor. Contrary to custom, his countenance assu-
med a mild expression, and the tone of his voice was
softened.

** Our situation here," continued I, ** is so horrible as
to be almost beyond endurance. You know this ; — but
what we now suffer is nothing to the misery which is re-
served for us. What I ask will be no sacrifice to vou,
and it will be every thing to us, I implore you to grant
^^hat I request; and this is something, for you know I
am not in the habit of soliciting favours from you. Make
but this one concession, and vou will claim mv eternal
gratitude. Besides, consider that a responsibility rests
with you ; that there is a public opinion in Europe, which
you may forfeit without gaining any advantage in return.
You cannot be a stranger to the sentiments which ani-
mate me ; they must, I am sure, go to the hearts of all
who listen to me."

Here the Governor appeared somewhat moved; the
officers were evidently affected. Sir Hudson Lowe, after
a few moments* silence^ bowed to me, and I took my
leave.

Messrs. de Montholon and Gourgaud had each an in-
terview in their turn ; and we all four attended the Empe*
ror during his toilet, without, however, being able to tell
him whether any decision had been formed on the subject
that so deeply interested us.

The Emperor expressed a wish to go out, though the
wind was extremely boisterous : we all walked to the
extremity of the wood. He took a review of the Gover-

388 MESSAGE OF NAPOLEON.

nor*s conduct, making remarks upon it in the rapid and
copious way peculiar to himself; and he concluded by
saying that if to-day we should agree to sign the decla*
ration, in order to avoid being separated from him, to-
morrow another ground of expulsion would be brought
forward ; and that he should wish our removal to be effec-
ted forcibly and at once, rather than tranquilly and in
detail. Then, suddenly assuming a tone of pleasantry,
he said that, after all, he could hardly believe the Gover-
nor wished to reduce his subjects to one only ; and what
sort of subject would that one be ! added he — an abso-
lute porcupine, on which he would not dare to lay a
finger.

During our walk, two strangers approached pretty
near to us. The Emperor made some one enquire who
they were, and he was informed that they belonged to a
vessel which was about to sail to-morrow for Europe.
The Emperor asked whether they were likely to see any
of the Ministers on their arrival in London; and they
replied that they should see Lord Bathurst. ** Tell him,"
said ** Napoleon, that his instructions with respect to my
treatment here are most odious, and that his agent
executes them with scrupulous fidelity. If he wished to
get rid of me, he should have despatched me at a blow,
instead of thus killing me by inches. This conduct is
truly barbarous ; there is nothing English in it 5 and I
can only attribute it to some personal hatred. I have
too much respect for the Prince Regent, the majority of
the Ministers, and the English nation, to suppose that
they are responsible for my treatment. Be this as it
may, their power extends only to the body ; the soul is
beyond their reach ; it will soar to Heaven even from
the dungeon."

The Emperor, on his return home, took a bath ; he
was fatigued and harassed by the events of the day. He
fell asleep, and I watched beside him, meditating on our
new grievances.

At dinner he ate but a little. Some one made an
observation, and the Emperor, not having heard it
distinctly, asked what had been said — a thing which
frequently happens. The w^ords were then repeated in a

MALIGNITY OF THE GOVERNOR. 389

louder tone, upon which he observed : " I am certainly
growing deaf, for I occasionally miss hearing what ia
said, and I feel inclined to be angry when people speak
louder than usual." He concluded the evening by
reading a part of Don Quixote. He was much amused
at some comic passages; and, laying down the book, he
remarked that we certainly showed a great deal of cou-
rage, since we could laugh at such trifles under our pre-
sent circumstances. He paused for some moments, ana
seemed deeply wrapped in thought : then rising, he
withdrew, saying : " Adieu, my dear friends."

During dinner, a lettei had been delivered to me from
the Grand Marshal ; but I had kept it concealed, con-
ceiving that it augured no good. I opened it as soon as
the Emperor withdrew. It enclosed a letter from the
Governor, announcing that if we still persisted in our
refusal to sign the declaration, he would immediately
give orders for our removal to Europe. We yielded to
the dictates of our hearts : to determine on leaving the
Emperor was beyond our power ; while at the same time
it would have been going beyond his wishes, and perhaps
too beyond his orders. With unanimous sentiments, we
eagerly signed the declarations in the form in which they
were presented to us, and delivered them to the English
officer on duty at Longwood, together with a letter to
the Grand Marshal, acquainting him with what we had
done without his participation. We had been guided
solely by our feelings, and we trusted that those feelings
would afford us consolation, even though the Emperor
should disapprove of the step we had taken.

We have now reached tiie consummation of our ab-
solute slavery and dependence on the will and caprice of
Sir Hudson Lowe ; not merely by the signature we have
just given him, but because he now knows our secret,
and therefore it is in his power to compel us to submit to
ftny thing he pleases.

390

ANECDOTES OF SIBTE8. THE EMPEROR FREQUENTLY

ATTENDED POPULAR FESTIVITIES IN DISGUISE. HIg

VISITS TO THE FAUBOURG SAINT-ANTOINE, AFTER Hi8
RETURN FROM MOSCOW AND FROM THE ISLAND OF
ELBA.— MANNERS DURING THE TIME OF THE DIREC-
TORY. REMARKABLE OFFICIAL NOTE.

16th. — The Emperor sent for me about noon. He
had been reading, and was just finishing his coffee. He
desired me to sit down, and he entered into conversation.
Not a word escaped him that could lead me to suppose
he knew the determination we had adopted yesterday
evening ; he made no allusion to the subject, and it was
not mentioned throughout the whole of the day. After
breakfast, the Emperor walked about his apartments.
The turn of the conversation introduced some anecdotes
of former times, of which Sieyes was the subject. The
Emperor related that while Sieyes was chaplain to the
Princes of Orleans, being one day engaged in performing
mass, something unexpectedly occasioned the Princes to
withdraw during the service; upon which the Abb^,
looking up and seeing only the valets present, immedi-
ately closed his book, observing that he was not engaged
to perform mass to the rabble.

'* Your Majesty," said I, ** was the first who made me
acquainted with the name and person of Sieyes. A few
days after my presentation at Court, your Majesty, at one
of your audiences, having passed by me, stopped to speak
to the person who stood next to me, addressing him by
name. All my emigrant prejudices were yet in full force*
and I thought myself polluted by coming in contact with
one whom I regarded as an absolute monster, and whom
I had never heard mentioned except as an object of the
bitterest imprecation." ** Doubtless," said the Emperor^
** you were thinking of the mort sans phrase. But I
have heard it affirmed that Sieyes denied that."

I now repeated an anecdote which used to be cirTxi-
lated in the Faubourg Saint- Germain, and on which, the
first time I related it, the Emperor made no observation.
Sieyes was described as having used the epithet tyrant in
speaking of Louis XVI., to which Napoleon was said to

8IBTES. 391

have replied, " Monsieur TAbbe, if he had been a tyrant
I should not be here, and you would still be performing
mass.'* ** I might have thought so/* said the Emperor,
on my relating this anecdote for the second time ; ** but
I should certainly not have been fool enough to say so.
This is one of the absurd stories invented in the drawing-
rooms of Paris. I never committed blunders of that
kind : my object was to extinguish, and not to feed, the
flame. The torrent of hostility was already too forcibly
directed against certain leaders of the Revolution. I
found it necessary to support and countenance them;
and I did so. Some one having procured — God knows
where — a bust of Sieyes in his ecclesiastical character, it
was publickly exhibited, and occasioned a universal up-
roar. Sieyes, in a furious passion, set out to make a
complaint to me ; but I had already given the necessary
reprimand, and the bust was again consigned to obscu-
ritv.

•* My great principle was to guard against re-action,
and to bury the past in oblivion. I never condemned
any opinion, or proscribed any act. I was surrounded
by the men who had voted for the death of Louis XVI. :
they were in the Ministry, and in the Council of State.
I did not approve of their doctrines ; but what had J
to do with them ? what right had I to constitute myself
their judge ? Some had been actuated by conviction,
others by weakness and terror, and all by the dehrium
and fury of the moment. The fatality of the Greek
tragedy was exemplified in the life of Louis XVL"

I told the Emperor that it was reported in the Fau-
bourg Saint- Germain that Sieyes had been detected in a
conspiracy against him, in the afiair of M. Clement de
Ris ; and that he (Napoleon) had pardoned him, on
condition of his entirely withdrawing himself from any
participation in political affairs. ''This is another idle
story, for which there is not the slightest, foundation,"
said the Emperor. " Sieyes was always attached to me,
and I never had any cause to complain of him. He was
probably vexed to find that I opposed his metaphysical
ideas ; but he was at length convinced that it was neces-
sary for France to have a ruler, and he preferred me to

S92 8IBTB8.

any other. Sieyes was, after aU, an honest and a very
clever man : he did much for the Revolution/*

The Emperor mentioned that at one of the first public
festivals that took place during the Consulate, as he was
viewing the illuminations in company with Sieyes, he
asked him what he thought of the state of afiairs. Sieyes
replied in a cold and even a disheartening tone, ** And
yet,'* resumed Napoleon, ** I had this morning very
satisfactory proofs of the spirit of the people." — " It is
seldom," replied Sieyes," that the people shew their real
spirit, when the man who is possessed of power present^
himself to their gaze. I can assure you they are far
from being satisfied.'* — ** Then you do not think the
present government firmly established ?*' — ** No." —
"And when do you suppose we shall be settled?" — ;
** When I see the Dukes and Marquises of the old court
in your ante-chamber.'* — "Sieyes," added the Emperor,
•' little dreamed that this would so soon be the case. He
was short-sighted, and could not see very far before him.
I thought, as he did, that all could not end with the
Republic ; but I foresaw the establishment of the Empire.
Accordingly, two or three years afterwards, the circum-
stance I have just related being still fresh in my recollec-
tion, I said to Sieyes, at one of my grand audiences :
** Well, you are now pell-mell with all the old Dukes and
Marquises; do you think all is settled now?" — " Oh,-
yes," replied Sieyes, bowing profoundly ; ** you have
wrought miracles, which were never before equalled,
and which I never could have foreseen."

During the Consulate, Napoleon was once standing in
front of the Hotel de la Marine, viewing a public illumi-.
nation. Beside him was a lady, who to all appearance,
had formerly moved in a distinguished sphere, accom-
panied by her daughter, a very pretty girl, to whom she.
was pointing out all the persons of note, as they passed
to and fro in the apartments. Calling her daughter's
attention to a certain individual, she said : " Remind ma
to go and pay my respects to him some day. We ought
to do so, for he has rendered us great service.** ** But,
mother,'* replied the young lady. " I did not know that
we were expected to shew gratitude to such people. !•

NAPOLEON IN DISGUISE. 391

tiiought they were too happy in being able to oblige
persons of our quality." ** Certainly," said the Em-
peror, "La Bruyere would have turned this incident to
good account."

Napoleon sometimes went out in disguise early in the
morning, traveri«ing the streets of the capital alone, and
mingling with the labouring classes of the people, with
whose condition and sentiments he wished to make him-
self acquainted. In the Council of State I have often
heard him advise the Prefect of Police to adopt this plan.
He called it the Caliph system of police, and said he
esteemed it to be the best.

On his return from the disastrous campaigns of Mos-
cow and Leipsic, Napoleon, in order to maintain the
appearance of confidence, frequently appeared amidst
the multitude with scarcely any attendants. He visited
the market-places, the faubourgs, and aU the populous
districts of the capital, conversing familiarly with the
people ; and he was every where received and treated
with respect.

One day, at La Halle, a woman with whom he had
been holding a little dialogue, bluntly told him he ought
to make peace. ** Good woman," replied the Emperor,
** sell your greens, and leave me to settle my affairs.
Let every one attend to his own calling." The by-
standers laughed, and applauded him.

On another occasion, at the Faubourg Saint- Antoine»
when surrounded by an immense concourse of people,
whom he was treating very condescendingly, some one
asked whether afiairs were really as bad as they were
represented to be ? " Why, certainly," replied the Em-
peror, " I cannot say that things are going on very
well." '* But what will be the end of this ?" *' Heaven
knows ! " *' Will the enemy enter France ?" " Very
possibly ; and he may even march to Paris if you do not
assist me. I have not a million of arms. I cannot do
all by my own individual efforts," " We will support
you," exclaimed a number of voices. ^'Then I shall
beat the enemy, and preserve the glory of France."
" But what must we do?" "You must enlist and
fight." ** We will," said one of the crowd ; ** but w«i

17»

894 NAPOLBON WITH THB PEOPLB.

must make a few conditions !*' " What are they ?**
** We will not pass the frontier." *' You shall not be
recjuired to do so." '* We wish to serve in the guards/*
said another. *' You shall do so." The air instantly
resounded with acclamations. Registers were immedi-
ately opened, and two thousand men enlisted in the
course of the day. Napoleon returned to the Tuileries ;
and, as he entered the Place Carousel on horseback, sur-
rounded by the multitude, whose acclamations rent the
air, it was supposed that an insurrection had broken out,
and the gates were about to be cU>sed.

On his return from the Island of Elba, the Emperor
made another visit to the Faubourg Saint- Antoine, where
he was received with equal enthusiasm ^ and conducted
back to the palace in a similar manner. As he passed
through the Faubourg Saint- Germain, the multitude who
escorted him halted before the principal hotels, and
manifested their disapprobation by angry words and ges-
tures. The Emperor observed that he had scarcely ever
been placed in so delicate a situation. ** How many
evils might have ensued,'* said he, " had a single stone
been thrown by the mob. Had a single imprudent
word, or even an equivocal look, escaped me, the whole
Faubourg might have been destroyed ; and I am con-
vinced that its preservation was to be attributed wholly
to my presence of mind, and the respect which the mul-
titude entertained for me."

To-day I attended the Emperor at his toilet. Santini
was cutting his hair, and a large tuft fell at my feet. I
stooped to pick it up, and the Emperor, observing me,
asked what I was doing. I replied that I had dropped
something, upon which he smiled and pinched my ear :
he guessed what I had picked up.

Speaking of the depravity and corruption of manners
which prevailed at the time when he commanded the
army of the interior in Paris, Napoleon mentioned that
a contractor came to solicit some signatures from him*
and to beg that he would give his support to certain ap-
pointments and supplies : this he promised to do without
hesitation, conceiving that there was nothing unfair in
the proposal. Before he withdrew, the contractor dex*

napoleon's increasing illness. 395

trously took an opportunity of leaving on the chimney-
piece two rouleaux containing a hundred Louis. This
was an enormous sum in specie, for at that time paper
money was chiefly in use. Fortunately, the General was
the first to discover the circumstance, and the visitor
was called hack hefore he had gone far. He at first at-
tempted to deny having left the money ; but he after-
wards acknowledged it, observing that every one must
live, and that the method he had adopted was, he be-
lieved, the general one. He, however, hoped that he
might be forgiven if he had unintentionally done wrong,
adding that it was very seldom necessary to ask pardon
for such oflfences.

At the hour at which the Emperor generally takes his
walk, he found himself very drowsy ; but he was deter-
mined to rouse himself, and he went out though the wind
was blowing violently. After walking a short distance,
he returned to the house, and we entered Madame de
Montholon's apartment. The Emperor had no sooner
seated himself on the sofa, than he felt inclined to fall
asleep. He rose and proceeded to the drawing-room.
He complained of great internal heat, and asked for a
glass of toast and water. His drowsiness still continued,
and he retired to his chamber to lie down.

About seven o'clock he sent for me, and gave me the
following note, which he desired me to keep along with
the rest of the official papers. It was the copy of a note
which he had sent that rooming to the Governor ....

Note, — ** I recollect that in a conversation which took
place between General Lowe and some of the gentlemen
of my suite, (alluding to the conversation of the 15th,)
some observations were made respecting my situation,
which were not conformable with my ideas. I abdicated

m

to the Representatives of the people and in favour of my
son. I proceeded with confidence to England, with the
intention of living either there or in America, in profound
retirement, and under the name of a Colonel who was
killed in battle by my side / had resolved to have no-
thing to do with political affairs of any kind whatever.

" When I went on board the Northumberland, I wai
informed that I was a prisoner of war, that I was to h9

396 napoleon's fresh protbst,

transported beyond the Line, and that I was to be called
General Bonaparte. This obliged me to retain ostensibly
the title of the Emperor Napoleon, in opposition to the
name of General Bonaparte, which was thus to be forced
upon me.

** About seven or eight months ago. Count Montholon
proposed to obviate the little difficulties that are continu-
ally arising, by my adopting an ordinary name. The
Admiral thought it necessary to write to London on this
subject, and there the matter rested.

** The name which is now applied to me has the ad-
vantage of not prejudging the past ; but it is not in
unison with the forms of society. / am stiU disposed to
assume a name that may be conformable with custom; I
once more repeat that whenever I may be released from
my cruel captivity, / am still willing to continue a stran^
ger to all political affairs, whatever may take place in
the world. Such is my determination; and no other
declaration, on this subject, has my sanction."

The Emperor ate but little dinner ; there was some-
thing very extraordinary in the lethargy that had come
over him. He had been overpowered by drowsiness. du-
ring the whole of the day ; and yet when he withdrew he
said he was afraid he should not sleep, his sensations
were so extraordinary. He generally rests soundly when
he is inclined to sleep, but he had been dozing all day
long without being able to get any rest.

To-day a frigate sailed for Europe.

LOUIS XVI. MARIS ANTOINETTE. MADAMB CAMPAN.

LEONARD. THE PRINCESS DB LAMBALLB.

17th. About noon the Emperor sent for me; he had
just finished his breakfast. He was no better than he
had been yesterday. He endeavoured to converse a little,
and then read in English a few pages of the Vicar of
Wakefield. He still complained of drowsiness, and, after
several vain eflforts to rouse himself, he retired to his
chamber to try to get a nap. He was the more aston-
ished that this heaviness should continue, as he said he
had slept well during the night.
. He aid not leave his chamber until dinner was ready -

LOUIS XVI. &c. 397

and after dinner he tried to read a little of Don Quixote;
but he almost immediately laid down the book, and re-
tired. As it was very early, he sent for me after he had
gone to bed» and I remained with him nearly an houi
conversing on diflferent subjects.

We spoke of Louis XVI., the Queen, Madame Elizabeth,
their martyrdom, &c. He asked me to tell him what I
knew of the King and Queen, and what they had said to
me on my presentation. The forms and ceremonies ol
the Court were, I informed him, the same as those which
were adopted during the Empire. As to character, I
observed, it was generally admitted that the Queen had
disappointed public expectation. During the first mo-
ments of the revolutionary storm, there was every reason
to suppose her to be a woman of great talent and energy ;
but subsequently these qualities seemed entirely to forsake
her. With regard to the King, I mentioned the opinion
formed of him by M. Bertrand de Molleville, with whom
I had been well acquainted, and who was Minister of
Marine to Louis XVL at the height of the crisis. He
pronounced the King to have possessed considerable
information, sound judgment, and excellent intentions ;
but there it all ended. He lost himself by the multipli-
city of advice which he solicited, and by his irresolute
and wavering mode of following that advice.

The Emperor, in his turn, retraced the portrait of the
yueen, by Madame Campan, who, he observed, having
been her confidante, and having served her with zeal,
affection and fidelity, might be expected to have known
a great deal about her, and deserved to be considered as
guod authority. Madame Campan, he said, had commu-
nicated to him many details of the private life of the
Queen ; and he related some particulars which he had
derived from that source.

The Queen, according to Madame Campan, was a
fascinating woman, but destitute of talent : she was bet-
ter calculated to be a votary of pleasure than a partici-
pator in affairs of State. She possessed an excellent
heart, was parsimonious, rather than extravagant, and by
no means possessed strength of character equal to th^
trying circumstances in which the was placed. She ob-

398 MARIE ANTOINKTTK.

tained regular information of the schemes that were
carrying on abroad ; and she never entertained a doubt
of her deliverance, even up to the fatal 10th of August,
the catastrophe of which was brought about solely by
the intrigues and hopes of the Court, which were deve-
loped to the world through the imprudence of the King
and those who surrounded him.

** On the terrible night of the 5th of October," said the
Emperor, ** a person for whom the Queen entertained a
high regard, and whom I afterwards treated very ill at
Rastadt, hastened to join the Princess at Versailles:
whether he had been sent for, or whether he went of his
own accord to share her dangers, I know not. It is in these
trying moments," continued the Emperor, ** that we feel
most in need of the advice and consolation of those who
are devoted to us. At the moment of the catastrophe,
when the palace was stormed, the Queen fled for refuge
to the King's apartments; but her confident was
exposed to the greatest dangers, and only escaped by
leaping out of a window."

I informed the Emperor that the Queen had greatly
fallen in the estimation of the emigrants, by her conduct
during the events of Varennes ; she was reproached for
not having allowed the King to set out alone, and for
having betrayed a want of skill and energy during the
flight of the Royal family. Nothing indeed, could be
more ill managed and confused than the journey to Va-
rennes. A curious circumstance connected with that
event was, that Leonard, the Queen's famous coiffeur^
found means to pass, in his cabriolet, through the midst
of the tumult ; and he arrived at Coblentz, bringing with
him the Marshal's baton, which, it was said, the King
had carried away from the Tuileries, in order to deliver
it to M. de Bouille, when he should join him.

•• It was," said the Emperor, ** an established rule
with the members of the House of Austria to observe
pr )found silence respecting the Queen of France. When-
ever Marie Antoinette was mentioned, they cast down
their eyes, and dexterously changed the conversation, as
if to iivoid a disagreeable and embarrassing subject. This
rule," continued the Emperor, ** was adopted by all the

THK PRINCESS DB LAMBALLS. 399

members of the family, and recommended to their agenti
abroad. The efforts lately made by the French Princes
in Paris to revive the interest attached to the memorv of
the unfortunate Queen must certainly have been dis-
pleasing to the Court of Vienna."

The Emperor next asked me some questions concern-
ing the Princess de Lamballe, of whom he said he knew
nothing. I was enabled to answer his questions, as I
had known the Princess well. One of my cousins had
been her lady of honour ; and, on my arrival at Aix-la-
Chapelle, at the commencement of my emigration, I was
received as one of her household, and treated with the
utmost kindness.

At Aix-la-Chapelle the Princess de Lamballe had as-
sembled round her many of the wrecks of Versailles :
she was surrounded by nobles and persons of fashion,
who had been connected with the old Court. She was
also visited by many illustrious foreigners ; and while I
remained with her, I frequently saw Guetavus III., King
of Sweden, who went by the name of the Count de Haga ;
Prince Ferdinand of Prussia, and his children, the eldest
of whom (Prince Louis) was killed just before the battle
of Jena ; the duchess of Cumberland, widow of a brother
of the King of England, &c.

When Louis XVL solemnly accepted the Constitu-
non, and thus recomposed the nation, the Princess re-
ceived an official letter from the Queen, inviting her .to
return to her situation. She consulted her old friends,
who declared themselves of opinion that the Queen was
not free, and, conceiving that there would be no safety
in Paris, they advised her to take no notice of the Queen's
letter, and to let it be supposed that it had never come
to hand. The Princess, however, having asked some
other individuals, how they would advise her to act, they
unfortunately replied : '* Madam, you shared the pros-
perity of the Queen, and you have now a noble opportu-
nity of proving your fidelity, particularly since you are
no longer her favourite." The Princess possessed lofty
sentiments, warm affections, and was of a rather roman-
tic turn of mind. She declared her intention of setting
out next day for Paris, The unfortunate lady, therefore,

400 THE PKINCE88 DK LAMBALLK.

returned to the capital, with a full knowledge of the
danger to which she was exposed ; and she fell the vic-
tim of generosity and noble sentiment. When the Prin-
cess determined on proceeding to Paris, my friends pro-
posed that I should accompany her as one of her suite.
My youth, together with the circumstance of my being
aln>ost a stranger in Paris, would have enabled me to
pass unnoticed, and I might perhaps have been service-
able to her ; but at the moment of her departure,
some difficulties arose which prevented me from accom-
j)Hnying her. However, I became her correspondent;
and every other day I transmitted to her the absurd sto-
ries of every kind, which served to feed our hopes, and
to which we failed not to give implicit credit. I con-
tinued my correspondence while we remained in the
country ; I even continued it after she had ceased to
exist !

The extreme affliction in which I was plunged, on
hearing of her dreadful fate, was occasionally augmented
by the fear that my letters might perhaps have had some
sliare in producing it. I happen to have now in my
possession some lines which she wrote a few days before
the horrible catastrophe that closed her existence. They
are dated from my dungeon; for so she called the
Pavilion of Flora, which she at that time oocopied in
the Tuileries.

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