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Memoirs of 
The Empress Josephine 



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HISTORICAL AND SECRET 
MEMOIRS OF THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 



VOL. n 



2091610 



of ^lustrations; 



NAPOLEON 

EMPRESS JOSEPHINE . 
MARIE LOUISE . 
MURAT .. 
KING OF ROME . 
HORTENSE BEAUHARNAIS 



PAGE 

Frontispiece 

. 36 

. 74 



. . 174 

. 252 



HISTORICAL AND SECRET 

MEMOIRS 

OF THE 

EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 



CHAPTER I 

" Of that time do I now behold the half-dubious path of events 
marked out by the Fates ; for when thy years shall have accomplished 
eight times seven departures and returns of the sun, and those two 
numbers, each whereof, but for a different reason, is held to be a full 
number, shall, by a natural concurrence, fulfil the great destinies re- 
served to thee by the Fates then shall the state cast its fortunes 
wholly upon thee and thy name ; then shall the senate, then shall all 
good citizens, then shall our allies, and all the people of Latium, turn 
their eyes to thee. Upon thee alone shall then depend the safety of 
the state. In short, thou alone, clothed with the power of dictator, 
shall be the support of the republic, if thou shalt but escape the im- 
pious hands of thy relations." SCIPIO'S DREAM.* 

A SINGULAR succession of events was now preparing 
the way for Bonaparte to seize the crown of his exiled 
mr.sters. Like Archimedes, he only wanted a fulcrum and 
a powerful lever to raise the globe. He found both, the 
one in the adulation of the tribunate, the other in the 
enthusiastic devotion of the army. With such supports 

i The following is the original passage : " Sed ejus temporis anci- 

pitem video quasi fatorum viam : nam cum aetas tua septenos octies 

Bolis anfractus reditusque converterit, duoque hi numeri, quorum uter- 

que plenus, alter altera de causa, habetur, circuitu natural!, summam 

VOL. II I 



2 SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

he had it in his power to shake all the monarchies of 
Europe, as a skilful mechanic, by means of his ropes and 
pulleys, raises and lets down the greatest weights. It 
was easy to see that the docility of the one and the love 
of glory of the other would enable him to do whatever 
he pleased. They were, indeed, useful instruments in his 
hands. They were ready to be put in play whenever he 
should loosen the springs which moved them. In vain 
would they have attempted to resist the motion commu- 
nicated to them ; they had to obey it, and it was useless 
for them to think of avoiding the onward movement. 

That which consolidates a military state is obedience. 
'Tis that which makes all the members of the body politic 
co-operate to preserve a single head ; 'tis that which anni- 
hilates individual interests and establishes on their ruins 
one common cause. It closes every eye while it puts every 
arm in motion. It serves the twofold purpose of a bandage 
to hide the precipice, and a curb to restrain Reason when 
she would talk of self-preservation. 

Probably Bonaparte did not foresee the enormous power 

tibi fatalem confecerint, in te unum. atque in tuum nomen, se tota 
converterit civitas ; te senatus, te omnes boni, te socii, te Latini in- 
tuebuntur : tu eris unus in quo nitatur civitatis salus ; ac ne multa, 
dictator rempublicam constituas oportet, si impias propinquorum manua 
effugies."- Opera Omnia Cic., Vol. XII., p. 199. 

This curious passage must not, however, be regarded as a prophecy. 
The Roman orator merely puts it into the mouth of Scipio Africanus, 
whom he introduces in a dream to Publius Cornelius Scipio, just before 
the latter destroyed Carthage, and while he was heading the expedition 
against that injured and ill-fated country. The old Africanus, in the 
same interview, gives utterance to a sentiment which, though, perhaps, 
less orthodox than patriotic, seems worthy of being quoted as appli- 
cable both to Napoleon and the false friends who deserted him in his 
hour of need : " Omnibus, qui patriam conservarint, adjuverint, aux- 
erint, certum esse in ccelo ac dennitum locum, ubi beati aevo sempiterno 
fruantur," Sec. TRANSLATOR. 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 3 

which the title of Emperor would give him. Everything 
leads me to believe that he was made giddy by the im- 
mensity of that power. He was about to found an empire, 
and to give to it his laws. It was not enough, however, 
for him to be both prince and legislator ; his subjects must 
be accustomed to submission. Those who had nothing to 
expect from Court favours soon learned to mourn over that 
shadow of liberty which they had enjoyed since 1789. 
They secretly leaned in favour 01 every attempt to restore 
that liberty, and the republican spirit of many among them 
kept alive the hope of one day reconquering it. Still, the 
interior of France was shielded from the scenes of blood 
which might have been provoked by the audacity of some 
and the weakness of others, had the reins of government 
been in different hands. Bonaparte contented himself with 
sending a few intriguers into exile a punishment to which 
even the cabals they belonged to could not reasonably 
object. He was not actuated by the wanton and cruel 
motive of fighting battles merely to try the strength of his 
throne. He could at any moment send his orders through 
Europe, and cause them to be repeated by millions of 
mouths, and defended by millions of arms ; and it was not 
necessary for him to prove to the world his perfect ability 
to maintain his domination over the ruins of a republic 
whose conflagration began at the first moment of its exist- 
ence, which was the murder of the King, and whose 
ruinous walls, still smoking with the blood of the august 
victim, were ever ready to tumble down and crush their 
founders; a just though tardy chastisement from a pro- 
tecting Providence, who opened men's eyes to make them 
the witnesses of their own punishment. 

Bonaparte received continually the highest marks of 
confidence and goodwill from the two councils. For the 

I 2 



4 SECRET MEMOIRS OP 

rest, he remembered that, although he had not been pro- 
claimed First Consul by their unanimous vote (a fact that 
gave him little concern), he had received that honour from 
the people, a circumstance that flattered him greatly. He 
said, correctly, that men of true courage seek for no other 
recompense than the glory of serving their country. " Men 
will for ever talk of me," said he ; " posterity will remem- 
ber me." " Yes," said I, " you would be immortal if you 
had less ambition." " Hear me, Josephine," he replied. " I 
would willingly place the brother of Louis XVI. on the 
throne, because that is just, and ought to be ; yet I should 
always tremble before him, for, whenever he saw me, he 
would be forced to say to himself, * He who had it in his 
power to place the crown upon my brow is also able to 
remove it.' Do you think a sovereign could be very fond 
of so dangerous a man ? In me the people hate what they 
would not hate in a legitimate monarch ; in their eyes I am 
nothing but a soldier. Do you think I could always stem 
this torrent of hatred, and, from the height of honours, 
descend into obscurity be nothing, less than nothing, after 
having been everything languish on in the repose of a 
quiet but unknown existence ? However delightful such a 
life may be, it could never blot from my memory the bril- 
liant scenes I have enacted scenes which would be for 
ever recurring to my imagination. No, such a life would 
make me miserable. I have been long reconciled with the 
republicans, and your husband, madam, will soon be seated 
upon the most splendid throne in the world." 

Carndt was one of those men whose opinions do not 
change with circumstances. An enthusiastic supporter of 
the new republic, he used all his efforts in opposition to 
the Imperial Government. But, like so many others, he 
was constrained to bow down before the idol he had sought 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 5 

t 

to overthrow. My husband never pardoned him for giving 
utterance to sentiments so contrary to his interests. 1 

Meanwhile the Criminal Court was proceeding with 
the trial of the conspirators against the life of the First 
Consul. General Moreau, having been committed to 
prison in the Conciergerie, and hoping for no favour after 
so bold a step had been taken against him, now busied 
himself in preparing his defence. His confinement was 
not so strict but that he was permitted to see his wife, 
and to communicate freely with his counsel. Yet, too 
proud, as he himself said, of the testimony of his own 
conscience, he walked with head erect, and more resembled 
a general enjoying a triumph than a prisoner accused of 
high treason.* 



1 While I would render the fullest justice to the profound know- 
ledge and acquirements of Carn6t, I am constrained to say that I never 
heard his name announced without a shudder. I had not forgotten 
the part he acted in the death of my first husband. His memory 
was ever dear to me, and when I saw one of the men approach me 
who had confirmed the order for his arrest, my heart felt wounded, 
my eyes were bathed in tears ; it recalled the memory of those mourn- 
ful times. And yet, in his presence, I affected a sort of serenity, though 
I found it impossible to feign goodwill towards him. The terrible 
words, " Committee of Public Safety," still ring in my ears ; and I 
used to feel really fatigued at the close of those interviews which 
were so painful to all who wished to forget that dreary and melan- 
choly portion of the past a period painful indeed to a majority of 
the French people, who had been forced to endure the horrors of 
the Revolution. NOTE BY JOSEPHINE. 

2 Moreau had certainly performed distinguished military services 
for the republic. The following battles attested his bravery : 

Battle of Rastadt, July 5th, 1796, against Latour. 

Battle of Ettingen, July gth, 1796, against the Archduke Charles. 

Battle of Biberach, Oct. 2nd, 1796, against the Archduke Charles. 

Battle of Hohenlinden, Dec. 3rd, 1800, against the Archduke John, 
in which General Richepanse was slain. 

But all his military services for France were, surely, no excuse 
for his counselling with the known royalists and traitors, Pichegm 



6 SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

Pichegru had also been arrested. It was known that, 
for some time, this general had been living in Paris, and 
the hatred of his enemies was not slow in taking satis- 
faction upon him. The unfortunate man was committed 
to the Temple. Sustained by a sense of his innocence, 
he supported this calamity with courage, less affected by 
his own humiliation than by the danger which menaced 
his country. He sent me a letter, confidentially, and I 
took good care not to let Bonaparte see it. I saw no 
means of saving him, and was afraid lest my own zeal 
in his behalf might prove fatal to him, in which case I 
should have had to reproach myself with accelerating 
his ruin. I thought it my duty to advise him to address 
himself directly to Fouch6, promising to unite my influence 
with that of the minister, to obtain leave for him to 
reside in America. But his evil star, that had led him 
to bestow his confidence on a man whom he had the 
misfortune to regard as his friend, induced him to neglect 
the salutary hints which were conveyed to him by my 
orders ; and I soon saw that the illustrious Pichegru had 
but a short time to live (i). 

While cowardly courtiers were employing all their 
arts to effect their criminal objects, Bonaparte, influenced 
by their advice, urged on with more earnestness than 
ever the trial which was to destroy the most faithful of 
Frenchmen. The consul could not pardon Moreau's 
apparent modesty. " He is," said he, " an ambitious 
man ; he would, if he could, place himself at the head 

and Georges, and much less for his wearing Russian epaulets at the 
battle of Dresden (where he was mortally wounded), a fact which 
sufficiently confirms the previous charge of treasonable intentions, 
for which he was banished by the First Consul. Traitors deserve 
no mercy. The safety of a state necessarily depends upon the 
fidelity of its subjects. TRANSLATOR. 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 7 

of a party, and put down my authority ; I intend to 
overthrow hirr.. This I cannot fail to do by extending 
my conquests still further. I am always afraid of finding 
in my way a warrior as enterprising as myself." 

I tried to correct his opinions as to the intentions of 
the general, who, by his implacable enemies, had been 
represented to him as burning with a thirst for power 
and aspiring to the throne of France. But when I inti- 
mated to him that Moreau would not be convicted, he 
became enraged. " The proofs," said he, " are as clear 
as day. I well know what my duty imposes upon me, 
as the magistrate charged to watch over the safety of 
the state." He then, after some moments of reflection, 
consented that the judges should give him their private 
opinions as to the punishment to be inflicted upon the 
general. 

France is well acquainted with the letter which the 
illustrious prisoner sent to Bonaparte before his sentence 
was pronounced. He preserved his dignity throughout, 
and gave the new Emperor to understand that it had 
once depended upon him whether he should obtain the 
supreme power. Napoleon could not dissemble his rage. 
"As long as Moreau lives," said he, " he will be my most 
formidable rival. Two suns cannot shine together upon 
the same horizon. One of them must be eclipsed, and 
mine must triumph over his." Fouch6, who was present at 
this conversation, ventured some observations, to which I 
joined my own, telling my husband that he ought not to 
descend so low as to 'attempt to gain the opinion of the 
judges against Moreau, and give his agents such orders. 
" Fear," said he, with energy ; " fear, madam, that I may 
increase their severity ! Keep silence, at least, and do not 
provoke me ; your audacity has already destroyed every 



8 SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

disposition on my part to overlook his faults ' M " I do not 
ask any indulgence for him I will not ask any for his 
judges, if you will only do justice," said I, with a feeling of 
profound indignation. 

This important matter continued to be discussed for 
some days before the Criminal Court, and the public had 
full time to form their conclusions before the argument 
ended. But few persons, and only those who were particu- 
larly designated, were permitted to enter the Tuileries. 
Bonaparte was afraid the conspirators would obtain some 
advantage, either by means of their intrigues, or by furnish- 
ing hints to the counsel engaged in the defence. Never did 
accused persons present more grounds to interest others in 
their favour. The courage of Georges Cadoudal, the grief 
of the two Polignacs, who, though born on the steps of the 
throne (as their counsel eloquently said), found themselves, 
by means of a terrible Revolution, seated in the criminal's 
box; Moreau, renowned for his victories Moreau, who, 
had he not been paralysed by a want of means, might, 
perhaps, have surpassed the conqueror of Italy. All this, 
said the people who attended the trial all this disproves 
the charge ; the very appearance, the known virtues, the 
greatness, the honour of the accused, preclude the idea that 
they can be guilty of the crimes laid to their charge. 

Alas! they had not uttered one word in their own 
defence before the spectators had made up their minds that 
they were innocent the public, I mean, who seldom err in 
their judgment, if unseduced by others. Not one of the 
accusations was sustained by clear proof. The counsel for 
the prisoners shed a flood of light upon a part of the case ; 
but the counsel for the Government, in closing the case to 
the jury, replied, " You have been listening, gentlemen, to 
a tissue of gross lies, which I will not take the trouble to 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 9 

unravel ; let it suffice to know that nothing is more false 
than what these conspirators have set up in their own 
defence, and in defence of their accomplices. I demand 
that the question be put to the vote." 

The vote was taken, and, as was to be expected from 
the prejudice existing against Moreau, whom to defend 
was to condemn, a majority of those cowardly creatures 
sentenced him to death. 1 "When ambition engenders 
crime," said they, "we must not wink at, but punish it." 
The minority were in favour of imprisonment, some for a 
longer and some for a shorter time. 

But the First Consul did not approve of the sentence of 
death, and when I heard of this, I felt a sincere satisfaction, 
not only on account of Moreau, but on account of my 
husband and his safety. I had heard that the greater 
part of the spectators of that trial wore arms upon their 
persons, and that, had any signal been given, they were 
ready to leap over the feeble barriers which separated them 
from the general, and form around him a rampart of their 
bodies. 

Who knows but those same arms might be directed 
against the life of his persecutor, and be instrumental in 
producing the most terrible catastrophes ! I felt it my duty 
to warn Bonaparte of the possibility of such an outbreak ; 
he pretended to believe nothing about it until Murat pre- 
sented to him a report upon the state of public opinion, by 
which he was induced to save the life of his great rival in 
glory. A most touching scene took place in the Criminal 

I Moreau's trial made a great noise. Pichegru's death gave rise 
to a thousand conjectures. Some said, " The satellites of Bonaparte 
have strangled him." " No," replied others, " he has committed 
suicide." Whatever may have been the fact, the public settled down 
in the conviction that this atrocious act was to be attributed to Bona- 
parte's advisers. 



IO SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

Court. Scarcely was the terrible sentence pronounced, 
when the two young Polignacs threw themselves into each 
other's arms. " Save my brother ! save my brother ! " ex- 
claimed the younger, in the most heartrending accents ; 
" he has a wife to support ; as for myself, I have felt 
nothing but the thorns of life, and I shall meet death 
without fear and without reproach ! " 

The famous Georges Cadoudal, with extraordinary 
self-possession, dared to assert, in the face of this terrible 
Areopagus, that, " he who becomes a conspirator, ought to know 
how to die and hold his tongue" Speaking of the First 
Consul, he said : " Thou deceivest thyself, Bonaparte, if, 
in the excess of thy hatred, thou thinkest that, in dooming 
me to death, thou hast triumphed over me ; on the con- 
trary, I triumph over thee by dying with firmness. I give 
up to thy steel a head which life would, to a convicted 
man, only expose to vulgar insults a head which, when 
lifeless, will, upon the scaffold where thy cruelty exposes 
it, be thine accuser rather than the evidence of thy suc- 
cessful vengeance. After having lived so long for the glory 
of my country, it only remains for me to die for her 
defence." 

Charles d'Hozier thus apostrophised his judges : " You 
condemn me to-day : your turn will, perhaps, come to- 
morrow. But there is an avenging God, who will know 
how to punish you." All the accused displayed an im- 
posing dignity, the badge of innocence. 

Bonaparte did not take pride in the judgments which 
were pronounced. ' " I should," said he, " have pardoned 
certain of them for form's sake, and scarcely any of them 
deserved so severe a sentence." He could have wished, 
also, that Georges Cadoudal had so far humbled himself 
as to ask for a commutation of the capital sentence pro- 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE II 

nounced against him, to that of imprisonment for life ; 
but the Vendean chief preserved all his hardihood and 
all his pride. He even tore to pieces a memorial which 
was addressed and presented to him, in which his friends 
tried to persuade him that he would obtain pardon, pro- 
vided he would ask it (2). It was not thus, however, 
with others oi the condemned. The Duchess of Polignac 
used all her efiorts to save her unhappy husband. She 
was presented to me ; she spoke well, and expressed her- 
self with that warmth Oi feeling which electrifies those to 
whom it is addressed. It doubtless cost much of her pride 
to be reduced to this kind of humiliation. 

I wept with her and concerted the means of introducing 
her to Bonaparte, who, during those mournful trials, had 
remained altogether unapproachable. I presented myself 
first; he put me ofi, without showing any symptoms of 
pity. I returned to that afflicted woman. "I hope every- 
thing from your goodness, madam," said she. " Alas ! " 
I replied, with eyes filled with tears, " my feeble influence 
over the Emperor leaves me scarcely a ray of hope ; never- 
theless, I will again try to change his mind follow me." 
At the moment we were stationing ourselves in such a 
manner as to meet him as he passed, we heard the people's 
shouts, proclaiming the sentence 01 death against those 
unfortunate persons. " In a short time," exclaimed I, 
without noticing Madame Polignac, whom I had upon my 
arm, " in a short time the most of them will cease to live ! " 
My husband was passing out of bis cabinet to give some 
order. His severe, dark physiognomy, expressed the dis- 
pleasure he felt at seeing us. Madame de Polignac 
scarcely breathed. She instantly threw herself at the 
feet of the new Caesar. While all France was burning 
incense to Bonaparte, why should she, a woman over- 



12 SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

whelmed by the deepest distress, a wife and a mother, 
with every possible reason to deprecate the blow that 
was about to fall upon her why should she rebel against 
the universal enthusiasm which he inspired ? Her soul was 
full of feeling and confidence ; she was sick, afflicted with 
physical suffering, mental anguish and deep despair; she 
was alone, feeble, dying passing into oblivion. Alas I 
with a wife so afflicted, how could Polignac be guilty ? 
" Save him 1 save him ! Sire," she exclaimed in a voice 
of agony ; " establish your power upon the basis of cle- 
mency ! " " Begin," said I, by way of aiding her suit, 
"begin to be generous. One word from you, Bonaparte, 
will restore to this weeping wife the being she most loves 
upon earth ; the most lovely prerogative of a sovereign is 
the power to pardon. Use it use that sublime faculty to 
perpetuate your glory, and let the first days of your reign 
be distinguished by deeds of charity and kindness." I 
knew well the effect which these energetic words would 
have upon him, and was not deceived in my expectation. 
He promised to save Polignac. " I can pardon your hus- 
band, madam," said he to the duchess. " He has offended 
no one but me. A few acts of clemency at the commence- 
ment of my reign cannot hurt me." He seemed for a 
moment melted to pity; but fearing we might think he 
was about to extend the like indulgence to others of the 
condemned, he quitted us, casting at me a glance which 
seemed to say, " I hope you, at least, are satisfied ; but 
spare me henceforth such applications." His air became 
more tranquil, and he strove to hide the tumultuous 
thoughts which agitated him. 

I could not but testify to Madame Polignac the hap- 
piness it gave me to have been selected as the advocate 
of her cause, and assured her that certain powerful per- 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 13 

sonages had united their efforts to afford her, in the midst 
of her ills, all the succour, or, at least, every consolation in 
their power; and that the preference which she had seen 
fit to give me in the matter was justified by the zeal and 
sincerity which I had consecrated to her service. 

At that time how many circumstances were there to 
awaken my surprise and my sensibility! I felt unwilling 
to leave the other proscribed persons in their present cruel 
situation. I directed one of my most faithful people to 
repair in disguise to Moreau, in order to persuade him to 
solicit permission to go to America. I had conferred on 
the subject with Fouche, 1 and was convinced that this 
proposition, if made by some other person than myself, 
would meet with the approbation of my husband. While 
waiting for my messenger's return, I sent to beg General 

B , the commandant of the chateau of Vincennes, to 

treat his new prisoners with humanity, and permit them 
to communicate freely with one another. As to Georges 
Cadoudal, he was tired of life. When he was about to 
mount the scaffold, a last proposition was made to him. 
He replied with the frankness of a hero who feared 
nothing but the reproaches of his conscience. " Bona- 
parte," said he, "would do wrong to pardon me; our 
mutual dislike does not permit us to resort to dissimula- 
tion. From what I have attempted to do, let him judge of 
that which I am capable of undertaking ; it will show him 
that he must regard me as his most constant, but generous 
enemy, so long as a Bourbon shall exist on the face of the 
earth. I dare speak to him the severe language of truth. 
After all, he is but a man favoured by fortune. In the 

I Fouch6 did not approve of Napoleon's extreme measures. " We 
must temporise," said he ; " violence is an approach towards weakness, 
and an act of clemency will do more to restrain them than the scaffold." 



14 SECRET MEMOIRS OP 

eyes of legitimate monarchs, Napoleon can only act the 
part of a Julius Caesar, and I foresee that he will, in his 
turn, come to a deplorable end." 

Bonaparte's advisers did not pride themselves upon a 
scrupulous fulfilment of their engagements; or, I should 
rather say, faithlessness formed the basis of their charac- 
ters. They flattered themselves that their master, while 
he seemed to consent to Moreau's departure to the United 
States, would easily find means to render that part of his 
punishment illusory by covering with ambuscades the road 
he was to travel. These satellites "took it for granted 
that Moreau would perish before he reached the place of 
his destination." But they were mistaken ; never did 
Napoleon conceive such a thought. The moment it be- 
came apparent that Moreau's friends would present to 
him that sort of capitulation, he ordered the commissioners 
of the marine to make every preparation for the voyage 
of the illustrious exile. With a sentiment of pleasure 
which he could not conceal, he hastened to inform me 
that the ocean would soon place betwixt him and his rival 
a barrier which he regarded as eternal. He was then far 
from perceiving the secrets which the dark future concealed 
from him (3). 

This sentence did not, of course, satisfy the different 
parties, who, unenlightened by it as to their respective 
destinies, explained it each hi his own way, and with 
reference to his own intentions. They flattered them- 
selves that these reflections would open to them the cave 
of Trophonius. 1 Every situation in life has its lesson for 

z That famous oracle of Boeotia was upon a mountain, in an 
enclosure of white stones, on which were erected brazen obelisks. 
Within this enclosure was a cavern shaped like an oven, hewn out by 
human hands. The descent was by means of a small ladder, there not 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 15 

man, and he is truly worthy of the name of man who 
receives the favours of fortune, or meets the frowns of 
adversity, with unruffled brow. 

Like all persons, I then supposed that none but Moreau 
could fall from the Tarpeian rock without abandoning all 
hope of the future success of his cause. The moment of 
misfortune is the one when the truly great man displays 
the highest energy. Do not let me pretend to pity him ; 
when I saw him struggling with adversity, I could not but 
admire him. 

" Whatever may be the moral force which we receive 
from natvre and from virtuous habits or education, it is 
hard, indeed, to forgive either men or one's country for 
having prevented one's doing the good he aimed at." 
Such were the well-founded reflections of Moreau, when 
exiled from France. He for a while hesitated between 
the desire to vindicate himself in the eyes of the com- 
panions of his glory, and the necessity of respecting the 
circumstances which commanded him to be silent. He 
dared make no explanation in the presence of the guard 
by whom he was surrounded ; and his sad looks betrayed 

being room enough for stairs. At the bottom of the first hole, which 
was very narrow, there was another cavern still narrower, into which 
the visitor was compelled to crawl. He was required to carry in each 
hand a kind of composition of honey ; he passed his feet into the aper- 
ture, and immediately felt himself drawn downward with considerable 
force and rapidity. Here the future was made known to him, sometimes 
by seeing, sometimes by hearing. He then crawled out of the cavern 
feet first, and was immediately placed upon the stool of Mnemosyne, 
where he was questioned as to what he had seen or heard. He was 
then taken, half-crazed, into the temple of the Good Genius, where he 
was left to recover from his fright, and required to write upon a tablet 
what he had seen or heard, and which the priests appeared to interpret 
in their peculiar manner. What increased the horror of the cavern 
was that the penalty of death awaited those who presumed to interro- 
gate the god without making all the requisite preparations. 



l6 SECRET MEMOIRS OP 

the deep anguish of his soul. But he should have told 
them "that the victories of Bonaparte would yet be 
strangely inflated by his self-love, and that, like other 
conquerors, he would finally depart from the way of 
prudence and moderation ; that the greatest misfortune 
which can befall a sovereign is to lend a complacent ear 
to the advice of the dangerous men who surround him. 
One of the greatest faults of a sovereign is ingratitude, 
which makes him forget the services of the brave men 
who, by their courage, have contributed to the prosperity 
of the state. Whenever Napoleon is guilty of injustice, he 
will alienate the hearts of his new subjects, and lose all 
right to their respect, their love and their fidelity." And 
thus he did speak, when, having passed the seas, he landed 
upon that happy shore where a free, generous and hos- 
pitable people now reign. 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 



CHAPTER II 

BONAPARTE, now become Emperor, was far from acting 
the part of Cromwell. He was altogether a stranger to 
the crimes of the different factions which succeeded each 
other with such rapidity since the destruction of the 
monarchy. On the contrary, he had in some degree 
restrained them. What pains had he taken, what care 
had he bestowed, in endeavouring to extirpate the hydra 
which had for fifteen years been devouring France, and 
ravaging without pity her most beautiful provinces! My 
husband, I say, who had in reality never, in the slightest 
degree, contributed to the misfortunes of the Bourbon 
family, by no means resembled the famous Protector 
stained with the blood of his King. But would the 
modest title of Protector have been sufficient for Bona- 
parte ? Might he' not rival the most trifling sign of 
royalty without destroying his work ? His position was 
utterly unlike that of Cromwell. While he remained 
the chief magistrate of the new republic, he was con- 
strained to recognise its principles, and caress its founders. 
To use an expression of the good Henry IV., "the most of 
them smelt of the old leaven of the League." But those 
" incorruptible citizens " were no strangers to the crimes 
of the Revolution. They had not yet forgotten the famous 
" committees " of that period, and sometimes, even in my 
husband's presence, argued that they had rendered eminent 
services to their country, and done much towards intro- 
ducing liberal ideas. This was enough to excite the 
natural jealousy of Napoleon against them ; he was afraid 
VOL. ii a 



l8 SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

some new Catiline might start up among them, and, 
consequently, declared war upon those sons of Brutus, 
and especially those of them who disapproved of his 
re-establishing public worship in France, and affording 
a degree of security to the Catholic clergy. The pompous 
words, "Liberty and Indivisibility," did not awe the head 
of the French Government. He had arrived at his object, 
and meant to sustain himself. He ridiculed the authors 
of the recent law. He caused to disappear those dis 
gusting images representing what was called the " Goddess 
of Liberty." Nobody dared any longer use the hideous 
costume of 1793 ; the famous red caps were removed 
from the tops of the monuments, as they had for some 
time past ceased to be worn on everybody's head. 

Bonaparte now contented himself with displaying a 
kind of popular talent, although he was secretly and really 
engaged in diminishing the immense power of the different 
popular parties. "I will," said he continually, "establish a 
solid government; but I stand in need of good workmen. 
Among those whom I despise, there are some whose 
talents I admire, but whose principles I detest. I intend 
to use them as machines, necessary in erecting and 
sustaining the edifice of my power. So long as I was 
Bonaparte, they were my equals ; but become Emperor, 
I must make them subjects. The most of them owe 
their fortunes to me; the rest, in order to preserve 
the fruits of their peculations, will, by a sense of their 
own interests, be compelled to hoist my banner. It will 
be a curious spectacle," he added, with a smile, " to see 
such and such ones bedizened with lace and covered with 
cordons. I shall assign each his part in the play." Then 
immediately resuming his serious air, he said, " Do you 
think I will yield them my entire confidence? Never! 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE ig 

But unless I affect to give them some useful employ- 
ment, those political chameleons will become dangerous ; 
and the moment they shall accept the titles I intend 
to give them, those proud republicans will become my 
slaves. It is my purpose, however, to establish a kind 
of set-off for them, and the chains with which I destine 
them to be loaded shall glitter with the baubles of favour. 
The philosopher and scholar will see nothing about them 
but the evidences of a change in their opinions, and 
the badge of their ancient servitude." Thus reasoned 
my husband only a few days after he was proclaimed 
an Augustus. 

The plan was ably conceived, and he certainly did 
not overrate his power when he foresaw that it would 
be adopted both by his friends and his foes. 

I employed the language of Bacon, and said to him, 
" Every one, in his own fancy, builds a little world 
whereof he is the centre, around which revolve all kinds 
of opinions crossing each other's orbits, eclipsing, avoiding, 
approaching each other, at the will of the great motive 
power, self-love. Truth sometimes gleams out in the 
midst of these confused and tangled motions ; but it 
appears only for a moment, and passes on like the sun 
at noon, we behold it without being able either to stay 
or follow its course. 

" Peace now exists ; and peace is in itself a thing 
so lovely that nothing ought to be omitted to preserve 
it, or at least the hope of it. Why sound the alarm? 
Why sow the seeds of distrust and excite animosities ? 
Is it a sure method of preserving peace to abdicate the 
modest title of Consul and immediately assume one more 
pompous ? Is it, moreover, consistent and prudent, while 
you are setting forth the causes of war, to labour to show 

2 2 



3O SECRET MEMOIRS OP 

that all power is now lodged in the hands of the conqueror 
of Marengo ? l That he is ready to aggravate his provoca- 
tions towards Germany, by seeking to demonstrate to her 
that all the strength will henceforth be on one side, and 
all the weakness on the other, and that she will probably 
find herself without resources to sustain the conflict ? 
Hear me further. You well know that true valour detests 
butchery as much as it loves glory. Does an enemy yield ? 
She ceases to strike ; she covets not blood, but honour, 
and even her enemy becomes dear to her if victory has 
cost her a great effort." 

He replied with ill-humour, for I began to embarrass 
him. "As against the passions," said he, "what is mere 
gallantry without courage ? It is their slave ; courage is 
their master." 

This conversation was without any result. I saw 
quickly that it was against his views, and particularly 
when I spoke in favour of the French princes. Their 
return had become the more difficult now that he was in 
possession of their throne. To excuse himself, in a manner, 
to those who could not reconcile the idea of his virtues 
with his enterprising character, he said, with an air of 
frankness, "What would you have me do? The throne 

I After the battle of Marengo was gained (it is known to whom it 
belonged) the First Consul, leaving his suite by themselves, went into 
one of those small houses which are built among the vines for the 
purpose of protecting them. He strode rapidly lengthwise and across 
the room, which was neither long nor broad, and seemed absorbed in a 
profound reverie. General Lacue, his aide-de-camp, entered to make 
him a report. Bonaparte heard him, but with marked inattention, and 
recited to him, in a loud voice, and with great warmth, the following 
ines from the " Death of Pompey " : 

"J'ai send, commande, vaincu quarante annees, 
Du monde entre mes mains j'ai vu les destineesj 
Et j'ai toujours connu qu'en tout evenement 
Le destin des etats dependait d'un moment." 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 21 

has been vacant since the death of Louis XVI. The 
Jacobins disdained to sit upon it; I have taken possession 
of it in order to '-exterminate those sons of Brutus." To 
others he said, " I have written to the Pretender, but his 
answer is not at all such as I wished it to be. Besides, 
the people have sucked the milk of the Revolution, and 
henceforth a Bourbon will be a stranger among the 
French." Whenever I was present, I exclaimed against 
such revolting injustice, and pointed out to him how 
dangerous to himself might be the consequences. " Who 
can tell," said I, " where your dynasty will end ? Perhaps 
it may soon fall to a woman." This remark made him 
furious. " I shall know well, when the time comes," 
said he, " how to choose a successor." Long did he 
cherish the idea that the eldest son of Louis Bonaparte 
should inherit his sceptre and his power (4). 

I was not now unhappy, but I perceived that I was by 
degrees becoming so. Napoleon dreamed of nothing but 
invasions. The whole extent of Europe was too circum- 
scribed for his exploits. " I mean," said he to his courtiers, 
" soon to be sole sovereign of the world. My house will 
one day occupy the principal thrones on earth." His 
hearers sometimes admitted the possibility of such a result, 
and sometimes smiled with pity at hearing him reason 
thus. He was not a man to take a single retrograde step 
when he had once begun an undertaking. Discreet by 
nature, the conquests which he meditated were never 
known to others. He possessed the art of looking through 
the characters of men. 1 He despised them, but was, at 

i " I despise men," said he to me one day, " because almost all 
those who surround me are vile and corrupt. Such and such ones" 
(naming them to me) "are so servile towards me that, should I order 
it, they would sacrifice the peace ot their families, and their dearest 
affections. I admit, it is very flattering to me to inspire such a blind 



22 SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

the same time, master of the wonderful faculty of making 
them subservient to his purposes. 

The nearer my husband approached* the highest step 
to which inconstant Fortune sometimes elevates men, the 
dimmer became the last gleam of earthly happiness which 
shone around me. 'Tis true, I enjoyed a magnificent exist- 
ence. My Court was composed of persons of great name, 
of ladies of the first rank, who all solicited the honour of 
being presented to me. To some of them were assigned 
honorary situations in my family. The Duchess of Roche- 
foucauld was appointed dame d'honneur, and Madame Wals 
de Seran her attendant. I could no longer dispose of my 
time (5). I was constrained to submit, at all times, to the 
rigorous usages of etiquette ; and the Emperor directed 
that it should be as severe as it had anciently been at the 
chateau of Versailles. 1 Of course, I was surrounded with 

confidence. Duroc, Berthier and Caulincourt have often used the 
language of remonstrance, for which they have certainly lost none 
of their master's esteem. I am sure of the attachment of those three 
persons. One of them, you know, madam, has given me the most 
striking proof of it, and that under circumstances of the gravest cha- 
racter, which I could scarcely wish, for the honour of the age, to 
forget. The great, when they command an act of injustice, are too 
faithfully obeyed. We are certainly bound to resist courageously the 
public authorities when they abuse their powers powers entrusted to 
them only to protect the people, and sustain the dignity of the state. 
Caulincourt has, I repeat, served me too faithfully. He has occasioned, 
both to himself and me, eternal regrets. You alone, Josephine, were 
right ; and I will here say to you what Louis XVI. said, in speaking of 
her whom he regarded as his best friend : ' Madam, your solidity is 
worth more than that of most of my counsellors.' I am willing to 
admit the principle, that your sex is sometimes more clear-sighted than 
ours. But, madam, don't let this flatter your vanity, for your faults 
are repeated so often." NOTE BY JOSEPHINE. 

i The Emperor held to everyone's doing his duty, and always 
sternly insisted upon it. He wanted everyone to attend to the service 
with which he was charged, and in the minutest details. He some- 
times growled, and especially at the women. If, however, the person 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 23 

all the appliances of the old monarchy, a thing which I 
perfectly understood, and which I was glad to see adopted. 
I also saw those new men who were infected with the crimes 
of the Revolution, coming humbly to solicit a look from 
the new Queen. Oh, how despicable did the human race 
then seem to me 1 I could not help bestowing some of my 
thoughts upon my old friends who, like myself, disapproved 
of Napoleon surrounding himself with such an infernal 
set. He was infinitely afraid of them, and I could not 
help telling him that, had he consulted me in selecting the 
persons for the discharge of the highest functions, I should 
have exacted from many of them a strong guarantee. He 
was so struck with the justness of my observations, that 
it became extremely difficult for him to find proper persons 
to be appointed to the different places in the imperial ad- 
ministration. Nevertheless, in a career so new to him, he 
displayed the vast genius of Cicero, and discovered, in the 
mere civil administration, new fields of glory. He proved 
himself as able an administrator of the government as he 
had been an intrepid warrior, with one hand boldly sustain- 
ing the dignity of the empire, and with the other repairing 
the wrongs and errors of a government as pusillanimous as 
it had been culpable. In the midst of this enormous labour, 
his mind often became a prey to the most melancholy fore- 
bodings ; he was afraid of losing, in a moment, the fruits of 
eight years of victory ; and this fear rendered him, at times, 
extremely unhappy. 

He read but little, though he was fond of perusing good 
authors. A few days after his elevation to the throne, 
chance threw in his way an extract from some one of the 

complained of had courage enough not to be awed by him, but to show 
him that he was without fault, he would become good-natured, and say 
no more about it. NOTE BY JOSEPHINE. 



24 SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

Chinese writers on morals. He met with the following 
passage : 

" The intriguer sometimes meets with great success, 
but he is subject to great reverses. The man who is 
straightforward, and without ambition, rarely acquires a 
great fortune, but he has few disasters to fear." 

He threw aside the book with an air of indignation. " I 
am," said he, " above fear, and I prefer the first part to the 
second." I recalled to his mind this maxim of Seneca : 
" The light stucco of the outside imposes upon few ; truth, 
on whatever side it is viewed, is always the same ; false- 
hood has no consistence ; a lie is transparent ; a little 
attention enables one to see through it." 

" Seneca," said he, with some warmth, "may have been 
right, but Seneca would probably have been my dupe ; I 
have become able to so counterfeit myself as to give the lie 
direct to the philosopher of Cordova." 

Meanwhile, he was receiving from every part of France 
congratulations upon his advent to the throne ; while I 
myself sighed in contemplating the immense power he had 
acquired. The more I saw him loaded with the gifts of 
fortune the more I feared his fall. I did not dissemble my 
apprehension that his phantom of a government would 
always rest upon pillars of clay. I knew that those who 
expected no favours from the Court, who still mourned over 
the loss of that shadow of liberty the vague idea of which 
they had once so fondly caressed, must always lean secretly 
towards whatever tended to restore it a temper of mind 
which had long been strengthened by that boldness of 
thought which is peculiar to republican principles. 

I did not cease to impress upon him the difficulty of 
managing the thousand interests which agitate an extensive 
empire. " There are some men," said I, " who are intimi- 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 25 

dated by the mere contemplation of events from which 
others are able to derive great advantages; and such is 
precisely the history of modern France." 

" Of course," he replied, " there will be agitations on all 
sides ; but my government will be firm and vigorous ; it 
will impose silence upon every one ; perverse and wicked 
men will, perhaps, labour in the dark to destroy it ; hatred 
will lie concealed, in the expectation of being sooner or 
later enabled to take advantage of some possible relaxation 
of the military discipline, and to raise rebellions in the 
provinces. But I shall see that justice reigns. I shall pro- 
tect the people, because they, in their turn, protect me, and 
I shall take care not to trust too much to my courtiers, 
preferring to sound the depths of truth with my own 
hand." 

I certainly encouraged such sentiments ; they aimed at 
nothing but the welfare of France, and on that point we 
were always agreed. Whenever he withdrew himself from 
that herd of flatterers who perpetually besieged him, and 
did me the honour to yield me his confidence, I found in 
this same Bonaparte 1 the soldier's father, the nation's 
faithful and generous protector, and the most determined 
enemy of faction. 

In order to give an air of legitimacy to Napoleon's 
accession to power, he thought it necessary to go through 

i The Emperor on parade and the Emperor at home with Jose- 
phine were two such different persons that they would not have been 
taken for each other. The former wore a sad, cold, serious and care- 
worn countenance; the latter, almost an air of gaiety and good- 
humour, enlivened with a smile. He had, as everybody knows, the 
finest teeth in the world, and was well-shaped, notwithstanding his 
short stature. He had a delicate and well-shaped head, and knew it, 
and took great pains with it. His leg and foot were also elegantly 
shaped. His stockings were neat and generally a good fit, though he 
seldom wore them tied. NOTB BY JOSEPHINE. 



26 SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

the ceremony of a coronation, and commenced the requi- 
site preparations for that event. There was not, however, 
according to his ideas, any bishop in France worthy to 
place the crown upon the head of the French Caesar. No 
one but the Sovereign Pontiff was competent to preside at 
the triumph of the modern Charlemagne. There was, 
however, a good deal of difficulty in determining the com- 
mon Father of the Faithful to legalise in any way by his 
presence this worldly usurpation. But, happily, the plan was 
managed with so much adroitness that Napoleon was en- 
abled to congratulate himself upon the blind submission of 
the sovereign of Rome. It was, certainly, to triumph over 
a great danger to receive, so peacefully, the patrimony of 
Henry IV. ; but it was a far more difficult and signal 
achievement to overawe the Vatican, and to constrain the 
successor of the pontiffs, who had so often menaced the 
most absolute Kings with the apostolic thunders, to come 
and humble himself before one who would fain have been 
looked upon as the hero chosen by Providence to chastise 
men, re-establish religion, and rebuild her temples. 

Napoleon, now at the height of power, could not but 
be agreeably surprised at this passive submission of a 
venerable old man. " I shall, madam," said he, " de- 
rive a great advantage from it, and the French will not, 
with indifference, behold me labouring, in conjunction with 
Pius VII., again to make the Lord's vine flourish. I 
want him to reside in my palace ; the presence of the 
Holy Father is necessary to the purification of that place, 
which, since the Revolution, has become the abode of the 
powers of hell." 

Orders were given to meet the Vicar of Jesus Christ 
on his way to Paris, and apartments were assigned him. 
"Nothing can now resist me," said Napoleon, smiling; 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 27 

" I shall soon rule the whole world what did I say ? I 
am going to possess the keys of Paradise. What can 
hinder me from taking a peep in there myself one of these 
days, and seeing what is going on ? " It was the Em- 
peror's habit thus pleasantly to while away his leisure 
moments. But for the rest, he was indefatigable at work; 
and in actual labour he far surpassed his ablest ministers. 
The most splendid repast never saw him more than twenty 
minutes at table (6). He was never in bed more than 
three hours during the night. At the commencement 
of the consulate he would often wake me from my sleep 
to talk about his projects. I found, however, that these 
long vigils were wearing away my health, and entreated 
him to dream alone upon the common good of France, 
and certainly was not sorry when he prolonged his stay 
in his private study for then I totally forgot all politics, 
in which I felt little interest, and gave myself up to the 
sound sleep whose refreshing influence I stood in need of. 
Napoleon left Paris for the purpose of meeting the 
Holy Father. They saluted each other with the kiss of 
peace. 1 I experienced real sorrow on seeing the Roman 
Pontiff. My heart sank within me, for everything seemed 
to me to foretell that these two men would become enemies. 
The one was paying a visit to France to confirm the re- 

i Napoleon brought the Pope from Fontainebleau to Paris in his 
own carriage. They sat tete-a-tete during this passage. What was 
remarkably singular about it was the regiment of Mamelukes, who 
marched immediately behind the carriage, accompanied by the whole 
of the guard. People laughed to see the Mohammedans vying with 
one another in respect for the Vicar of Jesus Christ. The public 
foresaw that the followers of the prophet would adorn the triumphal 
procession to Notre Dame, and their curiosity was not on this occasion 
disappointed. That which many had supposed impossible was, to the 
great astonishment of the Romish clergy, now realised ; and on that 
ever memorable day the Crescent figured by the side of the Cross. 



28 SECRET MEMOIRS OP 

establishment of religion, while the other was intent upon 
nothing but the confirmation of his power and authority. 
Napoleon did not pretend to prop himself up by means 
of the Pope's authority, although he was persuaded of 
the necessity of reverting to ancient ideas in the matter 
of the coronation. He would willingly have sacrificed 
millions to obtain from the Cathedral of Rheims that 
marvellous ampulla which religion had there preserved for 
the consecration of kings (7). 

The marked humility of Pius VII. did not awe the 
new Emperor. " He is an Italian," said he to me ; " we 
are each seeking to entrap the other. "Pis no matter what 
posterity may say about Chiaramonti ; I must attend to 
my own business. My wish is to make the ceremony 
of my coronation magnificent and imposing. In splen- 
dour it shall surpass that of any of the Kings of France. 1 

Deputies were summoned from every department to 
assist at it. The great dignitaries oi the empire appeared, 
surrounded with the most imposing splendour; in a word, 
nothing was omitted that could in any way make this 
imperial ceremony recall to the minds of men the Roman 
triumphs. But I looked with unconcern upon the pre- 
parations for this superb fete. Indeed, I sank into a deep 



i The whole of the population of the capital, as well as the most 
distinguished citizens of the departments, were ranged along the way 
where the imposing cortege was to pass. The Pope's carriage was 
preceded by a Roman prelate, bearing the external symbol of our 
salvation. He was mounted on a black mule, and his attitude seemed 
singular enough to the Parisians, who burst out into a hearty laugh 
at seeing Monseigneur sitting plump upright upon his nag, and pre- 
serving, in the midst of the shouts and jeers of that immense multi- 
tude, so fond of caricature, the phlegm and the gravity required by 
his functions, but of which the spectators had not the slightest con- 
ception. For them it possessed only the merit and attraction of 
novelty. 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 2Q 

melancholy, and trembled at the thought of the new re- 
straints which my husband was about to impose upon 
me. The luxury and &clat of that memorable day were 
irksome to me. Sometimes I seemed to behold the spirit 
of Louis XVI. gazing with pity upon me. Again I 
seemed to hear the voice of some evil demon, approach- 
ing with a design to murder me ; and my anguish was 
increased by the apprehension that all which was then 
passing around me would one day become matter of 
reproach. What earthly power then could have con- 
strained me to enter Notre Dame, had I not made a 
solemn promise to do so ? 1 

After Napoleon had received the holy unction, and 
after I had been crowned by him, I was compelled to 
receive and respond to the congratulations of the mem- 
bers of the Court. The uniformity of the compliments 
was such that I soon relapsed into the reflections which 
had given me so much pain and anxiety. While thus 
wholly absorbed, I -heard a voice which was dear to me 
'twas my husband's. "Whatl" said he, in a low tone, 
"what ! Josephine in tears ? Is she alone, on this 
glorious day, a stranger to the happiness of him whom 
she alone ought to love ? " He emphasised the last 
word ; his eyes sparkled, and his brows were knitted, 
giving to his face an expression of sternness. General 
Duroc came and whispered something in his ear. I heard 



i Some days before the coronation, it was noticed with surprise 
that Josephine was suddenly overcome by melancholy. She herself 
seemed unable to assign any cause for it. Bonaparte noticed it and 
spoke of it; she said to him, "For a time, I flaaered myself that my 
husband would yet surpass himself; that illusion has now vanished." 
When she received the crown from the hands of Napoleon, she could 
not restrain her tears they flowed in abundance. 



3<D SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

him answer, distinctly, " Very well ! very well I " after 
which his countenance became more serene. 

The part I now had to act was very painful to me. 
Compelled to be continually en representation (8), I re- 
membered with bitterness of heart the happy moments 
I had spent at Malmaison ; and thought even of my 
modest h6tel on Chantereine Street. I could not help 
comparing what I was when I inhabited it with what I 
was at this moment ; and I admit with perfect frank- 
ness that, so heavily did the weight of my present 
grandeur press upon me, in casting my eyes back upon 
the past, I deeply regretted that sweet liberty which 
was now ravished from me for ever. It became almost 
impossible for me to see my former friends; I was anxious 
to contribute to their happiness, but Napoleon had de- 
prived me of the means. The strictest surveillance was 
established at the chateau; the countersign was as rigor- 
ously enforced as if his guard had been watching over 
the defence of a fortified town. Duroc kept a list of all 
those who were permitted to enter the Emperor's apart- 
ments, and every evening rendered his master an account 
of the events that took place. The minutest details were 
submitted to the Emperor's inspection, and he spent a 
good deal of his time in the amusement of examining 
them. He was offended if the grand marshal concealed 
from him the smallest particular. Whenever he discovered 
such concealment, his suspicious mind would conjure up 
a thousand phantoms. His imagination was filled with 
conspiracies, and he seized with avidity upon the slightest 
circumstance going to prove their existence. Hence the 
innumerable countersigns which followed each other in 
such rapid succession. There were times even when I 
could not admit Tallien into my presence (9). To be 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 3! 

thus shut up rendered me doubly unhappy, for my sensi- 
tive heart needed to recline upon the bosom of friendship. 

We paid frequent visits to the august stranger who 
had deigned to become our guest. The Holy Father 
penetrated the secret designs of Napoleon, who, in his 
turn, made his Holiness the subject of his most careful 
observation. That paternal frankness which was at first 
evinced now no longer united the two Sovereigns, nor 
did that mutual respect which was at first manifested 
any longer preside at their interviews. 

Napoleon was in the habit of visiting the Holy 
Father without any etiquette, though he preserved the 
external forms of respect towards him. It was easy to 
see, however, that Napoleon was becoming tired of the 
ceremony. He said to me one evening, " Madam, 
Pius VII. displeases me ; whenever the affairs of the 
Church are alluded to, he becomes grave and silent, and 
seems to imagine himself still sitting upon the pontifical 
throne. He undoubtedly hopes to overawe me ; but 
Cardinal Chiaramonti knows full well that his dear 
brother in Jesus Christ has also had his trials and 
temptations ; two foxes cannot long hunt each other 
in the same woods. The Pope, for his own repose as 
well as mine, ought to leave immediately. The popular 
meetings which are now taking place at the Carrousel 
are beginning to trouble me ; I am afraid of the ascen- 
dency of the priests I shall make use of them, because 
that is necessary ; but it has gone far enough their 
triumph must stop here, and the Father of the Faithful 
must return forthwith to his estates." 1 

I The Pope lived in great simplicity at the Tuileries. He took 
his meals by himself, and said his Mass at eight o'clock. Three of 
the apartments were generally filled with visitors, and the stairs 



32 SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

Napoleon did not long delay the preparations for the 
departure of the Sovereign Pontiff. When the latter 
took leave of him and gave him the apostolic benedic- 
tion, the Emperor was really touched ; for myself, I 
was penetrated with a feeling of the deepest veneration 
at witnessing the holy conversation, the fervour, the dis- 
interestedness of that worthy successor of the Apostles ; 
and I cannot even now without emotion recall the last 
words he addressed to me on taking his leave : " Madam," 
said he, raising his eyes to heaven, " the tranquillity of 
Europe, as well as my own, has induced me to yield to 
your husband's commands. For this, man may perhaps 
blame me ; but God alone will be my judge." 

When Napoleon saw that illustrious wayfarer depart, 
he was far, very far, from believing in the success of his 
projects upon the Roman states. And yet he persuaded 
himself, a few years afterwards, that it would be a 
glorious act to undertake their execution. 

He thought he should for ever travel on a thornless 
path ; but, alas 1 the ambitious man possesses no as- 
surance for the future. At first, he mounts the lowest 
round of the ladder ; that attained, he ascends still 
higher ; the greater his elevation, the more dangerous 
it becomes, and the greater his need of a firm prop to 
sustain him. 

As wife of the First Consul, I was happy indeed, 
because I was enabled to render him innumerable ser- 
vices ; but elevated to the rank of Empress, I found all 
the avenues to the throne so beset by men of every 

were encumbered with them. The Holy Father bestowed his 
blessing and distributed chaplets. So far did he carry his apostolic 
zeal, that he laid his hands upon the head of the sick, and, in 
order to work their speedy cure, touched them with the annulta 

piscatoris. 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 33 

condition and of every faction that I ceased to exert 
the same empire over Napoleon's mind. Having reached 
the height of human greatness, he thought himself in- 
vulnerable. Such, however, was my frankness that, at 
times, I ventured to tell him my whole mind and point 
out the ways which I thought he ought to pursue. This 
nettled him ; and, after the coronation, he began to mani- 
fest a distrust of me. He was offended by the doubts 
I presumed to express as to the stability of his govern- 
ment, and became angry whenever I ventured to compare 
his Court with the old Court of Versailles (10). In short, 
he told me I had better, henceforth, keep my sinister 
reflections to myself; and he forbade me, for the future, 
to censure the acts of his government. 

" I shall obey," said I, " but I must reserve to myself 
the right to inform you of whatever scheme may be con- 
trived against your personal safety, or against the tran- 
quillity of France."" 

" At present," said he, " my power is unassailable." 
"Yes," I replied, " while Josephine shall be your best friend" 
laying stress upon those words, prophetic of misfortune. 
This made him seriously angry with me. " You have lost 
your senses," said he. I coldly replied, " Bonaparte, I 
notice that those words make you turn pale why should 
that be, if my prophecy is senseless? I see that which 
might escape the observation of others. I see that your 
looks betray trouble within (n). What ! does the puissant 
Emperor of the Gauls tremble at the prospect of his own 
ruin, in case he shall ever separate from his wife ? I foresee 
that this terrible thought will often haunt you. Listen to 
me. Withhold your confidence from these new flatterers, 
who are vying with one another in their pretended devotion 
to your interests. 'Tis the thirst of power which devours 
VOL. ii 3 



34 SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

them ; they burn to govern in your place. Such a man as 
you ought, moreover, to understand the reason why his 
Court is filled with such heartless adulation." He cast at 
me a searching look, but his silence disarmed me; my 
courage failed me when I saw that his self-love was 
wounded by what I had said. I apologised, and promised 
to conform myself to his will, until, at least, by the excess 
of my zeal, I should be able to curb it. 1 

Napoleon had written to the Continental Powers, invit- 
ing their consent to his elevation to the throne. His letter 
to the King of Great Britain was laid before Parliament. 
Bvt he was strangely surprised on being informed that 
England, unwilling alone to treat with him, declined to 
take any resolution on the subject, except in concert with 
the Emperor of Russia and the King of Sweden, who were 
unwilling to recognise him. This he took as an insult, and 
swore that, " in spite of these Sovereigns, he would soon 
wear the crown of the ancient Kings of Lombardy." He 
often repeated, with a sort of affectation, that, " but for the 
stubborn refusal of those Powers to place his name upon 
the list of Sovereigns, he should not have been ambitious 
to exercise any greater power in Europe than he then 
possessed." 

Some time afterwards, a deputation from the colleges 
and constituent bodies of the Italian Republic was admitted 
at the palace of the Tuileries, and made him a proposition 
to establish a kingdom in Italy, and to become its protector. 
This double title of Emperor and King was too flattering 

I The Emperor was one day about to undertake an important 
matter, when Josephine besought him to put it off for a time, as it was 
Friday, an unlucky day. " "Tis so, perhaps, to you, madam," said 
he ; "but it is the most fortunate hi my life I never shall forget that 
it was the day of our marriage." " That is true," replied the Empress, 
adding nothing further. 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 35 

to his ambition to be refused. On the day after the 
audience with them, he took his seat in the midst of the 
senate, in order to state to them the fact of his advent to 
the throne of Italy. He pretended, in the presence of this 
branch of the public magistracy, that it was with reluctance 
that he had finally yielded to the wishes of this new nation. 
But his minister of foreign relations, who had long foreseen 
this event, in the speech which he made on the occasion 
suggested " that his defeat might commence in the moment 
of victory." Napoleon told him: "You did well, sir, to 
speak of my conquests; but you might have forborne to 
present me to the nation as an ambitious chieftain," 



36 SECRET MEMOIRS OF 



CHAPTER III 

*. . . . . . II est beau de triompher de soi, 

Quand on pent hautement dormer a tous la loi." 

CORNEILLB. 

* IF I limit my conquests here, or if I turn my armi 
in another direction, I shall have, in truth, acquired but a 
feeble glory, and made no advance toward the accomplish- 
ment of my original purpose. Of what reaJ use is it to me 
to have borne tne torch ot war through Europe, if, content 
with having subverted empires, I neglect to establish upon 
a solid foundation the one which it was my primary 
object to found. I have long since learned that it is not 
birth which gives the right to fame. The man who has 
courage, the man who serves his country, the man who 
illustrates his character by great deeds, has no need of 
ancestors ; he is, of himself, everything." 

Thus spoke the new Emperor of the French, in the 
midst of his Court, on the eve of his departure for Lom- 
bardy. He prepared to visit his new estates, and wanted 
to travel a few days in advance of the Pope, who was then 
returning to his own. 

The route the Emperor took presented him with no- 
thing but a succession of triumphs. He visited the field 
of battle at Marengo, fully sensible that, without the 
glorious success of that day, he would not now have been 
on the eve of placing on his head the crown which once 
adorned the august brow of Charlemagne. He directed 
a monument to be erected to the memory of the brave 
men who sacrificed their lives to achieve that victory (12). 



JOSEPHINE ][MPERATMEDES1FRAFC;AIS 
ET REINE, B'lTAJLIE, , 
fr 




THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 37 

I accompanied him to Milan. The inhabitants of that 
city were so .enthusiastic in their reception of him that 
they would not suffer him to enter the town through the 
customary gate. They opened a new one, in order, as 
they said, to isolate from the common way the great man 
whose glory and astonishing genius had elevated him above 
the condition of humanity. 

At length I saw my Eugene again, and how great was 
my joy at meeting that tender-hearted boy! Alas, how 
painfully did my time pass away under the purple ! tears 
were often my sole consolation. My husband's family 
had for some time past, as it seemed to me, been arming 
themselves against me (13). I expressed to Madame de 
la Rochefoucauld my suspicions that many of them were 
secretly endeavouring to alienate his feelings from me; 
and so far had they succeeded in embittering his mind 
against me that I had become the subject of his most 
biting irony. So far had this gone that he said to me 
one day, " Madam, 'tis enough for you to have been 
crowned at Paris ; you cannot be crowned at Milan. The 
title of King belongs to me alone. I shall place the crown 
on my head with my own hands ; " and then, with vehe- 
mence, pronounced those energetic words of Charles XII.: 
"God has given it to me let him who would touch it beware I " 
I did not share this new diadem ; I was but a spectator 
of my husband's triumph, and, from a tribune in the cathe- 
dral, beheld with emotion the glory which environed him, 
but not me (14). And yet a sense of the new position he 
was about to assign to my son gave me courage to submit 
to my fate. I stood in need of courage to support the 
innumerable humiliations with which he loaded me. I 
was continually obliged to act as a sort of go-between 
to him and his officers, who found it very difficult to 



38 SECRET MEMOIRS OP 

accustom themselves to the caprices of his temper and 
the rudeness of his manner. 

Eugene was appointed Viceroy of the new kingdom, 
and Napoleon hastened to give his Italian subjects a new 
Constitution. The rights of his adopted son were not 
overlooked. An order of chivalry was created under the 
title of the " Iron Crown." 

I am still at a loss to what to attribute the extraor- 
dinary emotions I experienced when Eugene Beauharnais, 
as Viceroy, took the oath in the presence of the legislative 
body; my eyes seemed covered as with a funeral veil, my 
heart beat rapidly, and a voice within seemed to tell me: 
" This Prince will never be a perjured man ; he will keep 
his oath religiously; his devotion to his country, his 
respect for him who protected his childhood, and has 
opened to him, while so young, the path of glory, will 
render the Viceroy of Italy a great captain and a great 
prince." 

What other desire could I feel? My husband's un- 
reserved friendship might, and ought, to have been all- 
sufficient for me. I saw my children sitting upon the 
highest steps of Fortune's temple, whose portals they had 
long since passed. But Napoleon began to neglect me. 

i The Emperor visited Josephine regularly at her toilet laughed 
and joked with her, and uttered a thousand pleasantries about women, 
whom, in general, he considered as fickle, coquettish, and without any 
solidity of character. At this time he frequently found himself in 
company with four or five women, and only one man (who was the 
hairdresser) ; and talked of nothing but dress and trinkets, walks and 
hunting parties. It is hardly to be credited that Napoleon really had 
such a false idea, as he seemed to have, of the sex which constituted 
the charm of his life. I presume there were always those at hand who 
were ready to gather up and report whatever he happened to say. and 
his apprehension of this rendered his conversation quite trivial. With 
him discretion was the first, as it was the greatest, of virtues. 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 39 

More than one Italian beauty momentarily arrested his 
gaze. Constancy was not the favourite virtue of the 
modern Charlemagne. He was constantly flitting about, 
like the butterfly in the fable. But he was terribly afraid 
of the influence of women, and ever on his guard against 
allowing them the slightest dominion over him. " You 
alone," he would often tell me, " continue to inspire me 
with confidence (15). Between us, madam, it must be 
admitted that your sex are quite faithless; but I always 
understand how to bring them to their reason." In case 
I happened to drop a remark upon the light and hasty 
manner he was accustomed to judge of women, he would 
tell me, with that careless air which our intimacy justified, 
" That will do for you, madam ; you have a right to talk 
thus, because I place a high price upon your attachment. 
But what woman shall pretend to make me her slave, or 
attempt to change my opinion ? Such an attempt would 
certainly be vain. No, no ; I shall never imitate Antony. 
The modern Cleopatras and all those who follow in their 
train shall enjoy no patronage or encouragement under my 
reign ; the only thing which flatters me is that I have in- 
spired them with a desire to please me, but never shall I 
elevate to power or importance a sultana in the shade of 
a seraglio. Like most other men, I may have some foibles ; 
but Napoleon on the throne must, by his good conduct 
and severe principles, entirely eclipse them. Moreover, I 
am occupied with important business ; a Sovereign who 
seeks to hold the reins of power with a firm hand must 
not permit himself to play the part of a gay cavalier. 
But," added he, seriously, " be easy ; no other woman will 
ever succeed you in my affections ; as to my diversions 
during my leisure moments, that's another matter." 

Who would suppose that such a mind as Bonaparte's 



40 SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

was liable to be terrified by the smallest matter? 1 The 
most inconsiderable events would sometimes occupy his 
mind for days, and keep him incessantly talking about 
them. This man, extraordinary in everything, was of a 
furiously jealous disposition ; often and much did I suffer 
from his suspicions. Naturally irritable, everything vexed 
him. 2 I could not see, I could not receive a visit from, 
anybody without being subject to the most unfavourable 
interpretation, and I found it extremely difficult to dissuade 
him from his unjust course of conduct towards me. I 
shall always remember those journeys to Italy ; never shall 
I forget the tears I shed (16). 

Our return to France was signalised by public rejoicings. 
The people at this time thought themselves at the height of 
felicity, and Napoleon boasted openly of the perfection of 
the military system which he had introduced into every 
branch of the administration. " This," said he, with pride, 
" is the only system which is congenial to my people ; I 
know no other power than that of armies, and no other 
rights than those given me by the influence of arms." He 
said to Caprara (17) one day, " I look upon the Holy 
Father as a general. You, gentlemen Princes of the 
Church, you are his aides-de-camp ; the bishops are his 
colonels, the curates his captains. I love to have every- 

1 He detested an open door. Did you wish to announce anyone to 
him, you had to knock at his door first. If he replied, " What's want- 
ing ? " the answer had to be given through the door ; if he happened to 
bid you come in, you had to open the door only just enough to squeeze 
through, hold it with your hand drawn up close against you, and thus 
stand until you went out. 

2 Napoleon did not like to meet strangers when he went to visit 
Josephine, and, in case he did, he would scold the servants and not be 
seen again for several days. Of course she had good reason for keeping 
strangers away when he came, which was regularly in the morning and 
evening. 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 4! 

thing around me military. You see the drum takes the 
place of the bell in all our colleges, and who knows but in 
a short time even the pupils in our seminaries will submit 
to the manual exercise ? I should like to see our youth 
preparing themselves to reap laurels. A pastor would only 
be more venerable in my eyes who should wear a cassock 
adorned with some military decoration won by his valour ; 
indeed, I think I might take a notion to have him canon- 
ised, should he live long enough to wear the triple chevrons 
upon his arm." 1 

Such were the ideas expressed by Napoleon, in the 
presence of his courtiers. He had but little faith in our 
religious mysteries ; and perhaps that was the cause which 
prevented him from approaching the holy table on the day 
of his coronation. " I am not a fervent Catholic," said he, 
to one of the priests, who observed to him that the com- 
munion was indispensable on so important an occasion ; 
" but," continued he, " I have at least sufficient sins 
already upon my conscience without adding to them that 
of sacrilege " (18). 

Europe now saw the political horizon grow dark. 
Austria began to feel unquiet, and could not look with 
indifference upon Napoleon's domination in Italy. 

On his part, he took good care to cause it to be pro- 
claimed abroad through the journals that all the Sovereigns 
of Europe were on a good understanding with France. 
Russia, meanwhile, was raising troops in Poland ; Austria 
imitated her example, and England appeared to be awaiting 
tranquilly the famous descent with which the warlike 
chieftain had long menaced her. During two years he had 
been making immense preparations, as well of transport 

i Triple Chevrons Three V's, a mark of fifteen years' service. 
TRANSLATOR. 



42 SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

vessels as of gunboats. He took pride in having the flat- 
bottom boats built under his own eyes, though he was 
very far from placing confidence in their future destination. 
Day by day the troops sighed for the signal of departure, 
and that signal seemed all the while about to be given. 

The Powers of Europe began to be in doubt as to his 
real intentions. His courtiers seized upon the most trifling 
indications emanating from the chateau, to divine his pur- 
poses. But he now became visibly affected. He could 
on longer misunderstand the intentions of the Sovereigns 
respecting himself. His projects of invasion were now pro- 
voking against him a Continental war. He told me he was 
going to Boulogne to review his troops, and to put every- 
thing in readiness for his grand enterprise. " I shall," said 
he, " fix upon the time for the departure of the troops, and 
set them about the execution of my plan." I then seriously 
supposed he was about to attack the English ; but, con- 
trary to my expectation and that of the whole army, he 
returned hastily to Paris, and alleged to his generals that 
this pretended descent upon England was but a political 
ruse, employed by him in order to keep public expectation 
on tiptoe. " Be assured, madam," said he, " the troops 
quartered at Boulogne are, at this moment, ready to march 
to the banks of the Rhine in squares, and in the same 
order they have observed at the camp of Boulogne." 

Resources were not wanting to Napoleon to undertake 
the war. A single word from him sufficed to obtain men 
and money. The senate was at his disposal he com- 
manded it as a master. All the orders of the empire were 
subject to his control. He only had to express his sove- 
reign will ; and, with Frenchmen, what might not the man 
of destiny undertake ? To certain gentlemen he said, " I 
hate the patronage system, because I see clearly that when 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 43 

place becomes the gift of favour and not the price of merit, it can 
only tend to ruin the country. When intrigue and importunity 
shall suffice to obtain the dignities of the state, all emulation is at 
an end. Men will cease to exercise their intellects; virtue and 
talent, no longer rewarded by a just tribute of glory, will lose their 
vigour and even their existence. Should the nation see no- 
thing but imbecile and corrupt proteges at the head of the 
administration and the army, do you imagine she would 
increase her wealth or achieve victories? Woe to the 
people who give themselves up to such ministers, or rely 
upon such defenders ! May France never submit to such 
a sacrifice. As the supreme head of the empire, I am 
bound to consecrate my hand, my tongue, and my heart 
to its preservation from such vicious practices ; and, if 
necessary, I will stand alone in the midst of my council 
and combat them. I well know how to hinder men in 
place from misusing the power I entrust to them. My 
giving it to them is but a feint; the object is to make 
them afraid of me and move submissive to my will." 

He incessantly talked to his numerous legions about the 
national glory. A million of arms was thus made ready 
to sustain the nation's honour, and display its victorious 
ensigns. "Victorious ensigns," "national glory," "national 
honour" what an impression did these words convey 
whenever a general announced to his army that it was in 
the name and for the defence of their country that he was 
leading them to battle ! 

It was, however, to satisfy the ambition of only one man 
that the elite of the nation were sacrificing themselves on 
the field of battle. 1 Indeed, had it not been for the courage 

i This is an entirely mistaken view of the events of that epoch. 
Although Emperor of the French, Napoleon had not ceased to be the 
representative of the Revolution. The liberties created and guaranteed 



44 SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

of our generals and the valour of our soldiers, perhaps 
even the territory of France might have been partitioned 
out among the different foreign Powers. The sad fate of 
Poland presented itself, in perspective, to our affrighted 
eyes. Perceiving this danger in the distance, he laboured 
to infuse new courage into the troops, and seemed to in- 
spire them with new and increasing energy. Hence the 
many sublime actions and feats of bravery in repelling an 
unjust aggression. The Frenchman, always a Frenchman, 
even in the midst of the most threatening dangers, cannot, 
under any circumstances, bear the yoke of humiliation ! 
he will never abase himself by passing through any new 
Caudine Forks. 

A new war was ready to break out. Austria was pre- 
paring to raise the standard of Bellona; the signal of 
carnage was given. Napoleon, on entering upon the 
campaign, sighed at the prospect of the blood that was to 
flow throughout Europe; but the love of glory soon ex- 
tinguished that of humanity, and he exclaimed, with 
enthusiasm, " What, after all, does it matter to me, pro- 
vided my name shall obtain an increased splendour ? " He 
harangued his troops ; he made every man of them a hero, 
knowing perfectly well that the people he governed would 
soon forget all the perils of war when they should behold 
victory marching beneath our colours. On the approach 
of a decisive engagement, the Emperor displayed a wonder- 
ful power in rousing the courage of his troops by his 

by that Revolution were committed to him by the votes of the people ; 
and it was to preserve them, and the independence and honour of the 
nation, that both he and they fought and shed their blood not merely 
to satisfy his ambition. His " ambition " was to render France power- 
ful, independent, free and happy. How great, how sacred, how 
tremendous the motives which inspired it 1 Down-trodden humanity 
in Europe has hardly yet begun to understand them. TRANSLATOR. 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 45 

addresses. Nor did he neglect any means that could 
conciliate the goodwill of his generals. To the inferior 
officers he held out the hope of promotion ; and such was 
his skill in caressing and flattering the vanity of all, that 
the whole army swore to die in his defence. " This 
success," said he, "does not crown my wishes. Not a 
man in the enemy's ranks must escape. Let their Govern- 
ment, which has violated all its obligations, learn the 
catastrophe which has befallen it only by your appearance 
under the ramparts of Vienna I " 

Napoleon entertained a kind of veneration for the hero 
of Germany, the Archduke Charles, and did justice to his 
valour. He often said to me, speaking of the Archduke, 
" Such a rival is worthy of me he is a favourite of Bellona, 
and a friend of Minerva; but I am afraid I shall not be 
able to outdo him in generosity." 

On hearing that General Mack commanded the Aus- 
trian troops in Ulm, he manifested profound satisfaction. 1 
That city was, in his opinion, an easy conquest ; in this 
he was not deceived, and the famous general who com- 

i This city, one of the most considerable in Swabia, is surrounded 
by a broad fosse and fortified by high walls, but its ramparts are little 
protection to it, being overlooked by a bill, from which it may be 
bombarded at half cannon-shot distance. Resistance would have 
been mere folly, and Mack was but the victim of the timidity of 
the Archduke, who refused to make a sortie and dispute the heights 
with the French army. The garrison contained 80,000 combatants ; 
but they, unfortunately, had at their head princes who feared more 
to have stains on their uniform than on their reputation. Mack well 
knew this, and had received from Napoleon, after the latter had got 
possession of the heights, the following note : " If I take the place 
by assault, I shall be obliged to do what I did at Jaffa put the 
garrison to the sword. It is, you know, the stern duty of war. My 
wish is that the brave Austrian nation may be spared the necessity 
of such a frightful scene." To men who had not the courage to make 
a sortie, such reasoning was conclusive. Gassicourt. 



46 SECRET MEMOIRS OP 

manded it was forced to capitulate. To console him for 
the disgrace, the conqueror remarked to him, " I will give 
my brother, the Emperor of Austria, a piece of advice. Let 
him hasten to make peace with me. This is the moment 
for him to remember that all the empires the world has 
seen have risen to their highest degree of splendour and 
then fallen into ruins." 

We took possession of, and occupied the palace at 
Munich, where I endeavoured to do the honours in a 
manner to please him. Fetes succeeded each other un- 
interruptedly. Nothing was talked of but Court balls and 
concerts (19). But Love kept watch while Mars slept. 
The latter had testified an unusual regard for Madame 
de Mongelas. This intellectual and charming woman gave 
the ton to society in Munich. Every assembly was graced 
by her presence, and she often, under the veil of an alle- 
gory, told the Emperor wholesome and important truths. 

He did not, however, wait long in following up his 
advantage. In this new struggle the Russians were not 
as successful as the Austrians. The French had already 
reached Vienna ; Francis II. prudently retired to Brunn, 
in Moravia, and thence to Olmutz. Proposals of peace 
arrived, but the conqueror rejected them, although he 
foresaw that his position was becoming more difficult, 
especially as the Emperor of Russia and the King of 
Prussia arrived for the purpose of checking the torrent 
which now threatened to sweep away Germany. It is 
probable, nevertheless, that the Cabinet of Berlin only 
awaited the issue of the combat to declare itself either 
for or against the head of the French Government. 
Napoleon's only resource was victory; 'twas necessary, 
as he often told me, to obtain it, even at the price of the 
greatest sacrifices. 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 47 

The army, which he commanded in person, ran the 
most imminent risks. He began to despair of his cause, 
inseparable at this time from that of France. He recon- 
noitred the position of the allied army, and judging it 
unassailable, he thought it necessary to retrace the false 
step he had taken and take up his encampment on more 
favourable ground. Here Prince Dolgorouski came to 
have an interview with him, and was received at the 
outposts. This aide-de-camp of the Emperor Alexander 
proposed to him, on behalf of his master, to abandon 
the crown of Italy, and to give up Belgium. " Go 
and tell him who sent you," answered the man who 
was accustomed to domineer over fate, " go and tell 
him that, should his troops occupy the heights of Mont- 
martre, I would not sign such a capitulation." He spoke ; 
and soon were the Russians convinced of their error in 
attacking him in his new position. On this occasion he 
thought it his duty again to address his soldiers in person. 
" I shall," said he " myself direct your battalions. I shall 
keep out of the fire as long as it carries disorder and con- 
fusion into the enemy's ranks ; but should victory be for 
a moment doubtful, you will see me where the blows fall 
thickest." Napoleon, however, did not find it necessary 
to distinguish himself by any such new proof of personal 
courage. All the troops performed their duty perfectly, 
and thus was gained the memorable battle of Austerlitz, 
which covered the name of Frenchmen with glory. Pro- 
digies of valour were performed on both sides, but Napoleon 
remained master of that awful field of battle. 

All his thoughts were now turned towards the aggran- 
disement of his family. "I shall begin with your son, 
madam," said he ; " Eugene is single I must have him 
marry the daughter of a Sovereign. The King of Bavaria 



48 SECRET MEMOIRS OP 

is under many obligations to me, and the hand of his 
daughter, the Princess Augusta Amelia, must cancel the 
debt of gratitude he owes me " (20). My heart was 
really touched by this proof of my husband's kindness, 
not that the distinguished choice imposed upon my ima- 
gination, for I had long been living in a world of wonders; 
but when I reflected upon the honour which this illustrious 
union would confer on my beloved son, I felt the highest 
satisfaction. I was already acquainted with the noble 
lady who was promised him as his wife, and I fancied 
that the match would be a happy one for him. My 
Eugene, said I to myself, will know how to appreciate 
merit, and his heart is as sensible and feeling as his 
mother's. 

Napoleon, in adopting his step-son, did not grant him 
the right to the crown of Italy, except in the event that 
he himself should be without legitimate children. I had 
already begun to abandon all hope of giving him suc- 
cessors to the throne, a hope to which I had long and 
fondly clung. My vows had not yet been accomplished. 
The desire of becoming a father engrossed his whole 
heart, and our family divisions often took their rise in 
that disappointed hope. He finally reposed upon the 
flattering idea that he was the benefactor of my children. 
" I shall," said he, " render them innumerable benefits, 
but my nephew will be the object of my particular affec- 
tion. Yes, the little Napoleon is, in my view, born for 
the accomplishment of great things ; I shall, I trust, be 
a valuable subject for his study and meditation " (21). 

This remark of my husband made me happy indeed ; 
and I hoped to see the young child one day able to ac- 
knowledge his favours. 

Preparations were made to celebrate at Munich the 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 4Q 

nuptials of Prince Eugene with the daughter of the King 
of Bavaria. Her father-in-law wrote thus to the French 
senate : " I contribute to the happiness of the new couple 
by uniting them myself; this will postpone for a few days 
my arrival in the midst of my people ; how long will 
those days seem to my heart ! But after having so con- 
stantly fulfilled the duties of a soldier, I feel a delicious 
satisfaction in discharging those of the head of a family." 

Napoleon did, indeed, load my son with proofs of the 
tenderest attachment, which the Viceroy, on his part, 
responded to by the most faithful devotion. For several 
months I felt really happy ; I was, so to speak, the 
queen of the feast ; but the praises lavished upon me 
necessarily redounded to the honour of the hero to whom 
I was united. My daughter-in-law showed me every 
attention, and I received every day from the good Amelia 
proofs of her tenderness and attachment. Napoleon was 
especially attentive to her, and even outstripped my 
desires. Could he have remained calm in the midst 
of such great events he would have been an admirable 
man. In his brief moments of quietude he sometimes 
displayed sentiments which indicated a profoundly philo- 
sophic mind ; but the tumult of camp and his native 
ambition soon made him disdain a peaceful mode of life, 
and give himself up to the brilliant career of arms. Na- 
poleon found it necessary always to appear extraordinary. 
Like Janus, he possessed the dangerous art of changing 
his face when he pleased. 

All the Cabinets of Europe took the alarm when he 
declared to them that Italy, Naples, Holland, Switzer- 
land and Spain were to remain under the protection of 
France, not only during his life, but after his death. 
Some of the foreign ministers dared mention to him some 
VOL. ii 4 



5O SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

objections against the duration of so formidable a power. 
To one of them who appeared the hardest to convince, 
he replied, "As yet, it is nothing. And what would you 
say if I should take possession of Westphalia, the Han- 
seatic Towns and the Roman states ? I shall contrive 
to add to France the Illyrian provinces, Etruria and 
Portugal I don't know where I shall fix the limits 
of my empire. Perhaps it will yet have no boundaries 
but the vast extent of the two worlds ; and then, like 
Americus Vespucius and Columbus, the honour will, 
doubtless, belong to me of discovering, in my turn, a 
third world." 

Thus did this monarch, who dreamed of nothing but 
territorial aggrandisement, ruminate upon his schemes 
of unbounded dominion. But his power, like that of 
Charles XII., gave umbrage to the other Sovereigns of 
Europe, and at length aroused them from the slumber 
in which they had been so long buried. Many of those 
princes were, to all appearance, sincere admirers of Bona- 
parte ; but this fatal illusion never deceived me ; I ever 
regarded their enthusiasm in regard to him either as a 
chimera or a political trick. 1 



i M. Baldus, on being asked whether a society of men who should 
speak the truth could exist, replied that, in Peru, before the arrival 
of the Spaniards, lying never soiled the lips of the children of the 
Sun. Pythagoras, he added, tells us that there are two ways in 
which man can resemble the Deity namely, speaking the truth at 
all times, and doing good to men. 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 5! 



CHAPTER IV 

I COME now to that period in my life when I enjoyed 
the most tranquillity. I had some leisure to devote to 
my favourite occupations, and spent it at Malmaison (22), 
which place had been embellished under my direction. I 
took pleasure in every day contriving some little surprise 
for Napoleon. This pleased him wonderfully. Here, in 
this superb retreat, he denied me nothing which I asked 
with a view to its embellishment. He would, indeed, 
have been willing to transfer to it the pomp and mag- 
nificence of the gardens and buildings at Versailles. The 
groves were enchanting ; they resembled those of Alcinous. 
The rarest plants united their beauty to adorn this rustic 
temple, which my husband, in his playful moments, used 
to compare to that of Armida. He called me the en- 
chantress of this delicious abode. Able artists had 
surmounted the greatest obstacles, and the wonders of 
Nature, mingling with those of art, were here displayed 
in all their majesty. The great man, happy nowhere 
but in this asylum, here preserved all his personal habits 
(23). But the chateau, whose apartments were designed 
according to modern taste, was not spacious enough to 
accommodate so brilliant a Court as that of the Tuileries; 
and Napoleon projected the building of a palace at Mal- 
maison, the plan of which he sketched with his pencil. 
I implored him not to alter that modest habitation, and 
finally made him promise that my little hermitage should 

42 



52 SECRET MEMOIRS OP 

undergo none of the metamorphoses of political enthusiasm 
or of friendship, except such as I myself might suggest. 

The evening this conversation took place, we were 
together in one of those charming gondolas so frequently 
seen on the streams near Malmaison. The murmurs of 
the brooks in their serpentine channels, the solitude and 
silence which reigned around us, inspired me with a 
desire to express my feelings to my husband. *' Alas ! " 
said I, " what more could we desire if, afar from courtiers, 
we could here pass our lives in peace and happiness? 
Look at this artificial torrent which flows prattling along 
at our feet; soon it forms a cascade, and its clear wave 
is broken upon the rocks. Behold the delicate colourings 
of these flowers, the purple hues of these fruits, and the 
ever-verdant aspect of these lawns ; can anything in this 
world be compared to these delightful scenes ? The 
imperial purple is fatiguing, even for those who were 
born to wear it. Constantly surrounded by keen ob- 
servers and severe critics, every moment of their lives 
is covered with clouds nay, they must be importuned 
unceasingly to breathe the incense of flattery. A thousand 
times more happy he who, born without ambition, is 
permitted to till the modest inheritance of his fathers ! " 
and I was, I confess, surprised at my husband's 
reply. 

" Society," said he, " has become irksome to me ; I 
could wish to live in an eternal solitude ; the sight of 
courtiers disgusts me; I detest them. Yes, I maintain 
that Fabricius was happier while tilling, with his own 
hands, the soil of his fathers than while commanding the 
Roman army. There's nothing on earth but intrigue and 
crime." 

Yes, Bonaparte," replied I, "you who have no 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 53 

reason to fear the fate of Belisarius, who by your valour 
and the chances of war have raised yourself above the 
first captains of the age you, upon whom the whole 
world now turn their eyes, you must admit that if some 
rays of happiness have shone upon your pathway through 
life, it has been only at Malmaison that you have been 
able to perceive them (24). Who can say but that it 
may be reserved to you, as it was to Sylla, to live here- 
after like a philosopher ? Ah, should you disdain to 
follow his example it will be, perhaps, to this place that 
you will come, one day, to deplore the loss of your 
fortunes and the unstableness of honours. Here, you 
will know how to reduce to their true value the praises 
which men have lavished upon you ; you will curse 
the ingratitude of most of them, and, in your despair, 
exclaim, " At least there remains to me one true friend ! 
Modern Orestes, it will certainly be difficult to meet with 
a Pylades ! " (25). 

The Emperor frankly confessed that his throne was 
surrounded by quicksands, that the abuse of power was 
secretly undermining his authority, that revolutions were 
like torrents which burst their banks and inundate the 
surface of the ground ; but still he could believe that 
their effects in France would outlast the present genera- 
tion. " I shall," said he, " hold all parties in respect, 
and at the same time prevent them from agitating 
the country ; I hold a sceptre of brass only to curb 
the malevolent. I am too well acquainted with the 
human heart to place any more confidence in the pro- 
fessions of the old nobility than in the conversion of the 
Jacobins." 

He believed himself an extraordinary man. His views 
were great, his conceptions great. A word or a thought 



54 SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

would sometimes seize upon his imagination, and he 
would withdraw from the company of his courtiers to 
treasure it up in his memory 1 ; he did nothing like other 
men ; everything in his conduct showed some mysterious 
design (26). His taste for pleasure was very moderate ; 
that of the chase seldom diverted him much. I told 
him he ought to give himself up occasionally to that 
royal amusement. I was aware that many of his generals 
were growing tired of their inaction, and therefore took 
pleasure in contriving some little recreation for them 
during the intervals which interrupted their brilliant 
career ; and thus theatrical representations and dinners 
became frequent both at the Tuileries and at the chateau 
of St. Cloud (27) ; but as to Malmaison, it was the 
rendezvous only of such persons whose society I knew 
would be agreeable to my husband (28). 

Of this number was Talleyrand. Few men, in my 
judgment, were ever endowed with so perfect a knowledge 
of the human heart ; his wonderful genius only acquired 
strength and vigour in the presence of difficulties ; and 
he never gave over until he had overcome them. He 
often penetrated Napoleon's plans ; for him, diplomacy 
was but a pleasant recreation. He had played all the 
games of politics, and coolly calculated the results. 
Indeed, the late Bishop of Autun was of all men the 
most capable of holding in his hands the scales of 
European politics. 

Towards me he was often grave, reserved and some- 

i He had a prodigious memory. He would recognise a person 
though he had never seen him but once. Whenever he found a 
stranger in his wife's company, he would instantly ask, " Who is 
this gentleman ? " " Who is this lady ? " and, on being answered, 
salute the stranger gracefully and seem satisfied. 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 55 

times silent. He conversed politely, but carefully avoided 
dropping a word that might awaken my curiosity, and 
sometimes eluded my questions ; in short, as I told 
Napoleon, it would have been extremely difficult to have 
found a minister more ministerial, even in the smallest 
details (29). 

Cambac6rs was fond of quiet a profound jurist, a 
good counsellor, an excellent publicist and, moreover, 
incapable of doing harm. The master listened to him 
attentively provided always he did not intermeddle with 
his military operations. " If," said he, " I had a law- 
suit, I should follow, without hesitation, the opinion of 
the arch-chancellor ; but as to the tactics which belong 
to the camp, he doesn't understand their first elements. 
He talks of peace when I propose war ; his system is 
to remain within the limits of France. Should I listen 
to him I should reap no more laurels. But it is neces- 
sary to keep the army full of expectation. Effeminacy 
and inaction would be equally prejudicial. Who knows 
but that many of those men will imitate the example of 
the sons of Mahomet, and seek to overthrow the chief- 
tain who has so often led them to victory ? If I intend 
my reign to be glorious and lasting, I must animate 
their zeal and give employment to their courage I must 
seize upon every circumstance that can call for its dis- 
play ; 'tis only by carrying the torch of war among my 
neighbours that I can secure myself against the efforts 
of sedition at home." 

Such were Napoleon's ideas. He believed all men 
faithless. He distrusted his ministers, and had long 
since adopted the maxim of Louis XI., that, " If you 
would know how to govern you must know how to 
divide." He perfectly understood the art of sowing 



56 SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

distrust amongst all parties; his grand dignitaries could 
not live together. 

The unlucky battle of Trafalgar, which occasioned 
an irreparable loss to either nation, affected him power- 
fully. He saw that the annihilation of his fleet would 
prevent the execution of his grand designs. But, al- 
though the ocean was not his element, and presented 
no favourable chance for his glory, he yet resolved to 
keep the English in suspense, although he was no longer 
formidable to them. He said that Admiral Villeneuve, 
who was made a prisoner, " ought to have set fire 
to the powder magazine of the Sainte-Barbe, and that a 
naval officer should know how to die." He afterwards 
received convincing proof that that brave man had nobly 
defended his flag; and, after a few months, permitted 
him to return to France. But it was easy to perceive 
that Napoleon watched for some occasion to humiliate 
and even to punish him. It is certain that Villeneuve 
had done all in his power to save the honour of France, 
and that he was worthy to occupy the post that had 
been confided to him. It seems to have been from a 
kind of presentiment of the fate which awaited him that 
he wrote to the minister of war, "that he was resolved 
to abandon for ever a perilous post, the functions of 
which his principles and the violent disposition of 
Napoleon would not permit him to fulfil." The loss of 
the battle of Trafalgar is to be attributed neither to a 
want of valour nor to technical faults ; this is proved 
irrevocably by the official account given of it. But 
what particularly incensed my husband against the 
admiral was the letter which Villeneuve wrote him, and 
which closed with the following imprecation: 

*' Tremble, tyrant ! You are abhorred ; and the male- 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 57 

dictions of the whole world will follow you beyond the 
grave." 1 

Some days after this catastrophe Napoleon assembled 
his council at the Tuileries. He told his ministers that 
the King of Naples had received into his ports both the 
English and Russians; and, notwithstanding the Treaty 
of Pressburg, had used no means whatever to prevent 
them. " Ferdinand," said he, " must quit the throne, 
and my brother Joseph must replace him. I appoint 
him to-day." 

He was not slow to fulfil his promise ; and gave, in 
another quarter, also, a sample of his power. He com- 
pelled the old republicans of Holland to receive a King 
from among the members of his family. This second 
crown was placed upon the head of his brother Louis, 
and he had the idea that almost all the princes in 
Europe would soon furnish him some new pretext to 
hurl them from their thrones. Louis Bonaparte was a 
simple-minded man, but of a kind disposition. He re- 
ceived, with reluctance, the crown of Holland,* which he 
clearly foresaw he should not be able to keep. He 
employed what he thought the most proper means to 
conciliate all parties, and succeeded in gaining the esteem 
of those he governed. They felt confidence in him; and, 
of all those whom Napoleon clothed with the regal purple, 

1 The unfortunate admiral refused to survive the loss of the 
French marine, and put himself to death. 

2 Louis Bonaparte was reluctant to take the crown of Holland. 
He alleged his bad health, but my husband was not satisfied with 
that excuse, and called it frivolous. "The climate," said he, 
seriously, to Louis, " will not be unhealthy to you. You will be a 
King, and, like me, finally become habituated to wearing a diadem. 
Even if you die you will have the consolation of reflecting, in your 
last moments, that you die upon a throne, and leave mighty recol- 
lections behind you." NOTE BY JOSEPHINE. 



58 SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

Louis is, perhaps, the only one who won friends while on 
the throne, and left regrets among his subjects when he 
quitted it. 

But my beloved daughter was not happy with him. 
Their dispositions did not harmonise. She had arrived at 
the sad and certain conviction that his affections were 
centred upon another woman. Hortense was, by nature, 
sensible and feeling, and had given her hand to my 
husband's brother only by a kind of constraint. To her 
the chains of wedlock seemed not woven of flowers, but 
of iron ; and their weight pressed heavily upon her. Yet, 
consulting her own and her mother's happiness, she re- 
signed herself to her fate with patience. The fatal journey 
to Holland occasioned an open quarrel between them I and 
the death of their eldest son soon occurred to aggravate 
their grief. 

Had both received wiser counsels, it is possible Louis 
might have found the charm of his life in the conjugal 
relation ; but flatterers, the usual companions of sovereigns, 
sowed discord and disunion between them. My daughter 
was a prey to the most violent chagrins. But never did 
Hortense desire the throne for its own sake. She found 
some consolation in attending to the education of her 
children. She desired that her husband should maintain 
the post to which Napoleon had raised him, not in order 
to share his power, but to open up a brilliant future to her 
children, and to afford to the Dutch a secure harbour, after 
so many shipwrecks. 

There are certain facts which I cannot be suspected of 
exaggerating ; they are indubitable ; yet I may certainly be 
permitted to vindicate the character of a woman who has 
been wantonly traduced, and whom calumny has dared to 
present to me as a rival (30). 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 59 

Napoleon hesitated long whether he should permit her 
to return to Paris, and it was with the utmost difficulty 
that I finally persuaded him to do so. " She must remain 
at her post," said he ; " besides, what can be her object in 
coming to reside at Paris ? " " Ah," said I, " am I not 
here? Who else can console her? Who else can give 
her strength to support her misfortunes ? It is your duty, 
Bonaparte, to repair, so far as is possible, the wrong which 
my too blind obedience has wrought. Deign at least to 
have pity on your wife. You know well that I am con- 
strained to admit to my daughter that I even went beyond 
my own sense of justice when I silenced her inclination, 1 
and gave her a husband not of her choosing." 

I kept up a regular correspondence with the Queen of 
Holland. She was the depository of all my sad thoughts. 
The day I obtained permission for her to return to me, was 
one of the happiest of my life. " I shall," thought I, " at 
least have Hortense by my side, and enjoy the pleasure of 
seeing her and her children. If she is happy, I shall par- 
take of her bliss ; if she weeps, my hand shall wipe away 
her tears, and I shall weep with her ; if calumny attacks 
her, I shall be here to defend her." 

Prince Eugene seemed to be at the pinnacle of his 
hopes. His wife found the means of making herself 
perfectly agreeable to him, and on her account he had 
renounced all former liaisons that could possibly give her 
umbrage. The princess was fully sensible of the noble con- 
duct of her husband. Yes, my dear children ! full often 
did I say to myself, " I shall die happy, indeed, if I can but 
see you both advancing in the way that leads to public 

i It seems well settled that Mademoiselle Hortense would have 
preferred, at this period, one of Bonaparte's aides-de-camp, who after- 
wards became grand marshal of the palace. [D.uroc. TRANSLATOR.] 



60 SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

honour and esteem." Alas, I am well aware that happi- 
ness is but a shadow, which all mortals pursue! But, 
being the wife of a man who makes Europe tremble, who 
is to fix upon himself the gaze of posterity, I cannot, 
while speaking to the beings whom I love more than my 
own life, chain down to the earth that bright and dazzling 
chimera. 

The family of Bonaparte were continually receiving, at 
his hands, new and striking proofs of his munificence. The 
most dazzling proofs of the imperial favour were lavished 
upon them all even upon Jerome, his youngest brother, 
who received from him the title of " Imperial Highness," 
and the right of succession to the empire. Bonaparte, 
however, made it an express condition of this right, that 
Jerome should forswear himself in regard to his marriage 
vows, and abandon his first wife, Miss Patterson. The 
Emperor had already turned his eyes towards the Princess 
of Wurtemberg as the lady who was to replace her (31). 
And it was in thus violating the most sacred obligations, 
and in assuming others, that this feeble prince, after the 
example of his elder brothers, obtained a kingdom. He 
became King of Westphalia. 

But the great captain soon awoke from the kind of 
drowsiness into which he seemed plunged, to give a 
"master-stroke," as he told Murat. The latter had re- 
ceived the news of the invasion of the Grand Duchy of 
Berg, and, anxious for the enlargement of the empire, 
encouraged Napoleon to finish his work by compelling 
Germany to make concessions. " Your dynasty," said 
Murat, "is the youngest in Europe, and it already occu- 
pies several thrones." As the Emperor loved to be 
flattered, and easily adopted whatever coincided with his 
own conceptions, he was not slow in frightening the North 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 6l 

of Germany and making Prussia tremble. He destroyed 
the ancient Germanic Constitution, upon which hung a 
great number of principalities, often divided among them- 
selves, but always united in their opposition to the 
encroachments of the stronger Powers. 

Upon its ruins Napoleon established the Confederation 
of the Rhine, declaring himself its protector. " By this 
means," said he, to the French senate, " I shall be at 
liberty to cover a great part of Germany with my troops, 
and be able to throw myself upon the first Sovereign it 
may please me to attack, and to subsist my army at the 
expense of the country." 

But the King of Prussia now set himself about forming 
a Confederation of the North, into which he aimed to bring 
all the German states not comprised in the constitutional 
plan of his rival. Napoleon expected this, and declared 
to the King of Prussia, in the most positive terms, that 
he would never consent that the Hanseatic Towns should 
enter into this plan of Frederick William; and that none 
of the German states should be compelled to take part in 
it. " Such is my will," said my husband ; " I will it 
absolutely. I have not left the princes of the Confedera- 
tion of the Rhine free either to consent or refuse. I am 
an Italian, and I have the honour to command the French. 
I must declare to you, finally, that I wish my orders to 
be executed." 

His flatterers, however, endeavoured to convince him 
that Russia probably entertained a desire to bring about 
an accommodation with France. The magnanimous cha- 
racter of Alexander gave rise to the presumption, on the 
part of some, that he would use all the means in his 
power to put an end to the bloody struggles which were 
desolating Germany, and to conclude a general treaty with 



62 SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

a view to the re-establishment of tranquillity throughout 
Europe. 'Twas thought that this great prince's authority 
would make the balance incline to the side of peace. 
Napoleon, however, regarded this prediction as a chimera, 
and was perfectly convinced that the Cabinet of St. 
Petersburg would never consent to separate its interests 
from those of London by means of a private treaty. 
Negotiations, however, were opened. For several months 
the celebrated Fox kept up an active correspondence with 
the minister Talleyrand. Plenipotentiaries were appointed, 
and came to Paris. The moment after their presentation, 
I said to my husband, " Bonaparte, Lords Yarmouth and 
Lauderdale and M. Doubril will not treat with you, 
unless you sincerely desire it. I venture to predict you 
will present them some insignificant ultimatum, but they 
will become acquainted with your principles in your treaty. 
The negotiation concerns the future repose of Europe, and 
you want to light up a new conflagration. You will declare, 
formally, that you have formed no demand, and are far 
from claiming any of the possessions of England. And 
why ? You would be glad, even now, to possess not only 
the Three Kingdoms, but even their immense colonies. I 
am not let into the secrets of your policy, but you see I 
look far enough into it to discover that you desire nothing 
more than the rupture of the conferences, so that you can 
prepare to enter upon another campaign. Unhappily, the 
hope of peace will soon vanish, that peace for which the 
people have looked forward so long and so anxiously." 

" You speak truly," said he, " but I must recommend 
you to use the utmost discretion. A Sovereign never knows 
how to set bounds to his desires. My own have no limits. 
Like the conqueror of Darius, I want to rule the whole 
world. I hope my desires will one day be fulfilled. I am 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 63 

certain that my family and myself will yet occupy all the 
thrones in Europe." l And thus did he caress his brilliant 
chimeras. 

I found myself constrained, by political and private con- 
siderations, to receive visits from various ladies not the 
most agreeable to me, and among them were his sisters 
themselves. I well knew their intentions in respect to me, 
and perfidious reports had occasioned great enmity between 
us. I rarely spoke to them at the soir6es at which they 
were admitted. Mere politeness regulated our intercourse. 

Yet never did I aim to do them the slightest wrong ; I 
was incapable of it, and I felt that such conduct would be 
an offence against every law of delicacy. Often, often did 
I prevent the Emperor from holding to them the severe 
language of truth. 

As to Madame Letitia (32), she might recall to my mind 
bitter recollections, and deliver me up to feelings which 
beset my soul, were she to set in motion the current of my 
thoughts ; but respect and high considerations must stop 
me. 

In regard to Lucien* I may say : 

" II m'a trop fait de bien pour en dire du mal, 
II m'a trop fait de mal pour en dire du bien." 

For the rest, I wish to render him the justice which he 
merits. Never did he flatter my husband. He always 
told him boldly what he thought ; and Bonaparte much 

1 Bonaparte had long entertained the belief that, like his father, he 
should not live beyond the age of forty. After his coronation, he was 
often heard to say, " I want only ten years to do what I wish." 

2 Murat was not appointed King of Naples until after Lucien had 
declined it. The latter, on being offered the crown, answered his 
brother, haughtily, " that if he accepted the title of King, he must be 
the sole master of his kingdom, and govern it, not like a prefect, but an 
independent prince." 



64 SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

regretted, on arriving at power, not having his brother 
Lucien as a witness of his prodigious elevation. " He is 
an incredulous man," said he to me, with a smile ; " he never 
would have believed that I could have seated myself upon 
the throne of France. What a poor fellow ! " " He is 
wiser than you," replied I ; " he left France, perhaps, at the 
right time ; while at a distance he will be a witness of the 
tempest which is gathering by degrees, and preparing to 
burst upon your proud head. But I must be just to him ; 
should he see your power about to be overthrown, he would 
surely consider it his duty to hasten to your relief, to share 
your danger or to fall with you." 

I had long ago entreated my mother to come and settle 
in France, and had held out to her the most flattering and 
brilliant prospect. Napoleon himself had promised to re- 
ceive her with the greatest distinction. " I shall treat her 
nobly," said he, " and I am sure she will better sustain the 
honours of her rank than a certain lady of my household " 
(alluding to Madame Letitia, who constantly occasioned 
remarks by her extreme parsimony). But Madame de la 
Pagerie would never accede to her daughter's wishes, and 
preferred her quiet abode at Martinique to the dangerous 
honours that awaited her at her son-in-law's Court. " My 
Josephine," she exclaimed, " I find myself better off in my 
own habitation than in the most magnificent palace. Why 
is it necessary that I should see you seated on a throne ? 
During your life you have learned to overcome the great 
obstacles which marred your peace of mind. Alas ! the 
road you are now pursuing presents those which are still 
more insurmountable. Ah, my daughter, what shoals and 
quicksands surround you ! Could I remove them, how 
willingly would I leave my peaceful abode, and my quiet 
habits of life, and fly to you. But your husband has 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 65 

become too powerful to listen to my advice or your own. 
While awaiting the pleasure of seeing you again, I confine 
myself to the preparation of a safe harbour against the 
tempests which environ you on every side. The incon- 
stancy of statesmen, or the force of events, may, one day 
or other, hurl the Emperor of the French from the throne 
to which his soldiers have so suddenly raised him. For 
myself, I do not love greatness ; I am afraid of it ; its 
shadow is so flitting that I cannot believe in the durability 
of your own good fortune ; but, meanwhile, enjoy the 
present with moderation. Beware how you trust to the 
smiles of the future. I have no confidence in courtiers, 
I hold them in abhorrence. Your husband's ambition will 
destroy him. Had I wished it had I felt confidence in 
his fortunes, I might long since have enjoyed at Martinique 
a position worthy of you. Oh, my daughter, my tender 
Josephine ! how cruel it is to feel that you are not per- 
mitted to come as you used to do, and embellish by your 
presence my solitude of the Three Islets. Were you here, 
I should have nothing else to desire in the world I should 
once more press you to my heart before my death." (33.) 

This letter from my mother made an impression upon 
me difficult to describe. I read it over and over again. 
It appeared to me that the hand which traced it was 
already endeavouring to avert the ills which afterwards 
fell upon my devoted head. 1 

I concealed it from my husband ; but he soon learned, 
by means of the spies of the chateau, that I had received 



i When Josephine had signed the acte of divorce which separated 
her for ever from Napoleon, she said to her friend the Countess of 
Rochefoucauld, " Happy my father and mother in not being wit- 
nesses of my disgrace 1 Happy am I that they have not survived my 
misfortune ! " 

VOL. II C 



66 SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

news which deeply afflicted me. He insisted upon reading 
the letter. He was, at times, extremely inquisitive, and 
inclined to jealousy, and this latter passion sometimes 
engrossed all his thoughts and faculties. He imagined 
that this correspondence contained some precious secret. 
When, however, he discovered that it was from my mother, 
he made a jest of his fears, admitted them to be imaginary, 
and ridiculed his mistake. " I perceive," said he, " that 
Madame de la Pagerie, like myself, will permit no parti- 
cipation. She wants to reign alone. Very well ! I will, 
some day, establish her as a sovereign in America, and 
furnish her a code of laws for the new nation. While 
waiting to mount that grand triumphal chariot, I must 
proceed and reap an immense harvest of laurels among 
the Germans. 1 I start to-night for Mayence, and shall fix 
my head-quarters at Bamberg. I will give the Prussians 
a prelude I have been long waiting to open the dance 
among them." 

i The Empress, on leaving Paris for Munich, in September, 1806. 
spent several weeks at Strassburg, where, on the very night of her 
arrival in the city, a looking-glass, which was insecurely fastened up, 
in her room, fell down, and was broken into a thousand pieces a 
circumstance which those who knew of it regarded a,i a sinister 
presage. The Countess of Rochefoucauld seeming alarmed at it, the 
Empress replied, " What, after all, can I fear, surrounded by the 
French whom I love ? Were I in Germany, 'twould be a good 
omen." Two days after the divorce, that lady recalled te Josephine's 
recollection the unlucky prognostic. " You will make me really super- 
stitious," answered the deeply-afflicted woman; "in troth, I can only 
imitate the great Frederick, who could never, and especially on the 
eve of a battle, bear to see, either salt spilled upon the table, or knives 
and forks lying across each other. Yes, madam, I am firmly per- 
suaded that she who is to succeed me on the throne of France, will, 
like me, experience great ills ; for, from the bosom of Germany will 
yet arise an electric spark, which will find a conductor that will direct 
it towards the ramparts of Strassburg ; and if, unhappily, it shall pene- 
trate into the citadel, it will set on fire, or subject to its direction, that 
ancient possession of proud Germany." 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 67 



CHAPTER V 

NAPOLEON seemed to enjoy, in advance, the pleasure he 
was to derive from vanquishing the new coalition of kings. 
He revolved, in his own mind, the most stupendous pro- 
jects, and communicated them to his principal officers. 
Rumour, with her hundred tongues, had already pro- 
claimed at Paris that he was at the gates of Berlin. The 
French army advanced in three columns, and after several 
engagements, finally arrived at Jena, where a battle of the 
utmost importance to both parties took place. General 
Debilly died gloriously upon the field of battle. The Duke 
of Brunswick was mortally wounded. And this brilliant 
victory opened to the Emperor the gates of Weimar. 1 

i After the battle of Jena, the Emperor fixed his head-quarters at 
Brunswick, in the palace of the Duke of Weimar. The duchess had 
not fled, but, with her ladies, had retired into one of the wings of the 
chateau. Napoleon arrived intoxicated with victory, impetuous, burn- 
ing with glory ; his head completely turned. The duchess presented 
herself in one of the apartments. " Who are you ? " said he. " The 
Duchess of Weimar," was her reply. " I will crush your husband," 
said he ; "I will give him not one moment's rest." " Sire," said she, 
" his duty, his honour and his rank demanded of him to do as he has 
done." " I tell you," replied Napoleon, " he lost his reason when he 
thought of resisting me. I tell you, madam, the Cabinet of Berlin has 
long insulted me curbed me. I will now make them offer me their 
chroats. The Prussian nobility, barbarous and bullying as they are, 
shall learn that my ministers are not to be insulted with impunity. I 
will make them beg their bread." 

The duchess, perceiving that the moment was not favourable, re- 
tired. The next morning a gentleman was sent by her to enquire how 
the Emperor had passed the night. " Well, very well," was the 
answer; " tell the duchess that I thank her, and ask her to breakfast." 

5-2 



68 SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

Erfurth and Leipsic soon capitulated, and the Emperor 
advanced like a thunderbolt upon the Prussian capital. 
He refused to listen to any of the propositions which were 
made to him. Completely victorious, he turned a deaf ear 
to all accommodation. Davoust entered Berlin. But Pots- 
dam was preferred for the temporary residence of the new 
Caesar, from whom I received despatches dated at that 
city. " I have," said he, " paid a visit to the tomb of 
Frederick the Great, and have myself brought off his 
sword, and also the sash and cordon of the black eagle, 
which belonged to that great captain, and shall send them 
to the Invalides at Paris." In another passage, he added, 
"The good people of Berlin are the victims of the war, 
while those who have provoked it have fled, and left them 
to feel all the weight of its strokes. I will render this 
Court nobility so poor that they will be compelled to resort 
to other means to retrieve their fortunes. I like Madame 
Hatzfeldt much. I have forgotten the wrongs her husband 
did me, and have given up to her the only letter which 
would have convicted him of a criminal conspiracy against 
me. 1 My offended pride would have constrained me to 
punish him severely. His wife, however, burnt the letter 
in my presence. I am satisfied that I have done right. 
When necessary, I know how to employ clemency. Hence, 
Berlin proclaims that I am great, and that I know how to 
forgive injuries " (34). 

What passed at table is not known, but on retiring to his room, Bona- 
parte uttered the highest encomiums on the duchess. " She is a 
meritorious woman," said he, " possessing high qualities. I shall do 
much for her ; yes, very much she will save her country." M . S. 

i Certain letters were brought to Caesar, which his enemies had 
written to Pompey. He refused to read them, and threw them into 
the fire, saying that, although he was sure he could control his resent- 
ment, he thought it better to destroy the cause thereof at once. 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 69 

This generous action reconciled me, so to speak, to my 
husband's principles, for we were always disputing about 
his vast plans of invasion. Napoleon was now, as he said, 
dashing forward on his car of victory, and no power could 
stop him. 

Stettin and Kustrin next fell into his bands ; Magde- 
burg capitulated. " What matters it to me," said the 
conqueror, " that I have carried this city by means of 
bullets of gold, as the Prussians think 'tis not the less 
true that the city is mine. I have found in it immense 
magazines of provisions and ammunition 100 pieces of 
cannon, and, what seems still more incredible, 22,000 
men, who were still in the town to defend it. I can 
really work miracles during my lifetime, and I humbly 
trust the holy Propaganda society will see fit, after my 
death, to place my name on its calendar of saints." 1 
Napoleon left but few resources to the King of Prussia. 
The latter was forced to submit to the will of the con- 
queror. He solicited a suspension of arms, in order to 
await the result of events, to which the French monarch 
consented. But, ever anxious for combat, he went in 
quest of the Russians, who did not show themselves on 
the field soon enough to please him. He started for 
Poland, and advanced towards Posen. After several 
engagements, in which the French were victorious, 
Murat, at the head of the cavalry, entered Warsaw, 
whither Napoleon had preceded him. " I cannot," he 
wrote me, " describe the friendly manner in which the 

i Bonaparte had his secret agents in every Court in Europe. 
Almost every Cabinet was sold to him. He disposed of the treasures 
of nations ; dictated, at his will, peace or war, and directed the 
movements of armies, whose plans were in his possession. With 
such means, and with the tried bravery of the French, why should 
he not have succeeded ? NOTE BY JOSEPHINB. 



TO SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

Poles have received me. They regard me as a liberator, 
and hope that I shall restore to them their independence 
hence they do not fail to load me with the tribute of 
their adulation. One of them says to me, ' The great 
Napoleon appeared like a star in France. He came he 
saw he conquered the world.' Another goes still farther 
with the language of flattery ; but he is excusable ; the 
love of country electrifies his heart and makes him utter 
such language as this : 

" ' Invincible Caesar ! To see you, glorious hero ! 
accomplishes my prayers and vows, as well as those 
of all my countrymen.' 

" ' Already do we see our country saved, for in your 
person do we adore the most just and profound of legis- 
lators 1 ' 

" All these eulogies, however, fail to intoxicate me. 
I have made a great many promises which I am unwilling 
to fulfil. Besides, an insurrection in Poland will sub- 
serve my ends. I want to kindle it, and shall use all 
the means in my power for that purpose; and I shall 
succeed." 

Such were the contents of the letter Napoleon wrote 
me towards the end of December, 1806. 

Soon the French passed the Vistula at different points, 
and gained several advantages. Satisfied with these first 
successes, Napoleon allowed his army to rest. But he 
soon renewed the signal for combat. The battles of 
Waterdorf, Deppen and Hoff all preceded the famous 
battle of Preussisch-Eylau, which was fought on the 8th 
of February, 1807, and the results of which were so 
glorious to the French arms. After this great battle, 
the troops re-entered their cantonments. They, however, 
continued the sieges of Neisse and Dantzic. Though con- 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 71 

stantly talking of peace, the Emperor ordered new con- 
scriptions in France. The Saxons joined our arms, and 
the Imperial Guard, recomposed of the &UU of the regi- 
ments of the line, was soon in readiness to appear again 
on the field of battle. 

Europe felt the necessity of a Congress. But Napoleon 
imperiously demanded that Turkey should send to it her 
plenipotentiary. To this the ministers of the other Powers 
consented, and demanded upon what basis the new treaty 
should be constructed. He answered that there must be 
an equal and reciprocal power possessed by each of the 
belligerent masses, and that these two masses must to- 
gether enter upon a system of compensation. These 
terms appeared obscure to the Cabinets, who replied that 
to carry out the plan the question of dividing up the 
territory of each of the contracting parties must neces- 
sarily arise. 

But the great man, who believed that nothing either 
could or must resist him, concluded at length to trust 
again to the chances of war. The French army 
triumphed at Lomitten, and was checked at Heilsberg, 
but resolved to carry the town. The enemy made the 
most gallant efforts to defend the position, but Napoleon's 
star triumphed, and Friedland was carried at all points 
(35). The allied army was compelled to fight on the 
retreat. 

The bravest of men now entered Tilsit. Tilsit ! at 
that glorious name how do my thoughts awake ! Never 
was France so imposing ; and, had the Emperor so willed 
it, that brilliant victory would have given enduring 
strength to the pillars of his power on the Continent. 
But no! he was to be the sport of Fortune, after being 
her chosen favourite. She now presented to him circuru- 



72 SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

stances more favourable than man ever before possessed 
to make himself happy and to contribute to the general 
felicity. But, through some inconceivable fatality, Na- 
poleon pursued a tortuous, impolitic course a course 
which drove the Fates to repent them of the long- 
continued patronage they had accorded him, and finally 
drew upon him irreparable woes. 

An august meeting took place in the middle of the 
River Niemen. A magnificent raft was launched upon 
the bosom of the stream, and received at one and the 
same time the two most puissant Emperors on the globe. 
The two sovereigns embraced each other, and swore 
eternal friendship. The two armies covered the two 
banks of the Niemen, and their shouts of joy were long 
and loud as they witnessed this striking proof of peace, 
concord and mutual goodwill. At length a treaty of 
peace was concluded. The conqueror gave back to 
Prussia a small portion of her political being all, except 
that portion of the Polish territory called the Duchy of 
Warsaw, which was given to Saxony. Moreover, the 
King of Prussia was despoiled of all his possessions be- 
tween the Elbe and the Rhine, and lost, also, that 
preponderance so necessary to maintain the equipoise of 
the different Northern nations. 

Never had my husband acted so imposing a part. 
He was, so to speak, the supreme mediator among the 
great Powers. But what must have passed in his mind 
on seeing the unhappy Queen of Prussia sitting at the 
table of the man who might at any moment have de- 
throned her husband? He must then have recollected 
that Charles XII. of Sweden visited in person Augustus 
of Saxony, from whom he had wrenched the sceptre of 
Poland in order to give it to Stanislaus yea, he must 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 73 

have been deeply sensible how little of stability the 
empires he had founded must possess. And it was, 
perhaps, the brightest day of his life when the wife of 
Frederick William III. received his first visit. Napoleon, 
in presenting her an amaranth, which he had taken from 
a porcelain vase, became suddenly agitated. 1 He re- 
pented, afterwards, having caused it to be inserted in 
his bulletins that the Queen of Prussia, habited like an 
Amazon, wore the uniform of her dragoons, and wrote 
twenty letters a day to extinguish the spreading con- 
flagration. " I did wrong " (he wrote to me), " I confess 
it ; I did wrong to offend that Princess. She is an 
angel descended to earth. I was near throwing myself 
at her feet. She might have transformed her conqueror 
into the most docile slave. At sight of her, even at the 

I At Tilsit, the Emperor had an interview with the Queen of 
Prussia. On the eve of it, he said to one of his generals, " I am 
told she is a handsome woman." " 'Twill then be," answered the 
courtier, " a rose beside a bunch of laurels." The commencement 
of this interview was charming, delicate. " I expected," said Bona- 
parte to her, "to see a pretty Queen, but, madam, you are the 
prettiest woman in the world." There were some amaranths and 
roses in a vase standing near. He took one of them, and presented 
it to her. " We are but little acquainted with each other," said the 
Queen, confused and timid; "may I receive this expression of Your 
Majesty's sentiments ? " * " Accept, madam, accept," said he ; " 'tis 
a presage of the friendship which I shall henceforth feel for yourself 
and your husband." The Queen received the flowers, pale and 
trembling. One of her ladies became alarmed at her unusual appear- 
ance. " Be reassured, madam," said the Emperor. " I am wholly 
yours ; if I can do aught to oblige you, do not deprive me of that 
pleasure." The Queen remained silent. He renewed the offer several 
times, and she at length asked him, with a trembling voice, to give 
her Magdeburg for her son. "Magdeburg!" exclaimed he, suddenly 
rising, " Magdeburg ! madam, madam, Magdeburg ! but you don't 
think of that ? Let us say no more about it ; " and they separated. 
Thus e'nded this overture. M.S. 

* The presentation of these flowers was, according to usage, understood to 
Imply love and friendship. TRANSLATOR. 



74 SECRET MEMOIRS OP 

mere sound of her voice, I became the most timid of 
men. My hand trembled when I presented her the 
homage of an amaranth, as the most beautiful and 
courageous of her sex." 

Thus Napoleon, in the midst of his triumphs, did 
justice to virtue in misfortune. He often assured me 
that, but for the ascendency which that august Princess 
had obtained over him, he should not have consented 
to such easy conditions. " The Queen of Prussia," he 
added, " has twice saved her husband, not only by means 
of that sublime valour which covers her name with glory, 
but by her imposing manner of presenting herself to 
me. With a face which seemed a picture of sorrow, 
she said to me, 'Poms would have sunk under the weight 
of the laurels which shaded the brow of Alexander ; but 
that king, always a king, was constrained, by the obli- 
gations of gratitude, to respect his conqueror, and to 
admire his generous sentiments and noble forbearance. 
Believe me, the parallel between the heir to the throne 
of Macedon and Napoleon is entirely to the advantage 
of Alexander.' The Princess addressed this language to 
me, with that noble-souled moderation which suits so 
well with fallen greatness. She also reminded me of 
the great deeds of Maria Theresa, which rendered her 
the admiration of Germany of that illustrious woman 
who braved all the efforts of combined Europe in the 
defence of her heritage. ' The noble Hungarians,' she 
continued, 'answered her appeal with enthusiasm. She 
fearlessly combated Frederick the Great, and humbled 
her enemies. From this example, you see that a sublime 
despair may change the fate of empires. Do not make 
it necessary for the wife of Frederick William to imitate 
so great a model.'" 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 75 

Such assurance in any other woman would have 
thrown Napoleon into a rage; but he was so far subdued 
by her as to tell her that the man who should wear 
her chains would be but too happy. The Queen darted 
at him one of those piercing glances which force even 
the most audacious and hardy man to blush at his own 
guilty thoughts. 

This woman, so wonderful for the energy of her 
character, had made efforts far above her strength in 
the reception of Napoleon, who was the humiliation of 
her country; and a lingering disease soon afterwards con- 
ducted her to her tomb. She died in the bosom of 
her family, universally mourned. Her last sigh was for 
her husband, whom she adored. She loved her children 
tenderly, and was devoted to her country. " Poor Prussia !" 
said she, when dying, " thou wilt be devoured as long 
as Saturn shall live" (36). 

All these details were furnished me by secret emis- 
saries, who hastened to give me an account of the smallest 
particulars of Napoleon's private conduct. Although far 
from him, I was acquainted with his most secret thoughts ; 
the slightest movement of his heart was no stranger to 
me. Although his soul was closed against the sentiments 
of love, it was not yet altogether insensible. I have 
often heard a certain Polish lady mentioned, to whom he 
addressed some attentions. The report got about that 
he intended she should come and reside in France (37). 
I was much alarmed at this. We were, each of us, 
extraordinary beings; both devoured by jealousy; neither 
of us could bear the idea of the slightest neglect by the 
other. Everybody told us that we were only seeking the 
means of cherishing the source of our grievances. "Alas, 
poor humanity," we sometimes exclaimed, "how difficult 



76 SECRET MEMOIRS OK 

is it for it to live at peace with itself! At Court and 
in the town the war is perpetual. Each party is always 
ready, and on the point of commencing the onset." 

The moment the Treaty of Tilsit was published, Sweden 
assumed a hostile and formidable attitude. Napoleon 
could not pardon the English for making a descent upon 
the island of Rugen. This unexpected attack awakened 
the hopes of Gustavus Adolphus. But what could that 
unfortunate monarch do against the torrent of Frenchmen 
which was precipitating itself upon his kingdom ? Swedish 
Pomerania was invaded, Stralsund was besieged, and in six 
weeks surrendered ; and the French army took possession 
of the isle of Rugen, from which the King was forced to 
make his escape. 

Napoleon followed the course of his triumphs. Gustavus 
descended from his throne. Charles XIII. took possession 
of his nephew's inheritance. The honourable reproach 
which he found himself able to make against the nephew 
of the great Frederick was of having been one of the most 
zealous defenders of the Bourbons, and especially of having 
been the truest and most sincere friend of the unfortunate 
Duke d'Enghien (38). 

The King of Sweden had never flattered the great man, 
who could form no just idea of his proud and independent 
character. " If," said he, " Gustavus continues to reign, 
and the Prince Royal of Wurtemberg ascends the throne, 
I shall feel much embarrassed." 

But the Temple of Janus, which seemed shut at the 
north, was soon opened at the south. Bonaparte returned 
to Paris, where he remained for some time. His first care 
was to convoke the legislative body and the senate. In his 
speech to them he said, " The people of the Duchy of 
Warsaw, and the City of Dantzic, have recovered their 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 77 

country and their rights. The statements of my ministers 
will make you acquainted with the prosperous condition 
of the public treasury. My people will feel themselves 
relieved of a considerable part of the land tax." 

After Jerome's marriage with the Princess Catherine of 
Wurtemberg, 1 Napoleon wished his two other brothers to 
contract alliances with royal blood. But Lucien had long 
ago manifested his dislike of the immeasurable ambition of 
Napoleon. Madame Joseph, that model of virtue, that 
most amiable and excellent lady, did not deserve to be cast 
aside merely to nourish the chimeras of a senseless pride ; 
and she found a determined defender in her husband. It 
may be said, to the praise of Joseph, that he did not always 
participate in the sentiments of his brother, whom, indeed, 
he often opposed with the utmost energy. Napoleon had, 
however, obtained such an ascendency over the members 
of his family, who all owed to him their elevation, that 
they dared not offer the least resistance to his will. They 
were all united by the sentiments of fear and ambition. 8 

An ambassador arrived from Persia, bringing the most 
magnificent presents from his Court. He presented to 

1 When the Princess of Wurtemberg came to Paris to espouse 
Jerome, she was affianced the same evening, and the nuptials were 
celebrated the next day at eight o'clock in the evening. During the 
ceremony a terrible storm arose; the lightning twice struck the 
Tuileries. On returning to her apartments, Josephine remarked that 
" if the Princess were superstitious, she might suppose that that 
evening announced to her an unhappy future." 

2 When Joseph Bonaparte ascended the throne of Naples, his sister 
Caroline, then Grand Duchess of Berg, avoided, as much as possible, 
meeting her modest sister-in-law. But seeing herself compelled to give 
her the title of " Your Majesty," she dared to complain to Napoleon 
that he had not yet thought to give her, also, a crown. " Your com- 
plaint," said he, " astonishes me, madam. To hear you, one might 
suppose I had deprived you of your right of succession to the throne 
of your ancestor." 



78 SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

Napoleon, in the name of his sovereign, the sabres of 
Tamerlane and Thamas Kouly Khan. The Emperor 
appeared enchanted with these rich presents of a distant 
foreign Court. I received several of the most beautiful 
cashmeres (39). The Persian ambassador was favour- 
ably received ; but the Emperor soon after, and under 
some vain pretext, refused him a private audience. His 
Excellency, Asker Khan, was much embarrassed in acting 
his part, and seldom appeared at Court. And yet this 
man was not destitute of a certain degree of merit, 
although, in the eyes of the courtiers, his quality of am- 
bassador was but an imaginary title. One of our generals 
(Gardanne) had been sent into Persia with a considerable 
suite. He had received, as it appears, secret instructions 
from the Cabinet of the Tuileries; but nothing was at this 
time surprising. Even the Emperor of Morocco had his 
plenipotentiary at Paris, charged to congratulate the great 
man, the most valiant (as he said), the most renowned of 
European sovereigns. Napoleon took a real pleasure in 
receiving, in the midst of his Court, those men who came 
express from the confines of Asia and Africa, to speak with 
him for a brief moment. " Have my Mamamouchis come ? " 
he would ask impatiently ; and when in good humour he 
would tell his favourites that, while in Egypt, he wore pre- 
cisely the same costume (excepting the astrakhan bonnet) 
which was worn by one of the sons of Ali. But, in fact, 
the Cabinet of the Tuileries attached little or no import- 
ance to the mission of these illustrious foreigners. 1 To 

i When, in 1808, an ambassador arrived at Paris from Persia, M. 

B M , then president of the Chambre des Comptes, had a curious 

mystical adventure with him not the less laughable for its being the 
result of mere chance. The ambassador was sick one day, and asked 
for a physician. Doctor Bourdois was sent for, and while the ambas- 
sador was every moment expecting the doctor to enter, M. B M 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 79 

me, however, they were a source of much amusement (40). 
All the ladies of the Court strove with each other in their 
attentions to their " Excellencies," and for some time an 
immense concourse of persons besieged the porticoes of 
their hotels. Napoleon pretended, at one time, to think 
that these distant deputations would disquiet Russia, and 
caused a report to be put in circulation that a rupture was 
about to take place between the two Powers. But per- 
ceiving that few of the foreign ministers at Paris gave the 
least credit to the rumour, he soon abandoned this political 
ruse. The presents he was to make in exchange for those 
he had received from the different Asiatic and African 
nations were so slow in being prepared, that he had received 
but a small portion of them when those ambassadors left 
France. 

For months he had been talking of making a journey 
to Italy. " I must," said he, " have Tuscany ; I shall 
have little difficulty in obtaining it. I intend it for my 

was announced at his door. The Persian did not know a word of 
French, and his interpreter was absent ; but, as the last syllable only 
of the name struck his ear, he thought, of course, it must be the physi- 
cian he had sent for. Consequently, the moment the president had 
come in he reached out his hand to have him feel his pulse. The 
president, supposing he meant to shake hands, gave it a hearty shake. 
The Persian, doubtless presuming that the French physicians had a 
peculiar mode of feeling the pulse, next opened his mouth and showed 

him his tongue. M. B M thought this merely an act of Persian 

politeness ; but the surprise which he felt did not in the least disconcert 
the ambassador, who attributed it to some unfavourable symptom which 
his supposed physician had discovered. He next clapped his hands, 
and two slaves instantly entered and placed under the president's nose a 
silver basin. The latter, on seeing them enter, supposed that, accord- 
ing to Eastern custom, they were bringing him a silver vase filled with 
rose-water from Shiraz ; but the perfume which it exhaled undeceived 
him in a most disagreeable manner. He thought the ambassador meant 
to insult him, and became livid with rage. Fortunately, the interpreter 
arrived and soon explained away the affront. M . 



80 SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

eldest sister, who is fully capable of governing that duchy. 
She resembles me her nature will not brook any sort of 
domination. If need be, she will accustom herself alike to 
the smiles of prosperity and the frowns of adversity. In 
a word, Eliza has the courage of an Amazon." A cloud 
came over the Emperor's brow as he pronounced these 
words; he seemed to be tormented by some fear or some 
sudden thought. 1 

I did not permit myself to utter reflections ; they would 
have been utterly useless. My husband had the strongest 
attachment for Madame Bacciochi (41). " As to Pauline 
Borghese," said he, "she is good for nothing, except in a 
saloon. She tells a story well, and her enchanting face 
lends a grace to all her movements ; but I think her in- 
capable of governing. She has neither character nor 
energy. She knows not how to undertake anything ; she 
can't refuse anything ; and her tender heart is afraid of 
being obliged to punish anybody (42). As to Madame 
Murat," continued he, "when she once embraces a senti- 
ment, nothing can make her change it. She has a kind 
of firmness of character which will always prevent her 
being governed. She knows men, and knows how to 
appreciate them at their just value. Her knowledge of 
the human heart renders her at times distrustful. She 
is accused of having ambition, of being fickle in her friend- 
ships, and inconstant in her love. As I know nothing 
about her in these respects, it is not for me to accuse 
or to acquit her. But she has domestic virtues which, 
when better known to thee, my dear Josephine," said 

i Some hours before the death of the Duke d'Enghien, Eliza had 
the boldness to say to Bonaparte, " Beware, my brother, lest one of 
the balls which pass through the Prince's body rebound and break the 
sceptre in your hand." 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 8l 

he, with a smile, "will make thee judge her with less 
of prejudice and more of justice." 

I turned the conversation upon another subject, in 
order to avoid an ever fruitless discussion. I discovered 
the intentions of my husband. I could only make com- 
plaints against his family. But I neglected my own 
personal interests, and looked after none but his. 

After offering a throne to Murat he had to build 
another for Joseph, for it was upon Joseph that he 
rested his highest hopes. Naples did not present a 
sufficiently broad theatre for his glory, and it was in 
the Spanish capital, in the midst of that proud and 
faithful people, that the new monarch was to appear 
and disappear almost in the same moment of time (like 
the Kings created by Charles XII., who descended from 
the throne with as much ease as they had had difficulty 
in mounting it). Like Louis, Joseph was wholly a 
stranger to his brother's policy. Each of them sighed 
for repose ; and, of all the members of his family, the 
one most resembling him was beyond all contradiction 
the Grand Duchess Eliza. He regarded Jerome merely 
as a scholar, and himself as his preceptor. But the King 
of Westphalia could have said to him, in the language 
of the poet : 

"Je vous imiterai, quand il en sera temps, 
Quand, pour determiner les esprits inconstans, 
II me faudra plus qu'un titre qui deguise 
Et le but et 1'effet de ma haute entreprise 
A. commander aussi je me sens destined 
Qui m'en empecherait ? " 

Germanicus, Acte I,, scene vi 



VOL. II 



82 SECRET MEMOIRS O7 



CHAPTER VI 

BY the Treaty of Tilsit Napoleon had engaged the 
Emperor Alexander not to interfere with any efforts 
which France might make against Spain. Fully assured 
upon this point, and persuaded that no other Power 
would dare intermeddle, he moved forward fearlessly 
towards the object he had long aimed at. He was no 
stranger to the proclamation which Godoy, the Prince 
of Peace, had issued, in which he called to arms his 
master's faithful subjects, in order to send away the 
best troops of Spain. The Emperor, through his secret 
agents at Madrid, insinuated that they ought to be di- 
rected towards Denmark. General Romana was directed 
to place himself at the head; and that famous general 
was presented to me on his arrival at Paris. Napoleon 
had long since testified his pleasure in seeing him leave 
his country, for he was seriously afraid of his bravery. 
Soon 30,000 Frenchmen, in virtue of the Treaty of Fon- 
tainebleau, entered Spain under Junot. Charles IV. was 
reposing upon the good faith of the man who already 
entertained the design of possessing himself of the wealth 
of the two worlds, already hoarded up, so to speak, in 
those different kingdoms. Napoleon did not intend to 
keep his word to the unhappy monarch; but, on the 
contrary, felt anxious that the Prince Regent of Portugal 
might fall into the same snare. The latter, I am sure, 
would have become his prisoner but for the salutary 
advice of Sir Sidney Smith, who persuaded him to 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 83 

embark for Brazil on the eve of Junot's entrance into 
Lisbon. Bonaparte, now master of Portugal, thought 
only of assembling a new army at Bayonne (43), ready 
at any moment to march upon the capital of Spain. 
He said to me, " I am going to seize the first occa- 
sion ; I am so successful in everything that it seems to 
me King Charles IV. must feel obliged to me for having 
furnished him the means of consolidating his slavery." 

I sincerely pitied the Prince of Asturias. I knew his 
mortification at seeing Don Emmanuel Godoy exercise 
so potent an influence over the illustrious family which 
had adopted him. He resolved on overthrowing that 
favourite, but, unhappily, believed that Napoleon would 
consent to aid him in the undertaking. The Emperor of 
the French conceived the idea of giving him his brother 
Lucien's eldest daughter in marriage (44). A secret agent 
received orders to sound the Prince on that subject, and 
to suggest to him, adroitly, to apply to Napoleon to choose 
him a wife ; and, in due time, the heir-presumptive to the 
Spanish throne consulted the Emperor touching the choice 
he should make. A lively correspondence took place be- 
tween them. But at length the most unquestionable 
information reached the father respecting the conduct of 
the son ; and henceforth the principal instigator of the 
whole of this political intrigue, Don Godoy, so proud of 
the title of Prince of Peace, conceived some suspicions 
respecting the workings of the plot, and shortly afterwards 
the Prince of Asturias was arrested. Napoleon confessed 
to me that he was afraid the name of his ambassador, 
and the marriage project he had had in hand, would figure 
in the legal proceedings against Ferdinand. " I am," said 
he, "going to use means to make the old King write me 
on this subject. The father will complain of the son, 

62 



84 SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

and beg me to aid him with my advice. My faithful 
emissaries will send me from day to day an exact ac- 
count of the Prince's most trivial actions. But I shall 
entreat the father to use indulgence towards the son, and 
shall go so far as to recall to his mind the example of 
Philip II., if Don Carlos is guilty; he is not or, at least, 
his fault is trifling and a Sovereign ought always to 
pardon ; such is my policy, madam. The moment the 
Emperor of the French shall pretend to reconcile them 
the one with the other, that moment he will order the 
grand army and the Imperial Guard to advance towards 
Spain ; and soon your husband and his happy spouse will 
start for Bayonne." He then left me in a hurry, without 
answering the different observations which I permitted 
myself to make upon the subject. 

'Twas in the silence of the night that the conqueror 
of so many nations came to the resolution to subject 
another one to his sway ; and he thus wrote to Murat : 
" The Spaniards are born lazy and fanatical ; you will 
easily conquer them. For this it is only necessary that 
you should canton your numerous phalanxes in the neigh- 
bourhood of the road from Bayonne to Madrid. The 
Prince of Peace is blinded by my promises; he will sur- 
render his country to me without making any resistance 
or defence. I know this, for he intends sending his only 
disposable corps of troops to the frontiers of Portugal." 

The moment had now come for the sinister events to 
break out at Aranjuez. The French army immediately 
moved towards Madrid, and made its solemn entry into 
the town. King Charles IV. abdicated in favour of his 
son, and the Prince of Asturias was recognised as King 
by Murat under the name of Ferdinand VII. 

But my husband had not gone so far merely to leave 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 85 

his work unfinished. "Dolus, an virtus, quis in hoste 
requirat ? " said he, rubbing his hands in token of joy. 
"I am really an admirer of Virgil the greatest of the 
Roman poets has some excellent ideas; they are worth 
infinitely more than those of our modern philosophers 
what say you ? " I replied, " A young Sovereign, loved 
by his subjects, might easily rally their courage and calm 
the popular effervescence." Such an idea could, of course, 
find no place in Napoleon's projects, and he used all his 
efforts to make Charles IV. protest against his abdication, 
proposing to him, at the same time, to come immediately 
to Bayonne to have an understanding with his son. I 
accompanied my husband on his journey thither. I could 
not look with indifference upon a young prince, the victim 
of intrigue and Italian cunning. I foresaw the unhappy 
issue which perfidious advisers were preparing for the 
Emperor. 

Ferdinand and the Infant, Don Carlos, displayed a 
force of character which astonished the " self-styled medi- 
ator ; " and Napoleon, attempting to frighten them, said to 
the young King, " The past should teach you that it is in 
vain to resist me, and that it is as easy for me to punish as 
to threaten." I was present when this was said, and could 
scarcely control the feelings which agitated me; but my 
astonishment and admiration were at their height when 
I heard Ferdinand reply to it, with marked and manly 
energy : 

" I understand you, Napoleon ; you seek to intimidate 
me, by calling to my mind the fate of a Prince of my family. 
I ask you, as a favour, that I may perish by a death like 
that of my cousin, if you are determined to take away my 
crown ! " " And I," added Don Carlos, " I demand, as a 
special favour, to die with my brother and my King, if you 



86 SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

are so unjust as to deprive the Spaniards of their legitimate 
Sovereign." 

This truly painful scene produced some impression upon 
him. But he had no design upon the lives of the Princes, 
but merely intended to hold them in bondage. It must 
be said, to the honour of a majority of his courtiers, and 
especially of M. de Talleyrand, that they disavowed his 
projects against Spain. The latter dared to tell him 
plainly, that he would reap nothing from it but loss and 
confusion. " You are deceived," said the ambitious 
Napoleon ; " my political car is started ; it must pass on ; 
woe to him who finds himself beneath its wheels ! * Be- 
sides, gentlemen," said he, " why have the Infants come 
to visit me at Marac ? They are young men, without 
experience, coming here without passports ! Think you 
my policy is in accordance with the feelings of my heart ? 
Oh, no ! not at all ; but there are sometimes extraordinary 
cases and this is one when I must silence my private 
feelings, and devote myself to the good of my people, and 
the glory which must, necessarily, thence be reflected upon 
my crown." 

His conduct towards the royal family of Spain was far 
from meeting my approbation, and I did not conceal from 
him how much I disliked it. I did not hide from him the 
odiousness of this arbitrary act ; and hence he kept me 
away from all the future conferences. " What matters it 
to you, madam," said he, with ill-humour, " whether .it be 
Charles IV., or Ferdinand, who treats with me ? I will no 

I M. de Talleyrand was long the right arm of Napoleon, but 
Josephine never could exercise much influence over that minister. 
More than once did she dare reproach him for not opposing the 
project of a divorce. History will long keep silence as to the secret 
motives which determined him. He was, however, one of the principal 
causes which successively led to the fall of Bonaparte. 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 87 

longer recognise the son, and unless he replaces the crown 
in his father's hands, within a few hours, I shall declare 
myself the protector of the one against the other. We 
shall see whether the Prince will dare resist me ! " 

Ferdinand was advised to resign the crown upon the 
condition that the royal family should return to Madrid, 
and the nation itself should, through the medium of the 
Cortes, or another assembly less numerous, take cogni- 
sance of the affair, and pronounce its decision. Napoleon 
did not favour such a project. He employed the most 
active means to prevent it, and sought my intervention. 
But I solemnly refused to have anything to do with this 
work of iniquity, and foretold to him, by a sort of secret 
inspiration, that from the moment he undertook to legiti- 
mate this criminal usurpation, the phantom of felicity 
which he had thus far enjoyed would begin to vanish. 
He paid not the least attention to my menaces. The 
Prince of Asturias became the object of persecution. 
He was forced to submit to all the conditions which 
Napoleon saw fit to impose upon him; especially when 
he became acquainted with the massacre of the 2nd of 
May, in the streets of Madrid. 

Murat wrote him that the grape-shot and bayonet had 
cleared the streets of the Spanish capital, giving all the 
details which led to that fatal insurrection. The presence 
of the French troops, and the departure of the royal family, 
had struck all hearts with consternation. It was rumoured 
that the Princes were treated as prisoners of state. It was 
known that the Queen of Etruria (45) and the Infanta, 
Don Antonio and Don Francisco, were about to set out for 
France ; and immediately numerous women assembled in 
the palace to prevent their departure. An aide-de-camp 
of Murat now appeared, who, it was supposed, had come 



88 SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

to demand the Infanta. He was ill-used ; a tumult 
ensued, and a struggle took place between the French and 
Spaniards, in which more than a thousand men perished. 
The firing was prolonged till late in the night, notwith- 
standing the armistice which Murat had published in 
order to restore tranquillity. 

Never did I see the Emperor in such a rage as on 
perusing these despatches. He rushed hastily out of his 
cabinet, and gave an order that the Prince of Asturias 
should, on the instant, send him a formal renunciation of 
the kingdom of Spain. " I must have it," said he, " in a 
definite shape, and he must make a cession to me 
of all his present and future claims to the crown. This 
comedy has reached its denouement, and its end may be 
tragical if those to whom I send my orders defer their 
execution." 

The prebendary Escoiquiz (46) received an envoy from 
Napoleon, charged to announce to the Prince the intentions 
of his master. But his resistance was stubborn, and the 
message fruitless. "I must," said he, "judge of it for 
myself." " In vain " (reported the envoy) " did I en- 
deavour to calm him, or to make him listen to the voice 
of reason ; all I could do only served to sour him the 
more. He finally told me to remain in my room, and 
not let him see me unless I should be sent for." 

In the evening I learnt that my husband had seen 
Ferdinand, and had dared to say to him, " Prince, you 
must choose death, or your renunciation of the crown." 
But he was far from giving another representation of the 
Vincennes tragedy. "I only wanted to frighten him," 
said he to me ; " but I did not expect to find so much 
energy in him. Should he ever remount his throne, he 
will, I think, be capable of keeping it. Who knows but 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 89 

he may one day attempt to make me play the part of 
Francis I. at Madrid ? " " Perhaps," said I, " you 
may not reap as many laurels as that great sovereign. 
Charles V. was the rival of the French King, instead of 
having his private injuries to avenge. The immortal 
Louis XII. pardoned, in the most generous manner, the 
man who had unjustly held him in chains." " Ah," re- 
plied Napoleon, " I shall not place myself in the power 
of his generosity, and, as a precaution, I shall retain him 
in order to keep from him the means of attempting any 
such surprise ; for, I certainly admit, it would be desperate 
to punish him." 

Though the possessor of the crown of Charles IV., he 
was not of his kingdom. From all quarters the Spaniards 
rushed to arms ; but Napoleon could not persuade himself 
that the Castilians would display their ancient bravery. 
His advisers made him believe that the Spaniards were 
not capable of making the least effort in favour of their 
sovereign ; that the name alone of the great Napoleon 
had already vanquished them, and that the power of his 
arms would soon finish that important conquest. Thus 
did his courtiers constantly urge him forward to take rash 
and inconsiderate steps. I despised the one who first 
dared give him the perfidious advice to declare war upon 
Spain, and to despoil of his crown and heritage the only 
ally who was faithful to him. But thus do the serpents 
which crawl into Courts infect, by their impure breath, 
the councils into which they are admitted. Their tongues, 
like the adder's, are poisoned arrows ; and the enchanting 
words of their flattery flow from lips steeped in poison. 
Doubtless, Napoleon cannot escape the reproaches of 
contemporaries and of posterity ; but, when there shall be 
liberty to draw aside the veil of imposture, France will 



90 SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

discover what means her enemies employed to inspire 
him with this culpable undertaking. 

He could not dissemble the joy he felt at the success 
of this coup d'ttat. " I have," said he, " succeeded in spite 
of the policy of the prebendary Escoi'quiz. I know how 
to appreciate the love he bears his masters. He has done 
his duty, and shall not cease to be sensible of my good- 
will. As to Talleyrand, he dared oppose me; according 
to him, the conquest of Spain was high treason. Eh bien! 
he must participate in it if it be such, and must become 
the overseer of the Princes at Valancey (47). That's not 
making him act a very distinguished part in the play, 
Josephine. And now that, in spite of him, I have succeeded 
in placing my brother Joseph l on the throne, you may un- 



i Notwithstanding all that has been said, and all that has happened, 
Joseph did not, in accepting the throne of Spain, consent to be simply 
his brother's lieutenant. Aranza and Offarel had the courage to start 
that delicate question in his presence. " Never fear, gentlemen," said 
he ; "I am now a Spaniard, and if my new subjects range themselves 
under my sceptre, assure them, gentlemen, that I shall reign, and 
that nothing but their opposition will bring to them decrees signed 
Napoleon." 

This noble assurance did not a little to conciliate the great person- 
ages of the old Court, which soon became his own. 

With such sentiments, Joseph could not live long upon a good 
understanding with his brother. A dispute broke out between them, 
and I will add that this dispute was one of the leading causes of 
Napoleon's disasters in Spain. Two powerful motives operated to 
estrange Joseph from his brother the honour of the Spanish throne, 
which he wished to preserve intact, and the necessities of his finances. 
The troubles in Spain had reduced all imposts to zero, and it followed 
that the new monarch found himself often without a sou. It was this 
state of things that produced the famous interview at Chammartin, 
where Joseph came upon him like a thunderbolt, and when he least 
expected it. " What ! " said Bonaparte, " you here, brother? " seeing 
him at some distance ; " what motive brings you here ? " " The most 
powerful in the world," said Joseph, "want ; and to avoid being reviled 
by my new subjects. I have not a crown in my treasury." " How ? 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE gi 

fold to me all your thoughts." " I am," said I, " still of an 
opinion different from your own. You think to make the 
people believe that your grand-chamberlain approves the 
violent means which you have made use of to catch in your 
snare the family you are dethroning, and that, not content 
with having served you with his counsels, he is still anxious 
to be useful to you by giving you his chateau at Valancey, 
for the purpose of detaining your august prisoners. Be un- 
deceived ! sensible men will adopt none of these notions. 
The snare is not surrounded by flowers. You will, from 

Are yon not the King of Spain, and are you interdicted from levying 
the taxes which are indispensable?" " Taxes 1 Upon whom? 
Where? You have dried up the sources." "Reproaches?" 
" Truths 1 Did you not tell me, at Bayonne, that my collections 
might, at first, be difficult, and that you would cover the deficit? 
Have you kept that promise ? " " No ; nor did I intend to do so. 
Long has the French treasury covered the expenses of this war. You 
have people impose taxes." "Taxes, again! Will a country in a 
state of insurrection pay my taxes ? Or will a country totally ruined 
by your armies, although obedient, pay them ? I see the evil plainly. 
I have seen the victims I have received petitions I cannot deny the 
evidence." "Joseph, you don't properly measure circumstances. 
Where should I now have been /, Emperor of the French and King of 
Italy had I suffered myself to be fretted by the detonations of argu- 
ment and abstract truths ? My greatness takes its birth in my skill in 
cutting to the quick, in contemning the reproaches of individuals, the 
complaints of those who are vexed, and the hatred of all. While yet 
young, I inured myself to this stern indifference, and I shall carry this 
character, hardy and profitable, to the tomb. I shall die with it." 
" Boast as much as you please of what you are, and what you have 
been ; but, for myself, I wish only to be what I can be without too 
much self-reproach; and, since all moderation seems at an end, 
although a king of your manufacture, I shall no longer be your property, 
nor the Spaniards your serfs." " I notice what you say. Joseph, did 
I value my glory less, I could retrograde with honour, but no ; I am 
too far advanced. I will not furnish a family scene. Let's drop it ; 
to-morrow I will put you in funds." The next day Joseph received 
500,000 francs, and returned to Burgos. Napoleon long remembered 
this scene ; it affected him, and, perhaps, he has carried it with him to 
his Rock. 



92 SECRET MEMOIRS OP 

this day remark it ! count one more enemy a new 
Richelieu, believe it. You will arm him against you; 
Talleyrand, whenever he shall will it, will be able to make 
you descend from the throne. What did I say ? to hurl 
you from it ! He is the prince of politicians. He under- 
stands the mechanism of the whole machine, and directs 
the motions of the invisible wheels. Talleyrand possesses 
the key to every Cabinet in Europe he has the ear of every 
minister; and this man, if so disposed, can, at his will, 
make you act the part of Alexander or of Darius." l 

We left Bayonne on the 2ist of July, and continued 
our route through Pau, Tarbes, Toulouse, Montauban, 
Bordeaux, La Vendee and Nantes. The people thronged 
to meet us, anxious to gather around us. Alas ! they 
were dazzled by the great deeds of their Emperor, far 
from suspecting, however, that he owed to perfidy and 
treason these apparent evidences of success. In every 
city we passed through we had to endure the ennui of a 
public harangue. Napoleon wore an air of affability, 
and even affected popularity. He informed himself re- 
specting the misfortunes of the inhabitants, and entered 
into the smallest details connected with their just 
claims. 9 Here he promised to rebuild a church; there 

1 I am persuaded that Prince Talleyrand was no stranger to the 
many treaties formed at this period. He employed the most skilful 
means to bring about the hollow reconciliation of the Emperor 
Alexander with Napoleon, with a view, while he ministered to the 
ambitious hopes of the latter, to make him afraid of the road to Russia, 
whither, it seemed likely, his ambition would one day lead him. By 
tearing in pieces the treaty of Erfurth, he in some sort prepared 
the fall of the Emperor of the French; and it was easy to foresee 
the results of that ministerial intrigue. NOTE BY JOSEPHINE. 

2 Whenever a demand was presented to him he listened to it, 
without showing the slightest ill-humour or impatience. He would 
take the letter or petition, saying, " Very well, I will look to it." 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 93 

he fixed upon . a time to found a seminary ; farther on 
he announced his intention to build barracks for troops. 
The public monuments seemed particularly to attract 
his attention. " I shall change the face of Europe," 
said he ; "I mean my age shall outshine that of Louis 
XIV. When I desire it I will send out a Vauban from 
my institutions. I know of some of Mansard's pupils 
who will, perhaps, surpass their master in architecture. 
My creative genius will give birth to wonders which 
will be completed under my own eyes. In short, my 
reign must furnish forth things which are surprising 
things which are more extraordinary than anything yet 
done by the greatest men. I mean to efface their repu- 
tations." " Your march is so rapid," said I, " that Time, 
the destroyer of all, may possibly not allow you to 
terminate what you so complacently denominate your 
grand work." " Ah ! " he replied, with a kind of con- 
fidence in his air, " you know, my friend, I bear upon 
my person a mysterious hieroglyphic (48), which will not 
permit me to fall by the strokes of treachery. I am in- 
vulnerable in war, and my political career will stretch 
far into the future." Such was his mode of charming 
away the ennui of travelling. 

He constantly took pleasure in these bright, illusive 
dreams. To contradict him was the surest means of in- 
curring his displeasure. But I by no means hesitated 
to speak my mind when the matter in hand concerned 
his glory or the good of the people, and during our 
journey we had more than one quarrel respecting King 
Charles IV., who was to reside at Compiegne with the 
Queen, the Prince of Peace, and the King and Queen 
of Etruria. I, however, succeeded in obtaining his 
pledge that they should be treated with royal mag- 



94 SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

nificence, 1 "for," said I, by way of persuading him not 
to dishonour himself in the eyes of Europe, " the 
Spanish King and his family have not lost their sacred 
character before the tribunal of other sovereigns; and 
since you yourself form a part of that august con- 
federation, you ought, although they are subject to you, 
to treat them as princes in adversity. Perhaps they will 
yet be more fortunate than was James II. of England ; 
that monarch, notwithstanding all the efforts of Louis 
XIV., was never able to reseat himself on the throne. 
But Ferdinand may yet reascend his own, and, in spite 
of you, maintain himself there by means of his people's 
love for him. Any further abuse of your authority may 
work such a revolution." 

This conversation had a good effect upon him, and, 
without exactly confessing that I was correct in what I 
said, he sent orders that the illustrious wayfarers should 
be so treated that they should find nothing to complain 
of in his proceedings. He had the art to make them 
believe that their captivity would soon end, and that, 
perhaps, the same hand which had wrested from them 
the crown and diadem, would be generous enough to restore 
them ; but that, for the present, a different course was 
useful to Europe ; that Spain had renounced her rank as a 
European Power, that a liberator was necessary to her, and 
that he was the man who was destined to work out her 
regeneration. 

i The Duchess of Chevreuse was designated by the Emperor 
as dame d'honneur to the Queen of Spain. She answered distinctly 
that she would not go to Compiegne that nothing should tempt 
her to become the jailer of the Bourbons. She was immediately 
disgraced, and sent off to one of her chateaux, which had neither 
doors nor windows. Napoleon never pardoned her for what he 
called an act of disobedience, committed upon a calculation of 
the chances of the future. NOTE BY JOSEPHINE. 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 95 

After returning to the capital, he coolly calculated the 
consequences of this gigantic enterprise, the result of which 
was a war of extermination. He began to perceive that he 
had missed his aim, but he was not the man to confess it. 
His mood was often dreamy and melancholy ; nothing 
could divert him ; his anxiety betrayed itself in spite of 
him. His most faithful courtiers dared hardly address their 
master; and Duroc 1 was more than once the object of his 
anger. I myself experienced the terrible explosions of his 
wrath, but told him with my characteristic sensibility, that 
he was in pain, that he was afraid to rely upon anyone. 
But his severe look imposed silence upon me. He learned 
that General Dupont, who commanded a division in Spain, 
had reminded, fruitlessly, the French soldiers of their past 
victories by calling upon them " to conquer or die." " Seven 
times," said he, in his report, " did I order a charge with 
the bayonet, but to no purpose ; while the Spanish general 
skilfully took advantage of the ground to advance his 
forces. At length, however, to save the wreck of the 
French battalions, and after taking the advice of General 
Marescot, I consented to capitulate." "A pretty debut 
this ! " exclaimed Napoleon on reading the despatches. 
" Ah, ha ! gentlemen, you have suffered yourselves to be 
beaten ; very well, your liberty shall atone for the impos- 
sibility which you set up of not gaining a victory." 

He soon ascertained that the whole of Spain had taken 
up arms, and that the French were repulsed at all points. 
Nothing could equal the courageous resistance of the 
Spaniards, who were all united against the common enemy. 
They were, nevertheless, convinced that they ought not to 
expose the fate of their country to the chances of regular 

I Duroc, though he loved Napoleon, stood in great fear of him. 



96 SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

combat. Their guerillas harassed the march of the French 
troops, and pillaged their convoys, but never made an 
attack except with superior numbers. And whenever for- 
tune was unpropitious to them, they bore their reverses 
with stoical resignation. 

As each courier arrived bringing bad news, Bonaparte 
was so agitated that I became for a time really alarmed for 
his health. He would rise from his bed during the night, 
and walk his room with rapid strides ; and whenever the 
moonlight fell upon him, he might be seen beating his fore- 
head with his hand, like a man plunged in the deepest 
despair. 'Twas in vain that I sought to calm him. " You 
told me, madam," exclaimed he, with emphasis, " you told 
me it would be thus ; " referring ironically to my confidence 
in the predictions of a certain woman whom all Paris was 
running after. " I will have her arrested, madam ; I will 
have your Miss Lenormand arrested. I understand her 
prophesyings, she has filled your head with wild notions. 
I beg you, madam, I conjure you, never speak of her 
again " (49). 

When the news reached him that his brother Joseph 
had been forced to leave Madrid, after the battle of Baylen, 
he began to see that he had made a false calculation. But 
his doctrine was never to retrace his steps, and a new levy 
of conscripts now became necessary to enable him to up- 
hold his brother's rights. " My honour and my duty," 
said he, to the French senate, " require me to push forward 
my matters in Spain with the utmost activity. Indeed, 
the future security of my people, maritime peace, and the 
prosperity of commerce, are all equally implicated in these 
important operations." 

And yet he could not forget all the unlucky prognostics 
which signalised the origin and the progress of this un- 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 97 

happy enterprise. At one time he thought of putting the 
crown of Spain upon his own head, and of treating the 
Spaniards as a conquered people. " I will," said he, 
"govern all those kingdoms with a brazen sceptre." He 
spoke, and a senatus consultum placed at his disposal 80,000 
men (50). Indeed, he might boldly have reckoned upon 
twice that number, with officers obedient to his will. 
With these it was easy for him to fill up the corps of the 
grand army, which was now arriving from all parts of 
Germany, and send them on through France, without 
giving them a moment's rest. Besides, according to his 
system, the Leopard which soiled the realms of Spain and 
Portugal must be compelled to fly terror-stricken at the 
sight of our legions. He wanted to lead their eagles to 
the Pillars of Hercules. " Soldiers," said the heroic chief 
to his warriors, " you have effaced the reputation of modern 
armies ; but have you yet equalled the glory of the Romans, 
who, in a single campaign, triumphed on the Rhine and on 
the Euphrates, in Illyria and on the Tagus ? " 

With these pompous words, with these brilliant and 
sonorous phrases, did this general electrify his army; so 
much so, indeed, that his men willingly and readily threw 
themselves headlong into the midst of the greatest danger, 
ready to rush into the storm of grapeshot and have their 
clothes riddled with balls in order to occupy some post of 
danger assigned them by Napoleon. 

Oh, magical influence of the love of glory! It is all- 
powerful over the minds of Frenchmen. No people are 
more sensitive to an affront, and none more generous after 
victory. The words "Honour" and "Country" are their 
talismans; they cause them to work miracles. 

What must the veterans of our old, victorious fields 
have suffered on seeing that our triumphs in Spain were 
VOL. ii 7 



98 SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

ineffectual ? With such troops Napoleon might have 
conquered the whole world ; but 'twas the evil genius 
that now began to preside over his actions that inspired 
him with the idea of sending them beyond the Pyrenees. 
He was, however, solicitous that no other war should 
break out, this being as much as he could well sustain. 
For this reason he hastened to terminate the differences 
which existed between France and Prussia, seeking, as 
he was pleased to boast to his courtiers, to triumph again 
over Alexander. 

With this view he left St. Cloud with me on the 2ist 

of September, 1808, and directed his journey towards 

Metz, where he arrived on the 24th. He passed through 

Mayence without stopping, and entered Erfurt on the ayth. 

He rode on horseback constantly, in order to be in advance 

of the Emperor Alexander, who had been at Weimar since 

the 25th. The Kings of Bavaria and Wurtemberg, the 

Prince Primate and Jerome Bonaparte, repaired to Erfurt. 

In the midst of the most serious conferences the Emperor 

neglected nothing in his efforts to dissemble his real designs ; 

on the contrary, the journals of the day imputed to this 

important meeting an entirely different object. Festivals 

the most brilliant characterised it. French comedians, with 

their customary talent, played the masterpieces of Racine 

and Voltaire (51). Decorated with the title of Empress, I 

received visits from sovereigns. Everything at this time 

seemed to favour my husband's insatiable ambition. The 

Emperor Alexander, yielding in a manner to the desire 

which Napoleon professed of concluding a peace with 

Europe, each of them addressed the following letter to 

the King of England, with a view to accomplish that 

benevolent purpose : 

" MY BROTHER, The events of war have brought us 



. THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 99 

together at Erfurt. Our first thought is to yield to the 
wishes and wants of every people in Europe, and, by means 
of a prompt pacification with Your Majesty, to apply the 
most effectual remedy to the numberless evils which weigh 
heavily upon all nations. This, our sincere desire, we 
communicate to Your Majesty by this present letter. The 
long and bloody war which has torn the Continent is ter- 
minated, without the power of renewal." 

But this vain declamation left not the least trace upon 
the minds of the British Cabinet. They were unwilling 
to acknowledge the changes wrought in Spain, and Napo- 
leon's chief object at Erfurt was to ascertain to a certainty 
that the Emperor of Russia had no idea of attempting to 
overthrow his plans. 

Shortly after this, Napoleon was apprised that the 
Holy Father refused to number his brother Joseph in the 
rank of European Sovereigns. "I know how to punish 
him," said he to me in confidence ; " I shall unite a 
part of my Church provinces to my kingdom of Italy." 

His policy soon devised the means of calling to Paris 
several deputies from among the inhabitants of Lombardy 
to express to him their thanks for having united them 
to the grand family. But he had not entirely renounced 
his original design upon Spain, and was, on the contrary, 
of opinion that, in case he placed himself at the head 
of his victorious troops, he should plant his triumphant 
eagles upon the ramparts of Lisbon; and that thus his 
monarchy would become universal. He presumed that 
the Spaniards, filled with the new ideas which prevailed 
in France, were even now on the point of raising the 
revolutionary standard, and imagined that he might with 
impunity proclaim equality among the citizens, liberty to 
all, and the suppression of the burdens and of the cor- 



100 SECRET MEMOIRS OP 

porations to which so many peculiar privileges belonged. 
" You labour under an illusion," I told him ; " you do 
not know how to appreciate the character of the Spaniards ; 
and I am afraid you will reap no other fruit from your 
culpable enterprise than to restore to that courageous 
nation its ancient energy and its profound hatred for all 
foreign domination. You think, by your personal presence 
among them, to prove that these faithful allies will long 
preserve the admiration they at first felt for you! Alas! 
the time has gone by when they beheld in you only the 
regenerator of the Grand Empire ; you have led them 
into an error, and they now perceive it. A few months 
ago, they perhaps thought that you were going to eradicate 
all abuses from their government ; but you have deceived 
them, and their native pride has revolted at it. You 
will witness a general rising in Spain ; you will see in 
each citizen her zealous defender; the love of country 
and of glory triumphs over Nature herself." 

As was his wont, Napoleon cast ridicule on my sinister 
predictions. " I shall, notwithstanding," said he, " leave, 
and take the command of that invincible army. Will you 
consent to accompany me in this perilous journey, madam ? 
Your fatigues will be well requited by the enthusiasm of 
which we shall be both the witnesses and the objects. 
I want to place Joseph again upon the throne of Spain ; 
but should it happen that he should again descend from 
it, then will it become my duty to mount it, in which 
case I shall cause myself to be crowned at Madrid." 

I confess I did not know how to answer him, for 
the events which were then in progress seemed to me 
to partake of the miraculous. All I could get from him 
was, that he should set out on his journey without con- 
straining me to accompany him. My mind was so fatigued 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE IOI 

and worn out by the scenes which were constantly passing 
before me, that I was really in need of repose. The 
Emperor, therefore, started alone. He remained several 
weeks at Burgos, where, shortly after, the Spaniards were 
completely defeated in the battle of Sommo-Sierra. He 
thence proceeded down the mountain slopes, and arrived at 
Madrid on the 2nd of December. 

Everything seemed to oppose an insurmountable barrier 
to his progress. The population of that city put itself 
in motion ; they plucked up the pavements, and threw 
them together in heaps, in order to hurl them at their 
assailants. The streets were barricaded. To the Spanish 
ministers who came and begged him to spare the town, 
Napoleon returned an answer that he gave them only 
till the next morning, at six o'clock, to open to him the 
gates of the capital, declaring, furthermore, that unless 
the inhabitants submitted to that condition, there should 
not be left one stone upon another in the city. This 
menace produced its effect, although the envoy represented 
that the people were in a state of effervescence; so much 
so, that the magistrates found it extremely difficult to 
restrain the torrent of popular feeling. The conqueror 
would not, however, listen to any proposition, and his 
last words struck terror into all hearts. On the 4th of 
December, he made his solemn entry into Madrid ; but, 
owing to secret advice, he thought it not safe to estab- 
lish his head-quarters in the city, and preferred, for good 
reasons, to reside at Chammartin, the country-house of 
the Infantado, a structure justly entitled to be called a 
master-work of magnificence. He thought to intimidate 
the Spaniards by threatening to treat them as a con- 
quered people, in case they did not repose confidence in 
him. " And, moreover," said he, " I will place my brother 



IO2 SECRET MEMOIRS OP 

Joseph on another throne, and use all my means to impose 
silence upon the malcontents. Behold the strength which 
God has given me. I know that I have the ability to over- 
come any obstacles the rebels may attempt to interpose in 
my path." 

He had, at this time, really persuaded himself that 
every road to fortune was open to him, and that he 
might, with impunity, undertake any enterprise. He 
fought battles without gaining an inch of ground. But 

"Nihil est quod credere de se 
Non possit, cum laudatur, dls aequa potestas." 

His army could not pass the line of the Tagus, and it 
was impossible to allow it the least repose, compelled, as it 
was, to restrain an enemy, always vanquished, but who 
seemed, like the Phoenix, to rise again from its own ashes. 
He used all his efforts to capture General Moore, but per- 
ceiving that they were fruitless, and that it was impossible 
to attain that object, he established his head-quarters at 
Valladolid, where he made a brief halt. 

What I had foreseen took place. I was perfectly ac- 
quainted with my husband's mind ; and thought, correctly, 
that in case he met with the least obstacle in prosecuting 
his design, he would, in the end, place the fate of Spain in 
the hands of one of the generals who afterwards subdued 
it. A passage in his last letter to me, intimating that I 
might soon expect to see him again at St. Cloud, confirmed 
me in the opinion I had formed. 1 

I Josephine was at all times in the receipt of news from the army, 
brought her by a courier sent by Bonaparte. No matter at what hour 
of the day or night, she always received the despatches from the hands 
of the courier himself, of whom she made enquiries respecting all the 
persons she knew. She would say some obliging things to him, and 
make him some rich present, according to the importance of the 
message. 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE IO3 

And, indeed, it was not long before he abandoned the 
French army in Spain. The two brothers no longer agreed, 
and a scandalous scene which took place at this time in- 
duced him to leave Valladolid. " Gentlemen," said he to 
those who possessed his confidence, "what matters it 
whether Joseph is a king or a general ? He cannot fulfil 
the duties of either of those stations. He is wonderfully 
sparing of the blood of the people whom I have subdued. 
But, my brother, those generous people are no longer 
yours, and I am afraid you will not be so fortunate as 
was the second grandson of Louis XIV. That Prince had, 
in fact, the rights of legitimacy in his favour ; but that 
does not always guarantee a triumph over the obstacles 
one meets. Philip V. showed himself a man, but you have 
failed to do so. Such," said he, in a violent rage, " such 
is a mild and moderate man ! I myself have judged that 
he is not capable of fulfilling the duties of a post of 
eminence, and if the civil war continues its ravages in 
that unhappy country, I shall have nothing to do but to 
send and establish colonies there." Such were Napoleon's 
reasonings when he returned to Paris. He seemed to 
experience shame in having failed in the accomplish- 
ment of his purposes and his hopes. 

It was perceived that a marked change had taken place 
in his manner. He became unquiet, sombre, dreamy (52). 
The courtiers trembled with affright. 1 I did not cease to 
bestow upon him my tenderest cares, and all the con- 
solations of a benevolent friendship. I said to him, 

I Napoleon talked but little. When out of his own house, if he 
happened to say a word or two to a person he met, it was regarded as 
a proof of particular esteem. And if he stopped and talked with any- 
one for the space of two minutes, the circumstance was the theme of 
conversation for a whole day ; so rarely did he spend his time in this 

manner. 



IO4 SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

" Bonaparte, the rays of your glory must grow pale in the 
eyes of those proud Castilians whom you have steeped 
in humiliation. All France presumed, from the lying 
speeches they heard, that Spain was nearly subdued. 
You have accustomed your people^ to victories, to the 
conquest of cities and kingdoms. To-day, if you un- 
deceive them, the veil of illusion may be torn away; it 
has, then, become necessary to your reputation, and, in 
order to conceal your defeat, to resort to those mercenary 
authors whose pens, steeped in the colours of adulation 
and directed by the hand of flattery, are of no use except 
to minister to the depraved curiosity of credulous amateurs. 
Already have I caused the news to be circulated in the 
capital that my husband was returning victorious from 
Spain. I even did violence to my own sense of duty in 
order to conceal the truth, which had begun to appear in 
broad daylight. But I could not with indifference behold 
the laurels which adorned your brow tarnished." 

But I made up my mind to say no more to him about 
that unlucky expedition. My duty was not to afflict him, 
satisfied that I could not shake his resolutions. And thus 
I gave up all hope of making him share my too well- 
founded fears, being always reluctant to fatigue him with 

my bitter reflections 

"Ingenium res 

Adversae nudane solent, celare secundae." 

The despatches which arrived daily from Spain an- 
nounced to him that Joseph found it impossible to pass 
the limits of the Spanish capital. The generals them- 
selves murmured at the countless disasters produced by 
the active resistance of the enemy. The whole of that 
kingdom presented but an immense heap of ruins. Women 
and children fought in the name of their God for their 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 105 

King, and often died heroically on the bodies of their 
fathers and husbands. Even the murmurs of grief and 
the cries of pain ceased to resound upon those fields of 
carnage. Love of country was the only principle which 
animated their souls. The proud Castilians, the noble 
descendants of Rodrigo, sustained in air with an intrepid 
hand their cherished standards, whose tattered folds only 
served to attest their courage. They proudly supported 
themselves upon the numerous piles of arms, nearly half- 
broken, which victory had so often placed in their power. 
They seemed to have recovered their strength and their 
ancient character, and to cherish the beautiful sentiment 
of Corneille 

"Mourir poor son pays n'est pas on triste sort: 
C'est immortaliser par one belle mort." 



IO6 SECRET MEMOIRS OF 



CHAPTER VII 

NAPOLEON was now forced to leave King Joseph's 
affairs and attend to his own. He received secret advices 
that Austria had been concerting measures to attack and 
conquer him. The Emperor of the French had reduced 
her to so great a humiliation that she was ready to seize 
upon the slightest pretext to resume her arms. She re- 
fused officially to recognise his brother Joseph as King 
of Spain, or consented to do so only upon a condition. 
That Power complained that she had not been invited to 
the conferences at Erfurt, which certainly had in view 
an object different from a recognition of Joseph. She 
then protested against the destruction of the Germanic 
Confederation, which had been overthrown, after having 
been recognised and solemnly preserved by the Treaty of 
Pressburg. 

My husband was careful to conceal from the French 
people the fact that a new campaign was about to open; 
on the contrary, the capital never presented greater mag- 
nificence. The sovereign assembled all the men who had 
been clothed with high dignities under the monarchy. 
This was, so to speak, their first appearance before ar- 
riving at place under the Imperial Government. The 
homage due to beauty was not lost sight of in the midst 
of the fetes of Bellona. Besides the ladies who were 
attached to my person, and who united in themselves the 
most dazzling charms, others were constantly presented 
to me, who, in all the graces of their sex, were not inferior 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE lO'J 

to those who formed the ornament of my Court. The 
Tuileries seemed like an enchanted palace. 1 

Napoleon's politeness was not very studied ; but he 
never transcended the limits of decorum. During the 
course of his reign, he permitted himself some slight and 
transient inclinations, whereof I unwillingly obtained posi- 
tive proof. 'Twas difficult for me to believe that another 
woman could possess the heart of which I claimed to be 
the sole ruler. His Court, however, although not exactly 
a school of morality, furnished a picture of that decency, 
those high-toned manners, and that bon ton which justified 
its comparison with that of Louis XIV. The rules of 
etiquette were observed, and those who had contributed 
to the great measures of my husband's government were 
made to feel, though in a delicate way, that henceforth 
there existed an immense interval between the Emperor 
of the French and General Bonaparte. When relieved 
from the fatigues of public display, I made ample amends 
to myself for the fatiguing restraint I was doomed to sub- 
mit to during the public ceremonies (53). 

At the moment when the public mind began to enjoy a 
degree of calm, and my husband seemed fond of repeating 
the assurance that he no longer cherished any ambitious 
thought, the great Powers were becoming incensed against 
the man whose recent conquests only tended to destroy the 

I Josephine displayed great taste in the selection and arrangement 
of all that composed her toilet, about which she occupied herself a 
great deal. Her clothes always fitted her well. Her morning dress, 
always genteel but simple, became her much better than the more 
costly and burdensome Court dress, which, though she wore it with 
ease, seemed to mar her natural gracefulness. She herself gave all 
orders, as well for dresses and hats as for body-linen. Every six 
months she repaired to her wardrobe, selected out such objects as 
she had resolved not to wear again, formed them into parcels, and 
distributed them among her women. 



IO8 SECRET MEMOIRS OP 

equilibrium established by treaties, and who was continu 
ally adding new provinces to his empire. And thus, to 
prevent other usurpations, Prince Charles was appointed 
Generalissimo of the Austrian army. He began by de- 
claring to the French general in Bavaria that he was 
about to move forward, and that he should treat as 
enemies all who should resist him. Napoleon received 
this despatch in the night, and at daybreak was marching 
forward at the head of his army. Waking me from my 
sleep, he said, " You have played the part of Empress long 
enough ; you must now become again the wife of a general. 
I leave at once ; you will accompany me to Strassburg." 
I was not at all prepared for the journey ; for, only a few 
days before, he had refused to permit me to accompany him 
on the campaign. A most trivial circumstance had caused 
him to change his resolution (54). At three o'clock in the 
morning we were travelling speedily on the Alsace road. 
My husband scarcely gave me time to throw on a night- 
cloak, and all my women had left the chateau en deshabiltt, 
with nothing but their night-caps on their heads ; so that, 
when morning came, the officers who accompanied us 
could scarcely preserve their gravity at seeing me in such 
a modest plight. Napoleon was extreme in everything, 
and it was never until the decisive moment came that he 
expressed his final resolution. I had been so long ac- 
customed to his singular character, that I ceased to be 
astonished at the striking contrasts which it exhibited. 
Our journey was full of gaiety ; we met sundry original 
characters on the way, who furnished us abundance of 
amusement. 1 We arrived at Strassburg. My husband had 

I One of the finest routes in France is that leading to Strassburg. 
It is astonishing to see the agricultural wealth of the departments 
which are traversed by the Marne and Meuse. On leaving Meaux I 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE IOQ 

a secret presentiment that he should return victorious. He 
said to me, on leaving me, "Josephine watches over all 
that I love, and my guardian angel will never cease to utter 
her prayers for the safety and success of her husband." 

He knew me well, that mortal whose astonishing 
destiny had opened to him the road to the most splendid 
throne on earth. I cherished not a thought, I formed 
not a wish, which was not directed to his glory. If 
certain political drones have dared accuse me of levity 
in my conduct (55), let those unjust censors remember 
that it was under the mask of sincere friendship that 
I sought to overawe certain powerful personages. Had 
I regarded them with an eye of indifference, they might 

did not witness a single deserted chimney or neglected field. The 
pastures are admirable. The enormous quantity of fat cattle furnished 
by the farmers in this region proves the fertility of the soil, and the 
plenty which they enjoy. The people of Champagne and Lorraine 
are healthy, vigorous and well clothed; but their beeves and cows 
are of a poor sort. The Lorraine horses, however (to use the witty 
remarks of M. Cadet de Gassicourt), look as if they had descended 
from the one mentioned in the Apocalypse, or the sorry - looking 
courser of Don Quixote. 

Until you reach St. Dizier, the vineyards of Champagne exhibit 
only vines of small size, all of which are cut off six inches from the 
ground. From Champagne to Strassburg, the appearance of the 
vineyards changes ; the vines are strong, growing up in two branches 
in the form of a V, or in one only, and growing about two feet 
high. The last year's shoot is tied in the shape of a curve, so that 
each foot of vine looks like a noose for catching rabbits. 

From Epernay to Strassburg there is not a village, nor a vineyard, 
nor a field that has not its crucifix, the most of which are carefully 
carved in stone. The owner of a house in the faubourg of Nancy 
had taken down the Virgin from over his door, and replaced it with 
a bust of Napoleon, with this inscription : " To Bonaparte, Saviour of 
the Republic." "Of the Republic!" said he, with a laugh; "that 
association of words seems strange to me, indeed ; " which pleased 
Josephine very much. On leaving the town, she called his attention 
to a very aged woman who was kneeling on the steps of a chapel. 
She appeared bathed in tears. On being asked what was the cause 



HO SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

have surrounded Napoleon with perils from which no 
human prudence could have rescued him. Often did I, 
in concert with him, carry on a correspondence. I 
flattered all parties (56), for I love to do justice to all. 
When Napoleon supposed he had grounds of complaint 
against any of his military officers, I warmly pleaded 
their cause. To contradict or thwart him was to de- 
prive myself of the means of defending the innocent and 
unfortunate. He would tell me, " It depends only on 
me whether I will be rid of that officer. I have only 
to pronounce his doom." " You are right," I would 
reply, " you are right ; but such language does not be- 
come your generous and noble nature." l " And who 
can oppose me in it ? " was his quick reply. " Yourself, 
Napoleon. 'Twould arm against your person a multi- 

of her grief, she replied, " My kind friends, my poor Joseph has 
been included in the conscription, and for nine days have I come 
here regularly to make my nine days' prayer (neuvaine) that he may 
draw a good lot; and Jhat which he has drawn bears the number 4. 
Thus I lose not only my grandson, but my prayers also. Nor is 
this all : my eldest son's daughter was about to marry one of our 
neighbours, named Michael ; and Michael now refuses to marry her 
on account of Joseph, her brother, being in the conscription. Should 
my son conclude to procure a substitute for poor Joseph, why, then 
adieu to Julie's dowry, for he would give her nothing ; and that 
dowry is to be she hundred francs in cash." " There are a thousand 
to supply their place," said the Emperor, sending her a bank- 
note (which she took for an assignat) for that amount ; "I want 
soldiers, and for that purpose I encourage marriages." Josephine 
charged herself with furnishing the presents for the bride, and sent 
them to her from Strassburg. She also sent a present to the grand- 
father, having learnt that he had been attached to the service of 
Louis XV., a circumstance which, in itself, was sufficient to stimulate 
her zeal. Note Communicated. 

i The following is Josephine's portrait of Bonaparte at home: 
" He had a fine intellect, a sensible and grateful heart, simple tastes 
and the qualities of an amiable man ; to the sentiments of an honest 
man he united a prodigious local memory." Note Communicated. 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE III 

tude of brave men who are necessary to you. Certainly, 
a great man should fear nothing; but he captivates all 
hearts when he pardons. The first function of kings 
and the firmest pillar of a throne is justice." Thus 
did I, little by little, succeed in influencing his mind, 
and persuaded him not to issue orders of removal from 
office or of banishment. Sometimes I forewarned the 
friends of the man who had excited his vengeance. 1 
often received letters for the Emperor in which the 
writers solicited the favour of an audience ; and, by means 
of some excuse, I saved the honour and the life of the 
first dignitaries of the state. 

Every courtier that arrived announced to me that 
each day was marked by a combat. The princes of the 
Confederation served my husband with zeal ; his armies 
were numerous ; they could not but be successful. And 
yet I was far from being at ease. I was aware that the 
bombardment of Vienna had commenced ; 1,800 shells 
were thrown into the town in less than four hours ; the 
capital itself seemed on fire. Happily for the inhabitants, 
the Archduke Maximilian had the command of it ; he was 
touched by a sense of the calamities about to befall them. 
On learning that the French had passed the Danube, and 
fearing his retreat might be cut off, he ordered General 
O'Reilly to capitulate, and evacuate the city; and soon 
afterwards he who, in thought, was grasping every 
sceptre in Europe, made his triumphant entry into Vienna 

(57). 

The position of my son in Italy increased my solicitude. 
I knew that he had experienced some reverses by which he 
had been forced to retrograde to the Adige ; but he soon 
informed me that he had, in his turn, been so successful as 
to assume the offensive, and had gained repeated victories 



112 SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

over the Archduke John, one of the Generals-in-chief of the 
Austrian army. 

As yet peace was afar off. Napoleon passed over to 
the island of In-der-Lobau 1 to reconnoitre the position of 
the left bank, and to fix upon his future field of battle. 
" The hour of glory" (my husband wrote me) "has again 
sounded for the brave; on the 2ist of May, 1809, at four 
o'clock in the afternoon, the Austrians showed themselves." 
The Duke of Rivoli defended Gros-Aspern, the Duke of 
Montebello (Lannes) protected Essling. 1 Prodigies were 
wrought on both sides ; but the French, as was usual, 
remained masters of the field of battle. The courier of 
May 22nd brought me the news that the attack was re- 
commenced with the same energy and obstinacy, but that 
the Danube had become swollen in so extraordinary a 
manner that it had broken up all the bridges communi- 
cating with the little island from the right bank of the 
river, and from the little island to the island of Lobau; 
that the ammunition was nearly exhausted, and that the 
fire of musketry had in consequence almost ceased. The 
Austrians saw this, and redoubled their activity. When 
the courier who brought me the news left, death was flying 

1 One of the two which divide the Danube into three channels, in 
front of Ebersdoff. 

2 At the battle of Essling, as all the world knows, two regiments 
of the Imperial Guard (the grenadiers and chasseurs) performed 
prodigies of valour. Towards the close of the action, at about six 
o'clock p.m., the Duke of Montebello (Lannes) came on foot to head- 
quarters, where these regiments were, followed by one of his aides-de- 
camp. Observing them entrenched in a ditch, and almost destitute of 
ammunition, he said to them with an air of sadness, " My friends, you 
are well off here." His aide-de-camp proposed that he should mount 
on horseback, but he declined, saying, " Why let it be known that 
there is anybody here ? 'tis useless." He returned the way he came, 
and, in ten minutes after, received the blow which tore him from 
France and his friends. 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 1X3 

through the French ranks ; many generals died with arms 
in their hands. The Duke of Montebello had his thigh 
shot off, and his life was despaired of. The loss of this 
illustrious general and companion of my husband's glory 
cost me tears of sincere sorrow. Lannes had never con- 
cealed from him the truth ; he talked to him like a soldier, 
and his frankness was occasionally displeasing to the new 
sovereign. The Emperor often said, "General Lannes is a 
soldier." "Yes," said I, "and, according to my opinion, 
he combines in himself the talents of a man of genius. 
The Duke of Montebello is not an orator, but he presents 
an example ; and the day you shall lose that illustrious 
captain, the brightest jewel of your crown* grows pale." 
Marshal Lannes (58) passed to immortality in the footsteps 
of those heroes whom the world has a right to surname 
Chevaliers sans peur et sans reproche. 

I was acquainted with the wife of that general, and was 
sincerely attached to her. I partook of her griefs. At 
Court she was distinguished as well by the rank she 
occupied as by her personal qualities. The Duchess of 
Montebello had the double merit of goodness and beauty. 
But I was far from supposing that she would be able 
to fill the first place in France, near the person of the 
woman who, in a short time, was to reign en souverainc 
over the heart of my husband. But I will not hasten 
the march of events, for fear of inverting their natural 
order. Besides, I shall but too soon have finished writing 
the bright pages of my history, and its sad moments will 
come soon enough soon enough to be traced by my 
pen I I shall not fear to say that the wife of Marshal 
Lannes has, by her conduct towards me, earned the 
tribute of my gratitude. Till my last moment I shall be 
proud to count her in the number of my sincere friends. 

VOL. II 8 



114 SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

At this time a report was circulated of the death of 
Generals Du Ronel and Foulers. These two distinguished 
officers had been made prisoners at the battle of Essling. 
Napoleon was enraged against M. de Chasteler for the 
active part he had taken in stirring up the insurrection 
in the Tyrol. He would not recognise him as a general 
in the Austrian service, and in a moment of anger had 
ordered him to be sent before a military commission. 
But the Emperor of Germany announced to my husband, 
formally, that he would compel the French officers who 
had fallen into his hands to undergo the same fate which 
the chief of the French army proposed to inflict upon 
General Count Chasteler. Whereupon Napoleon declared 
that he would have the Princes Callovedo and Metternich, 
and Counts Pergen and Hardeck sent to France as 
hostages. But he finally yielded to the powerful en- 
treaties of others, and those illustrious personages did 
not quit the Austrian capital. Thus all his threats ter- 
minated ineffectually. 

I regularly received the news from him a thing which 
by no means relieved me of a perpetual inquietude, ever 
fearful, as I was, of hearing that the only man on earth 
for whom I desired to live had sunk beneath such ac- 
cumulated efforts. The arm of treason is, indeed, but 
the arm of an obscure and guilty man, possessing the 
talent of attacking in the dark, rather than of defending 
in open day. But such a man might be found, and the 
Emperor might fall by his strokes (59). But I must 
believe that Destiny, which keeps constant watch over 
the fortunes of mortals, had, in its wisdom, determined 
that he should yet astonish the world with the most 
memorable of all his victories. That great action was 
to make him forget his most solemn promises, and to 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 115 

furnish an occasion for tarnishing his name with an act 
of perjury. In gaining the battle of Wagram (60), the 
ambitious Napoleon could perceive no limits to his future 
power. He was enabled to prescribe to Austria every 
condition which it pleased him to impose upon her. An 
alliance with the august daughter of the Caesars did not 
appear to him impossible ; and hence, in order to attain 
that end he used all his means to render the conclusion 
of peace difficult. He assumed to be, and became, its 
supreme arbiter. The Emperor of Germany was not 
able to propose a single article it was Napoleon alone 
who dictated every one of them. 

Thus did he promise himself to consolidate his great 
edifice. He thought it necessary to let political events 
proceed and still, for a time, his compass received a 
right direction. 

Bonaparte readily granted an armistice to the Emperor 
Francis, though he often threatened to take away his 
sceptre, as well as those of all the princes of his house. 
But my husband had formed still bolder designs, and, 
to ensure their execution, he purposed to include them 
in the necessary conditions of the peace he was about 
to grant to the House of Austria. 

He, however, occupied himself in overturning the 
fortifications of Vienna. According to his ideas, a capital 
which contains a large population never ought to think 
of defending itself. He chose for his residence the 
chateau of Schoenbrunn (61). Here he was able to 
appreciate the happy qualities of the Princess Maria 
Louisa, one of the nieces of Maria Antoinette, the wife 
of Louis XVI. She was not, at the time, able to follow 
her family, who had just left Vienna in great haste, in 
order to save themselves from the dominion of the con- 

82 



Il6 SECRET MEMOIRS OP 

queror. The princess preferred the residence of Schcen- 
brunn to all the other delightful palaces of the Emperor 
her father. Indeed, a serious indisposition prevented her 
from leaving her apartment. What must have been the 
feelings of the archduchess on seeing the Emperor of the 
French come to sit, as it were, on the throne of her 
ancestors? What must have been her surprise on seeing 
the man who had, so recently, twice threatened to wrest 
from her parents their diadem, who had so lately carried 
fire and sword through her country, and who now, perhaps, 
meditated possessing himself of her person ? But no ! to 
her eyes, Bonaparte seemed only an extraordinary man. 
On seeing him, she augured that she should be able to 
obtain from him a promise of safety to her family ; but 
she did not think it her duty to descend to humiliating 
supplications. She told him, with a noble air, that she 
was fulfilling the wishes of her father in receiving him at 
Schoenbrunn, and in the most distinguished manner. It 
appeared that the conqueror was quite sensible of these 
marks v of consideration, lavished upon him by the arch- 
duchess. " She has done well " (he wrote to me) " thus 
to conduct herself towards me; with me, one gains every- 
thing who possesses the skill to appreciate me." 

Alas! the unfortunate princess did this with no other 
intention than to render my husband less unjust ; per- 
chance, even, she feared the influence of a victorious 
sovereign. Napoleon, however, conducted himself like a 
true Scipio; and the daughter of the Caesars had occasion 
only to applaud herself for the generous hospitality she 
extended to him. 

It is not difficult for me to understand the noble 
moderation which he exhibited on that occasion. Bona- 
parte, better perhaps than any other man, knew how to 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 117 

respect female virtue. It produced upon him such an 
impression, that I have often seen him carefully measure 
his words, and adroitly dissemble his thoughts and his 
character, while in the presence of a mother, or of a 
young lady whose heart, as he used to say, " had the 
virginal tint." On such occasions, that strange man 
could control his passions, and overawe those most per- 
verse men who continually su rounded him. 



Il8 SECRET MEMOIRS OF 



CHAPTER VIII 

WHEN Napoleon had planted his eagles upon the 
ramparts of Vienna, 1 the conqueror no longer thought 
anything impossible for him. All the kings and other 
princes who had been steadfast in their friendship for 
him, acquired new accessions of territory. He wrote to 
the senate as follows: 

" The Illyrian provinces will reach beyond Venice, the 
frontier of my grand empire. A neighbour to the Emperor 

z At the famous battle of Wagram the Archduke Charles weakened 
his centre, in order to strengthen his wings. His object was to keep 
the French out of Vienna. During this time there was an extraordinary 
ferment in the capital, and the situation of the strangers who remained 
there became perilous. The Austrian right wing far outflanked our 
left, and the cannonade, slowly approaching Vienna, induced the 
citizens, who were prohibited from mounting the ramparts, to believe 
that the French were beaten. The report was spread that all French- 
men within the city would be put to the sword, but there is no proof 
of such a threat having been made ; and, however that may be, 
Napoleon ordered the Duke of Rivoli, afterwards Prince of Essling, 
who had been wounded two days before, and who was borne about, 
sometimes on a litter, and sometimes in bis carriage, to advance with a 
reserve of 40,000 men, composed, in part, of the Young Guard and the 
Horse-Guard, and 100 pieces of artillery. The Austrian left and centre 
were soon broken, and the roar of the artillery died away in the 
distance. With it sank the hopes of the agitators in Vienna, and the 
Frenchmen resident there were delivered from their threats and insults. 

The next morning, Bonaparte said to one of his best generals, em- 
bracing him, and making him a marshal of the empire, " 'Tis to you, 
and the artillery of my guard, which you commanded, that I am chiefly 
indebted for this day's success." Then, turning to General Lauriston, 
he added, " Let me know the names of the brave men who have dis- 
tinguished themselves in this great battle." " 'Tis impossible to name 
each one to Your Majesty," answered the general; "all alike have done 
their duty." 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE IIQ 

of Constantinople, I shall be enabled to control the com- 
merce of the Mediterranean, the Adriatic and the Levant. 
I will protect the Porte, provided the Porte shall avoid 
the mischievous influence of England ; but I know how 
to punish it, if it suffer itself to be governed by cun- 
ning and perfidious advisers. By adding to my titles 
that of Mediator, I furnished to the Swiss nation a 
new proof of my esteem, and in so doing I have put 
an end to the inquietude which had prevailed in the 
midst of that faithful and generous nation. 

" Holland, situated between England and France, is 
generally crushed by these two great Powers ; and still 
Holland is the very home of my commercial marine. 
Some changes will become indispensable. The security 
of my frontiers and the interest, rightly understood, of 
the two countries imperiously demand them. 

" My jealousy is not excited by the fact that my 
ally, the Emperor of Russia, has embosomed in his 
vast estates Finland, Moldavia and Wallachia. 

f * When I shall again show myself beyond the Pyre- 
nees the affrighted Leopard will seek the ocean to escape 
defeat, disgrace or death. The triumph of my arms will 
be the triumph of a genius from heaven over one from 
hell, of peace over war, of tranquillity over discord. My 
friendship and my protection will, I trust, restore pros- 
perity and happiness to the people of Spain." 

Thus did he firmly believe that he directed the winds 
of Fortune, and regulated the fate of empires. Behold 
how the great part of mankind suffer themselves to be 
blinded or dazzled by a few rays of prosperity ; they 
slumber in the bosom of a happiness which is illusory ; 
and their waking almost always destroys the delicious 
dreams which have lulled them. 



[20 SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

Napoleon carefully concealed from me his newly- 
formed intentions with respect to the estates of the 
Church. He practised a stratagem towards the Holy 
Father, under the pretext of obtaining his permission to 
march his army through his provinces. From Vienna 
he wrote to the Pope, assuring him of his friendship 
and goodwill. Scarcely had he received the letter of 
Pius VII., granting his request, and assuring him pro- 
tection for himself and his army, when the French made 
themselves masters of the Roman Campagna. They 
fixed their head-quarters in the suburbs of the city of 
the Scipios, and measured with tranquil eye the extent 
of the ancient Forum, where they formed a camp of 
observation. 

It was thought that the spiritual sovereign would see 
his interest in joining in the offensive league against the 
English. " The successor of St. Peter," said Napoleon 
to some of his confidential friends, "has no other means 
of preserving his tiara." But he soon received the an- 
swer of the august head of the Church : " It is not my 
duty," said he, " to undertake a war against any nation. 
My ministry is a ministry of peace. In the ports of my 
dominions all civilised people must find safety, the means 
of subsistence, and perpetual protection." Napoleon 
might have expected just such an answer; indeed, he 
would have been greatly embarrassed had the Pope 
adopted his projects. He wanted to be absolute master 
of all the temporalities of the Church. "I am," said 
he, "the heir of Pepin, and, like him, I send you a 
decree passed in my imperial camp at Vienna, whence I 
direct you to take possession of the domains granted to 
the sovereign pontiffs through the munificence of the 
father of Charlemagne to declare Rome an imperial and 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 121 

free city. And I grant, by way of compensation, and of 
my own free will, to the Vicar of Jesus Christ, in order 
merely to sustain his spiritual dignity, 2,000,000 francs 
in rents, which shall be his yearly allowance." 

" I am fully aware, Monsieur le General M ," 

said Napoleon, in a secret note to the governor of 
Rome, "I am fully aware that I am entering into an 
open war with the whole Sacred College. You have 
already informed me that a bull of excommunication 
may be hurled against me, my aiders and abettors. 
You, sir, are of the number ; but don't play the part of 
the courtiers of Gregory V. 1 As it respects me, I shall 
never be so submissive a son as Robert the Pious God 
save me from resembling that saintly King! that will 
not settle our affairs. And, after all, you are one of the 



I Pope Gregory V., at a grand council held at Rome, excom- 
municated Robert, the 36th King of France, as well as the bishops 
who had counselled him to espouse Bertha, his cousin-german, sister of 
Raoul the Lazy, King of Burgundy, one of whose children he had held 
at the baptismal font. He enjoined it upon Robert to quit the wife 
whom he loved, and to consent to see his marriage dissolved, without 
making the least opposition to it, threatening that in case he did not 
separate from her immediately, his kingdom should be placed under an 
interdict. The King refusing to submit to a decree which seemed to 
him contrary to the interests of the state, witnessed an immediate 
cessation of divine service. The sacrament was no longer allowed to 
the living, nor burial to the dead. The people, overwhelmed by this 
terrible blow, humbly submitted to the Pope's orders. All the King's 
domestics abandoned him except two or three, who carefully passed 
through the fire whatever the King touched, in order to purify it, 
throwing to the dogs whatever was left at his meals, as nobody dared 
eat the meats he had touched. 'Twas these rigours, and not, as 
Mezaray says, his wife giving birth to a monster with neck and feet 
like a gosling (which certain miracle-mongers pretended was the fact), 
which finally constrained the King to separate from her. Nothing 
could conciliate the Pope's favour ; the unhappy Bertha was legally 
divorced, without, however, giving up her title of Queen. 



122 SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

persons most interested in them." A few days after, he 
wrote to Berthier, to whom he had given the title of Prince 
of Wagram, that he was " not easily frightened." " The 
celestial thunders," said he, " will occasion fewer ravages 
in France, it seems to me, than the thunders terrestrial. 
'Tis not for me to tremble before the first of priests ; let him 
fear to provoke me ; for in that case I may take a fatal 
resolution. Who knows but I might imitate Henry VIII. ? 
Like him, I feel that I have strength and courage enough 
to cause myself to be declared the protector of a new 
Church ; and in regard to the Romish clergy, God knows 
what might be the result." x Thus spake he to one 
whom he honoured with his particular friendship. But the 
secret order was already given to seize the Holy Father 
at his capital, and hold him as a prisoner of war. 

The cardinals who were the most faithful to Chiara- 



i And yet Napoleon was very sensitive in respect to the bull ful- 
minated against him by Pope Pius VII. In vain did he attempt to 
dissemble ; and it is equally true that he showed his contempt for it 
on numerous occasions. "'Tis a small matter," said he to Josephine, 
"for Ali Bonaparte " (alluding to the name he bore in Egypt) " to be 
driven from the Church. But the descendants of the Leaguers of the 
sixteenth century might be able to circumvent the understandings of 
the Frenchmen of the nineteenth century; and, without being as credu- 
lous as their predecessors, the latter are not less superstitious. I will 
punish with circumspection, and not with severity, the partisans of the 
Holy See. I hate the propagators of new doctrines. They seem to me 
ever disposed to disturb the tranquillity of the states which are so 
unfortunate as to contain them." 

In obedience to Napoleon's orders, the strictest search was made in 
all departments for the Pope's bull of excommunication. It is incon- 
ceivable what a number of persons were arrested in consequence of 
this measure. Every copy of the bull that chanced to be found was 
torn in pieces the moment it was seized. Napoleon affected a kind of 
indifference, although he was not without his secret apprehensions. 

"You are accursed of God," said Josephine to him, laughing; 
"but I continue to pray for you: you know that when at Milan, I 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 123 

monti were carried off from him, and others summoned 
by the French Government to watch over his person ; his 
friends were again thrown into prison, and the famous 
dungeon of Vincennes received many of them. As the 
only favour to himself, Pius VII. asked to be permitted 
to watch over his flock. He was denied every means of 
conversing with the persons who were devoted to him. 
His household troops were disbanded. The Vatican was 
besieged. An entrance was made at midnight over the 
palace walls ; the windows escaladed ; orders were given 
to rush into the last asylum of the sovereign, unless he 
should hasten to dress himself in his pontifical robes, 
and surrender himself into the hands of his persecutors. 1 
Carriages had been prepared beforehand, into one of 
which the venerable old man was placed and locked up 



almost wrought miracles." (Her presence in the cathedral of that city 
did, in fact, restore to the Catholic worship all its pomp, and to the 
clergy all their dignity).* Napoleon shook his head, as if he had no 
confidence in what she hinted at. " But," said she, " beware how you 
persecute the religion of your fathers. I admit that your power is im- 
mense ; and who can but tell that, like the Russian autocrat, you may 
become the visible head of a universal Church ? Listen to me ; respect 
the ancient usages ; honour God among your people, if you wish your 
people to hononr you. Protect His vicegerent upon earth, if you are 
anxious to conciliate all parties. Furnish no weapon against yourself, 
if you want to aid Frenchmen and make them your friends." Thus 
did that admirable and truly religious woman seek, by adroit means, 
and without wounding his pride, to bring him back to noble and 
sublime sentiments. But she did not always succeed. 

z Several persons who were present at the carrying off of the 
Pope have assured me that they were forcibly impressed by the 
gentleness, the angelic resignation and the profound self-denial of 
the Holy Father. Like Jesus Christ, he said to his cohorts, " My 
kingdom is not of this world. Do with me as seemeth you good. 1 ' 
Many of the Freach officers shed tears, but did not execute their 
orders the less strictly. NOTE BY JOSEPHINE. 

* Madame Bonaparte presented to that metropolis costly vases and other orna- 
ments of great magnificence. 



124 SECRET MEMOIRS OP 

with the utmost care. From Rome the carriage was 
drawn rapidly forward by post horses, without any re- 
spect for the great age of the Holy Father, so that the 
journey became infinitely unpleasant and fatiguing to 
him. During the whole of the route, the fact was care- 
fully concealed that the Holy Father was a martyr to 
state policy, for fear of arousing the people, who would 
have viewed with profound indignation this most out- 
rageous violation of every law, human and divine. 

The head of the Church was kept as a prisoner at 
Savona, from which place, by one of those caprices which 
were so common to Napoleon, he ordered him to be con- 
ducted to Fontainebleau. During part of this campaign, 
I was sometimes at Mayence and sometimes at the waters 
of Plombieres (62). I enjoyed the pleasure of having at 
my side my beloved daughter and my niece de Beau- 
harnais. 1 The latter had espoused the Hereditary Prince 
of Baden. But the lovely Stephanfe was not happy in 
the match, and the two cousins recounted to each other 
their griefs, in the most touching manner. I endeavoured 
to tranquillise them both, and to persuade them that the 
hand of Destiny was preparing for them more pleasing 
scenes in the bright future. Our conversations upon 



i She was the daughter of Senator Beauharnais, the ambas- 
sador from Spain. He emigrated during the Revolution, and the 
viscount, his brother, found means to save a part of his property. 
He himself possessed but a moderate fortune, while bis elder brother 
enjoyed an annual income from rents of ^40,000. But Madame 
Renaudin, Josephine's aunt, gave her, on her marriage, 150,000 ; 
and, besides this, made her costly presents every year. The con- 
sequence was that the family was hi very easy circumstances. 
M. de Beauharnais owned lands near Orleans, which Prince Eugene 
gave up to the use of his uncle during the whole of his exile. 
Madame Bonaparte took the greatest care of Stephanie, and brought 
her up with her cousin Hortense. 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 125 

this subject were frequently renewed, when, one evening, 
feeling somewhat indisposed, I opened the windows of 
my chamber in order to enjoy the cool, fresh air. I con- 
fess that my imagination, like that of most women, is 
sometimes romantic affected by a mere nothing, sporting 
with a mere nothing. But that fresh evening breeze 
seemed to me the very image of the peaceful and happy 
scenes of human life ; the sweet scent of orange trees 
on a neighbouring terrace reminded me of the incense of 
Courts, the perfumed language of flatterers, and carried 
me back again in thought to those past painful recol- 
lections which I fondly endeavoured for the moment to 
banish from my mind. The rays of the moon began 
to enter my apartment, producing moving shadows. 
While absorbed in a sort of reverie, a sudden start 
made me sensible that two beings, very dear to me, 
were watching beside me. They were Hortense and 
Stephanie, in whom my unusual manner created some 
alarm. On seeing those loved objects, I pressed each 
of them to my heart. " Sad, sad victims of ambition ! " 
said I ; " happier would you have been, perhaps, had 
your days been spent in peaceful obscurity 1 " 

The raising of these dear children was my work, and 
my deceived maternal love long depicted their future lot 
in the most glowing colours. But at length the scales 
fell from my eyes ; my heart became disenchanted, and 
I saw, alas ! the evil I had done in endeavouring to do 
good. Although bitterly reproaching myself, I had not 
even the glory of remaining steadfast in the resolution 
I had taken. After contributing to the unhappiness of 
my daughter, my firmness again forsook me in regard to 
my beloved niece ; and nothing remained to me but deep 
regret for having yielded too easily to the recommendations 



126 SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

of my husband. Alas! everything conspired to fill my 
mind with apprehensions, the more cruel because I could 
see no possibility of preventing the dreadful denouement 
which awaited us all. 

Meanwhile peace was concluded between France and 
Austria. The treaty was advantageous to Germany. 1 
Napoleon, leaving Schoenbrunn, repaired to Munich, 
where I rejoined him.* He remained but a few days in 
Munich, but proceeded on, paying a visit, in passing, to 
the King of Wurtemberg, his faithful ally. On the 2gth 
of October, 1809, we arrived at Fontainebleau, and re- 
mained there until the i4th of November. 

I had been for a considerable time separated from 
the Emperor; but hope had dried up my tears, and 
his angelic look reassured me when I came to talk with 
him in confidence. I had great reason to accuse him of 
indifference, and said to him, " Bonaparte, Fortune is 
waiting to make you pay dearly for the few moments of 

1 Negotiations were opened at Schoenbrunn. The result was that 
the Emperor Napoleon, in order to leave an heir to his crown, was to 
divorce the Empress Josephine, and espouse Maria Louisa of Austria, 
the daughter of the Emperor with whom he concluded the treaty of 
peace. The fatal news circulated through the army; every face was 
covered with gloom ; everyone knew what he was to lose, but not what 
he was to gain, by this step. At the end of three months Napoleon 
returned to Paris, without visiting Holland, as he had promised to do, 
in order to give directions for the rebuilding of the walls which had 
been destroyed by the English during the war which the French had 
been waging in Germany. 

2 The best proof of Josephine's goodness of heart is found, in her 
journeys, towards those who composed her suite ; and it must be recol- 
lected that these journeys were never known more than twenty-four 
hours before the time of departure, which seldom gave the quarter- 
masters time to prepare lodgings. These were always fixed upon by 
Napoleon, who took little pains to inform himself about such localities. 
Whether agreeable or not, it was necessary to reside according to th* 
order. 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 127 

happiness you have enjoyed. 1 Cruel friend ! cruel man ! " 
I often said to him ; " such forgetfulness, such injustice, is 
incredible ! a Hear me. When the heart is dead to every 
illusion when it ceases to hope what remains to it ? 
What feeling can I express ? Is not my fate fixed ? Oh, 
yes ; for Josephine all will, perhaps, soon be over I " 

It was at Fontainebleau that I, for the first time, 
suspected my husband capable of breaking his most 
sacred vow. 8 At this epoch he had wounded, and even 
outraged, my feelings; and yet he remained, in appear- 
ance, utterly impassible. Had I been even in the con- 
vulsions of despair, a single look of kindness from him 
would have calmed and restored me. Far from seeming 
to feel, he remained unmoved, and affected to smile at 
me with pity. " Bonaparte," said I, in the bitterness of 
my heart, " 'tis thus, then, that you have driven me to 
weep over my lot, and over yours, and to devour my 
own tears. But you have so distressed my heart, and 
uprooted my last hope, that I can now do nothing but 
pity you, and sigh over your future. My own future 
lot would trouble me but little, were I not tied to it by 
a duty which rivets my fetters." 

1 This passage ought to have been re-touched by the Empress. It 
would seem that in April, 1814, she re-read the whole of her manuscript, 
and made erasures and changes in numerous places. 

2 For some time Josephine had observed that his private corre- 
spondence had ceased (at least, since the battle of Wagram). They had 
been in the habit of corresponding by means of certain hieroglyphics. 
Several couriers had succeeded each other, bringing her official des- 
patches; but no billet in the handwriting of the Emperor was found 
inside the packet. Such was her mortification at this, that for some 
days her health, which was usually so good, became visibly affected. 

3 It was on Sunday, on returning from Mass, that Fouch, the 
minister of police, leading Josephine to the embrasure of a window in 
the chateau at Fontainebleau, gave her the first shock on the subject of 
the divorce, which did not take place till two years after. 



128 SECRET MEMOIRS OP 

The assemblage of nearly all the Kings of Europe 
now cast a lustre upon the French Court. The fetes 
held in honour of the peace were brilliant, indeed, though 
the majority of the French people believed it would not 
be durable. Everybody understood the turbulent spirit of 
]he Emperor. Wise men, who were skilled in reading 
the book of Destiny, only asked for a prolongation of 
peaceful days; but, as most of his generals had grown 
rich by the spoils of nations, those ambitious men per- 
suaded their master, under vain pretexts, to break through 
the solemn treaties which had been entered into. They 
forgot that treaties are to be regarded as a dyke, whose 
office is at all times to oppose successfully the destroying 
torrent of war, which seeks to overwhelm all. 

Since the 3Oth of June, 1808, the day on which the 
respected and esteemed Belloi, Archbishop of Paris, paid 
the debt of nature, Napoleon had appointed Cardinal Fesch, 
his uncle, to discharge the duties of the deceased prelate. 
But the brother of Madame Letitia did not accept the 
appointment. His nephew testified much surprise at the 
refusal, but the cardinal, feeling it to be his duty to persist 
in it, told him plainly that he would rather be Archbishop 
of Lyons, installed by the Pope, than Archbishop of Paris 
without the bulls. My husband, forced to yield, said no 
more about it ; and, to the astonishment of all parties, the 
famous Cardinal Maury was called to the metropolitan 
see of the empire. 1 The affairs of the Church were in 

I All Europe has resounded with the name of the celebrated sleep- 
ing abbe, lord paramount of eight hundred manors. Elected a deputy 
to the Constituent Assembly, he ably sustained the honour of the body 
he represented at the tribune. He was opposed to the popular opinions 
of the famous Mirabeau, and contended with that great commoner in 
taste, knowledge and eloquence. Forced by imperative circumstances 
to quit France, where his Life was threatened, he retired to Rome, where 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE I2Q 

this sad predicament when Napoleon, the ambitious Na- 
poleon, resolved to carry into execution the most incredible, 
the most remarkable piece of state policy ever attempted 
since the too famous separation of Henry IV. from Margaret 
of Valois I mean his divorce. 

mesdames the aunts of Louis XVI. received him with marks of kindness 
and distinction. He became a member of the Sacred College and Arch- 
bishop of Monte-Fiascona. But the French invasion of the Roman 
states compelled him to choose another country for his residence, and 
Cardinal Maury was, for a time, the victim of the persecutions aimed at 
the head of the Church. Having, through the protection afforded him 
by Jerome Bonaparte, who appointed him his almoner, become more at 
ease, he again appeared upon the stage, and soon forgot that he owed 
everything to the Bourbon family. Having attached himself to his new 
masters, he made it a point to burn incense to the Caesars who admitted 
him to their society. Speaking of Cardinal Maury, Bonaparte used to 
say, " We have each of us been great winners in the lottery of the Revo- 
lution the one governs in temporal, the other in spiritual, affairs. The 
abbe, like Sextus Quintus, aspires to the tiara, but he shall never have 
it by my consent ; and to prevent it I have caused him to fall out with 
the Court of Rome. The papal power is, in truth, but a vain chimera ; 
but its religious dogmas will survive it ; and the Abbe Maury, appointed 
Archbishop of Paris by me and for me, will aid me to sustain the redoubt- 
able weight of an excommunication which crushes me and which strikes 
both alike." He made this remark in the midst of numerous clergymen, 
who, far from presuming to gainsay it, only shed around him the more 
plentifully the perfume of the basest flattery. Josephine was not fond of 
the Abb6 Maury, to whom she attributed a Jesuitical ambition. She 
one day rallied him upon his lucky star. It was the day the prelate 
delivered a discourse upon the Passion in Notre Dame, before a numer- 
ous audience. During the sermon, a lady of high degree took it into her 
head, in order the better to hear the Christian orator, to go up and seat 
herself in the pulpit, close by his side. The spectators, scandalised at 
the sight, manifested their displeasure. The stranger lady, who seemed 
to think herself in Italy or Germany, where nothing is more common, 
was forced to withdraw. The archbishop was embarrassed and com- 
pelled to resort to his notes to finish his sermon. It thus became ap- 
parent that the successor cf M. de Belloi was no longer that renowned 
deputy whose facility in extemporary speaking was once so much lauded. 
From the moment he had obtained, with so much ease, the highest 
dignity in the Church, it was taken for granted that he had but to reach 
forth his hands in order to grasp the Keys of St. Peter, and that he was 
holding himself in readiness to chant the Te Deum I 

VOL. II 9 



130 SECRET MEMOIRS OF 



CHAPTER IX 

THE dangers and fatigues of war did not divert Napoleon 
from his purpose of renouncing me. Calmly did he permit 
the hours and the days to flow on, which he passed in my 
society. But now the happy Emperor must needs see 
whether he was always to be the same Bonaparte for 
whom Fortune had wrought so many wonders. He 
thought himself at the apex of his glory; he could defy 
the universe. 

It was six o'clock in the morning; the moon was 
directing her quiet and silent course towards the western 
horizon ; the dawn of day had just begun to whiten the 
tops of the houses; the lamps suspended in the court of 
the Carrousel cast a pale and languid ray. The Emperor 

had retired into his cabinet with T and M , when 

his attention was arrested by a slight noise in a room that 
led to my apartment. He endeavoured to discover what it 
was, but saw nothing; but a moment afterwards I pre- 
sented myself before him. " Pardon me," said I, " Bona- 
parte ; but think what a terrible blow is this to a heart as 
sensitive as mine ! I am afraid to offend your delicacy, 
but my anxiety overcomes me. Believe me, I am devoted 
to you for ever ; believe me, I would pour out my blood to 
see you permanently happy. But, alas I a sad presentiment 
teaches me that happiness is no longer ours. Deign, at 
least, to remember that there is still a woman in this world 
who lives only for you who adores you with her whole 
heart, all unjust as you are to her ; a woman who will be 
ever ready to perform your slightest wish, and who would 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 13! 

willingly prove her attachment to you at the expense of 
her life ! " I prepared to leave him, but my husband, left 
to his own reflections, manifested a simulated sorrow. 
What struggles took place within him ! " Woe to thee, 
unfortunate man ! " I exclaimed, overwhelmed with an- 
guish. " Woe to thee ! Thou rushest to thy ruin. Yes, 
I shall see thee again I shall yet behold thee, ungrateful 
man ! object too dear to my heart. Yes, in spite of the 
cruel future which thou art preparing for Josephine, I 
shall at some future day be able to support and succour 
thee by my well-weighed counsels." " Stop, Josephine," 
said he, " and pity me. I regret to imitate on this 
occasion the conqueror of the League ; but 1 owe all that 
I am to my people; I belong wholly to glory. I confess 
it costs me many a pang to separate from you ; but so 
colossal has become my power, that I must rest it upon 
foundations whose solidity shall be in harmony with the 
weight they have to sustain. The Emperor Napoleon 
needs an heir, and the blood of kings must be proud to 
mingle with my own." 

Such was the language employed by the Emperor on 
the morning of the day that he signified to me, for the last 
time, that he had determined to sunder for ever the ties 
which bound him to me. 1 

" You wish, then, still to add to your glory by means of 
an august alliance with a great monarch. 'Tis then that 
you will behold jealousy, envy and hatred arming them- 
selves against you. You will daily exalt yourself in the 

I The Emperor always dined tete-a-tete with Josephine. On the 
same day, after taking his coffee, he announced to her her divorce. 
She fainted, and remained insensible for three hours. Napoleon sent 
for Mademoiselle d'Alberg, who afterwards became dame of honour 
to Maria Louisa, and committed her to her care ; sent for Corvisart ; 
then retired to his own room in a condition difficult to be described, 

92 



133 SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

hope that you are sheltered from all danger, when sud 
denly a new bolt, as yet hidden in the depths of the 
clouds of heaven, will leap forth and prostrate you in the 
dust." 

I then revealed to him what had been told me relative 
to his design (63). He paid the greatest attention to what 
I said, and when I had done, he walked to and fro for some 
moments, in silence ; then, a violent agitation was depicted 
upon his countenance, and finally he stopped short, and 
asked me particularly who the person was that had dis- 
covered his secret. 

"Bonaparte," 1 said I, "you will yet learn how to 
appreciate men more correctly ; you will yet know the 
danger of asking advice of* any but wise and upright 
persons, who govern their counsels by existing circum- 
stances, and enable you to weigh them in a just balance." 

He replied, with a grave and serious air, " All the 
Powers of Europe will soon cringe under my dominion ; 
I repeat it, I want children to sustain it. Nature does not 
permit you to fulfil this my most cherished wish. You 
are wrong, madam, and your cause is lost." 

Pierced to the heart by this black ingratitude, I was 
constrained to appeal to the future. " My friend," said I, 
" when men refuse to follow the counsels of friendship, it 
proves that they are unworthy of them; henceforth you 
will come to misfortune, the wisdom of experience." 

Our conversation was about to close, when he pretended 

I When Josephine spoke of her husband she always said, "The 
Emperor says the Emperor wishes the Emperor orders," &c. Very 
rarely she called him by name in public, and in private it was always 
"Bonaparte." Ordinarily, when speaking of her, he would say, "Where 
is the Empress ? " or, " I am going to see my wife ; " but in speaking to 
her, he most commonly called her " Josephine." On serious occasions 
be called her " madam," without adding either title or name. 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 133 

to convince me of my error, and vowed that no other woman 
should ever become his companion, and that he was only 
trying me. 

" No, no," said I, with emphasis, " dissimulation is now 
useless ; my anguish will cease only with my life ; the 
project is seriously entertained, and circumstances teach 
me that you have long been struggling against the desire 
to communicate it to me." He remained thoughtful ; his 
countenance was clouded over with the deepest sadness ; 
and, with a bitter sigh, I then added, " You propose to 
enter the august family of one of the greatest monarchs in 
Europe. Conqueror, ally, or the terror of the other Powers, 
you will then, more than ever, be persuaded that you can 
undertake everything with impunity. Seduced by appear- 
ances, carried away by unlimited desires, Napoleon wishes 
to separate from Josephine. Alas! the unwise will see, but 
see too late, that he sleeps upon the brink of a volcano ; 
his errors will one day produce a terrible eruption. 'Tis 
true, the blood of kings circulates in the veins of your 
future companion ; you will believe yourself a demi-god, 
proud mortal ! You aim, seconded by your countless 
legions, so often invincible, to overrun all the countries 
in the world ; but the north wind will blow upon you, 
and, like an atom, you will disappear from the face of 
the earth. You wish to enslave nations and sovereigns ; 
alas ! beware they do not arouse from their slumbers ! 
They will unite to combat you, and though unconquered, 
you will be pursued to the very walls of your capital. 
There, a desire for the peace of Europe and a sense of 
their own power will dictate a treaty which, while it 
precipitates this Colossus from a throne which he fondly 
imagined to be unassailable, will banish him beyond the 
seas, and proscribe even his name ; this, this is the arrow 



134 SECRET MEMOIRS OP 

which most keenly pierces my afflicted heart ! This is the 
deep wound which will give me unceasing agony I " 

I was in despair. Bonaparte, becoming at length 
touched by what I said, repeated his vow that no human 
power should ever sunder a bond which was so sacred; 
that he had sworn it before God and man. " Ah ! " said 
I, on leaving him, " fear to perjure yourself, and remember 
that Josephine, at all times and in all places, will be your 
truest friend " (64). 

I passed some days in sorrowful apprehension. I 
observed that he seemed to take particular pains to 
avoid me, fearing, as he told Fouche" and other con- 
fidential friends, another tragical scene. " I tried," said 
he, " to trace out for myself a line of conduct from which 
I was not to deviate, and to maintain my resolution ; but 
the moment I was with Josephine, I became the feeblest of 
men. I forgot my purpose, and thought only of the heroic 
attachment which that woman had evinced for me ever 
since we were united." 

Returned from Fontainebleau, my husband could no 
longer dissemble his real position. I loved him too sin- 
cerely not to shudder at the idea of an eternal separation. 
I saw it approaching, and painfully calculated the con- 
sequences. The thought of the culpable indifference of 
that man, for whom I had done everything, could not fail 
to afflict deeply a heart as tender as my own. A stranger 
to Court intrigues, I knew nothing of that mental torment, 
that unquiet activity, which leads those who lust after dig- 
nities to attempt any enterprise, however perilous. Alas! 
tears of sorrow, and not of repentance alone, moistened my 
eyelids. Let me, if I must, be miserable ; but I shall for 
ever remain united in thought to the fortunes of my 
husband. 'Tis true, the too great elevation to which his 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 1^5 

pride hath raised us, and which it was certainly difficult to 
maintain, testifies in favour of the maxim, " that ambition 
must ever advance with the same ardour." But, alas, filled 
with deep humility, I sometimes pray the Eternal to cast 
upon Napoleon a look of mercy 1 



136 SECRET MEMOIRS OF 



CHAPTER X 

WHAT tumultuous dreams, chasing each other like 
boisterous waves, have dashed against my senses during 
my sleep ! How did I wander from woe to woe ! The 
horrors of despair filled me with imaginary misfortunes. 
And what gained I by waking from that trance of sorrow, 
and recovering my reason? Alas! I only exchanged ills 
for ills, and found the reality still more terrible than the 
fiction. The days were too short for the utterance of 
my griefs; the night, yes, the darkest night, even when 
enveloped by its profoundest shadows, was less sad than 
my fate less gloomy than my soul ! 

Such were the reflections which besieged my mind on 
witnessing, each morning, the renewal of my accustomed 
torments. 

On the nth of November, 1809, a night sadly memor- 
able to me, my mind was oppressed with a dream 1 which, 
for some moments, really agitated me. But my imagina- 

z At the time of Napoleon's forsaking her, Josephine dreamed that 
she was surrounded by a prodigious number of serpents, which coiled 
themselves together, and entwined themselves around her in the man- 
ner represented in the celebrated picture of Laocoon. The serpent 
which coiled itself around her left hand, and bit its own tail, presaged 
immortality for her. The reptiles, gradually relaxing themselves, 
crawled away from her, and approached her husband, whom they 
embraced in the same way, and squeezed almost to suffocation ; which 
foretold that the memory of the wife would be cherished by posterity, 
while that of the husband, misled by the flatterers who surrounded and 
advised him, would fall a victim to his own ingratitude. "Prophetic 
Souvenirs," page 501. 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 137 

tion soon reverted to more agreeable recollections. I often 
resorted to Malmaison, to forget the Tuileries and the 
courtiers who thronged there. 1 

'Twas here (I thought to myself) that, for the first time 
in my life, I tasted the pleasures of a tranquil and solitary 
life 'twas here that the hand of Good Fortune at times 
presented me her enchanted cup here that my husband 
appeared, like a star from the banks of the Nile, upon the 
borders of the Seine ! He came, as it now seems to me, to 
carry me off from the asylum my heart had chosen, where, 
during his long absence, I had strayed, followed by his 
image ; and where, absorbed in perusing the annals of the 
glory of France, I found everywhere upon its brilliant page 
the name of him who was its chief and most illustrious 
architect. " Happy, happy illusions 1 " was all that my 
sighing accents could repeat. 

At other times I could see before me nothing but a long 
series of ills and sorrows. The path I was now to tread 
was beset with thorns; I felt their deadly points at every 
step. It seemed to me that the earth was but my place 
of punishment ; everything reminded me of my happy 
days, and I felt that my soul would soon leap and fly 
away into other realms than this. My imprisoned spirit 
strove to relieve itself from its painful confinement and 
be free. I asked Madame Rochefoucauld, who was my 
friend, whether it was a crime for a wife who had done 
all in her power for her husband, and who was about 
to be forsaken in so dastardly a way, to recover her 
liberty. God is just, for he is God ! He calls me to 
Himself. I see, He opens His arms to receive me ; He 

i However apparent may be the intimacy of two courtiers, do not 
believe in it. The more each one comes into favour, the more they 
fear and hate each other. 



138 SECRET MEMOIRS OP 

offers me an asylum in His bosom. 1 Will He punish 
me for my weakness ? Does His law require me to 
support a burden which crushes me ? Why does He 
will that I should live a few moments longer ? Must 
I not die ? Josephine, forsaken by him who was her 
all, cares not for life. My life is of no more account 
in my Creator's eyes than that of the organised atoms 
which we crush beneath our feet. Though it is certain 
that He has placed man in the highest rank of His 
creatures, yet can I be so foolish as to suppose myself 
of more importance than the thousands whom war has 
cut off? Were those victims to the ambition of princes 
born to be the cannon's exclusive prey ? In making this 
last reflection, I was, I confess, tortured to madness by 
the memory of the past. I tried to call Reason to my 
aid, but she fled from my sight. I had lost all energy, 
and was a prey to hopeless discouragement. " Ah ! " 
cried I, " pity him, O ye his friends ! Tremble at the 
fate of him who has so long astonished the world him 

whose wonderful fame and continued prosperity " In 

the midst of these reflections, M. de B brought me 

a note from the Emperor enjoining me to repair imme- 
diately to the palace. 

Nothing is so embarrassing to a woman of sensibility 
as to find herself in the presence of a man who is a 
dissembler, to whom she cannot freely communicate the 
indignation which she feels. 

I It is quite probable that Josephine had a gloomy presentiment 
that her separation from her husband would be followed by the 
worst consequences to them both ; and she said, confidentially, to 
some of her friends, that unknown causes would one day hurl 
him from the throne, that his fall would be terrible, and that 
she would that she could then say, with the daughter of the Desert, 
" Happy they who have not seen the smoke of the stranger's feasts, 
and who sit not at the banquet of their fathers I " 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 139 

I could not remain longer in this cruel state of un- 
certainty, and said to my beloved daughter, who sought 
in vain to dry my tears, " I must now for the last time 
have an explanation with my husband ; this same Bona- 
parte, who once honoured me with his confidence, must 
show me that esteem and that attachment which a 
woman like me must never lose." 

I requested Marechal Duroc to inform his master that 
I asked the favour of a private conversation with him. 

While waiting to obtain it, I went into the saloon, 
where the company was numerous and conversation 
animated. 

I conversed successively with the marechaux and the 
chief dignitaries of the empire. The wives of several 
officers of the Emperor's guard were presented to me, 
and I also gave the prefects of the departments a friendly 
and flattering reception. I noticed that the grand cham- 
berlain, who was at my side, wore a distracted and 
constrained look, which led me to suppose that he was 
already apprised of the kind of reception I should meet 
with from Napoleon. 

I had been informed that perfidious reports had been 
made to the Emperor respecting the Viceroy of Italy, 
and that his father-in-law had become sombre, and sus- 
picious that he might encounter in Eugene a William III. 

On this occasion I presented myself before my hus- 
band with a calm air, and, with restrained indignation, 
addressed him thus : " If, in your eyes, my crime is 
that I have spoken to you the language of truth, I have 
resolved, firmly, to render myself still more guilty on 
this occasion. I will prove to you, Bonaparte, with 
the boldness and force which belong to your own charac- 
ter, that I am your best friend. I do not reproach you 



140 SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

for the injustice with which you have treated me for 
some time past, I only ask of you the favour to give 
me the names of the poltroons who have permitted them 
selves to cast upon the Prince, my son, the poison of their 
calumny. They must have little honour, indeed, to dare 
asperse his character in the dark ! I defy them all, here, hi 
your presence. But no! a calumniator can never endure 
the presence of a brave man. I flatter myself that you 
will be the first to name his accuser. Ah ! learn better 
to appreciate the soul of Eugene that respectful son who 
will ever be mindful of your august protection ! While 
Heaven shall preserve his being, it will be his pleasure to 
make known to the world 'that you have been a father to 
him, and that it is to your kindness that he is indebted 
for his rapid advancement and for his prosperity. And 
if he has become the husband of an illustrious princess, 
that is also your work. Then enjoy, peaceably, the fruits 
of the favours you have heaped upon him. Never imagine 
that ingratitude can get possession of his heart ; believe 
that he shares the sentiments of his mother ; and believe, 
also, that both of them give you the highest proof of 
their devotion by daring to speak to you the language of 
truth." 

Bonaparte gazed at me with a look impossible to de- 
scribe. His head was resting in his two hands he seemed 
almost dying. 

After remaining some time without speaking, he com- 
menced reading a despatch which R. de S. J. d'A had 

placed in his hands. But the sudden revolution which his 
feelings had undergone could not be concealed. He made 
a sign signifying that he was going to read the document, 
and, with a motion as quick as thought, broke the seal and 
commenced the perusal. 



THB EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 14! 

Shall I wait for an answer?" asked R. de S. J. 
d'A 

" No," said the hesitating monarch ; " I intend to give 
an answer in person, but not just now." He finished 
reading it, rose, and made a gesture dismissing me. 

I no longer doubted that his resolution was taken. 
That document related to me ; everything showed me 
that measures were being taken to consummate my 
ruin. Bonaparte's family had long since prepared the 
way, and Murat, the perfidious Murat, was constantly 
exulting over it. 

Alas, it was now time for me to come to a firm resolu- 
tion ! Fouche came and informed me that my separation 
was definitively decreed by the Council of State. I was 
aware that Cambaceres had proposed to elevate Lucien's 
eldest daughter to the rank of Empress. But such a 
marriage would not have accomplished the ambitious 
views of Napoleon. He told the arch-chancellor on the 
spot, " Prince, your proposition is inadmissible ; I want 
a Princess; the only business before you is to designate 
her to me. Alexander has a young sister who would 
suit me perfectly. But I cannot conceal the fact that 
the ladies at his Court do not regard me with much 
favour ; everything proves that I should there be re- 
jected. 1 I might form an alliance with Spain, were it 



I It appears from the most correct and authentic documents that 
the two Empresses of Russia (the Empress Dowager and the Empress 
Regent) were decidedly opposed to the ambitious plans of Napoleon, 
and that, in the name of their family, they refused any alliance with 
him. The Grand Duchess Catherine of Wurtemberg was then pro- 
posed to him, but Anne, the wife of His Royal Highness the Prince of 
Orange, had flattered her quite too much ; he was refused. On the 
gth of December, 1809, the Empress Josephine confidentially informed 
some of her friends that Napoleon's marriage was decreed by the two 



142 SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

not that, situated as we now are, it would do me more 
hurt than good. Let us direct our researches to another 
quarter." Marshal Berthier proposed an alliance with 
Germany; the master seemed to relish this project. 
Fouch6 opposed it on the ground that it was both 
dangerous and impolitic. "You are right," Monsieur le 
Due," interrupted Napoleon, with vehemence, " you are 
right, provided the lady I propose to marry shall, in regard 
to me, bear any title but that of my wife. I listen cheer- 
fully to the advice of the Empress Josephine, because she 
is my best friend, and because she has, like me, known 
how to travel, with courage, the rugged road to fortune ; 
and I think that the woman who shall occupy her post 
at my Court will have some difficulty in replacing her 
in my affections. She will act her part I reserve my 
own to myself. Gentlemen, I am going to ask for an 
archduchess. Her father is not in a condition to refuse 
me, and his subjects will, by means of this alliance, be 
less unhappy. Josephine, it gives me pleasure to repeat, 
is worthy of my attachment and my gratitude. Her son, 
a model of talent and virtue, became my son by the 
most solemn engagement. I admit that Eugene is worthy 
to succeed me. France and Europe would applaud the 
adoption. But my present policy demands, imperatively, 
that the bonds which unite me co his mother should be 
severed, and that I should ally myself to the blood of 
monarchs. My will shall encounter no obstacle I must 
lead to the altar a new wife, in the midst of a cortege 



Courts, and that it would take place. On some one observing that 
such a union seemed impossible, she replied, " Well, then, he can 
only turn his eyes towards Germany ; but that would only be to place 
arms in the hands of Austria. During the minority of Louis XIV., she 
showed too well her skill in using them." 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 143 

of kings ; and who knows but the next year will witness 
the birth of an heir to my power and my name ? " 

Thus did he reason that man who, without a guide, 
was about to set out upon a new career. He still sought 
to aggrandise himself ; and, henceforth, everyone would 
take pleasure in caressing and corrupting him, and in 
lavishing upon him their flatteries, in order to ruin him. 
I could not, of course, but feel the deepest anxiety 
respecting his future fortunes. Time should have taught 
him to regard me as his indulgent judge and his true 
Mentor. And I fondly cherished the chimerical hope 
that my husband would, finally, listen to the inspirations 
of wisdom and the counsels of prudence. But no ! In 
a moment of enthusiasm, occasioned by his approaching 
marriage, he dared to say to me, and on the eve of our 
separation, that he now " believed himself led on by 
Fortune ; that she was about to place his authority be- 
tween two hearts which a natural sympathy attracted 
towards each other ; that this newly-formed attachment 
had inspired him with the resolution to exile me to Italy ; 
that it was important to his repose that no one should 
penetrate the mystery of his destiny ; that he should be 
continually tormented by my reflections should I remain 
in France ; that he regretted my loss sincerely, but that 
he had sworn to sacrifice all that he held most dear (65). 
" Ah ! my friend," continued he, " the curse attached to 
my destiny, should I not keep that fatal oath, has frozen 
or destroyed all the flattering chimeras which enticed rne 
to mount the throne. I now perceive the dangers which 
await me. You have judged rightly respecting the de- 
fects of my character. Ruled by a burning imagination, 
whose promptings I find it glorious to obey, I have spent 
my life in continual activities, which have left me not 



144 SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

one moment of time to fulfil my duties as an initiate of 
the sect of the Egyptians. 1 

" Thirsting for renown, persuading myself that the 
eulogies of men lift to immortality him who is their 
object, I have only aimed to acquire glory. I have ob- 
tained great successes, and pursued, without relaxation, 
the phantom of felicity. I have sacrificed everything to 
my ambition. What have I gained by so many efforts, 
so much toil and suffering ? I have inspired envy and 
provoked ingratitude. I have overturned a portion of 
Europe, without being able to seize happiness, which, 
I find, still outstrips mp. Many have been the conquests 
I have made ; but that conquest still eludes me. My 
ministers and my generals I have enriched, without 
having the luck to find a true friend ; and, deceived 
by almost every one of those who owe to me their 
fortunes and the high rank they occupy, I am not even 
able to preserve to myself the companion who has ever 
inspired me with love. You must admit that my situa- 
tion is, indeed, unhappy ! " 

I comprehended nothing of all this. How did it happen 
that he was bound by a solemn promise to leave me ? He 
had not, he said, that sweet consolation which always 
remains to a feeling heart. It was then in vain for me 
to solicit his confidence, which I had ever ardently done. 
It was easy for me to see that he was unhappy ; that 
he was the victim of treacherous advice. So far my own 
sagacity carried me ; but, as to the motive which provoked 
his divorce, it was a mystery which my most attentive 
observation could not fathom. " Bonaparte," said I, " is 

i Bonaparte was initiated, at Grand Cairo, in the mysteries of 
which Egypt was the cradle, and whereof a small number of adepts 
have preserved the memory. 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 145 

the time to pass away thus without bringing any change 
to my painful state ? And is your brazen sceptre to smite 
down, without pity, all the flowers of my existence ? " 

My husband was in tears ; his anguish burst forth. 
But withdrawing himself from my arms, for fear of dis- 
closing his secret, he exclaimed, " I have made fruitless 
efforts, Josephine, to forget what I owe to you. I feel a 
secret instinct which I cannot prevent ; my heart feels 
a keener pang than yours. I would, by far, that you 
should submit to no sway but that of my benefits; for I 
know that, in return for them, I should have your care, 
your love and your respect." In uttering these words, 
he laid his hands upon the one he was about to sacrifice 
in an attitude of sorrowful resignation to his fate ; and 
one would have said that he was already mourning for a 
guardian angel, about to be exiled from the palace by his 
orders. I stood mute ; silence and grief spoke for me. 
A deep sob escaped him. I scarcely heard it ; a new per- 
plexity, mingled with hope and pleasure, got complete pos- 
session of him. His mind was filled with uncertainty, his 
heart with anguish. It was possible that I might have been 
the victim of a fatal secret ; but I could no longer keep 
silence. Agitated by indescribable emotions, I exclaimed : 

" Ah ! who shall now dare separate us ? Pardon my 
presumption. What earthly power shall, so long as I 
live, so long as I breathe, so long as I shall have the 
least sentiment of existence, force me to abandon the 
rights with which, from this decisive moment, I feel my- 
self invested? No! our destinies are indissolubly linked 
together. All temporising, all delays, all disguise must 
now be renounced. Why this sudden fright ? Why that 
terrified look? Can you repent of having shown a little 
sensibility, a symptom of compassion ? Oh, Bonaparte, 

VOL. II IO 



14.6 SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

put an end to this unexampled mystery ! I am youf 
own ; I am yours to my latest breath yours by the most 
sacred engagements, even beyond this life ! You weep, 
Bonaparte ! * 'tis not with grief. Tell me your situation ; 
lay open your heart to me. Here, on this sacred spot, 
hereafter the happier for it, where, for the first time, you 
have caused a ray of hope to flash upon my eyes here 
let our faith, our vows, be pledged for eternity." 

Bonaparte, with a downcast, haggard look, and a 
hollow voice, was lying upon a sofa, where he had thrown 
himself, to calm his agitation and enjoy a moment's rest. 
Raising my hands to -heaven, I said to my husband, 
" Let me not be a subject of discord between you and 
your family because I cannot fulfil a wish implanted by 
Nature! Oh, let those who wish to precipitate me into 
this abyss but be acquainted with my heart ! Let them 
know that I have no other desire than to see peace reign- 
ing in Prance 1 " and I passed out of the Emperor's cabinet 
to conceal my tears. " Loved victim of the inconstancy 
of men," said I, in placing my foot upon the threshold, 
" if thou forsakest, what friend will pity me ? " My grief 
was so profound that I was afraid the lamp of reason 
would go out my husband's was perfectly heartrending, 
for it was the expression of remorse. 8 

1 This conversation was once related to me by a man who heard it. 
Josephine further said to him, " Should you be seen in such a con- 
dition, what would your courtiers say ? And you, moreover, who 
pretend to awe the world you are the weakest of men. You have, at 
this moment, lost the power of willing. My courage greatly surpasses 
yours, for I know how to restrain myself." 

2 The Emperor, that man so taciturn, so cold, who at all times 
seemed incapable of emotion, did not know how to resist the supplica- 
tions of a woman. And that was his sole motive for carefully sending 
away on grave occasions all those ladies who had claims on account 
of their husbands. It was the only weakness to be detected in his 
character. 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 147 



CHAPTER XI 

THERE is upon this earth a being whom I love with all 
the faculties of my soul, whose life is to me a hundred times 
dearer than my own ; a being for whom alone I live and 
breathe in this world ; a being to whom I am united by a 
most sacred bond, which I have a thousand times blessed ; 
a being whom I love still as in the most blissful moments 
of our union ! Happy to be near him, happy to keep a 
constant watch over his fortunes, I lulled myself with the 
pleasing dream, a dream which for me had all the charms 
of reality, that I should never leave him ; and the thought 
was, indeed, consoling that I should die at his side, and 
consecrate my last breath to him. 

But, alas ! he fixed the day of our separation. 1 He 
was capable of naming a time when I should see him no 
more ! and that fatal day had already begun to dawn ; its 

i The arch-chancellor Cambaceres was charged to announce to 
Josephine the fact of her divorce. That afflicted woman replied to him 
in these brief terms : " Since it is out of my power to make France 
happy, I desire that another woman, more fortunate than I, may do 
so." Cambaceres retired, and made his report to the Emperor. 

In receiving his visits, the Empress concealed the mortification 
which devoured her, and endeavoured to console those who sorrowed 
over her lot. After a painful interview with the Emperor, which lasted 
more than three hours, the husband and wife separated ; both were in 
tears. But the Empress, on that trying occasion, displayed the native 
grandeur of her character ; she seemed even to encourage the man 
who, weaker than Antiochus, surnamed the Divine, in the presence 
of Queen Laodicea, seeking, through pride, the support of another 
Ptolemy Philadelphus, feared, and had good ground to fear, to 
separate himself, not from another Berenice, but from a faithful wife 
and a generous friend. Note Communicated. 

10 2 



148 SECRET MEMOIRS OP 

morn was advancing with the lightning's speed. Yes, that 
cruel day, which should never have dawned upon me, 
approached as rapidly as the days of my felicity had 
departed! and those, alas, Heaven knows how soon they 
were eclipsed ! An ingrate never more quickly let go the 
hand which had conferred favours upon him. 

I have said that Bonaparte's habitual distrust of me 
had caused him carefully to avoid me. For some hours 
I remained alone, absolutely alone. A great noise was 
heard in the palace ; persons were coming and going ; 
they seemed to talk to each other in a hurried manner ; 
and at length I learned that the Emperor had sent sealed 
letters to all the great dignitaries of the empire, as well 
as to his principal officers, and that the members of the 
imperial family were invited to assemble, after dinner, in 
the palace of the Tuileries. At this I felt indignant, and 
rose to go to him. Like a light whose last ray is expiring, 
but still preserves a feeble radiance, I saw that my last 
hope was nearly extinguished ; and yet I was seeking to 
reanimate its dying spark, when, alasl my son suddenly 
entered, and undeceived me. 

He told me that Napoleon required him to carry to the 
senate the decree that was to dissolve my marriage (66). 
" Think, madam," said the prince, " what must be my 
feelings ! On the one hand, the ambition of the Emperor, 
as unjust as it is daring, will plunge us into an abyss of 
misfortunes for by repudiating a wife who smoothed his 
way to the throne, he is preparing himself to lose it, 
perhaps for ever. On the other, I cannot forget what I 
owe to him as my benefactor and my guide; as the man 
who has been to me a father. "Pis not as a sovereign that 
my affections cling to him, but as the husband of my 
mother ; and I owe him, as such, respect and obedience ; 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE I4Q 

and yet I am required to present to the world the spectacle 
of a son whose deep afflictions cannot make him forget the 
duty of submission to the sovereign who has deigned to 
befriend him." Never having learned the art of lying, 
Eugene was not at all versed in the tactics of the world. 
He sought to conceal neither his thoughts, his desires, nor 
his actions ; and he therefore trod a thorny path when he 
found himself placed in the cruel alternative of either 
breaking a solemn promise to the Emperor, or deceiving 
a beloved mother. Anxious, hesitating, and unhappy, he 
knew not how to rescue himself from this fatal labyrinth. 
He determined not to answer the expectation of his Mentor; 
and, by a resolution with which nothing but his critical 
position could have inspired him, he became the defender 
of an oppressed woman. 

"Nothing," said I, "can be compared to the firmness 
of soul and the resignation which your duty requires 
you to exhibit to the senate on this trying occasion (67). 
But, after performing that rigorous duty, you will come 
and mingle your tears with mine come, and upon my 
bosom reiterate the sentiments of inviolable attachment 
to the man of whom I have never as yet spoken to 
you but as another father. May he be happy ! and I 
here dare make the pledge that Napoleon will never find 
in my son aught but one of his most devoted commanders." 

"Ah!" said the prince, dropping some tears which he 
had tried to restrain, "I feel that my heart repels every 
sentiment with which the protector of my infancy inspired 
me ; I shall no longer count him among my friends ; I 
shall see in him nothing but your persecutor." 

For some moments the Viceroy was absolutely over- 
whelmed by grief, and could scarcely recover his calmness. 
I employed my authority to constrain him to fulfil, in 



I5O SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

a manner worthy of himself, the part which Napoleon 
had assigned him ; and made him feel that both his 
and my future situation depended wholly upon his firmness 
in this memorable scene ; and that I was still willing 
to submit to the greatest sacrifices for the good of France. 
" Besides, my son," said I, " who will ever believe that 
Bonaparte would have had the temerity to make you 
sanction such an act, when Europe shall discover in it 
only a last means of precipitating his ruin ? My husband 
is either very improvident or very culpable. He has no right 
to occasion me this deep affliction. Alas! other wives, 
were they victims of such inconstancy, were they borne 
down by such a load of grief as I am, would, perhaps, 
invoke the Almighty to put an end to their woes. But 
I, on the contrary, still utter prayers for his good; nay, 
I could wish to live long enough to be his faithful com- 
panion at every step. I should then see the danger 
that may menace him, and, perhaps, be able to shield 
him from it. But my son will ever be worthy of his 
adopted father and of me ; and, whatever may befall, 
Eugene will be ready to defend the man whom, for six- 
teen years, I have called my husband." 

" I will," replied the prince, with emphasis, " yet have 
the glory of making him sensible of his fault, but only 
by means of the weapon which alone is worthy of a 
French chevalier generosity. I shall have a great advan- 
tage over my mother's husband, for I shall be actuated 
by the hope that he will yet owe something to the son 
of that woman whom he is about to sacrifice. For, depend 
upon it, humbled pride sees nothing but shame in a reverse 
of fortune; and that of Napoleon is singularly irritable. 
Yes, I could wish with one hand to repel the enemies 
of the great man, and to present to him the other at 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 15! 

the moment when, proscribed and abandoned by all, he 
can have in my eyes no higher claim to my favour and 
friendship than that of his deep misfortunes. Would he 
not then be sufficiently punished? Oh, my mother, my 
unfortunate mother! 'Tis one of the greatest sovereigns 
in Europe, conqueror of so many valiant nations, who 
now compels me to perform an act for which posterity 
will blame me ; he wishes me to deceive an unfortunate 
wife! He begs you not to interpose any obstacle to his 
wishes; they are formal. He is determined to be obeyed. 
Alas! Bonaparte," exclaimed Eugene, "demand my life 
every drop of my blood belongs to you I would, without 
a murmur, see it flow in sustaining thy cause ; but do 
not oblige me to give the last blow to her who has 
shed so much lustre upon the most brilliant part of thy 
reign her who bears thine image in her heart! Permit 
me, at least, thou too unjust man, to descend to the 
grave with honour; do not compel us to become un- 
grateful to thee. This would cost the Empress and 
myself too much ; our hearts are not formed for hatred. 
There are enough of others who will charge themselves 
with the debt of vengeance. Never shall the beings 
who have loved you so well exercise vengeance towards 
you." 

About one hour after my son left me Murat entered 
my apartment. I spoke to him on subjects upon which 
I wished my husband 1 to be informed. "Alas!" said 
the brother-in-law to the Emperor, with a air of feigned 



x Josephine was satisfied that Murat was one of the principal 
promoters of the divorce, and showed him, on several occasions, 
that she was by no means duped by his many protestations of 
affection. The Empress had long perceived his designs, for which 
he could never pardon her. 



152 SECRET MEMOIRS OP 

sadness, "in order to fulfil towards him your duty as a 
true friend, you are about to renounce the happiness of 
life ; and, as the price of your generous devotion, he 
will, perhaps, send you away into some city where you 
will be guarded with the utmost severity. But you are 
now free, madam ; you can tell the Emperor, your husband, 
formally, that from this moment his power ceases, and 
that henceforth he has no other rights in respect to you 
than those of friendship. You must show firmness ; 'tis 
for you to dictate the conditions, and your husband will 
be but too happy in obtaining from you the sacrifices 
which he exacts for the concessions which he finds him- 
self forced to make to you." 

I knew the man that held this language to me, and 
took care not to seem to adopt his advice ; it would 
have tended still more to irritate Bonaparte. On the 
contrary, I told him that my whole intentions were 
wholly conformed to those of the Emperor. " Let him," 
said I, " seek an heir to his name, since his family does 
not afford him sufficient guarantees. Yet I could have 
wished him to confirm the adoption of my son, accord- 
ing to his former purpose. But, as his policy has other- 
wise determined, it is the duty of Eugene and myself to 
submit. Admirers of his wonderful fortunes, he will 
ever find us sincerely anxious for his happiness. As to 
myself, I am, from this evening, wholly prepared to give 
him this last proof of my perfect submission to his will." 

Murat was silent for some moments; he was afraid 
I should show an open opposition to the will of the 
Emperor, and could not dissemble his surprise at what 
I said. "Well," said he, "the Archduchess Maria 
Louisa will, perhaps, be the pledge of happiness to 
France. Her father has given that assurance (laying 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 153 

stress upon the last word). To what a man does he 
present his daughter's hand ! a man governed by a 
passion which disregards even love, and does not con- 
cern itself with affairs of the heart a man whose feel- 
ings are never melted by the bitter tears he witnseses. 
A princess who yields herself up wholly to a husband 
who receives her in his high character of monarch, 
becomes the guarantee of great political projects, and 
binds more firmly the ties of ambition. 

" Besides, the Emperor has waged war in order to 
attain supreme power. He knows how to continue it in 
order to strengthen and confirm his diadem. For him 
no treaty will be sacred. Be assured, he is not more 
afraid of broils within than coalitions without. His 
enemies conspire against his life and his crown only 
during the reign of peace ; and I foresee that a new 
storm is about to burst upon us. My beloved brother- 
in-law is the god of thunder; but he who now has so 
many nations under his command may not, perhaps, 
always be able to avert the tempest ; the proud Ger- 
mans will not forget that the invulnerable Napoleon 
has twice taken their capital, and that the conqueror 
showed himself generous." 

I listened to this speech of Murat without permitting 
myself to let fall the least observation, well knowing 
what were his real feelings towards me; and kept care- 
fully on my guard against uttering any reproaches in 
his presence. 

At ten o'clock in the evening of that sad day, the 
great dignitaries of state repaired to the palace of the 
Tuileries; the Emperor's family arrived soon after. The 
stupor which paralysed me seemed to have seized upon 
the whole assembly; no person dared utter a word. 



154 SECRET MEMOIRS OP 

The author of this cruel scene appeared to take no 
part in what was passing around him, though his efforts 
to appear calm were manifest to all. I expected at any 
moment to receive an order for ever exiling me from 
France ; and I was ready to consummate that fatal 
sacrifice. I presented myself to the Emperor, and found 
myself alone with him in his private cabinet. The lamps 
were lighted, but emitted a sombre ray. The whole Court 
now advanced in mournful silence. The Emperor stood 
directly before me, and Cambaceres was placed in front 
of him. I know not whether the lights, or my deeply- 
affected imagination, were the cause, but a deathly pale- 
ness seemed to cover every face present when Regnaud 

de St. Jean d'A presented to me for my signature 

the acte which severed for ever the bonds by which I 
had been united to Bonaparte. All the persons present 
uttered an involuntary sigh. I myself started. " Ah ! in 
the name of Heaven," said I, " Napoleon, and is it thus 
you repay the tenderest affection ? What ! all I can hope, 
then, for signing this decree, is to preserve the vain title 
of 'Empress-Queen-crowned' P 1 Take back your gifts, 
and be pleased to remember your oaths. I abandon, it 
is true, all hope of touching your feelings. What you 

i i6th Dec., 1809. 

Art. I. The marriage contracted between the Emperor Napoleon and 
the Empress Josephine is dissolved. 

Art. II. The Empress Josephine shall preserve the title and rank 
of " Empress-Queen-crowned." 

Art. III. Her allowance is fixed at an annual payment out of the 
public treasury. 

Art. IV. Whatever provisions the Emperor shall make in favour of 
the Empress Josephine out of the funds belonging to the civil list, shall 
be obligatory upon bis successors. 

Art. V. The present senatus consultum shall be transmitted by ft 
message to Her Imperial and Royal Majesty. 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 155 

have said to me leaves no possibility of my moving you, 
although I did hope to remain your wife, certain that 
your own renown would suffice to make you respect your 
obligations; and 'tis only at that price that you can hope 
to continue to reign. By contracting an alliance with 
the House of Austria, you awaken the jealousy of other 
sovereigns. They will see in it only another motive to 
gratify your ambition, and a thirst to enlarge and con- 
solidate your victories. You will arouse them from their 
slumber; they will league themselves against you, and 
the unconquerable Bonaparte will at length, in his turn, 
be conquered " (68). 

Motionless, absorbed in thought, he stood, and cast 
an unquiet and troubled look upon me. He tried to 
speak, but broke off in the middle of a word. All ye 
who pity me, oh, had you witnessed the distress of him 
whom people were pleased to call a great man, how 
would you have pitied him ! Such, in that decisive 
moment, was his weakness, that he could not help 
stammering out, "The future appears before my eyes 
I am frightened ! " I cannot describe what were his 
feelings when, a moment afterwards, he heard a voice 
exclaim : 

"Alas, in recalling the error, I lose the charm of my 
life 1 " Ah, Frenchmen ! this exclamation penetrated his 
heart like a poisoned arrow, and never will the memory 
of it be effaced. In the midst of the most noisy gaiety 
he will for ever hear that cry of grief. It was the shriek 
of a wronged and outraged wife. 

I left this scene as soon as possible, and remained for 
some time pensive and sorrowful. I was now forsaken 
by the man who ought, from gratitude, to have pro- 
claimed me his protecting divinity. He had put my 



156 SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

heart to a terrible proof, and that heart still rebelled 
against my will; for when this fatal blow had put an 
end to the little happiness I had derived from my second 
marriage, I felt my love increase towards my faithless 
husband. Oppressed by this double load of sorrow, I 
passed rapidly towards the apartment which contained 
the object of my affections, supported by my women. 
The light of the numerous lamps which were burning in 
my apartment fell upon my troubled vision; it seemed 
to me like the light of the tomb, which was yawning to 
receive the author of- my distress. I happened to glance 
at the portrait of Henry IV., and, to my bewildered 
fancy, it seemed to frown upon me. The first sound 
that struck my ears was the low and mournful chanting 
of these plaintive words: 

" Weep, weep, beloved mothers ; weep for your 
children, for thy second mother is no more." And a deep 
silence then reigned around me. 

I rested my brow upon my hand ; my knees grew 
weak, and refused to support me. When I had, in some 
degree, recovered my strength, I endeavoured to convince 
myself that what I had witnessed was only an illusion, 
arising from a momentary delirium. I was still deeply 
agitated, and my arms fell powerless at my side. Nearly 
all those who had been with Napoleon had disappeared, 
and, as if seized with sudden fright, had hastened down 
the stairs. So weak was I that I found it necessary to 
lean against a column. An officer of the guard soon 
entered, for whom the few persons who remained gave 
way. He approached with a haughty air, and bowing 
respectfully before me, said, in an icy tone, " Madam, 
I have orders to conduct you to Malmaison." " Who 
gave you the order?" "The Emperor himself," he re- 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 157 

plied, coldly, but with apparent sadness. I restrained 
myself, and carelessly commenced taking down some 
pictures ; that of M. de Beauharnais was among them. 
As to Napoleon's, I affected to forget it. Methought 
it should be preserved for his future bride. In gazing 
upon it, she cannot but remember that another woman 
had, before her, received the oath of a perjurer, who, 
to gratify his ambition, would just as soon sacrifice her 
few remaining moments of happiness. 

Hardly had I left my apartment when I met Bona- 
parte. For an instant I experienced inexpressible agony. 
The mute play of his features showed me what was 
passing within him. He was a prey to the most cutting 
remorse. He affected to shun me, but nevertheless kept 
close by my side. " Yes," said he, with a troubled air, 
" Josephine, it is ambition which has separated me from 
you, which has forced me to abandon the companion 
who, for sixteen years, has delighted my existence. "Tis 
ambition which, with iron hand, has driven me to asso- 
ciate with my throne the granddaughter of Maria Theresa. 1 

i It seems to be an established fact that, on the i6th of December, 
1809, the day of the separation between Josephine and Napoleon, 
the latter had received an assurance that he should receive the hand 
of the Archduchess Maria Louisa, the eldest daughter of Francis II., 
Emperor of Germany. This princess was a niece of Maria Antoinette 
of Austria, the wife of Louis XVI. In taking her seat upon the 
same throne which had been occupied by her unfortunate aunt, and 
finding herself in the same Chateau of the Tuileries, in the Pavilion 
of Flora, whence, in 1792, the victims of our Revolution never de- 
parted but to be transferred to the prison of the Temple, and thence 
to the scaffold, what must have been the reflections of that daughter 
of the Caesars ! What sad thoughts must have haunted her when 
she set her foot upon the threshold of that palace where, eighteen 
years before, a frightful act of regicide was about to be committed 
upon a talented and courageous woman, who displayed such a sublime 
heroism on the 2oth of June, and who, on the xoth of August, 
dared to present to the King, then abandoned by his friends and 



158 SECRET MEMOIRS OP 

Believe me, the great changes which I foresee must take 
place in my country make a deep impression upon me. 
My only desire is for my country; I entertain none for 
myself. With my ardent heart, what am I, too, among 
the multitude of men by whom I am surrounded, whose 
souls are petrified, who want to rise merely from the 
possibility of crushing their adversaries, and who think 
nothing about their country's welfare ? 

"When I shall be no more, my contemporaries shall 
be able to say of me, * He was the only man capable of 
doing good, because' he had no further wishes to gratify; 
others employ themselves only for their own benefit, never 
thinking that they are children of the same country.' 

delivered up to faction, his sword, for the purpose of overawing the 
rebels who besieged him in his palace. She besought him to recollect 
that he was the grandson of Henry IV., and told him that he ought, 
for the good of his people and the honour of his crown, to repulse the 
" Leaguers " of the eighteenth century. Louis XVI. listened to her ; 
but, while pressing his wife to his bosom, he uttered these words, 
full of truth and good sense, and which ought to be engraved on 
monuments of brass and read by the generations that are to come 
after us, both sovereigns and people : 

"A monarch is undone the moment he temporises with his sub- 
jects. Scarcely does he make one concession before they demand 
another. A federative compact, sworn to in the midst of bayonets, 
can never be advantageous to the people nor lasting. The reign 
of faction decides its duration. I have never thought it best to repel 
force by force, because I have a horror of bloodshed, and because 
my hands are clear of the blood of Frenchmen. Madam, you must 
be resigned to perish with me. 'Tis not here, upon a maddened 
rabble, that it becomes me to make a last effort ; 'twas at that 
memorable sitting at the Tenniscourt, held at Versailles, in 1789, 
under my own eyes, that I could and should have made a decisive 
display of the royal power. I should thus have averted great evils 
and prevented enormous crimes. But I believed in the pure in- 
tentions of the most of those who sat in that illegal assembly. 
Unhappily, I consented to temporise, and took counsel when I should 
have employed vigorous measures. I wanted to impede the evil, and 
occasioned a still greater one by not extirpating it at its birth And 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 159 

"Yes, Josephine, this unquiet activity which here 
reigns, this ever-watchful hatred, jealousy and envy, ever 
repining at the good fortune of others ; these gnawing 
desires, which are depicted in frightful traits on every 
face, are enough to disgust me for ever with sovereignty." 

" You will no longer follow my counsels," said I ; " they 
are no longer in harmony with your views, How can I 
persuade you that a new marriage alliance will hasten 
your ruin ? " 

I had long been apprised that a secret conspiracy was 
on foot against him ; that one of his ministers was at the 
bottom of the plot. The courtiers were exerting them- 

yet," added the good King, with tears, " I know that the French people 
love me ; and not without reason, for I should have endeavoured, like 
my illustrious ancestor, Henry IV., to render them the first people in 
Europe, and the most prosperous. To this end I assembled the estates 
of the kingdom. The clergy, on account of their cupidity ; the nobility, 
in order to preserve their prerogatives ; refused to accord to their sove- 
reign concessions honourable and light, indeed, in comparison to those 
which have now been forced from them. The commons, tired of sus- 
taining alone the burden of the public debts, were ready to dare anything; 
they soon understood the nothingness of the other two orders, who re- 
fused to admit them into their ranks ; and hence it was easy for a wise 
man to foresee that the schism among the orders would necessarily bring 
about the overthrow of the ancient monarchy, based upon centuries of 
glory, and in the end sap the foundations of every throne in Europe." 

Such were the thoughts of Louis XVI. at the moment when Roederer 
counselled him to repair to the National Assembly which he did. To 
restore the balance of power and transform a kingdom distracted by 
factions into a flourishing government, needed an iron hand. In this the 
wisest politicians are agreed. Should a stranger have seen the France 
of 1793 and 1794, could he have guessed what it had been formerly': 
And could he, at that epoch, have believed in the possibility of that 
which afterwards took place, but which ought not to have taken place ? 
Truly it needed a miracle from the Most High to restore the descendants 
of so many kings, the past generations of whom were not able to pre- 
serve at Saint-Denis a tomb to receive them. Napoleon undertook to 
restore honour to theif memory, and succeeded in it; but, for their 
precious ashes, they are scattered. Time destroys everything ; it 
effaces even sorrow ; sovereigns only survive it. 



l6o SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

selves to bring about his disgrace an event which was 
about to happen. The Emperor's pride was increasing. 
His alliance was courted a circumstance which tended 
to incense other sovereigns against him and might furnish 
materials for calumny. Everybody desired and expected 
his downfall with concentrated exultation. Reflecting 
upon all this, the great politician saw, or pretended to see, 
ground to hope that the marriage of Napoleon to Maria 
Louisa would strike fear into the enemies of his master, 
and that he would become more powerful than ever. 

I soon left the Tuileries ; the officer cast his keen glance 
around the chateau, and called my attention to the cour- 
tiers who were still there and those who were arriving. 
Others, who had been in the habit of coming later to 
occupy my ante-chambers, came also ; but, on learning 
what had taken place, they likewise retired. 

While entering the carriage to go to Malmaison, in 
compliance with the Emperor's orders, I cast a last look 
at the place I was leaving. " Alas ! " thought I ; " the 
unfortunate Maria Antoinette also inhabited that dismal 
abode, and left it only to go to the Temple, and thence 
to the scaffold. I, more fortunate than she, am only 
sacrificed to the ambition of one man. That august pri- 
soner was a victim to the madness of an enraged and 
seditious populace, who displayed before her eyes the 
standard of rebellion and crime, while I am cruelly pun- 
ished for having presumed to take my place in the palace 
of kings." 

Having collected my thoughts, I found myself on the 
road to Malmaison. The horses, more fleet than usual, 
had already nearly accomplished the journey. 1 

i The Emperor left immediately for St. Cloud, where he remained 
for forty-eight hours, almost invisible to his courtiers. The third day, 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE l6l 

I arrived at Rueil at midnight. All around me were in a 
profound slumber. I knelt, and raising my hands and my 

heart to Heaven, prayed for him One of my women 

hastened to rescue me from this situation, the most painful 
I had ever yet experienced. I opposed her and redoubled 
my fervour. Soon I became more tranquil ; I shed tears, 
but the consolation which prayer brought with it, soon 
dried them up. I persuaded myself that Napoleon was 
but a creature of destiny, and that he was more miserable 
than his victim ; and this made me pity him as much as 
myself. 

This first night of my exile was painful indeed. I 
was agitated by convulsions, during which the persons 
who were watching with me were afraid to express either 
their hopes or their fears. I was for some hours in this 
critical state, and it was only towards morning that the 
weeping and exhaustion permitted me to close my eyelids. 
I slept but a short time, and yet my waking was like that 
of one who is aroused from a long lethargy. Sometimes it 
seemed to me that the events which had so affected my 
feelings were far, far behind me, in the bygone time ; 

he went a-hunting in the plain of Galli, near the Grand Trianon. Dis- 
mounting from his carriage, he asked Duroc for a footman. He then 
wrote a letter to Josephine, and sent it by the footman, urging him to 
be diligent. A moment afterwards, Napoleon himself was on the foot- 
man's traces, and reached Malmaison before his envoy. The Empress 
uttered a cry of surprise at seeing him. She threw herself into his 
arms, and was for some moments completely deprived of the power of 
utterance. Having come to herself, her tears betrayed her. But she 
was solaced by the solemn assurance he gave her, that, at all times, and 
under all circumstances, he would be her best and most constant friend. 
He gave her permission to go and reside at Elysee-Bourbon, at which 
place she remained until near the time of his marriage with Maria 
Louisa. He paid her frequent visits up to that time which was so 
decisive of her fortune. The unfortunate woman I She still loved to 
flatter herself that .... 

VOL. II H 



l62 SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

sometimes the recollection of my terrible catastrophe struck 
my imagination only like the fleeting shadows of a dream. 
Again, roused to a perfect sense of my condition, the 
shadowy mists of sorrow and anguish rolled away from 
me, and I saw everything as in broad daylight, without dis- 
guise, or emblem, or image which could at all hide from 
my eyes the cruel arrows with which the naked truth 
pierced my heart. 

I arose and dressed without forming any plan, any 
desire, any object, -without even pausing to contemplate 
an idea. I went and came without knowing where. 
Chance alone guided all my actions ; and though very 
far from being inclined to read, I happened to lay my 
hand on the poem, " Tombeaux de St. Denis." Without 
knowing what I was doing, I opened the book, and should 
doubtless have shut it again had I not been struck with 
the truth of the following lines, which have never since 
escaped from my memory : 

" Ciel 1 a quels grands revers les grandes destinies, 
Sous on perfide eclat, demeurent condemned* 1 " 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 



CHAPTER XII 

THERE comes a moment when we become, as it were, 
familiar with the cause of our affliction. After having 
broken our heart, its weight presses heavily upon our other 
faculties. We cannot speak, because we can utter nothing 
but sterile complaints and useless reflections ; we weep no 
more, because we have exhausted the sources of tears ; and 
our eyes become dry and arid, like the heart of him who 
had caused our tears to flow. Such was my situation 
towards the middle of my journey, when I fell asleep. 
Slumber, till then, had been a stranger to me, and I had 
counted the hours of the night as well as of the day. 

Madame de C (Princess of Ch ) came un- 
expectedly into my room. She gazed at me for a long 
time with a look of deep concern, but at length, finding 
I had become more composed, she said, "'Tis you 'tis 
you, indeed, my tender and faithful friend ! Oh, thanks 
be to Heaven 1 I now begin to breathe. The sight of you 
restores peace and hope to my afflicted heart." Looking at 
one of my women, I said, " That lady possesses my entire 
confidence. We can speak." With eyes suffused with 
tears, I pressed the hand of my former friend, and said : 

" Yes, the fatal blow is struck. I have no longer a 
husband. All my friends have abandoned me; pale, 
anxious, agitated, they move about at each other's side, 
without even the courage to turn their looks upon me. 1 

i Bonaparte, it is said, was displeased with Madame de la R , 

oecause, having been attached to Josephine's service, she proposed to 
fufil the same duties towards the Empress Maria Louisa. " No," said 
he, in an angry tone, " she shall not. Although I am charged with 

XI 2 



164 SECRET MEMOIRS OP 

"What afflicts me most in my misfortunes, is the 
position of my children. My only anxiety is for them. As 
to myself, I quit the Court without a regret ; but my heart 
still cleaves to those who need my guardian care, and I feel 
prepared to aid and protect all those who have a right to 
complain of the disgrace brought upon them by their 
master. The change of my fortune does not pain me. A 
grassy seat, a garden, will make me happy enough. You 
know well, my friend, that I can appreciate the charms of 
a modest and peaceful mode of life you have witnessed it ; 
but the deep ingratitude of that man has inflicted a wound 
upon my heart, a wound which still bleeds. Among the 
throng of false friends who seemed particularly devoted 
to me, there was not one to whom I would not have 
rendered the highest service ; and yet, within a few short 
days, their conduct has destroyed all my confidence, all my 
esteem. Once I would, with a feeling of perfect safety, 

have placed my hand in that of M or ; now, the 

poison of hatred, I regret to say, affects the purity of my 
intentions towards them. 1 Such," continued I, "is my 
present situation ; what is to follow is but the distant 
thunder rumbling on the horizon. As yet I have only seen 
the flash of the lightning, and peace is for ever banished 
from my breast. I feel that I am, in fact, on the brink of 
a volcano, or on a land agitated by frightful earthquakes. 
Bonaparte has throngs of flatterers and numerous foes. 
Should he be compelled to descend from his throne, their 

ingratitude towards my wife, I will have no imitators especially 
among the persons whom she has honoured with her confidence and 
loaded with her favours." Note Communicated. 

I This change of fortune was not so terrible to her as it would 
have been to many others in her situation. She felt the privation of a 
few real advantages, but she was not tormented by imaginary wants, 
nor by a feeling of wounded rani* 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 165 

treatment of him will be pitiless, because they know that 
they have made him dizzy and misled him. Often have 
I told him that men always avenge themselves upon a 
dethroned sovereign for the humiliation and terror they felt 
in approaching him when at the height of his power. A 
courtier is the most irreconcilable of foes, because his hatred 
arises from his sense of the abasement to which he was 
compelled to submit. 

"Alas! his present triumph is that of pride, ambition 
and vanity. I am flying from the scene, to conceal my 
grief and my fright. 

" No, no, 'tis not for the throne, on which I was once 
seated by his side, that I mourn, nor for the loss of my own 
happiness; no, 'tis the destruction of his own. My first 
prayer has ever been to know that he was happy ; and to 
that prayer I joined another, that he might owe his good 
fortune to Josephine alone. This latter being now nuga- 
tory, the first shall be the only one my lips shall repeat, 
even upon my dying bed. I will speak to him only in 
behalf of my children. 

" There are some humiliations of which the most 
wretched cannot become the object without being heart- 
broken; and yet there are some things which transpire 
in the world which it is impossible to understand, because 
they pertain to private interest, to arrangements which are 
concealed with an impenetrable veil." Thus did I express 
myself, reposing my griefs on the bosom of friendship. 

I had the consolation (if such it was), of knowing that 
every one pitied me, even men who were the coldest and 
most insensible. Could I have been affected by anything 
but my own anguish, it would have been by the flattering 
consciousness that my dismission from Court had caused 
regrets even there. 



1 66 SECRET MEMOIRS OP 

Bonaparte sought to stifle the painful memory of what 
he had done by a journey to Rambouillet. 1 During his 
stay there, his faithful advisers accelerated his divorce, 
and, at the end of three months, the marriage contract 
between Bonaparte and Josephine was declared annulled. 

In spite of all that was odious in this catastrophe, by 
which my reason was tortured, my other faculties were 
not utterly destroyed. I received, but without any sign 
of emotion, the intelligence that my husband was about to 
give his hand to the niece of the unfortunate Queen of 
France, Maria Antoinette. Outraged though I had been 
by the treatment I had received, I felt in my heart no re- 
sentment whatever at this. A sudden transport, mingled 
with a thousand apprehensions, seized me, and changed 
the anxiety which had hitherto oppressed me into one 
of another kind, which seemed to animate and revive me. 
" Oh," exclaimed I, in my heart's fulness, " may his 
felicity be eternal ! May his new companion be to him 
an angel of peace! May that young and interesting 
princess, while in France, pursue no path but that of 
prosperity 1 " 

This illustrious alliance certainly flattered his vanity ; 
so much so, even, as to make him overstep the bounds of 
prudence. But no reliance could be placed upon conditions 
imposed by necessity, and exacted by the force of circum- 
stances. 

At length, however, that imposing solemnity took 

i After the separation, the Court of the Tuileries became almost 
deserted. People resorted thither only to please the sovereign. But 
she who had so lately inspired respect and admiration, was no longer 
there to be met with ; and the Emperor once remarked to his marshals, 
who were standing around him, "Gentlemen, we must indeed admit" 
(alluding to Josephine) " that a. Court without ladies is a spring without 
rous." 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 167 

place! 1 Bonaparte required my children to occupy the 
front rank in the ceremony, and my daughter was, as it 
were, forced to applaud, externally, her who had, by in- 
dissoluble vows, consecrated perjury and the violation 
of the most sacred legal rite. 

Whatever may have been my attachment to Bonaparte, 
I can never recall the memory of it witEout reproaching 
him for his unfeeling conduct towards Hortense. I con- 
fess that, though my thoughts were sufficiently filled with 
bitterness, it was increased when I saw my daughter 
constrained to subscribe to the new plan of life which he 
marked out for her. I could not, with indifference, wit- 
ness the persecution of my children; they were not guilty 
of the faults it had pleased him to impute to me and yet 
they were, equally with myself, the victims of his policy ! 

As soon as it was possible for me to do so, I began to 
cause my thoughts and reflections to be presented to him, 
to assure him that a superior power, which I could not 
resist, had united my destiny to his; that, attracted by 
an irresistible charm which had once led me to fortune, 
I could never think of combating his new sentiments and 
opinions ; that I should hold it to be my rigorous duty to 
respect the ties he had recently formed, although I could 
not help pitying the new Empress. " Henceforth," con- 
tinued I, " my duty will limit me to entertain the sole desire 
that a wiser genius may guide your steps, and force you 
to pause. No 1 'tis only with myself that I can now talk 
of you, and my prayer is that you may be brought back, if 



i I am assured that Josephine had the cariosity to witness the entry 
of Maria Louisa into Paris, and that she was close by the Triumphal 
Arch at the moment her fortunate rival was receiving the congratula- 
tions of the constituted bodies, if the fact was so, what must have 
her sufferings 1 



168 SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

it be still possible, to a more correct idea of true greatness. 
Your own, I admit, still inspires your people with profound 
admiration. But, alas ! it but inspires me with pity, for 
I look upon it only as a snare, laid by the hand of 
Providence, to render your fall from power the more 
signal and striking, and to render more impressive the 
lesson which it will furnish to kings." 

A continual reverie absorbed me during the first year 
of my divorce. I 'saw my health every day failing, and 
it became manifest to all that I was wretched indeed. 
And yet the tender and prudent sympathy of some faith- 
ful friends, 1 and their fidelity in keeping my secrets, 
concurred, in some degree, to assuage my afflictions ; and 
at length more tranquil reflections succeeded to the im- 
pulses of despair. Then I was unable to conceal from 
myself that all was lost, even the hope of ever seeing 
Bonaparte again. 

I was one day wandering among the flowery shrubs 
and under the trees which suspended their sweet-smelling 
garlands above my head, whose leaves were falling like 
light snowflakes around me. I was resting myself on a 
grassy mound, surrounded by a hillock, on whose summits 

i Of this number was the Countess of Montesquieu, that excellent 
lady who did not abandon Josephine in her misfortunes. As she had 
ceased altogether to appear at the Tuileries, the Emperor had almost 
forgotten her. She passed her days chiefly at and about Malmaison, 
leaving early in the morning, and not returning to Paris till quite late. 
She thought, however, she might accept an invitation to a ball given by 

the minister D . Napoleon, distinguishing her among a crowd of 

courtiers, presented her to the Empress Maria Louisa, and proposed to 
pay for the education of her son. She dared not refuse. By accepting 
the place of governess of the King of Rome, she lost all opportunity of 
seeing Josephine, at which she was deeply afflicted ; and often did this 
woman, who was as good a mother as she was an excellent wife, though 
under the gilded vaults of the Tuileries, recall with a sigh the pleasant 
hours she had spent with the ex-Empress at Malmaison. 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE l6g 

were waving the tops of the majestic poplars that shaded 
the avenue to Malmaison. The ground was clothed with 
the verdure of early summer ; the sun was shining in the 
cloudless sky, and the air was loaded with perfume. The 
scene was vivifying, and the joy of the animate creation 
was everywhere visible in the flower, in the flitting of 
birds, in the gentle breathings of the zephyr ; all tended 
to recall to my heart the memory of my past felicity, of 
the more fortunate period of my life. Ravished at the 
enchanting and consoling spectacle, my spirit seemed to 
leap from its worldly woes, and enjoy in full fruition the 
magnificence of the scene. But, alas ! the picture, fresh 
and seductive as it was, was to me as if it had not been. 
My soul and my eyes were wandering along the route 
which led to St. Cloud. " In the days of my felicity," 
said I to myself, sighing and weeping at the thought, 
" in my days of bliss, these trees were clothed with 
verdure, as at present ; these groves were filled with 
flowers, these fields breathed perfume." I could not 
finish the thought, but, with bitterness of spirit, com- 
pared that smiling epoch of my life to the present painful 
moment. Again I cast my tear-brimming eyes towards 
the St. Cloud road, and perceived the brilliant cortege of 
the Empress, on her return to Paris. She was alone in 
the midst of the pomp that surrounded her. 1 Napoleon 

i The Emperor would often send word to the grand ecvytr to detain 
the Empress Maria Louisa at the riding-school ; and would take advan- 
tage of this moment of liberty to go and surprise his old friend at 
Malmaison. They walked together in the garden. Their intercourse 
was easy, and they were often seen, arm in arm, engaged in familiar 
conversation. He one day related to her an incident that had occurred 
to Madame Montesquieu, on the canal in the garden of Versailles. She 
was in a small boat, which was nearly upset, and her Court dress was 
badly stained. "I laughed a good deal," said Napoleon, "at the 
accident, and the more because I knew that she had accepted my 



I70 SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

was not with her. I hoped that he might then be able 
to escape one moment from the eyes of his courtiers, 
and come and visit his forsaken wife. My heart throbbed 
at the thought ; a secret presentiment told me I should 
certainly then see him, though for some months I had been 
comparatively quiet in my mind, having firmly resolved to 
forget him for ever, feeling an utter indifference to fortune 
and the schemes of ambition. If we are only able to 
control properly the love of fame and the impulses of 
ambition, we may enjoy the advantages which they bring; 
otherwise they become the source of mental tortures which 
are continually renewed and multiplied, and finally accom- 
pany us to the tomb. 

I was occupied by these reflections when the rapid 
ringing of a small bell notified me that I was about to 
receive an unaccustomed visit. A secret and extraordinary 
feeling within me bade me hope, hope ! 

But what became of that philosophy which I was in- 
dulging a moment before ? I can never attain that high 
perfection to which my soul aspires. Human weakness 
will, in spite of me, steal into the humility of my resigna- 
tion ; and when I reflect upon the flattering and brilliant 
prospect which my son has lost, it is impossible for me not 
to break out into reproaches. While I was painting a 
violet, a flower which recalled to my memory my more 
happy days, one of my women ran towards me and made 

favour against her own inclinations. The etiquette of my present 
Court displeases her. She would like much better, madam, to be 
with you ; but that charming and intelligent woman cannot but adorn 
whatever station she is in. She does well at the Tuileries, and shall 
remain there." " My little Court at Malmaison is more congenial to 
her tastes," replied Josephine. " She would at least find & friend here; 
and, hi the perilous post where your favour has placed her, she will 
very rarely find among your courtiers what she would find here." 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE IJI 

a sign by placing her finger on her lips. The next moment 
I was overpowered. I beheld my husband ! He threw 
himself with transport into the arms of his old friend. Oh ! 
then was I convinced that he could still love me ; for that 
man really loved me. It seemed impossible for him to 
cease gazing upon me ; and his look was that of the most 
tender affection. At length, in a tone of the deepest com- 
passion and love, he said, " My dear Josephine, I have 
always loved you I love you still." " I endeavoured to 
efface you from my heart," said I, " and you again present 
yourself to me. All my efforts are useless ; to love you 
and to die is all that remains to me ; that is my fate ! 
What a future awaits me ! " " Unhappy man ! " he replied; 
" that I could abandon you I have repaid your love only 
with cold indifference." I pressed his hand without answer- 
ing a word. After a long absence he had again visited me. 
He pressed me passionately to his heart, and said, " Do you 
still love me, excellent and good Josephine ? Do you still 
love me, in spite of the relations I have contracted and 
which have separated me from you ? But they have not 
banished you from my memory 1" 

At this moment I conceived a feeble hope that my 
husband's confidence in me was about to be restored ; and 
yet, had not my doom been pronounced ? could I forget it ? 
There was a brief pause; and this relieved me. This 
fleeting moment of tranquillity was but the deep and fore- 
boding calm which foretells, to the people of America, the 
approaching hurricane. 

He took my hand and kissed it with transport. 

"Sire!" said I. " Call me Bonaparte," said he; "speak 
to me, my beloved, with the same freedom, the same 
familiarity as ever." " Bonaparte," I then continued, 
" you are brought back to me by some protecting genius, 



173 SECRET MEMOIRS OP 

some spirit, ever ready to warn you of the danger which 
threatens you! Listen. You have filled the world with 
your glory ; you have reached the summit of greatness ; 
let this satisfy you. You think you have mounted every 
step of fortune's ladder, and yet there is one " 

"Yes, Josephine," he exclaimed, with eyes beaming 
with pleasure and hope, "yes, it still remains to me to take 
one more step. Your words are to me a prophetic promise, 
since it is thou thyself, my tender and beloved friend, who 
still deigns to make it a subject of reflection." 

" Do we understand each other, Bonaparte ? " said I. 
" You can accomplish that step only by giving peace to 
your people. For such a man as Bonaparte ought to 
make himself eternally glorious and beloved by closing 
the Temple of Janus. Then will you ensure the lasting 
good of the people subject to your dominion." 

"That is your opinion, Josephine. There will be 
always time for that." 

Still, urged on by an indefinable sensation, I exclaimed, 
" Bonaparte, has your good fortune fascinated you ? You 
govern France; half of Europe trembles at your name; 
powerful monarchs buy your friendship ; but, like the 
poorest man in the world, you are master only of the 
passing moment, and have no power over the future. 
Everything is subject to destiny, which overthrows the 
greatest empires and brings even worlds to an end. Do 
you wish, my friend, to see a striking example of it? 
Listen once more to Josephine. 

" An author once published a book with a singular 
title. This book was entitled, ' Subterranean Rome,' a 
title full of instruction and truth, which impressed it- 
self, even upon the external senses, that there was a 
buried Rome, the image of which the living Rome was 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 173 

one day to become. This picture, Bonaparte, should 
produce a powerful effect upon your grandeur -loving 
mind. It will render you, for a moment at least, a 
philosopher; for I perceive that you understand the 
force of the sublime illustration. Yes, that picture re- 
veals another France, not the France you now behold, 
composed of grand dignitaries, generals, heads of families; 
all this is but the surface of France. But it exhibits to 
you the internal state of France, subterranean France; for 
there is another France under our feet. Let us descend 
to it go down, pass among the tombs which are in the 
bosom of the earth lift up the stones. What do we 
see? What inhabitants, good God! what citizens! 
what monarchs ! what an empire ! You will have time 
to think of this, Bonaparte! The most absolute man 
never yet could say that he would bring his undertak- 
ings to a close. You dare affirm it! You who depend 
upon everybody around you -you whose ruin is doomed 
by thousands of men, who are as cunning as they are 
wicked ! " 

" Excellent woman," said he, " that's my motive for 
imposing fetters upon all my foes. I am about to strike 
the last blow ; it must decide the fate of Europe. The 
descendant of Peter the Great is about to submit to the 
laws which Napoleon shall see fit to impose upon him. 
You see, Josephine, I am mounting still higher on the 
ladder!" 

"'Still higher,' great God! alas, what demon in- 
spires you! how easy would it be for you to be happy 
and secure ! Renounce the war with Russia." 

"I cannot follow your advice." 

" Bonaparte, should you trust to my affection should 
you have confidence in my heart you would certainly 



174 SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

be more happy, and perhaps more wise. Pardon my 
anxiety," said I, sorrowfully; "but, remember, your mis- 
fortunes will soon be at their flood." 

Alas ! Reason pleads in vain when passion calculates. 
Those whom she directs infect everybody else; silence 
is guilt ; calmness sedition. 

Bonaparte soon disappeared, and I heard nothing but 
the sound of his retiring footsteps. Oh, how quickly 
does everything take place upon earth! 

I had made myself drunk, for one brief moment, 
with the most charming illusions ; I had once more felt 
the pleasure of being loved. Again, reflection succeeded 
to these raptures, and I presumed to lift the veil of 
hope. 1 But my illusion soon vanished. The Empress 
Maria Louisa was about to become a mother, and, on 
the day when all France seemed to exult at this event, 
Josephine, alone, sad and forsaken at Malmaison, had no 
other consolation than tears, and no other arms but 
philosophy. She said to herself: 

" Here, haggard discontent still haunts my view ; 
The sombre genius reigns in every place." 

A profound silence reigned around me. Court comers 
filled the chateau of the Tuileries, which was too small 
to contain the throngs of the curious. The birth of the 
King of Rome completely turned Napoleon's head (69). 
An heir was born, and his immense empire seemed now 
too circumscribed for his ambition. 

The conquest of Russia was now determined on. 

i Josephine, at a masked ball given at the Court, addressed 
Maria Louisa. She was dressed en domino. She deceived many 
persons by repeatedly changing her colours; but she was not 
known, save to the Emperor, who was greatly amused by the part 
he acted. 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 175 

Great preparations were ordered. Bonaparte was no 
longer a man ; his flatterers transformed him into a 
demi-god. 

" All his desires are accomplished I " shouted the 
rabble. He wanted a son, and fate crowned his most 
ardent wish.* I alone remained mute and unconcerned 
in the midst of the general joy ; some involuntary mur- 
murs escaped me, it is true; but I, nevertheless, feigned 
to participate in the joy of that event. I did more ; I 
testified a desire to see the heir - apparent (70). My 
friends had some difficulty in convincing me of the in- 
convenience of this request ; and it was mentioned to 
Napoleon. " But why," said he, without reflecting, 
" why not show him to her ? " But, perceiving the 
delicacy of the thing, he afterwards replied, " It will 
cause Josephine too great an effort ; I will not suffer 
it. On the contrary, let the infant be kept from her. 
She will reflect with anguish that she is not its mother." 

Time, reflection and, more than all, necessity and 
endurance, at length restored peace to my mind. I 
flattered myself, and not without good reason, that 
Napoleon would remain the protector of my children. 

Each morning, as early as the birds, with their me- 
lodious concerts, hailed the rising sun, I took pleasure 
in addressing my prayers to the Eternal for my husband 
and those whom I loved. This sweet and consoling 

I The page who brought to the Empress Josephine the news 
that her lucky rival had a son, received from her, as the price of 
such a mission, a magnificent ring, which the ex-Empress took from 
her own finger. This jewel was worth probably twenty thousand 
francs. " I am, I suppose," said she, good-humouredly, " bound 
to acknowledge, as a sovereign, the receipt of the news of the birth 
of the King of Rome. May this event, as Napoleon has flattered 
himself it would do, add to his happiness, and enable him, hence- 
forth, to live in peace." 



176 SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

habit kept my mind in a disposition which constituted 
my joy and my bliss. 

After sunrise, when the tillers of the soil commenced 
their labours, it was my custom to take long walks. I 
sometimes followed the labourer's cart, and took pleasure 
in conversing with him. During my residence at Mal- 
maison, the best understanding subsisted among all the 
neighbours. L was the arbitress of all their differences, 
and conciliated the most opposite interests. 

I did not wait to have my assistance implored ; I 
searched out those who were in distress ; and in pouring 
consolation into the bosom of want, it was easy to see, 
from my emotions, that I still regarded myself as the 
happiest of women. Then, indeed, I felicitated myself 
that I had been elevated to a rank and consequence 
which enabled me to bestow the bounties of beneficence. 

Bonaparte himself often said, in speaking of me, " How 
guilty would be the mortal who should interrupt the tran- 
quillity which Josephine is beginning to taste. I have 
taken an oath it is my duty to see that her peace is 
not disturbed for the rest of her life her solitude shall 
be respected." 

He soon gave me a new estate, and I went to animate 
by my presence the ancient chateau of Navarre (71). 
My taste for country life became more and more en- 
grossing ; I sighed for the return of spring, and at length 
the month of March arrived to lend wings to the dreams 
of my imagination. The delicate violet, emblem of 
modesty, began to perfume the air. The sun with in- 
creasing warmth fructified the earth with his rays. " I 
am so happy here," wrote I to Napoleon, "that I could 
banish the memory of the events which have brought 
me to this retreat, were I able to forget that you were 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 177 

once my husband. But the hope of seeing you again, 
even in a happier life, still fills my heart and occupies 
my thoughts. I try to elevate myself into the region 
of the future. Ah, Bonaparte, you ought to realise here 
below that our earthly existence is of too little value to 
induce us to forget that another awaits us ! Reflect, O 
my friend, reflect that the most obscure subject in your 
empire is far happier than you reflect that you have 
never tasted true happiness. Yet you think to compass 
it when, with bold hand, you trace out plans of foreign 
war or internal policy ; because then your imagination, as 
active as your intellect, and as fruitful as your genius, leads 
you forward into the boundless field of hope. There, and 
always under the most seductive hues, you perceive the 
object you wish to attain. Your self-love, the first among 
your courtiers, the most dangerous among your flatterers, 
breaks down all barriers, overthrows all obstacles, and 
conceals all the yawning gulfs beneath. Because, forsooth, 
one lucky constellation shone upon your early path, you 
think you are never to go astray. The execution of the 
rashest projects seems easy to you. The useless weeds that 
cling to the precipice for you transform themselves into 
amaranths ; and beyond, you perceive nothing but laurels 
and palms. O Bonaparte ! is this, then, happiness ? No, 
'tis all illustrious pain, pain which none other can share 
with you. Yes, you are the architect of the errors which 
have destroyed you ; and when, more modest in my desires, 
more simple in my tastes, possessing better inspirations in 
my idea of happiness, I took pleasure in planting some 
flowers along your path, 'twas yourself, 'twas your own 
hand, that caused them to perish beneath the ice of social 
conventions." 

My heart was long a stranger both to the sentiments 
VOL. ii 12 



178 SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

of pleasure and of pain. Joy was for ever banished from 
my mind ; and tears, which I never ceased to shed, at 
length relieved me. 

Bonaparte prepared to visit Holland and the Hanseatic 
Towns; but the son-in-law of the Emperor of Germany 
dreamed only of invasion. He had united to France, under 
the name of the department of the Mouths of the Rhine, 
all the country situated on the left bank of that river, as 
well as that situated between the course of the Wai and 
that to the west of the Dogue; and he also again took 
possession of the Islands of Walcheren, South-Beveland, 
North-Beveland, Schoven and Tholen, under the name of 
the department of the Mouths of the Scheldt. The King 
of Holland had, on his part, done all in his power to render 
prosperous and happy a nation so deserving as the Dutch. 
It appeared that the hornets of the Court had caused his 
brother, the Emperor, to take umbrage at the King's 
conduct. That unhappy kingdom soon became but a 
bloody and mangled body. Secret and ambitious agents 
fanned the fires of revolt ; and Louis, unable to do the 
good he would, preferred to descend voluntarily from the 
throne of Holland. 

The ex -monarch could have wished to abdicate in 
favour of bis son, but he foresaw that Napoleon would 
not sanction such an act on the part of a government 
which he despised. 

Louis had long vindicated with firmness, at the 
Court of France, the independence of his estates, and 
the Emperor had promised to respect it ; and yet he 
sacrificed it to lying, perfidious insinuations. 

His first act of sovereignty over the United Provinces 
was to order a report to be made to him which should 
make him acquainted with their true condition. Among 



s 
THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 179 

other things, the report contained the following : " The 
present King has, during his reign, protected the lives of 
all persons without exception. In Holland there hath 
been perfect security for every individual who sought only 
tranquillity. He has ever been opposed to the law of 
circumstances. Such laws, he hath often said, do nothing 
but establish evils without remedying them, because their 
execution, necessarily arbitrary, is always entrusted to the 
passions." 

R. de St. Jean d'A argued in this wise to his 

master, the Emperor, that small states which have had 
their own laws, their own distinct living and active 
principle, are perpetually chafing and struggling against 
the laws of all the states by which they are surrounded. 
In politics they realise the ingenious chimera of Descartes 
respecting whirlwinds. They react with all their force 
against the bodies that press upon them. Their strength 
increases in proportion as that of others is diminished. 
When they cease to be violently compressed, they expand 
themselves with great rapidity. In a short time, one be- 
comes at a loss to account for, or to limit, their progress. 

" This," said the Emperor, " must be prevented by 
erecting dykes. To this end 'tis necessary to unite Holland 
to France ; it will be the necessary consequence of the re- 
union of Belgium to France. And besides, 'tis the heaviest 
blow that I could give England. 

"As to the son of Louis, 1 he shall enjoy my kind 

i On receiving the young Prince at St. Cloud, Napoleon said to 
him, " Come, my son, I will be your father. You shall lose nothing. 
My brother's conduct afflicts my heart, but his sickness may explain it. 
When you shall become great you will pay his debt as well as your own. 
In whatever position my policy or the interests of my empire may place 
you, never forget that your first duty is to me, your second towards 
France. All your other duties, even to the people I entrust to you, 
must be postponed to these." 

12 2 



l8o SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

protection. He shall keep the Grand Duchy of Berg 
until I am pleased to make some other provision for him." 
Thus spake the Sovereign to his ministers, surrounded 
by a group of senators, 1 who, all attentive to his slightest 
gesture, applauded in advance his marvellous conceptions. 
But at length this astonishing man, whose genius 
grasped, sometimes, all the different means which tend 
to build up or, destroy empires, yielding to high and 
powerful considerations, decided to fulfil his vow to the 
clergy. A national council was opened. The old bishops 
of France and Italy, with mitre on head and cross in 
hand, were by turns to plead the cause of the people 
against the great, and that of the sovereign against those 
prelates who were called factious. "The majority of the 
clergy," said Bonaparte, "in appearance live in peace. They 
are like enemies forced to unite together by the superior 
strength of the common antagonist, and wait an oppor- 
tunity to deal secret but deadly blows. At present, all 
I want is to have them adopt the four propositions of 
Bossuet. For the rest, I shall not depart from that maxim 



I Napoleon in 1807 was informed that the senators had on hand the 
sum of 1,550,000 francs en caisse. The senate, having come to him in a 
body to present their respects, he called the pursers and asked them how 
much money they had on hand. " Sire," they replied, " we have a cer- 
tain amount, to be sure, but cannot now state exactly what it is." "Ah, 
well," said he, "state about how much." "We must repeat to Your 
Majesty that it is impossible." " Hi bien I " said he ; "I am better 
informed than you, for I know that you have now at your disposal 
1,550,000 francs, and presume your intention is to make good use of it." 
' Sire," they replied, " we had intended that sum to erect a monument 
to the glory of Your Majesty." " There is no need of that," said he 
11 The inhabitants of the Faubourg Saint-Germain ask for the re- 
establishment of the Odeon. You will make yourselves agreeable to 
the Empress by giving her name to that theatre." The deputation 
retired, obtained Josephine's consent, and the senate re-established 
the hall. 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE l8l 

of the Gospel, which commands men to ' render unto Caesar 
the things which are Caesar's.'" ^ 

Several high dignitaries of the Church, victims to their 
zeal on behalf of the Sovereign Pontiff, were languishing 
in prison at Vincennes ; others were under accusation for 
having circulated clandestinely the Pope's bull, placing 
the French Empire under an interdict, and denouncing 
pains and penalties against its head. The Abb6 d' Astros, 
Grand Vicar of Notre Dame, was thrown into confine- 
ment ; the Minister of Public Worship, Portalis, was 
exiled ; and the missionaries of Mont-Valerien dispersed. 
A regiment of the guard was ordered to carry the place 
by assault, unless it should surrender at discretion ; and 
it was forbidden, in any event, to grant the least symptom 
of a capitulation to the good fathers. 

I felt a special interest in the Abb6 de Boulogne, 
who had been commended to my favour by an old nun 
of Panthemont. I spoke to Bonaparte about him, and 
told him the abbe's conscience would not permit him to 
submit to his wishes. " I am sorry for it," said he, " both 
on his account and my own. I might have made him an 
archbishop ; he would have preached the Lent sermon 
to my Court without imitating the intolerable dryness of 
the Bishop of Senez, but with that becoming moderation 
and pious zeal which ought ever to characterise a Catholic 
minister and make him respected." Such was the answer 
which he transmitted to me by a page. 

He quitted the capital 1 for the purpose of visiting his 
new possessions. Everything around him seemed to take 
new life ; a concert of benedictions accompanied him ; 
Maria Louisa graced his triumph for was it not a 

i He left Compiegne on the igth of September, and returned th 
beginning of November. 



l82 SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

triumph, indeed, to have at his side the daughter of so 
many Kings, and to know that she had borne him an heir 
to his throne. 

During Bonaparte's absence, Malmaison became again 
what it had once been. It was thronged with courtiers 
from the Tuileries, who hurried thither to lavish their in- 
cense upon me. They compared my own brilliant days 
with those of the princess who succeeded me. The men 
of my husband's time arid tastes found it difficult to endure 
the German gravity and fatiguing etiquette which reigned 
around the new Empress. It is true she was in the habit 
of receiving them with an air of goodness, but never forgot 
the respect that belonged to her great name. The ladies, 
moreover, who had never ceased to shine at my Court, 
saw themselves thrown into the shade at hers. Hence, 
secret murmurs arose, which the echoes from the saloons 
did not fail to repeat. Next, scandal took up the sound, 
and certain personages, whose names I could here mention, 

particularly M. de B , made perfidious reports upon 

the subject to their master, on his return, and drew down 
upon me unjust censure. 

The Sovereign's arrival at Paris was hailed with en- 
thusiasm. The people thought Jthe peace permanent, and 
began to be sensible of its salutary influence. Paris, that 
unique city, a city which contains such discordant elements, 
enjoyed a degree of tranquillity and abundance, which were 
due to her own luxury, and to the foreign visitors who then 
crowded thither to admire and give activity to her manu- 
factures ; the progress of which was carefully watched by 
the Emperor in person. 1 My situation was the same as 



i The Emperor returned from Holland enchanted; but what 
charmed him most was the idea that the Dutch had adopted his 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 183 

during the first year of his union with the archduchess. 
St. Cloud wore again the aspect of a palace of enchantment, 
and my own modest solitude seemed to be forgotten. My 
daughter was in a manner compelled to appear at Court. 
The manners and demeanour of the Empress were not 
such as to make Hortense ashamed of her mother ; this is 
probable but, alas! how painful must have been the re- 
collections of her heart she often came to see me, and 
seemed surprised at my peaceful resignation. Alas ! I had 
at last forgotten what I had been, and thought only of what 
I wished to be. The persons composing my household 
seemed well assorted, and I enjoyed domestic peace with- 
out stint. My friends came and enlivened my long winter 
evenings, and the pleasure I received from their society was 
some compensation for the loss of what I had enjoyed in 
the splendid soirees in which I had once moved. My son 
kept up a regular correspondence with me, and I was 
gratified, indeed, to know that he was in the enjoyment of 
his highest wishes. The good Eugene ! he was adored 
in Italy. Hereafter, thought I, he will be regretted there ; 
but I shall be there to comfort those who may sorrow for 



notions upon domestic economy. " They know," I had heard him say 
a thousand times, both then and on other occasions, " they know 
that I have not fully furnished my chateau at Fontainebleau." I know 
not what simpleton presented such a blandishment to his self-love ; 
but I do know, from the most veracious men, that nothing ever 
equalled the ridicule and laughter produced among the Dutch by the 
promulgation of the commercial heresies and economies which Napo- 
leon undertook to put forth in a magisterial tone, endeavouring to puff 
into importance his youthful speculations, in opposition to the notions 
of those ancient patriarchs of commerce. On a certain occasion, one 
of his auditors replied to Napoleon, who was saying that he should 
have 200 ships of war with which to oppose England, that England 
would have 600. This reply was answered by a kx*k of contempt. 
De Pradt. 



184 SECRET MEMOIRS OP 

him; 1 perhaps, even, it is reserved for me to afford him con- 
solation. And thus the time passed on. My mode of life 
was quite uniform ; I was never alone, though I knew well 
how to shun the gilded bees who were constantly buzzing 
and swarming on the road from Paris to St. Cloud, and who 
often made their appearance at the gates of my chateau. 
'Twas necessary to please the master. 

The minister of war, Clarke (72), visited me regularly. 
He said to me one day, with an air of deep concern, 
" Madam, the Emperor has powerful foes ; the conduct 
of M. de Czernicheff, whose intentions I do not compre- 
hend, explains to us a great problem. That foreigner 
has left Paris stealthily; he has acquired a knowledge of 
the strength and situation of the different corps of the 
army; in short, all your husband's plans have reached 
Russia. The senate will but act wisely on this occasion 
by granting supplies of men and money; the time is past 
when a new war was but a new field of triumph opened 
to our warriors. Now, 'tis necessary to save France ; 
for, notwithstanding the treaty of the 24th of February, 
1812, the King of Prussia will remain true only so long 
as your husband is able to keep him in awe. As for 
Germany, she will play at even or odd." The conversation 
stopped here. I seldom saw Bonaparte, and thought it 
not my duty to write him anything upon this subject. 

i The Empress's mind was really impressed with the thought that 
her husband's power would prove ephemeral. " He goes too far," she 
often said ; " he will, sooner or later, upon the thorny road of politics, 
meet with some traveller who is more adroit and lucky than he, who, 
in the end will lead him into a slippery path and occasion his fall, a fall 
which will draw after it the whole scaffolding of his power. Thus will 
Bonaparte meet his end. Bonaparte, whose intentions are to make 
France formidable and unconquerable, will not, perhaps, have the con- 
solation of descending from the throne and seeing his last wish even 
respected." 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE l8f 

He, however, came to take leave of me. The moment 
he came within hearing, he said, " Madam, I am going 
to frighten the North. 1 I have just learned that Russia 
has protested against the reunion of the Duchy of Olden- 
burg to France; that's enough to fight her and conquer 
her. My brother Alexander will be but too happy should 
I be pleased to grant him peace." 1 

" Ah 1 " said I, " you are at the apex of your glory, 
and still thirst to add brightness to it. Fortune, thus 
far your faithful friend, may abandon you the day you 
march upon Moscow. Do not, I pray you, imitate other 
sovereigns, who, like the common herd of men, forget 
the future while they are occupied with the present. In 
circumstances of difficulty the irresolute man acts a mixed 
part, which leads him to his ruin. Concentrate your 
forces in Germany, but go no farther. I would re-estab- 
lish the kingdom of Poland provided, always, you are 
allowed time and power to do so." 

But of what use is advice in such a case? How will 

1 In the winter of 1811, large bodies of troops were marched into 
Germany. They were evidently directed against Russia. At the 
opening of the legislative body, in 1811, Napoleon declared that the 
preparations for war against Russia had increased the expenses of 
that department one hundred millions of francs. It was at the same 
session that he announced that the Peninsular War would end with 
a thunder-clap ; that a priest (that is to say, the Pope) could not act 
as a sovereign, though a few years before he had created the primacy 
of Ratisbonne. He did not then much expect that it was he who 
was to be struck by the thunder-bolt ; and that, despite his new prin- 
ciples, a Sovereign Pontiff would yet be found in that kingdom which 
vras nominally his son's. De Pradt. 

2 Possibly Napoleon thought it would be as easy for him to possess 
himself of the person of the Emperor Alexander as it had been to 
seize the Spanish Princes. But the Cabinet at St. Petersburg was 
not directed by a Don Godoy the great monarch numbered as many 
friends as subjects. Flatterers only entered his palace and roamed 
about it; they were not admitted to his confidence. 



1 86 SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

you straighten a shrub that has acquired the strength of 
years in taking a false direction? At most, all that can 
be done is %o prevent or retard its fall by artificial sup- 
ports. I made no effort or, at least, did but little 
to divert him from his grand purpose, foreseeing that 
my attempts would be vain. Besides, he was afraid his 
generals or his ministers might have some share of his 
glory. I was profoundly afflicted by this thirst for 
dominion, which he could never satisfy; and judged un- 
favourably of his new enterprise. That noble Pole and 
celebrated man, Kosciuszko, as much distinguished for the 
simplicity of his manners as for the purity of his prin- 
ciples and the sublimity of his patriotism, dared not hope 
for success (73). On taking leave of Bonaparte, I said, 
"You used willingly to listen to your friend." "Advice 
to me advice, madam ? " said he, with an air of haughti- 
ness ; " do you think of giving me advice ? I am the 
son-in-law of an Emperor ; I am able, by my nod, to set 
all Germany in motion, and Prussia cannot remain 
neutral in the midst of the coming events. On the con- 
trary, madam, congratulate me on the accomplishment 
of my sublime conceptions. I shall write to you from 
the ancient capital of Russia, and intend yet to make 
you an eye-witness of the brilliant destinies which await 
me." I stood confounded. " You are," said I (under 
the impulse of a feeling which was certainly pardonable 
in a woman who loved him), "you are playing for your 
crown, for the existence of your dynasty and the lives 
of my children ! " 1 

x He seemed determined to banish from around him everything 
which could suggest the idea of an aggression against Russia; and 
so far did he carry this, that only two or three days before he set 
out, and while 400,000 men were already in Poland, and his whole 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 187 

Soon, however, the Emperor repaired to Dresden, 
surrounded by a brilliant Court. A cortege of Kings 
attended him, who daily mingled with his courtiers at his 
levees. He commanded them like a master. Napoleon 
was now the sovereign of ancient Germany. 

He thought it best to leave the Empress Maria 
Louisa at Mayence. The archduchess expected there 
to receive a visit from her father ; but Fate watched 
over them both. She returned to Paris, and the Auto- 
crat of the West directed his steps towards the banks 
of the Niemen. 1 

In the midst of the alarms with which this new war 
inspired Europe, France alone remained unconcerned. 
She was accustomed to conquer. In Paris, especially, 
the feeling and hope of security were general. Our 
first success at Wilna, the spontaneous rising of the 
Poles, who declared in favour of the re - establishment 
of their ancient monarchy, the occupation of Gloubokoe, 
whither Napoleon transferred his head-quarters all this 
electrified the capital. The inhabitants saw already, in 
fancy, the Emperor of the French crowned at Moscow. 



military family had long since left on the expedition, he burst into 
a great rage at the minister of the interior, who, because his de- 
parture was so near at hand, had countermanded his order requiring 
the attendance of several deputations of the electoral colleges. 
"What!" said he; "who dares state that I am about to leave? 
Who is to judge of that ? I am not going to leave. I am doing 
what I please with my men and my horses." 

He took leave of the council of ministers with these words : 
" / am going to review my army." And the Moniteur assigned no other 
reason for his departure for Dresden. " Hist, de I'Ambass. de Varsovie." 

i Disguised as a Polish soldier, Napoleon reconnoitred the heights 
that overlook Kovno, and had some of the water of the Niemen 
brought to him in a helmet, which he tasted in order to inhale a 
lucky inspiration. "Hist, de Bonaparte." 



l88 SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

Numerous were the felicitations I received upon these 
auspicious beginnings, to which I only replied that, "For 
kings, there is no permanent peace except that which 
arises from mutual esteem firmly established between 
them and their subjects. Happy the sovereign who, to 
secure the love of his people, neglects nothing which 
can merit it ! " 

The commencement of this campaign was utterly un- 
productive of glory. The Russians retrograded as fast 
as the French advanced. No battle was fought. Several 
skirmishes took place with the Cossacks, which were the 
prelude to the attack upon the town situated between 
the hills and the banks of the Dwina. The people of 
the North seemed terrified at our approach, and fled in 
disorder towards Smolensk. The whole French army 
followed in pursuit. Napoleon, surrounded by his guard, 
remained some days at Witepsk. 

The army now began to be in want of everything; 
but still "it rushed onward in this enterprise with an 
assurance of success and with appetite whetted by the 
hope of profit and advancements ; and every soMier who 
failed of them accused his evil star or the justice of the 
Emperor." 

At length, after overcoming innumerable obstacles, 
our unfortunate soldiers passed the Dnieper and reached 
the heights of Smolensk. Every redoubt was in our 
power; but at the moment of mounting the breach they 
beheld the mountains of fire and mighty columns of 
smoke in the distance. Davoust had attacked the right 
suburb of the town, and Morand the left ; and when 
the French were ready to carry the place by assault, 
the Russians evacuated it by night, and Napoleon made 
his entry into a city which presented him nothing but 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE l8g 

ruins. His march was over mangled and bleeding corpses, 
accompanied by martial music, whose wild strains could 
alone prevent him from seriously reflecting upon this scene 
of desolation (74). 

Had he seen fit to stop there, and publicly proclaim 
the re-establishment of Poland, the French army would 
have been saved ; but the projects of Jerome, his brother, 
were in opposition to his own. The latter was then 
begging a crown, and the Emperor had already discovered 
that he had one too many. " I do not forget," said he, 
" that the Queen of Westphalia was born in Russia ; I 
should not want to have the two states too near to 
each other. In politics, family ties are held for nought ; 
for myself, always the first, I would make war upon my 
father-in-law, should my father-in-law cavil with me 
about the possession of the meanest village. For a pupil 
of the family I have treated you well. As to the king 
I may see fit to give the Poles, I will make them ac- 
quainted with him when the proper time shall come." 
Jerome stood corrected ; Napoleon was not inclined to 
disclose to him his thoughts. He had, in my last inter- 
view with him, pledged himself that the kingdom of 
Poland was destined to my son. I could, however, have 
wished him to reign in Italy, or return and live in 
France. I enjoyed at a distance and in fancy the felicity 
of our reunion, and caressed the idea that Prince Eugene 
would one day fulfil the duties of an important post in 
his own country. But the mind is ingenious in creating 
for itself chimeras, and imagination is often pleased to 
lead our desires into a wild abyss of thought. That be- 
loved son was still far from me, sharing the fatigues and 
dangers of an invincible army, and perhaps possessing 
the ability to render my husband some service. Eugene's 



IQO SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

sensibility must have been severely tried, and his heart 
sadly wrung, at witnessing the destitution of the corps 
he commanded without ammunition, without provisions, 
without magazines the soldiers wandering along on the 
road to Moscow. On every side, villages were laid waste, 
bridges destroyed, and magazines laid in ashes by the 
Russians. 

Napoleon established himself at Ghiat ; there he learnt 
that Prince Kutusoff, the glorious conqueror of the Otto- 
man power, had the command-in-chief of the Russian 
army, and that he had issued an order to stop a further 
retreat. 1 The Emperor immediately ordered an attack 
upon a Russian redoubt ; it could not resist French 
bravery, but its capture cost the blood of more than a 
thousand men. 2 

These were the last details sent me by private and 
;onfidential letters. I trembled for my son, for my 



1 A decisive battle took place under the walls of Moscow. The 
bright sun arose, and, by degrees, dissipated the thick fog which 
overhung the city and prevented a thorough reconnoissance. Na- 
poleon gazed at it, and said, several times, to his officers, " Gentle- 
men, 'tis the sun of Austerlitz." But towards evening the soldiers 
began to lose courage. They were reanimated by their chief. 
" Soldiers," said he, " Kutusoff is flying before you ; pursue and 
overtake him 1 " Impatient to be master of the ancient city of the 
Czars, Bonaparte marched forward hi three columns. He soon 
entered Moscow by the lurid light of an immense conflagration, 
whose dreadful radiance was reflected from the heavens. Vain 
were all attempts to arrest its progress ; everything became a prey 
to the flames, and the zeal of the French army, in endeavouring 
to extinguish them, was fruitless. The pumps had been pulled up; 
immense magazines of combustibles fed the flames. The Governor 
of Moscow, Rostopchin, sacrificed Moscow to save Russia. 

2 They belonged to the 6ist Regiment. Bonaparte asked the 
colonel of that regiment what he had done with one of his battalions, 
to which he replied, "They are in tkt redoubt I " "Honour to tiu 
bravi I " was Napoleon's sole reply. 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE IQI 

husband. I wept over the fate of the thousands of 
brave men who had fallen ; but I was far, alas ! from 
foreseeing the new disasters which awaited us. 

The situation of France became critical in the extreme. 
The greater and more rapid had been her prosperity, 
the more startling was the signal of her approaching 
calamities. Could I alone remain indifferent, unconcerned ? 
I who had been the companion of the monarch whom 
France still adored I who had been his first wife, at a 
time when he was only one of her leading captains I 
who had followed him from the simple, unostentatious 
habitation of a general into the palace of the consuls, and 
thence to the imperial throne ? I, in short, who, seated by 
his side, had reigned over the French by some modest 
virtues, as he had subdued them by high feats of arms, 
by achievements, the glory of which no reverses can 
ever efface ? 

But, although the danger was apparent, there was 
nothing which could reasonably justify my fears. Alas ! 
it was my destiny never to taste pure felicity in this 
world. 

A report of Bonaparte's death obtained a momentary 
currency. I was inconsolable. To think only of the 
mortifying contradictions to which I had been subjected, 
one would have been surprised, perhaps, at the real feel- 
ing I manifested. What do I say ? I found the senti- 
ment of gratitude too sweet to my heart to permit me to 
dispense with its obligation. What a moment was that 
when I was undeceived in regard to Malet's rash and 
audacious attempt ! (75.) I had fondly imagined that 
Bonaparte would, perhaps, always remain invulnerable; 
but my grief was at its height when I read the bulletins 
containing the news of so many disasters. I trembled for 



iga SECRET MEMOIRS OP 

the lives of those who were most dear to me; 1 and, when 
I reflected that the elite of France had fallen in that fatal 
expedition, my tears again flowed. Then, indeed, did 
I sigh over the mad ambition of one man. But I could 
not pardon those who had led him into that abyss. My 
situation became the more painful from the fact that I 
was under an imperious necessity to confine within my 
own bosom all the pangs I experienced. 

I pause for a moment over these sad narratives to 
deplore the fate of so many brave men, who, in the midst 
of frightful Scythian deserts, on the frozen banks of the 
Beresina, proved to the nations of the North that they 
were worthy, indeed, to sustain the honour of France, 
especially when such a general as Ney protected their 
retreat. Bonaparte was ignorant that another Arminius 
had destroyed a portion of his army by fire and sword. 
He ought to have followed the example of Augustus, who, 
when he had lost three legions in Germany, became so 
affected at the disaster, that he shut himself up in his 
palace, and permitted his beard and hair to grow. 
Smiting his brow in transports of grief, he exclaimed, 
"Varrus, give me back my legions!" Napoleon, on 

i Prince Eugene incurred great dangers in this fatal campaign. 
The Empress Josephine exhibited the most violent agitation when- 
ever a courier arrived. While breaking the seal of the despatches, 
her face would rapidly change colour. Sometimes signs of joy were 
visible in her countenance ; and at others, after perusing the con- 
tents, she would remain in a state of depression and silent anguish, 
impossible to be described. It was painful in the extreme to witness 
her sufferings. Speaking of her husband and son, she would say, 
" They were alive when the courier left, but, perhaps, by this time 
nothing remains to me but to lament their loss." Thus did the unfor- 
tunate woman suffer from imaginary ills. To her, every moment was 
a punishment, the more cruel that she already foresaw the sad reverses 
which awaited him for whom she did not cease to put forth her most 
ardent prayers 1 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE XQ3 

returning to the Tuileries, had the hardihood to say to 
his courtiers, rubbing his hands with an air of gaiety, 
" 'Tis warmer here than on the banks of the Beresina." 
Such was the man but he was my husband. 

What were my feelings on learning the particulars of 
that horrible catastrophe ! (76) a catastrophe which put 
France in mourning. After having poured my grief into 
the bosom of friendship, and dropped a tear to the memory 
of those of the Emperor's companions in arms who 
had, by their love for him, been drawn into the abyss, I 
became collected for an instant, and exclaimed aloud, 
"What a fearful precipice has Napoleon opened beneath 
his feet I " 

At this cry of woe my blood froze within my veins; 
it was a thunderbolt to Napoleon ; it resounded even 
beneath the vaults of the Louvre. Sundry officious per- 
sons, whom he kept in his pay, made daily reports to 
him of all that was done or said by his former wife, and 
Malmaison was by no means exempted from the minute 
and secret police of Savary. 1 And yet I must do justice to 
that minister, charged with the execution of the orders of a 

I Josephine was frequently visited at Malmaison by M. de , 

who had become suspected by her husband in consequence of the most 
false and perfidious reports. On hearing that that person had obtained 
a situation at the chateau, he became enraged, and ordered him to 
leave forthwith ; and also directed that henceforth no stranger should 
be admitted into her service without his (Napoleon's) sanction. Thus, 
from the i6th of December, 1809, to the 25th of March, 1814, the 
Empress Josephine was under perpetual surveillance. Towards the 
close of her life, she used to answer those who affected to pity her, " I 
desire nothing but Napoleon's prosperity, and I feel doubly happy in 
being able, by means of this last sacrifice which he has exacted from 
me, to contribute to it. He wanted an heir, and France seemed to con- 
cur in that wish. May they both be happy ; the father now, and the son 
hereafter. As to myself, my prayer is that the Emperor may not see 
occasion to repent himself of his new alliance." 

VOL. II 13 



194 SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

mighty man. Never did he make a report unfavourable to 
me ; and, although certain courtiers (for there were some 
at Malmaison) permitted themselves to make a private 
revelation to the Emperor, Savary took care to show him 
that it was of little or no importance. Moreover, he warned 
me to be on my guard. 

Thus my time was passing away in the enjoyment of a 
peaceful independence ; days ever memorable, days of com- 
fort and tranquillity, which I was afterwards forced to 
regret, when I saw them sacrificed anew to that thirst for 
glory which was fated to pursue me even into my retreat 
even into the arms of my children ! 

The unshaken hope of durable prosperity never aban- 
doned my husband. He received with pride the felicitations 
of his flatterers upon his happy return from Moscow (77) 
he was made dizzy by the least grain of incense. Had he 
but possessed the talent to look into the future ! 

By forming a double line [of fortresses] Napoleon then 
became inexpugnable on the frontier ; he might still have 
strengthened himself there, and defended himself success- 
fully. Further, had he desired it, he might still have 
enjoyed an enviable degree of felicity, and by his internal 
administration enabled the French people to taste the 
sweets of a repose purchased by unheard-of sacrifices, and 
himself have taken part in enjoyments wholly unknown to 
his heart. 

One day and that day will for ever be present to my 
memory my surprise was at its height. I saw Napoleon 
approaching Napoleon, who had so lately awed the world 
sad, humbled by his sudden defeat; though he endea- 
voured to dissemble his chagrin in the presence of her 
whom it pleased him once to denominate his clear-sighted 
friend. I had already divined a part of his ills ; his most 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 195 

f* 

secret thoughts seemed to be my own. I listened to him, 
I pitied him, and my pity enabled me to find a sort of 
charm in sharing the burden of his woe. His aspect 
shocked me ; my imagination transported me to those 
fields of battle where the most frightful death had swept 
down so many illustrious warriors. I could not help 
feeling a kind of shudder; but, though Napoleon was no 
longer anything to me, personally, still my heart, naturally 
feeling and compassionate, experienced the sentiment of 
pity succeeding to that of consternation. The love which 
I had never ceased to bear him, and the most tender com- 
passion, were aroused to the utmost when my husband told 
me that he had begun to drink of the cup of woe. 

My anguish almost conquered my reason. How much 
should I have been obliged to him had he omitted to turn 
his eyes upon my pale and discomposed visage ! But the 
conqueror of so many nations, who was now approaching 
the moment of his downfall, paid much less attention to 
this scene than he would have done under different cir- 
cumstances ; he attributed my grief to the coldness with 
which he had received the prayers I had addressed to him 
at the time of his undertaking that rash expedition. I had 
blamed him openly. I knew myself to be his better in 
matters of policy, because he was always erratic, and I 
always calm. And had he more frequently followed the 
impulses of his own heart, when he was surrounded by 
all the evidences of his greatness, that generous, that 
ambitious Napoleon would not at that moment have been 
obliged to tremble before a woman. 

Far from uttering any complaint, he told me that 
henceforward he would repose in me his whole con- 
fidence ; that he would listen to my advice. " It must 
be," said I, " that you have a very powerful foe ; I know 

132 



ig6 SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

that profound politician, and I tell you now, you will 
not be able to escape from his blows. Your gigantic 
enterprise in the North is but the result of a secret com- 
bination. How can you guard against a man [Talleyrand] 
who, in every Cabinet in Europe, counts ministers who 
are subject to his control (78). You have rushed to your 
ruin by all the means in your power ; by humiliating, and 
exposing to shame, a man who would probably soon have 

become humbled in his own estimation " Here my 

voice failed me ; I paused and shed tears. Then, sud- 
denly recovering myself, I proceeded : " What you will 
lose, Bonaparte, is not merely a vain title, which you 
must one day renounce. But to see the French people, 
through your fault, ravished of their conquests, and those 
glorious spoils of war with which your valour, directing 
their arm, has enriched them this will form the climax 
of your misfortunes! Oh, Napoleon, excuse the expres- 
sion of my regrets ! " I again shed tears. In vain did I 
attempt to proceed; I had no longer the power. As to 
what concerned me personally, I had long since learnt 
that affliction was the lot of humanity. I submitted with 
confidence to the invisible ways of Providence. " Whether 
I live or die," said I to Bonaparte, " your destiny will 
not the less be accomplished. The guilty plots of the 
authors of our ills will bring every kind of calamity upon 
our country. They will commit many crimes, but will 
gather no fruit from them, nor obtain any permanent 
success." 

" These are precisely the reasons which determine me 
to continue the war," said my husband. " In this will I 
follow the example of Augustus. Besides, is not the 
effect of great misfortunes to communicate greater energy 
to the mind, to furnish to the intellect more solid and 



r THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE X97 

manly reflections ? l Such is my new position, that I 
must resume my communications with what there is most 
useful in the past. Of what use were it to me to utter 
sterile regrets, and admit the imprudence of my recent 
projects ? Josephine, you would extinguish in me the 
noble desire to conquer. You, like the wisest of my 
ministers, want time to dissipate the dream which their 
imagination has a hundred times renewed since my first 
misfortune. In my own opinion, and in theirs, Napoleon 
must now surpass himself. Men do not think him so 
great, so formidable as he really is ; he will not display 
all his strength until the stranger shall dare invade the 
soil of France. Then will he be on his feet; and woe 
to those whom he shall compel to account for a war in 
which France shall pour out her blood and treasures 1 " 

It is but too true that Bonaparte thus deceived himself 
at the very moment when the united Powers of Europe 
were ready to burst upon him. Besides his external 

i Whoever was so unlucky as to tell Napoleon that a thing was 
impossible, was sure to receive from him an angry or a contemptuous 
look. Fouche, the Duke of Otranto, had occasion one day to know 
how much his master was offended by such a remark. It was in 1804. 
A negotiation with Russia, both difficult and important, was on foot. 
Fouche, then minister of the police, being opposed to the opening of 
the negotiation, remarked that its success was impossible* Napoleon, 
who viewed the matter differently, turned quickly towards the 
minister, and said, " What 1 is it a veteran of great revolutionary 
catastrophes that dares borrow that pusillanimous expression ? Ah 1 
sir, is it for you to say that anything is impossible ? You who for 
fifteen years have seen realised events which might once have been 
reasonably thought impossible ? A man who has seen such a Prince as 
Louis XVI. bow his head beneath the executioner's steel ; who has 
seen an Archduchess of Austria, the Queen of France, mending her 
own gown and her own shoes while waiting to be taken to the scaffold ; 
a man who finds himself a minister while I am the Emperor of the 
French such a man, I say. ought never to have the word impossible 
in his mouth." 



198 SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

enemies, he had against him those men who, since the 
Revolution, had never ceased to whisper among them- 
selves : " If we can only succeed in dividing this mass, 
so irresistible when it is united ; or, at least, in directing 
one portion of it against another; we shall, at least, save 
ourselves in the squabble, and may afterwards appear on 
the political stage with characters and habits which will 
fit us to enjoy the confidence of the new rulers, who 
will then hasten to appoint us to the most important and 
difficult posts in the government. These we will drive 
to the commission of gross acts of injustice, and in the 
end hurl them into the abyss." 

Thus reasoned, and thus will ever reason, the bad 
citizens, more numerous than is supposed, who made the 
Revolution an object of speculation. They are the serpents 
which we warmed into life, but never can strangle. Woe 
to the states which have such vampires in their bosom I 
Sooner or later they become hydras with a hundred heads, 
and will, in the end, devour the governments that nourish 
them. Flatterers and courtiers go hand in hand with 
them ; the former, with their pestilential breath, are to 
us tigers in sheep's clothing ; the latter are but awkward 
monkeys, vile slaves, muffled up in their master's cloak 
in order to escape the strappado ; and both classes are 
the ruin of their country (79). 

Ye cunning men, men without character, who follow 
so carefully the current of events in order to profit thereby, 
ye shall yet be arraigned for the crimes ye have led the 
great to commit the great whom ye have made drunk 
with your fatal incense ; and the woes of nations shall 
fall upon your guilty heads ! 

And you, ye tranquil egotists, who know no interests 
but your own, no duty save your own preservation, no 



r 

THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE IQQ 

country but the inside of your own homes, tremble for 
your conduct ; for you, too, have contributed powerfully 
to the enslavement of your unhappy country. All, all 
of you, who, fully aware of the dangers arising from 
Bonaparte's imprudences, had unceasingly on your lips 
the name of a family as beloved as it was respected, 
oh, repeat now, in your lowest whisper, and from the 
bottom of your shame-stricken hearts : " The republic for 
ever ! " " May the days reappear when other Brutuses 
shall kiss their sons while condemning them to death," 
and " when others shall weep upon the bosom of a father 
before piercing it with a poniard ! " 

Such were the sorrowful reflections which continually 
beset me. Alasl I now saw that the part my husband 
had acted was fast drawing to a close, and that he was 
about to withdraw from the scene of his illusions what 
did I say? about to be hurled from the stage; and that 
his fall would be frightful indeed. Whenever one of my 
women opened the door of my apartment, I was under 
the continual apprehension that it was to announce his 
overthrow. Did an unusual noise arise in the street, 
I felt afraid it was the tumult of an insurrection ; and 
I said to myself in the bitterness of my spirit, " If 
Napoleon is not asleep on the bosom of a fatal security, 
he may still avert the storm which hastens to burst 
upon him." And yet, in spite of the kind of apathy 
to which I abandoned myself in order to lessen, in some 
degree, my sufferings, I could not help experiencing a 
shock when I reflected that this modern Poms might 
soon be without a country or an asylum ; that I myself, 
shut up in this cavern of Polyphemus, might in vain cast 
my wandering eyes around me to find some opening, 
some concealed passage, by which to make my escape. 



2OO SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

For I was perfectly convinced in my own mind that 
the Emperor would follow the wretched advice of rejecting 
terms of peace, and especially those which should look 
to any contingent movement upon the capital. " He will," 
I told my friends, " feel bound to sustain, at all hazards 
and with arms in his hands, his military reputation ; 
and the monuments and works of art which are in Paris, 
will prevent him from ever making the slightest con- 
cession to foreign invaders." I knew well he would 
chafe with impatience, and with loud cries awaken the 
nation to vengeance; or, rather, that he would be glad 
to find a pretext for renewing a war which he burned 
to recommence. 

His orders were now in course of execution ; the sur- 
rounding country hastened forward the young conscripts, 
who soon became soldiers. He found himself impelled, 
in some measure by necessity, for it was now in vain 
to think of averting the tempest that menaced him; he 
could no longer remain deaf to the thunder that rolled 
above his head ; he saw that the bolt was coming ; its first 
rumble shook the confidence of the hero in that Destiny 
which had so often smiled upon him ; and the lightnings of 
this new storm were the first rays to which he consented 
to open his eyes. His desires and his views were bounded 
by his own projects, without any anxiety respecting that 
public opinion which was to pass judgment upon them. 
Once, it was not enough for him to plan great undertakings ; 
they must have the seal of the national approbation; the 
most brilliant successes would have been to him incomplete 
unless crowned by the approval of the French people. But, 
even then, he believed their god Terminus, like that of the 
Romans, ought never to recede, and that their first retro- 
grade step would be the signal of the fall of the empire. 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 2OI 

Alas! how were times changed. To him the pride of 
commanding was now of little account ; it was sufficient 
to see his own desires satisfied. Strange concession of an 
ambition which lately towered to the clouds, but which 
now saw itself brought down to the level of the events 
of the earth ! * 

The most disastrous news was not slow to obtain cir- 
culation, and for once Fame was not a liar. She related, 
in all its details, the fearful catastrophe which had befallen 
the French army. She spoke of the defection of the four 

I A few days before the battle of Dresden, Moreau and Bernadotte 
were present at a conference of the Allied Sovereigns ; a conference 
whose object was to settle the plan of the battle which was about to be 
delivered, and the ulterior operations of the campaign. Moreau was 
the author of the plan under discussion, which he sustained by argu- 
ments in every particular. Bernadotte, however, succeeded in effecting 
some modifications in it. After the conference had broken up, 
Bernadotte and Moreau had a conversation, which is thus reported: 

Bernadotte. A fine plan, general, but whither will it lead us ? 

Moreau. To the overthrow of Napoleon. 

B. Very well ; but, Napoleon being overthrown, what then ? 

M. Oh, we will then see what is to be done I 

B. Take care ; don't yield yourself to a chimerical hope. 'Tis not 
under the garb of an aide-de-camp of the Emperor Alexander that the 
French will recognise the hero of Hohenlinden. 

M. But the coalition 

B. Holds together only by a single thread. Is not Napoleon the 
son-in-law of the Emperor of Austria, and is not his son the grandson 
of that Sovereign ? 

M. I know that ; I know, also, that the children of Gustavus IV. 
are nephews of the Emperor Alexander. Political interests are every- 
thing. Family ties are nothing. But, Prince, what is your object ? 

B. To contribute to the deliverance of the great European family 
from the yoke which the Emperor has imposed upon them ; to drive 
the French behind the Rhine, their natural boundary, and to make 
Napoleon reckon as something worth, the rights of the French nation, 
for which you and I have fought so long. This is my object. I believe 
myself still serving the French in fighting their chief. Did I imagina 
myself promoting other ends, or serving other ambition, I would 
instantly break the sword I wear I 



2O2 SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

regiments of Wurtemberg and Saxon cavalry, and added 
that seven battalions of infantry had abandoned the French 
ranks during the combat under the walls of Leipsic, and 
joined the allied troops. I likewise learned that my husband 
had passed the only bridge by which he could make good 
his retreat ; but that, in order to prevent pursuit by the 
foreign army, he had ordered it to be blown up at the very 
moment it was covered with thousands of Frenchmen who 
were endeavouring to fly. By means of this murderous 
manoeuvre, he abandoned a part of his army on the bank 
of the stream 1 1 

My heart bled at hearing this terrible narrative. I 
pitied the multitude of men of all grades in the army, 
and of all ranks, who there perished, either by the 
enemy's fire or drowning; and I shed tears over the 
sad fate of the Polish general, Poniatowski, whose heroic 
courage, it had been long predicted, would bring him to 
a premature end. 

I received a letter from Bonaparte; he informed me 
that he had effected his retreat through Erfurt and 
Gotha, and had entered Mayence. The latter town be- 
came the point for the reassembling of the army ; but 
the great numbers of sick and wounded who arrived 
there produced an epidemic which occasioned frightful 
ravages. 

It was at Mayence that the Emperor and the King 

x The language would seem to impute to Napoleon a design to 
bring about the disaster at the bridge over the Elster. Nothing can 
be more unfounded. The explosion was an accident, occasioned by 
the corporal, who was charged with the duty, mistaking the French 
for the allied troops, and supposing the latter were hurrying upon the 
bridge. This is admitted even by Mr. Alison, the writer who makes 
the greatest efforts, and goes farthest out of his way, to belie history in 
reference to France and Napoleon. TRANSLATOR. 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 2O3 

of Naples (Murat) saw each other for the last time, and 
separated. They were still friends and allies ; but fifteen 
days after, Murat had separated his own cause from that 
of his brother-in-law. 

I was promptly informed of the return of the man 
who was ever dear to me. The third day after his 
arrival he held an extraordinary council of state. The 
object of the sitting was a decree for augmenting the 
contributions. Some days afterwards the senate placed 
at the disposition of the minister of war 300,000 men of 
the conscription of 1806 and the following years. The 
same act provided that armies of reserve should be 
stationed at Bordeaux, Metz, Turin and Utrecht. But 
these resources were insufficient to check the invasion of 
the territory of France. The conqueror of so many 
nations had never found himself in so critical a situa- 
tion. " It costs me a horrible struggle," said he to 

B and M , " to avow my distress ; and yet it 

is only by making known the dangers which menace the 
country that I can hope to obtain new supplies and to 
identify the cause of the nation with my own ; for I am 
constrained by the imperious laws of necessity. 

" I shall convoke the legislative body, but I intend 
to direct its deliberations and to obtain a senatus consultant, 
in virtue of which I shall be enabled to give to that 
body an extraordinary president who does not sit in that 
assembly ; 'tis my grand judge, the Duke de Massa, 
whom I intend to select." 

But I did not dissemble to myself the extreme diffi- 
culty Napoleon now had longer to impose upon the 
representatives of the ^nation. As long as the deputies 
were but the witnesses of his success and prosperity, 
those docile manditaries caressed his power ; they had 



204 SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

aided him with all their influence to attain his ends. 
But now, when he sought to connect them with his 
cause, and make them adopt all his plans of defence, 
they sought to humble his pride, and presumed to com- 
pare themselves to that proud Roman senate who arro- 
gated to itself the right to prescribe laws to the 
Emperors. 

The opening of the famous session of the legislative 
body took place on the igth of December, 1813 ; the 
senate, the council of state, and the great dignitaries of 
the empire attended the sitting. The speech which 
Napoleon delivered to them contained some confessions; 
he announced to them that all the Powers of Europe 
had turned against him, and that, without the energy 
and union of the French people, France herself was in 
danger, and then added these remarkable words: "/ 
have never been seduced by prosperity; adversity will, I 
trust, find me above her reach." He concluded by de- 
claring that he had given his adhesion to the prelimi- 
nary basis presented by the coalesced Powers, and that 
the original documents contained in the portfolio of the 
minister for foreign affairs, should, by his order, be com- 
municated to the deputies. He then nominated a com- 
nittee of five members to receive the communication. 

All oppression must be odious to a sovereign who 
loves his people. The Emperor was fully convinced that 
a bloody struggle was about to open. He made, in con- 
cert with his ministers, some efforts to disguise the truth, 
which now began to spread abroad its terrific rays. 
Every means of seduction was tried upon several of the 
deputies, but miscarried. The committee, through M. 
Laini, made its report, in which it showed the insignifi- 
cance of the documents communicated, and manifested a 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 2<>5 

desire that the Government should return to sentiments 
of justice and moderation, in order to obtain a durable 
peace from the European Powers. 

This was too much for the sovereign; habituated to 
command, he could not suffer the representatives to pene- 
trate the secrets of his policy. He, on the spot, ordered 
the hall of the sittings of the legislative body to be closed, 
and the arbitrary order was instantly executed. 

The deputies having presented themselves at the Palace 
du Roi des Rois, on the ist of January, 1814, Bonaparte 
thought it his duty to declare to them that he had caused 
their report to be suppressed as being incendiary. He 
reproached them sharply, and told them that he could not 
be troubled by their useless observations. Yet he did not 
conceal from them how difficult it would be for him to work 
out, alone, the result which he expected from the legisla- 
tive body. He despatched couriers into all the military 
divisions, in order to hasten forward the levies en masse, and 
the collection of the contributions. He appointed extraor- 
dinary commissioners, taken from among the members of 
the conservative senate and the council of state. Instead 
of arousing the patriotism of the citizens, these measures 
all inspired terror ; people were not persuaded they were 
terrified. 

Oh, what were my sufferings at this critical moment ! 
And yet I exulted in the thought that my husband, laying 
aside the purple, and shunning his courtiers for a brief 
moment, had come alone to Malmaison, reposed upon me 
the burden of his troubles, and conversed with me upon his 
chimerical plans. But though in former times I had dis- 
suaded him from the ill-advised projects he had confided to 
me, in which he flattered himself he should succeed, I was 
now almost afraid to undeceive him 1 Alas, that a man 



2O6 SECRET MEMOIRS OP 

upon the brink of ruin should repel the hand which Hope 
would lay upon his heart! 

As for me, I could not be so blind as not to see the 
utter uselessness of all the means he thought fit to employ 
in order to save France. I saw that the fulfilment of a 
kind of prophecy, made respecting me at the time of my 
divorce, was advancing with rapid strides. The prediction 
was that, from the moment Napoleon should forsake me, 
he would cease to prosper. 1 After taking new courage to 
perform the task of undeceiving him ; after presenting to 
him grounds of hope, much more substantial than any which 
he entertained, I again employed all the influence that still 
remained to me over him, to open his eyes to the results of 
his present embarrassing position. I had strength to rend 
away, without pity, the veil which still concealed from him 
the real character of certain courtiers. " The most of 
them," said I, " are combined together to precipitate your 

i On Saturday, the gth of December, 1809, at eight o'clock in the 
evening, I went to the hotel of Queen Hortense, hi the Rue Cerutti. 
There I saw the good Josephine ; she was with her lovely daughter. 
Both were sad. Left alone with this sensible and feeling woman, I 
spent nearly two hours in a private and affecting conversation with 
her. In this conversation I learned to appreciate both the oppressor 
and his noble victim ; during the interview, Josephine revealed to me 
important things. I judged, however, that the anguish she experienced 
was nothing in comparison with what she foresaw, and which her un- 
faithful husband was one day to experience. I did not conceal from 
her that the visit I had the honour to pay her might, at any moment, 
cost me my liberty ; but added that I was happy, indeed, hi her con- 
fidence, and especially to be able to calm her afflicted spirit. I 
remarked to her that I should deem myself culpable, indeed, had I, 
from any purely personal apprehensions, neglected to accept the invi- 
tation she had that day sent me. She replied, in a feeling tone, 
" Should you be arrested on my account, I shall then forget all my 
personal sorrows, and do all in my power to save you." This excellent 
woman religiously kept her word. She used, effectually, the most 
persuasive means in my favour, though she did not obtain my liberty 
till I had been twelve days under arrest. "Souv. Proph." p. 400. 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 2O7 

ruin. They only await the fall of Bonaparte to make their 
peace with the Bourbons. 'Tis not, however, the princes 
of that house that they cherish, but rather the fortunes aH\ 
honours you have lavished upon them, and which they are 
anxious to preserve, no matter in whose service provided he 
be powerful. Ah ! of what consequence is another perjury 
to them ? Our political troubles have taught them that 
in revolutions it is not best to attach one's self to a 
single master ; that it is necessary to have a far-seeing eye, 
a glance quick enough to discover, promptly, upon what 
sea the unstable vessel of Fortune is about to launch, so as 
to embark in her] the moment a prosperous gale fills her 
sails. 1 

" If you will believe me, Napoleon," said I to him on 
one occasion, "you might secure yourself an asylum in 
Italy ; there you would, I think, be sheltered from the 
factions. The people love you ; the Viceroy has neglected 
nothing to prepare the minds of men there in your favour ; 
while in France you must in the end sink beneath the united 
efforts of a formidable coalition. Then will flight be im- 
possible for you. Yet there is one means still remaining 
in your power" (80). 

He shook his head with an air of incredulity. I kept 
silence. He broke it first and said, " The entry of the 
enemy upon the sacred soil of France marks out my 
duties ? I know how to fulfil them. This occasion, it 
seems to me, will be serviceable to me beyond my expec- 
tations; I know how to profit by it as a man of genius 
should; and I shall throw around my projects of future 

I " From the step he takes," said one of Napoleon's old favourites, 
"I should be afraid he would resemble those ambitious dancers who, 
after having astonished us by the boldness of their movements, much 
above their real strength, finally breathe their last behind the scenes." 



2O8 SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

vengeance all the colours which true greatness of soul 
displays." 

But the brilliant hopes which he then conceived began 
to grow dim; and yet, to Maria Louisa, he feigned to 
be filled with illusions. Every time he paid me a visit 
he would say, " Josephine, when my soul is filled with 
pain, I feel the need of a true friend into whose bosom 
I may pour my sorrows. What astonishes me is that 
men should study every other science except that of happi- 
ness. "Tis only in retirement that I have found it, and 
that I may, perhaps, hereafter meet with it I " 

The allies had now penetrated into the heart of our 
provinces. " The Grand Austro-Russian army, under 
the command of Prince Schwartzenberg, had traversed 
Switzerland without the least resistance on the part of 
the troops which formed the ' Cordon of Helvetic Neu- 
trality.' General Wrede had hemmed in Belfort, and his 
advance posts extended beyond the Department of Doubs. 
On the 3oth of December, 1813, an Austrian advance guard 
took possession of Geneva without the slightest resist- 
ance. The capture of the city opened to the allies the 
road to Lyons and the way to Italy. From this time 
there was no longer any direct communication between 
France and Piedmont. During the night of the ist of 
January, the Russian corps, under General Wittgenstein, 
effected the passage of the Rhine, near Fort Louis. 
The whole of Alsace was inundated with Cossacks. 
On the same day the Prussian army passed the river 
between Coblenz and Mannheim, and the Russian corps, 
under the command of General Sacken, crossed it in front 
of the latter town. Coblenz fell into the hands of the 
allies. Mayence was invested by a considerable force. 
Marshals Victor and Marmont, the former of whom occu- 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 2OQ 

pied the interior line of the Rhine from Colmar to Weis- 
senburg, and the latter Landau, Durckheim, Grunstadt, 
Mayence and Coblenz, both found themselves compelled 
to effect a retreat. General Wrede soon penetrated to 
Colmar. Vesoul was not slow to fall into the power of 
the enemy. They forced their way through the defiles 
of the Vosges mountains, and torrents of Cossacks spread 
themselves over the country. The Prince Royal of Wiir- 
temberg, seconded by the hettman of the Cossacks, Platow, 
advanced upon Epinal, and took possession of it. The 
Austrian general, Budna, after leaving Geneva, penetrated 
into the Departments of the Jura, Ain and Doubs ; 
Prince Lichtenstein directed his course towards Be- 
san9on, and the Hereditary Prince of Hesse-Homburg, 
approaching from Dole, joined him, in order to complete 
the investment of that important stronghold. General 
Zeichmeisel possessed himself of the fort at L'Ecluse and 
marched to Nantua, on the road to Lyons. The city 
of Bourg in vain opposed some resistance ; it was taken 
and delivered up to pillage. The allied Sovereigns made 
their entry into Bale at the head of the Russian and 
Prussian guards and some regiments of reserve." 

It appeared to me very extraordinary that Bonaparte, 
in the midst of these alarms of war, should remain peace- 
able in his palace. His flatterers said he was preparing 
extraordinary measures; but I knew better than anyone 
else how dangerous it was for him to put himself at the 
head of an army compelled to retreat. And, besides, he 
could not now be ignorant that it was against him alone 
that banded Europe was advancing and prosecuting the 
war. The French nation coldly awaited the issue of a 
quarrel which seemed to interest them not at all ; while 
others secretly wished success to the foreign armies. I 

VOL. II 14 



2IO SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

was, perhaps, the only one who could really pity Bona- 
parte, and excuse the profound apathy in which he was 
plunged, since entire France demanded to be freed from 
the despotic power which had so long bowed her beneath 
a sceptre of iron. 

Each day brought news of new disasters. The allies 
were advancing at the East and South ; the Prussians, 
English and Dutch were marching rapidly upon Belgium. 
The French were forced to retire into the city of Antwerp. 
This place, then in a condition of defence, was commanded 
by General Carndt. Marshal Macdonald had been com- 
pelled to abandon the line he occupied along the left 
bank of the Rhine from Gueldres to Cologne. General 
Wintzingerode effected a crossing of the river at Dussel- 
dorf at the head 01 an army of 30,000 men. 

The Austrians under the command of Giulay threat- 
ened Langres 1 and the Department of the Upper Marne. 



I It was in the neighbourhood of Langres that the Austrian cavalry 
first showed themselves. A reconnoitring party being immediately 
driven hi by the enemy, the inhabitants of Langres ran to arms. The 
gates were shut and entrusted to a guard; patrols were passing all 
night. The next morning at daybreak, the bearer of a flag of truce, 
escorted by a party of hussars, presented himself at the Dijon gate. 
He insisted upon entering and having a conference with the mayor. 
Having summoned him in vain to retire, the guard fired upon him. 
The flag-bearer was not hit, but ran off. During the whole day hussars 
were seen caracoling along the road. The National Guard of the town 
extended a reconnoissance to the Faubourg des Anges, a quarter of a 
league from the city. Towards five o'clock in the evening another flag- 
bearer presented himself, in the name of Count de Thorn, with two 
hussars, while thirty hussars remained at a short distance behind them. 
A lieutenant of grenadiers of the National Guard fired upon the flag, 
and one hussar and two chasseurs fell on the spot. The inhabitants in 
consternation retired to the rear of the town, and were there awaiting 
the result, when suddenly the heads of some columns of the Imperial 
Guard showed themselves at the Chaumont gate. At the sight of these 
old soldiers, covered with scars and decorations, the rewards of their 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 211 

Bonaparte sent forward several battalions of his guard, 
but they were not able to hold their ground against the 
masses opposed to them. The French effected their re- 
treat upon Chaumont on the i6th of January. Langres 
la Pucelle opened its gates to the enemy, which conquest 
was soon followed by the overrunning of the whole of 
Champagne by the Prussians. The Austrian corps under 
Count Budna advanced towards the Sa6ne and towards 
Lyons. Macon capitulated to that general. The city of 
Chalons at first resisted, but was soon compelled to re- 
ceive the enemy within its ramparts. Lyons was also 
on the point of being taken, being then but feebly garri- 
soned ; but General Budna not taking a prompt resolution, 
Marshal Augereau had time to arrive and succour it, and, 
in his turn, took the offensive, in the hope of marching 
straight to Geneva and manoeuvring in the rear of the 
allied army in Franche-Comte. On the igth of January 
Prince Hesse - Homburg rnade himself master of Dijon, 
whence he marched towards Auxonne, a detachment 
taking possession of the road to Auxonne. On the 24th 
the combat at Bar-sur-Aube took place, where the 
French troops under Marshal Mortier performed prodi- 
gies of valour; but seeing themselves about to be sur- 
rounded, they retreated precipitately into the suburbs of 
Troyes. 

Such was the position of the foreign armies when Bona- 
parte decided to quit Paris. He conferred upon his second 
wife the title and functions of Regent during his absence. 

valour, joy succeeded to consternation. These brave men the elite of 
the veterans of the army after making a long and tiresome march, 
presented themselves, exclaiming, " We come to preserve to the city of 
Langres its name of La Pucelle." 

The consequence was that neither hostile Sovereign nor general 
entered the town. 

142 



212 SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

Before leaving he assembled the officers of the National 
Guard, presented to them his wife and son, stating that he 
trusted them to their fidelity, and that he was going to 
put himself at the head of the army. " Heaven," said he, 
" has united us ; we will never be separated. Stern Duty ! " 
he exclaimed, " which calls me into the midst of combats ; 
to thee have I too long sacrificed the pleasures of a husband 
and a father. Behold, now," he added with deep emotion, 
and again showing to the National Guard of Paris the young 
prince and the archduchess, " behold the throne which it 
is my duty for ever to defend." 

Their last farewells were pronounced ; but before leaving 
the capital far behind him, he resolved to revisit the place 
which had witnessed his hours of happiness in days gone 
by, and to pay a last visit to his former wife. 

He arrived suddenly at Malmaison at sunset. After 
having tenderly embraced me, he said, " How many afflict- 
ing thoughts assail me on this sad occasion. My friend," 
continued he, in an accent of the deepest despair hopeless- 
ness that spares no one and did he deserve to be spared ? 
"Ah!" continued he, while tears flowed in torrents down his 
pale cheeks, " I have been as fortunate as was ever man on 
the face of the earth ; but to-day, now, when a storm is 
gathering over my head, I have not, O Josephine, in the 
wide world, anyone but you upon whom I can repose ! " 

The life of a republic, like that of a man, presents 
moments of dizziness and blindness which it is impossible 
to explain ; at least, the finger of Providence cannot be 
recognised in theoi Providence that leaves us to our own 
weakness, the better to accomplish its designs. 1 I could 

i Bonaparte was not the only conqueror who experienced such 
troubles and the force of such reminiscences. Cromwell was all his 
lifetime darkly occupied in his mind about his astonishing metamor- 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 

now coolly contemplate his misfortunes. I beheld nothing 
in Napoleon's transports of regret and disappointment but 
the proof of a great character. While, on the one hand, 
violent passion is but an abandonment of reason, and no 
degree of moral strength is ever found in mere rage ; on the 
other, heroic fortitude in extraordinary circumstances is 
wholly founded upon patience, calmness and moderation. 

As to Bonaparte, nothing could assuage his feelings of 
despair. His intellect, clouded by mental suffering, had, 
for some months past, cast but a feeble ray. But when he 
finally saw himself ready to fall into the power of the 
enemy, it seemed to be utterly extinguished. He roared 
like the lion of the desert, and the words which fell from 
his lips expressed his regrets upon his past lot, and per- 
petual threats towards the formidable coalition of bis 
enemies. 

Such was the painful scene which took place between 
the son-in-law of Francis II. and myself. I still cherished 
the hope that I should see him again; and although it 
wrung my heart, I encouraged him to go and drive the 
foreigners out of France. But at this terrible moment, 
to separate my fate from his when he was a prey to such 
cruel apprehensions, to quit him perchance for ever " No, 
no," I exclaimed, " were I still your wife, nothing on earth 
should make me consent to this last sacrifice ! " 

" Vengeance is natural," said Napoleon ; "it is per- 
mitted us to repel an insult in order to guard ourselves 
against its repetition and to maintain our rights in cases 

phosis. Lord Pembroke said to him one day, " Protector, I know of 
no palace which unites so much magnificence with so much com- 
modiousness, as the one you now inhabit." " That would be true," 
replied Cromwell, " were there not one defect which spoils the whole 
plan." "And what is that?" "It is that it was not built forme," 
replied the Protector. M . 



214 SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

where the law is silent. Yes, when thus considered, ven- 
geance is a sort of justice ; and I intend to exercise it 
against my enemies. Besides, is not contempt the fore- 
most of offences ? I know how to nourish in my heart 
eternal hatred. Such is that which I reserve for those 
men who have forgotten my favours and the obligations of 
that gratitude which they swore to observe towards me." a 

At length he departed, without the utmost confidence 
in his plans, but convinced that it was his duty to hazard 
their execution. " Should I fall, O my friend, my fall must 
necessarily astonish the world." Such were the last words 
the Emperor uttered on leaving her whom he was to 
behold no more. 1 

1 Though flattery at times obtains unjust success, it is true that, 
in the end, it loses more than it gains, by the degradation and 
contempt into which it falls whenever the eye of the prince unmasks 
its baseness. 

2 Several days before Napoleon's departure, he assembled the 

council of state. While the council was waiting, M and T 

took upon themselves to go to the Tuileries and inform him that all 
the members had arrived, and only awaited his presence to commence 
their deliberations. They found him in a retired cabinet, surrounded 
by maps of the theatre of war, and compasses in hand. He was 
combining and adjusting, in a profound study, all the parts of the 
vast plan of campaign which, in his view, was to save his crown 
and preserve the empire. On seeing those gentlemen, he gazed at 
them for a moment with an air of surprise ; but recovering a little 
from his astonishment, he said to them, in a tone that struck them 
as extraordinary, "I've found it, I have them not one will escape!" 
"Never," said the courtiers to one another, " never was the Emperor 
inspired with such lofty conceptions; the enemy is ruined and the 
country is saved." A. dt B. 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 215 



CHAPTER XIII 

' Souls truly great dart forward on the wing 
Of just ambition, to the grand result, 
The curtain's fall ; there, see the buskined chief 
Unshod, behind his momentary scene, 
Reduced to his own stature, low or high, 
As vice or virtue sinks him or sublimes, 
And laugh at this fantastic mummery, 
This antic prelude of grotesque events, 
When dwarfs are often stilted, and betray 
A bitterness of soul by worlds o'errun, 

And nations laid in blood 

When blind ambition quite mistakes her road, 
And downward pores for that which shines above, 
Substantial happiness and true renown ; 
Then like an idiot gazing on the brook, 
We leap at stars and fasten in the mud ; 
At glory grasp and sink in infamy." * 

THUNDERSTRUCK by these many calamities, Bonaparte 
was compelled to witness the advance of the enemy. He 
now heard the thunder which was to overturn his throne. 
The most of the generals who possessed his confidence 
believed he would never yield an inch of ground. "Such 
a man as he," said they, " cannot and must not be con- 
quered. But while, with them, he was meditating upon 
all these things and forming plans to expel the stranger, 
his troops were in the greatest disorder. But they 
soon rallied themselves at his call ; he marched at the 
head of 60,000 men towards St. Dizier, of which he 
took possession after two battles, the last of which took 

I Young's Night Thoughts "Night VI. 



2l6 SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

place in the suburbs of that town. His design was to 
penetrate thence to Nancy, in order to cut off the enemy's 
communications with the Rhine and Germany. But be- 
coming apprised of the rapid march of Marechal Bliicher 
towards the capital, he moved towards the Aube, and 
encountered him at Brienne. Here a sanguinary battle was 
fought. By bombarding the town, which was of wood, 
Bonaparte soon produced an immense conflagration. He, 
however, made his entry into the place which was the 
cradle of his infancy, but which now presented to him 
nothing but a heap of ashes. 1 

Scarcely had this action ended, when . my husband dis- 
covered that it was but the prelude to one of still greater 
importance. Mar6chal Bliicher, reinforced by several regi- 
ments commanded by the Prince Royal of Wurtemberg, 
the Austrian general Giulay, and General Wrede, was in 
his turn able to take the offensive. On the ist of February, 



i Brienne-le-Chiteau, situated at the foot of a high hill near the 
Aube, is an open, unfortified village, made entirely of wood. It con- 
sists of only two streets, one of which runs down to the chateau and 
enters the road to Joinville; the other leads from Arcis to Bar-sur- 
Aube. Back of the town stands the chateau, built upon the hill, which, 
by a gentle descent, slopes off until it is lost in the forest which over- 
hangs both banks of the Aube, in the direction of Esmont, while, from 
the other side of Brienne towards Montierender. vast plains extend 
themselves to Ivannes, in the direction of Bar-sur-Aube. 

It was at the military school, formerly established at the Chateau 
of Brienne, that Napoleon pursued his studies. Here he acquired the 
first rudiments of the art of war ; here he first lighted the torch of that 
genius which was to astonish the world ; and it was here that, in t lie 
end, he came in quest of the combined armies of Europe, now united 
against him, and in order to deliver a battle which was for ever to 
decide his fate. " Campagne de 1814." 

Brienne is on the Aube, a branch of the Seine, about 150 miles 
east of Paris, in the Department of Aube, of which Troyes is the 
principal town. The department contains about 150,000 inhabitant, 
and Troyes about 25,000. TRANSLATOR. 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 217 

at one o'clock, p.m., the Prince Royal attacked the hamlet 
of Gibrie, and carried that important position, an advantage 
which secured the right of the foreign army, which now 
deployed in the plains of Rothiere. These troops, animated 
by the presence of the Emperor of Russia and King of 
Prussia, fought with the utmost enthusiasm; but the 
French repulsed them, and did not lose an inch of ground. 
At length, the enemy's cavalry having turned the left flank 
of the French, the infantry remained exposed to the 
enemy's fire. General Sacken advanced with impetuosity, 
and made himself master of La Rothiere. 1 Thrice, at the 
head of his guard, did Bonaparte renew his attack upon the 
village, but was obliged, at midnight, to abandon that 
important position. Victory now declared for the allies.* 

After the battle of Brienne, he retreated, fighting, 
towards Troyes; and learning that General Sacken was 
directing his march towards Montmirail, he abandoned the 
former town and retired towards Nogent, on the 6th of 
February. 

The congress opened at Chatillon-sur-Seine on the 4th 
of the same month. Bonaparte proposed an armistice ; the 
allied Sovereigns refused, although they offered to sign 
preliminaries of peace. It was resolved not to accept the 
conditions which the foreigners offered, but Napoleon 

1 General Duhesne defended La Rothiere. 

2 Such was the battle of Brienne, or rather that of La Rothiere. 
where, for the first time, Napoleon in person combated the allies upon 
the soil of France. The courage displayed by his troops, the heroic 
efforts, the danger to which he exposed himself, all go to show how 
important he deemed it to achieve a victory in this first encounter. 
Hence it was that the allies were obliged to carry by assault every 
village, every height, every wood, purchasing with their blood every 
foot of ground they gained. Their ardour, their constancy, and, moro 
than an, their numbers, triumphed, it is true, over all obstacles. 
"Campagne de 1814." 



2l8 SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

delayed giving them an answer in order to gain time. 1 He 
immediately ordered the army to march towards Champ- 
Aubert, where the Russian division, under Alsufeiff, had 
taken up its position. By his order, the Duke of 
Ragusa, at the head of the cavalry of the guard, 
attacked the enemy, who were in a moment utterly 
routed. The general, several colonels, and more than 
2,000 men were made prisoners ; the remainder of them 
were buried in a lake or massacred with arms in their 
hands. The defeat of the corps which formed the rear 
guard of the army under Sacken compromised the safety 
of his whole division. Bonaparte fell upon it on the 
road to Montmirail, near Ferte-sous-Jouarre, at the mo- 
ment it was uniting itself with the brigades under 

i " In reality " (says Alphonse de Beauchamp), " the Austrian 
Cabinet did not wish for peace without humbling Napoleon, and the 
Emperor Alexander yielded, out of mere respect to the suggestions 
made for peace. That powerful monarch exhibited the most noble 
frankness in all his transactions, and, like the Emperor of Austria, 
flattered himself that Napoleon would yield to the wishes of all 
the world and bow to the law of necessity. Russia and England 
showed no desire but that of a Continental peace conformable to 
the general interests of Europe. The conferences at Chatillon-sur- 
Seine commenced on the 4th of February, and a circuit of country 
of four leagues broad, surrounding that city, was declared to be 
neutral ground. Lord Castlereagh, principal secretary for foreign 
affairs to the British Government, at the request of Russia, arrived 
there. His name alone, his reputation for amenity of manners and for 
moderation, furnished ground to hope that the general desire for peace 
in Europe would be realised. The proposition for an armistice was 
made to the congress by the French plenipotentiary (Caulaincourt) ; 
but the allies substituted for it a proposition to sign, on the spot, pre- 
liminaries of peace, with the exception that the principal fortresses 
already invested, such as Anvers, Wesel, Mayence, Strassburg and 
Besanfon, should be immediately delivered up as pledges. The signing 
of these preliminaries would have given to France all the advantages 
of an armistice, at this terrible crisis, without any danger to the 
allied Courts which might have arisen from a suspension of arms. 
But Napoleon's real object was neither an armistice nor prelimi- 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 2ig 

d'Yorck. A violent battle took place, and after each 
side had for more than sixteen hours hung in an even 
scale, the cavalry of the guard under Marshal Mortier 
decided it in favour of the French. Sacken retired in 
the greatest disorder towards Chateau-Thierry. In pass- 
ing through that city, his soldiers gave themselves up 
to pillage and the most wanton excesses, and fled behind 
the Marne. This victory reanimated the French troops. 
On being informed of the defeat of Sacken, Mar6chal 
Blucher advanced towards Montmirail, and, collecting 
together the wrecks of Kleist's and Langeron's corps, 
pursued the Duke of Ragusa to the village of Vau- 
champ. Bonaparte gave up the pursuit of the fugitives 
he was chasing before him, and returned in great haste 
with his victorious troops, in the hope of being able to 



naries of peace. He only wished to suspend the progress of the 
confederates by embarrassing their political movements. He had 
no other view than to avail himself of the advantage afforded him 
by his union, formed contrary to all expectation, with the Austrian 
Princess ; and he judged correctly that it would be painful indeed 
for his father-in-law to co-operate in a war waged against an empire 
whose throne was occupied by the archduchess his daughter 
Would not this singular circumstance occasion imprudent delays 
and false measures? Josephine, and Josephine alone, seemed to see 
through the designs of the plenipotentiaries. She wrote a secret 
letter to her husband, urging him to make certain concessions de- 
manded by the critical state in -which France then was. " If you 
will try my plan," she wrote to him, " you will, perhaps, in a 
few days, be convinced of the truth of that maxim of Terence, 
in which he says, ' He who knows how to submit to a slight loss 
often gains more than he loses.' " The Emperor seemed undecided. 
At one moment he was upon the point of signing the treaty, and 

had already approved several of the articles, when Marshal D 

asked him, with vehemence, " And what, then, becomes of French 
honour?" This single expression produced such an impression upon 
his mind that he instantly tore up the memorandum, and again 
committed himself to that destiny which had thus far smiled upon 
him. 



22O SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

envelop the field-marshal, and thus annihilating the 
army of Silesia. At eight o'clock on the morning of the 
I4th he appeared upon the heights that overlook the 
village of Vauchamp, and immediately took possession 
of six pieces of cannon. Assailed on all sides by a 
superior force, Blucher ordered a retrograde movement, 
and retired, fighting, from Janvillers to a point beyond 
Champ- Aubert ; there, Bonaparte in vain attempted to 
cut off his retreat. The Prussian troops, animated by 
the presence of the Prince Royal of Prussia, cut their 
way through, and at length reached the village of 
Troyes, where Bonaparte left them to pursue their way 
towards Chalons, without following up his advantage. 
Their loss was 5,000 men. The French cavalry lost 
about 1,000 horses and as many riders. 

But Napoleon's army was wasting itself away by 
means of its numerous victories. 

Scarcely had the alarms caused at the capital by the 
presence of the Silesian army been dissipated, when 
suddenly new perils excited new terrors. The grand 
Russian army .was advancing by forced marches upon 
the banks of the Seine and the Yonne. The Cossacks 
were overrunning Gatinais; they had taken possession of 
Courtenay, Montargis and Nemours. The city of Sens 
was carried by the Prince of Wurtemberg ; Nogent, burnt 
and almost in ruins, fell into the power of the enemy, as 
well as the cities of Bray and Montereau, whose bridges in 
the meantime were blown up by the Dukes of Reggio and 
Belluno. A part of the corps under General Wittgenstein 
had crossed the Seine on the i3th, and advanced upon 
Nangis. The country people retired to Paris, taking with 
them their most precious effects, and spreading alarm by 
means of the frightful stories they related about the out- 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 221 

rages committed by the Cossacks, the Baskirs, the 
Kalmucks, and all the undisciplined hordes composing a 
large part of the Russian army. 

On the 1 5th, towards the break of day, Bonaparte gave 
up Bliicher, and with the utmost speed moved towards 
Meaux, where his troops arrived without having rested 
during a march of near fifteen hours. On the i6th, he 
moved his head-quarters from Meaux to Guignes, and 
united his forces with those under the Dukes of Reggio 
and Belluno. The next day he advanced upon Nangis. 
An engagement took place; but the Russians feebly 
sustained the shock of an army full of ardour, and fled 
towards Montereau and Provins. At sunrise, on the i8th, 
General Chateau attacked the city of Montereau. Hardly 
had he shown himself upon the bridge when he was slain. 
General Girard came up with fresh battalions, and the 
enemy was driven in disorder through the town. Mean- 
while, the allied army reorganised, and retired precipitately 
towards Troyes. 

This bloody encounter had shaken the courage of the 
allied Sovereigns, who, the next day, despatched a general 
officer to Napoleon to ask for an armistice. In the evening 
of the same day a pro jet of a treaty of peace was brought 
him from the Congress of Chatillon. One of the first con- 
ditions was that the armies of Europe should momentarily 
occupy Paris. Enfeebled by his victories, Napoleon foresaw 
that the hatred which reigned on both sides would soon 
rekindle the flames of war, although an armistice should 
be granted for a few days ; and the manner in which the 
conferences were conducted showed that it was all for 
mere form's sake. A moment afterwards, the balls again 
whistled, and the cannon uttered the signal of battle. 
" Then farewell peace I " exclaimed Bonaparte. He took 



222 SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

the paper containing the projet of a pacification, and tore 
it in pieces, saying, " I am this day nearer to Vienna than 
they are to my capital." On the 2oth, the army was on 
the march ; on the 2ist, it halted at Nogent. Great move- 
ments of troops were discovered at Mery-sur-Seine ; it was 
the army of Silesia, under Bliicher, rallying. 

During the affairs of Montereau and Nangis, Bonaparte 
had caused Mery to be attacked. The city was reduced ,to 
ashes, and the bridge having been burnt, the French and 
the foreign troops continued fighting, though separated 
from each other by the Seine. Without losing any time 
the French advanced to Troyes. The allies asked for 
time to evacuate the town, promising to surrender it at 
six o'clock a.m. on the next day. Bonaparte paid no 
regard to these solicitations, but directed his cannonade 
upon the suburbs, a part of which was immediately burnt, 
and cut his way through the place sword in hand. 

The Austro-Russian army, hotly pursued by the French 
divisions, now retired towards Chaumont, in Bassigny, and 
Langres. Mar6chal Blucher having thrown three bridges 
across the Aube near Baudmont, pushed forward all his 
troops in a very few hours, menaced Meaux, and passed 
the Marne at Ferte - sous - Jouarre. His army was now 
united to those of Billow and Wintzingerode, who, after 
having passed the barriers of the North of France, had 
taken possession of Lille, Laon, Soissons and Epernay. 
General Sacken transferred his head-quarters to Triport, 
and some of his hussars advanced as far as the gates of 
Lagny. On the 27th of February Bonaparte left Troyes 
to make another attempt to disperse the army of Silesia. 
On the a8th he established his head-quarters at Esternay. 
Blucher instantly took his resolution ; he marched towards 
Soissons. That city was opened to him by capitulation. 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 223 

The two armies met in the plains of Craonne. The 
Russians for a long time obstinately disputed the ground, 
but the French artillery forced them to retreat, and they 
abandoned the field of battle in disorder. Bonaparte now 
determined to attack Laon, where the enemy had en- 
trenched themselves. Frequently did his troops essay to 
carry this post, but the Prussians, aided by their position, 
repulsed them with considerable loss. Bonaparte again 
fought upon the retreat, and the allies took the offensive. 
Prince Schwartzenberg at Bar-sur-Aube attacked the corps 
under Marshals Victor and Oudinot, whom Bonaparte had 
left upon the Aube in order to go and encounter Bliicher. 
The troops under these marshals performed prodigies of 
valour, and only abandoned the field when overwhelmed 
by numbers. The Austrians passed the Aube on the 
28th of February. Prince Wittgenstein carried by assault 
the village of Laubrecelle, which was defended by the 
Duke of Tarentum. This double victory opened to the 
allies the route to Troyes, which place they entered after 
a slight resistance. The Prince of Wurtemberg again 
entered Sens, on the 6th of April ; and the Hettman 
Platow advanced first upon Arcis and then upon Sesanne. 
The Russians, under the orders of General Count St. 
Priest, on the I2th of March took possession of Rheims, 
from which they were dislodged by General Corbineau 
on the 1 3th, at six o'clock in the morning. Bonaparte 
now directed his march towards this position. He arrived 
at four o'clock in the afternoon at the gates of this city, 
before which the Russian army was drawn up in battle 
array. " Within one hour," said he, rubbing his hands, 
" the ladies of Rheims will be no longer at their ease." 
In a moment, fifty mouths of fire vomited death amidst 
the Russian ranks; they broke and. fled pell-mell through 



224 SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

the town, and in the utmost disorder rejoined Blflcher, 
who occupied the plains of Laon. 

Bonaparte remained at Rheims on the i4th, i5th and 
1 6th of March, awaiting the issue of the conferences at 
Chatillon. His plenipotentiary at length laid before the 
congress his ultimatum, whereby he demanded the line 
of the Rhine for his northern frontier, Italy and Venice 
for Prince Eugene, and certain indemnities, more or less, 
for his brothers Joseph and Jerome, and for his nephew, 
the son of Louis. 

Such propositions, which could have been made only 
by a conqueror, were revolting to the allied Powers, and 
Bonaparte's affairs were at that time in the most de- 
plorable condition. They were, of course, unanimously 
rejected; the Congress of Chatillon broke up, and hence- 
forth nothing opposed the return of the Bourbons. Having 
now no hope but in a war of extermination, Bonaparte 
directed even the women and children to use all means 
in their power to annoy the enemy. He declared that 
if the allies shot a single peasant whom they should take 
with arms in his hands, he would exercise cruel retaliations 
upon his prisoners ; and issued a decree denouncing death 
against all mayors or inhabitants who should refuse to 
arouse the ardour of their fellow-citizens. Alas ! never, 
in the history of war, was such desperation witnessed ; 
the carnage was universal. Whole regiments were de- 
stroyed and filled up again during that awful campaign, 
and had not peace taken place to arrest the work of 
death, it may with truth be said that the different nations 
which carried on this mighty struggle would not have 
sufficed to recruit their armies. 

While the allied Powers of the North and East were 
preparing to penetrate into the heart of France, the 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 225 

English, Spanish and Portuguese, under the command of 
Lord Wellington, had already carried St. Jean-de-Luz. 
On the nth of December, Bonaparte had signed a treaty 
with King Ferdinand, his prisoner, by which that Sovereign 
reascended his throne, and agreed to cause Spain to be 
evacuated by the British troops ; but this treaty could 
not be executed, inasmuch as the Cortes had declared 
they would not recognise any act done by the King 
while he was in captivity. 

From the time of the passage of the Nive to the 
1 3th of December, that is, within the space of four days, 
the English had been engaged in continual conflicts, and 
had taken possession of the whole country between the 
Nive and the Adour. Up to the jth of January the two 
armies were engaged in perpetual manoeuvring. On the 
8th, Bonaparte ordered a levy in mass in the southern 
departments. The Duke d'Angouleme arrived at St. 
Jean-de-Luz. His Royal Highness published a procla- 
mation to the French people, and was soon waited upon 
by a deputation from Bordeaux. Marshal Soult was 
forced to retire, and to concentrate his strength within 
the city of Orthes. The Duke of Wellington pursued 
him ; a battle took place under the walls of the city, 
and victory was long doubtful ; but Marshal Soult, 
assailed on all sides, was at length compelled to retreat. 
He retired upon St. Sever and Aires, intending to cover 
Bordeaux ; and unexpectedly recoiled upon Agen. Lord 
Beresford took Mont - de - Marsan and advanced upon 
Bordeaux. His Royal Highness the Duke d'Angouleme 
made his formal, solemn entry into that city on the I2th 
of March, 1814. 

After the taking of Rheims, Bonaparte reviewed his 
army, and detached a strong column of it, which took 
VOL. ii 15 



226 SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

possession of Chalons-sur-Marne. The army of Prince 
Schwartzenberg passed the Seine a second time at 
Montereau, Nogent and Pont. Bonaparte left Rheims 
on the i6th of March for the purpose of encountering 
him, and on the iyth arrived at Epernay. The enemy, 
enlightened by the counsels of the Emperor of Russia, 
concentrated themselves at Arcis-sur-Aube, with a view 
of giving battle to the French. Bonaparte did not an- 
ticipate such a movement, but supposed the Russian 
army was about to retire towards Troyes and Bar-sur- 
Aube ; for, on marching towards Mery, he had said, 
" To - night I am going to take my father - in - law at 
Troyes." Arrived at Arcis-sur-Aube he learned his 
error. A violent engagement took place. The French 
battalions, and those of the allies, were by turns put to 
rout ; night intervened, and the foreign army collected 
itself and withdrew through Chalons. On the next day 
the two armies remained in each other's presence until 
half-past one, ready for battle, but no battle was offered. 
Bonaparte now hastened his retreat towards Vitry and 
St. Dizier. On the 22nd Prince Schwartzenberg, placed 
by this manoeuvre between Bonaparte and Paris, united 
his army with that of Marechal Blucher. 

Marshal Augereau, who commanded at Lyons, made 
a sortie from the town on the nth of March with two 
divisions of his army, in order to attack the Austrian 
general, Bianchi, in the plains of Macan. But he was 
obliged to fight upon the retreat. Prince Hesse-Homburg 
joined Bianchi on the I4th, and at the close of an obstinate 
and bloody conflict on the igth the city of Lyons received 
within her ramparts a portion of the Austrian army. 

Marshals Mortier and Marmont, pursued by Blucher, 
stood a violent fire at Feve-Champenoise. On the 27th, 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 227 

Blflcher fixed his head-quarters at Fert6 - sous - Jouarre. 
The passage of the Marne at Triport was disputed ; but 
a bridge of boats was constructed as if by enchantment, 
and the allies found no other obstacles in their way to 
the capital than the corps under the command of the 
Dukes of Ragusa and Treviso. During this time Napo- 
leon was dispersing the cavalry at St. Dizier. In the 
evening of the 2yth of March he learned that the allies 
had penetrated into Meaux. After having lost some 
time in false manoeuvres, he commenced his march for 
Vandoeuvre ; he passed the Aube on the Dolancourt 
bridge, and received despatches from Paris, which in- 
formed him of the critical state of the capital. On the 
27th, Joseph Bonaparte reviewed the National Guard of 
Paris, and also 6,000 troops of the line. Maria Louisa, 
her son, the ministers and grand dignitaries of the empire, 
fled from the capital on the 2gth, and Joseph endeavoured 
to make preparations for its defence. A proclamation 
was stuck up, in which he told the Parisians that he 
had fixed his residence amongst them, as if his presence 
were a pledge of security. On the 3Oth the firing com- 
menced on the plains of Pantin. Certain seditious persons 
stuck up incendiary placards about the city, in order to 
induce the inhabitants to loop-hole the walls of their 
houses, to dig pitfalls, and to hurl missiles from the win- 
dows upon the enemy, in case they should dare enter 
the capital. Upon the heights of Montmartre and the 
hills of St. Chaumont the fighting was fierce and obstinate. 
At last a capitulation was signed, and Napoleon and his 
generals were utterly ignorant of what had taken place 
at the gates of the capital ! They were tortured by the 
most agonising suspense. Joseph was astonished at not 
receiving news from his brother, and apprehensive that 

152 



228 SECRET MEMOIRS OP 

he might have met upon the field the death he had long 
coveted. 

I said to those about me some days before the occu- 
pation by the allies, " It is supposed there is a movement 
going on in Paris." "All will soon be dissipated," said 

Marshal ; " those movements can never be dangerous 

to you, since you entirely possess the favour of the people." 
"It is as inconstant as he," I replied ; "such and such 
men were long the idols of the multitude who are now 
become their victims." " You have nothing of that kind 
to fear," said he ; " Nature has endowed you with the 
power to inspire both respect and love, and there is but 
one Josephine in the world." 

I caught with avidity every whisper from the capital, 
and seemed about to receive important news from everyone 
who came thence. I listened ; I put a thousand questions ; 
my mind was agitated. I had received no note from 
Bonaparte for several days ; I imagined a thousand ills 
had befallen him, the last worse than, the first. And how 
was I overwhelmed with consternation when I heard that 
his brother Joseph had left the capital ! It was, however, 
but the prelude to the new catastrophes which threatened 
us. I had already fled, and, uncertain whither to retreat, I 
determined to take the road to Navarre. At this sad junc- 
ture what an example did I present to the world of the 
utter nothingness of human vanities I I understood the 
capitulation was about to be signed and that the allies 
would be masters of the capital the next morning. 1 I 



I The news reached the allies that the city had capitulated. The 
heir of Peter the Great and the heir of the great Frederick threw them- 
selves into each other's arms, exclaiming, with tears in their eyes, " The 
cause of humanity is gained ! " The two monarchs, immediately after 
the armistice was concluded, repaired to the heights of Belleville. There 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 22Q 

was so terrified, so overwhelmed with affright and with 
grief, that I expected every moment to see them coming 
to seize my person. I could not rest in my bed, where 
my friends had forced me to repose for a few minutes. 
I was about to abridge this suffering by ordering post- 
horses to take me to M , when suddenly I heard a 

quick rapping at the door of the chateau of Navarre. It 
was four o'clock in the morning ; a courier entered and 
announced M. de . 

" When," said he, " a people are happy they judge with 
a feeling of indulgence actions which are not wholly fault- 
less ; but such a tribunal becomes severe, unpitying, and 
almost always unjust when it sees itself in the jaws of 
adversity. Then are men guilty and their acts criminal; 
then are the battles in which they fell hazarded by the 
blackest treason 1" 

When it became known that the capital was to receive 
within its walls the different nations of Europe, every- 
body was loud in accusations against the general who 
was charged with its defence; the partisans of Napoleon 
were especially vehement and bitter in their reproaches. 
They retailed the story with that air of mystery which 
always awakens the attention and lends wings to rumour. 
On hearing it, the people would not, except upon con- 

they looked upon the capital of France and received the deputations. 
At four o'clock p.m., Count Nesselrode entered the city, clothed with 
powers to ratify the capitulation, which was upon the following basis : 

" That the allied troops should, on the next morning, occupy the 
arsenal and all the barriers and then enter the city ; that the marshals, 
the Dukes of Treviso (Mortier) and Ragusa (Marmont), should march 
out of it at the head of their respective corps, with their arms and their 
artillery. 

" That in no event should hostilities recommence until two hours 
and a half after the evacuatidn. 

" Paris was recommended to the generosity of the allied Sovereigns." 



230 SECRET MEMOIRS OP 

ditions, submit to the laws which imperative necessity 
obliged them to accept. 

If the rumour of the approach of foreign troops rang 
loudly through Malmaison, it did not the less resound 
through the castle of Navarre, where I was, mourning 
over the disasters of Bonaparte. Still, all hope had not 
left me. I calculated upon the bravery and distinguished 
talents of the Duke of Ragusa. I flattered myself that the 
command of the troops composing the garrison was safely 
entrusted to him ; that while that personage, so respect- 
able on every account, should feel a secret hatred of the 
strangers, my husband and my family might still hope. 1 

In my heart I deplored the fate of Bonaparte. I was 
afraid, and not groundlessly, that he might fall ; for it had 
been intimated to me that he was to undergo a military 
execution at the head of the invading army. This cruel 
report so shocked me, that my words expired upon my 
lips. 1 For several hours I felt that my reason was failing. 
In my deep despair I exclaimed, with Montaigne : " Rely 
not upon the promise of Sovereigns, whether of regal or 
republican states : honey distils from their lips : they are 

1 I have never said that the Duke of Ragusa betrayed me ; I 
have only said, in a moment of ill-humour, that his capitulation at 
Essone was ridiculous, and that it was injurious to me." "Max. et 
Pens, dt Bonaparte." 

2 The most false and absurd reports were put in circulation at that 
time. Sometimes, Napoleon was returning to Paris at the head of 
200,000 men ; sometimes, the ex-Emperor was condemned to death. 
Men assured you, under the faith of an oath, that they had seen the 
carriage pass by which contained his remains. One would tell you he 
had seen it, another that he was present at his execution ; and give you 
all the details which the benevolent people always receive with avidity, 
and always will receive, as long as they love whatever partakes of the 
marvellous. The truth is, it was long thought that Napoleon had shel- 
tered himself in FontainebLau, in order to place himself again at the 
head of his brave legions, who all swore to die in his defence. 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 23! 

never more cruel then when they forgive : never are they 
louder in their boasts of clemency than when they are 
signing sentences of death." 

After weeping profusely over the disasters of my hus- 
band, which I deemed inevitable, I again momentarily 
recovered myself, but soon relapsed into my former mood. 
Often, in accents of woe, did I repeat this sentiment of 
a great man : 

" O Praise, quit Courts, where thou degradest thy 
noble office, and renounce the degrading task of flattering 
weak and wicked princes. Ascend upward towards thy 
source, towards that Supreme Power that hath enriched 
the tongue with the gift of speech, and hath given wings 
to thought and being to the soul. Even under the eyes 
of the Creator, man humbles himself before man ; while 
thou, the sovereign owner, to whom all things belong, 
art deprived of all homage due to thee alone ! " 

^No, alas ! 'tis not the ruin of Napoleon that I deplore ; 
the first wish of my heart, when I was with him, was to 
know that he was happy ; the second, that he might be in- 
debted to me alone for a part of his felicity. This last of 
my prayers can now never be accomplished ; the first, 'tis 
my lips shall pronounce it, even upon the bed of death, if 
I am conscious that he survives me ; for he will ever flatter 
himself that a new order of things will arise and replace 
him on the throne. Very many of his generals hated his 
despotism ; but still continued to flatter the Sovereign 
in order to obtain his favour and that of his son, who 
might one day occupy an important position. 

My situation at Navarre was becoming more and more 
critical ; I knew not as yet what I was to hope, or to fear. 
My courtiers could not long conceal from me the occupa- 
tion of the capital; and the trump of fame had already 



332 SECRET MEMOIRS OP 

brought to my ears the name of the immortal Alexander. I 
found myself almost in the sad condition of the family oi 
Darius. Should I await the orders of my husband's con- 
querors, or should I go and implore their generosity ? The 
melancholy state to which Bonaparte was reduced, wholly 
engrossed my feelings and my thoughts. I was resolved 
to share his death, or to follow him into exile. 1 I was 
painfully surprised to receive from the minister, Talley- 
rand, a despatch inviting me to return to Malmaison to do 
the honours there (81), the Emperor Alexander and the 
King of Prussia having expressed a wish, as I was told, 
to see the queen of that palace of enchantments. 

I had some difficulty in mustering firmness enough 
to comply, thinking I might perhaps have to receive the 
same Princes who had overthrown my husband and 
broken for ever the sceptre of his authority. I made 
a painful effort upon myself; and the day I was honoured 
with the visit from those Sovereigns, I managed to con- 
ceal my feelings surprisingly. But it could not but be 
manifest that my heart was sorely afflicted when I 
thought of my present situation, and compared it with 
that of the great man to whom my lot was once united. 
How painful were my retrospections ! 

I thanked those magnanimous Princes for having had 
the generosity to honour with their presence the forsaken 
wife of Bonaparte; I testified my gratitude for the love 
they manifested for the French people (82). I recom- 
mended to their kind consideration that brave army which 



z Noble-hearted woman ! what a contrast does this feeling present 
to that which actuated his second wife, who abandoned him as readily, 
and with as little compunction or concern, as if her child had been the 
son of a German boor, and not of a greater than Czesar or Alexander. 
TRANSLATOR. 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 233 

had long displayed such prodigies of valour; I pleaded 
the cause of those brave soldiers who still formed a 
bulwark around the hero of Austerlitz ; and I claimed 
earnestly claimed the liberty of the man whom I still 
loved. I forgot all his wrongs towards me, and thought 
only of his misfortunes. In a word, I pleaded his cause 
with that earnest eloquence of the heart which is ever 
so persuasive; and, perchance, even then did I con- 
tribute something to secure for Napoleon terms which 
he might, for the moment, have regarded as disadvan- 
tageous, but which it will be fortunate for him to be 
able to preserve for the future. 

Could I have banished from my mind the thought 
that Napoleon was far from me, and of his cruel situa- 
tion, I might say that Malmaison then became again 
what it had been in its best days. What charms did 
those beauteous scenes present, adorned by Nature and 
art, to attract a smile from the masters of the world ? 
The concourse thither became immense, and even without 
the presence of the man upon whom all my recollections, 
all my anxieties centred, I might here have enjoyed some 
degree of tranquillity and happiness ; for now, all the 
trappings of greatness, every prestige of human grandeur 
had vanished from me. Some private and engaging per- 
sonal virtues were all that remained to me qualities 
which, doubtless, spoke far more eloquently in my behalf 
than all those mercenary orators who used to flatter me 
while I enjoyed the glory which surrounded the wife of 
a demi-god. It was, then, to myself alone that I was in- 
debted for the sincere praises which the august Sovereigns 
were pleased to address to me. Certainly, I was not 
insensible to the love which the French people testified 
towards the family of Louis XVI., and I mingled my 



834 SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

accents with the voice of a faithful people who recalled 
their legitimate Princes (83). "It is time," said I, "that 
this political crisis should cease, and cease for ever; for 
everyone must have had his fill of revolutions. As to 
myself, I have never craved any other power than that 
of scattering blessings around me, and in this I was 
seconded by Bonaparte. He permitted me to co-operate 
with him in repairing, with more or less magnificence, 
the losses which the French Revolution had occasioned 
to all the families of the first class of society. The 
heart's true felicity consists in resigning all that is dear 
to one's self to promote the happiness of others." 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 335 



CHAPTER XIV 

WE are easily melted to pity when we see an un- 
happy being overwhelmed with sorrow, seeking to hide 
himself from the sight of those who would fain share it 
with him, but who refuses to show to others, even by a 
tear, that his proud heart is pierced by the shaft of adver- 
sity. The forsaken condition of such a man arouses within 
us the noble desire of administering to his relief, and his 
refusal to receive our consolations only serves to interest us 
the more in his behalf." 

The King of Prussia and the Emperor Alexander seemed 
to divine the cause of a part of my profound afflictions. My 
most secret thoughts seemed to be those of the two generous 
Princes. They heard and pitied me, and the pity of the 
conquerors was a homage paid to the wife of the conquered 
hero. 

I could have wished to keep up a regular correspondence 
with Bonaparte during the whole of the time he stayed at 
Fontainebleau. I sought by every means in my power to 
console the illustrious unfortunate. I strove to convince 
him that his own interests required him to accept the 
favourable terms offered him by the Sovereigns. " The 
least hesitation," I wrote him, " on your part, will occasion 
the loss of precious time. Would that you were this day 
free! I am sure I should persuade you to listen to my 
prayers, and come to Malmaison, the place which was, as 
it were, the cradle of your fortunes, and which even now 
might become a secure asylum to him who will, perhaps, 
never find one, except amidst the danger of a stormy sea I 



336 SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

O my husband ! forget for ever that you might once have 
ruled the world ; your astonishing destiny was not your own 
work, but that of the Revolution ; and, without the shock of 
people against kings, 1 you might have remained confounded 
with the mere officers of the army. Perhaps you might 
have been more lucky than others, for such a man as you 
could not languish in obscurity. 

Thus did I give him continual proofs of my entire de- 
votion to his cause, and, on leaving France, he could say 
with truth, " I leave at least one friend behind me." 

Meanwhile his departure was put off from day to day, 
and he always found some new pretext for deferring it (84) ; 
he hoped all from time, and the multiplied efforts of his 
army. 1 He thought himself sure of the attachment of the 
old soldiers whom he had so often led to victory, and even 
still relied upon the fidelity of their chiefs. One day, one 
single day, served to undeceive him. The greater part of 
them were more anxious to heal than to reopen the wounds 
of France. They calculated the chances of a partisan war, 
and weighed well its results. At heart they were opposed 
to the discharge of that duty which their attachment to 
their old master exacted of them. They could not, without 
a shudder, contemplate the horrible spectacle of French- 
men slain by the hands of Frenchmen in order to prolong 
the power of one man, whose name had, by the united 
efforts of the whole world, been erased from the list of 
Sovereigns. 

The courage of these brave soldiers was not humbled by 

I Kings cannot all be great men ; Nature does not permit it, and 
Bberty itself has much to fear from those transcendent geniuses who 
feel their own strength, but do not resist the temptation to abuse it. 
Ptnsees de Josephine" 

z He who does not desire the esteem of his contemporaries, is un- 
worthy of it " Pensees de Bonaparte." 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 237 

seeing Bonaparte proscribed and unfortunate. They would 
have dared defy the enormous mass of foes who had flocked 
thither from every part of Europe to battle with him ; but, 
at the voice of their chiefs, and of the Emperor himself, who 
recommended to them fidelity to their legitimate Sovereign, 
and who, also, released them from their oath of fidelity to 
him, those brave men, accustomed to conquer and obey, by 
a unanimous consent laid down their arms. They shed 
tears upon their colours ; such is the inborn honour of a 
Frenchman's heart the sacred fire which he nourishes in 
his soul ; and woe to those who dare criticise, or censure, 
the kind of religious worship which he offers upon the altar 
of glory 1 

Thus passed away several days, which were to me days 
of anxiety and mourning. Alexander's heart was too full of 
generous emotions not to respect my recollections of the 
past, and my present situation. " How delightful," said 
that eminent personage to me, " how delightful must have 
been this spot to Napoleon ! Could he but pass his life 
with you, madam, he would have nothing to complain of 
here but the too rapid flight of time." Thus did those 
foreign Princes know how to appreciate the feeble merits 
of her who was doubly happy to be able to consecrate 
her life to acts of beneficence, and to remain faithful to 
that great man. 

Such was my anguish in contemplating the probable 
fate reserved for him I loved, that my very heart seemed 
crushed ; I could not speak, and reason itself almost 
vanished. 1 was apprehensive that he would be put to 
death in case he persisted in perpetuating the war, and 
the sudden transition from this painful thought to the 
assurance which I received that he was to possess, in 
full sovereignty, the principality of the Island of Elba, 



238 SECRET MEMOIRS OP 

filled me with unspeakable joy. Such were the emotions 
which this produced within me that I fell down senseless, 
and was carried to my apartment. Oh, what new impulses 
of gratitude and friendship then thrilled me ! On coming 
to myself, my eyes fell upon the bust of the generous 
Alexander (85); an exclamation of surprise and admira- 
tion escaped me ; for it was to him, to his generous 
protection, that Paris owed its preservation, and that I 
myself was indebted for the life of that man on whose 
account alone I still felt any interest in the affairs of 
this world. 

And towards the nephew of the great Frederick, and 
his companions-in-arms, was I also forced to testify my 
gratitude. But, alas! Destruction, the cruel daughter of 
Vengeance, had descended upon our hapless towns and 
cities, making her wild work with their beauty and opu- 
lence, and threatening the utter overthrow of a second 
Carthage. One word, one single word, from the great 
man Alexander and his allies would have hurled both 
the errors of the vanquished and the resentment of van- 
quishers into the waves of oblivion. " Alas ! Prince," 
said I to the valiant descendant of the immortal Cathe- 
rine, " how ought mankind to admire you for thus uniting 
clemency to grandeur and greatness" (86). 

I wrote Bonaparte a letter as he was about quitting 
Fontainebleau for the Isle of Elba. 1 In it I addressed 
him as follows: 

"What, then, have I done, my friend, or how can 
I have offended you ? What ! you reproach me ; you 

I The answer he gave my envoy was this : " Tell the Empress 
Josephine that a true hero plays a game of chess at the close of a 
battle, whether lost or won. Besides, there are few men possessed 
of sufficient mental power to judge of me without passion and pre- 
judice." NOTE BY JOSEPHINE. 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 239 

repel all my anxious concern for you! Do you not re- 
member that the mother and daughters of Darius threw 
themselves at the feet of the conqueror in order to per- 
suade him to spare the life of a son and a father ? Alas ! 
I see it too plainly, your soul is troubled, or you would 
not despise my kind offices. But, Bonaparte, I have done 
all in my power to alleviate your ills ; and, far from chiding 
me, you will yet acknowledge that Josephine was, to the 
last, your most sincere friend. You will yet regret that 
you ever for a moment doubted it. Alas! I have been 
long plunged in the depths of affliction. Death alone 
can deliver me from them. 

" I speak to you, but you hear me not ; I write to you, 
but know not that you will ever read my words. But I 
have, at least, one consolation, that of believing that if 
my happiness consists in thinking of you, you will not 
learn that fact with indifference illusion for illusion ! O 
my friend, you may still imitate my example; renounce 
a deceitful world, and, spending the remainder of your 
days in peace (87), cultivate the noblest feelings of your 
nature, those of a father to your child. Unfortunate 
youth, how I pity him ! feeble skiff, thrown, without a 
pilot to guide it, upon tempestuous waves, exposed to 
be dashed to pieces upon hidden rocks. O my friend, 
how frail are this world's goods. What man, prince or 
peasant, happy to-day, can promise himself to be so to- 
morrow? Would that your son's fortunes might not be 
influenced by those dreadful political shocks which have 
contributed to establish your own power, a power which 
the sudden change in the government has now over- 
thrown. 1 Happy, a thousand times happy, he who can 

z If the reader will take the trouble to consult "L'Histoire dti 
Ouvrages des Savans," year 1687, month of December, Art. iii., p. 455, 



340 . SECRET MEMOIRS OP 

repose himself under the roof inherited from his fathers ! 
Who is able to say, * My fields, my flocks, my hearth, are 
sufficient for me ' ! Such a one may, without pang or 
anxiety, view the approaches of old age ! But, with 
ambitious princes, it is never thus ; never, never does this 
sublime thought of Young penetrate their hearts 

We stand as in a battle, throngs on throngs 
Around us falling, wounded oft ourselves, 
Though bleeding with our wounds, immortal still I 
We see Time's furrows on another's brow, 
And Death entrenched, preparing his assault ; 
How few themselves in that just mirror see ! 
Or, seeing, draw their inferences as strong ! 
There, death is certain ; doubtful here : he must, 
And soon : we may, within an age, expire ; 
Though grey our heads, our thoughts and aims are green. 
Like damaged clocks whose hand and bell dissent, 
Folly sings six, while Nature points at twelve : 
Divine, or none, henceforth our joys for ever ; 
Of age, the glory is to wish to die.' " * 

***** 

It appears that these Memoirs of the Empress Josephine 
were not written beyond this period. Political events so 
extraordinary, so disastrous the fall of the great man 
whom she had never ceased to adore as her husband, and 
whom his unheard-of reverses had rendered more dear to 

he will find a notice of a book entitled, "Presages de la Decadence des 
Empires," in which the author establishes the fact that empires are 
subject to the laws of change, and that there are none whose duration 
can exceed a certain number of centuries. This duration he fixes at 
from twelve to thirteen centuries. By a long series of arguments, he 
arrives at the conclusion, that " a certain empire which hath held 
Europe under its yoke or in terror, and which hath seen thirteen 
hundred years without receiving a mortal blow, is not far from some 
sad catastrophe " and then proceeds to foretell to those who live 
within the bounds of that state, that the signs forewarn him that they 
will flee from it, for fear of sharing the wounds which will be inflicted 
upon it. 

i Night V. 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 241 

her than his astonishing prosperity had done so many 
misfortunes, I say, afflicted her too profoundly to allow 
her to write out the harrowing details. I have been able to 
find only scattered notes and memorandums, from which I 
now proceed to draw the necessary facts for the completion 
of the history of the life of this Princess. May the public 
pardon me for presuming to raise my feeble voice, after 
hearing that of a woman so justly and universally mourned ; 
and may they, in the following narration, equal in real 
interest to anything that has preceded, forget that it is 
traced by another pen. 

To the praise of Josephine, it may be said, she heard 
with delight of the return of the august Prince, who was 
received with great acclamations. The public joy was at its 
height. Never did the capital see within its ramparts so 
brilliant a ceremony as that of the 3rd of May, 1814 ! * On 
that glorious day, the French people formed but one family. 
All the factions were annihilated ; every one promised sin- 
cerely to forget the past and, on this auspicious occasion, 
a unanimous vow was uttered in favour of the allied 
Sovereigns, who, in giving us peace, united with that 
blessing that of restoring to us the august House of 
Bourbon. 

The Empress must have been surprised at receiving 
the compliments of the King's brother. 8 Could she have 
forgotten that she was once the wife of Napoleon, this 
would have been for her indeed a triumph. But this 
homage was addressed to her as an individual. Her 

x The day of the entry of His Majesty Louis XVIII. 

2 "I esteem myself happy," said Josephine, "that fortune hath 
called me to be the wife of Bonaparte, for I have ever used the 
ascendency I had over him in endeavouring to save the lives of the 
illustrious unfortunates whom I did not believe guilty." 

VOL. II 16 



242 SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

eminent services in behalf of illustrious outlaws 1 were 
well known to a Prince capable of appreciating her true 
worth. It was not to the Princess who was solemnly 
crowned in the great temple of Notre-Dame that these 
flattering felicitations were addressed ; but to a woman 
who, for fifteen years past, had been the pride and ad- 
miration of France. 

Prince Eugene, not being able to preserve Italy to 
himself, 1 was constrained by political events to renounce 
the viceroyalty as well as the Venetian states, and the 
new arrangements entered into by the great Powers of 
Europe annulled the act of the Prince- Primate by which 
Eugene was called to the sovereignty of Frankfort. So 
that the son of Josephine, notwithstanding his valour, was 
constrained to submit to necessity (88) ; still, he was not 

1 Whenever Josephine happened to observe, from her apartments, 
a throng about the Tuileries, or on the terrace, and discovered a 
petition among them, she would send for it. Thirty such petitions 
would sometimes be presented in a single forenoon. If they hap- 
pened to contain the signatures of persons of note, her habit was 
to grant relief on the spot, out of respect for the position of the 
claimant. But her bounties were not known. She charged her 
secretary, M. Deschamps, and her principal valet de chambre to in- 
form themselves respecting persons petitioning, and if, in case it 
turned out that they were victims of the Revolution, which was 
most frequently the fact, she would grant a pension, or some do- 
mestic relief. 

2 The Prince-Primate Charles, the Sovereign of Ratisbon, had 
adopted Eugene as his successor at Aschaffenburg, Frankfort, &c 
That venerable archbishop bore a singular affection for Josephine. 
Whenever he spoke of Napoleon, he was accustomed to say, " The 
little good which this monarch has done is chiefly owing to his 
wife. So far as in her lies, she seeks to repair his faults ; and so 
charmingly does she manage him that, to hear her, one would be 
almost tempted to admire even the political crimes of this scourge 
of Germany." This was certainly the most beautiful eulogium that 
could have been pronounced upon the mother of the Prince who 
was to inherit the estates of a man who knew so well how to 
discern and to recompense merit. 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 343 

without hope. As to his mother, she knew no other joy 
than that of being reunited to her children. On the 
return of the Viceroy she again enjoyed a few brief 
moments of happiness, to be appreciated only by a 
mother that of embracing, after a long separation, the 
being to whom she gave birth. This was, so to speak, 
the last delicious sensation which Josephine experienced ; 
for soon the inexorable Fates were to sever the thread 
of her painful existence. She had received from august 
lips the assurance that her estates should be preserved 
to her, and had been invested with the title of Grand 
Duchess of Navarre (89). In a word, had she possessed 
a less sensitive heart she might, perhaps, in consequence 
of the different allowances she was to receive from the 
Court of France, have entirely destroyed the recollection 
of the past, which had had so many charms for her 
especially when she cast her eyes into the future. 1 Un- 
fortunate woman ! she had seen the most brilliant illusions 
of this life pass away ; she now dreamt of nothing but 
to die ; and yet the most illustrious things of this world 
were still around her. One of the most agreeable moments 
in this closing scene of her existence, when her past 
grandeur seemed to her but a dream, was that when 
leave was granted her to be publicly presented to the 
King. 8 She was worthy of it, she who at all times, 

1 This reflection is unworthy of the memory of that illustrious 
but unfortunate woman. How could she ever have " forgotten " 
that she was the beloved wife of the hero of the Italian and 
Egyptian campaigns, of Austerlitz, Jena, Borodino, and a hundred 
other fields of glory of the elected Sovereign of the French people, 
whose hands had placed the imperial diadem upon her brow, whose 
voice had shaken down the feudal system, and made all its tyrants 
tremble on their thrones ? TRANSLATOR. 

2 The Empress engaged her son to procure her a presentation 
to the King Prince Eugene met with the most distinguished re- 

16 a 



244 SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

and under all circumstances, had proclaimed the virtues 
and innocence of Louis XVI. and his illustrious and 
immortal Queen ! She was worthy of it, who, during 
the reign of anarchy, had rescued from the hands of 
cruel faction innumerable victims, 1 whose opinions were 
ever in harmony with the most generous sentiments, who 
had confronted more than one danger in aiding Tin fortunate 
emigrants who had so often dared to make Bonaparte 
tremble for his abuse of power. She often pointed out 
to him the traitors who finally managed to hurl him 
from the throne. Entirely convinced that her husband 
aimed only at the good of the people, she admired in 
him an extraordinary man ; but she never flattered his 
power. She applauded his good deeds ; but it is wrong 
to impute to her the excesses of his reign. 

Those who have experienced pangs which they are 
constrained to dissemble, and for which they unexpectedly 
receive a balm which brings a momentary relief, may 
form some idea of Josephine's feelings on being informed 
of Bonaparte's safe arrival at the island of Elba. 

She received from that man, whom all the nations of 
Europe had thought it their duty to humble, a letter 
which breathed nothing but sentiments of the utmost 
kindness. He began to see that it was to her constant 
and unvarying friendship, and to her kind interposition, 

ception. She herself was to have been publicly presented, accom- 
panied by her daughter ; but, from certain perfidious reports in 
circulation, she feared she should be regarded only as the wife 
of a man whose reign had ended ; and this caused her so much 
chagrin as, probably, to hasten the fatal malady to which she fell 
a victim. 

i For years did Josephine appear upon the vast theatre of Courts ; 
she knew how to make friends, and sought to unite all the different 
parties who, before her appearance on the scene, were armed for 
mutual destruction. 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 745 

that he was indebted for his new existence. She read 
the letter with the tenderest emotion. A sudden trans- 
port of delight, mixed with a thousand fears, changed her 
first sensation, on receiving the letter, into a sort of hope 
which seemed to revive her. 

" You wish me absolutely to speak," wrote Bonaparte. 
" Ah ! you will praise me for keeping silent when I shall 
have answered. No matter, you exact it, and you must 
be satisfied. Well, Josephine, all your fears, which I 
laboured to destroy, all your terrors, which I so long 
combated, are but too well justified by the event. Your 
husband, forsaken by his friends and his flatterers, can 
henceforth be saved only by Murat. Let destiny be 
accomplished ; it will doubtless prove more potent than 
men. I abandon myself to its direction, and, perchance, 
you will soon see your husband more powerful than ever. 
I cannot find an eternal abode on the island of Elba ; 
my country, my country is where I can rule." 

However well prepared she might have been for the 
woes which he announced to her, the effect of the lightning 
is not more sudden or violent than that which this news 
produced upon her. She remained motionless as a statue. 
Tears streamed from her eyes ; the last spark of hope 
went out, and the whole world vanished from before her. 
Alas 1 she could no longer correspond freely with Napo- 
leon, and this new act of ingratitude on the part of 
Murat (for she was not ignorant of his projects) (90) had 
the effect to deprive her at once of all happiness and of 
life. 

Two beings only could now attach her to earth and 
prolong her days days devoted to mourning; and the 
thought of them revived in her all her former suscep- 
tibility. In vain did she attempt to conceal her feelings; 



246 SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

she continued to receive visits from the most illustrious 
personages, who hastened to honour her with their 
presence, though, on several occasions, she hesitated to 
go to her daughter at St. Leu-Taverny. 1 

The last day the Sovereigns came to pay their respects, 
a shade of melancholy was spread over her features ; 
nothing but the presence of the august guests then at 
her daughter's could have induced her to resort to a 
concealment of her feelings. It was observed that she 
was afflicted ; sorrow was imprinted on her cheek. Her 
languid look, the enfeebled accents of her once sweet voice, 
and that air of perfect goodness which always indicated her 
sympathy in others' sufferings, made her more interesting 
in the eyes of the foreign Princes than if she had been in 
the heyday of youth and vivacity. She seemed to have 
made an offering of her own existence ; she found her only 
happiness in that of others, whenever she was able to con- 
tribute to it ; all idea of her own felicity was banished from 
her heart ; though the tears of joy shed by the unfortunate 
objects of her beneficence were to that heart a healing 
balm. Her soul was the vase, which sheds its sweetest 
perfume at the approach of the evening. 

She continued her accustomed promenades. She loved 
to point out to the illustrious strangers, who came in throngs 
to Malmaison to admire and to pity her, all that was costly 

i It was observed as very singular that Josephine, who ordinarily 
took great pains in matters connected with her toilet, was absolutely 
en neglige at a dinner given by her daughter Hortense at St. Leu. 
This being mentioned to her by one of her women, who urged her 
to improve her appearance in order to attend the fete which was to 
be honoured by the presence of the Sovereigns, she refused ; and it was 
with the utmost difficulty that she finally persuaded herself to attend 
on that occasion. 

The Empress Maria Louisa twice visited Hortense in her solitude 
at St. Leu, and addressed to her the most flattering compliments. 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 247 

and curious about that magical retreat (91). The rarest 
flowers and fruits charmed the senses of the numerous 
soldiers who, born principally upon the frozen banks of the 
Neva and the Beresina, knew nothing of their smell, taste, 
or beauty. She carried her bounty and generosity so far 
as to come herself to enquire whether anything were want- 
ing in the service of the table. In a word, this incom- 
parable woman made herself firm friends among the most 
distinguished personages of all nations. And even at this 
epoch, Bonaparte, whom others seemed to envy even in 
his unheard-of adversity, was fortunate enough, at least, 
to possess a perfect friend, and to preserve her friendship 
even In exile. 



248 SECRET MEMOIRS OF 



CHAPTER XV 

IF we carefully consult our own feelings, we shall find 
that, when we are about to part with a dear friend, a sort 
of revelation tells us whether the separation is to be for 
ever. 

On Monday, the i6th of May, 1814, it was noticed, with 
surprise, that Josephine's physiognomy wore a gloomy and 
forsaken look; her eyes were red and swollen, like a person's 
who has wept much ; and as she was afraid her women 
would suspect she had been weeping, she said she had a 
violent headache ; she became quite feeble, and her friends 
feigned to believe it was headache, although the most of 
them were greatly alarmed at so sudden a change. 

Several days passed, and she began to feel the approach 
of the disease which was hastening her death. She ob- 
served certain precautions, prescribed by her physicians, 
to arrest the disease in its origin ; but it had already made 
the most alarming progress. On the day before the one 
which snatched her away from France, from that lovely 
France which she adored, she gave at Malmaison a grand 
dinner to the Emperor Alexander. She was unable to do 
the honours, and her place was supplied by the Duchess of 
St. Leu. Josephine was forced to keep her room, and 
unable to see anyone except her children, whom she 
sent for. 

Her first effort was to stretch her arms towards Eugene. 
The Prince, supposing it an invitation to embrace him, 
threw himself into her arms. He took one of her hands, 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 349 

and carried it to his lips, pronouncing the loved name 
of mother. That name so dear to Josephine, and 
which Eugene repeated several times, penetrated her 
heart. She opened her eyes, which had been closed, 
gazed sorrowfully upon her son, and then looked away 
from him. She then pushed him gently from her, and 
said, in a whisper, as if she foresaw the frightful mis- 
fortunes with which she was to be bowed down : 

" Soon you will no longer have a mother ; soon you will 
have no one to love you as tenderly as she ! " 

How shall I describe the death of Josephine ? Let the 
reader picture to himself that lovely woman, who, by her 
pleasing qualities and the most perfect charms of mind and 
character, once ruled over the most polished and gallant 
nation on the globe let him paint to himself her last 
moments ! Let him call to mind the time when the graces 
of her person, and the charms of goodness which enlivened 
her angelic face, heightened the brilliancy even of the 
imperial purple which she wore, and then view her in her 
present situation, with a raging fever preying upon her and 
life nearly extinct ; her head tossing upon her pillow, and 
almost delirious ; her brow on fire, her look dull and 
languid ; her pallid lips, from which the smile had for ever 
fled ; the cloth which covered her dying body, and which 
was about to become her winding-sheet ! Great God ! is 
this, then, the Empress ? Is this the Empress and Queen ? 
What did I say ? What now are her titles and her great- 
ness ? She has forgotten them all all save one, the dearest 
of all, that of a mother ! " Alas ! " said she, " Nature 
bestows on us that endearing name to console us in life, 
and even at the gates of death. Who can tell but that it 
may even prolong for a few brief moments our transitory 
existence ? who knows but its empire may extend beyond 



250 SECRET MEMOIRS OP 

the tomb ? Oh, yes ! " she added, " yes, my children, every- 
thing here reveals to my heart that, in the blessed abode to 
which I am summoned, I may still intercede for you that 
privilege is reserved for me in heaven." 

No longer was she that lovely and brilliant Josephine, 
clothed with all the graces, as with a garment, and sitting 
upon the most glorious throne in the world. It was 
Josephine breathing her last. A mother stretched upon 
the bed of death, surrounded by the beings who were the 
dearest to her, whose sighs and groans fell upon her dying 
ear. The disease was aggravated by the peculiar state of 
the blood, produced by the violence of her grief, and which 
contributed to hasten the fatal result. The fever, however, 
was intermittent, and permitted her, during her lucid in- 
tervals, to speak of her husband to the children. " My 
dear Eugene," said she, " the greatest good, both for people 
and princes, is glory, provided its object be the public 
happiness. 'Tis not by following the erratic courses of 
great men that a man raises himself to a glorious reputa- 
tion, but by imitating their virtues. Imitate whatever good 
and usefulness others have done, and you will one day 
have imitators among the greatest nations of the earth." 
Here her respiration became difficult. Her children, who 
did not for a moment leave her bedside, moistened it with a 
flood of tears. "Ah, Napoleon," said she, with failing 
voice, " I have not been able to survive thy misfortunes ! 
Thy utterly forsaken condition, the ingratitude of those 
who owe their all to thee, the treason of many whom thou 
callest thy friends these things are the causes of my death 
these are the causes which hasten me to the tomb ! I am 
fast sinking; every hour adds to my corroding sorrows. 
Honoured by the attentions of my husband's conquerors, 
I cannot but admire their noble and generous conduct 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 251 

towards the French people ; but I should have preferred to 
share Bonaparte's exile, for I should, by my presence, have 
soothed the days of sorrow which are reserved for him." * 

Hortense and Eugene, standing by her bedside, held 
those hands which were a moment since scorched with 
fever, but now cold and almost inanimate. They seemed 
resolved to hold back the spirit of their parent, now ready 
to leave the body and ascend to heaven. The efforts they 
made to recover one of her hands which she had with- 
drawn from them, their increasing lamentations and prayers 
to God to restore her to them for a moment, aroused 
the dying Josephine. She seemed to regain a little of 
her strength ; her spirits seemed less prostrated, her 
brain more calm, and her words, which just before ex- 
pired in an inaudible whisper on her lips, began to be 
heard by her heart-broken children at the moment the 
physicians entreated them, as a matter of prudence to 
themselves, to withdraw from the scene of woe. "Ah," 
said she, grasping their hands with the little strength 
which nature still gave her, "leave them with me 
leave them with me ! I am still their mother 1 " She 
clasped each of them in turn to her bosom, and their 
tears mingled. 

" It was for you, my children," said she, " for you 
only, that I desired fortune and honours. Did I need 
them for myself ? Did not my attachment to Bonaparte 
displace every other attachment ? Oh, my God ! Thou 
knowest how well I loved that man, called by Thee to 
attain to so much greatness the sport of Thy will 

i Bonaparte, in his exile, could not, like Ovid, repose himself upon 
the hope that his wife would erect for him a tomb. She who would 
have gladly rendered him this pious office was no longer in existence. 
She left to stranger hands the duty of closing his eyes. 



252 SECRET MEMOIRS OP 

the man who seemed sent by Heaven, first as an angel 
of safety, and then as a scourge. 1 Thou knowest how 
much more I have loved him as his misfortunes in- 
creased. Would he were this day before my eyes with 
my children, as he is with them in my heart! Yes, my 

I I cannot enter into an examination of Madame de Stael's com- 
plaints against the man who governed France for twenty years. Such 
a task were too much for my strength. Rocks would beset my path on 
every side. I should wound cherished recollections, and open wounds 
not yet fully healed. The time for writing the life of Bonaparte has 
not yet arrived. Eulogies on the living are not in good taste; and 
sorrow and disappointment have rights which lay an interdict upon 
criticism. The author who wishes to write history must choose a sub- 
ject which he can view in all its relations ; and only one side in the life 
of Bonaparte can. at present, be examined. In order to display his 
faults we must wait for time to enable us to estimate his high faculties. 
Madame de Stael seems not to have reflected upon this. A friend of 
liberty, as she has proved herself to be, she should have reflected that 
a writer who, at the present time, arraigns Bonaparte, exercises an 
irregular jurisdiction, since attack is interdicted where defence is 
impossible. Had she thought of this she would not have approached 
a subject in which she could be unjust at her ease, and without contra- 
diction ; and, to borrow her own language, she would often have 
thought that proud spirits take pleasure in defending an unfortunate 
man, and satisfaction in placing themselves in contrast with those 
orators who were yesterday prostrate before him, but who, to-day, 
labour to insult him, while estimating the height of the prison walls 
which surround him. 

How has the writer, who uttered that just and noble sentiment, 
herself fallen into the error she deplores ; how has she been seduced, 
by her hatred against the Sovereign, to wield it against a whole nation ; 
to declare that, during his reign, no kind of virtue has been respected 
in France ; to ask what distinguished man has showed himself during 
that period, to pronounce a sentence of condemnation for the future, 
and to prophesy that, for a long time to come, no man will arise where 
he has ruled ! When, in fine, we see the same writer parade before us 
a pompous list of the celebrated men which a neighbouring state has 
produced, and is producing, astonishment succeeds our grief I had 
almost said our indignation. But, at the present time, to speak is not 
safe, and to be silent is a duty. We have, indeed, reached a point 
where silence is more eloquent, and even more audible, than words. 
Leon-Thiesse, " Letters from Normandy," 12th June, 1818. 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 353 

son, my daughter, there is but one being in the world 
who shares that attachment which would otherwise be 
exclusively yours at this trying moment but one man 
who can claim any part of my love any portion of my 
dying thoughts and that man is Bonaparte! In vain 
has he given to another the title of his wife ; in vain, 
satisfied in the arms of his new companion, has he 
more than once contemned my useless regrets; I pardon 
him all, all, absolutely! Would that he were here! 
this, my last day, would be my happiest." Her sobs 
checked her, and she was forced to pause and take a 
moment's rest. 

Hortense is standing at the foot of the bed of death; 
her face, bathed in tears, is covered by her two hands, 
which she removes, from time to time, only to gaze upon 
her dying mother, and then reproachfully upon a picture 
of Napoleon which was hanging near by. Eugene is 
kneeling at the pillow, his arms extended, his eyes red 
with weeping, his countenance pale and livid ; his ap- 
pearance seemed not to differ from that of his mother. 
It seemed his fate to die with her; the grave seemed 
yawning to receive them both. Josephine tasted a mo- 
ment's rest ; her spirit, though ready to leave its tene- 
ment of clay, seemed yet to tarry for a brief space before 
taking its flight to Heaven like the lamp which burns 
beneath a temple's vault, near the holy altar, to which 
a drop of oil gives a momentary brightness before its 
ray departs for ever. 

The Empress profited by the strength which repose 
gave her to converse still about her unhappy husband. 
She made a sign to her daughter to take down the 
portrait of Bonaparte and to place it on her bed near 
to her. She gazed at it with manifest emotion, and 



254 SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

then, raising her eyes to heaven, said, " O God, watch 
over his destinies ; I fear he will involve new victims 
in his misfortunes, for I doubt not he is still seduced 
by the dreams of ambition. He would fain quit the 
retreat which the foreign Powers have granted to him ; 
my children will again be exposed to the dangers of the 
struggle, and I, alas, shall no longer be here to direct 
them in their course ! O God, avert such a catastrophe ! 
Watch over him while he remains in the desert of this 
world; spare him new and additional disasters. Alas! 
though he hath committed great faults, hath he not ex- 
piated them by great sufferings? If his projects of 
ambition have given birth to great evils, hath not his 
genius effected great good? Is his reign marked by 
nothing but the calamities of war ? Just God ! who hast 
ever looked into his heart, and seen with how ardent 
a desire for useful and durable improvements he was 
animated, I ask Thee, would it be rendering justice to 
the hero on whose features I now gaze, to speak only 
of his wanderings without saying a word of his virtues ? 
Justice, daughter of Heaven, I appeal to thee. Hath 
Bonaparte done naught but evil ? I appeal to the justice 
of France, to the impartiality of her historians. 'Tis 
true that, in retracing the reign of that man, now be- 
come so famed, the pen of history must describe the 
disasters of the late wars; but that will only be after it 
hath consecrated to undying glory a multitude of glorious 
campaigns. Yes, history must speak of the ills of Spain, 
of Russia, and the invasions of France ; but her sacred 
lips must first teach to posterity the glories of the cam- 
paigns of Italy and Germany. She must first teach 
them to revere the names of Marengo, Ulm, Tilsit, Jena, 
and Austerlitz. If she is compelled to record the devas- 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 255 

tations which followed Napoleon's rash enterprises, she 
must also speak of the superb monuments which arose 
from the earth at the bidding of his genius, of the 
temples he raised, the altars he rebuilt, the rivers he 
made to contribute to the embellishment of cities ; she 
must point to the Apennines, the Alps, Mont Cenis, 
and the Simplon, once impassable, but made level, as 
it were, under his reign, presenting to the traveller superb 
roads, facilitating commerce, subservient to the arts, and 
opening a ready communication between France and her 
neighbouring nations. In short, if his ambition has had 
its thousands of victims, the historian must add that his 
bounty and munificence have made, and are to-day 
making, thousands of ingrates. 1 But I stop here ; it 
does not belong to me to name them ; my life is closed ; 
I have terminated the brief years of my existence years 
which have seen so many flowers spring up and perish 
in my path. Now the struggling breath of dissolution 
is upon my lips ; their accents are fast failing ; but the 
words I now utter are no less the interpreters of my 
last thoughts. O God, deign to approve them ; and 
may this image of my husband bear me witness that 
my latest wish, my latest prayer, were for him 2 and 
my children ! " She still spoke : " Preserve the Bourbons 
for their country and their subjects. It is now in their 
power to restore to France both its ancient splendour 

1 Whenever an emigrant's petition was presented to Napoleon, 
he would hand it to his aide-de-camp, or put it in his right pocket, 
a sign that the matter was to be looked into. Whenever he placed 
it in his left pocket (which was called the good pocket), it was a 
sure sign he was disposed to grant what was asked. 

2 Bonaparte ever preserved his esteem for, and was tenderly 
attached to her, at least during the last two years of her life. "She 
did not abandon him in his disgrace, but continued to be his con- 
solation and support to the last day of her life. 



256 SECRET MEMOIRS OP 

and its modern prosperity. Josephine implores this 
blessing." 

A short time before she breathed her last the windows 
of her apartment were opened for the admission of the fresh 
air of spring. The weather was pleasant, the trees clothed 
with flowers, and the west wind, laden with perfume from 
the neighbouring groves, wafted the odours to her bed. 
She was thus enabled to breathe the fragrant air of spring. 
" She dies," exclaimed the weeping by-standers, " at the 
birth-time of flowers." Alas! Josephine, from her infancy, 
had been acquainted with sorrow she had learnt at an 
early age how much it costs one to have a feeling heart. 

If, on the one hand, she felt her heart relieved by 
pouring the secrets of her sorrow into the bosoms of her 
offspring, whose souls were so congenial with her own, this 
long recital had, on the other, reopened all her wounds 
and renewed all her emotions. 

In her expiring moments she said, " My sight grows 
dim ; a cloud, a boundless cloud, rises between the world 
and me. I am dying ; I am insensibly escaping from my- 
self ; though I feel that I have but a few moments to live, 
I know, also, that there are eternal years before me." 

Full of hope and confidence, sure of enjoying immortal 
bliss, she waited for death with a feeling of security. " I 
might," said she, " invoke death, had not my Maker for- 
bidden me to desire it." 

No passion agitated, no interest longer guided, her 
thoughts. She was about to close her eyes for ever. 
But those of Omnipotence were upon her ; at any mo- 
ment she might hear the summons from her final Judge. 
The Emperor Alexander, understanding that Josephine 
was in danger of falling a victim to the sudden and cruel 
disease whose symptoms he had observed in her some days 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 357 

before, arrived at Malmaison and asked to see the Empress. 
She seemed to gain a little strength on seeing him. Deeply 
affected by the picture which she had before her eyes, she 
gazed upon it with a look of gratitude. Prince Eugene, 
kneeling, received the blessing of bis illustrious mother, as 
did also Queen Hortense, whose anguish it is impossible to 
describe. 

"At least," said Josephine, with dying accent, " at least 
I shall carry with me some regrets. I have aimed at the 
good of the French people ; I have done all in my power 
to promote it, and I may say with truth to all who attend 
me in my last moments, that never, no, never, did the first 
wife of Napoleon Bonaparte cause a tear to flow." These 
were her last words (92). 

Thus died Josephine; thus perished, in her fifty-first 
year, that lovely and wonderful woman, an interesting 
victim to her attachment to a husband whom she never 
ceased to love. Alas ! misfortune and the passions never 
fail, sooner or later, to drag into the abyss of death the 
beings who have been marked as their victims. 

Josephine expired ; her face still preserved all its 
serenity, all its mildness the image of a soul which had 
returned to its Source. It seemed as if the smile and the 
gracefulness which once dwelt upon her lips, were rekindled 
there, though death had closed them for ever. " Thou art 
no more our mother," exclaimed her children, pressing her 
cold and lifeless hands ; " 'tis all over with us we have no 
longer a friend ! " After a short silence, interrupted only 
by sobs and groans, Eugene added, " If there be another 
abode for maternal love, for benevolence, for every lovely 
virtue, alas ! yes, Josephine, thou shalt dwell there. Sister 
of the angels ! ascend to them, and after loving us on earth, 
remember us in heaven." 

VOL. II 17 



258 SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

The Emperor Alexander burst into tears (93). That 
powerful Sovereign had shown the most marked personal 
respect towards Josephine. He esteemed and mourned 
her. His eyes remained fixed upon the mortal remains 
of the wife of a proscribed and unfortunate man. The 
young hero honoured with his presence the last moments 
of a universally regretted woman. He left the room, 
deeply affected; but returning after a few hours to the 
coffin, he raised the death cloth from the face of the 
corpse, and, with eyes filled with tears, uttered his last 
adieu in these touching words : 

" This Princess is dead, and she leaves eternal regrets in 
the hearts of her friends, and of all who knew her." 

This testimony of esteem on the part of a great monarch 
fills the measure of eulogy to the memory of the Empress 
Josephine ; and I should add nothing to it, could gratitude 
have any bounds. 

Doubtless it will require a more eloquent pen than mine 
to erect a literary monument worthy of her memory, and I 
am by no means insensible to the feebleness of my means 
and the smallness of my talents; but as that admirable 
Princess was the most modest of women during her life, 
I have judged that her august spirit could not reject even 
the humblest homage after her death. 

Unite with me, then, all ye who knew Josephine: like 
me, ye have been witnesses of her benevolent deeds. 
" 'Twas she who gave us work and bread," exclaimed a 
numerous procession of unfortunate persons who followed 
her towards her long resting-place. " She is no more, and 
in her death we have lost our mother and our support." 

Scarcely had the solemn convoy (94) that conducted the . 
remains of the Empress to Rueil, reached the threshold of 
the church, when her funeral oration was on every tongue. 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 259 

Every one exclaimed, "Death has unexpectedly stricken 
down this heavenly woman, whose memory will for ever 
be dear to the unfortunate. Without any other strength 
than that of a generous patience, without any other in- 
trigue than a knowledge of the human heart, she signalised 
the days of her prosperity by uncounted acts of benevo- 
lence. Her heart was the fountain of those numberless 
virtues which render her the model of women." The 
eulogy and the rehearsal of her good qualities formed 
the most interesting portion of her funeral pomp. 

If history is forced to consecrate some of the errors of 
Napoleon, she will also relate that Heaven placed beside 
him an angel of goodness, clad in all the seducing forms of 
beauty and gracefulness. She will also say that, in the 
times of our calamities, that goodness was never implored 
in vain ; and that, if she was not always able to prevent an 
abuse of power, she could always inspire the sufferer's heart 
with hope, that last consolation of the afflicted. 

Josephine is no more ! There scarcely remains of that 
celebrated woman enough to fill the smallest urn. Yet the 
sparkling flame of a funeral pyre has not devoured her 
remains ; the celestial genius which animated her still 
keeps watch over them, and causes them to be respected. 
That monument is not covered by a pompous marble ; it is 
not surcharged with eloquent inscriptions ordinarily the 
homage of flattery, or the tribute of vanity. Wreaths of 
roses, and crowns of amaranths and violets, replace the 
pompous escutcheons and the long and tiresome epitaphs 
in letters of gold. But her dust deserves, in my opinion, 
another resting-place. A few days before her death she 
took pleasure, more than once, in repeating the following 
touching and remarkable words : " I have, at least, suc- 
ceeded in drying up a tear, but have not to reproach 

172 



260 * SECRET MEMOIRS OP 

myself with ever having caused others to shed tears." 
Certainly, she who during her mortal life was an honour 
to the arts, and an ornament to the virtue of friendship, 
ought not to remain unknown in the vault of the church at 
Rueil. Plants, flowery shrubs and trees, ought to form an 
arbour on her tomb, and exhale their united sweets above 
her ; and, by a diversity of fruit and flower, present to the 
visitor a subject of delicious contemplation. The zephyrs 
sporting through the foliage, and waving their branches, 
would seem to impart life to them, and animate the shade 
of Josephine. A globe, an image of the sun, should shed 
its light upon the darkness of the night, and keep watch at 
the entrance of her tomb. At day-dawn, a new star would 
recall to us the imperfect idea, but one which we have 
adopted, of the palace of the Divinity, whose vaults are 
formed of eternal suns. The virtues of the deceased 
Josephine would seem, then, to shine with new brilliancy ; 
and, in this moment of ecstasy, the visitor should see her 
statue seated on a throne of gold ; crowns and immortal 
palms should circle her brows ; the earth be made to re- 
joice at her presence among the celestials, and her bliss 
in being associated with that holy band who celebrate the 
greatness and goodness of God with songs in which angels 
and archangels join with the sound of lyre and harp. She 
should point the way to that blest abode where repose the 
souls of the just, whose conduct here has been righteous 
and pure. 

Our grandchildren, thinking there will be no more night 
and that an eternal day beams upon us, will sometimes 
contemplate the shrubs planted here and there upon the 
lawn of Malmaison. The amaryllis should spring up 
around her tomb, and bend above it like the weeping 
willow, giving to the place an aspect at once picturesque 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 26l 

and gloomy. The tears of friendship should often water 
their roots ; upon her tombstone should be read this 
inscription, eloquent in its simplicity: "Here lies the 
first wife of Napoleon Bonaparte. She was universally 
mourned by her contemporaries. She transmitted to her 
children the heritage of her virtues. She was seated 
upon a throne whose foundations were sapped by the 
death of the unfortunate Louis XVI." 

Josephine, Bonaparte's last friend; Josephine, the first 
object of his ambition, and the only woman whom, not- 
withstanding his inconstancy towards her, he truly loved, 
will live for ever. Bonaparte was fortunate while her lot 
was connected with his. His life was less miserable while 
she survived. Dying, she still wished to press his hand; 
his name was the last word she uttered, and her last 
tear fell upon his portrait (95). 

If, after death, there remains of us a flitting shadow, 
Josephine will dwell in the Elysian Fields. Approach 
her, illustrious Beauharnais, Hoche, Lannes, Bessieres, 
with brows bound with roses and laurels! Haste to her, 
thou august Prince (Duke d'Enghien), whom she sought 
to save ; haste, and crown her with myrtle and amaranths I 
Lightly rest the earth upon her coffin! May the place, 
where a simple stone now covers her (96) still tell the 
traveller that, on the and of June, 1814, the remains 
of the Empress Josephine were here deposited; but that 
her name shall pass down the stream of Time for ages 
to come, and be known throughout the world, when it 
shall, perhaps, be searched for in vain amidst the ruins 
of the church at Rueil. But 'tis at Malmaison, in front 
of the cherished abode of Josephine, that our posterity 
will come to visit her tomb. 

Time destroys great reputations ; that of Napoleon's 



262 SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

first wife will be deathless. Envy persecutes the living 
only ; it respects the dead, and troubles neither their 
glory nor their repose. Josephine shall live when the 
earth shall be consumed. 

Life is a perishable good ; Time, in its rapid flight, 
destroys it. The violet and the lily are not always in 
bloom ; the rose falls to the ground, and its stock re- 
mains, armed with thorns. Thus pass our years. I have 
seen the faded, despoiled shrub clothed again with flowers 
and verdure, and its stock, though armed with thorns, 
hath afforded me a lover's wreath ; but now, alas ! its 
roots are dried up. 1 

The silence of contemporary historians will leave pos- 
terity for ever ignorant of the immediate causes which 
hastened the death of Josephine. The secret is for ever 
buried in her tomb, and it belongs to no one to reveal 
it to the French people. 

Death separates her from the present. Unpitying 
Death gives her to the future; the future, Josephine, is 
thy recompense. Thy spirit, attracted towards another 
world, breathes a purer air above the tomb, and repels 
the approach of Time, which sets bounds even to Hope. 

i Ovid, "An Amandi," lib. i. 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 363 



NOTES TO VOL. II 



(i) Page 6. PICHEGRU. 

BONAPARTE did not order the murder of Pichegru, bnt he was guilty of 

great imprudence in saying, ill-humouredly, to D , M and S - , 

" When shall I be rid of this man ? he fatigues and annoys me. It is 
impossible for me to send him to Synnamari, and I cannot make up my 
mind to sentence him. Louis XI. was not in so sad a predicament as the 
First Consul ! " Those cowards understood him, and resolved upon the 
destruction of the unfortunate general. It could not be disguised that the 
conqueror of Holland still had some partisans. He was also feared for 
his unbending veracity, and was, moreover, possessed of a correspond- 
ence which might seriously have compromised the general of the army 
of the East. The latter knew that fact, and was anxious at any price to 
regain it. He had written to Pichegru, and caused others to write to 
him while he resided in London ; but Pichegru refused him that satis- 
faction. The secret police had beset him with their bloodhounds. A 
woman who had a certain degree of influence over him, attempted more 
than once to get possession of the correspondence by means of artifice. 
All was useless. The Consul swore eternal hatred against this French- 
man, a victim to his zeal in the cause of his King. 

In order to satisfy, in some sort, the resentment of Bonaparte, and 

hoping thereby to render themselves agreeable to him, D , M and 

S agreed to send to the Temple four Albanians with orders to search 
Pichegru and possess themselves of his despatches. This was but a vain 
pretext for sacrificing him. These miserable hirelings fell upon Piche- 
gru and struck him. The unhappy prisoner made some resistance ; one 
of them held his hands, another his legs, a third gagged him, and the 
fourth, placing his feet on his throat, strangled him with his own cravat. 
They even insulted the body of their victim, and mutilated it in several 
places. The jailer was not in the secret, though those who ordered the 
commission of the crime were there. The hapless Pichegru had just 
pressed the hand of one of them in token of their ancient friendship ; but 

the heart of S was as cold as marble, and he remained unmoved 

during the execution. The body was so placed as to raise a suspicion 
that the prisoner had committed suicide. But such a mistake could not 
be made ; the lie was too glaring. Shortly before the commission of this 



264 NOTES TO THE SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

crime the report was circulated in Paris that Pichegrn had poisoned 
himself. " So much the better." said Napoleon ; " it will spare me the 
disagreeable necessity of punishing him." But when he heard of the 
general's death he was manifestly moved ; his knees trembled. Was 
he playing a farce ? He had always assured me of the contrary. " I 
should," said he, " have pardoned him ; I only wanted to try him." Such 
was his language to Madame de la Rochefoucauld, who took the liberty to 
speak to him on the subject. The papers which Bonaparte was anxious 
to reclaim were not found ; they had been deposited hi faithful hands. 
" This crime," said he, " is a useless assassination ; 'tis horrible ! I 
swear that I am innocent of it, and you ought to believe me." He often 

used this language to me. " I wish," continued he, " that M may 

long feel the effects of the blow he received from that unhappy man while 
expiring by so cruel a death." Then, tapping with his foot, he added, 
" Had Pichegru lived I should have been a fearful enemy to him. He 
has fallen by the assassin's hand ; I ought to pity his fate and have the 
Albanians punished." They afterwards disappeared, and Bonaparte 
regarded it as a happy circumstance that the truth respecting this 
nocturnal crime remained buried within the tower of the Temple, which 
recalled to the minds of men such thrilling, such bitter recollections. 
NOTB BY JOSEPHINE. 

(2) Page ii. 
" Pardon, provided he would ask it" 

Bonaparte was anxious to attach to his interests the famous Georges 
Cadoudal. "This Briton," said he, "is an important character to his 
friends. He is extreme in everything. I had much rather pardon him, 
but he must, in the first place, humble himself before me. Otherwise, 
he must fall a victim to his zeal for the wretched party he belongs to. It 
is true I admire his courage. There is an end to everything. After 
serving the Bourbons so well, he might, I should think, attach himself to 
my cause. Ah ! what does it matter to him whether he serve under the 
banner of an Octavius or a Lepidus ? Such a man as he is certainly 
valuable to the Sovereign who knows how to employ him." I boasted of 
his courage, his rare devotedness, and interceded in his behalf. " No, 
madam," said he, "you will obtain nothing for him he is not of the 
same temper as the others he is a phenomenon of the present age, a 
rare friend. I want to gain him over, and to do so he must owe his life 
to me. Use all your efforts to induce him to do this act of condescen- 
sionI give you full liberty." I promised to neglect nothing to effect 
that object. On the sad day of his condemnation I charged a devoted 
servant with this honourable mission. He visited the Vendean general, 
and found him in the court of the Conciergerie prison, surrounded by a 
group of prisoners, who were gazing upon him in silence and admiration. 
My messenger wished to speak with him in private, and for that purpose 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 265 

persuaded him to withdraw under one of the sombre galleries which sur- 
round that pestilential pit. 

Georges refused to listen to any individual communication, and said, 
in a loud and animated tone, " Sir, you can speak in the presence of my 
friends ; the same oaths bind, the same sentiments animate us. My 
cause is their cause, and their cause is mine. What do you wish ? " 

"To save you," answered M. de F . "I have come to you in the 

name of the Empress ; write to Bonaparte and ask to be pardoned." 

"Ask to be pardoned!" replied Georges, warmly, "and what is to 
become of my noble companions ? Will they be spared ? " 

On being answered in the negative, and told that four of them were 
marked for execution, he replied, with vehemence and indignation : 

" Go, tell Bonaparte that Georges Cadoudal can humble himself for 
his friends, but for himself never ! Thank the Empress for her gene- 
rosity ; but tell her that my last word is, All or nothing I " 

These words were reported to me, by my messenger, immediately. 
I flew to Bonaparte ; I entreated him to respite them all. He repulsed 
me. I instantly sent back my messenger to the Vendean chief. He 

was playing at quoits when F arrived. The latter renewed his 

efforts to speak with him in private, but Georges refused. " Sign," said 
the benevolent man, who sought to rescue him from death, " sign this 
petition, and have it presented to the Emperor without delay." 

Georges glanced it over, but seeing only his own name in it, refused 
to make the slightest concession. Charles D'Hosier besought him 
repeatedly to reflect before he refused to sign. Georges replied, " Life 
is nothing to me ; honour is everything. Could I save the lives of all 
my friends, freely, freely would I silence my offended self-pride j but, as 
I can save but a part of them, I must share the fate of those who are 
marked for destruction. Such a man as I will know how to submit to 
death ; until his last moment will he be worthy of himself, and of the 

noble cause he has espoused." This said, he turned his back on F , 

and immediately retired into his prison. 

These words were reported to Bonaparte; they threw him into a 
rage. " Ah I " said he, " thou ref usest my pardon. Very well ; nothing 
on earth can now rescue thee from thy fate 1 " 

He instantly gave orders to transfer Georges Cadoudal to Bicetre, 
there to await his execution. The general was quietly dining with his 
friends, when several keepers of the prison came and informed him that 
he must go to the registry. 

"I hear you," replied the intrepid Vendean ; " I am with you." 

He embraced his friends. Several of them had obtained pardons, or 
a commutation of their sentences. He seemed not to envy them their 
good fortune. He embraced Charles D'Hosier and others. All were in 
tears. The most of them were never to see him more. He was im- 
prisoned at Bicetre until the day of his execution. Never would he 



200 NOTES TO THE SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

subscribe to any request to postpone the execution. He died as he 
had lived. 

The day after his execution a letter from him was left on my toilette 
It was in the following words : 

" I thank you for your generosity towards me. I should have 
violated my oath had I listened to your proposals. In l\vo words, I 
could not accept them. Enjoy the good you do, and the good that 
remains for you to do. Do not, madam, forget him who dies for his 
King, and whose last sigh will be for the welfare of the protectress of 
unfortunate Frenchmen ! " 

I confess I was deeply affected by the magnanimity he displayed, 
and shed tears over his fate. I could not help testifying to Bonaparte 
my regret at the loss of so valuable a subject. 

"What would you have me to do? " said he; "one or the other of 
us must have yielded, and, in that alternative, I must have been the 
one. Thus it was necessary that heroism should succumb." NOTE BY 
JOSEPHINE. 

(3) Page 14- 
" Secrets, which the dark future conctakd from him." 

On his arrival in the United States, Moreau visited the Falls of 
Niagara, the Ohio, and the Mississippi. He returned by land to Morris- 
town, whence he started. He purchased a pleasant house on the banks 
of the Delaware. This river recalled to his mind the passage of the 
French across it, in 1781, under Rochambeau, and the little siege of 
New York, more worthy to be remembered than a hundred battles in 
Europe which have decided nothing. Surrounded by friends, and a 
wife worthy of his affection and esteem, he forgot the wrongs he had 
endured, and seldom alluded to the author of them. The Americans, 
so simple in their manners, could not reconcile so much celebrity with 
so much simplicity on his part. Hospitality, however, is one of their 
virtues, and they admired his, which was displayed in relieving mis- 
fortune. He preferred fishing and 'hunting to all other amusements. 
He might have been seen returning home in the evening, with his 
negro, in his little boat, filled with fish and game. 'Tis one of the 
singularities of the human mind that great men excite our surprise 
when they do what the vulgar are employed in. The respect of the 
Greeks for Phocion was increased when they saw him drawing water 
from his well. 

He spent his winters in New York, and was visited by persons of 
different political sentiments. The French Revolution had taught him 
that political opinions vary according to interest, birth, education, the 
times, and the usual inconstancy of the human mind. The history of 
almost all celebrated men is but a history of their changes. How many 
of them are there who, after twenty years of revolution, are still 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINB 367 

like themselves ? He spoke freely, but not seditiously, respecting the 
French Government. Unable to forget the evils which France endured, 
he refused ^to listen to the proposals made him by certain powerful 
Sovereigns.'hoping to be able^o aid in the re-establishment of the peace 
and glory of his own country.' The consternation produced at Paris by 
the news of the disasters of *he expedition to Moscow, will long be 
remembered. They surpassed those of Athens, when Pericles told the 
assembled Greeks, " That all their youth had fallen in battle, and that it 
was as if the year had been despoiled of its spring-time." At the news 
of these terrible reverses, Moreau's affliction was turned into rage. 
" This man," said he, " is covering the French name with opprobrium ; 
he calls down upon my unhappy country the hatred and maledictions of 
the whole world." On other occasions, he would say, " His ignorance 
only equals his folly. He has never learned that there are bounds to the 
efforts even of the greatest commanders ; that mere blind force must 
dash itself in pieces against the natural obstacles presented by the 
elements. Had he read Polybius, he would have learned that a general 
must study the climate of a country he proposes to conquer. Charles 
XII. might have taught him the danger of being cooped up in the 
Ukraine without magazines, or the means of retreat. And did not 
Frederick the Great predict that the German or French army that 
should pass Smolensk would find its grave in the deserts of Russia? 
But his flatterers had told him that Alexander the Great penetrated to 
the extremity of the empire of Darius, and that he must go to Moscow." 
When he had given up all hope of seeing his country saved by the 
efforts of its citizens at home, who were all either overawed or sold 
to Bonaparte, he joined the Emperor Alexander, and because that 
monarch, not entertaining ambitious views upon France, only armed 
himself to repel unjust aggression. He could not be compared to 
Coriolanus, who sought to punish Rome because she had refused to 
make him consul, but rather to Dion, who resolved to deliver 
Syracuse from an oppressive yoke. Like him, he might have said, 
" I march, not against my country, but against the most despicable 
of tyrants. The soldiers of Denis will soon be subject to my com- 
mand. I am as sure of effecting a glorious revolution as I should 
be happy hi having led you into Sicily, should I perish on arriving 
there." Plutarch informs us that the people of Syracuse, when 
delivered from their tyrant, prostrated themselves before Dion, in- 
voked him as a guardian-god, and cast handfuls of flowers upon his 
head. Moreau felt assured that the enterprise he had espoused 
aimed only at results the most glorious the deliverance of nations, 
the avenging of kings, and the restoration of a legitimate Sovereign 
to his throne. His native generosity forbade him to pay any regard 
to the liberal offers made him by the Russian .monarch through his 
ambassador. There was no agreement between them, such as vulgar 



268 NOTES TO THE SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

minds rely upon, in order to assure themselves of the gratitude of 
kings. He shunned all resemblance to those generals, once called 
condottieri (man -drivers), who, when compared to our Turennes 
and Catinats, are entitled to no esteem, and who take part in foreign 
strifes only because they are paid. In Moreau's mind, the art of 
war became but a mere trade when "it ceased to be ennobled by 
patriotism and the love of liberty. 

His wife and infant son were in France, where they had been 
for six months. He was fearful she might not receive the letters in 
which he had confided to her his secret purposes ; but an answer 
from Madame Moreau at length reached him in the month of May. 
She had pried into the mysterious sense of her husband's letters, 
and had left France. Moreau had to conceal his departure from 
Bonaparte's minister in the United States, who would certainly have 
despatched a ship to overtake and seize him. He embarked on the 
2ist of June, 1813, with M. Swinine, a gentleman attached to the 
Russian embassy. His vessel was a fast sailer ; and, aided by a fog 
and a favourable wind, he escaped all danger. After a voyage of 
two months, he reached the coast of Norway, and M. Chatan, the 
captain of a frigate, came in his boat to meet him. From the 
captain he learned that Madame Moreau had arrived in England, 
and this news gave him inexpressible joy. " I shall never forget," 
says M. Swinine, who accompanied him, " I shall never forget this 
happy part of my life. I had the great pleasure of hearing him 
discourse upon all sorts of topics. His mode of expression was cha- 
racterised by the frankness of a soldier and the politeness of a man 
of the world. He uttered his thoughts with clearness and fluency, 
and his reading and observation were so extensive that his conver- 
sations were exceedingly rich and interesting. The only subjects 
upon which it was difficult to induce him to speak were the deeds 
which constitute his own military renown and the persecutions he 
had suffered. He never could pardon Bonaparte for the ills of 
France, although he pardoned him for those he had inflicted on 
him. His angelic soul knew no hatred, and his heart rejected all 
idea of personal vengeance. He often spoke to me of General 
Pichegru, whose talents and energetic virtues he admired, and whose 
lamentable end he deplored. He loved also to converse about our 
illustrious Suwarrow, whose genius and talents he admired. He 
had written something, by way of correcting the errors committed 
by historians respecting him ; but his observations were lost with his 
library, which was destroyed when his country residence was burnt." 
Scarcely had he reached Gottenburg, when he was obliged to 
conceal himself from the populace, who thronged around him with 
acclamations of joy. He wrote to the Emperor Alexander and the 
Prince Royal of Sweden. Marshal Essen remarked to M. Swinine, 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 369 

You have brought us a reinforcement equal to 100,000 men. What 
pleasure will his arrival give the Prince Royal, who can never cease 
speaking of his old friend, General Moreau 1 How many tunes has 
the Prince told me that Moreau was born a general, and that he 
had the conception, the glance, the decision of a great captain." For 
more than a year it had been rumoured throughout Sweden that 
Moreau was coming, a rumour occasioned by the questions put to 
Marshal Essen by the Prince whenever they passed a handsome 
country house, and his adding that he wanted to select one worthy 
of General Moreau. 

Moreau brought with him nothing but his geographical charts 
and a small quantity of linen. " Few men were more circumscribed 
than he in their personal wants. A domestic servant was almost 
a superfluity. When I expressed to him my astonishment at his 
independence in respect to all those conveniences which are re- 
garded as indispensable, he replied, ' Such should be the life of 
a soldier; he must know how to dispense with everything, and not 
to be discouraged at privations. Tis thus that we have carried on 
the war. The General-in-chief scarcely had a carriage ; our baggage 
did not impede our march ; and when on the retreat, we were not 
encumbered with that multifarious equipage which often occasions 
the loss of more men than a defeat.' " 

At Stralsund, an aide-de-camp delivered him a letter from the 
Prince Royal of Sweden. All the generals accompanied him to the 
palace. The Prince Royal embraced him, lavishing upon him the most 
enthusiastic expressions of friendship. They passed three days to- 
gether in concerting the plan of operations which was to restore 
peace to the world. It is still more difficult to describe the general 
joy manifested towards him hi Prussia wherever he travelled. The 
innkeepers refused to receive any pay from him ; all eyes were 
turned upon him, and every heart was filled with joy at his presence. 
"The good people of Prussia," said he, "show how deep is their 
hatred of the yoke imposed upon them by Bonaparte." At the gate 
of a small town, an old corporal seized the general's hand, covered 
it with kisses, and raised his feeble voice to call three invalids, who 
composed the entire guard, and ranged them in line to salute the 
general; the latter was melted to tears by the touching spectacle. 

He expressed to M. Swinine his high admiration of Charles XII., 
the highest which he felt, not only for a king, but for man, and of 
the genius of the great Frederick, and his strength of mind, which 
was equal to all reverses. "That King," said he, "never abandoned 
his army in the midst of combat ; his victories were the fruits of 
high military combinations, of a quick perception of results, the most 
rare coolness, and a courage fully becoming a king. The furious 
tactics of Bonaparte have entirely overthrown the art of war. Battles 



27O NOTES TO THE SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

have become mere butcheries ; and it is not now, as it was formerly, 
in sparing the blood of the troops that a campaign is to be decided, 
but in causing it to flow in rivers. Napoleon has gained his victories 
by blows." * 

At Berlin his reception, by the people as well as the grandees, was 
still more flattering. He met with deserters in every town, in every 
village ; they were chiefly Germans and Italians. One of the veterans 
fell to weeping on seeing his old general, and assure:! him that there re- 
mained in France scarcely any portion of that army of the Rhine which 
he had once saved from destruction ; that all of them were daily ex- 
posed to danger and death, as examples to animate the young troops, 
who alone now composed the body of the grand army. Moreau asked 
him what motive caused him to desert; the veteran replied, "Mon general, 
there is no longer any pleasure hi serving in the French army ; it con- 
tains nothing but children, who cannot fight until their ears are stunned 
by the discharge of 200 cannon." He assured the general that his 
memory was engraved on the hearts of the soldiers, and that Napoleon 
was so sensitive in reference to Moreau that he had forbidden anyone 
in the army to pronounce his name, on pain of death ; and that he had 
caused the rumour of his arrival on the Continent to be contradicted. 

At Prague, the first object which struck his view was a park of 
Russian artillery. He admired the dress of the troops, the beauty of 
the horses, the lightness of the gun-carriages and cannon. " Its appear- 
ance alone," said he to M. Swinine, " accounts to me for its superiority 
during the last campaign." When he had advanced into the midst of 
the Imperial Guard his name flew from mouth to mouth, and the young 
officers pressed around him, and in front of his carriage, to get a sight 
of their great model. The next morning he was informed of the arrival 
of the Emperor of Russia, who conversed with him for two hours. 
Moreau, touched by the Emperor's manner, exclaimed to M. Swinine, 
" What a man is your Emperor ! All that has been said of him falls far 
short of his real, his angelic goodness." The Emperor himself pre- 
sented Moreau to his sisters, the Grand Duchesses of Weimar and 
Oldenburg, two Princesses whose minds, possessing varied and brilliant 
accomplishments, were also endowed *ith that distinguished talent of 
pleasing which characterised the Court of Catherine II. ; a Court as 
enchanting at the present time as was that of Augustus during the 
days of the Romans. The Emperor of Austria reminded Moreau of 
his old companions on the Rhine, adding that " the character of the 
general had contributed much to diminish the horrors of war in regard 
to bis own subjects." A sort of equality of greatness and glory seemed 

i A certain minister asked Bonaparte what he thought of a young officer, his 
nephew; to which he answered, " He is a brave man, but he doesn't like blood." In 
one of the reports from the grand army he wrote thus : " After the battle, I caused, 
the dead bodies of the enemy to be counted. They were found to number 18,537." 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 27! 

to reign between those monarchs and the general. Alexander presented 
the King of Prussia to him, who, on approaching him, remarked that it 
was with pleasure that he paid a visit to a general so renowned for his 
talents and virtues. The Emperor Alexander loved the man whom 
some other Sovereigns were so unhappy as not to appreciate ; his own 
heart taught him what alone could captivate the heart of a great man ; 
and, in company with Moreau, he seemed to forget his supreme rank. 

Hearing him one day speak of the "best of Princes," "How, 
sir ? " said he ; " say rather of men." The Emperor, in the course of a 
few hours, related to him the incidents of the preceding campaign, and 
with so much clearness, precision, correctness and depth of thought, 
that Moreau felt he was listening to the most experienced of com- 
manders. Moreau used to say that if anything marred the perfection of 
that truly noble and loyal mind, it was an excess of modesty; and, 
speaking of the Grand Duchess of Oldenburg, that she was the " great 
Catherine herself, and that her genius astonished and captivated all who 
knew her." 

His frankness and noble simplicity forbade any envy, so common at 
Courts, to show itself at his reception by Alexander. The monarch's 
unbounded confidence in the general, whom he had induced to co- 
operate with him in the cause of mankind, was applauded. 

"The Grand Duchesses," says Swinine, "addressed me a thousand 
questions respecting our new general, and required me to inform them 
respecting his mode of life in the New World in its most minute details. 
They told me that they had never seen a man who merited so much re- 
nown, and who, having a right to put forward such high claims, was yet 
so modest, so frank, so simple. They commanded me to persuade the 
general immediately to send for his wife, and added that there was no 
woman in the world in whom they had felt such an interest." 

Moreau approached Dresden in the immediate company of the 
Emperor Alexander and the King of Prussia. The city was attacked 
by the allies at four o'clock in the afternoon. Towards evening it was 
set on fire in a dozen places. Moreau, in company with M. Swinine, 
descended into the valley, where the Austrian cavalry was drawn up ; he 
passed along the line, in the midst of balls and shells, for the purpose of 
reconnoitring the French batteries. Such was Swinine's confidence, 
inspired by the presence of a hero, that he saw none of the perils that 
surrounded him, although Moreau exposed himself with so much 
temerity that he was conjured to reflect how great would be the 
sorrow of the allies should they lose a man upon whom all their hopes 
hung. Moreau listened to the advice, and, with the flames of burning 
Dresden to light his path, and the explosion of bomb-shells, which 
were falling around him, returned to the allied Sovereigns. His safe 
return relieved the Emperor of a great anxiety ; he gave His Majesty 
an account of the position of Bonaparte's army at all points. In the 



272 NOTES TO THE SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

night he saw the Grand Duke Constantino for the first time. The lattei 
brought the news that it was the intention of the French army to de- 
bouch upon the right. Several prisoners confirmed the fact that Bona- 
parte had arrived at Dresden with 60,000 men. It was on this day that 
two Wurtemberg regiments deserted the French, and passed over to the 
side of the Russians. 

On the 27th of August, 1813, the rain fell in torrents, and scarcely 
permitted the use of the artillery. Moreau was making some observa- 
tions to the Emperor Alexander, when a cannon-ball, discharged from a 
French battery, which had been brought up for the purpose of dis- 
mounting a Russian battery, behind which they had retired, broke the 
right knee and leg of the general, passed through his horse, and carried 
away the calf of his left leg. No language can express the monarch's 
grief ; he wept, and with his own hands rendered him all the aid in his 
power. Colonel Rapatel leaped from his horse to receive the general in 
his arms. " I am gone," said the latter, "but it is glorious to die in 
such a cause, and under the eye of so great a Prince." The colonel 
sought to inspire hope, but the general, though unwilling to discourage 
the hopes of friendship, showed, by his silence, that his mighty mind 
already contemplated death, and that without any fear. 

A litter was formed of several Cossack pikes, upon which he was 
borne into a neighbouring house, less exposed to the French fire. M. 
Welly, chief surgeon to the Emperor, amputated his right leg, just 
below the knee, Moreau begged him to examine the other, and, on being 
answered that it was impossible to save it, he remarked, coldly, " Very 
well, then, cut it off." He consoled those who shed tears. Notwith- 
standing the efforts made to conceal this catastrophe, it soon became 
known to the army. He was removed to a greater distance, and enjoyed 
a brief but quiet sleep, experiencing but little fever. On the aSth of 
August, he was placed on a litter enclosed with curtains. He asked for 
water often, to moisten his mouth. The King of Prussia, on arriving at 
Toplitz, said to Swinine, " I regard his death as the greatest calamity 
which could befall me." The Emperor of Russia met him on the 
frontiers of Bohemia. He asked whether he had slept; and, coming 
near to him, enquired with the deepest interest respecting his health, 
carefully saying a few words respecting the position of his army, but in 
a manner indicating his fear to agitate him. But it is impossible to 
depict the grief with which all were penetrated when/ towards night, he 
was seen stretched motionless on the litter at head-quarters. Tears ran 
down the scarred cheeks of the beholders ; and soldiers, hardened by 
years of fatigue, were melted by the affecting spectacle. 

Notwithstanding the fatigues of the journey, the fever decreased, and 
Welly, the surgeon, began to entertain hope of his recovery, a hope 
which arose from the unusually healthy appearance of the blood, and 
that serenity of mind which prevented any violent agitation of the 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 273 

physical organisation, which might have proved fatal; though he 
assured his attendants that a wound as serious as that was seldom 
cured. Moreau endured with fortitude the journey over mountains, 
valleys and torrents. The Emperor again visited him. with his suite! 
and asked him how he did, but feared to make him speak too much! 
While descending into a deep valley, Moreau heard a brisk cannonade! 
and saw two villages and the city of Toplitz in flames. At eleven 
o'clock in the evening he reached Ducks, where the bandage was 
loosened. There was very little inflammation, and the wounds had 
begun to heal. 

The next day, zgth, he proceeded to Laun, where, nowithstanding 
his weakness, he wrote a letter to Madame Moreau, giving the lie to the 
calumnies which Bonaparte had caused to be insinuated through the 
gazettes, as to the manner in which Moreau had sustained himself 
under the blow that had befallen him. It was as follows : 

" MY DEAR FRIEND, At the battle of Dresden I had my two legs 
carried away by a cannon-ball. That rascal of a Bonaparte is always 
lucky. 

" The amputation was performed as well as was possible. Although 
the army has made a retrograde movement, 'tis not owing to a reverse, 
but to join General Bliicher. I love and embrace you with all my heart. 

"V. MOREAU." 

All persons were kept out of his apartment, though it was impossible 
to deny admittance to the Duke of Cumberland. The duke told him he 
was happy, indeed, to make his acquaintance, though his pleasure 
would have been enhanced had their acquaintance been formed on the 
field of battle. The general replied that it was very probable they 
might meet there in six weeks. But the hope which he entertained 
began now to abandon his friends. He remained quiet till midnight, 
when hiccoughing and vomiting supervened, and greatly reduced his 
strength. He seemed reanimated, however, by the news of one of 
Bliicher's victories. He was engaged in looking over a map to ascertain 
the best route, either by land or water, to Prague, when he heard cries 
in the street. They proved to be the yells of the populace against 
General Vandamme. Moreau gathered strength enough to say, " 'Tis 
high time that monster was put beyond the power of doing harm." He 
was told that General Vandamme had complained of being subjected to 
the insults of the populace while passing along in his carriage. 1 Duke 
Constantine replied to him that the severest treatment would be good 
enough for him, covered as he was by the blackest crimes ; that he had 
taken away his sword, although the Emperor, from an excess of 

i General Vandamme was made prisoner by the Prussians, at the bloody battle 
of Culm, August 30, 1813, in consequence of departing from Napoleon's instructions. 
This disaster occurred four days after Napoleon's arrival at Dresden and the defeat 
of the allies before that city. TRANSLATOR. 

VOL. II 1 8 



274 NOTES TO THE SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

generosity, had suffered him to wear it. 1 M. Swinine witnessed the 
declamation of that French general against Bonaparte, whom he 
accused of abandoning him. 

After an unquiet night, he begged M. Swinine, who was the only 
person -with him, to write to his dictation the following : 

" SIRE, I descend to the tomb with the same sentiments of admira- 
tion, respect and devotion with which Your Majesty has inspired me 
from the first moment of our acquaintance." 

" He then closed his eyes," says M. Swinine. " I supposed he was 
about to proceed with his dictation ; but he was no more. Death had 
impressed upon his features no trace of suffering. He seemed to ba 
sleeping a peaceful sleep. During the last five hours, his friends were 
sensible that he was slowly sinking to the grave ; but he consoled them. 
His perfect resignation was shown by these few words : ' Divine Provi- 
dence has thus willed it ; we must submit without murmuring.' " 

The Emperor Alexander received the news of this sad event through 
M. Swinine, and said to him, in a tone of the deepest affliction, " He 
was a great man a noble heart." He ordered the body to be carried 
to Prague, there to be embalmed, and taken thence to St. Petersburg, 
and interred in the Catholic church, with the same honours which had 
been paid to the remains of Prince Kutusoff. " Let us, at least," said 
the Emperor, " try to do honour to his memory." He then despatched 
M. Swinine with a letter to Madame Moreau, with these words : " 'Tis 
a consolation which I cannot refuse, to send you to her. It will interest 
her to see a man who was with her husband in his last moments." 

The three Sovereigns were each anxious to have the remains of 
General Moreau. Alexander said, " His dust is to me too precious not 
to be deposited in my capital." 

The Emperor's letter to Madame Moreau shows at once the Sove- 
reign who protects and the friend who consoles. He wrote thus : 

" MADAM, When the dreadful stroke which befel General Moreau, 
in my presence, deprived me of the enlightened counsels and experience 
of that great man, I cherished the hope that, by proper care and atten- 
tion, he might be preserved to his family and his friends. Providence 
has willed it otherwise. He died as he lived, in the full energy of a 
firm and constant mind. There is but one remedy for the pangs of life 
that of seeing them spared by friendship. In Russia, madam, you 
will everywhere meet with the same sentiment ; and should you be 

I It seems to have been characteristic of Duke Constantine to trample on a fallen 
foe. After Napoleon's defeat and banishment to St. Helena, he insulted Prince 
Eugene, the ex-Viceroy of Italy, at a dinner given by bis brother, the Emperor Alex- 
ander, who had invited Eugene as one of the guests. The duke's toast was a brutal 
reflection upon Napoleon, which Eugene resented on the spot. An encounter would 
instantly have followed had not Alexander ordered his drunken brother to leave the 
table, TRANSLATOR. 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 375 

pleased to fix your abode there, I shall seek every means to solace and 
adorn the life of a woman of whom I esteem it my sacred duty to be- 
come the consolation and support. I beg you, madam, to consider this 
pledge as irrevocable ; to leave me in ignorance of no circumstance 
whatever in which I can be of service to you, and always to write 
directly to me. To anticipate your wishes will ever give me pleasure. 
The friendship which I have sworn to your husband goes beyond the 
tomb ; and there remains to me no means of discharging the debt, at 
least a part of the debt which I owe to him, but to do all in my power 
for the welfare of his family. 

"Accept, madam, in these trying moments, this testimonial and 
assurance of my feelings. 

" (Signed) ALEXANDER. 
"Toplitz, the 6th of September, 1813." 

M. Swinine, whom I have often quoted or translated, wrote, in 
English, a simple notice of the last moments of General Moreau, which 
concludes as follows : " The Emperor Alexander regarded General 
Moreau as a mediator between the allies and the French nation. 
Alas ! who so well as he could have shown to the French people, whom 
he loved so well, and to whom he was so dear, that it was not to enslave, 
but to deliver them, that the allies had taken up arms ? " 

General Moreau died before the proclamation addressed to the 
French people, and approved by Alexander, was published. It was 
short, simple, energetic. It set forth the reasons of his return to 
Europe, which were to aid the French people in shaking off the 
dreadful despotism of Bonaparte ; and, if need should be, to sacrifice 
his life for the good of his country, all whose true sons he invoked to 
join the standard of independence. He had requested Alexander to 
bestow upon him no personal title, his sole ambition being to restore 
peace to France, and to end his days in the bosom of his family when 
that wish should be accomplished. The Emperor replied to him, " Very 
well, you shall be my friend, my counsel." Certain Memoirs which he 
had begun to write upon the preceding campaign, were sent to the 
Grand Duchess of Oldenburg, for whom they were written. 

After winning a glory, followed by so many calamities, I am re- 
luctant to speak of the recompense. Alexander made a present to his 
widow of 500,000 roubles, and a pension of 30,000. It is the charac- 
teristic of true greatness to purify the source of this metal, so fatal to 
men in the hands of bad rulers. 'Tis for the best of historians to collect 
and record those immortal deeds. For the great monarch, and the great 
captain, the most lasting monument is the pen. 

NOTE BY A. H. CHA . 

OBSERVATION. The foregoing note is calculated to mislead the 
judgment as to the true character of Moreau. As a general he was 

1 8 3 



276 NOTES TO THE SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

never vigorous, though his professional attainments were certainly 
high. He was filled with jealousy at the rising greatness of Bona- 
parte. In the campaign against Austria, which terminated in the 
victory of Hohenlinden, in December, 1799, he more than once showed 
this jealousy in his reluctance to push forward and attack the enemy 
in obedience to the First Consul's repeated and earnest solicitations. 
Indeed, he was really urged into that glorious achievement by 
Bonaparte. It is probable that, from the moment of Napoleon's 
elevation to power, his sombre and jealous soul determined to recall 
the Bourbons, or, at all events, to overthrow the consular government. 
With this view he became concerned in the treasonable plots of 
Pichegru and Georges Cadoudal, and was banished to the United 
States. This was but a postponement of his overt act of treason. He 
fell, not a martyr to the good of France, but a victim to his own narrow- 
minded repinings at the good fortune of a man whom he presumed to 
regard as his rival, but who was infinitely his superior both as a soldier 
and statesman. The fact of his joining the allies is proof enough of his 
utter selfishness, and his disloyalty to his country. Sylla was a better 
patriot than he. TRANSLATOR. 

(4) Page 21. 
"His sceptre and his power." 

Nothing could equal the affection of Josephine for her children. 
Whenever her daughter was about to be confined, a courier was 
despatched for the mother. She would leave on the instant, no matter 
at what hour of the day, and never quit her for a moment, but continue 
to encourage her in the most affectionate manner until she was safely 
delivered and out of danger, when she would withdraw into another 
room, overcome by the effort, and fall into tears. 

At the time of the death of her daughter's eldest son, who died ol 
the croup in Holland, Josephine was ill. Although the fever had not 
left her, she started immediately for Laeken, near Brussels, with but 
few attendants, in order to go and visit that distressed mother, whose 
anguish was so overwhelming that fears were entertained that she 
would go mad. What must have been Josephine's feelings at finding 
her in such a situation ! 

She was inconsolable at the loss of her grandson, and the more so 
because Bonaparte, on hearing of his death, had said, " 'Tis a sad thing 
for Josephine. High hopes rested tipon the head of that child." The 
project of repudiating his wife, although it had been previously sug- 
gested to him, dates from that decisive moment. His brother's two 
other sons never seemed to him fit for the succession. Moreover, he 
wanted a lineal heir, and Josephine began now to lose all hope of giving 
birth to one. 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 277 

Napoleon thought of nothing less than the subjugation of the world; 
and, speaking of his two nephews, used to say, with a smile, " One of 
them shall wear the tiara ; as to the other, I will make him Sovereign 
of the East. His kingdom shall be composed of Upper and Lower 
Egypt." & c - "Ah! who knows," continued he, "but it is reserved to my 
family to reanimate the ruins of the Grecian empire, and to build a new 
Athens ? " &c. Thus spake the conqueror. Already had he astonished 
Europe, but new conquests were still reserved for him, and other nations 
were to receive his laws. 

(5) Page 22. 

" / could no longer dispose of my time." 

Josephine's mode of life was almost always the same ; wherever she 
stopped with a view of remaining temporarily, her time was employed 
in the same manner. She had what are called habitudes, in respect not 
only to places and pastimes, but to persons. 

At the Tuileries, at St. Cloud, and during the grand journeys of the 
Court, her habit was to rise at eight in the morning, take her combing- 
cloth, and commence her toilette. While her head was dressed, she 
would glance over half-a-dozen journals, and receive the merchants 
whom she had sent for, or such other persons as she could not admit 
into the saloon. When she was fully dressed, which ordinarily occupied 
about an hour, she would pass into the saloon at ten or eleven o'clock, 
where she found the dames de service, and those whom she had invited to 
breakfast with her. At noon she sat at table at least an hour. Break- 
fast was in some sort her only meal, for on leaving her bed, she was in 
the habit of taking nothing but a cup or two of tea, with a little citron. 
I do not speak of her dining with the Emperor, for he was always so 
engaged in travelling by the post, that he never had time to eat. After 
breakfast, if the weather was good, she would ride out in a caleche, and 
go to Malmaison, or on a hunting party. In case she did not go out, 
she received calls from all such persons as had obtained the promise of 
a meeting, of which she was advised either by the dame d'honneur or the 
chambellan de service. These two functionaries could introduce only such 
persons as the Empress was not acquainted with, or knew but slightly ; 
whilst all the ladies who were admitted to her Court came whenever 
they pleased, without a card of invitation unless there was a concert 
or a spectacle, a matter appertaining to the Emperor's chief chamber- 
lain. From breakfast till four o'clock, Josephine would receive two or 
three private visits in her separate room, or repose upon a sofa ; at four 
she retired to her cabinet, undressed, went to reading, and took a little 
punch. This lasted till five, when a second toilet commenced. She 
rarely received a call at this time, because it was the hour at which the 
Emperor came, unless engaged in council ; and when this was not the 
case, he seldom failed. They dined at six o'clock, and she again entered 



278 NOTES TO THE SECRET MEMOIRS OP 

the saloon, where she found the dames de service. In the evening the 
ministers, marshals, generals, &c., made their calls. Josephine con- 
versed, spoke to everyone, and played a game of backgammon or 
whist. If the Emperor came in, which was never before nine o'clock, 
he remained not more than a quarter of an hour, unless he wanted to 
form a party at play, and then he would appoint the persons to com- 
pose it. His party always consisted of ladies, never of gentlemen. But 
woe betide his partner ! for such was the preoccupation of his mind 
that he paid no attention to the card he was playing, and threw out 
his trumps and high cards without any necessity, and even without 
noticing his mistakes. No one dared to make any remark upon his 
mode of playing. After going through with this kind of game, he would 
leave the saloon, Josephine meanwhile remaining until the hour of re- 
tiring to bed. She usually became so much fatigued during the day, 
that she found it difficult to fall asleep, and would sometimes converse 
with her femme de garde until three o'clock in the morning. At Mal- 
maison the only difference in her mode of life was, that she saw some- 
what less company, and spent a large share of the day hi walking, 
though never alone. After the divorce, Bonaparte used to visit her at 
Malmaison ; he would lead her into the park, remain an hour or so, 
bring her back to the saloon, and then get into his carrriage. She 
received him with perfect politeness and dignity of manner, would go 
forward to meet him, and, when he left, accompany him to the gate of 
the vestibule. 

(6) Page 27. 

" Twenty minutes at table " 

The Emperor was never more than twenty minutes at table, eating 
little and drinking little. He allowed himself, however, time enough, 
after his soup, to taste of two or three dishes and a little fruit. He had 
to be served without any delay ; for, unwilling to lose a moment of time, 
and there never being but one rule, his broth had to be replaced 
nimbly with such meats as he had designated. Otherwise he would 
make his dessert with an almond or something else. When he rose 
from table, all the rest had to do the same. He then passed into the 
saloon, where his habit was to take a small cup of coffee. One might 
well suppose that the guests he invited to dine found it necessary to 
take a hearty breakfast beforehand, or to return and take dinner at 
home. Those who dined with him for the first time, or were unac- 
customed to his habits, almost starved. They found it impossible to 
say that they had a kingly repast, although his table was always well 
spread and well served. But nothing whatever could induce him to 
remain at it more than twenty minutes a circumstance much to the 
annoyance of Josephine, who was often hungry, but could not find time 
to satisfy her appetite. 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 379 

On the occasion of the marriage of Prince Eugene at Munich, which 
took place at eight o'clock in the evening, all the nobility of the country 
were invited to supper, which was ordered to be ready at nine o'clock. 
The cloth was spread for about two hundred guests, seated in a 
spacious gallery, the entrance to which was so broad as to allow the 
imperial banquet, composed of two families, to be so placed as to com- 
mand a view of the whole of the apartment. The Emperor's table was 
in the shape of a horse-shoe, and overlooked that of two hundred guests, 
illuminating it with the glitter of diamonds and splendid chandeliers. 
While the marriage ceremony was being pronounced, the whole com- 
pany were seated ; when it was closed, the Emperor seated himself imme- 
diately at the table. It being a day of great pomp, he remained with 
his guests for nearly a quarter of an hour (a thing which very rarely 
happened), and then went to Josephine and gave orders that the whole 
company should retire. The order was given before the table was 
filled, or scarcely a napkin unfolded. The good Germans were utterly 
surprised. They expected a splendid repast, but were compelled to go 
and sup at home. 

(7) Page 28. "AMPULLA." 

A vessel in use among the Romans, especially in their baths, where it 
was kept filled with oil to be used in rubbing the body after bathing. 
The Christians also made use of the ampulla ; and the vases which con- 
tained the oil for anointing the catechumens and the sick, the holy 
chrism, and the wine for the sacrament, were called ampullas. And that 
is at present the name of a phial preserved in the Church of St. Remi 
at Rheims, which it is pretended was sent from heaven, filled with balm 
for the baptism of Clovis a fact attested by Hinemar, Flodward, and 
Aimonius. Gregory of Tours and Fortunatus do not mention it. Some 
writers of ability have disputed it ; others of equal ability have amrmed 
it ; and it is pretended even that there was an order of Knights of the 
Holy Ampulla who traced their origin to the times of Clovis. According 
to Flavinus, these knights were four in number, viz. : the Barons de 
Terriers, Belestre, Sonatre, and Louvercy. They wore around the 
neck a ribbon of black silk, to which was tied a cross encased with 
gold and white enamel, and having four fleurs-de-lis at the angles ; at the 
centre of this cross was a dove holding in his beak the holy ampulla, 
received from a hand. On the reverse was the likeness of St. Remi 
with his pontifical robes, in his right hand holding the holy ampulla, and 
in his left the cross. During the Revolution, the ampulla disappeared 
from the Church of St. Remi at Rheims ; but was recovered, and care- 
fully preserved by M. de T . It must, it is said, appear again and 

be used at the coronation of a young Prince, new a captive, but who 
shall yet recover the lily crown, according to the Liber Mimbilis. While 
we wait for the fulfilment of this singular prophecy, let us pray that the 



280 NOTES TO THE SECRET MEMOIRS OP 

memory only of our tribulations may remain, and that a firm and 
vigorous hand may seize the reins of government and prepare the way 
for the restoration of the throne of St. Louis, by rebuilding the altars of 
worship. An angel brought the holy ampulla from heaven. A new 
miracle shall exhibit it at Versailles, at which all good Frenchmen shall 
wonder. Nothing is impossible hi the nineteenth century. Every hour 
is but one step towards the accomplishment of the grand purposes of the 
Deity in respect to France. The tree which hath been cut down near 
to its roots will yet send up vigorous shoots, whose flexile boughs shall 
yet cast a shade that shall extend from the East even unto the West, 
and make glad the hearts of the people: 

14 Saepe creat molles aspera spina rosas." 

(8) Page 30. 
"En representation." 

Josephine's manner at the audiences she gave was admirable. Her 
air and attitude were at once dignified, graceful and seducing. Her 
mode of expressing herself was gracious, always in choice terms, and 
with so much ease and fluency that the spectator was really astonished 
to see a woman talking almost at the same time with fifty persons, from 
every class of society, from her mantua-maker up to monarchs, and say- 
ing something pleasing and appropriate to each one of them. 

(9) Page 30. 

" Tallien into my presence" 

Shortly after Napoleon was made Emperor, at the close of a private 
audience which Josephine had granted to Tallien, the new monarch ex- 
pressed his dissatisfaction at the facility with which that lovely woman 
received her former friend. " When one is on the throne," said he, 
with some sharpness, "he ought to forget everything." 

"Yes," she replied, "everything but gratitude; and so long as I 
have done nothing for Tallien, I shall be far from supposing my obliga- 
tions cancelled." 

" Have you, then," said he, " forgotten his conduct towards your 
husband in Egypt ? I am a Corsican, and, of course, cannot forgive 
him." 

"And I am a Creole, and a Frenchwoman at heart," replied the 
Empress, with spirit ; " I recognise my obligations towards Tallien, and 
charge you, my friend, to acquit me of them. Without the gth Thermi- 
dor, neither you nor I should now be here." 

Napoleon was struck with the force of this reply, and admitted that 
his wife (he always called her so when they were together at home) was 
correct ; and engaged to devise some means of proving her goodwill 



THB EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 28l 

towards that old friend. As for Josephine, she did her utmost to 
manifest her gratitude towards him, being always disposed to treat him 
with kindness. She took care of his daughter, and never forgot that it 
was in part owing to her acquaintance with him that she was indebted 
for the astonishing consideration which she then enjoyed. But she 
really did little for the ex-director ; her recommendation in his favour 
was often a motive with Napoleon for refusing him a favour. 

(10) Page 33. 

"The old Court of Versailles." 

Napoleon stood much upon etiquette. He regarded it as the chief 
barrier of the throne, and even of more importance than mere politics. 
Hence he caused an exact and minute account to be drawn up and 
presented to him of all the ceremonies formerly in use at the Courts of 
Louis XV. and Louis XVI. He directed the most scrupulous con- 
formity to them, and even added to them. Upon points which to him 
were doubtful, he would direct the ancient archives of the old monarchy 
to be searched for precedents. Josephine was not so severe ; she ad- 
mitted to her presence all persons who came well recommended, 
conversed hi a friendly way with them, and entered with interest into 
all their private matters and their minutest details. But her mode of 
receiving the functionaries who had governed France during former 
years was dignified and reserved ; and a pleasant smile would play 
upon her lips on seeing the French Brutuses clothed in the livery of 
Napoleon's Court, and all the airs of grandeur which once formed the 
charm and the luxury of the old Court of Versailles. Sometimes, while 
drawing the comparison, the Empress would so lose her gravity, that 
she had to withdraw to her apartment to give vent to her merriment. 
" I can contain myself no longer," she would say. " This throng of 
new courtiers, almost all of whom have sworn eternal hatred to kings 
and to royalty, are regularly in attendance at the great and the little 
levee of the Emperor, in order to obtain the appearance even of a look 
from his imperial person, and to repay him for it with the pompous 
titles of Sire,' and Your Majesty.' " 

(11) Page 33. 

* Yoitr looks betray trouble within." 

" Shade of my father 1 " exclaimed Bonaparte, the night after the 
battle of Austerlitz; " I cannot credit thy prediction. What ! can you 
compare my fortune to the inconstancy of the seasons ? Surely, never 
did the seasons exhibit such evidences of permanency. You foretell to 
me dreadful reverses, and even that I shall be abandoned by all my 
friends and relatives. Do you not know that they owe to me all that 



282 NOTES TO THE SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

they are. and that mine is the noble ambition of attaching them to me 
by the ties of gratitude ? They cannot be ungrateful. And you even 
add that those whom I have loaded with my favours will one day be 
able to forget me, and to increase my benefits a hundredfold. In my most 
trying moments, how much will Josephine be able to contribute to the 
mitigation of my deep misfortunes, if she shall remain faithful to the 
duties which friendship shall prescribe, and pity sincerely the new 
companion who is destined to me the woman who will have replaced 
her in my heart. Ah, this is too much ; I am invulnerable in the eyes 
of Europe. My name alone awes Destiny I " 

This dream is no fiction ; it was several times told by Josephine 
to her friends ; and what is still more astonishing, Napoleon himself 
was surprised at it, and continued to speak and think about it for 
many days, although he never dreamed. Whenever Josephine re- 
ferred to these particulars, it was to advise him to profit by the voice 
of Destiny, which seemed to forewarn him to be on his guard against 
the advice which might be given him by his friends. 

"You are right, madam," he would say; "I know how to guard 
myself against all their influences. You are my wife and my friend. 
I want none other. Your lot is bound to mine for ever ; and woe 
to that one of us who shall be the first to break our oath." 

Such was Bonaparte before the epoch spoken of in the text. He 
had rejected the advice given him by Lucien. And yet, in 1809, he 
could not guard himself against the suggestions of the bees of his 
Court, who hummed in his ears, " You must separate from the 
Empress Josephine. A Princess of the blood of the Caesars will 
esteem it a glory to give heirs to the great Napoleon. Then will his 
dynasty be established for ever." 

(12) Page 36. 
" To achieve that victory." 

A tomb has been erected to General Desaix, near the road leading 
from Strassburg to Kiel. Upon a square cenotaph, en pierre rose, is 
placed an immense buckler, a sword, and a Grecian casque of colossal 
proportions. Four bas-reliefs represent the defence of the bridge of 
Kiel by Desaix, the battle of Cairo, and the battle of Marengo, where 
he was slain. His portrait in medallion and the attributes of Victory 
form the bas-relief of the foreground ; but no inscription appears 
upon this monument a beautiful and sublime thought I For the last 
asylum of the hero ought to be known by all those who know what 
glory is ! A few steps in the rear of the tomb, and surrounded by a 
grove, is a small one-storey house, adorned with columns, and intended, 
doubtless, for the accommodation of the keeper of the monument, 
which stands near the wayside. What must have been the ideas 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 383 

suggested to our soldiers by the sight of this monument, when 
carrying our colours forward into the heart of Germany I The 
memory of Desaix's exploits; his dust reposing upon our frontier; 1 
the honours rendered to his valour the gigantic proportions of his 
arms ! 

(i3) Page 37. 



"Arming themselves against mt." 

Josephine really had reason to complain of the family of Bona- 
parte. Joseph could not endure her, while, on the other hand, his 
wife rendered her the fullest justice. As to Madame Murat, she was 
by no means careful to conceal her thoughts, and, on many occa- 
sions, sought to humiliate Napoleon's wife. In truth, Josephine paid 
her in her own coin ; the two sisters-in-law were continually at 
war. The Princess showed more frankness and less gall. Madame 
Bacciochi* considered Josephine as the earliest instrument of her 
brother's greatness. " But," said she, " the moment her power be- 
comes unassailable, it must be broken down, and that without pity." 
She was one of the first to advise that unrighteous separation which 
worked so much prejudice to the Emperor and his whole family. 
Madame Letitia occasioned real trouble and vexation to her daughter- 
in-law. Their feelings were in perpetual opposition. The one was 
remarkable for her acts of benevolence ; the other for her extreme 
parsimony. The mother loudly disapproved of the luxury which 
reigned at her son's Court, and charged the fault to Josephine. " She 
will ruin him," she would often say ; " her prodigalities are bound- 
less. Why does she not, like me, enter into the most minute details 
of her expenses ? " And she would then give a lecture upon practical 
economy. She used to go into the kitchen and keep watch of the 
head cooks, as well as those employed under them. Nothing escaped 
her keen sagacity. " Don't forget," said she, " to place plenty of 
vegetables on the table ; they purify the blood, and improve the 
health ; but not much meat ; that provokes, without satisfying the 
appetite." 

i The body of Desaiz does not rest in this tomb. He was buried in the 
hospice of Mount St. Bernard. The Emperor caused a mausoleum of white 
marble to be erected in the choir of the church. It represents the general ex- 
piring in the arms of Colonel Le Brun, his aide-de-camp. Those two figures arc 
well designed, and of a fine expression. But a hussar, standing behind Desaix, 
and holding his war-horse, turns his back and seems a stranger to the scene. 
Nothing about this monument calls to mind Desaix's splendid campaign in Egypt 
that Desaix whom the Arabs sur named The Just. 

It is natural that gratitude should srect several monuments to the armory of 
a great man ; but why erect several cenotaphs ? His mortal remains can be de- 
posited only in one tomb; the others are, therefore, lies, and tend to cnange tba 
truth of history. GASSICOURT. 

a Eliza, Napoleon's eldest sister. TRANSLATOR. 



284 NOTES TO THE SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

(14) Page 37. 
But not me." 

Josephine was always afraid, and not without reason, that Bona- 
parte would be carrying on intrigues with other women. And hence 
arose that kind of constraint which she manifested whenever a young 
and pretty woman was presented to her. She was for a time afraid 

of Mesdames de Chev , Tall , Can , Mar. S V , 

Mademoiselle A , &c. But she who most particularly excited her 

jealousy was a young and beautiful lady, who for a short time was 
attached to her in the quality of lectrice (reader). Mademoiselle 

Guill possessed high accomplishments, both of mind and heart. 

She was well educated, to which advantage she united that of great 
personal elegance. To see and to love her was for Bonaparte but 
the work of a moment ; nor was he slow to avow it. He met with 
a stern and severe rebuke. But Josephine, who suspected the 
mysterious feeling, kept watch of him, and finally succeeded in sur- 
prising him at Mademoiselle Guill 's feet. The young lady seemed 

to repel him. " Come," said she to the Empress, on seeing her, 
" come and remind your husband that he has now forgotten that 
he is that same Napoleon whose duty is to furnish to his people 
examples of virtue and wisdom." Napoleon was confused. Josephine 
immediately sent off her lectrice to Paris, accompanied by Madame 
Fourneau, and did not cease, afterwards, to bestow upon her par- 
ticular marks of her attention. As to Napoleon, he could never 
forgive that young lady for telling the Empress of the nature of 
his projects. " She's a little fool," said he; "I merely wanted to test 
her virtue to prove her." When he heard of the marriage of Made- 
moiselle Guill , at present Madame , he said, " So much the 

better ; I shall send her husband so far from France that she will be 
glad to come and humble herself before me, and solicit his return. 
Then will the beauty become human, sigh and weep; I shall remain 
inflexible, and it will be only by prostrating herself at my feet that she 
will enable me to avenge myself, in some sort, for having had the weak- 
ness to throw myself at hers." According to his ideas, nothing must 
resist him. And yet he knew perfectly well how to esteem persons who 
had the courage to hold up their heads in his presence. " I rely upon 
such men," said he, " and know where to find them when occasion 
requires their character cannot fail them." As to Mademoiselle 

Guill , it gave him pleasure to meet her again, on several occasions ; 

though Josephine kept her away from Court, and took particular pains to 
anticipate all her wants, lest Napoleon should find some new opportunity 
for personal intimacy. " There are," said he, " certain ladies of my 
acquaintance, whose charms for a moment I am afraid of; but thia 
Mademoiselle Guill inspires me with wholly different sentiments. 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 385 

Her virtue terrifies me, while her generous heart reassures me. But it 
is best that a price should not be offered either for the one or the other, 
and to send her away altogether." And thus thought the Empress, 
who feared the fulfilment of a certain prediction which had been made 
to her, that another woman should yet supplant her, should occupy her 
place with Napoleon, and cause her to be exiled. 

(15) Page 39. 

" Yo* alone continue to inspire me with confidence." 

Bonaparte had long aspired to the imperial purple, and cherished 
the idea that he should one day surpass Charlemagne. Hence it was 
that he visited with a sort of religious veneration the tomb of that Em- 
peror at Aix-la-Chapelle. 

He crowned Josephine with his own hands. Henceforth she became 
a necessary friend; for some time previous she was a stranger to his 
heart. 

He fluttered about continually. His discretion in keeping a poli- 
tical secret was equalled by his indiscretion hi reference to love affairs ; 
indeed, he was quite fond of making women blush. Such was his con- 
duct towards Josephine that he made her the confidante of his amours, 
and accustomed her to the inconstancy which was so natural to him. 
Often was he seen talking with the woman who had displaced her in 
his heart. 

She early feared that he might suffer himself to be governed, but 
was happily undeceived ; she now possessed his entire confidence. He 
had need to communicate to her his thoughts, and she often made him 
acquainted with the underhand plots and tricks of the courtiers. " Be- 
ware of Taill ," said she; "you have offended him; a man of his 

character cannot bear the thought of being abased by a man of your 
character. ' ' Communicated. 

(16) Page 40. 

" The tears I shed." 

Napoleon hesitated a while whether he ought to seat his wife upon 
the throne of the Lombards ; but Josephine was adored in the newly- 
acquired provinces. The Emperor, who was very suspicious, enter- 
tained some fears respecting her extreme popularity, and resolved to 
overthrow the Cisalpine Republic and re.ign alone ; though, hi order to 
flatter that best of mothers, he summoned her son to come and share 
with him an immense power. Eugene, at the time of his step-father's 
coronation at Milan, was appointed Viceroy of Italy. 

During Josephine's stay in those new states, balls and fetes were 
unceasing; but Napoleon's extreme jealousy occasioned her such cutting 
mortification that, on arriving at Venice, she was for several days 



286 NOTES TO THE SECRET MEMOIRS OP 

seriously indisposed. And yet that strange and extraordinary man loved 
her ; he could not dispense with her for a single minute. In the midst 
of the pomp and ceremony with which he was surrounded, he had to 
run to her every moment and tell her whatever curious thing had taken 
place, and ask her advice upon this or that scheme which he proposed 
to undertake. Josephine, during the whole of the journey, did not leave 
him for a moment ; together they visited those magnificent palaces, and 
breathed the delicious fragrance that embalms the air along the banks 
of the Brenta. He stopped a short time at Padua, and showed Josephine 
the statue of St. Anthony, which, during the wars in Italy, the inhabi- 
tants redeemed at the price of 35,000 francs. Returned to Milan, they 
remained a short time in the palace situated in the great square, and 
paid several visits to the town of Bonaparte ; but the residence to which 
the Emperor was most partial was Mondoza. Before returning to 
France he took a fancy to visit the house of Pliny, which is in the angle 
of the Lac di Como. At a distance of twenty feet from the spot where it 
stands is a cascade ninety feet high ; and the visitor descends into the 
house as into a cave, where he finds a fountain which has the ebb and 
flow of the tide. Josephine was reluctant to examine this curiosity 
except at a distance, being afflicted with her accustomed headache, 
But Bonaparte finally persuaded her to accompany him, and to please 
him she did so such was her devotedness and disposition to oblige him. 

(17) Page 40. 
Caprara." 

During the stay of the Imperial Court at Fontainebleau, in August, 
1807, Cardinal Caprara, the Pope's nuncio, who was there, was poisoned 
by a dish of mushrooms. A physician was instantly called in to 
administer an antidote. The cardinal got well, but his cook dis- 
appeared. Wherever he went, the cardinal always carried his papers 
about his person. In order to get them, it is supposed that Napoleon 
caused him to regale himself upon a plate of richly dressed mushrooms. 
His Eminence's life was saved, but he lost his papers. In the confusion 
which followed the attack, they were stolen from him. " What a trait 
in an imperial and royal government 1 " says the author of the " Cabinet 
de Saint-Cloud." (The Empress contradicted this statement in my 
presence, affirming that the only object was to frighten the cardinal, 
the means whereof were not at all such as stated by 



(18) Page 41. 
" Without adding to them that of sacrilege." 

In religious matters Napoleon was tolerant. Indeed, he was more 
than indifferent to almost all creeds, though he seldom spoke about 
them. He occasionally remarked to Josephine, and particularly at the 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 287 

time of the coronation, " I do not approve of these conferences which 
are held in many of our Catholic churches. Of what use are all those 
arguments, and the pros and cons ? How can that which is inconceivable 
be proved to the satisfaction of a rational mind? Ah, gentlemen," he 
would exclaim, in speaking of the clergy, "have mercy upon us! let 
alone all your abstract matters, they trouble the mind. The morality 
of the Church is interesting and sublime. Jesus Christ was, in my 
opinion, a great legislator; He undoubtedly understood the Code of 
Confucius. And yet the principles of the Son of God appear to me 
admirable. Yes, Josephine, I honour and revere a priest in the exercise 
of his functions. He must, indeed, be an extraordinary man, especially 
if he be sensible of their grandeur, and fulfil them with zeal and piety. 
But if he want that tolerance which the Saviour prescribes, and is 
guided by vain, human considerations, that same man whom I looked 
upon with respect, and even admiration, ceases to awe me, especially if 
his be a heated faith. Then, I say, he acts merely hi his vocation, h'ke 
any other man. All men have aims, more or less ambitious, although 
the ways by which they reach them are different. Some of these paths 
lead to a relaxation of morals ; while others, more difficult for men of 
feeling to tread, present dangers to the traveller. And yet they are 
honourable. Nothing inspires me with more respect than a venerable 
country curate. I would not hesitate to yield him my confidence, and 
much sooner than to the almoner of brother Joseph (alluding to Car- 
dinal Maury). From the former I might demand a general absolution, 
while to the latter I might grant the feuille dts benefices. I have not the 
courage to approach the table of the Holy of Holies. I am without 
faith, and profane. Never was Bonaparte a fervent Catholic, nor 
shall he ever have occasion to reproach himself with being a hypo- 
crite, especially on the day of his coronation. In this respect I prefer 
not to edify the good Parisians. Besides, I will not lie to my own 
conscience. The time will come, and it is not, perhaps, far distant, 
when, like certain philosophers La Harpe, La Lande, and others, for 
instance I shall become, if not actually devout, at least quite religious. 
My friends will then have faith hi my complete conversion, and it will 
be the more sincere that no worldly motive will have induced it ; and 
it will be consoling, indeed, both to me and my friends, that, at the 
close of my career, I may for ever sleep the sleep of the just. What 
do you say to that, madam? You don't answer." Josephine did not 
like to hear him express himself thus. She honoured her husband, 
although their sentiments were often opposite, and especially on the 
subject of religion. She, however, cannot be charged with attempting 
to innovate upon his principles, although she was convinced that re- 
ligion was the compass of the state, and that it was the duty of the 
Sovereign to be attached to it, and to show an example to his sub- 
jects. Communicated. 



288 NOTES TO THE SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

(19) Page 46. 
"Court balls and concerts." 

Napoleon personally occupied himself very little with the arts ; he 
cultivated none of them. He viewed a picture or a statue with very 
little attention. If he was pleased with it at the first glance, it was 
always fine to him; but no remarks were to be expected from him, 
either upon its beauties or its faults. As the chief of the state, he en- 
couraged artists because he knew them to be necessary and useful ; but 
never from mere taste. The only art from which he derived a con- 
stantly renewed pleasure was music, in respect to which it was not easy 
to please him. He detested what is called full band music, and, conse- 
quently, did not like the grand opera. Of loud music he was fond of 
none but martial, and, if accompanied by the discharge of cannon, it was 
so much the more agreeable to his ears. But while absent from the 
parade or the army, he fell into the opposite extreme. He preferred 
vocal to instrumental music, and was particularly fond of Italian singing. 
He had in his pay numerous Italian singers of both sexes, and gave 
them an anmml stipsnd of 30,000 or 40,000 francs, without including the 
presents they received while following the Imperial Court. The Em- 
peror had his private concerts every week, at which he was wholly 
engrossed in listening. The greatest difficulty was to accompany the 
singing with the piano. He disliked such an accompaniment exceed- 
ingly, and never would tolerate it unless sustained by the rarest talent. 
In giving his idea of the mode in which the voice should be thus accom- 
panied, he would say, " Gentlemen, give me only a mere vapour of sound ." 
It is certain that sound, when soft and sweet, had a wonderful charm for 
him, and it was seldom that a person whose voice made a favourable 
impression on his ear could fail to please him. So far did he carry this 
passion that he was charmed with the harmonious sound of a name 
which happened to be given ; but if, on pronouncing a new name, it 
sounded badly to his ear, he would grate his teeth, pronounce it wrongly, 
and never remember it ; in which case you might be sure the person 
who bore it displeased him. 

(20) Page 48. 

"The debt of gratitude he owes me." 

When the Empress was at Munich to attend the wedding of her 
son, Prince Eugene, she experienced the greatest difficulty on the part 
of that Court. The Queen was then desirous of marrying the Princess 
Augusta to the Prince of Baden, her brother. Some false and unfor- 
tunate expressions had so prejudiced the Princess against Beauharnais 
that she had made a frightful picture of him. Her governess, however, 
possessed, as it appeared, an unbounded influence over her. It was 
necessary to gain the governess over, and she seemed to be incorruptible 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 389 

Bat Napoleon undertook to smooth all difficulties, and succeeded. The 
marriage took place by the consent of both families. 

The same woman who had so determinedly opposed the marriage of 
her pupil was, nevertheless, appointed tire-woman to the Princess at the 
time the marriage was agreed upon ; and at the time of the first confine- 
ment of the Viceroy's wife hi Italy, at Milan, she addressed a letter to 
the Empress, giving her an account of the birth of a princess, and a 
minute detail of the tender and affectionate attentions of the Prince 
towards his wife during the pains of childbirth. She compared Eugene 
to a beneficent divinity. Her letter was written in a tone of exultation 
which surprised the Empress, and led her to reflect that the judgment 
is often governed by mere outward circumstances. 

(21) Page 48. 
His study and meditation." 

The eldest son of Hortense already evinced the highest promise. 
His disposition resembled that of his uncle, and Bonaparte showed 
a strong affection for him. " I recognise myself," said he, " in 
thac child. He has the faults of childhood, but a feeling heart." 
"He has his mother's heart," said Josephine; "a more perfect 
model could not be conceived." The Emperor cherished the chimera 
that the little Louis would one day be able to succeed him. " I should," 
said he, " compare my brother to Philip of Macedon had he given us an 
Alexander, provided always, like him of old, he cuts the Gordian knot, 
and restrains and extirpates the factions. The boy," said he, with 
a feeling of enthusiastic pride, " is worthy to succeed me, and he may 
surpass me." But while Josephine was preparing such high destinies 
for his nephew, death suddenly and unexpectedly cut him off, and thus 
was broken the reed upon which the great man leaned ; thus, like a 
shadow, disappeared that feeble star, which had shone with but a 
momentary glow. His body was deposited hi one of the chapels of 
Notre Dame, at Paris, where it still was in 1814, though it has since 
then been carried to St. Leu, Taverny. 

(22) Page 51. MALMAISON. 

Josephine had at Malmaison a flock of Merinos. The shepherd who 
attended them did not want to be treated as the shepherd of a simple 
farmer, and wishing to obtain some mark of distinction, begged the in- 
tendant of the gardens to represent to his Sovereign that his bed was a 
very bad one, and that he must have one of feathers. Josephine laughed 
outright. " My shepherd," said she, " would laugh at me should I insist 
upon a change of his habits merely because he takes care of my flock ; but 
only think, should I give him a bed of down to-day, he would in three 
months want to stable my sheep upon my carpets." When Napoleon 

VOL. II 19 



NOTES TO THE SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

was travelling she had a piquet guard to do service for her. One night, 
towards morning, she heard marching and coughing under her windows, 
on the side of the garden. She wondered who it could be that was 
walking so late at night, when the air was so chilly ; she was told that it 
was the sentinel posted there. The moment she quitted the saloon she 
sent for the officer of the guard and said to him, " Sir, I have no need for 
a sentinel at night ; these brave men underwent enough in the army when 
they followed it to the wars; they must rest while in my service. I don't 
want them to catch cold." The officer could not help smiling at Jose- 
phine's apprehensions and the excess of her kindness. The sentinel was 
dispensed with and his place never re-supplied. 

(23) Page jQ 

" His personal habits** 

- Napoleon slept but little, and at every part of the day, as well as 
night, he would slumber an hour or two and then go to work. And it 
frequently happened that he would wake and make Josephine get up and 
take a walk with him in the "little park." She never demurred to the 
call. He would bring her back, after an hour or so, full of laughter and 
merriment. She would then go to bed again and sleep till eight o'clock, 
her usual hour of rising whenever she resided at Court. 

(24) Page 53. 
"Able to perceive them" 

Bonaparte enjoyed himself at this place, which he saw embellished by 
the care of Josephine, under whose hands it seemed to assume a new 
form and the appearance of new creation. The daily occupations of the 
Emperor were uniform. His promenades in the " little forest " were fre- 
quent, and he was often accompanied by the Empress. She loved to 
point out to him the objects of art contained in her museum. Some- 
times she would lead him to her sheepfold, and show him with a kind of 
pride her beautiful flock ; on another occasion she would contrive to play 
off some agreeable surprise upon him while visiting her beautiful farm, 
where she had a number of cattle ; thence she would take him to her 
gardens and make him wander through them, naming to him all the 
plants with which they were adorned. 1 Bonaparte was quite fond of a 

i Josephine one day called Napoleon's attention to an arbrc a pin. He looked 
bout it and said, " Why, this is no pint tree ; I see nothing pine about it." " "Tis," said 
she, " the name of the tree. 'Tis necessary to study the language of plants in order 
to understand them." She then told him it was called thus on account of its beauty, 
and that it was not at all surprising that a man who had, so to speak, been fed upon 
Caesar's Commentaries, should have failed to be taught in the school of Buffon and Vol- 
mont de Bomare. M. de Beauplan, intendant of the Malmaison gardens, was present. 
Josephine asked him the name of a new flower which he was putting in a flower-pot. 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 2QI 

country life. He would willingly have spent his time, and it would have 
been his happiest, at Malmaison, had not the cares of government pre- 
vented. He loved to come there, take Josephine by surprise, and play 
some sly trick upon her. Ordinary sports amused him but little. His 
pleasures were always of a noisy kind. 

The second son of Louis Bonaparte was one day beating a little drum, 
given him by the Empress, and manoeuvring his soldiers, and trying in 
vain to direct their movements. "I'll break that company," said he 
with indignation; "they don't keep the step." His uncle heard him 
scolding his puppets, and laughed heartily at his repartee. " Good," 
said he ; " if you go on you will be a good soldier ; you will love to keep 
up the discipline of the army." " This is the first proof of it," replied 
the Prince, dashing in the head of his drum. " When my soldiers hesi- 
tate to march, or refuse to do duty, I have no need to rally them any 
more." Bonaparte repeated this anecdote to Josephine, who was much 
amused by it. He added, " I believe that my Pope * (it was thus he 
called the boy) will become a great general, and one day, perhaps, a 
pontiff, wholly temporal. 

When the Emperor was at St. Cloud he was always amiable. He 
delighted to play slight tricks upon the ladies of Josephine's suite. Jose- 
phine would be the first to take it to heart. One summer's evening the 
whole company were sitting together in a circle and enjoying the fresh 
air upon a mossy oank. Josephine, passionately fond of flowers, had 
some before her. Napoleon, with his hands, scraped up some gravel, 
and poured it into the cup in which she was preparing her bouquet. 
The bunch of flowers was spoiled. He went and collected another, and 
presented it to her in the most gallant style. She was always the first 
to laugh at his jokes. 

He used to talk familiarly with the people in his service, and thee'd 
and thou'd them all, or the most of them. He was fond of putting 
questions. While examining the orangery at St. Cloud, he perceived a 
man named Father Oliver, an old gardener of Louis XVI., old, and 
sinking under the weight of years, though still able to labour. " What 
wages do you get," said he, " my good old man ? " " Thirty sous, sir," 
was the answer. " Why are you not dressed like my house servants ? " 
" I don't know ; the undertakers, I suppose, lay the money on one side 
to pay my rent when I die." " Here," said the monarch, " are twenty- 
five napoleons to pay thee the arrearages due to thee. I shall direct that, 

He appeared embarrassed and replied, " I don't know I will go and get my catalogue." 
He went, but before be returned Josephine bad thought of the name and hastened to 
tell him, " 'Tis such a plant." The Emperor was struck with surprise at the accuracy 
of her recollection ; and the sapient botanist hath remarked to many persons that IM 
was perfectly astonished at the extent of her knowledge and the prodigious strength of 
her memory. Nothing could escape her observation. 

i His Holiness the Pope baptised Queen Hortense's second son. 

19 2 



2g2 NOTES TO THE SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

for the time to come, thou shalt receive yearly a suit of clothes and an 
additional allowance. Thou art the Dean of St. Cloud (he is still there), 
Thou hast witnessed more than one reign ; thou hast passed through a 
terrible revolution without looking back. What matters it what master 
thou servest. so long as thy orangery is not displaced ? It is but just 
that thou shouldst yet obtain the honours due to thy labours ; and 'tis I, 
my brave old man. who charge myself to bestow them." 

In general, Bonaparte freely received into his employment the 
servants of the preceding reign. He did not consider their fidelity 
as a crime; on the contrary, that was a sure means of securing his 
patronage. In this Josephine ^|itated him. Both agreed upon that 
point. 

She happened one day to see her principal huntsman (M. Guerin). 
She was taking a walk with her husband at Trianon. She saw the man 
take from beneath his waistcoat a medallion portrait and carefully wipe 
it. As Guerin was no longer a young man, she supposed it must be the 
miniature of one of his children, and asked to see it. The man's em- 
barrassment was extreme. He stammered. The presence of Bonaparte 
greatly increased his fears. The poor huntsman almost fainted. With 
a trembling hand he untied from his neck a cord of black silk, and 
placed the trinket in Josephine's hands. She showed it to her husband, 
and both asked him how he came by it. " Sure," replied Gu6rin, who 
began to be more calm, " I have not abandoned Louis XVI. He was 
my master, and I shall mourn him as long as I live. While he was in 
the Temple, I served the masons who laboured constantly to render his 
prison more horrible. I was so fortunate as to bring him some comforts, 
and. this portrait is an evidence of the confidence which that unhappy 
monarch deigned to repose in me." " Ah, yes," exclaimed Josephine, 
"and assuredly iyou deserved itl" Bonaparte applauded this burst of 
feeling, and congratulated Gue'rin upon his faithful and generous con- 
duct. (He had even fulfilled some secret missions abroad in behalf 
of the royal family.) Napoleon promised him his protection, and 
assured him that he should never forget an act of such rare fidelity 
and disinterestedness. 

(25) Page 53. 

"A Pylades." 

General Bertrand followed Bonaparte to the Isle of Elba from mere 
devotion to his person, not his party. And so strong was the dominion 
of gratitude over his heart, that, foreseeing without passion and without 
hope the event of his re-entry into France, on the 2oth of March, 1815, 
he rushed to Mount St. Jean as to a voluntary death. From the first, 
he pronounced against the war in the Chamber of Peers ; and even, 
at the peril of displeasing Napoleon, dared to counsel peace. No man 
can ever be so unjust in his appreciation of events, as not to know what 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 393 

was the opinion of Bertrand respecting Bonaparte's gigantic enterprise. 
Perhaps our astonishment would be less had the issue of the war been 
doubtful, or the fortunes of the combat uncertain. But why could not 
he who, while victorious, loved the friends of peace, have found it more 
to his interest not to fight at all, than to conquer two hundred and fifty 
Ciceros of the nineteenth century ? 

(26) Page 54. 
"Some mysterious design." 

Bonaparte was really superstitious. " I have often seen him," said 
Josephine, " fall into a terrible rage if one of his valets de chambre 
happened to place on the left hand what belonged on the right ; for 
instance, his box of razors. He contracted singular habits in Egypt, 
which probably related to certain practical secrets. In taking off an 
article of clothing, he would often throw it over his left shoulder, saying, 
' lands ; ' another, and add ' castles,' and so on to the end, repeating 
provinces,' 'kingdoms,' &c. I haye seen him, while sitting upon the 
inlaid floor of his apartment, take off his stockings, and throw them 
both in the same direction ; he would then come and lie down by my 
side. If one of my women happened to leave a light burning, though 
carefully set aside, he would jump up instantly, and go and extinguish 
it. He could never look at a lighted candle with composure." 

(27) Page 54. ST. CLOOD. 

Josephine was fond of children, and by no means afraid of their noisy 
sports, when they seemed to amuse those who were present. She loved 
to see dancing (though she never danced), and especially when her 
daughter attended the ball. It would have been difficult to find a 
woman who could excel Hortense in dancing. The grace and agility of 
her movements rendered her an object of admiration ; and her mother, 
as well as the other spectators, could not turn their eyes from her. 
Balls, lively sports and charades en action, kept Josephine in a constant 
laugh ; and when she was on her short journeys, her evenings were spent 
in this kind of sport. One evening, at St. Cloud, shortly after the 
coronation, the night being quite dark, Napoleon took a notion to play 
at barriers in the park. He was told that it was not light enough for 
that, and that there was danger of breaking his head against the trees. 
But since it was his pleasure so to do, some twenty torches were lighted, 
and carried by the valets, so as to light up the ground. The scampering 
commenced, but, owing to the darkness, they ran against each other's 
noses, while the valets scudded off in every direction, under the idea of 
giving light to the sportsmen. Josephine, who was then slim and 
nimble, ran with great agility, and caught the Emperor by bis clothes, 
shouting out, " You are my prisoner I " By a violent effort, he escaped 



294 NOTES TO THE SECRET MEMOIRS OP 

from her, ejaculating, "la prisoner ? Never, of anyone whatever I * 
He could not then read the future. [No, nor needed. He was never 
a prisoner of war ; he was decoyed under the idea that England would 
permit him the same rights as other foreigners at peace with her. She 
then, after he had voluntarily come within her jurisdiction, violated the 
rights of hospitality, treated him, not as a prisoner, but as a slave, and 
doomed him to perpetual confinement. He never would have suffered 
himself to be made a prisoner. Sooner would he have thrown himself 
into the sea, or turned hl^ sword upon himself I Read his letter to the 
Prince Regent, in which hel asks simply for a seat at the " hearth of 
the British people," a lette^^pver answered by that base Prince, and 
then judge whether the heroic soul which dictated it could, under 
any circumstances, be capable of a surrender ! To her shame be it 
said, England, whose Government had harboured and encouraged the 
Bourbons and their hired assassins, refused to extend the common rights 
of hospitality to Napoleon. But the day of retribution, though distant, 
may overtake that haughty and unjust Government. TRANSLATOR.] 

(28) Page 54. 
"Agreeable to my husband." 

I have already said that Josephine often displayed a thoughtless- 
ness in her generosity which embarrassed her, and from the effects 
of which she fc-md it difficult to extricate herself. This arose from 
her fear of offending and producing discontent. She was in the habit 
of receiving, with perfect civility, the* actors of the Theatre Francais 
and the open, whenever they had any favour to ask. I do not speak 
of Talma, who was frequently admitted into the presence of Napoleon 
and his wife, in order to read tragedies to them, but of those who 
wished to make a profit by their playing. Mademoiselle Contat, whom 
Josephine had long known, frequently paid her court to the Empress 
at the time she thought of retiring from the stage. She was on a 
visit, one day, to Malmaison, and when* about taking leave of her, 
Josephine made her promise to come and breakfast with her two or 
three days after. Mademoiselle Contat, though sensible of the favour, 
did not forget that she herself was perfectly versed in the usages of 
society, and aware of all its requirements and conveniences ; and 
resolved that, although Josephine had, for a moment, forgotten her 
rank, she would not forget her own. She was, however, pardonable 
for having, without much reflection, accepted the invitation. 

The morning of the day agreed upon, Josephine bethought her- 
self that she had invited the actress to breakfast, who, she might be 
sure, would not fail to come. She related the circumstance to a con- 
fidential friend, in a way that sufficiently showed her embarrassment. 
Her friend told her she must find some means of avoiding the break- 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINB 295 

fast, which could on no account take place without producing an 
unfavourable effect. After casting about for excuses, it was finally 
concluded that the most honest one would be to feign sickness 
Mademoiselle arrived, and was met by an attendant who told her 
that the Empress was afflicted with a terrible headache, that she 
was in bed, and utterly unable to see company ; that she much re- 
gretted this unseasonable attack; but that, if Mademoiselle Contat 
would pass into the octagonal saloon, she should be served with 
breakfast. The latter, probably, now began to take the hint, and 
instead of passing into the little saloon, she immediately jumped into 
her carriage, and returned home to breakfast. Everybody knows 
how much grace and gentility that famous actress wore in her face; 
but it was remarked that henceforth her looks became less amiable. 

(29) Page 55. 
The smallest details." 

The return of Talleyrand to France presents some curious incidents 
of a private nature. 

Madame de Stael took a deep interest hi the return of the Bishop 
of Autun ; but his name was on the fatal list, and he could not safely 
re-enter France. What was to be done ? Madame de Stael pre- 
sented herself to Madame Chat Ren , and besought her to 

unite her influence with hers, to obtain from the Directory the erasure 
of his name. They were of opinion that Talleyrand ought not only 
to be recalled, but appointed to the ministry. The matter was attended 
with great difficulties. As an emigrant, and a ci-devant noble, his 

claims, if any, must appear ridiculous. Madame Chat Ren 

agreed to speak with Barras about it ; but at the first allusion to the 

subject, he utterly rejected the idea, and said to Madame Chat 

Ren , " I really know not which of us is sleeping, or which waking. 

If you are in earnest, either you or I must have lost our senses." 
" Ah 1 " said she, " why do you think it impossible ? On the con- 
trary, it is, in my judgment, an entirely politic act ; for the moment 
Talleyrand consents to accept the office of minister, your government 
will be consolidated, and your personal power greatly augmented and 
confirmed. His name alone ought to form an exception to the general 
rule. The Bishop of Autun is a man of learning, and thoroughly 
acquainted with the policy of European Courts. Under the circum- 
stances, it seems to me, that man becomes necessary to you. I cer- 
tainly have no personal motive to desire his return. What I have 
said has no other aim than to enable you to avail yourself of the 
mental resources of a man of profound erudition, who has travelled 
much and seen much. Now that he has returned from the United 
States, and gone to the Continent, what will his restless spirit employ 



296 NOTES TO THE SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

Itself about? Perhaps, in pamphleteering against you. Well! by 
attaching him to your cause, and paying the debts he has left unpaid irv 
France, you will gain a partisan who will owe you an obligation ; and it 
seems to me that this course becomes you much better than to continue 
his proscription. Reflect 1 Director," said she, on leaving him. 

When she again met Madame de Stael, she told her the result of 
the interview, and how little hope she had of effecting Talleyrand's 
recall. She, however, engaged to renew her efforts, but upon the 
condition that Madame de Stael would not meddle in the matter. 

"For," added the keen-sighted Madame Chat Ren , "no wit 

must be shown with such men ; they would not understand you ; 
and it might throw the bishop's affairs all out of gear." Some days 
passed in useless parleys, before Barras began to see the force of 

Madame Chat Ren- 's argument. But he despaired of gaining 

Carnot. " He is," said Barras, " an intrepid man, a real Cato, and 
has all the Roman's inflexibility and disinterestedness." Madame 

Chat Ren made no remark upon that subject, but immediately 

wrote to Talleyrand, advising him to repair to the favourable director. 
Barras was wholly ignorant that the bishop had already, in some 
degree, gained the confidence of the modern Aristippus; and the 
consequence was, the erasure of his name from the lists of proscrip- 
tion, and the promise of being elevated to the ministry. On his 
arrival, Talleyrand's first visit was to his officious friend. She made 
i him sensible that for his own sake he ought immediately to present 
himself to the Directory. " For," said she, " 'tis useless to conceal 
from you the fact that the decree of radiation passed in your favour was 
reconsidered, three days ago, and that your name is now restored to the 
lists of proscription the tablets of the modern Sylla." She imme- 
diately conducted Talleyrand to the Directory. The guard at first 
refused to admit him, and compelled the bishop to leave his cane behind, 
although it was to him a necessary support. In passing up the steps, 
he leaned upon Madame Chat Ren , saying, with perfect com- 
posure, "A pretty Government this, whose members are afraid of getting 
a caning." Madame Chat Ren was surprised at his perfect self- 
possession at a moment when he had everything to fear. When in the 
presence of the directors, he captivated them by his language and the 
originality of his replies. He spoke to Carnot the language of Franklin, 
who, on being asked what he did in America, answered, that he sold 
cabbages out of a cart, in New York, with Madame Dillon. To Barras 
he gave some hints respecting his nobility, and the perpetual constraint 
and disgust which such a man as he must feel at being assimilated to 
such models even as Rewbel, who recognized in our prelate a profound 
intellect and extensive acquirements. Talleyrand at length gained a 
complete victory over the Directory. 

Madame de Stael often showed an ambition to excel in conversation. 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 397 

" Let's be still," was Madame Chat Ren 's constant reply. 

" This is not the place for wit, but for flattery ; we must use a style of 
softness, sweetness, supplication, lowliness ; and, when proper, of irony 
and superiority. These are the shades which are necessary to the 
picture. All the rest is out of place here, for mere sentiment has here 
an artificial appearance, and is not to be met with except under some 
foreign and unusual garb." A few days after Talleyrand's accession to 
the ministry, he gave a great dinner to the principal directors. Madame 

Le Tourn was present, and, at the conclusion of the feast, remarked 

to him, " Citizen minister, your installation in this hotel must have cost 
you dear." " Citoyenne," replied Talleyrand, with a bow, "a great deal 

." He had thus to adopt the tastes, the language, and even the 

dress of the times, in order to keep his place. 

(30) Page 58. 
A rival." 

The Empress was often seriously affected by the tales told by evil- 
minded persons at Court. These lying drones, whose smiles concealed 
calumny, dared to repeat in the saloons that Mademoiselle Hortense, 
wife of Louis Bonaparte, was favoured, in a particular manner, by her 
illustrious step-father. And they even went so far w,ith their imprudence 
and malignity as to state that her eldest son had a double affiliation with 
the Bonaparte family. " These stories," said Josephine, " hurt my feel- 
ings. I know Hortense, I pity her; you see that I suffer for two. I 
would fain forget such tales : they are unworthy of my daughter and of 
me. My husband merely treated her with kindness, and nothing more. 
Often did that unhappy wife, while the eyes of the courtiers were upon 
her, hasten to her mother, and pour out her griefs on her bosom, while 
the rest of the company supposed she was spending her time in social 
amusements. Had I listened to the insinuations of some of the cour- 
tiers, I should have drunk the cup of jealousy to the dregs ; but, I must 
repeat it, my daughter is as pure as an angel. She will hereafter be 
better understood." 

(31) Page 60. 

"The lady who was to replace her." 

Jerome Bonaparte's first wife was a Miss Patterson, whom he 
married in the United States. Her family was highly respectable, and 
had rendered him the most urgent services during the first part of his 
residence in New England. Everything seemed to promise that happy 
pair that the ties which bound them were woven with flowers ; and in 
his exile the young man had occasion to exult a thousand times in the 
choice he had made, and in the good fortune of having a son by Miss 
Patterson. 

The sudden elevation of Bonaparte, and that singular destiny which 



298 NOTES TO THE SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

placed him on the throne of France, necessarily changed the condition 
of his family. Jerome was recalled by his brother, and found it neces- 
sary to obey. He left the cradle of his son, and separated himself for 
ever from a wife whom he had sworn to protect. But the glitter of a 
crown could not but be singularly flattering to the vanity of a young 
man of a light and ardent temperament. 'And yet it must, to his praise 
be said that he did not forget Miss Patterson. He preserved a tender 
recollection of her, and, though afar off, watched over the fortunes of 
her son. 

The kingdom of Westphalia was offered him as the price of his 
obedience to his brother's command. Thus it was that Napoleon in- 
fluenced all his relatives. Lucien alone maintained his pride and 
haughtiness to the last, and refused to repudiate Madame Jeauberteau, 
whom he had espoused. Jerome, more docile, consented to give his 
hand to Princess Catherine of Wurtemberg, and Cassel became the 
capital of the new estates given to him. His second wife succeeded 
marvellously in attaching to herself the most volatile of men. That 
woman, worthy of the throne of Westphalia, made many partisans and 
warm friends. Indeed, nobody could deny the noble qualities of her 
heart. At the commencement of her reign, she was generally supposed 
to be without much strength of character; but the events of 1813 and 
1814 developed a remarkable degree of courage in her, and added 
wonderfully to that energy which she had displayed from the commence- 
ment of her husband's misfortunes. There is something very singular 
'connected with her personal history the fact, which time will not fail 
to record, that it was predicted to her, in writing, in 1808, and again in 
1810,' that her happiness would cease from the time there should be a 
great conflagration in her palace ; a that, shortly after, troubles should 
break out in Westphalia ; that she would find herself under the necessity 
of flying from her kingdom in disguise ; that she should come to France, 
where new troubles would await her. " Then " (it was added) " you will 
be forced to escape again, and you will even shun the one of your relatives 
who shall be near you. Your effects shall be almost entirely dispersed ; 
many persons shall appropriate them to themselves ; and when this shall 
happen to you, you shall be with child of a son." 

(32) Page 63. 
" Madame Letitia." 
Madame Bonaparte, the Emperor's mother, was very cleanly in her 



1 That Princess more than once deigned to honour the editress of these Memoirs 
with her private confidence. What is stated above is perfectly notorious, and cannot 
be contradicted. 

2 During the night of the gist of November, 1811, the day of a fete at the Court oi 
Cassel, a fire broke out in the palace. The movables were all thrown out of tlM 
windows, and the most precious articles seriously damaged or destroyed. 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINB 2gg 

private habits ; always dressed like a young woman, she wore robes of 
muslin or white lawn, with a wreath of flowers upon her head. She 
had been a very handsome woman, and at this period still preserved 
the traces of her former beauty. Napoleon very often reproved her 
on the subject of her dress, which he regarded as ridiculous for a 
woman of her age, and yet too plain for a Court dress. He directed 
Madame Bacciochi to take Madame Letitia to the celebrated 
Lenormant, and get a full outfit of clothes becoming her age and 
rank. Madame Bonaparte, after some urging, consented to go ; but, 
on arriving at the shop, everything seemed of too high a price for 
her, and she wanted to return home empty-handed. But Madame 
Eliza held her back, made a purchase of a thousand crowns' worth of 
silks, and forced her to take them ; which made the good dame sick 
for several days, overwhelmed with chagrin at having spent so much 
money. 

After the departure of Lucien, her son, madamt la mire occupied his 
house. She paid 1,200 francs a year to his ushers and valets de 
chambre, to whom, however, she did not furnish provisions. Her 
three cooks had only one dish-cloth, one apron, and one towel a day. 
She retained her old water-bearer from the Faubourg St. Honore, who 
furnished her this liquid for five centimes a load, and who, in addition, 
drew well-water to wash and rinse her dishes. The good dame would 
not board her servants, though she left them the fragments; and 
bought, ordinarily, only three half-pound loaves of bread a day, which 
she shared with an old chambermaid, whom she had brought with her 
from Corsica, and who had been her servant for thirty years. When- 
ever Mesdames Eliza and Pauline wanted a frolic, they would go and 
ask to dine at their mother's, and would always have a great laugh at 
seeing her, on their arrival, send right off to the baker's for bread. 
After her son obliged her to keep house, the old chambermaid stationed 
herself, during the repast, in an entry through which the domestics 
carried the dishes from the table ; and every dish which was not 
touched, or but partially consumed, the old woman would carefully 
set aside in a closet, of which she kept the key. They were re-served 
on the next and following days. When anyone asked Madame Letitia 
why she was so careful in her expenditure, she would answer, " When 
I had the care of a family, and had to provide for nine children, I got 
along with less than 100 louis d'or a year. At present, I have my son 
Lucien, who is not provided with a place, and whose expenses are great. 
He will never be able to furnish his daughters with a dowry, and I am 
going to take care of that myself; besides, it is always Dest to be 
economical ; you don't know what may happen." 

After the disasters of the Russian campaign, Bonaparte found out 
that his mother had five millions of francs concealed behind a picture. 
One day, as she happened to be at the Tuileries, her son said to her, 



3OO NOTES TO THE SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

" Mother, I know you have money, and I shall be infinitely obliged to 
you to lend 'me some I need it." "Ah, Sire," said she, "how they 
have deceived Your Majesty ! 1 4iave, absolutely, only enough to pay 
my expenses." " It is, I repeat," said Napoleon, " a favour which I 
expect of you." "And I repeat to you, Sire," said she, " that that is all 
the money I have; what I had, I have sent to one of our acquaintances" 
(Lucien). " Well," said he, " I am willing to believe it." The con- 
versation now turned to different subjects. But Bonaparte knew how 
to manage the matter ; and so, some two or three days afterwards, he 
came incognito, and asked to dine with her. After rising from the 
table he busied himself looking at the pictures, and stopped hi front 
of the one which covered the secret deposit. " I shall," said he, " be 
greatly obliged to you, mother, if you will give me this picture." "With 
pleasure, my son," said she ; " I will have it carried to the Tuileries." 
But he instantly rang the bell for the servants, and ordered them to 
take it down. Madame Letitia showed some opposition, but Bonaparte 
would be obeyed on the spot. The picture being taken down, he per- 
ceived the hidden packet, and was careful to ascertain, himself, what it 
contained. He directed the whole to be put into his carriage, and left 
immediately without saying anything more to his mother, who was so 
mortified that she could not speak. 

Lucien Bonaparte left a well-furnished room to the governess of his 
children, Mademoiselle Annet. Madame la mere found it more to her 
own convenience to send her away from the house, and to keep the 
furniture. Annet complained of this treatment to Josephine ; who, the 
same evening, spoke of it to the Emperor. "What are you thinking 
about?" said he; "my mother is always afraid of coming to want. 
Happening to breakfast with her, a few days ago, I observed that the 
cooks had served her some mauviettes; having sucked several without 
opening them, she took the extreme precaution to put them back into 
the platter. On my remarking that this was a scene worthy of the pen 
of Moliere, and that she even outdid Harpagon, she replied, seriously, 
" These dam ties will be very gratifying to persons who eat nothing but 
common food. In this way, my son, nothing will be lost, and I shall 
make somebody happy." 

After indulging in these slight criticisms, I must, in justice, and to 
the praise of Madame Letitia, say that she loved to do an act of kind- 
ness, and that, whenever the object was to influence her son Napoleon 
to grant a pardon, or repair an injury, she was enchanted in being 
successful in her suit, and she would herself, with pleasure, send the 
news of her success to the applicant. She did not approve the 
Emperor's conduct towards the Pope at Fontainebleau ; and, speaking 
of her son, often said to Cardinal Fesch, her brother, "Your nephew 
will injure both his own interests and ours by acting thus. He ought 
to stop where he is. He who wants too much, often leaves off by 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 30! 

having nothing. I fear on account of the whole family; and I think 
it wise to be ready for every event." Madame Letitia, it will be seen, 
had the gift of prophecy, and neglected nothing, during the last years 
of her son's reign, to place her fortune upon a respectable footing, and 
to shield it from peril in case of accident. 

(33) Pg* 65. 

"Before my death." 

Josephine had a sister de lait, named Lucette, who from her birth 
had been particularly attached to the family. She calculated upon 
the benevolence of her protectress to give her her liberty. Not being 
manumitted as soon as she wished, the wretched creature, who was 
only twenty-two years old, resolved to poison Madame de Tascher ; 
and for that purpose prepared some small peas, into which she put 
some pounded glass. Fortunately, her mistress discovered it in time, 
and finally compelled the guilty Lucette to own it. The spoon, which 
Madame de Tascher was bringing to her lips, was filled with them. 
That generous woman, however, strove to save the life of the slave by 
sending her to St. Thomas. But the affair created too much sensation 
to permit her to go unpunished, and she was condemned to be burnt 
alive, which punishment she underwent. All Madame de Tascher's 
efforts to save her were useless she could not obtain even a commuta- 
tion of the sentence. It is said that this woman, so benevolent, and so 
addicted to practical good works (everybody on the island knew that 
her house was at all times the refuge of misfortune), more than once felt 
all the agonies of dissolution. After experiencing the keenest suffering 
for a long time, she died of a cancer, having spent a life devoted to 
benevolence and philanthropy. 

During the most prosperous and wonderful portion of her daughter's 
career, she refused to accept anything from her. " I have," said she, 
"more than I need, for there still remains to me wherewithal to 
alleviate the sufferings of my countrymen; that is enough" (she wrote 
to Josephine). " I am not fond of greatness, and am afraid of it ; its 
shadow seems to me so fleeting, that I have little faith in the per- 
manency of your good fortune. But, meanwhile, enjoy the present with 
moderation, and beware you do not trust too much to the future. I dis- 
trust courtiers ; I hold them in horror ; the ambition of your husband 
will ruin him. Could I have confidence hi his continued prosperity, 
I might occupy at Martinique a rank worthy of you. Alas! my 
Josephine, my beloved Josephine, I regret but one thing, and that 
is, that your brilliant position will not permit you, as heretofore, 
to come and beautify with your presence my solitude of the " Three 
Islets." Then should I have nothing more to desire hi this world I 
might then press you to my bosom once more before I die." 



3O2 NOTES TO THE SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

Madame de Tascher died in 1807. Josephine was the more afflicted 
at this eVent that she could make no public manifestation of her grief. 
She wept for her mother in the silence of midnight, and wore mourning 
in her heart, although unable to display its outward signs. Josephine, 
now become Empress, was forced to submit to the rigorous rule pre- 
scribed by her rank ; and as Madame de Tascher was not, like Madame 
Letitia, recognised as Queen Dowager, the Court wore no symbol of 
mourning. Bonaparte was not an admirer of Madame de Tascher 's 
character. " She is," said he, " a country-woman (bourgeoise), in the 
true- sense of the term. Her ideas are contracted; talk to her about 
the labours of farming, and the best mode of enriching the soil, and add 
thereto a dissertation on hens and hares, and you will see her face 
lighten up. She will tell you ' I prefer this peaceful mode of life to 
the first throne in the world.' " 

Such was Madame de Tascher during her life. She refused all the 
favours offered her, and was so disinterested that she returned to her 
daughter the diamonds which adorned the portrait of the wife of an 
Emperor. "The picture," said she, "is sufficient; I recognise in it 
the features of my beloved daughter; I need nothing more." She 
had a picture representing Napoleon, and took pains to keep it hung 
up in an unfrequented room. " I am afraid," said she gaily, " I may 
be seized with the mania of governing, and have, therefore, been care- 
ful to put the picture away, so as not to have before me anything 
which can suggest that idea. That's glory enough for my family ; 
I want no more; I am afraid of reverses, and the causes that lead 
to them." 

(34) Page 68. BERLIN. 

Napoleon made his entry into the Prussian capital on the 27th of 
October, 1806. To the municipal council who were presented to him, 
he said, " Gentlemen, I hear that nobody's windows have been broken. 
My brother, the King of Prussia, ceased to be King on the day he 
neglected to hang Prince Louis Ferdinand for daring to break his 
ministers' windows." To Count Neale he said, " Ah, ha, sir ! your 
women have made war ; l behold the consequence ! you must restrain 
your family. No 1 I don't want war ; not that I distrust my power, 
as you suppose, but because the blood of my people is precious, and 
not to be shed but for their safety and prosperity. But the good 
people of Berlin have become the victims of war, while those who 
have provoked it have saved themselves by flight." To M. de Hatz- 
feldt, he said, " Sir, do not present yourself to me ; I do not want 
your services; retire to your estates.' On leaving, he ordered Hatz- 
feldt to be arrested, because, as some thought, Hatzfeldt's interest 

i In a letter, written by the daughter of M. de Nale, she said, " If Napoleon doM 
not want war, he must have it" 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 303 

required either that Napoleon should show himself magnanimous 
and clement towards him, or, that he should be shielded from the 
reproaches of the Court. However that may be, 'Napoleon caused 
Madame Hatzfeldt to burn, with her own hand, the only letter which 
could have testified against her husband. To some, this was a ?ublime 
act, while others regarded it as a petty trick, that lady being too much 
overcome by her feelings to verify the date. This act of generosity, 
however, secured to the Emperor of the French a high reputation for 
clemency. 

(35) P*ge 7 1 - FRIEDLAND. 

The battle of Friedland, fought and gained by the French on the 
i4th of June, 1807,' led to the interview between the two Emperors on 
the Niemen. Here was realised what Napoleon had promised himself 
at the time of his conference with Francis II., Emperor of Austria, in 
the bivouac at Austerlitz. 2 "That pavilion on the Niemen," said Napo- 
leon, " had a great advantage over the different European palaces 
which I have occupied. There was about it an air of sincerity which 
even now excites my wonder. Except as to my principal project, I 
explained myself freely and fully to my brother Alexander. The King 
of Prussia is indebted to him for his crown. I myself wanted to dis- 
member his dominions a superb operation 1 People, things all 
would have been new." 

(36) Page 75. 

" As long as Saturn shall live." 

The unfortunate Queen of Prussia knew Napoleon well. " Never, f> 
said that Princess, " never will Europe be quiet while that son of Saturn 

i During the battle of Friedland, gained by the French on that day, the Emperor 
was stationed in front of his guard, which was kept in reserve behind the lines of 
battle. For some time he was without any news from his main army ; and such was 
his impatience that he rolled on the ground in an indescribable rage. At length an 
officer arrived, and, while still at a distance, exclaimed, " Sire, Konigsberg is taken 1 " 
Getting up instantly, he repeated, " Konigsberg ! Konigsberg is taken I Good ; peace 
is made ; I have it in my pocket." 

a On the 4th of September, 1805, Napoleon left Paris, arrived in Strassburg on the 
26th, and ciossed the Rhine on the ist of October. From this time his progress was 
but one continued triumph. On the loth he was at Augsburg; on the igth Ulm opened 
its gates; on the I4th of November he entered Vienna, and on the and of December 
his troops triumphed at Austerlitz. The definitive treaty of peace was concluded, and 
signed at Pressburg on the z6th of December. The Emperor of Germany renounced 
the possession of Venice, which was to be annexed to the kingdom of Italy ; he also 
recognised the new Kings of Bavaria and Wurtemberg, and agreed to deliver up the 
possession of all the towns, forts and territories ceded, within the space of six weeks. 
Napoleon remained fifteen days longer in Germany, giving his attention to the interests 
of a throng of petty princes, whom he proposed to unite in the alliance and confedera- 
tion which were signed at Paris on the izth of July in the following year. The 
preparatory measures being taken, he returned to the capital, where he arrived with 
Josephine on the 26th of January, 1806. 



304 NOTES TO THE SECRET MEMOIRS OP 

shall reign ; he is the*god of lightning. To-day his projects are gigantic; 
to-morrow they will be sublime, and he will be able to execute them. He 
can do anything and everything with an army so brave and so tond 
of glory. Ever true to his flag, that wonderful army will only rest long 
enough to revisit the happy shores of their own country and then return to 
impose conditions more severe perhaps than ever, conditions which fatal 
necessity and the fear of passing under the yoke of a foreign nation may 
make it necessary to accept ; for man cannot exempt himself from the 
law of necessity. The minds of men, after the close of a revolution, are 
slow in becoming calm. That is an inevitable evil. But this evil does 
not always cause one to renounce his country's good, or what is re- 
garded as such. In order to prevent the return of the French, and the 
achievement of further victories by them hi Prussia, if ever again 
which God forbid ! they are to trouble our repose, I should desire to 
see them kept out of our principal towns and cities, in order to prevent 
the spread of their fatal doctrine of ' fry and for the liberty of the people.' 
You would have to adopt a Constitution at the point of the bayonet. 

" In my judgment, the most respectable citizens should be consulted 
hi the concoction of laws, and allowed to deliberate on the necessities of 
the state ; but never to vote. He who acts as executive, but without 
the concurrence of the nation, legally represented, would hardly be able 
to propose anything which would be accepted. Where there is violence, 
the initiatory of laws is a mere nullity. All the Sovereigns of Europe 
may yet escape from the whirlwind of the new errors. They can say, 
and ought to say, to their subjects, ' We reign over you because our 
ancestors reigned over your fathers ; we reign by right of birth, re- 
serving to ourselves the right to stipulate with our people the form 
of the institutions by which our power is to be regulated, civil and 
political liberty secured, and all parties satisfied.' Then would the 
conduct of Princes be systematic and wise ; they would soon dissipate 
the idea of a universal republic, which begins to agitate Europe. Then, 
indeed, that strange fabric, floating in the air, without support in 
heaven or on earth, would be seen through; it would vanish with the 
first breath of the storm. But, it may be asked, would not men say, 
with Cicero, 'The name only of king is changed, the thing remains'? 
No, certainly. Most monarchies are ancient trees, whose trunks are to 
be respected. If you would graft new fruit upon their branches, you 
must prune off whatever obstructs the fruitfulness of the boughs, and 
cut away with a strong and resolute hand the parasitic wood which 
sucks up the fertility of the soil. It needs only the disposition, and the 
evil is soon cured. Europe, resplendent with glory, rejuvenescent hi 
her institutions, would be powerful enough to repress all factions which 
might spring up in her bosom. The people's love for the integrity 
of their soil would give them courage to resist all future attacks from 
Saturn or his descendants. What Leibnitz said to Charles XII. is here 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINB 305 

applicable : ' Conquerors are strange people. They seem to imagine 
that the world is obliged to them for their devastations ; they forget 
that their defeats are crimes against their country, and that their 
victories are murders committed against mankind.' " 

Thus spoke that courageous female in the last moments of her life. 
Her latest prayers were for the tranquillity of her country, and her 
last thoughts for the happiness of her husband and her children. 

(37) Pag* 75- 
" Come and reside in Franct." 

In his youth he was in love with a Polish lady, Madame L H. 

She was one of the women who, after having had a liaison with him, 
lost neither his esteem nor friendship, and gave him the most touching 
proofs of affection. At the time of his abdication (in 1814), at Fontaine- 
bleau, she repaired thither to bid him farewell ; and learning that Maria 
Louisa had not followed him to Elba, she went there with a son that 
she had had by him, purposing merely to remain there with him as 
a friend whose society was agreeable to him. But Napoleon would not 
consent to it, being unwilling to give her husband the mortification of 
knowing that his wife was near him, although he (Napoleon) had loved 
her before her marriage ; and she remained but three days. M. 

OBSERVATION. This story of the Polish lady has found its way into 
history, and Mr. Alison has been careful not to omit it. Why was 
he not equally careful, in his biographical sketches of George IV., 
to relate the glaring and brutal immoralities of that mean-spirited 
monarch and many of his courtiers ? The answer is plain ; the English 
aristocracy would not have read his book. TRANSLATOR. 

(38) Page 76. DOKE D'ENGHIEN. 

It was expected that the King of Sweden would have been found in 
company with the Duke d'Enghien, with whom he was to pass several 
weeks. The envoys had orders to arrest him ; but he was then at 
Carlsruhe with the Elector of Baden, his father-in-law. The King 
arrived four hours after the duke's departure, and conducted himself 
with much courage and presence of mind. He caused the alarm to 
be sounded through all the villages, and endeavoured to rally force 
enough to pursue those who had carried off a duke, and pillaged his 
house; but before the King had reached Ettenheim the duke was 
at Strassburg, shut up hi the citadel. 

The King of Sweden wrote a letter to Bonaparte, which he for- 
warded by his aide-de-camp, M. Tanart. Bonaparte refused to see 
the letter, and ordered Tanart to leave Paris in one hour. 

Gustavus recalled his ambassador; whereupon Bonaparte ordered 

VOL. II 20 



306 NOTES TO THE SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

Pigneul, Consul-General of Sweden, to leave Paris in one hour, and 
France in three days. 

The King of Sweden, in his quality of Prince of the Germanic 
Empire, presented to the Diet of Ratisbon a note similar to that 
of Russia ; and shortly afterwards returned to the King of Prussia 
the order of the Black Eagle, alleging as his reason that the Prussian 
monarch wore the order of Bonaparte. 1 

(39) Page 78. 
"Cashmeres " 

His Excellency Asker-Khan made a present to the Empress of some 
stuffs of remarkable beauty. She distributed them among the ladies 
attached to her, reserving to herself such only whose colours were most 
pleasing to the Emperor. Napoleon wanted tc see the French cash- 
meres adopted at his Court;* but, as the new nobility imitated the 
old in matters of the toilet, he found it impossible to influence the 
beauties of his Court, who constituted its charm and ornament. He 
used to torment Josephine with questions respecting the price of the 
clothes she wore ; to satisfy him she would answer, " 'Tis St. Quentin 
linen." "Ah," said he, "this proves the superiority of our manufac- 
tures over those of our neighbours!" which greatly amused Josephine, 
whose dresses were chiefly of the richest of India muslins. Learning one 
day that Josephine was receiving, habitually, articles of merchandise, 
smuggled across the frontier of Holland, he fell into a violent rage, 
and gave instant orders to have them seized before their introduction 
into France. M. Halsen immediately confiscated the cashmeres. The 
Emperor observed that she seemed to be in trouble at not receiving any 
news respecting the articles she was waiting for ; he chuckled in secret 
over the trick he in his turn had played upon her, and remarked, with 
seeming anger, " Madam, the deepest pang, the severest punishment, a 
husband can inflict upon a wife is to hide her bonnets, her dresses and 
her gewgaws. I will pardon you this time, and restore the cashmeres ; 
but I swear to you, that, for the future, I will have every one guilty of 

1 Gnstavns Adolphus firmly believed that Napoleon was the Antichrist foretold by 
the Apocalypse, and consequently always called him " the Beast.' 1 On this hypo- 
thesis it was evident to him that the number 666, which the beast was to bear upon 
his forehead, was included in the name of Napoleon Bonaparte. On the 22nd of 
July, 1807, he wrote thus to the Duke of Brunswick-Oels : " Nothing can induce me to 
treat with the beast, because in so doing I should not only betray my duty and every 
principle sacred among men, but call down upon myself evil in this world and in the 
world to come. Reflect, I pray you, upon what I have written, dictated only by my 
friendship for you." 

2 Napoleon detested shawls. He loved to see a lady's shape, and used to say that 
shawls were the invention of hump-backed women, a defect which to him was most 
disagreeable. He did not like to see women without rouge ; he thought them always 
sick. 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 307 

committing a similar fault for your good pleasure, tried, condemned 
and executed. Empress, as you are my wife, you are not above the 
laws. On the contrary, 'tis for you to show an example of obedience to 
them." Anecdote related by M. Halsen, the Collector of Customs at Mons. 

(40) Page 79. 
" Much amusement." 

All the members of Napoleon's Court were in a hurry to call upon 
the Persian ambassador previous to his public presentation all the 
ladies hastened to taste the tea and the saffron cakes of the illustrious 
stranger. For some time His Persian Excellency was all the rage, and 
many of our pretty women had their day-dreams about him. He was a 
handsome man, though surpassed in that respect by his nephew. Each 
found himself perpetually surrounded by a throng of the curious, 
following them wherever they went ; and the parties they gave at their 
residences were both brilliant and numerously attended. The Empress 
determined to see them at their meals. Several ladies of her suite 
accompanied her; but she preserved a perfect incognito. On being 
introduced to him he honoured her with a gracious smile, and presented 
her a small bottle of rose-wa er a kind of present among the Persians, 
intended as a mark of high je.'sonal respect. She tasted several Per- 
sian dishes, and expressed her admiration of his Excellency's pipe, 
which was brought to him by two slaves, who kneeled when placing it 
in his hands. She noticed that the extremities of his nails were 
tinged with different colours. The ambassador requested Josephine, 
whose gracefulness of manner struck his attention, to come and be 
seated by his side on his divan, which she declined. " That honour," 
said she, " belongs only to privileged persons ; " unwilling and unable to 
make herself known. The ambassador asked her, through his inter- 
preter, Jaubert, whether she was willing to go and reside with him in 
Persia, and assured her that, if she would consent, he would render 
her situation an enviable one. She replied that she was married and 
had two children ; that her duty and interest required her to remain in 
Paris, where her destinies seemed fixed. On the day of the ambassa- 
dor's public presentation, Josephine, adorned with all her graces, re- 
ceived him with dignity and amiability. The air and the attitude of the 
poor Persian cannot be described ; he at once recognised in the Empress 
the woman he had tried to captivate, and stood dumb. That admirable 
woman instantly relieved him of his embarrassment, and said, with a 
gracious smile, and in a sweet tone, "You must admit, Monsieur 
1'Ambassadeur, that I had good reason for telling you I preferred to 
remain in France. If you think well of me you will remain faithful to 
that beautiful Persian wife of yours." The woman referred to was his 
Excellency's favourite wife. He made a sign of respect, as much as to 
say to her that he should esteem it a pleasant duty to follow her advice. 

20 2 



308 NOTES TO THE SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

(41) Page 80. MADAME BACCIOCHI. 

This sister of Napoleon had very much his own character ; she loved 
to rule. Having become Grand Duchess of Lucca and Piombino, she 
established a firm government, founded on good laws. Her police were 
vigilant and admirable, but leaving the people a measure of freedom. 
Her ministry was chosen with judgment. She possessed one of our 
most sensible men, whose talents were well fitted to organise a new 
state, and establish it upon a solid basis. That ancient director of the 
general police of Milan, from the Duchy of Venice, became indispensable 
to the Grand Duchess; and", thanks to the vigilant care of that political 
Hercules, Florence and the neighbouring region enjoyed the most per- 
fect tranquillity. He restored plenty. Bonaparte sometimes compared 
the Grand Duchess Eliza to Queen Elizabeth. The comparison was far 
from just ; but, whenever Napoleon espoused an opinion, or took sides, 
everybody had to yield. 

One day, while conversing with his uncle, Fesch, the latter remarked 
to him, " It must be confessed, my dear nephew, that the sin of pride is 
innate in our family. You have inoculated your brothers and sisters 
with it, and I am sensible that the bishop's purple does not guard me 
against it." Bonaparte laughed heartily at the prelate's naivete, and 
particularly when the latter recalled to his recollection certain little in- 
cidents in the history of his childhood, which went to show that the 
young Corsican would not suffer himself to be thrown into the shade, 
even in trifling ordinary matters. " I caught you one day," said the 
prelate, " at the age of eight years, reading the ' History of Cromwell,' 
and asked yon what you thought of that celebrated man. Eh bien ! ' 
you replied, ' Cromwell is a good work, but incomplete.' I supposed 
you were speaking of the work, and asked you what fault you could 
charge upon the author. ' Morbku ! ' you replied, quickly, ' I am not 
speaking about the book, but the man who is its subject ; ' and, it seems 
to me, Your Majesty has put in practice what you then said, 'All or 
nothing!' " 

(42) Page 80. PAULINE. 

There is related a little piece of roguery on the part of Pauline Bona- 
parte, the Princess Borghese, which, if true, shows at once great levity 
of character and goodness of heart. At the time we speak of, she 
possessed a high and powerful influence, and could obtain by force what 
she could not effect by persuasion. 

The hotel she lived in at Paris, although spacious and commodious, 
was not large enough to suit her fancy. Learning that the apartments 
of one of the two houses which joined her own were exactly on a level 
with hers, she sent a person to solicit the owner to sell it to her, and 
offered him a price much above its true value. He was a man in easy 
circumstances, and attached to a residence which he had so long occupied. 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 3OQ 

He obstinately rejected the proposition. The Princess then asked him to 
lease her a part of the lower storey, necessary, as she thought, to accom- 
modate her and increase her apartments ; but the negotiation was 
unsuccessful, and the matter was apparently dropped on both sides. But 
it by no means passed out of her mind. The owner was in the habit of 
travelling into the country during the spring. The moment the Princess 
was advised of his having left, she got ready her workmen of every 
description. The wall was opened which separated her apartments from 
those which she coveted ; the furniture was entirely removed from the 
latter, and piled up on the stairway, and the address of the Princess's 
notary left upon a chair. All the doors leading from the usurped 
apartment were walled up on the inside ; and lo ! she was in full possession 
of the new abode, which she furnished and decorated in the highest style. 
But these arrangements were not made without the knowledge of the 
owner's servant. He lost no time in writing to his master, who, it may be 
supposed, lost none in returning. Enraged at thus finding himself 
dispossessed by main force, he rushed to the lawyers, to the judges, de- 
manding counsel, justice. Every one advised him to submit with 
patience to the calamity, and seek out the notary whose address he had 
found. Nobody had the courage to send him to Napoleon, who certainly 
would not have smiled at this high-handed conduct of his amiable sister. 
At length, our good citizen went to the notary who was charged to 
pay him down the sum that had been offered, either for the title of the 
house, or the use of it for the term proposed. From the silly advice given 
him, he was led to suppose that a lawsuit would only draw down 
persecutions upon him, and finding the sum offered exceeded the value 
of the property, he finally signed the contract of sale, and was glad t6 
get away from so venturesome a neighbour. 

(43) Page 83. 
"A new army at Bayonne." 

On the evening of Joseph Bonaparte's arrival at Bayonne, his brother 
determined to cause him to be recognised as King of Spain. In pursuance 
of this determination, he ordered all the Spanish deputies who were 
there to meet in their respective classes and professions, and, each one 
by himself, to prepare a discourse felicitating the new King. These men, 
commanded to commit their thoughts to writing, met together in the 
grand saloon of Marac, where each one set himself about writing a 
speech. Whoever had entered the room at this moment, would have 
supposed himself in a college recitation room. The business of composing 
being ended, the principal deputy of each class was introduced into the 
ante-room of the saloon. Here he read the discourse to Napoleon, who, 
like a true schoolmaster, pointed out the corrections to be made therein 
with all the pedantry of a college regent. At length, after the speech was 



3IO NOTES TO THE SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

duly concocted and settled upon, the deputations were admitted into tho 
presence of Joseph. 

The style of composing the speech gave rise to a scene between 
Napoleon and the Duke del Infantado. That nobleman's speech did not 
express a formal acknowledgment of Joseph as King, but only wished for 
the prosperity of Joseph through Spain, and of Spain through Joseph. But 
what Bonaparte wanted was a good understanding, well expressed and 
formal. He was not a man to be put off with those effusions of mere 
love or hope ; he took fire, and assailed the Duke with a volley of words, 
which were heard hi the adjoining rooms. " There must be no tergiver- 
sation, sir," said he ; "recognise him frankly, or refuse to do so ; crime, as 
well as virtue, must be illustrated by talent. Do you want to return to 
Spain, and place yourself at the head of the insurgents ? Go. I give you 
my word I will send you there in safety ; but remember, should you again 
fall into my hands, I will have you shot in twenty- four hours." The duke, 
however, defended his ground, and seemed not particularly seduced by 
the offer of a safe conduct. But a new sally from Napoleon overthrew 
him ; the duke gave in, and, enraged by the petulance of his adversary, let 
fall these words: "Well, well, Sire, I have made a blunder." M. M. 

(44) Page 83. 

Lucien's eldest daughter in marriage." 

When the projected marriage of Charlotte, Lucien Bonaparte's 
daughter, to the Prince of Asturias, was announced to Lucien (his 
consent not having been obtained), far from being dazzled by an alliance 
with which he had been flattered two years before, and which would have 
given him for a son-in-law the heir of Charles V., and of Louis XIV., he 
notified his absolute opposition to it. "No," he wrote to Napoleon, "I 
will never consent to sacrifice my children to your policy. God may 
know what are your designs upon Ferdinand ; but I know well that you 
have already done too much against that Prince for me ever to call him 
my son-in-law." This trait of character in Lucien was surely one of those 
which did him most honour. 

'Tis easy to conceive the effect of such a reply on the impetuous 
Bonaparte, and we are indebted to his anger for a knowledge cf the 
conditions which he had made up his mind to propose to the King of 
Spain. The Ebro was to become the new frontier of the two countries ; 
the Cabinet of Madrid was to be chained by treaties to the fortunes of 
France ; and numerous garrisons of French troops in the principal for- 
tresses and ports of Ferdinand were to answer for the submission of that 
Prince, now become tributary. Such were the political views to which 
the King of Spain owed the preference granted him hi regard to 
Mademoiselle Lucien ; for Napoleon had also thought of the Grand 
Duke of Wurtzburg, supposing apparently, that the latter Prince would 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 31 1 

readily consent to marry his niece. This project had been broached to 
the young lady, who, on seeing the Grand Duke, evinced an infantile 
repugnance to him. This was enough. The father, who, with an 
energy worthy of all praise, had set forth the grounds of his first 
opposition, was perhaps less wise this time. He refused the honour of 
the alliance again offered him ; and the spite between the two brothers 
increasing, he imperiously demanded back his daughter. " Give her 
back tc me," said he, "or, braving my proscription and your orders, 
Sire, I will come and take her, even in the saloon of the Tuileries." On 
reading this fierce and haughty letter, Napoleon was highly incensed. 
" Let her go," said he ; "I don't want to hear anything more about it ; 
in twenty-four hours let her be no longer in Paris." The order was 
executed. Lucien, informed of his daughter's approach, went with his 
wife twenty leagues to meet her, and on meeting her said, with trans- 
port, " My child, I committed a great fault ; but you are restored to me, 
and the wrong is repaired." " Mem. Sec. dt Lucien BonaparU." 



(45) Page 87. 
" The Queen of Etruria." 

The unhappy Queen of Etruria, eldest daughter of the Emperor, a 
denomination which she gave herself, was sacrificed by her adopted 
father. The French minister, M. d'Aubusson, was charged with the 
painful duty of signifying to her the pretended arrangement between the 
Courts of France and Spain, which placed the Tuscan state in the hands 
of Napoleon ; it having been six years before erected into a kingdom. 
On reading this declaration, made in a council extraordinary, the Prin- 
cess not having been informed of it, fainted She retired into Spain 
with Louis, the young King, her son, without foreseeing the still 
greater catastrophe which was in secret preparation for her august 
family. 

"On the igth of February" (says the Queen of Etruria in her 
" Memoirs ") " we arrived without any accident at the palace of Aran- 
juez, where, after enjoying the pleasure of seeing my parents and my 
brothers, my. first step was to inform myself respecting the treaty. 
They answered me that they had been deceived, and that no treaty 
whatever was in existence. On the one hand I was struck as with a 
clap of thunder at the horrible treason committed against us ; while, on 
the other, that same discovery afforded me some consolation, and en- 
couraged me to renew my application for permission to return to my 
beloved Tuscany. In the course of my efforts, my father renounced the 
crown of Spain, and my brother was proclaimed his successor. I re- 
newed my application to him, and obtained from him the most solemn 
promise that my wish should be gratified, when, by a second act of 
treason, he was carried off to Bayonne, and we were all forced to follow 



312 NOTES TO THE SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

him. I left Madrid on the 3rd of May, having scarcely recovered frorj 
the measles, with which I had been attacked. I was utterly ignorant of 
what had taken place, and the first words my parents spoke to me on 
my arrival at Bayonne were : ' You must know, daughter, that our family 
have for ever ceased to reign.' It almost took away my breath. I 
could not imagine what had happened, never having dreamed of the 
possibility of such an occurrence. I bowed to my parents and retired 
to my room, more dead than alive. 

" Bonaparte being then at Bayonne, I asked permission to see him, 
but received a dry and angry No. I then endeavoured to obtain at least 
the restitution of Parma, which was also refused me. At length, while 
I was employing all the means in my power to recover one, at least, of 
the two states which belonged to us, and of which we had been despoiled 
by the blackest stratagem, that dreadful event, so unexpected, so fatal, 
took place I mean the Treaty of Bayonne ; in which it was stipulated 
to pay an annual instalment of 400,000 francs, in consideration of the 
cession of the kingdom of Spain by King Charles IV. to Napoleon. In 
part execution of this treaty, my brothers, King Ferdinand VII., and 
the Infant Don Carlos, with my uncle, the Infant Don Antonio, were 
ordered to repair to Valancey, whither we went a few days after. My 
parents, with the Infant Francis Antonio, left for Fontainebleau, and I 
was forced to follow them with my children. 

" We arrived at Fontainebleau after a fatiguing journey, and were 
lodged in the palace, where my father and mother were already estab- 
lished. Napoleon had assigned to them the entire service of the 
Imperial Court ; ladies, gentlemen, guards, all were at their disposal. 

" On the other hand, myself and family had but a small, miserable 
apartment for our accommodation. My principal care now was to find 
a house in the country, where I could live in peace with my children 
and the small number of persons attached to me ; for I had told Bona- 
parte, while at Bayonne, that I thought it would be much better for me 
to live separate from my father and mother, with a distinct establish- 
ment, conformably to the circumstances in which I was placed ; an idea 
which he seemed to approve. As soon, therefore, as I had arrived at 
Fontainebleau, I found a pretty country house, called Passy. I fur- 
nished it, and rented it for a year. My parents were fully advised of this 
arrangement, and expressed their entire satisfaction with it ; they spoke 
continually of paying me a visit, saying that the place was a pleasant and 
agreeable one. For myself, I went on with my preparations with the 
most perfect innocence, never imagining that those demonstrations of 
goodwill were simulated ; although I began to entertain some doubts on 
that head when, being about to leave for Passy, I was refused post- 
horses, under the pretence that there were none at hand at the moment. 
I then sent for some livery horses, and took leave of my parents that 
evening. Being about to get into my carriage with my children, and go 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 313 

to my new abode, where I was expected to arrive the next morning, and 
before we had reached the inner gate of the palace. I was arrested and 
forced to return, accompanied by a general, who, in a mournful way, 
informed me that he had been ordered to arrest me, and to station 
sentinels in the court of my lodgings, which was done. Thus, to my 
utter confusion, I had to provide for expenses to which my means were 
inadequate ; for the proprietors of the house insisted that I should satisfy 
them, and obliged me to pay the rent for the entire year, as if I had had 
the actual enjoyment of the premises, besides all the expenses they 
had been at in putting the house in a condition to receive me. I tried 
to show myself superior to these embarrassments ; but physical strength 
is not at our command, and my own was so exhausted that I began to 
feel the approach of the convulsions to which I became subject three 
years after, and during the continuance whereof I was not mistress of 
myself. Everybody belonging to the French Court, from the highest 
rank to the lowest, was touched with pity at such treatment, and com- 
miserated my sufferings, mental as well as bodily. Those nearest to me 
by the ties of blood were the ones who showed the most indifference to 
my distress. They told me it was Bonaparte's business, and that I 
must write to him. I did so, but the answer I received was exactly 
what I might have expected, viz. : ' that I was wrong, and my parents 
right." A few days after they were ordered to go to Compiegne, and I 
to follow them, which I did, meeting with a thousand inconveniences on 
the way. We arrived there on the i8th of June. My father and mother 
alone had charge of the palace, the gardens, the woods, and all the de- 
pendencies. An apartment was assigned to me, which rendered the 
Court as uncomfortable as possible. 

" On our arrival, I asked for the first month's pension, bat learned, 
with astonishment, that the Government had seen fit to retain 12,000 
francs a month, to defray the expenses of our journey, and other 
expenses; although it would at least have appeared civil to have 
charged France with the cost of our journey from Bayonne to Com- 
piegne. But no representations could secure our rights, and I was 
obliged to submit to this abatement, besides being unable to obtain any 
pension whatever for my children, although they were Infants of Spain. 
Thus I was compelled to live upon 33,000 francs, and support myself, 
my children, and my household. Beset with afflictions on all sides, my 
health daily declined. My physician, who knew that my disease was 
the effect of melancholy, directed me to exercise on horseback, and, 
occasionally, attend the chase. I adopted his first prescription, that 
of riding on horseback, as soon as my monthly allowance enabled me 
to get a horse ; and until then I contented myself with walking out 
with my children, although it was the warmest season of the year, and 
everybody else was on horseback on in a carriage. As to the second 
prescription, that of the chase, as the woods belonged to my father and 



314 NOTES TO THE SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

mother, I asked of them permission, which was readily granted, bat 
before I was able to profit by it, it was revoked. I was not a little 
wounded by this disobliging, not to say cruel, treatment. The director 
of the chase offered me a little piece of ground in a small wood, which 
was his property, asking me, " Will it be agreeable to you to go upon 
land which belongs neither to the Emperor nor the King of Spain, but 
to me alone ? I pray you to accept my offer." I accepted it, and from 
time to tune visited that spot. I passed in this way the rest of the 
month of June, the whole of July and August, after which people began 
to talk about the project of the royal family quitting their present resi- 
dence in consequence of the ill-health of my father ; it was supposed 
that the climate did not agree with him, and they obtained permission 
to go to Marseilles. They then declared that it was their absolute will 
that I should accompany them still, and employed every means of per- 
suasion to gain my consent. But I this time succeeded in remaining 
where I was, giving them to understand that my family, my interests, 
my privileges were wholly distinct from theirs, and that it was better 
that we should be apart. 

"They left on the i6th of September, and I occupied the palace 
after them. I now renewed my application for an increase of pension, 
and for that purpose sent different persons from time to time with 
letters to the Emperor, stating the grounds of my claim, but he returned 
only ambiguous and inconclusive answers, or no answer at all. At 
length, an order came that I should retire to Parma, where, it was 
said, the Colorno Palace, with all its dependencies, was assigned me. 
Marshal Duroc, Duke of Friuli, informed my chamberlain that he 
had come to speak with me about my affairs ; that Bonaparte wished 
me to retire to Parma ; that he had given me a palace, and that, im- 
mediately upon my arrival there, my pension should be augmented to 
50,000 francs. He insisted, also, that I should leave by the 5th of April, 
although my son was seriously sick, and I myself only now recovering 
from a severe indisposition. All this could not suffice to retard our 
journey a single day, and we set out on the 5th of April, nine months 
after my arrival at Compiegne. Just as I was leaving, I received a 
letter from Napoleon, wishing me a happy journey, and saying that my 
presence would cause great joy in the country I was going to, without 
mentioning its name. Thus our journey commenced ; it was prosperous 
as far as Lyons, where, to my astonishment, I found that my people had 
been sent on before me, and that the hotel at which I was set down was 
surrounded by men-at-arms. The commissioner of police made us a 
visit, followed by the prefect, who showed me an order of the Govern- 
ment purporting that I was to go to Nice, and not to Parma. The 
prefect added, hi a peremptory manner, that convenience required that 
I should leave immediately, although it was then midnight. Never- 
theless, we obtained permission to stay where we were till morning, but 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 315 

they did not leave us while we were here. The commissioner of police 
remained all night in the ante-chamber, the gendarmes waiting below. 
We left the next day, but were taken to Avignon by water, and although 
the boat was procured at our expense, we were compelled absolutely to 
walk, according to the will and pleasure of our conductors, seized with 
cold and hunger and maltreated, simply because I complained of the 
change of my destination. We continued our journey by water for 
three days, at the end of which we took the land route for Avignon. At 
length, on the i8th of April, we arrived at Nice. From this place I 
forwarded a pressing request for an increase of the pension promised 
me when I should arrive in Parma. But supplications and remon- 
strances were all in vain, and the system was adopted of not answering 
me at all. I was then in deep affliction ; no respect was paid to my 
family, but the most trifling order which arrived relating to us was 
executed with a rigour that kept me in constant terror and alarm. I 
finally conceived a plan of rescuing myself and my children from the 
tyranny to which we were victims, and took all measures which I 
thought necessary to give my project success ; but, unfortunately, 
when on the point of executing it, towards one o'clock in the morning, 
a colonel of the gendarmerie entered the house where I was, with a 
detachment, while other men belonging to his brigade scaled the two 
garden walls. My house thus suddenly became a court of justice. 
The soldiers were armed with handcuffs, ropes, and two sacks. They 
entered under the pretence that an Englishman was within. Sentinels 
were posted at each door, and the strictest search made throughout the 
house. They seized all the papers they wanted, took away my equerry 
and maitre-d' hotel, and sent them to Paris. My pension was now sus- 
pended. The Government, who had discovered my project, permitted 
it to proceed to the very moment of execution ; and then followed that 
insult, too gross to be inflicted even upon a plebeian, that of filling my 
house with police officers, who remained there for two whole hours. 
After some months had passed, during which the offence seemed to be 
forgotten, and seeing that all my hopes had completely miscarried, I wrote 
to Bonaparte himself, assuring him that all the blame ought to fall on 
my head, and exculpating all those who had been suspected of having 
espoused my cause. 

" Four months had passed since I made those representations, 
when I learned that a public personage, preceded by a military com- 
mission, had commenced proceedings against me. At the end of 
four days (August ist), when coming from church, where I had been 
to assist at the jubilee, I met the commissioner of police with my 
sentence in his hand, which, to my great confusion, had been publicly 
pronounced. After having read it, he announced to me that, through 
the Emperor's clemency, I should only be shut up in a monastery 
with my daughter, and that my son should be sent to my father 



316 NOTES TO THE SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

and mother. Twenty-four hours only elapsed between this order and 
its execution. In that short space of time I was doomed to separate 
myself from a son whom I tenderly loved, from my household, whs 
lost all in losing me, and from all my property, which fell into the 
hands of the despoilers. I travelled day and night with my daughter, 
with only one lady to accompany us, a femme de service, and a physi- 
cian ; and, to complete our company, we had that same miserable 
commissioner of police along with us, who showed the most brutal 
insensibility on seeing me shed tears for my son who had been torn 
from me. Every hardship which he could make me undergo in the 
course of our journey, he inflicted, and we were more than once 
exposed to the insults of the populace, who could not see a wagon 
filled with women following us unless accompanied by a police officer. 
And thus, at the end of six days, we arrived in Rome. At the last 
post I was placed in the care of a Roman policeman, and, at about 
nine o'clock at night, we reached the monastery, where the prioress, 
with a simple countryman, came to the door to receive us. Neither 
bed, nor supper, nor chamber was prepared for the Queen of Etruria 
and her daughter. 

" For two years and a half I remained in this monastery, seeing 
or speaking to nobody whomsoever, and without being permitted to 
write a letter or receive any news, even from my own son. I was 
put into a chamber which overlooked the interior court, but was 
forbidden even to look out of the outer windows. Exactly one month 
after my incarceration in this convent, Janet, the intendant of the 
treasury, came to visit me and to take away the few jewels I brought 
with me ; after which there was assigned to me a pension of twenty- 
five thousand francs a month for my maintenance. I had passed 
eleven months in the convent when my parents came with my son 
to Rome, July i6th. I was in hopes my liberation would imme- 
diately follow their arrival. Far from that ; instead of diminishing 
the rigours with which I was guarded, I was placed under still more 
stringent orders ; and to such lengths was this severity carried, that 
my father and all the members of the family were 'prohibited from 
visiting the convent or sending an express thither. Once a month 
only, and sometimes less frequently, General Miollis brought my 
parents and my son to see me. But I could not bestow a kiss upon 
that beloved child, nor look upon him even, save at a distance, and 
always in presence of witnesses. These visits, as rare as was the 
indulgence, never lasted more than fifteen or twenty minutes. I re- 
mained in this forlorn situation for two years and a half, so utterly 
cut off from all communication with the world that, whenever a 
stranger visited the monastery, I was ordered to shut myself up in 
my chamber, and not to leave it until the prioress had informed me 
that the visitor had gone. General Miollis came often, not only to 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 317 

visit me in his capacity of jailer, but to insult my woes by his sar- 
donic grin and insolent language. During the last month my health 
had suffered so severely that I was obliged to keep my bed. My 
physician, as well as the lady superior herself, sent pressing requests 
to Paris to obtain, if not my enlargement, at least liberty sufficient 
to allow of my taking exercise. But no answer was returned. Perhaps 
nothing would have been more gratifying to the Court of France 
than the news that I had died in prison, the death of a member of 
the House of Bourbon being to them a subject of joy and exulta- 
tion ; and that joy I must certainly have given them had my cruel 
situation continued much longer. But Providence, who watches with 
particular care over innocence, opened a new way for my deliverance. 
By the treaty concluded by Murat with the allies, Rome was occupied 
by the Neapolitan troops, and I began to breathe freely, in the ex- 
pectation of a change of government. Miollis used all his efforts to 
shut up my relations within the chateau, and threatened to send me 
to Civita-Vecchia, where Heaven knows what he would have done 
with me. Meanwhile, on the i4th of July, all unexpectedly to me, 
a strong Neapolitan guard came to the convent, and, on the day 
after, General Pignatelli called to inform me that, immediately after 
the arrival of the Neapolitan troops, he had seen fit to send me a 
guard of honour to be at my disposal. On the iyth of the same 
month the government was changed, and the new governor, M. de 

B , came and informed me that I was at liberty. I told him I 

accepted my liberty, but would use it only to take air and exercise 
until I had arranged my affairs ; and that my object was to procure a 
house in which I might reside with my son, a residence under the same 
roof with my parents being, for many reasons, out of the question. 

"Nevertheless, on the following day, as I was going to dinner. 
General Pignatelli came to receive me, and, without permitting me 
to eat, without any regard to the inhuman treatment I had been 
subjected to, and no longer addressing me as a free person, announced 
in a harsh way that I must quit the convent and repair to my father's 
house. Nothing which I could say moved him. He persisted in 
his injunction, at first with an appearance of politeness, but after- 
wards with threats of constraint, having, as he said, soldiers in the 
convent ready to employ force against me. I was compelled to obey, 
and was carried in a miserable carriage to the residence of my parents. 
My only consolation was that my son would be with me ; I was 
ever a victim, under whatever circumstances. A shabby apartment 
was assigned me. One table only had to suffice for the whole family, 
and although, as an especial favour, my expenses were defrayed for 
one month, I was, at the end of it, deprived of that condescension, 
and compelled to seek elsewhere wherewithal to secure my support; 
but how was that to be done? 



318 NOTES TO THE SECRET MEMOIRS OP 

"As soon as I had left the monastery, I demanded an increase 
of my allowance, since it was impossible for me to live upon 25,000 
francs. Having spoken to Murat, and written him repeatedly on 
the subject, he entered a decree on the 6th of February, raising my 
pension to 33,000 francs. I began by drawing 22,000 francs of this 
fund; but on reaching the last third thereof, which would have ex- 
hausted it, I was informed that, on the day before, another decree 
had arrived, dated the 6th of February, whereby the first one was 
annulled; that there was now allowed me only 1,000 francs a month, 
and that the small sum which had been advanced me out of the 
last third would be retained for the months of February, March, 
and a part of April. 

" Such is my luckless history," continues the Queen of Etruria. " I 
could write volumes on the subject. You see what have been the vicis- 
situdes of my fortune. I am at present in deep affliction, degraded and 
forsaken. I trust that England, the asylum of unfortunate princes, will 
not refuse to take under her protection a mother and an unhappy widow, 
with two children dependent upon her, and all three without support, 
although possessing incontestable rights as Infants of Spain, and pro- 
prietaries of the States of Parma, Plaisantia and Guastalla, as well as of 
Etruria." 

(46) Page 88. ESCOIQUIZ. 

The Prince of Asturias, before going to Bayonne, had received in- 
timations from all quarters which should have dissuaded him from his 
proposed journey. What fatality led him on to his ruin ? Well informed 
persons warned him not to deceive himself. Every member of his 
council was compromised in the affairs of the Escurial and Aranjuez ; 
they had the prospect before them of perishing on the scaffold in case 
the Prince of Peace should regain the reins of government, and, there- 
fore, felt strongly tempted to go to Bayonne, because, not suspecting the 
treacherous designs of Napoleon, such a step tended directly to procure 
the recognition of the Prince of Asturias as King, who would then 
become their safeguard against the vengeance of Charles IV., his wife, 
and especially Don Godoy, the Prince of Peace. They particularly 
the prebendary Escoiquiz (whom Napoleon used pleasantly to pat on 
the cheek in their familiar conversations) and the Duke del Infantado 
imagined that Napoleon would not refuse the advantages which they 
perceived in offering the Prince's hand to his niece. Afraid of being 
anticipated in their efforts by Charles IV. and his Queen, who might 
possibly divert Napoleon from this project, they hastened to Bayonne, 
and thus to their destruction. 

(47) Page 90. VALANCEY. 

On their arrival at Valancey, a chateau belonging to Talleyrand, 
Napoleon sent to the Spanish Princes several purveyors with orders to 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 



319 



famish them whatever they might stand in need of. While the un- 
happy grandchildren of Louis XIV. had anything of value about them, 
all went well ; but when their resources began to fail, they were often 
left in want of the most necessary articles. 

The Empress Josephine really commiserated their lot, and obtained 
aid for them, sometimes conveying it to them secretly. The inhabitants 
of Valancey furnished them provisions in abundance and of every kind. 
They were closely guarded, being seldom permitted to mount on horse- 
back or to walk in the gardens without guards. A certain Irishman, 
Baron Kolly. undertook to rescue Ferdinand, Don Carlos and Don 
Antonio from prison. He introduced himself into the chateau under 
the pretext of exhibiting sundry objects of curiosity which he had for 
sale, and had an interview with M. L'Amezaga, the intendant. Whether 
Amezaga was afraid of being compromised, or of some ambush on the 
part of Napoleon, and in order to prevent the Princes from being in- 
duced to take any false step which might lead to a more rigorous 
confinement, he informed M. Berthemy, the governor of the chateau, 
of the nature of the project before mentioning it to the Princes. The 
baron was arrested on the spot and sent to Paris. Being asked what 
means he possessed for effecting their escape, he said that three vessels 
and a brig were waiting for him off the coast of Quiberon, and that, with 
the relays of horses which he might have procured, he could easily have 
made the transit from the chiteau to the coast ; that he had the necessary 
funds, and also an unlimited credit with a wealthy mercantile house in 
London. He was imprisoned at Vincennes, and taken out only to be shot. 
The timid Princes knew how to do nothing but to guard themselves 
against awakening Bonaparte's suspicions. Ferdinand VII . went so far 
as to ask it, as a special favour, that Bonaparte would adopt him, and 
uttered his wish to quit Valancey, only in the most humble and suppli- 
cating tones. His prayer, for such it was, was not heard. His father 
was more fortunate ; he was permitted to go to Nice. " Hist, dt 
Bonaparte" 

(48) Page 93- 
"A mysterious hieroglyphic."* 

An Egyptian woman, born and grown old in those frightful deserts, 
on that vast ocean of arid sands and antique monuments, removed from 
Bonaparte's vision the veil of futurity, and marked out to him the dura- 
tion and end of his prosperity. "Thou shalt have," said she, "two 
wives ; one thou shalt repudiate most wrongfully ; she is your first wife. 
The second will not be inferior to her in great qualities ; she shall bring 
thee a son. Soon afterwards dark intrigues shall be commenced against 

i Bonaparte, it is said, always wore upon his person, in such a manner as to be 
Invisible to every eye, the stamp of a mysterious hieroglyphic. 



32O NOTES TO THE SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

thee ; soon shalt thou cease to be powerful and happy. Thou shalt be 
overthrown in all thy hopes ; thou shalt be driven away by force, and 
banished to a volcanic land, surrounded by the sea and by hidden rocks. 
Beware, my son," she added, " beware how thou countest upon the 
fidelity of thy kindred. Thine own blood must rise up against thy 
domination." 

This woman, in her cabalistic operations, made use of nothing but 
shells of different kinds. She made a pyramid of them, and from the 
variety of the colours, or the manner in which she placed them, she 
drew auguries more or less favourable. Bonaparte, as we are assured, 
was the more struck with the correctness of the fortune she told him as 
she was absolutely ignorant that she was speaking to the General-in- 
chief. He gave her twenty-seven sequins all that Abdalla, who after- 
wards became colonel of the Mamelukes, had about him. Returned to 
France, he soon forgot the Egyptian woman and her prophecies. After 
his return from Elba, he recalled to mind the pyramid of shells and its 
strange prognostics. He again alluded to the subject in conversation 
with Colonel Abdalla, and enquired of M. de Mailly whether he ever 
saw Mademoiselle Vamen. 

"I was never willing to believe anything," said Napoleon, at this 
epoch; "but I must now admit, in good faith, that there are some 
things beyond the reach of men, and that, notwithstanding their won- 
derful perspicuity, they will never be able to fathom them. For instance, 
that strange prophecy found with the Benedictines, purloined during the 
Revolution, and which I am acquainted with. What is the meaning of 
it ? Is it I who am its object ? It would seem, from that, that the old 
dynasty must one day reascend the throne ; that was always Josephine's 
opinion. In fact, we ought to refer everything to Him who rules the 
world, and to profit by those sparks of light which are sometimes shed 
into the minds of privileged beings in order to enlighten us in the course 
we ought to pursue, and to enable us to shun the hidden rocks which we 
might otherwise encounter." 

A prophecy extracted from an old book of the Prophecies of Phillipe-Dieudonne- 
Noel Olivarisus, printed in 1542, purloined during the Revolution from tht 
ci-devant Benedictines of . 

" Italic Gaul shall see a supernatural being born not far from her 
midst. This man shall, while quite a boy, come out of the sea. He shall 
come and acquire the language and the manners of the Celtic Gauls. 
With soldiers shall he, while yet a youth, open for himself a way through 
a thousand obstacles, and shall become their first chief. 

" That crooked way shall yawn terribly before him. He shall come and 
wage war near to his native land, for one lustrum and more ; he shall be 
seen waging war beyond the sea with great glory and valour, and shall 
again wage war upon Italy ; shall give laws to the Germans ; shall calm 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 33! 

the troubles and terrors among the Celtic Gauls. He shall not be named 
King, but shall, a little after, be called Emperor through great popular 
enthusiasm. He shall battle everywhere hi the empire ; he shall, for two 
lustrums and more, drive before him princes, lords, kings. Then shall 
he raise up new princes and lords for life ; and, speaking from his throne, 
he shall cry aloud, ' Nationes, sideraf O sacra ! ' 

" He shall be seen with forty-nine times twenty thousand foot soldiers, 
who shall bear arms pointed with steel ; he shall have seven times seven 
times seven thousand horses, mounted with men who shall wear great 
swords or lances and coats of mail ; he shall have seven times seven times 
two thousand men, who shall ply terrible engines, which shall vomit 
forth sulphur and fire and death. The whole numbering together of his 
army shall be forty-nine times twenty-seven thousand [1,323,000]. He 
shall bear in his right hand an eagle, the sign of victory to the warrior ; 
he shall give many countries to the nations, and to everyone peace. He 
shall come into the great city, and command many great things edifices, 
bridges, seaports, aqueducts and canals, which shall give him wealth far 
exceeding that of the Romans, and all within the dominion of the Gauls. 
He shall have wives two, sons one only. He shall go forth and wage 
war, even to where the lines of latitude and longitude cross each other, 
fifty-five months. There his enemies shall burn a great city with fire. 
Thither shall he enter and go out with his host from amidst ashes and 
much ruins ; and his host, having any longer nor bread nor water, by 
reason of the greatness of the cold, two-third parts thereof shall perish, 
and more than one-half of the rest thereof be no longer subject to his 
command. 

" Then the great man, forsaken, betrayed by his friends, pursued, 
in his turn, through great desolations, even unto the great city, driven 
back by much people of Europe, there shall be put hi his place Kings of 
the ancient blood of the Capets. 

" He, forced into exile in the sea, from which he arose so young, and 
near unto his native place, having dwelt there eleven moons with some of 
his own true friends and soldiers, who, numbering not to exceed seven 
times seven times twice, the eleven moons being ended, shall, with 
him, take ship and come and again set foot on the land of Celtic Gaul, 
and walk the land towards the great city, where sitteth the King of the 
ancient blood of the Capets, who riseth and fleeth away, bearing with 
him his kingly ornaments. Whereupon the great man again sitteth in 
his palace, giving laws to his people. Then he being driven back once 
more by the united people of Europe, after three moons and a third have 
passed, the King of the ancient blood of the Capets is put again hi his 
place, whom, though thought dead, his people and soldiers shall hold 
near to their hearts. 

" The nations and the Gauls, like tigers and wolves, shall devour each 
other ; the blood of the ancient line of Capet shall be the sport of blackest 
VOL. II 2I 



322 NOTES TO THE SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

treasons ; the disturbers shall be deceived, and shall fall by fire and 
sword, and the lily be upheld, though the latest branches of the ancient 
blood shall be again threatened and shall wage war against each other. 
Then shall a young warrior walk towards the great city, bearing upon 
his armour a lion and a cock ; and a lance shall be given him by a great 
prince from the East. He shall be seconded marvellously by a warlike 
people from Belgic Gaul, who shall join the Parisians to end the troubles 
and unite the soldiers, covering them with olive branches, warring again 
through seven times seven moons, with so much glory that the united 
European people, through great fears and lamentations, offering their 
wives as hostages, shall submit at length to a just and righteous sway that 
shall be cherished by all. But peace shall endure twenty-five moons. 

" Within Lutetia [Paris] the Seine, reddened with blood, shed along 
its banks from its fountains to its mouth, shall extend itself through ruins 
and death, and seditions among its unhappy children. But the valorous 
man, with the mighty Gauls, shall follow the fugitives from the palace of 
the Kings ; and after having spared the remains of the ancient blood of 
Capet, ruled the destinies of the world, dictated supreme law to every 
nation and every people, shall lay down his fruitless power and die." 

(49) PW 96. 

Never speak of her again." 

The Empress Josephine deigned to honour the editress of these Me- 
moirs with her confidence in frequently admitting her to her presence. 
She, one day, put to me several questions respecting the Emperor, and 
among them this : " What were Napoleon's designs respecting Rome ? " 
" To make himself master of it," I replied ; " but he must be right care- 
ful how he interferes with the spiritual government of the Church, for 
he cannot, perhaps he desires not to, succeed in imitating Henry VIII. 

After Napoleon's return from the Congress of Erfurt, the Empress, 
in the heat of their conversation, mentioned to him what I had lately told 
her. " Ah, ha ! " said he, rubbing his hands, " you intermeddle with 
a view to penetrate my designs, and for this purpose you consult the 
oracles. Remember, madam, I don't like to have people looking into my 
designs ; to-morrow, yes, to-morrow, your Mademoiselle Lenormand shall 
be arrested, so don't speak of it again." The Empress and her daughter 
stared at each other and did their best to appease him. " 'Tis useless, I 
tell you ; I shall give the order against her. Never shall that woman 
overawe me." 

Josephine, who feared the effect of the Emperor's anger towards me, 
sent Mademoiselle Aubert, one of her women, to me, about eleven o'clock 
the same evening. She came from Malmaison to Paris under the vain 
pretence of taking back to the Empress a cup of porcelain, which 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 323 

was at the Tuileries, but which, it was pretended, the Empress 
wanted at breakfast the next morning. I was thus, through the 
agency of the Empress, notified that my peace was threatened, and 
warned to save myself. But I told, the woman who bore the message, 
that, " though I was obliged to the Empress, I had nothing to fear 
from the Emperor." This reply was reported to the Empress, who 
related it to the Emperor at breakfast. 

" Your Mademoiselle Lenormand," said he, " is correct. But 
where the devil does she hunt up what she says ? She is welcome 
to mingle in your matters, but, as to my own, just please to inform 
her that the least indiscretion may cost her her liberty." 

(50) Page 97. 
"Eighty thousand men." 

On a Friday, after a journey to Fontainebleau, the Emperor was 
in the saloon with Josephine. He took up a Prayer-book that was 

lying on the table, and commenced chanting the Psalm ; she 

begged him to be still, telling him that the church was the only 
proper place for chanting prayers, and that to chant them out of 
the church boded evil. He stopped his music, but then commenced 
reading the " Examination of Conscience." At this moment, Cardinal 
Fesch happened to come in, whom the Emperor asked how many 
mortal sins there were. " Seven, to be sure," said the cardinal. 
" Well," replied Napoleon, " I tell you there are eight." " I should 
certainly be glad to know what they are," said the cardinal, " for the 
Church has never recognised more than the seven you now have 
before you in that book." " The eighth," said he, " is to avoid the 
conscription." 

(51) Page 98. 

"Racine and Voltaire." 

Napoleon cared but little about comedy, and still less for the 
comic-opera ; though he was fond of interludes. During the winter, 
on the days the grand concerts were given at the Tuileries. there 
was almost always an interlude after the concert. Of theatricals, 
tragedy was his favourite. A tragedy was regularly played once a 
week at Paris, St. Cloud, Fontainebleau, &c., but nothing but a 
tragedy never a silly after-piece a circumstance not very agreeable 
to those who wanted to laugh a little after weeping. The Emperor 
never applauded. Whenever he had heard enough of a speech, he 
would turn and converse with the other persons in the loge. After 
the play was over, his habit was to send for the principal actor and 
testify his satisfaction through a chamberlain. 

21 2 



324 NOTES TO THE SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

(52) Page 103. 
" Unquiet, sombre and dreamy." 

The opinion was general that the Emperor took too much snuff. 
Like Frederick the Great, he put it into his vest pocket ; but only 
when he was in the army. Wherever he was, he not only had a 
box in his pocket, but several in his apartments. The captain of 
the guards had one, the aide-de-camp another, the principal valet de 
chambre and his Mameluke two others. From this it might be sup- 
posed that he was continually taking snuff, and in large quantities. 
But persons who were well acquainted with him knew that it was 
his habit, whenever excited or absorbed in reflection, to throw his 
pinch on the ground, and that he took snuff only by pressing his 
finger against the bar of his nose; which is proved by the fact that 
he wiptd his nose only with a cambric handkerchief, which hardly 
ever showed a stain of tobacco. 

He had another habit, which might have led one to believe that 
he was not very careful about his dress. He was always dressed in 
uniform, either that of his guard or the chasseurs, with the plate of 
the grand cordon of the Legion of Honour on his dress, and no 
cordons or other decorations of another order, except one of the 
plain silver crosses which he gave to the soldiers. His under-waist- 
coat and his breeches were almost always of white cashmere, for 
the reason above stated. His under -waistcoat was often covered 
with snuff, and his white breeches sometimes served him to write 
down a name or to add up a row of figures with a pencil, which 
he always had in his pocket. 

Another curious circumstance, noticed by Josephine and all others 
who composed his Court, was that, if perchance a Prayer-book fell 
into Napoleon's hands (for example, when returning from church), 
he would instantly open it and commence chanting the psalms with 
open throat ; this was commonly followed by a fit of melancholy, 
and that by a fit of anger, which it is more easy to describe than 
to conceive. These small matters are of use only as illustrating the 
character of the most singular and extraordinary man of his age. 
When in Paris, he was in the habit of walking out to make obser- 
vations in the city, either on the boulevards or within, unattended 
by any but Duroc, each clad hi a blue surtout, without any kind 
of decoration. It rarely happened that they did not meet with some 
notable adventure. Bonaparte seldom gave his grand marshal of the 
palace time to dress himself ; the consequence was, the latter was 
often without money in his pocket, however much in need of it. At 
for Bonaparte, he never carried any. 

It happened that one day, as they were on a long walk, the Emperor, 
being hungry, went into a coffee-house on the corner of the boulevard, 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 335 

and called for cutlets and an omelet, his favourite dish. Breakfast 
over, it was necessary to pay the bill. The grand marshal fumbled 
in his pocket, but found he had forgotten his purse. They looked at 
each other with mutual embarrassment. The waiter, who observed 
their awkward plight, assured them if they had no money 'twas all 
the same, and they might pay when they returned. The mistress of 
the establishment scolded the boy for his carelessness hi trusting 
people whom he did not know, and said, " Eight francs more lost ! " 
" No, madam," returned the boy, " I will pay you ; these gentlemen 
appear like honest men, and I am sure they will repay me." The 
old woman took the eight francs, grumbling all the time about people 
getting into debt without having money. The marshal drew out his 
watch, and said to the gargon, " My friend, here is my watch, which 
I leave in pledge with you for your loan, and am much obliged to 
you, both on my own and my comrade's account, for the good opinion 
you have of us." The garqon would not take the watch, and the two 
guests left. Both of them forgot the breakfast business, being too 
much occupied to think of it. For some days after, the old woman 
jibed the garqon about bis generosity, which was so poorly recom- 
pensed. At length, five days having elapsed, the Emperor called to 
mind the breakfast scene and the loan by the waiting-boy. He im- 
mediately sent a valet de pied, who, on reaching the coffee-house, enquired 
if that were not the place where two gentlemen had breakfasted for eight 
francs, which the garqon had paid, stating that he had come to return 
him the money. The gargon was called. After satisfying himself that 
it was the same one who had lent the eight francs, the valet de pied said 
to him, " Here are twenty-five napoleons which the Emperor has sent 
you ; he thanks you for having paid his breakfast-bill and answered for 
him." 

Another evening, upon the boulevard, the Emperor stopped in front 
of the shop of a vendor of vases and bronzes, and asked the price of 
two magnificent vases which pleased his fancy. The shopkeeper, who 
was a female, told him the price was a thousand crowns. " That," said 
the Emperor, "is too dear much too dear." "Par Dieul" she re- 
plied, " too dear they are worth much more than that ; but then I 
must live, you know; and business is so dull nothing is doing 
everyone is complaining nobody is happy nothing is heard of but 
war, war; war all the time!" "It seems, then, you are not pleased 
with the Government, my good woman," said Napoleon ; " and your 
husband, where is he ? " "Ah, man Dieu \ " said the old woman, "he 
has gone to earn a trifle ; as to the Government, he does not concern 
himself about that ; he says nothing about the Government he is so 
foolish, my husband." The Emperor left the shop, and when arrived 
at the Elyse'e, sent a valet to seek out the woman's husband. The poor 
fellow, when told by the valet to follow him, was half dead with terror. 



326 NOTES TO THE SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

supposing ;hat his wife had been babbling, contrary to his reiterated 
injunctions. At length he arrived, trembling, in the Emperor's presence. 
" Bring me," said he, " the two vases I bought at your house this morn- 
ing ; your wife asked me a thousand crowns for them, and said the 
purchase was a cheap one. I give you four thousand crowns ; and tell 
your wife from me to mind her business, and never meddle in politics, 
which do not concern her." 

The Court used to pass their time at Rambouillet during the Sep- 
tember holidays, at which season Bonaparte was seldom at St. Cloud. 
On one occasion Josephine, by reason of sickness, was forced to 
remain at St. Cloud during those holidays, not being able to go out 
of her room. After dinner, the Emperor would ride out in a caleche 
with his sisters, and spend his evenings with his Grand Marshal 
de Palais. At eleven o'clock in the evening, he took a stroll along the 
grande allee to see the shops there, all filled with showy articles. There 
was then among them a wooden hut, in which were exhibited all the 
members of the imperial family, in wax, seated round a table. Nothing 
could be worse than these slovenly and unlike wax figures. They were 
most pitiable. And yet the crier who was at the door, extending his 
lungs with all his might, launched into a pompous and grotesque eulogy 
upon the beauty of those figures. Bonaparte, out of curiosity, entered 
the apartment. The first thing he said was, "What have you here? " 
" Sir," said the owner, " 'tis the superb imperial banquet ; this is His 
Majesty the Emperor ; this, Her Majesty the Empress ; this," &c., 
pointing out with bis little wand each one of his personages. On 
Napoleon's asking, " Does this figure really resemble the Emperor ? " 
" Yes, sir," said he, " as much as if you were looking upon the Emperor 
himself." "Ah ! but how homely he is." " No, sir, not at all ; he has 
a fine profile, and good looks ; and then only look at this head of his 1 
what an intellectual head, sir 1 " " But the Empress is horrible ; she is 
crook-shouldered." " Ah, as to that, no 1 she is a woman of the finest 
figure in France." " Exactly one would not doubt it after seeing 
this," was the Emperor's ironical reply. 

He then left the dirty shop, and was recognised, for the grand 
marshal, having no change, paid out a twenty -franc piece. The 
Emperor returned to Josephine, and told her what he had seen, sorry, 
apparently, that they should both be exhibited so little like, and so 
miserably distorted ; all which made the Empress laugh heartily, and 
regret that she had not, like the Emperor, gone and taken a look at her 
caricature. 

(53) Page 107. 

" The public ceremonies." 

Josephine had not what is called a grand and majestic air, and made 
no attempt to inspire awe ; but she possessed a far higher gift, that of 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 327 



enchaining all hearts by a manner at once so gracious, so easy, so good, 
so consoling, that the most wretched being could never leave her with- 
out thinking himself at the height of happiness. Yet this extreme 
condescension had its inconveniences: for, neglecting to establish the 
proper line of demarcation between herself and those whom she 
admitted to her presence, if the latter happened to be wanting hi tact 
and knowledge of the world, and became familiar, she preferred not 
to see them at all to putting on a cold and dignified constraint, which 
by no means suited her character. As she wanted to please everyone, 
and to see no one go away dissatisfied, she was often compelled to listen 
to long narrations from persons who fatigued her. To rid herself 
decently of such inflictions, she would go out of the saloon and say 
to her femmc de service, " Come, in a few minutes, and tell me that the 
Emperor wants to see me." 

Napoleon one day sent word to her to come to his cabinet. Sup- 
posing it to be the usual concerted summons she did not stir. He for 
nothing must resist him was seriously offended with her for the 
neglect, and came suddenly out and enquired what it was that kept 

the Empress in her room. She was at the moment with Madame D , 

a fat, squabby woman, with a large face, with a huge blonde wig, and 
artificial flowers upon her head. She spoke in a fine, flute-like voice 
when in her full dress, though, when in her morning gown, her language 
was the rough Billingsgate of a Parisian market-woman. Nothing could 
be more striking than the contrast between the wife of an ex-director 
and the newly-crowned Empress. But Josephine always conducted 
herself with so much deference towards her visitors, that it was im- 
possible to discover that she noticed their faults. She merely laughed, 
in private, at their foolish pretensions, but never blamed them for the 
kind of worship which they paid her husband. " The times are 
changed," she used to say to her courtiers; "the Luxembourg is too 
narrow ; the Tuileries have taken its place." 

She had a little dog called Carlin, which was much attached to her, 
and which used to bite the feet of persons who came too near its mis- 
tress. But, notwithstanding its cross temper, there was one instance in 
which it was of use. 

When the coronation carriage was contracted for, the coachmaker 
made his plan of it in conjunction with the grand-ecuyer. On its being 
finished, it was found to have cost three thousand francs more than the 
stipulated price, and the coachmaker, for two years, in vain pressed his 
claim for compensation, though he showed incontestable proofs of his 
losses to that amount. He went to Fontainebleau to see Josephine on 
the subject, and to beg her to interest herself for him. She was spoken 
to about it, and engaged to see him the next morning in her private 
room. In the boudoir, where she made her toilet, was a secret stair- 
case with wooden steps, so arranged that nobody could either ascend or 



328 NOTES TO THE SECRET MEMOIRS OF 



descend without making a noise. The coachmaker was introduced 
through this stairway. (It was the morning of Madame D 's pre- 
sentation.) While the man was explaining to Josephine the loss he had 
unjustly sustained, Napoleon was heard approaching. There was no 
time to save the coachmaker, except by means of this stairway. Carlin, 
Josephine's dog, seeing a man fly, set to barking, and followed him; 
but the manoeuvre was not so prompt but that Napoleon heard the quick 
step on the stairs. The poor coachmaker, frightened by the noise of 
his own steps, stopped half-way on the stairs, the doors being shut 
above and below. But the dog, always a-whining, now kept up a low, 
cross growl. On entering, Napoleon cast a severe glance upon all the 
persons in the room, and asked, "What man is that concealed hi the 
stairway, who scudded off when I came in ? " 

" Nobody," answered Josephine. 

" But Carlin followed him, and keeps him company, for I hear him 
growl." 

Here embarrassment was depicted on every face. As he addressed 
himself to all, and no one answered, he went right to the stairway, 
opened the door, and found the poor coachmaker trembling with 
fright, and hi a condition impossible to be described. 

"Who are you? " said the Emperor. "What do you want?" 

" I am such a one, Your Majesty's coachmaker, and I came to 
ask a favour of the Empress." 

" For what ? " said the Emperor. 

The coachmaker, becoming more self-possessed, stated the grounds 
of his claim, and handed his petition to the Emperor, who said, " I will 
look to it." 

He then went to Josephine, telling her, " This man is right, if his 
claim is a just one." She attended to the matter, and the coachmaker 
was paid. 

(54) Page 108. 

To change his resolution" 

Napoleon was regularly informed of all that took place with his wife 
in private. On the eve of his departure for Germany, April i3th, 1809, 
he was informed, at the very moment, that the Empress had received 
a letter through one of her women, and was reading it with marked 
attention. This was enough to arouse the curiosity of a man naturally 
suspicious. He went immediately to her, and found her with that 
famous letter in her hand. She had thrown herself on the bed, deeply 
afflicted at not being able to obtain his permission to accompany him to 
Strassburg (he had already taken his leave of her). Napoleon had an 
idea that this letter contained important secrets which it was essential 
that he should penetrate before he left. The mystification must have 
been complete when he found only these few words in the letter: 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 329 

" Do not let Your Majesty cease to importune the Emperor ; the 
most singular chance shall aid you on this occasion. Your good star 
cannot cease to direct you ; it will become necessary to the Emperor, in 
order to ensure victory. Victory is promised him, provided he takes you 
to one of our frontier towns. Everything shows, madam, that you shall 
be on the way this night, although, in your opinion, the chances are 
against you." 1 "Ah, ahl" said Napoleon, rumpling up the letter and 
rubbing his hands, " I am again to be the vanquisher of the House 
of Austria. Wife, I shall have a double happiness. You shall accom- 
pany me ; I give you one hour to make your preparations." Josephine 
knew not whether to regard it as a reality or a dream. But, illusion it 
was none ; she followed the Emperor. The beautiful Creole put on her 
head a simple madras, and wrapped herself up in a night-robe, her 
ladies having only time to dress themselves in the same way." When 
she found herself actually on the road to Germany, she said to her 
husband, " How trifling a circumstance has made you act a part which 
you rejected only a few hours ago ; and this, in spite of all your phi- 
losophy. Bonaparte, you are just like other men (a fatalist). Hitherto 
your successes have been brilliant indeed, and this time an act of 
complacency on your part, for such I regard it, promises you, in my 
opinion, great results." She was not deceived hi her presentiments ; 
and the famous battles of Essling and Wagram were soon added to 
Napoleon's successes, rendering him, by the treaty of peace which 
followed, the most powerful Sovereign of the West. 



(55) 
"Levity in my conduct." 

Josephine is generally charged with levity hi her conduct. I do not 
pretend to justify her altogether; but she was skilful enough to profit by 
the weakness of certain generals to attach them more thoroughly to her 
husband's cause. She possessed the nicest tact ; her address was in- 
credible, especially when partisans were to be gained for Bonaparte. 

i I wrote this letter to the Empress at eight o'clock p.m. of the izth of April. She 
left at three o'clock on the morning of the i3th. 

a When the Empress was travelling she was often badly lodged, for never would 
the Emperor mention the time of his departure until the very moment arrived. She 
never complained, but was always in good spirits. She was much more occupied than 
the ladies who were with her, and the first thing she did on stopping was to go and 
visit the lodgings of her women ; in case she found them uncomfortable, she would 
enquire what was needed. One evening, being ready to go to bed, she perceived that 
the woman who lay in her room had only one quilt upon the floor, while she herself 
had three, and a feather bed. In spite of Madame Mar - ' remonstrances, the 
Empress took one of her own quilts and gave it to her, that she might sleep more 
comfortably. If she happened to stop and take breakfast while passing through a 
town, her ladies in the meantime remaining in the carriage, she would be sure to send 
them a valet with biscuits and fruit, and wine for their dessert. If one of them 



33O NOTES TO THE SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

She used the ladies of her Court as instruments to discover the most 
secret particulars which concerned the glory or the welfare of him 
in whom she was wholly engrossed. In a word, Bonaparte was never 
so prosperous, and so well served, as during the years he spent with 
the woman who was always his best and most constant friend. 

(56) Page no. 
I flattered aU parties." 

In this, Josephine shone pre-eminent. She loved to extend a helping 
hand to the ancient noblesse. She would promise to make the marquises 
chamberlains to the Emperor ; the nephews of the ancient parhmcntaires 
judges. The son of an old minister of Louis XVI. obtained, through her 
influence, a rich prefecture, which in some degree indemnified him for 
the loss of his property during the Revolution. The heads of the most 
illustrious families figured with great ostentation at Napoleon's Court. 
The Duchess of Rochefoucauld, lady of honour to the Empress, became 
her personal friend : Mesdames Walsh-Serrant, Turenon, Octave Segur, 
Montmorency-Matignon, Victor-Mortemart, de Chevreuse, Bouille, &c., 
were of the number of the ladies of the palace. MM. de Beaumont, de 
Courtomer. d'Aubusson-Lafeuillade, de Montesquieu, were attached to 
Napoleon's cause, and occupied the most distinguished posts in Jose- 
phine's household. The counts and viscounts breathed more freely 
when they began to hear their names and titles pronounced in the 
saloons of the Tuileries and the Faubourg St. Germain. The title of my 
lord took the place of that of citizen. A baroness, who counted fourteen 
quarterings, regularly paid her court to Josephine, to obtain an appoint- 
ment to the slightest employment near her person. The children of the 
victims of '93 and '94 sat upon the same seats which had once been 
occupied by their fathers. The temple of Themis resounded with the 
names of Duval d'Epremesnil, Seguier, Chopen d'Arnouville, &c. Jose- 
phine had adroitly pointed out to them, and made them fully sensible of, 
the necessity of their all becoming faithfully attached'to her husband's 
cause. " Should he, unhappily, fall," said she, " what would become of 
you ? Your parents and friends would be sacrificed by the executioners 
of 1793, who would instantly again rush into power." To the military 
gentlemen she would thus depict their position : " For you are reserved 
all the wealth and dignities of the empire ; the lyceums and the most of 
our institutions are created for your children. Your fortunes are, there- 
happened to fall sick, and be confined to her bed, the Empress would go in person and 
enquire after her health. If one of the carriages in her suite chanced to fall in the rear 
for any reason, she would be so concerned about it that she would send back the 
gendarmes to look after it. Such was Josephine's kindness and attention on all 
her journeys. She was everywhere adored. Permission to accompany her WM 
always sought for long in advance ot her departure. 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 33! 

fore, inseparably linked to that of the Emperor." The clergy of every 
denomination were always received by her with the most marked atten- 
tions. M. Ferdinand de Rohan discharged the functions of almoner to 
her. Often was the metropolitan chapter of Paris, as well as the bishops 
of the departments, presented to her. All of them were charmed with 
the respectful and affectionate manner in which she received them. 
Pope Pius VII. held her in the highest esteem, and Pius VI., in his last 
moments, spoke of her with the most perfect respect. Indeed, all classes 
of society, from the highest to the lowest, and without any distinction, 
had the utmost confidence in the Empress. It may be said, with perfect 
truth, that she used all her influence with Napoleon to induce him to 
rebuild the altars profaned by the unholy hands of the innovators of the 
preceding age ; that she always protected the emigrants, who owed to 
her their permission to return to France and the preservation of a 
portion of their estates. 

OBSERVATION. Had those same men, thus dependent upon her 
favour, but listened to the advice of her first husband, to stand by their 
King ; to throw around him a rampart of their bodies ; to make some 
concessions to the popular wants ; to contribute something from their 
immense estates, ground out of the people through ages of feudal 
oppression and kingly misrule, in order to pay off the public debt had 
they consented to admit the eternal PEOPLE to " some share in the public 
honours," that haughty but frivolous race of men, the old nobility, 
might have been saved the humiliation of appealing to a West India 
Creole woman for the privilege of her smile ; they might have avoided 
the dishonourable necessity of fawning upon the Man of Destiny the 
plebeian genius of the age only to betray him, and subject their 
country again to the crushing weight of the feudal system and the 
tyranny of the Bourbons. TRANSLATOR. 



(57) 

"Triumphant entry into Vienna." 

Terror was at its height when Napoleon showed himself upon the 
ramparts of Vienna. All the inhabitants awaited, in silence and con- 
sternation, the laws of the conqueror. But as the Germans are a kind- 
hearted and hospitable nation, they received our troops and lavished 
their attentions upon our wounded. By degrees, a kind of confidence 
was established between the two nations. The good Germans dis- 
covered that they had nothing to fear from their enemies, the French; 
the latter showed themselves generous, and the women of Vienna, 
following the example of their countrymen, treated them with the mosl 
charming urbanity. Balls and concerts were frequent, and the imple- 
ments of war. which had carried affright into the bosom of the Austrian 
capital, were soon overlooked in the general joy. Good society began 



332 NOTES TO THE SECRET MEMOIRS OP 

to animate the saloons. A better feeling began to be manifested towardi 
our officers. Liaisons began to be serious, and those gentlemen, on 
their departure, left behind them many a regret. Discipline was very 
exact and rigorous during their stay, and the best taste displayed in the 
social circle. The French lost some of their native levity, and swore 
eternal love and constancy to the belles of Vienna, the most of them being 
utterly at a loss how to keep their oaths. " What a strange metamor- 
phosis," said they, among themselves; "we came to impose chains 
upon the fair ones of Vienna, and lo ! 'tis we who are forced to wear 
them." " Ton my honour," answered a young aide-de-camp, whose 
luggage consisted of a bottle of rose-water, several tooth-brushes, knives 
and scissors cased in mother-o'-pearl, thread-needles for embroidering, 
Macassar oil, gold spectacles, &c., " 'Pon my honour, general, I am 
very unhappy ! For the last two days I have been in love with a perfect 
beauty ; my sleep is so troubled by her that I am seriously afraid of 
falling sick. Doctor," said he (speaking to Larrey), " doctor, pray give 
me a preservative against love ; do, doctor, for if I remain at Vienna, 
doctor, I shall certainly have the spleen. I cannot stand it. Oh, 
doctor 1 " Thus pleasantly did our amiable undone ones pass their 
time, not excepting even the master supreme, who could hardly get 
away from Schcenbrunn. Indeed, had the French remained longer 
in Vienna, no one can doubt but that conjugal fidelity would have be- 
come an embarrassing and unprofitable virtue. But, returned to France, 
each one resumed his habits, and the women only, as in former days, 
remained faithful to their duties. 

(58) Page 113. MARSHAL LANNES. 

The Duke of Montebello had, beyond doubt, a sinister presenti- 
ment 1 when he mounted his horse to go to the island of Lobau. 
" He was with Doctor Lannefranque when I met him, on the bridge 
over the Vienne. The marshal loved my colleague. He stopped, 
took the doctor's hand, and said, 'You will not be slow to follow 
me; I shall probably stand in need of you. Gentlemen, if I may 
credit appearances, the day will be a hot one.' ' Monsieur le Due,' 
replied the doctor, ' it will add to your glory, and we shall all con- 
gratulate you.' ' Glory ,' repeated Montebello, with animation, 'beloved 

i The marshal, like many others, had had the curiosity to have his fortune 
told ; he wanted to know, particularly, the kind of death he should die. " That," 
it was answered, " is reserved to the rivals of Turenne ; and it seems to be near at 
hand." That intrepid man, whom no danger could shake, grew pale, and betrayed 
his uneasiness. In the evening, while conversing with some of his friends in the 
Tuileries, he informed them that he had paid dear for his curiosity in seeking to 
ascertain his fate. " Of what use is it to me," said he, " to be tormented by a 
presentiment? All hope of escaping from my fate has left me; and yet I hava 
more than one* felt a desire to postpone it" 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 333 

smoke ! I should like better, a thousand times Hold ! shall I 

talk to you frankly? I feel oppressed. I don't feel right in regard 
to this conflict, but, whatever may be the result, it will be my last 
battle.' ' How is that, general ?' Adieu, adieu, gentlemen,' and he 
galloped away from us. ' His last words distressed me much,' said 
Doctor Lannefranque to me, 'and I more than once saw him exhibit 
the same devotedness and the same agitation. Had not his devotion 
and attachment to the Emperor been as sincere as it was, he would 
have asked to retire. Weakness cannot be imputed to so brave a 
man. He was, like many others, tired of the business, and persuaded 
that that campaign would be his last.' " C. dt G . 

(59) Pagt 114. 
"Fall by his strokes." 

On the soth of October, 1809, the Emperor was in imminent 
danger. At mid-day, during a parade, while surrounded by his 
generals, he came near falling by the dagger of an assassin. A 
young " Sei'de," about seventeen years old, of a pleasant face, mild 
and regular features, the son of a Protestant minister, rushed upon 
him with a view to kill him. The Prince of Neuchatel threw him- 
self before the Emperor, while General Rapp caused the wretch to 
be seized. He was found armed with a new, well-sharpened carving- 
knife. I tremble still when I think of the scene the assassin rushing 
upon the Emperor, and the latter exhibiting the most imperturbable 
coolness, and, without the slightest emotion, continuing to direct the 
evolutions of the troops as coolly as if a mere buzzing insect had 
been brushed away from him. 

Being conducted to the hall of the gendarmes, the young man 
was searched. The knife I have spoken of was found upon him, 
four frederics d'or, and a miniature likeness of a very handsome 
woman. General Rovizo commenced questioning him, but he answered 
only in these words, "I want to speak with the Emperor." For 
two hours no other answer could be obtained from him. His Majesty, 
hearing of his obstinate silence, had him brought up into his apart- 
ment in order to question him himself. The following is the dialogue 
that took place: 

1 Napoleon. Where are you from, and how long have you been at 
Vienna ? 

Prisoner. I am from Erfurt; I have been here two months. 

If. What do you want of me ? 

P. To ask for peace, and to show you that it is indispensable. 

N. Did you suppose I would listen to a man without reputation 
without diplomatic authority ? 

p. In that case, my purpose was to kill you. 



334 NOTES TO THE SECRET MEMOIRS OP 

N. What evil have I done you? 

P. You oppress my country and the whole world; unless you 
make peace, your death is necessary for the good of mankind. In 
killing you. I should have performed the most glorious act that a 
human being can perform. But I admire your talents; I counted 
upon your reason, and, before striking, I wanted to convince you. 

N. You are the son of a Lutheran minister, and 'tis doubtless 
religion that impels you. 

P. No, Sire, my father is ignorant of my design ; I have not 
communicated it to him. For two years past I have sworn that 
you should change your course or die. 

N. Were you at Erfurt when I was there? 

P. I saw you there three times. 

N. Why did you not kill me then ? 

P. You then gave my country a moment's rest ; I thought peace 
was secured, and I saw in you only a great man. 

N. Do you know Schneider and Schill ? 

P. No, sire. 

N. Are you a Freemason or one of the Illuminati ? 

P. No, Sire. 

N. Do you know Brutus ? 

P. There were two of them ; the last died for liberty. 

N. Did you know anything about Moreau and Pichegru's con- 
spiracy ? 

P. I read of it in the journals. 

N. What is your opinion about those men ? 

P. Sire, they were afraid to die. 

N. A portrait was found on yon what woman is that? 

P. My best friend, my lover, the adopted daughter of my vir- 
tuous father. 

N. What 1 your heart is open to those tender sentiments, and 
yet you are not afraid to afflict, to undo the beings you love, by 
becoming an assassin ? 

P. I obeyed a voice more potent than my love. 

N. But, by striking me in the midst of my army, did you expect 
10 escape? 

P. I wonder I am still alive. 

N. If I should pardon you, what use would you make of your 
liberty ? 

P. My plan has failed, you are on your guard; I should return 
peaceably to my home. 

His Majesty sent for Corvisart, and asked him whether he did 
not detect in the young man proofs of insanity. Corvisart examined 
him critically, but answered that he found in him only symptoms 
of powerful emotion 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 335 

He remained for two days in a hall, guarded by two gendarmes. 
He walked about tranquilly, and from time to time knelt in prayer. 
A table-knife was brought him with his dinner. He took it and 
looked at it coldly. A gendarme wished to take it out of his band, 
but he answered with a smile, " Don't be afraid, I should do myself 
no more harm than you will do me." The next morning he heard 
the firing of cannon. " Tis peace," he was told by his keeper. " Are 
you not deceiving me?" said he. "No," was the reply. Then he 
seemed overcome with joy ; tears streamed from his eyes ; he fell 
on his knees and prayed fervently ; then rose and said, " I shall die 
more contented." 

When the Emperor had left he was sent for to be taken out and shot. 
To the colonel who announced his death to him he said, " Sir, I ask but 
one favour, and that is that I may not be tied." It was granted him. 
He walked with a free and firm step, and died with calmness. 1 

(60) Page 115. WAGRAM. 

Bonaparte was never greater than after the battle of Wagram. He 
saw that all the Powers of Europe were acknowledging his preponderance. 
He forced them, so to speak, to admire him. But the affairs of Spain 
rent away the veil behind which he concealed himself. The ambitious 
Napoleon now appeared like a new meteor ; but his chief minister pre- 
dicted that the attempt upon Spain would eclipse his glory. 

(61) Page 115. SCHCENBRUNN. 

This chateau, built by the august Marie Th6rese, 1754, is only half-a- 
league from the lines of Vienna. Its situation is beautiful, and although 
the architecture is bad, it has an air of majesty. 'Twas in this ancient 
castle that Napoleon, now master of the principal European states, ad- 
dressed his secret vows to the daughter of so many Kings. The arch- 
duchess preserved great dignity of manner, not compromising her proud 
character in the slightest degree. She did not humble herself before her 
father's conqueror, although from this moment she looked upon Napoleon 
as an extraordinary man ; dissembling, in the meantime, her ideas re- 
specting him. She asked him for safety and protection sure already of 
obtaining anything she asked. From this moment the ambitious Napo- 
leon swore that the niece of the unfortunate Maria Antoinette should 
become his wife. In this he succeeded. At the time of his marriage 
with this Princess, he practised upon her an agreeable surprise by placing 

1 The name of this yonng fanatic was Frederic Stapss. He was born at Nanm- 
bourg, May i4th, 1792, and was shot October 2;th, 1809, while Napoleon was at Vienna. 
Hi* last words were, "Long live liberty 1 Long live Germany 1 Death to her tyrants I " 
TRANSLATOR 



336 NOTES TO THE SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

before her a picture of the chateau of Schoenbrunn, her favourite little 
dog, and a thistle-finch which she was fond of. The first time she was at 
the Grand Trianon she found there divers objects which had belonged to 
her and to which she was greatly attached. 

The Emperor required her to dress like an Empress, which often 
fatigued her. " This robe is well enough," she would say to the ladies 
of her Court, "but do as the Emperor commands." She occasionally 
sent dresses and even robes de cour to her sisters at Vienna. But this dis- 
pleased her household, and in the latter days Napoleon forbade it, 
directing that those various garments should remain in the imperial 
wardrobe to be distributed among friends. 

The Emperor was fond of raising a dispute with his young wife, and 
that Princess found it difficult to adapt herself to his bizarre character. 
She often pouted, but he soon made it up, not being fond of broils. 

But they sometimes had a jar about their son. The Emperor was 
extreme in everything, even in his mode of caressing the infant. While 
sporting with him one day, he held him up on one of his hands and just 
missed turning the babe heels over head upon the floor. Maria Louisa 
uttered a shriek. " 'Tis nothing, madam," said he; "the child takes 
after his father, and, like him, he must be invulnerable." 

As Bonaparte himself was fond of beans, he used to make the young 
Prince eat some of that vegetable, and would daub his face over merely 
to make him cry. The Empress disapproved of this. " Come, my 
boy," said Napoleon to his son one morning, " look at this thing sharply." 
It was a portrait of Francis II., his father-in-law, which the Empress 
had been privately engaged in painting. He handed a brush to the boy 
and made him daub over his grandfather's face. The child burst out 
laughing. Maria Louisa happened to come upon them while engaged io 
the sport, and scolded her child for such naughty actions. " I admit I 
am to blame, "said Napoleon, " but that picture displeased me; it was 
to ensure its disappearance that I let the child do this." The Empress 
was angry, and for four hours there was an apparent coldness between 
them. 

OBSERVATION The above anecdotes are quite sufficient to show how 
egregiously Napoleon cheated himself in marrying that silly girl, glorying 
in the pompous title of the " daughter of the Caesars." Had the 
" great Julius " foreseen that his mighty name would be thus assumed 
and dishonoured by the wife of Napoleon Bonaparte, he surely would not 
have crossed the Rubicon. TRANSLATOR. 

(62) Page 124. PLOMBIERES. 

The city of Plombieres, situated among the Vosges, is renowned for 
its baths. It is built in a bottom, surrounded by high hills, in such 
a manner that it seems to be in a well. All the surrounding country 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINB 337 

abounds with mineral springs. Luxueil, for example, whose site is more 
agreeable than Plombieres, affords to those afflicted with the gravel a sure 
remedy. These regions are generally subject to a variable temperature, 
which produces rheumatic affections ; and it seems as if Providence 
hath placed the remedy by the side of the disease, for all those waters 
are filled with active healing qualities, and in a short time work a 
perfect cure. 

There are at present three baths at Plombieres, one of which is under 
the care of the Government. You find in the city a handsome ball- 
room, where the visitors assemble twice a week. During the season, and 
until the end of September, you will see four or five hundred persons of 
all nations continually going and coming, the major part of whom board 
with the bourgeois. Two taverns only are not sufficient to accommodate 
the guests, but the inhabitants, having no other fortune than the waters, 
furnish you with board and lodging for one hundred and eighty francs a 
month. 

The visitors amuse themselves by giving and attending parties in the 
neighbouring valleys (that of Plombieres is not more than half-a-league 
hi width). At all hours of the day you see the Russian and the Spaniard, 
the Neapolitan, the Englishman, the Frenchman and the Italian, the Bel- 
gian and the Pole, riding out together, mounted hi a cart covered with 
cloth, ornamented with boughs of trees and drawn by oxen. This mode 
of riding out was infinitely amusing to Josephine, and whenever she 
visited the baths at Plombieres, which was frequently, she never omitted 
this agreeable kind of exercise. She used to carry there a quantity 
of elegant steel ornaments, which she distributed among her attendants. 
She usually left with the overseers of the workshops there some evi- 
dences of her generosity to encourage the workmen. While in the town 
she used to lodge at M. Martinet's, a physician, who resided in the 
principal street. She was always attended by a numerous train, and 
the inhabitants of Plombieres, whenever they had Josephine among 
them, gave way to the most extravagant expressions of joy. She spent 
her time in performing acts of benevolence, and was visited indiscrimi- 
nately by all classes of persons, to whose demands she never turned a 
deaf ear. During one of her visits, she became god-mother to one of 
Madame Martinet's children. That estimable woman, now a widow, 
never spoke of the ex-Empress but with the profoundest sorrow and 
regret. She loved to converse about her. Never was she so happy as 
when she could say to her friends and acquaintances, " Alas ! Plombieres 
has met with an irreparable loss in the death of Josephine. At her 
bidding, Plenty reigned here; her presence alone attracted multitudes 
to our waters. In her have I lost a protectress, a friend for such I 
may venture to call her. Her death has for me banished all earthly 
felicity ; nothing now remains to me but sorrows, and the memory of my 
benefactress. ' ' Communicated. 

VOL. II 22 



338 NOTES TO THE SECRET MEMOIRS OP 

(63) Page 132. 

Relative to his design" 

Josephine was deeply affected by her divorce, though it wonld seem 
that the Emperor on that trying occasion was merely acting a comedy. 

Some days previous to the i6th of December, the Emperor went into 
her apartment without being announced. She was in bed, and he, seat- 
ing himself upon the foot of the bed, spoke to her as follows : 

" Josephine, I am going to afflict you ; but the good of my people 
imperiously demands that I should separate myself from you. I need 
an heir. Would that you might in this respect have fulfilled my wish ; 
but the thing is now impossible, and it is with regret that I feel my- 
self constrained to take this course." 

Josephine had long since been forewarned by Fouch6 of her hus- 
band's secret intentions, but could not believe that matters could ever 
proceed to such an extremity. After having made to him some fruitless 
representations, she dared predict to him that the day he quitted her 
would be the last day of his glory. "You need," said she, with vehe- 
mence, " a friend, and you have nothing but flatterers. Do you believe 
that your generals are truly attached to you ? No ! the most of them 
only await a propitious moment to turn their arms against you. Do 
you think they will, with unconcern, see the Emperor Napoleon search- 
ing for a wife among the daughters of kings ? No ! they have been bred 
in the same school as yourself; they have earned true nobility at the 
price of their blood, and the blazonry upon their armour, of which they 
are so justly proud, is but the evidence of valour which has given them 
the prodigious power they now enjoy in Europe. But remember hi 
you they behold their equal. If they sustain the glory of your throne, 
it is only because your elevation seems their work. They believe you 
great because the rays of your grandeur are reflected by themselves. 
If they burn incense to you, they breathe with delight the incense of 
a power which they share. But the moment a foreign wife shall come 
and seat herself at your side, the Court will cease to be directed by the 
same influence. You are too new a man to attach to your person the 
ancient families. You may load them with favours you have it in 
your power, and it is your duty to make them forget the wrongs in- 
separable from the Revolution but beware you do not humble the old 
generals, who served then: country before you. Banish from your halls 
that too severe etiquette, which was not made for them. Their wives 
and children ought not to be made to blush, either in your presence or 
in that of your future companion. The sword of the brave will ever be 
your surest safeguard. I myself have ever been careful to conciliate all 
parties, and to be indulgent to all opinions ; so much so that, since your 
fortunes have become so wonderful, I have, in a manner, taught your 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 339 

officers to forget the immense distance which exists between General 
Bonaparte and the Emperor Napoleon." 

(64) Page 134. 

" Your truest friend." 

The company at Malmaison was always numerous and brilliant. 
Josephine always did the honours, and most charmingly, at the balls 
and concerts given there. Crowds of visitors, tired out with the scenes 
it the Tuileries and St. Cloud, hastened to Malmaison to breathe a 
purer and serener air than that which was respired in the midst of the 
flatterers who surrounded Napoleon, and regarded it as a favour to be 
seen in the circle of his courtiers. It was one day told the Empress that 
the grand-ecuyer was in danger of falling into disgrace with her husband. 
"Why so?" she exclaimed; "he has certainly served him well thus 
far. I must see into this rupture." 

The Duke of Vicenza had been appointed to the management of the 
household affairs. He superintended all the details, and the service hi 
this department was exact and systematic. But what produced the 
rumour about his removal was this: The Duke being on a riding 
party, in company with Maria Louisa and the Princess Aldobrandini, 
on horseback, the Empress undertook to outstrip them and ride ahead. 
Caulaincourt (the duke) admonished her that she might, in so doing, 
incur danger. But she persisted, and rode on. Her horse stumbled, 
and Caulaincourt, seeing it, said, in a low tone, "What perverseness ! " 

She heard it, and straightway went and complained of it to the 
Emperor. He flew into a rage at once. "That man," said he, speak- 
ing of his favourite, " always does more than I wish ; he goes too far." 

Josephine saw at once that an explanation was necessary on both 
sides. The Empress was in the wrong, and so thought the Emperor. 
Josephine, who well knew how important to Napoleon were the services 
of such a man as Caulaincourt, remarked to those who expressed their 
surprise that she should still take so much interest in the Emperor. 
" Were I an ordinary woman, his friends might be surprised at it ; but 
I am, and ever shall be, his most constant friend." 

(65) Page 143. 

"Had sworn to sacrifice all he held most dear." 

There was in Germany, in 1809, much said about a certain minister 
of great talent, who, whenever he was alone and at work in his cabinet, 
saw a little black man constantly standing behind his chair ; and this 
was related with an air of the profoundest conviction. 

During the last two years of Bonaparte's reign, there was a tale 
continually repeated in the saloons of Paris, about a little red man, 

22 2 



34O NOTES TO THE SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

who presented himself at Fontainebleau, and at St. Cloud, to obtain an 
audience of the Emperor. It was currently reported and seriously be- 
lieved, that this " Little Red Man " ('twas thus he was called) had been 
seen in the palace of the Tuileries conversing with Napoleon in a very 
peremptory style ; and it was whispered among the Emperor's friends 
that the little gentleman talked very loudly to him, and recalled to his 
mind the famous oath which he (Bonaparte) had taken in the great 
pyramid of Cheops, in Egypt. 1 

Among the threats uttered by the Little Red Man, the following 
was clearly distinguished : 

" Thou shalt be prosperous until thy forty-fifth year. Till then I am 
bound to protect thee. After that, I shall abandon thee to Destiny, 
who, if thou shalt be so guilty as to break thine oaths, will know how to 
.avenge me." 

The better to understand certain facts, it is necessary to go back 
.to the early years of Napoleon Bonaparte. Thus we shall be enabled 
<to lift the veil which has ever concealed from the majority of French- 
men the secret reasons which made it necessary for him to separate 
from a wife whom he was once pleased to call his " tutelary angel." 

It is fully established that Bonaparte received his first initiation as 
a neophyte in the universal sect of the " Free Judges," in 1795. He 
took the oath at a general meeting of the brethren in the forest of 
Fontainebleau, " that no freeman ought ever to obey a king." He im- 
precated upon himself the most dreadful punishments in case he should 
violate his promise to the invisible brethren. 

A second initiation took place during his victories in Italy. Bona- 
parte afterwards confessed to his intimate friends " that he was not 
only astonished at the strange ceremony of which he seemed to be the 
sole object, but also at finding himself in the midst of the principal 
chiefs of the army, who with alacrity, and with their hands upon their 
swords, repeated the oath : " Death to Tyrants, whoever and whatever 
they may be." 

The formula of the oath exacted of him was this : 

" I consent to be put to death if I shall make any covenant with 
royalty. In order to extinguish it in Europe, I will, without reserve, 
employ fire and sword, and will even sacrifice whatever is dearest to me, 
should the society whereof I have the happiness to be a member, 
command me so to do." He signed the oath with his blood, and 
declared himself, beforehand, a traitor, should he fail to execute faith- 
fully that which he thus solemnly promised. After the most formal 
assurances from the leaders of the sect, a sect which could dare any- 



x "Glory to Allah," said the conqueror of Italy. "There is no God but God, 
and Mahomet is His prophet : the bread stolen by the wicked becomes dust in nil 
mouth," &c. 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 341 

thing, seconded by the sicaires (assassins) scattered throughout Europe. 
Bonaparte pursued the course of his conquests with dreadful carnage 
and fixedness of purpose. 

It was at Grand Cairo that the illustrious initiate had an interview 
with the head of the " Philadelphs." He had numerous meetings with 
him in a celebrated mosque, where a third and last initiation took place. 
Already did the general of the army of Egypt perceive that several of his 
officers began to evince a design to treat him with insulting superiority. 
Kleber was of the number. From this moment he foresaw reverses 
as astonishing as had been his successes. He consulted the supreme 
master of the " great work." This Egyptian passed his life with the 
Beys ; but the people believed him to be a godly man, and to hold 
mental communication with angels. 

Bonaparte had just grounds to fear being assassinated. The chief of 
the " Invulnerables " said to him, " I will render you inaccessible to all 
the strokes of faith, but upon the condition that you shall wear the 
usual dress." He prescribed the dress. 1 "Beware," said he "not to 
adopt another in the heat of combat. It hath a twofold virtue ; it will 
render you invisible to your enemies, and turn back upon them the 
blows they aim at you. Should fortune ever so favour you as to place 
you at the head of a nation, beware, O my son, beware not to bind your 
brow with the diadem of kings. Thy fortune may and must astonish the 
world. You are the chosen child of the ' universal society. 1 It is 
everywhere invisible ; but it attaches itself to you by imperceptible 
threads. Should ambition, that vice of kings, make you wander for a 
moment from the true principles, then you may look for the day that 
shall see you re-descend to the level of the least of your brethren. You 
will then spread misery among stranger nations, and coast the African 
seas to find a country. You will be abandoned by your relations ; none 
among them will follow you into exile. You alone, unhappy man ! 
Meanwhile one friend will remain to you." 

The return of Bonaparte from Egypt to France was the work of the 
Philadelphs. Having become First Consul, he renewed his oath ; but 
soon the fortunate Emperor forgot what he owed to those men who had 
served him with their influence and their swords. In 1805, he recounted 
to Josephine the fearful oath he had taken, of " war upon kings." He 
had thus far discharged the obligation tolerably well ; but he had dared 
to sit upon the throne of France, and it was to be feared that the Free 
Judges might, sooner or later, come and drag him from it, and make 
him repent bitterly for that which they must regard as an act of perjury, 
unpardonable in reference to the solemn vows he had taken. The 
Empress was frightened at the idea, and afraid her husband might fall 
by the dagger of some zealot belonging to the terrible sect ; and henca 

i The grey urtout and little hat, surely, which Napoleon alwayi won. 



342 NOTES TO THE SBCRET MEMOIRS OF 

that unceasing and minute vigilance which she observed in regard to 
his person. She was constantly saying to Marshal Duroc, " Keep a 
strict watch over the Emperor ; he does not observe sufficient pre- 
cautions." After the battle of Austerlitz, Napoleon thought he could 
awe the whole world, and in the end forgot he was still under the yoke 
of the Invisibles, who, like their predecessors, knew not how to pardon. 

The terrible Little Red Man, it seems, had promised to visit him 
three times before exposing him to the strokes of his enemies. The 
first interview was in the chateau of the Tuileries, three days before 
Napoleon's coronation. A billet was sent to Napoleon and received by 
him. It contained only these words : " Remember your oath : Hatred 
to kings a universal republic." The new monarch thought nothing 
about it. He turned off the Egyptian grand master somewhat uncivilly, 
as it is said. The latter personage, who was naturally patient and for- 
bearing, adjourned his second visit, which took place after the campaign 
of Wagram ; but on this occasion the invisible man did not come alone. 
He demanded a private audience with the Emperor, and informed him 
beforehand that he should be at the palace of Fontainebleau, on the 
i2th of November, 1809. The Emperor was surprised, although he 
dissembled his feelings. The illuminate then said to him, " What you 
propose to undertake will lead you to your ruin : think of your oath ; 
there is still time for that." They conversed together, it seems, for 
two hours. The Empress was not present at the conversation ; that 
afflicted woman was already convinced that another was soon to dis- 
place her in her husband's affections. She was not able then to see the 
mysterious little man, and never mentioned the circumstance. Bona- 
parte had throngs of the Philadelphs about his person. France swarmed 
with English, Germans, Spaniards and Italians, who, at the least signal, 
would have stricken down the Emperor with their poniards. The war 
hi Spain had begun to unseal the eyes of the mighty conqueror ; he saw 
that he could be vanquished, and that the strife of arms was subject to 
the same vicissitudes as great reputations. He now began to entertain 
fears; his private enemies now began to urge him to carry out the 
suggestion made by his brother Lucien in 1800, to separate from his 
wife and espouse a Spanish Infanta. He repudiated Josephine, thus 
sacrificing what he held most dear, and proving to the whole world, and 
especially to the Philadelphs, that he was a fanatic, who would yet lose 
himself in the tortuous paths of ambition. 

The Little Red Man, or rather the society which he represented, 
saw, in his voluntary sacrifice of Josephine, nothing but an irresistible 
proof that this man, who was chiefly their own work, would sooner or 
later dare deny even them, should occasion require. They swore his 
destruction, and, in order to succeed, they caressed his errors and 
applauded his mad enterprises. It may, however, be said to the praise 
of man\ among tnem, that they took all possible pains to convey secret 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 343 

advice to him. He listened to nothing; he resolved to continue to 
reign the throne had so many charms I He was singularly struck by the 

famous vision of M. A. A. de M . The dreadful results of the 

Russian campaign are known to the world. Here the Philadelphs had 
their eye upon him. Henceforth they knew that his end was near, 
notwithstanding his alliance with the Archduchess of Austria, an 
alliance formed by him to strike them with awe. But the time had 
now passed. The decree had gone forth. He was to incur not only 
the penalty of being overthrown, but banished. During the last 
moments he spent at Fontainebleau, in 1814, he received, as some say, 
the promised visit from the Little Red Man, but, according to others, a 
simple piece of paper containing the original oath which he had taken, 
and signed with his own blood ; which was as much as to say to the 
dethroned monarch, that the society of which he was a member had 
abandoned him. Had he remained Consul, he might, perhaps, have 
been so still. But the Philadelphs forget nothing, and pardon nothing. 
For more than three centuries past have they dreamed of nothing but 
a universal republic which, if we may judge from the best political 
rules, must end in the overthrow of all the governments of the globe, and 
the advent of a universal chaos from the East to the West. Note 
Communicated. 

OBSERVATION. The story of the " Little Red Man " had been very 
generally believed. But the mystery thrown around it is easily explained. 
Napoleon was a member of one of the secret societies with which Europe 
was then filled, pledged to the advancement of popular liberty, and the 
destruction of tyrants. In despotic governments, such societies must be 
necessarily secret ; their obligations must be terrible, and regarded as 
paramount to the laws which are sought to be overthrown. Nothing is 
more probable than that, having assumed the powers and prerogatives 
of monarchy, Napoleon should have been reminded of the dreadful oath 
he had taken, and that he should have had secret and mysterious calls 
from " Little Red Men," " Little Grey Men " (one of the latter visited 
him in his tent, in Russia, just before the battle of Borodino), and all 
other sorts of men, whose hopes of a republic he had disappointed. But 
the idea that he was finally overthrown by their influence in his councils, 
would seem to be too far-fetched. That overthrow was the result of the 
political blunders into which his ambition led him. against the opinions 
of his soundest advisers and best friends. They were, in a few words : 

1. The war in Spain; an almost insupportable draught upon the 
blood and treasure of France, and utterly unproductive of profit or 

jrlory. 

2. The divorce of his wife Josephine a matter of cold-blooded cal- 
culation; a wrong determination as to the result to arise from the 
respective positions of the objects upon the political chess-board, 
was discarding a Frenchwoman for an Austrian Princess. It offended 



344 NOTES TO THE SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

France ; it shocked all hearts by an apparent indifference to the love 
of a noble-minded, innocent, faithful and beautiful woman. 

3. The campaign to Russia, an effort which France was not then 
strong enough to sustain ; but which, however gloomy and terrible hi its 
results, was the grandest conception of the age a display of military 
power unequalled in the history of the world. TRANSLATOR. 

(66) Page 148. 

"The decree that was to dissolve my marriage." 

Prince Eugene had a mournful and melting interview with his poor 
mother. They both wept bitterly. The beloved son strove to console 
the Empress, who, on her part, sought to arouse his fortitude. Both 
the illustrious sufferers were overcome by the afflicting scene. " Tis 
not," said that noble woman, hi the agony of her heart, " 'tis not that 
I regret the throne, my son, but I feel that I am leaving the Emperor 
a prey to the evil-minded men who seek his ruin. I shall be no longer 
here to warn him against their false-hearted counsels. The task re- 
served for me henceforth will be to pity him, and to pray for him 
and the French people, whom I love. My children will imitate my 
example." 

(67) Page 149. 

"On this trying occasion." 

The senate being assembled on Saturday, the i6th of December, 
1809, Cambaceres, the arch-chancellor of the Empire, who had been 
appointed to preside over the sitting, was received with the usual 
honours. The King of Westphalia, the King of Naples (Grand- 
Admiral), Prince Eugene (Viceroy of Italy), the Prince Vice-Constable, 
and the Prince Vice-Grand-Elector being present, the sitting was 
opened by the Prince Arch-chancellor, who addressed the body in 
the following terms: 

" GENTLEMEN, The proposition about to be submitted to the 
deliberation of the senate at its present sitting, is one which concerns 
our most cherished interests. It is dictated by that imperious voice 
which teaches sovereigns and nations that, to ensure the safety of a 
state, we must listen to the counsels of a wise foresight, reflect upon the 
past, examine the present, and cast our eyes upon the future. Influ- 
enced by these high considerations, His Imperial Majesty has, upon 
the present occasion, which will be for ever memorable, banished from 
him all personal considerations, and silenced all his private affections. 
The noble and touching assent of Her Majesty the Empress is a 
glorious testimony of her disinterested attachment to the Emperor, and 
entitles her to the eternal gratitude of the nation." 

Count Regnaolt de St. Angely then rose, and submitted to the 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 345 

assembly the draft of a senates consultum dissolving the marriage con- 
tract between the Emperor and Empress. The speaker thus developed 
the reasons for this measure : 

" MY LORD AND SENATORS, The formal act, set forth in the docu- 
ment to which you have listened, fully explains the reasons which 
justify it. What can I add to it ? What language can I address to the 
senate of France which will not fall beneath the touching declarations 
of the illustrious pair, whose generous purposes your deliberations are 
about to consecrate ? Both hi respect to public policy and private 
feeling, their hearts have united in the utterance of language at once 
the most true, the most persuasive, the best calculated to convince and 
to move. As Sovereigns, as patriots, the Emperor and Empress have 
done all, said all. To us, it only remains to love, bless and admire them. 

"The voice of the French people is next to be heard. Their 
memory is as faithful as their hearts. In their minds, full of gratitude, 
will they unite the hopes of the future with the recollections of the past. 
Never shall monarch receive more of respect, of admiration, of grati- 
tude and love, than Napoleon, in sacrificing his holiest affections to the 
good of his subjects than Josephine, in sacrificing her love for the best 
of husbands, her devotion to the best of Kings, her attachment to the 
best of nations. 

" Accept, Gentlemen, hi the name of weeping France, hi the presence 
of astonished Europe, this the greatest sacrifice ever made on earth; and, 
full of the profound emotions you cannot but feel, hasten to bear to the 
foot of the throne, not only the tribute of your feelings, but of the 
whole French nation the only price worthy of the fortitude of our 
Sovereigns, the only consolation worthy of their hearts." 

Prince Eugene, Josephine's son, then rose and addressed the 
assembly hi the following language: 

" PRINCE, SENATORS, You have heard the proposition read which 
is now submitted to your deliberations. I deem it my duty, on this 
occasion, to make known the sentiments which animate my family. My 
mother, my sister and myself owe everything to the Emperor. To us 
he has been a true father. In us shall he at all times find devoted 
children, submissive subjects. It is important to the happiness of 
France that the founder of this fourth dynasty should grow old 
surrounded by direct descendants who shall be, to us all, guarantees and 
pledges of the safety and glory of our country. 

" When my mother was crowned, in the presence of the whole 
French nation, by the hands of her august husband, she contracted an 
obligation to sacrifice all her affections to the interests of France. With 
courage, dignity and nobleness of soul has she fulfilled that primary 
duty. The tears which this resolution has cost the Emperor, suffice 
for my mother's glory. In the situation in which she is about to be 
placed, she will not, in her prayers and her patriotic sentiments, be a 



346 NOTES TO THE SECRET MEMOIRS OP 

stranger to the new prosperity for which we all look ; and, with satis- 
faction mingled with pride, will she view that happiness which her 
sacrifice will ensure to her country and the Emperor." 

(68) Page 155. 
"In his turn be conquered.'* 

When Bonaparte separated from Josephine he left the woman who 
had exercised a great influence upon his destinies. It was she who had, 
in a manner, launched him upon Fortune's car, who knew how to up- 
hold him in spite of envy, who was the guardian angel sent by Provi- 
dence upon the earth to repair a thousand wrongs ; and, from the 
moment he repudiated her, Napoleon, the invincible Napoleon, began 
to be a prey to fearful forebodings. This false step was a triumph to 
his enemies, and all Europe was amazed that a man whose former 
achievements had covered him with glory, should thus, with a sort of 
ostentation, run after the daughter of a Sovereign whom he had sub- 
dued by force of arms. "From the moment" (such was the general 
exclamation) "that Napoleon shall start this scandalous project of a 
divorce, and, not content with severing the bonds which are for him not 
less sacred than advantageous, shall dare aspire to the hand of the 
august daughter of the Caesars, Napoleon is no longer anything of him- 
self ; he is but an ambitious man. He will tremble for the result of the 
part he is acting, for he will seek to sustain himself by force, and not by 
popular favour." 

Some days before the divorce Josephine addressed him thus : 
" Bonaparte, even now you have no confidence in the stability of 
your power. You want an ally, and the very Sovereign whom you have 
lately vanquished, the Sovereign who has just grounds to hate you, now 
sees himself flattered by the very man who has so lately overrun his 
country. In his eyes you are but a small affair at this present time ; 
for, if such an enormous sacrifice as the giving his daughter to you in 
marriage be necessary to give peace to his subjects, you cannot but 
know that he will secretly despise you, and say to himself, ' Well, the 
man who so lately made me tremble, who imposed such cruel conditions 
upon me, is on the eve of some dreadful catastrophe. Did he suppose 
himself firmly seated on his throne, he would not need to resort to a 
foreign alliance, and the very circumstance that the mighty conqueror is 
so anxious to obtain a companion of illustrious birth is evidence that he 
intends; should a storm ever arise, to lean upon that foreign support.' " * 

I The civil marriage of Napoleon with the Archduchess of Austria took place at 
St. Cloud, April ist, 1810; the fates were brilliant, but were interrupted by a tre- 
mendous shower a perfect deluge. The company knew not where to take refuge, 
and many, especially ladies, in consequence contracted diseases of which they died. 
Josephine was deeply affected by the terrible conflagration which took place at tha 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 34.7 

While at Malmaison, Josephine received occasional visits from 
Napoleon, after the divorce. He was fond of conversing with her, 
and used to give her the most trifling details of what transpired at his 
Court, telling her often that he always saw her with renewed pleasure. 
But he never spoke to her of Maria Louisa ; such was the kind of 
respect he had for the latter. Josephine could scarcely restrain her 
spite. Whenever her friends conversed in her presence about the 
woman who had taken her place, she carefully avoided letting fall the 
slightest remark that could be construed into a censure of that woman ; 
though it was easy to see how much it cost her to hear the qualities of 
the new Empress continually preached up. " He will never love her," 
said she, with ill-concealed feeling ; " he has sacrificed everything to his 
politics. But his first wife yes, his first wife will for ever possess his 
confidence." And she did not deceive herself in this prophecy, for 
many a time did the ex-Empress have reason for exulting in the 
irresistible ascendency she still preserved over him. 

(69) Page 174. 
The birth of the King of Rome," &c. 

The news that the Empress Maria Louisa had given birth to a son 
was announced by the discharge of one hundred and one cannon. The 
enthusiasm was universal. 

On hearing of this unexpected good fortune of her husband, Jose- 
phine, who had long since abandoned all hope of having children, felt 
the more pleasure in the event, that it furnished an additional proof of 
the attachment of the French people to the Emperor. She made the 
young archduke a present of a little carriage drawn by two superb 
merinos, and had, it is said, the curiosity to go herself and see the 
first experiment with them. The Emperor was much pleased with this 
polite attention, and spoke of it frequently to Maria Louisa, who, as 
a matter of course, was offended ; she could not endure to hear praises 
bestowed upon the woman who had preceded her. It was easy, indeed, 
to perceive that Josephine was not forgotten, for the supreme master 
always spoke of her with new and increased interest. He loved to hear 
of all that took place at Malmaison, even the most minute particulars. 
Often when returning from a hunting party, he would go and take 
Josephine unawares at Malmaison, and talk with her for some minutes 

close of a splendid ball given by the Austrian ambassador on that occasion. She 
knew her children were there. Prince Eugene saved the lives of several ; but in vain 
did he assure Madame Schwartzenberg that her daughter was not in the hall. The 
tender mother could not believe ; she rushed into the flamet and perished. Napoleon 
showed himself wherever the danger was most imminent, uttering the most cutting 
reproaches upon those whose duty it was to keep up a minute and active watch, and 
prevent evil-minded persons from stealing during the fire. But in vain ; the most 
valuable effects of the guests were stolen and carried off by the thieves with impunity. 



348 NOTES TO THE SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

in the most friendly manner. They walked together in the garden. 
Their conversation was at times animated ; and he was often seen with 
moist eyes when he left her, as if he had experienced a violent agitation. 
He was displeased with certain of his courtiers, who, the moment the 
divorce took place, affected to forget the forsaken Josephine. " Have 
you been to Malmaison ? " he would say to them earnestly. " How 
does the Empress ? " which was as much as to assure them that it 
would please him to know that they still paid their respects to Jose- 
phine, and that the political chameleons might, if they chose, throw 
down the gauntlet, which he would be the first to pick up. 

(70) Page 175. 
" The heir-apparent." 

Josephine was absolutely determined to see the King of Rome, 
although it was impossible to do so at Malmaison. Madame Montes- 
quieu, by order of Bonaparte, went to Trianon with her august eleve. 
Josephine was advised of it, and repaired thither. She lavished her 
caresses upon the young Prince. Her eyes were filled with tears. 
" Ah ! " said she, with a throb of emotion that went to the heart, 
" I could not I could not fulfil Bonaparte's highest wish ; but Louisa 
is more happy than I, and I now pardon her freely for the wrong she 
did me in coming to usurp my place. Surely, I am now willing to 
overlook all my husband's errors, and concern myself solely about 
the happiness of a father." And, indeed, from that moment she seemed 
to regain all her gaiety, and only thought of Maria Louisa as one 
who had given to the Emperor a pledge of security. 

(71) Page 176. NAVARRE. 

She often went to Navarre, which she had done much to embellish. 
She was there when the foreign troops advanced upon Paris. But her 
Malmaison property was respected ; the allies even despatched thither a 
guard of honour. She received a letter from Talleyrand, informing her 
that the Emperor Alexander and the King of Prussia wished to see her. 
She was visited by those Sovereigns, and often honoured by their 
presence ; she even feted them at Malmaison. But what, alas ! must 
have been her mental sufferings when she reverted to the painful 
position of her husband. Never had she ceased to love him, and 
his deep misfortunes now only served to redouble her affection. 

She was probably one of the principal causes which prevailed in 
securing for him such favourable conditions from the victorious Sove- 
reigns. She pleaded his cause with earnestness, but with dignity. 
I have," said she, " been his wife ; I feel it my duty, both from 
obligation and friendship, to intercede for him." When she heard that 
he had set out for the Isle of Elba, she exclaimed, " Though Bonaparte 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 349 

is abandoned by all who are most dear to him, I, at least, will not 
be of that number ; I detest ingratitude, and will never participate 
in their panic terrors. I will go and join him again on his island, 
and there, surrounded by a few tried friends, we will perchance both 
of us enjoy one more ray of happiness." 

(72) Page 184. CLARKB. 

It was a master-stroke of policy on the part of Josephine to have 
gained over, with so much adroitness, this general, who was born of 
Irish parents. At the epoch of the consulate, he was nothing more 
than a partisan of Bonaparte, and quite free in the expression of his 
opinion on that subject. He was in the habit of visiting at Malmaison, 
where the Consul's wife received him with grace and distinction. He 
became the more fond of Josephine because she manifested a great 
liking for his daughter, whom she invited to leave the boarding-school 
where she had been staying, and come and spend a few days with 
her. These amiable attentions were infinitely flattering to the general ; 
and the principle of gratitude with him was sacred. Having become 
Emperor, Napoleon manifested some dislike towards him, and frequently 
showed distrust. Clarke complained of this to Josephine, and on more 
than one occasion expressed his mortification in her presence. Like 
an adroit wife as she was, she reassured the general and told him 
that the Emperor often confessed that General Clarke was of great 
service to him, especially on his campaigns ; but that, possessing the 
character he did, he found it convenient to dissemble and to be on 
his guard against persons who sought to look through his designs. 
" General," said she, " were you an ordinary man, Bonaparte would 
despise you ; but, on the contrary, you inspire him with a kind of 
fear; such is his distrust of a certain class of generals. 1 I myself 
try to reassure him respecting those gentlemen, and give him the 
guarantee of my word, which ought to be inviolable, you know, general. 
Everyone esteems you," she said, continually, to Clarke. " Look at 

their services and their fidelity in keeping their oaths will convince 
you better than all my arguments. Thus," continued Josephine, in 
a manner and with a voice to which she joined the sweetest smile, 

i Of this number was the Prince of Ponte-Corvo. Bernadotte, while relating to 
Napoleon how his election was brought about in Sweden, gazed at him with those 
black and piercing eyes which always gave to his physiognomy a singular appearance. 
After a conversation of two hours, Napoleon said to him, in a quick, sharp tone, " Bk 
bien ! let destiny be accomplished ; I would freely give three millions to see you 
mount the throne. Yes, sir, let destiny be accomplished," again ejaculated Na- 
poleon, observing that Bernadotte echoed those words. That illustrious general, 
who was really offended with Napoleon, soon took his leave of France to b Kioff 
of Sweden. 



35O NOTES TO THE SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

" certainly. Monsieur le Comte, you can never I am sure of it yon 
can never be willing to expose me to the reproaches of my husband, 
seeing how much I have done to gain you his favour. Your loyal 
feelings are well known to me, and the friendship you bear me will 
always warrant me in believing that, at all times and under all cir- 
cumstances, you will watch over the interests of the Emperor. I charge 
you with a duty which, I am sure, will be daily recognised by your 
honourable and generous conduct in the service which is confided to 
you, and in which you have it in your power to do so much good, 
and to repair so many evils." Such were Josephine's private con- 
versations with the most distinguished ministers and military men of 
the empire. She was ever making friends for the Emperor, and 
during the last years of her life Malmaison became the rendezvous 
of all his most zealous friends. She conversed with them all about 
their different arrangements, and animated the zeal of such of them 
as seemed to despair of their cause. 

(73) P*g* 186. POLAND. 

Nothing is more astonishing in political history than that Poland 
should, for so many centuries, have maintained itself with an elective 
King. The fearlessness of the feudal system drew down upon it all 
its woes. That system was never fitted to any but infant states of 
society. It has ever produced anarchy in the end, and dismember- 
ment as the last result. 

Montesquieu says : " There are some states which are gainers by 
being conquered. They are, ordinarily, those whose institutions have 
lost all their strength ; where corruption has found its way ; where 
the laws have ceased to be executed ; where the government has 
become an oppression, and where matters have come to that pass hi 
which the state has lost the power of self-reformation." 

[What a commentary on the present condition of Mexico. TRANS- 
LATOR.] 

(74) Pag '89. 



Sane of desolation." 

General Barclay de Tolley, foreseeing that an assault would be 
attempted upon the town of Smolensk, although the breach was not 
yet practicable, reinforced the garrison with two new divisions and 
two regiments of infantry of the Guard. The combat lasted till night- 
fall. Columns of smoke and flame began to rise, and seemed instantly 
to communicate themselves to the principal quarters of the town. In 
the middle of a summer's night, that blazing city presented to our 
eyes the spectacle which an eruption of Vesuvius presents to the in- 
habitants of Naples. No pen can describe the horrible devastation 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 35! 

which the interior of the town presented. Let the reader picture to 
himself the houses on fire ; all the streets, all the public squares piled 
with dead or dying Russians ; ruined families braving every danger 
in their efforts to snatch the wrecks of their property from the raging 
flames, by whose light this dreadful spectacle was viewed from afar 
and he may have some faint idea of its horrors. 

The next morning we entered Smolensk through the faubourg that 
lay along the river ; we trod among nothing but ruins and dead bodies. 
The still smoking palaces presented nothing to the view but walls 
cleft by the flames, and beneath their fallen fragments the blackened 
skeletons of their inmates, half consumed by the fire. The few houses 
which remained were occupied by our soldiers, while at the door you 
might have seen the houseless owner lingering a while with the residue 
of his family, weeping and wringing his hands at the death of his 
children and the loss of the fruits of years of patient toil. The 
churches offered the only consolation to the unhappy wretches who 
were without shelter. The cathedral, so celebrated throughout Europe, 
so venerated by the Russians, became the refuge of the miserable beings 
who had escaped from the conflagration. Within that church, huddled 
around the altars, were entire households crouched upon rags. On one 
side might have been seen an expiring old man casting a last look 
upon the saint whom he had invoked for his whole life ; and on the 
other, an innocent babe resting in its cradle, to whom the mother, 
bowed down by sorrow, was giving suck while she bedewed it with 
her tears. 

To this scene of desolation, the passage of the French army into 
the interior of the town presented a striking contrast. On the one 
side was the affliction of the vanquished ; on the other, the pride of 
the victors ; those had lost their all ; these, enriched with spoils, 
never having known defeat, moved proudly forward at the sound of 
martial music, striking with fear, as well as admiration, the wretched 
remains of a subdued population. " Campagnts de Russie." 

(75) p ag> '9 1 - GENERAL MALBT. 

Malet, a general who was suspected by the Emperor and shut 
up in a mad-house under the pretext that he was insane, conceived, 
in 1812, the project of a revolution, and had the temerity to attempt 
its execution, without any methodical plan, without accomplices and 
without money. Having escaped from his place of confinement, and 
furnished himself with pretended decrees of the senate announcing 
the death of the Emperor, and appointing General Malet military 
commandant of Paris, he went to a barrack in the middle of the 
night, read there the so-called decree of the senate, of which he was the 
bearer, and marched off a regiment that was quartered there. Thenc* 



352 NOTES TO THE SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

he proceeded to the Prison de la Force and, in virtue of the power with 
which he had invested himself, set at liberty a general officer named 
Lahorie, on whom he presumed he could rely. The latter, with a 
detachment of the regiment, proceeded to the hotel of the minister of 
police, informed him of the death of Napoleon, and told him he was 
charged by the senate to secure his person. The Duke of Rovigo, 
outwitted by these two pieces of news, suffered himself to be caught and 
carried off as easily as if he had been a lamb. Before seven o'clock in 
the morning, he found himself under lock and key in the same prison 
from which Lahorie had been taken some hours before, and had for his 
fellow-prisoner the prefect of police, who permitted himself to be 
arrested with the same facility. 

During this time, Malet repaired to the quarters of the general staff 
in order to arrest General Hullin likewise. The latter did not show 
himself as confiding as Savary, but demanded the perusal of the decree 
of the senate. Malet, feigning to search for it in his pocket, drew a 
pistol, fired upon Hullin, and fractured his jaw. At this moment, 
Adjutant-General Laborde, an active an intrepid man, arrived at the 
quarters. He heard what had taken place, convinced the subalterns 
who had followed Malet that they were the sport of an impo -.tor, and 
secured his person. He then repaired to the office of the minister of 
police, where he found Lahorie, who, having given orders to the clerks 
to draw up a circular letter, was in serious conference with a tailor to 
whom he was giving directions for a suit of clothes. After causing him 
to be apprehended, Laborde went to the Force prison and set the 
minister of police at liberty. After this, he went to the department of 
police and found there another emissary sent by Mallet ; and the 
prefect, as credulous as the Duke of Rovigo, was actually busy in pre- 
paring a new hall in which the provisional government was to assemble. 
At eleven o'clock in the forenoon everything was restored to order. 

Maria Louisa was at St. Cloud while this movement was going on 
at Paris. It must be said to her honour that, on this occasion, she 
showed coolness and courage. She ordered the few troops who were 
with her to be placed under arms. But scarcely had they time to 
execute her order, before she learnt that the conspirators were arrested. 
The following is an extract from a work, printed in England (by 
Colburn, a bookseller), respecting the conduct of the Duke of Feltre 
[Clarke] on this occasion: 

" The conduct of this minister, also, was suspicious on the occasion 
of Malet's conspiracy, or, rather, his ill-concerted enterprise. The 
duke pretended that he had given orders for Malet's arrest, and that 
he had himself mounted a horse and passed through all the streets of 
Paris, calming and undeceiving the public mind. 'Tis very true he did 
all this, but not until Laborde had arrested Malet and released the 
Duke of Rovigo from his confinement in La Force. Until then he had 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINB 353 

remained quite tranquil in his hotel, only waiting, it would seem, for 
the result in order to declare himself." 

The news of the pretended death of the Emperor, and the more 
correct news of the seizure of the minister of police, spread rapidly 
through Paris, but without producing any effect. No demonstration of 
joy nor signs of sorrow were visible. The faubourgs of St. Antoine 
and St. Marceau, always so agitated in times of revolution, remained 
perfectly tranquil. The only sentiment which seemed to animate the 
partisans was that felt by the spectators of a game of chess the 
curiosity to see how the matter will end. The next day people thought 
of nothing but to let slip their sarcasms against the minister of police, 
of whom they jokingly said that, on this occasion, he had made a tour 
de force. 

(76) Page 180. 

" That horrible catastrophe." 

A spectacle now presented itself which my imagination had never 
before conceived ; no, not while perusing the most dreadful pages of 
ancient and modern history. Consternation kept a great part of the 
population of Moscow shut up in their houses; from which they did 
not issue until the fire had penetrated into their asylums. Terror held 
them mute; they stood trembling, not daring to utter the slightest 
imprecation against the French. Some of them attempted to fly, and 
to carry with them the most precious of their effects; while others, 
more sensible to the demands of nature and humanity, thought only of 
saving their relations. Here you might have seen a son bearing off his 
infirm father upon his shoulders ; there, mothers holding their babes in 
their arms, and shedding over them torrents of tears ; while their older 
children, afraid of losing them, pursued on after their fleeing mothers, 
and calling out to them with piercing and lamenting cries. Many of the 
aged, more borne down with grief than years, unable to follow their 
families, shedding bitter tears over the desolation of their country, 
gave themselves up to die under the roofs where they were born. 
The streets, the public squares, the churches, were all filled with these 
wretched beings, who, lying upon what remained of their household 
goods, groaned away the heavy hours, without giving even the smallest 
sign of despair. You heard no dispute, no cry amongst them. Victor 
and vanquished were alike struck with stupor, the one by excess of 
fortune, the other by excess of misery. 

The fire, pursuing its desolating course, soon reached the finest 
parts of the city. In a moment, as it were, all those palaces which we 
had so much admired for their elegant architecture and tasty decora- 
tions, were wrapped in flames and consumed. Their superb pediments, 
adorned with bas-reliefs and statues, deprived of their supports, fell 
with a wild crash upon the ruins of their columns. The churches, 
VOL. II 23 



354 NOTES TO THE SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

though roofed with tiles or lead, also fell, and with them those proud 
domes which the last sunset had revealed to us, all resplendent with 
silver and gold. The hospitals, in which were more than 26,000 sick 
and wounded, soon fell a prey to the devouring element. The soul 
revolts and freezes with horror at the scene which followed. Nearly 
every one of those miserable wretches perished in the flames ; and the 
few who still retained the breath of life were seen dragging themselves 
along, half burnt to death, amongst the smoking cinders ; while others 
of the number, groaning under piles of corpses, lifted them up in order 
to get at the light of day. 

How shall I describe the tumults which the pillaging, connived at 
throughout this immense city, produced ? Soldiers, sutlers, galley 
slaves, prostitutes, rushing through the streets, entered the deserted 
palaces, stealing and carrying off whatever could flatter their cupidity. 
Some loaded themselves with tissues of silk and gold ; others covered 
their shoulders with the most costly furs; many loaded themselves 
down with women's and children's furred robes. Even galley slaves 
concealed their rags beneath the Court dresses. Others, again, rushed 
to the cellars, dashed in the doors, and, after making themselves 
drunk with the most costly wines, tottered out again, laden with im- 
mense booty. This frightful sacking was not confined to the houses 
which were deserted. The horrors of the town and the rapacity of the 
populace were all confounded together, and aided the plunderers in 
executing a work of devastation as great as that of the conflagration. 
Nor did those asylums wait long to be violated by an insolent soldiery. 
Those who had officers with them hoped, for an instant, to escape the 
common danger; but the fire, advancing rapidly upon them, soon robbed 
them of all their hopes. 

Towards evening Napoleon, no longer thinking himself safe in a 
city whose ruin seemed inevitable, left the Kremlin, and took up his 
quarters with his suite in the chateau of Peterskoe. While seeing him 
pass, I conld not but look with a shudder upon the leader of a barbarous 
expedition, who, to shun the cries of a just public indignation, was seek- 
ing to hide himself in some dark corner. But it was in vain ; the flames 
pursued him on all sides, and, flashing upon his guilty head, reminded 
me of the torches of the Eumenides pursuing the criminals devoted to 
the infernal gods. " Campagnes de Russie." 



(77) P<W '94- 
" Happy return from Moscow." 

The conspiracy of Malet and Lahorie struck Napoleon with terror; 
for, if ever his authority ought to have been regarded as firmly estab- 
lished, it was while he was carrying the terror of his arms to the 
extremity of Europe. He could never accustom himself to the idea 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 355 

that obscure citizens could have dared to overthrow him who was 
making kings tremble. In his rage he accused the public functionaries 
and magistrates of having betrayed his interests, since not one of them 
had thought of carrying out the constitution of the empire, by calling to 
the throne the child who was to succeed him. To him this was an 
irresistible proof that, notwithstanding all he had done of grand and 
wonderful, nothing would be more difficult than for him to establish a 
new dynasty. Tormented by this reflection, the army became to him 
.1 thing of little account ; and, abandoning all his plans of campaign, he 
thought only of quitting us (says Eugene de la Beaum), and flying to 
Paris, in order to apply a remedy to an event which seemed to have 
taken place only to show him how fragile was that colossal power which 
he had neglected properly to consolidate ; for he was carried away by a 
false system, disgraceful to our age, which taught him that battles only 
were necessary to the founding of an empire. 

On his return to the capital, Napoleon was received by the senate 
with the same enthusiasm as if he had conquered on the banks of the 
Beresina ; he demanded an extraordinary levy of 350,000 men, and 
obtained it. All the cities of France vied with each other in furnishing 
him ready-equipped horsemen. Napoleon now gave the public to under- 
stand that this was to protect the territory of France from invasion. At 
the name of " Country," every good citizen roused himself from the kind 
of slumber into which he had been plunged. Every man offered himself 
to defend it ; people of worth and experience declared that it must be 
hedged in with a triple row of bayonets, and that, before passing that 
barrier, the invader must march over the body of the last soldier of 
France. Honour to the brave men who fell in Saxony while resisting 
the combined forces of so many nations I 

(78) Page 196. 
Subject to his control." 

Since 1789 this father of politics had been engaged in studying the 
characters of the statesmen of Europe. He knew how to take advantage 
of their weaknesses in consolidating the rising power of Napoleon. In 
concert with him, he set about re-establishing the ancient customs and 
ceremonies of religion that had been abolished by the demagogues of 
1793 and 1794. Frenchmen, now governed by more just laws, and free 
in the exercise of their religious worship, forgot that they had a Caesar. 
That naturally docile nation became submissive and faithful when it 
could worship its God according to its ritual. The coronation of the 
new Emperor was really a conquest achieved over the republican party. 
Napoleon, thanks to his sword and his minister, appeared truly great in 
the measures he took to preserve the fruits of that triumph. M. Talley- 
rand pointed out to him that a conqueror might invade a kingdom with 

23 2 



356 NOTES TO THB SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

impunity, bat not overthrow an altar or displace an image of the Virgin, 
without exciting a general disturbance. In order to please his new sub- 
jects, Napoleon affected to re-establish religious ceremonies with that 
pomp and decency which are required by our mysteries. The visit of 
Pope Pius VII. to France was a coup d'etat, whereof the coronation was 
the quintessence. The character which he impressed upon this cere- 
mony was the triumph of policy in consolidating his power over a people 
accustomed to revere their kings. Soon did this Hercules of the Cabinet, 
this man so superior to others, by the extent of his knowledge and the 
delicacy of his genius, penetrate the designs of all the Courts of Europe. 
He understood perfectly how to profit by bis astonishing sagacity, and 
knew how to distinguish the mere courtier from the useful and laborious 
man. He could appreciate all our grand chameleons. He could himself 
direct the compass of the world whenever he wished. Sometimes the 
men over whom his influence extended would counsel their Sovereigns 
to employ the aid of such and such persons to make such and such 
concessions ; and sometimes they would disavow them. Napoleon would 
have fallen six years before had not this able minister directed the 
wheels of his political chariot. The Abb de Pradt cannot be compared 
to the modern Richelieu, although my Lord Bishop of Malines is a man 
of great talent. The latter is but a third-rate man when contrasted with 
Talleyrand. A man of new and original ideas, labouring with ease and 
rapidity (without correspondence, for he wrote to nobody), a correct coup 
d'asil, habituated to reason quickly from cause to effect, of unexampled 
facility in passing from one subject to another, viewing at a glance a 
whole suite of characters in profile ; a man of wit and of the world, 
polished in his intercourse with society ; fond of women, heeding them 
little, though availing himself of then- lucky ideas ; afraid of having his 
own designs penetrated, but fond of penetrating those of others ; with 
some enemies, whom he cared little for ; some friends, whom he well 
understood ; feigning to live unknown, but troubling himself but little 
on that score such was Talleyrand. When the proper time shall come, 
he will be recalled to a ministry which he will know well how to dis-* 
charge. He still owes more than one service to his country and to his 
friends. NOTE BY JOSEPHINE. 

(79) Pag* i9&> 
Ruin of their country." 

" I do not pretend," said Fenelon to the Duke of Burgundy, his pupil, 
" I do not pretend that republics furnish us no proofs of true patriotism. 
The virtues may be compared to those useful plants which grow every- 
where ; though this does not prove that one climate may not be more 
favourable to them than another. Patriotism, even amidst the thorns 
and brambles of anarchy and under the dog-star of despotism, has some- 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 357 

times borne the most precious fruit ; but you will not hence conclude 
that, because it hath shone more brightly amidst the disorders of society, 
disorders are most congenial to it ; there it only shines by contrast." 

The most of our politicians of 1793 have left to their offspring, as 
their sole inheritance, nothing but their sad doctrines. Those young 
Brutuses must necessarily reject all idea of monarchical power, and 
still caress the hope of the bright days of friendship and brotherhood. 
Alas 1 We have furnished the proof that a pure democracy too often 
degenerates into mere licence. Besides, every government not founded 
upon the basis of religion, justice, and respect for person and property, 
tends to despotism and anarchy. What is anarchy? A disorder in 
the state, where no one has authority to command and cause the 
laws to be respected, and where, consequently, the people conduct 
themselves as they please, without curb, without subordination, and 
without police. O Frenchmen ! let us strive to banish all new 
dissensions from the bosom of our happy country, and thus wrest from 
the stranger a shameful pretext for again ravaging our provinces and 
appropriating to himself the fruits of six years of peace. What did I 
say ? This Paris, this peerless city, has once seen the stranger within 
her walls. He sought to conform himself to our tastes, our habits ; per- 
chance by an excess of politeness, and the better to please us, he may 
finally be tempted to stay here for ever I This we must fear, this we 
must avoid. 

(80) Page 207. 

" Still remaining in your power" 

" To obtain peace, sacrifice everything, since without It yon lose the 
empire, your honour, your independence. Think, O Bonaparte," was 
Josephine's constant language to him. Such were the counsels she gave 
him whenever he visited Malmaison. During the latter part of his reign 
she used to say to him, " Give up the idea of seeking the foreigner at his 
hearth. Raise against him an inexpugnable rampart on your frontiers, 
and call to the defence thereof those legions of brave men with whom 
the cry of ' Honour and country ! ' was no vain shout. That sublime 
impulse was of itself worth a whole army. Persevere, persevere, O 
thou who hast so much to dread from the nations thou hast conquered. 
But if God hath not punished thee for having neglected the sagest 
counsels, should the strangers invade our provinces and force thee to 
descend from the throne, lay thy crown at the feet of the senate of 
France, that it may be offered to the most worthy ? A stranger shonld 
never place upon bis brow the diadem of our Kings. Then, Bonaparte, 
should there be yet time, fly to Italy ; quit a country which holds within 
its ramparts the proud German and the sons of Britain. Spare thy 
country the horrors of a civil war, ever dangerous to the one party ai 
well as to the other. Posterity, more just than contemporaries, will 



358 NOTES TO THE SECRET MEMOIRS OP 

thank thee for thy moderation and pronounce just eulogiums upon thy 
character." NOTE BY JOSEPHINE. 

(81) Page 232. 
*To do the honours there." 

The Empress Josephine quitted her cherished abode in snch state 
of despair that her attendants had great difficulty in restoring calmness 
to her mind. Already had she heard the alarm cry of " Save yourself ! 
the stranger approaches with rapid strides. He has passed the frontier. 
The crowds of Cossacks are everywhere spreading despair and death." 
It was a thunderclap to that afflicted but feeling woman ; but soon 
recovering her -wonted energy and presence of mind, she gave orders 
immediately that her whole household should proceed to Navarre. She 
left in haste. One of the mainbraces of the carriage which bore her 
broke in the middle of the way, and it was necessary to stop. Some 
troops appeared in the distance whom she took to be columns of Prus- 
sians hi pursuit of her. She expected to be carried off by main force, 
and was greatly frightened. But her journey was resumed, and con- 
tinued without any accident. How mournful, how despairing, must 
have been her reflections in crossing the threshold of a castle where 
she had every moment reason to fear she should be exposed to danger 
or insult. " Alas," said she, " little, little does Bonaparte dream of 
what is taking place in Paris ! Did he, his soul would be rent by mortal 
anxieties." The air of unconcern with which she pronounced these few 
words showed but too plainly that life had no longer a charm for her. 

For several days she preferred to remain alone. Her ladies noticed 
that she was continually perusing and re-perusing a letter which the 
Emperor wrote her from Brienne, in which he said, " Josephine, while 
revisiting the spot where I passed my early childhood, and comparing 
the peaceful hours I then enjoyed with the agitations and terrors which 
I now experience, I am constrained to say to myself, ' I have sought death 
often, in the midst of combats ; I fear it no longer to me it would this 
day be a blessing.' " 

During the latter part of her stay at Navarre, Josephine seemed 
crushed by unspeakable anguish. But often would she say, when 
speaking of Bonaparte, " I am the only one to whom he entrusted all 
his secrets all except the one which has caused his ruin; and had he 
communicated that to me in season, I should still have enjoyed his 
presence, and by means of my counsels he would, perhaps, have escaped 
these new calamities." 

Soon, however, she received an invitation to yield to the wish 
expressed by the illustrious allies to see her at Malmaison. This well- 
merited mark of respect moved her even to tears. She seemed to 
hesitate ; the first wife of Napoleon, thought she, should remain in- 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 359 

visible to all eyes. Nevertheless, she was induced by high and powerful 
considerations to quit Navarre and return and do the honours at 
Malmaison. Her emotion must have been extreme on revisiting her 
cherished abode. A guard of honour watched around her ; her property 
was respected. She found herself, so to speak, hi the midst of her 
Court, but surrounded by the most illustrious personages in Europe. 
Then might she have esteemed herself fortunate, being the only member 
of the whole imperial family whose titles and honours were preserved. 
Josephine, shining with grace and amiability, honoured by the presence 
of the world's masters, appeared again to the eyes of the French people 
like a brilliant meteor lately eclipsed by a cloud. Throngs of strangers 
came to Malmaison to admire and to pity her, and she received the most 
honourable felicitations for the noble devotion she had displayed during 
the gloomiest periods of the Revolution. " Everywhere," said the 
Emperor Alexander to her, " everywhere I hear the name of Josephine 
praised. That Princess, it is everywhere said, was Bonaparte's guar- 
dian angel; you shall be so still to the French people" (added that 
generous Prince), " for, following your example, madam, and hi order to 
prove to you the interest with which you inspire me, I shall fulfil your 
intentions by protecting, with all the power I possess, the people over 
whom you have reigned. She who hath counselled none but sublime 
actions merits now to reap their fruits ; enjoy, then, the good you have 
done, and, as well hi my own name as hi that of my illustrious allies, be 
assured of the most constant and honourable protection." Such were 
the marks of respect which Josephine received on the day of her first 
interview with the most powerful monarchs of Europe. 

(82) Page 232. 

* 

"The Jove they manifested to the French feopk." 

The Emperor Alexander ever manifested the most noble disposition 
towards the French people. In this he sought to imitate the great and 
generous Catherine, his illustrious ancestor, who also loved them. It 
was to the magnanimity and moderation of that august Prince that 
Paris owed the complete preservation of all her monuments. For this 
Josephine more than once testified her gratitude. " Happy the people 
subject to your sway," said she, " and happier still those who, having 
experienced great vicissitudes of fortune, have seen themselves forced, 
through the inscrutable ways of Providence, to pass, in their turn, from 
the Capitoline Hill under the Caudine Forks. If, generous Prince, they 
have in you found a mediator who could only moderate the severity of 
the conventions imposed upon them by conquerors irritated by their 
own disasters, you have been the first to show to the world a sublime 
example, one which distinguishes you from your allies by its rare 



360 NOTES TO THE SECRET MEMOIRS OP 

disinterestedness ; and loading the French people, so to speak, with 
evidences of your unexampled generosity, you have acquired a title to 
the thanks of posterity." 

(83) Page 234. 

" Their legitimate princes." 

Very many of the most illustrious families in France owed their 
political existence to the ex-Empress. Her taste was to oblige ; her 
position rendered her necessary. As to her opinions, they were well 
known. Herself a victim of the Revolution, she could not but detest its 
principles. Raised in some sort in the midst of the Court of Versailles, 
she could not but adopt its usages. Whenever she spoke of Louis XVI. 
and his family, her eyes would fill with tears. " They suffered much," 
said she. " Whenever my eyes fall upon the Place de Louis XV., I 
seem to see them there, surrounded by the implements of their death. 
The malevolent are ever the same ; should Napoleon fall from power 
to-day, they would drag him to the scaffold. Nothing is more ideal 
than the acclamations of the multitude. I detest all those assemblages 
where paid orators seek to electrify the people by making them repeat, 
even to satiety, the phrases 'Long live the Republic ! Down with the 
Republic ! Long live the Directory ! No more Directory 1 Hurrah 
for the Consul ! Long live the Emperor 1 Long live the Empress ! ' &c. 
All such cries are but the forerunners of horrible catastrophes. Every 
prince who reposes upon the popluar favour is near his fall. When 
Napoleon heard her talk thus, he would say, " Tu fais un cours d'ana." 
To please him, she would hold her tongue, for he did not like maxims ; 
and, for the sake of peace, she would change the conversation. When 
she heard that the House of Bourbon was to be recalled to the throne, 
the first words that escaped her were, "At least, a foreign dynasty will 
not rule over France. It is but just it belongs to them. I shall take 
pleasure in seeing them, especially the duchess. She is an angel of 
goodness." She was doubtless speaking of the Duchess Dowager of 
Orleans, that admirable Princess whom all parties respected, and who, 
after her long and ill-merited misfortunes, has at length found a support. 
Providence watched over her, as well as the august daughter of Louis 
XVI. Josephine, incognito, witnessed the entry of Monsieur, the King's 
brother, into Paris. She was observed to be deeply moved when she 
heard that Prince repeat to the multitudes who were making the air ring 
with their acclamations, "Yes, my friends, 'tis but one Frenchman more 
among you." " Admirable words ! " said Josephine. " I am sure, if 
Napoleon were present, he would be moved by them. Alas, could he be 
philosophic enough to look upon this with the eye of a sage, how happy 
might we both still be ! But ambition, and the lust of ruling, are 
diseases which seize upon all men, and until their latest breath they 
cling to power. How little have they of the noble philosophy of the 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 361 

great Saladin, who directed that, after his death, his winding-sheet 
should be shown to the people, and that they should be told that ' that 
was all of this world which remained to the great Saladin.' " 

(84) Page 236. 
" New pretexts for deferring it." 

Napoleon, who, in the days of his glory, had seen himself at tha 
head of 500,000 combatants, now found himself at Fontainebleau with 
nothing but his guard, reduced to two or three thousand men, but deter- 
mined to shed for him the last drop of their blood. Whether from the 
effect of his sudden overthrow, or from some other cause, he was seized 
by a fit of catalepsis, a malady to which he was subject. He fell down, 
motionless and speechless. His physician, M. Corvisart, was called, 
and lavished upon him his utmost care and skill For this reason, his 
departure for the island of Elba was postponed. 

Though still sick, his curiosity was excited by the Paris journals, 
which he read daily, holding them in his trembling hands, and casting a 
rapid and unquiet glance upon their columns. Instead of the extrava- 
gant eulogies of which he had been for fifteen years the object, he now 
found in them nothing but late-coming, painful truths. He foamed with 
rage and vented himself hi threats, forgetting that the part he had to act 
was finished. Recovering his equanimity, he now reflected that he was 
no longer the redoubtable Napoleon, and hi his anguish exclaimed, 
" Had I been told, three years ago, but the hundredth part of the truths 
I have heard to-day, you would still see me on the throne of France " 
a humiliating reflection, indeed, to the cowardly flatterers who had 
surrounded him ; to those inefficient and miserable functionaries who, 
constantly kneeling at bis feet, had, without any sense of shame, sold 
him to the interests of the people ; to those mercenary poets those 
subsidised writers who, in their base and cowardly compositions, had 
exhausted all the forms of the most servile adulation who showed 
themselves utterly indifferent to the public evils, provided they could 
fill their rapacious palms with gold, the price of their depravity. 

Napoleon preserved all his character in his misfortunes ; and now 
prepared to close the last scene of his expiring power. Under different 
pretexts he had delayed his departure; but suddenly assembling the 
troops composing his guard who remained about his person, he 
passed them in review. Signs of terror were discoverable in his altered 
countenance, and some tears fell from his eyes. The guard waited for 
his orders hi silence ; but not a cry of "Vive I'Emperewl" smote the air. 
The old warriors preserved an attitude of perfect respect, although it 
was manifest their hearts were overcome by grief. After walking his 
horse a few paces along the line, Napoleon, addressing himself to 
them, spoke as follows : 



3O2 NOTES TO THE SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

GENERALS, OFFICERS, AND UNDER-OFFICERS OF MY OLD GUARD 

" I bid you farewell : I am satisfied with you. For twenty yean 
I have found you ever in the path of glory. 

" The allied Powers have armed all Europe against me ; a part of 
the army has betrayed its duties ; and France herself has chosen other 
destinies. 

" With you and the brave men who have remained faithful to me, 
I might have maintained a civil war for three years ; but France would 
have been unhappy a result contrary to the end I have ever had in 
view. 

"Be faithful to the new King whom France has chosen; do not 
abandon our beloved country, so long unhappy. 

' Do not mourn my lot: I shall ever be happy when I know that 
you are. 

" I might have died; nothing could have been easier for me ; but I 
shall ever pursue the road of honour. 

" I shall write what we have done. I cannot embrace you all, but I 
embrace your general. Bring me the eagle." He then kissed it, and 
said, " Beloved eagle, may this kiss echo through the hearts of the 
brave I Adieu, my children I " 

He started on the aoth of April at noon, with Generals Bertrand and 
Drouot, who retired, with him to the island of Elba, accompanied by 
four superior officers, commissioners of the allied Powers the English 
colonel, Campbell ; the Russian general, Suwarrow ; the Austrian 
general, Koller, and the Prussian general, Valdebourg-Truchsels. He 
was under the escort of from one hundred and fifty to two hundred of 
the foreign troops, protected by several detachments posted at different 
points along the route. He ran some personal risks, and was forced to 
have recourse to a disguise of dress to avoid the fury of some people 
enraged at the loss of their property or their children. On the 2yth of 
April, in the morning, he arrived at Frejus by way of Avignon. 

On the 4th of May he landed at Port Ferrajo, under the discharge of 
cannon from frigate and fort. The act of his taking possession was 
attested by a procts verbal. General Drouot, governor of the island, 
signed it in the name of the Emperor, with the commissioners of the 
al lied Powers. 

(85) Page 238. 
"Bust of Akxander." 

During Napoleon's stay at Amsterdam in i8ti, he dropped the first 
hint of his animosity against the Sovereign of Russia. In a cabinet con- 
nected with the apartment occupied by Maria Louisa, there was found, 
standing on a piano, a small and very accurate bust of Alexander. 
Napoleon, wherever he went, was in the habit of visiting in person all 
the rooms connected with his apartment or that of the Empress. While 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINB 363 

making this visit, he discovered the bust, and. placing it under his 
arm, said, "Confiscated." He went on, however, conversing with 
several ladies who were with him. Deeply engrossed in conversation, 
he made a gesture, forgetting the marble bust, and dropped it. One of 
the ladies, however, caught it before it struck the floor, and asked 
Napoleon what she should do with it. What you please," said he, 
"ao I don't see it again/' M. M. 

(86) Page 238. 

M Cltmtncy to grandeur." 1 

"I congratulate you," said the Emperor Alexander one day to 
Josephine, " on having reigned over the French, a nation so worthy 
to be well governed ; I congratulate you on having known how to make 
friends while on the throne, friends who have followed you into retire- 
ment. Tis to you, madam, that France is hi a great measure indebted 
for the tranquillity she enjoyed during the first years of your husband's 
reign. Had Napoleon continued to listen to your advice, he would 
probably now have reigned over a great and generous people. All the 
Sovereigns in Europe, and myself the first, would ultimately have ap- 
plauded the wisdom of his institutions and the strength of his govern- 
ment." 

(87) Page 239. 

"The remainder of your days in peace." 

. It is the curse of absolute princes to fall easily into the snares laid 
for their credulity. 

In the early part of January, 1814, the Empress Josephine being in 
her gallery of paintings, the Emperor came upon her unawares while 
she was reading a passage in the life of Diocletian. He appeared singu- 
larly struck by the passage (it related to his abdication of power), and 
said to her : 

" My wife," for so he continued to call her, " I shall, perhaps, ter- 
minate my course hi the same way, and take pride in showing the 
beautiful fruits of your gardens, cultivated by my own hands, to the 
envoys of the different nations who come to visit Napoleon, the Philo- 
sopher." 

"So much the better," answered Josephine; "then should we be 
happy indeed." But directly resuming her air of sadness, her eyes 
became suffused with tears. " My friend," said she, with the deepest 
emotion, an emotion that seemed to rend her heart ; " my friend, you 
have a new wife, and a son ; I desire, henceforth, only to aid you by 
my counsels. But should you ever become free, or should the blast of 
adversity ever deliver you to your enemies, come, come, O Bonaparte, 
to my cherished asylum, and leave it not while the honour of the 
of France, and the integrity of its soil, shall be menaced." 



364 NOTES TO THE SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

Such were the dreams of that good woman. She loved to persuade 
herself that Napoleon, tired of grandeur, stripped of his ambition, 
would one day imitate the great models of ancient times. But the 
thirst for power is contagious, and its ravages great. A sceptre is 
not surrendered with the same ease with which it was acquired; 
and Napoleon, in his misfortunes, could not say with Diocletian, 
"O ye who have seen me seated on a throne, come now and see 
the lettuce which I planted with my own hands 1 " 

(88) Page 242. 
" Necessity." 

Josephine had learnt, through a secret channel, that Murat was 
very anxious to sever his interests from those of Bonaparte, whom 
she advised of it. He instantly despatched formal orders for him 
to raise his full number of men, and complete his junction with the 
Viceroy of Italy. By this means the Emperor proposed to protect 
Italy, and flattered himself that Vienna would be in his hands sooner 
than the allies could take Paris. But Murat paid no regard to the 
promises he had made bis brother-in-law ; he made no movement 
in his favour, but, on the contrary, endeavoured to paralyse all the 
dispositions of Prince Eugene. Napoleon continually expected de- 
liverance from that quarter; hence his strange security while he was 
at Fontainebleau. The Viceroy did not delay to write to the Empress 
and give her an account of the damning treason of Murat, who had 
left him alone exposed to so many dangers. Nevertheless, the Prince 
endeavoured to make the best of his position, though he could not, 
single-handed, resist so large a hostile force. Had Murat combined 
the whole plan for the invasion of Italy by the allies, he could not, 
in reference to his own safety, have done his duty better. 

(89) Page 243. GRAND DUCHESS OF NAVARRB. 

After her divorce, Josephine passed her time alternately at Mal- 
maison and the chateau of Navarre. At these places she received 
daily, and at all hours of the day, the blessings of a multitude of 
poor families who lived only on her bounty. Here, when reduced 
to occupy a limited sphere of life, here she found friends yes, true 
friends I The great have but few, few indeed, of that class among 
them. 

On her death, her estate at Navarre should have descended to 
her son. She had delighted to embellish that spot, which had been 
totally neglected for a series of years. 1 She made numerous im- 

i Navarre and its dependencies once belonged to the Bouillon family. Its sale 
was by auction, and Napoleon was the highest bidder, to whom it was sold 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 365 

provements, and gave a new life to that spot which had been long 
deserted, but which her presence rendered an enchanted palace. Had 
she wished it, she might have preserved the title of Grand Duchess 
of Navarre; but it is said she refused it. She was, however, to be 
presented to His Majesty Louis XVIII. under the title of the Countess 

of ; but Destiny, which sports with all human schemes, decided 

it otherwise. Without this mysterious agency, the part which 
Josephine acted might have been more difficult; her star might have 
directed her course far, far away from the path in which it led her. 

(90) Page 245. 
" The ingratitude of Murat." 

After the fall of the Emperor, and his departure to the island of 
Elba, Josephine fell into a profound melancholy. Her feelings were 
visibly affected whenever her husband's name was mentioned in her 
presence. Murat's name had become odious to her, the more so 
that she never liked him. She had learnt that he was no stranger 
to the plot which was being concocted to take Napoleon from the island 
of Elba and expatriate him to a more distant region. According to 
Josephine's idea, Murat hoped to obtain, in consideration of that 
act of villainy, full and entire security, and remain the peaceable 
possessor of the crown of Naples ; others, on the contrary, who 
thought themselves more competent to judge, imputed to Murat far 
nobler intentions. 

When Josephine was informed of these perfidious movements on 
the part of Murat, she had begun to feel the approaches of that 
cruel malady which, at the end of a few days, laid her in the tomb. 
She confided her secret to a faithful agent of Bonaparte, and urged 
him for the last time to distrust his near relations. By a species of 
fatality, the person charged with carrying this despatch was arrested 
on the frontier, and it was not until five months after Josephine's 
death that Napoleon was informed of it; hence the continual fears 
he entertained for his safety. The vicinity of Naples added still to 
his terrors. Such, indeed, were his apprehensions that, during the 
latter part of his stay at Elba, he would not suffer himself to be 
approached. On the day of bis departure for France, he gave 
a ball to the best society at Port Ferrajo in order to conceal his 
project; but so completely was he preoccupied that he neglected 
at the moment to provide for the peace and safety of his family. 
Madame Letitia had made several voyages to King Joachim (Murat, 
King of Naples) to induce him to be favourable to his brother-in-law 

foe the sum of 900,000 francs. He made a present of it to Josephine after her 
divorce, and paid her three visits at this her new residence. On one occasion 
be arrived at midnight and left at two o'clock in the morning. 



366 NOTES TO THE SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

which that deceitful man promised. But Josephine had penetrated 
his designs ; and had that interesting woman been alive at the date 
of Murat's misfortunes, though pitying his sad end, she would have 
remained convinced that the fatality which pursues us is often but 
the just recompense of our guilty designs. Whole generations are 
sometimes punished for the crimes of their fathers. 

(91) Page 247. 
"That magical retreat" MALM AI SON. 

Become Empress of the French, Josephine preserved her simple 
tastes and her love for rustic life. Adored by a people who saw in 
her their guardian angel, she was never more happy than when, re- 
tired to Malmaison, she could pass her time in this new Eden, away 
from the pomp of her imperial husband's Court. One of the first 
uses she made of her power was in embellishing her beautiful gardens. 
Well taught in all the branches of natural history, she made of Mal- 
maison an immense museum, consecrated specially to that science. 
The men of learning whom she patronised and encouraged by her 
bounty, and to whom she furnished the means of travelling, were at 
speciaJ pains to send her, from the four quarters of the globe, the most 
rare and interesting objects. To gratify her innate love of natural 
history, she reserved, in the new arrangements of her park, a portion 
of it to be devoted to the theoretical and practical study of her favourite 
science. She established at Malmaison a botanical garden, a menagerie, 
and a school of agriculture ; and it was under her eye, and almost under 
her personal direction, that the lovers of Nature came to study her 
phenomena. 

The botanical garden, including the hot-houses, contained all those 
rare plants which art or patience can cause to grow in our climate. The 
menagerie, one of the most complete in Europe, contained all sorts of 
land animals, aquatic or winged, that can live in our atmosphere. The 
school of agriculture, established upon the plan of that of Rambouillet, 
was devoted to useful experiments, having for their sole object the 
perfection of the first of human arts, and the opening to the French 
people new sources of wealth and prosperity. In these different estab- 
lishments the useful was mingled with the agreeable, and Josephine, in 
the midst of her gardens, surrounded by her superb merinos and other 
animals consecrated to the use of man, appeared to the French people 
like a beneficent divinity, occupied with the sole desire and care of 
rendering them happy. 

She proved this to them by incurring, in reality, no expense except 
for objects which presented to her heart some hope of usefulness. She 
sacrificed immense sums in organising her different establishments, but 
never entertained the thought, for a moment, of wasting money in 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 

building herself a palace worthy of the wife of the most powerful 
monarch in Europe. The modest habitation of Malmaison, composed 
of a simple rez-de-chaussee and one storey, always satisfied her ambition. 
But though the aspect of this humble abode did not announce to the 
traveller the Empress of the French, the story of her virtues, of her 
beneficence, the tears of love and gratitude shed by all the dwellers 
in the neighbouring hamlet while speaking of her, soon made her 
known ; and the traveller returned struck with admiration for the 
woman who desired to reign only to be loved. 

(92) Page 257. 
"Her last words." 

The death of Josephine threw all France into tears, and even 
strangers shared in the general sorrow. They witnessed the universal 
regrets her death occasioned ; and it may be truly said, to the praise of 
both the friends and foes of Bonaparte, that, on this mournful occasion, 
all united to scatter flowers upon the tomb of the woman who had 
adorned the happy days of the illustrious exile. On hearing of her 
premature death, the people were generally of opinion that some wicked 
hand had administered her the hemlock. Many uttered their suspicions 
aloud. Nothing, however, proves that these suspicions were well 
founded. What tended to give them credence was the black ingratitude 
and the dark smile of the man who was the supposed agent of a criminal 
intrigue. Woe to that coward, if he be guilty ! But the sensible 
portion of those who were attached to Josephine (and on this subject 
I have made the most minute and authentic investigations) have all, 
with the exception of those who are fond of something new, informed 
me that, on returning from St. Leu-Tavernay, on the day that Queen 
Hortense gave a great dinner to the allied Sovereigns. Josephine felt 
a general prostration of strength. The Empress's physician recom- 
mended her to adopt some precautions, and gave her an emetic and 
a cathartic. She felt relieved, and resumed her usual habits. She 
meanwhile continued to do the honours at Malmaison, as heretofore. 
His Majesty the Emperor Alexander came there regularly, and Jose- 
phine felt happy when she saw Eugene and that great Prince laughing 
and amusing themselves with antic sports on the green bank which 
fronted the principal apartments. In vain did that patient and enduring 
woman seek to conceal from herself her real sufferings ; in vain did 
she, on the 26th of May, endeavour to make her accustomed promenade. 
She was forced to keep her house, contrary to her habit. She felt 
weak ; a cold perspiration covered her face. She underwent much pain 
during the following night, and experienced a degree of delirium. She 
seemed much agitated, and talked a great deal. On the next day 
(Friday) she gave a great dinner to the King of Prussia and the 



368 NOTES TO THE SECRET MEMOIRS OP 

Emperor of Russia. She was anxious to be present at it herself, and 
made an effort to get out of her bed, but in vain. Her daughter was 
charged to receive the illustrious guests. 

The disease from this moment took a very serious turn. It was 
generally credited about the house that the malady was a catarrh, 
neglected by the Sieur A , formerly the Emperor's physician, but 

who had now become hers. Doctor Lamou , who resided at Rueil, 

and who administered under A 's directions, could not, notwith- 
standing his good intentions, save the life of the Empress. His superior 

(A ) having neglected to come, and Josephine finding herself growing 

worse, Lamou judged it necessary to apply leeches to the back of 

her neck and between the shoulders, with a view to scatter the in- 
flammation. But Lamou could do nothing of himself without being 

authorised by the chief physician, although the Empress begged him 
to take it upon himself, if he judged it necessary. The next morning 

A arrived, but that illustrious woman had now but a few hours to 

live. She reproached him for his want of attention, and told him that 

"his neglect had killed her" (her own words). Lamou said he 

could have saved her life had he been permitted to apply the leeches ; 

to which M. A answered, " You should have done so, in a case 

so urgent, without waiting for my arrival." After her death the body 

was opened by Doctor Lamou . He found a deposit of blood at the 

back of the neck, just as he had supposed ; and this it was that ex- 
tinguished the life of the unhappy Josephine. 

(93) Page 258- 
"The Emperor Alexander burst into tears." 

The Emperor of Russia was not present when Josephine breathed 
her last ; he arrived at Malmaison shortly after. That generous Prince 
asked to be conducted into her apartment. Gazing upon the lifeless 
remains of her who, but a few hours before, had so much excited his 
feelings of admiration, he could not restrain his tears. In vain did 
he strive to console her two children. That august Prince, wholly 
overcome by grief, was not in a condition to moderate that of the 
spectators of that sorrowing scene. The whole household of the dead 
Josephine melted into tears, for she was really adored. Numerous 
strangers who had never known her, but who happened to be present 
at the time of her death, mingled their tears with those of the mourners. 
One of them exclaimed, " Were I, at the time of her interment, engaged 
in actual service, I would certainly accompany her funeral train, even 
without asking permission of my commander." 

His Majesty the Emperor Alexander appeared inconsolable, and 
repeated many times " She is no more, that woman whom France 
named the Beneficent ; that angel of goodness is no more. Those who 



THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 369 

have known Josephine can never forget her. She leaves to her children, 
her friends, and her contemporaries, deep but merited regrets." 

(94) Pagt 258. 
"Sokmn convey." 

On the and of Jnne the funeral honours were paid to the mortal 
remains of the Empress Josephine in the parish church at Rueil. The 
cortege, composed of a detachment of cavalry and 200 men of the 
National Guard, left the chateau of Malmaison at noon, having at its 
head the banners of the different fraternities of the parish of Rueil. 
The suite was composed of the Prince of Mecklenburg, General Sacken, 
the two grandchildren of the deceased Empress, Marshals of France' 
general officers (foreign as well as French), senators, numerous aides- 
de-camp to Their Majesties the Emperor of Russia and King of Prussia, 
a great number of ecclesiastics from the neighbouring parishes, officers 
of the National Guard, the prefect and sub-prefect, the mayor, and more 
than 8,000 inhabitants of the environs, assembled to pay their last 
homage to the memory of a Princess who so well deserved the name 
of mother to the poor and afflicted. M. Baral, Archbishop of Tours, 
assisted by the Bishops of Evreux and Versailles, celebrated Mass. After 
reading the Holy Scriptures, he pronounced the funeral oration. The 
body of the Empress, placed in a leaden coffin enclosed in a box of 
wood covered with black cloth, was deposited hi the lower southern 
side of the church at Rueil, in a vault, whereon was raised a chapelk 
ardente, formed of funeral hangings ; the altar, richly decorated in the 
form of a tomb, and the altar-piece representing a cross, were surmounted 
by a canopy. On the right was placed the statue of Immortality, on 
the left that of Religion. A sepulchral lamp was suspended hi the middle 
of the chapelle ardente, and in the middle of the same chapelk were placed 
a desk, some seats and armchairs. Her heart was deposited in a square 
leaden box, to be sent to us destination. The chapelle ardente at Mal- 
maison, as well as the front and inside of the church there, were shrouded 
in black, but without any heraldic characters. The ceremony did not 
terminate until five o'clock p.m. Such are the details of the funeral 
obsequies of a Princess whose life, considering the health she usually 
enjoyed, should have been of much longer duration. D. L. 

(95) Pag* 261. 
"Her last tear fell upon his portrait." 

" Banished to an island under a foreign sky, torn from France, from 

a wife the model of all virtues, from a beloved son, from all his friends ; 

fallen from the palaces of kings, among the hills of Elba, overcome by 

cares and fatigues, sad and melancholy, alone amidst the dwellers on 

VOL. II 24 



37O NOTES TO THE SECRET MEMOIRS OF 

that island, there still remain to him one faithful Pylades and a few 
warriors who have voluntarily shared his exile. Bonaparte can never 
find consolation in his deep misfortunes, except in the reflection that there 
still remains to him one true friend who hath never ceased to watch ovtr 
his frecious life. But, alas I she is lost to him." Last words ofjosephint. 

(96) Page 261. 
** A simple stone now covers her." 

The tombstone bears neither epitaph nor inscription. It indicates 
nothing except that the best of mothers, the most excellent of wives, 
slept the sleep of the just, on the agth of May, 1814. The widow and 
the orphan daily go to weep at her tomb ; and the veteran survivors 
of our victories address their prayers to Heaven for the repose of her 
who lived only for the French people. Multitudes of her faithful friends 
continually visit the last resting-place of her whose memory was honoured 
by universal mourning and lamentation. To-day nothing distinguishes 
her tomb. The earth is not pressed by a sarcophagus of costly work- 
manship. No barrier defends the entrance to the chapel. The poor 
and the rich can come at all hours, and contemplate the frailty of 
human grandeur and the instability of all human affairs. What now 
remains of Josephine is the recollection of her good deeds. 

Ye feeling souls ! ye who are therefore the children of sorrow, who 
covet the companionship of emotion, come to Rueil and contemplate 
the dust of her who lately merited your respect and your love. Ah, 
come, pour forth your tears upon her urn! 

Narrow tomb, last resting-place of the gods of this earth, how dost 
thou humble their pride ! Vain mortal, lift this stone ! 

Here lies a woman who, during her happy days, perchance awakened 
thine envy ; all the vain displays of earthly greatness have vanished with 
her ; her body, as cold as the marble which covers it, is but the prey 
of Death. Her reputation alone will live after her. 



TITLES OF NAPOLEON'S FAMILY AND DIGNITARIES. 

NAPOLEON, Emperor of the French, King of Italy, Protector of the 

Confederation of the Rhine, Mediator of the Swiss Confederation 
JOSEPH, his brother, King of Spain and the Indies. 
Louis, his brother, King of Holland. 
JEROME, his brother, King of Westphalia. 
LUCIEN, his brother, Prince of Canino. 
ELIZA, his sister, Grand Duchess of Tuscany, Princess of Lucca and 

Piombino, wife of Felix Bacciochi. 

PADLINB, his sister, Princess of Guastalla (Princess Borghese). 
CAROLINE, his sister, Grand Duchess of Berg and Cleves, Queen of 

Naples, Countess of Lipano. 
HORTBNSB (daughter of Josephine by Alexander Beauharnais), Queen 

of Holland (wife of Louis Napoleon). 
STEPHANIE (daughter of " Senator Beauharnais/' an emigrant, brother 

of Alexander Beauharnais), Grand Duchess of Baden. 

DIGNITARIES. 

ARRIGHI, Duke of Padua. 

ADGEREAD, Duke of Castiglione. 

BEAUHARNAIS, EUGENE (Josephine's son by Alexander Beauharnais), 

Viceroy of Italy, Prince of Venice. 
BBRNADOTTB, Prince of Ponte-Corvo, King of Sweden. 
BERTHIER, Prince of Neufchatel and Wagram. 
BESSIERES. Duke of Istria. 
CAMBACERES, Duke of Parma, Arch-chancellor. 
CADLAINCOURT, Duke of Vicenza. 
CLARKE, Duke of Feltre. 
DAVOUST, Duke of Auerstadt. 
DUROC, Duke of Friuli 
FOUCHE, Duke of Otranto. 
GAUDIN, Duke of Gaeta. 
JUNOT, Duke of Abrante's. 
KBLLBRMANN, Duke of Valmy. 



372 

LANNES, Duke of Montebello. 

LEBRUN, Duke of Plaisantia. 

LEFEBVRE, Duke of Dantzic. 

MACDONALD, Duke of Tarentum. 

MARET, Duke of Bassano. 

MARMONT, Duke of Ragusa. 

MAS SEN A, Duke of Rivoli, Prince of Essling. 

MONCEY, Duke of Conegliano. 

MORTIER, Duke of Treviso. 

MODTON, Count of Lobau. 

MURAT, King of Naples, Grand Duke of Berg and Cleves. 

NBY, Prince of Moskwa, Duke of Elchingen ( Tht Bravest oftkf Bravt" 

OUDINOT, Duke of Reggio. 

SAVARY. Duke of Rovigo. 

SODLT, Duke of Dalmatia. 

SDCHET. Duke of Albufera. 

TALLEYRAND, Prince of Beneventa 

VANDAMME, Count de Heinberg. 

VICTOR, Duke de Belluno. 



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