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diff --git a/15246.txt b/15246.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..00de592 --- /dev/null +++ b/15246.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7436 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Tragedy of St. Helena, by Walter Runciman + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Tragedy of St. Helena + +Author: Walter Runciman + +Release Date: March 3, 2005 [EBook #15246] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TRAGEDY OF ST. HELENA *** + + + + +Produced by Steven Gibbs and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + +THE TRAGEDY OF ST. HELENA + +BY + +SIR WALTER RUNCIMAN, BART. + +AUTHOR OF + +"WINDJAMMERS AND SEA TRAMPS," +"THE SHELLBACK'S PROGRESS," +"LOOKING SEAWARD AGAIN," ETC. + + +T. FISHER UNWIN +LONDON: ADELPHI TERRACE +LEIPSIC: INSELSTRASSE 20 +1911 + + + + +PREFACE + + +In my early sea-life, I used to listen to the eccentric and +complicated views expressed by a race of seamen long since passed +away. Occasionally there were amongst the crew one or two who had the +true British hypothetical belief in the demoniacal character of +Napoleon, but this was not the general view of the men with whom I +sailed; and after the lapse of many years, I often wonder how it came +about that such definite partiality in regard to this wonderful being +could have been formed, and the conclusion that impresses me most is, +that his many acts of kindness to his own men, the absence of flogging +and other debasing treatment in his own service, his generosity and +consideration for the comfort of British prisoners during the wars, +his ultimate defeat by the combined forces of Europe, the despicable +advantage they took of the man who was their superior in everything, +and to whom in other days the allied Kings had bent in homage, had +become known to the English sailors. + +How these rugged men came to their knowledge of Napoleon and formed +their opinions about him may be explained in this way. Hundreds of +seamen and civilians were pressed into the King's service, many of +whom were taken ruthlessly from vessels they partly owned and +commanded. Indeed, there was no distinction. The pressgangs captured +everybody, irrespective of whether they were officers, common able +seamen, or boys, to say nothing of those who had no sea experience. +Both my own grandfathers and two of my great uncles were kidnapped +from their vessels and their families into the navy, and after many +years of execrable treatment, hard fighting, and wounds, they landed +back into their homes broken men, with no better prospect than to +begin life anew. It was natural that the numerous pressed men should +detest the ruffianly man-catchers and their employers, if not the +service they were forced into, and that they would nurse the wrong +which had been done to them. + +They would have opportunities of comparing their own lot with that of +other nationalities engaged in combat against them, and though both +might be bad, it comes quite natural to the sailor to imagine his +treatment is worse than that of others; and there is copious evidence +that the British naval service was not at that period popular. +Besides, they knew, as everybody else should have known, that Napoleon +was beloved by his navy and army alike. Then, after the Emperor had +asked for the hospitality of the British nation, and became its guest +aboard the _Bellerophon_, the sailors saw what manner of man he was. +And later, his voyage to St. Helena in the _Northumberland_ gave them +a better chance of being impressed by his fascinating personality. It +is well known how popular he became aboard both ships; the men of the +squadron that was kept at St. Helena were also drawn to him in +sympathy, and many of the accounts show how, in their rough ardent +way, they repudiated the falsehoods of his traducers. The exiled +Emperor had become _their_ hero and _their_ martyr, just as +impressively as he was and remained that of the French; and from them +and other sources were handed down to the generation of merchant +seamen those tales which were told with the usual love of hyperbole +characteristic of the sailor, and wiled away many dreary hours while +traversing trackless oceans. They would talk about the sea fights of +Aboukir and Trafalgar, and the battles of Arcola, Marengo, Jena, +Austerlitz, the Russian campaign, the retreat from Moscow, his +deportation to Elba, his escape therefrom, and his matchless march +into Paris, and then the great encounter of Waterloo, combined with +the divorce of Josephine and the marriage with Marie Louise; all of +which, as I remember it now, was set forth in the most voluble and +comical manner. Some of their most engaging chanties were composed +about him, and the airs given to them, always pathetic and touching, +were sung by the sailors in a way which showed that they wanted it to +be known that they had no hand in, and disavowed, the crime that was +committed. As an example, I give four verses of the chanty "Boney was +a Warrior," as it was sung in the days I speak of. It is jargon, but +none the less interesting. + + "They sent him to St. Helena! + Oh! aye, Oh! + They sent him to St. Helena, + John France Wa! (Francois.) + + Oh! Boney was ill-treated! + Oh! aye, Oh! + Oh! Boney was ill-treated, + John France Wa! + + Oh! Boney's heart was broken! + Oh! aye, Oh! + Oh! Boney's heart was broken! + John France Wa! + + But Boney was an Emperor! + Oh! aye, Oh! + But Boney was an Emperor! + John France Wa!" + + --and so on. + +Although at that time I had, in common with others, anti-Napoleonic +ideas, I was impressed by the views of the sailors. Later in life, +when on the eve of a long voyage, nearly forty years ago, I happened +to see Scott's "Life of Napoleon" on a bookstall, and being desirous +of having my opinion confirmed, I bought it. A careful reading of this +book was the means of convincing me of the fact that "Boney _was_ +ill-treated," and this in face of the so-called evidence which Sir +Walter Scott had so obviously collected for the purpose of exonerating +the then English Government. + +The new idea presented to my mind led me to take up a course of +serious reading, which comprised all the "Lives" of Napoleon on which +I could lay my hands, all the St. Helena Journals, and the +commentaries which have been written since their publication. As my +knowledge of the great drama increased, I found my pro-Napoleonic +ideas increasing in fervour. Like the Psalmist when musing on the +wickedness of man, "my heart was hot within me, and at the last I +spake with my tongue." + +I may here state in passing that there is no public figure who lived +before or since his time who is surrounded with anything approaching +the colossal amount of literature which is centred on this man whose +dazzling achievements amazed the world. Paradoxical though it may +appear now, in the years to come, when the impartial student has +familiarised himself with the most adverse criticisms, he will see in +this literature much of the hand of enmity, cowardice, and delusion +and, as conviction forces itself upon him, there evolve therefrom the +revelation of a senseless travesty of justice. + +I offer no apology for the opinions contained in this book, which have +been arrived at as the result of many years of study and exhaustive +reading. I give the volume to the public as it is, in the hope that it +may attract in other ways to a fair examination of Napoleon's complex +and fascinating character. + + +WALTER RUNCIMAN. + +_December 3, 1910._ + + + + +CONTENTS + +CHAPTER I +THE ABODE OF DARKNESS + +CHAPTER II +THE MAN OF THE REVOLUTION--CRITICISM, CONTEMPORARY AND OTHERWISE + +CHAPTER III +THREE GENERATIONS: MADAME LA MERE, MARIE LOUISE, AND THE KING OF ROME + +CHAPTER IV +THE OLIGARCHY, THEIR AGENTS AND APOLOGISTS + +CHAPTER V +MESDAMES DE STAEL AND DE REMUSAT + +CHAPTER VI +JOSEPHINE + +CHAPTER VII +RELIGIOUS NOTIONS OF NAPOLEON + +BIBLIOGRAPHY + +LIST OF EVENTS AND DATES HAVING REFERENCE TO NAPOLEON BONAPARTE + +INDEX + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE ABODE OF DARKNESS + + +In Clause 2 of his last will, dated Longwood, April 15, 1821, the +Emperor Napoleon states: "It is my wish that my ashes may repose on +the banks of the Seine, in the midst of the French people whom I have +loved so well." + +At London, September 21, 1821, Count Bertrand and Count Montholon +addressed the following letter to the King of England:-- + + "SIRE,--We now fulfil a sacred duty imposed on us by the Emperor + Napoleon's last wishes--we claim his ashes. Your Ministers, + Sire, are aware of his desire to repose in the midst of the + people whom he loved so well. His wishes were communicated to + the Governor of St. Helena, but that officer, without paying any + regard to our protestations, caused him to be interred in that + land of exile. His mother, listening to nothing but her grief, + implores from you, Sire, demands from you, the ashes of her son; + she demands from you the feeble consolation of watering his tomb + with her tears. If on his barren rock as when on his throne, he + was a terror of the world, when dead, his glory alone should + survive him. We are, with respect, &c, &c, + + (Signed) COUNT BERTRAND. + + COUNT MONTHOLON." + +In reply to this touching act of devotion to their dead chief the +English Ambassador at Paris wrote in December, 1821, that the English +Government only considered itself the depository of the Emperor's +ashes, and that it would deliver them up to France as soon as the +latter Government should express a desire to that effect. The two +Counts immediately applied to the French Ministry, but without result. +On May 1, 1822, a further letter was sent to Louis XVIII., by the +grace of God King of France and Navarre, concerning the redepositing +of the ashes of Napoleon, Emperor, thrice proclaimed by the grace of +the people. + +On the accession of Louis Philippe to the throne the rival parties +were each struggling for ascendancy. The glory of the days of the +Empire had been stifled by the action of the European Powers and their +French allies, but the smouldering embers began to show signs of +renewed activity, and a wave of Napoleonic popularity swept over the +land. Philippe and his Ministry were not indifferent to what was going +on, and in order to distract attention from the chaos which the new +condition of things was creating, the plan of having the "ashes" of +the illustrious chief brought to the country and the people whom he +"loved so well" was suggested as a means of bringing tranquillity to +France and security to the throne. + +M. Thiers, the head of a new Ministry, entered into negotiations with +the English Government, and M. Guizot addressed an official note to +Lord Palmerston, who was then Secretary for Foreign Affairs. + +This precious communication is embodied in the following +document:--"The undersigned, Ambassador Extraordinary and +Plenipotentiary of His Majesty the King of the French, has the honour, +conformably to instructions received from His Government, to inform +His Excellency the Minister of Foreign Affairs to Her Majesty the +Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, that the King ardently +desires that the mortal remains of Napoleon may be deposited in a tomb +in France, in the country which he defended and rendered illustrious, +and which proudly preserves the ashes of thousands of his companions +in arms, officers and soldiers, devoted with him to the service of +their country. The undersigned is convinced that Her Britannic +Majesty's Government will only see in this desire of His Majesty the +King of the French a just and pious feeling, and will give the orders +necessary to the removal of any obstacle to the transfer of Napoleon's +remains from St. Helena to France." + +This document was sent to the British Embassy in Paris, and the wishes +of M. Thiers and his Government were conveyed in orthodox fashion to +the British Foreign Secretary by the Ambassador, in the following +letter, dated Paris, May 4, 1840:-- + + "MY LORD,--The French Government have been requested, in several + petitions addressed to the Chambers, to take the necessary steps + with regard to the Government of Her Majesty the Queen of Great + Britain, in order to obtain an authorisation for removing the + ashes of the Emperor Napoleon to Paris. These petitions were + favourably received by the Chambers, who transmitted them to the + President of the Council, and to the other Ministers, his + colleagues. The Ministers having deliberated on this point, and + the King having given his consent to the measures necessary to + meet the object of the petitioners, M. Thiers yesterday + announced to me officially the desire of the French Government + that Her Majesty's Government would grant the necessary + authority to enable them to remove the remains of the Emperor + Napoleon from St. Helena to Paris. M. Thiers also calls my + attention to the fact that the consent of the British Government + to the projected measure would be one of the most efficacious + means of cementing the union of the two countries, and of + producing a friendly feeling between France and + England.--(Signed) GRANVILLE." + + So that this King of the French and M. Thiers realise, after a + quarter of a century, that the hero who was driven to abdicate, + and then banished from France, _did_ defend his country and make + it illustrious, and that the removal of his ashes to France was + the "_most_ efficacious means" of cementing the union of the + country that forsook him in his misfortune with the country that + sent him to perish on a rock. His ashes, indeed, were to produce + a friendly feeling between these two countries. What a + burlesque! + + Napoleon's motto was "Everything for the French people." He + seems to have predicted that after his death they would require + his "ashes" to tranquillise an enraged people. Of the other + contracting party he says in the fifth paragraph of his + will:--"I die prematurely, assassinated by the English oligarchy + and its deputy; the English nation will not be slow in avenging + me." + +Well, it is requested that his ashes shall be given up to France so +that peace may prevail. And now follows the great act of +condescension:-- + + "MY LORD,--Her Majesty's Government having taken into + consideration the request made by the French Government for an + authorisation to remove the remains of the Emperor Napoleon from + St. Helena to France, you are instructed to inform M. Thiers + that Her Majesty's Government will with pleasure accede to the + request. Her Majesty's Government entertains hopes that its + readiness to comply with the wish expressed will be regarded in + France as a proof of Her Majesty's desire to efface every trace + of those national animosities which, during the life of the + Emperor, engaged the two nations in war. Her Majesty's + Government feels pleasure in believing that such sentiments, if + they still exist, will be buried for ever in the tomb destined + to receive the mortal remains of Napoleon. Her Majesty's + Government, in concert with that of France, will arrange the + measures necessary for effecting the removal. + + --(Signed) PALMERSTON." + +One of the chief features of this State document is its veiled +condition that in consideration of H.B.M. Government giving up the +remains of Napoleon, it is to be understood that every _trace_ of +national animosity is to be effaced. Another is, now that his mortal +remains are in question, he is styled "the Emperor Napoleon." +Twenty-five years before, when the atrocious crime of captivity was +planned, Lord Keith, in the name of the British Government, addressed +a communication to "General Bonaparte." The title of Emperor which his +countrymen had given to him was, until his death, officially ignored, +and he was only allowed to be styled "General" Bonaparte--the rank +which the British Government in that hour of his misfortune thought +best suited to their illustrious captive. He was, in fact, so far as +rank was concerned, to be put on a level with some and beneath others +who followed him into captivity. Well might he "protest in the face of +Heaven and mankind against the violence that was being enacted" +towards him. Well might he appeal to history to avenge him. There is +nothing in history to equal the malignancy of the conquerors' +treatment of their fallen foe. We shall see now and hereafter +prejudices making way, reluctantly it may be, but surely, for the +justice that should be done him. + +Three days after the gracious reply of the British Government, May 20, +1840, the French King signified his desire to carry out the wishes of +the Chambers by putting the following document before them:-- + + "GENTLEMEN,--The King has commanded Prince Joinville [his son] + to repair with his frigate to the island of St. Helena, there to + receive the mortal remains of the Emperor Napoleon. The frigate + containing the remains of Napoleon will present itself, on its + return, at the mouth of the Seine; another vessel will convey + them to Paris; they will be deposited in the Hospital of the + Invalides. Solemn ceremonies, both religious and military, will + inaugurate the tomb which is to retain them for ever. It is of + importance, gentlemen, that this august sepulture should not be + exposed on a public place, amidst a noisy and unheeding crowd. + The remains must be placed in a silent and sacred spot, where + all those who respect glory and genius, greatness and + misfortune, may visit them in reverential tranquillity. + + "He was an Emperor and a King, he was the legitimate sovereign + of our country, and, under this title, might be interred at St. + Denis; but the ordinary sepulture of kings must not be accorded + to Napoleon; he must still reign and command on the spot where + the soldiers of France find a resting-place, and where those who + are called upon to defend her will always seek for inspiration. + His sword will be deposited in his tomb. + + "Beneath the dome of the temple consecrated by religion to the + God of Armies, a tomb worthy, _if possible_, of the name + destined to be graven on it will be erected. The study of the + artist should be to give to this monument a simple beauty, a + noble form, and that aspect of solidity which shall appear to + brave all the efforts of time. Napoleon must have a monument + durable as his memory. The grant for which we have applied to + the Chambers is to be employed in the removal of the remains to + the Invalides, the funeral obsequies, and the construction of + the tomb. We doubt not, gentlemen, that the Chamber will concur + with patriotic emotion in the royal project which we have laid + before them. Henceforth, France, and France alone, will possess + all that remains of Napoleon; his tomb, like his fame, will + belong solely to his country. + + "The monarchy of 1830 is in fact the sole and legitimate heir of + all the recollections in which France prides itself. It has + remained for this monarchy, which was the first to rally all the + strength and conciliate all the wishes of the French Revolution, + to erect and to honour without fear the statue and the tomb of a + popular hero; for there is one thing, and one thing alone, which + does not dread a comparison with glory, and that is Liberty."[1] + +The appeal is generous and just in its conception and beautifully +phrased. It was received with enthusiasm throughout the whole of +France. Louis Philippe and his Government had accurately gauged what +would, more than anything, for the time being, subdue the rumbling +indications of discord and revolt. The King had by this popular act +caught the imagination of the people. He had made his seat on the +throne secure for a time, and his name was immortal. The great mass of +the people and his Government were behind him, and he made use of this +to his own advantage. Napoleon's dying wish is to be consummated. "The +blind hatred of kings" is relaxed; they are no longer afraid of his +mortal remains; they see, and see correctly, that if they continue to +"pursue his blood" he will be "avenged, nay, but, perchance, cruelly +avenged." The old and the new generation of Frenchmen clamour that as +much as may be of the stigma that rests upon them shall be removed, +threatening reprisals if it be not quickly done. The British +Government diplomatically, and with almost comic celerity, gravely +drop "the General Bonaparte" and style their dead captive "the Emperor +Napoleon." + +Louis Philippe, overwhelmed with the greatness of the dead monarch, +bursts forth in eloquent praise of this so-called "usurper" of other +days. He was not only an Emperor and a King, but the _legitimate +sovereign_ of his country. No ordinary sepulture is to be his--it is +to be an august sepulture, a silent sacred spot which those who +respect glory, genius, and greatness may visit in "reverential +tranquillity." Henceforth, by Royal Proclamation, history is to know +him as an Emperor and a King. He is to have a tomb as durable as his +memory, and his tomb and fame are to belong to his country for +evermore. The legitimate heir of Napoleon's glory is the author of one +of the finest panegyrics that has ever been written; a political move, +if you will, but none the less the document is glowing with the +artistic phrasing that appeals to the perceptions of an emotional +race. + +But the real sincerity was obviously not so much in the author of the +document as in the great masses, who were intoxicated with the desire +to have the remains of their great hero brought home to the people he +had loved so well. It may easily be imagined how superfluously the +French King and his Government patted each other on the back in +self-adoration for the act of funereal restoration which they took +credit for having instituted. If they took too much credit it was only +natural. But not an item of what is their due should be taken from +them. The world must be grateful to whoever took a part in so noble a +deed. At the same time the world will not exonerate the two official +contracting parties from being exactly free from interested motives. +The one desired to maintain domestic harmony, and this could only be +assured by recalling the days of their nation's glory; and the other, +_i.e._, the British Government, had their eye on some Eastern business +which Palmerston desired to go smoothly, and so the dead Emperor was +made the medium of tranquillity, and, it may be, expediency, in both +cases. + +In short, Prince Joinville was despatched from Toulon in feverish +haste with the frigate _Bellespoule_ and the corvette _Favorite_. +These vessels were piously fitted out to suit the august occasion. +Whatever the motives or influences, seen or unseen, that prompted the +two Governments to carry out this unquestionable act of justice to the +nation, to Napoleon's family, his comrades in arms who were still +living, yea, and to all the peoples of the earth who were possessed of +humane instincts, yet it is pretty certain that fear of a popular +rising suggested the idea, and the genius who thought of the +restoration of the Emperor's ashes as a means of subduing the +gathering storm may be regarded as a public benefactor. + +But be all this as it may, it is doubtful if anything so ludicrously +farcical is known to history as the mortal terror of this man's +influence, living or dead. The very name of him, animate or inanimate, +made thrones rock and Ministers shiver. Such was their terror, that +the Allies, as they were called (inspired, as Napoleon believed, by +the British Government--and nothing has transpired to disprove his +theory) banished him to a rock in mid-ocean, caged him up in a house +overrun with rats, put him on strict allowance of rations, and guarded +him with warships, a regiment of soldiers with fixed bayonets, and the +uneasy spirit of Sir Hudson Lowe. + +After six years of unspeakable treatment he is said to have died of +cancer in the stomach. Doubtless he did, but it is quite reasonable to +suppose that the conditions under which he was placed in an unhealthy +climate, together with perpetual petty irritations, brought about +premature death, and it is highly probable that the malady might have +been prevented altogether under different circumstances. At any rate, +he was without disease when Captain Cockburn handed him over, and for +some time after. But he knew his own mental and physical make-up; he +knew that in many ways he was differently constituted from other men. +His habits of life were different, and therefore his gaolers should +have been especially careful not to subject this singularly organised +man to a poisonous climate and to an unheard-of system of cruelty. +Yes, and they would have been well advised had they guarded with +greater humanity the fair fame of a great people, and not wantonly +committed acts that have left a stigma on the British name. + +Sir Walter Scott, who cannot be regarded as an impartial historian of +the Napoleonic regime, does not, in his unfortunate "Life of +Napoleon," produce one single fact or argument that will exculpate the +British Government of that time from having violated every humane law. +The State papers so generously put at his disposal by the English +Ministry do not aid him in proving that they could not have found a +more suitable place or climate for their distinguished prisoner, or +that he would have died of cancer anyhow. The object of the good Sir +Walter is obvious, and the distressing thing is that this excellent +man should have been used for the purpose of whitewashing the British +Administration. + +The great novelist is assured that the "ex-Emperor" was pre-disposed +to the "cruel complaint of which his father died." "The progress of +the disease is slow and insidious," says he, which may be true enough, +but predisposition can be either checked or accelerated, and the +course adopted towards Napoleon was not calculated to retard, but +encourage it. But in order to palliate the actions of the British +Government and their blindly devoted adherents at St. Helena, +Gourgaud, who was not always strictly loyal to his imperial +benefactor, is quoted as having stated that he disbelieved in the +Emperor's illness, and that the English were much imposed upon. + +Why does Scott quote Gourgaud if, as he says, it is probable that the +malady was in slow progress even before 1817? The reason is quite +clear. He wishes to convey the impression that St. Helena has a +salubrious climate, that the Emperor was treated with indulgent +courtesy, and had abundance to eat and drink. It will be seen, +however, by the records of other chroniclers who were in constant +attendance on His Majesty, that Sir Walter Scott's version cannot be +relied upon. + +If the statements in the annexed letter are true--and there is no +substantial reason for doubting them, supported as they are by +facts--then it is a complete refutation of what Scott has written as +to the health-giving qualities of the island. + +Here is the statement of the Emperor's medical adviser (see p. 517, +Appendix, vol. ii., "Napoleon in Exile"):-- + + "The following extract of an official letter transmitted by me + to the Lords of the Admiralty, and dated the 28th October, 1818, + containing a statement of the vexations inflicted upon Napoleon, + will show that the fatal event which has since taken place at + St. Helena was most distinctly pointed out by me to His + Majesty's Ministers. + + "I think it my duty to state, as his late medical attendant, + that considering the disease of the liver with which he is + afflicted, the progress it has made in him, and reflecting upon + the great mortality produced by that complaint in the island of + St. Helena (so strongly exemplified in the number of deaths in + the 66th Regiment, the St. Helena regiment, the squadron, and + Europeans in general, and particularly in His Majesty's ship + _Conqueror_, which ship has lost about one-sixth of her + complement, nearly the whole of whom have died within the last + eight months), it is my opinion that the life of Napoleon + Bonaparte will be endangered by a longer residence in such a + climate as that of St. Helena, especially if that residence be + aggravated by a continuance of those disturbances and + irritations to which he has hitherto been subjected, and of + which it is the nature of his distemper to render him peculiarly + susceptible.--(Signed) BARRY E. O'MEARA, Surgeon R.N. To John + Wilson Croker, Esq., Secretary to the Admiralty." + +It is a terrible reflection to think that this note of warning should +have gone unheeded. A body of men with a spark of humane feeling would +have thrown political exigencies to the winds and defied all the +powers of earth and hell to prevent them from at once offering their +prisoner a home in the land of a generous people. What had they to +fear from a man whose political career ended when he gave himself up +to the captain of the _Bellerophon_, and whose health was now +shattered by disease and ill-usage? Had the common people of this +nation known all that was being perpetrated in their name, the Duke of +Wellington and all his myrmidons could not have withstood the revolt +against it, and were such treatment to be meted out to a political +prisoner of our day, the wrath of the nation might break forth in a +way that would teach tyrants a salutary lesson. + +But this great man was at the mercy of a lot of little men. They were +too cowardly to shoot him, so they determined on a cunning dastardly +process of slow assassination. The pious bard who sings the praises of +Napoleon's executioners--Wellington and his coadjutors--and whose +"History" was unworthy of the reputations of himself and his +publishers, will have sunk into oblivion when the fiery soul of the +"Sultan Kebir"[2] will seize on the imagination of generations yet +unborn, and intoxicate them with the memory of the deeds that he had +done. + +Napoleon has said, "In the course of time, nothing will be thought so +fine nor seize the attention so much as the doing of justice to me. I +shall gain ground every day on the minds of the people. My name will +become the star of their rights, it will be the expression of their +regrets."[3] This statement is as prophetic as many others, more or +less important, made by Napoleon to one or other of his suite. It is +remarkable how accurately he foretold events and the impressions that +would be formed of himself. + +Had the warning given so frequently to Sir Hudson Lowe been conveyed +to his Government, and had they acted upon it, there is little doubt +that a change of climate would have prolonged the Emperor's life. But +in going over those dreary nauseous documents which relate the tale, +one becomes permeated with the belief that the intention was to +torture, if not to kill. Dr. Antommarchi, who succeeded Dr. O'Meara as +medical attendant to the Emperor, confirms all that O'Meara had +conveyed so frequently to the Governor and to the Admiralty. The +Council sent for him to give them information as to the climate of +St. Helena. They express the opinion that at Longwood it is "good." +Antommarchi replies, "Horrible," "Cold," "Hot," "Dry," "Damp," +"Variation of atmosphere twenty times in a day." "But," said they, +"this had no influence on General Bonaparte's health," and the blunt +reply of Antommarchi is flung at them, "It sent him to his grave." +"But," came the question, "what would have been the consequences of a +change of residence?" "That he would still be living," said +Antommarchi. The dialogue continues, the doctor scoring heavily all +the way through. At length one of the Council becomes offended at his +daring frankness, and blurts forth in "statesmanlike" anger: "What +signifies, after all, the death of General Bonaparte? It rids us of an +implacable enemy." + +This noble expression of opinion was given three days after George IV. +had deplored the death of Napoleon. It is not of much consequence, +except to confirm the belief of the French that the death-warrant had +been issued. The popular opinion at the time when the Emperor gave +himself up to the British was that had he come in contact with George +IV. the great tragedy would not have happened. + +We are not, however, solely dependent on what the two doctors have +said concerning the cause of his untimely demise. All those who knew +anything about Longwood, from the common sailor or soldier upwards, +were aware of the baneful nature of its climate. Counts Las Cases, +Montholon, and Bertrand had each represented it to the righteous Sir +Hudson Lowe as being deadly to the health of their Emperor. Discount +their statements as you will, the conviction forces itself upon you +that their contentions are in the main, if not wholly, reliable. + +But the climate, trying and severe as it was, cannot be entirely +blamed for killing him, though it did the best part of it. Admiral Sir +George Cockburn, while he acted as Governor, seems to have caused +occasional trouble to the French by the unnecessary restrictions put +upon them, but by the accounts given he was not unkindly disposed. He +showed real anxiety to make the position as agreeable to them as he +could, and no doubt used his judgment instead of carrying out to the +letter the cast-iron instructions given to him by Bathurst. The +Emperor spoke of him as having the heart of a soldier, and regretted +his removal to give place to Sir Hudson Lowe, who arrived in the +_Phaeton_ on April 14, 1816. + +The new Governor's rude, senseless conduct on the occasion of his +first visit to Longwood indicated forebodings of trouble. He does not +appear to have had the slightest notion of how to behave, or that he +was about to be introduced to a man who had completely governed the +destinies of Europe for twenty years. Napoleon with his eagle eye and +penetrating vision measured the man's character and capabilities at a +glance. He said to his friends, "That man is malevolent; his eye is +that of a hyena." Subsequent events only intensified this belief. + +Perhaps the best that can be said of Lowe is that he possessed +distorted human intelligence. He was amiable when he pleased, a good +business man, so it is said, and the domestic part of his life has +never been assailed; but it would be a libel on all decency to say +that he was suited to the delicate and responsible post he was sent to +fulfil. In fact, all his actions prove him to have been without an +atom of tact, judgment, or administrative quality, and his nature had +a big unsympathetic flaw in it. The fact is, there are indications +that his nature was warped from the beginning, and that he was just +the very kind of man who ought never to have been sent to a post of +such varied responsibilities. His appointment shows how appallingly +ignorant or wicked the Government, or Bathurst, were in their +selection of him. + +He was a monomaniac pure and simple. If they thought him best suited +to pursue a policy of vindictiveness, then their choice was perfect, +though it was a violation of all moral law. If, on the other hand, +they were not aware of his unsuitableness, they showed either +carelessness or incapacity which will rank them beneath mediocrity, +and by their act they stamped the English name with ignominy. And yet +there is a pathos at the end of it all when he was brought to see the +cold, inanimate form of the dead monarch. He was seized with fear, +smitten with the dread of retribution, and exclaimed to Montholon, +"His death is my ruin."[4] + +Forsyth has done his utmost to justify the actions of Hudson Lowe, but +no one can read his work without feeling that the historian was +conscious all through of an abortive task. He reproduces in vain the +instructions and correspondence between Lowe and his Government, and +the letters and conversations with Napoleon and members of his +household, and deduces from these that the Governor could not have +acted otherwise than in the manner he did. It is easy to twist words +used either in conversations or letters into meanings which they were +never intended to convey, but there are too many evidences of +cold-blooded outbursts of tyrannical intent to be set aside, and +these make it impossible to regard Sir Hudson Lowe in any other light +than that of a petty little despot. + +He had ability of a kind. Napoleon said he was eminently suited to +"command bandits or deserters," and tells him in that memorable verbal +conversation which arose through Lowe requesting that 200,000 francs +per annum should be found as a contribution towards the expenses at +Longwood: "I have never heard your name mentioned except as a brigand +chief. You never suffer a day to pass without torturing me with your +insults." This undoubtedly was a bitter attack, and the plainspoken +words used must have wounded Lowe intensely. Probably Napoleon +himself, on reflection, thought them too severe, even though they may +be presumed to be literally true, and it may be taken for granted that +they would never have been uttered but for the spiteful provocation. + +A more discerning man would have foreseen that he could not treat a +great being like the late Emperor of the French as though _he_ were a +Corsican brigand without having to pay a severe penalty. An ordinary +prisoner might have submitted with amiable resignation to the +disciplinary methods which, to the oblique vision of Sir Hudson Lowe, +seemed to be necessary, but to treat the Emperor as though he were in +that category was a perversion of all decency, and no one but a Hudson +Lowe would have attempted it. It is quite certain that the dethroned +arbiter of Europe never, in his most exalted period, treated any of +his subordinates with such airs of majesty as St. Helena's Governor +adopted towards him. + +Lowe seems to have had an inherent notion that the position in which +he was placed entitled him to pursue a policy of unrelenting severity, +and that homage should be paid as his reward. He thirsted for respect +to be shown himself, and was amazed at the inordinate ingratitude of +the French in not recognising his amiable qualities. It was his habit +to remind them that but for his clemency in carrying out the +instructions of Bathurst and those who acted with him, their condition +could be made unendurable. He was incapable of grasping the lofty +personality of the persecuted guest of England. + +The popular, though erroneous, idea that Napoleon was, and ever had +been, a beast of prey, fascinated him; his days were occupied in +planning out schemes of closer supervision, and his nights were +haunted with the vision of his charge smashing down every barrier he +had racked his intellect to construct, and then vanishing from the +benevolent custody of his saintly Government to again wage sanguinary +war and spill rivers of blood. The awful presentiment of escape and +the consequences of it were ever lacerating his uneasy spirit, and +thus he never allowed himself to be forgotten; restrictions impishly +vexatious were ordered with monotonous regularity. Napoleon aptly +described Lowe as "being afflicted with an inveterate itch." + +Montholon, in vol. i. p. 184, relates how Lowe would often leap out of +bed in the middle of the night, after dreaming of the Emperor's +flight, mount his horse and ride, like a man demented, to Longwood, +only to be assured by the officer on duty that all was well and that +the smitten hero was still his prisoner. When Napoleon was told of +these nocturnal visitations, he was overcome with mirth, but at the +same time filled with contempt, not alone for this amazing specimen, +but for the creatures who had created him a dignitary. + +The tragic farce of sending the Emperor to the poisonous plateau of +Longwood, and giving Lowe Plantation House with its much more healthy +climate to reside at, is a phenomenon which few people who have made +themselves conversant with all the facts and circumstances will be +able to understand. But the policy of this Government, of whom the +Scottish bard sings so rapturously, is a problem that can never be +solved. + +To a wise body of men, and in view of the fact that the eyes of the +world were fixed upon them and on the vanquished man, their prisoner, +the primary thought would have been compassion, even to indulgence; +instead of which they and their agents behaved as though they were +devoid of humane feelings. + +Lowe's ambition seems to have been to ignore propriety, and to force +his way to the Emperor's privacy in order that he might assure himself +that his charge had not escaped, but his ambition and his heroics were +calmly and contemptuously ignored. "Tell my gaoler," said Napoleon to +his valet Noverras, "that it is in his power to change his keys for +the hatchet of the executioner, and that if he enters, it shall be +over a corpse. Give me my pistols," and it is said by Montholon, to +whom the Emperor was dictating at the time of the intrusion, that Sir +Hudson heard this answer and retired confounded. The ultimatum dazed +him, but he was forced to understand that beyond a certain limit, +heroics, fooleries, and impertinences would not be tolerated by this +terrible scavenger of European bureaucracy.[5] Lowe, in very truth, +discerned the stern reality of the Emperor's piercing words, and he +felt the need of greater caution bearing down on him. He pondered over +these grave developments as he journeyed back to Plantation House, +there to concoct and dispatch with all speed a tale that would chill +his confederates at St. Stephen's with horror, and give them a further +opportunity of showing how wise _they_ were in their plan of +banishment and rigid precautions, and in their selection of so +distinguished and dauntless a person as Sir Hudson Lowe, on whom they +implicitly relied to carry out their Christlike benefactions. + +Cartoonists, pamphleteers, Bourbonites, treasonites, meteoric females, +all were supplied with the requisite material for declamatory speeches +to be hurled at the Emperor in the hope of being reaped to the glory +of God and the British ministry. The story of the attempted invasion +of Longwood and its sequel shocks the fine susceptibilities of the +satellites by whom Lowe is surrounded. They bellow out frothy words of +vengeance. Sir Thomas Reade, the noisiest filibuster of them all, +indicates his method of settling matters at Longwood. This incident +arose through Napoleon refusing to see Sir Thomas Strange, an Indian +Judge. Las Cases had just been forcibly removed. The Emperor was +feeling the cruelty of this act very keenly, so he sent the following +reply to Lowe's request that he should see Sir Thomas: "Tell the +Governor that those who have gone down to the tomb receive no visits, +and take care that the Judge be made acquainted with my answer." This +cutting reply caused Sir Hudson to give way to unrestrained anger, and +now Sir Thomas Reade gets his chance of vapouring. Here is his plan: +"If I were Governor, I would bring that dog of a Frenchman to his +senses; I would isolate him from all his friends, who are no better +than himself; then I would deprive him of his books. He is, in fact, +nothing but a miserable outlaw, and I would treat him as such. +By G--! it would be a great mercy to the King of France to rid him of +such a fellow altogether. It was a piece of great cowardice not to +have sent him at once to a court martial instead of sending him +here."[6] + +This ebullition of spasmodic courage entitles the +Deputy-Adjutant-General to special mention in the dispatches of his +chief. O'Meara relates another of many episodes with which the +valiant Sir Thomas is associated. Further attempts were made to +violate the privacy of the Emperor on the 11th, 12th, 13th, and 16th +August, 1819, but these were defeated by the fastening of doors. Count +Montholon was indisposed, and the Governor, refusing to correspond +with Count Bertrand, insisted upon having communication with the +Emperor by letter or by one of his officers twice a day. So the +immortal Sir Thomas Reade and another staff officer were selected to +effect a communication. But "the dog of a Frenchman" that the deputy +boasted of "bringing to his senses" refuses admittance, and Sir +Thomas, who has now got his opportunity, evidently has some misgivings +about the loaded pistols that are kept handy in case of an emergency. +The Emperor, in one of his slashing dictated declarations which hit +home with every biting sentence, reminds the Governor again what the +inevitable result will be should indecorous liberty be taken. Sir +Thomas would be made aware of this danger, so contents himself by +knocking at the door and shouting at the top of his voice: "Come out, +Napoleon Bonaparte. We want Napoleon Bonaparte." + +This grotesque incident, which is only one of many and worse outrages +that were hatched at Plantation House, reflects a lurid light on the +delirium of antagonism that pervaded the dispositions of some of +England's representatives. The hysterical delight of manufacturing +annoyances was notorious on the island, and Sir Hudson and his +myrmidons shrieked with resentment when dignified defiance was the +only response. + +Lowe failed to recognise the important ethical fact that a person who +acts a villainous part can never realise his villainy. So oblivious +was he of this fundamental law that he never ceased to assure the +exiles that he was not only good, but kind. Here is a note that bears +out this self-consciousness: "General Bonaparte cannot be allowed to +traverse the island freely. Had the only question been that of his +safety, a mere commission of the East India Company would have been +sufficient to guard him at St. Helena. He may consider himself +fortunate that my Government has sent a man so kind as myself to guard +him, otherwise he would be put in chains, to teach him how to conduct +himself better." + +To this the Emperor answered: "In this case it is obvious that, if the +instructions given to Sir Hudson Lowe by Lords Bathurst and +Castlereagh do not contain an order to kill me, a verbal order must +have been given; for whenever people wish mysteriously to destroy a +man, the first thing they do is to cut him off from all communication +with society, and surround him with the shades of mystery, till, +having accustomed the world to hear nothing said of him, and to forget +him, they can easily torture him or make him disappear." + +What a dreadful indictment this is against Bathurst, Castlereagh, and +Lowe, and how difficult to think of these men at the same time as of +Napoleon, whose name had kept the world in awe! Surely their dwarfed +names and those of all the allied traitors and conspirators will pass +on down the ages subjects for mockery and derision, while his shall +still tower above everything unto all time. His faults will be +obscured by the magnificence of his powerful and beneficent reign, and +overshadowed by pity for his unspeakable martyrdom. + +But what of the Commissioners representing Russia, Austria, Prussia, +and the Most Christian King of France? How shall they fare at the +hands of posterity? Their crime will not be that they acquiesced in +being sent to St. Helena by their respective Governments, but that +they allowed themselves to be completely cajoled and influenced by the +crafty allurements of Lowe. The representative of Austria is said to +have been a mere cipher in his hands, while the attention of Count +Balmin was wholly taken up in making love to Miss Johnson, the eldest +daughter of Lady Lowe by a former marriage. He eventually married her +and became one of the family. This young lady's charm of character and +goodness had captured the affections of the Longwood colony, and her +tender solicitude for the sorrows of the Emperor caused him to form an +attachment for her which was evidenced by his gracious attentions +whenever she came to Longwood. + +The Marquis de Montchenu (who on landing at St. Helena found himself +in the midst of a group of officers attending on Sir Hudson, and +called out, "For the love of God, tell me if any of you speak French") +is not much heard of in his official capacity. Afterwards he appears +to have been enamoured of the Governor's good dinners, but though he +was always hospitable, kind, and glad to see his compatriots at his +breakfast table, the Emperor never would receive him, though he always +showed appreciation of his promptitude in forwarding to him French +papers or books. The Marquis would naturally find it difficult to +assert himself when he heard of the wrongs committed by his host. + +The restrictions imposed on the Emperor were by this time having an +ominous effect. O'Meara reported that this was so, and the +Commissioners, whose instructions from their Governments were merely +formal, thought it their duty to bestir themselves, and requested the +Governor to remove the causes in so far as it was "compatible with the +security of his person," lest the result from want of exercise should +be of serious consequences to his health. Sir Hudson was angry at the +turn affairs were taking, as the Commissioners had always accommodated +themselves to his plans. He found, however, that in this instance +humanity had been aroused, and as it would not suit his purpose to run +against his hitherto complacent friends, he thinks to appease their +anxiety in the following extraordinary manner:-- + +"I am about to arrange in such a way as to allow him to take horse +exercise. I have no wish that he should die of an attack of +apoplexy--that would be very embarrassing both to me and to my +Government. I would much rather he should die of a tedious disease +which our physicians could properly declare to be natural. Apoplexy +furnishes too many grounds for comment."[7] + +This insensate mockery of a man is always asserting himself in some +detestable fashion or other.[8] + +At one time his benighted mind would swagger him into droll ideas of +attempting to chastise his Imperial prisoner, at another, his +childish fear of the consequences of his chastisement was pathetic, +and when one droll farce after another broke down, he shielded himself +with manifestations of aggrieved virtue. + +The Emperor received Lord Amherst, who was a man of some human +feeling, and the noble lord offered to convey to the precious Prince +Regent certain messages. Then Napoleon, aroused by the recollection of +the perfidy which was causing him such infinite suffering, declared +that neither his King nor his nation had any right over him. "Your +country," he exclaims, "sets an example of twenty millions of men +oppressing one individual." With prophetic utterance he foreshadows "a +terrible war hatched under the ashes of the Empire." Nations are to +avenge the ingratitude of the Kings whom he "crowned and pardoned." +And then, as though his big soul had sickened at the thought of it +all, he exclaims, "Inform your Prince Regent that I await as a favour +the axe of the executioner." Lord Amherst was deeply affected, and +promised to tell of all his sufferings and indignities to the Regent, +and also to speak to the saintly Lowe thereon. "Useless," interjects +the Emperor; "crime, hatred, is his nature. It is necessary to his +enjoyment to torture me. He is like the tiger, who tears with his +claws the prey whose agonies he takes pleasure in prolonging." The +audience then closes and the sordid tragedy continues. + +The Commissioners are to have bulletins, but no communication with the +Imperial abode. O'Meara is asked to prepare inspired bulletins, and to +report what he hears and learns from the Emperor, and in a general way +act the spy. He refused, and as Lowe required willing tools, not +honest men, he was ultimately banished from the island. The Emperor +embraces him, bestows his benediction, and gives him credentials of +the highest order, together with messages of affection to members of +his family and to the accommodating Marie Louise, who is now mistress +to the Austrian Count Neipperg. He is charged to convey kindly +thoughts of esteem and gratitude to the good Lady Holland for all her +kindness to him. The King of Rome is tenderly remembered, and O'Meara +is asked to send intelligence as to the manner of his education. A +message is entrusted to him for Prince Joseph, who is to give to +O'Meara the private and confidential letters of the Emperors Alexander +and Francis, the King of Prussia, and the other sovereigns of Europe. +He then thanks O'Meara for his care of him and bids him "quit the +abode of darkness and crime."[9] + +Before O'Meara left the island, news of the diabolical treatment of +the Emperor had filtered through to Europe in spite of Lowe's +precautions. The _Edinburgh Review_ had published several articles +exposing the Governor's conduct, and when these were delivered at St. +Helena (addressed to Longwood) a great commotion arose at Plantation +House. Reade had orders to buy every one of the obnoxious +publications, but determined men of talent are not easily thwarted in +their object, especially if it is a good one, so the Governor had the +mortification of seeing himself outwitted. O'Meara was confronted and +charged with securing for Montholon the objectionable _Edinburgh +Review_. The articles gave the Emperor great pleasure, and when this +was made known to Lowe it was intolerable to him. O'Meara gets +official notice to quit on July 25, 1818. + +Napoleon thought it a bold stroke on the part of the British Ministers +(whom he regarded, and spoke quite openly of, as assassins) to force +his physician from him. The doctor took the precaution to reveal the +place of concealment of his journal to Montholon, who found a way of +having it sent to him in England. This document was read to the +Emperor, who had several errors corrected, which do not appear to have +been of great importance, except one that had reference to the +shooting of the Duc d'Enghien.[10] + +On the day following his exit from Longwood O'Meara sent a report on +the exile's illness and his treatment thereof. The report is an +alarming account of the health of the Emperor, who, notwithstanding, +is deprived of medical aid for months. He justly adhered to the +determination of having none other than his own medical attendant. +Lowe sees in this very reasonable request a subtle attempt at planning +escape, and will not concede it. An acrimonious correspondence then +takes place. Letters sent to him by Montholon or Bertrand are returned +because Napoleon is styled Emperor. Montholon in turn imitates Lowe, +and returns his on the ground of incivility, and it must be admitted +the French score off him each time. + +Lowe whines to Montholon that Bertrand calls him a fool to the +Commissioners, and accuses him of collecting all the complaints he can +gather together, so that he may have them published. The newspapers, +particularly the _Edinburgh Review_, have slashing articles holding +him up to ridicule and denouncing him as an "assassin." He whimpers +that it is very hard that he, who pays every attention and regard for +the Emperor's feelings, should be pursued and made the victim of +calumnies. These expressions of unctuous pharisaism are coldly +received by the French, who ask no favours but claim justice. Their +thoughts are full of the wrongs perpetrated on the great man who is +the object of their attachment and pity. They will listen to none of +Lowe's canting humbug. They see incontestable evidences of the +Destroyer enfolding his arms around the hero who had thrilled the +nations of the world with his deeds. Their souls throb with fierce +emotion at the agony caused by the venomously malignant tyranny. The +meanest privileges of humanity are denied him, and if they plotted in +order that the world might learn of the hideous oppression, who, with +a vestige of holy pity in him, will deny that their motive was +laudable? Let critics say what they will, these devoted followers of a +fallen and sorely stricken chief are an example of imperishable +loyalty. They had their differences, their petty jealousies, and at +times bemoaned their hard fate, and this oft-times caused the Emperor +to quickly rebuke them. + +Gourgaud was the Peter of the family, and a great source of trouble. +He may justly be accused at times of lapsing into disloyalty. He was +guilty both on the island and after his arrival in England of +committing the same fault, but in this latter instance he may have had +a purpose, as he was asking favours from men who were bitterly hostile +to his benefactor. He knew they would be glad to hear anything from so +important an authority as would in any degree justify their action. +Gourgaud, in fact, was more knave than fool, as his subsequent +beseeching appeals on behalf of Napoleon to Marie Louise and other +personages in France very clearly prove. + +But take these men and women as a whole, view the circumstances and +conditions of life on this rock of vile memory, inquire as minutely as +you may into their conduct, and you see, towering above all, that +their supreme interest is centred on him whom they voluntarily +followed into exile. He is their ideal of human greatness, their +friend, and their Emperor. + +They view Sir Hudson Lowe as they would a distracted phenomenon. The +introduction of new and frivolous vexations is occasionally ignored or +looked upon with despairing amusement. At other times, when their +master's rights, dignity, and matchless personality are assailed, they +resent it with fierce impulse, and this gives Lowe further +opportunities of reminding them of his goodness. But during the long, +weary years of incessant provocation, criminal retaliation was never +thought of except on one occasion, when some new arbitrary rules were +put in force. + +Santini, a Corsican, and one of the domestics, brooded over his +master's wrongs. He was generally of a cheerful temperament, but since +the new regulations were enforced it had been noticed that his whole +disposition had changed. He became thoughtful and dejected, and one +day made known to Cipriani his deliberate intention to shoot the +Governor the first time he came to Longwood. Cipriani used all his +influence to dissuade him from committing so rash an act, and finding +that Santini was immovable, he reported the matter to Napoleon, who +had the devoted keeper of his portfolio brought to him, and commanded +him as his Emperor to cease thinking of injuring Sir Hudson. It took +the Emperor some time to persuade Santini, and when he did give his +promise it was with marked reluctance. Santini is spoken of as being +as brave as a lion, an expert with the small sword, and a deadly shot. +He was subsequently sent off the island, the Emperor granting him a +pension of L50 per annum. + +Santini was the only one who refused to sign a document put forward +by Lowe in which all the officers and domestics pledged themselves to +conform to the new regulations, which were, as usual, senseless and +severe. They insisted on the words "Emperor Napoleon" being inserted, +but Lowe, with inherent stupid pleasure, would have none other than +the words "Napoleon Bonaparte," and the penalty for refusing to sign +was banishment from the island. Sir Hudson got it into his malevolent +brain that he had pinned them at last. He affirmed that their reason +for not signing what they pretended was their Emperor's and their own +degradation was to give an excuse for being "sent off." Whereupon, as +soon as the Governor's crafty insinuations became known, they all +signed except Santini, who refused to have Napoleon described by any +other term than that of Emperor. + +Santini's loyalty to his illustrious master cost him the anguish of +being torn from his service and sent to the Cape of Good Hope in the +English frigate _Orontes_. He stayed there a few days, but returned +almost immediately to St. Helena. He was not, however, allowed to +land; and, having spent some days at the anchorage, sailed on February +25, 1817, for England. + +These refractory captives of the British authorities seem to have +been a source of great perplexity to them, to say nothing of the cost +to the nation caused by the hopeless incapacity displayed in dealing +with them. The business grows so farcical that the English guardians +become the laughing-stock of the most menial creatures on the island. + +Immediately on his arrival in London Santini issued a touching appeal +to the British people, laying naked the St. Helena atrocities, the +main facts of which have never been contradicted. Any exaggerations +which may appear in the pamphlet, coming as they do from a soldier +whose adoration for his Emperor amounted to fanaticism, may be +excused; but, whatever his faults, the ugly facts remain unshaken. + +There is no evidence in all the voluminous publications concerning +Napoleon at St. Helena that there would have been a shred of mourning +put on by the best men and women of any nationality residing on this +inhospitable rock had Santini or any one else despatched the petty +tyrant who was carrying on a nefarious assassination by the consent, +if not the instructions, of an equally nefarious Ministry. Perhaps his +Imperial victim would have been the only person outside his family and +official circle who would have deplored the act. It is pretty +generally admitted that Lowe was detested by all classes who knew of +the villainous methods adopted by him to give pain to Napoleon and to +any one who showed the slightest sympathy towards him. + +Letters from and to his wife, "the amiable Austrian Archduchess," his +mother, and other members of his family, were not allowed to pass +unless scrutinised and commented upon by this insatiable gaoler. +Letters written to the Ministry and to well-disposed public men +outside it were not forwarded, on the pretext that the title of +Emperor was used. A marble bust of the Emperor's son was brought to +St. Helena by T.M. Radowich, master gunner aboard the ship _Baring_. +It was taken possession of by the authorities, and had been in Lowe's +hands for some days when he intimated to Count Bertrand that, though +it was against the regulations, he would take upon himself to hand +over some presents sent out by Lady Holland and some left by Mr. +Manning. A more embarrassing matter was the handing over of the bust. +The mystery and comic absurdity of some Government officials of that +time, or even of this, is amazing. + +Lowe's dull perceptions had been awakened. He realised that he might +be accused of having committed an exceedingly dirty trick. He thinks +it in keeping with the dignity of his high office to become uneasy +about the retention of these articles, especially the statue of the +King of Rome. So with unconscious humour he asks the Count if he +thinks Napoleon would really like to have his son's bust. The Count +replies, "You had better send it this very evening, and not detain it +until to-morrow." Lowe is aggrieved at the coldness of the reply. He +presumably expected Bertrand to gush out torrents of gratitude. But +the French code of real good taste and humane bearing put Sir Hudson +Lowe beneath their contempt. To them he had become indescribable. + +To all those who had access to Napoleon, the burning love he had for +his son was well known, and in one of those outbursts of passionate +anguish he declares to the Countess of Montholon that it was for him +alone that he returned from Elba, and if he still formed some +expectations in exile, they were for him also. He declares that he is +the source of his greatest anguish, and that every day he costs him +tears of blood. He imagines to himself the most horrid events, which +he cannot remove from his mind. He sees either the potion or the +empoisoned fruit which is about to terminate the days of the young +innocent by the most cruel sufferings, and then, after this pouring +out of the innermost soul, he pleads with Madame to compassionate his +weakness, and asks her to console him. + +This learned warrior-statesman was also a poet, and but for the +solitude of exile we should probably never have seen that side of this +versatile nature. The lines which he writes to the portrait of his son +are painfully touching. For some reason they were kept concealed, and +found some time afterwards. Here they are, but the English translation +does not do them justice:-- + + Delightful image of my much-loved boy! + Behold his eyes, his looks, his smile! + No more, alas! will he enkindle joy, + Nor on some kindlier shore my woes beguile. + + My son! my darling son! wert thou but here, + My bosom should receive thy lovely form; + Thou'dst soothe my gloomy hours with converse dear, + Serenely we'd behold the lowering storm. + + I'd be the partner of thine infant cares, + And pour instruction o'er thy expanding mind, + Whilst in thy heart, in my declining years, + My wearied soul should an asylum find. + + My wrongs, my cares, should be forgot with thee, + My power Imperial, dignities, renown-- + This rock itself would be a heaven to me, + Thine arms more cherished than the victor's crown. + + O! in thine arms, my son! I could forget that fame + Shall give me, through all time, a never-dying name. + +Here is another version of the same thoughts:-- + + TO THE PORTRAIT OF MY SON. + + O! cherished image of my infant heir! + Thy surface does his lineaments impart: + But ah! thou liv'st not--on this rock so bare + His living form shall never glad my heart. + + My second self! how would thy presence cheer + The settled sadness of thy hapless sire! + Thine infancy with tenderness I'd rear, + And thou shouldst warm my age with youthful fire. + + In thee a truly glorious crown I'd find, + With thee, upon this rock, a heaven should own, + Thy kiss would chase past conquests from my mind + Which raised me, demi-god, on Gallia's throne. + +Perhaps the Emperor did not wish to show all the anguish by which he +was being hourly devoured, but who can read these lines now without a +pang of emotion? The overpowering conviction that his much-loved boy +would be destroyed haunted him. Many people to this day believe that +he was right, and that his son's health was sedulously undermined. But +if that be so, the Imperial House of Austria will have to answer for +it through all eternity. Napoleon knew that this much-treasured bust +was at Plantation House, and said to O'Meara, if it had not been given +up he would have told a tale which would have made the mothers of +England execrate Lowe as a monster in human shape. + +But the Governments of Europe, as well as individuals, were spending +vast sums of money on pamphleteering, and probably those who wrote the +worst libels were the most highly paid. Therefore the women of England +and of other countries were continuously having their minds saturated +with poisonous statements. Many of them firmly believed Napoleon to be +the anti-Christ, and it is only now that the world is beginning to see +through the gigantic plot. + +It was stated that the bust had been executed at Leghorn by order of +the faithless Marie Louise. In Hooper's "Life of Wellington," the +statement that "she was grateful to the Duke for winning Waterloo, +because in 1815 she had a lover who afterwards became her husband, and +she was not in a condition to return with safety to her Imperial +spouse," is hard to believe. This mother of the son the poet-Emperor +sings about was deriving pleasure in playing cards for napoleons with +the Duke who was regarded by her husband as one of his most determined +executioners. Her supposed connection with the statue naturally gave +it a larger interest, so the Emperor expressed a desire to see the +gunner, and ordered Bertrand to get permission for him to visit +Longwood. + +The Governor, after examining the gunner on oath, and having had him +carefully searched, gave him leave to see Napoleon, but Captain +Poppleton was ordered not to allow him to speak to the French unless +in his presence. This arbitrary condition was resented with quiet, +scornful dignity, and the gunner was asked to withdraw. It is hard to +believe that a man could be so perversely crooked as Sir Hudson Lowe. +How human it was for the exile to long to hear a message from the lips +of one who was credited with having seen and spoken to the mother of +his son, and how inhuman of Lowe to put any obstacles in the way of +his desire being gratified! + +The incident became common talk, and in proportion to its circulation, +so did Lowe's reputation suffer. It is questionable whether he could +have found any one unfeeling enough on the island to justify so +despicable an act, except perhaps Sir Thomas Reade, whose baseness in +this and other transactions cannot be adequately described, and whose +nature seems to have been ingrained with the daily thought of +achieving distinction by excelling his master in some form of cruelty. + +It is a piteous reflection to think of these two plants of grace, the +one at all times imbued with the idea of some sanguinary plan of +punishment, while the other varied the plan of his doubtful +transactions, at the same time telling the exiles that he was actuated +by the sweetest and purest of motives. + +In contrast to Lowe and Reade, the chroniclers speak in the highest +praise of Major Gorriquer. The officers and soldiers of the garrison, +as well as the men of the navy, extended their touching sympathy to +the hero who described his imprisonment as being worse than +"Tamerlane's iron cage." Captain Maitland, in his narrative, relates a +story which indicates the magnetic power of this great soldier. +Maitland was anxious to know what his men thought of Napoleon, so he +asked his servant, who told him that he had heard several of them +talking about him, and one of them had observed, "Well, they may abuse +that man as much as they please; but if the people of England knew him +as well as we do, they would not hurt a hair of his head." To which +the others agreed. + +There are many instances recorded where sailors ran the risk of being +shot in order that they might get a glimpse of him, and there is +little doubt the poor gunner-messenger was subjected to inimitable +moral lectures on the sin and pains and penalties of having any +communication whatsoever with the ungentle inhabitants of Longwood. +This good-hearted fellow was as carefully shadowed as though he had +been commissioned to carry the Emperor off. Lowe was infected with the +belief that he had some secret designs, and if he were not kept under +close supervision he might take to sauntering on his own account and +really have some talk with the French, and then what might happen? +This episode was brought to a close by the Emperor directing that a +kind letter should be written to the enterprising sailor, and that a +draft for _L_300 should be enclosed. O'Meara says, "By means of some +unworthy trick he did not receive it for nearly two years." + +The reason so much is made of the bust affair is accounted for as +follows:-- + +Lowe, on first hearing of it being landed, intended to have it seized +and thrown into the sea. He afterwards took possession of the article, +with the idea of making Napoleon a present of it himself. This idea +did not pan out as he expected, and in consequence of public +indignation running so high, he had the bust sent to Longwood +immediately after his conversation with Bertrand. While Las Cases was +waiting at Mannheim in the hope that the pathetic appeals he had made +to the sovereigns on behalf of Napoleon would bring to him a +favourable decision, the Dalmatian gunner heard of him. He was passing +through Germany to his home after a fruitless attempt in London to get +the money Napoleon had enclosed in his letter. The reason given was +that the persons on whom it was drawn were not then in possession of +the necessary funds. Las Cases paid him, and received his appropriate +blessings for his goodness. Imprecations against Lowe were lavishly +bestowed by the gunner. He had been prevented from landing at St. +Helena on his way back from India, and but for this spiteful act of +Lowe's the money would have been paid at once. + +Meanwhile the touching appeals of Las Cases to the sovereigns were +unheeded. Even Napoleon's father-in-law, the Emperor of Austria, who +had given his daughter in marriage to the arbiter of Europe, did not +deign to reply, though only a brief time before he had received many +tokens of magnanimity from the French Emperor. So, indeed, had other +kings and queens of that time, not excluding Alexander of Russia; but +more hereafter about these monarchs who had once clamoured for the +honour of alliances with Napoleon and with his family, but who now +were conspirators in the act of a great assassination. + +Some three years before, Lord Keith was horrified when Captain +Maitland informed him on board the _Bellerophon_, in Torbay, that the +Duke of Rovigo, Lallemand, Montholon, and Gourgaud had said that their +Emperor would not go to St. Helena, and if he were to consent, they +would prevent it, meaning that they would end his existence rather +than witness any further degradation of him. Lord Keith is indignant, +and replies to Sir Frederick Maitland, "You may tell those gentlemen +who have threatened to be Bonaparte's executioners that the law of +England awards death to murderers, and that the certain consequence of +such an act will be finishing their career on a gallows." Precisely! + +The noble lord's fascinating little speech is quite in accord with +justice, but did _he_ ever raise a finger to prevent his colleagues +and their renowned deputy from committing the same crime at St. +Helena, and after this same Bonaparte's demise, were any steps taken +to call to account those whom the great soldier had consistently +declared were causing his premature death? Lord Keith, with his eyes +uplifted to heaven, had said, "England awards death to murderers," and +in this we are agreed, but there must be no fine distinction drawn as +to who the perpetrators are or their reason for doing it. Whether a +person for humanity's sake is despatched by a friendly pistol-shot or +the process of six years of refined cruelty, the crime is the same, +the only difference being (if life has to be taken) that it is more +merciful it should be done expeditiously. + +The French revered their Emperor, and could not bear to witness his +dire humiliation at the hands of men so infinitely his inferiors, +hence the thought of unlawfully ending his existence. On the other +hand, members of the British Government were swollen out with haughty +righteousness; they regarded themselves as deputies of the Omnipotent. +They determined in solemn conclave that the man against whom they had +waged war for twenty years, and who was only now beaten by a +combination of circumstances, should be put through the ordeal of an +inquisition. If he held out long, well and good, but should he succumb +to their benign treatment, their faith would be steadfast in their own +blamelessness. They were quite unconscious of being an unspeakable +brood of hollow, heartless mediocrities. Why did Lord Keith not give +_them_, as he did the devoted Frenchmen, a little sermon on the +orthodoxy of the gallows? They were far more in need of his guiding +influence. + +The British public were deceived by the most malevolent publications. +The great captive was made to appear so dangerous an animal that +neither soldiers nor sailors could keep him in subjection, and the +stories of his misdeeds when at the height of his ravishing glory were +spread broadcast everywhere. Nothing, indeed, was base enough for the +oligarchy of England and the French Royalists to stoop to. + +For a time the flow of wickedness went on unchecked. At last a few +good men and women began to speak out the truth, and as though Nature +revolted against the scoundrelism that had been and was now being +perpetrated, a sharp and swelling reaction came over the public. Men +and women began to express the same views as Captain Maitland's +sailors had expressed, viz.: "This man cannot be so bad as they make +him out to be." + +Las Cases had been sent to the Cape, but his journal, containing +conversations, dictations, and the general daily life of the exiles +since they embarked aboard the _Bellerophon_, was seized by Lowe, so +that he might pry into it with the hope of finding seditious entries. +(It may be taken for granted that no eulogy of himself appeared +therein.) The poor Count and his son on arrival at the Cape were +confined in an unhealthy hovel, and treated more like galley-slaves +than human beings. After some weeks of this truly British hospitality +under the Liverpool-Bathurst regime he determines to make a last +appeal to Lord Charles Somerset, then Governor at the Cape, to be more +compassionate. He had been told that nothing but a dog or a horse +attracted either his sympathy or his attention, and frankly admits +that he found himself in error in thinking so harshly of his +lordship, as his appeal met with a prompt and generous response. + +The Governor, in fact, expressed his sorrow on learning for the first +time of the Count's illness and the conditions under which he was +living. He immediately put at his disposal his country residence, +servants, and all else that would add to his comfort, and thus earned +the eternal gratitude of a much persecuted father and son. Lord +Charles Somerset, for this gracious act alone, will rank amongst the +good-hearted Englishmen of that troublesome time. It would appear that +the Cape Governor's subordinates were entirely responsible for the +ill-treatment complained of. + +It is a puzzle to know for what purpose this gentleman and his son +were detained at the Cape. The Count had frequently pointed out the +folly of his detention, and begged Lord Charles to allow them to take +their passage in a small brig of 200 tons that was bound to Europe. +This request was agreed to, a passport granted, and the captain of the +craft that was to be carried "in the sailors' arms" three thousand +leagues was given stern instructions that should he touch anywhere, +his passengers were to have no communication with the shore, and on +reaching England they were not to be allowed to land without receiving +orders from the Government. + +Whatever other charge may be brought against Las Cases, the lack of +courage can never be cited. The act of taking so long a passage in +this cockleshell of a vessel is a sure testimony of his devotion and +bravery. The food and the accommodation were of the very worst, and +though the account given of the low thunder of the waves lashing on +the decks is not very sailorly, there can be little doubt that so long +a passage could not be made without some startling vicissitudes. + +At length, after nearly one hundred days from the Cape, they are +safely landed at Dover, and make their way to London to apprise the +immortal Bathurst of their arrival and of their desire to see him, so +that he might listen to some observations about St. Helena matters. +This man of mighty mystery and dignity does not deign to reply, but +sends a Ministerial messenger to inform the Count that it is the +Prince Regent's pleasure that he quits Great Britain instantly. Las +Cases tells the messenger that it is a "very sorry, silly pleasure" +for His Royal Highness to have, but he has to quit all the same, as +England is now governed by "sorry, silly pleasure." Another batch of +papers is taken from him, and he is bundled away to Ostend and from +thence to other inhospitable countries, and ultimately lands at +Frankfort. + +The Count writes many clever, rather long, but disturbing letters to +noble lords in England, to members of Governments in other countries, +and to every crowned head interested in the little community they have +in safe and despotic keeping at St. Helena. He sends a petition to the +British Parliament stating in clear, clinching terms another +indictment against the British Ministry and their agent. This document +was sent from the deserts of Tygerberg, but like much more of a +similar kind, not a word was said about it. The author, however, was +not to be fooled or driven from the path which he conceived to be his +duty to his much wronged Emperor, so the petition was published, and +created a great sensation. + +This had to be subdued or counteracted, and as the Government were +unaccustomed to manly, straightforward dealing, they fell back on +their natural method of intrigue and the spreading of reports that +were likely to encourage and create prejudice against their captive. +It was imputed to them that while the Congress was sitting at +Aix-la-Chapelle they got up a scare of a daring plot of escape. This +was done at a time when the monarchs were touched with a kind of +sympathy for the man who had so often spared them, and whom their +cruelty was now putting to death. + +No wonder that this Ministry of little men were suspected of tricks +degrading and treacherous. The recitals of their distorted versions +of their woes affected the public imagination like a dreary litany. +Vast communities of men were beginning to realise that a tragedy was +being engineered in the name of sanctity and humanity. + +Every agency composed of cunning, unscrupulous rascals was enlisted to +picture the Emperor as a hideous monster who should not be allowed to +enjoy the liberty so charitably given him, and who, if he got his +proper deserts, should be put in chains. He was depicted as having a +mania for roaming about the island with a gun, shooting wild cats and +anything else that came within range. Madame Bertrand's pet kids, a +bullock, and some goats were reported to have fallen victims to this +vicious maniac. Old Montchenu and Lowe became alarmed lest he should +kill some human being by mistake; they perplexed their little minds as +to the form of indictment should such an event happen. Should it be +manslaughter or murder? This knotty question was submitted with +touching solemnity to the law officers of the Crown for decision, and +it may be assumed that even their sense of humour must have been +excited when they learned of the quandary of the Governor and the +French Commissioner. The shooting propensity set the ingenious Lowe +a-thinking, and in order to satisfy it he evolved the idea of having +rabbits let adrift, but, as usual, another of his little comforting +considerations is abortive, and the plan has a tragic finish. Shooting +is off. The Emperor's hobby has changed to gardening. The rabbits +become an easy prey to the swarms of rats that prowl about Longwood, +and soon disappear. + +It is quite probable that Napoleon did have a fancy for shooting, but +it is well known he was never at any time a sportsman in the sense of +being a good shot--indeed, everything points to his having no taste +for what is ordinarily known as sport, and that he ever shot kids, +goats, or bullocks is highly improbable. That he occasionally went +shooting and got good sport in killing the rats and other vermin which +made Longwood an insufferable habitation to live in is quite true. It +is also quite true that Lowe became demented with fear in case the +shooting should have sanguinary and far-reaching effects. Hence the +foregoing communication to the law officers. + +There is little doubt as to the use that was made of the ludicrous +inquiry by Lowe. It must have been handed over to the army of +loathsome libellers--men and women who were willing to do the dirtiest +of all work, that of writing and speaking lies (some abominable in +their character) of a defenceless man, in order that their +vindictiveness should be completely satisfied. Vast sums were +annually expended for no other purpose than to put their afflicted +prisoner through the torture of a living purgatory. + +Napoleon did not heed their silly stories of shooting exploits, though +he knew the underlying purpose of them. It was the darker, sordid +wickedness that was daily practised on him that ate like a canker into +mind and body until he was a shattered wreck. It was the foul +treatment of this great man that caused Dr. Barry O'Meara to revolt +and openly proclaim that the captive of St. Helena was being put to +death. As an honourable man he declared he could behold it no longer +without making a spirited protest. He knew that this meant banishment, +ostracism, and persecution by the Government. He foresaw that powerful +agencies would be at work against him, and that no expense would be +spared in order that his statements should be refuted, but he hazarded +everything and defied the world. He came through the ordeal, as all +impartial judges will admit, with cleaner hands and a cleaner tongue +than those who challenged his accuracy. + +Make what deductions you may, distort and twist as you like the +unimportant trivialities, the main facts related by O'Meara have never +been really shaken. What is more, he is backed up by Napoleon himself +in Lowe's personal interviews with him, and more particularly by his +letters to the Governor--to say nothing of the substantial backing he +gets from Las Cases, Montholon, Marchand, and Gourgaud--that +shameless, jealous, lachrymose traitor to his great benefactor. + +And then there is Santini, whose wish to kill the Governor was not +altogether without good reason, and who was deported from the island +for this and other infringements of the regulations. The publication +of his pamphlet, previously mentioned, created a great sensation, and +it sold like wildfire. It was said to be fabrications, but it was not +_all_ fabrications. Montholon reports that Napoleon criticised the +work, and remarked that some one must have assisted him. Well, so it +was. The story was related to Colonel Maceroni, an Italian, by +Santini, and put into readable form by him, but this does not detract +from that which is really true in it, and a good deal of what O'Meara +contends is confirmed therein. + +Then O'Meara's successor, Antommarchi, has even a worse story to +relate. These chronicles vary only in phrase and detail, and even in +these there is wonderful similarity. But when we come down to the +bedrock foundation of their complaints, _i.e._, the policy and +treatment by Lowe and his myrmidons, incited by the Home Government +and their followers, each record bears the stamp of truth--the +indictment is the same though it may be related differently. + +Some writers have cast doubt on the authenticity of the St. Helena +chroniclers without having a peg to hang their contentions on. The +answer to all this is, that if never a line had been written by these +men, the State papers, cunningly devised and crafty though most of +them are, would have been ample evidence from which to draw +unfavourable conclusions. Indeed, without State papers being brought +into it at all, there is facing you always the glaring fact of a +determined assassination perpetrated in the name of humanity, and if I +felt any desire to be assured of this, I would take as an authority +William Forsyth's three volumes written in defence of Sir Hudson Lowe. +No author has so completely failed to prove his case. Moreover, no +valid reason has ever been given, or ever can be, for doubting the +veracity of O'Meara and other gentlemen of Napoleon's suite who have +written their experiences of the St. Helena period. + +In the first place, those sceptical writers who deal with the +different books that have been published relative to this part of +Napoleon's history were not only not there to witness all that went +on, but some of them were not born for many years after Napoleon and +his contemporaries had passed on. So that it really narrows itself +down to this: the knowledge the sceptics have attained is taken from +documents or books written for the most part by the very men who they +say are not to be relied on as giving a true version of all that took +place during their stay at St. Helena. It cannot be disputed that +these gentlemen were in daily and hourly contact with England's +prisoner, and, as they aver, jotted down everything that passed in +conversation or that transpired in other ways between themselves and +the Emperor, or anybody else. + +The history of the St. Helena period, as written by authors who were +on the spot, is, in the present writer's opinion, singularly free from +exaggeration, let alone untruths. Besides, what had any of them to +gain by sending forth distorted statements and untruthful history? No +one knew better than they that every line they wrote would be +contested by those who had relied on the rigid regulations suppressing +all communications except those which passed through the hands of Sir +Hudson Lowe. Certainly O'Meara cannot be accused of having ulterior +motives, nor can any of the others--not even Gourgaud, who acted +alternately traitor and devoted friend. Gourgaud alone seems to have +had a mania for sinning and repenting, writing down during his +childish fits of temper about his supposed wrongs on his shirtcuffs, +and not infrequently his finger-nails, some nasty remark or some +slanderous thoughts about the man whose amiable consideration for him +was notorious amongst the circle at Longwood, and even at Plantation +House. These scribblings were intended for precise entry in his diary, +and if the peevish temper lasted until he got at this precious book, +down they went in rancorous haste. + +Yet this hot-headed, jealous chronicler, guided by blind passion and +never by reason while these moods were on him, has been held up as an +authority that may be relied upon as to the doings and sayings of +Napoleon and his immediate followers at the "Abode of Darkness." It is +a well-known axiom that persons who speak or write anything while +jealousy or temper holds them in its grip may not be counted as +reliable people to follow, and that is exactly what happened in +Gourgaud's case. He was the Peter of the band of disciples at St. +Helena, and it may be considered fairly reasonable to assume that +those who have written up the General as a sound historian have done +so with a view to backing up prejudices, big or small, against the +Emperor. + +But surely they have committed a very grave error in singling out as +their hero of veracity a man who, in his more normal and charitable +moods, pours out praise and pity for his Imperial chief in astonishing +profusion. + +O'Meara's position was very different from any of the other diarists +or writers. He was well aware that if he wrote an honest history it +meant his complete ruin, yet he faced it, and defied the world to +controvert his statements. "In face of the world," he says, "I +challenge investigation," and "investigation" was made with a +vengeance worthy of the Inquisition. If a word or a sentence could by +any possible means be made to appear faulty, a scream of denunciation +was sent forth from one end of Europe to the other, but the crime had +sunk too deeply into the hearts of an outraged public for these +ebullitions to have any real effect. There might be flaws in diction +and even matters of fact, but the sordid reality of the documentary +and verbal story that came to them was never doubted. The big heart of +the British nation was beginning to be moved in sympathy towards the +martyr long before his death, and of course long before O'Meara's book +appeared, though the doctor's advent in Europe was made the occasion +of a vigorous exposure of the progress of the great assassination. + +A wave of public opinion was gathering force; the Government, stupid +and treacherous as they were, saw it rising, and renewed their silly +efforts to stem it by causing atrocious duplicity to be instituted at +home and on the martyr rock. Indeed, nothing was beneath their +dignity so long as they succeeded in deceiving an agitated populace +and accomplishing their own evil ends. + +But notwithstanding the tactics and the deplorable use made of the +traitor Gourgaud, sympathetic feeling increases. Questions are +frequently asked in the House of Commons, to which evasive answers are +given, but reaction is so obviously gaining ground that Lords +Liverpool, Castlereagh, and the immortal Bathurst become perturbed. +They saw in the accession to power of Lord Holland's party a complete +exposure of their maladministration, and a reversing of their policy +(if it be not a libel to distinguish it as a "policy"). They knew, +too, that once the public is fairly seized with the idea of a great +wrong being perpetrated, no Government, however strong numerically or +in personality, can withstand its opposition. Had the Emperor lived +but a little longer, the vindictive men who tormented him to death +would have been compelled to give way before not only British, but +European, indignation. Public opinion would have enforced the +Administration to deal out better treatment to their captive, have +demanded his removal from the island of sorrow, and probably his +freedom. The public may be capricious, but once it makes up its mind +to do anything no power on earth can stop it, because it has a greater +power behind it. Luckily, or unluckily, for Bathurst & Co., the +spirit of the great captive had passed beyond the portal before +serious public action could be taken. + +Three years previous to this the Colonial Secretary in writing to Lowe +says:--"We must expect that the removal of Mr. O'Meara will occasion a +great sensation, and an attempt will be made to give a bad impression +on the subject. You had better let the substance of my instructions be +generally known as soon as you have executed it, that it may not be +represented that Mr. O'Meara has been removed in consequence of any +quarrel with you, but in consequence of the information furnished by +General Gourgaud in England respecting his conduct."[11] + +In reading through these State letters, one is struck with the +diplomatically(?) cunning composition of them. There does not seem to +be a manly phrase from beginning to end. Trickery, suspicion, cruelty, +veiled or apparent, and an occasional dash of pious consideration and +bombast sums up these perfidious documents. A few extracts will convey +precisely the character of the men who were carrying on negotiations +which should have been regarded as essentially delicate. + +In February, 1821, Bathurst writes to Lowe:-- + + "Sufficient time will have elapsed since the date of your last + communications to enable you to form a more accurate judgment + with respect to the extent and reality of General Bonaparte's + indisposition. Should your observations convince you that the + illness has been _assumed_, you will of course consider yourself + at liberty to withhold from him the communication which you are + otherwise authorised to make in my despatch No. 21," &c. + +On April 11, 1821, Lowe writes to Bathurst:--"The enclosed extract of +a letter from Count Montholon may merit, as usual, your lordship's +perusal." (This, of course, is intended as wit.) "It may be regarded +as a bulletin of General Bonaparte's health, meant for circulation at +Paris." + +Dr. Antommarchi, in writing to Signor Simeon Colonna on March 17, +1821, after dilating on his master's health, the climate, &c., bursts +out in a paragraph: "Dear friend, the medical art can do nothing +against the influence of climate, and if the English Government does +not hasten to remove him from this destructive atmosphere, His Majesty +soon, with anguish I say it, will pay the last tribute to the earth"; +and in a postscript he adds: "I offer the _undoubted facts_ stated +above, in opposition to the gratuitous assertions in the English +newspapers relative to the good health which His Majesty is stated to +enjoy here." + +On March 17, 1821, Montholon writes to Princess Pauline Borghesi: +"The Emperor reckons upon your Highness to make his real situation +known to some English of influence. He dies without succour upon this +frightful rock; his agonies are frightful." At the time Napoleon was +suffering thus, letters were published in some of the Ministerial +newspapers purporting to have come from St. Helena and representing +him to be in perfect health. + +On May 6, 1821, Lowe writes to Bathurst announcing the death of the +Emperor. It is a long rigmarole not worth quoting, except that he +condescends to allow the body to be interred with the honours due to a +general officer of the highest rank. Then follows the majestic reply +of Bathurst. He says, "I am happy to assure you that your conduct, as +detailed in those despatches, has received His Majesty's approbation"; +which indicates that Lowe did not feel quite happy himself as to how +the effusions would be regarded by his employers, now that the Emperor +had succumbed to their and his own wicked treatment. In his despatches +of February and April, 1821, he had mockingly referred to Napoleon's +indisposition as being faked, and in May he is obliged to write +himself as an unscrupulous liar, but notwithstanding this, his action +meets with the approval of the chief of the executioners, which is +very natural, seeing that this person was regarded as one of the most +prominent scoundrels in Europe. But Sir Hudson Lowe craved for +approbation, and was so mentally constituted that he believed he +deserved it by committing offences against God and man. + +"Every good servant does not all commands, no bond but to do just +ones," but Lowe, in his anxiety to please his employers, went to the +furthest limits of injustice. How void of human understanding and what +Mrs. Carlyle called "that damned thing, human kindness" this wretched +man was! + +As will be hereafter shown, he had not long to wait after Napoleon's +death and the receipt of tokens of friendliness that had been sent to +him through the Colonial Secretary, before he was made to feel that +the Government was not disposed to carry any part of his public +unpopularity on its shoulders. He had done his best or worst to make +that portion of the earth on which he lived miserable to those he +might have made tolerably happy, without infringing the loutish +instructions of a notoriously stupid Government. Instead of this he +made himself so despised that the Emperor, almost with his last +breath, called all good spirits to bear witness against him and his +murderous confederates. + +The great soldier had slipped his moorings on May 6, 1821, and on the +7th or 8th, after much ado with the Governor, a post-mortem +examination was held by Dr. Francois Antommarchi in the presence of +Drs. Short, Arnott, Burton, and Livingstone. Lowe was represented by +the Chief of Staff. The examination disclosed an ulcerous growth and +an unnaturally enlarged liver, which may be assumed as the ultimate +cause of death, though Antommarchi's report assuredly points to the +fatal nature of the climatic conditions. + +The French were anxious to have the body of their Emperor embalmed, +but Hudson Lowe insisted that his instructions forbade this. Napoleon +had commanded that his heart should be put in a silver vase filled +with spirits of wine and sent to Marie Louise. When Sir Hudson Lowe +heard that this was being done, he sent a peremptory order forbidding +it, stating that no part should be preserved but the stomach, which +would be sent to England. Naturally such wanton disregard of the +Emperor's wish was violently resented by the French, and by the best +of the English who were there. A long and heated discussion seems to +have ensued on this question, which ended in the Governor having to +give way--not altogether--but he was compelled to a compromise, viz., +that the heart and stomach should be preserved and put into the +coffin. + +The Governor was then confronted with what to him was another knotty +point. The Emperor had desired that a few gold coins struck during his +reign should be buried with him. After serious consideration this was +graciously allowed, but not without forebodings of trouble arising +therefrom! What the British Government or their idiotic Governor +wanted with Napoleon's stomach, or why they refused to allow his body +to be embalmed, or his heart preserved and sent to his wife, Heaven +only knows. They had monstrously violated all human feeling by +ignoring appeals made to them from all parts of the world to be +merciful to a much afflicted man. They were well informed by the best +medical authorities on the island that the climate was deadly to a +constitution such as his. They ignored reports of his declining health +even up to a few weeks of his death, and then when the Arch-enemy +claimed him, they flooded Europe with the intelligence that he had +succumbed to the malady from which his father died, and that their +tender and benevolent care for him was unavailing. The progress of his +inherited disease could not be checked. + +The world is fast beginning to realise the infamy of it all. Not a +thought ever entered their heads but that of torture, veiled or open, +and the appalling clumsiness of their endeavours to conceal their +Satanic designs, so that they might appear in the light of beneficent +hosts, shows that they cowered at the possibility of public vengeance. +Happily for them, Napoleon's death came too near to the terrific +commotion caused by the French Revolution. + +Tumult raged round the Emperor during the whole of his public career, +and powerful agencies were constantly proclaiming against him and his +methods. His advent had brought with it a new form of democracy, which +cast down oligarchies and despotisms everywhere. His system destroyed +and affected too many interests not to leave behind it feelings of +revenge, but this revenge did not exist among the common people. Those +who persecuted the common people felt his heavy hand upon them. The +populace entered into his service in shoals, only to betray him when +the time of trial came. He knew the risk he ran, but did not shrink +from it. He hoped that he might bring them to adopt the great +principles he held and the plan he had in view. + +His ambition was to seek out all those who had talent and character +and give them the opportunity of developing their gifts for the +benefit of the race. Humble origin had no deterrent effect on him. His +most brilliant officers and men of position sprang from the middle and +lower middle class, and taking them as a whole, their devotion never +gave way, even during the most terrible adversity that ever befell +mortal man. One small instance of admiration and sympathy is evidenced +by the beautiful reverence shown by the officers and men of the +English army and navy, who defiled before the dead hero's remains and +bent their knees to the ground. + +Montholon says that "some of the officers entreated to be allowed the +honour of pressing to their lips the cloak of Marengo which covered +the Emperor's feet." Lowe must have felt a pang of remorse when he saw +these simple men pouring out in their sailorly and soldierly way +tokens of profound sorrow. Everything that could had been done to +cause their captive to be regarded as a menace to human safety, and to +be forgotten altogether; but how futile to attempt such a task while +the world of civilisation is swayed by human instinct and not by +barbarity! + +The report of Napoleon's death did not relieve the anxieties of the +European Cabinets. They knew the danger of being overwhelmed by a +revulsion of feeling, and the difficulty of stopping the masses once +they are set in motion, and there were strong manifestations of the +popular indignation breaking loose, with all the terrible consequences +of a reign of terror. The feeling of grief was universal and intense. +A spark might have caused a great conflagration. Lord Holland declared +in Parliament that the very persons who detested this great man had +acknowledged that for ten centuries there had not appeared upon earth +a more extraordinary character.... "All Europe," he added, "has worn +mourning for the hero"; and those who contributed to that great +sacrifice are destined to be the objects of the execrations of the +present generation as well as to those of posterity. + +Just at the time the great spirit of the hero was passing on to the +Elysian Fields, there, as he used to fancifully foreshadow, to meet +his brave comrades in arms who had preceded him, a tempest of unusual +severity broke over "the abode of darkness and of crimes." Houses were +shaken to their foundation; the favourite willow-tree, where he had +often sat and enjoyed the fresh breezes, was torn up by the hurricane, +as indeed were the other trees round about Longwood. This terrible +disturbance of the elements was characteristically interpreted as +being the voice of the living God proclaiming to the world that the +Emperor was being thundered into eternity to meet his Creator, and to +be judged by Him for the wrongs his political and other opponents said +he was guilty of towards themselves and the human race generally. In +true British orthodoxy, the Great Judge is always claimed as a +fellow-countryman, and Sir Walter Scott is not singular in attributing +this phenomenal disturbance as an indication of coming vengeance +against England's prisoner. The Scottish bard is not altogether +impartial in the send-off of the exile. He associates another colossal +personage with the great Corsican. The Lord Protector, we are +reminded, was similarly borne from time into eternity on the wings of +a devasting tornado. Poor Oliver! whose war-cry was "The Lord of +Hosts," and who never doubted that he was the high commissioner sent +by the Almighty to clean the earth of mischievous Royalists, traitors, +Papists, and other ungovernable creatures in Ireland and elsewhere. + +It does not appear to have struck these gentlemen, with their thoughts +centred on Holy Writ and finding comfort in the support it gave to +their contention, that the Great God, instead of making nature break +out with such terrible violence to indicate His displeasure against +this wonderful man, made in His own image and sent by Him to serve +both a divine and a human purpose, was using accumulated natural +forces to show His wrath at the culmination of the most atrocious +tragedy that had ever been perpetrated. + +The good Sir Walter and the unctuously pious biographer of Sir Hudson +are obviously overcome by the coincidence of the storm and Napoleon's +death coming simultaneously. To them it is the voice of God shouting +forth gladness that the enemy of the British race is being made to pay +the penalty of all the evil he has wrought. This is a very comforting +conclusion to arrive at after having kept your victim on the rack for +six years and made war on him for twenty, but did it never occur to +them that the greatest sacrifice ever offered culminated in just such +natural disturbances and that at the same time "the veil of the temple +was rent in twain"? + +Happily for the fair fame of human rights, many writers of Napoleonic +history have got over national prejudices and timidity, and are +chronicling very different views from those of Sir Walter and the +uninteresting defender of Lowe; and the more impartial the minds who +inquire into the first as well as the last phase of this extraordinary +career, the more will it appear that he was not an enemy, but a +powerful reforming agency of mankind. He vowed over and over again +that he "never conquered unless in his own defence, and that Europe +never ceased to make war upon France and her principles." And again he +asserted: "One of my grand objects was to render education accessible +to everybody. I caused every institution to be formed upon a plan +which offered instruction to the public, either gratis or at a rate so +moderate, as not to be beyond the means of the peasant. The museums +were thrown open to the _canaille_. My _canaille_ would have become +the best educated in the world. All my exertions were directed to +illuminate the mass of the nation instead of brutifying them by +ignorance and superstition." These ideals are in striking contrast to +the policy of the oligarchy of Europe, who were fighting to suppress +knowledge and to re-establish the worst form of superstition and +despotism. + +It is a deplorable thought that the nations (and especially Great +Britain) who allied themselves against this man of the people and sent +him to an inhuman death might have saved themselves the eternal +condemnation of future ages had they made their peace with him, as the +sagacious Charles James Fox would have done had he lived. Had they +been wise, they would have made use of his matchless gifts and +well-balanced mind to help forward the regeneration of the human chaos +which was both the cause and the result of the Revolution. Above all, +had the "Liberty loving" British nation been true to her declared +principles, she would either have kept aloof from the conflict that +was raging or found some honourable means of co-operating with him, +and thereby earned a share of the glory that will be eternally +attached to his name in the great effort of extinguishing thraldom and +ameliorating the condition of the masses. + +Instead of this, she basely linked her destiny with the traitors of +France and the allies of Europe to dethrone the monarch elected by the +French people, and to place in his stead a king who was forced upon +them by the Allies, and not the people of France. This is a strange +travesty of "Liberty loving" government. Had the great Quaker been +kept in power, instead of Pitt, who was always in a chronic state of +scare and whining that he could never survive the downfall of his +country, the rivers of British blood that were shed and the eight +hundred million pounds sterling of debt need not have been squandered. +All this was done at the bidding of a few men who were entrusted with +the government of a great nation, and either by odious deception, or +sheer incapacity to judge of the fitness of things, caused it to be +believed that they were bound to maintain the balance of power or +_status quo_ which was endangered, and that the one man who had upset +their nerves and incurred their hatred should be removed at all costs. + +It is pretty certain that England could easily have kept out of the +continental embroil had the Government been composed of men of talent +and free from oligarchal prejudices, whereas all we got out of it, +plus the loss of life and treasure, was a share in the questionable +glory of Waterloo, the custody of the great figure who was betrayed by +some of his own subjects, "the odium of having his death bequeathed to +the reigning family of England," and the fact that Louis XVIII., by +his own admission to the French nation, was put on the throne by our +own precious Prince Regent. + +These are only a few of the results that should not make us proud of +that part of our history. But we have travelled far since those days +of vicious actions. Nothing approaching the perfidy of it could happen +in the present age. It is unthinkable that either the sagacious, +peaceloving, peacemaking monarch on the throne or his Ministers and +people would lend themselves to committing the senseless blunders that +disgraced our name at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Even +allowing that it was inevitable we should wage war against the head of +the French nation, nothing can ever blot out the stain of having +refused him the asylum he asked for, after we had taken so large a +share in bringing about his downfall. He asked in the following letter +to the Prince Regent to be the guest of England, and England made him +its prisoner. Here is the document:-- + +"The sport of those factions which divide my country and an object of +hostility to the greatest Powers of Europe, I have finished my +political career, and come, like Themistocles, to sit down by the +hearth of the English people. I place myself under the protection of +their laws, which I claim from your Royal Highness as the most +powerful, the most constant, and most generous of my enemies." Had it +been left to the English people instead of to the Government and His +Royal Highness, I do not think this dignified appeal would have been +altogether ignored, as Napoleon's quarrel was not with the people. + +They knew that it was the oligarchy that feared and detested him. It +has been said that even His Royal Highness would have granted +hospitality, and it would have saved the nation over which he ruled +the blight of eternal execrations had he been strong enough to stand +against the blundering decision of a revengeful Ministry. + +No impartial student of the part played by Napoleon during twenty +years of warfare will deny that the institutions he founded, the laws +that he made, and his mode of government wherever established, were +beneficent, and entirely aimed at the adjustment of inequalities that +had culminated in a great national uprising. His dictatorship was +wielded with a wholesome discipline without unnecessarily using the +lash. He had no cut-and-dried maxim of dealing with unruly people, but +his awful power made them feel that he distinguished between eternal +justice and tyranny. He knew, and he made everybody else know, that +under the circumstances too much liberty would be like poison to some +people. When he said, "No more of this," the aggressors realised that +the doctrine of fraternity as they understood it must not be stretched +further. + +Notwithstanding his methods of reproof and restraint, he was idolised +by the masses, even by those he led his armies against and so often +conquered. Even in our own country, where enmity against him was +assiduously nursed by the press and other agencies, there was an +important section who believed we were putting our money on the wrong +horse. This idea was not confined to the poorer classes. Many of our +best and wisest statesmen were strongly opposed to this policy of +hostility against him. + +He had starved in the streets of Paris, sold his precious books and +other belongings to provide the means of buying bread to sustain +himself and his much beloved brother Louis, who in after years behaved +to him with base ingratitude. He suffered dreadful privations during +the keen frosty nights, owing to the want of fire, light, and +sometimes sufficient clothing. No wonder that he thought of ending +his woes by plunging into the Seine. + +But a glimmering of light came and lifted him out of a numbing +despair. He was made to see in his hour of trial that lassitude must +cease, and that he was meant for other things, and in order to +accomplish them he must be strong and audacious. Fate, fortune, and a +mysterious Providence found in him an indomitable chief whose genius +was intended to change the face of Europe. Like all big men who spring +from obscurity and the deadliness of poverty, and are launched on the +scene to create order out of tumult and chaos, his enemies, in the +nature of things, were both numerous and prolific. At the outset he +adopted the method he so often thundered into his soldiers when on the +eve of battle, viz.: "You must not fear Death, my lads. Defy him, and +you drive him into the enemy's ranks." + +One of the charges made against him by serene critics who have been +desirous of showing his weak points is that he was too careless and +forgiving towards the squabbling nest of paid and unpaid murderers who +prowled about in disguise, thirsting after his blood. It is certain +that he carried clemency to a fault in many instances, and this no +doubt contributed to his undoing; but at the same time there is ample +proof that he knew well enough where his foes were to be found, and +whenever the dignity and safety of the State were imperilled, he was +not slow to punish. His habit was not weakness, but only a too +careless regard for his own personal safety. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] Montholon, "History of the Captivity of Napoleon," p. 326. The +editor says he is indebted for these details to the official accounts +published at the time by the French Government. + +[2] This was the name given to Napoleon by the Arabs. "Kebir" means +"great" (Montholon, vol. iv. p. 245). + +[3] These words were dictated to Las Cases by Napoleon at St. Helena +in 1819 (p. 315, vol. iv., of his Journal). + +[4] See p. 183, vol. i., "Captivity of Napoleon." + +[5] O'Meara, in his second volume, p. 134, states: "The Emperor was so +firmly impressed with the idea that an attempt would be made to +forcibly intrude upon his privacy, that, from a short time after the +departure of Sir George Cockburn, he always kept four or five loaded +pistols and some swords in his apartments, with which he was +determined to despatch the first who entered against his will." + +[6] See p. 299, Montholon's "Captivity of Napoleon," vol. i. + +[7] See p. 301, vol. i., "Captivity of Napoleon." + +[8] See pp. 57-62, bust incident. + +[9] The easygoing Joseph had been careless of the letters, which would +have further proved the infamy of the oligarchy. These letters were in +many cases applications for territory. He had intrusted them to a base +friend, by whom they were offered to the various Governments for +L30,000. The Russian Ambassador is reported to have paid L10,000 to +get hold of those concerning his master. His Majesty of Prussia +appears to have had a covetous eye on Hanover. He always entertained a +paternal regard for that country. The sovereigns in general seem to +have compromised themselves deeply in their efforts to secure +territory. + +[10] See "Montholon," vol. iii p. 37. + +[11] This is an impudent lie. The quarrel was with Lowe because the +doctor refused to be his accomplice. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE MAN OF THE REVOLUTION--CRITICISM, CONTEMPORARY AND OTHERWISE + + +On May 9, 1821, the mortal remains of the Exile were interred at a +spot called the Valley of Napoleon. He had selected this spot in the +event of the Powers not allowing his remains to be transferred to +France or Ajaccio. Lowe desired to put on the lid of the coffin +"Napoleon Bonaparte," but his followers very properly disdained +committing a breach of faith on the dead Emperor, and insisted on +having "Napoleon" and nothing else. The Governor was stubbornly +opposed to it, so he was buried without any name being put on the +coffin.[12] + +Perhaps one of the most terrific passages of unconscious humour is +related by Forsyth (vol. iii. p. 288), where Lowe is made to say to +Major Gorrequer and Mr. Henry, as they walked together before the +door of Plantation House discussing the character of Napoleon, "Well, +gentlemen, he was England's greatest enemy and mine too; but _I_ +forgive him everything. On the death of a man like him we should only +feel deep concern and regret." Forsyth thinks this splendid +magnanimity on the part of his hero. + +It is not recorded what the gallant Major thought of it, but it may be +taken for granted that if Mr. Henry and Gorrequer had any sense of +humour at all, Lowe's comment must have sounded very comical, knowing +what they did of the relations between the dead monarch and his +custodian, though it must be said that Henry seems to have been the +only person who could work up a sympathetic word for Sir Hudson. +Forsyth, in vol. iii. p. 307, says: "No one can study the character of +Napoleon without being struck by one prevailing feature, his intense +selfishness." This is a remarkable statement for any man who professes +to write accurate history to make, and proves conclusively that +Forsyth had not "studied" Napoleon's "character," or he would have +found, not only his closest friends, but some of his bitterest enemies +doing him the justice of stating the very opposite of what this writer +says of him. + +Mr. Henry, who took part in the dissection of the corpse, says that +Napoleon's face had a remarkably placid expression, and indicated +mildness and sweetness of disposition, and those who gazed on the +features as they lay in the still repose of death could not help +exclaiming, "How beautiful!" After this very fine description from Sir +Hudson's friend, Forsyth adds a footnote: "It may interest +phrenologists to know that the organs of combativeness, causativeness, +and philoprogenitiveness were strongly developed in the cranium"! In +order to prove the charge of selfishness he brings in the old familiar +story of the divorce: "A memorable example of this (_i.e._, +selfishness) occurs in his treatment of the nobleminded Josephine." + +This outburst is obviously intended for effect, but Forsyth does not +score a success in bringing the amiable Empress to his aid; for, +whatever virtue she may have possessed, authentic history reveals her +as the antithesis of "nobleminded." Those who knew the lady intimately +speak with marked generosity of her graces, but they also record a +shameless habit of faithlessness to her husband at a time when he was +pouring out volumes of love to her from Italy. And she seems to have +let herself go without restraint during his stay in Egypt. The +wayward, weak Josephine had many lovers, who were not too carefully +selected. + +From the time of her marriage with Napoleon until she heard of him +being on his way from Egypt to France, her love intrigues were well +known, and her lovers were certainly not men of high public repute. In +short, Josephine was anything but "nobleminded." She was a confirmed +and audacious flirt until the stern realities of the dissolution of +her marriage brought her to her senses, and from that time until the +great political divorce took place, she appears to have kept free from +further love entanglements. Napoleon's attachment to her was very +genuine, and remained steadfast up to the time of her death, and even +at St. Helena he always spoke of her with great reverence. Forsyth +does not enhance Lowe's reputation or damage Napoleon's by the popular +use he makes of the annulment of the little Creole lady's marriage, +the merits of which may be referred to at greater length hereafter, as +it is a subject of itself and this reference to a momentous incident +of her husband's history is only by the way. + +Meanwhile the Emperor's remains, in layers of coffins composed of +wood, tin, and lead, were hermetically sealed, and the tomb, having +been securely battened down with cement and slab, was substantially +railed in to prevent the intrusion of a sympathetic and curious +public. His tomb was left in charge of a British garrison, and the +heroes who followed him to his grave, and shared his martyrdom and +exile on that fatal rock for six mortal years, were shipped aboard the +_Camel_ and conveyed to England, there to be received by a set of +mildew-witted bureaucrats smitten with suspicion that the exiles may +have brought with them the spirit of their dead master, with the +object of invoking a sanguinary reaction in his favour by disturbing +the peace of Europe--as though Europe had experienced a single day of +real peace since the downfall of the Empire! + +These exemplary men had faced and borne with magnificent fortitude +hardships well-nigh beyond human endurance. Their mission was to carry +out the dying command of the hero whom they adored, and who had +succumbed to the hospitable treatment of Bathurst, Castlereagh, +Liverpool, and Wellington, and their accomplices. These guilty men, +whose names, strange to say, are as undying as that of their victim, +would fain have made it appear that had he not died of cancer of the +stomach, it were not possible that he could have died of anything but +robust health, owing to the salubrity of the climate they had selected +and the unequalled care they had taken of his person through the +immortal Lowe. + +It is a remarkable thing that these men had no conception of the +great being they were practising cruelty upon. It is indeed a strange +freak of nature that makes it possible that the human mind can think +of Napoleon and these bureaucrats at the same time, but that is part +of the mystery that cannot at the present stage be understood. Time +may reveal the phenomenon, and in the years to come the spirits of the +just will call aloud for a real vindication of the character of the +man of the French Revolution, and, forsooth, it may be that a terrible +retribution is gathering in the distance. Who knows? Waterloo and St. +Helena may yet be the nemesis of the enemies of the great Emperor. +Obviously, he had visions, as had his compatriot Joan of Arc, who +suffered even a crueller fate than he at the hands of a few +bloodthirsty English noblemen, who disgraced the name of soldier by +not only allowing her to be burnt, but selling her to the parasitical +Bishops with that object in view. It is not strange that the Maid of +Orleans, who suffered martyrdom for the supernatural part she took in +fighting for her King and country, should, on April 18, 1909, become a +saint of the Roman Catholic Church throughout the world, nor that the +Pope should perform the ceremony. The English sold her. An +ecclesiastical court, headed by the infamous Bishop of Beauvais, +condemned her to be burnt as a witch, and when the flames were +consuming her a cry of "Jesus" was heard. An English soldier standing +by was so overcome by the awful wickedness that was being perpetrated +by the Anglo-French ecclesiastical alliance, that he called out, "We +are lost! We have burnt a saint!" + +The soldier saw at once that the child of the Domremy labourer was a +"saint," but it has taken five centuries for the Church to which she +belonged, and whose representatives burnt her as a witch, to +officially beatify her. True, this stage has been gradually worked up +to by the erection of monuments to her honour and glory. Chinon +distinguished itself by this, presumably because it was there that +Joan interviewed the then uncrowned Charles, and startled him into +taking her into his service by the story she told of hearing the +heavenly voices at Domremy farm demanding that she should go forth as +the liberator of France. + +The recognition of Napoleon's claim, not to "sanctity," but as a +benefactor of mankind, will also surely come, but in his case the +demand will come from no Church, but with the irresistible voice of +all Humanity. + +Joan's country had been at war for one hundred years. Ravaged by +foreign invaders and depopulated by plague, it was foaming with civil +strife and treason to the national cause, many of the most powerful +men and women, both openly and in secret, taking sides with the enemy. +The crisis had reached a point when this modest, uneducated, +clear-witted, fearless maiden was launched by her "voices" to the +scene of battle, there to inspire hope and enthusiasm in the hearts of +her people. In a few weeks she had established confidence, smashed the +invader, and crowned the unworthy Charles VII. as King. Twenty years +after they had burnt her, there was scarcely a foreign foot to be +found on French soil. + +There is a further similarity between the peasant girl and Napoleon. +_She_ was brought to the aid of her country by the voices of the +unseen, and four hundred years after, when her country was again in +dire trouble, _he_ was found in obscurity and in an almost +supernatural way flashed into prominent activity to save the +Revolution. It was the voices of the living, seen and unseen, that +called aloud for the little Corporal to lead to battle, conquer, and +ultimately govern. It was some of the self-same voices that intrigued +and then burst forth in declamation and demanded his abdication on the +eve of his first reverse. The Church, which owed its rehabilitation to +him after he had implanted a settled government in France, had no +small share in the conspiracy for his overthrow. He said, "There is +but one means of getting good manners, and that is by establishing +religion." He believed it, and did it in spite of a storm of +opposition that would have hurled a less resolute man from power, but +he knew full well his strength, and was sure then, as he ever was, of +his opinions. + +The Church and those of the people who become allied to its material +policy are prone to destroy those who have been of service to their +cause. There is indeed no society of men and women who are so +vindictive, nay, revengeful, once they are seized with the idea that +they are being neglected, or their interests not receiving all the +patronage they think they deserve, and then, after a few generations +of reflection, they become overwhelmed with unctuous sanctity and +remorse, and proceed to make saints of the victims of their +progenitors in order that the perfidy they are historically linked to +shall be whitewashed and atoned for. + +Napoleon believed that "No physical force ever dies; it merely changes +its form or direction"--and could we but get a glimpse behind the +veil, we might see his imperishable soul fleeting from sphere to +sphere, struggling with cruel reactionary spirits who forced him into +eternity before the work he was sent to do was completed. + +Wieland, the German writer, had an interview with him on the field of +Jena. He says:--"I was presented by the Duchess of Weimar. He paid me +some compliments in an affable tone, and looked steadfastly at me. Few +men have appeared to me to possess in the same degree the art of +reading at the first glance the thought of other men. He saw in an +instant that, notwithstanding my celebrity, I was simple in my manners +and void of pretension, and as he seemed desirous of making a +favourable impression on me, he assumed the tone most likely to attain +his end. I have never beheld anyone more calm, more simple, more mild, +or less ostentatious in appearance; nothing about him indicated the +feeling of power in a great monarch; he spoke to me as an old +acquaintance would speak to an equal, and what was more extraordinary +on his part, he conversed with me exclusively for an hour and a half, +to the great surprise of the whole assembly." + +Then Wieland goes on to relate what the conversation was. Napoleon +"preferred the Romans to the Greeks. The eternal squabbles of their +petty republics were not calculated to give birth to anything grand, +whereas the Romans were always occupied with great things, and it was +owing to this they raised up the Colossus which bestrode the world.... +He was fond only of serious poetry, the pathetic and vigorous +writers, and above all, the tragic poets." + +Wieland had been put so much at his ease (so he says) that he ventured +to ask how it was that the public worship Napoleon had restored in +France was not more philosophical and in harmony with the spirit of +the times. "My dear Wieland," was the reply, "religion is not meant +for philosophers! they have no faith either in me or my priests. As to +those who do believe, it would be difficult to give them, or to leave +them, too much of the marvellous. If I had to frame a religion for +philosophers, it would be just the reverse of that of the credulous +part of mankind."[13] + +Mueller, the Swiss historian's private interview with him at this +period is quite remarkable, and shows what a vast knowledge and +conception of things the Emperor had. Nothing shows more clearly his +own plan of regulating and guiding the affairs of the universe for the +benefit of all. He tells Mueller that he should complete his history of +Switzerland, that even the more recent times had their interest. Then +he switched from the Swiss to the old Greek constitutions and history; +to the theory of constitutions; to the complete diversity of those in +Asia, and the causes of this diversity in the climate, polygamy, the +opposite characters of the Arabian and the Tartar races, the peculiar +value of European culture, and the progress of Freedom since the +sixteenth century; how everything was linked together, and in the +inscrutable guidance of an invisible hand; how he himself had become +great through his enemies; the great Confederation of Nations, the +idea of which Henri IV. had; the foundation of all religion and its +necessity; that man could not bear clear truth and required to be kept +in order; admitting the possibility, however, of a more happy +condition, if the numerous feuds ceased which were occasioned by too +complicated Constitutions (such as the German) and the intolerable +burden suffered by States from excessive armies. + +These opinions clearly mark the guiding motives of Napoleon's attempts +to enforce upon different nations uniformity of the institutions and +customs. "I opposed him occasionally," says Mueller, "and he entered +into discussion. Quite impartially and truly, as before God, I must +say that the variety of his knowledge, the acuteness of his +observations, the solidity of his understanding (not dazzling wit), +his grand and comprehensive views, filled me with astonishment, and +his manner of speaking to me with love for him. By his genius and his +disinterested goodness, he has also conquered me."[14] The remarkable +testimony of Wieland and Mueller, both men of distinction, is of more +than ordinary value, seeing that they were not his countrymen, but on +the side of those who waged war against him. Mueller admits that he +conquered him, and the world must admit that he is gradually, but +surely, conquering it in spite of the colossal libels that have been +spoken and written of him for the ostensible purpose of vindicating +the Puritans and making him appear as the Spoliator and Antichrist +whose thirst for blood, so that he might attain glory, was an +inexhaustible craze in him. To them he is the Ogre that staggers the +power of belief, and yet he defies the whole world to prove that he +ever declared war or committed a single crime during the whole +carnival of warfare that drenched Europe in human blood. + +Up to the present, the world has lamentably failed to do anything of +the sort. His opponents, libellers, and progeny of his mean +executioners, are all losing ground, and he is gaining everywhere. +There is an unseen hand at work revealing the awful truth. This +dignified, calm, unassuming man, while surrounded by a crowd of Kings +and Princes, who were competing with each other to do him homage and +show their devotion, startles them by telling a story of when he was +"a simple Lieutenant in the 2nd Company of Artillery." Possibly some +of his guests were observed to be putting on airs that were always +distasteful to the Emperor, and this was his scornful way of rebuking +them. Or it might be that he wished to take the opportunity of +informing Europe that he had no desire to conceal his humble +beginning, though at that time he was recognised first man in it. +Historians, when he was at the height of his power, ransacked musty +archives assiduously to find out and prove that he had royal blood in +him. They professed to have discovered that he was connected with the +princely family of Treviso, and the comical way in which he +contemptuously brushed aside this fulsome flattery must have lacerated +the pride of courtiers who sought favours by such methods. + +Bearing on the royal blood idea, Gourgaud in his Journal relates that +the Emperor told him the following stories:-- + +"At one time in my reign there was a disposition to make out that I +was descended from the Man in the Iron Mask. The Governor of Pignerol +was named Bompars. They said he had married his daughter to his +mysterious prisoner, the brother of Louis XIV., and had sent the pair +to Corsica under the name of 'Bonaparte,'" and then with fine humour +he adds:--"I had only to say the word and everybody would have +believed the fable." + +He never forgot that he was Napoleon, hence never said the word. + +His insincere father-in-law has been industriously searching for royal +blood too, and this is what his son-in-law says of him:-- + +"When I was about to marry Marie Louise, her father the Emperor sent +me a box of papers intended to prove that I was descended from the +Dukes of Florence. I burst out laughing, and said to Metternich, 'Do +you suppose I am going to waste my time over such foolishness? Suppose +it were true, what good would it do me? The Dukes of Florence were +inferior in rank to the Emperors of Germany. I will not place myself +beneath my father-in-law. I think that as I am, I am as good as he. My +nobility dates from Monte Notte. Return him these papers.' Metternich +was very much amused." + +Francis of Austria must have felt confounded at the rebuke of his +unceremonious relative, who was always the man of stern reality--too +big to be dazzled by mouldy records of kingly blood. Neither did pomp +or ceremony attract him, except in so far as it might serve the +purpose of making an impression on others. Bourrienne, a shameless +predatory traitor, has said in his memoirs that when the seat of +government was removed from the Luxembourg to the Tuileries, the First +Consul said to him, "You are very lucky; you are not obliged to make a +spectacle of yourself. I have to go about with a cortege; it bores me, +but it appeals to the eye of the people." + +Roederer in _his_ memoirs relates pretty much the same thing, only +that it bears on the question of title, and presumably the researches +for confirmation of his royal descent. + +Here again, his strong practical view of things, and his utter +indifference to grandeur or genealogical distinction, are shown. He +says: "How can anyone pretend that empty names, titles given for the +sake of a political system, can change in the smallest degree one's +relations with one's friends and associates? I am called Sire, or +Imperial Majesty, without anyone in my household believing or thinking +that I am a different man in consequence. All those titles form part +of a _system_, and therefore they are necessary." He always ends his +ebullitions of convincing wisdom by making it clear precisely where he +stands. + +The writer might quote pages of eulogies of him from the most eminent +men of every nationality. There is no trustworthy evidence that he +ever sought the flattery that was lavished on him; indeed, he seems +to have been alternately in the mood for ignoring or making fun of it. +On one occasion he writes to King Joseph, "I have never sought the +applause of Parisians; I am not an operatic monarch."[15] + +Seguier says:-- + +"Napoleon is above human history. He belongs to heroic periods and is +beyond admiration."[16] + +A notable Englishman, Lord Acton, says (like Mueller) that "his +goodness was the most splendid that has appeared on earth." And there +are innumerable instances which prove that his sympathies and goodness +to those who were notoriously undeserving was a fatal passion with +him. But there is no opinion, blunt though it be, that so completely +touches one as that of the plain English sailors who said at Elba that +"Boney was a d----d good fellow after all." "They may talk about this +man as they like," said one of the crew of the _Northumberland_, "but +I won't believe the bad they say of him," and _this_ view seems to +have been generally held by the men who composed the crew of the +vessel that took the Emperor to St. Helena. It is noteworthy that +English man-of-war's-men, and also merchant seamen of these stirring +times, should have formed so favourable an impression of Napoleon, +especially as the Press of England teemed with hostility against him. +Articles attributing every form of indescribable bestiality, +corruption, gross cruelty to his soldiers, subordinate officers, and +even Marshals, appeared with shameful regularity. In these articles +were included the most absurd as well as the most serious charges. + +I include the following story as a specimen, and take it in particular +as being quoted quite seriously by certain anti-Napoleonic writers in +the endeavour to bolster up a feeble case. Prejudice and distorted +vision prevented them from seeing the absurdity of such attempts to +blacken the character of Napoleon. Let the reader judge! + +It is related that, at the time of the Concordat, Napoleon remarked to +Senator Volney, "France wants a religion." Volney's courageous (!) +reply was, "France wants the Bourbons," and the Emperor is thereupon +supposed to have been attacked by a fit of ungovernable fury, and to +have kicked the Senator in the stomach! + +The more serious charges included incest with his sister Pauline and +his stepdaughter Hortense, and the poisoning of his plague-stricken +soldiers at Jaffa. + +His palaces were said to be harems, and his libertinism to put +Oriental potentates to the blush. So industrious were these foes to +human fairness that they manufactured a silly story just before the +rupture of the Treaty of Amiens, to the effect that Napoleon had made +a violent attack on Lord Whitworth, the British Ambassador. So violent +was he in his gestures, the Ambassador feared lest the First Consul +would strike him. Even Oscar Browning is obliged to refute this +unworthy fabrication as being absurd on the face of it, but it has +taken ninety years to produce the authentic document from the British +Archives which disproves the scandal. Napoleon was too much absorbed +in things that mattered to take notice of the stupid though virulent +stories that were constantly being concocted against him. When he was +appealed to by his friends to have the libels suitably dealt with, he +merely shrugged his shoulders, as was his custom, and said, "All this +rubbish will be answered, if not in my time, by posterity. It pleases +the chatterers and scandalmongers, and I haven't time to be perturbed, +or to meddle with it." + +It ill became the subjects of George IV. to attack Napoleon on the +side of morality. It is well enough known that the French Court during +the Empire was the purest in Europe. In his domestic arrangements, the +one thing that Napoleon was jealous of, above all others, was that +_his_ Court should have the reputation of being clean. He took +infinite pains to assure himself of this. His private amorous +connections are fully described by F. Masson, a Frenchman, and a +staunch admirer of his. But to accuse him of libertinism is an +outrage. He had mistresses, it is true, and it is said he would never +have agreed to the divorce of Josephine had it not been that Madame +Walewska (a Polish lady) had a son by him. (This son held high office +under Napoleon III.) But even in the matter of mistresses he was most +careful that it should not be known outside a very few personal +friends. As a matter of high policy it was kept from the eye of the +general public, and he gives very good reasons for doing so. Not +merely that it would have brought him into serious conflict with +Josephine, but he knew that in order to maintain a high standard of +public authority food for scandal must be kept well in hand.[17] + +His enemies, however, were adepts at invention, and although the moral +code of that period was at its lowest ebb, they pumped up a standard +of celibacy for the French Emperor that would have put the obligation +under which any of his priests were bound in the shade. So shocked +were they at the breaches of orthodoxy which were written and +circulated by themselves without any foundation to go upon, that they +advocated excommunication, assassination, anything to rid the world of +so corrupt a monster. But the moral dodge fell flat. It was not +exactly in keeping with the unconventionalities of the times, and, in +fact, they had carried their other accusations and grievances to so +malevolent a pitch, the straightforward and rugged tars aboard the +_Bellerophon_ and _Northumberland_ were drawn in touching sympathy +towards the man who had thrown himself into their hands in the fervent +belief that he would be received as a guest and not as a prisoner of +war. + +We know that he had other means of escape had he chosen to avail +himself of them. He had resolved after his abdication to live the time +that was left to him in retirement, and believing in the generosity of +the British nation, he threw himself on their hospitality. He had made +his way through a network of blockade when he returned from Egypt and +Elba, and looking at the facts as they are now before us, it is +preposterous to adhere to the boastful platitude that he was so hemmed +in that he had no option but to ask Captain Maitland to receive him as +the guest of England aboard the _Bellerophon_, and it may be taken +for granted that the resourceful sailors knew that he had many +channels of escape. They knew the _Bellerophon_ was a slow old tub, +and that she would be nowhere in a chase. + +Besides, it was not necessary for Napoleon to make Rochefort or +Rochelle his starting-point. The troops and seamen at these and the +neighbouring ports were all devoted to him, and would have risked +everything to save him from capture. He knew all this, but he was +possessed of an innate belief in the chivalry of the British +character, and left out of account the class of men that were in +power. He knew them to be his inveterate foes, but was deceived in +believing they had hearts. Their foremost soldier had taken an active +share in his defeat, and he acknowledged it by putting himself under +the protection of our laws. The honest English seamen who were his +shipmates on both ships were not long in forming a strong liking to +him, and a dislike to the treatment he was receiving. They felt there +was something wrong, though all they could say about it was that "he +was a d----d good fellow." + +Lord Keith was so afraid of his fascinating personality after his +visit to the _Bellerophon_ that he said, "D----n the fellow! if he +had obtained an interview with His Royal Highness, in half an hour +they would have been the best friends in England." In truth, Lord +Keith lost a fine opportunity of saving British hospitality from the +blight of eternal execration by evading the lawyer who came to +Plymouth to serve a writ of Habeas Corpus to claim the Emperor's +person, and the pity is that an honoured name should have been +associated with a mission so crimeful and an occasion so full of +illimitable consequences to England's boasted generosity. Except that +he too well carried out his imperious instructions, Lord Keith does +not come well out of the beginning of the great tragedy. The only +piece of real delicacy shown by Lord Keith to the Emperor was in +allowing him to retain his arms, and snubbing a secretary who reminded +him that the instructions were that _all_ should be disarmed. This +zealous person was told to mind his own business. + +Napoleon asks the Admiral if there is any tribunal to which he can +apply to determine the legality of him being sent to St. Helena, as he +protested that he was the guest and not the prisoner of the British +nation; and Keith, with an air of condescending benevolence, assures +him that he is satisfied there is every disposition on the part of the +Government to render his situation as comfortable as prudence would +permit. No wonder Napoleon's reply was animated, and his soul full of +dignified resentment at the perfidy that was about to be administered +to him under the guise of beneficence. + +Scott describes the interview with Keith as "a remarkable scene." He +says: "His (Napoleon's) manner was perfectly calm and collected, his +voice equal and firm, his tones very pleasing, the action of the head +was dignified, and the countenance remarkably soft and placid, without +any marks of severity." That is a good testimony from the author of +the "Waverley Novels," who was anything but an impartial biographer. +Not even the novelist's most ardent admirers (and the writer is one of +them) can give him credit for excessive partiality towards the hero +who was the first soldier, statesman, and ruler of the age, who not +only knew the art of conquering men as no other (not even Alexander) +had ever known it, but had the greater quality of knowing how to +conquer and govern himself under conditions that were unexampled in +the history of man. + +I say again, that apart from the violence of the treatment of the +Powers towards him (and they all had a shameful share in it), it was a +fatal blunder to send this great mind to perish on a rock when, by +adopting a more humane policy, his incomparable genius might have +been used to carry out the reforms he had set his mind on after his +return from Elba. The tumult which surrounded his career had changed; +he saw with a clear vision the dawn of a new era, and at once +proclaimed to Benjamin Constant and to the French nation his great +scheme of renewing the heart of things. He knew it would take time, +and he foresaw also that a combination of forces was putting forth +supreme efforts to destroy him. They were out for blood, and _he_ was +in too great a hurry. + +In one of his day-dreams at St. Helena he exclaimed, "Ah! if I could +have governed France for forty years I would have made her the most +splendid empire that ever existed!" + +His demand on fortune was too great, and notwithstanding the knowledge +he had of human nature, he could not check the torrent of treason that +had been sedulously nursed against him by his enemies until it ignited +the imagination of those whom he had a right to expect would stand +loyally by him in an hour of tribulation such as no other man had ever +experienced. + +It is true that he made history (brilliant history if you like) in +those latter days, but oh! the anguish and the baseness of it all. + +Caesar made history too; neither did _this_ ruler succeed altogether. +Brutus, his friend, forsook and dispatched him, and possibly that was +the most enviable finish to a great career. Did Napoleon fare better +than his prototype, inasmuch as he was not the victim of the +assassin's dagger? Intoxicated with the spirit of charity, his +conquerors decreed that he should be deported to a secluded place of +abode on a barren and unhealthy rock, there to be maintained at a cost +to the nation of L12,000 a year, and succumb as quickly as possible +like a good Christian gentleman. + +The presumption of Lord Keith in observing to Napoleon that it was +preferable for him to be sent to St. Helena than to be confined in a +smaller space in England or sent to France or Russia, and the +Emperor's supposed reply--"Russia! God preserve me from it!"--is +almost unbelievable, and in the light of what he constantly asserted +while England's captive, this expression may be regarded as a +fabrication. + +Whether it was an innate belief that Alexander of Russia was his +friend, or the fact that Francis of Austria was his father-in-law, he +certainly avowed--according to the St. Helena chroniclers--that if he +had surrendered to either of them he would have been treated, not only +with kindness, but with a proper regard as befitted a monarch who had +governed eighty-three millions of people, or more than the half of +Europe. But even if he were merely soliloquising, or wished to +convince himself and those he expressed this opinion to, it is hard to +think that any of the continental Powers would have risked the certain +consequences of having him either shot or ill-treated, and it is +extremely doubtful whether even in France there could have been found +a soldier that would have obeyed an order to shoot his former Emperor, +who had been requisitioned to return from Elba, and who so recently, +with only six hundred soldiers, made war against Louis with his two +hundred thousand and defeated and dethroned him. + +Nothing so magnificent has ever been known. This great man had +complete hold of the imagination and devotion of his common people and +soldiers. Even in the hour of defeat their loyalty was amazing. + +Various instances are given of this deep-rooted loyalty and affection. +Some of his Imperial Guards who were wounded at Waterloo killed +themselves on hearing that he had lost the battle, and many, who had +been thought to be dead, when brought to consciousness shouted "Vive +l'Empereur." The hospitals were full of dying men who uttered the same +cry. One was having his leg amputated, and as he looked at the blood +streaming from it, said that he would willingly give it all in the +service of Napoleon. Another, who was having a ball extracted from +his left side near the heart, shouted, "Probe an inch deeper and there +you will find the Emperor." + +The story of the old woman whom he and Duroc met during the second +campaign in Italy, and while climbing Mont Tarare, is a striking +illustration of how he was regarded by the poorer classes. She hated +the Bourbons and wanted to see the First Consul. Napoleon answered, +"Bah! tyrant for tyrant--they are just the same thing." "No, no!" she +replied; "Louis XVI. was the king of the nobles, Bonaparte is the king +of the people." This idea of the old woman was the universal feeling +of her class right through his reign. No writer has been able to give +proof that it was withdrawn, even when he was overwhelmed with +disaster which drained his empire of vast masses of its population. No +cruel inhuman despot could magnetise with an enduring fascination +multitudes of men and women as he did. It was not his incomparable +genius, nor his matchless military successes in battle. He was loved +because he was lovable, and was trusted because he inspired belief in +his high motives of amelioration of all down-trodden people. He ruled +with a stern but kindly discipline, and put a heavy hand on those who +had despotic tendencies. + +The Duchess of Abrantes, who smarted under some severe comments he +had made about her husband (Junot), the Duke of Abrantes, while at St. +Helena, has been generous enough to say many kind things of him in her +memoirs. One of her references to him is to this effect:--"All I know +of him" (and she knew him well from childhood) "proves that he +possessed a great soul which quickly forgets and forgives." She is +very fond of repeating in her memoirs that Napoleon proposed marriage +to her mother, Madame Permon, who was herself a Corsican and knew the +Bonaparte family well. + +Madame Junot relates another story which is characteristic of +Bonaparte. Such was the enthusiasm of the people on his march towards +Paris after landing from Elba, that when he was holding a review of +the National Guard at Grenoble, the people shouldered him, and a young +girl with a laurel branch in her hand approached him reciting some +verses. "What can I do for you, my pretty girl?" said the Emperor. The +girl blushed, then lifting her eyes to him replied, "I have nothing to +ask of your Majesty; but you would render me very happy by embracing +me." Napoleon kissed her, and turning his head to either side, said +aloud, with a fascinating smile, "I embrace in you all the ladies of +Grenoble." + +That Napoleon made mistakes no one will dispute; indeed, he saw +clearly, and admitted freely, in his solitude, that he had made many. +His minor fault (if it be right to characterise it as such) was in +extending clemency to the many rascals that were plotting his ruin and +carrying on a system of peculation that was an abhorrence to him. +Talleyrand, Fouche, and Bourrienne frequently came under his +displeasure and were removed from his service, but were taken back +after his wrath had passed. + +Miot de Melito speaks of them as "Bourrienne and other subordinate +scoundrels," and, indeed, Miot de Melito does not exaggerate in his +estimate of them. Fouche says that Bourrienne kept him advised of all +Napoleon's movements for 25,000 francs per month, besides being both +partner and patron in the house of Coulon Brothers, cavalry equipment +providers, who failed for L120,000. + +In 1805, Bourrienne was appointed Minister Plenipotentiary at Hamburg, +and during his stay there he made L290,000 by delivering permits and +making what is known as "arbitrary stoppages," and besides betraying +Bonaparte to the Bourbons, this vile traitor wrote to Talleyrand, a +few days after the abdication at Fontainebleau: "I always desired the +return of that excellent Prince, Louis XVIII., and his august family." +But these things are mere shadows of the incomparable villainy of +this thievish human jackdaw. + +His memoirs are said to have been written by an impecunious and +mediocre penman called Villemarest, who also wrote "Memoires de +Constant" (the Emperor's valet), and both books have been very +extensively read and believed. Men have got up terrific lectures from +them, authors have quoted from them whenever they desired an authority +to prove that which they wished themselves and their readers to +believe of trumped-up stories of Napoleon's despotism and evildoings. +Certainly, Bourrienne is the last and most unreliable of all the +chroniclers that may be quoted when writing a history of the Emperor. +Neither his character nor any of his personal qualities imbues the +impartial reader with confidence in either his criticisms or +historical statements. + +Men like Fouche, Talleyrand, and Bourrienne, and political women like +Madame de Remusat and Madame de Stael, all of whom were brought under +the Emperor's displeasure by their zealous aptitude in one way and +another for intrigue, disloyalty, and, so far as the men are +concerned, glaring dishonesty in money matters, have assiduously +chronicled their own virtues and declaimed against Napoleon's +incalculable vices, and this course was no doubt chosen in order to +avert the public gaze from too close a scrutiny into their own +perfidy. Their plan is not an unusual one under such circumstances; +rascals never scruple to multiply offences more wicked than those +already committed in order to prove that they are acting from a pure +sense of public morality and historical truth. If the object of their +attack be a benefactor, and one who has been obliged to rebuke or +dismiss them for misdeeds, great or small, then they assail him with +unqualified hostility. + +This unquestionably was the penalty paid by Napoleon for extending +clemency to men who, if they had been in the service of any other +monarch in Europe, would have been shut up in a fortress, or shot, the +moment their perfidies had been discovered. The pity is that so much +of this declamatory stuff has been so willingly believed and made use +of in order to defame the name of a sovereign whose besetting fault +was in relaxing just punishment bestowed on those who, he could never +altogether forget, were his companions in other days. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[12] Montholon wished to have the following simple inscription: +"Napoleon, ne a Ajaccio, le 15 Aout, 1769, mort a St. Helena, le 5 +Mai, 1821." + +[13] Horne's "History of Napoleon," vol. ii. + +[14] Horne's "History of Napoleon," vol. ii. + +[15] "Correspondence of Napoleon I." + +[16] Ibid. + +[17] Madame Walewska bore him two children. This caused him to develop +the idea of having an heir. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THREE GENERATIONS: MADAME LA MERE, MARIE LOUISE, AND THE KING OF ROME + + +It seems as though Hell had been let loose on this great man and his +family. The crowned heads of Europe and the plutocrats stopped at +nothing in order that they might make his ruin complete. They dare not +run the risk of putting him to death outright, but they engineered, by +means of willing tools, a plan that was unheard-of in its atrocious +character. They poured stories of unfaithfulness into the ears of a +faithless woman whose name will go down to posterity as an ignoble +wife and callous mother. She took with her into Austria the King of +Rome, a beautiful child who was put under the care of Austrian tutors. +He was watched as though he held the destinies of empires in the +hollow of his hand. His father's name was not allowed to fall on his +youthful ears, and more than one tutor was dismissed because he +secretly told him something of his father's fame. Treated as a +prisoner, spied upon by Metternich's satellites, not allowed to have +any visitors without this immortal Chancellor's permission, not +allowed to communicate with his father's family or with Frenchmen, +this pathetic figure, stuffed with Austrian views, is seized with a +growing desire to learn the history of his father, who declared in a +letter to his brother Joseph in 1814 that he would rather see his son +strangled than see him brought up in Vienna as an Austrian prince.[18] + +Prince Napoleon in his excellent book--"Napoleon and His +Detractors"--refers to the young Prince playing a game of billiards +with Marmont and Don Miguel, the former having been one of his +father's most important generals. He it was who betrayed him, and now +he is become the Duke's confidant and instructor. The Prince says that +his cousin asked to be told about the deeds that his father had done, +his fall, and exile. There does not appear to be any record in +existence as to what Marmont conveyed or withheld from the son of +Marie Louise, but there is much evidence to show that the young man +was not only an eager student of his father's career, but fully +realised his own importance and influence on European politics. + +It has been stated that until 1830 he really knew nothing of passing +events in the land of his birth. Obenaus, his tutor, states in his +diary, January 18, 1825: "During the afternoon walk, the political +relations of the Prince to the Imperial family and to the rest of the +world were discussed." Count Neipperg advised him to study the French +language, and his reply was: "This advice has not fallen on an +unfruitful or an ungrateful soil. Every imaginable motive inspires me +with the desire to perfect myself in, and to overcome the difficulties +of, a language which at the present moment forms the most essential +part of my studies. It is the language in which my father gave the +word of command in all his battles, in which his name was covered with +glory, and in which he has left us unparalleled memoirs of the art of +war; while to the last he expressed the wish that I should never +repudiate the nation into which I was born."[19] He further adds, "The +_chief_ aim of my life must be not to remain unworthy of my father's +fame." + +His grandfather, the Emperor Francis--who was reputed to be quite +devoted to him--said, "I wish that the Duke should revere the memory +of his father." "Do not suppress the truth," says he to Metternich +(the disloyal friend of Napoleon). "Teach him above all to honour his +father's memory." The Chancellor replies, "I will speak to the Duke +about his father as I should wish myself to be spoken of to my own +son." What irony! Whatever attempts were made at any time to +depreciate the Emperor, his son's loyalty to him never flinched. He +regarded his father in the light of a hero whose glorious traditions +were unequalled by any warrior or ruler of men. He drank in every +particle of information he could discover about his father's life, and +was by no means ignorant of what would be his own great destiny should +he be permitted to live. + +A strong party in France longed to have the son of their Emperor on +the throne of France. A section of the Poles clamoured to have him +proclaimed King of Poland after the Polish revolution, and the Greeks +claimed him as their future King. All existing records dealing with +the Prince's view concerning his position indicate quite clearly that +he never under-estimated his importance. He was fully alive to and +appreciated the growing devotion to himself, his cause, and to the +great name he bore. We learn from Marshal Marmont that the Prince +received him with marked cordiality when the Emperor Francis gave him +permission to relate to him his father's history. Marmont, like all +traitors, never neglected to put forth his popularity with the Emperor +Napoleon. This is a habit with people who do great injury to their +friends. They always make it appear that the injured person is +afflicted with growing love for them--they never realise how much they +are loathed and mistrusted. + +The Prince at first received him with suspicion, then he tolerated him +coldly, and it was not until Marmont fascinated him with stories of +the genius and unparalleled greatness of his father's history that the +young man subdued his prejudices and encouraged the Marshal in his +visits to his apartments, in order that he might learn all that +Marmont could tell him of his father's qualities and accomplishments. +The young Napoleon caused the General to marvel at the quick +intelligence he displayed in the pointed comments made on his father's +career. In recognition of his services Marmont was presented with a +portrait of the Prince.[20] + +His cousin, Prince Napoleon, son of King Jerome, in his book "Napoleon +and His Detractors," obviously desires to convey the impression that +all questions, important or unimportant, relating to the Emperor, were +studiously kept from his son, and until he arrived at a certain age +there can be little doubt that undue and unnatural precautions were +taken to prevent the Emperor's name being spoken, but the means used +for this purpose must have proved abortive, as everything points to +him having been well informed. He appears to have had an instinctive +knowledge that nullified the precautions of the Court of Vienna, and +especially its culpable Chancellor, Metternich, whose clumsy and +heartless treatment is so apparent to all students of history. +Probably this is the policy that prevailed up to 1830 which Prince +Napoleon complains of. Be that as it may, we are persuaded that the +Duke was not only well informed, but took a keen interest in the +events of his own and of his father's life, long before the advent of +Marmont as his tutor. For instance, on one occasion his friend, Count +Prokesch, dined with his grandfather in 1830, and at table the Prince +was afforded great pleasure in having the opportunity of conversing +with this distinguished man. The young Duke knew that Prokesch had +broken a lance in 1818 in defence of his father, and he eagerly +availed himself of the chance of saying some very complimentary things +to the Count. He informs him that he has "known him a long while, and +loved him because he defended his father's honour at a time when all +the world vied with each other to slander his name"; and then he +continues: "I have read your 'Battle of Waterloo,' and in order to +impress every line of it on my memory I translated it twice in French +and Italian."[21] Obviously this young man was neither a dunce nor +indolent when his father's fame and his own interests were in +question. + +One of the most remarkable features of this pathetic young life is the +intense interest his mother's husband began to take in him, and he +probably owed a great deal to the fact that Count Neipperg urged him +to make himself familiar with the glory of the Empire and his father's +deeds. Strange though it may appear, the son of the Great Napoleon and +the morganatic husband of his mother were attached to each other in +the most intimate way. If he perceived the immoral relations between +Neipperg and Marie Louise, the Duke never seems to have divulged it; +but taking into account the passionate love and devotion he had for +his father's memory, it is barely likely that he knew either of the +amorous connection or marriage having taken place between the Count +and his mother, otherwise he would have had something to say about it, +not only to Neipperg himself, but certainly to his friends Prokesch, +Baron Obenaus, and Count Dietrichstein, and very naturally his +grandfather. It may be that the circumstances of his life made him +cautious, and even cunning, in keeping to himself an affair that was +generally approved by the most interested parties, but it is hardly +likely that the spirit of natural feeling had been so far crushed out +of him as to forbid his openly resenting a further monstrous wrong +being done to his Imperial father. + +The young Prince was the centre of great political interest, and the +object of ungrudging sympathy and devotion of a large public in +Europe, and especially in France, and had his life been preserved a +few more years he would, in spite of obstacles and prejudices, have +been put on the throne of the land of his birth. + +Metternich, the inveterate trickster, does not appear to have had any +serious thought of encouraging the project of making the Duke Emperor +of the French. His subtle game was to use him as a terror to Louis +Philippe when that monarch became refractory or showed signs of +covetousness. + +The Prince carried himself high above sordid party methods. He was +proud of being heir to a throne that his father had made immortal and +he was determined not to soil it. If it was to be reclaimed, all +obstacles must be removed ere he would lend his countenance to it. +There must be a clear, uninterrupted passage. Thirty-four million +souls, it was claimed, were anxious for his restoration to France. +Amongst the leaders were to be found some of his father's old +companions in arms and in exile, amongst whom none were more +enthusiastic than the loyal and devoted Count Montholon, Bertrand, the +petulant and penitent Gourgaud, and Savary, Duke of Rovigo. These were +joined to thousands of other brave men who would have considered it an +honour to shed their last drop of blood for the cause, and in memory +of him whom they had loved so well. The two first-named were executors +to his father's will, in which Napoleon enjoins his son not to attempt +to avenge his death but to profit by it. He reminds him that things +have changed. He was obliged to daunt Europe by his arms, but now the +way is to convince her. His son is urged not to mount the throne by +the aid of foreign influence, and he is charged to deserve the +approbation of posterity. He is reminded that "MERIT may be pardoned, +but not intrigue," and that he is to "propagate in all uncivilised and +barbarous countries the benefits of Christianity and civilisation. +Religious ideas have more influence than certain narrow-minded +philosophers are willing to believe. They are capable of rendering +great services to humanity." + +These are only a few of the excellent thoughts transmitted to the +young man from the tragic rock whose memories will ever defame the +name of those who combined to commit a crime unequalled in political +history. + +It is none the less a phenomenon that this "abode of darkness," so +monstrous in the history of its perfidy, should be illumined by the +great figure that stamped its fame for evermore with his personality. + +One of the last and finest works of genius he did there was to draw up +a constitution for his son. It is doubtful whether Montholon ever +succeeded in conveying it to the Prince, who passed on before the +legitimate call to put it into practice came. + +The Powers that made holy war for the last time on the great soldier +with 900,000 men against his 128,000 arrogated the right to outlaw and +brand him as the disturber of public peace. I have already said this +was their ostensible plea, but the real reason was his determination +to exterminate feudalism and establish democratic institutions as soon +as he could bring the different factions into harmony. He failed, but +the colossal cost of his failure in men and money is unthinkable. His +subjugation left Great Britain alone with a debt, as already stated, +of eight hundred millions, and then there was no peace. + +The constitution intended for his son could have been very +beneficially applied to some of the nations represented at the +Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle by the allied sovereigns who declared him +an outlaw, and spent their time in allocating slices of other people's +territory to each other. The only nation that came badly out of the +Congress was Great Britain. + +This terrible despot, who was beloved by the common people and hated +by the oligarchy, left behind him a constitution that might well be +adopted by the most democratic countries. + +The first article--composed of six words: "The sovereignty dwells in +the nation"--stamps the purpose of it with real democracy. It might do +no harm to embody some of its clauses into our own constitution at the +present time. We very tardily adopted some of its laws long after his +death, and we might go on copying to our advantage. He was a real +progressor, but his team was difficult to guide. Had he been +conciliated and allowed to remain at peace, he would have democratised +the whole of Europe, but the fear of that, or the legitimacy idea, was +undoubtedly the great underlying cause of much of the trouble. The +mistrust and animus against the father was reflected upon the son, who +was practically a State prisoner. + +During childhood the Prince was strong and healthy, and his robust +physique caused favourable comment. It was not until 1819 that his +health became affected by an attack of spotted fever. This passed away +in a few weeks, but the decline of his health, which was attributed to +his rapid growth, dates from that period. He died prematurely on July +22, 1832, at Schoenbrunn, and the accounts which may be relied upon +indicate either wilfully careless or incompetent medical treatment. It +is even asserted that this heir to the throne of France, ushered in +twenty-one years before as the herald of Peace, was to be regarded as +a source of infinite danger, and for that barbaric reason his health +was allowed to be slowly and surely undermined until death took him +from the restraining influences and crimeful policy of the Courts of +Europe. Great efforts have been made to convince a sceptical public +that his early death was the result of youthful indiscretions, but +this is stoutly denied by Prokesch, who declares that he was a +strictly moral youth, and Baron Obenaus, in his diary, justifies this +opinion, if there was nothing else to support it. Moreover the same +Anton, Count Prokesch was asked by Napoleon III. to tell him the truth +as to the alleged love affairs, and he averred that the rumours were +without foundation. + +The King of Rome died at Schoenbrunn in the same room that his father +had occupied in 1809. In Paris a report was put about that he had been +poisoned by the Court of Vienna. This opinion has been handed down, +and there are many persons to-day who have a firm belief in its +possibility. + +Another common rumour, current in 1842, was that Metternich sent a +poisoned lemon by Prokesch, which had done its work, and even this +highly improbable story is not without reason believed, because +Metternich was known to be the most heartless cunning Judas in +politics at that time. He had betrayed the father of the Prince while +he was declaring the most loyal friendship. He admits this, nay, even +boasts of it, in his memoirs, and his shameful conduct has its reward +by having won for him the stigma of wishing for, and hastening on, the +death of an unfortunate young man for whom ordinary manliness should +have claimed compassion. This moral assassin of father and son +declared that he had "used all the means in his power to second the +hand of God" by trapping Napoleon into the clutches of the combined +moralists of Europe. The Usurper was to be ruined, then peace +proclaimed for evermore. That was their pretence, though it could not +have been their conviction. If it was, they were soon disillusioned. + +I made a long journey in company with a Danish statesman a few years +ago, and amongst other things that we conversed about was the reign +and fall of Napoleon. This gentleman held up his hands and said to me, +"Oh! what a blunder the criminal affair was. Had the Powers beheld the +mission of this man aright, what a blessing it would have been to the +world!"--and there is not much difficulty in supporting the view of +this Danish gentleman. The more one probes into the history of the +period, the more vivid the blunder appears. + +Metternich has the distinction of being eulogised by M. Taine, who was +neither fair nor accurate, and there is not much glory in being +championed by a man whose book is made up of libels. Metternich may +here be dismissed as being only one of many whose highest ambition was +to destroy the man whom the French nation had made their monarch. +Their aim was accomplished, but the spirit that evolved from the wreck +of the Revolution still lives on, and may rise again to be avenged for +the great crime that was committed. + +Whether the gifted and amiable son of the Emperor Napoleon was +despatched by the cruellest of all assassinations or came by his +premature death by neglect, or by natural and constitutional causes, +is a matter that may never be cleared up, though the actions of the +high commissioners in the nauseous drama cause lingering doubts to +prevail as to their innocence. It is certain that several determined +attempts were made to take the Prince's life, and large sums were +offered to desperadoes to carry out this murderous deed. Then the +Court of Vienna were in constant fear of his abduction. His +invitations to come to France were perpetual. + +A lady cousin--the Countess Napoleone Camerata, daughter of Elisa +Bacciochi, a sister of the Emperor, easily obtained a passport from +the Pope's Secretary of State, and coquetted so successfully with the +Austrian Ambassador, that he gave it a double guarantee of good faith +by signing it. This impetuous and eccentric female made her way +uninterruptedly to Vienna, found her cousin on the doorstep, made a +rush for him and seized his hand, then shouted, "Who can prevent my +kissing my sovereign's hand?" She also found means to convey letters +to him. There is not much said about this Napoleonic dash, but from +the records that are available the incident set the heroes--comprising +the allied Courts (including France)--into a flutter of excitement. +The fuss created by the enterprise of the pretty little Countess gives +a lurid insight into the wave of comic derangement which must have +taken possession of men's minds. + +This lady received a pension during the Third Empire, and in eighteen +years it mounted to over six million francs. She died in Brittany, +1869, and left her fortune to the Prince Imperial. + +That there was a determined and well-conceived plot to carry the Duke +off is undoubted, but the counter-plots prevailed against the more +ardent Bonapartists who were thirsting for a resurrection of the +glorious Empire. Prince Louis Napoleon, the eldest son of King Louis, +disagreed with the idea of his family. He looked upon the Emperor's +son as being an Austrian Prince, imbued with Austrian methods and +policy, and therefore dangerous to the best interests of France. This +Prince went so far as to hail with pleasure the crowning of Louis +Philippe. He died in 1831. In the following year his Imperial cousin +passed on too, and his demise was a great blow to the Bonapartists' +cause, and it well-nigh killed the aged Madame Mere, who had centred +all her hopes in him. Marie Louise announced his death, to his +grandmother and asks her to "accept on this sorrowful occasion the +assurance of the kindly feeling entertained for her by her +affectionate daughter," and here is the cold, dignified, crushing +reply from Madame Mere. It is dictated, and dated Rome, August 6, +1832:-- + + "Madame, notwithstanding the political shortsightedness which + has constantly deprived me of all news of the dear child whose + death you have been so considerate to announce to me, I have + never ceased to entertain towards him the devotion of a mother. + In him I still found an object of some consolation, but to my + great age, and to my incessant and painful infirmities, God has + seen fit to add this blow as fresh proof of His mercy, since I + firmly believe that He will amply atone to him in His glory for + the glory of this world. + + "Accept my thanks, madame, for having put yourself to this + trouble in such sorrowful circumstances to alleviate the + bitterness of my grief. Be sure that it will remain with me all + my life. My condition precludes me from even signing this + letter, and I must therefore crave your permission to delegate + the task to my brother." + +Never a word about the lady's relationship to her son or to herself. +Her reply is studiously formal, but every expression of it betokens +grief and thoughts of the great martyr whom the woman she was writing +to had wronged. There is not a syllable of _open_ reproach, though +there runs through it a polite, withering indictment that must +assuredly have cut deeply into the callous nature of this notorious +Austrian Archduchess who had played her son so falsely. + +This wonderful mother of a wonderful family seems to have been the +least suspected of political plotting of all the Bonapartists. She +was respected by all, and revered and beloved by many. Crowned heads +were not indifferent to her strength and nobility of character, but +the stupid old King who succeeded her son to the throne of France got +it into his head that she was harbouring agents in Corsica to excite +rebellion, and he thereupon had a complaint lodged against her. Pius +VII., who knew Madame Mere, sent his secretary to see her about this +supposed intrigue. She listened to what the representative of the Pope +had to say, and then with stern dignity began her reply:-- + +"Monseigneur, I do not possess the millions with which they credit me, +but let M. de Blacas tell his master Louis XVIII. that if I did, I +should not employ them to foment troubles in Corsica, or to gain +adherents for my son in France, since he already has enough; I should +use them to fit out a fleet to liberate him from St. Helena, where the +most infamous perfidy is holding him captive." + +Then she bowed reverently and left the room. + +This was indeed a slashing rebuff both to Pius VII. and the "Most +Christian King." + +Another very good story is told of this extraordinary old lady by H. +Noel Williams. It appears she persisted after the fall of the Empire +in using the Imperial arms on her carriage. + +"Why should I discontinue this symbol?" she asked. "Europe bowed to +the dust before my son's arms for ten years, and her sovereigns have +not forgotten it." + +On one occasion she was out driving when a block occurred. Two +Austrian officers, who were riding past, boldly looked into the +carriage. Madame Mere, observing the Austrian uniform, to which she +had an aversion, was excited to indignation, so letting down the +window she exclaimed to them, "What, gentlemen, is your pleasure? If +it is to see the mother of the Emperor Napoleon, here she is!" The +officers were naturally crestfallen. They respectfully saluted and +rode off. These stinging shots of hers were quite disturbing; they +always went home, and reached too far for the comfort of her son's +persecutors. + +Her letter to the allied sovereigns who met at Aix-la-Chapelle is one +of the most trenchant indictments that has ever been penned. Its +logic, its brave, though courteous, appeal for justice and +magnanimity, and above all the echo of motherly love which +characterises it, stamp it as a document worth cherishing. The last +paragraph will fascinate the imagination of generations yet to come, +and heavy judgment will be laid on those that were committing the +crime. + +"Reasons of State," she says, "have their limits, and _posterity_, +which _forgets nothing_, admires above everything the generosity of +conquerors." + +The allied sovereigns were afraid to answer the letter. Better for +their reputations if they had obviated the necessity of writing it. +The testimony of Pius VII. is that she was "a God-fearing woman who +deserved to be honoured by every prince in Christendom." + +A great joy came to Madame Mere in 1830, when they told her that the +Government had decided to replace the statue of Napoleon on the +Vendome Column. She went into ecstasies over this, but bewailed her +lameness (she had broken her thigh that year) and total blindness, +which would forever prevent her beholding the statue. She turned away +from these painful reflections and comforted herself with a few words +of sad humour, remarking that if she could have been in Paris as in +former days, God would have given her strength to climb to the top of +the column to assure herself that it was there. She refused to +separate her lot from that of her children, and would not accept the +proposal that the sentence of banishment should be repealed unless it +included all her family. This remarkable woman died February 2, 1836, +aged eighty-five, and Napoleon III. had the remains of his grandmother +and Cardinal Fesch removed to Ajaccio in 1851. Six years later the +remains were again removed and deposited in a vault constructed to +receive them in a church which was built subsequent to the first +interment at Ajaccio. + +Pity and strange it is that the Emperor's faithless second wife should +be noticed at all in history. Happily, very few even of those +historians who are anti-Napoleon have anything very complimentary to +say of her. She survived her son the King of Rome fifteen years, and +the earth claimed her in December, 1847, her age being fifty-six. Had +this amiable adulteress, who wished success to the allied armies +against her husband, lived a little longer, she would have witnessed +the humiliating spectacle of her father's successor being forced to +abdicate his throne in favour of the nephew of her Imperial husband, +whose memory all noble hearts revere, and whose sufferings, domestic +and public, will ever lie at the door of this woman who allowed +herself to be the base accomplice of a great assassination. The most +fitting reference to her death appeared in the _Times_ newspaper, +which said that "nothing in her life became her like the leaving it." +On April 15, 1821, in the third paragraph of his will, Napoleon, with +consistent magnanimity, if not wilful indifference to this passive, +icy female's abandonment of him, says: "I have always had reason to be +pleased with my dearest Marie Louise. I retain for her, to my last +moment, the most tender sentiments. I beseech her to watch, in order +to preserve my son from the snares which yet environ his infancy." +What irony! + +It is quite a reasonable proposition to suppose that Napoleon must +have had a secret suspicion of his wife's infidelity. It is even hard +to believe that he had not a full knowledge of her actual association +with Count Neipperg. It will be observed that while his reference to +her is dutiful, not to say tender, there is still something lacking, +as though he kept something snugly in the back of his head, something +like the following:--"I cannot make this historical document without +alluding to you for my son's sake, though I know full well you have +wronged me and consorted with my enemies and betrayers. I know all +this, but I am about to pass on, and true to my instincts of +compassion and to my Imperial dignity, I must carry my sorrow and +grief with me, and having given you as good a testimonial as I can, I +must leave you to settle accounts with posterity as to your conduct +towards me and your adopted country. I shall not do by you as you have +done. I hope full allowance will be made for all you have made me +suffer. Meanwhile, I am about to relieve the digestion of Kings by +passing to the Elysian Fields, there to be greeted by Kleber, Desaix, +Bessieres, Duroc, Ney, Murat, Massena, and Berthier, and we shall talk +of the deeds we have done together. Yes, Marie Louise, I bend under +the terrible yoke your father, his Chancellor, and the allied +satellites have made for me, and yet I keep these incomparable +warriors of Europe in a state of alarm. I wish you joy of your allies, +who have behaved so nobly to your husband in captivity. I have often +thought in my solitude, Louise, that it would have been a more popular +national union had I carried out my intention of taking for my second +wife a Frenchwoman. It may be that my marriage with you, consummated +by every token of peace and goodwill, was really the beginning of my +downfall. Ah! how much more noble of you to have followed me in my +adversity to Elba. You might have done great service to France and to +your native land, to say nothing of the possibility of breaking up the +coalition against me and saving rivers of blood. Waterloo might never +have been fought had you emulated your matchless sister-in-law, +Catherine of Westphalia, in her attitude of supreme womanhood, and +your fame might have surpassed that of Joan of Arc, and been handed +down to distant ages as an example of heroic firmness and devotion, +and then you would have been beatified by the Church and acclaimed a +saint by the people to which you belong. You shared with me the +unequalled grandeur of the most powerful throne on earth. I was +devoted to you and you betrayed me. Your father insisted that you +should break your marriage vow and found in you a willing accomplice +in the outrage committed against me. You had shared my throne, and I +had reason to expect that every human instinct would call you to my +side in my exile, and the thought that burns into my soul is that in +the infamy of years, posterity will not be reproached for averting its +eye from you as well as from that heartless father who requested you +to forsake me. Catherine of Westphalia did better. She defied her +father, and clung more closely to her husband when he needed all the +succour of a sympathetic being to comfort him in his hour of dire +misfortune. These gloomy thoughts are forced upon me by every law of +nature, and now that I have but a brief time left, I am impelled to +bequeath to you in the third paragraph of my last will and testament +some tender remembrance of you. I do this notwithstanding that you, +Marie Louise, Empress of the French, prayed to God that He would bless +the arms of the enemies of the land of your adoption. And then that +letter which I sent you from Grenoble in a nutshell on my way from +Elba to Paris to reclaim the throne which treason had deprived me of. +I requested you to come to me with my son the King of Rome. You +ignored that, as you did other communications which I sent, and which +I am assured you received. I make no public accusation against you. +_That_ would be undignified and unkingly." + +In spite of his apparent unaltered affection for his wife, Napoleon +reflectively made occasional remarks during his exile which indicated +that her conduct was much in his mind; and the foregoing portrayal of +his sentiments towards her may be regarded as a human probability. The +remarkable thing is that he should have made any reference at all to +this erotic woman in his will. It puzzled his companions in exile, who +knew well enough that she was the cause of much mental anguish to him. +It afflicted him so keenly on two notable occasions that he drew +pathetically a comparison between her conduct and that which would +have been Josephine's under similar circumstances. It is an +astonishing characteristic in Napoleon that he always forgave those +who had injured him most. + +In order to emphasise the spirit of forgiveness, he specially refers +to a matter that must have taken a lot of forgiving. In the sixth +paragraph of his will he says: "The two unfortunate results of the +invasions of France, when she had still so many resources, are to be +attributed to the treason of Marmont, Augereau, Talleyrand, and La +Fayette. I forgive them--may the posterity of France forgive them as I +do." Then in the seventh paragraph he pardons his brother Louis for +the libel he published in 1820, although, as he states, "It is replete +with false assertions and falsified documents." He heaps coals of fire +on Marie Louise by requesting Marchand to preserve some of his hair +and to cause a bracelet to be made of it with a little gold clasp. It +is highly probable that the wife of Count Neipperg would rather not +have been reminded of her amorous habits and other culpable conduct by +these little attentions. + +Neipperg, this foul and willing instrument of seduction, whose +baseness insults every moral law, suffered great agony for three years +from an incurable disease, and died in December, 1828, aged +fifty-seven years. The Kings and regicides in their ferocious fear had +made it an important part of their policy that Marie Louise should be +the pivot on which the complete ruin of Napoleon should centre, so +Neipperg was fixed upon as a fit and proper person to mould the +ex-Empress into passive obedience to the wishes of her husband's +inveterate enemies. Meneval notes that this man had already amours to +his credit. He had indeed run away with another man's wife, and had +issue by her. Probably his amorous reputation influenced the +oligarchy in their choice. + +In order that the plan might be carried out, he adroitly improvised +falsehood, poured into her ears stories of faithlessness on the part +of her Imperial husband, read books and pamphlets manufactured and +exactly suited for the purpose he had in view. His instructions were +to carry things as far he could get them to go, and he did this with +revolting success. + +God's broad earth has not known a more ugly incident than that of +carrying personal hatred and political cowardice to such a pitch of +delirium as that of forcing a weak woman to forsake her husband, +sacrifice the interests of her child, and tempt her to break her +marriage vow in order that her husband's ruin might be more completely +assured. As a matter of high policy its wickedness will never be +excelled. + +At the death of her morganatic husband Marie Louise became +"inconsolable." She gave orders for a "costly mausoleum to be put up +so that her grief might be durably established." In reply to a letter +of condolence written to her by the eminent Italian, Dr. Aglietti, in +which he seems to have made some courteous and consoling observations, +she says "that all the efforts of art were powerless, for it is +impossible to fight against the _Divine Will_. You are very right in +saying that time and religion can alone diminish the bitterness of +such a loss. Alas! the former, far from exercising its power over me, +only daily increases my grief." This "amiable," grief-stricken royal +sham, overcharged with expressions of religious fervour, succumbs +again to her natural instincts. "Time," she avers, "cannot console," +but only increases the depth of her grief for "our dear departed." + +Her sentiments would be consummately impressive were it not that we +know how wholly deceitful she was without in the least knowing it. But +the creeping horror of time is quickly softened by her marriage in +1833 to a Frenchman called De Bombelles, who was in the service of her +native land, and is said to have had English blood in his veins. In +spite of the loyal effort of Meneval to make her ironic procession +through life appear as favourable as he can, the only true impression +that can be arrived at is that she was without shame, self-control, or +pity. + +A strange sympathiser of Napoleon in his dire distress was a daughter +of Maria Theresa and a sister of Marie Antoinette--Queen Marie +Caroline, grandmother to Marie Louise. She had regarded the Emperor of +the French with peculiar aversion, but when his power was broken and +he became the victim of persecution, this good woman forgot her +prejudices, sent for Meneval, and said to him that she had had cause +to regard Napoleon at one time as an enemy, but now that he was in +trouble she forgot the past. She declared that if it was still the +determination of the Court of Vienna to sever the bonds of unity +between man and wife in order that the Emperor might be deprived of +consolation, it was her granddaughter's duty to assume disguise, tie +sheets together, lower herself from the window, and bolt. + +There is little doubt the dexterous and spirited old lady gave Louise +sound advice, and had she acted under her holy influence, her name +would have become a monument of noblemindedness, a lesson, in fact, +against striking a vicious, cowardly blow at the unfortunate. It is +moreover highly probable that Queen Caroline felt, at the time, that +the political marriage of her granddaughter to the French Emperor was +ill-assorted and tragic, but the deed having been done, she upheld the +divine law of marriage. Besides, she knew that Napoleon had been an +indulgent, kind husband to the uneven-minded girl, and that, whatever +his faults may have been, it was her duty to comfort him and share in +his sorrow as she had so amply shared in his glory. Hence she urges a +reunion with the exile, but the ex-Empress may have made it +impossible ere this to enjoy the consoling sweets of conjugal +companionship, and her subsequent conduct makes it more than likely +that she was too deeply compromised to abandon the vortex and face the +penalty of the errors she had committed. + +"I could listen," says Napoleon, "to the intelligence of the death of +my wife, my son, or of all my family, without a change of feature--not +the slightest emotion or alteration of countenance would be visible. +But when alone in my chamber, _then_ I suffer. Then the feelings of +the man burst forth." + +We are not accustomed to think of this strong personality as being +overcome with soft emotions. We have regarded him as the +personification of strength, and yet with all his gigantic power over +men and himself, he had a real womanly supply of human tenderness. +Once he was seen weeping before the portrait of his much beloved son, +whom he called "Mon pauvre petit chou." "I do not blush to admit," +said he on a memorable occasion, "that I have a good deal of a +mother's tenderness. I could never count on the faithfulness of a +father who did not love his children." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[18] "Correspondance de Napoleon," vol. 128, p. 133. + +[19] Quoted from De Wertheimer's "Duke of Reichstadt," p. 330. + +[20] See "Memoirs." + +[21] See "Memoirs." + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE OLIGARCHY, THEIR AGENTS AND APOLOGISTS + + +It would be an easy task to enlarge on the excellent qualities of this +wonderful man. Volumes could be written about this phase of his +dazzling career alone, and yet we have miscreants such as Talleyrand +proclaiming to the Conference of "Christian Kings" and traitors that +the greatest, most powerful, and most humane prince of the age "must +be exterminated like a mad dog." The news of his flight from Elba and +arrival in Paris, vociferously acclaimed by the French people as their +lawful sovereign, threw this band of parasites into apoplectic terror; +Talleyrand, of all creatures, dictating to the Conference as to the +wording of the proclamation that should be issued outlawing his +Emperor, whom he and they styled "Usurper." If it were not so +outrageous a violation of decency, we would look upon it as the most +comical incident notified in history. Talleyrand, the most +accomplished traitor and barefaced thief in Europe, except perhaps +Bourrienne, he who could not prevent himself from fumbling in his +sovereign's and everybody else's pockets whenever the opportunity +occurred, to be allowed to sit in conference with the anointed rulers +of Europe is really too comic. + +Napoleon was styled "Usurper" by these saintly Legitimists, not one of +whom attained kingship so honourably and legitimately as the man whom +they had sworn to destroy, even though the whole of Europe were to be +drenched in blood by the process of it. They set themselves to +disfranchise and usurp the rights of the French people, who had only +just again ratified by millions of votes his claim to the throne, and +the gallant and heroic response to their requisition that he should +leave Elba and become their ruler again. Surely it will never be +contended that Napoleon's claims were less legitimate than those of +the Prince of Orange, or the Elector of Hanover, or Frederic William +the great Elector, whose sole qualification for kingship consisted in +having the instincts of a tiger. Of the latter Lord Macaulay says, +"His palace was hell, and he the most execrable of fiends." His sole +ambition seemed to be to pay fabulous sums for giant soldiers, and he +showed an inhuman aversion to his son, afterwards known as Frederic +the Great, and his daughter Wilhelmina. He was as ignorant and +ill-conditioned a creature as could be found in the whole world, a +cowardly rascal who found pleasure in kicking ladies whom he might +meet in the street and ordering them "home to mind their brats." No +more need be said of the father of the great Frederic, whose "Life" +took Thomas Carlyle thirteen years in searching musty German histories +to produce. Carlyle says, "One of the reasons that led me to write +'Frederic' was that he managed not to be a liar and charlatan as his +century was"; and indeed his adoration for Frederic is quite +pardonable. He had spent thirteen years of his life in the supreme +effort of making him a hero, and his great work, contained in eight +volumes, is a matchless piece of literature; but there is nothing in +it to justify anyone believing that Frederic was neither a liar nor a +charlatan. It is true Frederic finished better than he began, but +truthfulness and honesty were not conspicuous virtues of his. He lied, +broke faith, and plundered wherever and whenever it suited his +purpose, and some of his other vices were unspeakable. There is no +doubt he was both a quack and a coward when he broke the Pragmatic +Sanction and began to steal the territory of Maria Theresa. The powers +of England, France, Spain, Russia, Poland, Prussia, Sweden, Denmark, +the Germanic body, all had agreed by treaty to keep it. Had he been an +honourable man and possessed of the qualities Carlyle credits him +with, he would have stood by his oath. Instead of defending his ally, +he pounced upon her like a vulture, and plunged Europe into a +devastating, bloody war, with the sole object of robbery; and all he +could say for himself in extenuation of such base conduct was: +"Ambition, interest, the desire of making people talk about me, +carried the day; and I decided for war." + +Truly Frederic was not a good man, and his reputation for being great +was mainly acquired because the Powers and circumstances allowed him +to succeed after seven long years of sanguinary conflict. + +Indeed, there was not a single act in the whole of Napoleon's career +that approaches the lawlessness and cruelty of Frederic. He really +usurped nothing, and Frederic usurped everything that he could put his +hands on, regardless of every moral law; but then he ignored all moral +laws. There is no need for comparison, but it is just as well to point +out that the plea of legitimacy is very shallow, and the contention of +the Allies is an amazing burlesque emanating from the brains of an +industrious mediocrity. + +These legitimate monarchs, through their Ministers, used barefacedly +to inspire journalists to write the doctrine of waste of blood as +being a natural process of dealing with the problem of overpopulation. +History is pregnant with proof that their cry for peace was an +impudent hypocrisy. They might have had it at any time, but this did +not suit their policy of legitimacy. Countless thousands of human +beings were slaughtered to satisfy the aversion of kings and nobles to +the plan of one man who towered above them, and insisted on breaking +up the nefarious system of feudalism and kingship by divine right. +They loathed both him and his system. They plotted for his +assassination, and intrigued with all the ferocity of wild animals +against his humane and enlightened government. He trampled over all +their satanic dodges to overthrow the power that had been so often +enthusiastically placed in his hands by the sovereign people. He +constructed roads and canals, and introduced new methods of creating +commerce. He introduced a great scheme of expanding education, +science, art, literature. Every phase of enlightenment was not only +initiated, but made compulsory so far as he could enforce its +application. He re-established religion, and gave France a new code of +laws that are to this day notoriously practical, comprehensive, and +eminently just. + +He not only re-established religion, but he upheld the authority of +the Pope as the recognised head of the Roman Church. He built his +"pyramids in the sea," established a free press, and declared himself +in favour of manhood suffrage. He included in his system a unification +of all the small continental States, and was declaimed against as a +brigand for doing it. Wherever his plans were carried out the people +were prosperous and happy, so long as they were allowed to toil in +their own way in their fields and in other industrial pursuits. + +It was the perpetual spirit of war that overshadowed the whole of +Europe which prevented his rule from solving a great problem. He, in +this, was invariably the aggrieved. The plan which he had carried into +practical solution was wrecked by the allies, and in less than a +century after the great reformer had been removed from the sphere of +enmity and usefulness, Prince Bismarck forced these small States into +unification with the German Empire, thereby carrying into effect the +very system Napoleon was condemned for bringing under his suzerainty. +What satire, what malignity of fate, that Bismarck, a positive +refutation of genius in comparison with the French Emperor, should +succeed in resurrecting the fabric that the latter had so proudly +built up for France, only to be in a few short years the prize of +Germany, recognised by the very Powers who fought with such embittered +aggressiveness against the great captain and statesman who made not +only modern France, but modern Europe; and who at any time during his +reign could, by making a sign, as he has said, have had the nobles of +France massacred. These bloodsucking creatures were always in the road +of reform, always steeped overhead in political intrigue, always +concerned in plots against the life of Napoleon, and always shrieking +with resentment when they and their accomplices were caught. Some +writers are so completely imbued with the righteousness of murdering +Napoleon, they convey the impression that when any attempt failed, the +perpetrators, instead of being punished, should have had the +decoration of the Legion of Honour placed upon them by himself. They +are also quite unconscious that they are backing a mean revenge and an +awful mockery of freedom when they eloquently shout "Hosanna!" + +According to them St. Helena was the only solution of the problem, if +it may be so called, and the Powers who sent him there must have had +an inspiration from above. They have no conception that the Allies +perpetrated another crucifixion on the greatest and (if we are to +judge him by _reliable_ records) the best man of the nineteenth +century. Ah! fickle France! you are blighted with eternal shame for +having allowed these cowardly vindictive conspirators, popularly +called the Allies, to besmear _you_, as well as themselves, with the +blood of a hero. + +France had resources at her command which could and should have been +used to drive the invaders beyond her boundaries. Frenchmen can never +live down the great blunder of abandoning their Emperor, forsaking +themselves and the duty they owed to their native land. They forsook +in the hour of need all that was noble and honourable, and cast +themselves into a cauldron of treason, such as has never been heard of +in the world's history. They were soon disillusioned, but it was then +too late. The poison had done its work, and France was placed under +the subjection of traitors, place-hunters and foreign Powers for many +years to come. + +I have already said that Louis XVIII. was put on the throne, not by +the French people, but by their conquerors and their myrmidons. He did +not long survive his ignoble accession. Then came Charles X., who had +to fly to Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh because he governed so ill. His +qualification to rule was in putting down all reform and liberty; +after him came Louis Philippe, but even he only governed on +sufferance, though on the whole he occupied an onerous position with +creditable success. A monarch who rules under the tender mercies of a +capricious people, and worse still, a capricious and not too +scrupulous monarchy of monarchs, is not to be envied, and this was +exactly the position of Louis Philippe. He was beset by the noisy +clamour of many factions, besides having to keep a shrewd eye on those +lofty men to whom he had to look with perpetual nervous tension for +the stability and endurance of his throne. He knew the heart of the +nation was centred on St. Helena, and that a wave of repentance was +passing over the land. The people wished to atone for the crime they +allowed to be committed in 1815. + +Louis Philippe showed great wisdom and foresight. Nothing could have +been done with more suitable delicacy than the negotiations which +caused the British Government to consent to give the remains of the +Emperor up to the French. The air of importance and swagger put into +it by Lord Palmerston is supremely farcical, but then the whole +senseless blunder from beginning to end was a farce, which does not +redound to our credit. It is incredible that a nation so thickly +stocked with men of ability in every important department should have +had the misfortune to have her affairs entrusted to Ministers and +officials who were childishly incompetent and ludicrously vindictive. +Men of meagre mental calibre, who hold office under the Crown or +anywhere else, are invariably fussy, pompous, overbearing, and +stifling with conceit. This condition of things was in full swing +during the Napoleonic regime and captivity, and that is the period we +are concerned about. There does not appear to have been a single man +of genius in Europe but himself. The population of France who were +contemporary with him during his meteoric leadership remembered him as +a matchless reformer and an unconquerable warrior. Their devotion and +belief in his great gifts had sunk deeply into their being. A couple +of generations had come into existence from 1815 to 1840, but even to +those who knew him only as a captive, he was as much their Emperor and +their hero and martyr as he was to his contemporaries. The pride of +race, the glory of the Empire and of its great founder, was suckled +into them from the time of birth, and as they grew into manhood and +womanhood they became permeated with a passionate devotion to his +cause. They claimed that his deliverance to the people "he loved so +well" was a right that should not be withheld. The spirit of sullen +determination that he should be given up had taken deep root. They had +arrived at the point when the igniting of a spark would have created +a conflagration. There was to be no more chattering. They meant +business, and were resolved that they would stand no more red-tape +fussy nonsense from either their Government or the Government who kept +a regiment of British soldiers to guard his tomb, lest he should again +disturb the peace of Europe. They let it be known that no more of that +kind of humbug would be tolerated without reprisals, and the hint was +taken. Louis Philippe grasped the situation, and formed an expedition +with his son Prince Joinville as chief, who was accompanied by Baron +Las Cases, member of the Chamber of Deputies; General Count Bertrand; +M. l'Abbe Conquereau, almoner to the expedition; four former servants +of Napoleon--viz., Saint Denis and Noverraz, valets-de-chambre; +Pierron, officer of the kitchen; and Archambaud, butler--Marchand, one +of the executors, and the quarrelsome and disloyal General Gourgaud, +of whom we may have something more to say further on. This same +Gourgaud, who lied so infamously about his Imperial benefactor when he +landed in London, has said that "he could not express what he felt +when he again found himself near that extraordinary being, that giant +of the human race, to whom he had sacrificed all and to whom he owed +all he was." These thoughts, and many more not uttered, would come to +him when he stood beside the sepulchre of the master whom he had so +grievously wronged and who was now and henceforth to be recognised as +having been the "legitimate ruler of his country." + +Count Montholon, the most devoted and most constant follower of +Napoleon and his family, was not of the expedition. He was engaged in +helping the nephew of his hero to ascend the throne of his illustrious +uncle, and the effort landed them both in the fortress of Ham. Louis +Philippe and his Ministers were very jealous of anyone sharing in any +part of the glory of having Napoleon brought to the banks of the +Seine. Hence, when King Joseph and Prince Louis Napoleon offered the +arms of the Emperor to the nation, the King refused them, but +prevailed upon General Bertrand to give them to him, that he might +give them to the nation. Napoleon had given the sword he wore at +Austerlitz and his arms to Bertrand when on his deathbed. Prince Louis +could not stand the great captain's name being trumpeted about for +other people's glory. He claimed that it belonged to him. He was the +legitimate heir to all its glory, and this too previous assumption got +him imprisoned in Ham for asserting what he protested was his right. + +Meanwhile the _Bellepoule_ goes lumbering along, impeded by calms and +gales, but anchored safely off Jamestown on October 8, 1840. Of course +many formalities had to be carried out, so that the exhumation did not +commence until the 15th at midnight. They came upon the coffin at ten +in the forenoon, opened it, and found the body well preserved. Thereon +everyone was overcome with emotion. After the coffin was deposited +with profound solemnity and the national flag placed over it, the +honours which would have been paid to the Emperor had he been living +were paid to his remains on October 18, 1840. + +The expedition set sail, and had only been a few days out when the +captain of a passing vessel called the _Hamburg_ informed Prince +Joinville that war between France and Great Britain was imminent, and +two or three days later this was confirmed by circumstantial +information to him by a Dutch vessel called the _Egmont_. Officers of +the two other vessels of the expedition were ordered aboard the +_Bellepoule_, a council of war held, and a determined resistance +resolved upon. The decks were cleared for action, guns were mounted, +and every form of princely comfort dispensed with. The son of Louis +Philippe added lustre to the name of Bourbon by the heroic decision +that, whatever the fortune of battle might be, he would sink his ship +rather than allow the remains of the Emperor to fall into the hands +of the British again. The resolve was worthy of Napoleon himself. + +Every precaution was taken to evade capture, but as the information +proved to be unfounded, the expedition was not interrupted by hostile +cruisers, nor even by contrary winds, and long before it was expected +the historic frigate sailed quietly into the harbour of Cherbourg at +5.0 a.m. on November 30, 1840. She had made the passage from St. +Helena in forty-two days. Then the great and unexampled triumph +commenced. + +Europe was a second time in mourning, bowing its head in reverence and +shame. Never have there been such universal tokens of condemnation of +the captivity and the creatures who engineered it, and never such +unequalled joy and homage as were paid to the memory of the great +dead. During the eight days the lying-in-state lasted, more than two +hundred thousand people came to the Invalides daily. Thousands never +got within the coveted grounds, yet they came in increasing numbers +each successive day, notwithstanding the rigour of the biting weather. + +It may be said that the whole world was moved with the desire to show +sympathy with this unsurpassed national devotion and worldwide +repentance. His remains are now in the church of the Invalides, where +the daily pilgrimage still goes on. The interest in the victim of the +stupidity of the British Administration never flags. Each day the dead +Emperor is canonised, and his prophetic words that posterity would do +him justice are being amply fulfilled. + +The Christian Kings that made saintly war on Napoleon, and combined to +commit an atrocious crime in the name of the founder of our faith, +were dead. God in His mercy had dispensed with their sagacious +guidance in human affairs, and it may be they were paying a lingering +penalty for the diabolical act at the very time their prisoner's ashes +reached the shores of his beloved country and convulsed it with +irrepressible joy. They and many of their accomplices were gone. Four +Popes had reigned and passed on to their last long sleep. The Spanish +nation, which contributed to his downfall, had been smitten with the +plague of chronic revolution. They had been deprived of the great +guiding spirit who alone could administer that wholesome discipline +which was so necessary to keep the turbulent spirits in restraint. +Only Bernadotte, whom Napoleon had put in the way of becoming King of +Norway and Sweden, remained to represent the galaxy of Kings. A few of +the traitor Marshals were left, but Augereau had died soon after the +banishment and Berthier had committed suicide a few day before the +Battle of Waterloo by jumping out a window. Soult, Oudinot, and the +guilty Marmont were in evidence in these days of great national +rejoicing. Davoust, Jourdan, Macdonald, and Massena had passed behind +the veil. It was the defection of Berthier and Marmont, whom he +regarded as his most trusted and loyal comrades-in-arms, that crushed +the Emperor at the time of the first abdication. It was a cruel stab, +which sunk deep into his soul, and never really healed, but the most +heartless incident in connection with this betrayal was the +appointment of Marmont, the betrayer, by the Emperor Francis to be the +military instructor of Napoleon's son while he was held in captivity +and ignorance at Vienna. + +Fouche, whose treason and predatory misdeeds should have had him shot +long before the dawn of disaster to the Empire came, joined the +Ministry of Louis XVIII., whom he had arduously assisted to the +throne, but in 1816 he was included in the decree against the +murderers of Louis XVI., and had to make himself scarce. He went to +Prague, then to Trieste, and died there in 1820. + +Talleyrand died at Paris in 1838. + +Both men were unscrupulous intriguers, without an atom of moral sense +or loyalty, and both possessed ability, differing in kind, perhaps, +which they used in the accomplishment of their own ends. France can +never overestimate the great evil these two men did to the national +cause. Napoleon's power and penetrating vision kept them in check only +when he could grasp the nettle. Even when absent on his campaigns, +they knew he was kept in close touch with what was going on. It was +not until treason became entangled within treason that their evil +designs had fuller scope and more disastrous results. Bourrienne, +another rascal already referred to in this book, lost his fortune and +his reason in 1830, and died in a lunatic asylum at Caen of apoplexy +in February, 1834. It is a notable fact that nearly the whole of the +prominent figures in the drama of the Empire and its fall had passed +beyond the portal before the great captain's remains were brought back +to France. These individuals are only remembered now as uninspired +small men, benighted in mind, who had wrought ignobly to bring about +the fall of a powerful leader, and to the end of their days were +associated with and encouraged a fiendish persecution of the Emperor +while he lived, and of his family before and after his death. + +But the pious care of his tomb by a regiment of British soldiers, paid +for by British taxpayers, from 1821 until the patriotic exhumation in +1840; by stately and solemn permission of the British Government, +excels the comic genius of a gang of plethoric parochial innkeepers. +If it were not so degrading to the national pride of race, we might +regard it as taking rank amongst the drollest incidents of human life. +What a gang of puffy, mildewed creatures were at the head British +affairs in those days! Indeed, they expose the human soul at its +worst, and a curious feature is their ingrained belief in the +integrity of all their doings, which beggars the English vocabulary +describe. How the people tolerated the drain on human life and the +material resources of country is also phenomenal. + +Thousands of lives were sacrificed and millions of money squandered, +with the sole object of destroying and humiliating one man, who, had +he been handled discreetly, would have proved greater public asset +than he was. Sir Hudson Lowe would not be known to posterity but for +the guilty part he played in the tragedy. He left St. Helena on July +25, 1821, and was presented on the eve of his departure with an +address from the inhabitants. It has been said that document was +inspired from Plantation House, but that is scarcely credible. +Besides, we are not inclined to discount any credit Lowe and his +friends and accomplices can derive from it. It does not glow with +devotion nor regret at his resigning his command. Indeed, it is +nothing more nor less than a cold, polite way of bidding him farewell. +Forsyth makes much of this, with the object of proving his popularity +with the islanders and the itinerant persons in the service of the +Crown. He only makes his case worse by embarking on so hopeless a +task. As a matter of fact, this extraordinary representative of the +British Government had roused the whole population of St. Helena at +one time and another to a pitch of passion and scorn that puts it +beyond doubt that no genuine regret could have been consistently +expressed by a single soul, except those few composing his staff, who +were as guilty as himself and were always ready to lick his boots for +a grain of favour; and yet it is quite certain, notwithstanding the +heroic fooleries and the care to make Plantation House a sanctuary of +guilty secrecy, there was nothing that transpired, either important or +unimportant, concerning the inhabitants of Longwood, that was not +promptly passed along. Needless to say, these communications relieved +the dull monotony of the exiles, and even Gourgaud was driven to +cynical mockery by the ridiculous character of some of the piteous +stories that filtered through. There never was any difficulty in +verifying the truth of them when it was thought necessary or useful to +do so. On the authority of Lowe's biographer, we are told that this +immortal High Commissioner was presented to his precious sovereign on +November 14, 1821, and was on the point of kissing his hand, but His +Majesty, overwhelmed with the preeminence of the great man who stood +before him, indicated that there was to be no kissing of hands. His +services to his King and country demanded a good shake of the hand and +hearty congratulations from His Christian Majesty. Lowe's arduous and +exemplary task was admitted with tears in the kingly eyes, and so +overcome was His Majesty that he took Lowe's hand again, and shook it +a second time, combining with the handshake a further flow of grateful +thanks and the appointment to a colonelcy of the 93rd Regiment These +compliments were well deserved, coming, as they did from a monarch +whose will he had discharged with such brutal fidelity. But what of +the afterthought, the reaction which began to hum round his ears +almost immediately after this fulsome display of enthusiastic +approbation? A vast public, never in favour of the Government's +vaunted policy of heroism over an unfortunate foe, swung round with a +vengeance. The indignation against the perpetrators of this cruel +assassination had no bounds. It was not confined to Britain. The +civilised world was shocked. The willing tool of the Government got +the worst of it, and the perfidy will cling to his name throughout +eternity. + +O'Meara's book, "A Voice from St. Helena; or, Napoleon in Exile," +published in 1822, sold like wildfire. In vain Bathurst, Castlereagh, +and Liverpool tried to check the flood of public censure that poured +in upon them from everywhere. Sir Hudson Lowe, beside himself with +apprehension, appealed to them for protection, but none was +forthcoming. Indeed, they were too busy searching out some means by +which the blow could be eased off themselves, and with studious +politeness left their accomplice to plan out his defence as best he +could; and the world knows what a sorry job he made of it. His +coadjutors in the great tragedy were not the kind of people to share +any part of the public censure that could be reflected on to their +gaoler. Pretty compliments had been paid to him by the King and some +of his Ministers previous to the realisation of the full force of +public indignation. Bathurst sent him a letter in 1823 reminding him +that his treatment had been beyond that of ordinary governors, that he +was working out an idea of having him recommended to a West Indian +governorship, and that he was not to suppose that this gracious +interest in him was in order to silence the clamour that was being +raised against him. This communication was made in November, and in +December Lowe was told that he was to go to Antigua as Governor. For +special reasons this favour was refused, and two years afterwards he +accepted command of the forces at Ceylon, and was still there when Sir +Walter Scott's exculpation of the British Government appeared in 1828. +Scott was employed for that special purpose. + +The ex-Governor searched the pages of this extraordinary work for a +vindication of himself, but never a word that could be construed into +real approval was there. He obtained leave of absence from the +Governor of Ceylon and made his way to England, ostensibly to +vindicate his character. He landed at St. Helena, paid a visit to +Longwood, otherwise known as the "Abode of Darkness" since the +Imperial tenant named it so when he gave O'Meara his benediction on +the occasion of his last parting from him, when he was banished from +the island. Sir Hudson was shocked at seeing the place reverted back +to a worse state than it was previous to the exiles being forced into +it. Then it was a dirty, unwholesome barn, overrun with vermin; now it +was worse than a piggery. The aspect touched a tender chord in this +man who had been the cause of making the Emperor's compulsory sojourn +a sorrowful agony. + +Reflections of all that happened during those five memorable years +must have crowded in upon him and racked him with feelings of bitter +remorse for his avoidable part in the cruel drama; and as he stood +upon the spot that had been made famous by England's voluntary +captive, it was not unnatural that he should have been overcome by a +strange and possibly a purifying sadness. All of that which he had +regarded in other days, under different conditions, as unjustifiable +splendour had vanished. The Imperial bedroom and study were now made +use of to accommodate and give shelter to cows, horses, and pigs. +Other agricultural commodities were strewn about everywhere. Nothing +was left that would indicate that it was consecrated to fame and +everlasting pity. The triumph of death came to it only some six years +before. And now Sir Hudson Lowe, we doubt not, filled with pensive +regret, looked down on the nameless tomb of the great captain, guarded +by sentinels with fixed bayonets, ready to thrust them into any +unauthorised intruder into the sacred precincts of the Valley of +Napoleon, or the Geranium Valley, which is also known by the name of +Punch Bowl. + +Ah! what thickly gathering memories must have come to him in that +solemn hour on that smitten rock of bitter and brutal vengeance! All +we shall ever know of that melancholy visit as it really affected Lowe +has been told by his biographer. We are left to imagine a good deal, +and therefore must conclude that he would be less than human if he did +not realise that the shadow of retribution was pursuing him. If his +thoughts of himself were otherwise, he was soon to be disillusioned. + +He spent three days on the Rock, and had a good reception and +send-off, and ere long made his appearance in London and presented +himself to his quasi-friend, Bathurst, who, with an eye to his own and +his colleagues' interests, discouraged the idea of publishing an +answer to Sir Walter Scott's book. Bathurst, in fact (with unconscious +drollery), advised Lowe to hurry back to Ceylon without delay, lest +meanwhile a vacancy of the governorship should occur and he might lose +his opportunity. He was assured of the Government's appreciation of +him as their most trusted and loyal public servant, while as a matter +of fact it was ludicrously obvious that his presence was quite as +objectionable to them in England as it was to the exiles in St. +Helena. He was fully alive to, and did not underestimate, the amount +of dirty work he had done for them, and very properly expected to be +amply rewarded. It never occurred to him that retribution was +over-shadowing them as well as himself, and that they could not openly +avow their displeasure at the odium he was the cause of bringing on +the Government and on the British name by reason of his having so +rigidly carried out their perfidious regulations. Had public opinion +supported them, their action would have been claimed as a sagacious +policy, but it didn't, so this poor, wretched, tactless, incompetent +tool became almost as much their aversion as the great prisoner +himself. In fact, things went so ill with them that they would have +preferred it had Lowe indulged every whim of his prisoner, granted him +full liberty to roam wherever he liked, recognised him as Emperor, and +even been not too zealous in preventing his escape; and they must have +wished that, in the first instance, they had not thought of St. +Helena, but wisely and generously granted him hospitality in our own +land. This last would have been the best thing that could have +happened for everybody concerned. + +Ill-treatment of the most humble prisoner or assassination of the most +exalted can never be popular with the British people. Sir Hudson got a +cold douche when he obtained an interview with the Duke of +Wellington. His Grace in so many words told him that they wished to +have nothing to do with him. He could not recommend him for a post in +the Russian army. He could not hold out hopes of him getting the +governorship of Ceylon should a vacancy occur. He had been hardly +used, but there was no help for it. Parliament would not grant him the +pension he asked for. Lowe replied that he would stand or fall by its +decision, but the Duke snapped him off by stating that Mr. Peel would +never make such a proposal to the House of Commons. No other course +was open to him now but to return to Ceylon. He did not get the +vacancy which occurred in 1830, and returned to England, but never got +a public appointment again. + +He presented a wordy memorial in 1843, complaining of having been kept +out of employment for twelve years. The governorship of Ceylon had +been vacant three times, the Ionian Islands four times; he had been +Governor there in 1812. In other parts of the Empire appointments that +he supposed he could have filled were given to others. Poor creature! +He died in 1844, a broken and ruined man. + +He lacked every quality that is essential in an administrator, and was +utterly void of humour, imagination, or the capacity to manage men. +His suspicious disposition and lack of judgment made it eminently +impossible for him to fulfil any delicate position, and it was a +monstrous libel on the knowledge of the fitness of things to entrust +him with the governorship of St. Helena. + +Lord Teynham made a violent attack on Lowe in the House of Lords in +1833. The Duke of Wellington was bound to defend his satellite, and +did so with some vigour, as the attack was really on him and certain +members of his Government. Lord Teynham replies with equal vigour: "He +had no intention of aspersing the private character of Sir Hudson, but +as regards his conduct while Governor of St. Helena, he maintained, +and always would, that Lowe was cried out upon by all the people of +Europe as a person unfit to be trusted with power." Lord Teynham a few +days afterwards made a sort of apology, no doubt inspired by +interested persons, for personal plus international reasons. They were +high of heart, these dauntless confederates, in the early and middle +stages of the captivity, and, indeed, they bore themselves with +braggart defiance of public opinion, until many strong manifestations +of inevitable trouble encompassed them, and, like all despots, who are +invariably cowards, they lived in mortal terror lest this creature of +theirs should break out into St. Helena leprosy again and impose +further humiliation upon them. Lowe had talked of actions for libel +against Barry O'Meara, and in a whimsical, half-hearted way worried +his employers to give battle, and the law officers of the Crown stated +a case but advised against taking action, and so it was never brought, +though O'Meara kept telling them in so many words to come on. "I am +anxious that you should have the opportunity of defending the charges +I have brought against you. I am anxious too that the public should +know more than I have written." That in effect was the attitude of the +gallant doctor, who was the first to call serious attention to the +goings on in the "Abode of Darkness." Needless to say, no action was +ever taken, and, in face of all the incriminating facts, it was never +intended that any should be taken. Even High Toryism became alarmed at +the consequences. The Duke of Wellington, brave and gallant soldier +though he was, shrank from so impossible an ordeal. The best he could +say of him was, "He was a stupid man," "A bad choice," "and totally +unfit to take charge of Bonaparte." + +Wellington may have been a brave and skilful general, but he did not +know how to be generous to an unfortunate enemy who was himself always +kind and considerate in the hour of victory. Wellington's expressions +about Lowe are more than significant, though his conduct towards the +poor cat's-paw is characteristic of a mean, flinty soul. But his +behaviour towards Napoleon would have put any French Jacobin to the +blush, and has belittled him for all time in the eyes of everybody who +has a spark of human feeling in him. + +Meneval[22] says that Waterloo was won by the French in the middle of +the day of that fateful battle, but a caprice of fortune--the arrival +of Bulow's corps and Blucher's army, and the absence of Grouchy's +corps--snatched from Napoleon's hands the triumph which was within his +grasp. Wellington had even said to General Hill, who came to take his +orders at the most critical moment of the battle: "I have no orders to +give you. There is nothing left for us but to die here. Our retreat is +even cut off behind us." + +Wellington's despairing words have been handed down in various forms. +Notably he is reported to have said, "Oh! for night or Bluecher." When +he heard the firing, "That is old Bluecher at last!" &c. That he was in +a tight place there is little doubt, and many authorities have stated +that had Grouchy come up according to orders, the allied forces would +have been cut to pieces. + +Whether it was "caprice of fortune" or not, Wellington claimed to have +won the battle. "Caprice of fortune" had nothing to do with it. It +was a hard-fought battle. Treachery and desertion at an important +juncture undoubtedly weakened the chances of French success. Meneval +adds that "in no encounter of such importance did the French army +display more heroism and more resolution than at the Battle of +Waterloo." Napoleon at St. Helena attributed his defeat to a variety +of circumstances: to treachery, and to his orders not being carried +out as they should have been by some of his generals, and often +concludes: "It must have been Fate, for I ought to have succeeded." He +was accustomed to say that "One must never ask of Fortune more than +she can grant," and possibly he erred in this. + +Though nearly a century has passed since the catastrophe to France, +the cause of it is still controversial. It is certain that the conduct +of Marshal Soult, who was second in command, gave reason for +suspicion. An old corporal told the Emperor that he was to "be assured +that Soult was betraying him." General Vandamme was reported to have +gone over to the enemy. It was also reported to the Emperor by a +dragoon that General Henin was exhorting the soldiers of his corps to +go over to the Allies, and while this was going on the General had +both legs blown away by a cannon shot. Lieutenants, colonels, staff +officers, and, it is said, officers who were bearing despatches +deserted, but it is significant that there is not a single instance +given of the common soldier forsaking his great chief's cause. Lord +Wolseley declares that if Napoleon had been the man he was at +Austerlitz, he would have won the Battle of Waterloo. Wolseley is +supported in this view by many writers. + +After Lutzen, Bautzen, and Dresden, Byron said that "bar epilepsy and +the elements, he would back Napoleon against the field." It is well +known the odds he had to battle with, including the vilest treachery +within his own circle. + +Marshal Grouchy's conduct will always remain doubtful, even to the +most friendly critics. High treason bubbling up everywhere must have +had a dulling effect on the mind of the great genius, though he +battled with the increasing vigour of it with amazing courage. He saw +the current was running too strong for him to stem unless he +determined to again risk the flow of rivers of blood. This he shrank +from, and abdicated the throne a second time. And then the barbarous, +crimeful story began. + +Sir Hudson Lowe's appointment was a national calamity, but he was the +nominee of Wellington's coadjutors, and carried out their wishes with +a criminal exactitude, and they should have stood by him in his dire +distress, instead of which they allowed him to die in poverty, broken +in spirit, and a victim to calumny which they ought to have been manly +enough to share. + +Whatever may be said in exculpation of them and him, _they_ were +undoubtedly too seriously involved to enter upon a fight that would +have ended disastrously for all of them, and so, with unusual wisdom, +they never got further than threats. + +Sir Hudson was dead something like nine years before Forsyth burst +upon the public with his eccentric vindication of the unamiable and +unfortunate ex-Governor. The zealous biographer's research for +material favourable to his deified hero caused him to ransack prints +that were written by unfriendly authors and vindictive critics of the +great captive. Even the State Papers, the most unreliable of all +documents on this particular subject, were used to prove the goodness +of Sir Hudson, and when quotations were unavailing, the author +proceeded to concoct the most amazing ideas in support of the task he +had set himself to prove. + +Writers of anti-Napoleonic history who take in the St. Helena period +are filled with wonder and contempt of the Emperor, who, according to +their refined and accurate judgment of the fitness of things, should +have been eternally grateful to the British Government that they did +not have him shot. Why should he complain in the fretful way he does +of his treatment and his condition? A great man would have shown his +appreciation of all the money that was being spent on the needs for +his existence and for the better security of his person. It ill +becomes him to complain of improper treatment after all the trouble +and commotion he has caused at one time and another. Indeed, a great +man would bear the burden of captivity with equanimity and praise the +men who gave him the opportunity of showing how a great soldier could +carry himself in such unequalled adversity. + +This in effect is what these high-minded men of letters say should +have been the attitude of England's guest. He should have received his +treatment, harsh and arbitrary though it was, with Christian +fortitude, and ought to have borne in mind that he was in the custody +of a Christian King and a Christian people. Dr. Max Lenz, who has +written a most interesting and on the whole moderate account of +Napoleon, considering his nationality, drifts into the same +stereotyped closing phraseology of how Napoleon worried and almost +wore out the good Sir Hudson Lowe, who only did his duty, and gave in +to Napoleon whenever he could see his way to do so. + +But on the authority of Gourgaud, whom Lord Rosebery would appear to +regard as the most truthful of all the St. Helena chroniclers, this +eulogy is totally unwarranted, for truly there is no reliable +contemporary writer who would have risked his reputation by making so +reckless a statement that could so easily be proved to be a deliberate +fabrication. This is not to say that fabrication was an uncommon +trick, but the Governor's reputation in relation to Napoleon was so +well and widely known, that no person who claimed to have a clear, +balanced judgment could defend his silly, vicious conduct. + +Napoleon never altered his opinion of Lowe's perfidy towards him. On +one occasion, in conversation with the truthful Gourgaud, he exclaims, +"Ah! I know the English. You may be sure that the sentinels stationed +round this house have orders from the Governor to kill me. They will +pretend to give me a thrust with a bayonet by mistake some day." +Gourgaud reports him as saying on another occasion, "Hudson Lowe is a +Sicilian grafted on a Prussian; they must have chosen him to make me +die under his charge by inches. It would have been more generous to +have shot me at once." + +It would be absurd to affirm that Napoleon said these things without +sound foundation, and although, when his personal vanity and abnormal +jealousy was aroused by some fancied injury to himself, Gourgaud +would resort to the most remarkable fibbing, what he relates as to his +master's opinion of the Governor may be relied on, being, as it is, +confirmed in a more complete form by O'Meara, Las Cases, Montholon, +Bertrand, Antommarchi, and each of the Commissioners. The former +sacrificed everything rather than be a party to what he termed +treatment that was an "outrage on decency." + +These are only a few of the men who bear witness against Sir Hudson +being termed "good"; and I may add one other to the galaxy, poor Dr. +Stokoe, who shrank from having the abominable indignity of inquisitor +and spy tacked on to his high office and distinguished profession. He +refused, as O'Meara had done, to sacrifice his manhood or his sense of +honour. Tricked into a false position by Lowe and the virtuous (?) Sir +Robert Plampin, Dr. Stokoe, who had only paid five professional visits +to Longwood, was deprived of his position and all its advantages, +after twenty-five years' service in the Navy, because he refused to +become a sneak and a rascal at the bidding of these two unspeakable +Government officials, the one disgracing the service of his country in +the capacity of Governor and the other the name of a sailor and an +Admiral. + +In 1819 Stokoe resigned his position on the _Conqueror_, and sailed +for England. Lowe sent a report addressed to the Lords of the +Admiralty by the same vessel, and Stokoe had scarcely landed when he +was bundled back to St. Helena. He rejoined the _Conqueror_ under the +impression that his conduct had been approved, but was disillusioned +by being forthwith put under arrest. A bogus court-martial was +instituted in the interests of Lowe, and Plampin and these packed +scallywags sentenced him to dismissal from the Navy. The charges +against Stokoe were that he failed to report himself to Plampin at the +Briars after a visit to Longwood, and that in his report he had +designated the patient as the Emperor instead of General Bonaparte. +This is a sample of the "good old times" that a certain species of +creature delights to show forth his wisdom in talking about. I believe +the immortal John Ruskin indulged occasionally in reminding a +twentieth-century world of these days that were so blissful. + +Forsyth, the self-reputed impartial historian, neglects to insert in +his work in defence of Lowe's conduct the following amazing charges, +which shall be fully given. They have been published before, but they +are so unique, so unmanly, and so perfidious, I think they ought to be +given to the public again, so that the amiable reader may know the +depth of infamy to which England had sunk in the early part of the +nineteenth century. Here is the whole story on which Dr. Stokoe was +condemned. His bulletin about Napoleon's health asserted that "The +more alarming symptom is that which was experienced in the night of +the 16th instant, a recurrence of which may soon prove fatal, +particularly if medical attendance is not at hand." The Governor and +the worthy Admiral were incensed at such unheard-of arrogance in +making a report not in accordance with their wishes and that of the +Government and the oligarchy, so the indictment of Stokoe, based on +this bulletin, proceeds: "Intending thereby, contrary to the character +and duty of a British officer, to create a false impression or belief +that General Bonaparte was in imminent or considerable danger, and +that no medical assistance was at hand, he, the said Mr. John Stokoe, +not having witnessed any such symptom, and knowing that the state of +the patient was so little urgent that he was at Longwood four hours +before he was admitted to see him, and further, knowing that Dr. +Verling was at hand, ready to attend if required in any such emergency +or considerable danger. He had knowingly and willingly designated +General Bonaparte in the said bulletin in a manner different from that +in which he was designated in the Act of Parliament for the better +custody of his person, and contrary to the practice of His Majesty's +Government, of the Lieutenant-General Governor of the island, and of +the said Rear Admiral, and he had done so at the especial instance and +request of the said General Bonaparte or his attendants, though he, +Mr. John Stokoe, well knew that the mode of designation was a point in +dispute between the said General Bonaparte and Lieutenant-General Sir +Hudson Lowe and the British Government, and that by acceding to the +wish of the said General Bonaparte he, the said Mr. John Stokoe, was +acting in opposition to the wish and practice of his own superior +officers, and to the respect which he owed them under the general +printed instructions." The very idea of any grown man being expected +to have "respect" for superior officers who had no more sense of +justice, dignity, or self-respect than to produce such a blatant +document for the supreme purpose of covering up a sample of mingled +folly and rascality, and ruining a poor man who was at their +ill-conditioned mercy! + +Indeed, we need no further justification for Napoleon's statements as +to what the official intention was towards him. Without a doubt Dr. +Max Lenz is too reckless in his generosity towards Lowe, for his +actions from beginning to end of his career prove that he was a +dreadful creature. The thought of him and of those incarnate spiders +who kept spinning their web, and for six mortal years disgracing +humanity, is in truth enough to unsettle one's reason. Vainly they had +ransacked creation in search of persons in authority to support them +in the plea of justification, but never a soul came forth to share +what is now regarded as ingrained criminality. + +Perhaps the virulent treatment of Byron ranks with the meanest and +most impotent actions of the militant oligarchists because of his +shocking (?) sympathy with England's enemy. The fierce though +exquisite weaver of rhymes, who had been the idol of the nation and +the drawing-room, was sought after by the highest and most cultured in +the land. Byron had fallen a victim to public displeasure partly +because he gave way to excesses that shocked the orthodoxy of a +capricious public. He had reached a pinnacle of fame such as no man of +his years had ever attained, and suddenly without warning he fell, a +victim to unparalleled vituperation. His faults, if the meagre +accounts that have been handed down are true, were great, but many of +them were merely human. His marriage was not compatible, and his love +entanglements embarrassing. His temper and habits were very similar to +those of other geniuses, and great allowances should be made for +personalities whose mental arrangements may be such as to nullify +normal control. + +It is all very well to say that these men should be compelled to +adhere to a conventional law because ordinary mortals are expected to +do so, but a man like Byron was not ordinary. In his particular line +he was a great force with a brain that took spasmodic twists. It is +absurd to expect that a being whose genius produced "Childe Harold" +and "Manfred" could be fashioned into living a quite commonplace +domestic life. Miss Milbanke, who married him, and the public who +first blessed and then cursed and made him an outcast, were not +faultless. Had they been possessed of the superiority they piously +assumed, they would have seen how impossible it was for this eccentric +man of stormy passions to be controlled and overridden by +conventionality. + +It is possible the serene critic may take exception to this form of +reasoning and produce examples of genius, such as Wordsworth, who +lived a strictly pious life, never offending any moral law by a +hairbreadth; but Wordsworth was not made like Byron; he had not the +personality of the poor wayward cripple who at one time had brought +the world to his feet, neither had Wordsworth to fight against such +wild hereditary complications as Byron. Wordsworth never caught the +public imagination, while Byron had the power of inflaming it. But, +alas! neither his magnetic force nor his haughty spirit could stem the +whirlwind of hatred, rage, and calumny that took possession of the +virtuous and capricious public. The story of cruelty to his wife grew +in its enormity, his reported liaisons multiplied beyond all human +reason. The bleached, white hearts of the oligarchal party had been +lashed into fury by his withering ridicule and charge of hypocrisy, +but the climax came like a tornado when the poet's sense of fair play +caused him to satirise the Prince Regent and eulogise the Emperor +Napoleon with unique pathos and passion. + +This was high treason! He had at last put himself beyond the mercy of +the chosen people. They had twaddled and stormed about his immorality, +but his praise of Napoleon sent them into diabolic frenzy. He was +proclaimed an outlaw and hounded out of the country. The beautiful and +rich Lady Jersey, a leader of society, convinced that he was +misunderstood and was being treated with unreasonable severity, +defended him with all the strength of her resolute character, but +malignity had sunk too deep even for her power and influence to avert +the disaster. So intense was the feeling engendered against him that +it became dangerous for him to drive out without risking an exhibition +of virulent hostility. Had he merely abused the Prince Regent, it is +improbable that any exception would have been taken to it; but to +praise and show compassion for the Man of the French Revolution, who +had fought for a new condition of things which threatened the fabric +on which their order held its dominating and despotic sway, was an +enormity they were persuaded even God in heaven could not tolerate; +why then, should _they_ be expected to do so?--they were only human. +Both public and private resentment ran amok, and thus it was that the +immortal poet's belauding of the immortal Emperor became linked to the +ignominy of being accused of gross immorality. The reaction against +this eccentric being was a fanaticism. There was neither sense nor +reason in it, and as he said, "If what they say of me be true, then I +am not fit for England; but if it be false, then England is not fit +for me"; and with this thought thrilling in his mind he left his +native land, never more to see it. + +Caught without a doubt by the spirit of the great man whose eulogy had +given such offence in certain quarters, he embarked on the crusade of +emancipating the Greeks, was stricken with fever, and died at +Missolonghi. + +Adhering to human tradition, the nation which had so recently cast +him out became afflicted with grief. Men and women cast reflection on +themselves for their misguided judgment of him, and he became a god in +memory again, his wife being a singular exception in the great +demonstration of national penitence. The incomparable poet had sinned +grievously, if rumour may be relied upon, but he was made to suffer +out of all proportion to his sinning. His faults were only different +from other men's. It may be said quite truly that one of his defects +was in having been born a genius, and allowing himself to be idolised +by a public whose opinions and friendships were shifty. Second, he +erred in disregarding and satirising puritanical conventionalisms. +Thirdly, and probably the most provocative of all, was his defiance of +the fiery patriotism of some of the ruling classes in lauding him whom +they stigmatised as the enemy of the human race and lampooning the +precious Prince Regent. His extraordinary talents did not shield him, +any more than they did the hero of fifty pitched battles whose +greatness he had extolled. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[22] Vol. iii. pp. 451-2. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +MESDAMES DE STAEL AND DE REMUSAT + + +It is a strange human frailty that cannot stand for long the purgatory +of seeing the elevation of a great public benefactor. The less +competent the critics, the more merciless they are in their +declamation and intrigue. They hint at faults, and if this is too +ineffective, they invent them. Men in prominent public positions +rarely escape the vituperation of the professional scandalmonger. +These creatures exist everywhere. Their vanity is only equal to their +incompetency in all matters that count. Their capacity consists in +knowing the kind of diversion a certain class of people relish, and +the more exalted their prey is, and the larger the reputation he may +have for living a blameless life, the more persistent their +whisperings, significant nods, and winkings become. They know, and +they could tell, a thing or two which would paralyse belief. They +could show how correct they have been in consistently proclaiming +that so and so was a very much overestimated man, and never ought to +have been put into such a high position; "and besides, I don't want to +say all I know, but his depravity! Well, there, I could, if I would, +open some people's eyes, but I don't want to do anybody any harm," and +so on. These condescending ulcerous-minded defamers congratulate +themselves on their goodness of heart in withholding from the public +gaze their nasty imaginary accusations, which are merely the thoughts +of a conceited and putrid mind. + +Many and many a poor man, without knowing it, is the innocent victim +of unfounded accusations, hatched and circulated in that subtle, +insinuating way so familiar to the sexless calumniator. The genuine +female traducer is an awful scourge, especially if she be political. +No male can equal her in refined aggressive cunning. She can circulate +a filthy libel by writing a virtuous letter, and never a flaw will +appear to trip her into responsibility for it. And her sardonic smile +is an inarticulate revelation of all she wishes to convey. It is more +than a mere oration. It emits the impression of a bite. + +Madame de Stael showed an aptitude for this ignoble aggressiveness +towards Napoleon after she had exhausted every form of strategy to +allure him into a flirtation with her. She was frequently a sort of +magnificent horse-marine who bounced herself into the presence of +prominent individuals, thrusting her venomed points on those who had +been flattered into listening; at other times she was feline in her +methods. Talleyrand and Fouche made use of this latter phase of her +character to serve their own ends. She had a talent which was used for +mischief, but her vulgarity and egotism were quite deplorable. She +would have risked the torments of Hades if she could but have embarked +upon a liaison with Napoleon. She plied him with letters well seasoned +with passion, but all to no purpose. She came to see him at the Rue +Chantereine, and was sent away. She invited him to balls to which he +never went. But she had opportunities given her which were used in +forcing herself upon his attention. At one of these she held him for +two hours, and imagining she had made a great impression, she asked +him abruptly, "Who was the most superior woman in antiquity, and who +is so at the present day?" Napoleon had had enough of her love-making +chatter, so snapped out in his quick practical way, "She who has borne +the most children." The lady's discomfiture may be imagined. It was a +deadly thrust. + +This very same lady, who had tempted the ruler of France without +success, made violent love to Benjamin Constant, who was no friend of +Napoleon's at the time. Her letters to him were passionate, and +Napoleon told Gourgaud at St. Helena that she even threatened to kill +her son if Benjamin would do what she wished him to. This fussy female +intriguer suggested to Napoleon that if he would give her two million +francs she would write anything he wished. She was immediately packed +about her business. + +Madame de Stael was not an important personage at all, but she had the +power of attracting people to her who, like herself, had grievances to +be discussed, and we may without doubt conclude that these gatherings +were composed of well-selected intriguers whom she had fixed in her +feline eye. Her great grievance was the First Consul's, and +subsequently the Emperor's, coldness towards her. He estimated her at +her true value. He treated her with the courtesy due to a French +citizen, but nothing more, and when she misbehaved in his presence, he +rebuked her with due consideration for her sex. When she caused people +to talk to him of her, he merely shrugged his shoulders as was his +habit, and smiled disdainfully; though occasionally he could not +resist the temptation of ridiculing her comic pretensions. But this +human curiosity had power for mischief. + +She was not only an intriguer, but, subsequent to her failure in +love-making, she developed a literary tyrannicide. She condescended to +patronise the head of the State by causing it to be conveyed to him +that her hostility would cease under certain well-defined conditions. +When he became the real Governor of France, Napoleon put a stop to +religious persecution, and put the churches into use. He +re-established religion, and by doing so brought under his influence +one hundred million Catholics. This wise policy created strong +opposition from a section of the clergy. Madame de Stael and the +friends whom she had whipped up, many of them being the principal +generals, were mischievously opposed to it, and brought pressure to +bear so that he might be induced to establish the Protestant religion. +Napoleon ignored them all. He knew he was on the right ground, and +that the nation as a whole was with him. France was essentially a +Roman Catholic country, and the head of it gave back to her people +what was regarded as the true faith. The exile frequently referred to +these matters in conversation with one or other of his followers. +Napoleon's disdain for Madame de Stael was well merited, and he never +saw or heard of her that it did not set his nerves on edge. She was +the "death on man" sort of female who persisted in being, either +directly or indirectly, his political adviser. Dr. Max Lenz accuses +the Emperor of developing a despotism that caused him to drive a woman +like Madame de Stael from land to land, "and trampled under foot every +manifestation of independence." + +Really, the good doctor lays himself open to the charge of not making +himself better informed of the doings of this sinister person, who was +steeped in treason, and who refused to accept the laws of life with +proper submission. It is merely farcical to assume that Madame de +Stael was kept well under discipline because of a whimsical despotism +on the part of the man who had fixed a settled government on France, +and who was kept well informed of the attempts of the Baroness and her +anarchist associates to undermine and destroy the Constitution it had +cost France and its ruler so much to reconstruct and consolidate. "Let +her be judged as a man," said Napoleon, and in truth he was right in +deciding in this way, as her whole attitude aped the masculine. He was +right, too, in showing how wholly objectionable she had made herself +to him. He had been led to adopt a sort of "For God's sake, what does +she want?" idea of her during the early years of his rule, though he +never at any time showed weakness in his actual dealings with her. He +disliked women who asserted themselves as men, and he disliked the +amorous offspring of Necker more because he loathed women who threw +themselves into the arms of men; she had surfeited him with her +persistent attempts at making love to him. In one of her letters to +him she says it was evidently an egregious error, an entire +misunderstanding of human nature, that the quiet and timid Josephine +had bound up her fate with that of a tempestuous temper like his. She +and Napoleon seemed born for each other, and it appeared as if nature +had only gifted her with so enthusiastic a disposition in order to +enable her to admire such a hero as he was. Napoleon in his fury tore +this precious letter up and exclaimed, "This manufacturer of +sentiments dares to compare herself with Josephine!" + +The letters were not answered, though this had no deterrent effect on +Madame de Stael. She continued to pour out in profusion adoration. He +was "a god who had descended on earth." She addressed him as such, and +his callous reception of her madness drove her into despair and +vindictiveness which brought salutary punishment to herself. Her +weapons of wit and sarcasm availed nothing. He looked upon her as a +sort of gifted lunatic that had got the idea of seducing him into her +head. She became so mischievous that he bundled her out of France. +"As long as I live," said he, "she shall not return." He advised that +she should live in Berlin, Vienna, Milan, or London, the latter for +preference. There she would have full scope for her genius in +producing pamphlets. "Oh yes," says the "god who had descended on +earth"; "she has talent, much talent, in fact far too much, but it is +offensive and revolutionary." This poetess-politician, who said brave +things and wrote amazing diatribes against her "god," was in truth one +of the most servile creatures on earth. She pleaded to be allowed to +come back to her native land, and pledged herself to a life of +retirement, but the great man's faith in his own sound judgment was +not to be shaken. + +"Her promises are all very fine," he said, "but I know what they mean. +Why should she be so anxious to be in the immediate reach of tyranny?" + +Like all eccentric women who desire to play the part of man, she made +her appearance before Napoleon in the most absurd, tasteless attire. +This woman of genius and folly lacked the wisdom of gauging the taste +of Bonaparte, whom she desired to captivate with her sluttish +appearance and whirling words. + +This man of method and order, who had a keen eye for grace or beauty +in its varied phases, was always pronounced in his opinion that women +should dress simply but with faultless taste. It improves good looks, +and, if need be, it covers up defects; but in any case it is the +bounden duty of women to dress with some regard to conventional +custom. It gives them much greater influence than they would otherwise +have. Most women know the importance of this trick, and do it, and +they are amply rewarded for their good sense. + +Madame de Stael did quite the opposite. She appeared before the Man of +Destiny in a shocking garb, and he regarded it as a piece of +impertinence. It stirred up his prejudice openly against her, in spite +of his indifferent attempts to conceal it, but her egotism was so +gigantic, she actually believed she was making great strides towards +curing his callousness towards her. This woman has been used +elaborately by anti-Napoleonic writers to prove that he was an inhuman +despot and she a high-minded, virtuous Frenchwoman, and a genius in +the art of government. They quote her as a great authority. Her +knowledge of his evil deeds and mistakes of administration is set +forth as being flawless. They bemoan his treatment of this amiable +female, and in the midst of their ecstasy of compassion and wrath they +hand down to posterity a record of unheard-of woes. There is little +doubt Napoleon's remark that "the Neckers were an odd lot, always +comforting themselves in mutual admiration," is well merited. The +daughter utilised the name of the father with lavish persistence. Her +ambition and impudence were boundless, and were the cause of Napoleon +bestowing some wholesome discipline upon her, which, like a true +heroine, she resented, and sent forth from her exile streams of +relentless wailing, adorned by a fluency of venom that would have put +the most militant suffragette in our time to the blush. + +But suddenly her hysteria subsided, and after a brief repose she +switched off the truculent side and sought the pity of the man whose +life she had set herself to make one long ache if he did not yield to +her arrogant pretensions. She had written in a perpetual scream of his +iniquities, and was thrown over by her former associates, who saw +clearly enough that no real good could be accomplished by whining +about cruelty when stern flawless justice only existed. They +recognised that she was a personality, but her antics puzzled them, +and well they might. She bewailed her isolation with a throbbing +heart, and after committing indiscretions that Robespierre would have +sent her head flying for, she was suddenly bereaved of her neglected +husband. This event gave Benjamin Constant a better chance, but the +Baroness aimed at higher game. She was held in the grip of a delusion +that she had it in her power to hypnotise the First Consul and cause +him to become her lover. She had an uncontrollable idolatry for this +august person, whom she hoped to win over by writing for the +consumption of his enemies the many reasons for her aversion to him. +Without a doubt the woman was madly in love with the object of her +supposed aversion, and was driven to frenzy by his obvious distaste +for her. + +In 1811 she secretly married a young officer called M. de Rocca, who +had fallen desperately in love with her. He was amiable and brilliant; +became an officer of Hussars in the French Army; did valiant deeds +amongst the hills in Andalusia in 1809; and was awarded the Cross of +the Legion of Honour. Subsequently he was shot down by guerillas, +badly wounded in the thigh, foot, and chest; had a romantic +deliverance; was hidden in a chapel by a young lady, and nursed into +consciousness and convalescence by loving care, which enabled him to +reach Madrid, and ultimately Geneva, where, in the radiance of +youthful infatuation, he rode with reckless energy down a risky steep +part of the city, so that he might pass the window of the lady, who +was more than old enough to be his mother, and in a few months was to +be made his wife. A child was born to them in 1812, and in order to +save its legitimacy, she acknowledged the marriage to a few, but it +was not generally known until after her death that Rocca was her +lawful husband. Conscious, and sensitive no doubt, that it was not +quite natural for old women to marry young men, she prudently had the +event kept secret. The young husband did not only possess tender +affection for her, but he combined chivalrous ambitions which made the +romance additionally attractive. + +Be it remembered that Benjamin Constant was a former lover of Madame +de Stael. The young bridegroom, following a natural instinct, had a +great dislike to Benjamin, and took an opportunity of really small +provocation to challenge him to a duel, which, owing to wiser +counsels, was never fought. There does not seem to have been very much +to fight a duel about. Constant had a quarrel with his father in which +he involved Madame de Stael, and Rocca resented it like a gallant +youthful husband, who was at that stage when it is thought desirable +to shoot or otherwise kill somebody, in order to show the extent of +his devotion to his enchantress. Rocca had hoped to die (so he said) +before her, but fate willed that he should linger on and suffer for +six months more. Madame de Stael slept peacefully into her last long +sleep on July 14, 1817. + +Her career was chequered and restless. She had influence, which she +used oft-times recklessly, and led less gifted people than herself +into committing needless errors. She wrote and spoke with a wit and +sarcasm which charmed all but those at whom it was directed. Her +bitter rebuffs and severe trials were mainly of her own making. For +the most part she wrote with superficial feeling and without real +soul. During the Napoleonic regime, time was a creeping horror to her, +but she found pleasure in the thought that it was a torture to her +suffering heart. George Eliot knew and used her extraordinary power; +Madame de Stael wasted hers. Nevertheless she had many friends who +loved her society. Wellington was brought under her influence. Byron, +who shrank from her at first, says, "She was the best creature in the +world." She had been at some pains to try to bring Lord and Lady Byron +together. She was capable of impressing people with her charm, but +magnetic influence she had none when living, and has left none behind. + +Rocca exclaimed, when he heard that she had passed to the shadows, +"What crown could replace that which I have lost!" And the distracted +Benjamin Constant, filled with remorse, reproached himself for some +undefined suffering he had caused her, and did penance all night +through in the death-chamber of his divine Juliet. + +This crazy woman seems to have been capricious in everything. She made +and broke liaisons with amazing rapidity while undergoing a compulsory +sojourn at Coppet. She formed there an attachment for the son of a +person named M. Baranti, which very nearly cheated Rocca from becoming +her husband, and the faithless Benjamin Constant from being, +erroneously perhaps, associated with her name as the author of the +manuscript of St. Helen, and she the notoriety of writing "Ten Years +of Exile," which was published after her death. + +The youthful Baranti found no scope for his talents at Coppet, and +being offered an inducement to go to the metropolis so that he might +have larger opportunities of advancement, he abandoned the famous +authoress, and she, in loving despair, was seized with the impulse to +immortalise his severance by attempting suicide, and thereby ending +her passion for liaisons, virulence, and fame. The attempt, presumably +feeble, left her long years of mischievous mania for attack on the +supposed author of all her woes. She readily found amongst his enemies +(and thus the enemies of France) those who yearned with her in the +hope she freely and openly expressed that her native land should +suffer defeats, and in this her desire was fully acquiesced in by the +combination of hysterical and purblind Kings, aided by a coterie of +irreconcilables, who welcomed the destruction of their fatherland in +order that the man who had made it the glory and the envy of the world +should be driven from it. Many of these creatures were members of the +same Senate who, a few years previously, sent Napoleon a fervent +address couched in grovelling language, imploring him to cement the +hold his personality had on the national life. The following is what +they say, and what they ask him to do:--"You have brought us out of +the chaos of the past, you have made us bless the benefits of the +present. Great man, complete your work, and make it as immortal as +your glory!" + +The authors of this whining appeal are worthy to be associated with +the traitorous daughter of Jacques Necker, Minister of Finance to +Louis XVI., and of those apoplectic monarchs who sought her guilty and +inflammatory aid. + +Then we come to another female celebrity, though less notable than +Madame de Stael, who is regarded by the traducers of Napoleon as a +historian because she wrote in her memoirs that which they wished the +world to think of him, and because they flattered themselves that it +exculpated them from the charge of injustice and mere hatred. Madame +de Stael's book, "Considerations sur la Revolution Francaise," made +its appearance. Its violent characteristics inflamed Charles de +Remusat to urge his mother to enter into competition with this work, +the result being the production of Madame de Remusat's memoirs, edited +by her grandson, M. Paul de Remusat. Charles (her son) had reproached +her for having destroyed memoirs she had written previously,[23] but +lurking in her mind was the thought of all the favours she and her +family had received, and her correspondence, teeming with adulation +for the man whom she was now induced to declaim against. The knowledge +that she was about to expose her perfidy "worried" her, and she wrote +to Charles thus:--"If it should happen that some day my son were to +publish all this, what would people think of me?" and the son, +obviously influenced by the mother's fears, delayed until the fall of +the Second Empire the publication of one of the most unreliable and +barefaced calumnies ever produced against a great benefactor. + +In her memoirs she says that she and her husband excited general envy +by the high position the First Consul had given them. She was first +Lady in Waiting, and subsequently Lady of the Household, her husband +being "attached to Napoleon's household." She says that she was witty +and of a refined mind, and though she was less "good-looking" than her +companions, she had the advantage of being able to "charm his mind," +and she was almost the only woman with whom he condescended to +converse. She relates residing in the camp at Boulogne "and having +breakfast and dinner daily with Bonaparte." In the evenings they used +to "discuss philosophy, literature, and art, or listen to the First +Consul relating about the years of his youth and early achievements." + +No doubt the young Madame de Remusat became assured in the same way as +Madame de Stael that she would one day be raised to heights of glory +unequalled in history, and the disappointment embittered her. She +admits that she "suffered on account of blighted hopes and deceived +affections and the failure of her calculations." Moreover, Josephine +had an eye on the lady whose husband in evil times sought her +influence with Napoleon to stretch out a helping hand and save them +from the poverty by which they were beset. Napoleon's big heart +spontaneously responded to the appeal of his fascinating spouse, the +result being that favours were heaped upon M. de Remusat and his wife +from time to time, and Josephine's goodness was repaid by seeing +Madame in feline fashion purring at her Imperial master's affections, +and on the authority of Madame de Remusat she "becomes cold and +jealous." Finding that Napoleon did not appreciate her love-making, +she, like Madame de Stael under similar circumstances, took to +intriguing, which got her quickly into disgrace. She is anxious to +make her fall as light as possible in the public eye, so relates that +he told her that "his desire was to make her a great lady, but he +could not be expected to do this unless she showed devotion." But in +spite of the wife's defection, as is always Napoleon's way, he does +not visit her sins on the husband, but raises him to the important +posts of Grand Master of the Robes, High Chamberlain, and then +Superintendent of Theatres, and in addition gave him large sums to +keep up his status, and notwithstanding Josephine's cause for "cold +jealousy," Madame de Remusat was generously kept in her service after +Marie Louise had become Empress. M. de Remusat remained in the +Emperor's service until the fall of the Empire, and then went over to +Louis XVIII. Both of these sycophants were content to accept the +favours of the Imperial couple and eat their bread and cringe at their +feet while they plotted with the plotters for the Emperor's downfall. + +Unhappily for the veracity and probity of Madame Remusat as a history +writer, her letters containing notes jotted down day by day as they +occurred have been published, and the memoirs put side by side with +these throbbings of the heart reveal an incomparable baseness that +makes one wonder at the reckless, blind partisanship which induced her +descendants to give the memoirs to an intelligent public. + +In the memoirs she says:--"Nothing is so base as his soul; it is +closed against all generous impulses, and possesses no true grandeur. +I noticed that he always failed to understand and to admire a noble +action;" and again she goes on to say that "In war he foresaw the +means of calling away our attention from the reflections which, sooner +or later, his government could not fail to suggest to us, and he +reserved it in order to dazzle, or at least to enforce silence on us. +Bonaparte felt that he would be infallibly lost the day when his +enforced inactivity enabled us to think both of him and of ourselves." +"What a relief whenever the Emperor went away! His absence always +seemed to bring solace. People breathed more freely." + +Now this would have been all very well. It was the stereotyped +phraseology of Napoleon's avowed enemies. He knew it, and viewed it +with contempt and derision, and until Madame de Remusat and her +snuffling, cringing husband became swollen with over-indulgence and +smitten with wounded pride, they regarded language such as now appears +in her memoirs as mere froth. She practically says that she held the +same views in 1818 as she did from 1802 to 1808, but when she wrote +this she no doubt relied on her correspondence being kept snugly +private or destroyed; but it has been published, and here are some +amazing extracts from it:-- + +"I often think, my dear, of that Empire, the territory of which +extends to Antwerp! Consider what a man he must be who can rule it +single-handed, and what few instances history offers like him!"[24] +"Whilst he creates, so to speak, new nations in his progress, people +must be struck, from one end of Europe to the other, by the remarkably +prosperous state of France. Her Navy, formed in two years, after a +ruinous revolution, and assuming at last a menacing attitude after so +long, excited the scoffs of a shortsighted enemy." + +"When again I reflect on the peace we enjoy, our wise and _moderate +liberty_, which is quite sufficient for me, the glory my country is +covered with, the pomp and even the magnificence surrounding us, and +in which I delight, because it is proof that success has crowned our +efforts; when, in short, I consider that all this prosperity is the +work of _one man_, I am filled with admiration and gratitude."[25] + +"What I write here, my dear, is, of course, strictly between +ourselves, for many people would be anxious to ascribe to these +feelings some other cause than that which really inspires them; +besides, it seems to me that we are less eager to express the praises +that come from the heart than those that proceed from the mind."[26] + +"Thank goodness, I am at last happy and contented!! What a pleasure it +is to see the Emperor again, and how much that pleasure will be felt +here! This splendid campaign, this glorious peace, this prompt return, +all is really marvellous."[27] + +"Like woman, the French are rather impatient and exacting; it is true +that the Emperor has spoilt us in the campaign; indeed, no lover was +ever more anxious to gratify the wishes of his mistress than His +Majesty to meet our desires. You demand a prompt march? Very well, the +army that was at Boulogne will find itself, three weeks later, in +Germany. You ask for the capture of a town? Here is the surrender of +Ulm. You are not satisfied!! You are craving for more victories? Here +they are: Here is Vienna which you wanted, and also a pitched battle, +in order that no kind of success may be wanting. Add to these a whole +series of noble and generous deeds, of words full of grandeur and +kindness, and always to the purpose, so much so that our hearts share +also that glory, and can join it to all the national pride it arouses +in us."[28] + +"I used to cry bitterly at that time, for I felt so affected that, had +I met the Emperor at the moment, I should, I believe, have thrown my +arms round his neck, although I should, afterwards, have been +compelled to fall on my knees and ask pardon for my conduct."[29] + +So overcome with boundless admiration is she that her soul yearns for +the gift of being able to do him full justice by writing a history, a +panegyric, a book, in fact, that would show him to be immeasurably +above all men living or dead. She fears that people cannot see his +nobility and greatness as she does. She is bewildered and acclaims him +a god. Here is another outburst of passionate devotion:-- + +"That undaunted courage, carried even to rashness, and which was +always crowned with success, that calm assurance in the midst of +danger, with that wise foresight and that prompt resolution, arouse +always new feelings of admiration which it seems can never be +surpassed."[30] + +It will be seen her letters shape well for the fulfilment of the great +ambition of her life, _i.e._, to picture him as he was. The writing is +good, the description picturesque, and I believe the impartial mind +will also regard it as accurate. She believes "that even persons who +are hardest to please must be compelled to admit that he is a most +amiable sovereign." She is smitten with the feeling of gratitude, and +says it is so sweet that she really regards it as another favour. She +wishes her husband could "often secure some of those comforting smiles +from the master," and tells him he is "no fool to be fond of those +smiles," and promises to congratulate him if he secures some. + +She asks God to watch over him (such will always be her prayer) when +he is fighting and conquering. Her heart is grieved when he is at a +great distance from them. She eulogises his great qualities to her +son, and advises him "to study all that she was able to tell him of +the Emperor, and write about it when he grew up," and the boy +exclaimed, "Mother, what you have told me sounds like one of +Plutarch's lives!" + +But there comes a time when Napoleon sees that the price he has to pay +for adulation is too high, for, like most over-pampered people, Madame +de Remusat seems to have got the idea of equality badly into her head. +She became waspish, exacting, claiming more than her share of +emoluments, seeking for attentions which her "amiable sovereign" saw +in the fitness of things it would be folly to bestow. She mistook +wholesome justice for tyranny, defied discipline, and not only +connived at treason, but prayed for the extinction of him against whom +it was directed. Disaster overtook him, he fell, and in her delirium +of malice and joy she bethought it an opportune moment to write what +are known as her memoirs, refuting therein all her former eulogies and +opinions so vividly told in the "Letters of Madame de Remusat." Now +that adversity so terrible overshadows the matchless hero of the +letters, she throws every scruple aside, and warms to her task in +writing unstinted, gross, and manifest libels. Contrast with the +"letters" these quotations from the memoirs. She avows that "nothing +is so base as his soul. It is closed against all generous impulses; he +never could admire a noble action." "He possesses an innate depravity +of nature, and has a special taste for evil." "His absence brought +solace, and made people breathe freely." "He is devoid of every kind +of personal courage, and generous impulses are foreign to him." "He +put a feeling of restraint into everybody that approached him." "He +was feared everywhere." "He delighted to excite fear." "He did not +like to make people comfortable." "He was afraid of the least +familiarity." This latter grievance, combined of course with the rest, +is quite significant, and we are justified in assuming that the Lady +in Waiting has been taking liberties, and has been deservedly snubbed +by His Imperial Majesty. It is perhaps necessary to pause here and +remind the reader that on the authority of her son, and subsequently +of her grandson, these memoirs were written entirely "without malice," +and the sole object of writing them at all was that "the truth should +be told." + +Very well then. Are we to believe the letters or the memoirs, because +in the former she over and over again declares that "his comely +manners were irresistible"; but in the memoirs with audacious +bitterness she affirms "not only is he ill-mannered but brutal." + +Such effrontery is beyond criticism. She finds it "impossible to +depict the disinterested loyalty with which she longed for the King's +return," and describes the hero of her letters as a ruthless destroyer +of all worth, and being brought so low, she is straitened by the +demands of "truth" and "grows quite disheartened." + +It will be observed that it is always truth which is the abiding +motive, it matters not whether it is letters or memoirs. She avows it +is "truth" she writes. "The love of truth," says the editor in his +preface, "gave her courage to persevere in her task for more than two +years." That is, it took her more than two years to write the "truths" +contained in the memoirs disavowing the "truths" so vehemently given +in the letters; the former book pregnant with the bitterness of a +writer without heart and principle, and with political and personal +motives running through its pages like a canker, while the latter, +radiant in luxuriant adulation, gapes at her memory with retributive +justice. + +The renegade son served the renegade and ungrateful mother ill when he +advised her to write what is a barefaced recantation of her former +statements. Napoleon has said that "People are rarely drawn to you by +favours conferred upon them." He had many examples of this truth, but +none more striking than the above. Madame de Remusat and her husband +were raised from poverty to affluence by Napoleon, and the memory of +all the favours that were showered upon them by the man she declares +she loved should have kept them from hate and disloyalty, and +forbidden the writing of such unworthy vituperations against him. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[23] Madame de Remusat burnt her original memoirs during the Hundred +Days, doubtless because she had in her mind the probability that +Napoleon might firmly establish himself on the throne, and the +discovery of anti-Napoleon MSS. might have acted seriously against +herself and family being appointed to important positions. Moreover, +the greater danger of getting herself into trouble was constantly in +her mind. + +[24] "Letters of Madame de Remusat," vol. i. p. 195. + +[25] "Letters of Madame de Remusat," vol. i. p, 196. + +[26] Ibid., vol. i. p. 160. + +[27] Ibid., vol. ii. p. 2. + +[28] "Letters of Madame de Remusat," vol. i. p. 190. + +[29] Ibid., vol. i. p. 393. + +[30] "Letters of Madame de Remusat," vol. ii. p. 45. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +JOSEPHINE + + +One of the phenomena of human affairs is the part destined for +Josephine, daughter of M. Joseph Gaspard Tascher de la Pagerie, +sugar-planter at Martinique, and friend of the Marquis de Beauharnais, +whose son Alexandre was fated to marry her when she was but sixteen +years of age. The marriage took place on December 13, 1779, at +Noisy-le-Grand. The pompous young bridegroom speaks of his young bride +in appreciative terms in a letter to his father, and in order that his +parent may not be disappointed as to her beauty, he explains that in +this respect she may not be up to his expectations. He regards the +pleasure of being with her as very sweet, and forms the resolution of +putting her through a course of education, as this had been grievously +neglected. + +The father of Alexandre is said to have been charmed with the +sweetness of Josephine's character, but then he was not her husband, +and it soon became apparent that the union was ill-assorted, and so it +came to pass that marital relations were entirely broken off after the +birth of Hortense, subsequently dressmaker's apprentice, Queen of +Holland, and mother of Napoleon III. Alexandre had gone to Martinique, +and it was there the news of his daughter's birth came to him. He knew +before leaving France that his wife was enceinte, and expressed his +pleasure to her. The Marquis Beauharnais had assured his friend, +Joseph Tascher de la Pagerie, that his "son was worthy of being his +son-in-law, and that Nature had endowed him with fine and noble +qualities." These virtues seem to have been dissolved with remarkable +rapidity after his marriage, as it was well known before his departure +on the voyage to Martinique that he had been diligently unfaithful to +the poor "uneducated" little Creole girl who really thought she loved +him. From all accounts, and I have read many, Alexandre Beauharnais +was an ill-conditioned cruel prig. This excellent son with "fine and +noble qualities" had not been long at Martinique before he associated +himself with a lady of questionable virtue, who was much older than +he. This person's dislike to Josephine caused her to pour into his +willing ears and receptive mind scandalous stories of his childwife's +love intrigues before she left her native island. This gave Alexandre +a fine opportunity of writing a letter to her, disclaiming the +paternity of Hortense, and accusing her of intrigues with "an officer +in the Martinique regiment, and another man who sailed in a ship +called the _Caesar_." He declares he knows the contents of her letters +to her lovers, and "swears by the Heaven which enlightens him that the +child is another's, and that strange blood flows in its veins," and +"it shall never know his shame"; and so the virtuous Alexandre goes +rambling on, until he comes to the slashing finish in the good old +style that persons similarly situated adopt to those whom they have +grievously injured. He soars between elegant politeness and old-time +aristocratic ferocity: "Goodbye, madam, this is the last letter you +will receive from your desperate and unhappy husband." Then comes the +inevitable postscript, with an avenging bite embodying the spirit of +murder. He is to be in France soon if his health does not break down +under the load she has cast upon him. He warns her to be out of the +house on his arrival, because, if she is not, "she will find in him a +tyrant." The whole letter is indicative of a low-down unworthy scamp, +a mere collection of transparent verbiage, intended as a means of +ridding himself of a woman he had nothing in common with, and a cover +to his own unfaithfulness. + +But whatever may be the interpretation of his motives, on his coming +back to Paris he kept his word. Conjugal relations were not renewed. +His family were indignant at the treatment Josephine was receiving at +the hands of this pompous libertine, and he assures her that of "the +two, she is not the one to be most pitied." + +M. Masson declares that there was never a reconciliation, and that +they lived apart, but met in society, and spoke to one another, mainly +about their children's education. Josephine caused him to withdraw +before her lawyer the gross and unfounded charges he had made against +her and to agree to a satisfactory allowance. + +Alexandre, finding soldiering distasteful, embarked upon a political +career as an aristocrat Liberal. His rise to position was swift, and +after the death of Mirabeau he followed him as President of the +Assembly. Before his fall came, he was appointed Commander-in-Chief of +the Army of the Rhine, and at the head of sixty thousand men failed to +relieve Mayence and resigned his command. + +His Liberal pretensions did not prevent him being included amongst the +proscribed. He was made captive, accused of attempting to escape, +condemned to death and guillotined. Josephine's device of reassuring +the Revolutionists of her conversion to Republicanism by apprenticing +Hortense to a dressmaker and Eugene to a carpenter did not avail. She +was suspected and sent to Les Carmes, where frequent conversations +took place between her philosophic and abandoned husband and herself, +mainly concerning their children's education, and had not the reaction +against the regime of blood brought about the fall of Robespierre, she +would assuredly have shared the fate of Alexandre; and had the cry of +"A bas le tyrant" been heard a few days earlier, Beauharnais would +have escaped too, and cheated Josephine of becoming Empress of the +French and Queen of Italy. As it was, some of the very same people who +but a short time before had harangued the mob to "Behold the friend of +the people, the great defender of liberty," switched their murderous +vengeance on to their late idol, and ere many hours the widow +Beauharnais was set free. The thought of the appalling end and the +brevity of time that seemed left to her impressed Josephine with all +its ghastly horror. She had shrieked and wept herself into a deathlike +illness. The doctor predicted that she could not survive more than a +week, and for this reason she escaped being brought before the +Tribunal. + +A wondrous Providence this, which, with frantic speed, broke the +power of a hideous monster, and thereby saved the woman who was to +enter upon a new era, and to be borne swiftly on to share the glory of +an unequalled Empire. + +M. Masson's theory is that Josephine's womanly grief had much to do +with awakening the sentiment of Paris, and breaking the Reign of +Terror; and, indeed, there is some reason in this view, for tears are +not only useful as an indication of sorrow, suffering, or conquest, +but an effective means of gaining sympathy. Josephine was an adept at +trying the efficacy of weeping, and if M. Masson has gauged the +influence of melting the heart of the spirit of massacre aright, then +Josephine was gifted with, and made the instrument of, a divine +instinct that should claim attention and reverence for all time, even +though her subsequent misdeeds occasionally incline us to avert the +eye. + +But it is likely that the sombre satire of the pure and beautiful +Jeanne-Marie Philipon touched the heart of Paris more than the +shedding of tears and shrieking lamentations. The wife of Roland, led +to the scaffold, faced with the stern certainty of death, asks with +calm dignity for pen, ink, and paper, "so that she might write the +strange thoughts that were rising in her." The request was not +granted. Then looking at the statue of Liberty, she exclaimed with +fierce dignity, "O Liberty! What things are done in thy name!" and +these throbbing magical words reverberated through France with +wonderful effect. The guilty populace, shuddering with superstitious +awe at the revolting horrors committed in the name of Liberty, +Equality, Fraternity, or Death, flashed a thought on the scaffold of +the stainless victim, then on the loathsome prisons that were filled +with suspects, rich and poor, all over France. Then, in time, the +dooming to death of some of the prominent polecats who committed +murder in the name of liberty and fraternity brought Robespierreism to +an end. Robespierre himself was cursed on the scaffold by a woman who +sent him to "hell with the curses of all wives and mothers," and +Samson did the rest. And it may be logically assumed that the parting +words of Jeanne-Marie Philipon at the foot of the scaffold inoculated +the public mind, not only with the horrors that were being committed +in the name of Liberty, but what things were cantishly being said in +its name. I like to think of the stainless lady's inspired phrase +rather than Josephine's tears as being in some degree responsible for +the end of the Reign of Terror. + +After her release, Josephine's shattered health was a cause of +anxiety, but this was soon re-established, and she quickly put her +emotions aside and plunged into gaiety with an alacrity that makes +one wonder whether she had more than spasmodic regret at the awful +doom that had come to her husband, who left a somewhat penitent letter +behind, wherein he speaks of his brotherly affection for her, bids her +"goodbye," exhorts her "to be the consoler of those whom she knows he +loves," and "by her care to prolong his life in their hearts." +"Goodbye," says he; "for the last time in my life I press you and my +children to my breast." + +These posthumous reflections and instructions did not impress the +widow with any apparent interest. The picture recorded of their tragic +married life is not sweet. Neither lived up to the great essentials +which assure happiness. + +Before her imprisonment the gossip-mongers were whispering round +rumours of violent flirtations, and even when she was in Les Carmes +they said that she and her fellow-prisoner, General Hoche, were too +familiar, and coupled the name of the ex-Count with that of a young +lady suspect. The truth of such accusations seems highly improbable, +and they may well be regarded as malicious slander. It is not unlikely +that Josephine was on friendly terms with the General before they met +in Les Carmes, but that it was more than friendship is a mere +hypothesis. Her relation with that unspeakable libertine Barras was +especially unfortunate. No doubt she was driven to extremities after +her release. Her fate was as hard as it is possible to conceive. She +was without the proper means of sustenance for herself and her family, +and appears to have lost no time in really becoming the chosen friend +of a creature who took advantage of her and then betrayed her to the +world. It is he who tells in his memoirs the sad and sickening story +of his connection with Josephine, and gloats over the opportunity it +gives him of repeating conversations he had with General Hoche as to +her love entanglements. He declares that she was "the patient mistress +of Hoche in the sight of the whole world." + +The editor of the memoirs to some extent tones down the brutal +statements of the author. But a man who publicly exposes the relations +he has had with a fascinating woman who gives herself to him may not +be readily believed when he deliberately involves his own friends in +the liaisons. There is no question of what his part was in the +degradation of Josephine, but the luxury of dragging other names into +the moral quagmire, in order, it may be, to justify his own dealings +and to further debase her, could only be undertaken by a person soaked +with the venom of indecency, and, in this case, had no other object +than that of gratifying his malice against her husband. His +assumption of moral superiority is quite entertaining when he, the +seducer and corrupter, speaks of the unfortunate woman's +"libertinism," and calls her in his bitterness "a licentious Creole." + +This representative of the Republic one and indivisible, embodying +Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, or Death, at the end of the eighteenth +century, will forever disgrace the judgment and moral condition of the +France which knew Charlemagne. + +"Citizen" Barras repudiates the story of Eugene asking the +Commander-in-Chief for his beheaded father's sword. He claims that +Napoleon himself invented the story. But it is highly improbable that +Napoleon would risk at the beginning of his career having his veracity +doubted. In itself, the incident is a small matter. The only real +interest attached to it is the touching pathos of the small boy asking +for and receiving the sword, which, of course, gave his mother the +opportunity of calling to thank the General for his goodness, and in +this way it has historic importance, as Napoleon and Josephine were +married four months after, _i.e._, March 9, 1796, her age being +thirty-two and his twenty-five. + +The quibble is that of a small man searching in every pond for mud to +throw at his master's memory. Napoleon gave the facts to Barry +O'Meara at St. Helena, and they also appear in the "Memorial de St. +Helena." Had the introduction of these two remarkable people not come +about in this way, it would have been brought about in some other. +But, whether the story has any interest further than the writer has +stated or not, it is safer to believe Napoleon than Barras, who +boasted after the success of Napoleon in Italy that it was he who had +perceived in him a genius and urged the Directory to appoint him +Commander-in-Chief. Carnot is indignant at this impudent falsehood, +and declares that it was he and not Barras who nominated and urged the +appointment of Bonaparte. Certainly Carnot's story is the accepted +one. It matters little who the selected spokesman of the inspiration +was. France needed a man, and he was found. + +On the eve of this obscure and neglected young soldier's departure to +spread the blessings of Fraternity in Italy, the voluptuous Barras was +commissioned by him to announce to the Directory his marriage with +Citizeness Tascher Beauharnais. Then began a period of devouring love +and war such as the world has never beheld. In the midst of strife and +strenuous responsibility, this young missionary, representing the +solacing new doctrine of symbolic brotherhood, neither shirks nor +forgets the responsibilities of his instructions to lay Italy at his +feet. + +Nor does he for a moment forget his wedded obligations. He is in love, +nay, desperately in love. The image of Josephine is constantly soaring +around him, and he pours forth ebullitions of frantic devotion at the +cannon's mouth, in the Canton, anywhere, and everywhere. He is as rich +in phrase as he is in courage and resource. He finds time to scrawl a +few burning words of passion which indicate that his soul is at once +aflame with thoughts of her and the grim military task he has +undertaken. + +He leads to battle flashing with the spirit of assured victory and +inspired by the belief that it has been written that he is the chosen +force which is to regenerate misgoverned nationalities. Order out of +chaos; moderation in the hour of victory; no interference with any +one's religious belief; stern discipline--these were some of the +behests of this young Titan, whose startling and victorious campaigns +were amazing an astonished world and causing significant apprehension +in the minds of the Directory, who decided to check the swift process +of ascendancy by giving instructions that he was to give over the +command of Lombardy to General Kellerman, and go south to commence +raiding other parts of Italy, including Rome and Naples. + +To this he promptly sends a vigorous though respectful reply, which +is intended to convey that they are to have done with such impractical +foolery. It is a world-shaking fight he has on hand. The honour and +military glory of France are at stake. It is not for mere theoretic +upholders of Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity to meddle with such +things. He says to them, "Kellerman is an excellent General, and could +lead an army as well as I," but then he goes on to plead the +superiority of his army, always modestly leaving himself outside the +praise he takes care to bestow on others, and adds with fervour, "The +command must remain in the hands of one man." "I believe," says he, +"that one bad General is better than two good ones." "The art of war, +like the art of government, is a matter of careful handling." Then +with delicious frankness he flashes out: "I cannot allow myself to +have my feet entangled." "A free hand or resignation." That is his +ultimatum. This thunderbolt of bewildering audacity sent a flutter +through the sanctuary of Fraternity, and in hot haste a message of +confidence, coupled with an order that he shall be left in supreme +control, was dispatched by a vigilant energetic courier. The Directory +were made to see that a great power had arisen which would hold +dominion over them. + +And yet this young and terrible conqueror, who judiciously dominated +every will in the process of his achievements, he who defiantly told +his masters that he would not suffer his "feet to be entangled" by +their amateurish absurdities, was entangled for a time by a rapturous +infatuation and allowed a giddy woman with seductive habits and a +silken voice to cajole, dominate, ridicule, and ignore him. His +imploring theatrical appeals to her to come to him are piteously +pathetic. The rational parts of his letters are without example in +neat concise phrase, and portray a man possessed of great human +virtues. It is when the love-storm attacks him that he flies into +extravagances, such as when he writes that "she has more than robbed +him of his soul," and that "she is devouring his blood." He writes to +his brother Joseph that he loves her to madness, and to Carnot even he +does the same thing. Perhaps the most extravagant outburst of all is +when he begs that she is to let him see some of her faults, and to be +less kind, gracious, and beautiful. "Your tears drive away my reason +and scorch my blood." "You set my poor heart ablaze." He complains of +her letters being "cold as friendship," and adds, "But oh! how I am +infatuated." + +Josephine has never been addressed in such consuming language before. +She is flattered, and her little head becomes swollen with the idea +of greatness. The ridiculous endearments amuse her. She must not +allow such opportunities of creating envy to pass, so she shows the +letters as they come along to her most intimate friends, amongst whom +Barras still continues high on the list, and with an air of dizzy +pride she playfully says Bonaparte is "very droll." And really, +Josephine was right. Some of his letters are "droll," but they are +genuine, and this highly honoured woman, launched into prominence and +position, and reaping the laurels of his work disgraced her womanhood +by showing his letters, and doubly disgraced herself by ridiculing +them. + +It was not until Murat, Junot, and Joseph Bonaparte were sent by +Napoleon to Paris from the seat of war with important dispatches, and +also with letters to her, that it dawned upon her that she had carried +her unwillingness to join her husband far enough. Doubtless the +gallant commissioners had given her a hint that further refusal meant +inevitable reprisals. It is quite feasible that the rollicking Junot, +who was always prepared to give his soul for Bonaparte, was frank +enough to intimate that there was a risk of driving her husband into +the arms of some covetous female, many of whom were angling in the +hope of capturing the brilliant and rising General, and that already +he was showing signs of jealousy and suspicion of her good faith. + +News of fresh victories was coming in, fetes were held in honour of +them, crowds of people congregated, and at the sight of her leaning on +the arm of Junot after leaving the Luxembourg they shout, "Long live +General Bonaparte! Long live Citizeness Bonaparte!" She is enthralled +by the adulation which reflected glory showers upon her. Her spirit +rebels against leaving all its pleasures and pomps. But she has +exhausted every canon of truth in excuses, even that of being +pregnant, and finds herself inevitably driven to abandon the seat of +joy and easy morals and set off for Milan with her dog "Fortune" and +Eugene, her son. Tears flow copiously at the thought of her wrongs, +but these are dried up with the compensating opportunity of commencing +a flirtation with Murat, who is soon to become the husband of Caroline +Bonaparte. + +The popular opinion was that it was Junot who was the object of her +designs, but the future Duchess d'Abrantes scornfully repudiates this, +and declares that Junot's devotion to his beloved General forbade him +reciprocating his wife's indiscretion, so he made love to Louise +Compoint, Josephine's waiting-maid, instead, the result being that +Louise was requested to leave the service of the offended Josephine. + +On arrival at Milan, Napoleon was absent, so the honour of receiving +her was deputed to the Milanese Due de Serbelloni, who took her in +regal style to stay at his palace. On Napoleon meeting his wife for +the first time since their marriage his joy was unbounded. Marmont, +who betrayed him and France in later days, says that "at that time he +lived only for his wife, and never had purer, truer, or more exclusive +love taken possession of the heart of a man, and that a man of so +superior an order." + +Napoleon had still much work to do, and many hard battles to fight, so +that they were frequently separated during the remaining months before +he had freed Italy and beaten the Austrians. On no occasion when he +was absent from her did he neglect sending letters on fire with the +assurance of unabated love, but they frequently indicate not only a +conviction of her indifference, but a suspicion that it is more, which +is promptly nullified by further explosions such as "kisses as burning +as my heart and as pure as you." Poor Napoleon! he is soon to be +disillusioned. She is the same old Josephine in Italy as she was in +Paris. He pleads with her to send him letters, for she must "know how +dear they are to him." "I do not live," he tells her, "when I am far +from you." "My life's happiness is in the society of my sweet +Josephine." Again he writes, "A thousand kisses as fiery as my soul, +as chaste as yourself! I have just summoned the courier; he tells me +that he crossed over to your house, and that you told him you had no +commands. Fie! Naughty, undutiful, cruel, tyrannous, jolly little +monster. You laugh at my threats, at my infatuation; ah! you well know +that if I could shut you up in my heart I would put you in prison +there!" This playful, gloomy, humorous, and tender quotation does not +emanate from the heart of a monster, but from an unequalled lovesick +soul confiding the innermost secrets of his mind to an inglorious +helpmate, whose follies during the first years of their married life +were a cruel humiliation to him. + +She courted ruin with cool dissolute persistency. She deceived, lied, +and wept with the felicity of a fanatic. She sought and found +happiness at the cost of not only self-respect, but honour and virtue. +She was not a shrew, but a born coquette, without morals rather than +immoral, and, withal, a superb enigmatic who would have made the +Founder of our faith shed tears of sorrow. It is by distorting facts +that her eulogists make it appear that she was a loving and devoted +wife during the early years of her second marriage. + +On her arrival at Milan from Paris she had presented to her many army +officers, amongst whom was a young Hussar, the friend and assistant +General of Leclerc, who became the husband of Paulette, the giddy +little schoolgirl sister of Napoleon. Josephine, at this period of her +history was famous for her aversion to chastity, so that it is not +altogether inexplicable that she should have sought the distinction of +making Hippolyte Charles her lover. He was fascinating, witty, dressed +with splendour, and was quite up to her standard of moral quality. The +friendship grew into intimacy, so that he became a frequent visitor to +Josephine during Napoleon's absence. + +It was scarcely likely that this love affair, which was assuming +dramatic proportions, could be long kept from the knowledge of +Napoleon. The mocking critics of the camp and the stern moralists +amongst the civilians vied with each other in babbling commentary of +the growing dilapidated reputation that the Commander-in-Chief's wife +was precipitately acquiring. Wherever she is or goes, so long as +Bonaparte is at a safe distance, Charles is hanging on to her skirts. +Some writers have said that on the occasion of her visit to Genoa to +attend the fetes given by the Republic he was in attendance, and it is +most likely that this clumsy act of strategy on the part of Josephine +brought about the climax. Unquestionably her movements were being +watched by members of the Bonaparte family. They not unnaturally felt +that the scandal was exposing them as well as their brother to +ridicule. + +But, as frequently happens, great events are brought about in the most +unexpected way. The vivacious Paulette had fallen in love with Freron, +a man of forty, holding a high position in the Government service. +Napoleon was strongly averse to the match, so decided that she should +become the wife of General Leclerc, aged twenty-five, who was said to +be Napoleon's double. Hippolyte Charles had been the friend of +Leclerc, and Paulette resolutely set her mind on inflicting salutary +punishment on her sister-in-law for the wrong she was doing her +brother. She quickly managed to wriggle confidences out of Leclerc +concerning the Josephine-Charles connection, then peached. Charles was +banished from the army, and, on the authority of Madame Leclerc, we +learn that Josephine "nearly died of grief." The avenging little vixen +had put a big spoke in the wheel, although there were other powerful +agencies that had no small part in bringing light to the aching and +devout heart. + +From this dates the fall of Josephine's complete magical divinity over +him, and a new era begins. We hear no more of "shutting her up in his +heart," or of sending her "kisses as fiery as his soul and as chaste +as herself"; though to the end his letters are studiously kind and +even reverential. + +Meanwhile, the intrepid General, having brought the campaign of Italy +and Austria to a successful end, came back to Paris, received the +plaudits of a grateful and adoring nation, and the doubtful favour of +a jealous Directory. They banqueted him at the Luxembourg with every +outward sign of satisfaction. Talleyrand and Barras made eloquent and +flattering speeches of his accomplishments and talents, and the latter +folded him in his arms as a concluding token of affection. Josephine +revelled in the gaiety and honours that encompassed them, while her +husband sought the consolation of privacy. + +After a short though not inactive stay in Paris, he was given command +of the Army of the East, and sailed from Toulon on May 19, 1798, in +the _Orient_ (which came to a tragic end at Aboukir), and Josephine +waved her handkerchief, soaked in tears, as the fleet passed from +view. + +Her doings do not interest us until she again came across the young +ex-officer Charles in Paris, some time in 1799, and, at his request no +doubt, she introduced him to a firm of army contractors, and for the +ostensible purpose of showing his gratitude, he called at Malmaison to +thank her. This act of grace could have been done with greater +propriety by letter, though there may have been reasons for not +putting in writing anything that might associate the wife of the +Commander-in-Chief with having dealings with army contractors, even to +the extent of interesting herself on behalf of a man who was dismissed +the service for carrying on an intrigue with his General's wife, who +happened to be Josephine herself. + +But putting aside the unpardonable breach of faith in allowing a +renewal of the intimacy with such a man, the fact of a lady in her +position being mixed up with a firm of this character might have +seriously compromised Napoleon, and for this reason alone her act was +highly reprehensible. Charles was not slow to avail himself of +Josephine's hospitality, and became a regular visitor. This further +lapse of loyalty to the absent husband was transmitted to Egypt, and +very naturally determined him on the necessity of taking proceedings +to get a divorce, but although Napoleon had ceased, so far as he +could, to be the dreadful simpleton lover of other days, he failed to +gauge the grip the old fascination had of him. + +He believed the avenging spirit that guided him to definite +conclusions was real, and with the thought of "divorce, public and +sensational divorce," buzzing in his head, combined with another of +State policy lurking in the background, he set sail for France, and +created wild excitement in domestic and Directorial circles by +unexpectedly landing at Frejus. + +He then made his way, as quickly as the enthusiasm of the cheering +populace allowed him, towards his house in the Rue de la Victoire; but +the penitent (?) Josephine was not there. She had gone to meet him, +taken the wrong road, and missed throwing herself into his arms as was +her intention. He asks excitedly, "Is she ill?" and the significant +wink of her enemies threw him into paroxysms of grief. His friend +Collot calls and reminds him that the hope of the nation is centred on +him. His wrath is proof that he is still in love, and Collot fears +that the magical effect of her appearance will bring forgiveness. +"Never," shouts the irate husband. "How little you know me, Collot. +Rather than abase myself, I would tear my heart out and throw it on +the fire." + +But Collot knew him better than he chose to admit he knew himself, and +we shall see that his heart was not thrown "on the fire," but given +again to the erring Josephine, who was travelling back post-haste from +Lyons. She arrived broken in spirit and wearied unto death. Napoleon, +obviously not quite sure of his determination to refuse her +admittance, had bolted the door, and was stamping about the room with +a glare in his piercing eye as though he were planning an onslaught +that was to be furiously contested. Josephine arrives, knocks at the +door, implores him to open it, and addresses him as "Mon ami, _mon bon +ami_." There is no response, and in her frenzy of despair she weeps +and beats her head against the door, and piteously pleads for the +opportunity of justifying herself. But still he holds out. And then +her unfailing resource suggests that Hortense and Eugene, whom he +loves so well, shall be brought as the medium of compassion to their +distracted mother. They come, and the bolts are drawn. Their +stepfather admits them to his presence. They kneel at his feet and +appeal to him to continue to be the good, kind father he has ever +been, and to receive their mother back to his affections. + +It is all over now with Napoleon. He is never proof against tears, so +sends for their mother, who falls into his arms and faints. She is +tenderly laid into his bed, saved from her woeful fate, and when +Lucien Bonaparte arrived by command next morning, to take instructions +for the impending divorce proceedings, that horror had disappeared +from their outlook, and both Josephine and Napoleon were wrapped in a +drowsy joy. + +Josephine, gifted with irresistible subtlety and skilful in the art +and use of hysteria, had rekindled the embers of infatuation that was +never more to be totally quenched. In all likelihood she would give a +different explanation of her conduct to Napoleon than that given him +by Lucien and other members of his family. It is not an undue stretch +of imagination to conclude that she assured him that her heart was +shared with none other, though the assertion may be regarded as a +daring fabrication. She did not gauge calmly, but she gauged well, the +supreme power she had over the man who had so abjectly shown her such +inflammable love. She knew, too, of his vanity, and hit him +caressingly on the spot. The cry of "he and none other," combined with +a beseeching wail that he should open his heart to an affectionate and +faithful love, was more likely to conquer than any admission of wrong. +Could she forget the oft-repeated declaration that his ruling +principle was that he would have no divided affection? It must be all +or none. The hypothesis is therefore that she played on his vanity, +and not on his confidence or judgment, the sequel being the complete +surrender of Napoleon. + +Josephine, whether from fear of the penalty or the purity of her +motives, never again allowed herself to be placed in the same +hazardous position. She had been cured of unfaithfulness, and promised +that Hippolyte Charles should never be allowed to lead her into such +a scrape again. He was put out of her life, and was never more heard +of. He was seen but once more by Napoleon, and the sight of his evil +face nearly caused the Emperor the humiliation of a collapse. + +Josephine's matrimonial transgressions, whatever they may have been, +were condoned with exuberant suddenness, and Napoleon rushed into +domestic tranquillity. The zealot of freedom forthwith concentrated +his wondrous talents with aggressive righteousness on the task of +destroying a decadence that was bearing France to her doom. Josephine +was enrolled as patron of deliverance from anarchy, and having all the +essential attributes which make for success in such an enterprise, she +daily filled her salon with men and women who had influence to aid her +husband and his friends in upsetting the Government. She had developed +into an attractive, graceful hostess, and was endowed with the knack +of cajoling which disarmed opposition and enthused supporters, and +unquestionably she played the part given to her with unmeasured +success, and Napoleon did the rest. + +The _coup d'etat_ had been dexterously planned, which enabled him to +bring about a bloodless overthrow. Josephine was deployed to win over +her friend Gohier, the President of the Directory. She invited him +and his wife to breakfast on the 17th Brumaire. Gohier wonders why +they should be asked so early as six in the morning. He thinks he +smells a rat, excuses himself, but sends his wife, who is ushered into +the presence of a houseful of officers of the National Guard, and the +hostess does not lose time in conveying to Gohier's former cook the +meaning of their being there. Bonaparte, be it known, is determined to +form a Government, and it grieves her that so good a friend as the +President of Directors should have been so thoughtless of his own +interests as not to accompany his wife on such an auspicious occasion. + +"The inevitable is at hand, Madame Gohier," says Josephine in effect, +"and at this very moment Barras is being pressed to resign, and if he +disobeys his fate is sealed." Madame Gohier is aghast, stiffens her +back, and with as much dignity as her nature will allow, she bows, +withdraws, and hastens to the side of her husband, to convey all she +has seen and heard. + +Meanwhile, events travel swiftly under the direction of the intrepid +General. He walks into the Council of Ancients and jerks out with +vivid flashes of oratory the object of his visit. The members see at a +glance its meaning. They become inarticulate with rage begotten of +fear. He thunders out, "I am here to demand a Republic founded on +true liberty," and swears that he will have it. In the Hall of the +Five Hundred he is met with cries of "Down with the Cromwell!" "No +Dictator!" "Outlaw him!" and so forth. + +But these are mere futile belchings of exasperated gasbags, on whom he +darts a look of withering scorn, which they discern means trouble if +they do not conduct themselves with decorum. His guards are close at +hand, and he is daring enough to make use of them if there is any +resistance to that which he has undertaken. To the Directory, through +their envoy Dottot, he says in substance, and not without vigour, "Do +not sicken me with your imbecile arguments and lame, impotent +conclusions. What I want to know is: What have you done with this +France which I left you so glorious? I left you peace; I return and +find war! I left you victories; I find reverses! I left you the +millions of Italy; I find despoiling laws and misery throughout!" But +ere this terrific indictment had been thrust at them, they had become +conscious that their dissolute and chaotic regime was at an end, and +that Napoleon had become the ruler of the France he had left +prosperous and found tottering to pieces on his return from Egypt. + +Josephine had played her part in the drama with surprising shrewdness +and marked devotion to her husband's cause. He was rewarded by being +made First Consul, and she by becoming the first lady of the Republic +and the leader of society. They quickly availed themselves of the +distinction by removing from their humble habitation, first to the +Petit Luxembourg and then to the Tuileries, where she occupied the +bedroom of the famous Marie Antoinette and the apartments formerly +inhabited by Louis, which were immediately above. They gathered round +them men of merit representing science, art, literature, law, +politics, military notables, and fashion. They set up, in fact, a +little Court, but lived a quiet, unostentatious life, so far as it was +diplomatic and permissive. + +It was not until the advent of the Empire that gaiety and grandeur +began, excelling and putting into the shade every other Court in +Europe. Josephine wallowed in it, but Napoleon adopted and encouraged +it more from policy than taste. In fact, when in a whimsical mood, he +often said it bored him. That is not to say that he did not adapt +himself to what he believed was a necessity. An Oriental potentate +could not have carried the dignity of splendour more naturally than +he. Whilst in his secret heart he loathed its pomp and extravagance, +fixed in his memory was the impression of poverty and suffering that +he had passed through in his boyhood days, when, in the streets of +Paris, he was on the verge of starvation and at one time obliged to +sell his meagre possession of books to find food for the mouth of his +brother Louis, and went without himself. To his intimate friends he +was accustomed to relate the story, not in a whining manner, but with +a vividness and pathos that brought tears to the eyes of every one who +heard it. + +The wilful and false conception of Napoleon's character that existed +amongst thousands of those who were contemporary with him, and the +persistent efforts to defame him, even now, by a section of the +world's community, are extraordinary, when so many convincing proofs +are available which show him to have been the reverse of what they say +he was. As brother, son, husband, father, or friend, his love, +devotion, and loyalty were matchless. He was never once known to +upbraid Josephine after the condonement of her infidelities. He paid +her colossal debts, not without protest, but rather than make her +unhappy he excused her extravagance and overlooked the capricious, +peevish way in which she gave her domestic confidences concerning +himself to her friends, who were oft-times his enemies, and so +forgiving was he of faults which were so glaring to others, that he +frequently caressed when he should have chastised. + +Josephine played upon his purblindness where she was concerned in +most scandalous ways. She had no money sense, and combined with this +defect she had no moral sense in money matters. Her debts were +chronic, and periodically so enlarged that she adopted the most +monstrous methods to reduce them before the balances were put before +Napoleon by herself, or an inkling conveyed to him by a wily creditor; +but these subterfuges only added to her spending resources. It is said +that she actually did not shrink from receiving a thousand francs per +day from Fouche as the price of information given him of what was +going on in the Tuileries, and also that she received half a million +francs from Flachats, the predatory army contractors. + +It is unthinkable that Napoleon, whose rigid uprightness in matters of +money has never been disputed, could have known that his wife was +involved in such shocking financial dealings, or he would have taken +salutary measures to put a definite end to them. He knew that he was +surrounded by men who were inveterate thieves, and when their +defalcations were brought to his knowledge, they were either cashiered +or made to disgorge. Bourrienne, Talleyrand, and Fouche, for instance. +But there is no evidence to show that he ever suspected Josephine at +any time, and let us hope that the Fouche-Flachats transactions were +either exaggerated or mere invention, though it is hard to believe +that there was no truth in the accusation. + +Napoleon was no sooner made Consul than there began to be hints and +innuendoes of an heir, and as Josephine knew that she could not bear +him one, she was thrown into fits of despondency lest he should be +driven by designing persons in and outside his family to listen to a +scheme of divorce and remarriage. The alternative was to nominate one +of his brothers as his heir. Joseph and Lucien were impossible, so he +fixed his mind on Louis. But the plot to assassinate him on the way to +the opera, together with the Duc d'Enghien, Cadoudal, Moreau, and +Pichegru affair, brought the change from Life Consul to Emperor more +quickly. The marriage of Louis to Hortense eased Josephine's mind. She +had in view the fact that an heir might be born to them, and the +possibility of the inheritance going to him. In due course Napoleon +Charles was born, and an attempt made by Napoleon to carry his idea +out. Louis was at first in favour of it, but Joseph and Lucien had +envious conceptions of what the brothers' rights were. Louis became +impressed with their views, and ultimately decided against Napoleon's +wishes. The Senate passed a resolution in favour of "direct natural, +legitimate, and adoptive descendants of Napoleon Bonaparte, and on the +direct, natural, legitimate descendants of Joseph and Louis." The +plebiscite supported the resolution of the Senate, and Joseph and +Louis had the mortification of seeing that to them the succession was +barred. + +This decision was regarded by Josephine as highly satisfactory to +herself. She made no fuss about it, but was greatly overjoyed at the +prospect of the effect it would have on Napoleon, and for a time no +more was openly heard of divorce; but the venom was insidiously eating +its way to that end all the same, and as he grew in power, so did the +conspiracy develop. His own family were eager that she should be put +away, but there were influences more powerful than that of Madame Mere +and her sons and daughters. Talleyrand and Fouche being the High +Commissioners who founded the direct hereditary idea, they +persistently worried him with the plea that the State claimed that he +should make the sacrifice. They knew that this was the strongest and +most effective reason they could put forward to a man who would have +given his soul in the service of his country. + +The birth of Madame Eleonore Denuelle's son Leon on December 29, 1806, +made a great impression on the Emperor's mind. It was well known that +he was the father of the child, and now that there was no doubt as to +the possibility of him having an heir, it was only to be expected +that the advocates of divorce would press their claim that an +alliance should be made with one of the powerful ruling families. The +advantages to France would be inestimable, and would it not establish +himself and his dynasty more firmly on the throne? It is not unlikely +that Napoleon pondered over the great possibilities of such a +marriage, but he could not bring himself to the thought of divorcing +the woman he still loved. He went so far as to seek Josephine's +support in the plan of making his natural son his heir, and Masson +says that in support of his desire he vigorously used "precedents and +invented justifications." Happily he did not stretch the law of +hereditary succession further than this. + +Leon, when he grew up, became a great source of trouble to all those +with whom he was connected. His features and physical make up had a +marked resemblance to his father's, but his mind was erratic. He had +inherited none of the steady, sane genius of the Emperor, though but +for a freak of nature which gave him a mental twist, he would have +been as near his prototype as may be. He was always full of great +schemes, which in the hands of a normally constituted person would +have been fashioned into public usefulness. + +Masson gives a vivid and somewhat categorical account of his +predilections, which were "gambling, duels, politics, writing +pamphlets, the conception of colossal canal, railway, and commercial +undertakings that never got far beyond the initial and rocky mental +stage." He was one of the chief mourners when his father's remains +were brought to Paris from St. Helena in 1840, and in 1848 aspired to +the Presidency of the Republic, which fell to the lot of his cousin +Louis Napoleon, whose life he desired to take, but who, with great +generosity, gave him a pension and paid the legacy left him by +Napoleon. He died in 1881. + +The birth of Leon gives him a prominent place in the history of the +political divorce, though so far as Napoleon was concerned or affected +by it, there is strong evidence to show that he really thought it was +a way out, and had he been left to his own inclinations, the +probability is that there would have been no second marriage so long +as Josephine lived. From 1807 to 1809 his brain was racked to pieces +with the inevitable shadow he struggled to evade. He could not bring +himself to sever the tie that bound them together in strong attachment +for nearly fifteen years. He invented every conceivable device to try +and find a more congenial solution than divorce. + +For two years the Emperor lived in an atmosphere of intolerable +anguish which distracted him. The nearer he approached the dreaded +theme, the more fascinating his wife appeared to him, and the more +tenaciously he clung to the deep impressions that had been made by +that youthful passion that swayed his very being in other days. She +had frequently recaptured him from the subtle blandishments of an +agency that was ever on his track, and then his devotion became more +rapturous than ever. Fouche was frequently rebuked with stern severity +for his pertinacious advocacy of the separation. At another time we +hear of him falling into Josephine's arms, shedding copious tears, +and, choking with grief, he sobs out, "My poor Josephine! I can never +leave you," "I still love you," and so forth. + +Those who pretend to see in these outbursts of devotion nothing but +artifice, cannot have informed themselves of the true character of +this extraordinary man. In truth, his was a sacrifice of affection +forced upon him for the benefit of the State. That is the conclusion +the writer has come to after much research. Even after he was +persuaded that he would have to submit, the recollections of the glory +they had shared together, and of their happy days, and the grief and +suffering the parting would cause, filled him with remorse and pity, +and then would come a period of wavering which exasperated his family +and the upholders of the stability of the Empire. At last he saw +clearly that it was an imperative duty that must be fulfilled. + +The succession problem had been artfully revived, and the amiable +Marie Walewska, who was living close to Schoenbrunn, was about to give +birth to a child which he knew to be his, and it is not improbable +that this double assurance that he might reasonably expect to have an +heir if he married again brought him to the definite decision to go on +with the divorce; and the Emperor Francis of Austria made haste to +form an alliance by offering his daughter Marie Louise in marriage. + +At the end of December, 1809, the great political divorce was ratified +amid sombre signs of sympathy. Even the Bonapartes were compelled to +yield to emotion, and Napoleon himself was profoundly affected. The +subdued distress of Josephine pierced through the chilly hearts of +those who had looked on with composure while men and women were being +led to the guillotine during the Reign of Terror. But even Josephine's +tears and grief were graceful and fascinating, so that it was not +surprising that the spectators extended sympathy to her in her sorrow. +Almost immediately after the ceremony Napoleon became overcome with +grief. He allowed a little time to elapse before asking Meneval to +accompany him to Josephine's apartments. They found her in a condition +of inexorable despair. She flung herself into the Emperor's arms; he +embraced and fervently kissed her, but the ordeal was too great. She +collapsed and fainted. He remained with her until she showed signs of +consciousness, then left her in charge of Meneval and women +attendants. The sight of her grief was too much for him to bear. + +Napoleon sought a delusive diversion at Trianon after Josephine had +taken up her abode at Malmaison. His sympathetic and affectionate +attentions from there could not have been more earnestly shown. +Nothing that would appease her grief and add to her comfort was +overlooked by him or allowed to be overlooked by others. An annual +income of three million francs was settled on her for life, which, +should he pre-decease her, was to be paid by his successors. She +retained the title of Empress and every other appearance of +sovereignty. + +The negotiations for the second marriage were conducted from Trianon. +The Russian alliance fell through, ostensibly on religious grounds. +Napoleon did not like the thought of having Russian priests about him, +and besides, the Princess Anne was too young to marry, and even if +there had been no other difficulty, the Emperor Napoleon could not +wait. The Saxon alliance did not appeal to him, so he gave preference +to the House of Austria, and on March 11, 1810, His Majesty was +married by proxy at Vienna to the Austrian Archduchess, and on the 1st +of April the civil marriage took place at St. Cloud, and the following +day they were ecclesiastically united.[31] + +Better for him and for France had he defied the advocates of royal +alliance and stuck to Josephine, or even married Marie Walewska. If it +was merely the policy of succession that was aimed at, he could have +adopted his natural son, the brilliant Alexander Walewska, whose +subsequent career in the service of France would have justified this +course. + +The desire to unite the French Emperor with one of the powerful +reigning families in order to give stability to the Empire and put an +end to incessant warfare was a theory which proved to be a delusion, +and perhaps Napoleon, with his clear vision, foresaw the jealousies +and international complications that would arise through a political +marriage of this character. This, and his unwillingness to part with +Josephine, is a conclusion that may reasonably account for the +vacillation that was so pronounced from time to time. + +The flippant attitude (which indicates the scope and summit of an +ill-informed mind) that he was the victim of abnormal ambition to be +connected with one or other of the royal families is ludicrous. If he +had been eager to have such distinction, it was within his reach at +any time after he became First Consul. He had only to impart a hint +and there would have been a competition of available princesses, the +choice of which would have bewildered him. Assuredly he showed no +youthful impetuosity in this respect, and it may not be an overdrawn +hypothesis to conclude that his marriage with Marie Louise was neither +popular with the French people as a whole nor with other +nationalities. It excited jealousy and mistrust amongst the larger +Powers, and in France itself the memory of the last ill-fated union of +France with Austria--that of Marie Antoinette and Louis--had left +rankling effects in the minds of the people of the Revolution.[32] + + +Murat had urged on his brother-in-law and the grand dignitaries the +fact that a marriage with a relative of Marie Antoinette, who was an +abhorrence to the adherents of the Revolution, would alienate a large +public, but Murat's objections were suspected of having personal +colour and overruled. It is, however, beyond conjecture that the King +of Naples had diagnosed aright; whether from self-interest or not, the +warning proved accurate. The most loyal and devoted of his subjects +felt that their invincible hero was drifting into a vortex of trouble. +They had learned by bitter experience the duplicity of Austrian +diplomacy. The remembrance of the cruel wars they had been cunningly +trapped into, the bleached bones of Frenchmen that lay on Austrian +soil, and the denuded homes that resulted from Austria's odious policy +of greed, worked on them like a subtle poison. And the glory of their +conquests over her was nullified by the eternal suspicion that she was +ever hatching new grounds of quarrel. They thought, indeed, their +premonition of Austria's perpetual treachery was clear and definite, +and that the new Empress would be a useful medium of their enemies' +machinations. + +We can never fully estimate to what extent these impressions +influenced their minds and actions and the part they played in +hastening the great national humiliation. It is a pretty certain +conclusion that it was only the colossal successes and magical +personality of the Emperor that kept subdued the spirit of resentment +which the marriage had caused. + +And we have historic evidence before us which clearly shows that the +well-balanced mind of Napoleon was torn and tattered between doubt and +conviction, and he fell into the fatal error of allowing his judgment +to be overruled either by circumstances or pride. Had he relied on his +superstition even, the chances are that St. Helena would never have +had the stigma of his captivity stamped upon it. + +French and Austrian alliances have never, so far as they affected +political history, been very successful. The stability of earthly +things is governed, not by sentiment or theoretic doctrines, but by +facts as hard as granite, and no one knew this more thoroughly than +the man who fell a victim to the devices of the Austrians and their +French allies. + +He was usually reticent about his domestic sorrows while in exile, but +when his thoughts were far off, reviewing the great mystery of human +destiny, he broke the rule, and with a sort of languid frankness spoke +the thoughts that crowded his mind, and it was during these spasmodic +periods that he opened his soul by declaring that it was his "having +married a princess of Austria that ruined him, and that his marriage +with Marie Louise was the cause of the expedition into Russia," and +that "he might not have been at St. Helena had he married a +Frenchwoman." It is said that he seriously thought of doing this, and +had some available ladies put before him with that object. These +dreamy utterances reveal that his mind was centred on the causes of +his misfortunes, and that he held definite views on the marriage +tragedy, and perhaps his sense of pride, the interests of his son (the +King of Rome), and the reluctance to admit that he knew he was going +wrong at the time, constrained him to withhold much that he thought +and knew. The impression we get is that he could not bring himself to +utter the whole of the unutterable canker which haunted him. + +It is strange that this keen-sighted man should have yielded up his +own convictions and sunk under the admonitions of less capable judges. +Even so far back as the Directory days, when Bernadotte was insulted +at Vienna, he summed up the Austrian character in the following +terms:--"When the Austrians think of making war, they do not insult; +they cajole and flatter the enemy, so that they may have a better +chance to stick a knife into him." He told the Directory they did not +understand the Cabinet of Vienna; "it is the meanest and most +perfidious to be found." "It will not make war with you because it +cannot." "Peace with Austria is only a truce." His diagnoses were +confirmed by Bernadotte, and more than confirmed in after years. The +marvel is that he did not allow himself to benefit by his shrewd +observations at a moment when so much depended on strength, not +vacillation and weakness. + +A vivid justification of the opposition to another Austrian princess +sharing the throne of France is embodied in the lofty ideals (?) of +the Emperor Francis to his daughter Marie Louise at Schoenbrunn after +she had deserted Napoleon. He said to her:--"As my daughter, all that +I have is yours, even my blood and my life; as a sovereign, I do not +know you." + +The benediction, pure and big of heart, benignly expressed, is +promptly qualified with kingly sternness; the orthodoxy being that so +long as Napoleon was in power she was his daughter, all that he had +was hers, including his life and blood, but now that he has fallen she +must not thwart his wishes, and loyally share the fate of him who was +the father of her son, who had given her unparalleled glory, and been +so merciful to Francis himself. If she elected to be at all wifely and +cling to her husband in his misfortune, then he would assert the +sovereign, and as readily gore her as he would Napoleon if, in his +patriarchal wisdom, he judged national interests were at stake. His +spirit-crushing rhetoric had a real ultra-monarchical ring about it. +But it was meant for other ears and a purpose other than that of +making his daughter shudder. So far as she was concerned, he might +have saved himself any anxiety on that score. She bowed her head in +conformity, and swiftly cast her amorous eyes on Neipperg, a man after +his and her own heart. This was the culminating event that brought her +destiny with Napoleon to an end, though _he_ tried to avert it, and +the causes are summarised in his own pathetic language, clearly +expressed from time to time. + +His nephew, Napoleon III., taking a lesson from his folly, refused to +be buffeted into political matrimony by any of the matchmaking +factions. When his turn came he acted with independence and wisdom by +ignoring the blandishments of meddling advisers and royal +conventionalism, and elected to marry the lady on whom he had set his +affections. + +Incidentally, it may be stated that Napoleon III.'s merits have been +overshadowed by the greater genius of his uncle, but as time separates +the reigns of the two men it will be realised that, though he was not +looked upon as a great military general, he had genius of a different +kind, and was unquestionably a great ruler, acting under somewhat +changed conditions, but subject to the same human caprices, and a time +will come when the benefits he bestowed upon the French nation will be +appreciated more than they are this day. + +In 1812, Europe was in a state of dammed convulsion. The wars, though +always successful for France, had brought about no definite settlement +of international affairs. Peace was transitory, and the dread of +Napoleon's power and genius was the only check on rapacious designs on +his dominion. + +What direct or indirect share Marie Louise had in bringing about the +war with Russia and then the great European struggle will never be +wholly known, but as the wife of Napoleon she would have opportunities +of hearing from himself and those who were in his confidence remarks +and even discussions on the complexities of the political situation. +She was in daily communication with Metternich, and constantly +corresponding with her father; and even allowing that her intentions +were loyal at that time to her husband and to the country of her +adoption, she may have unconsciously conveyed something that in the +hands of adroit diplomats would reveal the pivot on which great issues +might depend. Then, placing the Regency in her hands was an unchecked +temptation, and must be counted as one of Napoleon's great mistakes. +Imbued with an abundant share of Austrian predilection, and occupying +a mechanical or fictitious position towards France and its ruler, and +in view of her subsequent conduct, it is a reasonable assumption that +during the Regency she conveyed important information of military +movements and intentions to the Austrian Court, which it was not slow +to take advantage of; and if truth were told, it would be found that +the Allies owed much of their success to the Austrian Archduchess. May +it not have been part of the subtle policy of Austria in arranging the +marriage? Everything certainly points to it. + +Instead of making Metternich a present at the Prague Congress of a +snuff-box which cost 30,000 francs, as a token of friendship, Fouche, +who always had his mind well stored with ideas of corruption, +suggested to the Emperor that, if it was intended to buy Austria off, +he ought to make it millions. If Napoleon had been a man after his own +heart, this might have been a successful solution for a time, but +only for a time. Meneval says that the Emperor, who had a horror of +corruption, replied to him with a gesture of disgust. + +In the early part of 1812, when war with Russia had become imminent, +Napoleon carried out a promise that Josephine should see the King of +Rome. The meeting took place at Bagatelle. She hugged and kissed the +child with motherly affection, and her tears flowed with profusion. +The scene was touching, and proved to be the everlasting farewell. +Strange as it may appear, Josephine formed an enduring affection for +Napoleon's natural son, afterwards Count Colonna (Alexander Walewska), +and for his mother, Marie Walewska. She loved the child and treated +him with the same indulgence as she did her own grandchildren. The +mother was a regular visitor, and no one was more welcome at Malmaison +than she. These incidents of magnanimity, characteristic of Josephine, +would make her not only attractive but lovable, were it not there are +also left on record flaws which show that she was seriously lacking in +probity and fidelity to him to whom she owed everything. Her maternal +affection and loving care of her children are without reproach, and +her generosity to worthy and unworthy people was extraordinary. She +loved Napoleon with peculiar eccentricity. His honour and interests +were never a consideration. She allowed herself to be surrounded at +Malmaison during the Russian campaign with Royalist plotters and +treachery of the most implacable character. She poured out her woes to +them with acceptable results, and nothing that would damage him and +draw sympathy to herself was left uncommunicated. Her whole thought +was of herself. She did not intend to be false or cruel to him, and +yet she was both cruel and false. + +As soon as the Allied Armies had taken possession of Paris, the +irrepressible Madame de Stael made a call on Josephine to ascertain +how she stood now towards her former husband. She promptly asked her +whether she still loved him. Josephine resented the impertinence, so +the Duchesse de Reggio relates, and told some of her visitors that she +had never ceased to love the Emperor in the days of his prosperity, +and it was unthinkable that she should cease to do so in his +adversity. Unhappily for Josephine, she adopted a most astounding +course of showing her devotion by agreeing to the visits, first, of +the Emperor of Russia, and then the other sovereigns and foreign +dignitaries. She gave balls and treated the enemies of France, and +especially the Tsar, as though they were the real descendants of the +builders of the Temple to Jehovah. She and Hortense walked about the +grounds linked to Alexander's arms during frequent visits, which was +indicative of strongly formed affection. + +Had Josephine been possessed of a grain of discernment or a proper +estimate of her dignity, she would have seen that this was part of a +well-defined policy of striking a blow through her at the man she +professed to love still, even with a greater passion now that he was +the victim of combined and unrelenting hostility. Hortense, it would +appear, refused at first to have any dealings with Alexander, but this +sovereign's personal charms, winning manners, and homely ways soon +fascinated and captured her. She may be excused, but her mother did +not act the part of a nobleminded woman, and her memory must bear the +reproach of it. + +Apart from the respect she owed to herself, she should have remembered +the duty and loyalty she owed to a vast French public, and to the +victim of her guests, who had been to her the most forgiving, +indulgent friend that ever a human soul was blessed with. He had been +a father to her children, and even when he was overwhelmed with the +consequences of great disaster, his tenderest and most generous +thoughts were sent to her. + +A woman who had a high sense of duty and honour would not have +accepted a single favour from either one or the other of the inimical +sovereigns, even if it had been offered to her; much less would she +have cringed and whined indelicately in order that she might receive +either their smiles or their favours at so abhorrent a price. + +Some writers have endeavoured to give Josephine credit for having +influenced Alexander in a way that secured for Napoleon better terms +than he would have otherwise got at the first abdication. The +suggestion is ludicrous. Presumably the alternative was that he should +be shot or confined in a fortress for the balance of his life. Either +of these ideas of disposing of his person would have created reaction +and public vengeance. The Allies shied at this, though some of the +most ferocious, but by no means the bravest, of the set clamoured for +shooting, which is always the way with spurious heroes. + +The diplomats amongst them devised the more subtle plan of exiling him +first to Elba with the title of Emperor, and a pension of L200,000 per +annum, never a penny of which was paid, or, in the light of history, +was ever intended to be paid. + +They had preconceived the notion of masking the St. Helena plan until +they thought they had cheated the public into believing that they were +inspired by humane motives and the necessity for the peace of Europe. +They laboriously studied out the most ingenious plots so that they +might be glorified for ridding Europe of a "monster." + +Napoleon was kept advised, during his stay at Elba, of their designs +on the liberty they had graciously (?) given him (with a pension that +was designedly withheld), and, acting on certain specific information, +he promptly developed one of his most brilliant achievements--the +sudden landing in France, his triumphal march to Paris, and the +resultant flight of the Bourbons at his unexpected approach at the +head of an enthusiastic army. + +The campaign which followed--ending with the Battle of +Waterloo--enabled the Allies, after his defeat, to satisfy the +cravings of their savage instincts by carrying out their plan as +mentioned above and sending him to martyrdom. + +But one of their most brutal acts was in refusing the request that his +wife and child should accompany him to Elba. These are the ultimate +"better terms" that Josephine is said to have secured by coquetting +with Alexander of Russia! + +She revelled in grasping at every fragment of wreckage that would be +of advantage to herself and her family, and Alexander's crafty +friendship unquestionably gave her opportunities to indulge unchecked +in complaints of her grievances against the man who had been so foully +betrayed. Her mania for the distribution of confidences of the most +sacred character was only equalled by her capacity for intriguing and +piling up debts, and these attributes never forsook her at any time. + +Josephine's moral qualities cannot be accurately judged by her +frequent outpourings of admiration and affection for Napoleon to +Eugene and Hortense. In the letters to each which are extant, she +declares it would be impossible for anyone to be kinder, more amiable, +or considerate than he has always been, and even after the divorce she +writes that if she loved him less sincerely, he could not show more +anxiety to mitigate anything that might be painful to her. + +But notwithstanding these declarations, she never failed to gratify +her insatiable love of pouring forth to his most inveterate enemies +faults and failings that her constitutional moral obliquity indicated +he had. It is not an unfair assumption, therefore, that their +Majesties and others had conveyed to them in handfuls (unwittingly +perhaps) much that was valuable to their pernicious purpose while they +were being entertained at Malmaison. It has been said that it was her +intention to be presented to the Bourbon King, and though we would +fain believe her to be incapable of such perfidy, it is quite in +keeping with the by-ways of her complex character, more especially as +Eugene had paid him a visit. The promises of the sovereigns that the +interests of herself and children would be protected became less +reassuring as the few days that were left to her went on. At last she +realised they were mere silken verbiage, and gave way to despair. +This, and the anxiety of entertaining her royal guests, accentuated +the illness she had contracted. Alexander paid his first visit on May +14th, and she died of quinsy or diphtheria on May 29, 1814. + +The allied monarchs were all represented at her funeral, and the +Prince of Mecklenburg (the Queen of Prussia's brother) was amongst the +mourners. It was of him the Court gossipers assiduously circulated +reports that he was paying suspicious attention to Josephine after the +divorce. Napoleon, on hearing of the flirtation through Fouche, +rebuked her with justifiable vigour on the ground of it being a gross +violation of dignity to go about with the Prince and others of lower +ranks to second-rate theatres, even under the cover of incognito. He +does not appear to have thought there was anything more than +Josephine's habitual lack of respect for herself and the high position +he had preserved for her, though according to the unreliable Madame de +Remusat Napoleon suggested to his divorced wife that she should take +Prince Mecklenburg as her husband. The same authority (?) asserts that +the Prince had written to Napoleon asking his permission, and, +further, says that Josephine told her this curious story. It is +entirely unsupported by either the words or actions of the Emperor +himself, and may be put aside as another of the fabrications of the +memoir writer. + +That there was a flirtation there can be little doubt, but the +Prince's object may have been part of the political intrigue, rather +than carnal intercourse with a woman of nearly fifty years of age. +Josephine, always sorry for herself, a sieve of the first water, +susceptible to flattery, blind to device, yearning for admiration and +pity, was rejoiced to find attention extended to her from any quarter, +but coming from the Royal House of Prussia or any other royal +personage it was a dazzling compliment to the high esteem in which she +believed she was held, and enhanced the luxury of feeling that she was +the centre of international sympathy. + +It was not that she had any malicious intent to do deliberate wrong to +Napoleon, or any thought of degrading herself. Her mind did not work +in these grooves. She was merely carried off her feet by vain love of +self-approbation, which led her far beyond the bounds of honourable +prudence. She was interred at Rueil amidst quiet solemnity, and in +1825 Eugene and Hortense erected a monument in her memory. + +The legend is that her last articulate utterance was the enchanted +name of "Napoleon"--"Elba." Corvisat, the Imperial physician, was +piteously asked by the Emperor on his return why he allowed her to +die, and the nature of the malady that took her spirit away. He +replied that she "Died of grief and sorrow." Her own doctor, Horeau, +told him pretty much the same thing, which brought forth the sad +reply, she was a "good woman" and "loved me well." The intimation that +she had spoken often and kindly of him brought back all the old +passion for her and filled him with emotion. He had heard of her death +while at Elba, and told Corvisat that it was a most acute grief to +him, and although she had her failings _she_ at least would "never +have abandoned him"; and possibly this latter expressed opinion, so +often repeated, might have been fulfilled had he at once thrown Marie +Louise over after her desertion of him. + +The popular charges against Napoleon, by those who are either +prejudiced or have failed to inform themselves of his history, are +that he must have been a cruel and barbarous husband or he would not +have divorced his wife, and that, as a ruler, he thirsted for blood. +Each of these, as well as many other silly things that are said and +believed of him, is palpably false. As a husband, so far as kindness +and indulgence goes, he was exemplary. As a soldier, First Consul, and +Emperor, his desire at all times was for peace. History has revealed +the real man, and in recent years it has been convincingly proved that +he was the very antithesis of the monster he has been given out and +supposed to be. Now, in the light of more accurate knowledge and +calmer judgment, the world is showing a desire to do him the justice +he never ceased to believe that it would do him. + +His unexampled personality and fame is spreading and inspiring +everywhere. His faults are being put in the limelight of public +opinion, and the growing desire to treat even these with proper +generosity is an indication that reason and knowledge are taking the +place of stereotyped international prejudice, political and personal. +We are beginning to see more clearly through the fog of enmity that he +had rare virtues, besides having unparalleled genius. The divorce of +Josephine was unquestionably political, though had he been the +ferocious creature he has been made to appear, the opportunities she +gave him so frequently would have justified the divorce at a much +earlier stage on other than political grounds. + +It ill becomes a nation which knew George I., George IV., and Henry +VIII. to take such unctuous exception to the gentle and benevolent +attitude of Napoleon before and after the annulment of the marriage. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[31] It has been asserted that when Josephine found the divorce to be +inevitable she herself suggested the alliance with Marie Louise. One +reason for believing that this might be the case lies in the fact that +the affection of Josephine's children for Napoleon suffered no +diminution on account of the divorce--indeed, Eugene took a leading +part in the negotiations for the marriage. + +[32] In the notorious "Letters from the Cape," addressed to Lady +Clavering and variously attributed to an Englishman, Las Cases, and +even Napoleon himself, there is noted a curious coincidence with +regard to the two Franco-Austrian alliances. Both marriage contracts +were signed under somewhat similar circumstances, and in both cases +fetes were held in honour of the event. At the marriage fete of Louis +XVI. and Marie Antoinette a calamity occurred which resulted in the +loss of about two thousand lives. To celebrate the union of Napoleon +and Marie Louise, Prince Schwartzenberg gave a fete, at which a fire +occurred, the Prince's wife and some twenty other people being burnt +to death. The superstitious drew attention to the coincidence, and it +is said that Napoleon looked upon it as an evil omen. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +RELIGIOUS NOTIONS OF NAPOLEON + + +In contrast with members of the oligarchy, who threw all moral +restraints to the winds, Napoleon towers above them. Take any +grounds--administrative, strategical, religious, domestic--he was +preeminent above his contemporaries. On religious grounds alone, those +thoughts of his which have been recorded not only disclose the insight +of a man of affairs, but reveal the thinking mind of a deeply +religious being. His conversations with Gourgaud on religious +subjects, some of which are quoted in Lord Rosebery's admirable book, +"The Last Phase," are so contradictory that they cannot be taken as +authentic beliefs. It greatly depended to whom he was talking as to +the line he took. + +It is evident that the Emperor took a delight in arguing with and +contradicting the devout Catholic for sheer intellectual exercise. At +one time he declares to his refractory companion, "If I had to choose +a religion, I would worship the sun, because the sun gives to all +things life and fertility." At another time he torments the Count, +after tying him into a knot and exposing his superficial knowledge, by +saying that "the Mohammedan religion is the finest of all." But when +his mind seriously dwells on sacred things, he declares "that religion +lends sanctity to everything." "The remission of sins is a beautiful +idea." "It makes the Christian religion so attractive that it will +never perish. No one can say 'I do not believe and I never shall +believe.'" + +Montholon is more to the writer's liking than Gourgaud, even though +Gourgaud's authenticity is backed by Lord Rosebery, and we shall see +later what _he_ says about his Emperor's religious beliefs. It was he +who endeavoured to mitigate his master's mental and physical +sufferings, and it was he whom he desired should close his eyes in +death when the nefarious assassination had been completed. It was he, +too, who got himself locked up in the fortress of Ham for seven years +by adhering steadfastly to the cause of the great exile's nephew. +Gourgaud was loyal and devoted on a sort of sliding scale, which led +him to do great injustice to the stricken hero. Montholon's devotion +was consistent and abiding under all circumstances, while Gourgaud's +fluctuated with his moods. + +None of Napoleon's companions in exile were admitted to such close +intimacy with the illustrious warrior-statesman as was Count +Montholon, not even Bertrand or Marchand. It was he who had won +confidence by the most amazing attachment that one human being could +give to another, and it was natural that the big soul of Napoleon +should respond to what amounted to fanatical fidelity. He was the +beloved companion of the Emperor for six years, and during the last +forty-two nights of his life he was with him in the death-chamber, and +at his request he kept vigil and witnessed, his spirit pass away. + +It was to him, when the shadow of death was hovering round the smitten +rock, that Napoleon conveyed his most sacred thoughts, domestic, +civil, and religious. He made him one of his executors, bequeathed to +him a fortune, entrusted him with the custody of precious documents, +and to his dying day the recipient of such flattering confidences +never betrayed by word or act the faith that was reposed in him, nor +did he ever falter in his devotion to the martyr's cause. It is from +him we have handed down the famous constitution drawn up by Napoleon +for his son, which is pregnant with democratic wisdom and flows with +the genius of statesmanship. We get, too, a vivid knowledge of the +religious side of Napoleon's versatile character. His talks and +dictations on this controversial subject are unorthodox if you like, +but nevertheless religious; copious in thought and trenchant in +vocabulary, they disclose the magic of a well-stored inspired mind. He +indulges in neither puerilities nor conventionalities. He is a +vigorous student of the Bible and the Koran; he knows his subject, and +speaks his reasonings without reservation, and in the end we see the +vision of the omnipotent God fixed in an enduring belief. + +In the first clause of his will he declares: "I die in the Apostolic +Roman religion, in the bosom of which I was born more than fifty years +since." If any other proof were needed that he believed in the +divinity of Jesus Christ, this avowed declaration on the eve of the +great transformation may be confirmed by the fact that the cardinal +doctrine of the Roman religion centres in the divinity of Christ. +Again, in the course of his public and private duties, you frequently +come across passages in his letters and official documents such as +"May God have you in His holy keeping." It may be said that this is a +mere form or figure of speech but then unbelievers do not use such +phrases. + +We find in everyday life a lack of courage to do justice and be +generous to one another. But surely, in the interest of political, +historical, and personal rectitude, the dying man's message to the +world should absolve him from having his lucid, succinct +conversations jargoned into a tattered tedium. It is either a +perversion of understanding or a misanthropic egoism that can twist +Napoleon's discourses on religious topics into meaning that he ever +was seriously thinking of giving preference to the worship of the sun, +or contemplating becoming a follower of Mohammed, or that he ever +showed real evidences of being an unbeliever in the God of his race. + +He praised many of the virtues of the Mohammedan religion, such as +honesty, cleanliness, temperance, and devoutness, and denounced with +scathing sarcasm, not Christ, but professing Christians whose conduct +towards himself was beneath the dignity of the pagan. But this in no +way detracts from his admiration of the genuine follower of Christ. He +says that "religious ideas have more influence than certain +narrow-minded philosophers are willing to believe; they are capable of +rendering great services to humanity." Again, he says that "the +Christian religion is the religion of a civilised people; it is +entirely spiritual, and the reward which Jesus Christ promises to the +elect is that they shall see God face to face; and its whole tendency +is to subdue the passions; it offers nothing to excite them." + +There were frequently heated arguments on religion between Napoleon +and members of his suite during the dreary hours at Longwood, and on +one of these occasions he, Montholon, and Antommarchi are the +debaters. To the former he suddenly flashed out: "I know men well, and +I tell you that Jesus Christ was not a man"; then he curtly attacks +the pretentious doctor by informing him that "aspiring to be an +atheist does not make a man one." + +Dr. Alexander Mair published in the _Expositor_, some twenty years +ago, a critical study of the authenticity of the declarations imputed +to Napoleon when at St. Helena on the subject of the Christian +religion, from which I make the following extract:-- + +"One evening at St. Helena," says M. Beauterne, "the conversation was +animated. The subject treated of was an exalted one; it was the +divinity of Jesus Christ. Napoleon defended the truth of this doctrine +with the arguments and eloquence of a man of genius, with something +also of the native faith of the Corsican and the Italian. To the +objections of one of the interlocutors, who seemed to see in the +Saviour but a sage, an illustrious philosopher, a great man, the +Emperor replied:-- + +"'I know men, and I tell you that Jesus Christ is not a man. + +"'Superficial minds may see some resemblance between Christ and the +founders of empires, the conquerors, and the gods of other religions. +That resemblance does not exist. + +"'I see in Lycurgus, Numa, Confucius, and Mahomet merely legislators; +but nothing which reveals the Deity. On the contrary, I see numerous +relations between them and myself. I make out resemblances, +weaknesses, and common errors which assimilate them to myself and +humanity. Their faculties are those which I possess. But it is +different with Christ. Everything about Him astonishes me; His spirit +surprises me, and His will confounds me. Between Him and anything of +this world there is no possible comparison. He is really a Being +apart. + +"'The nearer I approach Him and the more clearly I examine Him, the +more everything seems above me; everything continues great with a +greatness that crushes me. + +"'His religion is a secret belonging to Himself alone, and proceeds +from an intelligence which assuredly is not the intelligence of man. +There is in Him a profound originality which creates a series of +sayings and maxims hitherto unknown. + +"'Christ expects everything from His death. Is that the invention of a +man? On the contrary, it is a strange course of procedure, a +superhuman confidence, an inexplicable reality. In every other +existence than that of Christ, what imperfections, what changes! I +defy you to cite any existence, other than that of Christ, exempt from +the least vacillation, free from all such blemishes and changes. From +the first day to the last He is the same, always the same, majestic +and simple, infinitely severe, and infinitely gentle. + +"'How the horizon of His empire extends, and prolongs itself into +infinitude! Christ reigns beyond life and beyond death. The past and +the future are alike to Him; the kingdom of the truth has, and in +effect can have, no other limit than the false. Jesus has taken +possession of the human race; He has made of it a single nationality, +the nationality of upright men, whom He calls to a perfect life. + +"'The existence of Christ from beginning to end is a tissue entirely +mysterious, I admit; but that mystery meets difficulties which are in +all existences. Reject it, the world is an enigma; accept it, and we +have an admirable solution of the history of man. + +"'Christ speaks, and henceforth generations belong to Him by bonds +more close, more intimate than those of blood, by a union more sacred, +more imperious than any other union beside. He kindles the flame of a +love which kills out the love of self and prevails over every other +love. Without contradiction, the greatest miracle of Christ is the +reign of love. All who believe in Him sincerely feel this love, +wonderful, supernatural, supreme. It is a phenomenon inexplicable, +impossible to reason and the power of man; a sacred fire given to the +earth by this new Prometheus, of which Time, the great destroyer, can +neither exhaust the force nor terminate the duration. That is what I +wonder at most of all, for I often think about it; and it is that +which absolutely proves to me the divinity of Christ!' + +"Here the Emperor's voice assumed a peculiar accent of ironical +melancholy and of profound sadness: 'Yes, our existence has shone with +all the splendour of the crown and sovereignty; and yours, Montholon, +Bertrand, reflected that splendour, as the dome of the Invalides, +gilded by us, reflects the rays of the sun. But reverses have come; +the gold is effaced little by little. The rain of misfortunes and +outrages with which we are deluged every day carries away the last +particles; we are only lead, gentlemen, and soon we shall be but dust. +Such is the destiny of great men; such is the near destiny of the +great Napoleon. + +"'What an abyss between my profound misery and the eternal reign of +Christ, proclaimed, worshipped, beloved, adored, living throughout the +whole universe! Is that to die? Is it not rather to live?'" + +A more beautiful panegyric on the divinity of Christ has never been +pronounced. The thrilling and convincing conclusions evolved from the +mind of a great reader, a great thinker--a man, in fact, who had +studied and knew the human side of life, and could describe it with +flawless accuracy--are a complete refutation of the opinions expressed +either from prejudice or personal and political motives. Napoleon +conversed about religion with other men in a critical way, not always +with orthodox reverence, but certainly with the conviction that he had +a thorough knowledge of every phase of the subject. Perhaps he derived +pleasure from showing that he did not accept the popular doctrine +unreservedly. + +His unorthodox view of the Catholic religion is shown by the fact that +in 1797 he endeavoured to get Pius VI. to suppress the Inquisition +throughout Europe. The Pope, in his reply, addressing the General as +his "very dear son," urges him to abandon the idea and assures him +that the charges made against the Holy Office are false. He further +says that the Inquisition is not tyrannical, and that sooner than +remove the Holy Office he would part with a province. Napoleon for a +time gave way, and it was not until 1808 that he issued a decree +suppressing the institution in France and confiscating its property. +This incident is another proof of Napoleon's humane attitude towards +his people and his abhorrence of religious intolerance. + +The basis for such an attitude towards an accepted institution of the +Roman Catholic Church was Napoleon's belief that "Faith is beyond the +reach of the law and the most sacred property of man, for which he has +no right to account to any mortal if there is nothing in it contrary +to social order." + +Unquestionably he had pride in impressing his auditors with the +vastness of his information, acquired by reading and study. He had, +moreover, a kind of childlike vanity in making men feel that he was +not only extraordinary, but greatly their superior, even when they got +him to talk on their own subjects. This habit was especially +pronounced at St. Helena. + +But this in no way impairs the evidences of his spiritual character. +One of his first acts when his authority was established in France was +to face the most hostile declamation against the Concordat, but +believing that no good government could be assured without religion, +he carried his convictions through in spite of it being a reversion of +one of the cardinal doctrines of the Revolution, and there is +abundance of proof that when he was faced with the last great problem, +he accepted it without a sign of superstitious dread, believing in the +immortality of the soul which should reveal all things. + + + + +BIBLIOGRAPHY + +LIST OF SOME OF THE BOOKS REFERRED TO OR CONSULTED BY THE AUTHOR + + +Correspondence of Napoleon. +Last Letters of Napoleon. +Letters and Despatches of the First Napoleon, by Bingham. +Napoleon's Miscellanies. +Napoleon's Own Memoirs. +Napoleon Anecdotes, Ireland. +Talks of Napoleon at St. Helena, by Count Gourgaud. +Napoleon's Correspondence with King Joseph. +Napoleon's Letters to Josephine, by H.F. Hall. +Letters from the Island of St. Helena. +History of Napoleon, by Lanfrey. +Life of Napoleon, by Sir Walter Scott. +Life of Napoleon, by J.H. Rose. +Napoleon, by Phyfe. +Private Life of Napoleon, by Levy. +Life of Napoleon, by Bourrienne. +Short Life of Napoleon, by J.R. Seeley. +Life of Napoleon the Third, by Blanchard. +Life of Napoleon, by W. Hazlitt. +History of Napoleon, edited by R.H. Horne. +Life of Napoleon, by MacFarlane. +History of Napoleon, by George Moir Bussey. +Life of Napoleon, by W.M. Sloane. +Napoleon, by J.T. Bailey. +Napoleon, by Dr. Max Lenz. +Baron de Meneval, Memoirs. +Memoirs of Count Miot de Melito. +Memoirs of General Count Rapp, written by himself. +Memoirs of the Duke of Rovigo. +Memoirs of Madame Junot, Duchess of Abrantes. +Secret Memoirs of Napoleon, by Charles Doris. +Mallet Du Pan, by B. Mallet. +Madame de Stael. +Recollections of Marshal MacDonald. +Memoirs of the Empress Josephine. +Memoirs of Queen Hortense. +Memoirs of the Court of St. Cloud. +Memoirs of the Empress Marie Louise, by De St. Amand. +Memoirs of Joseph. +Memoirs of Madame de Remusat. +Life of Nelson, by Southey. +Life of Wellington, by George Hooper. +Life of Sir Walter Scott, by Lockhart. +Dumourier Memoirs. +Life of Byron. +William Pitt, by Lord Rosebery. +William Pitt, by Charles Whibley. +Memoirs of the Court of the Empress Josephine, by Ducrest. +The Sailor King, by Fitzgerald Molloy. +Marmont Memoirs. +General Marbot Memoirs. +Marshal Berthier, by General Derrecagaix. +Constant, Memoirs of the Life of Napoleon. +Napoleon and Marie Louise, by Madame Durand. +The Women Napoleon Loved, by Tighe Hopkins. +The Marriages of the Bonapartes, by Bingham. +Napoleon at Home, by F. Masson. +Napoleon et les Femmes, by F. Masson. +Josephine, Imperatrice et Reine, by F. Masson. +Love of an Uncrowned Queen, by Wilkins. +The Love Affairs of Napoleon, by Joseph Turquan. +The Women Bonapartes, by Noel Williams. +Las Cases' Journal. +Napoleon at St. Helena and Sir Hudson Lowe, by Forsyth. +Napoleon's Captivity in Relation to Sir Hudson Lowe, by R.C. Seaton. +The Exile of St. Helena, by Philippe Gonnard. +Napoleon, Last Voyages, by J.H. Rose. +The Last Days of Napoleon, by Dr. F. Antommarchi. +Duke of Reichstadt, by De Wertheimer. +Napoleon, the First Phase, by Oscar Browning. +Napoleon, The Last Phase, by Lord Rosebery. +Talks of Napoleon at St. Helena, by Latimer. +The Surrender of Napoleon, by Rear-Admiral Sir Frederick Maitland. +Napoleon in Exile, by Barry O'Meara. +The Drama of St. Helena, by Paul Frembeaux. +History of a Crime, by Victor Hugo. +History of the Captivity of Napoleon, by Count Montholon. +Warden's Letters from St. Helena. +With Napoleon at St. Helena, by Dr. John Stokoe. +Napoleon's Last Voyages, by Sir Thomas Usher. +Napoleon and His Fellow Travellers, by Clement Shorter. +An Exposition of Some of the Transactions that have taken + place at St. Helena since the Appointment of Sir Hudson + Lowe as Governor of that Island, by B.E. O'Meara. +Facts Illustrative of the Treatment of Napoleon Bonaparte + in St. Helena, by Theodore Hook (?). +History of the Consulate and the Empire, by Thiers. +Napoleon's Expedition to Russia, by Count Philippe de Segur. +Napoleon in Russia, by Verestchagen. +Napoleon, King of Elba, by Paul Gruyer. +Cambridge Modern History, Volume IX., Sections by-- + Georges Pariset. + T.A. Walker. + H.W. Wilson. + Anton Guilland. + H.A.L. Fisher. + L.G. Wickham-Legg. + E.M. Lloyd. + J. Holland Rose. + August Keim. + C.W. Oman. + Eugen Stschepkin. + Julius von Pflugk-Harttung. + A.W. Ward. + G.P. Gooch. +Napoleon and His Detractors, by Prince Napoleon. +Heinrich Heine's Essays. +France, by J.E.C. Bodley. +Talleyrand, by Lady Blennerhassett. +Napoleon's Marshals, by R.P. Dunn Pattison. +French Revolution, by Thomas Carlyle. +French Revolution, by Lord Acton. +Bonaparte and the Consulate, by Thibeaudeau. +Napoleonic Studies, by J. Holland Rose. +Biographical Sketches, by Harriet Martineau. +From Howard to Nelson, by Mahan. +The Life of Nelson, by Mahan. +A Mariner of England, 1780-1817, edited by Colonel Spencer + Childers. +Bonapartism, by H.A.L. Fisher. +Bernadotte's Correspondence with Napoleon. + + + + +LIST OF EVENTS AND DATES HAVING REFERENCE TO NAPOLEON BONAPARTE + +1769. Aug. 15. Napoleon the First born. + +1789. July 14. French Revolution breaks out with the + destruction of the Bastille. + +1790. July 14. France declared a Limited Monarchy. + + July 14. Louis XVI. swears to maintain the Constitution. + +1791. June 21. The King, Queen, and Royal family arrested + at Varennes. + + Sept. 15. Louis (a prisoner) signs the National Constitution. + +1792. July 17. First coalition against France. + + Nov. 19. French people declare their fraternity + with all nations who desire to be free + and offer help. + +1796. Mar. 9. Bonaparte's marriage with Josephine. + Bonaparte's successful campaign in Italy. + +1798. Expedition to Syria and Egypt. + +1799. April. European coalition against France. + + Nov. 10. Council of 500 deposed by Bonaparte; he + is declared First Consul. +1800. June 14. Bonaparte defeats the Austrians at Marengo. + Dec. 24. Bonaparte's life attempted by an infernal + machine. + + Bank of France founded by Napoleon. + +1802. Mar. 28. Peace of Amiens (with England, Spain, + and Holland) signed. + +1802. May 19. Legion of Honour instituted by Napoleon. + + Aug. 2. Napoleon made First Consul for life. + +1803. April 14. Bank of France established. + + May 22. Declaration of war against England. + +1804. Feb. 15. Conspiracy of Moreau and Pichegru against + Napoleon. + + Mar. 21. Duc d'Enghien executed. + + May 18. Napoleon proclaimed Emperor of France. + + Dec. 2. Napoleon crowned by the Pope. + +1805. May 26. Napoleon crowned King of Italy. + + Aug. Third coalition against France. + + Dec. 2. Napoleon defeats the Allies at Austerlitz. + +1806. Oct. 14. Napoleon defeats the Prussians at Jena. + +1807. Feb. 8. Napoleon defeats the Russians at Eylau. + + July 7. Peace of Tilsit signed. + + Dec. 17. Napoleon issues his Milan Decree against + British commerce. + +1808. Mar. 1. New Nobility of France created. + + May 5. Abdication of Charles IV. of Spain and his + son in favour of Napoleon. + + July Commencement of the Peninsular War. + +1809. April Alliance of England and Austria against + France. + + May Napoleon defeats the Austrians and enters + Vienna. + + Oct. 14. Peace of Vienna signed. + + Dec. 16. Divorce of the Emperor and the Empress + Josephine decreed by the Senate. + +1810. April 1. Marriage of Napoleon to Marie Louise of + Austria. + + July 9. Holland united to France. + +1811. Mar. 20. Birth of the King of Rome (Napoleon II.). + +1812. June 22. War with Russia declared. + + Oct. The retreat from Moscow. + +1813. Mar. Alliance of Austria, Russia, and Prussia + against France. + + Oct. 7. British enter France. + +1814. Mar. 31. Surrender of Paris to the Allies. + +1814. April 5. Abdication of Napoleon negotiated. + + May 3. Restoration of the Bourbon dynasty. + Louis XVIII. arrives at Paris. + + May 4. Napoleon arrives at Elba. + + May 29. Death of Josephine. + +1815. Mar. 1. Napoleon escapes from Elba and lands + at Cannes. + + Mar. 20. Napoleon arrives at Fontainebleau. + + Mar. 22. Napoleon is joined by all the Army. + + Mar. The Allies sign a treaty against him. + + Mar. 29. Napoleon abolishes the slave trade. + + June 12. Napoleon leaves Paris for the Army. + + June 18. Battle of Waterloo. + + June 20. Napoleon returns to Paris. + + June 22. Abdicates in favour of his son. + + July 3. He arrives at Rochefort, intending to + embark for America. + + July 3. Louis XVIII. re-enters Paris. + + July 15. Napoleon surrenders to Captain Maitland, + of the _Bellerophon_, at Rochefort. + + Aug. 8. Is transferred at Torbay to the _Northumberland_, + and, with Admiral Sir George Cockburn, + sails for St. Helena. + + Oct. 15. Arrives at St. Helena, to remain for life. + + Dec. 7. Execution of Marshal Ney. + +1816. Jan. 12. Family of Bonaparte excluded _for ever_ + from France by the Law of Amnesty. + +1821. May 5. Death of Napoleon. + +1836. Oct. 29. Attempted insurrection by Louis Napoleon + (afterwards Emperor). + +1837. May 8. Amnesty proclaimed for political offences. + +1838. "Idees Napoleoniennes" published by + Prince Louis Napoleon. + +1840. May 12. The Chambers decree the removal of + Napoleon's remains from St. Helena. + + Oct. 15. Exhumation of Napoleon's remains. + + Nov. 30. Arrival of _Belle Poule_ frigate at Cherbourg + with remains on board. + +1840. Dec. 15. Remains deposited in the Hotel des Invalides.[33] + + Aug. 6. Descent of Louis Napoleon, General Montholon, + and fifty followers at Vimeraux, near Boulogne. + + Oct. 6. The Prince captured and sentenced to + imprisonment for life. + +1841. Aug. 15. Bronze statue of Napoleon placed on the + column of the Grande Armee, Boulogne. + +1846. May 25. Louis Napoleon escapes from Ham. + +1847. Oct. 10. Jerome Bonaparte returns to France, after + an exile of thirty-two years. + +1848. June 13. Election of Louis Napoleon to the National + Assembly. + + Sept. 26. Louis Napoleon takes his seat in the + National Assembly. + +1857. Longwood, the residence of Napoleon + Bonaparte at St. Helena, bought for + 180,000 francs. + +1860. June 24. Jerome Bonaparte (the Emperor's uncle) + dies, aged 76. + +1861. Mar. 31. Napoleon's body finally placed in the crypt + of the Hotel des Invalides. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[33] The ceremony was witnessed by about 1,000,000 persons and 150,000 +soldiers assisted at the obsequies. No relatives of the Emperor were +present, as at this time the various members of the Bonaparte family +were either proscribed and in exile or in prison. + + + + +INDEX + + +Abrantes, Duke and Duchess of, _see_ Junot +Acton, Lord, 115 +Aglietti, Dr., 157 +Alexander, _see_ Russia, Emperor of +Amherst, Lord, 48 +Anne of Russia, Princess, 268 +Antommarchi, Dr., 32, 75, 82, 85, 195, 293 +Archambaud, 171 +Arnott, Dr., 85 +Augereau, General, 156, 176 +Austria, Commissioner for, 45, 49 +Austria, Emperor of, 49, 55, 113, 124, 133, 267, 274 + + +Baranti, M., 217 +Barras, "Citizen," 240, 241, 251 +Bathurst, Lord, 34, 35, 45, 70, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 103, 181, 184 +Beauharnais, Alexandre, 231, 232, 234, 235 +Beauharnais, Eugene, 235, 240, 254, 283, 285 +Beauharnais, Hortense, 116, 232, 235, 254, 262, 279, 280, 283, 285 +Beauharnais, Marquis de, 231, 232 +Beauterne, M., 293 +Beauvais, Bishop of, 104 +Bernadotte, Marshal, 175, 273 +Berthier, General, 153, 176 +Bertrand, Count, 15, 34, 51, 57, 139, 171, 172, 195, 290 +Bertrand, Madame, 72 +Bessieres, General, 153 +Bismarck, Prince von, 166 +Bluecher, Marshal, 189 +Bombelles, M. de, 158 +Bonaparte, Caroline, 246 +Bonaparte, Joseph, 49, 115, 172, 244, 245, 262 +Bonaparte, Leon, 263, 264 +Bonaparte, Louis, 262 +Bonaparte, Lucien, 254, 262 +Bonaparte, Madame Mere, 146 _et seq._ +Bonaparte, Napoleon, 15, 19, 32, 35, 37, 40, 44, 48, 50, 58, 73, 75, 83, + 84, 85, 105, 106, 108, 116, 117, 120, 121, 122, 124, + 126, 127, 128, 139, 155, 160, 162, 172, 194, 201, + 206, 207, 210, 213, 221, 240, 241, 243, 247, 250, + 252, 253, 254, 257, 259, 261, 265, 267, 271, 277, + 281, 284, 286, 288 _et seq._; + on the Christian religion, 293 _et seq._ +Bonaparte, Pauline, 116, 249, 250 +Borghesi, Countess Pauline, 83 +Bourrienne, M., 113, 128, 129, 162, 177 +Browning, Oscar, 117 +Brutus, Marcus, 124 +Buelow, von, 189 +Burton, Dr., 85 +Byron, Lord, 191, 199 _et seq._, 216 + +Cadoudal, 262 +Caesar, Julius, 123 +Camerata, Countess Napoleone, 145 +Carlyle, Jane, 84 +Carlyle, Thomas, 163 +Carnot, 241, 244 +Cases, Count Las, 34, 64, 65, 68, 70, 75, 171, 195 +Castlereagh, Lord, 45, 80, 103, 181 +Catherine of Westphalia, 153, 154 +Charles, Hippolyte, 249, 250, 251, 252 +Charles VII., 105, 106 +Charles X., 168 +Cipriani, 54 +Cockburn, Captain, 27, 34 +Collot, 253 +Colonna, Count, _see_ Walewska, Alexander +Colonna, Signor Simeon, 82 +Commissioners of the Powers, 45, 49 +Compoint, Louise, 246 +Conquereau, l'Abbe, 171 +Constant, Benjamin, 123, 207, 213, 215, 216 +Corvisat, Dr., 286 +Coulon Brothers, 128 +Cromwell, Oliver, 90 + +Davoust, Marshal, 176 +Denuelle, Madame Eleanore, 263 +Desaix, General, 153 +Dietrichstein, Count, 137 +Documents, _see_ Official Documents +Dottot, M., 258 +Duroc, Marshal, 126, 153 + +Editor of _Edinburgh Review_, 50 +Eliot, George, 216 +d'Enghien, Due, 51, 262 + +Fesch, Cardinal, 150 +Flachats, MM., 261 +Forsyth, William, 36, 76, 91, 99, 100, 101, 179, 192, 196 +Fouche, M., 128, 129, 176, 206, 261, 263, 277, 284 +Fox, Charles James, 92, 93 +France, Commissioner for, 45, 49, 72 +Francis, _see_ Austria, Emperor of +Frederick of Prussia, 49, 162 +Frederick the Great, 163 +Freron, M., 250 + +George I., 162, 287 +George IV., 33, 70, 94, 95, 117, 180, 201, 287 +Gohier, M., 256 +Gorrequer, Major, 99, 100 +Gourgaud, General, 29, 53, 65, 75, 77, 78, 80, 81, 112, 139, 171, 179, + 193, 194, 195, 207, 288, 289 +Granville, Earl, 19 +Grouchy, Marshal, 189, 191 +Guizot, M., 17 + +Hanover, Elector of, 162 +Henin, General, 190 +Henry, Mr., 99, 100 +Henry VIII., 287 +Hill, General Lord, 189 +Hoche, General, 240 +Holland, Lady, 49, 57 +Holland, Lord, 80, 89 +Hooper, 61 +Horeau, Dr., 286 + +Jersey, Lady, 201 +Joan of Arc, 104, 106, 153 +Joinville, Prince, 26, 171, 173 +Josephine, 101, 118, 155, 210, 220, 231 _et seq._ +Jourdan, General, 176 +Junot, Marshal, 127, 245, 246 + +Keith, Lord, 21, 65, 66, 120, 121, 122, 124 +Kellerman, General, 242, 243 +Kleber, General, 153 + +La Fayette, 156 +Lallemand, 65 +Las Cases, _see_ Cases, Las +Leclerc, General, 249, 250 +Lenz, Dr. Max, 193, 198, 209 +Liverpool, Lord, 80, 103, 181 +Livingstone, Dr., 85 +Louis Philippe, 16, 21 _et seq._, 138, 168, 169, 171, 172 +Louis XVI., 126, 270 +Louis XVIII., 94, 168 +Lowe, Sir Hudson, 27, 32, 34, 35, 38, 40, 41, 42, 44, 45, 47, 49, 50, 51, + 57, 62, 63, 64, 65, 72, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 88, 99, + 103, 178, 180, 182, 183, 184, 185, 188, 191, 194, 195, + 196 + +Macaulay, Lord, 162 +Macdonald, Marshal, 176 +Maceroni, Colonel, 75 +Manning, Mr., 57 +Mair, Dr. Alexander, 293 +Maitland, Captain, 63, 65, 66, 118 +Marchand, M., 75, 156, 171, 290 +Marie Antoinette, 270 +Marie Caroline, Queen, 158 +Marie Louise, 49, 85, 131, 137, 146, 151 _et seq._, 267, 270, 274, 276, 286 +Marmont, General, 132, 134, 135, 156, 176, 247 +Massena, General, 153, 176 +Masson, F., 118, 234, 235, 264 +Mecklenburg, Prince of, 284 +Melito, Miot de, 128 +Meneval, 156, 159, 189, 190, 267, 278 +Metternich, Count, 133, 136, 138, 143, 144, 276, 277 +Miguel, Dom, 132 +Montchenu, Marquis de, 45, 49, 72 +Montholon, Count, 15, 34, 39, 40, 43, 50, 51, 65, 75, 82, 83, 88, 139, + 172, 195, 289, 290, 293 +Montholon, Countess, 58 +Moreau, M., 262 +Mueller, 109, 110, 111 +Murat, Marshal, 153, 245, 246, 271 + +Napoleon, Charles, Prince, 262 +Napoleon I., _see_ Bonaparte, Napoleon +Napoleon II., _see_ Rome, King of +Napoleon III., 118, 142, 275, 276 +Napoleon, Prince Louis, 132, 135, 146, 172, 265 +Neipperg, Count, 49, 133, 137, 152, 156 _et seq._, 274 +Ney, Marshal, 153 +Noverraz, 171 + +Obenaus, Baron, 133, 137, 142 +Official Documents, 15, 17, 18, 20, 21 _et seq._, 81, 82, 83, 95, 197 +O'Meara, Dr. Barry E., 30, 43, 46, 49, 50, 64, 73, 77, 79, 81, 181, 188, + 195, 241 +Orange, Prince of, 162 +Oudinot, Marshal, 176 + +Pagerie, Joseph Tascher de la, 232 +Palmerston, Lord, 17, 20, 169 +Peel, Sir Robert, 186 +Permon, Madame, 127 +Philipon, Jeanne Marie, 236, 237 +Pichegru, 267 +Pieron, 171 +Pitt, William, 93 +Pius VII., 148, 150 +Plampin, Sir Robert, 195, 196 +Poppleton, Captain, 61 +Prokesch, Count, 136, 137, 142, 143 +Prussia, Commissioner for, 45, 49 +Prussia, King of, _see_ Frederick + +Radowich, Gunner, 57 +Reade, Sir Thomas, 41, 42, 43, 50, 62, 63 +Reggio, Duchess of, 279 +Remusat, Charles de, 219 +Remusat, Madame de, 129, 219 _et seq._, 284 +Remusat, M. de, 220, 221 +Remusat, Paul de, 219 +Robespierre, 213, 235, 237 +Rocca, M., 214 _et seq._ +Roderer, M., 114 +Rome, King of, 49, 57 _et seq._, 131 _et seq._, 278 +Rosebery, Lord, 193, 288, 289 +Rovigo, Duke of, 65, 139 +Ruskin, John, 196 +Russia, Commissioner for, 45, 49 +Russia, Emperor of, 49, 65, 124, 279, 280, 282 + +Saint-Denis, 171 +Samson (M. de Paris), 237 +Santini, 54, 55, 56, 75 +Scott, Sir Walter, 28, 90, 91, 122, 182, 184 +Seguier, M., 115 +Serbelloni, Duke of, 247 +Short, Dr., 85 +Somerset, Lord Charles, 68, 69 +Soult, Marshal, 176, 190 +Stael, Madame de, 129, 204 _et seq._, 279 +Stokoe, Dr. John, 195, 196 +Strange, Sir Thomas, 42 + +Taine, M., 144 +Talleyrand, M., 128, 129, 156, 161, 176, 206, 251, 261, 263 +Teynham, Lord, 187 +Thiers, M., 17 + +Vandamme, General, 190 +Villemarest, 129 +Volney, Senator, 116 + +Walewska, Alexander (Count Colonna), 269, 278 +Walewska, Madame, 118, 267, 269, 278 +Wellington, Duke of, 31, 103, 186, 187, 188, 189, 216 +Wieland, 108, 111 +Whitworth, Lord, 117 +Wilhelmina of Prussia, 163 +Williams, H. Noel, 148 +Wolseley, Lord, 191 +Wordsworth, William, 200 + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Tragedy of St. Helena, by Walter Runciman + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TRAGEDY OF ST. HELENA *** + +***** This file should be named 15246.txt or 15246.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/5/2/4/15246/ + +Produced by Steven Gibbs and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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