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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/24360-8.txt b/24360-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1d1536a --- /dev/null +++ b/24360-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,14120 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Life of Napoleon Bonaparte, by +William Milligan Sloane + +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 Life of Napoleon Bonaparte + Vol. I. (of IV.) + +Author: William Milligan Sloane + +Release Date: January 22, 2008 [EBook #24360] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE *** + + + + +Produced by Thierry Alberto, Henry Craig, Christine P. +Travers and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + +[Transcriber's note: Obvious printer's errors have been corrected, all +other inconsistencies are as in the original. The author's spelling +has been maintained.] + + + + +[Illustration: Napoleon Bonaparte in 1785, aged sixteen. From sketch +made by a comrade; formerly in the Musée des Souverains, now in the +Louvre.] + + + + + THE LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE + + BY + + WILLIAM MILLIGAN SLOANE + PH.D., L.H.D., LL.D. + _Professor of History in Columbia University_ + + + Revised and Enlarged + With Portraits + + + VOLUME I + + +[Illustration: Editor's arm.] + + NEW YORK + THE CENTURY CO. + 1916 + + + + + Copyright, 1894, 1895, 1896, 1910 + BY + THE CENTURY CO. + + _Published, October, 1910_ + + + + +PREFACE TO THE LIBRARY EDITION + + +This life of Napoleon was first published in 1896 as a book: for the +years 1895-96 it ran as a serial in the pages of the Century Magazine. +Judging from the sales, it has been read by many tens if not hundreds +of thousands of readers; and it has been extensively noticed in the +critical journals of both worlds. Throughout these fourteen years the +demand has been very large and steady, considering the size and cost +of the volumes. Both publishers and author have determined therefore +that a library edition was desired by the public, and in that +confidence the book has been partly rewritten and entirely remade. + +In the main it is the same book as that which has passed through so +many editions. But in some respects it has been amplified. The portion +relating to the period of youth has been somewhat expanded, the +personalities of those nearest to Napoleon have been in some cases +more broadly sketched, new chapters have been added to the treatment +of the Continental system, the Louisiana Purchase, and the St. Helena +epoch. In all the text has been lengthened about one-tenth. + +Under the compulsion of physical dimensions the author has minimized +the number of authorities and foot-notes. There is really very little +controversial matter regarding Napoleon which is not a matter of +opinion: the evidence has been so carefully sifted that substantial +agreement as to fact has been reached. Accordingly there have been +introduced at the opening of chapters or divisions short lists of good +references for those who desire to extend their reading: experts know +their own way. It is an interesting fact which throws great light on +the slight value of foot-notes that while I have had extensive +correspondence with my fellow workers, there has come to me in all +these years but a single request for the source of two statements, and +one demand for the evidence upon which certain opinions were based. + +The former editions were duplicate books, a text by me and a +commentary of exquisite illustrations by other hands. The divergence +was very confusing to serious minds; in this edition there can be no +similar perplexity since the illustrations have been confined to +portraits. + +In putting these volumes through the press, in the preparation of the +reference lists for volumes three and four, and in the rearrangement +of the bibliography I have had the assistance of Dr. G. A. Hubbell to +whom my obligation is hereby acknowledged. + + William M. SLOANE. + +New York, _September 1, 1910_. + + + + +PREFACE + + +In the closing years of the eighteenth century European society began +its effort to get rid of benevolent despotism, so called, and to +secure its liberties under forms of constitutional government. The +struggle began in France, and spread over the more important lands of +continental Europe; its influence was strongly felt in England, and +even in the United States. Passing through the phases of +constitutional reform, of anarchy, and of military despotism, the +movement seemed for a time to have failed, and to outward appearances +absolutism was stronger after Waterloo than it had been half a century +earlier. + +But the force of the revolution was only checked, not spent; and to +the awakening of general intelligence, the strengthening of national +feeling, and the upbuilding of a sense of common brotherhood among +men, produced by the revolutionary struggles of this epoch, Europe +owes whatever liberty and free government its peoples now enjoy. At +the close of this period national power was no longer in the hands of +the aristocracy, nor in those of kings; it had passed into the third +social stratum, variously designated as the middle class, the burghers +or bourgeoisie, and the third estate, a body of men as little willing +to share it with the masses as the kings had been. Nevertheless, the +transition once begun could not be stopped, and the advance of manhood +suffrage has ever since been proportionate to the capacity of the +laboring classes to receive and use it, until now, at last, whatever +may be the nominal form of government in any civilized land, its +stability depends entirely upon the support of the people as a whole. +That which is the basis of all government--the power of the purse--has +passed into their hands. + +This momentous change was of course a turbulent one--the most +turbulent in the history of civilization, as it has proved to be the +most comprehensive. Consequently its epoch is most interesting, being +dramatic in the highest degree, having brought into prominence men and +characters who rank among the great of all time, and having exhibited +to succeeding generations the most important lessons in the most vivid +light. By common consent the eminent man of the time was Napoleon +Bonaparte, the revolution queller, the burgher sovereign, the imperial +democrat, the supreme captain, the civil reformer, the victim of +circumstances which his soaring ambition used but which his unrivaled +prowess could not control. Gigantic in his proportions, and satanic in +his fate, his was the most tragic figure on the stage of modern +history. While the men of his own and the following generation were +still alive, it was almost impossible that the truth should be known +concerning his actions or his motives; and to fix his place in general +history was even less feasible. What he wrote and said about himself +was of course animated by a determination to appear in the best light; +what others wrote and said has been biased by either devotion or +hatred. + +Until within a very recent period it seemed that no man could discuss +him or his time without manifesting such strong personal feeling as to +vitiate his judgment and conclusions. This was partly due to the lack +of perspective, but in the main to ignorance of the facts essential to +a sober treatment of the theme. In this respect the last quarter of a +century has seen a gradual but radical change, for a band of +dispassionate scientific scholars have during that time been occupied +in the preparation of material for his life without reference to the +advocacy of one theory or another concerning his character. European +archives, long carefully guarded, have been thrown open; the +diplomatic correspondence of the most important periods has been +published; family papers have been examined, and numbers of valuable +memoirs have been printed. It has therefore been possible to check one +account by another, to cancel misrepresentations, to eliminate +passion--in short, to establish something like correct outline and +accurate detail, at least in regard to what the man actually did. +Those hidden secrets of any human mind which we call motives must ever +remain to other minds largely a matter of opinion, but a very fair +indication of them can be found when once the actual conduct of the +actor has been determined. + +This investigation has mainly been the work of specialists, and its +results have been published in monographs and technical journals; most +of these workers, moreover, were continental scholars writing each in +his own language. Its results, as a whole, have therefore not been +accessible to the general reader in either America or England. It +seems highly desirable that they should be made so, and this has been +the effort of the writer. At the same time he claims to be an +independent investigator in some of the most important portions of the +field he covers. His researches have extended over many years, and it +has been his privilege to use original materials which, as far as he +knows, have not been used by others. At the close of the book will be +found a short account of the papers of Bonaparte's boyhood and youth +which the author has read, and of the portions of the French and +English archives which were generously put at his disposal, together +with a short though reasonably complete bibliography of the published +books and papers which really have scientific value. The number of +volumes concerned with Napoleon and his epoch is enormous; outside of +those mentioned very few have any value except as curiosities of +literature. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER Page + + I. Introduction............................................ 1 + + II. The Bonapartes in Corsica.............................. 20 + + III. Napoleon's Birth and Childhood......................... 35 + + IV. Napoleon's School-days................................. 48 + + V. In Paris and Valence................................... 60 + + VI. Private Study and Garrison Life........................ 73 + + VII. Further Attempts at Authorship......................... 83 + + VIII. The Revolution in France.............................. 100 + + IX. Buonaparte and Revolution in Corsica.................. 111 + + X. First Lessons in Revolution........................... 123 + + XI. Traits of Character................................... 135 + + XII. The Revolution in the Rhone Valley.................... 148 + + XIII. Buonaparte the Corsican Jacobin....................... 160 + + XIV. Buonaparte the French Jacobin......................... 180 + + XV. A Jacobin Hegira...................................... 199 + + XVI. "The Supper of Beaucaire"............................. 212 + + XVII. Toulon................................................ 222 + + XVIII. A Jacobin General..................................... 236 + + XIX. Vicissitudes in War and Diplomacy..................... 247 + + XX. The End of Apprenticeship............................. 260 + + XXI. The Antechamber To Success............................ 272 + + XXII. Bonaparte the General of the Convention............... 287 + + XXIII. The Day of the Paris Sections......................... 302 + + XXIV. A Marriage of Inclination and Interest................ 313 + + XXV. Europe and the Directory.............................. 324 + + XXVI. Bonaparte on a Great Stage............................ 339 + + XXVII. The Conquest of Piedmont and the Milanese............. 352 + + XXVIII. An Insubordinate Conqueror and Diplomatist............ 363 + + XXIX. Bassano and Arcola.................................... 378 + + XXX. Bonaparte's Imperious Spirit.......................... 393 + + XXXI. Rivoli and the Capitulation of Mantua................. 406 + + XXXII. Humiliation of the Papacy and of Venice............... 419 + + XXXIII. The Preliminaries of Peace--Leoben.................... 430 + + XXXIV. The Fall of Venice.................................... 444 + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + + Napoleon Bonaparte in 1785, aged sixteen. _Frontispiece_ + + Marie-Lætitia Ramolino Bonaparte "Madame Mère"--Mother of + Napoleon I..................................................... 50 + + Charles Bonaparte, Father of the Emperor Napoleon, 1785.......... 96 + + Bonaparte, General in Chief of the Army of Italy................ 176 + + Josephine....................................................... 226 + + Marie-Josephine-Rose Tascher de la Pagerie, called Josephine, + Empress of the French......................................... 276 + + Bonaparte....................................................... 326 + + Map of Northern Italy, illustrating the Campaigns of 1796 and + 1797.......................................................... 354 + + Josephine, Empress of the French................................ 374 + + Map illustrating the Campaign preceding the Treaty of + Campo-Formio, 1797............................................ 414 + + + + + SI QUID NOVISTI RECTIUS ISTIS, + CANDIDUS IMPERTI: SI NON, HIS UTERE MECUM + + _Horace_ + + + + +LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +Introduction. + + The Revolutionary Epoch in Europe -- Its Dominant + Personage -- The State System of Europe -- The Power of + Great Britain -- Feebleness of Democracy -- The Expectant + Attitude of the Continent -- Survival of Antiquated + Institutions -- The American Revolution -- Philosophical + Sophistries -- Rousseau -- His Fallacies -- Corsica as a + Center of Interest -- Its Geography -- Its Rulers -- The + People -- Sampiero -- Revolutions -- Spanish Alliance -- + King Theodore -- French Intervention -- Supremacy of Genoa + -- Paoli -- His Success as a Liberator -- His Plan for + Alliance with France -- The Policy of Choiseul -- Paoli's + Reputation -- Napoleon's Account of Corsica and of Paoli -- + Rousseau and Corsica. + + +Napoleon Bonaparte was the representative man of the epoch which +ushered in the nineteenth century. Though an aristocrat by descent, he +was in life, in training, and in quality neither that nor a plebeian; +he was the typical plain man of his time, exhibiting the common sense +of a generation which thought in terms made current by the philosophy +of the eighteenth century. His period was the most tumultuous and yet +the most fruitful in the world's history. But the progress made in it +was not altogether direct; rather was it like the advance of a +traveler whirled through the spiral tunnels of the St. Gotthard. +Flying from the inclemency of the north, he is carried by the +ponderous train due southward into the opening. After a time of +darkness he emerges into the open air. But at first sight the goal is +no nearer; the direction is perhaps reversed, the skies are more +forbidding, the chill is more intense. Only after successive ventures +of the same kind is the climax reached, the summit passed, and the +vision of sunny plains opened to view. Such experiences are more +common to the race than to the individual; the muse of history must +note and record them with equanimity, with a buoyancy and hopefulness +born of larger knowledge. The movement of civilization in Europe +during the latter portion of the eighteenth century was onward and +upward, but it was at times not only devious, slow and laborious, but +fruitless in immediate results. + +We must study the age and the people of any great man if we sincerely +desire the truth regarding his strength and weakness, his inborn +tendencies and purposes, his failures and successes, the temporary +incidents and the lasting, constructive, meritorious achievements of +his career. This is certainly far more true of Napoleon than of any +other heroic personage; an affectionate awe has sometimes lifted him +to heaven, a spiteful hate has often hurled him down to hell. Every +nation, every party, faction, and cabal among his own and other +peoples, has judged him from its own standpoint of self-interest and +self-justification. Whatever chance there may be of reading the +secrets of his life lies rather in a just consideration of the man in +relation to his times, about which much is known, than in an attempt +at the psychological dissection of an enigmatical nature, about which +little is known, in spite of the fullness of our information. The +abundant facts of his career are not facts at all unless considered in +the light not only of a great national life, but of a continental +movement which embraced in its day all civilization, not excepting +that of Great Britain and America. + +The states of Europe are sisters, children of the Holy Roman Empire. +In the formation of strong nationalities with differences in language, +religion, and institutions the relationship was almost forgotten, and +in the intensity of later rivalry is not always even now remembered. +It is, however, so close that at any epoch there is traceable a common +movement which occupies them all. By the end of the fourteenth century +they had secured their modern form in territorial and race unity with +a government by monarchy more or less absolute. The fifteenth century +saw with the strengthening of the monarchy the renascence of the fine +arts, the great inventions, the awakening of enterprise in discovery, +the mental quickening which began to call all authority to account. +The sixteenth was the age of the Reformation, an event too often +belittled by ecclesiastics who discern only its schismatic character, +and not sufficiently emphasized by historians as the most pregnant +political fact of any age with respect to the rise and growth of free +institutions. + +The seventeenth century saw in England the triumph of political ideas +adapted to the new state of society which had arisen, but subversive +of the tyrannical system which had done its work, a work great and +good in the creation of peoples and the production of social order out +of chaos. For a time it seemed as if the island state were to become +the overshadowing influence in all the rest of Europe. By the middle +of the century her example had fired the whole continent with notions +of political reform. The long campaign which she and her allies waged +with varying fortune against Louis XIV, commanding the conservative +forces of the Latin blood, and the Roman religion ended unfavorably to +the latter. At the close of the Seven Years' War there was not an +Englishman in Europe or America or in the colonies at the antipodes +whose pulse did not beat high as he saw his motherland triumphant in +every quarter of the globe. + +But these very successes, intensifying the bitterness of defeat and +everything connected with it, prevented among numerous other causes +the triumph of constitutional government anywhere in continental +Europe. Switzerland was remote and inaccessible; her beacon of +democracy burned bright, but its rays scarcely shone beyond the +mountain valleys. The Dutch republic, enervated by commercial success +and under a constitution which by its intricate system of checks was a +satire on organized liberty, had become a warning rather than a model +to other nations. + +The other members of the great European state family presented a +curious spectacle. On every hand there was a cheerful trust in the +future. The present was as bad as possible, but belonged to the +passing and not to the coming hour. Truth was abroad, felt the +philosophers, and must prevail. Feudal privilege, oppression, vice and +venality in government, the misery of the poor--all would slowly fade +away. The human mind was never keener than in the eighteenth century; +reasonableness, hope, and thoroughness characterized its activity. +Natural science, metaphysics and historical studies made giant +strides, while political theories of a dazzling splendor never equaled +before nor since were rife on every side. Such was their power in a +buoyant society, awaiting the millennium, that they supplanted +entirely the results of observation and experience in the sphere of +government. + +But neither lever nor fulcrum was strong enough as yet to stir the +inert mass of traditional forms. Monarchs still flattered themselves +with notions of paternal government and divine right; the nobility +still claimed and exercised baseless privileges which had descended +from an age when their ancestors held not merely these but the land on +which they rested; the burgesses still hugged, as something which had +come from above, their dearly bought charter rights, now revealed as +inborn liberties. They were thus hardened into a gross contentment +dangerous for themselves, and into an indifference which was a menace +to others. The great agricultural populations living in various +degrees of serfdom still groaned under the artificial oppressions of a +society which had passed away. Nominally the peasant might own certain +portions of the soil, but he could not enjoy unmolested the airs which +blew over it nor the streams which ran through it nor the wild things +which trespassed or dwelt on it, while on every side some exasperating +demand for the contribution of labor or goods or money confronted him. + +In short, the civilized world was in one of those transitional epochs +when institutions persist, after the beliefs and conditions which +molded them have utterly disappeared. The inertia of such a +rock-ribbed shell is terrible, and while sometimes the erosive power +of agitation and discussion suffices to weaken and destroy it, more +often the volcanic fires of social convulsion are alone strong enough. +The first such shock came from within the English-speaking world +itself, but not in Europe. The American colonies, appreciating and +applying to their own conditions the principles of the English +Revolution, began, and with French assistance completed, the movement +which erected in another hemisphere the American republic. Weak and +tottering in its infancy, but growing ever stronger and therefore +milder, its example began at once to suggest the great and peaceful +reforms of the English constitution which have since followed. +Threatening absolutism in the strong contrasts its citizens presented +to the subjects of other lands, it has been ever since the moral +support of liberal movements the world around. England herself, +instead of being weakened, was strengthened by the child grown to +independent maturity, and a double example of prosperity under +constitutional administration was now held up to the continent of +Europe. + +But it is the greatest proof of human weakness that there is no +movement however beneficent, no doctrine however sound, no truth +however absolute, but that it can be speciously so extended, so +expanded, so emphasized as to lose its identity. Coincident with the +political speculation of the eighteenth century appeared the storm and +stress of romanticism and sentimentalism. The extremes of morbid +personal emotion were thought serviceable for daily life, while the +middle course of applying ideals to experience was utterly abandoned. +The latest nihilism differs little from the conception of the perfect +regeneration of mankind by discarding the old merely because it was +old which triumphed in the latter half of the eighteenth century among +philosophers and wits. To be sure, they had a substitute for whatever +was abolished and a supplement for whatever was left incomplete. + +Even the stable sense of the Americans was infected by the virus of +mere theories. In obedience to the spirit of the age they introduced +into their written constitution, which was in the main but a statement +of their deep-seated political habits, a scheme like that of the +electoral college founded on some high-sounding doctrine, or omitted +from it in obedience to a prevalent and temporary extravagance of +protest some fundamental truth like that of the Christian character of +their government and laws. If there be anywhere a Christian +Protestant state it is the United States; if any futile invention were +ever incorporated in a written charter it was that of the electoral +college. The addition of a vague theory or the omission of essential +national qualities in the document of the constitution has affected +our subsequent history little or not at all. + +But such was not the case in a society still under feudal oppression. +Fictions like the contract theory of government, exploded by the sound +sense of Burke; political generalizations like certain paragraphs of +the French Declaration of Rights, every item of which now and here +reads like a platitude but was then and there a vivid revolutionary +novelty; emotional yearnings for some vague Utopia--all fell into +fruitful soil and produced a rank harvest, mostly of straw and stalks, +although there was some sound grain. The thought of the time was a +powerful factor in determining the course and the quality of events +throughout all Europe. No nation was altogether unmoved. The center of +agitation was in France, although the little Calvinistic state of +Geneva brought forth the prophet and writer of the times. + +Rousseau was a man of small learning but great insight. Originating +almost nothing, he set forth the ideas of others with incisive +distinctness, often modifying them to their hurt, but giving to the +form in which he wrote them an air of seductive practicability and +reality which alone threw them into the sphere of action. Examining +Europe at large, he found its social and political institutions so +hardened and so unresponsive that he declared it incapable of movement +without an antecedent general crash and breaking up. No laws, he +reasoned, could be made because there were no means by which the +general will could express itself, such was the rigidity of +absolutism and feudalism. The splendid studies of Montesquieu, which +revealed to the French the eternal truths underlying the +constitutional changes in England, had enlightened and captivated the +best minds of his country, but they were too serious, too cold, too +dry to move the quick, bright temperament of the people at large. This +was the work of Rousseau. Consummate in his literary power, he laid +the ax at the root of the tree in his fierce attack on the prevailing +education, sought a new basis for government in his peculiar +modification of the contract theory, and constructed a substitute +system of sentimental morals to supplant the old authoritative one +which was believed to underlie all the prevalent iniquities in +religion, politics, and society. + +His entire structure lacked a foundation either in history or in +reason. But the popular fancy was fascinated. The whole flimsy +furniture in the chambers of the general mind vanished. New emotions, +new purposes, new sanctions appeared in its stead. There was a sad +lack of ethical definitions, an over-zealous iconoclasm as to +religion, but there were many high conceptions of regenerating +society, of liberty, of brotherhood, of equality. The influence of +this movement was literally ubiquitous; it was felt wherever men read +or thought or talked, and were connected, however remotely, with the +great central movement of civilization. + +No land and no family could to all outward appearance be further aside +from the main channel of European history in the eighteenth century +than the island of Corsica and an obscure family by the name of +Buonaparte which had dwelt there since the beginning of the eighteenth +century. Yet that isolated land and that unknown family were not +merely to be drawn into the movement, they were to illustrate its most +characteristic phases. Rousseau, though mistakenly, forecast a great +destiny for Corsica, declaring in his letters on Poland that it was +the only European land capable of movement, of law-making, of peaceful +renovation. It was small and remote, but it came near to being an +actual exemplification of his favorite and fundamental dogma +concerning man in a state of nature, of order as arising from +conflict, of government as resting on general consent and mutual +agreement among the governed. Toward Corsica, therefore, the eyes of +all Europe had long been directed. There, more than elsewhere, the +setting of the world-drama seemed complete in miniature, and, in the +closing quarter of the eighteenth century, the action was rapidly +unfolding a plot of universal interest. + +A lofty mountain-ridge divides the island into eastern and western +districts. The former is gentler in its slopes, and more fertile. +Looking, as it does, toward Italy, it was during the middle ages +closely bound in intercourse with that peninsula; richer in its +resources than the other part, it was more open to outside influences, +and for this reason freer in its institutions. The rugged western +division had come more completely under the yoke of feudalism, having +close affinity in sympathy, and some relation in blood, with the +Greek, Roman, Saracenic, and Teutonic race-elements in France and +Spain. The communal administration of the eastern slope, however, +prevailed eventually in the western as well, and the differences of +origin, wealth, and occupation, though at times the occasion of +intestine discord, were as nothing compared with the common +characteristics which knit the population of the entire island into +one national organization, as much a unit as their insular territory. + +The people of this small commonwealth were in the main of Italian +blood. Some slight connection with the motherland they still +maintained in the relations of commerce, and by the education of their +professional men at Italian schools. While a small minority supported +themselves as tradesmen or seafarers, the mass of the population was +dependent for a livelihood upon agriculture. As a nation they had long +ceased to follow the course of general European development. They had +been successively the subjects of Greece, Rome, and the Califate, of +the German-Roman emperors, and of the republic of Pisa. Their latest +ruler was Genoa, which had now degenerated into an untrustworthy +oligarchy. United to that state originally by terms which gave the +island a "speaker" or advocate in the Genoese senate, and recognized +the most cherished habits of a hardy, natural-minded, and primitive +people, they had little by little been left a prey to their own faults +in order that their unworthy mistress might plead their disorders as +an excuse for her tyranny. Agriculture languished, and the minute +subdivision of arable land finally rendered its tillage almost +profitless. + +Among a people who are isolated not only as islanders, but also as +mountaineers, old institutions are particularly tenacious of life: +that of the vendetta, or blood revenge, with the clanship it +accompanies, never disappeared from Corsica. In the centuries of +Genoese rule the carrying of arms was winked at, quarrels became rife, +and often family confederations, embracing a considerable part of the +country, were arrayed one against the other in lawless violence. The +feudal nobility, few in number, were unrecognized, and failed to +cultivate the industrial arts in the security of costly strongholds as +their class did elsewhere, while the fairest portions of land not held +by them were gradually absorbed by the monasteries, a process favored +by Genoa as likely to render easier the government of a turbulent +people. The human animal, however, throve. Rudely clad in homespun, +men and women alike cultivated a simplicity of dress surpassed only by +their plain living. There was no wealth except that of fields and +flocks, their money consequently was debased and almost worthless. The +social distinctions of noble and peasant survived only in tradition, +and all classes intermingled without any sense of superiority or +inferiority. Elegance of manner, polish, grace, were unsought and +existed only by natural refinement, which was rare among a people who +were on the whole simple to boorishness. Physically they were, +however, admirable. All visitors were struck by the repose and +self-reliance of their countenances. The women were neither beautiful, +stylish, nor neat. Yet they were considered modest and attractive. The +men were more striking in appearance and character. Of medium stature +and powerful mold, with black hair, fine teeth, and piercing eyes; +with well-formed, agile, and sinewy limbs; sober, brave, trustworthy, +and endowed with many other primitive virtues as well, the Corsican +was everywhere sought as a soldier, and could be found in all the +armies of the southern continental states. + +In their periodic struggles against Genoese encroachments and tyranny, +the Corsicans had produced a line of national heroes. Sampiero, one of +these, had in the sixteenth century incorporated Corsica for a brief +hour with the dominions of the French crown, and was regarded as the +typical Corsican. Dark, warlike, and revengeful, he had displayed a +keen intellect and a fine judgment. Simple in his dress and habits, +untainted by the luxury then prevalent in the courts of Florence and +Paris, at both of which he resided for considerable periods, he could +kill his wife without a shudder when she put herself and child into +the hands of his enemies to betray him. Hospitable and generous, but +untamed and terrible; brusque, dictatorial, and without consideration +or compassion; the offspring of his times and his people, he stands +the embodiment of primeval energy, physical and mental. + +The submission of a people like this to a superior force was sullen, +and in the long century which followed, the energies generally +displayed in a well-ordered life seemed among them to be not quenched +but directed into the channels of their passions and their bodily +powers, which were ready on occasion to break forth in devastating +violence. In 1729 began a succession of revolutionary outbursts, and +at last in 1730 the communal assemblies united in a national +convention, choosing two chiefs, Colonna-Ceccaldi and Giafferi, to +lead in the attempt to rouse the nation to action and throw off the +unendurable yoke. English philanthropists furnished the munitions of +war. The Genoese were beaten in successive battles, even after they +brought into the field eight thousand German mercenaries purchased +from the Emperor Charles VI. The Corsican adventurers in foreign +lands, pleading for their liberties with artless eloquence at every +court, filled Europe with enthusiasm for their cause and streamed back +to fight for their homes. A temporary peace on terms which granted all +they asked was finally arranged through the Emperor's intervention. + +But the two elected chiefs, and a third patriot, Raffaelli, having +been taken prisoners by the Genoese, were ungenerously kept in +confinement, and released only at the command of Charles. Under the +same leaders, now further exasperated by their ill usage, began and +continued another agitation, this time for separation and complete +emancipation. Giafferi's chosen adjutant was a youth of good family +and excellent parts, Hyacinth Paoli. In the then existing +complications of European politics the only available helper was the +King of Spain, and to him the Corsicans now applied, but his +undertakings compelled him to refuse. Left without allies or any +earthly support, the pious Corsicans naïvely threw themselves on the +protection of the Virgin and determined more firmly than ever to +secure their independence. + +In this crisis appeared at the head of a considerable following, some +hundreds in number, the notorious and curious German adventurer, +Theodore von Neuhof, who, declaring that he represented the sympathy +of the great powers for Corsica, made ready to proclaim himself as +king. As any shelter is welcome in a storm, the people accepted him, +and he was crowned on April fifteenth, 1736. But although he spoke +truthfully when he claimed to represent the sympathy of the powers, he +did not represent their strength, and was defeated again and again in +encounters with the forces of Genoa. The oligarchy had now secured an +alliance with France, which feared lest the island might fall into +more hostile and stronger hands; and before the close of the year the +short-lived monarchy ended in the disappearance of Theodore I of +Corsica from his kingdom and soon after, in spite of his heroic +exertions, from history. + +The truth was that some of the nationalist leaders had not forgotten +the old patriotic leaning towards France which had existed since the +days of Sampiero, and were themselves in communication with the French +court and Cardinal Fleury. A French army landed in February, 1738, and +was defeated. An overwhelming force was then despatched and the +insurrection subsided. In the end France, though strongly tempted to +hold what she had conquered, kept her promise to Genoa and disarmed +the Corsicans; on the other hand, however, she consulted her own +interest and attempted to soothe the islanders by guaranteeing to them +national rights. Such, however, was the prevalent bitterness that many +patriots fled into exile; some, like Hyacinth Paoli, choosing the pay +of Naples for themselves and followers, others accepting the offer of +France and forming according to time-honored custom a Corsican +regiment of mercenaries which took service in the armies of the King. +Among the latter were two of some eminence, Buttafuoco and Salicetti. +The half measures of Fleury left Corsica, as he intended, ready to +fall into his hands when opportunity should be ripe. Even the +patriotic leaders were now no longer in harmony. Those in Italy were +of the old disinterested line and suspicious of their western +neighbor; the others were charged with being the more ambitious for +themselves and careless of their country's liberty. Both classes, +however, claimed to be true patriots. + +During the War of the Austrian Succession it seemed for a moment as if +Corsica were to be freed by the attempt of Maria Theresa to overthrow +Genoa, then an ally of the Bourbon powers. The national party rose +again under Gaffori, the regiments of Piedmont came to their help, and +the English fleet delivered St. Florent and Bastia into their hands. +But the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748) left things substantially as +they were before the war, and in 1752 a new arrangement unsatisfactory +to both parties was made with Genoa. It was virtually dictated by +Spain and France, England having been alienated by the quarrels and +petty jealousies of the Corsican leaders, and lasted only as long as +the French occupation continued. Under the leadership of the same +dauntless Gaffori who in 1740 had been chosen along with Matra to be a +chief commander, the Genoese were once more driven from the highlands +into the coast towns. At the height of his success the bold guerrilla +fell a victim to family rivalries and personal spite. Through the +influence of his despairing foes a successful conspiracy was formed +and in the autumn of 1753 he was foully murdered. + +But the greatest of these national heroes was also the last--Pascal +Paoli. Fitted for his task by birth, by capacity, by superior +training, this youth was in 1755 made captain-general of the island, a +virtual dictator in his twenty-ninth year. His success was as +remarkable as his measures were wise. Elections were regulated so that +strong organization was introduced into the loose democratic +institutions which had hitherto prevented sufficient unity of action +in troubled times. An army was created from the straggling bands of +volunteers, and brigandage was suppressed. Wise laws were enacted and +enforced--among them one which made the blood-avenger a murderer, +instead of a hero as he had been. Moreover, the foundations of a +university were laid in the town of Corte, which was the hearthstone +of the liberals because it was the natural capital of the west slope, +connected by difficult and defensible paths with every cape and bay +and intervale of the rocky and broken coast. The Genoese were +gradually driven from the interior, and finally they occupied but +three harbor towns. + +Through skilful diplomacy Paoli created a temporary breach between his +oppressors and the Vatican, which, though soon healed, nevertheless +enabled him to recover important domains for the state, and prevented +the Roman hierarchy from using its enormous influence over the +superstitious people utterly to crush the movement for their +emancipation. His extreme and enlightened liberalism is admirably +shown by his invitation to the Jews, with their industry and steady +habits, to settle in Corsica, and to live there in the fullest +enjoyment of civil rights, according to the traditions of their faith +and the precepts of their law. "Liberty," he said, "knows no creed. +Let us leave such distinctions to the Inquisition." Commerce, under +these influences, began to thrive. New harbors were made and +fortified, while the equipment of a few gunboats for their defense +marked the small beginnings of a fleet. The haughty men of Corsica, +changing their very nature for a season, began to labor with their +hands by the side of their wives and hired assistants; to agriculture, +industry, and the arts was given an impulse which promised to be +lasting. + +The rule of Paoli was not entirely without disturbance. From time to +time there occurred rebellious outbreaks of petty factions like that +headed by Matra, a disappointed rival. But on the whole they were of +little importance. Down to 1765 the advances of the nationalists were +steady, their battles being won against enormous odds by the force of +their warlike nature, which sought honor above all things, and could, +in the words of a medieval chronicle, "endure without a murmur +watchings and pains, hunger and cold, in its pursuit--which could even +face death without a pang." Finally it became necessary, as the result +of unparalleled success in domestic affairs, that a foreign policy +should be formulated. Paoli's idea was an offensive and defensive +alliance with France on terms recognizing the independence of Corsica, +securing an exclusive commercial reciprocity between them, and +promising military service with an annual tribute from the island. +This idea of France as a protector without administrative power was +held by the majority of patriots. + +But Choiseul, the minister of foreign affairs under Louis XV, would +entertain no such visionary plan. It was clear to every one that the +island could no longer be held by its old masters. He had found a +facile instrument for the measures necessary to his contemplated +seizure of it in the son of a Corsican refugee, that later notorious +Buttafuoco, who, carrying water on both shoulders, had ingratiated +himself with his father's old friends, while at the same time he had +for years been successful as a French official. Corsica was to be +seized by France as a sop to the national pride, a slight compensation +for the loss of Canada, and he was willing to be the agent. On August +sixth, 1764, was signed a provisional agreement between Genoa and +France by which the former was to cede for four years all her rights +of sovereignty, and the few places she still held in the island, in +return for the latter's intervention to thwart Paoli's plan for +securing virtual independence. At the end of the period France was to +pay Genoa the millions owed to her. + +By this time the renown of Paoli had filled all Europe. As a statesman +he had skilfully used the European entanglements both of the +Bourbon-Hapsburg alliance made in 1756, and of the alliances +consequent to the Seven Years' War, for whatever possible advantage +might be secured to his people and their cause. As a general he had +found profit even in defeat, and had organized his little forces to +the highest possible efficiency, displaying prudence, fortitude, and +capacity. His personal character was blameless, and could be +fearlessly set up as a model. He was a convincing orator and a wise +legislator. Full of sympathy for his backward compatriots, he knew +their weaknesses, and could avoid the consequences, while he +recognized at the same time their virtues, and made the fullest use of +them. Above all, he had the wide horizon of a philosopher, +understanding fully the proportions and relations to each other of +epochs and peoples, not striving to uplift Corsica merely in her own +interest, but seeking to find in her regeneration a leverage to raise +the world to higher things. So gracious, so influential, so +far-seeing, so all-embracing was his nature, that Voltaire called him +"the lawgiver and the glory of his people," while Frederick the Great +dedicated to him a dagger with the inscription, "Libertas, Patria." +The shadows in his character were that he was imperious and arbitrary; +so overmastering that he trained the Corsicans to seek guidance and +protection, thus preventing them from acquiring either personal +independence or self-reliance. Awaiting at every step an impulse from +their adored leader, growing timid in the moment when decision was +imperative, they did not prove equal to their task. Without his people +Paoli was still a philosopher; without him they became in succeeding +years a byword, and fell supinely into the arms of a less noble +subjection. In this regard the comparison between him and Washington, +so often instituted, utterly breaks down. + +"Corsica," wrote in 1790 a youth destined to lend even greater +interest than Paoli to that name--"Corsica has been a prey to the +ambition of her neighbors, the victim of their politics and of her own +wilfulness.... We have seen her take up arms, shake the atrocious +power of Genoa, recover her independence, live happily for an instant; +but then, pursued by an irresistible fatality, fall again into +intolerable disgrace. For twenty-four centuries these are the scenes +which recur again and again; the same changes, the same misfortune, +but also the same courage, the same resolution, the same boldness.... +If she trembled for an instant before the feudal hydra, it was only +long enough to recognize and destroy it. If, led by a natural feeling, +she kissed, like a slave, the chains of Rome, she was not long in +breaking them. If, finally, she bowed her head before the Ligurian +aristocracy, if irresistible forces kept her twenty years in the +despotic grasp of Versailles, forty years of mad warfare astonished +Europe, and confounded her enemies." + +The same pen wrote of Paoli that by following traditional lines he had +not only shown in the constitution he framed for Corsica a historic +intuition, but also had found "in his unparalleled activity, in his +warm, persuasive eloquence, in his adroit and far-seeing genius," a +means to guarantee it against the attacks of wicked foes. + +Such was the country in whose fortunes the "age of enlightenment" was +so interested. Montesquieu had used its history to illustrate the loss +and recovery of privilege and rights; Rousseau had thought the little +isle would one day fill all Europe with amazement. When the latter was +driven into exile for his utterances, and before his flight to +England, Paoli offered him a refuge. Buttafuoco, who represented the +opinion that Corsica for its own good must be incorporated with +France, and not merely come under her protection, had a few months +previously also invited the Genevan prophet to visit the island, and +outline a constitution for its people. But the snare was spread in +vain. In the letter which with polished phrase declined the task, on +the ground of its writer's ill-health, stood the words: "I believe +that under their present leader the Corsicans have nothing to fear +from Genoa. I believe, moreover, that they have nothing to fear from +the troops which France is said to be transporting to their shores. +What confirms me in this feeling is that, in spite of the movement, so +good a patriot as you seem to be continues in the service of the +country which sends them." Paoli was of the same opinion, and remained +so until his rude awakening in 1768. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +The Bonapartes in Corsica. + + The French Occupy Corsica -- Paoli Deceived -- Treaty + between France and Genoa -- English Intervention Vain -- + Paoli in England -- British Problems -- Introduction of the + French Administrative System -- Paoli's Policy -- The Coming + Man -- Origin of the Bonapartes -- The Corsican Branch -- + Their Nobility -- Carlo Maria di Buonaparte -- Maria Letizia + Ramolino -- Their Marriage and Naturalization as French + Subjects -- Their Fortunes -- Their Children. + + +[Sidenote: 1764-72.] + +The preliminary occupation of Corsica by the French was ostensibly +formal. The process was continued, however, until the formality became +a reality, until the fortifications of the seaport towns ceded by +Genoa were filled with troops. Then, for the first time, the text of +the convention between the two powers was communicated to Paoli. +Choiseul explained through his agent that by its first section the +King guaranteed the safety and liberty of the Corsican nation. But, no +doubt, he forgot to explain the double dealing in the second section. +Thereby in the Italian form the Corsicans were in return to take "all +right and proper measures dictated by their sense of justice and +natural moderation to secure the glory and interest of the republic of +Genoa," while in the French form they were "to yield to the Genoese +all 'they' thought necessary to the glory and interests of their +republic." Who were the "they"?--the Corsicans or the Genoese? Paoli's +eye was fixed on the acknowledgment of Corsican independence; he was +hoodwinked completely as to the treachery in this second section, the +meaning of which, according to diplomatic usage, was settled by the +interpretation which the language employed for one form put upon that +in which the other was written. Combining the two translations, +Italian and French, of the second section, and interpreting one by the +other, the Genoese were still the arbiters of Corsican conduct and the +promise of liberty contained in the first section was worthless. + +Four years passed: apparently they were uneventful, but in reality +Choiseul made good use of his time. Through Buttafuoco he was in +regular communication with that minority among the Corsicans which +desired incorporation. By the skilful manipulation of private feuds, +and the unstinted use of money, this minority was before long turned +into a majority. Toward the close of 1767 Choiseul began to show his +hand by demanding absolute possession for France of at least two +strong towns. Paoli replied that the demand was unexpected, and +required consideration by the people; the answer was that the King of +France could not be expected to mingle in Corsican affairs without +some advantage for himself. To gain time, Paoli chose Buttafuoco as +his plenipotentiary, despatched him to Versailles, and thus fell into +the very trap so carefully set for him by his opponent. He consented +as a compromise that Corsica should join the Bourbon-Hapsburg league. +More he could not grant for love of his wild, free Corsicans, and he +cherished the secret conviction that, Genoa being no longer able to +assert her sovereignty, France would never allow another power to +intervene, and so, for the sake of peace, might accept this solution. + +But the great French minister was a master of diplomacy and would not +yield. In his designs upon Corsica he had little to fear from European +opposition. He knew how hampered England was by the strength of +parliamentary opposition, and the unrest of her American colonies. The +Sardinian monarchy was still weak, and quailed under the jealous eyes +of her strong enemies. Austria could not act without breaking the +league so essential to her welfare, while the Bourbon courts of Spain +and Naples would regard the family aggrandizement with complacency. +Moreover, something must be done to save the prestige of France: her +American colonial empire was lost; Catherine's brilliant policy, and +the subsequent victories of Russia in the Orient, were threatening +what remained of French influence in that quarter. Here was a +propitious moment to emulate once more the English: to seize a station +on the Indian highroad as valuable as Gibraltar or Port Mahon, and to +raise high hopes of again recovering, if not the colonial supremacy +among nations, at least that equality which the Seven Years' War had +destroyed. Without loss of time, therefore, the negotiations were +ended, and Buttafuoco was dismissed. On May fifteenth, 1768, the price +to be paid having been fixed, a definitive treaty with Genoa was +signed whereby she yielded the exercise of sovereignty to France, and +Corsica passed finally from her hands. Paoli appealed to the great +powers against this arbitrary transfer, but in vain. + +The campaign of subjugation opened at once, Buttafuoco, with a few +other Corsicans, taking service against his kinsfolk. The soldiers of +the Royal Corsican regiment, which was in the French service, and +which had been formed under his father's influence, flatly refused to +fight their brethren. The French troops already in the island were at +once reinforced, but during the first year of the final conflict the +advantage was all with the patriots; indeed, there was one substantial +victory on October seventh, 1768, that of Borgo, which caused dismay +at Versailles. Once more Paoli hoped for intervention, especially that +of England, whose liberal feeling would coincide with his interest in +keeping Corsica from France. Money and arms were sent from Great +Britain, but that was all. This conduct of the British ministry was +afterward recalled by France as a precedent for rendering aid to the +Americans in their uprising against England. + +The following spring an army of no less than twenty thousand men was +despatched from France to make short and thorough work of the +conquest. The previous year of bloody and embittered conflict had gone +far to disorganize the patriot army. It was only with the utmost +difficulty that the little bands of mountain villagers could be +tempted away from the ever more necessary defense of their homes and +firesides. Yet in spite of disintegration before such overwhelming +odds, and though in want both of ordinary munitions and of the very +necessities of life, the forces of Paoli continued a fierce and heroic +resistance. It was only after months of devastating, heartrending, +hopeless warfare, that their leader, utterly routed in the affair +known as the battle of Ponte Nuovo, finally gave up the desperate +cause. Exhausted, and without resources, he would have been an easy +prey to the French; but they were too wise to take him prisoner. On +June thirteenth, 1769, by their connivance he escaped, with three +hundred and forty of his most devoted supporters, on two English +vessels, to the mainland. His goal was England. The journey was a +long, triumphant procession from Leghorn through Germany and Holland; +the honors showered on him by the liberals in the towns through which +he passed were such as are generally paid to victory, not to defeat. +Kindly received and entertained, he lived for the next thirty years in +London, the recipient from the government of twelve hundred pounds a +year as a pension. + +The year 1770 saw the King of France apparently in peaceful possession +of that Corsican sovereignty which he claimed to have bought from +Genoa. His administration was soon and easily inaugurated, and there +was nowhere any interference from foreign powers. Philanthropic +England had provided for Paoli, but would do no more, for she was busy +at home with a transformation of her parties. The old Whig party was +disintegrating; the new Toryism was steadily asserting itself in the +passage of contemptuous measures for oppressing the American colonies. +She was, moreover, soon to be so absorbed in her great struggle on +both sides of the globe that interest in Corsica and the Mediterranean +must remain for a long time in abeyance. + +But the establishment of a French administration in the King's new +acquisition did not proceed smoothly. The party favorable to +incorporation with France had grown, and, in the rush to side with +success, it now probably far outnumbered that of the old patriots. At +the outset this majority faithfully supported the conquerors in an +attempt, honorable to both, to retain as much of Paoli's system as +possible. But the appointment of an intendant and a military commander +acting as royal governor with a veto over legislation was essential. +This of necessity destroyed the old democracy, for, in any case, the +existence of such officials and the social functions of such offices +must create a quasi-aristocracy, and its power would rest not on +popular habit and good-will, but on the French soldiery. The situation +was frankly recognized, therefore, in a complete reorganization of +those descended from the old nobility, and from these a council of +twelve was selected to support and countenance the governor. The +clergy and the third estate were likewise formally organized in two +other orders, so that with clergy, nobles, and commons, Corsica became +a French _pays d'état_, another provincial anachronism in the chaos of +royal administration. The class bitterness of the mainland could +easily be and was transplanted to the island; the ultimate success of +the process left nothing to be desired. Moreover, the most important +offices were given into French hands, while the seat of government was +moved from Corte, the highland capital, to the lowland towns of Bastia +and Ajaccio. The primeval feud of highlanders and lowlanders was thus +rekindled, and in the subsequent agitations the patriots won over by +France either lost influence with their followers, or ceased to +support the government. Old animosities were everywhere revived and +strengthened, until finally the flames burst forth in open rebellion. +They were, of course, suppressed, but the work was done with a savage +thoroughness the memory of which long survived to prevent the +formation in the island of a natural sentiment friendly to the French. +Those who professed such a feeling were held in no great esteem. + +It was perhaps an error that Paoli did not recognize the indissoluble +bonds of race and speech as powerfully drawing Corsica to Italy, +disregard the leanings of the democratic mountaineers toward France, +sympathize with the fondness of the towns for the motherland, and so +use his influence as to confirm the natural alliance between the +insular Italians and those of the peninsula. When we regard Sardinia, +however, time seems to have justified him. There is little to choose +between the sister islands as regards the backward condition of both; +but the French department of Corsica is, at least, no less advanced +than the Italian province of Sardinia. The final amalgamation of +Paoli's country with France, which was in a measure the result of his +leaning toward a French protectorate, accomplished one end, however, +which has rendered it impossible to separate her from the course of +great events, from the number of the mighty agents in history. +Curiously longing in his exile for a second Sampiero to have wielded +the physical power while he himself should have become a Lycurgus, +Paoli's wish was to be half-way fulfilled in that a warrior greater +than Sampiero was about to be born in Corsica, one who should, by the +very union so long resisted, come, as the master of France, to wield a +power strong enough to shatter both tyrannies and dynasties, thus +clearing the ground for a lawgiving closely related to Paoli's own +just and wise conceptions of legislation. + +The coming man was to be a typical Corsican, moreover. Born in the +agony of his fatherland, he was to combine all the important qualities +of his folk in himself. Like them, he was to be short, with wonderful +eyes and beautiful teeth; temperate; quietly, even meanly, clad; +generous, grateful for any favor, however small; masterful, +courageous, impassive, shrewd, resolute, fluent of speech; profoundly +religious, even superstitious; hot-tempered, inscrutable, mendacious, +revengeful sometimes and ofttimes forgiving, disdainful of woman and +her charms; above all, boastful, conceited, and with a passion for +glory. His pride and his imagination were to be barbaric in their +immensity, his clannishness was to be that of the most primitive +civilization. In all these points he was to be Corsican; other +characteristics he was to acquire from the land of his adoption +through an education French both in affairs and in books; but he was +after all Corsican from the womb to the grave; that in the first +degree, and only secondarily French, while his cosmopolitan disguise +was to be scarcely more than a mask to be raised or lowered at +pleasure. + +This scion was to come from the stock which at first bore the name of +Bonaparte, or, as the heraldic etymology later spelled it, Buonaparte. +There were branches of the same stock, or, at least, of the same name, +in other parts of Italy. Three towns at least claimed to be the seat +of a family with this patronymic: and one of them, Treviso, possessed +papers to prove the claim. Although other members of his family based +absurd pretensions of princely origin on these insufficient proofs, +Napoleon himself was little impressed by them. He was disposed to +declare that his ancestry began in his own person, either at Toulon or +from the eighteenth of Brumaire. Whatever the origin of the Corsican +Buonapartes, it was neither royal from the twin brother of Louis XIV, +thought to be the Iron Mask; nor imperial from the Julian gens, nor +Greek, nor Saracen, nor, in short, anything which later-invented and +lying genealogies declared it to be. But it was almost certainly +Italian, and probably patrician, for in 1780 a Tuscan gentleman of the +name devised a scanty estate to his distant Corsican kinsman. The +earliest home of the family was Florence; later they removed for +political reasons to Sarzana, in Tuscany, where for generations men of +that name exercised the profession of advocate. The line was +extinguished in 1799 by the death of Philip Buonaparte, a canon and a +man of means, who, although he had recognized his kin in Corsica to +the extent of interchanging hospitalities, nevertheless devised his +estate to a relative named Buonacorsi. + +The Corsican branch were persons of some local consequence in their +latest seats, partly because of their Italian connections, partly in +their substantial possessions of land, and partly through the official +positions which they held in the city of Ajaccio. Their sympathies as +lowlanders and townspeople were with the country of their origin and +with Genoa. During the last years of the sixteenth century that +republic authorized a Jerome, then head of the family, to prefix the +distinguishing particle "di" to his name; but the Italian custom was +averse to its use, which was not revived until later, and then only +for a short time. Nine generations are recorded as having lived on +Corsican soil within two centuries and a quarter. They were evidently +men of consideration, for they intermarried with the best families of +the island; Ornano, Costa, Bozzi, and Colonna are names occurring in +their family records. + +Nearly two centuries passed before the grand duke of Tuscany issued +formal patents in 1757, attesting the Buonaparte nobility. It was +Joseph, the grandsire of Napoleon, who received them. Soon afterward +he announced that the coat-armor of the family was "_la couronne de +compte, l'écusson fendu par deux barres et deux étoilles, avec les +lettres B. P. qui signifient Buona Parte, le fond des armes +rougeâtres, les barres et les étoilles bleu, les ombrements et la +couronne jaune!_" Translated as literally as such doubtful language +and construction can be, this signifies: "A count's coronet, the +escutcheon with two bends sinister and two stars, bearing the letters +B. P., which signify Buonaparte, the field of the arms red, the bends +and stars blue, the letters and coronet yellow!" In heraldic parlance +this would be: Gules, two bends sinister between two estoiles azure +charged with B. P. for Buona Parte, or; surmounted by a count's +coronet of the last. In 1759 the same sovereign granted further the +title of patrician. Charles, the son of Joseph, received a similar +grant from the Archbishop of Pisa in 1769. These facts have a +substantial historical value, since by reason of them the family was +duly and justly recognized as noble in 1771 by the French authorities, +and as a consequence, eight years later, the most illustrious scion +of the stem became, as a recognized aristocrat, the ward of a France +which was still monarchical. Reading between the lines of such a +narrative, it appears as if the short-lived family of Corsican lawyers +had some difficulty in preserving an influence proportionate to their +descent, and therefore sought to draw all the strength they could from +a bygone grandeur, easily forgotten by their neighbors in their +moderate circumstances at a later day. Still later, when all ci-devant +aristocrats were suspects in France, and when the taint of nobility +sufficed to destroy those on whom it rested, Napoleon denied his +quality: the usual inquest as to veracity was not made and he went +free. This escape he owed partly to the station he had reached, partly +to the fact that his family claims had been based on birth so obscure +at the time as to subject the claimants to good-natured raillery. + +No task had lain nearer to Paoli's heart than to unite in one nation +the two factions into which he found his people divided. Accordingly, +when Carlo Maria di Buonaparte, the single stem on which the +consequential lowland family depended for continuance, appeared at +Corte to pursue his studies, the stranger was received with flattering +kindness, and probably, as one account has it, was appointed to a post +of emolument and honor as Paoli's private secretary. The new +patrician, according to a custom common among Corsicans of his class, +determined to take his degree at Pisa, and in November, 1769, he was +made doctor of laws by that university. Many pleasant and probably +true anecdotes have been told to illustrate the good-fellowship of the +young advocate among his comrades while a student. There are likewise +narratives of his persuasive eloquence and of his influence as a +patriot, but these sound mythical. In short, an organized effort of +sycophantic admirers, who would, if possible, illuminate the whole +family in order to heighten Napoleon's renown, has invented fables and +distorted facts to such a degree that the entire truth as to Charles's +character is hard to discern. Certain undisputed facts, however, throw +a strong light upon Napoleon's father. His people were proud and poor; +he endured the hardships of poverty with equanimity. Strengthening +what little influence he could muster, he at first appears ambitious, +and has himself described in his doctor's diploma as a patrician of +Florence, San Miniato, and Ajaccio. His character is little known +except by the statements of his own family. They declared that he was +a spendthrift. He spent two years' income, about twelve hundred +dollars, in celebrating with friends the taking of his degree. He +would have sold not only the heavily mortgaged estates inherited by +himself, but also those of his wife, except for the fierce +remonstrances of his heirs. He could write clever verse, he was a +devotee of belles-lettres, and a sceptic in the fashion of the time. +Self-indulgent, he was likewise bitterly opposed to all family +discipline. His figure was slight and lithe, his expression alert and +intelligent, his eyes gray blue and his head large. He was ambitious, +indefatigable as a place-hunter, suave, elegant, and irrepressible. + +On the other hand, with no apparent regard for his personal +advancement by marriage, he followed his own inclination, and in 1764, +at the age of eighteen, gallantly wedded a beautiful child of fifteen, +Maria Letizia Ramolino. Her descent, though excellent and, remotely, +even noble, was inferior to that of her husband, but her fortune was +equal, if not superior, to his. Her father was a Genoese official of +importance; her mother, daughter of a petty noble by a peasant wife, +became a widow in 1755 and two years later was married again to +Francis Fesch, a Swiss, captain in the Genoese navy. Of this union, +Joseph, later Cardinal Fesch, was the child. Although well born, the +mother of Napoleon had no education and was of peasant nature to the +last day of her long life--hardy, unsentimental, frugal, avaricious, +and sometimes unscrupulous. Yet for all that, the hospitality of her +little home in Ajaccio was lavish and famous. Among the many guests +who were regularly entertained there was Marbeuf, commander in Corsica +of the first army of occupation. There was long afterward a malicious +tradition that the French general was Napoleon's father. The morals of +Letizia di Buonaparte, like those of her conspicuous children, have +been bitterly assailed, but her good name, at least, has always been +vindicated. The evident motive of the story sufficiently refutes such +an aspersion as it contains. Of the bride's extraordinary beauty there +has never been a doubt. She was a woman of heroic mold, like Juno in +her majesty; unmoved in prosperity, undaunted in adversity. It was +probably to his mother, whom he strongly resembled in childhood, that +the famous son owed his tremendous and unparalleled physical +endurance. + +After their marriage the youthful pair resided in Corte, waiting until +events should permit their return to Ajaccio. Naturally of an indolent +temperament, the husband, though he had at first been drawn into the +daring enterprises of Paoli, and had displayed a momentary enthusiasm, +was now, as he had been for more than a year, weary of them. At the +head of a body of men of his own rank, he finally withdrew to Monte +Rotondo, and on May twenty-third, 1769, a few weeks before Paoli's +flight, the band made formal submission to Vaux, commander of the +second army of occupation, explaining through Buonaparte that the +national leader had misled them by promises of aid which never came, +and that, recognizing the impossibility of further resistance, they +were anxious to accept the new government, to return to their homes, +and to resume the peaceful conduct of their affairs. This at least is +the generally accepted account of his desertion of Paoli's cause: +there is some evidence that having followed Clement, a brother of +Pascal, into a remoter district, he had there found no support for the +enterprise, and had thence under great hardships of flood and field +made his way with wife and child to the French headquarters. The +result was the same in either case. It was the precipitate +naturalization of the father as a French subject which made his great +son a Frenchman. Less than three months afterward, on August +fifteenth, the fourth child, Napoleone di Buonaparte, was born in +Ajaccio, the seat of French influence. + +The resources of the Buonapartes, as they still wrote themselves, were +small, although their family and expectations were large. Charles +himself was the owner of a considerable estate in houses and lands, +but everything was heavily mortgaged and his income was small. He had +further inherited a troublesome law plea, the prosecution of which was +expensive. By an entail in trust of a great-great-grandfather, +important lands were entailed in the male line of the Odone family. In +default of regular descent, the estate was vested in the female line, +and should, when Charles's maternal uncle died childless, have +reverted to his mother. But the uncle had made a will bequeathing his +property to the Jesuits, who swiftly took possession and had +maintained their ownership by occupation and by legal quibbles. +Joseph, the father of Charles, had wasted many years and most of his +fortune in weary litigation. Nothing daunted, Charles settled down to +pursue the same phantom, virtually depending for a livelihood on the +patrimony of his wife. Letitia Buonaparte, being an only child, had +fallen heir to her father's property on the second marriage of her +mother. The stepfather was an excellent Swiss, a Protestant from +Basel, thoroughly educated, and interested in education, and for years +a mercenary in the Genoese service. On his retirement he became a +Roman Catholic in order to secure the woman of his choice. He was the +father of Letitia's half brother, Joseph. The retired officer, though +kindly disposed to the family he had entered, had little but his +pension and savings: he could contribute nothing but good, sound +common sense and his homely ideas of education. The real head of the +family was the uncle of Charles, Lucien Buonaparte, archdeacon of the +cathedral. It was he who had supported and guided his nephew, and had +sent him to the college founded by Paoli at Corte. In his youth +Charles was wasteful and extravagant, but his wife was thrifty to +meanness. With the restraint of her economy and the stimulus of his +uncle, respected as head of the family, the father of Napoleon arrived +at a position of some importance. He practised his profession with +some diligence, became an assessor of the highest insular court, and +in 1772 was made a member, later a deputy, of the council of Corsican +nobles. + +The sturdy mother was most prolific. Her eldest child, born in 1765, +was a son who died in infancy; in 1767 was born a daughter, +Maria-Anna, destined to the same fate; in 1768 a son, known later as +Joseph, but baptized as Nabulione; in 1769 the great son, Napoleone. +Nine other children were the fruit of the same wedlock, and six of +them--three sons, Lucien, Louis, and Jerome, and three daughters, +Elisa, Pauline, and Caroline--survived to share their brother's +greatness. Charles himself, like his short-lived ancestors,--of whom +five had died within a century,--scarcely reached middle age, dying in +his thirty-ninth year. Letitia, like the stout Corsican that she was, +lived to the ripe age of eighty-six in the full enjoyment of her +faculties, known to the world as Madame Mère, a sobriquet devised by +her great son to distinguish her as the mother of the Napoleons. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +Napoleon's Birth and Childhood[1]. + + [Footnote 1: The indispensable authority for the youth + of Napoleon is the collection of his own papers edited, + not always judiciously, by Frédéric Masson and published + by him in coöperation with G. Biagi under the title + Napoléon inconnu. The originals are now in the + Laurentian Library at Florence. They were intrusted by + the Emperor to Cardinal Fesch as a safe depositary, + probably in the hope that they would eventually be + destroyed. What the cardinal actually did with them + remains obscure. Some time early in the nineteenth + century they came into possession of a certain Libri, + one of the French government library inspectors, an + unscrupulous collector and dealer. From them he + excerpted enough matter for an article which, before his + disgrace, was published in an early number of the Revue + des Deux Mondes, but in the publication there was no + statement of authority and the article was forgotten, + important as it was. The originals were not found or + known until in the sale catalogue of Lord Ashburnham's + library appeared a lot entitled merely Napoleon Papers. + This fact was brought to the author's attention by a + friend, and when after a smart competition between + agents of the French and Italian governments the + manuscripts were deposited at Florence, he sought + permission immediately to examine and study them. This + was promptly granted, they proved to be the lost Fesch + papers, and for the first time it was possible to obtain + a clear account of Napoleon's early years. The standard + authorities hitherto had been the works of Nasica, + Coston, and Jung: while they still have a certain value, + it is slight in view of the reliable deductions to be + drawn from the original boy papers of Napoleon + Bonaparte. Later on and after the publication of the + corresponding portion of this Life, they were edited, + printed, and published. In the main there is no room for + difference with the transcript of M. Masson, but in some + places where the writing is uncommonly bad the author's + own transcript presents the facts as stated in these + pages. Within a few years M. Chuquet has summed up + admirably all our authentic knowledge of the subject--in + a book entitled: La jeunesse de Napoléon. His own + researches have brought to light some further valuable + material. I have not hesitated in this revision to make + the freest use of the latest authorities, but it is a + gratification that no substantial changes, except by way + of slight additions, have been found necessary.] + + Birth of Nabulione or Joseph -- Date of Napoleon's Birth -- + Coincidence with the Festival of the Assumption -- The Name + of Napoleon -- Corsican Conditions as Influencing Napoleon's + Character -- His Early Education -- Childish Traits -- + Influenced by Traditions Concerning Paoli -- Family + Prospects -- Influence of Marbeuf -- Upheavals in France -- + Napoleon Appointed to a Scholarship -- His Efforts to Learn + French at Autun -- Development of His Character -- His + Father Delegate of the Corsican Nobility at Versailles. + + +[Sidenote: 1768-79.] + +The trials of poverty made the Buonapartes so clever and adroit that +suspicions of shiftiness in small matters were developed later on, and +these led to an over-close scrutiny of their acts. The opinion has +not yet disappeared among reputable authorities that Nabulione and +Napoleone were one and the same, born on January seventh, 1768, Joseph +being really the younger, born on the date assigned to his +distinguished brother. The earliest documentary evidence consists of +two papers, one in the archives of the French war department, one in +those of Ajaccio. The former is dated 1782, and testifies to the birth +of Nabulione on January seventh, 1768, and to his baptism on January +eighth; the latter is the copy, not the original, of a government +contract which declares the birth, on January seventh, of Joseph +Nabulion. Neither is decisive, but the addition of Joseph, with the +use of the two French forms for the name in the second, with the clear +intent of emphasizing his quality as a Frenchman, destroys much of its +value, and leaves the weight of authority with the former. The +reasonableness of the suspicion seems to be heightened by the fact +that the certificate of Napoleon's marriage gives the date of his +birth as February eighth, 1768. Moreover, in the marriage contract of +Joseph, witnesses testify to his having been born at Ajaccio, not at +Corte. + +But there are facts of greater weight on the other side. In the first +place, the documentary evidence is itself of equal value, for the +archives of the French war department also contain an extract from the +one original baptismal certificate, which is dated July twenty-first, +1771, the day of the baptism, and gives the date of Napoleone's birth +as August fifteenth, 1769. Charles's application for the appointment +of his two eldest boys to Brienne has also been found, and it +contains, according to regulation, still another copy from the +original certificate, which is dated June twenty-third, 1776, and also +gives what must be accepted as the correct date. This explodes the +story that Napoleon's age was falsified by his father in order to +obtain admittance for him to the military school. The application was +made in 1776 for both boys, so as to secure admission for each before +the end of his tenth year. It was the delay of the authorities in +granting the request which, after the lapse of three years or more, +made Joseph ineligible. The father could have had no motive in 1776 to +perpetrate a fraud, and after that date it was impossible, for the +papers were not in his hands; moreover, the minister of war wrote in +1778 that the name of the elder Buonaparte boy had already been +withdrawn. That charge was made during Napoleon's lifetime. His +brother Joseph positively denied it, and asserted the fact as it is +now substantially proved to be; Bourrienne, who had known his Emperor +as a child of nine, was of like opinion; Napoleon himself, in an +autograph paper still existing, and written in the handwriting of his +youth, thrice gives the date of his birth as August fifteenth, 1769. +If the substitution occurred, it must have been in early infancy. +Besides, we know why Napoleon at marriage sought to appear older than +he was, and Joseph's contract was written when the misstatement in it +was valuable as making him appear thoroughly French. + +Among other absurd efforts to besmirch Napoleon's character is the +oft-repeated insinuation that he fixed his birthday on the greatest +high festival of the Roman Church, that of the Assumption of the +Virgin Mary, in order to assure its perpetual celebration! In sober +fact the researches of indefatigable antiquaries have brought to light +not only the documentary evidence referred to, but likewise the +circumstance that Napoleon, in one paper spelled Lapulion, was a not +uncommon Corsican name borne by several distinguished men, and that in +the early generation of the Buonaparte family the boys had been named +Joseph, Napoleon, and Lucien as they followed one another into the +world. In the eighteenth century spelling was scarcely more fixed than +in the sixteenth. Nor in the walk of life to which the Buonapartes +belonged was the fixity of names as rigid then as it later became. +There were three Maria-Annas in the family first and last, one of whom +was afterward called Elisa. + +As to the form of the name Napoleon, there is a curious though +unimportant confusion. We have already seen the forms Nabulione, +Nabulion, Napoleone, Napoleon. Contemporary documents give also the +form Napoloeone, and his marriage certificate uses Napolione. On the +Vendôme Column stands Napolio. Imp., which might be read either +Napolioni Imperatori or Napolio Imperatori. In either case we have +indications of a new form, Napolion or Napolius. The latter, which was +more probably intended, would seem to be an attempt to recall +Neopolus, a recognized saint's name. The absence of the name Napoleon +from the calendar of the Latin Church was considered a serious +reproach to its bearer by those who hated him, and their incessant +taunts stung him. In youth his constant retort was that there were +many saints and only three hundred and sixty-five days in the year. In +after years he had the matter remedied, and the French Catholics for a +time celebrated a St. Napoleon's day with proper ceremonies, among +which was the singing of a hymn composed to celebrate the power and +virtues of the holy man for whom it was named. The irreverent +school-boys of Autun and Brienne gave the nickname "straw +nose"--_paille-au-nez_--to both the brothers. The pronunciation, +therefore, was probably as uncertain as the form, Napaille-au-nez +being probably a distortion of Napouilloné. The chameleon-like +character of the name corresponds exactly to the chameleon-like +character of the times, the man, and the lands of his birth and of his +adoption. The Corsican noble and French royalist was Napoleone de +Buonaparté; the Corsican republican and patriot was Napoléone +Buonaparté; the French republican, Napoléon Buonaparte; the victorious +general, Bonaparte; the emperor, Napoléon. There was likewise a change +in this person's handwriting analogous to the change in his +nationality and opinions. It was probably to conceal a most defective +knowledge of French that the adoptive Frenchman, as republican, +consul, and emperor, abandoned the fairly legible hand of his youth, +and recurred to the atrocious one of his childhood, continuing always +to use it after his definite choice of a country. + +Stormy indeed were his nation and his birthtime. He himself said: "I +was born while my country was dying. Thirty thousand French, vomited +on our shores, drowning the throne of liberty in waves of blood--such +was the horrid sight which first met my view. The cries of the dying, +the groans of the oppressed, tears of despair, surrounded my cradle at +my birth." + +These were the words he used in 1789, while still a Corsican in +feeling, when addressing Paoli. They strain chronology for the sake of +rhetorical effect, but they truthfully picture the circumstances under +which he was conceived. Among many others of a similar character there +is a late myth which recalls in detail that when the pains of +parturition seized his mother she was at mass, and that she reached +her chamber just in time to deposit, on a carpet or a piece of +embroidery representing the young Achilles, the prodigy bursting so +impetuously into the world. By the man himself his nature was always +represented as the product of his hour, and this he considered a +sufficient excuse for any line of conduct he chose to follow. When in +banishment at Longwood, and on his death-bed, he recalled the +circumstances of his childhood in conversations with the attendant +physician, a Corsican like himself. "Nothing awed me; I feared no one. +I struck one, I scratched another, I was a terror to everybody. It was +my brother Joseph with whom I had most to do; he was beaten, bitten, +scolded, and I had put the blame on him almost before he knew what he +was about; was telling tales about him almost before he could collect +his wits. I had to be quick: my mama Letizia would have restrained my +warlike temper; she would not have put up with my defiant petulance. +Her tenderness was severe, meting out punishment and reward with equal +justice; merit and demerit, she took both into account." + +Of his earliest education he said at the same time: "Like everything +else in Corsica, it was pitiful." Lucien Buonaparte, his great-uncle, +was a canon, a man of substance with an income of five thousand livres +a year, and of some education--sufficient, at least, to permit his +further ecclesiastical advancement. "Uncle" Fesch, whose father had +received the good education of a Protestant Swiss boy, and had in turn +imparted his knowledge to his own son, was the friend and older +playmate of the turbulent little Buonaparte. The child learned a few +notions of Bible history, and, doubtless, also the catechism, from the +canon; by his eleven-year-old uncle he was taught his alphabet. In his +sixth year he was sent to a dame's school. The boys teased him because +his stockings were always down over his shoes, and for his devotion to +the girls, one named Giacominetta especially. He met their taunts with +blows, using sticks, bricks, or any handy weapon. + +According to his own story, he was fearless in the face of superior +numbers, however large. His mother, according to his brother Joseph, +declared that he was a perfect imp of a child. She herself described +him as fond of playing at war with a drum, wooden sword, and files of +toy soldiers. The pious nuns who taught him recognized a certain gift +for figures in styling him their little mathematician. Later when in +attendance at the Jesuit school he regularly encountered on his way +thither a soldier with whom he exchanged his own piece of white bread +for a morsel of the other's coarse commissary loaf. The excuse he +gave, according to his mother, was that he must learn to like such +food if he were to be a soldier. In time his passion for the simple +mathematics he studied increased to such a degree that she assigned +him a rough shed in the rear of their home as a refuge from the +disturbing noise of the family. For exercise he walked the streets at +nightfall with tumbled hair and disordered clothes. Of French he knew +not a word; he had lessons at school in his mother tongue, which he +learned to read under the instruction of the Abbé Recco. The worthy +teacher arrayed his boys in two bodies: the diligent under the +victorious standard of Rome, the idle as vanquished Carthaginians. +Napoleon of right belonged to the latter, but he was transferred, not +because of merit, by the sheer force of his imperious temper. + +This scanty information is all the trustworthy knowledge we possess +concerning the little Napoleon up to his tenth year. With slight +additions from other sources it is substantially the great Napoleon's +own account of himself by the mouthpiece partly of his mother in his +prosperous days, partly of Antommarchi in that last period of +self-examination when, to him, as to other men, consistency seems the +highest virtue. He was, doubtless, striving to compound with his +conscience by emphasizing the adage that the child is father to the +man--that he was born what he had always been. + +In 1775, Corsica had been for six years in the possession of France, +and on the surface all was fair. There was, however, a little remnant +of faithful patriots left in the island, with whom Paoli and his +banished friends were still in communication. The royal cabinet, +seeking to remove every possible danger of disturbance, even so slight +a one as lay in the disaffection of the few scattered nationalists, +and in the unconcealed distrust which these felt for their conforming +fellow-citizens, began a little later to make advances, in order, if +possible, to win at least Paoli's neutrality, if not his acquiescence. +All in vain: the exile was not to be moved. From time to time, +therefore, there was throughout Corsica a noticeable flow in the tide +of patriotism. There are indications that the child Napoleon was +conscious of this influence, listening probably with intense interest +to the sympathetic tales about Paoli and his struggles for liberty +which were still told among the people. + +As to Charles de Buonaparte, some things he had hoped for from +annexation were secured. His nobility and official rank were safe; he +was in a fair way to reach even higher distinction. But what were +honors without wealth? The domestic means were constantly growing +smaller, while expenditures increased with the accumulating dignities +and ever-growing family. He had made his humble submission to the +French; his reception had been warm and graceful. The authorities knew +of his pretensions to the estates of his ancestors. The Jesuits had +been disgraced and banished, but the much litigated Odone property had +not been restored to him; on the contrary, the buildings had been +converted into school-houses, and the revenues turned into various +channels. Years had passed, and it was evident that his suit was +hopeless. How could substantial advantage be secured from the King? + +His friends, General Marbeuf in particular, were of the opinion that +he could profit to a certain extent at least by securing for his +children an education at the expense of the state. While it is likely +that from the first Joseph was destined for the priesthood, yet there +was provision for ecclesiastical training under royal patronage as +well as for secular, and a transfer from the latter to the former was +easier than the reverse. Both were to be placed at the college of +Autun for a preliminary course, whatever their eventual destination +might be. The necessary steps were soon taken, and in 1776 the formal +supplication for the two eldest boys was forwarded to Paris. +Immediately the proof of four noble descents was demanded. The +movement of letters was slow, that of officials even slower, and the +delays in securing copies and authentications of the various documents +were long and vexatious. + +Meantime Choiseul had been disgraced, and on May tenth, 1774, the old +King had died; Louis XVI now reigned. The inertia which marked the +brilliant decadence of the Bourbon monarchy was finally overcome. The +new social forces were partly emancipated. Facts were examined, and +their significance considered. Bankruptcy was no longer a threatening +phantom, but a menacing reality of the most serious nature. +Retrenchment and reform were the order of the day. Necker was trying +his promising schemes. There was, among them, one for a body +consisting of delegates from each of the three estates,--nobles, +ecclesiastics, and burgesses,--to assist in deciding that troublesome +question, the regulation of imposts. The Swiss financier hoped to +destroy in this way the sullen, defiant influence of the royal +intendants. In Corsica the governor and the intendant both thought +themselves too shrewd to be trapped, and secured the appointment from +each of the Corsican estates of men who were believed by them to be +their humble servants. The needy suitor, Charles de Buonaparte, was to +be the delegate at Versailles of the nobility. They thought they knew +this man in particular, but he was to prove as malleable in France as +he had been in Corsica. + +Though nearly penniless, the noble deputy, with the vanity of the born +courtier, was flattered, and accepted the mission, setting out on +December fifteenth, 1778, by way of Italy with his two sons Joseph and +Napoleon. With them were Joseph Fesch, appointed to the seminary at +Aix, and Varesa, Letitia's cousin, who was to be sub-deacon at Autun. +Joseph and Napoleon both asserted in later life that during their +sojourn in Florence the grand duke gave his friend, their father, a +letter to his royal sister, Marie Antoinette. As the grand duke was at +that time in Vienna, the whole account they give of the journey is +probably, though perhaps not intentionally, untrue. It was not to the +Queen's intercession but to Marbeuf's powerful influence that the +final partial success of Charles de Buonaparte's supplication was due. +This is clearly proven by the evidence of the archives. To the +general's nephew, bishop of Autun, Joseph, now too old to be received +in a royal military school, and later Lucien, were both sent, the +former to be educated as a priest. It was probably Marbeuf's influence +also, combined with a desire to conciliate Corsica, which caused the +herald's office finally to accept the documents attesting the +Buonapartes' nobility. + +It appears that the journey from Corsica through Florence and +Marseilles had already wrought a marvelous change in the boy. +Napoleon's teacher at Autun, the Abbé Chardon, described his pupil as +having brought with him a sober, thoughtful character. He played with +no one, and took his walks alone. In all respects he excelled his +brother Joseph. The boys of Autun, says the same authority, on one +occasion brought the sweeping charge of cowardice against all +inhabitants of Corsica, in order to exasperate him. "If they [the +French] had been but four to one," was the calm, phlegmatic answer of +the ten-year-old boy, "they would never have taken Corsica; but when +they were ten to one...." "But you had a fine general--Paoli," +interrupted the narrator. "Yes, sir," was the reply, uttered with an +air of discontent, and in the very embodiment of ambition; "I should +much like to emulate him." The description of the untamed faun as he +then appeared is not flattering: his complexion sallow, his hair +stiff, his figure slight, his expression lusterless, his manner +insignificant. Moreover, his behavior was sullen, and at first, of +course, he spoke broken French with an Italian accent. Open-mouthed +and with sparkling eyes, however, he listened attentively to the first +rehearsal of his task; repetition he heartily disliked, and when +rebuked for inattention he coldly replied: "Sir, I know that already." +On April twenty-first, 1779, Napoleon, according to the evidence of +his personal memorandum, left Autun, having been admitted to Brienne, +and it was to Marbeuf that in later life he correctly attributed his +appointment. After spending three weeks with a school friend, the +little fellow entered upon his duties about the middle of May. + +On New Year's day, 1779, the Buonapartes had arrived at Autun, and for +nearly four months the young Napoleone had been trained in the use of +French. He learned to speak fluently, though not correctly, and wrote +short themes in a way to satisfy his teacher. Prodigy as he was later +declared to have been, his real progress was slow, the difficulties of +that elegant and polished tongue having scarcely been reached; so that +it was with a most imperfect knowledge of their language, and a sadly +defective pronunciation, that he made his appearance among his future +schoolmates. Having, we may suppose, been assigned to the first +vacancy that occurred in any of the royal colleges, his first +destination had been Tiron, the roughest and most remote of the +twelve. But as fortune would have it, a change was somehow made to +Brienne. That establishment was rude enough. The instructors were +Minim priests, and the life was as severe as it could be made with +such a clientage under half-educated and inexperienced monks. In spite +of all efforts to the contrary, however, the place had an air of +elegance; there was a certain school-boy display proportionate to the +means and to the good or bad breeding of the young nobles, also a very +keen discrimination among themselves as to rank, social quality, and +relative importance. Those familiar with the ruthlessness of boys in +their treatment of one another can easily conceive what was the +reception of the newcomer, whose nobility was unknown and unrecognized +in France, and whose means were of the scantiest. + +During his son's preparatory studies the father had been busy at +Versailles with further supplications--among them one for a supplement +from the royal purse to his scanty pay as delegate, and another for +the speedy settlement of his now notorious claim. The former of the +two was granted not merely to M. de Buonaparte, but to his two +colleagues, in view of the "excellent behavior"--otherwise +subserviency--of the Corsican delegation at Versailles. When, in +addition, the certificate of Napoleon's appointment finally arrived, +and the father set out to place his son at school, with a barely +proper outfit, he had no difficulty in securing sufficient money to +meet his immediate and pressing necessities. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +Napoleon's School-days[2]. + + [Footnote 2: The authorities for the period are Masson: + Napoléon inconnu. Chuquet: La jeunesse de Napoléon. + Jung: Bonaparte et son temps. Böhtlingk: Napoleon + Bonaparte: seine Jugend und sein Emporkommen. Las Cases: + Mémorial de Sainte-Hélène. Antommarchi: Mémoires. + Coston: Premières années de Napoléon, Nasica: Mémoires + sur l'enfance et la jeunesse de Napoléon.] + + Military Schools in France -- Napoleon's Initiation into the + Life of Brienne -- Regulations of the School -- The Course + of Study -- Napoleon's Powerful Friends -- His Reading and + Other Avocations -- His Comrades -- His Studies -- His + Precocity -- His Conduct and Scholarship -- The Change in + His Life Plan -- His Influence in His Family -- His Choice + of the Artillery Service. + + +[Sidenote: 1779-84.] + +It was an old charge that the sons of poor gentlemen destined to be +artillery officers were bred like princes. The institution at Brienne, +with eleven other similar academies, had been but recently founded as +a protest against the luxury which had reigned in the military schools +at Paris and La Flèche. Both these had been closed for a time because +they could not be reformed; the latter was, however, one of the twelve +from the first, and that at Paris was afterward reopened as a +finishing-school. The monasteries of various religious orders were +chosen as seats of the new colleges, and their owners were put in +charge with instructions to secure simplicity of life and manners, the +formation of character, and other desirable benefits, each one in its +own way in the school or schools intrusted to it. The result so far +had been a failure; there were simply not twelve first-rate +instructors in each branch to be found in France for the new +positions; the instruction was therefore limited and poor, so that in +the intellectual stagnation the right standards of conduct declined, +while the old notions of hollow courtliness and conventional behavior +flourished as never before. In order to enter his boy at Brienne, +Charles de Buonaparte presented a certificate signed by the intendant +and two neighbors, that he could not educate his sons without help +from the King, and was a poor man, having no income except his salary +as assessor. This paper was countersigned by Marbeuf as commanding +general, and to him the request was formally granted. This being the +regular procedure, it is evident that all the young nobles of the +twelve schools enjoying the royal bounty were poor and should have had +little or no pocket money. Perhaps for this very reason, though the +school provided for every expense including pocket money, polished +manners and funds obtained surreptitiously from powerful friends +indifferent to rules, were the things most needed to secure kind +treatment for an entering boy. These were exactly what the young +gentleman scholar from Corsica did not possess. The ignorant and +unworldly Minim fathers could neither foresee nor, if they had +foreseen, alleviate the miseries incident to his arrival under such +conditions. + +At Autun Napoleon had at least enjoyed the sympathetic society of his +mild and emotional brother, whose easy-going nature could smooth many +a rough place. He was now entirely without companionship, resenting +from the outset both the ill-natured attacks and the playful personal +allusions through which boys so often begin, and with time knit ever +more firmly, their inexplicable friendships. To the taunts about +Corsica which began immediately he answered coldly, "I hope one day +to be in a position to give Corsica her liberty." Entering on a +certain occasion a room in which unknown to him there hung a portrait +of the hated Choiseul, he started back as he caught sight of it and +burst into bitter revilings; for this he was compelled to undergo +chastisement. + +Brienne was a nursery for the qualities first developed at Autun. The +building was a gloomy and massive structure of the early eighteenth +century, which stood on a commanding site at the entrance of the town, +flanked by a later addition somewhat more commodious. The dormitory +consisted of two long rows of cells opening on a double corridor, +about a hundred and forty in all: each of these chambers was six feet +square, and contained a folding bed, a pitcher and a basin. The pupil +was locked in at bed-time, his only means of communication being a +bell to arouse the guard who slept in the hall. Larger rooms were +provided for his toilet; and he studied where he recited, in still +another suite. There was a common refectory in which four simple meals +a day were served: for breakfast and luncheon, bread and water, with +fruit either fresh or stewed; for dinner, soup with the soup-meat, a +side-dish and dessert; for supper, a joint with salad or dessert. With +the last two was served a mild mixture of wine and water, known in +school slang as "abundance." The outfit of clothing comprised +underwear for two changes a week, a uniform consisting of a blue cloth +coat, faced and trimmed with red, a waistcoat of the same with white +revers, and serge breeches either blue or black. The overcoat was of +the same material as the uniform, with the same trimming but with +white lining. The studies comprised Latin, mathematics, the French +language and literature, English, German, geography, drawing, fencing, +music, vocal as well as instrumental, and dancing. + +[Illustration: In the Museum of Versailles. Marie-Laetitia Ramolino +Bonaparte "Madame Mère"--Mother Of Napoleon I.] + +Perhaps the severe regimen of living could have been mitigated and +brightened by a course of study nominally and ostensibly so rich and +full; but in the list of masters, lay and clerical, there is not a +name of eminence. Neither Napoleon nor his contemporary pupils +recalled in later years any portion of their work as stimulating, nor +any instructor as having excelled in ability. The boys seem to have +disliked heartily both their studies and their masters. Young +Buonaparte had likewise a distaste for society and was thrown upon his +own unaided resources to satisfy his eager mind. Undisciplined in +spirit, he was impatient of self-discipline and worked spasmodically +in such subjects as he liked, disdaining the severe training of his +mind, even by himself. He did learn to spell the foreign tongue of his +adopted country, but his handwriting, never good, was bad or worse, +according to circumstances. Dark, solitary, and untamed, the new +scholar assumed the indifference of wounded vanity, despised all +pastimes, and found delight either in books or in scornful +exasperation of his comrades when compelled to associate with them. +There were quarrels and bitter fights, in which the Ishmaelite's hand +was against every other. Sometimes in a kind of frenzy he inflicted +serious wounds on his fellow-students. At length even the teachers +mocked him, and deprived him of his position as captain in the school +battalion. + +The climax of the miserable business was reached when to a taunt that +his ancestry was nothing, "his father a wretched tipstaff," Napoleon +replied by challenging his tormentor to fight a duel. For this offense +he was put in confinement while the instigator went unpunished. It was +by the intervention of Marbeuf that his young friend was at length +released. Bruised and wounded in spirit, the boy would gladly have +shaken the dust of Brienne from his feet, but necessity forbade. +Either from some direct communication Napoleon had with his protector, +or through a dramatic but unauthenticated letter purporting to have +been written by him to his friends in Corsica and still in existence, +Marbeuf learned that the chiefest cause of all the bitterness was the +inequality between the pocket allowances of the young French nobles +and that of the young Corsican. The kindly general displayed the +liberality of a family friend, and gladly increased the boy's +gratuity, administering at the same time a smart rebuke to him for his +readiness to take offense. He is likewise thought to have introduced +his young charge to Mme. Loménie de Brienne, whose mansion was near +by.[3] This noble woman, it is asserted, became a second mother to the +lonely child: though there were no vacations, yet long holidays were +numerous and these were passed with her; her tenderness softened his +rude nature, the more so as she knew the value of tips to a +school-boy, and administered them liberally though judiciously. + + [Footnote 3: The sources of these statements are two + letters of 5 April, 1781, and 8 October, 1783; first + printed in the Mémoires sur la vie de Bonaparte, etc., + etc., par le comte Charles d'Og.... This pseudonym + covers a still unknown author; the documents have been + for the most part considered genuine and have been + reprinted as such by many authorities, including Jung. + Though this author was an official in the ministry of + war and had its archives at his disposal, he gives one + letter without any authority and the other as in the + "Archives de la guerre." Many searchers, including the + writer, have sought them there without result. Latterly + their authenticity has been denied on the ground of + inherent improbability, since pocket money was by rule + almost unknown in the royal colleges, and Corsican + homesickness is as common as that of the Swiss. But + rules prove nothing and the letters seem inherently + genuine.] + +Nor was this, if true, the only light among the shadows in the picture +of his later Brienne school-days. Each of the hundred and fifty pupils +had a small garden spot assigned to him. Buonaparte developed a +passion for his own, and, annexing by force the neglected plots of +his two neighbors, created for himself a retreat, the solitude of +which was insured by a thick and lofty hedge planted about it. To this +citadel, the sanctity of which he protected with a fury at times half +insane, he was wont to retire in the fair weather of all seasons, with +whatever books he could procure. In the companionship of these he +passed happy, pleasant, and fruitful hours. His youthful patriotism +had been intensified by the hatred he now felt for French school-boys, +and through them for France. "I can never forgive my father," he once +cried, "for the share he had in uniting Corsica to France." Paoli +became his hero, and the favorite subjects of his reading were the +mighty deeds of men and peoples, especially in antiquity. Such matter +he found abundant in Plutarch's "Lives." + +Moreover, his punishments and degradation by the school authorities at +once created a sentiment in his favor among his companions, which not +only counteracted the effect of official penalties, but gave him a +sort of compensating leadership in their games. When driven by storms +to abandon his garden haunt, and to associate in the public hall with +the other boys, he often instituted sports in which opposing camps of +Greeks and Persians, or of Romans and Carthaginians, fought until the +uproar brought down the authorities to end the conflict. On one +occasion he proposed the game, common enough elsewhere, but not so +familiar then in France, of building snow forts, of storming and +defending them, and of fighting with snowballs as weapons. The +proposition was accepted, and the preparations were made under his +direction with scientific zeal; the intrenchments, forts, bastions, +and redoubts were the admiration of the neighborhood. For weeks the +mimic warfare went on, Buonaparte, always in command, being sometimes +the besieger and as often the besieged. Such was the aptitude, such +the resources, and such the commanding power which he showed in either +rôle, that the winter was always remembered in the annals of the +school. + +Of all his contemporaries only two became men of mark, Gudin and +Nansouty. Both were capable soldiers, receiving promotions and titles +at Napoleon's hand during the empire. Bourrienne, having sunk to the +lowest depths under the republic, found employment as secretary of +General Bonaparte. In this position he continued until the consulate, +when he lost both fortune and reputation in doubtful money +speculations. From old affection he secured pardon and further +employment, being sent as minister to Hamburg. There his lust for +money wrought his final ruin. The treacherous memoirs which appeared +over his name are a compilation edited by him to obtain the means of +livelihood in his declining years. Throughout life Napoleon had the +kindliest feelings for Brienne and all connected with it. In his death +struggle on the battle-fields of Champagne he showed favor to the town +and left it a large legacy in his will. No schoolmate or master +appealed to him in vain, and many of his comrades were in their +insignificant lives dependent for existence on his favor. + +It is a trite remark that diamonds can be polished only by diamond +dust. Whatever the rude processes were to which the rude nature of the +young Corsican was subjected, the result was remarkable. Latin he +disliked, and treated with disdainful neglect. His particular +aptitudes were for mathematics, for geography, and above all for +history, in which he made fair progress. His knowledge of mathematics +was never profound; in geography he displayed a remarkable and +excellent memory; biography was the department of history which +fascinated him. In all directions, however, he was quick in his +perceptions; the rapid maturing of his mind by reading and reflection +was evident to all his associates, hostile though they were. The most +convincing evidence of the fact will be found in a letter written, +probably in July, 1784, when he was fifteen years old, to an +uncle,--possibly Fesch, more likely Paravicini,--concerning family +matters.[4] His brother Joseph had gone to Autun to be educated for +the Church, his sister (Maria-Anna) Elisa had been appointed on the +royal foundation at Saint-Cyr, and Lucien was, if possible, to be +placed like Napoleon at Brienne. The two younger children had already +accompanied their father on his regular journey to Versailles, and +Lucien was now installed either in the school itself or near by, to be +in readiness for any vacancy. All was well with the rest, except that +Joseph was uneasy, and wished to become an officer too. + + [Footnote 4: Du Casse, Supplément à la Correspondence de + Napoléon Ier, Vol. X, p. 50. Masson, I, 79-84.] + +The tone of Napoleon is extraordinary. Opening with a commonplace +little sketch of Lucien such as any elder brother might draw of a +younger, he proceeds to an analysis of Joseph which is remarkable. +Searching and thorough, it explains with fullness of reasoning and +illustration how much more advantageous from the worldly point of view +both for Joseph and for the family would be a career in the Church: +"the bishop of Autun would bestow a fat living on him, and he was +himself sure of becoming a bishop." As an _obiter dictum_ it contains +a curious expression of contempt for infantry as an arm, the origin of +which feeling is by no means clear. Joseph wishes to be a soldier: +very well, but in what branch of the profession? He could not enter +the navy, for he knows no mathematics; nor is his doubtful health +suited to that career. He would have to study two years more for the +navy, and four if he were to be an engineer; however, the ceaseless +occupation of this arm of the service would be more than his strength +could endure. Similar reasons militate against the artillery. There +remains, therefore, only the infantry. "Good. I see. He wants to be +all day idle, he wants to march the streets all day, and besides, what +is a slim infantry office? A poor thing, three quarters of the time; +and that, neither my dear father nor you, nor my mother, nor my dear +uncle the archdeacon, desires, for he has already shown some slight +tendency to folly and extravagance." There is an utter absence of +loose talk, or of enthusiasm, and no allusion to principle or +sentiment. It is the work of a cold, calculating, and dictatorial +nature. There is a poetical quotation in it, very apt, but very badly +spelled; and while the expression throughout is fair, it is by no +means what might be expected from a person capable of such thought, +who had been studying French for three years, and using it exclusively +in daily life. + +In August, 1783, Buonaparte and Bourrienne, according to the statement +of the latter, shared the first prize in mathematics, and soon +afterward, in the same year, a royal inspector, M. de Keralio, arrived +at Brienne to test the progress of the King's wards. He took a great +fancy to the little Buonaparte, and declaring that, though +unacquainted with his family, he found a spark in him which must not +be extinguished, wrote an emphatic recommendation of the lad, couched +in the following terms: "M. de Bonaparte (Napoleon), born August +fifteenth, 1769. Height, four feet ten inches ten lines [about five +feet three inches, English]. Constitution: excellent health, docile +disposition, mild, straightforward, thoughtful. Conduct most +satisfactory; has always been distinguished for his application in +mathematics. He is fairly well acquainted with history and geography. +He is weak in all accomplishments--drawing, dancing, music, and the +like. This boy would make an excellent sailor; deserves to be admitted +to the school in Paris." Unfortunately for the prospect, M. de +Keralio, who might have been a powerful friend, died almost +immediately. + +By means of further genuflections, supplications, and wearisome +persistency, Charles de Buonaparte at last obtained favor not only for +Lucien, but for Joseph also. Deprived unjustly of his inheritance, +deprived also of his comforts and his home in pursuit of the ambitious +schemes rendered necessary by that wrong, the poor diplomatist was now +near the end of his resources and his energy. Except for the short +visit of his father at Brienne on his way to Paris, it is almost +certain that the young Napoleon saw none of his elders throughout his +sojourn in the former place. The event was most important to the boy +and opened the pent-up flood of his tenderness: it was therefore a +bitter disappointment when he learned that, having seen the royal +physician, his parent would return to Corsica by Autun, taking Joseph +with him, and would not stop at Brienne. Napoleon, by the advice of +Marbeuf and more definitely by the support of his friend the +inspector, had been designated for the navy; through the favor of the +latter he hoped to have been sent to Paris, and thence assigned to +Toulon, the naval port in closest connection with Corsica. There were +so many influential applications, however, for that favorite branch of +the service that the department must rid itself of as many as +possible; a youth without a patron would be the first to suffer. The +agreement which the father had made at Paris was, therefore, that +Napoleon, by way of compensation, might continue at Brienne, while +Joseph could either go thither, or to Metz, in order to make up his +deficiencies in the mathematical sciences and pass his examinations to +enter the royal service along with Napoleon, on condition that the +latter would renounce his plans for the navy, and choose a career in +the army. + +The letter in which the boy communicates his decision to his father is +as remarkable as the one just mentioned and very clearly the sequel to +it. The anxious and industrious parent had finally broken down, and in +his feeble health had taken Joseph as a support and help on the +arduous homeward journey. With the same succinct, unsparing statement +as before, Napoleon confesses his disappointment, and in commanding +phrase, with logical analysis, lays down the reasons why Joseph must +come to Brienne instead of going to Metz. There is, however, a new +element in the composition--a frank, hearty expression of affection +for his family, and a message of kindly remembrance to his friends. +But the most striking fact, in view of subsequent developments, is a +request for Boswell's "History of Corsica," and any other histories or +memoirs relating to "that kingdom." "I will bring them back when I +return, if it be six years from now."[5] The immediate sequel makes +clear the direction of his mind. He probably did not remember that he +was preparing, if possible, to strip France of her latest and highly +cherished acquisition at her own cost, or if he did, he must have felt +like the archer pluming his arrow from the off-cast feathers of his +victim's wing. It is plain that his humiliations at school, his +studies in the story of liberty, his inherited bent, and the present +disappointment, were all cumulative in the result of fixing his +attention on his native land as the destined sphere of his activity. + + [Footnote 5: This letter, which is without date, is + printed in Coston, as taken from the newspapers; again + in a revised form in Nasica: Mémoires sur l'enfance et + la jeunesse de Napoléon, p. 71, who claimed to have + collated it with the original; and again in Jung: + Bonaparte et son temps, who gives as his reference, + Archives de la guerre, preserving exactly the form given + by Nasica. The Napoleon papers of the War Department + were freely, and I believe entirely, put into my hands + for examination. This letter was not among them; in + fact, my efforts to confirm the references of Jung were + sadly ineffectual.] + +Four days after the probable date of writing he passed his examination +a second time, before the new inspector, announced his choice of the +artillery as his branch of the service, and a month later was ordered +to the military academy in Paris. This institution had not merely been +restored to its former renown: it now enjoyed a special reputation as +the place of reward to which only the foremost candidates for official +honors were sent. The choice of artillery seems to have been reached +by a simple process of exclusion; the infantry was too unintellectual +and indolent, the cavalry too expensive and aristocratic; between the +engineers and the artillery there was little to choose--in neither did +wealth or influence control promotion. The decision seems to have +fallen as it did because the artillery was accidentally mentioned +first in the fatal letter he had received announcing the family +straits, and the necessary renunciation of the navy. On the +certificate which was sent up with Napoleon from Brienne was the note: +"Character masterful, imperious, and headstrong." + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +In Paris and Valence[6]. + + [Footnote 6: Authorities as before for this and the five + chapters following.] + + Introduction to Paris -- Teachers and Comrades -- Death of + Charles de Buonaparte -- His Merits -- The School at Paris + -- Napoleon's Poverty -- His Character at the Close of His + School Years -- Appointed Lieutenant in the Regiment of La + Fère -- Demoralization of the French Army -- The Men in the + Ranks -- Napoleon as a Beau -- Return to Study -- His + Profession and Vocation. + + +[Sidenote: 1784-86.] + +It was on October thirtieth, 1784 that Napoleon left Brienne for +Paris.[7] He was in the sixteenth year of his age, entirely ignorant +of what were then called the "humanities," but fairly versed in +history, geography, and the mathematical sciences. His knowledge, like +the bent of his mind, was practical rather than theoretical, and he +knew more about fortification and sieges than about metaphysical +abstractions; more about the deeds of history than about its +philosophy. The new surroundings into which he was introduced by the +Minim father who had accompanied him and his four comrades from +Brienne, all somewhat younger than himself, were different indeed from +those of the rude convent he had left behind. The splendid palace +constructed on the plans of Gabriel early in the eighteenth century +still stands to attest the King's design of lodging his gentlemen +cadets in a style worthy of their high birth, and of educating them in +manners as well as of instructing them. The domestic arrangements had +been on a par with the regal lodgings of the corps. So far had matters +gone in the direction of elegance and luxury that as we have said the +establishment was closed. But it had been reopened within a few +months, about the end of 1777. While the worst abuses had been +corrected, yet still the food was, in quantity at least, lavish; there +were provided two uniforms complete each year, with underwear +sufficient for two changes a week, what was then considered a great +luxury; there was a great staff of liveried servants, and the officers +in charge were men of polished manners and of the highest distinction. +At the very close of his life Napoleon recalled the arrangements as +made for men of wealth. "We were fed and served splendidly, treated +altogether like officers, enjoying a greater competence than most of +our families, greater than most of us were destined to enjoy." At +sixteen and with his inexperience he was perhaps an incompetent judge. +Others, Vaublanc for example, thought there was more show than +substance. + + [Footnote 7: This is the date given by himself on the + slip of paper headed "Époques de ma vie" and contained + in the Fesch papers, now deposited in the Laurentian + Library at Florence. Here and there the text is very + difficult to decipher, but the line "Parti pour l'école + de Paris, le 30 Octobre 1784" is perfectly legible. Las + Cases, in the Mémorial, Vol. I, p. 160, represents + Napoleon as quoting Keralio in declaring that it was not + for his birth or his attainments but for the qualities + he discerned in the boy that he sent him with imperfect + preparation to Paris.] + +Be that as it may, Bonaparte's defiant scorn and habits of solitary +study grew stronger together. It is asserted that his humor found vent +in a preposterous and peevish memorial addressed to the minister of +war on the proper training of the pupils in French military schools! +He may have written it, but it is almost impossible that it should +ever have passed beyond the walls of the school, even, as is claimed, +for revision by a former teacher, Berton. Nevertheless he found +almost, if not altogether, for the first time a real friend in the +person of des Mazis, a youth noble by birth and nature, who was +assigned to him as a pupil-teacher, and was moreover a foundation +scholar like himself. It is also declared by various authorities that +from time to time he enjoyed the agreeable society of the bishop of +Autun, who was now at Versailles, of his sister Elisa at Saint-Cyr, +and, toward the very close, of a family friend who had just settled in +Paris, the beautiful Mme. Permon, mother of the future duchess of +Abrantès. Although born in Corsica, she belonged to a branch of the +noble Greek family of the Comneni. In view of the stringent +regulations both of the military school and of Saint-Cyr, these visits +are problematical, though not impossible. + +Rigid as were the regulations of the royal establishments, their +enforcement depended of course on the character of their directors. +The marquis who presided over the military school was a veteran +place-holder, his assistant was a man of no force, and the director of +studies was the only conscientious official of the three. He knew his +charge thoroughly and was recognized by Napoleon in later years as a +man of worth. The course of studies was a continuation of that at +Brienne, and there were twenty-one instructors in the various branches +of mathematics, history, geography, and languages. De l'Esguille +endorsed one of Buonaparte's exercises in history with the remark: +"Corsican by nation and character. He will go far if circumstances +favor." Domairon said of his French style that it was "granite heated +in a volcano." There were admirable masters, seven in number, for +riding, fencing, and dancing. In none of these exercises did +Buonaparte excel. It was the avowed purpose of the institution to make +its pupils pious Roman Catholics. The parish priest at Brienne had +administered the sacraments to a number of the boys, including the +young Corsican, who appears to have submitted without cavil to the +severe religious training of the Paris school: chapel with mass at +half-past six in the morning, grace before and after all meals, and +chapel again a quarter before nine in the evening; on holidays, +catechism for new students; Sundays, catechism and high mass, and +vespers with confession every Saturday; communion every two months. +Long afterwards the Emperor remembered de Juigné, his chaplain, with +kindness and overwhelmed him with favors. Of the hundred and +thirty-two scholars resident during Buonaparte's time, eighty-three +were boarders at four hundred dollars each; none of these attained +distinction, the majority did not even pass their examinations. The +rest were scholars of the King, and were diligent; but even of these +only one or two were really able men. + +It was in the city of Mme. Permon's residence, at Montpellier, that on +the twenty-fourth of February, 1785, Charles de Buonaparte died. This +was apparently a final and mortal blow to the Buonaparte fortunes, for +it seemed as if with the father must go all the family expectations. +The circumstances were a fit close to the life thus ended. Feeling his +health somewhat restored, and despairing of further progress in the +settlement of his well-worn claim by legal methods, he had determined +on still another journey of solicitation to Versailles. With Joseph as +a companion he started; but a serious relapse occurred at sea, and +ashore the painful disease continued to make such ravages that the +father and son set out for Montpellier to consult the famous +specialists of the medical faculty at that place. It was in vain, and, +after some weeks, on February twenty-fourth the heartbroken father +breathed his last. Having learned to hate the Jesuits, he had become +indifferent to all religion, and is said by some to have repelled with +his last exertions the kindly services of Fesch, who was now a +frocked priest, and had hastened to his brother-in-law's bedside to +offer the final consolations of the Church to a dying man. Others +declare that he turned again to the solace of religion, and was +attended on his death-bed by the Abbé Coustou. Joseph, prostrated by +grief, was taken into Mme. Permon's house and received the tenderest +consolation.[8] + + [Footnote 8: Mémoires du roi Joseph, I, 29.] + +Failure as the ambitious father had been, he had nevertheless been so +far the support of his family in their hopes of advancement. Sycophant +and schemer as he had become, they recognized his untiring energy in +their behalf, and truly loved him. He left them penniless and in debt, +but he died in their service, and they sincerely mourned for him. On +the twenty-third of March the sorrowing boy wrote to his great-uncle, +the archdeacon Lucien, a letter in eulogy of his father and begging +the support of his uncle as guardian. This appointment was legally +made not long after. On the twenty-eighth he wrote to his mother. Both +these letters are in existence, and sound like rhetorical school +exercises corrected by a tutor. That to his mother is, however, +dignified and affectionate, referring in a becoming spirit to the +support her children owed her. As if to show what a thorough child he +still was, the dreary little note closes with an odd postscript giving +the irrelevant news of the birth, two days earlier, of a royal +prince--the duke of Normandy! This may have been added for the benefit +of the censor who examined all the correspondence of the young men. + +Some time before, General Marbeuf had married, and the pecuniary +supplies to his boy friend seem after that event to have stopped. Mme. +de Buonaparte was left with four infant children, the youngest, +Jerome, but three months old. Their great-uncle, Lucien, the +archdeacon, was kind, and Joseph, abandoning all his ambitions, +returned to be, if possible, the support of the family. Napoleon's +poverty was no longer relative or imaginary, but real and hard. +Drawing more closely than ever within himself, he became a still more +ardent reader and student, devoting himself with passionate industry +to examining the works of Rousseau, the poison of whose political +doctrines instilled itself with fiery and grateful stinging into the +thin, cold blood of the unhappy cadet. In many respects the +instruction he received was admirable, and there is a traditional +anecdote that he was the best mathematician in the school. But on the +whole he profited little by the short continuation of his studies at +Paris. The marvelous French style which he finally created for himself +is certainly unacademic in the highest degree; in the many courses of +modern languages he mastered neither German nor English, in fact he +never had more than a few words of either; his attainments in fencing +and horsemanship were very slender. Among all his comrades he made but +one friend, while two of them became in later life his embittered +foes. Phélipeaux thwarted him at Acre; Picot de Peccaduc became +Schwarzenberg's most trusted adviser in the successful campaigns of +Austria against France. + +Whether to alleviate as soon as possible the miseries of his +destitution, or, as has been charged, to be rid of their querulous and +exasperating inmate, the authorities of the military school shortened +Buonaparte's stay to the utmost of their ability, and admitted him to +examination in August, 1785, less than a year from his admission.[9] +He passed with no distinction, being forty-second in rank, but above +his friend des Mazis, who was fifty-sixth. His appointment, +therefore, was due to an entire absence of rivalry, the young nobility +having no predilection for the arduous duties of service in the +artillery. He was eligible merely because he had passed the legal age, +and had given evidence of sufficient acquisitions. In an oft-quoted +description,[10] purporting to be an official certificate given to the +young officer on leaving, he is characterized as reserved and +industrious, preferring study to any kind of amusement, delighting in +good authors, diligent in the abstract sciences, caring little for the +others,[11] thoroughly trained in mathematics and geography; quiet, +fond of solitude, capricious, haughty, extremely inclined to egotism, +speaking little, energetic in his replies, prompt and severe in +repartee; having much self-esteem; ambitious and aspiring to any +height: "the youth is worthy of protection." There is, unfortunately, +no documentary evidence to sustain the genuineness of this report; but +whatever its origin, it is so nearly contemporary that it probably +contains some truth. + + [Footnote 9: The examiner in mathematics was the great + Laplace.] + + [Footnote 10: Taken from the apocryphal Memoirs of the + Count d'Og ... previously mentioned. See Masson: + Napoléon inconnu, I, 123; Chuquet, I, 260; Jung, I, + 125.] + + [Footnote 11: Las Cases, I, 112. Napoleon confessed his + inability to learn German, but prided himself on his + historical knowledge.] + +The two friends had both asked for appointments in a regiment +stationed at Valence, known by the style of La Fère. Des Mazis had a +brother in it; the ardent young Corsican would be nearer his native +land, and might, perhaps, be detached for service in his home. They +were both nominated in September, but the appointment was not made +until the close of October. Buonaparte was reduced to utter penury by +the long delay, his only resource being the two hundred livres +provided by the funds of the school for each of its pupils until they +reached the grade of captain. It was probably, and according to the +generally received account, at his comrade's expense, and in his +company, that he traveled. Their slender funds were exhausted by +boyish dissipation at Lyons, and they measured on foot the long +leagues thence to their destination, arriving at Valence early in +November. + +The growth of absolutism in Europe had been due at the outset to the +employment of standing armies by the kings, and the consequent +alliance between the crown, which was the paymaster, and the people, +who furnished the soldiery. There was constant conflict between the +crown and the nobility concerning privilege, constant friction between +the nobility and the people in the survivals of feudal relation. This +sturdy and wholesome contention among the three estates ended at last +in the victory of the kings. In time, therefore, the army became no +longer a mere support to the monarchy, but a portion of its moral +organism, sharing its virtues and its vices, its weakness and its +strength, reflecting, as in a mirror, the true condition of the state +so far as it was personified in the king. The French army, in the year +1785, was in a sorry plight. With the consolidation of classes in an +old monarchical society, it had come to pass that, under the +prevailing voluntary system, none but men of the lowest social stratum +would enlist. Barracks and camps became schools of vice. "Is there," +exclaimed one who at a later day was active in the work of army +reform--"is there a father who does not shudder when abandoning his +son, not to the chances of war, but to the associations of a crowd of +scoundrels a thousand times more dangerous?" + +We have already had a glimpse of the character of the officers. Their +first thought was social position and pleasure, duty and the practice +of their profession being considerations of almost vanishing +importance. Things were quite as bad in the central administration. +Neither the organization nor the equipment nor the commissariat was in +condition to insure accuracy or promptness in the working of the +machine. The regiment of La Fère was but a sample of the whole. +"Dancing three times a week," says the advertisement for recruits, +"rackets twice, and the rest of the time skittles, prisoners' base, +and drill. Pleasures reign, every man has the highest pay, and all are +well treated." Buonaparte's income, comprising his pay of eight +hundred, his provincial allowance of a hundred and twenty, and the +school pension of two hundred, amounted, all told, to eleven hundred +and twenty livres a year; his necessary expenses for board and lodging +were seven hundred and twenty, leaving less than thirty-five livres a +month, about seven dollars, for clothes and pocket money. Fifteen +years as lieutenant, fifteen as captain, and, for the rest of his +life, half pay with a decoration--such was the summary of the prospect +before the ordinary commonplace officer in a like situation. Meantime +he was comfortably lodged with a kindly old soul, a sometime +tavern-keeper named Bou, whose daughter, "of a certain age," gave a +mother's care to the young lodger. In his weary years of exile the +Emperor recalled his service at Valence as invaluable. The artillery +regiment of La Fère he said was unsurpassed in personnel and training; +though the officers were too old for efficiency, they were loyal and +fatherly; the youngsters exercised their witty sarcasm on many, but +they loved them all. + +During the first months of his garrison service Buonaparte, as an +apprentice, saw arduous service in matters of detail, but he threw off +entirely the darkness and reserve of his character, taking a full +draught from the brimming cup of pleasure. On January tenth, 1786, he +was finally received to full standing as lieutenant. The novelty, the +absence of restraint, the comparative emancipation from the arrogance +and slights to which he had hitherto been subject, good news from the +family in Corsica, whose hopes as to the inheritance were once more +high--all these elements combined to intoxicate for a time the boy of +sixteen. The strongest will cannot forever repress the exuberance of +budding manhood. There were balls, and with them the first experience +of gallantry. The young officer even took dancing-lessons. Moreover, +in the drawing-rooms of the Abbé Saint-Ruf and of his friends, for the +first time he saw the manners and heard the talk of refined +society--provincial, to be sure, but excellent. It was to the special +favor of Monseigneur de Marbeuf, the bishop of Autun, that he owed his +warm reception. The acquaintances there made were with persons of +local consequence, who in later years reaped a rich harvest for their +condescension to the young stranger. In two excellent households he +was a welcome and intimate guest, that of Lauberie and Colombier. +There were daughters in both. His acquaintance with Mlle. de Lauberie +was that of one who respected her character and appreciated her +beauty. In 1805 she was appointed lady in waiting to the Empress, but +declined the appointment because of her duties as wife and mother. In +the intimacy with Mlle. du Colombier there was more coquetry. She was +a year the senior and lived on her mother's estate some miles from the +town. Rousseau had made fashionable long walks and life in the open. +The frequent visits of Napoleon to Caroline were marked by youthful +gaiety and budding love. They spent many innocent hours in the fields +and garden of the château and parted with regret. Their friendship +lasted even after she became Mme. de Bressieux, and they corresponded +intimately for long years. Of his fellow-officers he saw but little, +though he ate regularly at the table of the "Three Pigeons" where the +lieutenants had their mess. This was not because they were distant, +but because he had no genius for good-fellowship, and the habit of +indifference to his comrades had grown strong upon him. + +The period of pleasure was not long. It is impossible to judge whether +the little self-indulgence was a weak relapse from an iron purpose or +part of a definite plan. The former is more likely, so abrupt and +apparently conscience-stricken was the return to labor. His +inclinations and his earnest hope were combined in a longing for +Corsica.[12] It was a bitter disappointment that under the army +regulations he must serve a year as second lieutenant before leave +could be granted. As if to compensate himself and still his longings +for home and family, he sought the companionship of a young Corsican +artist named Pontornini, then living at Tournon, a few miles distant. +To this friendship we owe the first authentic portrait of Buonaparte. +It exhibits a striking profile with a well-shaped mouth, and the +expression of gravity is remarkable in a sitter so young. The face +portrays a studious mind. Even during the months from November to +April he had not entirely deserted his favorite studies, and again +Rousseau had been their companion and guide. In a little study of +Corsica, dated the twenty-sixth of April, 1786, the earliest of his +manuscript papers, he refers to the Social Contract of Rousseau with +approval, and the last sentence is: "Thus the Corsicans were able, in +obedience to all the laws of justice, to shake off the yoke of Genoa, +and can do likewise with that of the French. Amen." But in the spring +it was the then famous but since forgotten Abbé Raynal of whom he +became a devotee. At the first blush it seems as if Buonaparte's +studies were irregular and haphazard. It is customary to attribute +slender powers of observation and undefined purposes to childhood and +youth. The opinion may be correct in the main, and would, for the +matter of that, be true as regards the great mass of adults. But the +more we know of psychology through autobiographies, the more certain +it appears that many a great life-plan has been formed in childhood, +and carried through with unbending rigor to the end. Whether +Buonaparte consciously ordered the course of his study and reading or +not, there is unity in it from first to last. + + [Footnote 12: For an amusing caricature by a comrade at + Paris, see Chuquet: La jeunesse de Napoléon, I, 262. The + legend is: "Buonaparte, cours, vole au secours de Paoli + pour le tirer des mains de ses ennemis."] + +After the first rude beginnings there were two nearly parallel lines +in his work. The first was the acquisition of what was essential to +the practice of a profession--nothing more. No one could be a soldier +in either army or navy without a practical knowledge of history and +geography, for the earth and its inhabitants are in a special sense +the elements of military activity. Nor can towns be fortified, nor +camps intrenched, nor any of the manifold duties of the general in the +field be performed without the science of quantity and numbers. Just +these things, and just so far as they were practical, the dark, +ambitious boy was willing to learn. For spelling, grammar, rhetoric, +and philosophy he had no care; neither he nor his sister Elisa, the +two strong natures of the family, could ever spell any language with +accuracy and ease, or speak and write with rhetorical elegance. Among +the private papers of his youth there is but one mathematical study of +any importance; the rest are either trivial, or have some practical +bearing on the problems of gunnery. When at Brienne, his patron had +certified that he cared nothing for accomplishments and had none. +This was the case to the end. But there was another branch of +knowledge equally practical, but at that time necessary to so few that +it was neither taught nor learned in the schools--the art of politics. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +Private Study and Garrison Life. + + Napoleon as a Student of Politics -- Nature of Rousseau's + Political Teachings -- The Abbé Raynal -- Napoleon Aspires + to be the Historian of Corsica -- Napoleon's First Love -- + His Notions of Political Science -- The Books He Read -- + Napoleon at Lyons -- His Transfer to Douay -- A Victim to + Melancholy -- Return to Corsica. + + +[Sidenote: 1786-87.] + +In one sense it is true that the first Emperor of the French was a man +of no age and of no country; in another sense he was, as few have +been, the child of his surroundings and of his time. The study of +politics was his own notion; the matter and method of the study were +conditioned by his relations to the thought of Europe in the +eighteenth century. He evidently hoped that his military and political +attainments would one day meet in the culmination of a grand career. +To the world and probably to himself it seemed as if the glorious +period of the Consulate were the realization of this hope. Those years +of his life which so appear were, in fact, the least successful. The +unsoundness of his political instructors, and the temper of the age, +combined to thwart this ambitious purpose, and render unavailing all +his achievements. + +Rousseau had every fascination for the young of that time--a +captivating style, persuasive logic, the sentiment of a poet, the +intensity of a prophet. A native of Corsica would be doubly drawn to +him by his interest in that romantic island. Sitting at the feet of +such a teacher, a young scholar would learn through convincing +argument the evils of a passing social state as they were not +exhibited elsewhere. He would discern the dangers of ecclesiastical +authority, of feudal privilege, of absolute monarchy; he would see +their disastrous influence in the prostitution, not only of social, +but of personal morality; he would become familiar with the necessity +for renewing institutions as the only means of regenerating society. +All these lessons would have a value not to be exaggerated. On the +other hand, when it came to the substitution of positive teaching for +negative criticism, he would learn nothing of value and much that was +most dangerous. In utter disregard of a sound historical method, there +was set up as the cornerstone of the new political structure a fiction +of the most treacherous kind. Buonaparte in his notes, written as he +read, shows his contempt for it in an admirable refutation of the +fundamental error of Rousseau as to the state of nature by this +remark: "I believe man in the state of nature had the same power of +sensation and reason which he now has." But if he did not accept the +premises, there was a portion of the conclusion which he took with +avidity, the most dangerous point in all Rousseau's system; namely, +the doctrine that all power proceeds from the people, not because of +their nature and their historical organization into families and +communities, but because of an agreement by individuals to secure +public order, and that, consequently, the consent given they can +withdraw, the order they have created they can destroy. In this lay +not merely the germ, but the whole system of extreme radicalism, the +essence, the substance, and the sum of the French Revolution on its +extreme and doctrinaire side. + +Rousseau had been the prophet and forerunner of the new social +dispensation. The scheme for applying its principles is found in a +work which bears the name of a very mediocre person, the Abbé Raynal, +a man who enjoyed in his day an extended and splendid reputation which +now seems to have had only the slender foundations of unmerited +persecution and the friendship of superior men. In 1770 appeared +anonymously a volume, of which, as was widely known, he was the +compiler. "The Philosophical and Political History of the +Establishments and Commerce of the Europeans in the Two Indies" is a +miscellany of extracts from many sources, and of short essays by +Raynal's brilliant acquaintances, on superstition, tyranny, and +similar themes. The reputed author had written for the public prints, +and had published several works, none of which attracted attention. +The amazing success of this one was not remarkable if, as some critics +now believe, at least a third of the text was by Diderot. However this +may be, the position of Raynal as a man of letters immediately became +a foremost one, and such was the vogue of a second edition published +over his name in 1780 that the authorities became alarmed. The climax +to his renown was achieved when, in 1781, his book was publicly +burned, and the compiler fled into exile. + +By 1785 the storm had finally subsided, and though he had not yet +returned to France, it is supposed that through the friendship of Mme. +du Colombier, the friendly patroness of the young lieutenant, +communication was opened between the great man and his aspiring +reader.[13] "Not yet eighteen," are the startling words in the +letter, written by Buonaparte, "I am a writer: it is the age when we +must learn. Will my boldness subject me to your raillery? No, I am +sure. If indulgence be a mark of true genius, you should have much +indulgence. I inclose chapters one and two of a history of Corsica, +with an outline of the rest. If you approve, I will go on; if you +advise me to stop, I will go no further." The young historian's letter +teems with bad spelling and bad grammar, but it is saturated with the +spirit of his age. The chapters as they came to Raynal's hands are not +in existence so far as is known, and posterity can never judge how +monumental their author's assurance was. The abbé's reply was kindly, +but he advised the novice to complete his researches, and then to +rewrite his pieces. Buonaparte was not unwilling to profit by the +counsels he received: soon after, in July, 1786, he gave two orders to +a Genevese bookseller, one for books concerning Corsica, another for +the memoirs of Mme. de Warens and her servant Claude Anet, which are a +sort of supplement to Rousseau's "Confessions." + + [Footnote 13: Masson (Napoléon inconnu, Vol. I, p. 160) + denies all the statements of this paragraph. He likewise + proves to his own satisfaction that Bonaparte was + neither in Lyons nor in Douay at this time. The + narrative here given is based on Coston and on Jung, who + follows the former in his reprint of the documents, + giving the very dubious reference, Mss. Archives de la + guerre. Although these manuscripts could not be found by + me, I am not willing to discard Jung's authority + completely nor to impugn his good faith. Men in office + frequently play strange pranks with official papers, and + these may yet be found. Moreover, there is some slight + collateral evidence. See Vieux: Napoleon à Lyon, p. 4, + and Souvenirs à l'usage des habitants de Douay. Douay, + 1822.] + +During May of the same year he jotted down with considerable fullness +his notions of the true relations between Church and State. He had +been reading Roustan's reply to Rousseau, and was evidently +overpowered with the necessity of subordinating ecclesiastical to +secular authority. The paper is rude and incomplete, but it shows +whence he derived his policy of dealing with the Pope and the Roman +Church in France. It has very unjustly been called an attempted +refutation of Christianity: it is nothing of the sort. Ecclesiasticism +and Christianity being hopelessly confused in his mind, he uses the +terms interchangeably in an academic and polemic discussion to prove +that the theory of the social contract must destroy all ecclesiastical +assumption of supreme power in the state. + +Some of the lagging days were spent not only in novel-reading, as the +Emperor in after years confessed to Mme. de Rémusat, but in attempts +at novel-writing, to relieve the tedium of idle hours. It is said that +first and last Buonaparte read "Werther" five times through. Enough +remains among his boyish scribblings to show how fantastic were the +dreams both of love and of glory in which he indulged. Many entertain +a suspicion that amid the gaieties of the winter he had really lost +his heart, or thought he had, and was repulsed. At least, in his +"Dialogue on Love," written five years later, he says, "I, too, was +once in love," and proceeds, after a few lines, to decry the sentiment +as harmful to mankind, a something from which God would do well to +emancipate it. This may have referred to his first meeting and +conversation with a courtesan at Paris, which he describes in one of +his papers, but this is not likely from the context, which is not +concerned with the gratification of sexual passion. It is of the +nobler sentiment that he speaks, and there seems to have been in the +interval no opportunity for philandering so good as the one he had +enjoyed during his boyish acquaintance with Mlle. Caroline du +Colombier. It has, at all events, been her good fortune to secure, by +this supposition, a place in history, not merely as the first girl +friend of Napoleon, but as the object of his first pure passion. + +But these were his avocations; the real occupation of his time was +study. Besides reading again the chief works of Rousseau, and +devouring those of Raynal, his most beloved author, he also read much +in the works of Voltaire, of Filangieri, of Necker, and of Adam +Smith. With note-book and pencil he extracted, annotated, and +criticized, his mind alert and every faculty bent to the clear +apprehension of the subject in hand. To the conception of the state as +a private corporation, which he had imbibed from Rousseau, was now +added the conviction that the institutions of France were no longer +adapted to the occupations, beliefs, or morals of her people, and that +revolution was a necessity. To judge from a memoir presented some +years later to the Lyons Academy, he must have absorbed the teachings +of the "Two Indies" almost entire. + +The consuming zeal for studies on the part of this incomprehensible +youth is probably unparalleled. Having read Plutarch in his childhood, +he now devoured Herodotus, Strabo, and Diodorus; China, Arabia, and +the Indies dazzled his imagination, and what he could lay hands upon +concerning the East was soon assimilated. England and Germany next +engaged his attention, and toward the close of his studies he became +ardent in examining the minutest particulars of French history. It +was, moreover, the science of history, and not its literature, which +occupied him--dry details of revenue, resources, and institutions; the +Sorbonne, the bull Unigenitus, and church history in general; the +character of peoples, the origin of institutions, the philosophy of +legislation--all these he studied, and, if the fragments of his notes +be trustworthy evidence, as they surely are, with some thoroughness. +He also found time to read the masterpieces of French literature, and +the great critical judgments which had been passed upon them.[14] + + [Footnote 14: The volumes of Napoléon inconnu contain + the text of these papers as deciphered for M. Masson and + revised by him. My own examination, which antedated his + transcription by more than a year (1891), led me to + trust their authenticity absolutely, as far as the + writer's memory and good faith are concerned. I cannot + rely as positively as Masson does on the Époques de ma + vie, which has the appearance of a casual scribbling + done in an idle moment on the first scrap that came to + hand.] + +The agreeable and studious life at Valence was soon ended. Early in +August, 1786, a little rebellion, known as the "Two-cent Revolt," +broke out in Lyons over a strike of the silk-weavers for two cents an +ell more pay and the revolt of the tavern-keepers against the +enforcement of the "Banvin," an ancient feudal right levying a heavy +tax on the sale of wine. The neighboring garrisons were ordered to +furnish their respective quotas for the suppression of the uprising. +Buonaparte's company was sent among others, but those earlier on the +ground had been active, several workmen had been killed, and the +disturbance was already quelled when he arrived. The days he spent at +Lyons were so agreeable that, as he wrote his uncle Fesch, he left the +city with regret "to follow his destiny." His regiment had been +ordered northward to Douay in Flanders; he returned to Valence and +reached that city about the end of August. His furlough began +nominally on October first, but for the Corsican officers a month's +grace was added, so that he was free to leave on September first. + +The time spent under the summer skies of the north would have been +dreary enough if he had regularly received news from home. Utterly +without success in finding occupation in Corsica, and hopeless as to +France, Joseph had some time before turned his eyes toward Tuscany for +a possible career. He was now about to make a final effort, and seek +personally at the Tuscan capital official recognition with a view to +relearning his native tongue, now almost forgotten, and to obtaining +subsequent employment of any kind that might offer in the land of his +birth. Lucien, the archdeacon, was seriously ill, and General +Marbeuf, the last influential friend of the family, had died. Louis +had been promised a scholarship in one of the royal artillery schools; +deprived of his patron, he would probably lose the appointment. +Finally, the pecuniary affairs of Mme. de Buonaparte were again +entangled, and now appeared hopeless. She had for a time been +receiving an annual state bounty for raising mulberry-trees, as France +was introducing silk culture into the island. The inspectors had +condemned this year's work, and were withholding a substantial portion +of the allowance. These were the facts and they probably reached +Napoleon at Valence; it was doubtless a knowledge of them which put an +end to all his light-heartedness and to his study, historical or +political. He immediately made ready to avail himself of his leave so +that he might instantly set out to his mother's relief. + +Despondent and anxious, he moped, grew miserable, and contracted a +slight malarial fever which for the next six or seven years never +entirely relaxed its hold on him. Among his papers has recently been +found the long, wild, pessimistic rhapsody to which reference has +already been made and in which there is talk of suicide. The plaint is +of the degeneracy among men, of the destruction of primitive +simplicity in Corsica by the French occupation, of his own isolation, +and of his yearning to see his friends once more. Life is no longer +worth while; his country gone, a patriot has naught to live for, +especially when he has no pleasure and all is pain--when the character +of those about him is to his own as moonlight is to sunlight. If there +were but a single life in his way, he would bury the avenging blade of +his country and her violated laws in the bosom of the tyrant. Some of +his complaining was even less coherent than this. It is absurd to take +the morbid outpouring seriously, except in so far as it goes to prove +that its writer was a victim of the sentimental egoism into which the +psychological studies of the eighteenth century had degenerated, and +to suggest that possibly if he had not been Napoleon he might have +been a Werther. Though dated May third, no year is given, and it may +well describe the writer's feelings in any period of despondency. No +such state of mind was likely to have arisen in the preceding spring, +but it may have been written even then as a relief to pent-up feelings +which did not appear on the surface; or possibly in some later year +when the agony of suffering for himself and his family laid hold upon +him. In any case it expresses a bitter melancholy, such as would be +felt by a boy face to face with want. + +At Valence Napoleon visited his old friend the Abbé Saint-Ruf, to +solicit favor for Lucien, who, having left Brienne, would study +nothing but the humanities, and was determined to become a priest. At +Aix he saw both his uncle Fesch and his brother. At Marseilles he is +said to have paid his respects to the Abbé Raynal, requesting advice, +and seeking further encouragement in his historical labors. This is +very doubtful, for there is no record of Raynal's return to France +before 1787. Lodging in that city, as appears from a memorandum on his +papers, with a M. Allard, he must soon have found a vessel sailing for +his destination, because he came expeditiously to Ajaccio, arriving in +that city toward the middle of the month, if the ordinary time had +been consumed in the journey. Such appears to be the likeliest account +of this period, although our knowledge is not complete. In the +archives of Douay, there is, according to an anonymous local +historian, a record of Buonaparte's presence in that city with the +regiment of La Fère, and he is quoted as having declared at Elba to +Sir Neil Campbell that he had been sent thither. But in the "Epochs of +My Life," he wrote that he left Valence on September first, 1786, for +Ajaccio, arriving on the fifteenth. Weighing the probabilities, it +seems likely that the latter was doubtful, since there is but the +slenderest possibility of his having been at Douay in the following +year, the only other hypothesis, and there exists no record of his +activities in Corsica before the spring of 1787. The chronology of the +two years is still involved in obscurity and it is possible that he +went with his regiment to Douay, contracted his malaria there, and did +not actually get leave of absence until February first of the latter +year. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +Further Attempts at Authorship. + + Straits of the Buonaparte Family -- Napoleon's Efforts to + Relieve Them -- Home Studies -- His History and Short + Stories -- Visit to Paris -- Renewed Petitions to Government + -- More Authorship -- Secures Extension of his Leave -- The + Family Fortunes Desperate -- The History of Corsica + Completed -- Its Style, Opinions, and Value -- Failure to + Find a Publisher -- Sentiments Expressed in his Short + Stories -- Napoleon's Irregularities as a French Officer -- + His Life at Auxonne -- His Vain Appeal to Paoli -- The + History Dedicated to Necker. + + +[Sidenote: 1787-89.] + +When Napoleon arrived at Ajaccio, and, after an absence of eight +years, was again with his family, he found their affairs in a serious +condition. Not one of the old French officials remained; the +diplomatic leniency of occupation was giving place to the official +stringency of a permanent possession; proportionately the disaffection +of the patriot remnant among the people was slowly developing into a +wide-spread discontent. Joseph, the hereditary head of a family which +had been thoroughly French in conduct, and was supposed to be so in +sentiment, which at least looked to the King for further favors, was +still a stanch royalist. Having been unsuccessful in every other +direction, he was now seeking to establish a mercantile connection +with Florence which would enable him to engage in the oil-trade. A +modest beginning was, he hoped, about to be made. It was high time, +for the only support of his mother and her children, in the failure to +secure the promised subsidy for her mulberry plantations, was the +income of the old archdeacon, who was now confined to his room, and +growing feebler every day under attacks of gout. Unfortunately, +Joseph's well-meant efforts again came to naught. + +The behavior of the pale, feverish, masterful young lieutenant was not +altogether praiseworthy. He filled the house with his new-fangled +philosophy, and assumed a self-important air. Among his papers and in +his own handwriting is a blank form for engaging and binding recruits. +Clearly he had a tacit understanding either with himself or with +others to secure some of the fine Corsican youth for the regiment of +La Fère. But there is no record of any success in the enterprise. +Among the letters which he wrote was one dated April first, 1787, to +the renowned Dr. Tissot of Lausanne, referring to his correspondent's +interest in Paoli, and asking advice concerning the treatment of the +canon's gout. The physician never replied, and the epistle was found +among his papers marked "unanswered and of little interest." The old +ecclesiastic listened to his nephew's patriotic tirades, and even +approved; Mme. de Buonaparte coldly disapproved. She would have +preferred calmer, more efficient common sense. Not that her son was +inactive in her behalf; on the contrary, he began a series of busy +representations to the provincial officials which secured some +good-will and even trifling favor to the family. But the results were +otherwise unsatisfactory, for the mulberry money was not paid. + +Napoleon's zeal for study was not in the least abated in the +atmosphere of home. Joseph in his memoirs says the reunited family was +happy in spite of troubles. There was reciprocal joy in their +companionship and his long absent brother was glad in the pleasures +both of home and of nature so congenial to his feelings and his +tastes. The most important part of Napoleon's baggage appears to have +been the books, documents, and papers he brought with him. That he had +collections on Corsica has been told. Joseph says he had also the +classics of both French and Latin literature as well as the +philosophical writings of Plato; likewise, he thinks, Ossian and +Homer. In the "Discourse" presented not many years later to the Lyons +Academy and in the talks at St. Helena, Napoleon refers to his +enjoyment of nature at this time; to the hours spent in the grotto, or +under the majestic oak, or in the shade of the olive groves, all parts +of the sadly neglected garden of Milleli some distance from the house +and belonging to his mother; to his walks on the meadows among the +lowing herds; to his wanderings on the shore at sunset, his return by +moonlight, and the gentle melancholy which unbidden enveloped him in +spite of himself. He savored the air of Corsica, the smell of its +earth, the spicy breezes of its thickets, he would have known his home +with his eyes shut, and with them open he found it the earthly +paradise. Yet all the while he was busy, very busy, partly with good +reading, partly in the study of history, and in large measure with the +practical conduct of the family affairs. + +As the time for return to service drew near it was clear that the +mother with her family of four helpless little children, all a serious +charge on her time and purse, could not be left without the support of +one older son, at least; and Joseph was now about to seek his fortune +in Pisa. Accordingly Napoleon with methodical care drew up two papers +still existing, a memorandum of how an application for renewed leave +on the ground of sickness was to be made and also the form of +application itself, which no doubt he copied. At any rate he applied, +on the ground of ill health, for a renewal of leave to last five and a +half months. It was granted, and the regular round of family cares +went on; but the days and weeks brought no relief. Ill health there +was, and perhaps sufficient to justify that plea, but the physical +fever was intensified by the checks which want set upon ambition. The +passion for authorship reasserted itself with undiminished violence. +The history of Corsica was resumed, recast, and vigorously continued, +while at the same time the writer completed a short story entitled +"The Count of Essex,"--with an English setting, of course,--and wrote +a Corsican novel. The latter abounds in bitterness against France, the +most potent force in the development of the plot being the dagger. The +author's use of French, though easier, is still very imperfect. A +slight essay, or rather story, in the style of Voltaire, entitled "The +Masked Prophet," was also completed. + +It was reported early in the autumn that many regiments were to be +mobilized for special service, among them that of La Fère. This gave +Napoleon exactly the opening he desired, and he left Corsica at once, +without reference to the end of his furlough. He reached Paris in +October, a fortnight before he was due. His regiment was still at +Douay: he may have spent a few days with it in that city. But this is +not certain, and soon after it was transferred to St. Denis, now +almost a suburb of Paris; it was destined for service in western +France, where incipient tumults were presaging the coming storm. +Eventually its destination was changed and it was ordered to Auxonne. +The Estates-General of France were about to meet for the first time in +one hundred and seventy-five years; they had last met in 1614, and had +broken up in disorder. They were now called as a desperate remedy, not +understood, but at least untried, for ever-increasing embarrassments; +and the government, fearing still greater disorders, was making ready +to repress any that might break out in districts known to be specially +disaffected. All this was apparently of secondary importance to young +Buonaparte; he had a scheme to use the crisis for the benefit of his +family. Compelled by their utter destitution at the time of his +father's death, he had temporarily and for that occasion assumed his +father's rôle of suppliant. Now for a second time he sent in a +petition. It was written in Paris, dated November ninth, 1787, and +addressed, in his mother's behalf, to the intendant for Corsica +resident at the French capital. His name and position must have +carried some weight, it could not have been the mere effrontery of an +adventurer which secured him a hearing at Versailles, an interview +with the prime minister, Loménie de Brienne, and admission to all the +minor officials who might deal with his mother's claim. All these +privileges he declares that he had enjoyed and the statements must +have been true. The petition was prefaced by a personal letter +containing them. Though a supplication in form, the request is unlike +his father's humble and almost cringing papers, being rather a demand +for justice than a petition for favor; it is unlike them in another +respect, because it contains a falsehood, or at least an utterly +misleading half-truth: a statement that he had shortened his leave +because of his mother's urgent necessities. + +The paper was not handed in until after the expiration of his leave, +and his true object was not to rejoin his regiment, as was hinted in +it, but to secure a second extension of leave. Such was the slackness +of discipline that he spent all of November and the first half of +December in Paris. During this period he made acquaintance with the +darker side of Paris life. The papers numbered four, five, and six in +the Fesch collection give a fairly detailed account of one adventure +and his bitter repentance. The second suggests the writing of history +as an antidote for unhappiness, and the last is a long, rambling +effusion in denunciation of pleasure, passion, and license; of +gallantry as utterly incompatible with patriotism. His acquaintance +with history is ransacked for examples. Still another short effusion +which may belong to the same period is in the form of an imaginary +letter, saturated likewise with the Corsican spirit, addressed by King +Theodore to Walpole. It has little value or meaning, except as it may +possibly foreshadow the influence on Napoleon's imagination of +England's boundless hospitality to political fugitives like Theodore +and Paoli. + +Lieutenant Buonaparte remained in Paris until he succeeded in +procuring permission to spend the next six months in Corsica, at his +own charges. He was quite as disingenuous in his request to the +Minister of War as in his memorial to the intendant for Corsica, +representing that the estates of Corsica were about to meet, and that +his presence was essential to safeguard important interests which in +his absence would be seriously compromised. Whatever such a plea may +have meant, his serious cares as the real head of the family were ever +uppermost, and never neglected. Louis had, as was feared, lost his +appointment, and though not past the legal age, was really too old to +await another vacancy; Lucien was determined to leave Brienne in any +case, and to stay at Aix in order to seize the first chance which +might arise of entering the seminary. Napoleon made some +provision--what it was is not known--for Louis's further temporary +stay at Brienne, and then took Lucien with him as far as their route +lay together. He reached his home again on the first of January, 1788. + +The affairs of the family were at last utterly desperate, and were +likely, moreover, to grow worse before they grew better. The old +archdeacon was failing daily, and, although known to have means, he +declared himself destitute of ready money. With his death would +disappear a portion of his income; his patrimony and savings, which +the Buonapartes hoped of course to inherit, were an uncertain +quantity, probably insufficient for the needs of such a family. The +mulberry money was still unpaid; all hope of wresting the ancestral +estates from the government authorities was buried; Joseph was without +employment, and, as a last expedient, was studying in Pisa for +admission to the bar. Louis and Lucien were each a heavy charge; +Napoleon's income was insufficient even for his own modest wants, +regulated though they were by the strictest economy. Who shall cast a +stone at the shiftiness of a boy not yet nineteen, charged with such +cares, yet consumed with ambition, and saturated with the romantic +sentimentalism of his times? Some notion of his embarrassments and +despair can be obtained from a rapid survey of his mental states and +the corresponding facts. An ardent republican and revolutionary, he +was tied by the strongest bonds to the most despotic monarchy in +Europe. A patriotic Corsican, he was the servant of his country's +oppressor. Conscious of great ability, he was seeking an outlet in the +pursuit of literature, a line of work entirely unsuited to his powers. +The head and support of a large family, he was almost penniless; if he +should follow his convictions, he and they might be altogether so. In +the period of choice and requiring room for experiment, he saw himself +doomed to a fixed, inglorious career, and caged in a framework of +unpropitious circumstance. Whatever the moral obliquity in his feeble +expedients, there is the pathos of human limitations in their +character. + +Whether the resolution had long before been taken, or was of recent +formation, Napoleon now intended to make fame and profit go hand in +hand. The meeting of the Corsican estates was, as far as is known, +entirely forgotten, and authorship was resumed, not merely with the +ardor of one who writes from inclination, but with the regular +drudgery of a craftsman. In spite of all discouragements, he appeared +to a visitor in his family, still considered the most devoted in the +island to the French monarchy because so favored by it, as being "full +of vivacity, quick in his speech and motions, his mind apparently hard +at work in digesting schemes and forming plans and proudly rejecting +every other suggestion but that of his own fancy. For this intolerable +ambition he was often reproved by the elder Lucien, his uncle, a +dignitary of the church. Yet these admonitions seemed to make no +impression upon the mind of Napoleon, who received them with a grin of +pity, if not of contempt."[15] The amusements of the versatile and +headstrong boy would have been sufficient occupation for most men. +Regulating, as far as possible, his mother's complicated affairs, he +journeyed frequently to Bastia, probably to collect money due for +young mulberry-trees which had been sold, possibly to get material for +his history. On these visits he met and dined with the artillery +officers of the company stationed there. One of them, M. de Roman, a +very pronounced royalist, has given in his memoirs a striking portrait +of his guest.[16] "His face was not pleasing to me at all, his +character still less; and he was so dry and sententious for a youth of +his age, a French officer too, that I never for a moment entertained +the thought of making him my friend. My knowledge of governments, +ancient and modern, was not sufficiently extended to discuss with him +his favorite subject of conversation. So when in my turn I gave the +dinner, which happened three or four times that year, I retired after +the coffee, leaving him to the hands of a captain of ours, far better +able than I was to lock arms with such a valiant antagonist. My +comrades, like myself, saw nothing in this but absurd pedantry. We +even believed that this magisterial tone which he assumed was +meaningless until one day when he reasoned so forcibly on the rights +of nations in general, his own in particular, _Stupete gentes!_ that +we could not recover from our amazement, especially when in speaking +of a meeting of their Estates, about calling which there was some +deliberation, and which M. de Barrin sought to delay, following in +that the blunders of his predecessor, he said: 'that it was very +surprising that M. de Barrin thought to prevent them from deliberating +about their interests,' adding in a threatening tone, 'M. de Barrin +does not know the Corsicans; he will see what they can do.' This +expression gave the measure of his character. One of our comrades +replied: 'Would you draw your sword against the King's representative?' +He made no answer. We separated coldly and that was the last time this +former comrade did me the honor to dine with me." Making all +allowance, this incident exhibits the feeling and purpose of Napoleon. +During these days he also completed a plan for the defense of St. +Florent, of La Mortilla, and of the Gulf of Ajaccio; drew up a report +on the organization of the Corsican militia; and wrote a paper on the +strategic importance of the Madeleine Islands. This was his play; his +work was the history of Corsica. It was finished sooner than he had +expected; anxious to reap the pecuniary harvest of his labors and +resume his duties, he was ready for the printer when he left for +France in the latter part of May to secure its publication. Although +dedicated in its first form to a powerful patron, Monseigneur +Marbeuf, then Bishop of Sens, like many works from the pen of genius +it remained at the author's death in manuscript. + + [Footnote 15: Correspondence of Sir John Sinclair, I, + 47.] + + [Footnote 16: Souvenirs d'un officier royaliste, par M. + de R..., Vol. I, p. 117.] + +The book was of moderate size, and of moderate merit.[17] Its form, +repeatedly changed from motives of expediency, was at first that of +letters addressed to the Abbé Raynal. Its contents display little +research and no scholarship. The style is intended to be popular, and +is dramatic rather than narrative. There is exhibited, as everywhere +in these early writings, an intense hatred of France, a glowing +affection for Corsica and her heroes. A very short account of one +chapter will sufficiently characterize the whole work. Having outlined +in perhaps the most effective passage the career of Sampiero, and +sketched his diplomatic failures at all the European courts except +that of Constantinople, where at last he had secured sympathy and was +promised aid, the author depicts the patriot's bitterness when +recalled by the news of his wife's treachery. Confronting his guilty +spouse, deaf to every plea for pity, hardened against the tender +caresses of his children, the Corsican hero utters judgment. "Madam," +he sternly says, "in the face of crime and disgrace, there is no other +resort but death." Vannina at first falls unconscious, but, regaining +her senses, she clasps her children to her breast and begs life for +their sake. But feeling that the petition is futile, she then recalls +the memory of her earlier virtue, and, facing her fate, begs as a last +favor that no base executioner shall lay his soiled hands on the wife +of Sampiero, but that he himself shall execute the sentence. Vannina's +behavior moves her husband, but does not touch his heart. "The pity +and tenderness," says Buonaparte, "which she should have awakened +found a soul thenceforward closed to the power of sentiment. Vannina +died. She died by the hands of Sampiero." + + [Footnote 17: Printed in Napoléon inconnu, Vol. II, p. + 167.] + +Neither the publishers of Valence, nor those of Dôle, nor those of +Auxonne, would accept the work. At Paris one was finally found who was +willing to take a half risk. The author, disillusioned but sanguine, +was on the point of accepting the proposition, and was occupied with +considering ways and means, when his friend the Bishop of Sens was +suddenly disgraced. The manuscript was immediately copied and revised, +with the result, probably, of making its tone more intensely Corsican; +for it was now to be dedicated to Paoli. The literary aspirant must +have foreseen the coming crash, and must have felt that the exile was +to be again the liberator, and perhaps the master, of his native land. +At any rate, he abandoned the idea of immediate publication, possibly +in the dawning hope that as Paoli's lieutenant he could make Corsican +history better than he could write it. It is this copy which has been +preserved; the original was probably destroyed. + +The other literary efforts of this feverish time were not as +successful even as those in historical writing. The stories are wild +and crude; one only, "The Masked Prophet," has any merit or interest +whatsoever. Though more finished than the others, its style is also +abrupt and full of surprises; the scene and characters are Oriental; +the plot is a feeble invention. An ambitious and rebellious Ameer is +struck with blindness, and has recourse to a silver mask to deceive +his followers. Unsuccessful, he poisons them all, throws their corpses +into pits of quicklime, then leaps in himself, to deceive the world +and leave no trace of mortality behind. His enemies believe, as he +desired, that he and his people have been taken up into heaven. The +whole, however, is dimly prescient, and the concluding lines of the +fable have been thought by believers in augury to be prophetic. +"Incredible instance! How far can the passion for fame go!" Among the +papers of this period are also a constitution for the "calotte," a +secret society of his regiment organized to keep its members up to the +mark of conduct expected from gentlemen and officers, and many +political notes. One of these rough drafts is a project for an essay +on royal power, intended to treat of its origin and to display its +usurpations, and which closes with these words: "There are but few +kings who do not deserve to be dethroned." + +The various absences of Buonaparte from his regiment up to this time +are antagonistic to our modern ideas of military duty. The subsequent +ones seem simply inexplicable, even in a service so lax as that of the +crumbling Bourbon dynasty. Almost immediately after Joseph's return, +on the first of June he sailed for France. He did not reach Auxonne, +where the artillery regiment La Fère was now stationed, until early in +that month, 1788. He remained there less than a year and a half, and +then actually obtained another leave of absence, from September tenth, +1789, to February, 1791, which he fully intended should end in his +retirement from the French service.[18] The incidents of this second +term of garrison life are not numerous, but from the considerable +body of his notes and exercises which dates from the period we know +that he suddenly developed great zeal in the study of artillery, +theoretical and practical, and that he redoubled his industry in the +pursuit of historical and political science. In the former line he +worked diligently and became expert. With his instructor Duteil he +grew intimate and the friendship was close throughout life. He +associated on the best of terms with his old friend des Mazis and +began a pleasant acquaintance with Gassendi. So faithful was he to the +minutest details of his profession that he received marks of the +highest distinction. Not yet twenty and only a second lieutenant, he +was appointed, with six officers of higher rank, a member of the +regimental commission to study the best disposal of mortars and cannon +in firing shells. Either at this time or later (the date is +uncertain), he had sole charge of important manoeuvers held in honor +of the Prince of Condé. These honors he recounted with honest pride in +a letter dated August twenty-second to his great-uncle. Among the +Fesch papers are considerable fragments of his writing on the theory, +practice, and history of artillery. Antiquated as are their contents, +they show how patient and thorough was the work of the student, and +some of their ideas adapted to new conditions were his permanent +possession, as the greatest master of artillery at the height of his +fame. In the study of politics he read Plato and examined the +constitutions of antiquity, devouring with avidity what literature he +could find concerning Venice, Turkey, Tartary, and Arabia. At the same +time he carefully read the history of England, and made some accurate +observations on the condition of contemporaneous politics in France. + + [Footnote 18: Similar instances of repeated and + lengthened absence from duty among the young officers + are numerous and easily found in the archives. + Nevertheless, Buonaparte's case is a very extraordinary + example of how a clever person could work the system. + The facts are bad enough, but as many cities claimed + Homer, so in the Napoleonic legend events of a sojourn + at Strasburg about this time were given in great detail. + He was in relations with a famous actress and wrote + verses which are printed. Even Metternich records that + the young Napoleon Bonaparte had just left the Alsatian + capital when he himself arrived there in 1788. Later, in + 1806, a fencing-master claimed that he had instructed + both these great men in the earlier year at Strasburg. + Yet the whole tale is impossible. See Napoléon inconnu, + Vol. I, p. 204.] + +His last disappointment had rendered him more taciturn and +misanthropic than ever; it seems clear that he was working to become +an expert, not for the benefit of France, but for that of Corsica. +Charged with the oversight of some slight works on the fortifications, +he displayed such incompetence that he was actually punished by a +short arrest. Misfortune still pursued the family. The youth who had +been appointed to Brienne when Louis was expecting a scholarship +suddenly died. Mme. de Buonaparte was true to the family tradition, +and immediately forwarded a petition for the place, but was, as +before, unsuccessful. Lucien was not yet admitted to Aix; Joseph was a +barrister, to be sure, but briefless. Napoleon once again, but for the +last time,--and with marked impatience, even with impertinence,--took +up the task of solicitation. The only result was a good-humored, +non-committal reply. Meantime the first mutterings of the +revolutionary outbreak were heard, and spasmodic disorders, trifling +but portentous, were breaking out, not only among the people, but even +among the royal troops. One of these, at Seurre, was occasioned by the +news that the hated and notorious syndicate existing under the +scandalous agreement with the King known as the "Bargain of Famine" +had been making additional purchases of grain from two merchants of +that town. This was in April, 1789. Buonaparte was put in command of a +company and sent to aid in suppressing the riot. But it was ended +before he arrived; on May first he returned to Auxonne. + +[Illustration: From the collection of W. C. Crane. Engraved by Huot. +Charles Bonaparte, Father of the Emperor Napoleon, 1785. +Painted by Girodet.] + +Four days later the Estates met at Versailles. What was passing in the +mind of the restless, bitter, disappointed Corsican is again plainly +revealed. A famous letter to Paoli, to which reference has already +been made, is dated June twelfth. It is a justification of his +cherished work as the only means open to a poor man, the slave of +circumstances, for summoning the French administration to the bar +of public opinion; viz., by comparing it with Paoli's. Willing to face +the consequences, the writer asks for documentary materials and for +moral support, ending with ardent assurances of devotion from his +family, his mother, and himself. But there is a ring of false coin in +many of its words and sentences. The "infamy" of those who betrayed +Corsica was the infamy of his own father; the "devotion" of the +Buonaparte family had been to the French interest, in order to secure +free education, with support for their children, in France. The +"enthusiasm" of Napoleon was a cold, unsentimental determination to +push their fortunes, which, with opposite principles, would have been +honorable enough. In later years Lucien said that he had made two +copies of the history. It was probably one of these which has been +preserved. Whether or not Paoli read the book does not appear. Be that +as it may, his reply to Buonaparte's letter, written some months +later, was not calculated to encourage the would-be historian. Without +absolutely refusing the documents asked for by the aspiring writer, he +explained that he had no time to search for them, and that, besides, +Corsican history was only important in any sense by reason of the men +who had made it, not by reason of its achievements. Among other bits +of fatherly counsel was this: "You are too young to write history. +Make ready for such an enterprise slowly. Patiently collect your +anecdotes and facts. Accept the opinions of other writers with +reserve." As if to soften the severity of his advice, there follows a +strain of modest self-depreciation: "Would that others had known less +of me and I more of myself. _Probe diu vivimus_; may our descendants +so live that they shall speak of me merely as one who had good +intentions." + +Buonaparte's last shift in the treatment of his book was most +undignified and petty. With the unprincipled resentment of despair, in +want of money, not of advice, he entirely remodeled it for the third +time, its chapters being now put as fragmentary traditions into the +mouth of a Corsican mountaineer. In this form it was dedicated to +Necker, the famous Swiss, who as French minister of finance was vainly +struggling with the problem of how to distribute taxation equally, and +to collect from the privileged classes their share. A copy was first +sent to a former teacher for criticism. His judgment was extremely +severe both as to expression and style. In particular, attention was +called to the disadvantage of indulging in so much rhetoric for the +benefit of an overworked public servant like Necker, and to the +inappropriateness of putting his own metaphysical generalizations and +captious criticism of French royalty into the mouth of a peasant +mountaineer. Before the correspondence ended, Napoleon's student life +was over. Necker had fled, the French Revolution was rushing on with +ever-increasing speed, and the young adventurer, despairing of success +as a writer, seized the proffered opening to become a man of action. +In a letter dated January twelfth, 1789, and written at Auxonne to his +mother, the young officer gives a dreary account of himself. The +swamps of the neighborhood and their malarious exhalations rendered +the place, he thought, utterly unwholesome. At all events, he had +contracted a low fever which undermined his strength and depressed his +spirits. There was no immediate hope of a favorable response to the +petition for the moneys due on the mulberry plantation because "this +unhappy period in French finance delays furiously (_sic_) the +discussion of our affair. Let us hope, however, that we may be +compensated for our long and weary waiting and that we shall receive +complete restitution." He writes further a terse sketch of public +affairs in France and Europe, speaks despairingly of what the council +of war has in store for the engineers by the proposed reorganization, +and closes with tender remembrances to Joseph and Lucien, begging for +news and reminding them that he had received no home letter since the +preceding October. The reader feels that matters have come to a climax +and that the scholar is soon to enter the arena of revolutionary +activity. Curiously enough, the language used is French; this is +probably due to the fact that it was intended for the family, rather +than for the neighborhood circle. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +The Revolution in France. + + The French Aristocracy -- Priests, Lawyers, and Petty Nobles + -- Burghers, Artisans, and Laborers -- Intelligent Curiosity + of the Nation -- Exasperating Anachronisms -- Contrast of + Demand and Resources -- The Great Nobles a Barrier to Reform + -- Mistakes of the King -- The Estates Meet at Versailles -- + The Court Party Provokes Violence -- Downfall of Feudal + Privilege. + + +[Sidenote: 1787-89.] + +At last the ideas of the century had declared open war on its +institutions; their moral conquest was already coextensive with +central and western Europe, but the first efforts toward their +realization were to be made in France, for the reason that the line of +least resistance was to be found not through the most downtrodden, but +through the freest and the best instructed nation on the Continent. +Both the clergy and the nobility of France had become accustomed to +the absorption in the crown of their ancient feudal power. They were +content with the great offices in the church, in the army, and in the +civil administration, with exemption from the payment of taxes; they +were happy in the delights of literature and the fine arts, in the +joys of a polite, self-indulgent, and spendthrift society, so +artificial and conventional that for most of its members a sufficient +occupation was found in the study and exposition of its trivial but +complex customs. The conduct and maintenance of a salon, the stage, +gallantry; clothes, table manners, the use of the fan: these are +specimens of what were considered not the incidents but the essentials +of life. + +The serious-minded among the upper classes were as enlightened as any +of their rank elsewhere. They were familiar with prevalent +philosophies, and full of compassion for miseries which, for lack of +power, they could not remedy, and which, to their dismay, they only +intensified in their attempts at alleviation. They were even ready for +considerable sacrifices. The gracious side of the character of Louis +XVI is but a reflection of the piety, moderation, and earnestness of +many of the nobles. His rule was mild; there were no excessive +indignities practised in the name of royal power except in cases like +that of the "Bargain of Famine," where he believed himself helpless. +The lower clergy, as a whole, were faithful in the performance of +their duties. This was not true of the hierarchy. They were great +landowners, and their interests coincided with those of the upper +nobility. The doubt of the country had not left them untouched, and +there were many without conviction or principle, time-serving and +irreverent. The lawyers and other professional men were to be found, +for the most part, in Paris and in the towns. They had their +livelihood in the irregularities of society, and, as a class, were +retentive of ancient custom and present social habits. Although by +birth they belonged in the main to the third estate, they were in +reality adjunct to the first, and consequently, being integral members +of neither, formed a strong independent class by themselves. The petty +nobles were in much the same condition with regard to the wealthy, +powerful families in their own estate and to the rich burghers; they +married the fortunes of the latter and accepted their hospitality, but +otherwise treated them with the same exclusive condescension as that +displayed to themselves by the great. + +But if the estate of the clergy and the estate of the nobility were +alike divided in character and interests, this was still more true of +the burghers. In 1614, at the close of the middle ages, the third +estate had been little concerned with the agricultural laborer. For +various reasons this class had been gradually emancipated until now +there was less serfage in France than elsewhere; more than a quarter, +perhaps a third, of the land was in the hands of peasants and other +small proprietors. This, to be sure, was economically disastrous, for +over-division of land makes tillage unprofitable, and these very men +were the taxpayers. The change had been still more marked in the +denizens of towns. During the last two centuries the wealthy burgesses +had grown still more wealthy in the expansion of trade, commerce, and +manufactures; many had struggled and bought their way into the ranks +of the nobility. The small tradesmen had remained smug, hard to move, +and resentful of change. But there was a large body of men unknown to +previous constitutions, and growing ever larger with the increase in +population--intelligent and unintelligent artisans, half-educated +employees in workshops, mills, and trading-houses, ever recruited from +the country population, seeking such intermittent occupation as the +towns afforded. The very lowest stratum of this society was then, as +now, most dangerous; idle, dissipated, and unscrupulous, they were yet +sufficiently educated to discuss and disseminate perilous doctrines, +and were often most ready in speech and fertile in resource. + +This comparative well-being of a nation, devoted like the ancient +Greeks to novelty, avid of great ideas and great deeds, holding +opinions not merely for the pleasure of intellectual gymnastics but +logically and with a view to their realization, sensitive to +influences like the deep impressions made on their thinkers by the +English and American revolutions--such relative comfort with its +attendant opportunities for discussion was not the least of many +causes which made France the vanguard in the great revolution which +had already triumphed in theory throughout the continent and was +eventually to transform the social order of all Europe. + +Discussion is not only a safety-valve, it is absolutely essential in +governments where the religion, morals, opinions, and occupations of +the people give form and character to institutions and legislation. +The centralized and despotic Bourbon monarchy of France was an +anachronism among an intelligent people. So was every institution +emanating from and dependent upon it. It was impossible for the +structure to stand indefinitely, however tenderly it was treated, +however cleverly it was propped and repaired. As in the case of +England in 1688 and of her colonies in 1772, the immediate and direct +agency in the crash was a matter of money. But the analogy holds good +no further, for in France the questions of property and taxation were +vastly more complex than in England, where the march of events had so +largely destroyed feudalism, or in America, where feudalism had never +existed. On the great French estates the laborers had first to support +the proprietor and his representatives, then the Church and the King; +the minute remainder of their gains was scarcely sufficient to keep +the wolf from the door. The small proprietors were so hampered in +their operations by the tiny size of their holdings that they were +still restricted to ancient and wretched methods of cultivation; but +they too were so burdened with contributions direct and indirect that +famine was always imminent with them as well. Under whatever name the +tax was known, license (octroi), bridge and ferry toll, road-work, +salt-tax, or whatever it may have been, it was chiefly distasteful not +because of its form but because it was oppressive. Some of it was +paid to the proprietors, some to the state. The former was more +hateful because the gainer was near and more tangible; the hatred of +the country people for the feudal privileges and those who held them +was therefore concrete and quite as intense as the more doctrinaire +dislike of the poor in the towns to the rich. Such was the alienation +of classes from each other throughout the beginning and middle of the +century that the disasters which French arms suffered at the hands of +Marlborough and Frederick, so far from humiliating the nation, gave +pleasure and not pain to the masses because they were, as they +thought, defeats not of France, but of the nobility and of the crown. + +Feudal dues had arisen when those imposing them had the physical force +to compel their payment and were also the proprietors of the land on +which they were exacted. Now the nobility were entirely stripped of +power and in many instances of land as well. How empty and bottomless +the oppressive institutions and how burdensome the taxes which rested +on nothing but a paper grant, musty with age and backed only by royal +complaisance! Want too was always looking in at the doors of the many, +while the few were enjoying the national substance. This year there +was a crisis, for before the previous harvest time devastating +hail-storms had swept the fields, in 1788; during the winter there had +been pinching want and many had perished from destitution and cold; +the advancing seasons had brought warmth, but sufficient time had not +even yet elapsed for fields and herds to bring forth their increase, +and by the myriad firesides of the people hunger was still an +unwelcome guest. + +With wholesome economy such crises may be surmounted in a rich and +fertile country. But economy had not been practised for fifty years by +the governing classes. As early as 1739 there had been a deficiency +in the French finances. From small beginnings the annual loans had +grown until, in 1787, the sum to be raised over and above the regular +income was no less than thirty-two millions of dollars. This was all +due to the extravagance of the court and the aristocracy, who spent, +for the most part, far more than the amount they actually collected +and which they honestly believed to be their income. Such a course was +vastly more disastrous than it appeared, being ruinous not only to +personal but to national well-being, inasmuch as what the nobles, even +the earnest and honest ones, believed to be their legitimate income +was not really such. Two thirds of the land was in their hands; the +other third paid the entire land-tax. They were therefore regarding as +their own two thirds of what was in reality taken altogether from the +pockets of the small proprietors. Small sacrifices the ruling class +professed itself ready to make, but such a one as to pay their share +of the land-tax--never. It had been proposed also to destroy the +monopoly of the grain trade, and to abolish the road-work, a task more +hateful to the people than any tax, because it brought them into +direct contact with the exasperating superciliousness of petty +officials. But in all these proposed reforms, Necker, Calonne, and +Loménie de Brienne, each approaching the nobles from a separate +standpoint, had alike failed. The nobility could see in such +retrenchment and change nothing but ruin for themselves. An assembly +of notables, called in 1781, would not listen to propositions which +seemed suicidal. The King began to alienate the affection of his +natural allies, the people, by yielding to the clamor of the court +party. From the nobility he could wring nothing. The royal treasury +was therefore actually bankrupt, the nobles believed that they were +threatened with bankruptcy, and the people knew that they themselves +were not only bankrupt, but also hungry and oppressed. + +At last the King, aware of the nation's extremity, began to undertake +reforms without reference to class prejudice, and on his own +authority. He decreed a stamp-tax, and the equal distribution of the +land-tax. He strove to compel the unwilling parliament of Paris, a +court of justice which, though ancient, he himself had but recently +reconstituted, to register his decrees, and then banished it from the +capital because it would not. That court had been the last remaining +check on absolutism in the country, and, as such, an ally of the +people; so that although the motives and the measures of Louis were +just, the high-handed means to which he resorted in order to carry +them alienated him still further from the affections of the nation. +The parliament, in justifying its opposition, had declared that taxes +in France could be laid only by the Estates-General. The people had +almost forgotten the very name, and were entirely ignorant of what +that body was, vaguely supposing that, like the English Parliament or +the American Congress, it was in some sense a legislative assembly. +They therefore made their voice heard in no uncertain sound, demanding +that the Estates should meet. Louis abandoned his attitude of +independence, and recalled the Paris parliament from Troyes, but only +to exasperate its members still further by insisting on a huge loan, +on the restoration of civil rights to the Protestants, and on +restricting, not only its powers, but those of all similar courts +throughout the realm. The parliament then declared that France was a +limited monarchy with constitutional checks on the power of the crown, +and exasperated men flocked to the city to remonstrate against the +menace to their liberties in the degradation of all the parliaments by +the King's action in regard to that of Paris. Those from Brittany +formed an association, which soon admitted other members, and +developed into the notorious Jacobin Club, so called from its +meeting-place, a convent on the Rue St. Honoré, once occupied by +Dominican monks who had moved thither from the Rue St. Jacques. + +To summon the Estates was a virtual confession that absolutism in +France was at an end. In the seventeenth century the three estates +deliberated separately. Such matters came before them as were +submitted by the crown, chiefly demands for revenue. A decision was +reached by the agreement of any two of the three, and whatever +proposition the crown submitted was either accepted or rejected. +There was no real legislation. Louis no doubt hoped that the +eighteenth-century assembly would be like that of the seventeenth. He +could then, by the coalition of the nobles and the clergy against the +burghers, or by any other arrangement of two to one, secure +authorization either for his loans or for his reforms, as the case +might be, and so carry both. But the France of 1789 was not the France +of 1614. As soon as the call for the meeting was issued, and the +decisive steps were taken, the whole country was flooded with +pamphlets. Most of them were ephemeral; one was epochal. In it the +Abbé Sieyès asked the question, "What is the third estate?" and +answered so as to strengthen the already spreading conviction that the +people of France were really the nation. The King was so far convinced +as to agree that the third estate should be represented by delegates +equal in number to those of the clergy and nobles combined. The +elections passed quietly, and on May fifth, 1789, the Estates met at +Versailles, under the shadow of the court. It was immediately evident +that the hands of the clock could not be put back two centuries, and +that here was gathered an assembly unlike any that had ever met in +the country, determined to express the sentiments, and to be the +executive, of the masses who in their opinion constituted the nation. +On June seventeenth, therefore, after long talk and much hesitation, +the representatives of the third estate declared themselves the +representatives of the whole nation, and invited their colleagues of +the clergy and nobles to join them. Their meeting-place having been +closed in consequence of this decision, they gathered without +authorization in the royal tennis-court on June twentieth, and bound +themselves by oath not to disperse until they had introduced a new +order. Louis was nevertheless nearly successful in his plan of keeping +the sittings of the three estates separate. He was thwarted by the +eloquence and courage of Mirabeau. On June twenty-seventh a majority +of the delegates from the two upper estates joined those of the third +estate in constituting a national assembly. + +At this juncture the court party began the disastrous policy which in +the end was responsible for most of the terrible excesses of the +French Revolution, by insisting that troops should be called to +restrain the Assembly, and that Necker should be banished. Louis +showed the same vacillating spirit now that he had displayed in +yielding to the Assembly, and assented. The noble officers had lately +shown themselves untrustworthy, and the men in the ranks refused to +obey when called to fight against the people. The baser social +elements of the whole country had long since swarmed to the capital. +Their leaders now fanned the flame of popular discontent until at last +resort was had to violence. On July twelfth the barriers of Paris were +burned, and the regular troops were defeated by the mob in the Place +Vendôme; on July fourteenth the Bastille, in itself a harmless +anachronism, but considered by the masses to typify all the tyrannical +shifts and inhuman oppressions known to despotism, was razed to the +ground. As if to crown their baseness, the extreme conservatives among +the nobles, the very men who had brought the King to such straits, now +abandoned him and fled. + +Louis finally bowed to the storm, and came to reside among his people +in Paris, as a sign of submission. Bailly, an excellent and judicious +man, was made mayor of the city, and Lafayette, with his American +laurels still unfaded, was made commander of a newly organized force, +to be known as the National Guard. On July seventeenth the King +accepted the red, white, and blue--the recognized colors of +liberty--as national. The insignia of a dynasty were exchanged for the +badge of a principle. A similar transformation took place throughout +the land, and administration everywhere passed quietly into the hands +of the popular representatives. The flying nobles found their châteaux +hotter than Paris. Not only must the old feudal privileges go, but +with them the old feudal grants, the charters of oppression in the +muniment chests. These charters the peasants insisted must be +destroyed. If they could not otherwise gain possession of them, they +resorted to violence, and sometimes in the intoxication of the hour +they exceeded the bounds of reason, abusing both the persons and the +legitimate property of their enemies. Death or surrender was often the +alternative. So it was that there was no refuge on their estates, not +even a temporary one, for those who had so long possessed them. Many +had already passed into foreign lands; the emigration increased, and +continued in a steady stream. The moderate nobles, honest patriots to +whom life in exile was not life at all, now clearly saw that their +order must yield: in the night session of August fourth, sometimes +called the "St. Bartholomew of privilege," they surrendered their +privileges in a mass. Every vestige, not only of feudal, but also of +chartered privilege, was to be swept away; even the King's +hunting-grounds were to be reduced to the dimensions permitted to a +private gentleman. All men alike, it was agreed, were to renounce the +conventional and arbitrary distinctions which had created inequality +in civil and political life, and accept the absolute equality of +citizenship. Liberty and fraternity were the two springers of the new +arch; its keystone was to be equality. On August twenty-third the +Assembly decreed freedom of religious opinion; on the next day freedom +of the press. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +Buonaparte and Revolution in Corsica. + + Napoleon's Studies Continued at Auxonne -- Another Illness + and a Furlough -- His Scheme of Corsican Liberation -- His + Appearance at Twenty -- His Attainments and Character -- His + Shifty Conduct -- The Homeward Journey -- New Parties in + Corsica -- Salicetti and the Nationalists -- Napoleon + Becomes a Political Agitator and Leader of the Radicals -- + The National Assembly Incorporates Corsica with France and + Grants Amnesty to Paoli -- Momentary Joy of the Corsican + Patriots -- The French Assembly Ridicules Genoa's Protest -- + Napoleon's Plan for Corsican Administration. + + +[Sidenote: 1789-90.] + +Such were the events taking place in the great world while Buonaparte +was at Auxonne. That town, as had been expected, was most uneasy, and +on July nineteenth, 1789, there was an actual outbreak of violence, +directed there, as elsewhere, against the tax-receivers. The riot was +easily suppressed, and for some weeks yet, the regular round of +studious monotony in the young lieutenant's life was not disturbed +except as his poverty made his asceticism more rigorous. "I have no +other resource but work," he wrote to his mother; "I dress but once in +eight days [Sunday parade?]; I sleep but little since my illness; it +is incredible. I retire at ten, and rise at four in the morning. I +take but one meal a day, at three; that is good for my health." + +More bad news came from Corsica. The starving patriot fell seriously +ill, and for a time his life hung in the balance. On August eighth he +was at last sufficiently restored to travel, and applied for a +six-months' furlough, to begin immediately. Under the regulations, in +spite of his previous leaves and irregularities, he was this year +entitled to such a vacation, but not before October. His plea that the +winter was unfavorable for the voyage to Corsica was characteristic, +for it was neither altogether true nor altogether false. He was +feverish and ill, excited by news of turmoils at home, and wished to +be on the scene of action; this would have been a true and sufficient +ground for his request. It was likewise true, however, that his chance +for a smooth passage was better in August than in October, and this +evident fact, though probably irrelevant, might move the authorities. +Their answer was favorable, and on September sixteenth he left +Auxonne. + +In the interval occurred a mutiny in the regiment. The pay of the men +was far in arrears, and they demanded a division of the surplus which +had accumulated from the various regimental grants, and which was +managed by the officers for the benefit of their own mess. The +officers were compelled to yield, so far had revolutionary license +supplanted royal and military authority. Of course a general orgy +followed. It seems to have been during these days that the scheme of +Corsican liberation which brought him finally into the field of +politics took shape in Napoleon's mind. Fesch had returned to Corsica, +and had long kept his nephew thoroughly informed of the situation. By +the anarchy prevailing all about him in France, and beginning to +prevail in Corsica, his eyes were opened to the possibilities of the +Revolution for one who knew how to take advantage of the changed +order. + +The appearance of Buonaparte in his twentieth year was not in general +noteworthy. His head was shapely, but not uncommon in size, although +disproportionate to the frame which bore it. His forehead was wide and +of medium height; on each side long chestnut hair--lanky as we may +suppose from his own account of his personal habits--fell in stiff, +flat locks over his lean cheeks. His eyes were large, and in their +steel-blue irises, lurking under deep-arched and projecting brows, was +a penetrating quality which veiled the mind within. The nose was +straight and shapely, the mouth large, the lips full and sensuous, +although the powerful projecting chin diminished somewhat the true +effect of the lower one. His complexion was sallow. The frame of his +body was in general small and fine, particularly his hands and feet; +but his deep chest and short neck were huge. This lack of proportion +did not, however, interfere with his gait, which was firm and steady. +The student of character would have declared the stripling to be +self-reliant and secretive; ambitious and calculating; masterful, but +kindly. In an age when phrenology was a mania, its masters found in +his cranium the organs of what they called imagination and causality, +of individuality, comparison, and locality--by which jargon they meant +to say that he had a strong power of imaging and of inductive +reasoning, a knowledge of men, of places, and of things. + +The life of the young officer had thus far been so commonplace as to +awaken little expectation for his future. Poor as he was, and careful +of his slim resources, he had, like the men of his class, indulged his +passions to a certain degree; but he had not been riotous in his +living, and he had so far not a debt in the world. What his education +and reading were makes clear that he could have known nothing with a +scholar's comprehensive thoroughness except the essentials of his +profession. But he could master details as no man before or since; he +had a vast fund of information, and a historic outline drawn in fair +proportion and powerful strokes. His philosophy was meager, but he +knew the principles of Rousseau and Raynal thoroughly. His conception +of politics and men was not scientific, but it was clear and +practical. The trade of arms had not been to his taste. He heartily +disliked routine, and despised the petty duties of his rank. His +profession, however, was a means to an end; of any mastery of strategy +or tactics or even interest in them he had as yet given no sign, but +he was absorbed in contemplating and analyzing the exploits of the +great world-conquerors. In particular his mind was dazzled by the +splendors of the Orient as the only field on which an Alexander could +have displayed himself, and he knew what but a few great minds have +grasped, that the interchange of relations between the East and the +West had been the life of the world. The greatness of England he +understood to be largely due to her bestriding the two hemispheres. + +Up to this moment he had been a theorist, and might have wasted his +fine powers by further indulgence in dazzling generalizations, as so +many boys do when not called to test their hypotheses by experience. +Henceforward he was removed from this temptation. A plan for an +elective council in Corsica to replace that of the nobles, and for a +local militia, having been matured, he was a cautious and practical +experimenter from the moment he left Auxonne. Thus far he had put into +practice none of his fine thoughts, nor the lessons learned in books. +The family destitution had made him a solicitor of favors, and, but +for the turn in public affairs, he might have continued to be one. His +own inclinations had made him both a good student and a poor officer; +without a field for larger duties, he might have remained as he was. +In Corsica his line of conduct was not changed abruptly: the +possibilities of greater things dawning gradually, the application of +great conceptions already formed, came with the march of events, not +like the sun bursting out from behind a cloud. + +Traveling by way of Aix, Napoleon took the unlucky Lucien with him. +This wayward but independent younger brother, making no allowance, as +he tells us in his published memoirs, for the disdain an older boy at +school is supposed to feel for a younger one, blood relative or not, +had been repelled by the cold reception his senior had given him at +Brienne. Having left that school against the advice of the same +would-be mentor, his suit for admission to Aix had been fruitless. +Necessity was driving him homeward, and the two who in after days were +again to be separated were now, for almost the only time in their +lives, companions for a considerable period. Their intercourse made +them no more harmonious in feeling. The only incident of the journey +was a visit to the Abbé Raynal at Marseilles. We would gladly know +something of the talk between the master and the pupil, but we do not. + +Napoleon found no change in the circumstances of the Buonaparte +family. The old archdeacon was still living, and for the moment all +except Elisa were at home. On the whole, they were more needy than +ever. The death of their patron, Marbeuf, had been followed by the +final rejection of their long-urged suit, and this fact, combined with +the political opinions of the elder Lucien, was beginning to wean them +from the official clique. There were the same factions as before--the +official party and the patriots. Since the death of Charles de +Buonaparte, the former had been represented at Versailles by +Buttafuoco, Choiseul's unworthy instrument in acquiring the island, +and now, as then, an uninfluential and consequential self-seeker. Its +members were all aristocrats and royalist in politics. The higher +priesthood were of similar mind, and had chosen the Abbé Peretti to +represent them; the parish priests, as in France, were with the +people. Both the higher classes were comparatively small; in spite of +twenty years of peace under French rule, they were both excessively +unpopular, and utterly without any hold on the islanders. They had but +one partizan with an influential name, a son of the old-time patriot +Gaffori, the father-in-law of Buttafuoco. The overwhelming majority of +the natives were little changed in their temper. There were the old, +unswerving patriots who wanted absolute independence, and were now +called Paolists; there were the self-styled patriots, the younger men, +who wanted a protectorate that they might enjoy virtual independence +and secure a career by peace. There was in the harbor towns on the +eastern slope the same submissive, peace-loving temper as of old; in +the west the same fiery, warlike spirit. Corte was the center of +Paoli's power, Calvi was the seat of French influence, Bastia was +radical, Ajaccio was about equally divided between the younger and +older parties, with a strong infusion of official influence. + +Both the representatives of the people in the national convention were +of the moderate party; one of them, Salicetti, was a man of ability, a +friend of the Buonapartes, and destined later to influence deeply the +course of their affairs. He and his colleague Colonna were urging on +the National Assembly measures for the local administration of the +island. To this faction, as to the other, it had become clear that if +Corsica was to reap the benefits of the new era it must be by union +under Paoli. All, old and young alike, desired a thorough reform of +their barbarous jurisprudence, and, like all other French subjects, a +free press, free trade, the abolition of all privilege, equality in +taxation, eligibility to office without regard to rank, and the +diminution of monastic revenues for the benefit of education. Nowhere +could such changes be more easily made than in a land just emerging +from barbarism, where old institutions were disappearing and new ones +were still fluid. Paoli himself had come to believe that independence +could more easily be secured from a regenerated France, and with her +help, than by a warfare which might again arouse the ambition of +Genoa. + +Buonaparte's natural associates were the younger men--Masseria, son of +a patriot line; Pozzo di Borgo, Peraldi, Cuneo, Ramolini, and others +less influential. The only Corsican with French military training, he +was, in view of uncertainties and probabilities already on the +horizon, a person of considerable consequence. His contribution to the +schemes of the young patriots was significant: it consisted in a +proposal to form a body of local militia for the support of that +central committee which his friends so ardently desired. The plan was +promptly adopted by the associates, the radicals seeing in it a means +to put arms once more into the hands of the people, the others no +doubt having in mind the storming of the Bastille and the possibility +of similar movements in Ajaccio and elsewhere. Buonaparte, the only +trained officer among them, may have dreamed of abandoning the French +service, and of a supreme command in Corsica. Many of the people who +appeared well disposed toward France had from time to time received +permission from the authorities to carry arms, many carried them +secretly and without a license; but proportionately there were so few +in both classes that vigorous or successful armed resistance was in +most places impracticable. The attitude of the department of war at +Paris was regulated by Buttafuoco, and was of course hostile to the +insidious scheme of a local militia. The minister of war would do +nothing but submit the suggestion to the body against whose influence +it was aimed, the hated council of twelve nobles. The stupid sarcasm +of such a step was well-nigh criminal. + +Under such instigation the flames of discontent broke out in Corsica. +Paoli's agents were again most active. In many towns the people rose +to attack the citadels or barracks, and to seize the authority. In +Ajaccio Napoleon de Buonaparte promptly asserted himself as the +natural leader. The already existing democratic club was rapidly +organized into the nucleus of a home guard, and recruited in numbers. +But there were none of Paoli's mountaineers to aid the unwarlike +burghers, as there had been in Bastia. Gaffori appeared on the scene, +but neither the magic of his name, the troops that accompanied him, +nor the adverse representations of the council, which he brought with +him, could allay the discontent. He therefore remained for three days +in seclusion, and then departed in secret. On the other hand, the +populace was intimidated, permitting without resistance the rooms of +the club to be closed by the troops, and the town to be put under +martial law. Nothing remained for the agitators but to protest and +disperse. They held a final meeting, therefore, on October +thirty-first, 1789, in one of the churches, and signed an appeal to +the National Assembly, to be presented by Salicetti and Colonna. It +had been written, and was read aloud, by Buonaparte, as he now signed +himself.[19] Some share in its composition was later claimed for +Joseph, but the fiery style, the numerous blunders in grammar and +spelling, the terse thought, and the concise form, are all +characteristic of Napoleon. The right of petition, the recital of +unjust acts, the illegal action of the council, the use of force, the +hollowness of the pretexts under which their request had been +refused, the demand that the troops be withdrawn and redress +granted--all these are crudely but forcibly presented. The document +presages revolution. Under a well-constituted and regular authority, +its writer and signatories would of course have been punished for +insubordination. Even as things were, an officer of the King was +running serious risks by his prominence in connection with it. + + [Footnote 19: Printed in Coston, II, 94.] + +Discouraging as was the outcome of this movement in Ajaccio, similar +agitations elsewhere were more successful. The men of Isola Rossa, +under Arena, who had just returned from a consultation with Paoli in +England, were entirely successful in seizing the supreme authority; so +were those of Bastia, under Murati, a devoted friend of Paoli. One +untrustworthy authority, a personal enemy of Buonaparte, declares that +the latter, thwarted in his own town, at once went over to Bastia, +then the residence of General de Barrin, the French royalist governor, +and successfully directed the revolt in that place, but there is no +corroborative evidence to this doubtful story. + +Simultaneously with these events the National Assembly had been +debating how the position of the King under the new constitution was +to be expressed by his title. Absolutism being ended, he could no +longer be king of France, a style which to men then living implied +ownership. King of the French was selected as the new form; should +they add "and of Navarre"? Salicetti, with consummate diplomacy, had +already warned many of his fellow-delegates of the danger lest England +should intervene in Corsica, and France lose one of her best +recruiting-grounds. To his compatriots he set forth that France was +the best protector, whether they desired partial or complete +independence. He now suggested that if the Assembly thus recognized +the separate identity of the Pyrenean people, they must supplement +their phrase still further by the words "and of Corsica"; for it had +been only nominally, and as a pledge, that Genoa in 1768 had put +France in control. At this stage of the debate, Volney presented a +number of formal demands from the Corsican patriots asking that the +position of their country be defined. One of these papers certainly +came from Bastia; among them also was probably the document which had +been executed at Ajaccio. This was the culmination of the skilful +revolutionary agitation which had been started and directed by +Masseria under Paoli's guidance. The anomalous position of both +Corsica and Navarre was clearly depicted in the mere presentation of +such petitions. "If the Navarrese are not French, what have we to do +with them, or they with us?" said Mirabeau. The argument was as +unanswerable for one land as for the other, and both were incorporated +in the realm: Corsica on November thirtieth, by a proposition of +Salicetti's, who was apparently unwilling, but who posed as one under +imperative necessity. In reality he had reached the goal for which he +had long been striving. Dumouriez, later so renowned as a general, and +Mirabeau, the great statesman and orator, had both been members of the +French army of occupation which reduced Corsica to submission. The +latter now recalled his misdeed with sorrow and shame in an +impassioned plea for amnesty to all political offenders, including +Paoli. There was bitter opposition, but the great orator prevailed. + +The news was received in Corsica with every manifestation of joy; +bonfires were lighted, and Te Deums were sung in the churches. Paoli +to rejoin his own again! What more could disinterested patriots +desire? Corsica a province of France! How could her aspiring youth +secure a wider field for the exercise of their powers, and the +attainment of ambitious ends? The desires of both parties were +temporarily fulfilled. The names of Mirabeau, Salicetti, and Volney +were shouted with acclaim, those of Buttafuoco and Peretti with +reprobation. The regular troops were withdrawn from Ajaccio; the +ascendancy of the liberals was complete. + +Then feeble Genoa was heard once more. She had pledged the +sovereignty, not sold it; had yielded its exercise, and not the thing +itself; France might administer the government as she chose, but +annexation was another matter. She appealed to the fairness of the +King and the National Assembly to safeguard her treaty rights. Her +tone was querulous, her words without force. In the Assembly the +protest was but fuel to the fire. On January twenty-first, 1790, +occurred an animated debate in which the matter was fully considered. +The discussion was notable, as indicating the temper of parties and +the nature of their action at that stage of the Revolution. Mirabeau +as ever was the leader. He and his friends were scornful not only +because of Genoa's temerity in seeming still to claim what France had +conquered, but of her conception that mere paper contracts were +binding where principles of public law were concerned! The opposition +mildly but firmly recalled the existence of other nations than France, +and suggested the consequences of international bad faith. The +conclusion of the matter was the adoption of a cunning and insolent +combination of two propositions, one made by each side, "to lay the +request on the table, or to explain that there is no occasion for its +consideration." The incident is otherwise important only in the light +of Napoleon's future dealings with the Italian commonwealth. + +The situation was now most delicate, as far as Buonaparte was +concerned. His suggestion of a local militia contemplated the +extension of the revolutionary movement to Corsica. His appeal to the +National Assembly demanded merely the right to do what one French city +or district after another had done: to establish local authority, to +form a National Guard, and to unfurl the red, white, and blue. There +was nothing in it about the incorporation of Corsica in France; that +had come to pass through the insurgents of Bastia, who had been +organized by Paoli, inspired by the attempt at Ajaccio, and guided at +last by Salicetti. A little later Buonaparte took pains to set forth +how much better, under his plan, would have been the situation of +Corsican affairs if, with their guard organized and their colors +mounted, they could have recalled Paoli, and have awaited the event +with power either to reject such propositions as the royalists, if +successful, would have made, or to accept the conclusions of the +French Assembly with proper self-respect, and not on compulsion. +Hitherto he had lost no opportunity to express his hatred of France; +it is possible that he had planned the virtual independence of +Corsica, with himself as the liberator, or at least as Paoli's +Sampiero. The reservations of his Ajaccio document, and the bitterness +of his feelings, are not, however, sufficient proof of such a +presumption. But the incorporation had taken place, Corsica was a +portion of France, and everybody was wild with delight. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +First Lessons in Revolution. + + French Soldier and Corsican Patriot -- Paoli's Hesitancy -- + His Return to Corsica -- Cross-Purposes in France -- A New + Furlough -- Money Transactions of Napoleon and Joseph -- + Open Hostilities Against France -- Address to the French + Assembly -- The Bastia Uprising -- Reorganization of + Corsican Administration -- Meeting of Napoleon and Paoli -- + Corsican Politics -- Studies in Society. + + +[Sidenote: 1790.] + +What was to be the future of one whose feelings were so hostile to the +nation with the fortunes of which he now seemed irrevocably +identified? There is no evidence that Buonaparte ever asked himself +such disquieting questions. To judge from his conduct, he was not in +the least troubled. Fully aware of the disorganization, both social +and military, which was well-nigh universal in France, with two months +more of his furlough yet unexpired, he awaited developments, not +hastening to meet difficulties before they presented themselves. What +the young democrats could do, they did. The town government was +entirely reorganized, with a friend of the Buonapartes as mayor, and +Joseph--employed at last!--as his secretary. A local guard was also +raised and equipped. Being French, however, and not Corsican, Napoleon +could not accept a command in it, for he was already an officer in the +French army. But he served in the ranks as a common soldier, and was +an ardent agitator in the club, which almost immediately reopened its +doors. In the impossibility of further action there was a relapse into +authorship. The history of Corsica was again revised, though not +softened; the letters into which it was divided were addressed to +Raynal. In collaboration with Fesch, Buonaparte also drew up a memoir +on the oath which was required from priests. + +When Paoli first received news of the amnesty granted at the instance +of Mirabeau, and of the action taken by the French Assembly, which had +made Corsica a French department, he was delighted and deeply moved. +His noble instincts told him at once that he could no longer live in +the enjoyment of an English pension or even in England; for he was +convinced that his country would eventually reach a more perfect +autonomy under France than under the wing of any other power, and that +as a patriot he must not fail even in appearance to maintain that +position. But he also felt that his return to Corsica would endanger +the success of this policy; the ardent mountaineers would demand more +extreme measures for complete independence than he could take; the +lowlanders would be angry at the attitude of sympathy with his old +friends which he must assume. In a spirit of self-sacrifice, +therefore, he made ready to exchange his comfortable exile for one +more uncongenial and of course more bitter. + +But the National Assembly, with less insight, desired nothing so much +as his presence in the new French department. He was growing old, and +yielded against his better judgment to the united solicitation of +French interest and of Corsican impolicy. Passing through France, he +was detained for over two months by the ovations forced upon him. In +Paris the King urged him to accept honors of every kind; but they were +firmly refused: the reception, however, which the Assembly gave him in +the name of liberty, he declared to be the proudest occasion of his +life. At Lyons the populace crowded the streets to cheer him, and +delegations from the chief towns of his native island met him to +solicit for each of their respective cities the honor of his landing. +On July fourteenth, 1790, after twenty-one years of exile, the now +aged hero set foot on Corsican land at Maginajo, near Capo Corso. His +first act was to kneel and kiss the soil. The nearest town was Bastia, +the revolutionary capital. There and elsewhere the rejoicings were +general, and the ceremonies were such as only the warm hearts and +willing hands of a primitive Italian people could devise and perform. +Not one true Corsican but must "see and hear and touch him." But in +less than a month his conduct was, as he had foreseen, so +misrepresented by friend and foe alike, that it was necessary to +defend him in Paris against the charge of scheming to hand over the +island to England. + +It is not entirely clear where Buonaparte was during this time. It is +said that he was seen in Valence during the latter part of January, +and the fact is adduced to show how deep and secret were his plans for +preserving the double chance of an opening in either France or +Corsica, as matters might turn out. The love-affair to which he refers +in that thesis on the topic to which reference has been made would be +an equally satisfactory explanation, considering his age. Whatever was +the fact as to those few days, he was not absent long. The serious +division between the executive in France and the new Assembly came to +light in an ugly circumstance which occurred in March. On the +eighteenth a French flotilla unexpectedly appeared off St. Florent. It +was commanded by Rully, an ardent royalist, who had long been employed +in Corsica. His secret instructions were to embark the French troops, +and to leave the island to its fate. This was an adroit stab at the +republicans of the Assembly; for, should the evacuation be secured, +it was believed that either the radicals in Corsica would rise, +overpower, and destroy the friends of France, call in English help, +and diminish the number of democratic departments by one, or that +Genoa would immediately step in and reassert her sovereignty. The +moderates of St. Florent were not to be thus duped; sharp and angry +discussions arose among both citizens and troops as to the obedience +due to such orders, and soon both soldiers and townsfolk were in a +frenzy of excitement. A collision between the two parties occurred, +and Rully was killed. Papers were found on his person which proved +that his sympathizers would gladly have abandoned Corsica to its fate. +For the moment the young Corsicans were more devoted than ever to +Paoli, since now only through his good offices with the French +Assembly could a chance for the success of their plans be secured. + +Such was the diversity of opinion as to ways and means, as to +resources, opportunities, and details, that everything was, for the +moment, in confusion. On April sixteenth Buonaparte applied for an +extension of his furlough until the following October, on the plea of +continued ill-health, that he might drink the waters a second time at +Orezza, whose springs, he explained, had shown themselves to be +efficacious in his complaint. He may have been at that resort once +before, or he may not. Doubtless the fever was still lingering in his +system. What the degree of his illness was we cannot tell. It may have +unfitted him for active service with his regiment; it did not disable +him from pursuing his occupations in writing and political agitation. +His request was granted on May twentieth. The history of Corsica was +now finally revised, and the new dedication completed. This, with a +letter and some chapters of the book, was forwarded to Raynal, +probably by post. Joseph, who was one of the delegates to meet Paoli, +would pass through Marseilles, wrote Napoleon to the abbé, and would +hand him the rest if he should so desire. The text of the unlucky book +was not materially altered. Its theory appears always to have been +that history is but a succession of great names, and the story, +therefore, is more a biographical record than a connected narrative. +The dedication, however, was a new step in the painful progress of +more accurate thinking and better expression; the additions to the +volume contained, amid many immaturities and platitudes, some ripe and +clever thought. Buonaparte's passion for his bantling was once more +the ardor of a misdirected genius unsullied by the desire for money, +which had played a temporary part. + +We know nothing definite of his pecuniary affairs, but somehow or +other his fortunes must have mended. There is no other explanation of +his numerous and costly journeys, and we hear that for a time he had +money in his purse. In the will which he dictated at St. Helena is a +bequest of one hundred thousand francs to the children of his friend +who was the first mayor of Ajaccio by the popular will. It is not +unlikely that the legacy was a grateful souvenir of advances made +about this time. There is another possible explanation. The club of +Ajaccio had chosen a delegation, of which Joseph Buonaparte was a +member, to bring Paoli home from France. To meet its expenses, the +municipality had forced the authorities of the priests' seminary to +open their strong box and to hand over upward of two thousand francs. +Napoleon may have shared Joseph's portion. We should be reminded in +such a stroke, but with a difference, to be sure, of what happened +when, a few years later, the hungry and ragged soldiers of the +Republic were led into the fat plains of Lombardy. + +The contemptuous attitude of the Ajaccio liberals toward the religion +of Rome seriously alienated the superstitious populace from them. +Buonaparte was once attacked in the public square by a procession +organized to deprecate the policy of the National Assembly with regard +to the ecclesiastical estates. One of the few royalist officials left +in Corsica also took advantage of the general disorder to express his +feelings plainly as to the acts of the same body. He was arrested, +tried in Ajaccio, and acquitted by a sympathetic judge. At once the +liberals took alarm; their club and the officials first protested, and +then on June twenty-fifth assumed the offensive in the name of the +Assembly. It was on this occasion probably that he was seen by the +family friend who narrated his memories to the English diarist already +mentioned. "I remember to have seen Napoleon very active among the +enraged populace against those then called aristocrats, and running +through the streets of Ajaccio so busy in promoting dissatisfaction +that, though he lost his hat, he did not feel nor care for the effects +of the scorching sun to which he was exposed the whole of that +memorable day. The revolution having struck its poisonous root, +Napoleon never ceased stirring up his brothers, Joseph and Lucien, +who, being moved at his instance, were constantly attending clubs and +popular meetings where they often delivered speeches and debated +public matters, while Napoleon sat listening in silence, as he had no +turn for oratory." "One day in December," the narrator continues, "I +was sent for by his uncle already mentioned, in order to assist him in +preparing his testament; and, after having settled his family +concerns, the conversation turned upon politics, when, speaking of the +improbability of Italy being revolutionized, Napoleon, then present, +quickly replied: 'Had I the command, I would take Italy in twenty-four +hours.'"[20] + + [Footnote 20: Correspondence of Sir John Sinclair, I, + 47.] + +At last the opportunity to emulate the French cities seemed assured. +It was determined to organize a local independent government, seize +the citadel with the help of the home guard, and throw the hated +royalists into prison. But the preparations were too open: the +governor and most of his friends fled in season to their stronghold, +and raised the drawbridge; the agitators could lay hands on but four +of their enemies, among whom were the judge, the offender, and an +officer of the garrison. So great was the disappointment of the +radicals that they would have vented their spite on these; it was with +difficulty that the lives of the prisoners were saved by the efforts +of the militia officers. The garrison really sympathized with the +insurgents, and would not obey orders to suppress the rising by an +attack. In return for this forbearance the regular soldiers stipulated +for the liberation of their officer. In the end the chief offenders +among the radicals were punished by imprisonment or banished, and the +tumult subsided; but the French officials now had strong support, not +only from the hierarchy, as before, but from the plain pious people +and their priests. + +This result was a second defeat for Napoleon Buonaparte, who was +almost certainly the instigator and leader of the uprising. He had +been ready at any moment to assume the direction of affairs, but again +the outcome of such a movement as could alone secure a possible +temporary independence for Corsica and a military command for himself +was absolutely naught. Little perturbed by failure, he took up the pen +to write a proclamation justifying the action of the municipal +authorities. The paper was dated October thirty-first, 1789, and +fearlessly signed both by himself and the other leaders, including the +mayor. It execrates the sympathizers with the old order in France, and +lauds the Assembly, with all its works; denounces those who sold the +land to France, which could offer nothing but an end of the chain that +bound her; and warns the enemies of the new constitution that their +day is over. There is a longing reference to the ideal self-determination +which the previous attempt might have secured. The present rising is +justified, however, as an effort to carry out the principles of the +new charter.[21] There are the same suggested force and suppressed +fury as in his previous manifesto, the same fervid rhetoric, the same +lack of coherence in expression. The same two elements, that of the +eighteenth-century metaphysics and that of his own uncultured force, +combine in the composition. Naturally enough, the unrest of the town +was not diminished; there was even a slight collision between the +garrison and the civil authorities. + + [Footnote 21: For the text see Napoléon inconnu, II, + 92.] + +Buonaparte was of course suspected and hated by Catholics and military +alike. French officer though he was, no one in Corsica thought of him +otherwise than as a Corsican revolutionist. Among his own friends he +continued his unswerving career. It was he who was chosen to write the +address from Ajaccio to Paoli, although the two men did not meet until +somewhat later. With the arrival of the great liberator the grasp of +the old officials on the island relaxed, and the bluster of the few +who had grown rich in the royal service ceased. The Assembly was +finally triumphant; this new department was at last to be organized +like those of the adoptive mother. It was high time, for the public +order was seriously endangered in this transition period. The +disturbances at Ajaccio had been trifling compared with the +revolutionary procedure inaugurated and carried to extremes in Bastia. +This city being the capital and residence of the governor, Buonaparte +and his comrades had no sooner completed their address to the French +Assembly than they hurried thither to beard de Barrin and +revolutionize the garrison. Their success was complete: garrison and +citizens alike were roused and the governor cowed. Both soldiers and +people assumed the tricolor cockade on November fifth, 1789. Barrin +even assented to the formation of a national militia. On this basis +order was established. This was another affair from that at Ajaccio +and attracted the attention of the Paris Assembly, strongly +influencing the government in its arrangements with Paoli. The young +Buonaparte was naturally very uneasy as to his position and so +remained fairly quiet until February, when the incorporation of the +island with France was completed. Immediately he gave free vent to his +energies. Two letters of Napoleon's written in August, 1790, display a +feverish spirit of unrest in himself, and enumerate the many uprisings +in the neighborhood with their varying degrees of success. Under +provisional authority, arrangements were made, after some delay, to +hold elections for the officials of the new system whose legal +designation was directors. Their appointment and conduct would be +determinative of Corsica's future, and were therefore of the highest +importance. + +In a pure democracy the voters assemble to deliberate and record their +decisions. Such were the local district meetings in Corsica. These +chose the representatives to the central constituent assembly, which +was to meet at Orezza on September ninth, 1790. Joseph Buonaparte and +Fesch were among the members sent from Ajaccio. The healing waters +which Napoleon wished to quaff at Orezza were the influence of the +debates. Although he could not be a member of the assembly on account +of his youth, he was determined to be present. The three relatives +traveled from their home in company, Joseph enchanted by the scenery, +Napoleon studying the strategic points on the way. In order that his +presence at Orezza might not unduly affect the course of events, Paoli +had delicately chosen as his temporary home the village of Rostino, +which was on their route. Here occurred the meeting between the two +great Corsicans, the man of ideas and the man of action. No doubt +Paoli was anxious to win a family so important and a patriot so +ardent. In any case, he invited the three young men to accompany him +over the fatal battle-ground of Ponte Nuovo. If it had really been +Napoleon's ambition to become the chief of the French National Guard +for Corsica, which would now, in all probability, be fully organized, +it is very likely that he would have exerted himself to secure the +favor of the only man who could fulfil his desire. There is, however, +a tradition which tends to show quite the contrary: it is said that +after Paoli had pointed out the disposition of his troops for the +fatal conflict Napoleon dryly remarked, "The result of these +arrangements was just what it was bound to be." Among the Emperor's +reminiscences at the close of his life, he recalled this meeting, +because Paoli had on that occasion declared him to be a man of ancient +mold, like one of Plutarch's heroes. + +The constituent assembly at Orezza sat for a month. Its sessions +passed almost without any incident of importance except the first +appearance of Napoleon as an orator in various public meetings held in +connection with its labors. He is said to have been bashful and +embarrassed in his beginnings, but, inspirited by each occasion, to +have become more fluent, and finally to have won the attention and +applause of his hearers. What he said is not known, but he spoke in +Italian, and succeeded in his design of being at least a personage in +the pregnant events now occurring. Both parties were represented in +the proceedings and conclusions of the convention. Corsica was to +constitute but a single department. Paoli was elected president of its +directory and commander-in-chief of its National Guard, a combination +of offices which again made him virtual dictator. He accepted them +unwillingly, but the honors of a statue and an annual grant of ten +thousand dollars, which were voted at the same time, he absolutely +declined. The Paolist party secured the election of Canon Belce as +vice-president, of Panatheri as secretary, of Arena as Salicetti's +substitute, of Pozzo di Borgo and Gentili as members of the directory. +Colonna, one of the delegates to the National Assembly, was a member +of the same group. The younger patriots, or Young Corsica, as we +should say now, perhaps, were represented by their delegate and leader +Salicetti, who was chosen as plenipotentiary in Buttafuoco's place, +and by Multedo, Gentili, and Pompei as members of the directory. For +the moment, however, Paoli was Corsica, and such petty politics was +significant only as indicating the survival of counter-currents. There +was some dissent to a vote of censure passed upon the conduct of +Buttafuoco and Peretti, but it was insignificant. Pozzo di Borgo and +Gentili were chosen to declare at the bar of the National Assembly the +devotion of Corsica to its purposes, and to the course of reform as +represented by it. They were also to secure, if possible, both the +permission to form a departmental National Guard, and the means to pay +and arm it. + +The choice of Pozzo di Borgo for a mission of such importance in +preference to Joseph was a disappointment to the Buonapartes. In fact, +not one of the plans concerted by the two brothers succeeded. Joseph +sustained the pretensions of Ajaccio to be capital of the island, but +the honor was awarded to Bastia. He was not elected a member of the +general directory, though he succeeded in being made a member for +Ajaccio in the district directory. Whether to work off his ill humor, +or from far-seeing purpose, Napoleon used the hours not spent in +wire-pulling and listening to the proceedings of the assembly for +making a series of excursions which were a virtual canvass of the +neighborhood. The houses of the poorest were his resort; partly by his +inborn power of pleasing, partly by diplomacy, he won their hearts and +learned their inmost feelings. His purse, which was for the moment +full, was open for their gratification in a way which moved them +deeply. For years target practice had been forbidden, as giving +dangerous skill in the use of arms. Liberty having returned, Napoleon +reorganized many of the old rural festivals in which contests of that +nature had been the chief feature, offering prizes from his own means +for the best marksmen among the youth. His success in feeling the +pulse of public opinion was so great that he never forgot the lesson. +Not long afterward, in the neighborhood of Valence,--in fact, to the +latest times,--he courted the society of the lowly, and established, +when possible, a certain intimacy with them. This gave him popularity, +while at the same time it enabled him to obtain the most valuable +indications of the general temper. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +Traits of Character. + + Literary Work -- The Lyons Prize -- Essay on Happiness -- + Thwarted Ambition -- The Corsican Patriots -- The Brothers + Napoleon and Louis -- Studies in Politics -- Reorganization + of the Army -- The Change in Public Opinion -- A New Leave + of Absence -- Napoleon Again at Auxonne -- Napoleon as a + Teacher -- Further Literary Efforts -- The Sentimental + Journey -- His Attitude Toward Religion. + + +[Sidenote: 1791.] + +On his return to Ajaccio, the rising agitator continued as before to +frequent his club. The action of the convention at Orezza in +displacing Buttafuoco had inflamed the young politicians still more +against the renegade. This effect was further heightened when it was +known that, at the reception of their delegates by the National +Assembly, the greater council had, under Mirabeau's leadership, +virtually taken the same position regarding both him and his +colleague. Napoleon had written, probably in the previous year, a +notorious diatribe against Buttafuoco in the form of a letter to its +object and the very night on which the news from Paris was received, +he seized the opportunity to read it before the club at Ajaccio. The +paper, as now in existence, is pompously dated January twenty-third, +1791, from "my summer house of Milleli." This was the retreat on one +of the little family properties, to which reference has been made. +There in the rocks was a grotto known familiarly by that name; +Napoleon had improved and beautified the spot, using it, as he did his +garden at Brienne, for contemplation and quiet study. Although the +letter to Matteo Buttafuoco has been often printed, and was its +author's first successful effort in writing, much emphasis should not +be laid on it except in noting the better power to express tumultuous +feeling, and in marking the implications which show an expansion of +character. Insubordinate to France it certainly is, and intemperate; +turgid, too, as any youth of twenty could well make it. No doubt, +also, it was intended to secure notoriety for the writer. It makes +clear the thorough apprehension its author had as to the radical +character of the Revolution. It is his final and public renunciation +of the royalist principles of Charles de Buonaparte. It contains also +the last profession of morality which a youth is not ashamed to make +before the cynicism of his own life becomes too evident for the +castigation of selfishness and insincerity in others. Its substance is +a just reproach to a selfish trimmer; the froth and scum are +characteristic rather of the time and the circumstances than of the +personality behind them. There is no further mention of a difference +between the destinies of France and Corsica. To compare the pamphlet +with even the poorest work of Rousseau, as has often been done, is +absurd; to vilify it as ineffective trash is equally so. + +As may be imagined, the "Letter" was received with mad applause, and +ordered to be printed. It was now the close of January; Buonaparte's +leave had expired on October fifteenth. On November sixteenth, after +loitering a whole month beyond his time, he had secured a document +from the Ajaccio officials certifying that both he and Louis were +devoted to the new republican order, and bespeaking assistance for +both in any difficulties which might arise. The busy Corsican +perfectly understood that he might already at that time be regarded as +a deserter in France, but still he continued his dangerous loitering. +He had two objects in view, one literary, one political. Besides the +successful "Letter" he had been occupied with a second composition, +the notion of which had probably occupied him as his purse grew +leaner. The jury before which this was to be laid was to be, however, +not a heated body of young political agitators, but an association of +old and mature men with calm, critical minds--the Lyons Academy. That +society was finally about to award a prize of fifteen hundred livres +founded by Raynal long before--as early as 1780--for the best thesis +on the question: "Has the discovery of America been useful or hurtful +to the human race? If the former, how shall we best preserve and +increase the benefits? If the latter, how shall we remedy the evils?" +Americans must regret that the learned body had been compelled for +lack of interest in so concrete a subject to change the theme, and now +offered in its place the question: "What truths and ideas should be +inculcated in order best to promote the happiness of mankind?" + +Napoleon's astounding paper on this remarkable theme was finished in +December. It bears the marks of carelessness, haste, and +over-confidence in every direction--in style, in content, and in lack +of accuracy. "Illustrious Raynal," writes the author, "the question I +am about to discuss is worthy of your steel, but without assuming to +be metal of the same temper, I have taken courage, saying to myself +with Correggio, I, too, am a painter." Thereupon follows a long +encomium upon Paoli, whose principal merit is explained to have been +that he strove in his legislation to keep for every man a property +sufficient with moderate exertion on his own part for the sustenance +of life. Happiness consists in living conformably to the constitution +of our organization. Wealth is a misfortune, primogeniture a relic of +barbarism, celibacy a reprehensible practice. Our animal nature +demands food, shelter, clothing, and the companionship of woman. These +are the essentials of happiness; but for its perfection we require +both reason and sentiment. These theses are the tolerable portions, +being discussed with some coherence. But much of the essay is mere +meaningless rhetoric and bombast, which sounds like the effusion of a +boyish rhapsodist. "At the sound of your [reason's] voice let the +enemies of nature be still, and swallow their serpents' tongues in +rage." "The eyes of reason restrain mankind from the precipice of the +passions, as her decrees modify likewise the feeling of their rights." +Many other passages of equal absurdity could be quoted, full of +far-fetched metaphor, abounding in strange terms, straining rhetorical +figures to distortion.[22] And yet in spite of the bombast, certain +essential Napoleonic ideas appear in the paper much as they endured to +the end, namely, those on heredity, on the equal division of property, +and on the nature of civil society. And there is one prophetic +sentence which deserves to be quoted. "A disordered imagination! there +lies the cause and source of human misfortune. It sends us wandering +from sea to sea, from fancy to fancy, and when at last it grows calm, +opportunity has passed, the hour strikes, and its possessor dies +abhorring life." In later days the author threw what he probably +supposed was the only existing manuscript of this vaporing effusion +into the fire. But a copy of it had been made at Lyons, perhaps +because one of the judges thought, as he said, that it "might have +been written by a man otherwise gifted with common sense." Another has +been found among the papers confided by Napoleon to Fesch. The proofs +of authenticity are complete. It seems miraculous that its writer +should have become, as he did, master of a concise and nervous style +when once his words became the complement of his deeds. + + [Footnote 22: These phrases may nearly all be found in + the notes which he had taken or jottings he had made + while reading Voltaire and Rousseau: Napoléon inconnu, + II, 209-292.] + +The second cause for Buonaparte's delay in returning to France on the +expiration of his furlough was his political and military ambition. +This was suddenly quenched by the receipt of news that the Assembly at +Paris would not create the longed-for National Guard, nor the ministry +lend itself to any plan for circumventing the law. It was, therefore, +evident that every chance of becoming Paoli's lieutenant was finally +gone. By the advice of the president himself, therefore, Buonaparte +determined to withdraw once more to France and to await results. +Corsica was still distracted. A French official sent by the war +department just at this time to report on its condition is not sparing +of the language he uses to denounce the independent feeling and +anti-French sympathies of the people. "The Italian," he says, +"acquiesces, but does not forgive; an ambitious man keeps no faith, +and estimates his life by his power." The agent further describes the +Corsicans as so accustomed to unrest by forty years of anarchy that +they would gladly seize the first occasion to throw off the domination +of laws which restrain the social disorder. The Buonaparte faction, +enumerated with the patriot brigand Zampaglini at their head, he calls +"despicable creatures," "ruined in reputation and credit." + +It would be hard to find a higher compliment to Paoli and his friends, +considering the source from which these words emanated. They were all +poor and they were all in debt. Even now, in the age of reform, they +saw their most cherished plans thwarted by the presence in every town +of garrisons composed of officers and men who, though long resident +in the island, and attached to its people by many ties, were +nevertheless conservative in their feelings, and, by the instinct of +their tradition and discipline, devoted to the still powerful official +bureaus not yet destroyed by the Revolution. To replace these by a +well-organized and equipped National Guard was now the most ardent +wish of all patriots. There was nothing unworthy in Napoleon's longing +for a command under the much desired but ever elusive reconstitution +of a force organized and armed according to the model furnished by +France itself. Repeated disappointments like those he had suffered +before, and was experiencing again, would have crushed the spirit of a +common man. + +But the young author had his manuscripts in his pocket; one of them he +had means and authority to publish. Perfectly aware, moreover, of the +disorganization in the nation and the army, careless of the order +fulminated on December second, 1790, against absent officers, which he +knew to be aimed especially at the young nobles who were deserting in +troops, with his spirit undaunted, and his brain full of resources, he +left Ajaccio on February first, 1791, having secured a new set of +certificates as to his patriotism and devotion to the cause of the +Revolution. Like the good son and the good brother which he had always +been, he was not forgetful of his family. Life at his home had not +become easier. Joseph, to be sure, had an office and a career, but the +younger children were becoming a source of expense, and Lucien would +not accept the provision which had been made for him. The next, now +ready to be educated and placed, was Louis, a boy already between +twelve and thirteen years old; accordingly Louis accompanied his +brother. Napoleon had no promise, not even an outlook, for the child; +but he determined to have him at hand in case anything should turn +up, and while waiting, to give him from his own slender means whatever +precarious education the times and circumstances could afford. We can +understand the untroubled confidence of the boy; we must admire the +trust, determination, and self-reliance of the elder brother. + +Though he had overrun his leave for three and a half months, there was +not only no severe punishment in store for Napoleon on his arrival at +Auxonne, but there was considerate regard, and, later, promotion. +Officers with military training and loyal to the Assembly were +becoming scarce. The brothers had traveled slowly, stopping first for +a short time at Marseilles, and then at Aix to visit friends, +wandering several days in a leisurely way through the parts of +Dauphiny round about Valence. Associating again with the country +people, and forming opinions as to the course of affairs, Buonaparte +reopened his correspondence with Fesch on February eighth from the +hamlet of Serve in order to acquaint him with the news and the +prospects of the country, describing in particular the formation of +patriotic societies by all the towns to act in concert for carrying +out the decrees of the Assembly.[23] This beginning of "federation for +the Revolution," as it was called, in its spread finally welded the +whole country, civil and even military authorities, together. +Napoleon's presence in the time and place of its beginning explains +much that followed. It was February thirteenth when he rejoined his +regiment. + + [Footnote 23: "I am in the cabin of a poor man whence I + like to write you after long conversation with these + good people." Nasica, p. 161.] + +Comparatively short as had been the time of Buonaparte's absence, +everything in France, even the army, had changed and was still +changing. Step by step the most wholesome reforms were introduced as +each in turn showed itself essential: promotion exclusively according +to service among the lower officers; the same, with room for royal +discretion, among the higher grades; division of the forces into +regulars, reserves, and national guards, the two former to be still +recruited by voluntary enlistment. The ancient and privileged +constabulary, and many other formerly existing but inefficient armed +bodies, were swept away, and the present system of gendarmerie was +created. The military courts, too, were reconstituted under an +impartial body of martial law. Simple numbers were substituted for the +titular distinctions hitherto used by the regiments, and a fair +schedule of pay, pensions, and military honors abolished all chance +for undue favoritism. The necessity of compulsory enlistment was urged +by a few with all the energy of powerful conviction, but the plan was +dismissed as despotic. The Assembly debated as to whether, under the +new system, king or people should wield the military power. They could +find no satisfactory solution, and finally adopted a weak compromise +which went far to destroy the power of Mirabeau, because carried +through by him. The entire work of the commission was temporarily +rendered worthless by these two essential defects--there was no way of +filling the ranks, no strong arm to direct the system. + +The first year of trial, 1790, had given the disastrous proof. By this +time all monarchical and absolutist Europe was awakened against +France; only a mere handful of enthusiastic men in England and +America, still fewer elsewhere, were in sympathy with her efforts. The +stolid common sense of the rest saw only ruin ahead, and viewed +askance the idealism of her unreal subtleties. The French nobles, +sickened by the thought of reform, had continued their silly and +wicked flight; the neighboring powers, now preparing for an armed +resistance to the spread of the Revolution, were not slow to abet +them in their schemes. On every border agencies for the encouragement +of desertion were established, and by the opening of 1791 the +effective fighting force of France was more than decimated. There was +no longer any question of discipline; it was enough if any person +worthy to command or serve could be retained. But the remedy for this +disorganization was at hand. In the letter to Fesch, to which +reference has already been made, Napoleon, after his observations +among the people, wrote: "I have everywhere found the peasants firm in +their stirrups [steadfast in their opinions], especially in Dauphiny. +They are all disposed to perish in support of the constitution. I saw +at Valence a resolute people, patriotic soldiers, and aristocratic +officers. There are, however, some exceptions, for the president of +the club is a captain named du Cerbeau. He is captain in the regiment +of Forez in garrison at Valence.... The women are everywhere royalist. +It is not amazing; Liberty is a prettier woman than they, and eclipses +them. All the parish priests of Dauphiny have taken the civic oath; +they make sport of the bishop's outcry.... What is called good society +is three fourths aristocratic--that is, they disguise themselves as +admirers of the English constitution." + +What a concise, terse sketch of that rising tide of national feeling +which was soon to make good all defects and to fill all gaps in the +new military system, put the army as part of the nation under the +popular assembly, knit regulars, reserves, and home guard into one, +and give moral support to enforcing the proposal for compulsory +enlistment! + +This movement was Buonaparte's opportunity. Declaring that he had +twice endeavored since the expiration of his extended furlough to +cross into France, he produced certificates to that effect from the +authorities of Ajaccio, and begged for his pay and allowances since +that date. His request was granted. It is impossible to deny the truth +of his statement, or the genuineness of his certificates. But both +were loose perversions of a half-truth, shifts palliated by the +uncertainties of a revolutionary epoch. A habitual casuistry is +further shown in an interesting letter written at the same time to M. +James, a business friend of Joseph's at Châlons, in which there occurs +a passage of double meaning, to the effect that his elder brother +"hopes to come in person the following year as deputy to the National +Assembly," which was no doubt true; for, in spite of being +incapacitated by age, he had already sat in the Corsican convention +and in the Ajaccio councils. But the imperfect French of the passage +could also mean, and, casually read, does carry the idea, that Joseph, +being already a deputy, would visit his friend the following year in +person. + +Buonaparte's connection with his old regiment was soon to be broken. +He joined it on February thirteenth; he left it on June fourteenth. +With these four months his total service was five years and nine +months; but he had been absent, with or without leave, something more +than half the time! His old friends in Auxonne were few in number, if +indeed there were any at all. No doubt his fellow-officers were tired +of performing the absentee's duties, and of good-fellowship there +could be in any case but little, with such difference of taste, +politics, and fortune as there was between him and them. However, he +made a few new friends; but it was in the main the old solitary life +which he resumed. His own room was in a cheap lodging-house, and, +according to the testimony of a visitor, furnished with a wretched +uncurtained couch, a table, and two chairs. Louis slept on a pallet in +a closet near by. All pleasures but those of hope were utterly +banished from those plucky lives, while they studied in preparation +for the examination which might admit the younger to his brother's +corps. The elder pinched and scraped to pay the younger's board; +himself, according to a probable but rather untrustworthy account, +brushing his own clothes that they might last longer, and supping +often on dry bread. His only place of resort was the political club. +One single pleasure he allowed himself--the occasional purchase of +some long-coveted volume from the shelves of a town bookseller.[24] + + [Footnote 24: Napoléon inconnu, II, 108 _et seq._] + +Of course neither authorship nor publication was forgotten. During +these months were completed the two short pieces, a "Dialogue on +Love," and the acute "Reflections on the State of Nature," from both +of which quotations have already been given. "I too was once in love," +he says of himself in the former. It could not well have been in +Ajaccio, and it must have been the memories of the old Valence, of a +pleasant existence now ended, which called forth the doleful +confession. It was the future Napoleon who was presaged in the +antithesis. "I go further than the denial of its existence; I believe +it hurtful to society, to the individual welfare of men." The other +trenchant document demolishes the cherished hypothesis of Rousseau as +to man in a state of nature. The precious manuscripts brought from +Corsica were sent to the only publisher in the neighborhood, at Dôle. +The much-revised history was refused; the other--whether by moneys +furnished from the Ajaccio club, or at the author's risk, is not +known--was printed in a slim octavo volume of twenty-one pages, and +published with the title, "Letter of Buonaparte to Buttafuoco." A copy +was at once sent to Paoli with a renewed request for such documents as +would enable the writer to complete his pamphlet on Corsica. The +patriot again replied in a very discouraging tone: Buttafuoco was too +contemptible for notice, the desired papers he was unable to send, and +such a boy could not in any case be a historian. Buonaparte was +undismayed and continued his researches. Joseph was persuaded to add +his solicitations for the desired papers to those of his brother, but +he too received a flat refusal. + +Short as was Buonaparte's residence at Auxonne, he availed himself to +the utmost of the slackness of discipline in order to gratify his +curiosity as to the state of the country. He paid frequent visits to +Marmont in Dijon, and he made what he called at St. Helena his +"Sentimental Journey to Nuits" in Burgundy. The account he gave Las +Cases of the aristocracy in the little city, and of its assemblies at +the mansion of a wine-merchant's widow, is most entertaining. To his +host Gassendi and to the worthy mayor he aired his radical doctrines +with great complacence, but according to his own account he had not +the best of it in the discussions which ensued. Under the empire +Gassendi's son was a member of the council of state, and in one of its +sessions he dared to support some of his opinions by quoting Napoleon +himself. The Emperor remembered perfectly the conversation at Nuits, +but meaningly said that his friend must have been asleep and dreaming. + +Several traditions which throw some light on Buonaparte's attitude +toward religion date from this last residence in Auxonne. He had been +prepared for confirmation at Brienne by a confessor who was now in +retirement at Dôle, the same to whom when First Consul he wrote an +acknowledgment of his indebtedness, adding: "Without religion there is +no happiness, no future possible. I commend me to your prayers." The +dwelling of this good man was the frequent goal of his walks abroad. +Again, he once jocularly asked a friend who visited him in his room, +if he had heard mass that morning, opening, as he spoke, a trunk, in +which was the complete vestment of a priest. The regimental chaplain, +who must have been his friend, had confided it to him for +safe-keeping. Finally, it was in these dark and never-forgotten days +of trial that Louis was confirmed, probably by the advice of his +brother. Even though Napoleon had collaborated with Fesch in the paper +on the oath of priests to the constitution, though he himself had been +mobbed in Corsica as the enemy of the Church, it does not appear that +he had any other than decent and reverent feelings toward religion and +its professors. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +The Revolution in the Rhone Valley. + + A Dark Period -- Buonaparte, First Lieutenant -- Second + Sojourn in Valence -- Books and Reading -- The National + Assembly of France -- The King Returns from Versailles -- + Administrative Reforms in France -- Passing of the Old Order + -- Flight of the King -- Buonaparte's Oath to Sustain the + Constitution -- His View of the Situation -- His + Revolutionary Zeal -- Insubordination -- Impatience with + Delay -- A Serious Blunder Avoided -- Return to Corsica. + + +[Sidenote: 1791.] + +The tortuous course of Napoleon's life for the years from 1791 to 1795 +has been neither described nor understood by those who have written in +his interest. It was his own desire that his biographies, in spite of +the fact that his public life began after Rivoli, should commence with +the recovery of Toulon for the Convention. His detractors, on the +other hand, have studied this prefatory period with such evident bias +that dispassionate readers have been repelled from its consideration. +And yet the sordid tale well repays perusal; for in this epoch of his +life many of his characteristic qualities were tempered and ground to +the keen edge they retained throughout. Swept onward toward the +trackless ocean of political chaos, the youth seemed afloat without +oars or compass: in reality, his craft was well under control, and his +chart correct. Whether we attribute his conduct to accident or to +design, from an adventurer's point of view the instinct which made him +spread his sails to the breezes of Jacobin favor was quite as sound as +that which later, when Jacobinism came to be abhorred, made him +anxious that the fact should be forgotten. + +In the earlier stages of army reorganization, changes were made +without much regard to personal merit, the dearth of efficient +officers being such that even the most indifferent had some value. +About the first of June, 1791, Buonaparte was promoted to the rank of +first lieutenant, with a salary of thirteen hundred livres, and +transferred to the Fourth Regiment, which was in Valence. He heard the +news with mingled feelings: promotion was, of course, welcome, but he +shrank from returning to his former station, and from leaving the +three or four warm friends he had among his comrades in the old +regiment. On the ground that the arrangements he had made for +educating Louis would be disturbed by the transfer, he besought the +war office for permission to remain at Auxonne with the regiment, now +known as the First. Probably the real ground of his disinclination was +the fear that a residence at Valence might revive the painful emotions +which time had somewhat withered. He may also have felt how discordant +the radical opinions he was beginning to hold would be with those +still cherished by his former friends. But the authorities were +inexorable, and on June fourteenth the brothers departed, Napoleon for +the first time leaving debts which he could not discharge: for the new +uniform of a first lieutenant, a sword, and some wood, he owed about a +hundred and fifteen livres. This sum he was careful to pay within a +few years and as soon as his affairs permitted. + +Arrived at Valence, he found that the old society had vanished. Both +the bishop and the Abbé Saint-Ruf were dead. Mme. du Colombier had +withdrawn with her daughter to her country-seat. The brothers were +able, therefore, to take up their lives just where they had made the +break at Auxonne: Louis pursuing the studies necessary for entrance to +the corps of officers, Napoleon teaching him, and frequenting the +political club; both destitute and probably suffering, for the +officer's pay was soon far in arrears. In such desperate straits it +was a relief for the elder brother that the allurements of his former +associations were dissipated; such companionship as he now had was +among the middle and lower classes, whose estates were more +proportionate to his own, and whose sentiments were virtually +identical with those which he professed. + +The list of books which he read is significant: Coxe's "Travels in +Switzerland," Duclos's "Memoirs of the Reigns of Louis XIV and Louis +XV," Machiavelli's "History of Florence," Voltaire's "Essay on +Manners," Duvernet's "History of the Sorbonne," Le Noble's "Spirit of +Gerson," and Dulaure's "History of the Nobility." There exist among +his papers outlines more or less complete of all these books. They +prove that he understood what he read, but unlike other similar +jottings by him they give little evidence of critical power. Aside +from such historical studies as would explain the events preliminary +to that revolutionary age upon which he saw that France was entering, +he was carefully examining the attitude of the Gallican Church toward +the claims of the papacy, and considering the rôle of the aristocracy +in society. It is clear that he had no intention of being merely a +curious onlooker at the successive phases of the political and social +transmutation already beginning; he was bent on examining causes, +comprehending reasons, and sharing in the movement itself. + +By the summer of 1791 the first stage in the transformation of France +had almost passed. The reign of moderation in reform was nearly over. +The National Assembly had apprehended the magnitude but not the nature +of its task, and was unable to grasp the consequences of the new +constitution it had outlined. The nation was sufficiently familiar +with the idea of the crown as an executive, but hitherto the executive +had been at the same time legislator; neither King nor people quite +knew how the King was to obey the nation when the former, trained in +the school of the strictest absolutism, was deprived of all volition, +and the latter gave its orders through a single chamber, responsive to +the levity of the masses, and controlled neither by an absolute veto +power, nor by any feeling of responsibility to a calm public opinion. +This was the urgent problem which had to be solved under conditions +the most unfavorable that could be conceived. + +During the autumn of 1789 famine was actually stalking abroad. The +Parisian populace grew gaunt and dismal, but the King and aristocracy +at Versailles had food in plenty, and the contrast was heightened by a +lavish display in the palace. The royal family was betrayed by one of +its own house, the despicable Philip "Égalité," who sought to stir up +the basest dregs of society, that in the ferment he might rise to the +top; hungry Paris, stung to action by rumors which he spread and by +bribes which he lavished, put Lafayette at its head, and on October +fifth marched out to the gates of the royal residence in order to make +conspicuous the contrast between its own sufferings and the wasteful +comfort of its servants, as the King and his ministers were now +considered to be. Louis and the National Assembly yielded to the +menace, the court returned to Paris, politics grew hotter and more +bitter, the fickleness of the mob became a stronger influence. Soon +the Jacobin Club began to wield the mightiest single influence, and as +it did so it grew more and more radical. + +Throughout the long and trying winter the masses remained, +nevertheless, quietly expectant. There was much tumultuous talk, but +action was suspended while the Assembly sat and struggled to solve its +problem, elaborating a really fine paper constitution. Unfortunately, +the provisions of the document had no relation to the political habits +of the French nation, or to the experience of England and the United +States, the only free governments then in existence. Feudal privilege, +feudal provinces, feudal names having been obliterated, the whole of +France was rearranged into administrative departments, with +geographical in place of historical boundaries. It was felt that the +ecclesiastical domains, the holders of which were considered as mere +trustees, should be adapted to the same plan, and this was done. +Ecclesiastical as well as aristocratic control was thus removed by the +stroke of a pen. In other words, by the destruction of the mechanism +through which the temporal and spiritual authorities exerted the +remnants of their power, they were both completely paralyzed. The King +was denied all initiative, being granted merely a suspensive veto, and +in the reform of the judicial system the prestige of the lawyers was +also destroyed. Royalty was turned into a function, and the courts +were stripped of both the moral and physical force necessary to compel +obedience to their decrees. Every form of the guardianship to which +for centuries the people had been accustomed was thus removed--royal, +aristocratic, ecclesiastical, and judicial. Untrained to self-control, +they were as ready for mad excesses as were the German Anabaptists +after the Reformation or the English sectaries after the execution of +Charles. + +Attention has been called to the disturbances which arose in Auxonne +and elsewhere, to the emigration of the nobles from that quarter, to +the utter break between the parish priests and the higher church +functionaries in Dauphiny; this was but a sample of the whole. When, +on July fourteenth, 1790, the King accepted a constitution which +decreed a secular reorganization of the ecclesiastical hierarchy +according to the terms of which both bishops and priests were to be +elected by the taxpayers, two thirds of all the clergy in France +refused to swear allegiance to it. All attempts to establish the new +administrative and judicial systems were more or less futile; the +disaffection of officials and lawyers became more intense. In Paris +alone the changes were introduced with some success, the municipality +being rearranged into forty-eight sections, each with a primary +assembly. These were the bodies which later gave Buonaparte the +opening whereby he entered his real career. The influence of the +Jacobin Club increased, just in proportion as the majority of its +members grew more radical. Necker trimmed to their demands, but lost +popularity by his monotonous calls for money, and fell in September, +reaching his home on Lake Leman only with the greatest difficulty. +Mirabeau succeeded him as the sole possible prop to the tottering +throne. Under his leadership the moderate monarchists, or Feuillants, +as they were later called, from the convent of that order to which +they withdrew, seceded from the Jacobins, and before the Assembly had +ceased its work the nation was cleft in two, divided into opponents +and adherents of monarchy. As if to insure the disasters of such an +antagonism, the Assembly, which numbered among its members every man +in France of ripe political experience, committed the incredible folly +of self-effacement, voting that not one of its members should be +eligible to the legislature about to be chosen. + +A new impulse to the revolutionary movement was given by the death of +Mirabeau on April second, 1791. His obsequies were celebrated in many +places, and, being a native of Provence, there were probably solemn +ceremonies at Valence. There is a tradition that they occurred during +Buonaparte's second residence in the city, and that it was he who +superintended the draping of the choir in the principal church. It is +said that the hangings were arranged to represent a funerary urn, and +that beneath, in conspicuous letters, ran the legend: "Behold what +remains of the French Lycurgus." Mirabeau had indeed displayed a +genius for politics, his scheme for a strong ministry, chosen from the +Assembly, standing in bold relief against the feebleness of Necker in +persuading Louis to accept the suspensive veto, and to choose his +cabinet without relation to the party in power. When the mad +dissipation of the statesman's youth demanded its penalty at the hour +so critical for France, the King and the moderates alike lost courage. +In June the worried and worn-out monarch determined that the game was +not worth the playing, and on the twenty-first he fled. Though he was +captured, and brought back to act the impossible rôle of a democratic +prince, the patriots who had wished to advance with experience and +tradition as guides were utterly discredited. All the world could see +how pusillanimous was the royalty they had wished to preserve, and the +masses made up their mind that, real or nominal, the institution was +not only useless, but dangerous. This feeling was strong in the Rhone +valley and the adjoining districts, which have ever been the home of +extreme radicalism. Sympathy with Corsica and the Corsicans had long +been active in southeastern France. Neither the island nor its people +were felt to be strange. When a society for the defense of the +constitution was formed in Valence, Buonaparte, though a Corsican, was +at first secretary, then president, of the association. + +The "Friends of the Constitution" grew daily more numerous, more +powerful, and more radical in that city; and when the great solemnity +of swearing allegiance to the new order was to be celebrated, it was +chosen as a convenient and suitable place for a convention of +twenty-two similar associations from the neighboring districts. The +meeting took place on July third, 1791; the official administration of +the oath to the civil, military, judicial, and ecclesiastical +authorities occurred on the fourteenth. Before a vast altar erected on +the drill-ground, in the presence of all the dignitaries, with cannon +booming and the air resounding with shouts and patriotic songs, the +officials in groups, the people in mass, swore with uplifted hands to +sustain the constitution, to obey the National Assembly, and to die, +if need be, in defending French territory against invasion. Scenes as +impressive and dramatic as this occurred all over France. They +appealed powerfully to the imagination of the nation, and profoundly +influenced public opinion. "Until then," said Buonaparte, referring to +the solemnity, "I doubt not that if I had received orders to turn my +guns against the people, habit, prejudice, education, and the King's +name would have induced me to obey. With the taking of the national +oath it became otherwise; my instincts and my duty were thenceforth in +harmony." + +But the position of liberal officers was still most trying. In the +streets and among the people they were in a congenial atmosphere; +behind the closed doors of the drawing-rooms, in the society of +ladies, and among their fellows in the mess, there were constraint and +suspicion. Out of doors all was exultation; in the houses of the +hitherto privileged classes all was sadness and uncertainty. But +everywhere, indoors or out, was spreading the fear of war, if not +civil at least foreign war, with the French emigrants as the allies of +the assailants. On this point Buonaparte was mistaken. As late as +July twenty-seventh, 1791, he wrote to Naudin, an intimate friend who +was chief of the military bureau at Auxonne: "Will there be war? No; +Europe is divided between sovereigns who rule over men and those who +rule over cattle and horses. The former understand the Revolution, and +are terrified; they would gladly make personal sacrifices to +annihilate it, but they dare not lift the mask for fear the fire +should break out in their own houses. See the history of England, +Holland, etc. Those who bear the rule over horses misunderstand and +cannot grasp the bearing of the constitution. They think this chaos of +incoherent ideas means an end of French power. You would suppose, to +listen to them, that our brave patriots were about to cut one +another's throats and with their blood purge the land of the crimes +committed against kings." The news contained in this letter is most +interesting. There are accounts of the zeal and spirit everywhere +shown by the democratic patriots, of a petition for the trial of the +King sent up from the recent meeting at Valence, and an assurance by +the writer that his regiment is "sure," except as to half the +officers. He adds in a postscript: "The southern blood courses in my +veins as swiftly as the Rhone. Pardon me if you feel distressed in +reading my scrawl."[25] + + [Footnote 25: Buonaparte to Naudin, 27 July, 1791, in + Buchez et Roux, Histoire Parlementaire, XVII, 56.] + +Restlessness is the habit of the agitator, and Buonaparte's +temperament was not exceptional. His movements and purposes during the +months of July and August are very uncertain in the absence of +documentary evidence sufficient to determine them. But his earliest +biographers, following what was in their time a comparatively short +tradition, enable us to fix some things with a high degree of +probability. The young radical had been but two months with his new +command when he began to long for change; the fever of excitement and +the discomfort of his life, with probably some inkling that a Corsican +national guard would ere long be organized, awakened in him a purpose +to be off once more, and accordingly he applied for leave of absence. +His colonel, a very lukewarm constitutionalist, angry at the notoriety +which his lieutenant was acquiring, had already sent in a complaint of +Buonaparte's insubordinate spirit and of his inattention to duty. +Standing on a formal right, he therefore refused the application. With +the quick resource of a schemer, Buonaparte turned to a higher +authority, his friend Duteil, who was inspector-general of artillery +in the department and not unfavorable. Something, however, must have +occurred to cause delay, for weeks passed and the desired leave was +not granted. + +While awaiting a decision the applicant was very uneasy. To friends he +said that he would soon be in Paris; to his great-uncle he wrote, +"Send me three hundred livres; that sum would take me to Paris. There, +at least, a person can show himself, overcome obstacles. Everything +tells me that I shall succeed there. Will you stop me for lack of a +hundred crowns?" And again: "I am waiting impatiently for the six +crowns my mother owes me; I need them sadly." These demands for money +met with no response. The explanation of Buonaparte's impatience is +simple enough. One by one the provincial societies which had been +formed to support the constitution were affiliating themselves with +the influential Jacobins at Paris, who were now the strongest single +political power in the country. He was the recognized leader of their +sympathizers in the Rhone valley. He evidently intended to go to +headquarters and see for himself what the outlook was. With backers +such as he thus hoped to find, some advantage, perhaps even the +long-desired command in Corsica, might be secured. + +It was rare good fortune that the young hotspur was not yet to be cast +into the seething caldron of French politics. The time was not yet +ripe for the exercise of his powers. The storming of the Bastille had +symbolized the overthrow of privilege and absolute monarchy; the +flight of the King presaged the overthrow of monarchy, absolute or +otherwise. The executive gone, the legislature popular and democratic +but ignorant how to administer or conduct affairs, the judiciary +equally disorganized, and the army transforming itself into a +patriotic organization--was there more to come? Yes. Thus far, in +spite of well-meant attempts to substitute new constructions for the +old, all had been disintegration. French society was to be reorganized +only after further pulverizing; cohesion would begin only under +pressure from without--a pressure applied by the threats of erratic +royalists that they would bring in the foreign powers to coerce and +arbitrate, by the active demonstrations of the emigrants, by the +outbreak of foreign wars. These were the events about to take place; +they would in the end evolve from the chaos of mob rule first the +irregular and temporary dictatorship of the Convention, then the +tyranny of the Directory; at the same time they would infuse a fervor +of patriotism, into the whole mass of the French nation, stunned, +helpless, and leaderless, but loyal, brave, and vigorous. In such a +crisis the people would tolerate, if not demand, a leader strong to +exact respect for France and to enforce his commands; would prefer the +vigorous mastery of one to the feeble misrule of the many or the few. +Still further, the man was as unready as the time; for it was, in all +probability, not as a Frenchman but as an ever true Corsican patriot +that Buonaparte wished to "show himself, overcome obstacles" at this +conjuncture. + +On August fourth, 1791, the National Assembly at last decided to form +a paid volunteer national guard of a hundred thousand men, and their +decision became a law on August twelfth. The term of enlistment was a +year; four battalions were to be raised in Corsica. Buonaparte heard +of the decision on August tenth, and was convinced that the hour for +realizing his long-cherished aspirations had finally struck. He could +certainly have done much in Paris to secure office in a +French-Corsican national guard, and with this in mind he immediately +wrote a memorandum on the armament of the new force, addressing it, +with characteristic assurance, to the minister of war. When, however, +three weeks later, on August thirtieth, 1791, a leave of absence +arrived, to which he was entitled in the course of routine, and which +was not granted by the favor of any one, he had abandoned all idea of +service under France in the Corsican guard. The disorder of the times +was such that while retaining office in the French army he could test +in an independent Corsican command the possibility of climbing to +leadership there before abandoning his present subordinate place in +France. In view, apparently, of this new venture, he had for some time +been taking advances from the regimental paymaster, until he had now +in hand a considerable sum--two hundred and ninety livres. A formal +announcement to the authorities might have elicited embarrassing +questions from them, so he and Louis quietly departed without +explanations, leaving for the second time debts of considerable +amount. They reached Ajaccio on September sixth, 1791. Napoleon was +not actually a deserter, but he had in contemplation a step toward the +defiance of French authority--the acceptance of service in a Corsican +military force. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +Buonaparte the Corsican Jacobin. + + Buonaparte's Corsican Patriotism -- His Position in His + Family -- The Situation of Joseph -- Corsican Politics -- + Napoleon's Power in the Jacobin Club of Ajaccio -- His + Failure as a Contestant for Literary Honors -- Appointed + Adjutant-General -- His Attitude Toward France -- His New + Ambitions -- Use of Violence -- Lieutenant-Colonel of + Volunteers -- Politics in Ajaccio -- His First Experience of + Street Warfare -- His Manifesto -- Dismissed to Paris -- His + Plans -- The Position of Louis XVI -- Buonaparte's + Delinquencies -- Disorganization in the Army -- Petition for + Reinstatement -- The Marseillais -- Buonaparte a Spectator + -- His Estimate of France -- His Presence at the Scenes of + August Tenth -- State of Paris -- Flight of Lafayette. + + +[Sidenote: 1791-92.] + +This was the third time in four years that Buonaparte had revisited +his home.[26] On the plea of ill health he had been able the first +time to remain a year and two months, giving full play to his Corsican +patriotism and his own ambitions by attendance at Orezza, and by +political agitation among the people. The second time he had remained +a year and four months, retaining his hold on his commission by +subterfuges and irregularities which, though condoned, had strained +his relations with the ministry of war in Paris. He had openly defied +the royal authority, relying on the coming storm for the concealment +of his conduct if it should prove reprehensible, or for preferment in +his own country if Corsica should secure her liberties. There is no +reason, therefore, to suppose that his intentions for the third visit +were different from those displayed in the other two, although again +solicitude for his family was doubtless one of many considerations. + + [Footnote 26: It is not entirely clear whether he + arrived late in September or early in October, 1791. He + remained until May, 1792.] + +During Napoleon's absence from Corsica the condition of his family had +not materially changed. Soon after his arrival the old archdeacon +died, and his little fortune fell to the Buonapartes. Joseph, failing +shortly afterward in his plan of being elected deputy to the French +legislature, was chosen a member of the Corsican directory. He was, +therefore, forced to occupy himself entirely with his new duties and +to live at Corte. Fesch, as the eldest male, the mother's brother, and +a priest at that, expected to assume the direction of the family +affairs. But he was doomed to speedy disenchantment: thenceforward +Napoleon was the family dictator. In conjunction with his uncle he +used the whole or a considerable portion of the archdeacon's savings +for the purchase of several estates from the national domain, as the +sequestrated lands of the monasteries were called. Rendered thus more +self-important, he talked much in the home circle concerning the +greatness of classical antiquity, and wondered "who would not +willingly have been stabbed, if only he could have been Cæsar? One +feeble ray of his glory would be an ample recompense for sudden +death." Such chances for Cæsarism as the island of Corsica afforded +were very rapidly becoming better. + +The Buonapartes had no influence whatever in these elections. Joseph +was not even nominated. The choice fell upon two men selected by +Paoli: one of them, Peraldi, was already embittered against the +family; the other, Pozzo di Borgo, though so far friendly enough, +thereafter became a relentless foe. Rising to eminence as a diplomat, +accepting service in one and another country of Europe, the latter +thwarted Napoleon at several important conjunctures. Paoli is thought +by some to have been wounded by the frank criticism of his strategy by +Napoleon: more likely he distrusted youths educated in France, and +who, though noisy Corsicans, were, he shrewdly guessed, impregnated +with French idealism. He himself cared for France only as by her help +the largest possible autonomy for Corsica could be secured. In the +directory of the department of Corsica, Joseph, and with him the +Buonaparte influence, was reduced to impotence, while gratified with +high position. The ignorance of the administrators was only paralleled +by the difficulties of their work. + +During the last few months religious agitation had been steadily +increasing. Pious Catholics were embittered by the virtual expulsion +of the old clergy, and the induction to office of new priests who had +sworn to uphold the constitution. Amid the disorders of administration +the people in ever larger numbers had secured arms; as of yore, they +appeared at their assemblies under the guidance of their chiefs, ready +to fight at a moment's notice. It was but a step to violence, and +without any other provocation than religious exasperation the +townsfolk of Bastia had lately sought to kill their new bishop. Even +Arena, who had so recently seized the place in Paoli's interest, was +now regarded as a French radical, maltreated, and banished with his +supporters to Italy. The new election was at hand; the contest between +the Paolists and the extreme French party grew hotter and hotter. Not +only deputies to the new assembly, but likewise the superior officers +of the new guard, were to be elected. Buonaparte, being only a +lieutenant of the regulars, could according to the law aspire no +higher than an appointment as adjutant-major with the title and pay of +captain. It was not worth while to lose his place in France for this, +so he determined to stand for one of the higher elective offices, +that of lieutenant-colonel, a position which would give him more +power, and, under the latest legislation, entitle him to retain his +grade in the regular army. + +There were now two political clubs in Ajaccio: that of the Corsican +Jacobins, country people for the most part; and that of the Corsican +Feuillants, composed of the officials and townsfolk. Buonaparte became +a moving spirit in the former, and determined at any cost to destroy +the influence of the latter. The two previous attempts to secure +Ajaccio for the radicals had failed; a third was already under +consideration. The new leader began to garnish his language with those +fine and specious phrases which thenceforth were never wanting in his +utterances at revolutionary crises. "Law," he wrote about this time, +"is like those statues of some of the gods which are veiled under +certain circumstances." For a few weeks there was little or nothing to +do in the way of electioneering at home; he therefore obtained +permission to travel with the famous Volney, who desired a +philosopher's retreat from Paris storms and had been chosen director +of commerce and manufactures in the island. This journey was for a +candidate like Buonaparte invaluable as a means of observation and of +winning friends for his cause. + +Before the close of this trip his furlough had expired, his regiment +had been put on a war footing, and orders had been issued for the +return of every officer to his post by Christmas day. But in the +execution of his fixed purpose the young Corsican patriot was heedless +of military obligations to France, and wilfully remained absent from +duty. Once more the spell of a wild, free life was upon him; he was +enlisted for the campaign, though without position or money to back +him. The essay on happiness which he had presented to the Academy of +Lyons had failed, as a matter of course, to win the prize, one of the +judges pronouncing it "too badly arranged, too uneven, too +disconnected, and too badly written to deserve attention." This +decision was a double blow, for it was announced about this time, at a +moment when fame and money would both have been most welcome. The +scanty income from the lands purchased with the legacy of the old +archdeacon remained the only resource of the family for the lavish +hospitality which, according to immemorial, semi-barbarous tradition, +was required of a Corsican candidate. + +A peremptory order was now issued from Paris that those officers of +the line who had been serving in the National Guard with a grade lower +than that of lieutenant-colonel should return to regular service +before April first, 1792. Here was an implication which might be +turned to account. As a lieutenant on leave, Buonaparte should of +course have returned on December twenty-fifth; if, however, he were an +officer of volunteers he could plead the new order. Though as yet the +recruits had not come in, and no companies had been formed, the mere +idea was sufficient to suggest a means for saving appearances. An +appointment as adjutant-major was solicited from the major-general in +command of the department, and he, under authorization obtained in due +time from Paris, granted it. Safe from the charge of desertion thus +far, it was essential for his reputation and for his ambition that +Buonaparte should be elected lieutenant-colonel. Success would enable +him to plead that his first lapse in discipline was due to irregular +orders from his superior, that anyhow he had been an adjutant-major, +and that finally the position of lieutenant-colonel gave him immunity +from punishment, and left him blameless. + +He nevertheless was uneasy, and wrote two letters of a curious +character to his friend Sucy, the commissioner-general at Valence. In +the first, written five weeks after the expiration of his leave, he +calmly reports himself, and gives an account of his occupations, +mentioning incidentally that unforeseen circumstances, duties the +dearest and most sacred, had prevented his return. His correspondent +would be so kind as not to mention the letter to the "gentlemen of the +regiment," but the writer would immediately return if his friend in +his unassisted judgment thought best. In the second he plumply +declares that in perilous times the post of a good Corsican is at +home, that therefore he had thought of resigning, but his friends had +arranged the middle course of appointing him adjutant-major in the +volunteers so that he could make his duty as a soldier conform to his +duty as a patriot. Asking for news of what is going on in France, he +says, writing like an outsider, "If _your_ nation loses courage at +this moment, it is done with forever." + +It was toward the end of March that the volunteers from the mountains +began to appear in Ajaccio for the election of their officers. +Napoleon had bitter and powerful rivals, but his recent trip had +apparently enabled him to win many friends among the men. While, +therefore, success was possible by that means, there was another +influence almost as powerful--that of three commissioners appointed by +the directory of the island to organize and equip the battalion. These +were Morati, a friend of Peraldi, the Paolist deputy; Quenza, more or +less neutral, and Grimaldi, a devoted partisan of the Buonapartes. +With skilful diplomacy Napoleon agreed that he would not presume to be +a candidate for the office of first lieutenant-colonel, which was +desired by Peretti, a near friend of Paoli, for his brother-in-law, +Quenza, but would seek the position of second lieutenant-colonel. In +this way he was assured of good will from two of the three +commissioners; the other was of course hostile, being a partizan of +Peraldi. + +The election, as usual in Corsica, seems to have passed in turbulence +and noisy violence. His enemies attacked Buonaparte with every weapon: +their money, their influence, and in particular with ridicule. His +stature, his poverty, and his absurd ambitions were held up to +contempt and scorn. The young hotspur was cut to the quick, and, +forgetting Corsican ways, made the witless blunder of challenging +Peraldi to a duel, an institution scorned by the Corsican devotees of +the vendetta. The climax of contempt was Peraldi's failure even to +notice the challenge. At the crisis, Salicetti, a warm friend of the +Buonapartes and a high official of the department, appeared with a +considerable armed force to maintain order. This cowed the +conservatives. The third commissioner, living as a guest with Peraldi, +was seized during the night preceding the election by a body of +Buonaparte's friends, and put under lock and key in their candidate's +house--"to make you entirely free; you were not free where you were," +said the instigator of the stroke, when called to explain. To the use +of fine phrases was now added a facility in employing violence at a +pinch which likewise remained characteristic of Buonaparte's career +down to the end. Nasica, who alone records the tale, sees in this +event the precursor of the long series of state-strokes which +culminated on the eighteenth Brumaire. There is a story that in one of +the scuffles incident to this brawl a member of Pozzo di Borgo's +family was thrown down and trampled on. Be that as it may, Buonaparte +was successful. This of course intensified the hatred already +existing, and from that moment the families of Peraldi and of Pozzo di +Borgo were his deadly enemies. + +Quenza, who was chosen first lieutenant-colonel, was a man of no +character whatever, a nobody. He was moreover absorbed in the duties +of a place in the departmental administration. Buonaparte, therefore, +was in virtual command of a sturdy, well-armed, legal force. Having +been adjutant-major, and being now a regularly elected lieutenant-colonel +according to statute, he applied, with a well-calculated effrontery, +to his regimental paymaster for the pay which had accrued during his +absence. It was at first refused, for in the interval he had been +cashiered for remaining at home in disobedience to orders; but such +were the irregularities of that revolutionary time that later, virtual +deserter as he had been, it was actually paid and he was restored to +his place. He sought and obtained from the military authorities of the +island certificates of his regular standing and leave to present them +in Paris if needed to maintain his rank as a French officer, but in +the final event there was no necessity for their use. No one was more +adroit than Buonaparte in taking advantage of possibilities. He was a +pluralist without conscience. A French regular if the emergency should +demand it, he was likewise a Corsican patriot and commander in the +volunteer guard of the island, fully equipped for another move. +Perhaps, at last, he could assume with success the liberator's rôle of +Sampiero. But an opportunity must occur or be created. One was easily +arranged. + +Ajaccio had gradually become a resort for many ardent Roman Catholics +who had refused to accept the new order. The town authorities, +although there were some extreme radicals among them, were, on the +whole, in sympathy with these conservatives. Through the devices of +his friends in the city government, Buonaparte's battalion, the +second, was on one pretext or another assembled in and around the +town. Thereupon, following the most probable account, which, too, is +supported by Buonaparte's own story, a demand was made that according +to the recent ecclesiastical legislation of the National Assembly, the +Capuchin monks, who had been so far undisturbed, should evacuate their +friary. Feeling ran so high that the other volunteer companies were +summoned; they arrived on April first. At once the public order was +jeopardized: on one extreme were the religious fanatics, on the other +the political agitators, both of whom were loud with threats and ready +for violence. In the middle, between two fires, was the mass of the +people, who sympathized with the ecclesiastics, but wanted peace at +any hazard. Quarreling began first between individuals of the various +factions, but it soon resulted in conflicts between civilians and the +volunteer guard. The first step taken by the military was to seize and +occupy the cloister, which lay just below the citadel, the final goal +of their leader, whoever he was, and the townsfolk believed it was +Buonaparte. Once inside the citadel walls, the Corsicans in the +regular French service would, it was hoped, fraternize with their kin; +with such a beginning, all the garrison might in time be won over. + +This further exasperated the ultramontanes, and on Easter day, April +eighth, they made demonstrations so serious that the scheming +commander--Buonaparte again, it was believed--found the much desired +pretext to interfere; there was a mêlée, and one of the militia +officers was killed. Next morning the burghers found their town beset +by the volunteers. Good citizens kept to their houses, while the +acting mayor and the council were assembled to authorize an attack on +the citadel. The authorities could not agree, and dispersed; the +following forenoon it was discovered that the acting mayor and his +sympathizers had taken refuge in the citadel. From the vantage of +this stronghold they proposed to settle the difficulty by the +arbitration of a board composed of two from each side, under the +presidency of the commandant. There was again no agreement. + +Worn out at last by the haggling and delay, an officer of the garrison +finally ordered the militia officers to withdraw their forces. By the +advice of some determined radical--Buonaparte again, in all +probability--the latter flatly refused, and the night was spent in +preparation for a conflict which seemed inevitable. But early in the +morning the commissioners of the department, who had been sent by +Paoli to preserve the peace, arrived in a body. They were welcomed +gladly by the majority of the people, and, after hearing the case, +dismissed the battalion of volunteers to various posts in the +surrounding country. Public opinion immediately turned against +Buonaparte, convinced as the populace was that he was the author of +the entire disturbance. The commander of the garrison was embittered, +and sent a report to the war department displaying the young officer's +behavior in the most unfavorable light. Buonaparte's defense was +contained in a manifesto which made the citizens still more furious by +its declaration that the whole civic structure of their town was +worthless, and should have been overthrown. + +The aged Paoli found his situation more trying with every day. Under a +constitutional monarchy, such as he had admired and studied in +England, such as he even yet hoped for and expected in France, he had +believed his own land might find a virtual autonomy. With riot and +disorder in every town, it would not be long before the absolute +disqualification of his countrymen for self-government would be proved +and the French administration restored. For his present purpose, +therefore, the peace must be kept, and Buonaparte, upon whom, whether +justly or not, the blame for these recent broils rested, must be +removed elsewhere, if possible; but as the troublesome youth was the +son of an old friend and the head of a still influential family, it +must be done without offense. The government at Paris might be +pacified if the absentee officer were restored to his post; with +Quenza in command of the volunteers, there would be little danger of a +second outbreak in Ajaccio. + +It was more than easy, therefore, for the discredited revolutionary, +on the implied condition and understanding that he should leave +Corsica, to secure from the authorities the papers necessary to put +himself and his actions in the most favorable light. Buonaparte armed +himself accordingly with an authenticated certificate as to the posts +he had held, and the period during which he had held them, and with +another as to his "civism"--the phrase used at that time to designate +the quality of friendliness to the Revolution. The former seems to +have been framed according to his own statements, and was speciously +deceptive; yet in form the commander-in-chief, the municipality of +Ajaccio, and the authorities of the department were united in +certifying to his unblemished character and regular standing. This was +something. Whither should the scapegoat betake himself? Valence, where +the royalist colonel regarded him as a deserter, was of course closed, +and in Paris alone could the necessary steps be taken to secure +restoration to rank with back pay, or rather the reversal of the whole +record as it then stood on the regimental books. For this reason he +likewise secured letters of introduction to the leading Corsicans in +the French capital. His departure was so abrupt as to resemble +flight. He hastened to Corte, and remained just long enough to +understand the certainty of his overwhelming loss in public esteem +throughout Corsica. On the way he is said to have seen Paoli for a +short time and to have received some encouragement in a plan to raise +another battalion of volunteers. Joseph claimed to have advised his +brother to have nothing to do with the plan, but to leave immediately +for France. In any case Napoleon's mind was clear. A career in Corsica +on the grand scale was impossible for him. Borrowing money for the +journey, he hurried away and sailed from Bastia on May second, 1792. +The outlook might have disheartened a weaker man. Peraldi, the +Corsican deputy, was a near relative of the defeated rival; Paoli's +displeasure was only too manifest; the bitter hate of a large element +in Ajaccio, including the royalist commander of the garrison, was +unconcealed. Napoleon's energy, rashness, and ambition combined to +make Pozzo di Borgo detest him. He was accused of being a traitor, the +source of all trouble, of plotting a new St. Bartholomew, ready for +any horror in order to secure power. Rejected by Corsica, would France +receive him? Would not the few French friends he had be likewise +alienated by these last escapades? Could the formal record of +regimental offenses be expunged? In any event, how slight the prospect +of success in the great mad capital, amid the convulsive throes of a +nation's disorders! + +But in the last consideration lay his only chance: the nation's +disorder was to supply the remedy for Buonaparte's irregularities. The +King had refused his sanction to the secularization of the estates +which had once been held by the emigrants and recusant ecclesiastics; +the Jacobins retorted by open hostility to the monarchy. The plotting +of noble and princely refugees with various royal and other schemers +two years before had been a crime against the King and the +constitutionalists, for it jeopardized their last chance for +existence, even their very lives. Within so short a time what had been +criminal in the emigrants had seemingly become the only means of +self-preservation for their intended victim. His constitutional +supporters recognized that, in the adoption of this course by the +King, the last hope of a peaceful solution to their awful problem had +disappeared. It was now almost certain and generally believed that +Louis himself was in negotiation with the foreign sovereigns; to +thwart his plans and avert the consequences it was essential that open +hostilities against his secret allies should be begun. Consequently, +on April twentieth, 1792, by the influence of the King's friends war +had been declared against Austria. The populace, awed by the armies +thus called out, were at first silently defiant, an attitude which +changed to open fury when the defeat of the French troops in the +Austrian Netherlands was announced. + +The moderate republicans, or Girondists, as they were called from the +district where they were strongest, were now the mediating party; +their leader, Roland, was summoned to form a ministry and appease this +popular rage. It was one of his colleagues who had examined the +complaint against Buonaparte received from the commander of the +garrison at Ajaccio. According to a strict interpretation of the +military code there was scarcely a crime which Buonaparte had not +committed: desertion, disobedience, tampering, attack on constituted +authority, and abuse of official power. The minister reported the +conduct of both Quenza and Buonaparte as most reprehensible, and +declared that if their offense had been purely military he would have +court-martialed them. + +Learning first at Marseilles that war had broken out, and that the +companies of his regiment were dispersed to various camps for active +service, Buonaparte hastened northward. A new passion, which was +indicative of the freshly awakened patriotism, had taken possession of +the popular fancy. Where the year before the current and universal +phrase had been "federation," the talk was now all for the "nation." +It might well be so. Before the traveler arrived at his destination +further disaster had overtaken the French army, one whole regiment had +deserted under arms to the enemy, and individual soldiers were +escaping by hundreds. The officers of the Fourth Artillery were +resigning and running away in about equal numbers. Consternation ruled +supreme, treason and imbecility were everywhere charged against the +authorities. War within, war without, and the army in a state of +collapse! The emigrant princes would return, and France be sold to a +bondage tenfold more galling than that from which she was struggling +to free herself. + +When Buonaparte reached Paris on May twenty-eighth, 1792, the outlook +was poor for a suppliant, bankrupt in funds and nearly so in +reputation; but he was undaunted, and his application for +reinstatement in the artillery was made without the loss of a moment. +A new minister of war had been appointed but a few days before,--there +were six changes in that office during as many months,--and the +assistant now in charge of the artillery seemed favorable to the +request. For a moment he thought of restoring the suppliant to his +position, but events were marching too swiftly, and demands more +urgent jostled aside the claims of an obscure lieutenant with a shady +character. Buonaparte at once grasped the fact that he could win his +cause only by patience or by importunity, and began to consider how he +should arrange for a prolonged stay in the capital. His scanty +resources were already exhausted, but he found Bourrienne, a former +school-fellow at Brienne, in equal straits, waiting like himself for +something to turn up. Over their meals in a cheap restaurant on the +Rue St. Honoré they discussed various means of gaining a livelihood, +and seriously contemplated a partnership in subletting furnished +rooms. But Bourrienne very quickly obtained the post of secretary in +the embassy at Stuttgart, so that his comrade was left to make his +struggle alone by pawning what few articles of value he possessed. + +The days and weeks were full of incidents terrible and suggestive in +their nature. The Assembly dismissed the King's body-guard on May +twenty-ninth; on June thirteenth, the Girondists were removed from the +ministry; within a few days it was known at court that Prussia had +taken the field as an ally of Austria, and on the seventeenth a +conservative, Feuillant cabinet was formed. Three days later the +popular insurrection began, on the twenty-sixth the news of the +coalition was announced, and on the twenty-eighth Lafayette endeavored +to stay the tide of furious discontent which was now rising in the +Assembly. But it was as ruthless as that of the ocean, and on July +eleventh the country was declared in danger. There was, however, a +temporary check to the rush, a moment of repose in which the King, on +the fourteenth, celebrated among his people the fall of the Bastille. +But an address from the local assembly at Marseilles had arrived, +demanding the dethronement of Louis and the abolition of the monarchy. +Such was the impatience of the great southern city that, without +waiting for the logical effect of their declaration, its inhabitants +determined to make a demonstration in Paris. On the thirtieth a +deputation five hundred strong arrived before the capital. On August +third, they entered the city singing the immortal song which bears +their name, but which was written at Strasburg by an officer of +engineers, Rouget de Lisle. The southern fire of the newcomers kindled +again the flame of Parisian sedition, and the radicals fanned it. At +last, on August tenth, the conflagration burst forth in an uprising +such as had not yet been seen of all that was outcast and lawless in +the great town; with them consorted the discontented and the envious, +the giddy and the frivolous, the curious and the fickle, all the +unstable elements of society. This time the King was unnerved; in +despair he fled for asylum to the chamber of the Assembly. That body, +unsympathetic for him, but sensitive to the ragings of the mob +without, found the fugitive unworthy of his office. Before night the +kingship was abolished, and the royal family were imprisoned in the +Temple. + +There is no proof that the young Corsican was at this time other than +an interested spectator. In a hurried letter written to Joseph on May +twenty-ninth he notes the extreme confusion of affairs, remarks that +Pozzo di Borgo is on good terms with the minister of war, and +recommends his brother to keep on good terms with Paoli. There is a +characteristic little paragraph on the uniform of the national guard. +Though he makes no reference to the purpose of his journey, it is +clear that he is calm, assured that in the wholesale flight of +officers a man like himself is assured of restoration to rank and +duty. Two others dated June fourteenth and eighteenth respectively are +scarcely more valuable. He gives a crude and superficial account of +French affairs internal and external, of no value as history. He had +made unsuccessful efforts to revive the plea for their mother's +mulberry subsidies, had dined with Mme. Permon, had visited their +sister Marianna at St. Cyr, where she had been called Elisa to +distinguish her from another Marianna. He speculates on the chance of +her marrying without a dot. In quiet times, the wards of St. Cyr +received, on leaving, a dowry of three thousand livres, with three +hundred more for an outfit; but as matters then were, the +establishment was breaking up and there were no funds for that +purpose. Like the rest, the Corsican girl was soon to be stripped of +her pretty uniform, the neat silk gown, the black gloves, and the +dainty bronze slippers which Mme. de Maintenon had prescribed for the +noble damsels at that royal school. In another letter written four +days later there is a graphic account of the threatening +demonstrations made by the rabble and a vivid description which +indicates Napoleon's being present when the mob recoiled at the very +door of the Tuileries before the calm and dignified courage of the +King. There is even a story, told as of the time, by Bourrienne, a +very doubtful authority, but probably invented later, of Buonaparte's +openly expressing contempt for riots. "How could the King let the +rascals in! He should have shot down a few hundred, and the rest would +have run." This statement, like others made by Bourrienne, is to be +received with the utmost caution. + +[Illustration: From the collection of W. C. Crane. +Bonaparte, General in Chief of the Army of Italy.] + +In a letter written about the beginning of July, probably to Lucien or +possibly to Joseph, and evidently intended to be read in the Jacobin +Club of Ajaccio, there are clear indications of its writer's temper. +He speaks with judicious calmness of the project for educational +reform; of Lafayette's appearance before the Assembly, which had +pronounced the country in danger and was now sitting in permanence, as +perhaps necessary to prevent its taking an extreme and dangerous +course; of the French as no longer deserving the pains men took for +them, since they were a people old and without continuity or +coherence;[27] of their leaders as poor creatures engaged on low +plots; and of the damper which such a spectacle puts on ambition. +Clearly the lesson of moderation which he inculcates is for the first +time sincerely given. The preacher, according to his own judgment for +the time being, is no Frenchman, no demagogue, nothing but a simple +Corsican anxious to live far from the madness of mobs and the +emptiness of so-called glory. + + [Footnote 27: The rare and curious pamphlet entitled + "Manuscrit de l'Île d'Elbe," attributed to Montholon and + probably published by Edward O'Meara, contains headings + for ten chapters which were dictated by Napoleon at Elba + on February twenty-second, 1815. The argument is: The + Bourbons ascended the throne, in the person of Henry IV, + by conquering the so-called Holy League against the + Protestants, and by the consent of the people; a third + dynasty thus followed the second; then came the + republic, and its succession was legitimated by victory, + by the will of the people, and by the recognition of all + the powers of Europe. The republic made a new France by + emancipating the Gauls from the rule of the Franks. The + people had raised their leader to the imperial throne in + order to consolidate their new interests: this was the + fourth dynasty, etc., etc. The contemplated book was to + work out in detail this very conception of a nation as + passing through successive phases: at the close of each + it is worn out, but a new rule regenerates it, throwing + off the incrustations and giving room to the life + within. It is interesting to note the genesis of + Napoleon's ideas and the pertinacity with which he held + them.] + +It has been asserted that on the dreadful day of August tenth +Buonaparte's assumed philosophy was laid aside, and that he was a mob +leader at the barricades. His own account of the matter as given at +St. Helena does not bear this out. "I felt," said he, "as if I should +have defended the King if called to do so. I was opposed to those who +would found the republic by means of the populace. Besides, I saw +civilians attacking men in uniforms; that gave me a shock." He said +further in his reminiscences that he viewed the entire scene from the +windows of a furniture shop kept by Fauvelet de Bourrienne, brother +of his old school friend. The impression left after reading his +narrative of the frightful carnage before the Tuileries, of the +indecencies committed by frenzied women at the close of the fight, of +the mad excitement in the neighboring cafés, and of his own calmness +throughout, is that he was in no way connected either with the actors +or their deeds, except to shout, "Hurrah for the nation!" when +summoned to do so by a gang of ruffians who were parading the streets +under the banner of a gory head elevated on a pike.[28] The truth of +his statements cannot be established by any collateral evidence. + + [Footnote 28: Las Cases: Mémorial de Sainte Hélène, V, + 170.] + +It is not likely that an ardent radical leader like Buonaparte, well +known and influential in the Rhone valley, had remained a stranger to +the Marseilles deputation. If the Duchesse d'Abrantès be worthy of any +credence, he was very influential, and displayed great activity with +the authorities during the seventh and eighth, running hither, +thither, everywhere, to secure redress for an illegal domiciliary +visit which her mother, Mme. Permon, had received on the seventh. But +her testimony is of very little value, such is her anxiety to +establish an early intimacy with the great man of her time. Joseph, in +his memoirs,[29] declares that his brother was present at the conflict +of August tenth, and that Napoleon wrote him at the time, "If Louis +XVI had appeared on horseback, he would have conquered." "After the +victory of the Marseillais," continues the passage quoted from the +letter, "I saw a man about to kill a soldier of the guard. I said to +him, 'Southron, let us spare the unfortunate!' 'Art thou from the +South?' 'Yes.' 'Well, then, we will spare him.'" Moreover, it is a +fact that Santerre, the notorious leader of the mob on that day, was +three years later, on the thirteenth of Vendémiaire, most useful to +Buonaparte; that though degraded from the office of general to which +he was appointed in the revolutionary army, he was in 1800 restored to +his rank by the First Consul. All this is consistent with Napoleon's +assertion, but it proves nothing conclusively; and there is certainly +ground for suspicion when we reflect that these events were ultimately +decisive of Buonaparte's fortunes. + + [Footnote 29: Mémoires du roi Joseph, I, 47.] + +The Feuillant ministry fell with the King, and an executive council +composed of radicals took its place. For one single day Paris reeled +like a drunkard, but on the next the shops were open again. On the +following Sunday the opera was packed at a benefit performance for the +widows and orphans of those who had fallen in victory. A few days +later Lafayette, as commander of the armies in the North, issued a +pronunciamento against the popular excesses. He even arrested the +commissioners of the Assembly who were sent to supplant him and take +the ultimate direction of the campaign. But he quickly found that his +old prestige was gone; he had not kept pace with the mad rush of +popular opinion; neither in person nor as the sometime commander of +the National Guard had he any longer the slightest influence. +Impeached and declared an outlaw, he, like the King, lost his balance, +and fled for refuge into the possessions of Liège. The Austrians +violated the sanctuary of neutral territory, and captured him, exactly +as Napoleon at a later day violated the neutrality of Baden in the +case of the Duc d'Enghien. On August twenty-third the strong place of +Longwy was delivered into the hands of the Prussians, the capitulation +being due, as was claimed, to treachery among the French officers. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +Buonaparte the French Jacobin. + + Reinstatement -- Further Solicitation -- Promotion -- + Napoleon and Elisa -- Occupations in Paris -- Return to + Ajaccio -- Disorders in Corsica -- Buonaparte a French + Jacobin -- Expedition against Sardinia -- Course of French + Affairs -- Paoli's Changed Attitude -- Estrangement of + Buonaparte and Paoli -- Mischances in the Preparations + against Sardinia -- Failure of the French Detachment -- + Buonaparte and the Fiasco of the Corsican Detachment -- His + Commission Lapses -- Further Developments in France -- + Results of French Victory -- England's Policy -- Paoli in + Danger -- Denounced and Summoned to Paris. + + +[Sidenote: 1792-93.] + +The committee to which Buonaparte's request for reinstatement was +referred made a report on June twenty-first, 1792, exonerating him +from blame. The reasons given were avowedly based on the +representations of the suppliant himself: first, that Duteil, the +inspector, had given him permission to sail for Corsica in time to +avoid the equinox, a distorted truth; and, second, that the Corsican +authorities had certified to his civism, his good conduct, and his +constant presence at home during his irregular absence from the army, +a truthful statement, but incomplete, since no mention was made of the +disgraceful Easter riots at Ajaccio and of Buonaparte's share in them. +The attitude of the government is clearly expressed in a despatch of +July eighth from the minister of war, Lajard, to Maillard, commander +of the Ajaccio garrison. The misdeeds of Quenza and Buonaparte were of +a civil and not a military nature, cognizable therefore under the new +legislation only by ordinary courts, not by military tribunals. The +uprisings, however, had been duly described to the commissioners by +Peraldi: they state as their opinion that the deputy was ill-informed +and that his judgment should not stand in the way of justice to M. de +Buonaparte. On July tenth the minister of war adopted the committee's +report, and this fact was announced in a letter addressed by him to +Captain Buonaparte! + +The situation is clearly depicted in a letter of August seventh from +Napoleon to Joseph. Current events were so momentous as to overshadow +personal considerations. Besides, there had been no military +misdemeanor at Ajaccio and his reinstatement was sure. As things were, +he would probably establish himself in France, Corsican as his +inclinations were. Joseph must get himself made a deputy for Corsica +to the Assembly, otherwise his rôle would be unimportant. He had been +studying astronomy, a superb science, and with his knowledge of +mathematics easy of acquisition. His book--the history, no doubt--was +copied and ready, but this was no time for publication; besides, he no +longer had the "petty ambition of an author." His family desired he +should go to his regiment (as likewise did the military authorities at +Paris), and thither he would go. + +A formal report in his favor was drawn up on August twentieth. On the +thirtieth he was completely reinstated, or rather his record was +entirely sponged out and consigned, as was hoped, to oblivion; for his +captain's commission was dated back to February sixth, 1792, the day +on which his promotion would have occurred in due course if he had +been present in full standing with his regiment. His arrears for that +rank were to be paid in full. Such success was intoxicating. Monge, +the great mathematician, had been his master at the military school in +Paris, and was now minister of the navy. True to his nature, with the +carelessness of an adventurer and the effrontery of a gambler, the +newly fledged captain promptly put in an application for a position as +lieutenant-colonel of artillery in the sea service. The authorities +must have thought the petition a joke, for the paper was pigeonholed, +and has been found marked S. R., that is, _sans réponse_--without +reply. Probably it was written in earnest, the motive being possibly +an invincible distaste for the regiment in which he had been +disgraced, which was still in command of a colonel who was not +disposed to leniency. + +An easy excuse for shirking duty and returning to the old habits of a +Corsican agitator was at hand. The events of August tenth settled the +fate of all monarchical institutions, even those which were partly +charitable. Among other royal foundations suppressed by the Assembly +on August eighteenth was that of St. Cyr, formally styled the +Establishment of St. Louis. The date fixed for closing was just +subsequent to Buonaparte's promotion, and the pupils were then to be +dismissed. Each beneficiary was to receive a mileage of one livre for +every league she had to traverse. Three hundred and fifty-two was the +sum due to Elisa. Some one must escort an unprotected girl on the long +journey; no one was so suitable as her elder brother and natural +protector. Accordingly, on September first, the brother and sister +appeared before the proper authorities to apply for the traveling +allowance of the latter. Whatever other accomplishments Mlle. de +Buonaparte had learned at the school of St. Louis, she was still as +deficient in writing and spelling as her brother. The formal +requisitions written by both are still extant; they would infuriate +any conscientious teacher in a primary school. Nor did they suffice: +the school authorities demanded an order from both the city and +department officials. It was by the kind intervention of the mayor +that the red tape was cut; the money was paid on the next day, and +that night the brother and the sister lodged in the Holland Patriots' +Hotel in Paris, where they appear to have remained for a week. + +This is the statement of an early biographer, and appears to be borne +out by an autograph letter of Napoleon's, recently found, in which he +says he left Paris on a date which, although the figure is blurred, +seems to be the ninth.[30] Some days would be necessary for the new +captain to procure a further leave of absence. Judging from subsequent +events, it is possible that he was also seeking further acquaintance +and favor with the influential Jacobins of Paris. During the days from +the second to the seventh more than a thousand of the royalists +confined in the prisons of Paris were massacred. It seems incredible +that a man of Napoleon's temperament should have seen and known +nothing of the riotous events connected with such bloodshed. Yet +nowhere does he hint that he had any personal knowledge. It is +possible that he left earlier than is generally supposed, but it is +not likely in view of the known dates of his journey. In any case he +did not seriously compromise himself, doing at the most nothing +further than to make plans for the future. It may have become clear to +him, for it was true and he behaved accordingly, that France was not +yet ready for him, nor he for France. + + [Footnote 30: Napoléon inconnu, II, 408.] + +It is, moreover, a strong indication of Buonaparte's interest in the +French Revolution being purely tentative that as soon as the desired +leave was granted, probably in the second week of September, without +waiting for the all-important fifteen hundred livres of arrears, now +due him, but not paid until a month later, he and his sister set out +for home. They traveled by diligence to Lyons, and thence by the +Rhone to Marseilles. During the few hours' halt of the boat at +Valence, Napoleon's friends, among them some of his creditors, who +apparently bore him no grudge, waited on him with kindly +manifestations of interest. His former landlady, Mme. Bou, although +her bill had been but insignificantly diminished by payments on +account, brought as her gift a basket of the fruit in which the +neighborhood abounds at that season. The regiment was no longer there, +the greater portion, with the colonel, being now on the northeastern +frontier under Dumouriez, facing the victorious legions of Prussia and +Austria. On the fourteenth the travelers were at Marseilles; in that +friendly democratic city they were nearly mobbed as aristocrats +because Elisa wore feathers in her hat. It is said that Napoleon flung +the offending object into the crowd with a scornful "No more +aristocrats than you," and so turned their howls into laughing +approval. It was about a month before the arrears of pay reached +Marseilles, two thousand nine hundred and fifty livres in all, a +handsome sum of money and doubly welcome at such a crisis. It was +probably October tenth when they sailed for Corsica, and on the +seventeenth Buonaparte was once more in his home, no longer so +confident, perhaps, of a career among his own people, but determined +to make another effort. It was his fourth return. Lucien and Fesch +were leaders in the radical club; Joseph was at his old post, his +ambition to represent Ajaccio at Paris was again thwarted, the +successful candidate having been Multedo, a family friend; Louis, as +usual, was disengaged and idle; Mme. Buonaparte and the younger +children were well; he himself was of course triumphantly vindicated +by his promotion. The ready money from the fortune of the old +archdeacon was long since exhausted, to be sure; but the excellent +vineyards, mulberry plantations, and gardens of the family properties +were still productive, and Napoleon's private purse had been +replenished by the quartermaster of his regiment. + +The course of affairs in France had materially changed the aspect of +Corsican politics; the situation was, if anything, more favorable for +a revolutionary venture than ever before. Salicetti had returned to +Corsica after the adjournment of the Constituent Assembly with many +new ideas which he had gathered from observing the conduct of the +Paris commune, and these he unstintingly disseminated among his +sympathizers. They proved to be apt scholars, and quickly caught the +tricks of demagogism, bribery, corruption, and malversation of the +public funds. He had returned to France before Buonaparte arrived, as +a member of the newly elected legislature, but his evil influence +survived his departure, and his lieutenants were ubiquitous and +active. Paoli had been rendered helpless, and was sunk in despair. He +was now commander-in-chief of the regular troops in garrison, but it +was a position to which he had been appointed against his will, for it +weakened his influence with his own party. Pozzo di Borgo, his stanch +supporter and Buonaparte's enemy, was attorney-general in Salicetti's +stead. As Paoli was at the same time general of the volunteer guard, +the entire power of the islands, military and civil, was in his hands: +but the responsibility for good order was likewise his, and the people +were, if anything, more unruly than ever; for it was to their minds +illogical that their idol should exercise such supreme power, not as a +Corsican, but in the name of France. The composition of the two chief +parties had therefore changed materially, and although their +respective views were modified to a certain extent, they were more +embittered than ever against each other. + +Buonaparte could not be neutral; his nature and his surroundings +forbade it. His first step was to resume his command in the +volunteers, and, under pretext of inspecting their posts, to make a +journey through the island; his second was to go through the form of +seeking a reconciliation with Paoli. Corsican historians, in their +eagerness to appropriate the greatness of both Paoli and Napoleon, +habitually misrepresent their relations. At this time each was playing +for his own hand, the elder exclusively for Corsica's advantage as he +saw it; the younger was more ambitious personally, although he was +beginning to see that in the course of the Revolution Corsica would +secure more complete autonomy as a French department than in any other +way. It is not at all clear that as late as this time Paoli was eager +for Napoleon's assistance nor the latter for Paoli's support. The +complete breach came soon and lasted until, when their views no longer +clashed, they both spoke generously one of the other. In the clubs, +among his friends and subordinates at the various military stations, +Napoleon's talk was loud and imperious, his manner haughty and +assuming. A letter written by him at the time to Costa, then +lieutenant in the militia and a thorough Corsican, explains that the +writer is detained from going to Bonifacio by an order from the +general (Paoli) to come to Corte; he will, however, hasten to his post +at the head of the volunteers on the very next day, and there will be +an end to all disorder and irregularity. "Greet our friends, and +assure them of my desire to further their interests." The epistle was +written in Italian, but that fact signifies little in comparison with +the new tone used in speaking about France: "The enemy has abandoned +Verdun and Longwy, and recrossed the river to return home, but our +people are not asleep." Lucien added a postscript explaining that he +had sent a pamphlet to his dear Costa, as to a friend, not as to a +co-worker, for that he had been unwilling to be. Both the brothers +seem already to have considered the possibility of abandoning Corsica. + +No sooner had war been declared against Austria in April, than it +became evident that the powers whose territories bordered on those of +France had previously reached an agreement, and were about to form a +coalition in order to make the war general. The Austrian Netherlands, +what we now know as Belgium, were already saturated with the +revolutionary spirit. It was not probable that much annoyance would +come from that quarter. Spain, Prussia, and Holland would, however, +surely join the alliance; and if the Italian principalities, with the +kingdom of Sardinia, should take the same course, France would be in +dire straits. It was therefore suggested in the Assembly that a blow +should be struck at the house of Savoy, in order to awe both that and +the other courts of Italy into inactivity. The idea of an attack on +Sardinia for this purpose originated in Corsica, but among the friends +of Salicetti, and it was he who urged the scheme successfully. The +sister island was represented as eager to free itself from the control +of Savoy. In order to secure Paoli's influence not only in his own +island, but in Sardinia, where he was likewise well known and admired, +the ministers forced upon him the unwelcome appointment of +lieutenant-general in the regular army, and his friend Peraldi was +sent to prepare a fleet at Toulon. + +The events of August tenth put an end for the time being to +constitutional government in France. The commissioners of the Paris +sections supplanted the municipal council, and Danton, climbing to +power as the representative "plain man," became momentarily the +presiding genius of the new Jacobin commune, which was soon able to +usurp the supreme control of France. A call was issued for the +election by manhood suffrage of a National Convention, and a committee +of surveillance was appointed with the bloodthirsty Marat as its +motive power. At the instigation of this committee large numbers of +royalists, constitutionalists, and others suspected of holding kindred +doctrines, were thrown into prison. The Assembly went through the form +of confirming the new despotism, including both the commune of the +sections and a Jacobin ministry in which Danton held the portfolio of +justice. It then dispersed. On September second began that general +clearance of the jails under mock forms of justice to which reference +has been made. It was really a massacre, and lasted, as has been said, +for five days. Versailles, Lyons, Meaux, Rheims, and Orléans were +similarly "purified." Amid these scenes the immaculate Robespierre, +whose hands were not soiled with the blood spilled on August tenth, +appeared as the calm statesman controlling the wild vagaries of the +rough and impulsive but unselfish and uncalculating Danton. These two, +with Philip Égalité and Collot d'Herbois, were among those elected to +represent Paris in the Convention. That body met on September +twenty-first. As they sat in the amphitheater of the Assembly, the +Girondists, or moderate republicans, who were in a strong majority, +were on the right of the president's chair. High up on the extreme +left were the Jacobins, or "Mountain"; between were placed those timid +trimmers who were called the "Plain" and the "Marsh" according to the +degree of their democratic sentiments. The members were, of course, +without exception republicans. The first act of the Convention was to +abolish the monarchy, and to declare France a republic. The next was +to establish an executive council. It was decreed that September +twenty-second, 1792, was the "first day of the year I of the +republic." Under the leadership of Brissot and Roland, the Girondists +asserted their power as the majority, endeavoring to restore order in +Paris, and to bridle the extreme Jacobins. But notwithstanding its +right views and its numbers, the Girondist party displayed no +sagacity; before the year I was three months old, the unscrupulous +Jacobins, with the aid of the Paris commune, had reasserted their +supremacy. + +The declaration of the republic only hastened the execution of +Salicetti's plan regarding Sardinia, and the Convention was more +energetic than the Legislative had been. The fleet was made ready, +troops from France were to be embarked at Villefranche, and a force +composed in part of regulars, in part of militia, was to be equipped +in Corsica and to sail thence to join the main expedition. +Buonaparte's old battalion was among those that were selected from the +Corsican volunteers. From the outset Paoli had been unfriendly to the +scheme; its supporters, whose zeal far outran their means, were not +his friends. Nevertheless, he was in supreme command of both regulars +and volunteers, and the government having authorized the expedition, +the necessary orders had to be issued through him as the only channel +of authority. Buonaparte's reappearance among his men had been of +course irregular. Being now a captain of artillery in the Fourth +Regiment, on active service and in the receipt of full pay, he could +no longer legally be a lieutenant-colonel of volunteers, a position +which had also been made one of emolument. But he was not a man to +stand on slight formalities, and had evidently determined to seize +both horns of the dilemma. + +Paoli, as a French official, of course could not listen for an instant +to such a preposterous notion. But as a patriot anxious to keep all +the influence he could, and as a family friend of the Buonapartes, he +was unwilling to order the young captain back to his post in France, +as he might well have done. The interview between the two men at Corte +was, therefore, indecisive. The older was benignant but firm in +refusing his formal consent; the younger pretended to be indignant +that he could not secure his rights: it is said that he even +threatened to denounce in Paris the anti-nationalist attitude of his +former hero. So it happened that Buonaparte returned to Ajaccio with a +permissive authorization, and, welcomed by his men, assumed a command +to which he could have no claim, while Paoli shut his eyes to an act +of flagrant insubordination. Paoli saw that Buonaparte was irrevocably +committed to revolutionary France; Buonaparte was convinced, or +pretended to be, that Paoli was again leaning toward an English +protectorate. French imperialist writers hint without the slightest +basis of proof that both Paoli and Pozzo di Borgo were in the pay of +England. Many have believed, in the same gratuitous manner, that there +was a plot among members of the French party to give Buonaparte the +chance, by means of the Sardinian expedition, to seize the chief +command at least of the Corsican troops, and thus eventually to +supplant Paoli. If this conjecture be true, Paoli either knew nothing +of the conspiracy, or behaved as he did because his own plans were not +yet ripe. The drama of his own personal perplexities, cross-purposes, +and ever false positions, was rapidly moving to an end; the logic of +events was too strong for the upright but perplexed old patriot, and a +scene or two would soon complete the final act of his public career. + +The plan for invading Sardinia was over-complex and too nicely +adjusted. One portion of the fleet was to skirt the Italian shores, +make demonstrations in the various harbors, and demand in one of +them--that of Naples--public reparation for an insult already offered +to the new French flag, which displayed the three colors of liberty. +The other portion was first to embark the Corsican guards and French +troops at Ajaccio, then to unite with the former in the Bay of Palma, +whence both were to proceed against Cagliari. But the French soldiers +to be taken from the Army of the Var under General Anselme were in +fact non-existent; the only military force to be found was a portion +of the Marseilles national guard--mere boys, unequipped, untrained, +and inexperienced. Winds and waves, too, were adverse: two of the +vessels were wrecked, and one was disabled. The rest were badly +demoralized, and their crews became unruly. On the arrival of the +ships at Ajaccio, a party of roistering sailors went ashore, +affiliated immediately with the French soldiers of the garrison, and +in the rough horse-play of such occasions picked a quarrel with +certain of the Corsican militia, killing two of their number. The +character of the islanders showed itself at once in further violence +and the fiercest threats. The tumult was finally allayed, but it was +perfectly clear that for Corsicans and Marseillais to be embarked on +the same vessel was to invite mutiny, riot, and bloodshed. + +Buonaparte thought he saw his way to an independent command, and at +once proposed what was manifestly the only alternative--a separate +Corsican expedition. The French fleet accordingly embarked the +garrison troops, and proceeded on its way; the Corsicans remained +ashore, and Buonaparte with them. Scenes like that at Ajaccio were +repeated in the harbor of St. Florent, and the attack on Cagliari by +the French failed, partly, as might be supposed, from the poor +equipment of the fleet and the wretched quality of the men, partly +because the two flotillas, or what was left of them, failed to effect +a junction at the appointed place and time. When they did unite, it +was February fourteenth, 1793; the men were ill fed and mutinous; the +troops that landed to storm the place fell into a panic, and would +actually have surrendered if the officers had not quickly reëmbarked +them. The costly enterprise met with but a single success: Naples was +cowed, and the court promised neutrality, with reparation for the +insult to the tricolor. + +The Corsican expedition was quite as ill-starred as the French. Paoli +accepted Buonaparte's plan, but appointed his nephew, Colonna-Cesari, +to lead, with instructions to see that, if possible, "this unfortunate +expedition shall end in smoke."[31] The disappointed but stubborn +young aspirant remained in his subordinate place as an officer of the +second battalion of the Corsican national guard. It was a month before +the volunteers could be equipped and a French corvette with her +attendant feluccas could be made ready to sail. On February twentieth, +1793, the vessels were finally armed, manned, and provisioned. The +destination of the flotilla was the Magdalena Islands, one of which is +Caprera, since renowned as the home of Garibaldi. The troops embarked +and put to sea. Almost at once the wind fell; there was a two days' +calm, and the ships reached their destination with diminished supplies +and dispirited crews. The first attack, made on St. Stephen, was +successful. Buonaparte and his guns were then landed on that spot to +bombard, across a narrow strait, Magdalena, the chief town on the main +island. The enemy's fire was soon silenced, and nothing remained but +for the corvette to work slowly round the intervening island of +Caprera, and take possession. The vessel had suffered slightly from +the enemy's fire, two of her crew having been killed. On the pretense +that a mutiny was imminent, Colonna-Cesari declared that coöperation +between the sloop and the shore batteries was no longer possible; the +artillery and their commander were reëmbarked only with the utmost +difficulty; the unlucky expedition returned on February twenty-seventh +to Bonifacio. + + [Footnote 31: Reported by Arrighi and Renucci and given + in Napoléon inconnu, II, 418.] + +Both Buonaparte and Quenza were enraged with Paoli's nephew, declaring +him to have acted traitorously. It is significant of the utter anarchy +then prevailing that nobody was punished for the disgraceful fiasco. +Buonaparte, on landing, at once bade farewell to his volunteers. He +reported to the war ministry in Paris--and a copy of the memorial was +sent to Paoli as responsible for his nephew--that the Corsican +volunteers had been destitute of food, clothing, and munitions; but +that nevertheless their gallantry had overcome all difficulties, and +that in the hour of victory they were abased by the shameful conduct +of their comrades. He must have expressed himself freely, for he was +mobbed by the sailors in the square of Bonifacio. The men from +Bocagnano, partly from the Buonaparte estates at that place, rescued +him from serious danger.[32] When he entered Ajaccio, on March third, +he found that he was no longer, even by assumption, a lieutenant-colonel; +for during his short absence the whole Corsican guard had been +disbanded to make way for two battalions of light infantry whose +officers were to be appointed by the directory of the island. + + [Footnote 32: For the original of this protest see + Napoléon inconnu, II, 439.] + +Strange news now greeted his ears. Much of what had occurred since his +departure from Paris he already knew. France having destroyed root and +branch the tyranny of feudal privileges, the whole social edifice was +slack in every joint, and there was no strong hand to tighten the +bolts; for the King, in dallying with foreign courts, had virtually +deserted his people. The monarchy had therefore fallen, but not until +its friends had resorted to the expedient of a foreign war as a prop +to its fortunes. The early victories won by Austria and Prussia had +stung the nation to madness. Robespierre and Danton having become +dictators, all moderate policy was eclipsed. The executive council of +the Convention, determined to appease the nation, gathered their +strength in one vigorous effort, and put three great armies in the +field. On November sixth, 1792, to the amazement of the world, +Dumouriez won the battle of Jemmapes, thus conquering the Austrian +Netherlands as far north as Liège. + +The Scheldt, which had been closed since 1648 through the influence of +England and Holland, was reopened, trade resumed its natural channel, +and, in the exuberance of popular joy, measures were taken for the +immediate establishment of a Belgian republic. The other two armies, +under Custine and Kellermann, were less successful. The former, having +occupied Frankfort, was driven back to the Rhine; the latter defeated +the Allies at Valmy, but failed in the task of coming to Custine's +support at the proper moment for combined action. Meantime the +agitation in Paris had taken the form of personal animosity to "Louis +Capet," as the leaders of the disordered populace called the King. In +November he was summoned to the bar of the Convention and questioned. +When it came to the consideration of an actual trial, the Girondists, +willing to save the prisoner's life, claimed that the Convention had +no jurisdiction, and must appeal to the sovereign people for +authorization. The Jacobins insisted on the sovereign power of the +Convention, Robespierre protesting in the name of the people against +an appeal to the people. Supported by the noisy outcries not only of +the Parisian populace, but of their followers elsewhere, the radicals +prevailed. By a vote of three hundred and sixty-six to three hundred +and fifty-five the verdict of death was pronounced on January +seventeenth, 1793, and four days later the sentence was executed. This +act was a defiance to all monarchs, or, in other words, to all Europe. + +The younger Pitt was at this juncture prime minister of England. Like +the majority of his countrymen, he had mildly approved the course of +the French Revolution down to 1789; with them, in the same way, his +opinions had since that time undergone a change. By the aid of Burke's +biased but masterful eloquence the English people were gradually +convinced that Jacobinism, violence, and crime were the essence of the +movement, constitutional reform but a specious pretext. Between 1789 +and 1792 there was a rising tide of adverse public sentiment so swift +and strong that Pitt was unable to follow it. By the execution of +Louis the English moderates were silenced; the news was received with +a cry of horror, and the nation demanded war. Were kings' heads to +fall, and republican ideas, supported by republican armies, to spread +like a conflagration? The still monarchical liberals of England could +give no answer to the case of Louis or to the instance of Belgium, and +were stunned. The English anti-Jacobins became as fanatical as the +French Jacobins. Pitt could not resist the torrent. Yet in his extreme +necessity he saw his chance for a double stroke: to throw the blame +for the war on France, and to consolidate once more his nearly +vanished power in parliament. With masterly adroitness France was +tempted into a declaration of war against England. Enthusiasm raged in +Paris like fire among dry stubble. France, if so it must be, against +the world! Liberty and equality her religion! The land a camp! The +entire people an army! Three hundred thousand men to be selected, +equipped, and drilled at once! + +Nothing indicates that Buonaparte was in any way moved by the terrible +massacres of September, or even by the news of the King's unmerited +fate. But the declaration of war was a novelty which must have deeply +interested him; for what was Paoli now to do? From gratitude to +England he had repeatedly and earnestly declared that he could never +take up arms against her. He was already a lieutenant-general in the +service of her enemy, his division was assigned to the feeble and +disorganized Army of Italy, which was nominally being equipped for +active service, and the leadership, so ran the news received at +Ajaccio, had been conferred on the Corsican director. The fact was +that the radicals of the Convention had long been aware of the old +patriot's devotion to constitutional monarchy, and now saw their way +to be rid of so dangerous a foe. Three successive commanders of that +army had already found disgrace in their attempts with inadequate +means to dislodge the Sardinian troops from the mountain passes of the +Maritime Alps. Mindful, therefore, of their fate, and of his +obligations to England, Paoli firmly refused the proffered honor. +Suspicion as to the existence of an English party in the island had +early been awakened among the members of the Mountain; for half the +Corsican delegation to the Convention had opposed the sentence passed +on the King, and Salicetti was the only member who voted in the +affirmative. When the ill-starred Sardinian expedition reached Toulon, +the blame of failure was laid by the Jacobins on Paoli's shoulders. + +Salicetti, who was now a real power among the leaders at Paris, felt +that he must hasten to his department in order to forestall events, if +possible, and keep together the remnants of sympathy with France; he +was appointed one of a commission to enforce in the island the decrees +of the Convention. The commission was well received and the feeling +against France was being rapidly allayed when, most unexpectedly, +fatal news arrived from Paris. In the preceding November Lucien +Buonaparte had made the acquaintance in Ajaccio of Huguet de +Sêmonville, who was on his way to Constantinople as a special envoy of +the provisory council then in charge of the Paris administration. In +all probability he was sent to test Paoli's attitude. Versatile and +insinuating, he displayed great activity among the islanders. On one +occasion he addressed the radical club of Ajaccio--but though +eloquent, he was no linguist, and his French rhetoric would have +fallen flat but for the fervid zeal of Lucien, who at the close stood +in his place and rendered the ambassador's speech in Italian to an +enthralled audience. This event among others showed the younger +brother's mettle; the intimacy thus inaugurated ripened quickly and +endured for long. The ambassador was recalled to the mainland on +February second, 1793, and took his new-found friend with him as +secretary or useful man. Both were firm Jacobins, and the master +having failed in making any impression on Paoli during his Corsican +sojourn, the man, as the facts stand, took a mean revenge by +denouncing the lieutenant-general as a traitor before a political +meeting in Toulon. Lucien's friends have thought the words unstudied +and unpremeditated, uttered in the heat of unripe oratory. This may +be, but he expressed no repentance and the responsibility rests upon +his memory. As a result of the denunciation an address calumniating +the Corsican leader in the most excited terms was sent by the Toulon +Jacobins to the deputy of the department in Paris. Of all this +Napoleon knew nothing: he and Lucien were slightly alienated because +the latter thought his brother but a lukewarm revolutionary. The news +of the defection of Dumouriez had just arrived at the capital, public +opinion was inflamed, and on April second Paoli, who seemed likely to +be a second Dumouriez, was summoned to appear before the Convention. +For a moment he became again the most popular man in Corsica. He had +always retained many warm personal friends even among the radicals; +the royalists were now forever alienated from a government which had +killed their king; the church could no longer expect protection when +impious men were in power. These three elements united immediately +with the Paolists to protest against the arbitrary act of the +Convention. Even in that land of confusion there was a degree of chaos +hitherto unequaled. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +A Jacobin Hegira. + + The Waning of Corsican Patriotism -- Rise of French + Radicalism -- Alliance with Salicetti -- Another Scheme for + Leadership -- Failure to Seize the Citadel of Ajaccio -- + Second Plan -- Paoli's Attitude Toward the Convention -- + Buonaparte Finally Discredited in Corsica -- Paoli Turns to + England -- Plans of the Buonaparte Family -- Their Arrival + in Toulon -- Napoleon's Character -- His Corsican Career -- + Lessons of His Failures -- His Ability, Situation, and + Experience. + + +[Sidenote: 1793.] + +Buonoparte was for an instant among the most zealous of Paoli's +supporters, and, taking up his ever-ready pen, he wrote two +impassioned papers whose respective tenors it is not easy to +reconcile: one an appeal to the Convention in Paoli's behalf, the +other a demand addressed to the municipality of Ajaccio that the +people should renew their oath of allegiance to France. The +explanation is somewhat recondite, perhaps, but not discreditable. +Salicetti, as chairman of a committee of the convention on Corsican +affairs, had conferred with Paoli on April thirteenth. The result was +so satisfactory that on the sixteenth the latter was urged to attend a +second meeting at Bastia in the interest of Corsican reconciliation +and internal peace. Meantime Lucien's performance at Marseilles had +fired the train which led to the Convention's action against Paoli, +and on the seventeenth the order for his arrest reached Salicetti, who +was of course charged with its execution. For this he was not +prepared, nor was Buonaparte. The essential of Corsican annexation to +France was order. The Corsican folk flocked to protect Paoli in +Corte, and the local government declared for him. There was inchoate +rebellion and within a few days the districts of Calvi and Bastia were +squarely arrayed with Salicetti against Bonifacio and Ajaccio, which +supported Paoli and Pozzo di Borgo. The Buonapartes were convinced +that the decree of the Convention was precipitate, and pleaded for its +recall. At the same time they saw no hope for peace in Corsica, except +through incorporation with France. But compromise proved impossible. +There was a truce when Paoli on April twenty-sixth wrote to the +Convention regretting that he could not obey their summons on account +of infirmities, and declaring his loyalty to France. In consequence +the Convention withdrew its decree and sent a new commission of which +Salicetti was not a member. This was in May, on the eve of the +Girondin overthrow. The measures of reconciliation proved unavailing, +because the Jacobins of Marseilles, learning that Paoli was Girondist +in sentiment, stopped the commission, and forbade their proceeding to +Corsica. + +Meantime Captain Buonaparte's French regiment had already been some +five months in active service. If his passion had been only for +military glory, that was to be found nowhere so certainly as in its +ranks, where he should have been. But his passion for political renown +was clearly far stronger. Where could it be so easily gratified as in +Corsica under the present conditions? The personality of the young +adventurer had for a long time been curiously double: but while he had +successfully retained the position of a French officer in France, his +identity as a Corsican patriot had been nearly obliterated in Corsica +by his constant quarrels and repeated failures. Having become a French +radical, he had been forced into a certain antagonism to Paoli and +had thereby jeopardized both his fortunes and his career as far as +they were dependent on Corsican support. But with Paoli under the ban +of the Convention, and suspected of connivance with English schemes, +there might be a revulsion of feeling and a chance to make French +influence paramount once more in the island under the leadership of +the Buonapartes and their friends. For the moment Napoleon preserved +the outward semblance of the Corsican patriot, but he seems to have +been weary at heart of the thankless rôle and entirely ready to +exchange it for another. Whatever may have been his plan or the +principles of his conduct, it appears as if the decisive step now to +be taken had no relation to either plan or principles, but that it was +forced upon him by a chance development of events which he could not +have foreseen, and which he was utterly unable to control. + +It is unknown whether Salicetti or he made the first advances in +coming to an understanding for mutual support, or when that +understanding was reached, but it existed as early as January, 1793, a +fact conclusively shown by a letter of the former dated early in that +month. It was April fifth when Salicetti reached Corsica; the news of +Paoli's denunciation by the Convention arrived, as has been said, on +the seventeenth. Seeing how nicely adjusted the scales of local +politics were, the deputy was eager to secure favor from Paris, and +wrote on the sixteenth an account of how warmly his commission had +been received. Next day the blow of Paoli's condemnation fell, and it +became plain that compromise was no longer possible. When even the +Buonapartes were supporting Paoli, the reconciliation of the island +with France was clearly impracticable. Salicetti did not hesitate, but +as between Paoli and Corsica with no career on the one side, and the +possibilities of a great career under France on the other, quickly +chose the latter. The same considerations weighed with Buonaparte; he +followed his patron, and as a reward was appointed by the French +commission inspector-general of artillery for Corsica. + +Salicetti had granted what Paoli would not: Buonaparte was free to +strike his blow for Corsican leadership. With swift and decisive +measures the last scene in his Corsican adventures was arranged. +Several great guns which had been saved from a war-ship wrecked in the +harbor were lying on the shore unmounted. The inspector-general +hypocritically declared that they were a temptation to insurgents and +a menace to the public peace; they should be stored in the citadel. +His plan was to seize the moment when the heavy pieces were passing +the drawbridge, and at the head of his followers to take possession of +the stronghold he had so long coveted, and so often failed to capture. +If he could hold it for the Convention, a career in Corsica would be +at last assured. + +But again he was doomed to disappointment. The former garrison had +been composed of French soldiers. On the failure of the Sardinian +expedition most of these had been landed at Toulon, where they still +were. The men in the citadel of Ajaccio were therefore in the main +islanders, although some French infantry and the French gunners were +still there; the new commander was a Paolist who refused to be +hoodwinked, and would not act without an authorization from his +general-in-chief. The value of the seizure depended on its promptness. +In order to secure a sufficient number of faithful followers, +Buonaparte started on foot for Bastia to consult the commission. +Learning that he was already a suspect at Corte and in danger of +arrest, he turned on his steps only to be confronted at Bocognano by a +band of Peraldi's followers. Two shepherds from his own estate found +a place of concealment for him in a house belonging to their friends, +and he passed a day in hiding, escaping after nightfall to Ucciani, +whence he returned to Ajaccio in safety.[33] Thwarted in one notion, +Buonaparte then proposed to the followers he already had two +alternatives: to erect a barricade behind which the guns could be +mounted and trained on the citadel, or, easier still, to carry one of +the pieces to some spot before the main entrance and then batter in +the gate. Neither scheme was considered feasible, and it was +determined to secure by bribes, if possible, the coöperation of a +portion of the garrison. The attempt failed through the integrity of a +single man, and is interesting only as having been Napoleon's first +lesson in an art which was thenceforward an unfailing resource. Rumors +of these proceedings soon reached the friends of Paoli, and Buonaparte +was summoned to report immediately at Corte. Such was the intensity of +popular bitterness against him in Ajaccio for his desertion of Paoli +that after a series of narrow escapes from arrest he was compelled to +flee in disguise and by water to Bastia, which he reached on May +tenth, 1793. Thwarted in their efforts to seize Napoleon, the hostile +party vented its rage on the rest of the family, hunting the mother +and children from their town house, which was pillaged and burned, +first to Milleli, then through jungle and over hilltops to the lonely +tower of Capitello near the sea. + + [Footnote 33: Both these men were generously remembered + in the secret codicils of Napoleon's will.] + +A desire for revenge on his Corsican persecutors would now give an +additional stimulus to Buonaparte, and still another device to secure +the passionately desired citadel of Ajaccio was proposed by him to the +commissioners of the Convention, and adopted by them. The remnants of +a Swiss regiment stationed near by were to be marched into the city, +as if for embarkment; several French war vessels from the harbor of +St. Florent, including one frigate, with troops, munitions, and +artillery on board, were to appear unexpectedly before the city, land +their men and guns, and then, with the help of the Switzers and such +of the citizens as espoused the French cause, were to overawe the town +and seize the citadel. Corsican affairs had now reached a crisis, for +this was a virtual declaration of war. Paoli so understood it, and +measures of mutual defiance were at once taken by both sides. The +French commissioners formally deposed the officials who sympathized +with Paoli; they, in turn, took steps to increase the garrison of +Ajaccio, and to strengthen the popular sentiment in their favor. + +On receipt of the news that he had been summoned to Paris and that +hostile commissioners had been sent to take his place, Paoli had +immediately forwarded, by the hands of two friendly representatives, +the temperate letter in which he had declared his loyalty to France. +In it he had offered to resign and leave Corsica. His messengers were +seized and temporarily detained, but in the end they reached Paris, +and were kindly received. On May twenty-ninth they appeared on the +floor of the Convention, and won their cause. On June fifth the former +decree was revoked, and two days later a new and friendly commission +of two members started for Corsica. But at Marseilles they fell into +the hands of the Jacobin mob, and were arrested. Ignorant of these +favorable events, and the untoward circumstances by which their effect +was thwarted, the disheartened statesman had written and forwarded on +May fourteenth a second letter, of the same tenor as the first. This +measure likewise had failed of effect, for the messenger had been +stopped at Bastia, now the focus of Salicetti's influence, and the +letter had never reached its destination. + +It was probably in this interval that Paoli finally adopted, as a last +desperate resort, the hitherto hazy idea of putting the island under +English protection, in order to maintain himself in the mission to +which he felt that Providence had called him. The actual departure of +Napoleon's expedition from St. Florent gave the final impulse. That +event so inflamed the passions of the conservative party in Ajaccio +that the Buonaparte family could no longer think of returning within a +reasonable time to their home. Some desperate resolution must be +taken, though it should involve leaving their small estates to be +ravaged, their slender resources to be destroyed, and abandoning their +partizans to proscription and imprisonment. They finally found a +temporary asylum with a relative in Calvi. The attacking flotilla had +been detained nearly a week by a storm, and reached Ajaccio on May +twenty-ninth, in the very height of these turmoils. It was too late +for any possibility of success. The few French troops on shore were +cowed, and dared not show themselves when a party landed from the +ships. On the contrary, Napoleon and his volunteers were received with +a fire of musketry, and, after spending two anxious days in an +outlying tower which they had seized and held, were glad to reëmbark +and sail away. Their leader, after still another narrow escape from +seizure, rejoined his family at Calvi. The Jacobin commission held a +meeting, and determined to send Salicetti to justify their course at +Paris. He carried with him a wordy paper written by Buonaparte in his +worst style and spelling, setting forth the military and political +situation in Corsica, and containing a bitter tirade against Paoli, +which remains to lend some color to the charge that the writer had +been, since his leader's return from exile, a spy and an informer, +influenced by no high principle of patriotism, but only by a base +ambition to supplant the aged president, and then to adopt whichever +plan would best further his own interest: ready either to establish a +virtual autonomy in his fatherland, or to deliver it entirely into the +hands of France.[34] + + [Footnote 34: For this paper, see Napoléon inconnu, II, + 462. Jung: Bonaparte et son temps, II, 266 and 498. + There appear to have been an official portion intended + to be filed, and a free, carelessly written running + commentary on men and things. The passage quoted is + taken from the latter.] + +In this painful document Buonaparte sets forth in fiery phrase the +early enthusiasm of republicans for the return of Paoli, and their +disillusionment when he surrounded himself with venal men like Pozzo +di Borgo, with relatives like his nephew Leonetti, with his vile +creatures in general. The misfortunes of the Sardinian expedition, the +disgraceful disorders of the island, the failure of the commissioners +to secure Ajaccio, are all alike attributed to Paoli. "Can perfidy +like this invade the human heart?... What fatal ambition overmasters a +graybeard of sixty-eight?... On his face are goodness and gentleness, +in his heart hate and vengeance; he has an oily sensibility in his +eyes, and gall in his soul, but neither character nor strength." These +were the sentiments proper to a radical of the times, and they found +acceptance among the leaders of that class in Paris. More moderate men +did what they could to avert the impending breach, but in vain. +Corsica was far, communication slow, and the misunderstanding which +occurred was consequently unavoidable. It was not until July first +that Paoli received news of the pacificatory decrees passed by the +Convention more than a month before, and then it was too late; groping +in the dark, and unable to get news, he had formed his judgment from +what was going on in Corsica, and had therefore committed himself to a +change of policy. To him, as to most thinking men, the entire +structure of France, social, financial, and political, seemed rotten. +Civil war had broken out in Vendée; in Brittany the wildest excesses +passed unpunished; the great cities of Marseilles, Toulon, and Lyons +were in a state of anarchy; the revolutionary tribunal had been +established in Paris; the Committee of Public Safety had usurped the +supreme power; the France to which he had intrusted the fortunes of +Corsica was no more. Already an agent was in communication with the +English diplomats in Italy. On July tenth Salicetti arrived in Paris; +on the seventeenth Paoli was declared a traitor and an outlaw, and his +friends were indicted for trial. But the English fleet was already in +the Mediterranean, and although the British protectorate over Corsica +was not established until the following year, in the interval the +French and their few remaining sympathizers on the island were able at +best to hold only the three towns of Bastia, St. Florent, and Calvi. + +After the last fiasco before the citadel of Ajaccio, the situation of +the Buonapartes was momentarily desperate. Lucien says in his memoirs +that shortly before his brother had spoken longingly of India, of the +English empire as destined to spread with every year, and of the +career which its expansion opened to good officers of artillery, who +were scarce among the British--scarce enough everywhere, he thought. +"If I ever choose that career," said he, "I hope you will hear of me. +In a few years I shall return thence a rich nabob, and bring fine +dowries for our three sisters." But the scheme was deferred and then +abandoned. Salicetti had arranged for his own return to Paris, where +he would be safe. Napoleon felt that flight was the only resort for +him and his. Accordingly, on June eleventh, three days earlier than +his patron, he and Joseph, accompanied by Fesch, embarked with their +mother and the rest of the family to join Lucien, who had remained at +Toulon, where they arrived on the thirteenth. The Jacobins of that +city had received Lucien, as a sympathetic Corsican, with honor. +Doubtless his family, homeless and destitute for their devotion to the +republic, would find encouragement and help until some favorable turn +in affairs should restore their country to France, and reinstate them +not only in their old possessions, but in such new dignities as would +fitly reward their long and painful devotion. Such, at least, appears +to have been Napoleon's general idea. He was provided with a legal +certificate that his family was one of importance and the richest in +the department. The Convention had promised compensation to those who +had suffered losses. + +As had been hoped, on their arrival the Buonapartes were treated with +every mark of distinction, and ample provision was made for their +comfort. By act of the Convention, women and old men in such +circumstances received seventy-five livres a month, infants forty-five +livres. Lads received simply a present of twenty-five livres. With the +preliminary payment of one hundred and fifty livres, which they +promptly received, the Buonapartes were better off than they had been +at home. Lucien had appropriated Napoleon's certificate of birth in +order to appear older than he was, and, having now developed into a +fluent demagogue, was soon earning a small salary in the commissary +department of the army. Fesch also found a comfortable berth in the +same department. Joseph calmly displayed Napoleon's commission in the +National Guard as his own, and received a higher place with a better +salary. The sovereignty of the Convention was everywhere acknowledged, +their revolutionary courts were established far and wide, and their +legations, clothed with dictatorial power, were acknowledged in every +camp of the land as supreme, superior even to the commanders-in-chief. +It was not exactly a time for further military irregularities, and +Napoleon, armed with a certificate from Salicetti that his presence in +Corsica for the past six months had been necessary, betook himself to +the army headquarters at Nice, where a detachment of his regiment was +now stationed. When he arrived, no awkward questions were asked by the +authorities. The town had but recently been captured, men were needed +to hold it, and the Corsican refugee was promptly appointed captain of +the shore battery. To casual observers he appeared perfectly content +in this subordinate position. He still cherished the hope, it seems, +that he might find some opportunity to lead a successful expedition +against the little citadel of Ajaccio. Such a scheme, at all events, +occupied him intermittently for nearly two years, or until it was +banished forever by visions of a European control far transcending the +limits of his island home. + +Not that the outcast Buonaparte was any longer exclusively a Corsican. +It is impossible to conceive of a lot more pitiful or a fate more +obdurate than his so far had been. There was little hereditary +morality in his nature, and none had been inculcated by training; he +had nothing of what is called vital piety, nor even sincere +superstition. A butt and an outcast at a French school under the old +régime, he had imbibed a bitter hatred for the land indelibly +associated with such haughty privileges for the rich and such +contemptuous disdain for the poor. He had not even the consolation of +having received an education. His nature revolted at the religious +formalism of priestcraft; his mind turned in disgust from the +scholastic husks of its superficial knowledge. What he had learned +came from inborn capacity, from desultory reading, and from the +untutored imaginings of his garden at Brienne, his cave at Ajaccio, or +his barrack chambers. What more plausible than that he should first +turn to the land of his birth with some hope of happiness, usefulness, +or even glory! What more mortifying than the revelation that in +manhood he was too French for Corsica, as in boyhood he had been too +Corsican for France! + +The story of his sojourns and adventures in Corsica has no +fascination; it is neither heroic nor satanic, but belongs to the dull +and mediocre realism which makes up so much of commonplace life. It is +difficult to find even a thread of continuity in it: there may be one +as to purpose; there is none as to either conduct or theory. There is +the passionate admiration of a southern nature for a hero as +represented by the ideal Paoli. There is the equally southern quality +of quick but transient hatred. The love of dramatic effect is shown at +every turn, in the perfervid style of his writings, in the mock +dignity of an edict issued from the grotto at Milleli, in the empty +honors of a lieutenant-colonel without a real command, in the paltry +style of an artillery inspector with no artillery but a few dismantled +guns. + +But the most prominent characteristic of the young man was his +shiftiness, in both the good and bad senses of the word. He would +perish with mortification rather than fail in devising some expedient +to meet every emergency; he felt no hesitation in changing his point +of view as experience destroyed an ideal or an unforeseen chance was +to be seized and improved. Moreover, repeated failure did not +dishearten him. Detesting garrison life, he neglected its duties, and +endured punishment, but he secured regular promotion; defeated again +and again before the citadel of Ajaccio, each time he returned +undismayed to make a fresh trial under new auspices or in a new way. + +He was no spendthrift, but he had no scruples about money. He was +proud in the headship of his family, and reckless as to how he should +support them, or should secure their promotion. Solitary in his +boyhood, he had become in his youth a companion and leader; but his +true friendships were not with his social equals, whom he despised, +but with the lowly, whom he understood. Finally, here was a citizen of +the world, a man without a country; his birthright was gone, for +Corsica repelled him; France he hated, for she had never adopted him. +He was almost without a profession, for he had neglected that of a +soldier, and had failed both as an author and as a politician. He was +apparently, too, without a single guiding principle; the world had +been a harsh stepmother, at whose knee he had neither learned the +truth nor experienced kindness. He appears consistent in nothing but +in making the best of events as they occurred. So far he was a man +neither much better nor much worse than the world into which he was +born. He was quite as unscrupulous as those about him, but he was far +greater than they in perspicacity, adroitness, adaptability, and +persistence. During the period before his expulsion from Corsica these +qualities of leadership were scarcely recognizable, but they existed. +As yet, to all outward appearance, the little captain of artillery was +the same slim, ill-proportioned, and rather insignificant youth; but +at twenty-three he had had the experience of a much greater age. +Conscious of his powers, he had dreamed many day-dreams, and had +acquired a habit of boastful conversation in the family circle; but, +fully cognizant of the dangers incident to his place, and the +unsettled conditions about him, he was cautious and reserved in the +outside world. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +"The Supper of Beaucaire". + + Revolutionary Madness -- Uprising of the Girondists -- + Convention Forces Before Avignon -- Bonaparte's First + Success in Arms -- Its Effect upon His Career -- His + Political Pamphlet -- The Genius it Displays -- Accepted and + Published by Authority -- Seizure of Toulon by the Allies. + + +[Sidenote: 1793.] + +It was a tempestuous time in Provence when on June thirteenth the +Buonapartes arrived at Toulon. Their movements during the first few +months cannot be determined; we only know that, after a very short +residence there, the family fled to Marseilles.[35] Much, too, is +obscure in regard even to Napoleon, soldier as he was. It seems as if +this period of their history had been wilfully confused to conceal how +intimate were the connections of the entire family with the Jacobins. +But the obscurity may also be due to the character of the times. +Fleeing before the storms of Corsican revolution, they were caught in +the whirlwind of French anarchy. The Girondists, after involving the +country in a desperate foreign warfare, had shown themselves +incompetent to carry it on. In Paris, therefore, they had to give way +before the Jacobins, who, by the exercise of a reckless despotism, +were able to display an unparalleled energy in its prosecution. +Against their tyranny the moderate republicans and the royalists +outside of Paris now made common cause, and civil war broke out in +many places, including Vendée, the Rhone valley, and the southeast of +France. Montesquieu declares that honor is the distinguishing +characteristic of aristocracy: the emigrant aristocrats had been the +first in France to throw honor and patriotism to the winds; many of +their class who remained went further, displaying in Vendée and +elsewhere a satanic vindictiveness. This shameful policy colored the +entire civil war, and the bitterness in attack and retaliation that +was shown in Marseilles, Lyons, Toulon, and elsewhere would have +disgraced savages in a prehistoric age. + + [Footnote 35: The memoirs of Joseph and Lucien, + supported by Coston and the anonymous local historian of + Marseilles, all unite in declaring that the Buonaparte + family landed there; on the other hand, Louis, in the + Documents historiques sur la Hollande, I, 34, asserts + categorically in detail that they took up their abode in + La Valette, a suburb of Toulon, where they had landed.] + +The westward slopes of the Alps were occupied by a French army under +the command of Kellermann, designated by the name of its situation; +farther south and east lay the Army of Italy, under Brunet. Both these +armies were expected to draw their supplies from the fertile country +behind them, and to coöperate against the troops of Savoy and Austria, +which had occupied the passes of lower Piedmont, and blocked the way +into Lombardy. By this time the law for compulsory enlistment had been +enacted, but the general excitement and topsy-turvy management +incident to such rapid changes in government and society, having +caused the failure of the Sardinian expedition, had also prevented +recruiting or equipment in either of these two divisions of the army. +The outbreak of open hostilities in all the lands immediately to the +westward momentarily paralyzed their operations; and when, shortly +afterward, the Girondists overpowered the Jacobins in Marseilles, the +defection of that city made it difficult for the so-called regulars, +the soldiers of the Convention, even to obtain subsistence and hold +the territory they already occupied. + +The next move of the insurgent Girondists of Marseilles was in the +direction of Paris, and by the first week of July they had reached +Avignon on their way to join forces with their equally successful +friends at Lyons. With characteristic zeal, the Convention had created +an army to meet them. The new force was put under the command of +Carteaux, a civilian, but a man of energy. According to directions +received from Paris, he quickly advanced to cut the enemy in two by +occupying the strategic point of Valence. This move was successfully +made, Lyons was left to fight its own battle, and by the middle of +July the general of the Convention was encamped before the walls of +Avignon. + +Napoleon Buonaparte had hastened to Nice, where five companies of his +regiment were stationed, and rejoining the French army, never faltered +again in his allegiance to the tricolor. Jean Duteil, brother of the +young man's former patron, was in the Savoy capital, high in command. +He promptly set the young artillerist at the work of completing the +shore batteries. On July third and eighth, respectively, the new +captain made written reports to the secretary for war at Paris, and to +the director of artillery in the arsenal of Toulon. Both these papers +are succinct and well written. Almost immediately Buonaparte was +intrusted with a mission, probably confidential, since its exact +nature is unknown, and set out for Avignon. He reached his destination +almost in the moment when Carteaux began the investment of the city. +It was about July sixteenth when he entered the republican camp, +having arrived by devious ways, and after narrow escapes from the +enemy's hands. This time he was absent from his post on duty. The +works and guns at Nice being inadequate and almost worthless, he was +probably sent to secure supplies from the stores of Avignon when it +should be conquered. Such were the straits of the needy republican +general that he immediately appointed his visitor to the command of a +strong body of flying artillery. In the first attack on the town +Carteaux received a check. But the insurgents were raw volunteers and +seem to have felt more and more dismayed by the menacing attitude of +the surrounding population: on the twenty-fifth, in the very hour of +victory, they began their retreat.[36] The road to Marseilles was thus +clear, and the commander unwisely opened his lines to occupy the +evacuated towns on his front. Carteaux entered Avignon on the +twenty-sixth; on the twenty-seventh he collected his force and +departed, reaching Tarascon on the twenty-eighth, and on the +twenty-ninth Beaucaire. Buonaparte, whose battery had done excellent +service, advanced for some distance with the main army, but was +ordered back to protect the rear by reorganizing and reconstructing +the artillery park which had been dismantled in the assault on +Avignon. + + [Footnote 36: These are the most probable reasons for + the retreat. Several local chroniclers, Soullier, Audri, + and Joudou, writing all three about 1844, declare each + and all that Buonaparte with his battery followed the + right bank of the Rhone as far as the Rocher de Justice + where he mounted his guns and opened fire on the walls + of the city. His fire was so accurate that he destroyed + one cannon and killed several gunners. The besieged + garrison of federalists were thrown into panic and + decamped. Neither the contemporary authorities nor + Napoleon himself ever mentioned any such remarkable + circumstances. In fact, a passage of the "Souper de + Beaucaire" attributes the retreat to the inability of + any except veteran troops to withstand a siege. Finally, + Buonaparte would surely have been promoted for such an + exploit. Dommartin, a comrade, was thus rewarded for a + much smaller service.] + +This first successful feat of arms made a profound impression on +Buonaparte's mind, and led to the decision which settled his career. +His spirits were still low, for he was suffering from a return of his +old malarial trouble. Moreover, his family seems already to have been +driven from Toulon by the uprising of the hostile party: in any case +they were now dependent on charity; the Corsican revolt against the +Convention was virtually successful, and it was said that in the +island the name of Buonaparte was considered as little less execrable +than that of Buttafuoco. What must he do to get a decisive share in +the surging, rolling tumult about him? The visionary boy was transformed +into the practical man. Frenchmen were fighting and winning glory +everywhere, and among the men who were reaping laurels were some whom +he had known and even despised at Brienne--Sergeant Pichegru, for +instance. Ideas which he had momentarily entertained,--enlistment in +the Russian army,[37] service with England, a career in the Indies, +the return of the nabob,--all such visions were set aside forever, and +an application was sent for a transfer from the Army of Italy to that +of the Rhine. The suppression of the southern revolt would soon be +accomplished, and inactivity ensue; but on the frontier of the north +there was a warfare worthy of his powers, in which, if he could only +attract the attention of the authorities, long service, rapid +advancement, and lasting glory might all be secured. + + [Footnote 37: The Archive Russe for 1866 states that in + 1788 Napoleon Buonaparte applied for an engagement to + Zaborowski, Potemkin's lieutenant, who was then with a + Russian fleet in the Mediterranean. The statement may be + true, and probably is, but there is no corroborative + evidence to sustain it.] + +But what must be the first step to secure notoriety here and now? How +could that end be gained? The old instinct of authorship returned +irresistibly, and in the long intervals of easy duty at Avignon, +where, as is most probable, he remained to complete the task assigned +to him, Buonaparte wrote the "Supper of Beaucaire," his first literary +work of real ability. As if by magic his style is utterly changed, +being now concise, correct, and lucid. The reader would be tempted to +think it had enjoyed a thorough revision from some capable hand. But +this is improbable when we note that it is the permanent style of the +future. Moreover, the opinions expressed are quite as thoroughly +transformed, and display not only a clear political judgment, but an +almost startling military insight. The setting of this notable repast +is possibly, though by no means certainly, based on an actual +experience, and is as follows: Five wayfarers--a native of Nîmes, a +manufacturer from Montpellier, two merchants of Marseilles, and a +soldier from Avignon--find themselves accidentally thrown together as +table companions at an inn of Beaucaire, a little city round about +which the civil war is raging. The conversation at supper turns on the +events occurring in the neighborhood. The soldier explains the +circumstances connected with the recent capture of Avignon, +attributing the flight of the insurgents to the inability of any +except veteran troops to endure the uncertainties of a siege. One of +the travelers from Marseilles thinks the success but temporary, and +recapitulates the resources of the moderates. The soldier retorts in a +long refutation of that opinion. As a politician he shows how the +insurgents have placed themselves in a false position by adopting +extreme measures and alienating republican sympathy, being cautious +and diplomatic in not censuring their persons nor their principles; on +the other side there is a marked effort to emphasize the professional +attitude; as a military man he explains the strategic weakness of +their position, and the futility of their operations, uttering many +sententious phrases: "Self-conceit is the worst adviser"; "Good +four-and eight-pound cannon are as effective for field work as pieces +of larger caliber, and are in many respects preferable to them"; "It +is an axiom of military science that the army which remains behind +its intrenchments is beaten: experience and theory agree on this +point." + +The conclusion of the conversation is a triumphant demonstration that +the cause of the insurgents is already lost, an argument convicting +them of really desiring not moderation, but a counter-revolution in +their own interest, and of displaying a willingness to imitate the +Vendeans, and call in foreign aid if necessary. In one remarkable +passage the soldier grants that the Girondists may have been outlawed, +imprisoned, and calumniated by the Mountain in its own selfish +interest, but adds that the former "were lost without a civil war by +means of which they could lay down the law to their enemies. It was +for them your war was really useful. Had they merited their early +reputation, they would have thrown down their arms before the +constitution and sacrificed their own interests to the public welfare. +It is easier to cite Decius than to imitate him. To-day they have +shown themselves guilty of the worst possible crimes; have, by their +behavior, justified their proscription. The blood they have caused to +flow has effaced the true services they had rendered." The Montpellier +manufacturer is of opinion that, whether this be true or no, the +Convention now represents the nation, and to refuse obedience to it is +rebellion and counter-revolution. History knows no plainer statement +than this of the "de facto, de jure" principle, the conviction that +"might makes right." + +At last, then, the leader had shown himself in seizing the salient +elements of a complicated situation, and the man of affairs had found +a style in which to express his clear-cut ideas. When the tide turns +it rises without interruption. Buonaparte's pamphlet was scarcely +written before its value was discerned; for at that moment arrived +one of those legations now representing the sovereignty of the +Convention in every field of operations. This one was a most +influential committee of three--Escudier, Ricord, and the younger +brother of Robespierre. Accompanying them was a commission charged to +renew the commissary stores in Corsica for the few troops still +holding out in that island. Salicetti was at its head; the other +member was Gasparin. Buonaparte, we may infer, found easy access to +the favor of his compatriot Salicetti, and "The Supper of Beaucaire" +was heard by the plenipotentiaries with attention. Its merit was +immediately recognized, as is said, both by Gasparin and by the +younger Robespierre; in a few days the pamphlet was published at the +expense of the state.[38] Of Buonaparte's life between July +twenty-ninth and September twelfth, 1793, there are the most +conflicting accounts. Some say he was at Marseilles, others deny it. +His brother Joseph thought he was occupied in collecting munitions and +supplies for the Army of Italy. His earliest biographer declares that +he traveled by way of Lyons and Auxonne to Paris, returning by the +same route to Avignon, and thence journeying to Ollioules near Toulon. +From the army headquarters before that city Salicetti wrote on +September twenty-sixth that while Buonaparte was passing on his way to +rejoin the Army of Italy, the authorities in charge of the siege +changed his destination and put him in command of the heavy artillery +to replace Dommartin, incapacitated for service by a wound. It has +been hinted by both the suspicious and the credulous writers on the +period that the young man was employed on some secret mission. This +might be expected from those who attribute demonic qualities to the +child of destiny from earliest infancy, but there is no slightest +evidence to sustain the claim. Quite possibly the lad relapsed into +the queer restless ways of earlier life. It is evident he was thwarted +in his hope of transfer to the Army of the Rhine. Unwilling as he was +to serve in Italy, he finally turned his lagging footsteps thither. +Perhaps, as high authorities declare, it was at Marseilles that his +compatriot Cervoni persuaded him to go as far at least as Toulon, +though Salicetti and Buonaparte himself declared later that they met +and arranged the matter at Nice. + + [Footnote 38: The very first impression appears to have + been a reprint from the Courier d'Avignon: it was a + cheap pamphlet of sixteen pages in the same type and on + the paper as that used by the journal. The second + impression was in twenty pages, printed by the public + printer as a tract for the times, to be distributed + throughout the near and remote neighborhood.] + +In this interval, while Buonaparte remained, according to the best +authority, within reach of Avignon, securing artillery supplies and +writing a political pamphlet in support of the Jacobins, Carteaux had, +on August twenty-fifth, 1793, taken Marseilles. The capture was +celebrated by one of the bloodiest orgies of that horrible year. The +Girondists of Toulon saw in the fate of those at Marseilles the lot +apportioned to themselves. If the high contracting powers now banded +against France had shown a sincere desire to quell Jacobin bestiality, +they could on the first formation of the coalition easily have seized +Paris. Instead, Austria and Prussia had shown the most selfish apathy +in that respect, bargaining with each other and with Russia for their +respective shares of Poland, the booty they were about to seize. The +intensity of the Jacobin movement did not rouse them until the +majority of the French people, vaguely grasping the elements of +permanent value in the Revolution, and stung by foreign interference, +rallied around the only standard which was firmly upheld,--that of the +Convention,--and enabled that body within an incredibly short space +of time to put forth tremendous energy. Then England, terrified into +panic, drove Pitt to take effective measures, and displayed her +resources in raising subsidies for her Continental allies, in goading +the German powers to activity, in scouring every sea with her fleets. +One of these was cruising off the French coast in the Mediterranean, +and it was easy for the Girondists of Toulon to induce its commander +to seize not only their splendid arsenals, but the fleet in their +harbor as well--the only effective one, in fact, which at that time +the French possessed. Without delay or hesitation, Hood, the English +admiral, grasped the easy prize, and before long war-ships of the +Spaniards, Neapolitans, and Sardinians were gathered to share in the +defense of the town against the Convention forces. Soon the Girondist +fugitives from Marseilles arrived, and were received with kindness. +The place was provisioned, the gates were shut, and every preparation +for desperate resistance was completed. The fate of the republic was +at stake. The crisis was acute. No wonder that in view of his +wonderful career, Napoleon long after, and his friends in accord, +declared that in the hour appeared the man. There, said the inspired +memorialist of St. Helena, history found him, never to leave him; +there began his immortality. Though this language is truer ideally +than in sober reality, yet the Emperor had a certain justification for +his claim. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +Toulon. + + The Jacobin Power Threatened -- Buonaparte's Fate -- His + Appointment at Toulon -- His Ability as an Artillerist -- + His Name Mentioned with Distinction -- His Plan of + Operations -- The Fall of Toulon -- Buonaparte a General of + Brigade -- Behavior of the Jacobin Victors -- A Corsican + Plot -- Horrors of the French Revolution -- Influence of + Toulon on Buonaparte's Career.[39] + + [Footnote 39: The authorities for this important epoch + are, primarily, Jung: Bonaparte et son temps; Masson: + Napoléon inconnu; but above all, Chuquet: La jeunesse de + Napoléon, Vol. III, Toulon. The Mémoires of Barras are + utterly worthless, the references in Las Cases, Marmont, + and elsewhere have value, but must be controlled. The + archives of the war department have been thoroughly + examined by several investigators, the author among the + number. The results have been printed in many volumes to + which the above-mentioned authors refer, and many of the + original papers are printed in whole or in part by + them.] + + +[Sidenote: 1793.] + +Coupled as it was with other discouraging circumstances, the "treason +of Toulon" struck a staggering blow at the Convention. The siege of +Lyons was still in progress; the Piedmontese were entering Savoy, or +the department of Mont Blanc, as it had been designated after its +recent capture by France; the great city of Bordeaux was ominously +silent and inactive; the royalists of Vendée were temporarily +victorious; there was unrest in Normandy, and further violence in +Brittany; the towns of Mainz, Valenciennes, and Condé had been +evacuated, and Dunkirk was besieged by the Duke of York. The loss of +Toulon would put a climax to such disasters, destroy the credit of the +republic abroad and at home, perhaps bring back the Bourbons. Carnot +had in the meantime come to the assistance of the Committee of Safety. +Great as a military organizer and influential as a politician, he had +already awakened the whole land to a still higher fervor, and had +consolidated public sentiment in favor of his plans. In Dubois de +Crancé he had an able lieutenant. Fourteen armies were soon to move +and fight, directed by a single mind; discipline was about to be +effectively strengthened because it was to be the discipline of the +people by itself; the envoys of the Convention were to go to and fro, +successfully laboring for common action and common enthusiasm in the +executive, in both the fighting services, and in the nation. But as +yet none of these miracles had been wrought, and, with Toulon lost, +they might be forever impossible. + +Such was the setting of the stage in the great national theater of +France when Napoleon Buonaparte entered on the scene. The records of +his boyhood and youth by his own hand afford the proof of what he was +at twenty-four. It has required no searching analysis to discern the +man, nor trace the influences of his education. Except for short and +unimportant periods, the story is complete and accurate. It is, +moreover, absolutely unsophisticated. What does it show? A well-born +Corsican child, of a family with some fortune, glad to use every +resource of a disordered time for securing education and money, +patriotic at heart but willing to profit from France, or indeed from +Russia, England, the Orient; wherever material advantage was to be +found. This boy was both idealist and realist, each in the high degree +corresponding to his great abilities. He shone neither as a scholar +nor as an officer, being obdurate to all training,--but by independent +exertions and desultory reading of a high class he formed an ideal of +society in which there prevailed equality of station and purse, purity +of life and manners, religion without clericalism, free speech and +honorable administration of just laws. His native land untrammeled by +French control would realize this ideal, he had fondly hoped: but the +Revolution emancipated it completely, entirely; and what occurred? A +reversion to every vicious practice of medievalism, he himself being +sucked into the vortex and degraded into a common adventurer. +Disenchanted and bitter, he then turned to France. Abandoning his +double rôle, his interest in Corsica was thenceforth sentimental; his +fine faculties when focused on the realities of a great world suddenly +exhibit themselves in keen observation, fair conclusions, a more than +academic interest, and a skill in the conduct of life hitherto +obscured by unfavorable conditions. Already he had found play for all +his powers both with gun and pen. He was not only eager but ready to +deploy them in a higher service. + +The city of Toulon was now formally and nominally invested--that is, +according to the then accepted general rules for such operations, but +with no regard to those peculiarities of its site which only master +minds could mark and use to the best advantage. The large double bay +is protected from the southwest by a broad peninsula joined to the +mainland by a very narrow isthmus, and thus opens southeastward to the +Mediterranean. The great fortified city, then regarded as one of the +strongest places in the world, lies far within on the eastern shore of +the inner harbor. Excellent authorities considered it impregnable. It +is protected on the landward side by an amphitheater of high hills, +which leave to the right and left a narrow strip of rolling country +between their lower slopes and the sea. On the east Lapoype commanded +the left wing of the besieging revolutionary force. The westward pass +is commanded by Ollioules, which Carteaux had selected for his +headquarters. On August twenty-ninth his vanguard seized the place, +but they were almost immediately attacked and driven out by the allied +armies, chiefly English troops brought in from Gibraltar. On September +seventh the place was retaken. The two wings were in touch and to +landward the communications of the town were completely cut off. In +the assault only a single French officer fell seriously wounded, but +that one was a captain of artillery. Salicetti and his colleagues had +received from the minister of war a charge to look out for the citizen +Buonaparte who wanted service on the Rhine. This and their own +attachment determined them in the pregnant step they now took. The +still unattached captain of artillery, Napoleon Buonaparte, was +appointed to the vacant place. As far as history is concerned, this is +a very important fact; it is really a matter of slight import whether +Cervoni or Salicetti gave the impulse. At the same time his mother +received a grant of money, and while favors were going, there were +enough needy Buonapartes to receive them. Salicetti and Gasparin, +being the legates of the Convention, were all-powerful. The latter +took a great fancy to Salicetti's friend and there was no opposition +when the former exercised his power. Fesch and Lucien were both +provided with places, being made storekeepers in the commissary +department. Barras, who was the recruiting-officer of the Convention +at Toulon, claims to have been the first to recognize Buonaparte's +ability. He declares that the young Corsican was daily at his table, +and that it was he himself who irregularly but efficiently secured the +appointment of his new friend to active duty. But he also asserts what +we know to be untrue, that Buonaparte was still lieutenant when they +first met, and that he created him captain. It is likely, in view of +their subsequent intimacy at Paris, that they were also intimate at +Toulon; the rest of Barras's story is a fabrication. + +But although the investment of Toulon was complete, it was weak. On +September eighteenth the total force of the assailants was ten +thousand men. From time to time reinforcements came in and the various +seasoned battalions exhibited on occasion great gallantry and courage. +But the munitions and arms were never sufficient, and under civilian +officers both regulars and recruits were impatient of severe +discipline. The artillery in particular was scarcely more than +nominal. There were a few field-pieces, two large and efficient guns +only, and two mortars. By a mistake of the war department the general +officer detailed to organize the artillery did not receive his orders +in time and remained on his station in the eastern Pyrenees until +after the place fell. Manifestly some one was required to grasp the +situation and supply a crying deficiency. It was with no trembling +hand that Buonaparte laid hold of his task. For an efficient artillery +service artillery officers were essential, and there were almost none. +In the ebb and flow of popular enthusiasm many republicans who had +fallen back before the storms of factional excesses were now willing +to come forward, and Napoleon, not publicly committed to the Jacobins, +was able to win many capable assistants from among men of his class. +His nervous restlessness found an outlet in erecting buttresses, +mounting guns, and invigorating the whole service until a zealous +activity of the most promising kind was displayed by officers and men +alike. By September twenty-ninth fourteen guns were mounted and four +mortars, the essential material was gathered, and by sheer +self-assertion Buonaparte was in complete charge. The only check +was in the ignorant meddling of Carteaux, who, though energetic and +zealous, though born and bred in camp, being the son of a soldier, +was, after all, not a soldier, but a very fair artist (painter). For +his battle-pieces and portraits of military celebrities he had +received large prices, and was as vain of his artistic as of his +military talent, though both were mediocre. Strange characters rose to +the top in those troublous times: the painter's opponent at Avignon, +the leader of the insurgents, had been a tailor; his successor was one +Lapoype, a physician. Buonaparte's ready pen stood him again in good +stead, and he sent up a memorial to the ministry, explaining the +situation, and asking for the appointment of an artillery general with +full powers. The commissioners transmitted the paper to Paris, and +appointed the memorialist to the higher rank of acting commander. + +[Illustration: In the collection of the Duc de Trevise. Josephine. +From a pastel by Pierre Prud'hon.] + +Though the commanding general could not well yield to his subordinate, +he did, most ungraciously, to the Convention legates. Between the +seventeenth and twentieth of September effective batteries under +Buonaparte's command forced the enemy's frigates to withdraw from the +neighborhood of La Seyne on the inner bay. The shot were red hot, the +fire concentrated, and the guns served with cool efficiency. Next day +the village was occupied and with only four hundred men General +Delaborde marched to seize the Eguillette, the key to the siege, as +Buonaparte reiterated and reiterated. He was ingloriously routed; the +British landed reinforcements and erected strong fortifications over +night. They styled the place Fort Mulgrave. It was speedily flanked by +three redoubts. To Buonaparte this contemptuous defiance was +insufferable: he spoke and Salicetti wrote of the siege as destitute +both of brains and means. Thereupon the Paris legates began to +represent Carteaux as an incapable and demand his recall. Buonaparte +ransacked the surrounding towns and countryside for cannon and secured +a number; he established forges at Ollioules to keep his apparatus in +order, and entirely reorganized his personnel. With fair efficiency +and substantial quantity of guns and shot, he found himself without +sufficient powder and wrote imperiously to his superiors, enforcing +successfully his demand. Meantime he made himself conspicuous by +personal daring and exposure. The days and nights were arduous because +of the enemy's activity. In successive sorties on October first, +eighth, and fourteenth the British garrison of Fort Mulgrave gained +both ground and prestige by successive victories. It was hard for the +French to repress their impatience, but they were not ready yet for a +general move: not a single arm of the service was sufficiently strong +and the army was becoming demoralized by inactivity. The feud between +general and legates grew bitter and the demands of the latter for +material were disregarded alike at Paris and by Doppet, who had just +captured Lyons, but would part with none of his guns or ammunition or +men for use at Toulon. Lapoype and Carteaux quarreled bitterly, and +there was such confusion that Buonaparte ended by squarely disobeying +his superior and taking many minor movements into his own hand; he was +so cocksure that artillery alone would end the siege that the general +dubbed him Captain Cannon. Finally the wrangling of all concerned +cried to heaven, and on October twenty-third Carteaux was transferred +to the Army of Italy with headquarters at Nice. He left for his new +post on November seventh, and five days later his successor appeared. +In the interim the nominal commander was Lapoype, really Salicetti +prompted by Buonaparte. + +Thus at length the artist was removed from command, and a physician +was appointed in his stead. The doctor was an ardent patriot who had +distinguished himself at the siege of Lyons, which had fallen on +October ninth. But on arriving at Toulon the citizen soldier was awed +by the magnitude of his new work. On November fifteenth the French +pickets saw a Spaniard maltreating a French prisoner on the outworks +of Fort Mulgrave. There was an impulsive and spontaneous rush of the +besiegers to avenge the insult. General O'Hara landed from the +_Victory_ with reinforcements for the garrison. Doppet was +panic-stricken by the fire and ordered a retreat. Captain Buonaparte +with an oath expressed his displeasure. The soldiers cried in angry +spite: "Are we always to be commanded by painters and doctors?" +Indeed, the newcomer had hardly taken command, leaving matters at +loose ends as they were: in a short time he was transferred at his own +suggestion to an easier station in the Pyrenees, it being understood +that Dugommier, a professional soldier, would be finally appointed +commander-in-chief, and that Duteil, the brother of Buonaparte's old +friend and commander, was to be made general of artillery. He was a +man advanced in years, unable even to mount a horse: but he was +devoted to the young captain, trusted his powers, and left him in +virtual command. Abundant supplies arrived at the same time from +Lyons. On November twentieth the new officers took charge, two days +later a general reconnaissance was made, and within a short time the +investment was completed. On the thirtieth there was a formidable +sally from the town directed against Buonaparte's batteries. In the +force were two thousand three hundred and fifty men: about four +hundred British, three hundred Sardinians, two hundred and fifty +French, and seven hundred each of Neapolitans and Spanish. They were +commanded by General Dundas. Their earliest movements were successful +and the commander-in-chief of the besieged came out to see the +victory. But the tide turned, the French revolutionists rallied, and +the sortie was repulsed. The event was made doubly important by the +chance capture of General O'Hara, the English commandant. Such a +capture is rare,--Buonaparte was profoundly impressed by the fact. He +obtained permission to visit the English general in captivity, but was +coldly received. To the question: "What do you require?" came the curt +reply: "To be left alone and owe nothing to pity." This striking +though uncourtly reply delighted Buonaparte. The success was duly +reported to Paris. In the "Moniteur" of December seventh the name of +Buona Parte is mentioned for the first time, and as among the most +distinguished in the action. + +The councils of war before Dugommier's arrival had been numerous and +turbulent, although the solitary plan of operations suggested by the +commander and his aides would have been adequate only for capturing an +inland town, and probably not even for that. From the beginning and +with fierce iteration Buonaparte had explained to his colleagues the +special features of their task, but all in vain. He reasoned that +Toulon depended for its resisting power on the Allies and their +fleets, and must be reduced from the side next the sea. The English +themselves understood this when they seized and fortified the redoubt +of Fort Mulgrave, known also by the French as Little Gibraltar, on the +tongue of land separating, to the westward, the inner from the outer +bay. That post on the promontory styled the Eguillette by the natives +must be taken. From the very moment of his arrival this simple but +clever conception had been urged on the council of war by Buonaparte. +But Carteaux could not and would not see its importance: it was not +until a skilled commander took charge that Buonaparte's insight was +justified and his plan adopted. At the same time it was determined +that operations should also be directed against two other strong +outposts, one to the north, the other to the northeast, of the town. +There was to be a genuine effort to capture Mt. Faron on the north and +a demonstration merely against the third point. But the concentration +of force was to be against the Eguillette. + +Finally, on December seventeenth, after careful preparation, a +concerted attack was made at all three points. Officers and men were +daring and efficient everywhere. Buonaparte, assuming responsibility +for the batteries, was ubiquitous and reckless. The movement on which +he had set his heart was successful in every portion; the enemy was +not only driven within the interior works, but by the fall of Little +Gibraltar his communication with the sea was endangered. The whole +peninsula, the fort itself, the point and the neighboring heights were +captured. Victor, Muiron, Buonaparte, and Dugommier led the storming +columns. The Allies were utterly demoralized by the fierce and bloody +struggle. Since, therefore, the supporting fleets could no longer +remain in a situation so precarious, the besieged at once made ready +for departure, embarking with precipitate haste the troops and many of +the inhabitants. The Spaniards fired two frigates loaded with powder +and the explosion of the magazines shook the city and its suburbs like +an earthquake. In that moment the young Sidney Smith landed from the +British ships and laid the trains which kindled an awful +conflagration. The captured French fleet lying at anchor, the +magazines and shops of the arsenal, all its enclosures burst into +flames, and one explosion followed another in an awe-inspiring +volcanic eruption. The besiegers were stupefied as they gazed, and +stopped their ears. In a few hours the city was completely evacuated, +and the foreign war vessels sailed away from the offing. The news of +this decisive victory was despatched without a moment's delay to the +Convention. The names of Salicetti, Robespierre, Ricord, Fréron, and +Barras are mentioned in Dugommier's letters as those of men who had +won distinction in various posts; that of Buonaparte does not occur. + +There was either jealousy of his merits, which are declared by his +enemies to have been unduly vaunted, or else his share had been more +insignificant than is generally supposed. He related at St. Helena +that during the operations before Toulon he had had three horses +killed under him, and showed Las Cases a great scar on his thigh which +he said had been received in a bayonet charge at Toulon. "Men wondered +at the fortune which kept me invulnerable; I always concealed my +dangers in mystery." The hypothesis of his insignificance appears +unlikely when we examine the memoirs written by his contemporaries, +and consider the precise traditions of a later generation; it becomes +untenable in view of what happened on the next day, when the +commissioners nominated him for the office of general of brigade, a +rank which in the exchange of prisoners with the English was reckoned +as equal to that of lieutenant-general. In a report written on the +nineteenth to the minister of war, Duteil speaks in the highest terms +of Buonaparte. "A great deal of science, as much intelligence, and too +much bravery; such is a faint sketch of the virtues of this rare +officer. It rests with you, minister, to retain them for the glory of +the republic." + +On December twenty-fourth the Convention received the news of victory. +It was really their reprieve, for news of disaster would have cut +short their career. Jubilant over a prompt success, their joy was +savage and infernal. With the eagerness of vampires they at once sent +two commissioners to wipe the name of Toulon from the map, and its +inhabitants from the earth. Fouché, later chief of police and Duke of +Otranto under Napoleon, went down from Lyons to see the sport, and +wrote to his friend the arch-murderer Collot d'Herbois that they were +celebrating the victory in but one way. "This night we send two +hundred and thirteen rebels into hell-fire." The fact is, no one ever +knew how many hundreds or thousands of the Toulon Girondists were +swept together and destroyed by the fire of cannon and musketry. +Fréron, one of the commissioners, desired to leave not a single rebel +alive. Dugommier would listen to no such proposition for a holocaust. +Marmont declares that Buonaparte and his artillerymen pleaded for +mercy, but in vain. + +Running like a thread through all these events was a little +counterplot. The Corsicans at Toulon were persons of importance, and +had shown their mettle. Salicetti, Buonaparte, Arena, and Cervoni were +now men of mark; the two latter had, like Buonaparte, been promoted, +though to much lower rank. As Salicetti declared in a letter written +on December twenty-eighth, they were scheming to secure vessels and +arm them for an expedition to Corsica. But for the time their efforts +came to naught; and thenceforward Salicetti seemed to lose all +interest in Corsican affairs, becoming more and more involved in the +ever madder rush of events in France. + +This was not strange, for even a common politician could not remain +insensible to the course or the consequences of the malignant anarchy +now raging throughout France. The massacres at Lyons, Marseilles, and +Toulon were the reply to the horrors of like or worse nature +perpetrated in Vendée by the royalists. Danton having used the Paris +sections to overawe the Girondist majority of the Convention, Marat +gathered his riotous band of sansculottes, and hounded the discredited +remnant of the party to death, flight, or arrest. His bloody career +was ended only by Charlotte Corday's dagger. Passions were thus +inflamed until even Danton's conduct appeared calm, moderate, and +inefficient when compared with the reckless bloodthirstiness of +Hébert, now leader of the Exagérés. The latter prevailed, the Vendeans +were defeated, and Citizen Carrier of Nantes in three months took +fifteen thousand human lives by his fiendishly ingenious systems of +drowning and shooting. In short, France was chaos, and the Salicettis +of the time might hope for anything, or fear everything, in the throes +of her disorder. Not so a man like Buonaparte. His instinct led him to +stand in readiness at the parting of the ways. Others might choose and +press forward; he gave no sign of being moved by current events, but +stood with his eye still fixed, though now in a backward gaze, on +Corsica, ready, if interest or self-preservation required it, for +another effort to seize and hold it as his own. It was self-esteem, +not Corsican patriotism, his French interest perhaps, which now +prompted him. Determined and revengeful, he was again, through the +confusion of affairs at Paris, to secure means for his enterprise, and +this time on a scale proportionate to the difficulty. The influence of +Toulon upon Buonaparte's fortunes was incalculable. Throughout life he +spoke of the town, of the siege and his share therein, of the +subsequent events and of the men whose acquaintance he made there, +with lively and emphatic interest. To all associated with the capture +he was in after years generous to a fault, except a few enemies like +Auna whom he treated with harshness. In particular it must not be +forgotten that among many men of minor importance he there began his +relations with some of his greatest generals and marshals: Desaix, +Marmont, Junot, Muiron, and Chauvet. The experience launched him on +his grand career; the intimacies he formed proved a strong support +when he forced himself to the front. Moreover, his respect for England +was heightened. It was not in violation of a pledge to hold the place +for the Bourbon pretender, but by right of sheer ability that they +took precedence of the Allies in command. They were haughty and +dictatorial because their associates were uncertain and divided. When +the Comte de Provence was suggested as a colleague they refused to +admit him because he was detested by the best men of his own party. In +the garrison of nearly fifteen thousand not a third were British. +Buonaparte and others charged them with perfidy in a desire to hold +the great fort for themselves, but the charge was untrue and he did +not disdain them, but rather admired and imitated their policy. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +A Jacobin General. + + Transformation in Buonaparte's Character -- Confirmed as a + French General -- Conduct of His Brothers -- Napoleon's + Caution -- His Report on Marseilles -- The New French Army + -- Buonaparte the Jacobin Leader -- Hostilities with Austria + and Sardinia -- Enthusiasm of the French Troops -- + Buonaparte in Society -- His Plan for an Italian Campaign. + + +[Sidenote: 1793-94.] + +Hitherto prudence had not been characteristic of Buonaparte: his +escapades and disobedience had savored rather of recklessness. Like +scores of others in his class, he had fully exploited the looseness of +royal and early republican administration; his madcap and hotspur +versatility distinguished him from his comrades not in the kind but in +the degree of his bold effrontery. The whole outlook having changed +since his final flight to France, his conduct now began to reveal a +definite plan--to be marked by punctilious obedience, sometimes even +by an almost puerile caution. His family was homeless and penniless; +their only hope for a livelihood was in coöperation with the Jacobins, +who appeared to be growing more influential every hour. Through the +powerful friends that Napoleon had made among the representatives of +the Convention, men like the younger Robespierre, Fréron, and Barras, +much had already been gained. If his nomination to the office of +general of brigade were confirmed, as it was almost certain to be, the +rest would follow, since, with his innate capacity for adapting +himself to circumstances, he had during the last few weeks +successfully cultivated his power of pleasing, captivating the hearts +of Marmont, Junot, and many others. + +With such strong chances in his favor, it appeared to Buonaparte that +no stumbling-block of technicality should be thrown in the path of his +promotion. Accordingly, in the record of his life sent up to Paris, he +puts his entrance into the service over a year earlier than it +actually occurred, omits as unessential details some of the places in +which he had lived and some of the companies in which he had served, +declares that he had commanded a battalion at the capture of +Magdalena, and, finally, denies categorically that he was ever noble. +To this paper, which minimizes nearly to the vanishing-point all +mention of Corsica, and emphasizes his services as a Frenchman by its +insidious omissions, the over-driven officials in Paris took no +exception; and on February sixth, 1794, he was confirmed, receiving an +assignment for service in the new and regenerated Army of Italy, which +had replaced as if by magic the ragged, shoeless, ill-equipped, and +half-starved remnants of troops in and about Nice that in the previous +year had been dignified by the same title. This gambler had not drawn +the first prize in the lottery, but what he had secured was enough to +justify his course, and confirm his confidence in fate. Eight years +and three months nominally in the service, out of which in reality he +had been absent four years and ten months either on furlough or +without one, and already a general! Neither blind luck, nor the +revolutionary epoch, nor the superlative ability of the man, but a +compound of all these, had brought this marvel to pass. It did not +intoxicate, but still further sobered, the beneficiary. This effect +was partly due to an experience which demonstrated that strong as are +the chains of habit, they are more easily broken than those which his +associates forge about a man. + +In the interval between nomination and confirmation the young +aspirant, through the fault of his friends, was involved in a most +serious risk. Salicetti, and the Buonaparte brothers, Joseph, Lucien, +and Louis, went wild with exultation over the fall of Toulon, and +began by reckless assumptions and untruthful representations to reap +an abundant harvest of spoils. Joseph, by the use of his brother's +Corsican commission, had posed as a lieutenant-colonel; he was now +made a commissary-general of the first class. Louis, without regard to +his extreme youth, was promoted to be adjutant-major of artillery--a +dignity which was short-lived, for he was soon after ordered to the +school at Châlons as a cadet, but which served, like the greater +success of Joseph, to tide over a crisis. Lucien retained his post as +keeper of the commissary stores in St. Maximin, where he was the +leading Jacobin, styling himself Lucius Brutus, and rejoicing in the +sobriquet of "the little Robespierre." + +The positions of Lucien and Louis were fantastic even for +revolutionary times. Napoleon was fully aware of the danger, and was +correspondingly circumspect. It was possibly at his own suggestion +that he was appointed, on December twenty-sixth, 1793, inspector of +the shore fortifications, and ordered to proceed immediately on an +inspection of the Mediterranean coast as far as Mentone. The +expedition removed him from all temptation to an unfortunate display +of exultation or anxiety, and gave him a new chance to display his +powers. He performed his task with the thoroughness of an expert; but +in so doing, his zeal played him a sorry trick, eclipsing the caution +of the revolutionist by the eagerness of the sagacious general. In his +report to the minister of war he comprehensively discussed both the +fortification of the coast and the strengthening of the navy, which +were alike indispensable to the wonderful scheme of operations in +Italy which he appears to have been already revolving in his mind. The +Army of Italy, and in fact all southeastern France, depended at the +moment for sustenance on the commerce of Genoa, professedly a neutral +state and friendly to the French republic. This essential trade could +be protected only by making interference from the English and the +Spaniards impossible, or at least difficult. + +Arrived at Marseilles, and with these ideas occupying his whole mind, +Buonaparte regarded the situation as serious. The British and Spanish +fleets swept the seas, and were virtually blockading all the +Mediterranean ports of France. At Toulon, as has been told, they +actually entered, and departed only after losing control of the +promontory which forms the harbor. There is a similar conformation of +the ground at the entrance to the port of Marseilles, but Buonaparte +found that the fortress which occupied the commanding promontory had +been dismantled. With the instinct of a strategist and with no other +thought than that of his duties as inspector, he sat down, and on +January fourth, 1794, wrote a most impolitic recommendation that the +fortification should be restored in such a way as to "command the +town." These words almost certainly referred both to the possible +renewal by the conquered French royalists and other malcontents of +their efforts to secure Marseilles, and to a conceivable effort on the +part of the Allies to seize the harbor. Now it happened that the +liberals of the town had regarded this very stronghold as their +Bastille, and it had been dismantled by them in emulation of their +brethren of Paris. The language and motive of the report were +therefore capable of misinterpretation. A storm at once arose among +the Marseilles Jacobins against both Buonaparte and his superior, +General Lapoype; they were both denounced to the Convention, and in +due time, about the end of February, were both summoned before the bar +of that body. In the mean time Buonaparte's nomination as general of +brigade had been confirmed, his commission arriving at Marseilles on +February sixteenth. It availed nothing toward restoring him to +popularity; on the contrary, the masses grew more suspicious and more +menacing. He therefore returned to the protection of Salicetti and +Robespierre, then at Toulon, whence by their advice he despatched to +Paris by special messenger a poor-spirited exculpatory letter, +admitting that the only use of restoring the fort would be to "command +the town," that is, control it by military power in case of +revolution. Having by this language pusillanimously acknowledged a +fault which he had not committed, the writer, by the advice of +Salicetti and Robespierre, refused to obey the formal summons of the +Convention when it came. Those powerful protectors made vigorous +representations to their friends in Paris, and Buonaparte was saved. +Both they and he might well rely on the distinguished service rendered +by the culprit at Toulon; his military achievement might well outweigh +a slight political delinquency. On April first, 1794, he assumed the +duties of his new command, reporting himself at Nice. Lapoype went to +Paris, appeared at the bar of the Convention, and was triumphantly +acquitted. Naturally, therefore, no indictment could lie against the +inferior, and Buonaparte's name was not even mentioned. + +A single circumstance changed the French Revolution from a sectarian +dogma into a national movement. By the exertions and plans of Carnot +the effective force of the French army had been raised in less than +two years from one hundred and twelve thousand to the astonishing +figure of over seven hundred and thirty thousand. The discipline was +now rigid, and the machine was perfectly adapted to the workman's +hand, although for lack of money the equipment was still sadly +defective. In the Army of Italy were nearly sixty-seven thousand men, +a number which included all the garrisons and reserves of the coast +towns and of Corsica. Its organization, like that of the other +portions of the military power, had been simplified, and so +strengthened. There were a commander-in-chief, a chief of staff, three +generals of division, of whom Masséna was one, and thirteen generals +of brigade, of whom one, Buonaparte, was the commander and inspector +of artillery. The former was now thirty-four years old. His sire was a +wine-dealer of a very humble sort, probably of Jewish blood, and the +boy, Italian in origin and feeling, had almost no education. +Throughout his wonderful career he was coarse, sullen, and greedy; +nevertheless, as a soldier he was an inspired genius, ranked by many +as the peer of Napoleon. Having served France for several years as an +Italian mercenary, he resigned in 1789, settled in his native town of +Nice, and married; but the stir of arms was irresistible and three +years later he volunteered under the tricolor. His comrades at once +elected him an officer, and in about a year he was head of a +battalion, or colonel in our style. In the reorganization he was +promoted to be a division general because of sheer merit. For sixteen +years he had an unbroken record of success and won from Napoleon the +caressing title: "Dear Child of Victory." + +The younger Robespierre, with Ricord and Salicetti, were the +"representatives of the people." The first of these was, to outward +appearance, the leading spirit of the whole organism, and to his +support Buonaparte was now thoroughly committed. The young artillery +commander was considered by all at Nice to be a pronounced +"Montagnard," that is, an extreme Jacobin. Augustin Robespierre had +quickly learned to see and hear with the eyes and ears of his Corsican +friend, whose fidelity seemed assured by hatred of Paoli and by a +desire to recover the family estates in his native island. Many are +pleased to discuss the question of Buonaparte's attitude toward the +Jacobin terrorists. The dilemma they propose is that he was either a +convinced and sincere terrorist or that he fawned on the terrorists +from interested motives. This last appears to have been the opinion of +Augustin Robespierre, the former that of his sister Marie, for the +time an intimate friend of the Buonaparte sisters. Both at least have +left these opinions on record in letters and memoirs. There is no need +to impale ourselves on either horn, if we consider the youth as he +was, feeling no responsibility whatever for the conditions into which +he was thrown, taking the world as he found it and using its +opportunities while they lasted. For the time and in that place there +were terrorists: he made no confession of faith, avoided all snares, +and served his adopted country as she was in fact with little +reference to political shibboleths. He so served her then and +henceforth that until he lost both his poise and his indispensable +power, she laid herself at his feet and adored him. Whatever the ties +which bound them at first, the ascendancy of Buonaparte over the young +Robespierre was thorough in the end. His were the suggestions and the +enterprises, the political conceptions, the military plans, the +devices to obtain ways and means. It was probably his advice which was +determinative in the scheme of operations finally adopted. With an +astute and fertile brain, with a feverish energy and an unbounded +ambition, Buonaparte must attack every problem or be wretched. Here +was a most interesting one, complicated by geographical, political, +naval, and military elements. That he seized it, considered it, and +found some solution is inherently probable. The conclusion too has all +the marks of his genius. Yet the glory of success was justly +Masséna's. A select third of the troops were chosen and divided into +three divisions to assume the offensive, under Masséna's direction, +against the almost impregnable posts of the Austrians and Sardinians +in the upper Apennines. The rest were held in garrison partly as a +reserve, partly to overawe the newly annexed department of which Nice +was the capital. + +Genoa now stood in a peculiar relation to France. Her oligarchy, +though called a republic, was in spirit the antipodes of French +democracy. Her trade was essential to France, but English influence +predominated in her councils and English force worked its will in her +domains. In October, 1793, a French supply-ship had been seized by an +English squadron in the very harbor. Soon afterward, by way of +rejoinder to this act of violence, the French minister at Genoa was +officially informed from Paris that as it appeared no longer possible +for a French army to reach Lombardy by the direct route through the +Apennines, it might be necessary to advance along the coast through +Genoese territory. This announcement was no threat, but serious +earnest; the plan had been carefully considered and was before long to +be put into execution. It was merely as a feint that in April, 1794, +hostilities were formally opened against Sardinia and Austria. Masséna +seized Ventimiglia on the sixth. Advancing by Oneglia and Ormea, in +the valley of the Stura, he turned the position of the allied +Austrians and Sardinians, thus compelling them to evacuate their +strongholds one by one, until on May seventh the pass of Tenda, +leading direct into Lombardy, was abandoned by them. + +The result of this movement was to infuse new enthusiasm into the +army, while at the same time it set free, for offensive warfare, large +numbers of the garrison troops in places now no longer in danger. +Masséna wrote in terms of exultation of the devotion and endurance +which his troops had shown in the sacred name of liberty. "They know +how to conquer and never complain. Marching barefoot, and often +without rations, they abuse no one, but sing the loved notes of '_Ça +ira_'--'T will go, 't will go! We'll make the creatures that surround +the despot at Turin dance the Carmagnole!" Victor Amadeus, King of +Sardinia, was an excellent specimen of the benevolent despot; it was +he whom they meant. Augustin Robespierre wrote to his brother +Maximilien, in Paris, that they had found the country before them +deserted: forty thousand souls had fled from the single valley of +Oneglia, having been terrified by the accounts of French savagery to +women and children, and of their impiety in devastating the churches +and religious establishments. + +Whether the phenomenal success of this short campaign, which lasted +but a month, was expected or not, nothing was done to improve it, and +the advancing battalions suddenly stopped, as if to make the +impression that they could go farther only by way of Genoese +territory. Buonaparte would certainly have shared in the campaign had +it been a serious attack; but, except to bring captured stores from +Oneglia, he did nothing, devoting the months of May and June to the +completion of his shore defenses, and living at Nice with his mother +and her family. That famous and coquettish town was now the center of +a gay republican society in which Napoleon and his pretty sisters were +important persons. They were the constant companions of young +Robespierre and Ricord. The former, amazed by the activity of his +friend's brain, the scope of his plans, and the terrible energy which +marked his preparations, wrote of Napoleon that he was a man of +"transcendent merit." Marmont, speaking of Napoleon's charm at this +time, says: "There was so much future in his mind.... He had acquired +an ascendancy over the representatives which it is impossible to +describe." He also declares, and Salicetti, too, repeatedly +asseverated, that Buonaparte was the "man, the plan-maker" of the +Robespierres. + +The impression which Salicetti and Marmont expressed was doubtless due +to the conclusions of a council of war held on May twentieth by the +leaders of the two armies--of the Alps and of Italy--to concert a plan +of coöperation. Naturally each group of generals desired the foremost +place for the army it represented. Buonaparte overrode all objections, +and compelled the acceptance of a scheme entirely his own, which with +some additions and by careful elaboration ultimately developed into +the famous plan of campaign in Italy. These circumstances are +noteworthy. Again and again it has been charged that this grand scheme +was bodily stolen from the papers of his great predecessors, one in +particular, of whom more must be said in the sequel. Napoleon was a +student and an omnivorous reader, he knew what others had done and +written; but the achievement which launched him on his career was due +to the use of his own senses, to his own assimilation and adaptation +of other men's experiences and theories, which had everything to +commend them except that perfection of detail and energy of command +which led to actual victory. But affairs in Genoa were becoming so +menacing that for the moment they demanded the exclusive attention of +the French authorities. Austrian troops had disregarded her neutrality +and trespassed on her territory; the land was full of French +deserters, and England, recalling her successes in the same line +during the American Revolution, had established a press in the city +for printing counterfeit French money, which was sent by secret +mercantile communications to Marseilles, and there was put into +circulation. It was consequently soon determined to amplify greatly +the plan of campaign, and likewise to send a mission to Genoa. +Buonaparte was himself appointed the envoy, and thus became the pivot +of both movements--that against Piedmont and that against Genoa. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +Vicissitudes in War and Diplomacy. + + Signs of Maturity -- The Mission to Genoa -- Course of the + French Republic -- The "Terror" -- Thermidor -- Buonaparte a + Scapegoat -- His Prescience -- Adventures of His Brothers -- + Napoleon's Defense of His French Patriotism -- Bloodshedding + for Amusement -- New Expedition Against Corsica -- + Buonaparte's Advice for Its Conduct. + + +[Sidenote: 1794.] + +Buonaparte's plan for combining operations against both Genoa and +Sardinia was at first hazy. In his earliest efforts to expand and +clarify it, he wrote a rambling document, still in existence, which +draws a contrast between the opposite policies to be adopted with +reference to Italy and Spain. In it he also calls attention to the +scarcity of officers suitable for concerted action in a great +enterprise, and a remark concerning the course to be pursued in this +particular case contains the germ of his whole military system. +"Combine your forces in a war, as in a siege, on one point. The breach +once made, equilibrium is destroyed, everything else is useless, and +the place is taken. Do not conceal, but concentrate, your attack." In +the matter of politics he sees Germany as the main prop of opposition +to democracy; Spain is to be dealt with on the defensive, Italy on the +offensive. But, contrary to what he actually did in the following +year, he advises against proceeding too far into Piedmont, lest the +adversary should gain the advantage of position. This paper +Robespierre the younger had in his pocket when he left for Paris, +summoned to aid his brother in difficulties which were now pressing +fast upon him. + +Ricord was left behind to direct, at least nominally, the movements +both of the armies and of the embassy to Genoa. Buonaparte continued +to be the real power. Military operations having been suspended to +await the result of diplomacy, his instructions from Ricord were drawn +so as to be loose and merely formal. On July eleventh he started from +Nice, reaching his destination three days later. During the week of +his stay--for he left again on the twenty-first--the envoy made his +representations, and laid down his ultimatum that the republic of +Genoa should preserve absolute neutrality, neither permitting troops +to pass over its territories, nor lending aid in the construction of +military roads, as she was charged with doing secretly. His success in +overawing the oligarchy was complete, and a written promise of +compliance to these demands was made by the Doge. Buonaparte arrived +again in Nice on the twenty-eighth. We may imagine that as he traveled +the romantic road between the mountains and the sea, the rising +general and diplomat indulged in many rosy dreams, probably feeling +already on his shoulders the insignia of a commander-in-chief. But he +was returning to disgrace, if not to destruction. A week after his +arrival came the stupefying news that the hour-glass had once again +been reversed, that on the very day of his own exultant return to +Nice, Robespierre's head had fallen, that the Mountain was shattered, +and that the land was again staggering to gain its balance after +another political earthquake. + +The shock had been awful, but it was directly traceable to the +accumulated disorders of Jacobin rule. A rude and vigorous but eerie +order of things had been inaugurated on November twenty-fourth, 1793, +by the so-called republic. There was first the new calendar, in which +the year I began on September twenty-second, 1792, the day on which +the republic had been proclaimed. In it were the twelve thirty-day +months, with their names of vintage, fog, and frost; of snow, rain, +and wind; of bud, flower, and meadow; of seed, heat, and harvest: the +whole terminated most unpoetically by the five or six supplementary +days named sansculot-tides,--sansculottes meaning without +knee-breeches, a garment confined to the upper classes; that is, with +long trousers like the common people,--and these days were so named +because they were to be a holiday for the long-trousered populace +which was to use the new reckoning. There was next the new, strange, +and unhallowed spectacle, seen in history for the first time, the +realization of a nightmare--a whole people finally turned into an +army, and at war with nearly all the world. The reforming Girondists +had created the situation, and the Jacobins, with grim humor, were +unflinchingly facing the logical consequences of such audacity. Carnot +had given the watchword of attack in mass and with superior numbers; +the times gave the frenzied courage of sentimental exaltation. Before +the end of 1793 the foreign enemies of France, though not conquered, +had been checked on the frontier; the outbreak of civil war in Vendée +had been temporarily suppressed; both Lyons and Toulon had been +retaken. + +Robespierre, St. Just, Couthon, and Billaud-Varennes were theorists +after the manner of Rousseau. Their new gospel of social regeneration +embraced democracy, civic virtue, moral institutions, and public +festivals. These were their shibboleths and catch-words. Incidentally +they extolled paternalism in government, general conscription, +compulsory military service, and, on the very eve of the greatest +industrial revival known to history, a return to agricultural society! +The sanction of all this was not moral suasion: essential to the +system was Spartan simplicity and severity, compulsion was the means +to their utopia.[40] The Jacobins were nothing if not thorough; and +here was another new and awful thing--the "Terror"--which had broken +loose with its foul furies of party against party through all the +land. It seemed at last as if it were exhausting itself, though for a +time it had grown in intensity as it spread in extent. It had created +three factions in the Mountain. Early in 1794 there remained but a +little handful of avowed and still eager terrorists in the +Convention--Hébert and his friends. These were the atheists who had +abolished religion and the past, bowing down before the fetish which +they dubbed Reason. They were seized and put to death on March +twenty-fourth. There then remained the cliques of Danton and +Robespierre; the former claiming the name of moderates, and telling +men to be calm, the latter with no principle but devotion to a person +who claimed to be the regenerator of society. These hero-worshipers +were for a time victorious. Danton, like Hébert, was foully murdered, +and Robespierre remained alone, virtually dictator. But his theatrical +conduct in decreeing by law the existence of a Supreme Being and the +immortality of the soul, and in organizing tawdry festivals to supply +the place of worship, utterly embittered against him both atheists and +pious people. In disappointed rage at his failure, he laid aside the +characters of prophet and mild saint to give vent to his natural +wickedness and to become a devil. + + [Footnote 40: In Buchez et Roux, Histoire Parlementaire, + XXXI, pp. 268-290, 415-427; XXXII, pp. 335-381 _et + seq._, and in OEuvres de St. Just, pp. 360-420, will be + found a few examples of their views in their own words.] + +During the long days of June and July there raged again a carnival of +blood, known to history as the "Great Terror." In less than seven +weeks upward of twelve hundred victims were immolated. The unbridled +license of the guillotine broadened as it ran. First the aristocrats +had fallen, then royalty, then their sympathizers, then the hated +rich, then the merely well-to-do, and lastly anybody not cringing to +existing power. The reaction against Robespierre was one of universal +fear. Its inception was the work of Tallien, Fouché, Barras, Carrier, +Fréron, and the like, men of vile character, who knew that if +Robespierre could maintain his pose of the "Incorruptible" their doom +was sealed. In this sense Robespierre was what Napoleon called him at +St. Helena, "the scapegoat of the Revolution." The uprising of these +accomplices was, however, the opportunity long desired by the better +elements in Parisian society, and the two antipodal classes made +common cause. Dictator as Robespierre wished to be, he was formed of +other stuff, for when the reckoning came his brutal violence was +cowed. On July twenty-seventh (the ninth of Thermidor), the Convention +turned on him in rebellion, extreme radicals and moderate +conservatives combining for the effort. Terrible scenes were enacted. +The sections of Paris were divided, some for the Convention, some for +Robespierre. The artillerymen who were ordered by the latter to batter +down the part of the Tuileries where his enemies were sitting +hesitated and disobeyed; at once all resistance to the decrees of the +Convention died out. The dictator would have been his own executioner, +but his faltering terrors stopped him midway in his half-committed +suicide. He and his brother, with their friends, were seized, and +beheaded on the morrow. With the downfall of Robespierre went the last +vestige of social or political authority; for the Convention was no +longer trusted by the nation--the only organized power with popular +support which was left was the army. + +This was the news which, traveling southward, finally reached Toulon, +Marseilles, and Nice, cities where Robespierre's stanchest adherents +were flaunting their newly gained importance. No wonder if the brains +of common men reeled. The recent so-called parties had disappeared for +the moment like wraiths. The victorious group in the Convention, now +known as the Thermidorians, was compounded of elements from them both, +and claimed to represent the whole of France as the wretched factions +who had so long controlled the government had never done. Where now +should those who had been active supporters of the late administration +turn for refuge? The Corsicans who had escaped from the island at the +same time with Salicetti and the Buonapartes were nearly all with the +Army of Italy. Employment had been given to them, but, having failed +to keep Corsica for France, they were not in favor. It had already +been remarked in the Committee of Public Safety that their patriotism +was less manifest than their disposition to enrich themselves. This +too was the opinion of many among their own countrymen, especially of +their own partisans shut up in Bastia or Calvi and deserted. +Salicetti, ever ready for emergencies, was not disconcerted by this +one; and with adroit baseness turned informer, denouncing as a +suspicious schemer his former protégé and lieutenant, of whose budding +greatness he was now well aware. He was apparently both jealous and +alarmed. Possibly, however, the whole procedure was a ruse; in the +critical juncture the apparent traitor was by this conduct able +efficiently to succor and save his compatriot. + +Buonaparte's mission to Genoa had been openly political; secretly it +was also a military reconnaissance, and his confidential instructions, +virtually dictated by himself, had unfortunately leaked out. They had +directed him to examine the fortifications in and about both Savona +and Genoa, to investigate the state of the Genoese artillery, to +inform himself as to the behavior of the French envoy to the republic, +to learn as much as possible of the intentions of the oligarchy--in +short, to gather all information useful for the conduct of a war "the +result of which it is impossible to foresee." Buonaparte, knowing now +that he had trodden dangerous ground in his unauthorized and secret +dealings with the younger Robespierre, and probably foreseeing the +coming storm, began to shorten sail immediately upon reaching Nice. +Either he was prescient and felt the new influences in the air, or +else a letter now in the war office at Paris, and purporting to have +been written on August seventh to Tilly, the French agent at Genoa, is +an antedated fabrication written later for Salicetti's use.[41] +Speaking, in this paper, of Robespierre the younger, he said: "I was a +little touched by the catastrophe, for I loved him and thought him +spotless. But were it my own father, I would stab him to the heart if +he aspired to become a tyrant." If the letter be genuine, as is +probable, the writer was very far-sighted. He knew that its contents +would speedily reach Paris in the despatches of Tilly, so that it was +virtually a public renunciation of Jacobinism at the earliest possible +date, an anchor to windward in the approaching tempest. But +momentarily the trick was of no avail; he was first superseded in his +command, then arrested on August tenth, and, fortunately for himself, +imprisoned two days later in Fort Carré, near Antibes, instead of +being sent direct to Paris as some of his friends were. This temporary +shelter from the devastating blast he owed to Salicetti, who would, no +doubt, without hesitation have destroyed a friend for his own safety, +but was willing enough to spare him if not driven to extremity. + + [Footnote 41: Jung: Bonaparte et son temps, II, 455.] + +As the true state of things in Corsica began to be known in France, +there was a general disposition to blame and punish the influential +men who had brought things to such a desperate pass and made the loss +of the island probable, if not certain. Salicetti, Multedo, and the +rest quickly unloaded the whole blame on Buonaparte's shoulders, so +that he had many enemies in Paris. Thus by apparent harshness to one +whom he still considered a subordinate, the real culprit escaped +suspicion. Assured of immunity from punishment himself, Salicetti was +content with his rival's humiliation, and felt no real rancor toward +the family. This is clear from his treatment of Louis Buonaparte, who +had fallen from place and favor along with his brother, but was by +Salicetti's influence soon afterward made an officer of the home guard +at Nice. Joseph had rendered himself conspicuous in the very height of +the storm by a brilliant marriage; but neither he nor Fesch was +arrested, and both managed to pull through with whole skins. The noisy +Lucien was also married, but to a girl who, though respectable, was +poor; and in consequence he was thoroughly frightened at the thought +of losing his means of support. But though menaced with arrest, he was +sufficiently insignificant to escape for the time. + +Napoleon was kept in captivity but thirteen days. Salicetti apparently +found it easier than he had supposed to exculpate himself from the +charge either of participating in Robespierre's conspiracy or of +having brought about the Corsican insurrection. More than this, he +found himself firm in the good graces of the Thermidorians, among whom +his old friends Barras and Fréron were held in high esteem. It would +therefore be a simple thing to liberate General Buonaparte, if only a +proper expression of opinion could be secured from him. The clever +prisoner had it ready before it was needed. To the faithful Junot he +wrote a kindly note declining to be rescued by a body of friends +organized to storm the prison or scale its walls.[42] Such a course +would have compromised him further. But to the "representatives of the +people" he wrote in language which finally committed him for life. He +explained that in a revolutionary epoch there are but two classes of +men, patriots and suspects. It could easily be seen to which class a +man belonged who had fought both intestine and foreign foes. "I have +sacrificed residence in my department, I have abandoned all my goods, +I have lost all for the republic. Since then I have served at Toulon +with some distinction, and I have deserved a share with the Army of +Italy in the laurels it earned at the taking of Saorgio, Oneglia, and +Tanaro. On the discovery of Robespierre's conspiracy, my conduct was +that of a man accustomed to regard nothing but principle." The letter +concludes with a passionate appeal to each one of the controlling +officials separately and by name, that is, to both Salicetti and +Albitte, for justice and restoration. "An hour later, if the wicked +want my life, I will gladly give it to them, I care so little for it, +I weary so often of it! Yes; the idea that it may be still useful to +my country is all that makes me bear the burden with courage." The +word for country which he employed, _patrie_, could only be +interpreted as referring to France. + + [Footnote 42: Correspondance de Napoléon, I, No. 35.] + +Salicetti in person went through the form of examining the papers +offered in proof of Buonaparte's statements; found them, as a matter +of course, satisfactory; and the commissioners restored the suppliant +to partial liberty, but not to his post. He was to remain at army +headquarters, and the still terrible Committee of Safety was to +receive regular reports of his doings. This, too, was but a +subterfuge; on August twentieth he was restored to his rank. A few +weeks later commissioners from the Thermidorians arrived, with orders +that for the present all offensive operations in Italy were to be +suspended in order to put the strength of the district into a maritime +expedition against Rome and ultimately against Corsica, which was now +in the hands of England. Buonaparte immediately sought, and by +Salicetti's favor obtained, the important charge of equipping and +inspecting the artillery destined for the enterprise. He no doubt +hoped to make the venture tell in his personal interest against the +English party now triumphant in his home. This was the middle of +September. Before beginning to prepare for the Corsican expedition, +the army made a final demonstration to secure its lines. It was during +the preparatory days of this short campaign that a dreadful incident +occurred. Buonaparte had long since learned the power of women, and +had been ardently attentive in turn both to Mme. Robespierre and to +Mme. Ricord. "It was a great advantage to please them," he said; "for +in a lawless time a representative of the people is a real power." +Mme. Turreau, wife of one of the new commissioners, was now the +ascendant star in his attentions. One day, while walking arm in arm +with her near the top of the Tenda pass, Buonaparte took a sudden +freak to show her what war was like, and ordered the advance-guard to +charge the Austrian pickets. The attack was not only useless, but it +endangered the safety of the army; yet it was made according to +command, and human blood was shed. The story was told by Napoleon +himself, at the close of his life, in a tone of repentance, but with +evident relish.[43] + + [Footnote 43: Las Cases: Mémorial de Sainte-Hélène, I, + 141.] + +Buonaparte was present at the ensuing victories, but only as a +well-informed spectator and adviser, for he was yet in nominal +disgrace. Within five days the enemies' lines were driven back so as +to leave open the two most important roads into Italy--that by the +valley of the Bormida to Alessandria, and that by the shore to Genoa. +The difficult pass of Tenda fell entirely into French hands. The +English could not disembark their troops to strengthen the Allies. The +commerce of Genoa with Marseilles was reëstablished by land. "We have +celebrated the fifth sansculottide of the year II (September +twenty-first, 1794) in a manner worthy of the republic and the +National Convention," wrote the commissioners to their colleagues in +Paris. On the twenty-fourth, General Buonaparte was released by them +from attendance at headquarters, thus becoming once again a free man +and his own master. He proceeded immediately to Toulon in order to +prepare for the Corsican expedition. Once more the power of a great +nation was, he hoped, to be directed against the land of his birth, +and he was an important agent in the plan. + +To regain, if possible, some of his lost influence in the island, +Buonaparte had already renewed communication with former acquaintances +in Ajaccio. In a letter written immediately after his release in +September, 1794, to the Corsican deputy Multedo, he informed his +correspondent that his birthplace was the weakest spot on the island, +and open to attack. The information was correct. Paoli had made an +effort to strengthen it, but without success. "To drive the English," +said the writer of the letter, "from a position which makes them +masters of the Mediterranean, ... to emancipate a large number of good +patriots still to be found in that department, and to restore to their +firesides the good republicans who have deserved the care of their +country by the generous manner in which they have suffered for +it,--this, my friend, is the expedition which should occupy the +attention of the government." His fortune was in a sense dependent on +success: the important position of artillery inspector could not be +held by an absentee and it was soon filled by the appointment of a +rival compatriot, Casabianca. In the event of failure Buonaparte would +be destitute. Perhaps the old vista of becoming a Corsican hero opened +up once again to a sore and disappointed man, but it is not probable: +the horizon of his life had expanded too far to be again contracted, +and the present task was probably considered but as a bridge to cross +once more the waters of bitterness. On success or failure hung his +fate. Two fellow-adventurers were Junot and Marmont. The former was +the child of plain French burghers, twenty-three years old, a daring, +swaggering youth, indifferent to danger, already an intimate of +Napoleon's, having been his secretary at Toulon. His chequered destiny +was interwoven with that of his friend and he came to high position. +But though faithful to the end, he was always erratic and troublesome; +and in an attack of morbid chagrin he came to a violent end in 1813. +The other comrade was but a boy of twenty, the son of an officer who, +though of the lower nobility, was a convinced revolutionary. The boys +had met several years earlier at Dijon and again as young men at +Toulon, where the friendship was knitted which grew closer and closer +for twenty years. At Wagram, Marmont became a marshal. Already he had +acquired habits of luxurious ease and the doubtful fortunes of his +Emperor exasperated him into critical impatience. He so magnified his +own importance that at last he deserted. The labored memoirs he wrote +are the apology for his life and for his treachery. Though without +great genius, he was an able man and an industrious recorder of +valuable impressions. Not one of the three accomplished anything +during the Corsican expedition; their common humiliation probably +commended both of his junior comrades to Buonaparte's tenderness, and +thereafter both enjoyed much of his confidence, especially Marmont, in +whom it was utterly misplaced. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +The End of Apprenticeship. + + The English Conquest of Corsica -- Effects in Italy -- The + Buonapartes at Toulon -- Napoleon Thwarted Again -- + Departure for Paris -- His Character Determined -- His + Capacities -- Reaction From the "Terror" -- Resolutions of + the Convention -- Parties in France -- Their Lack of + Experience -- A New Constitution -- Different Views of Its + Value. + + +[Sidenote: 1795.] + +The turmoils of civil war in France had now left Corsica to her own +pursuits for many months. Her internal affairs had gone from bad to +worse, and Paoli, unable to control his fierce and wilful people, had +found himself helpless. Compelled to seek the support of some strong +foreign power, he had instinctively turned to England, and the English +fleet, driven from Toulon, was finally free to help him. On February +seventeenth, 1794, it entered the fine harbor of St. Florent, and +captured the town without an effort. Establishing a depot which thus +separated the two remaining centers of French influence, Calvi and +Bastia, the English admiral next laid siege to the latter. The place +made a gallant defense, holding out for over three months, until on +May twenty-second Captain Horatio Nelson, who had virtually controlled +operations for eighty-eight days continuously,--nearly the entire +time,--directed the guns of the _Agamemnon_ with such destructive +force against the little city that when the land forces from St. +Florent appeared it was weakened beyond the power of resistance and +surrendered.[44] The terms made by its captors were the easiest known +to modern warfare, the conquered being granted all the honors of war. +As a direct and immediate result, the Corsican estates met, and +declared the island a constitutional monarchy under the protection of +England. Sir Gilbert Elliot was appointed viceroy, and Paoli was +recalled by George III to England. On August tenth fell Calvi, the +last French stronghold in the country, hitherto considered impregnable +by the Corsicans. + + [Footnote 44: For a full account of these important + operations see Mahan: Life of Nelson, I, 123 _et seq._] + +The presence of England so close to Italian shores immediately +produced throughout Lombardy and Tuscany a reaction of feeling in +favor of the French Revolution and its advanced ideas. The Committee +of Safety meant to take advantage of this sentiment and reduce the +Italian powers to the observance of strict neutrality at least, if +nothing more. They hoped to make a demonstration at Leghorn and punish +Rome for an insult to the republic still unavenged--the death of the +French minister, in 1793, at the hands of a mob; perhaps they might +also drive the British from Corsica. This explained the arrival of the +commissioners at Nice with the order to cease operations against +Sardinia and Austria, for the purpose of striking at English influence +in Italy, and possibly in Corsica. + +Everything but one was soon in readiness. To meet the English fleet, +the shipwrights at Toulon must prepare a powerful squadron. They did +not complete their gigantic task until February nineteenth, 1795. We +can imagine the intense activity of any man of great power, determined +to reconquer a lost position: what Buonaparte's fire and zeal must +have been we can scarcely conceive; even his fiercest detractors bear +witness to the activity of those months. When the order to embark was +given, his organization and material were both as nearly perfect as +possible. His mother had brought the younger children to a charming +house near by, where she entertained the influential women of the +neighborhood; and thither her busy son often withdrew for the +pleasures of a society which he was now beginning thoroughly to enjoy. +Thanks to the social diplomacy of this most ingenious family, +everything went well for a time, even with Lucien; and Louis, now +sixteen, was made a lieutenant of artillery. At the last moment came +what seemed the climax of Napoleon's good fortune, the assurance that +the destination of the fleet would be Corsica. Peace was made with +Tuscany. Rome could not be reached without a decisive engagement with +the English; therefore the first object of the expedition would be to +engage the British squadron which was cruising about Corsica. Victory +would of course mean entrance into Corsican harbors. + +On March eleventh the new fleet set sail. In its very first encounter +with the English on March thirteenth the fleet successfully +manoeuvered and just saved a fine eighty-gun ship, the _Ça Ira_, from +capture by Nelson. Next day there was a partial fleet action which +ended in a disaster, and two fine ships were captured, the _Ça Ira_ +and the _Censeur_; the others fled to Hyères, where the troops were +disembarked from their transports, and sent back to their posts.[45] +Naval operations were not resumed for three months. Once more +Buonaparte was the victim of uncontrollable circumstance. Destitute of +employment, stripped even of the little credit gained in the last +half-year,[46] he stood for the seventh time on the threshold of the +world, a suppliant at the door. In some respects he was worse equipped +for success than at the beginning, for he now had a record to +expunge. To an outsider the spring of 1795 must have appeared the most +critical period of his life.[47] He himself knew better; in fact, this +ill-fated expedition was probably soon forgotten altogether. In his +St. Helena reminiscences, at least, he never recalled it: at that time +he was not fond of mentioning his failures, little or great, being +chiefly concerned to hand himself down to history as a man of lofty +purposes and unsullied motives. Besides, he was never in the slightest +degree responsible for the terrible waste of millions in this +ill-starred maritime enterprise; all his own plans had been for the +conduct of the war by land. + + [Footnote 45: Marmont: Mémoires, I, 77-78.] + + [Footnote 46: Inspection report in Jung, II, 477. "Too + much ambition and intrigue for his advancement."] + + [Footnote 47: He was far down the list, one hundred and + thirty-ninth in the line of promotion.] + +The Corsican administration had always had in it at least one French +representative. Between the latest of these, Lacombe Saint-Michel, now +a member of the Committee of Safety, and the Salicetti party no love +was ever lost. It was a general feeling that the refugee Corsicans on +the Mediterranean shore were too near their home. They were always +charged with unscrupulous planning to fill their own pockets. Now, +somehow or other, inexplicably perhaps, but nevertheless certainly, a +costly expedition had been sent to Corsica under the impulse of these +very men, and it had failed. The unlucky adventurers had scarcely set +their feet on shore before Lacombe secured Buonaparte's appointment to +the Army of the West, where he would be far from old influences, with +orders to proceed immediately to his post. The papers reached +Marseilles, whither the Buonapartes had already betaken themselves, +during the month of April. On May second,[48] accompanied by Louis, +Junot, and Marmont, the broken general set out for Paris, where he +arrived with his companions eight days later, and rented shabby +lodgings in the Fossés-Montmartre, now Aboukir street. The style of +the house was Liberty Hotel. + + [Footnote 48: Possibly the twelfth. See Jung, III, I.] + +At this point Buonaparte's apprentice years may be said to have ended: +he was virtually the man he remained to the end. A Corsican by origin, +he retained the national sensibility and an enormous power of +endurance both physical and intellectual, together with the dogged +persistence found in the medieval Corsicans. He was devoted with +primitive virtue to his family and his people, but was willing to +sacrifice the latter, at least, to his ambition. His moral sense, +having never been developed by education, and, worse than that, having +been befogged by the extreme sensibility of Rousseau and by the chaos +of the times which that prophet had brought to pass, was practically +lacking. Neither the hostility of his father to religion, nor his own +experiences with the Jesuits, could, however, entirely eradicate a +superstition which passed in his mind for faith. Sometimes he was a +scoffer, as many with weak convictions are; but in general he +preserved a formal and outward respect for the Church. He was, +however, a stanch opponent of Roman centralization and papal +pretensions. His theoretical education had been narrow and one-sided; +but his reading and his authorship, in spite of their superficial and +desultory character, had given him certain large and fairly definite +conceptions of history and politics. But his practical education! What +a polishing and sharpening he had had against the revolving world +moving many times faster then than in most ages! He was an adept in +the art of civil war, for he had been not merely an interested +observer, but an active participant in it during five years in two +countries. Long the victim of wiles more secret than his own, he had +finally grown most wily in diplomacy; an ambitious politician, his +pulpy principles were republican in their character so far as they had +any tissue or firmness. + +His acquisitions in the science of war were substantial and definite. +Neither a martinet himself nor in any way tolerant of routine, +ignorant in fact of many hateful details, among others of obedience, +he yet rose far above tradition or practice in his conception of +strategy. He was perceptibly superior to the world about him in almost +every aptitude, and particularly so in power of combination, in +originality, and in far-sightedness. He could neither write nor spell +correctly, but he was skilled in all practical applications of +mathematics: town and country, mountains and plains, seas and rivers, +were all quantities in his equations. Untrustworthy himself, he strove +to arouse trust, faith, and devotion in those about him; and +concealing successfully his own purpose, he read the hearts of others +like an open book. Of pure-minded affection for either men or women he +had so far shown only a little, and had experienced in return even +less; but he had studied the arts of gallantry, and understood the +leverage of social forces. To these capacities, some embryonic, some +perfectly formed, add the fact that he was now a cosmopolitan, and +there will be outline, relief, and color to his character. "I am in +that frame of mind," he said of himself about this time, "in which men +are when on the eve of battle, with a persistent conviction that since +death is imminent in the end, to be uneasy is folly. Everything makes +me brave death and destiny; and if this goes on, I shall in the end, +my friend, no longer turn when a carriage passes. My reason is +sometimes astonished at all this; but it is the effect produced on me +by the moral spectacle of this land [_ce pays-ci_, not _patrie_], and +by the habit of running risks." This is the power and the temper of a +man of whom an intimate and confidential friend predicted that he +would never stop short until he had mounted either the throne or the +scaffold. + +The overthrow of Robespierre was the result of an alliance between +what have been called the radicals and the conservatives in the +Convention. Both were Jacobins, for the Girondists had been +discredited, and put out of doors. It was not, however, the +Convention, but Paris, which took command of the resulting movement. +The social structure of France has been so strong, and the nation so +homogeneous, that political convulsions have had much less influence +there than elsewhere. But the "Terror" had struck at the heart of +nearly every family of consequence in the capital, and the people were +utterly weary of horrors. The wave of reaction began when the would-be +dictator fell. A wholesome longing for safety, with its attendant +pleasures, overpowered society, and light-heartedness returned. +Underneath this temper lay but partly concealed a grim determination +not to be thwarted, which awed the Convention. Slowly, yet surely, the +Jacobins lost their power. As once the whole land had been mastered by +the idea of "federation," and as a later patriotic impulse had given +as a watchword "the nation," so now another refrain was in every +mouth--"humanity." The very songs of previous stages, the "Ça ira" and +the "Carmagnole," were displaced by new and milder ones. With Paris in +this mood, it was clear that the proscribed might return, and the +Convention, for its intemperate severity, must abdicate. + +This, of course, meant a new political experiment; but being, as they +were, sanguine admirers of Rousseau, the French felt no apprehension +at the prospect. The constitution of the third republic in France has +been considered a happy chance by many. Far from being perfectly +adapted to the needs of the nation, the fine qualities it possesses +are the outcome, not of chance, nor of theory, but of a century's +experience. It should be remembered that France in the eighteenth +century had had no experience whatever of constitutional government, +and the spirit of the age was all for theory in politics. Accordingly +the democratic monarchy of 1791 had failed because, its framework +having been built of empty visions, its constitution was entirely in +the air. The same fate had now overtaken the Girondist experiment of +1792 and the Jacobin usurpation of the following year, which was +ostensibly sanctioned by the popular adoption of a new constitution. +With perfect confidence in Rousseau's idea that government is based on +a social contract between individuals, the nation had sworn its +adhesion to two constitutions successively, and had ratified the act +each time by appropriate solemnities. Already the bubble of such a +conception had been punctured. Was it strange that the Convention +determined to repeat the same old experiment? Not at all. They knew +nothing better than the old idea, and never doubted that the fault +lay, not in the system, but in its details; they believed they could +improve on the work of their predecessors by the change and +modification of particulars. Aware, therefore, that their own day had +passed, they determined, before dissolving, to construct a new and +improved form of government. The work was confided to a committee of +eleven, most of whom were Girondists recalled for the purpose in order +to hoodwink the public. They now separated the executive and judiciary +from each other and from the legislature, divided the latter into two +branches, so as to cool the heat of popular sentiment before it was +expressed in statutes, and, avoiding the pitfall dug for itself by +the National Assembly, made members of the Convention eligible for +election under the new system. + +If the monarchy could have been restored at the same time, these +features of the new charter would have reproduced in France some +elements of the British constitution, and its adoption would probably +have pacified the dynastic rulers of Europe. But the restoration of +monarchy in any form was as yet impossible. The Bourbons had utterly +discredited royalty, and the late glorious successes had been won +partly by the lavish use in the enemy's camp of money raised and +granted by radical democrats, partly by the prowess of enthusiastic +republicans. The compact, efficient organization of the national army +was the work of the Jacobins, and while the Mountain was discredited +in Paris, it was not so in the provinces; moreover, the army which was +on foot and in the field was in the main a Jacobin army. Royalty was +so hated by most Frenchmen that the sad plight of the child dauphin, +dying by inches in the Temple, awakened no compassion, and its next +lineal representative was that hated thing, a voluntary exile; the +nobility, who might have furnished the material for a French House of +Lords, were traitors to their country, actually bearing arms in the +levies of her foes. The national feeling was a passion; Louis XVI had +been popular enough until he had outraged it first by ordering the +Church to remain obedient to Rome, and then by appealing to foreign +powers for protection. The emigrant nobles had stumbled over one +another in their haste to manifest their contempt for nationality by +throwing themselves into the arms of their own class in foreign lands. + +Moreover, another work of the Revolution could not be undone. The +lands of both the emigrants and the Church had either been seized and +divided among the adherents of the new order, or else appropriated to +state uses. Restitution was out of the question, for the power of the +new owners was sufficient to destroy any one who should propose to +take away their possessions. This is a fact particularly to be +emphasized, because, making all allowances, the subsequent history of +France has been determined by the alliance of a landed peasantry with +the petty burghers of the cities and towns. What both have always +desired is a strong hand in government which assures their property +rights. Whenever any of the successive forms and methods has failed +its fate was doomed. In this temper of the masses, in the flight of +the ruling class, in the distemper of the radical democracy, a +constitutional monarchy was unthinkable. A presidential government on +the model of that devised and used by the United States was equally +impossible, because the French appear already to have had a +premonition or an instinct that a ripe experience of liberty was +essential to the working of such an institution. The student of the +revolutionary times will become aware how powerful the feeling already +was among the French that a single strong executive, elected by the +masses, would speedily turn into a tyrant. They have now a nominal +president; but his election is indirect, his office is representative, +not political, and his duties are like an impersonal, colorless +reflection of those performed by the English crown. The +constitution-makers simply could not fall back on an experience of +successful free government which did not exist. Absolute monarchy had +made gradual change impossible, for oppression dies only in +convulsions. Experience was in front, not behind, and must be gained +through suffering. + +It was therefore a grim necessity which led the Thermidorians of the +Convention to try another political nostrum. What should it be? There +had always been a profound sense in France of her historic continuity +with Rome. Her system of jurisprudence, her speech, her church, her +very land, were Roman. Recalling this, the constitution-framers also +recollected that these had been the gifts of imperial and Christian +Rome. It was a curious but characteristic whim which consequently +suggested to the enemies of ecclesiasticism the revival of Roman forms +dating from the heathen commonwealth. This it was which led them to +commit the administration of government in both external and internal +relations to a divided executive. There, however, the resemblance to +Rome ended, for instead of two consuls there were to be five +directors. These were to sit as a committee, to appoint their own +ministerial agents, together with all officers and officials of the +army, and to fill the few positions in the administrative departments +which were not elective, except those in the treasury, which was a +separate, independent administration. All executive powers except +those of the treasury were likewise to be in their hands. They were to +have no veto, and their treaties of peace must be ratified by the +legislature; but they could declare war without consulting any one. +The judiciary was to be elected directly by the people, and the judges +were to hold office for about a year. The legislature was to be +separated into a senate with two hundred and fifty members, called the +Council of Ancients, which had the veto power, and an assembly called +the Council of Juniors, or, more popularly, from its number, the Five +Hundred, which had the initiative in legislation. The members of the +former must be at least forty years old and married; every aspirant +for a seat in the latter must be twenty-five and of good character. +Both these bodies were alike to be elected by universal suffrage +working indirectly through secondary electors, and limited by +educational and property qualifications. There were many wholesome +checks and balances. This constitution is known as that of I +Vendémiaire, An IV, or September twenty-second, 1795. It became +operative on October twenty-sixth. + +The scheme was formed, as was intended, under Girondist influence, and +was acceptable to the nation as a whole. In spite of many defects, it +might after a little experience have been amended so as to work, if +the people had been united and hearty in its support. But they were +not. The Thermidorians, who were still Jacobins at heart, ordered that +at least two-thirds of the men elected to sit in the new houses should +have been members of the Convention, on the plea that they alone had +sufficient experience of affairs to carry on the public business, at +least for the present. Perhaps this was intended as some offset to the +enforced closing of the Jacobin Club on November twelfth, 1794, due to +menaces by the higher classes of Parisian society, known to history as +"the gilded youth." On the other hand, the royalists saw in the new +constitution an instrument ready to their hand, should public opinion, +in its search for means to restore quiet and order, be carried still +further away from the Revolution than the movement of Thermidor had +swept it. Their conduct justified the measures of the Jacobins. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +The Antechamber to Success. + + Punishment of the Terrorists -- Dangers of the Thermidorians + -- Successes of Republican Arms -- Some Republican Generals + -- Military Prodigies -- The Treaty of Basel -- Vendean + Disorders Repressed -- A "White Terror" -- Royalist Activity + -- Friction Under the New Constitution -- Arrival of + Buonaparte in Paris -- Paris Society -- Its Power -- The + People Angry -- Resurgence of Jacobinism -- Buonaparte's + Dejection -- His Relations with Mme. Permon -- His + Magnanimity. + + +[Sidenote: 1795.] + +From time to time after the events of Thermidor the more active agents +of the Terror were sentenced to transportation, and the less guilty +were imprisoned. On May seventh, 1795, three days before Buonaparte's +arrival in Paris, Fouquier-Tinville, and fifteen other wretches who +had been but tools, the executioners of the revolutionary tribunal, +were put to death. The National Guard had been reorganized, and +Pichegru was recalled from the north to take command of the united +forces in Paris under a committee of the Convention with Barras at its +head. + +This was intended to overawe those citizens of Paris who were hostile +to the Jacobins. They saw the trap set for them, and were angry. +During the years of internal disorder and foreign warfare just passed +the economic conditions of the land had grown worse and worse, until, +in the winter of 1794-95, the laboring classes of Paris were again on +the verge of starvation. As usual, they attributed their sufferings to +the government, and there were bread riots. Twice in the spring of +1795--on April first and May twentieth--the unemployed and hungry rose +to overthrow the Convention, but they were easily put down by the +soldiers on both occasions. The whole populace, as represented by the +sections or wards of Paris, resented this use of armed force, and grew +uneasy. The Thermidorians further angered it by introducing a new +metropolitan administration, which greatly diminished the powers and +influence of the sections, without, however, destroying their +organization. The people of the capital, therefore, were ready for +mischief. The storming of the Tuileries on August tenth, 1792, had +been the work of the Paris mob. Why could they not in turn, another +mob, reactionary and to a degree even royalist, overthrow the tyranny +of the Jacobins as they themselves had overthrown the double-faced +administration of the King? + +A crisis might easily have been precipitated before Buonaparte's +arrival in Paris, but it was delayed by events outside the city. The +year 1794 had been a brilliant season for the republican arms and for +republican diplomacy. We have seen how the Piedmontese were forced +beyond the maritime Alps; the languid and worthless troops of Spain +were expelled from the Pyrenean strongholds and forced southward; in +some places, beyond the Ebro. Pichegru, with the Army of the North, +had driven the invaders from French soil and had conquered the +Austrian Netherlands. Jourdan, with the Army of the Sambre and Meuse, +had defeated the Austrians at Fleurus in a battle decided by the +bravery of Marceau, thus confirming the conquest. Other generals were +likewise rising to eminence. Hoche had in 1793 beaten the Austrians +under Wurmser at Weissenburg, and driven them from Alsace. He had now +further heightened his fame by his successes against the insurgents +of the west. Saint-Cyr, Bernadotte, and Kléber, with many others of +Buonaparte's contemporaries, had also risen to distinction in minor +engagements. + +Of peasant birth, Pichegru was nevertheless appointed by +ecclesiastical influence as a scholar at Brienne. In the dearth of +generals he was selected for promotion by Saint-Just as was Hoche at +the time when Carnot discovered Jourdan. Having assisted Hoche in the +conquest of Alsace when a division general and only thirty-two years +old, he began the next year, in 1794, to deploy his extraordinary +powers, and with Moreau as second in command he swept the English and +Austrians out of the Netherlands. Both these generals were sensitive +and jealous men; after brilliant careers under the republic they +turned royalists and came to unhappy ends. Moreau was two years the +junior. He was the son of a Breton lawyer and rose to notice both as a +local politician, and as a volunteer captain in the Breton struggles +for independence with which he had no sympathy. As a great soldier he +ranks with Hoche after Napoleon in the revolutionary time. Hoche was +younger still, having been born in 1768. In 1784 he enlisted as a +common soldier and rose from the ranks by sheer ability. He died at +the age of thirty, but as a politician and strategist he was already +famous. Kléber was an Alsatian who had been educated in the military +school at Munich and was already forty-one years old. Having enlisted +under the Revolution as a volunteer, he so distinguished himself on +the Rhine that he was swiftly promoted; but, thwarted in his ambition +to have an independent command, he lost his ardor and did not again +distinguish himself until he secured service under Napoleon in Egypt. +There he exhibited such capacity that he was regarded as one of +Bonaparte's rivals. He was assassinated by an Oriental in Cairo. +Bernadotte was four years the senior of Bonaparte, the son of a lawyer +in Paris. He too enlisted in the ranks, as a royal marine, and rose by +his own merits. He was a rude radical whose military ability was +paralleled by his skill in diplomacy. His swift promotion was obtained +in the Rhenish campaigns. Gouvion Saint-Cyr was also born in 1764 at +Toul. He was a marquis but an ardent reformer, and a born soldier. He +began as a volunteer captain on the staff of Custine, and rising like +the others mentioned became an excellent general, though his chances +for distinction were few. Jourdan was likewise a nobleman, born at +Limoges to the rank of count in 1762. His long career was solid rather +than brilliant, though he gained great distinction in the northern +campaigns and ended as a marshal, the military adviser of Joseph +Bonaparte in Naples and Madrid. + +The record of military energy put forth by the liberated nation under +Jacobin rule stands, as Fox declared in the House of Commons, +absolutely unique. Twenty-seven victories, eight in pitched battle; +one hundred and twenty fights; ninety thousand prisoners; one hundred +and sixteen towns and important places captured; two hundred and +thirty forts or redoubts taken; three thousand eight hundred pieces of +ordnance, seventy thousand muskets, one thousand tons of powder, and +ninety standards fallen into French hands--such is the incredible +tale. Moreover, the army had been purged with as little mercy as a +mercantile corporation shows to incompetent employees. It is often +claimed that the armies of republican France and of Napoleon were, +after all, the armies of the Bourbons. Not so. The conscription law, +though very imperfect in itself, was supplemented by the general +enthusiasm; a nation was now in the ranks instead of hirelings; the +reorganization had remodeled the whole structure, and between January +first, 1792, and January twentieth, 1795, one hundred and ten division +commanders, two hundred and sixty-three generals of brigade, and one +hundred and thirty-eight adjutant-generals either resigned, were +suspended from duty, or dismissed from the service. The republic had +new leaders and new men in its armies. + +The nation had apparently determined that the natural boundary of +France and of its own revolutionary system was the Rhine. Nice and +Savoy would round out their territory to the south. This much the new +government, it was understood, would conquer, administer, and keep; +the Revolution in other lands, impelled but not guided by French +influence, must manage its own affairs. This was, of course, an +entirely new diplomatic situation. Under its pressure Holland, by the +aid of Pichegru's army, became the Batavian Republic, and ceded Dutch +Flanders to France; while Prussia abandoned the coalition, and in the +treaty of Basel, signed on April fifth, 1795, agreed to the neutrality +of all north Germany. In return for the possessions of the +ecclesiastical princes in central Germany, which were eventually to be +secularized, she yielded to France undisputed possession of the left +bank of the Rhine. Spain, Portugal, and the little states both of +south Germany and of Italy were all alike weary of the contest, the +more so as they were honeycombed with liberal ideas. They were already +preparing to desert England and Austria, the great powers which still +stood firm. With the exception of Portugal, they acceded within a few +weeks to the terms made at Basel. Rome, as the instigator of the +unyielding ecclesiastics of Vendée, was, of course, on the side of +Great Britain and the Empire. + +At home the military success of the republic was for a little while +equally marked. Before the close of 1794 the Breton peasants who, +under the name of Chouans, had become lawless highwaymen were entirely +crushed; and the English expedition sent to Quiberon in the following +year to revive the disorders was a complete, almost ridiculous +failure. The insurrection of Vendée had dragged stubbornly on, but it +was stamped out in June, 1795, by the execution of over seven hundred +of the emigrants who had returned on English vessels to fan the +royalist blaze which was kindling again. + +[Illustration: In the collection of Mr. Edmond Taigny. +Marie-Josephine-Rose Tascher de La Pagerie, Called Josephine, +Empress of the French. + +From the design by Jean-Baptiste Isabey (pencil drawing retouched +in water-color) made in 1798.] + +The royalists, having created the panic of five years previous, were +not to be outdone even by the Terror. Charette, the Vendean leader, +retaliated by a holocaust of two thousand republican prisoners whom he +had taken. After the events of Thermidor the Convention had thrown +open the prison doors, put an end to bloodshed, and proclaimed an +amnesty. The evident power of the Parisian burghers, the form given by +the Girondists to the new constitution, the longing of all for peace +and for a return of comfort and prosperity, still further emboldened +the royalists, and enabled them to produce a wide-spread revulsion of +feeling. They rose in many parts of the south, instituting what is +known from the colors they wore as the "White Terror," and pitilessly +murdering, in the desperation of timid revenge, their unsuspecting and +unready neighbors of republican opinions. The scenes enacted were more +terrible, the human butchery was more bloody, than any known during +the darkest days of the revolutionary movement in Paris. This might +well be considered the preliminary trial to the Great White Terror of +1815, in which the frenzy and fanaticism of royalists and Roman +Catholics surpassed the most frantic efforts of radicals in lawless +bloodshed. Imperialists, free-thinkers, and Protestants were the +victims. + +The Jacobins, therefore, in view of so dangerous a situation, and not +without some reason, had determined that they themselves should +administer the new constitution. They were in the most desperate +straits because the Paris populace now held them directly responsible +for the existing scarcity of food, a scarcity amounting to famine. +From time to time for months the mob invaded the hall of the +Convention, craving bread with angry, hungry clamor. The members +mingled with the disorderly throng on the floor and temporarily +soothed them by empty promises. But each inroad of disorder was worse +than the preceding until the Mountain was not only without support +from the rabble, but an object of loathing and contempt to them and +their half-starved leaders. Hence their only chance for power was in +some new rearrangement under which they would not be so prominent in +affairs. The royalists at the same time saw in the provisions of the +new charter a means to accomplish their own ends; and relying upon the +attitude of the capital, in which mob and burghers alike were angry, +determined simultaneously to strike a blow for mastery, and to +supplant the Jacobins. Evidence of their activity appeared both in +military and political circles. Throughout the summer of 1795 there +was an unaccountable languor in the army. It was believed that +Pichegru had purposely palsied his own and Jourdan's abilities, and +the needless armistice he made with Austria went far to confirm the +idea. It was afterward proved that several members of the Convention +had been in communication with royalists. Among their agents was a +personage of some importance--a certain Aubry--who, having returned +after the events of Thermidor, never disavowed his real sentiments as +a royalist; and being later made chairman of the army committee, was +in that position when Buonaparte's career was temporarily checked by +degradation from the artillery to the infantry. For this absurd reason +he was long but unjustly thought also to have caused the original +transfer to the west. + +The Convention was aware of all that was taking place, but was also +helpless to correct the trouble. Having abolished the powerful and +terrible Committee of Safety, which had conducted its operations with +such success as attends remorseless vigor, it was found necessary on +August ninth to reconstruct something similar to meet the new crisis. +At the same time the spirit of the hour was propitiated by forming +sixteen other committees to control the action of the central one. +Such a dispersion of executive power was a virtual paralysis of +action, but it was to be only temporary, they would soon centralize +their strength in an efficient way. The constitution was adopted only +a fortnight later, on August twenty-second. Immediately the sections +of Paris began to display irritation at the limitations set to their +choice of new representatives. They had many sympathizers in the +provinces, and the extreme reactionaries from the Revolution were +jubilant. Fortunately for France, Carnot was temporarily retained to +control the department of war. He was not removed until the following +March. + +When General Buonaparte reached Paris, and went to dwell in the mean +and shabby lodgings which his lean purse compelled him to choose, he +found the city strangely metamorphosed. Animated by a settled purpose +not to accept the position assigned to him in the Army of the West, +and, if necessary, to defy his military superiors, his humor put him +out of all sympathy with the prevalent gaiety. Bitter experience had +taught him that in civil war the consequences of victory and defeat +are alike inglorious. In the fickleness of public opinion the +avenging hero of to-day may easily become the reprobated outcast of +to-morrow. What reputation he had gained at Toulon was already +dissipated in part; the rest might easily be squandered entirely in +Vendée. He felt and said that he could wait. But how about his daily +bread? + +The drawing-rooms of Paris had opened like magic before the "sesame" +of Thermidor and the prospects of settled order under the Directory. +There were visiting, dining, and dancing; dressing, flirtation, and +intrigue; walking, driving, and riding--all the avocations of a people +soured with the cruel and bloody past, and reasserting its native +passion for pleasure and refinement. All classes indulged in the +wildest speculation, securities public and corporate were the sport of +the exchange, the gambling spirit absorbed the energies of both sexes +in desperate games of skill and chance. The theaters, which had never +closed their doors even during the worst periods of terror, were +thronged from pit to gallery by a populace that reveled in excitement. +The morality of the hour was no better than the old; for there was a +strange mixture of elements in this new society. The men in power were +of every class--a few of the old aristocracy, many of the wealthy +burghers, a certain proportion of the colonial nabobs from the West +Indies and elsewhere, adventurers of every stripe, a few even of the +city populace, and some country common folk. The purchase and sale of +the confiscated lands, the national domain which furnished a slender +security for the national debt and depreciated bonds, had enriched +thousands of the vulgar sort. The newly rich lost their balance and +their stolidity, becoming as giddy and frivolous and aggressive as the +worst. The ingredients of this queer hodgepodge had yet to learn one +another's language and nature; the niceties of speech, gesture, and +mien which once had a well-understood significance in the higher +circles of government and society were all to be readjusted in +accordance with the ideas of the motley crowd and given new +conventional currency. In such a disorderly transition vice does not +require the mask of hypocrisy, virtue is helpless because unorganized, +and something like riot characterizes conduct. The sound and rugged +goodness of many newcomers, the habitual respectability of the +veterans, were for the moment alike inactive because not yet kneaded +into the lump they had to leaven. + +There was, nevertheless, a marvelous exhibition of social power in +this heterogeneous mass; nothing of course proportionate in extent to +what had been brought forth for national defense, but still, of almost +if not entirely equal significance. Throughout the revolutionary epoch +there had been much discussion concerning reforms in education. It was +in 1794 that Monge finally succeeded in founding the great Polytechnic +School, an institution which clearly corresponded to a national +characteristic, since from that day it has strengthened the natural +bias of the French toward applied science, and tempted them to the +undue and unfortunate neglect of many important humanizing +disciplines. The Conservatory of Music and the Institute were +permanently reorganized soon after. The great collections of the +Museum of Arts and Crafts (Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers) were +begun, and permanent lecture courses were founded in connection with +the National Library, the Botanical Garden, the Medical School, and +other learned institutions. Almost immediately a philosophical +literature began to appear; pictures were painted, and the theaters +reopened with new and tolerable pieces written for the day and place. +In the very midst of war, moreover, an attempt was made to emancipate +the press. The effort was ill advised, and the results were so +deplorable for the conduct of affairs that the newspapers were in the +event more firmly muzzled than ever. + +When Buonaparte had made his living arrangements, and began to look +about, he must have been stupefied by the hatred for the Convention so +generally and openly manifested on every side. The provinces had +looked upon the Revolution as accomplished. Paris was evidently in +such ill humor with the body which represented it that the republic +was to all appearance virtually undone. "Reëlect two thirds of the +Convention members to the new legislature!" said the angry demagogues +of the Paris sections. "Never! Those men who, by their own confession, +have for three years in all these horrors been the cowardly tools of a +sentiment they could not restrain, but are now self-styled and +reformed moderates! Impossible!" Whether bribed by foreign gold, and +working under the influence of royalists, or by reason of the famine, +or through the determination of the well-to-do to have a radical +change, or from all these influences combined, the sections were +gradually organizing for resistance, and it was soon clear that the +National Guard was in sympathy with them. The Convention was equally +alert, and began to arm for the conflict. They already had several +hundred artillerymen and five thousand regulars who were imbued with +the national rather that the local spirit; they now began to enlist a +special guard of fifteen hundred from the desperate men who had been +the trusty followers of Hébert and Robespierre. The fighting spirit of +the Convention was unquenchable. Having lodged the "two thirds" in the +coming government, they virtually declared war on all enemies internal +and external. By their decree of October twenty-fourth, 1792, they had +announced that the natural limits of France were their goal. Having +virtually obtained them, they were now determined to defend them. This +was the legacy of the Convention to the Directory, a legacy which +indefinitely prolonged the Revolution and nullified the new polity +from the outset. + +For a month or more Buonaparte was a mere onlooker, or at most an +interested examiner of events, weighing and speculating in obscurity +much as he had done three years before. The war department listened to +and granted his earnest request that he might remain in Paris until +there should be completed a general reassignment of officers, which +had been determined upon, and, as his good fortune would have it, was +already in progress. As the first weeks passed, news arrived from the +south of a reaction in favor of the Jacobins. It became clearer every +day that the Convention had moral support beyond the ramparts of +Paris, and within the city it was possible to maintain something in +the nature of a Jacobin salon. Many of that faith who were disaffected +with the new conditions in Paris--the Corsicans in particular--were +welcomed at the home of Mme. Permon by herself and her beautiful +daughter, afterward Mme. Junot and Duchess of Abrantès. Salicetti had +chosen the other child, a son now grown, as his private secretary, and +was of course a special favorite in the house. The first manifestation +of reviving Jacobin confidence was shown in the attack made on May +twentieth upon the Convention by hungry rioters who shouted for the +constitution of 1793. The result was disastrous to the radicals +because the tumult was quelled by the courage and presence of mind +shown by Boissy d'Anglas, a calm and determined moderate. Commissioned +to act alone in provisioning Paris, he bravely accepted his +responsibility and mounted the president's chair in the midst of the +tumult to defend himself. The mob brandished in his face the bloody +head of Féraud, a fellow-member of his whom they had just murdered. +The speaker uncovered his head in respect, and his undaunted mien +cowed the leaders, who slunk away, followed by the rabble. The +consequence was a total annihilation of the Mountain on May +twenty-second. The Convention committees were disbanded, their +artillerymen were temporarily dismissed, and the constitution of 1793 +was abolished. + +The friendly home of Mme. Permon was almost the only resort of +Buonaparte, who, though disillusioned, was still a Jacobin. Something +like desperation appeared in his manner; the lack of proper food +emaciated his frame, while uncertainty as to the future left its mark +on his wan face and in his restless eyes. It was not astonishing, for +his personal and family affairs were apparently hopeless. His +brothers, like himself, had now been deprived of profitable +employment; they, with him, might possibly and even probably soon be +numbered among the suspects; destitute of a powerful patron, and with +his family once more in actual want, Napoleon was scarcely fit in +either garb or humor for the society even of his friends. His hostess +described him as having "sharp, angular features; small hands, long +and thin; his hair long and disheveled; without gloves; wearing badly +made, badly polished shoes; having always a sickly appearance, which +was the result of his lean and yellow complexion, brightened only by +two eyes glistening with shrewdness and firmness." Bourrienne, who had +now returned from diplomatic service, was not edified by the +appearance or temper of his acquaintance, who, he says, "was ill clad +and slovenly, his character cold, often inscrutable. His smile was +hollow and often out of place. He had moments of fierce gaiety which +made you uneasy, and indisposed to love him." + +No wonder the man was ill at ease. His worst fears were realized when +the influence of the Mountain was wiped out,--Carnot, the organizer of +victory, as he had been styled, being the only one of all the old +leaders to escape. Salicetti was too prominent a partizan to be +overlooked by the angry burghers. For a time he was concealed by Mme. +Permon in her Paris home. He escaped the vengeance of his enemies in +the disguise of her lackey, flying with her when she left for the +south to seek refuge for herself and children. Even the rank and file +among the members of the Mountain either fled or were arrested. That +Buonaparte was unmolested appears to prove how cleverly he had +concealed his connection with them. The story that in these days he +proposed for the hand of Mme. Permon, though without any corroborative +evidence, has an air of probability, partly in the consideration of a +despair which might lead him to seek any support, even that of a wife +as old as his mother, partly from the existence of a letter to the +lady which, though enigmatical, displays an interesting mixture of +wounded pride and real or pretended jealousy. The epistle is dated +June eighteenth, 1795. He felt that she would think him duped, he +explains, if he did not inform her that although she had not seen fit +to give her confidence to him, he had all along known that she had +Salicetti in hiding. Then follows an address to that countryman, +evidently intended to clear the writer from all taint of Jacobinism, +and couched in these terms: "I could have denounced thee, but did not, +although it would have been but a just revenge so to do. Which has +chosen the truer part? Go, seek in peace an asylum where thou canst +return to better thoughts of thy country. My lips shall never utter +thy name. Repent, and above all, appreciate my motives. This I +deserve, for they are noble and generous." In these words to the +political refugee he employs the familiar republican "thou"; in the +peroration, addressed, like the introduction, to the lady herself, he +recurs to the polite and distant "you." "Mme. Permon, my good wishes +go with you as with your child. You are two feeble creatures with no +defense. May Providence and the prayers of a friend be with you. Above +all, be prudent and never remain in the large cities. Adieu. Accept my +friendly greetings."[49] + + [Footnote 49: Correspondance, I, No. 40.] + +The meaning of this missive is recondite; perhaps it is this: Mme. +Permon, I loved you, and could have ruined the rival who is your +protégé with a clear conscience, for he once did me foul wrong, as he +will acknowledge. But farewell. I bear you no grudge. Or else it may +announce another change in the political weather by the veering of the +cock. As a good citizen, despising the horrors of the past, I could +have denounced you, Salicetti. I did not, for I recalled old times and +your helplessness, and wished to heap coals of fire on your head, that +you might see the error of your way. The latter interpretation finds +support in the complete renunciation of Jacobinism which the writer +made soon afterward, and in his subsequent labored explanation that in +the "Supper of Beaucaire" he had not identified himself with the +Jacobin soldier (so far an exact statement of fact), but had wished +only by a dispassionate presentation of facts to show the hopeless +case of Marseilles, and to prevent useless bloodshed. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +Bonaparte the General of the Convention[50]. + + [Footnote 50: For this chapter the Mémoires du roi + Joseph, I, and Böhtlingk: Napoleon Bonaparte, etc., I, + are valuable references, in addition to those already + given. The memoirs of Barras are particularly misleading + except for comparison. For social conditions, cf. + Goncourt, Histoire de la Société Française sous le + Directoire, and in particular Adolph Schmidt: Tableaux + de la Révolution Française; Pariser Zustände während der + Revolutionszeit.] + + Disappointments -- Another Furlough -- Connection with + Barras -- Official Society in Paris -- Buonaparte as a Beau + -- Condition of His Family -- A Political General -- An + Opening in Turkey -- Opportunities in Europe -- Social + Advancement -- Official Degradation -- Schemes for + Restoration -- Plans of the Royalists -- The Hostility of + Paris to the Convention -- Buonaparte, General of the + Convention Troops -- His Strategy. + + +[Sidenote: 1795.] + +The overhauling of the army list with the subsequent reassignment of +officers turned out ill for Buonaparte. Aubry, the head of the +committee, appears to have been utterly indifferent to him, displaying +no ill will, and certainly no active good will, toward the sometime +Jacobin, whose name, moreover, was last on the list of artillery +officers in the order of seniority. According to the regulations, when +one arm of the service was overmanned, the superfluous officers were +to be transferred to another. This was now the case with the +artillery, and Buonaparte, as a supernumerary, was on June thirteenth +again ordered to the west, but this time only as a mere infantry +general of brigade. He appears to have felt throughout life more +vindictiveness toward Aubry, the man whom he believed to have been +the author of this particular misfortune, than toward any other +person with whom he ever came in contact. In this rigid scrutiny of +the army list, exaggerated pretensions of service and untruthful +testimonials were no longer accepted. For this reason Joseph also had +already lost his position, and was about to settle with his family in +Genoa, while Louis was actually sent back to school, being ordered to +Châlons. Poor Lucien, overwhelmed in the general ruin of the radicals, +and with a wife and child dependent on him, was in despair. The other +members of the family were temporarily destitute, but self-helpful. + +In this there was nothing new; but, for all that, the monotony of the +situation must have been disheartening. Napoleon's resolution was soon +taken. He was either really ill from privation and disappointment, or +soon became so. Armed with a medical certificate, he applied for and +received a furlough. This step having been taken, the next, according +to the unchanged and familiar instincts of the man, was to apply under +the law for mileage to pay his expenses on the journey which he had +taken as far as Paris in pursuance of the order given him on March +twenty-ninth to proceed to his post in the west. Again, following the +precedents of his life, he calculated mileage not from Marseilles, +whence he had really started, but from Nice, thus largely increasing +the amount which he asked for, and in due time received. During his +leave several projects occupied his busy brain. The most important +were a speculation in the sequestered lands of the emigrants and +monasteries, and the writing of two monographs--one a history of +events from the ninth of Fructidor, year II (August twenty-sixth, +1794), to the beginning of year IV (September twenty-third, 1795), the +other a memoir on the Army of Italy. The first notion was doubtless +due to the frenzy for speculation, more and more rife, which was now +comparable only to that which prevailed in France at the time of Law's +Mississippi scheme or in England during the South Sea Bubble. It +affords an insight into financial conditions to know that a gold piece +of twenty francs was worth seven hundred and fifty in paper. A project +for purchasing a certain property as a good investment for his wife's +dowry was submitted to Joseph, but it failed by the sudden repeal of +the law under which such purchases were made. The two themes were both +finished, and another, "A Study in Politics: being an Inquiry into the +Causes of Troubles and Discords," was sketched, but never completed. +The memoir on the Army of Italy was virtually the scheme for offensive +warfare which he laid before the younger Robespierre; it was now +revised, and sent to the highest military power--the new central +committee appointed as a substitute for the Committee of Safety. These +occupations were all very well, but the furlough was rapidly expiring, +and nothing had turned up. Most opportunely, the invalid had a +relapse, and was able to secure an extension of leave until August +fourth, the date on which a third of the committee on the reassignment +of officers would retire, among them the hated Aubry. + +Speaking at St. Helena of these days, he said: "I lived in the Paris +streets without employment. I had no social habits, going only into +the set at the house of Barras, where I was well received.... I was +there because there was nothing to be had elsewhere. I attached myself +to Barras because I knew no one else. Robespierre was dead; Barras was +playing a rôle: I had to attach myself to somebody and something." It +will not be forgotten that Barras and Fréron had been Dantonists when +they were at the siege of Toulon with Buonaparte. After the events of +Thermidor they had forsworn Jacobinism altogether, and were at present +in alliance with the moderate elements of Paris society. Barras's +rooms in the Luxembourg were the center of all that was gay and +dazzling in that corrupt and careless world. They were, as a matter of +course, the resort of the most beautiful and brilliant women, +influential, but not over-scrupulous. Mme. Tallien, who has been +called "the goddess of Thermidor," was the queen of the coterie; +scarcely less beautiful and gracious were the widow Beauharnais and +Mme. Récamier. Barras had been a noble; the instincts of his class +made him a delightful host. + +What Napoleon saw and experienced he wrote to the faithful Joseph. The +letters are a truthful transcript of his emotions, the key-note of +which is admiration for the Paris women. "Carriages and the gay world +reappear, or rather no more recall as after a long dream that they +have ever ceased to glitter. Readings, lecture courses in history, +botany, astronomy, etc., follow one another. Everything is here +collected to amuse and render life agreeable; you are taken out of +your thoughts; how can you have the blues in this intensity of purpose +and whirling turmoil? The women are everywhere, at the play, on the +promenades, in the libraries. In the scholar's study you find very +charming persons. Here only of all places in the world they deserve to +hold the helm: the men are mad about them, think only of them, and +live only by means of their influence. A woman needs six months in +Paris to know what is her due and what is her sphere."[51] As yet he +had not met Mme. Beauharnais. The whole tone of the correspondence is +cheerful, and indicates that Buonaparte's efforts for a new alliance +had been successful, that his fortunes were looking up, and that the +giddy world contained something of uncommon interest. As his fortunes +improved, he grew more hopeful, and appeared more in society. On +occasion he even ventured upon little gallantries. Presented to Mme. +Tallien, he was frequently seen at her receptions. He was at first shy +and reserved, but time and custom put him more at his ease. One +evening, as little groups were gradually formed for the interchange of +jest and repartee, he seemed to lose his timidity altogether, and, +assuming the mien of a fortune-teller, caught his hostess's hand, and +poured out a long rigmarole of nonsense which much amused the rest of +the circle. + + [Footnote 51: Napoleon to Joseph, July, 1795; in Du + Casse: Les rois frères de Napoléon, 8, and in Jung, III, + 41.] + +These months had also improved the situation of the family. His mother +and younger sisters were somehow more comfortable in their Marseilles +home. Strange doings were afterward charged against them, but it is +probable that these stories are without other foundation than spite. +Napoleon had received a considerable sum for mileage, nearly +twenty-seven hundred francs, and, good son as he always was, it is +likely that he shared the money with his family. Both Elisa and the +little Pauline now had suitors. Fesch, described by Lucien as "ever +fresh, not like a rose, but like a good radish," was comfortably +waiting at Aix in the house of old acquaintances for a chance to +return to Corsica. Joseph's arrangements for moving to Genoa were +nearly complete, and Louis was comfortably settled at school in +Châlons. "Brutus" Lucien was the only luckless wight of the number: +his fears had been realized, and, having been denounced as a Jacobin, +he was now lying terror-stricken in the prison of Aix, and all about +him men of his stripe were being executed. + +On August fifth the members of the new Committee of Safety finally +entered on their duties. Almost the first document presented at the +meeting was Buonaparte's demand for restoration to his rank in the +artillery. It rings with indignation, and abounds with loose +statements about his past services, boldly claiming the honors of the +last short but successful Italian campaign. The paper was referred to +the proper authorities, and, a fortnight later, its writer received +peremptory orders to join his corps in the west. What could be more +amusingly characteristic of this persistent man than to read, in a +letter to Joseph under date of the following day, August twentieth: "I +am attached at this moment to the topographical bureau of the +Committee of Safety for the direction of the armies in Carnot's place. +If I wish, I can be sent to Turkey by the government as general of +artillery, with a good salary and a splendid title, to organize the +artillery of the Grand Turk." Then follow plans for Joseph's +appointment to the consular service, for a meeting at Leghorn, and for +a further land speculation. At the close are these remarks, which not +only exhibit great acuteness of observation, but are noteworthy as +displaying a permanent quality of the man, that of always having an +alternative in readiness: "It is quiet, but storms are gathering, +perhaps; the primaries are going to meet in a few days. I shall take +with me five or six officers.... The commission and decree of the +Committee of Safety, which employs me in the duty of directing the +armies and plans of campaign, being most flattering to me, I fear they +will no longer allow me to go to Turkey. We shall see. I may have on +hand a campaign to-day.... Write always as if I were going to Turkey." + +This was all half true. By dint of soliciting Barras and Doulcet de +Pontécoulant, another well-wisher, both men of influence, and by +importuning Fréron, then at the height of his power, but soon to +display a ruinous incapacity, Buonaparte had actually been made a +member of the commission of four which directed the armies, and Dutot +had been sent in his stead to the west. Moreover, there was likewise a +chance for realizing those dreams of achieving glory in the Orient +which had haunted him from childhood. At this moment there was a +serious tension in the politics of eastern Europe, and the French saw +an opportunity to strike Austria on the other side by an alliance with +Turkey. The latter country was of course entirely unprepared for war, +and asked for the appointment of a French commission to reconstruct +its gun-foundries and to improve its artillery service. Buonaparte, +having learned the fact, had immediately prepared two memorials, one +on the Turkish artillery, and another on the means of strengthening +Turkish power against the encroachments of European monarchies. These +he sent up with an application that he should be appointed head of the +commission, inclosing also laudatory certificates of his uncommon +ability from Doulcet and from Debry, a newly made friend. + +But the vista of an Eastern career temporarily vanished. The new +constitution, adopted, as already stated, on August twenty-second, +could not become operative until after the elections. On August +thirty-first Buonaparte's plan for the conduct of the coming Italian +campaign was read by the Convention committee, found satisfactory, and +adopted. It remains in many respects the greatest of all Napoleon's +military papers, its only fault being that no genius inferior to his +own could carry it out. At intervals some strategic authority revives +the charge that this plan was bodily appropriated from the writings of +Maillebois, the French general who led his army to disaster in Italy +during 1746. There is sufficient evidence that Buonaparte read +Maillebois, and any reader may see the resemblances of the two plans. +But the differences, at first sight insignificant, are as vital as the +differences of character in the two men. Like the many other charges +of plagiarism brought against Napoleon by pedants, this one overlooks +the difference between mediocrity and genius in the use of materials. +It is not at all likely that the superiors of Buonaparte were ignorant +of the best books concerning the invasion of Italy or of their almost +contemporary history. They brought no charges of plagiarism for the +excellent reason that there is none, and they were impressed by the +suggestions of their general. It is even possible that Buonaparte +formed his plan before reading Maillebois. Volney declared he had +heard it read and commentated by its author shortly after his return +from Genoa and Nice.[52] The great scholar was already as profoundly +impressed as a year later Carnot, and now the war commission. A few +days later the writer and author of the plan became aware of the +impression he had made: it seemed clear that he had a reality in hand +worth every possibility in the Orient. He therefore wrote to Joseph +that he was going to remain in Paris, explaining, as if incidentally, +that he could thus be on the lookout for any desirable vacancy in the +consular service, and secure it, if possible, for him. + + [Footnote 52: Chaptal: Mes souvenirs sur Napoléon, p. + 198.] + +Dreams of another kind had supplanted in his mind all visions of +Oriental splendor; for in subsequent letters to the same +correspondent, written almost daily, he unfolds a series of rather +startling schemes, which among other things include a marriage, a town +house, and a country residence, with a cabriolet and three horses. How +all this was to come about we cannot entirely discover. The marriage +plan is clearly stated. Joseph had wedded one of the daughters of a +comparatively wealthy merchant. He was requested to sound his +brother-in-law concerning the other, the famous Désirée Clary, who +afterward became Mme. Bernadotte. Two of the horses were to be +supplied by the government in place of a pair which he might be +supposed to have possessed at Nice in accordance with the rank he then +held, and to have sold, according to orders, when sent on the maritime +expedition to Corsica. Where the third horse and the money for the +houses were to come from is inscrutable; but, as a matter of fact, +Napoleon had already left his shabby lodgings for better ones in +Michodière street, and was actually negotiating for the purchase of a +handsome detached residence near that of Bourrienne, whose fortunes +had also been retrieved. The country-seat which the speculator had in +view, and for which he intended to bid as high as a million and a half +of francs, was knocked down to another purchaser for three millions +or, as the price of gold then was, about forty thousand dollars! So +great a personage as he now was must, of course, have a secretary, and +the faithful Junot had been appointed to the office. + +The application for the horses turned out a serious matter, and +brought the adventurer once more to the verge of ruin. The story he +told was not plain, the records did not substantiate it, the +hard-headed officials of the war department evidently did not believe +a syllable of his representations,--which, in fact, were +untruthful,--and, the central committee having again lost a third of +its members by rotation, among them Doulcet, there was no one now in +it to plead Buonaparte's cause. Accordingly there was no little talk +about the matter in very influential circles, and almost +simultaneously was issued the report concerning his formal request +for restoration, which had been delayed by the routine prescribed in +such cases, and was only now completed. It was not only adverse in +itself, but contained a confidential inclosure animadverting severely +on the irregularities of the petitioner's conduct, and in particular +on his stubborn refusal to obey orders and join the Army of the West. +Thus it happened that on September fifteenth the name of Buonaparte +was officially struck from the list of general officers on duty, "in +view of his refusal to proceed to the post assigned him." It really +appeared as if the name of Napoleon might almost have been substituted +for that of Tantalus in the fable. But it was the irony of fate that +on this very day the subcommittee on foreign affairs submitted to the +full meeting a proposition to send the man who was now a disgraced +culprit in great state and with a full suite to take service at +Constantinople in the army of the Grand Turk! + +No one had ever understood better than Buonaparte the possibilities of +political influence in a military career. Not only could he bend the +bow of Achilles, but he always had ready an extra string. Thus far in +his ten years of service he had been promoted only once according to +routine; the other steps of the height which he had reached had been +secured either by some startling exhibition of ability or by influence +or chicane. He had been first Corsican and then French, first a +politician and then a soldier. Such a veteran was not to be dismayed +even by the most stunning blow; had he not even now three powerful +protectors--Barras, Tallien, and Fréron? He turned his back, +therefore, with ready adaptability on the unsympathetic officials of +the army, the mere soldiers with cool heads and merciless judgment. +The evident short cut to restoration was to carry through the project +of employment at Constantinople; it had been formally recommended, +and to secure its adoption he renewed his importunate solicitations. +His rank he still held; he might hope to regain position by some +brilliant stroke such as he could execute only without the restraint +of orders and on his own initiative. His hopes grew, or seemed to, as +his suit was not rejected, and he wrote to Joseph on September +twenty-sixth that the matter of his departure was urgent; adding, +however: "But at this moment there are some ebullitions and incendiary +symptoms." He was right in both surmises. The Committee of Safety was +formally considering the proposition for his transfer to the Sultan's +service, while simultaneously affairs both in Paris and on the +frontiers alike were "boiling." + +Meantime the royalists and clericals had not been idle. They had +learned nothing from the events of the Revolution, and did not even +dimly understand their own position. Their own allies repudiated both +their sentiments and their actions in the very moments when they +believed themselves to be honorably fighting for self-preservation. +English statesmen like Granville and Harcourt now thought and said +that it was impossible to impose on France a form of government +distasteful to her people; but the British regent and the French +pretender, who, on the death of his unfortunate nephew, the dauphin, +had been recognized by the powers as Louis XVIII, were stubbornly +united under the old Bourbon motto, "All or nothing." The change in +the Convention, in Paris society, even in the country itself, which +was about to desert its extreme Jacobinism and to adopt the new +constitution by an overwhelming vote--all this deceived them, and they +determined to strike for everything they had lost. Preparations, it is +now believed, were all ready for an inroad from the Rhine frontier, +for Pichegru to raise the white flag and to advance with his troops on +Paris, and for a simultaneous rising of the royalists in every French +district. On October fourth an English fleet had appeared on the +northern shore of France, having on board the Count of Artois and a +large body of emigrants, accompanied by a powerful force of English, +composed in part of regulars, in part of volunteers. This completed +the preliminary measures. + +With the first great conflict in the struggle, avowed royalism had +only an indirect connection. By this time the Paris sections were +thoroughly reorganized, having purged themselves of the extreme +democratic elements from the suburbs. They were well drilled, well +armed, and enthusiastic for resistance to the decree of the Convention +requiring the compulsory reëlection of the "two thirds" from its +existing membership. The National Guard was not less embittered +against that measure. There were three experienced officers then in +Paris who were capable of leading an insurrection, and could be relied +on to oppose the Convention. These were Danican, Duhoux d'Hauterive, +and Laffont, all royalists at heart; the last was an emigrant, and +avowed it. The Convention had also by this time completed its +enlistment, and had taken other measures of defense; but it was +without a trustworthy person to command its forces, for among the +fourteen generals of the republic then present in Paris, only two were +certainly loyal to the Convention, and both these were men of very +indifferent character and officers of no capacity. + +The Convention forces were technically a part of the army known as +that of the interior, of which Menou was the commander. The new +constitution having been formally proclaimed on September +twenty-third, the signs of open rebellion in Paris became too clear to +be longer disregarded, and on that night a mass meeting of the +various sections was held in the Odéon theater in order to prepare +plans for open resistance. That of Lepelletier, in the heart of Paris, +comprising the wealthiest and most influential of the mercantile +class, afterward assembled in its hall and issued a call to rebellion. +These were no contemptible foes: on the memorable tenth of August, +theirs had been the battalion of the National Guard which died with +the Swiss in defense of the Tuileries. Menou, in obedience to the +command of the Convention to disarm the insurgent sections, confronted +them for a moment. But the work was not to his taste. After a short +parley, during which he feebly recommended them to disperse and behave +like good citizens, he withdrew his forces to their barracks, and left +the armed and angry sections masters of the situation. Prompt and +energetic measures were more necessary than ever. For some days +already the Convention leaders had been discussing their plans. Carnot +and Tallien finally agreed with Barras that the man most likely to do +thoroughly the active work was Buonaparte. But, apparently, they dared +not altogether trust him, for Barras himself was appointed +commander-in-chief. His "little Corsican officer, who will not stand +on ceremony," as he called him, was to be nominally lieutenant. On +October fourth Buonaparte was summoned to a conference. The messengers +sought him at his lodgings and in all his haunts, but could not find +him. It was nine in the evening when he appeared at headquarters in +the Place du Carrousel. This delay gave Barras a chance to insinuate +that his ardent republican friend, who all the previous week had been +eagerly soliciting employment, was untrustworthy in the crisis, and +had been negotiating with the sectionaries. Buonaparte reported +himself as having come from the section of Lepelletier, but as having +been reconnoitering the enemy. After a rather tart conversation, +Barras appointed him aide-de-camp, the position for which he had been +destined from the first. Whatever was the general's understanding of +the situation, that of the aide was clear--that he was to be his own +master.[53] + + [Footnote 53: My account of this momentous crisis in + Buonaparte's life was written after a careful study of + all the authorities and accounts as far as known. The + reader will find in the monograph, Zivy: Le treize + Vendémiaire, many reprints of documents and certain + conclusions drawn from them. The result is good as far + as it goes, but, like all history written from public + papers solely, it is incomplete. Buonaparte was only one + of seven generals appointed to serve under Barras. It + seems likewise true that his exploits did not bring him + into general notice, for Mallet du Pan speaks of him as + a "Corsican terrorist" and Rémusat records her mother's + amazement that a man so little known should have made so + good a marriage. But, on the other hand, Thiébault + declares that Buonaparte's activities impressed every + one, Barras's labored effort is suspicious, and then, as + at Toulon, there are the results. Some people in power + gave him credit, for they bestowed on him an + extraordinary reward. Then, too, why should we utterly + discard Buonaparte's own evidence, which corroborates, + at least as far as the text goes, the evidence drawn + from other sources?] + +Not a moment was lost, and throughout the night most vigorous and +incessant preparation was made. Buonaparte was as much himself in the +streets of Paris as in those of Ajaccio, except that his energy was +proportionately more feverish, as the defense of the Tuileries and the +riding-school attached to it, in which the Convention sat, was a +grander task than the never-accomplished capture of the Corsican +citadel. The avenues and streets of a city somewhat resemble the main +and tributary valleys of a mountain-range, and the task of campaigning +in Paris was less unlike that of manoeuvering in the narrow gorges of +the Apennines than might be supposed; at least Buonaparte's strategy +was nearly identical for both. All his measures were masterly. The +foe, scattered as yet throughout Paris on both sides of the river, +was first cut in two by seizing and fortifying the bridges across the +Seine; then every avenue of approach was likewise guarded, while +flanking artillery was set in the narrow streets to command the main +arteries. Thanks to Barras's suggestion, the dashing, reckless, +insubordinate Murat, who first appears at the age of twenty-seven on +the great stage in these events, had under Buonaparte's orders brought +in the cannon from the camp of Sablons. These in the charge of a ready +artillerist were invaluable, as the event proved. Finally a reserve, +ready for use on either side of the river, was established in what is +now the Place de la Concorde, with an open line of retreat toward St. +Cloud behind it. Every order was issued in Barras's name, and Barras, +in his memoirs, claims all the honors of the day. He declares that his +aide was afoot, while he was the man on horseback, ubiquitous and +masterful. He does not even admit that Buonaparte bestrode a +cab-horse, as even the vanquished were ready to acknowledge. The +sections, of course, knew nothing of the new commander or of +Buonaparte, and recalled only Menou's pusillanimity. Without cannon +and without a plan, they determined to drive out the Convention at +once, and to overwhelm its forces by superior numbers. The quays of +the left bank were therefore occupied by a large body of the National +Guard, ready to rush in from behind when the main attack, made from +the north through the labyrinth of streets and blind alleys then +designated by the name of St. Honoré, and by the short, wide passage +of l'Échelle, should draw the Convention forces away in that direction +to resist it. A kind of rendezvous had been appointed at the church of +St. Roch, which was to be used as a depot of supplies and a retreat. +Numerous sectionaries were, in fact, posted there as auxiliaries at +the crucial instant. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + +The Day of the Paris Sections. + + The Warfare of St. Roch and the Pont Royal -- Order Restored + -- Meaning of the Conflict -- Political Dangers -- + Buonaparte's Dilemma -- His True Attitude -- Sudden Wealth + -- The Directory and Their General -- Buonaparte in Love -- + His Corsican Temperament -- His Matrimonial Adventures. + + +[Sidenote: 1795.] + +In this general position the opposing forces confronted each other on +the morning of October fifth, the thirteenth of Vendémiaire. In point +of numbers the odds were tremendous, for the Convention forces +numbered only about four thousand regulars and a thousand volunteers, +while the sections' force comprised about twenty-eight thousand +National Guards. But the former were disciplined, they had cannon, and +they were desperately able; and there was no distracted, vacillating +leadership. What the legend attributes to Napoleon Buonaparte as his +commentary on the conduct of King Louis at the Tuileries was to be the +Convention's ideal now. The "man on horseback" and the hot fire of +cannon were to carry the day. Both sides seemed loath to begin. But at +half-past four in the afternoon it was clear that the decisive moment +had come. As if by instinct, but in reality at Danican's signal, the +forces of the sections from the northern portion of the capital began +to pour through the narrow main street of St. Honoré, behind the +riding-school, toward the chief entrance of the Tuileries. They no +doubt felt safer in the rear of the Convention hall, with the high +walls of houses all about, than they would have done in the open +spaces which they would have had to cross in order to attack it from +the front. Just before their compacted mass reached the church of St. +Roch, it was brought to a halt. Suddenly becoming aware that in the +side streets on the right were yawning the muzzles of hostile cannon, +the excited citizens lost their heads, and began to discharge their +muskets. Then with a swift, sudden blast, the street was cleared by a +terrible discharge of the canister and grape-shot with which the +field-pieces of Barras and Buonaparte were loaded. The action +continued about an hour, for the people and the National Guard rallied +again and again, each time to be mowed down by a like awful discharge. +At last they could be rallied no longer, and retreated to the church, +which they held. On the left bank a similar mêlée ended in a similar +way. Three times Laffont gathered his forces and hurled them at the +Pont Royal; three times they were swept back by the cross-fire of +artillery. The scene then changed like the vanishing of a mirage. +Awe-stricken messengers appeared, hurrying everywhere with the +prostrating news from both sides of the river, and the entire Parisian +force withdrew to shelter. Before nightfall the triumph of the +Convention was complete. The dramatic effect of this achievement was +heightened by the appearance on horseback here, there, and everywhere, +during the short hour of battle, of an awe-inspiring leader; both +before and after, he was unseen. In spite of Barras's claims, there +can be no doubt that this dramatic personage was Buonaparte. If not, +for what was he so signally rewarded in the immediate sequel? Barras +was no artillerist, and this was the appearance of an expert giving +masterly lessons in artillery practice to an astonished world, which +little dreamed what he was yet to demonstrate as to the worth of his +chosen arm on wider battle-fields. For the moment it suited +Buonaparte to appear merely as an agent. In his reports of the affair +his own name is kept in the background. It is evident that from first +to last he intended to produce the impression that, though acting with +Jacobins, he does so because they for the time represent the truth: he +is not for that reason to be identified with them. + +Thus by the "whiff of grape-shot" what the wizard historian of the +time "specifically called the French Revolution" was not "blown into +space" at all. Though there was no renewal of the reign of terror, yet +the Jacobins retained their power and the Convention lived on under +the name of the Directory. It continued to live on in its own stupid +anarchical way until the "man on horseback" of the thirteenth +Vendémiaire had established himself as the first among French generals +and the Jacobins had rendered the whole heart of France sick. While +the events of October twenty-fifth were a bloody triumph for the +Convention, only a few conspicuous leaders of the rebels were +executed, among them Laffont; and harsh measures were enacted in +relation to the political status of returned emigrants. But in the +main an unexpected mercy controlled the Convention's policy. They +closed the halls in which the people of the mutinous wards had met, +and once more reorganized the National Guard. Order was restored +without an effort. Beyond the walls of Paris the effect of the news +was magical. Artois, afterward Charles X, though he had landed three +days before on Île Dieu, now reëmbarked, and sailed back to England, +while the other royalist leaders prudently held their followers in +check and their measures in abeyance. The new constitution was in a +short time offered to the nation, and accepted by an overwhelming +majority; the members of the Convention were assured of their +ascendancy in the new legislature; and before long the rebellion in +Vendée and Brittany was so far crushed as to release eighty thousand +troops for service abroad. For the leaders of its forces the +Convention made a most liberal provision: the division commanders of +the thirteenth of Vendémiaire were all promoted. Buonaparte was made +second in command of the Army of the Interior: in other words, was +confirmed in an office which, though informally, he had both created +and rendered illustrious. As Barras almost immediately resigned, this +was equivalent to very high promotion. + +This memorable "day of the sections," as it is often called, was an +unhallowed day for France and French liberty. It was the first +appearance of the army since the Revolution as a support to political +authority; it was the beginning of a process which made the +commander-in-chief of the army the dictator of France. All purely +political powers were gradually to vanish in order to make way for a +military state. The temporary tyranny of the Convention rested on a +measure, at least, of popular consent; but in the very midst of its +preparations to perpetuate a purely civil and political +administration, the violence of the sections had compelled it to +confide the new institutions to the keeping of soldiers. The idealism +of the new constitution was manifest from the beginning. Every chance +which the Directory had for success was dependent, not on the inherent +worth of the system or its adaptability to present conditions, but on +the support of interested men in power; among these the commanders of +the army were not the least influential. After the suppression of the +sections, the old Convention continued to sit under the style of the +Primary Assembly, and was occupied in selecting those of its members +who were to be returned to the legislature under the new constitution. +There being no provision for any interim government, the exercise of +real power was suspended; the elections were a mere sham; the +magistracy was a house swept and garnished, ready for the first comer +to occupy it. + +As the army and not the people had made the coming administration +possible, the executive power would from the first be the creature of +the army; and since under the constitutional provisions there was no +legal means of compromise between the Directory and the legislature in +case of conflict, so that the stronger would necessarily crush the +weaker, the armed power supporting the directors must therefore +triumph in the end, and the man who controlled that must become the +master of the Directory and the ruler of the country. Moreover, a +people can be free only when the first and unquestioning devotion of +every citizen is not to a party, but to his country and its +constitution, his party allegiance being entirely secondary. This was +far from being the case in France: the nation was divided into +irreconcilable camps, not of constitutional parties, but of violent +partizans; many even of the moderate republicans now openly expressed +a desire for some kind of monarchy. Outwardly the constitution was the +freest so far devised. It contained, however, three fatal blunders +which rendered it the best possible tool for a tyrant: it could not be +changed for a long period; there was no arbiter but force between a +warring legislative and executive; the executive was now supported by +the army. + +It is impossible to prove that Buonaparte understood all this at the +time. When at St. Helena he spoke as if he did; but unfortunately his +later writings, however valuable from the psychological, are worthless +from the historical, standpoint. They abound in misrepresentations +which are in part due to lapse of time and weakness of memory, in +part to wilful intention. Wishing the Robespierre-Salicetti episode of +his life to be forgotten, he strives in his memoirs to create the +impression that the Convention had ordered him to take charge of the +artillery at Toulon, when in fact he was in Marseilles as a mere +passer-by on his journey to Nice, and in Toulon as a temporary adjunct +to the army of Carteaux, having been made an active participant partly +through accident, partly by the good will of personal friends. In the +same way he also devised a fable about the "day of the sections," in +order that he might not appear to have been scheming for himself in +the councils of the Convention, and that Barras's share in his +elevation might be consigned to oblivion. This story of Napoleon's has +come down in three stages of its development, by as many different +transcribers, who heard it at different times. The final one, as given +by Las Cases, was corrected by Napoleon's own hand.[54] It runs as +follows: On the night of October third he was at the theater, but +hearing that Menou had virtually retreated before the wards, and was +to be arrested, he left and went to the meeting of the Convention, +where, as he stood among the spectators, he heard his own name +mentioned as Menou's successor. For half an hour he deliberated what +he should do if chosen. If defeated, he would be execrated by all +coming generations, while victory would be almost odious. How could he +deliberately become the scapegoat of so many crimes to which he had +been an utter stranger? Why go as an avowed Jacobin and in a few hours +swell the list of names uttered with horror? "On the other hand, if +the Convention be crushed, what becomes of the great truths of our +Revolution? Our many victories, our blood so often shed, are all +nothing but shameful deeds. The foreigner we have so thoroughly +conquered triumphs and overwhelms us with his contempt; an incapable +race, an overbearing and unnatural following, reappear triumphant, +throw up our crime to us, wreak their vengeance, and govern us like +helots by the hand of a stranger. Thus the defeat of the Convention +would crown the brow of the foreigner, and seal the disgrace and +slavery of our native land." Such thoughts, his youth, trust in his +own power and in his destiny, turned the balance. + + [Footnote 54: Mémorial de Sainte Hélène, II, 246.] + +Statements made under such circumstances are not proof; but there is +this much probability of truth in them, that if we imagine the old +Buonaparte in disgrace as of old, following as of old the promptings +of his curiosity, indifferent as of old to the success of either +principle, and by instinct a soldier as of old,--if we recall him in +this character, and remember that he is no longer a youthful Corsican +patriot, but a mature cosmopolitan consumed with personal +ambition,--we may surely conclude that he was perfectly impartial as +to the parties involved, leaned toward the support of the principles +of the Revolution as he understood them, and saw in the complications +of the hour a probable opening for his ambition. At any rate, his +conduct after October fourth seems to uphold this view. He was a +changed man, ardent, hopeful, and irrepressible, as he had ever been +when lucky; but now, besides, daring, overbearing, and self-confident +to a degree which those characteristic qualities had never reached +before. + +His first care was to place on a footing of efficiency the Army of the +Interior, scattered in many departments, undisciplined and +disorganized; the next, to cow into submission all the low elements in +Paris, still hungry and fierce, by reorganizing the National Guard, +and forming a picked troop for the special protection of the +legislature; the next, to show himself as the powerful friend of +every one in disgrace, as a man of the world without rancor or +exaggerated partizanship. At the same time he plunged into +speculation, and sent sums incredibly large to various members of his +family, a single remittance of four hundred thousand francs being +mentioned in his letters. Lucien was restored to the arms of his +low-born but faithful and beloved wife, and sent to join his mother +and sisters in Marseilles; Louis was brought from Châlons, and made a +lieutenant; Jerome was put at school in Paris; and to Joseph a +consular post was assured. Putting aside all bashfulness, General +Buonaparte became a full-fledged society man and a beau. No social +rank was now strange to him; the remnants of the old aristocracy, the +wealthy citizens of Paris, the returning Girondists, many of whom had +become pronounced royalists, the new deputies, the officers who in +some turn of the wheel had, like himself, lost their positions, but +were now, through his favor, reinstated--all these he strove to court, +flatter, and make his own. + +Such activity, of course, could not pass unnoticed. The new government +had been constituted without disturbance, the Directory chosen, and +the legislature installed. Of the five directors--Barras, Rewbell, +Carnot, Letourneaux de la Manche, and Larévellière-Lépeaux,--all had +voted for the death of Louis XVI, and were so-called regicides; but, +while varying widely in character and ability, they were all, +excepting Barras, true to their convictions. They scarcely understood +how strong the revulsion of popular feeling had been, and, utterly +ignoring the impossibility of harmonious action among themselves, +hoped to exercise their power with such moderation as to win all +classes to the new constitution. They were extremely disturbed by the +course of the general commanding their army in seeking intimacy with +men of all opinions, but were unwilling to interpret it aright. Under +the Convention, the Army of the Interior had been a tool, its +commander a mere puppet; now the executive was confronted by an +independence which threatened a reversal of rôles. This situation was +the more disquieting because Buonaparte was a capable and not +unwilling police officer. Among many other invaluable services to the +government, he closed in person the great club of the Panthéon, which +was the rallying-point of the disaffected.[55] Throughout another +winter of famine there was not a single dangerous outbreak. At the +same time there were frequent manifestations of jealousy in lower +circles, especially among those who knew the origin and career of +their young master. + + [Footnote 55: This important exploit has been + questioned. But see the American edition of Martin's + History of France, II, 16. Baboeuf reopened at the + Panthéon the club which had been closed at the Évêché by + the Convention and reorganized a secret society in + connection with it. This Panthéon club was shut by + Napoleon in person on February 26, 1796. See likewise + the Mémorial, II, 257, 258.] + +Toward the close of the year the bearing and behavior of the general +became constrained, reserved, and awkward. Various reasons were +assigned for this demeanor. Many thought it was due to a consciousness +of social deficiency, and his detractors still declare that Paris life +was too fierce for even his self-assurance, pointing to the change in +his handwriting and grammar, to his alternate silence and loquacity, +as proof of mental uneasiness; to his sullen musings and coarse +threats as a theatrical affectation to hide wounded pride; and to his +coming marriage as a desperate shift to secure a social dignity +proportionate to the career he saw opening before him in politics and +war. In a common man not subjected to a microscopic examination, such +conduct would be attributed to his being in love; the wedding would +ordinarily be regarded as the natural and beautiful consequence of a +great passion. + +Men have not forgotten that Buonaparte once denounced love as a +hurtful passion from which God should protect his creatures; and they +have, for this, among other reasons, pronounced him incapable of +disinterested affection. But it is also true that he likewise +denounced Buttafuoco for having, among other crimes committed by him, +"married to extend his influence"; and we are forced to ask which of +the two sentiments is genuine and characteristic. Probably both and +neither, according to the mood of the man. Outward caprice is, in +great natures, often the mask of inward perseverance, especially among +the unprincipled who suit their language to their present purpose, in +fine disdain of commonplace consistency. The primitive Corsican was +both rude and gentle, easily moved to tears at one time, insensate at +another; selfish at one moment, lavish at another; and yet he had a +consistent character. Although disliking in later life to be called a +Corsican, Napoleon was nevertheless typical of his race: he could +despise love, yet render himself its willing slave; he was fierce and +dictatorial, yet, as the present object of his passion said, "tenderer +and weaker than anybody dreamed."[56] + + [Footnote 56: The best references for the history of + Josephine de Beauharnais are Masson: Joséphine de + Beauharnais, 1763-1796, and Joséphine, impératrice et + reine; Hall: Napoleon's letters to Josephine; Lévy: + Napoléon intime; together with the memoirs of Joseph, + Bourrienne, Ducrest, Dufort de Cheverney, and Rémusat.] + +And thus it was in the matter of his courtship: there were elements in +it of romantic, abandoned passion, but likewise of shrewd, calculating +selfishness. In his callow youth his relations to the other sex had +been either childish, morbid, or immoral. During his earliest manhood +he had appeared like one who desired the training rather than the +substance of gallantry. As a Jacobin he sought such support as he +could find in the good will of the women related to men in power; as +a French patriot he put forth strenuous efforts to secure an +influential alliance through matrimony. He appears to have addressed +Mme. Permon, whose fortune, despite her advanced age, would have been +a great relief to his destitution. Refused by her, he was in a +disordered and desperate emotional state until military and political +success gave him sufficient self-confidence to try once more. With his +feet firmly planted on the ladder of ambition, he was not indifferent +to securing social props for a further rise, but was nevertheless in +such a tumult of feeling as to make him particularly receptive to real +passion. He had made advances for the hand of the rich and beautiful +Désirée Clary;[57] the first evidence in his correspondence of a +serious intention to marry her is contained in the letter of June +eighteenth, 1795, to Joseph; and for a few weeks afterward he wrote at +intervals with some impatience, as if she were coy. In explanation it +is claimed that Napoleon, visiting her long before at the request of +Joseph, who was then enamoured of her, had himself become interested, +and persuading his brother to marry her sister, had entered into an +understanding with her which was equivalent to a betrothal. Time and +distance had cooled his ardor. He now virtually threw her over for +Mme. Beauharnais, who dazzled and infatuated him. This claim is +probably founded on fact, but there is no evidence sufficient to +sustain a charge of positive bad faith on the part of Napoleon. +Neither he nor Mlle. Clary appears to have been ardent when Joseph as +intermediary began, according to French custom, to arrange the +preliminaries of marriage; and when General Buonaparte fell madly in +love with Mme. Beauharnais the matter was dropped. + + [Footnote 57: See Hochschild: Désirée, reine de Suède.] + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + +A Marriage of Inclination and Interest[58]. + + [Footnote 58: The authorities for this chapter are as + for the last.] + + The Taschers and Beauharnais -- Execution of Alexandre + Beauharnais -- Adventures of His Widow -- Meeting of + Napoleon and Josephine -- The Latter's Uncertainties -- Her + Character and Station -- Passion and Convenience -- The + Bride's Dowry -- Buonaparte's Philosophy of Life -- The + Ladder to Glory. + + +[Sidenote: 1796.] + +In 1779, while the boys at Brienne were still tormenting the little +untamed Corsican nobleman, and driving him to his garden fortalice to +seek lonely refuge from their taunts in company with his Plutarch, +there had arrived in Paris from Martinique a successful planter of +that island, a French gentleman of good family, M. Tascher de la +Pagerie, bringing back to that city for the second time his daughter +Josephine. She was then a girl of sixteen, without either beauty or +education, but thoroughly matured, and with a quick Creole +intelligence and a graceful litheness of figure which made her a most +attractive woman. She had spent the years of her life from ten to +fourteen in the convent of Port Royal. Having passed the interval in +her native isle, she was about to contract a marriage which her +relatives in France had arranged. Her betrothed was the younger son of +a family friend, the Marquis de Beauharnais. The bride landed on +October twentieth, and the ceremony took place on December thirteenth. +The young vicomte brought his wife home to a suitable establishment in +the capital. Two children were born to them--Eugène and Hortense; but +before the birth of the latter the husband quarreled with his wife, +for reasons that have never been known. The court granted a +separation, with alimony, to Mme. de Beauharnais, who some years later +withdrew to her father's home in Martinique. Her husband sailed to +America with the forces of Bouillé, and remained there until the +outbreak of the Revolution, when he returned, and was elected a deputy +to the States-General. + +Becoming an ardent republican, he was several times president of the +National Assembly, and his house was an important center of influence. +In 1790 M. Tascher died, and his daughter, with her children, returned +to France. It was probably at her husband's instance, for she at once +joined him at his country-seat, where they continued to live, as +"brother and sister," until Citizen Beauharnais was made commander of +the Army of the Rhine. As the days of the Terror approached, every man +of noble blood was more and more in danger. At last Beauharnais's turn +came; he too was denounced to the Commune, and imprisoned. Before long +his wife was behind the same bars. Their children were in the care of +an aunt, Mme. Églé, who had been, and was again to be, a woman of +distinction in the social world, but had temporarily sought the +protection of an old acquaintance, a former abbé, who had become a +member of the Commune. The gallant young general was not one of the +four acquitted out of the batch of forty-nine among whom he was +finally summoned to the bar of the revolutionary tribunal. He died on +June twenty-third, 1794, true to his convictions, acknowledging in his +farewell letter to his wife a fraternal affection for her, and +committing solemnly to her charge his own good name, which she was to +restore by proving his devotion to France. The children were to be her +consolation; they were to wipe out the disgrace of his punishment by +the practice of virtue and--civism! + +During her sojourn in prison Mme. Beauharnais had made a most useful +friend. This was a fellow-sufferer of similar character, but far +greater gifts, whose maiden name was Cabarrus, who was later Mme. de +Fontenay, who was afterward divorced and, having married Tallien, the +Convention deputy at Bordeaux, became renowned as his wife, and who, +divorced a second and married a third time, died as the Princesse de +Chimay. The ninth of Thermidor saved them both from the guillotine. In +the days immediately subsequent they had abundant opportunity to +display their light but clever natures. Mme. Beauharnais, as well as +her friend, unfolded her wings like a butterfly as she escaped from +the bars of her cell. Being a Creole, and having matured early, her +physical charms were already fading. Her spirit, too, had reached and +passed its zenith; for in her letters of that time she describes +herself as listless. Nevertheless, in those very letters there is some +sprightliness, and considerable ability of a certain kind. A few weeks +after her liberation, having apprenticed Eugène and Hortense to an +upholsterer and a dressmaker respectively,[59] she was on terms of +intimacy with Barras so close as to be considered suspicious, while +her daily intercourse was with those who had brought her husband to a +terrible end. In a luxurious and licentious society, she was a +successful intriguer in matters both of politics and of pleasure; +versed in the arts of coquetry and dress, she became for the needy and +ambitious a successful intermediary with those in power. Preferring, +as she rather ostentatiously asserted, to be guided by another's will, +she gave little thought to her children, or to the sad legacy of her +husband's good name. She emulated, outwardly at least, the +unprincipled worldliness of those about her, although her friends +believed her kind-hearted and virtuous. Whatever her true nature was, +she had influence among the foremost men of that gay set which was +imitating the court circles of old, and an influence which had become +not altogether agreeable to the immoral Provençal noble who +entertained and supported the giddy coterie. Perhaps the extravagance +of the languid Creole was as trying to Barras as it became afterward +to her second husband. + + [Footnote 59: See Pulitzer: Une idylle sous Napoléon I.] + +The meeting of Napoleon and Josephine was an event of the first +importance.[60] His own account twice relates that a beautiful and +tearful boy presented himself, soon after the disarmament of the +sections, to the commander of the city, and asked for the sword of his +father. The request was granted, and next day the boy's mother, Mme. +Beauharnais, came to thank the general for his kindly act of +restitution. Captivated by her grace, Buonaparte was thenceforward her +slave. A cold critic must remember that in the first place there was +no disarmament of anybody after the events of October fifth, the only +action of the Convention which might even be construed into hostility +being a decree making emigrants ineligible for election to the +legislature under the new constitution; that in the second place this +story attributes to destiny what was really due to the friendship of +Barras, a fact which his beneficiary would have liked to forget or +conceal; and finally, that the beneficiary left another account in +which he confessed that he had first met his wife at Barras's house, +this being confirmed by Lucien in his memoirs. Of the passion there is +no doubt; it was a composite emotion, made up in part of sentiment, in +part of self-interest. Those who are born to rude and simple +conditions in life are often dazzled by the charmed etiquette and +mysterious forms of artificial society. Napoleon never affected to +have been born to the manner, nor did he ever pretend to have adopted +its exacting self-control, for he could not; although after the winter +of 1795 he frequently displayed a weak and exaggerated regard for +social conventions. It was not that he had need to assume a false and +superficial polish, or that he particularly cared to show his equality +with those accustomed to polite society; but that he probably +conceived the splendid display and significant formality of that +ancient nobility which had so cruelly snubbed him from the outset as +being, nevertheless, the best conceivable prop to a throne. + + [Footnote 60: Mémorial, II, 258; III, 402.] + +Lucien looked on with interest, and thought that during the whole +winter his brother was rather courted than a suitor. In his memoirs he +naïvely wonders what Napoleon would have done in Asia,--either in the +Indian service of England, or against her in that of Russia, for in +his early youth he had also thought of that,--in fact, what he would +have done at all, without the protection of women, in which he so +firmly believed, if he had not, after the manner of Mohammed, found a +Kadijah at least ten years older than himself, by whose favor he was +set at the opening of a great career. There are hints, too, in various +contemporary documents and in the circumstances themselves that Barras +was an adroit match-maker. In a letter attributed to Josephine, but +without address, a bright light seems to be thrown on the facts. She +asks a female friend for advice on the question of the match. After a +jocular introduction of her suitor as anxious to become a father to +the children of Alexandre de Beauharnais and the husband of his widow, +she gives a sportive but merciless dissection of her own character, +and declares that while she does not love Buonaparte, she feels no +repugnance. But can she meet his wishes or fulfil his desires? "I +admire the general's courage; the extent of his information about all +manner of things, concerning which he talks equally well; the +quickness of his intelligence, which makes him catch the thought of +another even before it is expressed: but I confess I am afraid of the +power he seems anxious to wield over all about him. His piercing +scrutiny has in it something strange and inexplicable, that awes even +our directors; think, then, how it frightens a woman."[61] The writer +is also terrified by the very ardor of her suitor's passion. Past her +first youth, how can she hope to keep for herself that "violent +tenderness" which is almost a frenzy? Would he not soon cease to love +her, and regret the marriage? If so, her only resource would be +tears--a sorry one, indeed, but still the only one. "Barras declares +that if I marry the general, he will secure for him the chief command +of the Army of Italy. Yesterday Buonaparte, speaking of this favor, +which, although not yet granted, already has set his colleagues in +arms to murmuring, said: 'Do they think I need protection to succeed? +Some day they will be only too happy if I give them mine. My sword is +at my side, and with it I shall go far.' What do you think of this +assurance of success? Is it not a proof of confidence arising from +excessive self-esteem? A general of brigade protecting the heads of +the government! I don't know; but sometimes this ridiculous +self-reliance leads me to the point of believing everything possible +which this strange man would have me do; and with his imagination, who +can reckon what he would undertake?" This letter, though often quoted, +is so remarkable that, as some think, it may be a later invention. If +written later, it was probably the invention of Josephine herself.[62] + + [Footnote 61: Given in Aubenas: Histoire de + l'impératrice Joséphine, I, 293. This writer is frankly + not an historian but an apologist.] + + [Footnote 62: Coston: Premières années de Napoléon + Bonaparte.] + +The divinity who could awaken such ardor in a Napoleon was in reality +six years older than her suitor, and Lucien proves by his exaggeration +of four years that she certainly looked more than her real age. She +had no fortune, though by the subterfuges of which a clever woman +could make use she led Buonaparte to think her in affluent +circumstances. She had no social station; for her drawing-room, though +frequented by men of ancient name and exalted position, was not graced +by the presence of their wives. The very house she occupied had a +doubtful reputation, having been a gift to the wife of Talma the actor +from one of her lovers, and being a loan to Mme. Beauharnais from +Barras. She had thin brown hair, a complexion neither fresh nor faded, +expressive eyes, a small retroussé nose, a pretty mouth, and a voice +that charmed all listeners. She was rather undersized, but her figure +was so perfectly proportioned as to give the impression of height and +suppleness. Its charms were scarcely concealed by the clothing she +wore, made as it was in the suggestive fashion of the day, with no +support to the form but a belt, and as scanty about her shoulders as +it was about her shapely feet. It appears to have been her elegance +and her manners, as well as her sensuality, which overpowered +Buonaparte; for he described her as having "the calm and dignified +demeanor which belongs to the old régime." + +What motives may have combined to overcome her scruples we cannot +tell; perhaps a love of adventure, probably an awakened ambition for a +success in other domains than the one which advancing years would soon +compel her to abandon. She knew that Buonaparte had no fortune +whatever, but she also knew, on the highest authority, that both favor +and fortune would by her assistance soon be his. At all events, his +suit made swift advance, and by the end of January, 1796, he was +secure of his prize. His love-letters, to judge from one which has +been preserved, were as fiery as the despatches with which he soon +began to electrify his soldiers and all France. "I awaken full of +thee," he wrote; "thy portrait and yester eve's intoxicating charm +have left my senses no repose. Sweet and matchless Josephine, how +strange your influence upon my heart! Are you angry, do I see you sad, +are you uneasy, ... my soul is moved with grief, and there is no rest +for your friend; but is there then more when, yielding to an +overmastering desire, I draw from your lips, your heart, a flame which +consumes me? Ah, this very night, I knew your portrait was not you! +Thou leavest at noon; three hours more, and I shall see thee again. +Meantime, _mio dolce amor_, a thousand kisses; but give me none, for +they set me all afire." What genuine and reckless passion! The "thou" +and "you" maybe strangely jumbled; the grammar may be mixed and bad; +the language may even be somewhat indelicate, as it sounds in other +passages than those given: but the meaning would be strong enough +incense for the most exacting woman. + +On February ninth, 1796, their banns were proclaimed; on March second +the bridegroom received his bride's dowry in his own appointment, on +Carnot's motion, not on that of Barras, as chief of the Army of Italy, +still under the name of Buonaparte;[63] on the seventh he was handed +his commission; on the ninth the marriage ceremony was performed by +the civil magistrate; and on the eleventh the husband started for his +post. In the marriage certificate at Paris the groom gives his age as +twenty-eight, but in reality he was not yet twenty-seven; the bride, +who was thirty-three, gives hers as not quite twenty-nine. Her name is +spelled Detascher, his Bonaparte. A new birth, a new baptism, a new +career, a new start in a new sphere, Corsica forgotten, Jacobinism +renounced, General and Mme. Bonaparte made their bow to the world. The +ceremony attracted no public attention, and was most unceremonious, no +member of the family from either side being present. Madame Mère, in +fact, was very angry, and foretold that with such a difference in age +the union would be barren. + + [Footnote 63: Carnot thoroughly understood and + appreciated the genius shown in Buonaparte's plan for an + Italian campaign, and converted the Directorate to his + opinion. They sent a copy to Schérer, then in command at + Nice, and he returned it in a temper, declaring that the + man who made such a plan had better come and work it. + The Directory took him at his word.] + +There was one weird omen which, read aright, distinguishes the +otherwise commonplace occurrence. In the wedding-ring were two +words--"To destiny." The words were ominous, for they were indicative +of a policy long since formed and never afterward concealed, being a +pretense to deceive Josephine as well as the rest of the world: the +giver was about to assume a new rôle,--that of the "man of +destiny,"--to work for a time on the imagination and superstition of +his age. Sometimes he forgot his part, and displayed the shrewd, +calculating, hard-working man behind the mask, who was less a fatalist +than a personified fate, less a child of fortune than its maker. +"Great events," he wrote a very short time later from Italy, "ever +depend but upon a single hair. The adroit man profits by everything, +neglects nothing which can increase his chances; the less adroit, by +sometimes disregarding a single chance, fails in everything." Here is +the whole philosophy of Bonaparte's life. He may have been sincere at +times in the other profession; if so, it was because he could find no +other expression for what in his nature corresponded to romance in +others. + +The general and his adjutant reached Marseilles in due season. +Associated with them were Marmont, Junot, Murat, Berthier, and Duroc. +The two last named had as yet accomplished little: Berthier was +forty-three, Duroc only twenty-three. Both were destined to close +intimacy with Napoleon and to a career of high renown. The good news +of Napoleon's successes having long preceded them, the home of the +Bonapartes had become the resort of many among the best and most +ambitious men in the southern land. Elisa was now twenty, and though +much sought after, was showing a marked preference for Pasquale +Bacciocchi, the poor young Corsican whom she afterward married. +Pauline was sixteen, a great beauty, and deep in a serious flirtation +with Fréron, who, not having been elected to the Five Hundred, had +been appointed to a lucrative but uninfluential office in the great +provincial town--that of commissioner for the department. Caroline, +the youngest sister, was blossoming with greater promise even than +Pauline. Napoleon stopped a few days under his mother's roof to +regulate these matrimonial proceedings as he thought most +advantageous. On March twenty-second he reached the headquarters of +the Army of Italy. The command was assumed with simple and appropriate +ceremonial. The short despatch to the Directory announcing this +momentous event was signed "Bonaparte." The Corsican nobleman di +Buonaparte was now entirely transformed into the French general +Bonaparte. The process had been long and difficult: loyal Corsican; +mercenary cosmopolitan, ready as an expert artillery officer for +service in any land or under any banner; lastly, Frenchman, liberal, +and revolutionary. So far he had been consistent in each character; +for years to come he remained stationary as a sincere French patriot, +always of course with an eye to the main chance. As events unfolded, +the transformation began again; and the "adroit" man, taking advantage +of every chance, became once more a cosmopolitan--this time not as a +soldier, but as a statesman; not as a servant, but as the _imperator +universalis_, too large for a single land, determined to reunite once +more all Western Christendom, and, like the great German Charles a +thousand years before, make the imperial limits conterminous with +those of orthodox Christianity. The power of this empire was, however, +to rest on a Latin, not on a Teuton; not on Germany, but on France. +Its splendor was not to be embodied in Aachen nor in the Eternal City, +but in Paris; and its destiny was not to bring in a Christian +millennium for the glory of God, but a scientific equilibrium of +social states to the glory of Napoleon's dynasty, permanent because +universally beneficent. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + +Europe and the Directory[64]. + + [Footnote 64: For this and the succeeding chapters we + have the memoirs of Thibaudeau, Marmont, Doulcet de + Pontécoulant, Hyde de Neuville, and the duchess of + Abrantès--Madame Junot. Among the histories, the most + important are those of Blanc, Taine, Sybel, Sorel, and + Mortimer-Ternaux. Special studies: C. Rousset, Les + Volontaires de 1791-1794. Chassin: Pacifications de + l'Ouest and Dictature de Hoche. Mallet du Pan: + Correspondance avec la cour de Vienne. Also the + Correspondence of Sandoz. Many original papers are + printed in Hüffer: Oesterreich und Preussen; Bailleu: + Preussen und Frankreich, 1795-1797; and in the Amtliche + Sammlung von Akten aus der Zeit der Helvetischen + Republik.] + + The First Coalition -- England and Austria -- The Armies of + the Republic -- The Treasury of the Republic -- Necessary + Zeal -- The Directory -- Its Members -- The Abbé Sieyès -- + Carnot as a Model Citizen -- His Capacity as a Military + Organizer -- His Personal Character -- His Policy -- France + at the Opening of 1796 -- Plans of the Directory -- Their + Inheritance. + + +[Sidenote: 1796.] + +The great European coalition against France which had been formed in +1792 had in it little centripetal force. In 1795 Prussia, Spain, and +Tuscany withdrew for reasons already indicated in another connection, +and made their peace on terms as advantageous as they could secure. +Holland was conquered by France in the winter of 1794-95, and to this +day the illustrated school-books recall to every child of the French +Republic the half-fabulous tale of how a Dutch fleet was captured by +French hussars. The severity of the cold was long remembered as +phenomenal, and the frozen harbors rendered naval resistance +impossible, while cavalry manoeuvered with safety on the thick ice. +The Batavian Republic, as the Dutch commonwealth was now called, was +really an appanage of France. + +But England and Austria, though deserted by their strongest allies, +were still redoubtable enemies. The policy of the former had been to +command the seas and destroy the commerce of France on the one hand, +on the other to foment disturbance in the country itself by +subsidizing the royalists. In both plans she had been successful: her +fleets were ubiquitous, the Chouan and Vendean uprisings were +perennial, and the emigrant aristocrats menaced every frontier. +Austria, on the other hand, had once been soundly thrashed. Since +Frederick the Great had wrested Silesia from her, and thereby set +Protestant Prussia among the great powers, she had felt that the +balance of power was disturbed, and had sought everywhere for some +territorial acquisition to restore her importance. The present +emperor, Francis II, and his adroit minister, Thugut, were equally +stubborn in their determination to draw something worth while from the +seething caldron before the fires of war were extinguished. They +thought of Bavaria, of Poland, of Turkey, and of Italy; in the last +country especially it seemed as if the term of life had been reached +for Venice, and that at her impending demise her fair domains on the +mainland would amply replace Silesia. Russia saw her own advantage in +the weakening either of Turkey or of the central European powers, and +became the silent ally of Austria in this policy. + +The great armies of the French republic had been created by Carnot, +with the aid of his able lieutenant, Dubois de Crancé; they were +organized and directed by the unassisted genius of the former. Being +the first national armies which Europe had known, they were animated +as no others had been by that form of patriotism which rests not +merely on animal instinct, but on a principle. They had fought with +joyous alacrity for the assertion, confirmation, and extension of the +rights of man. For the two years from Valmy to Fleurus (1792-94) they +had waged a holy war. But victory modified their quality and their +attitude. The French people were too often disenchanted by their +civilian rulers; the army supplanted the constitution after 1796. +Conscious of its strength, and of itself as the armed nation, yet the +officers and men drew closer and closer for reciprocal advantage, not +merely political but material. The civil government must have money, +the army alone could command money, and on all the military +organization took a full commission. Already some of the officers were +reveling in wealth and splendor, more desired to follow the example, +the rank and file longed for at least a decent equipment and some +pocket money. As yet the curse of pillage was not synonymous with +conquest, as yet the free and generous ardor of youth and military +tradition exerted its force, as yet self-sacrifice to the extreme of +endurance was a virtue, as yet the canker of lust and debauchery had +not ruined the life of the camp. Emancipated from the bonds of +formality and mere contractual relation to superiors, manhood asserted +itself in troublesome questionings as to the motives and plans of +officers, discussion of what was done and what was to be done, above +all in searching criticism of government and its schemes. These were +so continuously misleading and disingenuous that the lawyer +politicaster who played such a rôle at Paris seemed despicable to the +soldiery, and "rogue of a lawyer" was almost synonymous to the +military mind with place-holder and civil ruler. In the march of +events the patriotism of the army had brought into prominence +Rousseau's conception of natural boundaries. There was but one opinion +in the entire nation concerning its frontiers, to wit: that Nice, +Savoy, and the western bank of the Rhine were all by nature a part of +France. As to what was beyond, opinion had been divided, some feeling +that they should continue fighting in order to impose their own system +wherever possible, while others, as has previously been explained, +were either indifferent, or else maintained that the nation should +fight only for its natural frontier. To the support of the latter +sentiment came the general longing for peace which was gradually +overpowering the whole country. + +[Illustration: From the collection of W. C. Crane. Engraved by +G. Fiesinger. + +Buonaparte. + +Drawn by S. Guerin. Deposited in the National Library on the +29th Vendémiaire of the year 7 of the French Republic.] + +No people ever made such sacrifices for liberty as the French had +made. Through years of famine they had starved with grim +determination, and the leanness of their race was a byword for more +than a generation. They had been for over a century the victims of a +system abhorrent to both their intelligence and their character--a +system of absolutism which had subsisted on foreign wars and on +successful appeals to the national vainglory. Now at last they were to +all appearance exhausted, their treasury was bankrupt, their paper +money was worthless, their agriculture and industries were paralyzed, +their foreign commerce was ruined; but they cherished the delusion +that their liberties were secure. Their soldiers were badly fed, badly +armed, and badly clothed; but they were freemen under such discipline +as is possible only among freemen. Why should not their success in the +arts of peace be as great as in the glorious and successful wars they +had carried on? There was, therefore, both in the country and in the +government, as in the army, a considerable and ever growing party +which demanded a general peace, but only with the "natural" frontier, +and a small one which felt peace to be imperative even if the nation +should be confined within its old boundaries. + +But such a reasonable and moderate policy was impossible on two +accounts. In consequence of the thirteenth of Vendémiaire, the radical +party still survived and controlled the machinery of government; and, +in spite of the seeming supremacy of moderate ideas, the royalists +were still irreconcilable. In particular there was the religious +question, which in itself comprehended a political, social, and +economic revolution which men like those who sat in the Directory +refused to understand because they chose to treat it on the basis of +pure theory.[65] The great western district of France was Roman, +royalist, and agricultural. There was a unity in their life and faith +so complete that any disturbance of the equilibrium produced frenzy +and chaos, an embattled strife for life itself. It was a discovery to +Hoche, that to pacify the Vendée brute force was quite insufficient. +The peasantry were beggared and savage but undismayed. While he used +force with nobles, strangers, and madmen, his conquest was in the main +moral because he restored to the people their fields and their church, +their institutions somewhat modified and improved, but still their old +institutions. No man less gigantic in moral stature would have dared +thus to defy the petty atheistic fanaticism of the Directory. France +had secured enlightened legislation which was not enforced, religious +liberty which could not be practised because of ill will in the +government, civil liberty which was a mere sham because of internal +violence, political liberty which was a chimera before hostile +foreigners. Hence it seemed to the administration that one evil must +cure another. Intestine disturbances, they naïvely believed, could be +kept under some measure of control only by an aggressive foreign +policy which should deceive the insurgent elements as to the resources +of the government. Thus far, by hook or by crook, the armies, so far +as they had been clothed and paid and fed at all, had been fed and +paid and clothed by the administration at Paris. If the armies should +still march and fight, the nation would be impressed by the strength +of the Directory. + + [Footnote 65: See the author's French Revolution and + Religious Reform.] + +The Directory was by no means a homogeneous body. It is doubtful +whether Barras was a sincere republican, or sincere in anything except +in his effort to keep himself afloat on the tide of the times. It has +been believed by many that he hoped for the restoration of monarchy +through disgust of the nation with such intolerable disorders as they +would soon associate with the name of republic. His friendship for +General Bonaparte was a mixed quantity; for while he undoubtedly +wished to secure for the state in any future crisis the support of so +able a man, he had at the same time used him as a sort of social +scapegoat. His own strength lay in several facts: he had been Danton's +follower; he had been an officer, and was appointed for that reason +commanding general against the Paris sections; he had been shrewd +enough to choose Bonaparte as his agent so that he enjoyed the +prestige of Bonaparte's success; and in the new society of the capital +he was magnificent, extravagant, and licentious, the only +representative in the Directory of the newly aroused passion for life +and pleasure, his colleagues being severe, unostentatious, and +economical democrats. + +Barras's main support in the government was Rewbell, a vigorous +Alsatian and a bluff democrat, enthusiastic for the Revolution and its +extension. He was no Frenchman himself, but a German at heart, and +thought that the German lands--Holland, Switzerland, Germany +itself--should be brought into the great movement. Like Barras, who +needed disorder for his Orleanist schemes and for the supply of his +lavish purse, Rewbell despised the new constitution; but for a +different reason. To him it appeared a flimsy, theoretical document, +so subdividing the exercise of power as to destroy it altogether. His +rôle was in the world of finance, and he was always suspected, though +unjustly, of unholy alliances with army contractors and stock +manipulators. Larévellière was another doctrinaire, but, in comparison +with Rewbell, a bigot. He had been a Girondist, a good citizen, and +active in the formation of the new constitution; but he lacked +practical common sense, and hated the Church with as much narrow +bitterness as the most rancorous modern agnostic,--seeking, however, +not merely its destruction, but, like Robespierre, to substitute for +it a cult of reason and humanity. The fourth member of the Directory, +Letourneur, was a plain soldier, an officer in the engineers. With +abundant common sense and a hard head, he, too, was a sincere +republican; but he was a tolerant one, a moderate, kindly man like his +friend Carnot, with whom, as time passed by and there was gradually +developed an irreconcilable split in the Directory, he always voted in +a minority of two against the other three. + +At first the notorious Abbé Sieyès had been chosen a member of the +executive. He was both deep and dark, like Bonaparte, to whom he later +rendered valuable services. His ever famous pamphlet, which in 1789 +triumphantly proved that the Third Estate was neither more nor less +than the French nation, had made many think him a radical. As years +passed on he became the oracle of his time, and as such acquired an +enormous influence even in the days of the Terror, which he was +helpless to avert, and which he viewed with horror and disgust. +Whatever may have been his original ideas, he appears to have been for +some time after the thirteenth of Vendémiaire an Orleanist, the head +of a party which desired no longer a strict hereditary and absolute +monarchy, but thought that in the son of Philippe Égalité they had a +useful prince to preside over a constitutional kingdom. Perhaps for +this reason, perhaps for the one he gave, which was that the new +constitution was not yet the right one, he flatly refused the place in +the Directory which was offered to him. + +It was as a substitute for this dangerous visionary that Carnot was +made a director. He was now in his forty-third year, and at the height +of his powers. In him was embodied all that was moderate and sound, +consequently all that was enduring, in the French Revolution; he was a +thorough scholar, and his treatise on the metaphysics of the calculus +forms an important chapter in the history of mathematical physics. As +an officer in the engineers he had attained the highest distinction, +while as minister of war he had shown himself an organizer and +strategist of the first order. But his highest aim was to be a model +French citizen. In his family relations as son, husband, and father, +he was held by his neighbors to be a pattern; in his public life he +strove with equal sincerity of purpose to illustrate the highest +ideals of the eighteenth century. Such was the ardor of his +republicanism that no man nor party in France was so repugnant but +that he would use either one or both, if necessary, for his country's +welfare, although he was like Chatham in his lofty scorn for parties. +To him as a patriot, therefore, France, as against the outer world, +was first, no matter what her government might be; but the France he +yearned for was a land regenerated by the gospel of humanity, awakened +to the highest activity by the equality of all before the law, refined +by that self-abnegation of every man which makes all men brothers, and +destroys the menace of the law. + +And yet he was no dreamer. While a member of the National Assembly he +had displayed such practical common sense in his chosen field of +military science, that in 1793 the Committee of Safety intrusted to +him the control of the war. The standard of rank and command was no +longer birth nor seniority nor influence, but merit. The wild and +ignorant hordes of men which the conscription law had brought into the +field were something hitherto unknown in Europe. It was Carnot who +organized, clothed, fed, and drilled them. It was he who devised the +new tactics and evolved the new and comprehensive plans which made his +national armies the power they became. It was in Carnot's +administration that the young generals first came to the fore. It was +by his favor that almost every man of that galaxy of modern warriors +who so long dazzled Europe by their feats of arms first appeared as a +candidate for advancement. Moreau, Macdonald, Jourdan, Bernadotte, +Kléber, Mortier, Ney, Pichegru, Desaix, Berthier, Augereau, and +Bonaparte himself,--each one of these was the product of Carnot's +system. He was the creator of the armies which for a time made all +Europe tributary to France. + +Throughout an epoch which laid bare the meanness of most natures, his +character was unsmirched. He began life under the ancient régime by +writing and publishing a eulogy on Vauban, who had been disgraced for +his plain speaking to Louis XIV. When called to a share in the +government he was the advocate of a strong nationality, of a just +administration within, and of a fearless front to the world. While +minister of war he on one occasion actually left his post and hastened +to Maubeuge, where defeat was threatening Jourdan, devised and put +into operation a new plan, led in person the victorious assault, and +then returned to Paris to inspire the country and the army with news +of the victory; all this he did as if it were commonplace duty, +without advertising himself by parade or ceremony. Even Robespierre +had trembled before his biting irony and yet dared not, as he wished, +include him among his victims. After the events of Thermidor, when it +was proposed to execute all those who had authorized the bloody deeds +of the Terror, excepting Carnot, he prevented the sweeping measure by +standing in his place to say that he too had acted with the rest, had +held like them the conviction that the country could not otherwise be +saved, and that therefore he must share their fate. + +In the milder light of the new constitution the dark blot on his +record thus frankly confessed grew less repulsive as the continued +dignity and sincerity of his nature asserted themselves in a tolerance +which he believed to be as needful now as ruthless severity once had +been. For a year the glory of French arms had been eclipsed: his +dominant idea was first to restore their splendor, then to make peace +with honor and give the new life of his country an opportunity for +expansion in a mild and firm administration of the new laws. If he had +been dictator in the crisis, no doubt his plan, arduous as was the +task, might have been realized; but, with Letourneur in a minority of +two, against an unprincipled adventurer leading two bigots, it was +impossible to secure the executive unity necessary for success. + +At the opening of the year 1796, therefore, the situation of France +was quite as distracting as ever, and the foundation of her +institutions more than ever unstable. There was hopeless division in +the executive, and no coördination under the constitution between it +and the other branches of the government, while the legislature did +not represent the people. The treasury was empty, famine was as +wide-spread as ever, administration virtually non-existent. The army, +checked for the moment, moped unsuccessful, dispirited, and unpaid. +Hunger knows little discipline, and with temporary loss of discipline +the morals of the troops had been undermined. To save the constitution +public opinion must be diverted from internal affairs, and +conciliated. To that end the German emperor must be forced to yield +the Rhine frontier, and money must be found at least for the most +pressing necessities of the army and of the government. If the +republic could secure for France her natural borders, and command a +peace by land, it might hope for eventual success in the conflict with +England. To this end its territorial conquests must be partitioned +into three classes: those within the "natural limits," and already +named, for incorporation; those to be erected into buffer states to +fend off from the tender republic absolutism and all its horrors; and +finally such districts as might be valuable for exchange in order to +the eventual consolidation of the first two classes. Of the second +type, the Directory considered as most important the Germanic +Confederation. There was the example of Catherine's dealing with +Poland by which to proceed. As that had been partitioned, so should +Germany. From its lands should be created four electorates, one to +indemnify the House of Orange for Holland, one for Würtemberg; the +others according to circumstances would be confided to friendly hands. + +The means to the end were these. Russia must be reduced to inactivity +by exciting against her through bribes and promises all her foes to +the eastward. Prussia must be cajoled into coöperation by pressure on +King George of Hanover, even to the extinction of his kingdom, and by +the hope of a consolidated territory with the possibility of securing +the Imperial dignity. Austria was to be partly compelled, partly +bribed, into a continental coalition against Great Britain by +adjustment of her possessions both north and south of the Alps. Into a +general alliance against Great Britain, Spain must be dragged by +working on the fears of the queen's paramour Godoy, prime minister and +controller of Spanish destinies. This done, Great Britain, according +to the time-honored, well-worn device of France, royal or radical, +should be invaded and brought to her knees. The plan was as old as +Philippe le Bel, and had appeared thereafter once and again at +intervals either as a _bona fide_ policy or a device to stir the +French heart and secure money from the public purse for the public +defense. For this purpose of the Directory the ruined maritime power +of the republic must be restored, new ships built and old ones +refitted; in the meantime, as did Richelieu or Mazarin, rebellion +against the British government must be roused and supported among +malcontents everywhere within the borders of Great Britain, especially +in Ireland. Such was the stupid plan of the Directory: two well-worn +expedients, both discredited as often as tried. To the territorial +readjustment of Europe, Prussia, though momentarily checked, was +already pivotal; but the first efforts of French diplomacy at Berlin +resulted in a flat refusal to go farther than the peace already made, +or entertain the chimerical proposals now made. Turning then to +Austria, the Directory concluded the armistice of February first, +1796, but at Vienna the offer of Munich and two thirds of Bavaria, of +an outlet to the Adriatic and of an alliance against Russia for the +restoration of Poland--of course without Galicia, which Austria should +retain--was treated only as significant of what French temerity dared +propose, and when heard was scornfully disdained. The program for +Italy was retained substantially as laid down in 1793: the +destruction of the papal power, the overthrow of all existing +governments, the plunder of their rich treasures, the annihilation of +feudal and ecclesiastical institutions, and the regeneration of its +peoples on democratic lines. Neither the revolutionary elements of the +peninsula nor the jealous princes could be brought to terms by the +active and ubiquitous French agents, even in Genoa, though there was +just sufficient dallying everywhere between Venice and Naples to keep +alive hope and exasperate the unsuccessful negotiators. The European +world was worried and harassed by uncertainties, by dark plots, by +mutual distrust. It was unready for war, but war was the only solvent +of intolerable troubles. England, Austria, Russia, and France under +the Directory must fight or perish. + +It must not be forgotten that this was the monarchical, secular, and +immemorial policy of France as the disturber of European peace; +continued by the republic, it was rendered more pernicious and +exasperating to the upholders of the balance of power. Not only was +the republic more energetic and less scrupulous than the monarchy, her +rivals were in a very low estate indeed. Great Britain had stripped +France and Holland of their colonies, but these new possessions and +the ocean highway must be protected at enormous expense. The Commons +refused to authorize a new loan, and the nation was exhausted to such +a degree that Pitt and the King, shrinking from the opprobrious +attacks of the London populace, and noting with anguish the renewal of +bloody disorder in Ireland, made a feint of peace negotiations through +the agent they employed in Switzerland to foment royalist +demonstrations against France wherever possible. Wickham asked on +March eighth, 1796, on what terms the Directory would make an +honorable peace, and in less than three weeks received a rebuff which +declared that France would under no circumstances make restitution of +its continental conquests. In a sense it was Russia's Polish policy +which kept Prussia and Austria so occupied with the partition that the +nascent republic of France was not strangled in its cradle by the +contiguous powers. Provided she had the lion's share of Poland, +Catherine was indifferent to the success of Jacobinism. But she soon +saw the danger of a general conflagration and, applying Voltaire's +epithet for ecclesiasticism to the republic, cried all abroad: Crush +the Infamous! Conscious of her old age, distrusting all the possible +successors to her throne: Paul the paranoiac, Constantine the coarse +libertine, and the super-elegant Alexander, she refused a coalition +with England and turned her activities eastward against the Cossacks +and into Persia; but she consented to be the intermediary between +Austria and Great Britain. Austria wanted the Netherlands, but only if +she could secure with them a fortified girdle wherewith to protect and +hold them. She likewise desired the Milanese and the Legations in +Italy, as well as Venetia. As the price of continued war on France, +these lands and a subsidy of three million pounds were the terms +exacted from Great Britain. With no army at his disposal and his naval +resources strained to the utmost, George III agreed to pay a hundred +and fifty thousand pounds per month until parliament would make the +larger grant. Thugut, the Austrian minister, accepted. Cobenzl, the +Austrian ambassador at St. Petersburg, arranged affairs with Catherine +concerning Bavaria, the French royalists under Condé bribed Pichegru +into a promise of yielding the fortresses of the north to their +occupation, the Austrian army on the Rhine was strengthened. In retort +Jourdan was stationed on the lower and Moreau on the upper Rhine, +each with eighty thousand men, Bonaparte was despatched to Italy, and +Hoche made ready a motley crew of outlaws and Vendeans wherewith to +enter Ireland, join Wolfe Tone and his United Irishmen, and thus let +loose the elements of civil war in that unhappy island. Europe at +large expected the brunt of the struggle north of the Alps in central +Germany: the initiated knew better. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + +Bonaparte on a Great Stage[66]. + + [Footnote 66: The state of Europe may be studied in the + Correspondence of Mallet du Pan and in the Archives + Woronzoff; in Vivenot: Thugut and Clerfayt; Daudet: Les + Bourbons et la Russie; La Conspiration de Pichegru; + Sorel: L'Europe et la Révolution Française; Lecky: + England in the XVIII century; Stanhope's Life of Pitt; + the memoirs of Prince Adam Czartoryski; also the + diplomatic papers of Thugut, Clerfayt, Hermann, and + Sandoz.] + + Bonaparte and the Army of Italy -- The System of Pillage -- + The General as a Despot -- The Republican Armies and French + Politics -- Italy as the Focal Point -- Condition of Italy + -- Bonaparte's Sagacity -- His Plan of Action -- His Army + and Generals -- Strength of the Army of Italy -- The + Napoleonic Maxims of Warfare -- Advance of Military Science + -- Bonaparte's Achievements -- His Financial Policy -- + Effects of His Success. + + +[Sidenote: 1796.] + +The struggle which was imminent was for nothing less than a new lease +of national life for France. It dawned on many minds that in such a +combat changes of a revolutionary nature--as regarded not merely the +provisioning and management of armies, as regarded not merely the +grand strategy to be adopted and carried out by France, but as +regarded the very structure and relations of other European +nations--would be justifiable. But to be justifiable they must be +adequate; and to be adequate they must be unexpected and thorough. +What should they be? The OEdipus who solves this riddle for France is +the man of the hour. He was found in Bonaparte. What mean these +ringing words from the headquarters at Nice, which, on March +twenty-seventh, 1796, fell on the ears of a hungry, eager soldiery and +a startled world? "Soldiers, you are naked, badly fed. The government +owes you much; it can give you nothing. Your long-suffering, the +courage you show among these crags, are splendid, but they bring you +no glory; not a ray is reflected upon you. I wish to lead you into the +most fertile plains of the world. Rich provinces, great towns, will be +in your power; there you will find honor, glory, and riches. Soldiers +of Italy, can you be found lacking in honor, courage, or constancy?" + +Such language has but one meaning. By a previous understanding with +the Directory, the French army was to be paid, the French treasury to +be replenished, at the expense of the lands which were the seat of +war. Corsicans in the French service had long been suspected of +sometimes serving their own interests to the detriment of their +adopted country. Bonaparte was no exception, and occasionally he felt +it necessary to justify himself. For example, he had carefully +explained that his marriage bound him to the republic by still another +tie. Yet it appears that his promotion, his engagement with the +directors, and his devotion to the republic were all concerned +primarily with personal ambition, though secondarily and incidentally +with the perpetuation of a government professedly based on the +Revolution. From the outset of Napoleon's independent career, +something of the future dictator appears. This implied promise that +pillage, plunder, and rapine should henceforth go unpunished in order +that his soldiers might line their pockets is the indication of a +settled policy which was more definitely expressed in each successive +proclamation as it issued from his pen. It was repeated whenever new +energy was to be inspired into faltering columns, whenever some +unparalleled effort in a dark design was to be demanded from the rank +and file of the army, until at last a point-blank promise was made +that every man should return to France with money enough in his pocket +to become a landowner. + +There was magic in the new spell, the charm never ceased to work; with +that first call from Nice began the transformation of the French army, +fighting now no longer for principle, but for glory, victory, and +booty. Its leader, if successful, would be in no sense a +constitutional general, but a despotic conqueror. Outwardly gracious, +and with no irritating condescension; considerate wherever mercy would +strengthen his reputation; fully aware of the influence a dramatic +situation or a pregnant aphorism has upon the common mind, and using +both with mastery; appealing as a climax to the powerful motive of +greed in every heart, Bonaparte was soon to be not alone the general +of consummate genius, not alone the organizing lawgiver of conquered +lands and peoples, but, what was essential to his whole career, the +idol of an army which was not, as of old, the servant of a great +nation, but, as the new era had transformed it, the nation itself. + +The peculiar relation of Bonaparte to Italy, to Corsica, and to the +Convention had made him, as early as 1794, while yet but chief of +artillery, the real director of the Army of Italy. He had no personal +share in the victorious campaign of that year, but its victories, as +he justly claimed, were due to his plans. During the unsuccessful +Corsican expedition of the following winter, for which he was but +indirectly responsible, the Austro-Sardinians in Piedmont had taken +advantage of its absorbing so many French troops to undo all that had +so far been accomplished. During the summer of 1795 Spain and Prussia +had made peace with France. In consequence all northern Europe had +been declared neutral, and the field of operations on the Rhine had +been confined to the central zone of Germany, while at the same time +the French soldiers who had formed the Army of the Pyrenees had been +transferred to the Maritime Alps. In 1796, therefore, the great +question was whether the Army of the Rhine or that of Italy was to be +the chief weapon of offense against Austria. + +Divided interests and warped convictions quickly created two opinions +in the French nation, each of which was held with intensity and +bitterness by its supporters. So far the Army of the Rhine was much +the stronger, and the Emperor had concentrated his strength to oppose +it. But the wisest heads saw that Austria might be flanked by way of +Italy. The gate to Lombardy was guarded by the sturdy little army of +Victor Amadeus, assisted by a small Austrian force. If the house of +Savoy, which was said to wear at its girdle the keys of the Alps, +could be conquered and brought to make a separate peace, the Austrian +army could be overwhelmed, and a highway to Vienna opened first +through the plains of Lombardy, then by the Austrian Tyrol, or else by +the Venetian Alps. Strangely enough, the plainest and most forcible +exposition of this plan was made by an emigrant in London, a certain +Dutheil, for the benefit of England and Austria. But the Allies were +deaf to his warnings, while in the mean time Bonaparte enforced the +same idea upon the French authorities, and secured their acceptance of +it. Both he and they were the more inclined to the scheme because once +already it had been successfully initiated; because the general, +having studied Italy and its people, thoroughly understood what +contributions might be levied on them; because the Army of the Rhine +was radically republican and knew its own strength; because therefore +the personal ambitions of Bonaparte, and in fact the very existence of +the Directory, alike depended on success elsewhere than in central +Europe. + +Having been for centuries the battle-field of rival dynasties, Italy, +though a geographical unit with natural frontiers more marked than +those of any other land, and with inhabitants fairly homogeneous in +birth, speech, and institutions, was neither a nation nor a family of +kindred nations, but a congeries of heterogeneous states. Some of +these, like Venice and Genoa, boasted the proud title of republics; +they were in reality narrow, commercial, even piratical oligarchies, +destitute of any vigorous political life. The Pope, like other petty +rulers, was but a temporal prince, despotic, and not even enlightened, +as was the Grand Duke of Tuscany. Naples and the Milanese both groaned +under the yoke of foreign rulers, and the only passable government in +the length and breadth of the land was that of the house of Savoy in +Piedmont and Sardinia, lands where the revolutionary spirit of liberty +was most extended and active. The petty courts, like those of Parma +and Modena, were nests of intrigue and corruption. There was, of +course, in every place that saving remnant of high-minded men which is +always providentially left as a seed; but the people as a whole were +ignorant and enervated. The accumulations of ages, gained by an +extensive and lucrative commerce, or by the tilling of a generous +soil, had not been altogether dissipated by misrule, and there was +even yet rich store of money in many of the venerable and still +splendid cities. Nowhere in the ancient seats of the Roman +commonwealth, whose memory was now the cherished fashion in France, +could anything more than a reflection of French revolutionary +principles be discerned; the rights of man and republican doctrine +were attractive subjects of debate in many cities throughout the +peninsula, but there was little of that fierce devotion to their +realization so prevalent beyond the Alps. + +The sagacity of Bonaparte saw his account in these conditions. Being +a professed republican, he could announce himself as the regenerator +of society, and the liberator of a people. If, as has been supposed, +he already dreamed of a throne, where could one be so easily founded +with the certainty of its endurance? As a conqueror he would have a +divided, helpless, and wealthy people at his feet. If the old flame of +Corsican ambition were not yet extinguished, he felt perhaps that he +could wreak the vengeance of a defeated and angry people upon Genoa, +their oppressor for ages. + +His preparations began as early as the autumn of 1795, when, with +Carnot's assistance, the united Pyrenean and Italian armies were +directed to the old task of opening the roads through the mountains +and by the sea-shore into Lombardy and central Italy. They won the +battle of Loano, which secured the Maritime Alps once more; but a long +winter amid these inclement peaks had left the army wretched and +destitute of every necessity. It had been difficult throughout that +winter to maintain even the Army of the Interior in the heart of +France; the only chance for that of Italy was movement. The completed +plan of action was forwarded from Paris in January. But, as has been +told, Schérer, the commanding general, and his staff were outraged, +refusing to consider its suggestions, either those for supplying their +necessities in Lombardy, or those for the daring and venturesome +operations necessary to reach that goal. + +Bonaparte, who could invent such schemes, alone could realize them; +and the task was intrusted to him. For the next ten weeks no sort of +preparation was neglected. The nearly empty chest of the Directory was +swept clean; from that source the new commander received forty-seven +thousand five hundred francs in cash, and drafts for twenty thousand +more; forced loans for considerable sums were made in Toulon and +Marseilles; and Salicetti levied contributions of grain and forage in +Genoa according to the plan which had been preconcerted between him +and the general in their Jacobin days. The army which Bonaparte +finally set in motion was therefore a fine engine of war. Its +immediate necessities relieved, the veterans warmed to their work, and +that notable promise of booty worked them to the pitch of genuine +enthusiasm. The young commander, moreover, was as circumspect as a man +of the first ability alone could be when about to make the venture of +his life and play for the stake of a world. His generals of division +were themselves men of mark--personages no less than Masséna, +Augereau, Laharpe, and Sérurier. Of Masséna some account has already +been given. Augereau was Bonaparte's senior by thirteen years, of +humble and obscure origin, who had sought his fortunes as a +fencing-master in the Bourbon service at Naples, and having later +enlisted in the French forces sent to Spain in 1792, rose by his +ability to be general of brigade, then division commander in the Army +of Italy. He was rude in manner and plebeian in feeling, jealous of +Bonaparte, but brave and capable. In the sequel he played an important +part and rose to eminence, though he distrusted both the Emperor and +the empire and flinched before great crises. Neither Laharpe nor +Sérurier was distinguished beyond the sphere of their profession, but +in that they were loyal and admirable. Laharpe was a member of the +famous Swiss family banished from home for devotion to liberty. Under +Luckner in Germany he had earned and kept the sobriquet of "the +brave"; until he was mortally wounded in a night attack, while +crossing the Po after Millesimo, he continued his brilliant career, +and would have gone far had he been spared. Sérurier was a veteran of +the Seven Years' War and of Portugal, already fifty-four years old. +Able and trustworthy, he was loaded with favors by Napoleon and +survived until 1819. It might have been very easy to exasperate such +men. But what the commander-in-chief had to do was done with such +smoothness and skill that even they could find no ground for carping; +and though at first cold and reticent, before long they yielded to the +influences which filled with excitement the very air they breathed. + +At this moment, besides the National Guard, France had an army, and in +some sense a navy: of both the effective fighting force numbered +upward of half a million. Divided nominally into nine armies, instead +of fourteen as first planned, there were in reality but seven; of +these, four were of minor importance: a small, skeleton Army of the +Interior, a force in the west under Hoche twice as large and with +ranks better filled, a fairly strong army in the north under +Macdonald, and a similar one in the Alps under Kellermann, with +Berthier and Vaubois as lieutenants, which soon became a part of +Bonaparte's force. These were, if possible, to preserve internal order +and to watch England, while three great active organizations were to +combine for the overthrow of Austria. On the Rhine were two of the +active armies--one near Düsseldorf under Jourdan, another near +Strasburg under Moreau. Macdonald was of Scottish Jacobite descent, a +French royalist converted to republicanism by his marriage. He was now +thirty-one years old. Trained in the regiment of Dillon, he alone of +its officers remained true to democratic principles on the outbreak of +the Revolution. He was made a colonel for his bravery at Jemmapes, and +for his loyalty when Dumouriez went over to the Austrians he was +promoted to be general of brigade. For his services under Pichegru in +Holland he had been further rewarded by promotion, and after the peace +of Campo Formio was transferred from the Rhine to Italy. He was +throughout a loyal friend of Bonaparte and received the highest +honors. Kellermann was a Bavarian, and when associated with Bonaparte +a veteran, sixty-one years old. He had seen service in the Seven +Years' War and again in Poland during 1771. An ardent republican, he +had served with distinction from the beginning of the revolutionary +wars: though twice charged with incapacity, he was triumphantly +acquitted. He linked his fortunes to those of Bonaparte without +jealousy and reaped abundant laurels. Of Berthier and the other great +generals we have already spoken. Vaubois reached no distinction. At +the portals of Italy was Bonaparte, with a third army, soon to be the +most active of all. At the outset he had, all told, about forty-five +thousand men; but the campaign which he conducted had before its close +assumed such dimensions that in spite of its losses the Army of Italy +contained nearly double that number of men ready for the field, +besides the garrison troops and invalids. The figures on the records +of the war department were invariably much greater; but an enormous +percentage, sometimes as high as a third, was always in the hospitals, +while often as many as twenty thousand were left behind to hold +various fortresses. Bonaparte, for evident reasons, uniformly +represented his effective force as smaller than it was, and stunned +the ears of the Directory with ever reiterated demands for +reinforcement. A dispassionate estimate would fix the number of his +troops in the field at any one time during these operations as not +lower than thirty-five thousand nor much higher than eighty thousand. + +Another element of the utmost importance entered into the coming +campaign. The old vicious system by which a vigilant democracy had +jealously prescribed to its generals every step to be taken was swept +away by Bonaparte, who as Robespierre's "man" had been thoroughly +familiar with its workings from the other end. He was now +commander-in-chief, and he insisted on the absolute unity of command +as essential to the economy of time. This being granted, his equipment +was complete. It will be remembered that in 1794 he had explained to +his patrons how warfare in the field was like a siege: by directing +all one's force to a single point a breach might be made, and the +equilibrium of opposition destroyed. To this conception of +concentration for attack he had, in concert with the Directory, added +another, that of expansion in a given territory for sustenance. He had +still a third, that war must be made as intense and awful as possible +in order to make it short, and thus to diminish its horrors. Trite and +simple as these aphorisms now appear, they were all original and +absolutely new, at least in the quick, fierce application of them made +by Bonaparte. The traditions of chivalry, the incessant warfare of two +centuries and a half, the humane conceptions of the Church, the regard +for human life, the difficulty of communications, the scarcity of +munitions and arms,--all these and other elements had combined to make +war under mediocre generals a stately ceremonial, and to diminish the +number of actual battles, which took place, when they did, only after +careful preparation, as an unpleasant necessity, by a sort of common +agreement, and with the ceremony of a duel. + +Turenne, Marlborough, and Frederick, all men of cold-blooded +temperament, had been the greatest generals of their respective ages, +and were successful much in proportion to their lack of sentiment and +disregard of conventionalities. Their notions and their conduct +displayed the same instincts as those of Bonaparte, and their minds +were enlarged by a study of great campaigns like that which had fed +his inchoate genius and had made possible his consummate achievement. +He had much the same apparatus for warfare as they. The men of Europe +had not materially changed in stature, weight, education, or morals +since the closing years of the Thirty Years' War. The roads were +somewhat better, the conformation of mountains, hills, and valleys was +better known, and like his great predecessors, though unlike his +contemporaries, Bonaparte knew the use of a map; but in the main +little was changed in the conditions for moving and manoeuvering +troops. News traveled slowly, the semaphore telegraph was but slowly +coming into use, and the fastest couriers rode from Nice to Paris or +from Paris to Berlin in seven days. Firearms of every description were +little improved: Prussia actually claimed that she had been forced to +negotiate for peace because France controlled the production of +gun-flints. The forging of cannon was finer, and the artillery arm was +on the whole more efficient. In France there had been considerable +change for the better in the manual and in tactics; the rest of Europe +followed the old and more formal ways. Outside the republic, ceremony +still held sway in court and camp; youthful energy was stifled in +routine; and the generals opposed to Bonaparte were for the most part +men advanced in years, wedded to tradition, and incapable of quickly +adapting their ideas to meet advances and attacks based on conceptions +radically different from their own. It was at times a positive misery +to the new conqueror that his opponents were such inefficient fossils. +Young and at the same time capable; using the natural advantages of +his territory to support the bravery of his troops; with a mind which +was not only accurate and decisive, but comprehensive in its +observations; unhampered by control or by principle; opposed to +generals who could not think of a boy of twenty-six as their equal; +with the best army and the finest theater of war in Europe; finally, +with a genius independently developed, and with conceptions of his +profession which summarized the experience of his greatest +predecessors, Bonaparte performed feats that seemed miraculous even +when compared with those of Hoche, Jourdan, or Moreau, which had +already so astounded the world. + +Within eleven days the Austrians and Sardinians were separated, the +latter having been defeated and forced to sign an armistice. After a +rest of two days, a fortnight saw him victorious in Lombardy, and +entering Milan as a conqueror. Two weeks elapsed, and again he set +forth to reduce to his sway in less than a month the most of central +Italy. Against an enemy now desperate and at bay his operations fell +into four divisions, each resulting in an advance--the first, of nine +days, against Wurmser and Quasdanowich; the second, of sixteen days, +against Wurmser; the third, of twelve days, against Alvinczy; and the +fourth, of thirty days, until he captured Mantua and opened the +mountain passes to his army. Within fifteen days after beginning +hostilities against the Pope, he forced him to sign the treaty of +Tolentino; and within thirty-six days of their setting foot on the +road from Mantua to Vienna, the French were at Leoben, distant only +ninety miles from the Austrian capital, and dictating terms to the +Empire. In the year between March twenty-seventh, 1796, and April +seventh, 1797, Bonaparte humbled the most haughty dynasty in Europe, +toppled the central European state system, and initiated the process +which has given a predominance apparently final to Prussia, then +considered but as a parvenu. + +It is impossible to estimate the enormous sums of money which he +exacted for the conduct of a war that he chose to say was carried on +to emancipate Italy. The soldiers of his army were well clad, well +fed, and well equipped from the day of their entry into Milan; the +arrears of their pay were not only settled, but they were given +license to prey on the country until a point was reached which seemed +to jeopardize success, when common pillage was promptly stopped by the +severest examples. The treasury of the Directory was not filled as +were those of the conquering officers, but it was no longer empty. In +short, France reached the apex of her revolutionary greatness; and as +she was now the foremost power on the Continent, the shaky monarchies +in neighboring lands were forced to consider again questions which in +1795 they had hoped were settled. As Bonaparte foresaw, the destinies +of Europe had indeed hung on the fate of Italy. + +Europe had grown accustomed to military surprises in the few preceding +years. The armies of the French republic, fired by devotion to their +principles and their nation, had accomplished marvels. But nothing in +the least foreshadowing this had been wrought even by them. Then, as +now, curiosity was inflamed, and the most careful study was expended +in analyzing the process by which such miracles had been performed. +The investigators and their readers were so overpowered by the +spectacle and its results that they were prevented by a sort of +awe-stricken credulity from recognizing the truth; and even yet the +notion of a supernatural influence fighting on Bonaparte's side has +not entirely disappeared. But the facts as we know them reveal +cleverness dealing with incapacity, energy such as had not yet been +seen fighting with languor, an embodied principle of great vitality +warring with a lifeless, vanishing system. The consequences were +startling, but logical; the details sound like a romance from the land +of Eblis. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + +The Conquest of Piedmont and the Milanese[67]. + + [Footnote 67: The latest important authorities on this + campaign and its results are, in addition to those + already given, Sargent: Napoleon Bonaparte's First + Campaign. Sorel: Bonaparte et Hoche en 1797. Bonaparte + et le Directoire, Vol. V of his large work. Colin: + Études sur la Campagne de 1796 en Italie. Fabry: + Histoire de l'armée d'Italie, 1796-1797. Bouvier: + Bonaparte en Italie, 1796. Graham's Despatches, edited + by Rose, in English Historical Review, Vol. XIV. + Tivaroni: Storia del risorgimento italiano. The Dropmore + Papers. Of primary value are Napoleon's "Correspondance," + official edition, and the unofficial edited by Beauvais. + Hueffer: Ungedruckte Briefe Napoleon's in the Archiv für + Oest. Geschichte, Vol. XLIX. Of value are also the + memoirs of Marmont, Masséna, and Desgenettes, of + Landrieux in Revue du Cercle Militaire, 1887. Yorck von + Wartenberg: Napoleon als Feldherr, almost supersedes the + older authority of Clausewitz, Jomini, Ruestow, and + Lossau. There are also Malachowski: Entwickelung der + leitenden Gedanken zur ersten Campagne Bonaparte's, and + Delbrueck: Unterschied der Strategie Friederich's des + Grossen und Napoleon's.] + + The Armies of Austria and Sardinia -- Montenotte and + Millesimo -- Mondovi and Cherasco -- Consequences of the + Campaign -- The Plains of Lombardy -- The Crossing of the Po + -- Advance Toward Milan -- Lodi -- Retreat of the Austrians + -- Moral Effects of Lodi. + + +[Sidenote: 1796.] + +Victor Amadeus of Sardinia was not unaccustomed to the loss of +territory in the north, because from immemorial times his house had +relinquished picturesque but unfruitful lands beyond the Alps to gain +fertile fields below them. It was a hard blow, to be sure, that Savoy, +which gave name to his family, and Nice, with its beautiful and +commanding site, should have been lost to his crown. But so far, in +every general European convulsion, some substantial morsels had fallen +to the lot of his predecessors, who had looked on Italy "as an +artichoke to be eaten leaf by leaf"; and it was probable that a slice +of Lombardy would be his own prize at the next pacification. He had +spent his reign in strengthening his army, and as the foremost +military power in Italy his young and vigorous people, with the help +of Austria, were defending the passes into their territory. The road +from their capital to Savona on the sea wound by Ceva and Millesimo +over the main ridge of the Apennines, at the summit of which it was +joined by the highway through Dego and Cairo leading southwestward +from Milan through Alessandria. The Piedmontese, under Colli, were +guarding the approach to their own capital; the Austrians, under +Beaulieu, that to Milan. Collectively their numbers were somewhat +greater than those of the French; but the two armies were separated. + +Beaulieu began operations on April tenth by ordering an attack on the +French division of Laharpe, which had been thrown forward to Voltri. +The Austrians under Argenteau were to fall on its rear from +Montenotte, a village to the north of Savona, with the idea of driving +that wing of Bonaparte's army back along the shore road, on which it +was hoped they would fall under the fire of Nelson's guns. Laharpe, +however, retreated to Savona in perfect safety, for the English fleet +was not near. Thereupon Bonaparte, suddenly revealing the new +formation of his army in the north and south line, assumed the +offensive. Argenteau, having been held temporarily in check by the +desperate resistance of a handful of French soldiers under Colonel +Rampon, was surprised and overwhelmed at Montenotte on the twelfth by +a force much larger than his own. Next day Masséna and Augereau drove +back toward Dego an Austrian division which had reached Millesimo on +its way to join Colli; and on the fifteenth, at that place, Bonaparte +himself destroyed the remnant of Argenteau's corps. On the sixteenth +Beaulieu abandoned the mountains to make a stand at Acqui in the +plain. Thus the whole Austrian force was not only driven back, but was +entirely separated from the Piedmontese. + +Bonaparte had a foolish plan in his pocket, which had been furnished +by the Directory in a temporary reversion to official tradition, +ordering him to advance into Lombardy, leaving behind the hostile +Piedmontese on his left, and the uncertain Genoese on his right. He +disregarded it, apparently without hesitation, and throwing his force +northwestward toward Ceva, where the Piedmontese were posted, +terrified them into a retreat. They were overtaken, however, at +Mondovi on April twenty-second, and utterly routed, losing not only +their best troops, but their field-pieces and baggage-train. Three +days later Bonaparte pushed onward and occupied Cherasco, which was +distant from Turin, the Piedmontese capital, but twenty-five miles by +a short, easy, and now open road. On the twenty-seventh the +Sardinians, isolated in a mountain amphitheater, and with no prospect +of relief from their discomfited ally, made overtures for an armistice +preliminary to peace. These were readily accepted by Bonaparte; and +although he had no authorization from the government to perform such +functions, he was defiantly careless of instructions in this as in +every subsequent step he took. The negotiation was conducted with +courtesy and firmness, on the basis of military honor, much to the +surprise of the Piedmontese, who had expected to deal with a savage +Jacobin. There was not even a word in Bonaparte's talk which recalled +the republican severity; as has been noted, the word virtue did not +pass his lips, his language was that of chivalry. He stipulated in +kindly phrase for the surrender of Coni and Tortona, the famous "keys +of the Alps," with other strongholds of minor importance, demanding +also the right to cross and recross Piedmontese territory at will. The +paper was completed and signed on the twenty-eighth. The troublesome +question of civil authority to make a treaty was evaded by calling the +arrangement a military convention. It was none the less binding by +reason of its name. Indeed the idea was steadily expanded into a new +policy, for just as pillage and rapine were ruthlessly repressed by +the victorious commander, all agreements were made temporarily on a +military basis, including those for indemnities. Salicetti was the +commissioner of the Directory and there was no friction between him +and Bonaparte. Both profited by a partnership in which opportunities +for personal ventures were frequent, while the military chest was well +supplied and remittances to Paris were kept just large enough to save +the face and quiet the clamors of the Directory. Victor Amadeus being +checkmated, Bonaparte was free to deal with Beaulieu. + +[Illustration: Northern Italy. Illustrating the Campaigns of 1796 and +1797.] + +This short campaign was in some respects insignificant, especially +when compared as to numbers and results with what was to follow. But +the names of Montenotte, Millesimo, Dego, Mondovi, and Cherasco were +ever dear to Bonaparte, and stand in a high place on his greatest +monument. The King of Sardinia was the father-in-law of Louis XVIII, +and his court had been a nest of plotting French emigrants. When his +agents reached Paris they were received with coarse resentment by the +Directory and bullied into an alliance, though they had been +instructed to make only a peace. Their sovereign was humiliated to the +limit of possibility. The loss of his fortress robbed him of his +power. By the terms of the treaty he was to banish the French +royalists from his lands. Stripped thus of both force and prestige, +he did not long survive the disgrace, and died, leaving to Charles +Emmanuel, his son, no real dominion but that over the island of +Sardinia. The contrast between the ferocious bluster of the Directory +and the generous simplicity of a great conqueror was not lost on the +Italians nor on the moderate French. For them as for Bonaparte, a +military and political aspirant in his first independence, everything, +absolutely everything, was at stake in those earliest engagements; on +the event hung not merely his career, but their release. In pleasant +succession the spring days passed like a transformation scene. Success +was in the air, not the success of accident, but the resultant of +forethought and careful combination. The generals, infected by their +leader's spirit, vied with each other in daring and gallantry. For +happy desperation Rampon's famous stand remains unsurpassed in the +annals of war. + +From the heights of Ceva the leader of conquering and now devoted +soldiers could show to them and their equally enthusiastic officers +the gateway into the fertile and well-watered land whither he had +promised to lead them, the historic fields of Lombardy. Nothing +comparable to that inexhaustible storehouse of nature can be found in +France, generous as is her soil. Walled in on the north and west by +the majestic masses of the Alps, and to the south by the smaller but +still mighty bastions of the Apennines, these plains owe to the +mountains not only their fertility and prosperity, but their very +existence. Numberless rills which rise amid the icy summits of the +great chain, or the lower peaks of the minor one, combine into ever +growing streams of pleasant waters which finally unite in the sluggish +but impressive Po. Melting snows and torrential rains fill these +watercourses with the rich detritus of the hills which renews from +year to year the soil it originally created. A genial climate and a +grateful soil return to the industrious inhabitants an ample reward +for their labors. In the fiercest heats of summer the passing +traveler, if he pauses, will hear the soft sounds of slow-running +waters in the irrigation sluices which on every side supply any lack +of rain. Wheat, barley, and rice, maize, fruit, and wine, are but a +few of the staples. Great farmsteads, with barns whose mighty lofts +and groaning mows attest the importance of Lombard agriculture, are +grouped into the hamlets which abound at the shortest intervals. And +to the vision of one who sees them first from a mountain-top through +the dim haze of a sunny day, towns and cities seem strewn as if they +were grain from the hand of a sower. The measure of bewilderment is +full when memory recalls that this garden of Italy has been the prize +for which from remotest antiquity the nations of Europe have fought, +and that the record of the ages is indelibly written in the walls and +ornaments of the myriad structures--theaters, palaces, and +churches--which lie so quietly below. Surely the dullest sansculotte +in Bonaparte's army must have been aroused to new sensations by the +sight. What rosy visions took shape in the mind of their leader we can +only imagine. + +Piedmont having submitted, the promised descent into these rich plains +was not an instant deferred. "Hannibal," said the commanding general +to his staff, "took the Alps by storm. We have turned their flank." He +paused only to announce his feats to the Directory in modest phrase, +and to recommend for preferment those who, like Lannes and Lanusse, +had earned distinction. The former was just Bonaparte's age but +destitute of solid education, owing to the poverty of his parents. He +enlisted in 1792 and in 1795 was already a colonel, owing to his +extraordinary inborn courage and capacity. Through the hatred of a +Convention legate he was degraded from his rank after the peace of +Basel and entered Bonaparte's army as a volunteer. Thereafter his +promotion was fast and regular until he became the general's close +friend and steadfast supporter. Lanusse was only twenty-four but had +been chief of battalion for four years, and now entered upon a +brilliant though short career which ended by his death in 1801 at +Aboukir. The advance of Bonaparte's army began on May thirtieth. +Neither Genoa, Tuscany, nor Venice was to be given time for arming; +Beaulieu must be met while his men were still dispirited, and before +the arrival of reinforcements: for a great army of thirty thousand men +was immediately to be despatched under Wurmser to maintain the power +of Austria in Italy. Beaulieu was a typical Austrian general, +seventy-one years old, but still hale, a stickler for precedent, and +looking to experience as his only guide. Relying on the principles of +strategy as he had learned them, he had taken up what he considered a +strong position for the defense of Milan, his line stretching +northeasterly beyond the Ticino from Valenza, the spot where rumors, +diligently spread by Bonaparte, declared that the French would attempt +to force a passage. Confirmed in his own judgment by those reports, +the old and wary Austrian commander stood brave and expectant, while +the young and daring adventurer opposed to him marched swiftly by on +the right bank fifty miles onward to Piacenza. There he made his +crossing on May seventh in common ferry-boats and by a pontoon bridge. +No resistance was made by the few Austrian cavalry who had been sent +out merely to reconnoiter the line. The enemy were outwitted and +virtually outflanked, being now in the greatest danger. Beaulieu had +barely time to break camp and march in hot haste northeasterly to +Lodi, where, behind the swift current of the Adda, he made a final +stand for the defense of Milan, the seat of Austrian government. In +fact, his movements were so hurried that the advance-guards of both +armies met by accident at Fombio on May eighth, where a sharp +engagement resulted in a victory for the French. Laharpe, who had +shown his usual courage in this fight, was killed a few hours later, +through a mistake of his own soldiers, in a night mêlée with the +pickets of a second Austrian corps. On the ninth the dukes of Parma +and of Piacenza both made their submission in treaties dictated by the +French commander, and simultaneously the reigning archduke quitted +Milan. Next day the pursuing army was at Lodi. + +Bonaparte wrote to the Directory that he had expected the passage of +the Po would prove the most bold and difficult manoeuver of the +campaign. But it was no sooner accomplished than he again showed a +perfect mastery of his art by so manoeuvering as to avoid an +engagement while the great river was still immediately in his rear. He +was then summoned to meet a third emergency of equal consequence. The +Adda is fordable in some places at certain times, but not easily; and +at Lodi a wooden bridge about two hundred yards in length then +occupied the site of the later solid structure of masonry and iron. +The approach to this bridge Beaulieu had seized and fortified. +Northwestward was Milan; to the east lay the almost impregnable +fortress of Mantua. Beaten at Lodi, the Austrians might still retreat, +and make a stand under the walls of either town with some hope of +victory: it was Bonaparte's intention so to disorganize his enemy's +army that neither would be possible. Accordingly on May tenth the +French forces were concentrated for the advance. They started +immediately and marched so swiftly that they overtook the Austrian +rear-guard before it could withdraw behind the old Gothic walls of the +town, and close the gates. Driving them onward, the French fought as +they marched. A decisive conflict cleared the streets; and after a +stubborn resistance the brave defenders retreated over the bridge to +the eastern bank of what was now their last rampart, the river. With +cool and desperate courage, Sebottendorf, whose Austrians numbered +less than ten thousand men, then brought into action his artillery, +and swept the wooden roadway. + +In a short time the bridge would no doubt have been in flames; it was +uncertain whether the shifting and gravelly bottom of the stream above +or below would either yield a ford or permit a crossing by any other +means. Under Bonaparte's personal supervision, and therefore with +miraculous speed, the French batteries were placed and began an +answering thunder. In an access of personal zeal, the commander even +threw himself for an instant into the whirling hail of shot and +bullets, in order the better to aim two guns which in the hurry had +been misdirected. Under this terrible fire and counterfire it was +impossible for the Austrians to apply a torch to any portion of the +structure. Behind the French guns were three thousand grenadiers +waiting for a signal. Soon the crisis came. A troop of Bonaparte's +cavalry had found the nearest ford a few hundred yards above the +bridge, and were seen, amid the smoke, struggling to cross, though +without avail, and turn the right flank of the Austrian infantry, +which had been posted a safe distance behind the artillery on the +opposite shore. Quick as thought, in the very nick of opportunity, the +general issued his command, and the grenadiers dashed for the bridge. +Eye-witnesses declared that the fire of the Austrian artillery was now +redoubled, while from houses on the opposite side soldiers hitherto +concealed poured volley after volley of musket-balls upon the +advancing column. For one single fateful moment it faltered. Berthier +and Masséna, with others equally devoted, rushed to its head, and +rallied the lines. In a few moments the deed was accomplished, the +bridge was won, the batteries were silenced, and the enemy was in full +retreat. + +Scattered, stunned, and terrified, the disheartened Austrians felt +that no human power could prevail against such a foe. Beaulieu could +make no further stand behind the Adda; but, retreating beyond the +Oglio to the Mincio, a parallel tributary of the Po, he violated +Venetian neutrality by seizing Peschiera, where that stream flows out +of Lake Garda, and spread his line behind the river from the Venetian +town on the north as far as Mantua, the farthest southern outpost of +Austria, thus thwarting one, and that not the least important, of +Bonaparte's plans. As to the Italians, they seemed bereft of sense, +and for the most part yielded dumbly to what was required. There were +occasional outbursts of enthusiasm by Italian Jacobins, and in the +confusion of warfare they wreaked a sneaking vengeance on their +conservative compatriots by extortion and terrorizing. The population +was confused between the woe of actual loss and the joy of +emancipation from old tyrannies. Suspicious and adroit, yet slow and +self-indulgent, the common folk concluded that the grievous burden of +the hour would be lightened by magnanimity and held a waiting +attitude. + +The moral effect of the action at Lodi was incalculable. Bonaparte's +reputation as a strategist had already been established, but his +personal courage had never been tested. The actual battle-field is +something quite different from the great theater of war, and men +wondered whether he had the same mastery of the former as of the +latter. Hitherto he had been untried either as to his tactics or his +intrepidity. In both respects Lodi elevated him literally to the +stars. No doubt the risk he took was awful, and the loss of life +terrible. Critics, too, have pointed out safer ways which they believe +would have led to the same result; be that as it may, in no other way +could the same dramatic effect have been produced. France went wild +with joy. The peoples of Italy bowed before the prodigy which thus +both paralyzed and fascinated them all. Austria was dispirited, and +her armies were awe-stricken. When, five days later, on May fifteenth, +amid silent but friendly throngs of wondering men, Bonaparte entered +Milan, not as the conqueror but as the liberator of Lombardy, at the +head of his veteran columns, there was already about his brows a mild +effulgence of supernatural light, which presaged to the growing band +of his followers the full glory in which he was later to shine on the +imagination of millions. It was after Lodi that his adoring soldiers +gave him the name of "Little Corporal," by which they ever after knew +him. He himself confessed that after Lodi some conception of his high +destiny arose in his mind for the first time. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + +An Insubordinate Conqueror and Diplomatist. + + Bonaparte's Assertion of Independence -- Helplessness of the + Directory -- Threats and Proclamations -- The General and + His Officers -- Bonaparte's Comprehensive Genius -- The + Devotion of France -- Uneasiness in Italy -- The Position of + the Austrians -- Bonaparte's Strategy -- His Conception of + the Problem in Italy -- Justification of His Foresight -- + Modena, Parma, and the Papacy -- The French Radicals and the + Pope -- Bonaparte's Policy -- His Ambition. + + +[Sidenote: 1796.] + +When the news of the successes in Piedmont reached Paris, public +festivals were decreed and celebrated; but the democratic spirit of +the directors could brook neither the contemptuous disregard of their +plan which Bonaparte had shown, nor his arrogant assumption of +diplomatic plenipotence. Knowing how thoroughly their doctrine had +permeated Piedmont, they had intended to make it a republic. It was +exasperating, therefore, that through Bonaparte's meddling they found +themselves still compelled to carry on negotiations with a monarchy. +The treaty with the King of Sardinia was ungraciously dictated and +signed by them on May fifteenth, but previous to the act they +determined to clip the wings of their dangerous falcon. This they +thought to accomplish by assigning Kellermann to share with Bonaparte +the command of the victorious army, and by confirming Salicetti as +their diplomatic plenipotentiary to accompany it. The news reached the +conqueror at Lodi on the eve of his triumphant entry into Milan. "As +things now are," he promptly replied to the Directory, "you must have +a general who possesses your entire confidence. If I must refer every +step to government commissioners, if they have the right to change my +movements, to withdraw or send troops, expect nothing good hereafter." +To Carnot he wrote at the same time: "I believe one bad general to be +worth two good ones.... War is like government, a matter of tact.... I +do not wish to be hampered. I have begun with some glory; I wish to +continue worthy of you." Aware probably that his own republican virtue +could not long withstand the temptations opening before him, he began +the latter missive, as if to excuse himself and anticipate possible +accusations: "I swear I have nothing in view but the country. You will +always find me on the straight road. I owe to the republic the +sacrifice of all my own notions. If people seek to set me wrong in +your esteem, my answer is in my heart and in my conscience." It is of +course needless to add that the Directory yielded, not only as to the +unity of command, but also in the fatal and vital matter of intrusting +all diplomatic negotiations to his hands. + +In taking this last step the executive virtually surrendered its +identity. Such, however, was the exultation of the Parisian populace +and of the soldiery, that the degradation or even the forced +resignation of the conquering dictator would have at once assured the +fall of the directors. They could not even protest when, soon after, +there came from Bonaparte a despatch announcing that the articles of +"the glorious peace which you have concluded with the King of +Sardinia" had reached "us," and significantly adding in a later +paragraph that the troops were content, having received half their pay +in coin. Voices in Paris declared that for such language the writer +should be shot. Perhaps those who put the worst interpretation on the +apparently harmless words were correct in their instinct. In reality +the Directory had been wholly dependent on the army since the previous +October; and while such an offensive insinuation of the fact would be, +if intentional, most unpalatable, yet those who had profited by the +fact dared not resent a remote reference to it. + +The farce was continued for some time longer, Bonaparte playing his +part with singular ability. He sent to Kellermann, in Savoy, without +the form of transmitting it through government channels, a subsidy of +one million two hundred thousand francs. As long as he was unhampered, +his despatches to Paris were soldierly and straightforward, although +after the passage of the Po they began to be somewhat bombastic, and +to abound in his old-fashioned, curious, and sometimes incorrect +classical or literary allusions. But if he were crossed in the least, +if reinforcements did not arrive, or if there were any sign of +independence in Paris, they became petulant, talking of ill-health, +threatening resignation, and requesting that numbers of men be sent +out to replace him in the multiform functions which in his single +person he was performing. Of course these tirades often failed of +immediate effect, but at least no effort was made to put an effective +check on the writer's career. Read a century later in a cold and +critical light, Bonaparte's proclamations of the same period seem +stilted, jerky, and theatrical. In them, however, there may still be +found a sort of interstitial sentimentality, and in an age of romantic +devotion to ideals the quality of vague suggestiveness passed for +genuine coin. Whatever else was lacking in those compositions, they +had the one supreme merit of accomplishing their end, for they roused +the French soldiers to frenzied enthusiasm. + +In fact, if the Directory stood on the army, the army belonged +henceforth to Bonaparte. On the very day that Milan was entered, +Marmont heard from his leader's lips the memorable words, "Fortune is +a woman; the more she does for me, the more I shall exact from her.... +In our day no one has conceived anything great; it falls to me to give +the example." This is the language that soldiers like to hear from +their leader, and it was no doubt repeated throughout the army. "From +this moment," wrote the same chronicler, a few months later, "the +chief part of the pay and salaries was in coin. This led to a great +change in the situation of the officers, and to a certain extent in +their habits." Bonaparte was incorruptible. Salicetti announced one +day that the brother of the Duke of Modena was waiting outside with +four chests containing a million of francs in gold, and urged the +general, as a friend and compatriot, to accept them. "Thank you," was +the calm and significant answer, "I shall not put myself in the hands +of the Duke of Modena for such a sum." But similar propositions were +made by the commander-in-chief to his subordinates, and they with less +prudence fell into the trap, taking all they could lay hands upon and +thus becoming the bond-slaves of their virtuous leader. There were +stories at the time that some of the generals, not daring to send +their ill-gotten money to France, and having no opportunity for +investing it elsewhere, actually carried hundreds of thousands of +francs in their baggage. This prostitution of his subordinates was +part of a system. Twenty million francs was approximately the sum +total of all contributions announced to the Directory, and in their +destitution it seemed enormous. They also accepted with pleasure a +hundred of the finest horses in Lombardy to replace, as Bonaparte +wrote on sending his present, the ordinary ones which drew their +carriages. Was this paltry four million dollars the whole of what was +derived from the sequestrations of princely domains and the +secularization of ecclesiastical estates? By no means. The army chest, +of which none knew the contents but Bonaparte, was as inexhaustible as +the widow's cruse. At the opening of the campaign in Piedmont, empty +wagons had been ostentatiously displayed as representing the military +funds at the commander's disposal: these same vehicles now groaned +under a weight of treasure, and were kept in a safe obscurity. Well +might he say, as he did in June to Miot, that the commissioners of the +Directory would soon leave and not be replaced, since they counted for +nothing in his policy. + +With the entry into Milan, therefore, begins a new epoch in the +remarkable development we are seeking to outline. The military genius +of him who had been the Corsican patriot and the Jacobin republican +had finally asserted dominion over all his other qualities. In the +inconsistency of human nature, those former characters now and then +showed themselves as still existent, but they were henceforth +subordinate. The conquered Milanese was by a magical touch provided +with a provisional government, ready, after the tardy assent of the +Directory, to be changed into the Transpadane Republic and put under +French protection. Every detail of administration, every official and +his functions, came under Bonaparte's direction. He knew the land and +its resources, the people and their capacities, the mutual relations +of the surrounding states, and the idiosyncrasies of their rulers. +Such laborious analysis as his despatches display, such grasp both of +outline and detail, such absence of confusion and clearness of vision, +such lack of hesitance and such definition of plan, seem to prove that +either a hero or a demon is again on earth. All the capacity this man +had hitherto shown, great as it was, sinks into insignificance when +compared with the Olympian powers he now displays, and will continue +to display for years to come. His sinews are iron, his nerves are +steel, his eyes need no sleep, and his brain no rest. What a captured +Hungarian veteran said of him at Lodi is as true of his political +activity as of his military restlessness: "He knows nothing of the +regular rules of war: he is sometimes on our front, sometimes on the +flank, sometimes in the rear. There is no supporting such a gross +violation of rules." His senses and his reason were indeed untrammeled +by human limitations; they worked on front, rear, and flank, often +simultaneously, and always without confusion. + +Was it astonishing that the French nation, just recovering from a +debauch of irreligion and anarchy, should begin insensibly to yield to +the charms of a wooer so seductive? For some time past the soldiers, +as the Milan newspapers declared, had been a pack of tatterdemalions +ever flying before the arms of his Majesty the Emperor; now they were +victors, led by a second Cæsar or Alexander, clothed, fed, and paid at +the cost of the conquered. To ardent French republicans, and to the +peoples of Italy, this phenomenal personage proclaimed that he had +come to break the chains of captives, while almost in the same hour he +wrote to the Directory that he was levying twenty million francs on +the country, which, though exhausted by five years of war, was then +the richest in the civilized world. Nor was the self-esteem of France +and the Parisian passion for adornment forgotten. There began a course +of plunder, if not in a direction at least in a measure hitherto +unknown to the modern world--the plunder of scientific specimens, of +manuscripts, of pictures, statues, and other works of art. It is +difficult to fix the responsibility for this policy, which by the +overwhelming majority of learned and intelligent Frenchmen was +considered right, morally and legally. Nothing so flattered the +national pride as the assemblage in Paris of art treasures from all +nations, nothing so humiliated it as their dispersion at the behest of +the conquering Allies. In the previous year a few art works had been +taken from Holland and Belgium, and formal orders were given again and +again by the Directory for stripping the Pope's galleries; but there +is a persistent belief, founded, no doubt, in an inherent probability, +that the whole comprehensive scheme of art spoliation had been +suggested in the first place by Bonaparte, and prearranged between +himself and the executive before his departure. At any rate, he asked +and easily obtained from the government a commission of scholars and +experts to scour the Italian cities; and soon untold treasures of art, +letters, and science began to pour into the galleries, cabinets, and +libraries of Paris. A few brave voices among the artists of the +capital protested against the desecration; the nation at large was +tipsy with delight, and would not listen. Raphael, Leonardo, and +Michelangelo, Correggio, Giorgione, and Paul Veronese, with all the +lesser masters, were stowed in the holds of frigates and despatched by +way of Toulon toward the new Rome; while Monge and Berthollet +ransacked the scientific collections of Milan and Parma for their +rarest specimens. Science, in fact, was to flourish on the banks of +the Seine as never before or elsewhere; and the great investigators of +Italy, forgetful of their native land, were to find a new citizenship +in the world of knowledge at the capital of European liberties. Words +like these, addressed to the astronomer Oriani, indicate that on +Bonaparte's mind had dawned the notion of a universal federated state, +to which national republics would be subordinate. + +No scene in the history of warfare was more theatrical than the entry +of the French into Milan. The pageant was arranged on the lines of a +Roman triumph and the distances so calculated that Bonaparte was the +one impressive figure. With his lean face and sharp Greek profile, his +long, lank, unpowdered locks, his simple uniform, and awkward seat in +the saddle, he looked like a new human type, neither angel nor devil +but an inscrutable apparition from another sphere. To officers and men +the voluptuous city extended wide its arms, and the shabby soldiery +were incongruous figures where their entertainers were elegant and +fastidious beyond what the guests had dreamed. With stern impartiality +the liberator repressed all excess in his army, but immediately the +question of contributions, billeting, indemnity, and fiscal +organization was taken up, settled, and the necessary measures +inaugurated. The rich began to hide their possessions and the burghers +to cry out. Ere long there was opposition, first sullen, then active, +especially in the suburban villages where the French were fiercely +attacked. One of these, Binasco, was burned and sacked as an example +to the rest and to the city. Order was restored and the inexorable +process of seizures went on. Pavia bade defiance; the officials were +threatened with death, many leading citizens were taken as hostages, +and the place was pillaged for three days. "Such a lesson would set +the people of Italy right." They did not need a second example, it was +true, but the price of "liberation" was fearful. + +Italian rebellion having been subdued, the French nation roused to +enthusiasm, independent funds provided, and the Directory put in its +place, Bonaparte was free to unfold and consummate his further plans. +Before him was the territory of Venice, a state once vigorous and +terrible, but now, as far as the country populations were concerned, +an enfeebled and gentle ruler. With quick decision a French corps of +observation was sent to seize Brescia and watch the Tyrolean passes. +It was, of course, to the advantage of Austria that Venetian +neutrality should not be violated, except by her own troops. But the +French, having made a bold beginning of formal defiance, were quick to +go further. Beaulieu had not hesitated on false pretenses to seize +Peschiera, another Venetian town, which, by its situation at the +outlet of Lake Garda, was of the utmost strategic value. He now stood +confronting his pursuers on a strong line established, without +reference to territorial boundaries, behind the whole course of the +Mincio. Such was the situation to the north and east of the French +army. Southeastward, on the swampy banks of the same river, near its +junction with the Po, was Mantua. This city, which even under ordinary +circumstances was an almost impregnable fortress, had been +strengthened by an extraordinary garrison, while the surrounding +lowlands were artificially inundated as a supreme measure of safety. + +Bonaparte intended to hurl Beaulieu back, and seize the line of the +Adige, far stronger than that of the Mincio for repelling an Austrian +invasion from the north. What to him was the neutrality of a weak +government, and what were the precepts of international law with no +force behind it but a moral one? Austria, according to treaty, had the +right to move her troops over two great military roads within Venetian +jurisdiction, and her defeated armies had just used one of them for +retreat. The victorious commander could scarcely be expected to pause +in his pursuit for lack of a few lines of writing on a piece of +stamped paper. Accordingly, by a simple feint, the Austrians were led +to believe that his object was the seizure of Peschiera and the +passes above Lake Garda; consequently, defying international law and +violating their treaties, they massed themselves at that place to meet +his attack. Then with a swift, forced march the French were +concentrated not on the enemy's strong right, but on his weak center +at Borghetto. Bonaparte's cavalry, hitherto badly mounted and timid, +but now reorganized, were thrown forward for their easy task. Under +Murat's command they dashed through, and, encouraged by their own +brilliant successes, were thenceforward famous for efficiency. +Bonaparte, with the main army, then hurried past Mantua as it lay +behind its bulwarks of swamp-fever, and the Austrian force was cut in +two. The right wing fled to the mountains; the left was virtually in a +trap. Without any declaration of war against Venice, the French +immediately occupied Verona, and Legnago a few days later; Peschiera +was fortified, and Pizzighettone occupied as Brescia had been, while +contributions of every sort were levied more ruthlessly even than on +the Milanese. The mastery of these new positions isolated Mantua more +completely than a formal investment would have done; but it was, +nevertheless, considered wise to leave no loophole, and a few weeks +later an army of eight thousand Frenchmen sat down in force before its +gates. + +It was certain that within a short time a powerful Austrian force +would pour out from the Alpine passes to the north. Further advance +into Venetian lands would therefore be ruin for the French. There was +nothing left but the slow hours of a siege, for Mantua had become the +decisive point. In the heats of summer this interval might well have +been devoted to ease; but it was almost the busiest period of +Bonaparte's life. According to the Directory's rejected plan for a +division of command in Italy, the mission assigned to Kellermann had +been to organize republics in Piedmont and in the Milanese, and then +to defend the Tyrolean passes against an Austrian advance from the +north. Bonaparte was to have moved southward along the shore to +revolutionize Genoa, Tuscany, the Papal States, and Naples +successively. The whole idea having been scornfully rejected by +Bonaparte, the Directory had been forced by the brilliant successes of +their general not merely to condone his disobedience, but actually to +approve his policy. He now had the opportunity of justifying his +foresight. Understanding, as the government did not, that Austria was +their only redoubtable foe by land, the real bulwark of the whole +Italian system, he had first shattered her power, at least for the +time. The prop having been removed, the structure was toppling, and +during this interval of waiting, it fell. His opportunity was made, +his resolution ripe. + +In front, Venice was at his mercy; behind him, guerrilla bands of +so-called Barbets, formed in Genoese territory and equipped by +disaffected fugitives, were threatening the lately conquered gateway +from France where the Ligurian Alps and the Apennines meet. +Bonaparte's first step was to impose a new arrangement upon the +submissive Piedmont, whereby, to make assurance doubly sure, +Alessandria was added to the list of fortresses in French hands; then, +as his second measure, Murat and Lannes appeared before Genoa at the +head of an armed force, with instructions first to seize and shoot the +many offenders who had taken refuge in her territory after the risings +in Lombardy, and then to threaten the Senate with further retaliatory +measures, and command the instant dismissal of the imperial Austrian +plenipotentiary. From Paris came orders to drive the English fleet out +of the harbor of Leghorn, where, in spite of the treaty between +Tuscany and France, there still were hostile arsenals and ships. It +was done. Naples did not wait to see her territories invaded, but sued +for mercy and was humbled, being forced to withdraw her navy from that +of the coalition, and her cavalry from the Austrian army. For the +moment the city of Rome was left in peace. The strength of papal +dominion lay in Bologna, and the other legations beyond the Apennines, +comprising many of the finest districts in Italy; and there a +master-stroke was to be made. + +On the throne of Modena was an Austrian archduke: his government was +remorselessly shattered and virtually destroyed, the ransom being +fixed at the ruinous sum of ten million francs with twenty of the best +pictures in the principality. But on that of Parma was a Spanish +prince with whose house France had made one treaty and hoped to make a +much better one. The duke, therefore, was graciously allowed to +purchase an armistice by an enormous but yet possible contribution of +two million francs in money, together with provisions and horses in +quantity. The famous St. Jerome of Correggio was among the twenty +paintings seized in Modena. The archduke repeatedly offered to ransom +it for one million francs, the amount at which its value was +estimated, but his request was not granted. Next came Bologna and its +surrounding territory. Such had been the tyranny of ecclesiastical +control that the subjects of the Pope in that most ancient and famous +seat of learning welcomed the French with unfeigned joy; and the +fairest portion of the Papal States passed by its own desire from +under the old yoke. The successor of St. Peter was glad to ransom his +capital by a payment nominally of twenty-one million francs. In +reality he had to surrender far more; for his galleries, like those +of Modena, were stripped of their gems, while the funds seized in +government offices, and levied in irregular ways, raised the total +value forwarded to Paris to nearly double the nominal contribution. +All this, Bonaparte explained, was but a beginning, the idleness of +summer heats. "This armistice," he wrote to Paris on June +twenty-first, 1796, "being concluded with the dog-star rather than +with the papal army, my opinion is that you should be in no haste to +make peace, so that in September, if all goes well in Germany and +northern Italy, we can take possession of Rome." + +[Illustration: Josephine, Empress of the French. From the painting by +Francois Gérard. In the Museum of Versailles.] + +In fact, this ingenious man was really practising moderation, as both +he and the terrified Italians, considering their relative situations, +understood it. Whatever had been the original arrangement with the +directors, there was nothing they did not now expect and demand from +Italy; they wrote requiring, in addition to all that had hitherto been +mentioned, plunder of every kind from Leghorn; masts, cordage, and +ship supplies from Genoa; horses, provisions, and forage from Milan; +and contributions of jewels and precious stones from the reigning +princes. As for the papal power, the French radicals would gladly have +destroyed it. They had not forgotten that Basseville, a diplomatic +agent of the republic, had been killed in the streets of Rome, and +that no reparation had been made either by the punishment of the +assassin or otherwise. The Pope, they declared, had been the real +author of the terrible civil war fomented by the unyielding clergy, +and waged with such fury in France. Moreover, the whole sentimental +and philosophical movement of the century in France and elsewhere +considered the ecclesiastical centralization and hierarchical tyranny +of the papacy as a dangerous survival of absolutism. + +But Bonaparte was wise in his generation. The contributions he levied +throughout Italy were terrible; but they were such as she could bear, +and still recuperate for further service in the same direction. The +liberalism of Italy was, moreover, not the radicalism of France; and a +submissive papacy was of incalculably greater value both there and +elsewhere in Europe than an irreconcilable and fugitive one. The Pope, +too, though weakened and humiliated as a temporal prince, was spared +for further usefulness to his conqueror as a spiritual dignitary. +Beyond all this was the enormous moral influence of a temperate and +apparently impersonal policy. Bonaparte, though personally and by +nature a passionate and wilful man, felt bound, as the representative +of a great movement, to exercise self-restraint, taking pains to live +simply, dress plainly, almost shabbily, and continuing by calm +calculation to refuse the enormous bribes which began and continued to +be offered to him personally by the rulers of Italy. His generals and +the fiscal agents of the nation were all in his power, because it was +by his connivance that they had grown enormously rich, he himself +remaining comparatively poor, and for his station almost destitute. +The army was his devoted servant; Italy and the world should see how +different was his moderation from the rapacity of the republic and its +tools, vandals like the commissioners Gareau and Salicetti. + +Such was the "leisure" of one who to all outward appearance was but a +man, and a very ordinary one. In the medals struck to commemorate this +first portion of the Italian campaign, he is still the same slim +youth, with lanky hair, that he was on his arrival in Paris the year +previous. It was observed, however, that the old indifferent manner +was somewhat emphasized, and consequently artificial; that the gaze +was at least as direct and the eye as penetrating as ever; and that +there was, half intentionally, half unconsciously, disseminated all +about an atmosphere of peremptory command--but that was all. The +incarnation of ambition was long since complete; its attendant +imperious manner was suffered to develop but slowly. In Bonaparte was +perceptible, as Victor Hugo says, the shadowy outline of Napoleon. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX. + +Bassano and Arcola. + + The Austrian System -- The Austrian Strategy -- Castiglione + -- French Gains -- Bassano -- The French in the Tyrol -- The + French Defeated in Germany -- Bonaparte and Alvinczy -- + Austrian Successes -- Caldiero -- First Battle of Arcola -- + Second Battle of Arcola. + + +[Sidenote: 1796.] + +Meantime the end of July had come. The Emperor Francis had decided. At +the risk of defeat on the Rhine he must retain his Italian possessions +and prestige. He was still the Roman emperor, inheritor of an +immemorial dignity, overlord of the fairest lands in the peninsula. +Wurmser, considered by Austria her greatest general, had therefore +been recalled to Vienna from the west, and sent at the head of +twenty-five thousand fresh troops to collect the columns of Beaulieu's +army, which was scattered in the Tyrol. This done, he was to assume +the chief command, and advance to the relief of Mantua. The first part +of his task was successfully completed, and already, according to the +direction of the Aulic Council of the empire, and in pursuance of the +same hitherto universal but vicious system of cabinet campaigning +which Bonaparte had just repudiated, he was moving down from the Alps +in three columns with a total force of about forty-seven thousand men. +There were about fifteen thousand in the garrison of Mantua. Bonaparte +was much weaker, having only forty-two thousand, and of these some +eight thousand were occupied in the siege of that place. Wurmser was a +master of the old school, working like an automaton under the hand of +his government, and commanding according to well-worn precept his +well-equipped battalions, every soldier of which was a recruit so +costly that destructive battles were made as infrequent as possible, +because to fight many meant financial ruin. In consequence, like all +the best generals of his class, he made war as far as possible a +series of manoeuvers. Opposed to him was an emancipated genius with +neither directors nor public council to hamper him. In the tradition +of the Revolution, as in the mind of Frederick the Great, war was no +game, but a bloody decision, and the quicker the conclusion was tried +the better. The national conscription, under the hands of Dubois de +Crancé, had secured men in unlimited numbers at the least expense; +while Carnot's organization had made possible the quick handling of +troops in large mass by simplifying the machinery. Bonaparte was about +to show what could be done in the way of using the weapon which had +been put into his hands. + +The possession of Mantua was decisive of Italian destiny, for its +holder could command a kind of overlordship in every little Italian +state. If Bonaparte should take and keep it, Austria would be +virtually banished from Italy, and her prestige destroyed. She must, +therefore, relieve it, or lose not only her power in the peninsula, +but her rank in Europe. To this end, and according to the established +rules of strategy, the Austrians advanced from the mountains in three +divisions against the French line, which stretched from Brescia past +Peschiera, at the head of the Mincio, and through Verona to Legnago on +the Adige. Two of these armies were to march respectively down the +east and west banks of Lake Garda, and, flanking the inferior forces +of the French on both sides, surround and capture them. The other +division was on the Adige in front of Verona, ready to relieve +Mantua. Between that river and the lake rises the stately mass of +Monte Baldo, abrupt on its eastern, more gentle on its western slope. +This latter, as affording some space for manoeuvers, was really the +key to the passage. Such was the first onset of the Austrians down +this line that the French outposts at Lonato and Rivoli were driven +in, and for a time it seemed as if there would be a general rout. But +the French stood firm, and checked any further advance. For a day +Bonaparte and Wurmser stood confronting each other. In the mean time, +however, the left Austrian column was pouring down toward Verona, +while the right, under Quasdanowich, had already captured Brescia, +seized the highway to Milan, and cut off the French retreat. This move +in Wurmser's plan was so far entirely successful, and for a moment it +seemed as if the sequel would be equally so. The situation of his +opponents was desperate. + +In this crisis occurred the first of those curious scenes which recur +at intervals in Bonaparte's life. Some, and those eye-witnesses, have +attributed them to genuine panic. His first measure was to despatch +flying adjutants, ten in number, to concentrate his scattered forces +at the critical point, south of Lake Garda. His genius decided that +victory on the field was far more fruitful than the holding in check +of a garrison. Accordingly he ordered Sérurier to raise the siege of +Mantua, and his siege-guns to be spiked and withdrawn. The division +thus rendered available he at once despatched for field operations +toward Brescia. But its numbers were so few as scarcely to relieve the +situation. Accordingly a council of war was summoned to decide whether +the army should stand and fight, or retreat for further concentration. +The commander-in-chief was apparently much excited, and according to +Augereau's account advised the latter course. The enemy being between +the French and the Adda, no other line was open but that southward +through the low country, over the Po; and to follow that implied +something akin to a disorderly rout. Nevertheless, all the generals +were in favor of this suggestion except one, the fiery hotspur who +tells the tale, who disdained the notion of retreat on any line, and +flung out of the room in scorn. Bonaparte walked the floor until late +in the small hours; finally he appeared to have accepted Augereau's +advice, and gave orders for battle. But the opening movements were +badly executed. Bonaparte seemed to feel that the omens were +unfavorable, and again the generals were summoned. Augereau opened the +meeting with a theatrical and declamatory but earnest speech, +encouraging his comrades and urging the expediency of a battle. This +time it was Bonaparte who fled, apparently in despair, leaving the +chief command, and with it the responsibility, to the daring Augereau, +by whose enthusiasm, as he no doubt saw, the other generals had been +affected. The hazardous enterprise succeeded, and on the very plan +already adopted. Augereau gave the orders, and with swift +concentration every available man was hurled against the Austrian +column under Quasdanowich at Lonato. This much may be true; casting +aside Augereau's inconsistencies and braggadocio, it is possible but +unlikely. + +The result was an easy victory, the enemy was driven back to a safe +distance, and Brescia was evacuated on August fourth, the defeated +columns retreating behind Lake Garda to join Wurmser on the other +side. Like the regular return of the pendulum, the French moved back +again, and confronted the Austrian center that very night, but now +with every company in line and Bonaparte at their head. A portion of +the enemy, about twenty-five thousand in number, had reached Lonato, +hastening to the support of Quasdanowich. Wurmser had lost a day +before Mantua. A second time the hurrying French engaged their foe +almost on the same field. A second time they were easily victorious. +In fact, so terrible was this second defeat that the scattered bands +of Austrians wandered aimlessly about in ignorance of their way. One +of them, four thousand strong, reaching Lonato, found it almost +abandoned by the French, Bonaparte and his staff with but twelve +hundred men being left behind. A herald, blindfolded, as was then the +custom, was at once despatched to summon the French commander to +surrender to the superior Austrian force. The available remnant of the +victorious army quickly gathered, and the messenger was introduced in +the midst of them. As the bandage was taken from his eyes, dazzled by +the light falling on hundreds of brilliant uniforms, the imperious +voice of his great enemy was heard commanding him to return and say to +his leader that it was a personal insult to speak of surrender to the +French army, and that it was he who must immediately yield himself and +his division. The bold scheme was successful, and to the ten thousand +previously killed, wounded, and captured by the conquerors four +thousand prisoners were added. Next morning Wurmser advanced, and with +his right resting on Lake Garda offered battle. The decisive fight +occurred in the center of his long, weak line at Castiglione, where +some fifteen thousand Austrians had happened to make a stand, without +orders and so without assurance of support. Again the French position +was so weak as apparently to throw Bonaparte into a panic, and again, +according to the memoirs of General Landrieux, Augereau's fire and +dash prevailed to have the battle joined, while Bonaparte withdrew in +a sulky pet. Whatever the truth, the attack was made. Before evening +the sharp struggle was over. This affair of August fifth was always +referred to by Napoleon as the true battle of Castiglione. Two days +later Wurmser, who had fondly hoped that Mantua was his and the French +in full retreat, brought up a straggling line of twenty-five thousand +men. These were easily routed by Bonaparte in a series of clever +manoeuvers on the seventh and without much bloodshed. That night saw +the utter rout of Wurmser and the Austrians in full retreat towards +the Tyrol. Had the great risk of these few days been determined +against the French, who would have been to blame but the madcap +Augereau? As things turned out, whose was the glory but Bonaparte's? +This panic, at least, appears to have been carefully calculated and +cleverly feigned. A week later the French lines were again closed +before Mantua, which, though not invested, was at least blockaded. The +fortress had been revictualed and regarrisoned, while the besiegers +had been compelled to destroy their own train to prevent its capture +by the enemy. But France was mistress of the Mincio and the Adige, +with a total loss of about ten thousand men; while Austria had lost +about twenty thousand, and was standing by a forlorn hope. Both armies +were exhausted, as yet the great stake was not won. If Austrian +warfare was utterly discredited, the irregular, disjointed, uncertain +French warfare of the past week had not enhanced French glory. + +In the shortest possible period new troops were under way both from +Vienna and from Paris. With those from the Austrian capital came +positive instructions to Wurmser that in any case he should again +advance toward Mantua. In obedience to this command of the Emperor, a +division of the army, twenty thousand strong, under Davidowich, was +left in the Austrian Tyrol at Roveredo, near Trent, to stop the +advance of the French, who, with their reinforcements, were pressing +forward through the pass as if to join Moreau, who had successfully +advanced and would be in Munich. The main Austrian army, under +Wurmser, moved over into the valley of the Brenta, and pushed on +toward Mantua. If he should decide to turn westward against the +French, the reserve could descend the valley of the Adige to his +assistance. But Bonaparte did not intend either to pass by and leave +open the way southward, or to be shut up in the valleys of the Tyrol. +With a quick surge, Davidowich was first defeated at Roveredo, and +then driven far behind Trent into the higher valleys. The victor +delayed only to issue a proclamation giving autonomy to the Tyrolese, +under French protection; but the ungrateful peasantry preferred the +autonomy they already enjoyed, and fortified their precipitous passes +for resistance. Turning quickly into the Brenta valley, Bonaparte, by +a forced march of two days, overtook Wurmser's advance-guard unawares +at Primolano, and captured it; the next day, September eighth, Masséna +cut in two and completely defeated the main army at Bassano. Part of +those who escaped retreated into Friuli, toward Vienna. There was +nothing left for the men under Wurmser's personal command but to throw +themselves, if possible, into Mantua. With these, some sixteen +thousand men in all, the veteran general forced a way, by a series of +most brilliant movements, past the flank of the blockading French +lines, where he made a gallant stand first at St. Georges and then at +Favorita. But he was driven from both positions and forced to find a +refuge in the famous fortress. + +The lightning-like rapidity of these operations completed the +demoralization of the Austrian troops. The fortified defiles and +cliffs of the Tyrol fell before the French attacks as easily as their +breastworks in the plains. Wurmser had twenty-six thousand men in +Mantua; but from fear and fever half of them were in the hospitals. + +Meanwhile, disaster had overtaken the French arms in the North. +Jourdan had crossed the Rhine at Düsseldorf, as Moreau had at Kehl. +They had each about seventy-five thousand men, while the army of the +Austrian archduke Charles had been reduced by Wurmser's departure for +Italy to a number far less. According to the plan of the Directory, +these two French armies were to advance on parallel lines south of the +neutral zone through Germany, and to join Bonaparte across the Tyrol +for the advance to Vienna. Moreau defeated the Austrians, and reached +Munich without a check. Würtemberg and Baden made peace with the +French republic on its own terms, and Saxony, recalling its forces +from the coalition, declared itself neutral, as Prussia had done. But +Jourdan, having seized Würzburg and won the battle of Altenkirchen, +was met on his way to Ratisbon and Neumarkt, and thoroughly beaten, by +the same young Archduke Charles, who had acquired experience and +learned wisdom in his defeat by Moreau. Both French armies were thus +thrown back upon the Rhine, and there could be no further hope of +carrying out the original plan. In this way the attention of the world +was concentrated on the victorious Army of Italy and its young +commander, whose importance was further enhanced by the fulfilment of +his own prophecy that the fate of Europe hung on the decision of his +campaign in Italy. + +This was not an empty boast. The stubborn determination of Francis to +reconquer Italy had given new courage to the conservatives of central +and southern Italy, who did not conceal their resolve nor their +preparations to annihilate French power and influence within the +borders of Modena, Rome, and Naples. Bonaparte was thus enabled to +take another momentous step in emancipating himself from the +Directory. So far he had asserted and confirmed his military and +diplomatic independence: he now boldly assumed political supremacy. +Though at times he expressed a low opinion of the Italians, yet he +recognized their higher qualities. In Modena, Reggio, Bologna, and +Ferrara were thousands who understood the significance of the dawning +epoch. To these he paid visits and to their leaders he gave, during +the short interval at his command, hearty approbation for their +resistance to the reactionaries. Forestalling the Directory, he +declared Modena and Reggio to be under French protection. This daring +procedure assured his ascendancy with all Italian liberals and +rendered sure and certain the prosecution of his campaign to the +bitter end. Bologna and Ferrara, having surrendered to French +protection on June twenty-third, were soon in open revolt against the +papal influences which were reviving: and even in distant Naples the +liberals took heart once more. + +The glory of the imperial arms having been brilliantly vindicated in +the north, the government at Vienna naturally thought it not +impossible to relieve Mantua, and restore Austrian prestige in the +south. Every effort was to be made. The Tyrolese sharp-shooters were +called out, large numbers of raw recruits were gathered in Illyria and +Croatia, while a few veterans were taken from the forces of the +Archduke Charles. When these were collected, Quasdanowich found +himself in Friuli with upward of thirty-five thousand men, while +Davidowich in the Tyrol had eighteen thousand. The chief command of +both armies was assigned to Alvinczy, an experienced but aged general, +one of the same stock as that to which Wurmser belonged. About +October first, the two forces moved simultaneously, one down the +Adige, the other down the Piave, to unite before Vicenza, and proceed +to the relief of Mantua. For the fourth time Bonaparte was to fight +the same battle, on the same field, for the same object, with the same +inferiority of numbers. His situation, however was a trifle better +than it had been, for several veteran battalions which were no longer +needed in Vendée had arrived from the Army of the West; his own +soldiers were also well equipped and enthusiastic. He wrote to the +Directory, on October first, that he had thirty thousand effectives; +but he probably had more, for it is scarcely possible that, as he +said, eighteen thousand were in the hospitals. The populations around +and behind him were, moreover, losing faith in Austria, and growing +well disposed toward France. Many of his garrisons were, therefore, +called in; and deducting eight thousand men destined for the siege of +Mantua, he still had an army of nearly forty thousand men wherewith to +meet the Austrians. There was, of course, some disaffection among his +generals. Augereau was vainglorious and bitter, Masséna felt that he +had not received his due meed of praise for Bassano, and both had +sympathizers even in the ranks. This was inevitable, considering +Bonaparte's policy and system, and somewhat interfered with the +efficiency of his work. + +While the balance was thus on the whole in favor of the French, yet +this fourth division of the campaign opened with disaster to them. In +order to prevent the union of his enemy's two armies, Bonaparte +ordered Vaubois, who had been left above Trent to guard the French +conquests in the Tyrol, to attack Davidowich. The result was a rout, +and Vaubois was compelled to abandon one strong position after +another,--first Trent, then Roveredo,--until finally he felt able to +make a stand on the right bank of the Adige at Rivoli, which commands +the southern slopes of Monte Baldo. The other bank was in Austrian +hands, and Davidowich could have debouched safely into the plain. This +result was largely due to the clever mountain warfare of the Tyrolese +militia. Meantime Masséna had moved from Bassano up the Piave to +observe Alvinczy. Augereau was at Verona. On November fourth, Alvinczy +advanced and occupied Bassano, compelling Masséna to retreat before +his superior force. Bonaparte, determined not to permit a junction of +the two Austrian armies, moved with Augereau's division to reinforce +Masséna and drive Alvinczy back into the valley of the Piave. Augereau +fought all day on the sixth at Bassano, Masséna at Citadella. This +first encounter was indecisive; but news of Vaubois's defeat having +arrived, the French thought it best to retreat on the following day. +There was not now a single obstacle to the union of the two Austrian +armies; and on November ninth, Alvinczy started for Verona, where the +French had halted on the eighth. It looked as if Bonaparte would be +attacked on both flanks at once, and thus overwhelmed. + +Verona lies on both banks of the river Adige, which is spanned by +several bridges; but the heart of the town is on the right. The +remains of Vaubois's army having been rallied at Rivoli, some miles +further up on that bank, Bonaparte made all possible use of the stream +as a natural fortification, and concentrated the remainder of his +forces on the same side. Alvinczy came up and occupied Caldiero, +situated on a gentle rise of the other shore to the south of east; but +the French division at Rivoli, which, by Bonaparte's drastic methods, +had been thoroughly shamed, and was now thirsty for revenge, held +Davidowich in check. He had remained some distance farther back to the +north, where it was expected he would cross and come down on the left +bank. To prevent this a fierce onslaught was made against Alvinczy's +position on November twelfth, by Masséna's corps. It was entirely +unsuccessful, and the French were repulsed with the serious loss of +three thousand men. Bonaparte's position was now even more critical +than it had been at Castiglione; he had to contend with two new +Austrian armies, one on each flank, and Wurmser with a third stood +ready to sally out of Mantua in his rear. If there should be even +partial coöperation between the Austrian leaders, he must retreat. But +he felt sure there would be no coöperation whatsoever. From the force +in Verona and that before Mantua twenty thousand men were gathered to +descend the course of the Adige into the swampy lands about Ronco, +where a crossing was to be made and Alvinczy caught, if possible, at +Villanova, on his left flank. This turning manoeuver, though highly +dangerous, was fairly successful, and is considered by critics among +the finest in this or any other of Bonaparte's campaigns. Amid these +swamps, ditches, and dikes the methodical Austrians, aiming to carry +strong positions by one fierce onset, were brought into the greatest +disadvantage before the new tactics of swift movement in open columns, +which were difficult to assail. By a feint of retreat to the westward +the French army had left Verona without attracting attention, but by a +swift countermarch it reached Ronco on the morning of November +fifteenth, crossed in safety, and turned back to flank the Austrian +position. + +The first stand of the enemy was made at Arcola, where a short, narrow +bridge connects the high dikes which regulate the sluggish stream of +the little river Alpon, a tributary of the Adige on its left bank. +This bridge was defended by two battalions of Croatian recruits, +whose commander, Colonel Brigido, had placed a pair of field-pieces so +as to enfilade it. The French had been advancing in three columns by +as many causeways, the central one of which led to the bridge. The +first attempt to cross was repulsed by the deadly fire which the +Croats poured in from their sheltered position. Augereau, with his +picked corps, fared no better in a second charge led by himself +bearing the standard; and, in a third disastrous rush, Bonaparte, who +had caught up the standard and planted it on the bridge with his own +hand, was himself swept back into a quagmire, where he would have +perished but for a fourth return of the grenadiers, who drove back the +pursuing Austrians, and pulled their commander from the swamp. Fired +by his undaunted courage, the gallant lines were formed once more. At +that moment another French corps passed over lower down by pontoons, +and the Austrians becoming disorganized, in spite of the large +reinforcements which had come up under Alvinczy, the last charge on +the bridge was successful. With the capture of Arcola the French +turned their enemy's rear, and cut off not only his artillery, but his +reserves in the valley of the Brenta. The advantage, however, was +completely destroyed by the masterly retreat of Alvinczy from his +position at Caldiero, effected by other causeways and another bridge +further north, which the French had not been able to secure in time. + +Bonaparte quickly withdrew to Ronco, and recrossed the Adige to meet +an attack which he supposed Davidowich, having possibly forced +Vaubois's position, would then certainly make. But that general was +still in his old place, and gave no signs of activity. This movement +misled Alvinczy, who, thinking the French had started from Mantua, +returned by way of Arcola to pursue them. Again the French commander +led his forces across the Adige into the swampy lowlands. His enemy +had not forgotten the desperate fight at the bridge, and was timid; +and besides, in his close formation, he was on such ground no match +for the open ranks of the French. Retiring without any real resistance +as far as Arcola, the Austrians made their stand a second time in that +red-walled burg. Bonaparte could not well afford another direct +attack, with its attendant losses, and strove to turn the position by +fording the Alpon where it flows into the Adige. He failed, and +withdrew once more to Ronco, the second day remaining indecisive. On +the morning of the seventeenth, however, with undiminished fertility +of resource, a new plan was adopted and successfully carried out. One +of the pontoons on the Adige sank, and a body of Austrians charged the +small division stationed on the left bank to guard it, in the hope of +destroying the remainder of the bridge. They were repulsed and driven +back toward the marshes with which they meant to cover their flank. +The garrisons of both Arcola and Porcil, a neighboring hamlet, were +seriously weakened by the detention of this force. Two French +divisions were promptly despatched to make use of that advantage, +while at the same time an ambuscade was laid among the pollard willows +which lined the ditches beyond the retreating Austrians. At an +opportune moment the ambuscade unmasked, and by a terrible fire drove +three thousand of the Croatian recruits into the marsh, where most of +them were drowned or shot. Advancing then beyond the Alpon by a bridge +built during the previous night, Bonaparte gave battle on the high +ground to an enemy whose numbers were now, as he calculated, reduced +to a comparative equality with his own. The Austrians made a vigorous +resistance; but such was their credulity as to anything their enemy +might do, that a simple stratagem of the French made them believe that +their left was turned by a division, when in reality but twenty-five +men had been sent to ride around behind the swamps and blow their +bugles. Being simultaneously attacked on the front of the same wing by +Augereau, they drew off at last in good order toward Montebello. +Thence Alvinczy slowly retreated into the valley of the Brenta. The +French returned to Verona. Davidowich, ignorant of all that had +occurred, now finally dislodged Vaubois; but, finding before him +Masséna with his division where he had expected Alvinczy and a great +Austrian army, he discreetly withdrew into the Tyrol. It was not until +November twenty-third, long after the departure of both his +colleagues, that Wurmser made a brilliant but of course ineffectual +sally from Mantua. The French were so exhausted, and the Austrians so +decimated and scattered, that by tacit consent hostilities were +intermitted for nearly two months. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX. + +Bonaparte's Imperious Spirit. + + Bonaparte's Transformation -- Military Genius -- Powers and + Principles -- Theory and Conduct -- Political Activity -- + Purposes for Italy -- Private Correspondence -- Treatment of + the Italian Powers -- Antagonism to the Directory -- The + Task Before Him -- Masked Dictator. + + +[Sidenote: 1796.] + +During the two months between the middle of November, 1796, and the +middle of January, 1797, there was a marked change in Bonaparte's +character and conduct. After Arcola he appeared as a man very +different from the novice he had been before Montenotte. Twice his +fortunes had hung by a single hair, having been rescued by the +desperate bravery of Rampon and his soldiers at Monte Legino, and +again by Augereau's daring at Lonato; twice he had barely escaped +being a prisoner, once at Valeggio, once at Lonato; twice his life had +been spared in the heat of battle as if by a miracle, once at Lodi, +once again at Arcola. These facts had apparently left a deep +impression on his mind, for they were turned to the best account in +making good a new step in social advancement. So far he had been as +adventurous as the greatest daredevil among the subalterns, staking +his life in every new venture; hereafter he seemed to appreciate his +own value, and to calculate not only the imperiling of his life, but +the intimacy of his conversation, with nice adaptation to some great +result. Gradually and informally a kind of body-guard was organized, +which, as the idea grew familiar, was skilfully developed into a +picked corps, the best officers and finest soldiers being made to feel +honored in its membership. The constant attendance of such men +necessarily secluded the general-in-chief from those colleagues who +had hitherto been familiar comrades. Something in the nature of formal +etiquette once established, it was easy to extend its rules and +confirm them. The generals were thus separated further and further +from their superior, and before the new year they had insensibly +adopted habits of address which displayed a high outward respect, and +virtually terminated all comradeship with one who had so recently been +merely the first among equals. Bonaparte's innate tendency to command +was under such circumstances hardened into a habit of imperious +dictation. In view of what had been accomplished, it would have been +impossible, even for the most stubborn democrat, to check the process. +Not one of Bonaparte's principles had failed to secure triumphant +vindication. + +In later years Napoleon himself believed, and subsequent criticism has +confirmed his opinion, that the Italian campaign, taken as a whole, +was his greatest. The revolution of any public system, social, +political, or military, is always a gigantic task. It was nothing less +than this which Bonaparte had wrought, not in one, but in all three +spheres, during the summer and autumn of 1796. The changes, like those +of most revolutions, were changes of emphasis and degree in the +application of principles already divined. "Divide and conquer" was an +old maxim; it was a novelty to see it applied in warfare and politics +as Bonaparte applied it in Italy. It has been remarked that the +essential difference between Napoleon and Frederick the Great was that +the latter had not ten thousand men a month to kill. The notion that +war should be short and terrible had, indeed, been clear to the great +Prussian; Carnot and the times afforded the opportunity for its +conclusive demonstration by the genius of the greater Corsican. +Concentration of besiegers to breach the walls of a town was nothing +new; but the triumphant application of the same principle to an +opposing line of troops, though well known to Julius Cæsar, had been +forgotten, and its revival was Napoleon's masterpiece. The martinets +of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries had so exaggerated the +formalities of war that the relation of armies to the fighting-ground +had been little studied and well-nigh forgotten; the use of the map +and the compass, the study of reliefs and profiles in topography, +produced in Bonaparte's hands results that seemed to duller minds +nothing short of miraculous. One of these was to oppose the old-school +rigid formation of troops by any formation more or less open and +irregular according to circumstances, but always the kind best suited +to the character of the seat of war. The first two days at Arcola were +the triumphant vindication of this concept. Finally, there was a +fascination for the French soldiers in the primitive savagery of their +general, which, though partly concealed, and somewhat held in by +training, nevertheless was willing that the spoils of their conquest +should be devoted to making the victorious contestants opulent; which +scorned the limitations of human powers in himself and them, and thus +accomplished feats of strength and stratagem which gratified to +satiety that love for the uncommon, the ideal, and the great which is +inherent in the spirit of their nation. In the successful combination +and evolution of all these elements there was a grandeur which +Bonaparte and every soldier of his army appreciated at its full value. + +The military side of Bonaparte's genius is ordinarily considered the +strongest. Judged by what is easily visible in the way of immediate +consequences and permanent results, this appears to be true; and yet +it was only one of many sides. Next in importance, if not equal to it, +was his activity in politics and diplomacy. It is easy to call names, +to stigmatize the peoples of Italy, all the nations even of western +Europe, as corrupt and enervated, to laugh at their politics as +antiquated, and to brand their rulers as incapable fools. An ordinary +man can, by the assistance of the knowledge, education, and insight +acquired by the experience of his race through an additional century, +turn and show how commonplace was the person who toppled over such an +old rotten structure. This is the method of Napoleon's detractors, +except when, in addition, they first magnify his wickedness, and then +further distort the proportion by viewing his fine powers through the +other end of the glass. We all know how easy great things are when +once they have been accomplished, how simple the key to a mystery when +once it has been revealed. Morally considered, Bonaparte was a child +of nature, born to a mean estate, buffeted by a cruel and remorseless +society, driven in youth to every shift for self-preservation, +compelled to fight an unregenerate world with its own weapons. He had +not been changed in the flash of a gun. Elevation to reputation and +power did not diminish the duplicity of his character; on the +contrary, it possibly intensified it. Certainly the fierce light which +began to beat upon him brought it into greater prominence. Truth, +honor, unselfishness are theoretically the virtues of all philosophy; +practically they are the virtues of Christian men in Christian +society. Where should the scion of a Corsican stock, ignorant of moral +or religious sentiment, thrown into the atmosphere and surroundings of +the French Revolution, learn to practise them? + +Such considerations are indispensable in the observation of +Bonaparte's progress as a politician. His first settlement with the +various peoples of central Italy was, as he had declared, only +provisional. The uncertain status created by it was momentarily not +unwelcome to the Directory. Their policy was to destroy existing +institutions, and leave order to evolve itself from the chaos as best +it could. Doctrinaires as they were, they meant to destroy absolute +monarchy in Italy, as everywhere else, if possible, and then to stop, +leaving the liberated peoples to their own devices. Some fondly +believed that out of anarchy would arise, in accordance with "the law +of nature," a pure democracy; while others had the same faith that the +result would be constitutional monarchy. Moreover, things appear +simpler in the perspective of distance than they do near at hand. The +sincerity of Bonaparte's republicanism was like the sincerity of his +conduct--an affair of time and place, a consistency with conditions +and not with abstractions. He knew the Italian mob, and faithfully +described it in his letters as dull, ignorant, and unreliable, without +preparation or fitness for self-government. He was willing to +establish the forms of constitutional administration; but in spite of +hearty support from many disciples of the Revolution, he found those +forms likely, if not certain, to crumble under their own weight, and +was convinced that the real sovereignty must for years to come reside +in a strong protectorate of some kind. It appeared to him a necessity +of war that these peoples should relieve the destitution of the French +treasury and army, a necessity of circumstances that France should be +restored to vigor and health by laying tribute on their treasures of +art and science, as on those of all the world, and a necessity of +political science that artificial boundaries should be destroyed, as +they had been in France, to produce the homogeneity of condition +essential to national or administrative unity. + +The Italians themselves understood neither the policy of the French +executive nor that of their conqueror. The transitional position in +which the latter had left them produced great uneasiness. The +terrified local authorities asked nothing better than to be left as +they were, with a view to profiting by the event, whatever it might +be. After every Austrian success there were numerous local revolts, +which the French garrison commanders suppressed with severity. +Provisional governments soon come to the end of their usefulness, and +the enemies of France began to take advantage of the disorder in order +to undo what had been done. The English, for example, had seized Porto +Ferrajo in place of Leghorn; the Pope had gone further, and, in spite +of the armistice, was assembling an army for the recovery of Bologna, +Ferrara, and his other lost legations. Thus it happened that in the +intervals of the most laborious military operations, a political +activity, both comprehensive and feverish, kept pace in Bonaparte's +mind with that which was needed to regulate his campaigning. + +At the very outset there was developed an antagonism between the +notions of the Directory and Bonaparte's interests. The latter +observed all the forms of consulting his superiors, but acted without +the slightest reference to their instructions, often even before they +could receive his despatches. Both he and they knew the weakness of +the French government, and the inherent absurdity of the situation. +The story of French conquest in Italy might be told exactly as if the +invading general were acting solely on his own responsibility. In his +proclamations to the Italians was one language; in his letters to the +executive, another; in a few confidential family communications, still +another; in his own heart, the same old idea of using each day as it +came to advance his own fortunes. As far as he had any love of +country, it was expended on France, and what we may call his +principles were conceptions derived from the Revolution; but somehow +the best interests of France and the safety of revolutionary doctrine +were every day more involved in the pacification of Italy, in the +humiliation of Austria, and in the supremacy of the army. There was +only one man who could secure all three; could give consistency to the +flaccid and visionary policy of the Directory; could repress the +frightful robberies of its civil agents in Italy; could with any show +of reason humble Italy with one hand, and then with the other rouse +her to wholesome energy; could enrich and glorify France while +crushing out, as no royal dynasty had ever been able to do, the +haughty rivalry of the Hapsburgs. + +These purposes made Bonaparte the most gentle and conciliatory of men +in some directions; in others they developed and hardened his +imperiousness. His correspondence mirrors both his mildness and his +arbitrariness. His letters to the Directory abound in praise of his +officers and men, accompanied by demands for the promotion of those +who had performed distinguished services. Writing to General Clarke on +November nineteenth, 1796, from Verona, he says, in words full of +pathos: "Your nephew Elliot was killed on the battle-field of Arcola. +This youth had made himself familiar with arms; several times he had +marched at the head of columns; he would one day have been an +estimable officer. He died with glory, in the face of the foe; he did +not suffer for a moment. What reasonable man would not envy such a +death? Who is he that in the vicissitudes of life would not agree to +leave in such a way a world so often worthy of contempt? What one of +us has not a hundred times regretted that he could not thus be +withdrawn from the powerful effects of calumny, of envy, and of all +the hateful passions that seem almost entirely to control human +conduct?" Perhaps these few words to the widow of one of his late +officers are even finer: "Muiron died at my side on the late +battle-field of Arcola. You have lost a husband that was dear to you; +I, a friend to whom I have long been attached: but the country loses +more than us both in the death of an officer distinguished no less by +his talents than by his rare courage. If I can be of service in +anything to you or his child, I pray you count altogether upon me." +That was all; but it was enough. With the ripening of character, and +under the responsibilities of life, an individual style had come at +last. It is martial and terse almost to affectation, defying +translation, and perfectly reflecting the character of its writer. + +But the hours when the general-in-chief was war-worn, weary, tender, +and subject to human regrets like other men, were not those which he +revealed to the world. He was peremptory, and sometimes even peevish, +with the French executive after he had them in his hand; with Italy he +assumed a parental rôle, meting out chastisement and reward as best +suited his purpose. A definite treaty of peace had been made with +Sardinia, and that power, though weak and maimed, was going its own +way. The Transpadane Republic, which he had begun to organize as soon +as he entered Milan, was carefully cherished and guided in its +artificial existence; but the people, whether or not they were fit, +had no chance to exercise any real independence under the shadow of +such a power. It was, moreover, not the power of France; for, by +special order of Bonaparte, the civil agents of the Directory were +subordinated to the military commanders, ostensibly because the former +were so rapacious. Lombardy in this way became his very own. Rome had +made the armistice of Bologna merely to gain time, and in the hope of +eventual disaster to French arms. A pretext for the resumption of +hostilities was easily found by her in a foolish command, issued from +Paris, that the Pope should at length recognize as regular those of +the clergy who had sworn allegiance to the successive constitutions +adopted under the republic, and withdraw all his proclamations against +those who had observed their oaths and conformed. The Pontiff, relying +on the final success of Austria, had virtually broken off +negotiations. Bonaparte informed the French agent in Rome that he must +do anything to gain time, anything to deceive the "old fox"; in a +favorable moment he expected to pounce upon Rome, and avenge the +national honor. During the interval Naples also had become refractory; +refusing a tribute demanded by the Directory, she was not only +collecting soldiers, like the Pope, but actually had some regiments in +marching order. Venice, asserting her neutrality, was growing more and +more bitter at the constant violations of her territory. Mantua was +still a defiant fortress, and in this crisis nothing was left but to +revive French credit where the peoples were best disposed and their +old rulers weakest. + +Accordingly, Bonaparte went through the form of consulting the +Directory as to a plan of procedure, and then, without waiting for an +answer from them, and without the consent of those most deeply +interested, broke the armistice with Modena on the pretext that five +hundred thousand francs of ransom money were yet unpaid, and drove the +duke from his throne. This duchy was the nucleus about which was to be +constituted the Cispadane Republic: in conjunction with its +inhabitants, those of Reggio, Bologna, and Ferrara were invited to +form a free government under that name. There had at least been a +pretext for erecting the Milanese into the Transpadane Republic--that +of driving an invader from its soil. This time there was no pretext of +that kind, and the Directory opposed so bold an act regarding these +lands, being uneasy about public opinion in regard to it. They hoped +the war would soon be ended, and were verging to the opinion that +their armies must before long leave the Italians to their own devices. +The conduct of their general pointed, however, in the opposite +direction; he forced the native liberals of the district to take the +necessary steps toward organizing the new state so rapidly that the +Directory found itself compelled to yield. It is possible, but not +likely, that, as has been charged, Bonaparte really intended to bring +about what actually happened, the continued dependence on the French +republic of a lot of artificial governments. The uninterrupted +meddling of France in the affairs of the Italians destroyed in the end +all her influence, and made them hate her dominion, which masqueraded +as liberalism, even more than they had hated the open but mild tyranny +of those royal scions of foreign stocks recently dismissed from their +thrones. During these months there is in Bonaparte's correspondence a +somewhat theatrical iteration of devotion to France and republican +principles, but his first care was for his army and the success of his +campaign. He behaved as any general solicitous for the strength of his +positions on foreign soil would have done, his ruses taking the form +of constantly repeating the political shibboleths then used in France. +Soon afterward Naples made her peace; an insurrection in Corsica +against English rule enabled France to seize that island once more; +and Genoa entered into a formal alliance with the Directory. + +How important these circumstances were comparatively can only be +understood by considering the fiascoes of the Directory elsewhere. No +wonder they groveled before Bonaparte, while pocketing his millions +and saving their face at home and abroad by reason of his victories, +and his alone. They had two great schemes to annihilate British power: +one, to invade Ireland, close all the North Sea ports to British +commerce, and finally to descend on British shores with an +irresistible host of the French democracy. Subsequent events of +Napoleon's life must be judged in full view of the dead earnestness +with which the Directory cherished this plan. But it was versatile +likewise and had a second alternative, to foment rebellions in Persia, +Turkey, and Egypt, overrun the latter country, and menace India. This +second scheme influenced Bonaparte's career more deeply than the +other, both were parts of traditional French policy and cherished by +the French public as the great lines for expanding French renown and +French influence. Both must be reckoned with by any suitor of France. +For the Irish expedition Hoche was available; in his vain efforts for +success he undermined his health and in his untimely death removed one +possible rival of Bonaparte. The directors had Holland, but they could +not win Prussia further than the stipulations made in 1795 at Basel, +so their scheme of embargo rested in futile abeyance. They exhibited +considerable activity in building a fleet, and the King of Spain, in +spite of Godoy's opposition, accepted the title of a French admiral. +By the treaty of San Ildefonso an offensive alliance against Great +Britain was concluded, her commerce to be excluded from Portugal; +Louisiana and Florida going to France. All the clauses except this +last were nugatory because of Spanish weakness, but Bonaparte put in +the plea for compensation to the Spanish Bourbons by some grant of +Italian territory to the house of Parma. As we have elsewhere +indicated, their attack on Austria in central Europe was a failure, +Jourdan having been soundly beaten at Würzburg. There was no road open +to Vienna except through Italy. Their negotiations with the papacy +failed utterly; only a victorious warrior could overcome its powerful +scruples, which in the aggregate prevented the hearty adhesion of +French Roman Catholics to the republican system. Of necessity their +conceptions of Italian destiny must yield to his, which were widely +different from theirs. + +Before such conditions other interests sink into atrophy; +thenceforward, for example, there appears in Bonaparte's nature no +trace of the Corsican patriot. The one faint spark of remaining +interest seems to have been extinguished in an order that Pozzo di +Borgo and his friends, if they had not escaped, should be brought to +judgment. His other measures with reference to the once loved island +were as calculating and dispassionate as any he took concerning the +most indifferent principality of the mainland, and even extended to +enunciating the principle that no Corsican should be employed in +Corsica. It is a citizen not of Corsica, nor of France even, but of +Europe, who on October second demands peace from the Emperor in a +threat that if it is not yielded on favorable terms, Triest and the +Adriatic will be seized. At the same time the Directory received from +him another reminder of its position, which likewise indicates an +interesting development of his own policy. "Diminish the number of +your enemies. The influence of Rome is incalculable; it was ill +advised to break with that power; it gives the advantage to her. If I +had been consulted, I would have delayed the negotiations with Rome as +with Genoa and Venice. Whenever your general in Italy is not the pivot +of everything, you run great risks. This language will not be +attributed to ambition; I have but too many honors, and my health is +so broken that I believe I must ask you for a successor. I can no +longer mount a horse; I have nothing left but courage, which is not +enough in a post like this." Before this masked dictator were two +tasks as difficult in their way as any even he would ever undertake, +each calling for the exercise of faculties antipodal in quality, but +quite as fine as any in the human mind. Mantua was yet to be captured; +Rome and the Pope were to be handled so as to render the highest +service to himself, to France, and to Europe. In both these labors he +meant to be strengthened and yet unhampered. The habit of compliance +was now strong upon the Directory, and they continued to yield as +before. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI. + +Rivoli and the Capitulation of Mantua. + + The Diplomatic Feint of Great Britain -- Clarke and the + Directory -- Catherine the Great and Paul I -- Austria's + Strategic Plan -- Renewal of Hostilities -- The Austrians at + Rivoli and Nogara -- Bonaparte's Night March to Rivoli -- + Monte Baldo and the Berner Klause -- The Battle of Rivoli -- + The Battle of La Favorita -- Feats of the French Army -- + Bonaparte's Achievement -- The Fall of Mantua. + + +[Sidenote: 1797.] + +The fifth division of the Italian campaign was the fourth attempt of +Austria to retrieve her position in Italy, a position on which her +rulers still believed that all her destinies hung. Her energy was now +the wilfulness of despair. Events in Europe were shaping themselves +without regard to her advantage. The momentary humiliation of France +in Jourdan's defeat, the deplorable condition of British finances as +shown by the fall of the three per cents to fifty-three, the unsettled +and dangerous state of Ireland, with the menace of Hoche's invasion +impending, these circumstances created in London a feeling that +perhaps the time was propitious for negotiating with France, where too +there was considerable agitation for peace. Accordingly, in the autumn +of 1796, Lord Malmesbury was sent to Paris under rigid cautionary +instructions. The envoy was cold and haughty; Delacroix, the French +minister, was conceited and shallow. It soon appeared that what the +agent had to offer was either so indefinite as to be meaningless, or +so favorable to Great Britain as to be ridiculous in principle. The +negotiations were merely diplomatic fencing. To the Englishman the +public law of Europe was still that of the peace of Utrecht, +especially as to the Netherlands; to the Frenchman this was +preposterous since the Low Countries were already in France by +enactment and the rule of natural boundaries. About the middle of +November, Malmesbury was informed that he must either speak to the +point or leave. Of course the point was Belgium; if France would +abandon her claim to Antwerp she could have compensation in Germany. +There was some further futile talk about what both parties then as +before, and thereafter to the end, considered the very nerve of their +contention. Malmesbury went home toward the close of December, and +soon after, Hoche's fleet was wrecked in the Channel. The result of +the British mission was to clarify the issues, to consolidate British +patriotism once more, to reopen the war on a definite basis. Hoche was +assigned to the Army of the Sambre and Meuse, declaring he would first +thunder at the gates of Vienna and then return through Ireland to +London and command the peace of the world. + +Meantime the Directory had noted the possibility of independent +negotiation with Austria. It did not intend, complaisant as it had +been hitherto, to leave Bonaparte unhampered in so momentous a +transaction. On the contrary, it selected a pliable and obedient agent +in the person of General Clarke, offspring of an Irish refugee family, +either a mild republican or a constitutional monarchist according to +circumstances, a lover of peace and order, a conciliatory spirit. To +him was given the directors' confidential, elaborate, and elastic plan +for territorial compensations as a basis for peace, the outcome of +which in any case would leave Prussia preponderant in Germany. Liberal +and well disposed to the Revolution as they believed, she could then +be wooed into a firm alliance. In Italy, France was to maintain her +new authority and retain what she had conquered for her own good +pleasure. Bonaparte intended to do as he found necessary in both these +cases. After Arcola, Thugut, the Austrian minister, expressed a sense +of the deepest humiliation that a youth commanding volunteers and +rapscallions should work his will with the fine troops and skilled +generals of the empire. But, undaunted, he applied to Russia for +succor. Catherine had dallied with Jacobinism in order to occupy both +Prussia and Austria while she consolidated and confirmed her strength +in Poland and the Orient. This she had accomplished and was now ready +to bridle the wild steed she had herself unloosed. Intervening at the +auspicious hour, she could deliver Italy, take control of central +Europe, subjugate the north, and sway the universe. + +Accordingly she demanded from Pitt a subsidy of two and a half million +dollars, and ordered Suvoroff with sixty thousand troops to the +assistance of Austria. Just then, in September, 1796, Gustavus IV, of +Sweden, was at St. Petersburg for his betrothal with the Empress's +granddaughter Alexandra. He required as a matter of course that she +should adopt his faith. This was contemptuously refused and the +preparations for the festival went forward to completion as if nothing +had occurred. At the appointed hour for the ceremonial, the groom did +not and would not appear. Consternation gave way to a sense of +outrage, but the "Kinglet," as the great courtiers styled him, stood +firm. The Empress was beside herself, her health gave way, and she +died in less than two months, on November seventeenth. The dangerous +imbecile, her son Paul I, reigned in her stead. Weird figure that he +was, he at least renounced his mother's policy of conquest and +countermanded her orders to Suvoroff, recalling him and his army. +Austria was at bay, but she was undaunted. + +Once more Alvinczy, despairing of success, but obedient to his orders, +made ready to move down the Adige from Trent. Great zeal had been +shown in Austria. The Vienna volunteer battalions abandoned the work +of home protection for which they had enlisted, and, with a banner +embroidered by the Empress's own hand, joined the active forces. The +Tyrolese, in defiance of the atrocious proclamation in which +Bonaparte, claiming to be their conqueror, had threatened death to any +one taking up arms against France, flocked again to the support of +their Emperor. By a recurrence to the old fatal plan, Alvinczy was to +attack the main French army; his colleague Provera was to follow the +Brenta into the lower reaches of the Adige, where he could effect a +crossing, and relieve Mantua. He was likewise to deceive the enemy by +making a parade of greater strength than he really had, and thus draw +away Bonaparte's main army toward Legnago on the lower Adige. A +messenger was despatched to Wurmser with letters over the Emperor's +own signature, ordering him, if Provera should fail, to desert Mantua, +retreat into the Romagna, and under his own command unite the garrison +and the papal troops. This order never reached its destination, for +its bearer was intercepted, and was compelled by the use of an emetic +to render up the despatches which he had swallowed. + +On January seventh, 1797, Bonaparte gave orders to strengthen the +communications along his line, massing two thousand men at Bologna in +order to repress certain hostile demonstrations lately made in behalf +of the Pope. On the following day an Austrian division which had been +lying at Padua made a short attack on Augereau's division, and on the +ninth drove it into Porto Legnago, the extreme right of the French +line. This could mean nothing else than a renewal of hostilities by +Austria, although it was impossible to tell where the main attack +would be made. On the eleventh Bonaparte was at Bologna, concluding an +advantageous treaty with Tuscany; in order to be ready for any event, +he started the same evening, hastened across the Adige with his +troops, and pressed on to Verona. + +On the twelfth, at six in the morning, the enemy attacked Masséna's +advance-guard at St. Michel, a suburb of that city. They were repulsed +with loss. Early on the same day Joubert, who had been stationed with +a corps of observation farther up in the old and tried position at the +foot of Monte Baldo, became aware of hostile movements, and occupied +Rivoli. During the day the two Austrian columns tried to turn his +position by seizing his outpost at Corona, but they were repulsed. On +the thirteenth he became aware that the main body of the Austrians was +before him, and that their intention was to surround him by the left. +Accordingly he informed Bonaparte, abandoned Corona, and made ready to +retreat from Rivoli. That evening Provera threw a pontoon bridge +across the Adige at Anghiari, below Legnago, and crossed with a +portion of his army. Next day he started for Mantua, but was so +harassed by Guieu and Augereau that the move was ineffectual, and he +got no farther than Nogara. + +The heights of Rivoli command the movements of any force passing out +of the Alps through the valley of the Adige. They are abrupt on all +sides but one, where from the greatest elevation the chapel of St. +Mark overlooked a winding road, steep, but available for cavalry and +artillery. Rising from the general level of the tableland, this +hillock is in itself a kind of natural citadel. Late on the +thirteenth, Joubert, in reply to the message he had sent, received +orders to fortify the plateau, and to hold it at all hazards; for +Bonaparte now divined that the main attack was to be made there in +order to divert all opposition from Provera, and that if it were +successful the two Austrian armies would meet at Mantua. By ten that +evening the reports brought in from Joubert and by scouts left this +conclusion no longer doubtful. That very night, therefore, being in +perfect readiness for either event, Bonaparte moved toward Rivoli with +a force numbering about twenty thousand. It was composed of every +available French soldier between Desenzano and Verona, including +Masséna's division.[68] By strenuous exertions they reached the +heights of Rivoli about two in the morning of the fourteenth. +Alvinczy, ignorant of what had happened, was waiting for daylight in +order to carry out his original design of inclosing and capturing the +comparatively small force of Joubert and the strong place which it had +been set to hold, a spot long since recognized by Northern peoples as +the key to the portal of Italy. Bonaparte, on his arrival, perceived +in the moonlight five divisions encamped in a semicircle below; their +bivouac fires made clear that they were separated from one another by +considerable distances. He knew then that his instinct had been +correct, that this was the main army, and that the decisive battle +would be fought next day. The following hours were spent in disposing +his forces to meet the attack in any form it might take. Not a man was +wasted, but the region was occupied with pickets, outposts, and +reserves so ingeniously stationed that the study of that field, and of +Bonaparte's disposition of his forces, has become a classic example +in military science. + + [Footnote 68: Somewhat under 40,000. Bonaparte guessed, + and his guess was very shrewd, that all told he was then + confronted by 45,000. The Austrians have never made the + facts clear, though their initial strength is set at + 28,000. I have found no estimate of the reinforcements. + In any case they lost 10,000 here, the whole of + Provera's corps at La Favorita, and 18,000 were captured + at Mantua: their fighting force in Italy was + annihilated.] + +The gorge by which the Adige breaks through the lowest foot-hills of +the Alps to enter the lowlands has been famous since dim antiquity. +The Romans considered it the entrance to Cimmeria; it was sung in +German myths as the Berner Klause, the majestic gateway from their +inclement clime into the land of the stranger, that warm, bright land +for the luxurious and orderly life of which their hearts were ever +yearning. Around its precipices and isolated, frowning bastions song +and fable had clustered, and the effect of mystery was enhanced by the +awful grandeur of the scene. Overlooking all stands Monte Baldo, +frowning with its dark precipices on the cold summits of the German +highland, smiling with its sunny slopes on the blue waters of Lake +Garda and the fertile valley of the Po. In the change of strategy +incident to the introduction of gunpowder the spot of greatest +resistance was no longer in the gorge, but at its mouth, where Rivoli +on one side, and Ceraino on the other, command respectively the gentle +slopes which fall eastward and westward toward the plains. The Alps +were indeed looking down on the "Little Corporal," who, having flanked +their defenses at one end, was now about to force their center, and +later to pass by their eastward end into the hereditary dominions of +the German emperors on the Danube. + +At early dawn began the conflict which was to settle the fate of +Mantua. The first fierce contest was between the Austrian left and the +French right at St. Mark; but it quickly spread along the whole line +as far as Caprino. For some time the Austrians had the advantage, and +the result was in suspense, since the French left, at Caprino, yielded +for an instant before the onslaught of the main Austrian army made in +accordance with Alvinczy's first plan, and, as he supposed, upon an +inferior force by one vastly superior in numbers. Berthier, who by his +calm courage was fast rising high in his commander's favor, came to +the rescue, and Masséna, following with a judgment which has +inseparably linked his name with that famous spot, finally restored +order to the French ranks. Every successive charge of the Austrians +was repulsed with a violence which threw their right and center back +toward Monte Baldo in ever growing confusion. The battle waged for +nearly three hours before Alvinczy understood that it was not +Joubert's division, but Bonaparte's army, which was before him. A +fifth Austrian column then pressed forward from the bank of the Adige +to scale the height of Rivoli, and Joubert, whose left at St. Mark was +hard beset, could not check the movement. For an instant he left the +road unprotected. The Austrians charged up the hill and seized the +commanding position; but simultaneously there rushed from the opposite +side three French battalions, clambering up to retrieve the loss. The +nervous activity of the latter brought them quickly to the top, where +at once they were reinforced by a portion of the cavalry reserve, and +the storming columns were thrown back in disorder. At that instant +appeared in Bonaparte's rear an Austrian corps which had been destined +to take the French at Rivoli in their rear. Had it arrived sooner, the +position would, as the French declared, have been lost to them. As it +was, instead of making an attack, the Austrians had to await one. +Bonaparte directed a falling artillery fire against them, and threw +them back toward Lake Garda. He thus gained time to re-form his own +ranks and enabled Masséna to hold in check still another of the +Austrian columns, which was striving to outflank him on his left. +Thereupon the French reserve under Rey, coming in from the westward, +cut the turning column entirely off, and compelled it to surrender. +The rest of Alvinczy's force being already in full retreat, this ended +the worst defeat and most complete rout which the Austrian arms had so +far sustained. Such was the utter demoralization of the flying and +disintegrated columns that a young French officer named Réné, who was +in command of fifty men at a hamlet on Lake Garda, successfully +imitated Bonaparte's ruse at Lonato, and displayed such an imposing +confidence to a flying troop of fifteen hundred Austrians that they +surrendered to what appeared to be a force superior to their own. Next +morning at dawn, Murat, who had marched all night to gain the point, +appeared on the slopes of Monte Baldo above Corona, and united with +Joubert to drive the Austrians from their last foothold. The pursuit +was continued as far as Trent. Thirteen thousand prisoners were +captured in those two days. + +[Illustration: Enlarged Plan of Lake of Garda and Adjacent Country. +Map Illustrating the Campaign Preceding the Treaty of Campo-Formio +1797.] + +While Murat was straining up the slopes of Monte Baldo, Bonaparte, +giving no rest to the weary feet of Masséna's division,--the same men +who two days before had marched by night from Verona,--was retracing +his steps on that well-worn road past the city of Catullus and the +Capulets onward toward Mantua. Provera had crossed the Adige at +Anghiari with ten thousand men. Twice he had been attacked: once in +the front by Guieu, once in the rear by Augereau. On both occasions +his losses had been severe, but, nevertheless, on the same morning +which saw Alvinczy's flight into the Tyrol, he finally appeared with +six thousand men in the suburb of St. George, before Mantua. He +succeeded in communicating with Wurmser, but was held in check by the +blockading French army throughout the day and night until Bonaparte +arrived with his reinforcements. Next morning there was a general +engagement, Provera attacking in front, and Wurmser, by +preconcerted arrangement, sallying out from behind at the head of a +strong force. The latter was thrown back into the town by Sérurier, +who commanded the besiegers, but only after a fierce and deadly +conflict on the causeway. This was the road from Mantua to a +country-seat of its dukes known as "La Favorita," and was chosen for +the sortie as having an independent citadel. Victor, with some of the +troops brought in from Rivoli, the "terrible fifty-seventh +demi-brigade," as Bonaparte designated them, attacked Provera at the +same time, and threw his ranks into such disorder that he was glad to +surrender his entire force. This conflict of January sixteenth, before +Mantua, is known as the battle of La Favorita, from the stand made by +Sérurier on the road to that residence. Its results were six thousand +prisoners, among them the Vienna volunteers with the Empress's banner, +and many guns. In his fifty-fifth year this French soldier of fortune +had finally reached the climax of his career. Having fought in the +Seven Years' War, in Portugal and in Corsica, the Revolution gave him +his opening. He assisted Schérer in the capture of the Maritime Alps, +and fought with leonine power at Mondovi and these succeeding +movements. While his fortunes were linked with Bonaparte's they +mounted higher and higher. As governor of Venice he was so upright and +incorruptible as to win the sobriquet "Virgin of Italy." The +discouragement of defeat under Moreau in 1798 led him to retire into +civil life, where he was a stanch Bonapartist and faithful official to +the end of the Napoleonic epoch, when he rallied to the Bourbons. + +Bonaparte estimated that so far in the Italian campaigns the army of +the republic had fought within four days two pitched battles, and had +besides been six times engaged; that they had taken, all told, nearly +twenty-five thousand prisoners, including a lieutenant-general, two +generals, and fifteen colonels; had captured twenty standards, with +sixty pieces of artillery, and had killed or wounded six thousand men. + +This short campaign of Rivoli was the turning-point of the war, and +may be said to have shaped the history of Europe for twenty years. +Chroniclers dwell upon those few moments at St. Mark and the plateau +of Rivoli, wondering what the result would have been if the Austrian +corps which came to turn the rear of Rivoli had arrived five minutes +sooner. But an accurate and dispassionate criticism must decide that +every step in Bonaparte's success was won by careful forethought and +by the most effective disposition of the forces at his command. So +sure was he of success that even in the crises when Masséna seemed to +save the day on the left, and when the Austrians seemed destined to +wrest victory from defeat on the right, he was self-reliant and +cheerful. The new system of field operations had a triumphant +vindication at the hands of its author. The conquering general meted +out unstinted praise to his invincible squadrons and their leaders, +but said nothing of himself, leaving the world to judge whether this +were man or demon who, still a youth, and within a public career of +but one season, had humiliated the proudest empire on the Continent, +had subdued Italy, and on her soil had erected states unknown before, +without the consent of any great power, not excepting France. It is +not wonderful that this personage should sometimes have said of +himself, "Say that my life began at Rivoli," as at other times he +dated his military career from Toulon. + +Wurmser's retreat to Mantua in September had been successful because +of the strong cavalry force which accompanied it. He had been able to +hold out for four months only by means of the flesh of their horses, +five thousand in number, which had been killed and salted to increase +the garrison stores. Even this resource was now exhausted, and after a +few days of delay the gallant old man sent a messenger with the usual +conventional declarations as to his ability for further resistance, in +order, of course, to secure the most favorable terms of surrender. +There is a fine anecdote in connection with the arrival of this +messenger at the French headquarters, which, though perhaps not +literally, is probably ideally, true. When the Austrian envoy entered +Sérurier's presence, another person wrapped in a cloak was sitting at +a table apparently engaged in writing. After the envoy had finished +the usual enumeration of the elements of strength still remaining to +his commander, the unknown man came forward, and, holding a written +sheet in his hand, said: "Here are my conditions. If Wurmser really +had provisions for twenty-five days, and spoke of surrender, he would +not deserve an honorable capitulation. But I respect the age, the +gallantry, and the misfortunes of the marshal; and whether he opens +his gates to-morrow, or whether he waits fifteen days, a month, or +three months, he shall still have the same conditions; he may wait +until his last morsel of bread has been eaten." The messenger was a +clever man who afterward rendered his own name, that of Klenau, +illustrious. He recognized Bonaparte, and, glancing at the terms, +found them so generous that he at once admitted the desperate straits +of the garrison. This is substantially the account of Napoleon's +memoirs. In a contemporary despatch to the Directory there is nothing +of it, for he never indulged in such details to them; but he does say +in two other despatches what at first blush militates against its +literal truth. On February first, writing from Bologna, he declared +that he would withdraw his conditions unless Wurmser acceded before +the third: yet, in a letter of that very date, he indulges in a long +and high-minded eulogium of the aged field-marshal, and declares his +wish to show true French generosity to such a foe. The simple +explanation is that, having sent the terms, Bonaparte immediately +withdrew from Mantua to leave Sérurier in command at the surrender, a +glory he had so well deserved, and then returned to Bologna to begin +his final preparations against Rome. In the interval Wurmser made a +proposition even more favorable to himself. Bonaparte petulantly +rejected it, but with the return of his generous feeling he determined +that at least he would not withdraw his first offer. Captious critics +are never content, and they even charge that when, on the tenth, +Wurmser and his garrison finally did march out, Bonaparte's absence +was a breach of courtesy. It requires no great ardor in his defense to +assert, on the contrary, that in circumstances so unprecedented the +disparity of age between the respective representatives of the old and +the new military system would have made Bonaparte's presence another +drop in the bitter cup of the former. The magnanimity of the young +conqueror in connection with the fall of Mantua was genuine, and +highly honorable to him. So at least thought Wurmser himself, who +wrote a most kindly letter to Bonaparte, forewarning him that a plot +had been formed in Bologna to poison him with that noted, but never +seen, compound so famous in Italian history--aqua tofana. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII. + +Humiliation of the Papacy and of Venice[69]. + + [Footnote 69: The authorities for the following three + chapters are partly as before, but in particular the + following: Vivenot: Thugut, Clerfayt. Correspondance de + Thugut avec Colloredo. Hüffer: Oesterreich und Preussen, + etc.; Der Rastatter Congress. Von Sybel: Geschichte der + Revolutions Zeit. Bailleu: Preussen und Frankreich. + Sandoz-Rollin: Amtliche Sammlung von Akten aus der Zeit + der Helvetischen Republic. Sorel: Bonaparte et Hoche; + Bonaparte et le Directoire; also articles in the Revue + Historique, 1885. Sciout: Le Directoire, also article in + Revue des questions historiques, 1886. Boulay de la + Meurthe: Quelques lettres de Marie Caroline; Revue + d'histoire diplomatique, 1888. Barante: Histoire du + Directoire and Souvenirs. McClellan: The Oligarchy of + Venice. Bonnal: Chute d'une république. Seché: Les + origines du Concordat. Dandolo: La caduta della + republica di Venetia. Romanin: Storia documentata di + Venezia. Sloane: The French Revolution and Religious + Reform. In general and further, the memoirs of Marmont, + Chaptal, Landrieux, Carnot, Larévellière-Lépeaux + (probably not genuine), Mathieu Dumas, Thibaudeau, Miot + de Melito, and the correspondence of Mallet du Pan.] + + Rome Threatened -- Pius VI Surrenders -- The Peace of + Tolentino -- Bonaparte and the Papacy -- Designs for the + Orient -- France Reassured -- The Policy of Austria -- The + Archduke Charles -- Bonaparte Hampered by the Directory -- + His Treatment of Venice -- Condition of Venetia -- The + Commonwealth Warned. + + +[Sidenote: 1797.] + +Bonaparte seems after Rivoli to have reached the conviction that a man +who had brought such glory to the arms of France was at least as firm +in the affections of her people as was the Directory, which had no +hold on them whatever, except in its claim to represent the +Revolution. Clarke had reached Milan on November twenty-ninth, 1796. +Bonaparte read him like an open scroll, discovering instantly that +this graceful courtier had been commissioned to keep the little +general in his place as a subordinate, and use him to make peace at +any price. Possessing the full confidence of Carnot and almost +certainly of the entire Directory, the easily won diplomat revealed to +his lean, long-haired, ill-clad, penetrating, and facile inquisitor +the precious contents of the governmental mind. The religious +revolution in France had utterly failed, riotous vice had spread +consternation even in infidel minds, there was in the return a mighty +flood tide of orthodoxy; if the political revolution was to be saved +at all, it was at the price of peace, and peace very quickly. The +Directory had had little right to its distinction as savior of the +republic from the beginning, and even that was daily disputed by ever +increasing numbers: the most visible and dazzling representative of +the Revolution was now the Army of Italy. It was not for "those +rascally lawyers," as Bonaparte afterward called the directors, that +his great battle of Rivoli had been fought. With this fact in view, +the short ensuing campaign against Pius VI, and its consequences, are +easily understood. It was true, as the French general proclaimed, that +Rome had kept the stipulations of the armistice neither in a pacific +behavior nor in the payment of her indemnity, and was fomenting +resistance to the French arms throughout the peninsula. To the +Directory, which had desired the entire overthrow of the papacy, +Bonaparte proposed that with this in view, Rome should be handed over +to Spain. Behind these pretexts he gathered at Bologna an indifferent +force of eleven thousand soldiers, composed, one half of his own men, +the other half of Italians fired with revolutionary zeal, and of +Poles, a people who, since the recent dismemberment of their country, +were wooing France as a possible ally in its reconstruction. The main +division marched against Ancona; a smaller one of two thousand men +directed its course through Tuscany into the valley of the Tiber. + +The position of the Pope was utterly desperate. The Spaniards had once +been masters of Italy; they were now the natural allies of France +against Austria, and Bonaparte's leniency to Parma and Naples had +strengthened the bond. The reigning king at Naples, Ferdinand IV of +the Two Sicilies, was one of the Spanish Bourbons; but his very able +and masterful wife was the daughter of Maria Theresa. His position was +therefore peculiar: if he had dared, he would have sent an army to the +Pope's support, for thus far his consort had shaped his policy in the +interest of Austria; but knowing full well that defeat would mean the +limitation of his domain to the island of Sicily, he preferred to +remain neutral, and pick up what crumbs he could get from Bonaparte's +table. For this there were excellent reasons. The English fleet had +been more or less unfortunate since the spring of 1796: Bonaparte's +victories, being supplemented by the activity of the French cruisers, +had made it difficult for it to remain in the Mediterranean; Corsica +was abandoned in September; and in October the squadron of Admiral +Mann was literally chased into the Atlantic by the Spaniards. +Ferdinand, therefore, could expect no help from the British. As to the +papal mercenaries, they had long been the laughing-stock of Europe. +They did not now belie their character. Not a single serious +engagement was fought; at Ancona and Loretto twelve hundred prisoners, +with a treasure valued at seven million francs, were taken without a +blow; and on February nineteenth Bonaparte dictated the terms of peace +at Tolentino. + +The terms were not such as either the Pope or the Directory expected. +Far from it. To be sure, there was, over and above the first ransom, a +new money indemnity of three million dollars, making, when added to +what had been exacted in the previous summer, a total of more than +seven. Further stipulations were the surrender of the legations of +Bologna and Ferrara, together with the Romagna; consent to the +incorporation into France of Avignon and the Venaissin, the two papal +possessions in the Rhone valley which had already been annexed; and +the temporary delivery of Ancona as a pledge for the fulfilment of +these engagements; further still, the dispersion of the papal army, +with satisfaction for the killing in a street row of Basseville, the +French plenipotentiary. This, however, was far short of the +annihilation of the papacy as a temporal power. More than that, the +vital question of ecclesiastical authority was not mentioned except to +guarantee it in the surrendered legations. To the Directory Bonaparte +explained that with such mutilations the Roman edifice would fall of +its own weight; and yet he gave his powerful protection to the French +priests who had refused the oaths to the civil constitution required +by the republic, and who, having renounced their allegiance, had found +an asylum in the Papal States. This latter step was taken in the rôle +of humanitarian. In reality, this first open and radical departure +from the policy of the Directory assured to Bonaparte the most +unbounded personal popularity with faithful Roman Catholics +everywhere, and was a step preliminary to his further alliance with +the papacy. The unthinking masses began to compare the captivity of +the Roman Church in France, which was the work of her government, with +the widely different fate of her faithful adherents at Rome under the +humane control of Bonaparte. + +Moreover, it was the French citizen collectors, and not the army, who +continued to scour every town for art plunder. It was believed that +Italy had finally given up "all that was curious and valuable except +some few objects at Turin and Naples," including the famous +wonder-working image of the Lady of Loretto. The words quoted were +used by Bonaparte in a despatch to the Directory, which inclosed a +curious document of very different character. Such had been the +gratitude of Pius for his preservation that he despatched a legate +with his apostolic blessing for the "dear son" who had snatched the +papal power from the very jaws of destruction. "Dear son" was merely a +formal phrase, and a gracious answer was returned from the French +headquarters. This equally formal letter of Bonaparte's was forwarded +to Paris, where, as he knew would be the case, it was regarded as a +good joke by the Directory, who were supposed to consider their +general's diplomacy as altogether patriotic. But, as no doubt the +writer foresaw, it had an altogether different effect on the public. +From that instant every pious Roman Catholic, not only in France, but +throughout Europe, whatever his attitude toward the Directory, was +either an avowed ally of Bonaparte or at least willing to await events +in a neutral spirit. As for the papacy, henceforward it was a tool in +the conqueror's hand: he was determined to use it as an indispensable +bulwark for public decency and political stability. One of the +cardinals gave the gracious preserver of his order a bust of Alexander +the Great: it was a common piece of flattery after the peace to say +that Bonaparte was, like Alexander, a Greek in stature, and, like +Cæsar, a Roman in power. + +While at Ancona, Bonaparte had a temporary relapse into his yearning +for Oriental power. He wrote describing the harbor as the only good +one on the Adriatic south of Venice, and explaining how invaluable it +was for the influence of France on Turkey, since it controlled +communication with Constantinople, and Macedonia was but twenty-four +hours distant. With this despatch he inclosed letters from the Czar to +the Grand Master of Malta which had been seized on the person of a +courier. It was by an easy association of ideas that not long +afterward Bonaparte began to make suggestions for the seizure of Malta +and for a descent into Egypt. These, as elsewhere explained, were old +schemes of French foreign policy, and by no means original with him; +but having long been kept in the background, they were easily +recalled, the more so because in a short time both the new dictator +and the Directory seemed to find in them a remedy for their strained +relations. + +When the news of Rivoli reached Paris on January twenty-fifth, 1797, +the city went into a delirium of joy. To Clarke were sent that very +day instructions suggesting concessions to Austria for the sake of +peace, but enjoining him to consult Bonaparte at every step! To the +conqueror direct, only two days later, was recommended in explicit +terms the overthrow of Romanism in religion, "the most dangerous +obstacle to the establishment of the French constitution." This was a +new tone and the general might assume that his treaty of Tolentino +would be ratified. Further, he was assured that whatever terms of +peace he might dictate to Austria under the walls of Vienna, whether +distasteful to the Directory or not, were sure of being accepted by +the French nation. + +Meantime the foreign affairs of Austria had fallen into a most +precarious condition. Not only had the departure of the English fleet +from the Mediterranean furthered Bonaparte's success in Italy, but +Russia had given notice of an altered policy. If the modern state +system of Europe had rested on any one doctrine more firmly than on +another, it was on the theory of territorial boundaries, and the +inviolability of national existence. Yet, in defiance of all right and +all international law, Prussia, Russia, and Austria had in 1772 +swooped down like vultures on Poland, and parted large portions of her +still living body among themselves. The operation was so much to their +liking that it had been repeated in 1792, and completed in 1795. The +last division had been made with the understanding that, in return for +the lion's share which she received, Russia would give active +assistance to Austria in her designs on northern Italy. Not content +with the Milanese and a protectorate over Modena, Francis had already +cast his eyes on the Venetian mainland. But when on November +seventeenth, 1796, the great Catherine had died, and her successor, +Paul, had refused to be bound by his mother's engagements, all hope of +further aid vanishing, the empire, defeated at Rivoli, was in more +cruel straits than ever. Prussia was consolidating herself into a +great power likely in the end to destroy Austrian influence in the +Germanic Diet, which controlled the affairs of the empire. Both in +Italy and in Germany her rival's fortunes were in the last degree of +jeopardy. Thugut might well exclaim that Catherine's death was the +climax of Austria's misfortunes. + +The hour was dark indeed for Austria; and in the crisis Thugut, the +able and courageous minister of the Emperor, made up his mind at last +to throw, not some or the most, but all his master's military strength +into Italy. The youthful Archduke Charles, who had won great glory as +the conqueror of Jourdan, was accordingly summoned from Germany with +the strength of his army to break through the Tyrol, and prevent the +French from taking the now open road to Vienna. This brother of the +Emperor, though but twenty-five years old, was in his day second only +to Bonaparte as a general. The splendid persistence with which Austria +raised one great army after another to oppose France was worthy of her +traditions. Even when these armies were commanded by veterans of the +old school, they were terrible: it seemed to the cabinet at Vienna +that if Charles were left to lead them in accordance with his own +designs they would surely be victorious. Had he and his Army of the +Rhine been in Italy from the outset, they thought, the result might +have been different. Perhaps they were right; but his tardy arrival at +the eleventh hour was destined to avail nothing. The Aulic Council +ordered him into Friuli, a district of the Italian Alps on the borders +of Venice, where another army--the sixth within a year--was to +assemble for the protection of the Austrian frontier and await the +arrival of the veterans from Germany. This force, unlike the other +five, was composed of heterogeneous elements, and, until further +strengthened, inferior in numbers to the French, who had finally been +reinforced by fifteen thousand men, under Bernadotte, from the Army of +the Sambre and Meuse. + +When Bonaparte started from Mantua for the Alps, his position was the +strongest he had so far secured. The Directory had until then shown +their uneasy jealousy of him by refusing the reinforcements which he +was constantly demanding. It had become evident that the approaching +elections would result in destroying their ascendancy in the Five +Hundred, and that more than ever they must depend for support on the +army. Accordingly they had swallowed their pride, and made Bonaparte +strong. This change in the policy of the government likewise affected +the south and east of France most favorably for his purposes. The +personal pique of the generals commanding in those districts had +subjected him to many inconveniences as to communications with Paris, +as well as in the passage of troops, stores, and the like. They now +recognized that in the approaching political crisis the fate of the +republic would hang on the army, and for that reason they must needs +be complaisant with its foremost figure, whose exploits had dimmed +even those of Hoche in the Netherlands and western France. Italy was +altogether subdued, and there was not a hostile power in the rear of +the great conqueror. Among many of the conquered his name was even +beloved: for the people of Milan his life and surroundings had the +same interest as if he were their own sovereign prince. In front, +however, the case was different; for the position of the Archduke +Charles left the territory of Venice directly between the hostile +armies in such a way as apparently to force Bonaparte into adopting a +definite policy for the treatment of that power. + +For the moment, however, there was no declaration of his decision by +the French commander-in-chief; not even a formal proposal to treat +with the Venetian oligarchy, which, to all outward appearance, had +remained as haughty as ever, as dark and inscrutable in its dealings, +as doubtful in the matter of good faith. And yet a method in +Bonaparte's dealing with it was soon apparent, which, though unlike +any he had used toward other Italian powers, was perfectly adapted to +the ends he had in view. He had already violated Venetian neutrality, +and intended to disregard it entirely. As a foretaste of what that +republic might expect, French soldiers were let loose to pillage her +towns until the inhabitants were so exasperated that they retaliated +by killing a few of their spoilers. Then began a persistent and +exasperating process of charges and complaints and admonitions, until +the origins of the respective offenses were forgotten in the +intervening recriminations. Then, as a warning to all who sought to +endanger the "friendly relations" between the countries, a troop of +French soldiers would be thrown here into one town, there into +another. This process went on without an interval, and with merciless +vigor, until the Venetian officials were literally distracted. +Remonstrance was in vain: Bonaparte laughed at forms. Finally, when +protest had proved unavailing, the harried oligarchy began at last to +arm, and it was not long before forty thousand men, mostly Slavonic +mercenaries, were enlisted under its banner. With his usual +conciliatory blandness, Bonaparte next proposed to the senate a treaty +of alliance, offensive and defensive. + +This was not a mere diplomatic move. Certain considerations might well +incline the oligarchy to accept the plan. There was no love lost +between the towns of the Venetian mainland and the city itself; for +the aristocracy of the latter would write no names in its Golden Book +except those of its own houses. The revolutionary movement had, +moreover, already so heightened the discontent which had spread +eastward from the Milanese, and was now prevalent in Brescia, Bergamo, +and Peschiera, that these cities really favored Bonaparte, and longed +to separate from Venice. Further than this, the Venetian senate had +early in January been informed by its agents in Paris of a rumor that +at the conclusion of peace Austria would indemnify herself with +Venetian territory for the loss of the Milanese. The disquiet of the +outlying cities on the borders of Lombardy was due to a desire for +union with the Transpadane Republic. They little knew for what a +different fate Bonaparte destined them. He was really holding that +portion of the mainland in which they were situated as an indemnity +for Austria. Venice was almost sure to lose them in any case, and he +felt that if she refused the French alliance he could then, with less +show of injustice, tender them and their territories to Francis, in +exchange for Belgium. He offered, however, if the republic should +accept his proposition, to assure the loyalty of its cities, provided +only the Venetians would inscribe the chief families of the mainland +in the Golden Book. + +But in spite of such a suggestive warning, the senate of the +commonwealth adhered to its policy of perfect neutrality. Bonaparte +consented to this decision, but ordered it to disarm, agreeing in that +event to control the liberals on the mainland, and to guarantee the +Venetian territories, leaving behind troops enough both to secure +those ends and to guard his own communications. If these should be +tampered with, he warned the senate that the knell of Venetian +independence would toll forthwith. No one can tell what would have +been in store for the proud city if she had chosen the alternative, +not of neutrality, but of an alliance with France. Bonaparte always +made his plan in two ways, and it is probable that her ultimate fate +would have been identical in either case. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII. + +The Preliminaries of Peace--Leoben. + + Austrian Plans for the Last Italian Campaign -- The Battle + on the Tagliamento -- Retreat of the Archduke Charles -- + Bonaparte's Proclamation to the Carinthians -- Joubert + Withdraws from the Tyrol -- Bonaparte's "Philosophical" + Letter -- His Situation at Leoben -- The Negotiations for + Peace -- Character of the Treaty -- Bonaparte's Rude + Diplomacy -- French Successes on the Rhine -- Plots of the + Directory -- The Uprising of Venetia -- War with Venice. + + +[Sidenote: 1797.] + +The Aulic Council at Vienna prepared for the Archduke Charles a +modification of the same old plan, only this time the approach was +down the Piave and the Tagliamento, rivers which rise among the +grotesque Dolomites and in the Carnic Alps. They flow south like the +Adige and the Brenta, but their valleys are wider where they open into +the lowlands, and easier of access. The auxiliary force, under +Lusignan, was now to the westward on the Piave, while the main force, +under Charles, was waiting for reinforcements in the broad intervales +on the upper reaches of the Tagliamento, through which ran the direct +road to Vienna. This time the order of attack was exactly reversed, +because Bonaparte, with his strengthened army of about seventy-five +thousand men, resolved to take the offensive before the expected +levies from the Austrian army of the Rhine should reach the camp of +his foe. The campaign was not long, for there was no resistance from +the inhabitants, as there would have been in the German Alps, among +the Tyrolese, Bonaparte's embittered enemies; and the united force of +Austria was far inferior to that of France. Joubert, with eighteen +thousand men, was left to repress the Tyrol. Though only twenty-eight +years old, he had risen from a volunteer in the files through every +rank and was now division general. He had gained renown on the Rhine +and found the climax of his fame in this expedition, which he so +brilliantly conducted that at the close of the campaign he was chosen +to carry the captured standards to Paris. He was acclaimed as a coming +man. But thereafter his achievements were mediocre and he fell +mortally wounded on August fifteenth, 1799, at the battle of Novi +while rallying an army destined to defeat. Two small forces under +Kilmaine and Victor associated with Lannes were detailed to watch +Venice and Rome respectively; but the general good order of Italy was +intrusted to the native legions which Bonaparte had organized. Fate +had little more in store for Kilmaine, the gallant Irish cavalryman, +who was among the foremost generals of his army. Already a veteran +forty-six years old, as veterans were then reckoned, he had fought in +America and on the Rhine and had filled the cup of his glory at +Peschiera, Castiglione, and Mantua. He was yet to be governor of +Lombardy and end his career by mortal disease when in chief command of +the "Army of England." Victor, wounded at Toulon, general of brigade +in the Pyrenees, a subordinate officer to the unsuccessful Schérer in +Italy, quickly rose under Bonaparte to be division general. Of lowly +birth, he had scarcely reached his thirty-fourth year when on this +occasion he exhibited both military and diplomatic talent of a high +order. Throughout the consulate and empire he held one important +office after another, so successfully that he commended himself even +to the Bourbons, and died in 1841, full of years and honors. Lannes +was now twenty-eight. The child of poor parents, he began life as a +dyer's apprentice, enlisted when twenty-three and was a colonel within +two years, so astounding were his courage and natural gifts. Detailed +to serve under Bonaparte, the two became bosom friends. A plain, blunt +man, Lannes was as fierce as a war dog and as faithful. Throughout the +following years he followed Bonaparte in all his enterprises, and +Napoleon on the Marchfeld, in 1809, wept bitterly when his faithful +monitor was shot to pieces. + +Masséna advanced up the Piave against Lusignan, captured his +rear-guard, and drove him away northward beyond Belluno, while the +Archduke, thus separated from his right, withdrew to guard the road +into Carniola. Bonaparte, with his old celerity, reached the banks of +the Tagliamento opposite the Austrian position on March sixteenth, +long before he was expected. His troops had marched all night, but +almost immediately they made a feint as if to force a crossing in the +face of their enemy. The Austrians on the left bank awaited the onset +in perfect order, and in dispositions of cavalry, artillery, and +infantry admirably adapted to the ground. It seemed as if the first +meeting of the two young generals would fall out to the advantage of +Charles. But he was neither as wily nor as indefatigable as his enemy. +The French drew back, apparently exhausted, and bivouacked as if for +the night. The Austrians, expecting nothing further that day, and +standing on the defensive, followed the example of their opponents. +Two hours elapsed, when suddenly the whole French army rose like one +man, and, falling into line without an instant's delay, rushed for the +stream, which at that spot was swift but fordable, flowing between +wide, low banks of gravel. The surprise was complete; the stream was +crossed, and the Austrians had barely time to form when the French +were upon them. They fought with gallantry for three hours until +their flank was turned. They then drew off in an orderly retreat, +abandoning many guns and losing some prisoners. + +Masséna, waiting behind the intervening ridge for the signal, advanced +at the first sound of cannon into the upper valley of the same stream, +crossed it, and beset the passes of the Italian Alps, by which +communication with the Austrian capital was quickest. Charles had +nothing left, therefore, but to withdraw due eastward across the great +divide of the Alps, where they bow toward the Adriatic, and pass into +the valley of the Isonzo, behind that full and rushing stream, which +he fondly hoped would stop the French pursuit. The frost, however, had +bridged it in several places, and these were quickly found. Bernadotte +and Sérurier stormed the fortress of Gradisca, and captured two +thousand five hundred men, while Masséna seized the fort at the Chiusa +Veneta, and, scattering a whole division of flying Austrians, captured +five thousand with their stores and equipments. He then attacked and +routed the enemy's guard on the Pontebba pass, occupied Tarvis, and +thus cut off their communication with the Puster valley, by which the +Austrian detachment from the Rhine was to arrive. It was in this +campaign that Bernadotte laid the foundation of his future greatness. +He was the son of a lawyer in Pau, where he was born in 1764. +Enlisting as a common soldier, he was wounded in Corsica, became chief +of battalion under Custine, general of brigade under Kléber, and +commanded a division at Fleurus. The previous year he had shared the +defeat of Jourdan on the Rhine, but under Bonaparte he became a famous +participant in victory. A Jacobin democrat, he was later entrusted by +the Directory with important missions, but in these he had little +success. It was as a soldier that he rose in the coming years to +heights which in his own mind awakened a rivalry with Napoleon; +ambitious for the highest rank, he made a great match with the +sister-in-law of Joseph Bonaparte, and so managed his affairs that, as +is well known, he ended on the throne of Sweden and founded the +reigning house of that kingdom. + +Bonaparte wooed the stupefied Carinthians with his softly worded +proclamations, and his advancing columns were unharassed by the +peasantry while he pushed farther on, capturing Klagenfurt, and +seizing both Triest and Fiume, the only harbors on the Austrian shore. +He then returned with the main body of his troops, and, crossing the +pass of Tarvis, entered Germany at Villach. "We are come," he said to +the inhabitants, "not as enemies, but as friends, to end a terrible +war imposed by England on a ministry bought with her gold." And the +populace, listening to his siren voice, believed him. All this was +accomplished before the end of March; and Charles, his army reduced to +less than three fourths, was resting northward on the road to Vienna, +beyond the river Mur, exhausted, and expecting daily that he would be +compelled to a further retreat. + +Joubert had not been so successful. According to instructions, he had +pushed up the Adige as far as Brixen, into the heart of the hostile +Tyrol. The Austrians had again called the mountaineers to arms, and a +considerable force under Laudon was gathered to resist the invaders. +It had been a general but most indefinite understanding between +Bonaparte and the Directory that Moreau was again to cross the Rhine +and advance once more, this time for a junction with Joubert to march +against Vienna. But the directors, in an access of suspicion, had +broken their word, and, pleading their penury, had not taken a step +toward fitting out the Army of the North. Moreau was therefore not +within reach; he had not even crossed the Rhine. Consequently Joubert +was in straits, for the whole country had now risen against him. It +was with difficulty that he had advanced, and with serious loss that +he fought one terrible battle after another; finally, however, he +forced his way into the valley of the Drave, and marched down that +river to join Bonaparte. This was regarded by Bonaparte as a +remarkable feat, but by the Austrians as a virtual repulse; both the +Tyrol and Venice were jubilant, and the effects spread as far eastward +as the Austrian provinces of the Adriatic. Triest and Fiume had not +been garrisoned, and the Austrians occupied them once more; the +Venetian senate organized a secret insurrection, which broke out +simultaneously in many places, and was suppressed only after many of +the French, some of them invalids in the hospitals, had been murdered. + +On March thirty-first, Bonaparte, having received definite and +official information that he could expect no immediate support from +the Army of the Rhine, addressed from Klagenfurt to the Archduke what +he called a "philosophical" letter, calling attention to the fact that +it was England which had embroiled France and Austria, powers which +had really no grievance one against the other. Would a prince, so far +removed by lofty birth from the petty weaknesses of ministers and +governments, not intervene as the savior of Germany to end the +miseries of a useless war? "As far as I myself am concerned, if the +communication I have the honor to be making should save the life of a +single man, I should be prouder of that civic crown than of the sad +renown which results from military success." At the same time Masséna +was pressing forward into the valley of the Mur, across the passes of +Neumarkt; and before the end of the week his seizure of St. Michael +and Leoben had cut off the last hope of a junction between the forces +of Charles and his expected reinforcements from the Rhine. Austria was +carrying on her preparations of war with the same proud determination +she had always shown, and Charles continued his disastrous hostilities +with Masséna. But when Thugut received the "philosophical" letter from +Bonaparte, which Charles had promptly forwarded to Vienna, the +imperial cabinet did not hesitate, and plenipotentiaries were soon on +their way to Leoben. + +The situation of Bonaparte at Leoben was by no means what the position +of the French forces within ninety miles of Vienna would seem to +indicate. The revolutionary movement in Venetia, silently but +effectually fostered by the French garrisons, had been successful in +Bergamo, Brescia, and Salo. The senate, in despair, sent envoys to +Bonaparte at Göritz. His reply was conciliatory, but he declared that +he would do nothing unless the city of Venice should make the +long-desired concession about inscriptions in the Golden Book. At the +same time he demanded a monthly payment of a million francs in lieu of +all requisitions on its territory. At Paris the Venetian ambassador +had no better success, and with the news of Joubert's withdrawal from +the Tyrol a terrible insurrection broke out, which sacrificed many +French lives at Verona and elsewhere. Bonaparte's suggestions for the +preliminaries of peace with Austria had been drawn up before the news +of that event reached him: but with the Tyrol and Venice all aflame in +his rear, and threatening his connections; with no prospect of +assistance from Moreau in enforcing his demands; and with a growing +hostility showing itself among the populations of the hereditary +states of Austria into which he had penetrated, it was not wonderful +that his original design was confirmed. "At Leoben," he once said, in +a gambler's metaphor, "I was playing twenty-one, and I had only +twenty." + +When, therefore, Merveldt and Gallo, the duly accredited +plenipotentiaries of Austria, and General Bonaparte, representing the +French republic, but with no formal powers from its government, met in +the castle of Göss at Leoben, they all knew that the situation of the +French was very precarious indeed, and that the terms to be made could +not be those dictated by a triumphant conqueror in the full tide of +victory. Neither party had any scruples about violating the public law +of Europe by the destruction of another nationality; but they needed +some pretext. While they were in the opening stages of negotiation the +pretext came; for on April ninth Bonaparte received news of the +murders to which reference has been made, and of an engagement at +Salo, provoked by the French, in which the Bergamask mountaineers had +captured three hundred of the garrison, mostly Poles. This affair was +only a little more serious than numerous other conflicts incident to +partisan warfare which were daily occurring; but it was enough. With a +feigned fury the French general addressed the Venetian senate as if +their land were utterly irreconcilable, and demanded from them +impossible acts of reparation. Junot was despatched to Venice with the +message, and delivered it from the floor of the senate on April +fifteenth, the very day on which his chief was concluding negotiations +for the delivery of the Venetian mainland to Austria. + +So strong had the peace party in Vienna become, and such was the +terror of its inhabitants at seeing the court hide its treasures and +prepare to fly into Hungary, that the plenipotentiaries could only +accept the offer of Bonaparte, which they did with ill-concealed +delight. There was but one point of difference, the grand duchy of +Modena, which Francis for the honor of his house was determined to +keep, if possible. With Tuscany, Modena, and the Venetian mainland all +in their hands, the Austrian authorities felt that time would surely +restore to them the lost Milanese. But Bonaparte was obdurate. On the +eighteenth the preliminaries were closed and adopted. The Austrians +solemnly declared at the time that, when the papers were to be +exchanged formally, Bonaparte presented a copy which purported to be a +counterpart of what had been mutually arranged. Essential differences +were, however, almost immediately marked by the recipients, and when +they announced their discovery with violent clamor, the cool, +sarcastic general produced without remark another copy, which was +found to be a correct reproduction of the preliminary terms agreed +upon. This coarse and silly ruse seems to have been a favorite device, +for it was tried later in another conspicuous instance, the +negotiation of the Concordat. According to the authentic articles, +France was to have Belgium, with the "limits of France" as decreed by +the laws of the republic, a purposely ambiguous expression. In this +preliminary outline the Rhine boundary was not mentioned. The +territory of the Empire was also guaranteed. These flat contradictions +indicate something like panic on both sides, and duplicity at least on +one and probably on both, for Thugut's correspondence indicates his +firm purpose to despoil and destroy Venice. In any case Austria +obtained the longed-for mainland of Venice as far as the river Oglio, +together with Istria and Dalmatia, the Venetian dependencies beyond +the Adriatic, while Venice herself was to be nominally indemnified by +the receipt of the three papal legations, Bologna, Ferrara, and the +Romagna, which had just been erected into the Transpadane Republic! +Modena was to be united with Mantua, Reggio, and the Milanese into a +great central republic, which would always be dependent on France, and +was to be connected with her territory by way of Genoa. Some of the +articles were secret, and all were subject to immaterial changes in +the final negotiations for definitive peace, which were to be carried +on later at Bern, chosen for the purpose as being a neutral city. + +Bonaparte explained, in a letter to the Directory, that whatever +occurred, the Papal States could never become an integral part of +Venice, and would always be under French influences. His sincerity was +no greater, as the event showed, concerning the very existence of +Venice herself. The terms he had made were considered at Vienna most +favorable, and there was great rejoicing in that capital. But it was +significant that in the routine negotiations the old-school +diplomatists had been sadly shocked by the behavior of their military +antagonist, who, though a mere tyro in their art, was very hard to +deal with. At the outset, for instance, they had proposed to +incorporate, as the first article in the preliminaries, that for which +the Directory had long been negotiating with Austria, a recognition of +the French republic. "Strike that out," said Bonaparte. "The Republic +is like the sun on the horizon--all the worse for him who will not see +it." This was but a foretaste of ruder dealings which followed, and of +still more violent breaches with tradition in the long negotiations +which were to ensue over the definitive treaty. + +The very day on which the signatures were affixed at Leoben, the +Austrian arms were humbled by Hoche on the Rhine. Moreau had not been +able to move for lack of a paltry sum which he was begging for, but +could not obtain, from the Directory. Hoche, chafing at similar +delays, and anxious to atone for Jourdan's failure of the previous +year, finally set forth, and, crossing at Neuwied, advanced to +Heddersdorf, where he attacked the Austrians, who had been weakened to +strengthen the Archduke Charles. They were routed with a loss of six +thousand prisoners. Another considerable force was nearly surrounded +when a sudden stop was put to Hoche's career by the arrival of a +courier from Leoben. Though, soon after, the ministry of war was +offered to him, he declined. It was apparently prescience of the fact +that the greatest laurels were still to be won which led him to +refuse, and return to his headquarters at Wetzlar. There a mysterious +malady, still attributed by many to poison, ended his brief and +glorious career on September eighteenth, 1797. His laurels were such +as adorn only a character full of promise, serene and generous alike +in success and defeat. In the Black Forest, Desaix, having crossed the +Rhine with Moreau's army below Strasburg, was likewise driving the +Austrians before him. He too was similarly checked, and these +brilliant achievements came all too late. No advantage was gained by +them in the terms of peace, and the glory of humiliating Austria +remained to Bonaparte. Desaix was an Auvergnat, an aristocrat of +famous pedigree, carefully trained as a cadet to the military career. +He was now twenty-nine, having served on the Rhine as Victor's +adjutant, as general of brigade in the Army of the Moselle, and as +general of division under Jourdan and Moreau. Transferred to Italy, he +became the confidential friend and stanch supporter of Bonaparte. His +manner was winning, his courage contagious, his liberal principles +unquestioned. No finer figure appears on the battle-fields of the +Directory and Consulate. + +Throughout all France there was considerable dissatisfaction with +Bonaparte's moderation, and a feeling among extreme republicans, +especially in the Directory, that he should have destroyed the +Austrian monarchy. Larévellière and Rewbell were altogether of this +opinion, and the corrupt Barras to a certain extent, for he had taken +a bribe of six hundred thousand francs from the Venetian ambassador at +Paris, to compel the repression by Bonaparte of the rebels on the +mainland. The correspondence of various emissaries connected with this +affair fell into the general's hands at Milan, and put the Directory +more completely at his mercy than ever. On April nineteenth, however, +he wrote as if in reply to such strictures as might be made: "If at +the beginning of the campaign I had persisted in going to Turin, I +never should have passed the Po; if I had persisted in going to Rome, +I should have lost Milan; if I had persisted in going to Vienna, +perhaps I should have overthrown the Republic." He well understood +that fear would yield what despair might refuse. It was a matter of +course that when the terms of Leoben reached Paris the Directory +ratified them: even though they had been irregularly negotiated by an +unauthorized agent, they separated England from Austria, and crushed +the coalition. One thing, however, the directors notified Bonaparte he +must not do; that was, to interfere further in the affairs of Venice. +This order reached him on May eighth; but just a week before, Venice, +as an independent state, had ceased to exist. + +Accident and crafty prearrangement had combined to bring the affairs +of that ancient commonwealth to such a crisis. The general +insurrection and the fight at Salo had given a pretext for disposing +of the Venetian mainland; soon after, the inevitable results of French +occupation afforded the opportunity for destroying the oligarchy +altogether. The evacuation of Verona by the garrison of its former +masters had been ordered as a part of the general disarmament of +Italy. The Veronese were intensely, fiercely indignant on learning +that they were to be transferred to a hated allegiance; and on April +seventeenth, when a party appeared to reinforce the French troops +already there, the citizens rose in a frenzy of indignation, and drove +the hated invaders into the citadel. During the following days, three +hundred of the French civilians in the town, all who had not been able +to find refuge, were massacred; old and young, sick and well. At the +same time a detachment of Austrians under Laudon came in from the +Tyrol to join Fioravente, the Venetian general, and his Slavs. This of +course increased the tumult, for the French began to bombard the city +from the citadel. For a moment the combined besiegers, exaggerating +the accounts of Joubert's withdrawal and of Moreau's failure to +advance, hoped for ultimate success, and the overthrow of the French. +But rumors from Leoben caused the Austrians to withdraw up the Adige, +and a Lombard regiment came to the assistance of the French. The +Venetian forces were captured, and the city was disarmed; so also were +Peschiera, Castelnuovo, and many others which had made no resistance. + +Two days after this furious outbreak of Veronese resentment,--an event +which is known to the French as the Veronese Passover,--occurred +another, of vastly less importance in itself, but having perhaps even +more value as cumulative evidence that the wound already inflicted by +Bonaparte on the Venetian state was mortal. A French vessel, flying +before two Austrian cruisers, appeared off the Lido, and anchored +under the arsenal. It was contrary to immemorial custom for an armed +vessel to enter the harbor of Venice, and the captain was ordered to +weigh anchor. He refused. Thereupon, in stupid zeal, the guns of the +Venetian forts opened on the ship. Many of the crew were killed, and +the rest were thrown into prison. This was the final stroke, all that +was necessary for the justification of Bonaparte's plans. An embassy +from the senate had been with him at Gratz when the awful news from +Verona came to his headquarters. He had then treated them harshly, +demanding not only the liberation of every man confined for political +reasons within their prison walls, but the surrender of their +inquisitors as well. "I will have no more Inquisition, no more Senate; +I shall be an Attila to Venice!... I want not your alliance nor your +schemes; I mean to lay down the law." They left his presence with +gloomy and accurate forebodings as to what was in those secret +articles which had been executed at Leoben. When, two days later, came +this news of further conflict with the French in Venice itself, the +envoys were dismissed, without another audience, by a note which +declared that its writer "could not receive them, dripping as they +were with French blood." On May third, having advanced to Palma, +Bonaparte declared war against Venice. In accordance with the general +license of the age, hostilities had, however, already begun; for as +early as April thirtieth the French and their Italian helpers had +fortified the lowlands between the Venetian lagoons, and on May first +the main army appeared at Fusina, the nearest point on the mainland to +the city. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV. + +The Fall of Venice. + + Feebleness of the Venetian Oligarchy -- Its Overthrow -- + Bonaparte's Duplicity -- Letters of Opposite Purport -- + Montebello -- The Republican Court -- England's Proposition + for Peace -- Plans of the Directory -- General Clarke's + Diplomatic Career -- Conduct of Mme. Bonaparte -- + Bonaparte's Jealous Tenderness -- His Wife's Social + Conquests -- Relations of the Powers. + + +[Sidenote: 1797.] + +Since the days of Carthage no government like that of the Venetian +oligarchy had existed on the earth. At its best it was dark and +remorseless; with the disappearance of its vigor its despotism had +become somewhat milder, but even yet no common man might draw the veil +from its mysterious, irresponsible councils and live. A few hundred +families administered the country as they did their private estates. +All intelligence, all liberty, all personal independence, were +repressed by such a system. The more enlightened Venetians of the +mainland, many even in the city, feeling the influences of the time, +had long been uneasy under their government, smoothly as it seemed to +run in time of peace. Now that the earth was quaking under the march +of Bonaparte's troops, this government was not only helpless, but in +its panic it actually grew contemptible, displaying by its conduct how +urgent was the necessity for a change. The senate had a powerful +fleet, three thousand native troops, and eleven thousand mercenaries; +but they struck only a single futile blow on their own account, +permitting a rash captain to open fire from the gunboats against the +French vanguard when it appeared. But immediately, as if in fear of +their own temerity, they despatched an embassy to learn the will of +the approaching general. That his dealings might be merciful, they +tried the plan of Modena, and offered him a bribe of seven million +francs; but, as in the case of Modena, he refused. Next day the Great +Council having been summoned, it was determined by a nearly unanimous +vote of the patricians--six hundred and ninety to twenty-one--that +they would remodel their institutions on democratic lines. The pale +and terrified Doge thought that in such a surrender lay the last hope +of safety. + +Not for a moment did Lallemant and Villetard, the two French agents, +intermit their revolutionary agitation in the town. Disorders grew +more frequent, while uncertainty both paralyzed and disintegrated the +patrician party. A week later the government virtually abdicated. Two +utter strangers appeared in a theatrical way at its doors, and +suggested in writing to the Great Council that to appease the spirit +of the times they should plant the liberty-tree on the Place of St. +Mark, and speedily accede to all the propositions for liberalizing +Venice which the popular temper seemed to demand. Such were the terror +and disorganization of the aristocracy that instead of punishing the +intrusion of the unknown reformers by death, according to the +traditions of their merciless procedure, they took measures to carry +out the suggestions made in a way as dark and significant as any of +their own. The fleet was dismantled, and the army disbanded. By the +end of the month the revolution was virtually accomplished; a rising +of their supporters having been mistaken by the Great Council, in its +pusillanimous terror, for a rebellion of their antagonists, they +decreed the abolition of all existing institutions, and, after hastily +organizing a provisional government, disbanded. Four thousand French +soldiers occupied the town, and an ostensible treaty was made between +the new republic of Venice and that of France. + +This treaty was really nothing but a pronunciamento of Bonaparte. He +decreed a general amnesty to all offenders except the commander of +Fort Luco, who had recently fired on the French vessel. He also +guaranteed the public debt, and promised to occupy the city only as +long as the public order required it. By a series of secret articles, +vaguely expressed, Venice was bound to accept the stipulations of +Leoben in regard to territory, pay an indemnity of one million two +hundred thousand dollars, and furnish three ships of the line with two +frigates, while, in pursuance of the general policy of the French +republic, experts were to select twenty pictures from her galleries, +and five hundred manuscripts from her libraries. Whatever was the +understanding of those who signed these crushing conditions, the city +was never again treated by any European power as an independent state. +To this dismemberment the Directory made itself an accessory after the +fact, having issued a declaration of war on Venice which only reached +Milan to be suppressed, when already Venice was no more. Whether the +oligarchy or its assassin was the more loathsome still remains an +academic question, debatable only in an idle hour. Soon afterward a +French expedition was despatched to occupy her island possessions in +the Levant. The arrangements had been carefully prepared during the +very time when the provisional government believed itself to be paying +the price of its new liberties. And earlier still, on May +twenty-seventh, three days before the abdication of the aristocracy, +Bonaparte had already offered to Austria the entire republic in its +proposed form as an exchange for the German lands on the left bank of +the Rhine. + +Writing to the Directory on that day, he declared that Venice, which +had been in a decline ever since the discovery of the Cape of Good +Hope and the rise of Triest and Ancona, could with difficulty survive +the blows just given her. "This miserable, cowardly people, unfit for +liberty, and without land or water--it seems natural to me that we +should hand them over to those who have received their mainland from +us. We shall take all their ships, we shall despoil their arsenal, we +shall remove all their cannon, we shall wreck their rank, we shall +keep Corfu and Ancona for ourselves." On the twenty-sixth, only the +day previous, a letter to his "friends" of the Venetian provisional +government had assured them that he would do all in his power to +confirm their liberties, and that he earnestly desired that Italy, +"now covered with glory, and free from every foreign influence, should +again appear on the world's stage, and assert among the great powers +that station to which by nature, position, and destiny it was +entitled." Ordinary minds cannot grasp the guile and daring which seem +to have foreseen and prearranged all the conditions necessary to plans +which for double-dealing transcended the conceptions of men even in +that age of duplicity and selfishness. + +Not far from Milan, on a gentle rise, stands the famous villa, or +country-seat, of Montebello. Its windows command a scene of rare +beauty: on one side, in the distance, the mighty Alps, with their +peaks of never-melting ice and snow; on the other three, the almost +voluptuous beauty of the fertile plains; while in the near foreground +lies the great capital of Lombardy, with its splendid industries, its +stores of art, and its crowded spires hoary with antiquity. Within +easy reach are the exquisite scenes of an enchanted region--that of +the Italian lakes. To this lordly residence Bonaparte withdrew. His +summer's task was to be the pacification of Europe, and the +consolidation of his own power in Italy, in France, and northward +beyond the Alps. The two objects went hand in hand. From Austria, from +Rome, from Naples, from Turin, from Parma, from Switzerland, and even +from the minor German principalities whose fate hung on the +rearrangement of German lands to be made by the Diet of the Empire, +agents of every kind, both military and diplomatic, both secret and +accredited, flocked to the seat of power. Expresses came and went in +all directions, while humble suitors vied with one another in homage +to the risen sun. + +The uses of rigid etiquette were well understood by Bonaparte. He +appreciated the dazzling power of ceremony, the fascination of +condescension, and the influence of woman in the conduct of affairs. +All such influences he lavished with a profusion which could have been +conceived only by an Oriental imagination. As if to overpower the +senses by an impressive contrast, and symbolize the triumph of that +dominant Third Estate of which he claimed to be the champion against +aristocrats, princes, kings, and emperors, the simplicity of the +Revolution was personified and emphasized in his own person. His +ostentatious frugality, his disdain for dress, his contempt for +personal wealth and its outward signs, were all heightened by the +setting which inclosed them, as a frame of brilliants often heightens +the character in the portrait of a homely face. + +Meantime England, grimly determined to save herself and the Europe +essential to her well-being, was not a passive spectator of events in +Italy. To understand the political situation certain facts must be +reiterated in orderly connection. At the close of 1796, Pitt's +administration was still in great straits, for the Tories who +supported him were angered by his lack of success, while the Whig +opposition was correspondingly jubilant and daily growing stronger. +The navy had been able barely to preserve appearances, but that was +all. There was urgent need for reform in tactics, in administration, +and in equipment. France had made some progress in all these +directions, and, in spite of English assistance, both the Vendean and +the Chouan insurrections had, to all appearance, been utterly crushed. +Subsequently the powerful expedition under Hoche, equipped and held in +readiness to sail for Ireland, there to organize rebellion, and give +England a draught from her own cup, though destined to disaster, +wrought powerfully on the British imagination. It was clear that the +Whigs would score a triumph at the coming elections if something were +not done. Accordingly, as has been told, Pitt determined to open +negotiations for peace with the Directory. As his agent he unwisely +chose a representative aristocrat, who had distinguished himself as a +diplomatist in Holland by organizing the Orange party to sustain the +Prussian arms against the rising democracy of that country. Moreover, +the envoy was an ultra-conservative in his views of the French +Revolution, and, believing that there was no room in western Europe +for his own country and her great rival, thought there could be no +peace until France was destroyed. Burke sneered that he had gone to +Paris on his knees. He had been received with suspicion and distrust, +many believing his real errand to be the reorganization of a royalist +party in France. Then, too, Delacroix, minister of foreign affairs, +was a narrow, shallow, and conceited man, unable either to meet an +adroit and experienced negotiator on his own ground, or to prepare new +forms of diplomatic combat, as Bonaparte had done. The English +proposition, it is well to recall, was that Great Britain would give +up all the French colonial possessions she had seized during the war, +provided the French republic would abandon Belgium. It is essential to +an understanding of Bonaparte's attitude in 1797, to recall also in +this connection that the navigation of the Scheldt has ever been an +object of the highest importance to England: the establishment of a +strong, hostile maritime power in harbors like those of the +Netherlands would menace, if not destroy, the British carrying-trade +with central and northern Europe. The reply of the Directory had been +that their fundamental law forbade the consideration of such a point; +and when Malmesbury persisted in his offer, he was allowed forty-eight +hours to leave the country. The negotiation was a fiasco as far as +Austria was concerned, although useful in consolidating British +patriotism. Hoche, having been despatched to Ireland, found wind and +waves adverse, and then returned to replace Jourdan in command of one +of the Rhine armies, the latter having been displaced for his failures +in Germany and relegated to the career of politics. Bonaparte's +victories left his most conspicuous rival nothing to do and he +gracefully congratulated his Italian colleague on having forestalled +him. His sad and suspicious death in September had no influence on the +terms of Bonaparte's treaty, but emphasized the need of its +ratification. + +The Directory, with an eye single to the consolidation of the +republic, cared little for Lombardy, and much for Belgium; for the +prestige of the government, even for its stability, Belgium with the +Rhine frontier must be secured. The Austrian minister cared little for +the distant provinces of the empire, and everything for a compact +territorial consolidation. The successes of 1796 had secured to France +treaties with Prussia, Bavaria, Würtemberg, Baden, and the two circles +of Swabia and Franconia, whereby these powers consented to abandon +the control of all lands on the left bank of the Rhine hitherto +belonging to them or to the Germanic body. As a consequence the goal +of the Directory could be reached by Austria's consent, and Austria +appeared to be willing. The only question was, Would France restore +the Milanese? Carnot was emphatic in the expression of his opinion +that for the sake of peace with honor, a speedy, enduring peace, she +must, and his colleagues assented. Accordingly, Bonaparte was warned +that no expectations of emancipation must be awakened in the Italian +peoples. But such a warning was absurd. The directors, having been +able neither to support their general with adequate reinforcements, +nor to pay his troops, it had been only in the rôle of a liberator +that Bonaparte was successful in cajoling and conquering Italy, in +sustaining and arming his men, and in pouring treasures into Paris. It +was for this reason that, enormous and outrageous as was the ruin and +spoliation of a neutral state, he saw himself compelled to overthrow +Venice, and hold it as a substitute for Lombardy in the coming trade +with Austria. But the directors either could not or would not at that +time enter into his plans, and refused to comprehend the situation. + +With doubtful good sense they had therefore determined in November, +1796, to send Clarke, their own chosen agent, to Vienna. It was for +this that they selected a man of polished manners and honest purpose, +but, contrary to their estimate, of very moderate ability. He must of +course have a previous understanding with Bonaparte, and to that end +he had journeyed by way of Italy. Being kindly welcomed, he was +entirely befooled by his subtle host, who detained him with idle +suggestions until after the fall of Mantua, when to his amazement he +received the instructions from Paris already stated: to make no +proposition of any kind without Bonaparte's consent. Then followed +the death of the Czarina Catherine, which left Austria with no ally, +and all the subsequent events to the eve of Leoben. Thugut, of course, +wanted no Jacobin agitator at Vienna, such as he supposed Clarke to +be, and informed him that he must not come thither, but might reach a +diplomatic understanding with the Austrian minister at Turin, if he +could. He was thus comfortably banished from the seat of war during +the closing scenes of the campaign, and to Bonaparte's satisfaction +could not of course reach Leoben in time to conclude the preliminaries +as the accredited agent of the republic. But, to save the self-respect +of the Directory, he was henceforth to be associated with Bonaparte in +arranging the final terms of peace; and to that end he came of course +to Milan. Representing as he did the conviction of the government that +the Rhine frontier must be a condition of peace, and necessarily +emphasizing its scheme of territorial compensations, he had to be +either managed or disregarded. It was the versatility of the envoy at +Montebello which assured him his subsequent career under the consulate +and empire. + +The court at Montebello was not a mere levee of men. There was as well +an assemblage of brilliant women, of whom the presiding genius was +Mme. Bonaparte. Love, doubt, decision, marriage, separation, had been +the rapidly succeeding incidents of her connection with Bonaparte in +Paris. Though she had made ardent professions of devotion to her +husband, the marriage vow sat but lightly on her in the early days of +their separation. Her husband appears to have been for a short time +more constant, but, convinced of her fickleness, to have become as +unfaithful as she. And yet the complexity of emotions--ambition, +self-interest, and physical attraction--which seems to have been +present in both, although in widely different degree, sustained +something like genuine ardor in him, and an affection sincere enough +often to awaken jealousy in her. The news of Bonaparte's successive +victories in Italy made his wife a heroine in Paris. In all the salons +of the capital, from that of the directors at the Luxembourg downward +through those of her more aristocratic but less powerful +acquaintances, she was fêted and caressed. As early as April, 1796, +came the first summons of her husband to join him in Italy. Friends +explained to her willing ears that it was not a French custom for the +wives of generals to join the camp-train, and she refused. Resistance +but served to rouse the passions of the young conqueror, and his fiery +love-letters reached Paris by every courier. Josephine, however, +remained unmoved; for the traditions of her admirers, to whom she +showed them, made light of a conjugal affection such as that. She was +flattered, but, during the courtship, slightly frightened by such +addresses. + +In due time there were symptoms which appeared to be those of +pregnancy. On receipt of this news the prospective father could not +contain himself for joy. The letter which he sent has been preserved. +It was written from Tortona, on June fifteenth, 1796. Life is but a +vain show because at such an hour he is absent from her. His passion +had clouded his faculties, but if she is in pain he will leave at any +hazard for her side. Without appetite, and sleepless; without thought +of friends, glory, or country, all the world is annihilated for him +except herself. "I care for honor because you do, for victory because +it gratifies you, otherwise I would have left all else to throw myself +at your feet. Dear friend, be sure and say you are persuaded that I +love you above all that can be imagined--persuaded that every moment +of my time is consecrated to you; that never an hour passes without +thought of you; that it never occurred to me to think of another +woman; that they are all in my eyes without grace, without beauty, +without wit; that you--you alone as I see you, as you are--could +please and absorb all the faculties of my soul; that you have fathomed +all its depths; that my heart has no fold unopened to you, no thoughts +which are not attendant upon you; that my strength, my arms, my mind, +are all yours; that my soul is in your form, and that the day you +change, or the day you cease to live, will be that of my death; that +nature, the earth, is lovely in my eyes, only because you dwell within +it. If you do not believe all this, if your soul is not persuaded, +saturated, you distress me, you do not love me. Between those who love +is a magnetic bond. You know that I could never see you with a lover, +much less endure your having one: to see him and to tear out his heart +would for me be one and the same thing; and then, could I, I would lay +violent hands on your sacred person.... No, I would never dare, but I +would leave a world where that which is most virtuous had deceived me. +I am confident and proud of your love. Misfortunes are trials which +mutually develop the strength of our passion. A child lovely as its +mother is to see the light in your arms. Wretched man that I am, a +single day would satisfy me! A thousand kisses on your eyes, on your +lips. Adorable woman! what a power you have! I am sick with your +disease: besides, I have a burning fever. Keep the courier but six +hours, and let him return at once, bringing to me the darling letter +of my queen." + +At length, in June, when the first great victories had been won, when +the symptoms of motherhood proved to be spurious and disappeared, when +honors like those of a sovereign were awaiting her in Italy, Mme. +Bonaparte decided to tear herself away from the circle of her friends +in Paris, and to yield to the ever more urgent pleadings of her +husband. Traveling under Junot's care, she reached Milan early in +July, to find the general no longer an adventurer, but the successful +dictator of a people, courted by princes and kings, adored by the +masses, and the arbiter of nations. Rising, apparently without an +effort, to the height of the occasion, she began and continued +throughout the year to rival in her social conquests the victories of +her husband in the field. Where he was Caius, she was Caia. High-born +dames sought her favor, and nobles bowed low to win her support. At +times she actually braved the dangers of insurrection and the +battle-field. Her presence in their capital was used to soothe the +exasperated Venetians. To gratify her spouse's ardor, she journeyed to +many cities, and by a show of mild sympathy moderated somewhat the +wild ambitions which the scenes and character of his successes +awakened in his mind. The heroes and poets of Rome had moved upon that +same stage. To his consort the new Cæsar unveiled the visions of his +heated imagination, explained the sensations aroused in him by their +shadowy presence, and unfolded his schemes of emulation. Of such +purposes the court held during the summer at Montebello was but the +natural outcome. Its historic influence was incalculable: on one hand, +by the prestige it gave in negotiation to the central figure, and by +the chance it afforded to fix and crystallize the indefinite visions +of the hour; on the other, by rendering memorable the celebration of +the national fête on July fourteenth, 1797, an event arranged for +political purposes, and so dazzling as to fix in the army the intense +and complete devotion to their leader which made possible the next +epoch in his career. + +The summer was a season of enforced idleness, outwardly and as far as +international relations were concerned, but in reality Bonaparte was +never more active nor more successful. In February the Bank of England +had suspended specie payments, and in March the price of English +consols was fifty-one, the lowest it ever reached. The battle of Cape +St. Vincent, fought on February fourteenth, destroyed the Spanish +naval power, and freed Great Britain from the fear of a combination +between the French and Spanish fleets for an invasion. But, on the +other hand, sedition was wide-spread in the navy; the British sailors +were mutinous to the danger-point, hoisting the red flag and +threatening piracy. The risings, though numerous, were eventually +quelled, but the effect on the English people was magical. Left +without an ally by the death of Catherine, the temporizing of Paul, +and his leaning to the Prussian policy of neutrality, facts mirrored +in the preliminaries of Leoben, their government made overtures for +peace. There was a crisis in the affairs of the Directory and, as a +sort of shelter from the stormy menace of popular disapproval, +Delacroix consented to receive Malmesbury again and renew negotiations +at Lille. As expected, the arrangement was a second theatrical +fencing-bout from the beginning. Canning feared his country would meet +with an accident in the sword-play, for the terms proposed were a weak +yielding to French pride by laying the Netherlands at her feet. +Probably the offer was not serious in any case, the farce was quickly +ended, and when their feint was met the British nation had recuperated +and was not dismayed. It required the utmost diligence in the use of +personal influence, on the part both of the French general and of his +wife, to thwart among the European diplomats assembled at Montebello +the prestige of English naval victory and the swift adaptations of +their policy to changing conditions. But they succeeded, and the +evidence was ultimately given not merely in great matters like the +success of Fructidor or the peace of Campo Formio, but in small +ones--such, for example, as the speedy liberation of Lafayette from +his Austrian prison. + + +END OF VOLUME I + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Life of Napoleon Bonaparte, by +William Milligan Sloane + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE *** + +***** This file should be named 24360-8.txt or 24360-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/3/6/24360/ + +Produced by Thierry Alberto, Henry Craig, Christine P. +Travers and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net + + +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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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 Life of Napoleon Bonaparte + Vol. I. (of IV.) + +Author: William Milligan Sloane + +Release Date: January 22, 2008 [EBook #24360] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE *** + + + + +Produced by Thierry Alberto, Henry Craig, Christine P. +Travers and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<p class="tn">[Transcriber's note: Obvious printer's errors have been corrected, all +other inconsistencies are as in the original. The author's spelling +has been maintained.]</p> + +<a id="img001" name="img001"></a> +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/img001.jpg" width="300" height="347" alt="" title=""> +<p class="noindent">Napoleon Bonaparte in 1785, aged sixteen.</p> +<p class="noindent"><span class="smaller">From sketch made by a comrade;<br> +formerly in the <span lang="fr">Musée des Souverains</span>, now in the Louvre.</span></p> +</div> + + +<h1>THE LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE</h1> + +<p class="center noindent">BY</p> + +<h2>WILLIAM MILLIGAN SLOANE</h2> +<p class="center noindent">PH.D., L.H.D., LL.D.<br> +Professor of History in Columbia University</p> + +<p class="center noindent">REVISED AND ENLARGED<br> + WITH PORTRAITS</p> + +<p class="center p4 noindent">VOLUME <abbr title="1">I</abbr></p> + +<a id="img002" name="img002"></a> +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/img002.jpg" width="120" height="117" alt="Editor's arm." title=""> +</div> + +<p class="p4 center smaller noindent">NEW YORK<br> + THE CENTURY CO.<br> + 1916</p> + +<p class="p4 center smaller noindent"><span class="smcap">Copyright</span>, 1894, 1895, 1896, 1910<br> +BY<br> +THE CENTURY CO.<br> +<span class="italic">Published, October, 1910</span></p> + +<h2><span class="pagenum"><a id="pagev" name="pagev"></a>(p. v)</span> PREFACE TO THE LIBRARY EDITION</h2> + +<p>This life of Napoleon was first published in 1896 as a book: for the +years 1895-96 it ran as a serial in the pages of the Century Magazine. +Judging from the sales, it has been read by many tens if not hundreds +of thousands of readers; and it has been extensively noticed in the +critical journals of both worlds. Throughout these fourteen years the +demand has been very large and steady, considering the size and cost +of the volumes. Both publishers and author have determined therefore +that a library edition was desired by the public, and in that +confidence the book has been partly rewritten and entirely remade.</p> + +<p>In the main it is the same book as that which has passed through so +many editions. But in some respects it has been amplified. The portion +relating to the period of youth has been somewhat expanded, the +personalities of those nearest to Napoleon have been in some cases +more broadly sketched, new chapters have been added to the treatment +of the Continental system, the Louisiana Purchase, and the <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Helena +epoch. In all the text has been lengthened about one-tenth.</p> + +<p>Under the compulsion of physical dimensions the author has minimized +the number of authorities and foot-notes. There is really very little +controversial matter regarding Napoleon which is not a matter of +opinion: the evidence has been so carefully sifted that substantial +agreement as to fact has been reached. <span class="pagenum"><a id="pagevi" name="pagevi"></a>(p. vi)</span> Accordingly there have +been introduced at the opening of chapters or divisions short lists of +good references for those who desire to extend their reading: experts +know their own way. It is an interesting fact which throws great light +on the slight value of foot-notes that while I have had extensive +correspondence with my fellow workers, there has come to me in all +these years but a single request for the source of two statements, and +one demand for the evidence upon which certain opinions were based.</p> + +<p>The former editions were duplicate books, a text by me and a +commentary of exquisite illustrations by other hands. The divergence +was very confusing to serious minds; in this edition there can be no +similar perplexity since the illustrations have been confined to +portraits.</p> + +<p>In putting these volumes through the press, in the preparation of the +reference lists for volumes three and four, and in the rearrangement +of the bibliography I have had the assistance of Dr. G. A. Hubbell to +whom my obligation is hereby acknowledged.</p> + +<p><span class="col60 smcap">William M. Sloane.</span><br> +<span class="smcap">New York</span>, <span class="italic">September 1, 1910</span>.</p> + +<h2><span class="pagenum"><a id="pagevii" name="pagevii"></a>(p. vii)</span> PREFACE</h2> + +<p>In the closing years of the eighteenth century European society began +its effort to get rid of benevolent despotism, so called, and to +secure its liberties under forms of constitutional government. The +struggle began in France, and spread over the more important lands of +continental Europe; its influence was strongly felt in England, and +even in the United States. Passing through the phases of +constitutional reform, of anarchy, and of military despotism, the +movement seemed for a time to have failed, and to outward appearances +absolutism was stronger after Waterloo than it had been half a century +earlier.</p> + +<p>But the force of the revolution was only checked, not spent; and to +the awakening of general intelligence, the strengthening of national +feeling, and the upbuilding of a sense of common brotherhood among +men, produced by the revolutionary struggles of this epoch, Europe +owes whatever liberty and free government its peoples now enjoy. At +the close of this period national power was no longer in the hands of +the aristocracy, nor in those of kings; it had passed into the third +social stratum, variously designated as the middle class, the burghers +or bourgeoisie, and the third estate, a body of men as little willing +to share it with the masses as the kings had been. Nevertheless, the +transition once begun could not be stopped, and the advance of manhood +suffrage has ever since been proportionate to the capacity of the +laboring <span class="pagenum"><a id="pageviii" name="pageviii"></a>(p. viii)</span> classes to receive and use it, until now, at last, +whatever may be the nominal form of government in any civilized land, +its stability depends entirely upon the support of the people as a +whole. That which is the basis of all government—the power of the +purse—has passed into their hands.</p> + +<p>This momentous change was of course a turbulent one—the most +turbulent in the history of civilization, as it has proved to be the +most comprehensive. Consequently its epoch is most interesting, being +dramatic in the highest degree, having brought into prominence men and +characters who rank among the great of all time, and having exhibited +to succeeding generations the most important lessons in the most vivid +light. By common consent the eminent man of the time was Napoleon +Bonaparte, the revolution queller, the burgher sovereign, the imperial +democrat, the supreme captain, the civil reformer, the victim of +circumstances which his soaring ambition used but which his unrivaled +prowess could not control. Gigantic in his proportions, and satanic in +his fate, his was the most tragic figure on the stage of modern +history. While the men of his own and the following generation were +still alive, it was almost impossible that the truth should be known +concerning his actions or his motives; and to fix his place in general +history was even less feasible. What he wrote and said about himself +was of course animated by a determination to appear in the best light; +what others wrote and said has been biased by either devotion or +hatred.</p> + +<p>Until within a very recent period it seemed that no man could discuss +him or his time without manifesting such strong personal feeling as to +vitiate his judgment <span class="pagenum"><a id="pageix" name="pageix"></a>(p. ix)</span> and conclusions. This was partly due to +the lack of perspective, but in the main to ignorance of the facts +essential to a sober treatment of the theme. In this respect the last +quarter of a century has seen a gradual but radical change, for a band +of dispassionate scientific scholars have during that time been +occupied in the preparation of material for his life without reference +to the advocacy of one theory or another concerning his character. +European archives, long carefully guarded, have been thrown open; the +diplomatic correspondence of the most important periods has been +published; family papers have been examined, and numbers of valuable +memoirs have been printed. It has therefore been possible to check one +account by another, to cancel misrepresentations, to eliminate +passion—in short, to establish something like correct outline and +accurate detail, at least in regard to what the man actually did. +Those hidden secrets of any human mind which we call motives must ever +remain to other minds largely a matter of opinion, but a very fair +indication of them can be found when once the actual conduct of the +actor has been determined.</p> + +<p>This investigation has mainly been the work of specialists, and its +results have been published in monographs and technical journals; most +of these workers, moreover, were continental scholars writing each in +his own language. Its results, as a whole, have therefore not been +accessible to the general reader in either America or England. It +seems highly desirable that they should be made so, and this has been +the effort of the writer. At the same time he claims to be an +independent investigator in some of the most important portions of the +field he covers. His researches have extended over many years, <span class="pagenum"><a id="pagex" name="pagex"></a>(p. x)</span> +and it has been his privilege to use original materials which, as far +as he knows, have not been used by others. At the close of the book +will be found a short account of the papers of Bonaparte's boyhood and +youth which the author has read, and of the portions of the French and +English archives which were generously put at his disposal, together +with a short though reasonably complete bibliography of the published +books and papers which really have scientific value. The number of +volumes concerned with Napoleon and his epoch is enormous; outside of +those mentioned very few have any value except as curiosities of +literature.</p> + +<h2><span class="pagenum"><a id="pagexi" name="pagexi"></a>(p. xi)</span> CONTENTS</h2> + +<a id="toc" name="toc"></a> +<ul> +<li>CHAPTER <span class="ralign">PAGE</span></li> +</ul> +<ul class="roman"> +<li><span class="smcap">Introduction.</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#page001">1</a></span></li> +<li><span class="smcap">The Bonapartes in Corsica.</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#page020">20</a></span></li> +<li><span class="smcap">Napoleon's Birth and Childhood.</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#page035">35</a></span></li> +<li><span class="smcap">Napoleon's School-days.</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#page048">48</a></span></li> +<li><span class="smcap">In Paris and Valence.</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#page060">60</a></span></li> +<li><span class="smcap">Private Study and Garrison Life.</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#page073">73</a></span></li> +<li><span class="smcap">Further Attempts at Authorship.</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#page083">83</a></span></li> +<li><span class="smcap">The Revolution in France.</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#page100">100</a></span></li> +<li><span class="smcap">Buonaparte and Revolution in Corsica.</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#page111">111</a></span></li> +<li><span class="smcap">First Lessons in Revolution.</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#page123">123</a></span></li> +<li><span class="smcap">Traits of Character.</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#page135">135</a></span></li> +<li><span class="smcap">The Revolution in the Rhone Valley.</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#page148">148</a></span></li> +<li><span class="smcap">Buonaparte the Corsican Jacobin.</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#page160">160</a></span></li> +<li><span class="smcap">Buonaparte the French Jacobin.</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#page180">180</a></span></li> +<li><span class="smcap">A Jacobin Hegira.</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#page199">199</a></span></li> +<li>"<span class="smcap">The Supper of Beaucaire</span>" <span class="ralign"><a href="#page212">212</a></span></li> +<li><span class="smcap">Toulon.</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#page222">222</a></span></li> +<li><span class="smcap">A Jacobin General.</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#page236">236</a></span></li> +<li><span class="smcap">Vicissitudes in War and Diplomacy.</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#page247">247</a></span></li> +<li><span class="smcap">The End of Apprenticeship.</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#page260">260</a></span></li> +<li><span class="smcap">The Antechamber To Success.</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#page272">272</a></span></li> +<li><span class="smcap">Bonaparte the General of the Convention.</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#page287">287</a></span></li> +<li><span class="smcap">The Day of the Paris Sections.</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#page302">302</a></span></li> +<li><span class="smcap">A Marriage of Inclination and Interest.</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#page313">313</a></span></li> +<li><span class="smcap">Europe and the Directory.</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#page324">324</a></span></li> +<li><span class="smcap">Bonaparte on a Great Stage.</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#page339">339</a></span></li> +<li><span class="smcap">The Conquest of Piedmont and the Milanese.</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#page352">352</a></span></li> +<li><span class="smcap">An Insubordinate Conqueror and Diplomatist.</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#page363">363</a></span></li> +<li><span class="smcap">Bassano and Arcola.</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#page378">378</a></span></li> +<li><span class="pagenum"><a id="pagexii" name="pagexii"></a>(p. xii)</span><span class="smcap">Bonaparte's Imperious Spirit.</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#page393">393</a></span></li> +<li><span class="smcap">Rivoli and the Capitulation of Mantua.</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#page406">406</a></span></li> +<li><span class="smcap">Humiliation of the Papacy and of Venice.</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#page419">419</a></span></li> +<li><span class="smcap">The Preliminaries of Peace—Leoben.</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#page430">430</a></span></li> +<li><span class="smcap">The Fall of Venice.</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#page444">444</a></span></li> +</ul> + +<h2><span class="pagenum"><a id="pagexiii" name="pagexiii"></a>(p. xiii)</span> LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</h2> + +<ul> +<li>Napoleon Bonaparte in 1785, aged sixteen. <span class="ralign"><a href="#img001"><span class="italic">Frontispiece</span></a></span></li> +<li> <span class="ralign">Facing Page</span></li> +<li>Marie-Lætitia Ramolino Bonaparte "<span lang="fr">Madame Mère</span>"—Mother of Napoleon <abbr title="1">I.</abbr> <span class="ralign"><a href="#img003">50</a></span></li> +<li>Charles Bonaparte, Father of the Emperor Napoleon, 1785. <span class="ralign"><a href="#img004">96</a></span></li> +<li>Bonaparte, General in Chief of the Army of Italy. <span class="ralign"><a href="#img005">176</a></span></li> +<li>Josephine. <span class="ralign"><a href="#img006">226</a></span></li> +<li>Marie-Josephine-Rose Tascher <span lang="fr">de la Pagerie</span>, called Josephine, Empress of the French. <span class="ralign"><a href="#img007">276</a></span></li> +<li>Bonaparte. <span class="ralign"><a href="#img008">326</a></span></li> +<li>Map of Northern Italy, illustrating the Campaigns of 1796 and 1797. <span class="ralign"><a href="#img009">354</a></span></li> +<li>Josephine, Empress of the French. <span class="ralign"><a href="#img010">374</a></span></li> +<li>Map illustrating the Campaign preceding the Treaty of Campo-Formio, 1797. <span class="ralign"><a href="#img011">414</a></span></li> +</ul> + + +<p class="p4 center" lang="fr"><span class="pagenum"><a id="pagexiv" name="pagexiv"></a>(p. xiv)</span> <span class="add8em">SI QUID NOVISTI RECTIUS ISTIS,</span><br> + CANDIDUS IMPERTI: SI NON, HIS UTERE MECUM</p> +<p class="col60 italic">Horace</p> + +<h1><span class="pagenum"><a id="page001" name="page001"></a>(p. 001)</span> LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE</h1> + +<h3>CHAPTER <abbr title="1">I.</abbr></h3> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Introduction</span>.</h4> + +<p class="summary">The Revolutionary Epoch in Europe — Its Dominant + Personage — The State System of Europe — The Power of + Great Britain — Feebleness of Democracy — The Expectant + Attitude of the Continent — Survival of Antiquated + Institutions — The American Revolution — Philosophical + Sophistries — Rousseau — His Fallacies — Corsica as a + Center of Interest — Its Geography — Its Rulers — The + People — Sampiero — Revolutions — Spanish Alliance — + King Theodore — French Intervention — Supremacy of Genoa + — Paoli — His Success as a Liberator — His Plan for + Alliance with France — The Policy of Choiseul — Paoli's + Reputation — Napoleon's Account of Corsica and of Paoli — + Rousseau and Corsica.</p> + + +<p>Napoleon Bonaparte was the representative man of the epoch which +ushered in the nineteenth century. Though an aristocrat by descent, he +was in life, in training, and in quality neither that nor a plebeian; +he was the typical plain man of his time, exhibiting the common sense +of a generation which thought in terms made current by the philosophy +of the eighteenth century. His period was the most tumultuous and yet +the most fruitful in the world's history. But the progress made in it +was not altogether direct; rather was it like the advance of a +traveler whirled through the spiral tunnels of the <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Gotthard. +Flying from the inclemency of the north, he is carried by the +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page002" name="page002"></a>(p. 002)</span> ponderous train due southward into the opening. After a time +of darkness he emerges into the open air. But at first sight the goal +is no nearer; the direction is perhaps reversed, the skies are more +forbidding, the chill is more intense. Only after successive ventures +of the same kind is the climax reached, the summit passed, and the +vision of sunny plains opened to view. Such experiences are more +common to the race than to the individual; the muse of history must +note and record them with equanimity, with a buoyancy and hopefulness +born of larger knowledge. The movement of civilization in Europe +during the latter portion of the eighteenth century was onward and +upward, but it was at times not only devious, slow and laborious, but +fruitless in immediate results.</p> + +<p>We must study the age and the people of any great man if we sincerely +desire the truth regarding his strength and weakness, his inborn +tendencies and purposes, his failures and successes, the temporary +incidents and the lasting, constructive, meritorious achievements of +his career. This is certainly far more true of Napoleon than of any +other heroic personage; an affectionate awe has sometimes lifted him +to heaven, a spiteful hate has often hurled him down to hell. Every +nation, every party, faction, and cabal among his own and other +peoples, has judged him from its own standpoint of self-interest and +self-justification. Whatever chance there may be of reading the +secrets of his life lies rather in a just consideration of the man in +relation to his times, about which much is known, than in an attempt +at the psychological dissection of an enigmatical nature, about which +little is known, in spite of the fullness of our information. The +abundant facts of his career are not facts at all unless considered in +the light not only of a great national life, but of a continental +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page003" name="page003"></a>(p. 003)</span> movement which embraced in its day all civilization, not +excepting that of Great Britain and America.</p> + +<p>The states of Europe are sisters, children of the Holy Roman Empire. +In the formation of strong nationalities with differences in language, +religion, and institutions the relationship was almost forgotten, and +in the intensity of later rivalry is not always even now remembered. +It is, however, so close that at any epoch there is traceable a common +movement which occupies them all. By the end of the fourteenth century +they had secured their modern form in territorial and race unity with +a government by monarchy more or less absolute. The fifteenth century +saw with the strengthening of the monarchy the renascence of the fine +arts, the great inventions, the awakening of enterprise in discovery, +the mental quickening which began to call all authority to account. +The sixteenth was the age of the Reformation, an event too often +belittled by ecclesiastics who discern only its schismatic character, +and not sufficiently emphasized by historians as the most pregnant +political fact of any age with respect to the rise and growth of free +institutions.</p> + +<p>The seventeenth century saw in England the triumph of political ideas +adapted to the new state of society which had arisen, but subversive +of the tyrannical system which had done its work, a work great and +good in the creation of peoples and the production of social order out +of chaos. For a time it seemed as if the island state were to become +the overshadowing influence in all the rest of Europe. By the middle +of the century her example had fired the whole continent with notions +of political reform. The long campaign which she and her allies waged +with varying fortune against Louis XIV, commanding the conservative +forces of the Latin blood, and the Roman religion ended unfavorably to +the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page004" name="page004"></a>(p. 004)</span> latter. At the close of the Seven Years' War there was +not an Englishman in Europe or America or in the colonies at the +antipodes whose pulse did not beat high as he saw his motherland +triumphant in every quarter of the globe.</p> + +<p>But these very successes, intensifying the bitterness of defeat and +everything connected with it, prevented among numerous other causes +the triumph of constitutional government anywhere in continental +Europe. Switzerland was remote and inaccessible; her beacon of +democracy burned bright, but its rays scarcely shone beyond the +mountain valleys. The Dutch republic, enervated by commercial success +and under a constitution which by its intricate system of checks was a +satire on organized liberty, had become a warning rather than a model +to other nations.</p> + +<p>The other members of the great European state family presented a +curious spectacle. On every hand there was a cheerful trust in the +future. The present was as bad as possible, but belonged to the +passing and not to the coming hour. Truth was abroad, felt the +philosophers, and must prevail. Feudal privilege, oppression, vice and +venality in government, the misery of the poor—all would slowly fade +away. The human mind was never keener than in the eighteenth century; +reasonableness, hope, and thoroughness characterized its activity. +Natural science, metaphysics and historical studies made giant +strides, while political theories of a dazzling splendor never equaled +before nor since were rife on every side. Such was their power in a +buoyant society, awaiting the millennium, that they supplanted +entirely the results of observation and experience in the sphere of +government.</p> + +<p>But neither lever nor fulcrum was strong enough as yet to stir the +inert mass of traditional forms. Monarchs <span class="pagenum"><a id="page005" name="page005"></a>(p. 005)</span> still flattered +themselves with notions of paternal government and divine right; the +nobility still claimed and exercised baseless privileges which had +descended from an age when their ancestors held not merely these but +the land on which they rested; the burgesses still hugged, as +something which had come from above, their dearly bought charter +rights, now revealed as inborn liberties. They were thus hardened into +a gross contentment dangerous for themselves, and into an indifference +which was a menace to others. The great agricultural populations +living in various degrees of serfdom still groaned under the +artificial oppressions of a society which had passed away. Nominally +the peasant might own certain portions of the soil, but he could not +enjoy unmolested the airs which blew over it nor the streams which ran +through it nor the wild things which trespassed or dwelt on it, while +on every side some exasperating demand for the contribution of labor +or goods or money confronted him.</p> + +<p>In short, the civilized world was in one of those transitional epochs +when institutions persist, after the beliefs and conditions which +molded them have utterly disappeared. The inertia of such a +rock-ribbed shell is terrible, and while sometimes the erosive power +of agitation and discussion suffices to weaken and destroy it, more +often the volcanic fires of social convulsion are alone strong enough. +The first such shock came from within the English-speaking world +itself, but not in Europe. The American colonies, appreciating and +applying to their own conditions the principles of the English +Revolution, began, and with French assistance completed, the movement +which erected in another hemisphere the American republic. Weak and +tottering in its infancy, but growing ever stronger and therefore +milder, its example began at once to suggest the great and peaceful +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page006" name="page006"></a>(p. 006)</span> reforms of the English constitution which have since +followed. Threatening absolutism in the strong contrasts its citizens +presented to the subjects of other lands, it has been ever since the +moral support of liberal movements the world around. England herself, +instead of being weakened, was strengthened by the child grown to +independent maturity, and a double example of prosperity under +constitutional administration was now held up to the continent of +Europe.</p> + +<p>But it is the greatest proof of human weakness that there is no +movement however beneficent, no doctrine however sound, no truth +however absolute, but that it can be speciously so extended, so +expanded, so emphasized as to lose its identity. Coincident with the +political speculation of the eighteenth century appeared the storm and +stress of romanticism and sentimentalism. The extremes of morbid +personal emotion were thought serviceable for daily life, while the +middle course of applying ideals to experience was utterly abandoned. +The latest nihilism differs little from the conception of the perfect +regeneration of mankind by discarding the old merely because it was +old which triumphed in the latter half of the eighteenth century among +philosophers and wits. To be sure, they had a substitute for whatever +was abolished and a supplement for whatever was left incomplete.</p> + +<p>Even the stable sense of the Americans was infected by the virus of +mere theories. In obedience to the spirit of the age they introduced +into their written constitution, which was in the main but a statement +of their deep-seated political habits, a scheme like that of the +electoral college founded on some high-sounding doctrine, or omitted +from it in obedience to a prevalent and temporary extravagance of +protest some fundamental truth like that of the Christian character of +their government <span class="pagenum"><a id="page007" name="page007"></a>(p. 007)</span> and laws. If there be anywhere a Christian +Protestant state it is the United States; if any futile invention were +ever incorporated in a written charter it was that of the electoral +college. The addition of a vague theory or the omission of essential +national qualities in the document of the constitution has affected +our subsequent history little or not at all.</p> + +<p>But such was not the case in a society still under feudal oppression. +Fictions like the contract theory of government, exploded by the sound +sense of Burke; political generalizations like certain paragraphs of +the French Declaration of Rights, every item of which now and here +reads like a platitude but was then and there a vivid revolutionary +novelty; emotional yearnings for some vague Utopia—all fell into +fruitful soil and produced a rank harvest, mostly of straw and stalks, +although there was some sound grain. The thought of the time was a +powerful factor in determining the course and the quality of events +throughout all Europe. No nation was altogether unmoved. The center of +agitation was in France, although the little Calvinistic state of +Geneva brought forth the prophet and writer of the times.</p> + +<p>Rousseau was a man of small learning but great insight. Originating +almost nothing, he set forth the ideas of others with incisive +distinctness, often modifying them to their hurt, but giving to the +form in which he wrote them an air of seductive practicability and +reality which alone threw them into the sphere of action. Examining +Europe at large, he found its social and political institutions so +hardened and so unresponsive that he declared it incapable of movement +without an antecedent general crash and breaking up. No laws, he +reasoned, could be made because there were no means by which the +general will could express itself, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page008" name="page008"></a>(p. 008)</span> such was the rigidity of +absolutism and feudalism. The splendid studies of Montesquieu, which +revealed to the French the eternal truths underlying the +constitutional changes in England, had enlightened and captivated the +best minds of his country, but they were too serious, too cold, too +dry to move the quick, bright temperament of the people at large. This +was the work of Rousseau. Consummate in his literary power, he laid +the ax at the root of the tree in his fierce attack on the prevailing +education, sought a new basis for government in his peculiar +modification of the contract theory, and constructed a substitute +system of sentimental morals to supplant the old authoritative one +which was believed to underlie all the prevalent iniquities in +religion, politics, and society.</p> + +<p>His entire structure lacked a foundation either in history or in +reason. But the popular fancy was fascinated. The whole flimsy +furniture in the chambers of the general mind vanished. New emotions, +new purposes, new sanctions appeared in its stead. There was a sad +lack of ethical definitions, an over-zealous iconoclasm as to +religion, but there were many high conceptions of regenerating +society, of liberty, of brotherhood, of equality. The influence of +this movement was literally ubiquitous; it was felt wherever men read +or thought or talked, and were connected, however remotely, with the +great central movement of civilization.</p> + +<p>No land and no family could to all outward appearance be further aside +from the main channel of European history in the eighteenth century +than the island of Corsica and an obscure family by the name of +Buonaparte which had dwelt there since the beginning of the eighteenth +century. Yet that isolated land and that unknown family were not +merely to be drawn into the movement, they were to illustrate its most +characteristic <span class="pagenum"><a id="page009" name="page009"></a>(p. 009)</span> phases. Rousseau, though mistakenly, forecast +a great destiny for Corsica, declaring in his letters on Poland that +it was the only European land capable of movement, of law-making, of +peaceful renovation. It was small and remote, but it came near to +being an actual exemplification of his favorite and fundamental dogma +concerning man in a state of nature, of order as arising from +conflict, of government as resting on general consent and mutual +agreement among the governed. Toward Corsica, therefore, the eyes of +all Europe had long been directed. There, more than elsewhere, the +setting of the world-drama seemed complete in miniature, and, in the +closing quarter of the eighteenth century, the action was rapidly +unfolding a plot of universal interest.</p> + +<p>A lofty mountain-ridge divides the island into eastern and western +districts. The former is gentler in its slopes, and more fertile. +Looking, as it does, toward Italy, it was during the middle ages +closely bound in intercourse with that peninsula; richer in its +resources than the other part, it was more open to outside influences, +and for this reason freer in its institutions. The rugged western +division had come more completely under the yoke of feudalism, having +close affinity in sympathy, and some relation in blood, with the +Greek, Roman, Saracenic, and Teutonic race-elements in France and +Spain. The communal administration of the eastern slope, however, +prevailed eventually in the western as well, and the differences of +origin, wealth, and occupation, though at times the occasion of +intestine discord, were as nothing compared with the common +characteristics which knit the population of the entire island into +one national organization, as much a unit as their insular territory.</p> + +<p>The people of this small commonwealth were in the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page010" name="page010"></a>(p. 010)</span> main of +Italian blood. Some slight connection with the motherland they still +maintained in the relations of commerce, and by the education of their +professional men at Italian schools. While a small minority supported +themselves as tradesmen or seafarers, the mass of the population was +dependent for a livelihood upon agriculture. As a nation they had long +ceased to follow the course of general European development. They had +been successively the subjects of Greece, Rome, and the Califate, of +the German-Roman emperors, and of the republic of Pisa. Their latest +ruler was Genoa, which had now degenerated into an untrustworthy +oligarchy. United to that state originally by terms which gave the +island a "speaker" or advocate in the Genoese senate, and recognized +the most cherished habits of a hardy, natural-minded, and primitive +people, they had little by little been left a prey to their own faults +in order that their unworthy mistress might plead their disorders as +an excuse for her tyranny. Agriculture languished, and the minute +subdivision of arable land finally rendered its tillage almost +profitless.</p> + +<p>Among a people who are isolated not only as islanders, but also as +mountaineers, old institutions are particularly tenacious of life: +that of the vendetta, or blood revenge, with the clanship it +accompanies, never disappeared from Corsica. In the centuries of +Genoese rule the carrying of arms was winked at, quarrels became rife, +and often family confederations, embracing a considerable part of the +country, were arrayed one against the other in lawless violence. The +feudal nobility, few in number, were unrecognized, and failed to +cultivate the industrial arts in the security of costly strongholds as +their class did elsewhere, while the fairest portions of land not held +by them were gradually absorbed by the monasteries, a process favored +by Genoa as likely <span class="pagenum"><a id="page011" name="page011"></a>(p. 011)</span> to render easier the government of a +turbulent people. The human animal, however, throve. Rudely clad in +homespun, men and women alike cultivated a simplicity of dress +surpassed only by their plain living. There was no wealth except that +of fields and flocks, their money consequently was debased and almost +worthless. The social distinctions of noble and peasant survived only +in tradition, and all classes intermingled without any sense of +superiority or inferiority. Elegance of manner, polish, grace, were +unsought and existed only by natural refinement, which was rare among +a people who were on the whole simple to boorishness. Physically they +were, however, admirable. All visitors were struck by the repose and +self-reliance of their countenances. The women were neither beautiful, +stylish, nor neat. Yet they were considered modest and attractive. The +men were more striking in appearance and character. Of medium stature +and powerful mold, with black hair, fine teeth, and piercing eyes; +with well-formed, agile, and sinewy limbs; sober, brave, trustworthy, +and endowed with many other primitive virtues as well, the Corsican +was everywhere sought as a soldier, and could be found in all the +armies of the southern continental states.</p> + +<p>In their periodic struggles against Genoese encroachments and tyranny, +the Corsicans had produced a line of national heroes. Sampiero, one of +these, had in the sixteenth century incorporated Corsica for a brief +hour with the dominions of the French crown, and was regarded as the +typical Corsican. Dark, warlike, and revengeful, he had displayed a +keen intellect and a fine judgment. Simple in his dress and habits, +untainted by the luxury then prevalent in the courts of Florence and +Paris, at both of which he resided for considerable periods, he could +kill his wife without a shudder when she <span class="pagenum"><a id="page012" name="page012"></a>(p. 012)</span> put herself and +child into the hands of his enemies to betray him. Hospitable and +generous, but untamed and terrible; brusque, dictatorial, and without +consideration or compassion; the offspring of his times and his +people, he stands the embodiment of primeval energy, physical and +mental.</p> + +<p>The submission of a people like this to a superior force was sullen, +and in the long century which followed, the energies generally +displayed in a well-ordered life seemed among them to be not quenched +but directed into the channels of their passions and their bodily +powers, which were ready on occasion to break forth in devastating +violence. In 1729 began a succession of revolutionary outbursts, and +at last in 1730 the communal assemblies united in a national +convention, choosing two chiefs, Colonna-Ceccaldi and Giafferi, to +lead in the attempt to rouse the nation to action and throw off the +unendurable yoke. English philanthropists furnished the munitions of +war. The Genoese were beaten in successive battles, even after they +brought into the field eight thousand German mercenaries purchased +from the Emperor Charles <abbr title="6">VI</abbr>. The Corsican adventurers in foreign +lands, pleading for their liberties with artless eloquence at every +court, filled Europe with enthusiasm for their cause and streamed back +to fight for their homes. A temporary peace on terms which granted all +they asked was finally arranged through the Emperor's intervention.</p> + +<p>But the two elected chiefs, and a third patriot, Raffaelli, having +been taken prisoners by the Genoese, were ungenerously kept in +confinement, and released only at the command of Charles. Under the +same leaders, now further exasperated by their ill usage, began and +continued another agitation, this time for separation and complete +emancipation. Giafferi's <span class="pagenum"><a id="page013" name="page013"></a>(p. 013)</span> chosen adjutant was a youth of good +family and excellent parts, Hyacinth Paoli. In the then existing +complications of European politics the only available helper was the +King of Spain, and to him the Corsicans now applied, but his +undertakings compelled him to refuse. Left without allies or any +earthly support, the pious Corsicans naïvely threw themselves on the +protection of the Virgin and determined more firmly than ever to +secure their independence.</p> + +<p>In this crisis appeared at the head of a considerable following, some +hundreds in number, the notorious and curious German adventurer, +Theodore von Neuhof, who, declaring that he represented the sympathy +of the great powers for Corsica, made ready to proclaim himself as +king. As any shelter is welcome in a storm, the people accepted him, +and he was crowned on April fifteenth, 1736. But although he spoke +truthfully when he claimed to represent the sympathy of the powers, he +did not represent their strength, and was defeated again and again in +encounters with the forces of Genoa. The oligarchy had now secured an +alliance with France, which feared lest the island might fall into +more hostile and stronger hands; and before the close of the year the +short-lived monarchy ended in the disappearance of Theodore I of +Corsica from his kingdom and soon after, in spite of his heroic +exertions, from history.</p> + +<p>The truth was that some of the nationalist leaders had not forgotten +the old patriotic leaning towards France which had existed since the +days of Sampiero, and were themselves in communication with the French +court and Cardinal Fleury. A French army landed in February, 1738, and +was defeated. An overwhelming force was then despatched and the +insurrection subsided. In the end France, though strongly tempted to +hold what she had conquered, kept her promise to Genoa <span class="pagenum"><a id="page014" name="page014"></a>(p. 014)</span> and +disarmed the Corsicans; on the other hand, however, she consulted her +own interest and attempted to soothe the islanders by guaranteeing to +them national rights. Such, however, was the prevalent bitterness that +many patriots fled into exile; some, like Hyacinth Paoli, choosing the +pay of Naples for themselves and followers, others accepting the offer +of France and forming according to time-honored custom a Corsican +regiment of mercenaries which took service in the armies of the King. +Among the latter were two of some eminence, Buttafuoco and Salicetti. +The half measures of Fleury left Corsica, as he intended, ready to +fall into his hands when opportunity should be ripe. Even the +patriotic leaders were now no longer in harmony. Those in Italy were +of the old disinterested line and suspicious of their western +neighbor; the others were charged with being the more ambitious for +themselves and careless of their country's liberty. Both classes, +however, claimed to be true patriots.</p> + +<p>During the War of the Austrian Succession it seemed for a moment as if +Corsica were to be freed by the attempt of Maria Theresa to overthrow +Genoa, then an ally of the Bourbon powers. The national party rose +again under Gaffori, the regiments of Piedmont came to their help, and +the English fleet delivered <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Florent and Bastia into their hands. +But the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748) left things substantially as +they were before the war, and in 1752 a new arrangement unsatisfactory +to both parties was made with Genoa. It was virtually dictated by +Spain and France, England having been alienated by the quarrels and +petty jealousies of the Corsican leaders, and lasted only as long as +the French occupation continued. Under the leadership of the same +dauntless Gaffori who in 1740 had been chosen along with Matra to be a +chief commander, the Genoese <span class="pagenum"><a id="page015" name="page015"></a>(p. 015)</span> were once more driven from the +highlands into the coast towns. At the height of his success the bold +guerrilla fell a victim to family rivalries and personal spite. +Through the influence of his despairing foes a successful conspiracy +was formed and in the autumn of 1753 he was foully murdered.</p> + +<p>But the greatest of these national heroes was also the last—Pascal +Paoli. Fitted for his task by birth, by capacity, by superior +training, this youth was in 1755 made captain-general of the island, a +virtual dictator in his twenty-ninth year. His success was as +remarkable as his measures were wise. Elections were regulated so that +strong organization was introduced into the loose democratic +institutions which had hitherto prevented sufficient unity of action +in troubled times. An army was created from the straggling bands of +volunteers, and brigandage was suppressed. Wise laws were enacted and +enforced—among them one which made the blood-avenger a murderer, +instead of a hero as he had been. Moreover, the foundations of a +university were laid in the town of Corte, which was the hearthstone +of the liberals because it was the natural capital of the west slope, +connected by difficult and defensible paths with every cape and bay +and intervale of the rocky and broken coast. The Genoese were +gradually driven from the interior, and finally they occupied but +three harbor towns.</p> + +<p>Through skilful diplomacy Paoli created a temporary breach between his +oppressors and the Vatican, which, though soon healed, nevertheless +enabled him to recover important domains for the state, and prevented +the Roman hierarchy from using its enormous influence over the +superstitious people utterly to crush the movement for their +emancipation. His extreme and enlightened liberalism is admirably +shown by his invitation <span class="pagenum"><a id="page016" name="page016"></a>(p. 016)</span> to the Jews, with their industry and +steady habits, to settle in Corsica, and to live there in the fullest +enjoyment of civil rights, according to the traditions of their faith +and the precepts of their law. "Liberty," he said, "knows no creed. +Let us leave such distinctions to the Inquisition." Commerce, under +these influences, began to thrive. New harbors were made and +fortified, while the equipment of a few gunboats for their defense +marked the small beginnings of a fleet. The haughty men of Corsica, +changing their very nature for a season, began to labor with their +hands by the side of their wives and hired assistants; to agriculture, +industry, and the arts was given an impulse which promised to be +lasting.</p> + +<p>The rule of Paoli was not entirely without disturbance. From time to +time there occurred rebellious outbreaks of petty factions like that +headed by Matra, a disappointed rival. But on the whole they were of +little importance. Down to 1765 the advances of the nationalists were +steady, their battles being won against enormous odds by the force of +their warlike nature, which sought honor above all things, and could, +in the words of a medieval chronicle, "endure without a murmur +watchings and pains, hunger and cold, in its pursuit—which could even +face death without a pang." Finally it became necessary, as the result +of unparalleled success in domestic affairs, that a foreign policy +should be formulated. Paoli's idea was an offensive and defensive +alliance with France on terms recognizing the independence of Corsica, +securing an exclusive commercial reciprocity between them, and +promising military service with an annual tribute from the island. +This idea of France as a protector without administrative power was +held by the majority of patriots.</p> + +<p>But Choiseul, the minister of foreign affairs under Louis <abbr title="15">XV</abbr>, would +entertain no such visionary plan. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page017" name="page017"></a>(p. 017)</span> It was clear to every one +that the island could no longer be held by its old masters. He had +found a facile instrument for the measures necessary to his +contemplated seizure of it in the son of a Corsican refugee, that +later notorious Buttafuoco, who, carrying water on both shoulders, had +ingratiated himself with his father's old friends, while at the same +time he had for years been successful as a French official. Corsica +was to be seized by France as a sop to the national pride, a slight +compensation for the loss of Canada, and he was willing to be the +agent. On August sixth, 1764, was signed a provisional agreement +between Genoa and France by which the former was to cede for four +years all her rights of sovereignty, and the few places she still held +in the island, in return for the latter's intervention to thwart +Paoli's plan for securing virtual independence. At the end of the +period France was to pay Genoa the millions owed to her.</p> + +<p>By this time the renown of Paoli had filled all Europe. As a statesman +he had skilfully used the European entanglements both of the +Bourbon-Hapsburg alliance made in 1756, and of the alliances +consequent to the Seven Years' War, for whatever possible advantage +might be secured to his people and their cause. As a general he had +found profit even in defeat, and had organized his little forces to +the highest possible efficiency, displaying prudence, fortitude, and +capacity. His personal character was blameless, and could be +fearlessly set up as a model. He was a convincing orator and a wise +legislator. Full of sympathy for his backward compatriots, he knew +their weaknesses, and could avoid the consequences, while he +recognized at the same time their virtues, and made the fullest use of +them. Above all, he had the wide horizon of a philosopher, +understanding fully the proportions and <span class="pagenum"><a id="page018" name="page018"></a>(p. 018)</span> relations to each +other of epochs and peoples, not striving to uplift Corsica merely in +her own interest, but seeking to find in her regeneration a leverage +to raise the world to higher things. So gracious, so influential, so +far-seeing, so all-embracing was his nature, that Voltaire called him +"the lawgiver and the glory of his people," while Frederick the Great +dedicated to him a dagger with the inscription, "Libertas, Patria." +The shadows in his character were that he was imperious and arbitrary; +so overmastering that he trained the Corsicans to seek guidance and +protection, thus preventing them from acquiring either personal +independence or self-reliance. Awaiting at every step an impulse from +their adored leader, growing timid in the moment when decision was +imperative, they did not prove equal to their task. Without his people +Paoli was still a philosopher; without him they became in succeeding +years a byword, and fell supinely into the arms of a less noble +subjection. In this regard the comparison between him and Washington, +so often instituted, utterly breaks down.</p> + +<p>"Corsica," wrote in 1790 a youth destined to lend even greater +interest than Paoli to that name—"Corsica has been a prey to the +ambition of her neighbors, the victim of their politics and of her own +wilfulness.... We have seen her take up arms, shake the atrocious +power of Genoa, recover her independence, live happily for an instant; +but then, pursued by an irresistible fatality, fall again into +intolerable disgrace. For twenty-four centuries these are the scenes +which recur again and again; the same changes, the same misfortune, +but also the same courage, the same resolution, the same boldness.... +If she trembled for an instant before the feudal hydra, it was only +long enough to recognize and destroy it. If, led by a natural feeling, +she kissed, like a slave, the chains of Rome, she was not <span class="pagenum"><a id="page019" name="page019"></a>(p. 019)</span> +long in breaking them. If, finally, she bowed her head before the +Ligurian aristocracy, if irresistible forces kept her twenty years in +the despotic grasp of Versailles, forty years of mad warfare +astonished Europe, and confounded her enemies."</p> + +<p>The same pen wrote of Paoli that by following traditional lines he had +not only shown in the constitution he framed for Corsica a historic +intuition, but also had found "in his unparalleled activity, in his +warm, persuasive eloquence, in his adroit and far-seeing genius," a +means to guarantee it against the attacks of wicked foes.</p> + +<p>Such was the country in whose fortunes the "age of enlightenment" was +so interested. Montesquieu had used its history to illustrate the loss +and recovery of privilege and rights; Rousseau had thought the little +isle would one day fill all Europe with amazement. When the latter was +driven into exile for his utterances, and before his flight to +England, Paoli offered him a refuge. Buttafuoco, who represented the +opinion that Corsica for its own good must be incorporated with +France, and not merely come under her protection, had a few months +previously also invited the Genevan prophet to visit the island, and +outline a constitution for its people. But the snare was spread in +vain. In the letter which with polished phrase declined the task, on +the ground of its writer's ill-health, stood the words: "I believe +that under their present leader the Corsicans have nothing to fear +from Genoa. I believe, moreover, that they have nothing to fear from +the troops which France is said to be transporting to their shores. +What confirms me in this feeling is that, in spite of the movement, so +good a patriot as you seem to be continues in the service of the +country which sends them." Paoli was of the same opinion, and remained +so until his rude awakening in 1768.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p> + +<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page020" name="page020"></a>(p. 020)</span> CHAPTER <abbr title="2">II.</abbr></h3> + +<h4><span class="smcap">The Bonapartes in Corsica</span>.</h4> + +<p class="summary">The French Occupy Corsica — Paoli Deceived — Treaty + between France and Genoa — English Intervention Vain — + Paoli in England — British Problems — Introduction of the + French Administrative System — Paoli's Policy — The Coming + Man — Origin of the Bonapartes — The Corsican Branch — + Their Nobility — Carlo Maria di Buonaparte — Maria Letizia + Ramolino — Their Marriage and Naturalization as French + Subjects — Their Fortunes — Their Children.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">1764-72.</p> + +<p>The preliminary occupation of Corsica by the French was ostensibly +formal. The process was continued, however, until the formality became +a reality, until the fortifications of the seaport towns ceded by +Genoa were filled with troops. Then, for the first time, the text of +the convention between the two powers was communicated to Paoli. +Choiseul explained through his agent that by its first section the +King guaranteed the safety and liberty of the Corsican nation. But, no +doubt, he forgot to explain the double dealing in the second section. +Thereby in the Italian form the Corsicans were in return to take "all +right and proper measures dictated by their sense of justice and +natural moderation to secure the glory and interest of the republic of +Genoa," while in the French form they were "to yield to the Genoese +all 'they' thought necessary to the glory and interests of their +republic." Who were the "they"?—the Corsicans or the Genoese? Paoli's +eye was fixed on the acknowledgment of Corsican independence; he was +hoodwinked completely as to the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page021" name="page021"></a>(p. 021)</span> treachery in this second +section, the meaning of which, according to diplomatic usage, was +settled by the interpretation which the language employed for one form +put upon that in which the other was written. Combining the two +translations, Italian and French, of the second section, and +interpreting one by the other, the Genoese were still the arbiters of +Corsican conduct and the promise of liberty contained in the first +section was worthless.</p> + +<p>Four years passed: apparently they were uneventful, but in reality +Choiseul made good use of his time. Through Buttafuoco he was in +regular communication with that minority among the Corsicans which +desired incorporation. By the skilful manipulation of private feuds, +and the unstinted use of money, this minority was before long turned +into a majority. Toward the close of 1767 Choiseul began to show his +hand by demanding absolute possession for France of at least two +strong towns. Paoli replied that the demand was unexpected, and +required consideration by the people; the answer was that the King of +France could not be expected to mingle in Corsican affairs without +some advantage for himself. To gain time, Paoli chose Buttafuoco as +his plenipotentiary, despatched him to Versailles, and thus fell into +the very trap so carefully set for him by his opponent. He consented +as a compromise that Corsica should join the Bourbon-Hapsburg league. +More he could not grant for love of his wild, free Corsicans, and he +cherished the secret conviction that, Genoa being no longer able to +assert her sovereignty, France would never allow another power to +intervene, and so, for the sake of peace, might accept this solution.</p> + +<p>But the great French minister was a master of diplomacy and would not +yield. In his designs upon Corsica he had little to fear from European +opposition. He <span class="pagenum"><a id="page022" name="page022"></a>(p. 022)</span> knew how hampered England was by the strength +of parliamentary opposition, and the unrest of her American colonies. +The Sardinian monarchy was still weak, and quailed under the jealous +eyes of her strong enemies. Austria could not act without breaking the +league so essential to her welfare, while the Bourbon courts of Spain +and Naples would regard the family aggrandizement with complacency. +Moreover, something must be done to save the prestige of France: her +American colonial empire was lost; Catherine's brilliant policy, and +the subsequent victories of Russia in the Orient, were threatening +what remained of French influence in that quarter. Here was a +propitious moment to emulate once more the English: to seize a station +on the Indian highroad as valuable as Gibraltar or Port Mahon, and to +raise high hopes of again recovering, if not the colonial supremacy +among nations, at least that equality which the Seven Years' War had +destroyed. Without loss of time, therefore, the negotiations were +ended, and Buttafuoco was dismissed. On May fifteenth, 1768, the price +to be paid having been fixed, a definitive treaty with Genoa was +signed whereby she yielded the exercise of sovereignty to France, and +Corsica passed finally from her hands. Paoli appealed to the great +powers against this arbitrary transfer, but in vain.</p> + +<p>The campaign of subjugation opened at once, Buttafuoco, with a few +other Corsicans, taking service against his kinsfolk. The soldiers of +the Royal Corsican regiment, which was in the French service, and +which had been formed under his father's influence, flatly refused to +fight their brethren. The French troops already in the island were at +once reinforced, but during the first year of the final conflict the +advantage was all with the patriots; indeed, there was one substantial +victory on October seventh, 1768, that of Borgo, which caused +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page023" name="page023"></a>(p. 023)</span> dismay at Versailles. Once more Paoli hoped for +intervention, especially that of England, whose liberal feeling would +coincide with his interest in keeping Corsica from France. Money and +arms were sent from Great Britain, but that was all. This conduct of +the British ministry was afterward recalled by France as a precedent +for rendering aid to the Americans in their uprising against England.</p> + +<p>The following spring an army of no less than twenty thousand men was +despatched from France to make short and thorough work of the +conquest. The previous year of bloody and embittered conflict had gone +far to disorganize the patriot army. It was only with the utmost +difficulty that the little bands of mountain villagers could be +tempted away from the ever more necessary defense of their homes and +firesides. Yet in spite of disintegration before such overwhelming +odds, and though in want both of ordinary munitions and of the very +necessities of life, the forces of Paoli continued a fierce and heroic +resistance. It was only after months of devastating, heartrending, +hopeless warfare, that their leader, utterly routed in the affair +known as the battle of Ponte Nuovo, finally gave up the desperate +cause. Exhausted, and without resources, he would have been an easy +prey to the French; but they were too wise to take him prisoner. On +June thirteenth, 1769, by their connivance he escaped, with three +hundred and forty of his most devoted supporters, on two English +vessels, to the mainland. His goal was England. The journey was a +long, triumphant procession from Leghorn through Germany and Holland; +the honors showered on him by the liberals in the towns through which +he passed were such as are generally paid to victory, not to defeat. +Kindly received and entertained, he lived for the next thirty years in +London, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page024" name="page024"></a>(p. 024)</span> the recipient from the government of twelve hundred +pounds a year as a pension.</p> + +<p>The year 1770 saw the King of France apparently in peaceful possession +of that Corsican sovereignty which he claimed to have bought from +Genoa. His administration was soon and easily inaugurated, and there +was nowhere any interference from foreign powers. Philanthropic +England had provided for Paoli, but would do no more, for she was busy +at home with a transformation of her parties. The old Whig party was +disintegrating; the new Toryism was steadily asserting itself in the +passage of contemptuous measures for oppressing the American colonies. +She was, moreover, soon to be so absorbed in her great struggle on +both sides of the globe that interest in Corsica and the Mediterranean +must remain for a long time in abeyance.</p> + +<p>But the establishment of a French administration in the King's new +acquisition did not proceed smoothly. The party favorable to +incorporation with France had grown, and, in the rush to side with +success, it now probably far outnumbered that of the old patriots. At +the outset this majority faithfully supported the conquerors in an +attempt, honorable to both, to retain as much of Paoli's system as +possible. But the appointment of an intendant and a military commander +acting as royal governor with a veto over legislation was essential. +This of necessity destroyed the old democracy, for, in any case, the +existence of such officials and the social functions of such offices +must create a quasi-aristocracy, and its power would rest not on +popular habit and good-will, but on the French soldiery. The situation +was frankly recognized, therefore, in a complete reorganization of +those descended from the old nobility, and from these a council of +twelve was selected to support and countenance the governor. The +clergy <span class="pagenum"><a id="page025" name="page025"></a>(p. 025)</span> and the third estate were likewise formally organized +in two other orders, so that with clergy, nobles, and commons, Corsica +became a French <span class="italic" lang="fr">pays d'état</span>, another provincial anachronism in the +chaos of royal administration. The class bitterness of the mainland +could easily be and was transplanted to the island; the ultimate +success of the process left nothing to be desired. Moreover, the most +important offices were given into French hands, while the seat of +government was moved from Corte, the highland capital, to the lowland +towns of Bastia and Ajaccio. The primeval feud of highlanders and +lowlanders was thus rekindled, and in the subsequent agitations the +patriots won over by France either lost influence with their +followers, or ceased to support the government. Old animosities were +everywhere revived and strengthened, until finally the flames burst +forth in open rebellion. They were, of course, suppressed, but the +work was done with a savage thoroughness the memory of which long +survived to prevent the formation in the island of a natural sentiment +friendly to the French. Those who professed such a feeling were held +in no great esteem.</p> + +<p>It was perhaps an error that Paoli did not recognize the indissoluble +bonds of race and speech as powerfully drawing Corsica to Italy, +disregard the leanings of the democratic mountaineers toward France, +sympathize with the fondness of the towns for the motherland, and so +use his influence as to confirm the natural alliance between the +insular Italians and those of the peninsula. When we regard Sardinia, +however, time seems to have justified him. There is little to choose +between the sister islands as regards the backward condition of both; +but the French department of Corsica is, at least, no less advanced +than the Italian province of Sardinia. The final amalgamation of +Paoli's country with France, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page026" name="page026"></a>(p. 026)</span> which was in a measure the +result of his leaning toward a French protectorate, accomplished one +end, however, which has rendered it impossible to separate her from +the course of great events, from the number of the mighty agents in +history. Curiously longing in his exile for a second Sampiero to have +wielded the physical power while he himself should have become a +Lycurgus, Paoli's wish was to be half-way fulfilled in that a warrior +greater than Sampiero was about to be born in Corsica, one who should, +by the very union so long resisted, come, as the master of France, to +wield a power strong enough to shatter both tyrannies and dynasties, +thus clearing the ground for a lawgiving closely related to Paoli's +own just and wise conceptions of legislation.</p> + +<p>The coming man was to be a typical Corsican, moreover. Born in the +agony of his fatherland, he was to combine all the important qualities +of his folk in himself. Like them, he was to be short, with wonderful +eyes and beautiful teeth; temperate; quietly, even meanly, clad; +generous, grateful for any favor, however small; masterful, +courageous, impassive, shrewd, resolute, fluent of speech; profoundly +religious, even superstitious; hot-tempered, inscrutable, mendacious, +revengeful sometimes and ofttimes forgiving, disdainful of woman and +her charms; above all, boastful, conceited, and with a passion for +glory. His pride and his imagination were to be barbaric in their +immensity, his clannishness was to be that of the most primitive +civilization. In all these points he was to be Corsican; other +characteristics he was to acquire from the land of his adoption +through an education French both in affairs and in books; but he was +after all Corsican from the womb to the grave; that in the first +degree, and only secondarily French, while his cosmopolitan disguise +was to be scarcely more than a mask to be raised or lowered at +pleasure.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page027" name="page027"></a>(p. 027)</span> This scion was to come from the stock which at first bore the +name of Bonaparte, or, as the heraldic etymology later spelled it, +Buonaparte. There were branches of the same stock, or, at least, of +the same name, in other parts of Italy. Three towns at least claimed +to be the seat of a family with this patronymic: and one of them, +Treviso, possessed papers to prove the claim. Although other members +of his family based absurd pretensions of princely origin on these +insufficient proofs, Napoleon himself was little impressed by them. He +was disposed to declare that his ancestry began in his own person, +either at Toulon or from the eighteenth of Brumaire. Whatever the +origin of the Corsican Buonapartes, it was neither royal from the twin +brother of Louis XIV, thought to be the Iron Mask; nor imperial from +the Julian gens, nor Greek, nor Saracen, nor, in short, anything which +later-invented and lying genealogies declared it to be. But it was +almost certainly Italian, and probably patrician, for in 1780 a Tuscan +gentleman of the name devised a scanty estate to his distant Corsican +kinsman. The earliest home of the family was Florence; later they +removed for political reasons to Sarzana, in Tuscany, where for +generations men of that name exercised the profession of advocate. The +line was extinguished in 1799 by the death of Philip Buonaparte, a +canon and a man of means, who, although he had recognized his kin in +Corsica to the extent of interchanging hospitalities, nevertheless +devised his estate to a relative named Buonacorsi.</p> + +<p>The Corsican branch were persons of some local consequence in their +latest seats, partly because of their Italian connections, partly in +their substantial possessions of land, and partly through the official +positions which they held in the city of Ajaccio. Their sympathies as +lowlanders and townspeople were with the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page028" name="page028"></a>(p. 028)</span> country of their +origin and with Genoa. During the last years of the sixteenth century +that republic authorized a Jerome, then head of the family, to prefix +the distinguishing particle "di" to his name; but the Italian custom +was averse to its use, which was not revived until later, and then +only for a short time. Nine generations are recorded as having lived +on Corsican soil within two centuries and a quarter. They were +evidently men of consideration, for they intermarried with the best +families of the island; Ornano, Costa, Bozzi, and Colonna are names +occurring in their family records.</p> + +<p>Nearly two centuries passed before the grand duke of Tuscany issued +formal patents in 1757, attesting the Buonaparte nobility. It was +Joseph, the grandsire of Napoleon, who received them. Soon afterward +he announced that the coat-armor of the family was "<span class="italic" lang="fr">la couronne de +compte, l'écusson fendu par deux barres et deux étoilles, avec les +lettres B. P. qui signifient Buona Parte, le fond des armes +rougeâtres, les barres et les étoilles bleu, les ombrements et la +couronne jaune!</span>" Translated as literally as such doubtful language +and construction can be, this signifies: "A count's coronet, the +escutcheon with two bends sinister and two stars, bearing the letters +B. P., which signify Buonaparte, the field of the arms red, the bends +and stars blue, the letters and coronet yellow!" In heraldic parlance +this would be: Gules, two bends sinister between two estoiles azure +charged with B. P. for Buona Parte, or; surmounted by a count's +coronet of the last. In 1759 the same sovereign granted further the +title of patrician. Charles, the son of Joseph, received a similar +grant from the Archbishop of Pisa in 1769. These facts have a +substantial historical value, since by reason of them the family was +duly and justly recognized as noble in 1771 by the French authorities, +and as a consequence, eight <span class="pagenum"><a id="page029" name="page029"></a>(p. 029)</span> years later, the most +illustrious scion of the stem became, as a recognized aristocrat, the +ward of a France which was still monarchical. Reading between the +lines of such a narrative, it appears as if the short-lived family of +Corsican lawyers had some difficulty in preserving an influence +proportionate to their descent, and therefore sought to draw all the +strength they could from a bygone grandeur, easily forgotten by their +neighbors in their moderate circumstances at a later day. Still later, +when all ci-devant aristocrats were suspects in France, and when the +taint of nobility sufficed to destroy those on whom it rested, +Napoleon denied his quality: the usual inquest as to veracity was not +made and he went free. This escape he owed partly to the station he +had reached, partly to the fact that his family claims had been based +on birth so obscure at the time as to subject the claimants to +good-natured raillery.</p> + +<p>No task had lain nearer to Paoli's heart than to unite in one nation +the two factions into which he found his people divided. Accordingly, +when Carlo Maria di Buonaparte, the single stem on which the +consequential lowland family depended for continuance, appeared at +Corte to pursue his studies, the stranger was received with flattering +kindness, and probably, as one account has it, was appointed to a post +of emolument and honor as Paoli's private secretary. The new +patrician, according to a custom common among Corsicans of his class, +determined to take his degree at Pisa, and in November, 1769, he was +made doctor of laws by that university. Many pleasant and probably +true anecdotes have been told to illustrate the good-fellowship of the +young advocate among his comrades while a student. There are likewise +narratives of his persuasive eloquence and of his influence as a +patriot, but these sound mythical. In short, an organized effort of +sycophantic admirers, who <span class="pagenum"><a id="page030" name="page030"></a>(p. 030)</span> would, if possible, illuminate the +whole family in order to heighten Napoleon's renown, has invented +fables and distorted facts to such a degree that the entire truth as +to Charles's character is hard to discern. Certain undisputed facts, +however, throw a strong light upon Napoleon's father. His people were +proud and poor; he endured the hardships of poverty with equanimity. +Strengthening what little influence he could muster, he at first +appears ambitious, and has himself described in his doctor's diploma +as a patrician of Florence, San Miniato, and Ajaccio. His character is +little known except by the statements of his own family. They declared +that he was a spendthrift. He spent two years' income, about twelve +hundred dollars, in celebrating with friends the taking of his degree. +He would have sold not only the heavily mortgaged estates inherited by +himself, but also those of his wife, except for the fierce +remonstrances of his heirs. He could write clever verse, he was a +devotee of belles-lettres, and a sceptic in the fashion of the time. +Self-indulgent, he was likewise bitterly opposed to all family +discipline. His figure was slight and lithe, his expression alert and +intelligent, his eyes gray blue and his head large. He was ambitious, +indefatigable as a place-hunter, suave, elegant, and irrepressible.</p> + +<p>On the other hand, with no apparent regard for his personal +advancement by marriage, he followed his own inclination, and in 1764, +at the age of eighteen, gallantly wedded a beautiful child of fifteen, +Maria Letizia Ramolino. Her descent, though excellent and, remotely, +even noble, was inferior to that of her husband, but her fortune was +equal, if not superior, to his. Her father was a Genoese official of +importance; her mother, daughter of a petty noble by a peasant wife, +became a widow in 1755 and two years later was married again to +Francis Fesch, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page031" name="page031"></a>(p. 031)</span> a Swiss, captain in the Genoese navy. Of this +union, Joseph, later Cardinal Fesch, was the child. Although well +born, the mother of Napoleon had no education and was of peasant +nature to the last day of her long life—hardy, unsentimental, frugal, +avaricious, and sometimes unscrupulous. Yet for all that, the +hospitality of her little home in Ajaccio was lavish and famous. Among +the many guests who were regularly entertained there was Marbeuf, +commander in Corsica of the first army of occupation. There was long +afterward a malicious tradition that the French general was Napoleon's +father. The morals of Letizia di Buonaparte, like those of her +conspicuous children, have been bitterly assailed, but her good name, +at least, has always been vindicated. The evident motive of the story +sufficiently refutes such an aspersion as it contains. Of the bride's +extraordinary beauty there has never been a doubt. She was a woman of +heroic mold, like Juno in her majesty; unmoved in prosperity, +undaunted in adversity. It was probably to his mother, whom he +strongly resembled in childhood, that the famous son owed his +tremendous and unparalleled physical endurance.</p> + +<p>After their marriage the youthful pair resided in Corte, waiting until +events should permit their return to Ajaccio. Naturally of an indolent +temperament, the husband, though he had at first been drawn into the +daring enterprises of Paoli, and had displayed a momentary enthusiasm, +was now, as he had been for more than a year, weary of them. At the +head of a body of men of his own rank, he finally withdrew to Monte +Rotondo, and on May twenty-third, 1769, a few weeks before Paoli's +flight, the band made formal submission to Vaux, commander of the +second army of occupation, explaining through Buonaparte that the +national leader had misled them by promises of aid which never came, +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page032" name="page032"></a>(p. 032)</span> and that, recognizing the impossibility of further +resistance, they were anxious to accept the new government, to return +to their homes, and to resume the peaceful conduct of their affairs. +This at least is the generally accepted account of his desertion of +Paoli's cause: there is some evidence that having followed Clement, a +brother of Pascal, into a remoter district, he had there found no +support for the enterprise, and had thence under great hardships of +flood and field made his way with wife and child to the French +headquarters. The result was the same in either case. It was the +precipitate naturalization of the father as a French subject which +made his great son a Frenchman. Less than three months afterward, on +August fifteenth, the fourth child, Napoleone di Buonaparte, was born +in Ajaccio, the seat of French influence.</p> + +<p>The resources of the Buonapartes, as they still wrote themselves, were +small, although their family and expectations were large. Charles +himself was the owner of a considerable estate in houses and lands, +but everything was heavily mortgaged and his income was small. He had +further inherited a troublesome law plea, the prosecution of which was +expensive. By an entail in trust of a great-great-grandfather, +important lands were entailed in the male line of the Odone family. In +default of regular descent, the estate was vested in the female line, +and should, when Charles's maternal uncle died childless, have +reverted to his mother. But the uncle had made a will bequeathing his +property to the Jesuits, who swiftly took possession and had +maintained their ownership by occupation and by legal quibbles. +Joseph, the father of Charles, had wasted many years and most of his +fortune in weary litigation. Nothing daunted, Charles settled down to +pursue the same phantom, virtually depending for a livelihood on the +patrimony <span class="pagenum"><a id="page033" name="page033"></a>(p. 033)</span> of his wife. Letitia Buonaparte, being an only +child, had fallen heir to her father's property on the second marriage +of her mother. The stepfather was an excellent Swiss, a Protestant +from Basel, thoroughly educated, and interested in education, and for +years a mercenary in the Genoese service. On his retirement he became +a Roman Catholic in order to secure the woman of his choice. He was +the father of Letitia's half brother, Joseph. The retired officer, +though kindly disposed to the family he had entered, had little but +his pension and savings: he could contribute nothing but good, sound +common sense and his homely ideas of education. The real head of the +family was the uncle of Charles, Lucien Buonaparte, archdeacon of the +cathedral. It was he who had supported and guided his nephew, and had +sent him to the college founded by Paoli at Corte. In his youth +Charles was wasteful and extravagant, but his wife was thrifty to +meanness. With the restraint of her economy and the stimulus of his +uncle, respected as head of the family, the father of Napoleon arrived +at a position of some importance. He practised his profession with +some diligence, became an assessor of the highest insular court, and +in 1772 was made a member, later a deputy, of the council of Corsican +nobles.</p> + +<p>The sturdy mother was most prolific. Her eldest child, born in 1765, +was a son who died in infancy; in 1767 was born a daughter, +Maria-Anna, destined to the same fate; in 1768 a son, known later as +Joseph, but baptized as Nabulione; in 1769 the great son, Napoleone. +Nine other children were the fruit of the same wedlock, and six of +them—three sons, Lucien, Louis, and Jerome, and three daughters, +Elisa, Pauline, and Caroline—survived to share their brother's +greatness. Charles himself, like his short-lived ancestors,—of +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page034" name="page034"></a>(p. 034)</span> whom five had died within a century,—scarcely reached +middle age, dying in his thirty-ninth year. Letitia, like the stout +Corsican that she was, lived to the ripe age of eighty-six in the full +enjoyment of her faculties, known to the world as <span lang="fr">Madame Mère</span>, a +sobriquet devised by her great son to distinguish her as the mother of +the Napoleons.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p> + +<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page035" name="page035"></a>(p. 035)</span> CHAPTER <abbr title="3">III.</abbr></h3> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Napoleon's Birth and Childhood</span><a id="footnotetag1" name="footnotetag1"></a><a href="#footnote1" title="Go to footnote 1"><span class="small">[1]</span></a>.</h4> + +<p class="summary">Birth of Nabulione or Joseph — Date of Napoleon's Birth — + Coincidence with the Festival of the Assumption — The Name + of Napoleon — Corsican Conditions as Influencing Napoleon's + Character — His Early Education — Childish Traits — + Influenced by Traditions Concerning Paoli — Family + Prospects — Influence of Marbeuf — Upheavals in France — + Napoleon Appointed to a Scholarship — His Efforts to Learn + French at Autun — Development of His Character — His + Father Delegate of the Corsican Nobility at Versailles.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">1768-79.</p> + +<p>The trials of poverty made the Buonapartes so clever and adroit that +suspicions of shiftiness in small matters were developed later on, and +these led <span class="pagenum"><a id="page036" name="page036"></a>(p. 036)</span> to an over-close scrutiny of their acts. The +opinion has not yet disappeared among reputable authorities that +Nabulione and Napoleone were one and the same, born on January +seventh, 1768, Joseph being really the younger, born on the date +assigned to his distinguished brother. The earliest documentary +evidence consists of two papers, one in the archives of the French war +department, one in those of Ajaccio. The former is dated 1782, and +testifies to the birth of Nabulione on January seventh, 1768, and to +his baptism on January eighth; the latter is the copy, not the +original, of a government contract which declares the birth, on +January seventh, of Joseph Nabulion. Neither is decisive, but the +addition of Joseph, with the use of the two French forms for the name +in the second, with the clear intent of emphasizing his quality as a +Frenchman, destroys much of its value, and leaves the weight of +authority with the former. The reasonableness of the suspicion seems +to be heightened by the fact that the certificate of Napoleon's +marriage gives the date of his birth as February eighth, 1768. +Moreover, in the marriage contract <span class="pagenum"><a id="page037" name="page037"></a>(p. 037)</span> of Joseph, witnesses +testify to his having been born at Ajaccio, not at Corte.</p> + +<p>But there are facts of greater weight on the other side. In the first +place, the documentary evidence is itself of equal value, for the +archives of the French war department also contain an extract from the +one original baptismal certificate, which is dated July twenty-first, +1771, the day of the baptism, and gives the date of Napoleone's birth +as August fifteenth, 1769. Charles's application for the appointment +of his two eldest boys to Brienne has also been found, and it +contains, according to regulation, still another copy from the +original certificate, which is dated June twenty-third, 1776, and also +gives what must be accepted as the correct date. This explodes the +story that Napoleon's age was falsified by his father in order to +obtain admittance for him to the military school. The application was +made in 1776 for both boys, so as to secure admission for each before +the end of his tenth year. It was the delay of the authorities in +granting the request which, after the lapse of three years or more, +made Joseph ineligible. The father could have had no motive in 1776 to +perpetrate a fraud, and after that date it was impossible, for the +papers were not in his hands; moreover, the minister of war wrote in +1778 that the name of the elder Buonaparte boy had already been +withdrawn. That charge was made during Napoleon's lifetime. His +brother Joseph positively denied it, and asserted the fact as it is +now substantially proved to be; Bourrienne, who had known his Emperor +as a child of nine, was of like opinion; Napoleon himself, in an +autograph paper still existing, and written in the handwriting of his +youth, thrice gives the date of his birth as August fifteenth, 1769. +If the substitution occurred, it must have been in early infancy. +Besides, we know why Napoleon at <span class="pagenum"><a id="page038" name="page038"></a>(p. 038)</span> marriage sought to appear +older than he was, and Joseph's contract was written when the +misstatement in it was valuable as making him appear thoroughly +French.</p> + +<p>Among other absurd efforts to besmirch Napoleon's character is the +oft-repeated insinuation that he fixed his birthday on the greatest +high festival of the Roman Church, that of the Assumption of the +Virgin Mary, in order to assure its perpetual celebration! In sober +fact the researches of indefatigable antiquaries have brought to light +not only the documentary evidence referred to, but likewise the +circumstance that Napoleon, in one paper spelled Lapulion, was a not +uncommon Corsican name borne by several distinguished men, and that in +the early generation of the Buonaparte family the boys had been named +Joseph, Napoleon, and Lucien as they followed one another into the +world. In the eighteenth century spelling was scarcely more fixed than +in the sixteenth. Nor in the walk of life to which the Buonapartes +belonged was the fixity of names as rigid then as it later became. +There were three Maria-Annas in the family first and last, one of whom +was afterward called Elisa.</p> + +<p>As to the form of the name Napoleon, there is a curious though +unimportant confusion. We have already seen the forms Nabulione, +Nabulion, Napoleone, Napoleon. Contemporary documents give also the +form Napoloeone, and his marriage certificate uses Napolione. On the +Vendôme Column stands Napolio. Imp., which might be read either +Napolioni Imperatori or Napolio Imperatori. In either case we have +indications of a new form, Napolion or Napolius. The latter, which was +more probably intended, would seem to be an attempt to recall +Neopolus, a recognized saint's name. The absence of the name Napoleon +from the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page039" name="page039"></a>(p. 039)</span> calendar of the Latin Church was considered a +serious reproach to its bearer by those who hated him, and their +incessant taunts stung him. In youth his constant retort was that +there were many saints and only three hundred and sixty-five days in +the year. In after years he had the matter remedied, and the French +Catholics for a time celebrated a <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Napoleon's day with proper +ceremonies, among which was the singing of a hymn composed to +celebrate the power and virtues of the holy man for whom it was named. +The irreverent school-boys of Autun and Brienne gave the nickname +"straw nose"—<span class="italic" lang="fr">paille-au-nez</span>—to both the brothers. The +pronunciation, therefore, was probably as uncertain as the form, +Napaille-au-nez being probably a distortion of Napouilloné. The +chameleon-like character of the name corresponds exactly to the +chameleon-like character of the times, the man, and the lands of his +birth and of his adoption. The Corsican noble and French royalist was +Napoleone de Buonaparté; the Corsican republican and patriot was +Napoléone Buonaparté; the French republican, <span lang="fr">Napoléon</span> Buonaparte; the +victorious general, Bonaparte; the emperor, <span lang="fr">Napoléon</span>. There was +likewise a change in this person's handwriting analogous to the change +in his nationality and opinions. It was probably to conceal a most +defective knowledge of French that the adoptive Frenchman, as +republican, consul, and emperor, abandoned the fairly legible hand of +his youth, and recurred to the atrocious one of his childhood, +continuing always to use it after his definite choice of a country.</p> + +<p>Stormy indeed were his nation and his birthtime. He himself said: "I +was born while my country was dying. Thirty thousand French, vomited +on our shores, drowning the throne of liberty in waves of blood—such +was the horrid sight which first met my view. The cries of <span class="pagenum"><a id="page040" name="page040"></a>(p. 040)</span> +the dying, the groans of the oppressed, tears of despair, surrounded +my cradle at my birth."</p> + +<p>These were the words he used in 1789, while still a Corsican in +feeling, when addressing Paoli. They strain chronology for the sake of +rhetorical effect, but they truthfully picture the circumstances under +which he was conceived. Among many others of a similar character there +is a late myth which recalls in detail that when the pains of +parturition seized his mother she was at mass, and that she reached +her chamber just in time to deposit, on a carpet or a piece of +embroidery representing the young Achilles, the prodigy bursting so +impetuously into the world. By the man himself his nature was always +represented as the product of his hour, and this he considered a +sufficient excuse for any line of conduct he chose to follow. When in +banishment at Longwood, and on his death-bed, he recalled the +circumstances of his childhood in conversations with the attendant +physician, a Corsican like himself. "Nothing awed me; I feared no one. +I struck one, I scratched another, I was a terror to everybody. It was +my brother Joseph with whom I had most to do; he was beaten, bitten, +scolded, and I had put the blame on him almost before he knew what he +was about; was telling tales about him almost before he could collect +his wits. I had to be quick: my mama Letizia would have restrained my +warlike temper; she would not have put up with my defiant petulance. +Her tenderness was severe, meting out punishment and reward with equal +justice; merit and demerit, she took both into account."</p> + +<p>Of his earliest education he said at the same time: "Like everything +else in Corsica, it was pitiful." Lucien Buonaparte, his great-uncle, +was a canon, a man of substance with an income of five thousand livres +a year, and of some education—sufficient, at least, to permit +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page041" name="page041"></a>(p. 041)</span> his further ecclesiastical advancement. "Uncle" Fesch, whose +father had received the good education of a Protestant Swiss boy, and +had in turn imparted his knowledge to his own son, was the friend and +older playmate of the turbulent little Buonaparte. The child learned a +few notions of Bible history, and, doubtless, also the catechism, from +the canon; by his eleven-year-old uncle he was taught his alphabet. In +his sixth year he was sent to a dame's school. The boys teased him +because his stockings were always down over his shoes, and for his +devotion to the girls, one named Giacominetta especially. He met their +taunts with blows, using sticks, bricks, or any handy weapon.</p> + +<p>According to his own story, he was fearless in the face of superior +numbers, however large. His mother, according to his brother Joseph, +declared that he was a perfect imp of a child. She herself described +him as fond of playing at war with a drum, wooden sword, and files of +toy soldiers. The pious nuns who taught him recognized a certain gift +for figures in styling him their little mathematician. Later when in +attendance at the Jesuit school he regularly encountered on his way +thither a soldier with whom he exchanged his own piece of white bread +for a morsel of the other's coarse commissary loaf. The excuse he +gave, according to his mother, was that he must learn to like such +food if he were to be a soldier. In time his passion for the simple +mathematics he studied increased to such a degree that she assigned +him a rough shed in the rear of their home as a refuge from the +disturbing noise of the family. For exercise he walked the streets at +nightfall with tumbled hair and disordered clothes. Of French he knew +not a word; he had lessons at school in his mother tongue, which he +learned to read under the instruction of the Abbé Recco. The worthy +teacher arrayed his boys in <span class="pagenum"><a id="page042" name="page042"></a>(p. 042)</span> two bodies: the diligent under +the victorious standard of Rome, the idle as vanquished Carthaginians. +Napoleon of right belonged to the latter, but he was transferred, not +because of merit, by the sheer force of his imperious temper.</p> + +<p>This scanty information is all the trustworthy knowledge we possess +concerning the little Napoleon up to his tenth year. With slight +additions from other sources it is substantially the great Napoleon's +own account of himself by the mouthpiece partly of his mother in his +prosperous days, partly of Antommarchi in that last period of +self-examination when, to him, as to other men, consistency seems the +highest virtue. He was, doubtless, striving to compound with his +conscience by emphasizing the adage that the child is father to the +man—that he was born what he had always been.</p> + +<p>In 1775, Corsica had been for six years in the possession of France, +and on the surface all was fair. There was, however, a little remnant +of faithful patriots left in the island, with whom Paoli and his +banished friends were still in communication. The royal cabinet, +seeking to remove every possible danger of disturbance, even so slight +a one as lay in the disaffection of the few scattered nationalists, +and in the unconcealed distrust which these felt for their conforming +fellow-citizens, began a little later to make advances, in order, if +possible, to win at least Paoli's neutrality, if not his acquiescence. +All in vain: the exile was not to be moved. From time to time, +therefore, there was throughout Corsica a noticeable flow in the tide +of patriotism. There are indications that the child Napoleon was +conscious of this influence, listening probably with intense interest +to the sympathetic tales about Paoli and his struggles for liberty +which were still told among the people.</p> + +<p>As to Charles de Buonaparte, some things he had <span class="pagenum"><a id="page043" name="page043"></a>(p. 043)</span> hoped for +from annexation were secured. His nobility and official rank were +safe; he was in a fair way to reach even higher distinction. But what +were honors without wealth? The domestic means were constantly growing +smaller, while expenditures increased with the accumulating dignities +and ever-growing family. He had made his humble submission to the +French; his reception had been warm and graceful. The authorities knew +of his pretensions to the estates of his ancestors. The Jesuits had +been disgraced and banished, but the much litigated Odone property had +not been restored to him; on the contrary, the buildings had been +converted into school-houses, and the revenues turned into various +channels. Years had passed, and it was evident that his suit was +hopeless. How could substantial advantage be secured from the King?</p> + +<p>His friends, General Marbeuf in particular, were of the opinion that +he could profit to a certain extent at least by securing for his +children an education at the expense of the state. While it is likely +that from the first Joseph was destined for the priesthood, yet there +was provision for ecclesiastical training under royal patronage as +well as for secular, and a transfer from the latter to the former was +easier than the reverse. Both were to be placed at the college of +Autun for a preliminary course, whatever their eventual destination +might be. The necessary steps were soon taken, and in 1776 the formal +supplication for the two eldest boys was forwarded to Paris. +Immediately the proof of four noble descents was demanded. The +movement of letters was slow, that of officials even slower, and the +delays in securing copies and authentications of the various documents +were long and vexatious.</p> + +<p>Meantime Choiseul had been disgraced, and on May tenth, 1774, the old +King had died; Louis <abbr title="16">XVI</abbr> <span class="pagenum"><a id="page044" name="page044"></a>(p. 044)</span> now reigned. The inertia which +marked the brilliant decadence of the Bourbon monarchy was finally +overcome. The new social forces were partly emancipated. Facts were +examined, and their significance considered. Bankruptcy was no longer +a threatening phantom, but a menacing reality of the most serious +nature. Retrenchment and reform were the order of the day. Necker was +trying his promising schemes. There was, among them, one for a body +consisting of delegates from each of the three estates,—nobles, +ecclesiastics, and burgesses,—to assist in deciding that troublesome +question, the regulation of imposts. The Swiss financier hoped to +destroy in this way the sullen, defiant influence of the royal +intendants. In Corsica the governor and the intendant both thought +themselves too shrewd to be trapped, and secured the appointment from +each of the Corsican estates of men who were believed by them to be +their humble servants. The needy suitor, Charles de Buonaparte, was to +be the delegate at Versailles of the nobility. They thought they knew +this man in particular, but he was to prove as malleable in France as +he had been in Corsica.</p> + +<p>Though nearly penniless, the noble deputy, with the vanity of the born +courtier, was flattered, and accepted the mission, setting out on +December fifteenth, 1778, by way of Italy with his two sons Joseph and +Napoleon. With them were Joseph Fesch, appointed to the seminary at +Aix, and Varesa, Letitia's cousin, who was to be sub-deacon at Autun. +Joseph and Napoleon both asserted in later life that during their +sojourn in Florence the grand duke gave his friend, their father, a +letter to his royal sister, Marie Antoinette. As the grand duke was at +that time in Vienna, the whole account they give of the journey is +probably, though perhaps not intentionally, untrue. It was not to the +Queen's intercession <span class="pagenum"><a id="page045" name="page045"></a>(p. 045)</span> but to Marbeuf's powerful influence +that the final partial success of Charles de Buonaparte's supplication +was due. This is clearly proven by the evidence of the archives. To +the general's nephew, bishop of Autun, Joseph, now too old to be +received in a royal military school, and later Lucien, were both sent, +the former to be educated as a priest. It was probably Marbeuf's +influence also, combined with a desire to conciliate Corsica, which +caused the herald's office finally to accept the documents attesting +the Buonapartes' nobility.</p> + +<p>It appears that the journey from Corsica through Florence and +Marseilles had already wrought a marvelous change in the boy. +Napoleon's teacher at Autun, the Abbé Chardon, described his pupil as +having brought with him a sober, thoughtful character. He played with +no one, and took his walks alone. In all respects he excelled his +brother Joseph. The boys of Autun, says the same authority, on one +occasion brought the sweeping charge of cowardice against all +inhabitants of Corsica, in order to exasperate him. "If they [the +French] had been but four to one," was the calm, phlegmatic answer of +the ten-year-old boy, "they would never have taken Corsica; but when +they were ten to one...." "But you had a fine general—Paoli," +interrupted the narrator. "Yes, sir," was the reply, uttered with an +air of discontent, and in the very embodiment of ambition; "I should +much like to emulate him." The description of the untamed faun as he +then appeared is not flattering: his complexion sallow, his hair +stiff, his figure slight, his expression lusterless, his manner +insignificant. Moreover, his behavior was sullen, and at first, of +course, he spoke broken French with an Italian accent. Open-mouthed +and with sparkling eyes, however, he listened attentively to the first +rehearsal of his task; repetition <span class="pagenum"><a id="page046" name="page046"></a>(p. 046)</span> he heartily disliked, and +when rebuked for inattention he coldly replied: "Sir, I know that +already." On April twenty-first, 1779, Napoleon, according to the +evidence of his personal memorandum, left Autun, having been admitted +to Brienne, and it was to Marbeuf that in later life he correctly +attributed his appointment. After spending three weeks with a school +friend, the little fellow entered upon his duties about the middle of +May.</p> + +<p>On New Year's day, 1779, the Buonapartes had arrived at Autun, and for +nearly four months the young Napoleone had been trained in the use of +French. He learned to speak fluently, though not correctly, and wrote +short themes in a way to satisfy his teacher. Prodigy as he was later +declared to have been, his real progress was slow, the difficulties of +that elegant and polished tongue having scarcely been reached; so that +it was with a most imperfect knowledge of their language, and a sadly +defective pronunciation, that he made his appearance among his future +schoolmates. Having, we may suppose, been assigned to the first +vacancy that occurred in any of the royal colleges, his first +destination had been Tiron, the roughest and most remote of the +twelve. But as fortune would have it, a change was somehow made to +Brienne. That establishment was rude enough. The instructors were +Minim priests, and the life was as severe as it could be made with +such a clientage under half-educated and inexperienced monks. In spite +of all efforts to the contrary, however, the place had an air of +elegance; there was a certain school-boy display proportionate to the +means and to the good or bad breeding of the young nobles, also a very +keen discrimination among themselves as to rank, social quality, and +relative importance. Those familiar with the ruthlessness of boys in +their treatment of one another can <span class="pagenum"><a id="page047" name="page047"></a>(p. 047)</span> easily conceive what was +the reception of the newcomer, whose nobility was unknown and +unrecognized in France, and whose means were of the scantiest.</p> + +<p>During his son's preparatory studies the father had been busy at +Versailles with further supplications—among them one for a supplement +from the royal purse to his scanty pay as delegate, and another for +the speedy settlement of his now notorious claim. The former of the +two was granted not merely to M. de Buonaparte, but to his two +colleagues, in view of the "excellent behavior"—otherwise +subserviency—of the Corsican delegation at Versailles. When, in +addition, the certificate of Napoleon's appointment finally arrived, +and the father set out to place his son at school, with a barely +proper outfit, he had no difficulty in securing sufficient money to +meet his immediate and pressing necessities.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p> + +<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page048" name="page048"></a>(p. 048)</span> CHAPTER <abbr title="4">IV.</abbr></h3> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Napoleon's School-days</span><a id="footnotetag2" name="footnotetag2"></a><a href="#footnote2" title="Go to footnote 2"><span class="small">[2]</span></a>.</h4> + + +<p class="summary">Military Schools in France — Napoleon's Initiation into the + Life of Brienne — Regulations of the School — The Course + of Study — Napoleon's Powerful Friends — His Reading and + Other Avocations — His Comrades — His Studies — His + Precocity — His Conduct and Scholarship — The Change in + His Life Plan — His Influence in His Family — His Choice + of the Artillery Service.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">1779-84.</p> + +<p>It was an old charge that the sons of poor gentlemen destined to be +artillery officers were bred like princes. The institution at Brienne, +with eleven other similar academies, had been but recently founded as +a protest against the luxury which had reigned in the military schools +at Paris and La Flèche. Both these had been closed for a time because +they could not be reformed; the latter was, however, one of the twelve +from the first, and that at Paris was afterward reopened as a +finishing-school. The monasteries of various religious orders were +chosen as seats of the new colleges, and their owners were put in +charge with instructions to secure simplicity of life and manners, the +formation of character, and other desirable benefits, each one in its +own way in the school or schools intrusted to it. The result so far +had been a failure; there were simply not twelve first-rate +instructors in each branch to be found in France for the new +positions; the instruction was therefore limited and poor, so that in +the intellectual <span class="pagenum"><a id="page049" name="page049"></a>(p. 049)</span> stagnation the right standards of conduct +declined, while the old notions of hollow courtliness and conventional +behavior flourished as never before. In order to enter his boy at +Brienne, Charles de Buonaparte presented a certificate signed by the +intendant and two neighbors, that he could not educate his sons +without help from the King, and was a poor man, having no income +except his salary as assessor. This paper was countersigned by Marbeuf +as commanding general, and to him the request was formally granted. +This being the regular procedure, it is evident that all the young +nobles of the twelve schools enjoying the royal bounty were poor and +should have had little or no pocket money. Perhaps for this very +reason, though the school provided for every expense including pocket +money, polished manners and funds obtained surreptitiously from +powerful friends indifferent to rules, were the things most needed to +secure kind treatment for an entering boy. These were exactly what the +young gentleman scholar from Corsica did not possess. The ignorant and +unworldly Minim fathers could neither foresee nor, if they had +foreseen, alleviate the miseries incident to his arrival under such +conditions.</p> + +<p>At Autun Napoleon had at least enjoyed the sympathetic society of his +mild and emotional brother, whose easy-going nature could smooth many +a rough place. He was now entirely without companionship, resenting +from the outset both the ill-natured attacks and the playful personal +allusions through which boys so often begin, and with time knit ever +more firmly, their inexplicable friendships. To the taunts about +Corsica which began immediately he answered coldly, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page050" name="page050"></a>(p. 050)</span> "I hope +one day to be in a position to give Corsica her liberty." Entering on +a certain occasion a room in which unknown to him there hung a +portrait of the hated Choiseul, he started back as he caught sight of +it and burst into bitter revilings; for this he was compelled to +undergo chastisement.</p> + +<p>Brienne was a nursery for the qualities first developed at Autun. The +building was a gloomy and massive structure of the early eighteenth +century, which stood on a commanding site at the entrance of the town, +flanked by a later addition somewhat more commodious. The dormitory +consisted of two long rows of cells opening on a double corridor, +about a hundred and forty in all: each of these chambers was six feet +square, and contained a folding bed, a pitcher and a basin. The pupil +was locked in at bed-time, his only means of communication being a +bell to arouse the guard who slept in the hall. Larger rooms were +provided for his toilet; and he studied where he recited, in still +another suite. There was a common refectory in which four simple meals +a day were served: for breakfast and luncheon, bread and water, with +fruit either fresh or stewed; for dinner, soup with the soup-meat, a +side-dish and dessert; for supper, a joint with salad or dessert. With +the last two was served a mild mixture of wine and water, known in +school slang as "abundance." The outfit of clothing comprised +underwear for two changes a week, a uniform consisting of a blue cloth +coat, faced and trimmed with red, a waistcoat of the same with white +revers, and serge breeches either blue or black. The overcoat was of +the same material as the uniform, with the same trimming but with +white lining. The studies comprised Latin, mathematics, the French +language and literature, English, German, geography, drawing, fencing, +music, vocal as well as instrumental, and dancing.</p> + +<a id="img003" name="img003"></a> +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/img003.jpg" width="300" height="457" alt="" title=""> +<p class="noindent"><span class="small">In the Museum of Versailles.</span></p> +<p class="noindent">Marie-Laetitia Ramolino Bonaparte<br> +<span lang="fr">"Madame Mère"</span>—mother Of Napoleon <abbr title="1">I.</abbr></p> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page051" name="page051"></a>(p. 051)</span> Perhaps the severe regimen of living could have been +mitigated and brightened by a course of study nominally and ostensibly +so rich and full; but in the list of masters, lay and clerical, there +is not a name of eminence. Neither Napoleon nor his contemporary +pupils recalled in later years any portion of their work as +stimulating, nor any instructor as having excelled in ability. The +boys seem to have disliked heartily both their studies and their +masters. Young Buonaparte had likewise a distaste for society and was +thrown upon his own unaided resources to satisfy his eager mind. +Undisciplined in spirit, he was impatient of self-discipline and +worked spasmodically in such subjects as he liked, disdaining the +severe training of his mind, even by himself. He did learn to spell +the foreign tongue of his adopted country, but his handwriting, never +good, was bad or worse, according to circumstances. Dark, solitary, +and untamed, the new scholar assumed the indifference of wounded +vanity, despised all pastimes, and found delight either in books or in +scornful exasperation of his comrades when compelled to associate with +them. There were quarrels and bitter fights, in which the Ishmaelite's +hand was against every other. Sometimes in a kind of frenzy he +inflicted serious wounds on his fellow-students. At length even the +teachers mocked him, and deprived him of his position as captain in +the school battalion.</p> + +<p>The climax of the miserable business was reached when to a taunt that +his ancestry was nothing, "his father a wretched tipstaff," Napoleon +replied by challenging his tormentor to fight a duel. For this offense +he was put in confinement while the instigator went unpunished. It was +by the intervention of Marbeuf that his young friend was at length +released. Bruised and wounded in spirit, the boy would gladly have +shaken <span class="pagenum"><a id="page052" name="page052"></a>(p. 052)</span> the dust of Brienne from his feet, but necessity +forbade. Either from some direct communication Napoleon had with his +protector, or through a dramatic but unauthenticated letter purporting +to have been written by him to his friends in Corsica and still in +existence, Marbeuf learned that the chiefest cause of all the +bitterness was the inequality between the pocket allowances of the +young French nobles and that of the young Corsican. The kindly general +displayed the liberality of a family friend, and gladly increased the +boy's gratuity, administering at the same time a smart rebuke to him +for his readiness to take offense. He is likewise thought to have +introduced his young charge to <abbr title="Madame">Mme.</abbr> Loménie de Brienne, whose mansion +was near by.<a id="footnotetag3" name="footnotetag3"></a><a href="#footnote3" title="Go to footnote 3"><span class="small">[3]</span></a> This noble woman, it is asserted, became a second +mother to the lonely child: though there were no vacations, yet long +holidays were numerous and these were passed with her; her tenderness +softened his rude nature, the more so as she knew the value of tips to +a school-boy, and administered them liberally though judiciously.</p> + +<p>Nor was this, if true, the only light among the shadows in the picture +of his later Brienne school-days. Each of the hundred and fifty pupils +had a small garden spot assigned to him. Buonaparte developed a +passion for <span class="pagenum"><a id="page053" name="page053"></a>(p. 053)</span> his own, and, annexing by force the neglected +plots of his two neighbors, created for himself a retreat, the +solitude of which was insured by a thick and lofty hedge planted about +it. To this citadel, the sanctity of which he protected with a fury at +times half insane, he was wont to retire in the fair weather of all +seasons, with whatever books he could procure. In the companionship of +these he passed happy, pleasant, and fruitful hours. His youthful +patriotism had been intensified by the hatred he now felt for French +school-boys, and through them for France. "I can never forgive my +father," he once cried, "for the share he had in uniting Corsica to +France." Paoli became his hero, and the favorite subjects of his +reading were the mighty deeds of men and peoples, especially in +antiquity. Such matter he found abundant in Plutarch's "Lives."</p> + +<p>Moreover, his punishments and degradation by the school authorities at +once created a sentiment in his favor among his companions, which not +only counteracted the effect of official penalties, but gave him a +sort of compensating leadership in their games. When driven by storms +to abandon his garden haunt, and to associate in the public hall with +the other boys, he often instituted sports in which opposing camps of +Greeks and Persians, or of Romans and Carthaginians, fought until the +uproar brought down the authorities to end the conflict. On one +occasion he proposed the game, common enough elsewhere, but not so +familiar then in France, of building snow forts, of storming and +defending them, and of fighting with snowballs as weapons. The +proposition was accepted, and the preparations were made under his +direction with scientific zeal; the intrenchments, forts, bastions, +and redoubts were the admiration of the neighborhood. For weeks the +mimic warfare went on, Buonaparte, always in command, being sometimes +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page054" name="page054"></a>(p. 054)</span> the besieger and as often the besieged. Such was the +aptitude, such the resources, and such the commanding power which he +showed in either rôle, that the winter was always remembered in the +annals of the school.</p> + +<p>Of all his contemporaries only two became men of mark, Gudin and +Nansouty. Both were capable soldiers, receiving promotions and titles +at Napoleon's hand during the empire. Bourrienne, having sunk to the +lowest depths under the republic, found employment as secretary of +General Bonaparte. In this position he continued until the consulate, +when he lost both fortune and reputation in doubtful money +speculations. From old affection he secured pardon and further +employment, being sent as minister to Hamburg. There his lust for +money wrought his final ruin. The treacherous memoirs which appeared +over his name are a compilation edited by him to obtain the means of +livelihood in his declining years. Throughout life Napoleon had the +kindliest feelings for Brienne and all connected with it. In his death +struggle on the battle-fields of Champagne he showed favor to the town +and left it a large legacy in his will. No schoolmate or master +appealed to him in vain, and many of his comrades were in their +insignificant lives dependent for existence on his favor.</p> + +<p>It is a trite remark that diamonds can be polished only by diamond +dust. Whatever the rude processes were to which the rude nature of the +young Corsican was subjected, the result was remarkable. Latin he +disliked, and treated with disdainful neglect. His particular +aptitudes were for mathematics, for geography, and above all for +history, in which he made fair progress. His knowledge of mathematics +was never profound; in geography he displayed a remarkable and +excellent memory; biography was the department of history which +fascinated him. In all directions, however, he <span class="pagenum"><a id="page055" name="page055"></a>(p. 055)</span> was quick in +his perceptions; the rapid maturing of his mind by reading and +reflection was evident to all his associates, hostile though they +were. The most convincing evidence of the fact will be found in a +letter written, probably in July, 1784, when he was fifteen years old, +to an uncle,—possibly Fesch, more likely Paravicini,—concerning +family matters.<a id="footnotetag4" name="footnotetag4"></a><a href="#footnote4" title="Go to footnote 4"><span class="small">[4]</span></a> His brother Joseph had gone to Autun to be educated +for the Church, his sister (Maria-Anna) Elisa had been appointed on +the royal foundation at Saint-Cyr, and Lucien was, if possible, to be +placed like Napoleon at Brienne. The two younger children had already +accompanied their father on his regular journey to Versailles, and +Lucien was now installed either in the school itself or near by, to be +in readiness for any vacancy. All was well with the rest, except that +Joseph was uneasy, and wished to become an officer too.</p> + +<p>The tone of Napoleon is extraordinary. Opening with a commonplace +little sketch of Lucien such as any elder brother might draw of a +younger, he proceeds to an analysis of Joseph which is remarkable. +Searching and thorough, it explains with fullness of reasoning and +illustration how much more advantageous from the worldly point of view +both for Joseph and for the family would be a career in the Church: +"the bishop of Autun would bestow a fat living on him, and he was +himself sure of becoming a bishop." As an <span class="italic">obiter dictum</span> it contains +a curious expression of contempt for infantry as an arm, the origin of +which feeling is by no means clear. Joseph wishes to be a soldier: +very well, but in what branch of the profession? He could not enter +the navy, for he knows no mathematics; nor is his doubtful health +suited to that career. He would have to <span class="pagenum"><a id="page056" name="page056"></a>(p. 056)</span> study two years more +for the navy, and four if he were to be an engineer; however, the +ceaseless occupation of this arm of the service would be more than his +strength could endure. Similar reasons militate against the artillery. +There remains, therefore, only the infantry. "Good. I see. He wants to +be all day idle, he wants to march the streets all day, and besides, +what is a slim infantry office? A poor thing, three quarters of the +time; and that, neither my dear father nor you, nor my mother, nor my +dear uncle the archdeacon, desires, for he has already shown some +slight tendency to folly and extravagance." There is an utter absence +of loose talk, or of enthusiasm, and no allusion to principle or +sentiment. It is the work of a cold, calculating, and dictatorial +nature. There is a poetical quotation in it, very apt, but very badly +spelled; and while the expression throughout is fair, it is by no +means what might be expected from a person capable of such thought, +who had been studying French for three years, and using it exclusively +in daily life.</p> + +<p>In August, 1783, Buonaparte and Bourrienne, according to the statement +of the latter, shared the first prize in mathematics, and soon +afterward, in the same year, a royal inspector, M. de Keralio, arrived +at Brienne to test the progress of the King's wards. He took a great +fancy to the little Buonaparte, and declaring that, though +unacquainted with his family, he found a spark in him which must not +be extinguished, wrote an emphatic recommendation of the lad, couched +in the following terms: "M. de Bonaparte (Napoleon), born August +fifteenth, 1769. Height, four feet ten inches ten lines [about five +feet three inches, English]. Constitution: excellent health, docile +disposition, mild, straightforward, thoughtful. Conduct most +satisfactory; has always been distinguished for his application +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page057" name="page057"></a>(p. 057)</span> in mathematics. He is fairly well acquainted with history +and geography. He is weak in all accomplishments—drawing, dancing, +music, and the like. This boy would make an excellent sailor; deserves +to be admitted to the school in Paris." Unfortunately for the +prospect, M. de Keralio, who might have been a powerful friend, died +almost immediately.</p> + +<p>By means of further genuflections, supplications, and wearisome +persistency, Charles de Buonaparte at last obtained favor not only for +Lucien, but for Joseph also. Deprived unjustly of his inheritance, +deprived also of his comforts and his home in pursuit of the ambitious +schemes rendered necessary by that wrong, the poor diplomatist was now +near the end of his resources and his energy. Except for the short +visit of his father at Brienne on his way to Paris, it is almost +certain that the young Napoleon saw none of his elders throughout his +sojourn in the former place. The event was most important to the boy +and opened the pent-up flood of his tenderness: it was therefore a +bitter disappointment when he learned that, having seen the royal +physician, his parent would return to Corsica by Autun, taking Joseph +with him, and would not stop at Brienne. Napoleon, by the advice of +Marbeuf and more definitely by the support of his friend the +inspector, had been designated for the navy; through the favor of the +latter he hoped to have been sent to Paris, and thence assigned to +Toulon, the naval port in closest connection with Corsica. There were +so many influential applications, however, for that favorite branch of +the service that the department must rid itself of as many as +possible; a youth without a patron would be the first to suffer. The +agreement which the father had made at Paris was, therefore, that +Napoleon, by way of compensation, might continue at Brienne, while +Joseph could either go <span class="pagenum"><a id="page058" name="page058"></a>(p. 058)</span> thither, or to Metz, in order to make +up his deficiencies in the mathematical sciences and pass his +examinations to enter the royal service along with Napoleon, on +condition that the latter would renounce his plans for the navy, and +choose a career in the army.</p> + +<p>The letter in which the boy communicates his decision to his father is +as remarkable as the one just mentioned and very clearly the sequel to +it. The anxious and industrious parent had finally broken down, and in +his feeble health had taken Joseph as a support and help on the +arduous homeward journey. With the same succinct, unsparing statement +as before, Napoleon confesses his disappointment, and in commanding +phrase, with logical analysis, lays down the reasons why Joseph must +come to Brienne instead of going to Metz. There is, however, a new +element in the composition—a frank, hearty expression of affection +for his family, and a message of kindly remembrance to his friends. +But the most striking fact, in view of subsequent developments, is a +request for Boswell's "History of Corsica," and any other histories or +memoirs relating to "that kingdom." "I will bring them back when I +return, if it be six years from now."<a id="footnotetag5" name="footnotetag5"></a><a href="#footnote5" title="Go to footnote 5"><span class="small">[5]</span></a> The immediate sequel makes +clear the direction of his mind. He probably did not remember that he +was preparing, if possible, to strip France of her latest and highly +cherished acquisition at her own cost, or if he did, he must have felt +like the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page059" name="page059"></a>(p. 059)</span> archer pluming his arrow from the off-cast feathers +of his victim's wing. It is plain that his humiliations at school, his +studies in the story of liberty, his inherited bent, and the present +disappointment, were all cumulative in the result of fixing his +attention on his native land as the destined sphere of his activity.</p> + +<p>Four days after the probable date of writing he passed his examination +a second time, before the new inspector, announced his choice of the +artillery as his branch of the service, and a month later was ordered +to the military academy in Paris. This institution had not merely been +restored to its former renown: it now enjoyed a special reputation as +the place of reward to which only the foremost candidates for official +honors were sent. The choice of artillery seems to have been reached +by a simple process of exclusion; the infantry was too unintellectual +and indolent, the cavalry too expensive and aristocratic; between the +engineers and the artillery there was little to choose—in neither did +wealth or influence control promotion. The decision seems to have +fallen as it did because the artillery was accidentally mentioned +first in the fatal letter he had received announcing the family +straits, and the necessary renunciation of the navy. On the +certificate which was sent up with Napoleon from Brienne was the note: +"Character masterful, imperious, and headstrong."<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p> + +<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page060" name="page060"></a>(p. 060)</span> CHAPTER <abbr title="5">V.</abbr></h3> + +<h4><span class="smcap">In Paris and Valence</span><a id="footnotetag6" name="footnotetag6"></a><a href="#footnote6" title="Go to footnote 6"><span class="small">[6]</span></a>.</h4> + +<p class="summary">Introduction to Paris — Teachers and Comrades — Death of + Charles de Buonaparte — His Merits — The School at Paris + — Napoleon's Poverty — His Character at the Close of His + School Years — Appointed Lieutenant in the Regiment of La + Fère — Demoralization of the French Army — The Men in the + Ranks — Napoleon as a Beau — Return to Study — His + Profession and Vocation.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">1784-86.</p> + +<p>It was on October thirtieth, 1784 that Napoleon left Brienne for +Paris.<a id="footnotetag7" name="footnotetag7"></a><a href="#footnote7" title="Go to footnote 7"><span class="small">[7]</span></a> He was in the sixteenth year of his age, entirely ignorant +of what were then called the "humanities," but fairly versed in +history, geography, and the mathematical sciences. His knowledge, like +the bent of his mind, was practical rather than theoretical, and he +knew more about fortification and sieges than about metaphysical +abstractions; more about the deeds of history than about its +philosophy. The new surroundings into which he was introduced by the +Minim father who had accompanied him and his four comrades from +Brienne, all somewhat younger than himself, were different indeed from +those of the rude convent <span class="pagenum"><a id="page061" name="page061"></a>(p. 061)</span> he had left behind. The splendid +palace constructed on the plans of Gabriel early in the eighteenth +century still stands to attest the King's design of lodging his +gentlemen cadets in a style worthy of their high birth, and of +educating them in manners as well as of instructing them. The domestic +arrangements had been on a par with the regal lodgings of the corps. +So far had matters gone in the direction of elegance and luxury that +as we have said the establishment was closed. But it had been reopened +within a few months, about the end of 1777. While the worst abuses had +been corrected, yet still the food was, in quantity at least, lavish; +there were provided two uniforms complete each year, with underwear +sufficient for two changes a week, what was then considered a great +luxury; there was a great staff of liveried servants, and the officers +in charge were men of polished manners and of the highest distinction. +At the very close of his life Napoleon recalled the arrangements as +made for men of wealth. "We were fed and served splendidly, treated +altogether like officers, enjoying a greater competence than most of +our families, greater than most of us were destined to enjoy." At +sixteen and with his inexperience he was perhaps an incompetent judge. +Others, Vaublanc for example, thought there was more show than +substance.</p> + +<p>Be that as it may, Bonaparte's defiant scorn and habits of solitary +study grew stronger together. It is asserted that his humor found vent +in a preposterous and peevish memorial addressed to the minister of +war on the proper training of the pupils in French military schools! +He may have written it, but it is almost impossible that it should +ever have passed beyond the walls of the school, even, as is claimed, +for revision by a former teacher, Berton. Nevertheless he found +almost, if not altogether, for the first time a real friend <span class="pagenum"><a id="page062" name="page062"></a>(p. 062)</span> +in the person of des Mazis, a youth noble by birth and nature, who was +assigned to him as a pupil-teacher, and was moreover a foundation +scholar like himself. It is also declared by various authorities that +from time to time he enjoyed the agreeable society of the bishop of +Autun, who was now at Versailles, of his sister Elisa at Saint-Cyr, +and, toward the very close, of a family friend who had just settled in +Paris, the beautiful <abbr title="Madame">Mme.</abbr> Permon, mother of the future duchess of +Abrantès. Although born in Corsica, she belonged to a branch of the +noble Greek family of the Comneni. In view of the stringent +regulations both of the military school and of Saint-Cyr, these visits +are problematical, though not impossible.</p> + +<p>Rigid as were the regulations of the royal establishments, their +enforcement depended of course on the character of their directors. +The marquis who presided over the military school was a veteran +place-holder, his assistant was a man of no force, and the director of +studies was the only conscientious official of the three. He knew his +charge thoroughly and was recognized by Napoleon in later years as a +man of worth. The course of studies was a continuation of that at +Brienne, and there were twenty-one instructors in the various branches +of mathematics, history, geography, and languages. De l'Esguille +endorsed one of Buonaparte's exercises in history with the remark: +"Corsican by nation and character. He will go far if circumstances +favor." Domairon said of his French style that it was "granite heated +in a volcano." There were admirable masters, seven in number, for +riding, fencing, and dancing. In none of these exercises did +Buonaparte excel. It was the avowed purpose of the institution to make +its pupils pious Roman Catholics. The parish priest at Brienne had +administered the sacraments to a number of the boys, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page063" name="page063"></a>(p. 063)</span> +including the young Corsican, who appears to have submitted without +cavil to the severe religious training of the Paris school: chapel +with mass at half-past six in the morning, grace before and after all +meals, and chapel again a quarter before nine in the evening; on +holidays, catechism for new students; Sundays, catechism and high +mass, and vespers with confession every Saturday; communion every two +months. Long afterwards the Emperor remembered <span lang="fr">de Juigné</span>, his +chaplain, with kindness and overwhelmed him with favors. Of the +hundred and thirty-two scholars resident during Buonaparte's time, +eighty-three were boarders at four hundred dollars each; none of these +attained distinction, the majority did not even pass their +examinations. The rest were scholars of the King, and were diligent; +but even of these only one or two were really able men.</p> + +<p>It was in the city of <abbr title="Madame">Mme.</abbr> Permon's residence, at Montpellier, that on +the twenty-fourth of February, 1785, Charles de Buonaparte died. This +was apparently a final and mortal blow to the Buonaparte fortunes, for +it seemed as if with the father must go all the family expectations. +The circumstances were a fit close to the life thus ended. Feeling his +health somewhat restored, and despairing of further progress in the +settlement of his well-worn claim by legal methods, he had determined +on still another journey of solicitation to Versailles. With Joseph as +a companion he started; but a serious relapse occurred at sea, and +ashore the painful disease continued to make such ravages that the +father and son set out for Montpellier to consult the famous +specialists of the medical faculty at that place. It was in vain, and, +after some weeks, on February twenty-fourth the heartbroken father +breathed his last. Having learned to hate the Jesuits, he had become +indifferent to all religion, and is said by some to have repelled with +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page064" name="page064"></a>(p. 064)</span> his last exertions the kindly services of Fesch, who was now +a frocked priest, and had hastened to his brother-in-law's bedside to +offer the final consolations of the Church to a dying man. Others +declare that he turned again to the solace of religion, and was +attended on his death-bed by the Abbé Coustou. Joseph, prostrated by +grief, was taken into <abbr title="Madame">Mme.</abbr> Permon's house and received the tenderest +consolation.<a id="footnotetag8" name="footnotetag8"></a><a href="#footnote8" title="Go to footnote 8"><span class="small">[8]</span></a></p> + +<p>Failure as the ambitious father had been, he had nevertheless been so +far the support of his family in their hopes of advancement. Sycophant +and schemer as he had become, they recognized his untiring energy in +their behalf, and truly loved him. He left them penniless and in debt, +but he died in their service, and they sincerely mourned for him. On +the twenty-third of March the sorrowing boy wrote to his great-uncle, +the archdeacon Lucien, a letter in eulogy of his father and begging +the support of his uncle as guardian. This appointment was legally +made not long after. On the twenty-eighth he wrote to his mother. Both +these letters are in existence, and sound like rhetorical school +exercises corrected by a tutor. That to his mother is, however, +dignified and affectionate, referring in a becoming spirit to the +support her children owed her. As if to show what a thorough child he +still was, the dreary little note closes with an odd postscript giving +the irrelevant news of the birth, two days earlier, of a royal +prince—the duke of Normandy! This may have been added for the benefit +of the censor who examined all the correspondence of the young men.</p> + +<p>Some time before, General Marbeuf had married, and the pecuniary +supplies to his boy friend seem after that event to have stopped. <abbr title="Madame">Mme.</abbr> +de Buonaparte was left with four infant children, the youngest, +Jerome, but <span class="pagenum"><a id="page065" name="page065"></a>(p. 065)</span> three months old. Their great-uncle, Lucien, the +archdeacon, was kind, and Joseph, abandoning all his ambitions, +returned to be, if possible, the support of the family. Napoleon's +poverty was no longer relative or imaginary, but real and hard. +Drawing more closely than ever within himself, he became a still more +ardent reader and student, devoting himself with passionate industry +to examining the works of Rousseau, the poison of whose political +doctrines instilled itself with fiery and grateful stinging into the +thin, cold blood of the unhappy cadet. In many respects the +instruction he received was admirable, and there is a traditional +anecdote that he was the best mathematician in the school. But on the +whole he profited little by the short continuation of his studies at +Paris. The marvelous French style which he finally created for himself +is certainly unacademic in the highest degree; in the many courses of +modern languages he mastered neither German nor English, in fact he +never had more than a few words of either; his attainments in fencing +and horsemanship were very slender. Among all his comrades he made but +one friend, while two of them became in later life his embittered +foes. Phélipeaux thwarted him at Acre; Picot de Peccaduc became +Schwarzenberg's most trusted adviser in the successful campaigns of +Austria against France.</p> + +<p>Whether to alleviate as soon as possible the miseries of his +destitution, or, as has been charged, to be rid of their querulous and +exasperating inmate, the authorities of the military school shortened +Buonaparte's stay to the utmost of their ability, and admitted him to +examination in August, 1785, less than a year from his admission.<a id="footnotetag9" name="footnotetag9"></a><a href="#footnote9" title="Go to footnote 9"><span class="small">[9]</span></a> +He passed with no distinction, being forty-second in rank, but above +his friend des Mazis, who was <span class="pagenum"><a id="page066" name="page066"></a>(p. 066)</span> fifty-sixth. His appointment, +therefore, was due to an entire absence of rivalry, the young nobility +having no predilection for the arduous duties of service in the +artillery. He was eligible merely because he had passed the legal age, +and had given evidence of sufficient acquisitions. In an oft-quoted +description,<a id="footnotetag10" name="footnotetag10"></a><a href="#footnote10" title="Go to footnote 10"><span class="small">[10]</span></a> purporting to be an official certificate given to the +young officer on leaving, he is characterized as reserved and +industrious, preferring study to any kind of amusement, delighting in +good authors, diligent in the abstract sciences, caring little for the +others,<a id="footnotetag11" name="footnotetag11"></a><a href="#footnote11" title="Go to footnote 11"><span class="small">[11]</span></a> thoroughly trained in mathematics and geography; quiet, +fond of solitude, capricious, haughty, extremely inclined to egotism, +speaking little, energetic in his replies, prompt and severe in +repartee; having much self-esteem; ambitious and aspiring to any +height: "the youth is worthy of protection." There is, unfortunately, +no documentary evidence to sustain the genuineness of this report; but +whatever its origin, it is so nearly contemporary that it probably +contains some truth.</p> + +<p>The two friends had both asked for appointments in a regiment +stationed at Valence, known by the style of La Fère. Des Mazis had a +brother in it; the ardent young Corsican would be nearer his native +land, and might, perhaps, be detached for service in his home. They +were both nominated in September, but the appointment was not made +until the close of October. Buonaparte was reduced to utter penury by +the long delay, his only resource being the two hundred livres +provided by the funds of the school for each of its pupils until they +reached the grade of captain. It was probably, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page067" name="page067"></a>(p. 067)</span> and according +to the generally received account, at his comrade's expense, and in +his company, that he traveled. Their slender funds were exhausted by +boyish dissipation at Lyons, and they measured on foot the long +leagues thence to their destination, arriving at Valence early in +November.</p> + +<p>The growth of absolutism in Europe had been due at the outset to the +employment of standing armies by the kings, and the consequent +alliance between the crown, which was the paymaster, and the people, +who furnished the soldiery. There was constant conflict between the +crown and the nobility concerning privilege, constant friction between +the nobility and the people in the survivals of feudal relation. This +sturdy and wholesome contention among the three estates ended at last +in the victory of the kings. In time, therefore, the army became no +longer a mere support to the monarchy, but a portion of its moral +organism, sharing its virtues and its vices, its weakness and its +strength, reflecting, as in a mirror, the true condition of the state +so far as it was personified in the king. The French army, in the year +1785, was in a sorry plight. With the consolidation of classes in an +old monarchical society, it had come to pass that, under the +prevailing voluntary system, none but men of the lowest social stratum +would enlist. Barracks and camps became schools of vice. "Is there," +exclaimed one who at a later day was active in the work of army +reform—"is there a father who does not shudder when abandoning his +son, not to the chances of war, but to the associations of a crowd of +scoundrels a thousand times more dangerous?"</p> + +<p>We have already had a glimpse of the character of the officers. Their +first thought was social position and pleasure, duty and the practice +of their profession being considerations of almost vanishing +importance. Things <span class="pagenum"><a id="page068" name="page068"></a>(p. 068)</span> were quite as bad in the central +administration. Neither the organization nor the equipment nor the +commissariat was in condition to insure accuracy or promptness in the +working of the machine. The regiment of La Fère was but a sample of +the whole. "Dancing three times a week," says the advertisement for +recruits, "rackets twice, and the rest of the time skittles, +prisoners' base, and drill. Pleasures reign, every man has the highest +pay, and all are well treated." Buonaparte's income, comprising his +pay of eight hundred, his provincial allowance of a hundred and +twenty, and the school pension of two hundred, amounted, all told, to +eleven hundred and twenty livres a year; his necessary expenses for +board and lodging were seven hundred and twenty, leaving less than +thirty-five livres a month, about seven dollars, for clothes and +pocket money. Fifteen years as lieutenant, fifteen as captain, and, +for the rest of his life, half pay with a decoration—such was the +summary of the prospect before the ordinary commonplace officer in a +like situation. Meantime he was comfortably lodged with a kindly old +soul, a sometime tavern-keeper named Bou, whose daughter, "of a +certain age," gave a mother's care to the young lodger. In his weary +years of exile the Emperor recalled his service at Valence as +invaluable. The artillery regiment of La Fère he said was unsurpassed +in personnel and training; though the officers were too old for +efficiency, they were loyal and fatherly; the youngsters exercised +their witty sarcasm on many, but they loved them all.</p> + +<p>During the first months of his garrison service Buonaparte, as an +apprentice, saw arduous service in matters of detail, but he threw off +entirely the darkness and reserve of his character, taking a full +draught from the brimming cup of pleasure. On January tenth, 1786, he +was finally received to full standing as lieutenant. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page069" name="page069"></a>(p. 069)</span> The +novelty, the absence of restraint, the comparative emancipation from +the arrogance and slights to which he had hitherto been subject, good +news from the family in Corsica, whose hopes as to the inheritance +were once more high—all these elements combined to intoxicate for a +time the boy of sixteen. The strongest will cannot forever repress the +exuberance of budding manhood. There were balls, and with them the +first experience of gallantry. The young officer even took +dancing-lessons. Moreover, in the drawing-rooms of the Abbé Saint-Ruf +and of his friends, for the first time he saw the manners and heard +the talk of refined society—provincial, to be sure, but excellent. It +was to the special favor of <span lang="fr">Monseigneur de Marbeuf</span>, the bishop of +Autun, that he owed his warm reception. The acquaintances there made +were with persons of local consequence, who in later years reaped a +rich harvest for their condescension to the young stranger. In two +excellent households he was a welcome and intimate guest, that of +Lauberie and Colombier. There were daughters in both. His acquaintance +with <span lang="fr"><abbr title="Mademoiselle">Mlle.</abbr> de Lauberie</span> was that of one who respected her character and +appreciated her beauty. In 1805 she was appointed lady in waiting to +the Empress, but declined the appointment because of her duties as +wife and mother. In the intimacy with <span lang="fr"><abbr title="Mademoiselle">Mlle.</abbr> du Colombier</span> there was +more coquetry. She was a year the senior and lived on her mother's +estate some miles from the town. Rousseau had made fashionable long +walks and life in the open. The frequent visits of Napoleon to +Caroline were marked by youthful gaiety and budding love. They spent +many innocent hours in the fields and garden of the château and parted +with regret. Their friendship lasted even after she became <span lang="fr"><abbr title="Madame">Mme.</abbr> de +Bressieux</span>, and they corresponded intimately for long years. Of his +fellow-officers he saw but little, though <span class="pagenum"><a id="page070" name="page070"></a>(p. 070)</span> he ate regularly +at the table of the "Three Pigeons" where the lieutenants had their +mess. This was not because they were distant, but because he had no +genius for good-fellowship, and the habit of indifference to his +comrades had grown strong upon him.</p> + +<p>The period of pleasure was not long. It is impossible to judge whether +the little self-indulgence was a weak relapse from an iron purpose or +part of a definite plan. The former is more likely, so abrupt and +apparently conscience-stricken was the return to labor. His +inclinations and his earnest hope were combined in a longing for +Corsica.<a id="footnotetag12" name="footnotetag12"></a><a href="#footnote12" title="Go to footnote 12"><span class="small">[12]</span></a> It was a bitter disappointment that under the army +regulations he must serve a year as second lieutenant before leave +could be granted. As if to compensate himself and still his longings +for home and family, he sought the companionship of a young Corsican +artist named Pontornini, then living at Tournon, a few miles distant. +To this friendship we owe the first authentic portrait of Buonaparte. +It exhibits a striking profile with a well-shaped mouth, and the +expression of gravity is remarkable in a sitter so young. The face +portrays a studious mind. Even during the months from November to +April he had not entirely deserted his favorite studies, and again +Rousseau had been their companion and guide. In a little study of +Corsica, dated the twenty-sixth of April, 1786, the earliest of his +manuscript papers, he refers to the Social Contract of Rousseau with +approval, and the last sentence is: "Thus the Corsicans were able, in +obedience to all the laws of justice, to shake off the yoke of Genoa, +and can do likewise with that of the French. Amen." But in <span class="pagenum"><a id="page071" name="page071"></a>(p. 071)</span> +the spring it was the then famous but since forgotten Abbé Raynal of +whom he became a devotee. At the first blush it seems as if +Buonaparte's studies were irregular and haphazard. It is customary to +attribute slender powers of observation and undefined purposes to +childhood and youth. The opinion may be correct in the main, and +would, for the matter of that, be true as regards the great mass of +adults. But the more we know of psychology through autobiographies, +the more certain it appears that many a great life-plan has been +formed in childhood, and carried through with unbending rigor to the +end. Whether Buonaparte consciously ordered the course of his study +and reading or not, there is unity in it from first to last.</p> + +<p>After the first rude beginnings there were two nearly parallel lines +in his work. The first was the acquisition of what was essential to +the practice of a profession—nothing more. No one could be a soldier +in either army or navy without a practical knowledge of history and +geography, for the earth and its inhabitants are in a special sense +the elements of military activity. Nor can towns be fortified, nor +camps intrenched, nor any of the manifold duties of the general in the +field be performed without the science of quantity and numbers. Just +these things, and just so far as they were practical, the dark, +ambitious boy was willing to learn. For spelling, grammar, rhetoric, +and philosophy he had no care; neither he nor his sister Elisa, the +two strong natures of the family, could ever spell any language with +accuracy and ease, or speak and write with rhetorical elegance. Among +the private papers of his youth there is but one mathematical study of +any importance; the rest are either trivial, or have some practical +bearing on the problems of gunnery. When at Brienne, his patron had +certified that he cared nothing for accomplishments <span class="pagenum"><a id="page072" name="page072"></a>(p. 072)</span> and had +none. This was the case to the end. But there was another branch of +knowledge equally practical, but at that time necessary to so few that +it was neither taught nor learned in the schools—the art of politics.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p> + +<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page073" name="page073"></a>(p. 073)</span> CHAPTER <abbr title="6">VI.</abbr></h3> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Private Study and Garrison Life</span>.</h4> + +<p class="summary">Napoleon as a Student of Politics — Nature of Rousseau's + Political Teachings — The Abbé Raynal — Napoleon Aspires + to be the Historian of Corsica — Napoleon's First Love — + His Notions of Political Science — The Books He Read — + Napoleon at Lyons — His Transfer to Douay — A Victim to + Melancholy — Return to Corsica.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">1786-87.</p> + +<p>In one sense it is true that the first Emperor of the French was a man +of no age and of no country; in another sense he was, as few have +been, the child of his surroundings and of his time. The study of +politics was his own notion; the matter and method of the study were +conditioned by his relations to the thought of Europe in the +eighteenth century. He evidently hoped that his military and political +attainments would one day meet in the culmination of a grand career. +To the world and probably to himself it seemed as if the glorious +period of the Consulate were the realization of this hope. Those years +of his life which so appear were, in fact, the least successful. The +unsoundness of his political instructors, and the temper of the age, +combined to thwart this ambitious purpose, and render unavailing all +his achievements.</p> + +<p>Rousseau had every fascination for the young of that time—a +captivating style, persuasive logic, the sentiment of a poet, the +intensity of a prophet. A native of Corsica would be doubly drawn to +him by his interest in that romantic island. Sitting at the feet of +such <span class="pagenum"><a id="page074" name="page074"></a>(p. 074)</span> a teacher, a young scholar would learn through +convincing argument the evils of a passing social state as they were +not exhibited elsewhere. He would discern the dangers of +ecclesiastical authority, of feudal privilege, of absolute monarchy; +he would see their disastrous influence in the prostitution, not only +of social, but of personal morality; he would become familiar with the +necessity for renewing institutions as the only means of regenerating +society. All these lessons would have a value not to be exaggerated. +On the other hand, when it came to the substitution of positive +teaching for negative criticism, he would learn nothing of value and +much that was most dangerous. In utter disregard of a sound historical +method, there was set up as the cornerstone of the new political +structure a fiction of the most treacherous kind. Buonaparte in his +notes, written as he read, shows his contempt for it in an admirable +refutation of the fundamental error of Rousseau as to the state of +nature by this remark: "I believe man in the state of nature had the +same power of sensation and reason which he now has." But if he did +not accept the premises, there was a portion of the conclusion which +he took with avidity, the most dangerous point in all Rousseau's +system; namely, the doctrine that all power proceeds from the people, +not because of their nature and their historical organization into +families and communities, but because of an agreement by individuals +to secure public order, and that, consequently, the consent given they +can withdraw, the order they have created they can destroy. In this +lay not merely the germ, but the whole system of extreme radicalism, +the essence, the substance, and the sum of the French Revolution on +its extreme and doctrinaire side.</p> + +<p>Rousseau had been the prophet and forerunner of the new social +dispensation. The scheme for applying its <span class="pagenum"><a id="page075" name="page075"></a>(p. 075)</span> principles is +found in a work which bears the name of a very mediocre person, the +Abbé Raynal, a man who enjoyed in his day an extended and splendid +reputation which now seems to have had only the slender foundations of +unmerited persecution and the friendship of superior men. In 1770 +appeared anonymously a volume, of which, as was widely known, he was +the compiler. "The Philosophical and Political History of the +Establishments and Commerce of the Europeans in the Two Indies" is a +miscellany of extracts from many sources, and of short essays by +Raynal's brilliant acquaintances, on superstition, tyranny, and +similar themes. The reputed author had written for the public prints, +and had published several works, none of which attracted attention. +The amazing success of this one was not remarkable if, as some critics +now believe, at least a third of the text was by Diderot. However this +may be, the position of Raynal as a man of letters immediately became +a foremost one, and such was the vogue of a second edition published +over his name in 1780 that the authorities became alarmed. The climax +to his renown was achieved when, in 1781, his book was publicly +burned, and the compiler fled into exile.</p> + +<p>By 1785 the storm had finally subsided, and though he had not yet +returned to France, it is supposed that through the friendship of <span lang="fr"><abbr title="Madame">Mme.</abbr> +du Colombier</span>, the friendly patroness of the young lieutenant, +communication was opened between the great man and his aspiring +reader.<a id="footnotetag13" name="footnotetag13"></a><a href="#footnote13" title="Go to footnote 13"><span class="small">[13]</span></a> "Not yet eighteen," are the startling words <span class="pagenum"><a id="page076" name="page076"></a>(p. 076)</span> in +the letter, written by Buonaparte, "I am a writer: it is the age when +we must learn. Will my boldness subject me to your raillery? No, I am +sure. If indulgence be a mark of true genius, you should have much +indulgence. I inclose chapters one and two of a history of Corsica, +with an outline of the rest. If you approve, I will go on; if you +advise me to stop, I will go no further." The young historian's letter +teems with bad spelling and bad grammar, but it is saturated with the +spirit of his age. The chapters as they came to Raynal's hands are not +in existence so far as is known, and posterity can never judge how +monumental their author's assurance was. The abbé's reply was kindly, +but he advised the novice to complete his researches, and then to +rewrite his pieces. Buonaparte was not unwilling to profit by the +counsels he received: soon after, in July, 1786, he gave two orders to +a Genevese bookseller, one for books concerning Corsica, another for +the memoirs of <span lang="fr"><abbr title="Madame">Mme.</abbr> de Warens</span> and her servant Claude Anet, which are a +sort of supplement to Rousseau's "Confessions."</p> + +<p>During May of the same year he jotted down with considerable fullness +his notions of the true relations between Church and State. He had +been reading Roustan's reply to Rousseau, and was evidently +overpowered with the necessity of subordinating ecclesiastical to +secular authority. The paper is rude and incomplete, but it shows +whence he derived his policy of dealing with the Pope and the Roman +Church in France. It has very unjustly been called an attempted +refutation of Christianity: it is nothing of the sort. Ecclesiasticism +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page077" name="page077"></a>(p. 077)</span> and Christianity being hopelessly confused in his mind, he +uses the terms interchangeably in an academic and polemic discussion +to prove that the theory of the social contract must destroy all +ecclesiastical assumption of supreme power in the state.</p> + +<p>Some of the lagging days were spent not only in novel-reading, as the +Emperor in after years confessed to <span lang="fr"><abbr title="Madame">Mme.</abbr> de Rémusat</span>, but in attempts +at novel-writing, to relieve the tedium of idle hours. It is said that +first and last Buonaparte read "Werther" five times through. Enough +remains among his boyish scribblings to show how fantastic were the +dreams both of love and of glory in which he indulged. Many entertain +a suspicion that amid the gaieties of the winter he had really lost +his heart, or thought he had, and was repulsed. At least, in his +"Dialogue on Love," written five years later, he says, "I, too, was +once in love," and proceeds, after a few lines, to decry the sentiment +as harmful to mankind, a something from which God would do well to +emancipate it. This may have referred to his first meeting and +conversation with a courtesan at Paris, which he describes in one of +his papers, but this is not likely from the context, which is not +concerned with the gratification of sexual passion. It is of the +nobler sentiment that he speaks, and there seems to have been in the +interval no opportunity for philandering so good as the one he had +enjoyed during his boyish acquaintance with <span lang="fr"><abbr title="Mademoiselle">Mlle.</abbr> Caroline du +Colombier</span>. It has, at all events, been her good fortune to secure, by +this supposition, a place in history, not merely as the first girl +friend of Napoleon, but as the object of his first pure passion.</p> + +<p>But these were his avocations; the real occupation of his time was +study. Besides reading again the chief works of Rousseau, and +devouring those of Raynal, his most beloved author, he also read much +in the works <span class="pagenum"><a id="page078" name="page078"></a>(p. 078)</span> of Voltaire, of Filangieri, of Necker, and of +Adam Smith. With note-book and pencil he extracted, annotated, and +criticized, his mind alert and every faculty bent to the clear +apprehension of the subject in hand. To the conception of the state as +a private corporation, which he had imbibed from Rousseau, was now +added the conviction that the institutions of France were no longer +adapted to the occupations, beliefs, or morals of her people, and that +revolution was a necessity. To judge from a memoir presented some +years later to the Lyons Academy, he must have absorbed the teachings +of the "Two Indies" almost entire.</p> + +<p>The consuming zeal for studies on the part of this incomprehensible +youth is probably unparalleled. Having read Plutarch in his childhood, +he now devoured Herodotus, Strabo, and Diodorus; China, Arabia, and +the Indies dazzled his imagination, and what he could lay hands upon +concerning the East was soon assimilated. England and Germany next +engaged his attention, and toward the close of his studies he became +ardent in examining the minutest particulars of French history. It +was, moreover, the science of history, and not its literature, which +occupied him—dry details of revenue, resources, and institutions; the +Sorbonne, the bull Unigenitus, and church history in general; the +character of peoples, the origin of institutions, the philosophy of +legislation—all these he studied, and, if the fragments of his notes +be trustworthy evidence, as they surely are, with some thoroughness. +He also found time to read the masterpieces of French literature, and +the great critical judgments which had been passed upon them.<a id="footnotetag14" name="footnotetag14"></a><a href="#footnote14" title="Go to footnote 14"><span class="small">[14]</span></a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page079" name="page079"></a>(p. 079)</span> The agreeable and studious life at Valence was soon ended. +Early in August, 1786, a little rebellion, known as the "Two-cent +Revolt," broke out in Lyons over a strike of the silk-weavers for two +cents an ell more pay and the revolt of the tavern-keepers against the +enforcement of the "Banvin," an ancient feudal right levying a heavy +tax on the sale of wine. The neighboring garrisons were ordered to +furnish their respective quotas for the suppression of the uprising. +Buonaparte's company was sent among others, but those earlier on the +ground had been active, several workmen had been killed, and the +disturbance was already quelled when he arrived. The days he spent at +Lyons were so agreeable that, as he wrote his uncle Fesch, he left the +city with regret "to follow his destiny." His regiment had been +ordered northward to Douay in Flanders; he returned to Valence and +reached that city about the end of August. His furlough began +nominally on October first, but for the Corsican officers a month's +grace was added, so that he was free to leave on September first.</p> + +<p>The time spent under the summer skies of the north would have been +dreary enough if he had regularly received news from home. Utterly +without success in finding occupation in Corsica, and hopeless as to +France, Joseph had some time before turned his eyes toward Tuscany for +a possible career. He was now about to make a final effort, and seek +personally at the Tuscan capital official recognition with a view to +relearning his native tongue, now almost forgotten, and to obtaining +subsequent employment of any kind that might offer in the land of his +birth. Lucien, the archdeacon, was <span class="pagenum"><a id="page080" name="page080"></a>(p. 080)</span> seriously ill, and +General Marbeuf, the last influential friend of the family, had died. +Louis had been promised a scholarship in one of the royal artillery +schools; deprived of his patron, he would probably lose the +appointment. Finally, the pecuniary affairs of <abbr title="Madame">Mme.</abbr> de Buonaparte were +again entangled, and now appeared hopeless. She had for a time been +receiving an annual state bounty for raising mulberry-trees, as France +was introducing silk culture into the island. The inspectors had +condemned this year's work, and were withholding a substantial portion +of the allowance. These were the facts and they probably reached +Napoleon at Valence; it was doubtless a knowledge of them which put an +end to all his light-heartedness and to his study, historical or +political. He immediately made ready to avail himself of his leave so +that he might instantly set out to his mother's relief.</p> + +<p>Despondent and anxious, he moped, grew miserable, and contracted a +slight malarial fever which for the next six or seven years never +entirely relaxed its hold on him. Among his papers has recently been +found the long, wild, pessimistic rhapsody to which reference has +already been made and in which there is talk of suicide. The plaint is +of the degeneracy among men, of the destruction of primitive +simplicity in Corsica by the French occupation, of his own isolation, +and of his yearning to see his friends once more. Life is no longer +worth while; his country gone, a patriot has naught to live for, +especially when he has no pleasure and all is pain—when the character +of those about him is to his own as moonlight is to sunlight. If there +were but a single life in his way, he would bury the avenging blade of +his country and her violated laws in the bosom of the tyrant. Some of +his complaining was even less coherent than this. It is absurd to take +the morbid outpouring seriously, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page081" name="page081"></a>(p. 081)</span> except in so far as it goes +to prove that its writer was a victim of the sentimental egoism into +which the psychological studies of the eighteenth century had +degenerated, and to suggest that possibly if he had not been Napoleon +he might have been a Werther. Though dated May third, no year is +given, and it may well describe the writer's feelings in any period of +despondency. No such state of mind was likely to have arisen in the +preceding spring, but it may have been written even then as a relief +to pent-up feelings which did not appear on the surface; or possibly +in some later year when the agony of suffering for himself and his +family laid hold upon him. In any case it expresses a bitter +melancholy, such as would be felt by a boy face to face with want.</p> + +<p>At Valence Napoleon visited his old friend the Abbé Saint-Ruf, to +solicit favor for Lucien, who, having left Brienne, would study +nothing but the humanities, and was determined to become a priest. At +Aix he saw both his uncle Fesch and his brother. At Marseilles he is +said to have paid his respects to the Abbé Raynal, requesting advice, +and seeking further encouragement in his historical labors. This is +very doubtful, for there is no record of Raynal's return to France +before 1787. Lodging in that city, as appears from a memorandum on his +papers, with a M. Allard, he must soon have found a vessel sailing for +his destination, because he came expeditiously to Ajaccio, arriving in +that city toward the middle of the month, if the ordinary time had +been consumed in the journey. Such appears to be the likeliest account +of this period, although our knowledge is not complete. In the +archives of Douay, there is, according to an anonymous local +historian, a record of Buonaparte's presence in that city with the +regiment of La Fère, and he is quoted as having declared at Elba +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page082" name="page082"></a>(p. 082)</span> to Sir Neil Campbell that he had been sent thither. But in +the "Epochs of My Life," he wrote that he left Valence on September +first, 1786, for Ajaccio, arriving on the fifteenth. Weighing the +probabilities, it seems likely that the latter was doubtful, since +there is but the slenderest possibility of his having been at Douay in +the following year, the only other hypothesis, and there exists no +record of his activities in Corsica before the spring of 1787. The +chronology of the two years is still involved in obscurity and it is +possible that he went with his regiment to Douay, contracted his +malaria there, and did not actually get leave of absence until +February first of the latter year.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p> + +<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page083" name="page083"></a>(p. 083)</span> CHAPTER <abbr title="7">VII.</abbr></h3> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Further Attempts at Authorship</span>.</h4> + +<p class="summary">Straits of the Buonaparte Family — Napoleon's Efforts to + Relieve Them — Home Studies — His History and Short + Stories — Visit to Paris — Renewed Petitions to Government + — More Authorship — Secures Extension of his Leave — The + Family Fortunes Desperate — The History of Corsica + Completed — Its Style, Opinions, and Value — Failure to + Find a Publisher — Sentiments Expressed in his Short + Stories — Napoleon's Irregularities as a French Officer — + His Life at Auxonne — His Vain Appeal to Paoli — The + History Dedicated to Necker.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">1787-89.</p> + +<p>When Napoleon arrived at Ajaccio, and, after an absence of eight +years, was again with his family, he found their affairs in a serious +condition. Not one of the old French officials remained; the +diplomatic leniency of occupation was giving place to the official +stringency of a permanent possession; proportionately the disaffection +of the patriot remnant among the people was slowly developing into a +wide-spread discontent. Joseph, the hereditary head of a family which +had been thoroughly French in conduct, and was supposed to be so in +sentiment, which at least looked to the King for further favors, was +still a stanch royalist. Having been unsuccessful in every other +direction, he was now seeking to establish a mercantile connection +with Florence which would enable him to engage in the oil-trade. A +modest beginning was, he hoped, about to be made. It was high time, +for the only support of his mother and her children, in the failure to +secure the promised subsidy for her mulberry plantations, was the +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page084" name="page084"></a>(p. 084)</span> income of the old archdeacon, who was now confined to his +room, and growing feebler every day under attacks of gout. +Unfortunately, Joseph's well-meant efforts again came to naught.</p> + +<p>The behavior of the pale, feverish, masterful young lieutenant was not +altogether praiseworthy. He filled the house with his new-fangled +philosophy, and assumed a self-important air. Among his papers and in +his own handwriting is a blank form for engaging and binding recruits. +Clearly he had a tacit understanding either with himself or with +others to secure some of the fine Corsican youth for the regiment of +La Fère. But there is no record of any success in the enterprise. +Among the letters which he wrote was one dated April first, 1787, to +the renowned Dr. Tissot of Lausanne, referring to his correspondent's +interest in Paoli, and asking advice concerning the treatment of the +canon's gout. The physician never replied, and the epistle was found +among his papers marked "unanswered and of little interest." The old +ecclesiastic listened to his nephew's patriotic tirades, and even +approved; <abbr title="Madame">Mme.</abbr> de Buonaparte coldly disapproved. She would have +preferred calmer, more efficient common sense. Not that her son was +inactive in her behalf; on the contrary, he began a series of busy +representations to the provincial officials which secured some +good-will and even trifling favor to the family. But the results were +otherwise unsatisfactory, for the mulberry money was not paid.</p> + +<p>Napoleon's zeal for study was not in the least abated in the +atmosphere of home. Joseph in his memoirs says the reunited family was +happy in spite of troubles. There was reciprocal joy in their +companionship and his long absent brother was glad in the pleasures +both of home and of nature so congenial to his feelings and his +tastes. The most important part of Napoleon's baggage <span class="pagenum"><a id="page085" name="page085"></a>(p. 085)</span> +appears to have been the books, documents, and papers he brought with +him. That he had collections on Corsica has been told. Joseph says he +had also the classics of both French and Latin literature as well as +the philosophical writings of Plato; likewise, he thinks, Ossian and +Homer. In the "Discourse" presented not many years later to the Lyons +Academy and in the talks at <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Helena, Napoleon refers to his +enjoyment of nature at this time; to the hours spent in the grotto, or +under the majestic oak, or in the shade of the olive groves, all parts +of the sadly neglected garden of Milleli some distance from the house +and belonging to his mother; to his walks on the meadows among the +lowing herds; to his wanderings on the shore at sunset, his return by +moonlight, and the gentle melancholy which unbidden enveloped him in +spite of himself. He savored the air of Corsica, the smell of its +earth, the spicy breezes of its thickets, he would have known his home +with his eyes shut, and with them open he found it the earthly +paradise. Yet all the while he was busy, very busy, partly with good +reading, partly in the study of history, and in large measure with the +practical conduct of the family affairs.</p> + +<p>As the time for return to service drew near it was clear that the +mother with her family of four helpless little children, all a serious +charge on her time and purse, could not be left without the support of +one older son, at least; and Joseph was now about to seek his fortune +in Pisa. Accordingly Napoleon with methodical care drew up two papers +still existing, a memorandum of how an application for renewed leave +on the ground of sickness was to be made and also the form of +application itself, which no doubt he copied. At any rate he applied, +on the ground of ill health, for a renewal of leave to last five and a +half months. It was granted, and the regular <span class="pagenum"><a id="page086" name="page086"></a>(p. 086)</span> round of family +cares went on; but the days and weeks brought no relief. Ill health +there was, and perhaps sufficient to justify that plea, but the +physical fever was intensified by the checks which want set upon +ambition. The passion for authorship reasserted itself with +undiminished violence. The history of Corsica was resumed, recast, and +vigorously continued, while at the same time the writer completed a +short story entitled "The Count of Essex,"—with an English setting, +of course,—and wrote a Corsican novel. The latter abounds in +bitterness against France, the most potent force in the development of +the plot being the dagger. The author's use of French, though easier, +is still very imperfect. A slight essay, or rather story, in the style +of Voltaire, entitled "The Masked Prophet," was also completed.</p> + +<p>It was reported early in the autumn that many regiments were to be +mobilized for special service, among them that of La Fère. This gave +Napoleon exactly the opening he desired, and he left Corsica at once, +without reference to the end of his furlough. He reached Paris in +October, a fortnight before he was due. His regiment was still at +Douay: he may have spent a few days with it in that city. But this is +not certain, and soon after it was transferred to <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Denis, now +almost a suburb of Paris; it was destined for service in western +France, where incipient tumults were presaging the coming storm. +Eventually its destination was changed and it was ordered to Auxonne. +The Estates-General of France were about to meet for the first time in +one hundred and seventy-five years; they had last met in 1614, and had +broken up in disorder. They were now called as a desperate remedy, not +understood, but at least untried, for ever-increasing embarrassments; +and the government, fearing still greater disorders, was <span class="pagenum"><a id="page087" name="page087"></a>(p. 087)</span> +making ready to repress any that might break out in districts known to +be specially disaffected. All this was apparently of secondary +importance to young Buonaparte; he had a scheme to use the crisis for +the benefit of his family. Compelled by their utter destitution at the +time of his father's death, he had temporarily and for that occasion +assumed his father's rôle of suppliant. Now for a second time he sent +in a petition. It was written in Paris, dated November ninth, 1787, +and addressed, in his mother's behalf, to the intendant for Corsica +resident at the French capital. His name and position must have +carried some weight, it could not have been the mere effrontery of an +adventurer which secured him a hearing at Versailles, an interview +with the prime minister, <span lang="fr">Loménie de Brienne</span>, and admission to all the +minor officials who might deal with his mother's claim. All these +privileges he declares that he had enjoyed and the statements must +have been true. The petition was prefaced by a personal letter +containing them. Though a supplication in form, the request is unlike +his father's humble and almost cringing papers, being rather a demand +for justice than a petition for favor; it is unlike them in another +respect, because it contains a falsehood, or at least an utterly +misleading half-truth: a statement that he had shortened his leave +because of his mother's urgent necessities.</p> + +<p>The paper was not handed in until after the expiration of his leave, +and his true object was not to rejoin his regiment, as was hinted in +it, but to secure a second extension of leave. Such was the slackness +of discipline that he spent all of November and the first half of +December in Paris. During this period he made acquaintance with the +darker side of Paris life. The papers numbered four, five, and six in +the Fesch collection give a fairly detailed account of one adventure +and <span class="pagenum"><a id="page088" name="page088"></a>(p. 088)</span> his bitter repentance. The second suggests the writing +of history as an antidote for unhappiness, and the last is a long, +rambling effusion in denunciation of pleasure, passion, and license; +of gallantry as utterly incompatible with patriotism. His acquaintance +with history is ransacked for examples. Still another short effusion +which may belong to the same period is in the form of an imaginary +letter, saturated likewise with the Corsican spirit, addressed by King +Theodore to Walpole. It has little value or meaning, except as it may +possibly foreshadow the influence on Napoleon's imagination of +England's boundless hospitality to political fugitives like Theodore +and Paoli.</p> + +<p>Lieutenant Buonaparte remained in Paris until he succeeded in +procuring permission to spend the next six months in Corsica, at his +own charges. He was quite as disingenuous in his request to the +Minister of War as in his memorial to the intendant for Corsica, +representing that the estates of Corsica were about to meet, and that +his presence was essential to safeguard important interests which in +his absence would be seriously compromised. Whatever such a plea may +have meant, his serious cares as the real head of the family were ever +uppermost, and never neglected. Louis had, as was feared, lost his +appointment, and though not past the legal age, was really too old to +await another vacancy; Lucien was determined to leave Brienne in any +case, and to stay at Aix in order to seize the first chance which +might arise of entering the seminary. Napoleon made some +provision—what it was is not known—for Louis's further temporary +stay at Brienne, and then took Lucien with him as far as their route +lay together. He reached his home again on the first of January, 1788.</p> + +<p>The affairs of the family were at last utterly desperate, and were +likely, moreover, to grow worse before they <span class="pagenum"><a id="page089" name="page089"></a>(p. 089)</span> grew better. The +old archdeacon was failing daily, and, although known to have means, +he declared himself destitute of ready money. With his death would +disappear a portion of his income; his patrimony and savings, which +the Buonapartes hoped of course to inherit, were an uncertain +quantity, probably insufficient for the needs of such a family. The +mulberry money was still unpaid; all hope of wresting the ancestral +estates from the government authorities was buried; Joseph was without +employment, and, as a last expedient, was studying in Pisa for +admission to the bar. Louis and Lucien were each a heavy charge; +Napoleon's income was insufficient even for his own modest wants, +regulated though they were by the strictest economy. Who shall cast a +stone at the shiftiness of a boy not yet nineteen, charged with such +cares, yet consumed with ambition, and saturated with the romantic +sentimentalism of his times? Some notion of his embarrassments and +despair can be obtained from a rapid survey of his mental states and +the corresponding facts. An ardent republican and revolutionary, he +was tied by the strongest bonds to the most despotic monarchy in +Europe. A patriotic Corsican, he was the servant of his country's +oppressor. Conscious of great ability, he was seeking an outlet in the +pursuit of literature, a line of work entirely unsuited to his powers. +The head and support of a large family, he was almost penniless; if he +should follow his convictions, he and they might be altogether so. In +the period of choice and requiring room for experiment, he saw himself +doomed to a fixed, inglorious career, and caged in a framework of +unpropitious circumstance. Whatever the moral obliquity in his feeble +expedients, there is the pathos of human limitations in their +character.</p> + +<p>Whether the resolution had long before been taken, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page090" name="page090"></a>(p. 090)</span> or was of +recent formation, Napoleon now intended to make fame and profit go +hand in hand. The meeting of the Corsican estates was, as far as is +known, entirely forgotten, and authorship was resumed, not merely with +the ardor of one who writes from inclination, but with the regular +drudgery of a craftsman. In spite of all discouragements, he appeared +to a visitor in his family, still considered the most devoted in the +island to the French monarchy because so favored by it, as being "full +of vivacity, quick in his speech and motions, his mind apparently hard +at work in digesting schemes and forming plans and proudly rejecting +every other suggestion but that of his own fancy. For this intolerable +ambition he was often reproved by the elder Lucien, his uncle, a +dignitary of the church. Yet these admonitions seemed to make no +impression upon the mind of Napoleon, who received them with a grin of +pity, if not of contempt."<a id="footnotetag15" name="footnotetag15"></a><a href="#footnote15" title="Go to footnote 15"><span class="small">[15]</span></a> The amusements of the versatile and +headstrong boy would have been sufficient occupation for most men. +Regulating, as far as possible, his mother's complicated affairs, he +journeyed frequently to Bastia, probably to collect money due for +young mulberry-trees which had been sold, possibly to get material for +his history. On these visits he met and dined with the artillery +officers of the company stationed there. One of them, <span lang="fr">M. de Roman</span>, a +very pronounced royalist, has given in his memoirs a striking portrait +of his guest.<a id="footnotetag16" name="footnotetag16"></a><a href="#footnote16" title="Go to footnote 16"><span class="small">[16]</span></a> "His face was not pleasing to me at all, his +character still less; and he was so dry and sententious for a youth of +his age, a French officer too, that I never for a moment entertained +the thought of making him my friend. My knowledge of governments, +ancient and modern, was not sufficiently extended to discuss with him +his favorite <span class="pagenum"><a id="page091" name="page091"></a>(p. 091)</span> subject of conversation. So when in my turn I +gave the dinner, which happened three or four times that year, I +retired after the coffee, leaving him to the hands of a captain of +ours, far better able than I was to lock arms with such a valiant +antagonist. My comrades, like myself, saw nothing in this but absurd +pedantry. We even believed that this magisterial tone which he assumed +was meaningless until one day when he reasoned so forcibly on the +rights of nations in general, his own in particular, <span class="italic">Stupete gentes!</span> +that we could not recover from our amazement, especially when in +speaking of a meeting of their Estates, about calling which there was +some deliberation, and which <span lang="fr">M. de Barrin</span> sought to delay, following +in that the blunders of his predecessor, he said: 'that it was very +surprising that <span lang="fr">M. de Barrin</span> thought to prevent them from deliberating +about their interests,' adding in a threatening tone, '<span lang="fr">M. de Barrin</span> +does not know the Corsicans; he will see what they can do.' This +expression gave the measure of his character. One of our comrades +replied: 'Would you draw your sword against the King's +representative?' He made no answer. We separated coldly and that was +the last time this former comrade did me the honor to dine with me." +Making all allowance, this incident exhibits the feeling and purpose +of Napoleon. During these days he also completed a plan for the +defense of <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Florent, of La Mortilla, and of the Gulf of Ajaccio; +drew up a report on the organization of the Corsican militia; and +wrote a paper on the strategic importance of the Madeleine Islands. +This was his play; his work was the history of Corsica. It was +finished sooner than he had expected; anxious to reap the pecuniary +harvest of his labors and resume his duties, he was ready for the +printer when he left for France in the latter part of May to secure +its publication. Although dedicated in its <span class="pagenum"><a id="page092" name="page092"></a>(p. 092)</span> first form to a +powerful patron, Monseigneur Marbeuf, then Bishop of Sens, like many +works from the pen of genius it remained at the author's death in +manuscript.</p> + +<p>The book was of moderate size, and of moderate merit.<a id="footnotetag17" name="footnotetag17"></a><a href="#footnote17" title="Go to footnote 17"><span class="small">[17]</span></a> Its form, +repeatedly changed from motives of expediency, was at first that of +letters addressed to the Abbé Raynal. Its contents display little +research and no scholarship. The style is intended to be popular, and +is dramatic rather than narrative. There is exhibited, as everywhere +in these early writings, an intense hatred of France, a glowing +affection for Corsica and her heroes. A very short account of one +chapter will sufficiently characterize the whole work. Having outlined +in perhaps the most effective passage the career of Sampiero, and +sketched his diplomatic failures at all the European courts except +that of Constantinople, where at last he had secured sympathy and was +promised aid, the author depicts the patriot's bitterness when +recalled by the news of his wife's treachery. Confronting his guilty +spouse, deaf to every plea for pity, hardened against the tender +caresses of his children, the Corsican hero utters judgment. "Madam," +he sternly says, "in the face of crime and disgrace, there is no other +resort but death." Vannina at first falls unconscious, but, regaining +her senses, she clasps her children to her breast and begs life for +their sake. But feeling that the petition is futile, she then recalls +the memory of her earlier virtue, and, facing her fate, begs as a last +favor that no base executioner shall lay his soiled hands on the wife +of Sampiero, but that he himself shall execute the sentence. Vannina's +behavior moves her husband, but does not touch his heart. "The pity +and tenderness," says Buonaparte, "which she should have awakened +found a soul thenceforward closed to the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page093" name="page093"></a>(p. 093)</span> power of sentiment. +Vannina died. She died by the hands of Sampiero."</p> + +<p>Neither the publishers of Valence, nor those of Dôle, nor those of +Auxonne, would accept the work. At Paris one was finally found who was +willing to take a half risk. The author, disillusioned but sanguine, +was on the point of accepting the proposition, and was occupied with +considering ways and means, when his friend the Bishop of Sens was +suddenly disgraced. The manuscript was immediately copied and revised, +with the result, probably, of making its tone more intensely Corsican; +for it was now to be dedicated to Paoli. The literary aspirant must +have foreseen the coming crash, and must have felt that the exile was +to be again the liberator, and perhaps the master, of his native land. +At any rate, he abandoned the idea of immediate publication, possibly +in the dawning hope that as Paoli's lieutenant he could make Corsican +history better than he could write it. It is this copy which has been +preserved; the original was probably destroyed.</p> + +<p>The other literary efforts of this feverish time were not as +successful even as those in historical writing. The stories are wild +and crude; one only, "The Masked Prophet," has any merit or interest +whatsoever. Though more finished than the others, its style is also +abrupt and full of surprises; the scene and characters are Oriental; +the plot is a feeble invention. An ambitious and rebellious Ameer is +struck with blindness, and has recourse to a silver mask to deceive +his followers. Unsuccessful, he poisons them all, throws their corpses +into pits of quicklime, then leaps in himself, to deceive the world +and leave no trace of mortality behind. His enemies believe, as he +desired, that he and his people have been taken up into heaven. The +whole, however, is dimly prescient, and the concluding lines of the +fable <span class="pagenum"><a id="page094" name="page094"></a>(p. 094)</span> have been thought by believers in augury to be +prophetic. "Incredible instance! How far can the passion for fame go!" +Among the papers of this period are also a constitution for the +"calotte," a secret society of his regiment organized to keep its +members up to the mark of conduct expected from gentlemen and +officers, and many political notes. One of these rough drafts is a +project for an essay on royal power, intended to treat of its origin +and to display its usurpations, and which closes with these words: +"There are but few kings who do not deserve to be dethroned."</p> + +<p>The various absences of Buonaparte from his regiment up to this time +are antagonistic to our modern ideas of military duty. The subsequent +ones seem simply inexplicable, even in a service so lax as that of the +crumbling Bourbon dynasty. Almost immediately after Joseph's return, +on the first of June he sailed for France. He did not reach Auxonne, +where the artillery regiment La Fère was now stationed, until early in +that month, 1788. He remained there less than a year and a half, and +then actually obtained another leave of absence, from September tenth, +1789, to February, 1791, which he fully intended should end in his +retirement from the French service.<a id="footnotetag18" name="footnotetag18"></a><a href="#footnote18" title="Go to footnote 18"><span class="small">[18]</span></a> The incidents of this second +term of garrison life are not numerous, but from the considerable +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page095" name="page095"></a>(p. 095)</span> body of his notes and exercises which dates from the period +we know that he suddenly developed great zeal in the study of +artillery, theoretical and practical, and that he redoubled his +industry in the pursuit of historical and political science. In the +former line he worked diligently and became expert. With his +instructor Duteil he grew intimate and the friendship was close +throughout life. He associated on the best of terms with his old +friend des Mazis and began a pleasant acquaintance with Gassendi. So +faithful was he to the minutest details of his profession that he +received marks of the highest distinction. Not yet twenty and only a +second lieutenant, he was appointed, with six officers of higher rank, +a member of the regimental commission to study the best disposal of +mortars and cannon in firing shells. Either at this time or later (the +date is uncertain), he had sole charge of important manœuvers held +in honor of the Prince of Condé. These honors he recounted with honest +pride in a letter dated August twenty-second to his great-uncle. Among +the Fesch papers are considerable fragments of his writing on the +theory, practice, and history of artillery. Antiquated as are their +contents, they show how patient and thorough was the work of the +student, and some of their ideas adapted to new conditions were his +permanent possession, as the greatest master of artillery at the +height of his fame. In the study of politics he read Plato and +examined the constitutions of antiquity, devouring with avidity what +literature he could find concerning Venice, Turkey, Tartary, and +Arabia. At the same time he carefully read the history of England, and +made some accurate observations on the condition of contemporaneous +politics in France.</p> + +<p>His last disappointment had rendered him more taciturn and +misanthropic than ever; it seems clear that <span class="pagenum"><a id="page096" name="page096"></a>(p. 096)</span> he was working +to become an expert, not for the benefit of France, but for that of +Corsica. Charged with the oversight of some slight works on the +fortifications, he displayed such incompetence that he was actually +punished by a short arrest. Misfortune still pursued the family. The +youth who had been appointed to Brienne when Louis was expecting a +scholarship suddenly died. <abbr title="Madame">Mme.</abbr> de Buonaparte was true to the family +tradition, and immediately forwarded a petition for the place, but +was, as before, unsuccessful. Lucien was not yet admitted to Aix; +Joseph was a barrister, to be sure, but briefless. Napoleon once +again, but for the last time,—and with marked impatience, even with +impertinence,—took up the task of solicitation. The only result was a +good-humored, non-committal reply. Meantime the first mutterings of +the revolutionary outbreak were heard, and spasmodic disorders, +trifling but portentous, were breaking out, not only among the people, +but even among the royal troops. One of these, at Seurre, was +occasioned by the news that the hated and notorious syndicate existing +under the scandalous agreement with the King known as the "Bargain of +Famine" had been making additional purchases of grain from two +merchants of that town. This was in April, 1789. Buonaparte was put in +command of a company and sent to aid in suppressing the riot. But it +was ended before he arrived; on May first he returned to Auxonne.</p> + +<a id="img004" name="img004"></a> +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/img004.jpg" width="300" height="471" alt="" title=""> +<p class="noindent"><span class="small">From the collection of W. C. Crane. <span class="add8em">Engraved by Huot.</span></span></p> +<p class="noindent">Charles Bonaparte,<br> + Father of the Emperor Napoleon,<br> + 1785.</p> +<p class="noindent"><span class="small">Painted by Girodet.</span></p> +</div> + +<p>Four days later the Estates met at Versailles. What was passing in the +mind of the restless, bitter, disappointed Corsican is again plainly +revealed. A famous letter to Paoli, to which reference has already +been made, is dated June twelfth. It is a justification of his +cherished work as the only means open to a poor man, the slave of +circumstances, for summoning the French <span class="pagenum"><a id="page097" name="page097"></a>(p. 097)</span> administration to +the bar of public opinion; viz., by comparing it with Paoli's. Willing +to face the consequences, the writer asks for documentary materials +and for moral support, ending with ardent assurances of devotion from +his family, his mother, and himself. But there is a ring of false coin +in many of its words and sentences. The "infamy" of those who betrayed +Corsica was the infamy of his own father; the "devotion" of the +Buonaparte family had been to the French interest, in order to secure +free education, with support for their children, in France. The +"enthusiasm" of Napoleon was a cold, unsentimental determination to +push their fortunes, which, with opposite principles, would have been +honorable enough. In later years Lucien said that he had made two +copies of the history. It was probably one of these which has been +preserved. Whether or not Paoli read the book does not appear. Be that +as it may, his reply to Buonaparte's letter, written some months +later, was not calculated to encourage the would-be historian. Without +absolutely refusing the documents asked for by the aspiring writer, he +explained that he had no time to search for them, and that, besides, +Corsican history was only important in any sense by reason of the men +who had made it, not by reason of its achievements. Among other bits +of fatherly counsel was this: "You are too young to write history. +Make ready for such an enterprise slowly. Patiently collect your +anecdotes and facts. Accept the opinions of other writers with +reserve." As if to soften the severity of his advice, there follows a +strain of modest self-depreciation: "Would that others had known less +of me and I more of myself. <span class="italic">Probe diu vivimus</span>; may our descendants +so live that they shall speak of me merely as one who had good +intentions."</p> + +<p>Buonaparte's last shift in the treatment of his book <span class="pagenum"><a id="page098" name="page098"></a>(p. 098)</span> was +most undignified and petty. With the unprincipled resentment of +despair, in want of money, not of advice, he entirely remodeled it for +the third time, its chapters being now put as fragmentary traditions +into the mouth of a Corsican mountaineer. In this form it was +dedicated to Necker, the famous Swiss, who as French minister of +finance was vainly struggling with the problem of how to distribute +taxation equally, and to collect from the privileged classes their +share. A copy was first sent to a former teacher for criticism. His +judgment was extremely severe both as to expression and style. In +particular, attention was called to the disadvantage of indulging in +so much rhetoric for the benefit of an overworked public servant like +Necker, and to the inappropriateness of putting his own metaphysical +generalizations and captious criticism of French royalty into the +mouth of a peasant mountaineer. Before the correspondence ended, +Napoleon's student life was over. Necker had fled, the French +Revolution was rushing on with ever-increasing speed, and the young +adventurer, despairing of success as a writer, seized the proffered +opening to become a man of action. In a letter dated January twelfth, +1789, and written at Auxonne to his mother, the young officer gives a +dreary account of himself. The swamps of the neighborhood and their +malarious exhalations rendered the place, he thought, utterly +unwholesome. At all events, he had contracted a low fever which +undermined his strength and depressed his spirits. There was no +immediate hope of a favorable response to the petition for the moneys +due on the mulberry plantation because "this unhappy period in French +finance delays furiously (<span class="italic">sic</span>) the discussion of our affair. Let us +hope, however, that we may be compensated for our long and weary +waiting and that we shall receive complete restitution." <span class="pagenum"><a id="page099" name="page099"></a>(p. 099)</span> He +writes further a terse sketch of public affairs in France and Europe, +speaks despairingly of what the council of war has in store for the +engineers by the proposed reorganization, and closes with tender +remembrances to Joseph and Lucien, begging for news and reminding them +that he had received no home letter since the preceding October. The +reader feels that matters have come to a climax and that the scholar +is soon to enter the arena of revolutionary activity. Curiously +enough, the language used is French; this is probably due to the fact +that it was intended for the family, rather than for the neighborhood +circle.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p> + +<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page100" name="page100"></a>(p. 100)</span> CHAPTER <abbr title="8">VIII.</abbr></h3> + +<h4><span class="smcap">The Revolution in France</span>.</h4> + +<p class="summary">The French Aristocracy — Priests, Lawyers, and Petty Nobles + — Burghers, Artisans, and Laborers — Intelligent Curiosity + of the Nation — Exasperating Anachronisms — Contrast of + Demand and Resources — The Great Nobles a Barrier to Reform + — Mistakes of the King — The Estates Meet at Versailles — + The Court Party Provokes Violence — Downfall of Feudal + Privilege.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">1787-89.</p> + +<p>At last the ideas of the century had declared open war on its +institutions; their moral conquest was already coextensive with +central and western Europe, but the first efforts toward their +realization were to be made in France, for the reason that the line of +least resistance was to be found not through the most downtrodden, but +through the freest and the best instructed nation on the Continent. +Both the clergy and the nobility of France had become accustomed to +the absorption in the crown of their ancient feudal power. They were +content with the great offices in the church, in the army, and in the +civil administration, with exemption from the payment of taxes; they +were happy in the delights of literature and the fine arts, in the +joys of a polite, self-indulgent, and spendthrift society, so +artificial and conventional that for most of its members a sufficient +occupation was found in the study and exposition of its trivial but +complex customs. The conduct and maintenance of a salon, the stage, +gallantry; clothes, table manners, the use of the fan: these are +specimens of what were considered not the incidents but the essentials +of life.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page101" name="page101"></a>(p. 101)</span> The serious-minded among the upper classes were as +enlightened as any of their rank elsewhere. They were familiar with +prevalent philosophies, and full of compassion for miseries which, for +lack of power, they could not remedy, and which, to their dismay, they +only intensified in their attempts at alleviation. They were even +ready for considerable sacrifices. The gracious side of the character +of Louis <abbr title="16">XVI</abbr> is but a reflection of the piety, moderation, and +earnestness of many of the nobles. His rule was mild; there were no +excessive indignities practised in the name of royal power except in +cases like that of the "Bargain of Famine," where he believed himself +helpless. The lower clergy, as a whole, were faithful in the +performance of their duties. This was not true of the hierarchy. They +were great landowners, and their interests coincided with those of the +upper nobility. The doubt of the country had not left them untouched, +and there were many without conviction or principle, time-serving and +irreverent. The lawyers and other professional men were to be found, +for the most part, in Paris and in the towns. They had their +livelihood in the irregularities of society, and, as a class, were +retentive of ancient custom and present social habits. Although by +birth they belonged in the main to the third estate, they were in +reality adjunct to the first, and consequently, being integral members +of neither, formed a strong independent class by themselves. The petty +nobles were in much the same condition with regard to the wealthy, +powerful families in their own estate and to the rich burghers; they +married the fortunes of the latter and accepted their hospitality, but +otherwise treated them with the same exclusive condescension as that +displayed to themselves by the great.</p> + +<p>But if the estate of the clergy and the estate of the nobility were +alike divided in character and interests, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page102" name="page102"></a>(p. 102)</span> this was still +more true of the burghers. In 1614, at the close of the middle ages, +the third estate had been little concerned with the agricultural +laborer. For various reasons this class had been gradually emancipated +until now there was less serfage in France than elsewhere; more than a +quarter, perhaps a third, of the land was in the hands of peasants and +other small proprietors. This, to be sure, was economically +disastrous, for over-division of land makes tillage unprofitable, and +these very men were the taxpayers. The change had been still more +marked in the denizens of towns. During the last two centuries the +wealthy burgesses had grown still more wealthy in the expansion of +trade, commerce, and manufactures; many had struggled and bought their +way into the ranks of the nobility. The small tradesmen had remained +smug, hard to move, and resentful of change. But there was a large +body of men unknown to previous constitutions, and growing ever larger +with the increase in population—intelligent and unintelligent +artisans, half-educated employees in workshops, mills, and +trading-houses, ever recruited from the country population, seeking +such intermittent occupation as the towns afforded. The very lowest +stratum of this society was then, as now, most dangerous; idle, +dissipated, and unscrupulous, they were yet sufficiently educated to +discuss and disseminate perilous doctrines, and were often most ready +in speech and fertile in resource.</p> + +<p>This comparative well-being of a nation, devoted like the ancient +Greeks to novelty, avid of great ideas and great deeds, holding +opinions not merely for the pleasure of intellectual gymnastics but +logically and with a view to their realization, sensitive to +influences like the deep impressions made on their thinkers by the +English and American revolutions—such relative comfort with its +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page103" name="page103"></a>(p. 103)</span> attendant opportunities for discussion was not the least of +many causes which made France the vanguard in the great revolution +which had already triumphed in theory throughout the continent and was +eventually to transform the social order of all Europe.</p> + +<p>Discussion is not only a safety-valve, it is absolutely essential in +governments where the religion, morals, opinions, and occupations of +the people give form and character to institutions and legislation. +The centralized and despotic Bourbon monarchy of France was an +anachronism among an intelligent people. So was every institution +emanating from and dependent upon it. It was impossible for the +structure to stand indefinitely, however tenderly it was treated, +however cleverly it was propped and repaired. As in the case of +England in 1688 and of her colonies in 1772, the immediate and direct +agency in the crash was a matter of money. But the analogy holds good +no further, for in France the questions of property and taxation were +vastly more complex than in England, where the march of events had so +largely destroyed feudalism, or in America, where feudalism had never +existed. On the great French estates the laborers had first to support +the proprietor and his representatives, then the Church and the King; +the minute remainder of their gains was scarcely sufficient to keep +the wolf from the door. The small proprietors were so hampered in +their operations by the tiny size of their holdings that they were +still restricted to ancient and wretched methods of cultivation; but +they too were so burdened with contributions direct and indirect that +famine was always imminent with them as well. Under whatever name the +tax was known, license (<span lang="fr">octroi</span>), bridge and ferry toll, road-work, +salt-tax, or whatever it may have been, it was chiefly distasteful not +because of its form but because it was oppressive. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page104" name="page104"></a>(p. 104)</span> Some of +it was paid to the proprietors, some to the state. The former was more +hateful because the gainer was near and more tangible; the hatred of +the country people for the feudal privileges and those who held them +was therefore concrete and quite as intense as the more doctrinaire +dislike of the poor in the towns to the rich. Such was the alienation +of classes from each other throughout the beginning and middle of the +century that the disasters which French arms suffered at the hands of +Marlborough and Frederick, so far from humiliating the nation, gave +pleasure and not pain to the masses because they were, as they +thought, defeats not of France, but of the nobility and of the crown.</p> + +<p>Feudal dues had arisen when those imposing them had the physical force +to compel their payment and were also the proprietors of the land on +which they were exacted. Now the nobility were entirely stripped of +power and in many instances of land as well. How empty and bottomless +the oppressive institutions and how burdensome the taxes which rested +on nothing but a paper grant, musty with age and backed only by royal +complaisance! Want too was always looking in at the doors of the many, +while the few were enjoying the national substance. This year there +was a crisis, for before the previous harvest time devastating +hail-storms had swept the fields, in 1788; during the winter there had +been pinching want and many had perished from destitution and cold; +the advancing seasons had brought warmth, but sufficient time had not +even yet elapsed for fields and herds to bring forth their increase, +and by the myriad firesides of the people hunger was still an +unwelcome guest.</p> + +<p>With wholesome economy such crises may be surmounted in a rich and +fertile country. But economy had not been practised for fifty years by +the governing <span class="pagenum"><a id="page105" name="page105"></a>(p. 105)</span> classes. As early as 1739 there had been a +deficiency in the French finances. From small beginnings the annual +loans had grown until, in 1787, the sum to be raised over and above +the regular income was no less than thirty-two millions of dollars. +This was all due to the extravagance of the court and the aristocracy, +who spent, for the most part, far more than the amount they actually +collected and which they honestly believed to be their income. Such a +course was vastly more disastrous than it appeared, being ruinous not +only to personal but to national well-being, inasmuch as what the +nobles, even the earnest and honest ones, believed to be their +legitimate income was not really such. Two thirds of the land was in +their hands; the other third paid the entire land-tax. They were +therefore regarding as their own two thirds of what was in reality +taken altogether from the pockets of the small proprietors. Small +sacrifices the ruling class professed itself ready to make, but such a +one as to pay their share of the land-tax—never. It had been proposed +also to destroy the monopoly of the grain trade, and to abolish the +road-work, a task more hateful to the people than any tax, because it +brought them into direct contact with the exasperating +superciliousness of petty officials. But in all these proposed +reforms, Necker, Calonne, and <span lang="fr">Loménie de Brienne</span>, each approaching the +nobles from a separate standpoint, had alike failed. The nobility +could see in such retrenchment and change nothing but ruin for +themselves. An assembly of notables, called in 1781, would not listen +to propositions which seemed suicidal. The King began to alienate the +affection of his natural allies, the people, by yielding to the clamor +of the court party. From the nobility he could wring nothing. The +royal treasury was therefore actually bankrupt, the nobles believed +that they were threatened with bankruptcy, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page106" name="page106"></a>(p. 106)</span> and the people +knew that they themselves were not only bankrupt, but also hungry and +oppressed.</p> + +<p>At last the King, aware of the nation's extremity, began to undertake +reforms without reference to class prejudice, and on his own +authority. He decreed a stamp-tax, and the equal distribution of the +land-tax. He strove to compel the unwilling parliament of Paris, a +court of justice which, though ancient, he himself had but recently +reconstituted, to register his decrees, and then banished it from the +capital because it would not. That court had been the last remaining +check on absolutism in the country, and, as such, an ally of the +people; so that although the motives and the measures of Louis were +just, the high-handed means to which he resorted in order to carry +them alienated him still further from the affections of the nation. +The parliament, in justifying its opposition, had declared that taxes +in France could be laid only by the Estates-General. The people had +almost forgotten the very name, and were entirely ignorant of what +that body was, vaguely supposing that, like the English Parliament or +the American Congress, it was in some sense a legislative assembly. +They therefore made their voice heard in no uncertain sound, demanding +that the Estates should meet. Louis abandoned his attitude of +independence, and recalled the Paris parliament from Troyes, but only +to exasperate its members still further by insisting on a huge loan, +on the restoration of civil rights to the Protestants, and on +restricting, not only its powers, but those of all similar courts +throughout the realm. The parliament then declared that France was a +limited monarchy with constitutional checks on the power of the crown, +and exasperated men flocked to the city to remonstrate against the +menace to their liberties in the degradation of all the parliaments by +the King's action in regard to that of <span class="pagenum"><a id="page107" name="page107"></a>(p. 107)</span> Paris. Those from +Brittany formed an association, which soon admitted other members, and +developed into the notorious Jacobin Club, so called from its +meeting-place, a convent on the <span lang="fr">Rue <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Honoré</span>, once occupied by +Dominican monks who had moved thither from the <span lang="fr">Rue <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Jacques</span>.</p> + +<p>To summon the Estates was a virtual confession that absolutism in +France was at an end. In the seventeenth century the three estates +deliberated separately. Such matters came before them as were +submitted by the crown, chiefly demands for revenue. A decision was +reached by the agreement of any two of the three, and whatever +proposition the crown submitted was either accepted or rejected. There +was no real legislation. Louis no doubt hoped that the +eighteenth-century assembly would be like that of the seventeenth. He +could then, by the coalition of the nobles and the clergy against the +burghers, or by any other arrangement of two to one, secure +authorization either for his loans or for his reforms, as the case +might be, and so carry both. But the France of 1789 was not the France +of 1614. As soon as the call for the meeting was issued, and the +decisive steps were taken, the whole country was flooded with +pamphlets. Most of them were ephemeral; one was epochal. In it the +Abbé Sieyès asked the question, "What is the third estate?" and +answered so as to strengthen the already spreading conviction that the +people of France were really the nation. The King was so far convinced +as to agree that the third estate should be represented by delegates +equal in number to those of the clergy and nobles combined. The +elections passed quietly, and on May fifth, 1789, the Estates met at +Versailles, under the shadow of the court. It was immediately evident +that the hands of the clock could not be put back two centuries, and +that here was gathered <span class="pagenum"><a id="page108" name="page108"></a>(p. 108)</span> an assembly unlike any that had ever +met in the country, determined to express the sentiments, and to be +the executive, of the masses who in their opinion constituted the +nation. On June seventeenth, therefore, after long talk and much +hesitation, the representatives of the third estate declared +themselves the representatives of the whole nation, and invited their +colleagues of the clergy and nobles to join them. Their meeting-place +having been closed in consequence of this decision, they gathered +without authorization in the royal tennis-court on June twentieth, and +bound themselves by oath not to disperse until they had introduced a +new order. Louis was nevertheless nearly successful in his plan of +keeping the sittings of the three estates separate. He was thwarted by +the eloquence and courage of Mirabeau. On June twenty-seventh a +majority of the delegates from the two upper estates joined those of +the third estate in constituting a national assembly.</p> + +<p>At this juncture the court party began the disastrous policy which in +the end was responsible for most of the terrible excesses of the +French Revolution, by insisting that troops should be called to +restrain the Assembly, and that Necker should be banished. Louis +showed the same vacillating spirit now that he had displayed in +yielding to the Assembly, and assented. The noble officers had lately +shown themselves untrustworthy, and the men in the ranks refused to +obey when called to fight against the people. The baser social +elements of the whole country had long since swarmed to the capital. +Their leaders now fanned the flame of popular discontent until at last +resort was had to violence. On July twelfth the barriers of Paris were +burned, and the regular troops were defeated by the mob in the Place +Vendôme; on July fourteenth the Bastille, in itself a <span class="pagenum"><a id="page109" name="page109"></a>(p. 109)</span> +harmless anachronism, but considered by the masses to typify all the +tyrannical shifts and inhuman oppressions known to despotism, was +razed to the ground. As if to crown their baseness, the extreme +conservatives among the nobles, the very men who had brought the King +to such straits, now abandoned him and fled.</p> + +<p>Louis finally bowed to the storm, and came to reside among his people +in Paris, as a sign of submission. Bailly, an excellent and judicious +man, was made mayor of the city, and Lafayette, with his American +laurels still unfaded, was made commander of a newly organized force, +to be known as the National Guard. On July seventeenth the King +accepted the red, white, and blue—the recognized colors of +liberty—as national. The insignia of a dynasty were exchanged for the +badge of a principle. A similar transformation took place throughout +the land, and administration everywhere passed quietly into the hands +of the popular representatives. The flying nobles found their châteaux +hotter than Paris. Not only must the old feudal privileges go, but +with them the old feudal grants, the charters of oppression in the +muniment chests. These charters the peasants insisted must be +destroyed. If they could not otherwise gain possession of them, they +resorted to violence, and sometimes in the intoxication of the hour +they exceeded the bounds of reason, abusing both the persons and the +legitimate property of their enemies. Death or surrender was often the +alternative. So it was that there was no refuge on their estates, not +even a temporary one, for those who had so long possessed them. Many +had already passed into foreign lands; the emigration increased, and +continued in a steady stream. The moderate nobles, honest patriots to +whom life in exile was not life at all, now clearly saw that their +order must yield: in the night session of August fourth, sometimes +called <span class="pagenum"><a id="page110" name="page110"></a>(p. 110)</span> the "<abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Bartholomew of privilege," they surrendered +their privileges in a mass. Every vestige, not only of feudal, but +also of chartered privilege, was to be swept away; even the King's +hunting-grounds were to be reduced to the dimensions permitted to a +private gentleman. All men alike, it was agreed, were to renounce the +conventional and arbitrary distinctions which had created inequality +in civil and political life, and accept the absolute equality of +citizenship. Liberty and fraternity were the two springers of the new +arch; its keystone was to be equality. On August twenty-third the +Assembly decreed freedom of religious opinion; on the next day freedom +of the press.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p> + +<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page111" name="page111"></a>(p. 111)</span> CHAPTER <abbr title="9">IX.</abbr></h3> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Buonaparte and Revolution in Corsica</span>.</h4> + +<p class="summary">Napoleon's Studies Continued at Auxonne — Another Illness + and a Furlough — His Scheme of Corsican Liberation — His + Appearance at Twenty — His Attainments and Character — His + Shifty Conduct — The Homeward Journey — New Parties in + Corsica — Salicetti and the Nationalists — Napoleon + Becomes a Political Agitator and Leader of the Radicals — + The National Assembly Incorporates Corsica with France and + Grants Amnesty to Paoli — Momentary Joy of the Corsican + Patriots — The French Assembly Ridicules Genoa's Protest — + Napoleon's Plan for Corsican Administration.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">1789-90.</p> + +<p>Such were the events taking place in the great world while Buonaparte +was at Auxonne. That town, as had been expected, was most uneasy, and +on July nineteenth, 1789, there was an actual outbreak of violence, +directed there, as elsewhere, against the tax-receivers. The riot was +easily suppressed, and for some weeks yet, the regular round of +studious monotony in the young lieutenant's life was not disturbed +except as his poverty made his asceticism more rigorous. "I have no +other resource but work," he wrote to his mother; "I dress but once in +eight days [Sunday parade?]; I sleep but little since my illness; it +is incredible. I retire at ten, and rise at four in the morning. I +take but one meal a day, at three; that is good for my health."</p> + +<p>More bad news came from Corsica. The starving patriot fell seriously +ill, and for a time his life hung in the balance. On August eighth he +was at last sufficiently restored to travel, and applied for a +six-months' furlough, to begin immediately. Under the regulations, in +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page112" name="page112"></a>(p. 112)</span> spite of his previous leaves and irregularities, he was this +year entitled to such a vacation, but not before October. His plea +that the winter was unfavorable for the voyage to Corsica was +characteristic, for it was neither altogether true nor altogether +false. He was feverish and ill, excited by news of turmoils at home, +and wished to be on the scene of action; this would have been a true +and sufficient ground for his request. It was likewise true, however, +that his chance for a smooth passage was better in August than in +October, and this evident fact, though probably irrelevant, might move +the authorities. Their answer was favorable, and on September +sixteenth he left Auxonne.</p> + +<p>In the interval occurred a mutiny in the regiment. The pay of the men +was far in arrears, and they demanded a division of the surplus which +had accumulated from the various regimental grants, and which was +managed by the officers for the benefit of their own mess. The +officers were compelled to yield, so far had revolutionary license +supplanted royal and military authority. Of course a general orgy +followed. It seems to have been during these days that the scheme of +Corsican liberation which brought him finally into the field of +politics took shape in Napoleon's mind. Fesch had returned to Corsica, +and had long kept his nephew thoroughly informed of the situation. By +the anarchy prevailing all about him in France, and beginning to +prevail in Corsica, his eyes were opened to the possibilities of the +Revolution for one who knew how to take advantage of the changed +order.</p> + +<p>The appearance of Buonaparte in his twentieth year was not in general +noteworthy. His head was shapely, but not uncommon in size, although +disproportionate to the frame which bore it. His forehead was wide and +of medium height; on each side long chestnut hair—lanky <span class="pagenum"><a id="page113" name="page113"></a>(p. 113)</span> as +we may suppose from his own account of his personal habits—fell in +stiff, flat locks over his lean cheeks. His eyes were large, and in +their steel-blue irises, lurking under deep-arched and projecting +brows, was a penetrating quality which veiled the mind within. The +nose was straight and shapely, the mouth large, the lips full and +sensuous, although the powerful projecting chin diminished somewhat +the true effect of the lower one. His complexion was sallow. The frame +of his body was in general small and fine, particularly his hands and +feet; but his deep chest and short neck were huge. This lack of +proportion did not, however, interfere with his gait, which was firm +and steady. The student of character would have declared the stripling +to be self-reliant and secretive; ambitious and calculating; +masterful, but kindly. In an age when phrenology was a mania, its +masters found in his cranium the organs of what they called +imagination and causality, of individuality, comparison, and +locality—by which jargon they meant to say that he had a strong power +of imaging and of inductive reasoning, a knowledge of men, of places, +and of things.</p> + +<p>The life of the young officer had thus far been so commonplace as to +awaken little expectation for his future. Poor as he was, and careful +of his slim resources, he had, like the men of his class, indulged his +passions to a certain degree; but he had not been riotous in his +living, and he had so far not a debt in the world. What his education +and reading were makes clear that he could have known nothing with a +scholar's comprehensive thoroughness except the essentials of his +profession. But he could master details as no man before or since; he +had a vast fund of information, and a historic outline drawn in fair +proportion and powerful strokes. His philosophy was meager, but he +knew the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page114" name="page114"></a>(p. 114)</span> principles of Rousseau and Raynal thoroughly. His +conception of politics and men was not scientific, but it was clear +and practical. The trade of arms had not been to his taste. He +heartily disliked routine, and despised the petty duties of his rank. +His profession, however, was a means to an end; of any mastery of +strategy or tactics or even interest in them he had as yet given no +sign, but he was absorbed in contemplating and analyzing the exploits +of the great world-conquerors. In particular his mind was dazzled by +the splendors of the Orient as the only field on which an Alexander +could have displayed himself, and he knew what but a few great minds +have grasped, that the interchange of relations between the East and +the West had been the life of the world. The greatness of England he +understood to be largely due to her bestriding the two hemispheres.</p> + +<p>Up to this moment he had been a theorist, and might have wasted his +fine powers by further indulgence in dazzling generalizations, as so +many boys do when not called to test their hypotheses by experience. +Henceforward he was removed from this temptation. A plan for an +elective council in Corsica to replace that of the nobles, and for a +local militia, having been matured, he was a cautious and practical +experimenter from the moment he left Auxonne. Thus far he had put into +practice none of his fine thoughts, nor the lessons learned in books. +The family destitution had made him a solicitor of favors, and, but +for the turn in public affairs, he might have continued to be one. His +own inclinations had made him both a good student and a poor officer; +without a field for larger duties, he might have remained as he was. +In Corsica his line of conduct was not changed abruptly: the +possibilities of greater things dawning gradually, the application of +great conceptions <span class="pagenum"><a id="page115" name="page115"></a>(p. 115)</span> already formed, came with the march of +events, not like the sun bursting out from behind a cloud.</p> + +<p>Traveling by way of Aix, Napoleon took the unlucky Lucien with him. +This wayward but independent younger brother, making no allowance, as +he tells us in his published memoirs, for the disdain an older boy at +school is supposed to feel for a younger one, blood relative or not, +had been repelled by the cold reception his senior had given him at +Brienne. Having left that school against the advice of the same +would-be mentor, his suit for admission to Aix had been fruitless. +Necessity was driving him homeward, and the two who in after days were +again to be separated were now, for almost the only time in their +lives, companions for a considerable period. Their intercourse made +them no more harmonious in feeling. The only incident of the journey +was a visit to the Abbé Raynal at Marseilles. We would gladly know +something of the talk between the master and the pupil, but we do not.</p> + +<p>Napoleon found no change in the circumstances of the Buonaparte +family. The old archdeacon was still living, and for the moment all +except Elisa were at home. On the whole, they were more needy than +ever. The death of their patron, Marbeuf, had been followed by the +final rejection of their long-urged suit, and this fact, combined with +the political opinions of the elder Lucien, was beginning to wean them +from the official clique. There were the same factions as before—the +official party and the patriots. Since the death of Charles de +Buonaparte, the former had been represented at Versailles by +Buttafuoco, Choiseul's unworthy instrument in acquiring the island, +and now, as then, an uninfluential and consequential self-seeker. Its +members were all aristocrats and royalist in politics. The higher +priesthood were of similar mind, and had chosen <span class="pagenum"><a id="page116" name="page116"></a>(p. 116)</span> the Abbé +Peretti to represent them; the parish priests, as in France, were with +the people. Both the higher classes were comparatively small; in spite +of twenty years of peace under French rule, they were both excessively +unpopular, and utterly without any hold on the islanders. They had but +one partizan with an influential name, a son of the old-time patriot +Gaffori, the father-in-law of Buttafuoco. The overwhelming majority of +the natives were little changed in their temper. There were the old, +unswerving patriots who wanted absolute independence, and were now +called Paolists; there were the self-styled patriots, the younger men, +who wanted a protectorate that they might enjoy virtual independence +and secure a career by peace. There was in the harbor towns on the +eastern slope the same submissive, peace-loving temper as of old; in +the west the same fiery, warlike spirit. Corte was the center of +Paoli's power, Calvi was the seat of French influence, Bastia was +radical, Ajaccio was about equally divided between the younger and +older parties, with a strong infusion of official influence.</p> + +<p>Both the representatives of the people in the national convention were +of the moderate party; one of them, Salicetti, was a man of ability, a +friend of the Buonapartes, and destined later to influence deeply the +course of their affairs. He and his colleague Colonna were urging on +the National Assembly measures for the local administration of the +island. To this faction, as to the other, it had become clear that if +Corsica was to reap the benefits of the new era it must be by union +under Paoli. All, old and young alike, desired a thorough reform of +their barbarous jurisprudence, and, like all other French subjects, a +free press, free trade, the abolition of all privilege, equality in +taxation, eligibility to office without regard to rank, and the +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page117" name="page117"></a>(p. 117)</span> diminution of monastic revenues for the benefit of +education. Nowhere could such changes be more easily made than in a +land just emerging from barbarism, where old institutions were +disappearing and new ones were still fluid. Paoli himself had come to +believe that independence could more easily be secured from a +regenerated France, and with her help, than by a warfare which might +again arouse the ambition of Genoa.</p> + +<p>Buonaparte's natural associates were the younger men—Masseria, son of +a patriot line; Pozzo di Borgo, Peraldi, Cuneo, Ramolini, and others +less influential. The only Corsican with French military training, he +was, in view of uncertainties and probabilities already on the +horizon, a person of considerable consequence. His contribution to the +schemes of the young patriots was significant: it consisted in a +proposal to form a body of local militia for the support of that +central committee which his friends so ardently desired. The plan was +promptly adopted by the associates, the radicals seeing in it a means +to put arms once more into the hands of the people, the others no +doubt having in mind the storming of the Bastille and the possibility +of similar movements in Ajaccio and elsewhere. Buonaparte, the only +trained officer among them, may have dreamed of abandoning the French +service, and of a supreme command in Corsica. Many of the people who +appeared well disposed toward France had from time to time received +permission from the authorities to carry arms, many carried them +secretly and without a license; but proportionately there were so few +in both classes that vigorous or successful armed resistance was in +most places impracticable. The attitude of the department of war at +Paris was regulated by Buttafuoco, and was of course hostile to the +insidious scheme of a local militia. The minister of war would do +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page118" name="page118"></a>(p. 118)</span> nothing but submit the suggestion to the body against whose +influence it was aimed, the hated council of twelve nobles. The stupid +sarcasm of such a step was well-nigh criminal.</p> + +<p>Under such instigation the flames of discontent broke out in Corsica. +Paoli's agents were again most active. In many towns the people rose +to attack the citadels or barracks, and to seize the authority. In +Ajaccio Napoleon de Buonaparte promptly asserted himself as the +natural leader. The already existing democratic club was rapidly +organized into the nucleus of a home guard, and recruited in numbers. +But there were none of Paoli's mountaineers to aid the unwarlike +burghers, as there had been in Bastia. Gaffori appeared on the scene, +but neither the magic of his name, the troops that accompanied him, +nor the adverse representations of the council, which he brought with +him, could allay the discontent. He therefore remained for three days +in seclusion, and then departed in secret. On the other hand, the +populace was intimidated, permitting without resistance the rooms of +the club to be closed by the troops, and the town to be put under +martial law. Nothing remained for the agitators but to protest and +disperse. They held a final meeting, therefore, on October +thirty-first, 1789, in one of the churches, and signed an appeal to +the National Assembly, to be presented by Salicetti and Colonna. It +had been written, and was read aloud, by Buonaparte, as he now signed +himself.<a id="footnotetag19" name="footnotetag19"></a><a href="#footnote19" title="Go to footnote 19"><span class="small">[19]</span></a> Some share in its composition was later claimed for +Joseph, but the fiery style, the numerous blunders in grammar and +spelling, the terse thought, and the concise form, are all +characteristic of Napoleon. The right of petition, the recital of +unjust acts, the illegal action of the council, the use of force, the +hollowness of <span class="pagenum"><a id="page119" name="page119"></a>(p. 119)</span> the pretexts under which their request had +been refused, the demand that the troops be withdrawn and redress +granted—all these are crudely but forcibly presented. The document +presages revolution. Under a well-constituted and regular authority, +its writer and signatories would of course have been punished for +insubordination. Even as things were, an officer of the King was +running serious risks by his prominence in connection with it.</p> + +<p>Discouraging as was the outcome of this movement in Ajaccio, similar +agitations elsewhere were more successful. The men of Isola Rossa, +under Arena, who had just returned from a consultation with Paoli in +England, were entirely successful in seizing the supreme authority; so +were those of Bastia, under Murati, a devoted friend of Paoli. One +untrustworthy authority, a personal enemy of Buonaparte, declares that +the latter, thwarted in his own town, at once went over to Bastia, +then the residence of General <span lang="fr">de Barrin</span>, the French royalist governor, +and successfully directed the revolt in that place, but there is no +corroborative evidence to this doubtful story.</p> + +<p>Simultaneously with these events the National Assembly had been +debating how the position of the King under the new constitution was +to be expressed by his title. Absolutism being ended, he could no +longer be king of France, a style which to men then living implied +ownership. King of the French was selected as the new form; should +they add "and of Navarre"? Salicetti, with consummate diplomacy, had +already warned many of his fellow-delegates of the danger lest England +should intervene in Corsica, and France lose one of her best +recruiting-grounds. To his compatriots he set forth that France was +the best protector, whether they desired partial or complete +independence. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page120" name="page120"></a>(p. 120)</span> He now suggested that if the Assembly thus +recognized the separate identity of the Pyrenean people, they must +supplement their phrase still further by the words "and of Corsica"; +for it had been only nominally, and as a pledge, that Genoa in 1768 +had put France in control. At this stage of the debate, Volney +presented a number of formal demands from the Corsican patriots asking +that the position of their country be defined. One of these papers +certainly came from Bastia; among them also was probably the document +which had been executed at Ajaccio. This was the culmination of the +skilful revolutionary agitation which had been started and directed by +Masseria under Paoli's guidance. The anomalous position of both +Corsica and Navarre was clearly depicted in the mere presentation of +such petitions. "If the Navarrese are not French, what have we to do +with them, or they with us?" said Mirabeau. The argument was as +unanswerable for one land as for the other, and both were incorporated +in the realm: Corsica on November thirtieth, by a proposition of +Salicetti's, who was apparently unwilling, but who posed as one under +imperative necessity. In reality he had reached the goal for which he +had long been striving. Dumouriez, later so renowned as a general, and +Mirabeau, the great statesman and orator, had both been members of the +French army of occupation which reduced Corsica to submission. The +latter now recalled his misdeed with sorrow and shame in an +impassioned plea for amnesty to all political offenders, including +Paoli. There was bitter opposition, but the great orator prevailed.</p> + +<p>The news was received in Corsica with every manifestation of joy; +bonfires were lighted, and Te Deums were sung in the churches. Paoli +to rejoin his own again! What more could disinterested patriots +desire? <span class="pagenum"><a id="page121" name="page121"></a>(p. 121)</span> Corsica a province of France! How could her aspiring +youth secure a wider field for the exercise of their powers, and the +attainment of ambitious ends? The desires of both parties were +temporarily fulfilled. The names of Mirabeau, Salicetti, and Volney +were shouted with acclaim, those of Buttafuoco and Peretti with +reprobation. The regular troops were withdrawn from Ajaccio; the +ascendancy of the liberals was complete.</p> + +<p>Then feeble Genoa was heard once more. She had pledged the +sovereignty, not sold it; had yielded its exercise, and not the thing +itself; France might administer the government as she chose, but +annexation was another matter. She appealed to the fairness of the +King and the National Assembly to safeguard her treaty rights. Her +tone was querulous, her words without force. In the Assembly the +protest was but fuel to the fire. On January twenty-first, 1790, +occurred an animated debate in which the matter was fully considered. +The discussion was notable, as indicating the temper of parties and +the nature of their action at that stage of the Revolution. Mirabeau +as ever was the leader. He and his friends were scornful not only +because of Genoa's temerity in seeming still to claim what France had +conquered, but of her conception that mere paper contracts were +binding where principles of public law were concerned! The opposition +mildly but firmly recalled the existence of other nations than France, +and suggested the consequences of international bad faith. The +conclusion of the matter was the adoption of a cunning and insolent +combination of two propositions, one made by each side, "to lay the +request on the table, or to explain that there is no occasion for its +consideration." The incident is otherwise important only in the light +of Napoleon's future dealings with the Italian commonwealth.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page122" name="page122"></a>(p. 122)</span> The situation was now most delicate, as far as Buonaparte was +concerned. His suggestion of a local militia contemplated the +extension of the revolutionary movement to Corsica. His appeal to the +National Assembly demanded merely the right to do what one French city +or district after another had done: to establish local authority, to +form a National Guard, and to unfurl the red, white, and blue. There +was nothing in it about the incorporation of Corsica in France; that +had come to pass through the insurgents of Bastia, who had been +organized by Paoli, inspired by the attempt at Ajaccio, and guided at +last by Salicetti. A little later Buonaparte took pains to set forth +how much better, under his plan, would have been the situation of +Corsican affairs if, with their guard organized and their colors +mounted, they could have recalled Paoli, and have awaited the event +with power either to reject such propositions as the royalists, if +successful, would have made, or to accept the conclusions of the +French Assembly with proper self-respect, and not on compulsion. +Hitherto he had lost no opportunity to express his hatred of France; +it is possible that he had planned the virtual independence of +Corsica, with himself as the liberator, or at least as Paoli's +Sampiero. The reservations of his Ajaccio document, and the bitterness +of his feelings, are not, however, sufficient proof of such a +presumption. But the incorporation had taken place, Corsica was a +portion of France, and everybody was wild with delight.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p> + +<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page123" name="page123"></a>(p. 123)</span> CHAPTER <abbr title="10">X.</abbr></h3> + +<h4><span class="smcap">First Lessons in Revolution</span>.</h4> + +<p class="summary">French Soldier and Corsican Patriot — Paoli's Hesitancy — + His Return to Corsica — Cross-Purposes in France — A New + Furlough — Money Transactions of Napoleon and Joseph — + Open Hostilities Against France — Address to the French + Assembly — The Bastia Uprising — Reorganization of + Corsican Administration — Meeting of Napoleon and Paoli — + Corsican Politics — Studies in Society.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">1790.</p> + +<p>What was to be the future of one whose feelings were so hostile to the +nation with the fortunes of which he now seemed irrevocably +identified? There is no evidence that Buonaparte ever asked himself +such disquieting questions. To judge from his conduct, he was not in +the least troubled. Fully aware of the disorganization, both social +and military, which was well-nigh universal in France, with two months +more of his furlough yet unexpired, he awaited developments, not +hastening to meet difficulties before they presented themselves. What +the young democrats could do, they did. The town government was +entirely reorganized, with a friend of the Buonapartes as mayor, and +Joseph—employed at last!—as his secretary. A local guard was also +raised and equipped. Being French, however, and not Corsican, Napoleon +could not accept a command in it, for he was already an officer in the +French army. But he served in the ranks as a common soldier, and was +an ardent agitator in the club, which almost immediately reopened its +doors. In the impossibility of further action there was a relapse into +authorship. The history <span class="pagenum"><a id="page124" name="page124"></a>(p. 124)</span> of Corsica was again revised, though +not softened; the letters into which it was divided were addressed to +Raynal. In collaboration with Fesch, Buonaparte also drew up a memoir +on the oath which was required from priests.</p> + +<p>When Paoli first received news of the amnesty granted at the instance +of Mirabeau, and of the action taken by the French Assembly, which had +made Corsica a French department, he was delighted and deeply moved. +His noble instincts told him at once that he could no longer live in +the enjoyment of an English pension or even in England; for he was +convinced that his country would eventually reach a more perfect +autonomy under France than under the wing of any other power, and that +as a patriot he must not fail even in appearance to maintain that +position. But he also felt that his return to Corsica would endanger +the success of this policy; the ardent mountaineers would demand more +extreme measures for complete independence than he could take; the +lowlanders would be angry at the attitude of sympathy with his old +friends which he must assume. In a spirit of self-sacrifice, +therefore, he made ready to exchange his comfortable exile for one +more uncongenial and of course more bitter.</p> + +<p>But the National Assembly, with less insight, desired nothing so much +as his presence in the new French department. He was growing old, and +yielded against his better judgment to the united solicitation of +French interest and of Corsican impolicy. Passing through France, he +was detained for over two months by the ovations forced upon him. In +Paris the King urged him to accept honors of every kind; but they were +firmly refused: the reception, however, which the Assembly gave him in +the name of liberty, he declared to be the proudest occasion of his +life. At Lyons the populace <span class="pagenum"><a id="page125" name="page125"></a>(p. 125)</span> crowded the streets to cheer +him, and delegations from the chief towns of his native island met him +to solicit for each of their respective cities the honor of his +landing. On July fourteenth, 1790, after twenty-one years of exile, +the now aged hero set foot on Corsican land at Maginajo, near Capo +Corso. His first act was to kneel and kiss the soil. The nearest town +was Bastia, the revolutionary capital. There and elsewhere the +rejoicings were general, and the ceremonies were such as only the warm +hearts and willing hands of a primitive Italian people could devise +and perform. Not one true Corsican but must "see and hear and touch +him." But in less than a month his conduct was, as he had foreseen, so +misrepresented by friend and foe alike, that it was necessary to +defend him in Paris against the charge of scheming to hand over the +island to England.</p> + +<p>It is not entirely clear where Buonaparte was during this time. It is +said that he was seen in Valence during the latter part of January, +and the fact is adduced to show how deep and secret were his plans for +preserving the double chance of an opening in either France or +Corsica, as matters might turn out. The love-affair to which he refers +in that thesis on the topic to which reference has been made would be +an equally satisfactory explanation, considering his age. Whatever was +the fact as to those few days, he was not absent long. The serious +division between the executive in France and the new Assembly came to +light in an ugly circumstance which occurred in March. On the +eighteenth a French flotilla unexpectedly appeared off <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Florent. It +was commanded by Rully, an ardent royalist, who had long been employed +in Corsica. His secret instructions were to embark the French troops, +and to leave the island to its fate. This was an adroit stab at the +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page126" name="page126"></a>(p. 126)</span> republicans of the Assembly; for, should the evacuation be +secured, it was believed that either the radicals in Corsica would +rise, overpower, and destroy the friends of France, call in English +help, and diminish the number of democratic departments by one, or +that Genoa would immediately step in and reassert her sovereignty. The +moderates of <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Florent were not to be thus duped; sharp and angry +discussions arose among both citizens and troops as to the obedience +due to such orders, and soon both soldiers and townsfolk were in a +frenzy of excitement. A collision between the two parties occurred, +and Rully was killed. Papers were found on his person which proved +that his sympathizers would gladly have abandoned Corsica to its fate. +For the moment the young Corsicans were more devoted than ever to +Paoli, since now only through his good offices with the French +Assembly could a chance for the success of their plans be secured.</p> + +<p>Such was the diversity of opinion as to ways and means, as to +resources, opportunities, and details, that everything was, for the +moment, in confusion. On April sixteenth Buonaparte applied for an +extension of his furlough until the following October, on the plea of +continued ill-health, that he might drink the waters a second time at +Orezza, whose springs, he explained, had shown themselves to be +efficacious in his complaint. He may have been at that resort once +before, or he may not. Doubtless the fever was still lingering in his +system. What the degree of his illness was we cannot tell. It may have +unfitted him for active service with his regiment; it did not disable +him from pursuing his occupations in writing and political agitation. +His request was granted on May twentieth. The history of Corsica was +now finally revised, and the new dedication completed. This, with a +letter and some chapters <span class="pagenum"><a id="page127" name="page127"></a>(p. 127)</span> of the book, was forwarded to +Raynal, probably by post. Joseph, who was one of the delegates to meet +Paoli, would pass through Marseilles, wrote Napoleon to the abbé, and +would hand him the rest if he should so desire. The text of the +unlucky book was not materially altered. Its theory appears always to +have been that history is but a succession of great names, and the +story, therefore, is more a biographical record than a connected +narrative. The dedication, however, was a new step in the painful +progress of more accurate thinking and better expression; the +additions to the volume contained, amid many immaturities and +platitudes, some ripe and clever thought. Buonaparte's passion for his +bantling was once more the ardor of a misdirected genius unsullied by +the desire for money, which had played a temporary part.</p> + +<p>We know nothing definite of his pecuniary affairs, but somehow or +other his fortunes must have mended. There is no other explanation of +his numerous and costly journeys, and we hear that for a time he had +money in his purse. In the will which he dictated at <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Helena is a +bequest of one hundred thousand francs to the children of his friend +who was the first mayor of Ajaccio by the popular will. It is not +unlikely that the legacy was a grateful souvenir of advances made +about this time. There is another possible explanation. The club of +Ajaccio had chosen a delegation, of which Joseph Buonaparte was a +member, to bring Paoli home from France. To meet its expenses, the +municipality had forced the authorities of the priests' seminary to +open their strong box and to hand over upward of two thousand francs. +Napoleon may have shared Joseph's portion. We should be reminded in +such a stroke, but with a difference, to be sure, of what happened +when, a few years later, the hungry and ragged soldiers <span class="pagenum"><a id="page128" name="page128"></a>(p. 128)</span> of +the Republic were led into the fat plains of Lombardy.</p> + +<p>The contemptuous attitude of the Ajaccio liberals toward the religion +of Rome seriously alienated the superstitious populace from them. +Buonaparte was once attacked in the public square by a procession +organized to deprecate the policy of the National Assembly with regard +to the ecclesiastical estates. One of the few royalist officials left +in Corsica also took advantage of the general disorder to express his +feelings plainly as to the acts of the same body. He was arrested, +tried in Ajaccio, and acquitted by a sympathetic judge. At once the +liberals took alarm; their club and the officials first protested, and +then on June twenty-fifth assumed the offensive in the name of the +Assembly. It was on this occasion probably that he was seen by the +family friend who narrated his memories to the English diarist already +mentioned. "I remember to have seen Napoleon very active among the +enraged populace against those then called aristocrats, and running +through the streets of Ajaccio so busy in promoting dissatisfaction +that, though he lost his hat, he did not feel nor care for the effects +of the scorching sun to which he was exposed the whole of that +memorable day. The revolution having struck its poisonous root, +Napoleon never ceased stirring up his brothers, Joseph and Lucien, +who, being moved at his instance, were constantly attending clubs and +popular meetings where they often delivered speeches and debated +public matters, while Napoleon sat listening in silence, as he had no +turn for oratory." "One day in December," the narrator continues, "I +was sent for by his uncle already mentioned, in order to assist him in +preparing his testament; and, after having settled his family +concerns, the conversation turned upon politics, when, speaking of the +improbability <span class="pagenum"><a id="page129" name="page129"></a>(p. 129)</span> of Italy being revolutionized, Napoleon, then +present, quickly replied: 'Had I the command, I would take Italy in +twenty-four hours.'"<a id="footnotetag20" name="footnotetag20"></a><a href="#footnote20" title="Go to footnote 20"><span class="small">[20]</span></a></p> + +<p>At last the opportunity to emulate the French cities seemed assured. +It was determined to organize a local independent government, seize +the citadel with the help of the home guard, and throw the hated +royalists into prison. But the preparations were too open: the +governor and most of his friends fled in season to their stronghold, +and raised the drawbridge; the agitators could lay hands on but four +of their enemies, among whom were the judge, the offender, and an +officer of the garrison. So great was the disappointment of the +radicals that they would have vented their spite on these; it was with +difficulty that the lives of the prisoners were saved by the efforts +of the militia officers. The garrison really sympathized with the +insurgents, and would not obey orders to suppress the rising by an +attack. In return for this forbearance the regular soldiers stipulated +for the liberation of their officer. In the end the chief offenders +among the radicals were punished by imprisonment or banished, and the +tumult subsided; but the French officials now had strong support, not +only from the hierarchy, as before, but from the plain pious people +and their priests.</p> + +<p>This result was a second defeat for Napoleon Buonaparte, who was +almost certainly the instigator and leader of the uprising. He had +been ready at any moment to assume the direction of affairs, but again +the outcome of such a movement as could alone secure a possible +temporary independence for Corsica and a military command for himself +was absolutely naught. Little perturbed by failure, he took up the pen +to write a proclamation justifying the action of the municipal +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page130" name="page130"></a>(p. 130)</span> authorities. The paper was dated October thirty-first, 1789, +and fearlessly signed both by himself and the other leaders, including +the mayor. It execrates the sympathizers with the old order in France, +and lauds the Assembly, with all its works; denounces those who sold +the land to France, which could offer nothing but an end of the chain +that bound her; and warns the enemies of the new constitution that +their day is over. There is a longing reference to the ideal +self-determination which the previous attempt might have secured. The +present rising is justified, however, as an effort to carry out the +principles of the new charter.<a id="footnotetag21" name="footnotetag21"></a><a href="#footnote21" title="Go to footnote 21"><span class="small">[21]</span></a> There are the same suggested force +and suppressed fury as in his previous manifesto, the same fervid +rhetoric, the same lack of coherence in expression. The same two +elements, that of the eighteenth-century metaphysics and that of his +own uncultured force, combine in the composition. Naturally enough, +the unrest of the town was not diminished; there was even a slight +collision between the garrison and the civil authorities.</p> + +<p>Buonaparte was of course suspected and hated by Catholics and military +alike. French officer though he was, no one in Corsica thought of him +otherwise than as a Corsican revolutionist. Among his own friends he +continued his unswerving career. It was he who was chosen to write the +address from Ajaccio to Paoli, although the two men did not meet until +somewhat later. With the arrival of the great liberator the grasp of +the old officials on the island relaxed, and the bluster of the few +who had grown rich in the royal service ceased. The Assembly was +finally triumphant; this new department was at last to be organized +like those of the adoptive mother. It was high time, for the public +order was seriously endangered in this transition period. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page131" name="page131"></a>(p. 131)</span> +The disturbances at Ajaccio had been trifling compared with the +revolutionary procedure inaugurated and carried to extremes in Bastia. +This city being the capital and residence of the governor, Buonaparte +and his comrades had no sooner completed their address to the French +Assembly than they hurried thither to beard <span lang="fr">de Barrin</span> and +revolutionize the garrison. Their success was complete: garrison and +citizens alike were roused and the governor cowed. Both soldiers and +people assumed the tricolor cockade on November fifth, 1789. Barrin +even assented to the formation of a national militia. On this basis +order was established. This was another affair from that at Ajaccio +and attracted the attention of the Paris Assembly, strongly +influencing the government in its arrangements with Paoli. The young +Buonaparte was naturally very uneasy as to his position and so +remained fairly quiet until February, when the incorporation of the +island with France was completed. Immediately he gave free vent to his +energies. Two letters of Napoleon's written in August, 1790, display a +feverish spirit of unrest in himself, and enumerate the many uprisings +in the neighborhood with their varying degrees of success. Under +provisional authority, arrangements were made, after some delay, to +hold elections for the officials of the new system whose legal +designation was directors. Their appointment and conduct would be +determinative of Corsica's future, and were therefore of the highest +importance.</p> + +<p>In a pure democracy the voters assemble to deliberate and record their +decisions. Such were the local district meetings in Corsica. These +chose the representatives to the central constituent assembly, which +was to meet at Orezza on September ninth, 1790. Joseph Buonaparte and +Fesch were among the members sent <span class="pagenum"><a id="page132" name="page132"></a>(p. 132)</span> from Ajaccio. The healing +waters which Napoleon wished to quaff at Orezza were the influence of +the debates. Although he could not be a member of the assembly on +account of his youth, he was determined to be present. The three +relatives traveled from their home in company, Joseph enchanted by the +scenery, Napoleon studying the strategic points on the way. In order +that his presence at Orezza might not unduly affect the course of +events, Paoli had delicately chosen as his temporary home the village +of Rostino, which was on their route. Here occurred the meeting +between the two great Corsicans, the man of ideas and the man of +action. No doubt Paoli was anxious to win a family so important and a +patriot so ardent. In any case, he invited the three young men to +accompany him over the fatal battle-ground of Ponte Nuovo. If it had +really been Napoleon's ambition to become the chief of the French +National Guard for Corsica, which would now, in all probability, be +fully organized, it is very likely that he would have exerted himself +to secure the favor of the only man who could fulfil his desire. There +is, however, a tradition which tends to show quite the contrary: it is +said that after Paoli had pointed out the disposition of his troops +for the fatal conflict Napoleon dryly remarked, "The result of these +arrangements was just what it was bound to be." Among the Emperor's +reminiscences at the close of his life, he recalled this meeting, +because Paoli had on that occasion declared him to be a man of ancient +mold, like one of Plutarch's heroes.</p> + +<p>The constituent assembly at Orezza sat for a month. Its sessions +passed almost without any incident of importance except the first +appearance of Napoleon as an orator in various public meetings held in +connection with its labors. He is said to have been bashful <span class="pagenum"><a id="page133" name="page133"></a>(p. 133)</span> +and embarrassed in his beginnings, but, inspirited by each occasion, +to have become more fluent, and finally to have won the attention and +applause of his hearers. What he said is not known, but he spoke in +Italian, and succeeded in his design of being at least a personage in +the pregnant events now occurring. Both parties were represented in +the proceedings and conclusions of the convention. Corsica was to +constitute but a single department. Paoli was elected president of its +directory and commander-in-chief of its National Guard, a combination +of offices which again made him virtual dictator. He accepted them +unwillingly, but the honors of a statue and an annual grant of ten +thousand dollars, which were voted at the same time, he absolutely +declined. The Paolist party secured the election of Canon Belce as +vice-president, of Panatheri as secretary, of Arena as Salicetti's +substitute, of Pozzo di Borgo and Gentili as members of the directory. +Colonna, one of the delegates to the National Assembly, was a member +of the same group. The younger patriots, or Young Corsica, as we +should say now, perhaps, were represented by their delegate and leader +Salicetti, who was chosen as plenipotentiary in Buttafuoco's place, +and by Multedo, Gentili, and Pompei as members of the directory. For +the moment, however, Paoli was Corsica, and such petty politics was +significant only as indicating the survival of counter-currents. There +was some dissent to a vote of censure passed upon the conduct of +Buttafuoco and Peretti, but it was insignificant. Pozzo di Borgo and +Gentili were chosen to declare at the bar of the National Assembly the +devotion of Corsica to its purposes, and to the course of reform as +represented by it. They were also to secure, if possible, both the +permission to form a departmental National Guard, and the means to pay +and arm it.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page134" name="page134"></a>(p. 134)</span> The choice of Pozzo di Borgo for a mission of such importance +in preference to Joseph was a disappointment to the Buonapartes. In +fact, not one of the plans concerted by the two brothers succeeded. +Joseph sustained the pretensions of Ajaccio to be capital of the +island, but the honor was awarded to Bastia. He was not elected a +member of the general directory, though he succeeded in being made a +member for Ajaccio in the district directory. Whether to work off his +ill humor, or from far-seeing purpose, Napoleon used the hours not +spent in wire-pulling and listening to the proceedings of the assembly +for making a series of excursions which were a virtual canvass of the +neighborhood. The houses of the poorest were his resort; partly by his +inborn power of pleasing, partly by diplomacy, he won their hearts and +learned their inmost feelings. His purse, which was for the moment +full, was open for their gratification in a way which moved them +deeply. For years target practice had been forbidden, as giving +dangerous skill in the use of arms. Liberty having returned, Napoleon +reorganized many of the old rural festivals in which contests of that +nature had been the chief feature, offering prizes from his own means +for the best marksmen among the youth. His success in feeling the +pulse of public opinion was so great that he never forgot the lesson. +Not long afterward, in the neighborhood of Valence,—in fact, to the +latest times,—he courted the society of the lowly, and established, +when possible, a certain intimacy with them. This gave him popularity, +while at the same time it enabled him to obtain the most valuable +indications of the general temper.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p> + +<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page135" name="page135"></a>(p. 135)</span> CHAPTER <abbr title="11">XI.</abbr></h3> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Traits of Character</span>.</h4> + +<p class="summary">Literary Work — The Lyons Prize — Essay on Happiness — + Thwarted Ambition — The Corsican Patriots — The Brothers + Napoleon and Louis — Studies in Politics — Reorganization + of the Army — The Change in Public Opinion — A New Leave + of Absence — Napoleon Again at Auxonne — Napoleon as a + Teacher — Further Literary Efforts — The Sentimental + Journey — His Attitude Toward Religion.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">1791.</p> + +<p>On his return to Ajaccio, the rising agitator continued as before to +frequent his club. The action of the convention at Orezza in +displacing Buttafuoco had inflamed the young politicians still more +against the renegade. This effect was further heightened when it was +known that, at the reception of their delegates by the National +Assembly, the greater council had, under Mirabeau's leadership, +virtually taken the same position regarding both him and his +colleague. Napoleon had written, probably in the previous year, a +notorious diatribe against Buttafuoco in the form of a letter to its +object and the very night on which the news from Paris was received, +he seized the opportunity to read it before the club at Ajaccio. The +paper, as now in existence, is pompously dated January twenty-third, +1791, from "my summer house of Milleli." This was the retreat on one +of the little family properties, to which reference has been made. +There in the rocks was a grotto known familiarly by that name; +Napoleon had improved and beautified the spot, using it, as he did his +garden at Brienne, for contemplation and quiet study. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page136" name="page136"></a>(p. 136)</span> +Although the letter to Matteo Buttafuoco has been often printed, and +was its author's first successful effort in writing, much emphasis +should not be laid on it except in noting the better power to express +tumultuous feeling, and in marking the implications which show an +expansion of character. Insubordinate to France it certainly is, and +intemperate; turgid, too, as any youth of twenty could well make it. +No doubt, also, it was intended to secure notoriety for the writer. It +makes clear the thorough apprehension its author had as to the radical +character of the Revolution. It is his final and public renunciation +of the royalist principles of Charles de Buonaparte. It contains also +the last profession of morality which a youth is not ashamed to make +before the cynicism of his own life becomes too evident for the +castigation of selfishness and insincerity in others. Its substance is +a just reproach to a selfish trimmer; the froth and scum are +characteristic rather of the time and the circumstances than of the +personality behind them. There is no further mention of a difference +between the destinies of France and Corsica. To compare the pamphlet +with even the poorest work of Rousseau, as has often been done, is +absurd; to vilify it as ineffective trash is equally so.</p> + +<p>As may be imagined, the "Letter" was received with mad applause, and +ordered to be printed. It was now the close of January; Buonaparte's +leave had expired on October fifteenth. On November sixteenth, after +loitering a whole month beyond his time, he had secured a document +from the Ajaccio officials certifying that both he and Louis were +devoted to the new republican order, and bespeaking assistance for +both in any difficulties which might arise. The busy Corsican +perfectly understood that he might already at that time be regarded as +a deserter in France, but still he continued his dangerous <span class="pagenum"><a id="page137" name="page137"></a>(p. 137)</span> +loitering. He had two objects in view, one literary, one political. +Besides the successful "Letter" he had been occupied with a second +composition, the notion of which had probably occupied him as his +purse grew leaner. The jury before which this was to be laid was to +be, however, not a heated body of young political agitators, but an +association of old and mature men with calm, critical minds—the Lyons +Academy. That society was finally about to award a prize of fifteen +hundred livres founded by Raynal long before—as early as 1780—for +the best thesis on the question: "Has the discovery of America been +useful or hurtful to the human race? If the former, how shall we best +preserve and increase the benefits? If the latter, how shall we remedy +the evils?" Americans must regret that the learned body had been +compelled for lack of interest in so concrete a subject to change the +theme, and now offered in its place the question: "What truths and +ideas should be inculcated in order best to promote the happiness of +mankind?"</p> + +<p>Napoleon's astounding paper on this remarkable theme was finished in +December. It bears the marks of carelessness, haste, and +over-confidence in every direction—in style, in content, and in lack +of accuracy. "Illustrious Raynal," writes the author, "the question I +am about to discuss is worthy of your steel, but without assuming to +be metal of the same temper, I have taken courage, saying to myself +with Correggio, I, too, am a painter." Thereupon follows a long +encomium upon Paoli, whose principal merit is explained to have been +that he strove in his legislation to keep for every man a property +sufficient with moderate exertion on his own part for the sustenance +of life. Happiness consists in living conformably to the constitution +of our organization. Wealth is a misfortune, primogeniture a <span class="pagenum"><a id="page138" name="page138"></a>(p. 138)</span> +relic of barbarism, celibacy a reprehensible practice. Our animal +nature demands food, shelter, clothing, and the companionship of +woman. These are the essentials of happiness; but for its perfection +we require both reason and sentiment. These theses are the tolerable +portions, being discussed with some coherence. But much of the essay +is mere meaningless rhetoric and bombast, which sounds like the +effusion of a boyish rhapsodist. "At the sound of your [reason's] +voice let the enemies of nature be still, and swallow their serpents' +tongues in rage." "The eyes of reason restrain mankind from the +precipice of the passions, as her decrees modify likewise the feeling +of their rights." Many other passages of equal absurdity could be +quoted, full of far-fetched metaphor, abounding in strange terms, +straining rhetorical figures to distortion.<a id="footnotetag22" name="footnotetag22"></a><a href="#footnote22" title="Go to footnote 22"><span class="small">[22]</span></a> And yet in spite of +the bombast, certain essential Napoleonic ideas appear in the paper +much as they endured to the end, namely, those on heredity, on the +equal division of property, and on the nature of civil society. And +there is one prophetic sentence which deserves to be quoted. "A +disordered imagination! there lies the cause and source of human +misfortune. It sends us wandering from sea to sea, from fancy to +fancy, and when at last it grows calm, opportunity has passed, the +hour strikes, and its possessor dies abhorring life." In later days +the author threw what he probably supposed was the only existing +manuscript of this vaporing effusion into the fire. But a copy of it +had been made at Lyons, perhaps because one of the judges thought, as +he said, that it "might have been written by a man otherwise gifted +with common sense." Another has been found among the papers <span class="pagenum"><a id="page139" name="page139"></a>(p. 139)</span> +confided by Napoleon to Fesch. The proofs of authenticity are +complete. It seems miraculous that its writer should have become, as +he did, master of a concise and nervous style when once his words +became the complement of his deeds.</p> + +<p>The second cause for Buonaparte's delay in returning to France on the +expiration of his furlough was his political and military ambition. +This was suddenly quenched by the receipt of news that the Assembly at +Paris would not create the longed-for National Guard, nor the ministry +lend itself to any plan for circumventing the law. It was, therefore, +evident that every chance of becoming Paoli's lieutenant was finally +gone. By the advice of the president himself, therefore, Buonaparte +determined to withdraw once more to France and to await results. +Corsica was still distracted. A French official sent by the war +department just at this time to report on its condition is not sparing +of the language he uses to denounce the independent feeling and +anti-French sympathies of the people. "The Italian," he says, +"acquiesces, but does not forgive; an ambitious man keeps no faith, +and estimates his life by his power." The agent further describes the +Corsicans as so accustomed to unrest by forty years of anarchy that +they would gladly seize the first occasion to throw off the domination +of laws which restrain the social disorder. The Buonaparte faction, +enumerated with the patriot brigand Zampaglini at their head, he calls +"despicable creatures," "ruined in reputation and credit."</p> + +<p>It would be hard to find a higher compliment to Paoli and his friends, +considering the source from which these words emanated. They were all +poor and they were all in debt. Even now, in the age of reform, they +saw their most cherished plans thwarted by the presence in every town +of garrisons composed of officers and men <span class="pagenum"><a id="page140" name="page140"></a>(p. 140)</span> who, though long +resident in the island, and attached to its people by many ties, were +nevertheless conservative in their feelings, and, by the instinct of +their tradition and discipline, devoted to the still powerful official +bureaus not yet destroyed by the Revolution. To replace these by a +well-organized and equipped National Guard was now the most ardent +wish of all patriots. There was nothing unworthy in Napoleon's longing +for a command under the much desired but ever elusive reconstitution +of a force organized and armed according to the model furnished by +France itself. Repeated disappointments like those he had suffered +before, and was experiencing again, would have crushed the spirit of a +common man.</p> + +<p>But the young author had his manuscripts in his pocket; one of them he +had means and authority to publish. Perfectly aware, moreover, of the +disorganization in the nation and the army, careless of the order +fulminated on December second, 1790, against absent officers, which he +knew to be aimed especially at the young nobles who were deserting in +troops, with his spirit undaunted, and his brain full of resources, he +left Ajaccio on February first, 1791, having secured a new set of +certificates as to his patriotism and devotion to the cause of the +Revolution. Like the good son and the good brother which he had always +been, he was not forgetful of his family. Life at his home had not +become easier. Joseph, to be sure, had an office and a career, but the +younger children were becoming a source of expense, and Lucien would +not accept the provision which had been made for him. The next, now +ready to be educated and placed, was Louis, a boy already between +twelve and thirteen years old; accordingly Louis accompanied his +brother. Napoleon had no promise, not even an outlook, for the child; +but he determined <span class="pagenum"><a id="page141" name="page141"></a>(p. 141)</span> to have him at hand in case anything +should turn up, and while waiting, to give him from his own slender +means whatever precarious education the times and circumstances could +afford. We can understand the untroubled confidence of the boy; we +must admire the trust, determination, and self-reliance of the elder +brother.</p> + +<p>Though he had overrun his leave for three and a half months, there was +not only no severe punishment in store for Napoleon on his arrival at +Auxonne, but there was considerate regard, and, later, promotion. +Officers with military training and loyal to the Assembly were +becoming scarce. The brothers had traveled slowly, stopping first for +a short time at Marseilles, and then at Aix to visit friends, +wandering several days in a leisurely way through the parts of +Dauphiny round about Valence. Associating again with the country +people, and forming opinions as to the course of affairs, Buonaparte +reopened his correspondence with Fesch on February eighth from the +hamlet of Serve in order to acquaint him with the news and the +prospects of the country, describing in particular the formation of +patriotic societies by all the towns to act in concert for carrying +out the decrees of the Assembly.<a id="footnotetag23" name="footnotetag23"></a><a href="#footnote23" title="Go to footnote 23"><span class="small">[23]</span></a> This beginning of "federation for +the Revolution," as it was called, in its spread finally welded the +whole country, civil and even military authorities, together. +Napoleon's presence in the time and place of its beginning explains +much that followed. It was February thirteenth when he rejoined his +regiment.</p> + +<p>Comparatively short as had been the time of Buonaparte's absence, +everything in France, even the army, had changed and was still +changing. Step by step the most wholesome reforms were introduced as +each in turn showed itself essential: promotion exclusively <span class="pagenum"><a id="page142" name="page142"></a>(p. 142)</span> +according to service among the lower officers; the same, with room for +royal discretion, among the higher grades; division of the forces into +regulars, reserves, and national guards, the two former to be still +recruited by voluntary enlistment. The ancient and privileged +constabulary, and many other formerly existing but inefficient armed +bodies, were swept away, and the present system of gendarmerie was +created. The military courts, too, were reconstituted under an +impartial body of martial law. Simple numbers were substituted for the +titular distinctions hitherto used by the regiments, and a fair +schedule of pay, pensions, and military honors abolished all chance +for undue favoritism. The necessity of compulsory enlistment was urged +by a few with all the energy of powerful conviction, but the plan was +dismissed as despotic. The Assembly debated as to whether, under the +new system, king or people should wield the military power. They could +find no satisfactory solution, and finally adopted a weak compromise +which went far to destroy the power of Mirabeau, because carried +through by him. The entire work of the commission was temporarily +rendered worthless by these two essential defects—there was no way of +filling the ranks, no strong arm to direct the system.</p> + +<p>The first year of trial, 1790, had given the disastrous proof. By this +time all monarchical and absolutist Europe was awakened against +France; only a mere handful of enthusiastic men in England and +America, still fewer elsewhere, were in sympathy with her efforts. The +stolid common sense of the rest saw only ruin ahead, and viewed +askance the idealism of her unreal subtleties. The French nobles, +sickened by the thought of reform, had continued their silly and +wicked flight; the neighboring powers, now preparing for an armed +resistance to the spread of the Revolution, were not slow to abet +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page143" name="page143"></a>(p. 143)</span> them in their schemes. On every border agencies for the +encouragement of desertion were established, and by the opening of +1791 the effective fighting force of France was more than decimated. +There was no longer any question of discipline; it was enough if any +person worthy to command or serve could be retained. But the remedy +for this disorganization was at hand. In the letter to Fesch, to which +reference has already been made, Napoleon, after his observations +among the people, wrote: "I have everywhere found the peasants firm in +their stirrups [steadfast in their opinions], especially in Dauphiny. +They are all disposed to perish in support of the constitution. I saw +at Valence a resolute people, patriotic soldiers, and aristocratic +officers. There are, however, some exceptions, for the president of +the club is a captain named <span lang="fr">du Cerbeau</span>. He is captain in the regiment +of Forez in garrison at Valence.... The women are everywhere royalist. +It is not amazing; Liberty is a prettier woman than they, and eclipses +them. All the parish priests of Dauphiny have taken the civic oath; +they make sport of the bishop's outcry.... What is called good society +is three fourths aristocratic—that is, they disguise themselves as +admirers of the English constitution."</p> + +<p>What a concise, terse sketch of that rising tide of national feeling +which was soon to make good all defects and to fill all gaps in the +new military system, put the army as part of the nation under the +popular assembly, knit regulars, reserves, and home guard into one, +and give moral support to enforcing the proposal for compulsory +enlistment!</p> + +<p>This movement was Buonaparte's opportunity. Declaring that he had +twice endeavored since the expiration of his extended furlough to +cross into France, he produced certificates to that effect from the +authorities <span class="pagenum"><a id="page144" name="page144"></a>(p. 144)</span> of Ajaccio, and begged for his pay and +allowances since that date. His request was granted. It is impossible +to deny the truth of his statement, or the genuineness of his +certificates. But both were loose perversions of a half-truth, shifts +palliated by the uncertainties of a revolutionary epoch. A habitual +casuistry is further shown in an interesting letter written at the +same time to M. James, a business friend of Joseph's at Châlons, in +which there occurs a passage of double meaning, to the effect that his +elder brother "hopes to come in person the following year as deputy to +the National Assembly," which was no doubt true; for, in spite of +being incapacitated by age, he had already sat in the Corsican +convention and in the Ajaccio councils. But the imperfect French of +the passage could also mean, and, casually read, does carry the idea, +that Joseph, being already a deputy, would visit his friend the +following year in person.</p> + +<p>Buonaparte's connection with his old regiment was soon to be broken. +He joined it on February thirteenth; he left it on June fourteenth. +With these four months his total service was five years and nine +months; but he had been absent, with or without leave, something more +than half the time! His old friends in Auxonne were few in number, if +indeed there were any at all. No doubt his fellow-officers were tired +of performing the absentee's duties, and of good-fellowship there +could be in any case but little, with such difference of taste, +politics, and fortune as there was between him and them. However, he +made a few new friends; but it was in the main the old solitary life +which he resumed. His own room was in a cheap lodging-house, and, +according to the testimony of a visitor, furnished with a wretched +uncurtained couch, a table, and two chairs. Louis slept on a pallet in +a closet near by. All pleasures but <span class="pagenum"><a id="page145" name="page145"></a>(p. 145)</span> those of hope were +utterly banished from those plucky lives, while they studied in +preparation for the examination which might admit the younger to his +brother's corps. The elder pinched and scraped to pay the younger's +board; himself, according to a probable but rather untrustworthy +account, brushing his own clothes that they might last longer, and +supping often on dry bread. His only place of resort was the political +club. One single pleasure he allowed himself—the occasional purchase +of some long-coveted volume from the shelves of a town bookseller.<a id="footnotetag24" name="footnotetag24"></a><a href="#footnote24" title="Go to footnote 24"><span class="small">[24]</span></a></p> + +<p>Of course neither authorship nor publication was forgotten. During +these months were completed the two short pieces, a "Dialogue on +Love," and the acute "Reflections on the State of Nature," from both +of which quotations have already been given. "I too was once in love," +he says of himself in the former. It could not well have been in +Ajaccio, and it must have been the memories of the old Valence, of a +pleasant existence now ended, which called forth the doleful +confession. It was the future Napoleon who was presaged in the +antithesis. "I go further than the denial of its existence; I believe +it hurtful to society, to the individual welfare of men." The other +trenchant document demolishes the cherished hypothesis of Rousseau as +to man in a state of nature. The precious manuscripts brought from +Corsica were sent to the only publisher in the neighborhood, at Dôle. +The much-revised history was refused; the other—whether by moneys +furnished from the Ajaccio club, or at the author's risk, is not +known—was printed in a slim octavo volume of twenty-one pages, and +published with the title, "Letter of Buonaparte to Buttafuoco." A copy +was at once sent to Paoli with a renewed request for such documents as +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page146" name="page146"></a>(p. 146)</span> would enable the writer to complete his pamphlet on Corsica. +The patriot again replied in a very discouraging tone: Buttafuoco was +too contemptible for notice, the desired papers he was unable to send, +and such a boy could not in any case be a historian. Buonaparte was +undismayed and continued his researches. Joseph was persuaded to add +his solicitations for the desired papers to those of his brother, but +he too received a flat refusal.</p> + +<p>Short as was Buonaparte's residence at Auxonne, he availed himself to +the utmost of the slackness of discipline in order to gratify his +curiosity as to the state of the country. He paid frequent visits to +Marmont in Dijon, and he made what he called at <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Helena his +"Sentimental Journey to Nuits" in Burgundy. The account he gave Las +Cases of the aristocracy in the little city, and of its assemblies at +the mansion of a wine-merchant's widow, is most entertaining. To his +host Gassendi and to the worthy mayor he aired his radical doctrines +with great complacence, but according to his own account he had not +the best of it in the discussions which ensued. Under the empire +Gassendi's son was a member of the council of state, and in one of its +sessions he dared to support some of his opinions by quoting Napoleon +himself. The Emperor remembered perfectly the conversation at Nuits, +but meaningly said that his friend must have been asleep and dreaming.</p> + +<p>Several traditions which throw some light on Buonaparte's attitude +toward religion date from this last residence in Auxonne. He had been +prepared for confirmation at Brienne by a confessor who was now in +retirement at Dôle, the same to whom when First Consul he wrote an +acknowledgment of his indebtedness, adding: "Without religion there is +no happiness, no future possible. I commend me to your prayers." The +dwelling of this good man was the frequent goal of his walks <span class="pagenum"><a id="page147" name="page147"></a>(p. 147)</span> +abroad. Again, he once jocularly asked a friend who visited him in his +room, if he had heard mass that morning, opening, as he spoke, a +trunk, in which was the complete vestment of a priest. The regimental +chaplain, who must have been his friend, had confided it to him for +safe-keeping. Finally, it was in these dark and never-forgotten days +of trial that Louis was confirmed, probably by the advice of his +brother. Even though Napoleon had collaborated with Fesch in the paper +on the oath of priests to the constitution, though he himself had been +mobbed in Corsica as the enemy of the Church, it does not appear that +he had any other than decent and reverent feelings toward religion and +its professors.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p> + +<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page148" name="page148"></a>(p. 148)</span> CHAPTER <abbr title="12">XII.</abbr></h3> + +<h4><span class="smcap">The Revolution in the Rhone Valley</span>.</h4> + +<p class="summary">A Dark Period — Buonaparte, First Lieutenant — Second + Sojourn in Valence — Books and Reading — The National + Assembly of France — The King Returns from Versailles — + Administrative Reforms in France — Passing of the Old Order + — Flight of the King — Buonaparte's Oath to Sustain the + Constitution — His View of the Situation — His + Revolutionary Zeal — Insubordination — Impatience with + Delay — A Serious Blunder Avoided — Return to Corsica.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">1791.</p> + +<p>The tortuous course of Napoleon's life for the years from 1791 to 1795 +has been neither described nor understood by those who have written in +his interest. It was his own desire that his biographies, in spite of +the fact that his public life began after Rivoli, should commence with +the recovery of Toulon for the Convention. His detractors, on the +other hand, have studied this prefatory period with such evident bias +that dispassionate readers have been repelled from its consideration. +And yet the sordid tale well repays perusal; for in this epoch of his +life many of his characteristic qualities were tempered and ground to +the keen edge they retained throughout. Swept onward toward the +trackless ocean of political chaos, the youth seemed afloat without +oars or compass: in reality, his craft was well under control, and his +chart correct. Whether we attribute his conduct to accident or to +design, from an adventurer's point of view the instinct which made him +spread his sails to the breezes of Jacobin favor was quite as sound as +that which later, when Jacobinism came to be abhorred, made him +anxious that the fact should be forgotten.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page149" name="page149"></a>(p. 149)</span> In the earlier stages of army reorganization, changes were +made without much regard to personal merit, the dearth of efficient +officers being such that even the most indifferent had some value. +About the first of June, 1791, Buonaparte was promoted to the rank of +first lieutenant, with a salary of thirteen hundred livres, and +transferred to the Fourth Regiment, which was in Valence. He heard the +news with mingled feelings: promotion was, of course, welcome, but he +shrank from returning to his former station, and from leaving the +three or four warm friends he had among his comrades in the old +regiment. On the ground that the arrangements he had made for +educating Louis would be disturbed by the transfer, he besought the +war office for permission to remain at Auxonne with the regiment, now +known as the First. Probably the real ground of his disinclination was +the fear that a residence at Valence might revive the painful emotions +which time had somewhat withered. He may also have felt how discordant +the radical opinions he was beginning to hold would be with those +still cherished by his former friends. But the authorities were +inexorable, and on June fourteenth the brothers departed, Napoleon for +the first time leaving debts which he could not discharge: for the new +uniform of a first lieutenant, a sword, and some wood, he owed about a +hundred and fifteen livres. This sum he was careful to pay within a +few years and as soon as his affairs permitted.</p> + +<p>Arrived at Valence, he found that the old society had vanished. Both +the bishop and the Abbé Saint-Ruf were dead. <span lang="fr"><abbr title="Madame">Mme.</abbr> du Colombier</span> had +withdrawn with her daughter to her country-seat. The brothers were +able, therefore, to take up their lives just where they had made the +break at Auxonne: Louis pursuing the studies necessary for entrance to +the corps of officers, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page150" name="page150"></a>(p. 150)</span> Napoleon teaching him, and +frequenting the political club; both destitute and probably suffering, +for the officer's pay was soon far in arrears. In such desperate +straits it was a relief for the elder brother that the allurements of +his former associations were dissipated; such companionship as he now +had was among the middle and lower classes, whose estates were more +proportionate to his own, and whose sentiments were virtually +identical with those which he professed.</p> + +<p>The list of books which he read is significant: Coxe's "Travels in +Switzerland," Duclos's "Memoirs of the Reigns of Louis XIV and Louis +<abbr title="15">XV</abbr>," Machiavelli's "History of Florence," Voltaire's "Essay on +Manners," Duvernet's "History of the Sorbonne," Le Noble's "Spirit of +Gerson," and Dulaure's "History of the Nobility." There exist among +his papers outlines more or less complete of all these books. They +prove that he understood what he read, but unlike other similar +jottings by him they give little evidence of critical power. Aside +from such historical studies as would explain the events preliminary +to that revolutionary age upon which he saw that France was entering, +he was carefully examining the attitude of the Gallican Church toward +the claims of the papacy, and considering the rôle of the aristocracy +in society. It is clear that he had no intention of being merely a +curious onlooker at the successive phases of the political and social +transmutation already beginning; he was bent on examining causes, +comprehending reasons, and sharing in the movement itself.</p> + +<p>By the summer of 1791 the first stage in the transformation of France +had almost passed. The reign of moderation in reform was nearly over. +The National Assembly had apprehended the magnitude but not the nature +of its task, and was unable to grasp the consequences <span class="pagenum"><a id="page151" name="page151"></a>(p. 151)</span> of the +new constitution it had outlined. The nation was sufficiently familiar +with the idea of the crown as an executive, but hitherto the executive +had been at the same time legislator; neither King nor people quite +knew how the King was to obey the nation when the former, trained in +the school of the strictest absolutism, was deprived of all volition, +and the latter gave its orders through a single chamber, responsive to +the levity of the masses, and controlled neither by an absolute veto +power, nor by any feeling of responsibility to a calm public opinion. +This was the urgent problem which had to be solved under conditions +the most unfavorable that could be conceived.</p> + +<p>During the autumn of 1789 famine was actually stalking abroad. The +Parisian populace grew gaunt and dismal, but the King and aristocracy +at Versailles had food in plenty, and the contrast was heightened by a +lavish display in the palace. The royal family was betrayed by one of +its own house, the despicable Philip <span lang="fr">"Égalité,"</span> who sought to stir up +the basest dregs of society, that in the ferment he might rise to the +top; hungry Paris, stung to action by rumors which he spread and by +bribes which he lavished, put Lafayette at its head, and on October +fifth marched out to the gates of the royal residence in order to make +conspicuous the contrast between its own sufferings and the wasteful +comfort of its servants, as the King and his ministers were now +considered to be. Louis and the National Assembly yielded to the +menace, the court returned to Paris, politics grew hotter and more +bitter, the fickleness of the mob became a stronger influence. Soon +the Jacobin Club began to wield the mightiest single influence, and as +it did so it grew more and more radical.</p> + +<p>Throughout the long and trying winter the masses remained, +nevertheless, quietly expectant. There was <span class="pagenum"><a id="page152" name="page152"></a>(p. 152)</span> much tumultuous +talk, but action was suspended while the Assembly sat and struggled to +solve its problem, elaborating a really fine paper constitution. +Unfortunately, the provisions of the document had no relation to the +political habits of the French nation, or to the experience of England +and the United States, the only free governments then in existence. +Feudal privilege, feudal provinces, feudal names having been +obliterated, the whole of France was rearranged into administrative +departments, with geographical in place of historical boundaries. It +was felt that the ecclesiastical domains, the holders of which were +considered as mere trustees, should be adapted to the same plan, and +this was done. Ecclesiastical as well as aristocratic control was thus +removed by the stroke of a pen. In other words, by the destruction of +the mechanism through which the temporal and spiritual authorities +exerted the remnants of their power, they were both completely +paralyzed. The King was denied all initiative, being granted merely a +suspensive veto, and in the reform of the judicial system the prestige +of the lawyers was also destroyed. Royalty was turned into a function, +and the courts were stripped of both the moral and physical force +necessary to compel obedience to their decrees. Every form of the +guardianship to which for centuries the people had been accustomed was +thus removed—royal, aristocratic, ecclesiastical, and judicial. +Untrained to self-control, they were as ready for mad excesses as were +the German Anabaptists after the Reformation or the English sectaries +after the execution of Charles.</p> + +<p>Attention has been called to the disturbances which arose in Auxonne +and elsewhere, to the emigration of the nobles from that quarter, to +the utter break between the parish priests and the higher church +functionaries in Dauphiny; this was but a sample of the whole. When, +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page153" name="page153"></a>(p. 153)</span> on July fourteenth, 1790, the King accepted a constitution +which decreed a secular reorganization of the ecclesiastical hierarchy +according to the terms of which both bishops and priests were to be +elected by the taxpayers, two thirds of all the clergy in France +refused to swear allegiance to it. All attempts to establish the new +administrative and judicial systems were more or less futile; the +disaffection of officials and lawyers became more intense. In Paris +alone the changes were introduced with some success, the municipality +being rearranged into forty-eight sections, each with a primary +assembly. These were the bodies which later gave Buonaparte the +opening whereby he entered his real career. The influence of the +Jacobin Club increased, just in proportion as the majority of its +members grew more radical. Necker trimmed to their demands, but lost +popularity by his monotonous calls for money, and fell in September, +reaching his home on Lake Leman only with the greatest difficulty. +Mirabeau succeeded him as the sole possible prop to the tottering +throne. Under his leadership the moderate monarchists, or <span lang="fr">Feuillants</span>, +as they were later called, from the convent of that order to which +they withdrew, seceded from the Jacobins, and before the Assembly had +ceased its work the nation was cleft in two, divided into opponents +and adherents of monarchy. As if to insure the disasters of such an +antagonism, the Assembly, which numbered among its members every man +in France of ripe political experience, committed the incredible folly +of self-effacement, voting that not one of its members should be +eligible to the legislature about to be chosen.</p> + +<p>A new impulse to the revolutionary movement was given by the death of +Mirabeau on April second, 1791. His obsequies were celebrated in many +places, and, being a native of Provence, there were probably solemn +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page154" name="page154"></a>(p. 154)</span> ceremonies at Valence. There is a tradition that they +occurred during Buonaparte's second residence in the city, and that it +was he who superintended the draping of the choir in the principal +church. It is said that the hangings were arranged to represent a +funerary urn, and that beneath, in conspicuous letters, ran the +legend: "Behold what remains of the French Lycurgus." Mirabeau had +indeed displayed a genius for politics, his scheme for a strong +ministry, chosen from the Assembly, standing in bold relief against +the feebleness of Necker in persuading Louis to accept the suspensive +veto, and to choose his cabinet without relation to the party in +power. When the mad dissipation of the statesman's youth demanded its +penalty at the hour so critical for France, the King and the moderates +alike lost courage. In June the worried and worn-out monarch +determined that the game was not worth the playing, and on the +twenty-first he fled. Though he was captured, and brought back to act +the impossible rôle of a democratic prince, the patriots who had +wished to advance with experience and tradition as guides were utterly +discredited. All the world could see how pusillanimous was the royalty +they had wished to preserve, and the masses made up their mind that, +real or nominal, the institution was not only useless, but dangerous. +This feeling was strong in the Rhone valley and the adjoining +districts, which have ever been the home of extreme radicalism. +Sympathy with Corsica and the Corsicans had long been active in +southeastern France. Neither the island nor its people were felt to be +strange. When a society for the defense of the constitution was formed +in Valence, Buonaparte, though a Corsican, was at first secretary, +then president, of the association.</p> + +<p>The "Friends of the Constitution" grew daily more numerous, more +powerful, and more radical in that <span class="pagenum"><a id="page155" name="page155"></a>(p. 155)</span> city; and when the great +solemnity of swearing allegiance to the new order was to be +celebrated, it was chosen as a convenient and suitable place for a +convention of twenty-two similar associations from the neighboring +districts. The meeting took place on July third, 1791; the official +administration of the oath to the civil, military, judicial, and +ecclesiastical authorities occurred on the fourteenth. Before a vast +altar erected on the drill-ground, in the presence of all the +dignitaries, with cannon booming and the air resounding with shouts +and patriotic songs, the officials in groups, the people in mass, +swore with uplifted hands to sustain the constitution, to obey the +National Assembly, and to die, if need be, in defending French +territory against invasion. Scenes as impressive and dramatic as this +occurred all over France. They appealed powerfully to the imagination +of the nation, and profoundly influenced public opinion. "Until then," +said Buonaparte, referring to the solemnity, "I doubt not that if I +had received orders to turn my guns against the people, habit, +prejudice, education, and the King's name would have induced me to +obey. With the taking of the national oath it became otherwise; my +instincts and my duty were thenceforth in harmony."</p> + +<p>But the position of liberal officers was still most trying. In the +streets and among the people they were in a congenial atmosphere; +behind the closed doors of the drawing-rooms, in the society of +ladies, and among their fellows in the mess, there were constraint and +suspicion. Out of doors all was exultation; in the houses of the +hitherto privileged classes all was sadness and uncertainty. But +everywhere, indoors or out, was spreading the fear of war, if not +civil at least foreign war, with the French emigrants as the allies of +the assailants. On this point Buonaparte was mistaken. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page156" name="page156"></a>(p. 156)</span> As +late as July twenty-seventh, 1791, he wrote to Naudin, an intimate +friend who was chief of the military bureau at Auxonne: "Will there be +war? No; Europe is divided between sovereigns who rule over men and +those who rule over cattle and horses. The former understand the +Revolution, and are terrified; they would gladly make personal +sacrifices to annihilate it, but they dare not lift the mask for fear +the fire should break out in their own houses. See the history of +England, Holland, etc. Those who bear the rule over horses +misunderstand and cannot grasp the bearing of the constitution. They +think this chaos of incoherent ideas means an end of French power. You +would suppose, to listen to them, that our brave patriots were about +to cut one another's throats and with their blood purge the land of +the crimes committed against kings." The news contained in this letter +is most interesting. There are accounts of the zeal and spirit +everywhere shown by the democratic patriots, of a petition for the +trial of the King sent up from the recent meeting at Valence, and an +assurance by the writer that his regiment is "sure," except as to half +the officers. He adds in a postscript: "The southern blood courses in +my veins as swiftly as the Rhone. Pardon me if you feel distressed in +reading my scrawl."<a id="footnotetag25" name="footnotetag25"></a><a href="#footnote25" title="Go to footnote 25"><span class="small">[25]</span></a></p> + +<p>Restlessness is the habit of the agitator, and Buonaparte's +temperament was not exceptional. His movements and purposes during the +months of July and August are very uncertain in the absence of +documentary evidence sufficient to determine them. But his earliest +biographers, following what was in their time a comparatively short +tradition, enable us to fix some things with a high degree of +probability. The young radical had been but two months with his new +command when <span class="pagenum"><a id="page157" name="page157"></a>(p. 157)</span> he began to long for change; the fever of +excitement and the discomfort of his life, with probably some inkling +that a Corsican national guard would ere long be organized, awakened +in him a purpose to be off once more, and accordingly he applied for +leave of absence. His colonel, a very lukewarm constitutionalist, +angry at the notoriety which his lieutenant was acquiring, had already +sent in a complaint of Buonaparte's insubordinate spirit and of his +inattention to duty. Standing on a formal right, he therefore refused +the application. With the quick resource of a schemer, Buonaparte +turned to a higher authority, his friend Duteil, who was +inspector-general of artillery in the department and not unfavorable. +Something, however, must have occurred to cause delay, for weeks +passed and the desired leave was not granted.</p> + +<p>While awaiting a decision the applicant was very uneasy. To friends he +said that he would soon be in Paris; to his great-uncle he wrote, +"Send me three hundred livres; that sum would take me to Paris. There, +at least, a person can show himself, overcome obstacles. Everything +tells me that I shall succeed there. Will you stop me for lack of a +hundred crowns?" And again: "I am waiting impatiently for the six +crowns my mother owes me; I need them sadly." These demands for money +met with no response. The explanation of Buonaparte's impatience is +simple enough. One by one the provincial societies which had been +formed to support the constitution were affiliating themselves with +the influential Jacobins at Paris, who were now the strongest single +political power in the country. He was the recognized leader of their +sympathizers in the Rhone valley. He evidently intended to go to +headquarters and see for himself what the outlook was. With backers +such as he thus hoped to find, some advantage, perhaps even the +long-desired command in Corsica, might be secured.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page158" name="page158"></a>(p. 158)</span> It was rare good fortune that the young hotspur was not yet +to be cast into the seething caldron of French politics. The time was +not yet ripe for the exercise of his powers. The storming of the +Bastille had symbolized the overthrow of privilege and absolute +monarchy; the flight of the King presaged the overthrow of monarchy, +absolute or otherwise. The executive gone, the legislature popular and +democratic but ignorant how to administer or conduct affairs, the +judiciary equally disorganized, and the army transforming itself into +a patriotic organization—was there more to come? Yes. Thus far, in +spite of well-meant attempts to substitute new constructions for the +old, all had been disintegration. French society was to be reorganized +only after further pulverizing; cohesion would begin only under +pressure from without—a pressure applied by the threats of erratic +royalists that they would bring in the foreign powers to coerce and +arbitrate, by the active demonstrations of the emigrants, by the +outbreak of foreign wars. These were the events about to take place; +they would in the end evolve from the chaos of mob rule first the +irregular and temporary dictatorship of the Convention, then the +tyranny of the Directory; at the same time they would infuse a fervor +of patriotism, into the whole mass of the French nation, stunned, +helpless, and leaderless, but loyal, brave, and vigorous. In such a +crisis the people would tolerate, if not demand, a leader strong to +exact respect for France and to enforce his commands; would prefer the +vigorous mastery of one to the feeble misrule of the many or the few. +Still further, the man was as unready as the time; for it was, in all +probability, not as a Frenchman but as an ever true Corsican patriot +that Buonaparte wished to "show himself, overcome obstacles" at this +conjuncture.</p> + +<p>On August fourth, 1791, the National Assembly at <span class="pagenum"><a id="page159" name="page159"></a>(p. 159)</span> last +decided to form a paid volunteer national guard of a hundred thousand +men, and their decision became a law on August twelfth. The term of +enlistment was a year; four battalions were to be raised in Corsica. +Buonaparte heard of the decision on August tenth, and was convinced +that the hour for realizing his long-cherished aspirations had finally +struck. He could certainly have done much in Paris to secure office in +a French-Corsican national guard, and with this in mind he immediately +wrote a memorandum on the armament of the new force, addressing it, +with characteristic assurance, to the minister of war. When, however, +three weeks later, on August thirtieth, 1791, a leave of absence +arrived, to which he was entitled in the course of routine, and which +was not granted by the favor of any one, he had abandoned all idea of +service under France in the Corsican guard. The disorder of the times +was such that while retaining office in the French army he could test +in an independent Corsican command the possibility of climbing to +leadership there before abandoning his present subordinate place in +France. In view, apparently, of this new venture, he had for some time +been taking advances from the regimental paymaster, until he had now +in hand a considerable sum—two hundred and ninety livres. A formal +announcement to the authorities might have elicited embarrassing +questions from them, so he and Louis quietly departed without +explanations, leaving for the second time debts of considerable +amount. They reached Ajaccio on September sixth, 1791. Napoleon was +not actually a deserter, but he had in contemplation a step toward the +defiance of French authority—the acceptance of service in a Corsican +military force.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p> + +<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page160" name="page160"></a>(p. 160)</span> CHAPTER <abbr title="13">XIII.</abbr></h3> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Buonaparte the Corsican Jacobin</span>.</h4> + +<p class="summary">Buonaparte's Corsican Patriotism — His Position in His + Family — The Situation of Joseph — Corsican Politics — + Napoleon's Power in the Jacobin Club of Ajaccio — His + Failure as a Contestant for Literary Honors — Appointed + Adjutant-General — His Attitude Toward France — His New + Ambitions — Use of Violence — Lieutenant-Colonel of + Volunteers — Politics in Ajaccio — His First Experience of + Street Warfare — His Manifesto — Dismissed to Paris — His + Plans — The Position of Louis <abbr title="16">XVI</abbr> — Buonaparte's + Delinquencies — Disorganization in the Army — Petition for + Reinstatement — The Marseillais — Buonaparte a Spectator + — His Estimate of France — His Presence at the Scenes of + August Tenth — State of Paris — Flight of Lafayette.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">1791-92.</p> + +<p>This was the third time in four years that Buonaparte had revisited +his home.<a id="footnotetag26" name="footnotetag26"></a><a href="#footnote26" title="Go to footnote 26"><span class="small">[26]</span></a> On the plea of ill health he had been able the first +time to remain a year and two months, giving full play to his Corsican +patriotism and his own ambitions by attendance at Orezza, and by +political agitation among the people. The second time he had remained +a year and four months, retaining his hold on his commission by +subterfuges and irregularities which, though condoned, had strained +his relations with the ministry of war in Paris. He had openly defied +the royal authority, relying on the coming storm for the concealment +of his conduct if it should prove reprehensible, or for preferment in +his own country if Corsica should secure her liberties. There is no +reason, therefore, to suppose that his intentions for the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page161" name="page161"></a>(p. 161)</span> +third visit were different from those displayed in the other two, +although again solicitude for his family was doubtless one of many +considerations.</p> + +<p>During Napoleon's absence from Corsica the condition of his family had +not materially changed. Soon after his arrival the old archdeacon +died, and his little fortune fell to the Buonapartes. Joseph, failing +shortly afterward in his plan of being elected deputy to the French +legislature, was chosen a member of the Corsican directory. He was, +therefore, forced to occupy himself entirely with his new duties and +to live at Corte. Fesch, as the eldest male, the mother's brother, and +a priest at that, expected to assume the direction of the family +affairs. But he was doomed to speedy disenchantment: thenceforward +Napoleon was the family dictator. In conjunction with his uncle he +used the whole or a considerable portion of the archdeacon's savings +for the purchase of several estates from the national domain, as the +sequestrated lands of the monasteries were called. Rendered thus more +self-important, he talked much in the home circle concerning the +greatness of classical antiquity, and wondered "who would not +willingly have been stabbed, if only he could have been Cæsar? One +feeble ray of his glory would be an ample recompense for sudden +death." Such chances for Cæsarism as the island of Corsica afforded +were very rapidly becoming better.</p> + +<p>The Buonapartes had no influence whatever in these elections. Joseph +was not even nominated. The choice fell upon two men selected by +Paoli: one of them, Peraldi, was already embittered against the +family; the other, Pozzo di Borgo, though so far friendly enough, +thereafter became a relentless foe. Rising to eminence as a diplomat, +accepting service in one and another country of Europe, the latter +thwarted Napoleon at <span class="pagenum"><a id="page162" name="page162"></a>(p. 162)</span> several important conjunctures. Paoli +is thought by some to have been wounded by the frank criticism of his +strategy by Napoleon: more likely he distrusted youths educated in +France, and who, though noisy Corsicans, were, he shrewdly guessed, +impregnated with French idealism. He himself cared for France only as +by her help the largest possible autonomy for Corsica could be +secured. In the directory of the department of Corsica, Joseph, and +with him the Buonaparte influence, was reduced to impotence, while +gratified with high position. The ignorance of the administrators was +only paralleled by the difficulties of their work.</p> + +<p>During the last few months religious agitation had been steadily +increasing. Pious Catholics were embittered by the virtual expulsion +of the old clergy, and the induction to office of new priests who had +sworn to uphold the constitution. Amid the disorders of administration +the people in ever larger numbers had secured arms; as of yore, they +appeared at their assemblies under the guidance of their chiefs, ready +to fight at a moment's notice. It was but a step to violence, and +without any other provocation than religious exasperation the +townsfolk of Bastia had lately sought to kill their new bishop. Even +Arena, who had so recently seized the place in Paoli's interest, was +now regarded as a French radical, maltreated, and banished with his +supporters to Italy. The new election was at hand; the contest between +the Paolists and the extreme French party grew hotter and hotter. Not +only deputies to the new assembly, but likewise the superior officers +of the new guard, were to be elected. Buonaparte, being only a +lieutenant of the regulars, could according to the law aspire no +higher than an appointment as adjutant-major with the title and pay of +captain. It was not worth while to lose his place in France for this, +so he <span class="pagenum"><a id="page163" name="page163"></a>(p. 163)</span> determined to stand for one of the higher elective +offices, that of lieutenant-colonel, a position which would give him +more power, and, under the latest legislation, entitle him to retain +his grade in the regular army.</p> + +<p>There were now two political clubs in Ajaccio: that of the Corsican +Jacobins, country people for the most part; and that of the Corsican +<span lang="fr">Feuillants</span>, composed of the officials and townsfolk. Buonaparte became +a moving spirit in the former, and determined at any cost to destroy +the influence of the latter. The two previous attempts to secure +Ajaccio for the radicals had failed; a third was already under +consideration. The new leader began to garnish his language with those +fine and specious phrases which thenceforth were never wanting in his +utterances at revolutionary crises. "Law," he wrote about this time, +"is like those statues of some of the gods which are veiled under +certain circumstances." For a few weeks there was little or nothing to +do in the way of electioneering at home; he therefore obtained +permission to travel with the famous Volney, who desired a +philosopher's retreat from Paris storms and had been chosen director +of commerce and manufactures in the island. This journey was for a +candidate like Buonaparte invaluable as a means of observation and of +winning friends for his cause.</p> + +<p>Before the close of this trip his furlough had expired, his regiment +had been put on a war footing, and orders had been issued for the +return of every officer to his post by Christmas day. But in the +execution of his fixed purpose the young Corsican patriot was heedless +of military obligations to France, and wilfully remained absent from +duty. Once more the spell of a wild, free life was upon him; he was +enlisted for the campaign, though without position or money to back +him. The essay on happiness which he had presented to the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page164" name="page164"></a>(p. 164)</span> +Academy of Lyons had failed, as a matter of course, to win the prize, +one of the judges pronouncing it "too badly arranged, too uneven, too +disconnected, and too badly written to deserve attention." This +decision was a double blow, for it was announced about this time, at a +moment when fame and money would both have been most welcome. The +scanty income from the lands purchased with the legacy of the old +archdeacon remained the only resource of the family for the lavish +hospitality which, according to immemorial, semi-barbarous tradition, +was required of a Corsican candidate.</p> + +<p>A peremptory order was now issued from Paris that those officers of +the line who had been serving in the National Guard with a grade lower +than that of lieutenant-colonel should return to regular service +before April first, 1792. Here was an implication which might be +turned to account. As a lieutenant on leave, Buonaparte should of +course have returned on December twenty-fifth; if, however, he were an +officer of volunteers he could plead the new order. Though as yet the +recruits had not come in, and no companies had been formed, the mere +idea was sufficient to suggest a means for saving appearances. An +appointment as adjutant-major was solicited from the major-general in +command of the department, and he, under authorization obtained in due +time from Paris, granted it. Safe from the charge of desertion thus +far, it was essential for his reputation and for his ambition that +Buonaparte should be elected lieutenant-colonel. Success would enable +him to plead that his first lapse in discipline was due to irregular +orders from his superior, that anyhow he had been an adjutant-major, +and that finally the position of lieutenant-colonel gave him immunity +from punishment, and left him blameless.</p> + +<p>He nevertheless was uneasy, and wrote two letters <span class="pagenum"><a id="page165" name="page165"></a>(p. 165)</span> of a +curious character to his friend Sucy, the commissioner-general at +Valence. In the first, written five weeks after the expiration of his +leave, he calmly reports himself, and gives an account of his +occupations, mentioning incidentally that unforeseen circumstances, +duties the dearest and most sacred, had prevented his return. His +correspondent would be so kind as not to mention the letter to the +"gentlemen of the regiment," but the writer would immediately return +if his friend in his unassisted judgment thought best. In the second +he plumply declares that in perilous times the post of a good Corsican +is at home, that therefore he had thought of resigning, but his +friends had arranged the middle course of appointing him +adjutant-major in the volunteers so that he could make his duty as a +soldier conform to his duty as a patriot. Asking for news of what is +going on in France, he says, writing like an outsider, "If <span class="italic">your</span> +nation loses courage at this moment, it is done with forever."</p> + +<p>It was toward the end of March that the volunteers from the mountains +began to appear in Ajaccio for the election of their officers. +Napoleon had bitter and powerful rivals, but his recent trip had +apparently enabled him to win many friends among the men. While, +therefore, success was possible by that means, there was another +influence almost as powerful—that of three commissioners appointed by +the directory of the island to organize and equip the battalion. These +were Morati, a friend of Peraldi, the Paolist deputy; Quenza, more or +less neutral, and Grimaldi, a devoted partisan of the Buonapartes. +With skilful diplomacy Napoleon agreed that he would not presume to be +a candidate for the office of first lieutenant-colonel, which was +desired by Peretti, a near friend of Paoli, for his brother-in-law, +Quenza, but would seek the position of <span class="pagenum"><a id="page166" name="page166"></a>(p. 166)</span> second +lieutenant-colonel. In this way he was assured of good will from two +of the three commissioners; the other was of course hostile, being a +partizan of Peraldi.</p> + +<p>The election, as usual in Corsica, seems to have passed in turbulence +and noisy violence. His enemies attacked Buonaparte with every weapon: +their money, their influence, and in particular with ridicule. His +stature, his poverty, and his absurd ambitions were held up to +contempt and scorn. The young hotspur was cut to the quick, and, +forgetting Corsican ways, made the witless blunder of challenging +Peraldi to a duel, an institution scorned by the Corsican devotees of +the vendetta. The climax of contempt was Peraldi's failure even to +notice the challenge. At the crisis, Salicetti, a warm friend of the +Buonapartes and a high official of the department, appeared with a +considerable armed force to maintain order. This cowed the +conservatives. The third commissioner, living as a guest with Peraldi, +was seized during the night preceding the election by a body of +Buonaparte's friends, and put under lock and key in their candidate's +house—"to make you entirely free; you were not free where you were," +said the instigator of the stroke, when called to explain. To the use +of fine phrases was now added a facility in employing violence at a +pinch which likewise remained characteristic of Buonaparte's career +down to the end. Nasica, who alone records the tale, sees in this +event the precursor of the long series of state-strokes which +culminated on the eighteenth Brumaire. There is a story that in one of +the scuffles incident to this brawl a member of Pozzo di Borgo's +family was thrown down and trampled on. Be that as it may, Buonaparte +was successful. This of course intensified the hatred already +existing, and from that moment the families of Peraldi and of Pozzo di +Borgo were his deadly enemies.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page167" name="page167"></a>(p. 167)</span> Quenza, who was chosen first lieutenant-colonel, was a man of +no character whatever, a nobody. He was moreover absorbed in the +duties of a place in the departmental administration. Buonaparte, +therefore, was in virtual command of a sturdy, well-armed, legal +force. Having been adjutant-major, and being now a regularly elected +lieutenant-colonel according to statute, he applied, with a +well-calculated effrontery, to his regimental paymaster for the pay +which had accrued during his absence. It was at first refused, for in +the interval he had been cashiered for remaining at home in +disobedience to orders; but such were the irregularities of that +revolutionary time that later, virtual deserter as he had been, it was +actually paid and he was restored to his place. He sought and obtained +from the military authorities of the island certificates of his +regular standing and leave to present them in Paris if needed to +maintain his rank as a French officer, but in the final event there +was no necessity for their use. No one was more adroit than Buonaparte +in taking advantage of possibilities. He was a pluralist without +conscience. A French regular if the emergency should demand it, he was +likewise a Corsican patriot and commander in the volunteer guard of +the island, fully equipped for another move. Perhaps, at last, he +could assume with success the liberator's rôle of Sampiero. But an +opportunity must occur or be created. One was easily arranged.</p> + +<p>Ajaccio had gradually become a resort for many ardent Roman Catholics +who had refused to accept the new order. The town authorities, +although there were some extreme radicals among them, were, on the +whole, in sympathy with these conservatives. Through the devices of +his friends in the city government, Buonaparte's battalion, the +second, was on one pretext or another assembled in and around the +town. Thereupon, following <span class="pagenum"><a id="page168" name="page168"></a>(p. 168)</span> the most probable account, which, +too, is supported by Buonaparte's own story, a demand was made that +according to the recent ecclesiastical legislation of the National +Assembly, the Capuchin monks, who had been so far undisturbed, should +evacuate their friary. Feeling ran so high that the other volunteer +companies were summoned; they arrived on April first. At once the +public order was jeopardized: on one extreme were the religious +fanatics, on the other the political agitators, both of whom were loud +with threats and ready for violence. In the middle, between two fires, +was the mass of the people, who sympathized with the ecclesiastics, +but wanted peace at any hazard. Quarreling began first between +individuals of the various factions, but it soon resulted in conflicts +between civilians and the volunteer guard. The first step taken by the +military was to seize and occupy the cloister, which lay just below +the citadel, the final goal of their leader, whoever he was, and the +townsfolk believed it was Buonaparte. Once inside the citadel walls, +the Corsicans in the regular French service would, it was hoped, +fraternize with their kin; with such a beginning, all the garrison +might in time be won over.</p> + +<p>This further exasperated the ultramontanes, and on Easter day, April +eighth, they made demonstrations so serious that the scheming +commander—Buonaparte again, it was believed—found the much desired +pretext to interfere; there was a mêlée, and one of the militia +officers was killed. Next morning the burghers found their town beset +by the volunteers. Good citizens kept to their houses, while the +acting mayor and the council were assembled to authorize an attack on +the citadel. The authorities could not agree, and dispersed; the +following forenoon it was discovered that the acting mayor and his +sympathizers had taken refuge <span class="pagenum"><a id="page169" name="page169"></a>(p. 169)</span> in the citadel. From the +vantage of this stronghold they proposed to settle the difficulty by +the arbitration of a board composed of two from each side, under the +presidency of the commandant. There was again no agreement.</p> + +<p>Worn out at last by the haggling and delay, an officer of the garrison +finally ordered the militia officers to withdraw their forces. By the +advice of some determined radical—Buonaparte again, in all +probability—the latter flatly refused, and the night was spent in +preparation for a conflict which seemed inevitable. But early in the +morning the commissioners of the department, who had been sent by +Paoli to preserve the peace, arrived in a body. They were welcomed +gladly by the majority of the people, and, after hearing the case, +dismissed the battalion of volunteers to various posts in the +surrounding country. Public opinion immediately turned against +Buonaparte, convinced as the populace was that he was the author of +the entire disturbance. The commander of the garrison was embittered, +and sent a report to the war department displaying the young officer's +behavior in the most unfavorable light. Buonaparte's defense was +contained in a manifesto which made the citizens still more furious by +its declaration that the whole civic structure of their town was +worthless, and should have been overthrown.</p> + +<p>The aged Paoli found his situation more trying with every day. Under a +constitutional monarchy, such as he had admired and studied in +England, such as he even yet hoped for and expected in France, he had +believed his own land might find a virtual autonomy. With riot and +disorder in every town, it would not be long before the absolute +disqualification of his countrymen for self-government would be proved +and the French <span class="pagenum"><a id="page170" name="page170"></a>(p. 170)</span> administration restored. For his present +purpose, therefore, the peace must be kept, and Buonaparte, upon whom, +whether justly or not, the blame for these recent broils rested, must +be removed elsewhere, if possible; but as the troublesome youth was +the son of an old friend and the head of a still influential family, +it must be done without offense. The government at Paris might be +pacified if the absentee officer were restored to his post; with +Quenza in command of the volunteers, there would be little danger of a +second outbreak in Ajaccio.</p> + +<p>It was more than easy, therefore, for the discredited revolutionary, +on the implied condition and understanding that he should leave +Corsica, to secure from the authorities the papers necessary to put +himself and his actions in the most favorable light. Buonaparte armed +himself accordingly with an authenticated certificate as to the posts +he had held, and the period during which he had held them, and with +another as to his "civism"—the phrase used at that time to designate +the quality of friendliness to the Revolution. The former seems to +have been framed according to his own statements, and was speciously +deceptive; yet in form the commander-in-chief, the municipality of +Ajaccio, and the authorities of the department were united in +certifying to his unblemished character and regular standing. This was +something. Whither should the scapegoat betake himself? Valence, where +the royalist colonel regarded him as a deserter, was of course closed, +and in Paris alone could the necessary steps be taken to secure +restoration to rank with back pay, or rather the reversal of the whole +record as it then stood on the regimental books. For this reason he +likewise secured letters of introduction to the leading Corsicans in +the French capital. His departure was so abrupt as to resemble +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page171" name="page171"></a>(p. 171)</span> flight. He hastened to Corte, and remained just long enough +to understand the certainty of his overwhelming loss in public esteem +throughout Corsica. On the way he is said to have seen Paoli for a +short time and to have received some encouragement in a plan to raise +another battalion of volunteers. Joseph claimed to have advised his +brother to have nothing to do with the plan, but to leave immediately +for France. In any case Napoleon's mind was clear. A career in Corsica +on the grand scale was impossible for him. Borrowing money for the +journey, he hurried away and sailed from Bastia on May second, 1792. +The outlook might have disheartened a weaker man. Peraldi, the +Corsican deputy, was a near relative of the defeated rival; Paoli's +displeasure was only too manifest; the bitter hate of a large element +in Ajaccio, including the royalist commander of the garrison, was +unconcealed. Napoleon's energy, rashness, and ambition combined to +make Pozzo di Borgo detest him. He was accused of being a traitor, the +source of all trouble, of plotting a new <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Bartholomew, ready for +any horror in order to secure power. Rejected by Corsica, would France +receive him? Would not the few French friends he had be likewise +alienated by these last escapades? Could the formal record of +regimental offenses be expunged? In any event, how slight the prospect +of success in the great mad capital, amid the convulsive throes of a +nation's disorders!</p> + +<p>But in the last consideration lay his only chance: the nation's +disorder was to supply the remedy for Buonaparte's irregularities. The +King had refused his sanction to the secularization of the estates +which had once been held by the emigrants and recusant ecclesiastics; +the Jacobins retorted by open hostility to the monarchy. The plotting +of noble and princely refugees with various royal and other schemers +two years before had been a <span class="pagenum"><a id="page172" name="page172"></a>(p. 172)</span> crime against the King and the +constitutionalists, for it jeopardized their last chance for +existence, even their very lives. Within so short a time what had been +criminal in the emigrants had seemingly become the only means of +self-preservation for their intended victim. His constitutional +supporters recognized that, in the adoption of this course by the +King, the last hope of a peaceful solution to their awful problem had +disappeared. It was now almost certain and generally believed that +Louis himself was in negotiation with the foreign sovereigns; to +thwart his plans and avert the consequences it was essential that open +hostilities against his secret allies should be begun. Consequently, +on April twentieth, 1792, by the influence of the King's friends war +had been declared against Austria. The populace, awed by the armies +thus called out, were at first silently defiant, an attitude which +changed to open fury when the defeat of the French troops in the +Austrian Netherlands was announced.</p> + +<p>The moderate republicans, or Girondists, as they were called from the +district where they were strongest, were now the mediating party; +their leader, Roland, was summoned to form a ministry and appease this +popular rage. It was one of his colleagues who had examined the +complaint against Buonaparte received from the commander of the +garrison at Ajaccio. According to a strict interpretation of the +military code there was scarcely a crime which Buonaparte had not +committed: desertion, disobedience, tampering, attack on constituted +authority, and abuse of official power. The minister reported the +conduct of both Quenza and Buonaparte as most reprehensible, and +declared that if their offense had been purely military he would have +court-martialed them.</p> + +<p>Learning first at Marseilles that war had broken out, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page173" name="page173"></a>(p. 173)</span> and +that the companies of his regiment were dispersed to various camps for +active service, Buonaparte hastened northward. A new passion, which +was indicative of the freshly awakened patriotism, had taken +possession of the popular fancy. Where the year before the current and +universal phrase had been "federation," the talk was now all for the +"nation." It might well be so. Before the traveler arrived at his +destination further disaster had overtaken the French army, one whole +regiment had deserted under arms to the enemy, and individual soldiers +were escaping by hundreds. The officers of the Fourth Artillery were +resigning and running away in about equal numbers. Consternation ruled +supreme, treason and imbecility were everywhere charged against the +authorities. War within, war without, and the army in a state of +collapse! The emigrant princes would return, and France be sold to a +bondage tenfold more galling than that from which she was struggling +to free herself.</p> + +<p>When Buonaparte reached Paris on May twenty-eighth, 1792, the outlook +was poor for a suppliant, bankrupt in funds and nearly so in +reputation; but he was undaunted, and his application for +reinstatement in the artillery was made without the loss of a moment. +A new minister of war had been appointed but a few days before,—there +were six changes in that office during as many months,—and the +assistant now in charge of the artillery seemed favorable to the +request. For a moment he thought of restoring the suppliant to his +position, but events were marching too swiftly, and demands more +urgent jostled aside the claims of an obscure lieutenant with a shady +character. Buonaparte at once grasped the fact that he could win his +cause only by patience or by importunity, and began to consider how he +should arrange for a prolonged stay in the capital. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page174" name="page174"></a>(p. 174)</span> His +scanty resources were already exhausted, but he found Bourrienne, a +former school-fellow at Brienne, in equal straits, waiting like +himself for something to turn up. Over their meals in a cheap +restaurant on the <span lang="fr">Rue <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Honoré</span> they discussed various means of +gaining a livelihood, and seriously contemplated a partnership in +subletting furnished rooms. But Bourrienne very quickly obtained the +post of secretary in the embassy at Stuttgart, so that his comrade was +left to make his struggle alone by pawning what few articles of value +he possessed.</p> + +<p>The days and weeks were full of incidents terrible and suggestive in +their nature. The Assembly dismissed the King's body-guard on May +twenty-ninth; on June thirteenth, the Girondists were removed from the +ministry; within a few days it was known at court that Prussia had +taken the field as an ally of Austria, and on the seventeenth a +conservative, <span lang="fr">Feuillant</span> cabinet was formed. Three days later the +popular insurrection began, on the twenty-sixth the news of the +coalition was announced, and on the twenty-eighth Lafayette endeavored +to stay the tide of furious discontent which was now rising in the +Assembly. But it was as ruthless as that of the ocean, and on July +eleventh the country was declared in danger. There was, however, a +temporary check to the rush, a moment of repose in which the King, on +the fourteenth, celebrated among his people the fall of the Bastille. +But an address from the local assembly at Marseilles had arrived, +demanding the dethronement of Louis and the abolition of the monarchy. +Such was the impatience of the great southern city that, without +waiting for the logical effect of their declaration, its inhabitants +determined to make a demonstration in Paris. On the thirtieth a +deputation five hundred strong arrived before the capital. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page175" name="page175"></a>(p. 175)</span> +On August third, they entered the city singing the immortal song which +bears their name, but which was written at Strasburg by an officer of +engineers, <span lang="fr">Rouget de Lisle</span>. The southern fire of the newcomers kindled +again the flame of Parisian sedition, and the radicals fanned it. At +last, on August tenth, the conflagration burst forth in an uprising +such as had not yet been seen of all that was outcast and lawless in +the great town; with them consorted the discontented and the envious, +the giddy and the frivolous, the curious and the fickle, all the +unstable elements of society. This time the King was unnerved; in +despair he fled for asylum to the chamber of the Assembly. That body, +unsympathetic for him, but sensitive to the ragings of the mob +without, found the fugitive unworthy of his office. Before night the +kingship was abolished, and the royal family were imprisoned in the +Temple.</p> + +<p>There is no proof that the young Corsican was at this time other than +an interested spectator. In a hurried letter written to Joseph on May +twenty-ninth he notes the extreme confusion of affairs, remarks that +Pozzo di Borgo is on good terms with the minister of war, and +recommends his brother to keep on good terms with Paoli. There is a +characteristic little paragraph on the uniform of the national guard. +Though he makes no reference to the purpose of his journey, it is +clear that he is calm, assured that in the wholesale flight of +officers a man like himself is assured of restoration to rank and +duty. Two others dated June fourteenth and eighteenth respectively are +scarcely more valuable. He gives a crude and superficial account of +French affairs internal and external, of no value as history. He had +made unsuccessful efforts to revive the plea for their mother's +mulberry subsidies, had dined with <abbr title="Madame">Mme.</abbr> Permon, had visited their +sister Marianna at <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Cyr, where she had <span class="pagenum"><a id="page176" name="page176"></a>(p. 176)</span> been called Elisa +to distinguish her from another Marianna. He speculates on the chance +of her marrying without a dot. In quiet times, the wards of <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Cyr +received, on leaving, a dowry of three thousand livres, with three +hundred more for an outfit; but as matters then were, the +establishment was breaking up and there were no funds for that +purpose. Like the rest, the Corsican girl was soon to be stripped of +her pretty uniform, the neat silk gown, the black gloves, and the +dainty bronze slippers which <span lang="fr"><abbr title="Madame">Mme.</abbr> de Maintenon</span> had prescribed for the +noble damsels at that royal school. In another letter written four +days later there is a graphic account of the threatening +demonstrations made by the rabble and a vivid description which +indicates Napoleon's being present when the mob recoiled at the very +door of the <span lang="fr">Tuileries</span> before the calm and dignified courage of the +King. There is even a story, told as of the time, by Bourrienne, a +very doubtful authority, but probably invented later, of Buonaparte's +openly expressing contempt for riots. "How could the King let the +rascals in! He should have shot down a few hundred, and the rest would +have run." This statement, like others made by Bourrienne, is to be +received with the utmost caution.</p> + +<a id="img005" name="img005"></a> +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/img005.jpg" width="300" height="370" alt="" title=""> +<p><span class="small">From the collection of W. C. Crane.</span></p> +<p class="noindent">Bonaparte,<br> + General in Chief of the Army of Italy.</p> +</div> + +<p>In a letter written about the beginning of July, probably to Lucien or +possibly to Joseph, and evidently intended to be read in the Jacobin +Club of Ajaccio, there are clear indications of its writer's temper. +He speaks with judicious calmness of the project for educational +reform; of Lafayette's appearance before the Assembly, which had +pronounced the country in danger and was now sitting in permanence, as +perhaps necessary to prevent its taking an extreme and dangerous +course; of the French as no longer deserving the pains men took for +them, since they were a people old and without continuity <span class="pagenum"><a id="page177" name="page177"></a>(p. 177)</span> +or coherence;<a id="footnotetag27" name="footnotetag27"></a><a href="#footnote27" title="Go to footnote 27"><span class="small">[27]</span></a> of their leaders as poor creatures engaged on low +plots; and of the damper which such a spectacle puts on ambition. +Clearly the lesson of moderation which he inculcates is for the first +time sincerely given. The preacher, according to his own judgment for +the time being, is no Frenchman, no demagogue, nothing but a simple +Corsican anxious to live far from the madness of mobs and the +emptiness of so-called glory.</p> + +<p>It has been asserted that on the dreadful day of August tenth +Buonaparte's assumed philosophy was laid aside, and that he was a mob +leader at the barricades. His own account of the matter as given at +<abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Helena does not bear this out. "I felt," said he, "as if I should +have defended the King if called to do so. I was opposed to those who +would found the republic by means of the populace. Besides, I saw +civilians attacking men in uniforms; that gave me a shock." He said +further in his reminiscences that he viewed the entire scene from the +windows of a furniture <span class="pagenum"><a id="page178" name="page178"></a>(p. 178)</span> shop kept by <span lang="fr">Fauvelet de Bourrienne</span>, +brother of his old school friend. The impression left after reading +his narrative of the frightful carnage before the <span lang="fr">Tuileries</span>, of the +indecencies committed by frenzied women at the close of the fight, of +the mad excitement in the neighboring cafés, and of his own calmness +throughout, is that he was in no way connected either with the actors +or their deeds, except to shout, "Hurrah for the nation!" when +summoned to do so by a gang of ruffians who were parading the streets +under the banner of a gory head elevated on a pike.<a id="footnotetag28" name="footnotetag28"></a><a href="#footnote28" title="Go to footnote 28"><span class="small">[28]</span></a> The truth of +his statements cannot be established by any collateral evidence.</p> + +<p>It is not likely that an ardent radical leader like Buonaparte, well +known and influential in the Rhone valley, had remained a stranger to +the Marseilles deputation. If the Duchesse d'Abrantès be worthy of any +credence, he was very influential, and displayed great activity with +the authorities during the seventh and eighth, running hither, +thither, everywhere, to secure redress for an illegal domiciliary +visit which her mother, <abbr title="Madame">Mme.</abbr> Permon, had received on the seventh. But +her testimony is of very little value, such is her anxiety to +establish an early intimacy with the great man of her time. Joseph, in +his memoirs,<a id="footnotetag29" name="footnotetag29"></a><a href="#footnote29" title="Go to footnote 29"><span class="small">[29]</span></a> declares that his brother was present at the conflict +of August tenth, and that Napoleon wrote him at the time, "If Louis +<abbr title="16">XVI</abbr> had appeared on horseback, he would have conquered." "After the +victory of the Marseillais," continues the passage quoted from the +letter, "I saw a man about to kill a soldier of the guard. I said to +him, 'Southron, let us spare the unfortunate!' 'Art thou from the +South?' 'Yes.' 'Well, then, we will spare him.'" Moreover, it is a +fact that Santerre, the notorious leader <span class="pagenum"><a id="page179" name="page179"></a>(p. 179)</span> of the mob on that +day, was three years later, on the thirteenth of Vendémiaire, most +useful to Buonaparte; that though degraded from the office of general +to which he was appointed in the revolutionary army, he was in 1800 +restored to his rank by the First Consul. All this is consistent with +Napoleon's assertion, but it proves nothing conclusively; and there is +certainly ground for suspicion when we reflect that these events were +ultimately decisive of Buonaparte's fortunes.</p> + +<p>The <span lang="fr">Feuillant</span> ministry fell with the King, and an executive council +composed of radicals took its place. For one single day Paris reeled +like a drunkard, but on the next the shops were open again. On the +following Sunday the opera was packed at a benefit performance for the +widows and orphans of those who had fallen in victory. A few days +later Lafayette, as commander of the armies in the North, issued a +pronunciamento against the popular excesses. He even arrested the +commissioners of the Assembly who were sent to supplant him and take +the ultimate direction of the campaign. But he quickly found that his +old prestige was gone; he had not kept pace with the mad rush of +popular opinion; neither in person nor as the sometime commander of +the National Guard had he any longer the slightest influence. +Impeached and declared an outlaw, he, like the King, lost his balance, +and fled for refuge into the possessions of Liège. The Austrians +violated the sanctuary of neutral territory, and captured him, exactly +as Napoleon at a later day violated the neutrality of Baden in the +case of the Duc d'Enghien. On August twenty-third the strong place of +Longwy was delivered into the hands of the Prussians, the capitulation +being due, as was claimed, to treachery among the French officers.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p> + +<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page180" name="page180"></a>(p. 180)</span> CHAPTER <abbr title="14">XIV.</abbr></h3> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Buonaparte the French Jacobin</span>.</h4> + +<p class="summary">Reinstatement — Further Solicitation — Promotion — + Napoleon and Elisa — Occupations in Paris — Return to + Ajaccio — Disorders in Corsica — Buonaparte a French + Jacobin — Expedition against Sardinia — Course of French + Affairs — Paoli's Changed Attitude — Estrangement of + Buonaparte and Paoli — Mischances in the Preparations + against Sardinia — Failure of the French Detachment — + Buonaparte and the Fiasco of the Corsican Detachment — His + Commission Lapses — Further Developments in France — + Results of French Victory — England's Policy — Paoli in + Danger — Denounced and Summoned to Paris.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">1792-93.</p> + +<p>The committee to which Buonaparte's request for reinstatement was +referred made a report on June twenty-first, 1792, exonerating him +from blame. The reasons given were avowedly based on the +representations of the suppliant himself: first, that Duteil, the +inspector, had given him permission to sail for Corsica in time to +avoid the equinox, a distorted truth; and, second, that the Corsican +authorities had certified to his civism, his good conduct, and his +constant presence at home during his irregular absence from the army, +a truthful statement, but incomplete, since no mention was made of the +disgraceful Easter riots at Ajaccio and of Buonaparte's share in them. +The attitude of the government is clearly expressed in a despatch of +July eighth from the minister of war, Lajard, to Maillard, commander +of the Ajaccio garrison. The misdeeds of Quenza and Buonaparte were of +a civil and not a military nature, cognizable therefore under the new +legislation <span class="pagenum"><a id="page181" name="page181"></a>(p. 181)</span> only by ordinary courts, not by military +tribunals. The uprisings, however, had been duly described to the +commissioners by Peraldi: they state as their opinion that the deputy +was ill-informed and that his judgment should not stand in the way of +justice to M. de Buonaparte. On July tenth the minister of war adopted +the committee's report, and this fact was announced in a letter +addressed by him to Captain Buonaparte!</p> + +<p>The situation is clearly depicted in a letter of August seventh from +Napoleon to Joseph. Current events were so momentous as to overshadow +personal considerations. Besides, there had been no military +misdemeanor at Ajaccio and his reinstatement was sure. As things were, +he would probably establish himself in France, Corsican as his +inclinations were. Joseph must get himself made a deputy for Corsica +to the Assembly, otherwise his rôle would be unimportant. He had been +studying astronomy, a superb science, and with his knowledge of +mathematics easy of acquisition. His book—the history, no doubt—was +copied and ready, but this was no time for publication; besides, he no +longer had the "petty ambition of an author." His family desired he +should go to his regiment (as likewise did the military authorities at +Paris), and thither he would go.</p> + +<p>A formal report in his favor was drawn up on August twentieth. On the +thirtieth he was completely reinstated, or rather his record was +entirely sponged out and consigned, as was hoped, to oblivion; for his +captain's commission was dated back to February sixth, 1792, the day +on which his promotion would have occurred in due course if he had +been present in full standing with his regiment. His arrears for that +rank were to be paid in full. Such success was intoxicating. Monge, +the great mathematician, had been his master at the military school in +Paris, and was now minister of the navy. True to his <span class="pagenum"><a id="page182" name="page182"></a>(p. 182)</span> nature, +with the carelessness of an adventurer and the effrontery of a +gambler, the newly fledged captain promptly put in an application for +a position as lieutenant-colonel of artillery in the sea service. The +authorities must have thought the petition a joke, for the paper was +pigeonholed, and has been found marked S. R., that is, <span class="italic" lang="fr">sans +réponse</span>—without reply. Probably it was written in earnest, the +motive being possibly an invincible distaste for the regiment in which +he had been disgraced, which was still in command of a colonel who was +not disposed to leniency.</p> + +<p>An easy excuse for shirking duty and returning to the old habits of a +Corsican agitator was at hand. The events of August tenth settled the +fate of all monarchical institutions, even those which were partly +charitable. Among other royal foundations suppressed by the Assembly +on August eighteenth was that of <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Cyr, formally styled the +Establishment of <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Louis. The date fixed for closing was just +subsequent to Buonaparte's promotion, and the pupils were then to be +dismissed. Each beneficiary was to receive a mileage of one livre for +every league she had to traverse. Three hundred and fifty-two was the +sum due to Elisa. Some one must escort an unprotected girl on the long +journey; no one was so suitable as her elder brother and natural +protector. Accordingly, on September first, the brother and sister +appeared before the proper authorities to apply for the traveling +allowance of the latter. Whatever other accomplishments <span lang="fr"><abbr title="Mademoiselle">Mlle.</abbr> de</span> +Buonaparte had learned at the school of <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Louis, she was still as +deficient in writing and spelling as her brother. The formal +requisitions written by both are still extant; they would infuriate +any conscientious teacher in a primary school. Nor did they suffice: +the school authorities demanded an order from both the city and +department <span class="pagenum"><a id="page183" name="page183"></a>(p. 183)</span> officials. It was by the kind intervention of the +mayor that the red tape was cut; the money was paid on the next day, +and that night the brother and the sister lodged in the Holland +Patriots' Hotel in Paris, where they appear to have remained for a +week.</p> + +<p>This is the statement of an early biographer, and appears to be borne +out by an autograph letter of Napoleon's, recently found, in which he +says he left Paris on a date which, although the figure is blurred, +seems to be the ninth.<a id="footnotetag30" name="footnotetag30"></a><a href="#footnote30" title="Go to footnote 30"><span class="small">[30]</span></a> Some days would be necessary for the new +captain to procure a further leave of absence. Judging from subsequent +events, it is possible that he was also seeking further acquaintance +and favor with the influential Jacobins of Paris. During the days from +the second to the seventh more than a thousand of the royalists +confined in the prisons of Paris were massacred. It seems incredible +that a man of Napoleon's temperament should have seen and known +nothing of the riotous events connected with such bloodshed. Yet +nowhere does he hint that he had any personal knowledge. It is +possible that he left earlier than is generally supposed, but it is +not likely in view of the known dates of his journey. In any case he +did not seriously compromise himself, doing at the most nothing +further than to make plans for the future. It may have become clear to +him, for it was true and he behaved accordingly, that France was not +yet ready for him, nor he for France.</p> + +<p>It is, moreover, a strong indication of Buonaparte's interest in the +French Revolution being purely tentative that as soon as the desired +leave was granted, probably in the second week of September, without +waiting for the all-important fifteen hundred livres of arrears, now +due him, but not paid until a month later, he and his sister set out +for home. They traveled by diligence <span class="pagenum"><a id="page184" name="page184"></a>(p. 184)</span> to Lyons, and thence by +the Rhone to Marseilles. During the few hours' halt of the boat at +Valence, Napoleon's friends, among them some of his creditors, who +apparently bore him no grudge, waited on him with kindly +manifestations of interest. His former landlady, <abbr title="Madame">Mme.</abbr> Bou, although +her bill had been but insignificantly diminished by payments on +account, brought as her gift a basket of the fruit in which the +neighborhood abounds at that season. The regiment was no longer there, +the greater portion, with the colonel, being now on the northeastern +frontier under Dumouriez, facing the victorious legions of Prussia and +Austria. On the fourteenth the travelers were at Marseilles; in that +friendly democratic city they were nearly mobbed as aristocrats +because Elisa wore feathers in her hat. It is said that Napoleon flung +the offending object into the crowd with a scornful "No more +aristocrats than you," and so turned their howls into laughing +approval. It was about a month before the arrears of pay reached +Marseilles, two thousand nine hundred and fifty livres in all, a +handsome sum of money and doubly welcome at such a crisis. It was +probably October tenth when they sailed for Corsica, and on the +seventeenth Buonaparte was once more in his home, no longer so +confident, perhaps, of a career among his own people, but determined +to make another effort. It was his fourth return. Lucien and Fesch +were leaders in the radical club; Joseph was at his old post, his +ambition to represent Ajaccio at Paris was again thwarted, the +successful candidate having been Multedo, a family friend; Louis, as +usual, was disengaged and idle; <abbr title="Madame">Mme.</abbr> Buonaparte and the younger +children were well; he himself was of course triumphantly vindicated +by his promotion. The ready money from the fortune of the old +archdeacon was long since exhausted, to be sure; but the excellent +vineyards, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page185" name="page185"></a>(p. 185)</span> mulberry plantations, and gardens of the family +properties were still productive, and Napoleon's private purse had +been replenished by the quartermaster of his regiment.</p> + +<p>The course of affairs in France had materially changed the aspect of +Corsican politics; the situation was, if anything, more favorable for +a revolutionary venture than ever before. Salicetti had returned to +Corsica after the adjournment of the Constituent Assembly with many +new ideas which he had gathered from observing the conduct of the +Paris commune, and these he unstintingly disseminated among his +sympathizers. They proved to be apt scholars, and quickly caught the +tricks of demagogism, bribery, corruption, and malversation of the +public funds. He had returned to France before Buonaparte arrived, as +a member of the newly elected legislature, but his evil influence +survived his departure, and his lieutenants were ubiquitous and +active. Paoli had been rendered helpless, and was sunk in despair. He +was now commander-in-chief of the regular troops in garrison, but it +was a position to which he had been appointed against his will, for it +weakened his influence with his own party. Pozzo di Borgo, his stanch +supporter and Buonaparte's enemy, was attorney-general in Salicetti's +stead. As Paoli was at the same time general of the volunteer guard, +the entire power of the islands, military and civil, was in his hands: +but the responsibility for good order was likewise his, and the people +were, if anything, more unruly than ever; for it was to their minds +illogical that their idol should exercise such supreme power, not as a +Corsican, but in the name of France. The composition of the two chief +parties had therefore changed materially, and although their +respective views were modified to a certain extent, they were more +embittered than ever against each other.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page186" name="page186"></a>(p. 186)</span> Buonaparte could not be neutral; his nature and his +surroundings forbade it. His first step was to resume his command in +the volunteers, and, under pretext of inspecting their posts, to make +a journey through the island; his second was to go through the form of +seeking a reconciliation with Paoli. Corsican historians, in their +eagerness to appropriate the greatness of both Paoli and Napoleon, +habitually misrepresent their relations. At this time each was playing +for his own hand, the elder exclusively for Corsica's advantage as he +saw it; the younger was more ambitious personally, although he was +beginning to see that in the course of the Revolution Corsica would +secure more complete autonomy as a French department than in any other +way. It is not at all clear that as late as this time Paoli was eager +for Napoleon's assistance nor the latter for Paoli's support. The +complete breach came soon and lasted until, when their views no longer +clashed, they both spoke generously one of the other. In the clubs, +among his friends and subordinates at the various military stations, +Napoleon's talk was loud and imperious, his manner haughty and +assuming. A letter written by him at the time to Costa, then +lieutenant in the militia and a thorough Corsican, explains that the +writer is detained from going to Bonifacio by an order from the +general (Paoli) to come to Corte; he will, however, hasten to his post +at the head of the volunteers on the very next day, and there will be +an end to all disorder and irregularity. "Greet our friends, and +assure them of my desire to further their interests." The epistle was +written in Italian, but that fact signifies little in comparison with +the new tone used in speaking about France: "The enemy has abandoned +Verdun and Longwy, and recrossed the river to return home, but our +people are not asleep." Lucien added a postscript explaining that he +had sent a <span class="pagenum"><a id="page187" name="page187"></a>(p. 187)</span> pamphlet to his dear Costa, as to a friend, not +as to a co-worker, for that he had been unwilling to be. Both the +brothers seem already to have considered the possibility of abandoning +Corsica.</p> + +<p>No sooner had war been declared against Austria in April, than it +became evident that the powers whose territories bordered on those of +France had previously reached an agreement, and were about to form a +coalition in order to make the war general. The Austrian Netherlands, +what we now know as Belgium, were already saturated with the +revolutionary spirit. It was not probable that much annoyance would +come from that quarter. Spain, Prussia, and Holland would, however, +surely join the alliance; and if the Italian principalities, with the +kingdom of Sardinia, should take the same course, France would be in +dire straits. It was therefore suggested in the Assembly that a blow +should be struck at the house of Savoy, in order to awe both that and +the other courts of Italy into inactivity. The idea of an attack on +Sardinia for this purpose originated in Corsica, but among the friends +of Salicetti, and it was he who urged the scheme successfully. The +sister island was represented as eager to free itself from the control +of Savoy. In order to secure Paoli's influence not only in his own +island, but in Sardinia, where he was likewise well known and admired, +the ministers forced upon him the unwelcome appointment of +lieutenant-general in the regular army, and his friend Peraldi was +sent to prepare a fleet at Toulon.</p> + +<p>The events of August tenth put an end for the time being to +constitutional government in France. The commissioners of the Paris +sections supplanted the municipal council, and Danton, climbing to +power as the representative "plain man," became momentarily the +presiding genius of the new Jacobin commune, which <span class="pagenum"><a id="page188" name="page188"></a>(p. 188)</span> was soon +able to usurp the supreme control of France. A call was issued for the +election by manhood suffrage of a National Convention, and a committee +of surveillance was appointed with the bloodthirsty Marat as its +motive power. At the instigation of this committee large numbers of +royalists, constitutionalists, and others suspected of holding kindred +doctrines, were thrown into prison. The Assembly went through the form +of confirming the new despotism, including both the commune of the +sections and a Jacobin ministry in which Danton held the portfolio of +justice. It then dispersed. On September second began that general +clearance of the jails under mock forms of justice to which reference +has been made. It was really a massacre, and lasted, as has been said, +for five days. Versailles, Lyons, Meaux, Rheims, and Orléans were +similarly "purified." Amid these scenes the immaculate Robespierre, +whose hands were not soiled with the blood spilled on August tenth, +appeared as the calm statesman controlling the wild vagaries of the +rough and impulsive but unselfish and uncalculating Danton. These two, +with Philip <span lang="fr">Égalité</span> and Collot d'Herbois, were among those elected to +represent Paris in the Convention. That body met on September +twenty-first. As they sat in the amphitheater of the Assembly, the +Girondists, or moderate republicans, who were in a strong majority, +were on the right of the president's chair. High up on the extreme +left were the Jacobins, or "Mountain"; between were placed those timid +trimmers who were called the "Plain" and the "Marsh" according to the +degree of their democratic sentiments. The members were, of course, +without exception republicans. The first act of the Convention was to +abolish the monarchy, and to declare France a republic. The next was +to establish an executive council. It was decreed that September +twenty-second, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page189" name="page189"></a>(p. 189)</span> 1792, was the "first day of the year I of the +republic." Under the leadership of Brissot and Roland, the Girondists +asserted their power as the majority, endeavoring to restore order in +Paris, and to bridle the extreme Jacobins. But notwithstanding its +right views and its numbers, the Girondist party displayed no +sagacity; before the year I was three months old, the unscrupulous +Jacobins, with the aid of the Paris commune, had reasserted their +supremacy.</p> + +<p>The declaration of the republic only hastened the execution of +Salicetti's plan regarding Sardinia, and the Convention was more +energetic than the Legislative had been. The fleet was made ready, +troops from France were to be embarked at Villefranche, and a force +composed in part of regulars, in part of militia, was to be equipped +in Corsica and to sail thence to join the main expedition. +Buonaparte's old battalion was among those that were selected from the +Corsican volunteers. From the outset Paoli had been unfriendly to the +scheme; its supporters, whose zeal far outran their means, were not +his friends. Nevertheless, he was in supreme command of both regulars +and volunteers, and the government having authorized the expedition, +the necessary orders had to be issued through him as the only channel +of authority. Buonaparte's reappearance among his men had been of +course irregular. Being now a captain of artillery in the Fourth +Regiment, on active service and in the receipt of full pay, he could +no longer legally be a lieutenant-colonel of volunteers, a position +which had also been made one of emolument. But he was not a man to +stand on slight formalities, and had evidently determined to seize +both horns of the dilemma.</p> + +<p>Paoli, as a French official, of course could not listen for an instant +to such a preposterous notion. But as a <span class="pagenum"><a id="page190" name="page190"></a>(p. 190)</span> patriot anxious to +keep all the influence he could, and as a family friend of the +Buonapartes, he was unwilling to order the young captain back to his +post in France, as he might well have done. The interview between the +two men at Corte was, therefore, indecisive. The older was benignant +but firm in refusing his formal consent; the younger pretended to be +indignant that he could not secure his rights: it is said that he even +threatened to denounce in Paris the anti-nationalist attitude of his +former hero. So it happened that Buonaparte returned to Ajaccio with a +permissive authorization, and, welcomed by his men, assumed a command +to which he could have no claim, while Paoli shut his eyes to an act +of flagrant insubordination. Paoli saw that Buonaparte was irrevocably +committed to revolutionary France; Buonaparte was convinced, or +pretended to be, that Paoli was again leaning toward an English +protectorate. French imperialist writers hint without the slightest +basis of proof that both Paoli and Pozzo di Borgo were in the pay of +England. Many have believed, in the same gratuitous manner, that there +was a plot among members of the French party to give Buonaparte the +chance, by means of the Sardinian expedition, to seize the chief +command at least of the Corsican troops, and thus eventually to +supplant Paoli. If this conjecture be true, Paoli either knew nothing +of the conspiracy, or behaved as he did because his own plans were not +yet ripe. The drama of his own personal perplexities, cross-purposes, +and ever false positions, was rapidly moving to an end; the logic of +events was too strong for the upright but perplexed old patriot, and a +scene or two would soon complete the final act of his public career.</p> + +<p>The plan for invading Sardinia was over-complex and too nicely +adjusted. One portion of the fleet was to skirt the Italian shores, +make demonstrations in the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page191" name="page191"></a>(p. 191)</span> various harbors, and demand in +one of them—that of Naples—public reparation for an insult already +offered to the new French flag, which displayed the three colors of +liberty. The other portion was first to embark the Corsican guards and +French troops at Ajaccio, then to unite with the former in the Bay of +Palma, whence both were to proceed against Cagliari. But the French +soldiers to be taken from the Army of the Var under General Anselme +were in fact non-existent; the only military force to be found was a +portion of the Marseilles national guard—mere boys, unequipped, +untrained, and inexperienced. Winds and waves, too, were adverse: two +of the vessels were wrecked, and one was disabled. The rest were badly +demoralized, and their crews became unruly. On the arrival of the +ships at Ajaccio, a party of roistering sailors went ashore, +affiliated immediately with the French soldiers of the garrison, and +in the rough horse-play of such occasions picked a quarrel with +certain of the Corsican militia, killing two of their number. The +character of the islanders showed itself at once in further violence +and the fiercest threats. The tumult was finally allayed, but it was +perfectly clear that for Corsicans and Marseillais to be embarked on +the same vessel was to invite mutiny, riot, and bloodshed.</p> + +<p>Buonaparte thought he saw his way to an independent command, and at +once proposed what was manifestly the only alternative—a separate +Corsican expedition. The French fleet accordingly embarked the +garrison troops, and proceeded on its way; the Corsicans remained +ashore, and Buonaparte with them. Scenes like that at Ajaccio were +repeated in the harbor of <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Florent, and the attack on Cagliari by +the French failed, partly, as might be supposed, from the poor +equipment of the fleet and the wretched quality of the men, partly +because <span class="pagenum"><a id="page192" name="page192"></a>(p. 192)</span> the two flotillas, or what was left of them, failed +to effect a junction at the appointed place and time. When they did +unite, it was February fourteenth, 1793; the men were ill fed and +mutinous; the troops that landed to storm the place fell into a panic, +and would actually have surrendered if the officers had not quickly +reëmbarked them. The costly enterprise met with but a single success: +Naples was cowed, and the court promised neutrality, with reparation +for the insult to the tricolor.</p> + +<p>The Corsican expedition was quite as ill-starred as the French. Paoli +accepted Buonaparte's plan, but appointed his nephew, Colonna-Cesari, +to lead, with instructions to see that, if possible, "this unfortunate +expedition shall end in smoke."<a id="footnotetag31" name="footnotetag31"></a><a href="#footnote31" title="Go to footnote 31"><span class="small">[31]</span></a> The disappointed but stubborn +young aspirant remained in his subordinate place as an officer of the +second battalion of the Corsican national guard. It was a month before +the volunteers could be equipped and a French corvette with her +attendant feluccas could be made ready to sail. On February twentieth, +1793, the vessels were finally armed, manned, and provisioned. The +destination of the flotilla was the Magdalena Islands, one of which is +Caprera, since renowned as the home of Garibaldi. The troops embarked +and put to sea. Almost at once the wind fell; there was a two days' +calm, and the ships reached their destination with diminished supplies +and dispirited crews. The first attack, made on <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Stephen, was +successful. Buonaparte and his guns were then landed on that spot to +bombard, across a narrow strait, Magdalena, the chief town on the main +island. The enemy's fire was soon silenced, and nothing remained but +for the corvette to work slowly round the intervening island <span class="pagenum"><a id="page193" name="page193"></a>(p. 193)</span> +of Caprera, and take possession. The vessel had suffered slightly from +the enemy's fire, two of her crew having been killed. On the pretense +that a mutiny was imminent, Colonna-Cesari declared that coöperation +between the sloop and the shore batteries was no longer possible; the +artillery and their commander were reëmbarked only with the utmost +difficulty; the unlucky expedition returned on February twenty-seventh +to Bonifacio.</p> + +<p>Both Buonaparte and Quenza were enraged with Paoli's nephew, declaring +him to have acted traitorously. It is significant of the utter anarchy +then prevailing that nobody was punished for the disgraceful fiasco. +Buonaparte, on landing, at once bade farewell to his volunteers. He +reported to the war ministry in Paris—and a copy of the memorial was +sent to Paoli as responsible for his nephew—that the Corsican +volunteers had been destitute of food, clothing, and munitions; but +that nevertheless their gallantry had overcome all difficulties, and +that in the hour of victory they were abased by the shameful conduct +of their comrades. He must have expressed himself freely, for he was +mobbed by the sailors in the square of Bonifacio. The men from +Bocagnano, partly from the Buonaparte estates at that place, rescued +him from serious danger.<a id="footnotetag32" name="footnotetag32"></a><a href="#footnote32" title="Go to footnote 32"><span class="small">[32]</span></a> When he entered Ajaccio, on March third, +he found that he was no longer, even by assumption, a +lieutenant-colonel; for during his short absence the whole Corsican +guard had been disbanded to make way for two battalions of light +infantry whose officers were to be appointed by the directory of the +island.</p> + +<p>Strange news now greeted his ears. Much of what had occurred since his +departure from Paris he already knew. France having destroyed root and +branch the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page194" name="page194"></a>(p. 194)</span> tyranny of feudal privileges, the whole social +edifice was slack in every joint, and there was no strong hand to +tighten the bolts; for the King, in dallying with foreign courts, had +virtually deserted his people. The monarchy had therefore fallen, but +not until its friends had resorted to the expedient of a foreign war +as a prop to its fortunes. The early victories won by Austria and +Prussia had stung the nation to madness. Robespierre and Danton having +become dictators, all moderate policy was eclipsed. The executive +council of the Convention, determined to appease the nation, gathered +their strength in one vigorous effort, and put three great armies in +the field. On November sixth, 1792, to the amazement of the world, +Dumouriez won the battle of Jemmapes, thus conquering the Austrian +Netherlands as far north as Liège.</p> + +<p>The Scheldt, which had been closed since 1648 through the influence of +England and Holland, was reopened, trade resumed its natural channel, +and, in the exuberance of popular joy, measures were taken for the +immediate establishment of a Belgian republic. The other two armies, +under Custine and Kellermann, were less successful. The former, having +occupied Frankfort, was driven back to the Rhine; the latter defeated +the Allies at Valmy, but failed in the task of coming to Custine's +support at the proper moment for combined action. Meantime the +agitation in Paris had taken the form of personal animosity to "Louis +Capet," as the leaders of the disordered populace called the King. In +November he was summoned to the bar of the Convention and questioned. +When it came to the consideration of an actual trial, the Girondists, +willing to save the prisoner's life, claimed that the Convention had +no jurisdiction, and must appeal to the sovereign people for +authorization. The Jacobins insisted on the sovereign power of +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page195" name="page195"></a>(p. 195)</span> the Convention, Robespierre protesting in the name of the +people against an appeal to the people. Supported by the noisy +outcries not only of the Parisian populace, but of their followers +elsewhere, the radicals prevailed. By a vote of three hundred and +sixty-six to three hundred and fifty-five the verdict of death was +pronounced on January seventeenth, 1793, and four days later the +sentence was executed. This act was a defiance to all monarchs, or, in +other words, to all Europe.</p> + +<p>The younger Pitt was at this juncture prime minister of England. Like +the majority of his countrymen, he had mildly approved the course of +the French Revolution down to 1789; with them, in the same way, his +opinions had since that time undergone a change. By the aid of Burke's +biased but masterful eloquence the English people were gradually +convinced that Jacobinism, violence, and crime were the essence of the +movement, constitutional reform but a specious pretext. Between 1789 +and 1792 there was a rising tide of adverse public sentiment so swift +and strong that Pitt was unable to follow it. By the execution of +Louis the English moderates were silenced; the news was received with +a cry of horror, and the nation demanded war. Were kings' heads to +fall, and republican ideas, supported by republican armies, to spread +like a conflagration? The still monarchical liberals of England could +give no answer to the case of Louis or to the instance of Belgium, and +were stunned. The English anti-Jacobins became as fanatical as the +French Jacobins. Pitt could not resist the torrent. Yet in his extreme +necessity he saw his chance for a double stroke: to throw the blame +for the war on France, and to consolidate once more his nearly +vanished power in parliament. With masterly adroitness France was +tempted into a declaration of war against England. Enthusiasm raged in +Paris <span class="pagenum"><a id="page196" name="page196"></a>(p. 196)</span> like fire among dry stubble. France, if so it must be, +against the world! Liberty and equality her religion! The land a camp! +The entire people an army! Three hundred thousand men to be selected, +equipped, and drilled at once!</p> + +<p>Nothing indicates that Buonaparte was in any way moved by the terrible +massacres of September, or even by the news of the King's unmerited +fate. But the declaration of war was a novelty which must have deeply +interested him; for what was Paoli now to do? From gratitude to +England he had repeatedly and earnestly declared that he could never +take up arms against her. He was already a lieutenant-general in the +service of her enemy, his division was assigned to the feeble and +disorganized Army of Italy, which was nominally being equipped for +active service, and the leadership, so ran the news received at +Ajaccio, had been conferred on the Corsican director. The fact was +that the radicals of the Convention had long been aware of the old +patriot's devotion to constitutional monarchy, and now saw their way +to be rid of so dangerous a foe. Three successive commanders of that +army had already found disgrace in their attempts with inadequate +means to dislodge the Sardinian troops from the mountain passes of the +Maritime Alps. Mindful, therefore, of their fate, and of his +obligations to England, Paoli firmly refused the proffered honor. +Suspicion as to the existence of an English party in the island had +early been awakened among the members of the Mountain; for half the +Corsican delegation to the Convention had opposed the sentence passed +on the King, and Salicetti was the only member who voted in the +affirmative. When the ill-starred Sardinian expedition reached Toulon, +the blame of failure was laid by the Jacobins on Paoli's shoulders.</p> + +<p>Salicetti, who was now a real power among the leaders <span class="pagenum"><a id="page197" name="page197"></a>(p. 197)</span> at +Paris, felt that he must hasten to his department in order to +forestall events, if possible, and keep together the remnants of +sympathy with France; he was appointed one of a commission to enforce +in the island the decrees of the Convention. The commission was well +received and the feeling against France was being rapidly allayed +when, most unexpectedly, fatal news arrived from Paris. In the +preceding November Lucien Buonaparte had made the acquaintance in +Ajaccio of <span lang="fr">Huguet de Sêmonville</span>, who was on his way to Constantinople +as a special envoy of the provisory council then in charge of the +Paris administration. In all probability he was sent to test Paoli's +attitude. Versatile and insinuating, he displayed great activity among +the islanders. On one occasion he addressed the radical club of +Ajaccio—but though eloquent, he was no linguist, and his French +rhetoric would have fallen flat but for the fervid zeal of Lucien, who +at the close stood in his place and rendered the ambassador's speech +in Italian to an enthralled audience. This event among others showed +the younger brother's mettle; the intimacy thus inaugurated ripened +quickly and endured for long. The ambassador was recalled to the +mainland on February second, 1793, and took his new-found friend with +him as secretary or useful man. Both were firm Jacobins, and the +master having failed in making any impression on Paoli during his +Corsican sojourn, the man, as the facts stand, took a mean revenge by +denouncing the lieutenant-general as a traitor before a political +meeting in Toulon. Lucien's friends have thought the words unstudied +and unpremeditated, uttered in the heat of unripe oratory. This may +be, but he expressed no repentance and the responsibility rests upon +his memory. As a result of the denunciation an address calumniating +the Corsican leader in the most excited terms was sent by the Toulon +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page198" name="page198"></a>(p. 198)</span> Jacobins to the deputy of the department in Paris. Of all +this Napoleon knew nothing: he and Lucien were slightly alienated +because the latter thought his brother but a lukewarm revolutionary. +The news of the defection of Dumouriez had just arrived at the +capital, public opinion was inflamed, and on April second Paoli, who +seemed likely to be a second Dumouriez, was summoned to appear before +the Convention. For a moment he became again the most popular man in +Corsica. He had always retained many warm personal friends even among +the radicals; the royalists were now forever alienated from a +government which had killed their king; the church could no longer +expect protection when impious men were in power. These three elements +united immediately with the Paolists to protest against the arbitrary +act of the Convention. Even in that land of confusion there was a +degree of chaos hitherto unequaled.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p> + +<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page199" name="page199"></a>(p. 199)</span> CHAPTER <abbr title="15">XV.</abbr></h3> + +<h4><span class="smcap">A Jacobin Hegira</span>.</h4> + +<p class="summary">The Waning of Corsican Patriotism — Rise of French + Radicalism — Alliance with Salicetti — Another Scheme for + Leadership — Failure to Seize the Citadel of Ajaccio — + Second Plan — Paoli's Attitude Toward the Convention — + Buonaparte Finally Discredited in Corsica — Paoli Turns to + England — Plans of the Buonaparte Family — Their Arrival + in Toulon — Napoleon's Character — His Corsican Career — + Lessons of His Failures — His Ability, Situation, and + Experience.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">1793.</p> + +<p>Buonoparte was for an instant among the most zealous of Paoli's +supporters, and, taking up his ever-ready pen, he wrote two +impassioned papers whose respective tenors it is not easy to +reconcile: one an appeal to the Convention in Paoli's behalf, the +other a demand addressed to the municipality of Ajaccio that the +people should renew their oath of allegiance to France. The +explanation is somewhat recondite, perhaps, but not discreditable. +Salicetti, as chairman of a committee of the convention on Corsican +affairs, had conferred with Paoli on April thirteenth. The result was +so satisfactory that on the sixteenth the latter was urged to attend a +second meeting at Bastia in the interest of Corsican reconciliation +and internal peace. Meantime Lucien's performance at Marseilles had +fired the train which led to the Convention's action against Paoli, +and on the seventeenth the order for his arrest reached Salicetti, who +was of course charged with its execution. For this he was not +prepared, nor was Buonaparte. The essential of Corsican annexation to +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page200" name="page200"></a>(p. 200)</span> France was order. The Corsican folk flocked to protect Paoli +in Corte, and the local government declared for him. There was +inchoate rebellion and within a few days the districts of Calvi and +Bastia were squarely arrayed with Salicetti against Bonifacio and +Ajaccio, which supported Paoli and Pozzo di Borgo. The Buonapartes +were convinced that the decree of the Convention was precipitate, and +pleaded for its recall. At the same time they saw no hope for peace in +Corsica, except through incorporation with France. But compromise +proved impossible. There was a truce when Paoli on April twenty-sixth +wrote to the Convention regretting that he could not obey their +summons on account of infirmities, and declaring his loyalty to +France. In consequence the Convention withdrew its decree and sent a +new commission of which Salicetti was not a member. This was in May, +on the eve of the Girondin overthrow. The measures of reconciliation +proved unavailing, because the Jacobins of Marseilles, learning that +Paoli was Girondist in sentiment, stopped the commission, and forbade +their proceeding to Corsica.</p> + +<p>Meantime Captain Buonaparte's French regiment had already been some +five months in active service. If his passion had been only for +military glory, that was to be found nowhere so certainly as in its +ranks, where he should have been. But his passion for political renown +was clearly far stronger. Where could it be so easily gratified as in +Corsica under the present conditions? The personality of the young +adventurer had for a long time been curiously double: but while he had +successfully retained the position of a French officer in France, his +identity as a Corsican patriot had been nearly obliterated in Corsica +by his constant quarrels and repeated failures. Having become a French +radical, he had been forced into a certain antagonism to <span class="pagenum"><a id="page201" name="page201"></a>(p. 201)</span> +Paoli and had thereby jeopardized both his fortunes and his career as +far as they were dependent on Corsican support. But with Paoli under +the ban of the Convention, and suspected of connivance with English +schemes, there might be a revulsion of feeling and a chance to make +French influence paramount once more in the island under the +leadership of the Buonapartes and their friends. For the moment +Napoleon preserved the outward semblance of the Corsican patriot, but +he seems to have been weary at heart of the thankless rôle and +entirely ready to exchange it for another. Whatever may have been his +plan or the principles of his conduct, it appears as if the decisive +step now to be taken had no relation to either plan or principles, but +that it was forced upon him by a chance development of events which he +could not have foreseen, and which he was utterly unable to control.</p> + +<p>It is unknown whether Salicetti or he made the first advances in +coming to an understanding for mutual support, or when that +understanding was reached, but it existed as early as January, 1793, a +fact conclusively shown by a letter of the former dated early in that +month. It was April fifth when Salicetti reached Corsica; the news of +Paoli's denunciation by the Convention arrived, as has been said, on +the seventeenth. Seeing how nicely adjusted the scales of local +politics were, the deputy was eager to secure favor from Paris, and +wrote on the sixteenth an account of how warmly his commission had +been received. Next day the blow of Paoli's condemnation fell, and it +became plain that compromise was no longer possible. When even the +Buonapartes were supporting Paoli, the reconciliation of the island +with France was clearly impracticable. Salicetti did not hesitate, but +as between Paoli and Corsica with no career on the one side, and the +possibilities of a <span class="pagenum"><a id="page202" name="page202"></a>(p. 202)</span> great career under France on the other, +quickly chose the latter. The same considerations weighed with +Buonaparte; he followed his patron, and as a reward was appointed by +the French commission inspector-general of artillery for Corsica.</p> + +<p>Salicetti had granted what Paoli would not: Buonaparte was free to +strike his blow for Corsican leadership. With swift and decisive +measures the last scene in his Corsican adventures was arranged. +Several great guns which had been saved from a war-ship wrecked in the +harbor were lying on the shore unmounted. The inspector-general +hypocritically declared that they were a temptation to insurgents and +a menace to the public peace; they should be stored in the citadel. +His plan was to seize the moment when the heavy pieces were passing +the drawbridge, and at the head of his followers to take possession of +the stronghold he had so long coveted, and so often failed to capture. +If he could hold it for the Convention, a career in Corsica would be +at last assured.</p> + +<p>But again he was doomed to disappointment. The former garrison had +been composed of French soldiers. On the failure of the Sardinian +expedition most of these had been landed at Toulon, where they still +were. The men in the citadel of Ajaccio were therefore in the main +islanders, although some French infantry and the French gunners were +still there; the new commander was a Paolist who refused to be +hoodwinked, and would not act without an authorization from his +general-in-chief. The value of the seizure depended on its promptness. +In order to secure a sufficient number of faithful followers, +Buonaparte started on foot for Bastia to consult the commission. +Learning that he was already a suspect at Corte and in danger of +arrest, he turned on his steps only to be confronted at Bocognano by a +band of Peraldi's followers. Two shepherds from his own <span class="pagenum"><a id="page203" name="page203"></a>(p. 203)</span> +estate found a place of concealment for him in a house belonging to +their friends, and he passed a day in hiding, escaping after nightfall +to Ucciani, whence he returned to Ajaccio in safety.<a id="footnotetag33" name="footnotetag33"></a><a href="#footnote33" title="Go to footnote 33"><span class="small">[33]</span></a> Thwarted in +one notion, Buonaparte then proposed to the followers he already had +two alternatives: to erect a barricade behind which the guns could be +mounted and trained on the citadel, or, easier still, to carry one of +the pieces to some spot before the main entrance and then batter in +the gate. Neither scheme was considered feasible, and it was +determined to secure by bribes, if possible, the coöperation of a +portion of the garrison. The attempt failed through the integrity of a +single man, and is interesting only as having been Napoleon's first +lesson in an art which was thenceforward an unfailing resource. Rumors +of these proceedings soon reached the friends of Paoli, and Buonaparte +was summoned to report immediately at Corte. Such was the intensity of +popular bitterness against him in Ajaccio for his desertion of Paoli +that after a series of narrow escapes from arrest he was compelled to +flee in disguise and by water to Bastia, which he reached on May +tenth, 1793. Thwarted in their efforts to seize Napoleon, the hostile +party vented its rage on the rest of the family, hunting the mother +and children from their town house, which was pillaged and burned, +first to Milleli, then through jungle and over hilltops to the lonely +tower of Capitello near the sea.</p> + +<p>A desire for revenge on his Corsican persecutors would now give an +additional stimulus to Buonaparte, and still another device to secure +the passionately desired citadel of Ajaccio was proposed by him to the +commissioners of the Convention, and adopted by them. The remnants of +a Swiss regiment stationed near by were to be marched <span class="pagenum"><a id="page204" name="page204"></a>(p. 204)</span> into +the city, as if for embarkment; several French war vessels from the +harbor of <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Florent, including one frigate, with troops, munitions, +and artillery on board, were to appear unexpectedly before the city, +land their men and guns, and then, with the help of the Switzers and +such of the citizens as espoused the French cause, were to overawe the +town and seize the citadel. Corsican affairs had now reached a crisis, +for this was a virtual declaration of war. Paoli so understood it, and +measures of mutual defiance were at once taken by both sides. The +French commissioners formally deposed the officials who sympathized +with Paoli; they, in turn, took steps to increase the garrison of +Ajaccio, and to strengthen the popular sentiment in their favor.</p> + +<p>On receipt of the news that he had been summoned to Paris and that +hostile commissioners had been sent to take his place, Paoli had +immediately forwarded, by the hands of two friendly representatives, +the temperate letter in which he had declared his loyalty to France. +In it he had offered to resign and leave Corsica. His messengers were +seized and temporarily detained, but in the end they reached Paris, +and were kindly received. On May twenty-ninth they appeared on the +floor of the Convention, and won their cause. On June fifth the former +decree was revoked, and two days later a new and friendly commission +of two members started for Corsica. But at Marseilles they fell into +the hands of the Jacobin mob, and were arrested. Ignorant of these +favorable events, and the untoward circumstances by which their effect +was thwarted, the disheartened statesman had written and forwarded on +May fourteenth a second letter, of the same tenor as the first. This +measure likewise had failed of effect, for the messenger had been +stopped at Bastia, now the focus of Salicetti's influence, and the +letter had never reached its destination.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page205" name="page205"></a>(p. 205)</span> It was probably in this interval that Paoli finally adopted, +as a last desperate resort, the hitherto hazy idea of putting the +island under English protection, in order to maintain himself in the +mission to which he felt that Providence had called him. The actual +departure of Napoleon's expedition from <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Florent gave the final +impulse. That event so inflamed the passions of the conservative party +in Ajaccio that the Buonaparte family could no longer think of +returning within a reasonable time to their home. Some desperate +resolution must be taken, though it should involve leaving their small +estates to be ravaged, their slender resources to be destroyed, and +abandoning their partizans to proscription and imprisonment. They +finally found a temporary asylum with a relative in Calvi. The +attacking flotilla had been detained nearly a week by a storm, and +reached Ajaccio on May twenty-ninth, in the very height of these +turmoils. It was too late for any possibility of success. The few +French troops on shore were cowed, and dared not show themselves when +a party landed from the ships. On the contrary, Napoleon and his +volunteers were received with a fire of musketry, and, after spending +two anxious days in an outlying tower which they had seized and held, +were glad to reëmbark and sail away. Their leader, after still another +narrow escape from seizure, rejoined his family at Calvi. The Jacobin +commission held a meeting, and determined to send Salicetti to justify +their course at Paris. He carried with him a wordy paper written by +Buonaparte in his worst style and spelling, setting forth the military +and political situation in Corsica, and containing a bitter tirade +against Paoli, which remains to lend some color to the charge that the +writer had been, since his leader's return from exile, a spy and an +informer, influenced by no high principle <span class="pagenum"><a id="page206" name="page206"></a>(p. 206)</span> of patriotism, but +only by a base ambition to supplant the aged president, and then to +adopt whichever plan would best further his own interest: ready either +to establish a virtual autonomy in his fatherland, or to deliver it +entirely into the hands of France.<a id="footnotetag34" name="footnotetag34"></a><a href="#footnote34" title="Go to footnote 34"><span class="small">[34]</span></a></p> + +<p>In this painful document Buonaparte sets forth in fiery phrase the +early enthusiasm of republicans for the return of Paoli, and their +disillusionment when he surrounded himself with venal men like Pozzo +di Borgo, with relatives like his nephew Leonetti, with his vile +creatures in general. The misfortunes of the Sardinian expedition, the +disgraceful disorders of the island, the failure of the commissioners +to secure Ajaccio, are all alike attributed to Paoli. "Can perfidy +like this invade the human heart?... What fatal ambition overmasters a +graybeard of sixty-eight?... On his face are goodness and gentleness, +in his heart hate and vengeance; he has an oily sensibility in his +eyes, and gall in his soul, but neither character nor strength." These +were the sentiments proper to a radical of the times, and they found +acceptance among the leaders of that class in Paris. More moderate men +did what they could to avert the impending breach, but in vain. +Corsica was far, communication slow, and the misunderstanding which +occurred was consequently unavoidable. It was not until July first +that Paoli received news of the pacificatory decrees passed by the +Convention more than a month before, and then it was too late; groping +in the dark, and unable to get news, he had formed his judgment from +what was going on in Corsica, and had therefore committed himself to a +change of policy. To <span class="pagenum"><a id="page207" name="page207"></a>(p. 207)</span> him, as to most thinking men, the +entire structure of France, social, financial, and political, seemed +rotten. Civil war had broken out in Vendée; in Brittany the wildest +excesses passed unpunished; the great cities of Marseilles, Toulon, +and Lyons were in a state of anarchy; the revolutionary tribunal had +been established in Paris; the Committee of Public Safety had usurped +the supreme power; the France to which he had intrusted the fortunes +of Corsica was no more. Already an agent was in communication with the +English diplomats in Italy. On July tenth Salicetti arrived in Paris; +on the seventeenth Paoli was declared a traitor and an outlaw, and his +friends were indicted for trial. But the English fleet was already in +the Mediterranean, and although the British protectorate over Corsica +was not established until the following year, in the interval the +French and their few remaining sympathizers on the island were able at +best to hold only the three towns of Bastia, <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Florent, and Calvi.</p> + +<p>After the last fiasco before the citadel of Ajaccio, the situation of +the Buonapartes was momentarily desperate. Lucien says in his memoirs +that shortly before his brother had spoken longingly of India, of the +English empire as destined to spread with every year, and of the +career which its expansion opened to good officers of artillery, who +were scarce among the British—scarce enough everywhere, he thought. +"If I ever choose that career," said he, "I hope you will hear of me. +In a few years I shall return thence a rich nabob, and bring fine +dowries for our three sisters." But the scheme was deferred and then +abandoned. Salicetti had arranged for his own return to Paris, where +he would be safe. Napoleon felt that flight was the only resort for +him and his. Accordingly, on June eleventh, three days earlier than +his patron, he and Joseph, accompanied <span class="pagenum"><a id="page208" name="page208"></a>(p. 208)</span> by Fesch, embarked +with their mother and the rest of the family to join Lucien, who had +remained at Toulon, where they arrived on the thirteenth. The Jacobins +of that city had received Lucien, as a sympathetic Corsican, with +honor. Doubtless his family, homeless and destitute for their devotion +to the republic, would find encouragement and help until some +favorable turn in affairs should restore their country to France, and +reinstate them not only in their old possessions, but in such new +dignities as would fitly reward their long and painful devotion. Such, +at least, appears to have been Napoleon's general idea. He was +provided with a legal certificate that his family was one of +importance and the richest in the department. The Convention had +promised compensation to those who had suffered losses.</p> + +<p>As had been hoped, on their arrival the Buonapartes were treated with +every mark of distinction, and ample provision was made for their +comfort. By act of the Convention, women and old men in such +circumstances received seventy-five livres a month, infants forty-five +livres. Lads received simply a present of twenty-five livres. With the +preliminary payment of one hundred and fifty livres, which they +promptly received, the Buonapartes were better off than they had been +at home. Lucien had appropriated Napoleon's certificate of birth in +order to appear older than he was, and, having now developed into a +fluent demagogue, was soon earning a small salary in the commissary +department of the army. Fesch also found a comfortable berth in the +same department. Joseph calmly displayed Napoleon's commission in the +National Guard as his own, and received a higher place with a better +salary. The sovereignty of the Convention was everywhere acknowledged, +their revolutionary courts were established <span class="pagenum"><a id="page209" name="page209"></a>(p. 209)</span> far and wide, +and their legations, clothed with dictatorial power, were acknowledged +in every camp of the land as supreme, superior even to the +commanders-in-chief. It was not exactly a time for further military +irregularities, and Napoleon, armed with a certificate from Salicetti +that his presence in Corsica for the past six months had been +necessary, betook himself to the army headquarters at Nice, where a +detachment of his regiment was now stationed. When he arrived, no +awkward questions were asked by the authorities. The town had but +recently been captured, men were needed to hold it, and the Corsican +refugee was promptly appointed captain of the shore battery. To casual +observers he appeared perfectly content in this subordinate position. +He still cherished the hope, it seems, that he might find some +opportunity to lead a successful expedition against the little citadel +of Ajaccio. Such a scheme, at all events, occupied him intermittently +for nearly two years, or until it was banished forever by visions of a +European control far transcending the limits of his island home.</p> + +<p>Not that the outcast Buonaparte was any longer exclusively a Corsican. +It is impossible to conceive of a lot more pitiful or a fate more +obdurate than his so far had been. There was little hereditary +morality in his nature, and none had been inculcated by training; he +had nothing of what is called vital piety, nor even sincere +superstition. A butt and an outcast at a French school under the old +régime, he had imbibed a bitter hatred for the land indelibly +associated with such haughty privileges for the rich and such +contemptuous disdain for the poor. He had not even the consolation of +having received an education. His nature revolted at the religious +formalism of priestcraft; his mind turned in disgust from the +scholastic husks of its superficial <span class="pagenum"><a id="page210" name="page210"></a>(p. 210)</span> knowledge. What he had +learned came from inborn capacity, from desultory reading, and from +the untutored imaginings of his garden at Brienne, his cave at +Ajaccio, or his barrack chambers. What more plausible than that he +should first turn to the land of his birth with some hope of +happiness, usefulness, or even glory! What more mortifying than the +revelation that in manhood he was too French for Corsica, as in +boyhood he had been too Corsican for France!</p> + +<p>The story of his sojourns and adventures in Corsica has no +fascination; it is neither heroic nor satanic, but belongs to the dull +and mediocre realism which makes up so much of commonplace life. It is +difficult to find even a thread of continuity in it: there may be one +as to purpose; there is none as to either conduct or theory. There is +the passionate admiration of a southern nature for a hero as +represented by the ideal Paoli. There is the equally southern quality +of quick but transient hatred. The love of dramatic effect is shown at +every turn, in the perfervid style of his writings, in the mock +dignity of an edict issued from the grotto at Milleli, in the empty +honors of a lieutenant-colonel without a real command, in the paltry +style of an artillery inspector with no artillery but a few dismantled +guns.</p> + +<p>But the most prominent characteristic of the young man was his +shiftiness, in both the good and bad senses of the word. He would +perish with mortification rather than fail in devising some expedient +to meet every emergency; he felt no hesitation in changing his point +of view as experience destroyed an ideal or an unforeseen chance was +to be seized and improved. Moreover, repeated failure did not +dishearten him. Detesting garrison life, he neglected its duties, and +endured punishment, but he secured regular promotion; defeated again +and again before the citadel of Ajaccio, each time <span class="pagenum"><a id="page211" name="page211"></a>(p. 211)</span> he +returned undismayed to make a fresh trial under new auspices or in a +new way.</p> + +<p>He was no spendthrift, but he had no scruples about money. He was +proud in the headship of his family, and reckless as to how he should +support them, or should secure their promotion. Solitary in his +boyhood, he had become in his youth a companion and leader; but his +true friendships were not with his social equals, whom he despised, +but with the lowly, whom he understood. Finally, here was a citizen of +the world, a man without a country; his birthright was gone, for +Corsica repelled him; France he hated, for she had never adopted him. +He was almost without a profession, for he had neglected that of a +soldier, and had failed both as an author and as a politician. He was +apparently, too, without a single guiding principle; the world had +been a harsh stepmother, at whose knee he had neither learned the +truth nor experienced kindness. He appears consistent in nothing but +in making the best of events as they occurred. So far he was a man +neither much better nor much worse than the world into which he was +born. He was quite as unscrupulous as those about him, but he was far +greater than they in perspicacity, adroitness, adaptability, and +persistence. During the period before his expulsion from Corsica these +qualities of leadership were scarcely recognizable, but they existed. +As yet, to all outward appearance, the little captain of artillery was +the same slim, ill-proportioned, and rather insignificant youth; but +at twenty-three he had had the experience of a much greater age. +Conscious of his powers, he had dreamed many day-dreams, and had +acquired a habit of boastful conversation in the family circle; but, +fully cognizant of the dangers incident to his place, and the +unsettled conditions about him, he was cautious and reserved in the +outside world.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p> + +<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page212" name="page212"></a>(p. 212)</span> CHAPTER <abbr title="16">XVI.</abbr></h3> + +<h4>"<span class="smcap">The Supper of Beaucaire</span>".</h4> + +<p class="summary">Revolutionary Madness — Uprising of the Girondists — + Convention Forces Before Avignon — Bonaparte's First + Success in Arms — Its Effect upon His Career — His + Political Pamphlet — The Genius it Displays — Accepted and + Published by Authority — Seizure of Toulon by the Allies.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">1793.</p> + +<p>It was a tempestuous time in Provence when on June thirteenth the +Buonapartes arrived at Toulon. Their movements during the first few +months cannot be determined; we only know that, after a very short +residence there, the family fled to Marseilles.<a id="footnotetag35" name="footnotetag35"></a><a href="#footnote35" title="Go to footnote 35"><span class="small">[35]</span></a> Much, too, is +obscure in regard even to Napoleon, soldier as he was. It seems as if +this period of their history had been wilfully confused to conceal how +intimate were the connections of the entire family with the Jacobins. +But the obscurity may also be due to the character of the times. +Fleeing before the storms of Corsican revolution, they were caught in +the whirlwind of French anarchy. The Girondists, after involving the +country in a desperate foreign warfare, had shown themselves +incompetent to carry it on. In Paris, therefore, they had to give way +before the Jacobins, who, by the exercise of a reckless despotism, +were able to display an unparalleled energy in its prosecution. +Against their <span class="pagenum"><a id="page213" name="page213"></a>(p. 213)</span> tyranny the moderate republicans and the +royalists outside of Paris now made common cause, and civil war broke +out in many places, including Vendée, the Rhone valley, and the +southeast of France. Montesquieu declares that honor is the +distinguishing characteristic of aristocracy: the emigrant aristocrats +had been the first in France to throw honor and patriotism to the +winds; many of their class who remained went further, displaying in +Vendée and elsewhere a satanic vindictiveness. This shameful policy +colored the entire civil war, and the bitterness in attack and +retaliation that was shown in Marseilles, Lyons, Toulon, and elsewhere +would have disgraced savages in a prehistoric age.</p> + +<p>The westward slopes of the Alps were occupied by a French army under +the command of Kellermann, designated by the name of its situation; +farther south and east lay the Army of Italy, under Brunet. Both these +armies were expected to draw their supplies from the fertile country +behind them, and to coöperate against the troops of Savoy and Austria, +which had occupied the passes of lower Piedmont, and blocked the way +into Lombardy. By this time the law for compulsory enlistment had been +enacted, but the general excitement and topsy-turvy management +incident to such rapid changes in government and society, having +caused the failure of the Sardinian expedition, had also prevented +recruiting or equipment in either of these two divisions of the army. +The outbreak of open hostilities in all the lands immediately to the +westward momentarily paralyzed their operations; and when, shortly +afterward, the Girondists overpowered the Jacobins in Marseilles, the +defection of that city made it difficult for the so-called regulars, +the soldiers of the Convention, even to obtain subsistence and hold +the territory they already occupied.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page214" name="page214"></a>(p. 214)</span> The next move of the insurgent Girondists of Marseilles was +in the direction of Paris, and by the first week of July they had +reached Avignon on their way to join forces with their equally +successful friends at Lyons. With characteristic zeal, the Convention +had created an army to meet them. The new force was put under the +command of Carteaux, a civilian, but a man of energy. According to +directions received from Paris, he quickly advanced to cut the enemy +in two by occupying the strategic point of Valence. This move was +successfully made, Lyons was left to fight its own battle, and by the +middle of July the general of the Convention was encamped before the +walls of Avignon.</p> + +<p>Napoleon Buonaparte had hastened to Nice, where five companies of his +regiment were stationed, and rejoining the French army, never faltered +again in his allegiance to the tricolor. Jean Duteil, brother of the +young man's former patron, was in the Savoy capital, high in command. +He promptly set the young artillerist at the work of completing the +shore batteries. On July third and eighth, respectively, the new +captain made written reports to the secretary for war at Paris, and to +the director of artillery in the arsenal of Toulon. Both these papers +are succinct and well written. Almost immediately Buonaparte was +intrusted with a mission, probably confidential, since its exact +nature is unknown, and set out for Avignon. He reached his destination +almost in the moment when Carteaux began the investment of the city. +It was about July sixteenth when he entered the republican camp, +having arrived by devious ways, and after narrow escapes from the +enemy's hands. This time he was absent from his post on duty. The +works and guns at Nice being inadequate and almost worthless, he was +probably sent to secure supplies from the stores of Avignon when it +should be conquered. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page215" name="page215"></a>(p. 215)</span> Such were the straits of the needy +republican general that he immediately appointed his visitor to the +command of a strong body of flying artillery. In the first attack on +the town Carteaux received a check. But the insurgents were raw +volunteers and seem to have felt more and more dismayed by the +menacing attitude of the surrounding population: on the twenty-fifth, +in the very hour of victory, they began their retreat.<a id="footnotetag36" name="footnotetag36"></a><a href="#footnote36" title="Go to footnote 36"><span class="small">[36]</span></a> The road to +Marseilles was thus clear, and the commander unwisely opened his lines +to occupy the evacuated towns on his front. Carteaux entered Avignon +on the twenty-sixth; on the twenty-seventh he collected his force and +departed, reaching Tarascon on the twenty-eighth, and on the +twenty-ninth Beaucaire. Buonaparte, whose battery had done excellent +service, advanced for some distance with the main army, but was +ordered back to protect the rear by reorganizing and reconstructing +the artillery park which had been dismantled in the assault on +Avignon.</p> + +<p>This first successful feat of arms made a profound impression on +Buonaparte's mind, and led to the decision which settled his career. +His spirits were still low, for he was suffering from a return of his +old malarial trouble. Moreover, his family seems already to have +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page216" name="page216"></a>(p. 216)</span> been driven from Toulon by the uprising of the hostile +party: in any case they were now dependent on charity; the Corsican +revolt against the Convention was virtually successful, and it was +said that in the island the name of Buonaparte was considered as +little less execrable than that of Buttafuoco. What must he do to get +a decisive share in the surging, rolling tumult about him? The +visionary boy was transformed into the practical man. Frenchmen were +fighting and winning glory everywhere, and among the men who were +reaping laurels were some whom he had known and even despised at +Brienne—Sergeant Pichegru, for instance. Ideas which he had +momentarily entertained,—enlistment in the Russian army,<a id="footnotetag37" name="footnotetag37"></a><a href="#footnote37" title="Go to footnote 37"><span class="small">[37]</span></a> service +with England, a career in the Indies, the return of the nabob,—all +such visions were set aside forever, and an application was sent for a +transfer from the Army of Italy to that of the Rhine. The suppression +of the southern revolt would soon be accomplished, and inactivity +ensue; but on the frontier of the north there was a warfare worthy of +his powers, in which, if he could only attract the attention of the +authorities, long service, rapid advancement, and lasting glory might +all be secured.</p> + +<p>But what must be the first step to secure notoriety here and now? How +could that end be gained? The old instinct of authorship returned +irresistibly, and in the long intervals of easy duty at Avignon, +where, as is most probable, he remained to complete the task assigned +to him, Buonaparte wrote the "Supper of Beaucaire," his first literary +work of real ability. As if by magic his style is utterly changed, +being now concise, correct, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page217" name="page217"></a>(p. 217)</span> and lucid. The reader would be +tempted to think it had enjoyed a thorough revision from some capable +hand. But this is improbable when we note that it is the permanent +style of the future. Moreover, the opinions expressed are quite as +thoroughly transformed, and display not only a clear political +judgment, but an almost startling military insight. The setting of +this notable repast is possibly, though by no means certainly, based +on an actual experience, and is as follows: Five wayfarers—a native +of Nîmes, a manufacturer from Montpellier, two merchants of +Marseilles, and a soldier from Avignon—find themselves accidentally +thrown together as table companions at an inn of Beaucaire, a little +city round about which the civil war is raging. The conversation at +supper turns on the events occurring in the neighborhood. The soldier +explains the circumstances connected with the recent capture of +Avignon, attributing the flight of the insurgents to the inability of +any except veteran troops to endure the uncertainties of a siege. One +of the travelers from Marseilles thinks the success but temporary, and +recapitulates the resources of the moderates. The soldier retorts in a +long refutation of that opinion. As a politician he shows how the +insurgents have placed themselves in a false position by adopting +extreme measures and alienating republican sympathy, being cautious +and diplomatic in not censuring their persons nor their principles; on +the other side there is a marked effort to emphasize the professional +attitude; as a military man he explains the strategic weakness of +their position, and the futility of their operations, uttering many +sententious phrases: "Self-conceit is the worst adviser"; "Good +four-and eight-pound cannon are as effective for field work as pieces +of larger caliber, and are in many respects preferable to them"; "It +is an axiom of military <span class="pagenum"><a id="page218" name="page218"></a>(p. 218)</span> science that the army which remains +behind its intrenchments is beaten: experience and theory agree on +this point."</p> + +<p>The conclusion of the conversation is a triumphant demonstration that +the cause of the insurgents is already lost, an argument convicting +them of really desiring not moderation, but a counter-revolution in +their own interest, and of displaying a willingness to imitate the +Vendeans, and call in foreign aid if necessary. In one remarkable +passage the soldier grants that the Girondists may have been outlawed, +imprisoned, and calumniated by the Mountain in its own selfish +interest, but adds that the former "were lost without a civil war by +means of which they could lay down the law to their enemies. It was +for them your war was really useful. Had they merited their early +reputation, they would have thrown down their arms before the +constitution and sacrificed their own interests to the public welfare. +It is easier to cite Decius than to imitate him. To-day they have +shown themselves guilty of the worst possible crimes; have, by their +behavior, justified their proscription. The blood they have caused to +flow has effaced the true services they had rendered." The Montpellier +manufacturer is of opinion that, whether this be true or no, the +Convention now represents the nation, and to refuse obedience to it is +rebellion and counter-revolution. History knows no plainer statement +than this of the <span lang="fr">"de facto, de jure"</span> principle, the conviction that +"might makes right."</p> + +<p>At last, then, the leader had shown himself in seizing the salient +elements of a complicated situation, and the man of affairs had found +a style in which to express his clear-cut ideas. When the tide turns +it rises without interruption. Buonaparte's pamphlet was scarcely +written before its value was discerned; for at that moment <span class="pagenum"><a id="page219" name="page219"></a>(p. 219)</span> +arrived one of those legations now representing the sovereignty of the +Convention in every field of operations. This one was a most +influential committee of three—Escudier, Ricord, and the younger +brother of Robespierre. Accompanying them was a commission charged to +renew the commissary stores in Corsica for the few troops still +holding out in that island. Salicetti was at its head; the other +member was Gasparin. Buonaparte, we may infer, found easy access to +the favor of his compatriot Salicetti, and "The Supper of Beaucaire" +was heard by the plenipotentiaries with attention. Its merit was +immediately recognized, as is said, both by Gasparin and by the +younger Robespierre; in a few days the pamphlet was published at the +expense of the state.<a id="footnotetag38" name="footnotetag38"></a><a href="#footnote38" title="Go to footnote 38"><span class="small">[38]</span></a> Of Buonaparte's life between July +twenty-ninth and September twelfth, 1793, there are the most +conflicting accounts. Some say he was at Marseilles, others deny it. +His brother Joseph thought he was occupied in collecting munitions and +supplies for the Army of Italy. His earliest biographer declares that +he traveled by way of Lyons and Auxonne to Paris, returning by the +same route to Avignon, and thence journeying to Ollioules near Toulon. +From the army headquarters before that city Salicetti wrote on +September twenty-sixth that while Buonaparte was passing on his way to +rejoin the Army of Italy, the authorities in charge of the siege +changed his destination and put him in command of the heavy artillery +to replace Dommartin, incapacitated for service by a wound. It has +been hinted by both the suspicious and the credulous writers <span class="pagenum"><a id="page220" name="page220"></a>(p. 220)</span> +on the period that the young man was employed on some secret mission. +This might be expected from those who attribute demonic qualities to +the child of destiny from earliest infancy, but there is no slightest +evidence to sustain the claim. Quite possibly the lad relapsed into +the queer restless ways of earlier life. It is evident he was thwarted +in his hope of transfer to the Army of the Rhine. Unwilling as he was +to serve in Italy, he finally turned his lagging footsteps thither. +Perhaps, as high authorities declare, it was at Marseilles that his +compatriot Cervoni persuaded him to go as far at least as Toulon, +though Salicetti and Buonaparte himself declared later that they met +and arranged the matter at Nice.</p> + +<p>In this interval, while Buonaparte remained, according to the best +authority, within reach of Avignon, securing artillery supplies and +writing a political pamphlet in support of the Jacobins, Carteaux had, +on August twenty-fifth, 1793, taken Marseilles. The capture was +celebrated by one of the bloodiest orgies of that horrible year. The +Girondists of Toulon saw in the fate of those at Marseilles the lot +apportioned to themselves. If the high contracting powers now banded +against France had shown a sincere desire to quell Jacobin bestiality, +they could on the first formation of the coalition easily have seized +Paris. Instead, Austria and Prussia had shown the most selfish apathy +in that respect, bargaining with each other and with Russia for their +respective shares of Poland, the booty they were about to seize. The +intensity of the Jacobin movement did not rouse them until the +majority of the French people, vaguely grasping the elements of +permanent value in the Revolution, and stung by foreign interference, +rallied around the only standard which was firmly upheld,—that of the +Convention,—and enabled that body within an <span class="pagenum"><a id="page221" name="page221"></a>(p. 221)</span> incredibly +short space of time to put forth tremendous energy. Then England, +terrified into panic, drove Pitt to take effective measures, and +displayed her resources in raising subsidies for her Continental +allies, in goading the German powers to activity, in scouring every +sea with her fleets. One of these was cruising off the French coast in +the Mediterranean, and it was easy for the Girondists of Toulon to +induce its commander to seize not only their splendid arsenals, but +the fleet in their harbor as well—the only effective one, in fact, +which at that time the French possessed. Without delay or hesitation, +Hood, the English admiral, grasped the easy prize, and before long +war-ships of the Spaniards, Neapolitans, and Sardinians were gathered +to share in the defense of the town against the Convention forces. +Soon the Girondist fugitives from Marseilles arrived, and were +received with kindness. The place was provisioned, the gates were +shut, and every preparation for desperate resistance was completed. +The fate of the republic was at stake. The crisis was acute. No wonder +that in view of his wonderful career, Napoleon long after, and his +friends in accord, declared that in the hour appeared the man. There, +said the inspired memorialist of <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Helena, history found him, never +to leave him; there began his immortality. Though this language is +truer ideally than in sober reality, yet the Emperor had a certain +justification for his claim.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p> + +<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page222" name="page222"></a>(p. 222)</span> CHAPTER <abbr title="17">XVII.</abbr></h3> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Toulon</span>.</h4> + +<p class="summary">The Jacobin Power Threatened — Buonaparte's Fate — His + Appointment at Toulon — His Ability as an Artillerist — + His Name Mentioned with Distinction — His Plan of + Operations — The Fall of Toulon — Buonaparte a General of + Brigade — Behavior of the Jacobin Victors — A Corsican + Plot — Horrors of the French Revolution — Influence of + Toulon on Buonaparte's Career.<a id="footnotetag39" name="footnotetag39"></a><a href="#footnote39" title="Go to footnote 39"><span class="small">[39]</span></a></p> + +<p class="sidenote">1793.</p> + +<p>Coupled as it was with other discouraging circumstances, the "treason +of Toulon" struck a staggering blow at the Convention. The siege of +Lyons was still in progress; the Piedmontese were entering Savoy, or +the department of Mont Blanc, as it had been designated after its +recent capture by France; the great city of Bordeaux was ominously +silent and inactive; the royalists of Vendée were temporarily +victorious; there was unrest in Normandy, and further violence in +Brittany; the towns of Mainz, Valenciennes, and Condé had been +evacuated, and Dunkirk was besieged by the Duke of York. The loss of +Toulon would put a climax to such disasters, destroy the credit of the +republic abroad and <span class="pagenum"><a id="page223" name="page223"></a>(p. 223)</span> at home, perhaps bring back the +Bourbons. Carnot had in the meantime come to the assistance of the +Committee of Safety. Great as a military organizer and influential as +a politician, he had already awakened the whole land to a still higher +fervor, and had consolidated public sentiment in favor of his plans. +In <span lang="fr">Dubois de Crancé</span> he had an able lieutenant. Fourteen armies were +soon to move and fight, directed by a single mind; discipline was +about to be effectively strengthened because it was to be the +discipline of the people by itself; the envoys of the Convention were +to go to and fro, successfully laboring for common action and common +enthusiasm in the executive, in both the fighting services, and in the +nation. But as yet none of these miracles had been wrought, and, with +Toulon lost, they might be forever impossible.</p> + +<p>Such was the setting of the stage in the great national theater of +France when Napoleon Buonaparte entered on the scene. The records of +his boyhood and youth by his own hand afford the proof of what he was +at twenty-four. It has required no searching analysis to discern the +man, nor trace the influences of his education. Except for short and +unimportant periods, the story is complete and accurate. It is, +moreover, absolutely unsophisticated. What does it show? A well-born +Corsican child, of a family with some fortune, glad to use every +resource of a disordered time for securing education and money, +patriotic at heart but willing to profit from France, or indeed from +Russia, England, the Orient; wherever material advantage was to be +found. This boy was both idealist and realist, each in the high degree +corresponding to his great abilities. He shone neither as a scholar +nor as an officer, being obdurate to all training,—but by independent +exertions and desultory reading of a high class he formed <span class="pagenum"><a id="page224" name="page224"></a>(p. 224)</span> an +ideal of society in which there prevailed equality of station and +purse, purity of life and manners, religion without clericalism, free +speech and honorable administration of just laws. His native land +untrammeled by French control would realize this ideal, he had fondly +hoped: but the Revolution emancipated it completely, entirely; and +what occurred? A reversion to every vicious practice of medievalism, +he himself being sucked into the vortex and degraded into a common +adventurer. Disenchanted and bitter, he then turned to France. +Abandoning his double rôle, his interest in Corsica was thenceforth +sentimental; his fine faculties when focused on the realities of a +great world suddenly exhibit themselves in keen observation, fair +conclusions, a more than academic interest, and a skill in the conduct +of life hitherto obscured by unfavorable conditions. Already he had +found play for all his powers both with gun and pen. He was not only +eager but ready to deploy them in a higher service.</p> + +<p>The city of Toulon was now formally and nominally invested—that is, +according to the then accepted general rules for such operations, but +with no regard to those peculiarities of its site which only master +minds could mark and use to the best advantage. The large double bay +is protected from the southwest by a broad peninsula joined to the +mainland by a very narrow isthmus, and thus opens southeastward to the +Mediterranean. The great fortified city, then regarded as one of the +strongest places in the world, lies far within on the eastern shore of +the inner harbor. Excellent authorities considered it impregnable. It +is protected on the landward side by an amphitheater of high hills, +which leave to the right and left a narrow strip of rolling country +between their lower slopes and the sea. On the east Lapoype commanded +the left wing of the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page225" name="page225"></a>(p. 225)</span> besieging revolutionary force. The +westward pass is commanded by Ollioules, which Carteaux had selected +for his headquarters. On August twenty-ninth his vanguard seized the +place, but they were almost immediately attacked and driven out by the +allied armies, chiefly English troops brought in from Gibraltar. On +September seventh the place was retaken. The two wings were in touch +and to landward the communications of the town were completely cut +off. In the assault only a single French officer fell seriously +wounded, but that one was a captain of artillery. Salicetti and his +colleagues had received from the minister of war a charge to look out +for the citizen Buonaparte who wanted service on the Rhine. This and +their own attachment determined them in the pregnant step they now +took. The still unattached captain of artillery, Napoleon Buonaparte, +was appointed to the vacant place. As far as history is concerned, +this is a very important fact; it is really a matter of slight import +whether Cervoni or Salicetti gave the impulse. At the same time his +mother received a grant of money, and while favors were going, there +were enough needy Buonapartes to receive them. Salicetti and Gasparin, +being the legates of the Convention, were all-powerful. The latter +took a great fancy to Salicetti's friend and there was no opposition +when the former exercised his power. Fesch and Lucien were both +provided with places, being made storekeepers in the commissary +department. Barras, who was the recruiting-officer of the Convention +at Toulon, claims to have been the first to recognize Buonaparte's +ability. He declares that the young Corsican was daily at his table, +and that it was he himself who irregularly but efficiently secured the +appointment of his new friend to active duty. But he also asserts what +we know to be untrue, that Buonaparte <span class="pagenum"><a id="page226" name="page226"></a>(p. 226)</span> was still lieutenant +when they first met, and that he created him captain. It is likely, in +view of their subsequent intimacy at Paris, that they were also +intimate at Toulon; the rest of Barras's story is a fabrication.</p> + +<p>But although the investment of Toulon was complete, it was weak. On +September eighteenth the total force of the assailants was ten +thousand men. From time to time reinforcements came in and the various +seasoned battalions exhibited on occasion great gallantry and courage. +But the munitions and arms were never sufficient, and under civilian +officers both regulars and recruits were impatient of severe +discipline. The artillery in particular was scarcely more than +nominal. There were a few field-pieces, two large and efficient guns +only, and two mortars. By a mistake of the war department the general +officer detailed to organize the artillery did not receive his orders +in time and remained on his station in the eastern Pyrenees until +after the place fell. Manifestly some one was required to grasp the +situation and supply a crying deficiency. It was with no trembling +hand that Buonaparte laid hold of his task. For an efficient artillery +service artillery officers were essential, and there were almost none. +In the ebb and flow of popular enthusiasm many republicans who had +fallen back before the storms of factional excesses were now willing +to come forward, and Napoleon, not publicly committed to the Jacobins, +was able to win many capable assistants from among men of his class. +His nervous restlessness found an outlet in erecting buttresses, +mounting guns, and invigorating the whole service until a zealous +activity of the most promising kind was displayed by officers and men +alike. By September twenty-ninth fourteen guns were mounted and four +mortars, the essential material was gathered, and by sheer +self-assertion <span class="pagenum"><a id="page227" name="page227"></a>(p. 227)</span> Buonaparte was in complete charge. The only +check was in the ignorant meddling of Carteaux, who, though energetic +and zealous, though born and bred in camp, being the son of a soldier, +was, after all, not a soldier, but a very fair artist (painter). For +his battle-pieces and portraits of military celebrities he had +received large prices, and was as vain of his artistic as of his +military talent, though both were mediocre. Strange characters rose to +the top in those troublous times: the painter's opponent at Avignon, +the leader of the insurgents, had been a tailor; his successor was one +Lapoype, a physician. Buonaparte's ready pen stood him again in good +stead, and he sent up a memorial to the ministry, explaining the +situation, and asking for the appointment of an artillery general with +full powers. The commissioners transmitted the paper to Paris, and +appointed the memorialist to the higher rank of acting commander.</p> + +<a id="img006" name="img006"></a> +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/img006.jpg" width="300" height="388" alt="" title=""> +<p class="noindent"><span class="small">In the collection of the <span lang="fr">Duc de Trevise</span>.</span></p> +<p class="noindent">Josephine.</p> +<p class="noindent"><span class="small">From a pastel by Pierre Prud'hon.</span></p> +</div> + +<p>Though the commanding general could not well yield to his subordinate, +he did, most ungraciously, to the Convention legates. Between the +seventeenth and twentieth of September effective batteries under +Buonaparte's command forced the enemy's frigates to withdraw from the +neighborhood of La Seyne on the inner bay. The shot were red hot, the +fire concentrated, and the guns served with cool efficiency. Next day +the village was occupied and with only four hundred men General +Delaborde marched to seize the Eguillette, the key to the siege, as +Buonaparte reiterated and reiterated. He was ingloriously routed; the +British landed reinforcements and erected strong fortifications over +night. They styled the place Fort Mulgrave. It was speedily flanked by +three redoubts. To Buonaparte this contemptuous defiance was +insufferable: he spoke and Salicetti wrote of the siege as destitute +both of brains and means. Thereupon the Paris legates began to +represent Carteaux <span class="pagenum"><a id="page228" name="page228"></a>(p. 228)</span> as an incapable and demand his recall. +Buonaparte ransacked the surrounding towns and countryside for cannon +and secured a number; he established forges at Ollioules to keep his +apparatus in order, and entirely reorganized his personnel. With fair +efficiency and substantial quantity of guns and shot, he found himself +without sufficient powder and wrote imperiously to his superiors, +enforcing successfully his demand. Meantime he made himself +conspicuous by personal daring and exposure. The days and nights were +arduous because of the enemy's activity. In successive sorties on +October first, eighth, and fourteenth the British garrison of Fort +Mulgrave gained both ground and prestige by successive victories. It +was hard for the French to repress their impatience, but they were not +ready yet for a general move: not a single arm of the service was +sufficiently strong and the army was becoming demoralized by +inactivity. The feud between general and legates grew bitter and the +demands of the latter for material were disregarded alike at Paris and +by Doppet, who had just captured Lyons, but would part with none of +his guns or ammunition or men for use at Toulon. Lapoype and Carteaux +quarreled bitterly, and there was such confusion that Buonaparte ended +by squarely disobeying his superior and taking many minor movements +into his own hand; he was so cocksure that artillery alone would end +the siege that the general dubbed him Captain Cannon. Finally the +wrangling of all concerned cried to heaven, and on October +twenty-third Carteaux was transferred to the Army of Italy with +headquarters at Nice. He left for his new post on November seventh, +and five days later his successor appeared. In the interim the nominal +commander was Lapoype, really Salicetti prompted by Buonaparte.</p> + +<p>Thus at length the artist was removed from command, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page229" name="page229"></a>(p. 229)</span> and a +physician was appointed in his stead. The doctor was an ardent patriot +who had distinguished himself at the siege of Lyons, which had fallen +on October ninth. But on arriving at Toulon the citizen soldier was +awed by the magnitude of his new work. On November fifteenth the +French pickets saw a Spaniard maltreating a French prisoner on the +outworks of Fort Mulgrave. There was an impulsive and spontaneous rush +of the besiegers to avenge the insult. General O'Hara landed from the +<span class="italic">Victory</span> with reinforcements for the garrison. Doppet was +panic-stricken by the fire and ordered a retreat. Captain Buonaparte +with an oath expressed his displeasure. The soldiers cried in angry +spite: "Are we always to be commanded by painters and doctors?" +Indeed, the newcomer had hardly taken command, leaving matters at +loose ends as they were: in a short time he was transferred at his own +suggestion to an easier station in the Pyrenees, it being understood +that Dugommier, a professional soldier, would be finally appointed +commander-in-chief, and that Duteil, the brother of Buonaparte's old +friend and commander, was to be made general of artillery. He was a +man advanced in years, unable even to mount a horse: but he was +devoted to the young captain, trusted his powers, and left him in +virtual command. Abundant supplies arrived at the same time from +Lyons. On November twentieth the new officers took charge, two days +later a general reconnaissance was made, and within a short time the +investment was completed. On the thirtieth there was a formidable +sally from the town directed against Buonaparte's batteries. In the +force were two thousand three hundred and fifty men: about four +hundred British, three hundred Sardinians, two hundred and fifty +French, and seven hundred each of Neapolitans and Spanish. They were +commanded <span class="pagenum"><a id="page230" name="page230"></a>(p. 230)</span> by General Dundas. Their earliest movements were +successful and the commander-in-chief of the besieged came out to see +the victory. But the tide turned, the French revolutionists rallied, +and the sortie was repulsed. The event was made doubly important by +the chance capture of General O'Hara, the English commandant. Such a +capture is rare,—Buonaparte was profoundly impressed by the fact. He +obtained permission to visit the English general in captivity, but was +coldly received. To the question: "What do you require?" came the curt +reply: "To be left alone and owe nothing to pity." This striking +though uncourtly reply delighted Buonaparte. The success was duly +reported to Paris. In the "Moniteur" of December seventh the name of +Buona Parte is mentioned for the first time, and as among the most +distinguished in the action.</p> + +<p>The councils of war before Dugommier's arrival had been numerous and +turbulent, although the solitary plan of operations suggested by the +commander and his aides would have been adequate only for capturing an +inland town, and probably not even for that. From the beginning and +with fierce iteration Buonaparte had explained to his colleagues the +special features of their task, but all in vain. He reasoned that +Toulon depended for its resisting power on the Allies and their +fleets, and must be reduced from the side next the sea. The English +themselves understood this when they seized and fortified the redoubt +of Fort Mulgrave, known also by the French as Little Gibraltar, on the +tongue of land separating, to the westward, the inner from the outer +bay. That post on the promontory styled the Eguillette by the natives +must be taken. From the very moment of his arrival this simple but +clever conception had been urged on the council of war <span class="pagenum"><a id="page231" name="page231"></a>(p. 231)</span> by +Buonaparte. But Carteaux could not and would not see its importance: +it was not until a skilled commander took charge that Buonaparte's +insight was justified and his plan adopted. At the same time it was +determined that operations should also be directed against two other +strong outposts, one to the north, the other to the northeast, of the +town. There was to be a genuine effort to capture Mt. Faron on the +north and a demonstration merely against the third point. But the +concentration of force was to be against the Eguillette.</p> + +<p>Finally, on December seventeenth, after careful preparation, a +concerted attack was made at all three points. Officers and men were +daring and efficient everywhere. Buonaparte, assuming responsibility +for the batteries, was ubiquitous and reckless. The movement on which +he had set his heart was successful in every portion; the enemy was +not only driven within the interior works, but by the fall of Little +Gibraltar his communication with the sea was endangered. The whole +peninsula, the fort itself, the point and the neighboring heights were +captured. Victor, Muiron, Buonaparte, and Dugommier led the storming +columns. The Allies were utterly demoralized by the fierce and bloody +struggle. Since, therefore, the supporting fleets could no longer +remain in a situation so precarious, the besieged at once made ready +for departure, embarking with precipitate haste the troops and many of +the inhabitants. The Spaniards fired two frigates loaded with powder +and the explosion of the magazines shook the city and its suburbs like +an earthquake. In that moment the young Sidney Smith landed from the +British ships and laid the trains which kindled an awful +conflagration. The captured French fleet lying at anchor, the +magazines and shops of the arsenal, all its <span class="pagenum"><a id="page232" name="page232"></a>(p. 232)</span> enclosures burst +into flames, and one explosion followed another in an awe-inspiring +volcanic eruption. The besiegers were stupefied as they gazed, and +stopped their ears. In a few hours the city was completely evacuated, +and the foreign war vessels sailed away from the offing. The news of +this decisive victory was despatched without a moment's delay to the +Convention. The names of Salicetti, Robespierre, Ricord, Fréron, and +Barras are mentioned in Dugommier's letters as those of men who had +won distinction in various posts; that of Buonaparte does not occur.</p> + +<p>There was either jealousy of his merits, which are declared by his +enemies to have been unduly vaunted, or else his share had been more +insignificant than is generally supposed. He related at <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Helena +that during the operations before Toulon he had had three horses +killed under him, and showed Las Cases a great scar on his thigh which +he said had been received in a bayonet charge at Toulon. "Men wondered +at the fortune which kept me invulnerable; I always concealed my +dangers in mystery." The hypothesis of his insignificance appears +unlikely when we examine the memoirs written by his contemporaries, +and consider the precise traditions of a later generation; it becomes +untenable in view of what happened on the next day, when the +commissioners nominated him for the office of general of brigade, a +rank which in the exchange of prisoners with the English was reckoned +as equal to that of lieutenant-general. In a report written on the +nineteenth to the minister of war, Duteil speaks in the highest terms +of Buonaparte. "A great deal of science, as much intelligence, and too +much bravery; such is a faint sketch of the virtues of this rare +officer. It rests with you, minister, to retain them for the glory of +the republic."</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page233" name="page233"></a>(p. 233)</span> On December twenty-fourth the Convention received the news of +victory. It was really their reprieve, for news of disaster would have +cut short their career. Jubilant over a prompt success, their joy was +savage and infernal. With the eagerness of vampires they at once sent +two commissioners to wipe the name of Toulon from the map, and its +inhabitants from the earth. Fouché, later chief of police and Duke of +Otranto under Napoleon, went down from Lyons to see the sport, and +wrote to his friend the arch-murderer Collot d'Herbois that they were +celebrating the victory in but one way. "This night we send two +hundred and thirteen rebels into hell-fire." The fact is, no one ever +knew how many hundreds or thousands of the Toulon Girondists were +swept together and destroyed by the fire of cannon and musketry. +Fréron, one of the commissioners, desired to leave not a single rebel +alive. Dugommier would listen to no such proposition for a holocaust. +Marmont declares that Buonaparte and his artillerymen pleaded for +mercy, but in vain.</p> + +<p>Running like a thread through all these events was a little +counterplot. The Corsicans at Toulon were persons of importance, and +had shown their mettle. Salicetti, Buonaparte, Arena, and Cervoni were +now men of mark; the two latter had, like Buonaparte, been promoted, +though to much lower rank. As Salicetti declared in a letter written +on December twenty-eighth, they were scheming to secure vessels and +arm them for an expedition to Corsica. But for the time their efforts +came to naught; and thenceforward Salicetti seemed to lose all +interest in Corsican affairs, becoming more and more involved in the +ever madder rush of events in France.</p> + +<p>This was not strange, for even a common politician could not remain +insensible to the course or the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page234" name="page234"></a>(p. 234)</span> consequences of the +malignant anarchy now raging throughout France. The massacres at +Lyons, Marseilles, and Toulon were the reply to the horrors of like or +worse nature perpetrated in Vendée by the royalists. Danton having +used the Paris sections to overawe the Girondist majority of the +Convention, Marat gathered his riotous band of sansculottes, and +hounded the discredited remnant of the party to death, flight, or +arrest. His bloody career was ended only by Charlotte Corday's dagger. +Passions were thus inflamed until even Danton's conduct appeared calm, +moderate, and inefficient when compared with the reckless +bloodthirstiness of Hébert, now leader of the Exagérés. The latter +prevailed, the Vendeans were defeated, and Citizen Carrier of Nantes +in three months took fifteen thousand human lives by his fiendishly +ingenious systems of drowning and shooting. In short, France was +chaos, and the Salicettis of the time might hope for anything, or fear +everything, in the throes of her disorder. Not so a man like +Buonaparte. His instinct led him to stand in readiness at the parting +of the ways. Others might choose and press forward; he gave no sign of +being moved by current events, but stood with his eye still fixed, +though now in a backward gaze, on Corsica, ready, if interest or +self-preservation required it, for another effort to seize and hold it +as his own. It was self-esteem, not Corsican patriotism, his French +interest perhaps, which now prompted him. Determined and revengeful, +he was again, through the confusion of affairs at Paris, to secure +means for his enterprise, and this time on a scale proportionate to +the difficulty. The influence of Toulon upon Buonaparte's fortunes was +incalculable. Throughout life he spoke of the town, of the siege and +his share therein, of the subsequent events and of the men whose +acquaintance he made there, with lively <span class="pagenum"><a id="page235" name="page235"></a>(p. 235)</span> and emphatic +interest. To all associated with the capture he was in after years +generous to a fault, except a few enemies like Auna whom he treated +with harshness. In particular it must not be forgotten that among many +men of minor importance he there began his relations with some of his +greatest generals and marshals: Desaix, Marmont, Junot, Muiron, and +Chauvet. The experience launched him on his grand career; the +intimacies he formed proved a strong support when he forced himself to +the front. Moreover, his respect for England was heightened. It was +not in violation of a pledge to hold the place for the Bourbon +pretender, but by right of sheer ability that they took precedence of +the Allies in command. They were haughty and dictatorial because their +associates were uncertain and divided. When the <span lang="fr">Comte de Provence</span> was +suggested as a colleague they refused to admit him because he was +detested by the best men of his own party. In the garrison of nearly +fifteen thousand not a third were British. Buonaparte and others +charged them with perfidy in a desire to hold the great fort for +themselves, but the charge was untrue and he did not disdain them, but +rather admired and imitated their policy.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p> + +<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page236" name="page236"></a>(p. 236)</span> CHAPTER <abbr title="18">XVIII.</abbr></h3> + +<h4><span class="smcap">A Jacobin General</span>.</h4> + +<p class="summary">Transformation in Buonaparte's Character — Confirmed as a + French General — Conduct of His Brothers — Napoleon's + Caution — His Report on Marseilles — The New French Army + — Buonaparte the Jacobin Leader — Hostilities with Austria + and Sardinia — Enthusiasm of the French Troops — + Buonaparte in Society — His Plan for an Italian Campaign.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">1793-94.</p> + +<p>Hitherto prudence had not been characteristic of Buonaparte: his +escapades and disobedience had savored rather of recklessness. Like +scores of others in his class, he had fully exploited the looseness of +royal and early republican administration; his madcap and hotspur +versatility distinguished him from his comrades not in the kind but in +the degree of his bold effrontery. The whole outlook having changed +since his final flight to France, his conduct now began to reveal a +definite plan—to be marked by punctilious obedience, sometimes even +by an almost puerile caution. His family was homeless and penniless; +their only hope for a livelihood was in coöperation with the Jacobins, +who appeared to be growing more influential every hour. Through the +powerful friends that Napoleon had made among the representatives of +the Convention, men like the younger Robespierre, Fréron, and Barras, +much had already been gained. If his nomination to the office of +general of brigade were confirmed, as it was almost certain to be, the +rest would follow, since, with his innate capacity for adapting +himself to circumstances, he had during the last few weeks +successfully cultivated his <span class="pagenum"><a id="page237" name="page237"></a>(p. 237)</span> power of pleasing, captivating +the hearts of Marmont, Junot, and many others.</p> + +<p>With such strong chances in his favor, it appeared to Buonaparte that +no stumbling-block of technicality should be thrown in the path of his +promotion. Accordingly, in the record of his life sent up to Paris, he +puts his entrance into the service over a year earlier than it +actually occurred, omits as unessential details some of the places in +which he had lived and some of the companies in which he had served, +declares that he had commanded a battalion at the capture of +Magdalena, and, finally, denies categorically that he was ever noble. +To this paper, which minimizes nearly to the vanishing-point all +mention of Corsica, and emphasizes his services as a Frenchman by its +insidious omissions, the over-driven officials in Paris took no +exception; and on February sixth, 1794, he was confirmed, receiving an +assignment for service in the new and regenerated Army of Italy, which +had replaced as if by magic the ragged, shoeless, ill-equipped, and +half-starved remnants of troops in and about Nice that in the previous +year had been dignified by the same title. This gambler had not drawn +the first prize in the lottery, but what he had secured was enough to +justify his course, and confirm his confidence in fate. Eight years +and three months nominally in the service, out of which in reality he +had been absent four years and ten months either on furlough or +without one, and already a general! Neither blind luck, nor the +revolutionary epoch, nor the superlative ability of the man, but a +compound of all these, had brought this marvel to pass. It did not +intoxicate, but still further sobered, the beneficiary. This effect +was partly due to an experience which demonstrated that strong as are +the chains of habit, they are more easily broken than those which his +associates forge about a man.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page238" name="page238"></a>(p. 238)</span> In the interval between nomination and confirmation the young +aspirant, through the fault of his friends, was involved in a most +serious risk. Salicetti, and the Buonaparte brothers, Joseph, Lucien, +and Louis, went wild with exultation over the fall of Toulon, and +began by reckless assumptions and untruthful representations to reap +an abundant harvest of spoils. Joseph, by the use of his brother's +Corsican commission, had posed as a lieutenant-colonel; he was now +made a commissary-general of the first class. Louis, without regard to +his extreme youth, was promoted to be adjutant-major of artillery—a +dignity which was short-lived, for he was soon after ordered to the +school at Châlons as a cadet, but which served, like the greater +success of Joseph, to tide over a crisis. Lucien retained his post as +keeper of the commissary stores in <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Maximin, where he was the +leading Jacobin, styling himself Lucius Brutus, and rejoicing in the +sobriquet of "the little Robespierre."</p> + +<p>The positions of Lucien and Louis were fantastic even for +revolutionary times. Napoleon was fully aware of the danger, and was +correspondingly circumspect. It was possibly at his own suggestion +that he was appointed, on December twenty-sixth, 1793, inspector of +the shore fortifications, and ordered to proceed immediately on an +inspection of the Mediterranean coast as far as Mentone. The +expedition removed him from all temptation to an unfortunate display +of exultation or anxiety, and gave him a new chance to display his +powers. He performed his task with the thoroughness of an expert; but +in so doing, his zeal played him a sorry trick, eclipsing the caution +of the revolutionist by the eagerness of the sagacious general. In his +report to the minister of war he comprehensively discussed both the +fortification of the coast and the strengthening of the navy, which +were alike indispensable to the wonderful <span class="pagenum"><a id="page239" name="page239"></a>(p. 239)</span> scheme of +operations in Italy which he appears to have been already revolving in +his mind. The Army of Italy, and in fact all southeastern France, +depended at the moment for sustenance on the commerce of Genoa, +professedly a neutral state and friendly to the French republic. This +essential trade could be protected only by making interference from +the English and the Spaniards impossible, or at least difficult.</p> + +<p>Arrived at Marseilles, and with these ideas occupying his whole mind, +Buonaparte regarded the situation as serious. The British and Spanish +fleets swept the seas, and were virtually blockading all the +Mediterranean ports of France. At Toulon, as has been told, they +actually entered, and departed only after losing control of the +promontory which forms the harbor. There is a similar conformation of +the ground at the entrance to the port of Marseilles, but Buonaparte +found that the fortress which occupied the commanding promontory had +been dismantled. With the instinct of a strategist and with no other +thought than that of his duties as inspector, he sat down, and on +January fourth, 1794, wrote a most impolitic recommendation that the +fortification should be restored in such a way as to "command the +town." These words almost certainly referred both to the possible +renewal by the conquered French royalists and other malcontents of +their efforts to secure Marseilles, and to a conceivable effort on the +part of the Allies to seize the harbor. Now it happened that the +liberals of the town had regarded this very stronghold as their +Bastille, and it had been dismantled by them in emulation of their +brethren of Paris. The language and motive of the report were +therefore capable of misinterpretation. A storm at once arose among +the Marseilles Jacobins against both Buonaparte and his superior, +General Lapoype; they were both <span class="pagenum"><a id="page240" name="page240"></a>(p. 240)</span> denounced to the Convention, +and in due time, about the end of February, were both summoned before +the bar of that body. In the mean time Buonaparte's nomination as +general of brigade had been confirmed, his commission arriving at +Marseilles on February sixteenth. It availed nothing toward restoring +him to popularity; on the contrary, the masses grew more suspicious +and more menacing. He therefore returned to the protection of +Salicetti and Robespierre, then at Toulon, whence by their advice he +despatched to Paris by special messenger a poor-spirited exculpatory +letter, admitting that the only use of restoring the fort would be to +"command the town," that is, control it by military power in case of +revolution. Having by this language pusillanimously acknowledged a +fault which he had not committed, the writer, by the advice of +Salicetti and Robespierre, refused to obey the formal summons of the +Convention when it came. Those powerful protectors made vigorous +representations to their friends in Paris, and Buonaparte was saved. +Both they and he might well rely on the distinguished service rendered +by the culprit at Toulon; his military achievement might well outweigh +a slight political delinquency. On April first, 1794, he assumed the +duties of his new command, reporting himself at Nice. Lapoype went to +Paris, appeared at the bar of the Convention, and was triumphantly +acquitted. Naturally, therefore, no indictment could lie against the +inferior, and Buonaparte's name was not even mentioned.</p> + +<p>A single circumstance changed the French Revolution from a sectarian +dogma into a national movement. By the exertions and plans of Carnot +the effective force of the French army had been raised in less than +two years from one hundred and twelve thousand to the astonishing +figure of over seven hundred and thirty thousand. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page241" name="page241"></a>(p. 241)</span> The +discipline was now rigid, and the machine was perfectly adapted to the +workman's hand, although for lack of money the equipment was still +sadly defective. In the Army of Italy were nearly sixty-seven thousand +men, a number which included all the garrisons and reserves of the +coast towns and of Corsica. Its organization, like that of the other +portions of the military power, had been simplified, and so +strengthened. There were a commander-in-chief, a chief of staff, three +generals of division, of whom Masséna was one, and thirteen generals +of brigade, of whom one, Buonaparte, was the commander and inspector +of artillery. The former was now thirty-four years old. His sire was a +wine-dealer of a very humble sort, probably of Jewish blood, and the +boy, Italian in origin and feeling, had almost no education. +Throughout his wonderful career he was coarse, sullen, and greedy; +nevertheless, as a soldier he was an inspired genius, ranked by many +as the peer of Napoleon. Having served France for several years as an +Italian mercenary, he resigned in 1789, settled in his native town of +Nice, and married; but the stir of arms was irresistible and three +years later he volunteered under the tricolor. His comrades at once +elected him an officer, and in about a year he was head of a +battalion, or colonel in our style. In the reorganization he was +promoted to be a division general because of sheer merit. For sixteen +years he had an unbroken record of success and won from Napoleon the +caressing title: "Dear Child of Victory."</p> + +<p>The younger Robespierre, with Ricord and Salicetti, were the +"representatives of the people." The first of these was, to outward +appearance, the leading spirit of the whole organism, and to his +support Buonaparte was now thoroughly committed. The young artillery +commander was considered by all at Nice to be a pronounced <span class="pagenum"><a id="page242" name="page242"></a>(p. 242)</span> +"Montagnard," that is, an extreme Jacobin. Augustin Robespierre had +quickly learned to see and hear with the eyes and ears of his Corsican +friend, whose fidelity seemed assured by hatred of Paoli and by a +desire to recover the family estates in his native island. Many are +pleased to discuss the question of Buonaparte's attitude toward the +Jacobin terrorists. The dilemma they propose is that he was either a +convinced and sincere terrorist or that he fawned on the terrorists +from interested motives. This last appears to have been the opinion of +Augustin Robespierre, the former that of his sister Marie, for the +time an intimate friend of the Buonaparte sisters. Both at least have +left these opinions on record in letters and memoirs. There is no need +to impale ourselves on either horn, if we consider the youth as he +was, feeling no responsibility whatever for the conditions into which +he was thrown, taking the world as he found it and using its +opportunities while they lasted. For the time and in that place there +were terrorists: he made no confession of faith, avoided all snares, +and served his adopted country as she was in fact with little +reference to political shibboleths. He so served her then and +henceforth that until he lost both his poise and his indispensable +power, she laid herself at his feet and adored him. Whatever the ties +which bound them at first, the ascendancy of Buonaparte over the young +Robespierre was thorough in the end. His were the suggestions and the +enterprises, the political conceptions, the military plans, the +devices to obtain ways and means. It was probably his advice which was +determinative in the scheme of operations finally adopted. With an +astute and fertile brain, with a feverish energy and an unbounded +ambition, Buonaparte must attack every problem or be wretched. Here +was a most interesting one, complicated by geographical, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page243" name="page243"></a>(p. 243)</span> +political, naval, and military elements. That he seized it, considered +it, and found some solution is inherently probable. The conclusion too +has all the marks of his genius. Yet the glory of success was justly +Masséna's. A select third of the troops were chosen and divided into +three divisions to assume the offensive, under Masséna's direction, +against the almost impregnable posts of the Austrians and Sardinians +in the upper Apennines. The rest were held in garrison partly as a +reserve, partly to overawe the newly annexed department of which Nice +was the capital.</p> + +<p>Genoa now stood in a peculiar relation to France. Her oligarchy, +though called a republic, was in spirit the antipodes of French +democracy. Her trade was essential to France, but English influence +predominated in her councils and English force worked its will in her +domains. In October, 1793, a French supply-ship had been seized by an +English squadron in the very harbor. Soon afterward, by way of +rejoinder to this act of violence, the French minister at Genoa was +officially informed from Paris that as it appeared no longer possible +for a French army to reach Lombardy by the direct route through the +Apennines, it might be necessary to advance along the coast through +Genoese territory. This announcement was no threat, but serious +earnest; the plan had been carefully considered and was before long to +be put into execution. It was merely as a feint that in April, 1794, +hostilities were formally opened against Sardinia and Austria. Masséna +seized Ventimiglia on the sixth. Advancing by Oneglia and Ormea, in +the valley of the Stura, he turned the position of the allied +Austrians and Sardinians, thus compelling them to evacuate their +strongholds one by one, until on May seventh the pass of Tenda, +leading direct into Lombardy, was abandoned by them.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page244" name="page244"></a>(p. 244)</span> The result of this movement was to infuse new enthusiasm into +the army, while at the same time it set free, for offensive warfare, +large numbers of the garrison troops in places now no longer in +danger. Masséna wrote in terms of exultation of the devotion and +endurance which his troops had shown in the sacred name of liberty. +"They know how to conquer and never complain. Marching barefoot, and +often without rations, they abuse no one, but sing the loved notes of +'<span class="italic" lang="fr">Ça ira</span>'—'T will go, 't will go! We'll make the creatures that +surround the despot at Turin dance the Carmagnole!" Victor Amadeus, +King of Sardinia, was an excellent specimen of the benevolent despot; +it was he whom they meant. Augustin Robespierre wrote to his brother +Maximilien, in Paris, that they had found the country before them +deserted: forty thousand souls had fled from the single valley of +Oneglia, having been terrified by the accounts of French savagery to +women and children, and of their impiety in devastating the churches +and religious establishments.</p> + +<p>Whether the phenomenal success of this short campaign, which lasted +but a month, was expected or not, nothing was done to improve it, and +the advancing battalions suddenly stopped, as if to make the +impression that they could go farther only by way of Genoese +territory. Buonaparte would certainly have shared in the campaign had +it been a serious attack; but, except to bring captured stores from +Oneglia, he did nothing, devoting the months of May and June to the +completion of his shore defenses, and living at Nice with his mother +and her family. That famous and coquettish town was now the center of +a gay republican society in which Napoleon and his pretty sisters were +important persons. They were the constant companions of young +Robespierre and Ricord. The former, amazed by the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page245" name="page245"></a>(p. 245)</span> activity +of his friend's brain, the scope of his plans, and the terrible energy +which marked his preparations, wrote of Napoleon that he was a man of +"transcendent merit." Marmont, speaking of Napoleon's charm at this +time, says: "There was so much future in his mind.... He had acquired +an ascendancy over the representatives which it is impossible to +describe." He also declares, and Salicetti, too, repeatedly +asseverated, that Buonaparte was the "man, the plan-maker" of the +Robespierres.</p> + +<p>The impression which Salicetti and Marmont expressed was doubtless due +to the conclusions of a council of war held on May twentieth by the +leaders of the two armies—of the Alps and of Italy—to concert a plan +of coöperation. Naturally each group of generals desired the foremost +place for the army it represented. Buonaparte overrode all objections, +and compelled the acceptance of a scheme entirely his own, which with +some additions and by careful elaboration ultimately developed into +the famous plan of campaign in Italy. These circumstances are +noteworthy. Again and again it has been charged that this grand scheme +was bodily stolen from the papers of his great predecessors, one in +particular, of whom more must be said in the sequel. Napoleon was a +student and an omnivorous reader, he knew what others had done and +written; but the achievement which launched him on his career was due +to the use of his own senses, to his own assimilation and adaptation +of other men's experiences and theories, which had everything to +commend them except that perfection of detail and energy of command +which led to actual victory. But affairs in Genoa were becoming so +menacing that for the moment they demanded the exclusive attention of +the French authorities. Austrian troops had disregarded her neutrality +and trespassed on her territory; the land was full of French +deserters, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page246" name="page246"></a>(p. 246)</span> and England, recalling her successes in the same +line during the American Revolution, had established a press in the +city for printing counterfeit French money, which was sent by secret +mercantile communications to Marseilles, and there was put into +circulation. It was consequently soon determined to amplify greatly +the plan of campaign, and likewise to send a mission to Genoa. +Buonaparte was himself appointed the envoy, and thus became the pivot +of both movements—that against Piedmont and that against Genoa.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p> + +<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page247" name="page247"></a>(p. 247)</span> CHAPTER <abbr title="19">XIX.</abbr></h3> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Vicissitudes in War and Diplomacy</span>.</h4> + +<p class="summary">Signs of Maturity — The Mission to Genoa — Course of the + French Republic — The "Terror" — Thermidor — Buonaparte a + Scapegoat — His Prescience — Adventures of His Brothers — + Napoleon's Defense of His French Patriotism — Bloodshedding + for Amusement — New Expedition Against Corsica — + Buonaparte's Advice for Its Conduct.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">1794.</p> + +<p>Buonaparte's plan for combining operations against both Genoa and +Sardinia was at first hazy. In his earliest efforts to expand and +clarify it, he wrote a rambling document, still in existence, which +draws a contrast between the opposite policies to be adopted with +reference to Italy and Spain. In it he also calls attention to the +scarcity of officers suitable for concerted action in a great +enterprise, and a remark concerning the course to be pursued in this +particular case contains the germ of his whole military system. +"Combine your forces in a war, as in a siege, on one point. The breach +once made, equilibrium is destroyed, everything else is useless, and +the place is taken. Do not conceal, but concentrate, your attack." In +the matter of politics he sees Germany as the main prop of opposition +to democracy; Spain is to be dealt with on the defensive, Italy on the +offensive. But, contrary to what he actually did in the following +year, he advises against proceeding too far into Piedmont, lest the +adversary should gain the advantage of position. This paper +Robespierre the younger had in his pocket when he left for Paris, +summoned to aid his brother in difficulties which were now pressing +fast upon him.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page248" name="page248"></a>(p. 248)</span> Ricord was left behind to direct, at least nominally, the +movements both of the armies and of the embassy to Genoa. Buonaparte +continued to be the real power. Military operations having been +suspended to await the result of diplomacy, his instructions from +Ricord were drawn so as to be loose and merely formal. On July +eleventh he started from Nice, reaching his destination three days +later. During the week of his stay—for he left again on the +twenty-first—the envoy made his representations, and laid down his +ultimatum that the republic of Genoa should preserve absolute +neutrality, neither permitting troops to pass over its territories, +nor lending aid in the construction of military roads, as she was +charged with doing secretly. His success in overawing the oligarchy +was complete, and a written promise of compliance to these demands was +made by the Doge. Buonaparte arrived again in Nice on the +twenty-eighth. We may imagine that as he traveled the romantic road +between the mountains and the sea, the rising general and diplomat +indulged in many rosy dreams, probably feeling already on his +shoulders the insignia of a commander-in-chief. But he was returning +to disgrace, if not to destruction. A week after his arrival came the +stupefying news that the hour-glass had once again been reversed, that +on the very day of his own exultant return to Nice, Robespierre's head +had fallen, that the Mountain was shattered, and that the land was +again staggering to gain its balance after another political +earthquake.</p> + +<p>The shock had been awful, but it was directly traceable to the +accumulated disorders of Jacobin rule. A rude and vigorous but eerie +order of things had been inaugurated on November twenty-fourth, 1793, +by the so-called republic. There was first the new calendar, in which +the year I began on September twenty-second, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page249" name="page249"></a>(p. 249)</span> 1792, the day +on which the republic had been proclaimed. In it were the twelve +thirty-day months, with their names of vintage, fog, and frost; of +snow, rain, and wind; of bud, flower, and meadow; of seed, heat, and +harvest: the whole terminated most unpoetically by the five or six +supplementary days named sansculot-tides,—sansculottes meaning +without knee-breeches, a garment confined to the upper classes; that +is, with long trousers like the common people,—and these days were so +named because they were to be a holiday for the long-trousered +populace which was to use the new reckoning. There was next the new, +strange, and unhallowed spectacle, seen in history for the first time, +the realization of a nightmare—a whole people finally turned into an +army, and at war with nearly all the world. The reforming Girondists +had created the situation, and the Jacobins, with grim humor, were +unflinchingly facing the logical consequences of such audacity. Carnot +had given the watchword of attack in mass and with superior numbers; +the times gave the frenzied courage of sentimental exaltation. Before +the end of 1793 the foreign enemies of France, though not conquered, +had been checked on the frontier; the outbreak of civil war in Vendée +had been temporarily suppressed; both Lyons and Toulon had been +retaken.</p> + +<p>Robespierre, <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Just, Couthon, and Billaud-Varennes were theorists +after the manner of Rousseau. Their new gospel of social regeneration +embraced democracy, civic virtue, moral institutions, and public +festivals. These were their shibboleths and catch-words. Incidentally +they extolled paternalism in government, general conscription, +compulsory military service, and, on the very eve of the greatest +industrial revival known to history, a return to agricultural society! +The sanction of all this was not moral suasion: essential to the +system was <span class="pagenum"><a id="page250" name="page250"></a>(p. 250)</span> Spartan simplicity and severity, compulsion was +the means to their utopia.<a id="footnotetag40" name="footnotetag40"></a><a href="#footnote40" title="Go to footnote 40"><span class="small">[40]</span></a> The Jacobins were nothing if not +thorough; and here was another new and awful thing—the +"Terror"—which had broken loose with its foul furies of party against +party through all the land. It seemed at last as if it were exhausting +itself, though for a time it had grown in intensity as it spread in +extent. It had created three factions in the Mountain. Early in 1794 +there remained but a little handful of avowed and still eager +terrorists in the Convention—Hébert and his friends. These were the +atheists who had abolished religion and the past, bowing down before +the fetish which they dubbed Reason. They were seized and put to death +on March twenty-fourth. There then remained the cliques of Danton and +Robespierre; the former claiming the name of moderates, and telling +men to be calm, the latter with no principle but devotion to a person +who claimed to be the regenerator of society. These hero-worshipers +were for a time victorious. Danton, like Hébert, was foully murdered, +and Robespierre remained alone, virtually dictator. But his theatrical +conduct in decreeing by law the existence of a Supreme Being and the +immortality of the soul, and in organizing tawdry festivals to supply +the place of worship, utterly embittered against him both atheists and +pious people. In disappointed rage at his failure, he laid aside the +characters of prophet and mild saint to give vent to his natural +wickedness and to become a devil.</p> + +<p>During the long days of June and July there raged again a carnival of +blood, known to history as the "Great Terror." In less than seven +weeks upward of twelve <span class="pagenum"><a id="page251" name="page251"></a>(p. 251)</span> hundred victims were immolated. The +unbridled license of the guillotine broadened as it ran. First the +aristocrats had fallen, then royalty, then their sympathizers, then +the hated rich, then the merely well-to-do, and lastly anybody not +cringing to existing power. The reaction against Robespierre was one +of universal fear. Its inception was the work of Tallien, Fouché, +Barras, Carrier, Fréron, and the like, men of vile character, who knew +that if Robespierre could maintain his pose of the "Incorruptible" +their doom was sealed. In this sense Robespierre was what Napoleon +called him at <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Helena, "the scapegoat of the Revolution." The +uprising of these accomplices was, however, the opportunity long +desired by the better elements in Parisian society, and the two +antipodal classes made common cause. Dictator as Robespierre wished to +be, he was formed of other stuff, for when the reckoning came his +brutal violence was cowed. On July twenty-seventh (the ninth of +Thermidor), the Convention turned on him in rebellion, extreme +radicals and moderate conservatives combining for the effort. Terrible +scenes were enacted. The sections of Paris were divided, some for the +Convention, some for Robespierre. The artillerymen who were ordered by +the latter to batter down the part of the <span lang="fr">Tuileries</span> where his enemies +were sitting hesitated and disobeyed; at once all resistance to the +decrees of the Convention died out. The dictator would have been his +own executioner, but his faltering terrors stopped him midway in his +half-committed suicide. He and his brother, with their friends, were +seized, and beheaded on the morrow. With the downfall of Robespierre +went the last vestige of social or political authority; for the +Convention was no longer trusted by the nation—the only organized +power with popular support which was left was the army.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page252" name="page252"></a>(p. 252)</span> This was the news which, traveling southward, finally reached +Toulon, Marseilles, and Nice, cities where Robespierre's stanchest +adherents were flaunting their newly gained importance. No wonder if +the brains of common men reeled. The recent so-called parties had +disappeared for the moment like wraiths. The victorious group in the +Convention, now known as the Thermidorians, was compounded of elements +from them both, and claimed to represent the whole of France as the +wretched factions who had so long controlled the government had never +done. Where now should those who had been active supporters of the +late administration turn for refuge? The Corsicans who had escaped +from the island at the same time with Salicetti and the Buonapartes +were nearly all with the Army of Italy. Employment had been given to +them, but, having failed to keep Corsica for France, they were not in +favor. It had already been remarked in the Committee of Public Safety +that their patriotism was less manifest than their disposition to +enrich themselves. This too was the opinion of many among their own +countrymen, especially of their own partisans shut up in Bastia or +Calvi and deserted. Salicetti, ever ready for emergencies, was not +disconcerted by this one; and with adroit baseness turned informer, +denouncing as a suspicious schemer his former protégé and lieutenant, +of whose budding greatness he was now well aware. He was apparently +both jealous and alarmed. Possibly, however, the whole procedure was a +ruse; in the critical juncture the apparent traitor was by this +conduct able efficiently to succor and save his compatriot.</p> + +<p>Buonaparte's mission to Genoa had been openly political; secretly it +was also a military reconnaissance, and his confidential instructions, +virtually dictated by himself, had unfortunately leaked out. They had +directed <span class="pagenum"><a id="page253" name="page253"></a>(p. 253)</span> him to examine the fortifications in and about both +Savona and Genoa, to investigate the state of the Genoese artillery, +to inform himself as to the behavior of the French envoy to the +republic, to learn as much as possible of the intentions of the +oligarchy—in short, to gather all information useful for the conduct +of a war "the result of which it is impossible to foresee." +Buonaparte, knowing now that he had trodden dangerous ground in his +unauthorized and secret dealings with the younger Robespierre, and +probably foreseeing the coming storm, began to shorten sail +immediately upon reaching Nice. Either he was prescient and felt the +new influences in the air, or else a letter now in the war office at +Paris, and purporting to have been written on August seventh to Tilly, +the French agent at Genoa, is an antedated fabrication written later +for Salicetti's use.<a id="footnotetag41" name="footnotetag41"></a><a href="#footnote41" title="Go to footnote 41"><span class="small">[41]</span></a> Speaking, in this paper, of Robespierre the +younger, he said: "I was a little touched by the catastrophe, for I +loved him and thought him spotless. But were it my own father, I would +stab him to the heart if he aspired to become a tyrant." If the letter +be genuine, as is probable, the writer was very far-sighted. He knew +that its contents would speedily reach Paris in the despatches of +Tilly, so that it was virtually a public renunciation of Jacobinism at +the earliest possible date, an anchor to windward in the approaching +tempest. But momentarily the trick was of no avail; he was first +superseded in his command, then arrested on August tenth, and, +fortunately for himself, imprisoned two days later in Fort Carré, near +Antibes, instead of being sent direct to Paris as some of his friends +were. This temporary shelter from the devastating blast he owed to +Salicetti, who would, no doubt, without hesitation have destroyed a +friend for his own safety, but was <span class="pagenum"><a id="page254" name="page254"></a>(p. 254)</span> willing enough to spare +him if not driven to extremity.</p> + +<p>As the true state of things in Corsica began to be known in France, +there was a general disposition to blame and punish the influential +men who had brought things to such a desperate pass and made the loss +of the island probable, if not certain. Salicetti, Multedo, and the +rest quickly unloaded the whole blame on Buonaparte's shoulders, so +that he had many enemies in Paris. Thus by apparent harshness to one +whom he still considered a subordinate, the real culprit escaped +suspicion. Assured of immunity from punishment himself, Salicetti was +content with his rival's humiliation, and felt no real rancor toward +the family. This is clear from his treatment of Louis Buonaparte, who +had fallen from place and favor along with his brother, but was by +Salicetti's influence soon afterward made an officer of the home guard +at Nice. Joseph had rendered himself conspicuous in the very height of +the storm by a brilliant marriage; but neither he nor Fesch was +arrested, and both managed to pull through with whole skins. The noisy +Lucien was also married, but to a girl who, though respectable, was +poor; and in consequence he was thoroughly frightened at the thought +of losing his means of support. But though menaced with arrest, he was +sufficiently insignificant to escape for the time.</p> + +<p>Napoleon was kept in captivity but thirteen days. Salicetti apparently +found it easier than he had supposed to exculpate himself from the +charge either of participating in Robespierre's conspiracy or of +having brought about the Corsican insurrection. More than this, he +found himself firm in the good graces of the Thermidorians, among whom +his old friends Barras and Fréron were held in high esteem. It would +therefore be a simple thing to liberate General Buonaparte, if only a +proper <span class="pagenum"><a id="page255" name="page255"></a>(p. 255)</span> expression of opinion could be secured from him. The +clever prisoner had it ready before it was needed. To the faithful +Junot he wrote a kindly note declining to be rescued by a body of +friends organized to storm the prison or scale its walls.<a id="footnotetag42" name="footnotetag42"></a><a href="#footnote42" title="Go to footnote 42"><span class="small">[42]</span></a> Such a +course would have compromised him further. But to the "representatives +of the people" he wrote in language which finally committed him for +life. He explained that in a revolutionary epoch there are but two +classes of men, patriots and suspects. It could easily be seen to +which class a man belonged who had fought both intestine and foreign +foes. "I have sacrificed residence in my department, I have abandoned +all my goods, I have lost all for the republic. Since then I have +served at Toulon with some distinction, and I have deserved a share +with the Army of Italy in the laurels it earned at the taking of +Saorgio, Oneglia, and Tanaro. On the discovery of Robespierre's +conspiracy, my conduct was that of a man accustomed to regard nothing +but principle." The letter concludes with a passionate appeal to each +one of the controlling officials separately and by name, that is, to +both Salicetti and Albitte, for justice and restoration. "An hour +later, if the wicked want my life, I will gladly give it to them, I +care so little for it, I weary so often of it! Yes; the idea that it +may be still useful to my country is all that makes me bear the burden +with courage." The word for country which he employed, <span class="italic">patrie</span>, could +only be interpreted as referring to France.</p> + +<p>Salicetti in person went through the form of examining the papers +offered in proof of Buonaparte's statements; found them, as a matter +of course, satisfactory; and the commissioners restored the suppliant +to partial liberty, but not to his post. He was to remain at army +headquarters, and the still terrible Committee of Safety was <span class="pagenum"><a id="page256" name="page256"></a>(p. 256)</span> +to receive regular reports of his doings. This, too, was but a +subterfuge; on August twentieth he was restored to his rank. A few +weeks later commissioners from the Thermidorians arrived, with orders +that for the present all offensive operations in Italy were to be +suspended in order to put the strength of the district into a maritime +expedition against Rome and ultimately against Corsica, which was now +in the hands of England. Buonaparte immediately sought, and by +Salicetti's favor obtained, the important charge of equipping and +inspecting the artillery destined for the enterprise. He no doubt +hoped to make the venture tell in his personal interest against the +English party now triumphant in his home. This was the middle of +September. Before beginning to prepare for the Corsican expedition, +the army made a final demonstration to secure its lines. It was during +the preparatory days of this short campaign that a dreadful incident +occurred. Buonaparte had long since learned the power of women, and +had been ardently attentive in turn both to <abbr title="Madame">Mme.</abbr> Robespierre and to +<abbr title="Madame">Mme.</abbr> Ricord. "It was a great advantage to please them," he said; "for +in a lawless time a representative of the people is a real power." +<abbr title="Madame">Mme.</abbr> Turreau, wife of one of the new commissioners, was now the +ascendant star in his attentions. One day, while walking arm in arm +with her near the top of the Tenda pass, Buonaparte took a sudden +freak to show her what war was like, and ordered the advance-guard to +charge the Austrian pickets. The attack was not only useless, but it +endangered the safety of the army; yet it was made according to +command, and human blood was shed. The story was told by Napoleon +himself, at the close of his life, in a tone of repentance, but with +evident relish.<a id="footnotetag43" name="footnotetag43"></a><a href="#footnote43" title="Go to footnote 43"><span class="small">[43]</span></a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page257" name="page257"></a>(p. 257)</span> Buonaparte was present at the ensuing victories, but only as +a well-informed spectator and adviser, for he was yet in nominal +disgrace. Within five days the enemies' lines were driven back so as +to leave open the two most important roads into Italy—that by the +valley of the Bormida to Alessandria, and that by the shore to Genoa. +The difficult pass of Tenda fell entirely into French hands. The +English could not disembark their troops to strengthen the Allies. The +commerce of Genoa with Marseilles was reëstablished by land. "We have +celebrated the fifth sansculottide of the year <abbr title="2">II</abbr> (September +twenty-first, 1794) in a manner worthy of the republic and the +National Convention," wrote the commissioners to their colleagues in +Paris. On the twenty-fourth, General Buonaparte was released by them +from attendance at headquarters, thus becoming once again a free man +and his own master. He proceeded immediately to Toulon in order to +prepare for the Corsican expedition. Once more the power of a great +nation was, he hoped, to be directed against the land of his birth, +and he was an important agent in the plan.</p> + +<p>To regain, if possible, some of his lost influence in the island, +Buonaparte had already renewed communication with former acquaintances +in Ajaccio. In a letter written immediately after his release in +September, 1794, to the Corsican deputy Multedo, he informed his +correspondent that his birthplace was the weakest spot on the island, +and open to attack. The information was correct. Paoli had made an +effort to strengthen it, but without success. "To drive the English," +said the writer of the letter, "from a position which makes them +masters of the Mediterranean, ... to emancipate a large number of good +patriots still to be found in that department, and to restore to their +firesides the good <span class="pagenum"><a id="page258" name="page258"></a>(p. 258)</span> republicans who have deserved the care of +their country by the generous manner in which they have suffered for +it,—this, my friend, is the expedition which should occupy the +attention of the government." His fortune was in a sense dependent on +success: the important position of artillery inspector could not be +held by an absentee and it was soon filled by the appointment of a +rival compatriot, Casabianca. In the event of failure Buonaparte would +be destitute. Perhaps the old vista of becoming a Corsican hero opened +up once again to a sore and disappointed man, but it is not probable: +the horizon of his life had expanded too far to be again contracted, +and the present task was probably considered but as a bridge to cross +once more the waters of bitterness. On success or failure hung his +fate. Two fellow-adventurers were Junot and Marmont. The former was +the child of plain French burghers, twenty-three years old, a daring, +swaggering youth, indifferent to danger, already an intimate of +Napoleon's, having been his secretary at Toulon. His chequered destiny +was interwoven with that of his friend and he came to high position. +But though faithful to the end, he was always erratic and troublesome; +and in an attack of morbid chagrin he came to a violent end in 1813. +The other comrade was but a boy of twenty, the son of an officer who, +though of the lower nobility, was a convinced revolutionary. The boys +had met several years earlier at Dijon and again as young men at +Toulon, where the friendship was knitted which grew closer and closer +for twenty years. At Wagram, Marmont became a marshal. Already he had +acquired habits of luxurious ease and the doubtful fortunes of his +Emperor exasperated him into critical impatience. He so magnified his +own importance that at last he deserted. The labored memoirs he wrote +are the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page259" name="page259"></a>(p. 259)</span> apology for his life and for his treachery. Though +without great genius, he was an able man and an industrious recorder +of valuable impressions. Not one of the three accomplished anything +during the Corsican expedition; their common humiliation probably +commended both of his junior comrades to Buonaparte's tenderness, and +thereafter both enjoyed much of his confidence, especially Marmont, in +whom it was utterly misplaced.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p> + +<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page260" name="page260"></a>(p. 260)</span> CHAPTER <abbr title="20">XX.</abbr></h3> + +<h4><span class="smcap">The End of Apprenticeship</span>.</h4> + +<p class="summary">The English Conquest of Corsica — Effects in Italy — The + Buonapartes at Toulon — Napoleon Thwarted Again — + Departure for Paris — His Character Determined — His + Capacities — Reaction From the "Terror" — Resolutions of + the Convention — Parties in France — Their Lack of + Experience — A New Constitution — Different Views of Its + Value.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">1795.</p> + +<p>The turmoils of civil war in France had now left Corsica to her own +pursuits for many months. Her internal affairs had gone from bad to +worse, and Paoli, unable to control his fierce and wilful people, had +found himself helpless. Compelled to seek the support of some strong +foreign power, he had instinctively turned to England, and the English +fleet, driven from Toulon, was finally free to help him. On February +seventeenth, 1794, it entered the fine harbor of <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Florent, and +captured the town without an effort. Establishing a depot which thus +separated the two remaining centers of French influence, Calvi and +Bastia, the English admiral next laid siege to the latter. The place +made a gallant defense, holding out for over three months, until on +May twenty-second Captain Horatio Nelson, who had virtually controlled +operations for eighty-eight days continuously,—nearly the entire +time,—directed the guns of the <span class="italic">Agamemnon</span> with such destructive +force against the little city that when the land forces from <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> +Florent appeared it was weakened beyond the power of resistance and +surrendered.<a id="footnotetag44" name="footnotetag44"></a><a href="#footnote44" title="Go to footnote 44"><span class="small">[44]</span></a> The <span class="pagenum"><a id="page261" name="page261"></a>(p. 261)</span> terms made by its captors were the +easiest known to modern warfare, the conquered being granted all the +honors of war. As a direct and immediate result, the Corsican estates +met, and declared the island a constitutional monarchy under the +protection of England. Sir Gilbert Elliot was appointed viceroy, and +Paoli was recalled by George <abbr title="3">III</abbr> to England. On August tenth fell +Calvi, the last French stronghold in the country, hitherto considered +impregnable by the Corsicans.</p> + +<p>The presence of England so close to Italian shores immediately +produced throughout Lombardy and Tuscany a reaction of feeling in +favor of the French Revolution and its advanced ideas. The Committee +of Safety meant to take advantage of this sentiment and reduce the +Italian powers to the observance of strict neutrality at least, if +nothing more. They hoped to make a demonstration at Leghorn and punish +Rome for an insult to the republic still unavenged—the death of the +French minister, in 1793, at the hands of a mob; perhaps they might +also drive the British from Corsica. This explained the arrival of the +commissioners at Nice with the order to cease operations against +Sardinia and Austria, for the purpose of striking at English influence +in Italy, and possibly in Corsica.</p> + +<p>Everything but one was soon in readiness. To meet the English fleet, +the shipwrights at Toulon must prepare a powerful squadron. They did +not complete their gigantic task until February nineteenth, 1795. We +can imagine the intense activity of any man of great power, determined +to reconquer a lost position: what Buonaparte's fire and zeal must +have been we can scarcely conceive; even his fiercest detractors bear +witness to the activity of those months. When the order to embark was +given, his organization and material were both as nearly perfect as +possible. His mother <span class="pagenum"><a id="page262" name="page262"></a>(p. 262)</span> had brought the younger children to a +charming house near by, where she entertained the influential women of +the neighborhood; and thither her busy son often withdrew for the +pleasures of a society which he was now beginning thoroughly to enjoy. +Thanks to the social diplomacy of this most ingenious family, +everything went well for a time, even with Lucien; and Louis, now +sixteen, was made a lieutenant of artillery. At the last moment came +what seemed the climax of Napoleon's good fortune, the assurance that +the destination of the fleet would be Corsica. Peace was made with +Tuscany. Rome could not be reached without a decisive engagement with +the English; therefore the first object of the expedition would be to +engage the British squadron which was cruising about Corsica. Victory +would of course mean entrance into Corsican harbors.</p> + +<p>On March eleventh the new fleet set sail. In its very first encounter +with the English on March thirteenth the fleet successfully +manœuvered and just saved a fine eighty-gun ship, the <span class="italic" lang="fr">Ça Ira</span>, +from capture by Nelson. Next day there was a partial fleet action +which ended in a disaster, and two fine ships were captured, the <span class="italic" lang="fr">Ça +Ira</span> and the <span class="italic" lang="fr">Censeur</span>; the others fled to Hyères, where the troops +were disembarked from their transports, and sent back to their +posts.<a id="footnotetag45" name="footnotetag45"></a><a href="#footnote45" title="Go to footnote 45"><span class="small">[45]</span></a> Naval operations were not resumed for three months. Once +more Buonaparte was the victim of uncontrollable circumstance. +Destitute of employment, stripped even of the little credit gained in +the last half-year,<a id="footnotetag46" name="footnotetag46"></a><a href="#footnote46" title="Go to footnote 46"><span class="small">[46]</span></a> he stood for the seventh time on the threshold +of the world, a suppliant at the door. In some respects he was worse +equipped for success than at the beginning, for he now <span class="pagenum"><a id="page263" name="page263"></a>(p. 263)</span> had a +record to expunge. To an outsider the spring of 1795 must have +appeared the most critical period of his life.<a id="footnotetag47" name="footnotetag47"></a><a href="#footnote47" title="Go to footnote 47"><span class="small">[47]</span></a> He himself knew +better; in fact, this ill-fated expedition was probably soon forgotten +altogether. In his <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Helena reminiscences, at least, he never +recalled it: at that time he was not fond of mentioning his failures, +little or great, being chiefly concerned to hand himself down to +history as a man of lofty purposes and unsullied motives. Besides, he +was never in the slightest degree responsible for the terrible waste +of millions in this ill-starred maritime enterprise; all his own plans +had been for the conduct of the war by land.</p> + +<p>The Corsican administration had always had in it at least one French +representative. Between the latest of these, Lacombe Saint-Michel, now +a member of the Committee of Safety, and the Salicetti party no love +was ever lost. It was a general feeling that the refugee Corsicans on +the Mediterranean shore were too near their home. They were always +charged with unscrupulous planning to fill their own pockets. Now, +somehow or other, inexplicably perhaps, but nevertheless certainly, a +costly expedition had been sent to Corsica under the impulse of these +very men, and it had failed. The unlucky adventurers had scarcely set +their feet on shore before Lacombe secured Buonaparte's appointment to +the Army of the West, where he would be far from old influences, with +orders to proceed immediately to his post. The papers reached +Marseilles, whither the Buonapartes had already betaken themselves, +during the month of April. On May second,<a id="footnotetag48" name="footnotetag48"></a><a href="#footnote48" title="Go to footnote 48"><span class="small">[48]</span></a> accompanied by Louis, +Junot, and Marmont, the broken general set <span class="pagenum"><a id="page264" name="page264"></a>(p. 264)</span> out for Paris, +where he arrived with his companions eight days later, and rented +shabby lodgings in the Fossés-Montmartre, now Aboukir street. The +style of the house was Liberty Hotel.</p> + +<p>At this point Buonaparte's apprentice years may be said to have ended: +he was virtually the man he remained to the end. A Corsican by origin, +he retained the national sensibility and an enormous power of +endurance both physical and intellectual, together with the dogged +persistence found in the medieval Corsicans. He was devoted with +primitive virtue to his family and his people, but was willing to +sacrifice the latter, at least, to his ambition. His moral sense, +having never been developed by education, and, worse than that, having +been befogged by the extreme sensibility of Rousseau and by the chaos +of the times which that prophet had brought to pass, was practically +lacking. Neither the hostility of his father to religion, nor his own +experiences with the Jesuits, could, however, entirely eradicate a +superstition which passed in his mind for faith. Sometimes he was a +scoffer, as many with weak convictions are; but in general he +preserved a formal and outward respect for the Church. He was, +however, a stanch opponent of Roman centralization and papal +pretensions. His theoretical education had been narrow and one-sided; +but his reading and his authorship, in spite of their superficial and +desultory character, had given him certain large and fairly definite +conceptions of history and politics. But his practical education! What +a polishing and sharpening he had had against the revolving world +moving many times faster then than in most ages! He was an adept in +the art of civil war, for he had been not merely an interested +observer, but an active participant in it during five years in two +countries. Long the victim of wiles more <span class="pagenum"><a id="page265" name="page265"></a>(p. 265)</span> secret than his +own, he had finally grown most wily in diplomacy; an ambitious +politician, his pulpy principles were republican in their character so +far as they had any tissue or firmness.</p> + +<p>His acquisitions in the science of war were substantial and definite. +Neither a martinet himself nor in any way tolerant of routine, +ignorant in fact of many hateful details, among others of obedience, +he yet rose far above tradition or practice in his conception of +strategy. He was perceptibly superior to the world about him in almost +every aptitude, and particularly so in power of combination, in +originality, and in far-sightedness. He could neither write nor spell +correctly, but he was skilled in all practical applications of +mathematics: town and country, mountains and plains, seas and rivers, +were all quantities in his equations. Untrustworthy himself, he strove +to arouse trust, faith, and devotion in those about him; and +concealing successfully his own purpose, he read the hearts of others +like an open book. Of pure-minded affection for either men or women he +had so far shown only a little, and had experienced in return even +less; but he had studied the arts of gallantry, and understood the +leverage of social forces. To these capacities, some embryonic, some +perfectly formed, add the fact that he was now a cosmopolitan, and +there will be outline, relief, and color to his character. "I am in +that frame of mind," he said of himself about this time, "in which men +are when on the eve of battle, with a persistent conviction that since +death is imminent in the end, to be uneasy is folly. Everything makes +me brave death and destiny; and if this goes on, I shall in the end, +my friend, no longer turn when a carriage passes. My reason is +sometimes astonished at all this; but it is the effect produced on me +by the moral spectacle of this land [<span class="italic" lang="fr">ce pays-ci</span>, not <span class="italic">patrie</span>], and +by the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page266" name="page266"></a>(p. 266)</span> habit of running risks." This is the power and the +temper of a man of whom an intimate and confidential friend predicted +that he would never stop short until he had mounted either the throne +or the scaffold.</p> + +<p>The overthrow of Robespierre was the result of an alliance between +what have been called the radicals and the conservatives in the +Convention. Both were Jacobins, for the Girondists had been +discredited, and put out of doors. It was not, however, the +Convention, but Paris, which took command of the resulting movement. +The social structure of France has been so strong, and the nation so +homogeneous, that political convulsions have had much less influence +there than elsewhere. But the "Terror" had struck at the heart of +nearly every family of consequence in the capital, and the people were +utterly weary of horrors. The wave of reaction began when the would-be +dictator fell. A wholesome longing for safety, with its attendant +pleasures, overpowered society, and light-heartedness returned. +Underneath this temper lay but partly concealed a grim determination +not to be thwarted, which awed the Convention. Slowly, yet surely, the +Jacobins lost their power. As once the whole land had been mastered by +the idea of "federation," and as a later patriotic impulse had given +as a watchword "the nation," so now another refrain was in every +mouth—"humanity." The very songs of previous stages, the <span lang="fr">"Ça ira"</span> and +the "Carmagnole," were displaced by new and milder ones. With Paris in +this mood, it was clear that the proscribed might return, and the +Convention, for its intemperate severity, must abdicate.</p> + +<p>This, of course, meant a new political experiment; but being, as they +were, sanguine admirers of Rousseau, the French felt no apprehension +at the prospect. The constitution of the third republic in France has +been <span class="pagenum"><a id="page267" name="page267"></a>(p. 267)</span> considered a happy chance by many. Far from being +perfectly adapted to the needs of the nation, the fine qualities it +possesses are the outcome, not of chance, nor of theory, but of a +century's experience. It should be remembered that France in the +eighteenth century had had no experience whatever of constitutional +government, and the spirit of the age was all for theory in politics. +Accordingly the democratic monarchy of 1791 had failed because, its +framework having been built of empty visions, its constitution was +entirely in the air. The same fate had now overtaken the Girondist +experiment of 1792 and the Jacobin usurpation of the following year, +which was ostensibly sanctioned by the popular adoption of a new +constitution. With perfect confidence in Rousseau's idea that +government is based on a social contract between individuals, the +nation had sworn its adhesion to two constitutions successively, and +had ratified the act each time by appropriate solemnities. Already the +bubble of such a conception had been punctured. Was it strange that +the Convention determined to repeat the same old experiment? Not at +all. They knew nothing better than the old idea, and never doubted +that the fault lay, not in the system, but in its details; they +believed they could improve on the work of their predecessors by the +change and modification of particulars. Aware, therefore, that their +own day had passed, they determined, before dissolving, to construct a +new and improved form of government. The work was confided to a +committee of eleven, most of whom were Girondists recalled for the +purpose in order to hoodwink the public. They now separated the +executive and judiciary from each other and from the legislature, +divided the latter into two branches, so as to cool the heat of +popular sentiment before it was expressed in statutes, and, avoiding +the pitfall dug for itself by <span class="pagenum"><a id="page268" name="page268"></a>(p. 268)</span> the National Assembly, made +members of the Convention eligible for election under the new system.</p> + +<p>If the monarchy could have been restored at the same time, these +features of the new charter would have reproduced in France some +elements of the British constitution, and its adoption would probably +have pacified the dynastic rulers of Europe. But the restoration of +monarchy in any form was as yet impossible. The Bourbons had utterly +discredited royalty, and the late glorious successes had been won +partly by the lavish use in the enemy's camp of money raised and +granted by radical democrats, partly by the prowess of enthusiastic +republicans. The compact, efficient organization of the national army +was the work of the Jacobins, and while the Mountain was discredited +in Paris, it was not so in the provinces; moreover, the army which was +on foot and in the field was in the main a Jacobin army. Royalty was +so hated by most Frenchmen that the sad plight of the child dauphin, +dying by inches in the Temple, awakened no compassion, and its next +lineal representative was that hated thing, a voluntary exile; the +nobility, who might have furnished the material for a French House of +Lords, were traitors to their country, actually bearing arms in the +levies of her foes. The national feeling was a passion; Louis <abbr title="16">XVI</abbr> had +been popular enough until he had outraged it first by ordering the +Church to remain obedient to Rome, and then by appealing to foreign +powers for protection. The emigrant nobles had stumbled over one +another in their haste to manifest their contempt for nationality by +throwing themselves into the arms of their own class in foreign lands.</p> + +<p>Moreover, another work of the Revolution could not be undone. The +lands of both the emigrants and the Church had either been seized and +divided among the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page269" name="page269"></a>(p. 269)</span> adherents of the new order, or else +appropriated to state uses. Restitution was out of the question, for +the power of the new owners was sufficient to destroy any one who +should propose to take away their possessions. This is a fact +particularly to be emphasized, because, making all allowances, the +subsequent history of France has been determined by the alliance of a +landed peasantry with the petty burghers of the cities and towns. What +both have always desired is a strong hand in government which assures +their property rights. Whenever any of the successive forms and +methods has failed its fate was doomed. In this temper of the masses, +in the flight of the ruling class, in the distemper of the radical +democracy, a constitutional monarchy was unthinkable. A presidential +government on the model of that devised and used by the United States +was equally impossible, because the French appear already to have had +a premonition or an instinct that a ripe experience of liberty was +essential to the working of such an institution. The student of the +revolutionary times will become aware how powerful the feeling already +was among the French that a single strong executive, elected by the +masses, would speedily turn into a tyrant. They have now a nominal +president; but his election is indirect, his office is representative, +not political, and his duties are like an impersonal, colorless +reflection of those performed by the English crown. The +constitution-makers simply could not fall back on an experience of +successful free government which did not exist. Absolute monarchy had +made gradual change impossible, for oppression dies only in +convulsions. Experience was in front, not behind, and must be gained +through suffering.</p> + +<p>It was therefore a grim necessity which led the Thermidorians of the +Convention to try another political nostrum. What should it be? There +had always been <span class="pagenum"><a id="page270" name="page270"></a>(p. 270)</span> a profound sense in France of her historic +continuity with Rome. Her system of jurisprudence, her speech, her +church, her very land, were Roman. Recalling this, the +constitution-framers also recollected that these had been the gifts of +imperial and Christian Rome. It was a curious but characteristic whim +which consequently suggested to the enemies of ecclesiasticism the +revival of Roman forms dating from the heathen commonwealth. This it +was which led them to commit the administration of government in both +external and internal relations to a divided executive. There, +however, the resemblance to Rome ended, for instead of two consuls +there were to be five directors. These were to sit as a committee, to +appoint their own ministerial agents, together with all officers and +officials of the army, and to fill the few positions in the +administrative departments which were not elective, except those in +the treasury, which was a separate, independent administration. All +executive powers except those of the treasury were likewise to be in +their hands. They were to have no veto, and their treaties of peace +must be ratified by the legislature; but they could declare war +without consulting any one. The judiciary was to be elected directly +by the people, and the judges were to hold office for about a year. +The legislature was to be separated into a senate with two hundred and +fifty members, called the Council of Ancients, which had the veto +power, and an assembly called the Council of Juniors, or, more +popularly, from its number, the Five Hundred, which had the initiative +in legislation. The members of the former must be at least forty years +old and married; every aspirant for a seat in the latter must be +twenty-five and of good character. Both these bodies were alike to be +elected by universal suffrage working indirectly through secondary +electors, and <span class="pagenum"><a id="page271" name="page271"></a>(p. 271)</span> limited by educational and property +qualifications. There were many wholesome checks and balances. This +constitution is known as that of I Vendémiaire, An <abbr title="4">IV</abbr>, or September +twenty-second, 1795. It became operative on October twenty-sixth.</p> + +<p>The scheme was formed, as was intended, under Girondist influence, and +was acceptable to the nation as a whole. In spite of many defects, it +might after a little experience have been amended so as to work, if +the people had been united and hearty in its support. But they were +not. The Thermidorians, who were still Jacobins at heart, ordered that +at least two-thirds of the men elected to sit in the new houses should +have been members of the Convention, on the plea that they alone had +sufficient experience of affairs to carry on the public business, at +least for the present. Perhaps this was intended as some offset to the +enforced closing of the Jacobin Club on November twelfth, 1794, due to +menaces by the higher classes of Parisian society, known to history as +"the gilded youth." On the other hand, the royalists saw in the new +constitution an instrument ready to their hand, should public opinion, +in its search for means to restore quiet and order, be carried still +further away from the Revolution than the movement of Thermidor had +swept it. Their conduct justified the measures of the Jacobins.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p> + +<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page272" name="page272"></a>(p. 272)</span> CHAPTER <abbr title="21">XXI.</abbr></h3> + +<h4><span class="smcap">The Antechamber to Success</span>.</h4> + +<p class="summary">Punishment of the Terrorists — Dangers of the Thermidorians + — Successes of Republican Arms — Some Republican Generals + — Military Prodigies — The Treaty of Basel — Vendean + Disorders Repressed — A "White Terror" — Royalist Activity + — Friction Under the New Constitution — Arrival of + Buonaparte in Paris — Paris Society — Its Power — The + People Angry — Resurgence of Jacobinism — Buonaparte's + Dejection — His Relations with <abbr title="Madame">Mme.</abbr> Permon — His + Magnanimity.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">1795.</p> + +<p>From time to time after the events of Thermidor the more active agents +of the Terror were sentenced to transportation, and the less guilty +were imprisoned. On May seventh, 1795, three days before Buonaparte's +arrival in Paris, Fouquier-Tinville, and fifteen other wretches who +had been but tools, the executioners of the revolutionary tribunal, +were put to death. The National Guard had been reorganized, and +Pichegru was recalled from the north to take command of the united +forces in Paris under a committee of the Convention with Barras at its +head.</p> + +<p>This was intended to overawe those citizens of Paris who were hostile +to the Jacobins. They saw the trap set for them, and were angry. +During the years of internal disorder and foreign warfare just passed +the economic conditions of the land had grown worse and worse, until, +in the winter of 1794-95, the laboring classes of Paris were again on +the verge of starvation. As usual, they attributed their sufferings to +the government, and there were bread riots. Twice in the spring +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page273" name="page273"></a>(p. 273)</span> of 1795—on April first and May twentieth—the unemployed +and hungry rose to overthrow the Convention, but they were easily put +down by the soldiers on both occasions. The whole populace, as +represented by the sections or wards of Paris, resented this use of +armed force, and grew uneasy. The Thermidorians further angered it by +introducing a new metropolitan administration, which greatly +diminished the powers and influence of the sections, without, however, +destroying their organization. The people of the capital, therefore, +were ready for mischief. The storming of the <span lang="fr">Tuileries</span> on August +tenth, 1792, had been the work of the Paris mob. Why could they not in +turn, another mob, reactionary and to a degree even royalist, +overthrow the tyranny of the Jacobins as they themselves had +overthrown the double-faced administration of the King?</p> + +<p>A crisis might easily have been precipitated before Buonaparte's +arrival in Paris, but it was delayed by events outside the city. The +year 1794 had been a brilliant season for the republican arms and for +republican diplomacy. We have seen how the Piedmontese were forced +beyond the maritime Alps; the languid and worthless troops of Spain +were expelled from the Pyrenean strongholds and forced southward; in +some places, beyond the Ebro. Pichegru, with the Army of the North, +had driven the invaders from French soil and had conquered the +Austrian Netherlands. Jourdan, with the Army of the Sambre and Meuse, +had defeated the Austrians at Fleurus in a battle decided by the +bravery of Marceau, thus confirming the conquest. Other generals were +likewise rising to eminence. Hoche had in 1793 beaten the Austrians +under Wurmser at Weissenburg, and driven them from Alsace. He had now +further heightened his fame by his successes against <span class="pagenum"><a id="page274" name="page274"></a>(p. 274)</span> the +insurgents of the west. Saint-Cyr, Bernadotte, and Kléber, with many +others of Buonaparte's contemporaries, had also risen to distinction +in minor engagements.</p> + +<p>Of peasant birth, Pichegru was nevertheless appointed by +ecclesiastical influence as a scholar at Brienne. In the dearth of +generals he was selected for promotion by Saint-Just as was Hoche at +the time when Carnot discovered Jourdan. Having assisted Hoche in the +conquest of Alsace when a division general and only thirty-two years +old, he began the next year, in 1794, to deploy his extraordinary +powers, and with Moreau as second in command he swept the English and +Austrians out of the Netherlands. Both these generals were sensitive +and jealous men; after brilliant careers under the republic they +turned royalists and came to unhappy ends. Moreau was two years the +junior. He was the son of a Breton lawyer and rose to notice both as a +local politician, and as a volunteer captain in the Breton struggles +for independence with which he had no sympathy. As a great soldier he +ranks with Hoche after Napoleon in the revolutionary time. Hoche was +younger still, having been born in 1768. In 1784 he enlisted as a +common soldier and rose from the ranks by sheer ability. He died at +the age of thirty, but as a politician and strategist he was already +famous. Kléber was an Alsatian who had been educated in the military +school at Munich and was already forty-one years old. Having enlisted +under the Revolution as a volunteer, he so distinguished himself on +the Rhine that he was swiftly promoted; but, thwarted in his ambition +to have an independent command, he lost his ardor and did not again +distinguish himself until he secured service under Napoleon in Egypt. +There he exhibited such capacity that he was regarded as one of +Bonaparte's <span class="pagenum"><a id="page275" name="page275"></a>(p. 275)</span> rivals. He was assassinated by an Oriental in +Cairo. Bernadotte was four years the senior of Bonaparte, the son of a +lawyer in Paris. He too enlisted in the ranks, as a royal marine, and +rose by his own merits. He was a rude radical whose military ability +was paralleled by his skill in diplomacy. His swift promotion was +obtained in the Rhenish campaigns. Gouvion Saint-Cyr was also born in +1764 at Toul. He was a marquis but an ardent reformer, and a born +soldier. He began as a volunteer captain on the staff of Custine, and +rising like the others mentioned became an excellent general, though +his chances for distinction were few. Jourdan was likewise a nobleman, +born at Limoges to the rank of count in 1762. His long career was +solid rather than brilliant, though he gained great distinction in the +northern campaigns and ended as a marshal, the military adviser of +Joseph Bonaparte in Naples and Madrid.</p> + +<p>The record of military energy put forth by the liberated nation under +Jacobin rule stands, as Fox declared in the House of Commons, +absolutely unique. Twenty-seven victories, eight in pitched battle; +one hundred and twenty fights; ninety thousand prisoners; one hundred +and sixteen towns and important places captured; two hundred and +thirty forts or redoubts taken; three thousand eight hundred pieces of +ordnance, seventy thousand muskets, one thousand tons of powder, and +ninety standards fallen into French hands—such is the incredible +tale. Moreover, the army had been purged with as little mercy as a +mercantile corporation shows to incompetent employees. It is often +claimed that the armies of republican France and of Napoleon were, +after all, the armies of the Bourbons. Not so. The conscription law, +though very imperfect in itself, was supplemented by the general +enthusiasm; a nation was now in the ranks instead of hirelings; the +reorganization <span class="pagenum"><a id="page276" name="page276"></a>(p. 276)</span> had remodeled the whole structure, and +between January first, 1792, and January twentieth, 1795, one hundred +and ten division commanders, two hundred and sixty-three generals of +brigade, and one hundred and thirty-eight adjutant-generals either +resigned, were suspended from duty, or dismissed from the service. The +republic had new leaders and new men in its armies.</p> + +<p>The nation had apparently determined that the natural boundary of +France and of its own revolutionary system was the Rhine. Nice and +Savoy would round out their territory to the south. This much the new +government, it was understood, would conquer, administer, and keep; +the Revolution in other lands, impelled but not guided by French +influence, must manage its own affairs. This was, of course, an +entirely new diplomatic situation. Under its pressure Holland, by the +aid of Pichegru's army, became the Batavian Republic, and ceded Dutch +Flanders to France; while Prussia abandoned the coalition, and in the +treaty of Basel, signed on April fifth, 1795, agreed to the neutrality +of all north Germany. In return for the possessions of the +ecclesiastical princes in central Germany, which were eventually to be +secularized, she yielded to France undisputed possession of the left +bank of the Rhine. Spain, Portugal, and the little states both of +south Germany and of Italy were all alike weary of the contest, the +more so as they were honeycombed with liberal ideas. They were already +preparing to desert England and Austria, the great powers which still +stood firm. With the exception of Portugal, they acceded within a few +weeks to the terms made at Basel. Rome, as the instigator of the +unyielding ecclesiastics of Vendée, was, of course, on the side of +Great Britain and the Empire.</p> + +<p>At home the military success of the republic was for <span class="pagenum"><a id="page277" name="page277"></a>(p. 277)</span> a +little while equally marked. Before the close of 1794 the Breton +peasants who, under the name of Chouans, had become lawless highwaymen +were entirely crushed; and the English expedition sent to Quiberon in +the following year to revive the disorders was a complete, almost +ridiculous failure. The insurrection of Vendée had dragged stubbornly +on, but it was stamped out in June, 1795, by the execution of over +seven hundred of the emigrants who had returned on English vessels to +fan the royalist blaze which was kindling again.</p> + +<a id="img007" name="img007"></a> +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/img007.jpg" width="300" height="406" alt="" title=""> +<p class="noindent"><span class="small">In the collection of Mr. Edmond Taigny.</span></p> +<p class="noindent">Marie-Josephine-Rose Tascher <span lang="fr">de La Pagerie</span>,<br> + Called Josephine, Empress of the French.</p> +<p class="noindent"><span class="small">From the design by Jean-Baptiste Isabey<br> + (pencil drawing retouched in water-color) made in 1798.</span></p> +</div> + +<p>The royalists, having created the panic of five years previous, were +not to be outdone even by the Terror. Charette, the Vendean leader, +retaliated by a holocaust of two thousand republican prisoners whom he +had taken. After the events of Thermidor the Convention had thrown +open the prison doors, put an end to bloodshed, and proclaimed an +amnesty. The evident power of the Parisian burghers, the form given by +the Girondists to the new constitution, the longing of all for peace +and for a return of comfort and prosperity, still further emboldened +the royalists, and enabled them to produce a wide-spread revulsion of +feeling. They rose in many parts of the south, instituting what is +known from the colors they wore as the "White Terror," and pitilessly +murdering, in the desperation of timid revenge, their unsuspecting and +unready neighbors of republican opinions. The scenes enacted were more +terrible, the human butchery was more bloody, than any known during +the darkest days of the revolutionary movement in Paris. This might +well be considered the preliminary trial to the Great White Terror of +1815, in which the frenzy and fanaticism of royalists and Roman +Catholics surpassed the most frantic efforts of radicals in lawless +bloodshed. Imperialists, free-thinkers, and Protestants were the +victims.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page278" name="page278"></a>(p. 278)</span> The Jacobins, therefore, in view of so dangerous a situation, +and not without some reason, had determined that they themselves +should administer the new constitution. They were in the most +desperate straits because the Paris populace now held them directly +responsible for the existing scarcity of food, a scarcity amounting to +famine. From time to time for months the mob invaded the hall of the +Convention, craving bread with angry, hungry clamor. The members +mingled with the disorderly throng on the floor and temporarily +soothed them by empty promises. But each inroad of disorder was worse +than the preceding until the Mountain was not only without support +from the rabble, but an object of loathing and contempt to them and +their half-starved leaders. Hence their only chance for power was in +some new rearrangement under which they would not be so prominent in +affairs. The royalists at the same time saw in the provisions of the +new charter a means to accomplish their own ends; and relying upon the +attitude of the capital, in which mob and burghers alike were angry, +determined simultaneously to strike a blow for mastery, and to +supplant the Jacobins. Evidence of their activity appeared both in +military and political circles. Throughout the summer of 1795 there +was an unaccountable languor in the army. It was believed that +Pichegru had purposely palsied his own and Jourdan's abilities, and +the needless armistice he made with Austria went far to confirm the +idea. It was afterward proved that several members of the Convention +had been in communication with royalists. Among their agents was a +personage of some importance—a certain Aubry—who, having returned +after the events of Thermidor, never disavowed his real sentiments as +a royalist; and being later made chairman of the army committee, was +in that position when Buonaparte's <span class="pagenum"><a id="page279" name="page279"></a>(p. 279)</span> career was temporarily +checked by degradation from the artillery to the infantry. For this +absurd reason he was long but unjustly thought also to have caused the +original transfer to the west.</p> + +<p>The Convention was aware of all that was taking place, but was also +helpless to correct the trouble. Having abolished the powerful and +terrible Committee of Safety, which had conducted its operations with +such success as attends remorseless vigor, it was found necessary on +August ninth to reconstruct something similar to meet the new crisis. +At the same time the spirit of the hour was propitiated by forming +sixteen other committees to control the action of the central one. +Such a dispersion of executive power was a virtual paralysis of +action, but it was to be only temporary, they would soon centralize +their strength in an efficient way. The constitution was adopted only +a fortnight later, on August twenty-second. Immediately the sections +of Paris began to display irritation at the limitations set to their +choice of new representatives. They had many sympathizers in the +provinces, and the extreme reactionaries from the Revolution were +jubilant. Fortunately for France, Carnot was temporarily retained to +control the department of war. He was not removed until the following +March.</p> + +<p>When General Buonaparte reached Paris, and went to dwell in the mean +and shabby lodgings which his lean purse compelled him to choose, he +found the city strangely metamorphosed. Animated by a settled purpose +not to accept the position assigned to him in the Army of the West, +and, if necessary, to defy his military superiors, his humor put him +out of all sympathy with the prevalent gaiety. Bitter experience had +taught him that in civil war the consequences of victory and defeat +are alike inglorious. In the fickleness of public opinion <span class="pagenum"><a id="page280" name="page280"></a>(p. 280)</span> +the avenging hero of to-day may easily become the reprobated outcast +of to-morrow. What reputation he had gained at Toulon was already +dissipated in part; the rest might easily be squandered entirely in +Vendée. He felt and said that he could wait. But how about his daily +bread?</p> + +<p>The drawing-rooms of Paris had opened like magic before the "sesame" +of Thermidor and the prospects of settled order under the Directory. +There were visiting, dining, and dancing; dressing, flirtation, and +intrigue; walking, driving, and riding—all the avocations of a people +soured with the cruel and bloody past, and reasserting its native +passion for pleasure and refinement. All classes indulged in the +wildest speculation, securities public and corporate were the sport of +the exchange, the gambling spirit absorbed the energies of both sexes +in desperate games of skill and chance. The theaters, which had never +closed their doors even during the worst periods of terror, were +thronged from pit to gallery by a populace that reveled in excitement. +The morality of the hour was no better than the old; for there was a +strange mixture of elements in this new society. The men in power were +of every class—a few of the old aristocracy, many of the wealthy +burghers, a certain proportion of the colonial nabobs from the West +Indies and elsewhere, adventurers of every stripe, a few even of the +city populace, and some country common folk. The purchase and sale of +the confiscated lands, the national domain which furnished a slender +security for the national debt and depreciated bonds, had enriched +thousands of the vulgar sort. The newly rich lost their balance and +their stolidity, becoming as giddy and frivolous and aggressive as the +worst. The ingredients of this queer hodgepodge had yet to learn one +another's language and nature; the niceties of speech, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page281" name="page281"></a>(p. 281)</span> +gesture, and mien which once had a well-understood significance in the +higher circles of government and society were all to be readjusted in +accordance with the ideas of the motley crowd and given new +conventional currency. In such a disorderly transition vice does not +require the mask of hypocrisy, virtue is helpless because unorganized, +and something like riot characterizes conduct. The sound and rugged +goodness of many newcomers, the habitual respectability of the +veterans, were for the moment alike inactive because not yet kneaded +into the lump they had to leaven.</p> + +<p>There was, nevertheless, a marvelous exhibition of social power in +this heterogeneous mass; nothing of course proportionate in extent to +what had been brought forth for national defense, but still, of almost +if not entirely equal significance. Throughout the revolutionary epoch +there had been much discussion concerning reforms in education. It was +in 1794 that Monge finally succeeded in founding the great Polytechnic +School, an institution which clearly corresponded to a national +characteristic, since from that day it has strengthened the natural +bias of the French toward applied science, and tempted them to the +undue and unfortunate neglect of many important humanizing +disciplines. The Conservatory of Music and the Institute were +permanently reorganized soon after. The great collections of the +Museum of Arts and Crafts (<span lang="fr">Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers</span>) were +begun, and permanent lecture courses were founded in connection with +the National Library, the Botanical Garden, the Medical School, and +other learned institutions. Almost immediately a philosophical +literature began to appear; pictures were painted, and the theaters +reopened with new and tolerable pieces written for the day and place. +In the very midst of war, moreover, an attempt was made to emancipate +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page282" name="page282"></a>(p. 282)</span> the press. The effort was ill advised, and the results were +so deplorable for the conduct of affairs that the newspapers were in +the event more firmly muzzled than ever.</p> + +<p>When Buonaparte had made his living arrangements, and began to look +about, he must have been stupefied by the hatred for the Convention so +generally and openly manifested on every side. The provinces had +looked upon the Revolution as accomplished. Paris was evidently in +such ill humor with the body which represented it that the republic +was to all appearance virtually undone. "Reëlect two thirds of the +Convention members to the new legislature!" said the angry demagogues +of the Paris sections. "Never! Those men who, by their own confession, +have for three years in all these horrors been the cowardly tools of a +sentiment they could not restrain, but are now self-styled and +reformed moderates! Impossible!" Whether bribed by foreign gold, and +working under the influence of royalists, or by reason of the famine, +or through the determination of the well-to-do to have a radical +change, or from all these influences combined, the sections were +gradually organizing for resistance, and it was soon clear that the +National Guard was in sympathy with them. The Convention was equally +alert, and began to arm for the conflict. They already had several +hundred artillerymen and five thousand regulars who were imbued with +the national rather that the local spirit; they now began to enlist a +special guard of fifteen hundred from the desperate men who had been +the trusty followers of Hébert and Robespierre. The fighting spirit of +the Convention was unquenchable. Having lodged the "two thirds" in the +coming government, they virtually declared war on all enemies internal +and external. By their decree of October twenty-fourth, 1792, they had +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page283" name="page283"></a>(p. 283)</span> announced that the natural limits of France were their goal. +Having virtually obtained them, they were now determined to defend +them. This was the legacy of the Convention to the Directory, a legacy +which indefinitely prolonged the Revolution and nullified the new +polity from the outset.</p> + +<p>For a month or more Buonaparte was a mere onlooker, or at most an +interested examiner of events, weighing and speculating in obscurity +much as he had done three years before. The war department listened to +and granted his earnest request that he might remain in Paris until +there should be completed a general reassignment of officers, which +had been determined upon, and, as his good fortune would have it, was +already in progress. As the first weeks passed, news arrived from the +south of a reaction in favor of the Jacobins. It became clearer every +day that the Convention had moral support beyond the ramparts of +Paris, and within the city it was possible to maintain something in +the nature of a Jacobin salon. Many of that faith who were disaffected +with the new conditions in Paris—the Corsicans in particular—were +welcomed at the home of <abbr title="Madame">Mme.</abbr> Permon by herself and her beautiful +daughter, afterward <abbr title="Madame">Mme.</abbr> Junot and Duchess of Abrantès. Salicetti had +chosen the other child, a son now grown, as his private secretary, and +was of course a special favorite in the house. The first manifestation +of reviving Jacobin confidence was shown in the attack made on May +twentieth upon the Convention by hungry rioters who shouted for the +constitution of 1793. The result was disastrous to the radicals +because the tumult was quelled by the courage and presence of mind +shown by Boissy d'Anglas, a calm and determined moderate. Commissioned +to act alone in provisioning Paris, he bravely accepted his +responsibility and mounted the president's chair in the midst of +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page284" name="page284"></a>(p. 284)</span> the tumult to defend himself. The mob brandished in his face +the bloody head of Féraud, a fellow-member of his whom they had just +murdered. The speaker uncovered his head in respect, and his undaunted +mien cowed the leaders, who slunk away, followed by the rabble. The +consequence was a total annihilation of the Mountain on May +twenty-second. The Convention committees were disbanded, their +artillerymen were temporarily dismissed, and the constitution of 1793 +was abolished.</p> + +<p>The friendly home of <abbr title="Madame">Mme.</abbr> Permon was almost the only resort of +Buonaparte, who, though disillusioned, was still a Jacobin. Something +like desperation appeared in his manner; the lack of proper food +emaciated his frame, while uncertainty as to the future left its mark +on his wan face and in his restless eyes. It was not astonishing, for +his personal and family affairs were apparently hopeless. His +brothers, like himself, had now been deprived of profitable +employment; they, with him, might possibly and even probably soon be +numbered among the suspects; destitute of a powerful patron, and with +his family once more in actual want, Napoleon was scarcely fit in +either garb or humor for the society even of his friends. His hostess +described him as having "sharp, angular features; small hands, long +and thin; his hair long and disheveled; without gloves; wearing badly +made, badly polished shoes; having always a sickly appearance, which +was the result of his lean and yellow complexion, brightened only by +two eyes glistening with shrewdness and firmness." Bourrienne, who had +now returned from diplomatic service, was not edified by the +appearance or temper of his acquaintance, who, he says, "was ill clad +and slovenly, his character cold, often inscrutable. His smile was +hollow and often out of place. He had moments of fierce gaiety which +made you uneasy, and indisposed to love him."</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page285" name="page285"></a>(p. 285)</span> No wonder the man was ill at ease. His worst fears were +realized when the influence of the Mountain was wiped out,—Carnot, +the organizer of victory, as he had been styled, being the only one of +all the old leaders to escape. Salicetti was too prominent a partizan +to be overlooked by the angry burghers. For a time he was concealed by +<abbr title="Madame">Mme.</abbr> Permon in her Paris home. He escaped the vengeance of his enemies +in the disguise of her lackey, flying with her when she left for the +south to seek refuge for herself and children. Even the rank and file +among the members of the Mountain either fled or were arrested. That +Buonaparte was unmolested appears to prove how cleverly he had +concealed his connection with them. The story that in these days he +proposed for the hand of <abbr title="Madame">Mme.</abbr> Permon, though without any corroborative +evidence, has an air of probability, partly in the consideration of a +despair which might lead him to seek any support, even that of a wife +as old as his mother, partly from the existence of a letter to the +lady which, though enigmatical, displays an interesting mixture of +wounded pride and real or pretended jealousy. The epistle is dated +June eighteenth, 1795. He felt that she would think him duped, he +explains, if he did not inform her that although she had not seen fit +to give her confidence to him, he had all along known that she had +Salicetti in hiding. Then follows an address to that countryman, +evidently intended to clear the writer from all taint of Jacobinism, +and couched in these terms: "I could have denounced thee, but did not, +although it would have been but a just revenge so to do. Which has +chosen the truer part? Go, seek in peace an asylum where thou canst +return to better thoughts of thy country. My lips shall never utter +thy name. Repent, and above all, appreciate my motives. This I +deserve, for they are noble and generous." In <span class="pagenum"><a id="page286" name="page286"></a>(p. 286)</span> these words to +the political refugee he employs the familiar republican "thou"; in +the peroration, addressed, like the introduction, to the lady herself, +he recurs to the polite and distant "you." "<abbr title="Madame">Mme.</abbr> Permon, my good +wishes go with you as with your child. You are two feeble creatures +with no defense. May Providence and the prayers of a friend be with +you. Above all, be prudent and never remain in the large cities. +Adieu. Accept my friendly greetings."<a id="footnotetag49" name="footnotetag49"></a><a href="#footnote49" title="Go to footnote 49"><span class="small">[49]</span></a></p> + +<p>The meaning of this missive is recondite; perhaps it is this: <abbr title="Madame">Mme.</abbr> +Permon, I loved you, and could have ruined the rival who is your +protégé with a clear conscience, for he once did me foul wrong, as he +will acknowledge. But farewell. I bear you no grudge. Or else it may +announce another change in the political weather by the veering of the +cock. As a good citizen, despising the horrors of the past, I could +have denounced you, Salicetti. I did not, for I recalled old times and +your helplessness, and wished to heap coals of fire on your head, that +you might see the error of your way. The latter interpretation finds +support in the complete renunciation of Jacobinism which the writer +made soon afterward, and in his subsequent labored explanation that in +the "Supper of Beaucaire" he had not identified himself with the +Jacobin soldier (so far an exact statement of fact), but had wished +only by a dispassionate presentation of facts to show the hopeless +case of Marseilles, and to prevent useless bloodshed.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p> + +<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page287" name="page287"></a>(p. 287)</span> CHAPTER <abbr title="22">XXII.</abbr></h3> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Bonaparte the General of the Convention</span><a id="footnotetag50" name="footnotetag50"></a><a href="#footnote50" title="Go to footnote 50"><span class="small">[50]</span></a>.</h4> + +<p class="summary">Disappointments — Another Furlough — Connection with + Barras — Official Society in Paris — Buonaparte as a Beau + — Condition of His Family — A Political General — An + Opening in Turkey — Opportunities in Europe — Social + Advancement — Official Degradation — Schemes for + Restoration — Plans of the Royalists — The Hostility of + Paris to the Convention — Buonaparte, General of the + Convention Troops — His Strategy.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">1795.</p> + +<p>The overhauling of the army list with the subsequent reassignment of +officers turned out ill for Buonaparte. Aubry, the head of the +committee, appears to have been utterly indifferent to him, displaying +no ill will, and certainly no active good will, toward the sometime +Jacobin, whose name, moreover, was last on the list of artillery +officers in the order of seniority. According to the regulations, when +one arm of the service was overmanned, the superfluous officers were +to be transferred to another. This was now the case with the +artillery, and Buonaparte, as a supernumerary, was on June thirteenth +again ordered to the west, but this time only as a mere infantry +general of brigade. He appears to have felt throughout life more +vindictiveness toward Aubry, the man whom he believed to have been +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page288" name="page288"></a>(p. 288)</span> the author of this particular misfortune, than toward any +other person with whom he ever came in contact. In this rigid scrutiny +of the army list, exaggerated pretensions of service and untruthful +testimonials were no longer accepted. For this reason Joseph also had +already lost his position, and was about to settle with his family in +Genoa, while Louis was actually sent back to school, being ordered to +Châlons. Poor Lucien, overwhelmed in the general ruin of the radicals, +and with a wife and child dependent on him, was in despair. The other +members of the family were temporarily destitute, but self-helpful.</p> + +<p>In this there was nothing new; but, for all that, the monotony of the +situation must have been disheartening. Napoleon's resolution was soon +taken. He was either really ill from privation and disappointment, or +soon became so. Armed with a medical certificate, he applied for and +received a furlough. This step having been taken, the next, according +to the unchanged and familiar instincts of the man, was to apply under +the law for mileage to pay his expenses on the journey which he had +taken as far as Paris in pursuance of the order given him on March +twenty-ninth to proceed to his post in the west. Again, following the +precedents of his life, he calculated mileage not from Marseilles, +whence he had really started, but from Nice, thus largely increasing +the amount which he asked for, and in due time received. During his +leave several projects occupied his busy brain. The most important +were a speculation in the sequestered lands of the emigrants and +monasteries, and the writing of two monographs—one a history of +events from the ninth of Fructidor, year <abbr title="2">II</abbr> (August twenty-sixth, +1794), to the beginning of year <abbr title="4">IV</abbr> (September twenty-third, 1795), the +other a memoir on the Army of Italy. The first <span class="pagenum"><a id="page289" name="page289"></a>(p. 289)</span> notion was +doubtless due to the frenzy for speculation, more and more rife, which +was now comparable only to that which prevailed in France at the time +of Law's Mississippi scheme or in England during the South Sea Bubble. +It affords an insight into financial conditions to know that a gold +piece of twenty francs was worth seven hundred and fifty in paper. A +project for purchasing a certain property as a good investment for his +wife's dowry was submitted to Joseph, but it failed by the sudden +repeal of the law under which such purchases were made. The two themes +were both finished, and another, "A Study in Politics: being an +Inquiry into the Causes of Troubles and Discords," was sketched, but +never completed. The memoir on the Army of Italy was virtually the +scheme for offensive warfare which he laid before the younger +Robespierre; it was now revised, and sent to the highest military +power—the new central committee appointed as a substitute for the +Committee of Safety. These occupations were all very well, but the +furlough was rapidly expiring, and nothing had turned up. Most +opportunely, the invalid had a relapse, and was able to secure an +extension of leave until August fourth, the date on which a third of +the committee on the reassignment of officers would retire, among them +the hated Aubry.</p> + +<p>Speaking at <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Helena of these days, he said: "I lived in the Paris +streets without employment. I had no social habits, going only into +the set at the house of Barras, where I was well received.... I was +there because there was nothing to be had elsewhere. I attached myself +to Barras because I knew no one else. Robespierre was dead; Barras was +playing a rôle: I had to attach myself to somebody and something." It +will not be forgotten that Barras and Fréron had been Dantonists when +they were at the siege of Toulon with <span class="pagenum"><a id="page290" name="page290"></a>(p. 290)</span> Buonaparte. After the +events of Thermidor they had forsworn Jacobinism altogether, and were +at present in alliance with the moderate elements of Paris society. +Barras's rooms in the Luxembourg were the center of all that was gay +and dazzling in that corrupt and careless world. They were, as a +matter of course, the resort of the most beautiful and brilliant +women, influential, but not over-scrupulous. <abbr title="Madame">Mme.</abbr> Tallien, who has +been called "the goddess of Thermidor," was the queen of the coterie; +scarcely less beautiful and gracious were the widow Beauharnais and +<abbr title="Madame">Mme.</abbr> Récamier. Barras had been a noble; the instincts of his class +made him a delightful host.</p> + +<p>What Napoleon saw and experienced he wrote to the faithful Joseph. The +letters are a truthful transcript of his emotions, the key-note of +which is admiration for the Paris women. "Carriages and the gay world +reappear, or rather no more recall as after a long dream that they +have ever ceased to glitter. Readings, lecture courses in history, +botany, astronomy, etc., follow one another. Everything is here +collected to amuse and render life agreeable; you are taken out of +your thoughts; how can you have the blues in this intensity of purpose +and whirling turmoil? The women are everywhere, at the play, on the +promenades, in the libraries. In the scholar's study you find very +charming persons. Here only of all places in the world they deserve to +hold the helm: the men are mad about them, think only of them, and +live only by means of their influence. A woman needs six months in +Paris to know what is her due and what is her sphere."<a id="footnotetag51" name="footnotetag51"></a><a href="#footnote51" title="Go to footnote 51"><span class="small">[51]</span></a> As yet he +had not met <abbr title="Madame">Mme.</abbr> Beauharnais. The whole tone of the correspondence is +cheerful, and indicates that Buonaparte's efforts for <span class="pagenum"><a id="page291" name="page291"></a>(p. 291)</span> a new +alliance had been successful, that his fortunes were looking up, and +that the giddy world contained something of uncommon interest. As his +fortunes improved, he grew more hopeful, and appeared more in society. +On occasion he even ventured upon little gallantries. Presented to +<abbr title="Madame">Mme.</abbr> Tallien, he was frequently seen at her receptions. He was at +first shy and reserved, but time and custom put him more at his ease. +One evening, as little groups were gradually formed for the +interchange of jest and repartee, he seemed to lose his timidity +altogether, and, assuming the mien of a fortune-teller, caught his +hostess's hand, and poured out a long rigmarole of nonsense which much +amused the rest of the circle.</p> + +<p>These months had also improved the situation of the family. His mother +and younger sisters were somehow more comfortable in their Marseilles +home. Strange doings were afterward charged against them, but it is +probable that these stories are without other foundation than spite. +Napoleon had received a considerable sum for mileage, nearly +twenty-seven hundred francs, and, good son as he always was, it is +likely that he shared the money with his family. Both Elisa and the +little Pauline now had suitors. Fesch, described by Lucien as "ever +fresh, not like a rose, but like a good radish," was comfortably +waiting at Aix in the house of old acquaintances for a chance to +return to Corsica. Joseph's arrangements for moving to Genoa were +nearly complete, and Louis was comfortably settled at school in +Châlons. "Brutus" Lucien was the only luckless wight of the number: +his fears had been realized, and, having been denounced as a Jacobin, +he was now lying terror-stricken in the prison of Aix, and all about +him men of his stripe were being executed.</p> + +<p>On August fifth the members of the new Committee <span class="pagenum"><a id="page292" name="page292"></a>(p. 292)</span> of Safety +finally entered on their duties. Almost the first document presented +at the meeting was Buonaparte's demand for restoration to his rank in +the artillery. It rings with indignation, and abounds with loose +statements about his past services, boldly claiming the honors of the +last short but successful Italian campaign. The paper was referred to +the proper authorities, and, a fortnight later, its writer received +peremptory orders to join his corps in the west. What could be more +amusingly characteristic of this persistent man than to read, in a +letter to Joseph under date of the following day, August twentieth: "I +am attached at this moment to the topographical bureau of the +Committee of Safety for the direction of the armies in Carnot's place. +If I wish, I can be sent to Turkey by the government as general of +artillery, with a good salary and a splendid title, to organize the +artillery of the Grand Turk." Then follow plans for Joseph's +appointment to the consular service, for a meeting at Leghorn, and for +a further land speculation. At the close are these remarks, which not +only exhibit great acuteness of observation, but are noteworthy as +displaying a permanent quality of the man, that of always having an +alternative in readiness: "It is quiet, but storms are gathering, +perhaps; the primaries are going to meet in a few days. I shall take +with me five or six officers.... The commission and decree of the +Committee of Safety, which employs me in the duty of directing the +armies and plans of campaign, being most flattering to me, I fear they +will no longer allow me to go to Turkey. We shall see. I may have on +hand a campaign to-day.... Write always as if I were going to Turkey."</p> + +<p>This was all half true. By dint of soliciting Barras and <span lang="fr">Doulcet de +Pontécoulant</span>, another well-wisher, both men of influence, and by +importuning Fréron, then at <span class="pagenum"><a id="page293" name="page293"></a>(p. 293)</span> the height of his power, but +soon to display a ruinous incapacity, Buonaparte had actually been +made a member of the commission of four which directed the armies, and +Dutot had been sent in his stead to the west. Moreover, there was +likewise a chance for realizing those dreams of achieving glory in the +Orient which had haunted him from childhood. At this moment there was +a serious tension in the politics of eastern Europe, and the French +saw an opportunity to strike Austria on the other side by an alliance +with Turkey. The latter country was of course entirely unprepared for +war, and asked for the appointment of a French commission to +reconstruct its gun-foundries and to improve its artillery service. +Buonaparte, having learned the fact, had immediately prepared two +memorials, one on the Turkish artillery, and another on the means of +strengthening Turkish power against the encroachments of European +monarchies. These he sent up with an application that he should be +appointed head of the commission, inclosing also laudatory +certificates of his uncommon ability from Doulcet and from Debry, a +newly made friend.</p> + +<p>But the vista of an Eastern career temporarily vanished. The new +constitution, adopted, as already stated, on August twenty-second, +could not become operative until after the elections. On August +thirty-first Buonaparte's plan for the conduct of the coming Italian +campaign was read by the Convention committee, found satisfactory, and +adopted. It remains in many respects the greatest of all Napoleon's +military papers, its only fault being that no genius inferior to his +own could carry it out. At intervals some strategic authority revives +the charge that this plan was bodily appropriated from the writings of +Maillebois, the French general who led his army to disaster in Italy +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page294" name="page294"></a>(p. 294)</span> during 1746. There is sufficient evidence that Buonaparte +read Maillebois, and any reader may see the resemblances of the two +plans. But the differences, at first sight insignificant, are as vital +as the differences of character in the two men. Like the many other +charges of plagiarism brought against Napoleon by pedants, this one +overlooks the difference between mediocrity and genius in the use of +materials. It is not at all likely that the superiors of Buonaparte +were ignorant of the best books concerning the invasion of Italy or of +their almost contemporary history. They brought no charges of +plagiarism for the excellent reason that there is none, and they were +impressed by the suggestions of their general. It is even possible +that Buonaparte formed his plan before reading Maillebois. Volney +declared he had heard it read and commentated by its author shortly +after his return from Genoa and Nice.<a id="footnotetag52" name="footnotetag52"></a><a href="#footnote52" title="Go to footnote 52"><span class="small">[52]</span></a> The great scholar was +already as profoundly impressed as a year later Carnot, and now the +war commission. A few days later the writer and author of the plan +became aware of the impression he had made: it seemed clear that he +had a reality in hand worth every possibility in the Orient. He +therefore wrote to Joseph that he was going to remain in Paris, +explaining, as if incidentally, that he could thus be on the lookout +for any desirable vacancy in the consular service, and secure it, if +possible, for him.</p> + +<p>Dreams of another kind had supplanted in his mind all visions of +Oriental splendor; for in subsequent letters to the same +correspondent, written almost daily, he unfolds a series of rather +startling schemes, which among other things include a marriage, a town +house, and a country residence, with a cabriolet and three horses. How +all this was to come about we cannot <span class="pagenum"><a id="page295" name="page295"></a>(p. 295)</span> entirely discover. The +marriage plan is clearly stated. Joseph had wedded one of the +daughters of a comparatively wealthy merchant. He was requested to +sound his brother-in-law concerning the other, the famous Désirée +Clary, who afterward became <abbr title="Madame">Mme.</abbr> Bernadotte. Two of the horses were to +be supplied by the government in place of a pair which he might be +supposed to have possessed at Nice in accordance with the rank he then +held, and to have sold, according to orders, when sent on the maritime +expedition to Corsica. Where the third horse and the money for the +houses were to come from is inscrutable; but, as a matter of fact, +Napoleon had already left his shabby lodgings for better ones in +Michodière street, and was actually negotiating for the purchase of a +handsome detached residence near that of Bourrienne, whose fortunes +had also been retrieved. The country-seat which the speculator had in +view, and for which he intended to bid as high as a million and a half +of francs, was knocked down to another purchaser for three millions +or, as the price of gold then was, about forty thousand dollars! So +great a personage as he now was must, of course, have a secretary, and +the faithful Junot had been appointed to the office.</p> + +<p>The application for the horses turned out a serious matter, and +brought the adventurer once more to the verge of ruin. The story he +told was not plain, the records did not substantiate it, the +hard-headed officials of the war department evidently did not believe +a syllable of his representations,—which, in fact, were +untruthful,—and, the central committee having again lost a third of +its members by rotation, among them Doulcet, there was no one now in +it to plead Buonaparte's cause. Accordingly there was no little talk +about the matter in very influential circles, and almost +simultaneously was issued the report concerning his <span class="pagenum"><a id="page296" name="page296"></a>(p. 296)</span> formal +request for restoration, which had been delayed by the routine +prescribed in such cases, and was only now completed. It was not only +adverse in itself, but contained a confidential inclosure +animadverting severely on the irregularities of the petitioner's +conduct, and in particular on his stubborn refusal to obey orders and +join the Army of the West. Thus it happened that on September +fifteenth the name of Buonaparte was officially struck from the list +of general officers on duty, "in view of his refusal to proceed to the +post assigned him." It really appeared as if the name of Napoleon +might almost have been substituted for that of Tantalus in the fable. +But it was the irony of fate that on this very day the subcommittee on +foreign affairs submitted to the full meeting a proposition to send +the man who was now a disgraced culprit in great state and with a full +suite to take service at Constantinople in the army of the Grand Turk!</p> + +<p>No one had ever understood better than Buonaparte the possibilities of +political influence in a military career. Not only could he bend the +bow of Achilles, but he always had ready an extra string. Thus far in +his ten years of service he had been promoted only once according to +routine; the other steps of the height which he had reached had been +secured either by some startling exhibition of ability or by influence +or chicane. He had been first Corsican and then French, first a +politician and then a soldier. Such a veteran was not to be dismayed +even by the most stunning blow; had he not even now three powerful +protectors—Barras, Tallien, and Fréron? He turned his back, +therefore, with ready adaptability on the unsympathetic officials of +the army, the mere soldiers with cool heads and merciless judgment. +The evident short cut to restoration was to carry through the project +of employment <span class="pagenum"><a id="page297" name="page297"></a>(p. 297)</span> at Constantinople; it had been formally +recommended, and to secure its adoption he renewed his importunate +solicitations. His rank he still held; he might hope to regain +position by some brilliant stroke such as he could execute only +without the restraint of orders and on his own initiative. His hopes +grew, or seemed to, as his suit was not rejected, and he wrote to +Joseph on September twenty-sixth that the matter of his departure was +urgent; adding, however: "But at this moment there are some +ebullitions and incendiary symptoms." He was right in both surmises. +The Committee of Safety was formally considering the proposition for +his transfer to the Sultan's service, while simultaneously affairs +both in Paris and on the frontiers alike were "boiling."</p> + +<p>Meantime the royalists and clericals had not been idle. They had +learned nothing from the events of the Revolution, and did not even +dimly understand their own position. Their own allies repudiated both +their sentiments and their actions in the very moments when they +believed themselves to be honorably fighting for self-preservation. +English statesmen like Granville and Harcourt now thought and said +that it was impossible to impose on France a form of government +distasteful to her people; but the British regent and the French +pretender, who, on the death of his unfortunate nephew, the dauphin, +had been recognized by the powers as Louis <abbr title="18">XVIII</abbr>, were stubbornly +united under the old Bourbon motto, "All or nothing." The change in +the Convention, in Paris society, even in the country itself, which +was about to desert its extreme Jacobinism and to adopt the new +constitution by an overwhelming vote—all this deceived them, and they +determined to strike for everything they had lost. Preparations, it is +now believed, were all ready for an inroad from the Rhine <span class="pagenum"><a id="page298" name="page298"></a>(p. 298)</span> +frontier, for Pichegru to raise the white flag and to advance with his +troops on Paris, and for a simultaneous rising of the royalists in +every French district. On October fourth an English fleet had appeared +on the northern shore of France, having on board the Count of Artois +and a large body of emigrants, accompanied by a powerful force of +English, composed in part of regulars, in part of volunteers. This +completed the preliminary measures.</p> + +<p>With the first great conflict in the struggle, avowed royalism had +only an indirect connection. By this time the Paris sections were +thoroughly reorganized, having purged themselves of the extreme +democratic elements from the suburbs. They were well drilled, well +armed, and enthusiastic for resistance to the decree of the Convention +requiring the compulsory reëlection of the "two thirds" from its +existing membership. The National Guard was not less embittered +against that measure. There were three experienced officers then in +Paris who were capable of leading an insurrection, and could be relied +on to oppose the Convention. These were Danican, Duhoux d'Hauterive, +and Laffont, all royalists at heart; the last was an emigrant, and +avowed it. The Convention had also by this time completed its +enlistment, and had taken other measures of defense; but it was +without a trustworthy person to command its forces, for among the +fourteen generals of the republic then present in Paris, only two were +certainly loyal to the Convention, and both these were men of very +indifferent character and officers of no capacity.</p> + +<p>The Convention forces were technically a part of the army known as +that of the interior, of which Menou was the commander. The new +constitution having been formally proclaimed on September +twenty-third, the signs of open rebellion in Paris became too clear to +be <span class="pagenum"><a id="page299" name="page299"></a>(p. 299)</span> longer disregarded, and on that night a mass meeting of +the various sections was held in the Odéon theater in order to prepare +plans for open resistance. That of Lepelletier, in the heart of Paris, +comprising the wealthiest and most influential of the mercantile +class, afterward assembled in its hall and issued a call to rebellion. +These were no contemptible foes: on the memorable tenth of August, +theirs had been the battalion of the National Guard which died with +the Swiss in defense of the <span lang="fr">Tuileries</span>. Menou, in obedience to the +command of the Convention to disarm the insurgent sections, confronted +them for a moment. But the work was not to his taste. After a short +parley, during which he feebly recommended them to disperse and behave +like good citizens, he withdrew his forces to their barracks, and left +the armed and angry sections masters of the situation. Prompt and +energetic measures were more necessary than ever. For some days +already the Convention leaders had been discussing their plans. Carnot +and Tallien finally agreed with Barras that the man most likely to do +thoroughly the active work was Buonaparte. But, apparently, they dared +not altogether trust him, for Barras himself was appointed +commander-in-chief. His "little Corsican officer, who will not stand +on ceremony," as he called him, was to be nominally lieutenant. On +October fourth Buonaparte was summoned to a conference. The messengers +sought him at his lodgings and in all his haunts, but could not find +him. It was nine in the evening when he appeared at headquarters in +the <span lang="fr">Place du Carrousel</span>. This delay gave Barras a chance to insinuate +that his ardent republican friend, who all the previous week had been +eagerly soliciting employment, was untrustworthy in the crisis, and +had been negotiating with the sectionaries. Buonaparte reported +himself as having come <span class="pagenum"><a id="page300" name="page300"></a>(p. 300)</span> from the section of Lepelletier, but +as having been reconnoitering the enemy. After a rather tart +conversation, Barras appointed him aide-de-camp, the position for +which he had been destined from the first. Whatever was the general's +understanding of the situation, that of the aide was clear—that he +was to be his own master.<a id="footnotetag53" name="footnotetag53"></a><a href="#footnote53" title="Go to footnote 53"><span class="small">[53]</span></a></p> + +<p>Not a moment was lost, and throughout the night most vigorous and +incessant preparation was made. Buonaparte was as much himself in the +streets of Paris as in those of Ajaccio, except that his energy was +proportionately more feverish, as the defense of the <span lang="fr">Tuileries</span> and the +riding-school attached to it, in which the Convention sat, was a +grander task than the never-accomplished capture of the Corsican +citadel. The avenues and streets of a city somewhat resemble the main +and tributary valleys of a mountain-range, and the task of campaigning +in Paris was less unlike that of manœuvering in the narrow gorges +of the Apennines than might be supposed; at least Buonaparte's +strategy was nearly identical for both. All his measures were +masterly. The foe, scattered as yet throughout Paris <span class="pagenum"><a id="page301" name="page301"></a>(p. 301)</span> on both +sides of the river, was first cut in two by seizing and fortifying the +bridges across the Seine; then every avenue of approach was likewise +guarded, while flanking artillery was set in the narrow streets to +command the main arteries. Thanks to Barras's suggestion, the dashing, +reckless, insubordinate Murat, who first appears at the age of +twenty-seven on the great stage in these events, had under +Buonaparte's orders brought in the cannon from the camp of Sablons. +These in the charge of a ready artillerist were invaluable, as the +event proved. Finally a reserve, ready for use on either side of the +river, was established in what is now the <span lang="fr">Place de la Concorde</span>, with +an open line of retreat toward <span lang="fr"><abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Cloud</span> behind it. Every order was +issued in Barras's name, and Barras, in his memoirs, claims all the +honors of the day. He declares that his aide was afoot, while he was +the man on horseback, ubiquitous and masterful. He does not even admit +that Buonaparte bestrode a cab-horse, as even the vanquished were +ready to acknowledge. The sections, of course, knew nothing of the new +commander or of Buonaparte, and recalled only Menou's pusillanimity. +Without cannon and without a plan, they determined to drive out the +Convention at once, and to overwhelm its forces by superior numbers. +The quays of the left bank were therefore occupied by a large body of +the National Guard, ready to rush in from behind when the main attack, +made from the north through the labyrinth of streets and blind alleys +then designated by the name of <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Honoré, and by the short, wide +passage of l'Échelle, should draw the Convention forces away in that +direction to resist it. A kind of rendezvous had been appointed at the +church of <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Roch, which was to be used as a depot of supplies and a +retreat. Numerous sectionaries were, in fact, posted there as +auxiliaries at the crucial instant.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p> + +<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page302" name="page302"></a>(p. 302)</span> CHAPTER <abbr title="23">XXIII.</abbr></h3> + +<h4><span class="smcap">The Day of the Paris Sections</span>.</h4> + +<p class="summary">The Warfare of <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Roch and the Pont Royal — Order Restored + — Meaning of the Conflict — Political Dangers — + Buonaparte's Dilemma — His True Attitude — Sudden Wealth + — The Directory and Their General — Buonaparte in Love — + His Corsican Temperament — His Matrimonial Adventures.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">1795.</p> + +<p>In this general position the opposing forces confronted each other on +the morning of October fifth, the thirteenth of Vendémiaire. In point +of numbers the odds were tremendous, for the Convention forces +numbered only about four thousand regulars and a thousand volunteers, +while the sections' force comprised about twenty-eight thousand +National Guards. But the former were disciplined, they had cannon, and +they were desperately able; and there was no distracted, vacillating +leadership. What the legend attributes to Napoleon Buonaparte as his +commentary on the conduct of King Louis at the <span lang="fr">Tuileries</span> was to be the +Convention's ideal now. The "man on horseback" and the hot fire of +cannon were to carry the day. Both sides seemed loath to begin. But at +half-past four in the afternoon it was clear that the decisive moment +had come. As if by instinct, but in reality at Danican's signal, the +forces of the sections from the northern portion of the capital began +to pour through the narrow main street of <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Honoré, behind the +riding-school, toward the chief entrance of the <span lang="fr">Tuileries</span>. They no +doubt felt safer in the rear of the Convention hall, with the high +walls of houses all about, than they would have done in the open +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page303" name="page303"></a>(p. 303)</span> spaces which they would have had to cross in order to attack +it from the front. Just before their compacted mass reached the church +of <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Roch, it was brought to a halt. Suddenly becoming aware that in +the side streets on the right were yawning the muzzles of hostile +cannon, the excited citizens lost their heads, and began to discharge +their muskets. Then with a swift, sudden blast, the street was cleared +by a terrible discharge of the canister and grape-shot with which the +field-pieces of Barras and Buonaparte were loaded. The action +continued about an hour, for the people and the National Guard rallied +again and again, each time to be mowed down by a like awful discharge. +At last they could be rallied no longer, and retreated to the church, +which they held. On the left bank a similar mêlée ended in a similar +way. Three times Laffont gathered his forces and hurled them at the +Pont Royal; three times they were swept back by the cross-fire of +artillery. The scene then changed like the vanishing of a mirage. +Awe-stricken messengers appeared, hurrying everywhere with the +prostrating news from both sides of the river, and the entire Parisian +force withdrew to shelter. Before nightfall the triumph of the +Convention was complete. The dramatic effect of this achievement was +heightened by the appearance on horseback here, there, and everywhere, +during the short hour of battle, of an awe-inspiring leader; both +before and after, he was unseen. In spite of Barras's claims, there +can be no doubt that this dramatic personage was Buonaparte. If not, +for what was he so signally rewarded in the immediate sequel? Barras +was no artillerist, and this was the appearance of an expert giving +masterly lessons in artillery practice to an astonished world, which +little dreamed what he was yet to demonstrate as to the worth of his +chosen arm on wider battle-fields. For the moment it <span class="pagenum"><a id="page304" name="page304"></a>(p. 304)</span> suited +Buonaparte to appear merely as an agent. In his reports of the affair +his own name is kept in the background. It is evident that from first +to last he intended to produce the impression that, though acting with +Jacobins, he does so because they for the time represent the truth: he +is not for that reason to be identified with them.</p> + +<p>Thus by the "whiff of grape-shot" what the wizard historian of the +time "specifically called the French Revolution" was not "blown into +space" at all. Though there was no renewal of the reign of terror, yet +the Jacobins retained their power and the Convention lived on under +the name of the Directory. It continued to live on in its own stupid +anarchical way until the "man on horseback" of the thirteenth +Vendémiaire had established himself as the first among French generals +and the Jacobins had rendered the whole heart of France sick. While +the events of October twenty-fifth were a bloody triumph for the +Convention, only a few conspicuous leaders of the rebels were +executed, among them Laffont; and harsh measures were enacted in +relation to the political status of returned emigrants. But in the +main an unexpected mercy controlled the Convention's policy. They +closed the halls in which the people of the mutinous wards had met, +and once more reorganized the National Guard. Order was restored +without an effort. Beyond the walls of Paris the effect of the news +was magical. Artois, afterward Charles <abbr title="10">X</abbr>, though he had landed three +days before on <span lang="fr">Île Dieu</span>, now reëmbarked, and sailed back to England, +while the other royalist leaders prudently held their followers in +check and their measures in abeyance. The new constitution was in a +short time offered to the nation, and accepted by an overwhelming +majority; the members of the Convention were assured of their +ascendancy in the new legislature; <span class="pagenum"><a id="page305" name="page305"></a>(p. 305)</span> and before long the +rebellion in Vendée and Brittany was so far crushed as to release +eighty thousand troops for service abroad. For the leaders of its +forces the Convention made a most liberal provision: the division +commanders of the thirteenth of Vendémiaire were all promoted. +Buonaparte was made second in command of the Army of the Interior: in +other words, was confirmed in an office which, though informally, he +had both created and rendered illustrious. As Barras almost +immediately resigned, this was equivalent to very high promotion.</p> + +<p>This memorable "day of the sections," as it is often called, was an +unhallowed day for France and French liberty. It was the first +appearance of the army since the Revolution as a support to political +authority; it was the beginning of a process which made the +commander-in-chief of the army the dictator of France. All purely +political powers were gradually to vanish in order to make way for a +military state. The temporary tyranny of the Convention rested on a +measure, at least, of popular consent; but in the very midst of its +preparations to perpetuate a purely civil and political +administration, the violence of the sections had compelled it to +confide the new institutions to the keeping of soldiers. The idealism +of the new constitution was manifest from the beginning. Every chance +which the Directory had for success was dependent, not on the inherent +worth of the system or its adaptability to present conditions, but on +the support of interested men in power; among these the commanders of +the army were not the least influential. After the suppression of the +sections, the old Convention continued to sit under the style of the +Primary Assembly, and was occupied in selecting those of its members +who were to be returned to the legislature under the new constitution. +There <span class="pagenum"><a id="page306" name="page306"></a>(p. 306)</span> being no provision for any interim government, the +exercise of real power was suspended; the elections were a mere sham; +the magistracy was a house swept and garnished, ready for the first +comer to occupy it.</p> + +<p>As the army and not the people had made the coming administration +possible, the executive power would from the first be the creature of +the army; and since under the constitutional provisions there was no +legal means of compromise between the Directory and the legislature in +case of conflict, so that the stronger would necessarily crush the +weaker, the armed power supporting the directors must therefore +triumph in the end, and the man who controlled that must become the +master of the Directory and the ruler of the country. Moreover, a +people can be free only when the first and unquestioning devotion of +every citizen is not to a party, but to his country and its +constitution, his party allegiance being entirely secondary. This was +far from being the case in France: the nation was divided into +irreconcilable camps, not of constitutional parties, but of violent +partizans; many even of the moderate republicans now openly expressed +a desire for some kind of monarchy. Outwardly the constitution was the +freest so far devised. It contained, however, three fatal blunders +which rendered it the best possible tool for a tyrant: it could not be +changed for a long period; there was no arbiter but force between a +warring legislative and executive; the executive was now supported by +the army.</p> + +<p>It is impossible to prove that Buonaparte understood all this at the +time. When at <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Helena he spoke as if he did; but unfortunately his +later writings, however valuable from the psychological, are worthless +from the historical, standpoint. They abound in misrepresentations +which are in part due to lapse of time and weakness <span class="pagenum"><a id="page307" name="page307"></a>(p. 307)</span> of +memory, in part to wilful intention. Wishing the Robespierre-Salicetti +episode of his life to be forgotten, he strives in his memoirs to +create the impression that the Convention had ordered him to take +charge of the artillery at Toulon, when in fact he was in Marseilles +as a mere passer-by on his journey to Nice, and in Toulon as a +temporary adjunct to the army of Carteaux, having been made an active +participant partly through accident, partly by the good will of +personal friends. In the same way he also devised a fable about the +"day of the sections," in order that he might not appear to have been +scheming for himself in the councils of the Convention, and that +Barras's share in his elevation might be consigned to oblivion. This +story of Napoleon's has come down in three stages of its development, +by as many different transcribers, who heard it at different times. +The final one, as given by Las Cases, was corrected by Napoleon's own +hand.<a id="footnotetag54" name="footnotetag54"></a><a href="#footnote54" title="Go to footnote 54"><span class="small">[54]</span></a> It runs as follows: On the night of October third he was at +the theater, but hearing that Menou had virtually retreated before the +wards, and was to be arrested, he left and went to the meeting of the +Convention, where, as he stood among the spectators, he heard his own +name mentioned as Menou's successor. For half an hour he deliberated +what he should do if chosen. If defeated, he would be execrated by all +coming generations, while victory would be almost odious. How could he +deliberately become the scapegoat of so many crimes to which he had +been an utter stranger? Why go as an avowed Jacobin and in a few hours +swell the list of names uttered with horror? "On the other hand, if +the Convention be crushed, what becomes of the great truths of our +Revolution? Our many victories, our blood so often shed, are all +nothing but shameful deeds. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page308" name="page308"></a>(p. 308)</span> The foreigner we have so +thoroughly conquered triumphs and overwhelms us with his contempt; an +incapable race, an overbearing and unnatural following, reappear +triumphant, throw up our crime to us, wreak their vengeance, and +govern us like helots by the hand of a stranger. Thus the defeat of +the Convention would crown the brow of the foreigner, and seal the +disgrace and slavery of our native land." Such thoughts, his youth, +trust in his own power and in his destiny, turned the balance.</p> + +<p>Statements made under such circumstances are not proof; but there is +this much probability of truth in them, that if we imagine the old +Buonaparte in disgrace as of old, following as of old the promptings +of his curiosity, indifferent as of old to the success of either +principle, and by instinct a soldier as of old,—if we recall him in +this character, and remember that he is no longer a youthful Corsican +patriot, but a mature cosmopolitan consumed with personal +ambition,—we may surely conclude that he was perfectly impartial as +to the parties involved, leaned toward the support of the principles +of the Revolution as he understood them, and saw in the complications +of the hour a probable opening for his ambition. At any rate, his +conduct after October fourth seems to uphold this view. He was a +changed man, ardent, hopeful, and irrepressible, as he had ever been +when lucky; but now, besides, daring, overbearing, and self-confident +to a degree which those characteristic qualities had never reached +before.</p> + +<p>His first care was to place on a footing of efficiency the Army of the +Interior, scattered in many departments, undisciplined and +disorganized; the next, to cow into submission all the low elements in +Paris, still hungry and fierce, by reorganizing the National Guard, +and forming a picked troop for the special protection of the +legislature; the next, to show himself as the powerful <span class="pagenum"><a id="page309" name="page309"></a>(p. 309)</span> +friend of every one in disgrace, as a man of the world without rancor +or exaggerated partizanship. At the same time he plunged into +speculation, and sent sums incredibly large to various members of his +family, a single remittance of four hundred thousand francs being +mentioned in his letters. Lucien was restored to the arms of his +low-born but faithful and beloved wife, and sent to join his mother +and sisters in Marseilles; Louis was brought from Châlons, and made a +lieutenant; Jerome was put at school in Paris; and to Joseph a +consular post was assured. Putting aside all bashfulness, General +Buonaparte became a full-fledged society man and a beau. No social +rank was now strange to him; the remnants of the old aristocracy, the +wealthy citizens of Paris, the returning Girondists, many of whom had +become pronounced royalists, the new deputies, the officers who in +some turn of the wheel had, like himself, lost their positions, but +were now, through his favor, reinstated—all these he strove to court, +flatter, and make his own.</p> + +<p>Such activity, of course, could not pass unnoticed. The new government +had been constituted without disturbance, the Directory chosen, and +the legislature installed. Of the five directors—Barras, Rewbell, +Carnot, <span lang="fr">Letourneaux de la Manche</span>, and <span lang="fr">Larévellière-Lépeaux</span>,—all had +voted for the death of Louis <abbr title="16">XVI</abbr>, and were so-called regicides; but, +while varying widely in character and ability, they were all, +excepting Barras, true to their convictions. They scarcely understood +how strong the revulsion of popular feeling had been, and, utterly +ignoring the impossibility of harmonious action among themselves, +hoped to exercise their power with such moderation as to win all +classes to the new constitution. They were extremely disturbed by the +course of the general commanding their army in seeking intimacy with +men of all opinions, but were unwilling <span class="pagenum"><a id="page310" name="page310"></a>(p. 310)</span> to interpret it +aright. Under the Convention, the Army of the Interior had been a +tool, its commander a mere puppet; now the executive was confronted by +an independence which threatened a reversal of rôles. This situation +was the more disquieting because Buonaparte was a capable and not +unwilling police officer. Among many other invaluable services to the +government, he closed in person the great club of the Panthéon, which +was the rallying-point of the disaffected.<a id="footnotetag55" name="footnotetag55"></a><a href="#footnote55" title="Go to footnote 55"><span class="small">[55]</span></a> Throughout another +winter of famine there was not a single dangerous outbreak. At the +same time there were frequent manifestations of jealousy in lower +circles, especially among those who knew the origin and career of +their young master.</p> + +<p>Toward the close of the year the bearing and behavior of the general +became constrained, reserved, and awkward. Various reasons were +assigned for this demeanor. Many thought it was due to a consciousness +of social deficiency, and his detractors still declare that Paris life +was too fierce for even his self-assurance, pointing to the change in +his handwriting and grammar, to his alternate silence and loquacity, +as proof of mental uneasiness; to his sullen musings and coarse +threats as a theatrical affectation to hide wounded pride; and to his +coming marriage as a desperate shift to secure a social dignity +proportionate to the career he saw opening before him in politics and +war. In a common man not subjected to a microscopic examination, such +conduct would be attributed to his being in love; the wedding would +ordinarily be regarded as the natural and beautiful consequence of a +great passion.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page311" name="page311"></a>(p. 311)</span> Men have not forgotten that Buonaparte once denounced love as +a hurtful passion from which God should protect his creatures; and +they have, for this, among other reasons, pronounced him incapable of +disinterested affection. But it is also true that he likewise +denounced Buttafuoco for having, among other crimes committed by him, +"married to extend his influence"; and we are forced to ask which of +the two sentiments is genuine and characteristic. Probably both and +neither, according to the mood of the man. Outward caprice is, in +great natures, often the mask of inward perseverance, especially among +the unprincipled who suit their language to their present purpose, in +fine disdain of commonplace consistency. The primitive Corsican was +both rude and gentle, easily moved to tears at one time, insensate at +another; selfish at one moment, lavish at another; and yet he had a +consistent character. Although disliking in later life to be called a +Corsican, Napoleon was nevertheless typical of his race: he could +despise love, yet render himself its willing slave; he was fierce and +dictatorial, yet, as the present object of his passion said, "tenderer +and weaker than anybody dreamed."<a id="footnotetag56" name="footnotetag56"></a><a href="#footnote56" title="Go to footnote 56"><span class="small">[56]</span></a></p> + +<p>And thus it was in the matter of his courtship: there were elements in +it of romantic, abandoned passion, but likewise of shrewd, calculating +selfishness. In his callow youth his relations to the other sex had +been either childish, morbid, or immoral. During his earliest manhood +he had appeared like one who desired the training rather than the +substance of gallantry. As a Jacobin he sought such support as he +could find in the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page312" name="page312"></a>(p. 312)</span> good will of the women related to men in +power; as a French patriot he put forth strenuous efforts to secure an +influential alliance through matrimony. He appears to have addressed +<abbr title="Madame">Mme.</abbr> Permon, whose fortune, despite her advanced age, would have been +a great relief to his destitution. Refused by her, he was in a +disordered and desperate emotional state until military and political +success gave him sufficient self-confidence to try once more. With his +feet firmly planted on the ladder of ambition, he was not indifferent +to securing social props for a further rise, but was nevertheless in +such a tumult of feeling as to make him particularly receptive to real +passion. He had made advances for the hand of the rich and beautiful +Désirée Clary;<a id="footnotetag57" name="footnotetag57"></a><a href="#footnote57" title="Go to footnote 57"><span class="small">[57]</span></a> the first evidence in his correspondence of a +serious intention to marry her is contained in the letter of June +eighteenth, 1795, to Joseph; and for a few weeks afterward he wrote at +intervals with some impatience, as if she were coy. In explanation it +is claimed that Napoleon, visiting her long before at the request of +Joseph, who was then enamoured of her, had himself become interested, +and persuading his brother to marry her sister, had entered into an +understanding with her which was equivalent to a betrothal. Time and +distance had cooled his ardor. He now virtually threw her over for +<abbr title="Madame">Mme.</abbr> Beauharnais, who dazzled and infatuated him. This claim is +probably founded on fact, but there is no evidence sufficient to +sustain a charge of positive bad faith on the part of Napoleon. +Neither he nor <abbr title="Mademoiselle">Mlle.</abbr> Clary appears to have been ardent when Joseph as +intermediary began, according to French custom, to arrange the +preliminaries of marriage; and when General Buonaparte fell madly in +love with <abbr title="Madame">Mme.</abbr> Beauharnais the matter was dropped.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p> + +<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page313" name="page313"></a>(p. 313)</span> CHAPTER <abbr title="24">XXIV.</abbr></h3> + +<h4><span class="smcap">A Marriage of Inclination and Interest</span><a id="footnotetag58" name="footnotetag58"></a><a href="#footnote58" title="Go to footnote 58"><span class="small">[58]</span></a>.</h4> + +<p class="summary">The Taschers and Beauharnais — Execution of Alexandre + Beauharnais — Adventures of His Widow — Meeting of + Napoleon and Josephine — The Latter's Uncertainties — Her + Character and Station — Passion and Convenience — The + Bride's Dowry — Buonaparte's Philosophy of Life — The + Ladder to Glory.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">1796.</p> + +<p>In 1779, while the boys at Brienne were still tormenting the little +untamed Corsican nobleman, and driving him to his garden fortalice to +seek lonely refuge from their taunts in company with his Plutarch, +there had arrived in Paris from Martinique a successful planter of +that island, a French gentleman of good family, M. Tascher <span lang="fr">de la +Pagerie</span>, bringing back to that city for the second time his daughter +Josephine. She was then a girl of sixteen, without either beauty or +education, but thoroughly matured, and with a quick Creole +intelligence and a graceful litheness of figure which made her a most +attractive woman. She had spent the years of her life from ten to +fourteen in the convent of Port Royal. Having passed the interval in +her native isle, she was about to contract a marriage which her +relatives in France had arranged. Her betrothed was the younger son of +a family friend, the <span lang="fr">Marquis de Beauharnais</span>. The bride landed on +October twentieth, and the ceremony took place on December thirteenth. +The young vicomte brought his wife home to a suitable establishment in +the capital. Two children <span class="pagenum"><a id="page314" name="page314"></a>(p. 314)</span> were born to them—Eugène and +Hortense; but before the birth of the latter the husband quarreled +with his wife, for reasons that have never been known. The court +granted a separation, with alimony, to <span lang="fr"><abbr title="Madame">Mme.</abbr> de Beauharnais</span>, who some +years later withdrew to her father's home in Martinique. Her husband +sailed to America with the forces of Bouillé, and remained there until +the outbreak of the Revolution, when he returned, and was elected a +deputy to the States-General.</p> + +<p>Becoming an ardent republican, he was several times president of the +National Assembly, and his house was an important center of influence. +In 1790 M. Tascher died, and his daughter, with her children, returned +to France. It was probably at her husband's instance, for she at once +joined him at his country-seat, where they continued to live, as +"brother and sister," until Citizen Beauharnais was made commander of +the Army of the Rhine. As the days of the Terror approached, every man +of noble blood was more and more in danger. At last Beauharnais's turn +came; he too was denounced to the Commune, and imprisoned. Before long +his wife was behind the same bars. Their children were in the care of +an aunt, <abbr title="Madame">Mme.</abbr> Églé, who had been, and was again to be, a woman of +distinction in the social world, but had temporarily sought the +protection of an old acquaintance, a former abbé, who had become a +member of the Commune. The gallant young general was not one of the +four acquitted out of the batch of forty-nine among whom he was +finally summoned to the bar of the revolutionary tribunal. He died on +June twenty-third, 1794, true to his convictions, acknowledging in his +farewell letter to his wife a fraternal affection for her, and +committing solemnly to her charge his own good name, which she was to +restore by proving his devotion to France. The children were to be her +consolation; they <span class="pagenum"><a id="page315" name="page315"></a>(p. 315)</span> were to wipe out the disgrace of his +punishment by the practice of virtue and—civism!</p> + +<p>During her sojourn in prison <abbr title="Madame">Mme.</abbr> Beauharnais had made a most useful +friend. This was a fellow-sufferer of similar character, but far +greater gifts, whose maiden name was Cabarrus, who was later <span lang="fr"><abbr title="Madame">Mme.</abbr> de +Fontenay</span>, who was afterward divorced and, having married Tallien, the +Convention deputy at Bordeaux, became renowned as his wife, and who, +divorced a second and married a third time, died as the <span lang="fr">Princesse de +Chimay</span>. The ninth of Thermidor saved them both from the guillotine. In +the days immediately subsequent they had abundant opportunity to +display their light but clever natures. <abbr title="Madame">Mme.</abbr> Beauharnais, as well as +her friend, unfolded her wings like a butterfly as she escaped from +the bars of her cell. Being a Creole, and having matured early, her +physical charms were already fading. Her spirit, too, had reached and +passed its zenith; for in her letters of that time she describes +herself as listless. Nevertheless, in those very letters there is some +sprightliness, and considerable ability of a certain kind. A few weeks +after her liberation, having apprenticed Eugène and Hortense to an +upholsterer and a dressmaker respectively,<a id="footnotetag59" name="footnotetag59"></a><a href="#footnote59" title="Go to footnote 59"><span class="small">[59]</span></a> she was on terms of +intimacy with Barras so close as to be considered suspicious, while +her daily intercourse was with those who had brought her husband to a +terrible end. In a luxurious and licentious society, she was a +successful intriguer in matters both of politics and of pleasure; +versed in the arts of coquetry and dress, she became for the needy and +ambitious a successful intermediary with those in power. Preferring, +as she rather ostentatiously asserted, to be guided by another's will, +she gave little thought to her children, or to the sad legacy of her +husband's good name. She <span class="pagenum"><a id="page316" name="page316"></a>(p. 316)</span> emulated, outwardly at least, the +unprincipled worldliness of those about her, although her friends +believed her kind-hearted and virtuous. Whatever her true nature was, +she had influence among the foremost men of that gay set which was +imitating the court circles of old, and an influence which had become +not altogether agreeable to the immoral Provençal noble who +entertained and supported the giddy coterie. Perhaps the extravagance +of the languid Creole was as trying to Barras as it became afterward +to her second husband.</p> + +<p>The meeting of Napoleon and Josephine was an event of the first +importance.<a id="footnotetag60" name="footnotetag60"></a><a href="#footnote60" title="Go to footnote 60"><span class="small">[60]</span></a> His own account twice relates that a beautiful and +tearful boy presented himself, soon after the disarmament of the +sections, to the commander of the city, and asked for the sword of his +father. The request was granted, and next day the boy's mother, <abbr title="Madame">Mme.</abbr> +Beauharnais, came to thank the general for his kindly act of +restitution. Captivated by her grace, Buonaparte was thenceforward her +slave. A cold critic must remember that in the first place there was +no disarmament of anybody after the events of October fifth, the only +action of the Convention which might even be construed into hostility +being a decree making emigrants ineligible for election to the +legislature under the new constitution; that in the second place this +story attributes to destiny what was really due to the friendship of +Barras, a fact which his beneficiary would have liked to forget or +conceal; and finally, that the beneficiary left another account in +which he confessed that he had first met his wife at Barras's house, +this being confirmed by Lucien in his memoirs. Of the passion there is +no doubt; it was a composite emotion, made up in part of sentiment, in +part of self-interest. Those who are born to rude and simple +conditions in life are <span class="pagenum"><a id="page317" name="page317"></a>(p. 317)</span> often dazzled by the charmed +etiquette and mysterious forms of artificial society. Napoleon never +affected to have been born to the manner, nor did he ever pretend to +have adopted its exacting self-control, for he could not; although +after the winter of 1795 he frequently displayed a weak and +exaggerated regard for social conventions. It was not that he had need +to assume a false and superficial polish, or that he particularly +cared to show his equality with those accustomed to polite society; +but that he probably conceived the splendid display and significant +formality of that ancient nobility which had so cruelly snubbed him +from the outset as being, nevertheless, the best conceivable prop to a +throne.</p> + +<p>Lucien looked on with interest, and thought that during the whole +winter his brother was rather courted than a suitor. In his memoirs he +naïvely wonders what Napoleon would have done in Asia,—either in the +Indian service of England, or against her in that of Russia, for in +his early youth he had also thought of that,—in fact, what he would +have done at all, without the protection of women, in which he so +firmly believed, if he had not, after the manner of Mohammed, found a +Kadijah at least ten years older than himself, by whose favor he was +set at the opening of a great career. There are hints, too, in various +contemporary documents and in the circumstances themselves that Barras +was an adroit match-maker. In a letter attributed to Josephine, but +without address, a bright light seems to be thrown on the facts. She +asks a female friend for advice on the question of the match. After a +jocular introduction of her suitor as anxious to become a father to +the children of <span lang="fr">Alexandre de Beauharnais</span> and the husband of his widow, +she gives a sportive but merciless dissection of her own character, +and declares that while <span class="pagenum"><a id="page318" name="page318"></a>(p. 318)</span> she does not love Buonaparte, she +feels no repugnance. But can she meet his wishes or fulfil his +desires? "I admire the general's courage; the extent of his +information about all manner of things, concerning which he talks +equally well; the quickness of his intelligence, which makes him catch +the thought of another even before it is expressed: but I confess I am +afraid of the power he seems anxious to wield over all about him. His +piercing scrutiny has in it something strange and inexplicable, that +awes even our directors; think, then, how it frightens a woman."<a id="footnotetag61" name="footnotetag61"></a><a href="#footnote61" title="Go to footnote 61"><span class="small">[61]</span></a> +The writer is also terrified by the very ardor of her suitor's +passion. Past her first youth, how can she hope to keep for herself +that "violent tenderness" which is almost a frenzy? Would he not soon +cease to love her, and regret the marriage? If so, her only resource +would be tears—a sorry one, indeed, but still the only one. "Barras +declares that if I marry the general, he will secure for him the chief +command of the Army of Italy. Yesterday Buonaparte, speaking of this +favor, which, although not yet granted, already has set his colleagues +in arms to murmuring, said: 'Do they think I need protection to +succeed? Some day they will be only too happy if I give them mine. My +sword is at my side, and with it I shall go far.' What do you think of +this assurance of success? Is it not a proof of confidence arising +from excessive self-esteem? A general of brigade protecting the heads +of the government! I don't know; but sometimes this ridiculous +self-reliance leads me to the point of believing everything possible +which this strange man would have me do; and with his imagination, who +can reckon what he would undertake?" This letter, though often quoted, +is so remarkable that, as some think, it <span class="pagenum"><a id="page319" name="page319"></a>(p. 319)</span> may be a later +invention. If written later, it was probably the invention of +Josephine herself.<a id="footnotetag62" name="footnotetag62"></a><a href="#footnote62" title="Go to footnote 62"><span class="small">[62]</span></a></p> + +<p>The divinity who could awaken such ardor in a Napoleon was in reality +six years older than her suitor, and Lucien proves by his exaggeration +of four years that she certainly looked more than her real age. She +had no fortune, though by the subterfuges of which a clever woman +could make use she led Buonaparte to think her in affluent +circumstances. She had no social station; for her drawing-room, though +frequented by men of ancient name and exalted position, was not graced +by the presence of their wives. The very house she occupied had a +doubtful reputation, having been a gift to the wife of Talma the actor +from one of her lovers, and being a loan to <abbr title="Madame">Mme.</abbr> Beauharnais from +Barras. She had thin brown hair, a complexion neither fresh nor faded, +expressive eyes, a small <span lang="fr">retroussé</span> nose, a pretty mouth, and a voice +that charmed all listeners. She was rather undersized, but her figure +was so perfectly proportioned as to give the impression of height and +suppleness. Its charms were scarcely concealed by the clothing she +wore, made as it was in the suggestive fashion of the day, with no +support to the form but a belt, and as scanty about her shoulders as +it was about her shapely feet. It appears to have been her elegance +and her manners, as well as her sensuality, which overpowered +Buonaparte; for he described her as having "the calm and dignified +demeanor which belongs to the old régime."</p> + +<p>What motives may have combined to overcome her scruples we cannot +tell; perhaps a love of adventure, probably an awakened ambition for a +success in other domains than the one which advancing years would soon +compel her to abandon. She knew that Buonaparte <span class="pagenum"><a id="page320" name="page320"></a>(p. 320)</span> had no +fortune whatever, but she also knew, on the highest authority, that +both favor and fortune would by her assistance soon be his. At all +events, his suit made swift advance, and by the end of January, 1796, +he was secure of his prize. His love-letters, to judge from one which +has been preserved, were as fiery as the despatches with which he soon +began to electrify his soldiers and all France. "I awaken full of +thee," he wrote; "thy portrait and yester eve's intoxicating charm +have left my senses no repose. Sweet and matchless Josephine, how +strange your influence upon my heart! Are you angry, do I see you sad, +are you uneasy, ... my soul is moved with grief, and there is no rest +for your friend; but is there then more when, yielding to an +overmastering desire, I draw from your lips, your heart, a flame which +consumes me? Ah, this very night, I knew your portrait was not you! +Thou leavest at noon; three hours more, and I shall see thee again. +Meantime, <span class="italic">mio dolce amor</span>, a thousand kisses; but give me none, for +they set me all afire." What genuine and reckless passion! The "thou" +and "you" maybe strangely jumbled; the grammar may be mixed and bad; +the language may even be somewhat indelicate, as it sounds in other +passages than those given: but the meaning would be strong enough +incense for the most exacting woman.</p> + +<p>On February ninth, 1796, their banns were proclaimed; on March second +the bridegroom received his bride's dowry in his own appointment, on +Carnot's motion, not on that of Barras, as chief of the Army of Italy, +still under the name of Buonaparte;<a id="footnotetag63" name="footnotetag63"></a><a href="#footnote63" title="Go to footnote 63"><span class="small">[63]</span></a> on the seventh he was +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page321" name="page321"></a>(p. 321)</span> handed his commission; on the ninth the marriage ceremony +was performed by the civil magistrate; and on the eleventh the husband +started for his post. In the marriage certificate at Paris the groom +gives his age as twenty-eight, but in reality he was not yet +twenty-seven; the bride, who was thirty-three, gives hers as not quite +twenty-nine. Her name is spelled Detascher, his Bonaparte. A new +birth, a new baptism, a new career, a new start in a new sphere, +Corsica forgotten, Jacobinism renounced, General and <abbr title="Madame">Mme.</abbr> Bonaparte +made their bow to the world. The ceremony attracted no public +attention, and was most unceremonious, no member of the family from +either side being present. <span lang="fr">Madame Mère</span>, in fact, was very angry, and +foretold that with such a difference in age the union would be barren.</p> + +<p>There was one weird omen which, read aright, distinguishes the +otherwise commonplace occurrence. In the wedding-ring were two +words—"To destiny." The words were ominous, for they were indicative +of a policy long since formed and never afterward concealed, being a +pretense to deceive Josephine as well as the rest of the world: the +giver was about to assume a new rôle,—that of the "man of +destiny,"—to work for a time on the imagination and superstition of +his age. Sometimes he forgot his part, and displayed the shrewd, +calculating, hard-working man behind the mask, who was less a fatalist +than a personified fate, less a child of fortune than its maker. +"Great events," he wrote a very short time later from Italy, "ever +depend but upon a single hair. The adroit man profits by everything, +neglects nothing which can increase his chances; the less adroit, by +sometimes disregarding a single chance, fails in everything." Here is +the whole philosophy of Bonaparte's life. He may have been sincere at +times in the other profession; if so, it was because he could find +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page322" name="page322"></a>(p. 322)</span> no other expression for what in his nature corresponded to +romance in others.</p> + +<p>The general and his adjutant reached Marseilles in due season. +Associated with them were Marmont, Junot, Murat, Berthier, and Duroc. +The two last named had as yet accomplished little: Berthier was +forty-three, Duroc only twenty-three. Both were destined to close +intimacy with Napoleon and to a career of high renown. The good news +of Napoleon's successes having long preceded them, the home of the +Bonapartes had become the resort of many among the best and most +ambitious men in the southern land. Elisa was now twenty, and though +much sought after, was showing a marked preference for Pasquale +Bacciocchi, the poor young Corsican whom she afterward married. +Pauline was sixteen, a great beauty, and deep in a serious flirtation +with Fréron, who, not having been elected to the Five Hundred, had +been appointed to a lucrative but uninfluential office in the great +provincial town—that of commissioner for the department. Caroline, +the youngest sister, was blossoming with greater promise even than +Pauline. Napoleon stopped a few days under his mother's roof to +regulate these matrimonial proceedings as he thought most +advantageous. On March twenty-second he reached the headquarters of +the Army of Italy. The command was assumed with simple and appropriate +ceremonial. The short despatch to the Directory announcing this +momentous event was signed "Bonaparte." The Corsican nobleman di +Buonaparte was now entirely transformed into the French general +Bonaparte. The process had been long and difficult: loyal Corsican; +mercenary cosmopolitan, ready as an expert artillery officer for +service in any land or under any banner; lastly, Frenchman, liberal, +and revolutionary. So far he had been consistent in each <span class="pagenum"><a id="page323" name="page323"></a>(p. 323)</span> +character; for years to come he remained stationary as a sincere +French patriot, always of course with an eye to the main chance. As +events unfolded, the transformation began again; and the "adroit" man, +taking advantage of every chance, became once more a +cosmopolitan—this time not as a soldier, but as a statesman; not as a +servant, but as the <span class="italic" lang="la">imperator universalis</span>, too large for a single +land, determined to reunite once more all Western Christendom, and, +like the great German Charles a thousand years before, make the +imperial limits conterminous with those of orthodox Christianity. The +power of this empire was, however, to rest on a Latin, not on a +Teuton; not on Germany, but on France. Its splendor was not to be +embodied in Aachen nor in the Eternal City, but in Paris; and its +destiny was not to bring in a Christian millennium for the glory of +God, but a scientific equilibrium of social states to the glory of +Napoleon's dynasty, permanent because universally beneficent.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p> + +<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page324" name="page324"></a>(p. 324)</span> CHAPTER <abbr title="25">XXV.</abbr></h3> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Europe and the Directory</span><a id="footnotetag64" name="footnotetag64"></a><a href="#footnote64" title="Go to footnote 64"><span class="small">[64]</span></a>.</h4> + +<p class="summary">The First Coalition — England and Austria — The Armies of + the Republic — The Treasury of the Republic — Necessary + Zeal — The Directory — Its Members — The Abbé Sieyès — + Carnot as a Model Citizen — His Capacity as a Military + Organizer — His Personal Character — His Policy — France + at the Opening of 1796 — Plans of the Directory — Their + Inheritance.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">1796.</p> + +<p>The great European coalition against France which had been formed in +1792 had in it little centripetal force. In 1795 Prussia, Spain, and +Tuscany withdrew for reasons already indicated in another connection, +and made their peace on terms as advantageous as they could secure. +Holland was conquered by France in the winter of 1794-95, and to this +day the illustrated school-books recall to every child of the French +Republic the half-fabulous tale of how a Dutch fleet was captured by +French hussars. The severity of the cold was long remembered as +phenomenal, and the frozen harbors rendered naval resistance +impossible, while cavalry manœuvered with safety on the thick +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page325" name="page325"></a>(p. 325)</span> ice. The Batavian Republic, as the Dutch commonwealth was +now called, was really an appanage of France.</p> + +<p>But England and Austria, though deserted by their strongest allies, +were still redoubtable enemies. The policy of the former had been to +command the seas and destroy the commerce of France on the one hand, +on the other to foment disturbance in the country itself by +subsidizing the royalists. In both plans she had been successful: her +fleets were ubiquitous, the Chouan and Vendean uprisings were +perennial, and the emigrant aristocrats menaced every frontier. +Austria, on the other hand, had once been soundly thrashed. Since +Frederick the Great had wrested Silesia from her, and thereby set +Protestant Prussia among the great powers, she had felt that the +balance of power was disturbed, and had sought everywhere for some +territorial acquisition to restore her importance. The present +emperor, Francis <abbr title="2">II</abbr>, and his adroit minister, Thugut, were equally +stubborn in their determination to draw something worth while from the +seething caldron before the fires of war were extinguished. They +thought of Bavaria, of Poland, of Turkey, and of Italy; in the last +country especially it seemed as if the term of life had been reached +for Venice, and that at her impending demise her fair domains on the +mainland would amply replace Silesia. Russia saw her own advantage in +the weakening either of Turkey or of the central European powers, and +became the silent ally of Austria in this policy.</p> + +<p>The great armies of the French republic had been created by Carnot, +with the aid of his able lieutenant, <span lang="fr">Dubois de Crancé</span>; they were +organized and directed by the unassisted genius of the former. Being +the first national armies which Europe had known, they were animated +as no others had been by that form of patriotism which rests not +merely on animal instinct, but on <span class="pagenum"><a id="page326" name="page326"></a>(p. 326)</span> a principle. They had +fought with joyous alacrity for the assertion, confirmation, and +extension of the rights of man. For the two years from Valmy to +Fleurus (1792-94) they had waged a holy war. But victory modified +their quality and their attitude. The French people were too often +disenchanted by their civilian rulers; the army supplanted the +constitution after 1796. Conscious of its strength, and of itself as +the armed nation, yet the officers and men drew closer and closer for +reciprocal advantage, not merely political but material. The civil +government must have money, the army alone could command money, and on +all the military organization took a full commission. Already some of +the officers were reveling in wealth and splendor, more desired to +follow the example, the rank and file longed for at least a decent +equipment and some pocket money. As yet the curse of pillage was not +synonymous with conquest, as yet the free and generous ardor of youth +and military tradition exerted its force, as yet self-sacrifice to the +extreme of endurance was a virtue, as yet the canker of lust and +debauchery had not ruined the life of the camp. Emancipated from the +bonds of formality and mere contractual relation to superiors, manhood +asserted itself in troublesome questionings as to the motives and +plans of officers, discussion of what was done and what was to be +done, above all in searching criticism of government and its schemes. +These were so continuously misleading and disingenuous that the lawyer +politicaster who played such a rôle at Paris seemed despicable to the +soldiery, and "rogue of a lawyer" was almost synonymous to the +military mind with place-holder and civil ruler. In the march of +events the patriotism of the army had brought into prominence +Rousseau's conception of natural boundaries. There was but one opinion +in the entire nation concerning its <span class="pagenum"><a id="page327" name="page327"></a>(p. 327)</span> frontiers, to wit: +that Nice, Savoy, and the western bank of the Rhine were all by nature +a part of France. As to what was beyond, opinion had been divided, +some feeling that they should continue fighting in order to impose +their own system wherever possible, while others, as has previously +been explained, were either indifferent, or else maintained that the +nation should fight only for its natural frontier. To the support of +the latter sentiment came the general longing for peace which was +gradually overpowering the whole country.</p> + +<a id="img008" name="img008"></a> +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/img008.jpg" width="300" height="345" alt="" title=""> +<p class="noindent"><span class="small">From the collection of W. C. Crane. <span class="add8em">Engraved by G. Fiesinger.</span></span></p> +<p class="noindent">Buonaparte.</p> +<p class="noindent"><span class="small">Drawn by S. Guerin.<br> Deposited in the National Library<br> on the + 29th Vendémiaire of the year 7 of the French Republic</span></p> +</div> + +<p>No people ever made such sacrifices for liberty as the French had +made. Through years of famine they had starved with grim +determination, and the leanness of their race was a byword for more +than a generation. They had been for over a century the victims of a +system abhorrent to both their intelligence and their character—a +system of absolutism which had subsisted on foreign wars and on +successful appeals to the national vainglory. Now at last they were to +all appearance exhausted, their treasury was bankrupt, their paper +money was worthless, their agriculture and industries were paralyzed, +their foreign commerce was ruined; but they cherished the delusion +that their liberties were secure. Their soldiers were badly fed, badly +armed, and badly clothed; but they were freemen under such discipline +as is possible only among freemen. Why should not their success in the +arts of peace be as great as in the glorious and successful wars they +had carried on? There was, therefore, both in the country and in the +government, as in the army, a considerable and ever growing party +which demanded a general peace, but only with the "natural" frontier, +and a small one which felt peace to be imperative even if the nation +should be confined within its old boundaries.</p> + +<p>But such a reasonable and moderate policy was <span class="pagenum"><a id="page328" name="page328"></a>(p. 328)</span> impossible on +two accounts. In consequence of the thirteenth of Vendémiaire, the +radical party still survived and controlled the machinery of +government; and, in spite of the seeming supremacy of moderate ideas, +the royalists were still irreconcilable. In particular there was the +religious question, which in itself comprehended a political, social, +and economic revolution which men like those who sat in the Directory +refused to understand because they chose to treat it on the basis of +pure theory.<a id="footnotetag65" name="footnotetag65"></a><a href="#footnote65" title="Go to footnote 65"><span class="small">[65]</span></a> The great western district of France was Roman, +royalist, and agricultural. There was a unity in their life and faith +so complete that any disturbance of the equilibrium produced frenzy +and chaos, an embattled strife for life itself. It was a discovery to +Hoche, that to pacify the Vendée brute force was quite insufficient. +The peasantry were beggared and savage but undismayed. While he used +force with nobles, strangers, and madmen, his conquest was in the main +moral because he restored to the people their fields and their church, +their institutions somewhat modified and improved, but still their old +institutions. No man less gigantic in moral stature would have dared +thus to defy the petty atheistic fanaticism of the Directory. France +had secured enlightened legislation which was not enforced, religious +liberty which could not be practised because of ill will in the +government, civil liberty which was a mere sham because of internal +violence, political liberty which was a chimera before hostile +foreigners. Hence it seemed to the administration that one evil must +cure another. Intestine disturbances, they naïvely believed, could be +kept under some measure of control only by an aggressive foreign +policy which should deceive the insurgent elements as to the resources +of the government. Thus far, by hook <span class="pagenum"><a id="page329" name="page329"></a>(p. 329)</span> or by crook, the +armies, so far as they had been clothed and paid and fed at all, had +been fed and paid and clothed by the administration at Paris. If the +armies should still march and fight, the nation would be impressed by +the strength of the Directory.</p> + +<p>The Directory was by no means a homogeneous body. It is doubtful +whether Barras was a sincere republican, or sincere in anything except +in his effort to keep himself afloat on the tide of the times. It has +been believed by many that he hoped for the restoration of monarchy +through disgust of the nation with such intolerable disorders as they +would soon associate with the name of republic. His friendship for +General Bonaparte was a mixed quantity; for while he undoubtedly +wished to secure for the state in any future crisis the support of so +able a man, he had at the same time used him as a sort of social +scapegoat. His own strength lay in several facts: he had been Danton's +follower; he had been an officer, and was appointed for that reason +commanding general against the Paris sections; he had been shrewd +enough to choose Bonaparte as his agent so that he enjoyed the +prestige of Bonaparte's success; and in the new society of the capital +he was magnificent, extravagant, and licentious, the only +representative in the Directory of the newly aroused passion for life +and pleasure, his colleagues being severe, unostentatious, and +economical democrats.</p> + +<p>Barras's main support in the government was Rewbell, a vigorous +Alsatian and a bluff democrat, enthusiastic for the Revolution and its +extension. He was no Frenchman himself, but a German at heart, and +thought that the German lands—Holland, Switzerland, Germany +itself—should be brought into the great movement. Like Barras, who +needed disorder for his Orleanist schemes and for the supply of his +lavish <span class="pagenum"><a id="page330" name="page330"></a>(p. 330)</span> purse, Rewbell despised the new constitution; but for +a different reason. To him it appeared a flimsy, theoretical document, +so subdividing the exercise of power as to destroy it altogether. His +rôle was in the world of finance, and he was always suspected, though +unjustly, of unholy alliances with army contractors and stock +manipulators. <span lang="fr">Larévellière</span> was another doctrinaire, but, in comparison +with Rewbell, a bigot. He had been a Girondist, a good citizen, and +active in the formation of the new constitution; but he lacked +practical common sense, and hated the Church with as much narrow +bitterness as the most rancorous modern agnostic,—seeking, however, +not merely its destruction, but, like Robespierre, to substitute for +it a cult of reason and humanity. The fourth member of the Directory, +Letourneur, was a plain soldier, an officer in the engineers. With +abundant common sense and a hard head, he, too, was a sincere +republican; but he was a tolerant one, a moderate, kindly man like his +friend Carnot, with whom, as time passed by and there was gradually +developed an irreconcilable split in the Directory, he always voted in +a minority of two against the other three.</p> + +<p>At first the notorious Abbé Sieyès had been chosen a member of the +executive. He was both deep and dark, like Bonaparte, to whom he later +rendered valuable services. His ever famous pamphlet, which in 1789 +triumphantly proved that the Third Estate was neither more nor less +than the French nation, had made many think him a radical. As years +passed on he became the oracle of his time, and as such acquired an +enormous influence even in the days of the Terror, which he was +helpless to avert, and which he viewed with horror and disgust. +Whatever may have been his original ideas, he appears to have been for +some time after the thirteenth of Vendémiaire an Orleanist, the head +of a party which <span class="pagenum"><a id="page331" name="page331"></a>(p. 331)</span> desired no longer a strict hereditary and +absolute monarchy, but thought that in the son of Philippe <span lang="fr">Égalité</span> +they had a useful prince to preside over a constitutional kingdom. +Perhaps for this reason, perhaps for the one he gave, which was that +the new constitution was not yet the right one, he flatly refused the +place in the Directory which was offered to him.</p> + +<p>It was as a substitute for this dangerous visionary that Carnot was +made a director. He was now in his forty-third year, and at the height +of his powers. In him was embodied all that was moderate and sound, +consequently all that was enduring, in the French Revolution; he was a +thorough scholar, and his treatise on the metaphysics of the calculus +forms an important chapter in the history of mathematical physics. As +an officer in the engineers he had attained the highest distinction, +while as minister of war he had shown himself an organizer and +strategist of the first order. But his highest aim was to be a model +French citizen. In his family relations as son, husband, and father, +he was held by his neighbors to be a pattern; in his public life he +strove with equal sincerity of purpose to illustrate the highest +ideals of the eighteenth century. Such was the ardor of his +republicanism that no man nor party in France was so repugnant but +that he would use either one or both, if necessary, for his country's +welfare, although he was like Chatham in his lofty scorn for parties. +To him as a patriot, therefore, France, as against the outer world, +was first, no matter what her government might be; but the France he +yearned for was a land regenerated by the gospel of humanity, awakened +to the highest activity by the equality of all before the law, refined +by that self-abnegation of every man which makes all men brothers, and +destroys the menace of the law.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page332" name="page332"></a>(p. 332)</span> And yet he was no dreamer. While a member of the National +Assembly he had displayed such practical common sense in his chosen +field of military science, that in 1793 the Committee of Safety +intrusted to him the control of the war. The standard of rank and +command was no longer birth nor seniority nor influence, but merit. +The wild and ignorant hordes of men which the conscription law had +brought into the field were something hitherto unknown in Europe. It +was Carnot who organized, clothed, fed, and drilled them. It was he +who devised the new tactics and evolved the new and comprehensive +plans which made his national armies the power they became. It was in +Carnot's administration that the young generals first came to the +fore. It was by his favor that almost every man of that galaxy of +modern warriors who so long dazzled Europe by their feats of arms +first appeared as a candidate for advancement. Moreau, Macdonald, +Jourdan, Bernadotte, Kléber, Mortier, Ney, Pichegru, Desaix, Berthier, +Augereau, and Bonaparte himself,—each one of these was the product of +Carnot's system. He was the creator of the armies which for a time +made all Europe tributary to France.</p> + +<p>Throughout an epoch which laid bare the meanness of most natures, his +character was unsmirched. He began life under the ancient régime by +writing and publishing a eulogy on Vauban, who had been disgraced for +his plain speaking to Louis <abbr title="14">XIV.</abbr> When called to a share in the +government he was the advocate of a strong nationality, of a just +administration within, and of a fearless front to the world. While +minister of war he on one occasion actually left his post and hastened +to Maubeuge, where defeat was threatening Jourdan, devised and put +into operation a new plan, led in person the victorious assault, and +then returned to Paris to inspire the country and the army with news +of the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page333" name="page333"></a>(p. 333)</span> victory; all this he did as if it were commonplace +duty, without advertising himself by parade or ceremony. Even +Robespierre had trembled before his biting irony and yet dared not, as +he wished, include him among his victims. After the events of +Thermidor, when it was proposed to execute all those who had +authorized the bloody deeds of the Terror, excepting Carnot, he +prevented the sweeping measure by standing in his place to say that he +too had acted with the rest, had held like them the conviction that +the country could not otherwise be saved, and that therefore he must +share their fate.</p> + +<p>In the milder light of the new constitution the dark blot on his +record thus frankly confessed grew less repulsive as the continued +dignity and sincerity of his nature asserted themselves in a tolerance +which he believed to be as needful now as ruthless severity once had +been. For a year the glory of French arms had been eclipsed: his +dominant idea was first to restore their splendor, then to make peace +with honor and give the new life of his country an opportunity for +expansion in a mild and firm administration of the new laws. If he had +been dictator in the crisis, no doubt his plan, arduous as was the +task, might have been realized; but, with Letourneur in a minority of +two, against an unprincipled adventurer leading two bigots, it was +impossible to secure the executive unity necessary for success.</p> + +<p>At the opening of the year 1796, therefore, the situation of France +was quite as distracting as ever, and the foundation of her +institutions more than ever unstable. There was hopeless division in +the executive, and no coördination under the constitution between it +and the other branches of the government, while the legislature did +not represent the people. The treasury was empty, famine was as +wide-spread as ever, administration <span class="pagenum"><a id="page334" name="page334"></a>(p. 334)</span> virtually non-existent. +The army, checked for the moment, moped unsuccessful, dispirited, and +unpaid. Hunger knows little discipline, and with temporary loss of +discipline the morals of the troops had been undermined. To save the +constitution public opinion must be diverted from internal affairs, +and conciliated. To that end the German emperor must be forced to +yield the Rhine frontier, and money must be found at least for the +most pressing necessities of the army and of the government. If the +republic could secure for France her natural borders, and command a +peace by land, it might hope for eventual success in the conflict with +England. To this end its territorial conquests must be partitioned +into three classes: those within the "natural limits," and already +named, for incorporation; those to be erected into buffer states to +fend off from the tender republic absolutism and all its horrors; and +finally such districts as might be valuable for exchange in order to +the eventual consolidation of the first two classes. Of the second +type, the Directory considered as most important the Germanic +Confederation. There was the example of Catherine's dealing with +Poland by which to proceed. As that had been partitioned, so should +Germany. From its lands should be created four electorates, one to +indemnify the House of Orange for Holland, one for Würtemberg; the +others according to circumstances would be confided to friendly hands.</p> + +<p>The means to the end were these. Russia must be reduced to inactivity +by exciting against her through bribes and promises all her foes to +the eastward. Prussia must be cajoled into coöperation by pressure on +King George of Hanover, even to the extinction of his kingdom, and by +the hope of a consolidated territory with the possibility of securing +the Imperial dignity. Austria <span class="pagenum"><a id="page335" name="page335"></a>(p. 335)</span> was to be partly compelled, +partly bribed, into a continental coalition against Great Britain by +adjustment of her possessions both north and south of the Alps. Into a +general alliance against Great Britain, Spain must be dragged by +working on the fears of the queen's paramour Godoy, prime minister and +controller of Spanish destinies. This done, Great Britain, according +to the time-honored, well-worn device of France, royal or radical, +should be invaded and brought to her knees. The plan was as old as +Philippe le Bel, and had appeared thereafter once and again at +intervals either as a <span class="italic">bona fide</span> policy or a device to stir the +French heart and secure money from the public purse for the public +defense. For this purpose of the Directory the ruined maritime power +of the republic must be restored, new ships built and old ones +refitted; in the meantime, as did Richelieu or Mazarin, rebellion +against the British government must be roused and supported among +malcontents everywhere within the borders of Great Britain, especially +in Ireland. Such was the stupid plan of the Directory: two well-worn +expedients, both discredited as often as tried. To the territorial +readjustment of Europe, Prussia, though momentarily checked, was +already pivotal; but the first efforts of French diplomacy at Berlin +resulted in a flat refusal to go farther than the peace already made, +or entertain the chimerical proposals now made. Turning then to +Austria, the Directory concluded the armistice of February first, +1796, but at Vienna the offer of Munich and two thirds of Bavaria, of +an outlet to the Adriatic and of an alliance against Russia for the +restoration of Poland—of course without Galicia, which Austria should +retain—was treated only as significant of what French temerity dared +propose, and when heard was scornfully disdained. The program for +Italy was retained substantially as laid down <span class="pagenum"><a id="page336" name="page336"></a>(p. 336)</span> in 1793: the +destruction of the papal power, the overthrow of all existing +governments, the plunder of their rich treasures, the annihilation of +feudal and ecclesiastical institutions, and the regeneration of its +peoples on democratic lines. Neither the revolutionary elements of the +peninsula nor the jealous princes could be brought to terms by the +active and ubiquitous French agents, even in Genoa, though there was +just sufficient dallying everywhere between Venice and Naples to keep +alive hope and exasperate the unsuccessful negotiators. The European +world was worried and harassed by uncertainties, by dark plots, by +mutual distrust. It was unready for war, but war was the only solvent +of intolerable troubles. England, Austria, Russia, and France under +the Directory must fight or perish.</p> + +<p>It must not be forgotten that this was the monarchical, secular, and +immemorial policy of France as the disturber of European peace; +continued by the republic, it was rendered more pernicious and +exasperating to the upholders of the balance of power. Not only was +the republic more energetic and less scrupulous than the monarchy, her +rivals were in a very low estate indeed. Great Britain had stripped +France and Holland of their colonies, but these new possessions and +the ocean highway must be protected at enormous expense. The Commons +refused to authorize a new loan, and the nation was exhausted to such +a degree that Pitt and the King, shrinking from the opprobrious +attacks of the London populace, and noting with anguish the renewal of +bloody disorder in Ireland, made a feint of peace negotiations through +the agent they employed in Switzerland to foment royalist +demonstrations against France wherever possible. Wickham asked on +March eighth, 1796, on what terms the Directory would make an +honorable peace, and in <span class="pagenum"><a id="page337" name="page337"></a>(p. 337)</span> less than three weeks received a +rebuff which declared that France would under no circumstances make +restitution of its continental conquests. In a sense it was Russia's +Polish policy which kept Prussia and Austria so occupied with the +partition that the nascent republic of France was not strangled in its +cradle by the contiguous powers. Provided she had the lion's share of +Poland, Catherine was indifferent to the success of Jacobinism. But +she soon saw the danger of a general conflagration and, applying +Voltaire's epithet for ecclesiasticism to the republic, cried all +abroad: Crush the Infamous! Conscious of her old age, distrusting all +the possible successors to her throne: Paul the paranoiac, Constantine +the coarse libertine, and the super-elegant Alexander, she refused a +coalition with England and turned her activities eastward against the +Cossacks and into Persia; but she consented to be the intermediary +between Austria and Great Britain. Austria wanted the Netherlands, but +only if she could secure with them a fortified girdle wherewith to +protect and hold them. She likewise desired the Milanese and the +Legations in Italy, as well as Venetia. As the price of continued war +on France, these lands and a subsidy of three million pounds were the +terms exacted from Great Britain. With no army at his disposal and his +naval resources strained to the utmost, George <abbr title="3">III</abbr> agreed to pay a +hundred and fifty thousand pounds per month until parliament would +make the larger grant. Thugut, the Austrian minister, accepted. +Cobenzl, the Austrian ambassador at <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Petersburg, arranged affairs +with Catherine concerning Bavaria, the French royalists under Condé +bribed Pichegru into a promise of yielding the fortresses of the north +to their occupation, the Austrian army on the Rhine was strengthened. +In retort Jourdan was stationed on the lower and Moreau <span class="pagenum"><a id="page338" name="page338"></a>(p. 338)</span> on +the upper Rhine, each with eighty thousand men, Bonaparte was +despatched to Italy, and Hoche made ready a motley crew of outlaws and +Vendeans wherewith to enter Ireland, join Wolfe Tone and his United +Irishmen, and thus let loose the elements of civil war in that unhappy +island. Europe at large expected the brunt of the struggle north of +the Alps in central Germany: the initiated knew better.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p> + +<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page339" name="page339"></a>(p. 339)</span> CHAPTER <abbr title="26">XXVI.</abbr></h3> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Bonaparte on a Great Stage</span><a id="footnotetag66" name="footnotetag66"></a><a href="#footnote66" title="Go to footnote 66"><span class="small">[66]</span></a>.</h4> + +<p class="summary">Bonaparte and the Army of Italy — The System of Pillage — + The General as a Despot — The Republican Armies and French + Politics — Italy as the Focal Point — Condition of Italy + — Bonaparte's Sagacity — His Plan of Action — His Army + and Generals — Strength of the Army of Italy — The + Napoleonic Maxims of Warfare — Advance of Military Science + — Bonaparte's Achievements — His Financial Policy — + Effects of His Success.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">1796.</p> + +<p>The struggle which was imminent was for nothing less than a new lease +of national life for France. It dawned on many minds that in such a +combat changes of a revolutionary nature—as regarded not merely the +provisioning and management of armies, as regarded not merely the +grand strategy to be adopted and carried out by France, but as +regarded the very structure and relations of other European +nations—would be justifiable. But to be justifiable they must be +adequate; and to be adequate they must be unexpected and thorough. +What should they be? The Œdipus who solves this riddle for France +is the man of the hour. He was found in Bonaparte. What mean these +ringing words from the headquarters at Nice, which, on March +twenty-seventh, 1796, fell on the ears of a hungry, eager soldiery and +a startled world? "Soldiers, you are naked, badly fed. The government +owes you much; it can give you nothing. Your long-suffering, the +courage you <span class="pagenum"><a id="page340" name="page340"></a>(p. 340)</span> show among these crags, are splendid, but they +bring you no glory; not a ray is reflected upon you. I wish to lead +you into the most fertile plains of the world. Rich provinces, great +towns, will be in your power; there you will find honor, glory, and +riches. Soldiers of Italy, can you be found lacking in honor, courage, +or constancy?"</p> + +<p>Such language has but one meaning. By a previous understanding with +the Directory, the French army was to be paid, the French treasury to +be replenished, at the expense of the lands which were the seat of +war. Corsicans in the French service had long been suspected of +sometimes serving their own interests to the detriment of their +adopted country. Bonaparte was no exception, and occasionally he felt +it necessary to justify himself. For example, he had carefully +explained that his marriage bound him to the republic by still another +tie. Yet it appears that his promotion, his engagement with the +directors, and his devotion to the republic were all concerned +primarily with personal ambition, though secondarily and incidentally +with the perpetuation of a government professedly based on the +Revolution. From the outset of Napoleon's independent career, +something of the future dictator appears. This implied promise that +pillage, plunder, and rapine should henceforth go unpunished in order +that his soldiers might line their pockets is the indication of a +settled policy which was more definitely expressed in each successive +proclamation as it issued from his pen. It was repeated whenever new +energy was to be inspired into faltering columns, whenever some +unparalleled effort in a dark design was to be demanded from the rank +and file of <span class="pagenum"><a id="page341" name="page341"></a>(p. 341)</span> the army, until at last a point-blank promise +was made that every man should return to France with money enough in +his pocket to become a landowner.</p> + +<p>There was magic in the new spell, the charm never ceased to work; with +that first call from Nice began the transformation of the French army, +fighting now no longer for principle, but for glory, victory, and +booty. Its leader, if successful, would be in no sense a +constitutional general, but a despotic conqueror. Outwardly gracious, +and with no irritating condescension; considerate wherever mercy would +strengthen his reputation; fully aware of the influence a dramatic +situation or a pregnant aphorism has upon the common mind, and using +both with mastery; appealing as a climax to the powerful motive of +greed in every heart, Bonaparte was soon to be not alone the general +of consummate genius, not alone the organizing lawgiver of conquered +lands and peoples, but, what was essential to his whole career, the +idol of an army which was not, as of old, the servant of a great +nation, but, as the new era had transformed it, the nation itself.</p> + +<p>The peculiar relation of Bonaparte to Italy, to Corsica, and to the +Convention had made him, as early as 1794, while yet but chief of +artillery, the real director of the Army of Italy. He had no personal +share in the victorious campaign of that year, but its victories, as +he justly claimed, were due to his plans. During the unsuccessful +Corsican expedition of the following winter, for which he was but +indirectly responsible, the Austro-Sardinians in Piedmont had taken +advantage of its absorbing so many French troops to undo all that had +so far been accomplished. During the summer of 1795 Spain and Prussia +had made peace with France. In consequence all northern Europe had +been declared neutral, and the field of operations on the Rhine had +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page342" name="page342"></a>(p. 342)</span> been confined to the central zone of Germany, while at the +same time the French soldiers who had formed the Army of the Pyrenees +had been transferred to the Maritime Alps. In 1796, therefore, the +great question was whether the Army of the Rhine or that of Italy was +to be the chief weapon of offense against Austria.</p> + +<p>Divided interests and warped convictions quickly created two opinions +in the French nation, each of which was held with intensity and +bitterness by its supporters. So far the Army of the Rhine was much +the stronger, and the Emperor had concentrated his strength to oppose +it. But the wisest heads saw that Austria might be flanked by way of +Italy. The gate to Lombardy was guarded by the sturdy little army of +Victor Amadeus, assisted by a small Austrian force. If the house of +Savoy, which was said to wear at its girdle the keys of the Alps, +could be conquered and brought to make a separate peace, the Austrian +army could be overwhelmed, and a highway to Vienna opened first +through the plains of Lombardy, then by the Austrian Tyrol, or else by +the Venetian Alps. Strangely enough, the plainest and most forcible +exposition of this plan was made by an emigrant in London, a certain +Dutheil, for the benefit of England and Austria. But the Allies were +deaf to his warnings, while in the mean time Bonaparte enforced the +same idea upon the French authorities, and secured their acceptance of +it. Both he and they were the more inclined to the scheme because once +already it had been successfully initiated; because the general, +having studied Italy and its people, thoroughly understood what +contributions might be levied on them; because the Army of the Rhine +was radically republican and knew its own strength; because therefore +the personal ambitions of Bonaparte, and in fact the very existence of +the Directory, alike depended on success elsewhere than in central +Europe.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page343" name="page343"></a>(p. 343)</span> Having been for centuries the battle-field of rival +dynasties, Italy, though a geographical unit with natural frontiers +more marked than those of any other land, and with inhabitants fairly +homogeneous in birth, speech, and institutions, was neither a nation +nor a family of kindred nations, but a congeries of heterogeneous +states. Some of these, like Venice and Genoa, boasted the proud title +of republics; they were in reality narrow, commercial, even piratical +oligarchies, destitute of any vigorous political life. The Pope, like +other petty rulers, was but a temporal prince, despotic, and not even +enlightened, as was the Grand Duke of Tuscany. Naples and the Milanese +both groaned under the yoke of foreign rulers, and the only passable +government in the length and breadth of the land was that of the house +of Savoy in Piedmont and Sardinia, lands where the revolutionary +spirit of liberty was most extended and active. The petty courts, like +those of Parma and Modena, were nests of intrigue and corruption. +There was, of course, in every place that saving remnant of +high-minded men which is always providentially left as a seed; but the +people as a whole were ignorant and enervated. The accumulations of +ages, gained by an extensive and lucrative commerce, or by the tilling +of a generous soil, had not been altogether dissipated by misrule, and +there was even yet rich store of money in many of the venerable and +still splendid cities. Nowhere in the ancient seats of the Roman +commonwealth, whose memory was now the cherished fashion in France, +could anything more than a reflection of French revolutionary +principles be discerned; the rights of man and republican doctrine +were attractive subjects of debate in many cities throughout the +peninsula, but there was little of that fierce devotion to their +realization so prevalent beyond the Alps.</p> + +<p>The sagacity of Bonaparte saw his account in these <span class="pagenum"><a id="page344" name="page344"></a>(p. 344)</span> +conditions. Being a professed republican, he could announce himself as +the regenerator of society, and the liberator of a people. If, as has +been supposed, he already dreamed of a throne, where could one be so +easily founded with the certainty of its endurance? As a conqueror he +would have a divided, helpless, and wealthy people at his feet. If the +old flame of Corsican ambition were not yet extinguished, he felt +perhaps that he could wreak the vengeance of a defeated and angry +people upon Genoa, their oppressor for ages.</p> + +<p>His preparations began as early as the autumn of 1795, when, with +Carnot's assistance, the united Pyrenean and Italian armies were +directed to the old task of opening the roads through the mountains +and by the sea-shore into Lombardy and central Italy. They won the +battle of Loano, which secured the Maritime Alps once more; but a long +winter amid these inclement peaks had left the army wretched and +destitute of every necessity. It had been difficult throughout that +winter to maintain even the Army of the Interior in the heart of +France; the only chance for that of Italy was movement. The completed +plan of action was forwarded from Paris in January. But, as has been +told, Schérer, the commanding general, and his staff were outraged, +refusing to consider its suggestions, either those for supplying their +necessities in Lombardy, or those for the daring and venturesome +operations necessary to reach that goal.</p> + +<p>Bonaparte, who could invent such schemes, alone could realize them; +and the task was intrusted to him. For the next ten weeks no sort of +preparation was neglected. The nearly empty chest of the Directory was +swept clean; from that source the new commander received forty-seven +thousand five hundred francs in cash, and drafts for twenty thousand +more; forced loans for considerable sums were made in Toulon and +Marseilles; <span class="pagenum"><a id="page345" name="page345"></a>(p. 345)</span> and Salicetti levied contributions of grain and +forage in Genoa according to the plan which had been preconcerted +between him and the general in their Jacobin days. The army which +Bonaparte finally set in motion was therefore a fine engine of war. +Its immediate necessities relieved, the veterans warmed to their work, +and that notable promise of booty worked them to the pitch of genuine +enthusiasm. The young commander, moreover, was as circumspect as a man +of the first ability alone could be when about to make the venture of +his life and play for the stake of a world. His generals of division +were themselves men of mark—personages no less than Masséna, +Augereau, Laharpe, and Sérurier. Of Masséna some account has already +been given. Augereau was Bonaparte's senior by thirteen years, of +humble and obscure origin, who had sought his fortunes as a +fencing-master in the Bourbon service at Naples, and having later +enlisted in the French forces sent to Spain in 1792, rose by his +ability to be general of brigade, then division commander in the Army +of Italy. He was rude in manner and plebeian in feeling, jealous of +Bonaparte, but brave and capable. In the sequel he played an important +part and rose to eminence, though he distrusted both the Emperor and +the empire and flinched before great crises. Neither Laharpe nor +Sérurier was distinguished beyond the sphere of their profession, but +in that they were loyal and admirable. Laharpe was a member of the +famous Swiss family banished from home for devotion to liberty. Under +Luckner in Germany he had earned and kept the sobriquet of "the +brave"; until he was mortally wounded in a night attack, while +crossing the Po after Millesimo, he continued his brilliant career, +and would have gone far had he been spared. Sérurier was a veteran of +the Seven Years' War and of Portugal, already fifty-four years old. +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page346" name="page346"></a>(p. 346)</span> Able and trustworthy, he was loaded with favors by Napoleon +and survived until 1819. It might have been very easy to exasperate +such men. But what the commander-in-chief had to do was done with such +smoothness and skill that even they could find no ground for carping; +and though at first cold and reticent, before long they yielded to the +influences which filled with excitement the very air they breathed.</p> + +<p>At this moment, besides the National Guard, France had an army, and in +some sense a navy: of both the effective fighting force numbered +upward of half a million. Divided nominally into nine armies, instead +of fourteen as first planned, there were in reality but seven; of +these, four were of minor importance: a small, skeleton Army of the +Interior, a force in the west under Hoche twice as large and with +ranks better filled, a fairly strong army in the north under +Macdonald, and a similar one in the Alps under Kellermann, with +Berthier and Vaubois as lieutenants, which soon became a part of +Bonaparte's force. These were, if possible, to preserve internal order +and to watch England, while three great active organizations were to +combine for the overthrow of Austria. On the Rhine were two of the +active armies—one near Düsseldorf under Jourdan, another near +Strasburg under Moreau. Macdonald was of Scottish Jacobite descent, a +French royalist converted to republicanism by his marriage. He was now +thirty-one years old. Trained in the regiment of Dillon, he alone of +its officers remained true to democratic principles on the outbreak of +the Revolution. He was made a colonel for his bravery at Jemmapes, and +for his loyalty when Dumouriez went over to the Austrians he was +promoted to be general of brigade. For his services under Pichegru in +Holland he had been further rewarded by promotion, and after the peace +of Campo Formio was transferred <span class="pagenum"><a id="page347" name="page347"></a>(p. 347)</span> from the Rhine to Italy. He +was throughout a loyal friend of Bonaparte and received the highest +honors. Kellermann was a Bavarian, and when associated with Bonaparte +a veteran, sixty-one years old. He had seen service in the Seven +Years' War and again in Poland during 1771. An ardent republican, he +had served with distinction from the beginning of the revolutionary +wars: though twice charged with incapacity, he was triumphantly +acquitted. He linked his fortunes to those of Bonaparte without +jealousy and reaped abundant laurels. Of Berthier and the other great +generals we have already spoken. Vaubois reached no distinction. At +the portals of Italy was Bonaparte, with a third army, soon to be the +most active of all. At the outset he had, all told, about forty-five +thousand men; but the campaign which he conducted had before its close +assumed such dimensions that in spite of its losses the Army of Italy +contained nearly double that number of men ready for the field, +besides the garrison troops and invalids. The figures on the records +of the war department were invariably much greater; but an enormous +percentage, sometimes as high as a third, was always in the hospitals, +while often as many as twenty thousand were left behind to hold +various fortresses. Bonaparte, for evident reasons, uniformly +represented his effective force as smaller than it was, and stunned +the ears of the Directory with ever reiterated demands for +reinforcement. A dispassionate estimate would fix the number of his +troops in the field at any one time during these operations as not +lower than thirty-five thousand nor much higher than eighty thousand.</p> + +<p>Another element of the utmost importance entered into the coming +campaign. The old vicious system by which a vigilant democracy had +jealously prescribed to its generals every step to be taken was swept +away <span class="pagenum"><a id="page348" name="page348"></a>(p. 348)</span> by Bonaparte, who as Robespierre's "man" had been +thoroughly familiar with its workings from the other end. He was now +commander-in-chief, and he insisted on the absolute unity of command +as essential to the economy of time. This being granted, his equipment +was complete. It will be remembered that in 1794 he had explained to +his patrons how warfare in the field was like a siege: by directing +all one's force to a single point a breach might be made, and the +equilibrium of opposition destroyed. To this conception of +concentration for attack he had, in concert with the Directory, added +another, that of expansion in a given territory for sustenance. He had +still a third, that war must be made as intense and awful as possible +in order to make it short, and thus to diminish its horrors. Trite and +simple as these aphorisms now appear, they were all original and +absolutely new, at least in the quick, fierce application of them made +by Bonaparte. The traditions of chivalry, the incessant warfare of two +centuries and a half, the humane conceptions of the Church, the regard +for human life, the difficulty of communications, the scarcity of +munitions and arms,—all these and other elements had combined to make +war under mediocre generals a stately ceremonial, and to diminish the +number of actual battles, which took place, when they did, only after +careful preparation, as an unpleasant necessity, by a sort of common +agreement, and with the ceremony of a duel.</p> + +<p>Turenne, Marlborough, and Frederick, all men of cold-blooded +temperament, had been the greatest generals of their respective ages, +and were successful much in proportion to their lack of sentiment and +disregard of conventionalities. Their notions and their conduct +displayed the same instincts as those of Bonaparte, and their minds +were enlarged by a study of great campaigns <span class="pagenum"><a id="page349" name="page349"></a>(p. 349)</span> like that which +had fed his inchoate genius and had made possible his consummate +achievement. He had much the same apparatus for warfare as they. The +men of Europe had not materially changed in stature, weight, +education, or morals since the closing years of the Thirty Years' War. +The roads were somewhat better, the conformation of mountains, hills, +and valleys was better known, and like his great predecessors, though +unlike his contemporaries, Bonaparte knew the use of a map; but in the +main little was changed in the conditions for moving and +manœuvering troops. News traveled slowly, the semaphore telegraph +was but slowly coming into use, and the fastest couriers rode from +Nice to Paris or from Paris to Berlin in seven days. Firearms of every +description were little improved: Prussia actually claimed that she +had been forced to negotiate for peace because France controlled the +production of gun-flints. The forging of cannon was finer, and the +artillery arm was on the whole more efficient. In France there had +been considerable change for the better in the manual and in tactics; +the rest of Europe followed the old and more formal ways. Outside the +republic, ceremony still held sway in court and camp; youthful energy +was stifled in routine; and the generals opposed to Bonaparte were for +the most part men advanced in years, wedded to tradition, and +incapable of quickly adapting their ideas to meet advances and attacks +based on conceptions radically different from their own. It was at +times a positive misery to the new conqueror that his opponents were +such inefficient fossils. Young and at the same time capable; using +the natural advantages of his territory to support the bravery of his +troops; with a mind which was not only accurate and decisive, but +comprehensive in its observations; unhampered by control or by +principle; opposed to <span class="pagenum"><a id="page350" name="page350"></a>(p. 350)</span> generals who could not think of a boy +of twenty-six as their equal; with the best army and the finest +theater of war in Europe; finally, with a genius independently +developed, and with conceptions of his profession which summarized the +experience of his greatest predecessors, Bonaparte performed feats +that seemed miraculous even when compared with those of Hoche, +Jourdan, or Moreau, which had already so astounded the world.</p> + +<p>Within eleven days the Austrians and Sardinians were separated, the +latter having been defeated and forced to sign an armistice. After a +rest of two days, a fortnight saw him victorious in Lombardy, and +entering Milan as a conqueror. Two weeks elapsed, and again he set +forth to reduce to his sway in less than a month the most of central +Italy. Against an enemy now desperate and at bay his operations fell +into four divisions, each resulting in an advance—the first, of nine +days, against Wurmser and Quasdanowich; the second, of sixteen days, +against Wurmser; the third, of twelve days, against Alvinczy; and the +fourth, of thirty days, until he captured Mantua and opened the +mountain passes to his army. Within fifteen days after beginning +hostilities against the Pope, he forced him to sign the treaty of +Tolentino; and within thirty-six days of their setting foot on the +road from Mantua to Vienna, the French were at Leoben, distant only +ninety miles from the Austrian capital, and dictating terms to the +Empire. In the year between March twenty-seventh, 1796, and April +seventh, 1797, Bonaparte humbled the most haughty dynasty in Europe, +toppled the central European state system, and initiated the process +which has given a predominance apparently final to Prussia, then +considered but as a parvenu.</p> + +<p>It is impossible to estimate the enormous sums of money which he +exacted for the conduct of a war that <span class="pagenum"><a id="page351" name="page351"></a>(p. 351)</span> he chose to say was +carried on to emancipate Italy. The soldiers of his army were well +clad, well fed, and well equipped from the day of their entry into +Milan; the arrears of their pay were not only settled, but they were +given license to prey on the country until a point was reached which +seemed to jeopardize success, when common pillage was promptly stopped +by the severest examples. The treasury of the Directory was not filled +as were those of the conquering officers, but it was no longer empty. +In short, France reached the apex of her revolutionary greatness; and +as she was now the foremost power on the Continent, the shaky +monarchies in neighboring lands were forced to consider again +questions which in 1795 they had hoped were settled. As Bonaparte +foresaw, the destinies of Europe had indeed hung on the fate of Italy.</p> + +<p>Europe had grown accustomed to military surprises in the few preceding +years. The armies of the French republic, fired by devotion to their +principles and their nation, had accomplished marvels. But nothing in +the least foreshadowing this had been wrought even by them. Then, as +now, curiosity was inflamed, and the most careful study was expended +in analyzing the process by which such miracles had been performed. +The investigators and their readers were so overpowered by the +spectacle and its results that they were prevented by a sort of +awe-stricken credulity from recognizing the truth; and even yet the +notion of a supernatural influence fighting on Bonaparte's side has +not entirely disappeared. But the facts as we know them reveal +cleverness dealing with incapacity, energy such as had not yet been +seen fighting with languor, an embodied principle of great vitality +warring with a lifeless, vanishing system. The consequences were +startling, but logical; the details sound like a romance from the land +of Eblis.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p> + +<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page352" name="page352"></a>(p. 352)</span> CHAPTER <abbr title="27">XXVII.</abbr></h3> + +<h4><span class="smcap">The Conquest of Piedmont and the Milanese</span><a id="footnotetag67" name="footnotetag67"></a><a href="#footnote67" title="Go to footnote 67"><span class="small">[67]</span></a>.</h4> + +<p class="summary">The Armies of Austria and Sardinia — Montenotte and + Millesimo — Mondovi and Cherasco — Consequences of the + Campaign — The Plains of Lombardy — The Crossing of the Po + — Advance Toward Milan — Lodi — Retreat of the Austrians + — Moral Effects of Lodi.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">1796.</p> + +<p>Victor Amadeus of Sardinia was not unaccustomed to the loss of +territory in the north, because from immemorial times his house had +relinquished picturesque but unfruitful lands beyond the Alps to gain +fertile fields below them. It was a hard blow, to be sure, that Savoy, +which gave name to his family, and Nice, with its beautiful and +commanding site, should have been lost to his crown. But so far, in +every general European convulsion, some substantial morsels had fallen +to the lot of his predecessors, who had looked on Italy "as an +artichoke to be eaten leaf by leaf"; and it was probable that a slice +of Lombardy would be his own prize at the next pacification. He had +spent his reign in strengthening his army, and as the foremost +military power in Italy his young and vigorous people, with the help +of Austria, were defending the passes into their territory. The road +from their capital to Savona on the sea wound by Ceva and Millesimo +over the main ridge of the Apennines, at the summit of which it was +joined by the highway through Dego and Cairo leading <span class="pagenum"><a id="page353" name="page353"></a>(p. 353)</span> +southwestward from Milan through Alessandria. The Piedmontese, under +Colli, were guarding the approach to their own capital; the Austrians, +under Beaulieu, that to Milan. Collectively their numbers were +somewhat greater than those of the French; but the two armies were +separated.</p> + +<p>Beaulieu began operations on April tenth by ordering an attack on the +French division of Laharpe, which had been thrown forward to Voltri. +The Austrians under Argenteau were to fall on its rear from +Montenotte, a village to the north of Savona, with the idea of driving +that wing of Bonaparte's army back along the shore road, on which it +was hoped they would fall under the fire of Nelson's guns. Laharpe, +however, retreated to Savona in perfect safety, for the English fleet +was not near. Thereupon Bonaparte, suddenly revealing the new +formation of his army in the north and south line, assumed the +offensive. Argenteau, having been held temporarily in check by the +desperate resistance of a handful of French soldiers under Colonel +Rampon, was surprised and overwhelmed at Montenotte on the twelfth by +a force much larger than his own. Next day Masséna and Augereau drove +back toward Dego <span class="pagenum"><a id="page354" name="page354"></a>(p. 354)</span> an Austrian division which had reached +Millesimo on its way to join Colli; and on the fifteenth, at that +place, Bonaparte himself destroyed the remnant of Argenteau's corps. +On the sixteenth Beaulieu abandoned the mountains to make a stand at +Acqui in the plain. Thus the whole Austrian force was not only driven +back, but was entirely separated from the Piedmontese.</p> + +<p>Bonaparte had a foolish plan in his pocket, which had been furnished +by the Directory in a temporary reversion to official tradition, +ordering him to advance into Lombardy, leaving behind the hostile +Piedmontese on his left, and the uncertain Genoese on his right. He +disregarded it, apparently without hesitation, and throwing his force +northwestward toward Ceva, where the Piedmontese were posted, +terrified them into a retreat. They were overtaken, however, at +Mondovi on April twenty-second, and utterly routed, losing not only +their best troops, but their field-pieces and baggage-train. Three +days later Bonaparte pushed onward and occupied Cherasco, which was +distant from Turin, the Piedmontese capital, but twenty-five miles by +a short, easy, and now open road. On the twenty-seventh the +Sardinians, isolated in a mountain amphitheater, and with no prospect +of relief from their discomfited ally, made overtures for an armistice +preliminary to peace. These were readily accepted by Bonaparte; and +although he had no authorization from the government to perform such +functions, he was defiantly careless of instructions in this as in +every subsequent step he took. The negotiation was conducted with +courtesy and firmness, on the basis of military honor, much to the +surprise of the Piedmontese, who had expected to deal with a savage +Jacobin. There was not even a word in Bonaparte's talk which recalled +the republican severity; as has been noted, the word virtue did not +pass his lips, his language <span class="pagenum"><a id="page355" name="page355"></a>(p. 355)</span> was that of chivalry. He +stipulated in kindly phrase for the surrender of Coni and Tortona, the +famous "keys of the Alps," with other strongholds of minor importance, +demanding also the right to cross and recross Piedmontese territory at +will. The paper was completed and signed on the twenty-eighth. The +troublesome question of civil authority to make a treaty was evaded by +calling the arrangement a military convention. It was none the less +binding by reason of its name. Indeed the idea was steadily expanded +into a new policy, for just as pillage and rapine were ruthlessly +repressed by the victorious commander, all agreements were made +temporarily on a military basis, including those for indemnities. +Salicetti was the commissioner of the Directory and there was no +friction between him and Bonaparte. Both profited by a partnership in +which opportunities for personal ventures were frequent, while the +military chest was well supplied and remittances to Paris were kept +just large enough to save the face and quiet the clamors of the +Directory. Victor Amadeus being checkmated, Bonaparte was free to deal +with Beaulieu.</p> + +<a id="img009" name="img009"></a> +<div class="figcenter"> +<a href="images/img009.jpg"> +<img src="images/img009s.jpg" width="300" height="197" alt="" title=""></a> +<p class="noindent">Northern Italy.</p> +<p class="noindent"><span class="small">Illustrating the Campaigns of 1796 and +1797.</span></p> +</div> + +<p>This short campaign was in some respects insignificant, especially +when compared as to numbers and results with what was to follow. But +the names of Montenotte, Millesimo, Dego, Mondovi, and Cherasco were +ever dear to Bonaparte, and stand in a high place on his greatest +monument. The King of Sardinia was the father-in-law of Louis <abbr title="18">XVIII</abbr>, +and his court had been a nest of plotting French emigrants. When his +agents reached Paris they were received with coarse resentment by the +Directory and bullied into an alliance, though they had been +instructed to make only a peace. Their sovereign was humiliated to the +limit of possibility. The loss of his fortress robbed him of his +power. By the terms of the treaty he was to banish the French +royalists from <span class="pagenum"><a id="page356" name="page356"></a>(p. 356)</span> his lands. Stripped thus of both force and +prestige, he did not long survive the disgrace, and died, leaving to +Charles Emmanuel, his son, no real dominion but that over the island +of Sardinia. The contrast between the ferocious bluster of the +Directory and the generous simplicity of a great conqueror was not +lost on the Italians nor on the moderate French. For them as for +Bonaparte, a military and political aspirant in his first +independence, everything, absolutely everything, was at stake in those +earliest engagements; on the event hung not merely his career, but +their release. In pleasant succession the spring days passed like a +transformation scene. Success was in the air, not the success of +accident, but the resultant of forethought and careful combination. +The generals, infected by their leader's spirit, vied with each other +in daring and gallantry. For happy desperation Rampon's famous stand +remains unsurpassed in the annals of war.</p> + +<p>From the heights of Ceva the leader of conquering and now devoted +soldiers could show to them and their equally enthusiastic officers +the gateway into the fertile and well-watered land whither he had +promised to lead them, the historic fields of Lombardy. Nothing +comparable to that inexhaustible storehouse of nature can be found in +France, generous as is her soil. Walled in on the north and west by +the majestic masses of the Alps, and to the south by the smaller but +still mighty bastions of the Apennines, these plains owe to the +mountains not only their fertility and prosperity, but their very +existence. Numberless rills which rise amid the icy summits of the +great chain, or the lower peaks of the minor one, combine into ever +growing streams of pleasant waters which finally unite in the sluggish +but impressive Po. Melting snows and torrential rains fill these +watercourses with the rich detritus of the hills <span class="pagenum"><a id="page357" name="page357"></a>(p. 357)</span> which +renews from year to year the soil it originally created. A genial +climate and a grateful soil return to the industrious inhabitants an +ample reward for their labors. In the fiercest heats of summer the +passing traveler, if he pauses, will hear the soft sounds of +slow-running waters in the irrigation sluices which on every side +supply any lack of rain. Wheat, barley, and rice, maize, fruit, and +wine, are but a few of the staples. Great farmsteads, with barns whose +mighty lofts and groaning mows attest the importance of Lombard +agriculture, are grouped into the hamlets which abound at the shortest +intervals. And to the vision of one who sees them first from a +mountain-top through the dim haze of a sunny day, towns and cities +seem strewn as if they were grain from the hand of a sower. The +measure of bewilderment is full when memory recalls that this garden +of Italy has been the prize for which from remotest antiquity the +nations of Europe have fought, and that the record of the ages is +indelibly written in the walls and ornaments of the myriad +structures—theaters, palaces, and churches—which lie so quietly +below. Surely the dullest sansculotte in Bonaparte's army must have +been aroused to new sensations by the sight. What rosy visions took +shape in the mind of their leader we can only imagine.</p> + +<p>Piedmont having submitted, the promised descent into these rich plains +was not an instant deferred. "Hannibal," said the commanding general +to his staff, "took the Alps by storm. We have turned their flank." He +paused only to announce his feats to the Directory in modest phrase, +and to recommend for preferment those who, like Lannes and Lanusse, +had earned distinction. The former was just Bonaparte's age but +destitute of solid education, owing to the poverty of his parents. He +enlisted in 1792 and in 1795 was already <span class="pagenum"><a id="page358" name="page358"></a>(p. 358)</span> a colonel, owing to +his extraordinary inborn courage and capacity. Through the hatred of a +Convention legate he was degraded from his rank after the peace of +Basel and entered Bonaparte's army as a volunteer. Thereafter his +promotion was fast and regular until he became the general's close +friend and steadfast supporter. Lanusse was only twenty-four but had +been chief of battalion for four years, and now entered upon a +brilliant though short career which ended by his death in 1801 at +Aboukir. The advance of Bonaparte's army began on May thirtieth. +Neither Genoa, Tuscany, nor Venice was to be given time for arming; +Beaulieu must be met while his men were still dispirited, and before +the arrival of reinforcements: for a great army of thirty thousand men +was immediately to be despatched under Wurmser to maintain the power +of Austria in Italy. Beaulieu was a typical Austrian general, +seventy-one years old, but still hale, a stickler for precedent, and +looking to experience as his only guide. Relying on the principles of +strategy as he had learned them, he had taken up what he considered a +strong position for the defense of Milan, his line stretching +northeasterly beyond the Ticino from Valenza, the spot where rumors, +diligently spread by Bonaparte, declared that the French would attempt +to force a passage. Confirmed in his own judgment by those reports, +the old and wary Austrian commander stood brave and expectant, while +the young and daring adventurer opposed to him marched swiftly by on +the right bank fifty miles onward to Piacenza. There he made his +crossing on May seventh in common ferry-boats and by a pontoon bridge. +No resistance was made by the few Austrian cavalry who had been sent +out merely to reconnoiter the line. The enemy were outwitted and +virtually outflanked, being now in the greatest danger. Beaulieu had +barely time <span class="pagenum"><a id="page359" name="page359"></a>(p. 359)</span> to break camp and march in hot haste +northeasterly to Lodi, where, behind the swift current of the Adda, he +made a final stand for the defense of Milan, the seat of Austrian +government. In fact, his movements were so hurried that the +advance-guards of both armies met by accident at Fombio on May eighth, +where a sharp engagement resulted in a victory for the French. +Laharpe, who had shown his usual courage in this fight, was killed a +few hours later, through a mistake of his own soldiers, in a night +mêlée with the pickets of a second Austrian corps. On the ninth the +dukes of Parma and of Piacenza both made their submission in treaties +dictated by the French commander, and simultaneously the reigning +archduke quitted Milan. Next day the pursuing army was at Lodi.</p> + +<p>Bonaparte wrote to the Directory that he had expected the passage of +the Po would prove the most bold and difficult manœuver of the +campaign. But it was no sooner accomplished than he again showed a +perfect mastery of his art by so manœuvering as to avoid an +engagement while the great river was still immediately in his rear. He +was then summoned to meet a third emergency of equal consequence. The +Adda is fordable in some places at certain times, but not easily; and +at Lodi a wooden bridge about two hundred yards in length then +occupied the site of the later solid structure of masonry and iron. +The approach to this bridge Beaulieu had seized and fortified. +Northwestward was Milan; to the east lay the almost impregnable +fortress of Mantua. Beaten at Lodi, the Austrians might still retreat, +and make a stand under the walls of either town with some hope of +victory: it was Bonaparte's intention so to disorganize his enemy's +army that neither would be possible. Accordingly on May tenth the +French forces were concentrated for the advance. They started +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page360" name="page360"></a>(p. 360)</span> immediately and marched so swiftly that they overtook the +Austrian rear-guard before it could withdraw behind the old Gothic +walls of the town, and close the gates. Driving them onward, the +French fought as they marched. A decisive conflict cleared the +streets; and after a stubborn resistance the brave defenders retreated +over the bridge to the eastern bank of what was now their last +rampart, the river. With cool and desperate courage, Sebottendorf, +whose Austrians numbered less than ten thousand men, then brought into +action his artillery, and swept the wooden roadway.</p> + +<p>In a short time the bridge would no doubt have been in flames; it was +uncertain whether the shifting and gravelly bottom of the stream above +or below would either yield a ford or permit a crossing by any other +means. Under Bonaparte's personal supervision, and therefore with +miraculous speed, the French batteries were placed and began an +answering thunder. In an access of personal zeal, the commander even +threw himself for an instant into the whirling hail of shot and +bullets, in order the better to aim two guns which in the hurry had +been misdirected. Under this terrible fire and counterfire it was +impossible for the Austrians to apply a torch to any portion of the +structure. Behind the French guns were three thousand grenadiers +waiting for a signal. Soon the crisis came. A troop of Bonaparte's +cavalry had found the nearest ford a few hundred yards above the +bridge, and were seen, amid the smoke, struggling to cross, though +without avail, and turn the right flank of the Austrian infantry, +which had been posted a safe distance behind the artillery on the +opposite shore. Quick as thought, in the very nick of opportunity, the +general issued his command, and the grenadiers dashed for the bridge. +Eye-witnesses declared that the fire of the Austrian artillery was now +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page361" name="page361"></a>(p. 361)</span> redoubled, while from houses on the opposite side soldiers +hitherto concealed poured volley after volley of musket-balls upon the +advancing column. For one single fateful moment it faltered. Berthier +and Masséna, with others equally devoted, rushed to its head, and +rallied the lines. In a few moments the deed was accomplished, the +bridge was won, the batteries were silenced, and the enemy was in full +retreat.</p> + +<p>Scattered, stunned, and terrified, the disheartened Austrians felt +that no human power could prevail against such a foe. Beaulieu could +make no further stand behind the Adda; but, retreating beyond the +Oglio to the Mincio, a parallel tributary of the Po, he violated +Venetian neutrality by seizing Peschiera, where that stream flows out +of Lake Garda, and spread his line behind the river from the Venetian +town on the north as far as Mantua, the farthest southern outpost of +Austria, thus thwarting one, and that not the least important, of +Bonaparte's plans. As to the Italians, they seemed bereft of sense, +and for the most part yielded dumbly to what was required. There were +occasional outbursts of enthusiasm by Italian Jacobins, and in the +confusion of warfare they wreaked a sneaking vengeance on their +conservative compatriots by extortion and terrorizing. The population +was confused between the woe of actual loss and the joy of +emancipation from old tyrannies. Suspicious and adroit, yet slow and +self-indulgent, the common folk concluded that the grievous burden of +the hour would be lightened by magnanimity and held a waiting +attitude.</p> + +<p>The moral effect of the action at Lodi was incalculable. Bonaparte's +reputation as a strategist had already been established, but his +personal courage had never been tested. The actual battle-field is +something quite different from the great theater of war, and men +wondered <span class="pagenum"><a id="page362" name="page362"></a>(p. 362)</span> whether he had the same mastery of the former as of +the latter. Hitherto he had been untried either as to his tactics or +his intrepidity. In both respects Lodi elevated him literally to the +stars. No doubt the risk he took was awful, and the loss of life +terrible. Critics, too, have pointed out safer ways which they believe +would have led to the same result; be that as it may, in no other way +could the same dramatic effect have been produced. France went wild +with joy. The peoples of Italy bowed before the prodigy which thus +both paralyzed and fascinated them all. Austria was dispirited, and +her armies were awe-stricken. When, five days later, on May fifteenth, +amid silent but friendly throngs of wondering men, Bonaparte entered +Milan, not as the conqueror but as the liberator of Lombardy, at the +head of his veteran columns, there was already about his brows a mild +effulgence of supernatural light, which presaged to the growing band +of his followers the full glory in which he was later to shine on the +imagination of millions. It was after Lodi that his adoring soldiers +gave him the name of "Little Corporal," by which they ever after knew +him. He himself confessed that after Lodi some conception of his high +destiny arose in his mind for the first time.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p> + +<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page363" name="page363"></a>(p. 363)</span> CHAPTER <abbr title="28">XXVIII.</abbr></h3> + +<h4><span class="smcap">An Insubordinate Conqueror and Diplomatist</span>.</h4> + +<p class="summary">Bonaparte's Assertion of Independence — Helplessness of the + Directory — Threats and Proclamations — The General and + His Officers — Bonaparte's Comprehensive Genius — The + Devotion of France — Uneasiness in Italy — The Position of + the Austrians — Bonaparte's Strategy — His Conception of + the Problem in Italy — Justification of His Foresight — + Modena, Parma, and the Papacy — The French Radicals and the + Pope — Bonaparte's Policy — His Ambition.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">1796.</p> + +<p>When the news of the successes in Piedmont reached Paris, public +festivals were decreed and celebrated; but the democratic spirit of +the directors could brook neither the contemptuous disregard of their +plan which Bonaparte had shown, nor his arrogant assumption of +diplomatic plenipotence. Knowing how thoroughly their doctrine had +permeated Piedmont, they had intended to make it a republic. It was +exasperating, therefore, that through Bonaparte's meddling they found +themselves still compelled to carry on negotiations with a monarchy. +The treaty with the King of Sardinia was ungraciously dictated and +signed by them on May fifteenth, but previous to the act they +determined to clip the wings of their dangerous falcon. This they +thought to accomplish by assigning Kellermann to share with Bonaparte +the command of the victorious army, and by confirming Salicetti as +their diplomatic plenipotentiary to accompany it. The news reached the +conqueror at Lodi on the eve of his triumphant entry into Milan. "As +things now are," <span class="pagenum"><a id="page364" name="page364"></a>(p. 364)</span> he promptly replied to the Directory, "you +must have a general who possesses your entire confidence. If I must +refer every step to government commissioners, if they have the right +to change my movements, to withdraw or send troops, expect nothing +good hereafter." To Carnot he wrote at the same time: "I believe one +bad general to be worth two good ones.... War is like government, a +matter of tact.... I do not wish to be hampered. I have begun with +some glory; I wish to continue worthy of you." Aware probably that his +own republican virtue could not long withstand the temptations opening +before him, he began the latter missive, as if to excuse himself and +anticipate possible accusations: "I swear I have nothing in view but +the country. You will always find me on the straight road. I owe to +the republic the sacrifice of all my own notions. If people seek to +set me wrong in your esteem, my answer is in my heart and in my +conscience." It is of course needless to add that the Directory +yielded, not only as to the unity of command, but also in the fatal +and vital matter of intrusting all diplomatic negotiations to his +hands.</p> + +<p>In taking this last step the executive virtually surrendered its +identity. Such, however, was the exultation of the Parisian populace +and of the soldiery, that the degradation or even the forced +resignation of the conquering dictator would have at once assured the +fall of the directors. They could not even protest when, soon after, +there came from Bonaparte a despatch announcing that the articles of +"the glorious peace which you have concluded with the King of +Sardinia" had reached "us," and significantly adding in a later +paragraph that the troops were content, having received half their pay +in coin. Voices in Paris declared that for such language the writer +should be shot. Perhaps those <span class="pagenum"><a id="page365" name="page365"></a>(p. 365)</span> who put the worst +interpretation on the apparently harmless words were correct in their +instinct. In reality the Directory had been wholly dependent on the +army since the previous October; and while such an offensive +insinuation of the fact would be, if intentional, most unpalatable, +yet those who had profited by the fact dared not resent a remote +reference to it.</p> + +<p>The farce was continued for some time longer, Bonaparte playing his +part with singular ability. He sent to Kellermann, in Savoy, without +the form of transmitting it through government channels, a subsidy of +one million two hundred thousand francs. As long as he was unhampered, +his despatches to Paris were soldierly and straightforward, although +after the passage of the Po they began to be somewhat bombastic, and +to abound in his old-fashioned, curious, and sometimes incorrect +classical or literary allusions. But if he were crossed in the least, +if reinforcements did not arrive, or if there were any sign of +independence in Paris, they became petulant, talking of ill-health, +threatening resignation, and requesting that numbers of men be sent +out to replace him in the multiform functions which in his single +person he was performing. Of course these tirades often failed of +immediate effect, but at least no effort was made to put an effective +check on the writer's career. Read a century later in a cold and +critical light, Bonaparte's proclamations of the same period seem +stilted, jerky, and theatrical. In them, however, there may still be +found a sort of interstitial sentimentality, and in an age of romantic +devotion to ideals the quality of vague suggestiveness passed for +genuine coin. Whatever else was lacking in those compositions, they +had the one supreme merit of accomplishing their end, for they roused +the French soldiers to frenzied enthusiasm.</p> + +<p>In fact, if the Directory stood on the army, the army <span class="pagenum"><a id="page366" name="page366"></a>(p. 366)</span> +belonged henceforth to Bonaparte. On the very day that Milan was +entered, Marmont heard from his leader's lips the memorable words, +"Fortune is a woman; the more she does for me, the more I shall exact +from her.... In our day no one has conceived anything great; it falls +to me to give the example." This is the language that soldiers like to +hear from their leader, and it was no doubt repeated throughout the +army. "From this moment," wrote the same chronicler, a few months +later, "the chief part of the pay and salaries was in coin. This led +to a great change in the situation of the officers, and to a certain +extent in their habits." Bonaparte was incorruptible. Salicetti +announced one day that the brother of the Duke of Modena was waiting +outside with four chests containing a million of francs in gold, and +urged the general, as a friend and compatriot, to accept them. "Thank +you," was the calm and significant answer, "I shall not put myself in +the hands of the Duke of Modena for such a sum." But similar +propositions were made by the commander-in-chief to his subordinates, +and they with less prudence fell into the trap, taking all they could +lay hands upon and thus becoming the bond-slaves of their virtuous +leader. There were stories at the time that some of the generals, not +daring to send their ill-gotten money to France, and having no +opportunity for investing it elsewhere, actually carried hundreds of +thousands of francs in their baggage. This prostitution of his +subordinates was part of a system. Twenty million francs was +approximately the sum total of all contributions announced to the +Directory, and in their destitution it seemed enormous. They also +accepted with pleasure a hundred of the finest horses in Lombardy to +replace, as Bonaparte wrote on sending his present, the ordinary ones +which drew their carriages. Was this paltry four <span class="pagenum"><a id="page367" name="page367"></a>(p. 367)</span> million +dollars the whole of what was derived from the sequestrations of +princely domains and the secularization of ecclesiastical estates? By +no means. The army chest, of which none knew the contents but +Bonaparte, was as inexhaustible as the widow's cruse. At the opening +of the campaign in Piedmont, empty wagons had been ostentatiously +displayed as representing the military funds at the commander's +disposal: these same vehicles now groaned under a weight of treasure, +and were kept in a safe obscurity. Well might he say, as he did in +June to Miot, that the commissioners of the Directory would soon leave +and not be replaced, since they counted for nothing in his policy.</p> + +<p>With the entry into Milan, therefore, begins a new epoch in the +remarkable development we are seeking to outline. The military genius +of him who had been the Corsican patriot and the Jacobin republican +had finally asserted dominion over all his other qualities. In the +inconsistency of human nature, those former characters now and then +showed themselves as still existent, but they were henceforth +subordinate. The conquered Milanese was by a magical touch provided +with a provisional government, ready, after the tardy assent of the +Directory, to be changed into the Transpadane Republic and put under +French protection. Every detail of administration, every official and +his functions, came under Bonaparte's direction. He knew the land and +its resources, the people and their capacities, the mutual relations +of the surrounding states, and the idiosyncrasies of their rulers. +Such laborious analysis as his despatches display, such grasp both of +outline and detail, such absence of confusion and clearness of vision, +such lack of hesitance and such definition of plan, seem to prove that +either a hero or a demon is again on earth. All the capacity this man +had hitherto <span class="pagenum"><a id="page368" name="page368"></a>(p. 368)</span> shown, great as it was, sinks into +insignificance when compared with the Olympian powers he now displays, +and will continue to display for years to come. His sinews are iron, +his nerves are steel, his eyes need no sleep, and his brain no rest. +What a captured Hungarian veteran said of him at Lodi is as true of +his political activity as of his military restlessness: "He knows +nothing of the regular rules of war: he is sometimes on our front, +sometimes on the flank, sometimes in the rear. There is no supporting +such a gross violation of rules." His senses and his reason were +indeed untrammeled by human limitations; they worked on front, rear, +and flank, often simultaneously, and always without confusion.</p> + +<p>Was it astonishing that the French nation, just recovering from a +debauch of irreligion and anarchy, should begin insensibly to yield to +the charms of a wooer so seductive? For some time past the soldiers, +as the Milan newspapers declared, had been a pack of tatterdemalions +ever flying before the arms of his Majesty the Emperor; now they were +victors, led by a second Cæsar or Alexander, clothed, fed, and paid at +the cost of the conquered. To ardent French republicans, and to the +peoples of Italy, this phenomenal personage proclaimed that he had +come to break the chains of captives, while almost in the same hour he +wrote to the Directory that he was levying twenty million francs on +the country, which, though exhausted by five years of war, was then +the richest in the civilized world. Nor was the self-esteem of France +and the Parisian passion for adornment forgotten. There began a course +of plunder, if not in a direction at least in a measure hitherto +unknown to the modern world—the plunder of scientific specimens, of +manuscripts, of pictures, statues, and other works of art. It is +difficult to fix <span class="pagenum"><a id="page369" name="page369"></a>(p. 369)</span> the responsibility for this policy, which +by the overwhelming majority of learned and intelligent Frenchmen was +considered right, morally and legally. Nothing so flattered the +national pride as the assemblage in Paris of art treasures from all +nations, nothing so humiliated it as their dispersion at the behest of +the conquering Allies. In the previous year a few art works had been +taken from Holland and Belgium, and formal orders were given again and +again by the Directory for stripping the Pope's galleries; but there +is a persistent belief, founded, no doubt, in an inherent probability, +that the whole comprehensive scheme of art spoliation had been +suggested in the first place by Bonaparte, and prearranged between +himself and the executive before his departure. At any rate, he asked +and easily obtained from the government a commission of scholars and +experts to scour the Italian cities; and soon untold treasures of art, +letters, and science began to pour into the galleries, cabinets, and +libraries of Paris. A few brave voices among the artists of the +capital protested against the desecration; the nation at large was +tipsy with delight, and would not listen. Raphael, Leonardo, and +Michelangelo, Correggio, Giorgione, and Paul Veronese, with all the +lesser masters, were stowed in the holds of frigates and despatched by +way of Toulon toward the new Rome; while Monge and Berthollet +ransacked the scientific collections of Milan and Parma for their +rarest specimens. Science, in fact, was to flourish on the banks of +the Seine as never before or elsewhere; and the great investigators of +Italy, forgetful of their native land, were to find a new citizenship +in the world of knowledge at the capital of European liberties. Words +like these, addressed to the astronomer Oriani, indicate that on +Bonaparte's mind had dawned the notion of a universal federated state, +to which national republics would be subordinate.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page370" name="page370"></a>(p. 370)</span> No scene in the history of warfare was more theatrical than +the entry of the French into Milan. The pageant was arranged on the +lines of a Roman triumph and the distances so calculated that +Bonaparte was the one impressive figure. With his lean face and sharp +Greek profile, his long, lank, unpowdered locks, his simple uniform, +and awkward seat in the saddle, he looked like a new human type, +neither angel nor devil but an inscrutable apparition from another +sphere. To officers and men the voluptuous city extended wide its +arms, and the shabby soldiery were incongruous figures where their +entertainers were elegant and fastidious beyond what the guests had +dreamed. With stern impartiality the liberator repressed all excess in +his army, but immediately the question of contributions, billeting, +indemnity, and fiscal organization was taken up, settled, and the +necessary measures inaugurated. The rich began to hide their +possessions and the burghers to cry out. Ere long there was +opposition, first sullen, then active, especially in the suburban +villages where the French were fiercely attacked. One of these, +Binasco, was burned and sacked as an example to the rest and to the +city. Order was restored and the inexorable process of seizures went +on. Pavia bade defiance; the officials were threatened with death, +many leading citizens were taken as hostages, and the place was +pillaged for three days. "Such a lesson would set the people of Italy +right." They did not need a second example, it was true, but the price +of "liberation" was fearful.</p> + +<p>Italian rebellion having been subdued, the French nation roused to +enthusiasm, independent funds provided, and the Directory put in its +place, Bonaparte was free to unfold and consummate his further plans. +Before him was the territory of Venice, a state once vigorous and +terrible, but now, as far as the country <span class="pagenum"><a id="page371" name="page371"></a>(p. 371)</span> populations were +concerned, an enfeebled and gentle ruler. With quick decision a French +corps of observation was sent to seize Brescia and watch the Tyrolean +passes. It was, of course, to the advantage of Austria that Venetian +neutrality should not be violated, except by her own troops. But the +French, having made a bold beginning of formal defiance, were quick to +go further. Beaulieu had not hesitated on false pretenses to seize +Peschiera, another Venetian town, which, by its situation at the +outlet of Lake Garda, was of the utmost strategic value. He now stood +confronting his pursuers on a strong line established, without +reference to territorial boundaries, behind the whole course of the +Mincio. Such was the situation to the north and east of the French +army. Southeastward, on the swampy banks of the same river, near its +junction with the Po, was Mantua. This city, which even under ordinary +circumstances was an almost impregnable fortress, had been +strengthened by an extraordinary garrison, while the surrounding +lowlands were artificially inundated as a supreme measure of safety.</p> + +<p>Bonaparte intended to hurl Beaulieu back, and seize the line of the +Adige, far stronger than that of the Mincio for repelling an Austrian +invasion from the north. What to him was the neutrality of a weak +government, and what were the precepts of international law with no +force behind it but a moral one? Austria, according to treaty, had the +right to move her troops over two great military roads within Venetian +jurisdiction, and her defeated armies had just used one of them for +retreat. The victorious commander could scarcely be expected to pause +in his pursuit for lack of a few lines of writing on a piece of +stamped paper. Accordingly, by a simple feint, the Austrians were led +to believe that his object was the seizure of Peschiera and the +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page372" name="page372"></a>(p. 372)</span> passes above Lake Garda; consequently, defying international +law and violating their treaties, they massed themselves at that place +to meet his attack. Then with a swift, forced march the French were +concentrated not on the enemy's strong right, but on his weak center +at Borghetto. Bonaparte's cavalry, hitherto badly mounted and timid, +but now reorganized, were thrown forward for their easy task. Under +Murat's command they dashed through, and, encouraged by their own +brilliant successes, were thenceforward famous for efficiency. +Bonaparte, with the main army, then hurried past Mantua as it lay +behind its bulwarks of swamp-fever, and the Austrian force was cut in +two. The right wing fled to the mountains; the left was virtually in a +trap. Without any declaration of war against Venice, the French +immediately occupied Verona, and Legnago a few days later; Peschiera +was fortified, and Pizzighettone occupied as Brescia had been, while +contributions of every sort were levied more ruthlessly even than on +the Milanese. The mastery of these new positions isolated Mantua more +completely than a formal investment would have done; but it was, +nevertheless, considered wise to leave no loophole, and a few weeks +later an army of eight thousand Frenchmen sat down in force before its +gates.</p> + +<p>It was certain that within a short time a powerful Austrian force +would pour out from the Alpine passes to the north. Further advance +into Venetian lands would therefore be ruin for the French. There was +nothing left but the slow hours of a siege, for Mantua had become the +decisive point. In the heats of summer this interval might well have +been devoted to ease; but it was almost the busiest period of +Bonaparte's life. According to the Directory's rejected plan for a +division of command in Italy, the mission assigned to Kellermann +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page373" name="page373"></a>(p. 373)</span> had been to organize republics in Piedmont and in the +Milanese, and then to defend the Tyrolean passes against an Austrian +advance from the north. Bonaparte was to have moved southward along +the shore to revolutionize Genoa, Tuscany, the Papal States, and +Naples successively. The whole idea having been scornfully rejected by +Bonaparte, the Directory had been forced by the brilliant successes of +their general not merely to condone his disobedience, but actually to +approve his policy. He now had the opportunity of justifying his +foresight. Understanding, as the government did not, that Austria was +their only redoubtable foe by land, the real bulwark of the whole +Italian system, he had first shattered her power, at least for the +time. The prop having been removed, the structure was toppling, and +during this interval of waiting, it fell. His opportunity was made, +his resolution ripe.</p> + +<p>In front, Venice was at his mercy; behind him, guerrilla bands of +so-called Barbets, formed in Genoese territory and equipped by +disaffected fugitives, were threatening the lately conquered gateway +from France where the Ligurian Alps and the Apennines meet. +Bonaparte's first step was to impose a new arrangement upon the +submissive Piedmont, whereby, to make assurance doubly sure, +Alessandria was added to the list of fortresses in French hands; then, +as his second measure, Murat and Lannes appeared before Genoa at the +head of an armed force, with instructions first to seize and shoot the +many offenders who had taken refuge in her territory after the risings +in Lombardy, and then to threaten the Senate with further retaliatory +measures, and command the instant dismissal of the imperial Austrian +plenipotentiary. From Paris came orders to drive the English fleet out +of the harbor of <span class="pagenum"><a id="page374" name="page374"></a>(p. 374)</span> Leghorn, where, in spite of the treaty +between Tuscany and France, there still were hostile arsenals and +ships. It was done. Naples did not wait to see her territories +invaded, but sued for mercy and was humbled, being forced to withdraw +her navy from that of the coalition, and her cavalry from the Austrian +army. For the moment the city of Rome was left in peace. The strength +of papal dominion lay in Bologna, and the other legations beyond the +Apennines, comprising many of the finest districts in Italy; and there +a master-stroke was to be made.</p> + +<p>On the throne of Modena was an Austrian archduke: his government was +remorselessly shattered and virtually destroyed, the ransom being +fixed at the ruinous sum of ten million francs with twenty of the best +pictures in the principality. But on that of Parma was a Spanish +prince with whose house France had made one treaty and hoped to make a +much better one. The duke, therefore, was graciously allowed to +purchase an armistice by an enormous but yet possible contribution of +two million francs in money, together with provisions and horses in +quantity. The famous <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Jerome of Correggio was among the twenty +paintings seized in Modena. The archduke repeatedly offered to ransom +it for one million francs, the amount at which its value was +estimated, but his request was not granted. Next came Bologna and its +surrounding territory. Such had been the tyranny of ecclesiastical +control that the subjects of the Pope in that most ancient and famous +seat of learning welcomed the French with unfeigned joy; and the +fairest portion of the Papal States passed by its own desire from +under the old yoke. The successor of <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Peter was glad to ransom his +capital by a payment nominally of twenty-one million francs. In +reality he had to surrender far more; for his galleries, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page375" name="page375"></a>(p. 375)</span> +like those of Modena, were stripped of their gems, while the funds +seized in government offices, and levied in irregular ways, raised the +total value forwarded to Paris to nearly double the nominal +contribution. All this, Bonaparte explained, was but a beginning, the +idleness of summer heats. "This armistice," he wrote to Paris on June +twenty-first, 1796, "being concluded with the dog-star rather than +with the papal army, my opinion is that you should be in no haste to +make peace, so that in September, if all goes well in Germany and +northern Italy, we can take possession of Rome."</p> + +<a id="img010" name="img010"></a> +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/img010.jpg" width="300" height="395" alt="" title=""> +<p class="noindent">Josephine, Empress of the French.</p> +<p class="noindent"><span class="small">From the painting by Francois Gérard.<br> +In the Museum of Versailles.</span></p> +</div> + +<p>In fact, this ingenious man was really practising moderation, as both +he and the terrified Italians, considering their relative situations, +understood it. Whatever had been the original arrangement with the +directors, there was nothing they did not now expect and demand from +Italy; they wrote requiring, in addition to all that had hitherto been +mentioned, plunder of every kind from Leghorn; masts, cordage, and +ship supplies from Genoa; horses, provisions, and forage from Milan; +and contributions of jewels and precious stones from the reigning +princes. As for the papal power, the French radicals would gladly have +destroyed it. They had not forgotten that Basseville, a diplomatic +agent of the republic, had been killed in the streets of Rome, and +that no reparation had been made either by the punishment of the +assassin or otherwise. The Pope, they declared, had been the real +author of the terrible civil war fomented by the unyielding clergy, +and waged with such fury in France. Moreover, the whole sentimental +and philosophical movement of the century in France and elsewhere +considered the ecclesiastical centralization and hierarchical tyranny +of the papacy as a dangerous survival of absolutism.</p> + +<p>But Bonaparte was wise in his generation. The <span class="pagenum"><a id="page376" name="page376"></a>(p. 376)</span> contributions +he levied throughout Italy were terrible; but they were such as she +could bear, and still recuperate for further service in the same +direction. The liberalism of Italy was, moreover, not the radicalism +of France; and a submissive papacy was of incalculably greater value +both there and elsewhere in Europe than an irreconcilable and fugitive +one. The Pope, too, though weakened and humiliated as a temporal +prince, was spared for further usefulness to his conqueror as a +spiritual dignitary. Beyond all this was the enormous moral influence +of a temperate and apparently impersonal policy. Bonaparte, though +personally and by nature a passionate and wilful man, felt bound, as +the representative of a great movement, to exercise self-restraint, +taking pains to live simply, dress plainly, almost shabbily, and +continuing by calm calculation to refuse the enormous bribes which +began and continued to be offered to him personally by the rulers of +Italy. His generals and the fiscal agents of the nation were all in +his power, because it was by his connivance that they had grown +enormously rich, he himself remaining comparatively poor, and for his +station almost destitute. The army was his devoted servant; Italy and +the world should see how different was his moderation from the +rapacity of the republic and its tools, vandals like the commissioners +Gareau and Salicetti.</p> + +<p>Such was the "leisure" of one who to all outward appearance was but a +man, and a very ordinary one. In the medals struck to commemorate this +first portion of the Italian campaign, he is still the same slim +youth, with lanky hair, that he was on his arrival in Paris the year +previous. It was observed, however, that the old indifferent manner +was somewhat emphasized, and consequently artificial; that the gaze +was at least as direct and the eye as penetrating as ever; and that +there was, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page377" name="page377"></a>(p. 377)</span> half intentionally, half unconsciously, +disseminated all about an atmosphere of peremptory command—but that +was all. The incarnation of ambition was long since complete; its +attendant imperious manner was suffered to develop but slowly. In +Bonaparte was perceptible, as Victor Hugo says, the shadowy outline of +Napoleon.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p> + +<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page378" name="page378"></a>(p. 378)</span> CHAPTER <abbr title="29">XXIX.</abbr></h3> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Bassano and Arcola</span>.</h4> + +<p class="summary">The Austrian System — The Austrian Strategy — Castiglione + — French Gains — Bassano — The French in the Tyrol — The + French Defeated in Germany — Bonaparte and Alvinczy — + Austrian Successes — Caldiero — First Battle of Arcola — + Second Battle of Arcola.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">1796.</p> + +<p>Meantime the end of July had come. The Emperor Francis had decided. At +the risk of defeat on the Rhine he must retain his Italian possessions +and prestige. He was still the Roman emperor, inheritor of an +immemorial dignity, overlord of the fairest lands in the peninsula. +Wurmser, considered by Austria her greatest general, had therefore +been recalled to Vienna from the west, and sent at the head of +twenty-five thousand fresh troops to collect the columns of Beaulieu's +army, which was scattered in the Tyrol. This done, he was to assume +the chief command, and advance to the relief of Mantua. The first part +of his task was successfully completed, and already, according to the +direction of the Aulic Council of the empire, and in pursuance of the +same hitherto universal but vicious system of cabinet campaigning +which Bonaparte had just repudiated, he was moving down from the Alps +in three columns with a total force of about forty-seven thousand men. +There were about fifteen thousand in the garrison of Mantua. Bonaparte +was much weaker, having only forty-two thousand, and of these some +eight thousand were occupied in the siege of that place. Wurmser was a +master of the old school, working like an automaton under the +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page379" name="page379"></a>(p. 379)</span> hand of his government, and commanding according to +well-worn precept his well-equipped battalions, every soldier of which +was a recruit so costly that destructive battles were made as +infrequent as possible, because to fight many meant financial ruin. In +consequence, like all the best generals of his class, he made war as +far as possible a series of manœuvers. Opposed to him was an +emancipated genius with neither directors nor public council to hamper +him. In the tradition of the Revolution, as in the mind of Frederick +the Great, war was no game, but a bloody decision, and the quicker the +conclusion was tried the better. The national conscription, under the +hands of <span lang="fr">Dubois de Crancé</span>, had secured men in unlimited numbers at the +least expense; while Carnot's organization had made possible the quick +handling of troops in large mass by simplifying the machinery. +Bonaparte was about to show what could be done in the way of using the +weapon which had been put into his hands.</p> + +<p>The possession of Mantua was decisive of Italian destiny, for its +holder could command a kind of overlordship in every little Italian +state. If Bonaparte should take and keep it, Austria would be +virtually banished from Italy, and her prestige destroyed. She must, +therefore, relieve it, or lose not only her power in the peninsula, +but her rank in Europe. To this end, and according to the established +rules of strategy, the Austrians advanced from the mountains in three +divisions against the French line, which stretched from Brescia past +Peschiera, at the head of the Mincio, and through Verona to Legnago on +the Adige. Two of these armies were to march respectively down the +east and west banks of Lake Garda, and, flanking the inferior forces +of the French on both sides, surround and capture them. The other +division was on the Adige in front of Verona, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page380" name="page380"></a>(p. 380)</span> ready to +relieve Mantua. Between that river and the lake rises the stately mass +of Monte Baldo, abrupt on its eastern, more gentle on its western +slope. This latter, as affording some space for manœuvers, was +really the key to the passage. Such was the first onset of the +Austrians down this line that the French outposts at Lonato and Rivoli +were driven in, and for a time it seemed as if there would be a +general rout. But the French stood firm, and checked any further +advance. For a day Bonaparte and Wurmser stood confronting each other. +In the mean time, however, the left Austrian column was pouring down +toward Verona, while the right, under Quasdanowich, had already +captured Brescia, seized the highway to Milan, and cut off the French +retreat. This move in Wurmser's plan was so far entirely successful, +and for a moment it seemed as if the sequel would be equally so. The +situation of his opponents was desperate.</p> + +<p>In this crisis occurred the first of those curious scenes which recur +at intervals in Bonaparte's life. Some, and those eye-witnesses, have +attributed them to genuine panic. His first measure was to despatch +flying adjutants, ten in number, to concentrate his scattered forces +at the critical point, south of Lake Garda. His genius decided that +victory on the field was far more fruitful than the holding in check +of a garrison. Accordingly he ordered Sérurier to raise the siege of +Mantua, and his siege-guns to be spiked and withdrawn. The division +thus rendered available he at once despatched for field operations +toward Brescia. But its numbers were so few as scarcely to relieve the +situation. Accordingly a council of war was summoned to decide whether +the army should stand and fight, or retreat for further concentration. +The commander-in-chief was apparently much excited, and according to +Augereau's account <span class="pagenum"><a id="page381" name="page381"></a>(p. 381)</span> advised the latter course. The enemy +being between the French and the Adda, no other line was open but that +southward through the low country, over the Po; and to follow that +implied something akin to a disorderly rout. Nevertheless, all the +generals were in favor of this suggestion except one, the fiery +hotspur who tells the tale, who disdained the notion of retreat on any +line, and flung out of the room in scorn. Bonaparte walked the floor +until late in the small hours; finally he appeared to have accepted +Augereau's advice, and gave orders for battle. But the opening +movements were badly executed. Bonaparte seemed to feel that the omens +were unfavorable, and again the generals were summoned. Augereau +opened the meeting with a theatrical and declamatory but earnest +speech, encouraging his comrades and urging the expediency of a +battle. This time it was Bonaparte who fled, apparently in despair, +leaving the chief command, and with it the responsibility, to the +daring Augereau, by whose enthusiasm, as he no doubt saw, the other +generals had been affected. The hazardous enterprise succeeded, and on +the very plan already adopted. Augereau gave the orders, and with +swift concentration every available man was hurled against the +Austrian column under Quasdanowich at Lonato. This much may be true; +casting aside Augereau's inconsistencies and braggadocio, it is +possible but unlikely.</p> + +<p>The result was an easy victory, the enemy was driven back to a safe +distance, and Brescia was evacuated on August fourth, the defeated +columns retreating behind Lake Garda to join Wurmser on the other +side. Like the regular return of the pendulum, the French moved back +again, and confronted the Austrian center that very night, but now +with every company in line and Bonaparte at their head. A portion of +the enemy, about <span class="pagenum"><a id="page382" name="page382"></a>(p. 382)</span> twenty-five thousand in number, had reached +Lonato, hastening to the support of Quasdanowich. Wurmser had lost a +day before Mantua. A second time the hurrying French engaged their foe +almost on the same field. A second time they were easily victorious. +In fact, so terrible was this second defeat that the scattered bands +of Austrians wandered aimlessly about in ignorance of their way. One +of them, four thousand strong, reaching Lonato, found it almost +abandoned by the French, Bonaparte and his staff with but twelve +hundred men being left behind. A herald, blindfolded, as was then the +custom, was at once despatched to summon the French commander to +surrender to the superior Austrian force. The available remnant of the +victorious army quickly gathered, and the messenger was introduced in +the midst of them. As the bandage was taken from his eyes, dazzled by +the light falling on hundreds of brilliant uniforms, the imperious +voice of his great enemy was heard commanding him to return and say to +his leader that it was a personal insult to speak of surrender to the +French army, and that it was he who must immediately yield himself and +his division. The bold scheme was successful, and to the ten thousand +previously killed, wounded, and captured by the conquerors four +thousand prisoners were added. Next morning Wurmser advanced, and with +his right resting on Lake Garda offered battle. The decisive fight +occurred in the center of his long, weak line at Castiglione, where +some fifteen thousand Austrians had happened to make a stand, without +orders and so without assurance of support. Again the French position +was so weak as apparently to throw Bonaparte into a panic, and again, +according to the memoirs of General Landrieux, Augereau's fire and +dash prevailed to have the battle joined, while Bonaparte withdrew in +a sulky pet. Whatever <span class="pagenum"><a id="page383" name="page383"></a>(p. 383)</span> the truth, the attack was made. Before +evening the sharp struggle was over. This affair of August fifth was +always referred to by Napoleon as the true battle of Castiglione. Two +days later Wurmser, who had fondly hoped that Mantua was his and the +French in full retreat, brought up a straggling line of twenty-five +thousand men. These were easily routed by Bonaparte in a series of +clever manœuvers on the seventh and without much bloodshed. That +night saw the utter rout of Wurmser and the Austrians in full retreat +towards the Tyrol. Had the great risk of these few days been +determined against the French, who would have been to blame but the +madcap Augereau? As things turned out, whose was the glory but +Bonaparte's? This panic, at least, appears to have been carefully +calculated and cleverly feigned. A week later the French lines were +again closed before Mantua, which, though not invested, was at least +blockaded. The fortress had been revictualed and regarrisoned, while +the besiegers had been compelled to destroy their own train to prevent +its capture by the enemy. But France was mistress of the Mincio and +the Adige, with a total loss of about ten thousand men; while Austria +had lost about twenty thousand, and was standing by a forlorn hope. +Both armies were exhausted, as yet the great stake was not won. If +Austrian warfare was utterly discredited, the irregular, disjointed, +uncertain French warfare of the past week had not enhanced French +glory.</p> + +<p>In the shortest possible period new troops were under way both from +Vienna and from Paris. With those from the Austrian capital came +positive instructions to Wurmser that in any case he should again +advance toward Mantua. In obedience to this command of the Emperor, a +division of the army, twenty thousand strong, under Davidowich, was +left in the Austrian Tyrol at <span class="pagenum"><a id="page384" name="page384"></a>(p. 384)</span> Roveredo, near Trent, to stop +the advance of the French, who, with their reinforcements, were +pressing forward through the pass as if to join Moreau, who had +successfully advanced and would be in Munich. The main Austrian army, +under Wurmser, moved over into the valley of the Brenta, and pushed on +toward Mantua. If he should decide to turn westward against the +French, the reserve could descend the valley of the Adige to his +assistance. But Bonaparte did not intend either to pass by and leave +open the way southward, or to be shut up in the valleys of the Tyrol. +With a quick surge, Davidowich was first defeated at Roveredo, and +then driven far behind Trent into the higher valleys. The victor +delayed only to issue a proclamation giving autonomy to the Tyrolese, +under French protection; but the ungrateful peasantry preferred the +autonomy they already enjoyed, and fortified their precipitous passes +for resistance. Turning quickly into the Brenta valley, Bonaparte, by +a forced march of two days, overtook Wurmser's advance-guard unawares +at Primolano, and captured it; the next day, September eighth, Masséna +cut in two and completely defeated the main army at Bassano. Part of +those who escaped retreated into Friuli, toward Vienna. There was +nothing left for the men under Wurmser's personal command but to throw +themselves, if possible, into Mantua. With these, some sixteen +thousand men in all, the veteran general forced a way, by a series of +most brilliant movements, past the flank of the blockading French +lines, where he made a gallant stand first at <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Georges and then at +Favorita. But he was driven from both positions and forced to find a +refuge in the famous fortress.</p> + +<p>The lightning-like rapidity of these operations completed the +demoralization of the Austrian troops. The fortified defiles and +cliffs of the Tyrol fell before <span class="pagenum"><a id="page385" name="page385"></a>(p. 385)</span> the French attacks as easily +as their breastworks in the plains. Wurmser had twenty-six thousand +men in Mantua; but from fear and fever half of them were in the +hospitals.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, disaster had overtaken the French arms in the North. +Jourdan had crossed the Rhine at Düsseldorf, as Moreau had at Kehl. +They had each about seventy-five thousand men, while the army of the +Austrian archduke Charles had been reduced by Wurmser's departure for +Italy to a number far less. According to the plan of the Directory, +these two French armies were to advance on parallel lines south of the +neutral zone through Germany, and to join Bonaparte across the Tyrol +for the advance to Vienna. Moreau defeated the Austrians, and reached +Munich without a check. Würtemberg and Baden made peace with the +French republic on its own terms, and Saxony, recalling its forces +from the coalition, declared itself neutral, as Prussia had done. But +Jourdan, having seized Würzburg and won the battle of Altenkirchen, +was met on his way to Ratisbon and Neumarkt, and thoroughly beaten, by +the same young Archduke Charles, who had acquired experience and +learned wisdom in his defeat by Moreau. Both French armies were thus +thrown back upon the Rhine, and there could be no further hope of +carrying out the original plan. In this way the attention of the world +was concentrated on the victorious Army of Italy and its young +commander, whose importance was further enhanced by the fulfilment of +his own prophecy that the fate of Europe hung on the decision of his +campaign in Italy.</p> + +<p>This was not an empty boast. The stubborn determination of Francis to +reconquer Italy had given new courage to the conservatives of central +and southern Italy, who did not conceal their resolve nor their +preparations <span class="pagenum"><a id="page386" name="page386"></a>(p. 386)</span> to annihilate French power and influence within +the borders of Modena, Rome, and Naples. Bonaparte was thus enabled to +take another momentous step in emancipating himself from the +Directory. So far he had asserted and confirmed his military and +diplomatic independence: he now boldly assumed political supremacy. +Though at times he expressed a low opinion of the Italians, yet he +recognized their higher qualities. In Modena, Reggio, Bologna, and +Ferrara were thousands who understood the significance of the dawning +epoch. To these he paid visits and to their leaders he gave, during +the short interval at his command, hearty approbation for their +resistance to the reactionaries. Forestalling the Directory, he +declared Modena and Reggio to be under French protection. This daring +procedure assured his ascendancy with all Italian liberals and +rendered sure and certain the prosecution of his campaign to the +bitter end. Bologna and Ferrara, having surrendered to French +protection on June twenty-third, were soon in open revolt against the +papal influences which were reviving: and even in distant Naples the +liberals took heart once more.</p> + +<p>The glory of the imperial arms having been brilliantly vindicated in +the north, the government at Vienna naturally thought it not +impossible to relieve Mantua, and restore Austrian prestige in the +south. Every effort was to be made. The Tyrolese sharp-shooters were +called out, large numbers of raw recruits were gathered in Illyria and +Croatia, while a few veterans were taken from the forces of the +Archduke Charles. When these were collected, Quasdanowich found +himself in Friuli with upward of thirty-five thousand men, while +Davidowich in the Tyrol had eighteen thousand. The chief command of +both armies was assigned to Alvinczy, an experienced but aged general, +one of the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page387" name="page387"></a>(p. 387)</span> same stock as that to which Wurmser belonged. +About October first, the two forces moved simultaneously, one down the +Adige, the other down the Piave, to unite before Vicenza, and proceed +to the relief of Mantua. For the fourth time Bonaparte was to fight +the same battle, on the same field, for the same object, with the same +inferiority of numbers. His situation, however was a trifle better +than it had been, for several veteran battalions which were no longer +needed in Vendée had arrived from the Army of the West; his own +soldiers were also well equipped and enthusiastic. He wrote to the +Directory, on October first, that he had thirty thousand effectives; +but he probably had more, for it is scarcely possible that, as he +said, eighteen thousand were in the hospitals. The populations around +and behind him were, moreover, losing faith in Austria, and growing +well disposed toward France. Many of his garrisons were, therefore, +called in; and deducting eight thousand men destined for the siege of +Mantua, he still had an army of nearly forty thousand men wherewith to +meet the Austrians. There was, of course, some disaffection among his +generals. Augereau was vainglorious and bitter, Masséna felt that he +had not received his due meed of praise for Bassano, and both had +sympathizers even in the ranks. This was inevitable, considering +Bonaparte's policy and system, and somewhat interfered with the +efficiency of his work.</p> + +<p>While the balance was thus on the whole in favor of the French, yet +this fourth division of the campaign opened with disaster to them. In +order to prevent the union of his enemy's two armies, Bonaparte +ordered Vaubois, who had been left above Trent to guard the French +conquests in the Tyrol, to attack Davidowich. The result was a rout, +and Vaubois was compelled to abandon one strong position after +another,—first Trent, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page388" name="page388"></a>(p. 388)</span> then Roveredo,—until finally he felt +able to make a stand on the right bank of the Adige at Rivoli, which +commands the southern slopes of Monte Baldo. The other bank was in +Austrian hands, and Davidowich could have debouched safely into the +plain. This result was largely due to the clever mountain warfare of +the Tyrolese militia. Meantime Masséna had moved from Bassano up the +Piave to observe Alvinczy. Augereau was at Verona. On November fourth, +Alvinczy advanced and occupied Bassano, compelling Masséna to retreat +before his superior force. Bonaparte, determined not to permit a +junction of the two Austrian armies, moved with Augereau's division to +reinforce Masséna and drive Alvinczy back into the valley of the +Piave. Augereau fought all day on the sixth at Bassano, Masséna at +Citadella. This first encounter was indecisive; but news of Vaubois's +defeat having arrived, the French thought it best to retreat on the +following day. There was not now a single obstacle to the union of the +two Austrian armies; and on November ninth, Alvinczy started for +Verona, where the French had halted on the eighth. It looked as if +Bonaparte would be attacked on both flanks at once, and thus +overwhelmed.</p> + +<p>Verona lies on both banks of the river Adige, which is spanned by +several bridges; but the heart of the town is on the right. The +remains of Vaubois's army having been rallied at Rivoli, some miles +further up on that bank, Bonaparte made all possible use of the stream +as a natural fortification, and concentrated the remainder of his +forces on the same side. Alvinczy came up and occupied Caldiero, +situated on a gentle rise of the other shore to the south of east; but +the French division at Rivoli, which, by Bonaparte's drastic methods, +had been thoroughly shamed, and was now thirsty for revenge, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page389" name="page389"></a>(p. 389)</span> +held Davidowich in check. He had remained some distance farther back +to the north, where it was expected he would cross and come down on +the left bank. To prevent this a fierce onslaught was made against +Alvinczy's position on November twelfth, by Masséna's corps. It was +entirely unsuccessful, and the French were repulsed with the serious +loss of three thousand men. Bonaparte's position was now even more +critical than it had been at Castiglione; he had to contend with two +new Austrian armies, one on each flank, and Wurmser with a third stood +ready to sally out of Mantua in his rear. If there should be even +partial coöperation between the Austrian leaders, he must retreat. But +he felt sure there would be no coöperation whatsoever. From the force +in Verona and that before Mantua twenty thousand men were gathered to +descend the course of the Adige into the swampy lands about Ronco, +where a crossing was to be made and Alvinczy caught, if possible, at +Villanova, on his left flank. This turning manœuver, though highly +dangerous, was fairly successful, and is considered by critics among +the finest in this or any other of Bonaparte's campaigns. Amid these +swamps, ditches, and dikes the methodical Austrians, aiming to carry +strong positions by one fierce onset, were brought into the greatest +disadvantage before the new tactics of swift movement in open columns, +which were difficult to assail. By a feint of retreat to the westward +the French army had left Verona without attracting attention, but by a +swift countermarch it reached Ronco on the morning of November +fifteenth, crossed in safety, and turned back to flank the Austrian +position.</p> + +<p>The first stand of the enemy was made at Arcola, where a short, narrow +bridge connects the high dikes which regulate the sluggish stream of +the little river Alpon, a tributary of the Adige on its left bank. +This <span class="pagenum"><a id="page390" name="page390"></a>(p. 390)</span> bridge was defended by two battalions of Croatian +recruits, whose commander, Colonel Brigido, had placed a pair of +field-pieces so as to enfilade it. The French had been advancing in +three columns by as many causeways, the central one of which led to +the bridge. The first attempt to cross was repulsed by the deadly fire +which the Croats poured in from their sheltered position. Augereau, +with his picked corps, fared no better in a second charge led by +himself bearing the standard; and, in a third disastrous rush, +Bonaparte, who had caught up the standard and planted it on the bridge +with his own hand, was himself swept back into a quagmire, where he +would have perished but for a fourth return of the grenadiers, who +drove back the pursuing Austrians, and pulled their commander from the +swamp. Fired by his undaunted courage, the gallant lines were formed +once more. At that moment another French corps passed over lower down +by pontoons, and the Austrians becoming disorganized, in spite of the +large reinforcements which had come up under Alvinczy, the last charge +on the bridge was successful. With the capture of Arcola the French +turned their enemy's rear, and cut off not only his artillery, but his +reserves in the valley of the Brenta. The advantage, however, was +completely destroyed by the masterly retreat of Alvinczy from his +position at Caldiero, effected by other causeways and another bridge +further north, which the French had not been able to secure in time.</p> + +<p>Bonaparte quickly withdrew to Ronco, and recrossed the Adige to meet +an attack which he supposed Davidowich, having possibly forced +Vaubois's position, would then certainly make. But that general was +still in his old place, and gave no signs of activity. This movement +misled Alvinczy, who, thinking the French had started from Mantua, +returned by way of Arcola to <span class="pagenum"><a id="page391" name="page391"></a>(p. 391)</span> pursue them. Again the French +commander led his forces across the Adige into the swampy lowlands. +His enemy had not forgotten the desperate fight at the bridge, and was +timid; and besides, in his close formation, he was on such ground no +match for the open ranks of the French. Retiring without any real +resistance as far as Arcola, the Austrians made their stand a second +time in that red-walled burg. Bonaparte could not well afford another +direct attack, with its attendant losses, and strove to turn the +position by fording the Alpon where it flows into the Adige. He +failed, and withdrew once more to Ronco, the second day remaining +indecisive. On the morning of the seventeenth, however, with +undiminished fertility of resource, a new plan was adopted and +successfully carried out. One of the pontoons on the Adige sank, and a +body of Austrians charged the small division stationed on the left +bank to guard it, in the hope of destroying the remainder of the +bridge. They were repulsed and driven back toward the marshes with +which they meant to cover their flank. The garrisons of both Arcola +and Porcil, a neighboring hamlet, were seriously weakened by the +detention of this force. Two French divisions were promptly despatched +to make use of that advantage, while at the same time an ambuscade was +laid among the pollard willows which lined the ditches beyond the +retreating Austrians. At an opportune moment the ambuscade unmasked, +and by a terrible fire drove three thousand of the Croatian recruits +into the marsh, where most of them were drowned or shot. Advancing +then beyond the Alpon by a bridge built during the previous night, +Bonaparte gave battle on the high ground to an enemy whose numbers +were now, as he calculated, reduced to a comparative equality with his +own. The Austrians made a vigorous resistance; but such was their +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page392" name="page392"></a>(p. 392)</span> credulity as to anything their enemy might do, that a simple +stratagem of the French made them believe that their left was turned +by a division, when in reality but twenty-five men had been sent to +ride around behind the swamps and blow their bugles. Being +simultaneously attacked on the front of the same wing by Augereau, +they drew off at last in good order toward Montebello. Thence Alvinczy +slowly retreated into the valley of the Brenta. The French returned to +Verona. Davidowich, ignorant of all that had occurred, now finally +dislodged Vaubois; but, finding before him Masséna with his division +where he had expected Alvinczy and a great Austrian army, he +discreetly withdrew into the Tyrol. It was not until November +twenty-third, long after the departure of both his colleagues, that +Wurmser made a brilliant but of course ineffectual sally from Mantua. +The French were so exhausted, and the Austrians so decimated and +scattered, that by tacit consent hostilities were intermitted for +nearly two months.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p> + +<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page393" name="page393"></a>(p. 393)</span> CHAPTER <abbr title="30">XXX.</abbr></h3> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Bonaparte's Imperious Spirit</span>.</h4> + +<p class="summary">Bonaparte's Transformation — Military Genius — Powers and + Principles — Theory and Conduct — Political Activity — + Purposes for Italy — Private Correspondence — Treatment of + the Italian Powers — Antagonism to the Directory — The + Task Before Him — Masked Dictator.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">1796.</p> + +<p>During the two months between the middle of November, 1796, and the +middle of January, 1797, there was a marked change in Bonaparte's +character and conduct. After Arcola he appeared as a man very +different from the novice he had been before Montenotte. Twice his +fortunes had hung by a single hair, having been rescued by the +desperate bravery of Rampon and his soldiers at Monte Legino, and +again by Augereau's daring at Lonato; twice he had barely escaped +being a prisoner, once at Valeggio, once at Lonato; twice his life had +been spared in the heat of battle as if by a miracle, once at Lodi, +once again at Arcola. These facts had apparently left a deep +impression on his mind, for they were turned to the best account in +making good a new step in social advancement. So far he had been as +adventurous as the greatest daredevil among the subalterns, staking +his life in every new venture; hereafter he seemed to appreciate his +own value, and to calculate not only the imperiling of his life, but +the intimacy of his conversation, with nice adaptation to some great +result. Gradually and informally a kind of body-guard was organized, +which, as the idea grew familiar, was skilfully developed <span class="pagenum"><a id="page394" name="page394"></a>(p. 394)</span> +into a picked corps, the best officers and finest soldiers being made +to feel honored in its membership. The constant attendance of such men +necessarily secluded the general-in-chief from those colleagues who +had hitherto been familiar comrades. Something in the nature of formal +etiquette once established, it was easy to extend its rules and +confirm them. The generals were thus separated further and further +from their superior, and before the new year they had insensibly +adopted habits of address which displayed a high outward respect, and +virtually terminated all comradeship with one who had so recently been +merely the first among equals. Bonaparte's innate tendency to command +was under such circumstances hardened into a habit of imperious +dictation. In view of what had been accomplished, it would have been +impossible, even for the most stubborn democrat, to check the process. +Not one of Bonaparte's principles had failed to secure triumphant +vindication.</p> + +<p>In later years Napoleon himself believed, and subsequent criticism has +confirmed his opinion, that the Italian campaign, taken as a whole, +was his greatest. The revolution of any public system, social, +political, or military, is always a gigantic task. It was nothing less +than this which Bonaparte had wrought, not in one, but in all three +spheres, during the summer and autumn of 1796. The changes, like those +of most revolutions, were changes of emphasis and degree in the +application of principles already divined. "Divide and conquer" was an +old maxim; it was a novelty to see it applied in warfare and politics +as Bonaparte applied it in Italy. It has been remarked that the +essential difference between Napoleon and Frederick the Great was that +the latter had not ten thousand men a month to kill. The notion that +war should be short and terrible had, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page395" name="page395"></a>(p. 395)</span> indeed, been clear to +the great Prussian; Carnot and the times afforded the opportunity for +its conclusive demonstration by the genius of the greater Corsican. +Concentration of besiegers to breach the walls of a town was nothing +new; but the triumphant application of the same principle to an +opposing line of troops, though well known to Julius Cæsar, had been +forgotten, and its revival was Napoleon's masterpiece. The martinets +of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries had so exaggerated the +formalities of war that the relation of armies to the fighting-ground +had been little studied and well-nigh forgotten; the use of the map +and the compass, the study of reliefs and profiles in topography, +produced in Bonaparte's hands results that seemed to duller minds +nothing short of miraculous. One of these was to oppose the old-school +rigid formation of troops by any formation more or less open and +irregular according to circumstances, but always the kind best suited +to the character of the seat of war. The first two days at Arcola were +the triumphant vindication of this concept. Finally, there was a +fascination for the French soldiers in the primitive savagery of their +general, which, though partly concealed, and somewhat held in by +training, nevertheless was willing that the spoils of their conquest +should be devoted to making the victorious contestants opulent; which +scorned the limitations of human powers in himself and them, and thus +accomplished feats of strength and stratagem which gratified to +satiety that love for the uncommon, the ideal, and the great which is +inherent in the spirit of their nation. In the successful combination +and evolution of all these elements there was a grandeur which +Bonaparte and every soldier of his army appreciated at its full value.</p> + +<p>The military side of Bonaparte's genius is ordinarily considered the +strongest. Judged by what is easily <span class="pagenum"><a id="page396" name="page396"></a>(p. 396)</span> visible in the way of +immediate consequences and permanent results, this appears to be true; +and yet it was only one of many sides. Next in importance, if not +equal to it, was his activity in politics and diplomacy. It is easy to +call names, to stigmatize the peoples of Italy, all the nations even +of western Europe, as corrupt and enervated, to laugh at their +politics as antiquated, and to brand their rulers as incapable fools. +An ordinary man can, by the assistance of the knowledge, education, +and insight acquired by the experience of his race through an +additional century, turn and show how commonplace was the person who +toppled over such an old rotten structure. This is the method of +Napoleon's detractors, except when, in addition, they first magnify +his wickedness, and then further distort the proportion by viewing his +fine powers through the other end of the glass. We all know how easy +great things are when once they have been accomplished, how simple the +key to a mystery when once it has been revealed. Morally considered, +Bonaparte was a child of nature, born to a mean estate, buffeted by a +cruel and remorseless society, driven in youth to every shift for +self-preservation, compelled to fight an unregenerate world with its +own weapons. He had not been changed in the flash of a gun. Elevation +to reputation and power did not diminish the duplicity of his +character; on the contrary, it possibly intensified it. Certainly the +fierce light which began to beat upon him brought it into greater +prominence. Truth, honor, unselfishness are theoretically the virtues +of all philosophy; practically they are the virtues of Christian men +in Christian society. Where should the scion of a Corsican stock, +ignorant of moral or religious sentiment, thrown into the atmosphere +and surroundings of the French Revolution, learn to practise them?</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page397" name="page397"></a>(p. 397)</span> Such considerations are indispensable in the observation of +Bonaparte's progress as a politician. His first settlement with the +various peoples of central Italy was, as he had declared, only +provisional. The uncertain status created by it was momentarily not +unwelcome to the Directory. Their policy was to destroy existing +institutions, and leave order to evolve itself from the chaos as best +it could. Doctrinaires as they were, they meant to destroy absolute +monarchy in Italy, as everywhere else, if possible, and then to stop, +leaving the liberated peoples to their own devices. Some fondly +believed that out of anarchy would arise, in accordance with "the law +of nature," a pure democracy; while others had the same faith that the +result would be constitutional monarchy. Moreover, things appear +simpler in the perspective of distance than they do near at hand. The +sincerity of Bonaparte's republicanism was like the sincerity of his +conduct—an affair of time and place, a consistency with conditions +and not with abstractions. He knew the Italian mob, and faithfully +described it in his letters as dull, ignorant, and unreliable, without +preparation or fitness for self-government. He was willing to +establish the forms of constitutional administration; but in spite of +hearty support from many disciples of the Revolution, he found those +forms likely, if not certain, to crumble under their own weight, and +was convinced that the real sovereignty must for years to come reside +in a strong protectorate of some kind. It appeared to him a necessity +of war that these peoples should relieve the destitution of the French +treasury and army, a necessity of circumstances that France should be +restored to vigor and health by laying tribute on their treasures of +art and science, as on those of all the world, and a necessity of +political science that artificial boundaries <span class="pagenum"><a id="page398" name="page398"></a>(p. 398)</span> should be +destroyed, as they had been in France, to produce the homogeneity of +condition essential to national or administrative unity.</p> + +<p>The Italians themselves understood neither the policy of the French +executive nor that of their conqueror. The transitional position in +which the latter had left them produced great uneasiness. The +terrified local authorities asked nothing better than to be left as +they were, with a view to profiting by the event, whatever it might +be. After every Austrian success there were numerous local revolts, +which the French garrison commanders suppressed with severity. +Provisional governments soon come to the end of their usefulness, and +the enemies of France began to take advantage of the disorder in order +to undo what had been done. The English, for example, had seized Porto +Ferrajo in place of Leghorn; the Pope had gone further, and, in spite +of the armistice, was assembling an army for the recovery of Bologna, +Ferrara, and his other lost legations. Thus it happened that in the +intervals of the most laborious military operations, a political +activity, both comprehensive and feverish, kept pace in Bonaparte's +mind with that which was needed to regulate his campaigning.</p> + +<p>At the very outset there was developed an antagonism between the +notions of the Directory and Bonaparte's interests. The latter +observed all the forms of consulting his superiors, but acted without +the slightest reference to their instructions, often even before they +could receive his despatches. Both he and they knew the weakness of +the French government, and the inherent absurdity of the situation. +The story of French conquest in Italy might be told exactly as if the +invading general were acting solely on his own responsibility. In his +proclamations to the Italians was one language; <span class="pagenum"><a id="page399" name="page399"></a>(p. 399)</span> in his +letters to the executive, another; in a few confidential family +communications, still another; in his own heart, the same old idea of +using each day as it came to advance his own fortunes. As far as he +had any love of country, it was expended on France, and what we may +call his principles were conceptions derived from the Revolution; but +somehow the best interests of France and the safety of revolutionary +doctrine were every day more involved in the pacification of Italy, in +the humiliation of Austria, and in the supremacy of the army. There +was only one man who could secure all three; could give consistency to +the flaccid and visionary policy of the Directory; could repress the +frightful robberies of its civil agents in Italy; could with any show +of reason humble Italy with one hand, and then with the other rouse +her to wholesome energy; could enrich and glorify France while +crushing out, as no royal dynasty had ever been able to do, the +haughty rivalry of the Hapsburgs.</p> + +<p>These purposes made Bonaparte the most gentle and conciliatory of men +in some directions; in others they developed and hardened his +imperiousness. His correspondence mirrors both his mildness and his +arbitrariness. His letters to the Directory abound in praise of his +officers and men, accompanied by demands for the promotion of those +who had performed distinguished services. Writing to General Clarke on +November nineteenth, 1796, from Verona, he says, in words full of +pathos: "Your nephew Elliot was killed on the battle-field of Arcola. +This youth had made himself familiar with arms; several times he had +marched at the head of columns; he would one day have been an +estimable officer. He died with glory, in the face of the foe; he did +not suffer for a moment. What reasonable man would not envy such a +death? Who is he that in the vicissitudes of life would not agree to +leave in such a <span class="pagenum"><a id="page400" name="page400"></a>(p. 400)</span> way a world so often worthy of contempt? +What one of us has not a hundred times regretted that he could not +thus be withdrawn from the powerful effects of calumny, of envy, and +of all the hateful passions that seem almost entirely to control human +conduct?" Perhaps these few words to the widow of one of his late +officers are even finer: "Muiron died at my side on the late +battle-field of Arcola. You have lost a husband that was dear to you; +I, a friend to whom I have long been attached: but the country loses +more than us both in the death of an officer distinguished no less by +his talents than by his rare courage. If I can be of service in +anything to you or his child, I pray you count altogether upon me." +That was all; but it was enough. With the ripening of character, and +under the responsibilities of life, an individual style had come at +last. It is martial and terse almost to affectation, defying +translation, and perfectly reflecting the character of its writer.</p> + +<p>But the hours when the general-in-chief was war-worn, weary, tender, +and subject to human regrets like other men, were not those which he +revealed to the world. He was peremptory, and sometimes even peevish, +with the French executive after he had them in his hand; with Italy he +assumed a parental rôle, meting out chastisement and reward as best +suited his purpose. A definite treaty of peace had been made with +Sardinia, and that power, though weak and maimed, was going its own +way. The Transpadane Republic, which he had begun to organize as soon +as he entered Milan, was carefully cherished and guided in its +artificial existence; but the people, whether or not they were fit, +had no chance to exercise any real independence under the shadow of +such a power. It was, moreover, not the power of France; for, by +special order of Bonaparte, the civil <span class="pagenum"><a id="page401" name="page401"></a>(p. 401)</span> agents of the +Directory were subordinated to the military commanders, ostensibly +because the former were so rapacious. Lombardy in this way became his +very own. Rome had made the armistice of Bologna merely to gain time, +and in the hope of eventual disaster to French arms. A pretext for the +resumption of hostilities was easily found by her in a foolish +command, issued from Paris, that the Pope should at length recognize +as regular those of the clergy who had sworn allegiance to the +successive constitutions adopted under the republic, and withdraw all +his proclamations against those who had observed their oaths and +conformed. The Pontiff, relying on the final success of Austria, had +virtually broken off negotiations. Bonaparte informed the French agent +in Rome that he must do anything to gain time, anything to deceive the +"old fox"; in a favorable moment he expected to pounce upon Rome, and +avenge the national honor. During the interval Naples also had become +refractory; refusing a tribute demanded by the Directory, she was not +only collecting soldiers, like the Pope, but actually had some +regiments in marching order. Venice, asserting her neutrality, was +growing more and more bitter at the constant violations of her +territory. Mantua was still a defiant fortress, and in this crisis +nothing was left but to revive French credit where the peoples were +best disposed and their old rulers weakest.</p> + +<p>Accordingly, Bonaparte went through the form of consulting the +Directory as to a plan of procedure, and then, without waiting for an +answer from them, and without the consent of those most deeply +interested, broke the armistice with Modena on the pretext that five +hundred thousand francs of ransom money were yet unpaid, and drove the +duke from his throne. This duchy was the nucleus about which was to be +constituted <span class="pagenum"><a id="page402" name="page402"></a>(p. 402)</span> the Cispadane Republic: in conjunction with its +inhabitants, those of Reggio, Bologna, and Ferrara were invited to +form a free government under that name. There had at least been a +pretext for erecting the Milanese into the Transpadane Republic—that +of driving an invader from its soil. This time there was no pretext of +that kind, and the Directory opposed so bold an act regarding these +lands, being uneasy about public opinion in regard to it. They hoped +the war would soon be ended, and were verging to the opinion that +their armies must before long leave the Italians to their own devices. +The conduct of their general pointed, however, in the opposite +direction; he forced the native liberals of the district to take the +necessary steps toward organizing the new state so rapidly that the +Directory found itself compelled to yield. It is possible, but not +likely, that, as has been charged, Bonaparte really intended to bring +about what actually happened, the continued dependence on the French +republic of a lot of artificial governments. The uninterrupted +meddling of France in the affairs of the Italians destroyed in the end +all her influence, and made them hate her dominion, which masqueraded +as liberalism, even more than they had hated the open but mild tyranny +of those royal scions of foreign stocks recently dismissed from their +thrones. During these months there is in Bonaparte's correspondence a +somewhat theatrical iteration of devotion to France and republican +principles, but his first care was for his army and the success of his +campaign. He behaved as any general solicitous for the strength of his +positions on foreign soil would have done, his ruses taking the form +of constantly repeating the political shibboleths then used in France. +Soon afterward Naples made her peace; an insurrection in Corsica +against English rule enabled France to seize that island <span class="pagenum"><a id="page403" name="page403"></a>(p. 403)</span> +once more; and Genoa entered into a formal alliance with the +Directory.</p> + +<p>How important these circumstances were comparatively can only be +understood by considering the fiascoes of the Directory elsewhere. No +wonder they groveled before Bonaparte, while pocketing his millions +and saving their face at home and abroad by reason of his victories, +and his alone. They had two great schemes to annihilate British power: +one, to invade Ireland, close all the North Sea ports to British +commerce, and finally to descend on British shores with an +irresistible host of the French democracy. Subsequent events of +Napoleon's life must be judged in full view of the dead earnestness +with which the Directory cherished this plan. But it was versatile +likewise and had a second alternative, to foment rebellions in Persia, +Turkey, and Egypt, overrun the latter country, and menace India. This +second scheme influenced Bonaparte's career more deeply than the +other, both were parts of traditional French policy and cherished by +the French public as the great lines for expanding French renown and +French influence. Both must be reckoned with by any suitor of France. +For the Irish expedition Hoche was available; in his vain efforts for +success he undermined his health and in his untimely death removed one +possible rival of Bonaparte. The directors had Holland, but they could +not win Prussia further than the stipulations made in 1795 at Basel, +so their scheme of embargo rested in futile abeyance. They exhibited +considerable activity in building a fleet, and the King of Spain, in +spite of Godoy's opposition, accepted the title of a French admiral. +By the treaty of San Ildefonso an offensive alliance against Great +Britain was concluded, her commerce to be excluded from Portugal; +Louisiana and Florida going to France. All the clauses except this +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page404" name="page404"></a>(p. 404)</span> last were nugatory because of Spanish weakness, but +Bonaparte put in the plea for compensation to the Spanish Bourbons by +some grant of Italian territory to the house of Parma. As we have +elsewhere indicated, their attack on Austria in central Europe was a +failure, Jourdan having been soundly beaten at Würzburg. There was no +road open to Vienna except through Italy. Their negotiations with the +papacy failed utterly; only a victorious warrior could overcome its +powerful scruples, which in the aggregate prevented the hearty +adhesion of French Roman Catholics to the republican system. Of +necessity their conceptions of Italian destiny must yield to his, +which were widely different from theirs.</p> + +<p>Before such conditions other interests sink into atrophy; +thenceforward, for example, there appears in Bonaparte's nature no +trace of the Corsican patriot. The one faint spark of remaining +interest seems to have been extinguished in an order that Pozzo di +Borgo and his friends, if they had not escaped, should be brought to +judgment. His other measures with reference to the once loved island +were as calculating and dispassionate as any he took concerning the +most indifferent principality of the mainland, and even extended to +enunciating the principle that no Corsican should be employed in +Corsica. It is a citizen not of Corsica, nor of France even, but of +Europe, who on October second demands peace from the Emperor in a +threat that if it is not yielded on favorable terms, Triest and the +Adriatic will be seized. At the same time the Directory received from +him another reminder of its position, which likewise indicates an +interesting development of his own policy. "Diminish the number of +your enemies. The influence of Rome is incalculable; it was ill +advised to break with that power; it gives the advantage to her. +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page405" name="page405"></a>(p. 405)</span> If I had been consulted, I would have delayed the +negotiations with Rome as with Genoa and Venice. Whenever your general +in Italy is not the pivot of everything, you run great risks. This +language will not be attributed to ambition; I have but too many +honors, and my health is so broken that I believe I must ask you for a +successor. I can no longer mount a horse; I have nothing left but +courage, which is not enough in a post like this." Before this masked +dictator were two tasks as difficult in their way as any even he would +ever undertake, each calling for the exercise of faculties antipodal +in quality, but quite as fine as any in the human mind. Mantua was yet +to be captured; Rome and the Pope were to be handled so as to render +the highest service to himself, to France, and to Europe. In both +these labors he meant to be strengthened and yet unhampered. The habit +of compliance was now strong upon the Directory, and they continued to +yield as before.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p> + +<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page406" name="page406"></a>(p. 406)</span> CHAPTER <abbr title="31">XXXI.</abbr></h3> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Rivoli and the Capitulation of Mantua</span>.</h4> + +<p class="summary">The Diplomatic Feint of Great Britain — Clarke and the + Directory — Catherine the Great and Paul I — Austria's + Strategic Plan — Renewal of Hostilities — The Austrians at + Rivoli and Nogara — Bonaparte's Night March to Rivoli — + Monte Baldo and the Berner Klause — The Battle of Rivoli — + The Battle of La Favorita — Feats of the French Army — + Bonaparte's Achievement — The Fall of Mantua.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">1797.</p> + +<p>The fifth division of the Italian campaign was the fourth attempt of +Austria to retrieve her position in Italy, a position on which her +rulers still believed that all her destinies hung. Her energy was now +the wilfulness of despair. Events in Europe were shaping themselves +without regard to her advantage. The momentary humiliation of France +in Jourdan's defeat, the deplorable condition of British finances as +shown by the fall of the three per cents to fifty-three, the unsettled +and dangerous state of Ireland, with the menace of Hoche's invasion +impending, these circumstances created in London a feeling that +perhaps the time was propitious for negotiating with France, where too +there was considerable agitation for peace. Accordingly, in the autumn +of 1796, Lord Malmesbury was sent to Paris under rigid cautionary +instructions. The envoy was cold and haughty; Delacroix, the French +minister, was conceited and shallow. It soon appeared that what the +agent had to offer was either so indefinite as to be meaningless, or +so favorable to Great Britain as to be ridiculous in principle. The +negotiations were merely diplomatic fencing. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page407" name="page407"></a>(p. 407)</span> To the +Englishman the public law of Europe was still that of the peace of +Utrecht, especially as to the Netherlands; to the Frenchman this was +preposterous since the Low Countries were already in France by +enactment and the rule of natural boundaries. About the middle of +November, Malmesbury was informed that he must either speak to the +point or leave. Of course the point was Belgium; if France would +abandon her claim to Antwerp she could have compensation in Germany. +There was some further futile talk about what both parties then as +before, and thereafter to the end, considered the very nerve of their +contention. Malmesbury went home toward the close of December, and +soon after, Hoche's fleet was wrecked in the Channel. The result of +the British mission was to clarify the issues, to consolidate British +patriotism once more, to reopen the war on a definite basis. Hoche was +assigned to the Army of the Sambre and Meuse, declaring he would first +thunder at the gates of Vienna and then return through Ireland to +London and command the peace of the world.</p> + +<p>Meantime the Directory had noted the possibility of independent +negotiation with Austria. It did not intend, complaisant as it had +been hitherto, to leave Bonaparte unhampered in so momentous a +transaction. On the contrary, it selected a pliable and obedient agent +in the person of General Clarke, offspring of an Irish refugee family, +either a mild republican or a constitutional monarchist according to +circumstances, a lover of peace and order, a conciliatory spirit. To +him was given the directors' confidential, elaborate, and elastic plan +for territorial compensations as a basis for peace, the outcome of +which in any case would leave Prussia preponderant in Germany. Liberal +and well disposed to the Revolution as they believed, she could then +be wooed into a firm alliance. In Italy, France was to maintain +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page408" name="page408"></a>(p. 408)</span> her new authority and retain what she had conquered for her +own good pleasure. Bonaparte intended to do as he found necessary in +both these cases. After Arcola, Thugut, the Austrian minister, +expressed a sense of the deepest humiliation that a youth commanding +volunteers and rapscallions should work his will with the fine troops +and skilled generals of the empire. But, undaunted, he applied to +Russia for succor. Catherine had dallied with Jacobinism in order to +occupy both Prussia and Austria while she consolidated and confirmed +her strength in Poland and the Orient. This she had accomplished and +was now ready to bridle the wild steed she had herself unloosed. +Intervening at the auspicious hour, she could deliver Italy, take +control of central Europe, subjugate the north, and sway the universe.</p> + +<p>Accordingly she demanded from Pitt a subsidy of two and a half million +dollars, and ordered Suvoroff with sixty thousand troops to the +assistance of Austria. Just then, in September, 1796, Gustavus <abbr title="4">IV</abbr>, of +Sweden, was at <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Petersburg for his betrothal with the Empress's +granddaughter Alexandra. He required as a matter of course that she +should adopt his faith. This was contemptuously refused and the +preparations for the festival went forward to completion as if nothing +had occurred. At the appointed hour for the ceremonial, the groom did +not and would not appear. Consternation gave way to a sense of +outrage, but the "Kinglet," as the great courtiers styled him, stood +firm. The Empress was beside herself, her health gave way, and she +died in less than two months, on November seventeenth. The dangerous +imbecile, her son Paul I, reigned in her stead. Weird figure that he +was, he at least renounced his mother's policy of conquest and +countermanded her orders to Suvoroff, recalling him and his army. +Austria was at bay, but she was undaunted.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page409" name="page409"></a>(p. 409)</span> Once more Alvinczy, despairing of success, but obedient to +his orders, made ready to move down the Adige from Trent. Great zeal +had been shown in Austria. The Vienna volunteer battalions abandoned +the work of home protection for which they had enlisted, and, with a +banner embroidered by the Empress's own hand, joined the active +forces. The Tyrolese, in defiance of the atrocious proclamation in +which Bonaparte, claiming to be their conqueror, had threatened death +to any one taking up arms against France, flocked again to the support +of their Emperor. By a recurrence to the old fatal plan, Alvinczy was +to attack the main French army; his colleague Provera was to follow +the Brenta into the lower reaches of the Adige, where he could effect +a crossing, and relieve Mantua. He was likewise to deceive the enemy +by making a parade of greater strength than he really had, and thus +draw away Bonaparte's main army toward Legnago on the lower Adige. A +messenger was despatched to Wurmser with letters over the Emperor's +own signature, ordering him, if Provera should fail, to desert Mantua, +retreat into the Romagna, and under his own command unite the garrison +and the papal troops. This order never reached its destination, for +its bearer was intercepted, and was compelled by the use of an emetic +to render up the despatches which he had swallowed.</p> + +<p>On January seventh, 1797, Bonaparte gave orders to strengthen the +communications along his line, massing two thousand men at Bologna in +order to repress certain hostile demonstrations lately made in behalf +of the Pope. On the following day an Austrian division which had been +lying at Padua made a short attack on Augereau's division, and on the +ninth drove it into Porto Legnago, the extreme right of the French +line. This could mean nothing else than a renewal of hostilities +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page410" name="page410"></a>(p. 410)</span> by Austria, although it was impossible to tell where the +main attack would be made. On the eleventh Bonaparte was at Bologna, +concluding an advantageous treaty with Tuscany; in order to be ready +for any event, he started the same evening, hastened across the Adige +with his troops, and pressed on to Verona.</p> + +<p>On the twelfth, at six in the morning, the enemy attacked Masséna's +advance-guard at <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Michel, a suburb of that city. They were repulsed +with loss. Early on the same day Joubert, who had been stationed with +a corps of observation farther up in the old and tried position at the +foot of Monte Baldo, became aware of hostile movements, and occupied +Rivoli. During the day the two Austrian columns tried to turn his +position by seizing his outpost at Corona, but they were repulsed. On +the thirteenth he became aware that the main body of the Austrians was +before him, and that their intention was to surround him by the left. +Accordingly he informed Bonaparte, abandoned Corona, and made ready to +retreat from Rivoli. That evening Provera threw a pontoon bridge +across the Adige at Anghiari, below Legnago, and crossed with a +portion of his army. Next day he started for Mantua, but was so +harassed by Guieu and Augereau that the move was ineffectual, and he +got no farther than Nogara.</p> + +<p>The heights of Rivoli command the movements of any force passing out +of the Alps through the valley of the Adige. They are abrupt on all +sides but one, where from the greatest elevation the chapel of <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> +Mark overlooked a winding road, steep, but available for cavalry and +artillery. Rising from the general level of the tableland, this +hillock is in itself a kind of natural citadel. Late on the +thirteenth, Joubert, in reply to the message he had sent, received +orders to fortify the plateau, and to hold it at all hazards; for +Bonaparte now divined that <span class="pagenum"><a id="page411" name="page411"></a>(p. 411)</span> the main attack was to be made +there in order to divert all opposition from Provera, and that if it +were successful the two Austrian armies would meet at Mantua. By ten +that evening the reports brought in from Joubert and by scouts left +this conclusion no longer doubtful. That very night, therefore, being +in perfect readiness for either event, Bonaparte moved toward Rivoli +with a force numbering about twenty thousand. It was composed of every +available French soldier between Desenzano and Verona, including +Masséna's division.<a id="footnotetag68" name="footnotetag68"></a><a href="#footnote68" title="Go to footnote 68"><span class="small">[68]</span></a> By strenuous exertions they reached the +heights of Rivoli about two in the morning of the fourteenth. +Alvinczy, ignorant of what had happened, was waiting for daylight in +order to carry out his original design of inclosing and capturing the +comparatively small force of Joubert and the strong place which it had +been set to hold, a spot long since recognized by Northern peoples as +the key to the portal of Italy. Bonaparte, on his arrival, perceived +in the moonlight five divisions encamped in a semicircle below; their +bivouac fires made clear that they were separated from one another by +considerable distances. He knew then that his instinct had been +correct, that this was the main army, and that the decisive battle +would be fought next day. The following hours were spent in disposing +his forces to meet the attack in any form it might take. Not a man was +wasted, but the region was occupied with pickets, outposts, and +reserves so ingeniously stationed that the study of that field, and of +Bonaparte's disposition of <span class="pagenum"><a id="page412" name="page412"></a>(p. 412)</span> his forces, has become a classic +example in military science.</p> + +<p>The gorge by which the Adige breaks through the lowest foot-hills of +the Alps to enter the lowlands has been famous since dim antiquity. +The Romans considered it the entrance to Cimmeria; it was sung in +German myths as the Berner Klause, the majestic gateway from their +inclement clime into the land of the stranger, that warm, bright land +for the luxurious and orderly life of which their hearts were ever +yearning. Around its precipices and isolated, frowning bastions song +and fable had clustered, and the effect of mystery was enhanced by the +awful grandeur of the scene. Overlooking all stands Monte Baldo, +frowning with its dark precipices on the cold summits of the German +highland, smiling with its sunny slopes on the blue waters of Lake +Garda and the fertile valley of the Po. In the change of strategy +incident to the introduction of gunpowder the spot of greatest +resistance was no longer in the gorge, but at its mouth, where Rivoli +on one side, and Ceraino on the other, command respectively the gentle +slopes which fall eastward and westward toward the plains. The Alps +were indeed looking down on the "Little Corporal," who, having flanked +their defenses at one end, was now about to force their center, and +later to pass by their eastward end into the hereditary dominions of +the German emperors on the Danube.</p> + +<p>At early dawn began the conflict which was to settle the fate of +Mantua. The first fierce contest was between the Austrian left and the +French right at <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Mark; but it quickly spread along the whole line +as far as Caprino. For some time the Austrians had the advantage, and +the result was in suspense, since the French left, at Caprino, yielded +for an instant before the onslaught of the main Austrian army made in +accordance <span class="pagenum"><a id="page413" name="page413"></a>(p. 413)</span> with Alvinczy's first plan, and, as he supposed, +upon an inferior force by one vastly superior in numbers. Berthier, +who by his calm courage was fast rising high in his commander's favor, +came to the rescue, and Masséna, following with a judgment which has +inseparably linked his name with that famous spot, finally restored +order to the French ranks. Every successive charge of the Austrians +was repulsed with a violence which threw their right and center back +toward Monte Baldo in ever growing confusion. The battle waged for +nearly three hours before Alvinczy understood that it was not +Joubert's division, but Bonaparte's army, which was before him. A +fifth Austrian column then pressed forward from the bank of the Adige +to scale the height of Rivoli, and Joubert, whose left at <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Mark was +hard beset, could not check the movement. For an instant he left the +road unprotected. The Austrians charged up the hill and seized the +commanding position; but simultaneously there rushed from the opposite +side three French battalions, clambering up to retrieve the loss. The +nervous activity of the latter brought them quickly to the top, where +at once they were reinforced by a portion of the cavalry reserve, and +the storming columns were thrown back in disorder. At that instant +appeared in Bonaparte's rear an Austrian corps which had been destined +to take the French at Rivoli in their rear. Had it arrived sooner, the +position would, as the French declared, have been lost to them. As it +was, instead of making an attack, the Austrians had to await one. +Bonaparte directed a falling artillery fire against them, and threw +them back toward Lake Garda. He thus gained time to re-form his own +ranks and enabled Masséna to hold in check still another of the +Austrian columns, which was striving to outflank him on his left. +Thereupon the French reserve under <span class="pagenum"><a id="page414" name="page414"></a>(p. 414)</span> Rey, coming in from the +westward, cut the turning column entirely off, and compelled it to +surrender. The rest of Alvinczy's force being already in full retreat, +this ended the worst defeat and most complete rout which the Austrian +arms had so far sustained. Such was the utter demoralization of the +flying and disintegrated columns that a young French officer named +Réné, who was in command of fifty men at a hamlet on Lake Garda, +successfully imitated Bonaparte's ruse at Lonato, and displayed such +an imposing confidence to a flying troop of fifteen hundred Austrians +that they surrendered to what appeared to be a force superior to their +own. Next morning at dawn, Murat, who had marched all night to gain +the point, appeared on the slopes of Monte Baldo above Corona, and +united with Joubert to drive the Austrians from their last foothold. +The pursuit was continued as far as Trent. Thirteen thousand prisoners +were captured in those two days.</p> + +<a id="img011" name="img011"></a> +<div class="figcenter"> +<a href="images/img011.jpg"> +<img src="images/img011s.jpg" width="300" height="193" alt="" title=""></a> +<p class="noindent">Enlarged Plan of<br> + <span class="smcap">Lake of Garda</span><br> + and Adjacent Country.</p> +<p class="noindent">Map<br> + Illustrating the Campaign<br> + Preceding the<br> + <span class="smcap">Treaty of Campo-Formio</span><br> + 1797.</p> +</div> + +<p>While Murat was straining up the slopes of Monte Baldo, Bonaparte, +giving no rest to the weary feet of Masséna's division,—the same men +who two days before had marched by night from Verona,—was retracing +his steps on that well-worn road past the city of Catullus and the +Capulets onward toward Mantua. Provera had crossed the Adige at +Anghiari with ten thousand men. Twice he had been attacked: once in +the front by Guieu, once in the rear by Augereau. On both occasions +his losses had been severe, but, nevertheless, on the same morning +which saw Alvinczy's flight into the Tyrol, he finally appeared with +six thousand men in the suburb of <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> George, before Mantua. He +succeeded in communicating with Wurmser, but was held in check by the +blockading French army throughout the day and night until Bonaparte +arrived with his reinforcements. Next morning there was a general +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page415" name="page415"></a>(p. 415)</span> engagement, Provera attacking in front, and Wurmser, by +preconcerted arrangement, sallying out from behind at the head of a +strong force. The latter was thrown back into the town by Sérurier, +who commanded the besiegers, but only after a fierce and deadly +conflict on the causeway. This was the road from Mantua to a +country-seat of its dukes known as "La Favorita," and was chosen for +the sortie as having an independent citadel. Victor, with some of the +troops brought in from Rivoli, the "terrible fifty-seventh +demi-brigade," as Bonaparte designated them, attacked Provera at the +same time, and threw his ranks into such disorder that he was glad to +surrender his entire force. This conflict of January sixteenth, before +Mantua, is known as the battle of La Favorita, from the stand made by +Sérurier on the road to that residence. Its results were six thousand +prisoners, among them the Vienna volunteers with the Empress's banner, +and many guns. In his fifty-fifth year this French soldier of fortune +had finally reached the climax of his career. Having fought in the +Seven Years' War, in Portugal and in Corsica, the Revolution gave him +his opening. He assisted Schérer in the capture of the Maritime Alps, +and fought with leonine power at Mondovi and these succeeding +movements. While his fortunes were linked with Bonaparte's they +mounted higher and higher. As governor of Venice he was so upright and +incorruptible as to win the sobriquet "Virgin of Italy." The +discouragement of defeat under Moreau in 1798 led him to retire into +civil life, where he was a stanch Bonapartist and faithful official to +the end of the Napoleonic epoch, when he rallied to the Bourbons.</p> + +<p>Bonaparte estimated that so far in the Italian campaigns the army of +the republic had fought within four days two pitched battles, and had +besides been six times <span class="pagenum"><a id="page416" name="page416"></a>(p. 416)</span> engaged; that they had taken, all +told, nearly twenty-five thousand prisoners, including a +lieutenant-general, two generals, and fifteen colonels; had captured +twenty standards, with sixty pieces of artillery, and had killed or +wounded six thousand men.</p> + +<p>This short campaign of Rivoli was the turning-point of the war, and +may be said to have shaped the history of Europe for twenty years. +Chroniclers dwell upon those few moments at <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Mark and the plateau +of Rivoli, wondering what the result would have been if the Austrian +corps which came to turn the rear of Rivoli had arrived five minutes +sooner. But an accurate and dispassionate criticism must decide that +every step in Bonaparte's success was won by careful forethought and +by the most effective disposition of the forces at his command. So +sure was he of success that even in the crises when Masséna seemed to +save the day on the left, and when the Austrians seemed destined to +wrest victory from defeat on the right, he was self-reliant and +cheerful. The new system of field operations had a triumphant +vindication at the hands of its author. The conquering general meted +out unstinted praise to his invincible squadrons and their leaders, +but said nothing of himself, leaving the world to judge whether this +were man or demon who, still a youth, and within a public career of +but one season, had humiliated the proudest empire on the Continent, +had subdued Italy, and on her soil had erected states unknown before, +without the consent of any great power, not excepting France. It is +not wonderful that this personage should sometimes have said of +himself, "Say that my life began at Rivoli," as at other times he +dated his military career from Toulon.</p> + +<p>Wurmser's retreat to Mantua in September had been successful because +of the strong cavalry force which <span class="pagenum"><a id="page417" name="page417"></a>(p. 417)</span> accompanied it. He had +been able to hold out for four months only by means of the flesh of +their horses, five thousand in number, which had been killed and +salted to increase the garrison stores. Even this resource was now +exhausted, and after a few days of delay the gallant old man sent a +messenger with the usual conventional declarations as to his ability +for further resistance, in order, of course, to secure the most +favorable terms of surrender. There is a fine anecdote in connection +with the arrival of this messenger at the French headquarters, which, +though perhaps not literally, is probably ideally, true. When the +Austrian envoy entered Sérurier's presence, another person wrapped in +a cloak was sitting at a table apparently engaged in writing. After +the envoy had finished the usual enumeration of the elements of +strength still remaining to his commander, the unknown man came +forward, and, holding a written sheet in his hand, said: "Here are my +conditions. If Wurmser really had provisions for twenty-five days, and +spoke of surrender, he would not deserve an honorable capitulation. +But I respect the age, the gallantry, and the misfortunes of the +marshal; and whether he opens his gates to-morrow, or whether he waits +fifteen days, a month, or three months, he shall still have the same +conditions; he may wait until his last morsel of bread has been +eaten." The messenger was a clever man who afterward rendered his own +name, that of Klenau, illustrious. He recognized Bonaparte, and, +glancing at the terms, found them so generous that he at once admitted +the desperate straits of the garrison. This is substantially the +account of Napoleon's memoirs. In a contemporary despatch to the +Directory there is nothing of it, for he never indulged in such +details to them; but he does say in two other despatches what at first +blush militates against its literal truth. On February first, +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page418" name="page418"></a>(p. 418)</span> writing from Bologna, he declared that he would withdraw his +conditions unless Wurmser acceded before the third: yet, in a letter +of that very date, he indulges in a long and high-minded eulogium of +the aged field-marshal, and declares his wish to show true French +generosity to such a foe. The simple explanation is that, having sent +the terms, Bonaparte immediately withdrew from Mantua to leave +Sérurier in command at the surrender, a glory he had so well deserved, +and then returned to Bologna to begin his final preparations against +Rome. In the interval Wurmser made a proposition even more favorable +to himself. Bonaparte petulantly rejected it, but with the return of +his generous feeling he determined that at least he would not withdraw +his first offer. Captious critics are never content, and they even +charge that when, on the tenth, Wurmser and his garrison finally did +march out, Bonaparte's absence was a breach of courtesy. It requires +no great ardor in his defense to assert, on the contrary, that in +circumstances so unprecedented the disparity of age between the +respective representatives of the old and the new military system +would have made Bonaparte's presence another drop in the bitter cup of +the former. The magnanimity of the young conqueror in connection with +the fall of Mantua was genuine, and highly honorable to him. So at +least thought Wurmser himself, who wrote a most kindly letter to +Bonaparte, forewarning him that a plot had been formed in Bologna to +poison him with that noted, but never seen, compound so famous in +Italian history—aqua tofana.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p> + +<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page419" name="page419"></a>(p. 419)</span> CHAPTER <abbr title="32">XXXII.</abbr></h3> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Humiliation of the Papacy and of Venice</span><a id="footnotetag69" name="footnotetag69"></a><a href="#footnote69" title="Go to footnote 69"><span class="small">[69]</span></a>.</h4> + +<p class="summary">Rome Threatened — Pius <abbr title="6">VI</abbr> Surrenders — The Peace of + Tolentino — Bonaparte and the Papacy — Designs for the + Orient — France Reassured — The Policy of Austria — The + Archduke Charles — Bonaparte Hampered by the Directory — + His Treatment of Venice — Condition of Venetia — The + Commonwealth Warned.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">1797.</p> + +<p>Bonaparte seems after Rivoli to have reached the conviction that a man +who had brought such glory to the arms of France was at least as firm +in the affections of her people as was the Directory, which had no +hold on them whatever, except in its claim to represent the +Revolution. Clarke had reached Milan on November twenty-ninth, 1796. +Bonaparte read him like an open scroll, discovering instantly that +this graceful courtier had been commissioned to keep the little +general in his place as a subordinate, and use him to make peace at +any price. Possessing the full confidence of Carnot and almost +certainly of the entire Directory, the easily won diplomat revealed to +his lean, long-haired, ill-clad, penetrating, and facile inquisitor +the precious contents of the governmental mind. The religious +revolution in France had utterly failed, riotous vice had spread +consternation even in infidel minds, there was in the return a mighty +flood tide of orthodoxy; if the political revolution was to be saved +at all, it was <span class="pagenum"><a id="page420" name="page420"></a>(p. 420)</span> at the price of peace, and peace very +quickly. The Directory had had little right to its distinction as +savior of the republic from the beginning, and even that was daily +disputed by ever increasing numbers: the most visible and dazzling +representative of the Revolution was now the Army of Italy. It was not +for "those rascally lawyers," as Bonaparte afterward called the +directors, that his great battle of Rivoli had been fought. With this +fact in view, the short ensuing campaign against Pius <abbr title="6">VI</abbr>, and its +consequences, are easily understood. It was true, as the French +general proclaimed, that Rome had kept the stipulations of the +armistice neither in a pacific behavior nor in the payment of her +indemnity, and was fomenting resistance to the French arms throughout +the peninsula. To the Directory, which had desired the entire +overthrow of the papacy, Bonaparte proposed that with this in view, +Rome should be handed over to Spain. Behind these pretexts he gathered +at Bologna an indifferent force of eleven thousand soldiers, composed, +one half of his own men, the other half of Italians fired with +revolutionary zeal, and of Poles, a people who, since the recent +dismemberment <span class="pagenum"><a id="page421" name="page421"></a>(p. 421)</span> of their country, were wooing France as a +possible ally in its reconstruction. The main division marched against +Ancona; a smaller one of two thousand men directed its course through +Tuscany into the valley of the Tiber.</p> + +<p>The position of the Pope was utterly desperate. The Spaniards had once +been masters of Italy; they were now the natural allies of France +against Austria, and Bonaparte's leniency to Parma and Naples had +strengthened the bond. The reigning king at Naples, Ferdinand <abbr title="4">IV</abbr> of +the Two Sicilies, was one of the Spanish Bourbons; but his very able +and masterful wife was the daughter of Maria Theresa. His position was +therefore peculiar: if he had dared, he would have sent an army to the +Pope's support, for thus far his consort had shaped his policy in the +interest of Austria; but knowing full well that defeat would mean the +limitation of his domain to the island of Sicily, he preferred to +remain neutral, and pick up what crumbs he could get from Bonaparte's +table. For this there were excellent reasons. The English fleet had +been more or less unfortunate since the spring of 1796: Bonaparte's +victories, being supplemented by the activity of the French cruisers, +had made it difficult for it to remain in the Mediterranean; Corsica +was abandoned in September; and in October the squadron of Admiral +Mann was literally chased into the Atlantic by the Spaniards. +Ferdinand, therefore, could expect no help from the British. As to the +papal mercenaries, they had long been the laughing-stock of Europe. +They did not now belie their character. Not a single serious +engagement was fought; at Ancona and Loretto twelve hundred prisoners, +with a treasure valued at seven million francs, were taken without a +blow; and on February nineteenth Bonaparte dictated the terms of peace +at Tolentino.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page422" name="page422"></a>(p. 422)</span> The terms were not such as either the Pope or the Directory +expected. Far from it. To be sure, there was, over and above the first +ransom, a new money indemnity of three million dollars, making, when +added to what had been exacted in the previous summer, a total of more +than seven. Further stipulations were the surrender of the legations +of Bologna and Ferrara, together with the Romagna; consent to the +incorporation into France of Avignon and the Venaissin, the two papal +possessions in the Rhone valley which had already been annexed; and +the temporary delivery of Ancona as a pledge for the fulfilment of +these engagements; further still, the dispersion of the papal army, +with satisfaction for the killing in a street row of Basseville, the +French plenipotentiary. This, however, was far short of the +annihilation of the papacy as a temporal power. More than that, the +vital question of ecclesiastical authority was not mentioned except to +guarantee it in the surrendered legations. To the Directory Bonaparte +explained that with such mutilations the Roman edifice would fall of +its own weight; and yet he gave his powerful protection to the French +priests who had refused the oaths to the civil constitution required +by the republic, and who, having renounced their allegiance, had found +an asylum in the Papal States. This latter step was taken in the rôle +of humanitarian. In reality, this first open and radical departure +from the policy of the Directory assured to Bonaparte the most +unbounded personal popularity with faithful Roman Catholics +everywhere, and was a step preliminary to his further alliance with +the papacy. The unthinking masses began to compare the captivity of +the Roman Church in France, which was the work of her government, with +the widely different fate of her faithful adherents at Rome under the +humane control of Bonaparte.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page423" name="page423"></a>(p. 423)</span> Moreover, it was the French citizen collectors, and not the +army, who continued to scour every town for art plunder. It was +believed that Italy had finally given up "all that was curious and +valuable except some few objects at Turin and Naples," including the +famous wonder-working image of the Lady of Loretto. The words quoted +were used by Bonaparte in a despatch to the Directory, which inclosed +a curious document of very different character. Such had been the +gratitude of Pius for his preservation that he despatched a legate +with his apostolic blessing for the "dear son" who had snatched the +papal power from the very jaws of destruction. "Dear son" was merely a +formal phrase, and a gracious answer was returned from the French +headquarters. This equally formal letter of Bonaparte's was forwarded +to Paris, where, as he knew would be the case, it was regarded as a +good joke by the Directory, who were supposed to consider their +general's diplomacy as altogether patriotic. But, as no doubt the +writer foresaw, it had an altogether different effect on the public. +From that instant every pious Roman Catholic, not only in France, but +throughout Europe, whatever his attitude toward the Directory, was +either an avowed ally of Bonaparte or at least willing to await events +in a neutral spirit. As for the papacy, henceforward it was a tool in +the conqueror's hand: he was determined to use it as an indispensable +bulwark for public decency and political stability. One of the +cardinals gave the gracious preserver of his order a bust of Alexander +the Great: it was a common piece of flattery after the peace to say +that Bonaparte was, like Alexander, a Greek in stature, and, like +Cæsar, a Roman in power.</p> + +<p>While at Ancona, Bonaparte had a temporary relapse into his yearning +for Oriental power. He wrote describing the harbor as the only good +one on the Adriatic <span class="pagenum"><a id="page424" name="page424"></a>(p. 424)</span> south of Venice, and explaining how +invaluable it was for the influence of France on Turkey, since it +controlled communication with Constantinople, and Macedonia was but +twenty-four hours distant. With this despatch he inclosed letters from +the Czar to the Grand Master of Malta which had been seized on the +person of a courier. It was by an easy association of ideas that not +long afterward Bonaparte began to make suggestions for the seizure of +Malta and for a descent into Egypt. These, as elsewhere explained, +were old schemes of French foreign policy, and by no means original +with him; but having long been kept in the background, they were +easily recalled, the more so because in a short time both the new +dictator and the Directory seemed to find in them a remedy for their +strained relations.</p> + +<p>When the news of Rivoli reached Paris on January twenty-fifth, 1797, +the city went into a delirium of joy. To Clarke were sent that very +day instructions suggesting concessions to Austria for the sake of +peace, but enjoining him to consult Bonaparte at every step! To the +conqueror direct, only two days later, was recommended in explicit +terms the overthrow of Romanism in religion, "the most dangerous +obstacle to the establishment of the French constitution." This was a +new tone and the general might assume that his treaty of Tolentino +would be ratified. Further, he was assured that whatever terms of +peace he might dictate to Austria under the walls of Vienna, whether +distasteful to the Directory or not, were sure of being accepted by +the French nation.</p> + +<p>Meantime the foreign affairs of Austria had fallen into a most +precarious condition. Not only had the departure of the English fleet +from the Mediterranean furthered Bonaparte's success in Italy, but +Russia had given notice of an altered policy. If the modern state +system of Europe had rested on any one doctrine more <span class="pagenum"><a id="page425" name="page425"></a>(p. 425)</span> firmly +than on another, it was on the theory of territorial boundaries, and +the inviolability of national existence. Yet, in defiance of all right +and all international law, Prussia, Russia, and Austria had in 1772 +swooped down like vultures on Poland, and parted large portions of her +still living body among themselves. The operation was so much to their +liking that it had been repeated in 1792, and completed in 1795. The +last division had been made with the understanding that, in return for +the lion's share which she received, Russia would give active +assistance to Austria in her designs on northern Italy. Not content +with the Milanese and a protectorate over Modena, Francis had already +cast his eyes on the Venetian mainland. But when on November +seventeenth, 1796, the great Catherine had died, and her successor, +Paul, had refused to be bound by his mother's engagements, all hope of +further aid vanishing, the empire, defeated at Rivoli, was in more +cruel straits than ever. Prussia was consolidating herself into a +great power likely in the end to destroy Austrian influence in the +Germanic Diet, which controlled the affairs of the empire. Both in +Italy and in Germany her rival's fortunes were in the last degree of +jeopardy. Thugut might well exclaim that Catherine's death was the +climax of Austria's misfortunes.</p> + +<p>The hour was dark indeed for Austria; and in the crisis Thugut, the +able and courageous minister of the Emperor, made up his mind at last +to throw, not some or the most, but all his master's military strength +into Italy. The youthful Archduke Charles, who had won great glory as +the conqueror of Jourdan, was accordingly summoned from Germany with +the strength of his army to break through the Tyrol, and prevent the +French from taking the now open road to Vienna. This brother of the +Emperor, though but twenty-five years old, was <span class="pagenum"><a id="page426" name="page426"></a>(p. 426)</span> in his day +second only to Bonaparte as a general. The splendid persistence with +which Austria raised one great army after another to oppose France was +worthy of her traditions. Even when these armies were commanded by +veterans of the old school, they were terrible: it seemed to the +cabinet at Vienna that if Charles were left to lead them in accordance +with his own designs they would surely be victorious. Had he and his +Army of the Rhine been in Italy from the outset, they thought, the +result might have been different. Perhaps they were right; but his +tardy arrival at the eleventh hour was destined to avail nothing. The +Aulic Council ordered him into Friuli, a district of the Italian Alps +on the borders of Venice, where another army—the sixth within a +year—was to assemble for the protection of the Austrian frontier and +await the arrival of the veterans from Germany. This force, unlike the +other five, was composed of heterogeneous elements, and, until further +strengthened, inferior in numbers to the French, who had finally been +reinforced by fifteen thousand men, under Bernadotte, from the Army of +the Sambre and Meuse.</p> + +<p>When Bonaparte started from Mantua for the Alps, his position was the +strongest he had so far secured. The Directory had until then shown +their uneasy jealousy of him by refusing the reinforcements which he +was constantly demanding. It had become evident that the approaching +elections would result in destroying their ascendancy in the Five +Hundred, and that more than ever they must depend for support on the +army. Accordingly they had swallowed their pride, and made Bonaparte +strong. This change in the policy of the government likewise affected +the south and east of France most favorably for his purposes. The +personal pique of the generals commanding in those districts <span class="pagenum"><a id="page427" name="page427"></a>(p. 427)</span> +had subjected him to many inconveniences as to communications with +Paris, as well as in the passage of troops, stores, and the like. They +now recognized that in the approaching political crisis the fate of +the republic would hang on the army, and for that reason they must +needs be complaisant with its foremost figure, whose exploits had +dimmed even those of Hoche in the Netherlands and western France. +Italy was altogether subdued, and there was not a hostile power in the +rear of the great conqueror. Among many of the conquered his name was +even beloved: for the people of Milan his life and surroundings had +the same interest as if he were their own sovereign prince. In front, +however, the case was different; for the position of the Archduke +Charles left the territory of Venice directly between the hostile +armies in such a way as apparently to force Bonaparte into adopting a +definite policy for the treatment of that power.</p> + +<p>For the moment, however, there was no declaration of his decision by +the French commander-in-chief; not even a formal proposal to treat +with the Venetian oligarchy, which, to all outward appearance, had +remained as haughty as ever, as dark and inscrutable in its dealings, +as doubtful in the matter of good faith. And yet a method in +Bonaparte's dealing with it was soon apparent, which, though unlike +any he had used toward other Italian powers, was perfectly adapted to +the ends he had in view. He had already violated Venetian neutrality, +and intended to disregard it entirely. As a foretaste of what that +republic might expect, French soldiers were let loose to pillage her +towns until the inhabitants were so exasperated that they retaliated +by killing a few of their spoilers. Then began a persistent and +exasperating process of charges and complaints and admonitions, until +the origins of the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page428" name="page428"></a>(p. 428)</span> respective offenses were forgotten in the +intervening recriminations. Then, as a warning to all who sought to +endanger the "friendly relations" between the countries, a troop of +French soldiers would be thrown here into one town, there into +another. This process went on without an interval, and with merciless +vigor, until the Venetian officials were literally distracted. +Remonstrance was in vain: Bonaparte laughed at forms. Finally, when +protest had proved unavailing, the harried oligarchy began at last to +arm, and it was not long before forty thousand men, mostly Slavonic +mercenaries, were enlisted under its banner. With his usual +conciliatory blandness, Bonaparte next proposed to the senate a treaty +of alliance, offensive and defensive.</p> + +<p>This was not a mere diplomatic move. Certain considerations might well +incline the oligarchy to accept the plan. There was no love lost +between the towns of the Venetian mainland and the city itself; for +the aristocracy of the latter would write no names in its Golden Book +except those of its own houses. The revolutionary movement had, +moreover, already so heightened the discontent which had spread +eastward from the Milanese, and was now prevalent in Brescia, Bergamo, +and Peschiera, that these cities really favored Bonaparte, and longed +to separate from Venice. Further than this, the Venetian senate had +early in January been informed by its agents in Paris of a rumor that +at the conclusion of peace Austria would indemnify herself with +Venetian territory for the loss of the Milanese. The disquiet of the +outlying cities on the borders of Lombardy was due to a desire for +union with the Transpadane Republic. They little knew for what a +different fate Bonaparte destined them. He was really holding that +portion of the mainland in which they were situated as an indemnity +for Austria. Venice was almost sure <span class="pagenum"><a id="page429" name="page429"></a>(p. 429)</span> to lose them in any +case, and he felt that if she refused the French alliance he could +then, with less show of injustice, tender them and their territories +to Francis, in exchange for Belgium. He offered, however, if the +republic should accept his proposition, to assure the loyalty of its +cities, provided only the Venetians would inscribe the chief families +of the mainland in the Golden Book.</p> + +<p>But in spite of such a suggestive warning, the senate of the +commonwealth adhered to its policy of perfect neutrality. Bonaparte +consented to this decision, but ordered it to disarm, agreeing in that +event to control the liberals on the mainland, and to guarantee the +Venetian territories, leaving behind troops enough both to secure +those ends and to guard his own communications. If these should be +tampered with, he warned the senate that the knell of Venetian +independence would toll forthwith. No one can tell what would have +been in store for the proud city if she had chosen the alternative, +not of neutrality, but of an alliance with France. Bonaparte always +made his plan in two ways, and it is probable that her ultimate fate +would have been identical in either case.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p> + +<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page430" name="page430"></a>(p. 430)</span> CHAPTER <abbr title="33">XXXIII.</abbr></h3> + +<h4><span class="smcap">The Preliminaries of Peace—Leoben</span>.</h4> + +<p class="summary">Austrian Plans for the Last Italian Campaign — The Battle + on the Tagliamento — Retreat of the Archduke Charles — + Bonaparte's Proclamation to the Carinthians — Joubert + Withdraws from the Tyrol — Bonaparte's "Philosophical" + Letter — His Situation at Leoben — The Negotiations for + Peace — Character of the Treaty — Bonaparte's Rude + Diplomacy — French Successes on the Rhine — Plots of the + Directory — The Uprising of Venetia — War with Venice.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">1797.</p> + +<p>The Aulic Council at Vienna prepared for the Archduke Charles a +modification of the same old plan, only this time the approach was +down the Piave and the Tagliamento, rivers which rise among the +grotesque Dolomites and in the Carnic Alps. They flow south like the +Adige and the Brenta, but their valleys are wider where they open into +the lowlands, and easier of access. The auxiliary force, under +Lusignan, was now to the westward on the Piave, while the main force, +under Charles, was waiting for reinforcements in the broad intervales +on the upper reaches of the Tagliamento, through which ran the direct +road to Vienna. This time the order of attack was exactly reversed, +because Bonaparte, with his strengthened army of about seventy-five +thousand men, resolved to take the offensive before the expected +levies from the Austrian army of the Rhine should reach the camp of +his foe. The campaign was not long, for there was no resistance from +the inhabitants, as there would have been in the German Alps, among +the Tyrolese, Bonaparte's embittered enemies; <span class="pagenum"><a id="page431" name="page431"></a>(p. 431)</span> and the united +force of Austria was far inferior to that of France. Joubert, with +eighteen thousand men, was left to repress the Tyrol. Though only +twenty-eight years old, he had risen from a volunteer in the files +through every rank and was now division general. He had gained renown +on the Rhine and found the climax of his fame in this expedition, +which he so brilliantly conducted that at the close of the campaign he +was chosen to carry the captured standards to Paris. He was acclaimed +as a coming man. But thereafter his achievements were mediocre and he +fell mortally wounded on August fifteenth, 1799, at the battle of Novi +while rallying an army destined to defeat. Two small forces under +Kilmaine and Victor associated with Lannes were detailed to watch +Venice and Rome respectively; but the general good order of Italy was +intrusted to the native legions which Bonaparte had organized. Fate +had little more in store for Kilmaine, the gallant Irish cavalryman, +who was among the foremost generals of his army. Already a veteran +forty-six years old, as veterans were then reckoned, he had fought in +America and on the Rhine and had filled the cup of his glory at +Peschiera, Castiglione, and Mantua. He was yet to be governor of +Lombardy and end his career by mortal disease when in chief command of +the "Army of England." Victor, wounded at Toulon, general of brigade +in the Pyrenees, a subordinate officer to the unsuccessful Schérer in +Italy, quickly rose under Bonaparte to be division general. Of lowly +birth, he had scarcely reached his thirty-fourth year when on this +occasion he exhibited both military and diplomatic talent of a high +order. Throughout the consulate and empire he held one important +office after another, so successfully that he commended himself even +to the Bourbons, and died in 1841, full of years and honors. Lannes +was now twenty-eight. The child of <span class="pagenum"><a id="page432" name="page432"></a>(p. 432)</span> poor parents, he began +life as a dyer's apprentice, enlisted when twenty-three and was a +colonel within two years, so astounding were his courage and natural +gifts. Detailed to serve under Bonaparte, the two became bosom +friends. A plain, blunt man, Lannes was as fierce as a war dog and as +faithful. Throughout the following years he followed Bonaparte in all +his enterprises, and Napoleon on the Marchfeld, in 1809, wept bitterly +when his faithful monitor was shot to pieces.</p> + +<p>Masséna advanced up the Piave against Lusignan, captured his +rear-guard, and drove him away northward beyond Belluno, while the +Archduke, thus separated from his right, withdrew to guard the road +into Carniola. Bonaparte, with his old celerity, reached the banks of +the Tagliamento opposite the Austrian position on March sixteenth, +long before he was expected. His troops had marched all night, but +almost immediately they made a feint as if to force a crossing in the +face of their enemy. The Austrians on the left bank awaited the onset +in perfect order, and in dispositions of cavalry, artillery, and +infantry admirably adapted to the ground. It seemed as if the first +meeting of the two young generals would fall out to the advantage of +Charles. But he was neither as wily nor as indefatigable as his enemy. +The French drew back, apparently exhausted, and bivouacked as if for +the night. The Austrians, expecting nothing further that day, and +standing on the defensive, followed the example of their opponents. +Two hours elapsed, when suddenly the whole French army rose like one +man, and, falling into line without an instant's delay, rushed for the +stream, which at that spot was swift but fordable, flowing between +wide, low banks of gravel. The surprise was complete; the stream was +crossed, and the Austrians had barely time to form when the French +were upon them. They fought with gallantry <span class="pagenum"><a id="page433" name="page433"></a>(p. 433)</span> for three hours +until their flank was turned. They then drew off in an orderly +retreat, abandoning many guns and losing some prisoners.</p> + +<p>Masséna, waiting behind the intervening ridge for the signal, advanced +at the first sound of cannon into the upper valley of the same stream, +crossed it, and beset the passes of the Italian Alps, by which +communication with the Austrian capital was quickest. Charles had +nothing left, therefore, but to withdraw due eastward across the great +divide of the Alps, where they bow toward the Adriatic, and pass into +the valley of the Isonzo, behind that full and rushing stream, which +he fondly hoped would stop the French pursuit. The frost, however, had +bridged it in several places, and these were quickly found. Bernadotte +and Sérurier stormed the fortress of Gradisca, and captured two +thousand five hundred men, while Masséna seized the fort at the Chiusa +Veneta, and, scattering a whole division of flying Austrians, captured +five thousand with their stores and equipments. He then attacked and +routed the enemy's guard on the Pontebba pass, occupied Tarvis, and +thus cut off their communication with the Puster valley, by which the +Austrian detachment from the Rhine was to arrive. It was in this +campaign that Bernadotte laid the foundation of his future greatness. +He was the son of a lawyer in Pau, where he was born in 1764. +Enlisting as a common soldier, he was wounded in Corsica, became chief +of battalion under Custine, general of brigade under Kléber, and +commanded a division at Fleurus. The previous year he had shared the +defeat of Jourdan on the Rhine, but under Bonaparte he became a famous +participant in victory. A Jacobin democrat, he was later entrusted by +the Directory with important missions, but in these he had little +success. It was as a <span class="pagenum"><a id="page434" name="page434"></a>(p. 434)</span> soldier that he rose in the coming +years to heights which in his own mind awakened a rivalry with +Napoleon; ambitious for the highest rank, he made a great match with +the sister-in-law of Joseph Bonaparte, and so managed his affairs +that, as is well known, he ended on the throne of Sweden and founded +the reigning house of that kingdom.</p> + +<p>Bonaparte wooed the stupefied Carinthians with his softly worded +proclamations, and his advancing columns were unharassed by the +peasantry while he pushed farther on, capturing Klagenfurt, and +seizing both Triest and Fiume, the only harbors on the Austrian shore. +He then returned with the main body of his troops, and, crossing the +pass of Tarvis, entered Germany at Villach. "We are come," he said to +the inhabitants, "not as enemies, but as friends, to end a terrible +war imposed by England on a ministry bought with her gold." And the +populace, listening to his siren voice, believed him. All this was +accomplished before the end of March; and Charles, his army reduced to +less than three fourths, was resting northward on the road to Vienna, +beyond the river Mur, exhausted, and expecting daily that he would be +compelled to a further retreat.</p> + +<p>Joubert had not been so successful. According to instructions, he had +pushed up the Adige as far as Brixen, into the heart of the hostile +Tyrol. The Austrians had again called the mountaineers to arms, and a +considerable force under Laudon was gathered to resist the invaders. +It had been a general but most indefinite understanding between +Bonaparte and the Directory that Moreau was again to cross the Rhine +and advance once more, this time for a junction with Joubert to march +against Vienna. But the directors, in an access of suspicion, had +broken their word, and, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page435" name="page435"></a>(p. 435)</span> pleading their penury, had not taken +a step toward fitting out the Army of the North. Moreau was therefore +not within reach; he had not even crossed the Rhine. Consequently +Joubert was in straits, for the whole country had now risen against +him. It was with difficulty that he had advanced, and with serious +loss that he fought one terrible battle after another; finally, +however, he forced his way into the valley of the Drave, and marched +down that river to join Bonaparte. This was regarded by Bonaparte as a +remarkable feat, but by the Austrians as a virtual repulse; both the +Tyrol and Venice were jubilant, and the effects spread as far eastward +as the Austrian provinces of the Adriatic. Triest and Fiume had not +been garrisoned, and the Austrians occupied them once more; the +Venetian senate organized a secret insurrection, which broke out +simultaneously in many places, and was suppressed only after many of +the French, some of them invalids in the hospitals, had been murdered.</p> + +<p>On March thirty-first, Bonaparte, having received definite and +official information that he could expect no immediate support from +the Army of the Rhine, addressed from Klagenfurt to the Archduke what +he called a "philosophical" letter, calling attention to the fact that +it was England which had embroiled France and Austria, powers which +had really no grievance one against the other. Would a prince, so far +removed by lofty birth from the petty weaknesses of ministers and +governments, not intervene as the savior of Germany to end the +miseries of a useless war? "As far as I myself am concerned, if the +communication I have the honor to be making should save the life of a +single man, I should be prouder of that civic crown than of the sad +renown which results from military success." At the same time Masséna +was pressing forward into the valley <span class="pagenum"><a id="page436" name="page436"></a>(p. 436)</span> of the Mur, across the +passes of Neumarkt; and before the end of the week his seizure of <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> +Michael and Leoben had cut off the last hope of a junction between the +forces of Charles and his expected reinforcements from the Rhine. +Austria was carrying on her preparations of war with the same proud +determination she had always shown, and Charles continued his +disastrous hostilities with Masséna. But when Thugut received the +"philosophical" letter from Bonaparte, which Charles had promptly +forwarded to Vienna, the imperial cabinet did not hesitate, and +plenipotentiaries were soon on their way to Leoben.</p> + +<p>The situation of Bonaparte at Leoben was by no means what the position +of the French forces within ninety miles of Vienna would seem to +indicate. The revolutionary movement in Venetia, silently but +effectually fostered by the French garrisons, had been successful in +Bergamo, Brescia, and Salo. The senate, in despair, sent envoys to +Bonaparte at Göritz. His reply was conciliatory, but he declared that +he would do nothing unless the city of Venice should make the +long-desired concession about inscriptions in the Golden Book. At the +same time he demanded a monthly payment of a million francs in lieu of +all requisitions on its territory. At Paris the Venetian ambassador +had no better success, and with the news of Joubert's withdrawal from +the Tyrol a terrible insurrection broke out, which sacrificed many +French lives at Verona and elsewhere. Bonaparte's suggestions for the +preliminaries of peace with Austria had been drawn up before the news +of that event reached him: but with the Tyrol and Venice all aflame in +his rear, and threatening his connections; with no prospect of +assistance from Moreau in enforcing his demands; and with a growing +hostility showing itself among the populations of the hereditary +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page437" name="page437"></a>(p. 437)</span> states of Austria into which he had penetrated, it was not +wonderful that his original design was confirmed. "At Leoben," he once +said, in a gambler's metaphor, "I was playing twenty-one, and I had +only twenty."</p> + +<p>When, therefore, Merveldt and Gallo, the duly accredited +plenipotentiaries of Austria, and General Bonaparte, representing the +French republic, but with no formal powers from its government, met in +the castle of Göss at Leoben, they all knew that the situation of the +French was very precarious indeed, and that the terms to be made could +not be those dictated by a triumphant conqueror in the full tide of +victory. Neither party had any scruples about violating the public law +of Europe by the destruction of another nationality; but they needed +some pretext. While they were in the opening stages of negotiation the +pretext came; for on April ninth Bonaparte received news of the +murders to which reference has been made, and of an engagement at +Salo, provoked by the French, in which the Bergamask mountaineers had +captured three hundred of the garrison, mostly Poles. This affair was +only a little more serious than numerous other conflicts incident to +partisan warfare which were daily occurring; but it was enough. With a +feigned fury the French general addressed the Venetian senate as if +their land were utterly irreconcilable, and demanded from them +impossible acts of reparation. Junot was despatched to Venice with the +message, and delivered it from the floor of the senate on April +fifteenth, the very day on which his chief was concluding negotiations +for the delivery of the Venetian mainland to Austria.</p> + +<p>So strong had the peace party in Vienna become, and such was the +terror of its inhabitants at seeing the court hide its treasures and +prepare to fly into Hungary, that the plenipotentiaries could only +accept the offer of <span class="pagenum"><a id="page438" name="page438"></a>(p. 438)</span> Bonaparte, which they did with +ill-concealed delight. There was but one point of difference, the +grand duchy of Modena, which Francis for the honor of his house was +determined to keep, if possible. With Tuscany, Modena, and the +Venetian mainland all in their hands, the Austrian authorities felt +that time would surely restore to them the lost Milanese. But +Bonaparte was obdurate. On the eighteenth the preliminaries were +closed and adopted. The Austrians solemnly declared at the time that, +when the papers were to be exchanged formally, Bonaparte presented a +copy which purported to be a counterpart of what had been mutually +arranged. Essential differences were, however, almost immediately +marked by the recipients, and when they announced their discovery with +violent clamor, the cool, sarcastic general produced without remark +another copy, which was found to be a correct reproduction of the +preliminary terms agreed upon. This coarse and silly ruse seems to +have been a favorite device, for it was tried later in another +conspicuous instance, the negotiation of the Concordat. According to +the authentic articles, France was to have Belgium, with the "limits +of France" as decreed by the laws of the republic, a purposely +ambiguous expression. In this preliminary outline the Rhine boundary +was not mentioned. The territory of the Empire was also guaranteed. +These flat contradictions indicate something like panic on both sides, +and duplicity at least on one and probably on both, for Thugut's +correspondence indicates his firm purpose to despoil and destroy +Venice. In any case Austria obtained the longed-for mainland of Venice +as far as the river Oglio, together with Istria and Dalmatia, the +Venetian dependencies beyond the Adriatic, while Venice herself was to +be nominally indemnified by the receipt of the three papal legations, +Bologna, Ferrara, and the Romagna, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page439" name="page439"></a>(p. 439)</span> which had just been +erected into the Transpadane Republic! Modena was to be united with +Mantua, Reggio, and the Milanese into a great central republic, which +would always be dependent on France, and was to be connected with her +territory by way of Genoa. Some of the articles were secret, and all +were subject to immaterial changes in the final negotiations for +definitive peace, which were to be carried on later at Bern, chosen +for the purpose as being a neutral city.</p> + +<p>Bonaparte explained, in a letter to the Directory, that whatever +occurred, the Papal States could never become an integral part of +Venice, and would always be under French influences. His sincerity was +no greater, as the event showed, concerning the very existence of +Venice herself. The terms he had made were considered at Vienna most +favorable, and there was great rejoicing in that capital. But it was +significant that in the routine negotiations the old-school +diplomatists had been sadly shocked by the behavior of their military +antagonist, who, though a mere tyro in their art, was very hard to +deal with. At the outset, for instance, they had proposed to +incorporate, as the first article in the preliminaries, that for which +the Directory had long been negotiating with Austria, a recognition of +the French republic. "Strike that out," said Bonaparte. "The Republic +is like the sun on the horizon—all the worse for him who will not see +it." This was but a foretaste of ruder dealings which followed, and of +still more violent breaches with tradition in the long negotiations +which were to ensue over the definitive treaty.</p> + +<p>The very day on which the signatures were affixed at Leoben, the +Austrian arms were humbled by Hoche on the Rhine. Moreau had not been +able to move for lack of a paltry sum which he was begging for, but +could not obtain, from the Directory. Hoche, chafing at <span class="pagenum"><a id="page440" name="page440"></a>(p. 440)</span> +similar delays, and anxious to atone for Jourdan's failure of the +previous year, finally set forth, and, crossing at Neuwied, advanced +to Heddersdorf, where he attacked the Austrians, who had been weakened +to strengthen the Archduke Charles. They were routed with a loss of +six thousand prisoners. Another considerable force was nearly +surrounded when a sudden stop was put to Hoche's career by the arrival +of a courier from Leoben. Though, soon after, the ministry of war was +offered to him, he declined. It was apparently prescience of the fact +that the greatest laurels were still to be won which led him to +refuse, and return to his headquarters at Wetzlar. There a mysterious +malady, still attributed by many to poison, ended his brief and +glorious career on September eighteenth, 1797. His laurels were such +as adorn only a character full of promise, serene and generous alike +in success and defeat. In the Black Forest, Desaix, having crossed the +Rhine with Moreau's army below Strasburg, was likewise driving the +Austrians before him. He too was similarly checked, and these +brilliant achievements came all too late. No advantage was gained by +them in the terms of peace, and the glory of humiliating Austria +remained to Bonaparte. Desaix was an Auvergnat, an aristocrat of +famous pedigree, carefully trained as a cadet to the military career. +He was now twenty-nine, having served on the Rhine as Victor's +adjutant, as general of brigade in the Army of the Moselle, and as +general of division under Jourdan and Moreau. Transferred to Italy, he +became the confidential friend and stanch supporter of Bonaparte. His +manner was winning, his courage contagious, his liberal principles +unquestioned. No finer figure appears on the battle-fields of the +Directory and Consulate.</p> + +<p>Throughout all France there was considerable dissatisfaction <span class="pagenum"><a id="page441" name="page441"></a>(p. 441)</span> +with Bonaparte's moderation, and a feeling among extreme republicans, +especially in the Directory, that he should have destroyed the +Austrian monarchy. Larévellière and Rewbell were altogether of this +opinion, and the corrupt Barras to a certain extent, for he had taken +a bribe of six hundred thousand francs from the Venetian ambassador at +Paris, to compel the repression by Bonaparte of the rebels on the +mainland. The correspondence of various emissaries connected with this +affair fell into the general's hands at Milan, and put the Directory +more completely at his mercy than ever. On April nineteenth, however, +he wrote as if in reply to such strictures as might be made: "If at +the beginning of the campaign I had persisted in going to Turin, I +never should have passed the Po; if I had persisted in going to Rome, +I should have lost Milan; if I had persisted in going to Vienna, +perhaps I should have overthrown the Republic." He well understood +that fear would yield what despair might refuse. It was a matter of +course that when the terms of Leoben reached Paris the Directory +ratified them: even though they had been irregularly negotiated by an +unauthorized agent, they separated England from Austria, and crushed +the coalition. One thing, however, the directors notified Bonaparte he +must not do; that was, to interfere further in the affairs of Venice. +This order reached him on May eighth; but just a week before, Venice, +as an independent state, had ceased to exist.</p> + +<p>Accident and crafty prearrangement had combined to bring the affairs +of that ancient commonwealth to such a crisis. The general +insurrection and the fight at Salo had given a pretext for disposing +of the Venetian mainland; soon after, the inevitable results of French +occupation afforded the opportunity for destroying the oligarchy +altogether. The evacuation of <span class="pagenum"><a id="page442" name="page442"></a>(p. 442)</span> Verona by the garrison of its +former masters had been ordered as a part of the general disarmament +of Italy. The Veronese were intensely, fiercely indignant on learning +that they were to be transferred to a hated allegiance; and on April +seventeenth, when a party appeared to reinforce the French troops +already there, the citizens rose in a frenzy of indignation, and drove +the hated invaders into the citadel. During the following days, three +hundred of the French civilians in the town, all who had not been able +to find refuge, were massacred; old and young, sick and well. At the +same time a detachment of Austrians under Laudon came in from the +Tyrol to join Fioravente, the Venetian general, and his Slavs. This of +course increased the tumult, for the French began to bombard the city +from the citadel. For a moment the combined besiegers, exaggerating +the accounts of Joubert's withdrawal and of Moreau's failure to +advance, hoped for ultimate success, and the overthrow of the French. +But rumors from Leoben caused the Austrians to withdraw up the Adige, +and a Lombard regiment came to the assistance of the French. The +Venetian forces were captured, and the city was disarmed; so also were +Peschiera, Castelnuovo, and many others which had made no resistance.</p> + +<p>Two days after this furious outbreak of Veronese resentment,—an event +which is known to the French as the Veronese Passover,—occurred +another, of vastly less importance in itself, but having perhaps even +more value as cumulative evidence that the wound already inflicted by +Bonaparte on the Venetian state was mortal. A French vessel, flying +before two Austrian cruisers, appeared off the Lido, and anchored +under the arsenal. It was contrary to immemorial custom for an armed +vessel to enter the harbor of Venice, and the captain <span class="pagenum"><a id="page443" name="page443"></a>(p. 443)</span> was +ordered to weigh anchor. He refused. Thereupon, in stupid zeal, the +guns of the Venetian forts opened on the ship. Many of the crew were +killed, and the rest were thrown into prison. This was the final +stroke, all that was necessary for the justification of Bonaparte's +plans. An embassy from the senate had been with him at Gratz when the +awful news from Verona came to his headquarters. He had then treated +them harshly, demanding not only the liberation of every man confined +for political reasons within their prison walls, but the surrender of +their inquisitors as well. "I will have no more Inquisition, no more +Senate; I shall be an Attila to Venice!... I want not your alliance +nor your schemes; I mean to lay down the law." They left his presence +with gloomy and accurate forebodings as to what was in those secret +articles which had been executed at Leoben. When, two days later, came +this news of further conflict with the French in Venice itself, the +envoys were dismissed, without another audience, by a note which +declared that its writer "could not receive them, dripping as they +were with French blood." On May third, having advanced to Palma, +Bonaparte declared war against Venice. In accordance with the general +license of the age, hostilities had, however, already begun; for as +early as April thirtieth the French and their Italian helpers had +fortified the lowlands between the Venetian lagoons, and on May first +the main army appeared at Fusina, the nearest point on the mainland to +the city.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p> + +<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page444" name="page444"></a>(p. 444)</span> CHAPTER <abbr title="34">XXXIV.</abbr></h3> + +<h4><span class="smcap">The Fall of Venice</span>.</h4> + +<p class="summary">Feebleness of the Venetian Oligarchy — Its Overthrow — + Bonaparte's Duplicity — Letters of Opposite Purport — + Montebello — The Republican Court — England's Proposition + for Peace — Plans of the Directory — General Clarke's + Diplomatic Career — Conduct of <abbr title="Madame">Mme.</abbr> Bonaparte — + Bonaparte's Jealous Tenderness — His Wife's Social + Conquests — Relations of the Powers.</p> + +<p class="sidenote">1797.</p> + +<p>Since the days of Carthage no government like that of the Venetian +oligarchy had existed on the earth. At its best it was dark and +remorseless; with the disappearance of its vigor its despotism had +become somewhat milder, but even yet no common man might draw the veil +from its mysterious, irresponsible councils and live. A few hundred +families administered the country as they did their private estates. +All intelligence, all liberty, all personal independence, were +repressed by such a system. The more enlightened Venetians of the +mainland, many even in the city, feeling the influences of the time, +had long been uneasy under their government, smoothly as it seemed to +run in time of peace. Now that the earth was quaking under the march +of Bonaparte's troops, this government was not only helpless, but in +its panic it actually grew contemptible, displaying by its conduct how +urgent was the necessity for a change. The senate had a powerful +fleet, three thousand native troops, and eleven thousand mercenaries; +but they struck only a single futile blow on their own account, +permitting a rash captain to open fire from the gunboats against the +French vanguard <span class="pagenum"><a id="page445" name="page445"></a>(p. 445)</span> when it appeared. But immediately, as if in +fear of their own temerity, they despatched an embassy to learn the +will of the approaching general. That his dealings might be merciful, +they tried the plan of Modena, and offered him a bribe of seven +million francs; but, as in the case of Modena, he refused. Next day +the Great Council having been summoned, it was determined by a nearly +unanimous vote of the patricians—six hundred and ninety to +twenty-one—that they would remodel their institutions on democratic +lines. The pale and terrified Doge thought that in such a surrender +lay the last hope of safety.</p> + +<p>Not for a moment did Lallemant and Villetard, the two French agents, +intermit their revolutionary agitation in the town. Disorders grew +more frequent, while uncertainty both paralyzed and disintegrated the +patrician party. A week later the government virtually abdicated. Two +utter strangers appeared in a theatrical way at its doors, and +suggested in writing to the Great Council that to appease the spirit +of the times they should plant the liberty-tree on the Place of <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> +Mark, and speedily accede to all the propositions for liberalizing +Venice which the popular temper seemed to demand. Such were the terror +and disorganization of the aristocracy that instead of punishing the +intrusion of the unknown reformers by death, according to the +traditions of their merciless procedure, they took measures to carry +out the suggestions made in a way as dark and significant as any of +their own. The fleet was dismantled, and the army disbanded. By the +end of the month the revolution was virtually accomplished; a rising +of their supporters having been mistaken by the Great Council, in its +pusillanimous terror, for a rebellion of their antagonists, they +decreed the abolition of all existing institutions, and, after hastily +organizing a provisional government, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page446" name="page446"></a>(p. 446)</span> disbanded. Four +thousand French soldiers occupied the town, and an ostensible treaty +was made between the new republic of Venice and that of France.</p> + +<p>This treaty was really nothing but a pronunciamento of Bonaparte. He +decreed a general amnesty to all offenders except the commander of +Fort Luco, who had recently fired on the French vessel. He also +guaranteed the public debt, and promised to occupy the city only as +long as the public order required it. By a series of secret articles, +vaguely expressed, Venice was bound to accept the stipulations of +Leoben in regard to territory, pay an indemnity of one million two +hundred thousand dollars, and furnish three ships of the line with two +frigates, while, in pursuance of the general policy of the French +republic, experts were to select twenty pictures from her galleries, +and five hundred manuscripts from her libraries. Whatever was the +understanding of those who signed these crushing conditions, the city +was never again treated by any European power as an independent state. +To this dismemberment the Directory made itself an accessory after the +fact, having issued a declaration of war on Venice which only reached +Milan to be suppressed, when already Venice was no more. Whether the +oligarchy or its assassin was the more loathsome still remains an +academic question, debatable only in an idle hour. Soon afterward a +French expedition was despatched to occupy her island possessions in +the Levant. The arrangements had been carefully prepared during the +very time when the provisional government believed itself to be paying +the price of its new liberties. And earlier still, on May +twenty-seventh, three days before the abdication of the aristocracy, +Bonaparte had already offered to Austria the entire republic in its +proposed form as an exchange for the German lands on the left bank of +the Rhine.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page447" name="page447"></a>(p. 447)</span> Writing to the Directory on that day, he declared that +Venice, which had been in a decline ever since the discovery of the +Cape of Good Hope and the rise of Triest and Ancona, could with +difficulty survive the blows just given her. "This miserable, cowardly +people, unfit for liberty, and without land or water—it seems natural +to me that we should hand them over to those who have received their +mainland from us. We shall take all their ships, we shall despoil +their arsenal, we shall remove all their cannon, we shall wreck their +rank, we shall keep Corfu and Ancona for ourselves." On the +twenty-sixth, only the day previous, a letter to his "friends" of the +Venetian provisional government had assured them that he would do all +in his power to confirm their liberties, and that he earnestly desired +that Italy, "now covered with glory, and free from every foreign +influence, should again appear on the world's stage, and assert among +the great powers that station to which by nature, position, and +destiny it was entitled." Ordinary minds cannot grasp the guile and +daring which seem to have foreseen and prearranged all the conditions +necessary to plans which for double-dealing transcended the +conceptions of men even in that age of duplicity and selfishness.</p> + +<p>Not far from Milan, on a gentle rise, stands the famous villa, or +country-seat, of Montebello. Its windows command a scene of rare +beauty: on one side, in the distance, the mighty Alps, with their +peaks of never-melting ice and snow; on the other three, the almost +voluptuous beauty of the fertile plains; while in the near foreground +lies the great capital of Lombardy, with its splendid industries, its +stores of art, and its crowded spires hoary with antiquity. Within +easy reach are the exquisite scenes of an enchanted region—that of +the Italian lakes. To this lordly residence Bonaparte withdrew. +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page448" name="page448"></a>(p. 448)</span> His summer's task was to be the pacification of Europe, and +the consolidation of his own power in Italy, in France, and northward +beyond the Alps. The two objects went hand in hand. From Austria, from +Rome, from Naples, from Turin, from Parma, from Switzerland, and even +from the minor German principalities whose fate hung on the +rearrangement of German lands to be made by the Diet of the Empire, +agents of every kind, both military and diplomatic, both secret and +accredited, flocked to the seat of power. Expresses came and went in +all directions, while humble suitors vied with one another in homage +to the risen sun.</p> + +<p>The uses of rigid etiquette were well understood by Bonaparte. He +appreciated the dazzling power of ceremony, the fascination of +condescension, and the influence of woman in the conduct of affairs. +All such influences he lavished with a profusion which could have been +conceived only by an Oriental imagination. As if to overpower the +senses by an impressive contrast, and symbolize the triumph of that +dominant Third Estate of which he claimed to be the champion against +aristocrats, princes, kings, and emperors, the simplicity of the +Revolution was personified and emphasized in his own person. His +ostentatious frugality, his disdain for dress, his contempt for +personal wealth and its outward signs, were all heightened by the +setting which inclosed them, as a frame of brilliants often heightens +the character in the portrait of a homely face.</p> + +<p>Meantime England, grimly determined to save herself and the Europe +essential to her well-being, was not a passive spectator of events in +Italy. To understand the political situation certain facts must be +reiterated in orderly connection. At the close of 1796, Pitt's +administration was still in great straits, for the Tories who +supported him were angered by his lack of success, while <span class="pagenum"><a id="page449" name="page449"></a>(p. 449)</span> the +Whig opposition was correspondingly jubilant and daily growing +stronger. The navy had been able barely to preserve appearances, but +that was all. There was urgent need for reform in tactics, in +administration, and in equipment. France had made some progress in all +these directions, and, in spite of English assistance, both the +Vendean and the Chouan insurrections had, to all appearance, been +utterly crushed. Subsequently the powerful expedition under Hoche, +equipped and held in readiness to sail for Ireland, there to organize +rebellion, and give England a draught from her own cup, though +destined to disaster, wrought powerfully on the British imagination. +It was clear that the Whigs would score a triumph at the coming +elections if something were not done. Accordingly, as has been told, +Pitt determined to open negotiations for peace with the Directory. As +his agent he unwisely chose a representative aristocrat, who had +distinguished himself as a diplomatist in Holland by organizing the +Orange party to sustain the Prussian arms against the rising democracy +of that country. Moreover, the envoy was an ultra-conservative in his +views of the French Revolution, and, believing that there was no room +in western Europe for his own country and her great rival, thought +there could be no peace until France was destroyed. Burke sneered that +he had gone to Paris on his knees. He had been received with suspicion +and distrust, many believing his real errand to be the reorganization +of a royalist party in France. Then, too, Delacroix, minister of +foreign affairs, was a narrow, shallow, and conceited man, unable +either to meet an adroit and experienced negotiator on his own ground, +or to prepare new forms of diplomatic combat, as Bonaparte had done. +The English proposition, it is well to recall, was that Great Britain +would give up all the French colonial possessions she had seized +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page450" name="page450"></a>(p. 450)</span> during the war, provided the French republic would abandon +Belgium. It is essential to an understanding of Bonaparte's attitude +in 1797, to recall also in this connection that the navigation of the +Scheldt has ever been an object of the highest importance to England: +the establishment of a strong, hostile maritime power in harbors like +those of the Netherlands would menace, if not destroy, the British +carrying-trade with central and northern Europe. The reply of the +Directory had been that their fundamental law forbade the +consideration of such a point; and when Malmesbury persisted in his +offer, he was allowed forty-eight hours to leave the country. The +negotiation was a fiasco as far as Austria was concerned, although +useful in consolidating British patriotism. Hoche, having been +despatched to Ireland, found wind and waves adverse, and then returned +to replace Jourdan in command of one of the Rhine armies, the latter +having been displaced for his failures in Germany and relegated to the +career of politics. Bonaparte's victories left his most conspicuous +rival nothing to do and he gracefully congratulated his Italian +colleague on having forestalled him. His sad and suspicious death in +September had no influence on the terms of Bonaparte's treaty, but +emphasized the need of its ratification.</p> + +<p>The Directory, with an eye single to the consolidation of the +republic, cared little for Lombardy, and much for Belgium; for the +prestige of the government, even for its stability, Belgium with the +Rhine frontier must be secured. The Austrian minister cared little for +the distant provinces of the empire, and everything for a compact +territorial consolidation. The successes of 1796 had secured to France +treaties with Prussia, Bavaria, Würtemberg, Baden, and the two circles +of Swabia and Franconia, whereby these powers consented <span class="pagenum"><a id="page451" name="page451"></a>(p. 451)</span> to +abandon the control of all lands on the left bank of the Rhine +hitherto belonging to them or to the Germanic body. As a consequence +the goal of the Directory could be reached by Austria's consent, and +Austria appeared to be willing. The only question was, Would France +restore the Milanese? Carnot was emphatic in the expression of his +opinion that for the sake of peace with honor, a speedy, enduring +peace, she must, and his colleagues assented. Accordingly, Bonaparte +was warned that no expectations of emancipation must be awakened in +the Italian peoples. But such a warning was absurd. The directors, +having been able neither to support their general with adequate +reinforcements, nor to pay his troops, it had been only in the rôle of +a liberator that Bonaparte was successful in cajoling and conquering +Italy, in sustaining and arming his men, and in pouring treasures into +Paris. It was for this reason that, enormous and outrageous as was the +ruin and spoliation of a neutral state, he saw himself compelled to +overthrow Venice, and hold it as a substitute for Lombardy in the +coming trade with Austria. But the directors either could not or would +not at that time enter into his plans, and refused to comprehend the +situation.</p> + +<p>With doubtful good sense they had therefore determined in November, +1796, to send Clarke, their own chosen agent, to Vienna. It was for +this that they selected a man of polished manners and honest purpose, +but, contrary to their estimate, of very moderate ability. He must of +course have a previous understanding with Bonaparte, and to that end +he had journeyed by way of Italy. Being kindly welcomed, he was +entirely befooled by his subtle host, who detained him with idle +suggestions until after the fall of Mantua, when to his amazement he +received the instructions from Paris already stated: to make no +proposition of any kind without <span class="pagenum"><a id="page452" name="page452"></a>(p. 452)</span> Bonaparte's consent. Then +followed the death of the Czarina Catherine, which left Austria with +no ally, and all the subsequent events to the eve of Leoben. Thugut, +of course, wanted no Jacobin agitator at Vienna, such as he supposed +Clarke to be, and informed him that he must not come thither, but +might reach a diplomatic understanding with the Austrian minister at +Turin, if he could. He was thus comfortably banished from the seat of +war during the closing scenes of the campaign, and to Bonaparte's +satisfaction could not of course reach Leoben in time to conclude the +preliminaries as the accredited agent of the republic. But, to save +the self-respect of the Directory, he was henceforth to be associated +with Bonaparte in arranging the final terms of peace; and to that end +he came of course to Milan. Representing as he did the conviction of +the government that the Rhine frontier must be a condition of peace, +and necessarily emphasizing its scheme of territorial compensations, +he had to be either managed or disregarded. It was the versatility of +the envoy at Montebello which assured him his subsequent career under +the consulate and empire.</p> + +<p>The court at Montebello was not a mere levee of men. There was as well +an assemblage of brilliant women, of whom the presiding genius was +<abbr title="Madame">Mme.</abbr> Bonaparte. Love, doubt, decision, marriage, separation, had been +the rapidly succeeding incidents of her connection with Bonaparte in +Paris. Though she had made ardent professions of devotion to her +husband, the marriage vow sat but lightly on her in the early days of +their separation. Her husband appears to have been for a short time +more constant, but, convinced of her fickleness, to have become as +unfaithful as she. And yet the complexity of emotions—ambition, +self-interest, and physical attraction—which seems to have been +present in <span class="pagenum"><a id="page453" name="page453"></a>(p. 453)</span> both, although in widely different degree, +sustained something like genuine ardor in him, and an affection +sincere enough often to awaken jealousy in her. The news of +Bonaparte's successive victories in Italy made his wife a heroine in +Paris. In all the salons of the capital, from that of the directors at +the Luxembourg downward through those of her more aristocratic but +less powerful acquaintances, she was fêted and caressed. As early as +April, 1796, came the first summons of her husband to join him in +Italy. Friends explained to her willing ears that it was not a French +custom for the wives of generals to join the camp-train, and she +refused. Resistance but served to rouse the passions of the young +conqueror, and his fiery love-letters reached Paris by every courier. +Josephine, however, remained unmoved; for the traditions of her +admirers, to whom she showed them, made light of a conjugal affection +such as that. She was flattered, but, during the courtship, slightly +frightened by such addresses.</p> + +<p>In due time there were symptoms which appeared to be those of +pregnancy. On receipt of this news the prospective father could not +contain himself for joy. The letter which he sent has been preserved. +It was written from Tortona, on June fifteenth, 1796. Life is but a +vain show because at such an hour he is absent from her. His passion +had clouded his faculties, but if she is in pain he will leave at any +hazard for her side. Without appetite, and sleepless; without thought +of friends, glory, or country, all the world is annihilated for him +except herself. "I care for honor because you do, for victory because +it gratifies you, otherwise I would have left all else to throw myself +at your feet. Dear friend, be sure and say you are persuaded that I +love you above all that can be imagined—persuaded that every moment +of my time is consecrated to you; <span class="pagenum"><a id="page454" name="page454"></a>(p. 454)</span> that never an hour passes +without thought of you; that it never occurred to me to think of +another woman; that they are all in my eyes without grace, without +beauty, without wit; that you—you alone as I see you, as you +are—could please and absorb all the faculties of my soul; that you +have fathomed all its depths; that my heart has no fold unopened to +you, no thoughts which are not attendant upon you; that my strength, +my arms, my mind, are all yours; that my soul is in your form, and +that the day you change, or the day you cease to live, will be that of +my death; that nature, the earth, is lovely in my eyes, only because +you dwell within it. If you do not believe all this, if your soul is +not persuaded, saturated, you distress me, you do not love me. Between +those who love is a magnetic bond. You know that I could never see you +with a lover, much less endure your having one: to see him and to tear +out his heart would for me be one and the same thing; and then, could +I, I would lay violent hands on your sacred person.... No, I would +never dare, but I would leave a world where that which is most +virtuous had deceived me. I am confident and proud of your love. +Misfortunes are trials which mutually develop the strength of our +passion. A child lovely as its mother is to see the light in your +arms. Wretched man that I am, a single day would satisfy me! A +thousand kisses on your eyes, on your lips. Adorable woman! what a +power you have! I am sick with your disease: besides, I have a burning +fever. Keep the courier but six hours, and let him return at once, +bringing to me the darling letter of my queen."</p> + +<p>At length, in June, when the first great victories had been won, when +the symptoms of motherhood proved to be spurious and disappeared, when +honors like those of a sovereign were awaiting her in Italy, <abbr title="Madame">Mme.</abbr> +Bonaparte decided to tear herself away from the circle of her +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page455" name="page455"></a>(p. 455)</span> friends in Paris, and to yield to the ever more urgent +pleadings of her husband. Traveling under Junot's care, she reached +Milan early in July, to find the general no longer an adventurer, but +the successful dictator of a people, courted by princes and kings, +adored by the masses, and the arbiter of nations. Rising, apparently +without an effort, to the height of the occasion, she began and +continued throughout the year to rival in her social conquests the +victories of her husband in the field. Where he was Caius, she was +Caia. High-born dames sought her favor, and nobles bowed low to win +her support. At times she actually braved the dangers of insurrection +and the battle-field. Her presence in their capital was used to soothe +the exasperated Venetians. To gratify her spouse's ardor, she +journeyed to many cities, and by a show of mild sympathy moderated +somewhat the wild ambitions which the scenes and character of his +successes awakened in his mind. The heroes and poets of Rome had moved +upon that same stage. To his consort the new Cæsar unveiled the +visions of his heated imagination, explained the sensations aroused in +him by their shadowy presence, and unfolded his schemes of emulation. +Of such purposes the court held during the summer at Montebello was +but the natural outcome. Its historic influence was incalculable: on +one hand, by the prestige it gave in negotiation to the central +figure, and by the chance it afforded to fix and crystallize the +indefinite visions of the hour; on the other, by rendering memorable +the celebration of the national fête on July fourteenth, 1797, an +event arranged for political purposes, and so dazzling as to fix in +the army the intense and complete devotion to their leader which made +possible the next epoch in his career.</p> + +<p>The summer was a season of enforced idleness, outwardly <span class="pagenum"><a id="page456" name="page456"></a>(p. 456)</span> and +as far as international relations were concerned, but in reality +Bonaparte was never more active nor more successful. In February the +Bank of England had suspended specie payments, and in March the price +of English consols was fifty-one, the lowest it ever reached. The +battle of Cape <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Vincent, fought on February fourteenth, destroyed +the Spanish naval power, and freed Great Britain from the fear of a +combination between the French and Spanish fleets for an invasion. +But, on the other hand, sedition was wide-spread in the navy; the +British sailors were mutinous to the danger-point, hoisting the red +flag and threatening piracy. The risings, though numerous, were +eventually quelled, but the effect on the English people was magical. +Left without an ally by the death of Catherine, the temporizing of +Paul, and his leaning to the Prussian policy of neutrality, facts +mirrored in the preliminaries of Leoben, their government made +overtures for peace. There was a crisis in the affairs of the +Directory and, as a sort of shelter from the stormy menace of popular +disapproval, Delacroix consented to receive Malmesbury again and renew +negotiations at Lille. As expected, the arrangement was a second +theatrical fencing-bout from the beginning. Canning feared his country +would meet with an accident in the sword-play, for the terms proposed +were a weak yielding to French pride by laying the Netherlands at her +feet. Probably the offer was not serious in any case, the farce was +quickly ended, and when their feint was met the British nation had +recuperated and was not dismayed. It required the utmost diligence in +the use of personal influence, on the part both of the French general +and of his wife, to thwart among the European diplomats assembled at +Montebello the prestige of English naval victory and the swift +adaptations of their policy to changing <span class="pagenum"><a id="page457" name="page457"></a>(p. 457)</span> conditions. But they +succeeded, and the evidence was ultimately given not merely in great +matters like the success of Fructidor or the peace of Campo Formio, +but in small ones—such, for example, as the speedy liberation of +Lafayette from his Austrian prison.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p> + + +<h3>END OF VOLUME I</h3> + +<p class="p4"><a id="footnote1" name="footnote1"></a> +<strong>Footnote 1:</strong> The indispensable authority for the youth of Napoleon is +the collection of his own papers edited, not always judiciously, by +Frédéric Masson and published by him in coöperation with G. Biagi +under the title <span lang="fr">Napoléon inconnu</span>. The originals are now in the +Laurentian Library at Florence. They were intrusted by the Emperor to +Cardinal Fesch as a safe depositary, probably in the hope that they +would eventually be destroyed. What the cardinal actually did with +them remains obscure. Some time early in the nineteenth century they +came into possession of a certain Libri, one of the French government +library inspectors, an unscrupulous collector and dealer. From them he +excerpted enough matter for an article which, before his disgrace, was +published in an early number of the <span lang="fr">Revue des Deux Mondes</span>, but in the +publication there was no statement of authority and the article was +forgotten, important as it was. The originals were not found or known +until in the sale catalogue of Lord Ashburnham's library appeared a +lot entitled merely Napoleon Papers. This fact was brought to the +author's attention by a friend, and when after a smart competition +between agents of the French and Italian governments the manuscripts +were deposited at Florence, he sought permission immediately to +examine and study them. This was promptly granted, they proved to be +the lost Fesch papers, and for the first time it was possible to +obtain a clear account of Napoleon's early years. The standard +authorities hitherto had been the works of Nasica, Coston, and Jung: +while they still have a certain value, it is slight in view of the +reliable deductions to be drawn from the original boy papers of +Napoleon Bonaparte. Later on and after the publication of the +corresponding portion of this Life, they were edited, printed, and +published. In the main there is no room for difference with the +transcript of M. Masson, but in some places where the writing is +uncommonly bad the author's own transcript presents the facts as +stated in these pages. Within a few years M. Chuquet has summed up +admirably all our authentic knowledge of the subject—in a book +entitled: <span lang="fr">La jeunesse de Napoléon</span>. His own researches have brought to +light some further valuable material. I have not hesitated in this +revision to make the freest use of the latest authorities, but it is a +gratification that no substantial changes, except by way of slight +additions, have been found necessary.<a href="#footnotetag1"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote2" name="footnote2"></a> +<strong>Footnote 2:</strong> The authorities for the period are Masson: <span lang="fr">Napoléon +inconnu</span>. Chuquet: <span lang="fr">La jeunesse de Napoléon</span>. Jung: <span lang="fr">Bonaparte et son +temps</span>. Böhtlingk: Napoleon Bonaparte: <span lang="de">seine Jugend und sein +Emporkommen</span>. Las Cases: <span lang="fr">Mémorial de Sainte-Hélène</span>. Antommarchi: +<span lang="fr">Mémoires</span>. Coston: <span lang="fr">Premières années de Napoléon</span>, Nasica: <span lang="fr">Mémoires sur +l'enfance et la jeunesse de Napoléon</span>.<a href="#footnotetag2"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote3" name="footnote3"></a> +<strong>Footnote 3:</strong> The sources of these statements are two letters of 5 +April, 1781, and 8 October, 1783; first printed in the <span lang="fr">Mémoires sur la +vie de Bonaparte</span>, etc., etc., <span lang="fr">par le comte Charles d'Og</span>.... This +pseudonym covers a still unknown author; the documents have been for +the most part considered genuine and have been reprinted as such by +many authorities, including Jung. Though this author was an official +in the ministry of war and had its archives at his disposal, he gives +one letter without any authority and the other as in the <span lang="fr">"Archives de +la guerre."</span> Many searchers, including the writer, have sought them +there without result. Latterly their authenticity has been denied on +the ground of inherent improbability, since pocket money was by rule +almost unknown in the royal colleges, and Corsican homesickness is as +common as that of the Swiss. But rules prove nothing and the letters +seem inherently genuine.<a href="#footnotetag3"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote4" name="footnote4"></a> +<strong>Footnote 4:</strong> Du Casse, <span lang="fr">Supplément à la Correspondence de Napoléon +I<sup>er</sup></span>, <abbr title="volume">Vol.</abbr> <abbr title="10">X</abbr>, p. 50. Masson, I, 79-84.<a href="#footnotetag4"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote5" name="footnote5"></a> +<strong>Footnote 5:</strong> This letter, which is without date, is printed in Coston, +as taken from the newspapers; again in a revised form in Nasica: +<span lang="fr">Mémoires sur l'enfance et la jeunesse de Napoléon</span>, p. 71, who claimed +to have collated it with the original; and again in Jung: <span lang="fr">Bonaparte et +son temps</span>, who gives as his reference, <span lang="fr">Archives de la guerre</span>, +preserving exactly the form given by Nasica. The Napoleon papers of +the War Department were freely, and I believe entirely, put into my +hands for examination. This letter was not among them; in fact, my +efforts to confirm the references of Jung were sadly ineffectual.<a href="#footnotetag5"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote6" name="footnote6"></a> +<strong>Footnote 6:</strong> Authorities as before for this and the five chapters +following.<a href="#footnotetag6"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote7" name="footnote7"></a> +<strong>Footnote 7:</strong> This is the date given by himself on the slip of paper +headed <span lang="fr">"Époques de ma vie"</span> and contained in the Fesch papers, now +deposited in the Laurentian Library at Florence. Here and there the +text is very difficult to decipher, but the line <span lang="fr">"Parti pour l'école +de Paris, le 30 Octobre 1784"</span> is perfectly legible. Las Cases, in the +<span lang="fr">Mémorial</span>, <abbr title="volume">Vol.</abbr> I, p. 160, represents Napoleon as quoting Keralio in +declaring that it was not for his birth or his attainments but for the +qualities he discerned in the boy that he sent him with imperfect +preparation to Paris.<a href="#footnotetag7"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote8" name="footnote8"></a> +<strong>Footnote 8:</strong> <span lang="fr">Mémoires du roi Joseph</span>, I, 29.<a href="#footnotetag8"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote9" name="footnote9"></a> +<strong>Footnote 9:</strong> The examiner in mathematics was the great Laplace.<a href="#footnotetag9"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote10" name="footnote10"></a> +<strong>Footnote 10:</strong> Taken from the apocryphal Memoirs of the Count d'Og ... +previously mentioned. See Masson: <span lang="fr">Napoléon inconnu</span>, I, 123; Chuquet, +I, 260; Jung, I, 125.<a href="#footnotetag10"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote11" name="footnote11"></a> +<strong>Footnote 11:</strong> Las Cases, I, 112. Napoleon confessed his inability to +learn German, but prided himself on his historical knowledge.<a href="#footnotetag11"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote12" name="footnote12"></a> +<strong>Footnote 12:</strong> For an amusing caricature by a comrade at Paris, see +Chuquet:<span lang="fr"> La jeunesse de Napoléon</span>, I, 262. The legend is: <span lang="fr">"Buonaparte, +cours, vole au secours de Paoli pour le tirer des mains de ses +ennemis."</span><a href="#footnotetag12"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote13" name="footnote13"></a> +<strong>Footnote 13:</strong> Masson (<span lang="fr">Napoléon inconnu</span>, <abbr title="volume">Vol.</abbr> I, p. 160) denies all the +statements of this paragraph. He likewise proves to his own +satisfaction that Bonaparte was neither in Lyons nor in Douay at this +time. The narrative here given is based on Coston and on Jung, who +follows the former in his reprint of the documents, giving the very +dubious reference, Mss. <span lang="fr">Archives de la guerre</span>. Although these +manuscripts could not be found by me, I am not willing to discard +Jung's authority completely nor to impugn his good faith. Men in +office frequently play strange pranks with official papers, and these +may yet be found. Moreover, there is some slight collateral evidence. +See Vieux: <span lang="fr">Napoleon à Lyon</span>, p. 4, and <span lang="fr">Souvenirs à l'usage des +habitants de Douay</span>. Douay, 1822.<a href="#footnotetag13"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote14" name="footnote14"></a> +<strong>Footnote 14:</strong> The volumes of <span lang="fr">Napoléon inconnu</span> contain the text of +these papers as deciphered for M. Masson and revised by him. My own +examination, which antedated his transcription by more than a year +(1891), led me to trust their authenticity absolutely, as far as the +writer's memory and good faith are concerned. I cannot rely as +positively as Masson does on the <span lang="fr">Époques de ma vie</span>, which has the +appearance of a casual scribbling done in an idle moment on the first +scrap that came to hand.<a href="#footnotetag14"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote15" name="footnote15"></a> +<strong>Footnote 15:</strong> Correspondence of Sir John Sinclair, I, 47.<a href="#footnotetag15"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote16" name="footnote16"></a> +<strong>Footnote 16:</strong> <span lang="fr">Souvenirs d'un officier royaliste, par M. de R...</span>, <abbr title="volume">Vol.</abbr> +I, p. 117.<a href="#footnotetag16"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote17" name="footnote17"></a> +<strong>Footnote 17:</strong> Printed in <span lang="fr">Napoléon inconnu</span>, <abbr title="volume">Vol.</abbr> <abbr title="2">II</abbr>, p. 167.<a href="#footnotetag17"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote18" name="footnote18"></a> +<strong>Footnote 18:</strong> Similar instances of repeated and lengthened absence +from duty among the young officers are numerous and easily found in +the archives. Nevertheless, Buonaparte's case is a very extraordinary +example of how a clever person could work the system. The facts are +bad enough, but as many cities claimed Homer, so in the Napoleonic +legend events of a sojourn at Strasburg about this time were given in +great detail. He was in relations with a famous actress and wrote +verses which are printed. Even Metternich records that the young +Napoleon Bonaparte had just left the Alsatian capital when he himself +arrived there in 1788. Later, in 1806, a fencing-master claimed that +he had instructed both these great men in the earlier year at +Strasburg. Yet the whole tale is impossible. See <span lang="fr">Napoléon inconnu</span>, +<abbr title="volume">Vol.</abbr> I, p. 204.<a href="#footnotetag18"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote19" name="footnote19"></a> +<strong>Footnote 19:</strong> Printed in Coston, <abbr title="2">II</abbr>, 94.<a href="#footnotetag19"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote20" name="footnote20"></a> +<strong>Footnote 20:</strong> Correspondence of Sir John Sinclair, I, 47.<a href="#footnotetag20"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote21" name="footnote21"></a> +<strong>Footnote 21:</strong> For the text see <span lang="fr">Napoléon inconnu</span>, <abbr title="2">II</abbr>, 92.<a href="#footnotetag21"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote22" name="footnote22"></a> +<strong>Footnote 22:</strong> These phrases may nearly all be found in the notes which +he had taken or jottings he had made while reading Voltaire and +Rousseau: <span lang="fr">Napoléon inconnu</span>, <abbr title="2">II</abbr>, 209-292.<a href="#footnotetag22"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote23" name="footnote23"></a> +<strong>Footnote 23:</strong> "I am in the cabin of a poor man whence I like to write +you after long conversation with these good people." Nasica, p. 161.<a href="#footnotetag23"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote24" name="footnote24"></a> +<strong>Footnote 24:</strong> <span lang="fr">Napoléon inconnu</span>, <abbr title="2">II</abbr>, 108 <span class="italic">et seq.</span><a href="#footnotetag24"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote25" name="footnote25"></a> +<strong>Footnote 25:</strong> Buonaparte to Naudin, 27 July, 1791, in Buchez et Roux, +<span lang="fr">Histoire Parlementaire</span>, <abbr title="17">XVII</abbr>, 56.<a href="#footnotetag25"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote26" name="footnote26"></a> +<strong>Footnote 26:</strong> It is not entirely clear whether he arrived late in +September or early in October, 1791. He remained until May, 1792.<a href="#footnotetag26"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote27" name="footnote27"></a> +<strong>Footnote 27:</strong> The rare and curious pamphlet entitled <span lang="fr">"Manuscrit de +l'Île d'Elbe,"</span> attributed to Montholon and probably published by +Edward O'Meara, contains headings for ten chapters which were dictated +by Napoleon at Elba on February twenty-second, 1815. The argument is: +The Bourbons ascended the throne, in the person of Henry <abbr title="4">IV</abbr>, by +conquering the so-called Holy League against the Protestants, and by +the consent of the people; a third dynasty thus followed the second; +then came the republic, and its succession was legitimated by victory, +by the will of the people, and by the recognition of all the powers of +Europe. The republic made a new France by emancipating the Gauls from +the rule of the Franks. The people had raised their leader to the +imperial throne in order to consolidate their new interests: this was +the fourth dynasty, etc., etc. The contemplated book was to work out +in detail this very conception of a nation as passing through +successive phases: at the close of each it is worn out, but a new rule +regenerates it, throwing off the incrustations and giving room to the +life within. It is interesting to note the genesis of Napoleon's ideas +and the pertinacity with which he held them.<a href="#footnotetag27"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote28" name="footnote28"></a> +<strong>Footnote 28:</strong> Las Cases: <span lang="fr">Mémorial de Sainte Hélène</span>, <abbr title="5">V</abbr>, 170.<a href="#footnotetag28"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote29" name="footnote29"></a> +<strong>Footnote 29:</strong> <span lang="fr">Mémoires du roi Joseph</span>, I, 47.<a href="#footnotetag29"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote30" name="footnote30"></a> +<strong>Footnote 30:</strong> <span lang="fr">Napoléon inconnu</span>, <abbr title="2">II</abbr>, 408.<a href="#footnotetag30"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote31" name="footnote31"></a> +<strong>Footnote 31:</strong> Reported by Arrighi and Renucci and given in <span lang="fr">Napoléon +inconnu</span>, <abbr title="2">II</abbr>, 418.<a href="#footnotetag31"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote32" name="footnote32"></a> +<strong>Footnote 32:</strong> For the original of this protest see <span lang="fr">Napoléon inconnu</span>, +<abbr title="2">II</abbr>, 439.<a href="#footnotetag32"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote33" name="footnote33"></a> +<strong>Footnote 33:</strong> Both these men were generously remembered in the secret +codicils of Napoleon's will.<a href="#footnotetag33"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote34" name="footnote34"></a> +<strong>Footnote 34:</strong> For this paper, see <span lang="fr">Napoléon inconnu</span>, <abbr title="2">II</abbr>, 462. Jung: +Bonaparte et son temps, <abbr title="2">II</abbr>, 266 and 498. There appear to have been an +official portion intended to be filed, and a free, carelessly written +running commentary on men and things. The passage quoted is taken from +the latter.<a href="#footnotetag34"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote35" name="footnote35"></a> +<strong>Footnote 35:</strong> The memoirs of Joseph and Lucien, supported by Coston +and the anonymous local historian of Marseilles, all unite in +declaring that the Buonaparte family landed there; on the other hand, +Louis, in the <span lang="fr">Documents historiques sur la Hollande</span>, I, 34, asserts +categorically in detail that they took up their abode in La Valette, a +suburb of Toulon, where they had landed.<a href="#footnotetag35"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote36" name="footnote36"></a> +<strong>Footnote 36:</strong> These are the most probable reasons for the retreat. +Several local chroniclers, Soullier, Audri, and Joudou, writing all +three about 1844, declare each and all that Buonaparte with his +battery followed the right bank of the Rhone as far as the <span lang="fr">Rocher de +Justice</span> where he mounted his guns and opened fire on the walls of the +city. His fire was so accurate that he destroyed one cannon and killed +several gunners. The besieged garrison of federalists were thrown into +panic and decamped. Neither the contemporary authorities nor Napoleon +himself ever mentioned any such remarkable circumstances. In fact, a +passage of the <span lang="fr">"Souper de Beaucaire"</span> attributes the retreat to the +inability of any except veteran troops to withstand a siege. Finally, +Buonaparte would surely have been promoted for such an exploit. +Dommartin, a comrade, was thus rewarded for a much smaller service.<a href="#footnotetag36"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote37" name="footnote37"></a> +<strong>Footnote 37:</strong> The <span lang="fr">Archive Russe</span> for 1866 states that in 1788 Napoleon +Buonaparte applied for an engagement to Zaborowski, Potemkin's +lieutenant, who was then with a Russian fleet in the Mediterranean. +The statement may be true, and probably is, but there is no +corroborative evidence to sustain it.<a href="#footnotetag37"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote38" name="footnote38"></a> +<strong>Footnote 38:</strong> The very first impression appears to have been a reprint +from the Courier d'Avignon: it was a cheap pamphlet of sixteen pages +in the same type and on the paper as that used by the journal. The +second impression was in twenty pages, printed by the public printer +as a tract for the times, to be distributed throughout the near and +remote neighborhood.<a href="#footnotetag38"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote39" name="footnote39"></a> +<strong>Footnote 39:</strong> The authorities for this important epoch are, primarily, +Jung: <span lang="fr">Bonaparte et son temps</span>; Masson: <span lang="fr">Napoléon inconnu</span>; but above all, +Chuquet: <span lang="fr">La jeunesse de Napoléon</span>, <abbr title="volume">Vol.</abbr> <abbr title="3">III</abbr>, Toulon. The <span lang="fr">Mémoires</span> of +Barras are utterly worthless, the references in Las Cases, Marmont, +and elsewhere have value, but must be controlled. The archives of the +war department have been thoroughly examined by several investigators, +the author among the number. The results have been printed in many +volumes to which the above-mentioned authors refer, and many of the +original papers are printed in whole or in part by them.<a href="#footnotetag39"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote40" name="footnote40"></a> +<strong>Footnote 40:</strong> In Buchez et Roux, <span lang="fr">Histoire Parlementaire</span>, <abbr title="31">XXXI</abbr>, pp. +268-290, 415-427; <abbr title="32">XXXII</abbr>, pp. 335-381 <span class="italic">et seq.</span>, and in <span lang="fr">Œuvres de +<abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Just</span>, pp. 360-420, will be found a few examples of their views in +their own words.<a href="#footnotetag40"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote41" name="footnote41"></a> +<strong>Footnote 41:</strong> Jung: Bonaparte et son temps, <abbr title="2">II</abbr>, 455.<a href="#footnotetag41"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote42" name="footnote42"></a> +<strong>Footnote 42:</strong> <span lang="fr">Correspondance de Napoléon</span>, I, N<sup>o</sup>. 35.<a href="#footnotetag42"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote43" name="footnote43"></a> +<strong>Footnote 43:</strong> Las Cases: <span lang="fr">Mémorial de Sainte-Hélène</span>, I, 141.<a href="#footnotetag43"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote44" name="footnote44"></a> +<strong>Footnote 44:</strong> For a full account of these important operations see +Mahan: Life of Nelson, I, 123 <span class="italic">et seq.</span><a href="#footnotetag44"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote45" name="footnote45"></a> +<strong>Footnote 45:</strong> Marmont: <span lang="fr">Mémoires</span>, I, 77-78.<a href="#footnotetag45"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote46" name="footnote46"></a> +<strong>Footnote 46:</strong> Inspection report in Jung, <abbr title="2">II</abbr>, 477. "Too much ambition +and intrigue for his advancement."<a href="#footnotetag46"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote47" name="footnote47"></a> +<strong>Footnote 47:</strong> He was far down the list, one hundred and thirty-ninth +in the line of promotion.<a href="#footnotetag47"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote48" name="footnote48"></a> +<strong>Footnote 48:</strong> Possibly the twelfth. See Jung, <abbr title="3">III</abbr>, <abbr title="1">I.</abbr><a href="#footnotetag48"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote49" name="footnote49"></a> +<strong>Footnote 49:</strong> <span lang="fr">Correspondance</span>, I, N<sup>o</sup>. 40.<a href="#footnotetag49"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote50" name="footnote50"></a> +<strong>Footnote 50:</strong> For this chapter the <span lang="fr">Mémoires du roi Joseph</span>, I, and +Böhtlingk: Napoleon Bonaparte, etc., I, are valuable references, in +addition to those already given. The memoirs of Barras are +particularly misleading except for comparison. For social conditions, +cf. Goncourt, <span lang="fr">Histoire de la Société Française sous le Directoire</span>, and +in particular Adolph Schmidt: <span lang="fr">Tableaux de la Révolution Française</span>; +<span lang="de">Pariser Zustände während der Revolutionszeit</span>.<a href="#footnotetag50"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote51" name="footnote51"></a> +<strong>Footnote 51:</strong> Napoleon to Joseph, July, 1795; in Du Casse: <span lang="fr">Les rois +frères de Napoléon</span>, 8, and in Jung, <abbr title="3">III</abbr>, 41.<a href="#footnotetag51"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote52" name="footnote52"></a> +<strong>Footnote 52:</strong> Chaptal: <span lang="fr">Mes souvenirs sur Napoléon</span>, p. 198.<a href="#footnotetag52"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote53" name="footnote53"></a> +<strong>Footnote 53:</strong> My account of this momentous crisis in Buonaparte's life +was written after a careful study of all the authorities and accounts +as far as known. The reader will find in the monograph, Zivy: Le +treize Vendémiaire, many reprints of documents and certain conclusions +drawn from them. The result is good as far as it goes, but, like all +history written from public papers solely, it is incomplete. +Buonaparte was only one of seven generals appointed to serve under +Barras. It seems likewise true that his exploits did not bring him +into general notice, for Mallet du Pan speaks of him as a "Corsican +terrorist" and Rémusat records her mother's amazement that a man so +little known should have made so good a marriage. But, on the other +hand, Thiébault declares that Buonaparte's activities impressed every +one, Barras's labored effort is suspicious, and then, as at Toulon, +there are the results. Some people in power gave him credit, for they +bestowed on him an extraordinary reward. Then, too, why should we +utterly discard Buonaparte's own evidence, which corroborates, at +least as far as the text goes, the evidence drawn from other sources?<a href="#footnotetag53"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote54" name="footnote54"></a> +<strong>Footnote 54:</strong> <span lang="fr">Mémorial de Sainte Hélène</span>, <abbr title="2">II</abbr>, 246.<a href="#footnotetag54"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote55" name="footnote55"></a> +<strong>Footnote 55:</strong> This important exploit has been questioned. But see the +American edition of Martin's History of France, <abbr title="2">II</abbr>, 16. Babœuf +reopened at the Panthéon the club which had been closed at the Évêché +by the Convention and reorganized a secret society in connection with +it. This Panthéon club was shut by Napoleon in person on February 26, +1796. See likewise the <span lang="fr">Mémorial</span>, <abbr title="2">II</abbr>, 257, 258.<a href="#footnotetag55"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote56" name="footnote56"></a> +<strong>Footnote 56:</strong> The best references for the history of Josephine <span lang="fr">de +Beauharnais</span> are Masson: <span lang="fr">Joséphine de Beauharnais</span>, 1763-1796, and +<span lang="fr">Joséphine, impératrice et reine</span>; Hall: Napoleon's letters to +Josephine; Lévy: <span lang="fr">Napoléon intime</span>; together with the memoirs of Joseph, +Bourrienne, Ducrest, <span lang="fr">Dufort de Cheverney</span>, and Rémusat.<a href="#footnotetag56"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote57" name="footnote57"></a> +<strong>Footnote 57:</strong> See Hochschild: <span lang="fr">Désirée, reine de Suède</span>.<a href="#footnotetag57"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote58" name="footnote58"></a> +<strong>Footnote 58:</strong> The authorities for this chapter are as for the last.<a href="#footnotetag58"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote59" name="footnote59"></a> +<strong>Footnote 59:</strong> See Pulitzer: <span lang="fr">Une idylle sous Napoléon <abbr title="1">I.</abbr></span><a href="#footnotetag59"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote60" name="footnote60"></a> +<strong>Footnote 60:</strong> <span lang="fr">Mémorial</span>, <abbr title="2">II</abbr>, 258; <abbr title="3">III</abbr>, 402.<a href="#footnotetag60"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote61" name="footnote61"></a> +<strong>Footnote 61:</strong> Given in Aubenas: <span lang="fr">Histoire de l'impératrice Joséphine</span>, +I, 293. This writer is frankly not an historian but an apologist.<a href="#footnotetag61"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote62" name="footnote62"></a> +<strong>Footnote 62:</strong> Coston: <span lang="fr">Premières années de Napoléon Bonaparte</span>.<a href="#footnotetag62"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote63" name="footnote63"></a> +<strong>Footnote 63:</strong> Carnot thoroughly understood and appreciated the genius +shown in Buonaparte's plan for an Italian campaign, and converted the +Directorate to his opinion. They sent a copy to Schérer, then in +command at Nice, and he returned it in a temper, declaring that the +man who made such a plan had better come and work it. The Directory +took him at his word.<a href="#footnotetag63"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote64" name="footnote64"></a> +<strong>Footnote 64:</strong> For this and the succeeding chapters we have the memoirs +of Thibaudeau, Marmont, <span lang="fr">Doulcet de Pontécoulant</span>, Hyde de Neuville, and +the duchess of Abrantès—Madame Junot. Among the histories, the most +important are those of Blanc, Taine, Sybel, Sorel, and +Mortimer-Ternaux. Special studies: C. Rousset, <span lang="fr">Les Volontaires de</span> +1791-1794. Chassin: <span lang="fr">Pacifications de l'Ouest and Dictature de Hoche</span>. +Mallet du Pan: <span lang="fr">Correspondance avec la cour de Vienne</span>. Also the +Correspondence of Sandoz. Many original papers are printed in Hüffer: +<span lang="de">Oesterreich und Preussen</span>; Bailleu: <span lang="de">Preussen und Frankreich</span>, 1795-1797; +and in the <span lang="de">Amtliche Sammlung von Akten aus der Zeit der Helvetischen +Republik</span>.<a href="#footnotetag64"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote65" name="footnote65"></a> +<strong>Footnote 65:</strong> See the author's French Revolution and Religious +Reform.<a href="#footnotetag65"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote66" name="footnote66"></a> +<strong>Footnote 66:</strong> The state of Europe may be studied in the Correspondence +of Mallet du Pan and in the Archives Woronzoff; in Vivenot: Thugut and +Clerfayt; Daudet: <span lang="fr">Les Bourbons et la Russie</span>; <span lang="fr">La Conspiration de +Pichegru</span>; Sorel: <span lang="fr">L'Europe et la Révolution Française</span>; Lecky: England +in the <abbr title="18">XVIII</abbr> century; Stanhope's Life of Pitt; the memoirs of Prince +Adam Czartoryski; also the diplomatic papers of Thugut, Clerfayt, +Hermann, and Sandoz.<a href="#footnotetag66"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote67" name="footnote67"></a> +<strong>Footnote 67:</strong> The latest important authorities on this campaign and +its results are, in addition to those already given, Sargent: Napoleon +Bonaparte's First Campaign. Sorel: <span lang="fr">Bonaparte et Hoche en</span> 1797. +<span lang="fr">Bonaparte et le Directoire</span>, <abbr title="volume">Vol.</abbr> <abbr title="5">V</abbr> of his large work. Colin: <span lang="fr">Études +sur la Campagne de 1796 en Italie</span>. Fabry: <span lang="fr">Histoire de l'armée +d'Italie</span>, 1796-1797. Bouvier: <span lang="fr">Bonaparte en Italie</span>, 1796. Graham's +Despatches, edited by Rose, in English Historical Review, <abbr title="volume">Vol.</abbr> <abbr title="14">XIV.</abbr> +Tivaroni: <span lang="it">Storia del risorgimento italiano</span>. The Dropmore Papers. Of +primary value are Napoleon's <span lang="fr">"Correspondance,"</span> official edition, and +the unofficial edited by Beauvais. Hueffer: <span lang="de">Ungedruckte Briefe +Napoleon's in the Archiv für Oest. Geschichte</span>, <abbr title="volume">Vol.</abbr> XLIX. Of value are +also the memoirs of Marmont, Masséna, and Desgenettes, of Landrieux in +<span lang="fr">Revue du Cercle Militaire</span>, 1887. Yorck von Wartenberg: <span lang="de">Napoleon als +Feldherr</span>, almost supersedes the older authority of Clausewitz, Jomini, +Ruestow, and Lossau. There are also Malachowski: <span lang="de">Entwickelung der +leitenden Gedanken zur ersten Campagne Bonaparte's</span>, and Delbrueck: +<span lang="de">Unterschied der Strategie Friederich's des Grossen und Napoleon's</span>.<a href="#footnotetag67"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote68" name="footnote68"></a> +<strong>Footnote 68:</strong> Somewhat under 40,000. Bonaparte guessed, and his guess +was very shrewd, that all told he was then confronted by 45,000. The +Austrians have never made the facts clear, though their initial +strength is set at 28,000. I have found no estimate of the +reinforcements. In any case they lost 10,000 here, the whole of +Provera's corps at La Favorita, and 18,000 were captured at Mantua: +their fighting force in Italy was annihilated.<a href="#footnotetag68"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote69" name="footnote69"></a> +<strong>Footnote 69:</strong> The authorities for the following three chapters are +partly as before, but in particular the following: Vivenot: Thugut, +Clerfayt. <span lang="fr">Correspondance de Thugut avec Colloredo</span>. Hüffer: <span lang="de">Oesterreich +und Preussen, etc.; Der Rastatter Congress</span>. Von Sybel: <span lang="de">Geschichte der +Revolutions Zeit</span>. Bailleu: <span lang="de">Preussen und Frankreich</span>. Sandoz-Rollin: +<span lang="de">Amtliche Sammlung von Akten aus der Zeit der Helvetischen Republic</span>. +Sorel: <span lang="fr">Bonaparte et Hoche; Bonaparte et le Directoire</span>; also articles +in the <span lang="fr">Revue Historique</span>, 1885. Sciout: <span lang="fr">Le Directoire</span>, also article in +<span lang="fr">Revue des questions historiques</span>, 1886. Boulay de la Meurthe: <span lang="fr">Quelques +lettres de Marie Caroline; Revue d'histoire diplomatique</span>, 1888. +Barante: <span lang="fr">Histoire du Directoire and Souvenirs</span>. McClellan: The +Oligarchy of Venice. Bonnal: <span lang="fr">Chute d'une république</span>. Seché: <span lang="fr">Les +origines du Concordat</span>. Dandolo: <span lang="it">La caduta della republica di Venetia</span>. +Romanin: <span lang="it">Storia documentata di Venezia</span>. Sloane: The French Revolution +and Religious Reform. In general and further, the memoirs of Marmont, +Chaptal, Landrieux, Carnot, <span lang="fr">Larévellière-Lépeaux</span> (probably not +genuine), Mathieu Dumas, Thibaudeau, Miot de Melito, and the +correspondence of Mallet du Pan.<a href="#footnotetag69"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Life of Napoleon Bonaparte, by +William Milligan Sloane + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE *** + +***** This file should be named 24360-h.htm or 24360-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/3/6/24360/ + +Produced by Thierry Alberto, Henry Craig, Christine P. +Travers and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net + + +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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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 Life of Napoleon Bonaparte + Vol. I. (of IV.) + +Author: William Milligan Sloane + +Release Date: January 22, 2008 [EBook #24360] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE *** + + + + +Produced by Thierry Alberto, Henry Craig, Christine P. +Travers and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + +[Transcriber's note: Obvious printer's errors have been corrected, all +other inconsistencies are as in the original. The author's spelling +has been maintained.] + + + + +[Illustration: Napoleon Bonaparte in 1785, aged sixteen. From sketch +made by a comrade; formerly in the Musee des Souverains, now in the +Louvre.] + + + + + THE LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE + + BY + + WILLIAM MILLIGAN SLOANE + PH.D., L.H.D., LL.D. + _Professor of History in Columbia University_ + + + Revised and Enlarged + With Portraits + + + VOLUME I + + +[Illustration: Editor's arm.] + + NEW YORK + THE CENTURY CO. + 1916 + + + + + Copyright, 1894, 1895, 1896, 1910 + BY + THE CENTURY CO. + + _Published, October, 1910_ + + + + +PREFACE TO THE LIBRARY EDITION + + +This life of Napoleon was first published in 1896 as a book: for the +years 1895-96 it ran as a serial in the pages of the Century Magazine. +Judging from the sales, it has been read by many tens if not hundreds +of thousands of readers; and it has been extensively noticed in the +critical journals of both worlds. Throughout these fourteen years the +demand has been very large and steady, considering the size and cost +of the volumes. Both publishers and author have determined therefore +that a library edition was desired by the public, and in that +confidence the book has been partly rewritten and entirely remade. + +In the main it is the same book as that which has passed through so +many editions. But in some respects it has been amplified. The portion +relating to the period of youth has been somewhat expanded, the +personalities of those nearest to Napoleon have been in some cases +more broadly sketched, new chapters have been added to the treatment +of the Continental system, the Louisiana Purchase, and the St. Helena +epoch. In all the text has been lengthened about one-tenth. + +Under the compulsion of physical dimensions the author has minimized +the number of authorities and foot-notes. There is really very little +controversial matter regarding Napoleon which is not a matter of +opinion: the evidence has been so carefully sifted that substantial +agreement as to fact has been reached. Accordingly there have been +introduced at the opening of chapters or divisions short lists of good +references for those who desire to extend their reading: experts know +their own way. It is an interesting fact which throws great light on +the slight value of foot-notes that while I have had extensive +correspondence with my fellow workers, there has come to me in all +these years but a single request for the source of two statements, and +one demand for the evidence upon which certain opinions were based. + +The former editions were duplicate books, a text by me and a +commentary of exquisite illustrations by other hands. The divergence +was very confusing to serious minds; in this edition there can be no +similar perplexity since the illustrations have been confined to +portraits. + +In putting these volumes through the press, in the preparation of the +reference lists for volumes three and four, and in the rearrangement +of the bibliography I have had the assistance of Dr. G. A. Hubbell to +whom my obligation is hereby acknowledged. + + William M. SLOANE. + +New York, _September 1, 1910_. + + + + +PREFACE + + +In the closing years of the eighteenth century European society began +its effort to get rid of benevolent despotism, so called, and to +secure its liberties under forms of constitutional government. The +struggle began in France, and spread over the more important lands of +continental Europe; its influence was strongly felt in England, and +even in the United States. Passing through the phases of +constitutional reform, of anarchy, and of military despotism, the +movement seemed for a time to have failed, and to outward appearances +absolutism was stronger after Waterloo than it had been half a century +earlier. + +But the force of the revolution was only checked, not spent; and to +the awakening of general intelligence, the strengthening of national +feeling, and the upbuilding of a sense of common brotherhood among +men, produced by the revolutionary struggles of this epoch, Europe +owes whatever liberty and free government its peoples now enjoy. At +the close of this period national power was no longer in the hands of +the aristocracy, nor in those of kings; it had passed into the third +social stratum, variously designated as the middle class, the burghers +or bourgeoisie, and the third estate, a body of men as little willing +to share it with the masses as the kings had been. Nevertheless, the +transition once begun could not be stopped, and the advance of manhood +suffrage has ever since been proportionate to the capacity of the +laboring classes to receive and use it, until now, at last, whatever +may be the nominal form of government in any civilized land, its +stability depends entirely upon the support of the people as a whole. +That which is the basis of all government--the power of the purse--has +passed into their hands. + +This momentous change was of course a turbulent one--the most +turbulent in the history of civilization, as it has proved to be the +most comprehensive. Consequently its epoch is most interesting, being +dramatic in the highest degree, having brought into prominence men and +characters who rank among the great of all time, and having exhibited +to succeeding generations the most important lessons in the most vivid +light. By common consent the eminent man of the time was Napoleon +Bonaparte, the revolution queller, the burgher sovereign, the imperial +democrat, the supreme captain, the civil reformer, the victim of +circumstances which his soaring ambition used but which his unrivaled +prowess could not control. Gigantic in his proportions, and satanic in +his fate, his was the most tragic figure on the stage of modern +history. While the men of his own and the following generation were +still alive, it was almost impossible that the truth should be known +concerning his actions or his motives; and to fix his place in general +history was even less feasible. What he wrote and said about himself +was of course animated by a determination to appear in the best light; +what others wrote and said has been biased by either devotion or +hatred. + +Until within a very recent period it seemed that no man could discuss +him or his time without manifesting such strong personal feeling as to +vitiate his judgment and conclusions. This was partly due to the lack +of perspective, but in the main to ignorance of the facts essential to +a sober treatment of the theme. In this respect the last quarter of a +century has seen a gradual but radical change, for a band of +dispassionate scientific scholars have during that time been occupied +in the preparation of material for his life without reference to the +advocacy of one theory or another concerning his character. European +archives, long carefully guarded, have been thrown open; the +diplomatic correspondence of the most important periods has been +published; family papers have been examined, and numbers of valuable +memoirs have been printed. It has therefore been possible to check one +account by another, to cancel misrepresentations, to eliminate +passion--in short, to establish something like correct outline and +accurate detail, at least in regard to what the man actually did. +Those hidden secrets of any human mind which we call motives must ever +remain to other minds largely a matter of opinion, but a very fair +indication of them can be found when once the actual conduct of the +actor has been determined. + +This investigation has mainly been the work of specialists, and its +results have been published in monographs and technical journals; most +of these workers, moreover, were continental scholars writing each in +his own language. Its results, as a whole, have therefore not been +accessible to the general reader in either America or England. It +seems highly desirable that they should be made so, and this has been +the effort of the writer. At the same time he claims to be an +independent investigator in some of the most important portions of the +field he covers. His researches have extended over many years, and it +has been his privilege to use original materials which, as far as he +knows, have not been used by others. At the close of the book will be +found a short account of the papers of Bonaparte's boyhood and youth +which the author has read, and of the portions of the French and +English archives which were generously put at his disposal, together +with a short though reasonably complete bibliography of the published +books and papers which really have scientific value. The number of +volumes concerned with Napoleon and his epoch is enormous; outside of +those mentioned very few have any value except as curiosities of +literature. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER Page + + I. Introduction............................................ 1 + + II. The Bonapartes in Corsica.............................. 20 + + III. Napoleon's Birth and Childhood......................... 35 + + IV. Napoleon's School-days................................. 48 + + V. In Paris and Valence................................... 60 + + VI. Private Study and Garrison Life........................ 73 + + VII. Further Attempts at Authorship......................... 83 + + VIII. The Revolution in France.............................. 100 + + IX. Buonaparte and Revolution in Corsica.................. 111 + + X. First Lessons in Revolution........................... 123 + + XI. Traits of Character................................... 135 + + XII. The Revolution in the Rhone Valley.................... 148 + + XIII. Buonaparte the Corsican Jacobin....................... 160 + + XIV. Buonaparte the French Jacobin......................... 180 + + XV. A Jacobin Hegira...................................... 199 + + XVI. "The Supper of Beaucaire"............................. 212 + + XVII. Toulon................................................ 222 + + XVIII. A Jacobin General..................................... 236 + + XIX. Vicissitudes in War and Diplomacy..................... 247 + + XX. The End of Apprenticeship............................. 260 + + XXI. The Antechamber To Success............................ 272 + + XXII. Bonaparte the General of the Convention............... 287 + + XXIII. The Day of the Paris Sections......................... 302 + + XXIV. A Marriage of Inclination and Interest................ 313 + + XXV. Europe and the Directory.............................. 324 + + XXVI. Bonaparte on a Great Stage............................ 339 + + XXVII. The Conquest of Piedmont and the Milanese............. 352 + + XXVIII. An Insubordinate Conqueror and Diplomatist............ 363 + + XXIX. Bassano and Arcola.................................... 378 + + XXX. Bonaparte's Imperious Spirit.......................... 393 + + XXXI. Rivoli and the Capitulation of Mantua................. 406 + + XXXII. Humiliation of the Papacy and of Venice............... 419 + + XXXIII. The Preliminaries of Peace--Leoben.................... 430 + + XXXIV. The Fall of Venice.................................... 444 + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + + Napoleon Bonaparte in 1785, aged sixteen. _Frontispiece_ + + Marie-Laetitia Ramolino Bonaparte "Madame Mere"--Mother of + Napoleon I..................................................... 50 + + Charles Bonaparte, Father of the Emperor Napoleon, 1785.......... 96 + + Bonaparte, General in Chief of the Army of Italy................ 176 + + Josephine....................................................... 226 + + Marie-Josephine-Rose Tascher de la Pagerie, called Josephine, + Empress of the French......................................... 276 + + Bonaparte....................................................... 326 + + Map of Northern Italy, illustrating the Campaigns of 1796 and + 1797.......................................................... 354 + + Josephine, Empress of the French................................ 374 + + Map illustrating the Campaign preceding the Treaty of + Campo-Formio, 1797............................................ 414 + + + + + SI QUID NOVISTI RECTIUS ISTIS, + CANDIDUS IMPERTI: SI NON, HIS UTERE MECUM + + _Horace_ + + + + +LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +Introduction. + + The Revolutionary Epoch in Europe -- Its Dominant + Personage -- The State System of Europe -- The Power of + Great Britain -- Feebleness of Democracy -- The Expectant + Attitude of the Continent -- Survival of Antiquated + Institutions -- The American Revolution -- Philosophical + Sophistries -- Rousseau -- His Fallacies -- Corsica as a + Center of Interest -- Its Geography -- Its Rulers -- The + People -- Sampiero -- Revolutions -- Spanish Alliance -- + King Theodore -- French Intervention -- Supremacy of Genoa + -- Paoli -- His Success as a Liberator -- His Plan for + Alliance with France -- The Policy of Choiseul -- Paoli's + Reputation -- Napoleon's Account of Corsica and of Paoli -- + Rousseau and Corsica. + + +Napoleon Bonaparte was the representative man of the epoch which +ushered in the nineteenth century. Though an aristocrat by descent, he +was in life, in training, and in quality neither that nor a plebeian; +he was the typical plain man of his time, exhibiting the common sense +of a generation which thought in terms made current by the philosophy +of the eighteenth century. His period was the most tumultuous and yet +the most fruitful in the world's history. But the progress made in it +was not altogether direct; rather was it like the advance of a +traveler whirled through the spiral tunnels of the St. Gotthard. +Flying from the inclemency of the north, he is carried by the +ponderous train due southward into the opening. After a time of +darkness he emerges into the open air. But at first sight the goal is +no nearer; the direction is perhaps reversed, the skies are more +forbidding, the chill is more intense. Only after successive ventures +of the same kind is the climax reached, the summit passed, and the +vision of sunny plains opened to view. Such experiences are more +common to the race than to the individual; the muse of history must +note and record them with equanimity, with a buoyancy and hopefulness +born of larger knowledge. The movement of civilization in Europe +during the latter portion of the eighteenth century was onward and +upward, but it was at times not only devious, slow and laborious, but +fruitless in immediate results. + +We must study the age and the people of any great man if we sincerely +desire the truth regarding his strength and weakness, his inborn +tendencies and purposes, his failures and successes, the temporary +incidents and the lasting, constructive, meritorious achievements of +his career. This is certainly far more true of Napoleon than of any +other heroic personage; an affectionate awe has sometimes lifted him +to heaven, a spiteful hate has often hurled him down to hell. Every +nation, every party, faction, and cabal among his own and other +peoples, has judged him from its own standpoint of self-interest and +self-justification. Whatever chance there may be of reading the +secrets of his life lies rather in a just consideration of the man in +relation to his times, about which much is known, than in an attempt +at the psychological dissection of an enigmatical nature, about which +little is known, in spite of the fullness of our information. The +abundant facts of his career are not facts at all unless considered in +the light not only of a great national life, but of a continental +movement which embraced in its day all civilization, not excepting +that of Great Britain and America. + +The states of Europe are sisters, children of the Holy Roman Empire. +In the formation of strong nationalities with differences in language, +religion, and institutions the relationship was almost forgotten, and +in the intensity of later rivalry is not always even now remembered. +It is, however, so close that at any epoch there is traceable a common +movement which occupies them all. By the end of the fourteenth century +they had secured their modern form in territorial and race unity with +a government by monarchy more or less absolute. The fifteenth century +saw with the strengthening of the monarchy the renascence of the fine +arts, the great inventions, the awakening of enterprise in discovery, +the mental quickening which began to call all authority to account. +The sixteenth was the age of the Reformation, an event too often +belittled by ecclesiastics who discern only its schismatic character, +and not sufficiently emphasized by historians as the most pregnant +political fact of any age with respect to the rise and growth of free +institutions. + +The seventeenth century saw in England the triumph of political ideas +adapted to the new state of society which had arisen, but subversive +of the tyrannical system which had done its work, a work great and +good in the creation of peoples and the production of social order out +of chaos. For a time it seemed as if the island state were to become +the overshadowing influence in all the rest of Europe. By the middle +of the century her example had fired the whole continent with notions +of political reform. The long campaign which she and her allies waged +with varying fortune against Louis XIV, commanding the conservative +forces of the Latin blood, and the Roman religion ended unfavorably to +the latter. At the close of the Seven Years' War there was not an +Englishman in Europe or America or in the colonies at the antipodes +whose pulse did not beat high as he saw his motherland triumphant in +every quarter of the globe. + +But these very successes, intensifying the bitterness of defeat and +everything connected with it, prevented among numerous other causes +the triumph of constitutional government anywhere in continental +Europe. Switzerland was remote and inaccessible; her beacon of +democracy burned bright, but its rays scarcely shone beyond the +mountain valleys. The Dutch republic, enervated by commercial success +and under a constitution which by its intricate system of checks was a +satire on organized liberty, had become a warning rather than a model +to other nations. + +The other members of the great European state family presented a +curious spectacle. On every hand there was a cheerful trust in the +future. The present was as bad as possible, but belonged to the +passing and not to the coming hour. Truth was abroad, felt the +philosophers, and must prevail. Feudal privilege, oppression, vice and +venality in government, the misery of the poor--all would slowly fade +away. The human mind was never keener than in the eighteenth century; +reasonableness, hope, and thoroughness characterized its activity. +Natural science, metaphysics and historical studies made giant +strides, while political theories of a dazzling splendor never equaled +before nor since were rife on every side. Such was their power in a +buoyant society, awaiting the millennium, that they supplanted +entirely the results of observation and experience in the sphere of +government. + +But neither lever nor fulcrum was strong enough as yet to stir the +inert mass of traditional forms. Monarchs still flattered themselves +with notions of paternal government and divine right; the nobility +still claimed and exercised baseless privileges which had descended +from an age when their ancestors held not merely these but the land on +which they rested; the burgesses still hugged, as something which had +come from above, their dearly bought charter rights, now revealed as +inborn liberties. They were thus hardened into a gross contentment +dangerous for themselves, and into an indifference which was a menace +to others. The great agricultural populations living in various +degrees of serfdom still groaned under the artificial oppressions of a +society which had passed away. Nominally the peasant might own certain +portions of the soil, but he could not enjoy unmolested the airs which +blew over it nor the streams which ran through it nor the wild things +which trespassed or dwelt on it, while on every side some exasperating +demand for the contribution of labor or goods or money confronted him. + +In short, the civilized world was in one of those transitional epochs +when institutions persist, after the beliefs and conditions which +molded them have utterly disappeared. The inertia of such a +rock-ribbed shell is terrible, and while sometimes the erosive power +of agitation and discussion suffices to weaken and destroy it, more +often the volcanic fires of social convulsion are alone strong enough. +The first such shock came from within the English-speaking world +itself, but not in Europe. The American colonies, appreciating and +applying to their own conditions the principles of the English +Revolution, began, and with French assistance completed, the movement +which erected in another hemisphere the American republic. Weak and +tottering in its infancy, but growing ever stronger and therefore +milder, its example began at once to suggest the great and peaceful +reforms of the English constitution which have since followed. +Threatening absolutism in the strong contrasts its citizens presented +to the subjects of other lands, it has been ever since the moral +support of liberal movements the world around. England herself, +instead of being weakened, was strengthened by the child grown to +independent maturity, and a double example of prosperity under +constitutional administration was now held up to the continent of +Europe. + +But it is the greatest proof of human weakness that there is no +movement however beneficent, no doctrine however sound, no truth +however absolute, but that it can be speciously so extended, so +expanded, so emphasized as to lose its identity. Coincident with the +political speculation of the eighteenth century appeared the storm and +stress of romanticism and sentimentalism. The extremes of morbid +personal emotion were thought serviceable for daily life, while the +middle course of applying ideals to experience was utterly abandoned. +The latest nihilism differs little from the conception of the perfect +regeneration of mankind by discarding the old merely because it was +old which triumphed in the latter half of the eighteenth century among +philosophers and wits. To be sure, they had a substitute for whatever +was abolished and a supplement for whatever was left incomplete. + +Even the stable sense of the Americans was infected by the virus of +mere theories. In obedience to the spirit of the age they introduced +into their written constitution, which was in the main but a statement +of their deep-seated political habits, a scheme like that of the +electoral college founded on some high-sounding doctrine, or omitted +from it in obedience to a prevalent and temporary extravagance of +protest some fundamental truth like that of the Christian character of +their government and laws. If there be anywhere a Christian +Protestant state it is the United States; if any futile invention were +ever incorporated in a written charter it was that of the electoral +college. The addition of a vague theory or the omission of essential +national qualities in the document of the constitution has affected +our subsequent history little or not at all. + +But such was not the case in a society still under feudal oppression. +Fictions like the contract theory of government, exploded by the sound +sense of Burke; political generalizations like certain paragraphs of +the French Declaration of Rights, every item of which now and here +reads like a platitude but was then and there a vivid revolutionary +novelty; emotional yearnings for some vague Utopia--all fell into +fruitful soil and produced a rank harvest, mostly of straw and stalks, +although there was some sound grain. The thought of the time was a +powerful factor in determining the course and the quality of events +throughout all Europe. No nation was altogether unmoved. The center of +agitation was in France, although the little Calvinistic state of +Geneva brought forth the prophet and writer of the times. + +Rousseau was a man of small learning but great insight. Originating +almost nothing, he set forth the ideas of others with incisive +distinctness, often modifying them to their hurt, but giving to the +form in which he wrote them an air of seductive practicability and +reality which alone threw them into the sphere of action. Examining +Europe at large, he found its social and political institutions so +hardened and so unresponsive that he declared it incapable of movement +without an antecedent general crash and breaking up. No laws, he +reasoned, could be made because there were no means by which the +general will could express itself, such was the rigidity of +absolutism and feudalism. The splendid studies of Montesquieu, which +revealed to the French the eternal truths underlying the +constitutional changes in England, had enlightened and captivated the +best minds of his country, but they were too serious, too cold, too +dry to move the quick, bright temperament of the people at large. This +was the work of Rousseau. Consummate in his literary power, he laid +the ax at the root of the tree in his fierce attack on the prevailing +education, sought a new basis for government in his peculiar +modification of the contract theory, and constructed a substitute +system of sentimental morals to supplant the old authoritative one +which was believed to underlie all the prevalent iniquities in +religion, politics, and society. + +His entire structure lacked a foundation either in history or in +reason. But the popular fancy was fascinated. The whole flimsy +furniture in the chambers of the general mind vanished. New emotions, +new purposes, new sanctions appeared in its stead. There was a sad +lack of ethical definitions, an over-zealous iconoclasm as to +religion, but there were many high conceptions of regenerating +society, of liberty, of brotherhood, of equality. The influence of +this movement was literally ubiquitous; it was felt wherever men read +or thought or talked, and were connected, however remotely, with the +great central movement of civilization. + +No land and no family could to all outward appearance be further aside +from the main channel of European history in the eighteenth century +than the island of Corsica and an obscure family by the name of +Buonaparte which had dwelt there since the beginning of the eighteenth +century. Yet that isolated land and that unknown family were not +merely to be drawn into the movement, they were to illustrate its most +characteristic phases. Rousseau, though mistakenly, forecast a great +destiny for Corsica, declaring in his letters on Poland that it was +the only European land capable of movement, of law-making, of peaceful +renovation. It was small and remote, but it came near to being an +actual exemplification of his favorite and fundamental dogma +concerning man in a state of nature, of order as arising from +conflict, of government as resting on general consent and mutual +agreement among the governed. Toward Corsica, therefore, the eyes of +all Europe had long been directed. There, more than elsewhere, the +setting of the world-drama seemed complete in miniature, and, in the +closing quarter of the eighteenth century, the action was rapidly +unfolding a plot of universal interest. + +A lofty mountain-ridge divides the island into eastern and western +districts. The former is gentler in its slopes, and more fertile. +Looking, as it does, toward Italy, it was during the middle ages +closely bound in intercourse with that peninsula; richer in its +resources than the other part, it was more open to outside influences, +and for this reason freer in its institutions. The rugged western +division had come more completely under the yoke of feudalism, having +close affinity in sympathy, and some relation in blood, with the +Greek, Roman, Saracenic, and Teutonic race-elements in France and +Spain. The communal administration of the eastern slope, however, +prevailed eventually in the western as well, and the differences of +origin, wealth, and occupation, though at times the occasion of +intestine discord, were as nothing compared with the common +characteristics which knit the population of the entire island into +one national organization, as much a unit as their insular territory. + +The people of this small commonwealth were in the main of Italian +blood. Some slight connection with the motherland they still +maintained in the relations of commerce, and by the education of their +professional men at Italian schools. While a small minority supported +themselves as tradesmen or seafarers, the mass of the population was +dependent for a livelihood upon agriculture. As a nation they had long +ceased to follow the course of general European development. They had +been successively the subjects of Greece, Rome, and the Califate, of +the German-Roman emperors, and of the republic of Pisa. Their latest +ruler was Genoa, which had now degenerated into an untrustworthy +oligarchy. United to that state originally by terms which gave the +island a "speaker" or advocate in the Genoese senate, and recognized +the most cherished habits of a hardy, natural-minded, and primitive +people, they had little by little been left a prey to their own faults +in order that their unworthy mistress might plead their disorders as +an excuse for her tyranny. Agriculture languished, and the minute +subdivision of arable land finally rendered its tillage almost +profitless. + +Among a people who are isolated not only as islanders, but also as +mountaineers, old institutions are particularly tenacious of life: +that of the vendetta, or blood revenge, with the clanship it +accompanies, never disappeared from Corsica. In the centuries of +Genoese rule the carrying of arms was winked at, quarrels became rife, +and often family confederations, embracing a considerable part of the +country, were arrayed one against the other in lawless violence. The +feudal nobility, few in number, were unrecognized, and failed to +cultivate the industrial arts in the security of costly strongholds as +their class did elsewhere, while the fairest portions of land not held +by them were gradually absorbed by the monasteries, a process favored +by Genoa as likely to render easier the government of a turbulent +people. The human animal, however, throve. Rudely clad in homespun, +men and women alike cultivated a simplicity of dress surpassed only by +their plain living. There was no wealth except that of fields and +flocks, their money consequently was debased and almost worthless. The +social distinctions of noble and peasant survived only in tradition, +and all classes intermingled without any sense of superiority or +inferiority. Elegance of manner, polish, grace, were unsought and +existed only by natural refinement, which was rare among a people who +were on the whole simple to boorishness. Physically they were, +however, admirable. All visitors were struck by the repose and +self-reliance of their countenances. The women were neither beautiful, +stylish, nor neat. Yet they were considered modest and attractive. The +men were more striking in appearance and character. Of medium stature +and powerful mold, with black hair, fine teeth, and piercing eyes; +with well-formed, agile, and sinewy limbs; sober, brave, trustworthy, +and endowed with many other primitive virtues as well, the Corsican +was everywhere sought as a soldier, and could be found in all the +armies of the southern continental states. + +In their periodic struggles against Genoese encroachments and tyranny, +the Corsicans had produced a line of national heroes. Sampiero, one of +these, had in the sixteenth century incorporated Corsica for a brief +hour with the dominions of the French crown, and was regarded as the +typical Corsican. Dark, warlike, and revengeful, he had displayed a +keen intellect and a fine judgment. Simple in his dress and habits, +untainted by the luxury then prevalent in the courts of Florence and +Paris, at both of which he resided for considerable periods, he could +kill his wife without a shudder when she put herself and child into +the hands of his enemies to betray him. Hospitable and generous, but +untamed and terrible; brusque, dictatorial, and without consideration +or compassion; the offspring of his times and his people, he stands +the embodiment of primeval energy, physical and mental. + +The submission of a people like this to a superior force was sullen, +and in the long century which followed, the energies generally +displayed in a well-ordered life seemed among them to be not quenched +but directed into the channels of their passions and their bodily +powers, which were ready on occasion to break forth in devastating +violence. In 1729 began a succession of revolutionary outbursts, and +at last in 1730 the communal assemblies united in a national +convention, choosing two chiefs, Colonna-Ceccaldi and Giafferi, to +lead in the attempt to rouse the nation to action and throw off the +unendurable yoke. English philanthropists furnished the munitions of +war. The Genoese were beaten in successive battles, even after they +brought into the field eight thousand German mercenaries purchased +from the Emperor Charles VI. The Corsican adventurers in foreign +lands, pleading for their liberties with artless eloquence at every +court, filled Europe with enthusiasm for their cause and streamed back +to fight for their homes. A temporary peace on terms which granted all +they asked was finally arranged through the Emperor's intervention. + +But the two elected chiefs, and a third patriot, Raffaelli, having +been taken prisoners by the Genoese, were ungenerously kept in +confinement, and released only at the command of Charles. Under the +same leaders, now further exasperated by their ill usage, began and +continued another agitation, this time for separation and complete +emancipation. Giafferi's chosen adjutant was a youth of good family +and excellent parts, Hyacinth Paoli. In the then existing +complications of European politics the only available helper was the +King of Spain, and to him the Corsicans now applied, but his +undertakings compelled him to refuse. Left without allies or any +earthly support, the pious Corsicans naively threw themselves on the +protection of the Virgin and determined more firmly than ever to +secure their independence. + +In this crisis appeared at the head of a considerable following, some +hundreds in number, the notorious and curious German adventurer, +Theodore von Neuhof, who, declaring that he represented the sympathy +of the great powers for Corsica, made ready to proclaim himself as +king. As any shelter is welcome in a storm, the people accepted him, +and he was crowned on April fifteenth, 1736. But although he spoke +truthfully when he claimed to represent the sympathy of the powers, he +did not represent their strength, and was defeated again and again in +encounters with the forces of Genoa. The oligarchy had now secured an +alliance with France, which feared lest the island might fall into +more hostile and stronger hands; and before the close of the year the +short-lived monarchy ended in the disappearance of Theodore I of +Corsica from his kingdom and soon after, in spite of his heroic +exertions, from history. + +The truth was that some of the nationalist leaders had not forgotten +the old patriotic leaning towards France which had existed since the +days of Sampiero, and were themselves in communication with the French +court and Cardinal Fleury. A French army landed in February, 1738, and +was defeated. An overwhelming force was then despatched and the +insurrection subsided. In the end France, though strongly tempted to +hold what she had conquered, kept her promise to Genoa and disarmed +the Corsicans; on the other hand, however, she consulted her own +interest and attempted to soothe the islanders by guaranteeing to them +national rights. Such, however, was the prevalent bitterness that many +patriots fled into exile; some, like Hyacinth Paoli, choosing the pay +of Naples for themselves and followers, others accepting the offer of +France and forming according to time-honored custom a Corsican +regiment of mercenaries which took service in the armies of the King. +Among the latter were two of some eminence, Buttafuoco and Salicetti. +The half measures of Fleury left Corsica, as he intended, ready to +fall into his hands when opportunity should be ripe. Even the +patriotic leaders were now no longer in harmony. Those in Italy were +of the old disinterested line and suspicious of their western +neighbor; the others were charged with being the more ambitious for +themselves and careless of their country's liberty. Both classes, +however, claimed to be true patriots. + +During the War of the Austrian Succession it seemed for a moment as if +Corsica were to be freed by the attempt of Maria Theresa to overthrow +Genoa, then an ally of the Bourbon powers. The national party rose +again under Gaffori, the regiments of Piedmont came to their help, and +the English fleet delivered St. Florent and Bastia into their hands. +But the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748) left things substantially as +they were before the war, and in 1752 a new arrangement unsatisfactory +to both parties was made with Genoa. It was virtually dictated by +Spain and France, England having been alienated by the quarrels and +petty jealousies of the Corsican leaders, and lasted only as long as +the French occupation continued. Under the leadership of the same +dauntless Gaffori who in 1740 had been chosen along with Matra to be a +chief commander, the Genoese were once more driven from the highlands +into the coast towns. At the height of his success the bold guerrilla +fell a victim to family rivalries and personal spite. Through the +influence of his despairing foes a successful conspiracy was formed +and in the autumn of 1753 he was foully murdered. + +But the greatest of these national heroes was also the last--Pascal +Paoli. Fitted for his task by birth, by capacity, by superior +training, this youth was in 1755 made captain-general of the island, a +virtual dictator in his twenty-ninth year. His success was as +remarkable as his measures were wise. Elections were regulated so that +strong organization was introduced into the loose democratic +institutions which had hitherto prevented sufficient unity of action +in troubled times. An army was created from the straggling bands of +volunteers, and brigandage was suppressed. Wise laws were enacted and +enforced--among them one which made the blood-avenger a murderer, +instead of a hero as he had been. Moreover, the foundations of a +university were laid in the town of Corte, which was the hearthstone +of the liberals because it was the natural capital of the west slope, +connected by difficult and defensible paths with every cape and bay +and intervale of the rocky and broken coast. The Genoese were +gradually driven from the interior, and finally they occupied but +three harbor towns. + +Through skilful diplomacy Paoli created a temporary breach between his +oppressors and the Vatican, which, though soon healed, nevertheless +enabled him to recover important domains for the state, and prevented +the Roman hierarchy from using its enormous influence over the +superstitious people utterly to crush the movement for their +emancipation. His extreme and enlightened liberalism is admirably +shown by his invitation to the Jews, with their industry and steady +habits, to settle in Corsica, and to live there in the fullest +enjoyment of civil rights, according to the traditions of their faith +and the precepts of their law. "Liberty," he said, "knows no creed. +Let us leave such distinctions to the Inquisition." Commerce, under +these influences, began to thrive. New harbors were made and +fortified, while the equipment of a few gunboats for their defense +marked the small beginnings of a fleet. The haughty men of Corsica, +changing their very nature for a season, began to labor with their +hands by the side of their wives and hired assistants; to agriculture, +industry, and the arts was given an impulse which promised to be +lasting. + +The rule of Paoli was not entirely without disturbance. From time to +time there occurred rebellious outbreaks of petty factions like that +headed by Matra, a disappointed rival. But on the whole they were of +little importance. Down to 1765 the advances of the nationalists were +steady, their battles being won against enormous odds by the force of +their warlike nature, which sought honor above all things, and could, +in the words of a medieval chronicle, "endure without a murmur +watchings and pains, hunger and cold, in its pursuit--which could even +face death without a pang." Finally it became necessary, as the result +of unparalleled success in domestic affairs, that a foreign policy +should be formulated. Paoli's idea was an offensive and defensive +alliance with France on terms recognizing the independence of Corsica, +securing an exclusive commercial reciprocity between them, and +promising military service with an annual tribute from the island. +This idea of France as a protector without administrative power was +held by the majority of patriots. + +But Choiseul, the minister of foreign affairs under Louis XV, would +entertain no such visionary plan. It was clear to every one that the +island could no longer be held by its old masters. He had found a +facile instrument for the measures necessary to his contemplated +seizure of it in the son of a Corsican refugee, that later notorious +Buttafuoco, who, carrying water on both shoulders, had ingratiated +himself with his father's old friends, while at the same time he had +for years been successful as a French official. Corsica was to be +seized by France as a sop to the national pride, a slight compensation +for the loss of Canada, and he was willing to be the agent. On August +sixth, 1764, was signed a provisional agreement between Genoa and +France by which the former was to cede for four years all her rights +of sovereignty, and the few places she still held in the island, in +return for the latter's intervention to thwart Paoli's plan for +securing virtual independence. At the end of the period France was to +pay Genoa the millions owed to her. + +By this time the renown of Paoli had filled all Europe. As a statesman +he had skilfully used the European entanglements both of the +Bourbon-Hapsburg alliance made in 1756, and of the alliances +consequent to the Seven Years' War, for whatever possible advantage +might be secured to his people and their cause. As a general he had +found profit even in defeat, and had organized his little forces to +the highest possible efficiency, displaying prudence, fortitude, and +capacity. His personal character was blameless, and could be +fearlessly set up as a model. He was a convincing orator and a wise +legislator. Full of sympathy for his backward compatriots, he knew +their weaknesses, and could avoid the consequences, while he +recognized at the same time their virtues, and made the fullest use of +them. Above all, he had the wide horizon of a philosopher, +understanding fully the proportions and relations to each other of +epochs and peoples, not striving to uplift Corsica merely in her own +interest, but seeking to find in her regeneration a leverage to raise +the world to higher things. So gracious, so influential, so +far-seeing, so all-embracing was his nature, that Voltaire called him +"the lawgiver and the glory of his people," while Frederick the Great +dedicated to him a dagger with the inscription, "Libertas, Patria." +The shadows in his character were that he was imperious and arbitrary; +so overmastering that he trained the Corsicans to seek guidance and +protection, thus preventing them from acquiring either personal +independence or self-reliance. Awaiting at every step an impulse from +their adored leader, growing timid in the moment when decision was +imperative, they did not prove equal to their task. Without his people +Paoli was still a philosopher; without him they became in succeeding +years a byword, and fell supinely into the arms of a less noble +subjection. In this regard the comparison between him and Washington, +so often instituted, utterly breaks down. + +"Corsica," wrote in 1790 a youth destined to lend even greater +interest than Paoli to that name--"Corsica has been a prey to the +ambition of her neighbors, the victim of their politics and of her own +wilfulness.... We have seen her take up arms, shake the atrocious +power of Genoa, recover her independence, live happily for an instant; +but then, pursued by an irresistible fatality, fall again into +intolerable disgrace. For twenty-four centuries these are the scenes +which recur again and again; the same changes, the same misfortune, +but also the same courage, the same resolution, the same boldness.... +If she trembled for an instant before the feudal hydra, it was only +long enough to recognize and destroy it. If, led by a natural feeling, +she kissed, like a slave, the chains of Rome, she was not long in +breaking them. If, finally, she bowed her head before the Ligurian +aristocracy, if irresistible forces kept her twenty years in the +despotic grasp of Versailles, forty years of mad warfare astonished +Europe, and confounded her enemies." + +The same pen wrote of Paoli that by following traditional lines he had +not only shown in the constitution he framed for Corsica a historic +intuition, but also had found "in his unparalleled activity, in his +warm, persuasive eloquence, in his adroit and far-seeing genius," a +means to guarantee it against the attacks of wicked foes. + +Such was the country in whose fortunes the "age of enlightenment" was +so interested. Montesquieu had used its history to illustrate the loss +and recovery of privilege and rights; Rousseau had thought the little +isle would one day fill all Europe with amazement. When the latter was +driven into exile for his utterances, and before his flight to +England, Paoli offered him a refuge. Buttafuoco, who represented the +opinion that Corsica for its own good must be incorporated with +France, and not merely come under her protection, had a few months +previously also invited the Genevan prophet to visit the island, and +outline a constitution for its people. But the snare was spread in +vain. In the letter which with polished phrase declined the task, on +the ground of its writer's ill-health, stood the words: "I believe +that under their present leader the Corsicans have nothing to fear +from Genoa. I believe, moreover, that they have nothing to fear from +the troops which France is said to be transporting to their shores. +What confirms me in this feeling is that, in spite of the movement, so +good a patriot as you seem to be continues in the service of the +country which sends them." Paoli was of the same opinion, and remained +so until his rude awakening in 1768. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +The Bonapartes in Corsica. + + The French Occupy Corsica -- Paoli Deceived -- Treaty + between France and Genoa -- English Intervention Vain -- + Paoli in England -- British Problems -- Introduction of the + French Administrative System -- Paoli's Policy -- The Coming + Man -- Origin of the Bonapartes -- The Corsican Branch -- + Their Nobility -- Carlo Maria di Buonaparte -- Maria Letizia + Ramolino -- Their Marriage and Naturalization as French + Subjects -- Their Fortunes -- Their Children. + + +[Sidenote: 1764-72.] + +The preliminary occupation of Corsica by the French was ostensibly +formal. The process was continued, however, until the formality became +a reality, until the fortifications of the seaport towns ceded by +Genoa were filled with troops. Then, for the first time, the text of +the convention between the two powers was communicated to Paoli. +Choiseul explained through his agent that by its first section the +King guaranteed the safety and liberty of the Corsican nation. But, no +doubt, he forgot to explain the double dealing in the second section. +Thereby in the Italian form the Corsicans were in return to take "all +right and proper measures dictated by their sense of justice and +natural moderation to secure the glory and interest of the republic of +Genoa," while in the French form they were "to yield to the Genoese +all 'they' thought necessary to the glory and interests of their +republic." Who were the "they"?--the Corsicans or the Genoese? Paoli's +eye was fixed on the acknowledgment of Corsican independence; he was +hoodwinked completely as to the treachery in this second section, the +meaning of which, according to diplomatic usage, was settled by the +interpretation which the language employed for one form put upon that +in which the other was written. Combining the two translations, +Italian and French, of the second section, and interpreting one by the +other, the Genoese were still the arbiters of Corsican conduct and the +promise of liberty contained in the first section was worthless. + +Four years passed: apparently they were uneventful, but in reality +Choiseul made good use of his time. Through Buttafuoco he was in +regular communication with that minority among the Corsicans which +desired incorporation. By the skilful manipulation of private feuds, +and the unstinted use of money, this minority was before long turned +into a majority. Toward the close of 1767 Choiseul began to show his +hand by demanding absolute possession for France of at least two +strong towns. Paoli replied that the demand was unexpected, and +required consideration by the people; the answer was that the King of +France could not be expected to mingle in Corsican affairs without +some advantage for himself. To gain time, Paoli chose Buttafuoco as +his plenipotentiary, despatched him to Versailles, and thus fell into +the very trap so carefully set for him by his opponent. He consented +as a compromise that Corsica should join the Bourbon-Hapsburg league. +More he could not grant for love of his wild, free Corsicans, and he +cherished the secret conviction that, Genoa being no longer able to +assert her sovereignty, France would never allow another power to +intervene, and so, for the sake of peace, might accept this solution. + +But the great French minister was a master of diplomacy and would not +yield. In his designs upon Corsica he had little to fear from European +opposition. He knew how hampered England was by the strength of +parliamentary opposition, and the unrest of her American colonies. The +Sardinian monarchy was still weak, and quailed under the jealous eyes +of her strong enemies. Austria could not act without breaking the +league so essential to her welfare, while the Bourbon courts of Spain +and Naples would regard the family aggrandizement with complacency. +Moreover, something must be done to save the prestige of France: her +American colonial empire was lost; Catherine's brilliant policy, and +the subsequent victories of Russia in the Orient, were threatening +what remained of French influence in that quarter. Here was a +propitious moment to emulate once more the English: to seize a station +on the Indian highroad as valuable as Gibraltar or Port Mahon, and to +raise high hopes of again recovering, if not the colonial supremacy +among nations, at least that equality which the Seven Years' War had +destroyed. Without loss of time, therefore, the negotiations were +ended, and Buttafuoco was dismissed. On May fifteenth, 1768, the price +to be paid having been fixed, a definitive treaty with Genoa was +signed whereby she yielded the exercise of sovereignty to France, and +Corsica passed finally from her hands. Paoli appealed to the great +powers against this arbitrary transfer, but in vain. + +The campaign of subjugation opened at once, Buttafuoco, with a few +other Corsicans, taking service against his kinsfolk. The soldiers of +the Royal Corsican regiment, which was in the French service, and +which had been formed under his father's influence, flatly refused to +fight their brethren. The French troops already in the island were at +once reinforced, but during the first year of the final conflict the +advantage was all with the patriots; indeed, there was one substantial +victory on October seventh, 1768, that of Borgo, which caused dismay +at Versailles. Once more Paoli hoped for intervention, especially that +of England, whose liberal feeling would coincide with his interest in +keeping Corsica from France. Money and arms were sent from Great +Britain, but that was all. This conduct of the British ministry was +afterward recalled by France as a precedent for rendering aid to the +Americans in their uprising against England. + +The following spring an army of no less than twenty thousand men was +despatched from France to make short and thorough work of the +conquest. The previous year of bloody and embittered conflict had gone +far to disorganize the patriot army. It was only with the utmost +difficulty that the little bands of mountain villagers could be +tempted away from the ever more necessary defense of their homes and +firesides. Yet in spite of disintegration before such overwhelming +odds, and though in want both of ordinary munitions and of the very +necessities of life, the forces of Paoli continued a fierce and heroic +resistance. It was only after months of devastating, heartrending, +hopeless warfare, that their leader, utterly routed in the affair +known as the battle of Ponte Nuovo, finally gave up the desperate +cause. Exhausted, and without resources, he would have been an easy +prey to the French; but they were too wise to take him prisoner. On +June thirteenth, 1769, by their connivance he escaped, with three +hundred and forty of his most devoted supporters, on two English +vessels, to the mainland. His goal was England. The journey was a +long, triumphant procession from Leghorn through Germany and Holland; +the honors showered on him by the liberals in the towns through which +he passed were such as are generally paid to victory, not to defeat. +Kindly received and entertained, he lived for the next thirty years in +London, the recipient from the government of twelve hundred pounds a +year as a pension. + +The year 1770 saw the King of France apparently in peaceful possession +of that Corsican sovereignty which he claimed to have bought from +Genoa. His administration was soon and easily inaugurated, and there +was nowhere any interference from foreign powers. Philanthropic +England had provided for Paoli, but would do no more, for she was busy +at home with a transformation of her parties. The old Whig party was +disintegrating; the new Toryism was steadily asserting itself in the +passage of contemptuous measures for oppressing the American colonies. +She was, moreover, soon to be so absorbed in her great struggle on +both sides of the globe that interest in Corsica and the Mediterranean +must remain for a long time in abeyance. + +But the establishment of a French administration in the King's new +acquisition did not proceed smoothly. The party favorable to +incorporation with France had grown, and, in the rush to side with +success, it now probably far outnumbered that of the old patriots. At +the outset this majority faithfully supported the conquerors in an +attempt, honorable to both, to retain as much of Paoli's system as +possible. But the appointment of an intendant and a military commander +acting as royal governor with a veto over legislation was essential. +This of necessity destroyed the old democracy, for, in any case, the +existence of such officials and the social functions of such offices +must create a quasi-aristocracy, and its power would rest not on +popular habit and good-will, but on the French soldiery. The situation +was frankly recognized, therefore, in a complete reorganization of +those descended from the old nobility, and from these a council of +twelve was selected to support and countenance the governor. The +clergy and the third estate were likewise formally organized in two +other orders, so that with clergy, nobles, and commons, Corsica became +a French _pays d'etat_, another provincial anachronism in the chaos of +royal administration. The class bitterness of the mainland could +easily be and was transplanted to the island; the ultimate success of +the process left nothing to be desired. Moreover, the most important +offices were given into French hands, while the seat of government was +moved from Corte, the highland capital, to the lowland towns of Bastia +and Ajaccio. The primeval feud of highlanders and lowlanders was thus +rekindled, and in the subsequent agitations the patriots won over by +France either lost influence with their followers, or ceased to +support the government. Old animosities were everywhere revived and +strengthened, until finally the flames burst forth in open rebellion. +They were, of course, suppressed, but the work was done with a savage +thoroughness the memory of which long survived to prevent the +formation in the island of a natural sentiment friendly to the French. +Those who professed such a feeling were held in no great esteem. + +It was perhaps an error that Paoli did not recognize the indissoluble +bonds of race and speech as powerfully drawing Corsica to Italy, +disregard the leanings of the democratic mountaineers toward France, +sympathize with the fondness of the towns for the motherland, and so +use his influence as to confirm the natural alliance between the +insular Italians and those of the peninsula. When we regard Sardinia, +however, time seems to have justified him. There is little to choose +between the sister islands as regards the backward condition of both; +but the French department of Corsica is, at least, no less advanced +than the Italian province of Sardinia. The final amalgamation of +Paoli's country with France, which was in a measure the result of his +leaning toward a French protectorate, accomplished one end, however, +which has rendered it impossible to separate her from the course of +great events, from the number of the mighty agents in history. +Curiously longing in his exile for a second Sampiero to have wielded +the physical power while he himself should have become a Lycurgus, +Paoli's wish was to be half-way fulfilled in that a warrior greater +than Sampiero was about to be born in Corsica, one who should, by the +very union so long resisted, come, as the master of France, to wield a +power strong enough to shatter both tyrannies and dynasties, thus +clearing the ground for a lawgiving closely related to Paoli's own +just and wise conceptions of legislation. + +The coming man was to be a typical Corsican, moreover. Born in the +agony of his fatherland, he was to combine all the important qualities +of his folk in himself. Like them, he was to be short, with wonderful +eyes and beautiful teeth; temperate; quietly, even meanly, clad; +generous, grateful for any favor, however small; masterful, +courageous, impassive, shrewd, resolute, fluent of speech; profoundly +religious, even superstitious; hot-tempered, inscrutable, mendacious, +revengeful sometimes and ofttimes forgiving, disdainful of woman and +her charms; above all, boastful, conceited, and with a passion for +glory. His pride and his imagination were to be barbaric in their +immensity, his clannishness was to be that of the most primitive +civilization. In all these points he was to be Corsican; other +characteristics he was to acquire from the land of his adoption +through an education French both in affairs and in books; but he was +after all Corsican from the womb to the grave; that in the first +degree, and only secondarily French, while his cosmopolitan disguise +was to be scarcely more than a mask to be raised or lowered at +pleasure. + +This scion was to come from the stock which at first bore the name of +Bonaparte, or, as the heraldic etymology later spelled it, Buonaparte. +There were branches of the same stock, or, at least, of the same name, +in other parts of Italy. Three towns at least claimed to be the seat +of a family with this patronymic: and one of them, Treviso, possessed +papers to prove the claim. Although other members of his family based +absurd pretensions of princely origin on these insufficient proofs, +Napoleon himself was little impressed by them. He was disposed to +declare that his ancestry began in his own person, either at Toulon or +from the eighteenth of Brumaire. Whatever the origin of the Corsican +Buonapartes, it was neither royal from the twin brother of Louis XIV, +thought to be the Iron Mask; nor imperial from the Julian gens, nor +Greek, nor Saracen, nor, in short, anything which later-invented and +lying genealogies declared it to be. But it was almost certainly +Italian, and probably patrician, for in 1780 a Tuscan gentleman of the +name devised a scanty estate to his distant Corsican kinsman. The +earliest home of the family was Florence; later they removed for +political reasons to Sarzana, in Tuscany, where for generations men of +that name exercised the profession of advocate. The line was +extinguished in 1799 by the death of Philip Buonaparte, a canon and a +man of means, who, although he had recognized his kin in Corsica to +the extent of interchanging hospitalities, nevertheless devised his +estate to a relative named Buonacorsi. + +The Corsican branch were persons of some local consequence in their +latest seats, partly because of their Italian connections, partly in +their substantial possessions of land, and partly through the official +positions which they held in the city of Ajaccio. Their sympathies as +lowlanders and townspeople were with the country of their origin and +with Genoa. During the last years of the sixteenth century that +republic authorized a Jerome, then head of the family, to prefix the +distinguishing particle "di" to his name; but the Italian custom was +averse to its use, which was not revived until later, and then only +for a short time. Nine generations are recorded as having lived on +Corsican soil within two centuries and a quarter. They were evidently +men of consideration, for they intermarried with the best families of +the island; Ornano, Costa, Bozzi, and Colonna are names occurring in +their family records. + +Nearly two centuries passed before the grand duke of Tuscany issued +formal patents in 1757, attesting the Buonaparte nobility. It was +Joseph, the grandsire of Napoleon, who received them. Soon afterward +he announced that the coat-armor of the family was "_la couronne de +compte, l'ecusson fendu par deux barres et deux etoilles, avec les +lettres B. P. qui signifient Buona Parte, le fond des armes +rougeatres, les barres et les etoilles bleu, les ombrements et la +couronne jaune!_" Translated as literally as such doubtful language +and construction can be, this signifies: "A count's coronet, the +escutcheon with two bends sinister and two stars, bearing the letters +B. P., which signify Buonaparte, the field of the arms red, the bends +and stars blue, the letters and coronet yellow!" In heraldic parlance +this would be: Gules, two bends sinister between two estoiles azure +charged with B. P. for Buona Parte, or; surmounted by a count's +coronet of the last. In 1759 the same sovereign granted further the +title of patrician. Charles, the son of Joseph, received a similar +grant from the Archbishop of Pisa in 1769. These facts have a +substantial historical value, since by reason of them the family was +duly and justly recognized as noble in 1771 by the French authorities, +and as a consequence, eight years later, the most illustrious scion +of the stem became, as a recognized aristocrat, the ward of a France +which was still monarchical. Reading between the lines of such a +narrative, it appears as if the short-lived family of Corsican lawyers +had some difficulty in preserving an influence proportionate to their +descent, and therefore sought to draw all the strength they could from +a bygone grandeur, easily forgotten by their neighbors in their +moderate circumstances at a later day. Still later, when all ci-devant +aristocrats were suspects in France, and when the taint of nobility +sufficed to destroy those on whom it rested, Napoleon denied his +quality: the usual inquest as to veracity was not made and he went +free. This escape he owed partly to the station he had reached, partly +to the fact that his family claims had been based on birth so obscure +at the time as to subject the claimants to good-natured raillery. + +No task had lain nearer to Paoli's heart than to unite in one nation +the two factions into which he found his people divided. Accordingly, +when Carlo Maria di Buonaparte, the single stem on which the +consequential lowland family depended for continuance, appeared at +Corte to pursue his studies, the stranger was received with flattering +kindness, and probably, as one account has it, was appointed to a post +of emolument and honor as Paoli's private secretary. The new +patrician, according to a custom common among Corsicans of his class, +determined to take his degree at Pisa, and in November, 1769, he was +made doctor of laws by that university. Many pleasant and probably +true anecdotes have been told to illustrate the good-fellowship of the +young advocate among his comrades while a student. There are likewise +narratives of his persuasive eloquence and of his influence as a +patriot, but these sound mythical. In short, an organized effort of +sycophantic admirers, who would, if possible, illuminate the whole +family in order to heighten Napoleon's renown, has invented fables and +distorted facts to such a degree that the entire truth as to Charles's +character is hard to discern. Certain undisputed facts, however, throw +a strong light upon Napoleon's father. His people were proud and poor; +he endured the hardships of poverty with equanimity. Strengthening +what little influence he could muster, he at first appears ambitious, +and has himself described in his doctor's diploma as a patrician of +Florence, San Miniato, and Ajaccio. His character is little known +except by the statements of his own family. They declared that he was +a spendthrift. He spent two years' income, about twelve hundred +dollars, in celebrating with friends the taking of his degree. He +would have sold not only the heavily mortgaged estates inherited by +himself, but also those of his wife, except for the fierce +remonstrances of his heirs. He could write clever verse, he was a +devotee of belles-lettres, and a sceptic in the fashion of the time. +Self-indulgent, he was likewise bitterly opposed to all family +discipline. His figure was slight and lithe, his expression alert and +intelligent, his eyes gray blue and his head large. He was ambitious, +indefatigable as a place-hunter, suave, elegant, and irrepressible. + +On the other hand, with no apparent regard for his personal +advancement by marriage, he followed his own inclination, and in 1764, +at the age of eighteen, gallantly wedded a beautiful child of fifteen, +Maria Letizia Ramolino. Her descent, though excellent and, remotely, +even noble, was inferior to that of her husband, but her fortune was +equal, if not superior, to his. Her father was a Genoese official of +importance; her mother, daughter of a petty noble by a peasant wife, +became a widow in 1755 and two years later was married again to +Francis Fesch, a Swiss, captain in the Genoese navy. Of this union, +Joseph, later Cardinal Fesch, was the child. Although well born, the +mother of Napoleon had no education and was of peasant nature to the +last day of her long life--hardy, unsentimental, frugal, avaricious, +and sometimes unscrupulous. Yet for all that, the hospitality of her +little home in Ajaccio was lavish and famous. Among the many guests +who were regularly entertained there was Marbeuf, commander in Corsica +of the first army of occupation. There was long afterward a malicious +tradition that the French general was Napoleon's father. The morals of +Letizia di Buonaparte, like those of her conspicuous children, have +been bitterly assailed, but her good name, at least, has always been +vindicated. The evident motive of the story sufficiently refutes such +an aspersion as it contains. Of the bride's extraordinary beauty there +has never been a doubt. She was a woman of heroic mold, like Juno in +her majesty; unmoved in prosperity, undaunted in adversity. It was +probably to his mother, whom he strongly resembled in childhood, that +the famous son owed his tremendous and unparalleled physical +endurance. + +After their marriage the youthful pair resided in Corte, waiting until +events should permit their return to Ajaccio. Naturally of an indolent +temperament, the husband, though he had at first been drawn into the +daring enterprises of Paoli, and had displayed a momentary enthusiasm, +was now, as he had been for more than a year, weary of them. At the +head of a body of men of his own rank, he finally withdrew to Monte +Rotondo, and on May twenty-third, 1769, a few weeks before Paoli's +flight, the band made formal submission to Vaux, commander of the +second army of occupation, explaining through Buonaparte that the +national leader had misled them by promises of aid which never came, +and that, recognizing the impossibility of further resistance, they +were anxious to accept the new government, to return to their homes, +and to resume the peaceful conduct of their affairs. This at least is +the generally accepted account of his desertion of Paoli's cause: +there is some evidence that having followed Clement, a brother of +Pascal, into a remoter district, he had there found no support for the +enterprise, and had thence under great hardships of flood and field +made his way with wife and child to the French headquarters. The +result was the same in either case. It was the precipitate +naturalization of the father as a French subject which made his great +son a Frenchman. Less than three months afterward, on August +fifteenth, the fourth child, Napoleone di Buonaparte, was born in +Ajaccio, the seat of French influence. + +The resources of the Buonapartes, as they still wrote themselves, were +small, although their family and expectations were large. Charles +himself was the owner of a considerable estate in houses and lands, +but everything was heavily mortgaged and his income was small. He had +further inherited a troublesome law plea, the prosecution of which was +expensive. By an entail in trust of a great-great-grandfather, +important lands were entailed in the male line of the Odone family. In +default of regular descent, the estate was vested in the female line, +and should, when Charles's maternal uncle died childless, have +reverted to his mother. But the uncle had made a will bequeathing his +property to the Jesuits, who swiftly took possession and had +maintained their ownership by occupation and by legal quibbles. +Joseph, the father of Charles, had wasted many years and most of his +fortune in weary litigation. Nothing daunted, Charles settled down to +pursue the same phantom, virtually depending for a livelihood on the +patrimony of his wife. Letitia Buonaparte, being an only child, had +fallen heir to her father's property on the second marriage of her +mother. The stepfather was an excellent Swiss, a Protestant from +Basel, thoroughly educated, and interested in education, and for years +a mercenary in the Genoese service. On his retirement he became a +Roman Catholic in order to secure the woman of his choice. He was the +father of Letitia's half brother, Joseph. The retired officer, though +kindly disposed to the family he had entered, had little but his +pension and savings: he could contribute nothing but good, sound +common sense and his homely ideas of education. The real head of the +family was the uncle of Charles, Lucien Buonaparte, archdeacon of the +cathedral. It was he who had supported and guided his nephew, and had +sent him to the college founded by Paoli at Corte. In his youth +Charles was wasteful and extravagant, but his wife was thrifty to +meanness. With the restraint of her economy and the stimulus of his +uncle, respected as head of the family, the father of Napoleon arrived +at a position of some importance. He practised his profession with +some diligence, became an assessor of the highest insular court, and +in 1772 was made a member, later a deputy, of the council of Corsican +nobles. + +The sturdy mother was most prolific. Her eldest child, born in 1765, +was a son who died in infancy; in 1767 was born a daughter, +Maria-Anna, destined to the same fate; in 1768 a son, known later as +Joseph, but baptized as Nabulione; in 1769 the great son, Napoleone. +Nine other children were the fruit of the same wedlock, and six of +them--three sons, Lucien, Louis, and Jerome, and three daughters, +Elisa, Pauline, and Caroline--survived to share their brother's +greatness. Charles himself, like his short-lived ancestors,--of whom +five had died within a century,--scarcely reached middle age, dying in +his thirty-ninth year. Letitia, like the stout Corsican that she was, +lived to the ripe age of eighty-six in the full enjoyment of her +faculties, known to the world as Madame Mere, a sobriquet devised by +her great son to distinguish her as the mother of the Napoleons. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +Napoleon's Birth and Childhood[1]. + + [Footnote 1: The indispensable authority for the youth + of Napoleon is the collection of his own papers edited, + not always judiciously, by Frederic Masson and published + by him in cooeperation with G. Biagi under the title + Napoleon inconnu. The originals are now in the + Laurentian Library at Florence. They were intrusted by + the Emperor to Cardinal Fesch as a safe depositary, + probably in the hope that they would eventually be + destroyed. What the cardinal actually did with them + remains obscure. Some time early in the nineteenth + century they came into possession of a certain Libri, + one of the French government library inspectors, an + unscrupulous collector and dealer. From them he + excerpted enough matter for an article which, before his + disgrace, was published in an early number of the Revue + des Deux Mondes, but in the publication there was no + statement of authority and the article was forgotten, + important as it was. The originals were not found or + known until in the sale catalogue of Lord Ashburnham's + library appeared a lot entitled merely Napoleon Papers. + This fact was brought to the author's attention by a + friend, and when after a smart competition between + agents of the French and Italian governments the + manuscripts were deposited at Florence, he sought + permission immediately to examine and study them. This + was promptly granted, they proved to be the lost Fesch + papers, and for the first time it was possible to obtain + a clear account of Napoleon's early years. The standard + authorities hitherto had been the works of Nasica, + Coston, and Jung: while they still have a certain value, + it is slight in view of the reliable deductions to be + drawn from the original boy papers of Napoleon + Bonaparte. Later on and after the publication of the + corresponding portion of this Life, they were edited, + printed, and published. In the main there is no room for + difference with the transcript of M. Masson, but in some + places where the writing is uncommonly bad the author's + own transcript presents the facts as stated in these + pages. Within a few years M. Chuquet has summed up + admirably all our authentic knowledge of the subject--in + a book entitled: La jeunesse de Napoleon. His own + researches have brought to light some further valuable + material. I have not hesitated in this revision to make + the freest use of the latest authorities, but it is a + gratification that no substantial changes, except by way + of slight additions, have been found necessary.] + + Birth of Nabulione or Joseph -- Date of Napoleon's Birth -- + Coincidence with the Festival of the Assumption -- The Name + of Napoleon -- Corsican Conditions as Influencing Napoleon's + Character -- His Early Education -- Childish Traits -- + Influenced by Traditions Concerning Paoli -- Family + Prospects -- Influence of Marbeuf -- Upheavals in France -- + Napoleon Appointed to a Scholarship -- His Efforts to Learn + French at Autun -- Development of His Character -- His + Father Delegate of the Corsican Nobility at Versailles. + + +[Sidenote: 1768-79.] + +The trials of poverty made the Buonapartes so clever and adroit that +suspicions of shiftiness in small matters were developed later on, and +these led to an over-close scrutiny of their acts. The opinion has +not yet disappeared among reputable authorities that Nabulione and +Napoleone were one and the same, born on January seventh, 1768, Joseph +being really the younger, born on the date assigned to his +distinguished brother. The earliest documentary evidence consists of +two papers, one in the archives of the French war department, one in +those of Ajaccio. The former is dated 1782, and testifies to the birth +of Nabulione on January seventh, 1768, and to his baptism on January +eighth; the latter is the copy, not the original, of a government +contract which declares the birth, on January seventh, of Joseph +Nabulion. Neither is decisive, but the addition of Joseph, with the +use of the two French forms for the name in the second, with the clear +intent of emphasizing his quality as a Frenchman, destroys much of its +value, and leaves the weight of authority with the former. The +reasonableness of the suspicion seems to be heightened by the fact +that the certificate of Napoleon's marriage gives the date of his +birth as February eighth, 1768. Moreover, in the marriage contract of +Joseph, witnesses testify to his having been born at Ajaccio, not at +Corte. + +But there are facts of greater weight on the other side. In the first +place, the documentary evidence is itself of equal value, for the +archives of the French war department also contain an extract from the +one original baptismal certificate, which is dated July twenty-first, +1771, the day of the baptism, and gives the date of Napoleone's birth +as August fifteenth, 1769. Charles's application for the appointment +of his two eldest boys to Brienne has also been found, and it +contains, according to regulation, still another copy from the +original certificate, which is dated June twenty-third, 1776, and also +gives what must be accepted as the correct date. This explodes the +story that Napoleon's age was falsified by his father in order to +obtain admittance for him to the military school. The application was +made in 1776 for both boys, so as to secure admission for each before +the end of his tenth year. It was the delay of the authorities in +granting the request which, after the lapse of three years or more, +made Joseph ineligible. The father could have had no motive in 1776 to +perpetrate a fraud, and after that date it was impossible, for the +papers were not in his hands; moreover, the minister of war wrote in +1778 that the name of the elder Buonaparte boy had already been +withdrawn. That charge was made during Napoleon's lifetime. His +brother Joseph positively denied it, and asserted the fact as it is +now substantially proved to be; Bourrienne, who had known his Emperor +as a child of nine, was of like opinion; Napoleon himself, in an +autograph paper still existing, and written in the handwriting of his +youth, thrice gives the date of his birth as August fifteenth, 1769. +If the substitution occurred, it must have been in early infancy. +Besides, we know why Napoleon at marriage sought to appear older than +he was, and Joseph's contract was written when the misstatement in it +was valuable as making him appear thoroughly French. + +Among other absurd efforts to besmirch Napoleon's character is the +oft-repeated insinuation that he fixed his birthday on the greatest +high festival of the Roman Church, that of the Assumption of the +Virgin Mary, in order to assure its perpetual celebration! In sober +fact the researches of indefatigable antiquaries have brought to light +not only the documentary evidence referred to, but likewise the +circumstance that Napoleon, in one paper spelled Lapulion, was a not +uncommon Corsican name borne by several distinguished men, and that in +the early generation of the Buonaparte family the boys had been named +Joseph, Napoleon, and Lucien as they followed one another into the +world. In the eighteenth century spelling was scarcely more fixed than +in the sixteenth. Nor in the walk of life to which the Buonapartes +belonged was the fixity of names as rigid then as it later became. +There were three Maria-Annas in the family first and last, one of whom +was afterward called Elisa. + +As to the form of the name Napoleon, there is a curious though +unimportant confusion. We have already seen the forms Nabulione, +Nabulion, Napoleone, Napoleon. Contemporary documents give also the +form Napoloeone, and his marriage certificate uses Napolione. On the +Vendome Column stands Napolio. Imp., which might be read either +Napolioni Imperatori or Napolio Imperatori. In either case we have +indications of a new form, Napolion or Napolius. The latter, which was +more probably intended, would seem to be an attempt to recall +Neopolus, a recognized saint's name. The absence of the name Napoleon +from the calendar of the Latin Church was considered a serious +reproach to its bearer by those who hated him, and their incessant +taunts stung him. In youth his constant retort was that there were +many saints and only three hundred and sixty-five days in the year. In +after years he had the matter remedied, and the French Catholics for a +time celebrated a St. Napoleon's day with proper ceremonies, among +which was the singing of a hymn composed to celebrate the power and +virtues of the holy man for whom it was named. The irreverent +school-boys of Autun and Brienne gave the nickname "straw +nose"--_paille-au-nez_--to both the brothers. The pronunciation, +therefore, was probably as uncertain as the form, Napaille-au-nez +being probably a distortion of Napouillone. The chameleon-like +character of the name corresponds exactly to the chameleon-like +character of the times, the man, and the lands of his birth and of his +adoption. The Corsican noble and French royalist was Napoleone de +Buonaparte; the Corsican republican and patriot was Napoleone +Buonaparte; the French republican, Napoleon Buonaparte; the victorious +general, Bonaparte; the emperor, Napoleon. There was likewise a change +in this person's handwriting analogous to the change in his +nationality and opinions. It was probably to conceal a most defective +knowledge of French that the adoptive Frenchman, as republican, +consul, and emperor, abandoned the fairly legible hand of his youth, +and recurred to the atrocious one of his childhood, continuing always +to use it after his definite choice of a country. + +Stormy indeed were his nation and his birthtime. He himself said: "I +was born while my country was dying. Thirty thousand French, vomited +on our shores, drowning the throne of liberty in waves of blood--such +was the horrid sight which first met my view. The cries of the dying, +the groans of the oppressed, tears of despair, surrounded my cradle at +my birth." + +These were the words he used in 1789, while still a Corsican in +feeling, when addressing Paoli. They strain chronology for the sake of +rhetorical effect, but they truthfully picture the circumstances under +which he was conceived. Among many others of a similar character there +is a late myth which recalls in detail that when the pains of +parturition seized his mother she was at mass, and that she reached +her chamber just in time to deposit, on a carpet or a piece of +embroidery representing the young Achilles, the prodigy bursting so +impetuously into the world. By the man himself his nature was always +represented as the product of his hour, and this he considered a +sufficient excuse for any line of conduct he chose to follow. When in +banishment at Longwood, and on his death-bed, he recalled the +circumstances of his childhood in conversations with the attendant +physician, a Corsican like himself. "Nothing awed me; I feared no one. +I struck one, I scratched another, I was a terror to everybody. It was +my brother Joseph with whom I had most to do; he was beaten, bitten, +scolded, and I had put the blame on him almost before he knew what he +was about; was telling tales about him almost before he could collect +his wits. I had to be quick: my mama Letizia would have restrained my +warlike temper; she would not have put up with my defiant petulance. +Her tenderness was severe, meting out punishment and reward with equal +justice; merit and demerit, she took both into account." + +Of his earliest education he said at the same time: "Like everything +else in Corsica, it was pitiful." Lucien Buonaparte, his great-uncle, +was a canon, a man of substance with an income of five thousand livres +a year, and of some education--sufficient, at least, to permit his +further ecclesiastical advancement. "Uncle" Fesch, whose father had +received the good education of a Protestant Swiss boy, and had in turn +imparted his knowledge to his own son, was the friend and older +playmate of the turbulent little Buonaparte. The child learned a few +notions of Bible history, and, doubtless, also the catechism, from the +canon; by his eleven-year-old uncle he was taught his alphabet. In his +sixth year he was sent to a dame's school. The boys teased him because +his stockings were always down over his shoes, and for his devotion to +the girls, one named Giacominetta especially. He met their taunts with +blows, using sticks, bricks, or any handy weapon. + +According to his own story, he was fearless in the face of superior +numbers, however large. His mother, according to his brother Joseph, +declared that he was a perfect imp of a child. She herself described +him as fond of playing at war with a drum, wooden sword, and files of +toy soldiers. The pious nuns who taught him recognized a certain gift +for figures in styling him their little mathematician. Later when in +attendance at the Jesuit school he regularly encountered on his way +thither a soldier with whom he exchanged his own piece of white bread +for a morsel of the other's coarse commissary loaf. The excuse he +gave, according to his mother, was that he must learn to like such +food if he were to be a soldier. In time his passion for the simple +mathematics he studied increased to such a degree that she assigned +him a rough shed in the rear of their home as a refuge from the +disturbing noise of the family. For exercise he walked the streets at +nightfall with tumbled hair and disordered clothes. Of French he knew +not a word; he had lessons at school in his mother tongue, which he +learned to read under the instruction of the Abbe Recco. The worthy +teacher arrayed his boys in two bodies: the diligent under the +victorious standard of Rome, the idle as vanquished Carthaginians. +Napoleon of right belonged to the latter, but he was transferred, not +because of merit, by the sheer force of his imperious temper. + +This scanty information is all the trustworthy knowledge we possess +concerning the little Napoleon up to his tenth year. With slight +additions from other sources it is substantially the great Napoleon's +own account of himself by the mouthpiece partly of his mother in his +prosperous days, partly of Antommarchi in that last period of +self-examination when, to him, as to other men, consistency seems the +highest virtue. He was, doubtless, striving to compound with his +conscience by emphasizing the adage that the child is father to the +man--that he was born what he had always been. + +In 1775, Corsica had been for six years in the possession of France, +and on the surface all was fair. There was, however, a little remnant +of faithful patriots left in the island, with whom Paoli and his +banished friends were still in communication. The royal cabinet, +seeking to remove every possible danger of disturbance, even so slight +a one as lay in the disaffection of the few scattered nationalists, +and in the unconcealed distrust which these felt for their conforming +fellow-citizens, began a little later to make advances, in order, if +possible, to win at least Paoli's neutrality, if not his acquiescence. +All in vain: the exile was not to be moved. From time to time, +therefore, there was throughout Corsica a noticeable flow in the tide +of patriotism. There are indications that the child Napoleon was +conscious of this influence, listening probably with intense interest +to the sympathetic tales about Paoli and his struggles for liberty +which were still told among the people. + +As to Charles de Buonaparte, some things he had hoped for from +annexation were secured. His nobility and official rank were safe; he +was in a fair way to reach even higher distinction. But what were +honors without wealth? The domestic means were constantly growing +smaller, while expenditures increased with the accumulating dignities +and ever-growing family. He had made his humble submission to the +French; his reception had been warm and graceful. The authorities knew +of his pretensions to the estates of his ancestors. The Jesuits had +been disgraced and banished, but the much litigated Odone property had +not been restored to him; on the contrary, the buildings had been +converted into school-houses, and the revenues turned into various +channels. Years had passed, and it was evident that his suit was +hopeless. How could substantial advantage be secured from the King? + +His friends, General Marbeuf in particular, were of the opinion that +he could profit to a certain extent at least by securing for his +children an education at the expense of the state. While it is likely +that from the first Joseph was destined for the priesthood, yet there +was provision for ecclesiastical training under royal patronage as +well as for secular, and a transfer from the latter to the former was +easier than the reverse. Both were to be placed at the college of +Autun for a preliminary course, whatever their eventual destination +might be. The necessary steps were soon taken, and in 1776 the formal +supplication for the two eldest boys was forwarded to Paris. +Immediately the proof of four noble descents was demanded. The +movement of letters was slow, that of officials even slower, and the +delays in securing copies and authentications of the various documents +were long and vexatious. + +Meantime Choiseul had been disgraced, and on May tenth, 1774, the old +King had died; Louis XVI now reigned. The inertia which marked the +brilliant decadence of the Bourbon monarchy was finally overcome. The +new social forces were partly emancipated. Facts were examined, and +their significance considered. Bankruptcy was no longer a threatening +phantom, but a menacing reality of the most serious nature. +Retrenchment and reform were the order of the day. Necker was trying +his promising schemes. There was, among them, one for a body +consisting of delegates from each of the three estates,--nobles, +ecclesiastics, and burgesses,--to assist in deciding that troublesome +question, the regulation of imposts. The Swiss financier hoped to +destroy in this way the sullen, defiant influence of the royal +intendants. In Corsica the governor and the intendant both thought +themselves too shrewd to be trapped, and secured the appointment from +each of the Corsican estates of men who were believed by them to be +their humble servants. The needy suitor, Charles de Buonaparte, was to +be the delegate at Versailles of the nobility. They thought they knew +this man in particular, but he was to prove as malleable in France as +he had been in Corsica. + +Though nearly penniless, the noble deputy, with the vanity of the born +courtier, was flattered, and accepted the mission, setting out on +December fifteenth, 1778, by way of Italy with his two sons Joseph and +Napoleon. With them were Joseph Fesch, appointed to the seminary at +Aix, and Varesa, Letitia's cousin, who was to be sub-deacon at Autun. +Joseph and Napoleon both asserted in later life that during their +sojourn in Florence the grand duke gave his friend, their father, a +letter to his royal sister, Marie Antoinette. As the grand duke was at +that time in Vienna, the whole account they give of the journey is +probably, though perhaps not intentionally, untrue. It was not to the +Queen's intercession but to Marbeuf's powerful influence that the +final partial success of Charles de Buonaparte's supplication was due. +This is clearly proven by the evidence of the archives. To the +general's nephew, bishop of Autun, Joseph, now too old to be received +in a royal military school, and later Lucien, were both sent, the +former to be educated as a priest. It was probably Marbeuf's influence +also, combined with a desire to conciliate Corsica, which caused the +herald's office finally to accept the documents attesting the +Buonapartes' nobility. + +It appears that the journey from Corsica through Florence and +Marseilles had already wrought a marvelous change in the boy. +Napoleon's teacher at Autun, the Abbe Chardon, described his pupil as +having brought with him a sober, thoughtful character. He played with +no one, and took his walks alone. In all respects he excelled his +brother Joseph. The boys of Autun, says the same authority, on one +occasion brought the sweeping charge of cowardice against all +inhabitants of Corsica, in order to exasperate him. "If they [the +French] had been but four to one," was the calm, phlegmatic answer of +the ten-year-old boy, "they would never have taken Corsica; but when +they were ten to one...." "But you had a fine general--Paoli," +interrupted the narrator. "Yes, sir," was the reply, uttered with an +air of discontent, and in the very embodiment of ambition; "I should +much like to emulate him." The description of the untamed faun as he +then appeared is not flattering: his complexion sallow, his hair +stiff, his figure slight, his expression lusterless, his manner +insignificant. Moreover, his behavior was sullen, and at first, of +course, he spoke broken French with an Italian accent. Open-mouthed +and with sparkling eyes, however, he listened attentively to the first +rehearsal of his task; repetition he heartily disliked, and when +rebuked for inattention he coldly replied: "Sir, I know that already." +On April twenty-first, 1779, Napoleon, according to the evidence of +his personal memorandum, left Autun, having been admitted to Brienne, +and it was to Marbeuf that in later life he correctly attributed his +appointment. After spending three weeks with a school friend, the +little fellow entered upon his duties about the middle of May. + +On New Year's day, 1779, the Buonapartes had arrived at Autun, and for +nearly four months the young Napoleone had been trained in the use of +French. He learned to speak fluently, though not correctly, and wrote +short themes in a way to satisfy his teacher. Prodigy as he was later +declared to have been, his real progress was slow, the difficulties of +that elegant and polished tongue having scarcely been reached; so that +it was with a most imperfect knowledge of their language, and a sadly +defective pronunciation, that he made his appearance among his future +schoolmates. Having, we may suppose, been assigned to the first +vacancy that occurred in any of the royal colleges, his first +destination had been Tiron, the roughest and most remote of the +twelve. But as fortune would have it, a change was somehow made to +Brienne. That establishment was rude enough. The instructors were +Minim priests, and the life was as severe as it could be made with +such a clientage under half-educated and inexperienced monks. In spite +of all efforts to the contrary, however, the place had an air of +elegance; there was a certain school-boy display proportionate to the +means and to the good or bad breeding of the young nobles, also a very +keen discrimination among themselves as to rank, social quality, and +relative importance. Those familiar with the ruthlessness of boys in +their treatment of one another can easily conceive what was the +reception of the newcomer, whose nobility was unknown and unrecognized +in France, and whose means were of the scantiest. + +During his son's preparatory studies the father had been busy at +Versailles with further supplications--among them one for a supplement +from the royal purse to his scanty pay as delegate, and another for +the speedy settlement of his now notorious claim. The former of the +two was granted not merely to M. de Buonaparte, but to his two +colleagues, in view of the "excellent behavior"--otherwise +subserviency--of the Corsican delegation at Versailles. When, in +addition, the certificate of Napoleon's appointment finally arrived, +and the father set out to place his son at school, with a barely +proper outfit, he had no difficulty in securing sufficient money to +meet his immediate and pressing necessities. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +Napoleon's School-days[2]. + + [Footnote 2: The authorities for the period are Masson: + Napoleon inconnu. Chuquet: La jeunesse de Napoleon. + Jung: Bonaparte et son temps. Boehtlingk: Napoleon + Bonaparte: seine Jugend und sein Emporkommen. Las Cases: + Memorial de Sainte-Helene. Antommarchi: Memoires. + Coston: Premieres annees de Napoleon, Nasica: Memoires + sur l'enfance et la jeunesse de Napoleon.] + + Military Schools in France -- Napoleon's Initiation into the + Life of Brienne -- Regulations of the School -- The Course + of Study -- Napoleon's Powerful Friends -- His Reading and + Other Avocations -- His Comrades -- His Studies -- His + Precocity -- His Conduct and Scholarship -- The Change in + His Life Plan -- His Influence in His Family -- His Choice + of the Artillery Service. + + +[Sidenote: 1779-84.] + +It was an old charge that the sons of poor gentlemen destined to be +artillery officers were bred like princes. The institution at Brienne, +with eleven other similar academies, had been but recently founded as +a protest against the luxury which had reigned in the military schools +at Paris and La Fleche. Both these had been closed for a time because +they could not be reformed; the latter was, however, one of the twelve +from the first, and that at Paris was afterward reopened as a +finishing-school. The monasteries of various religious orders were +chosen as seats of the new colleges, and their owners were put in +charge with instructions to secure simplicity of life and manners, the +formation of character, and other desirable benefits, each one in its +own way in the school or schools intrusted to it. The result so far +had been a failure; there were simply not twelve first-rate +instructors in each branch to be found in France for the new +positions; the instruction was therefore limited and poor, so that in +the intellectual stagnation the right standards of conduct declined, +while the old notions of hollow courtliness and conventional behavior +flourished as never before. In order to enter his boy at Brienne, +Charles de Buonaparte presented a certificate signed by the intendant +and two neighbors, that he could not educate his sons without help +from the King, and was a poor man, having no income except his salary +as assessor. This paper was countersigned by Marbeuf as commanding +general, and to him the request was formally granted. This being the +regular procedure, it is evident that all the young nobles of the +twelve schools enjoying the royal bounty were poor and should have had +little or no pocket money. Perhaps for this very reason, though the +school provided for every expense including pocket money, polished +manners and funds obtained surreptitiously from powerful friends +indifferent to rules, were the things most needed to secure kind +treatment for an entering boy. These were exactly what the young +gentleman scholar from Corsica did not possess. The ignorant and +unworldly Minim fathers could neither foresee nor, if they had +foreseen, alleviate the miseries incident to his arrival under such +conditions. + +At Autun Napoleon had at least enjoyed the sympathetic society of his +mild and emotional brother, whose easy-going nature could smooth many +a rough place. He was now entirely without companionship, resenting +from the outset both the ill-natured attacks and the playful personal +allusions through which boys so often begin, and with time knit ever +more firmly, their inexplicable friendships. To the taunts about +Corsica which began immediately he answered coldly, "I hope one day +to be in a position to give Corsica her liberty." Entering on a +certain occasion a room in which unknown to him there hung a portrait +of the hated Choiseul, he started back as he caught sight of it and +burst into bitter revilings; for this he was compelled to undergo +chastisement. + +Brienne was a nursery for the qualities first developed at Autun. The +building was a gloomy and massive structure of the early eighteenth +century, which stood on a commanding site at the entrance of the town, +flanked by a later addition somewhat more commodious. The dormitory +consisted of two long rows of cells opening on a double corridor, +about a hundred and forty in all: each of these chambers was six feet +square, and contained a folding bed, a pitcher and a basin. The pupil +was locked in at bed-time, his only means of communication being a +bell to arouse the guard who slept in the hall. Larger rooms were +provided for his toilet; and he studied where he recited, in still +another suite. There was a common refectory in which four simple meals +a day were served: for breakfast and luncheon, bread and water, with +fruit either fresh or stewed; for dinner, soup with the soup-meat, a +side-dish and dessert; for supper, a joint with salad or dessert. With +the last two was served a mild mixture of wine and water, known in +school slang as "abundance." The outfit of clothing comprised +underwear for two changes a week, a uniform consisting of a blue cloth +coat, faced and trimmed with red, a waistcoat of the same with white +revers, and serge breeches either blue or black. The overcoat was of +the same material as the uniform, with the same trimming but with +white lining. The studies comprised Latin, mathematics, the French +language and literature, English, German, geography, drawing, fencing, +music, vocal as well as instrumental, and dancing. + +[Illustration: In the Museum of Versailles. Marie-Laetitia Ramolino +Bonaparte "Madame Mere"--Mother Of Napoleon I.] + +Perhaps the severe regimen of living could have been mitigated and +brightened by a course of study nominally and ostensibly so rich and +full; but in the list of masters, lay and clerical, there is not a +name of eminence. Neither Napoleon nor his contemporary pupils +recalled in later years any portion of their work as stimulating, nor +any instructor as having excelled in ability. The boys seem to have +disliked heartily both their studies and their masters. Young +Buonaparte had likewise a distaste for society and was thrown upon his +own unaided resources to satisfy his eager mind. Undisciplined in +spirit, he was impatient of self-discipline and worked spasmodically +in such subjects as he liked, disdaining the severe training of his +mind, even by himself. He did learn to spell the foreign tongue of his +adopted country, but his handwriting, never good, was bad or worse, +according to circumstances. Dark, solitary, and untamed, the new +scholar assumed the indifference of wounded vanity, despised all +pastimes, and found delight either in books or in scornful +exasperation of his comrades when compelled to associate with them. +There were quarrels and bitter fights, in which the Ishmaelite's hand +was against every other. Sometimes in a kind of frenzy he inflicted +serious wounds on his fellow-students. At length even the teachers +mocked him, and deprived him of his position as captain in the school +battalion. + +The climax of the miserable business was reached when to a taunt that +his ancestry was nothing, "his father a wretched tipstaff," Napoleon +replied by challenging his tormentor to fight a duel. For this offense +he was put in confinement while the instigator went unpunished. It was +by the intervention of Marbeuf that his young friend was at length +released. Bruised and wounded in spirit, the boy would gladly have +shaken the dust of Brienne from his feet, but necessity forbade. +Either from some direct communication Napoleon had with his protector, +or through a dramatic but unauthenticated letter purporting to have +been written by him to his friends in Corsica and still in existence, +Marbeuf learned that the chiefest cause of all the bitterness was the +inequality between the pocket allowances of the young French nobles +and that of the young Corsican. The kindly general displayed the +liberality of a family friend, and gladly increased the boy's +gratuity, administering at the same time a smart rebuke to him for his +readiness to take offense. He is likewise thought to have introduced +his young charge to Mme. Lomenie de Brienne, whose mansion was near +by.[3] This noble woman, it is asserted, became a second mother to the +lonely child: though there were no vacations, yet long holidays were +numerous and these were passed with her; her tenderness softened his +rude nature, the more so as she knew the value of tips to a +school-boy, and administered them liberally though judiciously. + + [Footnote 3: The sources of these statements are two + letters of 5 April, 1781, and 8 October, 1783; first + printed in the Memoires sur la vie de Bonaparte, etc., + etc., par le comte Charles d'Og.... This pseudonym + covers a still unknown author; the documents have been + for the most part considered genuine and have been + reprinted as such by many authorities, including Jung. + Though this author was an official in the ministry of + war and had its archives at his disposal, he gives one + letter without any authority and the other as in the + "Archives de la guerre." Many searchers, including the + writer, have sought them there without result. Latterly + their authenticity has been denied on the ground of + inherent improbability, since pocket money was by rule + almost unknown in the royal colleges, and Corsican + homesickness is as common as that of the Swiss. But + rules prove nothing and the letters seem inherently + genuine.] + +Nor was this, if true, the only light among the shadows in the picture +of his later Brienne school-days. Each of the hundred and fifty pupils +had a small garden spot assigned to him. Buonaparte developed a +passion for his own, and, annexing by force the neglected plots of +his two neighbors, created for himself a retreat, the solitude of +which was insured by a thick and lofty hedge planted about it. To this +citadel, the sanctity of which he protected with a fury at times half +insane, he was wont to retire in the fair weather of all seasons, with +whatever books he could procure. In the companionship of these he +passed happy, pleasant, and fruitful hours. His youthful patriotism +had been intensified by the hatred he now felt for French school-boys, +and through them for France. "I can never forgive my father," he once +cried, "for the share he had in uniting Corsica to France." Paoli +became his hero, and the favorite subjects of his reading were the +mighty deeds of men and peoples, especially in antiquity. Such matter +he found abundant in Plutarch's "Lives." + +Moreover, his punishments and degradation by the school authorities at +once created a sentiment in his favor among his companions, which not +only counteracted the effect of official penalties, but gave him a +sort of compensating leadership in their games. When driven by storms +to abandon his garden haunt, and to associate in the public hall with +the other boys, he often instituted sports in which opposing camps of +Greeks and Persians, or of Romans and Carthaginians, fought until the +uproar brought down the authorities to end the conflict. On one +occasion he proposed the game, common enough elsewhere, but not so +familiar then in France, of building snow forts, of storming and +defending them, and of fighting with snowballs as weapons. The +proposition was accepted, and the preparations were made under his +direction with scientific zeal; the intrenchments, forts, bastions, +and redoubts were the admiration of the neighborhood. For weeks the +mimic warfare went on, Buonaparte, always in command, being sometimes +the besieger and as often the besieged. Such was the aptitude, such +the resources, and such the commanding power which he showed in either +role, that the winter was always remembered in the annals of the +school. + +Of all his contemporaries only two became men of mark, Gudin and +Nansouty. Both were capable soldiers, receiving promotions and titles +at Napoleon's hand during the empire. Bourrienne, having sunk to the +lowest depths under the republic, found employment as secretary of +General Bonaparte. In this position he continued until the consulate, +when he lost both fortune and reputation in doubtful money +speculations. From old affection he secured pardon and further +employment, being sent as minister to Hamburg. There his lust for +money wrought his final ruin. The treacherous memoirs which appeared +over his name are a compilation edited by him to obtain the means of +livelihood in his declining years. Throughout life Napoleon had the +kindliest feelings for Brienne and all connected with it. In his death +struggle on the battle-fields of Champagne he showed favor to the town +and left it a large legacy in his will. No schoolmate or master +appealed to him in vain, and many of his comrades were in their +insignificant lives dependent for existence on his favor. + +It is a trite remark that diamonds can be polished only by diamond +dust. Whatever the rude processes were to which the rude nature of the +young Corsican was subjected, the result was remarkable. Latin he +disliked, and treated with disdainful neglect. His particular +aptitudes were for mathematics, for geography, and above all for +history, in which he made fair progress. His knowledge of mathematics +was never profound; in geography he displayed a remarkable and +excellent memory; biography was the department of history which +fascinated him. In all directions, however, he was quick in his +perceptions; the rapid maturing of his mind by reading and reflection +was evident to all his associates, hostile though they were. The most +convincing evidence of the fact will be found in a letter written, +probably in July, 1784, when he was fifteen years old, to an +uncle,--possibly Fesch, more likely Paravicini,--concerning family +matters.[4] His brother Joseph had gone to Autun to be educated for +the Church, his sister (Maria-Anna) Elisa had been appointed on the +royal foundation at Saint-Cyr, and Lucien was, if possible, to be +placed like Napoleon at Brienne. The two younger children had already +accompanied their father on his regular journey to Versailles, and +Lucien was now installed either in the school itself or near by, to be +in readiness for any vacancy. All was well with the rest, except that +Joseph was uneasy, and wished to become an officer too. + + [Footnote 4: Du Casse, Supplement a la Correspondence de + Napoleon Ier, Vol. X, p. 50. Masson, I, 79-84.] + +The tone of Napoleon is extraordinary. Opening with a commonplace +little sketch of Lucien such as any elder brother might draw of a +younger, he proceeds to an analysis of Joseph which is remarkable. +Searching and thorough, it explains with fullness of reasoning and +illustration how much more advantageous from the worldly point of view +both for Joseph and for the family would be a career in the Church: +"the bishop of Autun would bestow a fat living on him, and he was +himself sure of becoming a bishop." As an _obiter dictum_ it contains +a curious expression of contempt for infantry as an arm, the origin of +which feeling is by no means clear. Joseph wishes to be a soldier: +very well, but in what branch of the profession? He could not enter +the navy, for he knows no mathematics; nor is his doubtful health +suited to that career. He would have to study two years more for the +navy, and four if he were to be an engineer; however, the ceaseless +occupation of this arm of the service would be more than his strength +could endure. Similar reasons militate against the artillery. There +remains, therefore, only the infantry. "Good. I see. He wants to be +all day idle, he wants to march the streets all day, and besides, what +is a slim infantry office? A poor thing, three quarters of the time; +and that, neither my dear father nor you, nor my mother, nor my dear +uncle the archdeacon, desires, for he has already shown some slight +tendency to folly and extravagance." There is an utter absence of +loose talk, or of enthusiasm, and no allusion to principle or +sentiment. It is the work of a cold, calculating, and dictatorial +nature. There is a poetical quotation in it, very apt, but very badly +spelled; and while the expression throughout is fair, it is by no +means what might be expected from a person capable of such thought, +who had been studying French for three years, and using it exclusively +in daily life. + +In August, 1783, Buonaparte and Bourrienne, according to the statement +of the latter, shared the first prize in mathematics, and soon +afterward, in the same year, a royal inspector, M. de Keralio, arrived +at Brienne to test the progress of the King's wards. He took a great +fancy to the little Buonaparte, and declaring that, though +unacquainted with his family, he found a spark in him which must not +be extinguished, wrote an emphatic recommendation of the lad, couched +in the following terms: "M. de Bonaparte (Napoleon), born August +fifteenth, 1769. Height, four feet ten inches ten lines [about five +feet three inches, English]. Constitution: excellent health, docile +disposition, mild, straightforward, thoughtful. Conduct most +satisfactory; has always been distinguished for his application in +mathematics. He is fairly well acquainted with history and geography. +He is weak in all accomplishments--drawing, dancing, music, and the +like. This boy would make an excellent sailor; deserves to be admitted +to the school in Paris." Unfortunately for the prospect, M. de +Keralio, who might have been a powerful friend, died almost +immediately. + +By means of further genuflections, supplications, and wearisome +persistency, Charles de Buonaparte at last obtained favor not only for +Lucien, but for Joseph also. Deprived unjustly of his inheritance, +deprived also of his comforts and his home in pursuit of the ambitious +schemes rendered necessary by that wrong, the poor diplomatist was now +near the end of his resources and his energy. Except for the short +visit of his father at Brienne on his way to Paris, it is almost +certain that the young Napoleon saw none of his elders throughout his +sojourn in the former place. The event was most important to the boy +and opened the pent-up flood of his tenderness: it was therefore a +bitter disappointment when he learned that, having seen the royal +physician, his parent would return to Corsica by Autun, taking Joseph +with him, and would not stop at Brienne. Napoleon, by the advice of +Marbeuf and more definitely by the support of his friend the +inspector, had been designated for the navy; through the favor of the +latter he hoped to have been sent to Paris, and thence assigned to +Toulon, the naval port in closest connection with Corsica. There were +so many influential applications, however, for that favorite branch of +the service that the department must rid itself of as many as +possible; a youth without a patron would be the first to suffer. The +agreement which the father had made at Paris was, therefore, that +Napoleon, by way of compensation, might continue at Brienne, while +Joseph could either go thither, or to Metz, in order to make up his +deficiencies in the mathematical sciences and pass his examinations to +enter the royal service along with Napoleon, on condition that the +latter would renounce his plans for the navy, and choose a career in +the army. + +The letter in which the boy communicates his decision to his father is +as remarkable as the one just mentioned and very clearly the sequel to +it. The anxious and industrious parent had finally broken down, and in +his feeble health had taken Joseph as a support and help on the +arduous homeward journey. With the same succinct, unsparing statement +as before, Napoleon confesses his disappointment, and in commanding +phrase, with logical analysis, lays down the reasons why Joseph must +come to Brienne instead of going to Metz. There is, however, a new +element in the composition--a frank, hearty expression of affection +for his family, and a message of kindly remembrance to his friends. +But the most striking fact, in view of subsequent developments, is a +request for Boswell's "History of Corsica," and any other histories or +memoirs relating to "that kingdom." "I will bring them back when I +return, if it be six years from now."[5] The immediate sequel makes +clear the direction of his mind. He probably did not remember that he +was preparing, if possible, to strip France of her latest and highly +cherished acquisition at her own cost, or if he did, he must have felt +like the archer pluming his arrow from the off-cast feathers of his +victim's wing. It is plain that his humiliations at school, his +studies in the story of liberty, his inherited bent, and the present +disappointment, were all cumulative in the result of fixing his +attention on his native land as the destined sphere of his activity. + + [Footnote 5: This letter, which is without date, is + printed in Coston, as taken from the newspapers; again + in a revised form in Nasica: Memoires sur l'enfance et + la jeunesse de Napoleon, p. 71, who claimed to have + collated it with the original; and again in Jung: + Bonaparte et son temps, who gives as his reference, + Archives de la guerre, preserving exactly the form given + by Nasica. The Napoleon papers of the War Department + were freely, and I believe entirely, put into my hands + for examination. This letter was not among them; in + fact, my efforts to confirm the references of Jung were + sadly ineffectual.] + +Four days after the probable date of writing he passed his examination +a second time, before the new inspector, announced his choice of the +artillery as his branch of the service, and a month later was ordered +to the military academy in Paris. This institution had not merely been +restored to its former renown: it now enjoyed a special reputation as +the place of reward to which only the foremost candidates for official +honors were sent. The choice of artillery seems to have been reached +by a simple process of exclusion; the infantry was too unintellectual +and indolent, the cavalry too expensive and aristocratic; between the +engineers and the artillery there was little to choose--in neither did +wealth or influence control promotion. The decision seems to have +fallen as it did because the artillery was accidentally mentioned +first in the fatal letter he had received announcing the family +straits, and the necessary renunciation of the navy. On the +certificate which was sent up with Napoleon from Brienne was the note: +"Character masterful, imperious, and headstrong." + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +In Paris and Valence[6]. + + [Footnote 6: Authorities as before for this and the five + chapters following.] + + Introduction to Paris -- Teachers and Comrades -- Death of + Charles de Buonaparte -- His Merits -- The School at Paris + -- Napoleon's Poverty -- His Character at the Close of His + School Years -- Appointed Lieutenant in the Regiment of La + Fere -- Demoralization of the French Army -- The Men in the + Ranks -- Napoleon as a Beau -- Return to Study -- His + Profession and Vocation. + + +[Sidenote: 1784-86.] + +It was on October thirtieth, 1784 that Napoleon left Brienne for +Paris.[7] He was in the sixteenth year of his age, entirely ignorant +of what were then called the "humanities," but fairly versed in +history, geography, and the mathematical sciences. His knowledge, like +the bent of his mind, was practical rather than theoretical, and he +knew more about fortification and sieges than about metaphysical +abstractions; more about the deeds of history than about its +philosophy. The new surroundings into which he was introduced by the +Minim father who had accompanied him and his four comrades from +Brienne, all somewhat younger than himself, were different indeed from +those of the rude convent he had left behind. The splendid palace +constructed on the plans of Gabriel early in the eighteenth century +still stands to attest the King's design of lodging his gentlemen +cadets in a style worthy of their high birth, and of educating them in +manners as well as of instructing them. The domestic arrangements had +been on a par with the regal lodgings of the corps. So far had matters +gone in the direction of elegance and luxury that as we have said the +establishment was closed. But it had been reopened within a few +months, about the end of 1777. While the worst abuses had been +corrected, yet still the food was, in quantity at least, lavish; there +were provided two uniforms complete each year, with underwear +sufficient for two changes a week, what was then considered a great +luxury; there was a great staff of liveried servants, and the officers +in charge were men of polished manners and of the highest distinction. +At the very close of his life Napoleon recalled the arrangements as +made for men of wealth. "We were fed and served splendidly, treated +altogether like officers, enjoying a greater competence than most of +our families, greater than most of us were destined to enjoy." At +sixteen and with his inexperience he was perhaps an incompetent judge. +Others, Vaublanc for example, thought there was more show than +substance. + + [Footnote 7: This is the date given by himself on the + slip of paper headed "Epoques de ma vie" and contained + in the Fesch papers, now deposited in the Laurentian + Library at Florence. Here and there the text is very + difficult to decipher, but the line "Parti pour l'ecole + de Paris, le 30 Octobre 1784" is perfectly legible. Las + Cases, in the Memorial, Vol. I, p. 160, represents + Napoleon as quoting Keralio in declaring that it was not + for his birth or his attainments but for the qualities + he discerned in the boy that he sent him with imperfect + preparation to Paris.] + +Be that as it may, Bonaparte's defiant scorn and habits of solitary +study grew stronger together. It is asserted that his humor found vent +in a preposterous and peevish memorial addressed to the minister of +war on the proper training of the pupils in French military schools! +He may have written it, but it is almost impossible that it should +ever have passed beyond the walls of the school, even, as is claimed, +for revision by a former teacher, Berton. Nevertheless he found +almost, if not altogether, for the first time a real friend in the +person of des Mazis, a youth noble by birth and nature, who was +assigned to him as a pupil-teacher, and was moreover a foundation +scholar like himself. It is also declared by various authorities that +from time to time he enjoyed the agreeable society of the bishop of +Autun, who was now at Versailles, of his sister Elisa at Saint-Cyr, +and, toward the very close, of a family friend who had just settled in +Paris, the beautiful Mme. Permon, mother of the future duchess of +Abrantes. Although born in Corsica, she belonged to a branch of the +noble Greek family of the Comneni. In view of the stringent +regulations both of the military school and of Saint-Cyr, these visits +are problematical, though not impossible. + +Rigid as were the regulations of the royal establishments, their +enforcement depended of course on the character of their directors. +The marquis who presided over the military school was a veteran +place-holder, his assistant was a man of no force, and the director of +studies was the only conscientious official of the three. He knew his +charge thoroughly and was recognized by Napoleon in later years as a +man of worth. The course of studies was a continuation of that at +Brienne, and there were twenty-one instructors in the various branches +of mathematics, history, geography, and languages. De l'Esguille +endorsed one of Buonaparte's exercises in history with the remark: +"Corsican by nation and character. He will go far if circumstances +favor." Domairon said of his French style that it was "granite heated +in a volcano." There were admirable masters, seven in number, for +riding, fencing, and dancing. In none of these exercises did +Buonaparte excel. It was the avowed purpose of the institution to make +its pupils pious Roman Catholics. The parish priest at Brienne had +administered the sacraments to a number of the boys, including the +young Corsican, who appears to have submitted without cavil to the +severe religious training of the Paris school: chapel with mass at +half-past six in the morning, grace before and after all meals, and +chapel again a quarter before nine in the evening; on holidays, +catechism for new students; Sundays, catechism and high mass, and +vespers with confession every Saturday; communion every two months. +Long afterwards the Emperor remembered de Juigne, his chaplain, with +kindness and overwhelmed him with favors. Of the hundred and +thirty-two scholars resident during Buonaparte's time, eighty-three +were boarders at four hundred dollars each; none of these attained +distinction, the majority did not even pass their examinations. The +rest were scholars of the King, and were diligent; but even of these +only one or two were really able men. + +It was in the city of Mme. Permon's residence, at Montpellier, that on +the twenty-fourth of February, 1785, Charles de Buonaparte died. This +was apparently a final and mortal blow to the Buonaparte fortunes, for +it seemed as if with the father must go all the family expectations. +The circumstances were a fit close to the life thus ended. Feeling his +health somewhat restored, and despairing of further progress in the +settlement of his well-worn claim by legal methods, he had determined +on still another journey of solicitation to Versailles. With Joseph as +a companion he started; but a serious relapse occurred at sea, and +ashore the painful disease continued to make such ravages that the +father and son set out for Montpellier to consult the famous +specialists of the medical faculty at that place. It was in vain, and, +after some weeks, on February twenty-fourth the heartbroken father +breathed his last. Having learned to hate the Jesuits, he had become +indifferent to all religion, and is said by some to have repelled with +his last exertions the kindly services of Fesch, who was now a +frocked priest, and had hastened to his brother-in-law's bedside to +offer the final consolations of the Church to a dying man. Others +declare that he turned again to the solace of religion, and was +attended on his death-bed by the Abbe Coustou. Joseph, prostrated by +grief, was taken into Mme. Permon's house and received the tenderest +consolation.[8] + + [Footnote 8: Memoires du roi Joseph, I, 29.] + +Failure as the ambitious father had been, he had nevertheless been so +far the support of his family in their hopes of advancement. Sycophant +and schemer as he had become, they recognized his untiring energy in +their behalf, and truly loved him. He left them penniless and in debt, +but he died in their service, and they sincerely mourned for him. On +the twenty-third of March the sorrowing boy wrote to his great-uncle, +the archdeacon Lucien, a letter in eulogy of his father and begging +the support of his uncle as guardian. This appointment was legally +made not long after. On the twenty-eighth he wrote to his mother. Both +these letters are in existence, and sound like rhetorical school +exercises corrected by a tutor. That to his mother is, however, +dignified and affectionate, referring in a becoming spirit to the +support her children owed her. As if to show what a thorough child he +still was, the dreary little note closes with an odd postscript giving +the irrelevant news of the birth, two days earlier, of a royal +prince--the duke of Normandy! This may have been added for the benefit +of the censor who examined all the correspondence of the young men. + +Some time before, General Marbeuf had married, and the pecuniary +supplies to his boy friend seem after that event to have stopped. Mme. +de Buonaparte was left with four infant children, the youngest, +Jerome, but three months old. Their great-uncle, Lucien, the +archdeacon, was kind, and Joseph, abandoning all his ambitions, +returned to be, if possible, the support of the family. Napoleon's +poverty was no longer relative or imaginary, but real and hard. +Drawing more closely than ever within himself, he became a still more +ardent reader and student, devoting himself with passionate industry +to examining the works of Rousseau, the poison of whose political +doctrines instilled itself with fiery and grateful stinging into the +thin, cold blood of the unhappy cadet. In many respects the +instruction he received was admirable, and there is a traditional +anecdote that he was the best mathematician in the school. But on the +whole he profited little by the short continuation of his studies at +Paris. The marvelous French style which he finally created for himself +is certainly unacademic in the highest degree; in the many courses of +modern languages he mastered neither German nor English, in fact he +never had more than a few words of either; his attainments in fencing +and horsemanship were very slender. Among all his comrades he made but +one friend, while two of them became in later life his embittered +foes. Phelipeaux thwarted him at Acre; Picot de Peccaduc became +Schwarzenberg's most trusted adviser in the successful campaigns of +Austria against France. + +Whether to alleviate as soon as possible the miseries of his +destitution, or, as has been charged, to be rid of their querulous and +exasperating inmate, the authorities of the military school shortened +Buonaparte's stay to the utmost of their ability, and admitted him to +examination in August, 1785, less than a year from his admission.[9] +He passed with no distinction, being forty-second in rank, but above +his friend des Mazis, who was fifty-sixth. His appointment, +therefore, was due to an entire absence of rivalry, the young nobility +having no predilection for the arduous duties of service in the +artillery. He was eligible merely because he had passed the legal age, +and had given evidence of sufficient acquisitions. In an oft-quoted +description,[10] purporting to be an official certificate given to the +young officer on leaving, he is characterized as reserved and +industrious, preferring study to any kind of amusement, delighting in +good authors, diligent in the abstract sciences, caring little for the +others,[11] thoroughly trained in mathematics and geography; quiet, +fond of solitude, capricious, haughty, extremely inclined to egotism, +speaking little, energetic in his replies, prompt and severe in +repartee; having much self-esteem; ambitious and aspiring to any +height: "the youth is worthy of protection." There is, unfortunately, +no documentary evidence to sustain the genuineness of this report; but +whatever its origin, it is so nearly contemporary that it probably +contains some truth. + + [Footnote 9: The examiner in mathematics was the great + Laplace.] + + [Footnote 10: Taken from the apocryphal Memoirs of the + Count d'Og ... previously mentioned. See Masson: + Napoleon inconnu, I, 123; Chuquet, I, 260; Jung, I, + 125.] + + [Footnote 11: Las Cases, I, 112. Napoleon confessed his + inability to learn German, but prided himself on his + historical knowledge.] + +The two friends had both asked for appointments in a regiment +stationed at Valence, known by the style of La Fere. Des Mazis had a +brother in it; the ardent young Corsican would be nearer his native +land, and might, perhaps, be detached for service in his home. They +were both nominated in September, but the appointment was not made +until the close of October. Buonaparte was reduced to utter penury by +the long delay, his only resource being the two hundred livres +provided by the funds of the school for each of its pupils until they +reached the grade of captain. It was probably, and according to the +generally received account, at his comrade's expense, and in his +company, that he traveled. Their slender funds were exhausted by +boyish dissipation at Lyons, and they measured on foot the long +leagues thence to their destination, arriving at Valence early in +November. + +The growth of absolutism in Europe had been due at the outset to the +employment of standing armies by the kings, and the consequent +alliance between the crown, which was the paymaster, and the people, +who furnished the soldiery. There was constant conflict between the +crown and the nobility concerning privilege, constant friction between +the nobility and the people in the survivals of feudal relation. This +sturdy and wholesome contention among the three estates ended at last +in the victory of the kings. In time, therefore, the army became no +longer a mere support to the monarchy, but a portion of its moral +organism, sharing its virtues and its vices, its weakness and its +strength, reflecting, as in a mirror, the true condition of the state +so far as it was personified in the king. The French army, in the year +1785, was in a sorry plight. With the consolidation of classes in an +old monarchical society, it had come to pass that, under the +prevailing voluntary system, none but men of the lowest social stratum +would enlist. Barracks and camps became schools of vice. "Is there," +exclaimed one who at a later day was active in the work of army +reform--"is there a father who does not shudder when abandoning his +son, not to the chances of war, but to the associations of a crowd of +scoundrels a thousand times more dangerous?" + +We have already had a glimpse of the character of the officers. Their +first thought was social position and pleasure, duty and the practice +of their profession being considerations of almost vanishing +importance. Things were quite as bad in the central administration. +Neither the organization nor the equipment nor the commissariat was in +condition to insure accuracy or promptness in the working of the +machine. The regiment of La Fere was but a sample of the whole. +"Dancing three times a week," says the advertisement for recruits, +"rackets twice, and the rest of the time skittles, prisoners' base, +and drill. Pleasures reign, every man has the highest pay, and all are +well treated." Buonaparte's income, comprising his pay of eight +hundred, his provincial allowance of a hundred and twenty, and the +school pension of two hundred, amounted, all told, to eleven hundred +and twenty livres a year; his necessary expenses for board and lodging +were seven hundred and twenty, leaving less than thirty-five livres a +month, about seven dollars, for clothes and pocket money. Fifteen +years as lieutenant, fifteen as captain, and, for the rest of his +life, half pay with a decoration--such was the summary of the prospect +before the ordinary commonplace officer in a like situation. Meantime +he was comfortably lodged with a kindly old soul, a sometime +tavern-keeper named Bou, whose daughter, "of a certain age," gave a +mother's care to the young lodger. In his weary years of exile the +Emperor recalled his service at Valence as invaluable. The artillery +regiment of La Fere he said was unsurpassed in personnel and training; +though the officers were too old for efficiency, they were loyal and +fatherly; the youngsters exercised their witty sarcasm on many, but +they loved them all. + +During the first months of his garrison service Buonaparte, as an +apprentice, saw arduous service in matters of detail, but he threw off +entirely the darkness and reserve of his character, taking a full +draught from the brimming cup of pleasure. On January tenth, 1786, he +was finally received to full standing as lieutenant. The novelty, the +absence of restraint, the comparative emancipation from the arrogance +and slights to which he had hitherto been subject, good news from the +family in Corsica, whose hopes as to the inheritance were once more +high--all these elements combined to intoxicate for a time the boy of +sixteen. The strongest will cannot forever repress the exuberance of +budding manhood. There were balls, and with them the first experience +of gallantry. The young officer even took dancing-lessons. Moreover, +in the drawing-rooms of the Abbe Saint-Ruf and of his friends, for the +first time he saw the manners and heard the talk of refined +society--provincial, to be sure, but excellent. It was to the special +favor of Monseigneur de Marbeuf, the bishop of Autun, that he owed his +warm reception. The acquaintances there made were with persons of +local consequence, who in later years reaped a rich harvest for their +condescension to the young stranger. In two excellent households he +was a welcome and intimate guest, that of Lauberie and Colombier. +There were daughters in both. His acquaintance with Mlle. de Lauberie +was that of one who respected her character and appreciated her +beauty. In 1805 she was appointed lady in waiting to the Empress, but +declined the appointment because of her duties as wife and mother. In +the intimacy with Mlle. du Colombier there was more coquetry. She was +a year the senior and lived on her mother's estate some miles from the +town. Rousseau had made fashionable long walks and life in the open. +The frequent visits of Napoleon to Caroline were marked by youthful +gaiety and budding love. They spent many innocent hours in the fields +and garden of the chateau and parted with regret. Their friendship +lasted even after she became Mme. de Bressieux, and they corresponded +intimately for long years. Of his fellow-officers he saw but little, +though he ate regularly at the table of the "Three Pigeons" where the +lieutenants had their mess. This was not because they were distant, +but because he had no genius for good-fellowship, and the habit of +indifference to his comrades had grown strong upon him. + +The period of pleasure was not long. It is impossible to judge whether +the little self-indulgence was a weak relapse from an iron purpose or +part of a definite plan. The former is more likely, so abrupt and +apparently conscience-stricken was the return to labor. His +inclinations and his earnest hope were combined in a longing for +Corsica.[12] It was a bitter disappointment that under the army +regulations he must serve a year as second lieutenant before leave +could be granted. As if to compensate himself and still his longings +for home and family, he sought the companionship of a young Corsican +artist named Pontornini, then living at Tournon, a few miles distant. +To this friendship we owe the first authentic portrait of Buonaparte. +It exhibits a striking profile with a well-shaped mouth, and the +expression of gravity is remarkable in a sitter so young. The face +portrays a studious mind. Even during the months from November to +April he had not entirely deserted his favorite studies, and again +Rousseau had been their companion and guide. In a little study of +Corsica, dated the twenty-sixth of April, 1786, the earliest of his +manuscript papers, he refers to the Social Contract of Rousseau with +approval, and the last sentence is: "Thus the Corsicans were able, in +obedience to all the laws of justice, to shake off the yoke of Genoa, +and can do likewise with that of the French. Amen." But in the spring +it was the then famous but since forgotten Abbe Raynal of whom he +became a devotee. At the first blush it seems as if Buonaparte's +studies were irregular and haphazard. It is customary to attribute +slender powers of observation and undefined purposes to childhood and +youth. The opinion may be correct in the main, and would, for the +matter of that, be true as regards the great mass of adults. But the +more we know of psychology through autobiographies, the more certain +it appears that many a great life-plan has been formed in childhood, +and carried through with unbending rigor to the end. Whether +Buonaparte consciously ordered the course of his study and reading or +not, there is unity in it from first to last. + + [Footnote 12: For an amusing caricature by a comrade at + Paris, see Chuquet: La jeunesse de Napoleon, I, 262. The + legend is: "Buonaparte, cours, vole au secours de Paoli + pour le tirer des mains de ses ennemis."] + +After the first rude beginnings there were two nearly parallel lines +in his work. The first was the acquisition of what was essential to +the practice of a profession--nothing more. No one could be a soldier +in either army or navy without a practical knowledge of history and +geography, for the earth and its inhabitants are in a special sense +the elements of military activity. Nor can towns be fortified, nor +camps intrenched, nor any of the manifold duties of the general in the +field be performed without the science of quantity and numbers. Just +these things, and just so far as they were practical, the dark, +ambitious boy was willing to learn. For spelling, grammar, rhetoric, +and philosophy he had no care; neither he nor his sister Elisa, the +two strong natures of the family, could ever spell any language with +accuracy and ease, or speak and write with rhetorical elegance. Among +the private papers of his youth there is but one mathematical study of +any importance; the rest are either trivial, or have some practical +bearing on the problems of gunnery. When at Brienne, his patron had +certified that he cared nothing for accomplishments and had none. +This was the case to the end. But there was another branch of +knowledge equally practical, but at that time necessary to so few that +it was neither taught nor learned in the schools--the art of politics. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +Private Study and Garrison Life. + + Napoleon as a Student of Politics -- Nature of Rousseau's + Political Teachings -- The Abbe Raynal -- Napoleon Aspires + to be the Historian of Corsica -- Napoleon's First Love -- + His Notions of Political Science -- The Books He Read -- + Napoleon at Lyons -- His Transfer to Douay -- A Victim to + Melancholy -- Return to Corsica. + + +[Sidenote: 1786-87.] + +In one sense it is true that the first Emperor of the French was a man +of no age and of no country; in another sense he was, as few have +been, the child of his surroundings and of his time. The study of +politics was his own notion; the matter and method of the study were +conditioned by his relations to the thought of Europe in the +eighteenth century. He evidently hoped that his military and political +attainments would one day meet in the culmination of a grand career. +To the world and probably to himself it seemed as if the glorious +period of the Consulate were the realization of this hope. Those years +of his life which so appear were, in fact, the least successful. The +unsoundness of his political instructors, and the temper of the age, +combined to thwart this ambitious purpose, and render unavailing all +his achievements. + +Rousseau had every fascination for the young of that time--a +captivating style, persuasive logic, the sentiment of a poet, the +intensity of a prophet. A native of Corsica would be doubly drawn to +him by his interest in that romantic island. Sitting at the feet of +such a teacher, a young scholar would learn through convincing +argument the evils of a passing social state as they were not +exhibited elsewhere. He would discern the dangers of ecclesiastical +authority, of feudal privilege, of absolute monarchy; he would see +their disastrous influence in the prostitution, not only of social, +but of personal morality; he would become familiar with the necessity +for renewing institutions as the only means of regenerating society. +All these lessons would have a value not to be exaggerated. On the +other hand, when it came to the substitution of positive teaching for +negative criticism, he would learn nothing of value and much that was +most dangerous. In utter disregard of a sound historical method, there +was set up as the cornerstone of the new political structure a fiction +of the most treacherous kind. Buonaparte in his notes, written as he +read, shows his contempt for it in an admirable refutation of the +fundamental error of Rousseau as to the state of nature by this +remark: "I believe man in the state of nature had the same power of +sensation and reason which he now has." But if he did not accept the +premises, there was a portion of the conclusion which he took with +avidity, the most dangerous point in all Rousseau's system; namely, +the doctrine that all power proceeds from the people, not because of +their nature and their historical organization into families and +communities, but because of an agreement by individuals to secure +public order, and that, consequently, the consent given they can +withdraw, the order they have created they can destroy. In this lay +not merely the germ, but the whole system of extreme radicalism, the +essence, the substance, and the sum of the French Revolution on its +extreme and doctrinaire side. + +Rousseau had been the prophet and forerunner of the new social +dispensation. The scheme for applying its principles is found in a +work which bears the name of a very mediocre person, the Abbe Raynal, +a man who enjoyed in his day an extended and splendid reputation which +now seems to have had only the slender foundations of unmerited +persecution and the friendship of superior men. In 1770 appeared +anonymously a volume, of which, as was widely known, he was the +compiler. "The Philosophical and Political History of the +Establishments and Commerce of the Europeans in the Two Indies" is a +miscellany of extracts from many sources, and of short essays by +Raynal's brilliant acquaintances, on superstition, tyranny, and +similar themes. The reputed author had written for the public prints, +and had published several works, none of which attracted attention. +The amazing success of this one was not remarkable if, as some critics +now believe, at least a third of the text was by Diderot. However this +may be, the position of Raynal as a man of letters immediately became +a foremost one, and such was the vogue of a second edition published +over his name in 1780 that the authorities became alarmed. The climax +to his renown was achieved when, in 1781, his book was publicly +burned, and the compiler fled into exile. + +By 1785 the storm had finally subsided, and though he had not yet +returned to France, it is supposed that through the friendship of Mme. +du Colombier, the friendly patroness of the young lieutenant, +communication was opened between the great man and his aspiring +reader.[13] "Not yet eighteen," are the startling words in the +letter, written by Buonaparte, "I am a writer: it is the age when we +must learn. Will my boldness subject me to your raillery? No, I am +sure. If indulgence be a mark of true genius, you should have much +indulgence. I inclose chapters one and two of a history of Corsica, +with an outline of the rest. If you approve, I will go on; if you +advise me to stop, I will go no further." The young historian's letter +teems with bad spelling and bad grammar, but it is saturated with the +spirit of his age. The chapters as they came to Raynal's hands are not +in existence so far as is known, and posterity can never judge how +monumental their author's assurance was. The abbe's reply was kindly, +but he advised the novice to complete his researches, and then to +rewrite his pieces. Buonaparte was not unwilling to profit by the +counsels he received: soon after, in July, 1786, he gave two orders to +a Genevese bookseller, one for books concerning Corsica, another for +the memoirs of Mme. de Warens and her servant Claude Anet, which are a +sort of supplement to Rousseau's "Confessions." + + [Footnote 13: Masson (Napoleon inconnu, Vol. I, p. 160) + denies all the statements of this paragraph. He likewise + proves to his own satisfaction that Bonaparte was + neither in Lyons nor in Douay at this time. The + narrative here given is based on Coston and on Jung, who + follows the former in his reprint of the documents, + giving the very dubious reference, Mss. Archives de la + guerre. Although these manuscripts could not be found by + me, I am not willing to discard Jung's authority + completely nor to impugn his good faith. Men in office + frequently play strange pranks with official papers, and + these may yet be found. Moreover, there is some slight + collateral evidence. See Vieux: Napoleon a Lyon, p. 4, + and Souvenirs a l'usage des habitants de Douay. Douay, + 1822.] + +During May of the same year he jotted down with considerable fullness +his notions of the true relations between Church and State. He had +been reading Roustan's reply to Rousseau, and was evidently +overpowered with the necessity of subordinating ecclesiastical to +secular authority. The paper is rude and incomplete, but it shows +whence he derived his policy of dealing with the Pope and the Roman +Church in France. It has very unjustly been called an attempted +refutation of Christianity: it is nothing of the sort. Ecclesiasticism +and Christianity being hopelessly confused in his mind, he uses the +terms interchangeably in an academic and polemic discussion to prove +that the theory of the social contract must destroy all ecclesiastical +assumption of supreme power in the state. + +Some of the lagging days were spent not only in novel-reading, as the +Emperor in after years confessed to Mme. de Remusat, but in attempts +at novel-writing, to relieve the tedium of idle hours. It is said that +first and last Buonaparte read "Werther" five times through. Enough +remains among his boyish scribblings to show how fantastic were the +dreams both of love and of glory in which he indulged. Many entertain +a suspicion that amid the gaieties of the winter he had really lost +his heart, or thought he had, and was repulsed. At least, in his +"Dialogue on Love," written five years later, he says, "I, too, was +once in love," and proceeds, after a few lines, to decry the sentiment +as harmful to mankind, a something from which God would do well to +emancipate it. This may have referred to his first meeting and +conversation with a courtesan at Paris, which he describes in one of +his papers, but this is not likely from the context, which is not +concerned with the gratification of sexual passion. It is of the +nobler sentiment that he speaks, and there seems to have been in the +interval no opportunity for philandering so good as the one he had +enjoyed during his boyish acquaintance with Mlle. Caroline du +Colombier. It has, at all events, been her good fortune to secure, by +this supposition, a place in history, not merely as the first girl +friend of Napoleon, but as the object of his first pure passion. + +But these were his avocations; the real occupation of his time was +study. Besides reading again the chief works of Rousseau, and +devouring those of Raynal, his most beloved author, he also read much +in the works of Voltaire, of Filangieri, of Necker, and of Adam +Smith. With note-book and pencil he extracted, annotated, and +criticized, his mind alert and every faculty bent to the clear +apprehension of the subject in hand. To the conception of the state as +a private corporation, which he had imbibed from Rousseau, was now +added the conviction that the institutions of France were no longer +adapted to the occupations, beliefs, or morals of her people, and that +revolution was a necessity. To judge from a memoir presented some +years later to the Lyons Academy, he must have absorbed the teachings +of the "Two Indies" almost entire. + +The consuming zeal for studies on the part of this incomprehensible +youth is probably unparalleled. Having read Plutarch in his childhood, +he now devoured Herodotus, Strabo, and Diodorus; China, Arabia, and +the Indies dazzled his imagination, and what he could lay hands upon +concerning the East was soon assimilated. England and Germany next +engaged his attention, and toward the close of his studies he became +ardent in examining the minutest particulars of French history. It +was, moreover, the science of history, and not its literature, which +occupied him--dry details of revenue, resources, and institutions; the +Sorbonne, the bull Unigenitus, and church history in general; the +character of peoples, the origin of institutions, the philosophy of +legislation--all these he studied, and, if the fragments of his notes +be trustworthy evidence, as they surely are, with some thoroughness. +He also found time to read the masterpieces of French literature, and +the great critical judgments which had been passed upon them.[14] + + [Footnote 14: The volumes of Napoleon inconnu contain + the text of these papers as deciphered for M. Masson and + revised by him. My own examination, which antedated his + transcription by more than a year (1891), led me to + trust their authenticity absolutely, as far as the + writer's memory and good faith are concerned. I cannot + rely as positively as Masson does on the Epoques de ma + vie, which has the appearance of a casual scribbling + done in an idle moment on the first scrap that came to + hand.] + +The agreeable and studious life at Valence was soon ended. Early in +August, 1786, a little rebellion, known as the "Two-cent Revolt," +broke out in Lyons over a strike of the silk-weavers for two cents an +ell more pay and the revolt of the tavern-keepers against the +enforcement of the "Banvin," an ancient feudal right levying a heavy +tax on the sale of wine. The neighboring garrisons were ordered to +furnish their respective quotas for the suppression of the uprising. +Buonaparte's company was sent among others, but those earlier on the +ground had been active, several workmen had been killed, and the +disturbance was already quelled when he arrived. The days he spent at +Lyons were so agreeable that, as he wrote his uncle Fesch, he left the +city with regret "to follow his destiny." His regiment had been +ordered northward to Douay in Flanders; he returned to Valence and +reached that city about the end of August. His furlough began +nominally on October first, but for the Corsican officers a month's +grace was added, so that he was free to leave on September first. + +The time spent under the summer skies of the north would have been +dreary enough if he had regularly received news from home. Utterly +without success in finding occupation in Corsica, and hopeless as to +France, Joseph had some time before turned his eyes toward Tuscany for +a possible career. He was now about to make a final effort, and seek +personally at the Tuscan capital official recognition with a view to +relearning his native tongue, now almost forgotten, and to obtaining +subsequent employment of any kind that might offer in the land of his +birth. Lucien, the archdeacon, was seriously ill, and General +Marbeuf, the last influential friend of the family, had died. Louis +had been promised a scholarship in one of the royal artillery schools; +deprived of his patron, he would probably lose the appointment. +Finally, the pecuniary affairs of Mme. de Buonaparte were again +entangled, and now appeared hopeless. She had for a time been +receiving an annual state bounty for raising mulberry-trees, as France +was introducing silk culture into the island. The inspectors had +condemned this year's work, and were withholding a substantial portion +of the allowance. These were the facts and they probably reached +Napoleon at Valence; it was doubtless a knowledge of them which put an +end to all his light-heartedness and to his study, historical or +political. He immediately made ready to avail himself of his leave so +that he might instantly set out to his mother's relief. + +Despondent and anxious, he moped, grew miserable, and contracted a +slight malarial fever which for the next six or seven years never +entirely relaxed its hold on him. Among his papers has recently been +found the long, wild, pessimistic rhapsody to which reference has +already been made and in which there is talk of suicide. The plaint is +of the degeneracy among men, of the destruction of primitive +simplicity in Corsica by the French occupation, of his own isolation, +and of his yearning to see his friends once more. Life is no longer +worth while; his country gone, a patriot has naught to live for, +especially when he has no pleasure and all is pain--when the character +of those about him is to his own as moonlight is to sunlight. If there +were but a single life in his way, he would bury the avenging blade of +his country and her violated laws in the bosom of the tyrant. Some of +his complaining was even less coherent than this. It is absurd to take +the morbid outpouring seriously, except in so far as it goes to prove +that its writer was a victim of the sentimental egoism into which the +psychological studies of the eighteenth century had degenerated, and +to suggest that possibly if he had not been Napoleon he might have +been a Werther. Though dated May third, no year is given, and it may +well describe the writer's feelings in any period of despondency. No +such state of mind was likely to have arisen in the preceding spring, +but it may have been written even then as a relief to pent-up feelings +which did not appear on the surface; or possibly in some later year +when the agony of suffering for himself and his family laid hold upon +him. In any case it expresses a bitter melancholy, such as would be +felt by a boy face to face with want. + +At Valence Napoleon visited his old friend the Abbe Saint-Ruf, to +solicit favor for Lucien, who, having left Brienne, would study +nothing but the humanities, and was determined to become a priest. At +Aix he saw both his uncle Fesch and his brother. At Marseilles he is +said to have paid his respects to the Abbe Raynal, requesting advice, +and seeking further encouragement in his historical labors. This is +very doubtful, for there is no record of Raynal's return to France +before 1787. Lodging in that city, as appears from a memorandum on his +papers, with a M. Allard, he must soon have found a vessel sailing for +his destination, because he came expeditiously to Ajaccio, arriving in +that city toward the middle of the month, if the ordinary time had +been consumed in the journey. Such appears to be the likeliest account +of this period, although our knowledge is not complete. In the +archives of Douay, there is, according to an anonymous local +historian, a record of Buonaparte's presence in that city with the +regiment of La Fere, and he is quoted as having declared at Elba to +Sir Neil Campbell that he had been sent thither. But in the "Epochs of +My Life," he wrote that he left Valence on September first, 1786, for +Ajaccio, arriving on the fifteenth. Weighing the probabilities, it +seems likely that the latter was doubtful, since there is but the +slenderest possibility of his having been at Douay in the following +year, the only other hypothesis, and there exists no record of his +activities in Corsica before the spring of 1787. The chronology of the +two years is still involved in obscurity and it is possible that he +went with his regiment to Douay, contracted his malaria there, and did +not actually get leave of absence until February first of the latter +year. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +Further Attempts at Authorship. + + Straits of the Buonaparte Family -- Napoleon's Efforts to + Relieve Them -- Home Studies -- His History and Short + Stories -- Visit to Paris -- Renewed Petitions to Government + -- More Authorship -- Secures Extension of his Leave -- The + Family Fortunes Desperate -- The History of Corsica + Completed -- Its Style, Opinions, and Value -- Failure to + Find a Publisher -- Sentiments Expressed in his Short + Stories -- Napoleon's Irregularities as a French Officer -- + His Life at Auxonne -- His Vain Appeal to Paoli -- The + History Dedicated to Necker. + + +[Sidenote: 1787-89.] + +When Napoleon arrived at Ajaccio, and, after an absence of eight +years, was again with his family, he found their affairs in a serious +condition. Not one of the old French officials remained; the +diplomatic leniency of occupation was giving place to the official +stringency of a permanent possession; proportionately the disaffection +of the patriot remnant among the people was slowly developing into a +wide-spread discontent. Joseph, the hereditary head of a family which +had been thoroughly French in conduct, and was supposed to be so in +sentiment, which at least looked to the King for further favors, was +still a stanch royalist. Having been unsuccessful in every other +direction, he was now seeking to establish a mercantile connection +with Florence which would enable him to engage in the oil-trade. A +modest beginning was, he hoped, about to be made. It was high time, +for the only support of his mother and her children, in the failure to +secure the promised subsidy for her mulberry plantations, was the +income of the old archdeacon, who was now confined to his room, and +growing feebler every day under attacks of gout. Unfortunately, +Joseph's well-meant efforts again came to naught. + +The behavior of the pale, feverish, masterful young lieutenant was not +altogether praiseworthy. He filled the house with his new-fangled +philosophy, and assumed a self-important air. Among his papers and in +his own handwriting is a blank form for engaging and binding recruits. +Clearly he had a tacit understanding either with himself or with +others to secure some of the fine Corsican youth for the regiment of +La Fere. But there is no record of any success in the enterprise. +Among the letters which he wrote was one dated April first, 1787, to +the renowned Dr. Tissot of Lausanne, referring to his correspondent's +interest in Paoli, and asking advice concerning the treatment of the +canon's gout. The physician never replied, and the epistle was found +among his papers marked "unanswered and of little interest." The old +ecclesiastic listened to his nephew's patriotic tirades, and even +approved; Mme. de Buonaparte coldly disapproved. She would have +preferred calmer, more efficient common sense. Not that her son was +inactive in her behalf; on the contrary, he began a series of busy +representations to the provincial officials which secured some +good-will and even trifling favor to the family. But the results were +otherwise unsatisfactory, for the mulberry money was not paid. + +Napoleon's zeal for study was not in the least abated in the +atmosphere of home. Joseph in his memoirs says the reunited family was +happy in spite of troubles. There was reciprocal joy in their +companionship and his long absent brother was glad in the pleasures +both of home and of nature so congenial to his feelings and his +tastes. The most important part of Napoleon's baggage appears to have +been the books, documents, and papers he brought with him. That he had +collections on Corsica has been told. Joseph says he had also the +classics of both French and Latin literature as well as the +philosophical writings of Plato; likewise, he thinks, Ossian and +Homer. In the "Discourse" presented not many years later to the Lyons +Academy and in the talks at St. Helena, Napoleon refers to his +enjoyment of nature at this time; to the hours spent in the grotto, or +under the majestic oak, or in the shade of the olive groves, all parts +of the sadly neglected garden of Milleli some distance from the house +and belonging to his mother; to his walks on the meadows among the +lowing herds; to his wanderings on the shore at sunset, his return by +moonlight, and the gentle melancholy which unbidden enveloped him in +spite of himself. He savored the air of Corsica, the smell of its +earth, the spicy breezes of its thickets, he would have known his home +with his eyes shut, and with them open he found it the earthly +paradise. Yet all the while he was busy, very busy, partly with good +reading, partly in the study of history, and in large measure with the +practical conduct of the family affairs. + +As the time for return to service drew near it was clear that the +mother with her family of four helpless little children, all a serious +charge on her time and purse, could not be left without the support of +one older son, at least; and Joseph was now about to seek his fortune +in Pisa. Accordingly Napoleon with methodical care drew up two papers +still existing, a memorandum of how an application for renewed leave +on the ground of sickness was to be made and also the form of +application itself, which no doubt he copied. At any rate he applied, +on the ground of ill health, for a renewal of leave to last five and a +half months. It was granted, and the regular round of family cares +went on; but the days and weeks brought no relief. Ill health there +was, and perhaps sufficient to justify that plea, but the physical +fever was intensified by the checks which want set upon ambition. The +passion for authorship reasserted itself with undiminished violence. +The history of Corsica was resumed, recast, and vigorously continued, +while at the same time the writer completed a short story entitled +"The Count of Essex,"--with an English setting, of course,--and wrote +a Corsican novel. The latter abounds in bitterness against France, the +most potent force in the development of the plot being the dagger. The +author's use of French, though easier, is still very imperfect. A +slight essay, or rather story, in the style of Voltaire, entitled "The +Masked Prophet," was also completed. + +It was reported early in the autumn that many regiments were to be +mobilized for special service, among them that of La Fere. This gave +Napoleon exactly the opening he desired, and he left Corsica at once, +without reference to the end of his furlough. He reached Paris in +October, a fortnight before he was due. His regiment was still at +Douay: he may have spent a few days with it in that city. But this is +not certain, and soon after it was transferred to St. Denis, now +almost a suburb of Paris; it was destined for service in western +France, where incipient tumults were presaging the coming storm. +Eventually its destination was changed and it was ordered to Auxonne. +The Estates-General of France were about to meet for the first time in +one hundred and seventy-five years; they had last met in 1614, and had +broken up in disorder. They were now called as a desperate remedy, not +understood, but at least untried, for ever-increasing embarrassments; +and the government, fearing still greater disorders, was making ready +to repress any that might break out in districts known to be specially +disaffected. All this was apparently of secondary importance to young +Buonaparte; he had a scheme to use the crisis for the benefit of his +family. Compelled by their utter destitution at the time of his +father's death, he had temporarily and for that occasion assumed his +father's role of suppliant. Now for a second time he sent in a +petition. It was written in Paris, dated November ninth, 1787, and +addressed, in his mother's behalf, to the intendant for Corsica +resident at the French capital. His name and position must have +carried some weight, it could not have been the mere effrontery of an +adventurer which secured him a hearing at Versailles, an interview +with the prime minister, Lomenie de Brienne, and admission to all the +minor officials who might deal with his mother's claim. All these +privileges he declares that he had enjoyed and the statements must +have been true. The petition was prefaced by a personal letter +containing them. Though a supplication in form, the request is unlike +his father's humble and almost cringing papers, being rather a demand +for justice than a petition for favor; it is unlike them in another +respect, because it contains a falsehood, or at least an utterly +misleading half-truth: a statement that he had shortened his leave +because of his mother's urgent necessities. + +The paper was not handed in until after the expiration of his leave, +and his true object was not to rejoin his regiment, as was hinted in +it, but to secure a second extension of leave. Such was the slackness +of discipline that he spent all of November and the first half of +December in Paris. During this period he made acquaintance with the +darker side of Paris life. The papers numbered four, five, and six in +the Fesch collection give a fairly detailed account of one adventure +and his bitter repentance. The second suggests the writing of history +as an antidote for unhappiness, and the last is a long, rambling +effusion in denunciation of pleasure, passion, and license; of +gallantry as utterly incompatible with patriotism. His acquaintance +with history is ransacked for examples. Still another short effusion +which may belong to the same period is in the form of an imaginary +letter, saturated likewise with the Corsican spirit, addressed by King +Theodore to Walpole. It has little value or meaning, except as it may +possibly foreshadow the influence on Napoleon's imagination of +England's boundless hospitality to political fugitives like Theodore +and Paoli. + +Lieutenant Buonaparte remained in Paris until he succeeded in +procuring permission to spend the next six months in Corsica, at his +own charges. He was quite as disingenuous in his request to the +Minister of War as in his memorial to the intendant for Corsica, +representing that the estates of Corsica were about to meet, and that +his presence was essential to safeguard important interests which in +his absence would be seriously compromised. Whatever such a plea may +have meant, his serious cares as the real head of the family were ever +uppermost, and never neglected. Louis had, as was feared, lost his +appointment, and though not past the legal age, was really too old to +await another vacancy; Lucien was determined to leave Brienne in any +case, and to stay at Aix in order to seize the first chance which +might arise of entering the seminary. Napoleon made some +provision--what it was is not known--for Louis's further temporary +stay at Brienne, and then took Lucien with him as far as their route +lay together. He reached his home again on the first of January, 1788. + +The affairs of the family were at last utterly desperate, and were +likely, moreover, to grow worse before they grew better. The old +archdeacon was failing daily, and, although known to have means, he +declared himself destitute of ready money. With his death would +disappear a portion of his income; his patrimony and savings, which +the Buonapartes hoped of course to inherit, were an uncertain +quantity, probably insufficient for the needs of such a family. The +mulberry money was still unpaid; all hope of wresting the ancestral +estates from the government authorities was buried; Joseph was without +employment, and, as a last expedient, was studying in Pisa for +admission to the bar. Louis and Lucien were each a heavy charge; +Napoleon's income was insufficient even for his own modest wants, +regulated though they were by the strictest economy. Who shall cast a +stone at the shiftiness of a boy not yet nineteen, charged with such +cares, yet consumed with ambition, and saturated with the romantic +sentimentalism of his times? Some notion of his embarrassments and +despair can be obtained from a rapid survey of his mental states and +the corresponding facts. An ardent republican and revolutionary, he +was tied by the strongest bonds to the most despotic monarchy in +Europe. A patriotic Corsican, he was the servant of his country's +oppressor. Conscious of great ability, he was seeking an outlet in the +pursuit of literature, a line of work entirely unsuited to his powers. +The head and support of a large family, he was almost penniless; if he +should follow his convictions, he and they might be altogether so. In +the period of choice and requiring room for experiment, he saw himself +doomed to a fixed, inglorious career, and caged in a framework of +unpropitious circumstance. Whatever the moral obliquity in his feeble +expedients, there is the pathos of human limitations in their +character. + +Whether the resolution had long before been taken, or was of recent +formation, Napoleon now intended to make fame and profit go hand in +hand. The meeting of the Corsican estates was, as far as is known, +entirely forgotten, and authorship was resumed, not merely with the +ardor of one who writes from inclination, but with the regular +drudgery of a craftsman. In spite of all discouragements, he appeared +to a visitor in his family, still considered the most devoted in the +island to the French monarchy because so favored by it, as being "full +of vivacity, quick in his speech and motions, his mind apparently hard +at work in digesting schemes and forming plans and proudly rejecting +every other suggestion but that of his own fancy. For this intolerable +ambition he was often reproved by the elder Lucien, his uncle, a +dignitary of the church. Yet these admonitions seemed to make no +impression upon the mind of Napoleon, who received them with a grin of +pity, if not of contempt."[15] The amusements of the versatile and +headstrong boy would have been sufficient occupation for most men. +Regulating, as far as possible, his mother's complicated affairs, he +journeyed frequently to Bastia, probably to collect money due for +young mulberry-trees which had been sold, possibly to get material for +his history. On these visits he met and dined with the artillery +officers of the company stationed there. One of them, M. de Roman, a +very pronounced royalist, has given in his memoirs a striking portrait +of his guest.[16] "His face was not pleasing to me at all, his +character still less; and he was so dry and sententious for a youth of +his age, a French officer too, that I never for a moment entertained +the thought of making him my friend. My knowledge of governments, +ancient and modern, was not sufficiently extended to discuss with him +his favorite subject of conversation. So when in my turn I gave the +dinner, which happened three or four times that year, I retired after +the coffee, leaving him to the hands of a captain of ours, far better +able than I was to lock arms with such a valiant antagonist. My +comrades, like myself, saw nothing in this but absurd pedantry. We +even believed that this magisterial tone which he assumed was +meaningless until one day when he reasoned so forcibly on the rights +of nations in general, his own in particular, _Stupete gentes!_ that +we could not recover from our amazement, especially when in speaking +of a meeting of their Estates, about calling which there was some +deliberation, and which M. de Barrin sought to delay, following in +that the blunders of his predecessor, he said: 'that it was very +surprising that M. de Barrin thought to prevent them from deliberating +about their interests,' adding in a threatening tone, 'M. de Barrin +does not know the Corsicans; he will see what they can do.' This +expression gave the measure of his character. One of our comrades +replied: 'Would you draw your sword against the King's representative?' +He made no answer. We separated coldly and that was the last time this +former comrade did me the honor to dine with me." Making all +allowance, this incident exhibits the feeling and purpose of Napoleon. +During these days he also completed a plan for the defense of St. +Florent, of La Mortilla, and of the Gulf of Ajaccio; drew up a report +on the organization of the Corsican militia; and wrote a paper on the +strategic importance of the Madeleine Islands. This was his play; his +work was the history of Corsica. It was finished sooner than he had +expected; anxious to reap the pecuniary harvest of his labors and +resume his duties, he was ready for the printer when he left for +France in the latter part of May to secure its publication. Although +dedicated in its first form to a powerful patron, Monseigneur +Marbeuf, then Bishop of Sens, like many works from the pen of genius +it remained at the author's death in manuscript. + + [Footnote 15: Correspondence of Sir John Sinclair, I, + 47.] + + [Footnote 16: Souvenirs d'un officier royaliste, par M. + de R..., Vol. I, p. 117.] + +The book was of moderate size, and of moderate merit.[17] Its form, +repeatedly changed from motives of expediency, was at first that of +letters addressed to the Abbe Raynal. Its contents display little +research and no scholarship. The style is intended to be popular, and +is dramatic rather than narrative. There is exhibited, as everywhere +in these early writings, an intense hatred of France, a glowing +affection for Corsica and her heroes. A very short account of one +chapter will sufficiently characterize the whole work. Having outlined +in perhaps the most effective passage the career of Sampiero, and +sketched his diplomatic failures at all the European courts except +that of Constantinople, where at last he had secured sympathy and was +promised aid, the author depicts the patriot's bitterness when +recalled by the news of his wife's treachery. Confronting his guilty +spouse, deaf to every plea for pity, hardened against the tender +caresses of his children, the Corsican hero utters judgment. "Madam," +he sternly says, "in the face of crime and disgrace, there is no other +resort but death." Vannina at first falls unconscious, but, regaining +her senses, she clasps her children to her breast and begs life for +their sake. But feeling that the petition is futile, she then recalls +the memory of her earlier virtue, and, facing her fate, begs as a last +favor that no base executioner shall lay his soiled hands on the wife +of Sampiero, but that he himself shall execute the sentence. Vannina's +behavior moves her husband, but does not touch his heart. "The pity +and tenderness," says Buonaparte, "which she should have awakened +found a soul thenceforward closed to the power of sentiment. Vannina +died. She died by the hands of Sampiero." + + [Footnote 17: Printed in Napoleon inconnu, Vol. II, p. + 167.] + +Neither the publishers of Valence, nor those of Dole, nor those of +Auxonne, would accept the work. At Paris one was finally found who was +willing to take a half risk. The author, disillusioned but sanguine, +was on the point of accepting the proposition, and was occupied with +considering ways and means, when his friend the Bishop of Sens was +suddenly disgraced. The manuscript was immediately copied and revised, +with the result, probably, of making its tone more intensely Corsican; +for it was now to be dedicated to Paoli. The literary aspirant must +have foreseen the coming crash, and must have felt that the exile was +to be again the liberator, and perhaps the master, of his native land. +At any rate, he abandoned the idea of immediate publication, possibly +in the dawning hope that as Paoli's lieutenant he could make Corsican +history better than he could write it. It is this copy which has been +preserved; the original was probably destroyed. + +The other literary efforts of this feverish time were not as +successful even as those in historical writing. The stories are wild +and crude; one only, "The Masked Prophet," has any merit or interest +whatsoever. Though more finished than the others, its style is also +abrupt and full of surprises; the scene and characters are Oriental; +the plot is a feeble invention. An ambitious and rebellious Ameer is +struck with blindness, and has recourse to a silver mask to deceive +his followers. Unsuccessful, he poisons them all, throws their corpses +into pits of quicklime, then leaps in himself, to deceive the world +and leave no trace of mortality behind. His enemies believe, as he +desired, that he and his people have been taken up into heaven. The +whole, however, is dimly prescient, and the concluding lines of the +fable have been thought by believers in augury to be prophetic. +"Incredible instance! How far can the passion for fame go!" Among the +papers of this period are also a constitution for the "calotte," a +secret society of his regiment organized to keep its members up to the +mark of conduct expected from gentlemen and officers, and many +political notes. One of these rough drafts is a project for an essay +on royal power, intended to treat of its origin and to display its +usurpations, and which closes with these words: "There are but few +kings who do not deserve to be dethroned." + +The various absences of Buonaparte from his regiment up to this time +are antagonistic to our modern ideas of military duty. The subsequent +ones seem simply inexplicable, even in a service so lax as that of the +crumbling Bourbon dynasty. Almost immediately after Joseph's return, +on the first of June he sailed for France. He did not reach Auxonne, +where the artillery regiment La Fere was now stationed, until early in +that month, 1788. He remained there less than a year and a half, and +then actually obtained another leave of absence, from September tenth, +1789, to February, 1791, which he fully intended should end in his +retirement from the French service.[18] The incidents of this second +term of garrison life are not numerous, but from the considerable +body of his notes and exercises which dates from the period we know +that he suddenly developed great zeal in the study of artillery, +theoretical and practical, and that he redoubled his industry in the +pursuit of historical and political science. In the former line he +worked diligently and became expert. With his instructor Duteil he +grew intimate and the friendship was close throughout life. He +associated on the best of terms with his old friend des Mazis and +began a pleasant acquaintance with Gassendi. So faithful was he to the +minutest details of his profession that he received marks of the +highest distinction. Not yet twenty and only a second lieutenant, he +was appointed, with six officers of higher rank, a member of the +regimental commission to study the best disposal of mortars and cannon +in firing shells. Either at this time or later (the date is +uncertain), he had sole charge of important manoeuvers held in honor +of the Prince of Conde. These honors he recounted with honest pride in +a letter dated August twenty-second to his great-uncle. Among the +Fesch papers are considerable fragments of his writing on the theory, +practice, and history of artillery. Antiquated as are their contents, +they show how patient and thorough was the work of the student, and +some of their ideas adapted to new conditions were his permanent +possession, as the greatest master of artillery at the height of his +fame. In the study of politics he read Plato and examined the +constitutions of antiquity, devouring with avidity what literature he +could find concerning Venice, Turkey, Tartary, and Arabia. At the same +time he carefully read the history of England, and made some accurate +observations on the condition of contemporaneous politics in France. + + [Footnote 18: Similar instances of repeated and + lengthened absence from duty among the young officers + are numerous and easily found in the archives. + Nevertheless, Buonaparte's case is a very extraordinary + example of how a clever person could work the system. + The facts are bad enough, but as many cities claimed + Homer, so in the Napoleonic legend events of a sojourn + at Strasburg about this time were given in great detail. + He was in relations with a famous actress and wrote + verses which are printed. Even Metternich records that + the young Napoleon Bonaparte had just left the Alsatian + capital when he himself arrived there in 1788. Later, in + 1806, a fencing-master claimed that he had instructed + both these great men in the earlier year at Strasburg. + Yet the whole tale is impossible. See Napoleon inconnu, + Vol. I, p. 204.] + +His last disappointment had rendered him more taciturn and +misanthropic than ever; it seems clear that he was working to become +an expert, not for the benefit of France, but for that of Corsica. +Charged with the oversight of some slight works on the fortifications, +he displayed such incompetence that he was actually punished by a +short arrest. Misfortune still pursued the family. The youth who had +been appointed to Brienne when Louis was expecting a scholarship +suddenly died. Mme. de Buonaparte was true to the family tradition, +and immediately forwarded a petition for the place, but was, as +before, unsuccessful. Lucien was not yet admitted to Aix; Joseph was a +barrister, to be sure, but briefless. Napoleon once again, but for the +last time,--and with marked impatience, even with impertinence,--took +up the task of solicitation. The only result was a good-humored, +non-committal reply. Meantime the first mutterings of the +revolutionary outbreak were heard, and spasmodic disorders, trifling +but portentous, were breaking out, not only among the people, but even +among the royal troops. One of these, at Seurre, was occasioned by the +news that the hated and notorious syndicate existing under the +scandalous agreement with the King known as the "Bargain of Famine" +had been making additional purchases of grain from two merchants of +that town. This was in April, 1789. Buonaparte was put in command of a +company and sent to aid in suppressing the riot. But it was ended +before he arrived; on May first he returned to Auxonne. + +[Illustration: From the collection of W. C. Crane. Engraved by Huot. +Charles Bonaparte, Father of the Emperor Napoleon, 1785. +Painted by Girodet.] + +Four days later the Estates met at Versailles. What was passing in the +mind of the restless, bitter, disappointed Corsican is again plainly +revealed. A famous letter to Paoli, to which reference has already +been made, is dated June twelfth. It is a justification of his +cherished work as the only means open to a poor man, the slave of +circumstances, for summoning the French administration to the bar +of public opinion; viz., by comparing it with Paoli's. Willing to face +the consequences, the writer asks for documentary materials and for +moral support, ending with ardent assurances of devotion from his +family, his mother, and himself. But there is a ring of false coin in +many of its words and sentences. The "infamy" of those who betrayed +Corsica was the infamy of his own father; the "devotion" of the +Buonaparte family had been to the French interest, in order to secure +free education, with support for their children, in France. The +"enthusiasm" of Napoleon was a cold, unsentimental determination to +push their fortunes, which, with opposite principles, would have been +honorable enough. In later years Lucien said that he had made two +copies of the history. It was probably one of these which has been +preserved. Whether or not Paoli read the book does not appear. Be that +as it may, his reply to Buonaparte's letter, written some months +later, was not calculated to encourage the would-be historian. Without +absolutely refusing the documents asked for by the aspiring writer, he +explained that he had no time to search for them, and that, besides, +Corsican history was only important in any sense by reason of the men +who had made it, not by reason of its achievements. Among other bits +of fatherly counsel was this: "You are too young to write history. +Make ready for such an enterprise slowly. Patiently collect your +anecdotes and facts. Accept the opinions of other writers with +reserve." As if to soften the severity of his advice, there follows a +strain of modest self-depreciation: "Would that others had known less +of me and I more of myself. _Probe diu vivimus_; may our descendants +so live that they shall speak of me merely as one who had good +intentions." + +Buonaparte's last shift in the treatment of his book was most +undignified and petty. With the unprincipled resentment of despair, in +want of money, not of advice, he entirely remodeled it for the third +time, its chapters being now put as fragmentary traditions into the +mouth of a Corsican mountaineer. In this form it was dedicated to +Necker, the famous Swiss, who as French minister of finance was vainly +struggling with the problem of how to distribute taxation equally, and +to collect from the privileged classes their share. A copy was first +sent to a former teacher for criticism. His judgment was extremely +severe both as to expression and style. In particular, attention was +called to the disadvantage of indulging in so much rhetoric for the +benefit of an overworked public servant like Necker, and to the +inappropriateness of putting his own metaphysical generalizations and +captious criticism of French royalty into the mouth of a peasant +mountaineer. Before the correspondence ended, Napoleon's student life +was over. Necker had fled, the French Revolution was rushing on with +ever-increasing speed, and the young adventurer, despairing of success +as a writer, seized the proffered opening to become a man of action. +In a letter dated January twelfth, 1789, and written at Auxonne to his +mother, the young officer gives a dreary account of himself. The +swamps of the neighborhood and their malarious exhalations rendered +the place, he thought, utterly unwholesome. At all events, he had +contracted a low fever which undermined his strength and depressed his +spirits. There was no immediate hope of a favorable response to the +petition for the moneys due on the mulberry plantation because "this +unhappy period in French finance delays furiously (_sic_) the +discussion of our affair. Let us hope, however, that we may be +compensated for our long and weary waiting and that we shall receive +complete restitution." He writes further a terse sketch of public +affairs in France and Europe, speaks despairingly of what the council +of war has in store for the engineers by the proposed reorganization, +and closes with tender remembrances to Joseph and Lucien, begging for +news and reminding them that he had received no home letter since the +preceding October. The reader feels that matters have come to a climax +and that the scholar is soon to enter the arena of revolutionary +activity. Curiously enough, the language used is French; this is +probably due to the fact that it was intended for the family, rather +than for the neighborhood circle. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +The Revolution in France. + + The French Aristocracy -- Priests, Lawyers, and Petty Nobles + -- Burghers, Artisans, and Laborers -- Intelligent Curiosity + of the Nation -- Exasperating Anachronisms -- Contrast of + Demand and Resources -- The Great Nobles a Barrier to Reform + -- Mistakes of the King -- The Estates Meet at Versailles -- + The Court Party Provokes Violence -- Downfall of Feudal + Privilege. + + +[Sidenote: 1787-89.] + +At last the ideas of the century had declared open war on its +institutions; their moral conquest was already coextensive with +central and western Europe, but the first efforts toward their +realization were to be made in France, for the reason that the line of +least resistance was to be found not through the most downtrodden, but +through the freest and the best instructed nation on the Continent. +Both the clergy and the nobility of France had become accustomed to +the absorption in the crown of their ancient feudal power. They were +content with the great offices in the church, in the army, and in the +civil administration, with exemption from the payment of taxes; they +were happy in the delights of literature and the fine arts, in the +joys of a polite, self-indulgent, and spendthrift society, so +artificial and conventional that for most of its members a sufficient +occupation was found in the study and exposition of its trivial but +complex customs. The conduct and maintenance of a salon, the stage, +gallantry; clothes, table manners, the use of the fan: these are +specimens of what were considered not the incidents but the essentials +of life. + +The serious-minded among the upper classes were as enlightened as any +of their rank elsewhere. They were familiar with prevalent +philosophies, and full of compassion for miseries which, for lack of +power, they could not remedy, and which, to their dismay, they only +intensified in their attempts at alleviation. They were even ready for +considerable sacrifices. The gracious side of the character of Louis +XVI is but a reflection of the piety, moderation, and earnestness of +many of the nobles. His rule was mild; there were no excessive +indignities practised in the name of royal power except in cases like +that of the "Bargain of Famine," where he believed himself helpless. +The lower clergy, as a whole, were faithful in the performance of +their duties. This was not true of the hierarchy. They were great +landowners, and their interests coincided with those of the upper +nobility. The doubt of the country had not left them untouched, and +there were many without conviction or principle, time-serving and +irreverent. The lawyers and other professional men were to be found, +for the most part, in Paris and in the towns. They had their +livelihood in the irregularities of society, and, as a class, were +retentive of ancient custom and present social habits. Although by +birth they belonged in the main to the third estate, they were in +reality adjunct to the first, and consequently, being integral members +of neither, formed a strong independent class by themselves. The petty +nobles were in much the same condition with regard to the wealthy, +powerful families in their own estate and to the rich burghers; they +married the fortunes of the latter and accepted their hospitality, but +otherwise treated them with the same exclusive condescension as that +displayed to themselves by the great. + +But if the estate of the clergy and the estate of the nobility were +alike divided in character and interests, this was still more true of +the burghers. In 1614, at the close of the middle ages, the third +estate had been little concerned with the agricultural laborer. For +various reasons this class had been gradually emancipated until now +there was less serfage in France than elsewhere; more than a quarter, +perhaps a third, of the land was in the hands of peasants and other +small proprietors. This, to be sure, was economically disastrous, for +over-division of land makes tillage unprofitable, and these very men +were the taxpayers. The change had been still more marked in the +denizens of towns. During the last two centuries the wealthy burgesses +had grown still more wealthy in the expansion of trade, commerce, and +manufactures; many had struggled and bought their way into the ranks +of the nobility. The small tradesmen had remained smug, hard to move, +and resentful of change. But there was a large body of men unknown to +previous constitutions, and growing ever larger with the increase in +population--intelligent and unintelligent artisans, half-educated +employees in workshops, mills, and trading-houses, ever recruited from +the country population, seeking such intermittent occupation as the +towns afforded. The very lowest stratum of this society was then, as +now, most dangerous; idle, dissipated, and unscrupulous, they were yet +sufficiently educated to discuss and disseminate perilous doctrines, +and were often most ready in speech and fertile in resource. + +This comparative well-being of a nation, devoted like the ancient +Greeks to novelty, avid of great ideas and great deeds, holding +opinions not merely for the pleasure of intellectual gymnastics but +logically and with a view to their realization, sensitive to +influences like the deep impressions made on their thinkers by the +English and American revolutions--such relative comfort with its +attendant opportunities for discussion was not the least of many +causes which made France the vanguard in the great revolution which +had already triumphed in theory throughout the continent and was +eventually to transform the social order of all Europe. + +Discussion is not only a safety-valve, it is absolutely essential in +governments where the religion, morals, opinions, and occupations of +the people give form and character to institutions and legislation. +The centralized and despotic Bourbon monarchy of France was an +anachronism among an intelligent people. So was every institution +emanating from and dependent upon it. It was impossible for the +structure to stand indefinitely, however tenderly it was treated, +however cleverly it was propped and repaired. As in the case of +England in 1688 and of her colonies in 1772, the immediate and direct +agency in the crash was a matter of money. But the analogy holds good +no further, for in France the questions of property and taxation were +vastly more complex than in England, where the march of events had so +largely destroyed feudalism, or in America, where feudalism had never +existed. On the great French estates the laborers had first to support +the proprietor and his representatives, then the Church and the King; +the minute remainder of their gains was scarcely sufficient to keep +the wolf from the door. The small proprietors were so hampered in +their operations by the tiny size of their holdings that they were +still restricted to ancient and wretched methods of cultivation; but +they too were so burdened with contributions direct and indirect that +famine was always imminent with them as well. Under whatever name the +tax was known, license (octroi), bridge and ferry toll, road-work, +salt-tax, or whatever it may have been, it was chiefly distasteful not +because of its form but because it was oppressive. Some of it was +paid to the proprietors, some to the state. The former was more +hateful because the gainer was near and more tangible; the hatred of +the country people for the feudal privileges and those who held them +was therefore concrete and quite as intense as the more doctrinaire +dislike of the poor in the towns to the rich. Such was the alienation +of classes from each other throughout the beginning and middle of the +century that the disasters which French arms suffered at the hands of +Marlborough and Frederick, so far from humiliating the nation, gave +pleasure and not pain to the masses because they were, as they +thought, defeats not of France, but of the nobility and of the crown. + +Feudal dues had arisen when those imposing them had the physical force +to compel their payment and were also the proprietors of the land on +which they were exacted. Now the nobility were entirely stripped of +power and in many instances of land as well. How empty and bottomless +the oppressive institutions and how burdensome the taxes which rested +on nothing but a paper grant, musty with age and backed only by royal +complaisance! Want too was always looking in at the doors of the many, +while the few were enjoying the national substance. This year there +was a crisis, for before the previous harvest time devastating +hail-storms had swept the fields, in 1788; during the winter there had +been pinching want and many had perished from destitution and cold; +the advancing seasons had brought warmth, but sufficient time had not +even yet elapsed for fields and herds to bring forth their increase, +and by the myriad firesides of the people hunger was still an +unwelcome guest. + +With wholesome economy such crises may be surmounted in a rich and +fertile country. But economy had not been practised for fifty years by +the governing classes. As early as 1739 there had been a deficiency +in the French finances. From small beginnings the annual loans had +grown until, in 1787, the sum to be raised over and above the regular +income was no less than thirty-two millions of dollars. This was all +due to the extravagance of the court and the aristocracy, who spent, +for the most part, far more than the amount they actually collected +and which they honestly believed to be their income. Such a course was +vastly more disastrous than it appeared, being ruinous not only to +personal but to national well-being, inasmuch as what the nobles, even +the earnest and honest ones, believed to be their legitimate income +was not really such. Two thirds of the land was in their hands; the +other third paid the entire land-tax. They were therefore regarding as +their own two thirds of what was in reality taken altogether from the +pockets of the small proprietors. Small sacrifices the ruling class +professed itself ready to make, but such a one as to pay their share +of the land-tax--never. It had been proposed also to destroy the +monopoly of the grain trade, and to abolish the road-work, a task more +hateful to the people than any tax, because it brought them into +direct contact with the exasperating superciliousness of petty +officials. But in all these proposed reforms, Necker, Calonne, and +Lomenie de Brienne, each approaching the nobles from a separate +standpoint, had alike failed. The nobility could see in such +retrenchment and change nothing but ruin for themselves. An assembly +of notables, called in 1781, would not listen to propositions which +seemed suicidal. The King began to alienate the affection of his +natural allies, the people, by yielding to the clamor of the court +party. From the nobility he could wring nothing. The royal treasury +was therefore actually bankrupt, the nobles believed that they were +threatened with bankruptcy, and the people knew that they themselves +were not only bankrupt, but also hungry and oppressed. + +At last the King, aware of the nation's extremity, began to undertake +reforms without reference to class prejudice, and on his own +authority. He decreed a stamp-tax, and the equal distribution of the +land-tax. He strove to compel the unwilling parliament of Paris, a +court of justice which, though ancient, he himself had but recently +reconstituted, to register his decrees, and then banished it from the +capital because it would not. That court had been the last remaining +check on absolutism in the country, and, as such, an ally of the +people; so that although the motives and the measures of Louis were +just, the high-handed means to which he resorted in order to carry +them alienated him still further from the affections of the nation. +The parliament, in justifying its opposition, had declared that taxes +in France could be laid only by the Estates-General. The people had +almost forgotten the very name, and were entirely ignorant of what +that body was, vaguely supposing that, like the English Parliament or +the American Congress, it was in some sense a legislative assembly. +They therefore made their voice heard in no uncertain sound, demanding +that the Estates should meet. Louis abandoned his attitude of +independence, and recalled the Paris parliament from Troyes, but only +to exasperate its members still further by insisting on a huge loan, +on the restoration of civil rights to the Protestants, and on +restricting, not only its powers, but those of all similar courts +throughout the realm. The parliament then declared that France was a +limited monarchy with constitutional checks on the power of the crown, +and exasperated men flocked to the city to remonstrate against the +menace to their liberties in the degradation of all the parliaments by +the King's action in regard to that of Paris. Those from Brittany +formed an association, which soon admitted other members, and +developed into the notorious Jacobin Club, so called from its +meeting-place, a convent on the Rue St. Honore, once occupied by +Dominican monks who had moved thither from the Rue St. Jacques. + +To summon the Estates was a virtual confession that absolutism in +France was at an end. In the seventeenth century the three estates +deliberated separately. Such matters came before them as were +submitted by the crown, chiefly demands for revenue. A decision was +reached by the agreement of any two of the three, and whatever +proposition the crown submitted was either accepted or rejected. +There was no real legislation. Louis no doubt hoped that the +eighteenth-century assembly would be like that of the seventeenth. He +could then, by the coalition of the nobles and the clergy against the +burghers, or by any other arrangement of two to one, secure +authorization either for his loans or for his reforms, as the case +might be, and so carry both. But the France of 1789 was not the France +of 1614. As soon as the call for the meeting was issued, and the +decisive steps were taken, the whole country was flooded with +pamphlets. Most of them were ephemeral; one was epochal. In it the +Abbe Sieyes asked the question, "What is the third estate?" and +answered so as to strengthen the already spreading conviction that the +people of France were really the nation. The King was so far convinced +as to agree that the third estate should be represented by delegates +equal in number to those of the clergy and nobles combined. The +elections passed quietly, and on May fifth, 1789, the Estates met at +Versailles, under the shadow of the court. It was immediately evident +that the hands of the clock could not be put back two centuries, and +that here was gathered an assembly unlike any that had ever met in +the country, determined to express the sentiments, and to be the +executive, of the masses who in their opinion constituted the nation. +On June seventeenth, therefore, after long talk and much hesitation, +the representatives of the third estate declared themselves the +representatives of the whole nation, and invited their colleagues of +the clergy and nobles to join them. Their meeting-place having been +closed in consequence of this decision, they gathered without +authorization in the royal tennis-court on June twentieth, and bound +themselves by oath not to disperse until they had introduced a new +order. Louis was nevertheless nearly successful in his plan of keeping +the sittings of the three estates separate. He was thwarted by the +eloquence and courage of Mirabeau. On June twenty-seventh a majority +of the delegates from the two upper estates joined those of the third +estate in constituting a national assembly. + +At this juncture the court party began the disastrous policy which in +the end was responsible for most of the terrible excesses of the +French Revolution, by insisting that troops should be called to +restrain the Assembly, and that Necker should be banished. Louis +showed the same vacillating spirit now that he had displayed in +yielding to the Assembly, and assented. The noble officers had lately +shown themselves untrustworthy, and the men in the ranks refused to +obey when called to fight against the people. The baser social +elements of the whole country had long since swarmed to the capital. +Their leaders now fanned the flame of popular discontent until at last +resort was had to violence. On July twelfth the barriers of Paris were +burned, and the regular troops were defeated by the mob in the Place +Vendome; on July fourteenth the Bastille, in itself a harmless +anachronism, but considered by the masses to typify all the tyrannical +shifts and inhuman oppressions known to despotism, was razed to the +ground. As if to crown their baseness, the extreme conservatives among +the nobles, the very men who had brought the King to such straits, now +abandoned him and fled. + +Louis finally bowed to the storm, and came to reside among his people +in Paris, as a sign of submission. Bailly, an excellent and judicious +man, was made mayor of the city, and Lafayette, with his American +laurels still unfaded, was made commander of a newly organized force, +to be known as the National Guard. On July seventeenth the King +accepted the red, white, and blue--the recognized colors of +liberty--as national. The insignia of a dynasty were exchanged for the +badge of a principle. A similar transformation took place throughout +the land, and administration everywhere passed quietly into the hands +of the popular representatives. The flying nobles found their chateaux +hotter than Paris. Not only must the old feudal privileges go, but +with them the old feudal grants, the charters of oppression in the +muniment chests. These charters the peasants insisted must be +destroyed. If they could not otherwise gain possession of them, they +resorted to violence, and sometimes in the intoxication of the hour +they exceeded the bounds of reason, abusing both the persons and the +legitimate property of their enemies. Death or surrender was often the +alternative. So it was that there was no refuge on their estates, not +even a temporary one, for those who had so long possessed them. Many +had already passed into foreign lands; the emigration increased, and +continued in a steady stream. The moderate nobles, honest patriots to +whom life in exile was not life at all, now clearly saw that their +order must yield: in the night session of August fourth, sometimes +called the "St. Bartholomew of privilege," they surrendered their +privileges in a mass. Every vestige, not only of feudal, but also of +chartered privilege, was to be swept away; even the King's +hunting-grounds were to be reduced to the dimensions permitted to a +private gentleman. All men alike, it was agreed, were to renounce the +conventional and arbitrary distinctions which had created inequality +in civil and political life, and accept the absolute equality of +citizenship. Liberty and fraternity were the two springers of the new +arch; its keystone was to be equality. On August twenty-third the +Assembly decreed freedom of religious opinion; on the next day freedom +of the press. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +Buonaparte and Revolution in Corsica. + + Napoleon's Studies Continued at Auxonne -- Another Illness + and a Furlough -- His Scheme of Corsican Liberation -- His + Appearance at Twenty -- His Attainments and Character -- His + Shifty Conduct -- The Homeward Journey -- New Parties in + Corsica -- Salicetti and the Nationalists -- Napoleon + Becomes a Political Agitator and Leader of the Radicals -- + The National Assembly Incorporates Corsica with France and + Grants Amnesty to Paoli -- Momentary Joy of the Corsican + Patriots -- The French Assembly Ridicules Genoa's Protest -- + Napoleon's Plan for Corsican Administration. + + +[Sidenote: 1789-90.] + +Such were the events taking place in the great world while Buonaparte +was at Auxonne. That town, as had been expected, was most uneasy, and +on July nineteenth, 1789, there was an actual outbreak of violence, +directed there, as elsewhere, against the tax-receivers. The riot was +easily suppressed, and for some weeks yet, the regular round of +studious monotony in the young lieutenant's life was not disturbed +except as his poverty made his asceticism more rigorous. "I have no +other resource but work," he wrote to his mother; "I dress but once in +eight days [Sunday parade?]; I sleep but little since my illness; it +is incredible. I retire at ten, and rise at four in the morning. I +take but one meal a day, at three; that is good for my health." + +More bad news came from Corsica. The starving patriot fell seriously +ill, and for a time his life hung in the balance. On August eighth he +was at last sufficiently restored to travel, and applied for a +six-months' furlough, to begin immediately. Under the regulations, in +spite of his previous leaves and irregularities, he was this year +entitled to such a vacation, but not before October. His plea that the +winter was unfavorable for the voyage to Corsica was characteristic, +for it was neither altogether true nor altogether false. He was +feverish and ill, excited by news of turmoils at home, and wished to +be on the scene of action; this would have been a true and sufficient +ground for his request. It was likewise true, however, that his chance +for a smooth passage was better in August than in October, and this +evident fact, though probably irrelevant, might move the authorities. +Their answer was favorable, and on September sixteenth he left +Auxonne. + +In the interval occurred a mutiny in the regiment. The pay of the men +was far in arrears, and they demanded a division of the surplus which +had accumulated from the various regimental grants, and which was +managed by the officers for the benefit of their own mess. The +officers were compelled to yield, so far had revolutionary license +supplanted royal and military authority. Of course a general orgy +followed. It seems to have been during these days that the scheme of +Corsican liberation which brought him finally into the field of +politics took shape in Napoleon's mind. Fesch had returned to Corsica, +and had long kept his nephew thoroughly informed of the situation. By +the anarchy prevailing all about him in France, and beginning to +prevail in Corsica, his eyes were opened to the possibilities of the +Revolution for one who knew how to take advantage of the changed +order. + +The appearance of Buonaparte in his twentieth year was not in general +noteworthy. His head was shapely, but not uncommon in size, although +disproportionate to the frame which bore it. His forehead was wide and +of medium height; on each side long chestnut hair--lanky as we may +suppose from his own account of his personal habits--fell in stiff, +flat locks over his lean cheeks. His eyes were large, and in their +steel-blue irises, lurking under deep-arched and projecting brows, was +a penetrating quality which veiled the mind within. The nose was +straight and shapely, the mouth large, the lips full and sensuous, +although the powerful projecting chin diminished somewhat the true +effect of the lower one. His complexion was sallow. The frame of his +body was in general small and fine, particularly his hands and feet; +but his deep chest and short neck were huge. This lack of proportion +did not, however, interfere with his gait, which was firm and steady. +The student of character would have declared the stripling to be +self-reliant and secretive; ambitious and calculating; masterful, but +kindly. In an age when phrenology was a mania, its masters found in +his cranium the organs of what they called imagination and causality, +of individuality, comparison, and locality--by which jargon they meant +to say that he had a strong power of imaging and of inductive +reasoning, a knowledge of men, of places, and of things. + +The life of the young officer had thus far been so commonplace as to +awaken little expectation for his future. Poor as he was, and careful +of his slim resources, he had, like the men of his class, indulged his +passions to a certain degree; but he had not been riotous in his +living, and he had so far not a debt in the world. What his education +and reading were makes clear that he could have known nothing with a +scholar's comprehensive thoroughness except the essentials of his +profession. But he could master details as no man before or since; he +had a vast fund of information, and a historic outline drawn in fair +proportion and powerful strokes. His philosophy was meager, but he +knew the principles of Rousseau and Raynal thoroughly. His conception +of politics and men was not scientific, but it was clear and +practical. The trade of arms had not been to his taste. He heartily +disliked routine, and despised the petty duties of his rank. His +profession, however, was a means to an end; of any mastery of strategy +or tactics or even interest in them he had as yet given no sign, but +he was absorbed in contemplating and analyzing the exploits of the +great world-conquerors. In particular his mind was dazzled by the +splendors of the Orient as the only field on which an Alexander could +have displayed himself, and he knew what but a few great minds have +grasped, that the interchange of relations between the East and the +West had been the life of the world. The greatness of England he +understood to be largely due to her bestriding the two hemispheres. + +Up to this moment he had been a theorist, and might have wasted his +fine powers by further indulgence in dazzling generalizations, as so +many boys do when not called to test their hypotheses by experience. +Henceforward he was removed from this temptation. A plan for an +elective council in Corsica to replace that of the nobles, and for a +local militia, having been matured, he was a cautious and practical +experimenter from the moment he left Auxonne. Thus far he had put into +practice none of his fine thoughts, nor the lessons learned in books. +The family destitution had made him a solicitor of favors, and, but +for the turn in public affairs, he might have continued to be one. His +own inclinations had made him both a good student and a poor officer; +without a field for larger duties, he might have remained as he was. +In Corsica his line of conduct was not changed abruptly: the +possibilities of greater things dawning gradually, the application of +great conceptions already formed, came with the march of events, not +like the sun bursting out from behind a cloud. + +Traveling by way of Aix, Napoleon took the unlucky Lucien with him. +This wayward but independent younger brother, making no allowance, as +he tells us in his published memoirs, for the disdain an older boy at +school is supposed to feel for a younger one, blood relative or not, +had been repelled by the cold reception his senior had given him at +Brienne. Having left that school against the advice of the same +would-be mentor, his suit for admission to Aix had been fruitless. +Necessity was driving him homeward, and the two who in after days were +again to be separated were now, for almost the only time in their +lives, companions for a considerable period. Their intercourse made +them no more harmonious in feeling. The only incident of the journey +was a visit to the Abbe Raynal at Marseilles. We would gladly know +something of the talk between the master and the pupil, but we do not. + +Napoleon found no change in the circumstances of the Buonaparte +family. The old archdeacon was still living, and for the moment all +except Elisa were at home. On the whole, they were more needy than +ever. The death of their patron, Marbeuf, had been followed by the +final rejection of their long-urged suit, and this fact, combined with +the political opinions of the elder Lucien, was beginning to wean them +from the official clique. There were the same factions as before--the +official party and the patriots. Since the death of Charles de +Buonaparte, the former had been represented at Versailles by +Buttafuoco, Choiseul's unworthy instrument in acquiring the island, +and now, as then, an uninfluential and consequential self-seeker. Its +members were all aristocrats and royalist in politics. The higher +priesthood were of similar mind, and had chosen the Abbe Peretti to +represent them; the parish priests, as in France, were with the +people. Both the higher classes were comparatively small; in spite of +twenty years of peace under French rule, they were both excessively +unpopular, and utterly without any hold on the islanders. They had but +one partizan with an influential name, a son of the old-time patriot +Gaffori, the father-in-law of Buttafuoco. The overwhelming majority of +the natives were little changed in their temper. There were the old, +unswerving patriots who wanted absolute independence, and were now +called Paolists; there were the self-styled patriots, the younger men, +who wanted a protectorate that they might enjoy virtual independence +and secure a career by peace. There was in the harbor towns on the +eastern slope the same submissive, peace-loving temper as of old; in +the west the same fiery, warlike spirit. Corte was the center of +Paoli's power, Calvi was the seat of French influence, Bastia was +radical, Ajaccio was about equally divided between the younger and +older parties, with a strong infusion of official influence. + +Both the representatives of the people in the national convention were +of the moderate party; one of them, Salicetti, was a man of ability, a +friend of the Buonapartes, and destined later to influence deeply the +course of their affairs. He and his colleague Colonna were urging on +the National Assembly measures for the local administration of the +island. To this faction, as to the other, it had become clear that if +Corsica was to reap the benefits of the new era it must be by union +under Paoli. All, old and young alike, desired a thorough reform of +their barbarous jurisprudence, and, like all other French subjects, a +free press, free trade, the abolition of all privilege, equality in +taxation, eligibility to office without regard to rank, and the +diminution of monastic revenues for the benefit of education. Nowhere +could such changes be more easily made than in a land just emerging +from barbarism, where old institutions were disappearing and new ones +were still fluid. Paoli himself had come to believe that independence +could more easily be secured from a regenerated France, and with her +help, than by a warfare which might again arouse the ambition of +Genoa. + +Buonaparte's natural associates were the younger men--Masseria, son of +a patriot line; Pozzo di Borgo, Peraldi, Cuneo, Ramolini, and others +less influential. The only Corsican with French military training, he +was, in view of uncertainties and probabilities already on the +horizon, a person of considerable consequence. His contribution to the +schemes of the young patriots was significant: it consisted in a +proposal to form a body of local militia for the support of that +central committee which his friends so ardently desired. The plan was +promptly adopted by the associates, the radicals seeing in it a means +to put arms once more into the hands of the people, the others no +doubt having in mind the storming of the Bastille and the possibility +of similar movements in Ajaccio and elsewhere. Buonaparte, the only +trained officer among them, may have dreamed of abandoning the French +service, and of a supreme command in Corsica. Many of the people who +appeared well disposed toward France had from time to time received +permission from the authorities to carry arms, many carried them +secretly and without a license; but proportionately there were so few +in both classes that vigorous or successful armed resistance was in +most places impracticable. The attitude of the department of war at +Paris was regulated by Buttafuoco, and was of course hostile to the +insidious scheme of a local militia. The minister of war would do +nothing but submit the suggestion to the body against whose influence +it was aimed, the hated council of twelve nobles. The stupid sarcasm +of such a step was well-nigh criminal. + +Under such instigation the flames of discontent broke out in Corsica. +Paoli's agents were again most active. In many towns the people rose +to attack the citadels or barracks, and to seize the authority. In +Ajaccio Napoleon de Buonaparte promptly asserted himself as the +natural leader. The already existing democratic club was rapidly +organized into the nucleus of a home guard, and recruited in numbers. +But there were none of Paoli's mountaineers to aid the unwarlike +burghers, as there had been in Bastia. Gaffori appeared on the scene, +but neither the magic of his name, the troops that accompanied him, +nor the adverse representations of the council, which he brought with +him, could allay the discontent. He therefore remained for three days +in seclusion, and then departed in secret. On the other hand, the +populace was intimidated, permitting without resistance the rooms of +the club to be closed by the troops, and the town to be put under +martial law. Nothing remained for the agitators but to protest and +disperse. They held a final meeting, therefore, on October +thirty-first, 1789, in one of the churches, and signed an appeal to +the National Assembly, to be presented by Salicetti and Colonna. It +had been written, and was read aloud, by Buonaparte, as he now signed +himself.[19] Some share in its composition was later claimed for +Joseph, but the fiery style, the numerous blunders in grammar and +spelling, the terse thought, and the concise form, are all +characteristic of Napoleon. The right of petition, the recital of +unjust acts, the illegal action of the council, the use of force, the +hollowness of the pretexts under which their request had been +refused, the demand that the troops be withdrawn and redress +granted--all these are crudely but forcibly presented. The document +presages revolution. Under a well-constituted and regular authority, +its writer and signatories would of course have been punished for +insubordination. Even as things were, an officer of the King was +running serious risks by his prominence in connection with it. + + [Footnote 19: Printed in Coston, II, 94.] + +Discouraging as was the outcome of this movement in Ajaccio, similar +agitations elsewhere were more successful. The men of Isola Rossa, +under Arena, who had just returned from a consultation with Paoli in +England, were entirely successful in seizing the supreme authority; so +were those of Bastia, under Murati, a devoted friend of Paoli. One +untrustworthy authority, a personal enemy of Buonaparte, declares that +the latter, thwarted in his own town, at once went over to Bastia, +then the residence of General de Barrin, the French royalist governor, +and successfully directed the revolt in that place, but there is no +corroborative evidence to this doubtful story. + +Simultaneously with these events the National Assembly had been +debating how the position of the King under the new constitution was +to be expressed by his title. Absolutism being ended, he could no +longer be king of France, a style which to men then living implied +ownership. King of the French was selected as the new form; should +they add "and of Navarre"? Salicetti, with consummate diplomacy, had +already warned many of his fellow-delegates of the danger lest England +should intervene in Corsica, and France lose one of her best +recruiting-grounds. To his compatriots he set forth that France was +the best protector, whether they desired partial or complete +independence. He now suggested that if the Assembly thus recognized +the separate identity of the Pyrenean people, they must supplement +their phrase still further by the words "and of Corsica"; for it had +been only nominally, and as a pledge, that Genoa in 1768 had put +France in control. At this stage of the debate, Volney presented a +number of formal demands from the Corsican patriots asking that the +position of their country be defined. One of these papers certainly +came from Bastia; among them also was probably the document which had +been executed at Ajaccio. This was the culmination of the skilful +revolutionary agitation which had been started and directed by +Masseria under Paoli's guidance. The anomalous position of both +Corsica and Navarre was clearly depicted in the mere presentation of +such petitions. "If the Navarrese are not French, what have we to do +with them, or they with us?" said Mirabeau. The argument was as +unanswerable for one land as for the other, and both were incorporated +in the realm: Corsica on November thirtieth, by a proposition of +Salicetti's, who was apparently unwilling, but who posed as one under +imperative necessity. In reality he had reached the goal for which he +had long been striving. Dumouriez, later so renowned as a general, and +Mirabeau, the great statesman and orator, had both been members of the +French army of occupation which reduced Corsica to submission. The +latter now recalled his misdeed with sorrow and shame in an +impassioned plea for amnesty to all political offenders, including +Paoli. There was bitter opposition, but the great orator prevailed. + +The news was received in Corsica with every manifestation of joy; +bonfires were lighted, and Te Deums were sung in the churches. Paoli +to rejoin his own again! What more could disinterested patriots +desire? Corsica a province of France! How could her aspiring youth +secure a wider field for the exercise of their powers, and the +attainment of ambitious ends? The desires of both parties were +temporarily fulfilled. The names of Mirabeau, Salicetti, and Volney +were shouted with acclaim, those of Buttafuoco and Peretti with +reprobation. The regular troops were withdrawn from Ajaccio; the +ascendancy of the liberals was complete. + +Then feeble Genoa was heard once more. She had pledged the +sovereignty, not sold it; had yielded its exercise, and not the thing +itself; France might administer the government as she chose, but +annexation was another matter. She appealed to the fairness of the +King and the National Assembly to safeguard her treaty rights. Her +tone was querulous, her words without force. In the Assembly the +protest was but fuel to the fire. On January twenty-first, 1790, +occurred an animated debate in which the matter was fully considered. +The discussion was notable, as indicating the temper of parties and +the nature of their action at that stage of the Revolution. Mirabeau +as ever was the leader. He and his friends were scornful not only +because of Genoa's temerity in seeming still to claim what France had +conquered, but of her conception that mere paper contracts were +binding where principles of public law were concerned! The opposition +mildly but firmly recalled the existence of other nations than France, +and suggested the consequences of international bad faith. The +conclusion of the matter was the adoption of a cunning and insolent +combination of two propositions, one made by each side, "to lay the +request on the table, or to explain that there is no occasion for its +consideration." The incident is otherwise important only in the light +of Napoleon's future dealings with the Italian commonwealth. + +The situation was now most delicate, as far as Buonaparte was +concerned. His suggestion of a local militia contemplated the +extension of the revolutionary movement to Corsica. His appeal to the +National Assembly demanded merely the right to do what one French city +or district after another had done: to establish local authority, to +form a National Guard, and to unfurl the red, white, and blue. There +was nothing in it about the incorporation of Corsica in France; that +had come to pass through the insurgents of Bastia, who had been +organized by Paoli, inspired by the attempt at Ajaccio, and guided at +last by Salicetti. A little later Buonaparte took pains to set forth +how much better, under his plan, would have been the situation of +Corsican affairs if, with their guard organized and their colors +mounted, they could have recalled Paoli, and have awaited the event +with power either to reject such propositions as the royalists, if +successful, would have made, or to accept the conclusions of the +French Assembly with proper self-respect, and not on compulsion. +Hitherto he had lost no opportunity to express his hatred of France; +it is possible that he had planned the virtual independence of +Corsica, with himself as the liberator, or at least as Paoli's +Sampiero. The reservations of his Ajaccio document, and the bitterness +of his feelings, are not, however, sufficient proof of such a +presumption. But the incorporation had taken place, Corsica was a +portion of France, and everybody was wild with delight. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +First Lessons in Revolution. + + French Soldier and Corsican Patriot -- Paoli's Hesitancy -- + His Return to Corsica -- Cross-Purposes in France -- A New + Furlough -- Money Transactions of Napoleon and Joseph -- + Open Hostilities Against France -- Address to the French + Assembly -- The Bastia Uprising -- Reorganization of + Corsican Administration -- Meeting of Napoleon and Paoli -- + Corsican Politics -- Studies in Society. + + +[Sidenote: 1790.] + +What was to be the future of one whose feelings were so hostile to the +nation with the fortunes of which he now seemed irrevocably +identified? There is no evidence that Buonaparte ever asked himself +such disquieting questions. To judge from his conduct, he was not in +the least troubled. Fully aware of the disorganization, both social +and military, which was well-nigh universal in France, with two months +more of his furlough yet unexpired, he awaited developments, not +hastening to meet difficulties before they presented themselves. What +the young democrats could do, they did. The town government was +entirely reorganized, with a friend of the Buonapartes as mayor, and +Joseph--employed at last!--as his secretary. A local guard was also +raised and equipped. Being French, however, and not Corsican, Napoleon +could not accept a command in it, for he was already an officer in the +French army. But he served in the ranks as a common soldier, and was +an ardent agitator in the club, which almost immediately reopened its +doors. In the impossibility of further action there was a relapse into +authorship. The history of Corsica was again revised, though not +softened; the letters into which it was divided were addressed to +Raynal. In collaboration with Fesch, Buonaparte also drew up a memoir +on the oath which was required from priests. + +When Paoli first received news of the amnesty granted at the instance +of Mirabeau, and of the action taken by the French Assembly, which had +made Corsica a French department, he was delighted and deeply moved. +His noble instincts told him at once that he could no longer live in +the enjoyment of an English pension or even in England; for he was +convinced that his country would eventually reach a more perfect +autonomy under France than under the wing of any other power, and that +as a patriot he must not fail even in appearance to maintain that +position. But he also felt that his return to Corsica would endanger +the success of this policy; the ardent mountaineers would demand more +extreme measures for complete independence than he could take; the +lowlanders would be angry at the attitude of sympathy with his old +friends which he must assume. In a spirit of self-sacrifice, +therefore, he made ready to exchange his comfortable exile for one +more uncongenial and of course more bitter. + +But the National Assembly, with less insight, desired nothing so much +as his presence in the new French department. He was growing old, and +yielded against his better judgment to the united solicitation of +French interest and of Corsican impolicy. Passing through France, he +was detained for over two months by the ovations forced upon him. In +Paris the King urged him to accept honors of every kind; but they were +firmly refused: the reception, however, which the Assembly gave him in +the name of liberty, he declared to be the proudest occasion of his +life. At Lyons the populace crowded the streets to cheer him, and +delegations from the chief towns of his native island met him to +solicit for each of their respective cities the honor of his landing. +On July fourteenth, 1790, after twenty-one years of exile, the now +aged hero set foot on Corsican land at Maginajo, near Capo Corso. His +first act was to kneel and kiss the soil. The nearest town was Bastia, +the revolutionary capital. There and elsewhere the rejoicings were +general, and the ceremonies were such as only the warm hearts and +willing hands of a primitive Italian people could devise and perform. +Not one true Corsican but must "see and hear and touch him." But in +less than a month his conduct was, as he had foreseen, so +misrepresented by friend and foe alike, that it was necessary to +defend him in Paris against the charge of scheming to hand over the +island to England. + +It is not entirely clear where Buonaparte was during this time. It is +said that he was seen in Valence during the latter part of January, +and the fact is adduced to show how deep and secret were his plans for +preserving the double chance of an opening in either France or +Corsica, as matters might turn out. The love-affair to which he refers +in that thesis on the topic to which reference has been made would be +an equally satisfactory explanation, considering his age. Whatever was +the fact as to those few days, he was not absent long. The serious +division between the executive in France and the new Assembly came to +light in an ugly circumstance which occurred in March. On the +eighteenth a French flotilla unexpectedly appeared off St. Florent. It +was commanded by Rully, an ardent royalist, who had long been employed +in Corsica. His secret instructions were to embark the French troops, +and to leave the island to its fate. This was an adroit stab at the +republicans of the Assembly; for, should the evacuation be secured, +it was believed that either the radicals in Corsica would rise, +overpower, and destroy the friends of France, call in English help, +and diminish the number of democratic departments by one, or that +Genoa would immediately step in and reassert her sovereignty. The +moderates of St. Florent were not to be thus duped; sharp and angry +discussions arose among both citizens and troops as to the obedience +due to such orders, and soon both soldiers and townsfolk were in a +frenzy of excitement. A collision between the two parties occurred, +and Rully was killed. Papers were found on his person which proved +that his sympathizers would gladly have abandoned Corsica to its fate. +For the moment the young Corsicans were more devoted than ever to +Paoli, since now only through his good offices with the French +Assembly could a chance for the success of their plans be secured. + +Such was the diversity of opinion as to ways and means, as to +resources, opportunities, and details, that everything was, for the +moment, in confusion. On April sixteenth Buonaparte applied for an +extension of his furlough until the following October, on the plea of +continued ill-health, that he might drink the waters a second time at +Orezza, whose springs, he explained, had shown themselves to be +efficacious in his complaint. He may have been at that resort once +before, or he may not. Doubtless the fever was still lingering in his +system. What the degree of his illness was we cannot tell. It may have +unfitted him for active service with his regiment; it did not disable +him from pursuing his occupations in writing and political agitation. +His request was granted on May twentieth. The history of Corsica was +now finally revised, and the new dedication completed. This, with a +letter and some chapters of the book, was forwarded to Raynal, +probably by post. Joseph, who was one of the delegates to meet Paoli, +would pass through Marseilles, wrote Napoleon to the abbe, and would +hand him the rest if he should so desire. The text of the unlucky book +was not materially altered. Its theory appears always to have been +that history is but a succession of great names, and the story, +therefore, is more a biographical record than a connected narrative. +The dedication, however, was a new step in the painful progress of +more accurate thinking and better expression; the additions to the +volume contained, amid many immaturities and platitudes, some ripe and +clever thought. Buonaparte's passion for his bantling was once more +the ardor of a misdirected genius unsullied by the desire for money, +which had played a temporary part. + +We know nothing definite of his pecuniary affairs, but somehow or +other his fortunes must have mended. There is no other explanation of +his numerous and costly journeys, and we hear that for a time he had +money in his purse. In the will which he dictated at St. Helena is a +bequest of one hundred thousand francs to the children of his friend +who was the first mayor of Ajaccio by the popular will. It is not +unlikely that the legacy was a grateful souvenir of advances made +about this time. There is another possible explanation. The club of +Ajaccio had chosen a delegation, of which Joseph Buonaparte was a +member, to bring Paoli home from France. To meet its expenses, the +municipality had forced the authorities of the priests' seminary to +open their strong box and to hand over upward of two thousand francs. +Napoleon may have shared Joseph's portion. We should be reminded in +such a stroke, but with a difference, to be sure, of what happened +when, a few years later, the hungry and ragged soldiers of the +Republic were led into the fat plains of Lombardy. + +The contemptuous attitude of the Ajaccio liberals toward the religion +of Rome seriously alienated the superstitious populace from them. +Buonaparte was once attacked in the public square by a procession +organized to deprecate the policy of the National Assembly with regard +to the ecclesiastical estates. One of the few royalist officials left +in Corsica also took advantage of the general disorder to express his +feelings plainly as to the acts of the same body. He was arrested, +tried in Ajaccio, and acquitted by a sympathetic judge. At once the +liberals took alarm; their club and the officials first protested, and +then on June twenty-fifth assumed the offensive in the name of the +Assembly. It was on this occasion probably that he was seen by the +family friend who narrated his memories to the English diarist already +mentioned. "I remember to have seen Napoleon very active among the +enraged populace against those then called aristocrats, and running +through the streets of Ajaccio so busy in promoting dissatisfaction +that, though he lost his hat, he did not feel nor care for the effects +of the scorching sun to which he was exposed the whole of that +memorable day. The revolution having struck its poisonous root, +Napoleon never ceased stirring up his brothers, Joseph and Lucien, +who, being moved at his instance, were constantly attending clubs and +popular meetings where they often delivered speeches and debated +public matters, while Napoleon sat listening in silence, as he had no +turn for oratory." "One day in December," the narrator continues, "I +was sent for by his uncle already mentioned, in order to assist him in +preparing his testament; and, after having settled his family +concerns, the conversation turned upon politics, when, speaking of the +improbability of Italy being revolutionized, Napoleon, then present, +quickly replied: 'Had I the command, I would take Italy in twenty-four +hours.'"[20] + + [Footnote 20: Correspondence of Sir John Sinclair, I, + 47.] + +At last the opportunity to emulate the French cities seemed assured. +It was determined to organize a local independent government, seize +the citadel with the help of the home guard, and throw the hated +royalists into prison. But the preparations were too open: the +governor and most of his friends fled in season to their stronghold, +and raised the drawbridge; the agitators could lay hands on but four +of their enemies, among whom were the judge, the offender, and an +officer of the garrison. So great was the disappointment of the +radicals that they would have vented their spite on these; it was with +difficulty that the lives of the prisoners were saved by the efforts +of the militia officers. The garrison really sympathized with the +insurgents, and would not obey orders to suppress the rising by an +attack. In return for this forbearance the regular soldiers stipulated +for the liberation of their officer. In the end the chief offenders +among the radicals were punished by imprisonment or banished, and the +tumult subsided; but the French officials now had strong support, not +only from the hierarchy, as before, but from the plain pious people +and their priests. + +This result was a second defeat for Napoleon Buonaparte, who was +almost certainly the instigator and leader of the uprising. He had +been ready at any moment to assume the direction of affairs, but again +the outcome of such a movement as could alone secure a possible +temporary independence for Corsica and a military command for himself +was absolutely naught. Little perturbed by failure, he took up the pen +to write a proclamation justifying the action of the municipal +authorities. The paper was dated October thirty-first, 1789, and +fearlessly signed both by himself and the other leaders, including the +mayor. It execrates the sympathizers with the old order in France, and +lauds the Assembly, with all its works; denounces those who sold the +land to France, which could offer nothing but an end of the chain that +bound her; and warns the enemies of the new constitution that their +day is over. There is a longing reference to the ideal self-determination +which the previous attempt might have secured. The present rising is +justified, however, as an effort to carry out the principles of the +new charter.[21] There are the same suggested force and suppressed +fury as in his previous manifesto, the same fervid rhetoric, the same +lack of coherence in expression. The same two elements, that of the +eighteenth-century metaphysics and that of his own uncultured force, +combine in the composition. Naturally enough, the unrest of the town +was not diminished; there was even a slight collision between the +garrison and the civil authorities. + + [Footnote 21: For the text see Napoleon inconnu, II, + 92.] + +Buonaparte was of course suspected and hated by Catholics and military +alike. French officer though he was, no one in Corsica thought of him +otherwise than as a Corsican revolutionist. Among his own friends he +continued his unswerving career. It was he who was chosen to write the +address from Ajaccio to Paoli, although the two men did not meet until +somewhat later. With the arrival of the great liberator the grasp of +the old officials on the island relaxed, and the bluster of the few +who had grown rich in the royal service ceased. The Assembly was +finally triumphant; this new department was at last to be organized +like those of the adoptive mother. It was high time, for the public +order was seriously endangered in this transition period. The +disturbances at Ajaccio had been trifling compared with the +revolutionary procedure inaugurated and carried to extremes in Bastia. +This city being the capital and residence of the governor, Buonaparte +and his comrades had no sooner completed their address to the French +Assembly than they hurried thither to beard de Barrin and +revolutionize the garrison. Their success was complete: garrison and +citizens alike were roused and the governor cowed. Both soldiers and +people assumed the tricolor cockade on November fifth, 1789. Barrin +even assented to the formation of a national militia. On this basis +order was established. This was another affair from that at Ajaccio +and attracted the attention of the Paris Assembly, strongly +influencing the government in its arrangements with Paoli. The young +Buonaparte was naturally very uneasy as to his position and so +remained fairly quiet until February, when the incorporation of the +island with France was completed. Immediately he gave free vent to his +energies. Two letters of Napoleon's written in August, 1790, display a +feverish spirit of unrest in himself, and enumerate the many uprisings +in the neighborhood with their varying degrees of success. Under +provisional authority, arrangements were made, after some delay, to +hold elections for the officials of the new system whose legal +designation was directors. Their appointment and conduct would be +determinative of Corsica's future, and were therefore of the highest +importance. + +In a pure democracy the voters assemble to deliberate and record their +decisions. Such were the local district meetings in Corsica. These +chose the representatives to the central constituent assembly, which +was to meet at Orezza on September ninth, 1790. Joseph Buonaparte and +Fesch were among the members sent from Ajaccio. The healing waters +which Napoleon wished to quaff at Orezza were the influence of the +debates. Although he could not be a member of the assembly on account +of his youth, he was determined to be present. The three relatives +traveled from their home in company, Joseph enchanted by the scenery, +Napoleon studying the strategic points on the way. In order that his +presence at Orezza might not unduly affect the course of events, Paoli +had delicately chosen as his temporary home the village of Rostino, +which was on their route. Here occurred the meeting between the two +great Corsicans, the man of ideas and the man of action. No doubt +Paoli was anxious to win a family so important and a patriot so +ardent. In any case, he invited the three young men to accompany him +over the fatal battle-ground of Ponte Nuovo. If it had really been +Napoleon's ambition to become the chief of the French National Guard +for Corsica, which would now, in all probability, be fully organized, +it is very likely that he would have exerted himself to secure the +favor of the only man who could fulfil his desire. There is, however, +a tradition which tends to show quite the contrary: it is said that +after Paoli had pointed out the disposition of his troops for the +fatal conflict Napoleon dryly remarked, "The result of these +arrangements was just what it was bound to be." Among the Emperor's +reminiscences at the close of his life, he recalled this meeting, +because Paoli had on that occasion declared him to be a man of ancient +mold, like one of Plutarch's heroes. + +The constituent assembly at Orezza sat for a month. Its sessions +passed almost without any incident of importance except the first +appearance of Napoleon as an orator in various public meetings held in +connection with its labors. He is said to have been bashful and +embarrassed in his beginnings, but, inspirited by each occasion, to +have become more fluent, and finally to have won the attention and +applause of his hearers. What he said is not known, but he spoke in +Italian, and succeeded in his design of being at least a personage in +the pregnant events now occurring. Both parties were represented in +the proceedings and conclusions of the convention. Corsica was to +constitute but a single department. Paoli was elected president of its +directory and commander-in-chief of its National Guard, a combination +of offices which again made him virtual dictator. He accepted them +unwillingly, but the honors of a statue and an annual grant of ten +thousand dollars, which were voted at the same time, he absolutely +declined. The Paolist party secured the election of Canon Belce as +vice-president, of Panatheri as secretary, of Arena as Salicetti's +substitute, of Pozzo di Borgo and Gentili as members of the directory. +Colonna, one of the delegates to the National Assembly, was a member +of the same group. The younger patriots, or Young Corsica, as we +should say now, perhaps, were represented by their delegate and leader +Salicetti, who was chosen as plenipotentiary in Buttafuoco's place, +and by Multedo, Gentili, and Pompei as members of the directory. For +the moment, however, Paoli was Corsica, and such petty politics was +significant only as indicating the survival of counter-currents. There +was some dissent to a vote of censure passed upon the conduct of +Buttafuoco and Peretti, but it was insignificant. Pozzo di Borgo and +Gentili were chosen to declare at the bar of the National Assembly the +devotion of Corsica to its purposes, and to the course of reform as +represented by it. They were also to secure, if possible, both the +permission to form a departmental National Guard, and the means to pay +and arm it. + +The choice of Pozzo di Borgo for a mission of such importance in +preference to Joseph was a disappointment to the Buonapartes. In fact, +not one of the plans concerted by the two brothers succeeded. Joseph +sustained the pretensions of Ajaccio to be capital of the island, but +the honor was awarded to Bastia. He was not elected a member of the +general directory, though he succeeded in being made a member for +Ajaccio in the district directory. Whether to work off his ill humor, +or from far-seeing purpose, Napoleon used the hours not spent in +wire-pulling and listening to the proceedings of the assembly for +making a series of excursions which were a virtual canvass of the +neighborhood. The houses of the poorest were his resort; partly by his +inborn power of pleasing, partly by diplomacy, he won their hearts and +learned their inmost feelings. His purse, which was for the moment +full, was open for their gratification in a way which moved them +deeply. For years target practice had been forbidden, as giving +dangerous skill in the use of arms. Liberty having returned, Napoleon +reorganized many of the old rural festivals in which contests of that +nature had been the chief feature, offering prizes from his own means +for the best marksmen among the youth. His success in feeling the +pulse of public opinion was so great that he never forgot the lesson. +Not long afterward, in the neighborhood of Valence,--in fact, to the +latest times,--he courted the society of the lowly, and established, +when possible, a certain intimacy with them. This gave him popularity, +while at the same time it enabled him to obtain the most valuable +indications of the general temper. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +Traits of Character. + + Literary Work -- The Lyons Prize -- Essay on Happiness -- + Thwarted Ambition -- The Corsican Patriots -- The Brothers + Napoleon and Louis -- Studies in Politics -- Reorganization + of the Army -- The Change in Public Opinion -- A New Leave + of Absence -- Napoleon Again at Auxonne -- Napoleon as a + Teacher -- Further Literary Efforts -- The Sentimental + Journey -- His Attitude Toward Religion. + + +[Sidenote: 1791.] + +On his return to Ajaccio, the rising agitator continued as before to +frequent his club. The action of the convention at Orezza in +displacing Buttafuoco had inflamed the young politicians still more +against the renegade. This effect was further heightened when it was +known that, at the reception of their delegates by the National +Assembly, the greater council had, under Mirabeau's leadership, +virtually taken the same position regarding both him and his +colleague. Napoleon had written, probably in the previous year, a +notorious diatribe against Buttafuoco in the form of a letter to its +object and the very night on which the news from Paris was received, +he seized the opportunity to read it before the club at Ajaccio. The +paper, as now in existence, is pompously dated January twenty-third, +1791, from "my summer house of Milleli." This was the retreat on one +of the little family properties, to which reference has been made. +There in the rocks was a grotto known familiarly by that name; +Napoleon had improved and beautified the spot, using it, as he did his +garden at Brienne, for contemplation and quiet study. Although the +letter to Matteo Buttafuoco has been often printed, and was its +author's first successful effort in writing, much emphasis should not +be laid on it except in noting the better power to express tumultuous +feeling, and in marking the implications which show an expansion of +character. Insubordinate to France it certainly is, and intemperate; +turgid, too, as any youth of twenty could well make it. No doubt, +also, it was intended to secure notoriety for the writer. It makes +clear the thorough apprehension its author had as to the radical +character of the Revolution. It is his final and public renunciation +of the royalist principles of Charles de Buonaparte. It contains also +the last profession of morality which a youth is not ashamed to make +before the cynicism of his own life becomes too evident for the +castigation of selfishness and insincerity in others. Its substance is +a just reproach to a selfish trimmer; the froth and scum are +characteristic rather of the time and the circumstances than of the +personality behind them. There is no further mention of a difference +between the destinies of France and Corsica. To compare the pamphlet +with even the poorest work of Rousseau, as has often been done, is +absurd; to vilify it as ineffective trash is equally so. + +As may be imagined, the "Letter" was received with mad applause, and +ordered to be printed. It was now the close of January; Buonaparte's +leave had expired on October fifteenth. On November sixteenth, after +loitering a whole month beyond his time, he had secured a document +from the Ajaccio officials certifying that both he and Louis were +devoted to the new republican order, and bespeaking assistance for +both in any difficulties which might arise. The busy Corsican +perfectly understood that he might already at that time be regarded as +a deserter in France, but still he continued his dangerous loitering. +He had two objects in view, one literary, one political. Besides the +successful "Letter" he had been occupied with a second composition, +the notion of which had probably occupied him as his purse grew +leaner. The jury before which this was to be laid was to be, however, +not a heated body of young political agitators, but an association of +old and mature men with calm, critical minds--the Lyons Academy. That +society was finally about to award a prize of fifteen hundred livres +founded by Raynal long before--as early as 1780--for the best thesis +on the question: "Has the discovery of America been useful or hurtful +to the human race? If the former, how shall we best preserve and +increase the benefits? If the latter, how shall we remedy the evils?" +Americans must regret that the learned body had been compelled for +lack of interest in so concrete a subject to change the theme, and now +offered in its place the question: "What truths and ideas should be +inculcated in order best to promote the happiness of mankind?" + +Napoleon's astounding paper on this remarkable theme was finished in +December. It bears the marks of carelessness, haste, and +over-confidence in every direction--in style, in content, and in lack +of accuracy. "Illustrious Raynal," writes the author, "the question I +am about to discuss is worthy of your steel, but without assuming to +be metal of the same temper, I have taken courage, saying to myself +with Correggio, I, too, am a painter." Thereupon follows a long +encomium upon Paoli, whose principal merit is explained to have been +that he strove in his legislation to keep for every man a property +sufficient with moderate exertion on his own part for the sustenance +of life. Happiness consists in living conformably to the constitution +of our organization. Wealth is a misfortune, primogeniture a relic of +barbarism, celibacy a reprehensible practice. Our animal nature +demands food, shelter, clothing, and the companionship of woman. These +are the essentials of happiness; but for its perfection we require +both reason and sentiment. These theses are the tolerable portions, +being discussed with some coherence. But much of the essay is mere +meaningless rhetoric and bombast, which sounds like the effusion of a +boyish rhapsodist. "At the sound of your [reason's] voice let the +enemies of nature be still, and swallow their serpents' tongues in +rage." "The eyes of reason restrain mankind from the precipice of the +passions, as her decrees modify likewise the feeling of their rights." +Many other passages of equal absurdity could be quoted, full of +far-fetched metaphor, abounding in strange terms, straining rhetorical +figures to distortion.[22] And yet in spite of the bombast, certain +essential Napoleonic ideas appear in the paper much as they endured to +the end, namely, those on heredity, on the equal division of property, +and on the nature of civil society. And there is one prophetic +sentence which deserves to be quoted. "A disordered imagination! there +lies the cause and source of human misfortune. It sends us wandering +from sea to sea, from fancy to fancy, and when at last it grows calm, +opportunity has passed, the hour strikes, and its possessor dies +abhorring life." In later days the author threw what he probably +supposed was the only existing manuscript of this vaporing effusion +into the fire. But a copy of it had been made at Lyons, perhaps +because one of the judges thought, as he said, that it "might have +been written by a man otherwise gifted with common sense." Another has +been found among the papers confided by Napoleon to Fesch. The proofs +of authenticity are complete. It seems miraculous that its writer +should have become, as he did, master of a concise and nervous style +when once his words became the complement of his deeds. + + [Footnote 22: These phrases may nearly all be found in + the notes which he had taken or jottings he had made + while reading Voltaire and Rousseau: Napoleon inconnu, + II, 209-292.] + +The second cause for Buonaparte's delay in returning to France on the +expiration of his furlough was his political and military ambition. +This was suddenly quenched by the receipt of news that the Assembly at +Paris would not create the longed-for National Guard, nor the ministry +lend itself to any plan for circumventing the law. It was, therefore, +evident that every chance of becoming Paoli's lieutenant was finally +gone. By the advice of the president himself, therefore, Buonaparte +determined to withdraw once more to France and to await results. +Corsica was still distracted. A French official sent by the war +department just at this time to report on its condition is not sparing +of the language he uses to denounce the independent feeling and +anti-French sympathies of the people. "The Italian," he says, +"acquiesces, but does not forgive; an ambitious man keeps no faith, +and estimates his life by his power." The agent further describes the +Corsicans as so accustomed to unrest by forty years of anarchy that +they would gladly seize the first occasion to throw off the domination +of laws which restrain the social disorder. The Buonaparte faction, +enumerated with the patriot brigand Zampaglini at their head, he calls +"despicable creatures," "ruined in reputation and credit." + +It would be hard to find a higher compliment to Paoli and his friends, +considering the source from which these words emanated. They were all +poor and they were all in debt. Even now, in the age of reform, they +saw their most cherished plans thwarted by the presence in every town +of garrisons composed of officers and men who, though long resident +in the island, and attached to its people by many ties, were +nevertheless conservative in their feelings, and, by the instinct of +their tradition and discipline, devoted to the still powerful official +bureaus not yet destroyed by the Revolution. To replace these by a +well-organized and equipped National Guard was now the most ardent +wish of all patriots. There was nothing unworthy in Napoleon's longing +for a command under the much desired but ever elusive reconstitution +of a force organized and armed according to the model furnished by +France itself. Repeated disappointments like those he had suffered +before, and was experiencing again, would have crushed the spirit of a +common man. + +But the young author had his manuscripts in his pocket; one of them he +had means and authority to publish. Perfectly aware, moreover, of the +disorganization in the nation and the army, careless of the order +fulminated on December second, 1790, against absent officers, which he +knew to be aimed especially at the young nobles who were deserting in +troops, with his spirit undaunted, and his brain full of resources, he +left Ajaccio on February first, 1791, having secured a new set of +certificates as to his patriotism and devotion to the cause of the +Revolution. Like the good son and the good brother which he had always +been, he was not forgetful of his family. Life at his home had not +become easier. Joseph, to be sure, had an office and a career, but the +younger children were becoming a source of expense, and Lucien would +not accept the provision which had been made for him. The next, now +ready to be educated and placed, was Louis, a boy already between +twelve and thirteen years old; accordingly Louis accompanied his +brother. Napoleon had no promise, not even an outlook, for the child; +but he determined to have him at hand in case anything should turn +up, and while waiting, to give him from his own slender means whatever +precarious education the times and circumstances could afford. We can +understand the untroubled confidence of the boy; we must admire the +trust, determination, and self-reliance of the elder brother. + +Though he had overrun his leave for three and a half months, there was +not only no severe punishment in store for Napoleon on his arrival at +Auxonne, but there was considerate regard, and, later, promotion. +Officers with military training and loyal to the Assembly were +becoming scarce. The brothers had traveled slowly, stopping first for +a short time at Marseilles, and then at Aix to visit friends, +wandering several days in a leisurely way through the parts of +Dauphiny round about Valence. Associating again with the country +people, and forming opinions as to the course of affairs, Buonaparte +reopened his correspondence with Fesch on February eighth from the +hamlet of Serve in order to acquaint him with the news and the +prospects of the country, describing in particular the formation of +patriotic societies by all the towns to act in concert for carrying +out the decrees of the Assembly.[23] This beginning of "federation for +the Revolution," as it was called, in its spread finally welded the +whole country, civil and even military authorities, together. +Napoleon's presence in the time and place of its beginning explains +much that followed. It was February thirteenth when he rejoined his +regiment. + + [Footnote 23: "I am in the cabin of a poor man whence I + like to write you after long conversation with these + good people." Nasica, p. 161.] + +Comparatively short as had been the time of Buonaparte's absence, +everything in France, even the army, had changed and was still +changing. Step by step the most wholesome reforms were introduced as +each in turn showed itself essential: promotion exclusively according +to service among the lower officers; the same, with room for royal +discretion, among the higher grades; division of the forces into +regulars, reserves, and national guards, the two former to be still +recruited by voluntary enlistment. The ancient and privileged +constabulary, and many other formerly existing but inefficient armed +bodies, were swept away, and the present system of gendarmerie was +created. The military courts, too, were reconstituted under an +impartial body of martial law. Simple numbers were substituted for the +titular distinctions hitherto used by the regiments, and a fair +schedule of pay, pensions, and military honors abolished all chance +for undue favoritism. The necessity of compulsory enlistment was urged +by a few with all the energy of powerful conviction, but the plan was +dismissed as despotic. The Assembly debated as to whether, under the +new system, king or people should wield the military power. They could +find no satisfactory solution, and finally adopted a weak compromise +which went far to destroy the power of Mirabeau, because carried +through by him. The entire work of the commission was temporarily +rendered worthless by these two essential defects--there was no way of +filling the ranks, no strong arm to direct the system. + +The first year of trial, 1790, had given the disastrous proof. By this +time all monarchical and absolutist Europe was awakened against +France; only a mere handful of enthusiastic men in England and +America, still fewer elsewhere, were in sympathy with her efforts. The +stolid common sense of the rest saw only ruin ahead, and viewed +askance the idealism of her unreal subtleties. The French nobles, +sickened by the thought of reform, had continued their silly and +wicked flight; the neighboring powers, now preparing for an armed +resistance to the spread of the Revolution, were not slow to abet +them in their schemes. On every border agencies for the encouragement +of desertion were established, and by the opening of 1791 the +effective fighting force of France was more than decimated. There was +no longer any question of discipline; it was enough if any person +worthy to command or serve could be retained. But the remedy for this +disorganization was at hand. In the letter to Fesch, to which +reference has already been made, Napoleon, after his observations +among the people, wrote: "I have everywhere found the peasants firm in +their stirrups [steadfast in their opinions], especially in Dauphiny. +They are all disposed to perish in support of the constitution. I saw +at Valence a resolute people, patriotic soldiers, and aristocratic +officers. There are, however, some exceptions, for the president of +the club is a captain named du Cerbeau. He is captain in the regiment +of Forez in garrison at Valence.... The women are everywhere royalist. +It is not amazing; Liberty is a prettier woman than they, and eclipses +them. All the parish priests of Dauphiny have taken the civic oath; +they make sport of the bishop's outcry.... What is called good society +is three fourths aristocratic--that is, they disguise themselves as +admirers of the English constitution." + +What a concise, terse sketch of that rising tide of national feeling +which was soon to make good all defects and to fill all gaps in the +new military system, put the army as part of the nation under the +popular assembly, knit regulars, reserves, and home guard into one, +and give moral support to enforcing the proposal for compulsory +enlistment! + +This movement was Buonaparte's opportunity. Declaring that he had +twice endeavored since the expiration of his extended furlough to +cross into France, he produced certificates to that effect from the +authorities of Ajaccio, and begged for his pay and allowances since +that date. His request was granted. It is impossible to deny the truth +of his statement, or the genuineness of his certificates. But both +were loose perversions of a half-truth, shifts palliated by the +uncertainties of a revolutionary epoch. A habitual casuistry is +further shown in an interesting letter written at the same time to M. +James, a business friend of Joseph's at Chalons, in which there occurs +a passage of double meaning, to the effect that his elder brother +"hopes to come in person the following year as deputy to the National +Assembly," which was no doubt true; for, in spite of being +incapacitated by age, he had already sat in the Corsican convention +and in the Ajaccio councils. But the imperfect French of the passage +could also mean, and, casually read, does carry the idea, that Joseph, +being already a deputy, would visit his friend the following year in +person. + +Buonaparte's connection with his old regiment was soon to be broken. +He joined it on February thirteenth; he left it on June fourteenth. +With these four months his total service was five years and nine +months; but he had been absent, with or without leave, something more +than half the time! His old friends in Auxonne were few in number, if +indeed there were any at all. No doubt his fellow-officers were tired +of performing the absentee's duties, and of good-fellowship there +could be in any case but little, with such difference of taste, +politics, and fortune as there was between him and them. However, he +made a few new friends; but it was in the main the old solitary life +which he resumed. His own room was in a cheap lodging-house, and, +according to the testimony of a visitor, furnished with a wretched +uncurtained couch, a table, and two chairs. Louis slept on a pallet in +a closet near by. All pleasures but those of hope were utterly +banished from those plucky lives, while they studied in preparation +for the examination which might admit the younger to his brother's +corps. The elder pinched and scraped to pay the younger's board; +himself, according to a probable but rather untrustworthy account, +brushing his own clothes that they might last longer, and supping +often on dry bread. His only place of resort was the political club. +One single pleasure he allowed himself--the occasional purchase of +some long-coveted volume from the shelves of a town bookseller.[24] + + [Footnote 24: Napoleon inconnu, II, 108 _et seq._] + +Of course neither authorship nor publication was forgotten. During +these months were completed the two short pieces, a "Dialogue on +Love," and the acute "Reflections on the State of Nature," from both +of which quotations have already been given. "I too was once in love," +he says of himself in the former. It could not well have been in +Ajaccio, and it must have been the memories of the old Valence, of a +pleasant existence now ended, which called forth the doleful +confession. It was the future Napoleon who was presaged in the +antithesis. "I go further than the denial of its existence; I believe +it hurtful to society, to the individual welfare of men." The other +trenchant document demolishes the cherished hypothesis of Rousseau as +to man in a state of nature. The precious manuscripts brought from +Corsica were sent to the only publisher in the neighborhood, at Dole. +The much-revised history was refused; the other--whether by moneys +furnished from the Ajaccio club, or at the author's risk, is not +known--was printed in a slim octavo volume of twenty-one pages, and +published with the title, "Letter of Buonaparte to Buttafuoco." A copy +was at once sent to Paoli with a renewed request for such documents as +would enable the writer to complete his pamphlet on Corsica. The +patriot again replied in a very discouraging tone: Buttafuoco was too +contemptible for notice, the desired papers he was unable to send, and +such a boy could not in any case be a historian. Buonaparte was +undismayed and continued his researches. Joseph was persuaded to add +his solicitations for the desired papers to those of his brother, but +he too received a flat refusal. + +Short as was Buonaparte's residence at Auxonne, he availed himself to +the utmost of the slackness of discipline in order to gratify his +curiosity as to the state of the country. He paid frequent visits to +Marmont in Dijon, and he made what he called at St. Helena his +"Sentimental Journey to Nuits" in Burgundy. The account he gave Las +Cases of the aristocracy in the little city, and of its assemblies at +the mansion of a wine-merchant's widow, is most entertaining. To his +host Gassendi and to the worthy mayor he aired his radical doctrines +with great complacence, but according to his own account he had not +the best of it in the discussions which ensued. Under the empire +Gassendi's son was a member of the council of state, and in one of its +sessions he dared to support some of his opinions by quoting Napoleon +himself. The Emperor remembered perfectly the conversation at Nuits, +but meaningly said that his friend must have been asleep and dreaming. + +Several traditions which throw some light on Buonaparte's attitude +toward religion date from this last residence in Auxonne. He had been +prepared for confirmation at Brienne by a confessor who was now in +retirement at Dole, the same to whom when First Consul he wrote an +acknowledgment of his indebtedness, adding: "Without religion there is +no happiness, no future possible. I commend me to your prayers." The +dwelling of this good man was the frequent goal of his walks abroad. +Again, he once jocularly asked a friend who visited him in his room, +if he had heard mass that morning, opening, as he spoke, a trunk, in +which was the complete vestment of a priest. The regimental chaplain, +who must have been his friend, had confided it to him for +safe-keeping. Finally, it was in these dark and never-forgotten days +of trial that Louis was confirmed, probably by the advice of his +brother. Even though Napoleon had collaborated with Fesch in the paper +on the oath of priests to the constitution, though he himself had been +mobbed in Corsica as the enemy of the Church, it does not appear that +he had any other than decent and reverent feelings toward religion and +its professors. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +The Revolution in the Rhone Valley. + + A Dark Period -- Buonaparte, First Lieutenant -- Second + Sojourn in Valence -- Books and Reading -- The National + Assembly of France -- The King Returns from Versailles -- + Administrative Reforms in France -- Passing of the Old Order + -- Flight of the King -- Buonaparte's Oath to Sustain the + Constitution -- His View of the Situation -- His + Revolutionary Zeal -- Insubordination -- Impatience with + Delay -- A Serious Blunder Avoided -- Return to Corsica. + + +[Sidenote: 1791.] + +The tortuous course of Napoleon's life for the years from 1791 to 1795 +has been neither described nor understood by those who have written in +his interest. It was his own desire that his biographies, in spite of +the fact that his public life began after Rivoli, should commence with +the recovery of Toulon for the Convention. His detractors, on the +other hand, have studied this prefatory period with such evident bias +that dispassionate readers have been repelled from its consideration. +And yet the sordid tale well repays perusal; for in this epoch of his +life many of his characteristic qualities were tempered and ground to +the keen edge they retained throughout. Swept onward toward the +trackless ocean of political chaos, the youth seemed afloat without +oars or compass: in reality, his craft was well under control, and his +chart correct. Whether we attribute his conduct to accident or to +design, from an adventurer's point of view the instinct which made him +spread his sails to the breezes of Jacobin favor was quite as sound as +that which later, when Jacobinism came to be abhorred, made him +anxious that the fact should be forgotten. + +In the earlier stages of army reorganization, changes were made +without much regard to personal merit, the dearth of efficient +officers being such that even the most indifferent had some value. +About the first of June, 1791, Buonaparte was promoted to the rank of +first lieutenant, with a salary of thirteen hundred livres, and +transferred to the Fourth Regiment, which was in Valence. He heard the +news with mingled feelings: promotion was, of course, welcome, but he +shrank from returning to his former station, and from leaving the +three or four warm friends he had among his comrades in the old +regiment. On the ground that the arrangements he had made for +educating Louis would be disturbed by the transfer, he besought the +war office for permission to remain at Auxonne with the regiment, now +known as the First. Probably the real ground of his disinclination was +the fear that a residence at Valence might revive the painful emotions +which time had somewhat withered. He may also have felt how discordant +the radical opinions he was beginning to hold would be with those +still cherished by his former friends. But the authorities were +inexorable, and on June fourteenth the brothers departed, Napoleon for +the first time leaving debts which he could not discharge: for the new +uniform of a first lieutenant, a sword, and some wood, he owed about a +hundred and fifteen livres. This sum he was careful to pay within a +few years and as soon as his affairs permitted. + +Arrived at Valence, he found that the old society had vanished. Both +the bishop and the Abbe Saint-Ruf were dead. Mme. du Colombier had +withdrawn with her daughter to her country-seat. The brothers were +able, therefore, to take up their lives just where they had made the +break at Auxonne: Louis pursuing the studies necessary for entrance to +the corps of officers, Napoleon teaching him, and frequenting the +political club; both destitute and probably suffering, for the +officer's pay was soon far in arrears. In such desperate straits it +was a relief for the elder brother that the allurements of his former +associations were dissipated; such companionship as he now had was +among the middle and lower classes, whose estates were more +proportionate to his own, and whose sentiments were virtually +identical with those which he professed. + +The list of books which he read is significant: Coxe's "Travels in +Switzerland," Duclos's "Memoirs of the Reigns of Louis XIV and Louis +XV," Machiavelli's "History of Florence," Voltaire's "Essay on +Manners," Duvernet's "History of the Sorbonne," Le Noble's "Spirit of +Gerson," and Dulaure's "History of the Nobility." There exist among +his papers outlines more or less complete of all these books. They +prove that he understood what he read, but unlike other similar +jottings by him they give little evidence of critical power. Aside +from such historical studies as would explain the events preliminary +to that revolutionary age upon which he saw that France was entering, +he was carefully examining the attitude of the Gallican Church toward +the claims of the papacy, and considering the role of the aristocracy +in society. It is clear that he had no intention of being merely a +curious onlooker at the successive phases of the political and social +transmutation already beginning; he was bent on examining causes, +comprehending reasons, and sharing in the movement itself. + +By the summer of 1791 the first stage in the transformation of France +had almost passed. The reign of moderation in reform was nearly over. +The National Assembly had apprehended the magnitude but not the nature +of its task, and was unable to grasp the consequences of the new +constitution it had outlined. The nation was sufficiently familiar +with the idea of the crown as an executive, but hitherto the executive +had been at the same time legislator; neither King nor people quite +knew how the King was to obey the nation when the former, trained in +the school of the strictest absolutism, was deprived of all volition, +and the latter gave its orders through a single chamber, responsive to +the levity of the masses, and controlled neither by an absolute veto +power, nor by any feeling of responsibility to a calm public opinion. +This was the urgent problem which had to be solved under conditions +the most unfavorable that could be conceived. + +During the autumn of 1789 famine was actually stalking abroad. The +Parisian populace grew gaunt and dismal, but the King and aristocracy +at Versailles had food in plenty, and the contrast was heightened by a +lavish display in the palace. The royal family was betrayed by one of +its own house, the despicable Philip "Egalite," who sought to stir up +the basest dregs of society, that in the ferment he might rise to the +top; hungry Paris, stung to action by rumors which he spread and by +bribes which he lavished, put Lafayette at its head, and on October +fifth marched out to the gates of the royal residence in order to make +conspicuous the contrast between its own sufferings and the wasteful +comfort of its servants, as the King and his ministers were now +considered to be. Louis and the National Assembly yielded to the +menace, the court returned to Paris, politics grew hotter and more +bitter, the fickleness of the mob became a stronger influence. Soon +the Jacobin Club began to wield the mightiest single influence, and as +it did so it grew more and more radical. + +Throughout the long and trying winter the masses remained, +nevertheless, quietly expectant. There was much tumultuous talk, but +action was suspended while the Assembly sat and struggled to solve its +problem, elaborating a really fine paper constitution. Unfortunately, +the provisions of the document had no relation to the political habits +of the French nation, or to the experience of England and the United +States, the only free governments then in existence. Feudal privilege, +feudal provinces, feudal names having been obliterated, the whole of +France was rearranged into administrative departments, with +geographical in place of historical boundaries. It was felt that the +ecclesiastical domains, the holders of which were considered as mere +trustees, should be adapted to the same plan, and this was done. +Ecclesiastical as well as aristocratic control was thus removed by the +stroke of a pen. In other words, by the destruction of the mechanism +through which the temporal and spiritual authorities exerted the +remnants of their power, they were both completely paralyzed. The King +was denied all initiative, being granted merely a suspensive veto, and +in the reform of the judicial system the prestige of the lawyers was +also destroyed. Royalty was turned into a function, and the courts +were stripped of both the moral and physical force necessary to compel +obedience to their decrees. Every form of the guardianship to which +for centuries the people had been accustomed was thus removed--royal, +aristocratic, ecclesiastical, and judicial. Untrained to self-control, +they were as ready for mad excesses as were the German Anabaptists +after the Reformation or the English sectaries after the execution of +Charles. + +Attention has been called to the disturbances which arose in Auxonne +and elsewhere, to the emigration of the nobles from that quarter, to +the utter break between the parish priests and the higher church +functionaries in Dauphiny; this was but a sample of the whole. When, +on July fourteenth, 1790, the King accepted a constitution which +decreed a secular reorganization of the ecclesiastical hierarchy +according to the terms of which both bishops and priests were to be +elected by the taxpayers, two thirds of all the clergy in France +refused to swear allegiance to it. All attempts to establish the new +administrative and judicial systems were more or less futile; the +disaffection of officials and lawyers became more intense. In Paris +alone the changes were introduced with some success, the municipality +being rearranged into forty-eight sections, each with a primary +assembly. These were the bodies which later gave Buonaparte the +opening whereby he entered his real career. The influence of the +Jacobin Club increased, just in proportion as the majority of its +members grew more radical. Necker trimmed to their demands, but lost +popularity by his monotonous calls for money, and fell in September, +reaching his home on Lake Leman only with the greatest difficulty. +Mirabeau succeeded him as the sole possible prop to the tottering +throne. Under his leadership the moderate monarchists, or Feuillants, +as they were later called, from the convent of that order to which +they withdrew, seceded from the Jacobins, and before the Assembly had +ceased its work the nation was cleft in two, divided into opponents +and adherents of monarchy. As if to insure the disasters of such an +antagonism, the Assembly, which numbered among its members every man +in France of ripe political experience, committed the incredible folly +of self-effacement, voting that not one of its members should be +eligible to the legislature about to be chosen. + +A new impulse to the revolutionary movement was given by the death of +Mirabeau on April second, 1791. His obsequies were celebrated in many +places, and, being a native of Provence, there were probably solemn +ceremonies at Valence. There is a tradition that they occurred during +Buonaparte's second residence in the city, and that it was he who +superintended the draping of the choir in the principal church. It is +said that the hangings were arranged to represent a funerary urn, and +that beneath, in conspicuous letters, ran the legend: "Behold what +remains of the French Lycurgus." Mirabeau had indeed displayed a +genius for politics, his scheme for a strong ministry, chosen from the +Assembly, standing in bold relief against the feebleness of Necker in +persuading Louis to accept the suspensive veto, and to choose his +cabinet without relation to the party in power. When the mad +dissipation of the statesman's youth demanded its penalty at the hour +so critical for France, the King and the moderates alike lost courage. +In June the worried and worn-out monarch determined that the game was +not worth the playing, and on the twenty-first he fled. Though he was +captured, and brought back to act the impossible role of a democratic +prince, the patriots who had wished to advance with experience and +tradition as guides were utterly discredited. All the world could see +how pusillanimous was the royalty they had wished to preserve, and the +masses made up their mind that, real or nominal, the institution was +not only useless, but dangerous. This feeling was strong in the Rhone +valley and the adjoining districts, which have ever been the home of +extreme radicalism. Sympathy with Corsica and the Corsicans had long +been active in southeastern France. Neither the island nor its people +were felt to be strange. When a society for the defense of the +constitution was formed in Valence, Buonaparte, though a Corsican, was +at first secretary, then president, of the association. + +The "Friends of the Constitution" grew daily more numerous, more +powerful, and more radical in that city; and when the great solemnity +of swearing allegiance to the new order was to be celebrated, it was +chosen as a convenient and suitable place for a convention of +twenty-two similar associations from the neighboring districts. The +meeting took place on July third, 1791; the official administration of +the oath to the civil, military, judicial, and ecclesiastical +authorities occurred on the fourteenth. Before a vast altar erected on +the drill-ground, in the presence of all the dignitaries, with cannon +booming and the air resounding with shouts and patriotic songs, the +officials in groups, the people in mass, swore with uplifted hands to +sustain the constitution, to obey the National Assembly, and to die, +if need be, in defending French territory against invasion. Scenes as +impressive and dramatic as this occurred all over France. They +appealed powerfully to the imagination of the nation, and profoundly +influenced public opinion. "Until then," said Buonaparte, referring to +the solemnity, "I doubt not that if I had received orders to turn my +guns against the people, habit, prejudice, education, and the King's +name would have induced me to obey. With the taking of the national +oath it became otherwise; my instincts and my duty were thenceforth in +harmony." + +But the position of liberal officers was still most trying. In the +streets and among the people they were in a congenial atmosphere; +behind the closed doors of the drawing-rooms, in the society of +ladies, and among their fellows in the mess, there were constraint and +suspicion. Out of doors all was exultation; in the houses of the +hitherto privileged classes all was sadness and uncertainty. But +everywhere, indoors or out, was spreading the fear of war, if not +civil at least foreign war, with the French emigrants as the allies of +the assailants. On this point Buonaparte was mistaken. As late as +July twenty-seventh, 1791, he wrote to Naudin, an intimate friend who +was chief of the military bureau at Auxonne: "Will there be war? No; +Europe is divided between sovereigns who rule over men and those who +rule over cattle and horses. The former understand the Revolution, and +are terrified; they would gladly make personal sacrifices to +annihilate it, but they dare not lift the mask for fear the fire +should break out in their own houses. See the history of England, +Holland, etc. Those who bear the rule over horses misunderstand and +cannot grasp the bearing of the constitution. They think this chaos of +incoherent ideas means an end of French power. You would suppose, to +listen to them, that our brave patriots were about to cut one +another's throats and with their blood purge the land of the crimes +committed against kings." The news contained in this letter is most +interesting. There are accounts of the zeal and spirit everywhere +shown by the democratic patriots, of a petition for the trial of the +King sent up from the recent meeting at Valence, and an assurance by +the writer that his regiment is "sure," except as to half the +officers. He adds in a postscript: "The southern blood courses in my +veins as swiftly as the Rhone. Pardon me if you feel distressed in +reading my scrawl."[25] + + [Footnote 25: Buonaparte to Naudin, 27 July, 1791, in + Buchez et Roux, Histoire Parlementaire, XVII, 56.] + +Restlessness is the habit of the agitator, and Buonaparte's +temperament was not exceptional. His movements and purposes during the +months of July and August are very uncertain in the absence of +documentary evidence sufficient to determine them. But his earliest +biographers, following what was in their time a comparatively short +tradition, enable us to fix some things with a high degree of +probability. The young radical had been but two months with his new +command when he began to long for change; the fever of excitement and +the discomfort of his life, with probably some inkling that a Corsican +national guard would ere long be organized, awakened in him a purpose +to be off once more, and accordingly he applied for leave of absence. +His colonel, a very lukewarm constitutionalist, angry at the notoriety +which his lieutenant was acquiring, had already sent in a complaint of +Buonaparte's insubordinate spirit and of his inattention to duty. +Standing on a formal right, he therefore refused the application. With +the quick resource of a schemer, Buonaparte turned to a higher +authority, his friend Duteil, who was inspector-general of artillery +in the department and not unfavorable. Something, however, must have +occurred to cause delay, for weeks passed and the desired leave was +not granted. + +While awaiting a decision the applicant was very uneasy. To friends he +said that he would soon be in Paris; to his great-uncle he wrote, +"Send me three hundred livres; that sum would take me to Paris. There, +at least, a person can show himself, overcome obstacles. Everything +tells me that I shall succeed there. Will you stop me for lack of a +hundred crowns?" And again: "I am waiting impatiently for the six +crowns my mother owes me; I need them sadly." These demands for money +met with no response. The explanation of Buonaparte's impatience is +simple enough. One by one the provincial societies which had been +formed to support the constitution were affiliating themselves with +the influential Jacobins at Paris, who were now the strongest single +political power in the country. He was the recognized leader of their +sympathizers in the Rhone valley. He evidently intended to go to +headquarters and see for himself what the outlook was. With backers +such as he thus hoped to find, some advantage, perhaps even the +long-desired command in Corsica, might be secured. + +It was rare good fortune that the young hotspur was not yet to be cast +into the seething caldron of French politics. The time was not yet +ripe for the exercise of his powers. The storming of the Bastille had +symbolized the overthrow of privilege and absolute monarchy; the +flight of the King presaged the overthrow of monarchy, absolute or +otherwise. The executive gone, the legislature popular and democratic +but ignorant how to administer or conduct affairs, the judiciary +equally disorganized, and the army transforming itself into a +patriotic organization--was there more to come? Yes. Thus far, in +spite of well-meant attempts to substitute new constructions for the +old, all had been disintegration. French society was to be reorganized +only after further pulverizing; cohesion would begin only under +pressure from without--a pressure applied by the threats of erratic +royalists that they would bring in the foreign powers to coerce and +arbitrate, by the active demonstrations of the emigrants, by the +outbreak of foreign wars. These were the events about to take place; +they would in the end evolve from the chaos of mob rule first the +irregular and temporary dictatorship of the Convention, then the +tyranny of the Directory; at the same time they would infuse a fervor +of patriotism, into the whole mass of the French nation, stunned, +helpless, and leaderless, but loyal, brave, and vigorous. In such a +crisis the people would tolerate, if not demand, a leader strong to +exact respect for France and to enforce his commands; would prefer the +vigorous mastery of one to the feeble misrule of the many or the few. +Still further, the man was as unready as the time; for it was, in all +probability, not as a Frenchman but as an ever true Corsican patriot +that Buonaparte wished to "show himself, overcome obstacles" at this +conjuncture. + +On August fourth, 1791, the National Assembly at last decided to form +a paid volunteer national guard of a hundred thousand men, and their +decision became a law on August twelfth. The term of enlistment was a +year; four battalions were to be raised in Corsica. Buonaparte heard +of the decision on August tenth, and was convinced that the hour for +realizing his long-cherished aspirations had finally struck. He could +certainly have done much in Paris to secure office in a +French-Corsican national guard, and with this in mind he immediately +wrote a memorandum on the armament of the new force, addressing it, +with characteristic assurance, to the minister of war. When, however, +three weeks later, on August thirtieth, 1791, a leave of absence +arrived, to which he was entitled in the course of routine, and which +was not granted by the favor of any one, he had abandoned all idea of +service under France in the Corsican guard. The disorder of the times +was such that while retaining office in the French army he could test +in an independent Corsican command the possibility of climbing to +leadership there before abandoning his present subordinate place in +France. In view, apparently, of this new venture, he had for some time +been taking advances from the regimental paymaster, until he had now +in hand a considerable sum--two hundred and ninety livres. A formal +announcement to the authorities might have elicited embarrassing +questions from them, so he and Louis quietly departed without +explanations, leaving for the second time debts of considerable +amount. They reached Ajaccio on September sixth, 1791. Napoleon was +not actually a deserter, but he had in contemplation a step toward the +defiance of French authority--the acceptance of service in a Corsican +military force. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +Buonaparte the Corsican Jacobin. + + Buonaparte's Corsican Patriotism -- His Position in His + Family -- The Situation of Joseph -- Corsican Politics -- + Napoleon's Power in the Jacobin Club of Ajaccio -- His + Failure as a Contestant for Literary Honors -- Appointed + Adjutant-General -- His Attitude Toward France -- His New + Ambitions -- Use of Violence -- Lieutenant-Colonel of + Volunteers -- Politics in Ajaccio -- His First Experience of + Street Warfare -- His Manifesto -- Dismissed to Paris -- His + Plans -- The Position of Louis XVI -- Buonaparte's + Delinquencies -- Disorganization in the Army -- Petition for + Reinstatement -- The Marseillais -- Buonaparte a Spectator + -- His Estimate of France -- His Presence at the Scenes of + August Tenth -- State of Paris -- Flight of Lafayette. + + +[Sidenote: 1791-92.] + +This was the third time in four years that Buonaparte had revisited +his home.[26] On the plea of ill health he had been able the first +time to remain a year and two months, giving full play to his Corsican +patriotism and his own ambitions by attendance at Orezza, and by +political agitation among the people. The second time he had remained +a year and four months, retaining his hold on his commission by +subterfuges and irregularities which, though condoned, had strained +his relations with the ministry of war in Paris. He had openly defied +the royal authority, relying on the coming storm for the concealment +of his conduct if it should prove reprehensible, or for preferment in +his own country if Corsica should secure her liberties. There is no +reason, therefore, to suppose that his intentions for the third visit +were different from those displayed in the other two, although again +solicitude for his family was doubtless one of many considerations. + + [Footnote 26: It is not entirely clear whether he + arrived late in September or early in October, 1791. He + remained until May, 1792.] + +During Napoleon's absence from Corsica the condition of his family had +not materially changed. Soon after his arrival the old archdeacon +died, and his little fortune fell to the Buonapartes. Joseph, failing +shortly afterward in his plan of being elected deputy to the French +legislature, was chosen a member of the Corsican directory. He was, +therefore, forced to occupy himself entirely with his new duties and +to live at Corte. Fesch, as the eldest male, the mother's brother, and +a priest at that, expected to assume the direction of the family +affairs. But he was doomed to speedy disenchantment: thenceforward +Napoleon was the family dictator. In conjunction with his uncle he +used the whole or a considerable portion of the archdeacon's savings +for the purchase of several estates from the national domain, as the +sequestrated lands of the monasteries were called. Rendered thus more +self-important, he talked much in the home circle concerning the +greatness of classical antiquity, and wondered "who would not +willingly have been stabbed, if only he could have been Caesar? One +feeble ray of his glory would be an ample recompense for sudden +death." Such chances for Caesarism as the island of Corsica afforded +were very rapidly becoming better. + +The Buonapartes had no influence whatever in these elections. Joseph +was not even nominated. The choice fell upon two men selected by +Paoli: one of them, Peraldi, was already embittered against the +family; the other, Pozzo di Borgo, though so far friendly enough, +thereafter became a relentless foe. Rising to eminence as a diplomat, +accepting service in one and another country of Europe, the latter +thwarted Napoleon at several important conjunctures. Paoli is thought +by some to have been wounded by the frank criticism of his strategy by +Napoleon: more likely he distrusted youths educated in France, and +who, though noisy Corsicans, were, he shrewdly guessed, impregnated +with French idealism. He himself cared for France only as by her help +the largest possible autonomy for Corsica could be secured. In the +directory of the department of Corsica, Joseph, and with him the +Buonaparte influence, was reduced to impotence, while gratified with +high position. The ignorance of the administrators was only paralleled +by the difficulties of their work. + +During the last few months religious agitation had been steadily +increasing. Pious Catholics were embittered by the virtual expulsion +of the old clergy, and the induction to office of new priests who had +sworn to uphold the constitution. Amid the disorders of administration +the people in ever larger numbers had secured arms; as of yore, they +appeared at their assemblies under the guidance of their chiefs, ready +to fight at a moment's notice. It was but a step to violence, and +without any other provocation than religious exasperation the +townsfolk of Bastia had lately sought to kill their new bishop. Even +Arena, who had so recently seized the place in Paoli's interest, was +now regarded as a French radical, maltreated, and banished with his +supporters to Italy. The new election was at hand; the contest between +the Paolists and the extreme French party grew hotter and hotter. Not +only deputies to the new assembly, but likewise the superior officers +of the new guard, were to be elected. Buonaparte, being only a +lieutenant of the regulars, could according to the law aspire no +higher than an appointment as adjutant-major with the title and pay of +captain. It was not worth while to lose his place in France for this, +so he determined to stand for one of the higher elective offices, +that of lieutenant-colonel, a position which would give him more +power, and, under the latest legislation, entitle him to retain his +grade in the regular army. + +There were now two political clubs in Ajaccio: that of the Corsican +Jacobins, country people for the most part; and that of the Corsican +Feuillants, composed of the officials and townsfolk. Buonaparte became +a moving spirit in the former, and determined at any cost to destroy +the influence of the latter. The two previous attempts to secure +Ajaccio for the radicals had failed; a third was already under +consideration. The new leader began to garnish his language with those +fine and specious phrases which thenceforth were never wanting in his +utterances at revolutionary crises. "Law," he wrote about this time, +"is like those statues of some of the gods which are veiled under +certain circumstances." For a few weeks there was little or nothing to +do in the way of electioneering at home; he therefore obtained +permission to travel with the famous Volney, who desired a +philosopher's retreat from Paris storms and had been chosen director +of commerce and manufactures in the island. This journey was for a +candidate like Buonaparte invaluable as a means of observation and of +winning friends for his cause. + +Before the close of this trip his furlough had expired, his regiment +had been put on a war footing, and orders had been issued for the +return of every officer to his post by Christmas day. But in the +execution of his fixed purpose the young Corsican patriot was heedless +of military obligations to France, and wilfully remained absent from +duty. Once more the spell of a wild, free life was upon him; he was +enlisted for the campaign, though without position or money to back +him. The essay on happiness which he had presented to the Academy of +Lyons had failed, as a matter of course, to win the prize, one of the +judges pronouncing it "too badly arranged, too uneven, too +disconnected, and too badly written to deserve attention." This +decision was a double blow, for it was announced about this time, at a +moment when fame and money would both have been most welcome. The +scanty income from the lands purchased with the legacy of the old +archdeacon remained the only resource of the family for the lavish +hospitality which, according to immemorial, semi-barbarous tradition, +was required of a Corsican candidate. + +A peremptory order was now issued from Paris that those officers of +the line who had been serving in the National Guard with a grade lower +than that of lieutenant-colonel should return to regular service +before April first, 1792. Here was an implication which might be +turned to account. As a lieutenant on leave, Buonaparte should of +course have returned on December twenty-fifth; if, however, he were an +officer of volunteers he could plead the new order. Though as yet the +recruits had not come in, and no companies had been formed, the mere +idea was sufficient to suggest a means for saving appearances. An +appointment as adjutant-major was solicited from the major-general in +command of the department, and he, under authorization obtained in due +time from Paris, granted it. Safe from the charge of desertion thus +far, it was essential for his reputation and for his ambition that +Buonaparte should be elected lieutenant-colonel. Success would enable +him to plead that his first lapse in discipline was due to irregular +orders from his superior, that anyhow he had been an adjutant-major, +and that finally the position of lieutenant-colonel gave him immunity +from punishment, and left him blameless. + +He nevertheless was uneasy, and wrote two letters of a curious +character to his friend Sucy, the commissioner-general at Valence. In +the first, written five weeks after the expiration of his leave, he +calmly reports himself, and gives an account of his occupations, +mentioning incidentally that unforeseen circumstances, duties the +dearest and most sacred, had prevented his return. His correspondent +would be so kind as not to mention the letter to the "gentlemen of the +regiment," but the writer would immediately return if his friend in +his unassisted judgment thought best. In the second he plumply +declares that in perilous times the post of a good Corsican is at +home, that therefore he had thought of resigning, but his friends had +arranged the middle course of appointing him adjutant-major in the +volunteers so that he could make his duty as a soldier conform to his +duty as a patriot. Asking for news of what is going on in France, he +says, writing like an outsider, "If _your_ nation loses courage at +this moment, it is done with forever." + +It was toward the end of March that the volunteers from the mountains +began to appear in Ajaccio for the election of their officers. +Napoleon had bitter and powerful rivals, but his recent trip had +apparently enabled him to win many friends among the men. While, +therefore, success was possible by that means, there was another +influence almost as powerful--that of three commissioners appointed by +the directory of the island to organize and equip the battalion. These +were Morati, a friend of Peraldi, the Paolist deputy; Quenza, more or +less neutral, and Grimaldi, a devoted partisan of the Buonapartes. +With skilful diplomacy Napoleon agreed that he would not presume to be +a candidate for the office of first lieutenant-colonel, which was +desired by Peretti, a near friend of Paoli, for his brother-in-law, +Quenza, but would seek the position of second lieutenant-colonel. In +this way he was assured of good will from two of the three +commissioners; the other was of course hostile, being a partizan of +Peraldi. + +The election, as usual in Corsica, seems to have passed in turbulence +and noisy violence. His enemies attacked Buonaparte with every weapon: +their money, their influence, and in particular with ridicule. His +stature, his poverty, and his absurd ambitions were held up to +contempt and scorn. The young hotspur was cut to the quick, and, +forgetting Corsican ways, made the witless blunder of challenging +Peraldi to a duel, an institution scorned by the Corsican devotees of +the vendetta. The climax of contempt was Peraldi's failure even to +notice the challenge. At the crisis, Salicetti, a warm friend of the +Buonapartes and a high official of the department, appeared with a +considerable armed force to maintain order. This cowed the +conservatives. The third commissioner, living as a guest with Peraldi, +was seized during the night preceding the election by a body of +Buonaparte's friends, and put under lock and key in their candidate's +house--"to make you entirely free; you were not free where you were," +said the instigator of the stroke, when called to explain. To the use +of fine phrases was now added a facility in employing violence at a +pinch which likewise remained characteristic of Buonaparte's career +down to the end. Nasica, who alone records the tale, sees in this +event the precursor of the long series of state-strokes which +culminated on the eighteenth Brumaire. There is a story that in one of +the scuffles incident to this brawl a member of Pozzo di Borgo's +family was thrown down and trampled on. Be that as it may, Buonaparte +was successful. This of course intensified the hatred already +existing, and from that moment the families of Peraldi and of Pozzo di +Borgo were his deadly enemies. + +Quenza, who was chosen first lieutenant-colonel, was a man of no +character whatever, a nobody. He was moreover absorbed in the duties +of a place in the departmental administration. Buonaparte, therefore, +was in virtual command of a sturdy, well-armed, legal force. Having +been adjutant-major, and being now a regularly elected lieutenant-colonel +according to statute, he applied, with a well-calculated effrontery, +to his regimental paymaster for the pay which had accrued during his +absence. It was at first refused, for in the interval he had been +cashiered for remaining at home in disobedience to orders; but such +were the irregularities of that revolutionary time that later, virtual +deserter as he had been, it was actually paid and he was restored to +his place. He sought and obtained from the military authorities of the +island certificates of his regular standing and leave to present them +in Paris if needed to maintain his rank as a French officer, but in +the final event there was no necessity for their use. No one was more +adroit than Buonaparte in taking advantage of possibilities. He was a +pluralist without conscience. A French regular if the emergency should +demand it, he was likewise a Corsican patriot and commander in the +volunteer guard of the island, fully equipped for another move. +Perhaps, at last, he could assume with success the liberator's role of +Sampiero. But an opportunity must occur or be created. One was easily +arranged. + +Ajaccio had gradually become a resort for many ardent Roman Catholics +who had refused to accept the new order. The town authorities, +although there were some extreme radicals among them, were, on the +whole, in sympathy with these conservatives. Through the devices of +his friends in the city government, Buonaparte's battalion, the +second, was on one pretext or another assembled in and around the +town. Thereupon, following the most probable account, which, too, is +supported by Buonaparte's own story, a demand was made that according +to the recent ecclesiastical legislation of the National Assembly, the +Capuchin monks, who had been so far undisturbed, should evacuate their +friary. Feeling ran so high that the other volunteer companies were +summoned; they arrived on April first. At once the public order was +jeopardized: on one extreme were the religious fanatics, on the other +the political agitators, both of whom were loud with threats and ready +for violence. In the middle, between two fires, was the mass of the +people, who sympathized with the ecclesiastics, but wanted peace at +any hazard. Quarreling began first between individuals of the various +factions, but it soon resulted in conflicts between civilians and the +volunteer guard. The first step taken by the military was to seize and +occupy the cloister, which lay just below the citadel, the final goal +of their leader, whoever he was, and the townsfolk believed it was +Buonaparte. Once inside the citadel walls, the Corsicans in the +regular French service would, it was hoped, fraternize with their kin; +with such a beginning, all the garrison might in time be won over. + +This further exasperated the ultramontanes, and on Easter day, April +eighth, they made demonstrations so serious that the scheming +commander--Buonaparte again, it was believed--found the much desired +pretext to interfere; there was a melee, and one of the militia +officers was killed. Next morning the burghers found their town beset +by the volunteers. Good citizens kept to their houses, while the +acting mayor and the council were assembled to authorize an attack on +the citadel. The authorities could not agree, and dispersed; the +following forenoon it was discovered that the acting mayor and his +sympathizers had taken refuge in the citadel. From the vantage of +this stronghold they proposed to settle the difficulty by the +arbitration of a board composed of two from each side, under the +presidency of the commandant. There was again no agreement. + +Worn out at last by the haggling and delay, an officer of the garrison +finally ordered the militia officers to withdraw their forces. By the +advice of some determined radical--Buonaparte again, in all +probability--the latter flatly refused, and the night was spent in +preparation for a conflict which seemed inevitable. But early in the +morning the commissioners of the department, who had been sent by +Paoli to preserve the peace, arrived in a body. They were welcomed +gladly by the majority of the people, and, after hearing the case, +dismissed the battalion of volunteers to various posts in the +surrounding country. Public opinion immediately turned against +Buonaparte, convinced as the populace was that he was the author of +the entire disturbance. The commander of the garrison was embittered, +and sent a report to the war department displaying the young officer's +behavior in the most unfavorable light. Buonaparte's defense was +contained in a manifesto which made the citizens still more furious by +its declaration that the whole civic structure of their town was +worthless, and should have been overthrown. + +The aged Paoli found his situation more trying with every day. Under a +constitutional monarchy, such as he had admired and studied in +England, such as he even yet hoped for and expected in France, he had +believed his own land might find a virtual autonomy. With riot and +disorder in every town, it would not be long before the absolute +disqualification of his countrymen for self-government would be proved +and the French administration restored. For his present purpose, +therefore, the peace must be kept, and Buonaparte, upon whom, whether +justly or not, the blame for these recent broils rested, must be +removed elsewhere, if possible; but as the troublesome youth was the +son of an old friend and the head of a still influential family, it +must be done without offense. The government at Paris might be +pacified if the absentee officer were restored to his post; with +Quenza in command of the volunteers, there would be little danger of a +second outbreak in Ajaccio. + +It was more than easy, therefore, for the discredited revolutionary, +on the implied condition and understanding that he should leave +Corsica, to secure from the authorities the papers necessary to put +himself and his actions in the most favorable light. Buonaparte armed +himself accordingly with an authenticated certificate as to the posts +he had held, and the period during which he had held them, and with +another as to his "civism"--the phrase used at that time to designate +the quality of friendliness to the Revolution. The former seems to +have been framed according to his own statements, and was speciously +deceptive; yet in form the commander-in-chief, the municipality of +Ajaccio, and the authorities of the department were united in +certifying to his unblemished character and regular standing. This was +something. Whither should the scapegoat betake himself? Valence, where +the royalist colonel regarded him as a deserter, was of course closed, +and in Paris alone could the necessary steps be taken to secure +restoration to rank with back pay, or rather the reversal of the whole +record as it then stood on the regimental books. For this reason he +likewise secured letters of introduction to the leading Corsicans in +the French capital. His departure was so abrupt as to resemble +flight. He hastened to Corte, and remained just long enough to +understand the certainty of his overwhelming loss in public esteem +throughout Corsica. On the way he is said to have seen Paoli for a +short time and to have received some encouragement in a plan to raise +another battalion of volunteers. Joseph claimed to have advised his +brother to have nothing to do with the plan, but to leave immediately +for France. In any case Napoleon's mind was clear. A career in Corsica +on the grand scale was impossible for him. Borrowing money for the +journey, he hurried away and sailed from Bastia on May second, 1792. +The outlook might have disheartened a weaker man. Peraldi, the +Corsican deputy, was a near relative of the defeated rival; Paoli's +displeasure was only too manifest; the bitter hate of a large element +in Ajaccio, including the royalist commander of the garrison, was +unconcealed. Napoleon's energy, rashness, and ambition combined to +make Pozzo di Borgo detest him. He was accused of being a traitor, the +source of all trouble, of plotting a new St. Bartholomew, ready for +any horror in order to secure power. Rejected by Corsica, would France +receive him? Would not the few French friends he had be likewise +alienated by these last escapades? Could the formal record of +regimental offenses be expunged? In any event, how slight the prospect +of success in the great mad capital, amid the convulsive throes of a +nation's disorders! + +But in the last consideration lay his only chance: the nation's +disorder was to supply the remedy for Buonaparte's irregularities. The +King had refused his sanction to the secularization of the estates +which had once been held by the emigrants and recusant ecclesiastics; +the Jacobins retorted by open hostility to the monarchy. The plotting +of noble and princely refugees with various royal and other schemers +two years before had been a crime against the King and the +constitutionalists, for it jeopardized their last chance for +existence, even their very lives. Within so short a time what had been +criminal in the emigrants had seemingly become the only means of +self-preservation for their intended victim. His constitutional +supporters recognized that, in the adoption of this course by the +King, the last hope of a peaceful solution to their awful problem had +disappeared. It was now almost certain and generally believed that +Louis himself was in negotiation with the foreign sovereigns; to +thwart his plans and avert the consequences it was essential that open +hostilities against his secret allies should be begun. Consequently, +on April twentieth, 1792, by the influence of the King's friends war +had been declared against Austria. The populace, awed by the armies +thus called out, were at first silently defiant, an attitude which +changed to open fury when the defeat of the French troops in the +Austrian Netherlands was announced. + +The moderate republicans, or Girondists, as they were called from the +district where they were strongest, were now the mediating party; +their leader, Roland, was summoned to form a ministry and appease this +popular rage. It was one of his colleagues who had examined the +complaint against Buonaparte received from the commander of the +garrison at Ajaccio. According to a strict interpretation of the +military code there was scarcely a crime which Buonaparte had not +committed: desertion, disobedience, tampering, attack on constituted +authority, and abuse of official power. The minister reported the +conduct of both Quenza and Buonaparte as most reprehensible, and +declared that if their offense had been purely military he would have +court-martialed them. + +Learning first at Marseilles that war had broken out, and that the +companies of his regiment were dispersed to various camps for active +service, Buonaparte hastened northward. A new passion, which was +indicative of the freshly awakened patriotism, had taken possession of +the popular fancy. Where the year before the current and universal +phrase had been "federation," the talk was now all for the "nation." +It might well be so. Before the traveler arrived at his destination +further disaster had overtaken the French army, one whole regiment had +deserted under arms to the enemy, and individual soldiers were +escaping by hundreds. The officers of the Fourth Artillery were +resigning and running away in about equal numbers. Consternation ruled +supreme, treason and imbecility were everywhere charged against the +authorities. War within, war without, and the army in a state of +collapse! The emigrant princes would return, and France be sold to a +bondage tenfold more galling than that from which she was struggling +to free herself. + +When Buonaparte reached Paris on May twenty-eighth, 1792, the outlook +was poor for a suppliant, bankrupt in funds and nearly so in +reputation; but he was undaunted, and his application for +reinstatement in the artillery was made without the loss of a moment. +A new minister of war had been appointed but a few days before,--there +were six changes in that office during as many months,--and the +assistant now in charge of the artillery seemed favorable to the +request. For a moment he thought of restoring the suppliant to his +position, but events were marching too swiftly, and demands more +urgent jostled aside the claims of an obscure lieutenant with a shady +character. Buonaparte at once grasped the fact that he could win his +cause only by patience or by importunity, and began to consider how he +should arrange for a prolonged stay in the capital. His scanty +resources were already exhausted, but he found Bourrienne, a former +school-fellow at Brienne, in equal straits, waiting like himself for +something to turn up. Over their meals in a cheap restaurant on the +Rue St. Honore they discussed various means of gaining a livelihood, +and seriously contemplated a partnership in subletting furnished +rooms. But Bourrienne very quickly obtained the post of secretary in +the embassy at Stuttgart, so that his comrade was left to make his +struggle alone by pawning what few articles of value he possessed. + +The days and weeks were full of incidents terrible and suggestive in +their nature. The Assembly dismissed the King's body-guard on May +twenty-ninth; on June thirteenth, the Girondists were removed from the +ministry; within a few days it was known at court that Prussia had +taken the field as an ally of Austria, and on the seventeenth a +conservative, Feuillant cabinet was formed. Three days later the +popular insurrection began, on the twenty-sixth the news of the +coalition was announced, and on the twenty-eighth Lafayette endeavored +to stay the tide of furious discontent which was now rising in the +Assembly. But it was as ruthless as that of the ocean, and on July +eleventh the country was declared in danger. There was, however, a +temporary check to the rush, a moment of repose in which the King, on +the fourteenth, celebrated among his people the fall of the Bastille. +But an address from the local assembly at Marseilles had arrived, +demanding the dethronement of Louis and the abolition of the monarchy. +Such was the impatience of the great southern city that, without +waiting for the logical effect of their declaration, its inhabitants +determined to make a demonstration in Paris. On the thirtieth a +deputation five hundred strong arrived before the capital. On August +third, they entered the city singing the immortal song which bears +their name, but which was written at Strasburg by an officer of +engineers, Rouget de Lisle. The southern fire of the newcomers kindled +again the flame of Parisian sedition, and the radicals fanned it. At +last, on August tenth, the conflagration burst forth in an uprising +such as had not yet been seen of all that was outcast and lawless in +the great town; with them consorted the discontented and the envious, +the giddy and the frivolous, the curious and the fickle, all the +unstable elements of society. This time the King was unnerved; in +despair he fled for asylum to the chamber of the Assembly. That body, +unsympathetic for him, but sensitive to the ragings of the mob +without, found the fugitive unworthy of his office. Before night the +kingship was abolished, and the royal family were imprisoned in the +Temple. + +There is no proof that the young Corsican was at this time other than +an interested spectator. In a hurried letter written to Joseph on May +twenty-ninth he notes the extreme confusion of affairs, remarks that +Pozzo di Borgo is on good terms with the minister of war, and +recommends his brother to keep on good terms with Paoli. There is a +characteristic little paragraph on the uniform of the national guard. +Though he makes no reference to the purpose of his journey, it is +clear that he is calm, assured that in the wholesale flight of +officers a man like himself is assured of restoration to rank and +duty. Two others dated June fourteenth and eighteenth respectively are +scarcely more valuable. He gives a crude and superficial account of +French affairs internal and external, of no value as history. He had +made unsuccessful efforts to revive the plea for their mother's +mulberry subsidies, had dined with Mme. Permon, had visited their +sister Marianna at St. Cyr, where she had been called Elisa to +distinguish her from another Marianna. He speculates on the chance of +her marrying without a dot. In quiet times, the wards of St. Cyr +received, on leaving, a dowry of three thousand livres, with three +hundred more for an outfit; but as matters then were, the +establishment was breaking up and there were no funds for that +purpose. Like the rest, the Corsican girl was soon to be stripped of +her pretty uniform, the neat silk gown, the black gloves, and the +dainty bronze slippers which Mme. de Maintenon had prescribed for the +noble damsels at that royal school. In another letter written four +days later there is a graphic account of the threatening +demonstrations made by the rabble and a vivid description which +indicates Napoleon's being present when the mob recoiled at the very +door of the Tuileries before the calm and dignified courage of the +King. There is even a story, told as of the time, by Bourrienne, a +very doubtful authority, but probably invented later, of Buonaparte's +openly expressing contempt for riots. "How could the King let the +rascals in! He should have shot down a few hundred, and the rest would +have run." This statement, like others made by Bourrienne, is to be +received with the utmost caution. + +[Illustration: From the collection of W. C. Crane. +Bonaparte, General in Chief of the Army of Italy.] + +In a letter written about the beginning of July, probably to Lucien or +possibly to Joseph, and evidently intended to be read in the Jacobin +Club of Ajaccio, there are clear indications of its writer's temper. +He speaks with judicious calmness of the project for educational +reform; of Lafayette's appearance before the Assembly, which had +pronounced the country in danger and was now sitting in permanence, as +perhaps necessary to prevent its taking an extreme and dangerous +course; of the French as no longer deserving the pains men took for +them, since they were a people old and without continuity or +coherence;[27] of their leaders as poor creatures engaged on low +plots; and of the damper which such a spectacle puts on ambition. +Clearly the lesson of moderation which he inculcates is for the first +time sincerely given. The preacher, according to his own judgment for +the time being, is no Frenchman, no demagogue, nothing but a simple +Corsican anxious to live far from the madness of mobs and the +emptiness of so-called glory. + + [Footnote 27: The rare and curious pamphlet entitled + "Manuscrit de l'Ile d'Elbe," attributed to Montholon and + probably published by Edward O'Meara, contains headings + for ten chapters which were dictated by Napoleon at Elba + on February twenty-second, 1815. The argument is: The + Bourbons ascended the throne, in the person of Henry IV, + by conquering the so-called Holy League against the + Protestants, and by the consent of the people; a third + dynasty thus followed the second; then came the + republic, and its succession was legitimated by victory, + by the will of the people, and by the recognition of all + the powers of Europe. The republic made a new France by + emancipating the Gauls from the rule of the Franks. The + people had raised their leader to the imperial throne in + order to consolidate their new interests: this was the + fourth dynasty, etc., etc. The contemplated book was to + work out in detail this very conception of a nation as + passing through successive phases: at the close of each + it is worn out, but a new rule regenerates it, throwing + off the incrustations and giving room to the life + within. It is interesting to note the genesis of + Napoleon's ideas and the pertinacity with which he held + them.] + +It has been asserted that on the dreadful day of August tenth +Buonaparte's assumed philosophy was laid aside, and that he was a mob +leader at the barricades. His own account of the matter as given at +St. Helena does not bear this out. "I felt," said he, "as if I should +have defended the King if called to do so. I was opposed to those who +would found the republic by means of the populace. Besides, I saw +civilians attacking men in uniforms; that gave me a shock." He said +further in his reminiscences that he viewed the entire scene from the +windows of a furniture shop kept by Fauvelet de Bourrienne, brother +of his old school friend. The impression left after reading his +narrative of the frightful carnage before the Tuileries, of the +indecencies committed by frenzied women at the close of the fight, of +the mad excitement in the neighboring cafes, and of his own calmness +throughout, is that he was in no way connected either with the actors +or their deeds, except to shout, "Hurrah for the nation!" when +summoned to do so by a gang of ruffians who were parading the streets +under the banner of a gory head elevated on a pike.[28] The truth of +his statements cannot be established by any collateral evidence. + + [Footnote 28: Las Cases: Memorial de Sainte Helene, V, + 170.] + +It is not likely that an ardent radical leader like Buonaparte, well +known and influential in the Rhone valley, had remained a stranger to +the Marseilles deputation. If the Duchesse d'Abrantes be worthy of any +credence, he was very influential, and displayed great activity with +the authorities during the seventh and eighth, running hither, +thither, everywhere, to secure redress for an illegal domiciliary +visit which her mother, Mme. Permon, had received on the seventh. But +her testimony is of very little value, such is her anxiety to +establish an early intimacy with the great man of her time. Joseph, in +his memoirs,[29] declares that his brother was present at the conflict +of August tenth, and that Napoleon wrote him at the time, "If Louis +XVI had appeared on horseback, he would have conquered." "After the +victory of the Marseillais," continues the passage quoted from the +letter, "I saw a man about to kill a soldier of the guard. I said to +him, 'Southron, let us spare the unfortunate!' 'Art thou from the +South?' 'Yes.' 'Well, then, we will spare him.'" Moreover, it is a +fact that Santerre, the notorious leader of the mob on that day, was +three years later, on the thirteenth of Vendemiaire, most useful to +Buonaparte; that though degraded from the office of general to which +he was appointed in the revolutionary army, he was in 1800 restored to +his rank by the First Consul. All this is consistent with Napoleon's +assertion, but it proves nothing conclusively; and there is certainly +ground for suspicion when we reflect that these events were ultimately +decisive of Buonaparte's fortunes. + + [Footnote 29: Memoires du roi Joseph, I, 47.] + +The Feuillant ministry fell with the King, and an executive council +composed of radicals took its place. For one single day Paris reeled +like a drunkard, but on the next the shops were open again. On the +following Sunday the opera was packed at a benefit performance for the +widows and orphans of those who had fallen in victory. A few days +later Lafayette, as commander of the armies in the North, issued a +pronunciamento against the popular excesses. He even arrested the +commissioners of the Assembly who were sent to supplant him and take +the ultimate direction of the campaign. But he quickly found that his +old prestige was gone; he had not kept pace with the mad rush of +popular opinion; neither in person nor as the sometime commander of +the National Guard had he any longer the slightest influence. +Impeached and declared an outlaw, he, like the King, lost his balance, +and fled for refuge into the possessions of Liege. The Austrians +violated the sanctuary of neutral territory, and captured him, exactly +as Napoleon at a later day violated the neutrality of Baden in the +case of the Duc d'Enghien. On August twenty-third the strong place of +Longwy was delivered into the hands of the Prussians, the capitulation +being due, as was claimed, to treachery among the French officers. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +Buonaparte the French Jacobin. + + Reinstatement -- Further Solicitation -- Promotion -- + Napoleon and Elisa -- Occupations in Paris -- Return to + Ajaccio -- Disorders in Corsica -- Buonaparte a French + Jacobin -- Expedition against Sardinia -- Course of French + Affairs -- Paoli's Changed Attitude -- Estrangement of + Buonaparte and Paoli -- Mischances in the Preparations + against Sardinia -- Failure of the French Detachment -- + Buonaparte and the Fiasco of the Corsican Detachment -- His + Commission Lapses -- Further Developments in France -- + Results of French Victory -- England's Policy -- Paoli in + Danger -- Denounced and Summoned to Paris. + + +[Sidenote: 1792-93.] + +The committee to which Buonaparte's request for reinstatement was +referred made a report on June twenty-first, 1792, exonerating him +from blame. The reasons given were avowedly based on the +representations of the suppliant himself: first, that Duteil, the +inspector, had given him permission to sail for Corsica in time to +avoid the equinox, a distorted truth; and, second, that the Corsican +authorities had certified to his civism, his good conduct, and his +constant presence at home during his irregular absence from the army, +a truthful statement, but incomplete, since no mention was made of the +disgraceful Easter riots at Ajaccio and of Buonaparte's share in them. +The attitude of the government is clearly expressed in a despatch of +July eighth from the minister of war, Lajard, to Maillard, commander +of the Ajaccio garrison. The misdeeds of Quenza and Buonaparte were of +a civil and not a military nature, cognizable therefore under the new +legislation only by ordinary courts, not by military tribunals. The +uprisings, however, had been duly described to the commissioners by +Peraldi: they state as their opinion that the deputy was ill-informed +and that his judgment should not stand in the way of justice to M. de +Buonaparte. On July tenth the minister of war adopted the committee's +report, and this fact was announced in a letter addressed by him to +Captain Buonaparte! + +The situation is clearly depicted in a letter of August seventh from +Napoleon to Joseph. Current events were so momentous as to overshadow +personal considerations. Besides, there had been no military +misdemeanor at Ajaccio and his reinstatement was sure. As things were, +he would probably establish himself in France, Corsican as his +inclinations were. Joseph must get himself made a deputy for Corsica +to the Assembly, otherwise his role would be unimportant. He had been +studying astronomy, a superb science, and with his knowledge of +mathematics easy of acquisition. His book--the history, no doubt--was +copied and ready, but this was no time for publication; besides, he no +longer had the "petty ambition of an author." His family desired he +should go to his regiment (as likewise did the military authorities at +Paris), and thither he would go. + +A formal report in his favor was drawn up on August twentieth. On the +thirtieth he was completely reinstated, or rather his record was +entirely sponged out and consigned, as was hoped, to oblivion; for his +captain's commission was dated back to February sixth, 1792, the day +on which his promotion would have occurred in due course if he had +been present in full standing with his regiment. His arrears for that +rank were to be paid in full. Such success was intoxicating. Monge, +the great mathematician, had been his master at the military school in +Paris, and was now minister of the navy. True to his nature, with the +carelessness of an adventurer and the effrontery of a gambler, the +newly fledged captain promptly put in an application for a position as +lieutenant-colonel of artillery in the sea service. The authorities +must have thought the petition a joke, for the paper was pigeonholed, +and has been found marked S. R., that is, _sans reponse_--without +reply. Probably it was written in earnest, the motive being possibly +an invincible distaste for the regiment in which he had been +disgraced, which was still in command of a colonel who was not +disposed to leniency. + +An easy excuse for shirking duty and returning to the old habits of a +Corsican agitator was at hand. The events of August tenth settled the +fate of all monarchical institutions, even those which were partly +charitable. Among other royal foundations suppressed by the Assembly +on August eighteenth was that of St. Cyr, formally styled the +Establishment of St. Louis. The date fixed for closing was just +subsequent to Buonaparte's promotion, and the pupils were then to be +dismissed. Each beneficiary was to receive a mileage of one livre for +every league she had to traverse. Three hundred and fifty-two was the +sum due to Elisa. Some one must escort an unprotected girl on the long +journey; no one was so suitable as her elder brother and natural +protector. Accordingly, on September first, the brother and sister +appeared before the proper authorities to apply for the traveling +allowance of the latter. Whatever other accomplishments Mlle. de +Buonaparte had learned at the school of St. Louis, she was still as +deficient in writing and spelling as her brother. The formal +requisitions written by both are still extant; they would infuriate +any conscientious teacher in a primary school. Nor did they suffice: +the school authorities demanded an order from both the city and +department officials. It was by the kind intervention of the mayor +that the red tape was cut; the money was paid on the next day, and +that night the brother and the sister lodged in the Holland Patriots' +Hotel in Paris, where they appear to have remained for a week. + +This is the statement of an early biographer, and appears to be borne +out by an autograph letter of Napoleon's, recently found, in which he +says he left Paris on a date which, although the figure is blurred, +seems to be the ninth.[30] Some days would be necessary for the new +captain to procure a further leave of absence. Judging from subsequent +events, it is possible that he was also seeking further acquaintance +and favor with the influential Jacobins of Paris. During the days from +the second to the seventh more than a thousand of the royalists +confined in the prisons of Paris were massacred. It seems incredible +that a man of Napoleon's temperament should have seen and known +nothing of the riotous events connected with such bloodshed. Yet +nowhere does he hint that he had any personal knowledge. It is +possible that he left earlier than is generally supposed, but it is +not likely in view of the known dates of his journey. In any case he +did not seriously compromise himself, doing at the most nothing +further than to make plans for the future. It may have become clear to +him, for it was true and he behaved accordingly, that France was not +yet ready for him, nor he for France. + + [Footnote 30: Napoleon inconnu, II, 408.] + +It is, moreover, a strong indication of Buonaparte's interest in the +French Revolution being purely tentative that as soon as the desired +leave was granted, probably in the second week of September, without +waiting for the all-important fifteen hundred livres of arrears, now +due him, but not paid until a month later, he and his sister set out +for home. They traveled by diligence to Lyons, and thence by the +Rhone to Marseilles. During the few hours' halt of the boat at +Valence, Napoleon's friends, among them some of his creditors, who +apparently bore him no grudge, waited on him with kindly +manifestations of interest. His former landlady, Mme. Bou, although +her bill had been but insignificantly diminished by payments on +account, brought as her gift a basket of the fruit in which the +neighborhood abounds at that season. The regiment was no longer there, +the greater portion, with the colonel, being now on the northeastern +frontier under Dumouriez, facing the victorious legions of Prussia and +Austria. On the fourteenth the travelers were at Marseilles; in that +friendly democratic city they were nearly mobbed as aristocrats +because Elisa wore feathers in her hat. It is said that Napoleon flung +the offending object into the crowd with a scornful "No more +aristocrats than you," and so turned their howls into laughing +approval. It was about a month before the arrears of pay reached +Marseilles, two thousand nine hundred and fifty livres in all, a +handsome sum of money and doubly welcome at such a crisis. It was +probably October tenth when they sailed for Corsica, and on the +seventeenth Buonaparte was once more in his home, no longer so +confident, perhaps, of a career among his own people, but determined +to make another effort. It was his fourth return. Lucien and Fesch +were leaders in the radical club; Joseph was at his old post, his +ambition to represent Ajaccio at Paris was again thwarted, the +successful candidate having been Multedo, a family friend; Louis, as +usual, was disengaged and idle; Mme. Buonaparte and the younger +children were well; he himself was of course triumphantly vindicated +by his promotion. The ready money from the fortune of the old +archdeacon was long since exhausted, to be sure; but the excellent +vineyards, mulberry plantations, and gardens of the family properties +were still productive, and Napoleon's private purse had been +replenished by the quartermaster of his regiment. + +The course of affairs in France had materially changed the aspect of +Corsican politics; the situation was, if anything, more favorable for +a revolutionary venture than ever before. Salicetti had returned to +Corsica after the adjournment of the Constituent Assembly with many +new ideas which he had gathered from observing the conduct of the +Paris commune, and these he unstintingly disseminated among his +sympathizers. They proved to be apt scholars, and quickly caught the +tricks of demagogism, bribery, corruption, and malversation of the +public funds. He had returned to France before Buonaparte arrived, as +a member of the newly elected legislature, but his evil influence +survived his departure, and his lieutenants were ubiquitous and +active. Paoli had been rendered helpless, and was sunk in despair. He +was now commander-in-chief of the regular troops in garrison, but it +was a position to which he had been appointed against his will, for it +weakened his influence with his own party. Pozzo di Borgo, his stanch +supporter and Buonaparte's enemy, was attorney-general in Salicetti's +stead. As Paoli was at the same time general of the volunteer guard, +the entire power of the islands, military and civil, was in his hands: +but the responsibility for good order was likewise his, and the people +were, if anything, more unruly than ever; for it was to their minds +illogical that their idol should exercise such supreme power, not as a +Corsican, but in the name of France. The composition of the two chief +parties had therefore changed materially, and although their +respective views were modified to a certain extent, they were more +embittered than ever against each other. + +Buonaparte could not be neutral; his nature and his surroundings +forbade it. His first step was to resume his command in the +volunteers, and, under pretext of inspecting their posts, to make a +journey through the island; his second was to go through the form of +seeking a reconciliation with Paoli. Corsican historians, in their +eagerness to appropriate the greatness of both Paoli and Napoleon, +habitually misrepresent their relations. At this time each was playing +for his own hand, the elder exclusively for Corsica's advantage as he +saw it; the younger was more ambitious personally, although he was +beginning to see that in the course of the Revolution Corsica would +secure more complete autonomy as a French department than in any other +way. It is not at all clear that as late as this time Paoli was eager +for Napoleon's assistance nor the latter for Paoli's support. The +complete breach came soon and lasted until, when their views no longer +clashed, they both spoke generously one of the other. In the clubs, +among his friends and subordinates at the various military stations, +Napoleon's talk was loud and imperious, his manner haughty and +assuming. A letter written by him at the time to Costa, then +lieutenant in the militia and a thorough Corsican, explains that the +writer is detained from going to Bonifacio by an order from the +general (Paoli) to come to Corte; he will, however, hasten to his post +at the head of the volunteers on the very next day, and there will be +an end to all disorder and irregularity. "Greet our friends, and +assure them of my desire to further their interests." The epistle was +written in Italian, but that fact signifies little in comparison with +the new tone used in speaking about France: "The enemy has abandoned +Verdun and Longwy, and recrossed the river to return home, but our +people are not asleep." Lucien added a postscript explaining that he +had sent a pamphlet to his dear Costa, as to a friend, not as to a +co-worker, for that he had been unwilling to be. Both the brothers +seem already to have considered the possibility of abandoning Corsica. + +No sooner had war been declared against Austria in April, than it +became evident that the powers whose territories bordered on those of +France had previously reached an agreement, and were about to form a +coalition in order to make the war general. The Austrian Netherlands, +what we now know as Belgium, were already saturated with the +revolutionary spirit. It was not probable that much annoyance would +come from that quarter. Spain, Prussia, and Holland would, however, +surely join the alliance; and if the Italian principalities, with the +kingdom of Sardinia, should take the same course, France would be in +dire straits. It was therefore suggested in the Assembly that a blow +should be struck at the house of Savoy, in order to awe both that and +the other courts of Italy into inactivity. The idea of an attack on +Sardinia for this purpose originated in Corsica, but among the friends +of Salicetti, and it was he who urged the scheme successfully. The +sister island was represented as eager to free itself from the control +of Savoy. In order to secure Paoli's influence not only in his own +island, but in Sardinia, where he was likewise well known and admired, +the ministers forced upon him the unwelcome appointment of +lieutenant-general in the regular army, and his friend Peraldi was +sent to prepare a fleet at Toulon. + +The events of August tenth put an end for the time being to +constitutional government in France. The commissioners of the Paris +sections supplanted the municipal council, and Danton, climbing to +power as the representative "plain man," became momentarily the +presiding genius of the new Jacobin commune, which was soon able to +usurp the supreme control of France. A call was issued for the +election by manhood suffrage of a National Convention, and a committee +of surveillance was appointed with the bloodthirsty Marat as its +motive power. At the instigation of this committee large numbers of +royalists, constitutionalists, and others suspected of holding kindred +doctrines, were thrown into prison. The Assembly went through the form +of confirming the new despotism, including both the commune of the +sections and a Jacobin ministry in which Danton held the portfolio of +justice. It then dispersed. On September second began that general +clearance of the jails under mock forms of justice to which reference +has been made. It was really a massacre, and lasted, as has been said, +for five days. Versailles, Lyons, Meaux, Rheims, and Orleans were +similarly "purified." Amid these scenes the immaculate Robespierre, +whose hands were not soiled with the blood spilled on August tenth, +appeared as the calm statesman controlling the wild vagaries of the +rough and impulsive but unselfish and uncalculating Danton. These two, +with Philip Egalite and Collot d'Herbois, were among those elected to +represent Paris in the Convention. That body met on September +twenty-first. As they sat in the amphitheater of the Assembly, the +Girondists, or moderate republicans, who were in a strong majority, +were on the right of the president's chair. High up on the extreme +left were the Jacobins, or "Mountain"; between were placed those timid +trimmers who were called the "Plain" and the "Marsh" according to the +degree of their democratic sentiments. The members were, of course, +without exception republicans. The first act of the Convention was to +abolish the monarchy, and to declare France a republic. The next was +to establish an executive council. It was decreed that September +twenty-second, 1792, was the "first day of the year I of the +republic." Under the leadership of Brissot and Roland, the Girondists +asserted their power as the majority, endeavoring to restore order in +Paris, and to bridle the extreme Jacobins. But notwithstanding its +right views and its numbers, the Girondist party displayed no +sagacity; before the year I was three months old, the unscrupulous +Jacobins, with the aid of the Paris commune, had reasserted their +supremacy. + +The declaration of the republic only hastened the execution of +Salicetti's plan regarding Sardinia, and the Convention was more +energetic than the Legislative had been. The fleet was made ready, +troops from France were to be embarked at Villefranche, and a force +composed in part of regulars, in part of militia, was to be equipped +in Corsica and to sail thence to join the main expedition. +Buonaparte's old battalion was among those that were selected from the +Corsican volunteers. From the outset Paoli had been unfriendly to the +scheme; its supporters, whose zeal far outran their means, were not +his friends. Nevertheless, he was in supreme command of both regulars +and volunteers, and the government having authorized the expedition, +the necessary orders had to be issued through him as the only channel +of authority. Buonaparte's reappearance among his men had been of +course irregular. Being now a captain of artillery in the Fourth +Regiment, on active service and in the receipt of full pay, he could +no longer legally be a lieutenant-colonel of volunteers, a position +which had also been made one of emolument. But he was not a man to +stand on slight formalities, and had evidently determined to seize +both horns of the dilemma. + +Paoli, as a French official, of course could not listen for an instant +to such a preposterous notion. But as a patriot anxious to keep all +the influence he could, and as a family friend of the Buonapartes, he +was unwilling to order the young captain back to his post in France, +as he might well have done. The interview between the two men at Corte +was, therefore, indecisive. The older was benignant but firm in +refusing his formal consent; the younger pretended to be indignant +that he could not secure his rights: it is said that he even +threatened to denounce in Paris the anti-nationalist attitude of his +former hero. So it happened that Buonaparte returned to Ajaccio with a +permissive authorization, and, welcomed by his men, assumed a command +to which he could have no claim, while Paoli shut his eyes to an act +of flagrant insubordination. Paoli saw that Buonaparte was irrevocably +committed to revolutionary France; Buonaparte was convinced, or +pretended to be, that Paoli was again leaning toward an English +protectorate. French imperialist writers hint without the slightest +basis of proof that both Paoli and Pozzo di Borgo were in the pay of +England. Many have believed, in the same gratuitous manner, that there +was a plot among members of the French party to give Buonaparte the +chance, by means of the Sardinian expedition, to seize the chief +command at least of the Corsican troops, and thus eventually to +supplant Paoli. If this conjecture be true, Paoli either knew nothing +of the conspiracy, or behaved as he did because his own plans were not +yet ripe. The drama of his own personal perplexities, cross-purposes, +and ever false positions, was rapidly moving to an end; the logic of +events was too strong for the upright but perplexed old patriot, and a +scene or two would soon complete the final act of his public career. + +The plan for invading Sardinia was over-complex and too nicely +adjusted. One portion of the fleet was to skirt the Italian shores, +make demonstrations in the various harbors, and demand in one of +them--that of Naples--public reparation for an insult already offered +to the new French flag, which displayed the three colors of liberty. +The other portion was first to embark the Corsican guards and French +troops at Ajaccio, then to unite with the former in the Bay of Palma, +whence both were to proceed against Cagliari. But the French soldiers +to be taken from the Army of the Var under General Anselme were in +fact non-existent; the only military force to be found was a portion +of the Marseilles national guard--mere boys, unequipped, untrained, +and inexperienced. Winds and waves, too, were adverse: two of the +vessels were wrecked, and one was disabled. The rest were badly +demoralized, and their crews became unruly. On the arrival of the +ships at Ajaccio, a party of roistering sailors went ashore, +affiliated immediately with the French soldiers of the garrison, and +in the rough horse-play of such occasions picked a quarrel with +certain of the Corsican militia, killing two of their number. The +character of the islanders showed itself at once in further violence +and the fiercest threats. The tumult was finally allayed, but it was +perfectly clear that for Corsicans and Marseillais to be embarked on +the same vessel was to invite mutiny, riot, and bloodshed. + +Buonaparte thought he saw his way to an independent command, and at +once proposed what was manifestly the only alternative--a separate +Corsican expedition. The French fleet accordingly embarked the +garrison troops, and proceeded on its way; the Corsicans remained +ashore, and Buonaparte with them. Scenes like that at Ajaccio were +repeated in the harbor of St. Florent, and the attack on Cagliari by +the French failed, partly, as might be supposed, from the poor +equipment of the fleet and the wretched quality of the men, partly +because the two flotillas, or what was left of them, failed to effect +a junction at the appointed place and time. When they did unite, it +was February fourteenth, 1793; the men were ill fed and mutinous; the +troops that landed to storm the place fell into a panic, and would +actually have surrendered if the officers had not quickly reembarked +them. The costly enterprise met with but a single success: Naples was +cowed, and the court promised neutrality, with reparation for the +insult to the tricolor. + +The Corsican expedition was quite as ill-starred as the French. Paoli +accepted Buonaparte's plan, but appointed his nephew, Colonna-Cesari, +to lead, with instructions to see that, if possible, "this unfortunate +expedition shall end in smoke."[31] The disappointed but stubborn +young aspirant remained in his subordinate place as an officer of the +second battalion of the Corsican national guard. It was a month before +the volunteers could be equipped and a French corvette with her +attendant feluccas could be made ready to sail. On February twentieth, +1793, the vessels were finally armed, manned, and provisioned. The +destination of the flotilla was the Magdalena Islands, one of which is +Caprera, since renowned as the home of Garibaldi. The troops embarked +and put to sea. Almost at once the wind fell; there was a two days' +calm, and the ships reached their destination with diminished supplies +and dispirited crews. The first attack, made on St. Stephen, was +successful. Buonaparte and his guns were then landed on that spot to +bombard, across a narrow strait, Magdalena, the chief town on the main +island. The enemy's fire was soon silenced, and nothing remained but +for the corvette to work slowly round the intervening island of +Caprera, and take possession. The vessel had suffered slightly from +the enemy's fire, two of her crew having been killed. On the pretense +that a mutiny was imminent, Colonna-Cesari declared that cooeperation +between the sloop and the shore batteries was no longer possible; the +artillery and their commander were reembarked only with the utmost +difficulty; the unlucky expedition returned on February twenty-seventh +to Bonifacio. + + [Footnote 31: Reported by Arrighi and Renucci and given + in Napoleon inconnu, II, 418.] + +Both Buonaparte and Quenza were enraged with Paoli's nephew, declaring +him to have acted traitorously. It is significant of the utter anarchy +then prevailing that nobody was punished for the disgraceful fiasco. +Buonaparte, on landing, at once bade farewell to his volunteers. He +reported to the war ministry in Paris--and a copy of the memorial was +sent to Paoli as responsible for his nephew--that the Corsican +volunteers had been destitute of food, clothing, and munitions; but +that nevertheless their gallantry had overcome all difficulties, and +that in the hour of victory they were abased by the shameful conduct +of their comrades. He must have expressed himself freely, for he was +mobbed by the sailors in the square of Bonifacio. The men from +Bocagnano, partly from the Buonaparte estates at that place, rescued +him from serious danger.[32] When he entered Ajaccio, on March third, +he found that he was no longer, even by assumption, a lieutenant-colonel; +for during his short absence the whole Corsican guard had been +disbanded to make way for two battalions of light infantry whose +officers were to be appointed by the directory of the island. + + [Footnote 32: For the original of this protest see + Napoleon inconnu, II, 439.] + +Strange news now greeted his ears. Much of what had occurred since his +departure from Paris he already knew. France having destroyed root and +branch the tyranny of feudal privileges, the whole social edifice was +slack in every joint, and there was no strong hand to tighten the +bolts; for the King, in dallying with foreign courts, had virtually +deserted his people. The monarchy had therefore fallen, but not until +its friends had resorted to the expedient of a foreign war as a prop +to its fortunes. The early victories won by Austria and Prussia had +stung the nation to madness. Robespierre and Danton having become +dictators, all moderate policy was eclipsed. The executive council of +the Convention, determined to appease the nation, gathered their +strength in one vigorous effort, and put three great armies in the +field. On November sixth, 1792, to the amazement of the world, +Dumouriez won the battle of Jemmapes, thus conquering the Austrian +Netherlands as far north as Liege. + +The Scheldt, which had been closed since 1648 through the influence of +England and Holland, was reopened, trade resumed its natural channel, +and, in the exuberance of popular joy, measures were taken for the +immediate establishment of a Belgian republic. The other two armies, +under Custine and Kellermann, were less successful. The former, having +occupied Frankfort, was driven back to the Rhine; the latter defeated +the Allies at Valmy, but failed in the task of coming to Custine's +support at the proper moment for combined action. Meantime the +agitation in Paris had taken the form of personal animosity to "Louis +Capet," as the leaders of the disordered populace called the King. In +November he was summoned to the bar of the Convention and questioned. +When it came to the consideration of an actual trial, the Girondists, +willing to save the prisoner's life, claimed that the Convention had +no jurisdiction, and must appeal to the sovereign people for +authorization. The Jacobins insisted on the sovereign power of the +Convention, Robespierre protesting in the name of the people against +an appeal to the people. Supported by the noisy outcries not only of +the Parisian populace, but of their followers elsewhere, the radicals +prevailed. By a vote of three hundred and sixty-six to three hundred +and fifty-five the verdict of death was pronounced on January +seventeenth, 1793, and four days later the sentence was executed. This +act was a defiance to all monarchs, or, in other words, to all Europe. + +The younger Pitt was at this juncture prime minister of England. Like +the majority of his countrymen, he had mildly approved the course of +the French Revolution down to 1789; with them, in the same way, his +opinions had since that time undergone a change. By the aid of Burke's +biased but masterful eloquence the English people were gradually +convinced that Jacobinism, violence, and crime were the essence of the +movement, constitutional reform but a specious pretext. Between 1789 +and 1792 there was a rising tide of adverse public sentiment so swift +and strong that Pitt was unable to follow it. By the execution of +Louis the English moderates were silenced; the news was received with +a cry of horror, and the nation demanded war. Were kings' heads to +fall, and republican ideas, supported by republican armies, to spread +like a conflagration? The still monarchical liberals of England could +give no answer to the case of Louis or to the instance of Belgium, and +were stunned. The English anti-Jacobins became as fanatical as the +French Jacobins. Pitt could not resist the torrent. Yet in his extreme +necessity he saw his chance for a double stroke: to throw the blame +for the war on France, and to consolidate once more his nearly +vanished power in parliament. With masterly adroitness France was +tempted into a declaration of war against England. Enthusiasm raged in +Paris like fire among dry stubble. France, if so it must be, against +the world! Liberty and equality her religion! The land a camp! The +entire people an army! Three hundred thousand men to be selected, +equipped, and drilled at once! + +Nothing indicates that Buonaparte was in any way moved by the terrible +massacres of September, or even by the news of the King's unmerited +fate. But the declaration of war was a novelty which must have deeply +interested him; for what was Paoli now to do? From gratitude to +England he had repeatedly and earnestly declared that he could never +take up arms against her. He was already a lieutenant-general in the +service of her enemy, his division was assigned to the feeble and +disorganized Army of Italy, which was nominally being equipped for +active service, and the leadership, so ran the news received at +Ajaccio, had been conferred on the Corsican director. The fact was +that the radicals of the Convention had long been aware of the old +patriot's devotion to constitutional monarchy, and now saw their way +to be rid of so dangerous a foe. Three successive commanders of that +army had already found disgrace in their attempts with inadequate +means to dislodge the Sardinian troops from the mountain passes of the +Maritime Alps. Mindful, therefore, of their fate, and of his +obligations to England, Paoli firmly refused the proffered honor. +Suspicion as to the existence of an English party in the island had +early been awakened among the members of the Mountain; for half the +Corsican delegation to the Convention had opposed the sentence passed +on the King, and Salicetti was the only member who voted in the +affirmative. When the ill-starred Sardinian expedition reached Toulon, +the blame of failure was laid by the Jacobins on Paoli's shoulders. + +Salicetti, who was now a real power among the leaders at Paris, felt +that he must hasten to his department in order to forestall events, if +possible, and keep together the remnants of sympathy with France; he +was appointed one of a commission to enforce in the island the decrees +of the Convention. The commission was well received and the feeling +against France was being rapidly allayed when, most unexpectedly, +fatal news arrived from Paris. In the preceding November Lucien +Buonaparte had made the acquaintance in Ajaccio of Huguet de +Semonville, who was on his way to Constantinople as a special envoy of +the provisory council then in charge of the Paris administration. In +all probability he was sent to test Paoli's attitude. Versatile and +insinuating, he displayed great activity among the islanders. On one +occasion he addressed the radical club of Ajaccio--but though +eloquent, he was no linguist, and his French rhetoric would have +fallen flat but for the fervid zeal of Lucien, who at the close stood +in his place and rendered the ambassador's speech in Italian to an +enthralled audience. This event among others showed the younger +brother's mettle; the intimacy thus inaugurated ripened quickly and +endured for long. The ambassador was recalled to the mainland on +February second, 1793, and took his new-found friend with him as +secretary or useful man. Both were firm Jacobins, and the master +having failed in making any impression on Paoli during his Corsican +sojourn, the man, as the facts stand, took a mean revenge by +denouncing the lieutenant-general as a traitor before a political +meeting in Toulon. Lucien's friends have thought the words unstudied +and unpremeditated, uttered in the heat of unripe oratory. This may +be, but he expressed no repentance and the responsibility rests upon +his memory. As a result of the denunciation an address calumniating +the Corsican leader in the most excited terms was sent by the Toulon +Jacobins to the deputy of the department in Paris. Of all this +Napoleon knew nothing: he and Lucien were slightly alienated because +the latter thought his brother but a lukewarm revolutionary. The news +of the defection of Dumouriez had just arrived at the capital, public +opinion was inflamed, and on April second Paoli, who seemed likely to +be a second Dumouriez, was summoned to appear before the Convention. +For a moment he became again the most popular man in Corsica. He had +always retained many warm personal friends even among the radicals; +the royalists were now forever alienated from a government which had +killed their king; the church could no longer expect protection when +impious men were in power. These three elements united immediately +with the Paolists to protest against the arbitrary act of the +Convention. Even in that land of confusion there was a degree of chaos +hitherto unequaled. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +A Jacobin Hegira. + + The Waning of Corsican Patriotism -- Rise of French + Radicalism -- Alliance with Salicetti -- Another Scheme for + Leadership -- Failure to Seize the Citadel of Ajaccio -- + Second Plan -- Paoli's Attitude Toward the Convention -- + Buonaparte Finally Discredited in Corsica -- Paoli Turns to + England -- Plans of the Buonaparte Family -- Their Arrival + in Toulon -- Napoleon's Character -- His Corsican Career -- + Lessons of His Failures -- His Ability, Situation, and + Experience. + + +[Sidenote: 1793.] + +Buonoparte was for an instant among the most zealous of Paoli's +supporters, and, taking up his ever-ready pen, he wrote two +impassioned papers whose respective tenors it is not easy to +reconcile: one an appeal to the Convention in Paoli's behalf, the +other a demand addressed to the municipality of Ajaccio that the +people should renew their oath of allegiance to France. The +explanation is somewhat recondite, perhaps, but not discreditable. +Salicetti, as chairman of a committee of the convention on Corsican +affairs, had conferred with Paoli on April thirteenth. The result was +so satisfactory that on the sixteenth the latter was urged to attend a +second meeting at Bastia in the interest of Corsican reconciliation +and internal peace. Meantime Lucien's performance at Marseilles had +fired the train which led to the Convention's action against Paoli, +and on the seventeenth the order for his arrest reached Salicetti, who +was of course charged with its execution. For this he was not +prepared, nor was Buonaparte. The essential of Corsican annexation to +France was order. The Corsican folk flocked to protect Paoli in +Corte, and the local government declared for him. There was inchoate +rebellion and within a few days the districts of Calvi and Bastia were +squarely arrayed with Salicetti against Bonifacio and Ajaccio, which +supported Paoli and Pozzo di Borgo. The Buonapartes were convinced +that the decree of the Convention was precipitate, and pleaded for its +recall. At the same time they saw no hope for peace in Corsica, except +through incorporation with France. But compromise proved impossible. +There was a truce when Paoli on April twenty-sixth wrote to the +Convention regretting that he could not obey their summons on account +of infirmities, and declaring his loyalty to France. In consequence +the Convention withdrew its decree and sent a new commission of which +Salicetti was not a member. This was in May, on the eve of the +Girondin overthrow. The measures of reconciliation proved unavailing, +because the Jacobins of Marseilles, learning that Paoli was Girondist +in sentiment, stopped the commission, and forbade their proceeding to +Corsica. + +Meantime Captain Buonaparte's French regiment had already been some +five months in active service. If his passion had been only for +military glory, that was to be found nowhere so certainly as in its +ranks, where he should have been. But his passion for political renown +was clearly far stronger. Where could it be so easily gratified as in +Corsica under the present conditions? The personality of the young +adventurer had for a long time been curiously double: but while he had +successfully retained the position of a French officer in France, his +identity as a Corsican patriot had been nearly obliterated in Corsica +by his constant quarrels and repeated failures. Having become a French +radical, he had been forced into a certain antagonism to Paoli and +had thereby jeopardized both his fortunes and his career as far as +they were dependent on Corsican support. But with Paoli under the ban +of the Convention, and suspected of connivance with English schemes, +there might be a revulsion of feeling and a chance to make French +influence paramount once more in the island under the leadership of +the Buonapartes and their friends. For the moment Napoleon preserved +the outward semblance of the Corsican patriot, but he seems to have +been weary at heart of the thankless role and entirely ready to +exchange it for another. Whatever may have been his plan or the +principles of his conduct, it appears as if the decisive step now to +be taken had no relation to either plan or principles, but that it was +forced upon him by a chance development of events which he could not +have foreseen, and which he was utterly unable to control. + +It is unknown whether Salicetti or he made the first advances in +coming to an understanding for mutual support, or when that +understanding was reached, but it existed as early as January, 1793, a +fact conclusively shown by a letter of the former dated early in that +month. It was April fifth when Salicetti reached Corsica; the news of +Paoli's denunciation by the Convention arrived, as has been said, on +the seventeenth. Seeing how nicely adjusted the scales of local +politics were, the deputy was eager to secure favor from Paris, and +wrote on the sixteenth an account of how warmly his commission had +been received. Next day the blow of Paoli's condemnation fell, and it +became plain that compromise was no longer possible. When even the +Buonapartes were supporting Paoli, the reconciliation of the island +with France was clearly impracticable. Salicetti did not hesitate, but +as between Paoli and Corsica with no career on the one side, and the +possibilities of a great career under France on the other, quickly +chose the latter. The same considerations weighed with Buonaparte; he +followed his patron, and as a reward was appointed by the French +commission inspector-general of artillery for Corsica. + +Salicetti had granted what Paoli would not: Buonaparte was free to +strike his blow for Corsican leadership. With swift and decisive +measures the last scene in his Corsican adventures was arranged. +Several great guns which had been saved from a war-ship wrecked in the +harbor were lying on the shore unmounted. The inspector-general +hypocritically declared that they were a temptation to insurgents and +a menace to the public peace; they should be stored in the citadel. +His plan was to seize the moment when the heavy pieces were passing +the drawbridge, and at the head of his followers to take possession of +the stronghold he had so long coveted, and so often failed to capture. +If he could hold it for the Convention, a career in Corsica would be +at last assured. + +But again he was doomed to disappointment. The former garrison had +been composed of French soldiers. On the failure of the Sardinian +expedition most of these had been landed at Toulon, where they still +were. The men in the citadel of Ajaccio were therefore in the main +islanders, although some French infantry and the French gunners were +still there; the new commander was a Paolist who refused to be +hoodwinked, and would not act without an authorization from his +general-in-chief. The value of the seizure depended on its promptness. +In order to secure a sufficient number of faithful followers, +Buonaparte started on foot for Bastia to consult the commission. +Learning that he was already a suspect at Corte and in danger of +arrest, he turned on his steps only to be confronted at Bocognano by a +band of Peraldi's followers. Two shepherds from his own estate found +a place of concealment for him in a house belonging to their friends, +and he passed a day in hiding, escaping after nightfall to Ucciani, +whence he returned to Ajaccio in safety.[33] Thwarted in one notion, +Buonaparte then proposed to the followers he already had two +alternatives: to erect a barricade behind which the guns could be +mounted and trained on the citadel, or, easier still, to carry one of +the pieces to some spot before the main entrance and then batter in +the gate. Neither scheme was considered feasible, and it was +determined to secure by bribes, if possible, the cooeperation of a +portion of the garrison. The attempt failed through the integrity of a +single man, and is interesting only as having been Napoleon's first +lesson in an art which was thenceforward an unfailing resource. Rumors +of these proceedings soon reached the friends of Paoli, and Buonaparte +was summoned to report immediately at Corte. Such was the intensity of +popular bitterness against him in Ajaccio for his desertion of Paoli +that after a series of narrow escapes from arrest he was compelled to +flee in disguise and by water to Bastia, which he reached on May +tenth, 1793. Thwarted in their efforts to seize Napoleon, the hostile +party vented its rage on the rest of the family, hunting the mother +and children from their town house, which was pillaged and burned, +first to Milleli, then through jungle and over hilltops to the lonely +tower of Capitello near the sea. + + [Footnote 33: Both these men were generously remembered + in the secret codicils of Napoleon's will.] + +A desire for revenge on his Corsican persecutors would now give an +additional stimulus to Buonaparte, and still another device to secure +the passionately desired citadel of Ajaccio was proposed by him to the +commissioners of the Convention, and adopted by them. The remnants of +a Swiss regiment stationed near by were to be marched into the city, +as if for embarkment; several French war vessels from the harbor of +St. Florent, including one frigate, with troops, munitions, and +artillery on board, were to appear unexpectedly before the city, land +their men and guns, and then, with the help of the Switzers and such +of the citizens as espoused the French cause, were to overawe the town +and seize the citadel. Corsican affairs had now reached a crisis, for +this was a virtual declaration of war. Paoli so understood it, and +measures of mutual defiance were at once taken by both sides. The +French commissioners formally deposed the officials who sympathized +with Paoli; they, in turn, took steps to increase the garrison of +Ajaccio, and to strengthen the popular sentiment in their favor. + +On receipt of the news that he had been summoned to Paris and that +hostile commissioners had been sent to take his place, Paoli had +immediately forwarded, by the hands of two friendly representatives, +the temperate letter in which he had declared his loyalty to France. +In it he had offered to resign and leave Corsica. His messengers were +seized and temporarily detained, but in the end they reached Paris, +and were kindly received. On May twenty-ninth they appeared on the +floor of the Convention, and won their cause. On June fifth the former +decree was revoked, and two days later a new and friendly commission +of two members started for Corsica. But at Marseilles they fell into +the hands of the Jacobin mob, and were arrested. Ignorant of these +favorable events, and the untoward circumstances by which their effect +was thwarted, the disheartened statesman had written and forwarded on +May fourteenth a second letter, of the same tenor as the first. This +measure likewise had failed of effect, for the messenger had been +stopped at Bastia, now the focus of Salicetti's influence, and the +letter had never reached its destination. + +It was probably in this interval that Paoli finally adopted, as a last +desperate resort, the hitherto hazy idea of putting the island under +English protection, in order to maintain himself in the mission to +which he felt that Providence had called him. The actual departure of +Napoleon's expedition from St. Florent gave the final impulse. That +event so inflamed the passions of the conservative party in Ajaccio +that the Buonaparte family could no longer think of returning within a +reasonable time to their home. Some desperate resolution must be +taken, though it should involve leaving their small estates to be +ravaged, their slender resources to be destroyed, and abandoning their +partizans to proscription and imprisonment. They finally found a +temporary asylum with a relative in Calvi. The attacking flotilla had +been detained nearly a week by a storm, and reached Ajaccio on May +twenty-ninth, in the very height of these turmoils. It was too late +for any possibility of success. The few French troops on shore were +cowed, and dared not show themselves when a party landed from the +ships. On the contrary, Napoleon and his volunteers were received with +a fire of musketry, and, after spending two anxious days in an +outlying tower which they had seized and held, were glad to reembark +and sail away. Their leader, after still another narrow escape from +seizure, rejoined his family at Calvi. The Jacobin commission held a +meeting, and determined to send Salicetti to justify their course at +Paris. He carried with him a wordy paper written by Buonaparte in his +worst style and spelling, setting forth the military and political +situation in Corsica, and containing a bitter tirade against Paoli, +which remains to lend some color to the charge that the writer had +been, since his leader's return from exile, a spy and an informer, +influenced by no high principle of patriotism, but only by a base +ambition to supplant the aged president, and then to adopt whichever +plan would best further his own interest: ready either to establish a +virtual autonomy in his fatherland, or to deliver it entirely into the +hands of France.[34] + + [Footnote 34: For this paper, see Napoleon inconnu, II, + 462. Jung: Bonaparte et son temps, II, 266 and 498. + There appear to have been an official portion intended + to be filed, and a free, carelessly written running + commentary on men and things. The passage quoted is + taken from the latter.] + +In this painful document Buonaparte sets forth in fiery phrase the +early enthusiasm of republicans for the return of Paoli, and their +disillusionment when he surrounded himself with venal men like Pozzo +di Borgo, with relatives like his nephew Leonetti, with his vile +creatures in general. The misfortunes of the Sardinian expedition, the +disgraceful disorders of the island, the failure of the commissioners +to secure Ajaccio, are all alike attributed to Paoli. "Can perfidy +like this invade the human heart?... What fatal ambition overmasters a +graybeard of sixty-eight?... On his face are goodness and gentleness, +in his heart hate and vengeance; he has an oily sensibility in his +eyes, and gall in his soul, but neither character nor strength." These +were the sentiments proper to a radical of the times, and they found +acceptance among the leaders of that class in Paris. More moderate men +did what they could to avert the impending breach, but in vain. +Corsica was far, communication slow, and the misunderstanding which +occurred was consequently unavoidable. It was not until July first +that Paoli received news of the pacificatory decrees passed by the +Convention more than a month before, and then it was too late; groping +in the dark, and unable to get news, he had formed his judgment from +what was going on in Corsica, and had therefore committed himself to a +change of policy. To him, as to most thinking men, the entire +structure of France, social, financial, and political, seemed rotten. +Civil war had broken out in Vendee; in Brittany the wildest excesses +passed unpunished; the great cities of Marseilles, Toulon, and Lyons +were in a state of anarchy; the revolutionary tribunal had been +established in Paris; the Committee of Public Safety had usurped the +supreme power; the France to which he had intrusted the fortunes of +Corsica was no more. Already an agent was in communication with the +English diplomats in Italy. On July tenth Salicetti arrived in Paris; +on the seventeenth Paoli was declared a traitor and an outlaw, and his +friends were indicted for trial. But the English fleet was already in +the Mediterranean, and although the British protectorate over Corsica +was not established until the following year, in the interval the +French and their few remaining sympathizers on the island were able at +best to hold only the three towns of Bastia, St. Florent, and Calvi. + +After the last fiasco before the citadel of Ajaccio, the situation of +the Buonapartes was momentarily desperate. Lucien says in his memoirs +that shortly before his brother had spoken longingly of India, of the +English empire as destined to spread with every year, and of the +career which its expansion opened to good officers of artillery, who +were scarce among the British--scarce enough everywhere, he thought. +"If I ever choose that career," said he, "I hope you will hear of me. +In a few years I shall return thence a rich nabob, and bring fine +dowries for our three sisters." But the scheme was deferred and then +abandoned. Salicetti had arranged for his own return to Paris, where +he would be safe. Napoleon felt that flight was the only resort for +him and his. Accordingly, on June eleventh, three days earlier than +his patron, he and Joseph, accompanied by Fesch, embarked with their +mother and the rest of the family to join Lucien, who had remained at +Toulon, where they arrived on the thirteenth. The Jacobins of that +city had received Lucien, as a sympathetic Corsican, with honor. +Doubtless his family, homeless and destitute for their devotion to the +republic, would find encouragement and help until some favorable turn +in affairs should restore their country to France, and reinstate them +not only in their old possessions, but in such new dignities as would +fitly reward their long and painful devotion. Such, at least, appears +to have been Napoleon's general idea. He was provided with a legal +certificate that his family was one of importance and the richest in +the department. The Convention had promised compensation to those who +had suffered losses. + +As had been hoped, on their arrival the Buonapartes were treated with +every mark of distinction, and ample provision was made for their +comfort. By act of the Convention, women and old men in such +circumstances received seventy-five livres a month, infants forty-five +livres. Lads received simply a present of twenty-five livres. With the +preliminary payment of one hundred and fifty livres, which they +promptly received, the Buonapartes were better off than they had been +at home. Lucien had appropriated Napoleon's certificate of birth in +order to appear older than he was, and, having now developed into a +fluent demagogue, was soon earning a small salary in the commissary +department of the army. Fesch also found a comfortable berth in the +same department. Joseph calmly displayed Napoleon's commission in the +National Guard as his own, and received a higher place with a better +salary. The sovereignty of the Convention was everywhere acknowledged, +their revolutionary courts were established far and wide, and their +legations, clothed with dictatorial power, were acknowledged in every +camp of the land as supreme, superior even to the commanders-in-chief. +It was not exactly a time for further military irregularities, and +Napoleon, armed with a certificate from Salicetti that his presence in +Corsica for the past six months had been necessary, betook himself to +the army headquarters at Nice, where a detachment of his regiment was +now stationed. When he arrived, no awkward questions were asked by the +authorities. The town had but recently been captured, men were needed +to hold it, and the Corsican refugee was promptly appointed captain of +the shore battery. To casual observers he appeared perfectly content +in this subordinate position. He still cherished the hope, it seems, +that he might find some opportunity to lead a successful expedition +against the little citadel of Ajaccio. Such a scheme, at all events, +occupied him intermittently for nearly two years, or until it was +banished forever by visions of a European control far transcending the +limits of his island home. + +Not that the outcast Buonaparte was any longer exclusively a Corsican. +It is impossible to conceive of a lot more pitiful or a fate more +obdurate than his so far had been. There was little hereditary +morality in his nature, and none had been inculcated by training; he +had nothing of what is called vital piety, nor even sincere +superstition. A butt and an outcast at a French school under the old +regime, he had imbibed a bitter hatred for the land indelibly +associated with such haughty privileges for the rich and such +contemptuous disdain for the poor. He had not even the consolation of +having received an education. His nature revolted at the religious +formalism of priestcraft; his mind turned in disgust from the +scholastic husks of its superficial knowledge. What he had learned +came from inborn capacity, from desultory reading, and from the +untutored imaginings of his garden at Brienne, his cave at Ajaccio, or +his barrack chambers. What more plausible than that he should first +turn to the land of his birth with some hope of happiness, usefulness, +or even glory! What more mortifying than the revelation that in +manhood he was too French for Corsica, as in boyhood he had been too +Corsican for France! + +The story of his sojourns and adventures in Corsica has no +fascination; it is neither heroic nor satanic, but belongs to the dull +and mediocre realism which makes up so much of commonplace life. It is +difficult to find even a thread of continuity in it: there may be one +as to purpose; there is none as to either conduct or theory. There is +the passionate admiration of a southern nature for a hero as +represented by the ideal Paoli. There is the equally southern quality +of quick but transient hatred. The love of dramatic effect is shown at +every turn, in the perfervid style of his writings, in the mock +dignity of an edict issued from the grotto at Milleli, in the empty +honors of a lieutenant-colonel without a real command, in the paltry +style of an artillery inspector with no artillery but a few dismantled +guns. + +But the most prominent characteristic of the young man was his +shiftiness, in both the good and bad senses of the word. He would +perish with mortification rather than fail in devising some expedient +to meet every emergency; he felt no hesitation in changing his point +of view as experience destroyed an ideal or an unforeseen chance was +to be seized and improved. Moreover, repeated failure did not +dishearten him. Detesting garrison life, he neglected its duties, and +endured punishment, but he secured regular promotion; defeated again +and again before the citadel of Ajaccio, each time he returned +undismayed to make a fresh trial under new auspices or in a new way. + +He was no spendthrift, but he had no scruples about money. He was +proud in the headship of his family, and reckless as to how he should +support them, or should secure their promotion. Solitary in his +boyhood, he had become in his youth a companion and leader; but his +true friendships were not with his social equals, whom he despised, +but with the lowly, whom he understood. Finally, here was a citizen of +the world, a man without a country; his birthright was gone, for +Corsica repelled him; France he hated, for she had never adopted him. +He was almost without a profession, for he had neglected that of a +soldier, and had failed both as an author and as a politician. He was +apparently, too, without a single guiding principle; the world had +been a harsh stepmother, at whose knee he had neither learned the +truth nor experienced kindness. He appears consistent in nothing but +in making the best of events as they occurred. So far he was a man +neither much better nor much worse than the world into which he was +born. He was quite as unscrupulous as those about him, but he was far +greater than they in perspicacity, adroitness, adaptability, and +persistence. During the period before his expulsion from Corsica these +qualities of leadership were scarcely recognizable, but they existed. +As yet, to all outward appearance, the little captain of artillery was +the same slim, ill-proportioned, and rather insignificant youth; but +at twenty-three he had had the experience of a much greater age. +Conscious of his powers, he had dreamed many day-dreams, and had +acquired a habit of boastful conversation in the family circle; but, +fully cognizant of the dangers incident to his place, and the +unsettled conditions about him, he was cautious and reserved in the +outside world. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +"The Supper of Beaucaire". + + Revolutionary Madness -- Uprising of the Girondists -- + Convention Forces Before Avignon -- Bonaparte's First + Success in Arms -- Its Effect upon His Career -- His + Political Pamphlet -- The Genius it Displays -- Accepted and + Published by Authority -- Seizure of Toulon by the Allies. + + +[Sidenote: 1793.] + +It was a tempestuous time in Provence when on June thirteenth the +Buonapartes arrived at Toulon. Their movements during the first few +months cannot be determined; we only know that, after a very short +residence there, the family fled to Marseilles.[35] Much, too, is +obscure in regard even to Napoleon, soldier as he was. It seems as if +this period of their history had been wilfully confused to conceal how +intimate were the connections of the entire family with the Jacobins. +But the obscurity may also be due to the character of the times. +Fleeing before the storms of Corsican revolution, they were caught in +the whirlwind of French anarchy. The Girondists, after involving the +country in a desperate foreign warfare, had shown themselves +incompetent to carry it on. In Paris, therefore, they had to give way +before the Jacobins, who, by the exercise of a reckless despotism, +were able to display an unparalleled energy in its prosecution. +Against their tyranny the moderate republicans and the royalists +outside of Paris now made common cause, and civil war broke out in +many places, including Vendee, the Rhone valley, and the southeast of +France. Montesquieu declares that honor is the distinguishing +characteristic of aristocracy: the emigrant aristocrats had been the +first in France to throw honor and patriotism to the winds; many of +their class who remained went further, displaying in Vendee and +elsewhere a satanic vindictiveness. This shameful policy colored the +entire civil war, and the bitterness in attack and retaliation that +was shown in Marseilles, Lyons, Toulon, and elsewhere would have +disgraced savages in a prehistoric age. + + [Footnote 35: The memoirs of Joseph and Lucien, + supported by Coston and the anonymous local historian of + Marseilles, all unite in declaring that the Buonaparte + family landed there; on the other hand, Louis, in the + Documents historiques sur la Hollande, I, 34, asserts + categorically in detail that they took up their abode in + La Valette, a suburb of Toulon, where they had landed.] + +The westward slopes of the Alps were occupied by a French army under +the command of Kellermann, designated by the name of its situation; +farther south and east lay the Army of Italy, under Brunet. Both these +armies were expected to draw their supplies from the fertile country +behind them, and to cooeperate against the troops of Savoy and Austria, +which had occupied the passes of lower Piedmont, and blocked the way +into Lombardy. By this time the law for compulsory enlistment had been +enacted, but the general excitement and topsy-turvy management +incident to such rapid changes in government and society, having +caused the failure of the Sardinian expedition, had also prevented +recruiting or equipment in either of these two divisions of the army. +The outbreak of open hostilities in all the lands immediately to the +westward momentarily paralyzed their operations; and when, shortly +afterward, the Girondists overpowered the Jacobins in Marseilles, the +defection of that city made it difficult for the so-called regulars, +the soldiers of the Convention, even to obtain subsistence and hold +the territory they already occupied. + +The next move of the insurgent Girondists of Marseilles was in the +direction of Paris, and by the first week of July they had reached +Avignon on their way to join forces with their equally successful +friends at Lyons. With characteristic zeal, the Convention had created +an army to meet them. The new force was put under the command of +Carteaux, a civilian, but a man of energy. According to directions +received from Paris, he quickly advanced to cut the enemy in two by +occupying the strategic point of Valence. This move was successfully +made, Lyons was left to fight its own battle, and by the middle of +July the general of the Convention was encamped before the walls of +Avignon. + +Napoleon Buonaparte had hastened to Nice, where five companies of his +regiment were stationed, and rejoining the French army, never faltered +again in his allegiance to the tricolor. Jean Duteil, brother of the +young man's former patron, was in the Savoy capital, high in command. +He promptly set the young artillerist at the work of completing the +shore batteries. On July third and eighth, respectively, the new +captain made written reports to the secretary for war at Paris, and to +the director of artillery in the arsenal of Toulon. Both these papers +are succinct and well written. Almost immediately Buonaparte was +intrusted with a mission, probably confidential, since its exact +nature is unknown, and set out for Avignon. He reached his destination +almost in the moment when Carteaux began the investment of the city. +It was about July sixteenth when he entered the republican camp, +having arrived by devious ways, and after narrow escapes from the +enemy's hands. This time he was absent from his post on duty. The +works and guns at Nice being inadequate and almost worthless, he was +probably sent to secure supplies from the stores of Avignon when it +should be conquered. Such were the straits of the needy republican +general that he immediately appointed his visitor to the command of a +strong body of flying artillery. In the first attack on the town +Carteaux received a check. But the insurgents were raw volunteers and +seem to have felt more and more dismayed by the menacing attitude of +the surrounding population: on the twenty-fifth, in the very hour of +victory, they began their retreat.[36] The road to Marseilles was thus +clear, and the commander unwisely opened his lines to occupy the +evacuated towns on his front. Carteaux entered Avignon on the +twenty-sixth; on the twenty-seventh he collected his force and +departed, reaching Tarascon on the twenty-eighth, and on the +twenty-ninth Beaucaire. Buonaparte, whose battery had done excellent +service, advanced for some distance with the main army, but was +ordered back to protect the rear by reorganizing and reconstructing +the artillery park which had been dismantled in the assault on +Avignon. + + [Footnote 36: These are the most probable reasons for + the retreat. Several local chroniclers, Soullier, Audri, + and Joudou, writing all three about 1844, declare each + and all that Buonaparte with his battery followed the + right bank of the Rhone as far as the Rocher de Justice + where he mounted his guns and opened fire on the walls + of the city. His fire was so accurate that he destroyed + one cannon and killed several gunners. The besieged + garrison of federalists were thrown into panic and + decamped. Neither the contemporary authorities nor + Napoleon himself ever mentioned any such remarkable + circumstances. In fact, a passage of the "Souper de + Beaucaire" attributes the retreat to the inability of + any except veteran troops to withstand a siege. Finally, + Buonaparte would surely have been promoted for such an + exploit. Dommartin, a comrade, was thus rewarded for a + much smaller service.] + +This first successful feat of arms made a profound impression on +Buonaparte's mind, and led to the decision which settled his career. +His spirits were still low, for he was suffering from a return of his +old malarial trouble. Moreover, his family seems already to have been +driven from Toulon by the uprising of the hostile party: in any case +they were now dependent on charity; the Corsican revolt against the +Convention was virtually successful, and it was said that in the +island the name of Buonaparte was considered as little less execrable +than that of Buttafuoco. What must he do to get a decisive share in +the surging, rolling tumult about him? The visionary boy was transformed +into the practical man. Frenchmen were fighting and winning glory +everywhere, and among the men who were reaping laurels were some whom +he had known and even despised at Brienne--Sergeant Pichegru, for +instance. Ideas which he had momentarily entertained,--enlistment in +the Russian army,[37] service with England, a career in the Indies, +the return of the nabob,--all such visions were set aside forever, and +an application was sent for a transfer from the Army of Italy to that +of the Rhine. The suppression of the southern revolt would soon be +accomplished, and inactivity ensue; but on the frontier of the north +there was a warfare worthy of his powers, in which, if he could only +attract the attention of the authorities, long service, rapid +advancement, and lasting glory might all be secured. + + [Footnote 37: The Archive Russe for 1866 states that in + 1788 Napoleon Buonaparte applied for an engagement to + Zaborowski, Potemkin's lieutenant, who was then with a + Russian fleet in the Mediterranean. The statement may be + true, and probably is, but there is no corroborative + evidence to sustain it.] + +But what must be the first step to secure notoriety here and now? How +could that end be gained? The old instinct of authorship returned +irresistibly, and in the long intervals of easy duty at Avignon, +where, as is most probable, he remained to complete the task assigned +to him, Buonaparte wrote the "Supper of Beaucaire," his first literary +work of real ability. As if by magic his style is utterly changed, +being now concise, correct, and lucid. The reader would be tempted to +think it had enjoyed a thorough revision from some capable hand. But +this is improbable when we note that it is the permanent style of the +future. Moreover, the opinions expressed are quite as thoroughly +transformed, and display not only a clear political judgment, but an +almost startling military insight. The setting of this notable repast +is possibly, though by no means certainly, based on an actual +experience, and is as follows: Five wayfarers--a native of Nimes, a +manufacturer from Montpellier, two merchants of Marseilles, and a +soldier from Avignon--find themselves accidentally thrown together as +table companions at an inn of Beaucaire, a little city round about +which the civil war is raging. The conversation at supper turns on the +events occurring in the neighborhood. The soldier explains the +circumstances connected with the recent capture of Avignon, +attributing the flight of the insurgents to the inability of any +except veteran troops to endure the uncertainties of a siege. One of +the travelers from Marseilles thinks the success but temporary, and +recapitulates the resources of the moderates. The soldier retorts in a +long refutation of that opinion. As a politician he shows how the +insurgents have placed themselves in a false position by adopting +extreme measures and alienating republican sympathy, being cautious +and diplomatic in not censuring their persons nor their principles; on +the other side there is a marked effort to emphasize the professional +attitude; as a military man he explains the strategic weakness of +their position, and the futility of their operations, uttering many +sententious phrases: "Self-conceit is the worst adviser"; "Good +four-and eight-pound cannon are as effective for field work as pieces +of larger caliber, and are in many respects preferable to them"; "It +is an axiom of military science that the army which remains behind +its intrenchments is beaten: experience and theory agree on this +point." + +The conclusion of the conversation is a triumphant demonstration that +the cause of the insurgents is already lost, an argument convicting +them of really desiring not moderation, but a counter-revolution in +their own interest, and of displaying a willingness to imitate the +Vendeans, and call in foreign aid if necessary. In one remarkable +passage the soldier grants that the Girondists may have been outlawed, +imprisoned, and calumniated by the Mountain in its own selfish +interest, but adds that the former "were lost without a civil war by +means of which they could lay down the law to their enemies. It was +for them your war was really useful. Had they merited their early +reputation, they would have thrown down their arms before the +constitution and sacrificed their own interests to the public welfare. +It is easier to cite Decius than to imitate him. To-day they have +shown themselves guilty of the worst possible crimes; have, by their +behavior, justified their proscription. The blood they have caused to +flow has effaced the true services they had rendered." The Montpellier +manufacturer is of opinion that, whether this be true or no, the +Convention now represents the nation, and to refuse obedience to it is +rebellion and counter-revolution. History knows no plainer statement +than this of the "de facto, de jure" principle, the conviction that +"might makes right." + +At last, then, the leader had shown himself in seizing the salient +elements of a complicated situation, and the man of affairs had found +a style in which to express his clear-cut ideas. When the tide turns +it rises without interruption. Buonaparte's pamphlet was scarcely +written before its value was discerned; for at that moment arrived +one of those legations now representing the sovereignty of the +Convention in every field of operations. This one was a most +influential committee of three--Escudier, Ricord, and the younger +brother of Robespierre. Accompanying them was a commission charged to +renew the commissary stores in Corsica for the few troops still +holding out in that island. Salicetti was at its head; the other +member was Gasparin. Buonaparte, we may infer, found easy access to +the favor of his compatriot Salicetti, and "The Supper of Beaucaire" +was heard by the plenipotentiaries with attention. Its merit was +immediately recognized, as is said, both by Gasparin and by the +younger Robespierre; in a few days the pamphlet was published at the +expense of the state.[38] Of Buonaparte's life between July +twenty-ninth and September twelfth, 1793, there are the most +conflicting accounts. Some say he was at Marseilles, others deny it. +His brother Joseph thought he was occupied in collecting munitions and +supplies for the Army of Italy. His earliest biographer declares that +he traveled by way of Lyons and Auxonne to Paris, returning by the +same route to Avignon, and thence journeying to Ollioules near Toulon. +From the army headquarters before that city Salicetti wrote on +September twenty-sixth that while Buonaparte was passing on his way to +rejoin the Army of Italy, the authorities in charge of the siege +changed his destination and put him in command of the heavy artillery +to replace Dommartin, incapacitated for service by a wound. It has +been hinted by both the suspicious and the credulous writers on the +period that the young man was employed on some secret mission. This +might be expected from those who attribute demonic qualities to the +child of destiny from earliest infancy, but there is no slightest +evidence to sustain the claim. Quite possibly the lad relapsed into +the queer restless ways of earlier life. It is evident he was thwarted +in his hope of transfer to the Army of the Rhine. Unwilling as he was +to serve in Italy, he finally turned his lagging footsteps thither. +Perhaps, as high authorities declare, it was at Marseilles that his +compatriot Cervoni persuaded him to go as far at least as Toulon, +though Salicetti and Buonaparte himself declared later that they met +and arranged the matter at Nice. + + [Footnote 38: The very first impression appears to have + been a reprint from the Courier d'Avignon: it was a + cheap pamphlet of sixteen pages in the same type and on + the paper as that used by the journal. The second + impression was in twenty pages, printed by the public + printer as a tract for the times, to be distributed + throughout the near and remote neighborhood.] + +In this interval, while Buonaparte remained, according to the best +authority, within reach of Avignon, securing artillery supplies and +writing a political pamphlet in support of the Jacobins, Carteaux had, +on August twenty-fifth, 1793, taken Marseilles. The capture was +celebrated by one of the bloodiest orgies of that horrible year. The +Girondists of Toulon saw in the fate of those at Marseilles the lot +apportioned to themselves. If the high contracting powers now banded +against France had shown a sincere desire to quell Jacobin bestiality, +they could on the first formation of the coalition easily have seized +Paris. Instead, Austria and Prussia had shown the most selfish apathy +in that respect, bargaining with each other and with Russia for their +respective shares of Poland, the booty they were about to seize. The +intensity of the Jacobin movement did not rouse them until the +majority of the French people, vaguely grasping the elements of +permanent value in the Revolution, and stung by foreign interference, +rallied around the only standard which was firmly upheld,--that of the +Convention,--and enabled that body within an incredibly short space +of time to put forth tremendous energy. Then England, terrified into +panic, drove Pitt to take effective measures, and displayed her +resources in raising subsidies for her Continental allies, in goading +the German powers to activity, in scouring every sea with her fleets. +One of these was cruising off the French coast in the Mediterranean, +and it was easy for the Girondists of Toulon to induce its commander +to seize not only their splendid arsenals, but the fleet in their +harbor as well--the only effective one, in fact, which at that time +the French possessed. Without delay or hesitation, Hood, the English +admiral, grasped the easy prize, and before long war-ships of the +Spaniards, Neapolitans, and Sardinians were gathered to share in the +defense of the town against the Convention forces. Soon the Girondist +fugitives from Marseilles arrived, and were received with kindness. +The place was provisioned, the gates were shut, and every preparation +for desperate resistance was completed. The fate of the republic was +at stake. The crisis was acute. No wonder that in view of his +wonderful career, Napoleon long after, and his friends in accord, +declared that in the hour appeared the man. There, said the inspired +memorialist of St. Helena, history found him, never to leave him; +there began his immortality. Though this language is truer ideally +than in sober reality, yet the Emperor had a certain justification for +his claim. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +Toulon. + + The Jacobin Power Threatened -- Buonaparte's Fate -- His + Appointment at Toulon -- His Ability as an Artillerist -- + His Name Mentioned with Distinction -- His Plan of + Operations -- The Fall of Toulon -- Buonaparte a General of + Brigade -- Behavior of the Jacobin Victors -- A Corsican + Plot -- Horrors of the French Revolution -- Influence of + Toulon on Buonaparte's Career.[39] + + [Footnote 39: The authorities for this important epoch + are, primarily, Jung: Bonaparte et son temps; Masson: + Napoleon inconnu; but above all, Chuquet: La jeunesse de + Napoleon, Vol. III, Toulon. The Memoires of Barras are + utterly worthless, the references in Las Cases, Marmont, + and elsewhere have value, but must be controlled. The + archives of the war department have been thoroughly + examined by several investigators, the author among the + number. The results have been printed in many volumes to + which the above-mentioned authors refer, and many of the + original papers are printed in whole or in part by + them.] + + +[Sidenote: 1793.] + +Coupled as it was with other discouraging circumstances, the "treason +of Toulon" struck a staggering blow at the Convention. The siege of +Lyons was still in progress; the Piedmontese were entering Savoy, or +the department of Mont Blanc, as it had been designated after its +recent capture by France; the great city of Bordeaux was ominously +silent and inactive; the royalists of Vendee were temporarily +victorious; there was unrest in Normandy, and further violence in +Brittany; the towns of Mainz, Valenciennes, and Conde had been +evacuated, and Dunkirk was besieged by the Duke of York. The loss of +Toulon would put a climax to such disasters, destroy the credit of the +republic abroad and at home, perhaps bring back the Bourbons. Carnot +had in the meantime come to the assistance of the Committee of Safety. +Great as a military organizer and influential as a politician, he had +already awakened the whole land to a still higher fervor, and had +consolidated public sentiment in favor of his plans. In Dubois de +Crance he had an able lieutenant. Fourteen armies were soon to move +and fight, directed by a single mind; discipline was about to be +effectively strengthened because it was to be the discipline of the +people by itself; the envoys of the Convention were to go to and fro, +successfully laboring for common action and common enthusiasm in the +executive, in both the fighting services, and in the nation. But as +yet none of these miracles had been wrought, and, with Toulon lost, +they might be forever impossible. + +Such was the setting of the stage in the great national theater of +France when Napoleon Buonaparte entered on the scene. The records of +his boyhood and youth by his own hand afford the proof of what he was +at twenty-four. It has required no searching analysis to discern the +man, nor trace the influences of his education. Except for short and +unimportant periods, the story is complete and accurate. It is, +moreover, absolutely unsophisticated. What does it show? A well-born +Corsican child, of a family with some fortune, glad to use every +resource of a disordered time for securing education and money, +patriotic at heart but willing to profit from France, or indeed from +Russia, England, the Orient; wherever material advantage was to be +found. This boy was both idealist and realist, each in the high degree +corresponding to his great abilities. He shone neither as a scholar +nor as an officer, being obdurate to all training,--but by independent +exertions and desultory reading of a high class he formed an ideal of +society in which there prevailed equality of station and purse, purity +of life and manners, religion without clericalism, free speech and +honorable administration of just laws. His native land untrammeled by +French control would realize this ideal, he had fondly hoped: but the +Revolution emancipated it completely, entirely; and what occurred? A +reversion to every vicious practice of medievalism, he himself being +sucked into the vortex and degraded into a common adventurer. +Disenchanted and bitter, he then turned to France. Abandoning his +double role, his interest in Corsica was thenceforth sentimental; his +fine faculties when focused on the realities of a great world suddenly +exhibit themselves in keen observation, fair conclusions, a more than +academic interest, and a skill in the conduct of life hitherto +obscured by unfavorable conditions. Already he had found play for all +his powers both with gun and pen. He was not only eager but ready to +deploy them in a higher service. + +The city of Toulon was now formally and nominally invested--that is, +according to the then accepted general rules for such operations, but +with no regard to those peculiarities of its site which only master +minds could mark and use to the best advantage. The large double bay +is protected from the southwest by a broad peninsula joined to the +mainland by a very narrow isthmus, and thus opens southeastward to the +Mediterranean. The great fortified city, then regarded as one of the +strongest places in the world, lies far within on the eastern shore of +the inner harbor. Excellent authorities considered it impregnable. It +is protected on the landward side by an amphitheater of high hills, +which leave to the right and left a narrow strip of rolling country +between their lower slopes and the sea. On the east Lapoype commanded +the left wing of the besieging revolutionary force. The westward pass +is commanded by Ollioules, which Carteaux had selected for his +headquarters. On August twenty-ninth his vanguard seized the place, +but they were almost immediately attacked and driven out by the allied +armies, chiefly English troops brought in from Gibraltar. On September +seventh the place was retaken. The two wings were in touch and to +landward the communications of the town were completely cut off. In +the assault only a single French officer fell seriously wounded, but +that one was a captain of artillery. Salicetti and his colleagues had +received from the minister of war a charge to look out for the citizen +Buonaparte who wanted service on the Rhine. This and their own +attachment determined them in the pregnant step they now took. The +still unattached captain of artillery, Napoleon Buonaparte, was +appointed to the vacant place. As far as history is concerned, this is +a very important fact; it is really a matter of slight import whether +Cervoni or Salicetti gave the impulse. At the same time his mother +received a grant of money, and while favors were going, there were +enough needy Buonapartes to receive them. Salicetti and Gasparin, +being the legates of the Convention, were all-powerful. The latter +took a great fancy to Salicetti's friend and there was no opposition +when the former exercised his power. Fesch and Lucien were both +provided with places, being made storekeepers in the commissary +department. Barras, who was the recruiting-officer of the Convention +at Toulon, claims to have been the first to recognize Buonaparte's +ability. He declares that the young Corsican was daily at his table, +and that it was he himself who irregularly but efficiently secured the +appointment of his new friend to active duty. But he also asserts what +we know to be untrue, that Buonaparte was still lieutenant when they +first met, and that he created him captain. It is likely, in view of +their subsequent intimacy at Paris, that they were also intimate at +Toulon; the rest of Barras's story is a fabrication. + +But although the investment of Toulon was complete, it was weak. On +September eighteenth the total force of the assailants was ten +thousand men. From time to time reinforcements came in and the various +seasoned battalions exhibited on occasion great gallantry and courage. +But the munitions and arms were never sufficient, and under civilian +officers both regulars and recruits were impatient of severe +discipline. The artillery in particular was scarcely more than +nominal. There were a few field-pieces, two large and efficient guns +only, and two mortars. By a mistake of the war department the general +officer detailed to organize the artillery did not receive his orders +in time and remained on his station in the eastern Pyrenees until +after the place fell. Manifestly some one was required to grasp the +situation and supply a crying deficiency. It was with no trembling +hand that Buonaparte laid hold of his task. For an efficient artillery +service artillery officers were essential, and there were almost none. +In the ebb and flow of popular enthusiasm many republicans who had +fallen back before the storms of factional excesses were now willing +to come forward, and Napoleon, not publicly committed to the Jacobins, +was able to win many capable assistants from among men of his class. +His nervous restlessness found an outlet in erecting buttresses, +mounting guns, and invigorating the whole service until a zealous +activity of the most promising kind was displayed by officers and men +alike. By September twenty-ninth fourteen guns were mounted and four +mortars, the essential material was gathered, and by sheer +self-assertion Buonaparte was in complete charge. The only check +was in the ignorant meddling of Carteaux, who, though energetic and +zealous, though born and bred in camp, being the son of a soldier, +was, after all, not a soldier, but a very fair artist (painter). For +his battle-pieces and portraits of military celebrities he had +received large prices, and was as vain of his artistic as of his +military talent, though both were mediocre. Strange characters rose to +the top in those troublous times: the painter's opponent at Avignon, +the leader of the insurgents, had been a tailor; his successor was one +Lapoype, a physician. Buonaparte's ready pen stood him again in good +stead, and he sent up a memorial to the ministry, explaining the +situation, and asking for the appointment of an artillery general with +full powers. The commissioners transmitted the paper to Paris, and +appointed the memorialist to the higher rank of acting commander. + +[Illustration: In the collection of the Duc de Trevise. Josephine. +From a pastel by Pierre Prud'hon.] + +Though the commanding general could not well yield to his subordinate, +he did, most ungraciously, to the Convention legates. Between the +seventeenth and twentieth of September effective batteries under +Buonaparte's command forced the enemy's frigates to withdraw from the +neighborhood of La Seyne on the inner bay. The shot were red hot, the +fire concentrated, and the guns served with cool efficiency. Next day +the village was occupied and with only four hundred men General +Delaborde marched to seize the Eguillette, the key to the siege, as +Buonaparte reiterated and reiterated. He was ingloriously routed; the +British landed reinforcements and erected strong fortifications over +night. They styled the place Fort Mulgrave. It was speedily flanked by +three redoubts. To Buonaparte this contemptuous defiance was +insufferable: he spoke and Salicetti wrote of the siege as destitute +both of brains and means. Thereupon the Paris legates began to +represent Carteaux as an incapable and demand his recall. Buonaparte +ransacked the surrounding towns and countryside for cannon and secured +a number; he established forges at Ollioules to keep his apparatus in +order, and entirely reorganized his personnel. With fair efficiency +and substantial quantity of guns and shot, he found himself without +sufficient powder and wrote imperiously to his superiors, enforcing +successfully his demand. Meantime he made himself conspicuous by +personal daring and exposure. The days and nights were arduous because +of the enemy's activity. In successive sorties on October first, +eighth, and fourteenth the British garrison of Fort Mulgrave gained +both ground and prestige by successive victories. It was hard for the +French to repress their impatience, but they were not ready yet for a +general move: not a single arm of the service was sufficiently strong +and the army was becoming demoralized by inactivity. The feud between +general and legates grew bitter and the demands of the latter for +material were disregarded alike at Paris and by Doppet, who had just +captured Lyons, but would part with none of his guns or ammunition or +men for use at Toulon. Lapoype and Carteaux quarreled bitterly, and +there was such confusion that Buonaparte ended by squarely disobeying +his superior and taking many minor movements into his own hand; he was +so cocksure that artillery alone would end the siege that the general +dubbed him Captain Cannon. Finally the wrangling of all concerned +cried to heaven, and on October twenty-third Carteaux was transferred +to the Army of Italy with headquarters at Nice. He left for his new +post on November seventh, and five days later his successor appeared. +In the interim the nominal commander was Lapoype, really Salicetti +prompted by Buonaparte. + +Thus at length the artist was removed from command, and a physician +was appointed in his stead. The doctor was an ardent patriot who had +distinguished himself at the siege of Lyons, which had fallen on +October ninth. But on arriving at Toulon the citizen soldier was awed +by the magnitude of his new work. On November fifteenth the French +pickets saw a Spaniard maltreating a French prisoner on the outworks +of Fort Mulgrave. There was an impulsive and spontaneous rush of the +besiegers to avenge the insult. General O'Hara landed from the +_Victory_ with reinforcements for the garrison. Doppet was +panic-stricken by the fire and ordered a retreat. Captain Buonaparte +with an oath expressed his displeasure. The soldiers cried in angry +spite: "Are we always to be commanded by painters and doctors?" +Indeed, the newcomer had hardly taken command, leaving matters at +loose ends as they were: in a short time he was transferred at his own +suggestion to an easier station in the Pyrenees, it being understood +that Dugommier, a professional soldier, would be finally appointed +commander-in-chief, and that Duteil, the brother of Buonaparte's old +friend and commander, was to be made general of artillery. He was a +man advanced in years, unable even to mount a horse: but he was +devoted to the young captain, trusted his powers, and left him in +virtual command. Abundant supplies arrived at the same time from +Lyons. On November twentieth the new officers took charge, two days +later a general reconnaissance was made, and within a short time the +investment was completed. On the thirtieth there was a formidable +sally from the town directed against Buonaparte's batteries. In the +force were two thousand three hundred and fifty men: about four +hundred British, three hundred Sardinians, two hundred and fifty +French, and seven hundred each of Neapolitans and Spanish. They were +commanded by General Dundas. Their earliest movements were successful +and the commander-in-chief of the besieged came out to see the +victory. But the tide turned, the French revolutionists rallied, and +the sortie was repulsed. The event was made doubly important by the +chance capture of General O'Hara, the English commandant. Such a +capture is rare,--Buonaparte was profoundly impressed by the fact. He +obtained permission to visit the English general in captivity, but was +coldly received. To the question: "What do you require?" came the curt +reply: "To be left alone and owe nothing to pity." This striking +though uncourtly reply delighted Buonaparte. The success was duly +reported to Paris. In the "Moniteur" of December seventh the name of +Buona Parte is mentioned for the first time, and as among the most +distinguished in the action. + +The councils of war before Dugommier's arrival had been numerous and +turbulent, although the solitary plan of operations suggested by the +commander and his aides would have been adequate only for capturing an +inland town, and probably not even for that. From the beginning and +with fierce iteration Buonaparte had explained to his colleagues the +special features of their task, but all in vain. He reasoned that +Toulon depended for its resisting power on the Allies and their +fleets, and must be reduced from the side next the sea. The English +themselves understood this when they seized and fortified the redoubt +of Fort Mulgrave, known also by the French as Little Gibraltar, on the +tongue of land separating, to the westward, the inner from the outer +bay. That post on the promontory styled the Eguillette by the natives +must be taken. From the very moment of his arrival this simple but +clever conception had been urged on the council of war by Buonaparte. +But Carteaux could not and would not see its importance: it was not +until a skilled commander took charge that Buonaparte's insight was +justified and his plan adopted. At the same time it was determined +that operations should also be directed against two other strong +outposts, one to the north, the other to the northeast, of the town. +There was to be a genuine effort to capture Mt. Faron on the north and +a demonstration merely against the third point. But the concentration +of force was to be against the Eguillette. + +Finally, on December seventeenth, after careful preparation, a +concerted attack was made at all three points. Officers and men were +daring and efficient everywhere. Buonaparte, assuming responsibility +for the batteries, was ubiquitous and reckless. The movement on which +he had set his heart was successful in every portion; the enemy was +not only driven within the interior works, but by the fall of Little +Gibraltar his communication with the sea was endangered. The whole +peninsula, the fort itself, the point and the neighboring heights were +captured. Victor, Muiron, Buonaparte, and Dugommier led the storming +columns. The Allies were utterly demoralized by the fierce and bloody +struggle. Since, therefore, the supporting fleets could no longer +remain in a situation so precarious, the besieged at once made ready +for departure, embarking with precipitate haste the troops and many of +the inhabitants. The Spaniards fired two frigates loaded with powder +and the explosion of the magazines shook the city and its suburbs like +an earthquake. In that moment the young Sidney Smith landed from the +British ships and laid the trains which kindled an awful +conflagration. The captured French fleet lying at anchor, the +magazines and shops of the arsenal, all its enclosures burst into +flames, and one explosion followed another in an awe-inspiring +volcanic eruption. The besiegers were stupefied as they gazed, and +stopped their ears. In a few hours the city was completely evacuated, +and the foreign war vessels sailed away from the offing. The news of +this decisive victory was despatched without a moment's delay to the +Convention. The names of Salicetti, Robespierre, Ricord, Freron, and +Barras are mentioned in Dugommier's letters as those of men who had +won distinction in various posts; that of Buonaparte does not occur. + +There was either jealousy of his merits, which are declared by his +enemies to have been unduly vaunted, or else his share had been more +insignificant than is generally supposed. He related at St. Helena +that during the operations before Toulon he had had three horses +killed under him, and showed Las Cases a great scar on his thigh which +he said had been received in a bayonet charge at Toulon. "Men wondered +at the fortune which kept me invulnerable; I always concealed my +dangers in mystery." The hypothesis of his insignificance appears +unlikely when we examine the memoirs written by his contemporaries, +and consider the precise traditions of a later generation; it becomes +untenable in view of what happened on the next day, when the +commissioners nominated him for the office of general of brigade, a +rank which in the exchange of prisoners with the English was reckoned +as equal to that of lieutenant-general. In a report written on the +nineteenth to the minister of war, Duteil speaks in the highest terms +of Buonaparte. "A great deal of science, as much intelligence, and too +much bravery; such is a faint sketch of the virtues of this rare +officer. It rests with you, minister, to retain them for the glory of +the republic." + +On December twenty-fourth the Convention received the news of victory. +It was really their reprieve, for news of disaster would have cut +short their career. Jubilant over a prompt success, their joy was +savage and infernal. With the eagerness of vampires they at once sent +two commissioners to wipe the name of Toulon from the map, and its +inhabitants from the earth. Fouche, later chief of police and Duke of +Otranto under Napoleon, went down from Lyons to see the sport, and +wrote to his friend the arch-murderer Collot d'Herbois that they were +celebrating the victory in but one way. "This night we send two +hundred and thirteen rebels into hell-fire." The fact is, no one ever +knew how many hundreds or thousands of the Toulon Girondists were +swept together and destroyed by the fire of cannon and musketry. +Freron, one of the commissioners, desired to leave not a single rebel +alive. Dugommier would listen to no such proposition for a holocaust. +Marmont declares that Buonaparte and his artillerymen pleaded for +mercy, but in vain. + +Running like a thread through all these events was a little +counterplot. The Corsicans at Toulon were persons of importance, and +had shown their mettle. Salicetti, Buonaparte, Arena, and Cervoni were +now men of mark; the two latter had, like Buonaparte, been promoted, +though to much lower rank. As Salicetti declared in a letter written +on December twenty-eighth, they were scheming to secure vessels and +arm them for an expedition to Corsica. But for the time their efforts +came to naught; and thenceforward Salicetti seemed to lose all +interest in Corsican affairs, becoming more and more involved in the +ever madder rush of events in France. + +This was not strange, for even a common politician could not remain +insensible to the course or the consequences of the malignant anarchy +now raging throughout France. The massacres at Lyons, Marseilles, and +Toulon were the reply to the horrors of like or worse nature +perpetrated in Vendee by the royalists. Danton having used the Paris +sections to overawe the Girondist majority of the Convention, Marat +gathered his riotous band of sansculottes, and hounded the discredited +remnant of the party to death, flight, or arrest. His bloody career +was ended only by Charlotte Corday's dagger. Passions were thus +inflamed until even Danton's conduct appeared calm, moderate, and +inefficient when compared with the reckless bloodthirstiness of +Hebert, now leader of the Exageres. The latter prevailed, the Vendeans +were defeated, and Citizen Carrier of Nantes in three months took +fifteen thousand human lives by his fiendishly ingenious systems of +drowning and shooting. In short, France was chaos, and the Salicettis +of the time might hope for anything, or fear everything, in the throes +of her disorder. Not so a man like Buonaparte. His instinct led him to +stand in readiness at the parting of the ways. Others might choose and +press forward; he gave no sign of being moved by current events, but +stood with his eye still fixed, though now in a backward gaze, on +Corsica, ready, if interest or self-preservation required it, for +another effort to seize and hold it as his own. It was self-esteem, +not Corsican patriotism, his French interest perhaps, which now +prompted him. Determined and revengeful, he was again, through the +confusion of affairs at Paris, to secure means for his enterprise, and +this time on a scale proportionate to the difficulty. The influence of +Toulon upon Buonaparte's fortunes was incalculable. Throughout life he +spoke of the town, of the siege and his share therein, of the +subsequent events and of the men whose acquaintance he made there, +with lively and emphatic interest. To all associated with the capture +he was in after years generous to a fault, except a few enemies like +Auna whom he treated with harshness. In particular it must not be +forgotten that among many men of minor importance he there began his +relations with some of his greatest generals and marshals: Desaix, +Marmont, Junot, Muiron, and Chauvet. The experience launched him on +his grand career; the intimacies he formed proved a strong support +when he forced himself to the front. Moreover, his respect for England +was heightened. It was not in violation of a pledge to hold the place +for the Bourbon pretender, but by right of sheer ability that they +took precedence of the Allies in command. They were haughty and +dictatorial because their associates were uncertain and divided. When +the Comte de Provence was suggested as a colleague they refused to +admit him because he was detested by the best men of his own party. In +the garrison of nearly fifteen thousand not a third were British. +Buonaparte and others charged them with perfidy in a desire to hold +the great fort for themselves, but the charge was untrue and he did +not disdain them, but rather admired and imitated their policy. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +A Jacobin General. + + Transformation in Buonaparte's Character -- Confirmed as a + French General -- Conduct of His Brothers -- Napoleon's + Caution -- His Report on Marseilles -- The New French Army + -- Buonaparte the Jacobin Leader -- Hostilities with Austria + and Sardinia -- Enthusiasm of the French Troops -- + Buonaparte in Society -- His Plan for an Italian Campaign. + + +[Sidenote: 1793-94.] + +Hitherto prudence had not been characteristic of Buonaparte: his +escapades and disobedience had savored rather of recklessness. Like +scores of others in his class, he had fully exploited the looseness of +royal and early republican administration; his madcap and hotspur +versatility distinguished him from his comrades not in the kind but in +the degree of his bold effrontery. The whole outlook having changed +since his final flight to France, his conduct now began to reveal a +definite plan--to be marked by punctilious obedience, sometimes even +by an almost puerile caution. His family was homeless and penniless; +their only hope for a livelihood was in cooeperation with the Jacobins, +who appeared to be growing more influential every hour. Through the +powerful friends that Napoleon had made among the representatives of +the Convention, men like the younger Robespierre, Freron, and Barras, +much had already been gained. If his nomination to the office of +general of brigade were confirmed, as it was almost certain to be, the +rest would follow, since, with his innate capacity for adapting +himself to circumstances, he had during the last few weeks +successfully cultivated his power of pleasing, captivating the hearts +of Marmont, Junot, and many others. + +With such strong chances in his favor, it appeared to Buonaparte that +no stumbling-block of technicality should be thrown in the path of his +promotion. Accordingly, in the record of his life sent up to Paris, he +puts his entrance into the service over a year earlier than it +actually occurred, omits as unessential details some of the places in +which he had lived and some of the companies in which he had served, +declares that he had commanded a battalion at the capture of +Magdalena, and, finally, denies categorically that he was ever noble. +To this paper, which minimizes nearly to the vanishing-point all +mention of Corsica, and emphasizes his services as a Frenchman by its +insidious omissions, the over-driven officials in Paris took no +exception; and on February sixth, 1794, he was confirmed, receiving an +assignment for service in the new and regenerated Army of Italy, which +had replaced as if by magic the ragged, shoeless, ill-equipped, and +half-starved remnants of troops in and about Nice that in the previous +year had been dignified by the same title. This gambler had not drawn +the first prize in the lottery, but what he had secured was enough to +justify his course, and confirm his confidence in fate. Eight years +and three months nominally in the service, out of which in reality he +had been absent four years and ten months either on furlough or +without one, and already a general! Neither blind luck, nor the +revolutionary epoch, nor the superlative ability of the man, but a +compound of all these, had brought this marvel to pass. It did not +intoxicate, but still further sobered, the beneficiary. This effect +was partly due to an experience which demonstrated that strong as are +the chains of habit, they are more easily broken than those which his +associates forge about a man. + +In the interval between nomination and confirmation the young +aspirant, through the fault of his friends, was involved in a most +serious risk. Salicetti, and the Buonaparte brothers, Joseph, Lucien, +and Louis, went wild with exultation over the fall of Toulon, and +began by reckless assumptions and untruthful representations to reap +an abundant harvest of spoils. Joseph, by the use of his brother's +Corsican commission, had posed as a lieutenant-colonel; he was now +made a commissary-general of the first class. Louis, without regard to +his extreme youth, was promoted to be adjutant-major of artillery--a +dignity which was short-lived, for he was soon after ordered to the +school at Chalons as a cadet, but which served, like the greater +success of Joseph, to tide over a crisis. Lucien retained his post as +keeper of the commissary stores in St. Maximin, where he was the +leading Jacobin, styling himself Lucius Brutus, and rejoicing in the +sobriquet of "the little Robespierre." + +The positions of Lucien and Louis were fantastic even for +revolutionary times. Napoleon was fully aware of the danger, and was +correspondingly circumspect. It was possibly at his own suggestion +that he was appointed, on December twenty-sixth, 1793, inspector of +the shore fortifications, and ordered to proceed immediately on an +inspection of the Mediterranean coast as far as Mentone. The +expedition removed him from all temptation to an unfortunate display +of exultation or anxiety, and gave him a new chance to display his +powers. He performed his task with the thoroughness of an expert; but +in so doing, his zeal played him a sorry trick, eclipsing the caution +of the revolutionist by the eagerness of the sagacious general. In his +report to the minister of war he comprehensively discussed both the +fortification of the coast and the strengthening of the navy, which +were alike indispensable to the wonderful scheme of operations in +Italy which he appears to have been already revolving in his mind. The +Army of Italy, and in fact all southeastern France, depended at the +moment for sustenance on the commerce of Genoa, professedly a neutral +state and friendly to the French republic. This essential trade could +be protected only by making interference from the English and the +Spaniards impossible, or at least difficult. + +Arrived at Marseilles, and with these ideas occupying his whole mind, +Buonaparte regarded the situation as serious. The British and Spanish +fleets swept the seas, and were virtually blockading all the +Mediterranean ports of France. At Toulon, as has been told, they +actually entered, and departed only after losing control of the +promontory which forms the harbor. There is a similar conformation of +the ground at the entrance to the port of Marseilles, but Buonaparte +found that the fortress which occupied the commanding promontory had +been dismantled. With the instinct of a strategist and with no other +thought than that of his duties as inspector, he sat down, and on +January fourth, 1794, wrote a most impolitic recommendation that the +fortification should be restored in such a way as to "command the +town." These words almost certainly referred both to the possible +renewal by the conquered French royalists and other malcontents of +their efforts to secure Marseilles, and to a conceivable effort on the +part of the Allies to seize the harbor. Now it happened that the +liberals of the town had regarded this very stronghold as their +Bastille, and it had been dismantled by them in emulation of their +brethren of Paris. The language and motive of the report were +therefore capable of misinterpretation. A storm at once arose among +the Marseilles Jacobins against both Buonaparte and his superior, +General Lapoype; they were both denounced to the Convention, and in +due time, about the end of February, were both summoned before the bar +of that body. In the mean time Buonaparte's nomination as general of +brigade had been confirmed, his commission arriving at Marseilles on +February sixteenth. It availed nothing toward restoring him to +popularity; on the contrary, the masses grew more suspicious and more +menacing. He therefore returned to the protection of Salicetti and +Robespierre, then at Toulon, whence by their advice he despatched to +Paris by special messenger a poor-spirited exculpatory letter, +admitting that the only use of restoring the fort would be to "command +the town," that is, control it by military power in case of +revolution. Having by this language pusillanimously acknowledged a +fault which he had not committed, the writer, by the advice of +Salicetti and Robespierre, refused to obey the formal summons of the +Convention when it came. Those powerful protectors made vigorous +representations to their friends in Paris, and Buonaparte was saved. +Both they and he might well rely on the distinguished service rendered +by the culprit at Toulon; his military achievement might well outweigh +a slight political delinquency. On April first, 1794, he assumed the +duties of his new command, reporting himself at Nice. Lapoype went to +Paris, appeared at the bar of the Convention, and was triumphantly +acquitted. Naturally, therefore, no indictment could lie against the +inferior, and Buonaparte's name was not even mentioned. + +A single circumstance changed the French Revolution from a sectarian +dogma into a national movement. By the exertions and plans of Carnot +the effective force of the French army had been raised in less than +two years from one hundred and twelve thousand to the astonishing +figure of over seven hundred and thirty thousand. The discipline was +now rigid, and the machine was perfectly adapted to the workman's +hand, although for lack of money the equipment was still sadly +defective. In the Army of Italy were nearly sixty-seven thousand men, +a number which included all the garrisons and reserves of the coast +towns and of Corsica. Its organization, like that of the other +portions of the military power, had been simplified, and so +strengthened. There were a commander-in-chief, a chief of staff, three +generals of division, of whom Massena was one, and thirteen generals +of brigade, of whom one, Buonaparte, was the commander and inspector +of artillery. The former was now thirty-four years old. His sire was a +wine-dealer of a very humble sort, probably of Jewish blood, and the +boy, Italian in origin and feeling, had almost no education. +Throughout his wonderful career he was coarse, sullen, and greedy; +nevertheless, as a soldier he was an inspired genius, ranked by many +as the peer of Napoleon. Having served France for several years as an +Italian mercenary, he resigned in 1789, settled in his native town of +Nice, and married; but the stir of arms was irresistible and three +years later he volunteered under the tricolor. His comrades at once +elected him an officer, and in about a year he was head of a +battalion, or colonel in our style. In the reorganization he was +promoted to be a division general because of sheer merit. For sixteen +years he had an unbroken record of success and won from Napoleon the +caressing title: "Dear Child of Victory." + +The younger Robespierre, with Ricord and Salicetti, were the +"representatives of the people." The first of these was, to outward +appearance, the leading spirit of the whole organism, and to his +support Buonaparte was now thoroughly committed. The young artillery +commander was considered by all at Nice to be a pronounced +"Montagnard," that is, an extreme Jacobin. Augustin Robespierre had +quickly learned to see and hear with the eyes and ears of his Corsican +friend, whose fidelity seemed assured by hatred of Paoli and by a +desire to recover the family estates in his native island. Many are +pleased to discuss the question of Buonaparte's attitude toward the +Jacobin terrorists. The dilemma they propose is that he was either a +convinced and sincere terrorist or that he fawned on the terrorists +from interested motives. This last appears to have been the opinion of +Augustin Robespierre, the former that of his sister Marie, for the +time an intimate friend of the Buonaparte sisters. Both at least have +left these opinions on record in letters and memoirs. There is no need +to impale ourselves on either horn, if we consider the youth as he +was, feeling no responsibility whatever for the conditions into which +he was thrown, taking the world as he found it and using its +opportunities while they lasted. For the time and in that place there +were terrorists: he made no confession of faith, avoided all snares, +and served his adopted country as she was in fact with little +reference to political shibboleths. He so served her then and +henceforth that until he lost both his poise and his indispensable +power, she laid herself at his feet and adored him. Whatever the ties +which bound them at first, the ascendancy of Buonaparte over the young +Robespierre was thorough in the end. His were the suggestions and the +enterprises, the political conceptions, the military plans, the +devices to obtain ways and means. It was probably his advice which was +determinative in the scheme of operations finally adopted. With an +astute and fertile brain, with a feverish energy and an unbounded +ambition, Buonaparte must attack every problem or be wretched. Here +was a most interesting one, complicated by geographical, political, +naval, and military elements. That he seized it, considered it, and +found some solution is inherently probable. The conclusion too has all +the marks of his genius. Yet the glory of success was justly +Massena's. A select third of the troops were chosen and divided into +three divisions to assume the offensive, under Massena's direction, +against the almost impregnable posts of the Austrians and Sardinians +in the upper Apennines. The rest were held in garrison partly as a +reserve, partly to overawe the newly annexed department of which Nice +was the capital. + +Genoa now stood in a peculiar relation to France. Her oligarchy, +though called a republic, was in spirit the antipodes of French +democracy. Her trade was essential to France, but English influence +predominated in her councils and English force worked its will in her +domains. In October, 1793, a French supply-ship had been seized by an +English squadron in the very harbor. Soon afterward, by way of +rejoinder to this act of violence, the French minister at Genoa was +officially informed from Paris that as it appeared no longer possible +for a French army to reach Lombardy by the direct route through the +Apennines, it might be necessary to advance along the coast through +Genoese territory. This announcement was no threat, but serious +earnest; the plan had been carefully considered and was before long to +be put into execution. It was merely as a feint that in April, 1794, +hostilities were formally opened against Sardinia and Austria. Massena +seized Ventimiglia on the sixth. Advancing by Oneglia and Ormea, in +the valley of the Stura, he turned the position of the allied +Austrians and Sardinians, thus compelling them to evacuate their +strongholds one by one, until on May seventh the pass of Tenda, +leading direct into Lombardy, was abandoned by them. + +The result of this movement was to infuse new enthusiasm into the +army, while at the same time it set free, for offensive warfare, large +numbers of the garrison troops in places now no longer in danger. +Massena wrote in terms of exultation of the devotion and endurance +which his troops had shown in the sacred name of liberty. "They know +how to conquer and never complain. Marching barefoot, and often +without rations, they abuse no one, but sing the loved notes of '_Ca +ira_'--'T will go, 't will go! We'll make the creatures that surround +the despot at Turin dance the Carmagnole!" Victor Amadeus, King of +Sardinia, was an excellent specimen of the benevolent despot; it was +he whom they meant. Augustin Robespierre wrote to his brother +Maximilien, in Paris, that they had found the country before them +deserted: forty thousand souls had fled from the single valley of +Oneglia, having been terrified by the accounts of French savagery to +women and children, and of their impiety in devastating the churches +and religious establishments. + +Whether the phenomenal success of this short campaign, which lasted +but a month, was expected or not, nothing was done to improve it, and +the advancing battalions suddenly stopped, as if to make the +impression that they could go farther only by way of Genoese +territory. Buonaparte would certainly have shared in the campaign had +it been a serious attack; but, except to bring captured stores from +Oneglia, he did nothing, devoting the months of May and June to the +completion of his shore defenses, and living at Nice with his mother +and her family. That famous and coquettish town was now the center of +a gay republican society in which Napoleon and his pretty sisters were +important persons. They were the constant companions of young +Robespierre and Ricord. The former, amazed by the activity of his +friend's brain, the scope of his plans, and the terrible energy which +marked his preparations, wrote of Napoleon that he was a man of +"transcendent merit." Marmont, speaking of Napoleon's charm at this +time, says: "There was so much future in his mind.... He had acquired +an ascendancy over the representatives which it is impossible to +describe." He also declares, and Salicetti, too, repeatedly +asseverated, that Buonaparte was the "man, the plan-maker" of the +Robespierres. + +The impression which Salicetti and Marmont expressed was doubtless due +to the conclusions of a council of war held on May twentieth by the +leaders of the two armies--of the Alps and of Italy--to concert a plan +of cooeperation. Naturally each group of generals desired the foremost +place for the army it represented. Buonaparte overrode all objections, +and compelled the acceptance of a scheme entirely his own, which with +some additions and by careful elaboration ultimately developed into +the famous plan of campaign in Italy. These circumstances are +noteworthy. Again and again it has been charged that this grand scheme +was bodily stolen from the papers of his great predecessors, one in +particular, of whom more must be said in the sequel. Napoleon was a +student and an omnivorous reader, he knew what others had done and +written; but the achievement which launched him on his career was due +to the use of his own senses, to his own assimilation and adaptation +of other men's experiences and theories, which had everything to +commend them except that perfection of detail and energy of command +which led to actual victory. But affairs in Genoa were becoming so +menacing that for the moment they demanded the exclusive attention of +the French authorities. Austrian troops had disregarded her neutrality +and trespassed on her territory; the land was full of French +deserters, and England, recalling her successes in the same line +during the American Revolution, had established a press in the city +for printing counterfeit French money, which was sent by secret +mercantile communications to Marseilles, and there was put into +circulation. It was consequently soon determined to amplify greatly +the plan of campaign, and likewise to send a mission to Genoa. +Buonaparte was himself appointed the envoy, and thus became the pivot +of both movements--that against Piedmont and that against Genoa. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +Vicissitudes in War and Diplomacy. + + Signs of Maturity -- The Mission to Genoa -- Course of the + French Republic -- The "Terror" -- Thermidor -- Buonaparte a + Scapegoat -- His Prescience -- Adventures of His Brothers -- + Napoleon's Defense of His French Patriotism -- Bloodshedding + for Amusement -- New Expedition Against Corsica -- + Buonaparte's Advice for Its Conduct. + + +[Sidenote: 1794.] + +Buonaparte's plan for combining operations against both Genoa and +Sardinia was at first hazy. In his earliest efforts to expand and +clarify it, he wrote a rambling document, still in existence, which +draws a contrast between the opposite policies to be adopted with +reference to Italy and Spain. In it he also calls attention to the +scarcity of officers suitable for concerted action in a great +enterprise, and a remark concerning the course to be pursued in this +particular case contains the germ of his whole military system. +"Combine your forces in a war, as in a siege, on one point. The breach +once made, equilibrium is destroyed, everything else is useless, and +the place is taken. Do not conceal, but concentrate, your attack." In +the matter of politics he sees Germany as the main prop of opposition +to democracy; Spain is to be dealt with on the defensive, Italy on the +offensive. But, contrary to what he actually did in the following +year, he advises against proceeding too far into Piedmont, lest the +adversary should gain the advantage of position. This paper +Robespierre the younger had in his pocket when he left for Paris, +summoned to aid his brother in difficulties which were now pressing +fast upon him. + +Ricord was left behind to direct, at least nominally, the movements +both of the armies and of the embassy to Genoa. Buonaparte continued +to be the real power. Military operations having been suspended to +await the result of diplomacy, his instructions from Ricord were drawn +so as to be loose and merely formal. On July eleventh he started from +Nice, reaching his destination three days later. During the week of +his stay--for he left again on the twenty-first--the envoy made his +representations, and laid down his ultimatum that the republic of +Genoa should preserve absolute neutrality, neither permitting troops +to pass over its territories, nor lending aid in the construction of +military roads, as she was charged with doing secretly. His success in +overawing the oligarchy was complete, and a written promise of +compliance to these demands was made by the Doge. Buonaparte arrived +again in Nice on the twenty-eighth. We may imagine that as he traveled +the romantic road between the mountains and the sea, the rising +general and diplomat indulged in many rosy dreams, probably feeling +already on his shoulders the insignia of a commander-in-chief. But he +was returning to disgrace, if not to destruction. A week after his +arrival came the stupefying news that the hour-glass had once again +been reversed, that on the very day of his own exultant return to +Nice, Robespierre's head had fallen, that the Mountain was shattered, +and that the land was again staggering to gain its balance after +another political earthquake. + +The shock had been awful, but it was directly traceable to the +accumulated disorders of Jacobin rule. A rude and vigorous but eerie +order of things had been inaugurated on November twenty-fourth, 1793, +by the so-called republic. There was first the new calendar, in which +the year I began on September twenty-second, 1792, the day on which +the republic had been proclaimed. In it were the twelve thirty-day +months, with their names of vintage, fog, and frost; of snow, rain, +and wind; of bud, flower, and meadow; of seed, heat, and harvest: the +whole terminated most unpoetically by the five or six supplementary +days named sansculot-tides,--sansculottes meaning without +knee-breeches, a garment confined to the upper classes; that is, with +long trousers like the common people,--and these days were so named +because they were to be a holiday for the long-trousered populace +which was to use the new reckoning. There was next the new, strange, +and unhallowed spectacle, seen in history for the first time, the +realization of a nightmare--a whole people finally turned into an +army, and at war with nearly all the world. The reforming Girondists +had created the situation, and the Jacobins, with grim humor, were +unflinchingly facing the logical consequences of such audacity. Carnot +had given the watchword of attack in mass and with superior numbers; +the times gave the frenzied courage of sentimental exaltation. Before +the end of 1793 the foreign enemies of France, though not conquered, +had been checked on the frontier; the outbreak of civil war in Vendee +had been temporarily suppressed; both Lyons and Toulon had been +retaken. + +Robespierre, St. Just, Couthon, and Billaud-Varennes were theorists +after the manner of Rousseau. Their new gospel of social regeneration +embraced democracy, civic virtue, moral institutions, and public +festivals. These were their shibboleths and catch-words. Incidentally +they extolled paternalism in government, general conscription, +compulsory military service, and, on the very eve of the greatest +industrial revival known to history, a return to agricultural society! +The sanction of all this was not moral suasion: essential to the +system was Spartan simplicity and severity, compulsion was the means +to their utopia.[40] The Jacobins were nothing if not thorough; and +here was another new and awful thing--the "Terror"--which had broken +loose with its foul furies of party against party through all the +land. It seemed at last as if it were exhausting itself, though for a +time it had grown in intensity as it spread in extent. It had created +three factions in the Mountain. Early in 1794 there remained but a +little handful of avowed and still eager terrorists in the +Convention--Hebert and his friends. These were the atheists who had +abolished religion and the past, bowing down before the fetish which +they dubbed Reason. They were seized and put to death on March +twenty-fourth. There then remained the cliques of Danton and +Robespierre; the former claiming the name of moderates, and telling +men to be calm, the latter with no principle but devotion to a person +who claimed to be the regenerator of society. These hero-worshipers +were for a time victorious. Danton, like Hebert, was foully murdered, +and Robespierre remained alone, virtually dictator. But his theatrical +conduct in decreeing by law the existence of a Supreme Being and the +immortality of the soul, and in organizing tawdry festivals to supply +the place of worship, utterly embittered against him both atheists and +pious people. In disappointed rage at his failure, he laid aside the +characters of prophet and mild saint to give vent to his natural +wickedness and to become a devil. + + [Footnote 40: In Buchez et Roux, Histoire Parlementaire, + XXXI, pp. 268-290, 415-427; XXXII, pp. 335-381 _et + seq._, and in OEuvres de St. Just, pp. 360-420, will be + found a few examples of their views in their own words.] + +During the long days of June and July there raged again a carnival of +blood, known to history as the "Great Terror." In less than seven +weeks upward of twelve hundred victims were immolated. The unbridled +license of the guillotine broadened as it ran. First the aristocrats +had fallen, then royalty, then their sympathizers, then the hated +rich, then the merely well-to-do, and lastly anybody not cringing to +existing power. The reaction against Robespierre was one of universal +fear. Its inception was the work of Tallien, Fouche, Barras, Carrier, +Freron, and the like, men of vile character, who knew that if +Robespierre could maintain his pose of the "Incorruptible" their doom +was sealed. In this sense Robespierre was what Napoleon called him at +St. Helena, "the scapegoat of the Revolution." The uprising of these +accomplices was, however, the opportunity long desired by the better +elements in Parisian society, and the two antipodal classes made +common cause. Dictator as Robespierre wished to be, he was formed of +other stuff, for when the reckoning came his brutal violence was +cowed. On July twenty-seventh (the ninth of Thermidor), the Convention +turned on him in rebellion, extreme radicals and moderate +conservatives combining for the effort. Terrible scenes were enacted. +The sections of Paris were divided, some for the Convention, some for +Robespierre. The artillerymen who were ordered by the latter to batter +down the part of the Tuileries where his enemies were sitting +hesitated and disobeyed; at once all resistance to the decrees of the +Convention died out. The dictator would have been his own executioner, +but his faltering terrors stopped him midway in his half-committed +suicide. He and his brother, with their friends, were seized, and +beheaded on the morrow. With the downfall of Robespierre went the last +vestige of social or political authority; for the Convention was no +longer trusted by the nation--the only organized power with popular +support which was left was the army. + +This was the news which, traveling southward, finally reached Toulon, +Marseilles, and Nice, cities where Robespierre's stanchest adherents +were flaunting their newly gained importance. No wonder if the brains +of common men reeled. The recent so-called parties had disappeared for +the moment like wraiths. The victorious group in the Convention, now +known as the Thermidorians, was compounded of elements from them both, +and claimed to represent the whole of France as the wretched factions +who had so long controlled the government had never done. Where now +should those who had been active supporters of the late administration +turn for refuge? The Corsicans who had escaped from the island at the +same time with Salicetti and the Buonapartes were nearly all with the +Army of Italy. Employment had been given to them, but, having failed +to keep Corsica for France, they were not in favor. It had already +been remarked in the Committee of Public Safety that their patriotism +was less manifest than their disposition to enrich themselves. This +too was the opinion of many among their own countrymen, especially of +their own partisans shut up in Bastia or Calvi and deserted. +Salicetti, ever ready for emergencies, was not disconcerted by this +one; and with adroit baseness turned informer, denouncing as a +suspicious schemer his former protege and lieutenant, of whose budding +greatness he was now well aware. He was apparently both jealous and +alarmed. Possibly, however, the whole procedure was a ruse; in the +critical juncture the apparent traitor was by this conduct able +efficiently to succor and save his compatriot. + +Buonaparte's mission to Genoa had been openly political; secretly it +was also a military reconnaissance, and his confidential instructions, +virtually dictated by himself, had unfortunately leaked out. They had +directed him to examine the fortifications in and about both Savona +and Genoa, to investigate the state of the Genoese artillery, to +inform himself as to the behavior of the French envoy to the republic, +to learn as much as possible of the intentions of the oligarchy--in +short, to gather all information useful for the conduct of a war "the +result of which it is impossible to foresee." Buonaparte, knowing now +that he had trodden dangerous ground in his unauthorized and secret +dealings with the younger Robespierre, and probably foreseeing the +coming storm, began to shorten sail immediately upon reaching Nice. +Either he was prescient and felt the new influences in the air, or +else a letter now in the war office at Paris, and purporting to have +been written on August seventh to Tilly, the French agent at Genoa, is +an antedated fabrication written later for Salicetti's use.[41] +Speaking, in this paper, of Robespierre the younger, he said: "I was a +little touched by the catastrophe, for I loved him and thought him +spotless. But were it my own father, I would stab him to the heart if +he aspired to become a tyrant." If the letter be genuine, as is +probable, the writer was very far-sighted. He knew that its contents +would speedily reach Paris in the despatches of Tilly, so that it was +virtually a public renunciation of Jacobinism at the earliest possible +date, an anchor to windward in the approaching tempest. But +momentarily the trick was of no avail; he was first superseded in his +command, then arrested on August tenth, and, fortunately for himself, +imprisoned two days later in Fort Carre, near Antibes, instead of +being sent direct to Paris as some of his friends were. This temporary +shelter from the devastating blast he owed to Salicetti, who would, no +doubt, without hesitation have destroyed a friend for his own safety, +but was willing enough to spare him if not driven to extremity. + + [Footnote 41: Jung: Bonaparte et son temps, II, 455.] + +As the true state of things in Corsica began to be known in France, +there was a general disposition to blame and punish the influential +men who had brought things to such a desperate pass and made the loss +of the island probable, if not certain. Salicetti, Multedo, and the +rest quickly unloaded the whole blame on Buonaparte's shoulders, so +that he had many enemies in Paris. Thus by apparent harshness to one +whom he still considered a subordinate, the real culprit escaped +suspicion. Assured of immunity from punishment himself, Salicetti was +content with his rival's humiliation, and felt no real rancor toward +the family. This is clear from his treatment of Louis Buonaparte, who +had fallen from place and favor along with his brother, but was by +Salicetti's influence soon afterward made an officer of the home guard +at Nice. Joseph had rendered himself conspicuous in the very height of +the storm by a brilliant marriage; but neither he nor Fesch was +arrested, and both managed to pull through with whole skins. The noisy +Lucien was also married, but to a girl who, though respectable, was +poor; and in consequence he was thoroughly frightened at the thought +of losing his means of support. But though menaced with arrest, he was +sufficiently insignificant to escape for the time. + +Napoleon was kept in captivity but thirteen days. Salicetti apparently +found it easier than he had supposed to exculpate himself from the +charge either of participating in Robespierre's conspiracy or of +having brought about the Corsican insurrection. More than this, he +found himself firm in the good graces of the Thermidorians, among whom +his old friends Barras and Freron were held in high esteem. It would +therefore be a simple thing to liberate General Buonaparte, if only a +proper expression of opinion could be secured from him. The clever +prisoner had it ready before it was needed. To the faithful Junot he +wrote a kindly note declining to be rescued by a body of friends +organized to storm the prison or scale its walls.[42] Such a course +would have compromised him further. But to the "representatives of the +people" he wrote in language which finally committed him for life. He +explained that in a revolutionary epoch there are but two classes of +men, patriots and suspects. It could easily be seen to which class a +man belonged who had fought both intestine and foreign foes. "I have +sacrificed residence in my department, I have abandoned all my goods, +I have lost all for the republic. Since then I have served at Toulon +with some distinction, and I have deserved a share with the Army of +Italy in the laurels it earned at the taking of Saorgio, Oneglia, and +Tanaro. On the discovery of Robespierre's conspiracy, my conduct was +that of a man accustomed to regard nothing but principle." The letter +concludes with a passionate appeal to each one of the controlling +officials separately and by name, that is, to both Salicetti and +Albitte, for justice and restoration. "An hour later, if the wicked +want my life, I will gladly give it to them, I care so little for it, +I weary so often of it! Yes; the idea that it may be still useful to +my country is all that makes me bear the burden with courage." The +word for country which he employed, _patrie_, could only be +interpreted as referring to France. + + [Footnote 42: Correspondance de Napoleon, I, No. 35.] + +Salicetti in person went through the form of examining the papers +offered in proof of Buonaparte's statements; found them, as a matter +of course, satisfactory; and the commissioners restored the suppliant +to partial liberty, but not to his post. He was to remain at army +headquarters, and the still terrible Committee of Safety was to +receive regular reports of his doings. This, too, was but a +subterfuge; on August twentieth he was restored to his rank. A few +weeks later commissioners from the Thermidorians arrived, with orders +that for the present all offensive operations in Italy were to be +suspended in order to put the strength of the district into a maritime +expedition against Rome and ultimately against Corsica, which was now +in the hands of England. Buonaparte immediately sought, and by +Salicetti's favor obtained, the important charge of equipping and +inspecting the artillery destined for the enterprise. He no doubt +hoped to make the venture tell in his personal interest against the +English party now triumphant in his home. This was the middle of +September. Before beginning to prepare for the Corsican expedition, +the army made a final demonstration to secure its lines. It was during +the preparatory days of this short campaign that a dreadful incident +occurred. Buonaparte had long since learned the power of women, and +had been ardently attentive in turn both to Mme. Robespierre and to +Mme. Ricord. "It was a great advantage to please them," he said; "for +in a lawless time a representative of the people is a real power." +Mme. Turreau, wife of one of the new commissioners, was now the +ascendant star in his attentions. One day, while walking arm in arm +with her near the top of the Tenda pass, Buonaparte took a sudden +freak to show her what war was like, and ordered the advance-guard to +charge the Austrian pickets. The attack was not only useless, but it +endangered the safety of the army; yet it was made according to +command, and human blood was shed. The story was told by Napoleon +himself, at the close of his life, in a tone of repentance, but with +evident relish.[43] + + [Footnote 43: Las Cases: Memorial de Sainte-Helene, I, + 141.] + +Buonaparte was present at the ensuing victories, but only as a +well-informed spectator and adviser, for he was yet in nominal +disgrace. Within five days the enemies' lines were driven back so as +to leave open the two most important roads into Italy--that by the +valley of the Bormida to Alessandria, and that by the shore to Genoa. +The difficult pass of Tenda fell entirely into French hands. The +English could not disembark their troops to strengthen the Allies. The +commerce of Genoa with Marseilles was reestablished by land. "We have +celebrated the fifth sansculottide of the year II (September +twenty-first, 1794) in a manner worthy of the republic and the +National Convention," wrote the commissioners to their colleagues in +Paris. On the twenty-fourth, General Buonaparte was released by them +from attendance at headquarters, thus becoming once again a free man +and his own master. He proceeded immediately to Toulon in order to +prepare for the Corsican expedition. Once more the power of a great +nation was, he hoped, to be directed against the land of his birth, +and he was an important agent in the plan. + +To regain, if possible, some of his lost influence in the island, +Buonaparte had already renewed communication with former acquaintances +in Ajaccio. In a letter written immediately after his release in +September, 1794, to the Corsican deputy Multedo, he informed his +correspondent that his birthplace was the weakest spot on the island, +and open to attack. The information was correct. Paoli had made an +effort to strengthen it, but without success. "To drive the English," +said the writer of the letter, "from a position which makes them +masters of the Mediterranean, ... to emancipate a large number of good +patriots still to be found in that department, and to restore to their +firesides the good republicans who have deserved the care of their +country by the generous manner in which they have suffered for +it,--this, my friend, is the expedition which should occupy the +attention of the government." His fortune was in a sense dependent on +success: the important position of artillery inspector could not be +held by an absentee and it was soon filled by the appointment of a +rival compatriot, Casabianca. In the event of failure Buonaparte would +be destitute. Perhaps the old vista of becoming a Corsican hero opened +up once again to a sore and disappointed man, but it is not probable: +the horizon of his life had expanded too far to be again contracted, +and the present task was probably considered but as a bridge to cross +once more the waters of bitterness. On success or failure hung his +fate. Two fellow-adventurers were Junot and Marmont. The former was +the child of plain French burghers, twenty-three years old, a daring, +swaggering youth, indifferent to danger, already an intimate of +Napoleon's, having been his secretary at Toulon. His chequered destiny +was interwoven with that of his friend and he came to high position. +But though faithful to the end, he was always erratic and troublesome; +and in an attack of morbid chagrin he came to a violent end in 1813. +The other comrade was but a boy of twenty, the son of an officer who, +though of the lower nobility, was a convinced revolutionary. The boys +had met several years earlier at Dijon and again as young men at +Toulon, where the friendship was knitted which grew closer and closer +for twenty years. At Wagram, Marmont became a marshal. Already he had +acquired habits of luxurious ease and the doubtful fortunes of his +Emperor exasperated him into critical impatience. He so magnified his +own importance that at last he deserted. The labored memoirs he wrote +are the apology for his life and for his treachery. Though without +great genius, he was an able man and an industrious recorder of +valuable impressions. Not one of the three accomplished anything +during the Corsican expedition; their common humiliation probably +commended both of his junior comrades to Buonaparte's tenderness, and +thereafter both enjoyed much of his confidence, especially Marmont, in +whom it was utterly misplaced. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +The End of Apprenticeship. + + The English Conquest of Corsica -- Effects in Italy -- The + Buonapartes at Toulon -- Napoleon Thwarted Again -- + Departure for Paris -- His Character Determined -- His + Capacities -- Reaction From the "Terror" -- Resolutions of + the Convention -- Parties in France -- Their Lack of + Experience -- A New Constitution -- Different Views of Its + Value. + + +[Sidenote: 1795.] + +The turmoils of civil war in France had now left Corsica to her own +pursuits for many months. Her internal affairs had gone from bad to +worse, and Paoli, unable to control his fierce and wilful people, had +found himself helpless. Compelled to seek the support of some strong +foreign power, he had instinctively turned to England, and the English +fleet, driven from Toulon, was finally free to help him. On February +seventeenth, 1794, it entered the fine harbor of St. Florent, and +captured the town without an effort. Establishing a depot which thus +separated the two remaining centers of French influence, Calvi and +Bastia, the English admiral next laid siege to the latter. The place +made a gallant defense, holding out for over three months, until on +May twenty-second Captain Horatio Nelson, who had virtually controlled +operations for eighty-eight days continuously,--nearly the entire +time,--directed the guns of the _Agamemnon_ with such destructive +force against the little city that when the land forces from St. +Florent appeared it was weakened beyond the power of resistance and +surrendered.[44] The terms made by its captors were the easiest known +to modern warfare, the conquered being granted all the honors of war. +As a direct and immediate result, the Corsican estates met, and +declared the island a constitutional monarchy under the protection of +England. Sir Gilbert Elliot was appointed viceroy, and Paoli was +recalled by George III to England. On August tenth fell Calvi, the +last French stronghold in the country, hitherto considered impregnable +by the Corsicans. + + [Footnote 44: For a full account of these important + operations see Mahan: Life of Nelson, I, 123 _et seq._] + +The presence of England so close to Italian shores immediately +produced throughout Lombardy and Tuscany a reaction of feeling in +favor of the French Revolution and its advanced ideas. The Committee +of Safety meant to take advantage of this sentiment and reduce the +Italian powers to the observance of strict neutrality at least, if +nothing more. They hoped to make a demonstration at Leghorn and punish +Rome for an insult to the republic still unavenged--the death of the +French minister, in 1793, at the hands of a mob; perhaps they might +also drive the British from Corsica. This explained the arrival of the +commissioners at Nice with the order to cease operations against +Sardinia and Austria, for the purpose of striking at English influence +in Italy, and possibly in Corsica. + +Everything but one was soon in readiness. To meet the English fleet, +the shipwrights at Toulon must prepare a powerful squadron. They did +not complete their gigantic task until February nineteenth, 1795. We +can imagine the intense activity of any man of great power, determined +to reconquer a lost position: what Buonaparte's fire and zeal must +have been we can scarcely conceive; even his fiercest detractors bear +witness to the activity of those months. When the order to embark was +given, his organization and material were both as nearly perfect as +possible. His mother had brought the younger children to a charming +house near by, where she entertained the influential women of the +neighborhood; and thither her busy son often withdrew for the +pleasures of a society which he was now beginning thoroughly to enjoy. +Thanks to the social diplomacy of this most ingenious family, +everything went well for a time, even with Lucien; and Louis, now +sixteen, was made a lieutenant of artillery. At the last moment came +what seemed the climax of Napoleon's good fortune, the assurance that +the destination of the fleet would be Corsica. Peace was made with +Tuscany. Rome could not be reached without a decisive engagement with +the English; therefore the first object of the expedition would be to +engage the British squadron which was cruising about Corsica. Victory +would of course mean entrance into Corsican harbors. + +On March eleventh the new fleet set sail. In its very first encounter +with the English on March thirteenth the fleet successfully +manoeuvered and just saved a fine eighty-gun ship, the _Ca Ira_, from +capture by Nelson. Next day there was a partial fleet action which +ended in a disaster, and two fine ships were captured, the _Ca Ira_ +and the _Censeur_; the others fled to Hyeres, where the troops were +disembarked from their transports, and sent back to their posts.[45] +Naval operations were not resumed for three months. Once more +Buonaparte was the victim of uncontrollable circumstance. Destitute of +employment, stripped even of the little credit gained in the last +half-year,[46] he stood for the seventh time on the threshold of the +world, a suppliant at the door. In some respects he was worse equipped +for success than at the beginning, for he now had a record to +expunge. To an outsider the spring of 1795 must have appeared the most +critical period of his life.[47] He himself knew better; in fact, this +ill-fated expedition was probably soon forgotten altogether. In his +St. Helena reminiscences, at least, he never recalled it: at that time +he was not fond of mentioning his failures, little or great, being +chiefly concerned to hand himself down to history as a man of lofty +purposes and unsullied motives. Besides, he was never in the slightest +degree responsible for the terrible waste of millions in this +ill-starred maritime enterprise; all his own plans had been for the +conduct of the war by land. + + [Footnote 45: Marmont: Memoires, I, 77-78.] + + [Footnote 46: Inspection report in Jung, II, 477. "Too + much ambition and intrigue for his advancement."] + + [Footnote 47: He was far down the list, one hundred and + thirty-ninth in the line of promotion.] + +The Corsican administration had always had in it at least one French +representative. Between the latest of these, Lacombe Saint-Michel, now +a member of the Committee of Safety, and the Salicetti party no love +was ever lost. It was a general feeling that the refugee Corsicans on +the Mediterranean shore were too near their home. They were always +charged with unscrupulous planning to fill their own pockets. Now, +somehow or other, inexplicably perhaps, but nevertheless certainly, a +costly expedition had been sent to Corsica under the impulse of these +very men, and it had failed. The unlucky adventurers had scarcely set +their feet on shore before Lacombe secured Buonaparte's appointment to +the Army of the West, where he would be far from old influences, with +orders to proceed immediately to his post. The papers reached +Marseilles, whither the Buonapartes had already betaken themselves, +during the month of April. On May second,[48] accompanied by Louis, +Junot, and Marmont, the broken general set out for Paris, where he +arrived with his companions eight days later, and rented shabby +lodgings in the Fosses-Montmartre, now Aboukir street. The style of +the house was Liberty Hotel. + + [Footnote 48: Possibly the twelfth. See Jung, III, I.] + +At this point Buonaparte's apprentice years may be said to have ended: +he was virtually the man he remained to the end. A Corsican by origin, +he retained the national sensibility and an enormous power of +endurance both physical and intellectual, together with the dogged +persistence found in the medieval Corsicans. He was devoted with +primitive virtue to his family and his people, but was willing to +sacrifice the latter, at least, to his ambition. His moral sense, +having never been developed by education, and, worse than that, having +been befogged by the extreme sensibility of Rousseau and by the chaos +of the times which that prophet had brought to pass, was practically +lacking. Neither the hostility of his father to religion, nor his own +experiences with the Jesuits, could, however, entirely eradicate a +superstition which passed in his mind for faith. Sometimes he was a +scoffer, as many with weak convictions are; but in general he +preserved a formal and outward respect for the Church. He was, +however, a stanch opponent of Roman centralization and papal +pretensions. His theoretical education had been narrow and one-sided; +but his reading and his authorship, in spite of their superficial and +desultory character, had given him certain large and fairly definite +conceptions of history and politics. But his practical education! What +a polishing and sharpening he had had against the revolving world +moving many times faster then than in most ages! He was an adept in +the art of civil war, for he had been not merely an interested +observer, but an active participant in it during five years in two +countries. Long the victim of wiles more secret than his own, he had +finally grown most wily in diplomacy; an ambitious politician, his +pulpy principles were republican in their character so far as they had +any tissue or firmness. + +His acquisitions in the science of war were substantial and definite. +Neither a martinet himself nor in any way tolerant of routine, +ignorant in fact of many hateful details, among others of obedience, +he yet rose far above tradition or practice in his conception of +strategy. He was perceptibly superior to the world about him in almost +every aptitude, and particularly so in power of combination, in +originality, and in far-sightedness. He could neither write nor spell +correctly, but he was skilled in all practical applications of +mathematics: town and country, mountains and plains, seas and rivers, +were all quantities in his equations. Untrustworthy himself, he strove +to arouse trust, faith, and devotion in those about him; and +concealing successfully his own purpose, he read the hearts of others +like an open book. Of pure-minded affection for either men or women he +had so far shown only a little, and had experienced in return even +less; but he had studied the arts of gallantry, and understood the +leverage of social forces. To these capacities, some embryonic, some +perfectly formed, add the fact that he was now a cosmopolitan, and +there will be outline, relief, and color to his character. "I am in +that frame of mind," he said of himself about this time, "in which men +are when on the eve of battle, with a persistent conviction that since +death is imminent in the end, to be uneasy is folly. Everything makes +me brave death and destiny; and if this goes on, I shall in the end, +my friend, no longer turn when a carriage passes. My reason is +sometimes astonished at all this; but it is the effect produced on me +by the moral spectacle of this land [_ce pays-ci_, not _patrie_], and +by the habit of running risks." This is the power and the temper of a +man of whom an intimate and confidential friend predicted that he +would never stop short until he had mounted either the throne or the +scaffold. + +The overthrow of Robespierre was the result of an alliance between +what have been called the radicals and the conservatives in the +Convention. Both were Jacobins, for the Girondists had been +discredited, and put out of doors. It was not, however, the +Convention, but Paris, which took command of the resulting movement. +The social structure of France has been so strong, and the nation so +homogeneous, that political convulsions have had much less influence +there than elsewhere. But the "Terror" had struck at the heart of +nearly every family of consequence in the capital, and the people were +utterly weary of horrors. The wave of reaction began when the would-be +dictator fell. A wholesome longing for safety, with its attendant +pleasures, overpowered society, and light-heartedness returned. +Underneath this temper lay but partly concealed a grim determination +not to be thwarted, which awed the Convention. Slowly, yet surely, the +Jacobins lost their power. As once the whole land had been mastered by +the idea of "federation," and as a later patriotic impulse had given +as a watchword "the nation," so now another refrain was in every +mouth--"humanity." The very songs of previous stages, the "Ca ira" and +the "Carmagnole," were displaced by new and milder ones. With Paris in +this mood, it was clear that the proscribed might return, and the +Convention, for its intemperate severity, must abdicate. + +This, of course, meant a new political experiment; but being, as they +were, sanguine admirers of Rousseau, the French felt no apprehension +at the prospect. The constitution of the third republic in France has +been considered a happy chance by many. Far from being perfectly +adapted to the needs of the nation, the fine qualities it possesses +are the outcome, not of chance, nor of theory, but of a century's +experience. It should be remembered that France in the eighteenth +century had had no experience whatever of constitutional government, +and the spirit of the age was all for theory in politics. Accordingly +the democratic monarchy of 1791 had failed because, its framework +having been built of empty visions, its constitution was entirely in +the air. The same fate had now overtaken the Girondist experiment of +1792 and the Jacobin usurpation of the following year, which was +ostensibly sanctioned by the popular adoption of a new constitution. +With perfect confidence in Rousseau's idea that government is based on +a social contract between individuals, the nation had sworn its +adhesion to two constitutions successively, and had ratified the act +each time by appropriate solemnities. Already the bubble of such a +conception had been punctured. Was it strange that the Convention +determined to repeat the same old experiment? Not at all. They knew +nothing better than the old idea, and never doubted that the fault +lay, not in the system, but in its details; they believed they could +improve on the work of their predecessors by the change and +modification of particulars. Aware, therefore, that their own day had +passed, they determined, before dissolving, to construct a new and +improved form of government. The work was confided to a committee of +eleven, most of whom were Girondists recalled for the purpose in order +to hoodwink the public. They now separated the executive and judiciary +from each other and from the legislature, divided the latter into two +branches, so as to cool the heat of popular sentiment before it was +expressed in statutes, and, avoiding the pitfall dug for itself by +the National Assembly, made members of the Convention eligible for +election under the new system. + +If the monarchy could have been restored at the same time, these +features of the new charter would have reproduced in France some +elements of the British constitution, and its adoption would probably +have pacified the dynastic rulers of Europe. But the restoration of +monarchy in any form was as yet impossible. The Bourbons had utterly +discredited royalty, and the late glorious successes had been won +partly by the lavish use in the enemy's camp of money raised and +granted by radical democrats, partly by the prowess of enthusiastic +republicans. The compact, efficient organization of the national army +was the work of the Jacobins, and while the Mountain was discredited +in Paris, it was not so in the provinces; moreover, the army which was +on foot and in the field was in the main a Jacobin army. Royalty was +so hated by most Frenchmen that the sad plight of the child dauphin, +dying by inches in the Temple, awakened no compassion, and its next +lineal representative was that hated thing, a voluntary exile; the +nobility, who might have furnished the material for a French House of +Lords, were traitors to their country, actually bearing arms in the +levies of her foes. The national feeling was a passion; Louis XVI had +been popular enough until he had outraged it first by ordering the +Church to remain obedient to Rome, and then by appealing to foreign +powers for protection. The emigrant nobles had stumbled over one +another in their haste to manifest their contempt for nationality by +throwing themselves into the arms of their own class in foreign lands. + +Moreover, another work of the Revolution could not be undone. The +lands of both the emigrants and the Church had either been seized and +divided among the adherents of the new order, or else appropriated to +state uses. Restitution was out of the question, for the power of the +new owners was sufficient to destroy any one who should propose to +take away their possessions. This is a fact particularly to be +emphasized, because, making all allowances, the subsequent history of +France has been determined by the alliance of a landed peasantry with +the petty burghers of the cities and towns. What both have always +desired is a strong hand in government which assures their property +rights. Whenever any of the successive forms and methods has failed +its fate was doomed. In this temper of the masses, in the flight of +the ruling class, in the distemper of the radical democracy, a +constitutional monarchy was unthinkable. A presidential government on +the model of that devised and used by the United States was equally +impossible, because the French appear already to have had a +premonition or an instinct that a ripe experience of liberty was +essential to the working of such an institution. The student of the +revolutionary times will become aware how powerful the feeling already +was among the French that a single strong executive, elected by the +masses, would speedily turn into a tyrant. They have now a nominal +president; but his election is indirect, his office is representative, +not political, and his duties are like an impersonal, colorless +reflection of those performed by the English crown. The +constitution-makers simply could not fall back on an experience of +successful free government which did not exist. Absolute monarchy had +made gradual change impossible, for oppression dies only in +convulsions. Experience was in front, not behind, and must be gained +through suffering. + +It was therefore a grim necessity which led the Thermidorians of the +Convention to try another political nostrum. What should it be? There +had always been a profound sense in France of her historic continuity +with Rome. Her system of jurisprudence, her speech, her church, her +very land, were Roman. Recalling this, the constitution-framers also +recollected that these had been the gifts of imperial and Christian +Rome. It was a curious but characteristic whim which consequently +suggested to the enemies of ecclesiasticism the revival of Roman forms +dating from the heathen commonwealth. This it was which led them to +commit the administration of government in both external and internal +relations to a divided executive. There, however, the resemblance to +Rome ended, for instead of two consuls there were to be five +directors. These were to sit as a committee, to appoint their own +ministerial agents, together with all officers and officials of the +army, and to fill the few positions in the administrative departments +which were not elective, except those in the treasury, which was a +separate, independent administration. All executive powers except +those of the treasury were likewise to be in their hands. They were to +have no veto, and their treaties of peace must be ratified by the +legislature; but they could declare war without consulting any one. +The judiciary was to be elected directly by the people, and the judges +were to hold office for about a year. The legislature was to be +separated into a senate with two hundred and fifty members, called the +Council of Ancients, which had the veto power, and an assembly called +the Council of Juniors, or, more popularly, from its number, the Five +Hundred, which had the initiative in legislation. The members of the +former must be at least forty years old and married; every aspirant +for a seat in the latter must be twenty-five and of good character. +Both these bodies were alike to be elected by universal suffrage +working indirectly through secondary electors, and limited by +educational and property qualifications. There were many wholesome +checks and balances. This constitution is known as that of I +Vendemiaire, An IV, or September twenty-second, 1795. It became +operative on October twenty-sixth. + +The scheme was formed, as was intended, under Girondist influence, and +was acceptable to the nation as a whole. In spite of many defects, it +might after a little experience have been amended so as to work, if +the people had been united and hearty in its support. But they were +not. The Thermidorians, who were still Jacobins at heart, ordered that +at least two-thirds of the men elected to sit in the new houses should +have been members of the Convention, on the plea that they alone had +sufficient experience of affairs to carry on the public business, at +least for the present. Perhaps this was intended as some offset to the +enforced closing of the Jacobin Club on November twelfth, 1794, due to +menaces by the higher classes of Parisian society, known to history as +"the gilded youth." On the other hand, the royalists saw in the new +constitution an instrument ready to their hand, should public opinion, +in its search for means to restore quiet and order, be carried still +further away from the Revolution than the movement of Thermidor had +swept it. Their conduct justified the measures of the Jacobins. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +The Antechamber to Success. + + Punishment of the Terrorists -- Dangers of the Thermidorians + -- Successes of Republican Arms -- Some Republican Generals + -- Military Prodigies -- The Treaty of Basel -- Vendean + Disorders Repressed -- A "White Terror" -- Royalist Activity + -- Friction Under the New Constitution -- Arrival of + Buonaparte in Paris -- Paris Society -- Its Power -- The + People Angry -- Resurgence of Jacobinism -- Buonaparte's + Dejection -- His Relations with Mme. Permon -- His + Magnanimity. + + +[Sidenote: 1795.] + +From time to time after the events of Thermidor the more active agents +of the Terror were sentenced to transportation, and the less guilty +were imprisoned. On May seventh, 1795, three days before Buonaparte's +arrival in Paris, Fouquier-Tinville, and fifteen other wretches who +had been but tools, the executioners of the revolutionary tribunal, +were put to death. The National Guard had been reorganized, and +Pichegru was recalled from the north to take command of the united +forces in Paris under a committee of the Convention with Barras at its +head. + +This was intended to overawe those citizens of Paris who were hostile +to the Jacobins. They saw the trap set for them, and were angry. +During the years of internal disorder and foreign warfare just passed +the economic conditions of the land had grown worse and worse, until, +in the winter of 1794-95, the laboring classes of Paris were again on +the verge of starvation. As usual, they attributed their sufferings to +the government, and there were bread riots. Twice in the spring of +1795--on April first and May twentieth--the unemployed and hungry rose +to overthrow the Convention, but they were easily put down by the +soldiers on both occasions. The whole populace, as represented by the +sections or wards of Paris, resented this use of armed force, and grew +uneasy. The Thermidorians further angered it by introducing a new +metropolitan administration, which greatly diminished the powers and +influence of the sections, without, however, destroying their +organization. The people of the capital, therefore, were ready for +mischief. The storming of the Tuileries on August tenth, 1792, had +been the work of the Paris mob. Why could they not in turn, another +mob, reactionary and to a degree even royalist, overthrow the tyranny +of the Jacobins as they themselves had overthrown the double-faced +administration of the King? + +A crisis might easily have been precipitated before Buonaparte's +arrival in Paris, but it was delayed by events outside the city. The +year 1794 had been a brilliant season for the republican arms and for +republican diplomacy. We have seen how the Piedmontese were forced +beyond the maritime Alps; the languid and worthless troops of Spain +were expelled from the Pyrenean strongholds and forced southward; in +some places, beyond the Ebro. Pichegru, with the Army of the North, +had driven the invaders from French soil and had conquered the +Austrian Netherlands. Jourdan, with the Army of the Sambre and Meuse, +had defeated the Austrians at Fleurus in a battle decided by the +bravery of Marceau, thus confirming the conquest. Other generals were +likewise rising to eminence. Hoche had in 1793 beaten the Austrians +under Wurmser at Weissenburg, and driven them from Alsace. He had now +further heightened his fame by his successes against the insurgents +of the west. Saint-Cyr, Bernadotte, and Kleber, with many others of +Buonaparte's contemporaries, had also risen to distinction in minor +engagements. + +Of peasant birth, Pichegru was nevertheless appointed by +ecclesiastical influence as a scholar at Brienne. In the dearth of +generals he was selected for promotion by Saint-Just as was Hoche at +the time when Carnot discovered Jourdan. Having assisted Hoche in the +conquest of Alsace when a division general and only thirty-two years +old, he began the next year, in 1794, to deploy his extraordinary +powers, and with Moreau as second in command he swept the English and +Austrians out of the Netherlands. Both these generals were sensitive +and jealous men; after brilliant careers under the republic they +turned royalists and came to unhappy ends. Moreau was two years the +junior. He was the son of a Breton lawyer and rose to notice both as a +local politician, and as a volunteer captain in the Breton struggles +for independence with which he had no sympathy. As a great soldier he +ranks with Hoche after Napoleon in the revolutionary time. Hoche was +younger still, having been born in 1768. In 1784 he enlisted as a +common soldier and rose from the ranks by sheer ability. He died at +the age of thirty, but as a politician and strategist he was already +famous. Kleber was an Alsatian who had been educated in the military +school at Munich and was already forty-one years old. Having enlisted +under the Revolution as a volunteer, he so distinguished himself on +the Rhine that he was swiftly promoted; but, thwarted in his ambition +to have an independent command, he lost his ardor and did not again +distinguish himself until he secured service under Napoleon in Egypt. +There he exhibited such capacity that he was regarded as one of +Bonaparte's rivals. He was assassinated by an Oriental in Cairo. +Bernadotte was four years the senior of Bonaparte, the son of a lawyer +in Paris. He too enlisted in the ranks, as a royal marine, and rose by +his own merits. He was a rude radical whose military ability was +paralleled by his skill in diplomacy. His swift promotion was obtained +in the Rhenish campaigns. Gouvion Saint-Cyr was also born in 1764 at +Toul. He was a marquis but an ardent reformer, and a born soldier. He +began as a volunteer captain on the staff of Custine, and rising like +the others mentioned became an excellent general, though his chances +for distinction were few. Jourdan was likewise a nobleman, born at +Limoges to the rank of count in 1762. His long career was solid rather +than brilliant, though he gained great distinction in the northern +campaigns and ended as a marshal, the military adviser of Joseph +Bonaparte in Naples and Madrid. + +The record of military energy put forth by the liberated nation under +Jacobin rule stands, as Fox declared in the House of Commons, +absolutely unique. Twenty-seven victories, eight in pitched battle; +one hundred and twenty fights; ninety thousand prisoners; one hundred +and sixteen towns and important places captured; two hundred and +thirty forts or redoubts taken; three thousand eight hundred pieces of +ordnance, seventy thousand muskets, one thousand tons of powder, and +ninety standards fallen into French hands--such is the incredible +tale. Moreover, the army had been purged with as little mercy as a +mercantile corporation shows to incompetent employees. It is often +claimed that the armies of republican France and of Napoleon were, +after all, the armies of the Bourbons. Not so. The conscription law, +though very imperfect in itself, was supplemented by the general +enthusiasm; a nation was now in the ranks instead of hirelings; the +reorganization had remodeled the whole structure, and between January +first, 1792, and January twentieth, 1795, one hundred and ten division +commanders, two hundred and sixty-three generals of brigade, and one +hundred and thirty-eight adjutant-generals either resigned, were +suspended from duty, or dismissed from the service. The republic had +new leaders and new men in its armies. + +The nation had apparently determined that the natural boundary of +France and of its own revolutionary system was the Rhine. Nice and +Savoy would round out their territory to the south. This much the new +government, it was understood, would conquer, administer, and keep; +the Revolution in other lands, impelled but not guided by French +influence, must manage its own affairs. This was, of course, an +entirely new diplomatic situation. Under its pressure Holland, by the +aid of Pichegru's army, became the Batavian Republic, and ceded Dutch +Flanders to France; while Prussia abandoned the coalition, and in the +treaty of Basel, signed on April fifth, 1795, agreed to the neutrality +of all north Germany. In return for the possessions of the +ecclesiastical princes in central Germany, which were eventually to be +secularized, she yielded to France undisputed possession of the left +bank of the Rhine. Spain, Portugal, and the little states both of +south Germany and of Italy were all alike weary of the contest, the +more so as they were honeycombed with liberal ideas. They were already +preparing to desert England and Austria, the great powers which still +stood firm. With the exception of Portugal, they acceded within a few +weeks to the terms made at Basel. Rome, as the instigator of the +unyielding ecclesiastics of Vendee, was, of course, on the side of +Great Britain and the Empire. + +At home the military success of the republic was for a little while +equally marked. Before the close of 1794 the Breton peasants who, +under the name of Chouans, had become lawless highwaymen were entirely +crushed; and the English expedition sent to Quiberon in the following +year to revive the disorders was a complete, almost ridiculous +failure. The insurrection of Vendee had dragged stubbornly on, but it +was stamped out in June, 1795, by the execution of over seven hundred +of the emigrants who had returned on English vessels to fan the +royalist blaze which was kindling again. + +[Illustration: In the collection of Mr. Edmond Taigny. +Marie-Josephine-Rose Tascher de La Pagerie, Called Josephine, +Empress of the French. + +From the design by Jean-Baptiste Isabey (pencil drawing retouched +in water-color) made in 1798.] + +The royalists, having created the panic of five years previous, were +not to be outdone even by the Terror. Charette, the Vendean leader, +retaliated by a holocaust of two thousand republican prisoners whom he +had taken. After the events of Thermidor the Convention had thrown +open the prison doors, put an end to bloodshed, and proclaimed an +amnesty. The evident power of the Parisian burghers, the form given by +the Girondists to the new constitution, the longing of all for peace +and for a return of comfort and prosperity, still further emboldened +the royalists, and enabled them to produce a wide-spread revulsion of +feeling. They rose in many parts of the south, instituting what is +known from the colors they wore as the "White Terror," and pitilessly +murdering, in the desperation of timid revenge, their unsuspecting and +unready neighbors of republican opinions. The scenes enacted were more +terrible, the human butchery was more bloody, than any known during +the darkest days of the revolutionary movement in Paris. This might +well be considered the preliminary trial to the Great White Terror of +1815, in which the frenzy and fanaticism of royalists and Roman +Catholics surpassed the most frantic efforts of radicals in lawless +bloodshed. Imperialists, free-thinkers, and Protestants were the +victims. + +The Jacobins, therefore, in view of so dangerous a situation, and not +without some reason, had determined that they themselves should +administer the new constitution. They were in the most desperate +straits because the Paris populace now held them directly responsible +for the existing scarcity of food, a scarcity amounting to famine. +From time to time for months the mob invaded the hall of the +Convention, craving bread with angry, hungry clamor. The members +mingled with the disorderly throng on the floor and temporarily +soothed them by empty promises. But each inroad of disorder was worse +than the preceding until the Mountain was not only without support +from the rabble, but an object of loathing and contempt to them and +their half-starved leaders. Hence their only chance for power was in +some new rearrangement under which they would not be so prominent in +affairs. The royalists at the same time saw in the provisions of the +new charter a means to accomplish their own ends; and relying upon the +attitude of the capital, in which mob and burghers alike were angry, +determined simultaneously to strike a blow for mastery, and to +supplant the Jacobins. Evidence of their activity appeared both in +military and political circles. Throughout the summer of 1795 there +was an unaccountable languor in the army. It was believed that +Pichegru had purposely palsied his own and Jourdan's abilities, and +the needless armistice he made with Austria went far to confirm the +idea. It was afterward proved that several members of the Convention +had been in communication with royalists. Among their agents was a +personage of some importance--a certain Aubry--who, having returned +after the events of Thermidor, never disavowed his real sentiments as +a royalist; and being later made chairman of the army committee, was +in that position when Buonaparte's career was temporarily checked by +degradation from the artillery to the infantry. For this absurd reason +he was long but unjustly thought also to have caused the original +transfer to the west. + +The Convention was aware of all that was taking place, but was also +helpless to correct the trouble. Having abolished the powerful and +terrible Committee of Safety, which had conducted its operations with +such success as attends remorseless vigor, it was found necessary on +August ninth to reconstruct something similar to meet the new crisis. +At the same time the spirit of the hour was propitiated by forming +sixteen other committees to control the action of the central one. +Such a dispersion of executive power was a virtual paralysis of +action, but it was to be only temporary, they would soon centralize +their strength in an efficient way. The constitution was adopted only +a fortnight later, on August twenty-second. Immediately the sections +of Paris began to display irritation at the limitations set to their +choice of new representatives. They had many sympathizers in the +provinces, and the extreme reactionaries from the Revolution were +jubilant. Fortunately for France, Carnot was temporarily retained to +control the department of war. He was not removed until the following +March. + +When General Buonaparte reached Paris, and went to dwell in the mean +and shabby lodgings which his lean purse compelled him to choose, he +found the city strangely metamorphosed. Animated by a settled purpose +not to accept the position assigned to him in the Army of the West, +and, if necessary, to defy his military superiors, his humor put him +out of all sympathy with the prevalent gaiety. Bitter experience had +taught him that in civil war the consequences of victory and defeat +are alike inglorious. In the fickleness of public opinion the +avenging hero of to-day may easily become the reprobated outcast of +to-morrow. What reputation he had gained at Toulon was already +dissipated in part; the rest might easily be squandered entirely in +Vendee. He felt and said that he could wait. But how about his daily +bread? + +The drawing-rooms of Paris had opened like magic before the "sesame" +of Thermidor and the prospects of settled order under the Directory. +There were visiting, dining, and dancing; dressing, flirtation, and +intrigue; walking, driving, and riding--all the avocations of a people +soured with the cruel and bloody past, and reasserting its native +passion for pleasure and refinement. All classes indulged in the +wildest speculation, securities public and corporate were the sport of +the exchange, the gambling spirit absorbed the energies of both sexes +in desperate games of skill and chance. The theaters, which had never +closed their doors even during the worst periods of terror, were +thronged from pit to gallery by a populace that reveled in excitement. +The morality of the hour was no better than the old; for there was a +strange mixture of elements in this new society. The men in power were +of every class--a few of the old aristocracy, many of the wealthy +burghers, a certain proportion of the colonial nabobs from the West +Indies and elsewhere, adventurers of every stripe, a few even of the +city populace, and some country common folk. The purchase and sale of +the confiscated lands, the national domain which furnished a slender +security for the national debt and depreciated bonds, had enriched +thousands of the vulgar sort. The newly rich lost their balance and +their stolidity, becoming as giddy and frivolous and aggressive as the +worst. The ingredients of this queer hodgepodge had yet to learn one +another's language and nature; the niceties of speech, gesture, and +mien which once had a well-understood significance in the higher +circles of government and society were all to be readjusted in +accordance with the ideas of the motley crowd and given new +conventional currency. In such a disorderly transition vice does not +require the mask of hypocrisy, virtue is helpless because unorganized, +and something like riot characterizes conduct. The sound and rugged +goodness of many newcomers, the habitual respectability of the +veterans, were for the moment alike inactive because not yet kneaded +into the lump they had to leaven. + +There was, nevertheless, a marvelous exhibition of social power in +this heterogeneous mass; nothing of course proportionate in extent to +what had been brought forth for national defense, but still, of almost +if not entirely equal significance. Throughout the revolutionary epoch +there had been much discussion concerning reforms in education. It was +in 1794 that Monge finally succeeded in founding the great Polytechnic +School, an institution which clearly corresponded to a national +characteristic, since from that day it has strengthened the natural +bias of the French toward applied science, and tempted them to the +undue and unfortunate neglect of many important humanizing +disciplines. The Conservatory of Music and the Institute were +permanently reorganized soon after. The great collections of the +Museum of Arts and Crafts (Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers) were +begun, and permanent lecture courses were founded in connection with +the National Library, the Botanical Garden, the Medical School, and +other learned institutions. Almost immediately a philosophical +literature began to appear; pictures were painted, and the theaters +reopened with new and tolerable pieces written for the day and place. +In the very midst of war, moreover, an attempt was made to emancipate +the press. The effort was ill advised, and the results were so +deplorable for the conduct of affairs that the newspapers were in the +event more firmly muzzled than ever. + +When Buonaparte had made his living arrangements, and began to look +about, he must have been stupefied by the hatred for the Convention so +generally and openly manifested on every side. The provinces had +looked upon the Revolution as accomplished. Paris was evidently in +such ill humor with the body which represented it that the republic +was to all appearance virtually undone. "Reelect two thirds of the +Convention members to the new legislature!" said the angry demagogues +of the Paris sections. "Never! Those men who, by their own confession, +have for three years in all these horrors been the cowardly tools of a +sentiment they could not restrain, but are now self-styled and +reformed moderates! Impossible!" Whether bribed by foreign gold, and +working under the influence of royalists, or by reason of the famine, +or through the determination of the well-to-do to have a radical +change, or from all these influences combined, the sections were +gradually organizing for resistance, and it was soon clear that the +National Guard was in sympathy with them. The Convention was equally +alert, and began to arm for the conflict. They already had several +hundred artillerymen and five thousand regulars who were imbued with +the national rather that the local spirit; they now began to enlist a +special guard of fifteen hundred from the desperate men who had been +the trusty followers of Hebert and Robespierre. The fighting spirit of +the Convention was unquenchable. Having lodged the "two thirds" in the +coming government, they virtually declared war on all enemies internal +and external. By their decree of October twenty-fourth, 1792, they had +announced that the natural limits of France were their goal. Having +virtually obtained them, they were now determined to defend them. This +was the legacy of the Convention to the Directory, a legacy which +indefinitely prolonged the Revolution and nullified the new polity +from the outset. + +For a month or more Buonaparte was a mere onlooker, or at most an +interested examiner of events, weighing and speculating in obscurity +much as he had done three years before. The war department listened to +and granted his earnest request that he might remain in Paris until +there should be completed a general reassignment of officers, which +had been determined upon, and, as his good fortune would have it, was +already in progress. As the first weeks passed, news arrived from the +south of a reaction in favor of the Jacobins. It became clearer every +day that the Convention had moral support beyond the ramparts of +Paris, and within the city it was possible to maintain something in +the nature of a Jacobin salon. Many of that faith who were disaffected +with the new conditions in Paris--the Corsicans in particular--were +welcomed at the home of Mme. Permon by herself and her beautiful +daughter, afterward Mme. Junot and Duchess of Abrantes. Salicetti had +chosen the other child, a son now grown, as his private secretary, and +was of course a special favorite in the house. The first manifestation +of reviving Jacobin confidence was shown in the attack made on May +twentieth upon the Convention by hungry rioters who shouted for the +constitution of 1793. The result was disastrous to the radicals +because the tumult was quelled by the courage and presence of mind +shown by Boissy d'Anglas, a calm and determined moderate. Commissioned +to act alone in provisioning Paris, he bravely accepted his +responsibility and mounted the president's chair in the midst of the +tumult to defend himself. The mob brandished in his face the bloody +head of Feraud, a fellow-member of his whom they had just murdered. +The speaker uncovered his head in respect, and his undaunted mien +cowed the leaders, who slunk away, followed by the rabble. The +consequence was a total annihilation of the Mountain on May +twenty-second. The Convention committees were disbanded, their +artillerymen were temporarily dismissed, and the constitution of 1793 +was abolished. + +The friendly home of Mme. Permon was almost the only resort of +Buonaparte, who, though disillusioned, was still a Jacobin. Something +like desperation appeared in his manner; the lack of proper food +emaciated his frame, while uncertainty as to the future left its mark +on his wan face and in his restless eyes. It was not astonishing, for +his personal and family affairs were apparently hopeless. His +brothers, like himself, had now been deprived of profitable +employment; they, with him, might possibly and even probably soon be +numbered among the suspects; destitute of a powerful patron, and with +his family once more in actual want, Napoleon was scarcely fit in +either garb or humor for the society even of his friends. His hostess +described him as having "sharp, angular features; small hands, long +and thin; his hair long and disheveled; without gloves; wearing badly +made, badly polished shoes; having always a sickly appearance, which +was the result of his lean and yellow complexion, brightened only by +two eyes glistening with shrewdness and firmness." Bourrienne, who had +now returned from diplomatic service, was not edified by the +appearance or temper of his acquaintance, who, he says, "was ill clad +and slovenly, his character cold, often inscrutable. His smile was +hollow and often out of place. He had moments of fierce gaiety which +made you uneasy, and indisposed to love him." + +No wonder the man was ill at ease. His worst fears were realized when +the influence of the Mountain was wiped out,--Carnot, the organizer of +victory, as he had been styled, being the only one of all the old +leaders to escape. Salicetti was too prominent a partizan to be +overlooked by the angry burghers. For a time he was concealed by Mme. +Permon in her Paris home. He escaped the vengeance of his enemies in +the disguise of her lackey, flying with her when she left for the +south to seek refuge for herself and children. Even the rank and file +among the members of the Mountain either fled or were arrested. That +Buonaparte was unmolested appears to prove how cleverly he had +concealed his connection with them. The story that in these days he +proposed for the hand of Mme. Permon, though without any corroborative +evidence, has an air of probability, partly in the consideration of a +despair which might lead him to seek any support, even that of a wife +as old as his mother, partly from the existence of a letter to the +lady which, though enigmatical, displays an interesting mixture of +wounded pride and real or pretended jealousy. The epistle is dated +June eighteenth, 1795. He felt that she would think him duped, he +explains, if he did not inform her that although she had not seen fit +to give her confidence to him, he had all along known that she had +Salicetti in hiding. Then follows an address to that countryman, +evidently intended to clear the writer from all taint of Jacobinism, +and couched in these terms: "I could have denounced thee, but did not, +although it would have been but a just revenge so to do. Which has +chosen the truer part? Go, seek in peace an asylum where thou canst +return to better thoughts of thy country. My lips shall never utter +thy name. Repent, and above all, appreciate my motives. This I +deserve, for they are noble and generous." In these words to the +political refugee he employs the familiar republican "thou"; in the +peroration, addressed, like the introduction, to the lady herself, he +recurs to the polite and distant "you." "Mme. Permon, my good wishes +go with you as with your child. You are two feeble creatures with no +defense. May Providence and the prayers of a friend be with you. Above +all, be prudent and never remain in the large cities. Adieu. Accept my +friendly greetings."[49] + + [Footnote 49: Correspondance, I, No. 40.] + +The meaning of this missive is recondite; perhaps it is this: Mme. +Permon, I loved you, and could have ruined the rival who is your +protege with a clear conscience, for he once did me foul wrong, as he +will acknowledge. But farewell. I bear you no grudge. Or else it may +announce another change in the political weather by the veering of the +cock. As a good citizen, despising the horrors of the past, I could +have denounced you, Salicetti. I did not, for I recalled old times and +your helplessness, and wished to heap coals of fire on your head, that +you might see the error of your way. The latter interpretation finds +support in the complete renunciation of Jacobinism which the writer +made soon afterward, and in his subsequent labored explanation that in +the "Supper of Beaucaire" he had not identified himself with the +Jacobin soldier (so far an exact statement of fact), but had wished +only by a dispassionate presentation of facts to show the hopeless +case of Marseilles, and to prevent useless bloodshed. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +Bonaparte the General of the Convention[50]. + + [Footnote 50: For this chapter the Memoires du roi + Joseph, I, and Boehtlingk: Napoleon Bonaparte, etc., I, + are valuable references, in addition to those already + given. The memoirs of Barras are particularly misleading + except for comparison. For social conditions, cf. + Goncourt, Histoire de la Societe Francaise sous le + Directoire, and in particular Adolph Schmidt: Tableaux + de la Revolution Francaise; Pariser Zustaende waehrend der + Revolutionszeit.] + + Disappointments -- Another Furlough -- Connection with + Barras -- Official Society in Paris -- Buonaparte as a Beau + -- Condition of His Family -- A Political General -- An + Opening in Turkey -- Opportunities in Europe -- Social + Advancement -- Official Degradation -- Schemes for + Restoration -- Plans of the Royalists -- The Hostility of + Paris to the Convention -- Buonaparte, General of the + Convention Troops -- His Strategy. + + +[Sidenote: 1795.] + +The overhauling of the army list with the subsequent reassignment of +officers turned out ill for Buonaparte. Aubry, the head of the +committee, appears to have been utterly indifferent to him, displaying +no ill will, and certainly no active good will, toward the sometime +Jacobin, whose name, moreover, was last on the list of artillery +officers in the order of seniority. According to the regulations, when +one arm of the service was overmanned, the superfluous officers were +to be transferred to another. This was now the case with the +artillery, and Buonaparte, as a supernumerary, was on June thirteenth +again ordered to the west, but this time only as a mere infantry +general of brigade. He appears to have felt throughout life more +vindictiveness toward Aubry, the man whom he believed to have been +the author of this particular misfortune, than toward any other +person with whom he ever came in contact. In this rigid scrutiny of +the army list, exaggerated pretensions of service and untruthful +testimonials were no longer accepted. For this reason Joseph also had +already lost his position, and was about to settle with his family in +Genoa, while Louis was actually sent back to school, being ordered to +Chalons. Poor Lucien, overwhelmed in the general ruin of the radicals, +and with a wife and child dependent on him, was in despair. The other +members of the family were temporarily destitute, but self-helpful. + +In this there was nothing new; but, for all that, the monotony of the +situation must have been disheartening. Napoleon's resolution was soon +taken. He was either really ill from privation and disappointment, or +soon became so. Armed with a medical certificate, he applied for and +received a furlough. This step having been taken, the next, according +to the unchanged and familiar instincts of the man, was to apply under +the law for mileage to pay his expenses on the journey which he had +taken as far as Paris in pursuance of the order given him on March +twenty-ninth to proceed to his post in the west. Again, following the +precedents of his life, he calculated mileage not from Marseilles, +whence he had really started, but from Nice, thus largely increasing +the amount which he asked for, and in due time received. During his +leave several projects occupied his busy brain. The most important +were a speculation in the sequestered lands of the emigrants and +monasteries, and the writing of two monographs--one a history of +events from the ninth of Fructidor, year II (August twenty-sixth, +1794), to the beginning of year IV (September twenty-third, 1795), the +other a memoir on the Army of Italy. The first notion was doubtless +due to the frenzy for speculation, more and more rife, which was now +comparable only to that which prevailed in France at the time of Law's +Mississippi scheme or in England during the South Sea Bubble. It +affords an insight into financial conditions to know that a gold piece +of twenty francs was worth seven hundred and fifty in paper. A project +for purchasing a certain property as a good investment for his wife's +dowry was submitted to Joseph, but it failed by the sudden repeal of +the law under which such purchases were made. The two themes were both +finished, and another, "A Study in Politics: being an Inquiry into the +Causes of Troubles and Discords," was sketched, but never completed. +The memoir on the Army of Italy was virtually the scheme for offensive +warfare which he laid before the younger Robespierre; it was now +revised, and sent to the highest military power--the new central +committee appointed as a substitute for the Committee of Safety. These +occupations were all very well, but the furlough was rapidly expiring, +and nothing had turned up. Most opportunely, the invalid had a +relapse, and was able to secure an extension of leave until August +fourth, the date on which a third of the committee on the reassignment +of officers would retire, among them the hated Aubry. + +Speaking at St. Helena of these days, he said: "I lived in the Paris +streets without employment. I had no social habits, going only into +the set at the house of Barras, where I was well received.... I was +there because there was nothing to be had elsewhere. I attached myself +to Barras because I knew no one else. Robespierre was dead; Barras was +playing a role: I had to attach myself to somebody and something." It +will not be forgotten that Barras and Freron had been Dantonists when +they were at the siege of Toulon with Buonaparte. After the events of +Thermidor they had forsworn Jacobinism altogether, and were at present +in alliance with the moderate elements of Paris society. Barras's +rooms in the Luxembourg were the center of all that was gay and +dazzling in that corrupt and careless world. They were, as a matter of +course, the resort of the most beautiful and brilliant women, +influential, but not over-scrupulous. Mme. Tallien, who has been +called "the goddess of Thermidor," was the queen of the coterie; +scarcely less beautiful and gracious were the widow Beauharnais and +Mme. Recamier. Barras had been a noble; the instincts of his class +made him a delightful host. + +What Napoleon saw and experienced he wrote to the faithful Joseph. The +letters are a truthful transcript of his emotions, the key-note of +which is admiration for the Paris women. "Carriages and the gay world +reappear, or rather no more recall as after a long dream that they +have ever ceased to glitter. Readings, lecture courses in history, +botany, astronomy, etc., follow one another. Everything is here +collected to amuse and render life agreeable; you are taken out of +your thoughts; how can you have the blues in this intensity of purpose +and whirling turmoil? The women are everywhere, at the play, on the +promenades, in the libraries. In the scholar's study you find very +charming persons. Here only of all places in the world they deserve to +hold the helm: the men are mad about them, think only of them, and +live only by means of their influence. A woman needs six months in +Paris to know what is her due and what is her sphere."[51] As yet he +had not met Mme. Beauharnais. The whole tone of the correspondence is +cheerful, and indicates that Buonaparte's efforts for a new alliance +had been successful, that his fortunes were looking up, and that the +giddy world contained something of uncommon interest. As his fortunes +improved, he grew more hopeful, and appeared more in society. On +occasion he even ventured upon little gallantries. Presented to Mme. +Tallien, he was frequently seen at her receptions. He was at first shy +and reserved, but time and custom put him more at his ease. One +evening, as little groups were gradually formed for the interchange of +jest and repartee, he seemed to lose his timidity altogether, and, +assuming the mien of a fortune-teller, caught his hostess's hand, and +poured out a long rigmarole of nonsense which much amused the rest of +the circle. + + [Footnote 51: Napoleon to Joseph, July, 1795; in Du + Casse: Les rois freres de Napoleon, 8, and in Jung, III, + 41.] + +These months had also improved the situation of the family. His mother +and younger sisters were somehow more comfortable in their Marseilles +home. Strange doings were afterward charged against them, but it is +probable that these stories are without other foundation than spite. +Napoleon had received a considerable sum for mileage, nearly +twenty-seven hundred francs, and, good son as he always was, it is +likely that he shared the money with his family. Both Elisa and the +little Pauline now had suitors. Fesch, described by Lucien as "ever +fresh, not like a rose, but like a good radish," was comfortably +waiting at Aix in the house of old acquaintances for a chance to +return to Corsica. Joseph's arrangements for moving to Genoa were +nearly complete, and Louis was comfortably settled at school in +Chalons. "Brutus" Lucien was the only luckless wight of the number: +his fears had been realized, and, having been denounced as a Jacobin, +he was now lying terror-stricken in the prison of Aix, and all about +him men of his stripe were being executed. + +On August fifth the members of the new Committee of Safety finally +entered on their duties. Almost the first document presented at the +meeting was Buonaparte's demand for restoration to his rank in the +artillery. It rings with indignation, and abounds with loose +statements about his past services, boldly claiming the honors of the +last short but successful Italian campaign. The paper was referred to +the proper authorities, and, a fortnight later, its writer received +peremptory orders to join his corps in the west. What could be more +amusingly characteristic of this persistent man than to read, in a +letter to Joseph under date of the following day, August twentieth: "I +am attached at this moment to the topographical bureau of the +Committee of Safety for the direction of the armies in Carnot's place. +If I wish, I can be sent to Turkey by the government as general of +artillery, with a good salary and a splendid title, to organize the +artillery of the Grand Turk." Then follow plans for Joseph's +appointment to the consular service, for a meeting at Leghorn, and for +a further land speculation. At the close are these remarks, which not +only exhibit great acuteness of observation, but are noteworthy as +displaying a permanent quality of the man, that of always having an +alternative in readiness: "It is quiet, but storms are gathering, +perhaps; the primaries are going to meet in a few days. I shall take +with me five or six officers.... The commission and decree of the +Committee of Safety, which employs me in the duty of directing the +armies and plans of campaign, being most flattering to me, I fear they +will no longer allow me to go to Turkey. We shall see. I may have on +hand a campaign to-day.... Write always as if I were going to Turkey." + +This was all half true. By dint of soliciting Barras and Doulcet de +Pontecoulant, another well-wisher, both men of influence, and by +importuning Freron, then at the height of his power, but soon to +display a ruinous incapacity, Buonaparte had actually been made a +member of the commission of four which directed the armies, and Dutot +had been sent in his stead to the west. Moreover, there was likewise a +chance for realizing those dreams of achieving glory in the Orient +which had haunted him from childhood. At this moment there was a +serious tension in the politics of eastern Europe, and the French saw +an opportunity to strike Austria on the other side by an alliance with +Turkey. The latter country was of course entirely unprepared for war, +and asked for the appointment of a French commission to reconstruct +its gun-foundries and to improve its artillery service. Buonaparte, +having learned the fact, had immediately prepared two memorials, one +on the Turkish artillery, and another on the means of strengthening +Turkish power against the encroachments of European monarchies. These +he sent up with an application that he should be appointed head of the +commission, inclosing also laudatory certificates of his uncommon +ability from Doulcet and from Debry, a newly made friend. + +But the vista of an Eastern career temporarily vanished. The new +constitution, adopted, as already stated, on August twenty-second, +could not become operative until after the elections. On August +thirty-first Buonaparte's plan for the conduct of the coming Italian +campaign was read by the Convention committee, found satisfactory, and +adopted. It remains in many respects the greatest of all Napoleon's +military papers, its only fault being that no genius inferior to his +own could carry it out. At intervals some strategic authority revives +the charge that this plan was bodily appropriated from the writings of +Maillebois, the French general who led his army to disaster in Italy +during 1746. There is sufficient evidence that Buonaparte read +Maillebois, and any reader may see the resemblances of the two plans. +But the differences, at first sight insignificant, are as vital as the +differences of character in the two men. Like the many other charges +of plagiarism brought against Napoleon by pedants, this one overlooks +the difference between mediocrity and genius in the use of materials. +It is not at all likely that the superiors of Buonaparte were ignorant +of the best books concerning the invasion of Italy or of their almost +contemporary history. They brought no charges of plagiarism for the +excellent reason that there is none, and they were impressed by the +suggestions of their general. It is even possible that Buonaparte +formed his plan before reading Maillebois. Volney declared he had +heard it read and commentated by its author shortly after his return +from Genoa and Nice.[52] The great scholar was already as profoundly +impressed as a year later Carnot, and now the war commission. A few +days later the writer and author of the plan became aware of the +impression he had made: it seemed clear that he had a reality in hand +worth every possibility in the Orient. He therefore wrote to Joseph +that he was going to remain in Paris, explaining, as if incidentally, +that he could thus be on the lookout for any desirable vacancy in the +consular service, and secure it, if possible, for him. + + [Footnote 52: Chaptal: Mes souvenirs sur Napoleon, p. + 198.] + +Dreams of another kind had supplanted in his mind all visions of +Oriental splendor; for in subsequent letters to the same +correspondent, written almost daily, he unfolds a series of rather +startling schemes, which among other things include a marriage, a town +house, and a country residence, with a cabriolet and three horses. How +all this was to come about we cannot entirely discover. The marriage +plan is clearly stated. Joseph had wedded one of the daughters of a +comparatively wealthy merchant. He was requested to sound his +brother-in-law concerning the other, the famous Desiree Clary, who +afterward became Mme. Bernadotte. Two of the horses were to be +supplied by the government in place of a pair which he might be +supposed to have possessed at Nice in accordance with the rank he then +held, and to have sold, according to orders, when sent on the maritime +expedition to Corsica. Where the third horse and the money for the +houses were to come from is inscrutable; but, as a matter of fact, +Napoleon had already left his shabby lodgings for better ones in +Michodiere street, and was actually negotiating for the purchase of a +handsome detached residence near that of Bourrienne, whose fortunes +had also been retrieved. The country-seat which the speculator had in +view, and for which he intended to bid as high as a million and a half +of francs, was knocked down to another purchaser for three millions +or, as the price of gold then was, about forty thousand dollars! So +great a personage as he now was must, of course, have a secretary, and +the faithful Junot had been appointed to the office. + +The application for the horses turned out a serious matter, and +brought the adventurer once more to the verge of ruin. The story he +told was not plain, the records did not substantiate it, the +hard-headed officials of the war department evidently did not believe +a syllable of his representations,--which, in fact, were +untruthful,--and, the central committee having again lost a third of +its members by rotation, among them Doulcet, there was no one now in +it to plead Buonaparte's cause. Accordingly there was no little talk +about the matter in very influential circles, and almost +simultaneously was issued the report concerning his formal request +for restoration, which had been delayed by the routine prescribed in +such cases, and was only now completed. It was not only adverse in +itself, but contained a confidential inclosure animadverting severely +on the irregularities of the petitioner's conduct, and in particular +on his stubborn refusal to obey orders and join the Army of the West. +Thus it happened that on September fifteenth the name of Buonaparte +was officially struck from the list of general officers on duty, "in +view of his refusal to proceed to the post assigned him." It really +appeared as if the name of Napoleon might almost have been substituted +for that of Tantalus in the fable. But it was the irony of fate that +on this very day the subcommittee on foreign affairs submitted to the +full meeting a proposition to send the man who was now a disgraced +culprit in great state and with a full suite to take service at +Constantinople in the army of the Grand Turk! + +No one had ever understood better than Buonaparte the possibilities of +political influence in a military career. Not only could he bend the +bow of Achilles, but he always had ready an extra string. Thus far in +his ten years of service he had been promoted only once according to +routine; the other steps of the height which he had reached had been +secured either by some startling exhibition of ability or by influence +or chicane. He had been first Corsican and then French, first a +politician and then a soldier. Such a veteran was not to be dismayed +even by the most stunning blow; had he not even now three powerful +protectors--Barras, Tallien, and Freron? He turned his back, +therefore, with ready adaptability on the unsympathetic officials of +the army, the mere soldiers with cool heads and merciless judgment. +The evident short cut to restoration was to carry through the project +of employment at Constantinople; it had been formally recommended, +and to secure its adoption he renewed his importunate solicitations. +His rank he still held; he might hope to regain position by some +brilliant stroke such as he could execute only without the restraint +of orders and on his own initiative. His hopes grew, or seemed to, as +his suit was not rejected, and he wrote to Joseph on September +twenty-sixth that the matter of his departure was urgent; adding, +however: "But at this moment there are some ebullitions and incendiary +symptoms." He was right in both surmises. The Committee of Safety was +formally considering the proposition for his transfer to the Sultan's +service, while simultaneously affairs both in Paris and on the +frontiers alike were "boiling." + +Meantime the royalists and clericals had not been idle. They had +learned nothing from the events of the Revolution, and did not even +dimly understand their own position. Their own allies repudiated both +their sentiments and their actions in the very moments when they +believed themselves to be honorably fighting for self-preservation. +English statesmen like Granville and Harcourt now thought and said +that it was impossible to impose on France a form of government +distasteful to her people; but the British regent and the French +pretender, who, on the death of his unfortunate nephew, the dauphin, +had been recognized by the powers as Louis XVIII, were stubbornly +united under the old Bourbon motto, "All or nothing." The change in +the Convention, in Paris society, even in the country itself, which +was about to desert its extreme Jacobinism and to adopt the new +constitution by an overwhelming vote--all this deceived them, and they +determined to strike for everything they had lost. Preparations, it is +now believed, were all ready for an inroad from the Rhine frontier, +for Pichegru to raise the white flag and to advance with his troops on +Paris, and for a simultaneous rising of the royalists in every French +district. On October fourth an English fleet had appeared on the +northern shore of France, having on board the Count of Artois and a +large body of emigrants, accompanied by a powerful force of English, +composed in part of regulars, in part of volunteers. This completed +the preliminary measures. + +With the first great conflict in the struggle, avowed royalism had +only an indirect connection. By this time the Paris sections were +thoroughly reorganized, having purged themselves of the extreme +democratic elements from the suburbs. They were well drilled, well +armed, and enthusiastic for resistance to the decree of the Convention +requiring the compulsory reelection of the "two thirds" from its +existing membership. The National Guard was not less embittered +against that measure. There were three experienced officers then in +Paris who were capable of leading an insurrection, and could be relied +on to oppose the Convention. These were Danican, Duhoux d'Hauterive, +and Laffont, all royalists at heart; the last was an emigrant, and +avowed it. The Convention had also by this time completed its +enlistment, and had taken other measures of defense; but it was +without a trustworthy person to command its forces, for among the +fourteen generals of the republic then present in Paris, only two were +certainly loyal to the Convention, and both these were men of very +indifferent character and officers of no capacity. + +The Convention forces were technically a part of the army known as +that of the interior, of which Menou was the commander. The new +constitution having been formally proclaimed on September +twenty-third, the signs of open rebellion in Paris became too clear to +be longer disregarded, and on that night a mass meeting of the +various sections was held in the Odeon theater in order to prepare +plans for open resistance. That of Lepelletier, in the heart of Paris, +comprising the wealthiest and most influential of the mercantile +class, afterward assembled in its hall and issued a call to rebellion. +These were no contemptible foes: on the memorable tenth of August, +theirs had been the battalion of the National Guard which died with +the Swiss in defense of the Tuileries. Menou, in obedience to the +command of the Convention to disarm the insurgent sections, confronted +them for a moment. But the work was not to his taste. After a short +parley, during which he feebly recommended them to disperse and behave +like good citizens, he withdrew his forces to their barracks, and left +the armed and angry sections masters of the situation. Prompt and +energetic measures were more necessary than ever. For some days +already the Convention leaders had been discussing their plans. Carnot +and Tallien finally agreed with Barras that the man most likely to do +thoroughly the active work was Buonaparte. But, apparently, they dared +not altogether trust him, for Barras himself was appointed +commander-in-chief. His "little Corsican officer, who will not stand +on ceremony," as he called him, was to be nominally lieutenant. On +October fourth Buonaparte was summoned to a conference. The messengers +sought him at his lodgings and in all his haunts, but could not find +him. It was nine in the evening when he appeared at headquarters in +the Place du Carrousel. This delay gave Barras a chance to insinuate +that his ardent republican friend, who all the previous week had been +eagerly soliciting employment, was untrustworthy in the crisis, and +had been negotiating with the sectionaries. Buonaparte reported +himself as having come from the section of Lepelletier, but as having +been reconnoitering the enemy. After a rather tart conversation, +Barras appointed him aide-de-camp, the position for which he had been +destined from the first. Whatever was the general's understanding of +the situation, that of the aide was clear--that he was to be his own +master.[53] + + [Footnote 53: My account of this momentous crisis in + Buonaparte's life was written after a careful study of + all the authorities and accounts as far as known. The + reader will find in the monograph, Zivy: Le treize + Vendemiaire, many reprints of documents and certain + conclusions drawn from them. The result is good as far + as it goes, but, like all history written from public + papers solely, it is incomplete. Buonaparte was only one + of seven generals appointed to serve under Barras. It + seems likewise true that his exploits did not bring him + into general notice, for Mallet du Pan speaks of him as + a "Corsican terrorist" and Remusat records her mother's + amazement that a man so little known should have made so + good a marriage. But, on the other hand, Thiebault + declares that Buonaparte's activities impressed every + one, Barras's labored effort is suspicious, and then, as + at Toulon, there are the results. Some people in power + gave him credit, for they bestowed on him an + extraordinary reward. Then, too, why should we utterly + discard Buonaparte's own evidence, which corroborates, + at least as far as the text goes, the evidence drawn + from other sources?] + +Not a moment was lost, and throughout the night most vigorous and +incessant preparation was made. Buonaparte was as much himself in the +streets of Paris as in those of Ajaccio, except that his energy was +proportionately more feverish, as the defense of the Tuileries and the +riding-school attached to it, in which the Convention sat, was a +grander task than the never-accomplished capture of the Corsican +citadel. The avenues and streets of a city somewhat resemble the main +and tributary valleys of a mountain-range, and the task of campaigning +in Paris was less unlike that of manoeuvering in the narrow gorges of +the Apennines than might be supposed; at least Buonaparte's strategy +was nearly identical for both. All his measures were masterly. The +foe, scattered as yet throughout Paris on both sides of the river, +was first cut in two by seizing and fortifying the bridges across the +Seine; then every avenue of approach was likewise guarded, while +flanking artillery was set in the narrow streets to command the main +arteries. Thanks to Barras's suggestion, the dashing, reckless, +insubordinate Murat, who first appears at the age of twenty-seven on +the great stage in these events, had under Buonaparte's orders brought +in the cannon from the camp of Sablons. These in the charge of a ready +artillerist were invaluable, as the event proved. Finally a reserve, +ready for use on either side of the river, was established in what is +now the Place de la Concorde, with an open line of retreat toward St. +Cloud behind it. Every order was issued in Barras's name, and Barras, +in his memoirs, claims all the honors of the day. He declares that his +aide was afoot, while he was the man on horseback, ubiquitous and +masterful. He does not even admit that Buonaparte bestrode a +cab-horse, as even the vanquished were ready to acknowledge. The +sections, of course, knew nothing of the new commander or of +Buonaparte, and recalled only Menou's pusillanimity. Without cannon +and without a plan, they determined to drive out the Convention at +once, and to overwhelm its forces by superior numbers. The quays of +the left bank were therefore occupied by a large body of the National +Guard, ready to rush in from behind when the main attack, made from +the north through the labyrinth of streets and blind alleys then +designated by the name of St. Honore, and by the short, wide passage +of l'Echelle, should draw the Convention forces away in that direction +to resist it. A kind of rendezvous had been appointed at the church of +St. Roch, which was to be used as a depot of supplies and a retreat. +Numerous sectionaries were, in fact, posted there as auxiliaries at +the crucial instant. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + +The Day of the Paris Sections. + + The Warfare of St. Roch and the Pont Royal -- Order Restored + -- Meaning of the Conflict -- Political Dangers -- + Buonaparte's Dilemma -- His True Attitude -- Sudden Wealth + -- The Directory and Their General -- Buonaparte in Love -- + His Corsican Temperament -- His Matrimonial Adventures. + + +[Sidenote: 1795.] + +In this general position the opposing forces confronted each other on +the morning of October fifth, the thirteenth of Vendemiaire. In point +of numbers the odds were tremendous, for the Convention forces +numbered only about four thousand regulars and a thousand volunteers, +while the sections' force comprised about twenty-eight thousand +National Guards. But the former were disciplined, they had cannon, and +they were desperately able; and there was no distracted, vacillating +leadership. What the legend attributes to Napoleon Buonaparte as his +commentary on the conduct of King Louis at the Tuileries was to be the +Convention's ideal now. The "man on horseback" and the hot fire of +cannon were to carry the day. Both sides seemed loath to begin. But at +half-past four in the afternoon it was clear that the decisive moment +had come. As if by instinct, but in reality at Danican's signal, the +forces of the sections from the northern portion of the capital began +to pour through the narrow main street of St. Honore, behind the +riding-school, toward the chief entrance of the Tuileries. They no +doubt felt safer in the rear of the Convention hall, with the high +walls of houses all about, than they would have done in the open +spaces which they would have had to cross in order to attack it from +the front. Just before their compacted mass reached the church of St. +Roch, it was brought to a halt. Suddenly becoming aware that in the +side streets on the right were yawning the muzzles of hostile cannon, +the excited citizens lost their heads, and began to discharge their +muskets. Then with a swift, sudden blast, the street was cleared by a +terrible discharge of the canister and grape-shot with which the +field-pieces of Barras and Buonaparte were loaded. The action +continued about an hour, for the people and the National Guard rallied +again and again, each time to be mowed down by a like awful discharge. +At last they could be rallied no longer, and retreated to the church, +which they held. On the left bank a similar melee ended in a similar +way. Three times Laffont gathered his forces and hurled them at the +Pont Royal; three times they were swept back by the cross-fire of +artillery. The scene then changed like the vanishing of a mirage. +Awe-stricken messengers appeared, hurrying everywhere with the +prostrating news from both sides of the river, and the entire Parisian +force withdrew to shelter. Before nightfall the triumph of the +Convention was complete. The dramatic effect of this achievement was +heightened by the appearance on horseback here, there, and everywhere, +during the short hour of battle, of an awe-inspiring leader; both +before and after, he was unseen. In spite of Barras's claims, there +can be no doubt that this dramatic personage was Buonaparte. If not, +for what was he so signally rewarded in the immediate sequel? Barras +was no artillerist, and this was the appearance of an expert giving +masterly lessons in artillery practice to an astonished world, which +little dreamed what he was yet to demonstrate as to the worth of his +chosen arm on wider battle-fields. For the moment it suited +Buonaparte to appear merely as an agent. In his reports of the affair +his own name is kept in the background. It is evident that from first +to last he intended to produce the impression that, though acting with +Jacobins, he does so because they for the time represent the truth: he +is not for that reason to be identified with them. + +Thus by the "whiff of grape-shot" what the wizard historian of the +time "specifically called the French Revolution" was not "blown into +space" at all. Though there was no renewal of the reign of terror, yet +the Jacobins retained their power and the Convention lived on under +the name of the Directory. It continued to live on in its own stupid +anarchical way until the "man on horseback" of the thirteenth +Vendemiaire had established himself as the first among French generals +and the Jacobins had rendered the whole heart of France sick. While +the events of October twenty-fifth were a bloody triumph for the +Convention, only a few conspicuous leaders of the rebels were +executed, among them Laffont; and harsh measures were enacted in +relation to the political status of returned emigrants. But in the +main an unexpected mercy controlled the Convention's policy. They +closed the halls in which the people of the mutinous wards had met, +and once more reorganized the National Guard. Order was restored +without an effort. Beyond the walls of Paris the effect of the news +was magical. Artois, afterward Charles X, though he had landed three +days before on Ile Dieu, now reembarked, and sailed back to England, +while the other royalist leaders prudently held their followers in +check and their measures in abeyance. The new constitution was in a +short time offered to the nation, and accepted by an overwhelming +majority; the members of the Convention were assured of their +ascendancy in the new legislature; and before long the rebellion in +Vendee and Brittany was so far crushed as to release eighty thousand +troops for service abroad. For the leaders of its forces the +Convention made a most liberal provision: the division commanders of +the thirteenth of Vendemiaire were all promoted. Buonaparte was made +second in command of the Army of the Interior: in other words, was +confirmed in an office which, though informally, he had both created +and rendered illustrious. As Barras almost immediately resigned, this +was equivalent to very high promotion. + +This memorable "day of the sections," as it is often called, was an +unhallowed day for France and French liberty. It was the first +appearance of the army since the Revolution as a support to political +authority; it was the beginning of a process which made the +commander-in-chief of the army the dictator of France. All purely +political powers were gradually to vanish in order to make way for a +military state. The temporary tyranny of the Convention rested on a +measure, at least, of popular consent; but in the very midst of its +preparations to perpetuate a purely civil and political +administration, the violence of the sections had compelled it to +confide the new institutions to the keeping of soldiers. The idealism +of the new constitution was manifest from the beginning. Every chance +which the Directory had for success was dependent, not on the inherent +worth of the system or its adaptability to present conditions, but on +the support of interested men in power; among these the commanders of +the army were not the least influential. After the suppression of the +sections, the old Convention continued to sit under the style of the +Primary Assembly, and was occupied in selecting those of its members +who were to be returned to the legislature under the new constitution. +There being no provision for any interim government, the exercise of +real power was suspended; the elections were a mere sham; the +magistracy was a house swept and garnished, ready for the first comer +to occupy it. + +As the army and not the people had made the coming administration +possible, the executive power would from the first be the creature of +the army; and since under the constitutional provisions there was no +legal means of compromise between the Directory and the legislature in +case of conflict, so that the stronger would necessarily crush the +weaker, the armed power supporting the directors must therefore +triumph in the end, and the man who controlled that must become the +master of the Directory and the ruler of the country. Moreover, a +people can be free only when the first and unquestioning devotion of +every citizen is not to a party, but to his country and its +constitution, his party allegiance being entirely secondary. This was +far from being the case in France: the nation was divided into +irreconcilable camps, not of constitutional parties, but of violent +partizans; many even of the moderate republicans now openly expressed +a desire for some kind of monarchy. Outwardly the constitution was the +freest so far devised. It contained, however, three fatal blunders +which rendered it the best possible tool for a tyrant: it could not be +changed for a long period; there was no arbiter but force between a +warring legislative and executive; the executive was now supported by +the army. + +It is impossible to prove that Buonaparte understood all this at the +time. When at St. Helena he spoke as if he did; but unfortunately his +later writings, however valuable from the psychological, are worthless +from the historical, standpoint. They abound in misrepresentations +which are in part due to lapse of time and weakness of memory, in +part to wilful intention. Wishing the Robespierre-Salicetti episode of +his life to be forgotten, he strives in his memoirs to create the +impression that the Convention had ordered him to take charge of the +artillery at Toulon, when in fact he was in Marseilles as a mere +passer-by on his journey to Nice, and in Toulon as a temporary adjunct +to the army of Carteaux, having been made an active participant partly +through accident, partly by the good will of personal friends. In the +same way he also devised a fable about the "day of the sections," in +order that he might not appear to have been scheming for himself in +the councils of the Convention, and that Barras's share in his +elevation might be consigned to oblivion. This story of Napoleon's has +come down in three stages of its development, by as many different +transcribers, who heard it at different times. The final one, as given +by Las Cases, was corrected by Napoleon's own hand.[54] It runs as +follows: On the night of October third he was at the theater, but +hearing that Menou had virtually retreated before the wards, and was +to be arrested, he left and went to the meeting of the Convention, +where, as he stood among the spectators, he heard his own name +mentioned as Menou's successor. For half an hour he deliberated what +he should do if chosen. If defeated, he would be execrated by all +coming generations, while victory would be almost odious. How could he +deliberately become the scapegoat of so many crimes to which he had +been an utter stranger? Why go as an avowed Jacobin and in a few hours +swell the list of names uttered with horror? "On the other hand, if +the Convention be crushed, what becomes of the great truths of our +Revolution? Our many victories, our blood so often shed, are all +nothing but shameful deeds. The foreigner we have so thoroughly +conquered triumphs and overwhelms us with his contempt; an incapable +race, an overbearing and unnatural following, reappear triumphant, +throw up our crime to us, wreak their vengeance, and govern us like +helots by the hand of a stranger. Thus the defeat of the Convention +would crown the brow of the foreigner, and seal the disgrace and +slavery of our native land." Such thoughts, his youth, trust in his +own power and in his destiny, turned the balance. + + [Footnote 54: Memorial de Sainte Helene, II, 246.] + +Statements made under such circumstances are not proof; but there is +this much probability of truth in them, that if we imagine the old +Buonaparte in disgrace as of old, following as of old the promptings +of his curiosity, indifferent as of old to the success of either +principle, and by instinct a soldier as of old,--if we recall him in +this character, and remember that he is no longer a youthful Corsican +patriot, but a mature cosmopolitan consumed with personal +ambition,--we may surely conclude that he was perfectly impartial as +to the parties involved, leaned toward the support of the principles +of the Revolution as he understood them, and saw in the complications +of the hour a probable opening for his ambition. At any rate, his +conduct after October fourth seems to uphold this view. He was a +changed man, ardent, hopeful, and irrepressible, as he had ever been +when lucky; but now, besides, daring, overbearing, and self-confident +to a degree which those characteristic qualities had never reached +before. + +His first care was to place on a footing of efficiency the Army of the +Interior, scattered in many departments, undisciplined and +disorganized; the next, to cow into submission all the low elements in +Paris, still hungry and fierce, by reorganizing the National Guard, +and forming a picked troop for the special protection of the +legislature; the next, to show himself as the powerful friend of +every one in disgrace, as a man of the world without rancor or +exaggerated partizanship. At the same time he plunged into +speculation, and sent sums incredibly large to various members of his +family, a single remittance of four hundred thousand francs being +mentioned in his letters. Lucien was restored to the arms of his +low-born but faithful and beloved wife, and sent to join his mother +and sisters in Marseilles; Louis was brought from Chalons, and made a +lieutenant; Jerome was put at school in Paris; and to Joseph a +consular post was assured. Putting aside all bashfulness, General +Buonaparte became a full-fledged society man and a beau. No social +rank was now strange to him; the remnants of the old aristocracy, the +wealthy citizens of Paris, the returning Girondists, many of whom had +become pronounced royalists, the new deputies, the officers who in +some turn of the wheel had, like himself, lost their positions, but +were now, through his favor, reinstated--all these he strove to court, +flatter, and make his own. + +Such activity, of course, could not pass unnoticed. The new government +had been constituted without disturbance, the Directory chosen, and +the legislature installed. Of the five directors--Barras, Rewbell, +Carnot, Letourneaux de la Manche, and Larevelliere-Lepeaux,--all had +voted for the death of Louis XVI, and were so-called regicides; but, +while varying widely in character and ability, they were all, +excepting Barras, true to their convictions. They scarcely understood +how strong the revulsion of popular feeling had been, and, utterly +ignoring the impossibility of harmonious action among themselves, +hoped to exercise their power with such moderation as to win all +classes to the new constitution. They were extremely disturbed by the +course of the general commanding their army in seeking intimacy with +men of all opinions, but were unwilling to interpret it aright. Under +the Convention, the Army of the Interior had been a tool, its +commander a mere puppet; now the executive was confronted by an +independence which threatened a reversal of roles. This situation was +the more disquieting because Buonaparte was a capable and not +unwilling police officer. Among many other invaluable services to the +government, he closed in person the great club of the Pantheon, which +was the rallying-point of the disaffected.[55] Throughout another +winter of famine there was not a single dangerous outbreak. At the +same time there were frequent manifestations of jealousy in lower +circles, especially among those who knew the origin and career of +their young master. + + [Footnote 55: This important exploit has been + questioned. But see the American edition of Martin's + History of France, II, 16. Baboeuf reopened at the + Pantheon the club which had been closed at the Eveche by + the Convention and reorganized a secret society in + connection with it. This Pantheon club was shut by + Napoleon in person on February 26, 1796. See likewise + the Memorial, II, 257, 258.] + +Toward the close of the year the bearing and behavior of the general +became constrained, reserved, and awkward. Various reasons were +assigned for this demeanor. Many thought it was due to a consciousness +of social deficiency, and his detractors still declare that Paris life +was too fierce for even his self-assurance, pointing to the change in +his handwriting and grammar, to his alternate silence and loquacity, +as proof of mental uneasiness; to his sullen musings and coarse +threats as a theatrical affectation to hide wounded pride; and to his +coming marriage as a desperate shift to secure a social dignity +proportionate to the career he saw opening before him in politics and +war. In a common man not subjected to a microscopic examination, such +conduct would be attributed to his being in love; the wedding would +ordinarily be regarded as the natural and beautiful consequence of a +great passion. + +Men have not forgotten that Buonaparte once denounced love as a +hurtful passion from which God should protect his creatures; and they +have, for this, among other reasons, pronounced him incapable of +disinterested affection. But it is also true that he likewise +denounced Buttafuoco for having, among other crimes committed by him, +"married to extend his influence"; and we are forced to ask which of +the two sentiments is genuine and characteristic. Probably both and +neither, according to the mood of the man. Outward caprice is, in +great natures, often the mask of inward perseverance, especially among +the unprincipled who suit their language to their present purpose, in +fine disdain of commonplace consistency. The primitive Corsican was +both rude and gentle, easily moved to tears at one time, insensate at +another; selfish at one moment, lavish at another; and yet he had a +consistent character. Although disliking in later life to be called a +Corsican, Napoleon was nevertheless typical of his race: he could +despise love, yet render himself its willing slave; he was fierce and +dictatorial, yet, as the present object of his passion said, "tenderer +and weaker than anybody dreamed."[56] + + [Footnote 56: The best references for the history of + Josephine de Beauharnais are Masson: Josephine de + Beauharnais, 1763-1796, and Josephine, imperatrice et + reine; Hall: Napoleon's letters to Josephine; Levy: + Napoleon intime; together with the memoirs of Joseph, + Bourrienne, Ducrest, Dufort de Cheverney, and Remusat.] + +And thus it was in the matter of his courtship: there were elements in +it of romantic, abandoned passion, but likewise of shrewd, calculating +selfishness. In his callow youth his relations to the other sex had +been either childish, morbid, or immoral. During his earliest manhood +he had appeared like one who desired the training rather than the +substance of gallantry. As a Jacobin he sought such support as he +could find in the good will of the women related to men in power; as +a French patriot he put forth strenuous efforts to secure an +influential alliance through matrimony. He appears to have addressed +Mme. Permon, whose fortune, despite her advanced age, would have been +a great relief to his destitution. Refused by her, he was in a +disordered and desperate emotional state until military and political +success gave him sufficient self-confidence to try once more. With his +feet firmly planted on the ladder of ambition, he was not indifferent +to securing social props for a further rise, but was nevertheless in +such a tumult of feeling as to make him particularly receptive to real +passion. He had made advances for the hand of the rich and beautiful +Desiree Clary;[57] the first evidence in his correspondence of a +serious intention to marry her is contained in the letter of June +eighteenth, 1795, to Joseph; and for a few weeks afterward he wrote at +intervals with some impatience, as if she were coy. In explanation it +is claimed that Napoleon, visiting her long before at the request of +Joseph, who was then enamoured of her, had himself become interested, +and persuading his brother to marry her sister, had entered into an +understanding with her which was equivalent to a betrothal. Time and +distance had cooled his ardor. He now virtually threw her over for +Mme. Beauharnais, who dazzled and infatuated him. This claim is +probably founded on fact, but there is no evidence sufficient to +sustain a charge of positive bad faith on the part of Napoleon. +Neither he nor Mlle. Clary appears to have been ardent when Joseph as +intermediary began, according to French custom, to arrange the +preliminaries of marriage; and when General Buonaparte fell madly in +love with Mme. Beauharnais the matter was dropped. + + [Footnote 57: See Hochschild: Desiree, reine de Suede.] + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + +A Marriage of Inclination and Interest[58]. + + [Footnote 58: The authorities for this chapter are as + for the last.] + + The Taschers and Beauharnais -- Execution of Alexandre + Beauharnais -- Adventures of His Widow -- Meeting of + Napoleon and Josephine -- The Latter's Uncertainties -- Her + Character and Station -- Passion and Convenience -- The + Bride's Dowry -- Buonaparte's Philosophy of Life -- The + Ladder to Glory. + + +[Sidenote: 1796.] + +In 1779, while the boys at Brienne were still tormenting the little +untamed Corsican nobleman, and driving him to his garden fortalice to +seek lonely refuge from their taunts in company with his Plutarch, +there had arrived in Paris from Martinique a successful planter of +that island, a French gentleman of good family, M. Tascher de la +Pagerie, bringing back to that city for the second time his daughter +Josephine. She was then a girl of sixteen, without either beauty or +education, but thoroughly matured, and with a quick Creole +intelligence and a graceful litheness of figure which made her a most +attractive woman. She had spent the years of her life from ten to +fourteen in the convent of Port Royal. Having passed the interval in +her native isle, she was about to contract a marriage which her +relatives in France had arranged. Her betrothed was the younger son of +a family friend, the Marquis de Beauharnais. The bride landed on +October twentieth, and the ceremony took place on December thirteenth. +The young vicomte brought his wife home to a suitable establishment in +the capital. Two children were born to them--Eugene and Hortense; but +before the birth of the latter the husband quarreled with his wife, +for reasons that have never been known. The court granted a +separation, with alimony, to Mme. de Beauharnais, who some years later +withdrew to her father's home in Martinique. Her husband sailed to +America with the forces of Bouille, and remained there until the +outbreak of the Revolution, when he returned, and was elected a deputy +to the States-General. + +Becoming an ardent republican, he was several times president of the +National Assembly, and his house was an important center of influence. +In 1790 M. Tascher died, and his daughter, with her children, returned +to France. It was probably at her husband's instance, for she at once +joined him at his country-seat, where they continued to live, as +"brother and sister," until Citizen Beauharnais was made commander of +the Army of the Rhine. As the days of the Terror approached, every man +of noble blood was more and more in danger. At last Beauharnais's turn +came; he too was denounced to the Commune, and imprisoned. Before long +his wife was behind the same bars. Their children were in the care of +an aunt, Mme. Egle, who had been, and was again to be, a woman of +distinction in the social world, but had temporarily sought the +protection of an old acquaintance, a former abbe, who had become a +member of the Commune. The gallant young general was not one of the +four acquitted out of the batch of forty-nine among whom he was +finally summoned to the bar of the revolutionary tribunal. He died on +June twenty-third, 1794, true to his convictions, acknowledging in his +farewell letter to his wife a fraternal affection for her, and +committing solemnly to her charge his own good name, which she was to +restore by proving his devotion to France. The children were to be her +consolation; they were to wipe out the disgrace of his punishment by +the practice of virtue and--civism! + +During her sojourn in prison Mme. Beauharnais had made a most useful +friend. This was a fellow-sufferer of similar character, but far +greater gifts, whose maiden name was Cabarrus, who was later Mme. de +Fontenay, who was afterward divorced and, having married Tallien, the +Convention deputy at Bordeaux, became renowned as his wife, and who, +divorced a second and married a third time, died as the Princesse de +Chimay. The ninth of Thermidor saved them both from the guillotine. In +the days immediately subsequent they had abundant opportunity to +display their light but clever natures. Mme. Beauharnais, as well as +her friend, unfolded her wings like a butterfly as she escaped from +the bars of her cell. Being a Creole, and having matured early, her +physical charms were already fading. Her spirit, too, had reached and +passed its zenith; for in her letters of that time she describes +herself as listless. Nevertheless, in those very letters there is some +sprightliness, and considerable ability of a certain kind. A few weeks +after her liberation, having apprenticed Eugene and Hortense to an +upholsterer and a dressmaker respectively,[59] she was on terms of +intimacy with Barras so close as to be considered suspicious, while +her daily intercourse was with those who had brought her husband to a +terrible end. In a luxurious and licentious society, she was a +successful intriguer in matters both of politics and of pleasure; +versed in the arts of coquetry and dress, she became for the needy and +ambitious a successful intermediary with those in power. Preferring, +as she rather ostentatiously asserted, to be guided by another's will, +she gave little thought to her children, or to the sad legacy of her +husband's good name. She emulated, outwardly at least, the +unprincipled worldliness of those about her, although her friends +believed her kind-hearted and virtuous. Whatever her true nature was, +she had influence among the foremost men of that gay set which was +imitating the court circles of old, and an influence which had become +not altogether agreeable to the immoral Provencal noble who +entertained and supported the giddy coterie. Perhaps the extravagance +of the languid Creole was as trying to Barras as it became afterward +to her second husband. + + [Footnote 59: See Pulitzer: Une idylle sous Napoleon I.] + +The meeting of Napoleon and Josephine was an event of the first +importance.[60] His own account twice relates that a beautiful and +tearful boy presented himself, soon after the disarmament of the +sections, to the commander of the city, and asked for the sword of his +father. The request was granted, and next day the boy's mother, Mme. +Beauharnais, came to thank the general for his kindly act of +restitution. Captivated by her grace, Buonaparte was thenceforward her +slave. A cold critic must remember that in the first place there was +no disarmament of anybody after the events of October fifth, the only +action of the Convention which might even be construed into hostility +being a decree making emigrants ineligible for election to the +legislature under the new constitution; that in the second place this +story attributes to destiny what was really due to the friendship of +Barras, a fact which his beneficiary would have liked to forget or +conceal; and finally, that the beneficiary left another account in +which he confessed that he had first met his wife at Barras's house, +this being confirmed by Lucien in his memoirs. Of the passion there is +no doubt; it was a composite emotion, made up in part of sentiment, in +part of self-interest. Those who are born to rude and simple +conditions in life are often dazzled by the charmed etiquette and +mysterious forms of artificial society. Napoleon never affected to +have been born to the manner, nor did he ever pretend to have adopted +its exacting self-control, for he could not; although after the winter +of 1795 he frequently displayed a weak and exaggerated regard for +social conventions. It was not that he had need to assume a false and +superficial polish, or that he particularly cared to show his equality +with those accustomed to polite society; but that he probably +conceived the splendid display and significant formality of that +ancient nobility which had so cruelly snubbed him from the outset as +being, nevertheless, the best conceivable prop to a throne. + + [Footnote 60: Memorial, II, 258; III, 402.] + +Lucien looked on with interest, and thought that during the whole +winter his brother was rather courted than a suitor. In his memoirs he +naively wonders what Napoleon would have done in Asia,--either in the +Indian service of England, or against her in that of Russia, for in +his early youth he had also thought of that,--in fact, what he would +have done at all, without the protection of women, in which he so +firmly believed, if he had not, after the manner of Mohammed, found a +Kadijah at least ten years older than himself, by whose favor he was +set at the opening of a great career. There are hints, too, in various +contemporary documents and in the circumstances themselves that Barras +was an adroit match-maker. In a letter attributed to Josephine, but +without address, a bright light seems to be thrown on the facts. She +asks a female friend for advice on the question of the match. After a +jocular introduction of her suitor as anxious to become a father to +the children of Alexandre de Beauharnais and the husband of his widow, +she gives a sportive but merciless dissection of her own character, +and declares that while she does not love Buonaparte, she feels no +repugnance. But can she meet his wishes or fulfil his desires? "I +admire the general's courage; the extent of his information about all +manner of things, concerning which he talks equally well; the +quickness of his intelligence, which makes him catch the thought of +another even before it is expressed: but I confess I am afraid of the +power he seems anxious to wield over all about him. His piercing +scrutiny has in it something strange and inexplicable, that awes even +our directors; think, then, how it frightens a woman."[61] The writer +is also terrified by the very ardor of her suitor's passion. Past her +first youth, how can she hope to keep for herself that "violent +tenderness" which is almost a frenzy? Would he not soon cease to love +her, and regret the marriage? If so, her only resource would be +tears--a sorry one, indeed, but still the only one. "Barras declares +that if I marry the general, he will secure for him the chief command +of the Army of Italy. Yesterday Buonaparte, speaking of this favor, +which, although not yet granted, already has set his colleagues in +arms to murmuring, said: 'Do they think I need protection to succeed? +Some day they will be only too happy if I give them mine. My sword is +at my side, and with it I shall go far.' What do you think of this +assurance of success? Is it not a proof of confidence arising from +excessive self-esteem? A general of brigade protecting the heads of +the government! I don't know; but sometimes this ridiculous +self-reliance leads me to the point of believing everything possible +which this strange man would have me do; and with his imagination, who +can reckon what he would undertake?" This letter, though often quoted, +is so remarkable that, as some think, it may be a later invention. If +written later, it was probably the invention of Josephine herself.[62] + + [Footnote 61: Given in Aubenas: Histoire de + l'imperatrice Josephine, I, 293. This writer is frankly + not an historian but an apologist.] + + [Footnote 62: Coston: Premieres annees de Napoleon + Bonaparte.] + +The divinity who could awaken such ardor in a Napoleon was in reality +six years older than her suitor, and Lucien proves by his exaggeration +of four years that she certainly looked more than her real age. She +had no fortune, though by the subterfuges of which a clever woman +could make use she led Buonaparte to think her in affluent +circumstances. She had no social station; for her drawing-room, though +frequented by men of ancient name and exalted position, was not graced +by the presence of their wives. The very house she occupied had a +doubtful reputation, having been a gift to the wife of Talma the actor +from one of her lovers, and being a loan to Mme. Beauharnais from +Barras. She had thin brown hair, a complexion neither fresh nor faded, +expressive eyes, a small retrousse nose, a pretty mouth, and a voice +that charmed all listeners. She was rather undersized, but her figure +was so perfectly proportioned as to give the impression of height and +suppleness. Its charms were scarcely concealed by the clothing she +wore, made as it was in the suggestive fashion of the day, with no +support to the form but a belt, and as scanty about her shoulders as +it was about her shapely feet. It appears to have been her elegance +and her manners, as well as her sensuality, which overpowered +Buonaparte; for he described her as having "the calm and dignified +demeanor which belongs to the old regime." + +What motives may have combined to overcome her scruples we cannot +tell; perhaps a love of adventure, probably an awakened ambition for a +success in other domains than the one which advancing years would soon +compel her to abandon. She knew that Buonaparte had no fortune +whatever, but she also knew, on the highest authority, that both favor +and fortune would by her assistance soon be his. At all events, his +suit made swift advance, and by the end of January, 1796, he was +secure of his prize. His love-letters, to judge from one which has +been preserved, were as fiery as the despatches with which he soon +began to electrify his soldiers and all France. "I awaken full of +thee," he wrote; "thy portrait and yester eve's intoxicating charm +have left my senses no repose. Sweet and matchless Josephine, how +strange your influence upon my heart! Are you angry, do I see you sad, +are you uneasy, ... my soul is moved with grief, and there is no rest +for your friend; but is there then more when, yielding to an +overmastering desire, I draw from your lips, your heart, a flame which +consumes me? Ah, this very night, I knew your portrait was not you! +Thou leavest at noon; three hours more, and I shall see thee again. +Meantime, _mio dolce amor_, a thousand kisses; but give me none, for +they set me all afire." What genuine and reckless passion! The "thou" +and "you" maybe strangely jumbled; the grammar may be mixed and bad; +the language may even be somewhat indelicate, as it sounds in other +passages than those given: but the meaning would be strong enough +incense for the most exacting woman. + +On February ninth, 1796, their banns were proclaimed; on March second +the bridegroom received his bride's dowry in his own appointment, on +Carnot's motion, not on that of Barras, as chief of the Army of Italy, +still under the name of Buonaparte;[63] on the seventh he was handed +his commission; on the ninth the marriage ceremony was performed by +the civil magistrate; and on the eleventh the husband started for his +post. In the marriage certificate at Paris the groom gives his age as +twenty-eight, but in reality he was not yet twenty-seven; the bride, +who was thirty-three, gives hers as not quite twenty-nine. Her name is +spelled Detascher, his Bonaparte. A new birth, a new baptism, a new +career, a new start in a new sphere, Corsica forgotten, Jacobinism +renounced, General and Mme. Bonaparte made their bow to the world. The +ceremony attracted no public attention, and was most unceremonious, no +member of the family from either side being present. Madame Mere, in +fact, was very angry, and foretold that with such a difference in age +the union would be barren. + + [Footnote 63: Carnot thoroughly understood and + appreciated the genius shown in Buonaparte's plan for an + Italian campaign, and converted the Directorate to his + opinion. They sent a copy to Scherer, then in command at + Nice, and he returned it in a temper, declaring that the + man who made such a plan had better come and work it. + The Directory took him at his word.] + +There was one weird omen which, read aright, distinguishes the +otherwise commonplace occurrence. In the wedding-ring were two +words--"To destiny." The words were ominous, for they were indicative +of a policy long since formed and never afterward concealed, being a +pretense to deceive Josephine as well as the rest of the world: the +giver was about to assume a new role,--that of the "man of +destiny,"--to work for a time on the imagination and superstition of +his age. Sometimes he forgot his part, and displayed the shrewd, +calculating, hard-working man behind the mask, who was less a fatalist +than a personified fate, less a child of fortune than its maker. +"Great events," he wrote a very short time later from Italy, "ever +depend but upon a single hair. The adroit man profits by everything, +neglects nothing which can increase his chances; the less adroit, by +sometimes disregarding a single chance, fails in everything." Here is +the whole philosophy of Bonaparte's life. He may have been sincere at +times in the other profession; if so, it was because he could find no +other expression for what in his nature corresponded to romance in +others. + +The general and his adjutant reached Marseilles in due season. +Associated with them were Marmont, Junot, Murat, Berthier, and Duroc. +The two last named had as yet accomplished little: Berthier was +forty-three, Duroc only twenty-three. Both were destined to close +intimacy with Napoleon and to a career of high renown. The good news +of Napoleon's successes having long preceded them, the home of the +Bonapartes had become the resort of many among the best and most +ambitious men in the southern land. Elisa was now twenty, and though +much sought after, was showing a marked preference for Pasquale +Bacciocchi, the poor young Corsican whom she afterward married. +Pauline was sixteen, a great beauty, and deep in a serious flirtation +with Freron, who, not having been elected to the Five Hundred, had +been appointed to a lucrative but uninfluential office in the great +provincial town--that of commissioner for the department. Caroline, +the youngest sister, was blossoming with greater promise even than +Pauline. Napoleon stopped a few days under his mother's roof to +regulate these matrimonial proceedings as he thought most +advantageous. On March twenty-second he reached the headquarters of +the Army of Italy. The command was assumed with simple and appropriate +ceremonial. The short despatch to the Directory announcing this +momentous event was signed "Bonaparte." The Corsican nobleman di +Buonaparte was now entirely transformed into the French general +Bonaparte. The process had been long and difficult: loyal Corsican; +mercenary cosmopolitan, ready as an expert artillery officer for +service in any land or under any banner; lastly, Frenchman, liberal, +and revolutionary. So far he had been consistent in each character; +for years to come he remained stationary as a sincere French patriot, +always of course with an eye to the main chance. As events unfolded, +the transformation began again; and the "adroit" man, taking advantage +of every chance, became once more a cosmopolitan--this time not as a +soldier, but as a statesman; not as a servant, but as the _imperator +universalis_, too large for a single land, determined to reunite once +more all Western Christendom, and, like the great German Charles a +thousand years before, make the imperial limits conterminous with +those of orthodox Christianity. The power of this empire was, however, +to rest on a Latin, not on a Teuton; not on Germany, but on France. +Its splendor was not to be embodied in Aachen nor in the Eternal City, +but in Paris; and its destiny was not to bring in a Christian +millennium for the glory of God, but a scientific equilibrium of +social states to the glory of Napoleon's dynasty, permanent because +universally beneficent. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + +Europe and the Directory[64]. + + [Footnote 64: For this and the succeeding chapters we + have the memoirs of Thibaudeau, Marmont, Doulcet de + Pontecoulant, Hyde de Neuville, and the duchess of + Abrantes--Madame Junot. Among the histories, the most + important are those of Blanc, Taine, Sybel, Sorel, and + Mortimer-Ternaux. Special studies: C. Rousset, Les + Volontaires de 1791-1794. Chassin: Pacifications de + l'Ouest and Dictature de Hoche. Mallet du Pan: + Correspondance avec la cour de Vienne. Also the + Correspondence of Sandoz. Many original papers are + printed in Hueffer: Oesterreich und Preussen; Bailleu: + Preussen und Frankreich, 1795-1797; and in the Amtliche + Sammlung von Akten aus der Zeit der Helvetischen + Republik.] + + The First Coalition -- England and Austria -- The Armies of + the Republic -- The Treasury of the Republic -- Necessary + Zeal -- The Directory -- Its Members -- The Abbe Sieyes -- + Carnot as a Model Citizen -- His Capacity as a Military + Organizer -- His Personal Character -- His Policy -- France + at the Opening of 1796 -- Plans of the Directory -- Their + Inheritance. + + +[Sidenote: 1796.] + +The great European coalition against France which had been formed in +1792 had in it little centripetal force. In 1795 Prussia, Spain, and +Tuscany withdrew for reasons already indicated in another connection, +and made their peace on terms as advantageous as they could secure. +Holland was conquered by France in the winter of 1794-95, and to this +day the illustrated school-books recall to every child of the French +Republic the half-fabulous tale of how a Dutch fleet was captured by +French hussars. The severity of the cold was long remembered as +phenomenal, and the frozen harbors rendered naval resistance +impossible, while cavalry manoeuvered with safety on the thick ice. +The Batavian Republic, as the Dutch commonwealth was now called, was +really an appanage of France. + +But England and Austria, though deserted by their strongest allies, +were still redoubtable enemies. The policy of the former had been to +command the seas and destroy the commerce of France on the one hand, +on the other to foment disturbance in the country itself by +subsidizing the royalists. In both plans she had been successful: her +fleets were ubiquitous, the Chouan and Vendean uprisings were +perennial, and the emigrant aristocrats menaced every frontier. +Austria, on the other hand, had once been soundly thrashed. Since +Frederick the Great had wrested Silesia from her, and thereby set +Protestant Prussia among the great powers, she had felt that the +balance of power was disturbed, and had sought everywhere for some +territorial acquisition to restore her importance. The present +emperor, Francis II, and his adroit minister, Thugut, were equally +stubborn in their determination to draw something worth while from the +seething caldron before the fires of war were extinguished. They +thought of Bavaria, of Poland, of Turkey, and of Italy; in the last +country especially it seemed as if the term of life had been reached +for Venice, and that at her impending demise her fair domains on the +mainland would amply replace Silesia. Russia saw her own advantage in +the weakening either of Turkey or of the central European powers, and +became the silent ally of Austria in this policy. + +The great armies of the French republic had been created by Carnot, +with the aid of his able lieutenant, Dubois de Crance; they were +organized and directed by the unassisted genius of the former. Being +the first national armies which Europe had known, they were animated +as no others had been by that form of patriotism which rests not +merely on animal instinct, but on a principle. They had fought with +joyous alacrity for the assertion, confirmation, and extension of the +rights of man. For the two years from Valmy to Fleurus (1792-94) they +had waged a holy war. But victory modified their quality and their +attitude. The French people were too often disenchanted by their +civilian rulers; the army supplanted the constitution after 1796. +Conscious of its strength, and of itself as the armed nation, yet the +officers and men drew closer and closer for reciprocal advantage, not +merely political but material. The civil government must have money, +the army alone could command money, and on all the military +organization took a full commission. Already some of the officers were +reveling in wealth and splendor, more desired to follow the example, +the rank and file longed for at least a decent equipment and some +pocket money. As yet the curse of pillage was not synonymous with +conquest, as yet the free and generous ardor of youth and military +tradition exerted its force, as yet self-sacrifice to the extreme of +endurance was a virtue, as yet the canker of lust and debauchery had +not ruined the life of the camp. Emancipated from the bonds of +formality and mere contractual relation to superiors, manhood asserted +itself in troublesome questionings as to the motives and plans of +officers, discussion of what was done and what was to be done, above +all in searching criticism of government and its schemes. These were +so continuously misleading and disingenuous that the lawyer +politicaster who played such a role at Paris seemed despicable to the +soldiery, and "rogue of a lawyer" was almost synonymous to the +military mind with place-holder and civil ruler. In the march of +events the patriotism of the army had brought into prominence +Rousseau's conception of natural boundaries. There was but one opinion +in the entire nation concerning its frontiers, to wit: that Nice, +Savoy, and the western bank of the Rhine were all by nature a part of +France. As to what was beyond, opinion had been divided, some feeling +that they should continue fighting in order to impose their own system +wherever possible, while others, as has previously been explained, +were either indifferent, or else maintained that the nation should +fight only for its natural frontier. To the support of the latter +sentiment came the general longing for peace which was gradually +overpowering the whole country. + +[Illustration: From the collection of W. C. Crane. Engraved by +G. Fiesinger. + +Buonaparte. + +Drawn by S. Guerin. Deposited in the National Library on the +29th Vendemiaire of the year 7 of the French Republic.] + +No people ever made such sacrifices for liberty as the French had +made. Through years of famine they had starved with grim +determination, and the leanness of their race was a byword for more +than a generation. They had been for over a century the victims of a +system abhorrent to both their intelligence and their character--a +system of absolutism which had subsisted on foreign wars and on +successful appeals to the national vainglory. Now at last they were to +all appearance exhausted, their treasury was bankrupt, their paper +money was worthless, their agriculture and industries were paralyzed, +their foreign commerce was ruined; but they cherished the delusion +that their liberties were secure. Their soldiers were badly fed, badly +armed, and badly clothed; but they were freemen under such discipline +as is possible only among freemen. Why should not their success in the +arts of peace be as great as in the glorious and successful wars they +had carried on? There was, therefore, both in the country and in the +government, as in the army, a considerable and ever growing party +which demanded a general peace, but only with the "natural" frontier, +and a small one which felt peace to be imperative even if the nation +should be confined within its old boundaries. + +But such a reasonable and moderate policy was impossible on two +accounts. In consequence of the thirteenth of Vendemiaire, the radical +party still survived and controlled the machinery of government; and, +in spite of the seeming supremacy of moderate ideas, the royalists +were still irreconcilable. In particular there was the religious +question, which in itself comprehended a political, social, and +economic revolution which men like those who sat in the Directory +refused to understand because they chose to treat it on the basis of +pure theory.[65] The great western district of France was Roman, +royalist, and agricultural. There was a unity in their life and faith +so complete that any disturbance of the equilibrium produced frenzy +and chaos, an embattled strife for life itself. It was a discovery to +Hoche, that to pacify the Vendee brute force was quite insufficient. +The peasantry were beggared and savage but undismayed. While he used +force with nobles, strangers, and madmen, his conquest was in the main +moral because he restored to the people their fields and their church, +their institutions somewhat modified and improved, but still their old +institutions. No man less gigantic in moral stature would have dared +thus to defy the petty atheistic fanaticism of the Directory. France +had secured enlightened legislation which was not enforced, religious +liberty which could not be practised because of ill will in the +government, civil liberty which was a mere sham because of internal +violence, political liberty which was a chimera before hostile +foreigners. Hence it seemed to the administration that one evil must +cure another. Intestine disturbances, they naively believed, could be +kept under some measure of control only by an aggressive foreign +policy which should deceive the insurgent elements as to the resources +of the government. Thus far, by hook or by crook, the armies, so far +as they had been clothed and paid and fed at all, had been fed and +paid and clothed by the administration at Paris. If the armies should +still march and fight, the nation would be impressed by the strength +of the Directory. + + [Footnote 65: See the author's French Revolution and + Religious Reform.] + +The Directory was by no means a homogeneous body. It is doubtful +whether Barras was a sincere republican, or sincere in anything except +in his effort to keep himself afloat on the tide of the times. It has +been believed by many that he hoped for the restoration of monarchy +through disgust of the nation with such intolerable disorders as they +would soon associate with the name of republic. His friendship for +General Bonaparte was a mixed quantity; for while he undoubtedly +wished to secure for the state in any future crisis the support of so +able a man, he had at the same time used him as a sort of social +scapegoat. His own strength lay in several facts: he had been Danton's +follower; he had been an officer, and was appointed for that reason +commanding general against the Paris sections; he had been shrewd +enough to choose Bonaparte as his agent so that he enjoyed the +prestige of Bonaparte's success; and in the new society of the capital +he was magnificent, extravagant, and licentious, the only +representative in the Directory of the newly aroused passion for life +and pleasure, his colleagues being severe, unostentatious, and +economical democrats. + +Barras's main support in the government was Rewbell, a vigorous +Alsatian and a bluff democrat, enthusiastic for the Revolution and its +extension. He was no Frenchman himself, but a German at heart, and +thought that the German lands--Holland, Switzerland, Germany +itself--should be brought into the great movement. Like Barras, who +needed disorder for his Orleanist schemes and for the supply of his +lavish purse, Rewbell despised the new constitution; but for a +different reason. To him it appeared a flimsy, theoretical document, +so subdividing the exercise of power as to destroy it altogether. His +role was in the world of finance, and he was always suspected, though +unjustly, of unholy alliances with army contractors and stock +manipulators. Larevelliere was another doctrinaire, but, in comparison +with Rewbell, a bigot. He had been a Girondist, a good citizen, and +active in the formation of the new constitution; but he lacked +practical common sense, and hated the Church with as much narrow +bitterness as the most rancorous modern agnostic,--seeking, however, +not merely its destruction, but, like Robespierre, to substitute for +it a cult of reason and humanity. The fourth member of the Directory, +Letourneur, was a plain soldier, an officer in the engineers. With +abundant common sense and a hard head, he, too, was a sincere +republican; but he was a tolerant one, a moderate, kindly man like his +friend Carnot, with whom, as time passed by and there was gradually +developed an irreconcilable split in the Directory, he always voted in +a minority of two against the other three. + +At first the notorious Abbe Sieyes had been chosen a member of the +executive. He was both deep and dark, like Bonaparte, to whom he later +rendered valuable services. His ever famous pamphlet, which in 1789 +triumphantly proved that the Third Estate was neither more nor less +than the French nation, had made many think him a radical. As years +passed on he became the oracle of his time, and as such acquired an +enormous influence even in the days of the Terror, which he was +helpless to avert, and which he viewed with horror and disgust. +Whatever may have been his original ideas, he appears to have been for +some time after the thirteenth of Vendemiaire an Orleanist, the head +of a party which desired no longer a strict hereditary and absolute +monarchy, but thought that in the son of Philippe Egalite they had a +useful prince to preside over a constitutional kingdom. Perhaps for +this reason, perhaps for the one he gave, which was that the new +constitution was not yet the right one, he flatly refused the place in +the Directory which was offered to him. + +It was as a substitute for this dangerous visionary that Carnot was +made a director. He was now in his forty-third year, and at the height +of his powers. In him was embodied all that was moderate and sound, +consequently all that was enduring, in the French Revolution; he was a +thorough scholar, and his treatise on the metaphysics of the calculus +forms an important chapter in the history of mathematical physics. As +an officer in the engineers he had attained the highest distinction, +while as minister of war he had shown himself an organizer and +strategist of the first order. But his highest aim was to be a model +French citizen. In his family relations as son, husband, and father, +he was held by his neighbors to be a pattern; in his public life he +strove with equal sincerity of purpose to illustrate the highest +ideals of the eighteenth century. Such was the ardor of his +republicanism that no man nor party in France was so repugnant but +that he would use either one or both, if necessary, for his country's +welfare, although he was like Chatham in his lofty scorn for parties. +To him as a patriot, therefore, France, as against the outer world, +was first, no matter what her government might be; but the France he +yearned for was a land regenerated by the gospel of humanity, awakened +to the highest activity by the equality of all before the law, refined +by that self-abnegation of every man which makes all men brothers, and +destroys the menace of the law. + +And yet he was no dreamer. While a member of the National Assembly he +had displayed such practical common sense in his chosen field of +military science, that in 1793 the Committee of Safety intrusted to +him the control of the war. The standard of rank and command was no +longer birth nor seniority nor influence, but merit. The wild and +ignorant hordes of men which the conscription law had brought into the +field were something hitherto unknown in Europe. It was Carnot who +organized, clothed, fed, and drilled them. It was he who devised the +new tactics and evolved the new and comprehensive plans which made his +national armies the power they became. It was in Carnot's +administration that the young generals first came to the fore. It was +by his favor that almost every man of that galaxy of modern warriors +who so long dazzled Europe by their feats of arms first appeared as a +candidate for advancement. Moreau, Macdonald, Jourdan, Bernadotte, +Kleber, Mortier, Ney, Pichegru, Desaix, Berthier, Augereau, and +Bonaparte himself,--each one of these was the product of Carnot's +system. He was the creator of the armies which for a time made all +Europe tributary to France. + +Throughout an epoch which laid bare the meanness of most natures, his +character was unsmirched. He began life under the ancient regime by +writing and publishing a eulogy on Vauban, who had been disgraced for +his plain speaking to Louis XIV. When called to a share in the +government he was the advocate of a strong nationality, of a just +administration within, and of a fearless front to the world. While +minister of war he on one occasion actually left his post and hastened +to Maubeuge, where defeat was threatening Jourdan, devised and put +into operation a new plan, led in person the victorious assault, and +then returned to Paris to inspire the country and the army with news +of the victory; all this he did as if it were commonplace duty, +without advertising himself by parade or ceremony. Even Robespierre +had trembled before his biting irony and yet dared not, as he wished, +include him among his victims. After the events of Thermidor, when it +was proposed to execute all those who had authorized the bloody deeds +of the Terror, excepting Carnot, he prevented the sweeping measure by +standing in his place to say that he too had acted with the rest, had +held like them the conviction that the country could not otherwise be +saved, and that therefore he must share their fate. + +In the milder light of the new constitution the dark blot on his +record thus frankly confessed grew less repulsive as the continued +dignity and sincerity of his nature asserted themselves in a tolerance +which he believed to be as needful now as ruthless severity once had +been. For a year the glory of French arms had been eclipsed: his +dominant idea was first to restore their splendor, then to make peace +with honor and give the new life of his country an opportunity for +expansion in a mild and firm administration of the new laws. If he had +been dictator in the crisis, no doubt his plan, arduous as was the +task, might have been realized; but, with Letourneur in a minority of +two, against an unprincipled adventurer leading two bigots, it was +impossible to secure the executive unity necessary for success. + +At the opening of the year 1796, therefore, the situation of France +was quite as distracting as ever, and the foundation of her +institutions more than ever unstable. There was hopeless division in +the executive, and no cooerdination under the constitution between it +and the other branches of the government, while the legislature did +not represent the people. The treasury was empty, famine was as +wide-spread as ever, administration virtually non-existent. The army, +checked for the moment, moped unsuccessful, dispirited, and unpaid. +Hunger knows little discipline, and with temporary loss of discipline +the morals of the troops had been undermined. To save the constitution +public opinion must be diverted from internal affairs, and +conciliated. To that end the German emperor must be forced to yield +the Rhine frontier, and money must be found at least for the most +pressing necessities of the army and of the government. If the +republic could secure for France her natural borders, and command a +peace by land, it might hope for eventual success in the conflict with +England. To this end its territorial conquests must be partitioned +into three classes: those within the "natural limits," and already +named, for incorporation; those to be erected into buffer states to +fend off from the tender republic absolutism and all its horrors; and +finally such districts as might be valuable for exchange in order to +the eventual consolidation of the first two classes. Of the second +type, the Directory considered as most important the Germanic +Confederation. There was the example of Catherine's dealing with +Poland by which to proceed. As that had been partitioned, so should +Germany. From its lands should be created four electorates, one to +indemnify the House of Orange for Holland, one for Wuertemberg; the +others according to circumstances would be confided to friendly hands. + +The means to the end were these. Russia must be reduced to inactivity +by exciting against her through bribes and promises all her foes to +the eastward. Prussia must be cajoled into cooeperation by pressure on +King George of Hanover, even to the extinction of his kingdom, and by +the hope of a consolidated territory with the possibility of securing +the Imperial dignity. Austria was to be partly compelled, partly +bribed, into a continental coalition against Great Britain by +adjustment of her possessions both north and south of the Alps. Into a +general alliance against Great Britain, Spain must be dragged by +working on the fears of the queen's paramour Godoy, prime minister and +controller of Spanish destinies. This done, Great Britain, according +to the time-honored, well-worn device of France, royal or radical, +should be invaded and brought to her knees. The plan was as old as +Philippe le Bel, and had appeared thereafter once and again at +intervals either as a _bona fide_ policy or a device to stir the +French heart and secure money from the public purse for the public +defense. For this purpose of the Directory the ruined maritime power +of the republic must be restored, new ships built and old ones +refitted; in the meantime, as did Richelieu or Mazarin, rebellion +against the British government must be roused and supported among +malcontents everywhere within the borders of Great Britain, especially +in Ireland. Such was the stupid plan of the Directory: two well-worn +expedients, both discredited as often as tried. To the territorial +readjustment of Europe, Prussia, though momentarily checked, was +already pivotal; but the first efforts of French diplomacy at Berlin +resulted in a flat refusal to go farther than the peace already made, +or entertain the chimerical proposals now made. Turning then to +Austria, the Directory concluded the armistice of February first, +1796, but at Vienna the offer of Munich and two thirds of Bavaria, of +an outlet to the Adriatic and of an alliance against Russia for the +restoration of Poland--of course without Galicia, which Austria should +retain--was treated only as significant of what French temerity dared +propose, and when heard was scornfully disdained. The program for +Italy was retained substantially as laid down in 1793: the +destruction of the papal power, the overthrow of all existing +governments, the plunder of their rich treasures, the annihilation of +feudal and ecclesiastical institutions, and the regeneration of its +peoples on democratic lines. Neither the revolutionary elements of the +peninsula nor the jealous princes could be brought to terms by the +active and ubiquitous French agents, even in Genoa, though there was +just sufficient dallying everywhere between Venice and Naples to keep +alive hope and exasperate the unsuccessful negotiators. The European +world was worried and harassed by uncertainties, by dark plots, by +mutual distrust. It was unready for war, but war was the only solvent +of intolerable troubles. England, Austria, Russia, and France under +the Directory must fight or perish. + +It must not be forgotten that this was the monarchical, secular, and +immemorial policy of France as the disturber of European peace; +continued by the republic, it was rendered more pernicious and +exasperating to the upholders of the balance of power. Not only was +the republic more energetic and less scrupulous than the monarchy, her +rivals were in a very low estate indeed. Great Britain had stripped +France and Holland of their colonies, but these new possessions and +the ocean highway must be protected at enormous expense. The Commons +refused to authorize a new loan, and the nation was exhausted to such +a degree that Pitt and the King, shrinking from the opprobrious +attacks of the London populace, and noting with anguish the renewal of +bloody disorder in Ireland, made a feint of peace negotiations through +the agent they employed in Switzerland to foment royalist +demonstrations against France wherever possible. Wickham asked on +March eighth, 1796, on what terms the Directory would make an +honorable peace, and in less than three weeks received a rebuff which +declared that France would under no circumstances make restitution of +its continental conquests. In a sense it was Russia's Polish policy +which kept Prussia and Austria so occupied with the partition that the +nascent republic of France was not strangled in its cradle by the +contiguous powers. Provided she had the lion's share of Poland, +Catherine was indifferent to the success of Jacobinism. But she soon +saw the danger of a general conflagration and, applying Voltaire's +epithet for ecclesiasticism to the republic, cried all abroad: Crush +the Infamous! Conscious of her old age, distrusting all the possible +successors to her throne: Paul the paranoiac, Constantine the coarse +libertine, and the super-elegant Alexander, she refused a coalition +with England and turned her activities eastward against the Cossacks +and into Persia; but she consented to be the intermediary between +Austria and Great Britain. Austria wanted the Netherlands, but only if +she could secure with them a fortified girdle wherewith to protect and +hold them. She likewise desired the Milanese and the Legations in +Italy, as well as Venetia. As the price of continued war on France, +these lands and a subsidy of three million pounds were the terms +exacted from Great Britain. With no army at his disposal and his naval +resources strained to the utmost, George III agreed to pay a hundred +and fifty thousand pounds per month until parliament would make the +larger grant. Thugut, the Austrian minister, accepted. Cobenzl, the +Austrian ambassador at St. Petersburg, arranged affairs with Catherine +concerning Bavaria, the French royalists under Conde bribed Pichegru +into a promise of yielding the fortresses of the north to their +occupation, the Austrian army on the Rhine was strengthened. In retort +Jourdan was stationed on the lower and Moreau on the upper Rhine, +each with eighty thousand men, Bonaparte was despatched to Italy, and +Hoche made ready a motley crew of outlaws and Vendeans wherewith to +enter Ireland, join Wolfe Tone and his United Irishmen, and thus let +loose the elements of civil war in that unhappy island. Europe at +large expected the brunt of the struggle north of the Alps in central +Germany: the initiated knew better. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + +Bonaparte on a Great Stage[66]. + + [Footnote 66: The state of Europe may be studied in the + Correspondence of Mallet du Pan and in the Archives + Woronzoff; in Vivenot: Thugut and Clerfayt; Daudet: Les + Bourbons et la Russie; La Conspiration de Pichegru; + Sorel: L'Europe et la Revolution Francaise; Lecky: + England in the XVIII century; Stanhope's Life of Pitt; + the memoirs of Prince Adam Czartoryski; also the + diplomatic papers of Thugut, Clerfayt, Hermann, and + Sandoz.] + + Bonaparte and the Army of Italy -- The System of Pillage -- + The General as a Despot -- The Republican Armies and French + Politics -- Italy as the Focal Point -- Condition of Italy + -- Bonaparte's Sagacity -- His Plan of Action -- His Army + and Generals -- Strength of the Army of Italy -- The + Napoleonic Maxims of Warfare -- Advance of Military Science + -- Bonaparte's Achievements -- His Financial Policy -- + Effects of His Success. + + +[Sidenote: 1796.] + +The struggle which was imminent was for nothing less than a new lease +of national life for France. It dawned on many minds that in such a +combat changes of a revolutionary nature--as regarded not merely the +provisioning and management of armies, as regarded not merely the +grand strategy to be adopted and carried out by France, but as +regarded the very structure and relations of other European +nations--would be justifiable. But to be justifiable they must be +adequate; and to be adequate they must be unexpected and thorough. +What should they be? The OEdipus who solves this riddle for France is +the man of the hour. He was found in Bonaparte. What mean these +ringing words from the headquarters at Nice, which, on March +twenty-seventh, 1796, fell on the ears of a hungry, eager soldiery and +a startled world? "Soldiers, you are naked, badly fed. The government +owes you much; it can give you nothing. Your long-suffering, the +courage you show among these crags, are splendid, but they bring you +no glory; not a ray is reflected upon you. I wish to lead you into the +most fertile plains of the world. Rich provinces, great towns, will be +in your power; there you will find honor, glory, and riches. Soldiers +of Italy, can you be found lacking in honor, courage, or constancy?" + +Such language has but one meaning. By a previous understanding with +the Directory, the French army was to be paid, the French treasury to +be replenished, at the expense of the lands which were the seat of +war. Corsicans in the French service had long been suspected of +sometimes serving their own interests to the detriment of their +adopted country. Bonaparte was no exception, and occasionally he felt +it necessary to justify himself. For example, he had carefully +explained that his marriage bound him to the republic by still another +tie. Yet it appears that his promotion, his engagement with the +directors, and his devotion to the republic were all concerned +primarily with personal ambition, though secondarily and incidentally +with the perpetuation of a government professedly based on the +Revolution. From the outset of Napoleon's independent career, +something of the future dictator appears. This implied promise that +pillage, plunder, and rapine should henceforth go unpunished in order +that his soldiers might line their pockets is the indication of a +settled policy which was more definitely expressed in each successive +proclamation as it issued from his pen. It was repeated whenever new +energy was to be inspired into faltering columns, whenever some +unparalleled effort in a dark design was to be demanded from the rank +and file of the army, until at last a point-blank promise was made +that every man should return to France with money enough in his pocket +to become a landowner. + +There was magic in the new spell, the charm never ceased to work; with +that first call from Nice began the transformation of the French army, +fighting now no longer for principle, but for glory, victory, and +booty. Its leader, if successful, would be in no sense a +constitutional general, but a despotic conqueror. Outwardly gracious, +and with no irritating condescension; considerate wherever mercy would +strengthen his reputation; fully aware of the influence a dramatic +situation or a pregnant aphorism has upon the common mind, and using +both with mastery; appealing as a climax to the powerful motive of +greed in every heart, Bonaparte was soon to be not alone the general +of consummate genius, not alone the organizing lawgiver of conquered +lands and peoples, but, what was essential to his whole career, the +idol of an army which was not, as of old, the servant of a great +nation, but, as the new era had transformed it, the nation itself. + +The peculiar relation of Bonaparte to Italy, to Corsica, and to the +Convention had made him, as early as 1794, while yet but chief of +artillery, the real director of the Army of Italy. He had no personal +share in the victorious campaign of that year, but its victories, as +he justly claimed, were due to his plans. During the unsuccessful +Corsican expedition of the following winter, for which he was but +indirectly responsible, the Austro-Sardinians in Piedmont had taken +advantage of its absorbing so many French troops to undo all that had +so far been accomplished. During the summer of 1795 Spain and Prussia +had made peace with France. In consequence all northern Europe had +been declared neutral, and the field of operations on the Rhine had +been confined to the central zone of Germany, while at the same time +the French soldiers who had formed the Army of the Pyrenees had been +transferred to the Maritime Alps. In 1796, therefore, the great +question was whether the Army of the Rhine or that of Italy was to be +the chief weapon of offense against Austria. + +Divided interests and warped convictions quickly created two opinions +in the French nation, each of which was held with intensity and +bitterness by its supporters. So far the Army of the Rhine was much +the stronger, and the Emperor had concentrated his strength to oppose +it. But the wisest heads saw that Austria might be flanked by way of +Italy. The gate to Lombardy was guarded by the sturdy little army of +Victor Amadeus, assisted by a small Austrian force. If the house of +Savoy, which was said to wear at its girdle the keys of the Alps, +could be conquered and brought to make a separate peace, the Austrian +army could be overwhelmed, and a highway to Vienna opened first +through the plains of Lombardy, then by the Austrian Tyrol, or else by +the Venetian Alps. Strangely enough, the plainest and most forcible +exposition of this plan was made by an emigrant in London, a certain +Dutheil, for the benefit of England and Austria. But the Allies were +deaf to his warnings, while in the mean time Bonaparte enforced the +same idea upon the French authorities, and secured their acceptance of +it. Both he and they were the more inclined to the scheme because once +already it had been successfully initiated; because the general, +having studied Italy and its people, thoroughly understood what +contributions might be levied on them; because the Army of the Rhine +was radically republican and knew its own strength; because therefore +the personal ambitions of Bonaparte, and in fact the very existence of +the Directory, alike depended on success elsewhere than in central +Europe. + +Having been for centuries the battle-field of rival dynasties, Italy, +though a geographical unit with natural frontiers more marked than +those of any other land, and with inhabitants fairly homogeneous in +birth, speech, and institutions, was neither a nation nor a family of +kindred nations, but a congeries of heterogeneous states. Some of +these, like Venice and Genoa, boasted the proud title of republics; +they were in reality narrow, commercial, even piratical oligarchies, +destitute of any vigorous political life. The Pope, like other petty +rulers, was but a temporal prince, despotic, and not even enlightened, +as was the Grand Duke of Tuscany. Naples and the Milanese both groaned +under the yoke of foreign rulers, and the only passable government in +the length and breadth of the land was that of the house of Savoy in +Piedmont and Sardinia, lands where the revolutionary spirit of liberty +was most extended and active. The petty courts, like those of Parma +and Modena, were nests of intrigue and corruption. There was, of +course, in every place that saving remnant of high-minded men which is +always providentially left as a seed; but the people as a whole were +ignorant and enervated. The accumulations of ages, gained by an +extensive and lucrative commerce, or by the tilling of a generous +soil, had not been altogether dissipated by misrule, and there was +even yet rich store of money in many of the venerable and still +splendid cities. Nowhere in the ancient seats of the Roman +commonwealth, whose memory was now the cherished fashion in France, +could anything more than a reflection of French revolutionary +principles be discerned; the rights of man and republican doctrine +were attractive subjects of debate in many cities throughout the +peninsula, but there was little of that fierce devotion to their +realization so prevalent beyond the Alps. + +The sagacity of Bonaparte saw his account in these conditions. Being +a professed republican, he could announce himself as the regenerator +of society, and the liberator of a people. If, as has been supposed, +he already dreamed of a throne, where could one be so easily founded +with the certainty of its endurance? As a conqueror he would have a +divided, helpless, and wealthy people at his feet. If the old flame of +Corsican ambition were not yet extinguished, he felt perhaps that he +could wreak the vengeance of a defeated and angry people upon Genoa, +their oppressor for ages. + +His preparations began as early as the autumn of 1795, when, with +Carnot's assistance, the united Pyrenean and Italian armies were +directed to the old task of opening the roads through the mountains +and by the sea-shore into Lombardy and central Italy. They won the +battle of Loano, which secured the Maritime Alps once more; but a long +winter amid these inclement peaks had left the army wretched and +destitute of every necessity. It had been difficult throughout that +winter to maintain even the Army of the Interior in the heart of +France; the only chance for that of Italy was movement. The completed +plan of action was forwarded from Paris in January. But, as has been +told, Scherer, the commanding general, and his staff were outraged, +refusing to consider its suggestions, either those for supplying their +necessities in Lombardy, or those for the daring and venturesome +operations necessary to reach that goal. + +Bonaparte, who could invent such schemes, alone could realize them; +and the task was intrusted to him. For the next ten weeks no sort of +preparation was neglected. The nearly empty chest of the Directory was +swept clean; from that source the new commander received forty-seven +thousand five hundred francs in cash, and drafts for twenty thousand +more; forced loans for considerable sums were made in Toulon and +Marseilles; and Salicetti levied contributions of grain and forage in +Genoa according to the plan which had been preconcerted between him +and the general in their Jacobin days. The army which Bonaparte +finally set in motion was therefore a fine engine of war. Its +immediate necessities relieved, the veterans warmed to their work, and +that notable promise of booty worked them to the pitch of genuine +enthusiasm. The young commander, moreover, was as circumspect as a man +of the first ability alone could be when about to make the venture of +his life and play for the stake of a world. His generals of division +were themselves men of mark--personages no less than Massena, +Augereau, Laharpe, and Serurier. Of Massena some account has already +been given. Augereau was Bonaparte's senior by thirteen years, of +humble and obscure origin, who had sought his fortunes as a +fencing-master in the Bourbon service at Naples, and having later +enlisted in the French forces sent to Spain in 1792, rose by his +ability to be general of brigade, then division commander in the Army +of Italy. He was rude in manner and plebeian in feeling, jealous of +Bonaparte, but brave and capable. In the sequel he played an important +part and rose to eminence, though he distrusted both the Emperor and +the empire and flinched before great crises. Neither Laharpe nor +Serurier was distinguished beyond the sphere of their profession, but +in that they were loyal and admirable. Laharpe was a member of the +famous Swiss family banished from home for devotion to liberty. Under +Luckner in Germany he had earned and kept the sobriquet of "the +brave"; until he was mortally wounded in a night attack, while +crossing the Po after Millesimo, he continued his brilliant career, +and would have gone far had he been spared. Serurier was a veteran of +the Seven Years' War and of Portugal, already fifty-four years old. +Able and trustworthy, he was loaded with favors by Napoleon and +survived until 1819. It might have been very easy to exasperate such +men. But what the commander-in-chief had to do was done with such +smoothness and skill that even they could find no ground for carping; +and though at first cold and reticent, before long they yielded to the +influences which filled with excitement the very air they breathed. + +At this moment, besides the National Guard, France had an army, and in +some sense a navy: of both the effective fighting force numbered +upward of half a million. Divided nominally into nine armies, instead +of fourteen as first planned, there were in reality but seven; of +these, four were of minor importance: a small, skeleton Army of the +Interior, a force in the west under Hoche twice as large and with +ranks better filled, a fairly strong army in the north under +Macdonald, and a similar one in the Alps under Kellermann, with +Berthier and Vaubois as lieutenants, which soon became a part of +Bonaparte's force. These were, if possible, to preserve internal order +and to watch England, while three great active organizations were to +combine for the overthrow of Austria. On the Rhine were two of the +active armies--one near Duesseldorf under Jourdan, another near +Strasburg under Moreau. Macdonald was of Scottish Jacobite descent, a +French royalist converted to republicanism by his marriage. He was now +thirty-one years old. Trained in the regiment of Dillon, he alone of +its officers remained true to democratic principles on the outbreak of +the Revolution. He was made a colonel for his bravery at Jemmapes, and +for his loyalty when Dumouriez went over to the Austrians he was +promoted to be general of brigade. For his services under Pichegru in +Holland he had been further rewarded by promotion, and after the peace +of Campo Formio was transferred from the Rhine to Italy. He was +throughout a loyal friend of Bonaparte and received the highest +honors. Kellermann was a Bavarian, and when associated with Bonaparte +a veteran, sixty-one years old. He had seen service in the Seven +Years' War and again in Poland during 1771. An ardent republican, he +had served with distinction from the beginning of the revolutionary +wars: though twice charged with incapacity, he was triumphantly +acquitted. He linked his fortunes to those of Bonaparte without +jealousy and reaped abundant laurels. Of Berthier and the other great +generals we have already spoken. Vaubois reached no distinction. At +the portals of Italy was Bonaparte, with a third army, soon to be the +most active of all. At the outset he had, all told, about forty-five +thousand men; but the campaign which he conducted had before its close +assumed such dimensions that in spite of its losses the Army of Italy +contained nearly double that number of men ready for the field, +besides the garrison troops and invalids. The figures on the records +of the war department were invariably much greater; but an enormous +percentage, sometimes as high as a third, was always in the hospitals, +while often as many as twenty thousand were left behind to hold +various fortresses. Bonaparte, for evident reasons, uniformly +represented his effective force as smaller than it was, and stunned +the ears of the Directory with ever reiterated demands for +reinforcement. A dispassionate estimate would fix the number of his +troops in the field at any one time during these operations as not +lower than thirty-five thousand nor much higher than eighty thousand. + +Another element of the utmost importance entered into the coming +campaign. The old vicious system by which a vigilant democracy had +jealously prescribed to its generals every step to be taken was swept +away by Bonaparte, who as Robespierre's "man" had been thoroughly +familiar with its workings from the other end. He was now +commander-in-chief, and he insisted on the absolute unity of command +as essential to the economy of time. This being granted, his equipment +was complete. It will be remembered that in 1794 he had explained to +his patrons how warfare in the field was like a siege: by directing +all one's force to a single point a breach might be made, and the +equilibrium of opposition destroyed. To this conception of +concentration for attack he had, in concert with the Directory, added +another, that of expansion in a given territory for sustenance. He had +still a third, that war must be made as intense and awful as possible +in order to make it short, and thus to diminish its horrors. Trite and +simple as these aphorisms now appear, they were all original and +absolutely new, at least in the quick, fierce application of them made +by Bonaparte. The traditions of chivalry, the incessant warfare of two +centuries and a half, the humane conceptions of the Church, the regard +for human life, the difficulty of communications, the scarcity of +munitions and arms,--all these and other elements had combined to make +war under mediocre generals a stately ceremonial, and to diminish the +number of actual battles, which took place, when they did, only after +careful preparation, as an unpleasant necessity, by a sort of common +agreement, and with the ceremony of a duel. + +Turenne, Marlborough, and Frederick, all men of cold-blooded +temperament, had been the greatest generals of their respective ages, +and were successful much in proportion to their lack of sentiment and +disregard of conventionalities. Their notions and their conduct +displayed the same instincts as those of Bonaparte, and their minds +were enlarged by a study of great campaigns like that which had fed +his inchoate genius and had made possible his consummate achievement. +He had much the same apparatus for warfare as they. The men of Europe +had not materially changed in stature, weight, education, or morals +since the closing years of the Thirty Years' War. The roads were +somewhat better, the conformation of mountains, hills, and valleys was +better known, and like his great predecessors, though unlike his +contemporaries, Bonaparte knew the use of a map; but in the main +little was changed in the conditions for moving and manoeuvering +troops. News traveled slowly, the semaphore telegraph was but slowly +coming into use, and the fastest couriers rode from Nice to Paris or +from Paris to Berlin in seven days. Firearms of every description were +little improved: Prussia actually claimed that she had been forced to +negotiate for peace because France controlled the production of +gun-flints. The forging of cannon was finer, and the artillery arm was +on the whole more efficient. In France there had been considerable +change for the better in the manual and in tactics; the rest of Europe +followed the old and more formal ways. Outside the republic, ceremony +still held sway in court and camp; youthful energy was stifled in +routine; and the generals opposed to Bonaparte were for the most part +men advanced in years, wedded to tradition, and incapable of quickly +adapting their ideas to meet advances and attacks based on conceptions +radically different from their own. It was at times a positive misery +to the new conqueror that his opponents were such inefficient fossils. +Young and at the same time capable; using the natural advantages of +his territory to support the bravery of his troops; with a mind which +was not only accurate and decisive, but comprehensive in its +observations; unhampered by control or by principle; opposed to +generals who could not think of a boy of twenty-six as their equal; +with the best army and the finest theater of war in Europe; finally, +with a genius independently developed, and with conceptions of his +profession which summarized the experience of his greatest +predecessors, Bonaparte performed feats that seemed miraculous even +when compared with those of Hoche, Jourdan, or Moreau, which had +already so astounded the world. + +Within eleven days the Austrians and Sardinians were separated, the +latter having been defeated and forced to sign an armistice. After a +rest of two days, a fortnight saw him victorious in Lombardy, and +entering Milan as a conqueror. Two weeks elapsed, and again he set +forth to reduce to his sway in less than a month the most of central +Italy. Against an enemy now desperate and at bay his operations fell +into four divisions, each resulting in an advance--the first, of nine +days, against Wurmser and Quasdanowich; the second, of sixteen days, +against Wurmser; the third, of twelve days, against Alvinczy; and the +fourth, of thirty days, until he captured Mantua and opened the +mountain passes to his army. Within fifteen days after beginning +hostilities against the Pope, he forced him to sign the treaty of +Tolentino; and within thirty-six days of their setting foot on the +road from Mantua to Vienna, the French were at Leoben, distant only +ninety miles from the Austrian capital, and dictating terms to the +Empire. In the year between March twenty-seventh, 1796, and April +seventh, 1797, Bonaparte humbled the most haughty dynasty in Europe, +toppled the central European state system, and initiated the process +which has given a predominance apparently final to Prussia, then +considered but as a parvenu. + +It is impossible to estimate the enormous sums of money which he +exacted for the conduct of a war that he chose to say was carried on +to emancipate Italy. The soldiers of his army were well clad, well +fed, and well equipped from the day of their entry into Milan; the +arrears of their pay were not only settled, but they were given +license to prey on the country until a point was reached which seemed +to jeopardize success, when common pillage was promptly stopped by the +severest examples. The treasury of the Directory was not filled as +were those of the conquering officers, but it was no longer empty. In +short, France reached the apex of her revolutionary greatness; and as +she was now the foremost power on the Continent, the shaky monarchies +in neighboring lands were forced to consider again questions which in +1795 they had hoped were settled. As Bonaparte foresaw, the destinies +of Europe had indeed hung on the fate of Italy. + +Europe had grown accustomed to military surprises in the few preceding +years. The armies of the French republic, fired by devotion to their +principles and their nation, had accomplished marvels. But nothing in +the least foreshadowing this had been wrought even by them. Then, as +now, curiosity was inflamed, and the most careful study was expended +in analyzing the process by which such miracles had been performed. +The investigators and their readers were so overpowered by the +spectacle and its results that they were prevented by a sort of +awe-stricken credulity from recognizing the truth; and even yet the +notion of a supernatural influence fighting on Bonaparte's side has +not entirely disappeared. But the facts as we know them reveal +cleverness dealing with incapacity, energy such as had not yet been +seen fighting with languor, an embodied principle of great vitality +warring with a lifeless, vanishing system. The consequences were +startling, but logical; the details sound like a romance from the land +of Eblis. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + +The Conquest of Piedmont and the Milanese[67]. + + [Footnote 67: The latest important authorities on this + campaign and its results are, in addition to those + already given, Sargent: Napoleon Bonaparte's First + Campaign. Sorel: Bonaparte et Hoche en 1797. Bonaparte + et le Directoire, Vol. V of his large work. Colin: + Etudes sur la Campagne de 1796 en Italie. Fabry: + Histoire de l'armee d'Italie, 1796-1797. Bouvier: + Bonaparte en Italie, 1796. Graham's Despatches, edited + by Rose, in English Historical Review, Vol. XIV. + Tivaroni: Storia del risorgimento italiano. The Dropmore + Papers. Of primary value are Napoleon's "Correspondance," + official edition, and the unofficial edited by Beauvais. + Hueffer: Ungedruckte Briefe Napoleon's in the Archiv fuer + Oest. Geschichte, Vol. XLIX. Of value are also the + memoirs of Marmont, Massena, and Desgenettes, of + Landrieux in Revue du Cercle Militaire, 1887. Yorck von + Wartenberg: Napoleon als Feldherr, almost supersedes the + older authority of Clausewitz, Jomini, Ruestow, and + Lossau. There are also Malachowski: Entwickelung der + leitenden Gedanken zur ersten Campagne Bonaparte's, and + Delbrueck: Unterschied der Strategie Friederich's des + Grossen und Napoleon's.] + + The Armies of Austria and Sardinia -- Montenotte and + Millesimo -- Mondovi and Cherasco -- Consequences of the + Campaign -- The Plains of Lombardy -- The Crossing of the Po + -- Advance Toward Milan -- Lodi -- Retreat of the Austrians + -- Moral Effects of Lodi. + + +[Sidenote: 1796.] + +Victor Amadeus of Sardinia was not unaccustomed to the loss of +territory in the north, because from immemorial times his house had +relinquished picturesque but unfruitful lands beyond the Alps to gain +fertile fields below them. It was a hard blow, to be sure, that Savoy, +which gave name to his family, and Nice, with its beautiful and +commanding site, should have been lost to his crown. But so far, in +every general European convulsion, some substantial morsels had fallen +to the lot of his predecessors, who had looked on Italy "as an +artichoke to be eaten leaf by leaf"; and it was probable that a slice +of Lombardy would be his own prize at the next pacification. He had +spent his reign in strengthening his army, and as the foremost +military power in Italy his young and vigorous people, with the help +of Austria, were defending the passes into their territory. The road +from their capital to Savona on the sea wound by Ceva and Millesimo +over the main ridge of the Apennines, at the summit of which it was +joined by the highway through Dego and Cairo leading southwestward +from Milan through Alessandria. The Piedmontese, under Colli, were +guarding the approach to their own capital; the Austrians, under +Beaulieu, that to Milan. Collectively their numbers were somewhat +greater than those of the French; but the two armies were separated. + +Beaulieu began operations on April tenth by ordering an attack on the +French division of Laharpe, which had been thrown forward to Voltri. +The Austrians under Argenteau were to fall on its rear from +Montenotte, a village to the north of Savona, with the idea of driving +that wing of Bonaparte's army back along the shore road, on which it +was hoped they would fall under the fire of Nelson's guns. Laharpe, +however, retreated to Savona in perfect safety, for the English fleet +was not near. Thereupon Bonaparte, suddenly revealing the new +formation of his army in the north and south line, assumed the +offensive. Argenteau, having been held temporarily in check by the +desperate resistance of a handful of French soldiers under Colonel +Rampon, was surprised and overwhelmed at Montenotte on the twelfth by +a force much larger than his own. Next day Massena and Augereau drove +back toward Dego an Austrian division which had reached Millesimo on +its way to join Colli; and on the fifteenth, at that place, Bonaparte +himself destroyed the remnant of Argenteau's corps. On the sixteenth +Beaulieu abandoned the mountains to make a stand at Acqui in the +plain. Thus the whole Austrian force was not only driven back, but was +entirely separated from the Piedmontese. + +Bonaparte had a foolish plan in his pocket, which had been furnished +by the Directory in a temporary reversion to official tradition, +ordering him to advance into Lombardy, leaving behind the hostile +Piedmontese on his left, and the uncertain Genoese on his right. He +disregarded it, apparently without hesitation, and throwing his force +northwestward toward Ceva, where the Piedmontese were posted, +terrified them into a retreat. They were overtaken, however, at +Mondovi on April twenty-second, and utterly routed, losing not only +their best troops, but their field-pieces and baggage-train. Three +days later Bonaparte pushed onward and occupied Cherasco, which was +distant from Turin, the Piedmontese capital, but twenty-five miles by +a short, easy, and now open road. On the twenty-seventh the +Sardinians, isolated in a mountain amphitheater, and with no prospect +of relief from their discomfited ally, made overtures for an armistice +preliminary to peace. These were readily accepted by Bonaparte; and +although he had no authorization from the government to perform such +functions, he was defiantly careless of instructions in this as in +every subsequent step he took. The negotiation was conducted with +courtesy and firmness, on the basis of military honor, much to the +surprise of the Piedmontese, who had expected to deal with a savage +Jacobin. There was not even a word in Bonaparte's talk which recalled +the republican severity; as has been noted, the word virtue did not +pass his lips, his language was that of chivalry. He stipulated in +kindly phrase for the surrender of Coni and Tortona, the famous "keys +of the Alps," with other strongholds of minor importance, demanding +also the right to cross and recross Piedmontese territory at will. The +paper was completed and signed on the twenty-eighth. The troublesome +question of civil authority to make a treaty was evaded by calling the +arrangement a military convention. It was none the less binding by +reason of its name. Indeed the idea was steadily expanded into a new +policy, for just as pillage and rapine were ruthlessly repressed by +the victorious commander, all agreements were made temporarily on a +military basis, including those for indemnities. Salicetti was the +commissioner of the Directory and there was no friction between him +and Bonaparte. Both profited by a partnership in which opportunities +for personal ventures were frequent, while the military chest was well +supplied and remittances to Paris were kept just large enough to save +the face and quiet the clamors of the Directory. Victor Amadeus being +checkmated, Bonaparte was free to deal with Beaulieu. + +[Illustration: Northern Italy. Illustrating the Campaigns of 1796 and +1797.] + +This short campaign was in some respects insignificant, especially +when compared as to numbers and results with what was to follow. But +the names of Montenotte, Millesimo, Dego, Mondovi, and Cherasco were +ever dear to Bonaparte, and stand in a high place on his greatest +monument. The King of Sardinia was the father-in-law of Louis XVIII, +and his court had been a nest of plotting French emigrants. When his +agents reached Paris they were received with coarse resentment by the +Directory and bullied into an alliance, though they had been +instructed to make only a peace. Their sovereign was humiliated to the +limit of possibility. The loss of his fortress robbed him of his +power. By the terms of the treaty he was to banish the French +royalists from his lands. Stripped thus of both force and prestige, +he did not long survive the disgrace, and died, leaving to Charles +Emmanuel, his son, no real dominion but that over the island of +Sardinia. The contrast between the ferocious bluster of the Directory +and the generous simplicity of a great conqueror was not lost on the +Italians nor on the moderate French. For them as for Bonaparte, a +military and political aspirant in his first independence, everything, +absolutely everything, was at stake in those earliest engagements; on +the event hung not merely his career, but their release. In pleasant +succession the spring days passed like a transformation scene. Success +was in the air, not the success of accident, but the resultant of +forethought and careful combination. The generals, infected by their +leader's spirit, vied with each other in daring and gallantry. For +happy desperation Rampon's famous stand remains unsurpassed in the +annals of war. + +From the heights of Ceva the leader of conquering and now devoted +soldiers could show to them and their equally enthusiastic officers +the gateway into the fertile and well-watered land whither he had +promised to lead them, the historic fields of Lombardy. Nothing +comparable to that inexhaustible storehouse of nature can be found in +France, generous as is her soil. Walled in on the north and west by +the majestic masses of the Alps, and to the south by the smaller but +still mighty bastions of the Apennines, these plains owe to the +mountains not only their fertility and prosperity, but their very +existence. Numberless rills which rise amid the icy summits of the +great chain, or the lower peaks of the minor one, combine into ever +growing streams of pleasant waters which finally unite in the sluggish +but impressive Po. Melting snows and torrential rains fill these +watercourses with the rich detritus of the hills which renews from +year to year the soil it originally created. A genial climate and a +grateful soil return to the industrious inhabitants an ample reward +for their labors. In the fiercest heats of summer the passing +traveler, if he pauses, will hear the soft sounds of slow-running +waters in the irrigation sluices which on every side supply any lack +of rain. Wheat, barley, and rice, maize, fruit, and wine, are but a +few of the staples. Great farmsteads, with barns whose mighty lofts +and groaning mows attest the importance of Lombard agriculture, are +grouped into the hamlets which abound at the shortest intervals. And +to the vision of one who sees them first from a mountain-top through +the dim haze of a sunny day, towns and cities seem strewn as if they +were grain from the hand of a sower. The measure of bewilderment is +full when memory recalls that this garden of Italy has been the prize +for which from remotest antiquity the nations of Europe have fought, +and that the record of the ages is indelibly written in the walls and +ornaments of the myriad structures--theaters, palaces, and +churches--which lie so quietly below. Surely the dullest sansculotte +in Bonaparte's army must have been aroused to new sensations by the +sight. What rosy visions took shape in the mind of their leader we can +only imagine. + +Piedmont having submitted, the promised descent into these rich plains +was not an instant deferred. "Hannibal," said the commanding general +to his staff, "took the Alps by storm. We have turned their flank." He +paused only to announce his feats to the Directory in modest phrase, +and to recommend for preferment those who, like Lannes and Lanusse, +had earned distinction. The former was just Bonaparte's age but +destitute of solid education, owing to the poverty of his parents. He +enlisted in 1792 and in 1795 was already a colonel, owing to his +extraordinary inborn courage and capacity. Through the hatred of a +Convention legate he was degraded from his rank after the peace of +Basel and entered Bonaparte's army as a volunteer. Thereafter his +promotion was fast and regular until he became the general's close +friend and steadfast supporter. Lanusse was only twenty-four but had +been chief of battalion for four years, and now entered upon a +brilliant though short career which ended by his death in 1801 at +Aboukir. The advance of Bonaparte's army began on May thirtieth. +Neither Genoa, Tuscany, nor Venice was to be given time for arming; +Beaulieu must be met while his men were still dispirited, and before +the arrival of reinforcements: for a great army of thirty thousand men +was immediately to be despatched under Wurmser to maintain the power +of Austria in Italy. Beaulieu was a typical Austrian general, +seventy-one years old, but still hale, a stickler for precedent, and +looking to experience as his only guide. Relying on the principles of +strategy as he had learned them, he had taken up what he considered a +strong position for the defense of Milan, his line stretching +northeasterly beyond the Ticino from Valenza, the spot where rumors, +diligently spread by Bonaparte, declared that the French would attempt +to force a passage. Confirmed in his own judgment by those reports, +the old and wary Austrian commander stood brave and expectant, while +the young and daring adventurer opposed to him marched swiftly by on +the right bank fifty miles onward to Piacenza. There he made his +crossing on May seventh in common ferry-boats and by a pontoon bridge. +No resistance was made by the few Austrian cavalry who had been sent +out merely to reconnoiter the line. The enemy were outwitted and +virtually outflanked, being now in the greatest danger. Beaulieu had +barely time to break camp and march in hot haste northeasterly to +Lodi, where, behind the swift current of the Adda, he made a final +stand for the defense of Milan, the seat of Austrian government. In +fact, his movements were so hurried that the advance-guards of both +armies met by accident at Fombio on May eighth, where a sharp +engagement resulted in a victory for the French. Laharpe, who had +shown his usual courage in this fight, was killed a few hours later, +through a mistake of his own soldiers, in a night melee with the +pickets of a second Austrian corps. On the ninth the dukes of Parma +and of Piacenza both made their submission in treaties dictated by the +French commander, and simultaneously the reigning archduke quitted +Milan. Next day the pursuing army was at Lodi. + +Bonaparte wrote to the Directory that he had expected the passage of +the Po would prove the most bold and difficult manoeuver of the +campaign. But it was no sooner accomplished than he again showed a +perfect mastery of his art by so manoeuvering as to avoid an +engagement while the great river was still immediately in his rear. He +was then summoned to meet a third emergency of equal consequence. The +Adda is fordable in some places at certain times, but not easily; and +at Lodi a wooden bridge about two hundred yards in length then +occupied the site of the later solid structure of masonry and iron. +The approach to this bridge Beaulieu had seized and fortified. +Northwestward was Milan; to the east lay the almost impregnable +fortress of Mantua. Beaten at Lodi, the Austrians might still retreat, +and make a stand under the walls of either town with some hope of +victory: it was Bonaparte's intention so to disorganize his enemy's +army that neither would be possible. Accordingly on May tenth the +French forces were concentrated for the advance. They started +immediately and marched so swiftly that they overtook the Austrian +rear-guard before it could withdraw behind the old Gothic walls of the +town, and close the gates. Driving them onward, the French fought as +they marched. A decisive conflict cleared the streets; and after a +stubborn resistance the brave defenders retreated over the bridge to +the eastern bank of what was now their last rampart, the river. With +cool and desperate courage, Sebottendorf, whose Austrians numbered +less than ten thousand men, then brought into action his artillery, +and swept the wooden roadway. + +In a short time the bridge would no doubt have been in flames; it was +uncertain whether the shifting and gravelly bottom of the stream above +or below would either yield a ford or permit a crossing by any other +means. Under Bonaparte's personal supervision, and therefore with +miraculous speed, the French batteries were placed and began an +answering thunder. In an access of personal zeal, the commander even +threw himself for an instant into the whirling hail of shot and +bullets, in order the better to aim two guns which in the hurry had +been misdirected. Under this terrible fire and counterfire it was +impossible for the Austrians to apply a torch to any portion of the +structure. Behind the French guns were three thousand grenadiers +waiting for a signal. Soon the crisis came. A troop of Bonaparte's +cavalry had found the nearest ford a few hundred yards above the +bridge, and were seen, amid the smoke, struggling to cross, though +without avail, and turn the right flank of the Austrian infantry, +which had been posted a safe distance behind the artillery on the +opposite shore. Quick as thought, in the very nick of opportunity, the +general issued his command, and the grenadiers dashed for the bridge. +Eye-witnesses declared that the fire of the Austrian artillery was now +redoubled, while from houses on the opposite side soldiers hitherto +concealed poured volley after volley of musket-balls upon the +advancing column. For one single fateful moment it faltered. Berthier +and Massena, with others equally devoted, rushed to its head, and +rallied the lines. In a few moments the deed was accomplished, the +bridge was won, the batteries were silenced, and the enemy was in full +retreat. + +Scattered, stunned, and terrified, the disheartened Austrians felt +that no human power could prevail against such a foe. Beaulieu could +make no further stand behind the Adda; but, retreating beyond the +Oglio to the Mincio, a parallel tributary of the Po, he violated +Venetian neutrality by seizing Peschiera, where that stream flows out +of Lake Garda, and spread his line behind the river from the Venetian +town on the north as far as Mantua, the farthest southern outpost of +Austria, thus thwarting one, and that not the least important, of +Bonaparte's plans. As to the Italians, they seemed bereft of sense, +and for the most part yielded dumbly to what was required. There were +occasional outbursts of enthusiasm by Italian Jacobins, and in the +confusion of warfare they wreaked a sneaking vengeance on their +conservative compatriots by extortion and terrorizing. The population +was confused between the woe of actual loss and the joy of +emancipation from old tyrannies. Suspicious and adroit, yet slow and +self-indulgent, the common folk concluded that the grievous burden of +the hour would be lightened by magnanimity and held a waiting +attitude. + +The moral effect of the action at Lodi was incalculable. Bonaparte's +reputation as a strategist had already been established, but his +personal courage had never been tested. The actual battle-field is +something quite different from the great theater of war, and men +wondered whether he had the same mastery of the former as of the +latter. Hitherto he had been untried either as to his tactics or his +intrepidity. In both respects Lodi elevated him literally to the +stars. No doubt the risk he took was awful, and the loss of life +terrible. Critics, too, have pointed out safer ways which they believe +would have led to the same result; be that as it may, in no other way +could the same dramatic effect have been produced. France went wild +with joy. The peoples of Italy bowed before the prodigy which thus +both paralyzed and fascinated them all. Austria was dispirited, and +her armies were awe-stricken. When, five days later, on May fifteenth, +amid silent but friendly throngs of wondering men, Bonaparte entered +Milan, not as the conqueror but as the liberator of Lombardy, at the +head of his veteran columns, there was already about his brows a mild +effulgence of supernatural light, which presaged to the growing band +of his followers the full glory in which he was later to shine on the +imagination of millions. It was after Lodi that his adoring soldiers +gave him the name of "Little Corporal," by which they ever after knew +him. He himself confessed that after Lodi some conception of his high +destiny arose in his mind for the first time. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + +An Insubordinate Conqueror and Diplomatist. + + Bonaparte's Assertion of Independence -- Helplessness of the + Directory -- Threats and Proclamations -- The General and + His Officers -- Bonaparte's Comprehensive Genius -- The + Devotion of France -- Uneasiness in Italy -- The Position of + the Austrians -- Bonaparte's Strategy -- His Conception of + the Problem in Italy -- Justification of His Foresight -- + Modena, Parma, and the Papacy -- The French Radicals and the + Pope -- Bonaparte's Policy -- His Ambition. + + +[Sidenote: 1796.] + +When the news of the successes in Piedmont reached Paris, public +festivals were decreed and celebrated; but the democratic spirit of +the directors could brook neither the contemptuous disregard of their +plan which Bonaparte had shown, nor his arrogant assumption of +diplomatic plenipotence. Knowing how thoroughly their doctrine had +permeated Piedmont, they had intended to make it a republic. It was +exasperating, therefore, that through Bonaparte's meddling they found +themselves still compelled to carry on negotiations with a monarchy. +The treaty with the King of Sardinia was ungraciously dictated and +signed by them on May fifteenth, but previous to the act they +determined to clip the wings of their dangerous falcon. This they +thought to accomplish by assigning Kellermann to share with Bonaparte +the command of the victorious army, and by confirming Salicetti as +their diplomatic plenipotentiary to accompany it. The news reached the +conqueror at Lodi on the eve of his triumphant entry into Milan. "As +things now are," he promptly replied to the Directory, "you must have +a general who possesses your entire confidence. If I must refer every +step to government commissioners, if they have the right to change my +movements, to withdraw or send troops, expect nothing good hereafter." +To Carnot he wrote at the same time: "I believe one bad general to be +worth two good ones.... War is like government, a matter of tact.... I +do not wish to be hampered. I have begun with some glory; I wish to +continue worthy of you." Aware probably that his own republican virtue +could not long withstand the temptations opening before him, he began +the latter missive, as if to excuse himself and anticipate possible +accusations: "I swear I have nothing in view but the country. You will +always find me on the straight road. I owe to the republic the +sacrifice of all my own notions. If people seek to set me wrong in +your esteem, my answer is in my heart and in my conscience." It is of +course needless to add that the Directory yielded, not only as to the +unity of command, but also in the fatal and vital matter of intrusting +all diplomatic negotiations to his hands. + +In taking this last step the executive virtually surrendered its +identity. Such, however, was the exultation of the Parisian populace +and of the soldiery, that the degradation or even the forced +resignation of the conquering dictator would have at once assured the +fall of the directors. They could not even protest when, soon after, +there came from Bonaparte a despatch announcing that the articles of +"the glorious peace which you have concluded with the King of +Sardinia" had reached "us," and significantly adding in a later +paragraph that the troops were content, having received half their pay +in coin. Voices in Paris declared that for such language the writer +should be shot. Perhaps those who put the worst interpretation on the +apparently harmless words were correct in their instinct. In reality +the Directory had been wholly dependent on the army since the previous +October; and while such an offensive insinuation of the fact would be, +if intentional, most unpalatable, yet those who had profited by the +fact dared not resent a remote reference to it. + +The farce was continued for some time longer, Bonaparte playing his +part with singular ability. He sent to Kellermann, in Savoy, without +the form of transmitting it through government channels, a subsidy of +one million two hundred thousand francs. As long as he was unhampered, +his despatches to Paris were soldierly and straightforward, although +after the passage of the Po they began to be somewhat bombastic, and +to abound in his old-fashioned, curious, and sometimes incorrect +classical or literary allusions. But if he were crossed in the least, +if reinforcements did not arrive, or if there were any sign of +independence in Paris, they became petulant, talking of ill-health, +threatening resignation, and requesting that numbers of men be sent +out to replace him in the multiform functions which in his single +person he was performing. Of course these tirades often failed of +immediate effect, but at least no effort was made to put an effective +check on the writer's career. Read a century later in a cold and +critical light, Bonaparte's proclamations of the same period seem +stilted, jerky, and theatrical. In them, however, there may still be +found a sort of interstitial sentimentality, and in an age of romantic +devotion to ideals the quality of vague suggestiveness passed for +genuine coin. Whatever else was lacking in those compositions, they +had the one supreme merit of accomplishing their end, for they roused +the French soldiers to frenzied enthusiasm. + +In fact, if the Directory stood on the army, the army belonged +henceforth to Bonaparte. On the very day that Milan was entered, +Marmont heard from his leader's lips the memorable words, "Fortune is +a woman; the more she does for me, the more I shall exact from her.... +In our day no one has conceived anything great; it falls to me to give +the example." This is the language that soldiers like to hear from +their leader, and it was no doubt repeated throughout the army. "From +this moment," wrote the same chronicler, a few months later, "the +chief part of the pay and salaries was in coin. This led to a great +change in the situation of the officers, and to a certain extent in +their habits." Bonaparte was incorruptible. Salicetti announced one +day that the brother of the Duke of Modena was waiting outside with +four chests containing a million of francs in gold, and urged the +general, as a friend and compatriot, to accept them. "Thank you," was +the calm and significant answer, "I shall not put myself in the hands +of the Duke of Modena for such a sum." But similar propositions were +made by the commander-in-chief to his subordinates, and they with less +prudence fell into the trap, taking all they could lay hands upon and +thus becoming the bond-slaves of their virtuous leader. There were +stories at the time that some of the generals, not daring to send +their ill-gotten money to France, and having no opportunity for +investing it elsewhere, actually carried hundreds of thousands of +francs in their baggage. This prostitution of his subordinates was +part of a system. Twenty million francs was approximately the sum +total of all contributions announced to the Directory, and in their +destitution it seemed enormous. They also accepted with pleasure a +hundred of the finest horses in Lombardy to replace, as Bonaparte +wrote on sending his present, the ordinary ones which drew their +carriages. Was this paltry four million dollars the whole of what was +derived from the sequestrations of princely domains and the +secularization of ecclesiastical estates? By no means. The army chest, +of which none knew the contents but Bonaparte, was as inexhaustible as +the widow's cruse. At the opening of the campaign in Piedmont, empty +wagons had been ostentatiously displayed as representing the military +funds at the commander's disposal: these same vehicles now groaned +under a weight of treasure, and were kept in a safe obscurity. Well +might he say, as he did in June to Miot, that the commissioners of the +Directory would soon leave and not be replaced, since they counted for +nothing in his policy. + +With the entry into Milan, therefore, begins a new epoch in the +remarkable development we are seeking to outline. The military genius +of him who had been the Corsican patriot and the Jacobin republican +had finally asserted dominion over all his other qualities. In the +inconsistency of human nature, those former characters now and then +showed themselves as still existent, but they were henceforth +subordinate. The conquered Milanese was by a magical touch provided +with a provisional government, ready, after the tardy assent of the +Directory, to be changed into the Transpadane Republic and put under +French protection. Every detail of administration, every official and +his functions, came under Bonaparte's direction. He knew the land and +its resources, the people and their capacities, the mutual relations +of the surrounding states, and the idiosyncrasies of their rulers. +Such laborious analysis as his despatches display, such grasp both of +outline and detail, such absence of confusion and clearness of vision, +such lack of hesitance and such definition of plan, seem to prove that +either a hero or a demon is again on earth. All the capacity this man +had hitherto shown, great as it was, sinks into insignificance when +compared with the Olympian powers he now displays, and will continue +to display for years to come. His sinews are iron, his nerves are +steel, his eyes need no sleep, and his brain no rest. What a captured +Hungarian veteran said of him at Lodi is as true of his political +activity as of his military restlessness: "He knows nothing of the +regular rules of war: he is sometimes on our front, sometimes on the +flank, sometimes in the rear. There is no supporting such a gross +violation of rules." His senses and his reason were indeed untrammeled +by human limitations; they worked on front, rear, and flank, often +simultaneously, and always without confusion. + +Was it astonishing that the French nation, just recovering from a +debauch of irreligion and anarchy, should begin insensibly to yield to +the charms of a wooer so seductive? For some time past the soldiers, +as the Milan newspapers declared, had been a pack of tatterdemalions +ever flying before the arms of his Majesty the Emperor; now they were +victors, led by a second Caesar or Alexander, clothed, fed, and paid at +the cost of the conquered. To ardent French republicans, and to the +peoples of Italy, this phenomenal personage proclaimed that he had +come to break the chains of captives, while almost in the same hour he +wrote to the Directory that he was levying twenty million francs on +the country, which, though exhausted by five years of war, was then +the richest in the civilized world. Nor was the self-esteem of France +and the Parisian passion for adornment forgotten. There began a course +of plunder, if not in a direction at least in a measure hitherto +unknown to the modern world--the plunder of scientific specimens, of +manuscripts, of pictures, statues, and other works of art. It is +difficult to fix the responsibility for this policy, which by the +overwhelming majority of learned and intelligent Frenchmen was +considered right, morally and legally. Nothing so flattered the +national pride as the assemblage in Paris of art treasures from all +nations, nothing so humiliated it as their dispersion at the behest of +the conquering Allies. In the previous year a few art works had been +taken from Holland and Belgium, and formal orders were given again and +again by the Directory for stripping the Pope's galleries; but there +is a persistent belief, founded, no doubt, in an inherent probability, +that the whole comprehensive scheme of art spoliation had been +suggested in the first place by Bonaparte, and prearranged between +himself and the executive before his departure. At any rate, he asked +and easily obtained from the government a commission of scholars and +experts to scour the Italian cities; and soon untold treasures of art, +letters, and science began to pour into the galleries, cabinets, and +libraries of Paris. A few brave voices among the artists of the +capital protested against the desecration; the nation at large was +tipsy with delight, and would not listen. Raphael, Leonardo, and +Michelangelo, Correggio, Giorgione, and Paul Veronese, with all the +lesser masters, were stowed in the holds of frigates and despatched by +way of Toulon toward the new Rome; while Monge and Berthollet +ransacked the scientific collections of Milan and Parma for their +rarest specimens. Science, in fact, was to flourish on the banks of +the Seine as never before or elsewhere; and the great investigators of +Italy, forgetful of their native land, were to find a new citizenship +in the world of knowledge at the capital of European liberties. Words +like these, addressed to the astronomer Oriani, indicate that on +Bonaparte's mind had dawned the notion of a universal federated state, +to which national republics would be subordinate. + +No scene in the history of warfare was more theatrical than the entry +of the French into Milan. The pageant was arranged on the lines of a +Roman triumph and the distances so calculated that Bonaparte was the +one impressive figure. With his lean face and sharp Greek profile, his +long, lank, unpowdered locks, his simple uniform, and awkward seat in +the saddle, he looked like a new human type, neither angel nor devil +but an inscrutable apparition from another sphere. To officers and men +the voluptuous city extended wide its arms, and the shabby soldiery +were incongruous figures where their entertainers were elegant and +fastidious beyond what the guests had dreamed. With stern impartiality +the liberator repressed all excess in his army, but immediately the +question of contributions, billeting, indemnity, and fiscal +organization was taken up, settled, and the necessary measures +inaugurated. The rich began to hide their possessions and the burghers +to cry out. Ere long there was opposition, first sullen, then active, +especially in the suburban villages where the French were fiercely +attacked. One of these, Binasco, was burned and sacked as an example +to the rest and to the city. Order was restored and the inexorable +process of seizures went on. Pavia bade defiance; the officials were +threatened with death, many leading citizens were taken as hostages, +and the place was pillaged for three days. "Such a lesson would set +the people of Italy right." They did not need a second example, it was +true, but the price of "liberation" was fearful. + +Italian rebellion having been subdued, the French nation roused to +enthusiasm, independent funds provided, and the Directory put in its +place, Bonaparte was free to unfold and consummate his further plans. +Before him was the territory of Venice, a state once vigorous and +terrible, but now, as far as the country populations were concerned, +an enfeebled and gentle ruler. With quick decision a French corps of +observation was sent to seize Brescia and watch the Tyrolean passes. +It was, of course, to the advantage of Austria that Venetian +neutrality should not be violated, except by her own troops. But the +French, having made a bold beginning of formal defiance, were quick to +go further. Beaulieu had not hesitated on false pretenses to seize +Peschiera, another Venetian town, which, by its situation at the +outlet of Lake Garda, was of the utmost strategic value. He now stood +confronting his pursuers on a strong line established, without +reference to territorial boundaries, behind the whole course of the +Mincio. Such was the situation to the north and east of the French +army. Southeastward, on the swampy banks of the same river, near its +junction with the Po, was Mantua. This city, which even under ordinary +circumstances was an almost impregnable fortress, had been +strengthened by an extraordinary garrison, while the surrounding +lowlands were artificially inundated as a supreme measure of safety. + +Bonaparte intended to hurl Beaulieu back, and seize the line of the +Adige, far stronger than that of the Mincio for repelling an Austrian +invasion from the north. What to him was the neutrality of a weak +government, and what were the precepts of international law with no +force behind it but a moral one? Austria, according to treaty, had the +right to move her troops over two great military roads within Venetian +jurisdiction, and her defeated armies had just used one of them for +retreat. The victorious commander could scarcely be expected to pause +in his pursuit for lack of a few lines of writing on a piece of +stamped paper. Accordingly, by a simple feint, the Austrians were led +to believe that his object was the seizure of Peschiera and the +passes above Lake Garda; consequently, defying international law and +violating their treaties, they massed themselves at that place to meet +his attack. Then with a swift, forced march the French were +concentrated not on the enemy's strong right, but on his weak center +at Borghetto. Bonaparte's cavalry, hitherto badly mounted and timid, +but now reorganized, were thrown forward for their easy task. Under +Murat's command they dashed through, and, encouraged by their own +brilliant successes, were thenceforward famous for efficiency. +Bonaparte, with the main army, then hurried past Mantua as it lay +behind its bulwarks of swamp-fever, and the Austrian force was cut in +two. The right wing fled to the mountains; the left was virtually in a +trap. Without any declaration of war against Venice, the French +immediately occupied Verona, and Legnago a few days later; Peschiera +was fortified, and Pizzighettone occupied as Brescia had been, while +contributions of every sort were levied more ruthlessly even than on +the Milanese. The mastery of these new positions isolated Mantua more +completely than a formal investment would have done; but it was, +nevertheless, considered wise to leave no loophole, and a few weeks +later an army of eight thousand Frenchmen sat down in force before its +gates. + +It was certain that within a short time a powerful Austrian force +would pour out from the Alpine passes to the north. Further advance +into Venetian lands would therefore be ruin for the French. There was +nothing left but the slow hours of a siege, for Mantua had become the +decisive point. In the heats of summer this interval might well have +been devoted to ease; but it was almost the busiest period of +Bonaparte's life. According to the Directory's rejected plan for a +division of command in Italy, the mission assigned to Kellermann had +been to organize republics in Piedmont and in the Milanese, and then +to defend the Tyrolean passes against an Austrian advance from the +north. Bonaparte was to have moved southward along the shore to +revolutionize Genoa, Tuscany, the Papal States, and Naples +successively. The whole idea having been scornfully rejected by +Bonaparte, the Directory had been forced by the brilliant successes of +their general not merely to condone his disobedience, but actually to +approve his policy. He now had the opportunity of justifying his +foresight. Understanding, as the government did not, that Austria was +their only redoubtable foe by land, the real bulwark of the whole +Italian system, he had first shattered her power, at least for the +time. The prop having been removed, the structure was toppling, and +during this interval of waiting, it fell. His opportunity was made, +his resolution ripe. + +In front, Venice was at his mercy; behind him, guerrilla bands of +so-called Barbets, formed in Genoese territory and equipped by +disaffected fugitives, were threatening the lately conquered gateway +from France where the Ligurian Alps and the Apennines meet. +Bonaparte's first step was to impose a new arrangement upon the +submissive Piedmont, whereby, to make assurance doubly sure, +Alessandria was added to the list of fortresses in French hands; then, +as his second measure, Murat and Lannes appeared before Genoa at the +head of an armed force, with instructions first to seize and shoot the +many offenders who had taken refuge in her territory after the risings +in Lombardy, and then to threaten the Senate with further retaliatory +measures, and command the instant dismissal of the imperial Austrian +plenipotentiary. From Paris came orders to drive the English fleet out +of the harbor of Leghorn, where, in spite of the treaty between +Tuscany and France, there still were hostile arsenals and ships. It +was done. Naples did not wait to see her territories invaded, but sued +for mercy and was humbled, being forced to withdraw her navy from that +of the coalition, and her cavalry from the Austrian army. For the +moment the city of Rome was left in peace. The strength of papal +dominion lay in Bologna, and the other legations beyond the Apennines, +comprising many of the finest districts in Italy; and there a +master-stroke was to be made. + +On the throne of Modena was an Austrian archduke: his government was +remorselessly shattered and virtually destroyed, the ransom being +fixed at the ruinous sum of ten million francs with twenty of the best +pictures in the principality. But on that of Parma was a Spanish +prince with whose house France had made one treaty and hoped to make a +much better one. The duke, therefore, was graciously allowed to +purchase an armistice by an enormous but yet possible contribution of +two million francs in money, together with provisions and horses in +quantity. The famous St. Jerome of Correggio was among the twenty +paintings seized in Modena. The archduke repeatedly offered to ransom +it for one million francs, the amount at which its value was +estimated, but his request was not granted. Next came Bologna and its +surrounding territory. Such had been the tyranny of ecclesiastical +control that the subjects of the Pope in that most ancient and famous +seat of learning welcomed the French with unfeigned joy; and the +fairest portion of the Papal States passed by its own desire from +under the old yoke. The successor of St. Peter was glad to ransom his +capital by a payment nominally of twenty-one million francs. In +reality he had to surrender far more; for his galleries, like those +of Modena, were stripped of their gems, while the funds seized in +government offices, and levied in irregular ways, raised the total +value forwarded to Paris to nearly double the nominal contribution. +All this, Bonaparte explained, was but a beginning, the idleness of +summer heats. "This armistice," he wrote to Paris on June +twenty-first, 1796, "being concluded with the dog-star rather than +with the papal army, my opinion is that you should be in no haste to +make peace, so that in September, if all goes well in Germany and +northern Italy, we can take possession of Rome." + +[Illustration: Josephine, Empress of the French. From the painting by +Francois Gerard. In the Museum of Versailles.] + +In fact, this ingenious man was really practising moderation, as both +he and the terrified Italians, considering their relative situations, +understood it. Whatever had been the original arrangement with the +directors, there was nothing they did not now expect and demand from +Italy; they wrote requiring, in addition to all that had hitherto been +mentioned, plunder of every kind from Leghorn; masts, cordage, and +ship supplies from Genoa; horses, provisions, and forage from Milan; +and contributions of jewels and precious stones from the reigning +princes. As for the papal power, the French radicals would gladly have +destroyed it. They had not forgotten that Basseville, a diplomatic +agent of the republic, had been killed in the streets of Rome, and +that no reparation had been made either by the punishment of the +assassin or otherwise. The Pope, they declared, had been the real +author of the terrible civil war fomented by the unyielding clergy, +and waged with such fury in France. Moreover, the whole sentimental +and philosophical movement of the century in France and elsewhere +considered the ecclesiastical centralization and hierarchical tyranny +of the papacy as a dangerous survival of absolutism. + +But Bonaparte was wise in his generation. The contributions he levied +throughout Italy were terrible; but they were such as she could bear, +and still recuperate for further service in the same direction. The +liberalism of Italy was, moreover, not the radicalism of France; and a +submissive papacy was of incalculably greater value both there and +elsewhere in Europe than an irreconcilable and fugitive one. The Pope, +too, though weakened and humiliated as a temporal prince, was spared +for further usefulness to his conqueror as a spiritual dignitary. +Beyond all this was the enormous moral influence of a temperate and +apparently impersonal policy. Bonaparte, though personally and by +nature a passionate and wilful man, felt bound, as the representative +of a great movement, to exercise self-restraint, taking pains to live +simply, dress plainly, almost shabbily, and continuing by calm +calculation to refuse the enormous bribes which began and continued to +be offered to him personally by the rulers of Italy. His generals and +the fiscal agents of the nation were all in his power, because it was +by his connivance that they had grown enormously rich, he himself +remaining comparatively poor, and for his station almost destitute. +The army was his devoted servant; Italy and the world should see how +different was his moderation from the rapacity of the republic and its +tools, vandals like the commissioners Gareau and Salicetti. + +Such was the "leisure" of one who to all outward appearance was but a +man, and a very ordinary one. In the medals struck to commemorate this +first portion of the Italian campaign, he is still the same slim +youth, with lanky hair, that he was on his arrival in Paris the year +previous. It was observed, however, that the old indifferent manner +was somewhat emphasized, and consequently artificial; that the gaze +was at least as direct and the eye as penetrating as ever; and that +there was, half intentionally, half unconsciously, disseminated all +about an atmosphere of peremptory command--but that was all. The +incarnation of ambition was long since complete; its attendant +imperious manner was suffered to develop but slowly. In Bonaparte was +perceptible, as Victor Hugo says, the shadowy outline of Napoleon. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX. + +Bassano and Arcola. + + The Austrian System -- The Austrian Strategy -- Castiglione + -- French Gains -- Bassano -- The French in the Tyrol -- The + French Defeated in Germany -- Bonaparte and Alvinczy -- + Austrian Successes -- Caldiero -- First Battle of Arcola -- + Second Battle of Arcola. + + +[Sidenote: 1796.] + +Meantime the end of July had come. The Emperor Francis had decided. At +the risk of defeat on the Rhine he must retain his Italian possessions +and prestige. He was still the Roman emperor, inheritor of an +immemorial dignity, overlord of the fairest lands in the peninsula. +Wurmser, considered by Austria her greatest general, had therefore +been recalled to Vienna from the west, and sent at the head of +twenty-five thousand fresh troops to collect the columns of Beaulieu's +army, which was scattered in the Tyrol. This done, he was to assume +the chief command, and advance to the relief of Mantua. The first part +of his task was successfully completed, and already, according to the +direction of the Aulic Council of the empire, and in pursuance of the +same hitherto universal but vicious system of cabinet campaigning +which Bonaparte had just repudiated, he was moving down from the Alps +in three columns with a total force of about forty-seven thousand men. +There were about fifteen thousand in the garrison of Mantua. Bonaparte +was much weaker, having only forty-two thousand, and of these some +eight thousand were occupied in the siege of that place. Wurmser was a +master of the old school, working like an automaton under the hand of +his government, and commanding according to well-worn precept his +well-equipped battalions, every soldier of which was a recruit so +costly that destructive battles were made as infrequent as possible, +because to fight many meant financial ruin. In consequence, like all +the best generals of his class, he made war as far as possible a +series of manoeuvers. Opposed to him was an emancipated genius with +neither directors nor public council to hamper him. In the tradition +of the Revolution, as in the mind of Frederick the Great, war was no +game, but a bloody decision, and the quicker the conclusion was tried +the better. The national conscription, under the hands of Dubois de +Crance, had secured men in unlimited numbers at the least expense; +while Carnot's organization had made possible the quick handling of +troops in large mass by simplifying the machinery. Bonaparte was about +to show what could be done in the way of using the weapon which had +been put into his hands. + +The possession of Mantua was decisive of Italian destiny, for its +holder could command a kind of overlordship in every little Italian +state. If Bonaparte should take and keep it, Austria would be +virtually banished from Italy, and her prestige destroyed. She must, +therefore, relieve it, or lose not only her power in the peninsula, +but her rank in Europe. To this end, and according to the established +rules of strategy, the Austrians advanced from the mountains in three +divisions against the French line, which stretched from Brescia past +Peschiera, at the head of the Mincio, and through Verona to Legnago on +the Adige. Two of these armies were to march respectively down the +east and west banks of Lake Garda, and, flanking the inferior forces +of the French on both sides, surround and capture them. The other +division was on the Adige in front of Verona, ready to relieve +Mantua. Between that river and the lake rises the stately mass of +Monte Baldo, abrupt on its eastern, more gentle on its western slope. +This latter, as affording some space for manoeuvers, was really the +key to the passage. Such was the first onset of the Austrians down +this line that the French outposts at Lonato and Rivoli were driven +in, and for a time it seemed as if there would be a general rout. But +the French stood firm, and checked any further advance. For a day +Bonaparte and Wurmser stood confronting each other. In the mean time, +however, the left Austrian column was pouring down toward Verona, +while the right, under Quasdanowich, had already captured Brescia, +seized the highway to Milan, and cut off the French retreat. This move +in Wurmser's plan was so far entirely successful, and for a moment it +seemed as if the sequel would be equally so. The situation of his +opponents was desperate. + +In this crisis occurred the first of those curious scenes which recur +at intervals in Bonaparte's life. Some, and those eye-witnesses, have +attributed them to genuine panic. His first measure was to despatch +flying adjutants, ten in number, to concentrate his scattered forces +at the critical point, south of Lake Garda. His genius decided that +victory on the field was far more fruitful than the holding in check +of a garrison. Accordingly he ordered Serurier to raise the siege of +Mantua, and his siege-guns to be spiked and withdrawn. The division +thus rendered available he at once despatched for field operations +toward Brescia. But its numbers were so few as scarcely to relieve the +situation. Accordingly a council of war was summoned to decide whether +the army should stand and fight, or retreat for further concentration. +The commander-in-chief was apparently much excited, and according to +Augereau's account advised the latter course. The enemy being between +the French and the Adda, no other line was open but that southward +through the low country, over the Po; and to follow that implied +something akin to a disorderly rout. Nevertheless, all the generals +were in favor of this suggestion except one, the fiery hotspur who +tells the tale, who disdained the notion of retreat on any line, and +flung out of the room in scorn. Bonaparte walked the floor until late +in the small hours; finally he appeared to have accepted Augereau's +advice, and gave orders for battle. But the opening movements were +badly executed. Bonaparte seemed to feel that the omens were +unfavorable, and again the generals were summoned. Augereau opened the +meeting with a theatrical and declamatory but earnest speech, +encouraging his comrades and urging the expediency of a battle. This +time it was Bonaparte who fled, apparently in despair, leaving the +chief command, and with it the responsibility, to the daring Augereau, +by whose enthusiasm, as he no doubt saw, the other generals had been +affected. The hazardous enterprise succeeded, and on the very plan +already adopted. Augereau gave the orders, and with swift +concentration every available man was hurled against the Austrian +column under Quasdanowich at Lonato. This much may be true; casting +aside Augereau's inconsistencies and braggadocio, it is possible but +unlikely. + +The result was an easy victory, the enemy was driven back to a safe +distance, and Brescia was evacuated on August fourth, the defeated +columns retreating behind Lake Garda to join Wurmser on the other +side. Like the regular return of the pendulum, the French moved back +again, and confronted the Austrian center that very night, but now +with every company in line and Bonaparte at their head. A portion of +the enemy, about twenty-five thousand in number, had reached Lonato, +hastening to the support of Quasdanowich. Wurmser had lost a day +before Mantua. A second time the hurrying French engaged their foe +almost on the same field. A second time they were easily victorious. +In fact, so terrible was this second defeat that the scattered bands +of Austrians wandered aimlessly about in ignorance of their way. One +of them, four thousand strong, reaching Lonato, found it almost +abandoned by the French, Bonaparte and his staff with but twelve +hundred men being left behind. A herald, blindfolded, as was then the +custom, was at once despatched to summon the French commander to +surrender to the superior Austrian force. The available remnant of the +victorious army quickly gathered, and the messenger was introduced in +the midst of them. As the bandage was taken from his eyes, dazzled by +the light falling on hundreds of brilliant uniforms, the imperious +voice of his great enemy was heard commanding him to return and say to +his leader that it was a personal insult to speak of surrender to the +French army, and that it was he who must immediately yield himself and +his division. The bold scheme was successful, and to the ten thousand +previously killed, wounded, and captured by the conquerors four +thousand prisoners were added. Next morning Wurmser advanced, and with +his right resting on Lake Garda offered battle. The decisive fight +occurred in the center of his long, weak line at Castiglione, where +some fifteen thousand Austrians had happened to make a stand, without +orders and so without assurance of support. Again the French position +was so weak as apparently to throw Bonaparte into a panic, and again, +according to the memoirs of General Landrieux, Augereau's fire and +dash prevailed to have the battle joined, while Bonaparte withdrew in +a sulky pet. Whatever the truth, the attack was made. Before evening +the sharp struggle was over. This affair of August fifth was always +referred to by Napoleon as the true battle of Castiglione. Two days +later Wurmser, who had fondly hoped that Mantua was his and the French +in full retreat, brought up a straggling line of twenty-five thousand +men. These were easily routed by Bonaparte in a series of clever +manoeuvers on the seventh and without much bloodshed. That night saw +the utter rout of Wurmser and the Austrians in full retreat towards +the Tyrol. Had the great risk of these few days been determined +against the French, who would have been to blame but the madcap +Augereau? As things turned out, whose was the glory but Bonaparte's? +This panic, at least, appears to have been carefully calculated and +cleverly feigned. A week later the French lines were again closed +before Mantua, which, though not invested, was at least blockaded. The +fortress had been revictualed and regarrisoned, while the besiegers +had been compelled to destroy their own train to prevent its capture +by the enemy. But France was mistress of the Mincio and the Adige, +with a total loss of about ten thousand men; while Austria had lost +about twenty thousand, and was standing by a forlorn hope. Both armies +were exhausted, as yet the great stake was not won. If Austrian +warfare was utterly discredited, the irregular, disjointed, uncertain +French warfare of the past week had not enhanced French glory. + +In the shortest possible period new troops were under way both from +Vienna and from Paris. With those from the Austrian capital came +positive instructions to Wurmser that in any case he should again +advance toward Mantua. In obedience to this command of the Emperor, a +division of the army, twenty thousand strong, under Davidowich, was +left in the Austrian Tyrol at Roveredo, near Trent, to stop the +advance of the French, who, with their reinforcements, were pressing +forward through the pass as if to join Moreau, who had successfully +advanced and would be in Munich. The main Austrian army, under +Wurmser, moved over into the valley of the Brenta, and pushed on +toward Mantua. If he should decide to turn westward against the +French, the reserve could descend the valley of the Adige to his +assistance. But Bonaparte did not intend either to pass by and leave +open the way southward, or to be shut up in the valleys of the Tyrol. +With a quick surge, Davidowich was first defeated at Roveredo, and +then driven far behind Trent into the higher valleys. The victor +delayed only to issue a proclamation giving autonomy to the Tyrolese, +under French protection; but the ungrateful peasantry preferred the +autonomy they already enjoyed, and fortified their precipitous passes +for resistance. Turning quickly into the Brenta valley, Bonaparte, by +a forced march of two days, overtook Wurmser's advance-guard unawares +at Primolano, and captured it; the next day, September eighth, Massena +cut in two and completely defeated the main army at Bassano. Part of +those who escaped retreated into Friuli, toward Vienna. There was +nothing left for the men under Wurmser's personal command but to throw +themselves, if possible, into Mantua. With these, some sixteen +thousand men in all, the veteran general forced a way, by a series of +most brilliant movements, past the flank of the blockading French +lines, where he made a gallant stand first at St. Georges and then at +Favorita. But he was driven from both positions and forced to find a +refuge in the famous fortress. + +The lightning-like rapidity of these operations completed the +demoralization of the Austrian troops. The fortified defiles and +cliffs of the Tyrol fell before the French attacks as easily as their +breastworks in the plains. Wurmser had twenty-six thousand men in +Mantua; but from fear and fever half of them were in the hospitals. + +Meanwhile, disaster had overtaken the French arms in the North. +Jourdan had crossed the Rhine at Duesseldorf, as Moreau had at Kehl. +They had each about seventy-five thousand men, while the army of the +Austrian archduke Charles had been reduced by Wurmser's departure for +Italy to a number far less. According to the plan of the Directory, +these two French armies were to advance on parallel lines south of the +neutral zone through Germany, and to join Bonaparte across the Tyrol +for the advance to Vienna. Moreau defeated the Austrians, and reached +Munich without a check. Wuertemberg and Baden made peace with the +French republic on its own terms, and Saxony, recalling its forces +from the coalition, declared itself neutral, as Prussia had done. But +Jourdan, having seized Wuerzburg and won the battle of Altenkirchen, +was met on his way to Ratisbon and Neumarkt, and thoroughly beaten, by +the same young Archduke Charles, who had acquired experience and +learned wisdom in his defeat by Moreau. Both French armies were thus +thrown back upon the Rhine, and there could be no further hope of +carrying out the original plan. In this way the attention of the world +was concentrated on the victorious Army of Italy and its young +commander, whose importance was further enhanced by the fulfilment of +his own prophecy that the fate of Europe hung on the decision of his +campaign in Italy. + +This was not an empty boast. The stubborn determination of Francis to +reconquer Italy had given new courage to the conservatives of central +and southern Italy, who did not conceal their resolve nor their +preparations to annihilate French power and influence within the +borders of Modena, Rome, and Naples. Bonaparte was thus enabled to +take another momentous step in emancipating himself from the +Directory. So far he had asserted and confirmed his military and +diplomatic independence: he now boldly assumed political supremacy. +Though at times he expressed a low opinion of the Italians, yet he +recognized their higher qualities. In Modena, Reggio, Bologna, and +Ferrara were thousands who understood the significance of the dawning +epoch. To these he paid visits and to their leaders he gave, during +the short interval at his command, hearty approbation for their +resistance to the reactionaries. Forestalling the Directory, he +declared Modena and Reggio to be under French protection. This daring +procedure assured his ascendancy with all Italian liberals and +rendered sure and certain the prosecution of his campaign to the +bitter end. Bologna and Ferrara, having surrendered to French +protection on June twenty-third, were soon in open revolt against the +papal influences which were reviving: and even in distant Naples the +liberals took heart once more. + +The glory of the imperial arms having been brilliantly vindicated in +the north, the government at Vienna naturally thought it not +impossible to relieve Mantua, and restore Austrian prestige in the +south. Every effort was to be made. The Tyrolese sharp-shooters were +called out, large numbers of raw recruits were gathered in Illyria and +Croatia, while a few veterans were taken from the forces of the +Archduke Charles. When these were collected, Quasdanowich found +himself in Friuli with upward of thirty-five thousand men, while +Davidowich in the Tyrol had eighteen thousand. The chief command of +both armies was assigned to Alvinczy, an experienced but aged general, +one of the same stock as that to which Wurmser belonged. About +October first, the two forces moved simultaneously, one down the +Adige, the other down the Piave, to unite before Vicenza, and proceed +to the relief of Mantua. For the fourth time Bonaparte was to fight +the same battle, on the same field, for the same object, with the same +inferiority of numbers. His situation, however was a trifle better +than it had been, for several veteran battalions which were no longer +needed in Vendee had arrived from the Army of the West; his own +soldiers were also well equipped and enthusiastic. He wrote to the +Directory, on October first, that he had thirty thousand effectives; +but he probably had more, for it is scarcely possible that, as he +said, eighteen thousand were in the hospitals. The populations around +and behind him were, moreover, losing faith in Austria, and growing +well disposed toward France. Many of his garrisons were, therefore, +called in; and deducting eight thousand men destined for the siege of +Mantua, he still had an army of nearly forty thousand men wherewith to +meet the Austrians. There was, of course, some disaffection among his +generals. Augereau was vainglorious and bitter, Massena felt that he +had not received his due meed of praise for Bassano, and both had +sympathizers even in the ranks. This was inevitable, considering +Bonaparte's policy and system, and somewhat interfered with the +efficiency of his work. + +While the balance was thus on the whole in favor of the French, yet +this fourth division of the campaign opened with disaster to them. In +order to prevent the union of his enemy's two armies, Bonaparte +ordered Vaubois, who had been left above Trent to guard the French +conquests in the Tyrol, to attack Davidowich. The result was a rout, +and Vaubois was compelled to abandon one strong position after +another,--first Trent, then Roveredo,--until finally he felt able to +make a stand on the right bank of the Adige at Rivoli, which commands +the southern slopes of Monte Baldo. The other bank was in Austrian +hands, and Davidowich could have debouched safely into the plain. This +result was largely due to the clever mountain warfare of the Tyrolese +militia. Meantime Massena had moved from Bassano up the Piave to +observe Alvinczy. Augereau was at Verona. On November fourth, Alvinczy +advanced and occupied Bassano, compelling Massena to retreat before +his superior force. Bonaparte, determined not to permit a junction of +the two Austrian armies, moved with Augereau's division to reinforce +Massena and drive Alvinczy back into the valley of the Piave. Augereau +fought all day on the sixth at Bassano, Massena at Citadella. This +first encounter was indecisive; but news of Vaubois's defeat having +arrived, the French thought it best to retreat on the following day. +There was not now a single obstacle to the union of the two Austrian +armies; and on November ninth, Alvinczy started for Verona, where the +French had halted on the eighth. It looked as if Bonaparte would be +attacked on both flanks at once, and thus overwhelmed. + +Verona lies on both banks of the river Adige, which is spanned by +several bridges; but the heart of the town is on the right. The +remains of Vaubois's army having been rallied at Rivoli, some miles +further up on that bank, Bonaparte made all possible use of the stream +as a natural fortification, and concentrated the remainder of his +forces on the same side. Alvinczy came up and occupied Caldiero, +situated on a gentle rise of the other shore to the south of east; but +the French division at Rivoli, which, by Bonaparte's drastic methods, +had been thoroughly shamed, and was now thirsty for revenge, held +Davidowich in check. He had remained some distance farther back to the +north, where it was expected he would cross and come down on the left +bank. To prevent this a fierce onslaught was made against Alvinczy's +position on November twelfth, by Massena's corps. It was entirely +unsuccessful, and the French were repulsed with the serious loss of +three thousand men. Bonaparte's position was now even more critical +than it had been at Castiglione; he had to contend with two new +Austrian armies, one on each flank, and Wurmser with a third stood +ready to sally out of Mantua in his rear. If there should be even +partial cooeperation between the Austrian leaders, he must retreat. But +he felt sure there would be no cooeperation whatsoever. From the force +in Verona and that before Mantua twenty thousand men were gathered to +descend the course of the Adige into the swampy lands about Ronco, +where a crossing was to be made and Alvinczy caught, if possible, at +Villanova, on his left flank. This turning manoeuver, though highly +dangerous, was fairly successful, and is considered by critics among +the finest in this or any other of Bonaparte's campaigns. Amid these +swamps, ditches, and dikes the methodical Austrians, aiming to carry +strong positions by one fierce onset, were brought into the greatest +disadvantage before the new tactics of swift movement in open columns, +which were difficult to assail. By a feint of retreat to the westward +the French army had left Verona without attracting attention, but by a +swift countermarch it reached Ronco on the morning of November +fifteenth, crossed in safety, and turned back to flank the Austrian +position. + +The first stand of the enemy was made at Arcola, where a short, narrow +bridge connects the high dikes which regulate the sluggish stream of +the little river Alpon, a tributary of the Adige on its left bank. +This bridge was defended by two battalions of Croatian recruits, +whose commander, Colonel Brigido, had placed a pair of field-pieces so +as to enfilade it. The French had been advancing in three columns by +as many causeways, the central one of which led to the bridge. The +first attempt to cross was repulsed by the deadly fire which the +Croats poured in from their sheltered position. Augereau, with his +picked corps, fared no better in a second charge led by himself +bearing the standard; and, in a third disastrous rush, Bonaparte, who +had caught up the standard and planted it on the bridge with his own +hand, was himself swept back into a quagmire, where he would have +perished but for a fourth return of the grenadiers, who drove back the +pursuing Austrians, and pulled their commander from the swamp. Fired +by his undaunted courage, the gallant lines were formed once more. At +that moment another French corps passed over lower down by pontoons, +and the Austrians becoming disorganized, in spite of the large +reinforcements which had come up under Alvinczy, the last charge on +the bridge was successful. With the capture of Arcola the French +turned their enemy's rear, and cut off not only his artillery, but his +reserves in the valley of the Brenta. The advantage, however, was +completely destroyed by the masterly retreat of Alvinczy from his +position at Caldiero, effected by other causeways and another bridge +further north, which the French had not been able to secure in time. + +Bonaparte quickly withdrew to Ronco, and recrossed the Adige to meet +an attack which he supposed Davidowich, having possibly forced +Vaubois's position, would then certainly make. But that general was +still in his old place, and gave no signs of activity. This movement +misled Alvinczy, who, thinking the French had started from Mantua, +returned by way of Arcola to pursue them. Again the French commander +led his forces across the Adige into the swampy lowlands. His enemy +had not forgotten the desperate fight at the bridge, and was timid; +and besides, in his close formation, he was on such ground no match +for the open ranks of the French. Retiring without any real resistance +as far as Arcola, the Austrians made their stand a second time in that +red-walled burg. Bonaparte could not well afford another direct +attack, with its attendant losses, and strove to turn the position by +fording the Alpon where it flows into the Adige. He failed, and +withdrew once more to Ronco, the second day remaining indecisive. On +the morning of the seventeenth, however, with undiminished fertility +of resource, a new plan was adopted and successfully carried out. One +of the pontoons on the Adige sank, and a body of Austrians charged the +small division stationed on the left bank to guard it, in the hope of +destroying the remainder of the bridge. They were repulsed and driven +back toward the marshes with which they meant to cover their flank. +The garrisons of both Arcola and Porcil, a neighboring hamlet, were +seriously weakened by the detention of this force. Two French +divisions were promptly despatched to make use of that advantage, +while at the same time an ambuscade was laid among the pollard willows +which lined the ditches beyond the retreating Austrians. At an +opportune moment the ambuscade unmasked, and by a terrible fire drove +three thousand of the Croatian recruits into the marsh, where most of +them were drowned or shot. Advancing then beyond the Alpon by a bridge +built during the previous night, Bonaparte gave battle on the high +ground to an enemy whose numbers were now, as he calculated, reduced +to a comparative equality with his own. The Austrians made a vigorous +resistance; but such was their credulity as to anything their enemy +might do, that a simple stratagem of the French made them believe that +their left was turned by a division, when in reality but twenty-five +men had been sent to ride around behind the swamps and blow their +bugles. Being simultaneously attacked on the front of the same wing by +Augereau, they drew off at last in good order toward Montebello. +Thence Alvinczy slowly retreated into the valley of the Brenta. The +French returned to Verona. Davidowich, ignorant of all that had +occurred, now finally dislodged Vaubois; but, finding before him +Massena with his division where he had expected Alvinczy and a great +Austrian army, he discreetly withdrew into the Tyrol. It was not until +November twenty-third, long after the departure of both his +colleagues, that Wurmser made a brilliant but of course ineffectual +sally from Mantua. The French were so exhausted, and the Austrians so +decimated and scattered, that by tacit consent hostilities were +intermitted for nearly two months. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX. + +Bonaparte's Imperious Spirit. + + Bonaparte's Transformation -- Military Genius -- Powers and + Principles -- Theory and Conduct -- Political Activity -- + Purposes for Italy -- Private Correspondence -- Treatment of + the Italian Powers -- Antagonism to the Directory -- The + Task Before Him -- Masked Dictator. + + +[Sidenote: 1796.] + +During the two months between the middle of November, 1796, and the +middle of January, 1797, there was a marked change in Bonaparte's +character and conduct. After Arcola he appeared as a man very +different from the novice he had been before Montenotte. Twice his +fortunes had hung by a single hair, having been rescued by the +desperate bravery of Rampon and his soldiers at Monte Legino, and +again by Augereau's daring at Lonato; twice he had barely escaped +being a prisoner, once at Valeggio, once at Lonato; twice his life had +been spared in the heat of battle as if by a miracle, once at Lodi, +once again at Arcola. These facts had apparently left a deep +impression on his mind, for they were turned to the best account in +making good a new step in social advancement. So far he had been as +adventurous as the greatest daredevil among the subalterns, staking +his life in every new venture; hereafter he seemed to appreciate his +own value, and to calculate not only the imperiling of his life, but +the intimacy of his conversation, with nice adaptation to some great +result. Gradually and informally a kind of body-guard was organized, +which, as the idea grew familiar, was skilfully developed into a +picked corps, the best officers and finest soldiers being made to feel +honored in its membership. The constant attendance of such men +necessarily secluded the general-in-chief from those colleagues who +had hitherto been familiar comrades. Something in the nature of formal +etiquette once established, it was easy to extend its rules and +confirm them. The generals were thus separated further and further +from their superior, and before the new year they had insensibly +adopted habits of address which displayed a high outward respect, and +virtually terminated all comradeship with one who had so recently been +merely the first among equals. Bonaparte's innate tendency to command +was under such circumstances hardened into a habit of imperious +dictation. In view of what had been accomplished, it would have been +impossible, even for the most stubborn democrat, to check the process. +Not one of Bonaparte's principles had failed to secure triumphant +vindication. + +In later years Napoleon himself believed, and subsequent criticism has +confirmed his opinion, that the Italian campaign, taken as a whole, +was his greatest. The revolution of any public system, social, +political, or military, is always a gigantic task. It was nothing less +than this which Bonaparte had wrought, not in one, but in all three +spheres, during the summer and autumn of 1796. The changes, like those +of most revolutions, were changes of emphasis and degree in the +application of principles already divined. "Divide and conquer" was an +old maxim; it was a novelty to see it applied in warfare and politics +as Bonaparte applied it in Italy. It has been remarked that the +essential difference between Napoleon and Frederick the Great was that +the latter had not ten thousand men a month to kill. The notion that +war should be short and terrible had, indeed, been clear to the great +Prussian; Carnot and the times afforded the opportunity for its +conclusive demonstration by the genius of the greater Corsican. +Concentration of besiegers to breach the walls of a town was nothing +new; but the triumphant application of the same principle to an +opposing line of troops, though well known to Julius Caesar, had been +forgotten, and its revival was Napoleon's masterpiece. The martinets +of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries had so exaggerated the +formalities of war that the relation of armies to the fighting-ground +had been little studied and well-nigh forgotten; the use of the map +and the compass, the study of reliefs and profiles in topography, +produced in Bonaparte's hands results that seemed to duller minds +nothing short of miraculous. One of these was to oppose the old-school +rigid formation of troops by any formation more or less open and +irregular according to circumstances, but always the kind best suited +to the character of the seat of war. The first two days at Arcola were +the triumphant vindication of this concept. Finally, there was a +fascination for the French soldiers in the primitive savagery of their +general, which, though partly concealed, and somewhat held in by +training, nevertheless was willing that the spoils of their conquest +should be devoted to making the victorious contestants opulent; which +scorned the limitations of human powers in himself and them, and thus +accomplished feats of strength and stratagem which gratified to +satiety that love for the uncommon, the ideal, and the great which is +inherent in the spirit of their nation. In the successful combination +and evolution of all these elements there was a grandeur which +Bonaparte and every soldier of his army appreciated at its full value. + +The military side of Bonaparte's genius is ordinarily considered the +strongest. Judged by what is easily visible in the way of immediate +consequences and permanent results, this appears to be true; and yet +it was only one of many sides. Next in importance, if not equal to it, +was his activity in politics and diplomacy. It is easy to call names, +to stigmatize the peoples of Italy, all the nations even of western +Europe, as corrupt and enervated, to laugh at their politics as +antiquated, and to brand their rulers as incapable fools. An ordinary +man can, by the assistance of the knowledge, education, and insight +acquired by the experience of his race through an additional century, +turn and show how commonplace was the person who toppled over such an +old rotten structure. This is the method of Napoleon's detractors, +except when, in addition, they first magnify his wickedness, and then +further distort the proportion by viewing his fine powers through the +other end of the glass. We all know how easy great things are when +once they have been accomplished, how simple the key to a mystery when +once it has been revealed. Morally considered, Bonaparte was a child +of nature, born to a mean estate, buffeted by a cruel and remorseless +society, driven in youth to every shift for self-preservation, +compelled to fight an unregenerate world with its own weapons. He had +not been changed in the flash of a gun. Elevation to reputation and +power did not diminish the duplicity of his character; on the +contrary, it possibly intensified it. Certainly the fierce light which +began to beat upon him brought it into greater prominence. Truth, +honor, unselfishness are theoretically the virtues of all philosophy; +practically they are the virtues of Christian men in Christian +society. Where should the scion of a Corsican stock, ignorant of moral +or religious sentiment, thrown into the atmosphere and surroundings of +the French Revolution, learn to practise them? + +Such considerations are indispensable in the observation of +Bonaparte's progress as a politician. His first settlement with the +various peoples of central Italy was, as he had declared, only +provisional. The uncertain status created by it was momentarily not +unwelcome to the Directory. Their policy was to destroy existing +institutions, and leave order to evolve itself from the chaos as best +it could. Doctrinaires as they were, they meant to destroy absolute +monarchy in Italy, as everywhere else, if possible, and then to stop, +leaving the liberated peoples to their own devices. Some fondly +believed that out of anarchy would arise, in accordance with "the law +of nature," a pure democracy; while others had the same faith that the +result would be constitutional monarchy. Moreover, things appear +simpler in the perspective of distance than they do near at hand. The +sincerity of Bonaparte's republicanism was like the sincerity of his +conduct--an affair of time and place, a consistency with conditions +and not with abstractions. He knew the Italian mob, and faithfully +described it in his letters as dull, ignorant, and unreliable, without +preparation or fitness for self-government. He was willing to +establish the forms of constitutional administration; but in spite of +hearty support from many disciples of the Revolution, he found those +forms likely, if not certain, to crumble under their own weight, and +was convinced that the real sovereignty must for years to come reside +in a strong protectorate of some kind. It appeared to him a necessity +of war that these peoples should relieve the destitution of the French +treasury and army, a necessity of circumstances that France should be +restored to vigor and health by laying tribute on their treasures of +art and science, as on those of all the world, and a necessity of +political science that artificial boundaries should be destroyed, as +they had been in France, to produce the homogeneity of condition +essential to national or administrative unity. + +The Italians themselves understood neither the policy of the French +executive nor that of their conqueror. The transitional position in +which the latter had left them produced great uneasiness. The +terrified local authorities asked nothing better than to be left as +they were, with a view to profiting by the event, whatever it might +be. After every Austrian success there were numerous local revolts, +which the French garrison commanders suppressed with severity. +Provisional governments soon come to the end of their usefulness, and +the enemies of France began to take advantage of the disorder in order +to undo what had been done. The English, for example, had seized Porto +Ferrajo in place of Leghorn; the Pope had gone further, and, in spite +of the armistice, was assembling an army for the recovery of Bologna, +Ferrara, and his other lost legations. Thus it happened that in the +intervals of the most laborious military operations, a political +activity, both comprehensive and feverish, kept pace in Bonaparte's +mind with that which was needed to regulate his campaigning. + +At the very outset there was developed an antagonism between the +notions of the Directory and Bonaparte's interests. The latter +observed all the forms of consulting his superiors, but acted without +the slightest reference to their instructions, often even before they +could receive his despatches. Both he and they knew the weakness of +the French government, and the inherent absurdity of the situation. +The story of French conquest in Italy might be told exactly as if the +invading general were acting solely on his own responsibility. In his +proclamations to the Italians was one language; in his letters to the +executive, another; in a few confidential family communications, still +another; in his own heart, the same old idea of using each day as it +came to advance his own fortunes. As far as he had any love of +country, it was expended on France, and what we may call his +principles were conceptions derived from the Revolution; but somehow +the best interests of France and the safety of revolutionary doctrine +were every day more involved in the pacification of Italy, in the +humiliation of Austria, and in the supremacy of the army. There was +only one man who could secure all three; could give consistency to the +flaccid and visionary policy of the Directory; could repress the +frightful robberies of its civil agents in Italy; could with any show +of reason humble Italy with one hand, and then with the other rouse +her to wholesome energy; could enrich and glorify France while +crushing out, as no royal dynasty had ever been able to do, the +haughty rivalry of the Hapsburgs. + +These purposes made Bonaparte the most gentle and conciliatory of men +in some directions; in others they developed and hardened his +imperiousness. His correspondence mirrors both his mildness and his +arbitrariness. His letters to the Directory abound in praise of his +officers and men, accompanied by demands for the promotion of those +who had performed distinguished services. Writing to General Clarke on +November nineteenth, 1796, from Verona, he says, in words full of +pathos: "Your nephew Elliot was killed on the battle-field of Arcola. +This youth had made himself familiar with arms; several times he had +marched at the head of columns; he would one day have been an +estimable officer. He died with glory, in the face of the foe; he did +not suffer for a moment. What reasonable man would not envy such a +death? Who is he that in the vicissitudes of life would not agree to +leave in such a way a world so often worthy of contempt? What one of +us has not a hundred times regretted that he could not thus be +withdrawn from the powerful effects of calumny, of envy, and of all +the hateful passions that seem almost entirely to control human +conduct?" Perhaps these few words to the widow of one of his late +officers are even finer: "Muiron died at my side on the late +battle-field of Arcola. You have lost a husband that was dear to you; +I, a friend to whom I have long been attached: but the country loses +more than us both in the death of an officer distinguished no less by +his talents than by his rare courage. If I can be of service in +anything to you or his child, I pray you count altogether upon me." +That was all; but it was enough. With the ripening of character, and +under the responsibilities of life, an individual style had come at +last. It is martial and terse almost to affectation, defying +translation, and perfectly reflecting the character of its writer. + +But the hours when the general-in-chief was war-worn, weary, tender, +and subject to human regrets like other men, were not those which he +revealed to the world. He was peremptory, and sometimes even peevish, +with the French executive after he had them in his hand; with Italy he +assumed a parental role, meting out chastisement and reward as best +suited his purpose. A definite treaty of peace had been made with +Sardinia, and that power, though weak and maimed, was going its own +way. The Transpadane Republic, which he had begun to organize as soon +as he entered Milan, was carefully cherished and guided in its +artificial existence; but the people, whether or not they were fit, +had no chance to exercise any real independence under the shadow of +such a power. It was, moreover, not the power of France; for, by +special order of Bonaparte, the civil agents of the Directory were +subordinated to the military commanders, ostensibly because the former +were so rapacious. Lombardy in this way became his very own. Rome had +made the armistice of Bologna merely to gain time, and in the hope of +eventual disaster to French arms. A pretext for the resumption of +hostilities was easily found by her in a foolish command, issued from +Paris, that the Pope should at length recognize as regular those of +the clergy who had sworn allegiance to the successive constitutions +adopted under the republic, and withdraw all his proclamations against +those who had observed their oaths and conformed. The Pontiff, relying +on the final success of Austria, had virtually broken off +negotiations. Bonaparte informed the French agent in Rome that he must +do anything to gain time, anything to deceive the "old fox"; in a +favorable moment he expected to pounce upon Rome, and avenge the +national honor. During the interval Naples also had become refractory; +refusing a tribute demanded by the Directory, she was not only +collecting soldiers, like the Pope, but actually had some regiments in +marching order. Venice, asserting her neutrality, was growing more and +more bitter at the constant violations of her territory. Mantua was +still a defiant fortress, and in this crisis nothing was left but to +revive French credit where the peoples were best disposed and their +old rulers weakest. + +Accordingly, Bonaparte went through the form of consulting the +Directory as to a plan of procedure, and then, without waiting for an +answer from them, and without the consent of those most deeply +interested, broke the armistice with Modena on the pretext that five +hundred thousand francs of ransom money were yet unpaid, and drove the +duke from his throne. This duchy was the nucleus about which was to be +constituted the Cispadane Republic: in conjunction with its +inhabitants, those of Reggio, Bologna, and Ferrara were invited to +form a free government under that name. There had at least been a +pretext for erecting the Milanese into the Transpadane Republic--that +of driving an invader from its soil. This time there was no pretext of +that kind, and the Directory opposed so bold an act regarding these +lands, being uneasy about public opinion in regard to it. They hoped +the war would soon be ended, and were verging to the opinion that +their armies must before long leave the Italians to their own devices. +The conduct of their general pointed, however, in the opposite +direction; he forced the native liberals of the district to take the +necessary steps toward organizing the new state so rapidly that the +Directory found itself compelled to yield. It is possible, but not +likely, that, as has been charged, Bonaparte really intended to bring +about what actually happened, the continued dependence on the French +republic of a lot of artificial governments. The uninterrupted +meddling of France in the affairs of the Italians destroyed in the end +all her influence, and made them hate her dominion, which masqueraded +as liberalism, even more than they had hated the open but mild tyranny +of those royal scions of foreign stocks recently dismissed from their +thrones. During these months there is in Bonaparte's correspondence a +somewhat theatrical iteration of devotion to France and republican +principles, but his first care was for his army and the success of his +campaign. He behaved as any general solicitous for the strength of his +positions on foreign soil would have done, his ruses taking the form +of constantly repeating the political shibboleths then used in France. +Soon afterward Naples made her peace; an insurrection in Corsica +against English rule enabled France to seize that island once more; +and Genoa entered into a formal alliance with the Directory. + +How important these circumstances were comparatively can only be +understood by considering the fiascoes of the Directory elsewhere. No +wonder they groveled before Bonaparte, while pocketing his millions +and saving their face at home and abroad by reason of his victories, +and his alone. They had two great schemes to annihilate British power: +one, to invade Ireland, close all the North Sea ports to British +commerce, and finally to descend on British shores with an +irresistible host of the French democracy. Subsequent events of +Napoleon's life must be judged in full view of the dead earnestness +with which the Directory cherished this plan. But it was versatile +likewise and had a second alternative, to foment rebellions in Persia, +Turkey, and Egypt, overrun the latter country, and menace India. This +second scheme influenced Bonaparte's career more deeply than the +other, both were parts of traditional French policy and cherished by +the French public as the great lines for expanding French renown and +French influence. Both must be reckoned with by any suitor of France. +For the Irish expedition Hoche was available; in his vain efforts for +success he undermined his health and in his untimely death removed one +possible rival of Bonaparte. The directors had Holland, but they could +not win Prussia further than the stipulations made in 1795 at Basel, +so their scheme of embargo rested in futile abeyance. They exhibited +considerable activity in building a fleet, and the King of Spain, in +spite of Godoy's opposition, accepted the title of a French admiral. +By the treaty of San Ildefonso an offensive alliance against Great +Britain was concluded, her commerce to be excluded from Portugal; +Louisiana and Florida going to France. All the clauses except this +last were nugatory because of Spanish weakness, but Bonaparte put in +the plea for compensation to the Spanish Bourbons by some grant of +Italian territory to the house of Parma. As we have elsewhere +indicated, their attack on Austria in central Europe was a failure, +Jourdan having been soundly beaten at Wuerzburg. There was no road open +to Vienna except through Italy. Their negotiations with the papacy +failed utterly; only a victorious warrior could overcome its powerful +scruples, which in the aggregate prevented the hearty adhesion of +French Roman Catholics to the republican system. Of necessity their +conceptions of Italian destiny must yield to his, which were widely +different from theirs. + +Before such conditions other interests sink into atrophy; +thenceforward, for example, there appears in Bonaparte's nature no +trace of the Corsican patriot. The one faint spark of remaining +interest seems to have been extinguished in an order that Pozzo di +Borgo and his friends, if they had not escaped, should be brought to +judgment. His other measures with reference to the once loved island +were as calculating and dispassionate as any he took concerning the +most indifferent principality of the mainland, and even extended to +enunciating the principle that no Corsican should be employed in +Corsica. It is a citizen not of Corsica, nor of France even, but of +Europe, who on October second demands peace from the Emperor in a +threat that if it is not yielded on favorable terms, Triest and the +Adriatic will be seized. At the same time the Directory received from +him another reminder of its position, which likewise indicates an +interesting development of his own policy. "Diminish the number of +your enemies. The influence of Rome is incalculable; it was ill +advised to break with that power; it gives the advantage to her. If I +had been consulted, I would have delayed the negotiations with Rome as +with Genoa and Venice. Whenever your general in Italy is not the pivot +of everything, you run great risks. This language will not be +attributed to ambition; I have but too many honors, and my health is +so broken that I believe I must ask you for a successor. I can no +longer mount a horse; I have nothing left but courage, which is not +enough in a post like this." Before this masked dictator were two +tasks as difficult in their way as any even he would ever undertake, +each calling for the exercise of faculties antipodal in quality, but +quite as fine as any in the human mind. Mantua was yet to be captured; +Rome and the Pope were to be handled so as to render the highest +service to himself, to France, and to Europe. In both these labors he +meant to be strengthened and yet unhampered. The habit of compliance +was now strong upon the Directory, and they continued to yield as +before. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI. + +Rivoli and the Capitulation of Mantua. + + The Diplomatic Feint of Great Britain -- Clarke and the + Directory -- Catherine the Great and Paul I -- Austria's + Strategic Plan -- Renewal of Hostilities -- The Austrians at + Rivoli and Nogara -- Bonaparte's Night March to Rivoli -- + Monte Baldo and the Berner Klause -- The Battle of Rivoli -- + The Battle of La Favorita -- Feats of the French Army -- + Bonaparte's Achievement -- The Fall of Mantua. + + +[Sidenote: 1797.] + +The fifth division of the Italian campaign was the fourth attempt of +Austria to retrieve her position in Italy, a position on which her +rulers still believed that all her destinies hung. Her energy was now +the wilfulness of despair. Events in Europe were shaping themselves +without regard to her advantage. The momentary humiliation of France +in Jourdan's defeat, the deplorable condition of British finances as +shown by the fall of the three per cents to fifty-three, the unsettled +and dangerous state of Ireland, with the menace of Hoche's invasion +impending, these circumstances created in London a feeling that +perhaps the time was propitious for negotiating with France, where too +there was considerable agitation for peace. Accordingly, in the autumn +of 1796, Lord Malmesbury was sent to Paris under rigid cautionary +instructions. The envoy was cold and haughty; Delacroix, the French +minister, was conceited and shallow. It soon appeared that what the +agent had to offer was either so indefinite as to be meaningless, or +so favorable to Great Britain as to be ridiculous in principle. The +negotiations were merely diplomatic fencing. To the Englishman the +public law of Europe was still that of the peace of Utrecht, +especially as to the Netherlands; to the Frenchman this was +preposterous since the Low Countries were already in France by +enactment and the rule of natural boundaries. About the middle of +November, Malmesbury was informed that he must either speak to the +point or leave. Of course the point was Belgium; if France would +abandon her claim to Antwerp she could have compensation in Germany. +There was some further futile talk about what both parties then as +before, and thereafter to the end, considered the very nerve of their +contention. Malmesbury went home toward the close of December, and +soon after, Hoche's fleet was wrecked in the Channel. The result of +the British mission was to clarify the issues, to consolidate British +patriotism once more, to reopen the war on a definite basis. Hoche was +assigned to the Army of the Sambre and Meuse, declaring he would first +thunder at the gates of Vienna and then return through Ireland to +London and command the peace of the world. + +Meantime the Directory had noted the possibility of independent +negotiation with Austria. It did not intend, complaisant as it had +been hitherto, to leave Bonaparte unhampered in so momentous a +transaction. On the contrary, it selected a pliable and obedient agent +in the person of General Clarke, offspring of an Irish refugee family, +either a mild republican or a constitutional monarchist according to +circumstances, a lover of peace and order, a conciliatory spirit. To +him was given the directors' confidential, elaborate, and elastic plan +for territorial compensations as a basis for peace, the outcome of +which in any case would leave Prussia preponderant in Germany. Liberal +and well disposed to the Revolution as they believed, she could then +be wooed into a firm alliance. In Italy, France was to maintain her +new authority and retain what she had conquered for her own good +pleasure. Bonaparte intended to do as he found necessary in both these +cases. After Arcola, Thugut, the Austrian minister, expressed a sense +of the deepest humiliation that a youth commanding volunteers and +rapscallions should work his will with the fine troops and skilled +generals of the empire. But, undaunted, he applied to Russia for +succor. Catherine had dallied with Jacobinism in order to occupy both +Prussia and Austria while she consolidated and confirmed her strength +in Poland and the Orient. This she had accomplished and was now ready +to bridle the wild steed she had herself unloosed. Intervening at the +auspicious hour, she could deliver Italy, take control of central +Europe, subjugate the north, and sway the universe. + +Accordingly she demanded from Pitt a subsidy of two and a half million +dollars, and ordered Suvoroff with sixty thousand troops to the +assistance of Austria. Just then, in September, 1796, Gustavus IV, of +Sweden, was at St. Petersburg for his betrothal with the Empress's +granddaughter Alexandra. He required as a matter of course that she +should adopt his faith. This was contemptuously refused and the +preparations for the festival went forward to completion as if nothing +had occurred. At the appointed hour for the ceremonial, the groom did +not and would not appear. Consternation gave way to a sense of +outrage, but the "Kinglet," as the great courtiers styled him, stood +firm. The Empress was beside herself, her health gave way, and she +died in less than two months, on November seventeenth. The dangerous +imbecile, her son Paul I, reigned in her stead. Weird figure that he +was, he at least renounced his mother's policy of conquest and +countermanded her orders to Suvoroff, recalling him and his army. +Austria was at bay, but she was undaunted. + +Once more Alvinczy, despairing of success, but obedient to his orders, +made ready to move down the Adige from Trent. Great zeal had been +shown in Austria. The Vienna volunteer battalions abandoned the work +of home protection for which they had enlisted, and, with a banner +embroidered by the Empress's own hand, joined the active forces. The +Tyrolese, in defiance of the atrocious proclamation in which +Bonaparte, claiming to be their conqueror, had threatened death to any +one taking up arms against France, flocked again to the support of +their Emperor. By a recurrence to the old fatal plan, Alvinczy was to +attack the main French army; his colleague Provera was to follow the +Brenta into the lower reaches of the Adige, where he could effect a +crossing, and relieve Mantua. He was likewise to deceive the enemy by +making a parade of greater strength than he really had, and thus draw +away Bonaparte's main army toward Legnago on the lower Adige. A +messenger was despatched to Wurmser with letters over the Emperor's +own signature, ordering him, if Provera should fail, to desert Mantua, +retreat into the Romagna, and under his own command unite the garrison +and the papal troops. This order never reached its destination, for +its bearer was intercepted, and was compelled by the use of an emetic +to render up the despatches which he had swallowed. + +On January seventh, 1797, Bonaparte gave orders to strengthen the +communications along his line, massing two thousand men at Bologna in +order to repress certain hostile demonstrations lately made in behalf +of the Pope. On the following day an Austrian division which had been +lying at Padua made a short attack on Augereau's division, and on the +ninth drove it into Porto Legnago, the extreme right of the French +line. This could mean nothing else than a renewal of hostilities by +Austria, although it was impossible to tell where the main attack +would be made. On the eleventh Bonaparte was at Bologna, concluding an +advantageous treaty with Tuscany; in order to be ready for any event, +he started the same evening, hastened across the Adige with his +troops, and pressed on to Verona. + +On the twelfth, at six in the morning, the enemy attacked Massena's +advance-guard at St. Michel, a suburb of that city. They were repulsed +with loss. Early on the same day Joubert, who had been stationed with +a corps of observation farther up in the old and tried position at the +foot of Monte Baldo, became aware of hostile movements, and occupied +Rivoli. During the day the two Austrian columns tried to turn his +position by seizing his outpost at Corona, but they were repulsed. On +the thirteenth he became aware that the main body of the Austrians was +before him, and that their intention was to surround him by the left. +Accordingly he informed Bonaparte, abandoned Corona, and made ready to +retreat from Rivoli. That evening Provera threw a pontoon bridge +across the Adige at Anghiari, below Legnago, and crossed with a +portion of his army. Next day he started for Mantua, but was so +harassed by Guieu and Augereau that the move was ineffectual, and he +got no farther than Nogara. + +The heights of Rivoli command the movements of any force passing out +of the Alps through the valley of the Adige. They are abrupt on all +sides but one, where from the greatest elevation the chapel of St. +Mark overlooked a winding road, steep, but available for cavalry and +artillery. Rising from the general level of the tableland, this +hillock is in itself a kind of natural citadel. Late on the +thirteenth, Joubert, in reply to the message he had sent, received +orders to fortify the plateau, and to hold it at all hazards; for +Bonaparte now divined that the main attack was to be made there in +order to divert all opposition from Provera, and that if it were +successful the two Austrian armies would meet at Mantua. By ten that +evening the reports brought in from Joubert and by scouts left this +conclusion no longer doubtful. That very night, therefore, being in +perfect readiness for either event, Bonaparte moved toward Rivoli with +a force numbering about twenty thousand. It was composed of every +available French soldier between Desenzano and Verona, including +Massena's division.[68] By strenuous exertions they reached the +heights of Rivoli about two in the morning of the fourteenth. +Alvinczy, ignorant of what had happened, was waiting for daylight in +order to carry out his original design of inclosing and capturing the +comparatively small force of Joubert and the strong place which it had +been set to hold, a spot long since recognized by Northern peoples as +the key to the portal of Italy. Bonaparte, on his arrival, perceived +in the moonlight five divisions encamped in a semicircle below; their +bivouac fires made clear that they were separated from one another by +considerable distances. He knew then that his instinct had been +correct, that this was the main army, and that the decisive battle +would be fought next day. The following hours were spent in disposing +his forces to meet the attack in any form it might take. Not a man was +wasted, but the region was occupied with pickets, outposts, and +reserves so ingeniously stationed that the study of that field, and of +Bonaparte's disposition of his forces, has become a classic example +in military science. + + [Footnote 68: Somewhat under 40,000. Bonaparte guessed, + and his guess was very shrewd, that all told he was then + confronted by 45,000. The Austrians have never made the + facts clear, though their initial strength is set at + 28,000. I have found no estimate of the reinforcements. + In any case they lost 10,000 here, the whole of + Provera's corps at La Favorita, and 18,000 were captured + at Mantua: their fighting force in Italy was + annihilated.] + +The gorge by which the Adige breaks through the lowest foot-hills of +the Alps to enter the lowlands has been famous since dim antiquity. +The Romans considered it the entrance to Cimmeria; it was sung in +German myths as the Berner Klause, the majestic gateway from their +inclement clime into the land of the stranger, that warm, bright land +for the luxurious and orderly life of which their hearts were ever +yearning. Around its precipices and isolated, frowning bastions song +and fable had clustered, and the effect of mystery was enhanced by the +awful grandeur of the scene. Overlooking all stands Monte Baldo, +frowning with its dark precipices on the cold summits of the German +highland, smiling with its sunny slopes on the blue waters of Lake +Garda and the fertile valley of the Po. In the change of strategy +incident to the introduction of gunpowder the spot of greatest +resistance was no longer in the gorge, but at its mouth, where Rivoli +on one side, and Ceraino on the other, command respectively the gentle +slopes which fall eastward and westward toward the plains. The Alps +were indeed looking down on the "Little Corporal," who, having flanked +their defenses at one end, was now about to force their center, and +later to pass by their eastward end into the hereditary dominions of +the German emperors on the Danube. + +At early dawn began the conflict which was to settle the fate of +Mantua. The first fierce contest was between the Austrian left and the +French right at St. Mark; but it quickly spread along the whole line +as far as Caprino. For some time the Austrians had the advantage, and +the result was in suspense, since the French left, at Caprino, yielded +for an instant before the onslaught of the main Austrian army made in +accordance with Alvinczy's first plan, and, as he supposed, upon an +inferior force by one vastly superior in numbers. Berthier, who by his +calm courage was fast rising high in his commander's favor, came to +the rescue, and Massena, following with a judgment which has +inseparably linked his name with that famous spot, finally restored +order to the French ranks. Every successive charge of the Austrians +was repulsed with a violence which threw their right and center back +toward Monte Baldo in ever growing confusion. The battle waged for +nearly three hours before Alvinczy understood that it was not +Joubert's division, but Bonaparte's army, which was before him. A +fifth Austrian column then pressed forward from the bank of the Adige +to scale the height of Rivoli, and Joubert, whose left at St. Mark was +hard beset, could not check the movement. For an instant he left the +road unprotected. The Austrians charged up the hill and seized the +commanding position; but simultaneously there rushed from the opposite +side three French battalions, clambering up to retrieve the loss. The +nervous activity of the latter brought them quickly to the top, where +at once they were reinforced by a portion of the cavalry reserve, and +the storming columns were thrown back in disorder. At that instant +appeared in Bonaparte's rear an Austrian corps which had been destined +to take the French at Rivoli in their rear. Had it arrived sooner, the +position would, as the French declared, have been lost to them. As it +was, instead of making an attack, the Austrians had to await one. +Bonaparte directed a falling artillery fire against them, and threw +them back toward Lake Garda. He thus gained time to re-form his own +ranks and enabled Massena to hold in check still another of the +Austrian columns, which was striving to outflank him on his left. +Thereupon the French reserve under Rey, coming in from the westward, +cut the turning column entirely off, and compelled it to surrender. +The rest of Alvinczy's force being already in full retreat, this ended +the worst defeat and most complete rout which the Austrian arms had so +far sustained. Such was the utter demoralization of the flying and +disintegrated columns that a young French officer named Rene, who was +in command of fifty men at a hamlet on Lake Garda, successfully +imitated Bonaparte's ruse at Lonato, and displayed such an imposing +confidence to a flying troop of fifteen hundred Austrians that they +surrendered to what appeared to be a force superior to their own. Next +morning at dawn, Murat, who had marched all night to gain the point, +appeared on the slopes of Monte Baldo above Corona, and united with +Joubert to drive the Austrians from their last foothold. The pursuit +was continued as far as Trent. Thirteen thousand prisoners were +captured in those two days. + +[Illustration: Enlarged Plan of Lake of Garda and Adjacent Country. +Map Illustrating the Campaign Preceding the Treaty of Campo-Formio +1797.] + +While Murat was straining up the slopes of Monte Baldo, Bonaparte, +giving no rest to the weary feet of Massena's division,--the same men +who two days before had marched by night from Verona,--was retracing +his steps on that well-worn road past the city of Catullus and the +Capulets onward toward Mantua. Provera had crossed the Adige at +Anghiari with ten thousand men. Twice he had been attacked: once in +the front by Guieu, once in the rear by Augereau. On both occasions +his losses had been severe, but, nevertheless, on the same morning +which saw Alvinczy's flight into the Tyrol, he finally appeared with +six thousand men in the suburb of St. George, before Mantua. He +succeeded in communicating with Wurmser, but was held in check by the +blockading French army throughout the day and night until Bonaparte +arrived with his reinforcements. Next morning there was a general +engagement, Provera attacking in front, and Wurmser, by +preconcerted arrangement, sallying out from behind at the head of a +strong force. The latter was thrown back into the town by Serurier, +who commanded the besiegers, but only after a fierce and deadly +conflict on the causeway. This was the road from Mantua to a +country-seat of its dukes known as "La Favorita," and was chosen for +the sortie as having an independent citadel. Victor, with some of the +troops brought in from Rivoli, the "terrible fifty-seventh +demi-brigade," as Bonaparte designated them, attacked Provera at the +same time, and threw his ranks into such disorder that he was glad to +surrender his entire force. This conflict of January sixteenth, before +Mantua, is known as the battle of La Favorita, from the stand made by +Serurier on the road to that residence. Its results were six thousand +prisoners, among them the Vienna volunteers with the Empress's banner, +and many guns. In his fifty-fifth year this French soldier of fortune +had finally reached the climax of his career. Having fought in the +Seven Years' War, in Portugal and in Corsica, the Revolution gave him +his opening. He assisted Scherer in the capture of the Maritime Alps, +and fought with leonine power at Mondovi and these succeeding +movements. While his fortunes were linked with Bonaparte's they +mounted higher and higher. As governor of Venice he was so upright and +incorruptible as to win the sobriquet "Virgin of Italy." The +discouragement of defeat under Moreau in 1798 led him to retire into +civil life, where he was a stanch Bonapartist and faithful official to +the end of the Napoleonic epoch, when he rallied to the Bourbons. + +Bonaparte estimated that so far in the Italian campaigns the army of +the republic had fought within four days two pitched battles, and had +besides been six times engaged; that they had taken, all told, nearly +twenty-five thousand prisoners, including a lieutenant-general, two +generals, and fifteen colonels; had captured twenty standards, with +sixty pieces of artillery, and had killed or wounded six thousand men. + +This short campaign of Rivoli was the turning-point of the war, and +may be said to have shaped the history of Europe for twenty years. +Chroniclers dwell upon those few moments at St. Mark and the plateau +of Rivoli, wondering what the result would have been if the Austrian +corps which came to turn the rear of Rivoli had arrived five minutes +sooner. But an accurate and dispassionate criticism must decide that +every step in Bonaparte's success was won by careful forethought and +by the most effective disposition of the forces at his command. So +sure was he of success that even in the crises when Massena seemed to +save the day on the left, and when the Austrians seemed destined to +wrest victory from defeat on the right, he was self-reliant and +cheerful. The new system of field operations had a triumphant +vindication at the hands of its author. The conquering general meted +out unstinted praise to his invincible squadrons and their leaders, +but said nothing of himself, leaving the world to judge whether this +were man or demon who, still a youth, and within a public career of +but one season, had humiliated the proudest empire on the Continent, +had subdued Italy, and on her soil had erected states unknown before, +without the consent of any great power, not excepting France. It is +not wonderful that this personage should sometimes have said of +himself, "Say that my life began at Rivoli," as at other times he +dated his military career from Toulon. + +Wurmser's retreat to Mantua in September had been successful because +of the strong cavalry force which accompanied it. He had been able to +hold out for four months only by means of the flesh of their horses, +five thousand in number, which had been killed and salted to increase +the garrison stores. Even this resource was now exhausted, and after a +few days of delay the gallant old man sent a messenger with the usual +conventional declarations as to his ability for further resistance, in +order, of course, to secure the most favorable terms of surrender. +There is a fine anecdote in connection with the arrival of this +messenger at the French headquarters, which, though perhaps not +literally, is probably ideally, true. When the Austrian envoy entered +Serurier's presence, another person wrapped in a cloak was sitting at +a table apparently engaged in writing. After the envoy had finished +the usual enumeration of the elements of strength still remaining to +his commander, the unknown man came forward, and, holding a written +sheet in his hand, said: "Here are my conditions. If Wurmser really +had provisions for twenty-five days, and spoke of surrender, he would +not deserve an honorable capitulation. But I respect the age, the +gallantry, and the misfortunes of the marshal; and whether he opens +his gates to-morrow, or whether he waits fifteen days, a month, or +three months, he shall still have the same conditions; he may wait +until his last morsel of bread has been eaten." The messenger was a +clever man who afterward rendered his own name, that of Klenau, +illustrious. He recognized Bonaparte, and, glancing at the terms, +found them so generous that he at once admitted the desperate straits +of the garrison. This is substantially the account of Napoleon's +memoirs. In a contemporary despatch to the Directory there is nothing +of it, for he never indulged in such details to them; but he does say +in two other despatches what at first blush militates against its +literal truth. On February first, writing from Bologna, he declared +that he would withdraw his conditions unless Wurmser acceded before +the third: yet, in a letter of that very date, he indulges in a long +and high-minded eulogium of the aged field-marshal, and declares his +wish to show true French generosity to such a foe. The simple +explanation is that, having sent the terms, Bonaparte immediately +withdrew from Mantua to leave Serurier in command at the surrender, a +glory he had so well deserved, and then returned to Bologna to begin +his final preparations against Rome. In the interval Wurmser made a +proposition even more favorable to himself. Bonaparte petulantly +rejected it, but with the return of his generous feeling he determined +that at least he would not withdraw his first offer. Captious critics +are never content, and they even charge that when, on the tenth, +Wurmser and his garrison finally did march out, Bonaparte's absence +was a breach of courtesy. It requires no great ardor in his defense to +assert, on the contrary, that in circumstances so unprecedented the +disparity of age between the respective representatives of the old and +the new military system would have made Bonaparte's presence another +drop in the bitter cup of the former. The magnanimity of the young +conqueror in connection with the fall of Mantua was genuine, and +highly honorable to him. So at least thought Wurmser himself, who +wrote a most kindly letter to Bonaparte, forewarning him that a plot +had been formed in Bologna to poison him with that noted, but never +seen, compound so famous in Italian history--aqua tofana. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII. + +Humiliation of the Papacy and of Venice[69]. + + [Footnote 69: The authorities for the following three + chapters are partly as before, but in particular the + following: Vivenot: Thugut, Clerfayt. Correspondance de + Thugut avec Colloredo. Hueffer: Oesterreich und Preussen, + etc.; Der Rastatter Congress. Von Sybel: Geschichte der + Revolutions Zeit. Bailleu: Preussen und Frankreich. + Sandoz-Rollin: Amtliche Sammlung von Akten aus der Zeit + der Helvetischen Republic. Sorel: Bonaparte et Hoche; + Bonaparte et le Directoire; also articles in the Revue + Historique, 1885. Sciout: Le Directoire, also article in + Revue des questions historiques, 1886. Boulay de la + Meurthe: Quelques lettres de Marie Caroline; Revue + d'histoire diplomatique, 1888. Barante: Histoire du + Directoire and Souvenirs. McClellan: The Oligarchy of + Venice. Bonnal: Chute d'une republique. Seche: Les + origines du Concordat. Dandolo: La caduta della + republica di Venetia. Romanin: Storia documentata di + Venezia. Sloane: The French Revolution and Religious + Reform. In general and further, the memoirs of Marmont, + Chaptal, Landrieux, Carnot, Larevelliere-Lepeaux + (probably not genuine), Mathieu Dumas, Thibaudeau, Miot + de Melito, and the correspondence of Mallet du Pan.] + + Rome Threatened -- Pius VI Surrenders -- The Peace of + Tolentino -- Bonaparte and the Papacy -- Designs for the + Orient -- France Reassured -- The Policy of Austria -- The + Archduke Charles -- Bonaparte Hampered by the Directory -- + His Treatment of Venice -- Condition of Venetia -- The + Commonwealth Warned. + + +[Sidenote: 1797.] + +Bonaparte seems after Rivoli to have reached the conviction that a man +who had brought such glory to the arms of France was at least as firm +in the affections of her people as was the Directory, which had no +hold on them whatever, except in its claim to represent the +Revolution. Clarke had reached Milan on November twenty-ninth, 1796. +Bonaparte read him like an open scroll, discovering instantly that +this graceful courtier had been commissioned to keep the little +general in his place as a subordinate, and use him to make peace at +any price. Possessing the full confidence of Carnot and almost +certainly of the entire Directory, the easily won diplomat revealed to +his lean, long-haired, ill-clad, penetrating, and facile inquisitor +the precious contents of the governmental mind. The religious +revolution in France had utterly failed, riotous vice had spread +consternation even in infidel minds, there was in the return a mighty +flood tide of orthodoxy; if the political revolution was to be saved +at all, it was at the price of peace, and peace very quickly. The +Directory had had little right to its distinction as savior of the +republic from the beginning, and even that was daily disputed by ever +increasing numbers: the most visible and dazzling representative of +the Revolution was now the Army of Italy. It was not for "those +rascally lawyers," as Bonaparte afterward called the directors, that +his great battle of Rivoli had been fought. With this fact in view, +the short ensuing campaign against Pius VI, and its consequences, are +easily understood. It was true, as the French general proclaimed, that +Rome had kept the stipulations of the armistice neither in a pacific +behavior nor in the payment of her indemnity, and was fomenting +resistance to the French arms throughout the peninsula. To the +Directory, which had desired the entire overthrow of the papacy, +Bonaparte proposed that with this in view, Rome should be handed over +to Spain. Behind these pretexts he gathered at Bologna an indifferent +force of eleven thousand soldiers, composed, one half of his own men, +the other half of Italians fired with revolutionary zeal, and of +Poles, a people who, since the recent dismemberment of their country, +were wooing France as a possible ally in its reconstruction. The main +division marched against Ancona; a smaller one of two thousand men +directed its course through Tuscany into the valley of the Tiber. + +The position of the Pope was utterly desperate. The Spaniards had once +been masters of Italy; they were now the natural allies of France +against Austria, and Bonaparte's leniency to Parma and Naples had +strengthened the bond. The reigning king at Naples, Ferdinand IV of +the Two Sicilies, was one of the Spanish Bourbons; but his very able +and masterful wife was the daughter of Maria Theresa. His position was +therefore peculiar: if he had dared, he would have sent an army to the +Pope's support, for thus far his consort had shaped his policy in the +interest of Austria; but knowing full well that defeat would mean the +limitation of his domain to the island of Sicily, he preferred to +remain neutral, and pick up what crumbs he could get from Bonaparte's +table. For this there were excellent reasons. The English fleet had +been more or less unfortunate since the spring of 1796: Bonaparte's +victories, being supplemented by the activity of the French cruisers, +had made it difficult for it to remain in the Mediterranean; Corsica +was abandoned in September; and in October the squadron of Admiral +Mann was literally chased into the Atlantic by the Spaniards. +Ferdinand, therefore, could expect no help from the British. As to the +papal mercenaries, they had long been the laughing-stock of Europe. +They did not now belie their character. Not a single serious +engagement was fought; at Ancona and Loretto twelve hundred prisoners, +with a treasure valued at seven million francs, were taken without a +blow; and on February nineteenth Bonaparte dictated the terms of peace +at Tolentino. + +The terms were not such as either the Pope or the Directory expected. +Far from it. To be sure, there was, over and above the first ransom, a +new money indemnity of three million dollars, making, when added to +what had been exacted in the previous summer, a total of more than +seven. Further stipulations were the surrender of the legations of +Bologna and Ferrara, together with the Romagna; consent to the +incorporation into France of Avignon and the Venaissin, the two papal +possessions in the Rhone valley which had already been annexed; and +the temporary delivery of Ancona as a pledge for the fulfilment of +these engagements; further still, the dispersion of the papal army, +with satisfaction for the killing in a street row of Basseville, the +French plenipotentiary. This, however, was far short of the +annihilation of the papacy as a temporal power. More than that, the +vital question of ecclesiastical authority was not mentioned except to +guarantee it in the surrendered legations. To the Directory Bonaparte +explained that with such mutilations the Roman edifice would fall of +its own weight; and yet he gave his powerful protection to the French +priests who had refused the oaths to the civil constitution required +by the republic, and who, having renounced their allegiance, had found +an asylum in the Papal States. This latter step was taken in the role +of humanitarian. In reality, this first open and radical departure +from the policy of the Directory assured to Bonaparte the most +unbounded personal popularity with faithful Roman Catholics +everywhere, and was a step preliminary to his further alliance with +the papacy. The unthinking masses began to compare the captivity of +the Roman Church in France, which was the work of her government, with +the widely different fate of her faithful adherents at Rome under the +humane control of Bonaparte. + +Moreover, it was the French citizen collectors, and not the army, who +continued to scour every town for art plunder. It was believed that +Italy had finally given up "all that was curious and valuable except +some few objects at Turin and Naples," including the famous +wonder-working image of the Lady of Loretto. The words quoted were +used by Bonaparte in a despatch to the Directory, which inclosed a +curious document of very different character. Such had been the +gratitude of Pius for his preservation that he despatched a legate +with his apostolic blessing for the "dear son" who had snatched the +papal power from the very jaws of destruction. "Dear son" was merely a +formal phrase, and a gracious answer was returned from the French +headquarters. This equally formal letter of Bonaparte's was forwarded +to Paris, where, as he knew would be the case, it was regarded as a +good joke by the Directory, who were supposed to consider their +general's diplomacy as altogether patriotic. But, as no doubt the +writer foresaw, it had an altogether different effect on the public. +From that instant every pious Roman Catholic, not only in France, but +throughout Europe, whatever his attitude toward the Directory, was +either an avowed ally of Bonaparte or at least willing to await events +in a neutral spirit. As for the papacy, henceforward it was a tool in +the conqueror's hand: he was determined to use it as an indispensable +bulwark for public decency and political stability. One of the +cardinals gave the gracious preserver of his order a bust of Alexander +the Great: it was a common piece of flattery after the peace to say +that Bonaparte was, like Alexander, a Greek in stature, and, like +Caesar, a Roman in power. + +While at Ancona, Bonaparte had a temporary relapse into his yearning +for Oriental power. He wrote describing the harbor as the only good +one on the Adriatic south of Venice, and explaining how invaluable it +was for the influence of France on Turkey, since it controlled +communication with Constantinople, and Macedonia was but twenty-four +hours distant. With this despatch he inclosed letters from the Czar to +the Grand Master of Malta which had been seized on the person of a +courier. It was by an easy association of ideas that not long +afterward Bonaparte began to make suggestions for the seizure of Malta +and for a descent into Egypt. These, as elsewhere explained, were old +schemes of French foreign policy, and by no means original with him; +but having long been kept in the background, they were easily +recalled, the more so because in a short time both the new dictator +and the Directory seemed to find in them a remedy for their strained +relations. + +When the news of Rivoli reached Paris on January twenty-fifth, 1797, +the city went into a delirium of joy. To Clarke were sent that very +day instructions suggesting concessions to Austria for the sake of +peace, but enjoining him to consult Bonaparte at every step! To the +conqueror direct, only two days later, was recommended in explicit +terms the overthrow of Romanism in religion, "the most dangerous +obstacle to the establishment of the French constitution." This was a +new tone and the general might assume that his treaty of Tolentino +would be ratified. Further, he was assured that whatever terms of +peace he might dictate to Austria under the walls of Vienna, whether +distasteful to the Directory or not, were sure of being accepted by +the French nation. + +Meantime the foreign affairs of Austria had fallen into a most +precarious condition. Not only had the departure of the English fleet +from the Mediterranean furthered Bonaparte's success in Italy, but +Russia had given notice of an altered policy. If the modern state +system of Europe had rested on any one doctrine more firmly than on +another, it was on the theory of territorial boundaries, and the +inviolability of national existence. Yet, in defiance of all right and +all international law, Prussia, Russia, and Austria had in 1772 +swooped down like vultures on Poland, and parted large portions of her +still living body among themselves. The operation was so much to their +liking that it had been repeated in 1792, and completed in 1795. The +last division had been made with the understanding that, in return for +the lion's share which she received, Russia would give active +assistance to Austria in her designs on northern Italy. Not content +with the Milanese and a protectorate over Modena, Francis had already +cast his eyes on the Venetian mainland. But when on November +seventeenth, 1796, the great Catherine had died, and her successor, +Paul, had refused to be bound by his mother's engagements, all hope of +further aid vanishing, the empire, defeated at Rivoli, was in more +cruel straits than ever. Prussia was consolidating herself into a +great power likely in the end to destroy Austrian influence in the +Germanic Diet, which controlled the affairs of the empire. Both in +Italy and in Germany her rival's fortunes were in the last degree of +jeopardy. Thugut might well exclaim that Catherine's death was the +climax of Austria's misfortunes. + +The hour was dark indeed for Austria; and in the crisis Thugut, the +able and courageous minister of the Emperor, made up his mind at last +to throw, not some or the most, but all his master's military strength +into Italy. The youthful Archduke Charles, who had won great glory as +the conqueror of Jourdan, was accordingly summoned from Germany with +the strength of his army to break through the Tyrol, and prevent the +French from taking the now open road to Vienna. This brother of the +Emperor, though but twenty-five years old, was in his day second only +to Bonaparte as a general. The splendid persistence with which Austria +raised one great army after another to oppose France was worthy of her +traditions. Even when these armies were commanded by veterans of the +old school, they were terrible: it seemed to the cabinet at Vienna +that if Charles were left to lead them in accordance with his own +designs they would surely be victorious. Had he and his Army of the +Rhine been in Italy from the outset, they thought, the result might +have been different. Perhaps they were right; but his tardy arrival at +the eleventh hour was destined to avail nothing. The Aulic Council +ordered him into Friuli, a district of the Italian Alps on the borders +of Venice, where another army--the sixth within a year--was to +assemble for the protection of the Austrian frontier and await the +arrival of the veterans from Germany. This force, unlike the other +five, was composed of heterogeneous elements, and, until further +strengthened, inferior in numbers to the French, who had finally been +reinforced by fifteen thousand men, under Bernadotte, from the Army of +the Sambre and Meuse. + +When Bonaparte started from Mantua for the Alps, his position was the +strongest he had so far secured. The Directory had until then shown +their uneasy jealousy of him by refusing the reinforcements which he +was constantly demanding. It had become evident that the approaching +elections would result in destroying their ascendancy in the Five +Hundred, and that more than ever they must depend for support on the +army. Accordingly they had swallowed their pride, and made Bonaparte +strong. This change in the policy of the government likewise affected +the south and east of France most favorably for his purposes. The +personal pique of the generals commanding in those districts had +subjected him to many inconveniences as to communications with Paris, +as well as in the passage of troops, stores, and the like. They now +recognized that in the approaching political crisis the fate of the +republic would hang on the army, and for that reason they must needs +be complaisant with its foremost figure, whose exploits had dimmed +even those of Hoche in the Netherlands and western France. Italy was +altogether subdued, and there was not a hostile power in the rear of +the great conqueror. Among many of the conquered his name was even +beloved: for the people of Milan his life and surroundings had the +same interest as if he were their own sovereign prince. In front, +however, the case was different; for the position of the Archduke +Charles left the territory of Venice directly between the hostile +armies in such a way as apparently to force Bonaparte into adopting a +definite policy for the treatment of that power. + +For the moment, however, there was no declaration of his decision by +the French commander-in-chief; not even a formal proposal to treat +with the Venetian oligarchy, which, to all outward appearance, had +remained as haughty as ever, as dark and inscrutable in its dealings, +as doubtful in the matter of good faith. And yet a method in +Bonaparte's dealing with it was soon apparent, which, though unlike +any he had used toward other Italian powers, was perfectly adapted to +the ends he had in view. He had already violated Venetian neutrality, +and intended to disregard it entirely. As a foretaste of what that +republic might expect, French soldiers were let loose to pillage her +towns until the inhabitants were so exasperated that they retaliated +by killing a few of their spoilers. Then began a persistent and +exasperating process of charges and complaints and admonitions, until +the origins of the respective offenses were forgotten in the +intervening recriminations. Then, as a warning to all who sought to +endanger the "friendly relations" between the countries, a troop of +French soldiers would be thrown here into one town, there into +another. This process went on without an interval, and with merciless +vigor, until the Venetian officials were literally distracted. +Remonstrance was in vain: Bonaparte laughed at forms. Finally, when +protest had proved unavailing, the harried oligarchy began at last to +arm, and it was not long before forty thousand men, mostly Slavonic +mercenaries, were enlisted under its banner. With his usual +conciliatory blandness, Bonaparte next proposed to the senate a treaty +of alliance, offensive and defensive. + +This was not a mere diplomatic move. Certain considerations might well +incline the oligarchy to accept the plan. There was no love lost +between the towns of the Venetian mainland and the city itself; for +the aristocracy of the latter would write no names in its Golden Book +except those of its own houses. The revolutionary movement had, +moreover, already so heightened the discontent which had spread +eastward from the Milanese, and was now prevalent in Brescia, Bergamo, +and Peschiera, that these cities really favored Bonaparte, and longed +to separate from Venice. Further than this, the Venetian senate had +early in January been informed by its agents in Paris of a rumor that +at the conclusion of peace Austria would indemnify herself with +Venetian territory for the loss of the Milanese. The disquiet of the +outlying cities on the borders of Lombardy was due to a desire for +union with the Transpadane Republic. They little knew for what a +different fate Bonaparte destined them. He was really holding that +portion of the mainland in which they were situated as an indemnity +for Austria. Venice was almost sure to lose them in any case, and he +felt that if she refused the French alliance he could then, with less +show of injustice, tender them and their territories to Francis, in +exchange for Belgium. He offered, however, if the republic should +accept his proposition, to assure the loyalty of its cities, provided +only the Venetians would inscribe the chief families of the mainland +in the Golden Book. + +But in spite of such a suggestive warning, the senate of the +commonwealth adhered to its policy of perfect neutrality. Bonaparte +consented to this decision, but ordered it to disarm, agreeing in that +event to control the liberals on the mainland, and to guarantee the +Venetian territories, leaving behind troops enough both to secure +those ends and to guard his own communications. If these should be +tampered with, he warned the senate that the knell of Venetian +independence would toll forthwith. No one can tell what would have +been in store for the proud city if she had chosen the alternative, +not of neutrality, but of an alliance with France. Bonaparte always +made his plan in two ways, and it is probable that her ultimate fate +would have been identical in either case. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII. + +The Preliminaries of Peace--Leoben. + + Austrian Plans for the Last Italian Campaign -- The Battle + on the Tagliamento -- Retreat of the Archduke Charles -- + Bonaparte's Proclamation to the Carinthians -- Joubert + Withdraws from the Tyrol -- Bonaparte's "Philosophical" + Letter -- His Situation at Leoben -- The Negotiations for + Peace -- Character of the Treaty -- Bonaparte's Rude + Diplomacy -- French Successes on the Rhine -- Plots of the + Directory -- The Uprising of Venetia -- War with Venice. + + +[Sidenote: 1797.] + +The Aulic Council at Vienna prepared for the Archduke Charles a +modification of the same old plan, only this time the approach was +down the Piave and the Tagliamento, rivers which rise among the +grotesque Dolomites and in the Carnic Alps. They flow south like the +Adige and the Brenta, but their valleys are wider where they open into +the lowlands, and easier of access. The auxiliary force, under +Lusignan, was now to the westward on the Piave, while the main force, +under Charles, was waiting for reinforcements in the broad intervales +on the upper reaches of the Tagliamento, through which ran the direct +road to Vienna. This time the order of attack was exactly reversed, +because Bonaparte, with his strengthened army of about seventy-five +thousand men, resolved to take the offensive before the expected +levies from the Austrian army of the Rhine should reach the camp of +his foe. The campaign was not long, for there was no resistance from +the inhabitants, as there would have been in the German Alps, among +the Tyrolese, Bonaparte's embittered enemies; and the united force of +Austria was far inferior to that of France. Joubert, with eighteen +thousand men, was left to repress the Tyrol. Though only twenty-eight +years old, he had risen from a volunteer in the files through every +rank and was now division general. He had gained renown on the Rhine +and found the climax of his fame in this expedition, which he so +brilliantly conducted that at the close of the campaign he was chosen +to carry the captured standards to Paris. He was acclaimed as a coming +man. But thereafter his achievements were mediocre and he fell +mortally wounded on August fifteenth, 1799, at the battle of Novi +while rallying an army destined to defeat. Two small forces under +Kilmaine and Victor associated with Lannes were detailed to watch +Venice and Rome respectively; but the general good order of Italy was +intrusted to the native legions which Bonaparte had organized. Fate +had little more in store for Kilmaine, the gallant Irish cavalryman, +who was among the foremost generals of his army. Already a veteran +forty-six years old, as veterans were then reckoned, he had fought in +America and on the Rhine and had filled the cup of his glory at +Peschiera, Castiglione, and Mantua. He was yet to be governor of +Lombardy and end his career by mortal disease when in chief command of +the "Army of England." Victor, wounded at Toulon, general of brigade +in the Pyrenees, a subordinate officer to the unsuccessful Scherer in +Italy, quickly rose under Bonaparte to be division general. Of lowly +birth, he had scarcely reached his thirty-fourth year when on this +occasion he exhibited both military and diplomatic talent of a high +order. Throughout the consulate and empire he held one important +office after another, so successfully that he commended himself even +to the Bourbons, and died in 1841, full of years and honors. Lannes +was now twenty-eight. The child of poor parents, he began life as a +dyer's apprentice, enlisted when twenty-three and was a colonel within +two years, so astounding were his courage and natural gifts. Detailed +to serve under Bonaparte, the two became bosom friends. A plain, blunt +man, Lannes was as fierce as a war dog and as faithful. Throughout the +following years he followed Bonaparte in all his enterprises, and +Napoleon on the Marchfeld, in 1809, wept bitterly when his faithful +monitor was shot to pieces. + +Massena advanced up the Piave against Lusignan, captured his +rear-guard, and drove him away northward beyond Belluno, while the +Archduke, thus separated from his right, withdrew to guard the road +into Carniola. Bonaparte, with his old celerity, reached the banks of +the Tagliamento opposite the Austrian position on March sixteenth, +long before he was expected. His troops had marched all night, but +almost immediately they made a feint as if to force a crossing in the +face of their enemy. The Austrians on the left bank awaited the onset +in perfect order, and in dispositions of cavalry, artillery, and +infantry admirably adapted to the ground. It seemed as if the first +meeting of the two young generals would fall out to the advantage of +Charles. But he was neither as wily nor as indefatigable as his enemy. +The French drew back, apparently exhausted, and bivouacked as if for +the night. The Austrians, expecting nothing further that day, and +standing on the defensive, followed the example of their opponents. +Two hours elapsed, when suddenly the whole French army rose like one +man, and, falling into line without an instant's delay, rushed for the +stream, which at that spot was swift but fordable, flowing between +wide, low banks of gravel. The surprise was complete; the stream was +crossed, and the Austrians had barely time to form when the French +were upon them. They fought with gallantry for three hours until +their flank was turned. They then drew off in an orderly retreat, +abandoning many guns and losing some prisoners. + +Massena, waiting behind the intervening ridge for the signal, advanced +at the first sound of cannon into the upper valley of the same stream, +crossed it, and beset the passes of the Italian Alps, by which +communication with the Austrian capital was quickest. Charles had +nothing left, therefore, but to withdraw due eastward across the great +divide of the Alps, where they bow toward the Adriatic, and pass into +the valley of the Isonzo, behind that full and rushing stream, which +he fondly hoped would stop the French pursuit. The frost, however, had +bridged it in several places, and these were quickly found. Bernadotte +and Serurier stormed the fortress of Gradisca, and captured two +thousand five hundred men, while Massena seized the fort at the Chiusa +Veneta, and, scattering a whole division of flying Austrians, captured +five thousand with their stores and equipments. He then attacked and +routed the enemy's guard on the Pontebba pass, occupied Tarvis, and +thus cut off their communication with the Puster valley, by which the +Austrian detachment from the Rhine was to arrive. It was in this +campaign that Bernadotte laid the foundation of his future greatness. +He was the son of a lawyer in Pau, where he was born in 1764. +Enlisting as a common soldier, he was wounded in Corsica, became chief +of battalion under Custine, general of brigade under Kleber, and +commanded a division at Fleurus. The previous year he had shared the +defeat of Jourdan on the Rhine, but under Bonaparte he became a famous +participant in victory. A Jacobin democrat, he was later entrusted by +the Directory with important missions, but in these he had little +success. It was as a soldier that he rose in the coming years to +heights which in his own mind awakened a rivalry with Napoleon; +ambitious for the highest rank, he made a great match with the +sister-in-law of Joseph Bonaparte, and so managed his affairs that, as +is well known, he ended on the throne of Sweden and founded the +reigning house of that kingdom. + +Bonaparte wooed the stupefied Carinthians with his softly worded +proclamations, and his advancing columns were unharassed by the +peasantry while he pushed farther on, capturing Klagenfurt, and +seizing both Triest and Fiume, the only harbors on the Austrian shore. +He then returned with the main body of his troops, and, crossing the +pass of Tarvis, entered Germany at Villach. "We are come," he said to +the inhabitants, "not as enemies, but as friends, to end a terrible +war imposed by England on a ministry bought with her gold." And the +populace, listening to his siren voice, believed him. All this was +accomplished before the end of March; and Charles, his army reduced to +less than three fourths, was resting northward on the road to Vienna, +beyond the river Mur, exhausted, and expecting daily that he would be +compelled to a further retreat. + +Joubert had not been so successful. According to instructions, he had +pushed up the Adige as far as Brixen, into the heart of the hostile +Tyrol. The Austrians had again called the mountaineers to arms, and a +considerable force under Laudon was gathered to resist the invaders. +It had been a general but most indefinite understanding between +Bonaparte and the Directory that Moreau was again to cross the Rhine +and advance once more, this time for a junction with Joubert to march +against Vienna. But the directors, in an access of suspicion, had +broken their word, and, pleading their penury, had not taken a step +toward fitting out the Army of the North. Moreau was therefore not +within reach; he had not even crossed the Rhine. Consequently Joubert +was in straits, for the whole country had now risen against him. It +was with difficulty that he had advanced, and with serious loss that +he fought one terrible battle after another; finally, however, he +forced his way into the valley of the Drave, and marched down that +river to join Bonaparte. This was regarded by Bonaparte as a +remarkable feat, but by the Austrians as a virtual repulse; both the +Tyrol and Venice were jubilant, and the effects spread as far eastward +as the Austrian provinces of the Adriatic. Triest and Fiume had not +been garrisoned, and the Austrians occupied them once more; the +Venetian senate organized a secret insurrection, which broke out +simultaneously in many places, and was suppressed only after many of +the French, some of them invalids in the hospitals, had been murdered. + +On March thirty-first, Bonaparte, having received definite and +official information that he could expect no immediate support from +the Army of the Rhine, addressed from Klagenfurt to the Archduke what +he called a "philosophical" letter, calling attention to the fact that +it was England which had embroiled France and Austria, powers which +had really no grievance one against the other. Would a prince, so far +removed by lofty birth from the petty weaknesses of ministers and +governments, not intervene as the savior of Germany to end the +miseries of a useless war? "As far as I myself am concerned, if the +communication I have the honor to be making should save the life of a +single man, I should be prouder of that civic crown than of the sad +renown which results from military success." At the same time Massena +was pressing forward into the valley of the Mur, across the passes of +Neumarkt; and before the end of the week his seizure of St. Michael +and Leoben had cut off the last hope of a junction between the forces +of Charles and his expected reinforcements from the Rhine. Austria was +carrying on her preparations of war with the same proud determination +she had always shown, and Charles continued his disastrous hostilities +with Massena. But when Thugut received the "philosophical" letter from +Bonaparte, which Charles had promptly forwarded to Vienna, the +imperial cabinet did not hesitate, and plenipotentiaries were soon on +their way to Leoben. + +The situation of Bonaparte at Leoben was by no means what the position +of the French forces within ninety miles of Vienna would seem to +indicate. The revolutionary movement in Venetia, silently but +effectually fostered by the French garrisons, had been successful in +Bergamo, Brescia, and Salo. The senate, in despair, sent envoys to +Bonaparte at Goeritz. His reply was conciliatory, but he declared that +he would do nothing unless the city of Venice should make the +long-desired concession about inscriptions in the Golden Book. At the +same time he demanded a monthly payment of a million francs in lieu of +all requisitions on its territory. At Paris the Venetian ambassador +had no better success, and with the news of Joubert's withdrawal from +the Tyrol a terrible insurrection broke out, which sacrificed many +French lives at Verona and elsewhere. Bonaparte's suggestions for the +preliminaries of peace with Austria had been drawn up before the news +of that event reached him: but with the Tyrol and Venice all aflame in +his rear, and threatening his connections; with no prospect of +assistance from Moreau in enforcing his demands; and with a growing +hostility showing itself among the populations of the hereditary +states of Austria into which he had penetrated, it was not wonderful +that his original design was confirmed. "At Leoben," he once said, in +a gambler's metaphor, "I was playing twenty-one, and I had only +twenty." + +When, therefore, Merveldt and Gallo, the duly accredited +plenipotentiaries of Austria, and General Bonaparte, representing the +French republic, but with no formal powers from its government, met in +the castle of Goess at Leoben, they all knew that the situation of the +French was very precarious indeed, and that the terms to be made could +not be those dictated by a triumphant conqueror in the full tide of +victory. Neither party had any scruples about violating the public law +of Europe by the destruction of another nationality; but they needed +some pretext. While they were in the opening stages of negotiation the +pretext came; for on April ninth Bonaparte received news of the +murders to which reference has been made, and of an engagement at +Salo, provoked by the French, in which the Bergamask mountaineers had +captured three hundred of the garrison, mostly Poles. This affair was +only a little more serious than numerous other conflicts incident to +partisan warfare which were daily occurring; but it was enough. With a +feigned fury the French general addressed the Venetian senate as if +their land were utterly irreconcilable, and demanded from them +impossible acts of reparation. Junot was despatched to Venice with the +message, and delivered it from the floor of the senate on April +fifteenth, the very day on which his chief was concluding negotiations +for the delivery of the Venetian mainland to Austria. + +So strong had the peace party in Vienna become, and such was the +terror of its inhabitants at seeing the court hide its treasures and +prepare to fly into Hungary, that the plenipotentiaries could only +accept the offer of Bonaparte, which they did with ill-concealed +delight. There was but one point of difference, the grand duchy of +Modena, which Francis for the honor of his house was determined to +keep, if possible. With Tuscany, Modena, and the Venetian mainland all +in their hands, the Austrian authorities felt that time would surely +restore to them the lost Milanese. But Bonaparte was obdurate. On the +eighteenth the preliminaries were closed and adopted. The Austrians +solemnly declared at the time that, when the papers were to be +exchanged formally, Bonaparte presented a copy which purported to be a +counterpart of what had been mutually arranged. Essential differences +were, however, almost immediately marked by the recipients, and when +they announced their discovery with violent clamor, the cool, +sarcastic general produced without remark another copy, which was +found to be a correct reproduction of the preliminary terms agreed +upon. This coarse and silly ruse seems to have been a favorite device, +for it was tried later in another conspicuous instance, the +negotiation of the Concordat. According to the authentic articles, +France was to have Belgium, with the "limits of France" as decreed by +the laws of the republic, a purposely ambiguous expression. In this +preliminary outline the Rhine boundary was not mentioned. The +territory of the Empire was also guaranteed. These flat contradictions +indicate something like panic on both sides, and duplicity at least on +one and probably on both, for Thugut's correspondence indicates his +firm purpose to despoil and destroy Venice. In any case Austria +obtained the longed-for mainland of Venice as far as the river Oglio, +together with Istria and Dalmatia, the Venetian dependencies beyond +the Adriatic, while Venice herself was to be nominally indemnified by +the receipt of the three papal legations, Bologna, Ferrara, and the +Romagna, which had just been erected into the Transpadane Republic! +Modena was to be united with Mantua, Reggio, and the Milanese into a +great central republic, which would always be dependent on France, and +was to be connected with her territory by way of Genoa. Some of the +articles were secret, and all were subject to immaterial changes in +the final negotiations for definitive peace, which were to be carried +on later at Bern, chosen for the purpose as being a neutral city. + +Bonaparte explained, in a letter to the Directory, that whatever +occurred, the Papal States could never become an integral part of +Venice, and would always be under French influences. His sincerity was +no greater, as the event showed, concerning the very existence of +Venice herself. The terms he had made were considered at Vienna most +favorable, and there was great rejoicing in that capital. But it was +significant that in the routine negotiations the old-school +diplomatists had been sadly shocked by the behavior of their military +antagonist, who, though a mere tyro in their art, was very hard to +deal with. At the outset, for instance, they had proposed to +incorporate, as the first article in the preliminaries, that for which +the Directory had long been negotiating with Austria, a recognition of +the French republic. "Strike that out," said Bonaparte. "The Republic +is like the sun on the horizon--all the worse for him who will not see +it." This was but a foretaste of ruder dealings which followed, and of +still more violent breaches with tradition in the long negotiations +which were to ensue over the definitive treaty. + +The very day on which the signatures were affixed at Leoben, the +Austrian arms were humbled by Hoche on the Rhine. Moreau had not been +able to move for lack of a paltry sum which he was begging for, but +could not obtain, from the Directory. Hoche, chafing at similar +delays, and anxious to atone for Jourdan's failure of the previous +year, finally set forth, and, crossing at Neuwied, advanced to +Heddersdorf, where he attacked the Austrians, who had been weakened to +strengthen the Archduke Charles. They were routed with a loss of six +thousand prisoners. Another considerable force was nearly surrounded +when a sudden stop was put to Hoche's career by the arrival of a +courier from Leoben. Though, soon after, the ministry of war was +offered to him, he declined. It was apparently prescience of the fact +that the greatest laurels were still to be won which led him to +refuse, and return to his headquarters at Wetzlar. There a mysterious +malady, still attributed by many to poison, ended his brief and +glorious career on September eighteenth, 1797. His laurels were such +as adorn only a character full of promise, serene and generous alike +in success and defeat. In the Black Forest, Desaix, having crossed the +Rhine with Moreau's army below Strasburg, was likewise driving the +Austrians before him. He too was similarly checked, and these +brilliant achievements came all too late. No advantage was gained by +them in the terms of peace, and the glory of humiliating Austria +remained to Bonaparte. Desaix was an Auvergnat, an aristocrat of +famous pedigree, carefully trained as a cadet to the military career. +He was now twenty-nine, having served on the Rhine as Victor's +adjutant, as general of brigade in the Army of the Moselle, and as +general of division under Jourdan and Moreau. Transferred to Italy, he +became the confidential friend and stanch supporter of Bonaparte. His +manner was winning, his courage contagious, his liberal principles +unquestioned. No finer figure appears on the battle-fields of the +Directory and Consulate. + +Throughout all France there was considerable dissatisfaction with +Bonaparte's moderation, and a feeling among extreme republicans, +especially in the Directory, that he should have destroyed the +Austrian monarchy. Larevelliere and Rewbell were altogether of this +opinion, and the corrupt Barras to a certain extent, for he had taken +a bribe of six hundred thousand francs from the Venetian ambassador at +Paris, to compel the repression by Bonaparte of the rebels on the +mainland. The correspondence of various emissaries connected with this +affair fell into the general's hands at Milan, and put the Directory +more completely at his mercy than ever. On April nineteenth, however, +he wrote as if in reply to such strictures as might be made: "If at +the beginning of the campaign I had persisted in going to Turin, I +never should have passed the Po; if I had persisted in going to Rome, +I should have lost Milan; if I had persisted in going to Vienna, +perhaps I should have overthrown the Republic." He well understood +that fear would yield what despair might refuse. It was a matter of +course that when the terms of Leoben reached Paris the Directory +ratified them: even though they had been irregularly negotiated by an +unauthorized agent, they separated England from Austria, and crushed +the coalition. One thing, however, the directors notified Bonaparte he +must not do; that was, to interfere further in the affairs of Venice. +This order reached him on May eighth; but just a week before, Venice, +as an independent state, had ceased to exist. + +Accident and crafty prearrangement had combined to bring the affairs +of that ancient commonwealth to such a crisis. The general +insurrection and the fight at Salo had given a pretext for disposing +of the Venetian mainland; soon after, the inevitable results of French +occupation afforded the opportunity for destroying the oligarchy +altogether. The evacuation of Verona by the garrison of its former +masters had been ordered as a part of the general disarmament of +Italy. The Veronese were intensely, fiercely indignant on learning +that they were to be transferred to a hated allegiance; and on April +seventeenth, when a party appeared to reinforce the French troops +already there, the citizens rose in a frenzy of indignation, and drove +the hated invaders into the citadel. During the following days, three +hundred of the French civilians in the town, all who had not been able +to find refuge, were massacred; old and young, sick and well. At the +same time a detachment of Austrians under Laudon came in from the +Tyrol to join Fioravente, the Venetian general, and his Slavs. This of +course increased the tumult, for the French began to bombard the city +from the citadel. For a moment the combined besiegers, exaggerating +the accounts of Joubert's withdrawal and of Moreau's failure to +advance, hoped for ultimate success, and the overthrow of the French. +But rumors from Leoben caused the Austrians to withdraw up the Adige, +and a Lombard regiment came to the assistance of the French. The +Venetian forces were captured, and the city was disarmed; so also were +Peschiera, Castelnuovo, and many others which had made no resistance. + +Two days after this furious outbreak of Veronese resentment,--an event +which is known to the French as the Veronese Passover,--occurred +another, of vastly less importance in itself, but having perhaps even +more value as cumulative evidence that the wound already inflicted by +Bonaparte on the Venetian state was mortal. A French vessel, flying +before two Austrian cruisers, appeared off the Lido, and anchored +under the arsenal. It was contrary to immemorial custom for an armed +vessel to enter the harbor of Venice, and the captain was ordered to +weigh anchor. He refused. Thereupon, in stupid zeal, the guns of the +Venetian forts opened on the ship. Many of the crew were killed, and +the rest were thrown into prison. This was the final stroke, all that +was necessary for the justification of Bonaparte's plans. An embassy +from the senate had been with him at Gratz when the awful news from +Verona came to his headquarters. He had then treated them harshly, +demanding not only the liberation of every man confined for political +reasons within their prison walls, but the surrender of their +inquisitors as well. "I will have no more Inquisition, no more Senate; +I shall be an Attila to Venice!... I want not your alliance nor your +schemes; I mean to lay down the law." They left his presence with +gloomy and accurate forebodings as to what was in those secret +articles which had been executed at Leoben. When, two days later, came +this news of further conflict with the French in Venice itself, the +envoys were dismissed, without another audience, by a note which +declared that its writer "could not receive them, dripping as they +were with French blood." On May third, having advanced to Palma, +Bonaparte declared war against Venice. In accordance with the general +license of the age, hostilities had, however, already begun; for as +early as April thirtieth the French and their Italian helpers had +fortified the lowlands between the Venetian lagoons, and on May first +the main army appeared at Fusina, the nearest point on the mainland to +the city. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV. + +The Fall of Venice. + + Feebleness of the Venetian Oligarchy -- Its Overthrow -- + Bonaparte's Duplicity -- Letters of Opposite Purport -- + Montebello -- The Republican Court -- England's Proposition + for Peace -- Plans of the Directory -- General Clarke's + Diplomatic Career -- Conduct of Mme. Bonaparte -- + Bonaparte's Jealous Tenderness -- His Wife's Social + Conquests -- Relations of the Powers. + + +[Sidenote: 1797.] + +Since the days of Carthage no government like that of the Venetian +oligarchy had existed on the earth. At its best it was dark and +remorseless; with the disappearance of its vigor its despotism had +become somewhat milder, but even yet no common man might draw the veil +from its mysterious, irresponsible councils and live. A few hundred +families administered the country as they did their private estates. +All intelligence, all liberty, all personal independence, were +repressed by such a system. The more enlightened Venetians of the +mainland, many even in the city, feeling the influences of the time, +had long been uneasy under their government, smoothly as it seemed to +run in time of peace. Now that the earth was quaking under the march +of Bonaparte's troops, this government was not only helpless, but in +its panic it actually grew contemptible, displaying by its conduct how +urgent was the necessity for a change. The senate had a powerful +fleet, three thousand native troops, and eleven thousand mercenaries; +but they struck only a single futile blow on their own account, +permitting a rash captain to open fire from the gunboats against the +French vanguard when it appeared. But immediately, as if in fear of +their own temerity, they despatched an embassy to learn the will of +the approaching general. That his dealings might be merciful, they +tried the plan of Modena, and offered him a bribe of seven million +francs; but, as in the case of Modena, he refused. Next day the Great +Council having been summoned, it was determined by a nearly unanimous +vote of the patricians--six hundred and ninety to twenty-one--that +they would remodel their institutions on democratic lines. The pale +and terrified Doge thought that in such a surrender lay the last hope +of safety. + +Not for a moment did Lallemant and Villetard, the two French agents, +intermit their revolutionary agitation in the town. Disorders grew +more frequent, while uncertainty both paralyzed and disintegrated the +patrician party. A week later the government virtually abdicated. Two +utter strangers appeared in a theatrical way at its doors, and +suggested in writing to the Great Council that to appease the spirit +of the times they should plant the liberty-tree on the Place of St. +Mark, and speedily accede to all the propositions for liberalizing +Venice which the popular temper seemed to demand. Such were the terror +and disorganization of the aristocracy that instead of punishing the +intrusion of the unknown reformers by death, according to the +traditions of their merciless procedure, they took measures to carry +out the suggestions made in a way as dark and significant as any of +their own. The fleet was dismantled, and the army disbanded. By the +end of the month the revolution was virtually accomplished; a rising +of their supporters having been mistaken by the Great Council, in its +pusillanimous terror, for a rebellion of their antagonists, they +decreed the abolition of all existing institutions, and, after hastily +organizing a provisional government, disbanded. Four thousand French +soldiers occupied the town, and an ostensible treaty was made between +the new republic of Venice and that of France. + +This treaty was really nothing but a pronunciamento of Bonaparte. He +decreed a general amnesty to all offenders except the commander of +Fort Luco, who had recently fired on the French vessel. He also +guaranteed the public debt, and promised to occupy the city only as +long as the public order required it. By a series of secret articles, +vaguely expressed, Venice was bound to accept the stipulations of +Leoben in regard to territory, pay an indemnity of one million two +hundred thousand dollars, and furnish three ships of the line with two +frigates, while, in pursuance of the general policy of the French +republic, experts were to select twenty pictures from her galleries, +and five hundred manuscripts from her libraries. Whatever was the +understanding of those who signed these crushing conditions, the city +was never again treated by any European power as an independent state. +To this dismemberment the Directory made itself an accessory after the +fact, having issued a declaration of war on Venice which only reached +Milan to be suppressed, when already Venice was no more. Whether the +oligarchy or its assassin was the more loathsome still remains an +academic question, debatable only in an idle hour. Soon afterward a +French expedition was despatched to occupy her island possessions in +the Levant. The arrangements had been carefully prepared during the +very time when the provisional government believed itself to be paying +the price of its new liberties. And earlier still, on May +twenty-seventh, three days before the abdication of the aristocracy, +Bonaparte had already offered to Austria the entire republic in its +proposed form as an exchange for the German lands on the left bank of +the Rhine. + +Writing to the Directory on that day, he declared that Venice, which +had been in a decline ever since the discovery of the Cape of Good +Hope and the rise of Triest and Ancona, could with difficulty survive +the blows just given her. "This miserable, cowardly people, unfit for +liberty, and without land or water--it seems natural to me that we +should hand them over to those who have received their mainland from +us. We shall take all their ships, we shall despoil their arsenal, we +shall remove all their cannon, we shall wreck their rank, we shall +keep Corfu and Ancona for ourselves." On the twenty-sixth, only the +day previous, a letter to his "friends" of the Venetian provisional +government had assured them that he would do all in his power to +confirm their liberties, and that he earnestly desired that Italy, +"now covered with glory, and free from every foreign influence, should +again appear on the world's stage, and assert among the great powers +that station to which by nature, position, and destiny it was +entitled." Ordinary minds cannot grasp the guile and daring which seem +to have foreseen and prearranged all the conditions necessary to plans +which for double-dealing transcended the conceptions of men even in +that age of duplicity and selfishness. + +Not far from Milan, on a gentle rise, stands the famous villa, or +country-seat, of Montebello. Its windows command a scene of rare +beauty: on one side, in the distance, the mighty Alps, with their +peaks of never-melting ice and snow; on the other three, the almost +voluptuous beauty of the fertile plains; while in the near foreground +lies the great capital of Lombardy, with its splendid industries, its +stores of art, and its crowded spires hoary with antiquity. Within +easy reach are the exquisite scenes of an enchanted region--that of +the Italian lakes. To this lordly residence Bonaparte withdrew. His +summer's task was to be the pacification of Europe, and the +consolidation of his own power in Italy, in France, and northward +beyond the Alps. The two objects went hand in hand. From Austria, from +Rome, from Naples, from Turin, from Parma, from Switzerland, and even +from the minor German principalities whose fate hung on the +rearrangement of German lands to be made by the Diet of the Empire, +agents of every kind, both military and diplomatic, both secret and +accredited, flocked to the seat of power. Expresses came and went in +all directions, while humble suitors vied with one another in homage +to the risen sun. + +The uses of rigid etiquette were well understood by Bonaparte. He +appreciated the dazzling power of ceremony, the fascination of +condescension, and the influence of woman in the conduct of affairs. +All such influences he lavished with a profusion which could have been +conceived only by an Oriental imagination. As if to overpower the +senses by an impressive contrast, and symbolize the triumph of that +dominant Third Estate of which he claimed to be the champion against +aristocrats, princes, kings, and emperors, the simplicity of the +Revolution was personified and emphasized in his own person. His +ostentatious frugality, his disdain for dress, his contempt for +personal wealth and its outward signs, were all heightened by the +setting which inclosed them, as a frame of brilliants often heightens +the character in the portrait of a homely face. + +Meantime England, grimly determined to save herself and the Europe +essential to her well-being, was not a passive spectator of events in +Italy. To understand the political situation certain facts must be +reiterated in orderly connection. At the close of 1796, Pitt's +administration was still in great straits, for the Tories who +supported him were angered by his lack of success, while the Whig +opposition was correspondingly jubilant and daily growing stronger. +The navy had been able barely to preserve appearances, but that was +all. There was urgent need for reform in tactics, in administration, +and in equipment. France had made some progress in all these +directions, and, in spite of English assistance, both the Vendean and +the Chouan insurrections had, to all appearance, been utterly crushed. +Subsequently the powerful expedition under Hoche, equipped and held in +readiness to sail for Ireland, there to organize rebellion, and give +England a draught from her own cup, though destined to disaster, +wrought powerfully on the British imagination. It was clear that the +Whigs would score a triumph at the coming elections if something were +not done. Accordingly, as has been told, Pitt determined to open +negotiations for peace with the Directory. As his agent he unwisely +chose a representative aristocrat, who had distinguished himself as a +diplomatist in Holland by organizing the Orange party to sustain the +Prussian arms against the rising democracy of that country. Moreover, +the envoy was an ultra-conservative in his views of the French +Revolution, and, believing that there was no room in western Europe +for his own country and her great rival, thought there could be no +peace until France was destroyed. Burke sneered that he had gone to +Paris on his knees. He had been received with suspicion and distrust, +many believing his real errand to be the reorganization of a royalist +party in France. Then, too, Delacroix, minister of foreign affairs, +was a narrow, shallow, and conceited man, unable either to meet an +adroit and experienced negotiator on his own ground, or to prepare new +forms of diplomatic combat, as Bonaparte had done. The English +proposition, it is well to recall, was that Great Britain would give +up all the French colonial possessions she had seized during the war, +provided the French republic would abandon Belgium. It is essential to +an understanding of Bonaparte's attitude in 1797, to recall also in +this connection that the navigation of the Scheldt has ever been an +object of the highest importance to England: the establishment of a +strong, hostile maritime power in harbors like those of the +Netherlands would menace, if not destroy, the British carrying-trade +with central and northern Europe. The reply of the Directory had been +that their fundamental law forbade the consideration of such a point; +and when Malmesbury persisted in his offer, he was allowed forty-eight +hours to leave the country. The negotiation was a fiasco as far as +Austria was concerned, although useful in consolidating British +patriotism. Hoche, having been despatched to Ireland, found wind and +waves adverse, and then returned to replace Jourdan in command of one +of the Rhine armies, the latter having been displaced for his failures +in Germany and relegated to the career of politics. Bonaparte's +victories left his most conspicuous rival nothing to do and he +gracefully congratulated his Italian colleague on having forestalled +him. His sad and suspicious death in September had no influence on the +terms of Bonaparte's treaty, but emphasized the need of its +ratification. + +The Directory, with an eye single to the consolidation of the +republic, cared little for Lombardy, and much for Belgium; for the +prestige of the government, even for its stability, Belgium with the +Rhine frontier must be secured. The Austrian minister cared little for +the distant provinces of the empire, and everything for a compact +territorial consolidation. The successes of 1796 had secured to France +treaties with Prussia, Bavaria, Wuertemberg, Baden, and the two circles +of Swabia and Franconia, whereby these powers consented to abandon +the control of all lands on the left bank of the Rhine hitherto +belonging to them or to the Germanic body. As a consequence the goal +of the Directory could be reached by Austria's consent, and Austria +appeared to be willing. The only question was, Would France restore +the Milanese? Carnot was emphatic in the expression of his opinion +that for the sake of peace with honor, a speedy, enduring peace, she +must, and his colleagues assented. Accordingly, Bonaparte was warned +that no expectations of emancipation must be awakened in the Italian +peoples. But such a warning was absurd. The directors, having been +able neither to support their general with adequate reinforcements, +nor to pay his troops, it had been only in the role of a liberator +that Bonaparte was successful in cajoling and conquering Italy, in +sustaining and arming his men, and in pouring treasures into Paris. It +was for this reason that, enormous and outrageous as was the ruin and +spoliation of a neutral state, he saw himself compelled to overthrow +Venice, and hold it as a substitute for Lombardy in the coming trade +with Austria. But the directors either could not or would not at that +time enter into his plans, and refused to comprehend the situation. + +With doubtful good sense they had therefore determined in November, +1796, to send Clarke, their own chosen agent, to Vienna. It was for +this that they selected a man of polished manners and honest purpose, +but, contrary to their estimate, of very moderate ability. He must of +course have a previous understanding with Bonaparte, and to that end +he had journeyed by way of Italy. Being kindly welcomed, he was +entirely befooled by his subtle host, who detained him with idle +suggestions until after the fall of Mantua, when to his amazement he +received the instructions from Paris already stated: to make no +proposition of any kind without Bonaparte's consent. Then followed +the death of the Czarina Catherine, which left Austria with no ally, +and all the subsequent events to the eve of Leoben. Thugut, of course, +wanted no Jacobin agitator at Vienna, such as he supposed Clarke to +be, and informed him that he must not come thither, but might reach a +diplomatic understanding with the Austrian minister at Turin, if he +could. He was thus comfortably banished from the seat of war during +the closing scenes of the campaign, and to Bonaparte's satisfaction +could not of course reach Leoben in time to conclude the preliminaries +as the accredited agent of the republic. But, to save the self-respect +of the Directory, he was henceforth to be associated with Bonaparte in +arranging the final terms of peace; and to that end he came of course +to Milan. Representing as he did the conviction of the government that +the Rhine frontier must be a condition of peace, and necessarily +emphasizing its scheme of territorial compensations, he had to be +either managed or disregarded. It was the versatility of the envoy at +Montebello which assured him his subsequent career under the consulate +and empire. + +The court at Montebello was not a mere levee of men. There was as well +an assemblage of brilliant women, of whom the presiding genius was +Mme. Bonaparte. Love, doubt, decision, marriage, separation, had been +the rapidly succeeding incidents of her connection with Bonaparte in +Paris. Though she had made ardent professions of devotion to her +husband, the marriage vow sat but lightly on her in the early days of +their separation. Her husband appears to have been for a short time +more constant, but, convinced of her fickleness, to have become as +unfaithful as she. And yet the complexity of emotions--ambition, +self-interest, and physical attraction--which seems to have been +present in both, although in widely different degree, sustained +something like genuine ardor in him, and an affection sincere enough +often to awaken jealousy in her. The news of Bonaparte's successive +victories in Italy made his wife a heroine in Paris. In all the salons +of the capital, from that of the directors at the Luxembourg downward +through those of her more aristocratic but less powerful +acquaintances, she was feted and caressed. As early as April, 1796, +came the first summons of her husband to join him in Italy. Friends +explained to her willing ears that it was not a French custom for the +wives of generals to join the camp-train, and she refused. Resistance +but served to rouse the passions of the young conqueror, and his fiery +love-letters reached Paris by every courier. Josephine, however, +remained unmoved; for the traditions of her admirers, to whom she +showed them, made light of a conjugal affection such as that. She was +flattered, but, during the courtship, slightly frightened by such +addresses. + +In due time there were symptoms which appeared to be those of +pregnancy. On receipt of this news the prospective father could not +contain himself for joy. The letter which he sent has been preserved. +It was written from Tortona, on June fifteenth, 1796. Life is but a +vain show because at such an hour he is absent from her. His passion +had clouded his faculties, but if she is in pain he will leave at any +hazard for her side. Without appetite, and sleepless; without thought +of friends, glory, or country, all the world is annihilated for him +except herself. "I care for honor because you do, for victory because +it gratifies you, otherwise I would have left all else to throw myself +at your feet. Dear friend, be sure and say you are persuaded that I +love you above all that can be imagined--persuaded that every moment +of my time is consecrated to you; that never an hour passes without +thought of you; that it never occurred to me to think of another +woman; that they are all in my eyes without grace, without beauty, +without wit; that you--you alone as I see you, as you are--could +please and absorb all the faculties of my soul; that you have fathomed +all its depths; that my heart has no fold unopened to you, no thoughts +which are not attendant upon you; that my strength, my arms, my mind, +are all yours; that my soul is in your form, and that the day you +change, or the day you cease to live, will be that of my death; that +nature, the earth, is lovely in my eyes, only because you dwell within +it. If you do not believe all this, if your soul is not persuaded, +saturated, you distress me, you do not love me. Between those who love +is a magnetic bond. You know that I could never see you with a lover, +much less endure your having one: to see him and to tear out his heart +would for me be one and the same thing; and then, could I, I would lay +violent hands on your sacred person.... No, I would never dare, but I +would leave a world where that which is most virtuous had deceived me. +I am confident and proud of your love. Misfortunes are trials which +mutually develop the strength of our passion. A child lovely as its +mother is to see the light in your arms. Wretched man that I am, a +single day would satisfy me! A thousand kisses on your eyes, on your +lips. Adorable woman! what a power you have! I am sick with your +disease: besides, I have a burning fever. Keep the courier but six +hours, and let him return at once, bringing to me the darling letter +of my queen." + +At length, in June, when the first great victories had been won, when +the symptoms of motherhood proved to be spurious and disappeared, when +honors like those of a sovereign were awaiting her in Italy, Mme. +Bonaparte decided to tear herself away from the circle of her friends +in Paris, and to yield to the ever more urgent pleadings of her +husband. Traveling under Junot's care, she reached Milan early in +July, to find the general no longer an adventurer, but the successful +dictator of a people, courted by princes and kings, adored by the +masses, and the arbiter of nations. Rising, apparently without an +effort, to the height of the occasion, she began and continued +throughout the year to rival in her social conquests the victories of +her husband in the field. Where he was Caius, she was Caia. High-born +dames sought her favor, and nobles bowed low to win her support. At +times she actually braved the dangers of insurrection and the +battle-field. Her presence in their capital was used to soothe the +exasperated Venetians. To gratify her spouse's ardor, she journeyed to +many cities, and by a show of mild sympathy moderated somewhat the +wild ambitions which the scenes and character of his successes +awakened in his mind. The heroes and poets of Rome had moved upon that +same stage. To his consort the new Caesar unveiled the visions of his +heated imagination, explained the sensations aroused in him by their +shadowy presence, and unfolded his schemes of emulation. Of such +purposes the court held during the summer at Montebello was but the +natural outcome. Its historic influence was incalculable: on one hand, +by the prestige it gave in negotiation to the central figure, and by +the chance it afforded to fix and crystallize the indefinite visions +of the hour; on the other, by rendering memorable the celebration of +the national fete on July fourteenth, 1797, an event arranged for +political purposes, and so dazzling as to fix in the army the intense +and complete devotion to their leader which made possible the next +epoch in his career. + +The summer was a season of enforced idleness, outwardly and as far as +international relations were concerned, but in reality Bonaparte was +never more active nor more successful. In February the Bank of England +had suspended specie payments, and in March the price of English +consols was fifty-one, the lowest it ever reached. The battle of Cape +St. Vincent, fought on February fourteenth, destroyed the Spanish +naval power, and freed Great Britain from the fear of a combination +between the French and Spanish fleets for an invasion. But, on the +other hand, sedition was wide-spread in the navy; the British sailors +were mutinous to the danger-point, hoisting the red flag and +threatening piracy. The risings, though numerous, were eventually +quelled, but the effect on the English people was magical. Left +without an ally by the death of Catherine, the temporizing of Paul, +and his leaning to the Prussian policy of neutrality, facts mirrored +in the preliminaries of Leoben, their government made overtures for +peace. There was a crisis in the affairs of the Directory and, as a +sort of shelter from the stormy menace of popular disapproval, +Delacroix consented to receive Malmesbury again and renew negotiations +at Lille. As expected, the arrangement was a second theatrical +fencing-bout from the beginning. Canning feared his country would meet +with an accident in the sword-play, for the terms proposed were a weak +yielding to French pride by laying the Netherlands at her feet. +Probably the offer was not serious in any case, the farce was quickly +ended, and when their feint was met the British nation had recuperated +and was not dismayed. It required the utmost diligence in the use of +personal influence, on the part both of the French general and of his +wife, to thwart among the European diplomats assembled at Montebello +the prestige of English naval victory and the swift adaptations of +their policy to changing conditions. But they succeeded, and the +evidence was ultimately given not merely in great matters like the +success of Fructidor or the peace of Campo Formio, but in small +ones--such, for example, as the speedy liberation of Lafayette from +his Austrian prison. + + +END OF VOLUME I + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Life of Napoleon Bonaparte, by +William Milligan Sloane + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE *** + +***** This file should be named 24360.txt or 24360.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/3/6/24360/ + +Produced by Thierry Alberto, Henry Craig, Christine P. +Travers and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net + + +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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