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diff --git a/3892.txt b/3892.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4ca2eb8 --- /dev/null +++ b/3892.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2150 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Memoirs of the Court of St. Cloud, Volume 1, +by Lewis Goldsmith + +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: Memoirs of the Court of St. Cloud, Volume 1 + Being Secret Letters from a Gentleman at Paris to a Nobleman in London + +Author: Lewis Goldsmith + +Release Date: December 4, 2004 [EBook #3892] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK COURT OF ST. CLOUD *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + +MEMOIRS OF THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD + +By Lewis Goldsmith + +Being Secret Letters from a Gentleman at Paris to a Nobleman in London + + + +PUBLISHERS' NOTE. + + +The present work contains particulars of the great Napoleon not to be +found in any other publication, and forms an interesting addition to the +information generally known about him. + +The writer of the Letters (whose name is said to have been Stewarton, and +who had been a friend of the Empress Josephine in her happier, if less +brilliant days) gives full accounts of the lives of nearly all Napoleon's +Ministers and Generals, in addition to those of a great number of other +characters, and an insight into the inner life of those who formed +Napoleon's Court. + +All sorts and conditions of men are dealt with--adherents who have come +over from the Royalist camp, as well as those who have won their way +upwards as soldiers, as did Napoleon himself. In fact, the work abounds +with anecdotes of Napoleon, Talleyrand, Fouche, and a host of others, and +astounding particulars are given of the mysterious disappearance of those +persons who were unfortunate enough to incur the displeasure of Napoleon. + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + +At Cardinal Caprara's + +Cardinal Fesch + +Episode at Mme. Miot's + +Napoleon's Guard + +A Grand Dinner + +Chaptal + +Turreaux + +Carrier + +Barrere + +Cambaceres + +Pauline Bonaparte + + + + +SECRET COURT MEMOIRS. + +THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD. + +INTRODUCTORY LETTER. + + +PARIS, November 10th, 1805. + +MY LORD,--The Letters I have written to you were intended for the private +entertainment of a liberal friend, and not for the general perusal of a +severe public. Had I imagined that their contents would have penetrated +beyond your closet or the circle of your intimate acquaintance, several +of the narratives would have been extended, while others would have been +compressed; the anecdotes would have been more numerous, and my own +remarks fewer; some portraits would have been left out, others drawn, and +all better finished. I should then have attempted more frequently to +expose meanness to contempt, and treachery to abhorrence; should have +lashed more severely incorrigible vice, and oftener held out to ridicule +puerile vanity and outrageous ambition. In short, I should then have +studied more to please than to instruct, by addressing myself seldomer to +the reason than to the passions. + +I subscribe, nevertheless, to your observation, "that the late long war +and short peace, with the enslaved state of the Press on the Continent, +would occasion a chasm in the most interesting period of modern history, +did not independent and judicious travellers or visitors abroad collect +and forward to Great Britain (the last refuge of freedom) some materials +which, though scanty and insufficient upon the whole, may, in part, rend +the veil of destructive politics, and enable future ages to penetrate +into mysteries which crime in power has interest to render impenetrable +to the just reprobation of honour and of virtue." If, therefore, my +humble labours can preserve loyal subjects from the seduction of +traitors, or warn lawful sovereigns and civilized society of the alarming +conspiracy against them, I shall not think either my time thrown away, or +fear the dangers to which publicity might expose me were I only suspected +here of being an Anglican author. Before the Letters are sent to the +press I trust, however, to your discretion the removal of everything that +might produce a discovery, or indicate the source from which you have +derived your information. + +Although it is not usual in private correspondence to quote authorities, +I have sometimes done so; but satisfied, as I hope you are, with my +veracity, I should have thought the frequent productions of any better +pledge than the word of a man of honour an insult to your feelings. I +have, besides, not related a fact that is not recent and well known in +our fashionable and political societies; and of ALL the portraits I have +delineated, the originals not only exist, but are yet occupied in the +present busy scene of the Continent, and figuring either at Courts, in +camps, or in Cabinets. + + + + +LETTER I. + +PARIS, August, 1805. + +MY LORD:--I promised you not to pronounce in haste on persons and events +passing under my eyes; thirty-one months have quickly passed away since I +became an attentive spectator of the extraordinary transactions, and of +the extraordinary characters of the extraordinary Court and Cabinet of +St. Cloud. If my talents to delineate equal my zeal to inquire and my +industry to examine; if I am as able a painter as I have been an +indefatigable observer, you will be satisfied, and with your approbation +at once sanction and reward my labours. + +With most Princes, the supple courtier and the fawning favourite have +greater influence than the profound statesman and subtle Minister; and +the determinations of Cabinets are, therefore, frequently prepared in +drawing-rooms, and discussed in the closet. The politician and the +counsellor are frequently applauded or censured for transactions which +the intrigues of antechambers conceived, and which cupidity and favour +gave power to promulgate. + +It is very generally imagined, but falsely, that Napoleon Bonaparte +governs, or rather tyrannizes, by himself, according to his own capacity, +caprices, or interest; that all his acts, all his changes, are the sole +consequence of his own exclusive, unprejudiced will, as well as unlimited +authority; that both his greatness and his littleness, his successes and +his crimes, originate entirely with himself; that the fortunate hero who +marched triumphant over the Alps, and the dastardly murderer that +disgraced human nature at Jaffa, because the same person, owed victory to +himself alone, and by himself alone commanded massacre; that the same +genius, unbiased and unsupported, crushed factions, erected a throne, and +reconstructed racks; that the same mind restored and protected +Christianity, and proscribed and assassinated a D'Enghien. + +All these contradictions, all these virtues and vices, may be found in +the same person; but Bonaparte, individually or isolated, has no claim to +them. Except on some sudden occasions that call for immediate decision, +no Sovereign rules less by himself than Bonaparte; because no Sovereign +is more surrounded by favourites and counsellors, by needy adventurers +and crafty intriguers. + +What Sovereign has more relatives to enrich, or services to recompense; +more evils to repair, more jealousies to dread, more dangers to fear, +more clamours to silence; or stands more in need of information and +advice? Let it be remembered that he, who now governs empires and +nations, ten years ago commanded only a battery; and five years ago was +only a military chieftain. The difference is as immense, indeed, between +the sceptre of a Monarch and the sword of a general, as between the wise +legislator who protects the lives and property of his contemporaries, and +the hireling robber who wades through rivers of blood to obtain plunder +at the expense and misery of generations. The lower classes of all +countries have produced persons who have distinguished themselves as +warriors; but what subject has yet usurped a throne, and by his eminence +and achievements, without infringing on the laws and liberties of his +country, proved himself worthy to reign? Besides, the education which +Bonaparte received was entirely military; and a man (let his innate +abilities be ever so surprising or excellent) who, during the first +thirty years of his life, has made either military or political tactics +or exploits his only study, certainly cannot excel equally in the Cabinet +and in the camp. It would be as foolish to believe, as absurd to expect, +a perfection almost beyond the reach of any man; and of Bonaparte more +than of any one else. A man who, like him, is the continual slave of his +own passions, can neither be a good nor a just, an independent nor +immaculate master. + +Among the courtiers who, ever since Bonaparte was made First Consul, have +maintained a great ascendency over him, is the present Grand Marshal of +his Court, the general of division, Duroc. With some parts, but greater +presumption, this young man is destined by his master to occupy the most +confidential places near his person; and to his care are entrusted the +most difficult and secret missions at foreign Courts. When he is absent +from France, the liberty of the Continent is in danger; and when in the +Tuileries, or at St. Cloud, Bonaparte thinks himself always safe. + +Gerard Christophe Michel Duroc was born at Ponta-Mousson, in the +department of Meurthe, on the 25th of October, 1772, of poor but honest +parents. His father kept a petty chandler's shop; but by the interest +and generosity of Abbe Duroc, a distant relation, he was so well educated +that, in March, 1792, he became a sub-lieutenant of the artillery. In +1796 he served in Italy, as a captain, under General Andreossy, by whom +he was recommended to General l'Espinasse, then commander of the +artillery of the army of Italy, who made him an aide-de-camp. In that +situation Bonaparte remarked his activity, and was pleased with his +manners, and therefore attached him as an aide-de-camp to himself. Duroc +soon became a favourite with his chief, and, notwithstanding the +intrigues of his rivals, he has continued to be so to this day. + +It has been asserted, by his enemies no doubt, that by implicit obedience +to his general's orders, by an unresisting complacency, and by executing, +without hesitation, the most cruel mandates of his superior, he has fixed +himself so firmly in his good opinion that he is irremovable. It has +also been stated that it was Duroc who commanded the drowning and burying +alive of the wounded French soldiers in Italy, in 1797; and that it was +he who inspected their poisoning in Syria, in 1799, where he was wounded +during the siege of St. Jean d' Acre. He was among the few officers whom +Bonaparte selected for his companions when he quitted the army of Egypt, +and landed with him in France in October, 1799. + +Hitherto Duroc had only shown himself as a brave soldier and obedient +officer; but after the revolution which made Bonaparte a First Consul, he +entered upon another career. He was then, for the first time, employed +in a diplomatic mission to Berlin, where he so far insinuated himself +into the good graces of their Prussian Majesties that the King admitted +him to the royal table, and on the parade at Potsdam presented him to his +generals and officers as an aide-de-camp 'du plus grand homme que je +connais; whilst the Queen gave him a scarf knitted by her own fair hands. + +The fortunate result of Duroc's intrigues in Prussia, in 1799, encouraged +Bonaparte to despatch him, in 1801, to Russia; where Alexander I. +received him with that noble condescension so natural, to this great and +good Prince. He succeeded at St. Petersburg in arranging the political +and commercial difficulties and disagreements between France and Russia; +but his proposal for a defensive alliance was declined. + +An anecdote is related of his political campaign in the North, upon the +barren banks of the Neva, which, in causing much entertainment to the +inhabitants of the fertile banks of the Seine, has not a little +displeased the military diplomatist. + +Among Talleyrand's female agents sent to cajole Paul I. during the latter +part of his reign, was a Madame Bonoeil, whose real name is De F-----. +When this unfortunate Prince was no more, most of the French male and +female intriguers in Russia thought it necessary to shift their quarters, +and to expect, on the territory of neutral Prussia, farther instructions +from Paris, where and how to proceed. Madame Bonoeil had removed to +Konigsberg. In the second week of May, 1801, when Duroc passed through +that town for St. Petersburg, he visited this lady, according to the +orders of Bonaparte, and obtained from her a list of the names of the +principal persons who were inclined to be serviceable to France, and +might be trusted by him upon the present occasion. By inattention or +mistake she had misspelled the name of one of the most trusty and active +adherents of Bonaparte; and Duroc, therefore, instead of addressing +himself to the Polish Count de S--------lz, went to the Polish Count de +S-----tz. This latter was as much flattered as surprised, upon seeing an +aide-de-camp and envoy of the First Consul of France enter his +apartments, seldom visited before but by usurers, gamesters, and +creditors; and, on hearing the object of this visit, began to think +either the envoy mad or himself dreaming. Understanding, however, that +money would be of little consideration, if the point desired by the First +Consul could be carried, he determined to take advantage of this +fortunate hit, and invited Duroc to sup with him the same evening; when +he promised him he should meet with persons who could do his business, +provided his pecuniary resources were as ample as he had stated. + +This Count de S-----tz was one of the most extravagant and profligate +subjects that Russia had acquired by the partition of Poland. After +squandering away his own patrimony, he had ruined his mother and two +sisters, and subsisted now entirely by gambling and borrowing. Among his +associates, in similar circumstances with himself, was a Chevalier de +Gausac, a French adventurer, pretending to be an emigrant from the +vicinity of Toulouse. To him was communicated what had happened in the +morning, and his advice was asked how to act in the evening. It was soon +settled that De Gausac should be transformed into a Russian Count de +W-----, a nephew and confidential secretary of the Chancellor of the same +name; and that one Caumartin, another French adventurer, who taught +fencing at St. Petersburg, should act the part of Prince de M-----, an +aide-de-camp of the Emperor; and that all three together should strip +Duroc, and share the spoil. At the appointed hour Bonaparte's agent +arrived, and was completely the dupe of these adventurers, who plundered +him of twelve hundred thousand livres. Though not many days passed +before he discovered the imposition, prudence prevented him from +denouncing the impostors; and this blunder would have remained a secret +between himself, Bonaparte, and Talleyrand, had not the unusual expenses +of Caumartin excited the suspicion of the Russian Police Minister, who +soon discovered the source from which they had flowed. De Gausac had the +imprudence to return to this capital last spring, and is now shut up in +the Temple, where he probably will be forgotten. + +As this loss was more ascribed to the negligence of Madame Bonoeil than +to the mismanagement of Duroc, or his want of penetration, his reception +at the Tuileries, though not so gracious as on his return from Berlin, +nineteen months before, was, however, such as convinced him that if he +had not increased, he had at the same time not lessened, the confidence +of his master; and, indeed, shortly afterwards, Bonaparte created him +first prefect of his palace, and procured him for a wife the only +daughter of a rich Spanish banker. Rumour, however, says that Bonaparte +was not quite disinterested when he commanded and concluded this match, +and that the fortune of Madame Duroc has paid for the expensive supper of +her husband with Count de S-----tz at St. Petersburg. + + + + +LETTER II. + +PARIS, August, 1805. + +MY LORD:--Though the Treaty of Luneville will probably soon be buried in +the rubbish of the Treaty of Amiens, the influence of their parents in +the Cabinet of St. Cloud is as great as ever: I say their parents, +because the crafty ex-Bishop, Talleyrand, foreseeing the short existence +of these bastard diplomatic acts, took care to compliment the innocent +Joseph Bonaparte with a share in the parentage, although they were his +own exclusive offspring. + +Joseph Bonaparte, who in 1797, from an attorney's clerk at Ajaccio, in +Corsica, was at once transformed into an Ambassador to the Court of Rome, +had hardly read a treaty, or seen a despatch written, before he was +himself to conclude the one, and to dictate the other. Had he not been +supported by able secretaries, Government would soon have been convinced +that it is as impossible to confer talents as it is easy to give places +to men to whom Nature has refused parts, and on whom a scanty or +neglected education has bestowed no improvements. Deep and reserved, +like a true Italian, but vain and ambitious, like his brothers, under the +character of a statesman, he has only been the political puppet of +Talleyrand. If he has sometimes been applauded upon the stages where he +has been placed, he is also exposed to the hooting and hisses of the +suffering multitude; while the Minister pockets undisturbed all the +entrance-money, and conceals his wickedness and art under the cloak of +Joseph; which protects him besides against the anger and fury of +Napoleon. No negotiation of any consequence is undertaken, no diplomatic +arrangements are under consideration, but Joseph is always consulted, and +Napoleon informed of the consultation. Hence none of Bonaparte's +Ministers have suffered less from his violence and resentment than +Talleyrand, who, in the political department, governs him who governs +France and Italy. + +As early as 1800, Talleyrand determined to throw the odium of his own +outrages against the law of nations upon the brother of his master. +Lucien Bonaparte was that year sent Ambassador to Spain, but not sharing +with the Minister the large profits of his appointment, his diplomatic +career was but short. Joseph is as greedy and as ravenous as Lucien, but +not so frank or indiscreet. Whether he knew or not of Talleyrand's +immense gain by the pacification at Luneville in February, 1801, he did +not neglect his own individual interest. The day previous to the +signature of this treaty, he despatched a courier to the rich army +contractor, Collot, acquainting him in secret of the issue of the +negotiation, and ordering him at the same time to purchase six millions +of livres--L 250,000--in the stocks on his account. On Joseph's arrival +at Paris, Collot sent him the State bonds for the sum ordered, together +with a very polite letter; but though he waited on the grand pacificator +several times afterwards, all admittance was refused, until a douceur of +one million of livres--nearly L 42,000--of Collot's private profit opened +the door. In return, during the discussions between France and England +in the summer of 1801, and in the spring of 1802, Collot was continued +Joseph's private agent, and shared with his patron, within twelve months, +a clear gain of thirty-two millions of livres. + +Some of the secret articles of the Treaty of Luneville gave Austria, +during the insurrection in Switzerland, in the autumn of 1802, an +opportunity and a right to make representations against the interference +of France; a circumstance which greatly displeased Bonaparte, who +reproached Talleyrand for his want of foresight, and of having been +outwitted by the Cabinet of Vienna. The Minister, on the very next day, +laid before his master the correspondence that had passed between him and +Joseph Bonaparte, during the negotiation concerning these secret +articles, which were found to have been entirely proposed and settled by +Joseph; who had been induced by his secretary and factotum (a creature of +Talleyrand) to adopt sentiments for which that Minister had been paid, +according to report, six hundred thousand livres--L25,000. Several other +tricks have in the same manner been played upon Joseph, who, +notwithstanding, has the modesty to consider himself (much to the +advantage and satisfaction of Talleyrand) the first statesman in Europe, +and the good fortune to be thought so by his brother Napoleon. + +When a rupture with England was apprehended, in the spring of 1803, +Talleyrand never signed a despatch that was not previously communicated +to, and approved by Joseph, before its contents were sanctioned by +Napoleon. This precaution chiefly continued him in place when Lord +Whitworth left this capital,--a departure that incensed Napoleon to such +a degree that he entirely forgot the dignity of his rank amidst his +generals, a becoming deportment to the members of the diplomatic corps, +and his duty to his mother and brothers, who all more or less experienced +the effects of his violent passions. He thus accosted Talleyrand, who +purposely arrived late at his circle: + +"Well! the English Ambassador is gone; and we must again go to war. Were +my generals as great fools as some of my Ministers, I should despair +indeed of the issue of my contest with these insolent islanders. Many +believe that had I been more ably supported in my Cabinet, I should not +have been under the necessity of taking the field, as a rupture might +have been prevented." + +"Such, Citizen First Consul!" answered the trembling and bowing Minister, +"is not the opinion of the Counsellor of State, Citizen Joseph +Bonaparte." + +"Well, then," said Napoleon, as recollecting himself, "England wishes for +war, and she shall suffer for it. This shall be a war of extermination, +depend upon it." + +The name of Joseph alone moderated Napoleon's fury, and changed its +object. It is with him what the harp of David was with Saul. Talleyrand +knows it, and is no loser by that knowledge. I must, however, in +justice, say that, had Bonaparte followed his Minister's advice, and +suffered himself to be entirely guided by his counsel, all hostilities +with England at that time might have been avoided; her Government would +have been lulled into security by the cession of Malta, and some +commercial regulations, and her future conquest, during a time of peace, +have been attempted upon plans duly organized, that might have ensured +success. He never ceased to repeat, "Citizen First Consul! some few +years longer peace with Great Britain, and the 'Te Deums' of modern +Britons for the conquest and possession of Malta, will be considered by +their children as the funeral hymns of their liberty and independence." + +It was upon this memorable occasion of Lord Whitworth's departure, that +Bonaparte is known to have betrayed the most outrageous acts of passion; +he rudely forced his mother from his closet, and forbade his own sisters +to approach his person; he confined Madame Bonaparte for several hours to +her chamber; he dismissed favourite generals; treated with ignominy +members of his Council of State; and towards his physician, secretaries, +and principal attendants, he committed unbecoming and disgraceful marks +of personal outrage. I have heard it affirmed that, though her husband, +when shutting her up in her dressing-room, put the key in his pocket, +Madame Napoleon found means to resent the ungallant behaviour of her +spouse, with the assistance of Madame Remusat. + + + + +LETTER III. + +PARIS, August, 1805. + +MY LORD:--No act of Bonaparte's government has occasioned so many, so +opposite, and so violent debates, among the remnants of revolutionary +factions comprising his Senate and Council of State, as the introduction +and execution of the religious concordat signed with the Pope. Joseph +was here again the ostensible negotiator, though he, on this as well as +on former occasions, concluded nothing that had not been prepared and +digested by Talleyrand. + +Bonaparte does not in general pay much attention to the opinions of +others when they do not agree with his own views and interests, or +coincide with his plans of reform or innovation; but having in his public +career professed himself by turns an atheist and an infidel, the +worshipper of Christ and of Mahomet, he could not decently silence those +who, after deserting or denying the God of their forefathers and of their +youth, continued constant and firm in their apostasy. Of those who +deliberated concerning the restoration or exclusion of Christianity, and +the acceptance or rejection of the concordat, Fouche, Francois de Nantz, +Roederer, and Sieges were for the religion of Nature; Volney, Real, +Chaptal, Bourrienne, and Lucien Bonaparte for atheism; and Portalis, +Gregoire, Cambaceres, Lebrun, Talleyrand, Joseph and Napoleon Bonaparte +for Christianity. Besides the sentiments of these confidential +counsellors, upwards of two hundred memoirs, for or against the Christian +religion, were presented to the First Consul by uninvited and volunteer +counsellors,--all differing as much from one another as the members of +his own Privy Council. + +Many persons do Madame Bonaparte, the mother, the honour of supposing +that to her assiduous representations is principally owing the recall of +the priests, and the restoration of the altars of Christ. She certainly +is the most devout, or rather the most superstitious of her family, and +of her name; but had not Talleyrand and Portalis previously convinced +Napoleon of the policy of reestablishing a religion which, for fourteen +centuries, had preserved the throne of the Bourbons from the machinations +of republicans and other conspirators against monarchy, it is very +probable that her representations would have been as ineffective as her +piety or her prayers. So long ago as 1796 she implored the mercy of +Napoleon for the Roman Catholics in Italy; and entreated him to spare the +Pope and the papal territory, at the very time that his soldiers were +laying waste and ravaging the legacy of Bologna and of Ravenna, both +incorporated with his new-formed Cisalpine Republic; where one of his +first acts of sovereignty, in the name of the then sovereign people, was +the confiscation of Church lands and the sale of the estates of the +clergy. + +Of the prelates who with Joseph Bonaparte signed the concordat, the +Cardinal Gonsalvi and the Bishop Bernier have, by their labours and +intrigues, not a little contributed to the present Church establishment, +in this country; and to them Napoleon is much indebted for the intrusion +of the Bonaparte, dynasty, among the houses of sovereign Princes. The +former, intended from his youth for the Church, sees neither honour in +this world, nor hopes for any blessing in the next, but exclusively from +its bosom and its doctrine. With capacity to figure as a country curate, +he occupies the post of the chief Secretary of State to the Pope; and +though nearly of the same age, but of a much weaker constitution than his +Sovereign, he was ambitious enough to demand Bonaparte's promise of +succeeding to the Papal See, and weak and wicked enough to wish and +expect to survive a benefactor of a calmer mind and better health than +himself. It was he who encouraged Bonaparte to require the presence of +Pius VII. in France, and who persuaded this weak pontiff to undertake a +journey that has caused so much scandal among the truly faithful; and +which, should ever Austria regain its former supremacy in Italy, will +send the present Pope to end his days in a convent, and make the +successors of St. Peter what this Apostle was himself, a Bishop of Rome, +and nothing more. + +Bernier was a curate in La Vendee before the Revolution, and one of those +priests who lighted the torch of civil war in that unfortunate country, +under pretence of defending the throne of his King and the altars of his +God. He not only possessed great popularity among the lower classes, but +acquired so far the confidence of the Vendean chiefs that he was +appointed one of the supreme and directing Council of the Royalists and +Chouans. Even so late as the summer of 1799 he continued not only +unsuspected, but trusted by the insurgents in the Western departments. In +the winter, however, of the same year he had been gained over by +Bonaparte's emissaries, and was seen at his levies in the Tuileries. It +is stated that General Brune made him renounce his former principles, +desert his former companions, and betray to the then First Consul of the +French Republic the secrets of the friends of lawful monarchy, of the +faithful subjects of Louis XVIII. His perfidy has been rewarded with one +hundred and fifty thousand livres in ready money, with the see of +Orleans, and with a promise of a cardinal's hat. He has also, with the +Cardinals Gonsalvi, Caprara, Fesch, Cambaceres, and Mauri, Bonaparte's +promise, and, of course, the expectation of the Roman tiara. He was one +of the prelates who officiated at the late coronation, and is now +confided in as a person who has too far committed himself with his +legitimate Prince, and whose past treachery, therefore, answers for his +future fidelity. + +This religious concordat of the 10th September, 1801, as well as all +other constitutional codes emating from revolutionary authorities, +proscribes even in protecting. The professors and protectors of the +religion of universal peace, benevolence, and forgiveness banish in this +concordat from France forever the Cardinals Rohan and Montmorency, and +the Bishop of Arras, whose dutiful attachment to their unfortunate Prince +would, in better times and in a more just and generous nation, have been +recompensed with distinctions, and honoured even by magnanimous foes. + +When Madame Napoleon was informed by her husband of the necessity of +choosing her almoner and chaplain, and of attending regularly the Mass, +she first fell a-laughing, taking it merely for a joke; the serious and +severe looks, and the harsh and threatening expressions of the First +Consul soon, however, convinced her how much she was mistaken. To evince +her repentance, she on the very next day attended her mother-in-law to +church, who was highly edified by the sudden and religious turn of her +daughter, and did not fail to ascribe to the efficacious interference of +one of her favourite saints this conversion of a profane sinner. But +Napoleon was not the dupe of this church-going mummery of his wife, whom +he ordered his spies to watch; these were unfortunate enough to discover +that she went to the Mass more to fill her appointments with her lovers +than to pray to her Saviour; and that even by the side of her mother she +read billets-doux and love-letters when that pious lady supposed that she +read her prayers, because her eyes were fixed upon her breviary. Without +relating to any one this discovery of his Josephine's frailties, +Napoleon, after a violent connubial fracas and reprimand, and after a +solitary confinement of her for six days, gave immediate orders to have +the chapels of the Tuileries and of St. Cloud repaired; and until these +were ready, Cardinal Cambaceres and Bernier, by turns, said the Mass, in +her private apartments; where none but selected favourites or favoured +courtiers were admitted. Madame Napoleon now never neglects the Mass, +but if not accompanied by her husband is escorted by a guard of honour, +among whom she knows that he has several agents watching her motions and +her very looks. + +In the month of June, 1803; I dined with Viscomte de Segur, and Joseph +and Lucien Bonaparte were among the guests. The latter jocosely remarked +with what facility the French Christians had suffered themselves to be +hunted in and out of their temples, according to the fanaticism or policy +of their rulers; which he adduced as a proof of the great progress of +philosophy and toleration in France. A young officer of the party, +Jacquemont, a relation of the former husband of the present Madame +Lucien, observed that he thought it rather an evidence of the +indifference of the French people to all religion; the consequence of the +great havoc the tenets of infidelity and of atheism had made among the +flocks of the faithful. This was again denied by Bonaparte's +aide-de-camp, Savary, who observed that, had this been the case, the +First Consul (who certainly was as well acquainted with the religious +spirit of Frenchmen as anybody else) would not have taken the trouble to +conclude a religious concordat, nor have been at the expense of providing +for the clergy. To this assertion Joseph nodded an assent. + +When the dinner was over, De Segur took me to a window, expressing his +uneasiness at what he called the imprudence of Jacquemont, who, he +apprehended, from Joseph's silence and manner, would not escape +punishment for having indirectly blamed both the restorer of religion and +his plenipotentiary. These apprehensions were justified. On the next +day Jacquemont received orders to join the colonial depot at Havre; but +refusing to obey, by giving in his resignation as a captain, he was +arrested, shut up in the Temple, and afterwards transported to Cayenne or +Madagascar. His relatives and friends are still ignorant whether he is +dead or alive, and what is or has been his place of exile. To a petition +presented by Jacquemont's sister, Madame de Veaux, Joseph answered that +"he never interfered with the acts of the haute police of his brother +Napoleon's Government, being well convinced both of its justice and +moderation." + + + + +LETTER IV. + +PARIS, August, 1805. + +MY LORD:--That Bonaparte had, as far back as February, 1803 (when the +King of Prussia proposed to Louis XVIII. the formal renunciation of his +hereditary rights in favour of the First Consul), determined to assume +the rank and title, with the power of a Sovereign, nobody can doubt. Had +it not been for the war with England, he would, in the spring of that +year, or twelve months earlier, have proclaimed himself Emperor of the +French, and probably would have been acknowledged as such by all other +Princes. To a man so vain and so impatient, so accustomed to command and +to intimidate, this suspension of his favourite plan was a considerable +disappointment, and not a little increased his bitter and irreconcilable +hatred of Great Britain. + +Here, as well as in foreign countries, the multitude pay homage only to +Napoleon's uninterrupted prosperity; without penetrating or considering +whether it be the consequence of chance or of well-digested plans; +whether he owes his successes to his own merit or to a blind fortune. He +asserted in his speech to the constitutional authorities, immediately +after hostilities had commenced with England, that the war would be of +short duration, and he firmly believed what he said. Had he by his +gunboats, or by his intrigues or threats, been enabled to extort a second +edition of the Peace of Amiens, after a warfare of some few months, all +mouths would have been ready to exclaim, "Oh, the illustrious warrior! +Oh, the profound politician!" Now, after three ineffectual campaigns on +the coast, when the extravagance and ambition of our Government have +extended the contagion of war over the Continent; when both our direct +offers of peace, and the negotiations and mediations of our allies, have +been declined by, or proved unavailing with, the Cabinet of St. James, +the inconsistency, the ignorance, and the littleness of the fortunate +great man seem to be not more remembered than the outrages and +encroachments that have provoked Austria and Russia to take the field. +Should he continue victorious, and be in a position to dictate another +Peace of Luneville, which probably would be followed by another pacific +overture to or from England, mankind will again be ready to call out, +"Oh, the illustrious warrior! Oh, the profound politician! He foresaw, +in his wisdom, that a Continental war was necessary to terrify or to +subdue his maritime foe; that a peace with England could be obtained only +in Germany; and that this war must be excited by extending the power of +France on the other side of the Alps. Hence his coronation as a King of +Italy; hence his incorporation of Parma and Genoa with France; and hence +his donation of Piombino and Lucca to his brother-in-law, Bacchiochi!" +Nowhere in history have I read of men of sense being so easily led astray +as in our times, by confounding fortuitous events with consequences +resulting from preconcerted plans and well-organized designs. + +Only rogues can disseminate and fools believe that the disgrace of +Moreau, and the execution of the Duc d'Enghien, of Pichegru, and Georges, +were necessary as footsteps to Bonaparte's Imperial throne; and that +without the treachery of Mehee de la Touche, and the conspiracy he +pretended to have discovered, France would still have been ruled by a +First Consul. It is indeed true, that this plot is to be counted (as the +imbecility of Melas, which lost the battle of Marengo) among those +accidents presenting themselves apropos to serve the favourite of fortune +in his ambitious views; but without it, he would equally have been hailed +an Emperor of the French in May, 1804. When he came from the coast, in +the preceding winter, and was convinced of the impossibility of making +any impression on the British Islands with his flotilla, he convoked his +confidential Senators, who then, with Talleyrand, settled the Senatus +Consultum which appeared five months afterwards. Mehee's correspondence +with Mr. Drake was then known to him; but he and the Minister of Police +were both unacquainted with the residence and arrival of Pichegru and +Georges in France, and of their connection with Moreau; the particulars +of which were first disclosed to them in the February following, when +Bonaparte had been absent from his army of England six weeks. The +assumption of the Imperial dignity procured him another decent +opportunity of offering his olive-branch to those who had caused his +laurels to wither, and by whom, notwithstanding his abuse, calumnies, and +menaces, he would have been more proud to be saluted Emperor than by all +the nations upon the Continent. His vanity, interest, and policy, all +required this last degree of supremacy and elevation at that period. + +Bonaparte had so well penetrated the weak side of Moreau's character +that, although he could not avoid doing justice to this general's +military talents and exploits, he neither esteemed him as a citizen nor +dreaded him as a rival. Moreau possessed great popularity; but so did +Dumourier and Pichegru before him: and yet neither of them had found +adherents enough to shake those republican governments with which they +avowed themselves openly discontented, and against which they secretly +plotted. I heard Talleyrand say, at Madame de Montlausier's, in the +presence of fifty persons, "Napoleon Bonaparte had never anything to +apprehend from General Moreau, and from his popularity, even at the head +of an army. Dumourier, too, was at the head of an army when he revolted +against the National Convention; but had he not saved himself by flight +his own troops would have delivered him up to be punished as a traitor. +Moreau, and his popularity, could only be dangerous to the Bonaparte +dynasty were he to survive Napoleon, had not this Emperor wisely averted +this danger." From this official declaration of Napoleon's confidential +Minister, in a society of known anti-imperialists, I draw the conclusion +that Moreau will never more, during the present reign, return to France. +How very feeble, and how badly advised must this general have been, when, +after his condemnation to two years' imprisonment, he accepted a +perpetual exile, and renounced all hopes of ever again entering his own +country. In the Temple, or in any other prison, if he had submitted to +the sentence pronounced against him, he would have caused Bonaparte more +uneasiness than when at liberty, and been more a point of rally to his +adherents and friends than when at his palace of Grosbois, because +compassion and pity must have invigorated and sharpened their feelings. + +If report be true, however, he did not voluntarily exchange imprisonment +for exile; racks were shown him; and by the act of banishment was placed +a poisonous draught. This report gains considerable credit when it is +remembered that, immediately after his condemnation, Moreau furnished his +apartments in the Temple in a handsome manner, so as to be lodged well, +if not comfortably, with his wife and child, whom, it is said, he was not +permitted to see before he had accepted Bonaparte's proposal of +transportation. + +It may be objected to this supposition that the man in power, who did not +care about the barefaced murder of the Duc d'Enghien, and the secret +destruction of Pichegru, could neither much hesitate, nor be very +conscientious about adding Moreau to the number of his victims. True, +but the assassin in authority is also generally a politician. The +untimely end of the Duc d'Enghien and of Pichegru was certainly lamented +and deplored by the great majority of the French people; but though they +had many who pitied their fate, but few had any relative interest to +avenge it; whilst in the assassination of Moreau, every general, every +officer, and every soldier of his former army, might have read the +destiny reserved for himself by that chieftain, who did not conceal his +preference of those who had fought under him in Italy and Egypt, and his +mistrust and jealousy of those who had vanquished under Moreau in +Germany; numbers of whom had already perished at St. Domingo, or in the +other colonies, or were dispersed in separate and distant garrisons of +the mother country. It has been calculated that of eighty-four generals +who made, under Moreau, the campaign of 1800, and who survived the Peace +of Lundville, sixteen had been killed or died at St. Domingo, four at +Guadeloupe, ten in Cayenne, nine at Ile de France, and eleven at l'Ile +Reunion and in Madagascar. The mortality among the officers and men has +been in proportion. + +An anecdote is related of Pichegru, which does honour to the memory of +that unfortunate general. Fouche paid him a visit in prison the day +before his death, and offered him "Bonaparte's commission as a +Field-marshal, and a diploma as a grand officer of the Legion of Honour, +provided he would turn informer against Moreau, of whose treachery +against himself in 1797 he was reminded. On the other hand, he was +informed that, in consequence of his former denials, if he persisted in +his refractory conduct, he should never more appear before any judge, but +that the affairs of State and the safety of the country required that he +should be privately despatched in his gaol." + +"So," answered this virtuous and indignant warrior, "you will spare my +life only upon condition that I prove myself unworthy to live. As this +is the case, my choice is made without hesitation; I am prepared to +become your victim, but I will never be numbered among your accomplices. +Call in your executioners; I am ready to die as I have lived, a man of +honour, and an irreproachable citizen." + +Within twenty-four hours after this answer, Pichegru was no more. + +That the Duc d'Enghien was shot on the night of the 21st of March, 1804, +in the wood or in the ditch of the castle at Vincennes, is admitted even +by Government; but who really were his assassins is still unknown. Some +assert that he was shot by the grenadiers of Bonaparte's Italian guard; +others say, by a detachment of the Gendarmes d'Elite; and others again, +that the men of both these corps refused to fire, and that General Murat, +hearing the troops murmur, and fearing their mutiny, was himself the +executioner of this young and innocent Prince of the House of Bourbon, by +riding up to him and blowing out his brains with a pistol. Certain it is +that Murat was the first, and Louis Bonaparte the second in command, on +this dreadful occasion. + + + + +LETTER V. + +PARIS, August, 1805. + +MY LORD:--Thanks to Talleyrand's political emigration, our Government has +never been in ignorance of the characters and foibles of the leading +members among the emigrants in England. Otto, however, finished their +picture, but added, some new groups to those delineated by his +predecessor. It was according to his plan that the expedition of Mehee +de la Touche was undertaken, and it was in following his instructions +that the campaign of this traitor succeeded so well in Great Britain. + +Under the Ministry of Vergennes, of Montmorin, and of Delessart, Mehee +had been employed as a spy in Russia, Sweden, and Poland, and acquitted +himself perfectly to the satisfaction of his masters. By some accident +or other, Delessart discovered, however, in December, 1791, that he had, +while pocketing the money of the Cabinet of Versailles, sold its secrets +to the Cabinet of St. Petersburg. He, of course, was no longer trusted +as a spy, and therefore turned a Jacobin, and announced himself to +Brissot as a persecuted patriot. All the calumnies against this Minister +in Brissot's daily paper, Le Patriote Francois, during January, February, +and March, 1792, were the productions of Mehee's malicious heart and able +pen. Even after they had sent Delessart a State prisoner to Orleans, his +inveteracy continued, and in September the same year he went to +Versailles to enjoy the sight of the murder of his former master. Some +go so far as to say that the assassins were headed by this monster, who +aggravated cruelty by insult, and informed the dying Minister of the +hands that stabbed him, and to whom he was indebted for a premature +death. + +To these and other infamous and barbarous deeds, Talleyrand was not a +stranger when he made Mehee his secret agent, and entrusted him with the +mission to England. He took, therefore, such steps that neither his +confidence could be betrayed, nor his money squandered. Mehee had +instructions how to proceed in Great Britain, but he was ignorant of the +object Government had in view by his mission; and though large sums were +promised if successful, and if he gave satisfaction by his zeal and +discretion, the money advanced him was a mere trifle, and barely +sufficient to keep him from want. He was, therefore, really distressed, +when he fixed upon some necessitous and greedy emigrants for his +instruments to play on the credulity of the English Ministers in some of +their unguarded moments. Their generosity in forbearing to avenge upon +the deluded French exiles the slur attempted to be thrown upon their +official capacity, and the ridicule intended to be cast on their private +characters, has been much approved and admired here by all liberal-minded +persons; but it has also much disappointed Bonaparte and Talleyrand, who +expected to see these emigrants driven from the only asylum which +hospitality has not refused to their misfortunes and misery. + +Mehee had been promised by Talleyrand double the amount of the sums which +he could swindle from your Government; but though he did more mischief to +your country than was expected in this, and though he proved that he had +pocketed upwards of ten thousand English guineas, the wages of his +infamy, when he hinted about the recompense he expected here, Durant, +Talleyrand's chef du bureau, advised him, as a friend, not to remind the +Minister of his presence in France, as Bonaparte never pardoned a +Septembrizer, and the English guineas he possessed might be claimed and +seized as national property, to compensate some of the sufferers by the +unprovoked war with England. In vain did he address himself to his +fellow labourer in revolutionary plots, the Counsellor of State, Real, +who had been the intermedium between him and Talleyrand, when he was +first enlisted among the secret agents; instead of receiving money he +heard threats; and, therefore, with as good grace as he could, he made +the best of his disappointment; he sported a carriage, kept a mistress, +went to gambling-houses, and is now in a fair way to be reduced to the +status quo before his brilliant exploits in Great Britain. + +Real, besides the place of a Counsellor of State, occupies also the +office of a director of the internal police. Having some difference with +my landlord, I was summoned to appear before him at the prefecture of the +police. My friend, M. de Sab-----r, formerly a counsellor of the +Parliament at Rouen, happened to be with me when the summons was +delivered, and offered to accompany me, being acquainted with Real. +Though thirty persons were waiting in the antechamber at our arrival, no +sooner was my friend's name announced than we were admitted, and I +obtained not only more justice than I expected, or dared to claim, but an +invitation to Madame Real's tea-party the same evening. This justice and +this politeness surprised me, until my friend showed me an act of forgery +in his possession, committed by Real in 1788, when an advocate of the +Parliament, and for which the humanity of my friend alone prevented him +from being struck off the rolls, and otherwise punished. + +As I conceived my usual societies and coteries could not approve my +attendance at the house of such a personage, I was intent upon sending an +apology to Madame Real. My friend, however, assured me that I should +meet in her salon persons of all classes and of all ranks, and many I +little expected to see associating together. I went late, and found the +assembly very numerous; at the upper part of the hall were seated +Princesses Joseph and Louis Bonaparte, with Madame Fouche, Madame +Roederer, the cidevant Duchesse de Fleury, and Marquise de Clermont. They +were conversing with M. Mathew de Montmorency, the contractor (a +ci-devant lackey) Collot, the ci-devant Duc de Fitz-James, and the +legislator Martin, a ci-devant porter: several groups in the several +apartments were composed of a similar heterogeneous mixture of ci-devant +nobles and ci-devant valets, of ci-devant Princesses, Marchionesses, +Countesses and Baronesses, and of ci-devant chambermaids, mistresses and +poissardes. Round a gambling-table, by the side of the ci-devant Bishop +of Autun, Talleyrand, sat Madame Hounguenin, whose husband, a ci-devant +shoeblack, has, by the purchase of national property, made a fortune of +nine millions of livres--L375,000. Opposite them were seated the +ci-devant Prince de Chalais, and the present Prince Cambaceres with the +ci-devant Comtesse de Beauvais, and Madame Fauve, the daughter of a +fishwoman, and the wife of a tribune, a ci-devant barber. In another +room, the Bavarian Minister Cetto was conferring with the spy Mehee de la +Touche; but observed at a distance by Fouche's secretary, Desmarets, the +son of a tailor at Fontainebleau, and for years a known spy. When I was +just going to retire, the handsome Madame Gillot, and her sister, Madame +de Soubray, joined me. You have perhaps known them in England, where, +before their marriage, they resided for five years with their parents, +the Marquis and Marquise de Courtin; and were often admired by the +loungers in Bond Street. The one married for money, Gillot, a ci-devant +drummer in the French Guard, but who, since the Revolution, has, as a +general; made a large fortune; and the other united herself to a +ci-devant Abbe, from love; but both are now divorced from their husbands, +who passed them without any notice while they were chatting with me. I +was handing Madame Gillot to her carriage, when, from the staircase, +Madame de Soubray called to us not to quit her, as she was pursued by a +man whom she detested, and wished to avoid. We had hardly turned round, +when Mehee offered her his arm, and she exclaimed with indignation, "How +dare you, infamous wretch, approach me, when I have forbidden you ever to +speak to me? Had you been reduced to become a highwayman, or a +housebreaker, I might have pitied your infamy; but a spy is a villain who +aggravates guilt by cowardice and baseness, and can inspire no noble soul +with any other sentiment but abhorrence, and the most sovereign +contempt." Without being disconcerted, Mehee silently returned to the +company, amidst bursts of laughter from fifty servants, and as many +masters, waiting for their carriages. M. de Cetto was among the latter, +but, though we all fixed our eyes steadfastly upon him, no alteration +could be seen on his diplomatic countenance: his face must surely be made +of brass or his heart of marble. + + + + +LETTER VI. + +PARIS, August, 1805. + +MY LORD:--The day on which Madame Napoleon Bonaparte was elected an +Empress of the French, by the constitutional authorities of her husband's +Empire, was, contradictory as it may seem, one of the most uncomfortable +in her life. After the show and ceremony of the audience and of the +drawing-room were over, she passed it entirely in tears, in her library, +where her husband shut her up and confined her. + +The discipline of the Court of St. Cloud is as singular as its +composition is unique. It is, by the regulation of Napoleon, entirely +military. From the Empress to her lowest chambermaid, from the Emperor's +first aide-de-camp down to his youngest page, any slight offence or +negligence is punished with confinement, either public or private. In +the former case the culprits are shut up in their own apartments, but in +the latter they are ordered into one of the small rooms, constructed in +the dark galleries at the Tuileries and St. Cloud, near the kitchens, +where they are guarded day and night by sentries, who answer for their +persons, and that nobody visits them. + +When, on the 28th of March, 1804, the Senate had determined on offering +Bonaparte the Imperial dignity, he immediately gave his wife full powers, +with order to form her household of persons who, from birth and from +their principles, might be worthy, and could be trusted to encompass the +Imperial couple. She consulted Madame Remusat, who, in her turn, +consulted her friend De Segur, who also consulted his bonne amie, Madame +de Montbrune. This lady determined that if Bonaparte and his wife were +desirous to be served, or waited on, by persons above them by ancestry +and honour, they should pay liberally for such sacrifices. She was not +therefore idle, but wishing to profit herself by the pride of upstart +vanity, she had at first merely reconnoitred the ground, or made distant +overtures to those families of the ancient French nobility who had been +ruined by the Revolution, and whose minds she expected to have found on a +level with their circumstances. These, however, either suspecting her +intent and her views, or preferring honest poverty to degrading and +disgraceful splendour, had started objections which she was not prepared +to encounter. Thus the time passed away; and when, on the 18th of the +following May, the Senate proclaimed Napoleon Bonaparte Emperor of the +French, not a Chamberlain was ready to attend him, nor a Maid of Honour +to wait on his wife. + +On the morning of the 20th May, the day fixed for the constitutional +republican authorities to present their homage as subjects, Napoleon +asked his Josephine who were the persons, of both sexes, she had engaged, +according to his carte blanche given her, as necessary and as unavoidable +decorations of the drawing-room of an Emperor and Empress, as thrones and +as canopies of State. She referred him to Madame Remusat, who, though +but half-dressed, was instantly ordered to appear before him. This lady +avowed that his grand master of the ceremonies, De Segur, had been +entrusted by her with the whole arrangement, but that she feared that he +had not yet been able to complete the full establishment of the Imperial +Court. The aide-de-camp Rapp was then despatched after De Segur, who, as +usual, presented himself smiling and cringing. + +"Give me the list," said Napoleon, "of the ladies and gentlemen you have +no doubt engaged for our household." + +"May it please Your Majesty," answered De Segur, trembling with fear, "I +humbly supposed that they were not requisite before the day of Your +Majesty's coronation." + +"You supposed!" retorted Napoleon. "How dare you suppose differently +from our commands? Is the Emperor of the Great Nation not to be +encompassed with a more numerous retinue, or with more lustre, than a +First Consul? Do you not see the immense difference between the +Sovereign Monarch of an Empire, and the citizen chief magistrate of a +commonwealth? Are there not starving nobles in my empire enough to +furnish all the Courts in Europe with attendants, courtiers, and valets? +Do you not believe that with a nod, with a single nod, I might have them +all prostrated before my throne? What can, then, have occasioned this +impertinent delay?" + +"Sire!" answered De Segur, "it is not the want of numbers, but the +difficulty of the choice among them. I will never recommend a single +individual upon whom I cannot depend; or who, on some future day, may +expose me to the greatest of all evils, the displeasure of my Prince." + +"But," continued Napoleon, "what is to be done to-day that I may augment +the number of my suite, and by it impose upon the gaping multitude and +the attending deputations?"--"Command," said De Segur, "all the officers +of Your Majesty's staff, and of the staff of the Governor of Paris, +General Murat, to surround Your Majesty's sacred person, and order them +to accoutre themselves in the most shining and splendid manner possible. +The presence of so many military men will also, in a political point of +view, be useful. It will lessen the pretensions of the constituted +authorities, by telling them indirectly, 'It is not to your Senatus +Consultum, to your decrees, or to your votes, that I am indebted for my +present Sovereignty; I owe it exclusively to my own merit and valour, and +to the valour of my brave officers and men, to whose arms I trust more +than to your counsels.'" + +This advice obtained Napoleon's entire approbation, and was followed. De +Segur was permitted to retire, but when Madame Remusat made a curtsey +also to leave the room, she was stopped with his terrible 'aux arrets' +and left under the care and responsibility of his aide-de-camp, Lebrun, +who saw her safe into her room, at the door of which he placed two +grenadiers. Napoleon then went out, ordering his wife, at her peril, to +be in time, ready and brilliantly dressed, for the drawing-room. + +Dreading the consequences of her husband's wrath, Madame Napoleon was not +only punctual, but so elegantly and tastefully decorated with jewels and +ornaments that even those of her enemies or rivals who refused her +beauty, honour, and virtue, allowed her taste and dignity. She thought +that even in the regards of Napoleon she read a tacit approbation. When +all the troublesome bustle of the morning was gone through, and when +Senators, legislators, tribunes, and prefects had complimented her as a +model of female perfection, on a signal from her husband she accompanied +him in silence through six different apartments before he came to her +library, where he surlily ordered her to enter and to remain until +further orders. + +"What have I done, Sire! to deserve such treatment?" exclaimed Josephine, +trembling. + +"If," answered Napoleon, "Madame Remusat, your favourite, has made a fool +of you, this is only to teach you that you shall not make a fool of me: +Had not De Segur fortunately for him--had the ingenuity to extricate us +from the dilemma into which my confidence and dependence on you had +brought me, I should have made a fine figure indeed on the first day of +my emperorship. Have patience, Madame; you have plenty of books to +divert you, but you must remain where you are until I am inclined to +release you." So saying, Napoleon locked the door and put the key in his +pocket. + +It was near two o'clock in the afternoon when she was thus shut up. +Remembering the recent flattery of her courtiers, and comparing it with +the unfeeling treatment of her husband, she found herself so much the +more unfortunate, as the expressions of the former were regarded by her +as praise due to her merit, while the unkindness of the latter was +unavailingly resented as the undeserved oppression of a capricious +despot. + +Business, or perhaps malice, made Napoleon forget to send her any dinner; +and when, at eight o'clock, his brothers and sisters came, according to +invitation, to take tea, he said coldly: + +"Apropos, I forgot it. My wife has not dined yet; she is busy, I +suppose, in her philosophical meditations in her study." + +Madame Louis Bonaparte, her daughter, flew directly towards the study, +and her mother could scarcely, for her tears, inform her that--she was a +prisoner, and that her husband was her gaoler. + +"Oh, Sire!" said Madame Louis, returning, "even this remarkable day is a +day of mourning for my poor mother!" + +"She deserves worse," answered Napoleon, "but, for your sake, she shall +be released; here is the key, let her out." + +Madame Napoleon was, however, not in a situation to wish to appear before +her envious brothers and sisters-in-law. Her eyes were so swollen with +crying that she could hardly see; and her tears had stained those +Imperial robes which the unthinking and inconsiderate no doubt believed a +certain preservative against sorrow and affliction. At nine o'clock, +however, another aide-de-camp of her husband presented himself, and gave +her the choice either to accompany him back to the study or to join the +family party of the Bonapartes. + +In deploring her mother's situation, Madame Louis Bonaparte informed her +former governess, Madame Cam---n, of these particulars, which I heard her +relate at Madame de M----r's, almost verbatim as I report them to you. +Such, and other scenes, nearly of the same description, are neither rare +nor singular, in the most singular Court that ever existed in civilized +Europe. + + + + +LETTER VII. + +PARIS, August, 1805. + +MY LORD:--Though Government suffer a religious, or, rather, +anti-religious liberty of the Press, the authors who libel or ridicule +the Christian, particularly the Roman Catholic, religion, are excluded +from all prospect of advancement, or if in place, are not trusted or +liked. Cardinal Caprara, the nuncio of the Pope, proposed last year, in a +long memorial, the same severe restrictions on the discussions or +publications in religious matters as were already ordered in those +concerning politics. But both Bonaparte and his Minister in the affairs +of the Church, Portalis, refused the introduction of what they called a +tyranny on the conscience. Caprara then addressed himself to the +ex-Bishop Talleyrand, who, on this occasion, was more explicit than he +generally is. + +"Bonaparte," said he, "rules not only over a fickle, but a gossiping +(bavard) people, whom he has prudently forbidden all conversation and +writing concerning government of the State. They would soon (accustomed +as they are, since the Revolution, to verbal and written debates) be +tired of talking about fine weather or about the opera. To occupy them +and their attention, some ample subject of diversion was necessary, and +religion was surrendered to them at discretion; because, enlightened as +the world now is, even athiests or Christian fanatics can do but little +harm to society. They may spend rivers of ink, but they will be unable +to shed a drop of blood." + +"True," answered the Cardinal, "but only to a certain degree. The +licentiousness of the Press, with regard to religious matters, does it +not also furnish infidelity with new arms to injure the faith? And have +not the horrors from which France has just escaped proved the danger and +evil consequences of irreligion, and the necessity of encouraging and +protecting Christianity? By the recall of the clergy, and by the +religious concordat, Bonaparte has shown himself convinced of this +truth." + +"So he is," interrupted Talleyrand; "but he abhors intoleration and +persecution" (not in politics). "I shall, however, to please Your +Eminence, lay the particulars of your conversation before him." + +Some time afterwards, when Talleyrand and Bonaparte must have agreed +about some new measure to indirectly chastise impious writers, the +Senators Garat, Jaucourt, Roederer, and Demeunier, four of the members of +the senatorial commission of the liberty of the Press, were sent for, and +remained closeted with Napoleon, his Minister Portalis, and Cardinal +Caprara for two hours. What was determined on this occasion has not +transpired, as even the Cardinal, who is not the most discreet person +when provoked, and his religious zeal gets the better of his political +prudence, has remained silent, though seemingly contented. + +Two rather insignificant authors, of the name of Varennes and Beaujou, +who published some scandalous libels on Christianity, have since been +taken up, and after some months' imprisonment in the Temple been +condemned to transportation to Cayenne for life,--not as infidels or +atheists, but as conspirators against the State, in consequence of some +unguarded expressions which prejudice or ill-will alone would judge +connected with politics. Nothing is now permitted to be printed against +religion but with the author's name; but on affixing his name, he may +abuse the worship and Gospel as much as he pleases. Since the example of +severity alluded to above, however, this practice is on the decline. Even +Pigault-Lebrun, a popular but immoral novel writer, narrowly escaped +lately a trip to Cayenne for one of his blasphemous publications, and +owes to the protection of Madame Murat exclusively that he was not sent +to keep Varennes and Beaujou company. Some years ago, when Madame Murat +was neither so great nor so rich as at present, he presented her with a +copy of his works, and she had been unfashionable enough not only to +remember the compliment, but wished to return it by nominating him her +private secretary; which, however, the veto of Napoleon prevented. + +Of Napoleon Bonaparte's religious sentiments, opinions are not divided in +France. The influence over him of the petty, superstitious Cardinal +Caprara is, therefore, inexplicable. This prelate has forced from him +assent to transactions which had been refused both to his mother and his +brother Joseph, who now often employ the Cardinal with success, where +they either dare not or will not show themselves. It is true His +Eminence is not easily rebuked, but returns to the charge unabashed by +new repulses; and be obtains by teasing more than by persuasion; but a +man by whom Bonaparte suffers, himself to be teased with impunity is no +insignificant favourite, particularly when, like this Cardinal, he unites +cunning with devotion, craft with superstition; and is as accessible to +corruption as tormented by ambition. + +As most ecclesiastical promotions passed through his pure and +disinterested hands, Madame Napoleon, Talleyrand, and Portalis, who also +wanted some douceurs for their extraordinary expenses, united together +last spring to remove him from France. Napoleon was cajoled to nominate +him a grand almoner of the Kingdom of Italy, and the Cardinal set out for +Milan. He was, however, artful enough to convince his Sovereign of the +propriety of having his grand almoner by his side; and he is, therefore, +obliged to this intrigue of his enemies that he now disposes of the +benefices in the Kingdom of Italy, as well as those of the French Empire. + +During the Pope's residence in this capital, His Holiness often made use +of Cardinal Caprara in his secret negotiations with Bonaparte; and +whatever advantages were obtained by the Roman Pontiff for the Gallican +Church His Eminence almost extorted; for he never desisted, where his +interest or pride were concerned, till he had succeeded. It is said that +one day last January, after having been for hours exceedingly teasing and +troublesome, Bonaparte lost his patience, and was going to treat His +Eminence as he frequently does his relatives, his Ministers, and +counsellors,--that is to say, to kick him from his presence; but suddenly +recollecting himself, he said: "Cardinal, remain here in my closet until +my return, when I shall have more time to listen to what you have to +relate." It was at ten o'clock in the morning, and a day of great +military audience and grand review. In going out he put the key in his +pocket, and told the guards in his antechamber to pay no attention if +they should hear any noise in his closet. + +It was dark before the review was over, and Bonaparte had a large party +to dinner. When his guests retired, he went into his wife's +drawing-room, where one of the Pope's chamberlains waited on him with the +information that His Holiness was much alarmed about the safety of +Cardinal Caprara, of whom no account could be obtained, even with the +assistance of the police, to whom application had been made, since His +Eminence had so suddenly disappeared. + +"Oh! how absent I am," answered Napoleon, as with surprise; "I entirely +forgot that I left the Cardinal in my closet this morning. I will go +myself and make an apology for my blunder." + +His Eminence, quite exhausted, was found fast asleep; but no sooner was +he a little recovered than he interrupted Bonaparte's affected apology +with the repetition of the demand he had made in the morning; and so well +was Napoleon pleased with him, for neglecting his personal inconvenience +only to occupy himself with the affairs of his Sovereign, that he +consented to what was asked, and in laying his hand upon the shoulders of +the prelate, said: + +"Faithful Minister! were every Prince as well served as your Sovereign +is by you, many evils might be prevented, and much good effected." + +The same evening Duroc brought him, as a present, a snuffbox with +Bonaparte's portrait, set round with diamonds, worth one thousand louis +d'or. The adventures of this day certainly did not lessen His Eminence +in the favour of Napoleon or of Pius VII. + +Last November, some not entirely unknown persons intended to amuse +themselves at the Cardinal's expense. At seven o'clock one evening, a +young Abbe presented himself at the Cardinal's house, Hotel de Montmorin, +Rue Plumet, as by appointment of His Eminence, and was, by his secretary, +ushered into the study and asked to wait there. Hardly half an hour +afterwards, two persons, pretending to be agents of the police, arrived +just as the Cardinal's carriage had stopped. They informed him that the +woman introduced into his house in the dress of an Abby was connected +with a gang of thieves and housebreakers, and demanded his permission to +arrest her. He protested that, except the wife of his porter, no woman +in any dress whatever could be in his house, and that, to convince +themselves, they were very welcome to accompany his valet-de-chambre into +every room they wished to see. To the great surprise of his servant, a +very pretty girl was found in the bed of His Eminence's bed-chamber, +which joined his study, who, though the pretended police agents insisted +on her getting up, refused, under pretence that she was there waiting for +her 'bon ami', the Cardinal. + +His Eminence was no sooner told of this than he shut the gate of his +house, after sending his secretary to the commissary of police of the +section. In the meantime, both the police agents and the girl entreated +him to let them out, as the whole was merely a badinage; but he remained +inflexible, and they were all three carried by the real police commissary +to prison. + +Upon a complaint made by His Eminence to Bonaparte, the Police Minister, +Fouche, received orders to have those who had dared thus to violate the +sacred character of the representative of the Holy Pontiff immediately, +and without further ceremony, transported to Cayenne. The Cardinal +demanded, and obtained, a process verbal of what had occurred, and of the +sentence on the culprits, to be laid before his Sovereign. As Eugene de +Beauharnais interested himself so much for the individuals involved in +this affair as both to implore Bonaparte's pardon and the Cardinal's +interference for them, many were inclined to believe that he was in the +secret, if not the contriver of this unfortunate joke. This supposition +gained credit when, after all his endeavours to save them proved vain, he +sent them seventy-two livres L 3,000--to Rochefort, that they might, on +their arrival at Cayenne, be able to buy a plantation. He procured them +also letters to the Governor, Victor Hughes, recommending that they +should be treated differently from other transported persons. + + + + +LETTER VIII. + +PARIS, August, 1805. + +MY LORD:--I was particularly attentive in observing the countenances and +demeanour of the company at the last levee which Madame Napoleon +Bonaparte held, previous to her departure with her husband to meet the +Pope at Fontainebleau. I had heard from good authority that "to those +whose propensities were known, Duroc's information that the Empress was +visible was accompanied with a kind of admonitory or courtly hint, that +the strictest decency in dress and manners, and a conversation chaste, +and rather of an unusually modest turn, would be highly agreeable to +their Sovereigns, in consideration of the solemn occasion of a Sovereign +Pontiff's arrival in France,--an occurrence that had not happened for +centuries, and probably would not happen for centuries to come." I went +early, and was well rewarded for my punctuality. + +There came the Senator Fouche, handing his amiable and chaste spouse, +walking with as much gravity as formerly, when a friar, he marched in a +procession. Then presented themselves the Senators Sieyes and Roederer, +with an air as composed as if the former had still been an Abbe and the +confessor of the latter. Next came Madame Murat, whom three hours before +I had seen in the Bois de Boulogne in all the disgusting display of +fashionable nakedness, now clothed and covered to her chin. She was +followed by the pious Madame Le Clerc, now Princesse Borghese, who was +sighing deeply and loudly. After her came limping the godly Talleyrand, +dragging his pure moiety by his side, both with downcast and edifying +looks. The Christian patriots, Gravina and Lima, Dreyer and Beust, +Dalberg and Cetto, Malsburgh and Pappenheim, with the Catholic +Schimmelpenninck and Mohammed Said Halel Effendi,--all presented +themselves as penitent sinners imploring absolutions, after undergoing +mortifications. + +But it would become tedious and merely a repetition, were I to depict +separately the figures and characters of all the personages at this +politico-comical masquerade. Their conversation was, however, more +uniform, more contemptible, and more laughable, than their accoutrements +and grimaces were ridiculous. To judge from what they said, they +belonged no longer to this world; all their thoughts were in heaven, and +they considered themselves either on the borders of eternity or on the +eve of the day of the Last Judgment. The truly devout Madame Napoleon +spoke with rapture of martyrs and miracles, of the Mass and of the +vespers, of Agnuses and relics of Christ her Saviour, and of Pius VII., +His vicar. Had not her enthusiasm been interrupted by the enthusiastic +commentaries of her mother-in-law, I saw every mouth open ready to cry +out, as soon as she had finished, "Amen! Amen! Amen!" + +Napoleon had placed himself between the old Cardinal de Bellois and the +not young Cardinal Bernier, so as to prevent the approach of any profane +sinner or unrepentant infidel. Round him and their clerical chiefs, all +the curates and grand vicars, almoners and chaplains of the Court, and +the capitals of the Princess, Princesses, and grand officers of State, +had formed a kind of cordon. "Had," said the young General Kellerman to +me, "Bonaparte always been encompassed by troops of this description, he +might now have sung hymns as a saint in heaven, but he would never have +reigned as an Emperor upon earth." This indiscreet remark was heard by +Louis Bonaparte, and on the next morning Kellerman received orders to +join the army in Hanover, where he was put under the command of a general +younger than himself. He would have been still more severely punished, +had not his father, the Senator (General Kellerman), been in so great +favour at the Court of St. Cloud, and so much protected by Duroc, who had +made, in 1792, his first campaign under this officer, then +commander-in-chief of the army of the Ardennes. + +When this devout assembly separated, which was by courtesy an hour +earlier than usual, I expected every moment to hear a chorus of +horse-laughs, because I clearly perceived that all of them were tired of +their assumed parts, and, with me, inclined to be gay at the expense of +their neighbours. But they all remembered also that they were watched by +spies, and that an imprudent look or an indiscreet word, gaiety instead +of gravity, noise when silence was commanded, might be followed by an +airing in the wilderness of Cayenne. They, therefore, all called out, +"Coachman, to our hotel!" as if to say, "We will to-day, in compliment to +the new-born Christian zeal of our Sovereigns, finish our evening as +piously as we have begun it." But no sooner were they out of sight of +the palace than they hurried to the scenes of dissipation, all +endeavouring, in the debauchery and excesses so natural to them, to +forget their unnatural affectation and hypocrisy. + +Well you know the standard of the faith even of the members of the +Bonaparte family. Two days before this Christian circle at Madame +Napoleon's, Madame de Chateaureine, with three other ladies, visited the +Princesse Borghese. Not seeing a favourite parrot they had often +previously admired, they inquired what was become of it. + +"Oh, the poor creature!" answered the Princess; "I have disposed of it, +as well as of two of my monkeys. The Emperor has obliged me to engage an +almoner and two chaplains, and it would be too extravagant in me to keep +six useless animals in my hotel. I must now submit to hearing the +disgusting howlings of my almoner instead of the entertaining chat of my +parrot, and to see the awkward bows and kneelings of my chaplains instead +of the amusing capering of my monkeys. Add to this, that I am forced to +transform into a chapel my elegant and tasty boudoir, on the +ground-floor, where I have passed so many delicious tete-a-tetes. Alas! +what a change! what a shocking fashion, that we are now all again to be +Christians!" + + + + +LETTER IX. + +PARIS, August, 1805. + +MY LORD:--Notwithstanding what was inserted in our public prints to the +contrary, the reception Bonaparte experienced from his army of England in +June last year, the first time he presented himself to them as an +Emperor, was far from such as flattered either his vanity or views. For +the first days, some few solitary voices alone accompanied the "Vive +l'Empereur!" of his generals, and of his aides-de-camp. This +indifference, or, as he called it, mutinous spirit, was so much the more +provoking as it was unexpected. He did not, as usual, ascribe it to the +emissaries or gold of England, but to the secret adherents of Pichegru +and Moreau amongst the brigades or divisions that had served under these +unfortunate generals. He ordered, in consequence, his Minister Berthier +to make out a list of all these corps. Having obtained this, he +separated them by ordering some to Italy, others to Holland, and the rest +to the frontiers of Spain and Germany. This act of revenge or jealousy +was regarded, both by the officers and men, as a disgrace and as a doubt +thrown out against their fidelity, and the murmur was loud and general. +In consequence of this, some men were shot, and many more arrested. + +Observing, however, that severity had not the desired effect, Bonaparte +suddenly changed his conduct, released the imprisoned, and rewarded with +the crosses of his Legion of Honour every member of the so lately +suspected troops who had ever performed any brilliant or valorous +exploits under the proscribed generals. He even incorporated among his +own bodyguards and guides men who had served in the same capacity under +these rival commanders, and numbers of their children were received in +the Prytanees and military free schools. The enthusiastic exclamation +that soon greeted his ears convinced him that he had struck upon the +right string of his soldiers' hearts. Men who, some few days before, +wanted only the signal of a leader to cut an Emperor they hated to +pieces, would now have contended who should be foremost to shed their +last drop of blood for a chief they adored. + +This affected liberality towards the troops who had served under his +rivals roused some slight discontent among those to whom he was chiefly +indebted for his own laurels. But if he knew the danger of reducing to +despair slighted men with arms in their hands, he also was well aware of +the equal danger of enduring licentiousness or audacity among troops who +had, on all occasions, experienced his preference and partiality; and he +gave a sanguinary proof of his opinion on this subject at the grand +parade of the 12th of July, 1804, preparatory to the grand fete of the +14th. + +A grenadier of the 21st Regiment (which was known in Italy under the name +of the Terrible), in presetting arms to him, said: "Sire! I have served +under you four campaigns, fought under you in ten battles or engagements; +have received in your service seven wounds, and am not a member of your +Legion of Honour; whilst many who served under Moreau, and are not able +to show a scratch from an enemy, have that distinction." + +Bonaparte instantly ordered this man to be shot by his own comrades in +the front of the regiment. The six grenadiers selected to fire, seeming +to hesitate, he commanded the whole corps to lay down their arms, and +after being disbanded, to be sent to the different colonial depots. To +humiliate them still more, the mutinous grenadier was shot by the +gendarmes. When the review was over, "Vive l'Empereur!" resounded from +all parts, and his popularity among the troops has since rather increased +than diminished. Nobody can deny that Bonaparte possesses a great +presence of mind, an undaunted firmness, and a perfect knowledge of the +character of the people over whom he reigns. Could but justice and +humanity be added to his other qualities, but, unfortunately for my +nation, I fear that the answer of General Mortier to a remark of a friend +of mine on this subject is not problematical: "Had," said this Imperial +favourite, "Napoleon Bonaparte been just and humane, he would neither +have vanquished nor reigned." + +All these scenes occurred before Bonaparte, seated on a throne, received +the homage, as a Sovereign, of one hundred and fifty thousand warriors, +who now bowed as subjects, after having for years fought for liberty and +equality, and sworn hatred to all monarchical institutions; and who +hitherto had saluted and obeyed him only as the first among equals. What +an inconsistency! The splendour and show that accompanied him +everywhere, the pageantry and courtly pomp that surrounded him, and the +decorations of the stars and ribands of the Legion of Honour, which he +distributed with bombastic speeches among troops--to whom those political +impositions and social cajoleries were novelties--made such an impression +upon them, that had a bridge been then fixed between Calais and Dover, +brave as your countrymen are, I should have trembled for the liberty and +independence of your country. The heads and imagination of the soldiers, +I know from the best authority, were then so exalted that, though they +might have been cut to pieces, they could never have been defeated or +routed. I pity our children when I reflect that their tranquillity and +happiness will, perhaps, depend upon such a corrupt and unprincipled +people of soldiers,--easy tools in the hands of every impostor or +mountebank. + +The lively satisfaction which Bonaparte must have felt at the pinnacle of +grandeur where fortune had placed him was not, however, entirely unmixed +with uneasiness and vexation. Except at Berlin, in all the other great +Courts the Emperor of the French was still Monsieur Bonaparte; and your +country, of the subjugation of which he had spoken with such lightness +and such inconsideration, instead of dreading, despised his boasts and +defied his threats. Indeed, never before did the Cabinet of St. James +more opportunely expose the reality of his impotency, the impertinence of +his menaces, and the folly of his parade for the invasion of your +country, than by declaring all the ports containing his invincible armada +in a state of blockade. I have heard from an officer who witnessed his +fury when in May, 1799, he was compelled to retreat from before St. Jean +d'Acre, and who was by his side in the camp at Boulogne when a despatch +informed him of this circumstance, that it was nothing compared to the +violent rage into which he flew upon reading it. For an hour afterwards +not even his brother Joseph dared approach him; and his passion got so +far the better of his policy, that what might still have long been +concealed from the troops was known within the evening to the whole camp. +He dictated to his secretary orders for his Ministers at Vienna, Berlin, +Lisbon, and Madrid, and couriers were sent away with them; but half an +hour afterwards other couriers were despatched after them with other +orders, which were revoked in their turn, when at last Joseph had +succeeded in calming him a little. He passed, however, the whole +following night full dressed and agitated; lying down only for an +instant, but having always in his room Joseph and Duroc, and deliberating +on a thousand methods of destroying the insolent islanders; all equally +violent, but all equally impracticable. + +The next morning, when, as usual, he went to see the manoeuvres of his +flotilla, and the embarkation and landing of his troops, he looked so +pale that he almost excited pity. Your cruisers, however, as if they had +been informed of the situation of our hero, approached unusually near, to +evince, as it were, their contempt and, derision. He ordered instantly +all the batteries to fire, and went himself to that which carried its +shot farthest; but that moment six of your vessels, after taking down +their sails, cast anchors, with the greatest sang-froid, just without the +reach of our shot. In an unavailing anger he broke upon the spot six +officers of artillery, and pushed one, Captain d' Ablincourt, down the +precipice under the battery, where he narrowly escaped breaking his neck +as well as his legs; for which injury he was compensated by being made an +officer of the Legion of Honour. Bonaparte then convoked upon the spot a +council of his generals of artillery and of the engineers, and, within an +hour's time, some guns and mortars of still heavier metal and greater +calibre were carried up to replace the others; but, fortunately for the +generals, before a trial could be made of them the tide changed, and your +cruisers sailed. + +In returning to breakfast at General Soult's, he observed the +countenances of his soldiers rather inclined to laughter than to wrath; +and he heard some jests, significant enough in the vocabulary of +encampments, and which informed him that contempt was not the sentiment +with which your navy had inspired his troops. The occurrences of these +two days hastened his departure from the coast for Aix-la-Chapelle, where +the cringing of his courtiers consoled him, in part, for the want of +respect or gallantry in your English tars. + + + + +LETTER X. + +PARIS, August, 1805. + +MY LORD:--According to a general belief in our diplomatic circles, it was +the Austrian Ambassador in France, Count von Cobenzl, who principally +influenced the determination of Francis II. to assume the hereditary +title of Emperor of Austria, and to acknowledge Napoleon Emperor of the +French. + +Johann Philipp, Count von Cobenzl, enjoys, not only in his own country, +but through all Europe, a great reputation as a statesman, and has for a +number of years been employed by his Court in the most intricate and +delicate political transactions. In 1790 he was sent to Brabant to treat +with the Belgian insurgents; but the States of Brabant refusing to +receive him, he retired to Luxembourg, where he published a proclamation, +in which Leopold II. revoked all those edicts of his predecessor, Joseph +II., which had been the principal cause of the troubles; and +reestablished everything upon the same footing as during the reign of +Maria Theresa. In 1791 he was appointed Ambassador to the Court of St. +Petersburg, where his conduct obtained the approbation of his own Prince +and of the Empress of Russia. + +In 1793 the Committee of Public Safety nominated the intriguer, De +Semonville, Ambassador to the Ottoman Porte. His mission was to excite +the Turks against Austria and Russia, and it became of great consequence +to the two Imperial Courts to seize this incendiary of regicides. He was +therefore stopped, on the 25th of July, in the village of Novate, near +the lake of Chiavenne. A rumour was very prevalent at this time that +some papers were found in De Semonville's portfolio implicating Count von +Cobenzl as a correspondent with the revolutionary French generals. The +continued confidence of his Sovereign contradicts, however, this +inculpation, which seems to have been merely the invention of rivalry or +jealousy. + +In October, 1795, Count von Cobenzl signed, in the name of the Emperor, a +treaty with England and Russia; and in 1797 he was one of the Imperial +plenipotentiaries sent to Udine to negotiate with Bonaparte, with whom, +on the 17th of October, he signed the Treaty of Campo Formio. In the +same capacity he went afterwards to Rastadt, and when this congress broke +up, he returned again as an Ambassador to St. Petersburg. + +After the Peace of Lunwille, when it required to have a man of experience +and talents to oppose to our so deeply able Minister, Talleyrand, the +Cabinet of Vienna removed him from Russia to France, where, with all +other representatives of Princes, he has experienced more of the frowns +and rebukes, than of the dignity and good grace, of our present +Sovereign. + +Count von Cobenzl's foible is said to be a passion for women; and it is +reported that our worthy Minister, Talleyrand, has been kind enough to +assist him frequently in his amours. Some adventures of this sort, which +occurred at Rastadt, afforded much amusement at the Count's expense. +Talleyrand, from envy, no doubt, does not allow him the same political +merit as his other political contemporaries, having frequently repeated +that "the official dinners of Count von Cobenzl were greatly preferable +to his official notes." + +So well pleased was Bonaparte with this Ambassador when at +Aix-la-Chapelle last year, that, as a singular favour, he permitted him, +with the Marquis de Gallo (the Neapolitan Minister and another +plenipotentiary at Udine), to visit the camps of his army of England on +the coast. It is true that this condescension was, perhaps, as much a +boast, or a threat, as a compliment. + +The famous diplomatic note of Talleyrand, which, at Aix-la-Chapelle +proscribed en masse all your diplomatic agents, was only a slight revenge +of Bonaparte's for your mandate of blockade. Rumour states that this +measure was not approved of by Talleyrand, as it would not exclude any of +your Ambassadors from those Courts not immediately under the whip of our +Napoleon. For fear, however, of some more extravagant determination, +Joseph Bonaparte dissuaded him from laying before his brother any +objections or representations. "But what absurdities do I not sign!" +exclaimed the pliant Minister. + +Bonaparte, on his arrival at Aix-la-Chapelle, found there, according to +command, most of the members of the foreign diplomatic corps in France, +waiting to present their new credentials to him as Emperor. Charlemagne +had been saluted as such, in the same place, about one thousand years +before,--an inducement for the modern Charlemagne to set all these +Ambassadors travelling some hundred miles, without any other object but +to gratify his impertinent vanity. Every spot where Charlemagne had +walked, sat, slept, talked, eaten or prayed, was visited by him with +great ostentation; always dragging behind him the foreign +representatives, and by his side his wife. To a peasant who presented +him a stone upon which Charlemagne was said to have once kneeled, he gave +nearly half its weight in gold; on a priest who offered him a small +crucifix, before which that Prince was reported to have prayed, he +bestowed an episcopal see; to a manufacturer he ordered one thousand +louis for a portrait of Charlemagne, said to be drawn by his daughter, +but which, in fact, was from the pencil of the daughter of the +manufacturer; a German savant was made a member of the National Institute +for an old diploma, supposed to have been signed by Charlemagne, who many +believed was not able to write; and a German Baron, Krigge, was +registered in the Legion of Honour for a ring presented by this Emperor +to one of his ancestors, though his nobility is well known not to be of +sixty years' standing. But woe to him who dared to suggest any doubt +about what Napoleon believed, or seemed to believe! A German professor, +Richter, more a pedant than a courtier, and more sincere than wise, +addressed a short memorial to Bonaparte, in which he proved, from his +intimacy with antiquity, that most of the pretended relics of Charlemagne +were impositions on the credulous; that the portrait was a drawing of +this century, the diploma written in the last; the crucifix manufactured +within fifty, and the ring, perhaps, within ten years. The night after +Bonaparte had perused this memorial, a police commissary, accompanied by +four gendarmes, entered the professor's bedroom, forced him to dress, and +ushered him into a covered cart, which carried him under escort to the +left bank of the Rhine; where he was left with orders, under pain of +death, never more to enter the territory of the French Empire. This +expeditious and summary justice silenced all other connoisseurs and +antiquarians; and relics of Charlemagne have since poured in in such +numbers from all parts of France, Italy, Germany, and even Denmark, that +we are here in hope to see one day established a Museum Charlemagne, by +the side of the museums Napoleon and Josephine. A ballad, written in +monkish Latin, said to be sung by the daughters and maids of Charlemagne +at his Court on great festivities, was addressed to Duroc, by a Danish +professor, Cranener, who in return was presented, on the part of +Bonaparte, with a diamond ring worth twelve thousand livres--L 500. This +ballad may, perhaps, be the foundation of future Bibliotheque or Lyceum +Charlemagne. + + + + +LETTER XI. + +PARIS, August, 1805. + +MY LORD:--On the arrival of her husband at Aix-la-Chapelle, Madame +Napoleon had lost her money by gambling, without recovering her health by +using the baths and drinking the waters; she was, therefore, as poor as +low-spirited, and as ill-tempered as dissatisfied. Napoleon himself was +neither much in humour to supply her present wants, provide for her +extravagances, or to forgive her ill-nature; he ascribed the inefficacy +of the waters to her excesses, and reproached her for her too great +condescension to many persons who presented themselves at her +drawing-room and in her circle, but who, from their rank in life, were +only fit to be seen as supplicants in her antechambers, and as associates +with her valets or chambermaids. + +The fact was that Madame Napoleon knew as well as her husband that these +gentry were not in their place in the company of an Empress; but they +were her creditors, some of them even Jews; and as long as she continued +debtor to them she could not decently--or rather, she dared not prevent +them from being visitors to her. By confiding her situation to her old +friend, Talleyrand, she was, however, soon released from those +troublesome personages. When the Minister was informed of the occasion +of the attendance of these impertinent intruders, he humbly proposed to +Bonaparte not to pay their demands and their due, but to make them +examples of severe justice in transporting them to Cayenne, as the only +sure means to prevent, for the future, people of the same description +from being familiar or audacious. + +When, thanks to Talleyrand's interference, these family arrangements were +settled, Madame Napoleon recovered her health with her good-humour; and +her husband, who had begun to forget the English blockade, only to think +of the papal accolade (dubbing), was more tender than ever. I am assured +that, during the fortnight he continued with his wife at Aix-la-Chapelle, +he only shut her up or confined her twice, kicked her three times, and +abused her once a day. + +It was during their residence in that capital that Comte de Segur at last +completed the composition of their household, and laid before them the +list of the ladies and gentlemen who had consented to put on their +livery. This De Segur is a kind of amphibious animal, neither a royalist +nor a republican, neither a democrat nor an aristocrat, but a disaffected +subject under a King, a dangerous citizen of a Commonwealth, ridiculing +both the friend of equality and the defender of prerogatives; no exact +definition can be given, from his past conduct and avowed professions, of +his real moral and political character. One thing only is certain;--he +was an ungrateful traitor to Louis XVI., and is a submissive slave under +Napoleon the First. + +Though not of an ancient family, Comte de Segur was a nobleman by birth, +and ranked among the ancient French nobility because one of his ancestors +had been a Field-marshal. Being early introduced at Court, he acquired, +with the common corruption, also the pleasing manners of a courtier; and +by his assiduities about the Ministers, Comte de Maurepas and Comte de +Vergennes, he procured from the latter the place of an Ambassador to the +Court of St. Petersburg. With some reading and genius, but with more +boasting and presumption, he classed himself among French men of letters, +and was therefore as such received with distinction by Catharine II., on +whom, and on whose Government, he in return published a libel. He was a +valet under La Fayette, in 1789, as he has since been under every +succeeding King of faction. The partisans of the Revolution pointed him +out as a fit Ambassador from Louis XVI. to the late King of Prussia; and +he went in 1791 to Berlin, in that capacity; but Frederick William II. +refused him admittance to his person, and, after some ineffectual +intrigues with the Illuminati and philosophers at Berlin, he returned to +Paris as he left it; provided, however, with materials for another libel +on the Prussian Monarch, and on the House of Brandenburgh, which he +printed in 1796. Ruined by the Revolution which he had so much admired, +he was imprisoned under Robespierre, and was near starving under the +Directory, having nothing but his literary productions to subsist on. In +1799, Bonaparte made him a legislator, and in 1803, a Counsellor of +State,--a place which he resigned last year for that of a grand master of +the ceremonies at the present Imperial Court. His ancient inveteracy +against your country has made him a favourite with Bonaparte. The +indelicate and scandalous attacks, in 1796 and 1797, against Lord +Malmesbury, in the then official journal, Le Redacteur, were the +offspring of his malignity and pen; and the philippics and abusive notes +in our present official Moniteur, against your Government and country, +are frequently his patriotic progeny, or rather, he often shares with +Talleyrand and Hauterive their paternity. + +The Revolution has not made Comte de Segur more happy with regard to his +family, than in his circumstances, which, notwithstanding his brilliant +grand-mastership, are far from being affluent. His amiable wife died of +terror, and brokenhearted from the sufferings she had experienced, and +the atrocities she had witnessed; and when he had enticed his eldest son +to accept the place of a sub-prefect under Bonaparte, his youngest son, +who never approved our present regeneration, challenged his brother to +fight, and, after killing him in a duel, destroyed himself. Comte de +Segur is therefore, at present, neither a husband nor a father, but only +a grand master of ceremonies! What an indemnification! + +Madame Napoleon and her husband are both certainly under much obligation +to this nobleman for his care to procure them comparatively decent +persons to decorate their levees and drawing-rooms, who, though they have +no claim either to morality or virtue, either to honour or chastity, are +undoubtedly a great acquisition at the Court of St. Cloud, because none +of them has either been accused of murder, or convicted of plunder; which +is the case with some of the Ministers, and most of the generals, +Senators and counsellors. It is true that they are a mixture of beggared +nobles and enriched valets, of married courtesans and divorced wives, +but, for all that, they can with justice demand the places of honour of +all other Imperial courtiers of both sexes. + +When Bonaparte had read over the names of these Court recruits, engaged +and enlisted by De Segur, he said, "Well, this lumber must do until we +can exchange it for better furniture." At that time, young Comte d' +Arberg (of a German family, on the right bank of the Rhine), but whose +mother is one of Madame Bonaparte's Maids of Honour, was travelling for +him in Germany and in Prussia, where, among other negotiations, he was +charged to procure some persons of both sexes, of the most ancient +nobility, to augment Napoleon's suite, and to figure in his livery. More +individuals presented themselves for this honour than he wanted, but they +were all without education and without address: ignorant of the world as +of books; not speaking well their own language, much less understanding +French or Italian; vain of their birth, but not ashamed of their +ignorance, and as proud as poor. This project was therefore relinquished +for the time; but a number of the children of the principal ci-devant +German nobles, who, by the Treaty of Luneville and Ratisbon, had become +subjects of Bonaparte, were, by the advice of Talleyrand, offered places +in French Prytanees, where the Emperor promised to take care of their +future advancement. Madame Bonaparte, at the same time, selected +twenty-five young girls of the same families, whom she also offered to +educate at her expense. Their parents understood too well the meaning of +these generous offers to dare decline their acceptance. These children +are the plants of the Imperial nursery, intended to produce future pages, +chamberlains, equerries, Maids of Honour and ladies in waiting, who for +ancestry may bid defiance to all their equals of every Court in +Christendom. This act of benevolence, as it was called in some German +papers, is also an indirect chastisement of the refractory French +nobility, who either demanded too high prices for their degradation, or +abruptly refused to disgrace the names of their forefathers. + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +Easy to give places to men to whom Nature has refused parts +Indifference of the French people to all religion +Prepared to become your victim, but not your accomplice +Were my generals as great fools as some of my Ministers +Which crime in power has interest to render impenetrable + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Memoirs of the Court of St. Cloud, +Volume 1, by Lewis Goldsmith + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK COURT OF ST. 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