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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page17" name="page17"></a>[pg 17]</span>
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<h1>THE MIRROR<br />
OF<br />
LITERATURE, AMUSEMENT, AND INSTRUCTION.</h1>
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<td align="left"><b>Vol. 10, No. 263.]</b></td>
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<h2>SIR WALTER SCOTT'S LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE.</h2>
<h4>(<i>Continued from page 5.</i>)</h4>
<p>Robespierre was a coward, who signed death-warrants with a hand that shook, though
his heart was relentless. He possessed no passions on which to charge his crimes;
they were perpetrated in cold blood, and upon mature deliberation.</p>
<p>Marat, the third of this infernal triumvirate, had attracted the attention of the
lower orders, by the violence of his sentiments in the journal which he conducted
from the commencement of the revolution, upon such principles that it took the lead
in forwarding its successive changes. His political exhortations began and ended like
the howl of a blood-hound for murder; or, if a wolf could have written a journal, the
gaunt and famished wretch could not have ravened more eagerly for slaughter. It was
blood which was Marat's constant demand, not in drops from the breast of an
individual, not in puny streams from the slaughter of families, but blood in the
profusion of an ocean. His usual calculation of the heads which he demanded amounted
to two hundred and sixty thousand; and though he sometimes raised it as high as three
hundred thousand, it never fell beneath the smaller number. It may be hoped, and for
the honour of human nature we are inclined to believe, there was a touch of insanity
in this unnatural strain of ferocity; and the wild and squalid features of the wretch
appear to have intimated a degree of alienation of mind. Marat was, like Robespierre,
a coward. Repeatedly denounced in the assembly, he skulked instead of defending
himself, and lay concealed in some obscure garret or cellar among his cut-throats,
until a storm appeared, when, like a bird of ill omen, his death-screech was again
heard. Such was the strange and fatal triumvirate, in which the same degree of
cannibal cruelty existed under different aspects. Danton murdered to glut his rage;
Robespierre to avenge his injured vanity, or to remove a rival whom he envied; Marat,
from the same instinctive love of blood, which induces a wolf to continue his ravage
of the flocks long after his hunger is appeased.</p>
<p>Passing by the horrors of the reign of terror, we shall close the second volume
with a vivid and powerful picture, which we cannot refrain quoting—</p>
<h4>THE DEATH OF ROBESPIERRE.</h4>
<p>Meantime the convention continued to maintain the bold and commanding front which
they had so suddenly and critically assumed. Upon learning the escape of the arrested
deputies, and hearing of the insurrection at the Hotel de Ville, they instantly
passed a decree outlawing Robespierre and his associates, inflicting a similar doom
upon the mayor of Paris, the procureur and other members of the commune, and charging
twelve of their members, the boldest who could be selected, to proceed with the armed
force to the execution of the sentence. The drums of the National Guards now beat to
arms in all the sections under authority of the convention, while the tocsin
continued to summon assistance with its iron voice to Robespierre and the civic
magistrates. Every thing appeared to threaten a violent catastrophe, until it was
seen clearly that the public voice, and especially amongst the National Guards, was
declaring itself generally against the Terrorists.</p>
<p>The Hotel de Ville was surrounded by about fifteen hundred men, and cannon turned
upon the doors. The force of the assailants was weakest in point of number, but their
leaders were men of spirit, and night concealed their inferiority of force.</p>
<p>The deputies commissioned for the purpose read the decree of the assembly to those
whom they found assembled in front of the city-hall, and they shrunk from the attempt
of defending it, some joining the assailants, others laying down their arms and
dispersing. Meantime the deserted group of Terrorists within conducted themselves
like scorpions, which, when surrounded by a circle of fire, are said to turn their
stings on each other, and on themselves. Mutual and ferocious upbraiding took place
among these miserable men. "Wretch, were these the means you promised to furnish?"
said Payan to Henriot, whom he found intoxicated and incapable of resolution or
exertion; and seizing on him as he spoke, he precipitated the revolutionary general
from a window. Henriot survived the fall only to drag himself into a drain, in which
he was afterwards discovered and brought out to execution. The younger <span
class="pagenum"><a id="page18" name="page18"></a>[pg 18]</span> Robespierre threw
himself from the window, but had not the good fortune to perish on the spot. It
seemed as if even the melancholy fate of suicide, the last refuge of guilt and
despair, was denied to men who had so long refused every species of mercy to their
fellow-creatures. Le Bas alone had calmness enough to despatch himself with a
pistol-shot. Saint Just, after imploring his comrades to kill him, attempted his own
life with an irresolute hand, and failed, Couthon lay beneath the table brandishing a
knife, with which he repeatedly wounded his bosom, without daring to add force enough
to reach his heart. Their chief, Robespierre, in an unsuccessful attempt to shoot
himself, had only inflicted a horrible fracture on his under-jaw.</p>
<p>In this situation they were found like wolves in their lair, foul with blood,
mutilated, despairing, and yet not able to die. Robespierre lay on a table in an
anti-room, his head supported by a deal-box, and his hideous countenance half-hidden
by a bloody and dirty cloth bound round the shattered chin.<a id="footnotetag1"
name="footnotetag1"></a><a href="#footnote1"><sup>1</sup></a></p>
<p>The captives were carried in triumph to the convention, who, without admitting
them to the bar, ordered them, as outlaws, for instant execution. As the fatal cars
passed to the guillotine, those who filled them, but especially Robespierre, were
overwhelmed with execrations from the friends and relatives of victims whom he had
sent on the same melancholy road. The nature of his previous wound, from which the
cloth had never been removed till the executioner tore it off, added to the torture
of the sufferer. The shattered jaw dropped, and the wretch yelled aloud, to the
horror of the spectators.<a id="footnotetag2" name="footnotetag2"></a><a
href="#footnote2"><sup>2</sup></a> A mask taken from that dreadful head was long
exhibited in different nations of Europe, and appalled the spectator by its ugliness,
and the mixture of fiendish expression with that of bodily agony.</p>
<p>Thus fell Maximilian Robespierre, after having been the first person in the French
republic for nearly two years, during which time he governed it upon the principles
of Nero or Caligula. His elevation to the situation which he held involved more
contradictions than perhaps attach to any similar event in history. A low-born and
low-minded tyrant was permitted to rule with the rod of the most frightful despotism
a people, whose anxiety for liberty had shortly before rendered them unable to endure
the rule of a humane and lawful sovereign. A dastardly coward arose to the command of
one of the bravest nations in the world; and it was under the auspices of a man who
dared scarce fire a pistol, that the greatest generals in France began their careers
of conquest. He had neither eloquence nor imagination; but substituted in their stead
a miserable, affected, bombastic style, which, until other circumstances gave him
consequence, drew on him general ridicule. Yet against so poor an orator, all the
eloquence of the philosophical Girondists, all the terrible powers of his associate
Danton, employed in a popular assembly, could not enable them to make an effectual
resistance. It may seem trifling to mention, that in a nation where a good deal of
prepossession is excited by amiable manners and beauty of external appearance, the
person who ascended to the highest power was not only ill-looking, but singularly
mean in person, awkward and constrained in his address, ignorant how to set about
pleasing even when he most desired to give pleasure, and as tiresome nearly as he was
odious and heartless.</p>
<p>To compensate all these deficiencies, Robespierre had but an insatiable ambition,
founded on a vanity which made him think himself capable of filling the highest
situation; and therefore gave him daring, when to dare is frequently to achieve. He
mixed a false and over-strained, but rather fluent species of bombastic composition,
with the grossest flattery to the lowest classes of the people; in consideration of
which, they could not but receive as genuine the praises which he always bestowed on
himself. His prudent resolution to be satisfied with possessing the essence of power,
without seeming to desire its rank and trappings, formed another art of cajoling the
multitude. His watchful envy, his long-protracted but sure revenge, his craft, which
to vulgar minds supplies the place of wisdom, were his only means of competing with
his distinguished antagonists. And it seems to have been a merited punishment of the
extravagances and abuses of the French revolution, that it engaged the country in a
state of anarchy which permitted a wretch such as we have described, to be for a long
period master of her destiny. Blood was his element, like that of the other
Terrorists, and he never fastened with so much pleasure on a new <span
class="pagenum"><a id="page19" name="page19"></a>[pg 19]</span> victim, as when he
was at the same time an ancient associate. In an epitaph, of which the following
couplet may serve as a translation, his life was represented as incompatible with the
existence of the human race:—</p>
<blockquote class="poetry">
"Here lies Robespierre—let no tear be shed;<br />
Reader, if he had lived, thou hadst been dead."
</blockquote>
<p>The commencement of the third volume introduces us to the family of Bonaparte, who
resided in the island of Corsica, which was, in ancient times, remarkable as the
scene of Seneca's exile, and in the last century was distinguished by the memorable
stand which the natives made in defence of their liberties against the Genoese and
French, during a war which tended to show the high and indomitable spirit of the
islanders, united as it is with the fiery and vindictive feelings proper to their
country and climate.</p>
<h4>BIRTH OF BONAPARTE.</h4>
<p>Charles Bonaparte, the father of Napoleon, died at the age of about forty years,
of an ulcer in the stomach, on the 24th of February, 1785. His celebrated son fell a
victim to the same disease. During Napoleon's grandeur, the community of Montpellier
expressed a desire to erect a monument to the memory of Charles Bonaparte. His answer
was both sensible and in good taste. "Had I lost my father yesterday," he said, "it
would be natural to pay his memory some mark of respect consistent with my present
situation. But it is twenty years since the event, and it is one in which the public
can take no concern. Let us leave the dead in peace."</p>
<p>The subject of our narrative was born, according to the best accounts, and his own
belief, upon the 15th day of August, 1769, at his father's house in Ajaccio, forming
one side of a court which leads out of the Rue Charles.<a id="footnotetag3"
name="footnotetag3"></a><a href="#footnote3"><sup>3</sup></a> We read with interest,
that his mother's good constitution, and bold character of mind, having induced her
to attend mass upon the day of his birth, (being the Festival of the Assumption,) she
was obliged to return home immediately, and as there was no time to prepare a bed or
bedroom, she was delivered of the future victor upon a temporary couch prepared for
her accommodation, and covered with an ancient piece of tapestry, representing the
heroes of the Iliad. The infant was christened by the name of Napoleon, an obscure
saint, who had dropped to leeward, and fallen altogether out of the calendar, so that
his namesake never knew which day he was to celebrate as the festival of his patron.
When questioned, on this subject by the bishop who confirmed him, he answered
smartly, that there were a great many saints, and only three hundred and sixty-five
days to divide amongst them. The politeness of the pope promoted the patron in order
to compliment the god-child, and Saint Napoleon des Ursins was accommodated with a
festival. To render this compliment, which no one but a pope could have paid, still
more flattering, the feast of Saint Napoleon was fixed for the fifteenth August, the
birthday of the emperor, and the day on which he signed the Concordat. So that
Napoleon had the rare honour of promoting his patron saint.</p>
<h4>NAPOLEON'S EARLY LIFE.</h4>
<p>The young Napoleon had, of course, the simple and hardy education proper to the
natives of the mountainous island of his birth, and in his infancy was not remarkable
for more than that animation of temper, and wilfulness and impatience of inactivity,
by which children of quick parts and lively sensibility are usually distinguished.
The winter of the year was generally passed by the family of his father at Ajaccio,
where they still preserve and exhibit, as the ominous play-thing of Napoleon's
boyhood, the model of a brass cannon, weighing about thirty pounds.<a
id="footnotetag4" name="footnotetag4"></a><a href="#footnote4"><sup>4</sup></a> We
leave it to philosophers to inquire, whether the future love of war was suggested by
the accidental possession of such a toy; or whether the tendency of the mind dictated
the selection of it; or, lastly, whether the nature of the pastime, corresponding
with the taste which chose it, may not have had each their action and reaction, and
contributed between them to the formation of a character so warlike.</p>
<p>The same traveller who furnishes the above anecdote, gives an interesting account
of the country retreat of the family of Bonaparte during the summer.</p>
<p>Going along the sea-shore from Ajaccio towards the Isle Sanguiniere, about a mile
from the town, occur two stone pillars, the remains of a doorway, leading up to a
dilapidated villa, once the residence of Madame Bonaparte's half-brother on the
mother's side, whom Napoleon created Cardinal Fesch.<a id="footnotetag5"
name="footnotetag5"></a><a href="#footnote5"><sup>5</sup></a> The house is approached
by an avenue, surrounded and overhung by the cactus and other shrubs, which luxuriate
in a warm climate. It has a garden and a lawn, showing amidst <span
class="pagenum"><a id="page20" name="page20"></a>[pg 20]</span> neglect vestiges of
their former beauty, and the house is surrounded by shrubberies, permitted to run to
wilderness. This was the summer residence of Madame Bonaparte and her family. Almost
enclosed by the wild olive, the cactus, the clematis, and the almond-tree, is a very
singular and isolated granite rock, called Napoleon's grotto, which seems to have
resisted the decomposition which has taken place around. The remains of a small
summer-house are visible beneath the rock, the entrance to which is nearly closed by
a luxuriant fig-tree. This was Bonaparte's frequent retreat, when the vacations of
the school at which he studied permitted him to visit home. How the imagination
labours to form an idea of the visions, which, in this sequestered and romantic spot,
must have arisen before the eyes of the future hero of a hundred battles!</p>
<p>Bonaparte's ardour for the abstract sciences amounted to a passion, and was
combined with a singular aptitude for applying them to the purposes of war, while his
attention to pursuits so interesting and exhaustless in themselves, was stimulated by
his natural ambition and desire of distinction. Almost all the scientific teachers at
Brienne, being accustomed to study the character of their pupils, and obliged by
their duty to make memoranda and occasional reports on the subject, spoke of the
talents of Bonaparte, and the progress of his studies, with admiration. Circumstances
of various kinds, exaggerated or invented, have been circulated concerning the youth
of a person so remarkable. The following are given upon good authority.<a
id="footnotetag6" name="footnotetag6"></a><a href="#footnote6"><sup>6</sup></a></p>
<p>The conduct of Napoleon among his companions was that of a studious and reserved
youth, addicting himself deeply to the means of improvement, and rather avoiding than
seeking the usual temptations to dissipation of time. He had few friends, and no
intimates; yet at different times, when he chose to exert it, he exhibited
considerable influence over his fellow-students, and when there was any joint plan to
be carried into effect, he was frequently chosen dictator of the little republic.</p>
<p>In the time of winter, Bonaparte, upon one occasion, engaged his companions in
constructing a fortress out of the snow, regularly defended by ditches and bastions,
according to the rules of fortification. It was considered as displaying the great
powers of the juvenile engineer in the way of his profession, and was attacked and
defended by the students, who divided into parties for the purpose, until the battle
became so keen that their superiors thought it proper to proclaim a truce.</p>
<p>The young Bonaparte gave another instance of address and enterprise upon the
following occasion. There was a fair held annually in the neighbourhood of Brienne,
where the pupils of the Military School used to find a day's amusement; but on
account of a quarrel betwixt them and the country people upon a former occasion, or
for some such cause, the masters of the institution had directed that the students
should not on the fair-day be permitted to go beyond their own precincts, which were
surrounded with a wall. Under the direction of the young Corsican, however, the
scholars had already laid a plot for securing their usual day's diversion. They had
undermined the wall which encompassed their exercising ground, with so much skill and
secrecy, that their operations remained entirely unknown till the morning of the
fair, when a part of the boundary unexpectedly fell, and gave a free passage to the
imprisoned students, of which they immediately took the advantage, by hurrying to the
prohibited scene of amusement.</p>
<p>But although on these, and perhaps other occasions, Bonaparte displayed some of
the frolic temper of youth, mixed with the inventive genius and the talent for
commanding others by which he was distinguished in after time, his life at school was
in general that of a recluse and severe student, acquiring by his judgment, and
treasuring in his memory, that wonderful process of almost unlimited combination, by
means of which he was afterwards able to simplify the most difficult and complicated
undertakings. His mathematical teacher was proud of the young islander, as the boast
of his school, and his other scientific instructors had the same reason to be
satisfied.</p>
<p>In languages Bonaparte was less a proficient, and never acquired the art of
writing or spelling French, far less foreign languages, with accuracy or correctness;
nor had the monks of Brienne any reason to pride themselves on the classical
proficiency of their scholar. The full energies of his mind being devoted to the
scientific pursuits of his profession, left little time or inclination for other
studies.</p>
<p>Though of Italian origin, Bonaparte had not a decided taste for the fine arts, and
his taste in composition seems to have <span class="pagenum"><a id="page21"
name="page21"></a>[pg 21]</span> leaned towards the grotesque and the bombastic. He
used always the most exaggerated phrases; and it is seldom, if ever, that his
bulletins present those touches of sublimity which are founded on dignity and
simplicity of expression.</p>
<p>Notwithstanding the external calmness and reserve of his deportment, he who was
destined for such great things had, while yet a student at Brienne, a full share of
that ambition for distinction and dread of disgrace, that restless and irritating
love of fame, which is the spur to extraordinary attempts. Sparkles of this keen
temper sometimes showed themselves. On one occasion, a harsh superintendant imposed
on the future emperor, for some trifling fault, the disgrace of wearing a penitential
dress, and being excluded from the table of the students, and obliged to eat his meal
apart. His pride felt the indignity so severely, that it brought on a severe nervous
attack; to which, though otherwise of good constitution, he was subject upon
occasions of extraordinary irritation. Father Petrault, the professor of mathematics,
hastened to deliver his favourite pupil from the punishment by which he was so much
affected.</p>
<p>It is also said that an early disposition to the popular side distinguished
Bonaparte even when at Brienne. Pichegru, afterwards so celebrated, who acted as his
monitor in the military school, (a singular circumstance,) bore witness to his early
principles, and to the peculiar energy and tenacity of his temper. He was long
afterwards consulted whether means might not be found to engage the commander of the
Italian armies in the royal interest. "It will be but lost time to attempt it," said
Pichegru. "I knew him in his youth—his character is inflexible—he has
taken his side, and he will not change it."</p>
<p>In 1783, Napoleon Bonaparte, then only fourteen years old, was, though under the
usual age, selected by Monsieur de Keralio, the inspector of the twelve military
schools, to be sent to have his education completed in the general school of Paris.
It was a compliment paid to the precocity of his extraordinary mathematical talent,
and the steadiness of his application. While at Paris he attracted the same notice as
at Brienne; and among other society, frequented that of the celebrated Abbé
Raynal, and was admitted to his literary parties. His taste did not become correct,
but his appetite for study in all departments was greatly enlarged; and
notwithstanding the quantity which he daily read, his memory was strong enough to
retain, and his judgment sufficiently ripe to arrange and digest, the knowledge which
he then acquired; so that he had it at his command during all the rest of his busy
life. Plutarch was his favourite author; upon the study of whom he had so modelled
his opinions and habits of thought, that Paoli afterwards pronounced him a young man
of an antique caste, and resembling one of the classical heroes.</p>
<p>Some of his biographers have about this time ascribed to him the anecdote of a
certain youthful pupil of the military school, who desired to ascend in the car of a
balloon with the aëronaut Blanchard, and was so mortified at being refused, that
he made an attempt to cut the balloon with his sword. The story has but a flimsy
support, and indeed does not accord well with the character of the hero, which was
deep and reflective, as well as bold and determined, and not likely to suffer its
energies to escape in idle and useless adventure.</p>
<p>A better authenticated anecdote states, that at this time he expressed himself
disrespectfully towards the king in one of his letters to his family. According to
the practice of the school, he was obliged to submit the letter to the censorship of
Monsieur Domairon, the professor of belles lettres, who, taking notice of the
offensive passage, insisted upon the letter being burnt, and added a severe rebuke.
Long afterwards, in 1802, Monsieur Domairon was commanded to attend Napoleon's levee,
in order that he might receive a pupil in the person of Jerome Bonaparte, when the
first consul reminded his old tutor good-humouredly, that times had changed
considerably since the burning of the letter.</p>
<p>Napoleon Bonaparte, in his seventieth year, received his first commission as
second lieutenant in a regiment of artillery, and was almost immediately afterwards
promoted to the rank of first lieutenant in the corps quartered at Valence. He
mingled with society when he joined his regiment, more than he had hitherto been
accustomed to do; mixed in public amusements, and exhibited the powers of pleasing,
which he possessed in an uncommon degree when he chose to exert them. His handsome
and intelligent features, with his active and neat, though slight figure, gave him
additional advantages. His manners could scarcely be called elegant, but made up in
vivacity and variety of expression, and often in great spirit and energy, for what
they wanted in grace and polish.</p>
<p>He became an adventurer for the honours of literature also, and was anonymously a
competitor for the prize offered by the Academy of Lyons on Raynal's question, "What
are the principles and <span class="pagenum"><a id="page22" name="page22"></a>[pg
22]</span> institutions, by application of which mankind can be raised to the highest
pitch of happiness?" The prize was adjudged to the young soldier. It is impossible to
avoid feeling curiosity to know the character of the juvenile theories respecting
government, advocated by one who at length attained the power of practically making
what experiments he pleased. Probably his early ideas did not exactly coincide with
his more mature practice; for when Talleyrand, many years afterwards, got the essay
out of the records of the academy, and returned it to the author, Bonaparte destroyed
it after he had read a few pages. He also laboured under the temptation of writing a
journey to Mount Cenis, after the manner of Sterne, which he was fortunate enough
finally to resist. The affectation which pervades Sterne's peculiar style of
composition was not likely to be simplified under the pen of Bonaparte.</p>
<p>Sterner times were fast approaching, and the nation was now fully divided by those
factions which produced the revolution. The officers of Bonaparte's regiment were
also divided into royalists and patriots; and it is easily to be imagined, that the
young and friendless stranger and adventurer should adopt that side to which he had
already shown some inclination, and which promised to open the most free career to
those who had only their merit to rely on. "Were I a general officer," he is alleged
to have said, "I would have adhered to the king; being a subaltern, I join the
patriots."</p>
<p>There was a story current, that in a debate with some brother officers on the
politics of the time, Bonaparte expressed himself so outrageously, that they were
provoked to throw him into the Rhone, where he had nearly perished. But this is an
inaccurate account of the accident which actually befell him. He was seized with the
cramp when bathing in the river. His comrades saved him with difficulty, but his
danger was matter of pure chance.</p>
<p>Napoleon has himself recorded that he was a warm patriot during the whole sitting
of the National Assembly; but that on the appointment of the Legislative Assembly, he
became shaken in his opinions. If so, his original sentiments regained force, for we
shortly afterwards find him entertaining such as went to the extreme heights of the
revolution.</p>
<p>Early in the year 1792, Bonaparte became a captain in the artillery by seniority;
and in the same year, being at Paris, he witnessed the two insurrections of the 20th
of June and 10th of August. He was accustomed to speak of the insurgents as the most
despicable banditti, and to express with what ease a determined officer could have
checked these apparently formidable, but dastardly and unwieldy masses. But with what
a different feeling of interest would Napoleon have looked on that infuriated
populace, those still resisting though overpowered Swiss, and that burning palace,
had any seer whispered to him, "Emperor that shall be, all this blood and massacre is
but to prepare your future empire!" Little anticipating the potent effect which the
passing events were to bear on his own fortune, Bonaparte, anxious for the safety of
his mother and family, was now desirous to change France for Corsica, where the same
things were acting on a less distinguished stage.</p>
<h4>BONAPARTE'S FIRST MILITARY EXPLOIT.</h4>
<p>Napoleon's first military exploit was in the civil war of his native island. In
the year 1793, he was despatched from Bastia, in possession of the French party, to
surprise his native town Ajaccio, then occupied by Paoli or his adherents. Bonaparte
was acting provisionally, as commanding a battalion of National Guards. He landed in
the Gulf of Ajaccio with about fifty men, to take possession of a tower called the
Torre di Capitello, on the opposite side of the gulf, and almost facing the city. He
succeeded in taking the place; but as there arose a gale of wind which prevented his
communicating with the frigate which had put him ashore, he was besieged in his new
conquest by the opposite faction, and reduced to such distress, that he and his
little garrison were obliged to feed on horse-flesh. After five days he was relieved
by the frigate, and evacuated the tower, having first in vain attempted to blow it
up. The Torre di Capitello still shows marks of the damage it then sustained, and its
remains may be looked on as a curiosity, as the first scene of <i>his</i> combats,
before whom</p>
<blockquote class="poetry">
—"Temple and tower<br />
Went to the ground.—
</blockquote>
<p>A relation of Napoleon, Masserio by name, effectually defended Ajaccio against the
force employed in the expedition.</p>
<p>The strength of Paoli increasing, and the English preparing to assist him, Corsica
became no longer a safe or convenient residence for the Bonaparte family. Indeed,
both Napoleon and his brother Lucien, who had distinguished themselves as partisans
of the French, were subjected to a decree of banishment from their native island; and
Madame Bonaparte, with her three daughters, and Jerome, who was as yet but a child,
set sail under their protection, and settled for a time, <span class="pagenum"><a
id="page23" name="page23"></a>[pg 23]</span> first at Nice, and afterwards at
Marseilles, where the family is supposed to have undergone considerable distress,
until the dawning prospects of Napoleon afforded him the means of assisting them.</p>
<p>Napoleon never again revisited Corsica, nor does he appear to have regarded it
with any feelings of affection. One small fountain at Ajaccio is pointed out as the
only ornament which his bounty bestowed on his birthplace. He might perhaps think it
impolitic to do any thing which might remind the country he ruled that he was not a
child of her soil, nay, was in fact very near having been born an alien, for Corsica
was not united to, or made an integral part of France, until June, 1769, a few weeks
only before Napoleon's birth. This stigma was repeatedly cast upon him by his
opponents, some of whom reproached the French with having adopted a master, from a
country from which the ancient Romans were unwilling even to choose a slave; and
Napoleon may have been so far sensible to it, as to avoid showing any predilection to
the place of his birth, which might bring the circumstance strongly under the
observation of the great nation, with which he and his family seemed to be
indissolubly united. But, as a traveller already quoted, and who had the best
opportunities to become acquainted with the feelings of the proud islanders, has
expressed it,—"The Corsicans are still highly patriotic, and possess strong
local attachment—in their opinion, contempt for the country of one's birth is
never to be redeemed by any other qualities. Napoleon, therefore, certainly was not
popular in Corsica, nor is his memory cherished there."<a id="footnotetag7"
name="footnotetag7"></a><a href="#footnote7"><sup>7</sup></a></p>
<p>The feelings of the parties were not unnatural on either side. Napoleon, little
interested in the land of his birth, and having such an immense stake in that of his
adoption, in which he had every thing to keep and lose,<a id="footnotetag8"
name="footnotetag8"></a><a href="#footnote8"><sup>8</sup></a> observed a policy
towards Corsica which his position rendered advisable; and who can blame the
high-spirited islanders, who, seeing one of their countrymen raised to such exalted
eminence, and disposed to forget his connexion with them, returned with slight and
indifference the disregard with which he treated them?</p>
<p>The siege of Toulon was the first incident of importance which enabled Bonaparte
to distinguish himself in the eyes of the French government and of the world at
large. Shortly afterwards he was appointed chief of battalion in the army of Italy,
and on the fall of Robespierre, Bonaparte superseded in command. At the conflict
between the troops of the Convention under Napoleon, and those of the Sections of
Paris under Damican, the latter was defeated with much slaughter, and Bonaparte was
appointed general-in-chief in command of the army of the interior.</p>
<h4>BONAPARTE'S FIRST MARRIAGE.</h4>
<p>Meantime circumstances, which we will relate according to his own statement,
introduced Bonaparte to an acquaintance, which was destined to have much influence on
his future fate. A fine boy, of ten or twelve years old, presented himself at the
levee of the general of the interior, with a request of a nature unusually
interesting. He stated his name to be Eugene Beauharnois, son of the ci-devant
Vicomte de Beauharnois, who, adhering to the revolutionary party, had been a general
in the republican service upon the Rhine, and falling under the causeless suspicion
of the committee of public safety, was delivered to the revolutionary tribunal, and
fell by its sentence just four days before the overthrow of Robespierre. Eugene was
come to request of Bonaparte, as general of the interior, that his father's sword
might be restored to him. The prayer of the young supplicant was as interesting as
his manners were engaging, and Napoleon felt so much interest in him, that he was
induced to cultivate the acquaintance of Eugene's mother, afterwards the empress
Josephine.</p>
<p>The lady was a Creolian, the daughter of a planter in St. Domingo. Her name at
full length was Marie Joseph Rose Tascher de la Pagerie. She had suffered her share
of revolutionary miseries. After her husband, General Beauharnois, had been deprived
of his command, she was arrested as a suspected person, and detained in prison till
the general liberation, which succeeded the revolution of the 9th Thermidor. While in
confinement, Madame Beauharnois had formed an intimacy with a companion in distress,
Madame Fontenai, now Madame Tallien, from which she derived great advantages after
her friend's marriage. With a remarkably graceful person, amiable manners, and an
inexhaustible fund of good-humour, Madame Beauharnois was formed to be an ornament to
society. Barras, the Thermidorien hero, himself an ex-noble, was fond of society,
desirous of enjoying it on an agreeable scale, and of washing away the dregs which
Jacobinism had <span class="pagenum"><a id="page24" name="page24"></a>[pg 24]</span>
mingled with all the dearest interests of life. He loved show, too, and pleasure, and
might now indulge both without the risk of falling under the suspicion of incivism,
which, in the Reign of Terror, would have been incurred by any attempt to intermingle
elegance with the enjoyments of social intercourse. At the apartments which he
occupied, as one of the Directory, in the Luxemburg Palace, he gave its free course
to his natural taste, and assembled an agreeable society of both sexes. Madame
Tallien and her friend formed the soul of these assemblies, and it was supposed that
Barras was not insensible to the charms of Madame Beauharnois,—a rumour which
was likely to arise, whether with or without foundation.</p>
<p>When Madame Beauharnois and General Bonaparte became intimate, the latter assures
us, and we see no reason to doubt him, that although the lady was two or three years
older than himself,<a id="footnotetag9" name="footnotetag9"></a><a
href="#footnote9"><sup>9</sup></a> yet being still in the full bloom of beauty, and
extremely agreeable in her manners, he was induced, solely by her personal charms, to
make her an offer of his hand, heart, and fortunes,—little supposing, of
course, to what a pitch the latter were to arise.</p>
<p>Although he himself is said to have been a fatalist, believing in destiny and in
the influence of his star, he knew nothing, probably, of the prediction of a negro
sorceress, who, while Marie Joseph was but a child, prophesied she should rise to a
dignity greater than that of a queen, yet fall from it before her death.<a
id="footnotetag10" name="footnotetag10"></a><a href="#footnote10"><sup>10</sup></a>
This was one of those vague auguries, delivered at random by fools or impostors,
which the caprice of fortune sometimes matches with a corresponding and conforming
event. But without trusting to the African sibyl's prediction, Bonaparte may have
formed his match under the auspices of ambition as well as love. The marrying Madame
Beauharnois was a mean of uniting his fortune with those of Barras and Tallien, the
first of whom governed France as one of the Directors; and the last, from talents and
political connexions, had scarcely inferior influence. He had already deserved well
of them for his conduct on the Day of the Sections, but he required their countenance
to rise still higher; and without derogating from the bride's merits, we may suppose
her influence in their society corresponded with the views of her lover. It is,
however, certain, that he always regarded her with peculiar affection; that he relied
on her fate, which he considered as linked with and strengthening his own; and
reposed, besides, considerable confidence in Josephine's tact and address in
political business. She had at all times the art of mitigating his temper, and
turning aside the hasty determinations of his angry moments, not by directly
opposing, but by gradually parrying and disarming them. It must be added to her great
praise, that she was always a willing and often a successful advocate in the cause of
humanity.</p>
<p>They were married 9th of March, 1796; and the dowry of the bride was the chief
command of the Italian armies, a scene which opened a full career to the ambition of
the youthful general. Bonaparte remained with his wife only three days after his
marriage, hastened to see his family, who were still at Marseilles, and, having
enjoyed the pleasure of exhibiting himself as a favourite of fortune in the city
which he had lately left in the capacity of an indigent adventurer, proceeded rapidly
to commence the career to which fate called him, by placing himself at the head of
the Italian army.</p>
<p>The renowned Italian campaigns occupy the remainder of the third, and some part of
the fourth volume, to which we now proceed. It will be remembered that the war in
Egypt being triumphantly concluded on the part of Great Britain, the news of the
contest reached France some time before the English received it. Napoleon, on
learning the tidings, is reported to have said, "Well, there remains now no
alternative but to make the descent on Britain."</p>
<h4>PROPOSED INVASION OF GREAT BRITAIN.</h4>
<p>As the words of the first consul appeard to intimate, preparations were resumed on
the French coast for the invasion of Great Britain. Boulogne and every harbour along
the coast was crowded with flat-bottomed boats, and the shores covered with camps of
the men designed apparently to fill them. We need not at present dwell on the
preparations for attack, or those which the English adopted in defence, as we shall
have occasion to notice both, when Bonaparte, for the last time, threatened England
with the same <span class="pagenum"><a id="page25" name="page25"></a>[pg 25]</span>
measure. It is enough to say, that, on the present occasion, the menaces of France
had their usual effect in awakening the spirit of Britain.</p>
<p>The most extensive arrangements were made for the reception of the invaders should
they chance to land, and in the meanwhile, our natural barrier was not neglected. The
naval preparations were very great, and what gave yet more confidence than the number
of vessels and guns, Nelson was put into command of the sea, from Orfordness to
Beachy-head. Under his management, it soon became the question, not whether the
French flotilla was to invade the British shores, but whether it was to remain in
safety in the French harbours. Boulogne was bombarded, and some of the small craft
and gun-boats destroyed—the English admiral generously sparing the town; and
not satisfied with this partial success, Nelson prepared to attack them with the
boats of the squadron. The French resorted to the most unusual and formidable
preparations for defence. Their flotilla was moored close to the shore in the mouth
of Boulogne harbour, the vessels secured to each other by chains, and filled with
soldiers. The British attack in some degree failed, owing to the several divisions of
boats missing each other in the dark; some French vessels were taken, but they could
not be brought off; and the French chose to consider this result as a victory, on
their part, of consequence enough to balance the loss at Aboukir;—though it
amounted at best to ascertaining, that although their vessels could not keep the sea,
they might, in some comparative degree of safety, lie under close cover of their own
batteries.</p>
<p>The preliminaries of peace, however, were signed, and the treaty was confirmed at
Amiens, on the 27th of March, 1802. Napoleon still prosecuted his ambitious projects,
extended his power in Italy, and caused himself to be appointed consul for life, with
the power of naming his successor.</p>
<h4>SCHEME OF INVASION RENEWED.</h4>
<p>It must be in the memory of most who recollect the period, that the kingdom of
Great Britain was seldom less provided against invasion than at the commencement of
this second war; and that an embarkation from the ports of Holland, if undertaken
instantly after the war had broken out, might have escaped our blockading squadrons,
and have at least shown what a French army could have done on British ground, at a
moment when the alarm was general, and the country in an unprepared state. But it is
probable that Bonaparte himself was as much unprovided as England for the sudden
breach of the treaty of Amiens—an event brought about more by the influence of
passion than of policy; so that its consequences were as unexpected in his
calculations as in those of Great Britain. Besides, he had not diminished to himself
the dangers of the undertaking, by which he must have staked his military renown, his
power, which he held chiefly as the consequence of his reputation, perhaps his life,
upon a desperate game, which, though he had already twice contemplated it, he had not
yet found hardihood enough seriously to enter upon.</p>
<p>He now, however, at length bent himself, with the whole strength of his mind, and
the whole force of his empire, to prepare for this final and decisive undertaking.
The gun-boats in the Bay of Gibraltar, where calms are frequent, had sometimes in the
course of the former war been able to do considerable damage to the English vessels
of war, when they could not use their sails. Such small craft, therefore, were
supposed the proper force for covering the intended descent. They were built in
different harbours, and brought together by crawling along the French shore, and
keeping under the protection of the batteries, which were now established on every
cape, almost as if the sea-coast of the channel on the French side had been the lines
of a besieged city, no one point of which could with prudence be left undefended by
cannon. Boulogne was pitched upon as the centre port, from which the expedition was
to sail. By incredible exertions, Bonaparte had rendered its harbour and roads
capable of containing two thousand vessels of various descriptions. The smaller
sea-ports of Vimereux, Ambleteuse, and Etaples, Dieppe, Havre, St. Valeri, Caen,
Gravelines, and Dunkirk, were likewise filled with shipping. Flushing and Ostend were
occupied by a separate flotilla. Brest, Toulon, and Rochefort, were each the station
of as strong a naval squadron as France, had still the means to send to sea.</p>
<p>A land army was assembled of the most formidable description, whether we regard
the high military character of the troops, the extent and perfection of their
appointments, or their numerical strength. The coast, from the mouth of the Seine to
the Texel, was covered with forces; and Soult, Ney, Davoust, and Victor, names that
were then the pride and the dread of war, were appointed to command the army of
England, (for that menacing title was once more, assumed,) <span class="pagenum"><a
id="page26" name="page26"></a>[pg 26]</span> and execute those manoeuvres, planned
and superintended by Bonaparte, the issue of which was to be the blotting out of
Britain from the rank of independent nations.</p>
<p>Far from being alarmed at this formidable demonstration of force, England prepared
for her resistance with an energy becoming her ancient rank in Europe, and far
surpassing in its efforts any extent of military preparation before heard of in her
history. To nearly one hundred thousand troops of the line, were added eighty
thousand and upwards of militia, which scarce yielded to the regulars in point of
discipline. The volunteer force, by which every citizen was permitted and invited to
add his efforts to the defence of the country, was far more numerous than during the
last war, was better officered also, and rendered every way more effective. It was
computed to amount to three hundred and fifty thousand men, who, if we regard the
shortness of the time and the nature of the service, had attained considerable
practice in the use and management of their arms. Other classes of men were embodied,
and destined to act as pioneers, drivers of wagons, and in the like services. On a
sudden, the land seemed converted to an immense camp, the whole nation into soldiers,
and the good old king himself into a general-in-chief. All peaceful considerations
appeared for a time to be thrown aside; and the voice, calling the nation to defend
their dearest rights, sounded not only in Parliament, and in meetings convoked to
second the measures of defence, but was heard in the places of public amusement, and
mingled even with the voice of devotion—not unbecoming surely, since to defend
our country is to defend our religion.</p>
<p>Beacons were erected in conspicuous points, corresponding with each other, all
around and all through the island; and morning and evening, one might have said,
every eye was turned towards them to watch for the fatal and momentous signal.
Partial alarms were given to different places, from the mistakes to which such
arrangements must necessarily be liable; and the ready spirit which animated every
species of troops where such signals called to arms, was of the most satisfactory
description, and afforded the most perfect assurance, that the heart of every man was
in the cause of his country.</p>
<p>Amidst her preparations by land, England did not neglect or relax her precautions
on the element she calls her own. She covered the ocean with five hundred and seventy
ships of war of various descriptions. Divisions of her fleet blocked up every French
port in the channel; and the army destined to invade our shores, might see the
British flag flying in every direction on the horizon, waiting for their issuing from
the harbour, as birds of prey may be seen floating in the air above the animal which
they design to pounce upon. Sometimes the British frigates and sloops of war stood
in, and cannonaded or threw shells into Havre, Dieppe, Granville, and Boulogne
itself. Sometimes the seamen and marines landed, cut out vessels, destroyed signal
posts, and dismantled batteries. Such events were trifling, and it was to be
regretted that they cost the lives of gallant men; but although they produced no
direct results of consequence, yet they had their use in encouraging the spirits of
our sailors, and damping the confidence of the enemy, who must at length have looked
forward with more doubt than hope to the invasion of the English coast, when the
utmost vigilance could not prevent their experiencing insults upon their own.</p>
<p>During this period of menaced attack and arranged defence, Bonaparte visited
Boulogne, and seemed active in preparing his soldiers for the grand effort. He
reviewed them in an unusual manner, teaching them to execute several manoeuvres by
night; and experiments were also made upon the best mode of arranging the soldiers in
the flat-bottomed boats, and of embarking and disembarking them with celerity. Omens
were resorted to for keeping up the enthusiasm which the presence of the First Consul
naturally inspired. A Roman battle-axe was said to be found when they removed the
earth to pitch Bonaparte's tent or barrack; and medals of William the Conqueror were
produced, as having been dug up upon the same honoured spot. These were pleasant
bodings, yet perhaps did not altogether, in the minds of the soldiers, counterbalance
the sense of insecurity impressed on them by the prospect of being packed together in
these miserable chaloupes, and exposed to the fire of an enemy so superior at sea,
that during the chief consul's review of the fortifications, their frigates stood in
shore with composure, and fired at him and his suite as at a mark. The men who had
braved the perils of the Alps and of the Egyptian deserts, might yet be allowed to
feel alarm at a species of danger which seemed so inevitable, and which they had no
adequate means of repelling by force of arms.</p>
<p>A circumstance which seemed to render the expedition in a great measure hopeless,
was the ease with which the English <span class="pagenum"><a id="page27"
name="page27"></a>[pg 27]</span> could maintain a constant watch upon their
operations within the port of Boulogne. The least appearance of stir or preparation,
to embark troops, or get ready for sea, was promptly sent by signal to the English
coast, and the numerous British cruisers were instantly on the alert to attend their
motions. Nelson had, in fact, during the last war, declared the sailing of a hostile
armament from Boulogne to be a most forlorn undertaking, on account of cross tides
and other disadvantages, together with the certainty of the flotilla being lost if
there were the least wind west-north-west. "As for rowing," he adds, "that is
impossible.—It is perfectly right to be prepared for a mad government,"
continued this incontestable judge of maritime possibilities; "but with the active
force which has been given me, I may pronounce it almost impracticable."</p>
<p>Before quitting the subject, we may notice, that Bonaparte seems not to have
entertained the least doubts of success, could he have succeeded in disembarking his
army. A single general action was to decide the fate of England. Five days were to
bring Napoleon to London, where he was to perform the part of William the Third; but
with more generosity and disinterestedness. He was to call a meeting of the
inhabitants, restore them what he calls their rights, and destroy the oligarchical
faction. A few months would not, according to his account, have elapsed, ere the two
nations, late such determined enemies, would have been identified by their
principles, their maxims, their interests. The full explanation of this gibberish,
(for it can be termed no better, even proceeding from the lips of Napoleon,) is to be
found elsewhere, when he spoke a language more genuine than that of the
<i>Moniteur</i> and the bulletins. "England," he said, "must have ended, by becoming
an appendage to the France of <i>my</i> system. Nature has made it one of our
islands, as well as Oleron and Corsica."</p>
<p>It is impossible not to pursue the train of reflections which Bonaparte continued
to pour forth to the companion of his exile, on the rock of Saint Helena. When
England was conquered, and identified with France in maxims and principles, according
to one form of expression, or rendered an appendage and dependency, according to
another phrase, the reader may suppose that Bonaparte would have considered his
mission as accomplished. Alas! it was not much more than commenced. "I would have
departed from thence [from subjugated Britain] to carry the work of European
regeneration [that is, the extention of his own arbitrary authority] from south to
north, under the Republican colours, for I was then Chief Consul, in the same manner
which I was more lately on the point of achieving it under the monarchical forms."
When we find such ideas retaining hold of Napoleon's imagination, and arising to his
tongue after his irretrievable fall, it is impossible to avoid exclaiming, Did
ambition ever conceive so wild a dream, and had so wild a vision ever a termination
so disastrous and humiliating!</p>
<p>It may be expected that something should be here said, upon the chances which
Britain would have had of defending herself successfully against the army of
invaders. We are willing to acknowledge that the risk must have been dreadful; and
that Bonaparte, with his genius and his army, must have inflicted severe calamities
upon a country which had so long enjoyed the blessings of peace. But the people were
unanimous in their purpose of defence, and their forces composed of materials to
which Bonaparte did more justice when he came to be better acquainted with them. Of
the three British nations, the English have since shown themselves possessed of the
same steady valour which won the fields of Cressy and Agincourt, Blenheim and
Minden—the Irish have not lost the fiery enthusiasm which has distinguished
them in all the countries of Europe—nor have the Scots degenerated from the
stubborn courage with which their ancestors for two thousand years maintained their
independence against a superior enemy. Even if London had been lost, we would not,
under so great a calamity, have despaired of the freedom of the country; for the war
would in all probability have assumed that popular and national character which
sooner or later wears out an invading army. Neither does the confidence with which
Bonaparte affirms the conviction of his winning the first battle, appear go certainly
well founded. This, at least, we know, that the resolution of the country was fully
bent up to the hazard; and those who remember the period will bear us witness, that
the desire that the French would make the attempt, was a general feeling through all
classes, because they had every reason to hope that the issue might be such as for
ever to silence the threat of invasion.</p>
<p>The next most important occurrence that claims our notice in this volume, and
which fully delineates the nature and character of this wonderful and ambitious
individual, is the account of his declaration as Emperor of France, and his
subsequent coronation.</p>
<span class="pagenum"><a id="page28" name="page28"></a>[pg 28]</span>
<h4>CORONATION OF NAPOLEON.</h4>
<p>Measures were taken, as on former occasions, to preserve appearances, by
obtaining, in show at least, the opinion of the people, on this radical change of
their system. Government, however, were already confident of their approbation,
which, indeed, had never been refused to any of the various constitutions, however
inconsistent, that had succeeded each other with such rapidity. Secure on this point,
Bonaparte's accession to the empire was proclaimed with the greatest pomp, without
waiting to inquire whether the people approved of his promotion or otherwise. The
proclamation was coldly received, even by the populace, and excited little
enthusiasm. It seemed, according to some writers, as if the shades of D'Enghien and
Pichegru had been present invisibly, and spread a damp over the ceremony. The Emperor
was recognised by the soldiery with more warmth. He visited the encampments at
Boulogne, with the intention, apparently, of receiving such an acknowledgment from
the troops as was paid by the ancient Franks to their monarchs, when they elevated
them on their bucklers. Seated on an iron chair, said to have belonged to king
Dagobert, he took his place between two immense camps, and having before him the
Channel and the hostile coasts of England. The weather, we have been assured, had
been tempestuous, but no sooner had the Emperor assumed his seat, to receive the
homage of his shouting host, than the sky cleared, and the wind dropt, retaining just
breath sufficient gently to wave the banners. Even the elements seemed to acknowledge
the imperial dignity, all save the sea, which rolled as carelessly to the feet of
Napoleon as it had formerly done towards those of Canute the Dane.</p>
<p>The Emperor, accompanied with his Empress, who bore her honours both gracefully
and meekly, visited Aix-la-Chapelle, and the frontiers of Germany. They received the
congratulations of all the powers of Europe, excepting England, Russia, and Sweden,
upon their new exaltation; and the German princes, who had everything to hope and
fear from so powerful a neighbour, hastened to pay their compliments to Napoleon in
person, which more distant sovereigns offered by their ambassadors.</p>
<p>But the most splendid and public recognition of his new rank was yet to be made,
by the formal act of coronation, which, therefore, Napoleon determined should take
place with circumstances of solemnity, which had been beyond the reach of any
temporal prince, however powerful, for many ages. His policy was often marked by a
wish to revive, imitate, and connect his own titles and interest with, some ancient
observance of former days; as if the novelty of his claims could have been rendered
more venerable by investing them with antiquated forms, or as men of low birth, when
raised to wealth and rank, are sometimes desirous to conceal the obscurity of their
origin under the blaze of heraldic honours. Pope Leo, he remembered, had placed a
golden crown on the head of Charlemagne, and proclaimed him Emperor of the Romans.
Pius VII. he determined should do the same for a successor to much more than the
actual power of Charlemagne. But though Charlemagne had repaired to Rome to receive
inauguration from the hands of the Pontiff of that day, Napoleon resolved that he who
now owned the proud, and in Protestant eyes profane, title of Vicar of Christ, should
travel to France to perform the coronation of the successful chief, by whom the See
of Rome had been more than once humbled, pillaged, and impoverished, but by whom also
her power had been re-erected and restored, not only in Italy, but in France
itself.</p>
<p>Humiliating as the compliance with Bonaparte's request must have seemed to the
more devoted Catholics, Pius VII. had already sacrificed, to obtain the Concordat, so
much of the power and privileges of the Roman See, that he could hardly have been
justified if he had run the risk of losing the advantages of a treaty so dearly
purchased, by declining to incur some personal trouble, or, it might be termed, some
direct self-abasement. The Pope, and the Cardinals whom he consulted, implored the
illumination of heaven upon their councils; but it was the stern voice of necessity
which assured them, that, except at the risk of dividing the Church by a schism, they
could not refuse to comply with Bonaparte's requisition. The Pope left Rome on the
5th of November. He was everywhere received on the road with the highest respect, and
most profound veneration; the Alpine precipices themselves had been secured by
parapets wherever they could expose the venerable Father of the Catholic Church to
danger, or even apprehension. Upon the 25th of November, he met Bonaparte at
Fontainbleau; and the conduct of the Emperor Napoleon was as studiously respectful
towards him, as that of Charlemagne, whom he was pleased to call his predecessor,
could have been towards Leo.</p>
<p>On the 2nd of December, the ceremony <span class="pagenum"><a id="page29"
name="page29"></a>[pg 29]</span> of the coronation took place in the ancient
cathedral of Notre Dame, with the addition of every ceremony which could be devised
to add to its solemnity. Yet we have been told that the multitude did not participate
in the ceremonial with that eagerness which characterises the inhabitants of all
capitals, but especially those of Paris, upon similar occasions. They had, within a
very few years, seen so many exhibitions, processions, and festivals, established on
the most discordant principles, which, though announced as permanent and
unchangeable, had successively given way to newer doctrines, that they considered the
splendid representation before them as an unsubstantial pageant, which would fade
away in its turn. Bonaparte himself seemed absent and gloomy, till recalled to a
sense of his grandeur by the voice of the numerous deputies and functionaries sent up
from all the several departments of France, to witness the coronation. These
functionaries had been selected with due attention to their political opinions; and
many of them holding offices under the government, or expecting benefits from the
Emperor, made up, by the zealous vivacity of their acclamations, for the coldness of
the good citizens of Paris.</p>
<p>The Emperor took his coronation oath, as usual on such occasions, with his hands
up on the scripture, and in the form in which it was repeated to him by the Pope. But
in the act of coronation itself, there was a marked deviation from the universal
custom, characteristic of the man, the age, and the conjuncture. In all other similar
solemnities, the crown had been placed on the sovereign's head by the presiding
spiritual person, as representing the Deity, by whom princes rule. But not even from
the head of the Catholic Church would Bonaparte consent to receive as a boon the
golden symbol of sovereignty, which he was sensible he owed solely to his own
unparalleled train of military and civil successes. The crown having been blessed by
the Pope, Napoleon took it from the altar with his own hands, and placed it on his
brows. He then put the diadem on the head of his Empress, as if determined to show
that his authority was the child of his own actions. <i>Te Deum</i> was sung; the
heralds, (for they also had again come into fashion,) proclaimed, "that the thrice
glorious and thrice august Napoleon, Emperor of the French, was crowned and
installed." Thus concluded this remarkable ceremony. Those who remember having beheld
it, must now doubt whether they were waking, or whether fancy had framed a vision so
dazzling in its appearance, so extraordinary in its origin and progress, and so
ephemeral in its endurance.</p>
<p>The very day before the ceremony of coronation, (that is, on the 1st of December,)
the senate had waited upon the Emperor with the result of the votes collected in the
departments, which, till that time, had been taken for granted. Upwards of three
millions five hundred thousand citizens had given their votes on this occasion; of
whom only about three thousand five hundred had declared against the proposition. The
vice-president, Neufchateau, declared, "this report was the unbiassed expression of
the people's choice. No government could plead a title more authentic."</p>
<p>Sir Walter occupies his sixth volume with details of the celebrated battles that
were fought between the French and English armies in the Spanish territories, and
which are told with great truth and develope the extraordinary powers of this
celebrated writer. The divorce of Josephine, and marriage of Maria Louisa, commence
the succeeding volume. The sterility of Bonaparte's wife was now an irremediable
evil; and political motives were to supersede the ties of endearment, affection,
talents, and virtue. Fouché the minister of police, made Josephine the means
of suggesting to Napoleon, the measure of her own divorce, and subsequently Napoleon
made Josephine acquainted with the cruel certainty, that the separation was
ultimately determined upon.</p>
<h4>NAPOLEON DIVORCED FROM JOSEPHINE.</h4>
<p>When this sentence had finally dissolved their union, the emperor retired to St.
Cloud, where he lived in seclusion for some days. Josephine, on her part, took up her
residence in the beautiful villa of Malmaison, near St. Germains. Here she
principally dwelt for the remaining years of her life, which were just prolonged to
see the first fall of her husband; an event which might have been averted had he been
content to listen more frequently to her lessons of moderation. Her life was chiefly
spent in cultivating the fine arts, of which she collected some beautiful specimens,
and in pursuing the science of botany; but especially in the almost daily practice of
acts of benevolence and charity, of which the English <i>detenus</i>, of whom there
were several at St. Germains, frequently shared the benefit. Napoleon visited her
very frequently, and always treated her with the respect to which she was entitled.
He added also to her dowry a third million of <span class="pagenum"><a id="page30"
name="page30"></a>[pg 30]</span> francs, that she might feel no inconvenience from
the habits of expense to which it was her foible to be addicted.</p>
<h4>BONAPARTE MARRIES MARIA LOUISA.</h4>
<p>This important state measure was no sooner completed, than the great council was
summoned, on the 1st of February, to assist the emperor in the selection of a new
spouse. They were given to understand, that a match with a grand duchess of Russia
had been proposed, but was likely to be embarrassed by disputes concerning religion.
A daughter of the king of Saxony was also mentioned, but it was easily indicated to
the council that their choice ought to fall upon a princess of the house of Austria.
At the conclusion of the meeting, Eugene, son of the repudiated Josephine, was
commissioned by the council to propose to the Austrian embassador a match between
Napoleon and the archduchess Maria Louisa. Prince Schwarzenberg had his instructions
on the subject; so that the match was proposed, discussed, and decided in the
council, and afterwards adjusted between plenipotentiaries on either side, in the
space of twenty-four hours. The espousals of Napoleon and Maria Louisa were
celebrated at Vienna, 11th March, 1810. The person of Bonaparte was represented by
his favourite Berthier, while the archduke Charles assisted at the ceremony, in the
name of the emperor Francis. A few days afterwards, the youthful bride, accompanied
by the queen of Naples, proceeded towards France.</p>
<p>With good taste, Napoleon dispensed with the ceremonies used in the reception of
Marie Antoinette, whose marriage with Louis XVI., though never named or alluded to,
was in other respects the model of the present solemnity. Near Soissons, a single
horseman, no way distinguished by dress, rode past the carriage in which the young
empress was seated, and had the boldness to return, as if to reconnoitre more
closely. The carriage stopped, the door was opened, and Napoleon, breaking through
all the tediousness of ceremony, introduced himself to his bride, and came with her
to Soissons. The marriage ceremony was performed at Paris by Bonaparte's uncle, the
Cardinal Fesch. The most splendid rejoicings, illuminations, concerts, festivals,
took place upon this important occasion. But a great calamity occurred, which threw a
shade over these demonstrations of joy. Prince Schwarzenberg had given a
distinguished ball on the occasion, when unhappily the dancing-room, which was
temporary, and erected in the garden, caught fire. No efforts could stop the progress
of the flames, in which several persons perished, and particularly the sister of
Prince Schwarzenberg himself. This tragic circumstance struck a damp on the public
mind, and was considered as a bad omen, especially when it was remembered that the
marriage of Louis XVI. with a former princess of Austria had been signalized by a
similar disaster.</p>
<p>As a domestic occurrence, nothing could more contribute to Bonaparte's happiness
than his union with Maria Louisa. He was wont to compare her with Josephine, by
giving the latter all the advantages of art and grace; the former the charms of
simple modesty and innocence. His former empress used every art to support or enhance
her personal charms; but with so much prudence and mystery, that the secret cares of
her toilette could never be traced—her successor trusted for the power of
pleasing to youth and nature. Josephine mismanaged her revenue, and incurred debt
without scruple. Maria Louisa lived within her income, or if she desired any
indulgence beyond it, which was rarely the case, she asked it as a favour of
Napoleon. Josephine, accustomed to political intrigue, loved to manage, to influence,
and to guide her husband; Maria Louisa desired only to please and to obey him. Both
were excellent women, of great sweetness of temper, and fondly attached to Napoleon.
In the difference between these distinguished persons, we can easily discriminate the
leading features of the Parisian, and of the simple German beauty; but it is
certainly singular that the artificial character should have belonged to the daughter
of the West Indian planter; that marked by nature and simplicity, to a princess of
the proudest court in Europe.</p>
<p>Bonaparte, whose domestic conduct was generally praiseworthy, behaved with the
utmost kindness to his princely bride. He observed, however, the strictest etiquette,
and required it from the empress. If it happened, for example, as was often the case,
that he was prevented from attending at the hour when dinner was placed on the table,
he was displeased if, in the interim of his absence, which was often prolonged, she
either took a book, or had recourse to any female occupation,—if, in short, he
did not find her in the attitude of waiting for the signal to take her place at
table. Perhaps a sense of his inferior birth made Napoleon more tenacious of this
species of form, as what he could not afford to relinquish. On the other hand, Maria
Louisa is said to have expressed her surprise at her husband's dispensing with the
use of arms and attendance <span class="pagenum"><a id="page31" name="page31"></a>[pg
31]</span> of guards, and at his moving about with the freedom of an individual;
although this could be no great novelty to a member of the imperial family of
Austria, most of whom, and especially the Emperor Francis, are in the habit of mixing
familiarly with the people of Vienna, at public places, and in the public walks.</p>
<p>From this date may be traced the declination of Napoleon's greatness. In the field
he was generally unsuccessful, and occasionally murmurs of discontent were whispered
by citizen and soldier. The plot thickens in the eight volume, and his abdication of
the throne of France, and subsequent journey to Elba, are feelingly narrated by our
author.</p>
<h4>RETURN OF MARIA LOUISA TO HER FATHER, AND DEATH OF JOSEPHINE.</h4>
<p>Maria Louisa made more than one effort to join her husband, but they were
discouraged on the part of Napoleon himself, who, while he continued to ruminate on
renewing the war, could not desire to have the empress along with him in such an
adventure. Shortly afterwards, the emperor of Austria visited his daughter and her
son, then at Rambouillet, and gave her to understand that she was, for some time at
least, to remain separate from her husband, and that her son and she were to return
to Vienna along with him. She returned, therefore, to her father's protection.</p>
<p>It must be also here mentioned, as an extraordinary addition to this tale of
calamity, that Josephine, the former wife of Bonaparte, did not long survive his
downfall. It seemed as if the Obi-woman of Martinico had spoke truth; for at the time
when Napoleon parted from the sharer of his early fortunes, his grandeur was on the
wane, and her death took place but a few weeks subsequent to his being dethroned and
exiled. The emperor of Russia had visited this lady, and showed her some attention,
with which Napoleon, for reasons we cannot conjecture, was extremely displeased. She
was amply provided for by the treaty of Fontainbleau, but did not survive to reap any
benefit from the provision, as she shortly after sickened and died at her beautiful
villa of Malmaison. She was buried on the 3rd of June, at the village of Ruel. A vast
number of the lower class attended the obsequies; for she had well deserved the title
of patroness of the poor.</p>
<p>The residence at Elba, the return, the treachery of Ney, the arrival at Paris, and
Napoleon's repossession of the throne, now occupy the page. The battle of Waterloo is
briefly, but finely described, and indeed the whole of the ninth volume, to which we
have now arrived, is deeply interesting. We find, however, that we have nearly
reached our limits, and as we shall take an early opportunity of again referring to
this elaborate history, we shall now close with the following extracts;—</p>
<h4>CONDUCT OF NAPOLEON ON HIS WAY TO ST. HELENA.</h4>
<p>Upon the Northumberland crossing the line, the emperor desiring to exhibit his
munificence to the seamen, by presenting them with a hundred louis d'or, under
pretext of paying the ordinary fine, Sir George Cockburn, considering this tribute to
Neptune as too excessive in amount, would not permit the donative to exceed a tenth
part of the sum; and Napoleon offended by the restriction, paid nothing at all. Upon
another occasion, early in the voyage, a difference in national manners gave rise to
one of those slight misunderstandings which we have noticed. Napoleon was accustomed,
like all Frenchmen, to leave the table immediately after dinner, and Sir George
Cockburn, with the English officers, remained after him at table; for, in permitting
his French guests their liberty, the admiral did not choose to admit the right of
Napoleon to break up the party at his, Sir George's, own table. This gave some
discontent. Notwithstanding these trifling subjects of dissatisfaction, Las Cases
informs us that the admiral, whom he took to be prepossessed against them at first,
became every day more amicable. The emperor used to take his arm every evening on the
quarter-deck, and hold long conversations with him upon maritime subjects, as well as
past events in general.</p>
<p>While on board the Northumberland, the late emperor spent his mornings in reading
or writing; his evenings in his exercise upon deck, and at cards. The game was
generally <i>vingt un</i>. But when the play became rather deep, he discouraged that
amusement, and substituted chess. Great tactician as he was, Napoleon did not play
well at that military game, and it was with difficulty that his antagonist,
Montholon, could avoid the solecism, of beating the emperor.</p>
<p>During this voyage, Napoleon's <i>jour de fête</i> occurred, which was also
his birthday. It was the 15th of August; a day for which the Pope had expressly
canonized a St. Napoleon to be the emperor's patron. And now, strange revolution, it
was celebrated by him on board of an English man-of-war, which was conducting him to
his place of imprisonment, and, as it proved, his tomb. Yet Napoleon <span
class="pagenum"><a id="page32" name="page32"></a>[pg 32]</span> seemed cheerful and
contented during the whole day, and was even pleased at being fortunate at play,
which he received as a good omen.</p>
<p>Upon the 15th of October, 1815, the Northumberland reached St. Helena, which
presents but an unpromising aspect to those who design it for a residence, though it
may be a welcome sight to the seaworn mariner. Its destined inhabitant, from the deck
of the Northumberland, surveyed it with his spy-glass. St. James' Town, an
inconsiderable village, was before him, enchased, as it were in a valley, amid arid
and scarped rocks of immense height; every platform, every opening, every gorge, was
bristled with cannon. Las Cases, who stood by him, could not perceive the slightest
alteration of his countenance. The orders of government had been, that Napoleon
should remain on board till a residence could be prepared suitable for the line of
life he was to lead in future. But as this was likely to be a work of time, Sir
George Cockburn readily undertook, on his own responsibility, to put his passengers
on shore, and provide in some way for the security of Napoleon's person, until the
necessary habitation should be fitted up. He was accordingly transferred to land upon
the 16th of October; and thus the emperor of France, nay, wellnigh of Europe, sunk
into the recluse of St. Helena.</p>
<h4>DEATH OF NAPOLEON</h4>
<p>During the 3rd of May, it was seen that the life of Napoleon was drawing evidently
to a close; and his followers, and particularly his physician, became desirous to
call in more medical assistance;—that of Dr. Shortt, physician to the forces,
and of Dr. Mitchell, surgeon of the flag-ship, was referred to. Dr. Shortt, however,
thought it proper to assert the dignity belonging to his profession, and refused to
give an opinion on a case of so much importance in itself, and attended with so much
obscurity, unless he were permitted to see and examine the patient. The officers of
Napoleon's household excused themselves, by professing that the emperor's strict
commands had been laid on them, that no English physician, Dr. Arnott excepted,
should approach his dying bed. They said, that even when he was speechless they would
be unable to brook his eye, should he turn it upon them in reproof for their
disobedience.</p>
<p>About two o'clock of the same day, the priest Vignali administered the sacrament
of extreme unction. Some days before, Napoleon had explained to him the manner in
which he desired his body should be laid out in state, in an apartment lighted by
torches, or what Catholics call <i>une chambre ardente</i>. "I am neither," he said
in the same phrase which we have formerly quoted, "a philosopher nor a physician. I
believe in God, and am of the religion of my father. It is not everybody who can be
an atheist. I was born a Catholic, and will fulfil all the duties of the Catholic
church, and receive the assistance which it administers." He then turned to Dr.
Antommarchi, whom he seems to have suspected of heterodoxy, which the doctor,
however, disowned. "How can you carry it so far?" he said. "Can you not believe in
God, whose existence every thing proclaims, and in whom the greatest minds have
believed?"</p>
<p>As if to mark a closing point of resemblance betwixt Cromwell and Napoleon, a
dreadful tempest arose on the 4th of May, which preceded the day that was to close
the mortal existence of this extraordinary man. A willow, which had been the exile's
favourite, and under which he had often enjoyed the fresh breeze, was torn up by the
hurricane; and almost all the trees about Longwood shared the same fate.</p>
<p>The 5th of May came amid wind and rain. Napoleon's passing spirit was deliriously
engaged in a strife more terrible than that of the elements around. The words
"<i>tête d'armée</i>" the last which escaped his lips, intimated that
his thoughts were watching the current of a heady fight. About eleven minutes before
six in the evening, Napoleon, after a struggle which indicated the original strength
of his constitution, breathed his last.</p>
<h4>HIS FUNERAL.</h4>
<p>Bonaparte was buried on the 8th of May, in a small secluded recess called Slane's,
or Haine's Valley, where a fountain arose, at which his Chinese domestics used to
fill the silver pitchers, which they carried to Longwood for Napoleon's use. "All the
troops were under arms upon the solemn occasion. As the road did not permit a near
approach of the hearse to the place of sepulture, a party of British grenadiers had
the honour to bear the coffin to the grave. The prayers were recited by the priest,
Abbé Vignali. Minute guns were fired from the admiral's ship. The coffin was
then let down into the grave, under a discharge of three successive volleys of
artillery, fifteen pieces of cannon firing fifteen guns each. A large stone was then
lowered down on the grave, and covered the moderate space now sufficient for the man
for whom Europe was once too little."</p>
<hr class="full" />
<blockquote class="footnote">
<a id="footnote1" name="footnote1"></a> <b>Footnote 1</b>: <a
href="#footnotetag1">(return)</a>
<p>It did not escape the minute observers of this scene, that he still held in his
hand the bag which had contained the fatal pistol, and which was inscribed with the
words, <i>Au grand monarque</i>, alluding to the sign, doubtless, of the gunsmith
who sold the weapon, but singularly applicable to the high pretensions of the
purchaser.</p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="footnote">
<a id="footnote2" name="footnote2"></a> <b>Footnote 2</b>: <a
href="#footnotetag2">(return)</a>
<p>The fate of no tyrant in history was so hideous at the conclusion, excepting
perhaps that of Jugurtha.</p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="footnote">
<a id="footnote3" name="footnote3"></a> <b>Footnote 3</b>: <a
href="#footnotetag3">(return)</a>
<p>Benson's "Sketches of Corsica," p. 4.</p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="footnote">
<a id="footnote4" name="footnote4"></a> <b>Footnote 4</b>: <a
href="#footnotetag4">(return)</a>
<p>"Sketches of Corsica," p. 4.</p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="footnote">
<a id="footnote5" name="footnote5"></a> <b>Footnote 5</b>: <a
href="#footnotetag5">(return)</a>
<p>The mother of Letitia Ramolini, wife of Carlo Bonaparte, married a Swiss officer
in the French service, named Fesch, after the death of Letitia's father.</p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="footnote">
<a id="footnote6" name="footnote6"></a> <b>Footnote 6</b>: <a
href="#footnotetag6">(return)</a>
<p>They were many years since communicated to the author by Messrs. Joseph and
Louis Law, brothers of General Baron Lauriston, Bonaparte's favourite aid-de-camp.
These gentlemen, or at least Joseph, were educated at Brienne, but at a later
period than Napoleon. Their distinguished brother was his contemporary.</p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="footnote">
<a id="footnote7" name="footnote7"></a> <b>Footnote 7</b>: <a
href="#footnotetag7">(return)</a>
<p>Benson's "Sketches of Corsica," p. 121.</p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="footnote">
<a id="footnote8" name="footnote8"></a> <b>Footnote 8</b>: <a
href="#footnotetag8">(return)</a>
<p>Not literally, however: for it is worth mentioning, that when he was in
full-blown possession of his power, an inheritance fell to the family, situated
near Ajaccio, and was divided amongst them. The first consul, or emperor, received
an olive-garden as his share.—<i>Sketches of Corsica</i>.</p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="footnote">
<a id="footnote9" name="footnote9"></a> <b>Footnote 9</b>: <a
href="#footnotetag9">(return)</a>
<p>Bonaparte was then in his twenty-sixth year. Josephine gave herself in the
marriage contract for twenty-eight.</p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="footnote">
<a id="footnote10" name="footnote10"></a> <b>Footnote 10</b>: <a
href="#footnotetag10">(return)</a>
<p>A lady of high rank, who happened to live for some time in the same convent at
Paris, where Josephine was also a pensioner or boarder, heard her mention the
prophecy, and told it herself to the author, just about the time of the Italian
expedition, when Bonaparte was beginning to attract notice. Another clause is
usually added to the prediction—that the party whom it concerned should die
in an hospital, which was afterwards explained as referring to Malmaison. This the
author did not hear from the same authority. The lady mentioned used to speak in
the highest terms of the simple manners and great kindness of Madame
Beauharnois.</p>
</blockquote>
<hr class="full" />
<p><i>Printed and published by J. LIMBIRD, 143, Strand, (near Somerset House,) and
sold by all Newsmen and Booksellers.</i></p>
<hr class="full" />
<pre>
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