Chapter I: Front Matter

LIFE OF NAPOLEON

POCKET EDITION

VOL. I.

1802]

LIFE OF

NAPOLEON BONAPARTE

BY SIR WALTER SCOTT, BART.

VOL. I.

EDINBURGH; A. & C. BLACK.

1876

ADVERTISEMENT

The extent and purpose of this Work, have, in the course of its progress, gradually but essentially changed from what the Author originally proposed. It was at first intended merely as a brief and popular abstract of the life of the most wonderful man, and the most extraordinary events, of the last thirty years; in short, to emulate the concise yet most interesting history of the great British Admiral, by the Poet-Laureate of Britain.[1] The Author was partly induced to undertake the task, by having formerly drawn up for a periodical work--"The Edinburgh Annual Register"--the history of the two great campaigns of 1814 and 1815; and three volumes were the compass assigned to the proposed work. An introductory volume, giving a general account of the Rise and Progress of the French Revolution, was thought necessary; and the single volume, on a theme of such extent, soon swelled into two.

As the Author composed under an anonymous title, he could neither seek nor expect information from those who had been actively engaged in the changeful scenes which he was attempting to record; nor was his object more ambitious than that of compressing and arranging such information as the ordinary authorities afforded. Circumstances, however, unconnected with the undertaking, induced him to lay aside an _incognito_, any farther attempt to preserve which must have been considered as affectation; and since his having done so, he has been favoured with access to some valuable materials, most of which have now, for the first time, seen the light. For these he refers to the Appendix at the close of the Work, where the reader will find several articles of novelty and interest. Though not at liberty, in every case, to mention the quarter from which his information has been derived, the Author has been careful not to rely upon any which did not come from sufficient authority. He has neither grubbed for anecdotes in the libels and private scandal of the time, nor has he solicited information from individuals who could not be impartial witnesses in the facts to which they gave evidence. Yet the various public documents and private information which he has received, have much enlarged his stock of materials, and increased the whole work to more than twice the size originally intended.

On the execution of his task, it becomes the Author to be silent. He is aware it must exhibit many faults; but he claims credit for having brought to the undertaking a mind disposed to do his subject as impartial justice as his judgment could supply. He will be found no enemy to the person of Napoleon. The term of hostility is ended when the battle has been won, and the foe exists no longer. His splendid personal qualities--his great military actions and political services to France--will not, it is hoped, be found depreciated in the narrative. Unhappily, the Author's task involved a duty of another kind, the discharge of which is due to France, to Britain, to Europe, and to the world. If the general system of Napoleon has rested upon force or fraud, it is neither the greatness of his talents, nor the success of his undertakings, that ought to stifle the voice or dazzle the eyes of him who adventures to be his historian. The reasons, however, are carefully summed up where the Author has presumed to express a favourable or unfavourable opinion of the distinguished person of whom these volumes treat; so that each reader may judge of their validity for himself.

The name, by an original error of the press, which proceeded too far before it was discovered, has been printed with a _u_,--Buonaparte instead of Bonaparte. Both spellings were indifferently adopted in the family; but Napoleon always used the last,[2] and had an unquestionable right to choose the orthography which he preferred.

EDINBURGH, _7th June, 1827._

ADVERTISEMENT TO EDITION 1834.

Sir Walter Scott left two interleaved copies of his LIFE OF NAPOLEON, in both of which his executors have found various corrections of the text, and additional notes. They were directed by his testament to take care, that, in case a new edition of the work were called for, the annotations of it might be completed in the fashion here adopted, dates and other marginal elucidations regularly introduced, and the text itself, wherever there appeared any redundancy of statement, abridged. With these instructions, except the last, the Editor has now endeavoured to comply.[3]

"Walter Scott," says Goëthe, "passed his childhood among the stirring scenes of the American War, and was a youth of seventeen or eighteen when the French Revolution broke out. Now well advanced in the fifties, having all along been favourably placed for observation, he proposes to lay before us his views and recollections of the important events through which he has lived. The richest, the easiest, the most celebrated narrator of the century, undertakes to write the history of his own time.

"What expectations the announcement of such a work must have excited in me, will be understood by any one who remembers that I, twenty years older than Scott, conversed with Paoli in the twentieth year of my age, and with Napoleon himself in the sixtieth.

"Through that long series of years, coming more or less into contact with the great doings of the world, I failed not to think seriously on what was passing around me, and, after my own fashion, to connect so many extraordinary mutations into something like arrangement and interdependence.

"What could now be more delightful to me than leisurely and calmly to sit down and listen to the discourse of such a man, while clearly, truly, and with all the skill of a great artist, he recalls to me the incidents on which through life I have meditated, and the influence of which is still daily in operation?"--Goëthe's _Posthumous Works_, vol. vi., p. 253.

Sed non in Cæsare tantum
Nomen erat, nec fama ducis; sed nescia virtus
Stare loco: solusque pudor non vincere bello.
Acer et indomitus; quo spes quoque ira vocasset,
Ferre manum, et nunquam temerando parcere ferro:
Successus urgere suos: instare favori
Numinis: impellens quicquid sibi summa petenti
Obstaret: gaudensque viam fecisse ruina.

LUCANI, _Pharsalia_, Lib. I.[4]

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Southey's _Life of Nelson_, 2 vols. fcap. 8vo. 1813.

[2] Barras, in his official account of the affair of the 13th Vendémiaire, (Oct. 5, 1795,) calls him General _Buonaparte_; and in the contract of marriage between Napoleon and Josephine, still existing in the registry of the second arrondissement of Paris, dated March 9, 1796, his signature is so written. No document has ever been produced, in which the word appears as _Bonaparte_, prior to Napoleon's appointment to the command of the Army of Italy.

[3] [Sir Walter Scott's Notes have the letter S affixed to them, all of the others having been collected by the Editor of the 1843 Edition.]

[4]

"But Cæsar's greatness, and his strength, was more
Than past renown and antiquated power;
'Twas not the fame of what he once had been,
Or tales in old records and annals seen;
But 'twas a valour restless, unconfined,
Which no success could sate, nor limits bind;
'Twas shame, a soldier's shame, untaught to yield,
That blush'd for nothing but an ill-fought field;
Fierce in his hopes he was, nor knew to stay
Where vengeance or ambition led the way;
Still prodigal of war whene'er withstood,
Nor spared to stain the guilty sword with blood;
Urging advantage, he improved all odds,
And made the most of fortune and the gods;
Pleased to o'erturn whate'er withheld his prize,
And saw the ruin with rejoicing eyes."--ROWE.

CONTENTS

VIEW OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.

PAGE

CHAP. I.--Review of the state of Europe after the Peace of
Versailles--England--France--Spain--Prussia--Imprudent Innovations
of the Emperor Joseph--Disturbances in his
Dominions--Russia--France--Her ancient System of Monarchy--how
organised--Causes of its Decay--Decay of the Nobility as a body--The
new Nobles--The Country Nobles--The Nobles of the highest Order--The
Church--The higher Orders of the Clergy--The lower Orders--The
Commons--Their increase in Power and Importance--Their Claims
opposed to those of the Privileged Classes, 1

CHAP. II.--State of France continued--State of Public Opinion--Men
of Letters encouraged by the Great--Disadvantages attending this
Patronage--Licentious tendency of the French Literature--Their
Irreligious and Infidel Opinions--Free Opinions on Politics
permitted to be expressed in an abstract and speculative, but not in
a practical Form--Disadvantages arising from the Suppression of Free
Discussion--Anglomania--Share of France in the American
War--Disposition of the Troops who returned from America, 22

CHAP. III.--Proximate Cause of the Revolution--Deranged State of the
Finances--Reforms in the Royal Household--System of Turgot and
Necker--Necker's Exposition of the State of the Public Revenue--The
Red-Book--Necker displaced--Succeeded by Calonne--General State of
the Revenue--Assembly of the Notables--Calonne dismissed--Archbishop
of Sens Administrator of the Finances--The King's Contest with the
Parliament--Bed of Justice--Resistance of the Parliament and general
Disorder in the Kingdom--Vacillating Policy of the Minister--Royal
Sitting--Scheme of forming a Cour Plénière--It proves
ineffectual--Archbishop of Sens retires, and is succeeded by
Necker--He resolves to convoke the States-General--Second Assembly
of Notables previous to Convocation of the States--Questions as to
the Numbers of which the Tiers Etat should consist, and the Mode in
which the Estates should deliberate, 39

CHAP. IV.--Meeting of the States-General--Predominant Influence of
the Tiers Etat--Property not represented sufficiently in that
Body--General character of the Members--Disposition of the Estate of
the Nobles--And of the Clergy--Plan of forming the Three Estates
into two Houses--Its advantages--It fails--The Clergy unite with the
Tiers Etat, which assumes the title of the National Assembly--They
assume the task of Legislation, and declare all former Fiscal
Regulations illegal--They assert their determination to continue
their Sessions--Royal Sitting--Terminates in the Triumph of the
Assembly--Parties in that Body--Mounier--Constitutionalists--
Republicans--Jacobins--Orleans, 58

CHAP. V.--Plan of the Democrats to bring the King and Assembly to
Paris--Banquet of the Garde du Corps--Riot at Paris--A formidable
Mob of Women assemble to march to Versailles--The National Guard
refuse to act against the Insurgents, and demand also to be led to
Versailles--The Female Mob arrive--Their behaviour to the
Assembly--To the King--Alarming Disorders at Night--La Fayette
arrives with the National Guard--Mob force the Palace--Murder the
Body Guards--The Queen's safety endangered--Fayette's arrival with
his Force restores Order--Royal Family obliged to go to reside at
Paris--The Procession--This Step agreeable to the Views of the
Constitutionalists, Republicans, and Anarchists--Duke of Orleans
sent to England, 88

CHAP. VI.--La Fayette resolves to enforce order--A Baker is murdered
by the Rabble--One of his Murderers executed--Decree imposing
Martial Law--Introduction of the Doctrines of Equality--They are in
their exaggerated sense inconsistent with Human Nature and the
progress of Society--The Assembly abolish titles of Nobility,
Armorial bearings, and phrases of Courtesy--Reasoning on these
Innovations--Disorder of Finance--Necker becomes unpopular--Seizure
of Church lands--Issue of Assignats--Necker leaves France in
unpopularity--New Religious Institution--Oath imposed on the
Clergy--Resisted by the greater part of the Order--General View of
the operations of the Constituent Assembly--Enthusiasm of the People
for their new Privileges--Limited Privileges of the Crown--King is
obliged to dissemble--His Negotiations with Mirabeau--With
Bouillé--Attack on the Palace--Prevented by Fayette--Royalists
expelled from the Tuileries--Escape of Louis--He is captured at
Varennes--Brought back to Paris--Riot in the Champ de Mars--Louis
accepts the Constitution, 102

CHAP. VII.--Legislative Assembly--Its Composition--Constitutionalists--
Girondists or Brissotins--Jacobins--Views and Sentiments of Foreign
Nations--England--Views of the Tories and Whigs--Anacharsis
Clootz--Austria--Prussia--Russia--Sweden--Emigration of the French
Princes and Clergy--Increasing Unpopularity of Louis from this
Cause--Death of the Emperor Leopold, and its Effects--France
declares War--Views and Interests of the different Parties in France
at this Period--Decree against Monsieur--Louis interposes his
Veto--Decree against the Priests who should refuse the
Constitutional Oath--Louis again interposes his Veto--Consequences
of these Refusals--Fall of De Lessart--Ministers now chosen from the
Brissotins--All Parties favourable to War, 128

CHAP. VIII.--Defeats of the French on the Frontier--Decay of
Constitutionalists--They form the Club of Feuillans, and are
dispersed by the Jacobins--The Ministry--Dumouriez--Breach of
confidence betwixt the King and his Ministers--Dissolution of the
King's Constitutional Guard--Extravagant measures of the
Jacobins--Alarms of the Girondists--Departmental Army proposed--King
puts his Veto on the decree, against Dumouriez's
representations--Decree against the recusant Priests--King refuses
it--Letter of the Ministers to the King--He dismisses Roland,
Clavière, and Servan--Dumouriez, Duranton, and Lacoste, appointed in
their stead--King ratifies the decree concerning the Departmental
Army--Dumouriez resigns, and departs for the Frontiers--New
Ministers named from the Constitutionalists--Insurrection of 20th
June--Armed Mob intrude into the Assembly--Thence into the
Tuileries--La Fayette repairs to Paris--Remonstrates in favour of
the King--But is compelled to return to the Frontiers--Marseillois
appear in Paris--Duke of Brunswick's manifesto, 152

CHAP. IX.--The Day of the Tenth of August--Tocsin sounded early in
the Morning--Swiss Guards, and relics of the Royal Party, repair to
the Tuileries--Mandat assassinated--Dejection of Louis, and energy
of the Queen--King's Ministers appear at the Bar of the Assembly,
stating the peril of the Royal Family, and requesting a Deputation
might be sent to the Palace--Assembly pass to the Order of the
Day--Louis and his Family repair to the Assembly--Conflict at the
Tuileries--Swiss ordered to repair to the King's Person--and are
many of them shot and dispersed on their way to the Assembly--At the
close of the Day almost all of them are massacred--Royal Family
spend the Night in the Convent of the Feuillans, 172

CHAP. X.--La Fayette compelled to Escape from France--Is made
Prisoner by the Prussians, with three Companions--Reflections--The
Triumvirate, Danton, Robespierre, and Marat--Revolutionary Tribunal
appointed--Stupor of the Legislative Assembly--Longwy, Stenay, and
Verdun, taken by the Prussians--Mob of Paris enraged--Great Massacre
of Prisoners in Paris, commencing on the 2d, and ending 6th
September--Apathy of the Assembly during and after these
Events--Review of its Causes, 182

CHAP. XI.--Election of Representatives for the National
Convention--Jacobins are very active--Right hand Party--Left hand
side--Neutral Members--The Girondists are in possession of the
ostensible Power--They denounce the Jacobin Chiefs, but in an
irregular and feeble manner--Marat, Robespierre, and Danton,
supported by the Commune and Populace of Paris--France declared a
Republic--Duke of Brunswick's Campaign--Neglects the French
Emigrants--Is tardy in his Operations--Occupies the poorest part of
Champagne--His Army becomes sickly--Prospects of a
Battle--Dumouriez's Army recruited with Carmagnoles--The Duke
resolves to Retreat--Thoughts on the consequences of that
measure--The retreat disastrous--The Emigrants disbanded in a great
measure--Reflections on their Fate--The Prince of Condé's Army, 199

CHAP. XII.--Jacobins determine upon the Execution of Louis--Progress
and Reasons of the King's Unpopularity--Girondists taken by
surprise, by a proposal for the Abolition of Royalty made by the
Jacobins--Proposal carried--Thoughts on the New System of
Government--Compared with that of Rome, Greece, America, and other
Republican States--Enthusiasm throughout France at the
Change--Follies it gave birth to--And Crimes--Monuments of Art
destroyed--Madame Roland interposes to save the Life of the
King--Barrère--Girondists move for a Departmental
Legion--Carried--Revoked--and Girondists defeated--The Authority of
the Community of Paris paramount even over the Convention--Documents
of the Iron-Chest--Parallel betwixt Charles I. and Louis
XVI.--Motion by Pétion, that the King should be Tried before the
Convention, 208

CHAP. XIII.--THE TRIAL OF LOUIS--Indecision of the Girondists, and
its Effects--The Royal Family insulted by the Agents of the
Community--The King deprived of his Son's society--The King brought
to Trial before the Convention--His First Examination--Carried back
to Prison amidst Insult and Abuse--Tumult in the Assembly--The King
deprived of Intercourse with his Family--Malesherbes appointed as
Counsel to defend the King--and De Seze--Louis again brought before
the Convention--Opening Speech of De Seze--King remanded to the
Temple--Stormy Debate--Eloquent attack of Vergniaud on the
Jacobins--Sentence of DEATH pronounced against the King--General
Sympathy for his Fate--Dumouriez arrives in Paris--Vainly tries to
avert the King's Fate--LOUIS XVI. BEHEADED on 21st January,
1793--MARIE ANTOINETTE on the 16th October thereafter--The Princess
ELIZABETH in May 1794--The Dauphin perishes, by cruelty, June 8th,
1795--The Princess Royal exchanged for La Fayette, 19th December,
1795, 236

CHAP. XIV.--Dumouriez--His displeasure at the Treatment of the
Flemish Provinces by the Convention--His projects in
consequence--Gains the ill-will of his Army--and is forced to fly to
the Austrian Camp--Lives many years in retreat, and finally dies in
England--Struggles betwixt the Girondists and Jacobins--Robespierre
impeaches the Leaders of the Girondists, and is denounced by
them--Decree of Accusation against Marat--Commission of
Twelve--Marat acquitted--Terror of the Girondists--Jacobins prepare
to attack the Palais Royal, but are repulsed--Repair to the
Convention, who recall the Commission of Twelve--Louvet and other
Girondist Leaders Fly from Paris--Convention go forth in procession
to expostulate with the People--Forced back to their Hall, and
compelled to Decree the Accusation of Thirty of their
Body--Girondists finally ruined--and their principal Leaders
perish--Close of their History, 258

CHAP. XV.--Views of Parties in Britain relative to the
Revolution--Affiliated Societies--Counterpoised by Aristocratic
Associations--Aristocratic Party eager for War with France--The
French proclaim the Navigation of the Scheldt--British Ambassador
recalled from Paris, and French Envoy no longer accredited in
London--France declares War against England--British Army sent to
Holland, under the Duke of York--State of the Army--View of the
Military Positions of France--in Flanders--on the Rhine--in
Piedmont--Savoy--on the Pyrenees--State of the War in La
Vendée--Description of the Country--Le Bocage--Le Louroux--Close
Union betwixt the Nobles and Peasantry--Both strongly attached to
Royalty, and abhorrent of the Revolution--The Priests--The Religion
of the Vendéans outraged by the Convention--A general Insurrection
takes place in 1793--Military Organisation and Habits of the
Vendéans--Division in the British Cabinet on the Mode of conducting
the War--Pitt--Wyndham--Reasoning upon the subject--Vendéans
defeated--They defeat, in their turn, the French Troops at
Laval--But are ultimately destroyed and dispersed--Unfortunate
Expedition to Quiberon--La Charette defeated and executed, and the
War of La Vendée finally terminated--Unsuccessful Resistance of
Bourdeaux, Marseilles, and Lyons, to the Convention--Siege of
Lyons--Its Surrender and dreadful Punishment--Siege of Toulon, 274

CHAP. XVI.--Views of the British Cabinet regarding the French
Revolution--Extraordinary Situation of France--Explanation of the
Anomaly which it exhibited--System of Terror--Committee of Public
Safety--Of Public Security--David the Painter--Law against Suspected
Persons--Revolutionary Tribunal--Effects of the Emigration of the
Princes and Nobles--Causes of the Passiveness of the French People
under the Tyranny of the Jacobins--Singular Address of the Committee
of Public Safety--General Reflections, 307

CHAP. XVII.--Marat, Danton, Robespierre--Marat poniarded--Danton and
Robespierre become Rivals--Commune of Paris--their gross
Irreligion--Gobel--Goddess of Reason--Marriage reduced to a Civil
Contract--Views of Danton--and of Robespierre--Principal Leaders of
the Commune arrested--and Nineteen of them executed--Danton arrested
by the influence of Robespierre--and, along with Camille Desmoulins,
Westermann, and La Croix, taken before the Revolutionary Tribunal,
condemned, and executed--Decree issued, on the motion of
Robespierre, acknowledging a Supreme Being--Cécilée
Regnault--Gradual Change in the Public Mind--Robespierre becomes
unpopular--Makes every effort to retrieve his power--Stormy Debate
in the Convention--Collot D'Herbois, Tallien, &c., expelled from the
Jacobin Club at the instigation of Robespierre--Robespierre
denounced in the Convention on the 9th Thermidor, (27th July, 1794,)
and, after furious struggles, arrested, along with his brother,
Couthon, and Saint Just--Henriot, Commandant of the National Guard,
arrested--Terrorists take refuge in the Hotel de Ville--Attempt
their own lives--Robespierre wounds himself--but lives, along with
most of the others, long enough to be carried to the Guillotine, and
executed--His character--Struggles that followed his Fate--Final
Destruction of the Jacobinical System--and return of
Tranquillity--Singular colour given to Society in Paris--Ball of the
Victims, 321

CHAP. XVIII.--Retrospective View of the External Relations of
France--Her great Military Successes--Whence they arose--Effect of
the Compulsory Levies--Military Genius and Character of the
French--French Generals--New Mode of Training the Troops--Light
Troops--Successive Attacks in Column--Attachment of the Soldiers to
the Revolution--Also of the Generals--Carnot--Effect of the French
principles preached to the Countries invaded by their Arms--Close of
the Revolution with the fall of Robespierre--Reflections upon what
was to succeed, 364