Chapter VII: Part 7

The Emperor suffered seriously from the badness of the weather. He went to his saloon about four o’clock; he thought that he was feverish, and found himself much depressed; he called for some punch, and played a few games at chess with the grand marshal. The doctor is come from the town. The two vessels just arrived are from the Cape; one of them is the Podargus, which left Europe ten days after the Griffin; the other, a small frigate, on her way from India to Europe. There was, it was said, a letter for the _Emperor Napoleon_, but it was not delivered, and we did not know from whom it came.

After dinner it was said that the medicines in the island were exhausted, and it was remarked, that the Emperor could not be accused of having contributed to it. This led him to observe, that he did not recollect having ever taken any medicine. At the Tuileries, he had had three blisters at once, and even then he had not taken any. He received a serious wound at Toulon; it was, he said, like that of Ulysses, by which his old nurse knew him again; he had recovered altogether, without taking physic. One of us taking the liberty to say; “If your majesty had the dysentery to-morrow, would you still reject all kind of medicine?” The Emperor answered; “Now that I am tolerably well, I answer, yes, without hesitation; but if I were to be very ill, I should, perhaps, alter my mind, and should then feel that kind of conversion, which is produced on a dying man through the fear of the devil.” He again mentioned his incredulity in physic, but he did not think so, he said, of surgery. He had three times commenced a course of anatomy, but they had always been broken off by business and disgust. “On a certain occasion, and at the end of a long discussion, Corvisart, desirous of speaking to me, with his proofs in hand, was so abominably filthy as to bring a stomach, wrapped up in his pocket-handkerchief, to St. Cloud, and I was instantly compelled, at that horrible sight, to cast up all that I had in mine.”

The Emperor attempted, after dinner, to read a comedy, but he was so fatigued, and suffered so much, that he was forced to stop and retire about nine o’clock. He made me follow him, and as he felt no inclination to sleep, he said; “Come, my dear Las Cases, let us see; let us have a story about your fauxbourg Saint Germain, and let us endeavour to laugh at it, as if we were listening to the Thousand and One Nights’!”—“Very well, Sire; there was, formerly, one of your Majesty’s chamberlains, who had a grand-uncle, who was very old, very old indeed, ... and I remember your Majesty telling us the story of a heavy German officer, who, taken prisoner at the opening of the campaign in Italy, complained that a young conceited fellow had been sent to command against them, who spoiled the profession, and made it intolerable. Well! we had precisely his likeness among us; it was the old grand-uncle, who was still dressed nearly in the costume of Louis XIV. He showed off, whenever you sent accounts of any extraordinary achievements on the other side of the Rhine; your bulletins of Ulm and Jena operated upon him like so many revulsions of bile. He was far from admiring you. You also spoiled the profession, in his opinion. He had, he frequently said, made the campaigns under Marshal de Saxe, which indeed were prodigies in war, and had not been sufficiently appreciated. ‘War was, no doubt, then an art; but now!!!’ he remarked, shrugging up his shoulders.... ‘In our time we carried on war with great decorum; we had our mules; we were followed by our canteens; we had our tents; we lived well; we had even plays performed at head-quarters; the armies approached each other; admirable positions were occupied; a battle took place; a siege was occasionally carried on, and afterwards we went into winter-quarters, to renew our operations in the spring. That is,’ he exclaimed, with exultation, ‘what may be called making war! But now, a whole army disappears before another in a single battle, and a monarchy is overturned; a hundred leagues are run over in ten days; as for sleeping and eating, they are out of the question. Truly, if you call that genius, I am, for my own part, obliged to acknowledge, that I know nothing about it; and, accordingly, you excite my pity, when I hear you call him a great man.’”

The Emperor burst into fits of laughter, particularly when the mules and canteens were mentioned. He then added; “You were of course accustomed to say a great many foolish things about me.”—“O yes, Sire, and in vast abundance.” “Very well! We are alone; nobody will intrude; tell me some more of them.” “A fine gentleman, who had formerly been a captain of cavalry, and who seemed perfectly satisfied with his own person and accomplishments, was introduced to a select society where I was present. ‘I come,’ he said, ‘from the Plain of Sablons. I have just seen _our Ostrogoth_ manœuvre.’ That, Sire, was your Majesty. ‘He had two or three regiments, which he threw into confusion upon each other, and they were all lost in some bushes. I would have taken him and all his men prisoners with fifty maitres (formerly troopers) only. An usurped reputation!’ he exclaimed. ‘Accordingly, Moreau was always of opinion, that he would fail in Germany. A war with Germany is talked of; if it takes place, we shall see how he will get out of it. He will have justice done to him.’

“The war took place, and your Majesty sent us, in a very few days, the bulletin of Ulm, and that of Austerlitz; our fine gentleman again made his appearance in the same company, and for the moment, in spite of our malevolence, we could not help crying out all at once: ‘And your fifty maitres!’ ‘Oh! truly,’ said he, ‘it is impossible to comprehend the thing; this man triumphs over every obstacle: Fortune leads him by the hand, and, besides, the Austrians are so awkward; such fools!’”...

The Emperor laughed heartily, and wished for some anecdote still more absurd. “That would indeed, Sire, be very difficult to find. I recollect, however, an old dowager, who, to the day of her death, obstinately refused to give credit to any of your successes in Germany. When Ulm, Austerlitz, and your entrance into Vienna were mentioned in her presence:—‘So, you believe all that,‘ said she, shrugging up her shoulders. ‘It is all his fabrication. He would not presume to set a foot in Germany; be assured, that he is still behind the Rhine, where he is perishing from fear, and sends us those silly stories: you will learn, in time, that I am not to be imposed upon.’”

And these stories being over, the Emperor sent me away, saying: “What are they doing, what must they say, at present? I am certainly now giving them a fine opportunity.”

22nd.—This was a day of real mourning for me: it was the first, since our departure from France, in which I did not see the Emperor. I was the only one, in consequence of fortunate circumstances, who, until now, had enjoyed that happiness. His sufferings were great, and his seclusion complete. He did not ask to see a single person.

THE EMPEROR CONTINUES ILL.—REMARKABLE OFFICIAL
DOCUMENT, ADDRESSED TO SIR HUDSON LOWE.

23d.—The weather has continued wet and rainy. About half-past three, the Emperor sent for me to his chamber. He was dressing himself; he had been very seriously indisposed, but, thanks to his mode of treating himself, he said, and to his hermetical seclusion of the preceding day, his complaint was over. He was again well.

I dared to express my sincere grief; I had inscribed, I said, an unhappy day in my journal; I should have marked it in red ink. And when he learned what it was: “What indeed,” he said, “is it the only day, since we left France, in which you have not seen me?... And you are the only one!...” And after a silence of some seconds, he added, in a tone peculiarly adapted to make me amends, if that were possible; “But, my dear Las Cases, if you set such a value on it, if you consider it of so much moment, why did you not come and knock at my door? I am not inaccessible to you.”

The Doctor was introduced; he assured us that the Governor had promised never again to set foot at Longwood. It was ironically observed by one of us that he began to make himself agreeable.

The Emperor then went to his library, where a long letter which I had written to Rome,[9] was read to him by my son. He was driven out by the wet, and, on his way to the saloon and billiard-room, he was tempted by the sight of the steps to walk a little. “I know,” he said, “I am doing what is not prudent.” Luckily, the wet weather forced him to return almost instantly. He took a seat in the saloon, where there was a good fire, called for infusion of orange-leaves, and played some games of chess.

Footnote 9:

It was my letter to Prince Lucien, since so celebrated in the history
of my persecutions, and which will be found in its proper place.

After dinner, the Emperor read Marmontel’s Tales, and stopped at that of the self-styled philosopher. He still coughed a great deal, and again called for some of the same drink. He entered into a long and most interesting review of Jean Jacques, of his talents, his influence, his eccentricities, his private vices. He retired at ten o’clock. I regret very much, that I cannot now recollect the particulars relative to all these subjects.

In the course of the day M. de Montholon addressed the following official answer to the Governor, who had sent a letter, respecting the commissioners of the allied powers, and the embarrassed state of his finances. It is the letter, which I have already noticed on the 18th of this month.

OFFICIAL DOCUMENT.

“General,—I have received the treaty of the 2d of August, 1815, concluded between his Britannic Majesty, the Emperor of Austria, the Emperor of Russia, and the King of Prussia, which was annexed to your letter of the 23d of July.

“The Emperor Napoleon protests against the purport of that treaty; he is not the prisoner of England. After having placed his abdication in the hands of the representatives of the nation, for the benefit of the constitution adopted by the French people, and in favour of his son, he proceeded voluntarily and freely to England, for the purpose of residing there, as a private person, in retirement, under the protection of the British laws. The violation of all laws cannot constitute a right in fact. The person of the Emperor Napoleon is in the power of England; but neither, as a matter of fact, nor of right, has it been, nor is it, at present, in the power of Austria, Russia, and Prussia; even according to the laws and customs of England, which has never included, in its exchange of prisoners, Russians, Austrians, Prussians, Spaniards, or Portuguese, although united to these powers by treaties of alliance, and making war conjointly with them. The Convention of the 2d of August, made fifteen days after the Emperor Napoleon had arrived in England, cannot, as a matter of right have any effect; it merely presents the spectacle of the coalition of the four principal powers of Europe, for the oppression of a single man; a coalition which the opinion of all nations disavows, as do all the principles of sound morality. The Emperors of Austria and Russia, and the King of Prussia, not possessing, either in fact or by right any power over the person of the Emperor Napoleon, were incapable of enacting any thing with regard to him. If the Emperor Napoleon had been in the power of the Emperor of Austria, that prince would have remembered the relations formed by religion and nature between a father and a son, relations which are never violated with impunity. He would have remembered that four times Napoleon re-established him on his throne; at Leoben, in 1797, and at Luneville in 1801, when his armies were under the walls of Vienna; at Presburgh in 1806, and at Vienna in 1809, when his armies were in possession of the capital and of three-fourths of the monarchy. That prince would have remembered the protestations which he made to him at the bivouac in Moravia in 1806, and at the interview at Dresden in 1812. If the person of the Emperor Napoleon had been in the power of the Emperor Alexander, he would have remembered the ties of friendship, contracted at Tilsit, at Erfurth, and during twelve years of daily intercourse; he would have remembered the conduct of the Emperor Napoleon the day after the battle of Austerlitz, when, having it in his power to take him prisoner with the remains of his army, he contented himself with his word, and suffered him to effect his retreat; he would have remembered the dangers to which the Emperor Napoleon personally exposed himself to extinguish the fire of Moscow and preserve that capital for him: unquestionably that prince would not have violated the duties of friendship and gratitude towards a friend in distress. If the person of the Emperor Napoleon had been even in power of the King of Prussia, that sovereign would not have forgotten that it was optional with the Emperor, after the battle of Friedland, to place another prince on the throne of Berlin; he would not have forgotten, in the presence of a disarmed enemy, the protestations of attachment and the sentiments which he expressed to him in 1812, at the interviews at Dresden. It is, accordingly, evident from the 2d and 5th articles of the said treaty, that, being incapable of any influence whatever over the fate, and the person of the Emperor Napoleon, who is not in their power, these princes refer themselves in that respect to the future conduct of his Britannic Majesty, who undertakes to fulfil all obligations.

“These princes have reproached the Emperor Napoleon with preferring the protection of the English laws to theirs. The false ideas which the Emperor Napoleon entertained of the liberality of the English laws, and of the influence of a great, generous, and free people on its government, decided him in preferring the protection of these laws to that of his father-in-law, or of his old friend. The Emperor Napoleon always would have been able to obtain the security of what related personally to himself, whether by placing himself again at the head of the army of the Loire, or by putting himself at the head of the army of the Gironde, commanded by General Clausel; but, looking for the future only to retirement and to the protection of the laws of a free nation, either English or American, all stipulations appeared useless to him. He thought that the English people would have been more bound by his frank conduct, which was noble and full of confidence, than it could have been by the most solemn treaties. He has been mistaken, but this error will for ever excite the indignation of real Britons, and, with the present as well as future generations, it will be a proof of the perfidy of the English administration. Austrian and Russian commissioners are arrived at St. Helena; if the object of their mission be to fulfil part of the duties, which the Emperors of Austria and Russia have contracted by the treaty of the 2d of August, and to take care, that the English agents, in a small colony, in the midst of the Ocean, do not fail in the attentions due to a prince connected with them by the ties of affinity, and by so many relations, the characteristics of these two sovereigns will be recognized in that measure. But you, Sir, have asserted, that these commissioners possessed neither the right nor the power of giving any opinion on whatever may be transacted on this rock.

“The English ministry have caused the Emperor Napoleon to be transported to Saint Helena, two thousand leagues from Europe. This rock, situated under the tropic at the distance of five hundred leagues from any continent is, in that latitude, exposed to a devouring heat; it is, during three-fourths of the year, covered with clouds and mists; it is at once the driest and wettest country in the world. This is the most inimical climate to the Emperor’s health. It is hatred which dictated the selection of this residence, as well as the instructions, given by the English ministry to the officers who command in this country; they have been ordered to call the Emperor Napoleon, General, being desirous of compelling him to acknowledge that he never reigned in France, which decided him not to take an incognito title, as he had determined on quitting France. First magistrate for life, under the title of first consul, he concluded the preliminaries of London and the treaty of Amiens with the king of Great Britain. He received as ambassadors, Lord Cornwallis, Mr. Merry, and Lord Whitworth, who resided in that quality at his court. He sent to the King of England, Count Otto and General Andreossi, who resided as ambassadors at the Court of Windsor. When, after the exchange of letters between the ministers for foreign affairs belonging to the two monarchies, Lord Lauderdale came to Paris, provided with full powers from the King of England, he treated with the plenipotentiaries provided with full powers from the Emperor Napoleon, and resided several months at the court of the Tuileries. When, afterwards, at Chatillon, Lord Castlereagh signed the ultimatum, which the allied powers presented to the plenipotentiaries of the Emperor Napoleon, he thereby recognized the fourth dynasty. That ultimatum was more advantageous than the treaty of Paris; but France was required to renounce Belgium and the left bank of the Rhine, which was contrary to the propositions of Frankfort and to the proclamations of the allied powers; and was also contrary to the oath by which, at his consecration, the Emperor had sworn the integrity of the empire. The Emperor then thought these national limits were necessary to the security of France as well as to the equilibrium of Europe; he thought that the French nation, in the circumstances under which it found itself, ought rather to risk every chance of war than to give them up. France would have obtained that integrity, and with it preserved her honour, had not treason contributed to the success of the allies. The treaty of the 2d of August, and the bill of the British parliament, style the Emperor, Napoleon Bonaparte, and give him only the title of General. The title of _General Bonaparte_ is, no doubt, eminently glorious; the Emperor bore it at Lodi, at Castiglione, at Rivoli, at Arcole, at Leoben, at the Pyramids, at Aboukir: but for seventeen years he has borne that of First Consul and of Emperor; it would be an admission that he has been neither first magistrate of the republic, nor sovereign of the fourth dynasty. Those, who think that nations are flocks, which, by divine right, belong to some families, are neither of the present age, nor of the spirit of the English legislature, which has several times changed the succession of its dynasties, because the great alterations occasioned by opinions, in which the reigning princes did not participate, had made them enemies to the happiness of the great majority of that nation. For kings are but hereditary magistrates, who exist but for the happiness of nations, and not nations for the satisfaction of kings. It is the same spirit of hatred, which directed that the Emperor Napoleon should not write or receive any letter, without its being opened and read by the English ministers and the officers of St. Helena. He has, by that regulation, been interdicted the possibility of receiving intelligence from his mother, his wife, his son, his brothers; and when, wishing to avoid the inconvenience of having his letters read by inferior officers, he wished to send sealed letters to the Prince Regent, he was told, that open letters only could be taken charge of and conveyed, and that such were the instructions of the ministry. That measure stands in need of no comment; it will suggest strange ideas of the spirit of the administration by which it was dictated; it would be disclaimed even at Algiers! Letters have been received for general officers in the Emperor’s suite; they were opened and delivered to you; you have retained them, because they had not been transmitted through the medium of the English ministry; it was found necessary to make them travel four thousand leagues over again, and these officers had the misfortune to know, that there existed on this rock news from their wives, their mothers, and their children, and that they could not be put in possession of it, in less than six months!!!—The heart revolts.

“Permission could not be obtained to subscribe to the Morning Chronicle, to the Morning Post, or to some French journals: some broken numbers of the Times have been occasionally sent to Longwood. In consequence of the demand made on board the Northumberland, some books have been sent, but all those which relate to the transactions of late years have been carefully kept back. It was since intended to open a correspondence with a London bookseller for the purpose of being directly supplied with books which might be wanted, and with those relative to the events of the day; that intention was frustrated. An English author, having published at London an account of his travels in France, took the trouble to send it as a present to the Emperor, but you did not think yourself authorized to deliver it to him, because it had not reached you through the channel of your government. It is also said, that other books, sent by their authors, have not been delivered, because the address of some was—To the Emperor Napoleon, and of others—To Napoleon the Great. The English ministry are not authorized to order any of these vexations. The law, however unjust, considers the Emperor Napoleon as a prisoner of war; but prisoners of war have never been prohibited from subscribing to the journals, or receiving books that are printed; such a prohibition is exercised only in the dungeons of the Inquisition.

“The island of St. Helena is ten leagues in circumference; it is every where inaccessible; the coast is guarded by brigs; posts within sight of each other are placed on the shore; and all communication with the sea is rendered impracticable. There is but one small town, James Town, where the vessels anchor, and from which they sail. In order to prevent the escape of an individual, it is sufficient to guard the coast by land and sea. By interdicting the interior of the island, one object only can be in view, that of preventing a ride of eight or ten miles, which it would be possible to take on horseback, and the privation of which, according to the consultations of medical men, is abridging the Emperor’s days.

“The Emperor has been placed at Longwood, which is exposed to every wind; a barren spot, uninhabited, without water, and incapable of any kind of cultivation. The space contains about 1200 uncultivated fathoms. At the distance of 11 or 1200 fathoms, a camp has been formed on a small eminence; another has been since placed nearly at the same distance in an opposite direction, so that, in the intense heat of the tropic, whichever way the eye turns nothing is seen but camps. Admiral Malcolm, perceiving the utility of which a tent would be to the Emperor in that situation, has had one pitched by his seamen at the distance of twenty paces from the house; it is the only spot in which shade is to be found. The Emperor, has, however, every reason to be satisfied with the spirit which animates the officers and soldiers of the gallant 53d, as he had been with the crew of the Northumberland. Longwood House was built for a barn to the company’s farm; some apartments were afterwards made in it by the Deputy-Governor of the island; he used it for a country-house; but it was, in no respect, adapted for a residence. During the year that it has been inhabited, people have always been at work in it, and the Emperor has been constantly exposed to the inconvenience and unwholesomeness of a house, in which workmen are employed. His bedchamber is too small to contain a bedstead of ordinary size; but every kind of building at Longwood would prolong the inconvenience arising from the workmen. There are, however, in this wretched island, some beautiful situations, with fine trees, gardens, and tolerably good houses, among others Plantation House; but you are prevented by the positive instructions of the ministry from granting this house, which would have saved a great deal of expense laid out in building, at Longwood, huts covered with pitched paper, which are no longer of any use. You have prohibited every kind of intercourse between us and the inhabitants of the island; you have, in fact, converted Longwood House into a secret prison; you have even thrown difficulties in the way of our communication with the officers of the garrison. The most anxious care would seem to be taken to deprive us of the few resources afforded by this miserable country, and we are no better off here than we should be on Ascension Rock. During the four months you have been at St. Helena, you have, Sir, rendered the Emperor’s condition worse. It was observed to you by Count Bertrand, that you violated the law of your legislature, that you trampled upon the privileges of general officers, prisoners of war. You answered, that you knew nothing but the letter of your instructions, and that they were still worse than your conduct appeared to us.

I have the honour, &c.

(Signed) COUNT DE MONTHOLON.

“P.S.—I had, Sir, signed this letter, when I received yours of the 17th, to which you annex the estimate of an annual sum of 20,000_l._ sterling, which you consider indispensable to meet the expenses of the establishment of Longwood, after having made all the reductions which you have thought possible. The consideration of this estimate can, in no respect, concern us; the Emperor’s table is scarcely supplied with what is necessary; all the provisions are of bad quality and four times as dear as at Paris. You require a fund of twelve thousand pounds sterling from the Emperor, as your government allows you only eight thousand pounds for all these expenses. I have had the honour of telling you, that the Emperor had no funds; that no letter had been received or written for a year; and that he was altogether unacquainted with what is passing or what may have passed in Europe. Transported by violence to this rock, at the distance of two thousand leagues, without being able to receive or to write any letter, he now finds himself at the discretion of the English agents. The Emperor has uniformly desired and still desires to provide himself for all his expenses of every kind, and he will do so, as speedily as you shall give possibility to the means, by taking off the prohibition, laid upon the merchants of the island, of carrying on his correspondence, and releasing it from all kind of inquisition on your part or on that of any of your agents. The moment the Emperor’s wants shall be known in Europe, the persons who interest themselves for him will transmit the necessary funds for his supplies.

“The letter of Lord Bathurst, which you have communicated to me, gives rise to strange ideas! Can your ministers then be so ignorant as not to know that the spectacle of a great man struggling with adversity is the most sublime of spectacles? Can they be ignorant, that Napoleon at St. Helena, amidst persecutions of every kind, against which his serenity is his only shield, is greater, more sacred, more venerable than on the first throne of the world, where he was, so long, the arbiter of Kings? Those, who fail in respect to Napoleon, thus situated, merely degrade their own character and the nation which they represent!”

MY ENGLISH FAMILY.—JUST DEBT OF GRATITUDE TO THE ENGLISH ON THE PART OF
THE EMIGRANTS, &C.—GENERAL JOUBERT.—PETERSBURG.—MOSCOW; THE
CONFLAGRATION.—PROJECTS OF NAPOLEON, HAD HE RETURNED VICTORIOUS.

24th.—I went, at two o’clock, to the Emperor, in his apartment. He had sent for my Atlas in the morning. I found him finishing his examination of the map of Russia and of that part of America adjoining the Russian establishments.

He had suffered, and coughed a great deal, during the night. The weather had, however, become milder. While he was dressing to go out, he often dwelt upon the happy idea of the Atlas, the merit of its execution, and the immensity of its contents. He concluded, as usual, with saying; “What a collection! what details! How complete in all its parts!”

The Emperor went to the garden. I told him, that I had written, in the morning, to England, and answered the letter which I had read to him two or three days ago. “Your English family,” he then observed, “seem to be very good kind of people; they are very fond of you, and you appear very much attached to them.” I answered; “Sire, I took care of them in France, during their ten years captivity, and they had taken care of me in England, during my ten years emigration. It is altogether the hospitality of the ancients which we exercise towards each other. I rely upon them, in every respect, and they are at liberty to dispose of all I possess.”—“This,” said he, “is a very happy connexion. How did you obtain it? To what are you indebted for it?” I then told him how I became acquainted with this family.

“Never was the plank, by the assistance of which an unfortunate person, after shipwreck, preserved his life, dearer to him than this family is to me. There are, Sire, no favours, no treasures, which can compensate the kindnesses I have received from it, and the happiness it has conferred upon me.

“When the horrible excesses of our revolution compelled us to take refuge in England, our emigration produced the liveliest sensation in that country; the arrival of so many illustrious exiles, their past fortunes, and their then forlorn condition, were impressed on every mind, and filled every heart. They became the subject of consideration in political assemblies, in places of divine worship, in fashionable circles, and in private families. That catastrophe agitated every class, and excited every sympathy. We were surrounded by a generous and feeling multitude. We were the objects of the most delicate attentions, and of the most substantial favours. Such, it must be acknowledged, was the affecting sight held out by a vast portion of English society, even in spite of the difference of opinions. It is a testimony due from our gratitude to the truth of history.

“I was then in London, with a cousin of my name, whose situation at the court of Versailles had enabled her to be of some service to the most distinguished persons in Europe, where she was a lady of honour to the Princess Lamballe, who was herself sub-intendant of the Queen’s household. That turned out a fortunate circumstance for our family. My cousin experienced proofs of the greatest benevolence; a great number of persons were eager to make a tender of their services, and, among others, a certain young couple. The wife was charming, and distinguished for the elegance and dignity of her manners; the husband was of an easy temper, of a mild and honourable character. Their house was almost instantly open to my cousin and to all her relations, who had every reason to find themselves as much at their ease there, as if they had been in their own families.

“This worthy couple took every occasion to oblige and to be of use to our refugees. Their house was frequented by the most distinguished emigrants. A great number of us there contracted a debt of gratitude which, notwithstanding all its extent, I should not despair of paying, were I alone left to discharge it. I shall leave it as a legacy to my children, who, if they resemble me, will look upon it as sacred, and deem themselves happy in redeeming the obligation.

“Elevation of soul, and the emotions of a French heart, characterized the conduct of Lady .... When the Prince of Condé (arrived in London,) was looking for a country residence, she sent me to offer him the superb mansion which she possessed, in the county of Durham. The Prince, after hearing the particulars, having remarked that it would, no doubt, cost him a King’s ransom, was agreeably surprised at learning that it was presented to him by a French woman, who would, she said, consider that she had received an inestimable price, should a Condé condescend to inhabit it. He went, instantly, to express his acknowledgments in person.

“This family visited Paris after the peace of Amiens, and it was in its bosom, and through its protection, that I was enabled, a few days sooner, to breathe the air of my country. I was exempted, through its means, from the tedious and painful formalities required from me by the act of amnesty on the frontier, and I felt it my duty to provide for their accommodation at Paris, with much more facility and less inconvenience than they could have done themselves. I had also the happiness, when the measure for detaining the English residents was carried into effect, and this family was placed among the number, of alleviating their condition in my turn, and becoming their security.

“We were, at length, separated by time and circumstances; but they have lost nothing in my recollection; and the needle is less constant to the pole, and less faithful in its guidance, than are my thoughts and my gratitude, with respect to those good and valuable friends. Such, Sire, is what your Majesty is pleased to call my English family.”

We had, however, during my relation, walked to the stable, and called for the calash. The Emperor ordered it to take us up at the bottom of the wood. We waited for it a long time, because Madame de Montholon was seized with a sudden indisposition. Her husband came to apologize for the delay, and the Emperor made him get in.

The conversation turned, during our ride, upon General Joubert, whose brother-in-law and aid-de-camp M. de Montholon had been.

“Joubert,” said the Emperor, “entertained a high veneration for me; he deplored my absence at every reverse experienced by the Republic, during the expedition to Egypt. He was, at that time, at the head of the army of Italy; he had taken me for his model, aspired to imitate my plans, and attempted to accomplish nothing less than what I afterwards effected in Brumaire: he had, however, the Jacobins to assist him. The measures and intrigues of that party, to place the means of executing that grand enterprise in his power, had raised him to the command in Italy, after the disasters of Scherer; of that Scherer who was an ignorant peculator, and deserving of every censure. But Joubert was killed at Novi, in his first rencounter with Suwarrow; any attempt of his, at Paris, would have failed; he had not yet acquired a sufficient degree of glory, of consistency, and maturity. He was, by nature, calculated for all these acquirements, but, at that moment, he was not adequately formed; he was still too young, and that enterprise was then beyond his ability.”

The Emperor could not take more than one round; he found himself too much fatigued, and was far from being well.

At half past eight o’clock, the Emperor ordered me to be called. He told me that he had been obliged to take a bath, and thought he was a little feverish. He felt that he had suddenly caught cold, but he had ceased to cough since he was in the bath. He continued for a long time in the water. He dined in it, and a small table was laid for me by the side. The Emperor reverted to the history of Russia. “Had Peter the Great,” he asked, “acted with wisdom in founding a capital at Petersburgh at so vast an expense? Would not the results have been greater, had he expended all his money at Moscow? What was his object? Had he accomplished it?” I replied: “If Peter had remained at Moscow, his nation would have continued Muscovite, a people altogether Asiatic; it was necessary that it should be displaced for its reform and alteration. He had, therefore, selected a position on the very frontiers, wrested from the enemy, and in founding his capital, and accumulating all his strength, he rendered it invulnerable; he connected himself with European society; he established his power in the Baltic sea, by which he could with ease prevent his natural enemies, the Poles and the Swedes, from forming alliances, upon occasion, with the nations situated in their rear.”

The Emperor said that “he was not altogether satisfied with these reasons. Be it as it may,” he observed, “Moscow has disappeared, and who can compute the wealth that has been swallowed up there? Let us contemplate Paris, with the accumulation of buildings and of industry, the work of centuries. Had its capital, for the 1400 years of its existence, increased but a million a year, what a sum! Let us connect with that the warehouses, the furniture, the union of sciences and the arts, the complete establishments of trade and commerce, &c., and this is the picture of Moscow; and all that vanished in an instant! What a catastrophe! Does not the bare idea of it make one shudder?... I do not think that it could be replaced, at the expense of two thousand millions.”

He expatiated at great length on all these events, and let a word escape him which was too characteristic not to be specially noted down by me. The name of Rostopchin having been pronounced, I presumed to remark that the colour at that time given to his patriotic action had very much surprised me, for he had interested me instead of exciting my indignation: nay, I had envied him!... The Emperor replied with singular vivacity, and with a kind of contraction which betrayed vexation: “If many at Paris had been capable of reading and feeling it in that way, believe me, I should have applauded it! But I had no choice left me.” Resuming the subject of Moscow, he said:—“Never, with all the powers of poetry, have the fictions of the burning of Troy equalled the reality of that of Moscow. The city was of wood, the wind was violent; all the pumps had been taken away. It was literally an ocean of fire. Nothing had been saved from it; our march was so rapid, our entrance so sudden. We found even diamonds on the women’s toilets, they had fled so precipitately. They wrote to us a short time afterwards that they had sought to escape from the first excesses of a dangerous soldiery; that they recommended their property to the generosity of the conquerors, and would not fail to re-appear in the course of a few days to solicit their kindness and testify their gratitude.

“The population was far from having plotted that atrocity. Even they themselves delivered up to us three or four hundred criminals, who escaped from prison, and had executed it,”—“But, Sire, may I presume to ask, if Moscow had not been burnt, did not your Majesty intend to establish your quarters there?”—“Certainly,” answered the Emperor, “and I should then have held up the singular spectacle of an army wintering in the midst of a hostile nation, pressing upon it from all points; it would have been the ship beset by the ice. You would have been in France without any intelligence from me for several months; but you would have remained quiet, you would have acted wisely. Cambacèrés would, as usual, have conducted affairs in my name, and all would have been as orderly as if I had been present. The winter, in Russia, would have weighed heavy on every one; the torpor would have been general. The spring also would have returned for all the world. All would have been at once on their legs, and it is well known that the French are as nimble as any others.

“On the first appearance of fine weather, I should have marched against the enemy; I should have beaten them; I should have been master of their empire. Alexander, be assured, would not have suffered me to proceed so far. He would have agreed to all the conditions which I might have dictated, and France would then have begun to enjoy all her advantages. And, truly, my success depended upon a mere trifle. For I had undertaken the expedition to fight against armed men, not against nature in the violence of her wrath. I defeated armies, but I could not conquer the flames, the frost, stupefaction, and death!... I was forced to yield to fate. And, after all, how unfortunate for France!—indeed for all Europe!

THE BURNING OF MOSCOW.

London: Published for Henry Colburn, March, 1836.
]

“Peace, concluded at Moscow, would have fulfilled and wound up my hostile expeditions. It would have been, with respect to the grand cause, the term of casualties and the commencement of security. A new horizon, new undertakings, would have unfolded themselves, adapted, in every respect, to the well-being and prosperity of all. The foundation of the European system would have been laid, and my only remaining task would have been its organization.

“Satisfied on these grand points, and every where at peace, I should have also had my Congress and my Holy Alliance. These are plans which were filched from me. In that assembly of all the sovereigns, we should have discussed our interest in a family way, and settled our accounts with the people, as a clerk does with his master.

“The cause of the age was victorious, the revolution accomplished; the only point in question was to reconcile it with what it had not destroyed. But that task belonged to me; I had for a long time been making preparations for it, at the expense, perhaps, of my popularity. No matter. I became the ark of the old and the new covenant, the natural mediator between the old and the new order of things. I maintained the principles and possessed the confidence of the one; I had identified myself with the other. I belonged to them both; I should have acted conscientiously in favour of each. My glory would have consisted in my equity.”

“And, after having enumerated what he would have proposed between sovereign and sovereign, and between sovereigns and their people, he continued: “Powerful as we were, all that we might have conceded would have appeared grand. It would have gained us the gratitude of the people. At present, what they may extort will never seem enough for them, and they will be uniformly distrustful and discontented.”

He next took a review of what he would have proposed for the prosperity, the interest, the enjoyment, and the well-being, of the European confederacy. He wished to establish the same principles, the same system, every where—a European code; a European court of appeal, with full powers to redress all wrong decisions, as our’s redresses at home those of our tribunals; money of the same value, but in different coins; the same weights, the same measures, the same laws.

“Thus Europe,” he said, “would soon have formed, in reality, but one and the same people, and every one, who travelled, would have every where found himself in one common country.”

He would have required that all the rivers should be navigable in common; that the seas should be thrown open; that the great standing armies should, in future, be reduced to the mere guards of the sovereign.

In short, a multitude of ideas fell from him, the greater part of which were new; some of the simplest nature, others altogether sublime, relative to the different political, civil, and legislative branches; to religion, to the arts, and commerce: they embraced every subject.

He concluded: “On my return to France, into the bosom of my country, at once great, powerful, magnificent, at peace, and glorious, I would have proclaimed the immutability of boundaries; all future wars, as purely _defensive_; all new aggrandizement, as _anti-national_. I would have associated my son with me in the empire; my dictatorship would have terminated, and his constitutional reign commenced.

“Paris would have been the capital of the world, and the French the envy of nations!... My leisure and my old age would have been devoted, in company with the Empress, and, during the royal apprenticeship of my son, to visiting slowly and with our own horses, like a plain country couple, every corner of the empire; to receiving complaints, redressing wrongs, founding monuments, and doing good every where and by every means!... These also, my dear Las Cases, were among my reveries!!!”

The Emperor conversed a great deal about the interior of Russia, of the prosperity of which, he said, we had no idea. He dwelt, at great length, upon Moscow, which had, under every point of view, much surprised him, and might bear a comparison with any of the capitals of Europe, the greater number of which it surpassed. Here unfortunately I can find but bare outlines in my notes, which it is impossible for me to fill up now.

He was particularly struck with the gilded spires of Moscow, and it was that which induced him, on his return, to have the dome of the Invalids regilt; he intended to embellish many other edifices at Paris in the same manner.[10]

Footnote 10:

Since the first appearance of this work, it has been remarked to me
that this is an anachronism; as the gilding of the dome of the
Invalids was begun before the campaign in Russia. It was the minarets
of Cairo and not the steeples of Moscow which must have suggested the
idea to Napoleon; and this was no doubt what he meant to say: it is
easy to imagine that a mistake of this kind might be made by him in a
conversation without any special object: in fact every body is liable
to such mistakes.

As the city of Moscow seems to have been so different from the idea which we have generally entertained of it in our Western world, I am inclined to think that a description of it in this place, supplied by an eye-witness, a distinguished person, attached to the expedition, will not prove disagreeable. It is by Baron Larrey, surgeon-in-chief to the grand army. I take it from a work of that celebrated character (Mémoires de la Chirurgie Militaire), in no great circulation, on account, perhaps, of its peculiarly scientific nature.

The relation begins at the moment when the French army was setting out for Moscow, after the battle of Mozaisk or of the Moskowa.

“We were hardly a few miles off from Mozaisk, when we were all surprised at finding ourselves, notwithstanding the vicinity of the spot to one of the greatest capitals in the world, on a sandy, arid, and completely desert plain. The mournful aspect of that solitude, which discouraged the soldiers, seemed an omen of the entire abandonment of Moscow, and of the misfortunes which awaited us in that city, from the opulence of which we had promised ourselves such advantages.

“The army marched, with difficulty, over that tract. The horses were harassed, and exhausted with hunger and thirst, for water was as rare as forage. The men had also a great deal to suffer. They were, in fact, overwhelmed with fatigue, and in want of all subsistence. The troops had not, for a long time, received any rations, and the small quantity of provisions found at Mozaisk was only sufficient for the young and old guard. A considerable number of the former corps fell victims to their abuse of the spirits of the country. They were observed to quit their comrades a few paces, to totter, whirl round, and afterwards fall on their knees or sit down involuntarily; they remained immoveable in that attitude, and expired shortly afterwards, without uttering a single complaint. These young men were pre-disposed to the pernicious effects of that liquor by languor, privations and excessive fatigue.

“We arrived, however, on the evening of the 14th of September, in one of the suburbs of Moscow; we there learnt that the Russian army had, in its passage through the city, carried off all the citizens and public functionaries, some of the lower classes and servants alone were left; so that, in going through the principal streets of that great city, which we entered the following morning, we scarcely met any one; all the houses were completely abandoned. But what very much surprised us was to see the fire break out in several remote quarters, where none of our troops had yet been, and particularly in the bazar of the Kremlin, an immense building, with porticoes which have some resemblance to those of the Palais Royal at Paris.

“After what we had witnessed on our passage through Little Russia, we were astonished at the vastness of Moscow, at the great number of churches and palaces which it contained, at the beautiful architecture of those edifices, at the commodious disposition of the principal houses, and all the objects of luxury which were found in the greater part of them. The streets in general were spacious, regular, and well laid out. Nothing had the appearance of discordance throughout that city. Every thing announced its wealth, and the immense trade it carried on in the productions of the four quarters of the world.

“The variety displayed in the construction of the palaces, houses, and churches, was an infinite addition to the beauty of the city. There were places which, by the peculiar kind of architecture of the different edifices, indicated the nations that generally inhabited them; thus, the residence of the Franks, Chinese, Indians, and Germans, was easily distinguished. The Kremlin might be considered as the citadel of Moscow; it is in the centre of the town, situated on an eminence sufficiently elevated, surrounded by a wall with bastions, and flanked, at regular distances, by towers, mounted with cannon. The bazaar, which has been already noticed, usually filled with the merchandize of India, and valuable furs, had become the prey of the flames, and the only articles preserved were those which had been deposited in the vaults, where the soldiers penetrated, after the fire that consumed the whole of the exterior of that beautiful edifice. The palace of the Emperors, that of the senate, the archives, the arsenal, and two very ancient churches, occupy the rest of the Kremlin. These different buildings, of a rich style of architecture, form a magnificent appearance about the parade. One might imagine one’s self transported to the public place of ancient Athens, where the Areopagus and the temple of Minerva on one side, and the academy and the arsenal on the other, were the objects of admiration. A cylindrical tower rises between the two churches, in the form of a column, known by the name of Yvan’s tower; it is rather an Egyptian minaret, within which several bells, of different sizes, are hung. At the foot of this tower, is seen a bell of a prodigious magnitude, which has been noticed by all the historians. The whole of the city and its environs are seen from the top of the towers; it looks like a star, with four forked rays. The city has a most picturesque appearance, from the variegated colours of the roofs of the houses, and from the gold and silver which cover the domes and the tops of the steeples, of which there is a considerable number. Nothing can equal the richness of one of the churches of the Kremlin (it was the burial-place of the Emperors); its walls are covered with plates of silver gilt, five or six lines thick, on which the history of the Old and New Testament is represented in relievo; the lustres and candelabra, of massy silver, were particularly remarkable for their extraordinary size.