Chapter X: Part 10

_Wagram_ is, according to Pelet, the masterpiece of _tactical_ battles, while the five days' campaign (Thann to Ratisbon) was one long _strategic_ battle. Nevertheless, respecting Wagram, had the Archduke John, with his 40,000 men, turned up, as the Archduke had more right to expect than Wellington had to expect Blucher, Waterloo might have been antedated six years.

_Lasalle_ was a prime favourite of Napoleon, for his sure eye and active bearing. His capture of Stettin with two regiments of hussars was specially noteworthy. Like Lannes he had a strong premonition of his death. Marbot tells a story of how Napoleon gave him 200,000 francs to get married with. A week later the Emperor asked, "When is the wedding?" "As soon as I have got some money to furnish with, sire." "Why, I gave you 200,000 francs to furnish with last week! What have you done with them?" "Paid my debts with half, and lost the other half at cards." Such an admission would have ruined any other general. The Emperor laughed, and merely giving a sharp tug at Lasalle's moustache, ordered Duroc to give him another 200,000.

_I am sunburnt_, and, as he writes Cambaceres the same day, tired out, having been sixty out of the previous seventy-two hours in the saddle.

No. 12.

_Wolkersdorf._--On July 8th he writes General Clarke: "I have the headquarters lately occupied by the craven Francis II., who contented himself with watching the whole affair from the top of a tower, ten miles from the scene of battle." On this day also he dictated his twenty-fifth bulletin, of which the last portion is so skilfully utilised in the last scene of Act V. in L'Aiglon. One concluding sentence is all that can here be quoted: "Such is the recital of the battle of Wagram, a decisive and ever illustrious battle, where three to four hundred thousand men, twelve to fifteen hundred guns, fought for great stakes on a field of battle, studied, meditated on, and fortified by the enemy for many months."

_A surfeit of bile._--His usual source of relief after extra work or worry. In this case both. Bernadotte had behaved so badly at Wagram, that Napoleon sent him to Paris with the stern rebuke, "A bungler like you is no good to me." But as usual his anger against an old comrade is short-lived, and he gives General Clarke permission to send Bernadotte to command at Antwerp against the English.

No. 16.

_My affairs follow my wishes._--In Austria, possibly, but not elsewhere. Prussia was seething with conspiracy, Russia with ill-concealed hatred, the English had just landed in Belgium, and Wellesley had just won Talavera. Soult was apparently no longer trustworthy, Bernadotte a conceited boaster, who had to be publicly snubbed (see The Order of the Day, August 5th, No. 15,614). Clarke and Cambaceres are so slow that Napoleon writes them (August 10th) "not to let the English come and take you in bed." Fouche shows more energy than every one else put together, calls out National Guards, and sends them off to meet the northern invasion. The Minister of the Interior, M. Cretet, had just died, and the Emperor had wisely put Fouche, the most competent man available, into his place for the time being.

No. 17.

_August 21st._--The list of birthday honours (August 15th) had been a fairly long one, Berthier becoming Prince of Wagram, Massena of Essling, Davoust of Eckmuehl. Marshals Oudinot and Macdonald, Generals Clarke, Reynier, Gaudin and Champagny, as also M. Maret, became Dukes. Marmont had already, says Savary, been made delirious with the joy of possessing a baton.

No. 18.

_Comedians._--Napoleon found relaxation more after his own heart in conversing with the savants of Germany, including the great mechanic Maeelzel, with whose automaton chess-player he played a game. Constant gives a highly-coloured picture of the sequel: "The automaton was seated before a chess-board, and the Emperor, taking a chair opposite the figure, said laughingly, 'Now, my friend, we'll have a game.' The automaton, bowing, made signs for the Emperor to begin. After two or three moves the Emperor made a wrong one on purpose; the automaton bowed and replaced the piece on the board. His Majesty cheated again, when the automaton bowed again, but this time took the pawn. 'Quite right,' said his Majesty, as he promptly cheated for the third time. The automaton then shook its head, and with one sweep of its hand knocked all the chessmen down."

_Women ... not having been presented._--One woman, however, the mistress of Lord Paget, was quite willing to be presented at a late hour and to murder him at the same time--at least so says Constant.

No. 19.

_All this is very suspicious._--For perfectly natural reasons Caesar's wife was now above suspicion, but Caesar himself was not so. Madame Walewski had been more than a month at Schoenbrunn, and on May 4th, 1810, Napoleon has a second son born, who fifty years later helped to edit his father's _Correspondence_.

No. 20.

_Krems._--He left here to review Davoust's corps on the field of Austerlitz. Afterwards all the generals dined with him, and the Emperor said, "This is the second time I come upon the field of Austerlitz; shall I come to it a third time?" "Sire," replied one, "from what we see every day none dare wager that you will not!" It was this suppressed hatred that probably determined the Emperor to dismantle the fortifications of Vienna, an act that intensified the hatred of the Viennese more than his allowing the poor people to help themselves to wood for the winter in the imperial forests had mollified them.

_My health has never been better._--His reason for this remark is found in his letter to Cambaceres of the same date, "They have spread in Paris the rumour that I was ill, I know not why; I was never better." The reason of the rumour was that Corvisart had been sent for to Vienna, as there had been an outbreak of dysentery among the troops. This was kept a profound secret from France, and Napoleon even allowed Josephine to think that Corvisart had attended him (see Letter 22).

No. 23.

_October 14th._--Two days before, Stabs, the young Tugendbundist and an admirer of Joan of Arc, had attempted to assassinate Napoleon on parade with a carving-knife. The Emperor's letter to Fouche of the 12th October gives the most succinct account:--

"A youth of seventeen, son of a Lutheran minister of Erfurt, sought to approach me on parade to-day. He was arrested by the officers, and as the little man's agitation had been noticed, suspicion was aroused; he was searched, and a dagger found upon him. I had him brought before me, and the little wretch, who seemed to me fairly well educated, told me that he wished to assassinate me to deliver Austria from the presence of the French. I could distinguish in him neither religious nor political fanaticism. He did not appear to know exactly who or what Brutus was. The fever of excitement he was in prevented our knowing more. He will be examined when he has cooled down and fasted. It is possible that it will come to nothing. He will be arraigned before a military commission.

"I wished to inform you of this circumstance in order that it may not be made out more important than it appears to be. I hope it will not leak out; if it does, we shall have to represent the fellow as a madman. If it is not spoken of at all, keep it to yourself. The whole affair made no disturbance at the parade; I myself saw nothing of it.

"_P.S._--I repeat once more, and you understand clearly, that there is to be no discussion of this occurrence."

Count Rapp saved the Emperor's life on this occasion, and he, Savary, and Constant, all give detailed accounts. Their narratives are a remarkable object-lesson of the carelessness of the average contemporary spectator in recording dates. Savary gives vaguely the end of September, Constant October 13th, and Count Rapp October 23rd. In the present case the date of this otherwise trivial incident is important, for careless historians assert that it influenced Napoleon in concluding peace. In any case it would have taken twenty such occurrences to affect Napoleon one hairbreadth, and in the present instance his letter of October 10th to the Russian Emperor proves that the Peace was already settled--all but the signing.

No. 24.

_Stuttgard._--General Rapp describes this journey as follows: "Peace was ratified. We left Nymphenburg and arrived at Stuttgard. Napoleon was received in a style of magnificence, and was lodged in the palace together with his suite. The King was laying out a spacious garden, and men who had been condemned to the galleys were employed to labour in it. The Emperor asked the King who the men were who worked in chains; he replied that they were for the most part rebels who had been taken in his new possessions. We set out on the following day. On the way Napoleon alluded to the unfortunate wretches whom he had seen at Stuttgard. 'The King of Wuertemberg,' said he, 'is a very harsh man; but he is very faithful. Of all the sovereigns in Europe he possesses the greatest share of understanding.'

"We stopped for an hour at Rastadt, where the Princess of Baden and Princess Stephanie had arrived for the purpose of paying their respects to the Emperor. The Grand Duke and Duchess accompanied him as far as Strasburg. On his arrival in that city he received despatches which again excited his displeasure against the Faubourg St. Germain. We proceeded to Fontainebleau; no preparations had been made for the Emperor's reception; there was not even a guard on duty."

This was on October 26th, at 10 A.M. Meneval asserts that Napoleon's subsequent bad temper was feigned. In any case, the meeting--that moment so impatiently awaited--was a very bad _quart d'heure_ for Josephine, accentuated doubtless by Fouche's report of bad conduct on the part of the ladies of St. Germain.

FOOTNOTES

[70] This Archduke was the "international man" at this juncture. Louis
Bonaparte speaks of a society at Saragossa, of which the object
was to make the Archduke Charles king of Spain.

[71] These Adelphes or Philadelphes were the socialists or educated
anarchists of that day. They wished for the _statu quo_ before
Napoleon became supreme ruler. They had members in his army,
and it seems quite probable that Bernadotte gave them passive
support. General Oudet was their recognised head, and he died
under suspicious circumstances after Wagram. The society was,
unlike the Carbonari, anti-Catholic.

[72] Pelet, vol. i. 127.

[73] Pelet, vol. i. 282.

[74] "Gaily asking his staff to breakfast with him" (Pelet).

[75] Lejeune says "some hours afterwards."

[76] Eugene's.

[77] "What a loss for France and for me," groaned Napoleon, as he left
his dead friend.

SERIES M

No. 1.

According to the _Correspondence of Napoleon I._, No. 16,058, the date of this letter is December 17th. It seems, however, possible that it is the letter written immediately after his arrival at Trianon, referred to by Meneval, who was, in fact, responsible for it. Thiers, working from unpublished memoirs of Hortense and Cambaceres, gives a most interesting account of the family council, held at 9 P.M. on Friday, December 15th, at the Tuileries. Constant also describes the scene, but gives the Empress credit for showing the most self-command of those chiefly interested. The next day, 11 A.M., Count Lacepede introduced the resolutions of the family council to the Senatus-Consultus.[78] "It is to-day that, more than ever before, the Emperor has proved that he wishes to reign only to serve his subjects, and that the Empress has merited that posterity should associate her name with that of Napoleon." He pointed out that thirteen of Napoleon's predecessors had broken the bonds of matrimony in order to fulfil better those of sovereign, and that among these were the most admired and beloved of French monarchs--Charlemagne, Philip Augustus, Louis XII. and Henry IV. This speech and the Decrees (carried by 76 votes to 7) are found in the _Moniteur_ of December 17th, which Napoleon considers sufficiently authentic to send to his brother Joseph as a full account of what occurred, and with no further comment of his own but that it was the step which he thought it his duty to take. The Decrees of the Committee of the Senate were:--"(1) The marriage contracted between the Emperor Napoleon and the Empress Josephine is dissolved. (2) The Empress Josephine will retain the titles and rank of a crowned Empress-Queen.[79] (3) Her jointure is fixed at an annual revenue of L80,000 from the public treasury.[80] (4) Every provision which may be made by the Emperor in favour of the Empress Josephine, out of the funds of the Civil List, shall be obligatory on his successors." They added separate addresses to the Emperor and Empress, and that to the latter seems worthy of quotation:--"Your Imperial and Royal Majesty is about to make for France the greatest of sacrifices; history will preserve the memory of it for ever. The august spouse of the greatest of monarchs cannot be united to his immortal glory by more heroic devotion. For long, Madame, the French people has revered your virtues; it holds dear that loving kindness which inspires your every word, as it directs your every action; it will admire your sublime devotion; it will award for ever to your Majesty, Empress and Queen, the homage of gratitude, respect, and love."

From a letter of Eugene's to his wife, quoted by Aubenas, it appears that he, with his mother, arrived at Malmaison on Saturday evening,[81] December 16th, and that it never ceased raining all the next day, which added to the general depression, in spite of, or because of, Eugene's bad puns. On the evening of the 16th Napoleon was at Trianon, writing letters, and we cannot think that if the Emperor had been to Malmaison on the Sunday,[82] Eugene would have included this without comment in the "some visits" they had received. The Emperor, as we see from the next letter, paid Josephine a visit on the Monday.

No. 2.

The date of this is Tuesday, December 19th, while No. 3 is Wednesday the 20th.

_Savary_, always unpopular with the Court ladies, has now nothing but kind words for Josephine. "She quitted the Court, but the Court did not quit her; it had always loved her, for never had any one been so kind.... She never injured any one in the time of her power; she protected even her enemies"--such as Fouche at this juncture, and Lucien earlier. "During her stay at Malmaison, the highroad from Paris to this chateau was only one long procession, in spite of the bad weather; every one considered it a duty to present themselves at least once a week." Later, Marie Louise became jealous of this, and poor Josephine had to go to the chateau of Navarre, and finally to leave France.

_Queen of Naples._--For some reason Napoleon had not wanted this sister at Paris this winter, and had written her to this effect from Schoenbrunn on October 15th. "If you were not so far off, and the season so advanced, I would have asked Murat to spend two months in Paris. But you cannot be there before December, which is a horrible season, especially for a Neapolitan."[83] But sister Caroline, "with the head of a Cromwell on the shoulders of a pretty woman," was not easy to lead; and her husband had in consequence to bear the full weight of the Emperor's displeasure. Murat's finances were in disorder, and Napoleon wrote Champagny on December 30th to tell Murat plainly that if the borrowed money was not returned to France, it would be taken by main force.[84]

_The hunt._--In pouring rain, in the forest of St. Germain.

No. 4.

Thursday, December 21st, is the date.

_The weather is very damp._--Making Malmaison as unhealthy as its very name warranted, and rendering more difficult the task which Madame de Remusat had set herself of resting Josephine mentally by tiring her physically. This typical toady--Napoleon's Eavesdropper Extraordinary--had arrived at Malmaison on December 18th. She writes on the Friday (December 22nd), beseeching her husband to advise the Emperor to moderate the tone of his letters, especially this one (Thursday, December 21st), which had upset Josephine frightfully. Surely a more harmless letter was never penned. But it is the Remusat all over; she lives in a chronic atmosphere of suspicion that all her letters are read by the Emperor, and therefore, like Stevenson's nursery rhymes, they are always written with "one eye on the grown-up person"[85]--on the grown-up person _par excellence_ of France and the century. The opening of letters by the government was doubtless a blemish, which, however, Napoleon tried to neutralise by entrusting the Post Office to his wife's relative, Lavalette, a man whose ever-kind heart prevented this necessary espionage degenerating into unnecessary interference with individual rights.

No. 5.

Date probably Sunday, December 24th.

_King of Bavaria._--Eugene had gone to Meaux to meet his father-in-law, who had put off the "dog's humour" which he had shown since the 16th.

No. 6.

Josephine had gone by special invitation to dine at the little Trianon with Napoleon on Christmas Day, and Madame d'Avrillon says she had a very happy day there. "On her return she told me how kind the Emperor had been to her, that he had kept her all the evening, saying the kindest things to her." Aubenas says, "The repast was eaten in silence and gloom," but does not give his authority. Eugene, moreover, confirms Madame d'Avrillon in his letter to his wife of December 26th: "My dear Auguste, the Emperor came on Sunday to see the Empress. Yesterday she went to Trianon to see him, and stayed to dinner. The Emperor was very kind and amiable to her, and she seemed to be much better. Everything points to the Empress being more happy in her new position, and we also." On this Christmas Day Napoleon had his last meal with Josephine.

No. 7.

_Tuileries._--His return from Trianon to this, his official residence, made the divorce more apparent to every one.

No. 8.

_A house vacant in Paris._--This seems a hint for Josephine. She wishes to come to Paris, to the Elysee, and to try a little diplomacy of her own in favour of the Austrian match, and she sends secretly to Madame de Metternich--whose husband was absent. Eugene more officially is approaching Prince Schwartzenberg, the ambassador. Josephine, like Talleyrand, wished to heal the schism with Rome by an Austrian alliance; while Cambaceres, foreseeing a war with the power not allied by marriage, would have preferred the Russian match.

No. 9.

Thursday, January 4th.

_Hortense._--Louis had tried to obtain a divorce. Cambaceres was ordered on December 22nd to summon a family council (_New Letters of Napoleon I._, No. 234); but the wish of the King was refused (verbally, says Louis in his _Historical Documents of Holland_), whereupon he refused to agree to Josephine's divorce, but had to give way, and was present at what he calls the farewell festival given by the city of Paris to the Empress Josephine on January 1st. The ecclesiastical divorce was pronounced on January 12th.

No. 10.

January 5th. He duly visits Josephine the next day.

No. 11.

January 7th is the date.

_What charms your society has._--Her repertoire of small talk and scandal. He had also lost in her his Agenda, his Journal of Paris. Still the visits are growing rarer. This long kind letter was doubtless intended to be specially so, for two days later the clergy of Paris pronounced the annulment of her marriage. This was far worse than the pronouncement by the Senate in December, as it meant to her that she and Napoleon had never been properly married at all. The Emperor, who hated divorces, and especially _divorcees_, had found great difficulty in breaking down the barriers he had helped to build, for which purpose _he_ had to be subordinated to his own Senate, _the Pope_ to his own bishops. Seven of them allowed the annulment of the marriage of 1804 on account of (1) its secrecy, (2) the insufficiency of consent of the contracting parties, and (3) the absence of the local parish priest at the ceremony. The last reason was merely a technical one; but with respect to the first two it is only fair to admit that Napoleon had undoubtedly, and perhaps for the only time in his life, been completely "rushed," _i.e._ by the Pope and Josephine. The coronation ceremony was waiting, and the Pope, secretly solicited by Josephine, insisted on a religious marriage first and foremost. The Pope suffered forthwith, but the other bill of costs was not exacted till five years after date.

No. 12.

Wednesday, January 12th.

_King of Westphalia._--Madame Durand (_Napoleon and Marie Louise_) says that, forced to abandon his wife (the beautiful and energetic Miss Paterson) and child, Jerome "had vowed he would never have any relations with a wife who had been thus forced upon him." For three years he lavished his attentions upon almost all the beauties of the Westphalian court. The queen, an eye-witness of this conduct, bore it with mild and forbearing dignity; she seemed to see and hear nothing; in short, her demeanour was perfect. The king, touched by her goodness, weary of his conquests, and repentant of his behaviour, was only anxious for an opportunity of altering the state of things. Happily the propitious moment presented itself. The right wing of the palace of Cassel, in which the queen's apartments were situated, took fire; alarmed by the screams of her women the queen awoke and sprang out of her bed, to be caught in the arms of the king and carried to a place of safety. From that time forth the royal couple were united and happy.

No. 13.

Saturday, January 13th.

_Sensible._--This was now possible after a month's mourning. In the early days, according to Madame Remusat, her mind often wandered, But Napoleon himself encouraged the Court to visit her, and the road to Malmaison was soon a crowded one. As the days passed, however, life became sadly monotonous. Reading palled on Josephine, as did whist and the daily feeding of her golden pheasants and guinea-fowls. Remained "Patience"! Was it the "General" she played or the "Emperor," or did she find distraction in the "Demon"?

No. 14.

_D'Audenarde._--Napoleon's handsome equerry, whom Mlle. d'Avrillon calls "un homme superbe." His mother was Josephine's favourite _dame du palais_. Madame Lalaing, Viscountess d'Audenarde, _nee_ Peyrac, was one of the old regime who had been ruined by the Revolution.

No. 16.

Tuesday, January 23rd.

On January 21st a Privy Council was summoned to approve of Marie Louise as their "choice of a consort, who may give an heir to the throne" (Thiers). Cambaceres, Fouche, and Murat wished for the Russian princess; Lebrun, Cardinal Fesch, and King Louis for a Saxon one; but Talleyrand, Champagny, Maret, Berthier, Fontanes were for Austria.

No. 17.

Sunday, January 28th.

No. 18.

Josephine had heard she was to be banished from Paris, and so had asked to come to the Elysee to prove the truth or otherwise of the rumour.

_L'Elysee._--St. Amand gives the following interesting _precis_: "Built by the Count d'Evreux in 1718, it had belonged in succession to the Marchioness de Pompadour, to the financier Beaujon, a Croesus of the eighteenth century, and to the Duchesse de Bourbon. Having, under the Revolution, become national property, it had been hired by the caterers of public entertainments, who gave it the name of L'Elysee. In 1803 it became the property of Murat, who, becoming King of Naples, ceded it to Napoleon in 1808. Here Napoleon signed his second abdication, here resided Alexander I. in 1815, and here Josephine's grandson effected the _Coup d'Etat_ (1851). When the Senatus-Consultus fixed the revenue of Josephine, Napoleon not only gave her whatever rights he had in Malmaison, viz., at least 90 per cent. of the total cost, but the palace of the Elysee, its gardens and dependencies, with the furniture then in use." The latter residence was, however, for her life only.

No. 19.

February 3rd is the date.

_L'Elysee._--After the first receptions the place is far worse than Malmaison. Schwartzenberg, Talleyrand, the Princess Pauline, Berthier, even her old friend Cambaceres are giving balls,[86] while the Emperor goes nearly every night to a theatre. The carriages pass by the Elysee, but do not stop. "It is as if the palace were in quarantine, with the yellow flag floating."

No. 20.

_Bessieres' country-house._--M. Masson says Grignon, but unless this house is called after the chateau of that name in Provence, he must be mistaken.

No. 21.

_Rambouillet._--He had taken the Court with him, and was there from February 19th to the 23rd, the date of this letter. While there he had been in the best of humours. On his return he finds it necessary to write his future wife and to her father--and to pen a legible letter to the latter gives him far more trouble than winning a battle against the Austrians, if not assisted by General Danube.

_Adieu._--Sick and weary, Josephine returns to Malmaison, Friday, March 9th, and even this is not long to be hers, for the new Empress is almost already on her way. The marriage at Vienna took place on March 11th, with her uncle Charles,[87] the hero of Essling, for Napoleon's proxy; on the 13th she leaves Vienna, and on the 23rd reaches Strasbourg. On the 27th she meets Napoleon at Compiegne, spends three days with him in the chateau there, and arrives at St. Cloud on April 1st, where the civil marriage is renewed, followed by the triumphal entry into Paris, and the religious ceremony on April 2nd. This day Josephine reaches the chateau of Navarre.

FOOTNOTES

[78] By here subordinating himself to the Senate, the Emperor was
preparing a rod for his own back hereafter.

[79] This clause gives considerable trouble to Lacepede and Regnauld.
They cannot even find a precedent whether, if they met,
Josephine or Marie Louise would take precedence of the other.

[80] In addition to this, Napoleon gives her L40,000 a year from his
privy purse, but keeps most of it back for the first two years
to pay her 120 creditors. (For interesting details see Masson,
_Josephine Repudiee_.)

[81] Which agrees with Madame d'Avrillon, who says they left the
Tuileries at 2.30. Meneval says Napoleon left for Trianon a few
hours later. Savary writes erroneously that they left the
following morning.

[82] M. Masson seems to indicate a visit on December 16th, but does
not give his authority (_Josephine Repudiee_, 114).

[83] _Correspondence of Napoleon I._, No. 15,952.

[84] _New Letters of Napoleon_, 1898.

[85] Canon Ainger's comparison.

[86] See Baron Lejeune for an interesting account of a chess quadrille
at a dance given by the Italian Minister, Marescalchi.

SERIES N

_Navarre_, on the site of an old dwelling of Rollo the Sea-King, was built by Jeanne of France, Queen of Navarre, Countess of Evreux. At the time of the Revolution it belonged to the Dukes of Bouillon, and was confiscated. In February 1810, Napoleon determined to purchase it, and on March 10th instructed his secretary of state, Maret, to confer the Duchy of Navarre, purchased by letters patent, on Josephine and her heirs male. The old square building was, however, utterly unfit to be inhabited: not a window would shut, there was neither paper nor tapestry, all the wainscoting was rotten, draughts and damp everywhere, and no heating apparatus.[88] What solace to know its beautiful situation, its capabilities? No wonder if her household, banished to such a place, sixty-five miles from the "capital of capitals," should rebel, and secessions headed by Madame Ney become for a time general. Whist and piquet soon grow stale in such a house and with such surroundings, and even _trictrac_ with the old bishop of Evreux becomes tedious. Eugene as usual brings sunshine in his path, and helps to dispel the gloom caused by the idle gossip imported from Paris--that Josephine is not to return to Malmaison, and the like.

No. 1.

This was Josephine's second letter, says D'Avrillon, the first being answered _viva voce_ by Eugene.

_To Malmaison._--Napoleon had promised Josephine permission to return to Malmaison, and would not recant: his new wife was, however, very jealous of Josephine, and very much hurt at her presence at Malmaison. Napoleon managed to be away from Paris for six weeks after Josephine's arrival at Malmaison.

No. 1A.

_It is written in a bad style._--M. Masson, however, is loud in its praises, and adds, "Voila donc le protocol du tutoiement" re-established between them in spite of the second marriage, and their correspondence re-established on the old terms.

No. 2.

This letter seems to have been taken by Eugene to Paris, and thence forwarded to the Emperor with a letter from that Prince in which he enumerates Josephine's suggestions and wishes--(1) that she will not go to Aix-la-Chapelle if other waters are suggested by Corvisart; (2) that after stopping a few days at Malmaison she will go in June for three months to the baths, and afterwards to the south of France; visit Rome, Florence, and Naples incognito, spend the winter at Milan, and return to Malmaison and Navarre in the spring of 1811; (3) that in her absence Navarre shall be made habitable, for which fresh funds are required; (4) that Josephine wishes her cousins the Taschers to marry, one a relative of King Joseph, the other the Princess Amelie de la Leyen, niece of the Prince Primate. To this Napoleon replies from Compiegne, April 26th, that the De Leyen match with Louis Tascher may take place,[89] but that he will not interest himself in the other (Henry) Tascher, who is giddy-headed and bad-tempered. "I consent to whatever the Empress does, but I will not confer any mark of my regard on a person who has behaved ill to me. I am very glad that the Empress likes Navarre. I am giving orders to have L12,000 which I owe her for 1810, and L12,000 for 1811 advanced to her. She will then have only the L80,000 from the public treasury to come in.... She is free to go to whatever spa she cares for, and even to return to Paris afterwards." He thinks, however, she would be happier in new scenes which they had never visited together, as they had Aix-la-Chapelle. If, however, the last are the best she may go to them, for "what I desire above all is that she may keep calm, and not allow herself to be excited by the gossip of Paris." This letter goes far to soothe the poor chatelaine of Navarre.

No. 2A.

_Two letters._--The other, now missing, may have some reference to the pictures to which he refers in his letter to Fouche the next day. "Is it true that engravings are being published with the title of _Josephine Beauharnais nee La Pagerie_? If this is true, have the prints seized, and let the engravers be punished" (_New Letters_, No. 253).

No. 3.

Probably written from Boulogne about the 25th. His northern tour with Marie Louise had been very similar to one taken in 1804, but his _entourage_ found the new bride very cold and callous compared to Josephine. Leaving Paris on April 29th Napoleon's _Correspondence_ till June is dated Laeken (April 30th); Antwerp (May 3rd); Bois-le-Duc; Middleburg, Gand, Bruges, Ostend (May 20th); Lille, Boulogne, Dieppe, Le Havre, Rouen (May 31st). He takes the Empress in a canal barge from Brussels to Malines and himself descends the subterranean vault of the Escaut-Oise canal, between St. Quentin and Cambrai. He is at St. Cloud on June 2nd.

Josephine has felt his wanderings less, as she has the future Emperor, her favourite grandson, with her, the little Oui-Oui, as she calls him, and for whom the damp spring weather of Holland was dangerous. She was also at Malmaison from the middle of May to June 18th. The original collection of _Letters_ (Didot Freres, 1833) heads the letter correctly to the Empress Josephine at _Malmaison_, but the _Correspondence_, published by order of Napoleon III., gives it erroneously, to the Empress Josephine, _at the Chateau of Navarre_ (No. 16,537).

_I will come to see you._--He comes for two hours on June 13th, and makes himself thoroughly agreeable. Poor Josephine is light-headed with joy all the evening after. The meeting of the two Empresses is, however, indefinitely postponed, and Josephine had now no further reason to delay her departure. Leaving her little grandson Louis behind, she travels under the name of the Countess d'Arberg, and she is accompanied by Madame d'Audenarde and Mlle. de Mackau, who left the Princess Stephanie to come to Navarre. M. Masson notes that Madame de Remusat needs the Aix waters, and will rejoin Josephine (within a week), under pretext of service, and thus obtain her cure gratuitously. They go _via_ Lyons and Geneva to Aix-les-Bains. M. Masson, who has recently made a careful and complete study of this period, describes the daily round. "Josephine, on getting out of bed, takes conscientiously her baths and douches, then, as usual, lies down again until _dejeuner_, 11 A.M., for which the whole of the little Court are assembled at _The Palace_--wherever she lives, and however squalid the dwelling-place, her abode always bears this name. Afterwards she and her women-folk ply their interminable tapestry, while the latest novel or play (sent by Barbier from Paris) is read aloud. And so the day passes till five, when they dress for dinner at six; after dinner a ride. At nine the Empress's friends assemble in her room, Mlle. de Mackau sings; at eleven every one goes to bed." This programme, however, varies with the weather. Here is St. Amand's version (_Dernieres Annees de l'Imperatrice Josephine_, p. 237): "A little reading in the morning, an airing (_le promenade_) afterwards, dinner at eight on account of the heat, games afterwards, and some little music; so passed existence."

No. 4.

_July 8th._--On July 5th, driving along the Chambery road, Josephine met the courier with a letter from Eugene describing the terrible fire at Prince Schwartzenberg's ball, where the Princess de la Leyen, mother of young Taschre's bride-elect, was burnt. It is noteworthy that the Emperor makes no allusion to the conflagration. As, however, this is the first letter since the end of May, others may have been lost or destroyed.

_You will have seen Eugene_--_i.e._ on his way to Milan, who arrived at Aix on July 10th. He had just been made heir to the Grand Duchy of Frankfort--a broad hint to him and to Europe that Italy would be eventually united to France under Napoleon's dynasty. This was the nadir of the Beauharnais family--Josephine _repudiee_, Hortense unqueened and unwed,[90] and Eugene's expectations dissipated, and all within a few short months. Eugene had left his wife ill at Geneva, whither Josephine goes to visit her the next day, duly reporting her visit to Napoleon in her letter of July 14th (see No. 5). Geneva was always the home of the disaffected, and so the Empress had to be specially tactful, and the De Remusat reports: "She speaks of the Emperor as of a brother, of the new Empress as the one who will give children to France, and if the rumours of the latter's condition be correct, I am certain she will be delighted about it."

_That unfortunate daughter is coming to France_--_i.e._ to reside when she is not at St. Leu (given to her by Napoleon) or at the waters. On the present occasion she has been at Plombieres a month or more. On July 10th Napoleon instructs the Countess de Boubers to bring the Grand Duke of Berg to Paris, "whom he awaits with impatience" (_Brotonne_, 625).

No. 5.

_The conduct of the King of Holland has worried me._--This was in March, and by May the crisis was still more acute and Napoleon's patience exhausted. On May 20th he writes: "Before all things be a Frenchman and the Emperor's brother, and then you may be sure you are in the path of the true interests of Holland. Good sense and policy are necessary to the government of states, not sour unhealthy bile." And three days later: "Write me no more of your customary twaddle; three years now it has been going on, and every instant proves its falsehood! This is the last letter I shall ever write you in my life."

Louis at one time determined on war, and rather than surrender Amsterdam, to cut the dykes. The Emperor hears of this, summons his brother, and practically imprisons him until he countermands the defence of Amsterdam.

On July 1st Louis abdicated and fled to Toeplitz in Bohemia. Napoleon is terribly grieved at the conduct of his brother, who would never realise that the effective Continental blockade was Napoleon's last sheet-anchor to force peace upon England.

No. 6.

_To die in a lake_--_i.e._ the Lake of Bourget, shut in by the Dent du Chat, where a white squall had nearly capsized the sailing boat. Josephine had been on July 26th to visit the abbey Haute-Combe, place of sepulture of the Princes of Savoy, and the storm had overtaken her on the return voyage.

No. 8.

_Paris, this Friday._--A very valuable note of M. Masson (_Josephine Repudiee_, 198) enables us to fix this letter at its correct date. He says: "It has to do with the exile of Madame de la T---- (viz., the Princess Louis de la Tremoille), which takes place on September 28th, 1810, and this 28th September is also a Friday: there is also the question of Mlle. de Mackau being made a baroness" (and this lady had not joined the Court of Josephine till May 1810); "lastly, the B---- mentioned therein can only be Barante, the Prefect, whose dismissal (from Geneva) almost coincides with this letter." It may be added that the La Tremoille family was one of the oldest in France, allied with the Condes, and consequently with the Bourbons. Barante's fault had been connivance at the letters and conduct of Madame de Stael.

No. 9.

_The only suitable places ... are either Milan or Navarre._--Milan had been her own suggestion conveyed by Eugene, but Napoleon, two months later, had told her she could spend the winter in France, and in spite of danger signals ("inspired by diplomacy rather than devotion" [91]) from Madame de Remusat (in her fulsome and tedious "despatch" sent from Paris in September, and probably inspired by the Emperor himself) she manages to get to Navarre, and even to spend the first fortnight of November at Malmaison. Before leaving Switzerland Josephine refuses to risk an interview with Madame de Stael. "In the first book she publishes she will not fail to report our conversation, and heaven knows how many things she will make me say that I have never even thought of."

No. 10.

In spite of the heading Josephine was at Malmaison on this day, and Napoleon writes Cambaceres: "My cousin, the Empress Josephine not leaving for Navarre till Monday or Tuesday, I wish you to pay her a visit. You will let me know on your return how you find her" (_Brotonne_,721). The real reason is to hasten her departure, and she gets to Navarre November 22nd (Thursday).

_The Empress progresses satisfactorily._--Napoleon writes to this effect to her father, the Emperor of Austria, on the same day: "The Empress is very well.... It is impossible that the wife for whom I am indebted to you should be more perfect. Moreover, I beg your Majesty to rest assured that she and I are equally attached to you."

FOOTNOTES

[87] On this occasion Baron Lejeune sees the Archduke Charles, and
remarks: "There was nothing in his quiet face with its grave
and gentle expression, or in his simple, modest, unassuming
manner, to denote the mighty man of war; but no one who met his
eyes could doubt him to be a genius."

[88] "This gloomy and forsaken chateau," says St. Amand, "whose only
attraction was the half-forgotten memory of its vanished
splendours, was a fit image of the woman who came to seek
sanctuary there."

[89] He endows the husband with L4000 a year, and the title of Count
Tascher.

[90] "Une epouse sans epoux, et une reine sans royaume"--St. Amand.

[91] Aubenas.

SERIES O

No. 1.

_The New Year._--On this occasion, instead of her usual gifts (_etrennes_) she organised a lottery of jewels, of which Madame Ducrest gives a full account. Needless to say, Josephine worked the oracle so that every one got a suitable gift--including the old Bishop (see next note).

_More women than men._--The Bishop of Evreux (Mgr. Bourlier) was the most welcome guest. He amused Josephine, and although eighty years of age, could play _trictrac_ and talk well on any subject. Madame de Remusat wrote her husband concerning him, "We understand each other very well, he and I."

_Keep well._--At Navarre Josephine lost her headaches, and put on flesh.

No. 2.

There is a full account of the birth of the King of Rome in Napoleon's letter to the Emperor of Austria on March 20 (No. 17,496). The letter of this date to Josephine is missing, but is referred to by D'Avrillon. It began, "My dear Josephine, I have a son. I am _au comble de bonheur_."

_Eugene._--Josephine much appreciated this allusion. "Is it possible," she said, "for any one to be kinder than the Emperor, and more anxious to mitigate whatever might be painful for me at the present moment, if I loved him less sincerely? This association of my son with his own is well worthy of him who, when he likes, is the most fascinating of all men." She gave a costly ring to the page who brought the letter.

On the previous day Eugene had arrived at Navarre,--sent by the Emperor. "You are going to see your mother, Eugene; tell her I am sure that she will rejoice more than any one at my happiness. I should have already written to her if I had not been absorbed by the pleasure of watching my boy. The moments I snatch from his side are only for matters of urgent necessity. This event, I shall acquit myself of the most pleasant of them all by writing to Josephine."

No. 4.

Written in November 1811.

_As fat as a good Normandy farmeress._--Madame d'Abrantes, who saw her about this time, writes: "I observed that Josephine had grown very stout[92] since the time of my departure for Spain. This change was at once for the better and the worse. It imparted a more youthful appearance to her face; but her slender and elegant figure, which had been one of her principal attractions, had entirely disappeared. She had now decided _embonpoint_, and her figure had assumed that matronly air which we find in the statues of Agrippina, Cornelia, &c. Still, however, she looked uncommonly well, and she wore a dress which became her admirably. Her judicious taste in these matters contributed to make her appear young much longer than she otherwise would. The best proof of the admirable taste of Josephine is the marked absence of elegance shown by Marie Louise, though both Empresses employed the same milliners and dressmakers, and Marie Louise had a large sum allotted for the expenses of her toilet."

St. Amand says that 1811 was for Josephine a happy year, compared to those which followed.

SERIES P

No. 1.

Written from Konigsberg (M. Masson, in _Josephine Repudiee_, says Dantzig; but on June 11th Napoleon writes to Eugene, "I shall be at Konigsberg to-morrow," where his correspondence is dated from henceforward). A day or two later he writes the King of Rome's governess that he trusts to hear soon that the fifteen months old child has cut his first four teeth.

No. 2.

_Gumbinnen, June 20th._--From this place and on this date goes forth the first bulletin of the _Grande Armee_. It gives a _resume_ of the causes of the war, dating from the end of 1810, when English influence again gained ascendency.

On July 29th he writes Hortense from Witepsk to congratulate her on her eldest son's recovery from an illness. A week later he writes his librarian for some amusing novels--new ones for choice, or old ones that he has not read--or good memoirs.

Josephine meanwhile has permission to go to Italy. Owing to her grandson's illness she defers starting till July 16th. Through frightful weather she reaches Milan _via_ Geneva on July 28th, and has a splendid reception. On the 29th she writes to Hortense: "I have found the three letters from Eugene, the last one dated the 13th; his health is excellent. He still pursues the Russians, without being able to overtake them. It is generally hoped the campaign may be a short one. May that hope be realised!" Two days later she announces the birth of Eugene's daughter Amelia, afterwards Empress of Brazil. Towards the end of August Josephine goes to Aix and meets the Queen of Spain with her sister Desiree Bernadotte, the former "kind and amiable as usual," the latter "very gracious to me"--rather a new experience. From Aix she goes to Pregny-la-Tour, on the Lake of Geneva, and shocks the good people in various ways, says M. Masson, especially by innuendoes against Napoleon; and he adds, "if one traces back to their source the worst calumnies against the morals of the Emperor, it is Josephine that one encounters there." She gets to Malmaison October 24th. Soon after his return from Moscow Napoleon pays her a visit, and about this time she begins to see the King of Rome, whose mother has always thought more of her daily music and drawing lessons than of whether she was making her son happy or not.

1812 closed in gloom, but 1813 was in itself terribly ominous to so superstitious a woman as Josephine. Thirteen is always unlucky, and moreover the numbers of 1813 add up to 13; also the doom-dealing year began on a Friday. Every one felt the hour approaching. As Napoleon said at St. Helena: "The star grew pale; I felt the reins slipping from my hand, and I could do no more. A thunderbolt could alone have saved us, and every day, by some new fatality or other, our chances diminished. Sinister designs began to creep in among us; fatigue and discouragement had won over the majority; my lieutenants became lax, clumsy, careless, and consequently unfortunate; they were no longer the men of the commencement of the Revolution, nor even of the time of my good fortune. The chief generals were sick of the war; I had gorged them too much with my high esteem, with too many honours and too much wealth. They had drunk from the cup of pleasure, and wished to enjoy peace at any price. _The sacred fire was quenched._"

Up to August Fortune had smiled again upon her favourite. With conscripts for infantry and without cavalry he had won Lutzen, Bautzen, and Dresden; and even so late as September Byron was writing that "bar epilepsy and the elements he would back Napoleon against the field." But treachery and incompetence had undermined the Empire, and Leipsic (that battle of giants, where 110,000 soldiers were killed and wounded) made final success hopeless. In 1814 his brothers Lucien and Louis rallied to him, and Hortense was for the only time proud of her husband. She thinks if he had shown less suspicion and she less pride they might have been happy after all. "My husband is a good Frenchman ... he is an honest man." Meanwhile, Talleyrand is watching to guide the _coup de grace_. Napoleon makes a dash for Lorraine to gather his garrisons and cut off the enemy's supplies. The Allies hesitate and are about to follow him, as per the rules of war. Talleyrand, the only man who could ever divine Napoleon, sends them the message, "You can do everything, and you dare nothing; dare therefore _once_!" Hortense is the only _man_ left in Paris, and in vain she tries to keep Marie Louise, whose presence would have stimulated the Parisians to hold the Allies at bay. It is in vain. Unlike Prussia or Austria who fought for months, or Spain who fought for years, after their capitals were taken:--

"Like Nineveh, Carthage, Babylon and Rome,
France yields to the conqueror, vanquished at home."

After Marmont's betrayal Napoleon attempts suicide, and when he believes death imminent sends a last message to Josephine by Caulaincourt, "You will tell Josephine that my thoughts were of her before life departed."

It was on Monday, May 23rd, that Josephine's illness commenced, after receiving at dinner the King of Prussia and his sons (one afterwards Wilhelm der Greise, first Emperor of Germany). Whether the sore throat which killed her was a quinsy or diphtheria[93] is difficult to prove, but the latter seems the more probable. Corvisart, who was himself ill and unable to attend, told Napoleon that she died of grief and worry. Before leaving for the Waterloo campaign Napoleon visited Malmaison, and there, as Lord Rosebery reminds us, allowed his only oblique reproach to Marie Louise to escape him: "Poor Josephine. Her death, of which the news took me by surprise at Elba, was one of the most acute griefs of that fatal year, 1814. She had her failings, of course; _but she, at any rate, would never have abandoned me_."

FOOTNOTES

[92] Mlle. d'Avrillon says that during the Swiss voyage Josephine
found it desirable, for the first time, to "wear whalebone in
her corsets."

[93] The same question may be asked respecting the death of
Montaigne.

APPENDIX (1)

A REPUTED POEM BY NAPOLEON I.

LE CHIEN, LE LAPIN, ET LE CHASSEUR.

FABLE.--_Composee a l'age de 13 ans, par_ NAPOLEON I.

Cesar, chien d'arret renomme,
Mais trop enfle de son merite,
Tennait arrete dans son gite
Un malheureux lapin de peur inanime.
"Rends-toi!" lui cria-t-il, d'une voix de tonerre
Qui fit au loin trembler les peuplades des bois.
"Je suis Cesar, connu par ses exploits,
Et dont le nom remplit toute la terre."
A ce grand nom, Jeannot Lapin,
Recommandant a Dieu son ame penitente,
Demande d'une voix tremblante:
"Tres-serenissime matin,
Si je me rends quel sera mon destin?"
"Tu mourras." "Je mourrai!" dit la bete innocente.
"Et si je fuis?" "Ton trepas est certain."
"Quoi!" reprit l'animal qui se nourrit de thym,
"Des deux cotes je dois perdre la vie!
Que votre auguste seigneurie
Veuille me pardonner, puisqu'il me faut mourir,
Si j'ose tenter de m'enfuir."
Il dit, et fuit en heros de garenne.
Caton l'aurait blame; je dis qu'il n'eut pas tort.
Car le chasseur le voit a peine
Qu'il l'ajuste, le tire--et le chien tombe mort
Que dirait de ceci notre bon La Fontaine?
Aide-toi, le ciel t'aidera.
I'approuve fort cette methode-la.

APPENDIX (2)

GENEALOGY OF THE BONAPARTE FAMILY

Many more or less fictitious genealogies of the Bonapartes have been published, some going back to mythical times. The first reliable record, however, seems to be that of a certain Bonaparte of Sarzana, in Northern Italy, an imperial notary, who was living towards the end of the thirteenth century, and from whom both the Corsican and the Trevisan or Florentine Bonapartes claim their origin. From him in direct line was descended Francois de Sarzana, who was sent to Corsica in 1509 to fight for the Republic of Genoa. His son Gabriel, having sold his patrimony in Italy, settled in Ajaccio, where he bore the honourable title of Messire, and where, being left a widower, he assumed the tonsure and died Canon of the cathedral.

From him an unbroken line of Bonapartes, all of whom in turn were elected to the dignity of Elder of Ajaccio, brings us to Charles Bonaparte Napoleon, father of the Emperor.

APPENDIX (3)

REPUTED LETTERS OF NAPOLEON TO JOSEPHINE. TAKEN FROM THE MEMOIRS
OF MADAME DUCREST.

The author asked the advice of Monsieur Frederic Masson about these Letters, to which he at once received the courteous reply, "Il faut absolument rejeter les Lettres publiees par Regnault Varin[94] et reproduites par Georgette Ducrest; pas une n'est authentique." No one who has read much of Napoleon's correspondence can in fact believe for a moment in their authenticity. They are interesting, however, as showing the sort of stuff which went to form our grandfathers' fallacies about the relations of Napoleon and Josephine. Madame Ducrest occasionally played and sang for Josephine after the divorce. Her father was a nephew of Madame de Genlis. Madame Ducrest married a musical composer, M. Bochsa, the then celebrated author of _Dansomanie_ and _Noces de Gamache_. He afterwards deserted her, and her voice having completely failed, she was compelled to write her Memoirs to earn sustenance thereby. Of these Memoirs M. Masson has said,[95] that "in the midst of apocryphal documents, uncontroverted anecdotes, impossible situations, are yet to be found some first-hand personal observations."

No. 1.--1796.

FROM GENERAL BONAPARTE TO HIS WIFE.

My first laurel, my love, must be for my country; my second shall be for you. While beating Alvinzi I thought of France; when I had defeated him I thought of you. Your son will present to you a standard which he received from Colonel Morbach, whom he made prisoner with his own hands. Our Eugene, you see, is worthy of his father; and I trust you do not think me an unworthy successor of the great and unfortunate general, under whom 1 should have been proud to learn to conquer. I embrace you.

BONAPARTE.

No. 2.--1804.

TO GENERAL BONAPARTE.