Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte — Complete
nothing was thought of but preparations for that great event, which had
been preceded by the recognition of Napoleon as Emperor of the French on
the part of all the States of Europe, with the exception of England.
On the conclusion of the Concordat Bonaparte said to me, "I shall let
the Republican generals exclaim as much as they like against the Mass. I
know what I am about; I am working for posterity." He was now gathering
the fruits of his Concordat. He ordered that the Pope should be
everywhere treated in his journey through the French territory with the
highest distinction, and he proceeded to Fontainebleau to receive his
Holiness. This afforded an opportunity for Bonaparte to re-establish
the example of those journeys of the old Court, during which changes
of ministers used formerly to be made. The Palace of Fontainebleau,
now become Imperial, like all the old royal chateaux, had been newly
furnished with a luxury and taste corresponding to the progress of
modern art. The Emperor was proceeding on the road to Nemours when
courtiers informed him of the approach of Pius VII. Bonaparte's object
was to avoid the ceremony which had been previously settled. He had
therefore made the pretext of going on a hunting-party, and was in
the way as it were by chance when the Pope's carriage was arriving. He
alighted from horseback, and the Pope came out of his carriage. Rapp was
with the Emperor, and I think I yet hear him describing, in his original
manner and with his German accent, this grand interview, upon which,
however, he for his part looked with very little respect. Rapp, in fact,
was among the number of those who, notwithstanding his attachment to
the Emperor, preserved independence of character, and he knew he had no
reason to dissemble with me. "Fancy to yourself," said he, "the amusing
comedy that was played." After the Emperor and the Pope had well
embraced they went into the same carriage; and, in order that they might
be upon a footing of equality, they were to enter at the same time by
opposite doors. All that was settled; but at breakfast the Emperor had
calculated how he should manage, without appearing to assume anything,
to get on the righthand side of the Pope, and everything turned out as
he wished. "As to the Pope," said Rapp, "I must own that I never saw a
man with a finer countenance or more respectable appearance than Pius
VII."
After the conference between the Pope and the Emperor at Fontainebleau,
Pius VII. set off for Paris first. On the road the same honours were
paid to him as to the Emperor. Apartments were prepared for him in the
Pavilion de Flore in the Tuileries, and his bedchamber was arranged
and furnished in the same manner as his chamber in the Palace of
Monte-Cavallo, his usual residence in Rome. The Pope's presence in
Paris was so extraordinary a circumstance that it was scarcely believed,
though it had some time before been talked of. What, indeed, could be
more singular than to see the Head of the Church in a capital where four
years previously the altars had been overturned, and the few faithful
who remained had been obliged to exercise their worship in secret!
The Pope became the object of public respect and general curiosity. I
was exceedingly anxious to see him, and my wish was gratified on the day
when he went to visit the Imperial printing office, then situated where
the Bank of France now is.
A pamphlet, dedicated to the Pope, containing the "Pater Noster," in one
hundred and fifty different languages, was struck off in the presence of
his Holiness. During this visit to the printing office an ill-bred young
man kept his hat on in the Pope's presence. Several persons, indignant
at this indecorum, advanced to take off the young man's hat. A little
confusion arose, and the Pope, observing the cause of it, stepped up to
the young man and said to him, in a tone of kindness truly patriarchal,
"Young man, uncover, that I may give thee my blessing. An old man's
blessing never yet harmed any one." This little incident deeply affected
all who witnessed it. The countenance and figure of Pope Pius VII.
commanded respect. David's admirable portrait is a living likeness of
him.
The Pope's arrival at Paris produced a great sensation in London,
greater indeed there than anywhere else, notwithstanding the separation
of the English Church from the Church of Rome. The English Ministry now
spared no endeavours to influence public opinion by the circulation
of libels against Bonaparte. The Cabinet of London found a twofold
advantage in encouraging this system, which not merely excited
irritation against the powerful enemy of England, but diverted from
the British Government the clamour which some of its measures were
calculated to create. Bonaparte's indignation against England was roused
to the utmost extreme, and in truth this indignation was in some degree
a national feeling in France.
Napoleon had heard of the success of Caffarelli's negotiations previous
to his return to Paris, after his journey to the Rhine. On arriving
at St. Cloud he lost no time in ordering the preparations for his
coronation. Everything aided the fulfilment of his wishes. On 28th
November the Pope arrived at Paris, and two days after, viz. on the 1st
of December, the Senate presented to the Emperor the votes of the people
for the establishment of hereditary succession in his family: for as
it was pretended that the assumption of the title of Emperor was no way
prejudicial to the Republic, the question of hereditary succession only
had been proposed for public sanction. Sixty thousand registers had been
opened in different parts of France,--at the offices of the ministers,
the prefects, the mayors of the communes, notaries, solicitors, etc.
France at that time contained 108 departments, and there were 3,574,898
voters. Of these only 2569 voted against hereditary succession.
Bonaparte ordered a list of the persons who had voted against the
question to be sent to him, and he often consulted it. They proved to be
not Royalist, but for the most part staunch Republicans. To my knowledge
many Royalists abstained from voting at all, not wishing to commit
themselves uselessly, and still less to give their suffrages to the
author of the Duc d'Enghien's death. For my part, I gave my vote in
favour of hereditary succession in Bonaparte's family; my situation, as
may well be imagined, did not allow me to do otherwise.
Since the month of October the Legislative Body had been convoked to
attend the Emperor's coronation. Many deputies arrived, and with them a
swarm of those presidents of cantons who occupied a conspicuous place
in the annals of ridicule at the close of the year 1804. They became the
objects of all sorts of witticisms and jests. The obligation of wearing
swords made their appearance very grotesque. As many droll, stories
were told of them as were ten years afterwards related of those who
were styled the voltigeurs of Louis XIV. One of these anecdotes was so
exceedingly ludicrous that, though it was probably a mere invention, yet
I cannot refrain from relating it. A certain number of these presidents
were one day selected to be presented to the Pope; and as most of them
were very poor they found it necessary to combine economy with the
etiquette necessary to be observed under the new order of things. To
save the expense of hiring carriages they therefore proceeded to the
Pavilion de Flore on foot, taking the precaution of putting on gaiters
to preserve their white silk stockings from the mud which covered the
streets, for it was then the month of December. On arriving at the
Tuileries one of the party put his gaiters into his pocket. It happened
that the Pope delivered such an affecting address that all present were
moved to tears, and the unfortunate president who had disposed of
his gaiters in the way just mentioned drew them out instead of his
handkerchief and smeared his face over with mud. The Pope is said
to have been much amused at this mistake. If this anecdote should be
thought too puerile to be repeated here, I may observe that it afforded
no small merriment to Bonaparte, who made Michot the actor relate it to
the Empress at Paris one evening after a Court performance.
Napoleon had now attained the avowed object of his ambition; but his
ambition receded before him like a boundless horizon. On the 1st of
December; the day on which the Senate presented to the Emperor the
result of the votes for hereditary succession, Francois de Neufchateau
delivered an address to him, in which there was no want of adulatory
expressions. As President of the Senate he had had some practice in
that style of speechmaking; and he only substituted the eulogy of the
Monarchical Government for that of the Republican Government 'a sempre
bene', as the Italians say.
If I wished to make comparisons I could here indulge in some curious
ones. Is it not extraordinary that Fontainebleau should have witnessed,
at the interval of nearly ten years, Napoleon's first interview with the
Pope, and his last farewell to his army, and that the Senate, who had
previously given such ready support to Bonaparte, should in 1814 have
pronounced his abdication at Fontainebleau.
The preparations for the Coronation proved very advantageous to the
trading classes of Paris. Great numbers of foreigners and people from
the provinces visited the capital, and the return of luxury and the
revival of old customs gave occupation to a variety of tradespeople
who could get no employment under the Directory or Consulate, such as
saddlers, carriage-makers, lacemen, embroiderers, and others. By these
positive interests were created more partisans of the Empire than by
opinion and reflection; and it is but just to say that trade had not
been so active for a dozen years before. The Imperial crown jewels were
exhibited to the public at Biennais the jeweller's. The crown was of a
light form, and, with its leaves of gold, it less resembled the crown
of France than the antique crown of the Caesars. These things were
afterwards placed in the public treasury, together with the imperial
insignia of Charlemagne, which Bonaparte had ordered to be brought from
Aix-la-Chapelle. But while Bonaparte was thus priding himself in his
crown and his imagined resemblance to Charlemagne, Mr. Pitt, lately
recalled to the Ministry, was concluding at Stockholm a treaty with
Sweden, and agreeing to pay a subsidy to that power to enable it to
maintain hostilities against France. This treaty was concluded on the 3d
of December, the day after the Coronation.
--[The details of the preparation for the Coronation caused many
stormy scenes between Napoleon and his family. The Princesses, his
sisters and sisters-in-law, were especially shocked at having to
carry the train of the Imperial mantle of Josephine, and even when
Josephine was actually moving from the altar to the throne the
Princesses evinced their reluctance so plainly that Josephine could
not advance and an altercation took place which had to be stopped by
Napoleon himself. Joseph was quite willing himself give up
appearing in a mantle with a train, but he wished to prevent his
wife bearing the mantle of the Empress; and he opposed his brother
on so many points that Napoleon ended by calling on him to either
give up his position and retire from all politics, or else to fully
accept the imperial regime. How the economical Camberceres used up
the ermine he could not wear will be seen in Junot tome iii. p.
196. Josephine herself was in the greatest anxiety as to whether
the wish of the Bonaparte family that she should be divorced would
carry the day with her husband. When she had gained her cause for