Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte — Complete
modified, and M. Peyron received formal orders to get it inserted.
However; on my representations the Senate agreed to suppress it, and it
did not appear.
Marshal Bernadotte, who had the command of the French troops in Hanover,
kept up a friendly correspondence with me unconnected with the duties of
our respective functions.
On the occupation of Hanover Mr. Taylor, the English Minister at Cassel,
was obliged to leave that place; but he soon returned in spite of the
opposition of France. On this subject the marshal furnished me with the
following particulars:
I have just received, my dear Bourrienne, information which leaves
no doubt of what has taken place at Cassel with respect to Mr.
Taylor. That Minister has been received in spite of the
representations of M. Bignon, which, however, had previously been
merely verbal. I know that the Elector wrote to London to request
that Mr. Taylor should not return. In answer to this the English
Government sent him back. Our Minister has done everything he could
to obtain his dismissal; but the pecuniary interests of the Elector
have triumphed over every other consideration. He would not risk
quarrelling with the Court from which he expects to receive more
than 12,000,000 francs. The British Government has been written to
a second time, but without effect. The Elector himself, in a
private letter, has requested the King of England to recall Mr.
Taylor, but it is very probable that the Cabinet of London will
evade this request.
Under these circumstances our troops have approached nearer to
Cassel. Hitherto the whole district of Gottingen had been exempt
from quartering troops. New arrangements, tendered necessary by the
scarcity of forage, have obliged me to send a squadron of 'chasseurs
de cheval' to Munden, a little town four leagues from Cassel. This
movement excited some alarm in the Elector, who expressed a wish to
see things restored to the same footing as before. He has requested
M. Bignon to write to me, and to assure me again that he will be
delighted to become acquainted with me at the waters of Nemidorff,
where he intends to spend some time. But on this subject I shall
not alter the determination I have already mentioned to you.
--Yours, etc.,
(Signed) BERNADOTTE.
STADE, 10th Thermidor (29th July, 1805).
CHAPTER XXXIII.
1805.
Treaty of alliance between England and Russia--Certainty of an
approaching war--M. Forshmann, the Russian Minister--Duroc's mission
to Berlin--New project of the King of Sweden--Secret mission to the
Baltic--Animosity against France--Fall of the exchange between
Hamburg and Paris--Destruction of the first Austrian army--Taking of
Ulm--The Emperor's displeasure at the remark of a soldier--Battle of
Trafalgar--Duroc's position at the Court of Prussia--Armaments in
Russia--Libel upon Napoleon in the Hamburg 'Corespondent'--
Embarrassment of the Syndic and Burgomaster of Hamburg--The conduct
of the Russian Minister censured by the Swedish and English
Ministers.
At the beginning of August 1805 a treaty of alliance between Russia and
England was spoken of. Some persons of consequence, who had the means
of knowing all that was going on in the political world, had read this
treaty, the principal points of which were communicated to me.
Article 1st stated that the object of the alliance was to restore the
balance of Europe. By art. 2d the Emperor of Russia was to place 36,000
men at the disposal of England. Art. 3d stipulated that neither of the
two powers would consent to treat with France, nor to lay down arms
until the King of Sardinia should either be restored to his dominions or
receive an equivalent indemnity in the northeast of Italy. By art. 4th
Malta was to be evacuated by the English, and occupied by the Russians.
By art. 5th the two powers were to guarantee the independence of the
Republic of the Ionian Isles, and England was to pledge herself to
assist Russia in her war against Persia. If this plan of a treaty, of
the existence of which I was informed on unquestionable authority, had
been brought to any result it is impossible to calculate what might have
been its consequences.
At that time an immediate Continental war was confidently expected by
every person in the north of Europe; and it is very certain that, had
not Napoleon taken the hint in time and renounced his absurd schemes at
Boulogne, France would have stood in a dangerous situation.
M. Forshmann, the Russian charge d'affaires, was intriguing to excite
the north of Europe against France. He repeatedly received orders to
obtain the insertion of irritating articles in the 'Correspondent'. He
was an active, intriguing, and spiteful little man, and a declared enemy
of France; but fortunately his stupidity and vanity rendered him less
dangerous than he wished to be. He was universally detested, and he
would have lost all credit but that the extensive trade carried on
between Russia and Hamburg forced the inhabitants and magistrates of
that city to bear with a man who might have done them, individually,
considerable injury.
The recollection of Duroc's successful mission to Berlin during the
Consulate induced Napoleon to believe that that general might appease
the King of Prussia, who complained seriously of the violation of the
territory of Anspach, which Bernadotte, in consequence of the orders he
received, had not been able to respect. Duroc remained about six weeks
in Berlin.
The following letter from Duroc will show that the facility of passing
through Hesse seemed to excuse the second violation of the Prussian
territory; but there was a great difference between a petty Prince of
Hesse and the King of Prussia.
I send you, my dear Bourrienne, two despatches, which I have
received for you. M. de Talleyrand, who sends them, desires me to
request that you will transmit General Victor's by a sure
conveyance.
I do not yet know whether I shall stay long in Berlin. By the last
accounts I received the Emperor is still in Paris, and numerous
forces are assembling on the Rhine. The hopes of peace are
vanishing every day, and Austria does everything to promote war.
I have received accounts from Marshal Bernadotte. He has effected
his passage through Hesse. Marshal Bernadotte was much pleased with
the courtesy he experienced from the Elector.
The junction of the corps commanded by Bernadotte with the army of the
Emperor was very important, and Napoleon therefore directed the Marshal
to come up with him as speedily as possible, and by the shortest road.
It was necessary he should arrive in time for the battle of Austerlitz.
Gustavus, King of Sweden, who was always engaged in some enterprise,
wished to raise an army composed of Swedes, Prussians, and English; and
certainly a vigorous attack in the north would have prevented Bernadotte
from quitting the banks of the Elbe and the Weser, and reinforcing
the Grand Army which was marching on Vienna. But the King of Sweden's
coalition produced no other result than the siege of the little fortress
of Hameln.
Prussia would not come to a rupture with France, the King of Sweden
was abandoned, and Bonaparte's resentment against him increased. This
abortive project of Gustavus contributed not a little to alienate the
affections of his subjects, who feared that they might be the victims
of the revenge excited by the extravagant plans of their King, and the
insults he had heaped upon Napoleon, particularly since the death of the
Duc d'Enghien.
On the 13th of September 1805 I received a letter from the Minister of
Police soliciting information about Swedish Pomerania.
Astonished at not obtaining from the commercial Consuls at Lübeck and
Stettin any accounts of the movements of the Russians, I had sent to
those ports, four days before the receipt of the Police Minister's
letter, a confidential agent, to observe the Baltic: though we were only
64 leagues from Stralsund the most uncertain and contradictory accounts
came to hand. It was, however, certain that a landing of the Russians
was expected at Stralsund, or at Travemtinde, the port of Lübeck, at the
mouth of the little river Trave. I was positively informed that Russia
had freighted a considerable number of vessels for those ports.
The hatred of the French continued to increase in the north of Europe.
About the end of September there appeared at Kiel, in Denmark, a
libellous pamphlet, which was bought and read with inconceivable
avidity. This pamphlet, which was very ably written, was the production
of some fanatic who openly preached a crusade against France. The author
regarded the blood of millions of men as a trifling sacrifice for the
great object of humiliating France and bringing her back to the limits
of the old monarchy. This pamphlet was circulated extensively in the
German departments united to France, in Holland, and in Switzerland. The
number of incendiary publications which everywhere abounded indicated
but too plainly that if the nations of the north should be driven
back towards the Arctic regions they would in their turn repulse their
conquerors towards the south; and no man of common sense could doubt
that if the French eagles were planted in foreign capitals, foreign
standards would one day wave over Paris.
On the 30th of September 1805 I received, by an 'estafette',
intelligence of the landing at Stralsund of 6000 Swedes, who had arrived
from Stockholm in two ships of war.
About the end of September the Hamburg exchange on Paris fell
alarmingly. The loss was twenty per cent. The fall stopped at seventeen
below par. The speculation for this fall of the exchange had been made
with equal imprudence and animosity by the house of Osy and Company.
The head of that house, a Dutch emigrant, who had been settled at
Hamburg about six years, seized every opportunity of manifesting his
hatred of France. An agent of that rich house at Rotterdam was also very
hostile to us, a circumstance which shows that if many persons sacrifice
their political opinions to their interests there are others who
endanger their interests for the triumph of their opinions.
On the 23d of October 1805 I received official intelligence of the
total destruction of the first Austrian army: General Barbou, who was
in Hanover, also informed me of that event in the following terms: "The
first Austrian army has ceased to exist." He alluded to the brilliant
affair of Ulm. I immediately despatched twelve estafettes to different
parts; among other places to Stralsund and Husum. I thought that these
prodigies, which must have been almost incredible to those who were
unacquainted with Napoleon's military genius, might arrest the progress
of the Russian troops, and produces some change in the movements of the
enemy's forces. A second edition of the 'Correspondent' was published
with this intelligence, and 6000 copies were sold at four times the
usual price.
I need not detain the reader with the details of the capitulation of
Ulm, which have already been published, but I may relate the following
anecdote, which is not generally known. A French general passing before
the ranks of his men said to them, "Well, comrades, we have prisoners
enough here."--"yes indeed," replied one of the soldiers, "we never saw
so many . . . collected together before." It was stated at the time,
and I believe it, that the Emperor was much displeased when he heard of
this, and remarked that it was "atrocious to insult brave men to whom
the fate of arms had proved unfavourable."
In reading the history of this period we find that in whatever place