Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte — Complete
Napoleon happened to be, there was the central point of action. The
affairs of Europe were arranged at his headquarters in the same manner
as if he had been in Paris. Everything depended on his good or bad
fortune. Espionage, seduction, false promises, exactions,--all were
put in force to promote the success of his projects; but his despotism,
which excited dissatisfaction in France, and his continual aggressions,
which threatened the independence of foreign States, rendered him more
and more unpopular everywhere.
The battle of Trafalgar took place while Napoleon was marching on
Vienna, and on the day after the capitulation of Ulm. The southern coast
of Spain then witnessed an engagement between thirty-one French and
about an equal number of English ships, and in spite of this equality of
force the French fleet was destroyed.--[The actual forces present were
27 English ships of the line and 38 Franco-Spanish ships of the line;
see James' Naval History, vol. iii. p. 459.]
This great battle afforded another proof of our naval inferiority.
Admires Calder first gave us the lesson which Nelson completed, but
which cost the latter his life. According to the reports which Duroc
transmitted to me, courage gave momentary hope to the French; but they
were at length forced to yield to the superior naval tactics of the
enemy. The battle of Trafalgar paralysed our naval force, and banished
all hope of any attempt against England.
The favour which the King, of Prussia had shown to Duroc was withdrawn
when his Majesty received intelligence of the march of Bernadotte's
troops through the Margravate of Anspach. All accounts concurred
respecting the just umbrage which that violation of territory
occasioned to the King of Prussia. The agents whom I had in that quarter
overwhelmed me with reports of the excesses committed by the French in
passing through the Margravate. A letter I received from Duroc contains
the following remarks on this subject:
The corps of Marshal Bernadotte has passed through Anapach and by
some misunderstanding this has been regarded at Berlin as an insult
to the King, a violence committed upon his neutrality. How can it
be supposed, especially under present circumstances, that the
Emperor could have any intention of insulting or committing violence
upon his friend? Besides, the reports have been exaggerated, and
have been made by persons who wish to favour our enemies rather than
us. However, I am perfectly aware that Marshal Bernadotte's 70,000
men are not 70,000 virgins. Be this as it may, the business might
have been fatal, and will, at all events, be very injurious to us.
Laforeat and I are treated very harshly, though we do not deserve
it. All the idle stories that have been got up here must have
reached you. Probably Prussia will not forget that France was, and
still may be, the only power interested in her glory and
aggrandisement.
At the end of October the King of Prussia, far from thinking of war,
but in case of its occurrence wishing to check its disasters as far as
possible, proposed to establish a line of neutrality. This was the first
idea of the Confederation of the North. Duroc, fearing lest the Russians
should enter Hamburg, advised me, as a friend, to adopt precautions. But
I was on the spot; I knew all the movement the little detached corps,
and I was under no apprehension.
The editor of the Hamburg 'Correspondent' sent me every evening a proof
of the number which was to appear next day,--a favour which was granted
only to the French Minister. On the 20th of November I received
the proof as usual, and saw nothing objectionable in it. How great,
therefore, was my astonishment when next morning I read in the same
journal an article personally insulting to the Emperor, and in which the
legitimate sovereigns of Europe were called upon to undertake a crusade
against the usurper etc. I immediately sent for M. Doormann, first
Syndic of the Senate of Hamburg. When he appeared his mortified look
sufficiently informed me that he knew what I had to say to him. I
reproached him sharply, and asked him how, after all I had told him of
the Emperor's susceptibility, he could permit the insertion of such an
article. I observed to him that this indecorous diatribe had no official
character, since it had no signature; and that, therefore, he had acted
in direct opposition to a decree of the Senate, which prohibited the
insertion in the journals of any articles which were not signed. I
told him plainly that his imprudence might be attended with serious
consequences. M. Doormann did not attempt to justify himaelt but merely
explained to me how the thing had happened.
On the 20th of November, in the evening, M. Forshmann, the Russian
charge d'affaires who had in the course of the day arrived from the
Russian headquarters presented to the editor of the Correspondent the
article in question. The editor, after reading the article, which he
thought exceedingly indecorous, observed to M. Forshmann that his paper
was already made up, which was the fact, for I had seen a proof. M.
Forshmann, however, insisted on the insertion of the article. The editor
then told him that he could not admit it without the approbation of the
Syndic Censor. M. Forshmann immediately waited upon M. Doormann, and
when the latter begged that he would not insist on the insertion of the
article, M. Forshmann produced a letter written in French, which,
among other things, contained the following: "You will get the enclosed
article inserted in the Correspondent without suffering a single word
to be altered. Should the censor refuse, you must apply to the directing
Burgomaster, and, in case of his refusal, to General Tolstoy, who will
devise some means of rendering the Senate more complying, and forcing it
to observe an impartial deference."
M. Doorman, thinking he could not take upon himself to allow the
insertion of the article, went, accompanied by M. Forshmann, to wait
upon M. Von Graffen, the directing Burgomaster. MM. Doorman and Von
Graffen earnestly pointed out the impropriety of inserting the article;
but M. Forshmann referred to his order, and added that the compliance of
the Senate on this point was the only means of avoiding great mischief.
The Burgomaster and the Syndic, finding themselves thus forced to admit
the article, entreated that the following passage at least might be
suppressed: "I know a certain chief, who, in defiance of all laws divine
and human,--in contempt of the hatred he inspires in Europe, as well as
among those whom he has reduced to be his subjects, keeps possession of
a usurped throne by violence and crime. His insatiable ambition would
subject all Europe to his rule. But the time is come for avenging the
rights of nations . . . ." M. Forshmann again referred to his orders,
and with some degree of violence insisted on the insertion of the
article in its complete form. The Burgomaster then authorised the editor
of the Correspondent to print the article that night, and M. Forshmann,
having obtained that authority, carried the article to the office at
half-past eleven o'clock.
Such was the account given me by M. Doormann. I observed that I did not
understand how the imaginary apprehension of any violence on the part of
Russia should have induced him to admit so insolent an attack upon the
most powerful sovereign in Europe, whose arms would soon dictate laws
to Germany. The Syndic did not dissemble his fear of the Emperor's
resentment, while at the same time he expressed a hope that the Emperor
would take into consideration the extreme difficulty of a small power
maintaining neutrality in the extraordinary circumstances in which
Hamburg was placed, and that the articles might be said to have been
presented almost at the point of the Cossacks' spears. M. Doormann added
that a refusal, which world have brought Russian troops to Hamburg,
might have been attended by very unpleasant consequences to me, and
might have committed the Senate in a very different way. I begged of
him, once for all, to set aside in these affairs all consideration of my
personal danger: and the Syndic, after a conversation of more than
two hours, departed more uneasy in his mind than when he arrived,
and conjuring me to give a faithful report of the facts as they had
happened.
M. Doormann was a very worthy man, and I gave a favourable
representation of his excuses and of the readiness which he had always
evinced to keep out of the Correspondent articles hostile to France;
as, for example, the commencement of a proclamation of the Emperor of
Germany to his subjects, and a complete proclamation of the King of
Sweden. As it happened, the good Syndic escaped with nothing worse than
a fright; I was myself astonished at the success of my intercession.
I learned from the Minister for Foreign Affairs that the Emperor was
furiously indignant on reading the article, in which the French army was
outraged as well as he. Indeed, he paid but little attention to insults
directed against himself personally. Their eternal repetition had inured
him to them; but at the idea of his army being insulted he was violently
enraged, and uttered the most terrible threats.
It is worthy of remark that the Swedish and English Ministers, as soon
as they read the article, waited upon the editor of the Correspondent,
and expressed their astonishment that such a libel should have been
published. "Victorious armies," said they, "should be answered by
cannonballs and not by insults as gross as they are ridiculous." This
opinion was shared by all the foreigners at that time in Hamburg.
CHAPTER XXXIV.
1805
Difficulties of my situation at Hamburg--Toil and responsibility--
Supervision of the emigrants--Foreign Ministers--Journals--Packet
from Strasburg--Bonaparte fond of narrating Giulio, an extempore
recitation of a story composed by the Emperor.
The brief detail I have given in the two or three preceding chapters
of the events which occurred previously to and during the campaign of
Austerlitz, with the letters of Duroc and Bernadotte, may afford the
reader some idea of my situation during the early part of my residence
in Hamburg. Events succeeded each other with such incredible rapidity
as to render my labour excessive. My occupations were different, but
not less laborious, than those which I formerly performed when near the
Emperor; and, besides, I was now loaded with a responsibility which did
not attach to me as the private secretary of General Bonaparte and the
First Consul. I had, in fact, to maintain a constant watch over the
emigrants in Altona, which was no easy matter--to correspond daily with
the Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Minister of Police--to confer
with the foreign Ministers accredited at Hamburg--to maintain active
relations with the commanders of the French army--to interrogate my
secret agents, and keep a strict surveillance over their proceedings;
it was, besides, necessary to be unceasingly on the watch for scurrilous
articles against Napoleon in the Hamburg 'Corespondent'. I shall
frequently have occasion to speak of all these things, and especially
of the most marked emigrants, in a manner less irregular, because what I
have hitherto said may, in some sort, be considered merely as a summary
of all the facts relating to the occurrences which daily passed before
my eyes.
In the midst of these multifarious and weighty occupations I received a
packet with the Strasburg postmark at the time the Empress was in that
city. This packet had not the usual form of a diplomatic despatch,
and the superscription announced that it came from the residence of
Josephine. My readers, I venture to presume, will not experience less