Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte — Complete
at war with France. They felt but little for the misfortunes of the
Prince, and merely wished to veil their ambition and their hatred of
France under the false pretence of zeal for the House of Bourbon.
When the Dauphin died, Louis XVIII. took the title of King of France,
and went to Prussia, where he obtained an asylum.
--[His brother, Charles X., the youngest of the three grandsons of
Louis XV. (Louis XVI., Louis XVIII. Charles X.), the Comte
d'Artois, afterwards Charles X. emigrated in 1789, and went to
Turin and Mantas for 1789 and 1790. In 1791 and 1792 he lived at
Coblenta, Worms, Brussels, Vienna, and at Turin. From 1792 to 1812
he lived at Ham on the Lippe at Westphalia at London, and for most
of the time at Holyrood, Edinburgh. During this time he visited
Russia and Germany, and showed himself on the coast of France. In
1818 he went to Germany, and in 1814 entered France in rear of the
allies. In risking his person in the daring schemes of the
followers who were giving their lives for the cause of his family he
displayed a circumspection which was characterised by them with
natural warmth.
"Sire, the cowardice of your brother has ruined all;" so Charette is
said to have written to Louis XVIII.]--
But the pretender to the crown of France had not yet drained his cup of
misfortune. After the 18th Fructidor the Directory required the King of
Prussia to send away Louis XVIII., and the Cabinet of Berlin, it must
be granted, was not in a situation to oppose the desire of the French
Government, whose wishes were commands. In vain Louis XVIII. sought an
asylum in the King of Saxony's States. There only remained Russia that
durst offer a last refuge to the descendant of Louis XIV. Paul I.,
who was always in extremes, and who at that time entertained a violent
feeling of hatred towards France, earnestly offered Louis XVIII., a
residence at Mittau. He treated him with the honours of a sovereign, and
loaded him with marks of attention and respect. Three years had scarcely
passed when Paul was seized with mad enthusiasm for the man who twelve
years later, ravaged his ancient capital, and Louis XVIII. found himself
expelled from that Prince's territory with a harshness equal to the
kindness with which he had at first been received.
It was during, his three, years' residence at Mittau that Louis XVIII.,
who was then known by the title of Comte de Lille, wrote to the First
Consul those letters which have been referred to in these Memoirs.
Prussia, being again solicited, at length consented that Louis XVIII.
should reside at Warsaw; but on the accession of Napoleon to the Empire
the Prince quitted that residence in order to consult respecting his
new situation with the only sovereign who had not deserted him in his
misfortune, viz. the King of Sweden. They met at Colmar, and from that
city was dated the protest which I have already noticed. Louis XVIII.
did not stay long in the States of the King of Sweden. Russia was now on
the point of joining her eagles with those of Austria to oppose the new
eagles of imperial France. Alexander offered to the Comte de Lille the
asylum which Paul had granted to him and afterwards withdrawn. Louis
XVIII. accepted the offer, but after the peace of Tilsit, fearing lest
Alexander might imitate the second act of his father as well as the
first, he plainly saw that he must give up all intention of residing on
the Continent; and it was then that I read in the 'Abeille du Nord' the
article before alluded to. There is, however, one fact upon which I must
insist, because I know it to be true, viz. that it was of his own
free will that Louis XVIII. quitted Mittau; and if he was afraid that
Alexander would imitate his father's conduct that fear was without
foundation. The truth is, that Alexander was ignorant even of the King's
intention to go away until he heard from Baron von Driesen, Governor of
Mittau, that he had actually departed. Having now stated the truth on
this point I have to correct another error, if indeed it be only an
error, into which some writers have fallen. It has been falsely alleged
that the King left Mittau for the purpose of fomenting fresh troubles
in France. The friends of Louis XVIII., who advised him to leave Mittau,
had great hopes from the last war. They cherished still greater hopes
from the new wars which Bonaparte's ambition could not fail to excite,
but they were not so ill-informed respecting the internal condition
of France as to expect that disturbances would arise there, or even to
believe in the possibility of fomenting them. The pear was not yet ripe
for Louis XVIII.
On the 29th of November the contents of a letter which had arrived from
London by way of Sweden were communicated to me. This letter was dated
the 3d of November, and contained some particulars respecting the Comte
de Lille's arrival in England. That Prince had arrived at Yarmouth on
the 31st of October 1807, and it was stated that the King was obliged
to wait some time in the port until certain difficulties respecting
his landing and the continuance of his journey should be removed. It
moreover appeared from this letter that the King of England thought
proper to refuse the Comte de Lille permission to go to London or its
neighbourhood. The palace of Holyrood in Edinburgh was assigned as his
place of residence; and Mr. Ross, secretary to Mr. Canning, conveyed the
determination of the King of England to Louis XVIII., at Yarmouth.
The precaution of the English Ministry in not permitting the refugee
King to go near London appeared to me remarkable, considering the
relative position of the Governments of France and England, and I
regarded it as a corroboration of what the Prince Wittgenstein had told
me respecting Mr. Canning's inclination for an amicable arrangement. But
the moment was approaching when the affairs of Spain were to raise an
invincible obstacle to peace, to complicate more than ever the interests
of the powers of Europe, and open to Napoleon that vast career of
ambition which proved his ruin. He did not allow the hopes of the
emigrants to remain chimerical, and the year 1814 witnessed the
realization of the prophetic remark made by M. Lemereier, in a
conversation with Bonaparte a few days before the foundation of the
Empire: "If you get into the bed of the Bourbons, General, you will
not lie in it ten year." Napoleon occupied it for nine years and nine
months.
Fouché, the grand investigator of the secrets of Europe, did not
fail, on the first report of the agitations in Spain, to address to
me question on question respecting the Comte de Rechteren, the Spanish
Minister at Hamburg, who, however, had left that city, with the
permission of his Court, four months after I had entered on my
functions. This was going back very far to seek information respecting
the affairs of the day. At the very moment when I transmitted a reply
to Fouché which was not calculated to please him, because it afforded
no ground for suspicion as to the personal conduct of M. de Rechteren,
I received from the amiable Josephine a new mark of her remembrance. She
sent me the following note:
"M. Milon, who is now in Hamburg, wishes me, my dear Bourrienne, to
request that you will use your interest in his favour. I feel the more
pleasure in making this request as it affords me an opportunity of
renewing the assurance of my regard for you."
Josephine's letter was dated from Fontainebleau, whither the Emperor
used to make journeys in imitation of the old Court of France. During
these excursions he sometimes partook of the pleasures of the chase, but
merely for the sake of reviving an old custom, for in that exercise he
found as little amusement as Montaigne did in the game of chess.
At Fontainebleau, as everywhere else, his mind was engaged with the
means of augmenting his greatness, but, unfortunately, the exactions he
imposed on distant countries were calculated to alienate the affections
of the people. Thus, for example, I received an order emanating from
him, and transmitted to me by M. Daru, the Intendant-General of the
army, that the pay of all the French troops stationed in the Hanse Towns
should be defrayed by these towns. I lamented the necessity of making
such a communication to the Senates of Bremen, Lübeck, and Hamburg; but
my duty compelled me to do so, and I had long been accustomed to fulfil
duties even more painful than this. I tried every possible means with
the three States, not collectively but separately, to induce them to
comply with the measure, in the hope that the assent of one would help
me to obtain that of the two others. But, as if they, had been all
agreed, I only received evasive expressions of regret.
Knowing as I did, and I may say better than any one else, the hopes and
designs of Bonaparte respecting the north of Germany, it was not without
pain, nor even without alarm, that I saw him doing everything calculated
to convert into enemies the inhabitants of a country which would
always have remained quiet had it only been permitted to preserve its
neutrality. Among the orders I received were often many which could only
have been the result of the profoundest ignorance. For example, I was
one day directed to press 3000 seamen in the Hanse Towns. Three thousand
seamen out of a population of 200,000! It was as absurd as to think of
raising 500,000 sailors in France. This project being impossible, it
was of course not executed; but I had some difficulty in persuading the
Emperor that a sixth of the number demanded was the utmost the Hanse
Towns could supply. Five hundred seamen were accordingly furnished, but
to make up that number it was necessary to include many men who were
totally unfit for war service.
CHAPTER--XIV.
1808.
Departure of the Prince of Ponte-Corvo--Prediction and superstition
--Stoppage of letters addressed to the Spanish troops--La Romana and
Romanillos--Illegible notifications--Eagerness of the German Princes
to join the Confederation of the Rhine--Attack upon me on account of
M. Hue--Bernadotte's successor in Hamburg--Exactions and tyrannical
conduct of General Dupas--Disturbance in Hamburg--Plates broken in a
fit of rage--My letter to Bernadotte--His reply--Bernadotte's return
to Hamburg, and departure of Dupas for Lübeck--Noble conduct of the
'aide de camp' Barrel.
In the spring of 1808 a circumstance occurred which gave, me much
uneasiness; it was the departure of Bernadotte, Prince of Ponte-Corvo,
who received orders to repair to Copenhagen. He left Hamburg on the 8th
of March, as he was to reach his destination on the 14th of the same
month. The Danish charge d'affaires also received orders to join the
Prince, and discharge the functions of King's commissary. It was during
his government at Hamburg and his stay in Jutland that Bernadotte
unconsciously paved his way to the throne of Sweden. I recollect that he
had also his presages and his predestinations. In short, he believed in
astrology, and I shall never forget the serious tone in which he one day
said to me, "Would you believe, my dear friend, that it was predicted at
Paris that I should be a King, but that I must cross the sea to reach
my throne?" I could not help smiling with him at this weakness of mind,
from which Bonaparte was not far removed. It certainly was not any
supernatural influence which elevated Bernadotte to sovereign rank. That
elevation was solely due to his excellent character. He had no other
talisman than the wisdom of his government, and the promptitude which
he always, showed to oppose unjust measures. This it was that united all
opinions in his favour.
The bad state of the roads in the north prolonged Bernadotte's journey