Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte — Complete
shown him that Caesar did not conquer Gaul in one campaign. Another
illusion by which Napoleon was misled during the campaign of Moscow, and
perhaps past experience rendered it very excusable, was the belief that
the Emperor Alexander would propose peace when he saw him at the head
of his army on the Russian territory. The prolonged stay of Bonaparte
at Moscow can indeed be accounted for in no other way than by supposing
that he expected the Russian Cabinet would change its opinion and
consent to treat for peace. However, whatever might have been the
reason, after his long and useless stay in Moscow Napoleon left that
city with the design of taking up his winter quarters in Poland;
but Fate now frowned upon Napoleon, and in that dreadful retreat the
elements seemed leagued with the Russians to destroy the most formidable
army ever commanded by one chief. To find a catastrophe in history
comparable to that of the Beresina we must go back to the destruction of
the legions of Varus.
Notwithstanding the general dismay which prevailed in Paris that capital
continued tranquil, when by a singular chance, on the very day on which
Napoleon evacuated the burning city of Moscow, Mallet attempted his
extraordinary enterprise. This General, who had always professed
Republican principles, and was a man of bold decided character, after
having been imprisoned for some time, obtained the permission of
Government to live in Paris in a hospital house situated near the
Barriere de Trove. Of Mallet's, conspiracy it is not necessary to say
much after the excellent account given of it in the Memoirs of the Duc
de Rovigo. Mallet's plan was to make it be believed that Bonaparte had
been killed at Moscow, and that a new Government was established under
the authority of the Senate. But what could Mallet do? Absolutely
nothing: and had his Government continued three days he would have
experienced a more favourable chance than that which he ought reasonably
to have expected than asserted that the Emperor was dead, but an
estafette from Russia would reveal the truth, resuscitate Napoleon, and
overwhelm with confusion Mallet and his proclamation. His enterprise
was that of a madman. The French were too weary of troubles to throw
themselves into the arms of, Mallet or his associate Lahorie, who had
figured so disgracefully on the trial of Moreau., Yet, in spite of the
evident impossibility of success, it must be confessed that considerable
ingenuity and address marked the commencement of the conspiracy. On
the 22d of October Mallet escaped from the hospital house and went to
Colonel Soulier, who commanded the tenth cohort of the National Guard,
whose barracks were situated exactly behind the hospital house. Mallet
was loaded with a parcel of forged orders which he had himself prepared.
He introduced himself to Soulier under the name of General La Motte, and
said that he came from General Mallet.
Colonel Soulier on hearing of the Emperor's death was affected to tears.
He immediately ordered the adjutant to assemble the cohort and obey the
orders of General La Motte, to whom he expressed his regret for being
himself too ill to leave his bed. It was then two o'clock in the
morning, and the forged documents respecting the Emperor's death slid
the new form of Government were read to the troops by lamplight. Mallet
then hastily set off with 1200 men to La Force, and liberated the Sieurs
Gudal and Laholze, who were confined there. Mallet informed them of the
Emperor's death and of the change of Government; gave them some orders,
in obedience to which the Minister and Prefect of Police were arrested
in their hotel.
I was then at Courbevoie, and I went to Paris on that very morning to
breakfast, as I frequently did, with the Minister of Police. My surprise
may be imagined when
--[General Mallet gave out that the Emperor was killed under the
walls of Moscow on the 8th of October; he could not take any other
day without incurring the risk of being contradicted by the arrival
of the regular courier. The Emperor being dead, he concluded that
the Senate ought to be invested with the supreme authority, and he
therefore resolved to address himself in the name of that body to
the nation and the army. In a proclamation to the soldiers he
deplored the death of the Emperor; in another, after announcing the
abolition of the Imperial system and the Restoration of the
Republic, he indicated the manner in which the Government was to be
reconstructed, described the branches into which public authority
was to be divided, and named the Directors. Attached to the
different documents there appeared the signatures of several
Senators whose names he recollected but with whom he had ceased to
have any intercourse for a great number of years. These
signatures were all written by Mallet, and he drew up a decree in
the name of the Senate, and signed by the same Senators, appointing
himself Governor of Paris, and commander of the troops of the first
military division. He also drew up other decrees in the same form
which purported to promote to higher ranks all the military officers
he intended to make instruments in the execution of his enterprise.
He ordered one regiment to close all the barriers of Paris, and
allow no person to pass through them. This was done: so that in all
the neighbouring towns from which assistance, in case of need, might
have been obtained, nothing was known of the transactions in Paris.
He sent the other regiments to occupy the Bank, the Treasury, and
different Ministerial offices. At the Treasury some resistance was
made. The minister of that Department was on the spot, and he
employed the guard of his household in maintaining his authority.
But in the whole of the two regiments of the Qnard not a single,
objection was started to the execution of Mallet's orders (Memoirs
of the Duc de Rivogo, tome vi. p. 20.)]--
I learned from the porter that the Duc de Rovigo had been arrested
and carried to the prison of La Force. I went into the house and was
informed, to my great astonishment, that the ephemeral Minister was
being measured for his official suit, an act which so completely denoted
the character of the conspirator that it gave me an insight into the
business.
Mallet repaired to General Hulin, who had the command of Paris. He
informed him that he had been directed by the Minister of Police to
arrest him and seal his papers. Hulin asked to see the order, and then
entered his cabinet, where Mallet followed him, and just as Hulin was
turning round to speak to him he fired a pistol in his face. Hulin
fell: the ball entered his cheek, but the wound was not mortal. The
most singular circumstance connected with the whole affair is, that the
captain whom Mallet had directed to follow him, and who accompanied him
to Hulin's, saw nothing extraordinary in all this, and did nothing to
stop it. Mallet next proceeded, very composedly, to Adjutant-General
Doucet's. It happened that one of the inspectors of the police
was there. He recognised General Mallet as being a man under his
supervision. He told him that he had no right to quit the hospital house
without leave, and ordered him to be arrested. Mallet, seeing that all
was over, was in the act of drawing a pistol from his pocket, but being
observed was seized and disarmed. Thus terminated this extraordinary
conspiracy, for which fourteen lives paid the forfeit; but, with the
exception of Mallet, Guidal, and Lahorie, all the others concerned in it
were either machines or dupes.
This affair produced but little effect in Paris, for the enterprise
and its result were make known simultaneously. But it was thought droll
enough that the Minister and Prefect of Police should be imprisoned by
the men who only the day before were their prisoners. Next day I went
to see Savary, who had not yet recovered from the stupefaction caused by
his extraordinary adventure. He was aware that his imprisonment;
though it lasted only half an hour, was a subject of merriment to the
Parisians. The Emperor, as I have already mentioned, left Moscow on
the day when Mallet made his bold attempt, that is to say, the 19th of
October. He was at Smolensko when he heard the news. Rapp, who had
been wounded before the entrance into Moscow, but who was sufficiently
recovered to return home, was with Napoleon when the latter received
the despatches containing an account of what had happened in Paris. He
informed me that Napoleon was much agitated on perusing them, and that
he launched into abuse of the inefficiency of the police. Rapp added
that he did not confine himself to complaints against the agents of his
authority. "Is, then, my power so insecure," said he, "that it may be
put in peril by a single individual, and a prisoner? It would appear
that my crown is not fixed very firmly on my head if in my own capital
the bold stroke of three adventurers can shake it. Rapp, misfortune
never comes alone; this is the complement of what is passing here. I
cannot be everywhere; but I must go back to Paris; my presence there is
indispensable to reanimate public opinion. I must have men and money.
Great successes and great victories will repair all. I must set off."
Such were the motives which induced the Emperor to leave his army. It
is not without indignation that I have heard his precipitate departure
attributed to personal cowardice. He was a stranger to such feelings,
and was never more happy than on the field of battle. I can readily
conceive that he was much alarmed on hearing of Mallet's enterprise. The
remarks which he made to Rapp were those which he knew would be made by
the public, and he well knew that the affair was calculated to banish
those illusions of power and stability with which he endeavoured to
surround his government.
On leaving Moscow Napoleon consigned the wrecks of his army to the care
of his most distinguished generals to Murat who had so ably commanded
the cavalry, but who abandoned the army to return to Naples; and to
Ney, the hero, rather than the Prince of the Moskowa, whose name will
be immortal in the annals of glory, as his death will be eternal in the
annals of party revenge. Amidst the general disorder Eugène, more than
any other chief, maintained a sort of discipline among the Italians;
and it was remarked that the troops of the south engaged in the fatal
campaign of Moscow had endured the rigour of the cold better than those
troops who were natives of less genial climates.
Napoleon's return from Moscow was not like his returns from the
campaigns of Vienna and Tilsit when he came back crowned with laurels,
and bringing peace as the reward of his triumphs. It was remarked
that Napoleon's first great disaster followed the first enterprise he
undertook after his marriage with Maria Louisa. This tended to confirm
the popular belief that the presence of Josephine was favourable to his
fortune; and superstitious as he sometimes was, I will not venture to
affirm that he himself did not adopt this ides. He now threw off even
the semblance of legality in the measures of his government: he assumed
arbitrary power, under the impression that the critical circumstances in
which he was placed would excuse everything. But, however inexplicable
were the means to which the Emperor resorted to procure resources, it is
but just to acknowledge that they were the consequence of his system of
government, and that he evinced inconceivable activity in repairing his
losses so as to place himself in a situation to resist his enemies, and
restore the triumph of the French standard.
But in spite of all Napoleon's endeavours the disasters of the campaign