Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte — Complete
all this is only the business of a moment. If you make further delay you
will sell nothing; everything is soon forgotten!"
We were now in July, and the negotiations were carried on with a
tardiness which showed that something was kept in reserve on both sides.
Bonaparte at this time was anything but disposed to sign a peace,
which he always hoped to be able to make at Vienna, after a campaign in
Germany, seconded by the armies of the Rhine and the Sambre-et-Meuse.
The minority of the Directory recommended peace on the basis of
the preliminaries, but the majority wished for more honourable and
advantageous terms; while Austria, relying on troubles breaking out in
France, was in no haste to conclude a treaty. In these circumstances
Bonaparte drew up a letter to be sent to the Emperor of Austria,
in which he set forth the moderation of France; but stated that, in
consequence of the many delays, nearly all hope of peace had vanished.
He advised the Emperor not to rely on difficulties arising in France,
and doubted, if war should continue and the Emperor be successful in the
next campaign, that he would obtain a more advantageous peace than was
now at his option. This letter was never sent to the Emperor, but was
communicated as the draft of a proposed despatch to the Directory.
The Emperor Francis, however, wrote an autograph letter to the
General-in-Chief of the army of Italy, which will be noticed when I come
to the period of its reception: It is certain that Bonaparte at this
time wished for war. He was aware that the Cabinet of Vienna was playing
with him, and that the Austrian Ministers expected some political
convulsion in Paris, which they hoped would be favourable to the
Bourbons. He therefore asked for reinforcements. His army consisted of
35,900 men, and he desired it to be raised to 60,000 infantry and 10,000
cavalry ready for the field.
General Desaix, profiting by the preliminaries of Leoben, came in the
end of July to visit the scene of the army of Italy's triumphs. His
conversations with Bonaparte respecting the army of the Rhine were
far from giving him confidence in his military situation in Italy,
or assurance of support from that army in the event of hostilities
commencing beyond the mountains. It was at this period that their
intimacy began. Bonaparte conceived for Desaix the greatest esteem and
the sincerest friendship.
--[Desaix discontented with the conduct of affairs in Germany,
seceded from the army of the Rhine, to which he belonged, to join
that of Napoleon. He was sent to Italy to organise the part of the
Egyptian expedition starting from Civita Vecchia. He took with him
his two aides de camp, Rapp and Savary (later Duc de Rovigo), both
of whom, on his death, were given the same post with Bonaparte.]--
When Desaix was named temporary commander of the force called the army
of England, during the absence of General Bonaparte, the latter wrote
to the Directory that they could not have chosen a more distinguished
officer than Desaix; these sentiments he never belied. The early death
of Desaix alone could break their union, which, I doubt not, would
eventually have had great influence on the political and military career
of General Bonaparte.
All the world knows the part which the General-in-Chief of the army of
Italy took at the famous crisis of the 18th Fructidor; his proclamation,
his addresses to the army, and his celebrated order of the day.
Bonaparte went much into detail on this subject at St. Helena; and
I shall now proceed to state what I knew at the time respecting that
memorable event, which was in preparation in the month of June.
CHAPTER VIII.
1797.
The royalists of the interior--Bonaparte's intention of marching on
Paris with 25,000 men--His animosity against the emigrants and the
Clichy Club--His choice between the two parties of the Directory--
Augereau's order of the day against the word 'Monsieur'--Bonaparte
wishes to be made one of the five Directors--He supports the
majority of the Directory--La Vallette, Augereau, and Bernadotte
sent to Paris--Interesting correspondence relative to the 18th
Fructidor.
Bonaparte had long observed the struggle which was going on between the
partisans of royalty and the Republic. He was told that royalism was
everywhere on the increase. All the generals who returned from Paris
to the army complained of the spirit of reaction they had noticed.
Bonaparte was constantly urged by his private correspondents to take
one side or the other, or to act for himself. He was irritated by the
audacity of the enemies of the Republic, and he saw plainly that the
majority of the councils had an evident ill-will towards him. The
orators of the Club of Clichy missed no opportunity of wounding his
self-love in speeches and pamphlets. They spared no insults, disparaged
his success, and bitterly censured his conduct in Italy, particularly
with respect to Venice. Thus his services were recompensed by hatred or
ingratitude. About this time he received a pamphlet, which referred
to the judgments pronounced upon him by the German journals, and more
particularly by the Spectator of the North, which he always made me
translate.
Bonaparte was touched to the quick by the comparison make between him
and Moreau, and by the wish to represent him as foolhardy ("savants sous
Moreau, fougueuse sous Buonaparte"). In the term of "brigands," applied
to the generals who fought in La Vendée, he thought he recognized the
hand of the party he was about to attack and overthrow. He was tired of
the way in which Moreau's system of war was called "savants." But what
grieved him still more was to see sitting in the councils of the nation
Frenchmen who were detractors and enemies of the national glory.
He urged the Directory to arrest the emigrants, to destroy the influence
of foreigners, to recall the armies, to suppress the journals sold to
England, such as the 'Quotidienne', the 'Memorial', and the 'The', which
he accused of being more sanguinary than Marat ever was. In case
of there being no means of putting a stop to assassinations and the
influence of Louis XVIII., he offered to resign.
His resolution of passing the Alps with 25,000 men and marching by Lyons
and Paris was known in the capital, and discussions arose respecting the
consequences of this passage of another Rubicon. On the 17th of August
1797 Carnot wrote to him: "People attribute to you a thousand absurd
projects. They cannot believe that a man who has performed so many great
exploits can be content to live as a private citizen." This observation
applied to Bonaparte's reiterated request to be permitted to retire
from the service on account of the state of his health, which, he
said, disabled him from mounting his horse, and to the need which he
constantly urged of having two years' rest.
The General-in-Chief was justly of opinion that the tardiness of the
negotiations and the difficulties which incessantly arose were founded
on the expectation of an event which would change the government of
France, and render the chances of peace more favourable to Austria. He
still urgently recommended the arrest of the emigrants, the stopping of
the presses of the royalist journals, which he said were sold to England
and Austria, the suppression of the Clichy Club. This club was held at
the residence of Gerard Desodieres, in the Rue de Clichy. Aubry, was
one of its warmest partisans, and he was the avowed enemy of the
revolutionary cause which Bonaparte advocated at this period. Aubry's
conduct at this time, together with the part he had taken in provoking
Bonaparte's dismissal in 1795, inspired the General with an implacable
hatred of him.
Bonaparte despised the Directory, which he accused of weakness,
indecision, pusillanimity, wasteful expenditure, of many errors, and
perseverance in a system degrading to the national glory.
--[The Directory merited those accusations. The following sketches
of two of their official sittings present a singular contrast:
"At the time that the Directory were first installed in the
Luxembourg (27th October 1795)." says M. Baileul, "there was hardly
a single article of furniture in it. In a small room, round a
little broken table, one of the legs of which had given way from
age, on which table they had deposited a quire of letter-paper, and
a writing desk 'a calamet', which luckily they had had the
precaution to bring with them from the Committee of Public safety,
seated on four rush-bottomed chairs, in front of some logs of wood
ill-lighted, the whole borrowed from the porter Dupont; who would
believe that it was in this deplorable condition that the member's
of the new Government, after having examined all the difficulties,
nay, let me add, all the horrors of their situation, resolved to
confront all obstacles, and that they would either deliver France
from the abyss in which she was plunged or perish in the attempt?
They drew up on a sheet of letter-paper the act by which they
declared themselves constituted, and immediately forwarded it to the
Legislative Bodies."
And the Comte de La Vallette, writing to M. Cuvillier Fleury, says:
"I saw our five kings, dressed in the robes of Francis I., his hat,
his pantaloons, and his lace: the face of La Reveilliere looked like
a cork upon two pins, with the black and greasy hair of Clodion. M.
de Talleyrand, in pantaloons of the colour of wine dregs, sat in a
folding chair at the feet of the Director Barras, in the Court of
the Petit Luxembourg, and gravely presented to his sovereigns as
ambassador from the Grand Duke of Tuscany, while the French were
eating his master's dinner, from the soup to the cheese. At the
right hand there were fifty musicians and singers of the Opera,
Laine, Lays, Regnault, and the actresses, not all dead of old age,
roaring a patriotic cantata to the music of Mehul. Facing them, on
another elevation, there were two hundred young and beautiful women,
with their arms and bosoms bare, all in ecstasy at the majesty of
our Pentarchy and the happiness of the Republic. They also wore
tight flesh-coloured pantaloons, with rings on their toes. That was
a sight that never will be seen again. A fortnight after this
magnificent fete, thousands of families wept over their banished
fathers, forty-eight departments were deprived of their
representatives, and forty editors of newspapers were forced to go
and drink the waters of the Elbe, the Synamary or the Ohio! It
would be a curious disquisition to seek to discover what really were
at that time the Republic and Liberty."]
He knew that the Clichy party demanded his dismissal and arrest. He was
given to understand that Dumolard was one of the most decided against
him, and that, finally, the royalist party was on the point of
triumphing.
Before deciding for one party or the other Bonaparte first thought of
himself. He did not imagine that he had yet achieved enough to venture
on possessing himself of that power which certainly he might easily have
obtained. He therefore contented himself with joining the party
which was, for the moment, supported by public opinion. I know he was
determined to march upon Paris with 25,000 men had affairs taken a
turn unfavourable to the Republic, which he preferred to royalty. He
cautiously formed his plan. To defend the Directory was, he conceived,
to defend his own future fortune; that is to say, it was protecting a
power which appeared to have no other object than to keep a place for
him until his return.
The parties which rose up in Paris produced a reaction in the army.