Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte — Complete
wept for joy at again seeing one of the Bourbons. The procession soon
arrived, preceded by a band playing the air, "Vive Henri Quatre!" I
had never before seen Monsieur, and his appearance had a most pleasing
effect upon me. His open countenance bore the expression of that
confidence which his presence inspired in all who saw him. His staff was
very brilliant, considering it was got together without preparation. The
Prince wore the uniform of the National Guard, with the insignia of the
Order of the Holy Ghost.
I must candidly state that where I saw Monsieur pass, enthusiasm was
chiefly confined to his own retinue, and to persons who appeared to
belong to a superior class of society. The lower order of people seemed
to be animated by curiosity and astonishment rather than any other
feeling. I must add that it was not without painful surprise I saw
a squadron of Cossacks close the procession; and my surprise was the
greater when I learned from General Sacken that the Emperor Alexander
had wished that on that day the one Frenchman more should be surrounded
only by Frenchmen, and that to prove that the presence of the Bourbons
was the signal of reconciliation his Majesty had ordered 20,000 of the
Allied troops to quit Paris. I know not to what the presence of the
Cossacks is to be attributed, but it was an awkward circumstance at the
time, and one which malevolence did not fail to seize upon.
Two days only intervened between Monsieur's entrance into Paris and the
arrival of the Emperor of Austria. That monarch was not popular among
the Parisians. The line of conduct he had adopted was almost generally
condemned, for, even among those who had most ardently wished for the
dethronement of his daughter, through their aversion to the Bonaparte
family, there were many who blamed the Emperor of Austria's behaviour
to Maria Louisa: they would have wished that, for the honour of Francis
II., he had unsuccessfully opposed the downfall of the dynasty, whose
alliance he considered as a safeguard in 1809. This was the opinion
which the mass of the people instinctively formed, for they judged
of the Emperor of Austria in his character of a father and not in his
character of a monarch; and as the rights of misfortune are always
sacred in France, more interest was felt for Maria Louisa when she was
known to be forsaken than when she was in the height of her splendour.
Francis II. had not seen his daughter since the day when she left Vienna
to unite her destiny with that of the master of half of Europe, and I
have already stated how he received the mission with which Maria Louisa
entrusted the Duc de Cadore.
I was then too intent on what was passing in Paris and at Fontainebleau
to observe with equal interest all the circumstances connected with
the fate of Maria Louisa, but I will present to the reader all the
information I was able to collect respecting that Princess during the
period immediately preceding her departure from France. She constantly
assured the persons about her that she could rely on her father. The
following words, which were faithfully reported to me, were addressed
by her to an officer who was at Blois during the mission of M. de
Champagny. "Even though it should be the intention of the Allied
sovereigns to dethrone the Emperor Napoleon, my father will not suffer
it. When he placed me on the throne of France he repeated to me twenty
times his determination to uphold me on it; and my father is an honest
man." I also know that the Empress, both at Blois and at Orleans,
expressed her regret at not having followed the advice of the members of
the Regency, who wished her to stay in Paris.
On leaving Orleans Maria Louisa proceeded to Rambouillet; and it was not
one of the least extraordinary circumstances of that eventful period to
see the sovereigns of Europe, the dethroned sovereigns of France, and
those who had come to resume the sceptre, all crowded together within a
circle of fifteen leagues round the capital. There was a Bourbon at the
Tuileries, Bonaparte at Fontainebleau, his wife and son at Rambouillet,
the repudiated Empress at Malmaison three leagues distant, and the
Emperors of Russia and Austria and the King of Prussia in Paris.
When all her hopes had vanished Maria Louisa left Rambouillet to return
to Austria with her son. She did not obtain permission to see Napoleon
before her departure, though she had frequently expressed a wish to that
effect. Napoleon himself was aware of the embarrassment which might have
attended such a farewell, or otherwise he would no doubt have made a
parting interview with Maria Louisa one of the clauses of the treaty of
Paris and Fontainebleau, and of his definitive act of abdication. I was
informed at the time that the reason which prevented Maria Louisa's wish
from being acceded to was the fear that, by one of those sudden
impulses common to women, she might have determined to unite herself to
Napoleon's fallen fortune, and accompany him to Elba; and the Emperor of
Austria wished to have his daughter back again.
Things had arrived at this point, and there was no possibility of
retracting from any of the decisions which had been formed when the
Emperor of Austria went to see his daughter at Rambouillet. I recollect
it was thought extraordinary at the time that the Emperor Alexander
should accompany him on this visit; and, indeed, the sight of the
sovereign, who was regarded as the head and arbiter of the coalition,
could not be agreeable to the dethroned Empress.
--[Meneval (tome ii. p. 112), then with Maria Louisa as Secretary,
who gives some details of her interview with the Emperor Francis on
the 16th of April, says nothing about the Czar having been there; a
fact he would have been sure to have remarked upon. It was only on
the 19th of April that Alexander visited her, the King of Prussia
coming in his turn on the 22d; but Bourrienne is right in saying
that Maria Louisa complained bitterly of having to receive
Alexander, and considered that she was forced by her father to do
so. The poor little King of Rome, then only three years old, had
also to be seen by the monarchs. He was not taken with his
grandfather, remarking that he was not handsome. Maria Louisa
seems, according to Meneval, to have been at this time really
anxious to join Napoleon (Meneval, tome ii. p. 94). She left
Rambouillet on the 28d of April stopped one day at Grossbois,
receiving there her father and Berthier, and taking farewell of
several persons who came from Paris for that purpose. On the 25th
of April she started for Vienna, and later for Parma, which state
she received under the treaty of 1814 and 1815. She yielded to the
influence brought to bear on her, became estranged from Napoleon,
and eventually married her chamberlain, the Comte de Neipperg, an
Austrian general.]--
The two Emperors set off from Paris shortly after each other. The
Emperor of Austria arrived first at Rambouillet, where he was received
with respect and affection by his daughter. Maria Louisa was happy to
see him, but the many tears she shed were not all tears of joy. After
the first effusion of filial affection she complained of the situation
to which she was reduced. Her father sympathised with her, but could
offer her no consolation, since her misfortunes were irreparable.
Alexander was expected to arrive immediately, and the Emperor of Austria
therefore informed his daughter that the Russian monarch wished to see
her. At first Maria Louisa decidedly refused to receive him, and she
persisted for some time in this resolution. She said to her father,
"Would he too make me a prisoner before your eyes? If he enters here by
force I will retire to my chamber. There, I presume, he will not dare to
follow me while you are here." But there was no time to be lost; Francis
II. heard the equipage of the Emperor of Russia rolling through the
courtyard of Rambouillet, and his entreaties to his daughter became more
and more urgent. At length she yielded, and the Emperor of Austria went
himself to meet his ally and conduct him to the salon where Maria Louisa
remained, in deference to her father. She did not, however, carry her
deference so far as to give a favourable reception to him whom she
regarded as the author of all her misfortunes. She listened with
considerable coldness to the offers and protestations of Alexander, and
merely replied that all she wished for was the liberty of returning to
her family. A few days after this painful interview Maria Louisa and her
son set off for Vienna.
--[A few days after this visit Alexander paid his respects to
Bonaparte's other wife, Josephine. In this great breaking up of
empires and kingdoms the unfortunate Josephine, who had been
suffering agonies on account of the husband who had abandoned her,
was not forgotten. One of the first things the Emperor of Russia
did on arriving at Paris was to despatch a guard for the protection
of her beautiful little palace at Malmaison. The Allied sovereigns
treated her with delicacy and consideration.
"As soon as the Emperor Alexander knew that the Empress Josephine
had arrived at Malmaison he hastened to pay her a visit. It is not
possible to be more amiable than he was to her. When in the course
of conversation he spoke of the occupation of Paris by the Allies,
and of the position of the Emperor Napoleon, it was always in
perfectly measured language: he never forgot for a single instant
that he was speaking before one who had been the wife of his
vanquished enemy. On her side the ex-Empress did not conceal the
tender sentiments, the lively affection she still entertained for
Napoleon. . . . Alexander had certainly something elevated and
magnanimous in his character, which would not permit him to say a
single word capable of insulting misfortune; the Empress had only
one prayer to make to him, and that was for her children."]--
This visit was soon followed by those of the other Allied Princes.
"The King of Prussia and the Princes, his sons, came rather
frequently to pay their court to Josephine; they even dined with her
several times at Malmaison; but the Emperor Alexander come much more
frequently. The Queen Hortense was always with her mother when she
received the sovereigns, and assisted her in doing the honours of
the house. The illustrious strangers exceedingly admired Malmaison,
which seemed to them a charming residence. They were particularly
struck with the fine gardens and conservatories."
From this moment, however, Josephine's health rapidly declined, and
she did not live to see Napoleon's return from Elba. She often said
to her attendant, "I do not know what is the matter with me, but at
times I have fits of melancholy enough to kill me." But on the very
brink of the grave she retained all her amiability, all her love of
dress, and the graces and resources of a drawing-room society. The
immediate cause of her death was a bad cold she caught in taking a
drive in the park of Malmaison on a damp cold day. She expired on
the noon of Sunday, the 26th of May, in the fifty-third year of her
age. Her body was embalmed, and on the sixth day after her death
deposited in a vault in the church of Ruel, close to Malmaison. The
funeral ceremonies were magnificent, but a better tribute to the
memory of Josephine was to be found in the tears with which her
children, her servants, the neighbouring poor, and all that knew her
followed her to the grave. In 1826 a beautiful monument was erected
over her remains by Eugène Beauharnais and his sisters with this
simple inscription:
TO JOSEPHINE.