Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte — Complete
with the landlady. She had asked him whether the tyrant was soon to pass
that way? "Ah! sir," said she, "it is all nonsense to say we have got
rid of him. I always, have said, and always will say, that we shall
never be sure of being done with him until he be laid at the bottom of
a well, covered over with stones. I wish we had him safe in the well in
our yard. You see, sir, the Directory sent him to Egypt to get rid of
him; but he came back again! And he will come back again, you maybe sure
of that, sir; unless--" Here the good woman, having finished skimming
her pot, looked up and perceived that all the party were standing
uncovered except the individual to whom, she had been speaking. She was
confounded, and the embarrassment she experienced at having spoken so
ill of the Emperor to the Emperor himself banished all her anger, and
she lavished every mark of attention, and respect on Napoleon and his
retinue. A messenger was immediately sent to Aix to purchase ribbons for
making white cockades. All the carriages were brought into the courtyard
of the inn, and the gate was closed; the landlady informed Napoleon that
it would not be prudent for him to venture on passing through Aix, where
a population of more than 20,000 were waiting to stone him.
Meanwhile dinner was served, and Napoleon sat down to table. He
admirably disguised the agitation which he could not fail to experience,
and I have been assured, by some of the individuals who were present on
that remarkable occasion, that he never made himself more agreeable. His
conversation, which was enriched by the resources of his memory and
his imagination, charmed every one, and he remarked, with an air of
indifference which was perhaps affected, "I believe the new French
Government has a design on my life."
The Commissioners, informed of what was going on at Aix, proposed
sending to the Mayor an order for closing the gates and adopting
measures for securing the public tranquillity. About fifty individuals
had assembled round the inn, and one among them offered to carry a
letter to the Mayor of Aix. The Commissioners accepted his services, and
in their letter informed the Mayor that if the gates of the town were
not closed within an hour they would advance with two regiments of
uhlans and six pieces of artillery, and would fire upon all who might
oppose them. This threat had the desired effect; and the Mayor returned
for answer that the gates should be closed, and that he would take upon
himself the responsibility of everything which might happen.
The danger which threatened the Emperor at Aix was thus averted; but
there was another to be braved. During the seven or eight hours he
passed at La Calade a considerable number of people had gathered round
the inn, and manifested every disposition to proceed to some excess.
Most of them had in their hands five-franc pieces, in order to recognise
the Emperor by his likeness on the coin. Napoleon, who had passed two
nights without sleep, was in a little room adjoining the kitchen, where
he had fallen into a slumber, reclining an the shoulder of his valet
de chambre. In a moment of dejection he had said, "I now renounce the
political world forever. I shall henceforth feel no interest about
anything that may happen. At Porto-Ferrajo I may be happy--more happy
than I have ever been! No!--if the crown of Europe were now offered to
me I would not accept it. I will devote myself to science. I was
right never to esteem mankind! But France and the French people--what
ingratitude! I am disgusted with ambition, and I wish to rule no
longer!"
When the moment for departure arrived it was proposed that he should put
on the greatcoat and fur cap of General Kohler, and that he should
go into the carriage of the Austrian Commissioner. The Emperor, thus
disguised, left the inn of La Calade, passing between two lines
of spectators. On turning the walls of Aix Napoleon had again the
mortification to hear the cries of "Down with the tyrant! Down with
Nicolas!" and these vociferations resounded at the distance of a quarter
of a league from the town.
Bonaparte, dispirited by these manifestations of hatred, said, in a tone
of mingled grief and contempt, "These Provencals are the same furious
brawlers that they used to be. They committed frightful massacres at the
commencement of the Revolution. Eighteen years ago I came to this part
of the country with some thousand men to deliver two Royalists who were
to be hanged. Their crime was having worn the white cockade. I saved
them; but it was not without difficulty that I rescued them from the
hands of their assailants; and now, you see, they resume the same
excesses against those who refuse to wear the white cockade.". At about
a league from Aix the Emperor and his retinue found horses and an escort
of gendarmerie to conduct them to the chateau of Luc.
The Princess Pauline was at the country residence of M. Charles, member
of the Legislative Body, near the castle of Luc. On hearing of the
misfortunes of her brother she determined to accompany him to the isle
of Elba, and she proceeded to Fréjus to embark with him. At Fréjus the
Emperor rejoined Colonel Campbell, who had quitted the convoy on the
road, and had brought into the port the English frigate the 'Undaunted'
which was appointed to convey the Emperor to the place of his
destination. In spite of the wish he had expressed to Colonel Campbell
he manifested considerable reluctance to go on board. However, on the
28th of April he sailed for the island of Elba in the English frigate,
in which it could not then be said that Caesar and his fortune were
embarked.
[It was on the 3d of May 1814 that Bonaparte arrived within sight of
Porto-Ferrajo, the capital of his miniature empire; but he did not
land till the next morning. At first he paid a short visit
incognito, being accompanied by a sergeant's party of marines from
the Undaunted. He then returned on board to breakfast, and at about
two o'clock made his public entrance, the 'Undaunted' firing a royal
salute.]
In every particular of his conduct he paid great attention to the
maintenance of his Imperial dignity. On landing he received the keys of
his city of Porto-Ferrajo, and the devoirs of the Governor, prefect, and
other dignitaries, and he proceeded immediately under a canopy of State
to the parish church, which served as a cathedral. There he heard Te
Deum, and it is stated that his countenance was dark and melancholy, and
that he even shed tears.
One of Bonaparte's first cares was to select a flag for the Elbese
Empire, and after some hesitation he fixed on "Argent, on a bend gules,
or three bees," as the armorial ensign of his new dominion. It is
strange that neither he nor any of those whom he consulted should have
been aware that Elba had an ancient and peculiar ensign, and it is still
more remarkable that this ensign should be one singularly adapted to
Bonaparte's situation; being no more than "a wheel,--the emblem," says
M. Bernaud, "of the vicissitudes of human life, which the Elbese had
borrowed from the Egyptian mysteries." This is as curious a coincidence
as any we ever recollect to have met; as the medals of Elba with the
emblem of the wheel are well known, we cannot but suppose that Bonaparte
was aware of the circumstance; yet he is represented as having in vain
made several anxious inquiries after the ancient arms of the island.
During the first months of his residence there his life was, in general,
one of characteristic activity and almost garrulous frankness. He
gave dinners, went to balls, rode all day about his island, planned
fortifications, aqueducts, lazarettos, harbours, and palaces; and the
very second day after he landed fitted out an expedition of a dozen
soldiers to take possession of a little uninhabited island called
Pianosa, which lies a few leagues from Elba; on this occasion he said
good-humouredly, "Toute l'Europe dira que j'ai deja fait une conqute"
(All Europe will say I have already made a conquest). The cause of
the island of Pianosa being left uninhabited was the marauding of the
Corsairs from the coast of Barbary, against whom Bonaparte considered
himself fully protected by the 4th Article of the Treaty of
Fontainebleau.
The greatest wealth of Elba consists in its iron mines, for which the
island was celebrated in the days of Virgil. Soon after his arrival
Napoleon visited the mines in company with Colonel Campbell, and being
informed that they produced annually about 500,000 francs he exclaimed
joyfully, "These, then, are my own!" One of his followers, however,
reminded him that he had long since disposed of that revenue, having
given it to his order of the Legion of Honour, to furnish pensions, etc.
"Where was my head when I made that grant?" said he, "but I have made
many foolish decrees of that sort!"
Sir Walter Scott, in telling a curious fact, makes a very curious
mistake. "To dignify his capital," he says, "having discovered that
the ancient name of Porto-Ferrajo was Comopoli (the city of Como), he
commanded it to be called Cosmopoli, or the city of all nations."
Now the old name of Porto-Ferrajo was in reality not Comopoli, but
Cosmopoli, and it obtained that name from the Florentine Cosmo de'
Medici, to whose ducal house Elba belonged, as an integral part of
Tuscany. The name equally signified the city of Cosmo, or the city of
all nations, and the vanity of the Medici had probably been flattered by
the double meaning of the appellation. But Bonaparte certainly revived
the old name, and did not add a letter to it to dignify his little
capital.
The household of Napoleon, though reduced to thirty-five persons, still
represented an Imperial Court. The forms and etiquette of the Tuileries
and St, Cloud were retained on a diminished scale, but the furniture
and internal accommodations of the palace are represented as having been
meaner by far than those of an English gentleman of ordinary rank. The
Bodyguard of his Imperial Majesty the Emperor of Elba consisted of about
700 infantry and 80 cavalry, and to this handful of troops Napoleon
seemed to pay almost as much attention as he had formerly given to
his Grande Armee. The men were constantly exercised, particularly
in throwing shot and shells, and he soon began to look out for good
recruits.
He early announced that he would hold a Court and receive ladies twice a
week; the first was on the 7th of May, and a great concourse assembled.
Bonaparte at first paid great attention to the women, particularly those
who possessed personal attractions, and asked them, in his rapid way,
whether they were married? how many children they had, and who their
husbands were? To the last question he received one universal answer; it
happened that every lady was married to a merchant, but when it came
to be further explained that they were merchant butchers and merchant
bakers, his Imperial Majesty permitted some expression of his
dissatisfaction to escape him and hastily retired. On the 4th of June
there was a ball on board the British frigate, in honour of the King's
birthday; the whole beauty and fashion of Elba were assembled, and
dancing with great glee, when, about midnight, Bonaparte came in his
barge, unexpectedly, and masked, to join the festivity. He was very
affable, and visited every part of the ship, and all the amusements
which had been prepared for the different classes of persons. On his
birthday, the 15th of August, he ordered the mayor to give a ball, and
for this purpose a temporary building, capable of holding 300 persons,
was to be erected, and the whole entertainment, building and all, were
to be at the expense of the inhabitants themselves. These were bad
auspices, and accordingly the ball completely failed. Madame Mtire,