Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte — Complete
to be placed on the effects of all the persons included in the decree
of Lyons, and consequently upon mine. As soon as my wife received
information of this she quitted her retreat and repaired to Paris to
face the storm. On the 29th of March, at nine in the evening, the
police agents presented themselves at my house. Madame de Bourrienne
remonstrated against the measure and the inconvenient hour that
was chosen for its execution; but all was in vain, and there was no
alternative but to submit.
But the matter did not end with the first formalities performed by
Fouché's alguazils. During the month of May seven persons were appointed
to examine, my papers, and among the inquisitorial septemvirate were two
men well known and filling high situations. One of these executed his
commission, but the other, sensible of the odium attached to it, wrote
to say he was unwell, and never came. The number of my inquisitors, 'in
domo', was thus reduced to six. They behaved with great rudeness, and
executed their mission with a rigour and severity exceedingly painful to
my family. They carried their search so far as to rummage the pockets of
my old clothes, and even to unrip the linings. All this was done in the
hope of finding something that would commit me in the eyes of the new
master of France. But I was not to be caught in that way, and before
leaving home I had taken such precautions as to set my mind perfectly at
ease.
However, those who had declared themselves strongly against Napoleon
were not the only persons who had reason to be alarmed at his return.
Women even, by a system of inquisition unworthy of the Emperor, but
unfortunately quite in unison with his hatred of all liberty, were
condemned to exile, and had cause to apprehend further severity. It
is for the exclusive admirers of the Chief of the Empire to approve
of everything which proceeded from him, even his rigour against a
defenceless sex; it is for them to laugh at the misery of a woman, and a
writer of genius, condemned without any form of trial to the most
severe punishment short of death. For my part, I saw neither justice
nor pleasantry in the exile of Madame de Chevreuse for having had the
courage (and courage was not common then even among men) to say that
she was not made to be the gaoler of the Queen of Spain. On Napoleon's
return from. the isle of Elba, Madame de Stael was in a state of
weakness, which rendered her unable to bear any sudden and violent
emotion. This debilitated state of health had been produced by her
flight from Coppet to Russia immediately after the birth of the son who
was the fruit of her marriage with M. Rocca. In spite of the danger of
a journey in such circumstances she saw greater danger in staying where
she was, and she set out on her new exile. That exile was not of long
duration, but Madame de Stael never recovered from the effect of the
alarm and fatigue it occasioned her.
The name of the authoress of Corinne, naturally calls to mind that of
the friend who was most faithful to her in misfortune, and who was not
herself screened from the severity of Napoleon by the just and universal
admiration of which she was the object. In 1815 Madame Recamier did not
leave Paris, to which she had returned in 1814, though her exile was not
revoked. I know positively that Hortense assured her of the pleasure she
would feel in receiving her, and that Madame Recamier, as an excuse for
declining the perilous honour, observed that she had determined
never again to appear in the world as long as her friends should be
persecuted. The memorial de Sainte Helene, referring to the origin of
the ill-will of the Chief of the Empire towards the society of Madame
de Stael and Madame Recamier, etc., seems to reproach Madame Recamier,
"accustomed," says the Memorial, "to ask for everything and to
obtain everything," for having claimed nothing less than the complete
reinstatement of her father. Whatever may have been the pretensions
of Madame Recamier, Bonaparte, not a little addicted to the custom he
complains of in her, could not have, with a good grace, made a crime
of her ingratitude if he on his side had not claimed a very different
sentiment from gratitude. I was with the First Consul at the time M.
Bernard, the father of Madame Reamier, was accused, and I have not
forgotten on what conditions the re-establishment would have been
granted.
The frequent interviews between Madame Recamier and Madame de Stael
were not calculated to bring Napoleon to sentiments and measures of
moderation. He became more and more irritated at this friendship between
two women formed for each other's society; and, on the occasion of one
of Madame Recamier's journeys to Coppet he informed her, through
the medium of Fouché, that she was perfectly at liberty to go to
Switzerland, but not to return to Paris. "Ah, Monseigneur! a great man
may be pardoned for the weakness of loving women, but not for fearing
them." This was the only reply of Madame Recamier to Fouché when she set
out for Coppet. I may here observe that the personal prejudices of the
Emperor would not have been of a persevering and violent character if
some of the people who surrounded him had not sought to foment them. I
myself fell a victim to this. Napoleon's affection for me would perhaps
have got the upper hand if his relenting towards me had not been
incessantly combated by my enemies around him.
I had no opportunity of observing the aspect of Paris during that
memorable period recorded in history by the name of the Hundred Days,
but the letters which I received at the time, together with all that,
I afterwards heard, concurred in assuring me that the capital never
presented so melancholy a picture as: during those three months. No one
felt any confidence in Napoleon's second reign, and it was said, without
any sort of reserve, that Fouché, while serving the cause of usurpation,
would secretly betray it. The future was viewed with alarm, and the
present with dissatisfaction. The sight of the federates who paraded the
faubourgs and the boulevards, vociferating, "The Republic for ever!" and
"Death to the Royalists!" their sanguinary songs, the revolutionary airs
played in our theatres, all tended to produce a fearful torpor in
the public mind, and the issue of the impending events was anxiously
awaited.
One of the circumstances which, at the commencement of the Hundred Days,
most contributed to open the eyes of those who were yet dazzled by the
past glory of Napoleon, was the assurance with which he declared
that the Empress and his son would be restored to him, though nothing
warranted that announcement. It was evident that he could not count on
any ally; and in spite of the prodigious activity with which a new army
was raised those persons must have been blind indeed who could imagine
the possibility of his triumphing over Europe, again armed to oppose
him. I deplored the inevitable disasters which Bonaparte's bold
enterprise would entail, but I had such certain information respecting
the intentions of the Allied powers, and the spirit which animated the
Plenipotentiaries at Vienna, that I could not for a moment doubt the
issue of the conflict: Thus I was not at all surprised when I received
at Hamburg the minutes of the conferences at Vienna in May 1815.
When the first intelligence of Bonaparte's landing was received at
Vienna it must be confessed that very little had been done at the
Congress, for measures calculated to reconstruct a solid and durable
order of things could only be framed and adopted deliberately, and upon
mature reflection. Louis XVIII. had instructed his Plenipotentiaries to
defend and support the principles of justice and the law of nations, so
as to secure the rights of all parties and avert the chances of a
new war. The Congress was occupied with these important objects when
intelligence was received of Napoleon's departure from Elba and his
landing at the Gulf of Juan. The Plenipotentiaries then signed the
protocol of the conferences to which I have above alluded.
[ANNEX TO THE PRECEDING CHAPTER.] The following despatch of Napoleon's to Marshal Davoust (given in Captain Bingham's Translation, vol. iii. p. 121), though not strictly bearing upon the subject of the Duke of Bassano's inquiry (p. 256), may perhaps find a place here, as indicative of the private feeling of the Emperor towards Bourrienne. As the reader will remember, it has already been alluded to earlier in the work:
To MARSHAL DAVOUST. COMPIEGNE, 3d September 1811.
I have received your letter concerning the cheating of Bourrienne at
Hamburg. It will be important to throw light upon what he has done. Have
the Jew, Gumprecht Mares, arrested, seize his papers, and place him
in solitary confinement. Have some of the other principal agents of
Bourrienne arrested, so as to discover his doings at Hamburg, and the
embezzlements he has committed there. (Signed) NAPOLEON.
CHAPTER VII.
--[By the Editor of the 1836 edition]--
1815.
Napoleon at Paris--Political manoeuvres--The meeting of the
Champ-de-Mai--Napoleon, the Liberals, and the moderate
Constitutionalists--His love of arbitrary power as strong as ever--
Paris during the Cent Jours--Preparations for his last campaign--
The Emperor leaves Paris to join the army--State of Brussels--
Proclamation of Napoleon to the Belgians--Effective strength of the
French and Allied armies--The Emperor's proclamation to the French
army.
Napoleon was scarcely reseated on his throne when he found he could not
resume that absolute power he had possessed before his abdication at
Fontainebleau. He was obliged to submit to the curb of a representative
government, but we may well believe that he only yielded, with a mental
reservation that as soon as victory should return to his standards and
his army be reorganised he would send the representatives of the people
back to their departments, and make himself as absolute as he had ever
been. His temporary submission was indeed obligatory.
The Republicans and Constitutionalists who had assisted, or not opposed
his return, with Carnot, Fouché, Benjamin Constant, and his own brother
Lucien (a lover of constitutional liberty) at their head, would support
him only on condition of his reigning as a constitutional sovereign; he
therefore proclaimed a constitution under the title of "Acte additionnel
aux Constitutions de l'Empire," which greatly resembled the charter
granted by Louis XVIII. the year before. An hereditary Chamber of Peers
was to be appointed by the Emperor, a Chamber of Representatives chosen
by the Electoral Colleges, to be renewed every five years, by which
all taxes were to be voted, ministers were to be responsible, judges
irremovable, the right of petition was acknowledged, and property was
declared inviolable. Lastly, the French nation was made to declare that
they would never recall the Bourbons.
Even before reaching Paris, and while resting on his journey from Elba
at Lyons, the second city in France, and the ancient capital of the
Franks, Napoleon arranged his ministry, and issued sundry decrees, which
show how little his mind was prepared for proceeding according to the
majority of votes in representative assemblies.
Cambacérès was named Minister of Justice, Fouché Minister of Police (a
boon to the Revolutionists), Davoust appointed Minister of War. Decrees
upon decrees were issued with a rapidity which showed how laboriously
Bonaparte had employed those studious hours at Elba which he was
supposed to have dedicated to the composition of his Memoirs. They
were couched in the name of "Napoleon, by the grace of God, Emperor of
France," and were dated on the 13th of March, although not promulgated