Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte — Complete
this invitation quite charmed me. I went, and I was treated so well
that I shall go again. But I will ask for nothing: I only want these
Prussians and English rascals out of the way!" I complimented Rapp
on his conduct, and told him that it was impossible that so loyal and
honest a man as he should not, at some time or other, attract the King's
notice. I had the happiness to see this prediction accomplished. Since
that time I regularly saw Rapp whenever we both happened to be in Paris,
which was pretty often.
I have already mentioned that in the month of August the King named me
Councillor of State. On the 19th of the following month I was appointed
Minister of State and member of the Privy Council. I may close these
volumes by relating a circumstance very flattering to me, and connected
with the last-mentioned nomination. The King had directed M. de
Talleyrand to present to him, in his official character of President
of the Council of Ministers, a list of the persons who might be deemed
suitable as members of the Privy Council. The King having read the list,
said to his Minister, "But, M. de Talleyrand, I do not see here
the names of two of our best friends, Bourrienne and Alexis de
Noailles."--"Sire, I thought their nomination would seem more flattering
in coming directly from your Majesty." The King then added my name to
the list, and afterwards that of the Comte Alexis de Noailles, so that
both our names are written in Louis XVIII.'s own hand in the original
Ordinance.
I have now brought to a conclusion my narrative of the extraordinary
events in which I have taken part, either as a spectator or an actor,
during the course of a strangely diversified life, of which nothing now
remains but recollections.
--[I discharged the functions of Councillor of State until 1818, at
which time an Ordinance appeared declaring those functions
Incompatible with the title of Minister of State--Bourrienne.]--
CHAPTER XII.
THE CENT JOURS.
The extraordinary rapidity of events during the Cent fours, or Hundred
Days of Napoleon's reign in 1815, and the startling changes in the parts
previously filled by the chief personages, make it difficult to consider
it as an historical period; it more resembles a series of sudden
theatrical transformations, only broken by the great pause while the
nation waited for news from the army.
The first Restoration of the Bourbons had been so unexpected, and was
so rapidly carried out, that the Bonapartists, or indeed all France,
had hardly realized the situation before Napoleon was again in the
Tuileries; and during the Cent Jours both Bonapartists and Royalists
were alike rubbing their eyes, asking whether they were awake, and
wondering which was the reality and which the dream, the Empire or the
Restoration.
It is both difficult and interesting to attempt to follow the history
of the chief characters of the period; and the reader must pardon some
abrupt transitions from person to person, and from group to group, while
the details of some subsequent movements of the Bonaparte family must
be thrown in to give a proper idea of the strange revolution in their
fortunes. We may divide the characters with which we have to deal into
five groups,--the Bonaparte family, the Marshals, the Statesmen of the
Empire, the Bourbons, and the Allied Monarchs. One figure and one name
will be missing, but if we omit all account of poor, bleeding, mutilated
France, it is but leaving her in the oblivion in which she was left at
the time by every one except by Napoleon.
The disaster of 1814 had rather dispersed than crushed the Bonaparte
family, and they rallied immediately on the return from Elba. The final
fall of the Empire was total ruin to them. The provisions of the Treaty
of Fontainebleau, which had been meant to ensure a maintenance to them,
had not been carried out while Napoleon was still a latent power, and
after 1815 the Bourbons were only too happy to find a reason for not
paying a debt they had determined never to liquidate; it was well for
any of the Bourbons in their days of distress to receive the bounty of
the usurper, but there was a peculiar pleasure in refusing to pay the
price promised for his immediate abdication.
The flight of the Bonapartes in 1815 was rapid. Metternich writes
to Maria Louisa in July 1815: "Madame Mere and Cardinal Fesch left
yesterday for Tuscany. We do not know exactly where Joseph is. Lucien
is in England under a false name, Jerome in Switzerland, Louis at Rome.
Queen Hortense has set out for Switzerland, whither General de Flahault
and his mother will follow her. Murat seems to be still at Toulon; this,
however, is not certain." Was ever such an account of a dynasty given?
These had all been among the great ones of Europe: in a moment they were
fugitives, several of them having for the rest of their lives a bitter
struggle with poverty. Fortunately for them the Pope, the King of
Holland, and the Grand-Duke of Tuscany, were not under heavy obligations
to Napoleon, and could thus afford to give to his family the protection
denied them by those monarchs who believed themselves bound to redeem
their former servility.
When Napoleon landed Maria Louisa was in Austria, and she was eager to
assist in taking every precaution to prevent her son, the young King
of Rome, being spirited off to join his father, whose fortunes she had
sworn to share: She herself was fast falling under the influence of the
one-eyed Austrian General, Neipperg, just then left a widower, who
was soon to be admitted to share her bed. By 1823 she seemed to have
entirely forgotten the different members of the Bonaparte family,
speaking of her life in France as "a bad dream." She obtained the
Grand-Duchy of Parma, where she reigned till 1847, marrying a third
time, it is said, the Count Bombellea, and dying, just too soon to be
hunted from her Duchy by the Revolution of 1848.
There is something very touching in most that we know of the poor young
King of Rome, from his childish but strangely prescient resistance to
his removal from Paris to Blois on the approach of the Allies in 1814,
to the message of remembrance sent in after years to the column of the
Place Vendome, "his only friend in Paris."
At four years of age Meneval describes him as gentle, but quick in
answering, strong, and with excellent health. "Light curly hair in
ringlets set off a fresh face, while fine blue eyes lit up his regular
features: He was precociously intelligent, and knew more than most
children older than himself." When Meneval--the former secretary of his
father, giving up his post in Austria with Maria Louisa, as he was about
to rejoin Napoleon--took farewell of the Prince in May 1815, the poor
little motherless child drew me towards the window, and, giving me a
touching look, said in a low tone, "Monsieur Meva, tell him (Napoleon)
that I always love him dearly." We say "motherless," because Maria
Louisa seems to have yielded up her child at the dictates of policy to
be closely guarded as easily as she gave up her husband. "If," wrote
Madame de Montesquieu, his governess, "the child had a mother, I would
leave him in her hands, and be happy, but she is nothing like a mother,
she is more indifferent to his fate than the most utter stranger in her
service." His grandfather, the Emperor Francis, to do him justice, seems
to have been really kind to the lad, and while, in 1814, 1816, and
in 1830, taking care to deprive him of all chance of, his glorious
inheritance, still seems to have cared for him personally, and to
have been always kind to him. There is no truth in the story that
the Austrians neglected his education and connived at the ruin of his
faculties. Both his tutor, the Count Maurice Dietrichstein, and Marshal
Marmont, who conversed with him in 1831, agree in speaking highly of
him as full of promise: Marmont's evidence being especially valuable as
showing that the Austrians did not object to the Duke of Reichstadt (as
he had been created by his grandfather in 1818), learning all he could
of his father's life from one of the Marshals. In 1831 Marmont describes
him: "I recognised his father's look in him, and in that he most
resembled Napoleon. His eyes, not so large as those of Napoleon, and
sunk deeper in their sockets, had the same expression, the same fire,
the same energy. His forehead was like that of his father, and so was
the lower part of his face and his chin. Then his complexion was that of
Napoleon in his youth, with the same pallor and the same colour of the
skin, but all the rest of his face recalled his mother and the House of
Austria. He was taller than Napoleon by about three inches."
As long as the Duke lived his name was naturally the rallying-point
of the Bonapartes, and was mentioned in some of the many conspiracies
against the Bourbons. In 1830 Joseph Bonaparte tried to get the sanction
of the Austrians to his nephew being put forward as a claimant to the
throne of France, vacant by the flight of Charles X., but they held
their captive firmly. A very interesting passage is given in the
'Memoirs of Charles Greville', who says that Prince Esterhazy told him
a great deal about the Duke of Reichstadt, who, if he had lived, would
have probably played a great part in the world. He died of a premature
decay, brought on, apparently, by over-exertion and over-excitement; his
talents were very conspicuous, he was 'petri d'ambition', worshipped the
memory of his father, and for that reason never liked his mother; his
thoughts were incessantly turned towards France, and when he heard of
the Days of July (overthrow of Charles X.) he said, "Why was I not
there to take my chance? He evinced great affection and gratitude to
his grandfather, who, while he scrupulously observed all his obligations
towards Louis Philippe, could not help feeling a secret pride in the
aspiring genius of Napoleon's son. He was well educated, and day
and night pored over the history of his father's glorious career. He
delighted in military exercises, and not only shone at the head of his
regiment, but had already acquired the hereditary art of ingratiating
himself with the soldiers." Esterhazy went on to describe how the Duke
abandoned everything at a ball when he met there Marshals Marmont and
Maison. "He had no eyes or ears but for them; from nine in the evening
to five the next morning he devoted himself to these Marshals." There
was the true Napoleonic ring in his answer to advice given by Marmont
when the Duke said that he would not allow himself to be put forward by
the Sovereigns of Europe. "The son of Napoleon should be too great to
serve as an instrument; and in events of that nature I wish not to be an
advanced guard, but a reserve,--that is, to come as a succour, recalling
great memories."
His death in 1832, on the 22d of July, the anniversary of the battle
of Salamanca, solved many questions. Metternich visited the Duke on his
deathbed: "It was a heartrending sight. I never remember to have seen a
more mournful picture of decay." When Francis was told of the death of
his grandson he answered, "I look upon the Duke's death as a blessing
for him. Whether it be detrimental or otherwise to the public good I do
not know. As for myself, I shall ever lament the loss of my grandson."
Josephine was in her grave at Rueil when Napoleon returned. She had died
on the 29th of May 1814, at Malmaison, while the Allies were exhibiting
themselves in Paris. It seems hard that she should not have lived
to enjoy a triumph, however brief, over her Austrian rival. "She, at
least," said Napoleon truly, "would never have abandoned me."
Josephine's daughter, Hortense, separated from her husband, Louis
Bonaparte, and created Duchess of St Leu by Louis XVIII., was in Paris,