Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte — Complete
to the son to go from Italy to his father, and Louis died alone on the
25th of July 1846. He was buried at Santa Croce, Florence, but the body
was afterwards removed to the village church of St. Leu Taverny, rebuilt
by his son Napoleon III.
Jerome, the youngest of the whole family, the "middy," as Napoleon liked
to call him, had been placed in the navy, in which profession he passed
as having distinguished himself, after leaving his admiral in rather a
peculiar manner, by attacking an English convoy, and eventually escaping
the English by running into the port of Concarneau, believed to be
inaccessible. At that time it was an event for a French man-of-war to
reach home.
Jerome had incurred the anger of Napoleon by marrying a beautiful young
lady of Baltimore, a Mica Paterson, but, more obedient than Lucien, he
submitted to have this marriage annulled by his all-powerful brother,
and in reward he received the brand-new Kingdom of Westphalia, and the
hand of a daughter of the King of Wartemberg, "the cleverest King in
Europe," according to Napoleon. Jerome is said to have ruled rather more
as a Heliogabalus than a Solomon, but the new Kingdom had the advantage
of starting with good administrators, and with the example of "the
Code."
In 1812 Jerome was given the command of the right wing of the Grand Army
in its advance against Russia, but he did not fulfil the expectations
of his brother, and Davoust took the command instead. Every king feels
himself a born general: whatever else they cannot do, war is an art
which comes with the crown, and Jerome, unwilling to serve under a mere
Marshal, withdrew in disgust. In 1813 he had the good feeling and the
good sense to refuse the treacherous offer of the Allies to allow him
to retain his kingdom if he joined them against his brother, a snare his
sister Caroline fell into at Naples.
On the downfall of Napoleon, Jerome, as the Count of Gratz, went to
Switzerland, and then to Gratz and Trieste.
His wife, the ex-Queen Catherine, fell into the hands of Maubreuil, the
officer sent on a mysterious mission, believed to be intended for
the murder of Napoleon, but which only resulted in the robbery of the
Queen's jewels and of some 80,000 francs. The jewels were for the most
part recovered, being fished up from the bed of the Seine, but not the
cash.
In 1815 Jerome joined his brother, and appeared at the Champ de Mai. A
true Bonaparte, his vanity was much hurt, however, by having--he, a real
king--to sit on the back seat of the carriage, while his elder brother
Lucien; a mere Roman-prince, occupied a seat of honour by the side
of Napoleon. In the Waterloo campaign he was given the 6th division,
forming part of Reille's corps, General Guilleminot being sent with him
to prevent any of the awkwardnesses of 1812. His division was engaged
with the Prussians on the 15th of June, and at Quatre Bras he was
severely wounded. At Waterloo his division formed the extreme left of
the French infantry, opposite Hougomont, and was engaged in the struggle
for that post. Whatever his failings may have been, he is acknowledged
to have fought gallantly. After the battle he was given the command
of the army by his brother, and was told to cover the retreat to Laon,
which he reached on the 21st of June, with 18,000 infantry, 3000 cavalry
and two batteries which he had rallied. This, be it observed, is a
larger force than Ney told the Chambers even Grouchy (none of whose men
are included) could have, and Jerome's strength had swollen to 25,000
infantry and 6000 cavalry when he handed over the army to Soult at Laon.
Napoleon had intended to leave Jerome with the command of the army, but
he eventually took him to Paris.
When Napoleon left the country Jerome was assured by the ambassador
of Wurtemberg that he would find a refuge in the dominions of his
father-in-law; but when he arrived there he was informed that if he
did not wish to be, according to the original intentions of the Allies,
handed over to the Prussians, and separated from his wife, he must sign
an engagement to remain in Wurtemberg under strict surveillance. He was
then imprisoned at Guppingen, and afterwards at Ellwangen, where he was
not even allowed to write or receive letters except through the captain
of the chateau.
Part of Jerome's troubles came from the conduct of his wife Catherine,
who had the idea that, as she had been given in marriage by her father
to Jerome, as she had lived for seven years as his wife, and as she had
borne a child to him, she was really his wife, and bound to remain
with him in his misfortunes! The royal family of Wurtemberg, however,
following the illustrious example of that of Austria, looked on her past
life as a mere state of concubinage, useful to the family, and to be
respected while her husband could retain his kingdom, but which should
end the moment there was nothing more to be gained from Napoleon or his
brother. It was all proper and decorous to retain the title of King of
Wurtemberg, which the former Duke and then Elector had owed to the exile
of St. Helena, but King Frederick, and still less his son William, who
succeeded him in 1816, could not comprehend Catherine's clinging to her
husband when he had lost his kingdom. "I was a Queen; I am still a
wife and mother," wrote the Princess to her disgusted father. Another
complaint against this extraordinary Princess was that she actually saw
Las Cases on his return from St. Helena, and thus obtained news of the
exile.
After constant ill treatment Jerome and his wife, as the Count and
Countess of Montfort, a rank the King of Wurtemberg afterwards raised
to Prince, were allowed to proceed to Hainburg near Vienna, then to
Florence, and, later to Trieste, where Jerome was when his sister Elisa
died. In 1823 they were permitted to go to Rome, and in 1835 they went
to Lausanne, where his true-hearted wife died the same year. Jerome went
to Florence, and lived to see the revival of the Empire, and to once
more enjoy the rank of a French Prince. He died in 1860 at the chateau
of Villegenis in France, and was buried in the Invalides.
The mother of the Emperor, Letitia, in 1814, had retained her title
of Imperatrice Mere, and had retired to Rome. She then went to Elba
in June, and stayed there with her daughter Pauline until Napoleon had
sailed for France. On 2d March 1814 she went from Elba to San Vicenzo
near Leghorn, and then to Rome. Her son sent a frigate for her, the
'Melpomene', which was captured by the English 'Rivoli'; another vessel,
the 'Dryade', brought her to France, and she joined Napoleon in Paris.
We must have a regard for this simple old lady, who was always careful
and saving, only half believing in the stability of the Empire; and,
like a true mother, always most attentive to the most unfortunate of her
children. Her life had been full of startling changes; and it must have
been strange for the woman who had been hunted out of Corsica, flying
from her house just in time to save her life from the adherents of
Paoli, to find herself in grandeur in Paris. She saw her son just
before he left, as she thought, for America, and then retired to the
Rinuccini--now the Bonaparte-Palace at Rome, where she died in 1836.
She had been anxious to join Napoleon at St. Helena, and had refused, as
long as Napoleon was alive, to forgive her daughter Caroline, the wife
of Murat, for her abandonment of her brother. She was buried at Albano.
Letitia's youngest daughter, the beautiful but frail Pauline, Duchess of
Guastalla, married first to General Leclerc, and then to Prince Camille
Borgelle, was at Nice when her brother abdicated in 1814. She retired
with her mother to Rome, and in October 1814 went to Elba, staying there
till Napoleon left, except when she was sent to Naples with a message of
forgiveness for Murat. There was a characteristic scene between her and
Colonel Campbell when the English Commissioner arrived to find Napoleon
gone. Pauline professed ignorance till the last of her brother's
intentions, and pressed the Colonel's hand to her heart that he might
feel how agitated she was. "She did not appear to be so," says the
battered old Colonel, who seems to have been proof against her charms.
She then went to Rome, and later to Pisa. Her health was failing, and,
unable to join her brother in France, she sent him her only means of
assistance, her jewels, which were captured at Waterloo. Her offer to go
to St. Helena, repeated several times, was never accepted by Napoleon.
She died in 1825 at Florence, from consumption, reconciled to her
husband, from whom she had been separated since 1807. She was buried at
Sta Maria Maggiore, Rome.
Elisa, the eldest sister of Napoleon, the former Grand Duchess of
Tuscany, which Duchy she had ruled well, being a woman of considerable
talent, was the first of all to die. In 1814 she had been forced to fly
from her Government, and, accompanied by her husband, she had attempted
to reach France. Finding herself cut off by the Austrians; she took
shelter with Augereau's army, and then returned to Italy. She took the
title of Comtesse de Campignana, and retired to Trieste, near which
town, at the Chateau of Sant Andrea, under a wearisome surveillance,
she expired in 1820, watched by her husband, Felix Baeciocchi, and
her sister Caroline. Her monument is in the Bacciocchi Chapel in San
Petronio, Bologna.
Caroline, the wife of Murat, was the only one of the family untrue to
Napoleon. Very ambitious, and forgetting how completely she owed
her Kingdom of Naples to her brother, she had urged Murat in 1814 to
separate from Napoleon, and, still worse, to attack Eugène, who held the
north of Italy against the Austrians. She relied on the formal treaty
with Austria that Murat should retain his Kingdom of Naples, and she may
also have trusted to the good offices of her former admirer Metternich.
When the Congress of Vienna met, the French Minister, Talleyrand, at
once began to press for the removal of Murat. A trifling treaty was
not considered an obstacle to the Heaven-sent deliverers of Europe, and
Murat, believing his fate sealed, hearing of Napoleon's landing, and
urged on by a misleading letter from Joseph Bonaparte, at once marched
to attack the Austrians. He was easily routed by the Austrians under
Neipperg, the future husband of Maria Louisa. Murat fled to France, and
Caroline first took refuge in an English man-of-war, the 'Tremendous',
being, promised a free passage to England. She was, however, handed over
to the Austrians; who kept her in confinement at Hainburg near Vienna.
In October 1815 Murat landed in Calabria in a last wild attempt to
recover his throne. He was arrested and immediately shot. After his
murder Caroline, taking the title of Countess of Lipona (an anagram of
Napoli), was permitted to retire to Trieste with Elisa, Jerome, and his
wife. Caroline was almost without means of existence, the Neapolitan
Bourbons refusing even to give up the property she had brought there.
She married a General Macdonald. When Hortense was buried at Rueil
Caroline obtained permission to attend the sad ceremony. In 1838 she
went to France to try to obtain a pension, and succeeded in getting one
of 100,000 francs. She died from cancer in the stomach in 1839, and was
buried in the Campo Santo, Bologna.
Cardinal Fesch, the half-uncle of Napoleon, the Archbishop of Lyons, who
had fallen into disgrace with Napoleon for taking the side of the Pope
and refusing to accept the see of Paris, to which he was nominated by
Napoleon, had retired to Rome in 1814, where he remained till the
return of Napoleon, when he went to Paris, and accepted a peerage. After
Waterloo he again sought the protection of the Pope, and he remained at