Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte — Complete
Arch-Chancellor of the Empire, 1804; Duc de Parma, 1806; Minister of
Justice during the 'Cent Jours': took great part in all the legal
and administrative projects of the Consulate and Empire.]--
and Lebrun
--[Charles Francois Lebrun (1757-1824). Deputy to the National
Assembly, and member of the Council of the Five Hundred; Third
Consul, 25th December 1799; Arch-Treasurer of the Empire, 1804; Duc
de Plaisance, 1806; Governor-General of Holland, 1806; Lieutenant-
Governor of Holland, 1810 to 1813; chiefly engaged in financial
measures]--
were almost utter strangers to the intrigues which preceded the 18th
Brumaire. Bonaparte had cast his eyes on the Minister of Justice to be
one of his colleagues when he should be at liberty to name them, because
his previous conduct had pledged him as a partisan of the Revolution. To
him Bonaparte added Lebrun, to counterbalance the first choice. Lebrun
was distinguished for honourable conduct and moderate principles. By
selecting these two men Bonaparte hoped to please every one; besides,
neither of them were able to contend against his fixed determination and
ambitious views.
What petty intrigues marked the 17th Brumaire! On that day I dined with
Bonaparte; and after dinner he said, "I have promised to dine to-morrow
with Gohier; but, as you may readily suppose, I do not intend going.
However, I am very sorry for his obstinacy. By way of restoring his
confidence Josephine is going to invite him to breakfast with us
to-morrow. It will be impossible for him to suspect anything. I saw
Barras this morning, and left him much disturbed. He asked me to
return and visit him to-night. I promised to do so, but I shall not go.
To-morrow all will be over. There is but little time; he expects me at
eleven o'clock to-night. You shall therefore take my carriage, go
there, send in my name, and then enter yourself. Tell him that a severe
headache confines me to my bed, but that I will be with him without
fail tomorrow. Bid him not be alarmed, for all will soon be right again.
Elude his questions as much as possible; do not stay long, and come to
me on your return."
At precisely eleven o'clock I reached the residence of Barras, in
General Bonaparte's carriage. Solitude and silence prevailed in all
the apartments through which I passed to Barras' cabinet. Bonaparte was
announced, and when Barras saw me enter instead of him, he manifested
the greatest astonishment and appeared much cast down. It was easy
to perceive that he looked on himself as a lost man. I executed my
commission, and stayed only a short time. I rose to take my leave, and
he said, while showing me out, "I see that Bonaparte is deceiving me: he
will not come again. He has settled everything; yet to me he owes all."
I repeated that he would certainly come tomorrow, but he shook his head
in a way which plainly denoted that he did not believe me. When I gave
Bonaparte an account of my visit he appeared much pleased. He told me
that Joseph was going to call that evening on Bernadotte, and to ask him
to come tomorrow. I replied that, from all I knew, he would be of no use
to him. "I believe so too," said he; "but he can no longer injure me,
and that is enough. Well, good-night; be here at seven in the morning."
It was then one o'clock.
I was with him a little before seven o'clock on the morning of the
18th Brumaire, and on my arrival I found a great number of generals and
officers assembled. I entered Bonaparte's chamber, and found him already
up--a thing rather unusual with him. At this moment he was as calm as
on the approach of a battle. In a few moments Joseph and Bernadotte
arrived. Joseph had not found him at home on the preceding evening, and
had called for him that morning. I was surprised to see Bernadotte
in plain clothes, and I stepped up to him and said in a low voice,
"General, every one here, except you and I, is in uniform."--"Why should
I be in uniform?" said he. As he uttered these words Bonaparte, struck
with the same surprise as myself, stopped short while speaking to
several persons around him, and turning quickly towards Bernadotte said,
"How is this? you are not in uniform!"--"I never am on a morning when
I am not on duty," replied Bernadotte.--"You will be on duty
presently."--"I have not heard a word of it: I should have received my
orders sooner."
Bonaparte then led Bernadotte into an adjoining room. Their conversation
was not long, for there was no time to spare.
On the other hand, by the influence of the principal conspirators the
removal of the legislative body to St. Cloud was determined on the
morning of the 18th Brumaire, and the command of the army was given to
Bonaparte.
All this time Barras was no doubt waiting for Bonaparte, and Madame
Bonaparte was expecting Gohier to breakfast. At Bonaparte's were
assembled all the generals who were devoted to him. I never saw so
great a number before in the Rue de la Victoire. They were all, except
Bernadotte, in full uniform; and there were, besides, half a dozen
persons there initiated in the secrets of the day. The little hotel of
the conqueror of Italy was much too small for such an assemblage,
and several persons were standing in the court-yard. Bonaparte was
acquainted with the decree of the Council of the Ancients, and only
waited for its being brought to him before he should mount his horse.
That decree was adopted in the Council of the Ancients by what may be
called a false majority, for the members of the Council were summoned at
different hours, and it was so contrived that sixty or eighty of them,
whom Lucien and his friends had not been able to gain over, should not
receive their notices in time.
As soon as the message from the Council of the Ancients arrived
Bonaparte requested all the officers at his house to follow him. At that
announcement a few who were in ignorance of what was going on did not
follow--at least I saw two groups separately leave the hotel. Bernadotte
said to me, "I shall stay with you." I perceived there was a good deal
of suspicion in his manner. Bonaparte, before going down the stairs
which led from the small round dining-room into the courtyard, returned
quickly to bid Bernadotte follow him. He would not, and Bonaparte then
said to me, while hurrying off, "Gohier is not come--so much the worse
for him," and leaped on his horse. Scarcely was he off when Bernadotte
left me. Josephine and I being now left alone, she acquainted me with
her anxiety. I assured her that everything had been so well prepared
that success was certain. She felt much interest about Gohier on
account of her friendship for his wife. She asked me whether I was well
acquainted with Gohier. "You know, Madame," replied I, "that we have
been only twenty days in Paris, and that during that time I have only
gone out to sleep in the Rue Martel. I have seen M. Gohier several
times, when he came to visit the General, and have talked to him about
the situation of our affairs in Switzerland, Holland, France, and other
political matters, but I never exchanged a word with him as to what is
now going on. This is the whole extent of my acquaintance with him."
"I am sorry for it," resumed Josephine, "because I should have asked
you to write to him, and beg him to make no stir, but imitate Sieyès
and Roger, who will voluntarily retire, and not to join Barras, who is
probably at this very moment forced to do so. Bonaparte has told me that
if Gohier voluntarily resigns, he will do everything for him." I believe
Josephine communicated directly with the President of the Directory
through a friend of Madame Gohier's.
Gohier and Moulins, no longer depending on Sieyès and Roger Ducos,
waited for their colleague, Barras, in the hall of the Directory, to
adopt some measure on the decree for removing the Councils to St. Cloud.
But they were disappointed; for Barras, whose eyes had been opened by my
visit on the preceding night, did not join them. He had been invisible
to his colleagues from the moment that Bruix and M. de Talleyrand had
informed him of the reality of what he already suspected, and insisted
on his retirement.
On the 18th Brumaire a great number of military, amounting to about
10,000 men, were assembled in the gardens of the Tuileries, and were
reviewed by Bonaparte, accompanied by Generals Beurnonville, Moreau,
and Macdonald. Bonaparte read to them the decree just issued by the
commission of inspectors of the Council of the Ancients, by which the
legislative body was removed to St. Cloud; and by which he himself
was entrusted with the execution of that decree, and appointed to the
command of all the military force in Paris, and afterwards delivered an
address to the troops.
Whilst Bonaparte was haranguing the soldiers, the Council of the
Ancients published an address to the French people, in which it was
declared that the seat of the legislative body was changed, in order
to put down the factions, whose object was to control the national
representation.
While all this was passing abroad I was at the General's house in the
Rue de la Victoire; which I never left during the whole day. Madame
Bonaparte and I were not without anxiety in Bonaparte's absence. I
learned from Josephine that Joseph's wife had received a visit from
Adjutant-General Rapatel, who had been sent by Bonaparte and Moreau to
bring her husband to the Tuileries. Joseph was from home at the time,
and so the message was useless. This circumstance, however, awakened
hopes which we had scarcely dared to entertain. Moreau was then in
accordance with Bonaparte, for Rapatel was sent in the name of both
Generals. This alliance, so long despaired of, appeared to augur
favourably. It was one of Bonaparte's happy strokes. Moreau, who was a
slave to military discipline, regarded his successful rival only as a
chief nominated by the Council of the Ancients. He received his orders
and obeyed them. Bonaparte appointed him commander of the guard of the
Luxembourg, where the Directors were under confinement. He accepted the
command, and no circumstance could have contributed more effectually
to the accomplishment of Bonaparte's views and to the triumph of his
ambition.
At length Bonaparte, whom we had impatiently expected, returned. Almost
everything had gone well with him, for he had had only to do with
soldiers. In the evening he said to me, "I am sure that the committee of
inspectors of the hall are at this very moment engaged in settling what
is to be done at St. Cloud to-morrow. It is better to let them decide
the matter, for by that means their vanity is flattered. I will obey
orders which I have myself concerted." What Bonaparte was speaking of
had been arranged nearly two or three days previously. The committee of
inspectors was under the influence of the principal conspirators.
In the evening of this anxious day, which was destined to be succeeded
by a stormy morrow, Bonaparte, pleased with having gained over Moreau,
spoke to me of Bernadotte's visit in the morning.--"I saw," said he,
"that you were as much astonished as I at Bernadotte's behaviour. A
general out of uniform! He might as well have come in slippers. Do you
know what passed when I took him aside? I told him all; I thought
that the best way. I assured him that his Directory was hated, and his
Constitution worn out; that it was necessary to turn them all off, and
give another impulse to the government. 'Go and put on your uniform said
I: I cannot wait for you long. You will find me at the Tuileries, with
the rest of our comrades. Do not depend on Moreau, Beurnonville, or the
generals of your party. When you know them better you will find that
they promise much but perform little. Do not trust them.' Bernadotte