Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte — Complete
with elegance and reserve, qualities not often met with at that period.
Duroc had been with us in Italy, in Egypt, and on board the 'Muiron',
and the Consul easily guessed that the King of Prussia would be
delighted to hear from an eye-witness the events of Bonaparte's
campaigns, especially the siege of St. Jean d'Acre, and the scenes which
took place during the months of March and May at Jaffa. Besides, the
First Consul considered it indispensable that such circumstantial
details should be given in a way to leave no doubt of their correctness.
His intentions were fully realised; for Duroc told me, on his return,
that nearly the whole of the conversation he had with the King turned
upon St. Jean d'Acre and Jaffa. He stayed nearly two whole hours with
his Majesty, who, the day after, gave him an invitation to dinner. When
this intelligence arrived at the Luxembourg I could perceive that the
Chief of the Republic was flattered that one of his aides de camp should
have sat at table with a King, who some years after was doomed to wait
for him in his antechamber at Tilsit.
Duroc never spoke on politics to the King of Prussia, which was very
fortunate, for, considering his age and the exclusively military life
he had led, he could scarcely have been expected to avoid blunders.
Some time later, after the death of Paul I., he was sent to congratulate
Alexander on his accession to the throne. Bonaparte's design in thus
making choice of Duroc was to introduce to the Courts of Europe, by
confidential missions, a young man to whom he was much attached, and
also to bring him forward in France. Duroc went on his third mission to
Berlin after the war broke out with Austria. He often wrote to me, and
his letters convinced me how much he had improved himself within a short
time.
Another circumstance which happened at the commencement of the Consulate
affords an example of Bonaparte's inflexibility when he had once formed
a determination. In the spring of 1799, when we were in Egypt, the
Directory gave to General Latour-Foissac, a highly distinguished
officer, the command of Mantua, the taking of which had so powerfully
contributed to the glory of the conqueror of Italy. Shortly after
Latour's appointment to this important post the Austrians besieged
Mantua. It was well known that the garrison was supplied with provisions
and ammunition for a long resistance; yet, in the month of July it
surrendered to the Austrians. The act of capitulation contained a
curious article, viz. "General Latour-Foissac and his staff shall be
conducted as prisoners to Austria; the garrison shall be allowed to
return to France." This distinction between the general and the troops
entrusted to his command, and at the same time the prompt surrender of
Mantua, were circumstances which, it must be confessed, were calculated
to excite suspicions of Latour-Foissac. The consequence was, when
Bernadotte was made War Minister he ordered an inquiry into the
general's conduct by a court-martial. Latour-Foissac had no sooner
returned to France than he published a justificatory memorial, in which
he showed the impossibility of his having made a longer defence when he
was in want of many objects of the first necessity.
Such was the state of the affair on Bonaparte's elevation to the
Consular power. The loss of Mantua, the possession of which had cost
him so many sacrifices, roused his indignation to so high a pitch that
whenever the subject was mentioned he could find no words to express his
rage. He stopped the investigation of the court-martial, and issued a
violent decree against Latour-Foissac even before his culpability had
been proved. This proceeding occasioned much discussion, and was
very dissatisfactory to many general officers, who, by this arbitrary
decision, found themselves in danger of forfeiting the privilege of
being tried by their natural judges whenever they happened to displease
the First Consul. For my own part, I must say that this decree against
Latour-Foissac was one which I saw issued with considerable regret.
I was alarmed for the consequences. After the lapse of a few days I
ventured to point out to him the undue severity of the step he had
taken; I reminded him of all that had been said in Latour-Foissac's
favour, and tried to convince him how much more just it would be to
allow the trial to come to a conclusion. "In a country," said I, "like
France, where the point of honour stands above every thing, it is
impossible Foissac can escape condemnation if he be culpable."--"Perhaps
you are right, Bourrienne," rejoined he; "but the blow is struck; the
decree is issued. I have given the same explanation to every one; but
I cannot so suddenly retrace my steps. To retro-grade is to be lost. I
cannot acknowledge myself in the wrong. By and by we shall see what
can be done. Time will bring lenity and pardon. At present it would be
premature." Such, word for word, was Bonaparte's reply. If with this be
compared what he said on the subject at St. Helena it will be found
that his ideas continued nearly unchanged; the only difference is
that, instead of the impetuosity of 1800, he expressed himself with the
calmness which time and adversity naturally produce.
--["It was," says the 'Memorial of St. Helena', "an illegal and
tyrannical act, but still it was a necessary evil. It was the fault
of the law. He was a hundred, nay, a thousand fold guilty, and yet
it was doubtful whether he would be condemned. We therefore
assailed him with the shafts of honour and public opinion. Yet I
repeat it was a tyrannical act, and one of those violent measures
which are at times necessary in great nations and in extraordinary
circumstances."]--
Bonaparte, as I have before observed, loved contrasts; and I remember
at the very time he was acting so violently against Latour-Foissac he
condescended to busy himself about a company of players which he wished
to send to Egypt, or rather that he pretended to wish to send there,
because the announcement of such a project conveyed an impression of
the prosperous condition of our Oriental colony. The Consuls gravely
appointed the Minister of the Interior to execute this business, and
the Minister in his turn delegated his powers to Florence, the actor. In
their instructions to the Minister the Consuls observed that it would
be advisable to include some female dancers in the company; a suggestion
which corresponds with Bonaparte's note, in which were specified all
that he considered necessary for the Egyptian expedition.
The First Consul entertained singular notions respecting literary
property. On his hearing that a piece, entitled 'Misanthropie
et Repentir', had been brought out at the Odeon, he said to me,
"Bourrienne, you have been robbed."--"I, General? how?"--"You have been
robbed, I tell you, and they are now acting your piece." I have already
mentioned that during my stay at Warsaw I amused myself with translating
a celebrated play of Kotzebue. While we were in Italy I lent Bonaparte
my translation to read, and he expressed himself much pleased with it.
He greatly admired the piece, and often went to see it acted at the
Odeon. On his return he invariably gave me fresh reasons for my claiming
what he was pleased to call my property. I represented to him that the
translation of a foreign work belonged to any one who chose to execute
it. He would not, however, give up his point, and I was obliged to
assure him that my occupations in his service left me no time to engage
in a literary lawsuit. He then exacted a promise from me to
translate Goethe's 'Werther'. I told him it was already done, though
indifferently, and that I could not possibly devote to the subject the
time it merited. I read over to him one of the letters I had translated
into French, and which he seemed to approve.
That interval of the Consular Government during which Bonaparte remained
at the Luxembourg may be called the preparatory Consulate. Then were
sown the seeds of the great events which he meditated, and of those
institutions with which he wished to mark his possession of power.
He was then, if I may use the expression, two individuals in one: the
Republican general, who was obliged to appear the advocate of liberty
and the principles of the Revolution; and the votary of ambition,
secretly plotting the downfall of that liberty and those principles.
I often wondered at the consummate address with which he contrived
to deceive those who were likely to see through his designs. This
hypocrisy, which some, perhaps, may call profound policy, was
indispensable to the accomplishment of his projects; and sometimes, as
if to keep himself in practice, he would do it in matters of secondary
importance. For example, his opinion of the insatiable avarice of Sieyès
is well known; yet when he proposed, in his message to the Council of
Ancients, to give his colleague, under the title of national recompense,
the price of his obedient secession, it was, in the words of the
message, a recompense worthily bestowed on his disinterested virtues.
While at the Luxembourg Bonaparte showed, by a Consular act, his hatred
of the liberty of the press above all liberties, for he loved none. On
the 27th Nivôse the Consuls, or rather the First Consul, published a
decree, the real object of which was evidently contrary to its implied
object.
This decree stated that:
The Consuls of the Republic, considering that some of the journals
printed at Paris are instruments in the hands of the enemies of the
Republic, over the safety of which the Government is specially entrusted
by the people of France to watch, decree--
That the Minister of Police shall, during the continuation of the war,
allow only the following journals to be printed and published, viz.
(list of 20 publications)
.....and those papers which are exclusively devoted to science, art,
literature, commerce, and advertisements.
Surely this decree may well be considered as preparatory; and the
fragment I have quoted may serve as a standard for measuring the
greater part of those acts by which Bonaparte sought to gain, for the
consolidation of his power, what he seemed to be seeking solely for the
interest of the friends of the Republic. The limitation to the period
of the continuance of the war had also a certain provisional air which
afforded hope for the future. But everything provisional is, in
its nature, very elastic; and Bonaparte knew how to draw it out ad
infinitum. The decree, moreover, enacted that if any of the uncondemned
journals should insert articles against the sovereignty of the people
they would be immediately suppressed. In truth, great indulgence was
shown on this point, even after the Emperor's coronation.
The presentation of swords and muskets of honour also originated at the
Luxembourg; and this practice was, without doubt, a preparatory step to
the foundation of the Legion of Honour.
--["Armes d'honneur," decreed 25th December 1799. Muskets for
infantry, carbines for cavalry, grenades for artillery, swords for
the officers. Gouvion St. Cyr received the first sword (Thiers,
tome i. p. 126).]--
A grenadier sergeant, named Léon Aune, who had been included in the
first distribution, easily obtained permission to write to the First
Consul to thank him. Bonaparte, wishing to answer him in his own name,
dictated to me the following letter for Aune:--
I have received your letter, my brave comrade. You needed not to
have told me of your exploits, for you are the bravest grenadier in
the whole army since the death of Benezete. You received one of the
hundred sabres I distributed to the army, and all agreed you most
deserved it.
I wish very much again to see you. The War Minister sends you an