Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte — Complete
same time been appointed to succeed M. Reinhart as Minister of Foreign
Affairs, obtained a private audience of the First Consul in his cabinet,
to which I was admitted. The observations of Talleyrand on this occasion
were highly agreeable to Bonaparte, and they made too deep an impression
on my mind to allow me to forget them.
"Citizen Consul," said he to him, "you have confided to me the office of
Minister for Foreign Affairs, and I will justify your confidence; but I
must declare to you that from this moment, I will not transact business
with any but yourself. This determination does not proceed from any vain
pride on my part, but is induced by a desire to serve France. In order
that France may be well governed, in order that there may be a unity of
action in the government, you must be First Consul, and the First Consul
must have the control over all that relates directly to politics;
that is to say, over the Ministry of the Interior, and the Ministry
of Police, for Internal Affairs, and over my department, for Foreign
Affairs; and, lastly, over the two great means of execution, the
military and naval forces. It will therefore be most convenient that the
Ministers of those five departments should transact business with you.
The Administration of Justice and the ordering of the Finances are
objects certainly connected with State politics by numerous links,
which, however, are not of so intimate a nature as those of the other
departments. If you will allow me, General, I should advise that the
control over the Administration of Justice be given to the Second
Consul, who is well versed in jurisprudence; and to the Third Consul,
who is equally well acquainted with Finance, the control over that
department. That will occupy and amuse them, and you, General, having
at your disposal all the vital parts of the government, will be able to
reach the end you aim at, the regeneration of France."
Bonaparte did not hear these remarkable words with indifference. They
were too much in accordance with his own secret wishes to be listened
to without pleasure; and he said to me as soon as Talleyrand had taken
leave, "Do you know, Bourrienne, I think Talleyrand gives good advice.
He is a man of great understanding."--"Such is the opinion," I replied,
"of all who know him."--"He is perfectly right." Afterwards he added,
smiling, "Tallyrand is evidently a shrewd man. He has penetrated my
designs. What he advises you know I am anxious to do. But again I say,
he is right; one gets on quicker by oneself. Lebrun is a worthy man,
but he has no policy in his head; he is a book-maker. Cambacérès carries
with him too many traditions of the Revolution. My government must be an
entirely new one."
Talleyrand's advice had been so punctually followed that even on the
occasion of the installation of the Consular Government, while Bonaparte
was receiving all the great civil and military officers of the State
in the hall of presentation, Cambacérès and Lebrun stood by more like
spectators of the scene than two colleagues of the First Consul. The
Minister of the Interior presented the civil authorities of Paris; the
Minister of War, the staff of the 17th military division; the Minister
of Marine, several naval officers; and the staff of the Consular Guard
was presented by Murat. As our Consular republicans were not exactly
Spartans, the ceremony of the presentations was followed by grand
dinner-parties. The First Consul entertained at his table, the two other
Consuls, the Ministers, and the Presidents of the great bodies of the
State. Murat treated the heads of the army; and the members of the
Council of State, being again seated in their hackney-coaches with
covered numbers, drove off to dine with Lucien.
Before taking possession of the Tuileries we had frequently gone there
to see that the repairs, or rather the whitewashing, which Bonaparte had
directed to be done, was executed. On our first visit, seeing a number
of red caps of liberty painted on the walls, he said to M. Lecomte, at
that time the architect in charge, "Get rid of all these things; I do
not like to see such rubbish."
The First Consul gave directions himself for what little alterations he
wanted in his own apartments. A state bed--not that of Louis XVI.--was
placed in the chamber next his cabinet, on the south side, towards the
grand staircase of the Pavilion of Flora. I may as well mention here
that he very seldom occupied that bed, for Bonaparte was very simple in
his manner of living in private, and was not fond of state, except as
a means of imposing on mankind. At the Luxembourg, at Malmaison, and
during the first period that he occupied the Tuileries, Bonaparte, if I
may speak in the language of common life, always slept with his wife. He
went every evening down to Josephine by a small staircase leading from a
wardrobe attached to his cabinet, and which had formerly been the chapel
of Maria de Medici. I never went to Bonaparte's bedchamber but by this
staircase; and when he came to our cabinet it was always by the wardrobe
which I have mentioned. The door opened opposite the only window of our
room, and it commanded a view of the garden.
As for our cabinet, where so many great, and also small events were
prepared, and where I passed so many hours of my life, I can, even now,
give the most minute description of it to those who like such details.
There were two tables. The best, which was the First Consul's, stood in
the middle of the room, and his armchair was turned with its back to the
fireplace, having the window on the right. To the right of this again
was a little closet where Duroc sat, through which we could communicate
with the clerk of the office and the grand apartments of the Court. When
the First Consul was seated at his table in his chair (the arms of which
he so frequently mutilated with his penknife) he had a large bookcase
opposite to him. A little to the right, on one side of the bookcase, was
another door, opening into the cabinet which led directly to the state
bedchamber which I have mentioned. Thence we passed into the grand
Presentation Saloon, on the ceiling of which Lebrun had painted a
likeness of Louis XIV. A tri-coloured cockade placed on the forehead
of the great King still bore witness of the imbecile turpitude of the
Convention. Lastly came the hall of the Guards, in front of the grand
staircase of the Pavilion of Flora.
My writing-table, which was extremely plain, stood near the window, and
in summer I had a view of the thick foliage of the chestnut-trees; but
in order to see the promenaders in the garden I was obliged to raise
myself from my seat. My back was turned to the General's side, so that
it required only a slight movement of the head to speak to each other.
Duroc was seldom in his little cabinet, and that was the place where I
gave some audiences. The Consular cabinet, which afterwards became the
Imperial, has left many impressions on my mind; and I hope the reader,
in going through these volumes, will not think that they have been of
too slight a description.
CHAPTER XXXIII.
1800.
The Tuileries--Royalty in perspective--Remarkable observation--
Presentations--Assumption of the prerogative of mercy--M. Defeu--
M. de Frotte--Georges Cadoudal's audience of Bonaparte--Rapp's
precaution and Bonaparte's confidence--The dignity of France--
Napper Tandy and Blackwell delivered up by the Senate of Hamburg--
Contribution in the Egyptian style--Valueless bill--Fifteen thousand
francs in the drawer of a secretaire--Josephine's debts--Evening
walks with Bonaparte.
The morning after that ardently wished-for day on which we took
possession of the Palace of the Kings of France I observed to Bonaparte
on entering his chamber, "Well, General, you have got here without much
difficulty, and with the applause of the people! Do you remember what
you said to me in the Rue St. Anne nearly two years ago?"--"Ay, true
enough, I recollect. You see what it is to have the mind set on a thing.
Only two years have gone by! Don't you think we have not worked badly
since that time? Upon the whole I am very well content. Yesterday passed
off well. Do you imagine that all those who came to flatter me were
sincere? No, certainly not: but the joy of the people was real. They
know what is right. Besides, consult the grand thermometer of opinion,
the price of the funds: on the 17th Brumaire at 11 francs, on the 20th
at 16 and to-day at 21. In such a state of things I may let the Jacobins
prate as they like. But let them not talk too loudly either!"
As soon as he was dressed we went to look through the Gallery of Diana
and examine the statues which had been placed there by his orders.
We ended our morning's work by taking complete possession of our new
residence. I recollect Bonaparte saying to me, among other things, "To
be at the Tuileries, Bourrienne, is not all. We must stay here. Who,
in Heaven's name, has not already inhabited this palace? Ruffians,
conventionalists! But hold! there is your brother's house! Was it not
from those windows I saw the Tuileries besieged, and the good Louis XVI.
carried off? But be assured they will not come here again!"
The Ambassadors and other foreign Ministers then in Paris were presented
to the First Consul at a solemn audience. On this occasion all the
ancient ceremonials belonging to the French Court were raked up, and in
place of chamberlains and a grand master of ceremonies a Counsellor
of State, M. Benezech, who was once Minister for Foreign Affairs,
officiated.
When the Ambassadors had all arrived M. Benezech conducted them into the
cabinet, in which were the three Consuls, the Ministers, and the Council
of State. The Ambassadors presented their credentials to the First
Consul, who handed them to the Minister for Foreign Affairs. These
presentations were followed by others; for example, the Tribunal of
Cassation, over which the old advocate, Target, who refused to defend
Louis XVI., then presided. All this passed in view of the three Consuls;
but the circumstance which distinguished the First Consul from
his colleagues was, that the official personages, on leaving the
audience-chamber, were conducted to Madame Bonaparte's apartments, in
imitation of the old practice of waiting on the Queen after presentation
to the King.
Thus old customs of royalty crept by degrees into the former abodes
of royalty. Amongst the rights attached to the Crown, and which the
Constitution of the year VIII. did not give to the First Consul, was one
which he much desired to possess, and which, by the most happy of all
usurpations, he arrogated to himself. This was the right of granting
pardon. Bonaparte felt a real pleasure in saving men under the sentence
of the law; and whenever the imperious necessity of his policy, to
which, in truth, he sacrificed everything, permitted it, he rejoiced
in the exercise of mercy. It would seem as if he were thankful to the
persons to whom he rendered such service merely because he had given
them occasion to be thankful to him. Such was the First Consul: I do not
speak of the Emperor. Bonaparte, the First Consul, was accessible to
the solicitations of friendship in favour of persons placed under
proscription. The following circumstance, which interested me much,
affords an incontestable proof of what I state:--
Whilst we were still at the Luxembourg, M. Defeu, a French emigrant, was
taken in the Tyrol with arms in his hand by the troops of the Republic.
He was carried to Grenoble, and thrown into the military prison of
that town. In the course of January General Ferino, then commanding at
Grenoble, received orders to put the young emigrant on his trial. The
laws against emigrants taken in arms were terrible, and the judges dared