Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte — Complete
Piedmont; he had ever since cherished the wish to unite that rich
and fertile country to the French territory because some Piedmontese
provinces had been possessed by Louis XIV. That monarch was the only
king whom the First Consul really admired. "If," said he one day, "Louis
XIV. had not been born a king, he would have been a great man. But
he did not know mankind; he could not know them, for he never knew
misfortune." He admired the resolution of the old King, who would rather
bury himself under the ruins of the monarchy than submit to degrading
conditions, after having commanded the sovereigns of Europe. I recollect
that Bonaparte was extremely pleased to see in the reports which he
ordered to be made that in Casal, and in the valleys of Pignerol,
Latour, and Luzerne, there still existed many traces of the period when
those countries belonged to France; and that the French language was yet
preserved there. He already began to identify himself with the past;
and abusing the old kings of France was not the way to conciliate his
favour.
The First Consul appointed for the government of Piedmont a Council
which, as may naturally be imagined; he composed of those Piedmontese
who were the declared partisans of France. He stated as the grounds
of this arrangement that it was to give to Piedmont a new proof of the
affection and attachment of the French people. He afterwards
appointed General Dupont President of the Council, with the title of
Minister-Extraordinary of the French government. I will here mention a
secret step taken by Bonaparte towards the overthrowing of the Republic.
In making the first draught of General Dupont's appointment I
had mechanically written, "Minister-Extraordinary of the French
Republic."--"No! no!" said Bonaparte, "not of the Republic; say of the
Government."
On his return to Paris the First Consul gave almost incredible proofs of
his activity. The day after his arrival he promulgated a great number
of decrees, and afterwards allotted the rewards to his soldiers. He
appointed Kellerman General of division which, on every principle of
justice, he ought to have done on the field of battle. He distributed
sabres of honour, with the following inscription, highly complimentary
to himself:--
"Battle of Maringo,--[spelt for some time, I do not know why, as,
Maringo--Bourrienne]--commanded in person by the First Consul.
--Given by the Government of the Republic to General Lannes."
Similar sabres where presented to Generals Victor, Watrin, Gardanne, and
Murat; and sabres of less value to other officers: and also muskets and
drumsticks of honour to the soldiers and drummers who had distinguished
themselves at Marengo, or in the army of the Rhine; for Bonaparte took
care that the officers and men who had fought under Moreau should be
included among those to whom the national rewards were presented. He
even had a medal struck to perpetuate the memory of the entry of the
French army into Munich. It is worthy of remark that while official
fabrications and exaggerated details of facts were published respecting
Marengo and the short campaign of Italy, by a feigned modesty the
victorious army of Marengo received the unambitious title of 'Army of
Reserve'. By this artifice the honour of the Constitution was saved. The
First Consul had not violated it. If he had marched to the field,
and staked everything on a chance it was merely accidentally, for he
commanded only an "Army of Reserve," which nevertheless he had greeted
with the title of Grand Army before he entered upon the campaign. It
is scarcely conceivable that Bonaparte, possessing as he did an
extraordinary mind, should have descended to such pitiful artifices.
--[ Thiers (tome. vi., p. 70) says the title Grande Armee was first
given by Napoleon to the force prepared in 1805 for the campaign
against Austria. The Constitution forbad the First Consul to
command the armies in person. Hence the title, "Army of Reserve,"
gives to the force which fought Marengo.]--
Even foreigners and prisoners were objects of Bonaparte's designing
intentions. I recollect one evening his saying to me; "Bourrienne, write
to the Minister of War, and tell him to select a fine brace of pistols,
of the Versailles manufacture, and send them, in my name, to General
Zach. He dined with me to-day, and highly praised our manufacture of
arms. I should like to give him a token of remembrance; besides--the
matter will be talked of at Vienna, and may perhaps do good!"
As soon as the news of the battle of Marengo reached Paris Lucien
Bonaparte, Minister of the Interior, ordered preparations for the
festival, fixed for the 14th of July, in commemoration of the first
Federation. This festival and that of the 1st Vendemiaire were the only
ones preserved by the Consular Government. Indeed, in those memorable
days, when the Revolution appeared in its fairest point of view, France
had never known such joy as that to which the battle of Marengo gave
rise. Still, amidst all this popular transport there was a feeling of
regret. The fame of Desaix, his heroic character, his death, the words
attributed to him and believed to be true, caused mourning to be mingled
with joy. It was agreed to open a subscription for erecting a national
monument to his memory. A reflection naturally arises here upon the
difference between the period referred to and the present time. France
has endowed with nearly a million the children of one of her greatest
orators and most eloquent defenders of public liberty, yet, for the
monument to the memory of Desaix scarcely 20,000 francs were subscribed.
Does not this form a singular contrast with the patriotic munificence
displayed at the death of General Foy? The pitiful monument to Desaix,
on the Place Dauphins, sufficiently attests the want of spirit on the
part of the subscribers. Bonaparte, who was much dissatisfied with it,
gave the name of Desaix to a new quay, the first stone of which was laid
with great solemnity on the 14th of July.
On that day the crowd was immense in the Champ-de-Mars and in the
Temple of Mars, the name which at that the Church of the Invalides still
preserved. Lucien delivered a speech on the encouraging prospects of
France, and Lannes made an appropriate address on presenting to the
Government the flags taken at Marengo. Two more followed; one from an
aide de camp of Massena, and the other from an aide de camp of Lecourbe;
and after the distribution of some medals the First Consul then
delivered the following address:--
CITIZENS! SOLDIERS!--The flags presented to the Government, in the
presence of the people of this immense capital, attest at once the
genius of the Commanders-in-Chief Moreau, Massena, and Berthier; the
military talents of the generals, their lieutenants; and bravery of
the French soldiers.
On your return to the camp tell your comrades that for the 1st
Vendemiaire, when we shall celebrate the anniversary of the
Republic, the French people expect either peace or, if the enemy
obstinately refuse it, other flags, the fruit of fresh victories.
After this harangue of the First Consul, in which he addressed to the
military in the name of the people, and ascribed to Berthier the glory
of Marengo, a hymn was chanted, the words of which were written by M. de
Fontanes and the music composed by Mehul. But what was most remarkable
in this fete was neither the poetry, music, nor even the panegyrical
eloquence of Lucien,--it was the arrival at the Champ-de-Mars, after the
ceremony at the Invalides, of the Consular Guard returning from Marengo.
I was at a window of the Ecole-Militaire, and I can never forget the
commotion, almost electrical, which made the air resound with cries of
enthusiasm at their appearance. These soldiers did not defile before
the First Consul in fine uniforms as at a review. Leaving the field of
battle when the firing ceased, they had crossed Lombardy, Piedmont, Mont
Cenis, Savoy, and France in the space of twenty-nine days. They appeared
worn by the fatigue of a long journey, with faces browned by the summer
sun of Italy, and with their arms and clothing showing the effects of
desperate struggles. Do you wish to have an idea of their appearance?
You will find a perfect type in the first grenadier put by Gerard at one
side of his picture of the battle of Austerlitz.
At the time of this fete, that is to say, in the middle of the month
of July, the First Consul could not have imagined that the moderate
conditions he had proposed after the victory would not be accepted
by Austria. In the hope, therefore, of a peace which could not but be
considered probable, he, for the first time since the establishment of
the Consular Government, convoked the deputies of the departments, and
appointed their time of assembling in Paris for the 1st Vendemiaire,
a day which formed the close of one remarkable century and marked the
commencement of another.
The remains of Marshal Turenne; to which Louis XIV. had awarded the
honours of annihilation by giving them a place among the royal tombs in
the vaults of St. Denis, had been torn from their grave at the time
of the sacrilegious violation of the tombs. His bones, mingled
indiscriminately with others, had long lain in obscurity in a garret of
the College of Medicine when M. Lenoir collected and restored them
to the ancient tomb of Turenne in the Mussee des Petits Augustins.
Bonaparte resolved to enshrine these relics in that sculptured marble
with which the glory of Turenne could so well dispense. This was
however, intended as a connecting link between the past days of
France and the future to which he looked forward. He thought that the
sentiments inspired by the solemn honours rendered to the memory of
Turenne would dispose the deputies of the departments to receive with
greater enthusiasm the pacific communications he hoped to be able to
make.
However, the negotiations did not take the favourable turn which the
First Consul had expected; and, notwithstanding all the address of
Lucien, the communication was not heard without much uneasiness. But
Lucien had prepared a speech quite to the taste of the First Consul.
After dilating for some time on the efforts of the Government to obtain
peace he deplored the tergiversations of Austria, accused the fatal
influence of England, and added in a more elevated and solemn tone,
"At the very moment when, the Consuls were leaving the Palace of the
Government a courier arrived bearing despatches which the First Consul
has directed me to communicate to you." He then read a note declaring
that the Austrian Government consented to surrender to France the three
fortresses of Ulm, Philipsburg, and Ingolstadt. This was considered as a
security for the preliminaries of peace being speedily signed. The
news was received with enthusiasm, and that anxious day closed in a way
highly gratifying to the First Consul.
Whilst victory confirmed in Italy the destinies of the First Consul, his
brothers were more concerned about their own interests than the affairs
of France. They loved money as much as Bonaparte loved glory. A letter
from Lucien to his brother Joseph, which I shall subjoin, shows how
ready they always were to turn to their own advantage the glory and
fortune of him to whom they were indebted for all their importance.
I found this letter among my papers, but I cannot tell why and how I
preserved it. It is interesting, inasmuch as it shows, the opinion that
family of future kings entertained of their own situation, and of what
their fate would have been had Bonaparte, like Desaix, fallen on the
field of Marengo. It is, besides, curious to observe the philosopher
Lucien causing Te Deum, to be chanted with the view of influencing