Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte — Complete
the cause of those whom he thought injured, and honestly repelled
accusations which he knew to be false. These moral qualities; joined to
an agreeable person and elegant manners, rendered him a very superior
man.
The year 1801 was, moreover, marked by the fatal creation of
special tribunals, which were in no way justified by the urgency of
circumstances. This year also saw the re-establishment of the African
Company, the treaty of Luneville (which augmented the advantages France
had obtained by the treaty of Campo-Formio), and the peace concluded
between Spain and Portugal by means of Lucien. On the subject of this
peace I may mention that Portugal, to obtain the cession of Olivenza,
secretly offered Bonaparte, through me, 8,000,000 of francs if he
would contribute his influence towards the acquisition of that town by
Portugal. He, rejected this offer indignantly, declaring that he would
never sell honour for money. He has been accused of having listened to
a similar proposition at Passeriano, though in fact no such proposition
was ever made to him. Those who bring forward such accusations little
know the inflexibility of his principles on this point.
One evening in April 1801 an English paper--the London Gazette--arrived
at Malmaison. It announced the landing in Egypt of the army commanded
by Abercromby, the battle given by the English, and the death of their
General. I immediately translated the article, and presented it to the
First Consul, with the conviction that the news would be very painful
to him. He doubted its truth, or at least pretended to do so. Several
officers and aides de camp who were in the salon coincided in his
opinion, especially Lannes, Bessières, and Duroc. They thought by so
doing to please the First Consul, who then said to me, in a jeering
tone, "Bah! you do not understand English. This is the way with you: you
are always inclined to believe bad news rather than good!" These words,
and the approving smiles of the gentlemen present, ruffled me, and I
said with some warmth, "How, General, can you believe that the English
Government would publish officially so important an event if it were not
true? Do you think that a Government that has any self-respect would, in
the face of Europe, state a falsehood respecting an affair the truth of
which cannot long remain unknown? Did you ever know an instance of so
important an announcement proving untrue after it had been published
in the London Gazette? I believe it to be true, and the smiles of these
gentlemen will not alter my opinion." On these observations the First
Consul rose and said, "Come, Bourrienne, I want you in the library."
After we had left the salon he added, "This is always the way with you.
Why are you vexed at such trifles? I assure you I believe the news but
too confidently, and I feared it before it came. But they think they
please me by thus appearing to doubt it. Never mind them."--"I ask your
pardon," said I, "but I conceive the best way of proving my attachment
to you is to tell you what I believe to be true. You desire me not to
delay a moment in announcing bad news to you. It would be far worse to
disguise than to conceal it."
CHAPTER V.
1801-1802.
An experiment of royalty--Louis de Bourbon and Maria Louisa, of
Spain--Creation of the kingdom of Etruria--The Count of Leghorn in
Paris--Entertainments given him--Bonaparte's opinion of the King of
Etruria--His departure for Florence, and bad reception there--
Negotiations with the Pope--Bonaparte's opinion on religion--Te Deum
at Notre Dame--Behaviour of the people in the church--Irreligion of
the Consular Court--Augereau's remark on the Te Deum--First Mass at
St. Cloud-Mass in Bonaparte's apartments--Talleyrand relieved from
his clerical vows--My appointment to the Council of State.
Before he placed two crowns on his own head Bonaparte thought it would
promote the interests of his policy to place one on the head of a
prince, and even a prince of the House of Bourbon. He wished to accustom
the French to the sight of a king. It will hereafter be seen that he
gave sceptres, like his confidence, conditionally, and that he was
always ready to undo his own work when it became an obstacle to his
ambitious designs.
In May 1801 the Infanta of Spain, Maria Louisa, third daughter of
Charles IV., visited Paris. The Infante Louis de Bourbon, eldest son
of the Duke of Parma, had gone to Madrid in 1798 to contract a marriage
with Maria Amelia, the sister of Maria Louisa; but he fell in love
with the latter. Godoy favoured the attachment, and employed all his
influence to bring about the marriage. The son who, six years later, was
born of this union, was named Charles Louis, after the King of Spain.
France occupied the Duchy of Parma, which, in fulfilment of the
conventions signed by Lucien Bonaparte, was to belong to her after the
death of the reigning Duke. On the other hand, France was to cede the
Grand Duchy of Tuscany to the son of the Duke of Parma; and Spain paid
to France, according to stipulation, a considerable sum of money. Soon
after the treaty was communicated to Don Louis and his wife they left
Madrid and travelled through France. The prince took the title of Count
of Leghorn. All accounts are unanimous as to the attentions which the
Prince and Princess received on their journey. Among the fetes in honour
of the illustrious couple that given by M. de Talleyrand at Neuilly was
remarkable for magnificence.
When the Count of Leghorn was coming to pay his first visit to Malmaison
Bonaparte went into the drawing-room to see that everything was suitably
prepared for his reception. In a few minutes he returned to his cabinet
and said to me, somewhat out of humour, "Bourrienne, only think of their
stupidity; they had not taken down the picture representing me on the
summit of the Alps pointing to Lombardy and commanding the conquest of
it. I have ordered its removal. How mortifying it would have been if the
Prince had seen it!"
Another picture in the drawing-room at Malmaison represented the First
Consul sleeping on the snow on the summit of the Alps before the battle
of Marengo.
The Count of Leghorn's visit to Paris imparted brilliancy to the first
years of the reign of Bonaparte, of whom it was at that time said, "He
made kings, but would not be one!"
At the representation of Oedipus, the following expression of
Philactetes was received with transport:--
"J'ai fait des Souverains, et n'ai pas voulu l'etre."
["Monarchs I've made, but one I would not be."]
The First Consul, on leaving the theatre, did not conceal his
satisfaction. He judged, from the applause with which that verse had
been received, that his pamphlet was forgotten. The manner, moreover, in
which a king, crowned by his hands, had been received by the public, was
no indifferent matter to him, as he expected that the people would thus
again become familiar with what had been so long proscribed.
This King, who, though well received and well entertained, was in all
respects a very ordinary man, departed for Italy. I say very ordinary,
not that I had an opportunity of judging of his character myself, but
the First Consul told me that his capabilities were extremely limited;
that he even felt repugnance to take a pen in his hand; that he never
cast a thought on anything but his pleasures: in a word, that he was a
fool.
One day, after the First Consul had spent several hours in company with
him and his consort, he said to me, "I am quite tired. He is a mere
automaton. I put a number of questions to him, but he can answer none.
He is obliged to consult his wife, who makes him understand as well as
she is able what he ought to say." The First Consul added, "The poor
Prince will set off to-morrow, without knowing what he is going to do."
I observed that it was a pity to see the happiness of the people of
Tuscany entrusted to such a prince. Bonaparte replied, "Policy requires
it. Besides, the young man is not worse than the usual run of kings."
The Prince fully justified in Tuscany the opinion which the First Consul
formed of him.
--[This unfortunate Prince was very ill-calculated to recommend, by
his personal character, the institutions to which the nobility clung
with so much fondness. Nature had endowed him with an excellent
heart, but with very limited talents; and his mind had imbibed the
false impress consequent upon his monastic education. He resided at
Malmaison nearly the whole time of his visit to Paris. Madame
Bonaparte used to lead the Queen to her own apartments; and as the
First Consul never left his closet except to sit down to meals, the
aides de camp were under the necessity of keeping the King company,
and of endeavoring to entertain him, so wholly was he devoid of
intellectual resources. It required, indeed, a great share of
patience to listen to the frivolities which engrossed his attention.
His turn of mind being thus laid open to view, care was taken to
supply him with the playthings usually placed in the hands of
children; he was, therefore, never at a loss for occupation. His
nonentity was a source of regret to us: we lamented to see a tall
handsome youth, destined to rule over his fellow-men, trembling at
the neigh of a horse, and wasting his time in the game of
hide-and-seek, or at leap-frog and whose whole information consisted
in knowing his prayers, and in saying grace before and after meals.
Such, nevertheless, was the man to whom the destinies of a nation
were about to be committed! When he left France to repair to his
kingdom, "Rome need not be uneasy," said the First Consul to us
after the farewell audience, "there is no danger of his crossing the
Rubicon" (Memoirs of the Duke of Rovigo, vol. i. p. 363).]--
In order to show still further attention to the King of Etruria, after
his three weeks' visit to Paris, the First Consul directed him to be
escorted to Italy by a French guard, and selected his brother-in-law
Murat for that purpose.
The new King of a new kingdom entered Florence on the 12th of April
1801; but the reception given him by the Tuscans was not at all similar
to what he had experienced at Paris. The people received the royal
pair as sovereigns imposed on them by France. The ephemeral kingdom of
Etruria lasted scarcely six years. The King died in 1803, in the flower
of his age, and in 1807 the Queen was expelled from her throne by him
who had constructed it for her.
At this period a powerful party urged Bonaparte to break with the Pope,
and to establish a Gallican Church, the head of which should reside in
France. They thought to flatter his ambition by indicating to him a new
source of power which might establish a point of comparison between him
and the first Roman emperors. But his ideas did not coincide with theirs
on this subject. "I am convinced," said he, "that a part of France would
become Protestant, especially if I were to favour that disposition. I
am also certain that the much greater portion would remain Catholic, and
would oppose, with the greatest zeal and fervour, the schism of a part
of their fellow-citizens. I dread the religious quarrels, the family
dissensions, and the public distractions, which such a state of things
would inevitably occasion. In, reviving a religion which has always
prevailed in the country, and which still prevails in the hearts of the
people, and in giving the liberty of exercising their worship to the
minority, I shall satisfy every one."
The First Consul, taking a superior view of the state of France,
considered that the re-establishment of religious worship would prove a
powerful support to his Government: and he had been occupied ever since