Napoleon's Letters to Josephine, 1796-1812
two months of the interval between Eylau and Friedland. "In order,"
says Pasquier, "that nothing should be lacking to characterise the
calm state of his mind and the security of his position, it was soon
known that he had seen fit to enjoy a pleasurable relaxation by
calling to him a Polish gentlewoman of excellent birth, with whom he
had contracted a _liaison_ while passing through Warsaw, and who, as a
consequence of this journey, had the honour of bearing him a son."
Repudiated by her husband, she came to Paris, where she was very
kindly treated by Josephine, who, having once seen her, found in her
no rival, but an enthusiastic patriot, "sacrificed to Plutus," as
Napoleon told Lucien at Mantua a few months later, adding that "her
soul was as beautiful as her face."
No. 28.
_Be cheerful--gai._--This adjective is a favourite one in letters to
his wife, and dates from 1796.
No. 29.
_Roads unsafe and detestable._--The French troops used to say that the
four following words constituted the whole language of the Poles:
_Kleba?_ _Niema._ _Vota?_ _Sara._ ("Some bread? There is none. Some
water? We will go and fetch it.") Napoleon one day passed by a
column of infantry suffering the greatest privations on account of the
mud, which prevented the arrival of provisions. "Papa, kleba?"
exclaimed a soldier. "Niema," replied the Emperor. The whole column
burst into a fit of laughter; they asked for nothing more. Baron
Lejeune, Constant, and Meneval have variants of the same story.
No. 35.
Written from Warsaw, and omitted from the _Correspondence_.
_I hope that you are at Paris._--Madame Junot hints that her husband,
as Governor of Paris, was being sounded by Bonaparte's sister, Murat's
wife (with whom Junot was in love), if he would make Murat Napoleon's
successor, in lieu of Eugene, if the Emperor were killed. If Napoleon
had an inkling of this, he would wish Josephine to be on the spot.
_T._--Is probably Tallien, who had misconducted himself in Egypt.
Madame Junot met him at Madrid, but she and others had not forgotten
the September massacres. "The wretch! how did he drag on his loathsome
existence?" she exclaims.
No. 36.
_Paris._--Josephine arrived here January 31st; Queen Hortense going to
the Hague and the Princess Stephanie to Mannheim.
No. 38.
Probably written from Arensdorf, on the eve of the battle of Eylau
(February 9th), on which day a great ball took place in Paris, given
by the Minister of Marine.
No. 39.
_Eylau._--The battle of Preussich-Eylau was splendidly fought on both
sides, but the Russian general, Beningsen, had all the luck. (1) His
Cossacks capture Napoleon's letter to Bernadotte, which enables him to
escape all Napoleon's plans, which otherwise would have destroyed half
the Russian army. (2) A snowstorm in the middle of the day in the
faces of the French ruins Augereau's corps and saves the Russians
from a total rout. (3) The arrival of a Prussian army corps, under
General Lestocq, robbed Davoust of his glorious victory on the right,
and much of the ground gained--including the village of Kuschnitten.
(4) The night came on just in time to save the rest of the Russian
army, and to prevent Ney taking any decisive part in the battle.
Bernadotte, as usual, failed to march to the sound of the guns, but,
as Napoleon's orders to do so were captured by Cossacks, he might have
had an excuse rather better than usual, had not General Hautpoult,[62]
in touch both with him and Napoleon, advised him of his own orders and
an imminent battle. Under such circumstances, no general save the
Prince of Ponte-Corvo, says Bignon, would have remained inactive, "but
it was the destiny of this marshal to have a role apart in all the
great battles fought by the Emperor. His conduct was at least strange
at Jena, it will not be less so, in 1809, at Wagram." The forces,
according to Matthieu Dumas (_Precis des Evenements Militaires_,
volume 18), were approximately 65,000 French against 80,000
allies[63]--the latter in a strong chosen position. Napoleon saved
1500, the wreckage of Augereau's[64] corps, that went astray in the
blizzard (costing the French more than half their loss in the two
days' fight), by a charge of his Horse Guard, but his Foot Guard never
fired a shot. The allies lost 5000 to 6000 dead and 20,000 wounded.
Napoleon told Montholon that his loss at Eylau was 18,000, which
probably included 2000 dead, and 15,000 to 16,000 wounded and
prisoners. As the French remained masters of the field of battle, the
slightly wounded were evidently not counted by Napoleon, who in his
bulletin gives 1900 dead and 5700 wounded. The list of wounded inmates
of the hospital a month later, March 8th, totalled only 4600, which
astonished Napoleon, who sent back for a recount. On receipt of this
he wrote Daru (March 15): "From your advices to hand, I see we are
not far out of count. There were at the battle of Eylau 4000 or 5000
wounded, and 1000 in the combats preceding the battle."
No. 40.
_Corbineau._--Mlle. d'Avrillon (vol. ii. 101) tells how, in haste to
join his regiment at Paris, Corbineau had asked for a seat in her
carriage from St. Cloud. She was delighted, as he was a charming man,
"with no side on like Lauriston and Lemarois." He had just been made
general, and said, "Either I will get killed or deserve the favour
which the Emperor has granted me. M'selle, you shall hear me spoken
of; if I am not killed I will perform some startling deed."
_Dahlmann._--General Nicholas Dahlmann, commanding the chasseurs of
the guard, was killed in the charge on the Russian infantry which
saved the battle. On April 22nd Napoleon wrote Vice-Admiral Decres to
have three frigates put on the stocks to be called Dahlmann,
Corbineau, and Hautpoul, and in each captain's cabin a marble
inscription recounting their brave deeds.
No. 41.
_Young Tascher._--The third of Josephine's cousins-germain of that
name. He was afterwards aide-de-camp of Prince Eugene, and later
major-domo of the Empress Eugenie.
No. 42.
After this letter St. Amand declares that Napoleon's letters to his
wife become "cold, short, banal, absolutely insignificant." "They
consisted of a few remarks about the rain or the fine weather, and
always the same refrain--the invitation to be cheerful.... Napoleon,
occupied elsewhere, wrote no longer to his legitimate wife, but as a
duty, as paying a debt of conscience." He was occupied, indeed, but
barely as the author supposes. It is Bingham (vol. ii. 281) who
reminds us that in the first three months of 1807 we have 1715 letters
and despatches preserved of his work during that period, while he
often rode forty leagues a day, and had instructed his librarian to
send him by each morning's courier two or three new books from Paris.
Aubenas is more just than St. Amand. "If his style is no longer that
of the First Consul, still less of the General of Italy, he was
solicitous, punctilious, attentive, affectionate even although
laconic, in that correspondence (with Josephine) which, in the midst
of his much greater preoccupations, seems for him as much a pleasure
as a duty."
No. 43.
_I am still at Eylau._--It took Napoleon and his army eight days to
bury the dead and remove the wounded. Lejeune says, "His whole time
was given up now to seeing that the wounded received proper care, and
he insisted on the Russians being as well treated as the French" (vol.
i. 48). The Emperor wrote Daru that if more surgeons had been on the
spot he could have saved at least 200 lives; although, to look at the
surgical instruments used on these fields, and now preserved in the
museum of Les Invalides, it is wonderful that the men survived
operations with such ghastly implements of torture. A few days later
Napoleon tells Daru on no account to begrudge money for medicines, and
especially for quinine.
_This country is covered with dead and wounded._--"Napoleon," says
Dumas (vol. i. 18, 41), "having given order that the succour to the
wounded on both sides might be multiplied, rode over the field of
battle, which all eye-witnesses agree to have been the most horrible
field of carnage which war has ever offered. In a space of less than a
square league, the ground covered with snow, and the frozen lakes,
were heaped up with 10,000 dead, and 3000 to 4000 dead horses, debris
of artillery, arms of all kinds, cannon-balls, and shells. Six
thousand Russians, expiring of their wounds, and of hunger and thirst,
were left abandoned to the generosity of the conqueror."
No. 50.
_Osterode._--"A wretched village, where I shall pass a considerable
time." Owing to the messenger to Bernadotte being captured by
Cossacks, the Emperor, if not surprised at Eylau on the second day,
found at least all his own intentions anticipated. He could not
risk the same misfortune again, and at Osterode all his army were
within easy hailing distance, "within two marches at most" (Dumas).
Savary speaks of him there, "working, eating, giving audience, and
sleeping--all in the same room," alone keeping head against the storm
of his marshals, who wished him to retire across the Vistula. He
remained over five weeks at Osterode, and more than two months at
Finckenstein Castle, interesting himself in the affairs of Teheran
and Monte Video, offering prizes for discoveries in electricity
and medicine, giving advice as to the most scientific modes of
teaching history and geography, while objecting to the creation of
poet-laureates or Caesarians whose exaggerated praises would be sure to
awaken the ridicule of the French people, even if it attained its
object of finding a place of emolument for poets. Bignon says
(vol. vi. 227): "From Osterode or from Finckenstein he supervised,
as from Paris or St. Cloud, the needs of France; he sought means to
alleviate the hindrances to commerce, discussed the best ways to
encourage literature and art, corresponded with all his ministers,
and while awaiting the renewal of the fray, having a war of
figures with his Chancellor of Exchequer."
_It is not as good as the great city._--The day before he had written
his brother Joseph that neither his officers nor his staff had taken
their clothes off for two months; that he had not taken his boots off
for a fortnight; that the wounded had to be moved 120 miles in
sledges, in the open air; that bread was unprocurable; that the
Emperor had been living for weeks upon potatoes, and the officers upon
mere meat. "After having destroyed the Prussian monarchy, we are
fighting against the remnant of the Prussians, against Russians,
Cossacks, and Kalmucks, those roving tribes of the north, who formerly
invaded the Roman Empire."
_I have ordered what you wish for Malmaison._--About this time he also
gave orders for what afterwards became the Bourse and the Madeleine,
and gave hints for a new journal (March 7th), whose "criticism should
be enlightened, well-intentioned, impartial, and robbed of that
noxious brutality which characterises the discussions of existing
journals, and which is so at variance with the true sentiments of the
nation."
No. 54.
_Minerva._--In a letter of March 7th Josephine writes to Hortense: "A
few days ago I saw a frightful accident at the Opera. The actress who
represented Minerva in the ballet of 'Ulysses' fell twenty feet and
broke her arm. As she is poor, and has a family to support, I have
sent her fifty louis." This was probably the ballet, "The Return of
Ulysses," a subject given by Napoleon to Fouche as a suitable subject
for representation. In the same letter Josephine writes: "All the
private letters I have received agree in saying that the Emperor was
very much exposed at the battle of Eylau. I get news of him very
often, sometimes two letters a day, but that does not replace him."