Napoleon's Letters to Josephine, 1796-1812
the proof that he had excluded him from all inheritance in the
Imperial Crown of France, and that he dreamed seriously of a new
alliance himself."
No. 2.
_Venice._--The Venetians gave Napoleon a wonderful ovation--many
nobles spending a year's income on the fetes. "Innumerable gondolas
glittering with a thousand colours and resounding with the harmony of
instruments, escorted the barges which bore, together with the master
of the world, the Viceroy and the Vice-Queen of Italy, the King and
Queen of Bavaria, the Princess of Lucca, the King of Naples (Joseph,
who stayed six days with his brother), the Grand Duke of Berg, the
Prince of Neufchatel, and the greater part of the generals of the old
army of Italy" (Thiers). While at Venice Napoleon was in easy touch
with the Porte, of which he doubtless made full use, while, _per
contra_, he was expected to give Greece her independence.
_November 30th._--Leaving Milan, Napoleon came straight through
Brescia to Verona, where he supped with the King and Queen of
Bavaria. The next morning he started for Vicenza through avenues of
vine-encircled poplars and broad yellow wheat-fields which "lay all
golden in the sunlight and the breeze" (Constant). The Emperor
went to the theatre at Vicenza, and left again at 2 A.M. Spending the
night at Stra, he met the Venetian authorities early the next morning
at Fusina.
No. 3.
_Udine._--He is here on the 12th, and then hastens to meet his brother
Lucien at Mantua--the main but secret object of his journey to Italy.
It is _most_ difficult to gauge the details--was it a political or a
conjugal question that made the interview a failure? Madame
D'Abrantes, voicing the rumours of the day, thinks the former; Lucien,
writing Memoirs for his wife and children, declares it to be the
latter. Napoleon was prepared to legalise the children of his first
wife, and marry the eldest to Prince Ferdinand, the heir to the
Spanish crown; but Lucien considers the Bourbons to be enemies of
France and of the Bonapartes. These Memoirs of Lucien are not perhaps
very trustworthy, especially where his prejudices overlap his memory
or his judgment, but always instructive and very readable. When the
account of this interview was written (early in 1812), Lucien was an
English prisoner, furious that his brother has just refused to
exchange him for "some English Lords." Speaking of Josephine, the
Emperor tells him that in spite of her reputation for good-nature, she
is more malicious than generally supposed, although for her husband
"she has no nails"; but he adds that rumours of impending divorce have
made life between them very constrained. "Only imagine," continued the
Emperor, "that wife of mine weeps every time she has indigestion,
because she says she thinks herself poisoned by those who wish me to
marry some one else. It is perfectly hateful." He said that Joseph
also thought of a divorce, as his wife gave him only daughters, and
that the three brothers might be remarried on the same day. The
Emperor regretted not having taken the Princess Augusta, daughter of
his "best friend, the King of Bavaria," for himself, instead of for
Eugene, who did not know how to appreciate her and was unfaithful. He
was convinced that Russia by invading India would overthrow England,
and that his own soldiers were ready to follow him to the antipodes.
He ends by offering Lucien his choice of thrones--Naples, Italy, "the
brightest jewel of my Imperial crown," or Spain[66] (Madame D'Abrantes
adds _Prussia_), if he will give way about Madame Jouberthon and her
children. "Tout pour Lucien divorce, rien pour Lucien sans divorce."
When Napoleon finds his brother obdurate he makes Eugene Prince of
Venice, and his eldest daughter Princess of Bologna, with a large
appanage. Lucien is in fresh disgrace within less than three months of
the Mantuan interview, for on March 11, 1808, Napoleon writes brother
Joseph, "Lucien is misconducting himself at Rome ... and is more Roman
than the Pope himself. His conduct has been scandalous; he is my open
enemy, and that of France.... I will not permit a Frenchman, and one
of my own brothers, to be the first to conspire and act against me,
with a rabble of priests."
_I may soon be in Paris._--After leaving Milan he visits the
fortifications at Alessandria, and is met by a torchlight procession
at Marengo. Letters for two days (December 27-28th) are dated Turin,
although Constant says he did not stop there. Crossing Mont Cenis on
December 30th he reaches the Tuileries on the evening of New Year's
Day (1808).
FOOTNOTES
[65] The Decree itself says "nos enfants et descendants males,
legitimes et naturels."
[66] On October 11th Prince Ferdinand had written Napoleon for "the
honour of allying himself to a Princess of his august family";
and Lucien's eldest daughter was Napoleon's only choice.
SERIES I
No. 1.
_Bayonne_ is half-way between Paris and Madrid, nearly 600 miles from
each. Napoleon arrived here April 15th, and left July 21st, returning
with Josephine _via_ Pau, Tarbes, Auch, Montauban, Agen, Bordeaux,
Rochefort, Nantes. Everywhere he received a hearty welcome, even, and
especially, in La Vendee. He arrives at Paris August 14th, hearing on
August 3rd at Bordeaux of (what he calls) the "horrible catastrophe"
of General Dupont at Baylen.
No. 2.
_A country-house._--The Chateau of Marrac. Marbot had stayed there in
1803 with Augereau. Bausset informs us that this chateau had been
built either for the Infanta Marie Victoire engaged to Louis XV., or
for the Dowager Queen of Charles II., "the bewitched," when she was
packed off from Madrid to Bayonne (see Hume's _Spain_, 1479-1788).
_Everything is still most primitive._--Nevertheless he enjoyed the
_pamperruque_ which was danced before the chateau by seven men and ten
maidens, gaily dressed--the women armed with tambourines and the men
with castanets. Saint-Amand speaks of thirteen performers (seven men
and six maidens) chosen from the leading families of the town, to
render what for time immemorial had been considered fit homage for the
most illustrious persons.
No. 3.
_Prince of the Asturias._--The Emperor had received him at the chateau
of Marrac, paid him all the honours due to royalty, while evading the
word "Majesty," and insisting the same day on his giving up all claim
to the Crown of Spain. Constant says he was heavy of gait, and rarely
spoke.
_The Queen._--A woman of violent passions. The Prince of the Asturias
had designs on his mother's life, while the Queen openly begged
Napoleon to put the Prince to death. On May 9th Napoleon writes
Talleyrand to prepare to take charge of Ferdinand at Valencay, adding
that if the latter were "to become attached to some pretty woman, whom
we are sure of, it would be no disadvantage." A new experience for a
Montmorency to become the keeper of a Bourbon, rather than his
Constable. Pasquier, with his usual Malvolian decorum, gives fuller
details. Napoleon, he says, "enumerates with care (to Talleyrand) all
the precautions that are to be taken to prevent his escape, and even
goes so far as to busy himself with the distractions which may be
permitted him. And, be it noted, the principal one thrown in his way
was given him by a young person who lived at the time under M. De
Talleyrand's roof. This liaison, of which Ferdinand soon became
distrustful, did not last as long as it was desired to."
No. 4.
_A son has been born._--By a plebiscite of the year XII. (1804-5), the
children of Louis and Hortense were to be the heirs of Napoleon, and
in conformity with this the child born on April 20th at 17 Rue Lafitte
(now the residence of the Turkish Ambassador), was inscribed on the
register of the Civil List destined for princes of the blood. His two
elder brothers had not been so honoured, but in due course the King of
Rome was entered thereon. Had Louis accepted the Crown of Spain which
Napoleon had in vain offered to him, and of which Hortense would have
made an ideal Queen, the chances are that Napoleon would never have
divorced Josephine. St. Amand shows at length that the future Napoleon
III. is truly the child of Louis, and neither of Admiral Verhuell nor
of the Duke Decazes. Louis and Hortense in the present case are
sufficiently agreed to insist that the father's name be preserved by
the child, who is called Charles Louis Napoleon, and not Charles
Napoleon, which was the Emperor's first choice. In either case the
name of the croup-stricken firstborn had been preserved. On April 23rd
Josephine had already two letters from Cambaceres respecting mother
and child, and on this day the Empress writes her daughter: "I know
that Napoleon is consoled for not having a sister."
_Arrive on the 27th._--Josephine, always wishful to humour her
husband's love of punctuality, duly arrived on the day fixed, and took
up her abode with her husband in the chateau of Marrac. Ferdinand
wrote to his uncle in Madrid to beware of the cursed Frenchmen,
telling him also that Josephine had been badly received at Bayonne.
The letter was intercepted, and Napoleon wrote Murat that the writer
was a liar, a fool, and a hypocrite. The Emperor, in fact, never
trusted the Prince henceforward. Bausset, who translated the letter,
tells how the Emperor could scarcely believe that the Prince would use
so strong an adjective, but was convinced on seeing the word
_maldittos_, which he remarked was almost the Italian--_maledetto_.
SERIES J
Leaving St. Cloud September 22nd, Napoleon is at Metz on the 23rd, at
Kaiserlautern on the 24th, where he sends a message to the Empress in
a letter to Cambaceres, and on the 27th is at Erfurt. On the 28th the
Emperors of France and Russia sign a Convention of Alliance. Napoleon
leaves Erfurt October 14th (the anniversary of Jena), travels
incognito, and arrives St. Cloud October 18th.
No. 1.
_I have rather a cold._--Napoleon had insisted on going to explore a
new road he had ordered between Metz and Mayence, and which no one had
ventured to say was not complete. The road was so bad that the
carriage of the _maitre des requetes_, who had been summoned to
account for the faulty work, was precipitated a hundred feet down a
ravine near Kaiserlautern.
_I am pleased with the Emperor and every one here._--Which included
what he had promised Talma for his audience--a _parterre_ of kings.
Besides the two Emperors, the King of Prussia was represented by his
brother Prince William, Austria by General Vincent, and there were
also the Kings of Saxony, Bavaria, Wuertemberg, Westphalia, and Naples,
the Prince Primate, the Princes of Anhalt, Coburg, Saxe-Weimar,
Darmstadt, Baden, and Nassau. Talleyrand, Champagny, Maret, Duroc,
Berthier, and Caulaincourt, with Generals Oudinot, Soult, and
Lauriston accompanied Napoleon. Literature was represented by Goethe,
Wieland, Mueller; and feminine attractions by the Duchess of
Saxe-Weimar and the wily Princess of Tour and Taxis, sister of the
Queen of Prussia. Pasquier and others have proved that at Erfurt
Talleyrand did far more harm than good to his master's cause, and in
fact intended to do so. On his arrival he spent his first evening with
the Princess of Tour and Taxis, in order to meet the Emperor
Alexander, and said: "Sire ... It is for you to save Europe, and the
only way of attaining this object is by resisting Napoleon. The French
people are civilised, their Emperor is not: the sovereign of Russia is
civilised, his people are not. It is therefore for the sovereign of
Russia to be the ally of the French people,"--of whom Talleyrand
declared himself to be the representative. By squaring Alexander this
transcendental (unfrocked) Vicar of Bray, "with an oar in every boat,"