Napoleon's Letters to Josephine, 1796-1812
is once more hedging, or, to use his own phrase, guaranteeing the
future, and at the same time securing the daughter of the Duchess of
Courland for his nephew, Edmond de Perigord. "The Arch-apostate"
carried his treason so far as to advise Alexander of Napoleon's
ulterior views, and thus enabled the former to forestall them--no easy
matter in conversations with Napoleon "lasting whole days" (see
Letter No. 3, this Series). Talleyrand had also a grievance. He had
been replaced as Foreign Minister by Champagny. He had accepted the
surrender of his portfolio gladly, as now, becoming Vice-Grand
Elector, he ranked with Cambaceres and Maret. But when he found that
Napoleon, who liked to have credit for his own diplomacy, seldom
consulted him, or allowed Champagny to do so, jealousy and ill-will
naturally resulted.
No. 2.
_Shooting over the battlefield of Jena._--The presence of the Emperor
Alexander on this occasion was considered a great affront to his
recent ally, the King of Prussia, and is severely commented on by Von
Moltke in one of his Essays. In fairness to Alexander, we must
remember that their host, the Duke of Saxe-Weimar, had married his
sister. Von Moltke, by the way, speaks of _hares_ forming the sport in
question, but Savary of a second battle of Jena fought against the
_partridges_. The fact seems to be that all kinds of game, including
stags and deer, were driven by the beaters to the royal sportsmen in
their huts, and the Emperor Alexander, albeit short-sighted, succeeded
in killing a stag, at eight feet distance, _at the first shot_.
_The Weimar ball._--This followed the Jena shoot, and the dancing
lasted all night. The Russian courtiers were scandalised at their
Emperor dancing, but while he was present the dancing was conventional
enough, consisting of promenading two and two to the strains of a
Polish march. "Imperial Waltz, imported from the Rhine," was already
the rage in Germany, and Napoleon, in order to be more worthy of his
Austrian princess, tried next year to master this new science of
tactics, but after a trial with the Princess Stephanie, the lady
declared that her pupil should always give lessons, and never receive
them. He was rather more successful at billiards, pursued under the
same praiseworthy incentive.
_A few trifling ailments._--Mainly a fearful nightmare; a new
experience, in which he imagines his vitals torn out by a bear.
"Significant of much!" As when also the Russian Emperor finds
himself without a sword and accepts that of Napoleon as a gift: and
when, on the last night, the latter orders his comedians to play
"Bajazet,"--little thinking the appointed Tamerlane was by his side.
No. 3.
_I am pleased with Alexander._--For the time being Josephine had most
reason to be pleased with Alexander, who failed to secure his sister's
hand for Napoleon.
_He ought to be with me._--He might have been, had not Napoleon
purposely evaded the Eastern Question. On this subject Savary
writes (vol. ii. 297):--"Since Tilsit, Napoleon had sounded the
personal views of his ambassador at Constantinople, General
Sebastiani, as to this proposition of the Emperor of Russia (_i.e._
the partition of Turkey). This ambassador was utterly opposed to
this project, and in a long report that he sent to the Emperor on his
return from Constantinople, he demonstrated to him that it was
absolutely necessary for France never to consent to the dismemberment
of the Turkish Empire; the Emperor Napoleon adopted his views." And
these Talleyrand knew. The whirligig of time brings about its
revenges, and in less than fifty years Lord Palmerston had to seek
an alliance with France and the house of Napoleon in order to
maintain the fixed policy that sent Napoleon I. to Moscow and to
St. Helena. "Alexander, with justice," says Alison, "looked upon
Constantinople as the back-door of his empire, and was earnest that
its key should be placed in his hands." "Alexander," Napoleon told
O'Meara, "wanted to get Constantinople, which I would not allow,
as it would have destroyed the equilibrium of power in Europe. I
reflected that France would gain Egypt, Syria, and the islands,
which would have been nothing in comparison with what Russia would
have obtained. I considered that the barbarians of the north were
already too powerful, and probably in the course of time would
overwhelm all Europe, as I now think they will. Austria already
trembles: Russia and Prussia united, Austria falls, and England
cannot prevent it."
_Erfurt_ is the meridian of Napoleon's first thirteen years
(1796-1808)--each more glorious; henceforward (1809-1821) ever faster
he "rolls, darkling, down the torrent of his fate."
SERIES K
No. 5.
Written from Aranda.
No. 6.
Written from the Imperial Camp outside Madrid. Neither Napoleon[67]
nor Joseph entered the capital, but King Joseph took up his abode at
the Prado, the castle of the Kings of Spain, two miles away; while the
Emperor was generally at Chamartin, some five miles distant. He had
arrived on the heights surrounding Madrid on his Coronation Day
(December 2nd), and does not fail to remind his soldiers and his
people of this auspicious coincidence. The bulletin concludes with a
tirade against England, whose conduct is "shameful," but her troops
"well disciplined and superb." It declares that Spain has been treated
by them as they have treated Holland, Sardinia, Austria, Russia, and
Sweden. "They foment war everywhere; they distribute weapons like
poison; but they shed their blood only for their direct and personal
interests."
_Parisian weather of the last fortnight in May._--In his bulletin of
the 13th, he says: "Never has such a month of December been known in
this country; one would think it the beginning of spring." But ten
days later all was changed, and the storm of Guadarrama undoubtedly
saved Moore and the English army. "Was it then decreed," groans
Thiers, "that we, who were always successful against combined Europe,
should on no single occasion prevail against those implacable foes?"
No. 8.
Other letters of this date are headed Madrid.
_Kourakin._--Alexander Kourakin was the new Russian Ambassador at
Paris, removed thence from Vienna to please Napoleon, and to replace
Tolstoi, who, according to Savary, was always quarrelling with French
officers on military points, but who could hardly be so narrow-minded
a novice on these points as his namesake of to-day. This matter had
been arranged at Erfurt.
No. 9.
_The English appear to have received reinforcements._--Imagine a
Transvaal with a population of ten millions, and one has a fair idea
of the French difficulties in Spain, even without Portugal. The
Spaniards could not fight a scientific battle like Jena or Friedland,
but they were incomparable at guerilla warfare. The Memoirs of Barons
Marbot and Lejeune have well demonstrated this. The latter, an
accomplished linguist, sent to locate Moore's army, found that to pass
as an Englishman the magic words "Damn it," won him complete success.
No. 10.
_Benavente._--Here they found 600 horses, which had been hamstrung by
the English.
_The English flee panic-stricken._--The next day Napoleon writes
Fouche to have songs written, and caricatures made of them, which are
also to be translated into German and Italian, and circulated in
Germany and Italy.
_The weather is very bad._--Including 18 degrees of frost. Savary says
they had never felt the cold so severe in Poland--and that they ran a
risk of being buried in the snow. The Emperor had to march on foot and
was very much tired. "On these occasions," adds Savary, "the Emperor
was not selfish, as people would have us believe ... he shared his
supper[68] and his fire with all who accompanied him: he went so far
as to make those eat whom he saw in need of it." Napier gives other
details: "Napoleon, on December 22nd, has 50,000 men at the foot of
the Guadarrama. A deep snow choked the passes of the Sierra, and after
twelve hours' toil the advanced guards were still on the wrong side:
the general commanding reported the road impracticable, but Napoleon,
dismounting, placed himself at the head of the column, and amidst
storms of hail and driving snow, led his soldiers over the mountain."
At the passage of the Esla Moore escapes Napoleon by twelve hours.
Marbot, as usual, gives picturesque details. Officers and men marched
with locked arms, the Emperor between Lannes and Duroc. Half-way up,
the marshals and generals, who wore jack-boots, could go no further.
Napoleon, however, got hoisted on to a gun, and bestrode it: the
marshals and generals did the same, and in this grotesque order they
reached, after four hours' toil, the convent at the summit.
_Lefebvre._--As they neared Benavente the slush became frightful, and
the artillery could not keep pace. General Lefebvre-Desnouette went
forward, with the horse regiment of the Guard, forded the Esla with
four squadrons, was outnumbered by the English (3000 to 300), but he
and sixty (Lejeune, who escaped, says a hundred) of his chasseurs were
captured. He was brought in great triumph to Sir John Moore. "That
general," says Thiers, "possessed the courtesy characteristic of all
great nations; he received with the greatest respect the brilliant
general who commanded Napoleon's light cavalry, seated him at his
table, and presented him with a magnificent Indian sabre."
No. 11.
Probably written from Astorga, where he arrived on January 1st, having
brought 50,000 men two hundred miles in ten days.
_Your letters._--These probably, and others received by a courier,
decided him to let Soult follow the English to Corunna--especially as
he knew that transports were awaiting the enemy there. He himself
prepares to return, for Fouche and Talleyrand are in league, the slim
and slippery Metternich is ambassador at Paris, Austria is arming, and
the whole political horizon, apparently bright at Erfurt, completely
overcast. Murat, balked of the Crown of Spain, is now hoping for that
of France if Napoleon is killed or assassinated. It is Talleyrand and
Fouche who have decided on Murat, and on the ultimate overthrow of the
Beauharnais. Unfortunately for their plans Eugene is apprised by
Lavalette, and an incriminating letter to Murat captured and sent
post-haste to Napoleon. This, says Pasquier, undoubtedly hastened the
Emperor's return. Ignoring the complicity of Fouche, the whole weight
of his anger falls on Talleyrand, who loses the post of High
Chamberlain, which he had enjoyed since 1804. For half-an-hour this
"arch-apostate," as Lord Rosebery calls him, receives a torrent of
invectives. "You are a thief, a coward, a man without honour; you do
not believe in God; you have all your life been a traitor to your
duties; you have deceived and betrayed everybody: nothing is sacred to
you; you would sell your own father. I have loaded you down with
gifts, and there is nothing that you would not undertake against me.
Thus, for the past ten months, you have been shameless enough, because
you supposed, rightly or wrongly, that my affairs in Spain were going
astray, to say to all who would listen to you that you always blamed
my undertaking there, whereas it was yourself who first put it into my
head, and who persistently urged it. And that man, _that unfortunate_
(he was thus designating the Duc d'Enghien), by whom was I advised of
the place of his residence? Who drove me to deal cruelly with him?
What then are you aiming at? What do you wish for? What do you hope?
Do you dare to say? You deserve that I should smash you like a
wine-glass. I can do it, but I despise you too much to take the
trouble." This we are assured by the impartial Pasquier, who heard it
from an ear-witness, and second-hand from Talleyrand, is an abstract