Napoleon's Letters to Josephine, 1796-1812
France; visit Rome, Florence, and Naples incognito, spend the winter
at Milan, and return to Malmaison and Navarre in the spring of
1811; (3) that in her absence Navarre shall be made habitable, for
which fresh funds are required; (4) that Josephine wishes her
cousins the Taschers to marry, one a relative of King Joseph, the
other the Princess Amelie de la Leyen, niece of the Prince Primate.
To this Napoleon replies from Compiegne, April 26th, that the De Leyen
match with Louis Tascher may take place,[89] but that he will not
interest himself in the other (Henry) Tascher, who is giddy-headed
and bad-tempered. "I consent to whatever the Empress does, but I will
not confer any mark of my regard on a person who has behaved ill
to me. I am very glad that the Empress likes Navarre. I am giving
orders to have L12,000 which I owe her for 1810, and L12,000 for 1811
advanced to her. She will then have only the L80,000 from the public
treasury to come in.... She is free to go to whatever spa she cares
for, and even to return to Paris afterwards." He thinks, however, she
would be happier in new scenes which they had never visited together,
as they had Aix-la-Chapelle. If, however, the last are the best she
may go to them, for "what I desire above all is that she may keep
calm, and not allow herself to be excited by the gossip of Paris."
This letter goes far to soothe the poor chatelaine of Navarre.
No. 2A.
_Two letters._--The other, now missing, may have some reference to the
pictures to which he refers in his letter to Fouche the next day. "Is
it true that engravings are being published with the title of
_Josephine Beauharnais nee La Pagerie_? If this is true, have the
prints seized, and let the engravers be punished" (_New Letters_, No.
253).
No. 3.
Probably written from Boulogne about the 25th. His northern tour
with Marie Louise had been very similar to one taken in 1804,
but his _entourage_ found the new bride very cold and callous
compared to Josephine. Leaving Paris on April 29th Napoleon's
_Correspondence_ till June is dated Laeken (April 30th); Antwerp
(May 3rd); Bois-le-Duc; Middleburg, Gand, Bruges, Ostend (May
20th); Lille, Boulogne, Dieppe, Le Havre, Rouen (May 31st). He
takes the Empress in a canal barge from Brussels to Malines and
himself descends the subterranean vault of the Escaut-Oise canal,
between St. Quentin and Cambrai. He is at St. Cloud on June 2nd.
Josephine has felt his wanderings less, as she has the future
Emperor, her favourite grandson, with her, the little Oui-Oui, as she
calls him, and for whom the damp spring weather of Holland was
dangerous. She was also at Malmaison from the middle of May to June
18th. The original collection of _Letters_ (Didot Freres, 1833) heads
the letter correctly to the Empress Josephine at _Malmaison_, but the
_Correspondence_, published by order of Napoleon III., gives it
erroneously, to the Empress Josephine, _at the Chateau of Navarre_
(No. 16,537).
_I will come to see you._--He comes for two hours on June 13th, and
makes himself thoroughly agreeable. Poor Josephine is light-headed
with joy all the evening after. The meeting of the two Empresses
is, however, indefinitely postponed, and Josephine had now no
further reason to delay her departure. Leaving her little grandson
Louis behind, she travels under the name of the Countess d'Arberg,
and she is accompanied by Madame d'Audenarde and Mlle. de Mackau, who
left the Princess Stephanie to come to Navarre. M. Masson notes that
Madame de Remusat needs the Aix waters, and will rejoin Josephine
(within a week), under pretext of service, and thus obtain her
cure gratuitously. They go _via_ Lyons and Geneva to Aix-les-Bains.
M. Masson, who has recently made a careful and complete study of
this period, describes the daily round. "Josephine, on getting out
of bed, takes conscientiously her baths and douches, then, as usual,
lies down again until _dejeuner_, 11 A.M., for which the whole of the
little Court are assembled at _The Palace_--wherever she lives, and
however squalid the dwelling-place, her abode always bears this name.
Afterwards she and her women-folk ply their interminable tapestry,
while the latest novel or play (sent by Barbier from Paris) is read
aloud. And so the day passes till five, when they dress for dinner at
six; after dinner a ride. At nine the Empress's friends assemble in
her room, Mlle. de Mackau sings; at eleven every one goes to bed."
This programme, however, varies with the weather. Here is St.
Amand's version (_Dernieres Annees de l'Imperatrice Josephine_, p.
237): "A little reading in the morning, an airing (_le promenade_)
afterwards, dinner at eight on account of the heat, games afterwards,
and some little music; so passed existence."
No. 4.
_July 8th._--On July 5th, driving along the Chambery road, Josephine
met the courier with a letter from Eugene describing the terrible fire
at Prince Schwartzenberg's ball, where the Princess de la Leyen,
mother of young Taschre's bride-elect, was burnt. It is noteworthy
that the Emperor makes no allusion to the conflagration. As, however,
this is the first letter since the end of May, others may have been
lost or destroyed.
_You will have seen Eugene_--_i.e._ on his way to Milan, who arrived
at Aix on July 10th. He had just been made heir to the Grand Duchy of
Frankfort--a broad hint to him and to Europe that Italy would be
eventually united to France under Napoleon's dynasty. This was the
nadir of the Beauharnais family--Josephine _repudiee_, Hortense
unqueened and unwed,[90] and Eugene's expectations dissipated, and all
within a few short months. Eugene had left his wife ill at Geneva,
whither Josephine goes to visit her the next day, duly reporting her
visit to Napoleon in her letter of July 14th (see No. 5). Geneva was
always the home of the disaffected, and so the Empress had to be
specially tactful, and the De Remusat reports: "She speaks of the
Emperor as of a brother, of the new Empress as the one who will give
children to France, and if the rumours of the latter's condition be
correct, I am certain she will be delighted about it."
_That unfortunate daughter is coming to France_--_i.e._ to reside when
she is not at St. Leu (given to her by Napoleon) or at the waters. On
the present occasion she has been at Plombieres a month or more. On
July 10th Napoleon instructs the Countess de Boubers to bring the
Grand Duke of Berg to Paris, "whom he awaits with impatience"
(_Brotonne_, 625).
No. 5.
_The conduct of the King of Holland has worried me._--This was in
March, and by May the crisis was still more acute and Napoleon's
patience exhausted. On May 20th he writes: "Before all things be a
Frenchman and the Emperor's brother, and then you may be sure you are
in the path of the true interests of Holland. Good sense and policy
are necessary to the government of states, not sour unhealthy bile."
And three days later: "Write me no more of your customary twaddle;
three years now it has been going on, and every instant proves its
falsehood! This is the last letter I shall ever write you in my
life."
Louis at one time determined on war, and rather than surrender
Amsterdam, to cut the dykes. The Emperor hears of this, summons his
brother, and practically imprisons him until he countermands the
defence of Amsterdam.
On July 1st Louis abdicated and fled to Toeplitz in Bohemia. Napoleon
is terribly grieved at the conduct of his brother, who would never
realise that the effective Continental blockade was Napoleon's last
sheet-anchor to force peace upon England.
No. 6.
_To die in a lake_--_i.e._ the Lake of Bourget, shut in by the Dent du
Chat, where a white squall had nearly capsized the sailing boat.
Josephine had been on July 26th to visit the abbey Haute-Combe, place
of sepulture of the Princes of Savoy, and the storm had overtaken her
on the return voyage.
No. 8.
_Paris, this Friday._--A very valuable note of M. Masson (_Josephine
Repudiee_, 198) enables us to fix this letter at its correct date. He
says: "It has to do with the exile of Madame de la T---- (viz., the
Princess Louis de la Tremoille), which takes place on September 28th,
1810, and this 28th September is also a Friday: there is also the
question of Mlle. de Mackau being made a baroness" (and this lady had
not joined the Court of Josephine till May 1810); "lastly, the B----
mentioned therein can only be Barante, the Prefect, whose dismissal
(from Geneva) almost coincides with this letter." It may be added
that the La Tremoille family was one of the oldest in France, allied
with the Condes, and consequently with the Bourbons. Barante's fault
had been connivance at the letters and conduct of Madame de Stael.
No. 9.
_The only suitable places ... are either Milan or Navarre._--Milan had
been her own suggestion conveyed by Eugene, but Napoleon, two months
later, had told her she could spend the winter in France, and in spite
of danger signals ("inspired by diplomacy rather than devotion" [91])
from Madame de Remusat (in her fulsome and tedious "despatch" sent
from Paris in September, and probably inspired by the Emperor himself)
she manages to get to Navarre, and even to spend the first fortnight
of November at Malmaison. Before leaving Switzerland Josephine refuses
to risk an interview with Madame de Stael. "In the first book she
publishes she will not fail to report our conversation, and heaven
knows how many things she will make me say that I have never even
thought of."
No. 10.
In spite of the heading Josephine was at Malmaison on this day, and
Napoleon writes Cambaceres: "My cousin, the Empress Josephine not
leaving for Navarre till Monday or Tuesday, I wish you to pay her a
visit. You will let me know on your return how you find her"
(_Brotonne_,721). The real reason is to hasten her departure, and she
gets to Navarre November 22nd (Thursday).
_The Empress progresses satisfactorily._--Napoleon writes to this
effect to her father, the Emperor of Austria, on the same day: "The
Empress is very well.... It is impossible that the wife for whom I am
indebted to you should be more perfect. Moreover, I beg your Majesty
to rest assured that she and I are equally attached to you."
FOOTNOTES
[87] On this occasion Baron Lejeune sees the Archduke Charles, and
remarks: "There was nothing in his quiet face with its grave
and gentle expression, or in his simple, modest, unassuming
manner, to denote the mighty man of war; but no one who met his
eyes could doubt him to be a genius."
[88] "This gloomy and forsaken chateau," says St. Amand, "whose only
attraction was the half-forgotten memory of its vanished
splendours, was a fit image of the woman who came to seek
sanctuary there."
[89] He endows the husband with L4000 a year, and the title of Count
Tascher.
[90] "Une epouse sans epoux, et une reine sans royaume"--St. Amand.
[91] Aubenas.
SERIES O
No. 1.
_The New Year._--On this occasion, instead of her usual gifts
(_etrennes_) she organised a lottery of jewels, of which Madame
Ducrest gives a full account. Needless to say, Josephine worked the
oracle so that every one got a suitable gift--including the old Bishop
(see next note).
_More women than men._--The Bishop of Evreux (Mgr. Bourlier) was the
most welcome guest. He amused Josephine, and although eighty years of
age, could play _trictrac_ and talk well on any subject. Madame de
Remusat wrote her husband concerning him, "We understand each other
very well, he and I."
_Keep well._--At Navarre Josephine lost her headaches, and put on
flesh.
No. 2.
There is a full account of the birth of the King of Rome in Napoleon's