Narrative of an embassy to Warsaw and Wilna; with personal attendance on the Emperor Napoleon during the ... campaign in Russia, and the retreat from Moscow ... Translated from the second French edition

Preface

. J^apoleon has disappeared from the theatre of the world. His death to a royal and civil life will now admit all kinds of disclosures. No sort of interdict any longer exists. He is a kind of historical performer, consigned over to posterity. Though he stands accused before the whole universe I have another task to fulfil ; that of furnishing explanations, a task by no means difficult. Verse may be inspired by indignation, but there is no necessity for a poet's abi lities to draw his character. For all the good of which Napoleon has deprived the world and the evils he has created, it has a right to curse him ; still after so many years of admiration and of blind submission to his authority, few will contend for that of insulting him. It is very singular that he who of all men has lived most in public ; and that he who has done and said so much should hitherto perhaps have been the least known. During the ten years that I have been about his person, I have been always sensibly struck a

PREFACE.

. with that want of judgment which this strange man manifested on so many occasions. If Napoleon himself has been abused we have also been equally abused on his account. It is long since I have seen him held up as a supernatural being; the lower order of peo ple have looked upon him as a man above the necessities of nature, his natural and moral endowments in their ideas, elevating him above the rest of mankind. I have passed ten years near his person, and I took pride in being about a man who has in our days excited as much noise in the world as Cæsar or Tamerlane in their lime. I wished to be near those of his partisans who have given things a new face. I have observed them with attention, and have regretted the prepossession of those persons which will be a great Joss to history, From this pre-possession, his admirers fell into absolute fascination.

A thousand times J have seen men whose intelligence I was in {he habit of respecting, come out from his council chamber, where he had been pratinp* five or six hours upon no other subject than the superiority of his qwii genius ! Jt is a thing not less strange than true that the sano froid of Napoleon was never talked of in France or any where else. His moral govern ment of Europe has been more absolute than

PREFACE.

. V that of his politics. No man before him ever held such an absolute sway over the minds of so many of his kind. Rome never made pee ple swear per genium Ccesares in the manner that Napoleon has done by his own. But from these extremes I shall endeavour to de fend myself. Fate had so ordered that I should be present at three events which were decisive with respect to his final career; viz. the Spanish War, the affairs of the Pope, and his invasion of Russia. I had written an account of the transactions in Spain, but I burnt this production in a moment when a serious difference with Napoleon, convinced me of the danger attending a dis covery of this work ; but I believe I can trust to my memory for its re-production on some future day. I was a member of the council which pre ceded, and that which was sent to Savona.

I had previously penetrated into the designs of Napoleon, and I hope I shall not be accused of enhancing my own consequence when I assert that owing to the restraint I put upon the arm then raised against religion, wretched as it is, it has remained without further dete rioration. I was well seconded by Regnault de St. Jean D'Angely ; and the present state of as- VI

PREFACE.

. fairs shall not prevent me from doing him justice. I always wished to be in a situation to write the Ecclesiastical History of France from the period of the first Concordat to that of Fontainbleau, as the most interesting part of modern history, and tl*at of the human mind. The invasion of Russia, which has laid the foundation of a wall of separation, is one of the most stupendous events of the last twenty five years, and may still give birth to others, is too interesting to induce me to withhold my information respecting the sources of this great change. This I shall transfer over to history, as a guide given by truth, with a wish to enlighten the present and future ages upon an event which involves so many others. This is in reality an interesting attempt. It is necessary that France and Europe should know how their affairs have been ma naged, and in what manner the mighty Co lossus before whom they used to tremble has fallen to the ground.

I can do nothing better than bring Napo leon upon the stage as often as possible. He shall describe himself; the best mode of paint ing that I know of. As to his character he owes it entirely to the Revolution. Respecting his mind, or what has been called his genius, nothing has been more celebrated, though nothing has G

PREFACE.

. VII been less appreciated. Some thought it im mense ; others deemed it a pigmy ; what some thought sublime others looked upon as ridiculous. At present, since the meteor has en tirely disappeared, no persons seem perfectly agreed on the subject; a fact which shews how seldom it is a cool judgment with a due consideration of times, circumstances, and means, have any weight with the generality of people in forming their judgment of the characters of men. Certainly an immense weight has not pressed upon the world without containing in it some specific gravity. This brilliant military career has not been made in the absence of all the qualities that constitute the great captain. Immense labours of all kinds have not been prosecuted and completed with an inconceivable degree of constancy, without some portion of those qualifications that constitute a statesman of the first order.

Still calamities the world had never expe rienced before, an antipathy without example ; a situation in which no man had ever stood in, and lost by a succession of faults, that for their extent and obstinacy surpass any by which any other chief was ruined; a conclusion de spicable on account of its baseness, and more shameful still to the world at large ; to those who had paid, rather than to him who had received their adorations; such is the pro-

PREFACE.

. blem presented by a career divided between the highest flight and the lowest fall ; between the most dazzling spleiidour, and the most abject misery; between the extremes of a man of the first ability and the mere dri veller. Napoleon had certainly a great mind ; but it was formed upon the Orientals. By a natural inclination he always indulged, this habit ; though notwithstanding the mag nitude of his plans and purpose, he always fell into mean and pitiful details. His first propo sals were invariably great ; the next, mean and contemptible. The same with respect to his mind as to his money, he was alternately mean and magnificent, penurious and prodigal. His genius resembling that of a monarch, or a mountebank, made him appear sometimes like a hero, and at other times like harlequin. All extremes met in him: he who had commanded the Alps to abase themselves, saids the Simplon to be levelled, the sea to approach or withdraw itself from his shores, concludes by delivering himself up to an English cruizer.

The whim and caprice which attached to every part of the character of Napoleon appears in that facility of speech that he re ceived from nature ; but which from the fre quency of repetition, manifestly argued a want of invention. Whenever he met with.a

PREFACE.

. IX happy idea or expression, he would use it in conversation for several weeks together, and that with all persons indiscriminately. His mind was certainly more active than his in vention ; for, even in common discourse he did not possess that degree of fruit fulness ne cessary for an everlasting talker. With him this indulgence was of the first necessity ; this he placed at the. head of his prerogatives as none could interrupt him when he chose to talk alone. But if he attached so much plea sure to these eternal discourses, he also placed in them no small share of his power; as he never imagined that any person could evade the force of his rhetoric. Every enemy who thus came within his reach he flattered himself he could subdue by an irresistible charm. Hence he neglected no opportunity to pro cure interviews with princes and with people of power or influence of any description, al ways supposing he should certainly gain them to his party.

He, however, was not destitute of the charms of conversation ; nor did he ever exert these more effectually than when by a kind of easy condescension, or some cordial expression of confidence, the syren, sweetening his words, and softening his voice, penetrated your heart with the appearance of opening his jo.wn. This to the hearer was the moment of X

PREFACE.

. danger. One of the most striking traits in this singular character, was his facility in misplacing all his faculties and talents: the whole of these he always employed upon the object of his attention, whether this happened to be a mite or an elephant, an isolated individual, or a numerous army; and in these mo ments of pre-occupation, he would have borne upon one just the same as upon the other. It is true that a moment after, he seemed to have no recollection of the object that had so earnestly engaged him, when he seemed equally as ready to ruin an individual or an empire. He had spoken and that was enough. The cloudy storm perhaps dissolved in a gentle shower. He wished for things, and forgot them like an infant. Nothing can be more singular, nor more strictly fact. I appeal to all who have known him.

I heard what I have related with the intention of committing it to memory. These particulars are but few out of many — for the conduct observed in the palace of the Thuilleries was much like that in the east, where the monarchs are served but not observed. Endowed with wonderful sagacity in the affairs of common life; not deficient in wit; quick in appreciating ideas and their connec tions, either new or remote; abounding in

PREFACE.

. XI lively and picturesque images and animated expressions, making even the incorrectness of his language subservient to his penetration ; always eccentric; using sophistry and sub tilty, and restless to an excess : for though a distinguished mathematician, he would never argue but upon his own ground; here he would defend either truth or error with the exactitude of a geometrician. Thus his own mistakes were multiplied to infinity; yet though he deceived others, he was more fre quently the deceived than the deceiver. Hence arose that remarkable aversion which he was observed to entertain against truth : this how ever he did not oppose as demonstrative truth ; but as some absurdity or incompatibility with that which appeared to be the truth to him. With him illusions prevailed much above falsehoods ; and most of his opposition to re alities arose from weakness: hence too, the terms of contempt and disdain were conti nually in his mouth.

His optics were different from those of other men. If to these qualities we add his pride and perversion, the intoxica tion of success ; his habit of drinking as it were out of an enchanted cup, and his giddi ness in consequence of snuffing up the in cense of universal flattery, we shall find a clue to the developement of the mind of a man, who joined to his whimsicalities, the

PREFACE.

. best and worst qualities to be found amongst mankind ; the most of majesty in his display of sovereignty, and who was the most pe remptory in his commands. If we add to these all that is base and ignoble in a character who in his greatest undertakings joined assassination to the subversion of thrones, we shall find him that kind of Jupiter Scapin hitherto unknown upon the theatre of the world. The folly of Napoleon was not of that species which deranges the mental faculties, but that disorganization of ideas arising from exaggeration and bombast. Hence every thing was overdone ; his commands were issued without calculation, and expences in curred without reckoning; and hence, be cause many obstacles were overcome, it was wisely inferred that all would give way ; or rather that obstacles would cease to exist.

The facility with which Napoleon had usually been obeyed, at length led him to imagine, that to make his wishes succeed, he had only to issue, his orders! He had indeed reduced his system to a fewforms ; those of giving out his behests, and charging his Ministers to carry them into effect. Such was the folly of Napoleon ; and of this, I think I could, trace its gradations, at taching its origin to the battle of Wagram,

PREFACE.

. XIII and his marriage with the Archduchess of Austria ; an epoch when probably his reason ceased to guide him, and when he no longer thought it necessary; when he abandoned himself without reserve to those exaggerations which have completely disorganized France, and terminated in his own ruin. This succession of crimes leads me to no tice a species of character in the French nation, unknown before : according to which a man^ when bearing only a simple command, under a political party ; and one of the mildest of the human race, becomes all at once a monster, committing and conniving at every Crime, and thus exhibiting in one and the same person, the tender father, the affec tionate and faithful husband, the generous friend, the humane master ; but one who, ne vertheless, if his politics are touched upon, at once flies off in the most opposite direction to all these good qualities.

He thus tacitly blas phemes the Deity, as if he had formed the soul of two different natures; as if every thing prohibited by morality was allowable in politics. But as the evil that has been done is not that of a mere individual ; it may be thought necessary to produce the rest of the criminals. The number of these we have confined as much as possible in taking measures to prevent this history from affecting any

PREFACE.

. other than their political characters; justly supposing the right of interference to be con fined to this alone. Every person engaged in public life, is exposed to a kind of profit or loss with respect to history. The men I allude to would have willingly accepted my praises, let them now bear with my censure. Besides, no great forbearance can be due to those who had no regard for the honour of their nation; but wanting in this, they are amenable to all. Every person has a right to expose his own reputation at his own proper risk ; but no man can suppose he has any pri vilege for making free with the national character. We would not disturb the ashes of French honour ; but let those who from in terest, vanity, or baseness of mind, have con tributed to the digging of its grave ; let them, I say, be cited before the tribunal of France and that of posterity ; let every Frenchman who has it in his power, become a Tacitus to each modern Sejanus, or probably he may become the subject of complaint and Te proach.

There is some difference between the Narcisusses of Rome and those of Paris ; the former did not bring the Parthians twice to the gates of that city, though the latter have twice brought all Europe into the heart of France. The Roman empire did not suffer in its greatness by the abuse which these

PREFACE.

. XV Romans made of their influence, whilst France, by the connivance of Napoleon's freed-men, has lost its glory, its conquests, and its political existence. It is hoped that Frenchmen, and readers in general, may derive two advantages at least from this work: first, that the fall of Na poleon, resembling that of Phæton aster setting the world on fire, will warn the ambitious not to aspire to the guidance of the chariot of the sun ; and that those who think differently, will not hesitate to return the reins of these formi dable coursers to their legitimate master, in imitation of their celestial prototypes, who will obey hone but the Father of light. Secondly, that men should be persuaded how much it is against their own interests to open the paths of crime to the heads of nations, and thus furnish the latter with reasons for de spising them.

For granting that the excesses of Napoleon have been beyond example, may it not be asked whether his views of their enormity have not been diminished in consequence of the many examples of the baseness of human nature by which his objects have been seconded ? Napoleon's greatest influence has been ex ercised over the lowest passions of the human heart. This was a string upon which he always knew how to play. But had he not

PREFACE.

. XVI too much reason to suppose, that these were always best disposed towards him ; and that they lent themselves with little or no hesita tion to any hand that offered ? Certainly his attempts would have been re pulsed, had he more frequently been opposed by the impenetrable barrier of virtue and mo rality. He might probably have paid more respect to mankind at large, had they paid more to themselves. He himself might have put a period to his wanderings, if the unwearied patience of mankind had not taught him, that they might be safely stretched beyond all bounds. My own experience has also taught me, that Napoleon knew how to estimate personal dignity, and that he had not sufficient hardi hood to resist those who acted upon it from a principle of just resentment. It is to be hoped, that politicians of all classes, in every country to whom the affairs of nations are entrusted, will contemplate, in the crush of the greatest power that ever existed, the just and wholesome retribution of Machiavelianism.

Never was its confusion more strongly marked. Fraud and injustice, the art of sowing divisions amongst men, and arming them against each other, had alone contributed to the elevation of a power before which we have

PREFACE.

. XVII all trembled. The sun of justice has at length arisen upon this work of iniquity, and it has melted. A coalition, which for twenty years past, all politicians exclaimed against as morally impossible, finally arose out of the despair of nations ; from the salutary appre hensions of sovereigns, and the dangers an nounced to the whole universe. Virtue alone has been the cement of this unhoped for union, though so long desired. It would have been a hundred times dissolved if it had not been held together by other ties than those of a political nature ; this we are authorized to believe from too many autho rities; but its grand principles were genes o sity, magnanimity, and a solicitude for the welfare of human nature, since which nothing has been able to resist it. Royalty has shewn itself as it is, and as it ought to be, the pro tectoress of humanity.

It is true, the blood of the people has been shed ; but it has been in the cause of justice and morality, and for the preservation of the human species, and thus being shed for the political redemption of men, it has been nobly and piously shed. This war shall therefore prevent many others ; the Temple of Janus shall not be opened here after for any pitiful interests of mere policy. Justice and Morality alone shall guard its portals, and the universe consoled and a

PREFACE.

. breathing freely after a long series of cala mities, without apprehension of their return, shall erect a monument to the memory of those princes Avho have caused a moral and generous policy to triumph, at the foot of which the image of Machiavelianism shall appear trembling and in chains. The Quarterly Review for 1816, speaking of this work, observes, " That its author, M. de Pradt, Archbishop of Mechlin, was in fact a considerable person, and a man of talents. He had been one of Buonaparte's attendants at Bayonne in 1808 : one of his de putation to the Pope at Savona in 1811 ; and was afterwards attached to the imperial house hold in the office of Grand Almoner of France. He appears to be a person of quick epi grammatic conversation, of a speculative and sanguine disposition, and of talents not inca pable of those coups de theatre, which, under Napoleon's regime, were considered as coups de etat : this qualification probably recom mended him to Buonaparte, who did not per ceive till he came to employ him without coadjutors, that " Tel brille au second rang qui s'eclipse au premier." And that he whose chief talent seems to be a power of describing, with liveliness and force, the transactions of others, may not be

PREFACE.

. XIX equal to the conduct of great transactions himself. " M. De Pradt attended the Emperor to Dresden as his Almoner, and was there se lected for the important office of ambassador to Poland ; and in this character he had op portunities of observing his master, both in the high flow of his vanity in the outset of the invasion of Russia, and in the lowest ebb of his fortunes at its close : these oppor tunities, with a previous intercourse of ten years, enabled him to paint in a scattered and diffuse, but in a very striking and forcible style, the character of Buonaparte, and this portrait, in fact, constitutes the chief value of the work." a