History of the Secret Societies of the Army, and of the Military Conspiracies, which had for their object the destruction of the Government of Bonaparte. Translated from the French

Front matter

HISTORY OF THE secret OF THE ARMY, AND OF THE MILITARY CONSPIRACIES WHICH HAD FOR THEIR OBJECT THE DESTRUCTION OF THE GOVERNMENT OF BONAPARTE. TRANSLATED FROM THE TRENCH. LONDON: PRINTED FOR LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME AND BROWN, PATERNOSTER ROW. 1S15. HISTORY OF THE secret Jswtetfes OF THE ARM Y, fye. §-c. In a few Days will be ptiblished, in 3 Vols. Svo. Histoire des Conspirations formees contre Napoleon Buonaparte, depuis 1797 jusqu'en 1814 ; ou Chronique Secrete de France et d'ltalie, &c. &c. Publiee par le Conseil des Conjurees des deux Pays. Cet ouvrage n'est point un travail fait a la main, pour remplir des rolumes : ce sont plutot des pieces officielles, dont on a fait un recueil ; et il falloit rien moins qu'une longue suite de convulsions politiques, qui durent depuis vingt-cinq ans, pour produire un enchainement de mysteres si profonds, que les Cabinets qui en sont depositaires, ont crii eux-memes devoir les tenir secrets, pour des vues qui leur etoient sans doute particulieres.

Londres : Chez Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme et Brown, Paternoster Row ; Bossange et Masson; et Le Blanc, 14, Great Marlborough Street. *** A Translation of the above will speedily be published. c. woodfau, hunter, ANCEL COURT, SKINNER STREET, LONDON. CONTENTS. PAGE Introduction ix CHAP. I. Origin of the Philadelphi. — General Mallet. — Colonel Oudet.— Portrait of this first chief of the conspiracy of the Philadelphi 1 CHAP. II. Revolution and new constitution of the Philadelphi. — Distinction of degrees. — Despotic institution of an absolute chief under the name of Censor 1§ CHAP. III. First age of the Philadelphi.— Censorship of Oudet. — First object. — Federalism. — Sequanese republic 27 CHAP. IV. Introduction of the Society into the army. — Prosecution of Arena. — Suspicions of Bonaparte. — Suicide of Morgan. — Institution of the Legion of Honour borrowed from the Philadelphi VI CONTENTS.

CHAP. V. PAGE Second age of the Philadelphi. — Admission and Censorship of Moreau.- — Pichegru's Conspiracy, inaccurately called Mureaus Corn-piracy. — Moreau's hesitation explained and justified by the history of the facts. .... 46 CHAP. VI. Oudet recalled to the army. — Conspiracy of deliverance, or first military conspiracy to save Moreau. — Institution of the Pro-Censorship created by Moreau in favour of Oudet. 74 CHAP. VII. Second military conspiracy. of the Philadelphi, known by the name of the Conspiracy of T . . . . — Project of alliance. — Disclosure of Mehee 86 CHAP. VIII. Third Conspiracy of the Philadelphi, known by the name of the Alliance. — Its history. — Its results gg CHAP. IX. Sequel of the Conspiracy of the Alliance. — Mallet's first Conspiracy CONTENTS. CHAP. X. PAGE Insurrection of the Tyrol. — Campaign of 1809. — Battle of Wagram. — Death of Oudet. . . 120 CHAP. XI. State of France from the death of Oudet to the second Conspiracy of Mallet. — Second Conspiracy of Mallet. 142 Conclusion 158 Notes J63

Introduction

. If the subject of which I undertake to treat, had offered itself to the pen of Sal lust or Machiavel, the book Avhich would have been produced from it, might have been recommended with confidence to all countries and to all ages, as one of the most precious monuments of histor}*. The events "which they have recorded, and to which their genius has imparted so powerful a charm, were far from presenting the degree of interest which distinguishes those that I am about to recite ; and the character of the latter is such as in some measure to re assure me from the consciousness of my own inadequacy. Their importance must fix the attention of the reader, and retain a lasting hold of it, without there being any necessity of giving them a kind of merit which is beyond my reach. It may suffice for me, to state the plan of this work, in a few preliminary lines.

X INTltODUCTION. At the instant when Bonaparte was ele vating himself, a rival party was forming in France, which had vowed his overthrow, and which was one day to effect it. This conspiracy has lasted fourteen years, has embraced all ranks, all states of society, has extended itself over the whole of Eu rope, and has finished by consummating the ruin of the tyranny, without being sus pected, or, at least, without being known. Often frustrated in its boldest plans, in its best combined attempts, it has never been compromised within itself, and its essential secrets have never been penetrated. It has witnessed the successive fall of its most distinguished chiefs, of its most da ring agents ; but it has survived them; and ever powerful in the midst of its ruins which were incessantly repaired, it did not terminate the deadly war Avhich it waged against despotism, until it had triumphed over it.

Even at the present day, the mys tery that surrounded it is only half dis pelled. The great blows which it inflicted on the colossus that trampled on Europe, have disclosed its existence to some judi-

INTRODUCTION.

. X] cious minds ; but it is guessed at, rather than discovered, and as yet it presents to undecided observers and historians, only a difficult problem which itself alone can solve. Those who judge of events only by their effects, without being able to advert to the causes that produced them, or to the springs that were brought to act on them, are liable to form strange judgments con cerning revolutionary times. For instance, I do not think there is one man of sense who could ever satisfy his own mind, as to the conspiracy of Moreau or that of Mallet, from the information that is af forded him by their prosecutions, and from the mutilated disclosures of which the pretended histories hitherto given of them are composed. The journey of Piche gru and of his companions in courage, de votedness, and misfortune, on the faith of an officer Avithout credit, ovenvhelmed in debts, and little to be recommended for the profoundness of his A'ieAvs or the cer tainty of. his conjectures, Avould appear the acme of insanity, if the name of Mo-

INTRODUCTION.

. reau had been the only guarantee of that enterprise, and if the report of Lajolais had been its sole incentive. The hesitation of Moreau would be no less inexplicable, at the moment when that hesitation was destroying the fruit of one of the most hazardous at tempts of which history makes mention. The conspiracy of Mallet is of a still more romantic character, and its means are still less divined. It is not to be conceived, how a general, Avho has not even a certain military reputation, and Avho hardly Avins the esteem of those Avho knoAv him, other- Avise than by a tenacity of opinion, which has never had any influence on the fate of his country, and by some inglorious misfortunes, succeeded, in no great number of hours, in drawing around him officers firmly devoted, and in menacing despotism in all its poAver Avith almost inevitable ruin.

It is the secret of these great political pro blems which I propose to state, although I cannot but be conscious, even in the com mencement of my task, that my recital must often appear improbable to those, to Avh«"*m all the notions upon Avhich it rests

INTRODUCTION.

. xm are entirely neAV. I admit that feAV stories written at pleasure, under the inspiration of an exalted fancy, yield to this in point of singularity ; and yet there is nothing Avhich less resembles a romance. Six thousand Frenchmen have been confidentially acquainted Avith all the principal facts; and as to the facts Avhich by their nature cannot have been communicated but to a small number of persons, more than tAventy are now existing, Avho knoAV them quite as Avell as myself. If I do not place my name at the head of these memoirs, the sequel will explain my reasons ; and I do not the less on that account submit myself, in writing, to all the responsibility of a man of honour, Avho pledges himself to tell nothing but the truth, and to tell the whole truth, as far as he can, Avithout in fringing on his oaths, or hurting the per sonal interests of respectable persons.

Yet I have long hesitated on publishing the facts of Avhich I speak ; and I must ra pidly examine the consideration Avhich de termined me, although I do not think there is one man of good faith who can convert

INTRODUCTION.

. it into a reproach against me, of Avhatever opinion he may othenvise be. The history Avhich I relate, is that of a Secret Society, the secret of which has been so Avell kept, that even its name is scarcely knoAvn out of its OA\n body, though it has several times been near influencing the fate of the Avorld. I am a member of that Secret Society, and I have bound myself to its laws by the most sacred engagements. By Avhat right then durst I reveal it to France and to History ? and Avhat superior poAver shall release me from the promises that I have made to it, Avhen it deigned to admit me into its projects and its mysteries ? I answer, that the existence of that So ciety has never been any other than tem porary ; that the Society had an object of restoration Avhich is attained, and that from the very moment Avhen it ceases to have an object, it enters into the rank of ordinary institutions of that kind ; that the disclosures Avhich form the purport of my Avork, belong only to the historical in fluence of that Society, on the actions of its

INTRODUCTION.

. XV principal members, on the views and character of its chiefs ; that they compromise neither its doctrine, nor its principles, nor its practices, nor its signs of recognizance, nor the place of its meetings, nor the names of the men distinguished by their intellect or their bravery, avIio at present form the ornament of the institution; that I have allowed myself to name only the dead, and these ahvays in a manner honourable to their memory. Lastly, I add, to com plete my justification, that there is no Se cret Society Avhich has not suffered the printing of its annals, and even of its statutes and its interior discipline. My oaths have not bound me in a manner so strict, that I may not name a respectable body Avhich holds meetings known in different places in the Avorld, without there dissem bling its existence ; and if that name appears for the first time in a book, I do not believe that there can be imputed to me a crime, in having been the first to break the silence that held it concealed, Avhen it is a fact that such silence is not obligatory in the statutes and regulations of the Order.

INTRODUCTION.

. This justification being received, I feel very little concerned about defending myself against other reproaches that may be raised against me. A stranger to the art of lite rary composition, I have passed fifteen years of my life in the din and smoke of arms ; and since my Avounds forced me to quit the army, I have been occupied in the cares of agriculture, a sweet relief to my past fatigues. In the tumult of camps and the labours of rural life, one cannot Avell prepare for literary successes, and I have not promised myself any. All my hopes are confined to rendering still one important service to a state to Avhich I am devoted, and to the particular Society of which I have the honour to be a member; the King can only gain by knowing the zealous and faithful servants, Avho pro moted his return by their Avishes and their efforts.

As to the institution itself, of Avhich the destinies are noAv accomplished in an irrevocable manner, it Avas Avorthy of being consecrated by a monument more durable, and by more eloquent pens ; but it could not receiA^e a purer homage than mine. HISTORY OF THE SECRET SOCIETIES OF THE ARMY, Ssc. Ssc.

Chapter I

Origin of the Philadelphi. — General Mallet. — Colonel Oudet. —Portrait of this first Chief of the Conspiracy of the Philadelphi. There is no very established opinion as to the origin of the Philadelphi. Like that of all Se cret Societies, it is involved in darkness; and, perhaps, in falsehood. If, however, the simplest, and consequently the most probable of the tra ditions concerning it may be believed, it was created in one of our Eastern provinces, by some friends who were about to separate, and B wished to leave among themselves this mysterious bond. It could not be then of more than eigh teen years' date ; and as its founders were but just rising above the class of children, it might not be difficult to refer to them. It is at all events certain, that in the place where it origi nated, it obtained its first well-known develope ments, and received that impulse which after wards made it one of the strongest moving powers of great military conspiracies.

I have heard its early constitutions spoken of as a touching model of that pious legislation which might be established in a toAvn of friends. It appears that friendship was actually its first, its only object j and that it was reserved for the virtuous ambition of a man of genius to convert it into an instrument of restoration, the effect of which, more or less slow, was at least inevitable. At the epoch of Bonaparte's accession to the consulate, General Mallet resided, as adjutant general, in the town of Besancon, which the Philadelphi call among themselves Philadelphia ; either because they regard it as the cradle of their institution, or because it has long been its chief place. Mallet could have no connection with the Philadelphi, who, as I have already stated, were very young people, calm in their manners, and quite unacquainted with all those great quarrels which then divided France ; although very fit, by their expansive sensibility, and the vivacity of their imagination, to take an active part in them.

Mallet, of whom history will know little, because he has played only a momentary part on the theatre of the world, had but one quality Avhich raised him evidently above mediocrity, but he carried it to such a height, that there are few men who would not have envied it him : it was an inflexibility of principle, a rigidity of will which could bend to no event, and which reacted against all adverse events without being at all affected by personal interest. Mallet, born a gentleman, but in principles a jacobin, for he was incapable of being •so by speculation, had grown obstinate in his opinions in proportion to the danger which attended the profession of them. He never discussed them Avith any one, but he laid them down arbitrarily, whenever an opportunity, however perilous, presented itself; he expressed them with an independence so abrupt, and, I may say, so tyrannical, that he exhibited, under forms entirely republican, one of the most despotic and absolute characters that nature has formed.

He was a man, severe even to rudeness, but otherwise full of disinterestedness and honour, whatever Bonaparte may have wished him to be thought, when he recalled him from the command of Rome. He never tempered b the austerity of his harsh and democratic man ners but in the presence of women. He had maintained, to the age of forty-five, the preten sion of engaging them, and this he effected at no great cost, for he had not even sacrificed to them the antique head-dress and superannuated toilette of the old court. With them he was in request, as he was esteemed by men, that is, Avithout being beloved. Mallet was not perhaps ambitious, but he wanted to subjugate, to govern opinion ; to be much respected, and even to be feared. The Society of the Philadelphi, as yet timid, and as it were ingenuous, but composed of sixty obscure youths, would scarce have appeared to him worthy of being subjected to that sort of moral ambition with Avhich his mind was pos sessed, even had it been then known to him ; but Mallet had not the penetrating eye which might divine, in a group of ignorant children, in one of the most remote parts of an immense empire, the real elements which will one day bring On its fall and its re-organization.

For this there was wanting the perspicacity of genius, joined to the charm with which skilful seduction may clothe itself; there was wanting the illusion of youth, of wit, of beauty, of glory ; and chance had raised up so many means, had collected so many various and sometimes opposite faculties in the first assistant of Mallet, I mean to speak of Jam es- Joseph Oudet, surnamed Philopœmen. To pronounce the name of Oudet before the French army, is to remind it of one of its most intrepid and brilliant officers. Yet his re membrance is lost to history ; and I do not my self hope that these fugitive pages are one day to restore it. That young hero is one of those rare essays of Providence, which she sometimes sheAvs to mankind, to prove to them the dig nity of their essence and of their origin, and which she then takes to herself, without having aA*ailed herself of them, because they are not indispensable to the accomplishment of her de signs.

If Colonel Oudet had survived the bat tle of Wagram one year, the face of the world would have been changed. Dying at Wagram, his short course on earth leaves no traces except in the heart of some friends. James-Joseph Oudet was born on the mountains of Jura, of a family of agriculturalists, in easy circumstances. He received the education of a man of good birth, and his wonderful qua lifications did the rest. Nature, in forming him, destined him for all that was good and fair. At his own choice, he might have been a poet, orator, tactician, magistrate ; the whole army has proclaimed him brave ; the soul of an angel would be requisite to give an idea of his goodness, to those who knew him not. NeArer were united qualities so contrasted, and yet so na tural; he had the simplicity of a child, and the ease of a man of the world ; he was artless as a young girl of sensibility, firm as an old Roman ; at once candid and heroic.

He was the most ac tive and the most heedless of men ; indolent in enjoyments, indefatigable in his enterprises, immoveable in his resolutions ; mild and severe, sportive and serious, tender and terrible, Alci biades and Marius. The century began with the despotism that has oppressed us for fourteen years. Oudet was twenty-five, of a good figure and well made, with a noble and martial air, a countenance charming yet energetic, of which the variable physiogno my still heightened its expression. At that age he already enjoyed the renown of the valiant. A simple officer in La Vendee, he there com menced his career with glory ; afterwards lieu tenant-colonel, or as the title was then, a chief of battalion, in a famous brigade, he counted his exploits by the battles in which he was engaged ; twice was his right arm pierced by a ball ; a Biscayan had shattered his thigh ; a gash, to add to the grace of his smile, vertically grazed both lips : the soldiers related his actions, the officers treasured up his speeches.

Overthrown at St. Bartholomeo by a red-hot ball, the gre» fladiers crossed their guns to make him a litter and transport him to the hospital. " Comrades," cried he, " what are you doing ?" "If we do not take aAvay your body," said an old serjeant to him, " it will remain for the enemy." — " Repulse the enemy," answered Oudet dying, " and my body will not remain for him." He recovered from this Avound, as if by miracle, and it Avas he who said, three months afterward, to Bonaparte, frightened, " Shew me thy visage, that I may still assure myself that it is indeed Bonaparte Avho returned from Egypt to enslave his country." Twenty traditions of the same kind already attended him, and gave him an historical solemnity as to one of the brave men of ancient times. Yet he was perhaps the only hero, who appeared still to greater advantage in the eyes of his personal attendant.

The habit of lofty thought, the feeling of high destiny, the need of a consideration worthy of himself, had so identified him with his ideal character, that he naturally supported it every where. His private life was romantic without effort, theatrical without affectation. He would never have permitted himself any thing when alone, which would be derogatory to the dignity of a man exposed to all eyes ; but that dignity cost him nothing, and hurt not others ; it was artless, or rather invo luntary. It was the mode of his character and his mind. It was not besides incompatible with the most communicative familiarity, the most af fectionate overflowings ; but when he arrived at that point, the most frigid soul felt grateful for it, because he had the air of becoming a man through complaisance.

This picture drawn from memory after the lapse of six years, and at the distance of four hundred leagues from his tomb, will no doubt be taxed with exaggeration by the great number of readers who never saw Oudet, but it will not be so either in Franche-Comte, or in Bretagne, or in Beam, or in the regiments where he has served, or in those which he has commanded. I do not moreover pretend to assert that Oudet was without faults. He is the sole, the true hero of my recital ; had he lived, he would have eclipsed many of the heroes whom we shall offer to posterity; but that exalted love of virtue and glory which filled his soul did not fill it ex clusively. I ought however to say, that his faults were not such that he might not have triumphed over each and all ; there were some which he tolerated in a certain degree, because they might serve for the accomplishment of his views, or at least disguise them from com mon observers, who see not beyond the surface of characters.

There were others to which he gave way, only to occupy his activity when it had no other aliment. In short, there were some which he fell into designedly, and which entered into the class of whims an! fancies. I shall give some examples of each, to finish the portrait of Oudet in such a way as to shelter my friendship for his memory from the reproach of that mad enthusiasm to which we have no right to expose ourselves when we write any other thing than a panegyric. Oudet loved women to madness ; lie loved them all ; he deceived them all, and abandoned none from thought, remembrance or affection. His heart had become an abyss of tenderness, in which the most contradictory sentiments were commingled. There was not a moment when he might not be melted to tears concerning the first woman whom he had betrayed ; not one when he did not meditate, perhaps in spite of himself, on seducing another.

He was born a Werter, and the world had made him a Love lace. It is thus that Schiller has represented Fiesco. I will not say that he was a gamester, though I have often seen him lose his gold, his horses, his jewels, and always ready to hazard all that he possessed on a cast of the dice ; money was so indifferent to him, that the chance of losing or of doubling a treasure would not have caused him a strong sensation. When he had much, he thought only of giving it away, and of scat-* tering it around him, sometimes without much discrimination. When he had very little, he con tented himself with whatever came. He was sober from taste, and sumptuous from habit. I am persuaded that he regarded play only as a means of occupying his attention and his time. I dwell on all these traits, because they constitute the entire portrait of a man almost unknown, but who in the sequel of this relation is about to become the agent of a system the most hazardous and the most profoundly conceived.

I suppose the reader to have already made me some necessary concessions ; to have already participated in a certain degree the sentiment that guides my pen ; and it is for that reader of feeling, curious at the same time respecting all the details, that I finish this imperfect sketch by two or three characteristic touches, which however belong rather to a detached study, than to a grand historical outline. Oudet, so dis tinguished from the rest of mankind by his faculties, had distinguished himself from them designedly by some forced originalities, which having grown into habits, at length identified themselves in his nature. Extremely nice in his apparel, punctually exact in his uniform, he had however a manner of wearing his hat which was quite singular in the army, and Avhich was never taken up even by the crowd of young en thusiasts who AVished to resemble him in some thing.

What is very remarkable, he attached much value to this singularity, and I never once reproached him with it, but I saw his hand me chanically twisting his mustachio, and his countenance become cloudy. He was subject to pro found reveries, which sometimes made him fall into the most ridiculous mistakes ; but he took a very evident pleasure in hearing them spoken of, and his friends knew that they could not en tertain him more agreeably than by telling him of them. Nor have they forgotten the quick movements of his head ; his wild and unpro voked laughter, and especially his warm passion for paradox. Who indeed could forget Oudet, buried in that kind of magnetic slumber in which his distractions plungedhim, roused all at once by the last word of a phrase, seizing with a ra pidity that astonished the mind, the most Avhim sical sense that that word could furnish to a de lirious imagination, and making it the text of some extemporary effusion of eloquence, which car ried the hearer along, ere he had leisure to reflect on the inconceivable follies to which he was abandoning his mind.

This play of imagination, which the orator generally terminated by a burst of laughter, is not one of those whims which are easily imitated, and which may become contagious among the flatterers of a great man. For myself, I declare, that I have heard all the eloquent men whom the tribune has produced in our times ; but I do not think that a man who has not heard Oudet in his enraptured moments, can form a just idea of the charms and power of eloquence. Oudet had not been the friend of Bonaparte : two such characters could not approximate in any Avay ; but he had often seen him at the kind of court of the director Barras, where chance had brought him, and where a taste for tumul tuous sensations, and the love of Avomen, had retained him. He had found means to appreciate the man Avho was charging himself with the destinies of France, and whose political hypocrisy deceived both parties, awkward as it was.

He knew, beyond doubt, that Bonaparte had absolute power in view, and that he would not lose sight of it, either for the sake of the legitimate sovereigns or of the people. He therefore deemed it of the highest importance for loyal and incorruptible men attached to both causes, early to break the yoke of an insolent foreigner, Avho impudently arrogated to himself the right of governing them; and he had already anticipated the means of an amicable arrange ment which might terminate the revolution without any more effusion of French blood. He considered as the surest moving power to his enterprise, the organization of a Secret Society, safe, devoted, armed, if that were possible, and ready to rise at the call of an absolute chief; but for this it was necessary to find a society already formed, and to reduce it to submission by the ascendancy of genius.

Oudet was scarcely called to the number of the Philadelphi, ere he experienced the joy of a powerful soul which has just discovered what it had long been seek ing for the accomplishment of the greatest of its designs ; that joy which Archimedes would have felt had he found a point of support from which to move the globe. In fact, I do not think that another Secret Society, had there been one then existing, such as is to be supposed, would have been more suited to Oudet's views than that which opened to him its bosom. Formed under the auspices of the virtues, and of sensibility, it presented to him that guarantee of probity and discretion, without Avhich all conspiracies fail sooner or later, amidst the most indubitable chances of success. Oudet, still very young, had over most of the members the authority of age as well as that of information and genius.

Yet the very youth of almost all the initiated, answered both for their tractability and their ardour ; the idea of that institution, which belonged to them, augured in them a tendernessof sentiment, which, in young men who are endowed with it, is always the forerunner of energetic passions and powerful faculties. Lastly, suspicion could scarcely dwell among them; and the mystery which, until then, had enveloped their meetings when they had no other object than an innocent and artless communion of affections, was a good prognostic of the solicitude with which they Avould conceal more important meetings for council, and more serious affairs. The only thing that could impede the success of the enterprise Avhich such a Society prescribed to itself to accomplish, was the case in which their forces might be divided and put in opposition by two men of genius, equal in all things, and even in ambition, but animated by contrary passions, and aiming at different ends.