Napoleon and the end of the French revolution

Front matter

jH-- f

1:

Book M^

Preface

This book is a sequel to my works on Mirabeau, Danton, and Robespierre and their part in the French Revolution. The Revolution made Napoleon. He v^as its embodiment, its natural sequence ; it culminated in him ; he stood between its chaos and a Bourbon restoration and although a usurper and a despot he saved the salient principles of that great political upheaval and prevented an immediate and a permanent return to the abuses of the ancient regime. He brought order out of chaos, organized the government upon a stable basis, re-established the church, fostered a spirit of religious toleration, and compiled a Code which secured equality before the law. His ambition carried France to a transcendent glory and at last left her humiliated, exhausted, and stripped of her conquests; but he had given to her people a better form of government and a more beneficent rule than they had ever enjoyed and this made it impossible for his successors to restore the offensive features of the Bourbon monarchy.

" The Revolution is planted," he declared, " on the principles from which it proceeded. It is ended." The government did not emanate from the sovereignty of the people, but was created and bestovv^ed upon them by an autocrat; it was not

PREFACE

liberty in its broad sense, but in the reaction that followed the Revolution when society was escaping from the violence of that great upheaval and was likely to run to extremes in the opposite direction, Napoleon held in check the mob on one hand and kept the Bourbons at bay on the other. The illustrations are from the very valuable collection of engravings and etchings belonging to Mr. William J. Latta, of Philadelphia. Many of them are original sketches made by artists contemporary with Napoleon, and have never before been published. I take this occasion to thank him for his kindness in allowing me access to his portfolios and aiding me in making the selections.

* Charles F. Warwick.

Contents

CHAPTER I PAGE Napoleon Bonaparte — Birth — Parentage — Corsica — Charles Bonaparte — Childhood of Napoleon — Enters School of Brienne — His Studies and Reading — Enters Military School of Paris — Appointed Lieutenant — Death of Charles Bonaparte — Napoleon Visits Ajaccio — His Writings 15

CHAPTER n French Revolution — Bonaparte Visits Ajaccio — Dedicates His History of Corsica to Paoli — Bonaparte Rejoins His Regiment — ^Death of Mirabeau — Bonaparte Relieved of His Commission — Day of the Black Breeches— August the Tenth — Bonaparte Restored to His Position as Captain — Revisits Corsica — Flees with His Family from Calvi — Overthrow of Girondins — Supper of Beaucaire ^^

CHAPTER in Toulon — Thirteenth Vendemiaire 45

II Contents

CHAPTER XXV page Battle of Dresden — Battle of Leipsic 353

CHAPTER XXVI Napoleon Returns to Paris — The Frankfort Proposals — Invasion of the Allies 364

CHAPTER XXVII Napoleon's Departure for Elba — His Residence in Elba — His Return to France — New Constitution — Champ de Mai zi^

CHAPTER XXVIII Ligny — Quatre Bras 392

CHAPTER XXIX Waterloo 401

CHAPTER XXX Napoleon's Second Abdication — Boards the "Bellerophon" — Sails for St. Helena 415

CHAPTER XXXI St, Helena — Sir Hudson Lowe — Death of Napoleon.. 426

CHAPTER XXXII Napoleon Bonaparte 437

CHAPTER XXXIII Napoleon Bonaparte — Continued 447

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

FACING PAGE

Napoleon Bonaparte. From a portrait by Delaroclie Frontispiece

Letizia, Bonaparte's Mother, in Negligee Costume. From an original drawing by Lefebre. From the Joseph Bonaparte Collection 22

Napoleon Bonaparte. From an original drawing in black and white by Guerin. Portrait came to present owner through Pierre Morand, a well-known Frenchman living in Philadelphia some years ago.. 30

Napoleon Bonaparte. From an original sketch in red crayon by Guerin 58

Josephine, in Negligee Costume. From an original drawing by R. Lefebre. Joseph Bonaparte Collection 64

Napoleon Bonaparte. From an original by Ledru, 1797. From the Joseph Bonaparte Collection 76

Murat. From an original drawing in colors. From the Joseph Bonaparte Collection 90

Napoleon Bonaparte. From an original water color in brilliant colors by Victor Adam. From the Joseph Bonaparte Collection 102

Napoleon Bonaparte. From an original drawing by Dubrez 124

Napoleon Bonaparte. From an original drawing in blue by an unknown artist 140

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

FACING PAGE

Napoleon Bonaparte. From a painting by Gerard; engraved by Richomme i6o

Napoleon Bonaparte. The painter and engraver of this portrait (R. Lefebre and A. Desnoyers) are two of the best known artists in the Napoleon and subsequent periods. Considered one of the best portraits of Napoleon ever made 170

Napoleon Bonaparte. From an original water color drawing by L. David, 1803. From the Joseph Bonaparte Collection 198

Napoleon Bonaparte. From an original drawing in crayon by Vallot, Came into the possession of the present owner through Godefroy Meyer of Paris, . 210

Josephine. After the Isabey Portrait 216

Napoleon Bonaparte. From an original drawing by Vallot. Formerly in the collection owned by Cardinal Bonaparte of Rome, a nephew of the famous Emperor. Came into the possession of the present owner through Godefroy Meyer, of Paris 222

Nelson. Painting by L. F. Abbott. Proof before letters 236

William Pitt. From a portrait by Owen, engraved by H. S. Goed 244

Napoleon Bonaparte. From a rare portrait in bright colors engraved by Levachez 250

Napoleon Bonaparte. From an original drawing by Guerin, 1810. Came to the present owner through Pierre Morand, a well-known Frenchman living in Philadelphia some years ago 272

Maria Louisa. Representative portrait made in Vienna by well-known Austrian artists 296

Napoleon Bonaparte. From a portrait in colors by G. Hemmerle. 2X2

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

FACING PAGE

Napoleon Bonaparte. From an original drawing made in the Waterloo period by Rouguet, 1815. Came into the possession of the owner througli Pierre Morand, a well-known French resident of Philadelphia 348

Blucher. From an original drawing in colors, by an unknown artist 368

Duke of Reichstadt. From a portrait made in Vienna. Proof before letters 372

Napoleon Bonaparte. From an original portrait drawn and engraved on the island of Elba by D'Albon in 1814 382

Wellington. From a portrait by Sir Thomas Lawrence 404

Marshal Grouchy. From an original drawing in colors by Biard 410

Marshal Ney. From an original drawing by Guerin 418

Napoleon Bonaparte. From an original water color by Coquette made at St. Helena in 1816. Came into possession of owner through Pierre Morand, a well-known French resident of Philadelphia 432

National Conceptions of Napoleon. Dutch, German, English, Spanish, Danish 442

National Conceptions of Napoleon. Austrian, Italian, French, United States, Swedish 452

AND THE END OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION

Chapter I Napoleon Bonaparte — Birth Parentage

CORSICA CHARLES BONAPARTE — CHILDHOOD

OF NAPOLEON ENTERS SCHOOL OF BRIENNE

HIS STUDIES AND READING ENTERS MILITARY

SCHOOL OF PARIS — APPOINTED LIEUTENANT

DEATH OF CHARLES BONAPARTE NAPOLEON

VISITS AJACCIO HIS WRITINGS.

No man in the history of the modern world has SO dominated by his commanding personality the period in which he lived as Napoleon. He looms up out of the stirring events of his era as the one great central figure, like a mighty rock around which surged and lashed the waves of a tempestuous sea. He was the greatest individual, intellectual force of the century, in many respects of all time. The story of his life is an epic, his dazzling and unparalleled career reads like a romance; he makes fact seem but fiction, reality but the figment of imagination.

He was unique ; he has no exact counterpart in history. His genius was transcendent, universal. His executive abiHty and povv^ers of organization were phenomenal. His plans and projects appeared impossible, but while men were predicting failure he accomplished success. His audacity was sublime, his will inflexible, his energy prodigious. " There are no Alps," he cried when he intended to cross their snowy summits and pour his army like an avalanche upon the sunny fields and fertile valleys of Italy.

He changed the geography of Europe at his will, he drew the boundary lines of nations with the point of his sword. With the exception of London, he entered in triumph every capital in Europe. At his command great armies marched, and the earth shook beneath the tread of his mighty legions, capitals fell, thrones crashed and dynasties that seemed secure for all time, were, in the twinkling of an eye, overthrown and destroyed.

The world has stood in amazement marveling at his career, almost bewildered by its intensity of action and its rapidly changing scenes; and it still marvels, for time and distance do not dim the greatness of his character but only delineate its features in sharper outline and bolder relief. A man who could raise himself from obscurity to a throne, whose power of action seemed at times almost superhuman, whose will made nations bend and the terror of whose name sent a thrill through continents and across seas possessed a superiority of talent and an ascendency of genius unparalleled.

Whence came this man of phenomenal power? On the 15th day of August, 1769, Madame Letizia Bonaparte, while in attendance upon her devotions in a church at Ajaccio, Corsica, felt coming upon her suddenly the pains of labor. She hurried home and barely reached her bedroom in time to give birth there to a male child. The story that the boy was born on a tapestry representing battle scenes from the Iliad, no matter how pleasing to the imagination, must be consigned to the realm of fiction. The mother herself in after years when questioned positively denied the story.

During the greater part of the mother's pregnancy, Corsica was shaken by war, and the child, it may be said, first saw the light of day amidst the clash of arms. " I was born," said Napoleon, " while my country was dying. Thirty J^ thousand French vomited on our shores, drowning the throne of liberty in waves of blood — such was the horrid sight which first met my view. The cries of the dying, the groans of the oppressed, tears of despair, surrounded my cradle at my birth."

Corsica, an island in the Mediterranean Sea

about one hundred miles in length and fifty in

width, with a population of one hundred and

twenty-five thousand — had been rocked by

almost incessant war for centuries. Using again

the language of her most illustrious son, " She

has been a prey to the ambition of her neighbors, 2 17 the victim of their politics and of her own wilfulness." Her people, untamed, vindictive and courageous, were imbued with a spirit of independence, but had been conquered successively by Carthaginians, Romans, Germans, Byzantine Greeks, Moors, Goths, Vandals, Longobards, the Popes, Pisans, Genoese and French. " We have seen her," quoting once more from the same authority, "take up arms, shake the atrocious power of Genoa, recover her independence . . . but then pursued by an irresistible fatality fall again into intolerable disgrace. For twenty-four centuries these are the scenes which recur again and again; the same changes, the same misfortune but also the same courage, the same resolution, the same boldness. ... If, led by a natural feeling, she kissed, like a slave, the chains of Rome, she was not long in breaking them. If, finally, she bowed her head before the Ligurian aristocracy, if irresistible forces kept her twenty years in the despotic grasp of Versailles, forty years of mad warfare astonished Europe and confounded her enemies."

Sampiero, who had endeavored to shake off the yoke of Genoa, and Pascal Paoli were patriots of a high type whose fame filled the universe, but, after years of glorious effort to gain a national independence, Corsica passed into the control of France, Genoa releasing her hold in 1768 upon the payment by Choiseul of two million francs.

When this infamous pact, by which the island had been sold under their very feet, was made known, the Corsicans sprang to arms against their new masters, but France, with overwhelming forces, defeated PaoH, who was a better statesman than soldier, at Ponte Nuovo on June 12, 1769, and the heroic Corsicans were compelled to lay down their arms. Embittered by the treatment they received at the hands of their conquerors, the islanders once more rose in rebellion, but were crushed by a savage brutality. These were the prevailing conditions at the time of Napoleon's birth; the new-born child ''breathed air that was hot with civil hates."

The inhabitants of Corsica were a primitive and an imaginative people, with a rich folk-lore. It was the land of the unwritten code. The deadly vendetta existed here in its full development, a slight, an injury done to a neighbor would inaugurate a bloody feud which in many instances would drag its dreary, tortuous way through intrigue, conspiracy and murder from generation to generation, until, the principals having been destroyed, the collateral branches would continue the strife and the man who would not avenge the family honor would lose all caste and be looked upon by his neighbors, clansmen and countrymen as a coward beneath contempt.

It was in this atmosphere of war, strife, impassioned effort, vendetta, legend and romance, that Napoleon first opened his eyes, and it was under these circumstances his temperament was molded and his character formed in preparation for his extraordinary career; fitting conditions for the development and training of such a life.

In due course of time the infant was christened. 19

" The bell," says Dumas, " which sounded his baptism still quivered with the tocsin."

There has been much controversy over the question as to the year of Napoleon's birth. At the time of his marriage to Josephine he was entered in the registry as having been born in February, 1768, but this was done obviously for the purpose of lessening the disparity in their ages. While not a vital or important matter, it is nevertheless an interesting one, for it defines Napoleon's nationality. If born in the earlier year he was a Genoese, for at that period Corsica belonged to the republic of Genoa ; if, however, his birth occurred in 1769 he was French, for in the early part of that year the island was annexed to France. The weight of evidence is altogether with the later year. An extract from an original baptismal certificate in the archives of the French war department gives the date of Napoleon's birth as August 15, 1769, while the same date appears in the application made by his father for admission to the school of Brienne and also in an autograph paper written by Napoleon in his early youth. Further than this, investigation has shown that Joseph, the eldest son in the Bonaparte family, was born in 1768. His baptismal name was Nabulione, which is Italian for Napoleon, and this name was subsequently prefixed by Joseph. This fact, doubtless, aided also in giving rise to the controversy. In any event he was very close to not being born a Frenchman.

Charles Alarle Bonaparte, the father of Napoleon, was a lawyer by profession, whose family had for centuries been prominent in the social and political life of Corsica. The houSe possessed a proud coat-of-arms and an ancient title of nobility bestowed by the Genoese government and also another granted by the Grand Duke of Tuscany.

The Bonaparte family was an honorable one, but after Napoleon rose to distinction and power the ingenious heralds began to trace its genealogy, and some of them, giving full play to their fancy and imagination, to win, no doubt, the favor and tickle the pride of the emperor, ran the line back into the dim and cloudy vista of the past to the Roman csesars and the Byzantine emperors. One master of his art traced it to the Borgias, while another made the " Man with the Iron Mask," the brother of Louis XIV, the progenitor of the family. In spite of all these romances, careful research has shown that it was both ancient and honorable, being easily traced back to the middle of the thirteenth century, the founder, one William, having been an active and influential Ghibelline.

Charles Bonaparte was a member of the Council of Corsican Nobles, and had been a supporter of the patriot Paoli, but after the French possession had abandoned his cause. It was for this desertion that Napoleon time and again in bitter terms reproached his father. " Paoli was a great man," he exclaimed, " he loved his country ; and I will never forgive my father for his share in uniting Corsica to France."

In 1764, when he was eighteen, Charles married a beautiful girl of fifteen, Letizia Ramolino, from a respectable if not noble Florentine family. She was a woman of no education but of great force of character — > Napoleon declaring that she had a man's head on a woman's shoulders. Time and again he admitted : " It is to my mother and to the principles she instilled into me that I owe my fortune and all the good I have ever done." She lived to an advanced age, dying in her eighty-fifth year. Often she predicted that her great son would not be able to maintain his elevation and she wisely made provision for a rainy day. She bore thirteen children, five of whom died in infancy. Napoleon was fourth in order of birth, and the second in age among the survivors.

Charles Bonaparte studied law at the University of Pisa, a famous institution of learning in that day, and received his degree of doctor of laws in 1769. He could have lived comfortably on the income from his own and his wife's estate, eked out by the returns from his practice, but a man in his position was required to discharge his social obligations which were necessarily a heavy drain on his purse. He was handsome in both form and feature, most genial in manner, convivial in his tastes and especially fond of the pleasures of the table. He entertained extensively, lived beyond his means, and in consequence was constantly in debt and greatly harassed by duns and importuning creditors. Besides this he had inherited a suit-at-law, to maintain which

Copyright, 1910, by George W. Jacobs & Co.

Letizia, Bonaparte's Mother, in Negligee Costume

From an original drawing by Lefebre From the Joseph Bonaparte Collection was not only annoying but expensive. One of his ancestors, on his death-bed under clerical persuasion, gave away by testament his estate to the church, which gift was in direct violation of the provisions of a prior ancestor's will. The church having secured the land upon what it contended was a good and sufficient consideration — the repose of the donor's soul — refused to relinquish or surrender it. A suit-at-law was instituted to recover possession, but after long years of litigation and the expenditure of large sums of money in fees and court charges it ended fruitlessly for the plaintiff. The Jesuits retained the property. This litigation so incensed and embittered Charles Bonaparte against the church that on his death-bed he is said to have refused the consolations of religion and the rite of absolution at the hands of a priest.

Napoleon's childhood was passed without special incident. He was not remarkably precocious ; he gave no pronounced signs of his future greatness. He was not the wise child that promises so much and realizes so little. He was in no sense a prodigy.

The story of his early life is very obscure. It is made up of detached incidents. One little romance is that while at school he formed an attachment for a girl about his own age named Giacominetta ; so attentive was he that he provoked the ridicule of his companions ; but to their gibes he replied with sticks and stones and torrents of abuse. Even at this early age he was not tidy in appearance, his stockings as a rule were about his heels and one of his little schoolfellows, taking for his subject Napoleon's slovenliness and youthful courtship, indited a couplet which became the song of the school:

At St. Helena Napoleon delighted to refer to his childhood's scrapes and escapades, and painted himself in the darkest colors as a very madcap. He described how he would abuse Joseph, beat him, scratch him, and when his mother appeared make her believe it was his brother's fault. The statement that his mother likened him to a little imp and predicted a sad end is without substantiation. The fact seems to be that Napoleon as a child was gloomy, morose and solitary, but with a high, uncontrollable temper. On the other hand he was generous, grateful, most susceptible to friendship, and easily won by kind treatment. " Ah, Bourrienne," he said at Brienne, " I like you; you never make fun of me."

The Bonapartes had a country seat called Milleli not far from Ajaccio, situated on the coast. To this estate the family would repair during the summer months, and Napoleon spent much of his time while here in a grotto from which could be had a magnificent view of the sea. Here alone he would spend hours day after day in study and reading.

In 1779, when nine years of age, he left home after a sad parting with his mother, and journeyed with his father to Brienne to enter the military school located in that town, his father, through the influence of some French friends, having secured for him a cadetship in the institution. For a pensioner the requisites were that he should be without fortune, but have four degrees of nobility. The father had made application for the admission of both Joseph and Napoleon, but the authorities had so long held the matter under advisement that Joseph passed his tenth year, which made him ineligible.

On his way to Brienne, Napoleon spent two or three months in a school at Autun, where Joseph was studying for the priesthood. This was done to acquire the use of the French tongue, for up to this time, he had spoken nothing but Italian. He soon became sufficiently familiar with French to carry on an ordinary conversation, but with a most pronounced foreign accent, and to write short letters. After this preparatory study he journeyed to Brienne, which institution he entered April 23, 1779, a few months before his tenth year.

Here at once his troubles began; his foreign birth and the fact that he was a child of a conquered race made him an object of derision. Shy and diffident in manner, but with an innate pride, he suffered in spirit, but would brook no insolence. His shabby clothes, lack of money, and the position he occupied as a pensioner drew a line between him and the rich, well-dressed sons of the aristocracy, while his broken tongue excited the merriment if not the ridicule of his companions.

"Your father is nothing but a wretched tipstaff/' said one of the haughty nobles addressing Napoleon; and the hot-headed young Corsican sent a challenge to his insulter. For his temerity, he was imprisoned in the school dungeon.

Each boy at Brienne was given a small piece of land to cultivate as a garden. Napoleon made his a retreat where he might retire to read and study. His companions in a spirit of fun would occasionally interrupt his seclusion, but he would sally forth and bravely repel any attempt at intrusion.

In this institution he was reported as " taciturn, fond of solitude, capricious, haughty, extremely disposed to heroism, seldom speaking, energetic in his answers, ready and sharp in repartee, full of self-love, ambitious and of unbounded aspirations."

In his studies he excelled in history, geography, geometry and mathematics, but made little progress in the languages and mere accomplishments, or the humanities, as they were called in those days. He never could acquire grammar and orthography, and to the latest day of his life neither wrote nor spelled correctly, although few men have ever equaled him in the clear, terse expression of thought.

He did not confine himself to his curriculum alone. He was a close student of the works of French and other writers. Two of his favorite authors were Plutarch and Ossian; Caesar's Conquest of Gaul also gave him great delight. He studied the lives and the campaigns of famous commanders such as Frederick the Great, Turenne and Marlborough, and read with zest the philosophical treatises of Raynal and Rousseau.

Although in early life much impressed by the teachings of the last named author, he subsequently discarded him for Voltaire. In an afterdinner discussion with Roederer, in 1803, he said : " The more I read Voltaire the more I like him ; he is always reasonable, never a charlatan, never a fanatic, he is made for mature minds. Up to sixteen years of age I would have fought for Rousseau against all the friends of Voltaire. Now it is the contrary; I have been especially disgusted with Rousseau since I have seen the East. Savage man is a dog."

In the severe winter of 1783-4, the students at Brienne amused themselves by building snow forts and indulging in sham battles. According to Bourrienne Napoleon directed the construction of the walls, and also the methods of attack and defence. This story in itself contradicts many of the statements made concerning the shabby treatment he received at the hands of his school fellows. He must, since his early admission to the college, have grown into favor. Even in their games boys do not give the supreme command to an unpopular member of the class. An incident occurred which revealed in the boy the character of the soldier and the disciplinarian : One of his comrades, while the fight was on, refusing to obey a command was knocked down by Napoleon with a piece of ice. The story goes 27 that in after years the unfortunate youth in seeking the Emperor's aid showed the scar on his forehead and recalled the occasion when the wound was given. His petition was forthwith granted.

Towards the close of his term an officer who inspected the school made the following report as to Bonaparte : " Constitution : health excellent. Character: submissive, sweet, honest, grateful. Conduct : very regular, has always distinguished himself by his application to mathematics, knows history and geography passably, very weak in accomplishments. He will be an excellent seaman. Is worthy to enter the school of Paris."

On this recommendation, in September, 1784, he passed as " Cadet-gentilhomme " into that institution. No sooner had he entered this college than he drew up a plan of reform which seriously reflected upon the management and in consequence brought down upon his head the censure of his masters. He saw to it, however, in afterlife, that his suggestions were put into operation.

In February, 1785, his father died in the house of Madame Permon at Montpelier, where he had taken refuge when overcome by a sudden illness. He passed away at the comparatively early age of thirty-eight, with the same disease that afterwards caused the death of his illustrious son. He left his family penniless, but they loved him, for he had been a kind and an indulgent parent and had struggled hard to get his boys well started in life. Elis death was sincerely mourned by all of them. Little did he believe that one of his sons would be an emperor, three of them kings, one daughter a queen and the others princesses. Napoleon at his coronation turned aside for a moment and whispered in the ear of his brother Joseph : " What would father say if he were here? "

Napoleon remained in the school of Paris for a year and graduated in August, 1785, being forty-second in his class, surely not a high standing.

During his short sojourn in Paris after his graduation and before his assignment as sublieutenant, he suffered from poverty and truly, it may be said, ate his bread in the salt of his tears. The two hundred francs given to him when he left the college was soon exhausted, and at times without a sou in his pocket, he had to depend for a meal upon the bounty and charitableness of his acquaintances. Napoleon never forgot in his prosperous days those friends who helped him in his adversity. Some writers try to trace in his Corsican blood the spirit of the vendetta, but they signally fail, he was not vindictive, nor was he harsh or at heart cruel, but on the other hand he was one of the most grateful of men; he never forgot a real service or favor rendered him.

At this period of his life Napoleon was described as " dark, swarthy in feature, short in stature, poor physique, head large, full and intellectual.'' He wore immense " dog's ears," as they were called, a style of wearing the hair then in vogue. His long lank locks fell over his ears and the sides of his face and almost, if not quite, reached his shoulders. He was exceedingly thin, and his legs did not fill out the tops of his military boots. He presented rather a ridiculous appearance until the gaze of the beholder met the searching and thoughtful expression of his deep-set eyes.

In September, 1785, he was appointed junior lieutenant, but did not receive his commission until the close of October. He set out, at once, to join his regiment of artillery called La Fere, stationed at Valence on the Rhone. He left Paris with a young friend named Des Mazis. They reached Lyons on the way, and here indulging in the gayeties of that seductive southern town spent all their money and in consequence had to go afoot the remainder of the distance.

While in Valence Napoleon had entree to the best society; although provincial it was refined and intellectual. He had brought a letter of introduction from the Bishop of Autun to the Abbot of St. Ruffe. His social duties, however, did not interfere with his course of reading and study. During his stay here he met a young woman, Caroline Colombier, for whom he formed a close attachment. It was, however, only a passing devotion, but in after years at St. Helena he recalled with pleasure the delightful strolls he had taken with her at dawn and the eating of cherries together.