Memoirs of the Private Life, Return, and Reign of Napoleon in 1815 Part 23

The other products of our industry equally received improvements and extension; and France, in spite of the conscription, reckoned in its numerous workshops nearly twelve hundred thousand workpeople.

If this flouris.h.i.+ng state of our continental trade were the effect of the enlargement of our territory, and the scope the war had given to our industry, we must say, that it was also the result of the succour, encouragement, and honorary distinctions, which Napoleon knew how to bestow appropriately on our manufacturers; and the return for those enormous sacrifices he made, to create, repair, and keep in order, those superb roads, and those numerous ca.n.a.ls, which rendered the communications between France, and the countries subjected to its empire, equally easy, safe, and pleasant.(Back to main text)

Footnote 101: These words, and several others that I have quoted, prove Napoleon not to have been ignorant of the use he might make of the people. If he did not have recourse to them, no doubt it was because he feared, that the remedy might prove worse than the disease.(Back to main text)

Footnote 102: Napoleon, during the hundred days, entertained for a moment the design of issuing a demi-official note on the arrest and death of the Duke of Enghien.

The following memorandums are taken from papers, from which the note was to have been compiled.

Reports from the police had informed Napoleon, that there were conspiracies of the royalists beyond the Rhine, and that they were conducted and supported,

1st, by Messrs. Drake and Spencer Smith, the English ministers at Stutgard, and at Munich;

2dly, by the Duke d'Enghien and General Dumourier:

The central point of the former was at Offenbourg; where were some emigrants, some English agents, and the Baroness de Reich, so noted for her political intrigues:

The central point of the latter was given out to be at the castle of Ettenheim, where the Duke d'Enghien, Dumourier, an English colonel, and several agents of the Bourbons, resided.

The hundred and twenty thousand francs given by the minister Drake to the Sieur Rosey, chef de bataillon, to excite an insurrection,

The declarations of Mehee;

And the reports of M. Sh***, prefect of Strasbourg, and brother-in-law of the Duke de Fel....; leave no doubt of the existence of the intrigues at Offenbourg and Ettenheim, to which M. Sh*** ascribes in particular the agitation, and symptoms of discontent, that prevail at Weissembourg, and in several parts of Alsace.

On the other hand, the conspiracy of the 3d of Nivose had just broken out. The discoveries made by the servant of Georges, and by other individuals, led to the belief, that the Duke d'Enghien had been sent by England to the borders of the Rhine, in order to place himself at the head of the insurrection, as soon as Napoleon was made away with.

The necessity of putting an end to these plots, and strike terror into their instigators by a grand act of reprisal, squared in an incredible degree with the political considerations, that led Napoleon to attempt a bold stroke, in order to give the revolution, and the revolutionists, those guaranties, which circ.u.mstances demanded:

Napoleon, named consul for life (I borrow here the language of the Ma.n.u.script from St. Helena), felt the weakness of his situation, the ridiculousness of his consuls.h.i.+p. It was necessary to establish something solid, to serve as a support to the revolution. The republicans were alarmed at the height, on which circ.u.mstances had placed him: they were suspicious of the use he might make of his power: they dreaded his renewing an antiquated royalty by the help of his army. The royalists fomented this rumour, and took a delight in representing him as an ape of the ancient monarchs: other royalists, more adroit, whispered about, that he was enamoured of the part of Monk, and that he would take the pains to restore the power, only to make a present of it to the Bourbons, when it should be in a proper state to be offered them.

Ordinary minds, unacquainted with his powers, credited these reports; they sanctioned the tales of the royalist party, and decried him to the people, and to the army; for they began to suspect him, and his attachment to their cause. He could not allow such an opinion to pa.s.s current, because it tended to unhinge every thing. It was necessary, at all events, to undeceive France, the royalists, and Europe at large, in order that they might know, what they had to reckon upon in him. A persecution of reports in detail never produces any thing but a bad effect, for it does not attack the root of the evil.

The death of the Duke d'Enghien would decide the question, that agitated France; it would decide the character of Napoleon beyond return; in fine, it might intimidate and punish the authors of the plots incessantly contriving against his life, and against the state: accordingly he determined on it.

He sent for Marshal Berthier, and this minister directed General Ord**, by an order which the Emperor dictated, and which I have seen, to set off post for Strasbourg; to cause General Lev** to place under his orders fifteen boatmen, three hundred dragoons from the garrison of Schelstadt, and thirty gendarmes; to pa.s.s the Rhine at Rheinan, to proceed to Ettenheim, to surround the town, and to carry off the Duke d'Enghien, Dumourier, an English colonel, and all the persons in their suite.

The Duke d'Enghien, General Thumery, Colonel de Grunstein, Lieutenant Schmidt, Abbe Weinburn, and five other inferior persons, were arrested by a chef d'escadron of the gendarmerie, named Ch**, who was charged with this part of the expedition.

Then, and then only, it became certain, that Dumourier was not at Ettenheim. General Thumery had been mistaken for him. This mistake, occasioned by the similarity of their rank, and some likeness of sound between their names, which the Germans p.r.o.nounced nearly alike, had heightened the importance and criminality of the pretended plots at Ettenheim in the mind of Napoleon, and had the most fatal influence on his determination.

The Duke d'Enghien was brought from Strasbourg to Paris, and carried before a military commission.

The Empress Josephine, the Princess Hortense, fell at Napoleon's feet in tears, and conjured him to spare the life of the Duke d'Enghien. Prince Cambaceres and the Prince of Neufchatel strongly remonstrated to him on the horrible inutility of the blow he was about to strike. He appeared to hesitate, when the information was brought him, that the prince was no more.

Napoleon had not expected so speedy a catastrophe. He had even given orders to M. Real, to repair to Vincennes, to interrogate the Duke d'Enghien: but his trial and execution had been hastened by Murat; who, urged by some regicides, at the head of whom was M. Fou***, thought he should render a service to Napoleon, to his family, and to France, by insuring the death of a Bourbon.

The Prince de T***, whom the Emperor often publicly reproached with having advised the seizure and death of the Duke d'Enghien, was directed to pacify the court of Baden, and to justify the violation of its territory in the eyes of Europe. M. de Caulincourt being at Strasbourg, the Emperor thought him more proper than any other person, to follow up a negotiation, if the turn of affairs should require it; and he was directed to send to the minister of Baden the despatch of the Prince de T***. But there was no need of having recourse to negotiations: the court, far from complaining of the violation of its territory, expressed itself well contented, that the step taken had saved it the disgrace of consenting, or the embarra.s.sment of a refusal.

This is an exact and true recital of the circ.u.mstances, that preceded, followed, and accompanied, the carrying off and death of the last of the house of Conde.

The seizure of the Duke d'Enghien was long imputed to M. de Caulincourt, and is still imputed to him by persons uninformed of the truth.

Some a.s.sert, that he arrested him with his own hands:

Others, that he gave orders for the seizure of his person: both these imputations are equally false.

He did not arrest the Duke d'Enghien, for his seizure was executed and consummated by chef d'escadron Ch***.

Neither directly, nor indirectly, did he give orders for seizing the prince: for the particular mission, to carry him off, was confided to General Ord**, and this general had no orders to receive from M. de Caulincourt his equal, perhaps even his inferior.

What made it be supposed, at a time when it was not possible to explain the facts, that M. de Caulincourt had been employed to seize the Duke d'Enghien, or cause him to be seized, was, that M. de Caulincourt received, at the same moment as General Ord**, orders to repair to Strasbourg, to cause the emigrants and English agents, who had fixed the seat of their intrigues at Offenbourg, to be carried off. But this mission, for which it would be requisite to take measures in concert with General Ord**, and perhaps even to a.s.sist him in case of need; for a simultaneous proceeding was necessary, that one expedition might not cause the failure of the other; this mission, I say, though a.n.a.logous to that of General Ord**, had no real connexion with it.

Their objects were different:

That of one was to carry off the Duke d'Enghien from Ettenheim;

That of the other, to seize the conspirators at Offenbourg, which was eight or ten leagues distant.

Perhaps it will be objected, that M. de Caulincourt was not ignorant of General Ord**'s being directed, to seize the Duke d'Enghien. Be it so: I cannot perceive the consequence, attempted to be drawn from this. But what I have seen in the cabinet, and what I attest, is, that the order given to M. de Caulincourt said nothing of Ettenheim, and that the name of the Duke d'Enghien was not even mentioned in it: it related solely, in the first place, to the construction of a flotilla, that was preparing on the Rhine; and, secondly, to the expedition of Offenbourg; an expedition that terminated, as no doubt is still remembered, in the laughable flight of the minister Drake and his agents.

I have thought it my duty as a Frenchman and an historian, to enter into these details, and destroy for ever an error, which malevolence and the spirit of party have laid hold of, in order to tarnish the political life of one of the men, who do the greatest honour to the imperial government and to France.

M. de Caulincourt would not have been less irreproachable, had he committed the fatal seizure ascribed to him: he would have done his duty, as General Ord** did his. A soldier is not the judge of the orders he is to execute. The great Conde, covered with the laurels of Rocroy, Fribourg, Norlinguen, and Lenz, was arrested, in spite of the faith pledged to him, in the apartments of the King; yet neither his contemporaries, nor posterity, have charged Marshal d'Albret with this arrest as a crime.(Back to main text)

Footnote 103: I have been a.s.sured, that Georges was three times offered his pardon by Napoleon, if he would promise, not to engage in any conspiracy again; and that it was not till after his third refusal, that his sentence was ordered to be carried into execution.(Back to main text)

Footnote 104: Marshal Augereau, Duke de Castiglione, was also in this list. His name was struck out at the request of the d.u.c.h.ess, and in consideration of the proclamation, which he published on the 23d of March.(Back to main text)

Footnote 105: These conversations with persons, whose merit and opinion Napoleon esteemed, were always pleasing, instructive, interesting, always marked with strong thoughts, and bold, ingenious, or sublime expressions. With persons indifferent to him, or whose nullity he discerned, his phrases, scarcely begun, were never finished: his ideas turned only on insignificant, common-place matters, which, by way of amusing himself, he was apt to season with biting sarcasm, or jokes more whimsical than witty.

This explains the contradictions between the different opinions given of Napoleon's understanding by foreigners introduced at his court.(Back to main text)

Footnote 106: Attorney-general to the king, employed on certain occasions, to prosecute political crimes and misdemeanors.(Back to main text)

Footnote 107: "Beautiful Marchioness, your beautiful eyes make me die of love; of love make me die, beautiful Marchioness, your beautiful eyes."(Back to main text)