Memoirs of the Private Life, Return, and Reign of Napoleon in 1815 Volume I Part 18

[Footnote 83: I am speaking here only of the addresses of bodies corporate, and of certain generals and prefects.]

The favourites of Apollo did not fail to offer up their obsequious incense to the G.o.d of the day. We received from the Countess de G***

some very pretty verses in honour of the violet. Another woman, still more celebrated, the Baroness de S***, took occasion from some flattering words said for her to M. B. C., to write an epistle to the Emperor, which would make a curious figure at the head of her last work.

The most rigid writers and lecturers on the common law, who the evening before, with Cujas and Bartholi in their hands, had formally impleaded Napoleon, were eager to testify their admiration of him, and proclaim him the sovereign of sovereigns.

Thus Napoleon was more honoured and lauded than ever; and it must be confessed, that he conducted himself so as to deserve it: on one hand he caressed the nation, and on the other private interests, which it is much more difficult to conciliate than what is called the public interest.

The decrees of Lyons had sequestrated anew the estates restored to emigrants since 1814. Part of these had been sold by those who had recovered them; and it was necessary, to quiet the apprehensions of the purchasers. The Emperor declared irrevocable all the sales, that had been completed; and confirmed those, that had taken place subsequently to the decree, when it could be proved, that they were not collusive.

On the other hand, the emigrants, who had returned, had purchased property, the price of which might not have been entirely paid: and in order to do justice both to the emigrants and to the sellers, he ordered, that estates recently acquired should not be subject to sequestration, on condition of being re-sold within a certain period.

Another decree from Lyons had indiscriminately abolished all promotions in the legion of honour, and in the army, made since the royal restoration. He subjected to revision the nominations, that appeared to him the result of favour, intrigue, and venality; and confirmed all, that had been the reward of real and meritorious services. He would not even allow men's opinions, to const.i.tute a line of demarcation and directed the minister, to pay regard to ancient services rendered by officers since incorporated in the King's household.

He confirmed also the decorations granted to the national guard; and distributed new ones among the brave pupils of the polytechnical school, whose n.o.ble conduct had so much excited the admiration of Paris, and of foreigners, at the time of the occurrences of 1814.

The daughters of the members of the legion of honour had claims to his remembrance, and his consolation, too sacred, not to partic.i.p.ate in his favours. He went to visit them. His presence excited inexpressible enthusiasm among these young orphans: they threw themselves at his feet, embraced his knees, and watered them with their tears. He had taken a spoon, to taste their food: after he was gone, as every one wished to have it, they broke it to pieces, and shared it amongst them. Most of them had braided rings of hair, on which were traced patriotic devices, or the ingenious expression of their sentiments for Napoleon. The Emperor having condescended to accept some of these, and place them on his fingers, every one of the orphans was desirous of obtaining the same favour: they rushed on him, seized his hands, and in an instant covered them with these innocent pledges of love and grat.i.tude. The Emperor, moved, enchanted, submitted with kind complaisance to the gentle fetters of these amiable infants. They ingeniously intreated him, not to give away the rings they had presented to him; and he promised to keep them, a.s.suring them, that they would be as valuable in his eyes as the jewels of his crown.

The working cla.s.s, who had surnamed Napoleon _le grand entrepreneur_[84], also received its share of the imperial favours.

The works commenced in his reign, and buried in dust under that of the Bourbons, were resumed with activity. The capital became, as before, a vast workshop: and the Parisians, who had learned from strangers to perceive the beauty of their edifices, saw with a mingled sentiment of grat.i.tude and pride, that new marvels were still more to embellish their majestic city.

[Footnote 84: We have no single word in our language answering to this: it implies one who undertakes works of different kinds, including our architect and civil engineer.--Tr.]

In fine, all cla.s.ses received testimonies of the solicitude and justice of Napoleon. Must it be said? his old companions in the island of Elba alone were forgotten.

While Napoleon had no throne but his rock, they had shown themselves as disinterested as faithful: when he had recovered his crown, they flattered themselves, that they should be recompensed with generosity.

Some, whom honour alone had attached to Napoleon, enjoyed in prospect the praises, t.i.tles, ribands, that would be bestowed on them: others, inspired with less lofty sentiments, expected benefits more solid.

The guard and its worthy chiefs were ambitious only of the favour of retaining the glorious t.i.tle of grenadiers of the island of Elba. Vain illusions! the Emperor's thoughts, entirely absorbed by other cares, were no longer turned to those brave fellows, who had shared his exile and his misfortunes. The moment of forgetfulness, however, had not time to degenerate into ingrat.i.tude: it was repaired: promotions, endowments, indemnifications, were bestowed on them; and, if they did not feel themselves completely satisfied with the conduct of Napoleon, they had at least no reason to complain.

The Emperor would have wished from feeling, and perhaps too from ostentation, to have had it in his power, to acknowledge in a manner more worthy of himself their services and attachment: but he was deterred by the fear of being charged with imitating the Bourbons, and of preferring those Frenchmen, who had gone into exile with him, to those who had retained their fidelity in their mother country.

These scruples appear to me unfounded.

The emigrants had sullied their native land with blood, shed either by their own weapons, or in the civil wars they had fomented and cherished; and the indignant nation had long combated them, and pursued them with its maledictions, as the enemies of its happiness and tranquillity.

The Frenchmen who returned from the island of Elba with Napoleon, on the contrary, had spilt their blood in the defence of their country.

They were beloved, honoured, respected and the recompenses the Emperor might have bestowed upon them, instead of tending to alienate France, would have fulfilled her wishes. She would have enjoyed it with that feeling of pride and pleasure, which a mother experiences, when she hears the triumphs of her children proclaimed in the lists opened for youth, and sees their heads adorned with the rewards of their success.

Policy, no less than justice, required, that Napoleon should confer, even with prodigality, his favours and benefits on men, who had sacrificed themselves for him. In his situation it would have been better, to have been deemed prodigal than ungrateful: but fortune favoured him so highly, that he might be allowed, in some degree, to neglect the means of securing the feeble support of men.

The re-establishment of the imperial government, which appeared as if it would experience some obstacles, took place on all sides with a prompt.i.tude and facility truly extraordinary. Marshal Augereau, who had endeavoured in his proclamation of 1814 to disgrace the Emperor, was eager to make his public recantation in a fresh proclamation.

The Duke of Belluno, and Count Gouvion St. Cyr, after attempting in vain to curb their insurgent troops, were forced to shun their resentment by flight.

The troubles excited in La Vendee and Calvados by a few royal volunteers had been appeased, and the perturbators disarmed.

The military household of the King had submitted to their discharge, and readily surrendered their horses and arms.

In fine, the royal family had evacuated the imperial territory.

The Emperor thought proper, to acquaint his army in person with these happy results. "Thanks to the French people and you," said he, on reviewing the troops on the 27th of March, "the imperial throne is re-established. It is acknowledged throughout the empire, and not a single drop of blood has been spilt. The Count de Lille, the Count d'Artois, the Duke de Berri, the Duke of Orleans, have pa.s.sed our northern frontier, and sought an asylum among foreigners. The tricoloured flag waves on the towers of Calais, Dunkirk, Lille, Valenciennes, Conde, &c. A few bands of Chouans had attempted to form themselves in Poitou and La Vendee: popular opinion, and the march of a few battalions, were sufficient to disperse them. The Duke of Bourbon, who came to excite disturbances in the provinces, has embarked at Nantes.

"How senseless were they," continued the Emperor, "and how little did they know of the nation, who imagined, that the French would consent to receive a prince from those very hands, that had ravaged our territory, and, aided by treason, had for a moment obscured our laurels!"

The King, who at first took refuge at Lille, had in fact just retired to Ghent. His Majesty had given orders to his household and the princes, to join him in the former city, where it had been apparently his intention, to take up his residence, and convene the chambers. But marshal the Duke of Treviso, governor of that division, declared to him, that he would no longer answer for his troops, if the musketeers, the body guards, &c., entered the place; and advised him to repair to Dunkirk, which, from its geographical position, and the attachment of its inhabitants, afforded him an opportunity of awaiting the issue of events without danger. M. de Blacas and the emigrants with the King remonstrated with him strongly, that he would not be out of danger there; and that he could no longer be safe from the pursuit of Napoleon, except in a foreign country. The Duke of Treviso still insisted on the contrary: and the King, in spite of the alarm and entreaties of the Count de Blacas and the other courtiers, had resolved to follow the advice of the marshal, when some despatches from the Count d'Artois, received in the course of the night, determined him to pa.s.s the frontier.

The Emperor thought at first, that the design of Louis XVIII. was to return to England. He was glad of this: and it was not without extreme vexation, that he learned the intention of this Prince, to remain on the Belgic frontiers, observing the course of affairs. But if this resolution, to which perhaps the King was indebted for the recovery of his throne, was displeasing to Napoleon, it never inspired him with the criminal desire, as some wicked writers have pretended, of making any attempts against the lives or liberty of the Bourbons.

The orders given to General Excelmans merely were, to drive the King and the Princes out of France step by step. He was never commanded, "either to secure their persons, or to kill them in case of resistance."

The instructions given at the same time to Marshal Ney, sent on a mission to the frontiers of the North and East, directed him also in express words, "to cause the royal family to be respected, and facilitate its procuring the means of quitting France freely and quietly[85]."

[Footnote 85: It was this mission, that became the source of the disgrace, in which the marshal lived, till the day of his being recalled to the army. The Emperor had ordered him, to set off immediately: he answered, that he could not go, till he was paid some twenty thousand francs, which were owing to him. The Emperor, swearing, ordered them to be paid.

The next day General Le Courbe, to whom the Emperor had just entrusted an important command, wrote to him, to demand several favours, and in addition a hundred and fifty thousand francs, as arrears of pay, in order to discharge his debts.

Two other generals, less known, were equally desirous of being paid for their services. He was disgusted at their claims. "Do these men think,"

said he, "that I throw away my money? I am not inclined to suffer myself to be plundered like Henry IV; if they be not inclined to fight, let them put on petticoats, and go and take an airing."]

It has been a.s.serted, that the Duke of Ba.s.sano, who had the temporary charge of the port-folio of the home department, had sent orders to M. Simeon, then royal prefect at Lille, to arrest the King. The Duke of Ba.s.sano, indignant at such an odious charge, would not quit France, without having refuted it. He proposed, to summon M. Simeon to declare the truth; and his declaration would have been made public through the means of the newspapers and the press, if the police had not opposed it.

The King quitted Lille on the 23d of March. The Duke of Orleans, who had attended his Majesty, and whom the King on his departure had invested with the command of that place, did not quit it till twenty-four hours after; when he addressed the following letter to Marshal Mortier.

"I commit entirely to your hands, my dear Marshal, the command which I was so happy as to exercise with you in the department of the North. I am too good a Frenchman, to sacrifice the interests of France, because fresh misfortunes compel me to quit it. I go to bury myself in retirement and oblivion. The King being no longer in France, I cannot issue orders in his name: and nothing remains for me, but to absolve you from all obedience to the orders I have already transmitted to you; requesting you, to do whatever your own excellent judgment, and pure patriotism, shall suggest to you as most conducive to the interests of France, and most agreeable to the duties you have to fulfil."

The Emperor, after having read this letter, turned to the Duke of Ba.s.sano, and said: "See what the Duke of Orleans writes to Mortier; this letter does him honour. _His heart was always French._"

I then informed him, that I had been a.s.sured, that the Duke of Orleans, when he parted from his officers, said to one of them, Colonel Athalin: "Go, sir, resume the national c.o.c.kade: I take a pride in having worn it, and I wish I could wear it still." The Emperor appeared struck with these words, and made no reply. A few minutes after he asked me, if I had not a letter from Madame the d.u.c.h.ess of Orleans. I delivered it to him: he read it, and said: "Let his mother _be treated with the regard he merits_." And he ordered, that the d.u.c.h.ess, whose property had just been sequestrated, should receive annually from the public treasury three hundred thousand francs as an indemnification. At the same time another indemnification of a hundred and fifty thousand francs was granted to the d.u.c.h.ess of Bourbon.

The Duke of Bourbon, though the Emperor had announced his embarkation, did not sail however till several days afterward. His presence and his proclamation had produced a partial rising in the circle of Beaupreau; but convinced by his own eyes, and by the reports of his princ.i.p.al officers, that the great body of the Vendeans would not stir, he yielded to the wishes of Colonel Noirot, commandant of the gendarmerie, expressed in the following letter:

"Monseigneur,

"It will not be in vain, I am persuaded, that I make an appeal to your magnanimity. It is in your power, with a single word, to calm an effervescence, the first results of which may once more stain with blood the fields of the too unhappy Vendee: this word your Highness will p.r.o.nounce, and every thing will be restored to order. You will be aware likewise, Monseigneur, that a longer stay in the circle of Beaupreau, while it endangers the internal security of the country, will also endanger the personal safety of your Highness.

"Deign then, I conjure you, Monseigneur, to yield to the wishes I entertain for your happiness, and for that of my country. For all the means of safety, which your Highness may desire, to repair to the place of destination you may choose, I will engage."

This letter, which I take a pleasure in quoting, to prove what was the language of the men of the 20th of March, was not without effect. The Duke of Bourbon directed his aide-de-camp to have an interview with Colonel Noirot and it was determined, that his Highness should quit la Vendee, and embark at Nantes for England.

For reasons with which I am unacquainted, the prince did not fulfil his engagements. In fact, he quitted Beaupreau, but still roamed about the coast some time with a fict.i.tious pa.s.sport, and under a borrowed name. General--[86] recognised him, but respected his disguise. The Emperor approved this deference, and gave orders, that he should merely be obliged to depart: the father of the Duke of Enghien was become sacred to him, and to France.

[Footnote 86: I regret, that I did not learn his name.]

Of all the family of the Bourbons the Duke and d.u.c.h.ess of Angouleme alone persisted in struggling against their ill-fortune.