The Modern Regime Volume I Part 8

[Footnote 1217: Marshal Marmont, "Memoires," I., 306. Bourrienne, II., 119: "When off the political field he was sensitive, kind, open to pity."]

[Footnote 1218: Pelet de la Lozere, p.7. De Champagny, "Souvenirs,"

p.103. At first, the emotion was much stronger. "He had the fatal news for nearly three hours; he had given vent to his despair alone by himself. He summoned me.... plaintive cries involuntarily escaped him."]

[Footnote 1219: Madame de Remusat, I., 121, 342; II., 50; III., 61, 294, 312.]

[Footnote 1220: De Segur, V., 348.]

[Footnote 1221: Yung, II., 329, 331. (Narrated by Lucien, and report to Louis XVIII.)]

[Footnote 1222: "Nouvelle relation de l'Itineraire de Napoleon, de Fontainebleau a l'Ile de l'Elbe," by Count Waldberg-Truchsees, Prussian commissioner (1885), pp.22, 24, 25, 26, 30, 32, 34, 37.--The violent scenes, probably, of the abdication and the attempt at Fontainebleau to poison himself had already disturbed his balance. On reaching Elba, he says to the Austrian commissioner, Koller, "As to you, my dear general, I have let you see my bare rump."--Cf. in "Madame de Remusat," I., 108, one of his confessions to Talleyrand: he crudely points out in himself the distance between natural instinct and studied courage.--Here and elsewhere, we obtain a glimpse of the actor and even of the Italian buffoon; M. de Pradt called him "Jupiter Scapin." Read his reflections before M. de Pradt, on his return from Russia, in which he appears in the light of a comedian who, having played badly and failed in his part, retires behind the scenes, runs down the piece, and criticize the imperfections of the audience. (De Pradt, p.219.)]

[Footnote 1223: The reader may find his comprehension of the author's meaning strengthened by the following translation of a pa.s.sage from his essay on Jouffroy (Philosophes cla.s.siques du XIXth Siecle," 3rd ed.): "What is a man, master of himself? He is one who, dying with thirst, refrains from swallowing a cooling draft, merely moistening his lips: who insulted in public, remains calm in calculating his most appropriate revenge; who in battle, his nerves excited by a charge, plans a difficult maneuver, thinks it out, and writes it down with a lead-pencil while b.a.l.l.s are whistling around him, and sends it to his colonels. In other words, it is a man in whom the deliberate and abstract idea of the greatest good is stronger than all other ideas and sensations. The conception of the greatest good once attained, every dislike, every species of indolence, every fear, every seduction, every agitation, are found weak. The tendency which arise from the idea of the greatest good constantly dominates all others and determines all actions." TR.]

[Footnote 1224: Bourrienne, I. 21.]

[Footnote 1225: Yung, 1., 125.]

[Footnote 1226: Madame de Remusat, I., 267.--Yung, II., 109. On his return to Corsica he takes upon himself the government of the whole family. "n.o.body could discuss with him, says his brother Lucien; he took offence at the slightest observation and got in a pa.s.sion at the slightest resistance. Joseph (the eldest) dared not even reply to his brother."]

[Footnote 1227: Memorial, August 27-31, 1815.]

[Footnote 1228: "Madame de Remusat," I., 105.--Never was there an abler and more persevering sophist, more persuasive, more eloquent, in order to make it appear that he was right. Hence his dictations at St.

Helena; his proclamations, messages, and diplomatic correspondence; his ascendancy in talking as great as through his arms, over his subject and over his adversaries; also his posthumous ascendancy over posterity.

He is as great a lawyer as he is a captain and administrator. The peculiarity of this disposition is never submitting to truth, but always to speak or write with reference to an audience, to plead a cause.

Through this talent one creates phantoms which dupe the audience; on the other hand, as the author himself forms part of the audience, he ends in not along leading others into error but likewise himself, which is the case with Napoleon.]

[Footnote 1229: Yung, II., 111. (Report by Volney, Corsican commissioner, 1791.--II., 287.) (Memorial, giving a true account of the political and military state of Corsica in December, 1790.)--II., 270. (Dispatch of the representative Lacombe Saint-Michel, Sept.

10, 1793.)--Miot de Melito I.,131, and following pages. (He is peace commissioner in Corsica in 1797 and 1801.)]

[Footnote 1230: Miot de Melito, II., 2. "The partisans of the First consul's family... regarded me simply as the instrument of their pa.s.sions, of use only to rid them of their enemies, so as to center all favors on their proteges."]

[Footnote 1231: Yung., I., 220. (Manifest of October--31, 1789.)--I., 265. (Loan on the seminary funds obtained by force, June 23, 1790.)--I., 267, 269. (Arrest of M. de la Jaille and other officers; plan for taking the citadel of Ajaccio.)--II., 115. (letter to Paoli, February 17, 1792.) "Laws are like the statues of certain divinities--veiled on certain occasions."--II., 125. (Election of Bonaparte as lieutenant-colonel of a battalion of volunteers, April 1, 1792.) The evening before he had Murati, one of the three departmental commissioners, carried off by an armed band from the house of the Peraldi, his adversaries, where he lodged. Murati, seized unawares, is brought back by force and locked up in Bonaparte's house, who gravely says to him "I wanted you to be free, entirely at liberty; you were not so with the Peraldi."--His Corsican biographer (Nasica, "Memoires sur la jeunesse et l'enfance de Napoleon,") considers this a very praiseworthy action]

[Footnote 1232: Cf. on this point, the Memoirs of Marshal Marmont, I., 180, 196; the Memoirs of Stendhal, on Napoleon; the Report of d'Antraigues (Yung, III., 170, 171); the "Mercure Britannique" of Mallet-Dupan, and the first chapter of "La Chartreuse de Parme," by Stendhal.]

[Footnote 1233: "Correspondance de Napoleon," I. (Letter of Napoleon to the Directory, April 26, 1796.)--Proclamation of the same date: "You have made forced marches barefoot, bivouacked without brandy, and often without bread."]

[Footnote 1234: Stendhal, "Vie de Napoleon," p. 151. "The commonest officers were crazy with delight at having white linen and fine new boots. All were fond of music; many walked a league in the rain to secure a seat in the La Scala Theatre.... In the sad plight in which the army found itself before Castiglione and Arcole, everybody, except the knowing officers, was disposed to attempt the impossible so as not to quit Italy."--"Marmont," I., 296: "We were all of us very young,...

all aglow with strength and health, and enthusiastic for glory.... This variety of our occupations and pleasures, this excessive employment of body and mind gave value to existence, and made time pa.s.s with extraordinary rapidity."]

[Footnote 1235: "Correspondance de Napoleon," I. Proclamation of March 27, 1796: "Soldiers, you are naked and poorly fed. The government is vastly indebted to you; it has nothing to give you.... I am going to lead you to the most fertile plains in the world; rich provinces, large cities will be in your power; you will then obtain honor, glory, and wealth."--Proclamation of April 26, 1796:--"Friends, I guarantee that conquest to you!"--Cf. in Marmont's memoirs the way in which Bonaparte plays the part of tempter in offering Marmont, who refuses, an opportunity to rob a treasury chest.]

[Footnote 1236: Miot de Melito, I., 154. (June, 1797, in the gardens of Montebello.) "Such are substantially the most remarkable expressions in this long discourse which I have recorded and preserved."]

[Footnote 1237: Miot de Melito, I. 184. (Conversation with Bonaparte, November 18, 1797, at Turin.) "I remained an hour with the general tete-a-tete. I shall relate the conversation exactly as it occurred, according to my notes, made at the time."]

[Footnote 1238: Mathieu Dumas, "Memoires," III., 156. "It is certain that he thought of it from this moment and seriously studied the obstacles, means, and chances of success." (Mathieu Dumas cites the testimony of Desaix, who was engaged in the enterprise): "It seems that all was ready, when Bonaparte judged that things were not yet ripe, nor the means sufficient."--Hence his departure. "He wanted to get out of the way of the rule and caprices of these contemptible dictators, while the latter wanted to get rid of him because his military fame and influence in the army were obnoxious to them."]

[Footnote 1239: Larevelliere-Lepaux (one of the five directors on duty), "Memoires," II., 340. "All that is truly grand in this enterprise, as well as all that is bold and extravagant, either in its conception or execution, belongs wholly to Bonaparte. The idea of it never occurred to the Directory nor to any of its members.... His ambition and his pride could not endure the alternative of no longer being prominent or of accepting a post which, however eminent, would have always subjected him to the orders of the Directory."]

[Footnote 1240: Madame de Remusat, I., 142. "Josephine laid great stress on the Egyptian expedition as the cause of his change of temper and of the daily despotism which made her suffer so much."--"Mes souvenirs sur Napoleon," 325 by the count Chaptal. (Bonaparte's own words to the poet Lemercier who might have accompanied him to the Middle East and there would have learned many things about human nature): "You would have seen a country where the sovereign takes no account of the lives of his subjects, and where the subject himself takes no account of his own life. You would have got rid of your philanthropic 'notions."]

[Footnote 1241: Roederer, III., 461 (Jan. 12, 1803)]

[Footnote 1242: Cf. "The Revolution," Vol. p. 773. (Note I., on the situation, in 1806, of the Conventionalists who had survived the revolution.) For instance, Fouche is minister; Jeanbon-Saint-Andre, prefect; Drouet (de Varennes), sub-prefect; Chepy (of Gren.o.ble), commissary-general of the police at Brest; 131 regicides are functionaries, among whom we find twenty one prefects and forty-two magistrates.--Occasionally, a chance doc.u.ment that has been preserved allows one to catch "the man in the act." ("Bulletins hebdomadaires de la censure, 1810 and 1814," published by M. Thurot, in the Revue Critique, 1871): "Seizure of 240 copies of an indecent work printed for account of M. Palloy, the author. This Palloy enjoyed some celebrity during the Revolution, being one of the famous patriots of the Faubourg Saint-Antoine. The const.i.tuent a.s.sembly had conceded to him the owners.h.i.+p of the site of the Bastille, of which he distributed its stones among all the communes. He is a bon vivant, who took it into his head to write out in a very bad style the filthy story of his amours with a prost.i.tute of the Palais-Royal. He was quite willing that the book should be seized on condition that he might retain a few copies of his jovial production. He professes high admiration for, and strong attachment to His Majesty's person, and expresses his sentiments piquantly, in the style of 1789."]

[Footnote 1243: "Memorial," June 12, 1816.]

[Footnote 1244: Mathieu Dumas, III., 363 (July 4, 1809, a few days before Wagram).--Madame de Remusat," I., 105: "I have never heard him express any admiration or comprehension of a n.o.ble action."--I., 179: On Augustus's clemency and his saying, "Let us be friends, Cinna," the following is his interpretation of it: "I understand this action simply as the feint of a tyrant, and approve as calculation what I find puerile as sentiment."--"Notes par le Comte Chaptal": "He believed neither in virtue nor in probity, often calling these two words nothing but abstractions; this is what rendered him so distrustful and so immoral.... He never experienced a generous sentiment; this is why he was so cold in company, and why he never had a friend. He regarded men as so much counterfeit coin or as mere instruments."]

[Footnote 1245: M. de Metternich, "Memoires," I., 241.--"Madame de Remusat," I., 93: "That man has been so harmful (si a.s.sommateur de toute vertu...) to all virtue."--Madame de Stael, "Considerations sur la Revolution Francaise," 4th part, ch. 18. (Napoleon's conduct with M. de Melzi, to destroy him in public opinion in Milan, in 1805.)]

[Footnote 1246: Madame de Remusat, I., 106; II., 247, 336: "His means for governing man were all derived from those which tend to debase him.

... He tolerated virtue only when he could cover it with ridicule."]

[Footnote 1247: Nearly all his false calculations are due to this defect, combined with an excess of constructive imagination.--Cf. De Pradt, p.94: "The Emperor is all system, all illusion, as one cannot fail to be when one is all imagination. Whoever has watched his course has noticed his creating for himself an imaginary Spain, an imaginary Catholicism, an imaginary England, an imaginary financial state, an imaginary n.o.blesse, and still more an imaginary France, and, in late times, an imaginary congress."]

[Footnote 1248: Roederer, III., 495. (March 8, 1804.)]

[Footnote 1249: Ibid., III., 537 (February 11, 1809.)]

[Footnote 1250: Roederer, III., 514. (November 4, 1804.)]

[Footnote 1251: Marmont, II., 242.]

[Footnote 1252: "Correspondance de Napoleon," I. (Letter to Prince Eugene, April 14, 1806.)]

[Footnote 1253: M. de Metternich, I., 284.]

[Footnote 1254: Mollien, III., 427.]

[Footnote 1255: "Notes par le Comte Chaptal": During the Consulate, "his opinion not being yet formed on many points, he allowed discussion and it was then possible to enlighten him and enforce an opinion once expressed in his presence. But, from the moment that he possessed ideas of his own, either true or false, on administrative subjects, he consulted no one;... he treated everybody who differed from him in opinion contemptuously, tried to make them appear ridiculous, and often exclaimed, giving his forehead a slap, that here was an instrument far more useful than the counsels of men who were commonly supposed to be instructed and experienced... For four years, he sought to gather around him the able men of both parties. After this, the choice of his agents began to be indifferent to him. Regarding himself as strong enough to rule and carry on the administration himself, the talents and character of those who stood in his way were discarded. What he wanted was valets and not councillors... The ministers were simply head-clerks of the bureaus. The Council of State served only to give form to the decrees emanating from him; he ruled even in petty details. Everybody around him was timid and pa.s.sive; his will was regarded as that of an oracle and executed without reflection.... Self-isolated from other men, having concentrated in his own hands all powers and all action, thoroughly convinced that another's light and experience could be of no use to him, he thought that arms and hands were all that he required."]

[Footnote 1256: "Souvenirs", by Pasquier (Etienne-Dennis, duc), chancelier de France. In VI volumes, Librarie Plon, Paris 1893. Vol I.

chap. IX. and X. pp. 225-268. (Admirable portraiture of his princ.i.p.al agents, Cambaceres, Talleyrand, Maret, Cretet, Real, etc.) Lacuee, director of the conscription, is a perfect type of the imperial functionary. Having received the broad ribbon of the Legion d'Honneur, he exclaimed, at the height of his enthusiasm: "what will not France become under such a man? To what degree of happiness and glory will it not ascend, always provided the conscription furnishes him with 200,000 men a year! And, indeed, that will not be difficult, considering the extent of the empire."--And likewise with Merlin de Douai: "I never knew a man less endowed with the sentiment of the just and the unjust; everything seems to him right and good, as the consequences of a legal text. He was even endowed with a kind of satanic smile which involuntarily rose to his lips... every time the opportunity occurred, when, in applying his odious science, he reached the conclusion that severity is necessary or some condemnation." The same with Defermon, in fiscal matters]

[Footnote 1257: Madame de Remusat, II., 278; II., 175.]

[Footnote 1258: Ibid., III., 275, II., 45. (Apropos of Savary, his most intimate agent.): "He is a man who must be constantly corrupted."]

[Footnote 1259: Ibid., I., 109; II., 247; III., 366.]

[Footnote 1260: "Madame de Remusat," II., 142, 167, 245. (Napoleon's own words.) "If I ordered Savary to rid himself of his wife and children, I am sure he would not hesitate."--Marmont, II., 194: "We were at Vienna in 1809. Davoust said, speaking of his own and Maret's devotion: "If the Emperor should say to us both, 'My political interests require the destruction of Paris without any one escaping,' Maret would keep the secret, I am sure; but nevertheless he could not help letting it be known by getting his own family out. I, rather than reveal it I would leave my wife and children there." (These are bravado expressions, wordy exaggerations, but significant.)]

[Footnote 1261: Madame de Remusat, II., 379.]

[Footnote 1262: "Souvenirs du feu duc de Broglie," I., 230. (Words of Maret, at Dresden, in 1813; he probably repeats one of Napoleon's figures.)]