Napoleon's Letters To Josephine Part 60

No. 4.

TO THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE, AT MALMAISON.

_Friday_, 8 A.M., 1811.

I send to know how you are, for Hortense tells me you were in bed yesterday. I was annoyed with you about your debts. I do not wish you to have any; on the contrary, I wish you to put a million aside every year, to give to your grandchildren when they get married.

Nevertheless, never doubt my affection for you, and don't worry any more about the present embarra.s.sment.

Adieu, dear. Send me word that you are well. They say that you are as fat as a good Normandy farmeress.

NAPOLEON.

_October 25th-26th._--Battle of Murviedro and capture of Sagunto: Blake and O'Donnell heavily defeated by Suchet.

_December 20th._--Senatus Consultus puts 120,000 conscripts (born in 1792) at disposal of Government for 1812.

_December 26th._--Suchet defeats Spanish, and crosses Guadalaviar.

SERIES P

1812

"'Tis the same landscape which the modern Mars saw Who march'd to Moscow, led by Fame, the siren!

To lose by one month's frost, some twenty years Of conquest, and his guard of grenadiers."

--BYRON (_Don Juan_, canto x. stanza 58).

SERIES P

(For subjoined Notes to this Series see pages 312-315.)

LETTER PAGE

No. 1. Konigsberg 312

No. 2. _Gumbinnen_ 313

1812.

Montgaillard sums up his tirade against Napoleon for the Russian campaign by noting that it took the Romans _ten_ years to conquer Gaul, while Napoleon "would not give _two_ to the conquest of that vast desert of Scythia which forced Darius to flee, Alexander to draw back, Cra.s.sus to perish; where Julian terminated his career, where Valerian covered himself with shame, and which saw the disasters of Charles XII."

_January 9th._--Suchet captures Valencia, 18,000 Spanish troops, and 400 cannon. The marshal is made Duke of Albufera.

_January 15th._--Imperial decree ordains 100,000 acres to be put under cultivation of beetroot, for the manufacture of indigenous sugar.

_January 19th._--Taking of Ciudad Rodrigo by Wellington.

_January 26th._--French, under General Friand, occupy Stralsund and Swedish Pomerania.

_February 24th._--Treaty of alliance between France and Prussia; the latter to support France in case of a war with Russia.

_March 13th._--Senatus Consultus divides the National Guards into three bans, to include all capable men not already in military service. They are not to serve outside France. A hundred cohorts, each 970 strong, of the first ban (men between 20 and 26), put at disposal of Government.

_March 14th._--Treaty between France and Austria; reciprocal help, in need, of 30,000 men and 60 guns. The integrity of European Turkey mutually guaranteed.

_March 26th._--Treaty between Russia and Sweden. Bernadotte is promised Norway by Alexander.

_April 7th._--The English take Badajoz by a.s.sault. "The French General, Philippon, with but 3000 men, has been besieged thrice within thirteen months by armies of 50,000 men" (_Montgaillard_).

_April 24th._--Alexander leaves St. Petersburg, to take command of his Grand Army.

_May 9th.--Napoleon leaves Paris for Germany._

_May 11th._--a.s.sa.s.sination of English Prime Minister, Perceval.

_May 17th-28th.--Napoleon at Dresden; joined there by the Emperor and Empress of Austria, and a fresh_ "parterre _of kings"._

_May 28th._---Treaty of Bucharest, between Turkey and Russia. The Pruth as boundary, and Servia restored to Turkey. This treaty, so fatal to Napoleon, and of which he only heard in October, was mainly the work of Stratford de Redcliffe, then aged twenty-five.

Wellington, thinking the treaty his brother's work, speaks of it as "the most important service that ever fell to the lot of any individual to perform."

No. 1.

_June 12th._--Suchet defeats an Anglo-Spanish army outside Tarragona.

TO THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE, AT MALMAISON.

_June 12th, 1812._

_My Dear_,--I shall always receive news from you with great interest.

The waters will, I hope, do you good, and I shall see you with much pleasure on your return.

Never doubt the interest I feel in you. I will arrange all the matters of which you speak.

NAPOLEON.