Napoleon's Letters To Josephine Part 67

Between July 29th and August 12th the French army took 15,000 prisoners, 70 guns, and wounded or killed 25,000, with little more than half the forces of the Austrians. Bonaparte gives his losses at 7000, exclusive of the 15,000 sick he has in hospital; from July 31st to August 6th he never changed his boots, or lay down in a bed.

Nevertheless, Jomini thinks that he showed less vigour in the execution of his plans than in the earlier part of the campaign; but, as an opinion _per contra_, we may note that the French grenadiers made their "little Corporal" _Sergeant_ at Castiglione. Doubtless the proximity of his wife at the commencement (July 31st) made him more careful, and therefore less intrepid. On August 18th he wrote Kellermann with an urgent request for troops. On August 17th Colonel Graham, after hinting at the frightful excesses committed by the Austrians in their retreat, adds in a postscript--"From generals to subalterns the universal language of the army is that we must make peace, as we do not know how to make war."[46]

On August 13th Bonaparte sent to the Directory his opinion of most of his generals, in order to show that he required some better ones. Some of his criticisms are interesting:--

Berthier--"Talents, activity, courage, character; he has them all."

Augereau--"Much character, courage, firmness, activity; is

accustomed to war, beloved by the soldiers, lucky in his operations."

Ma.s.sena--"Active, indefatigable, has boldness, grasp, and prompt.i.tude in making his decisions."

Serrurier--"Fights like a soldier, takes no responsibility; determined, has not much opinion of his troops, is often ailing."

Despinois--"Flabby, inactive, slack, has not the genius for war, is not liked by the soldiers, does not fight with his head; has nevertheless good, sound political principles: would do well to command in the interior."

Sauret--"A good, very good soldier, not sufficiently enlightened to be a general; unlucky."

Of eight more he has little good to say, but the Directory in acknowledging his letter of August 23rd remarks that he has forgotten several officers, and especially the Irish general Kilmaine.

About the same time Colonel Graham (Lord Lynedoch) was writing to the British Government from Trent that the Austrians, despite their defeats, were "undoubtedly brave fine troops, and an able chief would put all to rights in a little time."[47] On August 18th he adds--"When the wonderful activity, energy, and attention that prevail in the French service, from the commander-in-chief downward, are compared to the indecision, indifference, and indolence universal here, the success of their rash but skilful manoeuvres is not surprising."

No. 7.

_Brescia._--Napoleon was here on July 27th, meeting Josephine about the date arranged (July 25th), and she returned with him. On July 29th they were nearly captured by an Austrian ambuscade near Ceronione, and Josephine wept with fright. "Wurmser," said Napoleon, embracing her, "shall pay dearly for those tears." She accompanies him to Castel Nova, and sees a skirmish at Verona; but the sight of wounded men makes her leave the army, and, finding it impossible to reach Brescia, she flees _via_ Ferrara and Bologna to Lucca. She leaves the French army in dire straits and awaits news anxiously, while the Senate of Lucca presents her with the oil kept exclusively for royalty. Thence she goes _via_ Florence to Milan. By August 7th the Austrian army was broken and in full retreat, and Bonaparte conducts his correspondence from Brescia from August 11th to 18th. On the 25th he is at Milan, where he meets his wife after her long pilgrimage, and spends four days. By August 30th he is again at Brescia, and reminds her that he left her "vexed, annoyed, and not well." From a letter to her aunt, Madame de Renaudin, at this time, quoted by Aubenas, we can see her real feelings: "I am feted wherever I go; all the princes of Italy give me fetes, even the Grand Duke of Tuscany, brother of the Emperor.

Ah, well, I prefer being a private individual in France. I care not for honours bestowed in this country. I get sadly bored. My health has undoubtedly a great deal to do with making me unhappy; I am often out of sorts. If happiness could a.s.sure health, I ought to be in the best of health. I have the most amiable husband imaginable. I have no time to long for anything. My wishes are his. He is all day long in adoration before me, as if I were a divinity; there could not possibly be a better husband. M. Serbelloni will tell you how he loves me. He often writes to my children; he loves them dearly. He is sending Hortense, by M. Serbelloni, a lovely repeater, jewelled and enamelled; to Eugene a splendid gold watch."

No. 9.

"_I hope we shall get into Trent by the 5th._"--He entered the city on that day. In his pursuit of Wurmser, he and his army cover sixty miles in two days, through the terrific Val Saguna and Brenta gorges, brus.h.i.+ng aside opposition by the way.

No. 12.

"_One of these nights the doors will be burst open with a bang._"--Apparently within two or three days, for Bonaparte is at Milan on September 21st, and stays with his wife till October 12th.

On October 1st he writes to the Directory that his total forces are only 27,900; and that the Austrians, within six weeks, will have 50,000. He asks for 26,000 more men to end the war satisfactorily: "If the preservation of Italy is dear to you, citizen directors, send me help." On the 8th they reply with the promise of 10,000 to 12,000, to which he replies (October 11th) that if 10,000 have started only 5000 will reach him. The Directory at this time are very poverty stricken, and ask him once more to pay Kellermann's Army of the Alps, as being "to some extent part of that which you command." This must have been "nuts and wine" for the general who was to have been superseded by Kellermann a few months earlier. On October 1st they advise him that Wurmser's name is on the list of emigrants, and that if the Marshal will surrender Mantua at once he need not be sent to Paris for trial.

If, however, Bonaparte thinks that this knowledge will make the old Marshal more desperate, he is not to be told. Bonaparte, of course, does not send the message. For some time these letters had been signed by the President Lareveillere Lepeaux, but on September 19th there was a charming letter from Carnot: "Although accustomed to unprecedented deeds on your part, our hopes have been surpa.s.sed by the victory of Ba.s.sano. What glory is yours, immortal Bonaparte! Moreau was about to effect a juncture with you when that wretched _reculade_ of Jourdan upset all our plans. Do not forget that immediately the armies go into winter quarters on the Rhine the Austrians will have forces available to help Wurmser." At Milan Bonaparte advises the Directory that he is dealing with unpunished "fripponeries" in the commissariat department.

Here he receives from young Kellermann, afterwards the hero of Marengo, a _precis_ of the condition of the Brescia fever-hospitals, dated October 6th: "A wretched mattress, dirty and full of vermin, a coa.r.s.e sheet to each bed, rarely washed, no counterpanes, much dilatoriness, such is the spectacle that the fever-hospitals of Brescia present; it is heart-rending. The soldiers justly complain that, having conquered opulent Italy at the cost of their life-blood, they might, without enjoying comforts, at least find the help and attention which their situation demands. Bread and rice are the only pa.s.sable foods, but the meat is hard. I beg that the general-in-chief will immediately give attention to his companions in glory, who wish for restored health only that they may gather fresh laurels." Thus Bonaparte had his Bloemfontein, and perhaps his Burdett-Coutts.

On October 12th he tells the Directory that Mantua will not fall till February--the exact date of its capitulation. One is tempted to wonder if Napoleon was human enough to have inserted one little paragraph of his despatch of October 12th from Milan with one eye on its perusal by his wife, as it contains a veiled sneer at Hoche's exploits: "Send me rather generals of brigade than generals of division. All that comes to us from La Vendee is unaccustomed to war on a large scale; we have the same reproach against the troops, but they are well-hardened." On the same day he shows them that all the marvels of his six months'

campaign have cost the French Government only 440,000 (eleven million francs). He pleads, however, for special auditors to have charge of the accounts. Napoleon had not only made war support war, but had sent twenty million francs requisitioned in Italy to the Republic. On October 12th he leaves Milan for Modena, where he remains from the 14th to the 18th, is at Bologna on the 19th, and Ferrara from the 19th to the 22nd, reaching Verona on the 24th.

Jomini has well pointed out that Napoleon's conception of making two or three large Italian republics in place of many small ones minimised the power of the Pope, and also that of Austria, by abolis.h.i.+ng its feudal rigours.

By this time Bonaparte is heartily sick of the war. On October 2nd he writes direct to the Emperor of Germany: "Europe wants peace. This disastrous war has lasted too long;" and on the 16th to Marshal Wurmser: "The siege of Mantua, sir, is more disastrous than two campaigns." His weariness is tempered with policy, as Alvinzi was _en route_, and the French reinforcements had not arrived, not even the 10,000 promised in May.

No. 13.

"_Corsica is ours._"--At St. Helena he told his generals, "The King of England wore the Corsican crown only two years. This whim cost the British treasury five millions sterling. John Bull's riches could not have been worse employed." He writes to the Directory on the same day: "The expulsion of the English from the Mediterranean has considerable influence on the success of our military operations in Italy. We can exact more onerous conditions from Naples, which will have the greatest moral effect on the minds of the Italians, a.s.sures our communications, and makes Naples tremble as far as Sicily." On October 25th he writes: "Wurmser is at his last gasp; he is short of wine, meat, and forage; he is eating his horses, and has 15,000 sick. In fifty days Mantua will either be taken or delivered."

No. 14.

_Verona._--Bonaparte had made a long stay at Verona, to November 4th, waiting reinforcements which never came. On November 5th he writes to the Directory: "All the troops of the Directory arrive post-haste at an alarming rate, and we--we are left to ourselves. Fine promises and a few driblets of men are all we have received;" and on November 13th he writes again: "Perchance we are on the eve of losing Italy. None of the expected reinforcements have arrived.... I am doing my duty, the officers and men are doing theirs; my heart is breaking, but my conscience is at rest. Help--send me help!... I despair of preventing the relief of Mantua, which in a week would have been ours. The wounded are the pick of the army; all our superior officers, all our picked generals are _hors de combat_; those who have come to me are so incompetent, and they have not the soldiers' confidence. The army of Italy, reduced to a handful of men, is exhausted. The heroes of Lodi, Millesimo, Castiglione, and Ba.s.sano have died for their country, or are in hospital;[48] to the corps remain only their reputation and their glory. Joubert, Lannes, La.n.u.sse, Victor, Murat, Chabot, Dupuy, Rampon, Pijon, Menard, Chabran, and St. Hilaire are wounded.... In a few days we shall make a last effort. Had I received the 83rd, 3500 strong, and of good repute in the army, I would have answered for everything. Perhaps in a few days 40,000 will not suffice." The reason for this unwonted pessimism was the state of his troops. His brother Louis reported that Vaubois' men had no shoes and were almost naked, in the midst of snow and mountains; that desertions were taking place of soldiers with bare and bleeding feet, who told the enemy the plans and conditions of their army. Finally Vaubois bungles, through not knowing the ground, and is put under the orders of Ma.s.sena, while two of his half-brigades are severely censured by Napoleon in person for their cowardice.

No. 15.

"_Once more I breathe freely._"--Thrice had Napoleon been foiled, as much by the weather and his shoeless soldiers as by numbers (40,000 Austrians to his 28,000), and his position was well-nigh hopeless on November 14th. He trusts Verona to 3000 men, and the blockade of Mantua to Kilmaine, and the defence of Rivoli to Vaubois--the weakest link in the chain--and determines to manoeuvre by the Lower Adige upon the Austrian communications. He gets forty-eight hours' start, and wins Arcola; in 1814 he deserved equal success, but bad luck and treachery turned the scale. The battle of Arcola lasted seventy-two hours, and for forty-eight hours was in favour of the Austrians.

Pending the arrival of the promised reinforcements, the battle was bought too dear, and weakened Bonaparte more than the Austrians, who received new troops almost daily. He replaced Vaubois by Joubert.

No. 18.

"_The 29th._"--But he is at Milan from November 27th to December 16th.

Most people know, from some print or other, the picture by Gros of Bonaparte, flag in hand, leading his men across the murderous bridge of Arcola. It was during this visit to Milan that his portrait was taken, and Lavalette has preserved for us the domestic rather than the dignified manner of the sitting accorded. He refused to give a fixed time, and the artist was in despair, until Josephine came to his aid by taking her husband on her knees every morning after breakfast, and keeping him there a short time. Lavalette a.s.sisted at three of these sittings--apparently to remove the bashful embarra.s.sment of the young painter. St. Amand suggests that Gros taking the portrait of Bonaparte at Milan, just after Arcola, would, especially under such novel conditions, prove a fitting theme for our artists to-day! From December 16th to 21st Bonaparte is at Verona, whence he returns to Milan. There is perhaps a veiled innuendo in Barras' letter of December 30th. Clarke had advised the Directory that Alvinzi was planning an attack, which Barras mentions, but adds: "Your return to Milan shows that you consider another attack in favour of Wurmser unlikely, or, at least, not imminent." He is at Milan till January 7th, whence he goes to Bologna, the city which, he says, "of all the Italian cities has constantly shown the greatest energy and the most considerable share of real information."

No. 20.

_General Brune._--This incident fixes the date of this letter to be 23 _Nivose_ (January 12), and not 23 _Messidor_ (July 11), as. .h.i.therto published in the French editions of this letter. On January 12, 1797, he wrote General Clarke from Verona (No. 1375 of the _Correspondence_) almost an exact duplicate of this letter--a very rare coincidence in the epistles of Napoleon. "Scarcely set out from Roverbella, I learnt that the enemy had appeared at Verona. Ma.s.sena made his dispositions, which have been very successful; we have made 600 prisoners, and we have taken three pieces of cannon. General Brune has had seven bullets in his clothes, without having been touched by one of them; this is what it is to be lucky. We have had only ten men killed, and a hundred wounded." Bonaparte had left Bologna on January 10, reaching Verona _via_ Roverbella on the 12th.

No. 21.

_February 3rd._--"_I wrote you this morning._"--This and probably other letters describing Rivoli, La Favorite, and the imminent fall of Mantua, are missing. In summing up the campaign Thiers declares that in ten months 55,000 French (all told, including reinforcements) had beaten more than 200,000 Austrians, taken 80,000 of them prisoners, killed and wounded 20,000. They had fought twelve pitched battles, and sixty actions. These figures are probably as much above the mark as those of Napoleon's detractors are below it.

One does not know which to admire most, Bonaparte's absence from Marshal Wurmser's humiliation, or his abstention from entering Rome as a conqueror. The first was the act of a perfect gentleman, worthy of the best traditions of chivalry, the second was the very quintessence of far-seeing sagacity, not "baulking the end half-won, for an instant dole of praise." As he told Mdme. de Remusat at Pa.s.seriano, "I conquered the Pope better by not going to Rome than if I had burnt his capital." Scott has compared his treatment of Wurmser to that of the Black Prince with his royal prisoner, King John of France. Wurmser was an Alsatian on the list of _emigres_, and Bonaparte gave the Marshal his life by sending him back to Austria, a fact which Wurmser requited by warning Bonaparte of a conspiracy to poison him[49] in Romagna, which Napoleon thinks would otherwise have been successful.

No. 24.

"_Perhaps I shall make peace with the Pope._"--On February 12th the Pope had written to "his dear son, General Bonaparte," to depute plenipotentiaries for a peace, and ends by a.s.suring him "of our highest esteem," and concluding with the paternal apostolic benediction. Meanwhile Napoleon, instead of sacking Faenza, has just invoked the monks and priests to follow the precepts of the Gospel.

No. 25.

"_The unlimited power you hold over me._"--There seems no question that during the Italian campaigns he was absolutely faithful to Josephine, although there was scarcely a beauty in Milan who did not aspire to please him and to conquer him. In his fidelity there was, says St. Amand, much love and a little calculation. As Napoleon has said himself, his position was delicate in the extreme; he commanded old generals; every one of his movements was jealously watched; his circ.u.mspection was extreme. His fortune lay in his wisdom. He would have to forget himself for one hour, and how many of his victories depended upon no more! The celebrated singer, La Gra.s.sini, who had all Italy at her feet, cared only for the young general who would not at that time vouchsafe her a glance.

FOOTNOTES

[45] Murat, says Marmont, who hated him, was the culprit here.

[46] J. H. Rose in _Eng. Hist. Review_, January 1899.