EX LIBRIS H. B. MAPI-ETON, M.D. NAPOLEON. NAPOLEON T. P. O'CONNOR, ' t AUTHOR OF " SOME OLD LOVE STORIES. LONDON: CHAPMAN AND HALL, LD. 1896. (7 * , s ^'* . a **2 ;' i :.:.:::/:/'*> F. M. EVANS AND CO., LIMITED, PRINTERS, CRYSTAL PALACB, S.E. PREFACE. I HAVE thought of various methods for presenting these Essays in a collected form. The first and most natural suggestion was that I should, after a careful comparison of their conflicting points of view, and an assortment of their statements, present to the reader a final estimate and a finished picture. I found it impossible to adopt this course. Napoleon had so many sides ; was not only so contradictory in himself, but pro- duced such contradictory impressions on different people, that it lay far beyond my power to make one consistent picture of him, and to decide with anything like confidence between testimony at once so contradictory and so authoritative. The plan to which I have been driven, then, is to present these Essays pretty much as they origi- nally appeared which means that I have made 848219 vi Preface. myself the interpreter, and not the judge, of the witnesses and of the evidence. I am conscious of the disadvantages of such a plan ; but, on the other hand, it has its compensations. The reader will have ample material for forming his own judgment : Napoleon, too, will be presented in his vast many-sidedness ; and finally, there will probably be in the reader's mind, after hearing all these conflicting voices, a nearer approach to a just and accurate estimate of Napoleon than if he had read any one set of witnesses, or if he had been confronted with a self-confident judgment on the final merits of the evidence. No human character is mathematical in its lines ; and historical characters especially are much less consistent, either in their goodness or their bad- ness, than their admirers and their foes represent. The final picture of Napoleon which these Essays will leave in the minds of the reader will, I expect, be somewhat blurred, inconsistent perhaps even chaotic. The picture, perhaps, will be for all this the nearer to reality. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. PAGE TAINE'S PORTRAIT I I. Napoleon an Italian I II. His Italian temperament .... 3 in. In deshabille 6 IV. His Italian loquacity 8 v. And his sensibility 9 vi. His moments of cowardice . . . .11 vii. Napoleon's family 14 Viil. Napoleon's beginnings 17 ix. His power of command .... 20 x. An early portrait 22 XI. His power of work ..... 24 XII. The power of taking pains .... 26 xiil. His mastery of detail 28 xiv. His grasp of character 32 xv. What his memory held . . . v . 35 xvi. His imaginativeness . . . . .38 xvn. Dreams of a new religion .... 40 xvni. His Court -43 XIX. His rudeness 47 xx. His aggressiveness 49 XXI. His treatment of his Ministers ... 50 xxn. The dependence of the Marshals ... 52 xxill. His hatred of independence 54 xxiv. His estimate of humanity 57 xxv. His judgments on himself .... 60 xxvi. The causes of his fall . . . . .62 xxvil. The instability of his rule .... 64 xxvin. His obstinate egotism ..... 66 viii Contents. CHAPTER II. PAGE THE ESTIMATE OF A WORSHIPPER .... 70 I. Meneval 70 II. A hero worshipper 72 in. Napoleon appears 73 iv. Meneval starts work 75 v. First dictation 77 vi. A portrait of Napoleon 79 vu. Napoleon at table 82 viii. Life at Malmaison 83 ix. Josephine's occupations . . . -85 x. Meneval charmed 87 XL The shadow of a crime . . . . .88 XII. Napoleon's power of work . . , . .89 xin. Napoleon in his study . . . .92 xiv. Napoleon as a man of letters 93 XV. Napoleon's orthography .... 95 xvi. Lapses -97 xvn. Was Napoleon superstitious ? . . .98 xviii. Curious characteristics 100 xix. Daily habits 102 XX. Napoleon in the field 104 xxi. The descent begun 107 xxn. Napoleon's forlorn young heir . . . 109 xxin. A doomed man in CHAPTER III. THE ESTIMATE OF AN OFFICIAL . . . . . 113 I. The Pasquier dynasty 113 n. The old regime . . . . . .114 in. Paris before the storm . . . . 117 iv. The taking of the Bastille . . . .119 V. The Girondists . . . . . .120 vi. The advance of the storm . . . .121 vu. A narrow escape . . . . . .123 viii. A terrible plan 125 Contents. ix PAGE IX. The death of the King . . . . . 125 x. The Reign of Terror 127 XT. Another narrow escape 129 xn. A rescuing angel 132 xin. Still the Reign of Terror . . . .134 XIV. A prison scene 137 XV. A prison terrorist 139 xvi. Napoleon ....... 141 xvn. The return from Egypt 142 xvin. Napoleon's moment of fear . . . .144 XIX. Talleyrand 145 XX. Talleyrand's treachery 146 XXI. Humiliation of Germany .... 148 XXII. The Talleyrand intrigue . . . .150 xxiii. Napoleon in a passion . . . . . 152 xxiv. A curious Bonaparte trait . . . .154 xxv. The female Bonapartes 156 CHAPTER IV. AS NAPOLEON APPEARED TO A RELATIVE . . .159 I. About the Bastille 160 II. The hanging of Foulon . . . .162 ill. " To Paris " . . . . . . .164 IV. Paris during the massacre . . . .166 v. How a village was affected by the overturn . 168 VI. A first view of Napoleon . . . .171 VH. Napoleon and Josephine .... 172 VHI. Labours and fatigues . . . . .173 ix. The return from Elba 175 x. A changed France 177 XI. Waterloo 179 CHAPTER V. Nj NAPOLEON, AS HE APPEARED TO A SOLDIER . . 1 82 I. Glimpses of the Terror 184 II. The Revolution in the school . . . 187 A* Contents. PAGE in. First sight of Napoleon . . . .189 IV. Napoleon often deceived .... 195 v. Napoleon's diplomatic methods . . . 200 vi. Austerlitz 203 vii. The path of glory ...... 207 VHI. Napoleon and his troops .... 208 ix. The rise of the house of Rothschild . . 209 x. Napoleon and Queen Louise . . ' .212 XL Napoleon wounded 213 xn. Napoleon and the Grenadier . . . 215 xiii. Detection of a spy 217 xtv. Napoleon as Haroun-al-Raschid . . .219 xv. Marbot in a tight place .... 222 xvi. The end of the adventure .... 226 xvn. After Moscow ...... 229 xvin. The blood tax . . . . . . 230 xix. The defeat at Leipsic 233 xx. Napoleon as a friend 234 CHAPTER VI. NAPOLEON'S CHIEF DETRACTOR 237 I. Nearly a great man 238 II. Barras and Robespierre a contrast . . 239 in. The Incorruptible at home .... 240 IV. A memorable interview .... 243 v. Danton 246 vi. Robespierre's lust for blood . . . .248 vii. Fouquier-Tinville 249 viii. Two notorious women 254 IX. The symmetry of Barras's villainy . . 257 x. Two portraits Barras and Robespierre . 258 xi. Napoleon and Josephine .... 260 XII. Josephine's tears 264 xiii. Her story to Napoleon . . . . 268 xiv. Barras's most deadly charge . . .272 Contents. xi CHAPTER VII. PAGE JOSEPHINE . .275 I. Early years . . . . . . . 280 II. In the Artillery 283 in. Early poverty 285 IV. A youthful cynic . . . . . .288 v. Flight from Corsica 291 vi. A first chance 294 vii. He . 298 vin. She 299 IX. Bonaparte knocks 300 x. The room .301 XI. Enter Josephine 302 xii. The fascination begins 303 xill. In the toils 305 xiv. Venial mendacities 307 XV. Dithyrambic love 310 XVI. Suspicion . . . . . . 312 xvil. Frivolous Josephine 313 xvm. The first quarrels 317 xix. Hippolyte Charles 322 xx. In Egypt 323 xxi. Hopeless Josephine 331 XXH. Napoleon's infidelities 333 xxni. Madame Walewska 335 xxiv. The divorce 338 xxv. After the divorce 342 CHAPTER VIII. MARIE LOUISE 344 I. The Corsican ogre . 344 II. The rearing of Marie Louise . . . 347 III. Iphigenia ....... 350 IV. Everlasting peace 351 v. The bridegroom 354 vi. As a Western odalisque . . . -355 xii Contents. PAGE vii. The gilded cage . . . . . -357 vili. The Nemesis of nature 359 ix. The first meeting .361 x. An escapade 363 XI. A portrait 366 xn. Self-distrust 368 xin. Napoleon's foibles 369 XIV. Household changes 371 xv. Horseplay 373 xvi. Delicacy 375 xvn. A son 377 xvm. Napoleon as a father 378 xix. Marie Louise's treason 379 xx. Neipperg 380 xxi. II Serenissimo . . . . .381 CHAPTER IX. "NAPOLEON'S LAST VOYAGES 384 I. An adventurous enterprise .... 384 II. Marseilles after the abdication . . . 387 in. The fallen Emperor 389 IV. Departure for Elba 391 v. Napoleon's powers of observation . . 393 vi. Ruler of Elba 394 vn. The voyage to St. Helena .... 397 viii. A caged lion 398 ix. Life in St. Helena . . . . . .401 x. Napoleon's selfishness 402 CHAPTER X. A FINAL PICTURE 405 I. Waterloo 406 ii. The battle 408 in. Napoleon . 410 iv. Napoleon in retreat 414 NAPOLEONS r : : > CHAPTER I. TAINE'S PORTRAIT,* I BEGIN the series of portraits by giving that of Taine. It is the most finished and the most powerful. Indeed, I know scarcely any portrait in literature in which there is more dazzling literary skill ; but it is a portrait by an avowed and a bitter enemy. It is too peremptory and too consistent; above all, it is a portrait drawn by what I may call a literary absolutist the artist who insists that human figures should follow the rigidity of a philosopher's scientific rules. NAPOLEON AN ITALIAN. THE first point which Taine brings out is that this mighty despot, who ruled France as she had never been ruled before, was not even a Frenchman. Not only in blood and in birth, but in feeling he * "The Modern Regime." Vol. I. By H. A. Taine. Translated by John Durand. (London : Sampson Low, Marston, & Co.) 2 Napoleon. was an Italian. He remained, in some respects, an Italian all his life. In Taine's eyes, too, he is not only an Italian, but an Italian of the Middle Ages. "He belongs/' says Taine, "to another raee and ' airolhcr. -epoch." And then, in a series of wonderful passages, Taine traces back the heritage of Napoleon to those men and those times. " The man-plant/' says Alfieri, " is in no country born more vigorous than in Italy," "and never," goes on Taine, "in Italy was it so vigorous as from 1300 to 1500, from the contemporaries of Dante down to those of Michael Angelo, Caesar Borgia, Julius II., and Macchiavelli." In those times great personalities fought for crowns, money, and life at one cast, and when they succeeded, es- tablished a government remarkable for splendour, order, and firmness. This was the period of great adventurers great in battle, great in council, great in courage, great in imagination, great in their love of the arts. All these qualities are reproduced in Napoleon. " He is," says Taine, " a posthumous brother of Dante and Michael Angelo ; in the clear outlines of his vision, in the intensity, coherence, and inward logic of his reverie, in the profundity of his meditations, in the superhuman grandeur of his conceptions, he is, indeed, their fellow and their equal. His genius is of the same stature and the same structure ; he is one of the three sovereign minds of the Italian Renaissance, only, Taine's Portrait. 3 while the first two operated on paper and on marble, the latter operates on the living being, on the sensitive and suffering flesh of humanity." ii. HIS ITALIAN TEMPERAMENT. ANALYSING Napoleon's temperament, Taine also finds that it belongs to another race and another epoch. " Three hundred years of police and of courts of justice," "of social discipline and peaceful habits/' "have diminished the force and violence of the passions natural to men," but in Italy, at the period of the Renaissance, those passions were still intact. " Human emotions at that time were keener and more profound than at the present day; the appetites were ardent and more unbridled ; man's will was more impetuous and more tenacious ; whatever motive inspired him, whether pride, ambition, jealousy, hatred, love, envy, or sen- suality, the inward spring strained with an energy and relaxed with a violence that has now dis- appeared. All these energies reappear in the great survivor of the fifteenth century; in him the play of the nervous machine is the same as with his Italian ancestors. Never was there, even among the Malatestas or Borgias, a more sensitive and impulsive intellect, more capable of such electric shocks and explosions, in which the roar B 2 4 Napoleon. and flashes of the tempest lasted longer, and of which the effects were more irresistible. In his mind no idea seems speculative and pure; none is a simple transcript of the real, or a simple picture of the possible ; each is an internal eruption, which suddenly and spontaneously spends itself in action; each darts forth to its goal, and would reach it without stopping were it not kept back and restrained by force." Of this Italian explosiveness of nature, Taine gives scores of examples. This conception of Napoleon's character differs fundamentally from many of our preconceived notions ; and from the idea of himself which Napoleon was able to convey in public and to all who did not know him intimately during his lifetime. " The public and the army regarded him as impassive;" in his battles " he wears a mask of bronze ; " in " official ceremonies he wears a necessarily dignified air;" and in most pictures of him which I have seen, one gets the impression of a profoundly immutable calm. But the real Napoleon was altogether different from this. A more sensitive, restless, irritable nature never existed. His emotions are so rapid that they intercept each other, and emotion irresistibly compels immediate action. " Impression and expression with him are almost always confounded, the inward overflowing in the outward, the action, like a blow, getting the better of him." Taine's Portrait. 5 " At Paris, towards the end of the Concordat, he says to Senator Volney, ' France wants a religion.' Volney replies, in a frank, sententious way, 'France wants the Bourbons.' Whereupon he gives Volney a kick in the stomach, and he falls unconscious. On his being conveyed to a friend's house he remains there ill for several days. No man is more irritable, so soon in a passion, and all the more because he purposely gives way to his irritation ; for, doing this just at the right moment, and especially before witnesses, it strikes terror it enables him to extort concessions and maintain obedience ; while his explosions of anger, half calculated, half involuntary, serve him quite as much as they relieve him, in public as in private, with strangers as with intimates, before constituted bodies, with the Pope, with cardinals, with ambassadors, with Talleyrand, with Beugnot, with anybody that comes along, whenever he wishes to set an example or 'keep the people around him on the alert.' " His unfortunate wife is one of the greatest victims of this violence, and even at the moment when she has most right to complain. "At St. Cloud, caught by Josephine in an act of gallantry, he springs after the unlucky in- truder in such a way that she has barely time to escape ; and, again, that evening, keeping tip his fury, so as to put her down completely, ' he treats her in the most outrageous manner, 6 Napoleon. smashing every piece of furniture that comes in his way.' " And here is another example of the way in which he treats his Ministers. "A little before the Empire, Talleyrand, a great mystifier, tells Berthier that the First Consul wanted to assume the title of king. Berthier, in eager haste, crosses the drawing-room full of company, accosts the master of the house, and, with a beaming smile, ' congratulates him.' At the word 'king' Bonaparte's eyes flash. Grasp- ing Berthier by the throat, he pushes his head against a wall, exclaiming, ' You fool ! Who told you to come here and stir up my bile in this way ? Another time don't come on such errands.' Such is the first impulse, the instinctive action, to pounce on people and seize them by the throat. We divine under each sentence, and on every page he writes, outbursts and assaults of this description ; the physiognomy and intonation of a man who rushes forward and knocks people down." in. IN DESHABILLE. AND then there come some striking pictures of Napoleon in his study and his dressing-room where we see him in deshabille and as the natural man. It is not a pleasant picture indeed, the whole impression one gets from this study of Napoleon is brutal, revolting. Taine's Portrait. ^ "When dictating in his cabinet he strides up and down the room,' and 'if excited,' which is often the case, 'his language consists of violent imprecations and oaths, which are sup- pressed in what is written/ But these are not always suppressed, and those who have seen the original minutes of his correspondence on eccle- siastical affairs find dozens of them of the coarsest kind. . . . " When dressing himself, he throws on the floor or into the fire any part of his attire which does not suit him. . . . On gala days, and on grand ceremonial occasions, his valets are obliged to agree together when they shall seize the right moment to put something on him. . . . He tears off or breaks whatever causes him the slightest discomfort, while the poor valet who has been the cause of it receives a violent and positive proof of his anger. No thought was ever carried away more by its own speed. ' His hand- writing,' when he tries to write, ' is a mass of disconnected and undecipherable signs ; the words lack one half of their letters.' On reading it over himself he cannot tell what it means. At last he becomes almost incapable of writing an auto- graph letter, while his signature is a mere scrawl. He accordingly dictates, but so fast that his secretaries can scarcely keep pace with him. On their first attempt the perspiration flows freely, and they succeed in noting down only the half 8 Napoleon. of what he says. Bourrienne, De Meneval, and Maret invent a stenography of their own, for he never repeats any of his sentences ; so much the worse for the pen if it lags behind, and so much the better if a volley of exclamations or of oaths give it a chance to catch up." IV. HIS ITALIAN LOQUACITY. ONE generally associates extraordinary military genius with taciturnity; and there is also a dis- position to regard reticence as an inevitable accompaniment of great force of will, and of genius in action. There are many good people who really think that Mr. Gladstone cannot be regarded as a man of genius in action for the reason that he has talked so much throughout his life. A study of Napoleon will dissipate this idea; never was there a talker so incessant, so impetuous, so daring. Here, again, his Italian origin reveals itself. Italy is the land of im- provisation, and over and over again Taine applies to Napoleon the Italian term " improvisator e? This is his description, for instance, of Napoleon speaking at a Ministerial Council : "Never did speech flow and overflow in such torrents, often without either discretion or prudence, even when the outburst is neither useful nor creditable ; subject to this inward pressure the improvisator and polemic, under full headway, Taine's Portrait. 9 take the place of the man of business and the statesman. ' With him,' says a good observer, ' talking is a prime necessity; and, assuredly, among the highest prerogatives, he ranks first that of speaking without interruption/ Even at the Council of State he allows himself to run on, forgetting the business before the meeting; he starts off right and left with some digression or demonstration, some invective or other for two or three hours at a stretch, insisting over and over again, bent on convincing or prevailing, and ending by demanding of the others if he is not right, 4 and in this case, never failing to find that all have yielded to the force of his argument.' On reflection he knows the value of an assent thus obtained, and, pointing to his chair, he observes : ' It must be admitted that in that seat one thinks with facility ! ' Nevertheless, he has enjoyed his intellectual exercise and given way to his passion, which controls him far more than he controls it." v. AND HIS SENSIBILITY. IT is, however, one of the contradictions of this extraordinary character, that he has moments of intense and almost ingenuous sensibility. " He who has looked upon thousands of dying men, and has had thousands of men slaughtered, sobs after Wagram and after Bautzen at the couch of a dying comrade." " I saw him," says his valet, io Napoleon. " weep while eating his breakfast, after coming from Marshal Lannes' bedside ; big tears rolled down his cheeks, and fell on his plate." " It is not alone the physical sensation, the sight of a bleeding, mangled body, which thus moves him acutely and deeply ; for a word, a simple idea, stings and penetrates almost as far. Before the emotion of Dandolo, who pleads for Venice his country, which is sold to Austria, he is agitated and his eyes moisten. Speaking of the capitulation of Baylen, at a full meeting of the Council of State, his voice trembles, 'and he gives way to his grief, his eyes even filling with tears/ In 1806, setting out for the army and on taking leave of Josephine, he has a nervous attack, which is so severe as to bring on vomiting. 'We had to make him sit down/ says an eye- witness, 'and swallow some orange water. He shed tears, and this lasted a quarter of an hour.' " The same nervous crisis came on in 1808, when he was deciding on the divorce. " He tosses about a whole night, and laments like a woman. He melts and embraces Josephine ; he is weaker than she is. ' My poor Josephine, I can never leave you ! ' Folding her in his arms, he declares that she shall not quit him. He abandons him- self wholly to the sensation of the moment; she must undress at once, and lie beside him, and he weeps over her ; ' literally,' she says, ' he soaked the bed with his tears.' " Taine's Portrait. 1 1 VI. HIS MOMENTS OF COWARDICE. k IT is also this extreme sensibility which accounts for those few moments of abject cowardice that stand out in the career of one of the most fear- less human beings who ever lived. He himself has always the dread that there would be a breakdown in the nervous system a loss of balance. " My nerves," he says of himself, " are very irritable, and when in this state, were my pulse not always regular, I should risk going crazy." But his pulse does not always beat regularly. " He is twice taken unawares at times when the peril was alarming and of a new kind. He, so clear-headed and so cool under fire, the boldest of military heroes, and the most audacious of political adventurers, quails twice in a Par- liamentary storm, and again in a popular crisis. On the 1 8th of Brumaire, in the Corps Legislatif, 'he turned pale, trembled, and seemed to lose his head at the shouts of outlawry. . . . They had to drag him out . . . they even thought for a moment that he was going to faint/ After the abdication at Fontainebleau, on encountering -the rage and imprecations which greeted him in Provence, he seemed for some days to be morally shattered ; the animal instinct asserts its 12 Napoleon. supremacy; he is afraid, and makes no attempt of concealment. After borrowing the uniform of an Austrian colonel, the casque of a Prussian quartermaster, and the cloak of a Russian quarter- master, he still considers that he is not sufficiently disguised. In the inn at Calade ' he starts and changes colour at the slightest noise ; ' the com- missioners, who repeatedly enter the room, ' find him always in tears.' ' He wearies them with his anxieties and irresolution ; ' he says the French Government would like to have him assassinated on the road, refuses to eat for fear of poison, and thinks that he might escape by jumping out of the window. And yet he gives vent to his feelings and lets his tongue run on about himself, without stopping, concerning his past, his character, unreservedly, indelicately, trivially, like a cynic and one who is half crazy. His ideas run loose and crowd each other like the anarchical gatherings of a tumultuous mob ; he does not recover his mastery of them until he reaches Frejus, the end of his journey, where he feels himself safe and protected from any highway assault. Then only do they return within ordinary limits, and fall back in regular line under the control of the sovereign intellect, which after sinking for a time, revives and resumes its ascendency." This strange, tasteless loquacity of Napoleon without dignity, self-respect, or decency is one of Taine's Portrait. 13 the many features in his character which must always be remembered if one wishes to have a clear and full conception of him. I shall, by-and- by, bring out the severer and more sinister aspects of his nature ; for a moment let me lay stress on this smaller, and what I might call more frivolous, side of his character ; it adds grimness to his more fatal and awful qualities. Some of his sayings at the period to which I have just referred cannot be transferred to the chaste pages of an English book. Taine is justified in speaking of Napoleon as giving under such circumstances "a glimpse of the actor and even of the Italian buffoon ; " and it was probably this aspect of his character conjoined to others this petty buffoonery in association with almost divine genius which suggested the felicitous title of "Jupiter Scapin," applied to him by M. de Pradt, who knew him well. To this same M. de Pradt Napoleon spoke very plainly after the return of the disastrous and terrible expedition to Russia ; in these reflections 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 criticises the imperfections of the audience." This " piece " which had sent hundreds of thousands to violent death ! 14 Napoleon. VII. NAPOLEON'S FAMILY. NAPOLEON'S father, Charles Bonaparte, was weak and even frivolous, "too fond of pleasure to care about his children," or his affairs ; he died at thirty-nine of cancer of the stomach "which seems to be the only bequest he made to his son, Napoleon." His mother was altogether of a different type a type, too, thoroughly Italian. " Serious, authoritative," she was "the real head of the family." She was, said Napoleon, " hard in her affections; she punished and rewarded without distinction good or bad ; she made us all feel it." On becoming head of the household "she was too parsimonious even ridiculously so. This was due to excess of foresight on her part ; she had known want, and her terrible sufferings were never out of her mind. ... In other respects this woman, from whom it would have been difficult to extract five francs, would have given up everything to secure my return from Elba, and after Waterloo she offered me all she possessed to retrieve my fortunes." Other accounts of her agree in saying that she was " unboundedly avaricious ; " that she had " no knowledge whatever of the usages of society ; " that she was very " ignorant, not alone of ' French ' literature but of her own." " The character of the son," says Stendhal, "is to be explained by the Taine's Portrait. 15 perfectly Italian character of Madame Laetitia." From her, too, he inherited his extraordinary courage and resource. She was enceinte with her great son at the very moment of the French invasion, and she gave birth to him "amid the risks of battle and defeat. . . . amidst mountain rides on horseback, nocturnal surprises, and volleys of musketry." "Losses, privations, and fatigue/' says Napoleon, " she endured all, and braved all. Hers was a man's head on a woman's shoulders." The sisters of Napoleon are also remarkable in their way though, as often happens, what is strength in the men, degenerates in them into self-destructive vice. " Passion, sensuality, the habit of considering themselves outside of rules, and self-confidence, combined with talent, predominate in these women as in those of the fifteenth century. Elisa, of Tus- cany, had a vigorous brain, was high-spirited and a genuine sovereign, notwithstanding the disorders of her private life, in which even appearances were not sufficiently maintained. Caroline of Naples, without being more scrupulous than her sister, * better observed the proprieties ; none of the others so much resembled the Emperor.' 'With her all tastes were subordinated to ambition ; ' it was she who advised and prevailed upon her husband, Murat,to desert Napoleon in 1814. As to Pauline, the most beautiful woman of her epoch, ' no wife, since that of the Emperor Claudius, surpassed her 1 6 Napoleon. in the use she dared make of her charms ; nothing could stop her, not even a malady attributed to her dissipation, and on account of which we have often seen her borne on a litter/ " This, perhaps, is the most effective and deadliest blow at Napoleon in Taine's terrible indictment. If to this despot had been appor- tioned the female belongings of a man in, say, Ratcliff Highway, we should know what it im- plied. It would imply a family of brutal, pre- datory, foul instincts. The inheritors of such instincts would, in the case of the men, be the denizens of gaols; in the case of the women, would swell the ranks of prostitutes. It is healthy, though not wholly comforting, to be reminded of the similarity of human nature through the vast differences of human rank and fortunes. To those who are fearless realists like Taine, there is a sombre joy in penetrating through trappings and robes to the naked animal beneath. Reflect for a moment that behind the flowing Imperial robes at the High Altar in Notre Dame, there is a nature, which in other circumstances would be clothed in the garment of a violent convict ; that these beautiful, delicate, richly -bedizened women, whom Napoleon and chance have placed on thrones, are of the same mould as that brawling drab who is being haled to the prison, or lies, broken and beaten, in the bed of a hospital ! Taine's Portrait. 17 All the brothers of Napoleon were likewise re- markable in their way; and finally, the family picture is completed, and Napoleon's character is also indicated by what Napoleon himself says of one of his uncles. He " delights in calling to mind one of his uncles who, in his infancy, prog- nosticated to him that he would govern the world because he was fond of lying." VIII. NAPOLEON'S BEGINNINGS. MOODY, rancorous, hating the French as the conquerors of his country, Napoleon as a youth looked on the events of the French Revolution with the detachment of a foreigner. In 1792, when the struggle between the monarchists and the revolutionists was at its height, he tries to find " some successful speculation," and thinks he will hire and sub-let houses at a profit. On June 20 in the same year he sees the invasion of the Tuileries, and the King at a window placing the red cap on his head. " Che Coglione ! " (What a cuckold !) he exclaims, and immediately after, " How could they let the rabble enter ! Mow down 400 or 500 of them with cannon-balls, and the rest of them would run away." " On August 10, when the tocsin is sounding, he regards the people and the King with equal contempt; he rushes to a friend's house on the c 1 8 Napoleon. Carrousel, and there, still as a looker-on, views at his ease all the occurrences of the day ; finally the Chateau is forced, and he strolls through the Tuileries, looks in at the neighbouring cafes, and that is all. He is not disposed to take sides ; he has no Jacobin or Royalist impulse. His features, even, are so calm as to provoke many hostile and distrustful remarks, ' as unknown and suspicious.' None of the political or social conditions which then exercised such control over men's minds have any hold on him. . . . On returning to Paris, after having knocked at several doors, he takes Barras for a patron Barras, the most brazen of the corrupt ; Barras, who has overthrown and contrived the death of his two former protectors. Among the contending parties and fanaticisms which succeed each other, he keeps cool and free to dispose of himself as he pleases, indifferent to every cause, and caring only for his own interest. On the evening of the 1 2th of Vendemiaire, on leaving the Feydeau Theatre, and noticing the preparations of the Sections, he said to Junot : ' Ah, if the Sections would only let me lead them ! I would guarantee to place them in the Tuileries in two hours, and have all those rascals of the Convention turned out ! ' Five hours later, denounced by Barras and the Convention, he takes * three minutes' to make up his mind, and instead of 1 blowing up the representatives/ he shoots down Taine's Portrait. 19 Parisians like any other good condottiere, who, holding himself in reserve, inclines to the first that offers, and then to whoso offers the most, pre- pared to back out afterwards, and who finally grabs anything he can get." And it is as a condottiere that Taine regards Napoleon to the end. From this point of view he surveys his whole career, and here is the result of the inspection : " He is like a condottiere, that is to say, a leader of a band, getting more and more independent, pretending to submit under the pretext of public good, looking out solely for his own interest, cen- treing all on himself, general on his own account and for his own advantage in his Italian campaign before and after the i8th of Fructidor. Still he was a condottiere of the first class, already aspiring to the loftiest summits, ' with no stopping-place but the throne or the scaffold,' ' determined to master France, and Europe through France, ever occupied with his own plans, and demanding only three hours 7 sleep a night ' ; making playthings of ideas, people, religions, and governments; managing man- kind with incomparable dexterity and brutality ; in the choice of means, as of ends, a superior artist, inexhaustible in prestige, seduction, cor- ruption, and intimidation ; wonderful, and far more terrible than any wild beast suddenly turned on to a herd of browsing cattle. The expression is not too strong, and was uttered by an eye- C 2 2O Napoleon. witness almost at this very date, a friend and a competent diplomat. ' You know that, though I am very fond of the dear General, I call him myself the little tiger, so as to properly characterise his looks, tenacity, and courage, the rapidity of his movements, and all that he has in him which may be fairly regarded in that sense.' " IX. HIS POWER OF COMMAND. POOR, forlorn, discontented, at first sight in- significant in figure, and without any employment, Napoleon in these early days might have been passed by without much notice. But it is a singular thing that the moment he attains any position, people at once, involuntarily, even strongly against their will, recognise and bow down before his calmly arrogant capacity. There are/ for in- stance, two portraits of him at the period in his existence just following that to which we have now reached, and both give the same impression the one is by Madame de Stael, and is in words ; the other is by Guerin, a truthful painter. Madame de Stael meets him at a time when, having gained some victories, she and the public generally are sympathetic towards him ; and yet, she says, "the recovery from the first excitement of ad- miration was followed by a decided sense of apprehension." He had then no power, and Taine's Portrait. 21 might any day be dismissed, and " thus the terror he inspired was simply due to the singular effect of his person on all who approach him." " I had met men worthy of respect, and had likewise met men of ferocious character ; but nothing in the impression which Bonaparte pro- duced on me reminded me of either. . . . A being like him, wholly unlike anybody else, could neither feel nor excite sympathy ; he was both more and less than a man; his figure, intellect, and language bore the impress of a foreign nationality. . . . Far from being reassured on seeing Bonaparte oftener, he intimidated one more and more every day. .... He regards a human being as a fact, an object, and not as a fellow-creature. He neither hates nor loves : he exists for himself alone ; the rest of humanity are merely ciphers. . . . Every time that I heard him talk, I was struck with his superiority. It bore no resemblance to that of men informed and cultivated through study and social intercourse, such as we find in France and England ; his conversation concerned the material fact only, like that of the hunter in pursuit of his prey. His spirit seemed a cold, keen sword-blade, which freezes while it wounds. I realised a profound sense of irony which nothing great or beautiful could withstand, not even his own fame, for he despised the nation whose suffrages he sought." 22 Napoleon. x. AN EARLY PORTRAIT. AND now, here is Taine's description of the Gudrin portrait : " Now, notice in Guerin, that spare body, those narrow shoulders under the uniform wrinkled by sudden movements, the neck swathed in its high twisted cravat, those temples covered by long, smooth, straight hair, exposing only the mask, the hard features intensified through strong contrasts of light and shade, the cheeks hollow up to the inner angle of the eye, the projecting cheekbones, the massive protuberant jaw, the sinuous, mobile lips, pressed together as if at- tentive, the large clear eyes, deeply sunk under the broad arched eyebrows, the fixed oblique look, as penetrating as a rapier, and the two creases which extend from the base of the nose to the brow, as if in a frown of suppressed anger and determined will." " Add to this the accounts of his contemporaries who saw or heard the curt accent, or the sharp, abrupt gesture, the interrogating, imperious, ab- solute tone of voice, and we comprehend how it was that the moment they accosted him, they felt the dominating hand which seized them, pressed them down, held them firmly, never relaxing its grasp." Taine's Portrait. 23 Admiral Decres, who had known him well in Paris, learns that he has to pass through Toulon on his way to take up the command of the army in Italy. He rushes to see an old acquaintance : " ' I at once propose to my comrades to intro- duce them, venturing to do so on the grounds of my acquaintance with him in Paris. Full of eager- ness and joy, I started off. The door opened, I am about to press forward/ he afterwards wrote, * when the attitude, the look, and the tone of voice suffice to arrest me. And yet there was nothing offen- sive about him ; still this was enough. I never tried after that to overstep the line thus imposed upon me.' A few days later, at Alberga, certain generals of division, and amongst them Augereau, a vulgar, heroic old soldier, vain of his tall figure and courage, arrive at head-quarters, not well disposed towards the little parvenu sent out to them from Paris. Recalling the description of him which had been given to them, Augereau is abusive and insubordinate beforehand : " ' One of Barras's favourites ! The Vendemiaire General ! A street General ! Never been in action ! Hasn't a friend ! Looks like a bear, because he always thinks of himself! An insignificant figure ! Said to be a mathematician and a dreamer ! ' They enter, and Bonaparte keeps them waiting. At last he appears with his sword and belt on, explains the disposition of the forces, gives them his orders and dismisses them. Augereau is 24 Napoleon. thunderstruck. Only when he gets out of doors does he recover himself and fall back on his ac- customed oaths. He agrees with Massena that ' that little of a general frightened him.' He cannot comprehend the ascendency 'which over- awes him at the first glance.' " One instance more will suffice. General Van- damme, an old revolutionary soldier, still more brutal and energetic than Augereau, said to Marshal D'Ornano, one day when they were ascending the staircase of the Tuileries together, " My dear fellow, that devil of a man " (speaking of the Emperor) " fascinates me in a way I cannot account for. I, who don't fear either God or the. Devil, tremble like a child when I approach him. He would make me dash through the eye of a needle into the fire ! " XI. HIS POT/ER OF WORK. FROM almost the very first, Napoleon makes no secret of his final purposes. Let us study the. causes which enabled him to so successfully use men and events to carry out these designs. First among these are his extraordinary powers of work and of mastering and remembering all the details of every subject which can come under the notice of a commander or a ruler. When one reads the record of his gifts in this respect, one Taine's Portrait. 25 is for the moment tempted to forget all his crimes, and to feel that he honestly earned his success. Take him, for instance, at the Council of State : " Punctual at every sitting, prolonging the session four or six hours, discussing before and afterwards the subject brought forward ... in- forming himself about bygone acts of juris- prudence, the laws of Louis XIV. and Frederick the Great. . . . Never did the Council adjourn without its members knowing more than they did the day before, if only through the researches he obliged them to make. Never did the members of the Senate and Corps Le'gislatif, or of the tribunal, pay their respects to him without being rewarded for their homage by valuable instruc- tions. He cannot be surrounded by public men without being the head of all, all forming for him a Council of State." Here is another picture of him which tells the same tale : " ' What characterises him above them all/ is not alone the penetration and universality of his comprehension, but likewise and especially ' the force, flexibility, and constancy of his attention. He can work thirteen hours a day at a stretch, on one or on several subjects. I never saw him tired, I never found his mind lacking inspiration, even when weary in body, nor when violently exercised, 26 Napoleon. nor when angry. I never saw him diverted from one matter by another, turning from that under discussion to one he had just finished or was about to take up. The news, good or bad, he received from Egypt did not divert his mind from the civil code, nor the civil code from the com- binations which the safety of Egypt required. Never did man more wholly devote himself to the work in hand, nor better devote his time to what he had to do ; never did mind more inflexibly set aside the occupation or thought which did not come at the right day or hour ; never was one more ardent in seeking it, more alert in its pursuit, more capable of fixing it when the time came to take it up/ " The best description, after all, of the working of the mind is his own. CENTS ON THE FOURTH DAY AND TO $1.OO ON THE SEVENTH DAY OVERDUE. MAN 17 1934 SEP a -.9 A LD 21-100-7,'33 75074 YC 75075 848219 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY