^H UC-NRLF ^^^^^^^^B ' H 1 lllli . n> n . ^^^^^^B ^M ^B 7b7 ^^^^^^^1^ ' ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^■•:h r. € ■^^^^■l>» i^iir '.(,. fi ^^^^^^^^^^^^^H ^^^^^ ^O ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^■i ^ 1 JHMH lgj ^mwmm %■ Hi I, I' ^ t/ AMlTnlonBook f 148 Clay f San Fianci ^ . -/^ C'~ r: LIBRARY OF THE University of California. GIKT OF^ Y. M.C.A.pF U. C, Accession 10x796 Class J " The most magulficent coutributiou of Jie present cen- tury to tl^e caiise of geographical knowledge." DR. BARTH'S"^ ^ NORTH AND CENTRAL iFM;fA; Travels and Discoveries in North and Central Africa, Being a Journal of an Expedition undertaken under the Auspices of H.B.M's Government in the Years 1849-1856. By Henrt Bartii, Ph.D., D.C.L., Fellow of the lloyal Geographical and Asiatic Societies, &c., &c. Profusely and elegantly illustrated. Complete hj. 3 vols. 8vo, Muslin, $2 60 a Volume ; Half Calf, $10 50 a set. Dr. Barth'iLwonderful travels approach Uie Equator from the North as nearly as Dr. Livingstone's from the South, and thus ahow to future travelers the field which still remains open fbr exploration and research. — VoL IIL, completing the work, is in the press, and will be published shortly. The researches of Dr. Barth are of the hi(;hest Interest. Few m<»n have ex- isted so qualified, both by intellectual ability and a vigorous bodily constitution, for the perilous part of an African discoverer as Dr. Barth. —London Timett^ SepL 8. 1S5T. It richly merits all the commendation bestowed upon it hj "the leading jour, nal of Europe."— Corr. SaUonal IntfUigeneer. Every chapter presents matter of more original interest than an ordinary vol. ume of travels. — London Leader. For extent and variety of subjects, the volumes before as greatly surpass every other work on African travel with which it has been our fortune to meet Lon. don Athenrenrtu Dr. Barth is the model of an explorer— patient, persevering, and resolute.— London Spectator. No one who wishes to know Afiica can afford to dispense with this work. — Bo8' ton Traveler. A most wonderful record. — Poughkeepsie DemocraL It is the most magnificent contribution of the present century to the cause of geographical knowledge. — iV. 1'. Evangelist. The most important contribution to Geographical Science that has been made In our time. Thousands of readers in our country will be anxious to get poses- sion of this treasure of knowledge. — X. Y. Observer. One of th&most important works of the kind which has appeared for an age. Lutheran Observer. It can not fail to find its way into the libraries of most scholars.— 2/y7i«A&Mr(7 Virginian. The personal details give the work great interest.— PWtode^jjftia Press. Dr. Earth's work is a magnificent contribution to geographical and ethno- graphical science.— A'. Y. Independent. Your curiosity is awakened, step by step, as with diminished resources he works his way through fanatical and rapacious tribes, ready in resources and never desponding, and buoyed up by the unconquerable desire to surpass his predecessors in the thoroughness and in the range of his discoveries. — Albion. Among the most wonderful achievements of modem times. — Western Christian Advocate. A most valuable contribution to the standard literature of the world. — Troy Times. Published by HARPER & BROTHERS, Franklin Square, Ne-w York. *»• Habp: E & Bbothies will send the above Work by Mail, postage paid (for any distance in the I'nited States under 3000 miles), on receipt of the Money. EPISODES OF FRENCH HISTORY UCRIMO THE CONSULATE AND THE FIRST EMPIRE. BY MISSPARDOE, AVTHOB or ''OOUBT AMD RUON OF FBAirCIB L," *^ UTX Of MARIS DB MEDICIS,' » LOUU XIT., AND THB COURT OF FRANCS IN THB SBYXNTSBITrH CBSTCST," STO., BTC., STC. NEW YORK: HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE. 18 5 9. PREFACE The contents of the present Volume were obtained whUe the Compiler was engaged in writing a royal biography which, from feelings of self-respect, she subsequently declined to complete. No attempt has been made to arrange the sketches in chronological order, but rather to diversify their interest and subject-matter as much as possible. History is the great drama of the world ; but we never thoroughly comprehend its whole value until we have studied, not only its main outline, but also its details. Here are some of those details : — Hidden motives for public measures ; indi- cations of character which serve to explain actions otherwise appa- rently incongruous ; glimpses of a past which was not less wonder- ful in its inner workings than in its outward demonstration ; and, finally, a few "stray leaves" which have appeared to be well worth gathering up. 101798 Digitized by tine Internet Arciiive in 2008 witii funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation http://www.arch.ive.org/details/episodesoffrencliOOpardricli CONTENTS CHAPTER L PAOB A Consular " Lionne,** 1 CHAPTER 11. An Evening at la Malmaison, 14 CHAPTER IIL A Bourbon Sovereign under the Consulate, 4# CHAPTER IV. A Stray Document, 64 CHAPTER V. A Conspiracy, 64 CHAPTER VI. An Imperijd Decree, 73 CHAPTER VIL P^»r the Fisherman, 84 CHAPTER Vm. The Greneral and the Emperor, •. . 108 CHAPTER IX. A Scene in the Life of Charles John Bemadotte, King of Sweden, . 120 CHAPTER X. The Capture of Ivree, ......*.. 126 CHAPTER XL An Evening with Fouche', 135 Vlll CONTENTS. CHAPTER XII. PAOB A Company of Gjenadiers, 155 CHAPTER Xm. A Secret Mission, 163 CHAPTER XIV. The Eve of the Coronation, 184 CHAPTER XY. The Pope and the Emperor, , . . 192 CHAPTER XVI. Captain Durosier, . 202 CHAPTER XVII. Napoleon and the Court-Milliners, 209 CHAPTER XVIil. The Divorce, 228 CHAPTER XIX. An Episode in the Life of Talma, 259 CHAPTER XX. The two Emperors, 266 CHAPTER XXI The Drama of "War, 28T CHAPTER XXII. The Train-Bearers, 314 CHAPTER XXIII. The Dance of Death, 326 CHAPTER XXIV. The Marshal-Duke and the Banker, 839 CHAPTER XXV. A Parisian Saloon under the Empire, 353 / Y EPISODES OF FRENCH HISTORY. CUAPTER I. A CONSULAR " LIONNE." The Empress Josephine, after she liad been widowed by the axe of the guillotine (beneath which the head of her first husband the Yicomte Beauliarnais had fallen during the Revolution), found herself on her own resto- ration to liberty, compelled by her isolated and almost destitute condition, to accept as her companions and associates many of those who had been her fellow- prisoners in the Carmelite monastery, however excep- tionable their antecedents were known to have been. Among these the most celebrated was the famous Madame Tallien, to whom the warm-hearted Creole became affectionately attached. This lady, who was both beautiful and witty, was the daughter of Senhor Cabarrus, the court-banker at Madrid ; who, while she was yet a mere girl, accompanied her father to Bor- deaux, where, at the age of fourteen, she mariied the Marquis de Fontenay, a councillor in the parlii;ment of that city, a man of mature age and grave habits, from whom she was afterwards divorced. When the Revolu- tion broke out she became one of its most zealous 1 Jt EPISODES OF FKENCH HISTORY. partisans ; but, disgusted by the excesses that she was compelled to witness, she endeavored to escape to Spain, for which crime she was arrested, and brought before the Pro-Consul Tallien who was then at Bor- deaux, commissioned by Eobespierre to establish the Keign of Terror in that district. When she was introduced into his presence, Tallien was so much impressed by her rich southern loveliness and her extraordinary grace, that he at once became her captive ; and morality being by no means the lead- ing virtue of the time, Madame de Fontenay soon responded to his passion. The tyrant of the Eevolution was the mere slave of the woman whom he loved ; and, to her honor be it said, that she exerted her influence over him only to enforce mercy for the condemned, and to arrest the waste of human life. On the recall of Tallien by the Convention, she accompanied him to Paris, where she was thrown into prison, accused of having rendered him lax in the performance of his duties ; but the death of Robespierre released her ; and it is even asserted that the determination of the Pro-Consul to save her life, hastened the event which delivered France from the fangs of that human tiger. A short time subsequently she became the wife of Tallien, but the marriage proved an unhappy one, and she was a second time divorced. In 18 1^5 Madame Tallien gave her hand to the Comte de Carai lan, afterwards Prince de Chimay.* For a * When some one informed Tallien that his cidevant wife had become Princesse de Chimay, he replied sarcastically: "It matters little; the world will know her only as Madame Tallien, were she ten times Prin- cesse de Chim^re." A CONSULAR " LIONNE." 8 considerable period Madame Tallien enjoyed an im- mense vogne in Paris, and possessed great influence over tlie public mind ; but her repeated divorces, and the worse than questionable principles of her female associates, so revolted Kapoleon that, long before he became Emperor of the French, he would never admit her to his court. Whatever may have been the truth or the falsehood of the popular reports regarding Madame Tallien, one thing is at least certain, that tlie affection with which she had inspired Josephine was exceeded by the disgust entertained towards her by Bonaparte himself. While he remained a mere General Officer, he supported the intimacy between the two ladies with as much patience as he could command : but he had no sooner established himself at the Luxembourg as First Consul, than he positively forbade his wife ever again to receive her friend. Kor was Madame Tallien the only heroine of the time whose name was erased from the visiting-list of Madame Bonaparte ; but in no other instance did the latter feel the prohibition so painfully. Yainly did she entreat, expostulate, and even weep ; a cold and stern refusal to accede to her request was the only reply she could obtain, and she was compelled to submit. The position of Josephine was at once a painful and an onerous one ; as, not satisfied with seeing each other almost daily, the two ladies had been in the habit of exchanging each morning those little notes of gaiety and gossip in which Frenchwomen especially delight. On the return of Bonaparte from his Egyptian cam- paign, the beautiful ally of his wife had been one of 4 EPISODES OF FRENCH HISTORY. the first to congratulate liim on his miraculous escape from the English fleet ; but he had received her ele- gantly-expressed compliments with a coldness which excited her indignation ; although, as she conceived that it was attributable only to the arrogance of a vic- torious general, she merely revenged herself by saying to a friend : — " He is an unlicked bear ; but let him be as sulky as he pleases until the fit is over, when he will see me so constantly that he will become accustomed to me ; and if he refuses to speak to me, so be it. I prefer the con- versation of his wife." Madame Tallien was, however, mistaken in her cal- culations. The Luxembourg, from the period when her friend took up her abode there with the First Consul, was closed against her ; a fact of which Madame Bona- parte herself was ignorant, until, having ventured on one occasion to pay her a stolen visit, she was informed of it to her extreme astonishment ; and having made inquiries on the subject on her return to the palace, she was assured that the principal valet, whose duty it was to announce all visitors, had received a personal order from the First Consul that Madame Tallien was never to be admitted. The lady persisted, however, with all the pertinacity of a spoiled beauty ; and pre- cisely on the morning when Bonaparte had so resolutely adhered to his determination that she should never again find herself in the society of his wife, she arrived once more at the Luxembourg, at so early an hour, that the usher not having as yet taken up his post, she was admitted by another servant, and conducted to the pre- sence of Madame Bonaparte. A CONSULAR "LIONNE." 5 Still weeping over what she considered as the harsh- ness and cruelty of her husband in depriving her of her best friend, Josephine, on seeing the radiant Spaniard enter her apartment, was overwlielmcd with astonishment and terror. Unaccustomed and, indeed, unable as slie was to conceal her feelings at any time, Madame Tallien at once perceived that something very painful had taken place ; and, hastening to her side, she clasped both her hands in her own, exclaiming anxiously : — " My love, what has happened ?" Madame Bonaparte could not reply ; her sobs stifled her, and the tears rained down her pale cheeks ; all that she could do was to press her friend to her heart ; until, having in some degi-ee recovered her composure, she confessed to her the cause of her grief, and de- scribed the interview which had just taken place ; endeavoring, however, to attribute the resolution of the Fii-st Consul to the scandalous tongues about him rather than to his own dislike of Madame Tallien. The Spanish blood of the visitor rushed in a crimson flood over her brow and bosom, but she afiected to be- lieve that Josephine was correct in her conclusions ; and contented herself by inveighing bitterly against the slanderers by whom she had been maligned. "Nothing can be more false ;" she said vehemently ; " than all the tales which have been circulated against me, and the conduct which has been attributed to me, both morally and politically. Was I to blame if after they had married me, a mere child, to a man who might have been my father (and who was, moreover, pei-sonally repugnant to me), if I refused at a more 6 EPISODES OF FRENCH HISTORY. mature age to submit to a worse than Siberian bond- age ? Was I to blame if I could not support life with Tallien, who, after having been the most devoted of lovers, became the most exacting and tyrannical of husbands ? As regards my actions during the Revolu- tion, let those whom 1 saved from the scaffold — and they were not a few — answer for me ; I scorn on that subject to justify myself. Ko one can have a greater contempt for the verdict of the public than I have; but I am anxious to secure the good opinion of Bonaparte, and to compel him to admit that he has been led into error. I will give him proofs of this by which he can- not refuse to be convinced." " Dearest Therese ;" exclaimed her friend ; " you could not have formed a wiser resolution. He is al- ways generous enough to acknowledge himself in the wrong when once he feels that he is so ; and if you can only succeed in showing how much his confidence has been abused, he will, I am quite sure, revoke this detestable order, and restore you to my aifection." Having matured their plans, the two friends sepa- rated ; and Madame Tallien left the Luxembourg after having arranged to return on the morrow at any hour when it might be convenient to Bonaparte to receive her, provided that his wife should succeed in inducing him to do so. The part which Josephine was called upon to play in this little drama was anything rather than an easy one, as since his vehement passion had sobered down, the imperious nature of Bonaparte had revealed itself even to the " honne petite mire^'' to whom he had for- merly addressed letters worthy rather of a hot-headed A CONSULAR Bchool-boy than of a man who aspired to dictate the laws to Europe, and to overrun the world — letters* several of which are not the less valuable from their almost total illegibility ; for never did the school-boy, to whom we have already likened him, burthen post or courier with more blurred, blotted, and bewildering missives than the conqueror of Marengo, and the fugi- tive of Waterloo. Josephine possessed in an eminent degree the talent of seduction. We say this without arriere-pensee^ for it is not here or now that we are inclined to canvass her moral character, or to discuss the episodes of her private life ; we have to do with Madame Tallien, and with Madame Tallien only. Here Therese Cabarrus is the principal figure, and Josephine de la Pagerie only a necessary accessory. Let it suffice then, that the wife of the First Consul thoroughly underetood every mutation of his mind and temper; and that she was perfectly aware of the moment when her own influ- ence was in the ascendant. She knew precisely when to flatter his vanity, and when to win him to her pur- pose by the blandishments and caresses which even the most iron nature cannot at all times resist. Mark Anthony lost the world for a woman ; what wonder then that the Corsican adventurer was occasionally swayed by the soft tones, the sleepy glances, and the tender professions of a Creole ? Josephine was well aware that there was not one particle of chivalry, as regarded her own sex, in the character of her husband ; but she also knew that he was always more manage- able after he had indulged in an exhibition of his power before which others had been compelled to 8 EPISODES OF FEENCH HISTOEY. quail, than at any other time ; and she consequently resolved that she would not suJffer the sun to set before she had induced him to accord the interview solicited by Madame Tallien. At first Bonaparte felt inclined, when the subject of his wife's friend was resumed, to give loose to as much petulance and ill-humor as he had displayed in the morning ; and the frown which habitually gathered upon his brow when he was displeased was already beginning to make Josephine tremble, when he suddenly recovered his serenity, and said : — " Well, since you wish it, let her come. I will see her ;" but before his wife could thank him for the con- cession, he had already started a new topic. Madame Bonaparte was enchanted ; she believed that he was conquered. She was deceived, however ; the victory was not yet gained. On the morrow Ma- dame Tallien arrived in full dress — as full dress was understood during the Eevolution — for she wore in reality a Grecian tunic, fashioned after a drawing by Girodet, which was composed of a light and transparent material, although the interview we are about to chro- nicle took place in the month of ISTovember. A scarf of gold-embroidered muslin was flung loosely about her, which left her shoulders and bust almost bare ; her feet, which were small and white enough for those of a nymph, instead of being imprisoned in slippers, were covered only by sandals which enhanced rather than veiled their rare beauty, and which were fastened on her instep by large brilliants ; her naked arms were encircled from the shoulder to the wrists by gold bangles, enriched with antique cameos of almost fabu- A CONSULAR lous value ; while her head was adorned only by masses of tlie most luxuriant black hair, which gleamed with a rich purple hue in the light. Accustomed as she had long been to see her friend attired in this mythological costume, Madame Bona- parte was loud in her expressions of admiration ; but after the eager words of compliment and greeting had been exchanged, she anxiously inquired the nature of the proofs with which her visitor intended to convince the somewhat intractable mind of the Fii-st Consul. " He will require them to be clear and unanswer- able ;" she said ; " for" — and it is impossible to decide what reflection caused her to pause for a moment as she sat with her eyes riveted upon the wondrous vision of loveliness before her — " he is not like other men." " Proofs clear and unanswerable ?" smiled Madame Tallien, as she surveyed herself complacently in the mirror before which she stood, and which reflected her whole person. " Do not fear ; he shall have them ; and he will recognise their authenticity." Josephine made no reply ; she was far from sharing in the confidence of her friend ; she began to compre- hend in what the promised proofs were to consist, and she knew her husband too well to believe that they would avail. Suddenly Bonaparte, who had given orders that he should be immediately apprised of the arrival of Ma- dame Tallien in his wife's apartments, entered the room nnannounced ; and closed the door behind him even more abruptly than he had opened it. Josephine, alarmed alike by his manner and by the expression of his countenance, took refuge in her chamber ; while the 1* 10 EPISODES OF FRENCH HISTORY. visitor, astonislied, and even terrified in her turn, rose from the sofa upon which she had been sitting beside her friend, and stood motionless before him. '' Madame," said the First Consul gravely : " you say that you have been the victim of calumny. You have a right to be heard. Prove this to me, and you shall be justified, not only in my eyes, but in those of all France." The cold, commanding, and even arbitrary tone in which the assurance was uttered, and an evident con- sciousness of power for which she was totally unpre- pared, overcame as if by magic the self-reliance of the hitherto-triumphant beauty ; she endeavored in vain to rally her energies ; she was totally unnerved ; and, ac- customed as she had long been to triumph by her smiles and graces, she found herself reduced on the present occasion, to take refuge in the most common -pi ace complaints of her calumniators. " All this is mere verbiage, madame," said Bonaparte, after having listened patiently until she paused ; " I require positive facts — tangible proofs. You are ac- cused of having participated in the sanguinary acts of Tallien ; of having entered into the persecutions of Hobespierre." An exclamation of indignant anger was the reply of Madame Tallien to this accusation. On this point at least she felt that she was blameless ; tears of wounded feeling inundated her cheeks, and her deprecatory ges- ture was so eloquent and so convincing, that even the First Consul was impressed by its sincerity. " Calm yourself;" he said, more gently than he had yet spoken ; " calm yourself, madame ; I am prepared to listen to your refutation of this charge." A CONSULAR " LIONNE." 11 "I can and will refute it, monsieur," she replied emphatically ; and the task was, in point of fact, an easy one. She enumerated those whom she had saved; she named the numerous victims whom she had pre- Berved, not only from proscription but even from deatli ; those whom she had preserved from ruin ; and invoked a crowd of witnesses, who would, as she declared with all the trustfulness of a generous spirit, not fail to do her justice on such an emergency. There was no room for doubt ; so far she had con- quered ; but her ordeal — and it was a fiery one — was not yet over. " So far, so well, madame ;" said the First Consul ; " you have decidedly satisfied me that as regards your conduct at Bordeaux towards the victims of a mistaken policy, your enemies have cruelly wronged you. I am glad to find that I have been deceived ; you prevented all the evil in your power ; you even did all the good that it was possible for you to do ; and you have been wrongfully associated with the atrocities so justly attri- buted to your husband. Enough of this accusation therefore ; and now let us pass on to the others." The others ! The modern Caesar had, indeed, by those two simple words, tendered the deadly viper to the modern Cleopatra. Enough, that after a long and painful discussion, during which neither the loveliness, the disclaimers, nor the entreaties of the fair and frail creature before him, sufiiced to shake the resolution of Bonaparte ; he said emphatically : — " Madame, the wife of Caesar must not be susi)ected, even unjustly ; and mine can admit into her society only individuals who are fortunate enough to be free 12 EPISODES OF FRENCH HISTORY. from all fear of calumny. This circumstance will suf- fice to prove to you that she will henceforward be com- pelled to deprive herself of the honor of receiving you until—" " Monsieur ;" exclaimed Madame Tallien ; " you ap- pear to forget that Josephine de Beauharnais, and even Madame Bonaparte — " " Silence, madame !" thundered out the First Consul ; " I did not seek to dilate upon your conduct ; you forced the task upon me ; and I have been compelled to con- vince you that you would have done better had you not enforced upon me the necessity of proving to you that I had nothing to learn either of Madame de Fontenay or Madame Tallien. We will prolong this interview no longer. I am sorry that I cannot display more courtesy towards a lady, but the world has its eyes upon me. — Farewell, madame." The voice of Bonaparte softened as he ceased speak- ing, and his look lost its sternness as he contemplated the state of agitation and humiliation to which the proud beauty was reduced ; but Madame Tallien saw nothing, felt nothing, save the mortifying position in which she had been placed by an overweening vanity, which had induced her to believe that the man who had suffered himself to be subjugated by the indolent graces of a Creole, would find her own glowing loveliness irre- sistible, and a sufficient apology for her more than equivocal antecedents. As he left the room, the First Consul closed the door with a studied violence which apprised his wife of his departure, and she hastened to rejoin her friend. It was their last fan^iliar interview. The futiir^ 18 Princesse de Chimay was extended almost lifeless iipon a couch, where she had thrown herself as Bonaparte disappeared. Josephine did not ask a question, there was no neces- sity for words. Crushed and humbled by a man whom she both hated and despised, and whom she had only sought to conciliate from affection for his wife, Madame Tallien, forgetting all her pride, wept bitterly over her own degradation ; while the tears of Josephine fell thick and fast as she clasped her in her arms. It was a bitter hour for both ; and who shall say what visions of the past swept across the mind of each as they thus bent under one common grief — the cell of the Carme- lites — the saloons of Barras — but we will not follow them in their eventful reminiscences ; enough, that as they sat there side by side, one the divorced wife of two husbands, the other the honored consort of the most powerful man in France, before whom crowned kings had already bowed, and nations trembled, there was that in either heart which could not fail to whisper by how small a chance their destinies might have been reversed. Tlie chronicles of female life do not afford the least startling details of that frightful volume which contains the records of the Eevolution ! 14 EPISODES OF FRENCH HISTORY. CHAPTER II. * AN EVENING AT LA MALMAISON. Long previous to tlie period at which ISTapoleon I. became Emperor of the French, the chateau of la Mal- maison — despite all the additions which had been made to it since its acquisition by Madame Bonaparte during the Eg3'ptian campaign — had, like the dwelling of Socrates, become too narrow to accommodate the crowd of courtiers by whom it was tlironged ; and accordingly the official country residence of the First Consul was established at St. Cloud ; while la Malmaison was de- voted to the reception of his relatives, and those per- sonal friends who were peculiarly honored with his confidence. Under the Empire this arrangement was continued ; and Napoleon was accustomed, then and there, to for- get for awhile the monarch in the man, and to dispense with the cumbrous trammels of an etiquette which the earlier habits of his life necessarily tended to render more than commonly irksome. It w^as especially in the evening, when the cares and duties of the day were at an end, that the Emperor, surrounded by a chosen circle, either conversed without restraint, or related anecdotes connected with his own w^onderful career, in a brief, emphatic, and even dra- matic manner, which riveted the attention of his lis- AN EVENING AT LA MALMAISOX. 15 teners. It is well known that Napoleon prided himself on Iiis talent as a cotiUur; and that he seldom required much entreaty to fall back upon his stirring and varied memories, and to afford to his hearers partial and mj'sterions glimpses of men and events which must otherwise have remained nnguessed at. On one occasion, when the party comprised only cer- tain members of the Imperial family, and the more confidential individuals of their respective households, the Duke of Wurtemberg chanced to be mentioned ; upon which the Emperor uttered a warm eulogium on that prince, which he concluded by inquiring if it were correct that the Elector of Wurtemberg really did, as he assumed to do, trace his descent from a Mayor of the Palace of Clovis, named Eymerich ? " No, sire ;" replied M. d'Aubesson, one of his chamberlains, celebrated for his antiquarian researches; " such a pretension is altogether unfounded, as all is mere fable regarding the Electoral House of Wurtem- berg, beyond the eleventh century. Its recognised founder, Conrad 11. , was the ancestor of a line of princes who were equally distinguished as rulers and as warriors; but it was only towards the close of the fifteenth century that the Countship of Wurtemberg was erected into a duchy by the Emperor Maximilian ; when Count Eberhard, having subjected to his author- ity a part of Suabia, solicited the title, for which he moreover paid three hundred thousand florins." " No bad bargain for Maximilian;" said Napoleon, inhaling a huge pinch of snuff; '-Proceed, M. le GeneologisU.^'' " The newly-made duke remained the vassal of 16 EPISODES OF FKENCH HISTORY. Austria, as liis father liad been before him ;" continued the chamberlain ; " although thenceforward he became Duke of Wurtemberg and Leek, and grand standard- bearer of the Empire. It was not imtil the reign of the Emperor Rodolphe IL that his descendants shook off the Austrian yoke, and that the Duchy of Wurtem- berg became a lief of Rome ; with the sole reservation that, in the event of the ducal house becoming extinct, it was to revert to its original master. Consequently, it is only from that period that the princes of Wurtem- berg have exercised an independent sovereignty." " I have since added a jewel to their crown ;" remarked the Emperor thoughtfully, as he rose, and began to pace the floor slowly, with his hands behind him, according to his usual habit ; " I have caused it to be admitted into the Electoral College. Perhaps — • How old is the present king, M. d'Aubesson ?" " He is far from being a young man, sire ; in fact, he is now seventy years of age. Frederick William was born in 1734 ; and in 1780 he married the Princess Caroline of Brunswick- Wolfenbuttel, who died on the 27th of September, 1788." " Aye ;" said Kapoleon, suddenly pausing in his walk and confronting the speaker ; " Frederick Wil- liam, King of Wurtemberg, is a widower." Nothing could be more simple than these words, but there was something so peculiar in the tone in which they were uttered, that for a moment no one spoke ; at length, however, Josephine, whose curiosity was aroused by the mysterious manner of her husband, roused herself from her recumbent position on the sofa, where she had been reclining in all the graceful indo- AN EVENING AT LA MALMAISON. 17 lence of her Creole nature, and asked in her low, sweet voice : — " AVlmt have you to tell us, Bonaparte ?'' Tlie Emperor smiled, took another long pinch of snuff, and then, resuming his former position, with his back to the fireplace, and his eyes fixed on the beauti- ful questioner, he said emphatically ; — " Listen. On the 4th of October, 1788, and at pre- cisely 8 o'clock in the morning, a man made his appear- ance at the residence of M. Diedrich, the principal magistrate of the city of Strasbourg. Tlie servant who announced him was as pale as a corpse, and trembled in every limb. ' What is the matter with you, Franck?'" asked his master. " * Sir,' stammered the valet. " * Answer me instantly I' " ' Sir, it is the public executioner.' " ' Desire him to come in, and then leave us ;' was the calm reply. " The headsman of Strasbourg ;" pursued Napoleon ; " was, despite his horrible profession, a man of exem- plary character ; mild in temper, of good morals, pious, and charitable. He was, moreover, a clever surgeon, and very expert in reducing fractures and setting bro- ken limbs ; services which he never refused to render to those who applied to him for assistance ; a circum- stance which, as you will readily understand, had acquired for him a species of popularity among the lower classes, who pitied without despising him ; and, by a singular anomaly, respected him even while his presence never failed to inspire a terror which they could not overcome." 18 EPISODES OF FRENCH HISTORY. Josephine sliiiddered, and drew her shawl more closely about her. She was, as is well known, exceed- ingly superstitious ; and her attention was thoroughly aroused. " When Franck had closed the door behind him ;" continued ISTapoleon ; " this man moved a pace or two forward ; and then, as was customary, knelt down. The expression of his face was serious, but calm and decided. " ' What want you with me, my master V inquired M. Diedrich. " 'I obey the promptings of my conscience, monseig- neur /' was the reply ; ^ I seek to fullil a duty. Con- descend therefore, I entreat of you, to receive my declaration, and to take it down in writing. The cir- cumstance which lam about to reveal is important ; do not then omit a detail, for I feel that it is only by a complete and clear understanding of the facts that my agency in the unhappy event can be justified.' "This preface naturally excited the curiosity of the magistrate ; who, having seated himself at his desk, desired the executioner to tell his tale. " ^ About a week since ;' commenced the man, still kneeling ; ' that is, monseigneur, at one o'clock in the morning of the 27tli September last, I was in bed in the lone house given to me by the city, when I heard a loud knocking at the outer door. My old house- keeper, who had been awakened by the noise, had already gone to inquire into the cause of the disturb- ance, and had ultimately opened it, believing that my services were required, as is frequently the case, by some one who was suffering from an accident ; while, AN EVENING AT LA MALMAISON. 19 acting under the same impression, I hastened to put on my clothes. Soon, however, I became aware that the poor helpless old woman was struggling with some persons who were threatening to shoot her. " Kill me if you will ;" I heard her say ; " but do not harm my master." "We shall do him no injury ;" was the reply ; " we mean him none. On the contrary, he will be well paid if he consents to do what we require ; but if ho values his life he must do so, or take the consequences upon himself." By this time, monseignexir, I was dressed ; and I was about to go down stairs to ascertain what was required of me, when two men in masks rushed into my room, which chanced at that moment to be flooded with moonlight. In an instant I procured a lamp, and demanded to know their business ; nor do I seek to deny that I was considerably agitated when I saw a brace of pistols pointed at my head and breast, as I began to apprehend that I was about to become the victim of their violence. From the isolated situa- tion of my dwelling I was aware that I could hope for no help from without — and even had it been otherwise,' he added mournfully ; ' who would have risked his life, or even his reputation, to rescue the city-headsman. As a last resource, therefore, I entreated my mysterious visitors to spare my life ; alleging, and with truth, that I had never injured a human being save in the fulfil- ment of my onerous office. '' Your life is in no danger ;" was the assurance which I received in reply to my sup- plication ; " on condition that you implicitly obey our orders ; but, should you hesitate, even for an instant, you will not see another dawn. Select the best and sharpest of your weapons ; allow us quietly to blind- 20 EPISODES OF FRENCH HISTORY. fold yoiT ; remain silent, and follow us." As tlio pistols were still pointed towards me, resistance was useless ; and I was compelled to submit. When a thick handkerchief had been carefully and skil- fully bound over my eyes, I was lifted into a carriage, and seated between the two strangers ; who had no sooner warned my terrified housekeeper that should she mention to any one, be it whom it might, the event which had just taken place, my life would be the for- feit of her indiscretion, than the horses were urged into a gallop ; and, powerless as a child, I could only offer up a silent prayer for protection and support. I could not form the faiatest idea of the direction in which we were travelling; I could only calculate that the journey occupied eighteen or twenty hours. At its close I was lifted out of the carriage with the same precaution as I had been placed in it ; and then, each of my compa- nions grasping one of my arms, I was hurried forward. After walking on a level surface for several minutes, we ascended a flight of stairs, which, from the echoing of our footsteps, I am convinced must have been both wide and lofty; and, finally, we reached a spacious saloon where the bandage was removed from my eyes. It was still daylight, but the sun was about to set, which satisfied me that my calculation of time had been a correct one. An abundant and luxurious meal was placed before me, but I remarked the almost total absence of wine from the table, as my long and rapid jour- ney, aud the pressure of the handkerchief across my fore- head, had produced upon me an almost agonising thirst. When the darkness closed in I was desired to arm myself with the weapon which 1 had previously AN EVENING AT LA MALMAISON. 21 been directed to select, and to liold myself ready to decapitate the jKjrson whom I had been conveyed thither to execute ; but, even unhappily accustomed as I had been for years to fulfil my dreary duties under the sanction of the law ; and, aware as I could not fail to be from the first, of the purpose for which my pre- sence was required, now that the moment of trial had actually arrived my whole soul revolted at what I at once felt to be a murder ; and consequently, with as much energy as I could command, I refused to obey. " Decide promptly," said a voice, which I then heard for the first time ; and there was a cruel calmness in its every accent which chilled my very blood. *'Your refusal will not save the culprit, and you will instantly share her fate." " * It was then a woman whom I was about to launch into eternity ! Oh, monseigneur, you would have pitied even nu at that moment — a woman who, for aught I could tell, might be guiltless of all crime, and the mere victim of another's hate. Yainly, however, did I protest and entreat ; I was compelled to yield to a force which I was unable to resist — the sin was heavy on my soul, but I had no alternative. My sword was placed in my han-d ; a black veil was thrown over my head ; and I was forced onward through several apartments, evidently of great size. At length my guide stopped in an immense hall ; the veil was removed, and I saw before me, in the centre of the vast and chilling space, a scaffold about three feet in height, upon which rested a block covered with black velvet, while a thick layer of red saw-dust was strewn on the uncarpeted floor. I trembled in every limb. Kever 22 EPISODES OF FRENCH HISTORY. throughout my whole career had I been so utterly unmanned. Whose life was I about to take ? What fearful and irremediable crime was I about to commit ? I had but little time to ask myself these questions, for a few seconds only had elapsed since my own entrance into that fatal hall when the victim was borne towards the scaffold in the 'arms of several men. It was a woman of unusual heiglit, and of the most dazzling fair- ness ; her luxuriant hair, of pale auburn, was confined by a scarf of black crape; she was uncovered to the waist, and the rest of her body was thrust into a black velvet sack which was tied under her feet, thus leaving only her bust exposed. Her hands were bound together with a cord of purple silk, and she was closely masked. The wretched woman uttered no shriek, no supplication, which added to the horror of the spectacle ; this mute despair, as I then considered it, beiug strange and unnatural ; but she had scarcely been lifted on to the scafibld, when 1 discovered that she was closely gagged ! The men who held her, eight or ten in number, had no sooner laid her down upon the scafibld than they with- drew a few paces — their wretched victim bent her head unresistingly upon the block — and in another instant all was over. " ' Pity me, monseigneur^ for assuredly a grievous crime was consummated by my hand ; and ere long I look to learn that the courts of Europe will be thrown into mourning.' " ' What ensued V demanded M. Diedrich. " ' My frightful office done,' pursued the headsman ; * I was not even allowed time to wipe the blood from AN EVENING AT LA MALMAISON. 23 my sword ; another performed that duty for me ; while I was hastily conducted back to the saloon where food liad been before provided for me ; and where I now found the table crowded with the rarest wines. I seated myself for an instant in order to regain com- posure, but I was too sick at heart to avail myself of the proffered refreshments; and in a short time my masked companions and myself were once more in the carriage. We travelled on without halting, save to change horses at the several stages where relays had evidently been awaiting us, and where we were never detained beyond a few minutes, throughout that night and part of the following day ; and in about twenty hours, as before, we stopped in front of my own house, where I was assisted to alight, and a canvass bag con- taining two hundred louis was placed in my hands. — I have brought them with me, monseigneur^ that you may make whatever nse of them you think best. I was then warned never to reveal any circumstance connected with the event in which I had been so un- willingly and fatally an actor, on peril of my life ; and assured that if I obeyed this injunction, my silence should be richly compensated : *• while if, on the con- trary, you seek to penetrate a mystery in which you cannot have an interest, and to which you can never obtain a clue," added one of my companions ; " the very attempt will prove your own destruction, as "well as that of those to whom you have been rash enough to confide your secret." "With this assurance the strangers drove ofi^, leaving me standing in the road. I waited a short time, listening to the sound of the receding wheels ; and then, as it died away in the dis- 24 EPISODES OF FEENCH HISTORY. tance, I withdrew the handkerchief, and joyfully crossed the threshold of my ow^n home. " ' I have now told you all, monseigneur. You know every detail of the mysterious and tragical history with which my conscience was so over-burthen ed that I could no longer sustain its weight alone. If I have offended against the law, I must submit to pay the penalty of my crime ; but, should you feel that I only yielded to an insurmountable necessity, suffer me to hope that I may not forfeit the protection and favor which I have for many years struggled to merit by counterbalancing the hateful duties of my office, by deeds of charity towards my fellow-creatures.' " " And what said M. Diedrich ?" gasped out Josephine, upon w^hom the dramatic effect given to the narrative by the manner of the Emperor had produced so strong an impression that she could not conceal her emotion ; " Surely he could not condemn the unhappy man ?" " M. Diedrich," repl ed Kapoleon, " had listened with an interest equal tc your own to the revelations of the headsman ; but when the latter drew the money from his bosom and held it towards him, he became alarmed. It had at once been evident to him that the suspicion of the man was a correct one ; and that the individual who had been put to death was no common victim. Instigated, therefore, by this conviction, and by no means indifferent to the threat that any recipient of the formidable secret w^ould share the fate of him who had revealed it, he refused to risk the responsi- bility of accepting such a charge ; and desired that not only the money should be retained by its present owner, but also that he should not divulge to any one AN EVENING AT LA MALMAISON. 25 the fact of his having mentioned its existence to him- self. " * Be it as you will, Tnonseigneur^^ said his visitor ; * I shall, in that case, expend it in masses for the victim who fell by my hand, and in alms to the poor. It is only by doing so that I can regain peace of mind and conscience.' He then signed the deposition that he had made, and withdrew. " M. Diedrich was no sooner alone than he placed this extraordinary document imder cover, and despatched it by a courier to tlie Baron de Breteuil, who was at tliat period Prime Minister. A fortnight elapsed ere he received any reply ; but at the end of that time a packet was delivered to him by the Governor of Stras- bourg, which contained these words : * Sir, I have sub- mitted to His Majesty the communication which you addressed to me, and I have been honored by the com- mand of the King, to express his desire that the person in question shall retain the amount which was bestowed on him; and to inform you that he will receive a second sum of the same value, provided he maintain perfect silence on all that has occurred.' " " But" — commenced the Empress. Napoleon smiled. " Well ? " he said interrogatively. " But " — repeated Josephine ; " we are not surely to infer that the King" — " Madame," interposed Xapoleon, impressively, " I am about to conclude my tale, and perhaps to give you the key to it. Such events as that which I have just related are more common in the history of courts than the uninitiated would apprehend ; and, unfortunately, 2 26 EPISODES OF FRENCH HISTORY. the fact is never known until the evil is beyond remedy." " Good heavens, Bonaparte ! Why do you tell us such horrid stories, and compel us to believe them ? " exclaimed the agitated Josephine. " Are you endea- voring to frighten us to death ? " " Are you frightened, Pauline ? " asked the Emperor, turning towards the fairest and the frailest of his sis- ters, the Princess Borghese ; " I am, as you hear, relat- ing the history — or rather the ultimate fate — of a beautiful, a very beautiful woman." " Why do you appeal to me, ]N^apoleone ? " was the rejoinder. " Your vanity as a conteur is really insatia- ble. You have beheaded your heroine, so there is an end of the affair ; for no one can take the slightest in- terest in a parcel of barbarians who could murder a beautiful woman in cold blood." " !N'evertheless, and with due deference to your opinion, I will finish my story," said the Emperor with one of his most sarcastic smiles. " The Duke of Wur- temberg married a second wife nine years after the death of his first, and during my campaign in Italy. The successor of Caroline of Brunswick- Wolfenbuttel, was Charlotte Augusta Matilda, Princess-royal of Eng- land, and daughter of George II. He was at that period only Prince-royal, but succeeded his father on the 19th of December, 1797. " Wurtemberg had hitherto made common cause with the Germanic Empire against France. The new sovereign was, however, no sooner in possession of the throne than he hastened to conclude a peace ; and opened a correspondence for that pui-pose with me, AN EVENING AT LA MALMAISON. 27 which was carried on until my departure for Egypt. I am not about to digress into politics, so do not look alarmed, Josephine — Je reviens ci mes moutotie. " The first wife of the Duke of Wurtemberg had been both beautiful and intellectual, but she was, nevertheless, not perfect ; and whispers soon became rife at court that she had looked with marked favor upon a certain handsome young page ; who, presuming upon her protection, took the liberty of attempting to leave the country without the sanction of his sovereign. The motive of his thus seeking to absent himself at a time when his vanity and his ambition may be supposed to have been alike gratified, was never known ; though it was afterwards surmised that his courage did not alto- gether equal his personal advantages ; and that he was apprehensive of the results of an afiair so delicate and dangerous as that in which he found himself involved. Be this as it might, thus much at least is certain, that he had already reached the frontier, and had nearly completed his supper, when a peach was placed before him on a plate of curious old china, beneath which he found a small scroll of paper, whereon were written the words : * Return, or tremble ! ' " He returned. "Scarcely, however, had he regained the capital, when he saw upon his dressing-table a magnificent vase of cut and colored glass ; and while in the act of examining this new bauble, and wondering whence it could have come, a second scroll, similar to the first, dropped at his feet, which being unrolled, he found to contain a new warning. On this occasion it bore the injunction, ' Depart, or tremble !' 28 EPISODES OF FRENCH HISTORY. " Yacillating between these two opposite commands, the young man resolved to explain the mysterious cir- cumstance to his royal mistress : to explain to her the peril in which he stood, and to solicit her advice. Its nature may be surmised by the fact that the youth made no further attempt to leave the court. " Rumor asserts that, about this time, a prince — we will not guess at his identity — paid a visit to the father of the audacious page, and laid before him sundry let- ters, papers, and love-tokens, tending to implicate the wife of the one, and the son of the other ; and that when the miserable parent had read them from end to end, his visitor said sternly: * Pronounce the sen- tence of the culprit.' The lips of the wretched father quivered spasmodically, but he could not articulate a syllable; and, meanwhile, the clear cold eye of the outraged husband remained fixed upon him. " They were standing beside the wide hearth, upon which blazed a huge fire of pine-w^ood ; and at length the modern Brutus grasped with trembling fingers one of the hand-irons which chanced to be within his reach, and traced in the ashes several letters. The word thus written commenced with a D, and was terminated by an h. The sentence was tacitly pronounced. The prince bent for a few seconds over the ill-formed cha- racters — ^for the muscles of the writer had proved less firm than his purpose — and then, with a cold bend of the head, he strode from the room and left the house. " A council was convened, at which were assembled all the principal personages of the state, and several of the relatives of the princess. The condemnatory documents were produced and read ; and as they were AN EVENING AT LA MALMAISON. 29 conclusive of the guilt of both parties, each individual present was invited to pronounce sentence upon the accused. Tlie first who replied to the appeal declared for a divorce ; but a near kinsman of the erring wife vehemently opposed what he affirmed to be an ill- judged and dangerous act of lenity. * Her death alone;' he exclaimed ; * can save the honor of the prince. There is no other alternative.' His opinion was adopted; and the council had no sooner broken up than the same individual who had endeavored to save the life of the guilty woman, hastened to apprise her of the fate with which she was menaced, and to entreat that she would save herself by flight ; offering at the same time to assist her evasion that very night, if she would solemnly pledge herself never again to see the rash young man by whose imprudence she had been compromised, and to remain during the remainder of her life a self-constituted prisoner in a castle in Scot- land, where he could insure her a refuge. "As she rejected both these conditions with haughty displeasure, the interview was abruptly terminated by her chivalrous visitor; who, although he had been willing to risk his own life in order to save that of his fair but frail mistress, could not contemplate without disgust her steady perseverance in vice, even under cir- cumstances so threatening as those by which she was surrounded. ' Pardon me, madame ;' he said coldly as he prepared to leave the room ; ' I intruded myself in the hope of rendering service to a repentant woman ; but I have no help to offer to one who glories in her sin.' Unhappily for herself, she did not recall him. "The room occupied by the page was situated on 30 EPISODES OF FRENCH HISTORY. the higher story of the palace, at the termination of a long gallery, which was repeated on every floor to the foundation of the building. It was necessary that he should traverse this gallery in order to gain a back staircase by which he was accustomed to reach the private apartments of the princess ; and his destruction was consequently easy. On each floor, and precisely on the same spot, four boards were removed, thus form- ing a wide opening, which terminated only above the chamber of his royal mistress. The upper gallery, into which his own room opened, was never lighted ; an arrangement which had hitherto been subject of congratulation to both parties, as it rendered his move- ments less likely to excite observation ; and one upon which they had frequently congratulated themselves. He had, therefore, been long accustomed to grope his way in the darkness ; and — thus much premised — ^you may readily anticipate the sequel. The wretched page, unsuspicious of the fate which impended over him, and so familiar with his path that he needed no lamp to guide his footsteps, sprang across the threshold of his chamber without one misgiving as the last sounds of life died away in the corridors of the palace, and the deep silence of midnight settled over its dim halls and pas- sages — three bounds, and his foot met no resistance — down, down, headlong, from floor to floor, fell the bold and ambitious boy who had dared to raise his eyes to the wife of his sovereign — down, down, until he met with one slight obstacle in his descent, so slight that it failed beneath his weight, and only served to render his sufi'ering more acute. The planks which formed the ceiling of the princess's apartment had not been re- AN EVENING AT LA MALMAISON. 31 moved, lest the circumstance might attract her notice and thus excite her suspicions, but they were so skil- fully sawn through that they hung merely by a few fibres; and he had therefore no sooner struck upon tliem tlian they yielded beneath the sudden pressure ; and tlie blooming page, with his blue eyes, his cloud of sunny hair, his ruby lips, and his graceful limbs, fell a shapeless and ensanguined mass at the feet of the royal lady who was awaiting him." A cry of horror burst from all the auditors of the Emperor ; and his self-gratulation at the effect which his narrative had produced was visible. Not a voice was raised to urge him to proceed with his tale, but eacli of the party looked earnestly towards him. Napoleon perfectly underetood the silent and agitated appeal. He slowly buried his finger and thumb in his snuff-box, inhaled " the fragrant weed" with epicurean deliberation; and then, resuming his habitual attitude, he pursued his narration. "The scene must have been a frightful one when Mary Stuart vainly sought to screen Rizzio from the daggers of his assassins, and saw the skirts of her robe dabbled in his blood ; but that was mere melodrama to the spectacle of Caroline of Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel gazing down upon the mummified mass of what had so lately been the peerless person of her lover. No doubt that her first impulse must have been to fling herself upon his body ; to clasp him, crushed and disfigured as he was, to the heart which had enshrined him as its idol ; but even passion is not omnipotent, for we are all more or less human and self-centred. Well is it for us that we are so perpetually satisfied with the surface of 32 EPISODES OF FKENCH HISTORY. things ; that we do not seek to look deeper ; let us re- tain our illusions while we can. " In this case the illusion lasted no longer ; what Caroline had loved was the brilliant beauty, and the faultless proportions of the unhappy boy whom she had lured to his destruction — and what remained of these ? A shapeless and gory heap, at which her woman nature revolted, and before which her woman-courage shrank appalled. That thus it must have been is certain ; for the gorgeous apartment, whose echoes had long been awakened only by murmured words of tenderness and sighs of passion, now resounded with wild shrieks, and bursts of unearthly laughter ; while her women, at- tracted by the cries of their mistress, rushed to her as- sistance, ignorant of the catastrophe which awaited them. " The princess was borne to her bed insensible. The screams of her attendants aroused the other inmates of the palace, and the greatest consternation prevailed. The accident appeared so inexplicable that even horror was partially swallowed up in astonishment ; although there were a few among the spectators who looked gloomily upon each other, like men disposed to seek a deeper and darker solution of the mystery than they cared to acknowledge. There was, however, one in- dividual of more nerve and presence of mind than those about him, who undertook to explain the cause of the frightful tragedy by asserting that, beyond all doubt, the dry rot had destroyed the timbers of the palace ; and, in accordance with this opinion, all the galleries on that side of the building were closed, on the pretext that they were too dangerous for use until the flooring had been relaid. AN EVENING AT LA MALMAISON. 33 " Tlie public were satisfied with this explanation-^let \\B not quarrel with their credulity. *' The princess was no sooner restored to conscious- ness than she thoroughly appreciated the peril of her j>osition. She regretted, beyond all doubt, her refusal to accept the asylum in Scotland which had been oftered to her. She was alone with her guilt and her terrors ; friendless ; and, as she was too well aware, not only suspected, but condemned. She felt that the fato of the page foreshadowed her own ; and that she had no resource save in flight. But whither ?^ — ^Wliat mattered it ? The world was wide ; and turn on which side she might, she must be equally a wanderer and a stranger. Tlie duchy of which she had been one of the brightest ornaments, was a mere speck on the map of Europe. She must escape ! Once beyond the frontier and she would be safe. But to whom could she apply for help? Whom dai-e she trust ? Doubts like these are one of the most bitter curses of greatness. Tlie very ^divinity which doth hedge a king,' as the English poet expresses it, flings back the warmer and kindlier feelings of our fellow-men. Crowned heads and sovereign princes may boast of devoted followers and faithful servants, but it is rare, indeed, that they can secure a friend. " Precisely in this position was Caroline of Bruns- wick-Wolfenbuttel at this critical moment of her life. To whom could she apply for help ? In whom dare she confide? These were questions which she asked herself until her heart heaved almost to bursting, and her brain reeled ; but the minutes were growing into hours, and something must be done. After mature reflection she at length resolved to confide in her first 2* 34 EPISODES OF FRENCH HISTORY. waiting- woman, to whom she had been an indulgent and munificent mistress ; Gemonde was bound to her by a thousand obligations ; alike in sorrow and in joy she had shown her a ready sympathy ; she had never wounded her feelings by a harsh word or a disdainful gesture ; and the more she dwelt on the idea, the more she assured herself that on this woman depended her safety. From her she could not apprehend lukewarm- ness, and scorned to dream of treachery. " Amply, as it appeared, was her trust rewarded ; the favorite attendant, throwing herself at the feet of her august mistress, thanked her with tears and sobs for so marked and honorable a proof of her confidence ; and one which, as she declared, was rendered doubly valuable from the circumstance of her having a brother whose best ambition it would be to serve so illustrious a lady ; and who, being attached to the police of the city, and in constant correspondence with its numerous agents, could easily secure her escape. " The princess had no sooner received this assurance, than she decided on leaving the palace at an hour past midnight, by a subterraneous passage with which her attendant was familiar ; and which, traversing alike the ancient vaults and the modern cellars, terminated beneath the foundations of a house outside the city walls, where a carriage was to be in readiness to facili- tate her flight. Confident of the practicability of this scheme ; and, in consequence, no longer apprehensive of personal violence, Caroline of Brunswick- Wolfen- buttel, having secured in a small casket her gold and diamonds (the proceeds of whi ch would enable her to live in comfort, if not actually in afiluence, in another AN EVENING AT LA MALMAISON. 35 land), sat down with the chosen companion of her pro- jected evasion to weep over the frightful death of tlie ill-fated youth whom she had by her own frailty con- signed to an early and dishonored grave ; and she was still thus occupied when her husband sent to inquire if she could receive him in her apartments. " Had she consented to do so, who can say what might have been the result of the interview? The page was dead ; the princess was young, fascinating, and beautiful ; and even princes are mortal. Tlie con- cession might at least have saved her life; and it is probable that it would have done so; for wherefore, save to afford her a last chance of pleading her own cause, could the injured husband be supposed to volun- teer so bitter a meeting ? It did not take place, how- ever ; for, consulting only her passion, and the pride which she had allowed to slumber when it might have shielded her from disgrace, she refused the interview ; and, drawing her desk towards her, she addressed to him perhaps the most ill-judged and dangerous note which a woman, circumstanced as she was at that moment, ever ventured to write to the husband whom she had dishonored. That note was communicated to me, and I was so much impressed by its contents that I can repeat them to you. Thus it ran : — " 'You have shed the blood of an unfortunate young man, when I alone was guilty ; and you will have to answer for his death before God, as you will also have to answer for mine. Had you any sense of justice I might accept you as ray judge, but I know too well that you only desire to become my executioner. We had better not meet, as I have onlymy curee to bequeath to you.' 36 EPISODES OF FRENCH HISTORY. " Convinced that her safety was secured, the princess despatched this letter as recklessly as she had written it ; and I think you will all concede that it was not calcu- lated to appease the irritated feelings of an offended husband ;" continued the Emperor after a pause ; "and thus the day wore on. Twilight deepened, and the miserable Caroline, her heart bursting with grief, and her nerves shaken by anxiety, received the ladies of her household as she was accustomed to do before retiring for the night ; but they had no sooner withdrawn than, trembling with impatience, she wrapped herself closely in one of the wide and coarse cloaks worn by the female peasants of Germany during the winter months, (in which disguise she trusted that she should be secure in the event of her encountering any of the servants of the palace) and drew the heavy hood over her face. ^'On emerging from the ducal apartments, accom- panied by her zealous attendant, she descended a back staircase ; and then proceeded along a stone passage, which running parallel with the offices, received its only light from the apertures perforated in its walls at certain and infrequent intervals, that enabled her to distinguish the voices bf the cooks and scullions who were, even at that hour, preparing for the repast of the following day. So clearly, indeed, did they meet her ear, that she might even have overheard their conver- sation had she not been absorbed by the engrossing nature of her own situation. " This first passage traversed, several others presented themselves, which it was necessary either to cross or to pursue ; but the careful waiting-woman had possessed herself by some stratagem of a handful of keys, of AN EVENING AT LA MALMAISON. 37 which she made rapid and effective use ; until, in fitting one of thera into the lock of an inner door that opposed their progress, the whole of those which she still carried escaped her grasp, and were scattered upon the ground. Great was the terror of the fugitives, as, with beating pulses, and straining eyes, they listened for several seconds to assure themselves that the noise of the fall had not excited any attention in the offices, when con- vinced that it had not been heard, they passed their hands over the sanded floor in every direction in search of their lost treasures — treasures indeed to them at that moment — and having at length succeeded in recover- ing them, they once more hurried on. Ere long, they had left the more modern portion of the subterraneans behind them ; and found themselves in a large and lofty stone hall, which, as Gemonde informed her royal mistress, terminated the original vaults of the palace. Yainly, however, did they successively apply every key they possessed to the lock of the low-arched door which opened at the further extremity of this vast and gloomy dungeon ; not one would open it ; and they ulti- mately became satisfied that it must e.^ill be lying near the spot where the others had fallen. " The princess, who was by this time overcome with apprehension and fatigue, declared herself utterly unable to retrace her steps ; and her devoted attendant was consequently compelled to entreat that Her High- ness would sit down and rest, while she returned alone to renew her search. The alternative was a terrible one to the delicate and carefully-nurtured victim of her own vices ; but there was no escape. She must submit, or prepare to die of famine where she stood : unseen, 88 EPISODES OF FRENCH HISTORY. unpitied, and unshrived. * Go ;' she gasped out at last ; * Go ; but do not leave me long, Gemonde, or I shall become mad.' All was dark, and so profoundly still about her, that she could hear the beating of her own heart as she bent forward to listen for the return of her guide. A weary interval succeeded ; the princess could not even guess at its duration ; but to her it appeared as though hours had elapsed since she was left alone in that dim and dreary solitude, without an arm to sustain, or a voice to comfort her. " For awhile the pang at her heart occupied her thoughts ; and she lived over again the last hours of horror which she had passed in her princely home — visibly, plainly, she once more saw before her the dab- bled corpse of her heart's idol ; and she shuddered as the mangled mass appeared again to fall at her feet, and to share her lonely vigil. Fortunately for her reason, the spectral illusion vanished after a time ; and then came visions of the future, when exiled alike from her adopted country and the dignities which were her birthright, she must be content to live in seclusion, un- honored and unknown. " Gradually, however, the past and the future alike failed to withdraw her attention from the terrors of the present. She could no longer deceive herself; hours must indeed have elapsed since she was abandoned in that living tomb. Her failing limbs were becoming unequal to support her drooping form ; strange noises were in her ears ; the damps of the vault were cling- ing to her hair, and chilling her blood. Had her attendant been discovered ? Would she, to save herself from an almost certain death, leave her to her horrible, AN EVENING AT LA MALMAISON. 89 her hopeless fate ? Or worse, far worse than all, had she betrayed her ? " Maddened by the thought, the wretched woman became unconscious alike of fatigue and fear ; her only desire was to escape from the terrors by which she was surrounded. She felt as though the roof of the vault, spacious and lofty as it was, became every moment more heavy and more near, and that the walls were closing in upon her on every side. Human na- ture could passively endure no more. She started, shrieked, and fled. On ! on I she must find the narrow passage by which she had entered the subterranean where she had so long watched and waited ; the doors had been left unclosed behind her, for her flight had been too eager and too hurried for what her attendant had declared to be an unnecessary precaution at so late an hour, as that of her evasion. On ! on I tliat passage must be found — But how ? Tliere was only one hope of success ; and her small ungloved hand was passed along the rough and humid surface of the masonry as she followed up the boundary-wall of the vault ; while from time to time she stumbled against a loose stone, and was compelled to pause, writhing with pain, ere she could pursue her dark and dangerous way. '^ Suddenly she heard the trampling of feet above her ; and a gleam of light penetrating through a ven- tilator caused her to stand motionless. She had indeed found her way back to the inhabited portion of the palace ; she could again distinguish, not only voices, but even words. Thankful to know herself once more within human reach, she instinctively listened — aye, princess as she was — after enduring whole hours of 40 EPISODES OF FKENCH HISTORY. a living death where neither sight nor sound of her fellow-beings had been able to reach her, she lis- tened—" " But who could know all this, Bonaparte ?" asked the Empress, pale with emotion. " To whom did she tell all this ?" " My good Josephine," replied Napoleon, with a slight frown at the interruption — " endeavor to place yourself in her position ; imagine what your own feel- ings would have been ; how you would have struggled to escape the fate which awaited you ; and be satisfied that all passed precisely as I have narrated it." " Perhaps so ; but still — " " Buonaparte will never be able to finish his story if you do not allow him to tell it in his own way," said Madame Mere. " He hates to be questioned." The Princess Pauline curled her beautiful lip as she asked languidly ; " Well, Kapoleone, what followed ? " " It followed ; as a natural consequence ; " pursued the Emperor, only half appeased ; " that she overheard a conversation, which at once riveted her attention, and overwhelmed her with terror. * Only to think how soon all may be over ;' said a man's voice which, rude as it was, still betrayed deep regret, and sank to her heart as she leant her throbbing temples against the stone-work of the vault ; ' Poor Princess ! She was in her usual health, to all appearance, at dinner-time this very day ; and now they say that she is dying.' " ' We must all die, princes as well as paupers ;' was the rejoinder of one of liis companions; ^not one of us can buy off his last creditor.' 'True enough;' remarked a third; 'but, nevertheless, this illness is wonderfully AN EVENING AT LA MALMAISON. 41 sudden. To think tliat she bIiouM have dined at table to-day, and that she should die to-night, is something more than one can underetand.' " "Horrible!" murmured Josephine, covering her eyes with her hand to conceal the tears which she could not suppress. "It is needless to say," continued the Emperor, " with what frightful earnestness the princess hung upon their words. Still it might not be of her that they spoke — she was not the only princess in the palace — there was yet hope ! That hope did not long endure, however : she heard rapid footsteps hurrying along the passages, and then a voice which she recognized as that of one of her ushers, exclaiming breathlessly ; ' I bring you sorrowful news — in a few days we shall be in mourning for the Uereditary Princess.' ' Who told you that all was 'SO nearly over?' eagerly inquired his listeners. ' Geraonde, Her Highness's favorite woman, who has scarcely left the bedside of her ill-fated mis- tress. I met her not ten minutes ago, half mad with grief. You all know how she loved the princess ; and the sight of her sufferings had been more than she could bear. They are, she says, so violent and so acute, that nothing short of a miracle can enable her to endure them for another hour. Every one is up in the palace, and the citizens are abeady astir in the town. The duke has locked himself into his apartment, and refuses to be seen by any one. I only trust that he may not sink under the blow.' " And she still stood there and listened — she whose last chance of life had been the good faith of the treacherous follower by whom she was thus betrayed — 42 EPISODES OF FRENCH HISTORY. listened until the voices hissed in her ears, and strange lights danced before her dilated eyes. Once she strove to shriek out an appeal for help, but her parched tongue refused its office, and she only emitted a gur- gling sob, which died away in her throat. Paralysed by terror, she was unconscious of a muffled sound which gradually approached. There were heavy, but cautious footfalls in the deep sand which formed the flooring of the vault, but she heard them not. Her whole being was absorbed in the conversation which was still going on beside her, although she was no longer able to comprehend its nature ; suddenly she felt hei*self seized by two robust arms, and dragged violently away from the iron-barred window that con- nected the vault with the kitchens. Yainly did she struggle in the grasp of her captors ; her cry for assist- ance awoke no response as it died away in the depths of the subterraneans along which she was hurried, in dull and mocking echoes. Without respect either for her sex or for her rank, she was flung rudely to the ground, and her hands and feet secured with cords. Wildly she prayed for mercy ; and called upon her family, and even upon her husband to save her ; she was far removed from human aid. Yainly she sought to bribe her tormentors. " ' Take all — all — ' she moaned in her agony : ' here are gold and jewels — spare my life — I am so young to die!' "The brutal beings who were now the masters of her fate vouchsafed no reply, save by so tightening her bonds that she could not move a limb, and finally forc- ing a gag into her mouth, lliis outrage accomplished. AN EVENING AT LA MALMAISON. 43 the lower part of her body was ihrust into a sack of black velvet, which was fastened round her waist and secured under her feet ; and from that moment her Maker alone could hear her supplications for as- sistance." "What I" exclaimed the Empress in an accent of mingled horror and dismay ; " was that really the fate of the first wife of the Elector of Wurtemberg ? Was it she whom the headsman of Strasbourg was com- pelled to murder ?" " Madame ;" replied Napoleon ; " I am not aware that the name of the Elector of Wurtemberg has once escaped my lips throughout the tale to which you have just listened. It is true that rumor did connect it with the death of the princess ; but the great are always calumniated by the envious. I therefore offer no opinion as to the guilt or innocence of Frederic Wil- liam; nor shall I even permit myself to express my sense of the extent to which such an act of retribution would have been justifiable or unjustifiable on his part. I have merely been relating to you a story which was not, as I conceived, without a certain amount of interest. I have given it to you as it was told to me ; and I need not point out its moral. But I have unwittingly per- mitted my tale to intrude too far into the night, and I should regret to cause you unpleasant dreams." So saying, the Emperor returned his snuff-box to his pocket ; kissed the forehead of his mother, according to his invariable custom ; and before his auditors had recovered from the painful impression produced by the dark page of history which he had spread before them, he had left the room. 44 EPISODES OF FKENCH HISTORY. CHAPTER III. A BOURBON SOVEREIGN UNDER THE CONSULATE. In May, 1801, the Prince of Tuscany, Don Louis I., wliom the First Consul had just created King of Etruria, arrived in Paris with his wife, his son, and a few per- sons who had been appointed to dijfferent situations in his household. Nothing could exceed the astonishment of the Parisians on ascertaining that Bonaparte should have voluntarily bestowed a crown upon a Bourbon ; and many were inclined to murmur, believing that so inexplicable a proceeding was the mere prelude to his intention of ultimately replacing the rule of Prance in the hands of her legitimate monarchs, after having so long labored to alienate from them the affections of the French people. His partisans were, however, in error ; no such wild idea had, even for an instant, traversed the brain of the extraordinary man who had already planted his foot upon the first step of their hereditary throne, and subsequently annihilated all the hopes of the Kepublicans ; nor had a week gone by before all those who had been absurd enough to indulge in such a fancy, were thoroughly convinced of their error. The First Consul had attained the culminating point of his power, if not yet that of his ambition ; and, although not himself a king, he was a king-maker. His far-sighted policy was consequently not at fault, as A BOURBON SOVEREIGN. 45 his adherents had for a moment believed ; and Louis, Prince of Tuscany, under the modest title of Count of Leghorn, on his way to take possession of his new- kingdom, was invited to make a short sojourn in the metropolis of his ancestors, as the guest of him by whom their dynasty had been (as it then appeared) definitively overtlirown. A residence had been secured for him in the Hotel Montesson, which had latterly been occupied by the Spanish Ambassador, where every preparation had been made to do honor to the royal visitore ; for it was no part of the tactics of the First Consul to excite the sympathies of the disaflfected by exhibiting to them a Bourbon subjected to neglect or indignity, but rather to leave them free to judge between himself and the scion of a family to which many of them still adhered from habit and tradition. A greater contrast could not effectively have been afforded than that which existed between the energetic, restless, eager spirit of Bonaparte, and the indolent, supine, and pleasure-loving Louis ; who, after having seen the Archduchy of his father wrested from him by the victorious arms of France, found it suddenly elevat- ed into a kingdom by the fiat of the First Consul, and himself created its sovereign under the title of King of Etruria. Shy, timid, and without either moral energy or mental resources ; devoted to sensual indulgences, and inordinately fond of money, he had no trace of royalty about him, save his fine and distinguished appearance ; while even the effect of his striking per- son was marred by the awkwardness induced by his utter want of confidence and self-possession. Or J ■^ o Ki I fit. ^ 46 EPISODES OF FRENCH HISTORY. His wife, Maria Louisa of Spain, the third daughter of Carlos lY., was short, swarthy, and extremely plain, while her manners were coarse and abrupt ; but she was kind-hearted, unaffected, and an admirable wife and mother. In intellect she was far superior to the king, yet so wanting in tact, that her endeavor to con- ceal his deficiencies only served to render them the more conspicuous. Her personal habits were peculiar, and in many respects unpleasant to those about her. She always made her toilette for the day when she rose in the morning, and might be seen as early as seven o'clock walking in the garden of the hotel, wearing a dress brocaded with gold, a diadem of brilliants on her head, and her child in her arms, her long train sweep- ing the gravelled paths unheeded. As she would not suffer a nurse to tend the infant prince, it occasionally occurred that before the close of the day the costume of Her Majesty had ceased to be attractive from its freshness ; but, whenever any one who was admitted to her presence ventured to comment on the fact, she con- tented herself by observing, that sunshine was the best remedy for such accidents ; and never could be pre- vailed upon to change any portion of her dress. Despite their modest incognito, the newly-fledged sovereigns were received and treated at the Tuileries with all the honors due to crowned heads ; but neither ball nor banquet could put Louis at his ease with his formidable host, before whom he displayed, to his wife's undisguised annoyance, a greater amount of inanity than under any other circumstances. In his absence he affected to speak of Bonaparte with even exaggerated enthusiasm : but he had not sufiicient A BOURBON SOVEREIGN. 47 self-control to conceal the lingering bitterness induced by the consciousness tliat it was to him that he was indebted for his crown. It was, as already stated, at the Hotel Montesson that the royal couple were permanently established during their sojourn in Paris. This very handsome ediUce had been built by the Marquise de Montesson before the Revolution, and was connected with the residence of the Duke of Orleans by a conservatory, which, on her removal to the latter, she had caused to be closed. At the request of the king, it was, how- ever, again rendered available as a means of ingress and egress between the two houses, and not a day passed in which the families did not spend many hours in each other's society. Madame de Montesson was one of the most remark- able and the most high-bred women of her time, and assembled in her salons all the distinguished indivi- duals in the capital — returned emigrants — royalist nobles who had remained in France, and had, like her- Eelf, escaped the revolutionary axe — men in power, who had risen on the ruins of the past — scientific, lite- rary, and artistic celebrities ; and women conspicuous for their wit or their personal attractions. Charlotte Jeanne Renaud de la Haye de Rion was the descendant of an ancient and illustrious family in Brittany, and was born in Paris in 1737. In 1753, when in the full blaze of her extraordinary beauty, she became the wife of the Marquis de Montesson, a nobleman of great wealth, who was lieutenant-general of the royal army. Early left a widow, she gained the affections of the Duke of Orleans, who obtained the 48 EPISODES OF FRENCH HISTORY. verbal permission of Louis XY. to marry her, on condi- tion that the marriage should not be publicly recognised unless she became the mother of a son. As this event did not take place, she continued to bear the name of her first husband ; but her amiability, her intellectual acquirements, and her perfectly unsullied reputation, rendered her an object of universal respect. She had no sooner ascertained that Louis XYI. was a prisoner in the Tuileries, than she solicited the honor of being admitted to his presence ; and the unfortunate monarch, deeply affected by a request which was almost an equivalent to signing her own death-warrant, caused her to be informed that he should receive her with pleasure as his cousin. She was accordingly announced in the royal apartment as the Dowager-Duchess of Orleans, and was invited to play at backgammon with the king. For this bold and self-immolating courtesy to fallen greatness she was imprisoned on a charge of treason to the Eepublic, and remained a captive until released by the death of Robespierre. This circumstance rendered Madame de Montesson peculiarly sacred in the eyes of the royalist nobility, who rallied round her with a respect and reverence, which the very fact of her simplicity and absence of pretension only tended to increase. Bonaparte was no sooner elevated to the Consulate, than he requested the presence of the Marquise at the Tuileries; and as she was announced he advanced to the door of the salon, welcomed her in the most flat- tering manner, and entreated her to inform him if he could in any way be of service to her. A BOURBON SOVEREIGN. 49 "General ;" ehe replied with quiet dignity; "Iliavo no right to claim any favor at your hands." "Pardon me, Madame;" was the rejoinder of her host ; " you have doubtless forgotten, altliough I have not done so, that I received my first crown from your hands. You came to Brienne with M. le Due d'Orleans to distribute the prizes ; and in placing upon my head the laurel-wreath which was destined to pre- cede a few otliers, you said graciously ; ' May it be an earnest of happiness !' Tliey tell me that I am a fatal- ist, Madame, and perhaps I am bo ; at all events, your prayer was heard, and I have never ceased to remem- ber that it was uttered. Suffer me to be useful to you if I can. Moreover, the refinement of high society is nearly lost among us, and I look to you to restore it. "We require to fall back upon the past in order that France may regain her traditional supremacy in all that once made her court a model for Europe. Be kind enough to afford to Madame Bonaparte some hints for her guidance ; and when any foreigners of rank amve in Paris, to entertain them, in order that they may per- ceive that we can still boast of the grace, wit, and amiability for which we have, during many centuries, been celebrated : while you must also permit me to restore to you the annual pension of a hundred and sixty thousand francs, which you received before the Revolution, as the widow of the Duke of Orleans." Such was the origin of the favor which Madame de Montesson enjoyed throughout the remainder of her life ; and by which she profited to serve her friends, but never to revenge herself upon her enemies. As she had been fortunate enough to retain some portion of 3 60 EPISODES OF FKENCH HISTORY. her fortune, the renewal of her pension enabled her to fulfil the wishes of Bonaparte in every respect ; for, with an income of upwards of two hundred thousand livres a-year, (a considerable amount at a period when money was so scarce) she found herself in a position to resume all the habits of her palmy and quasi-royal days. She received company every evening, but never paid visits. Constantly seated upon a sofa, with an ottoman under her feet, which was concealed by a satin coun- terpane ; an arrangement which precluded the necessity of her rising to receive her guests — an honor which she accorded only to Madame Bonaparte — or to conduct them to the door of the salon on their departure. When, however, she desired her visitors to imderstand that his or her future appearance in her circle was declined ; and she was seen to leave her seat as they retired, it was patent to all present that thenceforward her door would be closed against the individuals of whom she had so ceremoniously taken leave. Such was the neighbor of their Majesties of Etruria; and even the supine and sickly Louis was not proof against her fascinating manners, her simple but unpre- tending demeanor, and her amiability of disposition. Her wit, totally devoid of satire, did not alarm his self- love ; while himself a Bourbon, he took great delight in listening to all the family details which the accom- plished widow of the Duke of Orleans had hoarded in her heart of hearts ; and which she seldom found an opportunity of pouring into the ear of so sympathising a listener. The King of Etruria was naturally Yery indolent, believing the dolce far niente to be the best privilege A BOURBON SOVEREIGN". 51 of princes, a weakness which greatly annoyed the First Consul, who loathed every species of inertness in those about him ; and who, on one occasion, animadverted very severely on the supineness of the new Sovereign to his colleague Cambac^r^s. " The worthy man ;" he remarked with a contemptu- ous curl of the lip — and the scorn of Bonaparte was withering — "does not exhibit much anxiety about his dear and loyal subjects. He passes his time in gossip- ping with old women, to whom he affects to speak highly of me, while, in point of fact, he is mortified that he should owe a throne to the detested French Republic. He takes no interest in anything that I can discover, save riding, shooting, dancing, and going behind the scenes of a theatre. In short, he is a poor creature altogether." " Thus much is certain ;" replied Cambaceres, " that while he might have made a very respectable Duke of Parma, he will be a very sorry King of Etruria ; and it is asserted that it was with the intention of disgust- ing the French people with royalty that you seated this paltry puppet on a throne — much upon the same principle that the Spartans disgusted their children with excess, by exhibiting to them a drunken slave." "IS'ot so, not so, my dear colleague;" interposed Bonaparte ; " I have no wish to disgust them with royalty ; but the visit of His Majesty the King of Etruria — a grand name, eh ! mon cher^ to be borne by so slender an individual ? The visit of Don Louis will not fail to give a heart-burn to a great many of the good folks who are endeavoring to revive a taste for the Bourbons." 52 EPISODES OF FRENCH HISTORY. " But he must, meanwhile, weary yourself and Ma- dame Bonaparte, wretchedly." " Men in power do not expect to live on rose- leaves ;" replied the Fii*st Consul, shrugging his shoul- ders ; " and I confess that it amuses me to show him to the Parisians. We go to-night, as you know, to the Theatre Frangais, where he will, no doubt, fall asleep au heau milieu of the sublime tragedy of (Edipe, to the immense delectation of the sight-loving public. You will be there of course." Cambaceres answered in the affirmative ; and in the evening the king and the modern king-maker pro- ceeded in the same carriage to witness the tragedy of Corneille which had been selected for the occasion, not because it was one of his master-pieces, but be- cause it contained several passages which the astute director of the theatre was aware might be applied with great aptness to the First Consul. Kor was he mistaken in his calculations, for on the utterance of the line : " J^ai fait des souverains, et n^ai pas vouler Fetre,^^ the applause throughout the house was deafen- ing. Bonaparte smiled and bowed ; and so did Louis of Etruria, affording to the audience a scene of as broad farce as ever was interpolated into one of the marvellous dramas of Shakspere. A few days subsequently the First Consul sent to the Hotel Montesson, as presents to his royal protege, some magnificent carpets from the looms of Aubusson and la Savonnerie, accompanied by a vase of Sevres porcelain valued at three hundred thousand francs. As it was essential that the vase should be carefully mounted upon its pedestal, twelve men were instructed A BOURBON SOVEREIGN. 53 to place it in the principal ealobn ; and their task was no sooner completed than a chamberlain inquired of His Majesty what he should bestow on them for their trouble. " Bestow on them I" exclaimed Louis of Etruria ; "Notliing; the vase is a present from the First Consul." " True, Sire ;" replied the palace official ; " but in such cases it is customary to reward the messengers to whom the present is entrusted." " Then I purchase the tiling instead of accepting it ;" said the young sovereign ; " but if such is tlie custom in France I suppose I must conform to it. Moreover it is a duty to encourage art ; and I should be sorry to give the Parisians reason to doubt my liberality. Let them have a crown each." As a matter of course the offering was refused ; and His Majesty became the owner of the vase without disbursing his three louis. A series of splendid entertainments were offered to the royal couple before their departure for their new kingdom by Madame de Montesson, M. de Talleyrand, and other high personages, at which they evidently enjoyed themselves as thoroughly as though they had been mere simple individuals; but they were some- what less interested by the visits which they made to the public establishments of the capital. They yawned at the Academie de Musique y could not conceal their weariness at the Institut ; and were only diverted for an instant at the Hotel de la Monnaie^ while a medal was struck to commemorate their visit to Paris. " Bon .'" exclaimed Bonaparte, as they finally drove 54 EPISODES OP FRENCH HISTORY. off on their way to that Italy where they were so coldly and diBtrustfully welcomed ; "I do not think that my good Parisians will ask me for some time to come to indulge them with another Bourbon." CHAPTEK rV. A STRAY DOCUMENT. A SHORT time after Joseph Bonaparte became King of ^Naples — said Count a very singular circumstance occurred to a friend of mine, a young man of high family, who had recently been appointed Auditor of State ; while I considered the whole thing so interesting, that I requested, him to give me all the details in writ- ing ; and this he ultimately consented to do, although not nntil after the overthrow of Napoleon. My friend is now dead ; and in order to avoid all mistake or misconception, I shall send you a copy of the MS. itself. " Prince Cambaceres, Arch-Chancellor of the Empire — thus it ran — was a friend of my family, and honored me with his protection, which was so valuable and so unfailing that I shall never forget the extent of the obli- gation which I owe him. It was to this clever states- man that I was indebted for my appointment, and he doubled its value in my eyes by attaching me to the police-ministry in order that I might reside in Paris. A STRAY DOCUMENT. 55 " Every week I was entrusted with one or more files of papers by the minister of that department, which it was my duty to analyse, and to report upon ; nor do I hesi- tate to confess tliat I took a pleasure in weakening as much as I dared to do so, the acrimony of the accuser, and the malignant malice of certain reports sent in by the principal provincial magistrates. I pitilessly sup- pressed everything which I saw had been dictated by personal hatred, and revengeful feeling ; and it is almost incredible how many facts which needed only to have been simply stated, in order to enlighten the minis- ter on what he desired to know, were elaborated and distorted by the envious and hostile selfishness of those by whom they were furnished. " Rest assured that the files of the police-ministry are curious and useful studies, although it must be admitted that they do not tend to increase the philanthropy of the student. Thus, as I have already stated, at some risk to myself, without venturing totally to suppress information which was essential to the government, I softened the harshness of certain expressions, paralyzed the allegations of culpability, struck out malevolent insi- nuations which were not supported* by proofs ; and in doing this I had the sanction of my conscience that I was acting loyally towards the Emperor. " One day I received a much larger accumulation of papera than usual ; and for a considerable time, as I v/as sorting them in order to class each under its appropriate heading, I did not remark anything particularly inter- esting among them ; they contained, as was generally the case, a great deal of unmeaning gossip, an immense waste of words, no inconsiderable amount of self-lauda- 56 EPISODES OF FKENCH HISTORY. tion very flimsily disguised, and accusations based upon mere conjecture. " In turning over these pages, foul with falsehood and treachery, however, my eye suddenly fastened upon a letter much better written than the rest, wherein the name of Ferdinand YII. occurred more than once. This circumstance awakened my curiosity, and the attention with which I read it throughout made me acquainted with a tissue of horrors. " It w^as a plot proposed by a minister of religion, and written by his own hand, in which he placed that hand, armed w^th a dagger, at the disposal of Fouche for a stipulated sum ; and the victim was to have been Ferdinand YIL, who was then a prisoner at Yalengay. " In the whole course of my career I had never read a better digested document, or met with a plan more skilfully combined ; the assassin had foreseen every- thing ; and his batteries were so well directed that in the event of failure, or even had he been actually taken in the fact, he would have been the bearer of papers which must have thrown all the odium of the murder upon the Prince of Peace. " As I slowly proceeded in the perusal of this in- fernal machination, I was overcome by indignation, not unmixed with alarm ; and I began seriously to reflect upon the delicacy of my position. Several questions arose simultaneously in my mind. I asked myself if a document of this nature did not appertain exclusively to the reserved portfolio of the minister himself; and how so important a letter could have found its way into the mass of insignificant papers among which it had fallen into my hands. Could it A STRAY DOCUMENT. 67 have been by mistake ; or was it only to test my trust- wortliiness ? In the first case it would assnredly be re- claimed ; while in the second I should be expected to restore it ; and in either event I should be the victim of the most odious investigations; so that after mature deliberation, convinced that my whole future career, and even my personal liberty would be compromised by the mere fact of its having been avowedly in my possession, I determined to suppress it. I acknowledge that my hand trembled as I withdrew the murderous document from the file ; but the more I reflected, the more satisfied I felt that, in order to preserve myself, I had no other alternative. If it has been delivered to me by mistake, I mentally argued, no proof can be ad- duced that it ever reached me ; while if, on the con- trary, it was sent merely to try me, they will give me credit for my perspicacity in having avoided the snare ; and if the intention really was to efi'ect my ruin, when once the odious document is destroyed there will be nothing upon which to base an accusation. " These reflections strengthened my resolution ; while at the same time I determined to profit by the dis- covery which I had made of the fatal secret, and to warn the prince that his life was in danger. On the other hand, I felt that the letter must be at once destroyed, while I ought, nevertheless, carefully to pre- serve its contents ; for which purpose, I adopted the two following expedients. " Being gifted with so tenacious a memory that I have on several occasions been enabled to retain the most minute details of a discussion in the Council of State, I twice read over the wretch's letter to Fouche, and I 3* 58 EPISODES OF FEENCH HISTORY. then copied it from recollection without 'tlie error of a single word ; but as 1 could not retain the transcript with any more safety than I might have done the original document itself, I set to work to invent a cypher of my own. Having accomplished this, I took from the lower slielf of my library the five thick volumes of the encyclopedia, and on each page I made a dot over the letters corresponding with those of the document, being careful not to mark more than one or two on each page ; and I have ever since carefully pre- served the work without ever having felt the least mis- giving that my secret would be discovered. " When I had taken these precautions I folded both the letter and the copy in a cambric handkerchief, and burnt the whole together ; after which I collected the ashes, and poured over them about a quart of boiling water, which they scarcely colored, and then threw the contents of the basin out of the window. " Having done this, I thoroughly recovered my com- posure, for I will not attempt to deny that I had been nervously anxious throughout the whole operation. 1 trembled and shuddered at the slightest noise ; the accidental ringing of the bell in my ante-room posi- tively electrified me, and I apprehended nothing less than that the agents of Fouche had come to apprehend me. These are terrors, waking nightmares, which it is impossible to describe, and at which their victim is the first to laugh when the danger is gone by. "I nevertheless awaited with considerable anxiety the arrival of the day on which I was to give in my reports, and to restore the papers ; while I did not dare to anticipate it, as by so doing I might only be hasten- I A STRAY DOCUMENT. 59 ing the period of my own trial ; and when the eventful hour came at hist, I affected an ease and indifference which I decidedly was very far from feeling. Nothing, however, occurred to disturb my equanimity ; the Official authorised to receive the produce of my labor, greeted me as cordially as usual ; and having delivered up my trust, I returned home witliout let or hindrance. " Tins affair has always remained an enigma to me. How could the letter of the assassin have been mislaid when such jealous care was taken in the classification of papers during the Empire ? Tlie circumstance was perfectly incomprehensible. Was it by mere chance that it had found its way into the very portfolio which was destined for me ? I am still unable to answer. All I know is that had such a plot been placed before the eyes of the Emperor, he would have rejected it with indignation ; and what I moreover know is that, to my great satisfaction, I never once heard the subject mentioned. " My next undertaking was to attempt to warn the intended victim of the danger by which he was menaced ; and I must now tell you how I endeavored to combine what I regarded as the duty of an honest man and a Christian, with the prudence which my position imperatively required. " During the course of a man's life there are occa- sionally ideas by which he becomes morbidly absorbed ; and periods when he morally elevates himself into a hero, and resolves to overcome difficulties by the mere strength of his own will. My one idea for the time being was to save Ferdinand YII. ; and while specu- lating on the most probable means of intercourse with 60 EPISODES OF FKENCH HISTOEY. him, even througli the medium of a third person, and without the slightest probability of his ever being made aware whose hand it was which was outstretched to ward off the blow of the assassin, I felt the greatest exultation as I remembered that the latter was not my countryman. Of this the signature of the letter had at once convinced me, as the bravo had subscribed him- self Pedro Munios. Its date was July the 11th, 1808. " I was compelled to feel my way carefully through the dangerous labyrinth before me. It would have been worse than rash — it would have been utter mad- ness — to have hazarded any direct communication with the captive monarch ; and I consequently determined to reach him in some round-about manner, as I felt I should assuredly fail were I to be inconsiderate enough to draw upon myself the suspicions of the police who surrounded Yalen9ay. " While I was a prey to these perplexities, a light suddenly broke upon me, and I felt satisfied that I had found a guide. " I remembered that the department of the Belles- Lettres of the Institute, numbered among its members one of those uncommon men, in whom it was possible to place the most implicit confidence ; a man w^ho would have done honor to Home in her most palmy days ; and whose intellect would have acquired for him the right of citizenship at Athens in the time of Peri- cles and Alcibiades. This remarkable individual was Cailhava,^ who carried his modesty to a pitch which * Jean rran9Qis Cailhava, a dramatic author, born in the village of L'Extentrus, near Toulouse, in 1731, wrote a great number of comedies for the Frangais and the Theatre Italien, nearly tl^e whole of which wer§ A STRAY DOCUMENT. 61 was almost absurd ; never appearing conscious of his repeated and legitimate successes as a dramatic writer, and decidedly less aware than his readers that his Art de la CoinedU was a monument of good taste and ingenious criticism. " Cailhava was the very man for my purpose. I knew that he was perfectly familiar with the Spanish language, and that he was in ill odor with Napoleon ; and I therefore at once comprehended that he must have many acquaintances among the Spaniards then resident in Paris, and it was more than probable even with some members of tlie insurrectionary faction, and the faithful adherents of Ferdinand YII. "Another difficulty then presented itself. How should I get at Cailhava, with whom I was very slightly acquainted, and who, in all probability, did not know me at all ? We had occasionally met, it is true, in the saloons of tlie Countess Potaska and the Count d'Escherny, but we had never been made known to each other. Circumstances did not permit me to be hyperfastidious, however ; and I determined to request of the latter that he would procure for me a private interview with the Academician. " The Count d'Escherny was by birth a Swiss, and by principle a great partisan of Rousseau. Infinitely too well-bred to inquire the reason of what he must have considered as an extraordinary whim on my part, he simply and courteously acceded to my wish without imitated from the Italian. The moat popular among them was "The Tutor Duped, or the House with two Doors." Besides other works he left at his death, which occurred in Paris, in 1813, his ^' Art de la Comedi^'' and his personal memoirs in MS. 62 EPISODES OF FKENCH HISTORY. the slightest remark, promising to inform M. Cailhava of mj desire to make his acquaintance. A few days subsequently I received a note from the Count appoint- ing three o'clock for my visit, and telling me that I should find the person I wished to meet in his drawing- room. " Overjoyed at my prompt success I hastened to the interview, and was followed in a few minutes by M. Cailhava ; to w^hom, confident as I felt in his honor, I frankly related the cause which had induced me to intrude upon his kindness. " For an instant he made no reply, but appeared to be lost in thought; and during this short pause my anxiety w^as intense. Fortunately, however, it was not of long duration. " ' Sir,' he said gravely ; * I thank you for the good opinion which you have of me ; I am proud of being considered worthy of such trust. Yes, I can convey to the king the information by w^liich he may save his life ; but it must only be on one condition.' " ' Name it,' I exclaimed eagerly. " ' This it is then,' was his reply ; ^ that you will not ask me, nor attempt in any other way to ascertain, the name of the individual whom I shall entrust w^ith your message. I will not consent to expose either him or myself to danger. Towards my friend it w^ould be foul treachery ; while, in my own case, I have a child w^ho would be cast helpless on the world, were I to incur the anger of the Emperor.' " I readily gave the pledge that he required ; and I then placed in his hands a copy of the letter which I had made that morning in a disguised hand, and with A STRAY DOCUMEXT. 63 both paper and ink which I had procured for the ex- press purpose. It was arranged between us that wo should not appear to recognise each other whenever wo might chance to meet ; and we finally separated, after he had promised to communicate to me the result of our attempt. " Months wore on after my interview with Cailhava, without my having received any intelligence on the subject, and I had long ceased altogether to speculate upon tlie alfair, when one morning my servant entered my room at an unusually early hour, and informed me that a young man, who was a stranger to him, desired to see me on business. I directed that he should be admitted ; and at the first glance I detected that he was a Spaniard, not so much by his black eyes and bronzed complexion, as by the guarded and mysterious expression of his physiognomy. It was quite unneces- sary for him to tell me that he wished to speak to me without witnesses ; and Baptiste had no sooner closed the door behind him than he advanced to the side of the bed, and said in a low voice : — " ^He greets you ; he thanks you ; through your means he can still pray for his enemies, and for your preserva- tion. If the Holy Virgin should ever permit him to return to Spain, he will remember what you have done for him.' " I readily understood, as you may imagine, the whole bearing of this mysterious announcement ; but I confess that I felt some surprise when my visitor hurried from the room without awaiting a reply. I neither saw nor heard of him afterwards ; nor did I, as you may believe, trouble myself further about the matter. The excellent 64 EPISODES OF FRENCH HISTORY. M. Cailliava died in 1813 ; and I am sorry to be com- pelled to say that when, in the following year, Ferdi- nand YII. once more took possession of his throne, he appeared to have entirely forgotten the somewhat quix- otic act of devotion which enabled him to do so ; and that, moreover, when one of his own nobles alluded to the subject, he coldly ordered him never again to men- tion the circumstance in his presence." Ingratitude is a royal fruit, which ripens too often under the shadow of a crown. CHAPTER Y. A CONSPIRACY. " In the year 1807," — said the Marquis , " as you wish me to furnish you with an authentic tradition of the Empire — I must tell you that I was passionately enamored of a very beautiful and very accomplished woman, about whose antecedents, however, I knew nothing. I had met her in some of the best houses in Paris, where she was courted and caressed ; and I was perfectly willing to believe that such would not have been the case had those by whom she had been intro- duced into such circles, not been thoroughly convinced of her perfect eligibility to move in them. Still one thing perplexed and annoyed me more than I can express ; and that was the overwhelming influence A CONSPIRACY. 65 "which she possessed with the police-ministers, who never refused any request wliich she made of them. When I became aware of this fact I was half-determined to break with her; but, led away by a passion with which reason and prudence were unable to cope, I made up my mind that it was simply the effect of accident, or the natural result of that fascination which had proved so powerful in my own case. "Be that as it may, however, it was through her means that I became acquainted with some curious facts relative to the conspiracy against the Prince of the Asturias. " I one day went to pay her a visit when I was per- fectly unexpected ; and I at once discovered that my presence was extremely irksome to her. Tliis convic- tion instantly inflamed my jealousy ; 1 believed that she had some other suitor ; and from entreaties I proceeded to reproaches. She bore my violence with composure, although she evidently considered it both discourteous and unjust ; and when I paused to take breath, she ex- tended her hand, and said gravely : — " * You are jealous. Marquis, and you have no cause to be so, though I frankly confess that you are here at a most unfortunate moment. It is on no love-meeting that you intrude, but a serious diplomatic intrigue. Fouche has requested me to lend him my boudoir for an hour, in order that he may have an interview with a foreigner without any fear of spies. That is the simple fact.' " I was by no means satisfied with this explanation, and I told her so. " ' Well ;' she said somewhat angrily ; * as you appear 6Q EPISODES OF FBENCH HISTORY. resolved to listen to your own suspicions, and have no care for my safety or reputation, I will run the risk of compelling you to blush at your own folly ; but we have not a moment to spare. The minister and his companion will be here immediately; go into this closet where you can hear all that passes, and I will lock you in. Do not attempt to obtain a sight of the stranger ; as, should you do so, you will scarcely escape being seen yourself ; and then both you and I would, in all probability, end our days at Yincennes or Pierre-en- Cise ; a fate which to me would, I confess, be peculiarly unpleasant.' "Surprised by her firmness, and divided between curiosity and mistrust, I hesitated for a moment ; but curiosity conquered; or, rather, I may say, in justice to myself, the desire of becoming convinced that I had wronged the woman upon whom, at that period, my whole happiness depended. I accordingly, with a grimace or two, walked into the closet, which had a glazed door with curtains both within and without of tapestry-work; and, after Madame de C had turned the key upon me, I threw myself into an arm-chair, where I awaited in considerable agitation the event that was to follow. " My suspense did not last long ; I heard a carriage drive into the court-yard, rapid steps upon the stairs, and, finally, the voice of the Duke d'Otranto, inquir- ing if all the necessary precautions had been taken ; and if my fair friend would guarantee that neither in the house itself, nor its immediate neighborhood, any curious eyes were to be dreaded. "The coolness with which she answered in the A CONSPIRACY. 67 aflSrmativo rather shook my confidence in her veracity and good faith ; for the falsehood, premeditated as it was, did not appear to cost her the slightest com- punction. "* Where does this door lead to?' inquired Fouch6, alluding to that of the closet in which I was concealed. " ' It is the door of my garde-rohe^ in which are hang- ing half-a-dozen dresses that do no discredit to the Pari- sian modistes ;' was tlie reply ; * would you like to look at them r " A cold perspiration inundated my forehead at this proposition ; I could hear the police-minister walk for- ward a step or two, and I believed myself to be a lost man ; but it is probable that the perfect self-possession of his hostess satisfied him that there was nothing to bo feared ; for replying : ' No ; no ; there is no disputing your taste ; and my visitor must not find me discussing the merits of flounces and furbelows ' — he seated him- self, and began to express his thanks to the lady for her kindness in having acceded to his request ; assuring her that the interview which was about to take place under her auspices could not fail to produce very important results. " A second carriage drove up. " ' Here comes my man ;' said Fouche ; * be good enough to meet him and to conduct him here yourself.' " Madame de C was quite ignorant of the iden- tity of the personage to whom she was about to enact the usher, and had left it to my penetration to solve the mystery ; in which, however, as the use of my eyess was forbidden to me, I had little hope that I should succeed. 68 EPISODES OF FEENCH HISTORY. " He entered the room, and he had no sooner spoken than I became convinced that his voice was familiar to me ; nor was I mistaken, as I subsequently ascertained that the conspirator was Don Isquiero, the envoy of the Prince of Peace to Paris, and his most zealous parti- zan. I had met him at the houses of the Prince of Mas- serano and M. Mercy D'Argenteau, to whom he had brought letters of introduction ; and his shrill thin voice had made so disagreeable an impression on my ear that I recognised it at once. " The conversation soon became interesting. Fouche first inquired what proof Godoy could give of his abso- lute power in Spain ; and by what means he could oifer to the Emperor satisfactory pledges of a definitive rup- ture with the Prince of the Asturias. " Isquiero commenced by eluding this question, being evidently reluctant to return a positive answer ; but Fouche was not a man to be duped, and he at once abruptly repeated his inquiry ; upon which the cunning Spaniard, who found himself in the toils, began to say that his master (Don Godoy) had no more earnest wish than that of convincing the great Napoleon of his good faith, of which he was prepared to furnish the most imdeniable proofs. " ^ But,' he asked in his turn, ' is your sovereign equally sincere towards my master ? Is he concealing nothing from him which for their common interest he ought to reveal ? ' " ' The Emperor,' observed Fouche with equal ambi- guity, ' does not possess a single document which can be serviceable to him.' " ' Oh ! pardon me,' said the emissary of Godoy A CONSPIRACY. 69 jocosely ; * wo know, beyond all possibility of doubt, that the Infant has written to the Emperor, and that he has even proposed an alliance with him. If his Impe- rial Majesty will deliver up this docnment to my mas- tor, it will no sooner be in his posseesion than he will be powerful enough to arrest the Infant on a charge of high treason.' " ' Do you raally mean to say that he would venture to do so ? ' exclaimed Fouche in a tone of surprise. " ' I do, your Excellency ; and also that he could do much more.' "'AVliatmay tbatbe?' " * All that His Majesty tlie Emperor may require ot him.' "'A second Don Carlos!' muttered Fouche, in so low a voice that I scarcely heard the words ; and it is probable that Isquiero answered by a smile, for he assuredly made no verbal reply. "There was a temporary silence, during which I shuddered with apprehension and terror, for I under- stood my peril should I be surprised listening to such a conversation ; and on the other hand I felt the most painful sympathy for a young prince whom I believed to be innocent of all crime, and who I saw about to fall into a treacherous snare. " It was Fouche who resumed : * Well, monsieur,' he said calmly ; ^ if that letter can produce such a result, which certainly must raise an eternal barrier between your master and the Infant, it shall be delivered to you, for it is true that we possess it. M. de Beauharnais, the French Ambassador at Madrid, has transmitted to the Emperor an autograph letter of His K6yal High- 70 EPISODES OF FKENCH HISTORY. ness the Prince of the Asturias, in which he has requested His Imperial Majesty to select a wife for him in his august family ; and has also expressed great alarm lest his application should come to the knowledge of Don Godoy.' "That Isquiero w^as breathless with exultation at the words of Fouche was evident, for although he cer- tainly struggled to suppress them, three or four low sobs escaped him ; and when the Police-Minister had concluded his revelation, the wily Spaniard led the con- versation towards the project of a treaty, the aim of which was to send Charles lY. to America, on condi- tion that the Principality of the Algarves was to be ceeded to the Prince of Peace ; who would, when this cession had been accomplished, place himself entirely at the discretion of the Emperor. " These subjects and many others were successively discussed ; and it was placed beyond all doubt that day that the royal family of Spain was betrayed. But by whom ? That is a question that I cannot answer. Had Godoy authorised his agent to make these important promises? Was not Isquiero, who had sold himself body and soul to the interests of Napoleon, exceeding his instructions ? In one word, was the Prince of Peace innocent or guilty ? " Who shall say ? " Tliis much, at least, is certain — that the cabinet of Madrid received information of the letter written to Napoleon ; the original sketch having been found ^ among the papers of the Prince of the Asturias, who was arrested in consequence of this imprudence, and another of equal importance, in which he had argued in writing. A CONSPIRACY. 71 upon the measures which it would be expedient to adopt in case tliat his sovereign lord and father should die be- fore himself, as in the common course of nature might bo anticipated. "The two proxies at length separated, after having made a new appointment for a future day, and in another place ; while I was so exhausted by fatigue and alarm, that I did not even rise from my seat until Madame de C , after their departure, came to set me at liberty ; when, as some compensation for the mental suffering that I had undergone, I reproached her bitterly for having offered to allow Fouche to enter the closet, knowing as she must do that my life would not have been safe in the event of discovery. "* You take a wrong view of the case ;' she said with all the composure of a diplomatist; — *If the Police- Minister had detected you, I could never have been suspected, since I offered to open the closet; but I exaggerated my fears in order to make you more pru- dent. As to youi-self, as every one knows that you profess to love me, and could not have the slightest notion of this political intrigue, it would have been sup- posed that you were jealous, 'and had concealed your- self to watch me. Kemember, moreover, that when 1 offered the key of the closet to Fouche, the Spaniard had not yet made his appearance ; so that you would have been well laughed at, and there would have been an end of the matter.' " I did not agree with her at the time ; and I am still convinced that had Fouche discovered me in my hiding- place, even had he not considered it expedient to treat the affair seriously he would have nevertheless consi- 72 EPISODES OF FKENCH HISTORY. dered mj presence at that particular moment more than equivocal in its tendency ; and such a suspicion once engendered in the mind of the Duke d'Otranto was tantamount to condemnation. " I felt angry and irritated with Madame de C for having, as I declared, unnecessarily placed me in a position of such peril, when I should rather have accused my own wilful imprudence ; and was chafed and angered by the composure with which she talked of an affair that might have proved my destruction. " Was I safe ? Perhaps so ; but my nerves had been so severely shaken that I refused to leave the house before daybreak ; so much did I apprehend that there might still be some emissaries of the Police-Minister in its neighborhood. *' Ha ! you wish to know if I still remained the slave of my passion for Madame de C ? I will be frank with you. I did not. I had loved the woman, but a few hours had taught me to loathe the actress. What confidence could I place in a mistress who could hold head against Fouche ? Who could lie without a blush, and betray those who had trusted to her good faith without the hesitation of a second ? " If deeds of blood were not actually perpetrated in her house they were at least planned there ; and my ideas of a home had never included incidents of this nature. No, I did not marry her ; and I have reason to believe that the biography of the bold man who did so would be one of an exti'aordinary nature. So that, after all, you see I am under some obligation to Fouche. AN IMPERIAL DECREE. 78 CHAPTER VI. AN IMPERIAL DECREE. In the month of March, 1808, appeared the Imperial Decree which definitively re-constructed the Monarchy upon its original basis, and consolidated its strength by the indispensable institution of an hereditary nobility ; and nothing could perhaps have produced a more extra- ordinary effect upon the public mind than this proof that the result of the Revolution was simply the succes- sive resuscitation of all which that great national con- vulsion had overthrown. Already France had an Emperor instead of a King ; the Order of the Legion of Honor instead of those of the Holy Ghost and St. Louis; and finally, an aristocracy was to be created which would be improvised by a Decree ! Tliis military mode of constituting a peerage was a terrible blow to the denizens of the Faubourg Saint- Germain, whose antediluvian notions of nobility were associated with long descent, numerous quarterings, and family tradition ; and they at once decided that they could not acknowledge as equally valid, titles which had been gained by prowess in the field, and those which were bestowed upon mere civilians. To the first, as they declared, they could reconcile themselves, almost every distinguished house having earned its honors originally by the sword ; while they regarded 4 74 EPISODES OF FBENCH HISTORY. the others as mere plebeians, whom they asserted that " M. Bonaparte " might re-christen as he pleased with- out being able to ennoble their nature, or to render them fitting associates for the descendants of the Mont- morencies, the Rohans, and the Crequys. They could not, however, overcome their fear for the future when they reflected on the incontestable personal valor of the individuals likely to be selected by the Emperor among his generals, for they instantly under- stood that no sovereign would dispense with their sup- port, even should France cease to be an empire. The marshals who fought under the League did not resign their batons when Henry lY. ascended the throne as the recognised King of France ; and it was certain that the leaders of Napoleon's army would be equally indis- pensable to a Bourbon sovereign. The greatest anxiety pervaded all classes before the promulgation of the Imperial will ; and finally, on the 11th of March, the Arch-chancellor, President of the Senate, having convoked a General Assembly, delivered a speech, in which he declared that " the new order of things would raise no barrier between the citizens ; and would in no way interfere with the rights which rendered all Frenchmen equal before the law ; but that a brilliant career would always remain open to indivi- duals of virtue and useful talents." The Imperial Decree, which was dated three days earlier, stated that the Grand Dignitaries of the Empire would assume the titles of Prince and Serene High- ness ; that the dukes should receive an income of two hundred thousand francs (a clause which was never executed) ; and that the titles of Count, Baron, and \ AN IMPERIAL DECREE. 76 Knight, should be restored ; these were, however, de- graded from the commencement, as they conld be ob- tained easily by money. Consequently, fortune, and not merit, was to transmit the hereditary distinction ; and it was to be foreseen that the ranks of the new nobility would be inevitably invaded by the host of fortunate speculators, who had enriched themselves during the Revolution. The Decree formally classified the functions which would confer a right to each sepa- rate title ; announced the armorial bearings which were to be adopted ; and subsequently, the coronets which had ceased to have any signification, were replaced by caps. Tlie whole kingdom was convulsed on the reading of this Decree. Tlie Jacobins were indignant, and the Royalists were disgusted ; but there was no remedy for the evil to either party ; while those who were sin- cerely favorable to the new dynasty did not hesitate to declare their conviction that there were no other rational means of consolidating a throne which, however lofty it might seem, could not be considered as perfectly stable in its foundations. "Three years previously," said Count D , "just after the first Austrian campaign, and when peace was about to be concluded, I was in the habit of frequent- ing the Caf6 de Foy, where I made the acquaintance of an elderly man of remarkably handsome person, who stated himself to be a German. Tliis foreigner was evi- dently anxious to render himself agreeable to me, while he affected to be ignorant of the fact that I was a mem- ber of the Imperial household. His society was always welcome, for he had travelled nearly over the world. 76 EPISODES OF FRENCH HISTORY. and had visited every Court in Europe. He was a deep-thouglited and observant man, and spoke more enthusiastically of kings and queens, of the splendor of royalty, and the niggardly meanness of republics, than on any other subject. " One evening, when we had taken our ices at the same table, he suddenly exclaimed : ^ Are you aware, Monsieur, that the European sovereigns consider the Imperial Court very insignificant ? What is a sovereign who constitutes in himself his aristocracy and his house- hold ? Is it not an absurdity that there is not a noble, not a title to be met with there except his own ? What a painful contrast does it offer to the other Imperial and royal establishments of the Continent ! I should like to have an audience of the Emperor for half an hour to represent this fact to him, and to impress upon him its probable consequences ; or to meet with some one sufficiently in his confidence to acquaint him with the secret of the other European Courts.' " ^ And what is this secret? ' I asked without hesita- tion, convinced that he was perfectly cognisant of my official position, and that I could not consequently be guilty of any indiscretion in making the inquiry. " ' It is easily told,' was the ready reply ; ' and in point of fact scarcely deserves the name. This it is then : that so long as Kapoleon delays to re-establish titles of nobility, armorial bearings, and an equestrian order, so long his government will remain isolated in Europe. The greatness of the Emperor will be merely personal, and will have struck no roots into the soil ; in one word, the Emperor of the French will always be considered merely as the Chief of a Republic. He AN IMPERIAL DECREE. 77 must reflect upon this. His subjects themselves are anxious to see him definitively cast off everything which tends to recall the memory of the Republic ; and he will do well to remember that in aggrandising the Em- pire, he has annexed countries in which aristocratic forms and habits are always regretted.' " As he ceased speaking he rose and left me without giving me time to reply ; and I felt more than ever assured that he considered his mission to be accom- plished, from the fact that he never again appeared at the Cafe de Foy. My impression then was, and I still retain it, that he was the secret agent of some sovereign, instructed to convey to Napoleon, through the medium of a third person, the opinion of the foreign potentates at a period when a number of matrimonial projects with the Bonaparte family were rumored on all sides. "Some time subsequently, it might have been perhaps a fortnight afterwards, when I was on duty at la Mal- maison, where the rules of etiquette were less scrupu- lously observed than in Paris, the Emperor inquired of me if I had anything new to tell him. " ' Yery little, Sire ;' was my reply, * except, if yeur Majesty will allow me to say so, that I begin to think the crowned heads of Europe have appointed me their Ambassador.' " ' What am I to understand ? What do you mean V he demanded impatiently. " I related to him my adventure at the cafe, without omitting a single detail. " He listened with evident interest, and as I concluded he exclaimed : ' "Who was this man ? You should have followed him, and ascertained — what was he like ? 78 EPISODES OP FRENCH HISTORY. " I confess that on this occasion I did not punctually obey the orders of the Emperor, as I had a horror of finding myself compromised in any police afiair ; and I accordingly drcAV rather upon my imagination than my memory in the description which I gave of my mysterious acquaintance. " So ended the adventure ; and I had almost forgotten it until it was recalled to my mind by the Imperial Decree which ennobled so many of my countrymen, and by the words of Napoleon himself, who said to me with a smile : ' Well, I suppose that your friend of the Cafe de Foy will be satisfied now, and my brothers also.'" The Faubourg Saint-Germain resented the indignity which had been offered to their patrician prejudices, by overwhelming with the most superb disdain the newly-created nobles. The Duchess de Chevreuse desired her waiting- woman to inform her laundress that she should no longer entrust her with her linen, until she became a countess ; and the Count de Brissac addressed to his bootmaker a note, commencing with the- words : — " My dear Baron, do not fail to bring me my boots to-morrow." And when, on the following day, the astonished tradesman assured him that he had been the recipient of no such title, de Brissac exclaimed with elegant imper- tinence : — " Can that be possible ? You really astonish me I Console yourself, however, Maizenat, for rest assured that you will be included in the next baking." Some young men who were intimate at the Hotel de AN IMPERIAL DECREE. 79 Luynes, sent a number of magnificent bouquets to certain of the market-women, with letters of congratu- lation on the titles which had been bestowed upon their relatives; and these pasquinades greatly amused their authors ; while it must be admitted that many mem- bers of the improvised aristocracy rendered tliemselves sufficiently absurd to aflford a fair field for the ridicule of the royalists. There can be no doubt that of all the nations of Europe, France is the least adapted to Republican sim- plicity ; gaud and glitter are as indispensable to the happiness of a Frenchman as bread and Bordeaux wine ; and a high-sounding title is so agreeable to the palate even of a hourgeoia^ that when he is brought into contact with a noble, and addresses him as "Your Highness," or " Monseigneur," he does it with an em- phasis and an air of self-gratulation, which would lead a stander-by to believe that the fortunate individual considered himself to be ennobled by the mere privi- lege of uttering the magic words. The creation of the Imperial aristocracy necessarily w^ounded the vanity of many who considered that their merits had not been adequately acknowledged, and gave birth to a host of jealousies and sarcasms; but the restoration of heraldic distinctions was welcomed with the utmost enthusiasm even by those who had been the most active in their destruction ; the relatives of the new nobles were, above all, the first to exult, as, since the Revolution, although a species of personal nobility had been recognised, there had been no here- ditary right to the honors earned by the individual himself; and a father had consequently no means of 80 EPISODES OF FKENCH HISTORY. bequeathing to liis successor more than the memory of his own greatness. Now, however, that envied great- ness was no longer to be a simple family tradition ; after-centuries were to perpetuate the glories which had been gained by its founder; while, moreover, although the list of what the Germans denominate "newly-baked" dignitaries, was extensive enough to form a very respectable entourage to the Imperial throne, it still was not so profuse as to discredit the institution in its infancy ; nor can there be any doubt that it exercised a very salutary influence on the public mind ; for, as those upon whom the honors of aristo- cracy had been conferred, considered themselves bound to assume a dignity and propriety of bearing, about which they had previously been careless ; so, the fear of derogating from the respectability of their new " order," induced a certain moral severity by which all classes could not fail to benefit ; and which, at the same time, proved a most efficient aid to the measures of the government ; while the prospect of after-aggrandize- ment to all who were not included in the original patent excited a spirit of emulation to win their spurs by the same public services. On the other hand the commerce of the capital pro- fited largely by the institution ; and many trades which had ceased to exist since the overthrow of the Monarchy were resumed with increased activity. In one article alone, that of gold lace, which had totally disappeared, millions of yards were ordered for the decoration of Court suits and State liveries ; and throughout the whole Empire it is asserted that General d'Adoville alone, did not exceed his annual expendi- AN IMPERIAL DECREK. 81 tiire bj a single sous when he received his title of Count. In every other case luxury made rapid pro- gress ; and a love of splendor and display, which was undisguisedly encouraged by Napoleon, spread so widely and simultaneously, that the vanity of the com- paratively few conduced to the profit, and became the example of the many. So much for the serious side of the question ; and as we know that "there is but one step from the sublime to the ridiculous," we will now turn to the reverse of the medal. Everything in this world should be looked at on both sides ; and assuredly no one who was not for- tunate enough to be in the society of a duke, a count, or a baron of the Empire w^ithin the first eight-and-forty hours of his accession to the title, can form a correct idea of the elasticity of human vanity. The satisfied ambition and affected modesty struggling for master- dom, afforded a singular study for the physiological stu- dent, and was well calculated to make even the gravest smile ; but this was faint in comparison with the amuse- ment afforded by the extravagances of the duchesses, the countesses, and the baronesses. Several among the men took lessons from the celebrated actor Fleury in the art of gracefully wearing a court-dress ; but as for the women, they thoroughly emulated the frog in the fiible ; and more than one of them would have disowned Eve herself as their common mother because she never bore a title. The wife of Marshal Massena purchased a dozen dresses of old brocade (such as were in vogue at Court in the time of Madame de Pompadour), which were con- stantly to be seen spread out upon chairs in a passage 4* 82 EPISODES OF FRENCH HISTORY. leading to lier bed-room, as if to air ; and wlien she was asked what she was going to do with them — a question which was repeated more than once after the curiosity of the first visitor had been so characteristi- cally satisfied — she replied carelessly : — " Do with them ? Oh, nothing at all ; but they be- longed to my grandmother ; and I want to keep them as long as I can for her sake." One baroness, probably from a latent affection for that peculiar kitchen utensil, caused the arms of her husband to be emblazoned upon the rolling-pin with which her cook prepared his pastry ; and a countess, who when ennobled was engaged in an intrigue with the valet-de-charnbre of one of the Emperor's chamber- lains, not satisfied with giving him her portrait in court- costume, caused the heraldic bearings of M. le Comte to be inserted at the back of the locket on a ground of blue enamel. The said heraldic bearings were, moreover, of the most singular and heterogeneous description ; the mot- toes being in some instances a rebus, and in others an allusion to the origin of their owner's fortune; but these were among the most modest and unpretending claimants to chivalric honors ; for there were not want- ing several who appropriated to themselves the time- honored insignia of some of the most illustrious families of France. These, however, were not long suffered to glory in the profanation ; as Napoleon, morbidly sensi- tive to the ridicule as well as to the resentment of the true lords of the soil, ordered all such devices as had been in use under the Bourbons to be discontinued ; and commanded that new ones should, in all cases, be substituted. ▲K IMPERIAL DECREE. 88 Books on heraldry jjroduced fabulous prices, as the inventive genius of the arm-hunters was by no means so great as the strength of their muscles or the length of their purses ; and nothing could be more entertaining to those of the ancien reghiie than to hear pretty lips, not always conveying the most accurate or high-bred French, endeavoring to familiarise themselves with the crabbed terms contained in those works, and repeating them to the intense delight of the father behind his counter, and the mother in her wash-house ; and to the supreme astonishment of clerks and shopmen, once the playmates of the young and erudite ladies of high rank who still condescended to remember their existence. Of course they might just as well have listened to so much He- brew ; but as they naturally imagined that this must be the language used at Court, they could only slirug their shoulders, and whisper among themselves that they greatly preferred the intelligible idiom of the hanlieue. One worthy soap-dealer returned thanks to his daugh- ter for having embellished the pannels of her carriage with the golden arm which figured above his shop- door ; although he at the same ventured to express his regret, that from an ill-judged motive of economy, she should only have had it painted to look like iron ; declar- ing that had she told him what she was about to do, he would cheerfully have paid the difference himself. We need scarcely say that it was the military crest of his gallant son-in-law; a gloved hand grasping a Bword ! 84 EPISODES OF FBENCH HISTORY. CHAPTER YII. PETER THE FISHERMAN. " I PASSED the memorable year 1813 at Dresden, of wliicli city I am a native," said the intelligent and amiable man to whom we are indebted for the present narrative ; " and it was my unhappy fate to become an eye-witness of all the calamities with which the town was visited from the arrival of Marshal Davoust at the head of twelve thousand men, until the capitulation of Gouvion-Saint-Cyr. " I was at that period still a young man, but having lost my parents at a very early age, I had already tra- velled, and had practised as a surgeon for two years at St. Petersburg. " Neither the habits nor the climate of Russia being congenial to me, I then resolved to return home ; and in September, 1812, I found myself once more in the capital of Saxony, decidedly the most agreeable of all the German cities ; and, moreover, dear to me from early associations and memories. To the mere traveller, however, Dresden must be full of attraction, with its delicious climate, its picturesque environs, its majestic river, its superb bridge, resting so gracefully upon its six admirably -proportioned arches ; its palaces and gar- dens, its costly library, and its picture and sculpture galleries ; the only remarkable collection in Europe PETER THE FISHERMAN. 86 respected by Napoleon, which has obtained for Dres- den the well-merited title of the Florence of the North. " Even in the December of 1812, I foresaw that my native city would become the centre of the French military operations in the last struggle of Napoleon to preserve the sovereignty of the European Continent ; and the event too fully justified my melancholy fore- bodings. By the fortresses of Torgau, Wittemburg, and Magdeburg, he commanded the course of tke Elbe, and he could advance or recede on either bank at will. The Saxon capital being a populous city, and well supplied with all the necessaries of existence by the extreme fertility of the surrounding country, would aflford abundant means of subsistence to his troops, and of hospitals for his wounded ; while the fortified positions of Pirua, Lilicastein, Konigstein, and Stolpein, formed in the environs an extensive entrenched camp for his numerous troops, whence he could easily march detach- ments against Prague, Berlin, and Breslau. The result of the fearful battle fought near Bautzen, in the month of May, was the arrival at Dresden of twenty thousand wounded soldiei*s ; and as my profession was known, I was engaged by the French authorities to assist in attending them. Those who were only slightly hurt, or attacked by illness, the result of fatigue and exposure, were billeted on the inhabitants of the town, by which means it became one vast infirmary; and all were treated with as much kindness and liberality as the rapidly decreasing resources of their compulsatory hosts would permit ; but the regular hospitals were so over- crowded, and the difficulty of administering to the wants of all was so great, that it would be impossible to 86 EPISODES OF TRENCH HISTORY. describe the horrible spectacle which they presented during the siege. '' Conscious, however, that I exerted all my energies in their behalf; and that they wanted nothing which it was in my power to procure for them, or any relief from their sufferings that my professional knowledge could effect, it was really astonishing to witness the gratitude of men who were no sooner saved from im- mediate death, than they risked in a few months, and sometimes only in a few weeks afterwards, the life thus preserved, with the utmost apparent indifference. "Among others, an old non-commissioned officer, whom Marshal Lobau treated rather as a friend than as an inferior, having, after a month of acute suffering, regained his health under my care, saw fit to attribute his recovery entirely to what he called my wonderful skill, without doing justice either to nature, or to his own courage and fortitude. This gallant veteran always addressed me by the name of * Father ;' an appellation which so much diverted his comrades (who were aware that the word would have been far more applicable from my own lij^s when our respective ages were considered) that I was soon known by no other throughout the regiment ; and not one of the brave fellows ever thought of saying * Here is Doctor Wolmar,' or * Doctor Wolmar ordered it ;' but invariably ^ Here is Larive's Papa,' or * Papa ordered it.' If a patient died under my hands the Serjeant always declared that it was because he had thought proper to do so ; and, iu short, if any one took the trouble to listen to him he would almost have persuaded his auditor that I was Esculapius in person. PETER THE FISHERMAN. 87 " Since my return from St. Petersburg I had lived in private lodgings ; and the room in which I slept when I was not on duty at the hospital, commanded a noble view of the bridge and the vine-covered heights on the other side of the Elbe. It was one of those old houses with high and slanting roofs so common in Germany ; containing several garrets, of which the upper one was occupied by a poor old man, who gained his scanty subsistence by fishing in the river. He had a grand- daughter, a girl of about eighteen years of age, called Meta, whose look and manner were indicative of idiotcy, but who was employed by the proprietor of the house out of sheer compassion, in performing trifling services for his lodgers. This indigent pair had only resided a few months in Dresden, and no one knew anything positive about them ; but it was generally believed that they had seen better days, and that some sudden and unforeseen misfortune had unsettled the reason of the poor young girl, leaving her only just intelligence enough to fulfil the easy duties with which she was entrusted. " Meta was so pretty and so helpless that I became anxious to ascertain if it were beyond the power of the medical art to restore her to the full, or at least the par- tial, possession of her intellect, and I consequently watched her with untiring curiosity ; while the longer I did so, the more I became convinced that there was some mystery about her. I occasionally addressed her when she brought up my breakfast or my letters, and for some time her unmeaning answers, and the vacant smile which hovered upon her lips, convinced me, pre- disposed as I was by what I had been told, to believe 88 EPISODES OF FKENCH HISTORY. that she was indeed an idiot. She was always dressed in the coarse and ungainly gown of a Saxon peasant, but I nevertheless soon discovered that neither her features, her figure, nor her manners belonged to that class of society. Her height was rather above that of the generality of her sex, and so far as it was possible to judge, shrouded as it was beneath the cumbrous garments that she wore, it was slight and elegant. Her voice was clear and sweet ; and the expression of her face was soft and pleasant, when it was not de- stroyed by the unmeaning smile to which I have already made allusion. It was evident, from several idioms which occasionally escaped her, and which were decidedly those of another land, that Meta was not a native of Germany ; and, in short, an attentive observer could not fail to perceive that she had about her a self- respect and delicacy totally out of keeping with her present station in life. " Nothing of the kind was, however, to be detected in the rough and surly old man whom Meta called her grandfather. A wide and heavy coat of coarse cloth, the usual costume of his class, covered his tall and robust figure, while his face was almost entirely con- cealed by his long pendant locks of grey hair and his bushy beard, which time had blanched to the same hue. He was dumb, or so nearly so that the sounds which he emitted, when at rare intervals he was betrayed into excitement, resembled rather the deep growling of a wild beast than the voice of a human being ; and he was soon known throughout Dresden as Peter the Dumb Fisherman. As he occasionally brought the produce of his lines for sale to the difi'erent hospi- PETER THE FISHERMAN. 89 tale, the French soldiers with their usual gaiety, which had affixed upon me the sobriquet of Papa, conferred upon him the honors of canonization ; and whenever ho made his appearance they saluted him by the name of St. Peter. " This old man also became one of my patients, but I cannot include him among those whose gratitude I have already recorded. Scarcely did he even favor me by a bow of thanks when his cure was completed, and he was once more able to pursue his avocation ; but such was far from being the case with his grand- daughter, who appeared to feel that it was her duty to convince me that my kindness had not been unappre- ciated by herself; for from that moment she devoted herself with untiring zeal to supply my wants, and to obey my wishes. Gradually her smile became less vague ; and when I entered into conversation with her she either cast down her eyes, or riveted them upon me with intense thoughtfulness, while a deep blush overspread her face. " I was not the only person who noticed this change in her manner when she was occupied in my service ; and one day Sergeant Larive, who always came to pay his respects to me when he was not on duty, ventured to say somewhat jocosely: 'Why, Papa, will you never be weary of working miracles ? It seems to me that you can restore reason to young ladies as well as life to the soldiers.' "I now began to hope that I should, by judicious and well-timed questions, induce Meta to confide to me the circumstances which had reduced herself and her grandfather to their present unhappy condition ; but 90 EPISODES OF FRENCH HISTORY. vainly did my curiosity assume an accent of the most tender interest ; vainly did I ask her where she was born, and if she had other relatives who would take charge of her in the event of the old man's death ; in- stead of making any reply, she only burst into tears, covered her face with her hands, and hurried from the room. " Insensibly, the charms of this extraordinary and mysterious girl — who for all save myself was a mere senseless idiot, separated from her fellow-beings by a visitation which left her little more than the outward semblance of humanity — inspired me with a romantic feeling of interest, in which I found consolation in the midst of my painful and harassing duties, which were continued through the fearful summer, and still more fearful autumn of that eventful year. I shall not dwell upon the details of the memorable siege of Dresden; they are matters of history, and have emploj^ed more skilful pens than mine ; but shall con- fine myself to the narrative which I have undertaken to relate to you. " By the commencement of I^ovember the allies had invested the avenues of the city with a formidable force ; while the French army, still amounting to thirty thousand men, under Marshal Gouvion-Saint-Cyr, and Count Lobau, were shut up within the boundaries of the fortifications of the town ; which, since the be- siegers had cut off' all communication with the adjacent country, was tlireatened with frightful privations, having almost exhausted its provisions, its fire- wood, and its drugs. " On the night of the 3rd of November at about ten PETER THE FISHERMAN. 91 o'clock I left the cafi at which I had been spending the evening with a friend, in order to return to my lodgings ; when, on passing the palace of Count Bruhl, which was then occupied by the Commander-in-Chief, my attention was attracted by an unusual blaze of light in the reception-rooms, and the trampling of feet in the entrance-hall. As I lingered for a moment, wondering what could be the cause of so much confu- sion and excitement, I saw my friend the sergeant slowly approach me ; and the next moment he whis- pered in my ear : — " * What should you say. Papa, if I were to require your services again to-morrow V " ' What is going forward ?' I asked in my turn. " * The Marshal, the Count Lobau, and the other big epaulettes have just held a council of war; and every- thing gives me reason to believe that we are going to breathe a little fresh air to-night. I hope it may be so ; for I swear to you that your beautiful city begins to feel a little too close for an old trooper like me.^ " ' And you suppose, comrade ;' said I ; ' that the enemy will in all probability disturb your stroll ; and that, fated as you are to bring away a trace of every skirmish in which you happen to be engaged, there is perhaps a ball preserved for you in some Russian cartouche-box.' " ' I expect as much ;' was the cool reply ; * but are you not on the spot to supply me with a wooden leg or a wooden arm, whichever I may chance to want ? Be good enough, however, to recollect that I bespeak my old bed in your ward, from which neither a one-legged nor a one-armed man has yet been turned adrift to 92 EPISODES OF FKENCH HISTORY. finish up liis campaigns at the Invalides. But I must say good-night ; I was not put on guard here to gossip ; and yonder comes the Captain of the Day.' " So saying, and giving me at the same time a hearty shake of the hand, Larive turned away, and entered the guard-room. *' One of my brother-surgeons, whom I encountered a few minutes afterwards, informed me more positively that a sortie of twelve thousand men would probably take place at one in the morning. " When I reached home, a vague uneasiness mingled with the excitement produced by the intelligence which I had just received. It was like the foreshadowing of some personal misfortune ; and yet what had so obscure an individual as myself to apprehend ? True, I must share in the general danger of all those who inhabited a besieged city, should that city be compelled to sur- render ; but I could not discover that it was this con- viction which had cast such a sudden gloom over my mind ; I had long been so thoroughly inured to the sight of suffering, that I should have despised myself could I for one moment have shrunk from it in my own person. IS'o ; I was not thinking or fearing for myself. "What could it be then ? Was I to attribute it to the interest which I felt for the safety of the brave old sergeant, and the thought of the new perils to which he was about to be exposed ? Was it not rather that, when I entered my modest parlor, Meta was not there as usual, to give me my chamber candle, and to wish me good-night ? Where was she ? What false shame had prevented me from reclaiming her services ? I grew more and more agitated. Could it really be that PETER THE FISHERMAN. 93 I felt for Meta a more Berious passion than I had hitherto ventured to admit even to myself? " It seemed to me that, in order to shake off all these bewildering thoughts, nothing would suffice save the excitement of the forthcoming engagement ; and I con- sequently resolved to sally forth once more, and to take up my position at a prudent distance from the fortifica- tions, that I might lose the sense of my own anxieties in the weightier interests of the stupendous struggle which was about to take place. * And perhaps,' I murmured to myself, * when I again enter my chamber Meta may have returned.' " I had already put on my cloak and hat, when about midnight I heard a hollow rumbling noise awakening the dull echoes of the deserted streets. It was the pas- sage of several pieces of ordnance, with their ammuni- tion waggons, the wheels carefully wrapped with straw, slowly making their way to the bridge. I ran down stairs ; and, walking rapidly through some cross-streets, I reached, under cover of the darkness, the centre of the bridge, where an arch, which Davoust had blown up in the previous Spring, was replaced by a strong oak planking, flanked by lofty palisades. "Wrapping my cloak closely about me, I concealed myself in one of the angles of the parapet ; and there I awaited the arrival of the artillery, convinced that the surrounding gloom would render my hiding-place secure. " Suddenly I heard the shock of a heavy body against the palisades, and I distinguished the sound of voices under the bridge. The dense atmosphere of a stormy November night, and the whistling of a violent north- east wind, prevented me from discovering the cause of 94 EPISODES or FRENCH HISTORY. these strange noises; but when the artillery shortly afterwards passed by, and had gained the opposite bank, I looked and listened with redoubled attention towards the palisades. What was my surprise, I will even say my alarm, when I saw one of the oaken planks slowly rise from its place 1 At the same instant the violence of the wind dispersed the vapors ; and, the new moon shining down upon the bridge, I saw the tall figure of Peter the Fisherman emerge from the opening. " He was no sooner standing upright beside the trap from which he had risen, than some one held towards him a long pole, which he leant over the parapet, after having carefully replaced the plank ; and he then assumed the attitude of an angler throwing his line into the water. "At this moment I distinguished the heavy and measured tramp of a body of troops at the extremity of the bridge next the city, and I saw the pale rays of the moon reflected on the arms of the French vanguard. " Still shrouded closely in my dark cloak, in the deep shadow of the recess in which I had taken up my sta- tion, the first battalion defiled silently before me, and my heart beat anxiously ; while, as the leading rank reached the line of planks which had replaced the miss- ing arch, the old fisherman began to utter his inarti- culate and guttural jargon ; holding his pole in one hand, and his shapeless hat in the other, as if soliciting charity. " * Ah ! here is St. Peter trying to fish I ' exclaimed a grenadier. " * I think that to-night,' replied a comrade, ' he will find he is fishing in troubled waters.' PETER THE FISHERMAK. 96 " ' Poor fellow I ' said a third ; * we must not quite suffer him to lose his time. Here,' he continued, throw- ing a copper coin into the hat ; * here is a hook that every two-footed fish will nibble at.' "Others followed his example ; each rank as it passed had its jest and its offering for the deaf and dumb fish- erman ; who, as the small pieces of money fell into his well-worn beaver, uttered a hoarse growl of thanks, more in the voice of a wolf than that of a human being. " At length an officer mounted upon a remarkably fine charger, whom I instantly recognised as the Count Loban, passed so close to the old mendicant that I thought he was about to ride over him ; when he sud- denly drew in his rein, and turning towards one of his aides-de-camp, asked in a stern and angry voice: * Who is this man ? And what is he doing here?' " * General,' was the reply ; * he is an old rascal upon whom I have long had my eye. He is deaf and dumb ; and our men have often bestowed upon him money which they could ill afford to spare, and which he has received as though all the business of his life was to pay it back in hate. Shall I order him to be thrown over the bridge ?' " I began to tremble for Peter, who did not appear to have the slightest perception of what was going forward, when my friend the sergeant, advancing from the ranks, and presenting arms, addressed Marshal Lobau, saying firmly : — " ' I hope you will pardon me. General, and excuse my boldness ; but the man before you is only a poor dumb maniac, well-known in Dresden as Peter the Fisherman, and as harmless as I am.' 69 EPISODES OF FRENCH HISTORY. " '!N'oble fellow !' I murmured to myself. ' He is tliinking of me while lie is thus interceding for the grandfather of Meta.' " Count Lobau and his staff passed on, followed by the remainder of the battalion, who took no farther notice of old Peter. " The passage of about ten thousand men and two hundred guns necessarily occupied a considerable time ; but, finally, all alike disappeared in the distance, when my attention became solely occupied by the movements of the mysterious fishennan. Suddenly I saw him lean his rod over the parapet, and with a lever once more raise the plank which had been pre- viously lifted to enable him to gain the bridge ; then, kneeling over the aperture, the dumb man, to my intense surprise, called out in a smothered voice, but in excellent Kuss : — " ' Katinka ! Katinka ! Is all ready V " * Yes, yes, grandfather ; there is a fish upon every hook ;' replied the shriller accents of a female. " Rising hastily from his knees, the old man seized his long pole, which he placed in a perpendicular posi- tion ; and, instead of fish, I saw at the end of the pole three small lanterns which emitted a strong light. They were attached to lines of different lengths, but at equal distances from each other. Leaning on the lower extremity of the pole, the old man remained upright and motionless until he saw a brilliant rocket ascend into the sky from a height above the opposite bank of the Elbe, which was followed by a number of fireworks, succeeding each other on the^ mountains of Meissen, that filled the atmosphere with dazzling sheets and PETER THE FISHERMAN. 97 lines of light, which were reflected in the troubled current of the river. "Advancing a step or two at this unexpected specta- cle, I saw tlie old man waving his long pole above his head until the lanterns were extinguished by the frantic rapidity of his movements. As he had, perhaps uncon- sciously in the excitement of the moment, moved to a considerable distance from the species of trap by which he had ascended to the bridge, I was in the act of approach- ing the opening, when I saw a second figure appear- ing through the dark chasm ; it was that of a woman, from whose long and unhanded hair the water fell in heavy drops upon the planks ; and whose garments, saturated with wet, and clinging closely to her person, revealed a form of the most delicate and symmetrical proportions. *' I have already stated that the young clear moon shone out at intervals through the drifting vapors ; and now, by her opportune assistance, I at once recognised my beloved and mysterious Meta. " * In heaven's name, Meta ;" I exclaimed ; ' what are you doing here ? By what fatal chance — ' but before I could add another word, and without making any immediate reply, the poor girl laid her hand upon my lips, and dragged me with all the strength she could command several paces towards the city. " ' Be silent if you would save your life, Wolmar,' she gasped out when we had reached the centre of the last arch ; ^ the old man has nearly replaced the plank. Fly, my best and only friend, for should he obtain even a glimpse of you, he would not hesitate to murder you ;' and then, trembling even more from terror than 5 yo EPISODES OF FRENCH HISTORY. from cold, Meta threw herself into mj arms repeating : ' Fly, my friend ; fly !' " Had she been an utter stranger to me; had I not felt at that moment still more keenly than ever the wild passion with which she had inspired me, I could not have abandoned her in so deplorable a condition. Hastily unclasping my cloak, I folded it about her ; while the old man, eagerly watching the last rockets which the besieging army were still throwing up from the heights above Grossenhayn, cried out in a voice like thunder : — " ' There they are I There they are ! Eleven thousand of those incarnate demons — of those incendiary mur- derers ! Fall upon them — slaughter them, my brave compatriots, and give no quarter ! Revenge your- selves, revenge yourselves, revenge the flames of Holy Moscow — the barbarous massacre of my son ; of the sons of my son ; of my wife ; and of my two daughters. Strike ! strike ! in the name of God and St. Andrew.' " When he had yelled forth these fearful words with all the frenzy of a maniac, Peter the Fisherman, as he had so long been called, threw his lanterns into the river, and turned towards the city. His task was ended — ^liis deed of blood was done — and he had, un- fortunately, recovered sufficient composure to perceive Meta and myself as we still stood side by side, she endeavoring to regain a little strength and self-com- mand, and refusing to accept the support of my arm lest she should retard my flight ; and I urging upon her the necessity of forthwith returning to her home. In an instant, Avith a spring like that of a panther, he stood before us. PETER THE FISHERMAN. 99 " * Katiiika ;' ho demanded furiously ; * who is this man ? What has he seen ? What have you told him ? Wretch ! You have betrayed me, and we shall both be shot before sunset to-morrow — fortunately, however, there is yet time to make one life pay for two ;' he pur- sued, in a voice so hoarse and guttural that it instantly recalled the unearthly sounds to which he gave utter- ance during his assumed mutism ; while at the same instant he clutched his pole with both hands, and endeavored to fell me to the ground. " Fortunately my good angel was at my side ; for quick as lightning, Meta flung herself on the old man, and by a sudden shock turned aside the fearful weapon which, escaping from his grasp, fell to the ground. " At that moment a heavy cannonade was heard in the distance ; while the rattle of horses' hoofs, and the roll of artillery were audible at the other extremity of the bridge ; they were the first fugitives of the eleven thousand men of Count Lobau, who had been repulsed on the Drachenberg, having found the Russians pre- pared to receive them, and mastere of all the defiles. " Meta had fainted, worn out by fatigue and excite- ment ; and, without turning even a look on the old man, I took her in my arms, and hastened with all the speed I could command towards the city. " Avoiding all the sentinels by passing through the most obscure streets and lanes with which I was familiar, I at length reached the residence of an aged aunt, who, from my boyhood had never lost an oppor- tunity of showing me the greatest and most maternal kindness. Informed by a servant of this extraordinary intrusion at so strange an hour, she lost no time in 100 EPISODES OF FRENCH HISTORY. leaving her bed, which she at once resigned to the suffering girl; who, on regaining consciousness, was attacked bj a nervous fever, by which she was pros- trated during three days. " On my return to my lodgings the following morning, I explained that I had been on duty at the hospital ; when my landlord drew me on one side, and informed me of the disappearance of Meta. " ^ Ko one knows what has become of her ;' he said mysteriously ; ^ but as to her grandfather, there is plenty of news of him. He was a spy : could you ever have suspected such a thing ? It was he who warned the Russians ; and he was found on the bridge in such a state of agitation and bewilderment that he fancied he was discovered, and talked as you or I might have done, praising God and St. Andrew for the victoiy of his countrymen, instead of growling like a wild beast, as he has done for so many months. Depend upon it that he will not be kept long in suspense, but that his business will be settled in four-and-twenty hours.' " He was right. On the following day the pre- tended fisherman, having obstinately refused to answer the questions which were put to him, was shot ; and at the same time a placard was posted up, attributing the failure of the sortie of the previous night to treason, and promising a recompense to any one who should de- nounce the accomplices of the Russian spy. My uneasiness regarding Meta was intense; and it was only by slow degrees, and with extreme caution, that I could break to her the frightful truth ; to her who had so long been a victim to the fanaticism of the only PETER THE FISHERMAN. 101 relative left to lier on earth, and who now possessed neither friend nor protector save myself. "After ten days of irresolution and alarm; after having formed a thousand projects, each more imprac- ticable than the last, I resolved not to lay myself open to suspicions which might prove fatal to me, and more- over destroy the reputation of Meta. My first con- fidant was ray friend the sergeant, who on this occa- sion, despite his forebodings, had returned safe and sound to his old quartei-s. Larive looked grave for a moment ; and then stroking his moustache, he said con- fidently : — " ' Egad, Papa, I began by seeking for a cross-road to turn the position, but I know nothing about beating round the bush, and I think the best way after all is to march straight forward to the end. Don't let us put the matter off till to-morrow, but go together at once to the quarters of General Lobau ; and I'll tell you by the way, how I mean to open the action.' "I followed the sergeant and we were readily admitted. *' Count Lobau was alone in his cabinet, engaged in writing, and his back was to the door when we entered. At the sound of our approach he raised his head ; and, in a mirror which hung opposite to his seat, I caught a distinct view of his countenance. Never had I seen him look so stem ; and I began to wish that we had postponed our visit until a more fortunate moment. It was, however, too late to retreat ; so, pausing upon the threshold of the apartment, I suffered the sergeant to precede me. " ' Ah ! here you are then, my old comrade ;' said the 102 EPISODES OF FRENCH HISTORY. General kindly ; * I am glad to see you. What news do you bring me V " ' I^one, General ; I am only come to reclaim, with your leave, an ancient promise.' "* I understand ; but do not imagine for an instant that I had forgotten it, as you would perceive were you to see what I have just written. Trust me, Larive, you will find me a grateful debtor.' " * In that case, General ;' said Larive, moving aside, and pointing towards me ; ' let my companion be your creditor.' " I made a profound bow, which was returned by the count, who looked surprised, and as though quite at a loss to comprehend the meaning of the veteran. " ' Dr. Wolmar is well known to me,' he said cour- teously ; ^ not only by sight, but also by the reports which have been made to me of his skill and zeal in the performnace of his fatiguing and painful duties ; but, although in common with all the garrison of Dres- den, I owe him sincere thanks for the able services which he has rendered to our brave fellows in their hour of sufi*ering, I was unconscious that I had incurred any personal obligation towards him.' " I was about to utter an earnest disclaimer, when the sergeant, not giving me time to unclose my lips, exclaimed with a boldness which increased my embar- rassment : — " * I ask your pardon, General ; but if I dared I would inquire if you know what is under the fifth button of my greatcoat ? ' " ' Of course I do," replied the count ; ' I should be an ingrate were it otherwise. It is the scar of a musket PETER THE FISHERMAN. 103 ball intended for me in the last engagement but one, where we foiiglit side by side ; and there is now weav- ing for you a yard of red ribbon, of which you will soon have the right to attach a portion two or tliree inches above it.' " * Once more I ask your pardon, General,' resumed the persevering Larive, sturdily; *but if the ball you are good enough to remember had remained where that s Russian was impudent enough to lodge it, I should long since have been laid where I could not have turned aside another even from you. I only wish that I had had a chance of being a target in your place in that cursed sortie the other night; but such luck does not often fall to one man's share. Meanwhile, here is the gentleman who relieved me from the first, and saved my life. No'vy if, as you have sometimes said, I really saved youi-s at the time you mention, turn about is fair play ; so if you will pay the debt you owe me to the doctor, we shall be quits ; and as to the ribbon, if I am not knocked over before I am much older, I will earn that on some future occasion.' " The count laughed. ' I quite understand your feel- ing, my brave fellow,' he replied ; ' and your gratitude does you honor. What can I do for the doctor? I shall be well pleased to serve him for his own sake, as well as for yours ; and if what he is come to ask is prac- ticable, I pledge you my word that it shall be accorded.' " * Now, Papa,' said Larive, abruptly addressing me ; * you have heard what my General has said ; and, as he has said it, it will be done, for he never yet broke his word. Speak out. I have no more right to interfere.' " Considerably encouraged by the smile which still 104 EPISODES OF FKENCH HISTORY. lighted up the martial and somewhat stern countenance of the count, I ventured to inform him of what I had seen upon the bridge, and the danger to which I had been exposed by the violence of the detected spy. He listened earnestly, and the smile vanished. " ' Tell me, sir,' he said as I paused ; ' how it chanced that you did not warn me that there was some mystery connected with this wretched man, when you heard me make inquiries about him of my aide-de-camp ? ' " * Simply, General,' I replied, ' because I had never attached any idea of mystery to a poor wretch who 1 considered was heroically striving to support himself and his grandchild under one of the heaviest afflictions incident to humanity.' " ' But when you heard the voices under the bridge, and knew that the troops were on their march to the very spot ? ' " ' I was more astonished than alarmed. General ; I did not connect them for an instant with the move- ments of the army.' " ' But the signals, sir ? Surely you could have pre- vented them from being exhibited to the enemy ? You did not abstain from personal fear, of that I am con- vinced, for I have long ascertained that you- are no coward. How then, I once more ask, came you to stand by, and suffer this monstrous act of treason to be perpetrated ? ' " ^ General,' I said ; ' I was alone and unarmed ; enfeebled by fatigue and want of rest ; and, although these considerations would certainly not have deterred me had I for an instant imagined the use for which those signals were designed, still, you have seen the PETER THE FISHERMAN. 105 man to whom I should have been opposed ; and when you remember that he was desperate, and moreover in possession of tlie formidable weapon with which, as I liave had the honor of informing you, he subsequently threatened my life, you may rest assured that the result of the struggle would not long have been doubtful ; while it could only have involved me in a suspicion by which my memory would have been dishonored forever.' "*You are an able logician, sir;' said the count thoughtfully; *and your antecedents compel me to admit your reasons. But what of this young girl who was aiding and abetting the villainy of her grand- father V " * Meta, General ;' I replied steadily ; * was the mere victim of the old man's tyranny, and shrank before his very look with terror. She is still too young, too timid, and too gentle to hate any one — even the enemies of her countr}\' " The old smile again wandered over the hard fea- tures of the count. 'The picture you have drawn is a pleasant one ;' he said archly ; * and if I mistake not, the favor you have come to ask is to be permitted to continue your protection to this young, timid, and gentle victim?' " ' IN^ot precisely, General ; for such is my esteem for the poor friendless girl, that in coming myself to de- nounce her, I felt it due to my own sense of honor to share with her the consequences of my proceeding. Yesterday I made her my wife.' " ' Enough, M. "Wolmar ;' said the count ; ' your con- duct towards jour protegee has been admirable through- out. Never cease, sir, to obey the dictates of your 5-^ 106 EPISODES OF FRENCH HISTORY. honor as you have hitherto done. You have proved yourself a faithful friend to the French nation, and we owe you some requital. From the commencement of the siege you have shrunk neither from labor nor pri- vation ; and I feel convinced that, however romantic this affection of yours may appear to me, you would never willingly have become the husband of a spy who was seeking to destroy us. I will undertake the management of this business ; let your wife keep out of sight for a time, and she shall not be disturbed.' " I bowed my thanks ; I was too much overcome for speech. " ' And now a word with you, old comrade ;' pursued the General, turning towards the sergeant, who moved a pace forward and saluted without the movement of a muscle ; "I have done one act of justice, but that is no reason that another should remain undone. My dis- patches will be forwarded to Paris by the next courier ; and I trust that before many weeks are at an end, I shall have the satisfaction of seeing the cross for which I have applied, resting upon as brave a heart as ever beat within the breast of a French soldier.' " Larive expressed his acknowledgments, not volubly, but with a certain sense of dignity which sat well upon the gallant veteran ; and if he did terminate his assurances that he would live and die for his general with an oath that was more sonorous than courtly, it evidently did not excite the displeasure of the count, to whom such expletives from the lips of his favorite follower were probably by no means a novelty. " Having at last recovered my voice, I endeavored in my turn to convince the General how deeply I was PETER THE FISHERMAN. 107 impressed by his kindness ; and having received his renewed assumnces ihat I need be under no anxiety wliatever, either as regarded my wife or myself, I gratefully took my leave, followed by Larive, who, as I soon discovered, was a great deal more gratified by his promised decoration than he would sufi'er even his commander to imagine. " When we had reached the street I embraced the good sergeant fervently, declaring that I was the hap- piest being upon earth. " * And I then ?' he exclaimed, grasping my hand as tightly as though it had been in a vice ; ' and I then, Papa ? 1 could not let him see how proud I was of my cross ; for he might think, should I help him a second time, that I was looking out for another recompense ; but I am proud of it ; and I have a right to be so. No oftence to you, Papa, but every man can have a wife for asking, while every man cannot have a cross.' " ' True, my good friend ;' I replied, surprised by the deep emotion of the ordinarily phlegmatic veteran ; ' but you must forgive me if I remind you that you do not yet possess your well-earned decoration, while I am already in full possession of my wife ; so you must let me go home without further delay, that she may par- ticipate in my happiness.' '"Go — go;' exclaimed Larive, recovering his gaiety as suddenly as he had lost it ; * Let our comrades laugh as they like, the boys of the battalion will not long be the only ones who call you Papa.' " I sprang away and left him. " The General kept his word ; in a few days no one mentioned the accomplices of the Russian spy; and 108 EPISODES OF FRENCH HISTORY. when the city was evacuated I announced my mar- riage. " Before the French troops marched out I had the gratification of seeing the red ribbon on the uniform- coat of my friend, the sergeant ; while, as regards my- self, if it will at all interest you to know the result of my adventure, I can only assure you that for the last eighteen years I have had no desire unsatisfied ; and that the prophecy of Larive has been fulfilled to the letter." CHAPTEE yill. THE GENERAL AND THE EMPEKOE. Everybody knows that it was Barras who induced Josephine de Beauharnais to become the wife of Gene- ral Bonaparte ; and it is equally patent that she was only persuaded to do so by the stringent representations which he made to her of her comparative poverty, and the duty that she owed to her fatherless children. That wounded vanity tended in no slight degree to render her averse to receiving a husband at the hands of the man who had so recently professed himself her slave, there can be no doubt ; but in all afiairs of the heart Barras had constantly been eminently practical. He therefore attempted no display of sentiment when she reproached him with what she designated as his perfidy ; and, with the ready tears for which she was celebrated, recalled to his mind* the happy nioftths of THE GENERAL AND THE EMPEROR. 109 their residence at the Chateau de8 Eguillades where, basking beneath a southern sun, in the midst of a mag- nificent landscape, and overlooking the sun-flashing waves of the blue Mediterranean, they had forgotten all save each other. Tliose months were past and gone ; that dream was over; and if the fair widow loved to recall it, the awakening of the statesman had delivered him alto- gether from the thrall ; and thus it chanced that Barras, having given liis heart for the time being into the keeping of Madame Tallien, was anxious to dispose of the hand of Madame de Beauharnais on the first favor- able opportunity which might present itself; nor had he long to wait. Some months before the return of Josephine from the neighborhood of Marseilles, and her establishment in Paris, General Bonaparte — after the affair of OUioules where he was a simple lieutenant of artillery — had l^en promoted to the rank of captain (in which grade he served at the siege of Toulon), and subsequently invested with the command of the army in Holland ; but had received a counter-order from Barras, with the appoint- ment of Lieutenant-Commandant of the garrison of Paris ; his courage, military skill, and strategy before the walls of Toulon having deeply impressed the latter, who felt that the moment had arrived in which the firm and unscrupulous ambition of such a man as Bonaparte was essential to the success of his own projects. The manner in which the young adventurer served the interests of the Convention on the otli of October, 1795, sufliced to convince Barras that he had been right in his conclusions. The Corsican exile had no 110 EPISODES OF FRENCH HISTORY. " companctiious visitings of conscience " where lie saw a prospect of furthering his own fortunes ; and even as he had done at Ollioules so did he in the Rue St. Honore, where his deadly battery commanded the church of St. Eoch, the rallying point of the people ; and where 12,000 men fell before his cannon. Twelve thousand lives were sacrificed by the authority of a mere youth ; but the Convention was saved ; and Barras was thenceforward his avowed protector ; while the first-fruits of that protection were his appointment as General of Division. The Convention was saved ; and Paris no longer required the presence or services of General Bonaparte ; who had, moreover, during the struggle of the 5th of October, indulged in an independence of action, so undisguised, that it reduced his commanding officer to a mere cipher in the eyes of his own soldiers ; and, happy as Barras had felt at the successful issue of the day, he was nevertheless conscious that his own position throughout the whole affair had been the reverse of dignified. He consequently found no difficulty in con- vincing himself that Bonaparte might serve the Kepub- lic more efficiently elsewhere than within the walls of Paris ; and he had scarcely come to this conclusion, when he arrived at another equally luminous. The young Corsican was a soldier of fortune, who had walked the streets of Paris for months without an aim or a hope — indebted to a college friend both for the coat he wore, and the bread with which he broke his fast — Madame de Beauharnais had been enabled, through the good offices of Tallien, to recover a portion of her late husband's property ; and could he only THE GENERAL AND THE EMPEROR. Ill induce Bonaparte to marry her — but we will not follow him in his deductions ; let it suffice that after mature deliberation he spoke to his protege upon the subject, who evinced as little inclination as Josephine herself to the marriage which was proposed to him. lie had been presented to Madame de Beauharnais in the salon of Madame Tallien, where he was enabled to contrast her soft and indolent grace with the more striking, but less fascinating beauty of her magnilicent friend, and that of all the loveliest women under the Directory, the fame of whose personal perfections has been handed down to \is by the memoii*8 of the period ; many of whom, having shared the captivity and suffer- ings of Josephine, now enjoyed in her society the safety for which they had paid so high a price. The favor of Barras, coupled with the bold exploit of the Rue St. Honore, had caused the name of Bonaparte to be familiar, and his presence to be coveted, by all which at that time constituted the fashionable world of Paris ; nor was it long ere he became a constant guest in the modest drawing-room of Josephine ; where he found temporary repose for his eager spirit in listening to her low musical voice, and watching the furtive glances of her downcast eyes ; but that was all. ]^o thought of her as a wife had ever crossed his mind. He was wedded to his ambition ; and even while he admired, he remained heart-whole. There were, more- over, other circumstances which, to a proud and aspir- ing spirit like his, sufficed to keep his feelings within the boundaries of friendship and regard ; and he started like a war-horse at the sound of the trumpet when Bar- ras abruptly proposed that he should offer her his hand. 112 EPISODES OF FKENCH HISTORY. " I want no wife save this," he said, as he struck the hilt of his sword ; " and even were it otherwise " — " Listen to me," interposed his patron : " You are brave, but you are poor ; and this widow of the Mar- quis de Beauharnais, although far from possessing the fortune to which, under other circumstances, she must have succeeded, is yet in a position to advance your fortune, and to secure your career. You are a foreigner and an exile ; while she is highly connected, and has influential friends, who will not fail to exert all their energies to serve the man who may become her husband. You will do well to remember this." The young general remained silent. " Hear what I have further to say," pursued the com- mandant of Paris. " We are, as you know, preparing to send an army into Italy. Marry Madame de Beau- harnais, and I will secure to you the command of that army ; when it will be your own fault if you do not become one of the leading men of the Hepublic' A flush passed over the face of Bonaparte. " Decide," continued Barras, '' as you think proper. With the wife I have proposed to you, I pledge myself that you shall be General-in-Chief of the forces of France beyond the Alps ; decline the marriage, and I leave you to work out your own destiny." We all know the result 'of that conversation. The bribe was too tempting to be resisted ; while Josephine proved no less yielding. Assailed on all sides by assur- ances that not not only her own interests, but also those of her children, were involved in her compliance with the wishes of Barras, she finally consented to be- come the wife of Bonaparte, who, for a short time, THE GENERAL AND THE EMPEROR. 113 proved the most devoted of suitors, and the most uxo- rious of husbands. The marriage was no sooner decided on than the republican General, asserting his privilege as an ac- cepted lover, frequently accompanied his fair betrothed to the houses of their mutual friends ; or sauntered with her along the stately terraces of the Tuileries, and amid the leafy shades of the Bois de Boulogne ; while if the heart of Josephine remained for awhile untouched, her vanity was less passive ; and as she listened to the glowing prophecies of the ardent young soldier upon whose arm she leant, she began to indulge in the same visions, and to glory in the same hopes. On one occa- sion she requested him to accompany her to the resi- dence of M. Raguideau, an old lawyer in whom she had long been accustomed to confide, and to whom she was anxious to reveal the forthcoming change in her destiny. On their arrival, they were informed by the clerks in the outer office that M. Raguideau was in his private room ; and Josephine, withdrawing her hand from the arm of Bonaparte, begged him to await her there for a few minutes, while she had a private interview with her friend. As she disappeared, however, she neglected to close the door behind her, and from the chair upon which he seated himself, her intended husband was able to overhear, without losing a single word, the whole of their conversation. " M. Raguideau," commenced Madame de Beauhar- nais, " I have come to inform you of my approaching marriage." "Your marriage, Madame!" was the astonished reply ; " and with whom ? " 114 EPISODES OF FRENCH HISTORY. " A few days hence I shall be the wife of General Bonaparte." *' What I The widow of one soldier, yon are about to marry another. General Bonaparte, do you say? Ah, yes, I remember ; the commandant of the army of the Interior ; the young fellow who gave a lesson to General Cartaux at Toulon." " The same, M. Raguideau." " Pshaw, Madame ! A soldier of fortune, who has his way to make." " He will make it, my good friend." " When, and how ? But first, what is he worth at present ?" " Nothing, save his house in the rue Chantereine." " A shed — a — And so you are really going to marry this adventurer ?" "lam." " So much the worse for you, Madame." "And why?" " Why ? Because you had much better remain a widow than marry a paltry general, without either name or prospects. You must assuredly be mad I Will your Bonaparte ever be a Dnmouriez, or a Pichegru ? Will he ever be the equal of our great republican generals? I have a right to doubt it. Moreover, let me tell you that the profession of arms is worthless now ; and I would much rather know that you were about to marry an army-contractor than any military man in France." " Every one to his taste. Monsieur ;" said Josephine, stung by the contemptuous tone in which he had spoken : " you, it would appear, regard marriage merely as an affair of finance." THE GENERAL AND THE EMPEROR. 115 " And you, Madame ;" broke in the excited and angry old man ; " you 8co in it only a matter of senti- ment, and what you no doubt call love ; is not that what you were about to say ? Again I repeat, all the worse for you, Madame ; all the worse for you. I had given you more credit for goo