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 LIBRARY 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 SANTA BARBARA 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 ADMIRAL MORGAN POWELL 
 
 *M> 

 
 THE CONSULATE AND EMPIRE 
 OF FRANCE 
 
 VOL. I.
 
 A.i^j^j :
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE 
 OF FRANCE 
 
 ' UNDER NAPOLEON 
 
 By LOUIS ADOLPHE THIERS 
 
 TRANSLATED, WITH THE SANCTION AND APPROVAL 
 OF THE AUTHOR, BY 
 
 D. FORBES CAMPBELL and JOHN STEBBING 
 
 "Uattb CbirtB=sij Steel plates 
 
 IN TWELVE VOLUMES 
 VOL. I. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA 
 
 J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY 
 
 LONDON: CHATTO & WINDUS. 
 
 •893
 
 AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 A FTEK fifteen years of assiduous work I have completed my 
 -^*- History of the Consulate and the Empire, which I began 
 in i 840. Of these fifteen years, I have not suffered one to go 
 by (always excepting that which political events compelled 
 me to pass out of France) without consecrating the whole of 
 my time and energies to the difficult task I had undertaken. 
 I agree that the work might have been accomplished more 
 quickly, but such is my veneration for the mission of history, 
 that the fear of stating an inaccurate fact fills me with a feel- 
 ing akin to shame. When such a doubt assails me, I have no 
 peace until I have discovered proof of the fact which is the 
 subject of my doubts ; I seek it unremittingly, never resting 
 until I have found it or until I am convinced that proof is 
 non-existent. In which case, reduced to taking my position as 
 in a jury-box, I speak according to my innermost conviction, 
 but ever with the greatest fear of self-deception ; for I think 
 nothing to be more reprehensible, when one has voluntarily 
 undertaken the mission of informing others of the truth con- 
 cerning great events in history, than to disguise it through 
 feebleness, to misrepresent it through passion, or to suppose, 
 only, through indolence, and thus, whether knowingly or not, 
 to lie to one's own generation and those to come. 
 
 It is under the influence of such scruples that I have read, 
 re-read, and annotated with my own hand, the numberless 
 documents contained in the State Archives, the thirty thousand 
 letters which compose Napoleon's personal correspondence, the 
 letters, no less numerous, of his ministers, his generals, his 
 aides-de-camp, and even those of his police agents ; in fact, the 
 greater portion of the MS. Memoirs in the possession of private 
 families. 1 must say, under every Government (and 1 have seen 
 three successive ones since I first started my work) 1 have met 
 with the same facilities, the same generosity in providing me
 
 vi A UTHOB 'S PREFA CE. 
 
 with the documents I required ; and under the nephew 
 of Napoleon I was not refused access to the secrets of 
 Imperial policy, any more than under the Republic, or the 
 regime of Constitutional Royalty. It is thus that I consider 
 myself to have seized and reproduced, not that conventional 
 truth so often arrived at by contemporaneous generations, 
 and by them transmitted to future ones as authentic, but 
 that absolute truth of facts themselves, only to be found in 
 documents of State, and above all in the correspondence of 
 exalted personages. I have at times devoted a whole year 
 to the preparation of a volume which has taken me but 
 a couple of months to write; and thus have kept the public 
 waiting for a work to which they have been good enough to 
 attach a certain amount of importance. 
 
 I ought perhaps to observe that to the above scruple has 
 been added my taste for investigating to the very utmost what 
 were the agents which, in one of the most excited periods of the 
 history of humanity, acted so potently upon men, money, and 
 events. Secrets of administration, of finance, war, diplomacy 
 have attracted, detained, captivated me, and it has seemed to 
 me that this distinctly technical portion of history has de- 
 served at least as much attention from serious minds as did 
 the dramatic portion. To my mind, praise or blame awarded 
 to great operations is but vain declamation, if it do not rest 
 upon a dispassionate statement, clear and positive, of the 
 manner in which the said operations have been carried out. 
 To fall into ecstasies, for instance, about the passage of the 
 Alps, and, by way of exciting the enthusiasm of others, to 
 pile on words — mass the rocks, heap up the snow — is, in my 
 eyes, but puerile and even annoying to the reader. The one 
 legitimate, earnest manner in which to excite interest and 
 admiration alike is to observe an exact and complete state- 
 ment of things as they occurred. The distance to go in cross- 
 ing such and sucli mountains, the number of cannon and the 
 quantity of stores which had to be transported along unbeaten 
 roads, up prodigious heights, along terrific precipices where 
 animals were useless, and where man alone could preserve his 
 courage and will ; to relate all this simply, giving all neces- 
 sary particulars, weeding out unimportant details, — this to my 
 mind is the proper way to describe an undertaking such as the
 
 A UTHOR 'S PREFA CE. vii 
 
 passage of the Saint-Bernard, for instance. When, after some 
 such clear and precise statement of facts, an exclamation 
 perchance escapes the lips of the narrator, it goes straight 
 to the heart of the reader, because it has probably already 
 occurred to him, and is thus only an echo of his own admira- 
 tion. This explains the bulky proportions of this history, 
 and the length of time I have spent in writing it. It also 
 leads me to express upon history, and the method of writing 
 it, a few ideas inspired by long practice in the art, and by 
 a profound respect for its great dignity. 
 
 I know nothing in the sphere of the human mind more 
 exalted than is poetry of the first order ; but it will not be 
 denied that there are epochs more suited to its appreciation 
 than to its production. For instance, I do not think there 
 was ever a period in which Homer and Dante have been 
 so profoundly appreciated as in our own times, at once so 
 emotional and so erudite. And yet, although we have had 
 our distinguished poets and painters, our age has not gone 
 near to producing the naive and energetic poetry of thirteenth 
 century Florence or of primitive Greece. Societies have 
 their different ages as have individuals, and each age has its 
 own occupations. I have always considered history to be the 
 occupation, not exclusively, but more especially, adapted to our 
 period. We have not lost appreciation for great actions, at 
 any rate, — if we had, this nineteenth century would have given 
 it back to us, — and we have acquired the experience which 
 allows us to recognise and criticise them. Hence, from early 
 youth I have devoted myself with confidence to historical 
 research, convinced that by so doing I was taking up the 
 work especially adapted to my own times. I have devoted 
 thirty years of my life to the writing of history, and I can 
 affirm that, even when taking my part in the affairs of public 
 life, I, so to say, in no wise dissociated myself from my art. 
 When, in the presence of tottering thrones, in the midst of 
 assemblies thrilled by the voice of powerful statesmen, or 
 menaced by the multitude, I had a moment for reflection, 1 
 did not see before me such and such a passing individual 
 bearing the name of some contemporaneous person, but the 
 undying figures of all times and of all places, who in Athens, 
 Koine, or Florence had previously acted in like manner. 1
 
 viii AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 was at once less irritated and less troubled, because less sur- 
 prised, as I felt I was assisting, not at the scene of a day 
 which passes, but at the eternal scene appointed by God 
 when He placed man in society with passions noble or base, 
 low or generous ; man ever like himself, ever variable, ever 
 actuated by laws as profound as they are immutable. 
 
 My life then, I may say, has been one long study of history, 
 and, with the exception of those times of violent action which 
 stupefy, in which the rushing torrent of events carries one 
 away with it, making it impossible to see its magnitude, I have 
 almost always taken note of what has been passing around me, 
 and, comparing it with previous events, have found its points 
 of difference or resemblance. Such deliberate comparison is, I 
 think, the true preparation of the mind for the rendering of 
 that epic of history which is not to be condemned for want 
 of colour because it is positive and exact ; for your real man, 
 be he Alexander, Hannibal, Csesar, Charlemagne, or Napoleon, 
 is as replete with poetry, although of a different nature, as is 
 the man of fiction, whether he be an Achilles, an iEneas, a 
 Eoland, or a Eenaud. 
 
 The careful observation of men and events, or, as painters 
 call it, the observation of nature, does not suffice ; it needs a 
 certain gift in order to be able to write history well. What 
 is that gift ? Is it mind, imagination, critical power, the art 
 of composition, the talent of painting ? I reply, that it would 
 be highly desirable to be possessed of every one of these gifts, 
 and that every history in which only one of them is apparent, is 
 an appreciable work, greatly to be valued by future generations. 
 I say that there is not one only, but there are twenty different 
 methods of writing history ; it may be written in the style of 
 Thucydides, Xenophon, Polybius, Livy, Sallust, Csesar, Tacitus, 
 Comines, G-uicciardini, Macchiavelli, Saint-Simon, Frederick 
 the Great, or Napoleon, and be superlatively written, although 
 very differently. I would desire nothing better of Providence 
 than to have acquitted myself as the least eminent of these 
 historians, in order to feel certain that I had done well, and that 
 I should leave behind me a memento of my ephemeral exist- 
 ence. Each of them has his own salient characteristic : one 
 narrates with an eloquence that carries the reader along witli 
 it ; another is inconsequent, progressing by leaps and bounds,
 
 AUTHOR'S PREFACE. ix 
 
 but, in passing, sketches in a few strokes figures which are 
 never effaced from the memory ; while yet another, less eloquent 
 or less of a word-painter, but more calm and reticent, searches 
 with an eye which nothing escapes the depths of human events, 
 illuminating them with a brilliancy which endures for ever. 
 Whichever be their method, I repeat, it is good. And yet, 
 withal, is there not one essential quality, preferable to every 
 other, which should distinguish the historian, and constitute 
 his true superiority ? So I think ; and without circumlocution 
 I say that, in my opinion, this quality is intelligence. 
 
 I use the word here in its ordinary acceptation, and, apply- 
 ing it to subjects most diverse, will- endeavour to make my 
 meaning plain. One often observes in a child, a workman, or 
 a statesman, something which one does not at once qualify 
 by the name of wit, because it is devoid of brilliance, but 
 which one calls intelligence, because the person endowed with 
 it is able at once to grasp the meaning of what is said to him ; 
 sees, understands with half a word, if a child, what is being 
 taught him — if a workman, the work given him to execute — 
 if a statesman, events, their causes and consequences ; reads 
 character, the proclivities of the men he has to deal with, the 
 conduct to be expected from them, and is neither surprised 
 nor embarrassed by what may take place, although it may cause 
 him sorrow. This is what is understood by intelligence, and 
 for all practical purposes this simple quality, which makes no 
 show, is of greater utility in life than all the gifts of mind, 
 genius excepted, which, after all, is but intelligence with the 
 addition of brilliancy, power, breadth, and readiness. 
 
 It is this quality, applied to the great objects of history, 
 which is, to my mind, the essential quality of the narrator, 
 and which, if there, brings in its train all the others, provided 
 that to nature's gift be joined experience born of practical 
 knowledge. With that which I call intelligence a man sifts 
 the true from the false : he does not sutler himself to be 
 deceived by the vain traditions or the false reports of history, 
 he exercises his own critical judgment ; thoroughly grasping 
 the characters of the men and their times, lie exaggerates 
 nothing, neither magnifies nor diminishes aught, gives to each 
 his true characteristics, brushing aside the tinsel — most mere- 
 tricious of all the ornamentations of history. He paints in
 
 x A UTHOR 'S PBEFA CE. 
 
 true colours, enters into the secret springs of actions, himself 
 understanding, and enabling others to understand, how they 
 came about. Diplomacy, administration, war, the navy, these 
 varied subjects are all brought within scope of the compre- 
 hension of most people, because the writer has known how 
 to seize upon the aspect most intelligible to the ordinary 
 mind ; and having thus possessed himself of command of all 
 the numerous elements which compose a vast recital, the order 
 in which they should be presented comes of itself in the chain 
 of events ; for he who has known how to seize the mysterious 
 link which connects them, and the manner in which one has 
 been engendered by the other, has discovered the best, because 
 the most natural, order of narration ; and, moreover, if he be 
 not made of ice, in recording those grand scenes in the life of 
 nations, he warms to his subject, making event succeed event 
 with fire and fluency. He leaves to the stream of time its 
 flow, its force, nay, its grace, never forcing its action, nor 
 changing any of its outlines ; and, last and supreme attri- 
 bute, he is just, because there is nothing which calms, which 
 allays the passions, like a profound knowledge of mankind. 
 I will not say that it divests a man of all severity, for that 
 would be a misfortune ; but when one knows humanity and 
 its weaknesses, when one knows what leads and dominates it, 
 without hating evil or loving good the less, one is more in- 
 dulgent to the man who has succumbed to the thousand tempta- 
 tions to which humanity is exposed ; one reverences none the 
 less ardently the man who, amid every debasing allurement, 
 has kept his heart up to the level of the good, the great, and 
 the beautiful. Intelligence then, to my mind, is that happy 
 faculty which teaches the historian to separate the true from 
 the false, to paint men justly, to elucidate the secrets of 
 politics and of war, to narrate events in harmonious order, 
 to be equitable — in a word, to be a truthful narrator. 
 
 Dare I say it ? Almost without art, the far-seeing mind I 
 am imagining has but to allow itself to yield to that need of 
 utterance which sometimes possesses us, leading us to relate to 
 others events which have affected us, and he may produce 
 a chef-d'mivre, Among the many examples I could cite, I 
 will ask permission to select two, those of Guicciardini and 
 of Frederick the Great.
 
 A UTHOR *S PREFA OH. xi 
 
 Guicciardini had never intended to take to literary work, and 
 had served no apprenticeship to the art. His whole life had 
 been spent in diplomacy and administration, and on one or 
 two occasions he had served in the army. But he had one 
 of the most discerning minds the world has ever seen, above 
 all in political affairs. His temperament was somewhat sad, 
 both naturally and from satiety of pleasure. Not knowing how 
 to occupy his leisure upon his retirement from public life, 
 he set himself to writing the annals of his times, a portion 
 of which had passed before his own eyes, and he did it with 
 a fulness of narration, a vigour of description, and a depth of 
 judgment, which cause his history to rank among the finest 
 monuments of the human intellect. His style is long-winded, 
 confused, sometimes heavy, yet it is the gait of an active man, 
 even thcrugh he be encumbered with awkward limbs. He 
 has a thorough insight into human nature, and his sketches 
 of the men of his time are undying, because true, simple, 
 and vigorous. To these merits he unites the disappointed, 
 morose tone of a man wearied with the innumerable mistakes 
 and miseries he has witnessed — too morose to my idea, for 
 history should remain calm and serene, not distressful ; por- 
 traying therein, as with the sombre severity of Tacitus, the 
 sadness of the upright man. 
 
 Frederick the Great, who was never sad, was a passionate 
 admirer of letters, and his love of letters is assuredly one of 
 the noblest traits of his character, sustaining him, as it did, 
 more than once in desperate situations, when his fortunes 
 seemed on the very point of being wrecked. On the night of 
 a lost battle lie would console himself by writing bad verses : 
 not bad as to idea, for at every instant one meets deep thought, 
 ingenious or striking, but bad in form, needing revision as to 
 harmony and grace. Thought without art goes for nothing 
 in poetry. Xor was form all that was needed by Frederick 
 the Great for the composition of books; having hitherto 
 merely made literature a recreation, not an art, he had never 
 extended his labours beyond a short poem, a pamphlet, or 
 an address : thus the art of book-making was as unknown to 
 him as was that of writing correctly. And yet this man. 
 in the history he has bequeathed to us of his family and 
 his reign, bringing to light the subtle webs of his diplomacy,
 
 xii A UTHOR 'S PREFA CE. 
 
 the profound combinations of his military genius ; retracing, 
 as he does, the vicissitudes of a career of close upon fifty 
 years, the unspeakable variations of politics in an age when 
 women governed states, while philosophers governed minds ; 
 in fine, the perpetual alternations of a war in which, as often 
 vanquished as victorious, but ever covered with glory, he saw 
 himself at every instant on the verge of succumbing to the 
 hatred of three women and under the weight of three great 
 states, — this remarkable man has given, in bad French and 
 in a style of his own, a picture simple, animated, and almost 
 wholly true of this curious epoch, great through him alone and 
 a few French writers. This bad writer writes well enough, 
 composes unscientifically but with order and interest, sketches 
 character with masterly hand, and would be an important 
 judge, had he the equity and dignity of one who judges. 
 But, uniting to the licence of the times his own unbridled 
 spirit ; despising those kings whom he had humiliated, their 
 generals whom he had vanquished, their ministers whom 
 he had deceived ; caring only for the society of men of 
 letters, whose vanity, however, often afforded him a subject 
 of laughter ; liking to make himself and others appear worse 
 than they really were ; intemperate, cynical ; — he has given 
 to history a slanderous tone, while at the same time he has 
 immortalised his own work by stamping it with the mark of 
 the most profound intelligence and the rarest good sense the 
 world has ever seen. 
 
 I do not speak of Caesar, because he was one of the finest 
 writers of his age ; nor of Napoleon, who became one ; but 
 the two examples I have given will suffice to explain my mean- 
 ing, and to prove that whoever possesses a clear insight into 
 men and things, has the true genius of history. But, it will 
 be objected, is art nothing and intelligence everything ? Any 
 one who is simply possessed of this power of comprehension, 
 can he compose, paint, relate, according to the conditions of 
 the true historian ? I should be ready to reply yes, were it not 
 necessary to put some reservation on this unqualified assertion. 
 Comprehension is almost, but not quite, everything. To it 
 must be superadded a certain knowledge of composition, of 
 painting, of arranging the colours, diffusing the light ; a certain 
 talent for writing, too, is necessary, for language must be the
 
 A UTHOR 'S PREFACE. xiii 
 
 medium, whether it be Greek, Latin, Italian, or French, in 
 .which the world's vicissitudes are to be recounted. And I 
 admit that to intelligence must be added experience and 
 calculation, that is to say, art. 
 
 Thus, man being a finite being, it becomes almost necessary 
 that his mind should be made infinite. The events you have 
 to set before him may be passing in a thousand and one places ; 
 not only in France, if the scene of your history be France, but 
 in Germany, Russia, Spain, America, India ; and yet you who 
 relate, and he who reads, can only be in one place at a time. 
 Frederick the Great was fighting in Bohemia, while at the 
 same time fighting was going on in Thuringia, Westphalia, and 
 Poland. Upon the field of battle, where he directs the whole 
 plan of action, he is fighting in the left wing, but fighting is 
 also going on in the right wing, in the centre, everywhere. 
 Even when one has clearly grasped the general chain which 
 unites events, it needs a certain art to take the reader from 
 place to place, and to knit up the thread of secondary facts 
 which have had to be neglected for those of greater importance. 
 The writer must hie to the right, to the left, to the rear, with- 
 out losing sight of the main scene, without letting the action 
 languish, at the same time without omitting anything, for 
 every omission constitutes a fault, not alone against material 
 exactitude, but against moral veracity, because it rarely 
 happens that a neglected fact, be it great or small, is not 
 wanted to complete the whole context whether as to cause or 
 effect. And withal the reader, that finite being who hears all 
 and ever aspires to the infinite, who is so eager to know all, 
 yet is so destitute of patience to learn, — the reader must be 
 taken into consideration. I must know everything, he must 
 be spared all effort of attention : such is the writer — such 
 the reader — such the world in general '. 
 
 Thus a certain dramatic art becomes necessary, demanding 
 experience, thought, science, and a sense of proportion. Nor 
 is that all. The historian must be a word-painter ; he must 
 understand the art of description ; he must be able to seize 
 in an individual the salient characteristic which distinguishes 
 him, in an event the most picturesque circumstances connected 
 with it ; he must know how to lay on colour with proportion, 
 with fitting gradation, and not be too lavish with it, so as to
 
 xi v A UTHOR 'S PREFA CE. 
 
 have none to spare for the parts which require to be more 
 highly coloured. Filially, as the implement with which all this 
 is accomplished is language, the historian should know how to 
 express himself with that elegance and gravity of diction which 
 befits great as well as small things, enabling the one to be told 
 with loftiness, the others with ease, precision, and lucidity. 
 This is all art, I admit, and art of a very high order. It is 
 therefore necessary to add to the perfect understanding of facts 
 a certain habit of handling and disposing them, of describing 
 them in their slightest details in an order which is learned 
 yet easy, noble yet simple ; to penetrate everywhere, to be at 
 home in the sanguinary battlefield as much as in the cabinets 
 of diplomacy or in the boudoir, where State secrets may often 
 be discovered, as much as in the dirty streets where wild and 
 foolish demagogues are raging. 
 
 But while admitting that art should go hand-in-hand with 
 intelligence to form the perfect historian, I should like to say 
 why intelligence, as I have defined it, succeeds better than any 
 other faculty, in this complicated art. Of all the productions 
 of the mind of man, the purest, most chaste, and severe, at 
 once the most sublime and the most humble, is history. This 
 proud Muse, far-seeing and modest, needs, above all things, to 
 be clothed in unaffected raiment. Art is indispensable, but if 
 art be too lavishly employed, if it be detected, all truth and 
 dignity disappear, for this noble and simple being has essayed 
 to deceive, and from this time forth all confidence in her is 
 lost. Exaggerate the terror in a tragic scene, or the laughter 
 in a comic one ; in an epic, ode, or idyl magnify or embellish 
 the characters; make your heroes always intrepid, your shep- 
 herdesses always pretty, — in a word, use deception, however 
 slight, in these arts, which are all called the art of fiction, — and 
 no one can feign illusion any longer, for every one has been 
 placed on his guard. I would here counsel authors of fiction 
 to remain truthful, though they are exempt from being exact. 
 But in history, to lie from the foundation, in form and colour, 
 is intolerable ! History does not say, I am fiction ; it says, I 
 am the truth. Imagine any wise serious-minded father, loved 
 and honoured by his children, who, desiring to instruct them, 
 should call them together, and say, — I am going to relate to 
 you what T, and my father and my grandfather before me, have
 
 A UTHOR 'tf PREFA CE. x v 
 
 done towards building up the fortunes and dignity of our 
 house. I shall tell you their good actions, their faults, their 
 errors, everything, in fact, to enlighten and instruct you and 
 put you in the path of well-being and of honour. The chil- 
 dren are all assembled ; they listen in religious silence. Now, 
 can you understand such a father embellishing his statements, 
 consciously altering them, and thus giving to the children who 
 are so dear to him a false idea of the business, the pleasures, 
 and the sorrows of life ? 
 
 History is this father instructing his children. After such 
 a definition, can you understand its being made pretentious, 
 exaggerated, coloured, or declamatory ? I submit to every- 
 thing in the way of art ; but when it comes to history the 
 slightest pretentiousness revolts me. In composition, drama, 
 portraits, style, history should be truthful, simple, unvarnished. 
 Which is best adapted, among the various types of intellect, 
 to preserve to it these essential qualities ? Evidently the 
 profoundly intelligent mind, which sees tilings as they are, 
 sees them impartially, and writes them down as it sees them. 
 A perfect understanding of things brings out their natural 
 beauties, causing them to be so balanced that to add or to 
 take away from them would be alike repugnant, the sole aim 
 being to attain the perfection of art by reproducing them as 
 they are. Perhaps I may be permitted to make a comparison 
 in order to bring out my meaning more clearly. 
 
 Raphael painted fancy pictures, principally of the Holy 
 Family, and portraits. The greatest critics differ as to 
 whether the Holy Families or the portraits are the better, 
 without being able to arrive at any decision. I will not say 
 that in time the critics come to prefer the portraits, for he 
 would be very bold who would venture to judge between these 
 divine works : but in the course of time they certainly come 
 to acknowledge no inferiority between them, and the most 
 celebrated Madonna of Eaphael is not prized above his 
 simplest portrait ; the poetry of the one does not efface the 
 noble realism of the other. But how did even Raphael 
 succeed in producing that remarkable portrait of Leo X., one 
 of the most perfect works ever executed by the hand of man ? 7 
 When painting a Holy Virgin, this great genius sought in the 
 1 In the l'itti Palace of Florence.
 
 x vi A UTHOR 'S PBEFA OR 
 
 treasures of his imagination the most chaste lineaments he 
 knew, purifying them still more, and adding to them the grace 
 which was innate in his soul, and thus evolved one of those 
 exquisite heads which once seen is never forgotten. But 
 when painting a portrait, he renounced all combining, purify- 
 ing, inventive processes. In the countenance of the old prince 
 of the Church, with red and swollen nose, sensual lineaments, 
 small but piercing eyes, he saw nothing ugly or repulsive. 
 Seeking nature, he could admire it in its reality, was careful 
 to alter nothing, to put into it nothing of his own but perfect 
 correctness of drawing, truth of colour, skilful adjustment of 
 light — qualities he had observed in nature ; for even in ugli- 
 ness she is ever correct in drawing, beautiful in colouring, 
 striking in -effects of light. 
 
 History is portraiture, as the Madonnas of Raphael are 
 poetry. As one examines a portrait of Raphael, struck with 
 the nature in it and the beauty of its perfect reality, so does 
 one become a great historian by strictly confining oneself to 
 facts, observing, contemplating them as the painter contem- 
 plates nature, admiring it even in an ugly countenance, seeking 
 his effects alone in the perfect truth of his reproduction. 
 
 History lias its picturesque side just as painting has, 
 and the picturesque is in man, and in events accurately and 
 profoundly observed. For instance, open a history of France, 
 take Henri IV., Louis XIIL, Louis XIV., Louis XY. ; take 
 their ministers, their mistresses, their confessors, Richelieu, 
 Mazarin, Louvois, Colbert, Choiseul, Mesdames de Montespan, 
 de Maintenon, de Pompadour, Letellier, Fleury, Dubois ; from 
 these powerful, graceful, feeble, or uncomely personages turn 
 to the heroes — the fiery Conde, the wise Turenne, lighthearted 
 Yillars, as posterity designates them ; from these subordinate 
 heroes pass on to the ruling ones, Frederick the Great and 
 Napoleon : contemplate these figures as portraits, suspended 
 in the Louvre of history, see them as they are, with their 
 grandeur and their misery, their charm and their repulsiveness ! 
 Do you not feel the same kind of thrill, when you behold these 
 figures such as God has created them, as you do when you 
 come across a portrait of Raphael, of Titian, or of Velasquez ? 
 Do you not feel how under their true characteristics, sometimes 
 sublime, sometimes eccentric, sometimes coarse, there lies the
 
 A UTHOR 'S PRE FA CE. xvii 
 
 picturesque beauty of nature ? Is there not in Henri IV., 
 with his great mind, his chivalrous calculating courage, his 
 gracefulness, goodness of heart, cunning, and sensual appetites ; 
 in Louis XIII., with his awkward timidity, his courage, his 
 submission, his revolt against the mighty minister to whom 
 he owes the glory of his reign ; in Louis XIV., with his vanity, 
 his good sense, his greatness ; in Louis XV., with his egotism, 
 which dazed without blinding him ; in Richelieu, with his piti- 
 less spirit ; in Mazarin, with his patience and depth ; in Conde, 
 with his ardour illuminated by intelligence ; in Turenne, with 
 his bold prudence ; in Villars, with his talent for seizing oppor- 
 tunities ; in Frederick, with his arrogant spirit ; in Napoleon, 
 with that Titanic genius which would fain have scaled the 
 heavens, — is there not in one and all an historic beauty which 
 it would be a crime to touch, a crime to add or take away 
 a single trait ? What is needed to portray them ? To under- 
 stand them. Once understood, one has but one desire, to 
 study them carefully and reproduce them as they are, and after 
 having studied them, to study them again, in order to make 
 sure that one has not neglected any single line written on 
 the countenance by misfortune, time, or passion, which should 
 complete the truth of the portraiture. 
 
 It is the profound understanding of things which leads to 
 this idolatrous love of the true, which painters arid sculptors 
 call love of nature. They would not alter in the slightest 
 degree, because to them nature is above everything. In 
 poetry one selects, one does not alter nature ; in history one 
 has not even the right to select, the sole right there is to 
 arrange. If truth be essential in poetry, it is infinitely more 
 so in history. You would be interesting, dramatic, profound, 
 trace grand portraits which shall stand out from your narra- 
 tive as though from a canvas, and impress themselves upon the 
 memory ; your episodes shall be touching ; well, take it as a 
 certainty that you will be nothing of this, that your narrative 
 will be forced, your scenes exaggerated, your portraits purely 
 academical. And do you know why? Because your mind 
 will be preoccupied with the effort to be dramatic, or graphic. 
 Have but one thought, that of being exact ; study a period 
 exhaustively, its people, their characteristics, vices, quarrels, 
 the causes of difference between them; then apply yourself to
 
 x viii A UTHOR 'S PRE FA CE. 
 
 state them simply. When a person is on the stage, sketch 
 him in such a manner as to make the part he plays proceed 
 from his character, but without making any complaisant pause 
 over it ; certain personages have violent dissensions among 
 themselves : relate what is necessary to make clear the motives 
 of their differences, the why and wherefore thereof, their faults 
 of character, and do not stop over them to compose tragedies ; 
 go on, go on, always as does the world : if there be technical 
 details, give them : it is just the material in human things that 
 must not be omitted, for in real life all is not drama, grand 
 bursts of passion, fierce sword-thrusts ; there are long-drawn- 
 out periods which precede great crises ; the collecting together 
 of men, of money, of material which precede sanguinary wars ; 
 all this must have its place and time, each must succeed the 
 other in your recital as it does in real action ; and if your sole 
 thought has been to be simply true, you will have been what 
 the events themselves have been, interesting, dramatic, varied, 
 instructive, but you will be nothing more than they have been, 
 you will be nothing but through them, neither more nor less 
 than they are. And do not feel uneasy about your subject, 
 whatever it may be. Fear neither its difficulties, its aridity, 
 nor its obscurities. God has made the face of the world and 
 the mind of man one for the other. Show to man a picture 
 of the world, and his eyes are attracted to it ; there is but one 
 condition necessary, and that is, that he should not allow the 
 deficiencies of his ow T n mind to influence his view of events. 
 Take any history, or portion of history, state its facts accu- 
 rately, following them up to their natural consequences with- 
 out false ornamentation, and you will be interesting, I might 
 add, picturesque. If in order to systematise your narrative 
 you have not sought to group them arbitrarily, if you have 
 thoroughly seized their natural coherence, they will possess 
 an irresistible fascination, that of a river flowing through 
 meadows. Doubtless there are rivers great and small, their 
 banks may be smiling or dreary, mean or imposing. And yet, 
 take them under all aspects, and say whether every waterway, 
 be it river or streamlet, does not flow with a certain natural 
 grace — whether passing under such a hillock, sinking to the 
 horizon behind such a thicket, it has not its striking effects ? 
 Thus will it be with you, whatever be your subject, if you make
 
 A UTHOR 'S PREFA CE. xix 
 
 your events succeed each other with the easy flow, now 
 peaceful, now precipitate, of nature. 
 
 After such a profession of faith, do I need to say what are 
 the conditions of style necessary for the writing of history ? I 
 enunciate first and foremost the essential, that of being neither 
 seen nor heard. There have been recently exhibited to the 
 astonished eyes of the public, among the industrial productions 
 of the century, sheets of plate-glass of extraordinary dimensions 
 and purity, before which the Venetians of the fifteenth century 
 would have paused in amazement, through which could be 
 seen without the slightest change of contour or of colour 
 the innumerable objects contained in our great Paris Exhi- 
 bition. I have heard astonished onlookers, not perceiving 
 the glass, but seeing only the framework, wonder what the 
 magnificent frame could be intended for. When informed of 
 their error, they were lost in admiration of the purity of the 
 glass. The fact of seeing glass proves it to have a defect, 
 its merit being absolute transparency. Such is style in history. 
 The moment you become aware of it, its sole object being to 
 demonstrate events, it testifies to a defect. Is this perfect 
 transparency of style arrived at, then, without labour ? De- 
 cidedly not. If the style be vulgar or pretentious, if it offend 
 by unnecessary changes in names, — for in history the names 
 of men, of places, and of battles are given in the language of 
 their nation, and one cannot always find exact equivalents 
 for them, — if style offend in the slightest particular, it is 
 because the crystal has a flaw. To be simple, lucid, accurate, 
 easy, elevated at times when the great interests of humanity 
 are in question, is what is required, and I am convinced that 
 the choicest, most carefully thought-out verse does not give 
 more food for study than a simple phrase in history designed 
 to convey some technical detail without being colloquial or 
 commonplace. But who would take such pains, such care and 
 devotion solely to obliterate self ? Who ? The intelligent man. 
 who alone comprehends the one essential, which is to lay all 
 1 ief ore the reader without ever bringing himself to the fore. I 
 have already said that intelligence alone is needed. I may be 
 permitted to add yet a few words on that important subject. 
 
 If I experience a kind of shame at the mere idea of 
 stating an inaccurate fact, I do not feel less at the idea 
 
 VOL. I. //
 
 xx A UTHOB 'S PREFACE. 
 
 of doing an injustice to the actors. When one has been 
 judged oneself, often by an outsider knowing neither the 
 persons concerned nor the circumstances, nor the questions 
 upon which he is pronouncing an ex cathedrd judgment, 
 one experiences as much shame as disgust on becoming 
 oneself a similar judge. When men have shed their blood 
 for a too often ungrateful country, when others have spent 
 their strength in the consuming anxieties of political life for 
 it, whether or not ambition may have been one of their 
 motive powers, to pronounce with a stroke of the pen upon 
 the merit of their blood, or of their labours, without a due 
 knowledge of events or care for truth, is a kind of impiety ! 
 That there should be injustice during a lifetime, well and 
 good ! there will be flatterers to counteract the work of de- 
 tractors, albeit to noble hearts the inanities of flattery do 
 not counterbalance the bitterness of calumny ; but after death, 
 let us at least have justice ; justice alike free from adulation 
 or detraction ; justice, if not for the one who vainly looked 
 for it, at least for his children ! But who can boast that in 
 history he can hold the balance of justice with a perfectly sure 
 hand ? Alas ! no one, for they are God's weights in men's 
 hands. What problems, what complications of problems, 
 what delicate shades of distinction are needed, in order to 
 be perfectly equitable ! Such a man has done great things ; 
 but entirely on his own initiative ? Had he no coadjutors 
 to assist him, no predecessors to smooth the way for him ? 
 Alexander had his father Philip before him, laudation of 
 whom filled him with wrath. Frederick the Great had his 
 father and the Prince of Anhalt-Dessau, who had made the 
 Prussian army for him. Napoleon had received from the 
 French Eevolution an incomparable army. Such a man had 
 caused great evil ; but did the evil belong to him personally 
 or to his period ? Had he not been carried away by his times ? 
 Were not the passions to which he had yielded those of his 
 contemporaries as much as his own ? Moreover, if he had 
 the misfortune to have caused the shedding of human blood, 
 must not the time in which he lived be taken into account ? 
 Ought not one single drop of blood in this century of ours, 
 in which the value of human life is so fully realised, to weigh 
 almost as much in the balance of justice as a river of blood in
 
 AUTHOR'S PREFACE. xxi 
 
 the thirteenth century ? There are other problems ! Here we 
 find a general of tried bravery, of quick and sure intelligence, 
 who on one fatal day loses his head, makes mistakes, and 
 sacrifices his army — there a person, hitherto always wise, who 
 one day, from weakness or absence of mind, suffers himself 
 to be grossly deceived ! How judge of such accidents ? And 
 how many events are there still more difficult to pronounce 
 upon, in our own national history ! 
 
 Here we have a remarkable young man who, after ten years 
 of horrible anarchy, comes before his contemporaries covered 
 with glory ! Trampling every law under his feet — laws, it must 
 be conceded, which had never inspired respect — he reaches to 
 supreme power. By his wisdom, his prudence, his good deeds, 
 the wonders he accomplishes, he becomes the idol of his country, 
 and the admiration of the world. But soon the intoxication 
 of success mounts to his head, he attacks Europe, overwhelms, 
 subdues, oppresses, revolts it, draws it down upon himself, and 
 falls, surrounded by glory unparalleled, into an abyss into which 
 Trance is dragged with him ! How judge of such a stupendous 
 career ? Was he right, was he wrong to have seized upon a 
 sceptre to which the whole world invited him ? What man 
 could have resisted such an invitation ? Did not his fault 
 rather consist in the use he made of supreme authority ? But 
 if he be absolved from the usurpation of power only to be 
 blamed for the use made of it, do we not forget that in the 
 violent manner of seizing it probably lay the germ of the 
 violent manner of employing it ? Again, in this abuse of 
 victory which revolted the whole world, did the fault lie exclu- 
 sively with him, or with the world against which he fought ? 
 Is the crime of that terrible struggle, which caused more blood- 
 shed than in any other century, to be laid all to his charge, or 
 to the world's, or partly to one and partly to the other ? Is 
 the insatiable pride of the conqueror, or the implacable resent- 
 ment of the conquered, to be taken into account ? Thus in one 
 single life (remarkably great, it is true) there are problems deep 
 as the human soul ! How resolve them ? 
 
 The first condition is to extinguish all passion in one's soul. 
 But how, it will be asked, accomplish such a miracle ? It 
 might as well be said that you are to be placed before a vast 
 stage, unquestionably the vastest of all, for it is the universe
 
 xxii A UTHOR 'S PREFACE. 
 
 itself. Seated in front of this stage you are to see pass before 
 your eyes the most illustrious actors known, with their great- 
 nesses and littlenesses, their terrible or laughable idiosyncrasies, 
 and are not to be affected by one or the other, to experience 
 neither indignation, nor love, nor hatred, nor feelings of ridicule ! 
 Thus to stultify the human soul is beyond the bounds of pos- 
 sibility, nor is it desirable. But is it not possible to destroy 
 passion without destroying sentiment ? It seems to me that 
 it is so, and that the way in which to accomplish it is to exalt 
 the mind by the assiduous study of history. Place yourself 
 before the arena of human actions ; meditate upon them un- 
 ceasingly ; get to understand, to grasp them ; live with the 
 men of the past and of the present ; take account of their 
 weaknesses ; in order better to understand them, think of your 
 own ; and by a knowledge of mankind you will become, if not 
 impassive, at any rate just and equitable. All bitterness will 
 of a certainty have been expunged from your heart. Accord- 
 ing to your natural bias you may feel a preference for Turenne 
 or for Conde, for Eichelieu or for Mazarin, but your reason, 
 independent of your instincts, will soar above your feelings, and 
 will pronounce judgments befitting poor humanity whilst still 
 awaiting that of the Supreme Judge. If you happen to be in- 
 dulgent or severe by nature, something of it may appear, not 
 in the groundwork, but in the form, of your judgments. You 
 may be sad like Guicciardini or Tacitus, but, like them, you 
 will possess that justice which proceeds from reason. Thus 
 I return to my first proposition : possess yourself of an un- 
 derstanding for human events, and you will have what is 
 needed in order to relate them with clearness, variety, depth, 
 order, and justice. 
 
 As for me, I have spent five-and-twenty years in public 
 life, and more than thirty in the study of history. I have 
 been especially attracted by the annals of my own times, or 
 rather of those which ended when my youth began. After 
 having written the History of the French Eevolution, I have 
 endeavoured to write that of the Consulate and the Empire. 
 The History of the French Eevolution is known, and — judging, 
 at least, from the number of copies that have been sold of it — 
 I may say that it has been read in my generation. I have 
 already published a great portion of that of the Empire ; I
 
 AUTHOR'S PREFACE. xxiii 
 
 am now about to publish the remainder. It has to be known 
 and judged. I cannot tell what may be the public verdict 
 upon it, but there will be this one opinion, if I am not greatly 
 mistaken — that it bears the impress of a deep sentiment of 
 justice and of truth. I began it in 1840, under a king whom 
 I served and loved, while, at the same time, I differed from 
 him on certain points ; I have continued it under the Republic, 
 and I finish it under the Empire re-established by the nephew 
 of the great man whose life I have written. I cherish, how- 
 ever, one hope, and that is, that no one will perceive any 
 trace of these different epochs in my writings, not alone in 
 the groundwork of my judgments, but even in the tone of my 
 language. When one stands in the presence of mighty actions, 
 of stupendous prosperity or adversity, which have had un- 
 speakable consequences for the world in general, and which 
 bear upon themselves undying beauties and horrors, — to think 
 of self at such a moment shows a feebleness either of character 
 or of spirit of which I flatter myself that I have never been 
 guilty. I trust, therefore, that there will appear in my history 
 no trace of the time when I was in power, when I was exiled, 
 or when I was tranquilly happy in retirement ; and that my 
 reason, calm, benevolent, and just, at least in intention, will 
 alone appear in my narrative. I do not say that my personal 
 opinions will not be made manifest — nay, I should be greatly 
 ashamed were they not — but they will be found to be the same 
 in the last volume as they were in the first. 
 
 I have ever loved the true greatness which rests upon the 
 possible, and the true liberty which is compatible with the 
 infirmities of human societies. These feelings were born and 
 will die with me, and I have not divested myself of them in 
 order to write the History of Napoleon ; but I do not think 
 that they have detracted from the rectitude of my judgment 
 of him ; rather do I think they have contributed to elucidate 
 it. No human being in the world's history has seemed to me 
 to unite in himself qualities so mighty and so diverse ; nor, 
 after having meditated upon the end of his career, have I 
 changed my opinion. But on beginning his history I thought, 
 as I do now at its close, that it was the abuse of those 
 great qualities which caused his fall ; and I thought, as I 
 do at this day, that it was the impetuosity of his genius,
 
 xxiv AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 joined to want of control, which caused his misfortunes and 
 ours. While profoundly admiring him, while feeling power- 
 fully attracted towards that nature, so great, so spirited and 
 so ardent, I have ever regretted that the natural intemperance 
 of his character, and the liberty accorded him to indulge in 
 it, should have thus precipitated him to his ruin. In a 
 poetical aspect he is not the less striking, rather more so. 
 In all that concerns politics and patriotism, he deserves a 
 judgment just but severe. But in every epoch of his career 
 I have striven to describe him as he was, and such he will be 
 seen, I am convinced, in my later chapters : pushing the blind- 
 ness of success to madness in 1 8 1 1 and 1 8 1 2 in his expedi- 
 tion into the depths of Eussia ; bringing to bear upon that fatal 
 invasion powers of conception most extraordinary, but weaken- 
 ing in execution ; astounded even during the retreat by the 
 unexpected blow which had struck him ; awaking on the banks 
 of the Beresina, and from that day rousing himself under the 
 stimulus of ill-fortune ; displaying in 1 8 1 3 the most prodigious 
 powers in order to regain success, but deceiving himself as to 
 the attitude of the world ; even in that year injudicious in his 
 policy, but magnificent in warfare, and admirable in the midst 
 of the greatest reverses — misunderstood hitherto, because the 
 true facts have been unknown ; rising with greater majesty 
 than ever in 1 8 1 4, but at that time in no way deceived as to 
 Europe, as to France, or as to himself ; knowing that he stood 
 alone, alone against every one ; right for the first time in his 
 policy against his wisest counsellors ; choosing rather to succumb 
 than to accept a France less powerful than he had received her ; 
 understanding with as great depth as nobility of spirit that a 
 vanquished France would stand higher under the sceptre of 
 the Bourbons than under his own ; still fighting, but fighting 
 alone, and, although divested of all other illusions, preserving 
 one last confidence, confidence in his art — a confidence as great 
 as was his genius — and justifying it so well that, although in 
 the wrong against the whole world, having France no longer 
 with him, having at his side a mere handful of soldiers who 
 had nobly sworn to die under his standard, — he thus weighs 
 for one moment in the scales of Destiny as heavily as do 
 reason, justice, and truth ! 
 
 Before such a spectacle, such a man, such events, to
 
 A UTHOR 'S PRE FA CR xxv 
 
 experience any inclination to lessen or increase such or such 
 a circumstance in order to gratify personal sentiment would 
 be the most signal of puerilities. I am convinced that my 
 character is free from any such meanness. 
 
 Napoleon's genius is therefore out of court in the judgment 
 of history. What is not, in my opinion, is the licence left 
 him to will and do all. My conviction on this point dates 
 not from 1855 or 1852, but from the first day I began to 
 think. To be enabled to accomplish all one can will is, to 
 my mind, the greatest of misfortunes. Those judges who see 
 in Napoleon a man of genius, do not see all ; he should be 
 recognised as one of the most reasonable minds that ever 
 existed, and yet he ends by being one of the maddest of 
 politicians. Despotism can effect any and everything upon 
 the mind of men, for it could pervert the natural good sense 
 of Napoleon. This conviction will consequently be traced 
 through my history ; how could it be otherwise ? It is forty 
 years since I began to think, and I have ever thought the 
 same thing. I know well that it will be said to be a life pre- 
 judice with me : let it be so ; I shall reply, it truly has been 
 the prejudice of my whole life. I would only ask from certain 
 minds that kind of excuse. I know all the dangers of liberty, 
 and what is worse, its miseries. And who should understand 
 them, if those who, having attempted to sound them, have gone 
 aground, did not know them ? But something there is even 
 worse, and that is, the unbounded power of action left even 
 to the best, even to the wisest of men. It is often said that 
 liberty impedes this or that action, the raising of such a 
 monument or the execution of such a deed in the world. 
 Long reflection has led me to think that if sometimes govern- 
 ments have need to be stimulated to action, more often they 
 need to be restrained ; that if sometimes they tend to inaction, 
 they more often in matters of policy, or war, or expense, are 
 led to undertake too much ; and that a little restraint is 
 never a misfortune. True, it may be added, " But who shall 
 keep within bounds this liberty designed to restrict the power 
 of one man?" I reply unhesitatingly, everybody. I well 
 know that a whole country may sometimes go wrong, and I 
 have seen it ; but it does not go wrong so often, nor so utterly, 
 as does one man.
 
 xxvi A UTHOR 'S PREFACE. 
 
 I see that I am forgetting myself, and hasten to assure the 
 reader that I have no wish to convince him. I have merely de- 
 sired to explain the reason of an opinion, the traces of which will 
 be found in this history ; an opinion which age and experience 
 have not weakened, and which, I dare atiirm, personal interest 
 has not sustained in me. Indeed, did I venture to allude to 
 myself personally, I should say that never have I been happier 
 than since the period when, retired from public life, I have 
 been able to return to my former occupation, that of the 
 assiduous and impartial study of human events. Certain minds 
 may be unwilling to believe me, and they have a right to their 
 opinion, as I, in my turn, should be disposed to disbelieve them 
 when they declare themselves to be disinterested in their pro- 
 fessions concerning the excellence of absolute power. I ask 
 pardon for having, for a moment, descended from the exalted 
 region of history to enter that of contemporaneous controversy. 
 I desired, I would repeat, in stating the opinion which will be 
 apparent in this book, to excuse my persistence in those con- 
 victions of mine which go back to the early years of my life. 
 I am convinced that in these later volumes will be recognised 
 an historian who is an ardent admirer of the great Napoleon, 
 the most ardent friend to France, who, while deploring that 
 this remarkable man was so unfettered in action, even to his 
 own destruction, is immensely grateful to him that he left to 
 us, in leaving us glory, that seed of heroes, that precious seed, 
 which has sprung forth again in our land and has given to us 
 the conquerors of Sebastopol. Yes, even without him, our 
 soldiers, his pupils, have been as great, as victorious as they 
 were of yore under him ! May they ever be so, and may our 
 armies, whatever be the government directing them, be ever 
 triumphant ! The best compensation for being of no account 
 in one's country is to see that country taking the place in the 
 world to which it is entitled. 
 
 A. THIERS. 
 
 Paris, October 10, 1855.
 
 CONTENTS OF VOL. I. 
 
 Author's Preface 
 
 BOOK I. 
 
 CONSTITUTION OF THE YEAR VIII. 
 
 The Provisional Consuls enter upon their Functions — Division of Duties 
 between Sieves and General Bonaparte — The General secures for 
 himself the Administration of Affairs, and leaves the Digesting of the 
 new Constitution to Sieves — State of France in Brumaire, Year VIII. 
 — Disorder in the Administration of the Finances — Extreme Desti- 
 tution of the Armies — Disturbances in La Vendee — Agitation of the 
 Revolutionary Party in some of the Cities of the South — First Efforts 
 of the Provisional Consuls to restore Order in the different Depart- 
 ments of the Government— Appointment of Canibaceres to the 
 Ministry of Justice, Laplace to the Ministry of the Interior, Fouche 
 to the Ministry of the Police, Talleyrand to the Ministry of Foreign 
 Affairs, Berthier to the Ministry of War, Forfait to the Ministry 
 of the Marine, Gaudin to the Ministry of the Finances — First 
 Financial Measures — Suppression of the Progressive Forced Loan 
 —Institution of the Agency of Direct Contributions, and immediate 
 preparation of the Assessments left in Arrear for several Years — 
 Creation of Bonds of the Receivers-general — Confidence begins to 
 be Restored ; the Bankers of Paris lend the Government the first 
 Funds that it has need of — Relief sent to the Armies — Political Acts 
 of the Provisional Consuls — Repeal of the Law of Hostages ; Release 
 of the Priests in Confinement, and of the Persons shipwrecked off 
 Calais — Parleys with the Chiefs of the Royalist Party — Suspen- 
 sion of Arms in La Vendee concluded with Messrs. de Bourmont, 
 dAuticharup, and de Chatillon — Commencement of Relations witli 
 Foreign Cabinets — State of Europe — England and Austria bent on 
 continuing the War — Paul I., irritated against his Allies, is disposed 
 to withdraw from the Coalition, and to accede to the System of 
 Neutrality adopted by Prussia — Importance of Prussia at that 
 Moment — General Bonaparte sends his Aide-de-Camp, Duroc, to 
 Berlin — Rumours of Peace — Sensible Improvement in the material 
 and moral State of France, in consequence of the first Acts of the 
 Provisional Consuls — The Subject of the Constitution begins to be 
 taken up — Plan of Sieyes long before Projected and Matured — Lists 
 of Notables, the Conservative Senate, the Legislative Body, t lie 
 Tribunate, the Grand Elector — Disagreement between Sieyes and 
 Bonaparte relative to the Organisation of the Executive Power — 
 Danger of a Rupture between those two Personages — They are 
 reconciled through the Mediation of Friends — The Grand Elector 
 superseded by Three Consuls — Adoption of the Constitution of the 
 Year VIII., and the Commencement of its Operation fixed for the 
 4th of Nivose ...........
 
 xxviii CONTENTS. 
 
 BOOK IT. 
 
 INTERNAL GOVERNMENT. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Definitive Establishment of the Consular Government — Composition of the 
 Senate, of the Legislative Body, of the Tribunate, and of the Council 
 of State (Conseild' 'Etat) — The First Consul's Manifesto to the Powers 
 of Europe — Public Offers of Peace made to England and to Austria — 
 Proclamation addressed to La Vendee — Opening of the first Session 
 — Germs of Opposition in the Tribunate — Speeches of the Tribunes 
 Duveyrier and Benjamin Constant — A considerable Majority ap- 
 proves the Measures of the Consuls — Numerous Laws for the 
 Organisation of Public Bodies — Institution of Prefectures and of 
 Sub-Prefectures— Creation of Tribunals of First Instance, and of 
 Appeal — The List of Emigrants closed and discontinued — Restora- 
 tion of the Right to dispose of Property by Will — Law relating to 
 Income and Expenditure — -The Bank of France — Sequel of Negotia- 
 tions with European Powers — Refusal of England to entertain the 
 Proposals of Peace — Warm Debate on this Subject in the British 
 Parliament — The Refusal of Austria couched in milder, but not 
 less firm Terms than that of England — Necessity for recommencing 
 Hostilities — On the Rejection of his Overtures by the Belligerent 
 Powers, the First Consul endeavours to propitiate Prussia, and 
 frankly explains his Views — He strives to bring the War in La 
 Vendee to a close before commencing the Campaign of 1800 — 
 Position of Parties in La Vendee — Proceedings of the Abbe" Ber- 
 nier — Peace of Montfaucon — Messrs. d'Autichamp, de Chatillon, 
 de Bourmont, and Georges Cadoudal proceed to Paris and see the 
 First Consul — M. de Frotte is shot — Final Submission of La Vendee 
 — Troops are put in March for the Frontiers — The Session of the Year 
 VIII. closes in Quiet— Police Regulations in regard to the Press — 
 Funeral Ceremonj- on the Occasion of the Death of Washington 
 — The First Consul takes up his Abode at the Palace of the 
 Tuileries ............ 63 
 
 BOOK III. 
 
 ULM AND GENOA. 
 
 Preparations for War — Forces of the Coalition in 1800— Army of Baron 
 Melas in Liguria ; of Marshal Kray in Swabia — Plan of the Cam- 
 paign of the Austrians — Importance of Switzerland in this War — 
 Plan of General Bonaparte — He forms the Resolution to make use 
 of Switzerland, in order to debouch on the Flank of Kray, and in 
 the Rear of Melas — The Part which he destines for Moreau, and 
 that which he destines for Himself — Creation of the Army of Re- 
 serve — Instructions to Massena — Commencement of Hostilities — 
 Melas attacks the Army of Liguria on the Apennines, and divides 
 it into two Halves, one of which is driven back towards the Var, 
 the other upon Genoa — Description of Genoa — Massena, blocked 
 up in Genoa, prepares for an obstinate Resistance — Heroic Com- 
 bats of Massena — The First Consul urges Moreau to commence 
 Operations in Germany, that he may be able to succour Massena 
 the sooner — Passage of the Rhine at four Points — Moreau suc- 
 ceeds in concentrating three out of four Corps, and falls upon the 
 Austrians at Ena;en and Stockach — Battles of Engen and Moskirch
 
 CONTENTS. xxix 
 
 — Retreat of the Austrians upon the Danube — St. Cyr's engage- 
 ment at Biberach — Kray posts himself in the entrenched Camp of 
 Ulm — Moreau manoeuvres to dislodge him — False Movements of 
 Moreau ; but not productive of any disastrous Result — Moreau de- 
 finitively shuts up Kray in Ulm, and takes a strong Position in 
 Advance of Augsburg, to wait the Result of Events in Italy — 
 Summary of Moreau's Operations— Character of that General . 127 
 
 BOOK IV. 
 
 MARENGO. 
 
 Impatience of the First Consul for News from Germany — On receiving 
 Intelligence of Moreau's Success, he resolves to set out for Italy — 
 Extreme Distress of the Garrison of Genoa — Fortitude of Massdna 
 — The First Consul hastens to his Relief and to execute the Plan of 
 crossing the High Alps — Departure of the First Consul ; his sham 
 Visit to Dijon ; his Arrival at Martigny, in the Valais — Choice of 
 the St. Bernard for crossing the Great Chain — Means devised for 
 forwarding the Artillery, the Ammunition, the Provisions, and the 
 whole of the MaUriel — Commencement of the Passage — Inexpres- 
 sible Difficulties surmounted by the Enthusiasm of the Troops — 
 Unexpected Obstacle of Fort de Bard — Surprise and Mortification 
 of the Army at the Sight of that Fort, deemed at first Impregnable 
 — The Infantry and the Cavalry make a Circuit and avoid the Ob- 
 stacle — The Artillery drawn on by Hand under the Fire of the Fort 
 — Ivrea taken — The Army deploys on the Plains of Piedmont before 
 the Austrians are aware of its Existence and its March— Simul- 
 taneous Passage of the St. Got hard by the Detachment from Ger- 
 many — Plan of General Bonaparte, when once in Lombardy — He 
 determines to proceed to Milan, to rally the Troops from Ger- 
 many, and to envelop Melas — The long Illusions of Melas suddenly 
 destroyed — Mortification of that old General — His Orders for Eva- 
 cuating the Banks of the Var and the Environs of Genoa — Last 
 Extremities of Massdna — The absolute Impossibility of feeding the 
 Soldiers and the Inhabitants of Genoa compels him to Surrender — 
 Honourable Capitulation — The Austrians, having taken Genoa, con- 
 centrate themselves in Piedmont — Importance of the Route from 
 Alexandria to Piacenza — Eagerness of both Armies to occupy 
 Piacenza — The French arrive there first — Position of La Stradella 
 chosen by the First Consul for enveloping Melas — Halt of some 
 Days in that Position — Conceiving that the Austrians have Escaped 
 him, the First Consul goes in Quest of them, and falls in with them 
 unexpectedly in the Plain of Marengo— Battle of Marengo, lost 
 and regained — Happy Inspiration of Desaix, and his Death — Grief 
 of the First Consul — Despair of the Austrians, and Convention of 
 Alexandria, by which they give up Italy and all its Fortresses to 
 t he French Army — The First Consul is employed for some Days 
 at Milan in settling the Affairs of Italy — Conclave at Venice, and 
 Elevation of Pius VII. to the Papacy — Return of the First Consul 
 to Paris — Enthusiasm excited by his Presence — Operations on the 
 Danube — Passage of that River below Ulm — Victory of Hochstett 
 — Moreau conquers all Bavaria as far as the Inn — Armistice in 
 Germany as well as in Italy — Commencement of Negotiations for 
 Peace — Arrival of M. St. Julien, sent by the Emperor of Germany 
 to Paris— Fete of the 14th of July at the Invalides .... 195
 
 xxx CONTENTS. 
 
 BOOK' V. 
 
 IIELIOPOLIW. 
 
 Page 
 State of Egypt after the Departure of General Bonaparte — Profound Grief 
 of the Army : its Desire to return to France — Kleber excites, instead 
 of repressing, that Feeling — His Report on the State of the Colony 
 — This Report, destined for the Directory, is received by the First 
 Consul — Falsehoods with which it is filled — Great Resources of the 
 Colony, and Facility of securing it to France— Kleber, influenced 
 by the feeling which he had encouraged, is induced to treat with 
 the Turks and the English — Culpable Convention of El-Arisch, 
 stipulating the Evacuation of Egypt — Refusal of the English to 
 execute that Convention : they calculate upon obliging the French 
 Army to lay down its Arms — Noble Indignation of Kleber — Rup- 
 ture of the Armistice and Battle of Heliopolis — Dispersion of 
 the Turks — Kle"ber pursues them to the Frontiers of Syria — The 
 Vizir's Camp taken — New Distribution of the Army in Lower 
 Egypt — Return of Kleber to Cairo, to reduce that City, which had 
 risen in his Rear — His skilful Temporising — Having collected his 
 Means, he attacks and retakes Cairo — General Submission — Alli- 
 ance with Murad Bey — Kleber, who thought it impossible to keep 
 Egypt when subdued, reconquers it in thirty-five Days from the 
 Turkish Forces and the revolted Egyptians — His Faults gloriously 
 repaired — Emotion of the Mussulman Populations on learning that 
 Egypt is in the Hands of the Infidels — A Fanatic travels from 
 Palestine to Cairo to assassinate Kleber — Lamentable Death of the 
 latter, and its Consequences for the Colony — Present Tranquillity — 
 Kleber and Desaix both killed on the same Day — Characters and 
 Lives of those two Warriors ........ 273 
 
 BOOK VI. 
 
 ARMISTICE. 
 
 Vast Preparations for Succouring the Army in Egypt — Arrival of M. de 
 St. Julien at Paris —Impatience of the French Cabinet to treat 
 with him — Notwithstanding the Insufficiency of M. de St. Julien's 
 Powers, Talleyrand induces him to sign preliminary Articles of 
 Peace — M. de St. Julien signs and sets out with Duroc for Vienna 
 — State of Prussia and Russia — Clever Expedient of the First Consul 
 in regard to the Emperor Paul — He sends back to him six thousand 
 Prisoners without Ransom, and offers him the Island of Malta — 
 Enthusiasm of Paul I. for General Bonaparte, and Mission of M. de 
 Sprengporten to Paris — New League of the Neutral Powers — The 
 four great Questions of Maritime Law — Reconciliation with the 
 Holy See — The Court of Spain, and its Intimacy with the First 
 Consul — Sketch of the internal State of that Court — General 
 Berthier sent to Madrid — This Representative of the First Consul 
 negotiates a Treaty with Charles IV. by which Tuscany would fall 
 to the House of Parma, and Louisiana to France — Erection of the 
 Kingdom of Etruria — France reinstates herself in the Favour of 
 the European Powers — Arrival of M. de St. Julien at Vienna — 
 Astonishment of his Court when apprised of the Preliminary 
 Articles signed without Powers — Embarrassment of the Cabinet of 
 Vienna, which had engaged not to treat without England — Disa- 
 vowal of M. de St. Julien — Attempt at a joint Negotiation, com-
 
 CONTENTS. xxxi 
 
 prehending England and Austria — For the Admission of England 
 into the Negotiation, the First Consul requires a Naval Armistice, 
 which would enable him to succour Egypt — England refuses, not 
 to treat, but to grant the proposed Armistice — The First Consul 
 then insists on a direct and immediate Negotiation with Austria, or 
 the Resumption of Hostilities — Manner in which he has Profited 
 by the Suspension of Arms to put the French Armies on a for- 
 midable Footing — Alarm of the Austrians, and cession of the 
 Fortresses of Philipsburg, Ulm, and Ingolstadt, to obtain a Pro- 
 longation of the Continental Armistice— Convention of Hohen- 
 linden, granting a fresh Suspension of Arms for forty-five Days — 
 Appointment of M. de Cobentzel as Envoy to the Congress of Lune- 
 ville — Festival of the ist of Venddmiaire — Removal of Turenne's 
 remains to the Invalides — The First Consul devotes the Leisure left 
 him by the Interruption of Hostilities in attending to the internal 
 Administration — Success of his Financial Measures — Prosperity of 
 the Bank of France — Payment of the Stockholders in Cash— Repair 
 of the Roads — Return of the Priests — -Difficulties respecting the 
 Celebration of Sunday and Decadi — New Measures in regard to 
 the Emigrants — Posture of Parties — Their Dispositions towards the 
 First Consul — The Revolutionists and the Royalists — Policy of the 
 Government towards them — Conflicting Influences about the First 
 Consul — Parts acted by Messrs. Fouche", de Talleyrand, and Cam- 
 bacdrcs — The Bonaparte Family — Letters of Louis XVIII. to the 
 First Consul, and Answer to that Prince — Plot of Ceracchi and 
 Ardna — Public Sensation created by the Discovery of this Plot — 
 Imprudent Friends of the First Consul wish to make a Handle of 
 it to raise him too soon to the Supreme Power — Pamphlet written 
 in that Spirit by M. de Fontanes — Necessity for Disavowing that 
 Pamphlet — Lucien Bonaparte removed from the Ministry of the 
 Interior, and sent to Spain 312 
 
 BOOK VII. 
 
 IIOHENLINDEN. 
 
 Peace with the United States and with the Barbary Regencies — Meet- 
 ing of the Congress of Luneville — M. de Cobentzel declines a 
 separate Negotiation, and insists at least on the Presence of an 
 English Plenipotentiary, to mask the real Negotiation between 
 Austria and France — The First Consul, with a view to hasten the 
 Conclusion, orders the Renewal of Hostilities — Plan of the Winter 
 Campaign — Moreau is directed to cross the Inn, and to March for 
 Vienna — Macdonakl, with a second Army of Reserve, has Orders to 
 pass from the Grisons into the Tyrol — Brune, with eighty thousand 
 Men, is destined to force the Adige and the Mincio — Plan of the 
 young Archduke John, appointed Generalissimo of the Austrian 
 Armies — His Plan for turning Moreau miscarries through defective 
 Execution — He halts by the way, and purposes to attack Moreau 
 in the Forest of Hohenlinden — -Admirable Manoeuvre of Morcau's 
 executed in a superior Manner by Richepanse — Memorable Battle 
 of Hohenlinden — Important Results of that Battle — Passage of t ho 
 Inn, the Salza, the Traun, and the Enns — Armistice of Steyer — 
 Austria promises to sign the Peace immediately — Operations in the 
 Alps and in Italy — Macdonakl crosses the Splugen, despite the 
 Perils and Hardships of Winter — His Arrival in the Italian Tyrol 
 Dispositions of Brune for crossing the Mincio at two Points — 
 Defect in those Dispositions — General Dupont attempts a first
 
 xxxii CONTENTS. 
 
 Passage at Pozzolo, and draws upon himself alone the Main Body 
 of the Austrian Army — The Mineio is forced after a useless Effusion 
 of Blood — Passage of the Mineio and the Adige — Fortunate Escape 
 of General Laudon in consequence of a Falsehood — The Austrians, 
 being Beaten, propose an Armistice in Italy — Signature of that 
 Armistice at Treviso — Renewal of Negotiations at Luneville — The 
 Principle of a separate Peace admitted by M. de Cobentzel — The 
 First Consul requires Austria to pay the Expenses of this second 
 Campaign, and imposes harder Conditions than in M. de St. Julien's 
 Preliminaries — He fixes, as his Ultimatum, the Boundary of the 
 Rhine in Germany, the Boundary of the Adige in Italy — Courageous 
 Resistance of M. de Cobentzel — This Resistance, though honourable, 
 causes Austria to lose valuable Time — While the Negotiations are 
 pending at Luneville, the Emperor Paul, to whom the First Consul 
 has ceded the Island of Malta, claims it from the English, who 
 refuse it — Rage of Paul I. — He invites the King of Sweden to St. 
 Petersburg, and renews the League of 1780 — Declaration of the 
 Neutrals — Rupture of all the Northern Powers with Great Britain 
 — The First Consul avails himself of it to force harder Terms upon 
 Austria — He insists, not only upon the Boundary of the Adige, but 
 also on the Expulsion of all the Princes of the House of Austria 
 from Italy — The Grand Duke of Tuscany and the Duke of Modena 
 are to be removed to Germany — M. de Cobentzel at length gives 
 way, and, with Joseph Bonaparte, signs the celebrated Peace of 
 Luneville, on the 9th of February 1801 — France obtains for the 
 second Time the Boundary of the Rhine, throughout its whole 
 Length, and is left almost Mistress of Italy — Austria is thrust back 
 beyond the Adige — The Cisalpine Republic is to include the Mila- 
 nese, Mantua, the Duchy of Modena, and the Legations — Tuscany 
 destined for the House of Parma, with the Title of Kingdom 
 of Etruria — The Principle of the Secularisations laid down for 
 Germany — Important Results obtained by the First Consul in the 
 course of Fifteen Months .391 
 
 BOOK VIIT. 
 
 THE INFERNAL MACHINE. 
 
 Plots against the Life of the First Consul — Carbon, St. Rejant, and 
 Limoelan, three Agents of Georges, form a plan for destroying the 
 First Consul by the Explosion of a Barrel of Gunpowder — Choice 
 of the Rue St. Nicaise, and of the 3rd Nh'ose for the Execution of 
 this Crime— The First Consul saved by the Dexterity of his Coach- 
 man — Sensation produced — The Crime attributed to the Revolu- 
 tionists, and to the Indulgence shown them by Fouche, the Minister 
 — Animosity of the new Courtiers against that Minister — His 
 Silence and Coolness — He discovers Part of the Truth and makes 
 it known ; but Measures are nevertheless taken against the Revo- 
 lutionists—Irritation of the First Consul- — Project of an arbitrary 
 Measure — Deliberation on this Subject in the Council of State — 
 After long Discussions, a Resolution is adopted for transporting a 
 certain Number of Revolutionists without Trial — Some Resistance, 
 but very faint, made to this arbitrary Act- — Discussion whether it 
 shall take place by a Law, or by a spontaneous Measure of the 
 Government, referred only to the Senate, for the sake of Consti- 
 tutionality — The latter Course adopted — Transportation decreed 
 against one hundred and thirty alleged Terrorists — Pouche", who 
 knew them to be innocent of the Attempt of the 3rd Nivose, consents,
 
 CONTENTS. xxxiii 
 
 nevertheless, to the Measure which proscribes them — Discovery of 
 the real Authors of the Infernal Machine— Execution of Carbon 
 and St. Rejant — Unjust Condemnation of Topino Lebrun, Are"na. 
 &c. — Session of the Year IX. — Fresh Manifestations of Opposition in 
 the Tribunate — Institution of Special Tribunals for the Suppression 
 of Robbery on the Highroads — Financial Statement of Ways and 
 Means for the Years VI., VII., and VIII.— Budget of the Year IX. 
 —Definitive Adjustment of the Public Debt — Rejection by the 
 Tribunate, and Adoption by the Legislative Body, of this Plan of 
 Finance — Sentiments of the First Consul — Continuation of his 
 administrative Labours— Roads — Canal of St. Quentin — Bridges 
 over the Seine— Works at, the Simplon — The Monks of the Great 
 St. Bernard established at the Shnplon and at Mont Cenis. . . 440 
 
 BOOK IX. 
 
 NEUTRAL POWERS. 
 
 Sequel of the Negotiations with the Powers of Europe — Treaty with 
 the Court of Naples — Exclusion of the English from the Ports of 
 the Two Sicilies, and Engagement entered into by the Neapolitan 
 Government to receive a French Division at Otranto — Spain pledges 
 herself to coerce the Portuguese, to put an End to the English 
 Trade on the Coasts of Portugal — Vast Naval Projects of the First 
 Consul, for combining the Naval Forces of Spain, Holland, and 
 France, to enable them to act in Concert — Means contemplated 
 to assist Egypt — Admiral Ganteaume, at the Head of a Division, 
 leaves Brest during a Gale of Wind, and proceeds to the Straits of 
 Gibraltar on his Way to the Mouth of the Nile — General Coalition 
 of all the Maritime Nations against England — Preparations of the 
 Neutral Powers in the Baltic — Warlike Ardour of Paul I. — Distress 
 in England — She is visited by a frightful Famine — Her Financial 
 and Commercial Position before, and since the War — Her Income 
 and Expenditure both doubled — Unpopularity of Mr. Pitt— His 
 Differences with George III., and Retirement from Office — The Ad- 
 dington Administration — England, in spite of her Embarrassments, 
 faces the Storm, and despatches Admirals Nelson and Parker to 
 the Baltic, to break up the Confederacy of the Neutral Powers — 
 Plan conceived by Nelson and Parker — They determine upon forc- 
 ing the Passage of the Sound — The Swedish Coast being badly 
 defended, the English Fleet passes the Sound almost without 
 Difficulty, and appears before Copenhagen — Nelson's views are 
 to attack the Danes, before proceeding to the Baltic — Description 
 of the Position of Copenhagen, and Measures adopted to defend 
 this important Maritime Position — Nelson executes a bold Man- 
 oeuvre, and succeeds in Anchoring in the King's Channel, Broad- 
 side on to the Danish Fleet — Bloody Engagement — Gallantry of 
 the Danes, and Danger of Nelson — He sends a Flag of Truce to 
 the Crown Prince of Denmark, and thereby obtains the Advantage 
 of a Victory — Suspension of Hostilities for Fourteen Weeks, during 
 which the Death of Paul I. becomes known — Events which have 
 taken place in Russia — Exasperation of the Russian Nobility against 
 the Emperor Paul, and their Resolution to get rid of this Prince 
 by any Means, even by Crime — Count Pahlen — His Character and 
 Projects — His Conduct towards the Grand Duke Alexander— The 
 Scheme of a forced Abdication made to conceal their Project of 
 Assassination — Frightful Scene at the Palace (Michael) on the 
 Night of the 23rd of March — Tragical Death of Paul I. — Accession
 
 xxxiv CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 of Alexander — The Confederacy of the Neutral Powers dissolved 
 by the Death of the Emperor Paul — Virtual Armistice in the Baltic 
 — The First Consul endeavours, by offering Hanover to Prussia, to 
 retain her in the League of the Neutrals — England, satisfied with 
 having broken up this Confederacy by the Battle of Copenhagen, 
 and with being rid of Paul I., seeks to improve the Opportunity 
 otfered, by treating with France, and redeeming the Errors of Mr. 
 Pitt — The Addington Administration Proposes Peace to the First 
 Consul, through the Medium of M. Otto — This Proposal accepted, 
 and Opening of Negotiations between France and England at 
 London — Peace becomes general, both by Sea and Land — Progress 
 of France since the 18th Brumaire 474 
 
 PLATES IN VOL. I. 
 
 A. THIERS Frontispiece 
 
 DESAIX To face page 248 
 
 KLEBER ,, 310
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE OF FRANCE 
 
 UNDER NAPOLEON. 
 
 BOOK J. 
 
 CONSTITUTION OF THE YEAR VIII. 
 
 rpiIE events of the 1 8th of Brumaire had terminated the 
 JL existence of the Directory. 
 
 The men who, after the storms of the Convention, devised that 
 sort of republic, were not thoroughly convinced of the excellence 
 and solidity of their work ; but, on emerging from the reign of 
 blood which they had just witnessed, it was difficult for them 
 to do better or otherwise than they did. It was impossible, in 
 fact, to think of the Bourbons, to whom public opinion was 
 decidedly hostile ; it was ecjually impossible for them to throw 
 themselves into the arms of an illustrious general ; for, at that 
 period, none of our military men had acquired sufficient glory 
 to subjugate the national mind. All illusions, moreover, were 
 not yet dispelled by experience. The nation had just escaped 
 from the hands of the Committee of Public Welfare; it had yet 
 tried only the sanguinary Republic of '93, consisting of a single 
 assembly, which exercised all the powers at once : a last trial 
 was yet left to be made, that of a moderate republic, in which 
 the supreme power should be judiciously divided, and the ad- 
 ministration of which should be committed to new men, who 
 had had no hand in those excesses which had filled France with 
 horror. Tin 1 Directory was in consequence devised. 
 
 This new scheme of a republic lasted four years, from the 
 14th of Brumaire, year IV., till the 18th of Brumaire, year 
 VIII. It was set on foot honestly and heartily by men, most 
 of whom were upright, and animated by excellent intentions. 
 Some persons of violent character or suspected integrity, such 
 as Ban-as. for instance, had contrived to introduce them- 
 selves into the list of governors, who, during those four years. 
 
 VOL. I. A
 
 2 HISTORY OF THE nov. 1799 
 
 transmitted the supreme power from one to another ; but Rew- 
 bell, La Reveillere-Lepeaux, Le Tourneur, Carnot, Barthelemy, 
 Roger-Ducos, Sieyes, were men of integrity, some of them of 
 considerable ability, and the last, M. Sieyes, possessed a very 
 superior mind. And yet the Directorial Republic had very soon 
 exhibited a scene of distressing confusion : less cruelty but more 
 anarchy — such had been the character of the new government. 
 The Directory gave up guillotining; it only transported. It 
 ceased to force people to take assignats upon pain of death ; 
 but it paid nobody. Our soldiers, without arms and without 
 bread, were beaten instead of being victorious. Terror had 
 been succeeded by a feeling of intolerable uneasiness. And, as 
 weakness also has its gusts of passion, this Republic, moderate 
 in intention, had finished with two measures that were abso- 
 lutely tyrannical — the progressive forced loan and the law of the 
 hostages. This latter measure, in particular, though there was 
 nothing sanguinary in it, was one of the most odious vexations 
 invented by the cruel and fertile imagination of parties. 
 
 Is it surprising that France, to which the Bourbons could not 
 be presented in 1799, and which, after the ill success of the 
 directorial constitution, began to have no faith in the Republic 
 — is it surprising, I say, that France should throw herself into 
 the arms of that young general who had conquered Italy and 
 Egypt, a stranger to all the parties, affecting to disdain them 
 all, endowed with an energetic will, showing equal aptness for 
 military and civil affairs, and affording glimpses of an ambition 
 which, instead of alarming the nation, was then hailed by it as 
 a hope ? Less glory than he had acquired would have sufficed to 
 enable a man to seize the reins of government ; for, some time 
 previously, General Joubert had been sent to Novi, that he 
 rnisrht there earn those titles which he still wanted for effecting 
 the Revolution, since styled in our' annals that of the 18th of 
 Brumaire. The unfortunate Joubert was defeated and fell at 
 Novi; but young Bonaparte, always fortunate and victorious, 
 at least at that time, escaping the dangers of the sea as well 
 as the dangers of battles, had returned from Egypt to France 
 in an almost miraculous manner ; and, on his first appearance, 
 the Directory succumbed. All parties hastened to meet him. 
 demanding of him order, victory, and peace. 
 
 It was not, however, in a day that the authority of one could 
 supersede that mob-government where so many, alternately 
 oppressed or oppressors, had enjoyed for a moment a share of 
 the supreme power. It was necessary to save appearances, 
 and, in order to induce harassed France to submit to absolute 
 power, to lead her to it through a glorious, restorative, and semi- 
 republican government. It was requisite, in short, that the 
 Consulate should pave the way to the Empire.
 
 Nov. 1799 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 3 
 
 It is this portion of our conteruporaiy history of which I am 
 now about to treat. Fifteen years have elapsed since I recorded 
 the events of our first revolution. Those fifteen years have been 
 passed amid the storms of public life : I have seen an ancient 
 throne crumble to pieces and a new throne rise up ; I have seen 
 the French Revolution pursue its invincible course : and though 
 the scenes which I have witnessed have not excited in me any 
 great surprise, I have not the presumption to believe that the 
 experience of men and of business has taught me nothing ; I 
 have the confidence, on the contrary, of having learned much, and 
 of thus being more apt perhaps to appreciate and describe the 
 great things done by our fathers during those heroic times. 
 
 But I am certain that experience has not frozen within me 
 the generous sentiments of my youth ; I am certain that I love, 
 as I ever did love, the liberties and the glory of France. 
 
 I now resume my narrative from the 18th Brumaire, j*ear 
 VIII. (November 9, 1799). 
 
 The law of the 19th of Brumaire, which instituted the Pro- 
 visional Consulate, being passed, the three new consuls, Bona- 
 parte, Sieves, and Roger-Ducos, left St. Cloud, and repaired to 
 Paris. Sieyes and Roger-Ducos, members of the late Directory, 
 were already settled in the palace of the Luxembourg. Bona- 
 parte quitted his small house in the Rue de la Victoire, and, 
 with his wife, his adopted children, and his aides-de-camp, took 
 up his residence in the apartments of the Petit-Luxembourg. 
 There, in proximity to his two colleagues, surrounded by the 
 fragments of the late government and the elements of the new 
 one, he fell to work with that unerring and rapid intelligence, 
 and with that extraordinary activity, which had always marked 
 his operations in the field. 
 
 With him had been associated two colleagues, Roger-Ducos 
 and Sieyes, both of whom had belonged to the Directory, and 
 both been busily engaged in destroying that government which 
 they despised. Sieyes, in particular, had been placed beside 
 General Bonaparte, because he was the second personage of the 
 Republic. Author of the grandest and best conceptions of the 
 French Revolution, such as the union of the three orders, the 
 division of France into departments, the institution of the 
 National Guard, Sieyes, destitute of eloquence, had rivalled 
 Mirabeau in the early days of our revolution, when oratory con- 
 ferred more power than all other qualifications ; and now that 
 universal war assigned the first place to military genius. Sieves. 
 who had never worn a sword, was almost the equal of General 
 Bonaparte; so great is power of mind, even unaccompanied by 
 the talents which render it useful or applicable. But now that 
 it was necessary to lend a hand to business. Sieves, who was 
 indolent, peevish, obstinate in his ideas, irritated or upset by the
 
 4 HISTORY OF THE nov. 1799 
 
 slightest contradiction, could not long- vie in influence with his 
 young colleague, who was capable of working night and day, 
 whom no contradiction ruffled, who was abrupt but not testy, 
 who could win the goodwill of men when he pleased, and 
 who, at any rate, when he neglected to do so, had always the 
 alternative of carrying his point by force. 
 
 There was, however, a task which was generally assigned to 
 Sieyes — that of preparing the new Constitution, which the Pro- 
 visional Consuls were charged to digest, and to propose to 
 France without much delay. At this period people were still 
 somewhat imbued with the ideas of the eighteenth century ; it 
 was less generally but yet too much believed, that human 
 institutions might be purely a work of mind, and that the 
 constitution of a nation might spring ready made from the brain 
 of a legislator. Assuredly, if the French Revolution must have 
 had a Solon or a Lycurgus, M. Sieyes was worthy of being so ; 
 but there is only one real legislator in modern times, — that is, 
 experience. This idea was not so common then as it is now-a- 
 days, and it was universally agreed that M. Sieyes should be 
 the author of the new Constitution : this was hoped, this was 
 said ; it was asserted that he possessed one, which was the 
 result of long meditation ; that it was a profound, an admirable 
 production, and that, being now rid of the obstacles which the 
 revolutionary passions threw in his way, he could bring it for- 
 ward ; that he would be the legislator, and General Bonaparte 
 the administrator of the new government, and that between them 
 they would render France powerful and happy. Every period 
 of the Revolution had had its illusions : the present period is not 
 free from them ; but these, it is true, are likely to be the last. 
 
 It was, therefore, agreed by common consent that Sieyes 
 should prepare the Constitution, and that General Bonaparte 
 should govern. It was urgent, in fact, that some one should 
 govern ; for the state of the country in all respects was deplor- 
 able : the disorder, moral and material, was at its height, 
 
 The staunch revolutionists, beaten at St. Cloud, still had par- 
 tisans in the Society of the Riding House (Manege), as it was 
 called, and in similar societies in different parts of France. 
 They had at their head few of the leading men of the two 
 assemblies : but they numbered among them some officers 
 highly esteemed in our armies : Bernadotte, a man of moderate 
 abilities, and of a vain and ambitious disposition ; Augereau, a 
 brave soldier, supremely unreasonable, and luckily possessing 
 but little influence ; lastly, Jourdan, a good citizen and a good 
 general, whose military miscarriages had soured his temper, and 
 thrown him into an exaggerated opposition. There was reason 
 to fear that the fugitives of the Council of Five Hundred would 
 assemble in some considerable city, — form there a sort of Legis-
 
 xov. 1799 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 5 
 
 lative Body and Directory, and rally round them the men who 
 still retained all the ardour of the revolutionary sentiments, 
 some because they were compromised by excesses, or were in 
 possession of national domains ; others because they loved the 
 republican system for its own sake, and were afraid lest they 
 should see it overturned by the hand of a new Cromwell. Such 
 an attempt would have occasioned serious embarrassment in a 
 juncture already extremely difficult, and apprehensions were 
 entertained that it might be made in Paris itself. 
 
 In regard to the opposite faction also, there was ground for 
 serious fears ; for La Vendee was again in a flame. M. de 
 Chatillon on the right bank of the Loire, M. d'Autichamp on 
 the left bank, Georges Cadoudal in the Morbihan, M. de Bour- 
 mont in Le Maine, M. de Frotte on the coast of Normandy, all 
 excited and supported by the English, had renewed the civil 
 war. The law respecting hostages, the weakness of the govern- 
 ment, the defeats of our armies — such were the motives which 
 had induced them to take up arms again. M. de Chatillon had 
 for a moment occupied Nantes ; he had entered the city but 
 made no stay in it. This circumstance had been sufficient to 
 induce the large communes in the insurgent districts to throw 
 up hasty entrenchments, and to surround themselves with pali- 
 sades when they could not have the protection of walls. Some, 
 with a view to provide for their own defence, retained the little 
 money which the insurgent country contributed to the public 
 exchequer, alleging that, since the government did nothing for 
 their protection, it was right that they should take care of 
 themselves. 
 
 The Directory, though resolved to shun the excesses of the 
 Convention, had not been able to resist all the violent measures 
 which the war in La Vendee, as soon as it broke out again, led 
 the revolutionary party to propose. Hurried along by the 
 movement of the popular mind, it had passed the law of the 
 hostages, by virtue of which all relations or supposed accom- 
 plices of the Vendeans were to be confined and to be punished 
 with certain penalties, by way of repressing acts committed in 
 the localities for which they were responsible as hostages. Tin's 
 unjust and violent law had but inflamed the passions, without 
 disarming a single hand in La Vendee, and it had excited 
 inexpressible animosity against the Directory. 
 
 The war abroad had been somewhat less disastrous towards 
 the conclusion of the last campaigns. The victories of General 
 Massena at Zurich, and of General Brune at the Texel, had 
 driven back the enemy to a considerable distance from our 
 frontiers; but our soldiers were in a state of absolute desti- 
 tution. They were neither paid, clothed, nor fed. The army 
 which had defeated the combined English and lvussians in
 
 6 HISTORY OF THE nov. 1799 
 
 Holland, having the advantage of being maintained by the 
 Batavian Republic, was better off than the others ; but the army 
 of the Rhine, which had lost the battle of Stockach, and that 
 of Helvetia, which had gained the battle of Zurich, were in the 
 utmost want. The army of the Rhine, stationed on Freuch 
 ground, practised there, without mercy and without benefit, 
 the system of requisitions ; that of Helvetia subsisted by means 
 of war contributions imposed upon Basle, Zurich, Berne — con- 
 tributions badly levied and badly employed, and which, quite 
 insufficient for the subsistence of the soldiers, revolted the 
 spirit of independence and economy that distinguishes the 
 Swiss. The army of Italy, which, since the disasters of Novi 
 and the Trebbia, had fallen back upon the Apennines into a 
 sterile country ravaged by the war, was a prey to disease and 
 the most distressing privations. Those soldiers, who had en- 
 dured the greatest reverses with unshaken constancy, and had 
 shown heroic fortitude in ill fortune, covered with rags, con- 
 sumed by fever and famine, solicited charity on the roads in 
 the Apennines, having nothing to eat but the far from nutri- 
 tious fruits growing in the arid soil of those parts. Many of 
 them deserted or joined the troops of banditti that infested 
 the high roads in the south as well as in the west of France. 
 Whole corps were seen quitting their posts without orders from 
 their generals, and occupying others where they hoped to live 
 less wretchedly. The sea, scoured by the English, exhibited 
 in all directions none but an enemy's flag, and never brought 
 them any succour. There were divisions whose pay had been 
 withheld for eighteen months. Some provisions were levied 
 by means of requisitions ; but as for muskets, cannon, and 
 ammunition, which are not to be procured by requisitions — 
 the want of these our soldiers had no means of supplying. The 
 horses, already inadequate to the services of the artillery and of 
 the cavalry, were almost all swept off by disease and famine. 
 
 Such were the results of a weak, ill-regulated administration, 
 and more especially of extreme financial embarrassment. The 
 armies of the Republic had, for several years, lived upon 
 assignats and victory. The assignats no longer existed ; and 
 Victory, after suddenly forsaking us, had scarcely begun to 
 show herself again to our legions, and had not yet opened to 
 them the abundant plains of Germany and Italy. 
 
 It is necessary to give here an idea of our financial situation 
 — the principal cause of the sufferings of our armies. This 
 situation outdid all that had ever been seen at former periods. 
 The Constituent Assembly had committed two faults, which 
 had been remedied, to a certain extent, by means of the assig- 
 nats, but for which, since the discredit of that paper money, 
 there was left no palliative. These two faults were, firstly, the
 
 NOV. 1799 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 7 
 
 suppression of the indirect contributions imposed upon liquors, 
 salt, and articles of consumption in general ; secondly, the 
 right granted to the municipal administrations to make them- 
 selves the assessments of the land-tax and of the other direct 
 contributions. 
 
 By the suppression of the indirect contributions the treasury 
 had lost, without compensation, one-third of its revenues. The 
 produce of the domains of the State being reduced to almost 
 nothing by a vicious administration, that of the registration by 
 the falling off of private transactions, and that of the customs 
 by the war, the direct contributions formed almost the only 
 resource of the exchequer ; but these contributions, amounting 
 to about 30O,OO0,O0of. in a budget of 500,000,000!, were extra- 
 ordinarily in arrear. There were outstanding debits for the 
 year V., the year VI., and the year VII. The assessments for 
 the year VI. were not completed ; for the year VII., one-third 
 yet remained to be made out ; and for the current year, that 
 is to say, the year VIII., they were scarcely begun. Owing to 
 this delay in the preparation of the assessments, the current 
 contributions could not be levied, and the accumulation of 
 the contributions in arrear occasioned new difficulties to the 
 collectors, who frequently had to demand payment for several 
 years at once. 
 
 This state of things proceeded from the adoption of a prin- 
 ciple apparently just, but in reality mischievous, namely, that 
 of leaving the local administrations to tax themselves, in some 
 measure, by preparing the assessments themselves. The de- 
 partmental and municipal administrations were then conjoined, 
 as every one knows. Instead of prefects, sub-prefects, and 
 maires, who were instituted at a later period, there were 
 attached to all these administrations commissioners, having a 
 consultative voice, and whose duty it was to originate and 
 urge the acceleration of the administrative operations, but not 
 to execute these themselves. The system of cantonal muni- 
 cipalities, uniting the 44,000 communes of France into 5000 
 collective communes, had increased the disorder. All local 
 affairs were suspended ; but what was a still greater misfortune, 
 the two grand affairs of the State, the recruiting of the army 
 and the collection of the taxes, were completely neglected. 
 To make amends for this default of administrative action, the 
 5000 commissioners attached to the cantonal municipalities 
 were charged with the duty of accelerating the preparation 
 of the assessments ; but they had not the only power which 
 could be efficacious, that of acting themselves ; and besides, 
 engaged in a thousand different occupations, they paid but 
 little attention to that important work, the preparation of the 
 assessments. The indemnity granted to them for this service,
 
 8 HISTORY OF THE NOV. 1799 
 
 being much more expensive than it has been since the institu- 
 tion of the office of the direct contributions, was a heavy charge 
 to the treasury, and without any corresponding advantage. 
 
 Thus the direct contributions, the principal branch of the 
 revenue of the State, were not collected. Besides the per- 
 manent deficit arising from the default of receipts, there was 
 another, arising from the amount of the expenditure, which at 
 that time far exceeded the income. The ordinary expenditure 
 might have been provided for by means of a revenue of about 
 500.000,000 f . ; but the war had raised it to nearly 700,000,000 f . 
 Nothing was left to meet the deficiency but the national 
 domains, absorbed for the greater part, and which it was, 
 moreover, difficult to realise to advantage, because the definite 
 triumph of the Revolution was still a matter of great doubt. 
 
 This state of things had led to revolting abuses and to a 
 situation which it is necessary to describe for the instruction 
 of nations and governments. 
 
 The assignats, as we have just observed, had long ceased to 
 exist. The mandats which succeeded them had disappeared 
 also. Paper money was, therefore, completely abandoned ; and. 
 great as the void might be, it was better not to fill it up at 
 all for the present, than to fill it, as had before been done, 
 with a forced paper, which was scarcely taken in payments, 
 though forced, and which uselessly furnished occasion for the 
 exercise of all the rigours of the law, in order to compel its 
 acceptance. In lieu of this suppressed paper money the follow- 
 ing system was introduced. 
 
 In the first place, the government ceased to pay the civil 
 functionaries, even in paper, so that in Brumaire, year VIII.. 
 they had received nothing for ten months. It was necessary, 
 however, to give something to the rentiers and to the pensioners 
 of the State. To these were delivered bons d'arrcragc, the sole 
 value of which consisted in their being taken as money in 
 payment of the contributions. The pay of the troops was 
 withheld; but what the armies took upon the spot for their 
 subsistence was paid for by means of bons de requisition, like- 
 wise receivable in discharge of the taxes. The companies 
 which had contracted to supply some of the wants of the 
 soldier, performing that service ill, and sometimes not at all. 
 obtained, instead of money, orders upon the first receipts of 
 the treasury ; and by virtue of titles of this sort, granted very 
 arbitrarily, they laid their hands upon almost all the cash that 
 found its way into the public exchequer. Lastly, inscriptions 
 on the national domains, receivable in payment for those 
 domains, were another sort of paper money added to all those 
 that we have just enumerated, and contributing to the most 
 frightful stock-jobbing.
 
 NOV. 1799 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 9 
 
 These papers, in fact, had not a forced currency like the 
 assignats ; but, thrown into circulation, incessantly bought and 
 sold in the market of Paris, rising or falling on the slightest 
 whisper of good or bad news, they were the subject of a 
 ruinous speculation for the State, and of a deplorable demorali- 
 sation for the public. The men of business, depositaries of all 
 the ready money, could procure them at a very easy rate. They 
 bought them up from the rentiers, the contractors, or the other 
 holders, at the lowest price ; then sent them in to the treasury 
 in payment of the contributions, passing for IOO francs what 
 had cost them at most eighty, and sometimes sixty or fifty. 
 The collectors themselves embarked in this kind of speculation, 
 and, while they received money from part of the tax-payers, 
 they paid into the coffers of the State at par the paper which 
 they had bought at the lowest rate. Thus very few persons 
 paid their contributions in cash ; there was too much induce- 
 ment to discharge them in paper. In this manner, the trea- 
 sury scarcely ever received any specie, and its distress, in 
 consequence, increased every day. 
 
 As the irritation against the Vendeans had produced the law 
 of the hostages, the irritation against the jobbers had led, in 
 like manner, to the measure of the progressive forced loan, 
 destined to reach the great capitalists, and to make them con- 
 tribute to the expenses of the war. This is what had been 
 called in France, during the days of terror, the tax upon the 
 rich ; it is what in England was denominated the income-tax — 
 a tax to which Mr. Pitt had at this time recourse, in order to 
 carry on the furious war which he was waging against France. 
 This tax, proportioned not to the extent of immovable pro- 
 perty, which constitutes a sure basis, but to the supposed wealth 
 of individuals, was feasible, though with considerable trouble, 
 in England, where order prevailed, and the fury of parties did not 
 make the assessment of fortunes a medium of vengeance. But 
 it was not feasible in France, for amidst the disorders of the 
 times, the tax-jury had been a sort of revolutionary committee, 
 capriciously attributing wealth or poverty at the dictates of its 
 passions, and never passing for just even when it was just, 
 which is almost equivalent to never being so. The government 
 durst not bring forward this measure, as formerly, under the 
 mere simple form of a tax; they disguised it under the name 
 of a furred loan, repayable, it was said, in national property, 
 and divided, according to the supposed faculties of each, by an 
 assessment jury. 
 
 Thus this measure had become one of the calamities of the 
 moment. That and the law of the hostages formed the two 
 grievances most frequently alleged against the Directory. It 
 was not the cause, as it was asserted, of the poverty of the
 
 io HISTORY OF THE NOV. 1799 
 
 treasury, a poverty arising from a complication of circumstances ; 
 but it had kept aloof the rich speculators, whose aid was indis- 
 pensable to the government, and of whom it was under the 
 absolute necessity of availing itself, if but for a moment, that it 
 might be able to shift without them afterwards. 
 
 This financial situation was, as we have said, the principal 
 cause of the destitution and the reverses of our armies. Being 
 well known to the foreign powers, it inspired them with confi- 
 dence that they should conquer us with a little perseverance. 
 The two victories of Zurich and the Texel had, to be sure, 
 removed those powers somewhat farther from the object which 
 they had in view, but not diverted them from the pursuit. 
 Austria, proud of having reconquered Italy, was determined to 
 fight to the last extremity rather than yield again. Her bear- 
 ing there was that of an absolute power. Occupying Piedmont, 
 Tuscany, the Roman States, she had not recalled either the 
 King of Sardinia to Turin, or the Grand Duke of Tuscany to 
 Florence, or the pontifical government to Rome. The defeat 
 of Korsakoff and Suwaroff at Zurich, gave her less concern than 
 might have been expected. It was in her eyes a check for the 
 Russian arms, not for the Austrian ; a fault of Generals Korsa- 
 koff and Suwaroff, — a military mishap not very difficult to be 
 retrieved, and of no great consequence unless it should dis- 
 gust the Russians with the war. But she confidently hoped, 
 by means of British influence and subsidies, to bring them back 
 into the field. 
 
 As for England, rich from the income-tax, which already pro- 
 duced more than 200,000,000 f . a year ; blockading Malta, which 
 she expected soon to take by famine ; intercepting all succours 
 sent to our army in Egypt, which she hoped before long to 
 reduce by privations and force, England was fully resolved to 
 pursue all the objects which her policy flattered itself with the 
 prospect of attaining, before she laid down her arms. She cal- 
 culated, moreover, upon a sort of social dissolution in France, 
 which would soon change our country into an open country, 
 accessible to whomsoever might think fit to enter it. 
 
 Prussia, the only one of the northern powers that had not 
 taken part in the war, maintained a reserve full of coldness 
 towards the French government. Spain, obliged by the treaty 
 of St. Ildefonso to make common cause with us, appeared ex- 
 tremely grieved at this community of interests. No one, in- 
 deed, seemed to care about having relations with a government 
 that was ready to fall. The victories of Zurich and the Texel 
 had regained it an outward show of respect, but not the confidence 
 of the cabinets with which it was at peace or in alliance. 
 
 Thus, at home, La Vendee again in insurrection, abroad, the 
 principal powers of Europe in arms, rendered the danger of the
 
 NOV. 1799 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 11 
 
 war doubly pressing. It was necessary, by the adoption of 
 some financial measure, to supply the first wants of the 
 famished armies ; it was necessary to reorganise them, to move 
 them forward, to give them able commanders, to add new 
 victories to those which had been gained at the conclusion of 
 the last campaign ; it was necessary, above all, to cure foreign 
 cabinets of the notion of an approaching social dissolution in 
 France, which rendered some so confident in the result of the 
 war, others so shy in their relations with us ; and all this could 
 only be accomplished by a strong government, able to curb 
 parties and to enforce unity of action, without which there 
 cannot be, in the exertions that it makes to save itself, either 
 harmony, or energy, or success. 
 
 The disease had arrived at that height which is frequently 
 followed by a favourable turn, on one condition indeed, that 
 the patient has sufficient strength left to get over the crisis. 
 Fortunately, the strength of France was still great. The 
 Revolution, though decried by those whom it had jostled, or 
 whose illusions it had not realised, was, after all, the cause of 
 justice and of reason, and it still excited the attachment which 
 a great cause always excites. It had, moreover, numerous par- 
 tisans, bound to its fortunes, in all those who had acquired 
 new situations, bought the possessions of emigrants, or acted 
 a part by which they had compromised themselves. In 
 short, the nation was not so exhausted, morally and physically, 
 as to submit quietly to the invasion of its territory by the 
 Austrians and Russians. On the contrary, it felt indignant at 
 this idea : its armies swarmed with admirable soldiers, officers, 
 generals, who needed only a good direction. All these forces 
 were ready to unite spontaneously in a single hand, if that 
 hand was capable of directing them. Circumstances, there- 
 fore, favoured the man of genius who was about to present 
 himself, for genius itself has need of circumstances. 
 
 Had young Bonaparte, for example, come forward in 1 789. 
 even with his talents and his glory, to preserve French society, at 
 that time tending on all sides to dissolution, because its ele- 
 ments had become incompatible, in vain would he have propped 
 it with his mighty arms : his human strength would have availed 
 nothing against the powers of Nature. At this period, on the 
 contrary, when that old society, broken up, as it was requisite 
 that it should be, before it was recast in a new mould, pre- 
 sented only scattered elements, but tending of themselves to 
 approximate, it was prepared to accommodate itself to all the 
 efforts of the able hand that knew how to grapple it. General 
 Bonaparte, therefore, had for him both his own genius and the 
 favour of circumstances, lie had a whole society to organise, 
 but a society willing to be organised and by him. because it
 
 12 HISTORY OF THE nov. 1799 
 
 had immense confidence in him, inspired by his unparalleled 
 successes. 
 
 The law which decreed the Provisional Consulship, conferred 
 extensive powers on the three Consuls. This law invested them 
 with the plenitude of the " directorial power ; " it specially 
 charged them to " restore order in all the departments of the 
 administration," to "restore domestic tranquillity," and to 
 "obtain for France an honourable and solid peace." It associ- 
 ated with them two legislative commissions of twenty-five mem- 
 bers each, selected from the Council of the Ancients and that 
 of the Five Hundred, to supply the place of the Legislative 
 Body, and to give a legal character to the acts of the Consuls. 
 It authorised these two commissions to decree all necessary 
 measures, on the proposition of the executive authority. It 
 confided to them, moreover, the highly important duty of pre- 
 paring the new Constitution. And yet, as such powers could 
 not be conferred on them for an unlimited time, the same law 
 enacted that, on the 1st of the following Ventose, the two 
 Councils of the Ancients and the Five Hundred should have 
 full right to assemble again, if, in the interim, a new Constitu- 
 tion had not been promulgated and accepted. In that event 
 the members of the then Legislative Body would retain their 
 powers, excepting sixty of them, erased from the list of the 
 Councils by an extraordinary measure. The eventual reassemb- 
 ling being fixed for the 1st of Ventose, the dictatorship confided 
 to the Provisional Consuls was limited to three months. It was, 
 in fact, a real dictatorship with which they had been invested : 
 for these commissions, deliberating with closed doors ; divided 
 into different sections, of finances, legislation, constitution : 
 meeting together only to legalise what the government had to 
 propose to them ; were the surest and most convenient instru- 
 ments for acting with promptness. For the rest, there was 
 little reason to fear that these powers would be abused ; for, 
 when there is so much good to be done, and so short a space 
 to do it in, men do not waste time in doing evil. 
 
 On the very day that the three Provisional Consuls removed 
 to the Luxembourg, they met to deliberate on the most urgent 
 affairs of the State. It was the nth of November 1799 (20th 
 of Brumaire). It was necessary to choose a president ; the age 
 and position of M. Sieyes seemed to call him to that distinc- 
 tion, but Roger-Ducos, though his friend, as if carried away by 
 the feeling of the moment, said to General Bonaparte. "Take 
 the arm-chair, and let us deliberate." Bonaparte immediately 
 complied. The official acts of the Provisional Consuls, how- 
 ever, made no mention of a president. They entered into a 
 first summary examination of the state of the country. Young 
 Bonaparte was ignorant of many things, but he guessed intui-
 
 nov. 1799 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 13 
 
 tively those which he was not acquainted with. He had carried 
 on war, provided for the maintenance of numerous armies, 
 administered conquered provinces, negotiated with Europe : 
 he could not have served a better apprenticeship in the art of 
 governing. For superior minds, but for those alone, war is an 
 excellent school : there a man learns to command, to decide, 
 but above all, to govern. Thus the new Consul appeared to 
 have on all subjects either an opinion ready formed, or one that 
 was formed with the rapidity of lightning, particularly after he 
 had heard special men, the only men to whom he listened, and 
 solely on the subject of their special pursuit. 
 
 He was still deficient in a species of knowledge most service- 
 able in the exercise of the supreme authority — the knowledge 
 not of men generally, but of individuals. As for men in general, 
 his knowledge of them was profound ; but, having always lived 
 with the armies, he was a stranger to the individuals who had 
 figured in the Revolution. To supply this deficiency he had 
 recourse to the testimony of his colleagues. But, gifted with 
 rapid penetration and a prodigious memory, he very soon made 
 himself as well acquainted with the personnel of the government 
 as with that of his army. 
 
 After this first conference, the parts were taken and accepted. 
 The young general, without waiting for the opinion of his col- 
 leagues, gave his own at the instant, summed up and settled 
 every affair with the decision of an acting man. It was evident 
 that the impulsion would thenceforth proceed from him alone. 
 They separated, after agreeing upon the things most urgent to 
 be done ; and Sieyes, with a resignation which does honour to 
 his reason and his patriotism, said in the evening to Messrs. 
 de Talleyrand and Rcederer, "We have a master who knows 
 how to do everything, who can do everything, and who will do 
 everything." He thence wisely concluded that it was best to 
 let him act, for, at that moment, personal rivalries would have 
 ruined France. It was anew agreed, by a sort of voluntary 
 division of the official duties, that, during this dictatorship, 
 which it was necessary to render brief and serviceable, General 
 Bonaparte should govern, and that M. Sieyes should under- 
 take the preparation of the Constitution. This, as we have 
 already said, was a task which public opinion adjudged to the 
 latter, and in the accomplishment of which his colleague was 
 not disposed to cross him much, a single point excepted — the 
 organisation of the executive power. 
 
 The most urgent matter of all was the composition of the 
 ministry. In a monarchy, it is the first men in a country 
 who are called to it. In a republic, those first men having 
 become themselves the heads of the republic, there are left for 
 the ministry only second-rate men, mere clerks, without any
 
 14 HISTORY OF THE nov. 1799 
 
 responsibility, because the real responsibility has ascended higher. 
 When such persons as M. Sieyes and General Bonaparte were 
 Consuls, highly distinguished men, like Messrs. Fouche, Camba- 
 ceres, Reinhart; de Talleyrand, could not be real ministers. The 
 choice of them had no other importance than a certain political 
 signification and the due despatch of business. It is in this 
 respect alone that their selection can be considered as of any 
 moment. 
 
 The lawyer Cambaceres, a scholar and a philosopher, whom 
 we shall notice more particularly by-and-by, was retained, with- 
 out opposition, as minister of justice. After a brisk discussion 
 among the Consuls, M. Fouche was continued in the ministry of 
 the police. M. Sieyes would have rejected him, because, he 
 said, he was not to be depended on, and a creature of Barras', 
 the Director. General Bonaparte supported him, and caused 
 him to be confirmed in his post. He considered himself bound 
 to this course by the services which Fouche had done him 
 during the events of the 18th of Brumaire. Besides, he united 
 to a very shrewd mind a profound knowledge of the men and 
 things of the Revolution. Public opinion, at that time, had 
 marked him out for the minister of police, as M. de Talleyrand, 
 from his familiarity with courts, his experience in business of 
 importance, his acute understanding, and his conciliatory spirit, 
 was marked out for the minister of foreign affairs. M. Fouche 
 was retained ; but such was the animosity of the revolutionists 
 against M. de Talleyrand, either on account of his constant 
 connection with the moderate party, or in consequence of the 
 part which he had played in recent events, that it was found 
 expedient to defer for a few weeks his return to the ministry for 
 foreign affairs. M. de Reinhart was kept for a fortnight longer 
 in that post. General Berthier, the faithful companion of the 
 conqueror of Italy and Fgypt, the inseparable chief of his staff, 
 who could so thoroughly comprehend and issue his orders, — 
 General Berthier received the portfolio of war, in the place of 
 M. Dubois-Crance, who was considered as much too warm in 
 his opinions. M. Quinette was superseded in the ministry of 
 the interior by an illustrious savant, M. de La Place. This 
 was a signal and just homage paid to science, but it was not a 
 service rendered to the administration. His superior genius 
 was not fitted for the details of business. M. Forfait, an engi- 
 neer and naval constructor of ability, succeeded M. Bourdon 
 (de l'Oise) in the ministry of the marine. 
 
 At this moment, the most important choice to be made, 
 perhaps, was that for minister of the finances. In the depart- 
 ments already specified, the Consuls could supply the place of the 
 ministers, especially in the two most important departments — war 
 and foreign affairs ; General Bonaparte, in fact, could perfectly
 
 nov. 1799 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 15 
 
 well perform all the duties of Messrs. Berthier and de Reinhart. 
 But that was not the case with the finances. This is a subject 
 upon which technical knowledge is indispensable ; and there was 
 not in the ministry that went out with the Directory any man 
 who could labour effectively at a reorganisation of the finances, 
 which had become necessary and urgent. There was a person 
 who had formerly been chief clerk, a man not of a brilliant but 
 of a solid understanding, and possessing great experience, who 
 had rendered, both during the old system and in the early period 
 of the Revolution, those obscure but valuable administrative 
 services with which governments cannot dispense, and which 
 they ought to appreciate highly. The first clerk to whom I 
 allude here was M. Gaudin, since Duke of Gaete. M. Sieyes, 
 well qualified to judge of men, though not to control them, had 
 discovered M. Gaudin, and had been desirous to commit to 
 his hands the portfolio of the finances towards the end of the 
 Directory. M. Gaudin, a good financier, but a timid citizen, had 
 declined the offer made to him under an expiring government, 
 which wanted the first requisites of credit, strength, and the 
 appearance of stability. But when power seemed to fall with- 
 out opposition into able and firm hands, he could no longer feel 
 the same repugnance. General Bonaparte, having a decided 
 partiality for practical men, joined without hesitation in the 
 opinion of his colleague, Sieyes, and offered to M. Gaudin the 
 administration of the finances. M. Gaudin accepted this post, 
 in which he never ceased, for fifteen years, to render eminent 
 services. 
 
 All the departments of the ministry were thus filled. Another 
 appointment was added to the preceding — that of M. Maret, 
 since Duke of Bassano, who became secretary to the Consuls, 
 with the title of secretary of state. Charged to prepare for 
 the Consuls the elements of their labour, frequently to draw 
 up their resolutions, and to communicate them to the heads 
 of different departments, to keep the secrets of the State, he 
 had a kind of ministry, destined sometimes to make up for, 
 to complete, or to control the others. A cultivated mind, a 
 certain acquaintance with Europe, with which he had already 
 negotiated, particularly at Lisle, with Lord Malmesbury, a 
 tenacious memory, a fidelity not to be shaken, caused him 
 to become one of the most serviceable, and most constantly 
 employed fellow-labourers about General Bonaparte. In those 
 who served him, the general preferred exactness and intelli- 
 gence to brilliancy. It is a partiality common to superior 
 geniuses, which desire to be comprehended and obeyed, but 
 want no substitute. Such was the secret of the high favour 
 also enjoyed by M. Berthier for twenty years. M. Maret, 
 though far from equalling him, had, in civil affairs, some of the
 
 16 HISTORY OF THE nov. 1799 
 
 merits displayed by the illustrious chief of the staff iu his 
 military career. 
 
 General Lefebvre was retained in the command of the 17th 
 military division. It will be recollected that, at first, in the 
 morning of the 18th of Brumaire, he had shown some hesi- 
 tation, and that he had afterwards blindly thrown himself 
 into the arms of the new dictator. He was rewarded for it by 
 the 17th military division and the command of Paris. Thence- 
 forward his fidelity might be depended upon. 
 
 Members of the two Councils, who had distinguished them- 
 selves by their co-operation in the 18th of Brumaire, were 
 sent into the provinces to explain and justify that event, and, 
 if necessary, to supersede such of the agents of authority as 
 might prove either refractory or inadequate to their functions. 
 The result of the 18th of Brumaire was everywhere hailed with 
 joy : the revolutionary party had, nevertheless, in the men 
 compromised by their excesses, adherents who might have 
 become dangerous, especially towards the provinces of the 
 South. Where they did show themselves, the gilded youth, as 
 they were called, were quite ready to come to blows with them. 
 The defeat or the victory of either might have produced serious 
 inconveniences. 
 
 Some changes were made in the distribution of the great 
 military commands. General Moreau, deeply irritated against 
 the Directory, which had so ill rewarded his patriotic devoted- 
 ness during the campaign of 1799, had consented to become 
 the lieutenant of General Bonaparte, to assist him in consum- 
 mating the Revolution of the 1 8th of Brumaire. At the head 
 of 300 men, he had condescended to act the part of keeper 
 of the Luxembourg, the palace in which the Directors found 
 themselves prisoners while their deposition was determined on 
 at St. Cloud. General Bonaparte, who, by skilfully feeding 
 the pride and the resentments of Moreau, had induced him to 
 accept that singular post, owed him some compensation. He 
 united the two armies of the Rhine and of Helvetia into one, 
 and gave him the command of it. This was the most numerous, 
 the finest army of the Republic, and it could not have been put 
 into better hands. General Moreau had gained but little glory 
 during the last campaign. His services, though substantial, 
 especially when, with a handful of men, he stopped the trium- 
 phant career of Suwaroff, were nevertheless no victories, and 
 were not appreciated at their proper value. At this period the 
 battle of Zurich had eclipsed everything. Besides, the political 
 conduct of Moreau on the 18th of Fructidor, when he denounced 
 Pichegru either too soon or too late, had injured him in public 
 opinion, and caused him to be considered as a weak character, 
 wholly beneath himself when he was not upon the field of
 
 NOV. 1799 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 17 
 
 battle. General Bonaparte, therefore, raised him considerably 
 by conferring on him so extensive a command ; and he came 
 to another very wise determination. The legions of the Rhine 
 and of Helvetia comprehended the most ardent republicans of 
 the army, and many who were envious of the glory acquired 
 in Italy and in Egypt. Massena commanded them, and he 
 had but little affection for General Bonaparte, though subju- 
 gated by his genius. In regard to him, he passed alternately 
 from admiration to ill-humour. There was reason to fear, on 
 his part, some unpleasant demonstration on account of the 18th 
 of Brumaire. The choice of Moreau cut short all possible 
 manifestations, by removing an ill-disposed general from a 
 discontented army. This choice was likewise a good one in 
 a military point of view ; for this army of the Rhine and of 
 Helvetia was destined, in case the war were renewed, to operate 
 in Germany, and no one had so thoroughly studied this part 
 of the theatre of war as Moreau. 
 
 Massena was sent to the army of Italy, to places and among 
 soldiers that he was perfectly acquainted with. It was honour- 
 able for him to be selected for the repairer of the faults com- 
 mitted in 1799, and the continuator of the exploits of General 
 Bonaparte in 1796. Separated from the army amidst which 
 he had just won a victory and made himself supporters, he 
 was to be transferred to a new army, to which the Directory 
 was odious, and where he would find none but approvers of 
 the 1 8th of Brumaire. This choice, like the preceding, was 
 highly judicious in a military point of view. It was the 
 Apennines that the French would have to dispute with the 
 Austrians ; and, for a war of this kind, on this theatre of 
 operations, Massena had not his equal. 
 
 After they had decided upon these indispensable appoint- 
 ments, the Consuls had to direct their attention to an affair not 
 less urgent, namely, that of the finances. Before they could 
 obtain money from the capitalists, it was requisite that they 
 should give them the satisfaction of suppressing the progressive 
 forced loan, which, like the law of the hostages, had incurred 
 universal reprobation. The forced loan, as well as the law of 
 the hostages, was far from having produced all the evils that 
 were attributed to it. But these two measures, truly paltry in 
 regard to utility, were vicious in a moral point of view, inas- 
 much as they revived the most odious recollections of the Reign 
 of Terror. All. therefore', agreed in condemning them. The 
 revolutionists themselves, who. in their patriotic ardour, had 
 demanded these measures of the Directors', bv a reaction very 
 common in parties, had suddenly declared themselves hostile to 
 them as soon as they perceived their failure and unpopularity. 
 
 Xo sooner was Gaudin installed minister than. I>y order of 
 
 VOL. [. !!
 
 1 8 HISTORY OF THE nov. 1799 
 
 the Consuls, he submitted to the legislative commissions a 
 resolution, the object of which was the suppression of the 
 progressive forced loan. This suppression took place amidst 
 universal applause. In lieu of the forced loan there was sub- 
 stituted a war-supply, consisting of an addition of 25 per cent, 
 to the principal of the land-tax, the tax on movable property, 
 and the personal tax. This supply was payable, like the other 
 taxes, in money or State paper of any kind ; but, owing to the 
 urgency of the case, it was required that half the amount 
 should be paid in cash. 
 
 The war-supply, which had thus superseded the progressive 
 forced loan, could not furnish immediate relief, for it was only 
 to be levied upon the assessments of the direct contributions, 
 and at the same time as those contributions, of which it was 
 in reality but an augmentation, in the proportion of one-fourth. 
 It was requisite for the current service, and more particularly 
 for the troops, that the treasury should be immediately re- 
 plenished. M. Gaudin, on the strength of this new measure, 
 destined more especially to please the great capitalists, appealed 
 to the principal bankers of the capital, and applied to them 
 for assistance, the urgency of which was felt by all. General 
 Bonaparte entered into direct communication with them, and 
 the sum of 1 2,000,000 f. in cash was immediately lent to the 
 government. It was to be repaid out of the first receipts of 
 the war contribution. 
 
 This accommodation was a great boon, and reflected honour 
 on the public spirit of the bankers of the capital. But it was a 
 supply for a few days only. More durable supplies were needed. 
 We have seen, at the beginning of this book, how the sup- 
 pression of the indirect contributions, decreed at the very out- 
 set of the Revolution, had reduced the treasury to the mere 
 produce of the direct contributions ; how this revenue had 
 itself been almost annulled by the delay in the preparation 
 of the assessments ; lastly, how the assignats, the ordinary 
 medium for supplying all deficits, having totally disappeared, 
 recourse was had to papers of various kinds, which, not having 
 the forced currency of coin, were no longer a clog, as before, 
 to private transactions, but left the government without re- 
 sources, and gave rise to the most hideous stock-jobbing. It 
 was necessary to put an end to this state of things, and to 
 reorganise the collection, if the government wished to open 
 again the sources of the public revenue, and, with the sources 
 of the public revenue, those of credit. 
 
 In every country where there exist taxes on property and 
 person, which we term in France direct contributions, it is 
 requisite to have a return of that property, with an estimate 
 of its produce, and a list of the names of persons, with an
 
 Nov. 1799 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 19 
 
 estimate of their pecuniary means ; it is requisite that these 
 returns be modified every year, according to the transfer of 
 property from hand to hand, according to the birth, death, or 
 removal of persons ; it is then requisite to apportion every year 
 among the properties and the persons the amount of taxes that 
 has been decreed ; lastly, there must be a collection, at once 
 exact and prudent : exact, to ensure the receipts ; prudent, 
 not to harass the payers. Nothing of this kind existed in the 
 year VIII. ( 1 799). 
 
 The register of real property (cadastre), a work which has 
 occupied the last forty years,* was not yet begun. There were 
 ancient terriers in some communes, and a general return of 
 properties undertaken in the time of the Constituent Assembly. 
 These data, though by no means accurate, were turned to 
 account. But the operations which consist in revising the 
 lists of properties and persons, according to their incessant 
 changes, and in apportioning annually among them the amount 
 of taxes decreed — these operations, which properly constitute 
 what is called the preparation of the assessments, were left to 
 the municipal administrations, to whose disorganisation and 
 carelessness we have already adverted. 
 
 The collection was in not less disorder. It was given to the 
 lowest bidder; that is, to those who undertook the duty at the 
 cheapest rate. These collectors paid over the funds levied by 
 them to receivers, who acted as intermediates (agents) between 
 them and the receiver-general. Both the one and the other 
 were in arrear. The disorder prevailing in every department 
 did not permit a strict eye to be kept upon them. Besides, 
 the non-preparation of the assessments always furnished them 
 with a plausible pretext for deferring the payments, and stock- 
 jobbing with the means of making those payments in depre- 
 ciated paper. In short, they received little, and paid in less. 
 
 On the recommendation of M. Gaudin, the Consuls were not 
 afraid to revert to certain practices of the old government, 
 which experience had proved to be sound and useful. Upon the 
 improved model of the ancient administration of the vinr/tUmes, 
 there was instituted the agency of direct contributions, hitherto 
 constantly rejected, from the mischievous idea of leaving the 
 local administrations to tax themselves. A director and an 
 inspector in each department, and 840 comptrollers, distributed 
 in greater or less number in the arrondissements. were them- 
 selves to perform the duty of preparing the assessments ; that 
 is to say, to draw up the list of properties and persons, to ascer- 
 tain the changes which had taken place during the year, and 
 to charge them with their fair proportion of the tax. Thus. 
 
 * The reader will perceive that this portion of the work was written some 
 years apro. — Translator.
 
 20 HISTORY OF THE nov. 1799 
 
 instead of the 5000 cantonal commissioners, who could do no 
 more than urge the communes to the preparation of the assess- 
 ments, there were to be 99 directors, 99 inspectors, and 840 
 comptrollers, performing the duty themselves, at an expense to 
 the State of three millions instead of five. It was hoped that 
 in six weeks this administration would be completely organised, 
 and that in two or three months it would have finished the 
 third yet remaining to be made of the assessments of the year 
 VII. (the last year), all those of the year VIII. (the current 
 year), lastly, all those of the year IX. (the next year). 
 
 Courage was required to overcome some prejudices, but 
 General Bonaparte was not the man to let prejudices stop 
 him. The legislative commissions, debating with closed doors, 
 adopted the proposed plan after some observations. Guarantees 
 were granted to such persons liable to the contribution as had 
 claims to make — guarantees which have since been rendered more 
 secure by means of the institution of the councils of prefecture. 
 The basis of all regular contribution was thus re-established. 
 
 This done, it was requisite to organise the collection and the 
 payment of the funds into the treasury. 
 
 At the present day, in consequence of the perfect order 
 which the Empire and the subsequent governments have suc- 
 cessively introduced into our finances, the levy of the funds of 
 the treasury is executed with a facility and a regularity that 
 leave nothing to be desired. Collectors receive, month by 
 month, the direct contributions, that is to say, the taxes imposed 
 upon land, buildings, and persons, which they pay over to the 
 particular receiver stationed in the principal place of every 
 arrondissement, and the latter to the receiver-general resident 
 in the chief town of the department. The receivers of the in- 
 direct contributions, consisting of customs levied on the frontiers 
 upon foreign merchandise, duties of registration chargeable on 
 transfers of property and on judicial acts ; lastly, duties imposed 
 upon articles of consumption of various kinds, such as liquors. 
 tobacco, salt, &c. ; the receivers of these contributions pay over 
 the proceeds as they receive them to the particular receiver, 
 and the latter again to the receiver-general, the real banker 
 of the State, whose duty it is to amass the funds, and to dispose 
 of them agreeably to the orders transmitted to him by the 
 administration of the treasury. 
 
 The equal distribution of the public burdens and the general 
 prosperity have rendered the payment of taxes so easy at the 
 present day ; moreover, the periodical returns, which contain a 
 summary of all the operations connected with the receipts and 
 expenditure, have become so clear ; that the taxes are paid on 
 the day specified — frequently before — and that the precise date 
 of their receipt and appropriation is also known. Thus govern-
 
 NOV. 1799 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 21 
 
 ment has found means to establish a system grounded on the 
 truth itself of facts, according as they take place. It is, there- 
 fore, in the nature of the direct contributions levied upon pro- 
 perty and persons (and thus a species of rent), to be capable 
 of being fixed beforehand, both as to the amount and as to the 
 term of payment. They are demanded, therefore, a twelfth at 
 a time, and monthly. The receivers are debited with them, that 
 is to say, constituted debtors for their amount, every month. 
 But it is presumed that they have not received them till two 
 or three months after each twelfth or instalment is due, in order 
 to leave them the means of exercising forbearance towards the 
 payers, and, at the same time, to create in themselves a motive 
 for getting in the tax ; for, if they receive it before the time 
 at which they have to pay it in, they derive a profit, by interest, 
 proportionate to the despatch of the collection. It is, on the 
 contrary, in the nature of the indirect contributions (which are 
 levied only upon the importations of foreign goods into France, 
 upon the transfers of property, or upon the consumption of 
 articles of different sorts), to be received but irregularly, and 
 according to the extent of the transactions in the articles upon 
 which they are laid. The receivers are therefore debited, that 
 is to say, constituted debtors, for them, at the very moment 
 when they come into their hands, and not by twelfths and 
 monthly, as is the practice for the direct contributions. Every 
 ten days the receiver-general is constituted debtor for what has 
 come in during the past ten. 
 
 As soon as he is debited, no matter for what kind of contribu- 
 tion, the receiver-general pays interest upon the sums with 
 which he is debited, till the day that he pays them away for 
 account of the public services. On the other hand, from the 
 day that he pays any sum whatever on account of the State. 
 before he is in debt to it, the State, in its turn, gives him credit 
 for the interest. A balance is afterwards struck between the 
 interest owing by tin 1 receiver-general upon the sums that have 
 remained in his hands beyond the time prescribed, and the 
 interest, due by the treasury upon the sums that have been 
 advanced to it; so that not a single day's interest is lost either 
 by the one or the other; and the receiver-general becomes a 
 real banker, having a running account with the treasury. 
 obliged to hold constantly at the disposal of the government 
 the funds which the wants of the service may require, no 
 matter to what extent. 
 
 Such is the system which experience on the one hand, and 
 the improved circumstances of the tax-pavers on the other, 
 have gradually introduced in the collection of the funds of 
 the treasury. 
 
 But at the period the history of which we are recording, the
 
 22 HISTORY OF THE no v. 1799 
 
 taxes came in irregularly, and the system of accounts was con- 
 fused. The collector who was in arrear might allege the delay 
 in the preparation of the assessments, or the distress of those 
 from whom they were to be levied ; he could, moreover, conceal 
 the amount of his receipts, owing to the want of clearness in the 
 returns of the operations. The government knew not, as at pre- 
 sent, what was passing every day in the several thousand coffers, 
 great and small, composing the general exchequer of the State. 
 
 M. Gaudin proposed, and prevailed on General Bonaparte to 
 adopt, a system borrowed in a great measure from the old 
 government, an ingenious system, which has gradually led us to 
 the organisation at present established. This system was that 
 of bills of the receivers-general. These receivers, real bankers 
 of the treasury, as we have called them, were to give bills, 
 falling due from month to month, for the total amount of the 
 direct contributions, that is to say, for 300,000,000 f. of the 
 500,000,000 f. then composing the budget of the State. These 
 bills, when due, were made payable at the office of the receiver- 
 general. To compensate for the delay afforded to the contri- 
 butor in paying his tax, it was assumed that each twelfth was 
 discharged about four months after the period when it was due. 
 Thus the bills for the twelfth, payable on the 3 1 st of January, 
 were to be drawn so as to fall due on the 3 1 st of May ; by 
 which means the receiver-general, having before him a term of 
 four months, was at once enabled to grant indulgence to the 
 payer of the tax, and stimulated to obtain payment earlier ; 
 for, if he could get it in before the expiration of two months 
 instead of four, he gained two months' interest. 
 
 This combination, besides possessing the advantage of sparing 
 the payer of the tax and interesting the collector in getting it 
 in, had the merit of preventing the receivers-general from de- 
 laying payment ; for the treasury had bills of exchange upon 
 them at a fixed date, which they were obliged to pay, upon pain 
 of their being protested. Such a combination, it is true, was 
 not possible till after the preparation of the assessments, and 
 the collection had been ensured ; the receivers-general being 
 unable to pay punctually unless they were supplied punctually. 
 But, this being accomplished by the means which we have 
 stated, it was easy to establish the system of bills ; and inde- 
 pendently of the advantages enumerated, it was attended with 
 this, that, on the first day of the year, it placed at the disposal 
 of the treasury the 300,000,0001'. of direct contributions, in 
 bills of exchange, which could be surely and easily discounted. 
 
 To give credit to this paper, destined to answer the purpose 
 which the royal tons fulfil at this day in France, and the 
 exchequer bills in England, the caissc d' amortissemcnt (sinking 
 fund) was devised. This institution, which we shall see, ere
 
 Nov. 1799 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 23 
 
 long, entrusted with the management of the entire public debt, 
 had at first no other object than to support the bills of the 
 receiver-general. The manner in which this was managed was 
 as follows. The collectors of the public money, as a guarantee 
 for their operations, gave at that time a security in immovable 
 property only. This kind of security, exposing the State to the 
 difficulties of a forced ejectment, when it was obliged to proceed 
 against the granter, did not sufficiently answer the object of 
 its institution. It was therefore determined to require of the 
 receivers a security in money. They were then making such 
 large profits, by jobbing with the produce of the tax itself, as to 
 submit cheerfully to this condition rather than resign their posts. 
 
 These securities, paid into the caisse d ' amortisscmcnt, were 
 destined to serve as a guarantee to the bills. Every bill, when 
 due, was to be paid at the office of the receiver-general, or, in 
 default, at that of the caisse damortissement, which was to dis- 
 charge it on presentation, if protested, out of the security of the 
 granter. The bill, in consequence, immediately equalled in 
 character the best commercial paper. Nor was this the only 
 advantage of that combination. Probably a small portion of the 
 securities might suffice to uphold the credit of the bills, for few 
 of the receivers-general would be tempted to suffer their paper 
 to be protested : the surplus would then be left at the disposal 
 of the treasury, which might settle for it with the caisse, by 
 ceding to it immovable property or rentes. 
 
 The government had, therefore, by means of this institution. 
 the advantage of giving assured currency to the bills, and of 
 procuring for itself a certain sum in cash, that might be made 
 forthwith available — a resource which, just then, came most 
 seasonably. 
 
 Such was the system of collection and of payment, which in 
 a short time placed the treasury at its ease. It consisted, as 
 we have seen, in making up the assessments of the contri- 
 butions, and in putting them in a train to be collected with 
 punctuality and despatch; in then drawing bills on the prin- 
 cipal receivers for the total amount of the tax — bills readily 
 discounted, owing to the means devised to enable the receivers- 
 general to discharge their obligations themselves, or which the 
 caisse damortissement could discharge for them. 
 
 We have adverted to the direct contributions only. As for 
 the indirect contributions, which did not come in regularly or 
 by twelfths, the receivers-general were, after the receipt of 
 them, but not till then, to transmit to the treasury bills at sif/ht 
 on their chest; so that these were not available till after the 
 drawer had received the amount. This part of the service, 
 which left too great an enjoyment of funds to the receivers- 
 general, was subsequently improved.
 
 24 HISTORY OF THE NOV. 1799 
 
 At the moment of the introduction of every new system, 
 there are inconveniences of transition, arising from the difficulty 
 of adjusting the present state of things with that which one 
 purposes to create in its stead. Thus the bons d'arrSrages 
 delivered to the rentiers, the bons de requisition delivered to the 
 farmers, whose commodities had been taken on the spot, lastly, 
 the delegations on funds to be paid into the chests, delivered 
 with a culpable licence to certain contractors, were liable to 
 derange all the calculations. Different methods were adopted 
 to remedy the inconveniences which resulted from the presence 
 of all these papers in the circulation. The bons d'arrerages, 
 given to the rentiers, had exclusively the favour of being still 
 received in payment of taxes ; but the amount of them for the 
 current year was knowu, and by so much the sum of the obligations 
 which the receivers-general were to subscribe was diminished. 
 
 As for the bons de requisition and the delegations, papers of 
 suspicious origin, and the amount of which was unknown, they 
 were subjected to a particular liquidation. They were dis- 
 charged at a later period, partly with national property, partly 
 with paper of different kinds, and with due regard to equity. 
 
 By paying the rentiers in money, as it was proposed soon to 
 do, whenever the due receipt of the contributions should be 
 secured ; by providing for the armies, and relieving them from 
 the necessity of recurring to the system of requisitions ; by ob- 
 stinately refusing to the contractors the irregular delegations, 
 which had before been granted to them on the receipts of the 
 treasury ; the government could not fail to dry up the source 
 of the paper circulation, and to re-establish everywhere the 
 collection of taxes in cash. 
 
 With these means, devised for ensuring the revenues of the 
 State, were combined measures, some of them quite legitimate 
 at any time, others still having the character of expedients and 
 the excuse of necessity. The purchasers of national domains, 
 doing as everybody then did, that is to say, disregarding the 
 laws, withheld the price of the immovable property which they 
 had bought. They were required to pay it within four months, 
 upon pain of forfeiture. This obligation could not but bring 
 in a great part of the paper in circulation, which was specially 
 receivable in payment for national domains. Certain classes 
 of purchasers were to pay a portion of the price in cash. For 
 this portion they were obliged to sign negotiable engagements. 
 These papers were safe and easy to be disposed of ; for those 
 who had signed them were threatened with the loss of their 
 purchases, if they suffered their engagements to be protested. 
 
 National domains to the value of 300,000,000 or 400,000, ooof. 
 still remained unsold. This value, entirely hypothetical, founded 
 on the estimates of 1790, might, if better times were waited for,
 
 Nov. 1799 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 25 
 
 be worth double, treble, and even more. The best course would 
 have been not to dispose of them. Urgent necessity, however, 
 caused recourse to be had to a new alienation. It was decided 
 that rescriptions, representative of the price of the domains 
 proposed to be sold, should be negotiated to speculators, to the 
 amount of 1 50,000,000 f. Luckily, a very small part only of 
 this sum was issued. 
 
 Lastly, a scheme was adopted for representing by paper of 
 the same kind the capital of certain ground-rents belonging to 
 the State, and which anterior laws had permitted the debtors to 
 redeem. This produced well-nigh 40,000,000 f. The parties 
 who owed these rents had ceased to pay them, without 
 having, however, effected their redemption. Paper, destined to 
 represent this capital of 40,000.000 f., and negotiable, like the 
 rescriptions on the national domains, through the medium of 
 stockbrokers, was issued. 
 
 These emissions of artificial securities were the last concessions 
 made to pressing wants. Disposed of to speculators, they were 
 destined to procure some resources till the re-establishment 
 of the finances, which there was reason to expect from the 
 punctual preparation of the assessments, and the system of 
 the bills of the receivers-general. For the rest, these papers, as 
 we shall see by-and-by, were issued with great reserve, and had 
 not their usual inconveniences, namely, the depreciation and the 
 alienation at a low price of the resources of the State. 
 
 The solidity of these various schemes, undoubtedly good in 
 themselves, depended entirely on the solidity of the government 
 itself. Founded on the supposed return of order, they would 
 yield the results which were hoped from them, if order were 
 actually restored ; if the executive power displayed vigour and 
 perseverance in the execution of its plans ; if it organised well 
 and speedily the new administration of the direct contribu- 
 tions; if it took constant care to require that the assessments 
 should be made out, and put in train to be collected within the 
 time prescribed ; that the bills of the receivers-general should 
 be subscribed and paid when due; that the securities should be 
 promptly furnished and deposited in the caissc iVamortisscment 
 in sufficient amount to uphold the credit of the bills; if. finally. 
 it abandoned for ever those ruinous expedients, such as Ions 
 d'arrerar/cs, lions de requisition, and delegations, which it had 
 promised itself to renounce. If all this were effected, it was 
 certain In obtain the beneficial results which were expected from 
 the new financial system. There was reason to hope for it too 
 from the intelligence and the firmness of General Bonaparte. 
 All these plans he had himself discussed, approved, nay. fre- 
 quently modified and improved ; he appreciated their importance 
 and their merit, and he was firmly resolved to see that thev were
 
 26 HISTORY OF THE NOV. 1799 
 
 strictly executed. No sooner were they decided upon than they 
 were sent to the legislative commissions, which converted them 
 into laws, without the loss of a moment. Twenty days sufficed 
 for conceiving, for digesting, for clothing them with a legal 
 character, and for carrying them partly into effect. General 
 Bonaparte was at work several times a week with the minister 
 of the finances, and he thus took the best method of putting 
 an end to those pernicious delegations, which were frequently 
 granted on the solicitation or through the corrupting influence 
 of the contractors. Every week, he made the ministers bring 
 him a statement of their necessary expenses ; he compared it 
 with the statement of the probable receipts furnished by the 
 treasury, and divided among them the real resources, in pro- 
 portion to the wants of each. He disposed, therefore, of that 
 only which was certain to be collected ; and, in consequence of 
 this firmness, the principal abuse, that of the delegations, was 
 fated very soon to disappear. 
 
 In the meantime, till the assessments were completed, and 
 put in a train to be collected, and till the bills of the receivers- 
 general were transmitted to the treasury and discounted, the 
 government had for its present wants, besides the 1 2,000,000 f. 
 lent by some of the bankers, the sums lodged by the receivers- 
 general in the caisse d' amortissement, whatever amount could be 
 raised, through stockbrokers, upon the newly created securities, 
 and, lastly, the current income or receipts, with which, most 
 imperfect as it was, a shift had hitherto been made. The 
 confidence inspired by the Provisional Consuls had a good 
 effect upon the brokers ; means were found to negotiate the 
 new securities with them, though not a creature would have 
 taken them a few days before. 
 
 It was by these united means that the government was 
 enabled to relieve the naked and famished armies, and to pro- 
 cure for them a first supply, of which they were in such urgent 
 want. So great was the disorder that, even at the office of tin 1 
 minister of war, there were no returns of the troops, their number, 
 and their quarters. The office of the artillery was the only one 
 which possessed returns of this kind for the troops of that 
 arm. But, as the army was neither fed nor clothed, as the 
 battalions of conscripts, raised in the departments and equipped 
 with the bons de fourniture, had been most frequently organised 
 without the intervention of the central authority, the latter knew 
 scarcely anything concerning them. General Bonaparte was 
 obliged to send officers of the staff to the armies themselves 
 to procure such documents as he wanted. He transmitted at 
 the same time, to the different corps, some supplies, but very 
 inadequate to the extent of their necessities. Addressing them, 
 by proclamation, in that language which lie could render so
 
 Nov. 1799 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 27 
 
 impressive for soldiers, he conjured them to have patience a lew- 
 days longer, and to display under hardships the same courage 
 which they had oft displayed in battle. 
 
 "Soldiers," said he, "your wants are great: all possible 
 measures are taken to supply them. The first quality of a 
 soldier is constancy in enduring fatigue and privation ; valour 
 is but the second. Several corps have quitted their positions ; 
 they have turned a deaf ear to the voice of their officers. The 
 17th Light is of this number. Are they all dead then — those 
 heroes who fought at Castiglione, at Rivoli, and at Neumarck ? 
 They would have perished rather than abandon their colours, 
 and they would have recalled their young comrades to honour 
 and to their duty. Soldiers, your rations have not been regu- 
 larly distributed, you say. What would you have done, if, like 
 the 4th and 22nd Light, and the 1 8th and 32nd of the line, you 
 had found yourselves in the midst of a desert, without bread or 
 water, feeding on horses' and mules' flesh ? ' Victory will give 
 us bread,' said they — and you quit your colours ! 
 
 " Soldiers of Italy, a new general commands you : he was 
 always in the advanced guard in the most brilliant days of your 
 glory. Surround him with your confidence ; he will restore 
 victory to your ranks. 
 
 " I shall have a daily account sent me of the conduct of each 
 corps, and especially of that of the 17th Light, and of the 63rd of 
 the line : they will recollect the confidence that I had in them." 
 
 The administration of the finances, and that of the armies, 
 were not the only departments of the government which claimed, 
 in a pressing manner, the attention of the new Consuls. It was 
 necessary, at the same time, to revoke those rigours, unworthy 
 of a wise and humane government, which the violence of the 
 parties had wrung from the weakness of the expiring Director}- ; 
 it was necessary to maintain order, threatened here by the 
 Vendeans in arms, yonder by the revolutionists, exasperated at 
 the events of the 1 8th of Brumaire. 
 
 The first political measure of the new Consuls was relative to 
 the law of the hostages. This law, which made the relations of 
 the Vendeans and Chouans responsible for acts committed in 
 the revolted provinces, punished some with imprisonment, others 
 with transportation. It shared with the law of the progressive 
 forced loan, and, with much better reason, the public animad- 
 version. It was. in fact, only under the influence of the blind 
 passions of this time, that men durst render the relations of the 
 insurgents responsible for acts which they had not committed, 
 even though they wished them success. The Consuls dealt with 
 this law as they had done with the law of the progressive forced 
 loan : they proposed its repeal to the legislative commissions, by 
 which it was immediately decreed. General Bonaparte went
 
 28 HISTORY OF THE nov. 1799 
 
 himself to the prison of the Temple, where many of these hos- 
 tages were confined, to break their fetters with his glorious hands, 
 and to receive those numerous benedictions, which the reparative 
 acts of the Consulate so invariably and so justly called forth. 
 
 To this measure were added others of a like kind, which 
 stamped the policy of the Provisional Consuls with a precisely 
 similar character. Many priests, though they had taken that 
 oath as to the civil constitution of the clergy which became the 
 origin of the schism, had nevertheless been persecuted. These 
 priests, who were distinguished by the epithet assermentes 
 (sworn), were some of them concealed or fugitives ; others 
 imprisoned in the isles of Ee and Oleron. The Consuls issued 
 orders for the release of all who were still in confinement. 
 This measure had the effect of drawing from their retreats, or 
 bringing back to France, all the priests of the same class, who 
 had sought their safety in flight or concealment. 
 
 Several emigrants, shipwrecked off Calais, had been for some 
 time a subject of deep interest to the public mind. These 
 unfortunate persons, placed between the horrors of shipwreck 
 and the rigour of the laws against emigration, had not hesitated 
 to throw themselves on the shore of France, not imagining that 
 their country could be as pitiless to them as the tempest. The 
 partisans of measures of severity alleged, and the thing was 
 nearly certain, that these emigrants were going to La Vendee, 
 to take part in the renewal of the civil war ; and they thence 
 concluded that it was right to apply to them the terrible laws 
 of the time against emigration. But public humanity, luckily 
 awakened, was adverse to this mode of reasoning. The ques- 
 tion had been several times resolved in a contrary spirit. At 
 the instigation of the new Consuls it was finally decided that 
 these emigrants should be liberated, but transported out of the 
 territories of the Republic. Among them were several members 
 of the highest families in France, and, in particular, that Duke 
 de Choiseul, whom we have since found invariably among the 
 steady friends of a discreet liberty, the only liberty that honest 
 men can love and defend. 
 
 The acts which we have just recorded gave universal satis- 
 faction. Admire the difference that can exist between one 
 government and another ! Had these acts emanated from the 
 Directory, they would have been termed unworthy concessions 
 made to the emigrant party : emanating from the new consular 
 government, at the head of which figured an illustrious general, 
 whose presence, wherever he might happen to be, instan- 
 taneously suggested the idea of strength, these acts were 
 regarded as signs of a vigorous but moderate policy. So true 
 it is, that to be moderate with honour and with benefit, one 
 must needs be powerful !
 
 nov. 1799 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 29 
 
 In this first moment, it was only in regard to the revolu- 
 tionary party that the policy of the Provisional Consuls was 
 deficient in moderation. It was with this party that the recent 
 struggle had been on the 18th and 19th of Brumaire. Some 
 irritation and distrust were naturally felt towards it; and, 
 among these acts of a conciliatory and reparative policy, 
 severity was exercised against it alone. The news of the 18th 
 of Brumaire had produced a strong sensation among the patriots 
 of the South. The societies affiliated to the parent society of 
 the Riding House, formed in Paris, manifested redoubled 
 indignation. It was reported that the deputies, deprived by 
 the law of the 19th of Brumaire of their quality of members 
 of the Legislative Body, were about to assemble at Toulouse, for 
 the purpose of installing there a sort of Directory. General 
 Bonaparte, now that he had in his hands the government and 
 the army, was afraid of nothing. He had shown, on the 13th 
 of Vendemiaire, that he well knew how to quell insurrections, 
 and he felt no uneasiness about what a few hot-headed patriots, 
 without soldiers, were able to do. But his colleagues, Sieyes 
 and Iloger-Ducos, had not the like confidence. Several of the 
 ministers joined them, and they persuaded him that it was 
 necessary to take precautions. Inclined himself, from dis- 
 position, to energetic measures, though disposed to modera- 
 tion from policy, he consented to doom thirty-eight members of 
 the revolutionary party to transportation, and eighteen others 
 to confinement at La Rochelle. Among the number were 
 wretches, and one. in particular, who boasted of having 
 murdered the Princess de Lamballe ; but there were also 
 honourable men, members of the two Councils, and one dis- 
 tinguished and respectable personage, General Jourdan. His 
 public opposition to the 1 8th of Brumaire had at the moment 
 excited some apprehensions. To inscribe the name of such a 
 man in such a list was a fault upon a fault. 
 
 Public opinion, though unfavourably disposed towards the 
 revolutionists, rteated this measure with coldness and almost 
 with censure. Such was the aversion to severity, to reactions, 
 that they were disapproved, even when exercised against those 
 who had themselves stuck at nothing of the kind. Remon- 
 strances poured in from all quarters, and some of them from 
 very high ones, in favour of certain names included in this list 
 of proscription. The Court of Cassation presented a memorial 
 in behalf of one of its members. Xavier Audouin, who had not 
 deserved thai so much trouble should be taken on his account. 
 M. de Talleyrand, always mild from disposition, always adroit 
 in his proceedings, whom the revolutionary party contributed 
 by its aversion to keep out of the ministry of foreign affairs, 
 had the good feeling to interpose in favour of one Jerry, who
 
 3 o HISTORY OF THE nov. 1799 
 
 had publicly insulted him. He did so, lie said, for fear the 
 insertion of this vulgar offender's name in the list of the new 
 proscripts might be attributed to revenge on his part. His 
 published letter did him honour, and saved the person for 
 whom he pleaded. In compliance with a public demand, as 
 it were, General Jourdan's name was also erased. Most fortu- 
 nately, the speedy and favourable turn taken by events allowed 
 the abrogation of this act, which was only an accidental devia- 
 tion from a course otherwise firm and straightforward. 
 
 General Bonaparte had sent his devoted lieutenant, General 
 Lannes, to Toulouse. On the mere appearance of this officer all 
 preparations for resistance ceased. Tranquillity was restored 
 in the city of Toulouse; the societies auxiliary. to that of the 
 Riding House were shut up in all the cities of the South. The 
 hot-headed revolutionists soon saw that public opinion, reacting 
 against them, had ceased to be in their favour, and they per- 
 ceived at the head of the government a man whom nobody could 
 hope to be able to resist. Besides, the most rational of them 
 could not forget that it was this same man who, on the 13th of 
 Vendemiaire, had dispersed the royalist bands of the sections of 
 Paris, which had risen against the Convention, and who, under 
 the Directory, by lending a hand to the government, had 
 furnished it with the means of bringing about the 1 8th of 
 Fructidor. They submitted, therefore : the most violent utter- 
 ing some cries of rage which were soon stifled ; the others 
 hoping at least that under the military government of the new 
 Cromwell, as they then called him, the Revolution and France 
 would not be conquered for the advantage of the Bourbons, the 
 English, the Austrians, and the Russians. 
 
 A single act of resistance, not by force, but by legal means, 
 was offered to the 18th of Brumaire. The president of the 
 criminal tribunal of the Yonne, named Barnabe, following the 
 example of the ancient parliaments, refused to register the law 
 of the 19th of Brumaire. constituting the provisional govern- 
 ment. This magistrate, denounced to the legislative commis- 
 sions, was charged with having refused to perform his duties, 
 suspended, and removed from his seat. He submitted to his 
 fate with resignation and dignity. 
 
 The speedy defeat of these attempts at resistance allowed the 
 government to rescind a measure which was in contradiction with 
 its prudent policy. On a report from Cambaceres. minister of 
 justice, stating that order was re-established in the departments, 
 and that the laws were everywhere executed without impediment, 
 the transportation decreed against the thirty-eight individuals, 
 and the confinement at Rochelle of eighteen others, were com- 
 muted into mere surveillance, and this, too, was soon discontinued. 
 
 This measure was soon eclipsed by the series of sensible.
 
 nov. 1799 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 31 
 
 judicious, and vigorous acts which marked the new government. 
 La Vendee had, in its turn, created some uneasiness. A recent 
 rising had been attempted towards the end of the Directory. 
 But the accession of General Bonaparte completely changed 
 the face of things, and the views entertained in all parts of the 
 Republic. The leaders of the new royalist insurrection had been 
 excited to take up arms as much by the late severities of the 
 Directory, as by the hope of the speedy overthrow of that 
 government. But, on the one hand, the repeal of the law of the 
 hostages, the liberation of the priests, the grant of life to the 
 shipwrecked emigrants, had a conciliatory effect ; while, on the 
 other, the attainment of General Bonaparte to power put an end 
 to all hope of witnessing the dissolution of the order of things 
 which had sprung from the Revolution. The 1 8th of Brumaire 
 had been productive of a change of sentiment in La Vendee, as 
 in other quarters, and given birth to feelings altogether new. 
 
 The royalist chiefs, some of whom were fighting in the fields 
 of La Vendee, while others were in Paris engaged in political 
 intrigues, worked up, like every party which seeks to overturn a 
 government, to a continual activity of mind, and incessantly in 
 quest of new combinations for rendering their cause triumphant, 
 conceived that there might perhaps be some way of coming to 
 an understanding with General Bonaparte. They thought that 
 so eminent a personage could not be very desirous of figuring 
 for a few days on the shifting stage of the French Revolution, 
 only to disappear like his predecessors, in the abyss opened be- 
 neath their feet ; and that he would much rather occupy a place 
 in a peaceable and regularly constituted monarchy, of which he 
 would be the ornament and support. They were, in short, so 
 credulous as to hope that the part of Monk would suit a man who 
 considered even that of Cromwell as not great enough for him. 
 They availed themselves of the medium of one of those foreign 
 diplomatic agents, who, under the pretext of studying the 
 country to which they are accredited, dabble in all the under- 
 hand intrigues of parties, and obtained an introduction to 
 General Bonaparte. Messrs. Hyde de Neuville and d'Andigne 
 were the royalists who ventured to take this step. 
 
 It is unnecessary to demonstrate how very erroneous the 
 judgment which they had formed of General Bonaparte must 
 have been. This extraordinary man, now sensible of his 
 strength and his greatness, would not be the servant of any 
 party. If he was not fond of disorder, he was fond of the 
 Revolution: if lie did not believe in tin- full extent of libertv 
 which it had promised, lie desired that total social reform, which 
 it was its object to accomplish, lie desired, therefore, the 
 triumph of lhat Revolution; he desired the glory of terminating 
 it. and making it lead to a peaceful and regular state of things;
 
 32 HISTORY OF THE NOV. 1799 
 
 he desired to remain its head, with no matter what title, under 
 no matter what form of government : but as for being the 
 instrument of any other power than that of Providence, he had 
 already too much glory, and consciousness of his strength, to 
 consent to that. 
 
 He gave audience to Messrs. Hyde de Neuville and d'Andigne, 
 listened to their insinuations, more or less plain, and frankly 
 declared his intentions, which were to put an end to persecu- 
 tions, to reconcile all the parties with the government ; but to 
 let none of them triumph, excepting that of the Revolution 
 itself — of the Revolution, understood in its better signification. 
 He expressed his fixed determination to treat with the Vendean 
 insurgents on reasonable conditions, or to exterminate them to 
 
 o ... 
 
 the last man. This interview, then, led to nothing, and only served 
 to make the royalist party better acquainted with the general. 
 
 While these negotiations were taking place in Paris between 
 General Bonaparte and some friends of the Bourbons, others 
 were carried on in La Vendee itself, between the leaders of 
 the insurrection and the generals of the Republic. Towards 
 the end of the Directory, when nobody knew whom to obey, a 
 sort of laxity, nearly approaching to disloyalty, had crept into 
 the army which guarded La Vendee ; and more than one re- 
 publican officer, doubting the existence of the Republic much 
 longer, had turned their eyes towards the royalist party. Every- 
 thing having changed with the accession of Bonaparte, these com- 
 munications, which had well-nigh become dangerous, became, 
 on the contrary, useful, and the parleys took a new direction. 
 The royalist leaders, who drew to them the officers of the 
 republican army, were drawn in their turn, by those same 
 officers, towards the government of the Republic. It was 
 pointed out to them how little chance there was of conquering 
 the conqueror of Italy and Egypt, and what hopes they might 
 indulge of obtaining from him a mild and reparative system, 
 which would render the condition of all parties peaceable and 
 agreeable. This language was not without success. At this 
 moment there was at the head of. the army of the West a 
 discreet, conciliatory, and trusty officer, who had been much 
 employed by General Hoche at the time of the first pacifi- 
 cation of La Vendee: this was General Hedouville. He made 
 himself master of all that was going forward, and offered 
 to communicate his information to the new Consul. 
 
 The latter at once availed himself of it, and ordered General 
 Hedouville to treat with the Vendean chiefs. These chiefs, 
 intimidated by the presence of General Bonaparte in power, 
 manifested a disposition to come to terms. There were diffi- 
 culties in the way of signing a capitulation forthwith, and of 
 agreeing upon the articles of that capitulation ; but a sus-
 
 nov. 1799 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 33 
 
 pension of arms was not attended with the same difficulties. 
 The chiefs offered to sign one immediately. The offer was 
 accepted on behalf of the government, and, in a few days, 
 Messrs. de Chatillon, d'Autichamp, and de Bourmont signed a 
 suspension of arms for La Vendee and part of Bretagne. It 
 was agreed that they should address themselves to Georges 
 Cadoudal and to M. de Frotte, and propose to them to adopt 
 the like course in the Morbihan and Normandy. 
 
 This act of the new government was not long in hand, 
 for it was accomplished at the beginning of Frimaire, about 
 twenty days after the installation of the Provisional Consuls. 
 It afforded general satisfaction, and led to surmises that the 
 pacification of La Vendee was nearer than it could possibly be. 
 
 Some rumours of the like kind respecting foreign powers like- 
 wise led people to hope, from the lucky star of General Bonaparte, 
 for a speedy re-establish ment of the peace of Europe. 
 
 As we have said at the beginning of this book, Prussia and 
 Spain alone were at peace with France, the former always 
 showing coldness, the latter always embarrassed by her com- 
 munity of interests with us. Russia, Austria, England, and all 
 the lesser powers in their train, both in Italy and in Germany, 
 kept up an obstinate conflict with the French Republic. Eng- 
 land, with whom the war was a mere question of finance, had 
 resolved this question for herself by establishing the income- 
 tax, which already yielded an abundant revenue. She decided, 
 therefore, to continue hostilities, that she might have time to 
 take Malta, which she was then blockading, and reduce the 
 French army in Egypt by blockading that country too. Austria, 
 in possession of all Italy, was determined to risk everything 
 rather than restore that conquest. But the chivalrous Paul I., 
 who had rushed into the war from an inspiration of his wild 
 enthusiasm, had just seen his arms humbled at Zurich, and 
 had, on this account, conceived a keen resentment against every- 
 body, but especially against Austria. He had been persuaded 
 that the latter was the sole cause of this mischance ; for her 
 soldiers, bound, in terms of a concerted movement, to advance 
 on the Rhine, and to relinquish Switzerland to the Russians, 
 had, by quitting the position of Zurich too soon, left Korsakoff 
 exposed alone to the attack of Massena, who, having vanquished 
 Korsakoff, had afterwards made short work of Suwarow. Paul I. 
 considered this as the act of a bad ally, perhaps an act of trea- 
 chery. Mistrust once excited, everything appeared to him in 
 an unpleasant light. He had taken up arms, he said, only to 
 protect the weak againsl the oppression of the strong, and to 
 replace on their thrones the princes whom the French Re- 
 public had hurled from them. Now, Austria had everywhere 
 hoisted her Hag in Italy, and had not recalled to that country 
 
 Vol.. 1. c
 
 34 HISTORY OF THE Nov. 1799 
 
 any of the dethroned princes. He began to say to himself 
 that, acting from pure generosity, he was the dupe of allies 
 who acted solely from interest. Fickle to excess, he gave him- 
 self up to these new sentiments as violently as he had before 
 abandoned himself to the contrary sentiments. One other cir- 
 cumstance had exasperated him in the highest degree ; the 
 Russian flag had been struck at Ancona, and the Austrian 
 hoisted in its stead. This was but a wrong done by an inferior 
 officer, but a wrong, of whatever kind it might be, that touched 
 him to the quick. 
 
 The sentiments of absolute princes, in spite of their preten- 
 sions to secrecy, break forth as speedily as the sentiments of 
 free nations : the former, in fact, will not be repressed any 
 more than the latter. This new result of the battle of Zurich 
 began to be known all over Europe, and this was not the less 
 fortunate for us. 
 
 On this news, Austria and England redoubled their atten- 
 tions to Paul I. Suwarow, the invincible Suwarow (as he was 
 called before he encountered Massena) had been loaded with 
 distinctions of all sorts. But the chagrin of the Russian 
 general was no more soothed than the resentment of the Czar. 
 A quite new manifestation, on the part of Paul I., served more 
 especially to excite apprehensions that he would soon abandon 
 the coalition. 
 
 In the first heat of his zeal for the coalition, he had declared 
 war against Spain, because she made common cause with 
 France, and he had well-nigh issued a similar declaration 
 against Sweden, Denmark, and Prussia, because those powers 
 determined to remain neuter. With Prussia his relations had 
 entirely ceased. Since the late events, he appeared to be in 
 much better humour with the courts against which he had 
 before been so inimically disposed, and sent, in particular, 
 to Berlin, a diplomatist who possessed his confidence, M. de 
 Krudener, who was directed to proceed thither as a mere 
 traveller, but with the secret commission to re-establish rela- 
 tions between the two courts of Prussia and Russia. 
 
 We had then at Berlin a prudent and able agent, M. Otto, 
 whose name was afterwards associated with the most important 
 events of that period. He had apprised the government of the 
 new state of things. It was evident, in fact, that if we were 
 inclined to peace rather than war, the key of the situation was 
 in Berlin. Spain, thrown to the extremity of Europe hv her 
 geographical position, and of politics by the weakness of her 
 government — Spain could be of no utility. But Prussia, placed 
 in the midst of the belligerent powers, having remained neuter 
 in spite of their strong solicitations, ill thought of at first by all 
 the cabinets, in the first heat of the coalition ; afterwards more
 
 nov. 1799 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 35 
 
 favourably judged, since they had grown more calm — Prussia 
 became the centre of influence, especially since Russia appeared 
 to court her. What had been called pusillanimity in her, now 
 began to pass for wisdom. This court, if it were to take up 
 energetically the part that seemed to be assigned to it by events, 
 might serve for a link between France and Europe, might even 
 impose its mediation, that method, so much employed since 
 and with such profit, of interfering seasonably between weary 
 adversaries, and of reaping all the fruits both of the war, which 
 one has not waged, and of the peace which one has dictated. 
 Had Prussia dared to do this, she would not have played a 
 grander part since the days of the great Frederick. 
 
 At this period, there was on the throne of Prussia a young 
 king, honest, full of good intentions, passionately fond of peace, 
 and who never ceased to deplore the fault committed by his 
 father, in throwing away, upon a mad war against the French 
 Republic, the military glory and the treasure accumulated by 
 the great Frederick. Now. replaced in pacific relations with the 
 French Republic, he availed himself of them to retrieve by his 
 economy the treasure left by his great-uncle, and wasted by his 
 father. In his Council he had an able, intellectual minister, 
 M. d'Haugwitz, gifted in the highest degree with the talent 
 of eluding difficulties ; a partisan, like his master, of a pacific 
 policy, but more ambitious than he, and believing that from a 
 well-directed neutrality more extensive aggrandisements might 
 be derived for Prussia than from war itself. At that time, 
 indeed, this might be true. He therefore urged his sovereign 
 to assume actively the part of mediator and pacificator of the 
 Continent. The part, no doubt, was a very great one for the 
 young and timid Frederick William ; but this prince was able 
 to fill it to a greater or less extent, and to take upon himself 
 a portion, if not the whole. 
 
 General Bonaparte, having perceived all this, immediately 
 began diligently to caress the court of Prussia. It had at one 
 time been very convenient for him to be a member of the Insti- 
 tute, that he might figure by that title only at certain solem- 
 nities, especially at the festival held on the 2 1st of January, at 
 which he did not choose to appear in a political character; it 
 was now convenient for him to be a general and to have aides- 
 de-cam]) to send off whithersoever he thought fit. The idea 
 occurred to him to follow the example of sovereigns who, on 
 ascending the throne, despatcli high dignitaries to announce 
 their accession. He did, in fact, the same thing with less 
 show, by sending to Berlin one of his aides-de-camp, which an 
 entirely military head of a State might assuredly venture to 
 do, without appearing to go beyond his part. Among those 
 who served him in that capacity was one, prudent, discreet.
 
 36 HIS TOBY OF THE dec. 1799 
 
 intelligent, combining highly polished manners with a pleasing 
 person : this was Duroc, who had returned from Egypt with 
 his general, and bore on his brow some reflection of the glory 
 of the Pyramids. The new Consul ordered him to proceed 
 forthwith to Berlin, to compliment the King and Queen of 
 Prussia, to present himself there as charged with a mission of 
 courtesy and respect ; but to take advantage of any occasion 
 that might offer, to explain the last revolution which had just 
 been effected in France, to represent it as a return to order, 
 to sound traditions, and, above all, to pacific sentiments. 
 
 Duroc was to flatter the young king, and to hint that the 
 French government would be glad to make him, if he pleased, 
 the arbiter of the future peace. The Republic, strengthened by 
 the victories of the Texel and of Zurich, and by others, for 
 which the name of General Bonaparte was a pledge in future, 
 could, without fear for her dignity, present herself with the 
 olive branch of peace in her hand. 
 
 While he was despatching Duroc to Berlin, General Bona- 
 parte performed, in the name of the Provisional Consuls, several 
 acts designed to produce a similar impression abroad. In the 
 first place, after having for some time deferred the entry of M. 
 de Talleyrand upon the ministry of foreign affairs, he at length 
 called him to it. The post could not have been conferred on a 
 personage more conciliatory, more fitted to treat with Europe, 
 more capable of pleasing, nay, even flattering it, without lower- 
 ing the French cabinet from its elevated position. We shall 
 have other occasions for portraying this singular and remark- 
 able character. Suffice it here to observe, that the choice of 
 this personage clearly proved that, without passing from energy 
 to weakness, the French government was abandoning the policy 
 of passions for the policy of calculation. There was nothing, 
 even to that exquisite elegance of manners peculiar to M. de 
 Talleyrand, that was not an advantage for the new position which 
 government sought to assume towards foreign powers. 
 
 General Bonaparte made some other diplomatic appoint- 
 ments, conceived in the same spirit. Though M. Otto, charge 
 d'affaires at Berlin, since M. Sieyes quitted that post, was an 
 excellent agent, still he was but a mere charge' d'affaires. 
 Another destination, in which he soon made himself very 
 useful, was assigned to him, and the appointment of minister 
 at Berlin was given to General Beurnonville, an old friend of 
 Lafayette's, long the prisoner of Austria, and one of those 
 members of the minority of the French noblesse, who had, in 
 1789, sincerely embraced the cause of the Revolution. General 
 Beurnonville was a straightforward soldier ; open, sincere, 
 moderate in opinion, and perfectly qualified for a fit repre- 
 sentative of the new government. Austria, whose prisoner he
 
 dec. 1799 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 37 
 
 had long been, inspired him with a hatred, which was a sort of 
 passport in Berlin, where nearly the same sentiments prevailed 
 in regard to that power as in the time of the great Frederick. 
 
 For our representative at Madrid we had one of the dema- 
 gogues of former years, a man without any sort of influence, 
 who has left no name in the diplomatic world, into which events 
 had accidentally thrown him. He was superseded by a Con- 
 stituent, a discreet, clever, well-informed man, who figured with 
 honour in the diplomatic events of that time : this was M. 
 Alquier. Lastly, in the place of a creature of the Directory's, 
 named Grouvelle, M. Bourgoing was sent to Copenhagen, where 
 the principles of maritime neutrality, so flagrantly violated by 
 England, were likely to produce sentiments favourable to us. 
 All these appointments were excellent, and well calculated to 
 indicate the spirit of prudence and moderation, which began to 
 prevail in the relations of France with foreign powers. 
 
 To the selection of these persons the Consuls were solicitous 
 to add certain acts, which might serve for answer to a charge 
 generally circulated in the courts of Europe, alleging that the 
 French Republic was incessantly violating the law of nations, 
 or the treaties concluded with her. Assuredly she had not 
 violated the law of nations and treaties so much as Austria, 
 England, and all the courts at war with us ; but it was the 
 practice to assert that it was impossible to have relations with 
 an unstable, passionate government, represented by new men, 
 who never considered themselves bound by their engagements, 
 or by the traditions of European public law. This reproach 
 might be flung back, with greater justice, upon the cabinets of 
 Europe, who had done worse without having the excuse either 
 of revolutionary passions or of continual changes of government. 
 To convey a better idea of the policy of the Consuls, General 
 Bonaparte performed an act of justice towards the unfortu- 
 nate Knights of Malta, who, when possession was taken of the 
 island, had been promised that such of them as belonged to the 
 French tongue should not be treated in France as emigrants. 
 Hitherto they had not been able to benefit by this condition of 
 their capitulation, either in regard to their persons, or in regard 
 to their possessions. General Bonaparte caused them to be 
 put into the complete enjoyment of the advantage granted in 
 that capitulation. 
 
 In respect to Denmark, he adopted a measure, excellent in 
 its effect, and benevolently equitable. There were in the ports 
 of France many Danish vessels, detained by the Directory, by 
 way of reprisals in regard to neutrals. They were accused of 
 neglecting to uphold the rights of maritime neutrality, of sub- 
 mitting to be searched by the English, and allowing French 
 property, with which they were loaded, to be seized on board of
 
 38 HISTORY OF THE dec. 1799 
 
 them. The Directory had declared that it would order them to 
 be subjected to precisely the same acts of violence as they 
 endured on the part of the English, to compel them to defend 
 with more energy the principles of the law of nations, in virtue 
 of which they navigated. This would certainly have been but 
 justice, if, having the power to enforce respect, they had not 
 chosen to employ it ; but the unfortunate Danes did the best 
 they could, and it was harsh to punish them for the violence 
 of others by the violence of ourselves. In pursuance of this 
 system, many of their merchantmen had been detained. 
 General Bonaparte ordered them all to be released, in token 
 of a more equitable and more moderate policy. 
 
 Duroc, who was sent to Berlin, speedily arrived there, 
 and was presented by M. Otto, who was still in that capital. 
 According to the strict rules of etiquette, Duroc, a mere aide- 
 de-camp, could not be placed in direct communication with the 
 court. All these rules were set aside for an officer attached 
 to the person of General Bonaparte. He was received by 
 the king, by the queen, and incessantly invited to Potsdam. 
 Curiosity had as great a share as policy in these attentions ; 
 for glory, in addition to its lustre, has material advantages in 
 public affairs. To see, to hear, the aide-de-camp, Duroc, was like 
 approaching, though distantly, the extraordinary man whom the 
 whole world was talking of. Duroc had borne a part in the 
 battles of the Pyramids, Mouut Tabor, and Aboukir. He was 
 asked a thousand questions, and he answered them simply, 
 truly, and without exaggeration. He appeared mild, polite, 
 modest, deeply submissive to his general, and furnished a most 
 advantageous idea of the kind of behaviour which that general 
 imposed upon all about him. The success of Duroc in Berlin 
 was complete. The queen manifested the greatest kindness 
 for him, and in all quarters people began to talk of the French 
 Republic in more favourable terms. Duroc found the young 
 king highly pleased to see a strong and moderate government 
 at length established in Paris, and, above all, nattered "at being 
 courted at one and the same time by Russia and France, 
 earnestly desiring to play the part of mediator, but having more 
 desire than ability; showing, nevertheless, great zeal and ardour 
 for performing it. 
 
 The success of this mission engaged the courts of Europe, and 
 re-echoed as far as Paris itself. The idea of a speedy peace 
 soon began to gain ground. A very specious circumstance, but 
 in itself of little consequence, contributed singularly to the pro- 
 pagation of this idea. The French and Austrian armies were in 
 presence of each other along the Rhine, and on the crests of the 
 Alps and the Apennines. On the Rhine they were stopped by 
 an obstacle sufficient to prevent any serious operation ; for the
 
 dec. 1799 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 39 
 
 passage of the Rhine by either was too great an enterprise to be 
 undertaken, unless with the determination to open the campaign. 
 It was now the month of Frimaire, that is, December ; that was, 
 therefore, not to be thought of. Skirmishes on the banks of 
 the river became, under these circumstances, a useless effusion 
 of blood. An armistice was agreed upon for this frontier. As 
 for that of the Alps and the Apennines, the case was different. 
 In that country, abounding in such diversity of situations, a well 
 combined operation in this or that valley might procure an 
 enviable position for the resumption of operations. The parties, 
 therefore, would not tie their hands in that quarter, and no 
 armistice took place there. But attention was paid only to that 
 which had been just signed upon the Rhine ; and among the 
 happy changes which people pleased themselves with expecting 
 from the new government, was classed the possibility, nay, the 
 probability of a speedy peace. 
 
 In public evils there are always a real evil and an imaginary 
 evil, the one contributing to render the other insupportable. It 
 is a great point gained to do away with the imaginary evil ; for 
 you diminish the sense of the real evil and inspire him who 
 has to endure it with the patience to await the cure, and above 
 all a disposition to submit to the proposed remedy. Under the 
 Directory people had made up their minds not to expect any- 
 thing from a weak, disrespected government, which, in order to 
 repress faction, proceeded to violence, without obtaining any of 
 the effects of strength. Everything that it did was taken in 
 bad part ; people would not expect from it any good, neither 
 would they even believe it, when, by accident, it accomplished 
 some little. Victory, which had seemed to return to that govern- 
 ment in the last days of its existence, — victory, which would have 
 brought glory to others, had not even served to gain it honour. 
 
 The accession of General Bonaparte, of whom the public was 
 in the habit of expecting everything, in point of success, had 
 changed this disposition. The imaginary evil was cured ; people 
 had confidence ; they took everything in good part. His acts 
 were certainly good in themselves ; for it was good to release 
 the hostages, to liberate the priests, to manifest pacific dis- 
 positions to Europe ; but above all the public was disposed to 
 consider them as such. A symptom of approach such as the 
 welcome given to an aide-de-camp, an armistice of no conse- 
 quence, like that which had just been signed on the Rhine, 
 were already regarded as pledges of peace. Such is the spell of 
 confidence ! It is everything for a government at its outset ; 
 and for that of the Consuls it was immense. Accordingly, 
 money flowed into the treasury, from the treasury to the armies, 
 which, content with these first supplies, waited with patience 
 for those that were promised them by-and-by. Overawed by a
 
 40 HISTORY OF THE dec. 1799 
 
 power reputed to be superior to all resistance, the parties sub- 
 mitted : the oppressing parties without claiming a right to 
 oppress any more ; the oppressed parties with the confidence 
 that they should no longer be oppressed. The good accom- 
 plished, therefore, was no doubt great ; but all that time had 
 not yet permitted to be done was added by hope. 
 
 One thing was already circulated in all quarters, on the daily 
 report of those who had transacted business with the young 
 Consul ; it was said that this soldier, above whom was placed no 
 general of the present time, and scarcely any of past times, was, 
 moreover, a consummate administrator, a profound politician. 
 All the special men with whom he had surrounded himself, to 
 whom he had listened with attention, whom he had even 
 enlightened by the justness and the promptness of his views, 
 whom he had besides protected against oppositions of every 
 kind, had not left him without being subjugated, and filled 
 with admiration. This they admitted the more cheerfully, since 
 it had become all at once the fashion to think and to say so. 
 Sometimes we do see false merit succeed for a season in capti- 
 vating the popular mind, and commanding extravagant admira- 
 tion ; but sometimes also it happens that genuine merit, that 
 genius itself, inspires this sort of caprice, which then becomes 
 a passion. It was but a month since Bonaparte had seized the 
 direction of affairs, and the impression already produced around 
 him by his powerful mind was general and profound. The good- 
 natured Roger-Ducos could talk of nothing else ; the humorist 
 Sieyes, little disposed to give way to mere fashion, especially 
 when he was not the favourite of it, acknowledged the superiority, 
 the universality of that genius for government, and paid the 
 purest of homage by leaving it to act. The panegyrists from 
 conviction were joined by those who praised from interest, and 
 who, seeing in General Bonaparte the evident chief of the new 
 Republic, set no bounds to the expression of their enthusiasm. 
 General Bonaparte had among his admirers, and, by-the-by, 
 very sincere ones, Messrs. de Talleyrand, Regnault de St. Jean 
 d'Angely, Rcederer, Boulay (de la Meurthe), Defermon, Real, 
 Dufresne, &c, who everywhere repeated that never were seen 
 such promptness, such decision, such a grasp of mind, or such 
 prodigious activity ; and it is very true that what he had 
 already accomplished in one month in all the departments of the 
 government was immense, and, what is rarely the case, that, in 
 this instance, the reality equalled all the inventions of flattery. 
 
 In all quarters he was considered as the man to whom the new 
 Constitution would attribute the greatest share of the executive 
 power. People desired not a Cromwell ; this must be admitted 
 to the honour of the men of that day ; and the friends of the 
 general said aloud that the parts of Cassar and Cromwell were
 
 dec. 1799 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 4.1 
 
 worn out, and unworthy of the genius and the virtues of the 
 young saviour of France. What they wished was, that a suffi- 
 cient concentration of the supreme authority in his hands, with 
 certain guarantees for liberty, should allow him to govern the 
 Republic prosperously and gloriously. Such was the wish of the 
 moderate revolutionists, then the most numerous. The enthu- 
 siastic revolutionists, persisting in viewing the young general as 
 a Cromwell or a Cassar, desired, nevertheless, in order that they 
 might secure their heads, or their national domains, that he 
 should have time to keep off the Bourbons and the Austrians. 
 The royalists begged him to save them from the revolutionists 
 and to reconstitute the supreme power, with some vague hope 
 that he would restore it to them after he had reconstituted it ; 
 and they were disposed, in that event, to pay him for the 
 restitution, were it even with the dignity of constable of Louis 
 XVIII., if it must be so. 
 
 Thus all awarded to him the supreme power, more or less 
 completely, for a longer or shorter period, but with different 
 views. The new legislator, Sieyes, had therefore to make a 
 place for him in the new Constitution which he was preparing. 
 But M. Sieyes was a dogmatic legislator, labouring for the 
 nature of things, at least, so he conceived, and not for circum- 
 stances, still less for one man, whoever he might be. The 
 reader may judge of this from what follows. 
 
 While his indefatigable colleague was governing, M. Sieyes 
 had at length applied himself to the task that was assigned 
 to him. To give a Constitution to France, not one of those 
 ephemeral Constitutions, the ridiculous offspring of ignorance 
 and the passions of parties, but a scientific Constitution, founded 
 on the observation of societies and the lessons of experience, 
 had been the day-dream of his life. In his solitary and morose 
 meditations he was incessantly engaged upon it. He had pon- 
 dered over it amidst the sincere but inconsiderate proceedings 
 of the Constituent Assembly, amidst the gloomy frenzy of the 
 Convention, amidst the weaknesses of the Directory. At each 
 epoch he had remodelled his work ; he had at length made 
 up his mind, and. his mind once made up, he would not alter 
 any part of his plan. He would not sacrifice a whit of it to the 
 circumstances of the times, not even to the principal character 
 of the day, to General Bonaparte, for whom, however, it was 
 absolutely necessary to prepare a place adapted to the genius 
 and the character of him who was to occupy it. 
 
 This singular legislator, always meditating, but seldom writing 
 any more than acting, had never yet committed his Constitution 
 to paper. It was in his head, from which it was now requisite 
 that he should draw it forth. This was no easy matter for him, 
 whatever desire he might feel to see it brought forward, and
 
 42 HISTORY OF THE dec. 1799 
 
 converted into law. He was urgently pressed to make it 
 known, and at length decided to communicate his ideas to 
 one of his friends, M. Boulay de la Meurthe, who undertook to 
 write it down from the conversations which they should have 
 together. In this manner that remarkable conception was 
 gradually collected with accuracy, and preserved for posterity, 
 of which it is worthy. 
 
 M. Sieyes had made a powerful effort of mind to reconcile 
 the Republic and the monarchy; he had borrowed freely from 
 each such points as were useful and necessary ; but, while- 
 borrowing from them, he had violently distrusted both. He 
 had taken infinite precautions against the demagogue spirit, on 
 the one hand, and against the royal power on the other. He 
 had thus produced a scientific and complicated work, but in 
 which everything was so nicely balanced that if it were a 
 scientific and complicated work, compact enough as a whole, 
 but which, if modified for and by General Bonaparte, or deprived 
 of one of its counterpoises, might, contrary to the intention of 
 its author, lead to nothing short of despotism. 
 
 The first care of M. Sieyes in his combinations had been to 
 guard against demagogue passions. Without stripping the 
 nation completely of that immense participation in public 
 affairs, which it had enjoyed so unfortunately for itself, he 
 wished to leave to it a power which it could not abuse. An 
 expression, which for the first time, perhaps, was in every 
 mouth, that of representative government, conveys an accurate 
 idea of the feeling afloat at this period. It was understood by 
 this expression that the nation was to take part in its govern- 
 ment only by intermediate persons, that is to say, that it was 
 to be represented ; and, as we shall soon see, it was but very 
 indirectly that it was intended to be so. 
 
 The elections under the Directory had brought in by turns 
 the royalists at one period, the Jacobins at another, and it had 
 been found expedient to exclude by violence the former on the 
 1 8th of Fructidor, the latter on the 22nd of Floreal. Thus the 
 system of elections, and especially of direct elections, had become 
 highly suspicious to everybody. Perhaps, if the government 
 had ventured to reduce the total number of the electors to one 
 hundred and fifty or two hundred thousand, it might have tried 
 to brave once more the electoral agitations. But an electoral 
 body, reduced to about the proportions of ours, would have 
 given offence but not security to the public. Two hundred 
 thousand electors granted to a nation, which had recently 
 enjoyed universal suffrage, would have appeared an aristocracy ; 
 and at the same time electors, how small soever their number, 
 choosing directly their representatives, with liberty to give 
 way to all the passions of the moment, would have appeared a
 
 dec. 1799 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 43 
 
 renewal of the continual reactions which had been witnessed 
 under the Directory. A direct but restricted mode of election, 
 such as now exists among us, was, therefore, out of the question. 
 M. Sieyes, with his habitual dogmatism, had made a maxim for 
 himself. "Confidence," said he, "must come from below, and 
 power from above." To realise this maxim, he had accordingly 
 devised the system of national representation which we are 
 about to describe. 
 
 Every person of the age of twenty-one years, having the 
 quality of Frenchman, was to be obliged, if he wished to enjoy 
 his rights, to get his name entered in a list called the Civic 
 Register. This might give a total of five or six million citizens 
 admitted to the exercise of their political rights. They were to 
 meet by arrondissements (this circumscription, which did not 
 then exist, was to be proposed), and to choose one-tenth of their 
 number. This designation of one-tenth would produce a first 
 list of five or six hundred thousand persons. These five or six 
 hundred thousand persons, meeting, in their turn, by depart- 
 ments, and again choosing one-tenth from among themselves, 
 were called to form a second list, comprehending fifty or sixty 
 thousand citizens. These proceeded to a third selection, and 
 reducing themselves again to one-tenth, formed the last list, 
 which was limited to five or six thousand candidates. These 
 three lists were called lists of notability. 
 
 The first, of five or six hundred thousand persons, was called 
 the list of the communal notability ; from it were to be taken 
 the members of the municipal administrations, those of the 
 councils of arrondissement, and other administrators on a par 
 with them, such as the maires, the functionaries whom we now 
 call sub-prefects, the judges of first instance, &c. The second 
 list, of fifty or sixty thousand persons, was called the list of the 
 departmental notability, and from this were to be chosen the 
 members of the departmental councils, the functionaries since 
 called prefects, the judges of appeal; in short, all the function- 
 aries of that order. The last and third list, of five or six thou- 
 sand persons, constituted the list of the national notability ; and 
 from this were to be taken, obligatorily, all the members of the 
 Legislative Body, all the functionaries of the higher order, 
 councillors of State, ministers, judges of the Court of Cassation. 
 &c, &c. M. Sieves, borrowing a figure from geometry, to afford 
 an idea of this national representation — broad at the base, 
 narrow at the top- — called it a pyramid. 
 
 Thus we see that, without attributing to the nation the right 
 of choosing itself the delegates charged to represent it, or the 
 functionaries charged to govern it, M. Sieyes confined his 
 ingenuity to the formation of a list of candidates, from which 
 were to be selected both the representatives of the country
 
 44 HISTORY OF THE dec. 1799 
 
 and the agents of the Executive. Every year the mass of the 
 citizens were to assemble for the purpose of erasing from these 
 lists those names that were not worthy to appear there, and to 
 replace them by others. It is to be remarked that if, on the 
 one hand, this power of designation was extremely indirect; 
 on the other, it comprehended not only the members of the 
 deliberative assemblies, but the executive functionaries them- 
 selves. This is less and more than what is usually to be found 
 in the monarchical representative system. However, the agents 
 called to perform functions purely special, and not implying any 
 political confidence, such, for instance, as those belonging to 
 the financial department, or agents called to perform functions 
 so difficult that merit, when it is met with, ought to be taken 
 wherever it may be found, such as generals and ambassadors — 
 these agents were not to be chosen obligatorily from the lists 
 of the notability. 
 
 We have shown how M. Sieyes, carrying out his maxim, 
 made "confidence come from below:" let us now explain how 
 he made "power descend from above." 
 
 Under the influence of the impressions of the day, he dreaded 
 election, because he had recently seen passionate electors choose 
 representatives as passionate as they were themselves. He 
 renounced it, therefore, and intended that, in these lists of 
 notability formed by the public confidence, the legislative power, 
 and the executive power, should be authorised to designate 
 their own members, and thus constitute themselves. He 
 imposed on them no other limit than that of selecting from 
 the lists of notability. But, before we explain the mode of for- 
 mation of the powers, we must describe their organisation. 
 
 The legislative power was to be organised as follows : firstly, 
 the Legislative Body, properly so called, placed between two 
 opposite bodies, the Tribunate and the Council of State ; 
 secondly, apart and above, the Conservative Senate. 
 
 The Legislative Body was to be composed of three hundred 
 members, who were to hear the laws discussed, not themselves 
 to discuss them, and to vote silently. How, and between whom 
 the discussion took place, is now to be shown. 
 
 A body of one hundred members, called the Tribunate, charged 
 to represent in this Constitution the liberal, innovating spirit of 
 inquiry, received communication of the laws, discussed them in 
 public, and voted, merely to decide whether it should advocate 
 their adoption or rejection before the Legislative Body. It was 
 then to appoint three of its members, to support before the Legis- 
 lative Body the opinion which had prevailed in its own bosom. 
 
 A Council of State, the origin of that which now exists, but 
 superior in importance and in attributions, was attached to the 
 government, to draw up the proposed laws ; it presented them
 
 dec. 1799 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 45 
 
 to the Legislative Body, and sent three of its members to dis- 
 cuss them in opposition to the orators of the Tribunate. Thus 
 the Council of State pleading for, the Tribunate against (that is 
 to say, if the latter had disapproved the law), the Legislative 
 Body voted in silence the adoption or rejection. Its vote alone 
 gave the character of law to the propositions of the govern- 
 ment. The Council of State was moreover to complete the laws 
 by appending the regulations necessary for their execution. 
 
 Lastly came the Senate. This body, composed of one hun- 
 dred members, took no part in these legislative labours. It 
 was charged, spontaneously, or on the denunciation of the 
 Tribunate, to annul any law or any act of government which 
 should appear to it to be tainted with unconstitutionality. For 
 this reason it was called Conservative Senate. It was to be 
 composed of men who had attained mature age, excluded, by 
 the mere fact of their belonging to the Senate, from all active 
 functions, being consequently confined exclusively to their part 
 of conservators, and having a considerable interest in perform- 
 ing it well, for M. Sieyes intended that a handsome salary 
 should be attached to it. 
 
 Such were the attributions of the deliberative powers. Here 
 follows their mode of formation. 
 
 The Senate composed itself by electing its own members out 
 of the list of the national notability. It nominated also the 
 members of the Legislative Body, of the Tribunate, and of the 
 Court of Cassation, choosing them by ballot out of that same 
 list of the national notability. 
 
 The executive power was likewise the author of its own for- 
 mation, by choosing all its agents out of whichever of the 
 three lists of notability corresponded with the offices that were 
 to be filled up. It took the ministers, the councillors of State, 
 in short, the superior agents, from the list of the national nota- 
 bility. From the list of the departmental notability it took, in 
 the first place, the councillors of department, who, like the 
 councillors of State, were considered as purely administrative 
 authorities ; it also took from it the prefects and the function- 
 aries of each department; and lastly, from the list of the com- 
 munal notability, it selected the municipal councils, the maires, 
 and all the functionaries of the like order. 
 
 Thus, as M. Sieyes designed, '"confidence came from below, 
 power came from above." 
 
 But as, above the legislative power there was a supreme 
 creator, namely, the Senate, so there was required, above the 
 executive power, a supreme creator, that should appoint the 
 ministers, who were then to appoint the functionaries, down to 
 the lowest step of the hierarchy. At the head of this executive 
 power, then, there was to be a generative power. M. Sieves had
 
 46 HISTORY OF THE dec. 1799 
 
 given its possessor a name analogous to his function ; he had 
 called him the Grand Elector. This supreme magistrate was 
 confined exclusively to one act : he was to choose two superior 
 agents, the only ones of their rank and kind, called, the one 
 Consul of peace, the other Consul of war. These then nominated 
 the ministers, who, under their personal responsibility, selected 
 all the agents of power from the lists of notability, governed, 
 administered, in short, managed the affairs of the State. 
 
 A magnificent existence was destined for this Grand Elector. 
 He was the generative principle of the government, and he was 
 likewise the outward representative of it. That inaction to 
 which M. Sieyes purposed to confine the Senators, to ensure 
 their impartiality, and to which he had attached a yearly 
 revenue of 100,000 livres in national domains — that inaction, 
 imposed upon the Grand Elector from a similar motive, was to 
 be accompanied with a much more splendid income than that 
 of the Senators, for his vocation was to represent the entire 
 Republic. M. Sieyes was for assigning him a salary of six 
 millions (.£240,000), magnificent residences, such as the Tuileries 
 in Paris, and Versailles in the country, besides a guard of 3000 
 men. It was in his name that justice was to be administered, 
 that the laws were to be promulgated, and the acts of govern- 
 ment executed. It was to him that the foreign ministers were 
 to be accredited, and with his signature that the treaties with 
 foreign powers were to be provided. In short, he united with 
 the important function of choosing the two active heads of the 
 government the splendour, call it vain, if you please, of out- 
 ward state : in him was to glitter all the luxury of a polished, 
 elegant, and magnificent nation. 
 
 This Grand Elector himself must be supplied either by elec- 
 tion or by hereditary succession. In the latter case, he would 
 be a king, and monarchy would be re-established in France. 
 But this M. Sieyes, whether he wished it or not, would not have 
 ventured openly to propose. He therefore assigned to the most 
 impartial of the bodies of the State, the Senate, the election of 
 this supreme magistrate, who himself was placed so high solely 
 that he might be as impartial as possible in his two selections. 
 
 A last formidable clause completed this complex machine. 
 
 The Senate, which had the power to annul any unconstitu- 
 tional act, law, or measure of the government, was endowed 
 moreover with the faculty of removing the Grand Elector from 
 his functions by nominating him Senator against his will. This 
 was what M. Sieyes called absorbing. The Senate might pursue 
 the same course in regard to any citizen, whose importance or 
 whose talents gave umbrage to the Republic. Thus there were 
 given to the citizen doomed to compulsory inaction by absorp- 
 tion into the Senate, — there were given to him, by way of
 
 dec. 1799 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 47 
 
 indemnification, the importance, the well-paid idleness, of the 
 members of a body which could not act of itself, but which could, 
 by its veto, prevent all action whatsoever. 
 
 In this singular but profound conception, who can fail to 
 discover an image, faint, indistinct, perhaps designed to be so, of 
 representative monarchy ? This Legislative Body, this Senate, 
 this Grand Elector, were virtually a lower house, an upper house, 
 a king, the whole resting upon a sort of universal suffrage, but 
 with such precautions that democracy, aristocracy, royalty, 
 admitted into this Constitution, were no sooner admitted than 
 nullified by it. Those lists of notability, from which the de- 
 liberative bodies and the executive functionaries were alike to be 
 selected, what were they but universal suffrage, — universal, but 
 null ? for they formed so vast a circle of candidateship, that the 
 obligation to choose from this circle was an absolute power of 
 election granted to the government and to the Senate. That 
 mute Legislative Body, listening to the discussion of the law, 
 but taking no part itself in that discussion, having at its side 
 the Tribunate, and whose mission it was to oppose in debate 
 the Council of State, was but a sort of House of Commons cut 
 in two, one half having the right of voting, the other that of 
 speaking, and both nullified by this very separation ; for the 
 first was liable to fall asleep in the silence, the second to exhaust 
 itself in barren debates. That Senate, nominating itself and all 
 the deliberative bodies, nominating the head of the executive 
 power, and, if need were, absorbing him into its bosom ; that 
 Senate, possessing all this power, but deprived of active func- 
 tions, taking no part in new laws, but merely authorised to 
 annul any that were unconstitutional ; that Senate, reduced to 
 a sort of inaction, that it might be the more disinterested, and 
 animated solely by the sentiment of conservation; that Senate 
 was an ingenious but exaggerated imitation of a titled aristo- 
 cracy, taking little part in the movement of affairs, sometimes 
 checking it by its veto, and receiving into its bosom the men 
 who, after a stormy career, gladly seek repose amidst a grave, 
 influential, and honoured body. Lastly, that Grand Elector was 
 nothing but royalty, confined to the nearly inactive yet impor- 
 tant part of choosing the acting chiefs of the government ; it 
 was royalty, but with infinite precautions against its origin and 
 its duration, for it issued from the urn of the Senate, and might, 
 upon occasion, be flung back into it again. In short, that 
 universal suffrage, that Legislative Body, that Tribunate, that 
 Senate, that Grand Elector, thus constituted, weakened, neutral- 
 ised, the one by the other, attested a prodigious effort of the 
 human mind, in order to combine all the known forms of govern- 
 ment in one Constitution, but for the purpose of afterwards 
 annulling them by dint of precautions.
 
 4 8 HISTORY OF THE dec. 1799 
 
 Representative monarchy, it must be confessed, has, with less 
 trouble and effort, by trustiug more to human nature, procured, 
 for two centuries past, an animated but not subversive liberty, 
 for one of the first nations of the world. Simple and natural 
 in its means, the British Constitution admits of royalty, aristo- 
 cracy, and democracy; then, after admitting them, it suffers 
 them to act freely, imposing upon them no other condition but 
 to govern by common consent. It does not limit the king to 
 this or that act ; it does not draw him forth by election, to 
 plunge him back afterwards ; it does not debar the peers from 
 active functions ; it does not deprive the elective assembly of 
 speech ; it does not grant universal suffrage, to render it null 
 afterwards by rendering it indirect ; it allows royalty and aristo- 
 cracy to spring from their natural source, hereditary succession ; 
 it admits of a king, of hereditary peers, but, on the other hand, 
 it leaves the nation to choose directly, according to its tastes or 
 its passions of the day, an assembly which, empowered to grant 
 or to refuse to royalty the means of governing, thus obliges it 
 to take for directing chiefs of the government those men who 
 have contrived to gain the public confidence. All that Sieyes, 
 the legislator, was in search of, was here accomplished almost 
 infallibly. Royalty, aristocracy, act no more than he wished ; 
 they merely moderate too rapid an impulsion : the elective 
 chamber, full of the passions of the country, but checked by two 
 other powers, chooses, in fact, the real leaders of the State, 
 raises them to the government, upholds them in it, or over- 
 throws them, if they have ceased to correspond with its senti- 
 ments. Here is a simple, a true constitution, because it is 
 the production of nature and of time, and not, like that of M. 
 Sieyes, the scientific but artificial work of a mind disgusted 
 with monarchy by the reign of the last Bourbons, and filled 
 with dread of a republic by ten years of storms. 
 
 Now, let us suppose the times more calm ; let us suppose 
 this Constitution of M. Sieyes put peaceably in practice, at a 
 period when the need of a powerful hand, like that of General 
 Bonaparte, would not have over-ruled all other considerations ; 
 let us suppose that vast notability established, that Senate freely 
 drawing from its own bosom the bodies of the State, and the 
 head of the government, what would have happened ? Ere long 
 the nation would have ceased to take any interest in the re- 
 newal of the lists, which would be but an impotent medium for 
 expressing its sentiments ; these lists would have become almost 
 permanent ; the Senate would have selected from them, at its 
 pleasure, the bodies of the State and the Grand Elector ; and, 
 nominating the head of the executive power, having authority to 
 remove him at any moment, holding him in absolute dependence, 
 it would have been nearly everything ; it would have been —
 
 dec. 1799 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 49 
 
 what ? — the Venetian aristocracy, with its golden book, with its 
 pompous and impotent doge, charged every year to marry the 
 Adriatic Sea — a curious spectacle, and worthy of contemplation ! 
 M. Sieyes, a man of profound and elevated mind, sincerely at- 
 tached to the liberty of his country, had, in ten years, run round 
 that circle of agitations, terrors, and disgusts, which had led 
 most of the republics of the middle ages, and the most celebrated 
 of them, that of Venice, to the golden book and a nominal 
 chief. He had arrived at last at the Venetian aristocracy, con- 
 stituted for the benefit of the men of the Revolution, since it 
 attributed, for ten years, to those who had exercised functions 
 since 1789, the privilege of figuring by right in the lists of 
 notability ; and he purposed, moreover, to reserve for himself 
 and for three or four principal personages of the day the faculty 
 of composing, for the first time, all the bodies of the State. 
 
 But aristocracy is not to be created off-hand ; despotism alone 
 is. That harassed society could not find repose but in the 
 arms of a powerful chief. In this extraordinary Constitution 
 everything was admired, everything admitted, everything ex- 
 cepting the Grand Elector, with his magnificent income, and 
 apparently nothing to do. In his stead was substituted an 
 energetic and active chief, General Bonaparte ; and, by the 
 change of a single spring, this Constitution was destined, with- 
 out any participation of its author, to lead to the imperial 
 despotism, which, with a Conservative Senate, with a mute 
 Legislative Body, we have seen governing France for fifteen 
 years, in a glorious but arbitrary manner. 
 
 When M. Sieyes had, with great effort, contrived to draw 
 forth all these combinations from the recesses of his mind, 
 where they had long been, as it were, buried, he laid them 
 before his friend, M. Boulay de la Meurthe, who committed 
 them to paper, and before various members of the two legis- 
 lative commissions, by whom they were communicated to those 
 around them. The two legislative commissions had divided into 
 sections, and in each of the two was a section of the Constitu- 
 tion. To these two united sections M. Sieyes, when he could 
 make himself master of his ideas, explained his system. That 
 system struck and astonished every one by the novelty, the 
 singularity, and the infinite art of the combinations. 
 
 In the first place, the interests of the auditors of M. Sieyes 
 were not overlooked ; for he had, as we have observed, adopted 
 a transitory disposition, which was absolutely necessary. With 
 a view to save 1 the Revolution, by keeping in power the men 
 who had been actors in it, he proposed a resolution nearly 
 resembling that by which the Convention had perpetuated itself 
 in the two Councils of the Ancients and the Five Hundred. 
 He proposed that all the men who, since 17S9. had exercised 
 
 vol. 1. n
 
 50 HISTORY OF THE dec. 1799 
 
 public functions, who had been members of the different as- 
 semblies, legislative, departmental, or municipal, should have a 
 right to be entered in the lists of notability, and that these lists 
 should not be made up afresh for ten years. Moreover, Messrs. 
 Sieyes, Koger-Ducos, and General Bonaparte were to appoint, 
 for the first time, the members of the bodies of the State, 
 in virtue of the right which they attributed to themselves of 
 framing the new Constitution. This disposition was bold, but 
 indispensable ; for, it is to be observed, that all the new men 
 who came in by means of the elections, animated with a spirit 
 of reaction then general, indulging, moreover, the ordinary 
 propensity to censure what one has not done, openly expressed 
 a detestation of the acts and the men of the ^Revolution, even 
 when they held its principles. M. Sieyes had, therefore, taken 
 his precautions against the necessity for a new 1 8th of Fructidor, 
 by ensuring for ten years the putting in practice his Constitu- 
 tion by hands of which he was sure. The ideas of M. Sieyes 
 were suited to all interests. Every one already thought that he 
 was certain of being a senator, legislator, councillor of State, or 
 tribune ; and to these charges liberal salaries were attached. 
 
 But, setting interest aside, the combinations seemed equally 
 new and skilful. Men are easily filled with enthusiasm for 
 military genius ; but they as readily conceive an enthusiasm for 
 what has the appearance of depth of mind. Sieyes the legis- 
 lator had his enthusiasts, as well as General Bonaparte had his. 
 The lists of notability appeared the happiest of combinations, 
 especially in the state of discredit into which the elective system 
 had fallen, since the elections which returned the Clichyans, 
 excluded by the revolution of Fructidor, and the Jacobins, ex- 
 cluded by means of the scissions. The idea of a Council of State 
 and a Tribunate maintaining opposite sides of each question, 
 before a mute Legislative Body, pleased persons weary of dis- 
 cussions, and urgently demanding repose. The Senate, placed 
 so high, and moreover so useful for preserving harmony, had 
 the power to get rid of eminent and dangerous citizens by 
 ostracism : all this found numerous admirers. 
 
 The Grand Elector alone appeared a singularity to men who. 
 having not yet reflected much on the English Constitution, did 
 not comprehend a magistracy, limited to the sole duty of choos- 
 ing the superior agents of the government. They thought that 
 there was too little power for a king, and too much state and 
 pomp for the mere president of a republic. In short, everybody 
 agreed that the place was not adapted to him who was to fill 
 it, namely, General Bonaparte. This place had too much shadow, 
 and too little real power ; too much shadow, because it was 
 necessary to avoid alarming the public, by making the return 
 to monarchy too manifest ; too little real power, because an
 
 dec. 1799 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 51 
 
 almost unlimited authority was needed by the man who was 
 charged to reorganise France. Certain minds, incapable of 
 comprehending the disinterestedness of a profound thinker, who 
 had studied only to make his conceptions harmonise together, 
 and not to combine the springs of his Constitution in a per- 
 sonal interest, these persons affirmed that the Grand Elector 
 could not have been invented for so active a character as General 
 Bonaparte ; that, of course, M. Sieyes could have devised it only 
 for himself ; that he reserved for himself this place, and destined 
 that of Consul of war for his young colleague. This was a 
 paltry and malicious conjecture. With great power of thought, 
 M. Sieyes combined remarkable shrewdness of observation, and 
 he had too just a conception of his own personal position, and 
 that of the conqueror of Italy, to imagine that he himself could 
 be that kind of elective king, and General Bonaparte merely his 
 minister. In this he had obeyed solely the spirit of system. 
 Other inteqjreters, less malevolent, believed, in their turn, that 
 M. Sieyes did actually destine the post of Grand Elector for 
 General Bonaparte, but with a view to tie his hands, and, above 
 all, to cause him to be speedily absorbed by the Conservative 
 Senate. The friends of liberty were not displeased with him 
 for it. The partisans of Genei'al Bonaparte could not speak of 
 this device of the Grand Elector without inveighing against it ; 
 and among them Lucien Bonaparte, who alternately crossed or 
 served the head of his family, but always capriciously, without 
 consistency or discretion ; sometimes acting the part of a brother, 
 passionately promoting the greatness of his brother ; at others, 
 the citizen hostile to despotism, Lucien Bonaparte declaimed 
 with violence against the plan of M. Sieyes. He loudly declared 
 that they needed a president of the Republic, a Council of State. 
 and very little more ; that the country was tired of babblers, and 
 wanted only men of action. These inconsiderate speeches were of 
 a nature to produce the most mischievous effect ; but, fortunately, 
 no great importance was attached to the words of Lucien. 
 
 Amidst his incessant occupations, General Bonaparte had 
 heard the rumours circulated around him respecting the plan of 
 M. Sieyes. He left his colleague to proceed, in accordance with 
 a sort of division of attributions agreed upon between them ; 
 and he declined meddling with the Constitution till the time 
 should arrive for digesting it definitively, promising himself, no 
 doubt, to accommodate to his liking the place that was destined 
 for him. The reports, however, which reached him from all 
 quarters, at last irritated him, and he expressed his displeasure 
 with his usual warmth of language — a warmth which was to be 
 regretted, and which he was not always master of. 
 
 The disapprobation which he expressed respecting some of 
 the ideas of the plan of the Constitution reached the author.
 
 52 HISTORY OF THE dec. 1799 
 
 M. Sieyes was deeply pained by it. He was, in fact, afraid 
 that, having lost, from the ignorance and violence of preceding 
 times, the opportunity of becoming the legislator of France, he 
 should lose it once more through the despotic humour of the 
 colleague he had given himself in effecting the 18th of Brumaire. 
 Though a stranger to intrigue, and destitute of activity, he 
 bestirred himself more than ever to gain, one by one, the 
 members of the two legislative sections. 
 
 Meanwhile, his friend, M. Boulay de la Meurthe, and two 
 intimate friends of General Bonaparte's, Messrs. Kcederer and 
 de Talleyrand, anxious to preserve harmony between two so 
 important personages, actively exerted themselves to reconcile 
 them. M. Boulay de la Meurthe had accepted the commission 
 to transcribe the ideas of M. Sieyes, and had thus become the 
 confidant of his plan. M. Rcederer was an old Constituent, 
 a clever man, a genuine politician after the fashion of the 
 eighteenth century, very fond of reasoning about the origin and 
 organisation of societies, and framing plans of constitutions, 
 adding to this very decided monarchical predilections. M. de 
 Talleyrand, capable of comprehending and appreciating minds, 
 even the most contrary to his own, was alike touched by the 
 acting genius of young Bonaparte, and the speculative genius of 
 Sieyes, the philosopher; he had a bias for both. He thought, 
 besides, that these two men had need of one another, and 
 earnestly strove to promote the success of the affairs of the 
 new government. Messrs. Boulay de la Meurthe, Rcederer, and 
 de Talleyrand, therefore, exerted themselves to reconcile the 
 general and the legislator. An interview was prepared ; it was 
 to take place at General Bonaparte's, in presence of Messrs. 
 Rcederer and de Talleyrand. It contributed but very little to 
 mend the matter. General Bonaparte was under the impression 
 of the reports made to him concerning the Grand Elector, 
 inactive, and liable to be absorbed by the Senate ; M. Sieyes was 
 soured by the condemnatory expressions which were attributed 
 to the general, and which had been, no doubt, exaggerated. 
 They met in the worst humour, did nothing but disagree, and 
 used the bitterest language to one another. M. Sieyes, who 
 needed composure for explaining his ideas, did not develop 
 them, on this occasion, with sufficient clearness and coherence. 
 General Bonaparte, on his part, was abrupt and impatient. 
 They inveighed against each other, and parted almost at enmity. 
 
 The mediators, in alarm, renewed their efforts to repair the 
 ill effect of this interview. They told M. Sieyes that he ought 
 to discuss with patience, to take pains to convince the general, 
 and, above all, to concede some points ; they said to the general 
 that, in this case, more forbearance than he exercised was 
 required ; that, without the support of M. Sieyes, and his
 
 dec. 1799 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 53 
 
 authority over the Council of the Ancients, General Bonaparte 
 would never have been able to obtain, on the 18th of Brumaire, 
 the decree which had put power into his hand : that M. Sieves, 
 as a political personage, had immense influence with the public ; 
 and that, in case of a conflict between the legislator and the 
 general, many would declare in favour of the legislator, as the 
 representative of the Revolution and of liberty, oppressed by a 
 soldier. The first moment was not favourable for attempting 
 a reconciliation ; it was necessary to wait a while. Messrs. 
 Boulay de la Meurthe and Rcederer devised fresh models of 
 executive power, which should remove the two difficulties on 
 which General Bonaparte appeared inflexible — the inaction of 
 the Grand Elector, and the threat of ostracism suspended over 
 his head. They first thought of a Consul with two colleagues 
 to assist him ; then of a Grand Elector, as M. Sieyes had pro- 
 jected, who should nominate the two Consuls of peace and of 
 war, but also attend their deliberations, and decide between 
 them. This was not enough to satisfy General Bonaparte, and 
 it was a great deal too much for M. Sieyes, whose plan was thus 
 overthrown. Whenever it was proposed to M. Sieyes to make 
 the head of the executive power participate in the government, 
 "It is a bit of the ancient monarchy," he would say, "that you 
 want to give me. I won't have it." In fact, he would hear 
 nothing but the royalty of England, minus the title of king, 
 irremovability, and hereditary succession. This was still very 
 far from the mark, and M. Sieyes, with that promptness 
 of discouragement incident to speculative minds, when they 
 find obstacles thrown in their way by the nature of things, M. 
 Sieyes said that he would have nothing further to do with the 
 matter ; that he would quit Paris, retire to the country, and leave 
 young Bonaparte alone, with his nascent despotism revealed to 
 every eye. "He means to go?" said the general; "let him. 
 I will get a Constitution drawn up by Rcederer, propose it to 
 the two legislative sections, and satisfy public opinion, which 
 requires the affair to be settled." He deceived himself when he 
 talked in that manner, for it was still too early to show France 
 his sword quite unsheathed ; he would have met with unexpected 
 resistance in more quarters than one. 
 
 Nevertheless, these two men, who, in spite of their instinctive 
 dislike, had managed to agree for a moment to consummate the 
 1 8th of Brumaire. were destined to come to an understanding 
 once more to make a Constitution. The reports which were 
 circulated had roused the legislative commissions; they knew 
 what language Lucien Bonaparte held ; how decided a tone 
 the general took upon the subject; what a disposition to relin- 
 quish everything was manifested by M. Sieves. They said to 
 themselves, ami verv iusrlv, that, after all. it was mi them the
 
 54 HISTORY OF THE dec. 1799 
 
 task of framing a Constitution properly devolved; that they 
 ought to do their duty, draw up a plan, present it to the 
 Consuls, and force them to agree, after effecting a reasonable 
 compromise between them. 
 
 They accordingly fell to work ; and, as the ideas of M. Sieyes 
 had been communicated to some of the members of the com- 
 mission, and had been approved by these, they adopted his plan 
 as the basis of theirs. To a systematic mind, the adoption of 
 all its ideas save one causes it almost as much vexation as the 
 rejection of the whole. To take the plan of M. Sieyes for the 
 basis of the new Constitution, was, nevertheless, an important 
 concession. He began, at length, to grow somewhat calmer; and 
 General Bonaparte, seeing the commissions apply themselves to 
 their task, and prosecute it resolutely, became himself a great 
 deal milder. This moment was seized for a new attempt at re- 
 conciliation. A second interview took place between M. Sieyes 
 and the general, at which Messrs. Boulay de la Meurthe, 
 Rcederer, and de Talleyrand were present. This time the two 
 principal interlocutors were more calm, and more disposed to 
 agree. Instead of jostling one another as before, by dwelling, 
 in preference, on the points upon which they disagreed, they 
 strove, on the contrary, to arrive at a better understanding, by 
 introducing those topics only upon which their opinions chimed. 
 M. Sieyes was moderate and full of tact ; the general displayed 
 his usual good sense and originality of mind. The subject of 
 their conversation was the state of France, the vices of the pre- 
 ceding Constitutions, and the precautions to be taken in a new 
 Constitution to prevent the past disorders. On all this they 
 could not fail to agree. They separated, therefore, pleased with 
 one another; and they promised, as soon as the sections had 
 finished their work, to call them together for the purpose of 
 adopting or modifying their propositions, and, at length, relin- 
 quishing the provisional system, which began to displease every- 
 body. M. Sieyes had thenceforward the certainty that, excepting 
 his Grand Elector, and some attributions of the Conservative 
 Senate, he should carry the adoption of his entire Constitution. 
 
 In the first ten days of Frimaire (from the 20th of November 
 to the 1st of December) the sections had completed their plan. 
 General Bonaparte summoned them to his residence, to meet- 
 ings at which the Consuls were to be present. Some members 
 of the sections thought this convocation not very consistent 
 with their dignity ; and yet, having made up their minds to 
 pass over many difficulties, to concede much to the man who 
 was so necessary, they complied with the summons. 
 
 The sittings commenced immediately. At the first, M. Sieyes 
 was charged to communicate his plan, since that plan was the 
 very foundation of the work of the commissions. This he did
 
 dec. 1799 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 55 
 
 with a force of thought and language which produced the 
 strongest impression on his hearers. "All this is fine and pro- 
 found," said the general; "yet there are several points which 
 deserve serious discussion. But let us proceed regularly ; let 
 us consider consecutively the different parts of the plan, and 
 choose a secretary. Citizen Daunou, take the pen." Thus it 
 was that M. Daunou became the compiler of the new Constitu- 
 tion. This labour occupied several sittings, and the following 
 resolutions were agreed upon. 
 
 The lists of the communal, departmental, and national nota- 
 bility were successively adopted. They were too well calculated 
 to neutralise the popular action, by rendering it indirect, not 
 to suit the apprehensions of the moment, and the notions of 
 General Bonaparte. Two accessory provisions, the one con- 
 formable, the other contrary, to the ideas of M. Sieyes, were 
 adopted. It was decided that the functionaries of every kind 
 should not be obligatorily chosen from the lists of notability, 
 unless when the Constitution should have designated them by 
 name. No objection, indeed, was made to the selection of the 
 members of the deliberative bodies, the consuls, the ministers, 
 the judges, the administrators, from these lists ; but generals, 
 ambassadors ! that appeared exorbitant. The second decision 
 was relative, not to the groundwork of the plan, but to the 
 necessity of adapting it to the then state of things. Instead 
 of putting off the reformation of the lists for ten years, it was 
 deferred to the year IX., that is to say, for one year; and it 
 was agreed that all the members of the great bodies of the 
 State should be nominated immediately by an act of the con- 
 stituent power, and that the persons so nominated should be 
 entered as of right in the first lists. The revision, instead of 
 being annual, was to be triennial. 
 
 They next proceeded to the organisation of the great powers. 
 The maxim of M. Sieyes, "confidence ought to come from 
 below, power ought to come from above," entirely prevailed. 
 The rigrht of electing was placed above; but with the obliira- 
 tion to choose out of the lists of notability. The Senate of 
 M. Sieyes was adopted, as well as the Legislative Body, placed 
 between the Council of State and the Tribunate. The Senate 
 was to choose from the lists of notability, in the first place the 
 Senatoi's themselves, then the members of the Legislative Body, 
 of the Tribunate, of the Court of Cassation, of the Commission 
 of Accountability (since Court of Accounts), and, lastly, the 
 chief or chiefs of the executive power. However, the Senate 
 — and this was ;i considerable limitation of its attributions — 
 was to nominate the Senators only upon the presentation of 
 three candidates, one proposed by the Consuls, another by the 
 Legislative Hodv. and the third by the Tribunate. As for the
 
 56 HISTORY OF THE dec. 1799 
 
 Council of State, this body, forming part of the executive 
 power, was to be nominated by that power. Besides the 
 faculty of making the most important nominations, the Senate 
 received the supreme attribution of repealing laws or acts of 
 the government tainted with unconstitutionality. For the rest, 
 it was not to have any part in the making of the laws ; and its 
 members could not exercise active functions. 
 
 The Legislative Body, mute, agreeably to the plan of M. 
 Sieyes, was to listen to the contradictory arguments of three 
 councillors of State and three tribunes, and then to vote, 
 without discussion, on the propositions of the government. 
 
 The Tribunate alone had the faculty of publicly discussing 
 the laws ; but it was to vote merely for the purpose of deciding 
 what opinion it should support before the Legislative Body. 
 Its vote, even negative, did not prevent the law from being 
 law, if the Legislative Body had adopted it. The Tribunate 
 had not the initiative of legal propositions ; but it could express 
 its wishes ; it received petitions, and transmitted them to the 
 different authorities whom they concerned. 
 
 The Senate was to consist of 80 members instead of 100, as 
 M. Sieyes at first desired : 60 to be nominated immediately, 
 20 in the course of the ensuing ten years. The Legislative 
 Body was to be composed of 300 members, the Tribunate of 
 100. The Senators were to enjoy a salary of 25,000 francs 
 per annum; the legislators 10,000 ; the tribunes 15,000. So 
 far the plan of M. Sieyes was adopted entire, excepting some 
 limitations in the authority of the Senate. But this plan was 
 destined to undergo considerable modification in the organisation 
 of the executive power. 
 
 This was the capital point, and on this General Bonaparte 
 was inflexible. M. Sieyes, already resigned to the rejection 
 of this part of his plan, was nevertheless invited to explain his 
 ideas. Accordingly, he proposed the institution of the Grand 
 Elector before the assembled commissions. No one, it must 
 be admitted, not even General Bonaparte, had then reflected 
 sufficiently on the organisation of the powers in a free govern- 
 ment, to comprehend the profundity of that conception, and 
 to discover the analogy which it presented with the king of 
 the English monarchy. But General Bonaparte, had he turned 
 his mind to the consideration of the question in this point of 
 view, would not have assented to it on any account, from 
 motives purely personal, and which it is easy to comprehend. 
 He criticised with sarcastic humour this Grand Elector. Con- 
 cerning his splendid idleness he said what all kings say, only 
 with less wit than he, and less foundation ; for, in presence 
 of a subverted society to reorganise, of sanguinary factions to 
 quell, of the world to conquer, it was excusable to wish to
 
 dec. 1799 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 57 
 
 reserve for himself the full and free employment of his genius. 
 But if, in these first days of the Consulate, when there were so 
 many things to be done, he was perhaps right in not suffering 
 his talents to be fettered ; afterwards, sublime victim of misfor- 
 tune at St. Helena, he must have regretted the liberty that was 
 given him to exercise them without restraint. Cramped in the 
 employment of his faculties, undoubtedly he would not have 
 achieved such mighty things, but he would not have attempted 
 such extravagant things ; and his sceptre and his sword would 
 probably have remained till his death in his glorious hands. 
 
 " Your Grand Elector," said he to M. Sieyes, " is a do-nothing 
 king, and the time of do-nothing kings is gone by. What man 
 of head and heart would submit to such a sluggish life, at the 
 price of six millions and an abode in the Tuileries ? What ! 
 nominate persons who act and not act oneself ! it is inadmissible. 
 And, then, you think by this device to prevent your Grand 
 Elector from intermeddling in the government. Were I this 
 Grand Elector, I would nevertheless engage to do all that you 
 wished me not to do. I would say to the two Consuls of peace 
 and war, ' If you do not choose such a person, or if you do not 
 take such a measure, I will turn you out.' And I would soon 
 oblige them to act as I pleased. I would make myself master 
 again in a roundabout way." 
 
 Here General Bonaparte himself, with his usual sagacity, 
 penetrated the truth, and discovered that this inaction of the 
 Grand Elector was not a state of nullity ; for this supreme 
 magistrate had, at certain moments, the means of reappearing 
 omnipotent in the arena where the parties were disputing for 
 power, by coming to withdraw it from the one for the purpose 
 of conferring it on the other. But this superintendence of 
 English royalty over the government could not suit that ardent 
 young man ; and he must be pardoned for it, for this was neither 
 the place nor the time for constitutional royalty. 
 
 The Grand Elector perished under the sarcasms of the young 
 general, and under a power much greater than that of sarcasms, 
 the power of present necessity. At that time, a real dictator- 
 ship was, in fact, required, and the authority attributed to the 
 Grand Elector was far from adequate to the wants of the 
 moment. 
 
 There was another part of the institution proposed by M. 
 .Sieves which General Bonaparte as decidedly rejected, because 
 he could not help regarding it as a snare: this was the faculty 
 of absorption assigned to tin- Senate, not only in regard to the 
 Grand Elector, but to every eminent citizen whose greatness 
 might give umbrage. 
 
 The general would not consent that, after several years' emi- 
 nent services, anv one should have the power 1o burv liim alive
 
 58 HISTORY OF THE dec. 1799 
 
 in the bosom of the Senate, and to reduce him to forced idle- 
 ness, for a pension of 25,000 francs. He obtained satisfaction 
 on this new point : and the executive power was definitively 
 organised in the following manner. 
 
 It was agreed to institute a First Consul, accompanied by 
 two others, to disguise in some measure the omnipotence of the 
 former. This First Consul had the direct and sole nomination 
 of the members of the general administration of the Republic, 
 of the members of the departmental and municipal Councils, 
 of the administrators since called prefects and sub-prefects, 
 of the municipal agents, &c. He had the nomination of all 
 military and naval officers, of the councillors of State, of the 
 ministers sent to foreign powers, of the civil and criminal 
 judges, excepting the juges de paix and the members of the 
 Court of Cassation. He could not depose the judges when 
 once appointed : irremovability was therefore substituted to 
 election, as a guarantee of independence. 
 
 Besides the nomination of the administrative officers, military 
 and judicial, the First Consul had the entire government, the 
 direction of war and diplomacy ; he signed treaties, without 
 prejudice to their discussion and adoption by the Legislative 
 Body, in the same form as laws. In these various functions he 
 was to be assisted by the two other Consuls, who had merely a 
 consultative voice, but who could record their opinion in a 
 register of deliberations kept for that purpose. Evidently, 
 those two Consuls were placed there to mask the immense 
 authority assigned to General Bonaparte — an authority, the 
 duration of which was pretty long, and might even become 
 perpetual ; for the three Consuls were elected for ten years, and, 
 moreover, indefinitely re-eligible. A vestige of the absorption 
 devised by M. Sieyes was retained. The First Consul, on 
 quitting office, by resignation or otherwise, became a Senator 
 in full right, that is to say, was thenceforward excluded from 
 public functions. The two other Consuls, not having exercised 
 the plenitude of power, were at liberty to refuse this well- 
 endowed but nullifying appointment, and were not to become 
 Senators unless they consented to be so. 
 
 The First Consul was to have an annual allowance of 500,000 
 francs (,£20,000 sterling), and each of the others of 150,000 
 francs (^"6000 sterling). All three were to reside in the 
 Tuileries. A consular guard was to attend them. 
 
 Such were the principal provisions of the famous Constitution 
 of the year VIII. Thus M. Sieyes saw the attributions of the 
 Senate curtailed, and an all-powerful chief substituted for his 
 inactive Grand Elector; which caused his Constitution to lead, 
 a few years later, not to aristocracy but to despotism. 
 
 This Constitution comprehended no declaration of rights,
 
 dec. 1799 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 59 
 
 but, by means of some general provisions, it guaranteed indi- 
 vidual liberty, the inviolability of the citizen's dwelling, the 
 responsibility of ministers, and that of the inferior agents, 
 without prejudice, in the case of the latter, to the previous 
 approbation of prosecution by the Council of State. It stipu- 
 lated that a law might, in certain departments, and in certain 
 extraordinary cases, suspend the action of the Constitution, 
 which was equivalent to what we have since called putting in a 
 state of siege. It ensured pensions to the widows and children 
 of soldiers, and lastly, by a sort of reversion to ideas long pro- 
 scribed, it laid down as a principle that national rewards might 
 be granted to men who should have rendered eminent services. 
 This was the germ of an institution since celebrated : that of 
 the Legion of Honour. 
 
 The plan of M. Sieyes contained two forcible and admirable 
 ideas, both of which have been retained in our administrative 
 organisation ; the division of the country into arrondissements 
 and the Council of State. 
 
 Thus M. Sieyes was the author of all the administrative cir- 
 cumscriptions of France. He had already conceived the division 
 into departments and induced its adoption ; he wished on this 
 occasion that the cantonal administrations, which existed to the 
 number of five thousand, should be superseded by administra- 
 tions of arrondissement, which, much less numerous, were a 
 more convenient intermediate between the commune and the 
 department. The principle only was laid down in the Constitu- 
 tion ; but it was agreed that a law should ere long reform, upon 
 this principle, the administrative system in France, and put an 
 end to the communal anarchy, a melancholy picture of which 
 has been given above. There was to be a tribunal of first 
 instance for each arrondissement, and a tribunal of appeal for 
 several united departments. 
 
 The second of the creations of M. Sieyes, which belongs 
 exclusively to himself, is the Council of State, a deliberative body 
 attached to the executive power, preparing the laws, supporting 
 them before the legislative power, adding to them the regula- 
 tions which ought to accompany the laws, and rendering the 
 laws administrative. This is the most practical of his concep- 
 tions, and, with the preceding, it must outlive the present and 
 subsist in future times. To the honour of this legislator be it 
 said, Time has swept away all the ephemeral Constitutions of 
 the Revolution, but the only parts of these Constitutions which 
 have survived have been his work. 
 
 It was not enough to settle the dispositions of the new Con- 
 stitution ; it was indispensable to add to it the personnel of the 
 powers, to seek it in the men of the Revolution, and even to 
 designate it in the constitutional act. It was requisite, therefore.
 
 60 HISTORY OF THE dec. 1799 
 
 after determining all the dispositions that have just been enume- 
 rated, to direct attention to the choice of the persons. 
 
 General Bonaparte was nominated First Consul for ten years. 
 It cannot be said that he was chosen, so strongly was he indi- 
 cated by the situation : he was accepted from the hands of 
 victory and necessity. His position once fixed, the next point 
 was to find one for M. Sieyes. This great personage had little 
 turn for business, and still less for secondary parts. It did not 
 suit him to be the assistant of young Bonaparte, and he refused, 
 in consequence, to be second Consul. We shall see presently 
 what place more conformable to his character was assigned 
 to him. For second Consul was chosen M. Cambaceres, an 
 eminent lawyer, who had acquired high importance among the 
 political characters of the time by great knowledge, prudence, 
 and tact. He was at this period minister of justice. M. Lebrun, 
 a distinguished writer, who had drawn up the Maupeou edicts, 
 classed, under the old government, among the men disposed to 
 wise reforms, ever faithful to the cause of moderate Revolution, 
 well versed in financial matters, and too mild to be a trouble- 
 some contradictor, M. Lebrun was selected for third Consul. 
 M. Cambacdres could ably second General Bonaparte in the 
 administration of justice ; M. Lebrun could be a useful assis- 
 tant to him in the administration of the finances ; and both 
 could aid him essentially without crossing him in any way. 
 It was impossible to associate more suitably the men destined 
 to compose the new government ; and from these appoint- 
 ments were to flow all the others in the organisation of the 
 executive power. 
 
 It was necessary to proceed to the composition of the delibe- 
 rative bodies. There the natural part for M. Sieyes was pointed 
 out of itself. It had been written in the Constitution that the 
 Senate should elect the members of all the deliberative bodies. 
 The point was to decide who should compose the Senate for the 
 first time. It was decreed by a special article of the Consti- 
 tution that Messrs. Sieyes and Roger-Ducos, who were about to 
 cease to be Consuls, conjointly with Messrs. Cambaceres and 
 Lebrun, who were on the point of becoming so, should nomi- 
 nate the absolute majority of the Senate, that is, 31 members 
 out of 60. The 31 Senators elected in this manner were then 
 to elect by ballot the 29 who were deficient. The Senate, as 
 soon as it was complete, was to compose the Legislative Body, 
 the Tribunate, and the Court of Cassation. 
 
 By means of these different combinations, General Bonaparte 
 found himself at the head of the executive power, but, at the 
 same time, a sort of delicacy was observed in excluding him 
 from the composition of the deliberative bodies called to con- 
 trol his acts ; this duty was left principally to M. Sieyes, whose
 
 dec. 1799 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 6\ 
 
 active part would then be finished, and to him the presidency 
 of the Senate was ensured, as a retirement. The positions were 
 thus suitably settled and appearances saved. 
 
 It was decided that the Constitution should be submitted to 
 the national opinion, by means of registers opened at the mairies, 
 and at the offices of the justices of peace, notaries, and clerks 
 of the tribunals, and that, till its acceptance, of which no 
 doubt appeared to be entertained, the First Consul, the retiring 
 Consuls, and the two Consuls elect, should proceed to make 
 those appointments with which they were charged, so that, on 
 the 1 st of Nivose, the great powers of the State might be con- 
 stituted, and ready to put in practice the new Constitution. It 
 was indispensable to put an end to that dictatorship of the 
 Provisional Consuls, which began to produce a gloom in some 
 minds, and to satisfy the general impatience that was felt to 
 see at last a definitive government established. Everybody, in 
 fact, longed for a stable and just government, which should 
 ensure the strength and unity of power, without stifling all 
 liberty ; under which honest and capable men, of all ranks and 
 of all parties, should find the place that was due to them. 
 These wishes, it must be admitted, it was not impossible to 
 satisfy under the Constitution of the year VIII. ; it would 
 even have satisfied them completely, but for those violences to 
 which it was subjected at a later period by an extraordinary 
 genius, which, however, favoured as it was by circumstances, 
 would have overthrown much stronger barriers than those that 
 the legislative work of M. Sieyes, or any other which it was 
 then possible to devise, could have opposed to it. 
 
 The Constitution, decreed in the night between the 1 2th 
 and the 13th of December (21st and 22nd Frimaire), was 
 promulgated on the 15th of December 1799, to the great 
 satisfaction of its authors, and of the public itself. 
 
 It charmed the minds of all by the novelty of the ideas, 
 by the skill of the contrivances. Everybody began to feel 
 confidence in it, and in the men who were about to carry it 
 into execution. 
 
 It was preceded by the following preamble : — 
 
 " Citizens ! 
 
 " The Constitution, now promulgated, puts an end to the 
 uncertainty caused by the Provisional Government in the 
 external relations, and in the internal and military situation 
 of the Republic. 
 
 " It places in the institutions which it establishes the first 
 magistrates, whose devotedness has appeared necessary to its 
 act ivity. 
 
 "The Constitution is founded on the true principles of
 
 62 HISTORY OF TEE CONSULATE. dec. 1799 
 
 representative government, on the sacred rights of property, of 
 equality, and of liberty. 
 
 " The powers which it institutes will be strong and stable, 
 as they must be, in order to guarantee the rights of the citizens 
 and the interests of the State. 
 
 " Citizens ! The Eevolution is confined to the principles 
 which commenced it : IT IS FINISHED." 
 
 Two such men as General Bonaparte and M. Sieyes proclaim- 
 ing in 1800, " The Revolution is finished!" What a singular 
 proof of the illusions of the human mind ! Still it must be 
 admitted that something was finished — that was anarchy. 
 
 Great was the joy of all those, who had had a hand in this 
 work, to see it finished. Some of the ideas of M. Sieyes had 
 been rejected ; nearly his whole Constitution was nevertheless 
 adopted, and, without an absolute power, like that of Solon, 
 Lycurgus, or Mahomet, a power which, in our times of doubt, 
 no man can obtain, it was scarcely possible to infuse a larger 
 portion of his conception into the Constitution of a great 
 people. And, such as it was, if the conqueror of Marengo 
 had not afterwards made two considerable changes in it — the 
 addition of the imperial succession, and the retrenchment of 
 the Tribunate — this Constitution might have furnished a career 
 which would not have been the triumph of absolute power. 
 
 M. Sieyes, having put the sword which had served to over- 
 throw the Directory into the hand of General Bonaparte, 
 having framed a Constitution, was about to consign France to 
 the devouring activity of the young Consul, and to retire, for 
 his own part, into that meditative idleness, which he preferred 
 to the stirring bustle of business. The new First Consul was 
 desirous to give to the legislator of France a testimonial of 
 national gratitude : at his instigation, the gift of the estate 
 of Crosne was proposed to the legislative commissions. This 
 gift was decreed, and announced to M. Sieyes with the noblest 
 expressions of public gratitude. M. Sieyes was highly gratified ; 
 for, notwithstanding an incontestable probity, he had a relish 
 for the indulgences of fortune, and he could not but be touched 
 also by the dignified and delicate manner in which this national 
 recompense was bestowed on him. 
 
 Preparations were then made for putting the Constitution 
 in force in the first days of January 1 800 (Nivose, year VIII. ), 
 that is, in the first days of the year which was about to close 
 that extraordinary century.
 
 BOOK II. 
 
 INTERNAL GOVERNMENT. 
 
 THE 4th Nivose of the year VIII. (25th of December 1799) 
 was the day appointed for the entry of the Consuls on 
 their functions, and the first sitting of the Conservative Senate. 
 Numerous appointments were necessarily made prior to that 
 date, it being requisite to organise both the Executive Power 
 and the Senate before they could proceed to business. 
 
 General Bonaparte, upon whom it devolved to appoint the 
 agents of the Executive Power, as well as Messrs. Sieyes, 
 Roger-Ducos, Cambaceres, and Lebrun, who were entrusted 
 with the selection of the members of the Senate (who again, in 
 their turn, had to choose the members of the Legislative Body 
 and the Tribunate), were beset by solicitations from every 
 quarter. The applicants sought to be appointed either Senators 
 or members of the Legislative Body, Tribunes, Councillors of 
 State, or Prefects ; and really these important posts, all con- 
 ferring handsome emoluments, and all to be filled up at once, 
 were calculated to tempt the ambitious. Many fiery revolu- 
 tionists, enemies of the 1 8th Brumaire, were already wonderfully 
 appeased. Many of those waverers, who only make up their 
 minds after success, were beginning to express their sentiments 
 aloud. There was at that time, as there always is, an expression 
 of the day, which depicted to a nicety the state of the public 
 mind. "We must speak out" (il faut se montrcr), were words 
 in every mouth ; " we must show that, far from wishing to throw 
 fresh obstacles in the way of the new government, we are, on 
 the contrary, ready to assist in overcoming those which surround 
 it;" which, in reality, meant, that the speaker was anxious to 
 attract the notice of the five personages who had all the pat- 
 ronage in their hands. Among the applicants, there were 
 even some who, to secure their appointment to the Tribunate, 
 promised their zealous support to the Consular government, 
 although they had beforehand made up their minds to pursue 
 towards it a system of vexatious annoyance. 
 
 In revolutions, when the fire of the passions begins to burn 
 low, cupidity may be seen to succeed violence, and the terror 
 of the spectator is almost suddenly changed into disgust. Were 
 
 63
 
 64 HIS TOBY OF THE dec. 1799 
 
 it not that deeds of lofty virtue and heroic actions covered with 
 their lustre the sad details ; and especially were it not that the 
 vast and beneficial results which nations derive from social 
 revolutions compensated for the present evil by an immensity 
 of good to come, we might well turn our eyes from the spectacle 
 which they present to the world. But they are the trials to 
 which Providence subjects human society for its regeneration, 
 and we ought, therefore, to study with care, and, if possible, 
 with advantage, the scene alternately repulsive and sublime. 
 
 It appears that the impulse thus given to the ambitious of all 
 classes was strong enough to attract the attention of public 
 writers, and to afford a subject for their pens. Even the 
 Moniteur, which was not yet an official organ, but became so a 
 few days later (the 7th Nivose) — the Moniteur felt called on to 
 stigmatise the meanness displayed by the applicants. 
 
 " Since the Constitution," said that paper, " has created a 
 number of well-paid posts, how many people are in a stir ! how 
 many faces, little known, are anxious to show themselves ! how 
 many forgotten names are again wriggling under the dust of the 
 Revolution ! how many haughty republicans of the year VII. 
 are humbling themselves, that they may reach the ear of the 
 man of power, who can provide for them ! What numbers of 
 Brutuses are soliciting appointments ! how many men of slender 
 abilities are extolled to the skies ! what trifling services are 
 exaggerated ! how many bloody spots are hidden from sight ! 
 This wonderful change of scene has taken place in a moment. 
 Let us hope that the hero of liberty, he who has hitherto dis- 
 tinguished himself in the Revolution only by conferring benefits, 
 will view these manoeuvres with the disgust which they excite 
 in every noble mind, and that he will not tolerate the attempt 
 of a crowd of obscure or disreputable individuals to shroud them- 
 selves under the rays of his glory." — Moniteur of the 3rd Nivose. 
 
 Let us, however, in fairness, separate the good from the bad, 
 and let it not be supposed that the above picture was that of 
 the whole nation. If there were men who demeaned themselves, 
 and others who, without stooping so low, yet put themselves 
 forward, some at least awaited in a becoming manner the appeal 
 which the government was about to make to their intelligence 
 and zeal. If M. Constant, for instance, sought to be admitted 
 to the Tribunate with eagerness and great assurances of de- 
 votedness to the Bonaparte family, Messrs. de Tracy, Volney, 
 Monge, Carnot, Gringuene, and Ducis made no applications, but 
 left it to the free choice of the constituent power to include them 
 or not in that vast nomination of public functionaries. 
 
 On the 24th of December (3rd Nivose) the new Consuls met, 
 and proceeded to appoint the members of the Council of State, 
 in order that the installation of the government might take
 
 dec. 1799 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 65 
 
 place the next day, 25th of December (4th Nivose). Messrs. 
 Sieyes and Roger-Ducos, the two Consuls going out, along with 
 Messrs. Cambac^res and Lebrun, the two coming into office, 
 then proceeded to the Luxembourg to nominate thirty-one 
 members (one more than a moiety) of the Senate, in order 
 that that body might meet on the following day, choose the 
 remaining members, and proceed to the formation of the great 
 deliberating bodies. 
 
 The Council of State was divided into five sections ; the first 
 of the finances, the second of civil and criminal legislation, the 
 third of war, the fourth of the marine, the fifth of the interior. 
 Each section was to be presided over by a Councillor of State, 
 and the entire Council by the First Consul ; or, in his absence, by 
 one of his two colleagues, Cambaceres or Lebrun. 
 
 Each section was to draw up the bills (projets de hi), and the 
 regulations relating to the matters within its competence. These 
 bills and regulations were afterwards to be discussed in a general 
 assembly of all the sections. The Council of State was further 
 charged to decide contested points of administration, and disputes 
 as to competence, both betwixt the civil tribunals and the adminis- 
 tration, and between the tribunals themselves. These are the 
 very powers which it exercises at the present day ; but at that 
 period it possessed solely the privilege of drawing up the laws, 
 with the exclusive right to discuss them before the Legislative 
 Body ; and, further, it was made acquainted with great govern- 
 ment questions, and sometimes with those of foreign policy, as 
 several instances in the sequel will show. The Council of State, 
 therefore, was not at that period a mere Council of Administra- 
 tion, bat a real Council of Government. 
 
 Several members of that body were also charged, in the 
 different ministerial departments, with certain specific services, 
 to which it was thought desirable either to attach greater im- 
 portance, or to secure extraordinary attention : these were the 
 departments of Public Instruction, the Treasury, the Domains, 
 (Woods and Forests), the Colonies, and Public Works. The 
 Councillors of State charged with the management of these 
 various branches were placed under the authority of the proper 
 minister. The members of the Council of State were to enjoy 
 the handsome salary of 25,000 francs (^IOOO sterling) each, and 
 the presidents 35.000 francs each (,£1400 sterling). These sums, 
 it must be borne in mind, were, at that time, more considerable 
 than they would be now-a-days. The appointments to the 
 Council of State were more sought after than the appointments 
 to the Senate, because, besides enjoying the same emoluments 
 as the Senators and equal rank, the Councillors participated, 
 as much as the ministers themselves, in the management of the 
 most important business. 
 
 vol. 1. E
 
 66 HISTORY OF THE dec. 1799 
 
 The principal members of this important body were — in the 
 section of war, Messrs. Lacuee, Brune, and Marmont; in the 
 section of the marine, Messrs. de Champagny, Ganteaume, and 
 Fleurieu; in the section of the finances, Messrs. Defermon, 
 Duchatel, and Dufresne ; in the section of justice, Messrs. Boulay 
 de la Meurthe, Berlier, and Real ; in the section of the interior, 
 Messrs. Rcederer, Cretet, Chaptal, Regnault de Saint-Jean- 
 d'Angely, and Fourcroy. The five presidents were Messrs. 
 Brune, Ganteaume, Defermon, Boulay de la Meurthe, and 
 Roederer. It would certainly have been impossible to select 
 names of greater note, or talents more genuine and diverse. 
 
 I must observe, that the French Revolution had been prodi- 
 giously prolific of men of talent in every profession, and that 
 there were materials for composing a most diversified, able, and, 
 let me add, glorious phalanx of government officers : provided 
 only that no attention were, in future, paid to the exclusions 
 pronounced by one party against another. This was the course 
 pursued by the new Consul. He appointed, for instance, to the 
 section of the finances, M. Devaisnes, loudly accused, at that 
 time, of royalism ; but possessing, in that branch of business, 
 a practical knowledge which had been, and has since been, 
 extremely useful. 
 
 On the same day, 24th of December (3rd Nivose), Messrs. 
 Sieyes, Roger-Ducos, Cambaceres, and Lebrun met for the 
 purpose of nominating twenty-nine Senators, who, with the two 
 Consuls about to go out of office, should form together thirty- 
 one members. The list, as might be supposed, had been pre- 
 viously prepared ; it contained names of high standing, such 
 as Messrs. Berthollet, Laplace (lately minister of the interior), 
 Monge, Tracy, Volney, Cabanis, Kellerman, Garat, Lacepede, and 
 Ducis. The last named declined the post. 
 
 On the following day, 25th of December (4th Nivose), the 
 Council of State met for the first time. The Consuls, accom- 
 panied by the ministers, were present at the sitting. The sub- 
 ject under deliberation was a bill to fix the reciprocal relations 
 of the great bodies of the State. Several measures, which it was 
 necessary to prepare for presentation to the Legislative Body in 
 the approaching session, were also agreed upon. 
 
 The Senate, on the other hand, met at the palace of the 
 Luxembourg, and proceeded to elect twenty-nine new members, 
 who, added to the thirty-one already chosen, made the number 
 of Senators in all sixty. The reader will remember that this 
 number was subsequently to be increased to eighty. The sup- 
 plemental list also contained some very distinguished characters, 
 such as Messrs. Lagrange, Darcet, Frauc.ois de Neuf chateau, 
 Daubenton, Bougainville, Perregaux the banker ; and, lastly, a 
 man of very old family, M. de Choiseul-Praslin.
 
 dec. 1799 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 67 
 
 In the following days the Senate was engaged in forming the 
 Legislative Body and the Tribunate. For the Legislative Body 
 they chose the moderate men of every period; members of 
 the Constituent Assembly, of the Legislative Assembly, of the 
 National Convention, and of the Five Hundred. Care was taken 
 to select from these different assemblies such men as had little 
 courted distinction and popularity, or panted for success in the 
 turmoil of public affairs ; whilst those who were known for the 
 contrary tastes were reserved for the Tribunate. Consequently, 
 the three hundred names which composed the Legislative Body 
 could not be very brilliant ; and it would be difficult to discover 
 in that numerous list two or three names which are known at 
 the present day. One of them was the modest and brave 
 Latour-d'Auvergne, a hero worthy of antiquity for his virtues, 
 his exploits, and his glorious end. 
 
 Among the hundred members of the Tribunate, selected 
 with the very natural, but ere long bitterly repented, object 
 of affording a field for active, stirring minds, desirous of fame, 
 were many celebrated personages, some of whose names may be 
 somewhat effaced, but are not altogether forgotten at this hour. 
 They were Messrs. Chenier, Andrieux, Chauvelin, Stanislas de 
 Girardin, Benjamin Constant, Daunou, Riouffe,Berenger,Ganilh, 
 Ginguene, Laromiguiere, Jean Baptiste Say, &c. 
 
 No sooner was the formation of these bodies terminated, 
 than the edifices assigned to them were got ready. The Tui- 
 leries was reserved for the three Consuls ; the Luxembourg 
 was appropriated to the Senate, the Palais Bourbon to the 
 Legislative Body, and the Palais Royal to the Tribunate. 
 
 Several hundred thousand francs were expended in making 
 the Tuileries habitable, and, until the completion of the neces- 
 sary repairs, the Consuls took up their residence at the Petit 
 Luxembourg. 
 
 General Bonaparte had already effected much since his 
 return from Egypt : he had overthrown the Directory, and 
 acquired an authority, apparently inferior, but in reality supe- 
 rior, to that of constitutional monarchy. But he had only 
 just possessed himself of that authority, and it yet remained 
 for him to legitimatise its assumption by measures of utility 
 and great actions. He had still an immense deal to accomplish, 
 and his first attempts at reorganisation were only one effort, 
 already successful, it is true, but which still left the country 
 exposed to sad disorder and deep suffering : there were still 
 penury at the Treasury, privation in the armies, the name of 
 civil war in La Vendee, hesitation on the part of the neutral 
 powers, and a determination truly obstinate to continue the 
 struggle on the part of the belligerent powers. Still, that 
 assumption of power, succeeding his first toils, and preceding
 
 68 HISTORY OF THE dec. 1799 
 
 the immense task which he felt the confidence of ere long 
 accomplishing, charmed his ambitious soul. 
 
 To celebrate the installation of his government, he performed 
 a series of acts, purposely accumulated, and in which there were 
 discernible profound policy, heartfelt joy, and that generosity 
 which satisfaction imparts to every feeling and benevolent mind. 
 These measures were successively announced between the 25th 
 of December (4th Nivose), the day of the installation of the 
 Consular government, and the 1st of January 1800 (nth 
 Nivose), the day of the opening of the first legislative session. 
 
 In the first place, a judgment of the Council of State of the 
 27th of December (6th Nivose) declared that the laws which 
 excluded the relations of emigrants and the former nobles 
 from public functions, should cease as a matter of course, 
 because these laws were at variance with the principles of the 
 new Constitution. 
 
 A certain number of individuals belonging to the revolu- 
 tionary party had been condemned, as we have before seen, to 
 banishment or imprisonment, in consequence of a measure 
 adopted, with little reflection, a few days after the 18th Bru- 
 maire. The banishment and imprisonment had been mitigated 
 to surveillance of the political police. A decree of the 5th 
 Nivose did away even with the surveillance. Having made 
 this reparation to those who had well nigh experienced his 
 severity, the First Consul performed a more important and 
 more necessary act of justice towards the victims of the 
 Directory and of the preceding governments. 
 
 Such as had been banished without a regular trial were 
 authorised to return to France, upon condition that they should 
 reside in the places assigned. This measure extended to per- 
 sons proscribed at every period, but more especially to the 
 proscripts of the 18th Fructidor. Messrs. Boissy-d'Anglas, 
 Dumolard, and Pastoret were recalled, and the first was autho- 
 rised to reside at Annonay, the second at Grenoble, and the 
 third at Dijon. Messrs. Carnot, Portalis, Quatremere-Quincey, 
 Simeon, Villaret- Joyeuse, Barbe-Marbois, and Barrere were also 
 recalled and authorised to reside in Paris. The care taken to 
 assign the capital for their place of abode to such men as 
 Messrs. Carnot, Simeon, and Portalis, although they were not 
 natives of it, clearly indicated that the government had its eye 
 upon them, and meant to turn their talents to account. 
 
 Other measures were adopted in respect of religious worship 
 and its free celebration. On the 28th of December (7th 
 Nivose) it was decreed that the edifices set apart for religious 
 ceremonies should continue to be used for these purposes, 
 or should be again appropriated to them, in case they had 
 not been already restored to the ministers of the different
 
 dec. 1799 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 69 
 
 persuasions. Certain local authorities, wishing to obstruct the 
 exercise of the Catholic worship, forbade the opening of the 
 churches on Sundays, and only allowed it on the Dicadi. The 
 Consuls reversed the municipal decisions of this sort, and 
 added to the restitution of the religious edifices the free per- 
 mission to make use of them on the days appointed by each 
 persuasion. For the present, however, they did not dare to 
 prohibit the ceremonies of the Theophilanthropists, which took 
 place in the churches, on certain days of the week, and which 
 were viewed as profanations by the Catholics. 
 
 The Consuls caused the form of engagement which was re- 
 quired from the priests to be modified. Hitherto they had 
 been called on to take a special oath to the civil constitution 
 of the clergy — an oath which obliged them to recognise a 
 legislation at variance, according to some of them, with the 
 laws of the Church. It was suggested only to impose on 
 them a simple promise of obedience to the Constitution of 
 the State ; which no one of them could reasonably scruple to 
 give, without refusing that obedience to Ccesar which the Catholic 
 religion so rigorously prescribes. This is what was afterwards 
 termed the iiromisc, as distinguished from the oath, and which 
 led a great number of priests immediately to resume their 
 religious duties. The asscrmcnte's, priests who took the oath, 
 had already enjoyed the favour of the government ; it was now 
 the turn of the ?wm-assermentes (non-jurors). 
 
 To the preceding measures the new First Consul added one 
 which must have appeared to every one as peculiarly his own, 
 since it recalled to mind matters which were in a manner 
 personal to himself. He had negotiated with the deceased 
 Pope, Pius VI., and signed, at the gates of Rome, the treaty 
 of Tolentino. He had, ever since the year 1797, affected to 
 show great respect for this head of the Catholic Church, and 
 had received from his Holiness marked testimonies of good- 
 will. Pius VI., who died at Valence, in Dauphine, had not 
 yet obtained the honours of burial. His mortal remains were 
 deposited in a sacristy. General Bonaparte, on his way home 
 from Egypt, saw Cardinal Spina at Valence, learned these 
 particulars, and resolved soon to make amends for this most 
 unbecoming neglect. 
 
 Accordingly, on the 30th of December (9th Nivose). he in- 
 duced the Consuls to join in a decree, grounded on the noblest 
 considerations. 
 
 "The Consuls." so ran this decree, '"considering that the 
 body of Pius VI. has, for six months, been deposited in the 
 town of Valence, without having vet had the honours of 
 sepulture granted to it ; 
 
 "That, though this old man. respectable for his misfortunes,
 
 70 HISTORY OF THE dec. 1799 
 
 may have been for a moment the enemy of France, it was only 
 because he was misled by the counsels of those who surrounded 
 his advanced years ; 
 
 "That it is befitting the dignity of the French nation, and 
 conformable to its character, to show its respect for a man 
 who occupied one of the highest offices upon earth ; 
 
 "The Consuls decree," &c. &c. The clauses which followed 
 directed not only that funeral honours should be paid to the 
 Pontiff's remains, but that a monument should also record 
 the rank of the departed prince. 
 
 This demonstration produced more effect, perhaps, than the 
 most humane measures would have done, because it struck the 
 imagination, accustomed to other spectacles. Immense numbers 
 thronged, in consequence, to Valence, to avail themselves of the 
 authorisation thus given for making a religious manifestation. 
 
 The list of the revolutionary festivals contained one con- 
 ceived in a truly woeful spirit, namely, that which was celebrated 
 on the 2 1st of January.* Whatever might be the sentiments 
 of the men of all parties respecting the tragic event connected 
 with that date, it was a barbarous festival, which was designed 
 to commemorate a sanguinary catastrophe. In the time of the 
 Directory, General Bonaparte had shown a strong repugnance 
 to attend at it ; not that he had then any idea of honouring 
 royalty, which he was one day to re-establish for his own profit, 
 but he liked to defy publicly the passions which he did not 
 share. Now that he had become the head of the government, 
 he instigated the legislative commissions to decide that in future 
 there should be no more than two festivals — that of the 1 4th of 
 July, the anniversary of the first day of the Revolution, and 
 that of the 1st of Vendemiaire, the anniversary of the first day 
 of the Republic. "These days," said he, "are imperishable in 
 the memory of the citizens ; they were hailed by all Frenchmen 
 with unanimous transports, and awaken no recollection tending 
 to produce division among the friends of the Republic." 
 
 It needed all the power, all the boldness, of the head of the 
 new government to venture upon a series of measures which, 
 though just, politic, and moral in themselves, nevertheless 
 appeared to hot-headed enthusiasts so many preliminary acts of 
 a complete counter-revolution. But, in doing all this, General 
 Bonaparte took care to set the first example himself of the 
 oblivion of political animosities, sometimes to rouse with 
 emphasis that sense of glory by which he led the men of the 
 time, and raised them above the base and furious passions of 
 parties. Thus General Augereau had offended him by un- 
 becoming conduct on the 1 8th of Brumaire ; he nevertheless 
 appointed him to the command of the army in Holland. 
 * The anniversary of the execution of Louis XVI.
 
 dec. 1799 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 71 
 
 " Show," he wrote to him, in a letter which was published, 
 " show, in all the acts that your command will give you 
 occasion to perform, that you are above those miserable party 
 dissensions, the recoil of which has unfortunately, for these ten 
 years, torn France in pieces. ... If circumstances oblige me 
 to take the field in person, be assured that I shall not leave you 
 in Holland, and that I shall never forget the glorious day of 
 Castiglione." 
 
 At the same time he instituted arms of honour, a prelude 
 to the foundation of the Legion of Honour. French demo- 
 cracy, after such vehement demonstrations of its horror of 
 personal distinctions, could, at most, tolerate at that time 
 rewards for military actions. In pursuance of an article of 
 the Constitution, the First Consul caused a resolution to be 
 passed, that, for every brilliant action, a musket of honour should 
 be presented to the infantry, a carabine of honour to the 
 cavalry, grenadoes of honour to the artillery, and, lastly, swords 
 of honour to officers of all ranks. The First Consul followed 
 up the institution, decreed on the 25th of December (4th 
 Nivose), by positive acts. Next day he awarded a sword to 
 General St. Cyr, for a brilliant action which he had just fought 
 in the Apennines. "I offer you," said he to him, "in token of 
 my satisfaction, a handsome sword, which you will wear on days 
 of battle. Let the soldiers under your command know that I 
 am content with them, and that I hope to be still more so." 
 
 To these acts, which proclaimed the actual assumption of 
 power, which marked the character of his government, and 
 clearly showed his disposition to set himself above all party 
 passions, the First Consul immediately added proceedings of 
 higher importance, as well in regard to La Vendee, as to the 
 European powers. 
 
 A suspension of arms had been signed with the Vendeans, 
 conferences with them had begun, and yet the pacification was 
 no forwarder. General Bonaparte had left little doubt in the 
 minds of the royalists, who had addressed themselves to him 
 for the purpose of sounding his intentions, and ascertaining 
 whether he would not be satisfied with being the restorer, the 
 support, the first subject, of the house of Bourbon. He had 
 undeceived them, by showing himself irrevocably attached to 
 the cause of the French Revolution. This frankness in his 
 declarations had not tended to promote the conciliation that 
 was begun. The Vendean chiefs hesitated. They were placed 
 between fear, excited by the vigour of the new government, 
 and the solicitations of the emigrants in London, who were 
 authorised to promise them, on behalf of .Mi'. Pitt, arms, 
 money, and troops. 
 
 It was on a fresh insurrection in La Vendee that England
 
 72 HISTORY OF THE dec. 1799 
 
 particularly reckoned. She purposed making on that part of 
 our coast an attempt similar to that which had been tried in 
 Holland. The failure of that expedition had not discouraged 
 her; and she earnestly solicited of the Emperor Paul the 
 co-operation of his troops, without much chance, indeed, of 
 obtaining it. Prussia, which began to testify a sort of interest 
 for the Consular government, Prussia never ceased repeating to 
 Duroc, the aide-de-camp, and to M. Otto, the charg6 d'affaires 
 of France, " Get La Vendee off your hands, for it is there that 
 the most serious blows will be levelled at you." 
 
 Of this General Bonaparte was aware. Not only did La 
 Vendee weaken the armies of the Republic by absorbing part 
 of their forces, but to him civil war seemed both a misfortune 
 and a sort of dishonour for a government, as it attested a de- 
 plorable internal condition. He had, therefore, taken the most 
 efficacious measures for bringing that business to a conclusion. 
 He had recalled from Holland a portion of the army which, 
 under General Brune, had recently defeated the combined 
 English and Russians ; he had added to it part of the garrison 
 of Paris, which he could diminish considerably without appre- 
 hension, the spell of his name serving in lieu of material force ; 
 and in this manner he had contrived to assemble in the West 
 an excellent army of about 60,000 men. General Brune was 
 placed at the head of this force, with the recommendation to 
 retain, as his principal lieutenant, the prudent and conciliatory 
 Hedouville, who held all the threads of the negotiation with the 
 royalists. The name of General Brune was an answer to those 
 who reckoned upon a new landing of the Anglo-Russians. But, 
 before striking a decisive blow, if the conditions of the pacifica- 
 tion were not finally accepted, the First Consul deemed it right 
 to address the Vendeans on the very day of his installation. 
 
 On the 29th of December (8th Nivose) he addressed a pro- 
 clamation and a decree of the Consuls to the departments of 
 the West. He said to them, "An impious war threatens a 
 second time to set the departments of the West in a flame. 
 The duty of the first magistrates of the Republic is to prevent 
 its spreading, and to extinguish it in its focus, but they are 
 unwilling to employ force, till they have exhausted all the 
 means of persuasion and justice.'"' 
 
 Drawing a line between criminal men, sold to foreigners, for 
 ever irreconcilable with the Republic, and misguided citizens, 
 who, by engaging in civil war, intended only to resist cruel 
 persecutions, the First Consul referred to all the measures 
 calculated to win the confidence of the latter, and to bring 
 them over to the new government, such as the repeal of the 
 law concerning the hostages, the restoration of the churches to 
 the priests, the liberty allowed to every one to keep Sunday ; he
 
 dec. 1799 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 73 
 
 further promised a full and entire amnesty to those who should 
 submit, abandon the assemblages of insurgents, and lay down 
 the arms furnished by England. But he added that the most 
 severe measures would be immediately taken against those who 
 should persist in insurrection. He announced the suspension 
 of the Constitution, that is, the employment of extraordinary 
 authorities in those places where insurgent bands should con- 
 tinue to appear in arms. " The government," it was said, at the 
 conclusion of the proclamation of the Consuls, " will forgive ; 
 it will pardon the repentant ; its clemency shall be complete 
 and absolute : but it will punish every one who, after this de- 
 claration, shall dare to resist the national sovereignty. But, 
 no ; henceforward we will be actuated by only one sentiment — 
 the love of our country. The ministers of a God of peace will 
 be the first promoters of reconciliation and concord. Let them 
 speak to their flocks in that language which pervades the Word 
 of their divine master ; let them repair to those temples which 
 are again opened to them, and offer the sacrifice that shall 
 atone for the crimes of war and for the blood which it has 
 caused to be spilt." 
 
 This proclamation, seconded by a formidable force, was cal- 
 culated to make an impression, especially as it emanated from a 
 new government, which had no hand whatever in the excesses 
 and faults that had served as a pretext for civil war. 
 
 Having proceeded in this manner towards our enemies at home, 
 the First Consul, addressing himself to our enemies abroad, 
 resolved to take a formal step towards the two powers which had 
 not yet given any sign of a return to pacific sentiments, and 
 seemed, on the contrary, to be obstinately bent on the prosecu- 
 tion of the war : we mean Austria and Great Britain. 
 
 Prussia, as we have seen, had received Duroc in the most 
 flattering manner, and was every day giving more expressive 
 testimonies of sympathy for the First Consul. Satisfied with 
 the footing on which she stood with him, she wished success to 
 his government against anarchy, success to his arms against 
 Austria. As for the scheme of offering herself as mediatrix, she 
 still cherished the idea, but durst not take the first step, con- 
 ceiving that peace was yet far distant, and being unwilling to 
 enter rashly upon a course, the bearing of which it was impossible 
 to foresee. In fact, whoever observed attentively the state of 
 things in Europe, might easily perceive that, to loosen the ties 
 which bound England and Austria, there would need another 
 campaign. The court of Madrid had likewise beheld with satisfac- 
 tion the accession of General Bonaparte, because with him the 
 alliance of France and Spain seemed at once more honourable and 
 more profitable. But the horizon was not completely clear in any 
 quarter. General Bonaparte resolved, therefore, the very same
 
 74 HISTORY OF THE dec. 1799 
 
 day that the Constitution invested him officially with a new 
 authority, to address himself to the decidedly hostile powers, for 
 the purpose of offering them peace, and publicly showing that it 
 was their own fault if they refused it. After that, he could resort 
 to war, having the opinion of the world on his side. 
 
 In the first place, all the French diplomatic agents previously 
 appointed (but who had not yet left Paris, because it was de- 
 sirable that they should be accredited in the name of the govern- 
 ment definitively constituted) were instructed to proceed to their 
 respective posts. General Beurnonville set out for Berlin, M. 
 Alquier for Madrid, M. de Semonville for the Hague, M. Bour- 
 going for Copenhagen. General Beurnonville was to pay an 
 adroit and flattering compliment to the King of Prussia by asking 
 him for a bust of the great Frederick, to be placed in the grand 
 gallery of Diana, in the Tuileries. The First Consul was at that 
 time arranging in this gallery the busts of all the great men 
 whom he particularly admired. M. Alquier, besides conveying 
 to Madrid the kindest assurances to the king and to the queen, 
 was charged with a present for the Prince of Peace, who pos- 
 sessed considerable influence, though he was no longer minister. 
 This present consisted of fine specimens of arms, made at the 
 manufactory of Versailles, famous at that time throughout all 
 Europe for the excellence of its productions. 
 
 This done, the First Consul turned his attention to the step 
 proposed to be taken towards the two hostile powers, England 
 and Austria. In general, it is customary to disguise such steps, 
 to precede them by indirect overtures, in order to guard against 
 the humiliation of a refusal. General Bonaparte, in addressing 
 England and Austria, meant to address the world ; and for this 
 purpose he needed a solemn overture, deviating entirely from the 
 accustomed forms, which should appeal to the hearts of the 
 sovereigns themselves, and flatter or embarrass them. Accord- 
 ingly, instead of transmitting notes to Lord Grenville or M. de 
 Thugut, he wrote directly to the King of England and the 
 Emperor of Germany two letters, which the ministers of those 
 courts were desired to submit to their sovereigns. 
 
 The letter destined for the Kincr of England was in these terms : 
 
 Paris, 5th Mvuse, yen- VIII. (Dec. 26, 1799). 
 
 " Sire, — Called by the wish of the French nation to fill the chief 
 magistracy of the Republic, I think it fitting, on entering upon office, 
 to make a direct communication on the subject to your Majesty. 
 
 " Is the war which for eight years has ravaged the four quarters 
 of the globe to be eternal ^ Are there then no means of coming to 
 an understanding ? 
 
 " How can the two most enlightened nations of Europe, stronger 
 and more powerful than their safety and independence require, 
 sacrifice to ideas of vain greatness the blessings of commerce, internal
 
 dec. 1799 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 75 
 
 prosperity, and domestic happiness 1 How can they help feeling 
 that peace is the first of wants, as well as the first of glories ! 
 
 " These sentiments cannot be strange to your Majesty, who governs 
 a free nation, and with the sole aim to render it happy. 
 
 " In this overture, your Majesty will discover only my sincere 
 desire to contribute efficaciously, for the second time, to the general 
 pacification by a prompt procedure, entirely confidential, and divested 
 of those forms, which, necessary perhaps for disguising the depen- 
 dence of weak States, betray only in strong States a mutual desire 
 to deceive one another. 
 
 "France, England, by the abuse of their strength, may for a long 
 time to come, for the misfortune of all nations, retard its exhaustion : 
 but I dare assert, the lot of all civilised nations is attached to the 
 termination of a war which has thrown the whole world into a 
 conflagration. (Signed) Bonaparte, 
 
 " First Consul of the French Republic." 
 
 On the same day, the First Consul addressed the following 
 letter to the Emperor of Germany : — 
 
 "On returning to Europe, after an absence of eighteen months, 
 I find the war rekindled between the French Republic and your 
 Majesty. 
 
 " The French nation calls me to occupy the chief magistracy. 
 
 " A stranger to every feeling of vain glory, the first of my wishes 
 is to stop the effusion of the blood that is about to be spilt. Every 
 thing forebodes that, in the next campaign, numerous and ably 
 directed armies will triple the number of the victims hitherto sacri- 
 ficed, by the resumption of hostilities. The known character of your 
 Majesty leaves me no doubt respecting the wish of your heart. If 
 that wish alone is consulted, I perceive a possibility of reconciling 
 the interests of the two nations. 
 
 " In the communications which I have previously had with your 
 Majesty, you have personally testified some regard for me. I request 
 you to consider the step which I am taking as proceeding from a 
 desire to make a return for it, and to convince you more and more 
 of the very high respect which I entertain for your Majesty. 
 
 (Signed) Bonaparte, 
 "First Consul of the French Republic." 
 
 Such was the language in which the First Consul communi- 
 cated his accession, as well to the parties that divided France, 
 as to the cabinets coalesced against her. He offered peace, 
 preparing to secure it by force, if he could not obtain it by 
 amicable means. His intention was to employ the winter in 
 making a short and decisive campaign in La Vendee, that, in 
 spring, he might be able to move upon the Rhine and the 
 Alps such troops as, on the termination of the war at home, 
 should be available for tin 1 war abroad.
 
 76 HISTORY OF THE jan. 1800 
 
 While awaiting the result of these proceedings, he opened 
 the legislative session on the 1st of January 1800 (1 ith Nivose, 
 year VIII.), and resolved to devote that session of four months 
 to the preparation of sound laws, and to the administrative reor- 
 ganisation of France, which was scarcely commenced. He had 
 just appointed his brother Lucien minister of the interior, in lieu 
 of Laplace the mathematician, and M. Abrial, a very worthy 
 man, and very attentive to business, as minister of justice, in 
 the room of M. Cambaceres, who had become Consul. 
 
 On the 1st of January 1800, the Senate, the Legislative 
 Body, and the Tribunate assembled. The Senate elected M. 
 Sieyes for president ; the Legislative Body elected M. Perrin 
 of Vosges ; the Tribunate, M. Daunou. Numerous bills (projets 
 de loi) were immediately presented to the Legislative Body. 
 
 At the sight of these deliberative assemblies meeting afresh, a 
 sort of anxiety prevailed. People were weary of agitation ; they 
 longed for repose ; they were cured of that violent fondness for 
 political eloquence, which France had felt in '89, when Mirabeau, 
 Barnave, Maury, Cazales, opened for it an entirely new career 
 of glory, that of the tribune. The animosity against the bar 
 was general ; there was no favour but for men of action, capable 
 of procuring victory and peace for France. Still people had 
 not yet resolved on the establishment of an absolute power; 
 and they had no wish that all liberty, all temperate discussion, 
 should be stifled. If the power of action, which a new legis- 
 lator had just placed in the Constitution, by the creation of a 
 First Consul, and the selection for that magistracy of the 
 greatest captain of the age ; if that power were incompatible 
 with liberty, they were ready to sacrifice the latter ; but every- 
 body would have been delighted at the reconciliation of liberty 
 and strength, if it were possible. It was not vulgar agitators or 
 obstinate republicans who entertained these sentiments ; it was 
 men of discreet, enlightened minds, whom it would have pained 
 to see the Revolution belie itself so soon and so completely. 
 Accordingly, the indifferent asked themselves with curiosity, the 
 good citizens with real uneasiness, what bearing the Tribunate, 
 the only body which had liberty of speech, would assume towards 
 the new government, and how the government would endure an 
 opposition, if an opposition should happen to be formed. 
 
 When a reaction takes place, be that reaction ever so general, 
 it does not hurry all along with it ; and it irritates, nay, even 
 shocks, those whom it does not hurry along. Messrs. Ch^nier, 
 Andrieux, Ginguene, Daunou, and Benjamin Constant, who had 
 seats in the Tribunate, Messrs. de Tracy, Volney, and Cabanis, 
 who were members of the Senate, while they deplored the crimes 
 of the Reign of Terror, were not disposed to think that the French 
 Revolution was wrong in its conduct towards its adversaries.
 
 jan. 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 77 
 
 The monarchical and religious doctrines, which were perceptibly- 
 gaining ground, galled them, as did still more the immoderate 
 haste with which this return to ancient ideas was effected. This 
 produced in them a dissatisfaction, which they took no pains to 
 disguise. Most of them were sincere. Strongly attached to the 
 Revolution, they wished for it almost entire, excepting the 
 blood and the spoliations, and had little taste for that which 
 people imagined they could descry in the profound conception 
 of the new dictator. That priests should not be persecuted, 
 good ! But that they should be favoured so far as to be rein- 
 stated at the altar was too much for these staunch votaries of the 
 philosophy of the eighteenth century. That a little more unity 
 and strength should be given to government, good again ! But 
 that this principle should be carried to such an extent as to 
 re-establish monarchical unity for the benefit of a military man, 
 this was far too much in their estimation. For the rest- — as it 
 is always the case — their motives were various. If such were 
 the opinions of Messrs. Chenier, Ginguene, Daunou, Tracy, and 
 Cabanis, they could not be those of M. Constant, who most 
 assuredly had not imbibed in the society of the Necker family, 
 in which he moved, either an aversion to religious ideas, or an 
 exclusive fondness for the French Revolution. On attaining 
 to the Tribunate, thanks to the solicitations of his friends, he 
 had, nevertheless, become, in a few days, the most restless and 
 the cleverest of the new opposition. He was actuated by his 
 sarcastic humour, but more especially by the discontent of the 
 Necker family, which he participated. Madame de Stael, who, 
 in her single person, then represented that illustrious family, had 
 greatly admired General Bonaparte ; and it would have been an 
 easy matter for him to win the goodwill of one whose sprightly 
 imagination was alive to everything that was great. But, 
 though endowed with as much understanding as genius, he had 
 offended, by expressions not the most decorous, a woman whom 
 he disliked, because he found in her pretensions above her sex ; 
 and he had produced in her heart an irritation, which, if not 
 formidable, was at least annoying. Every fault, however slight, 
 produces its fruit. The First Consul was soon to reap the fruit 
 of his, in meeting with a very untoward opposition from those 
 who were under the influence of the persuasive mind of Madame 
 de Stael. Of this number was M. Constant. 
 
 The Palais Royal had been assigned to the Tribunate, 
 assuredly not from design, but solely from necessity ; the 
 Tuileries had been given up to the head of the government ; 
 the Luxembourg, previously appropriated to the Council of the 
 Ancients, had naturally been assigned to the Senate ; the Palais 
 Bourbon had been set aside for the Legislative Body. Thus there 
 was no building but the Palais Roval that cmld be allotted to
 
 yS HISTORY OF THE jan. 1800 
 
 the Tribunate. Such was, in certain minds, the disposition to 
 take the simplest acts amiss, that they complained bitterly of 
 the choice of this palace, and alleged that it was with a view to 
 lower the Tribunate that it had been made to meet in the ordi- 
 nary haunt of vice and debauchery. Certain articles of regulation 
 were under discussion in this assembly on the 2nd and 3rd of 
 January, when, all at once, M. Duveyrier, one of its members, 
 rose to complain of some measures, injurious, as he said, to 
 several proprietors of establishments which had existed for 
 years in the Palais Royal. There was nothing interesting in 
 the case of the complainants, and, moreover, they had received 
 compensation. Duveyrier inveighed warmly against these 
 alleged acts of injustice, and said that the national representation 
 ought not to be made unpopular, by being rendered responsible 
 for harsh acts committed in its name. Then, passing to the 
 choice of the locality, " I am not one of those," said he, " who are 
 offended because it has been thought fit to select for the meetings 
 of the Tribunate a place which is the ordinary theatre of vice 
 and of every kind of excesses ; in this I see neither danger nor 
 any allusion injurious to us. I pay homage, on the contrary, to 
 the popular intention of those who wished that the tribunes of 
 the people should sit amidst the people ; that the defenders of 
 liberty should meet in a place that witnessed the first triumphs 
 of liberty. I thank them for having allowed us the means of 
 viewing, from this very tribune, the spot on which the noble 
 Camille Desmoulins, giving the signal for a glorious movement, 
 displayed that national cockade, our most glorious trophy, our 
 eternal rallying sign ; that cockade which gave birth to so many 
 prodigies, to which so many heroes owe the celebrity of their 
 arms, and which we will not lay down but with life. I thank 
 them for having enabled us to see that spot, which, if people 
 were inclined to erect an idol of fifteen days, would remind us 
 of the fall of an idol of fifteen centuries." 
 
 This off-hand attack produced a strong sensation in the 
 assembly, and before long in Paris. The Tribunate passed to 
 the order of the day, the majority of its members disapproving 
 such a sally. But the effect was not the less powerful ; and it 
 was a bad beginning for an assembly, which, if it wished to 
 save liberty from the dangers with which it was threatened by 
 a reaction at that time general, should have observed infinite 
 caution, as well in regard to persons ready to take alarm, as to 
 a head of the government who was easily irritated. 
 
 Such a scene could not fail to have consequences. The anger 
 of the First Consul was vehement, and the humble adorers of 
 his nascent power raised a loud outcry. Messrs. Stanislas de 
 Girardin, de Chauvelin, and some others, who, without being 
 disposed to resign all independence in the presence of the new
 
 jan. 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 79 
 
 government, yet disapproved this unseasonable opposition, spoke 
 in the following sitting, and, in order to neutralise the effect 
 of the speech of Duveyrier, proposed the taking of a sort of 
 oath to the Constitution. 
 
 "Before we proceed to our labours," said M. de Girardin, 
 " I think we ought to give the nation a signal testimony of our 
 attachment to the Constitution. I do not propose to you to 
 swear that you will uphold it. I know, and you know as well 
 as I do, the uselessness of oaths ; but I think it may be useful, 
 on entering on our duties, to promise to perform them faithfully. 
 Let us follow the example of the Conservative Senate and of the 
 Council of State, and we shall thus fix the opinion that ought 
 to be formed of us; we shall silence malice, which is already 
 bruiting that the Tribunate is an organised resistance against 
 the government. No ! the Tribunate is not a focus of opposition, 
 but a focus of intelligence. No ! the Tribunate does not mean 
 to combat without ceasing the acts of the government ; it is 
 ready, on the contrary, to hail them with joy, when they shall 
 be in harmony with the public interest. The Tribunate will 
 strive to allay the passions of the day, instead of exciting them. 
 Its moderation must place itself between all the factions to 
 dissolve and to reunite them. It was the moderates who effected 
 the 1 8th Brumaire, that salutary and glorious day, which has 
 saved France from internal anarchy and foreign invasion. In 
 order to save the Republic, let us return to the principles on 
 which it was founded, but let us beware of returning to excesses 
 which have so often brought it to the brink of perdition. If we 
 see from this place the spot where, for the first time, the emblem 
 of liberty was displayed, from this place, too, we see the spot 
 where were conceived those crimes which imbrued the Revolution 
 in blood. For my own part, I am far from congratulating 
 myself on the choice which has been made of this palace for the 
 place of our meetings ; on the contrary, I regret it : but still 
 the events of which it reminds us are, happily, long gone by. 
 The time for vehement harangues, for appeals to the seditious 
 groups of the Palais Royal, is past. If, however, certain 
 declamations can no longer ruin us, they may delay the return 
 of fairer prospects. Spreading from this tribune throughout 
 Paris, from Paris over all Europe, they may create alarm, furnish 
 pretexts, and retard that peace which all of us desire. . . . Peace," 
 added M. de Girardin, "peace ought incessantly to occupy our 
 thoughts ; and if we keep this important interest continually in 
 view, we shall no longer indulge in such expressions as those 
 which the other day escaped one of our colleagues, on which 
 none of us animadverted, because they were irrelevant, for we 
 know no idol in France." He concluded his speech by moving 
 that each member should make the following declaration : — " T
 
 80 HISTORY OF THE jan. 1800 
 
 promise faithfully to perform the functions which the Consti- 
 tution has assigned to me." 
 
 This proposition was adopted. M. Duveyrier, vexed at the 
 scandal produced by his speech, strove to excuse himself, and 
 desired to be the first to make the declaration suggested by 
 M. de Girardin, which all the members of the Tribunate cheer- 
 fully repeated after him. 
 
 The effect of the previous scene was, therefore, somewhat 
 repaired. The First Consul, nevertheless, conceived an in- 
 superable aversion for the Tribunate, which, it is true, he 
 would have felt for any free assembly, using and abusing the 
 liberty of speech ; and he caused some extremely bitter obser- 
 vations on the tribunes of France and the tribunes of Rome to 
 be inserted in the Moniteur. 
 
 The following sittings produced fresh manifestations, quite 
 as much to be regretted as the preceding. The first proposition 
 of the government was designed to regulate the forms to be 
 observed in the presentation, discussion, and adoption of bills 
 (projets de loi). This was one of the points neglected by the 
 Constitution of the year VIII. , and left to the legislature. In 
 the proposed arrangements, no great deference was shown to 
 the Tribunate. The plan of the government provided that the 
 laws should be carried by three Councillors of State to the Legis- 
 lative Body, and afterwards communicated to the Tribunate, and 
 that, on a day fixed by the government, the Tribunate was to be 
 ready to discuss them, through the medium of its three orators, 
 before the Legislative Body. The Tribunate, however, was 
 allowed to demand a delay of the Legislative Body, which was 
 to decide whether that delay could be granted. It must be 
 confessed that the Tribunate was here treated very uncere- 
 moniously ; for it was expected to have finished its task by a 
 given day, which one would scarcely dare to require of a section 
 of the Council of State, or of any ministerial department. 
 Nobody would, now-a-days, presume to prescribe to any delibe- 
 rative assembly the day and the term of a discussion ; this is a 
 point which, even in cases of urgency, is left to its intelligence 
 and its zeal. But parliamentary courtesies, which, like polite- 
 ness, are the offspring of usage, could not precede, with us, the 
 practice of representative government. From revolutionary 
 violence, we passed, almost without transition, to military rude- 
 ness. The commissions, which had recently, for a month, exer- 
 cised the legislative power, had, by their discussion with closed 
 doors, and their despatch of laws in twenty-four hours, humoured 
 the taste of the First Consul, who always wanted to be served 
 and satisfied at the moment. This may account for, but cannot 
 excuse, the objectionable details of the government plan. 
 
 The rising opposition of the Tribunate had, therefore, good
 
 jan. 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 81 
 
 reason for attacking this plan ; but, after commencing with an 
 indecorous scene, it was unlucky for it to have to combat the 
 first proposition emanating from the Consuls ; because it induced 
 a belief that a resolution was taken to attack everything : and 
 to this misfortune it added the fault of the form, which was 
 vexatious. The most violent attack proceeded from M. Con- 
 stant. In a clever and ironical speech, such as he knew how to 
 make, he required that the Tribunate should have a fixed time 
 for examining the bills {projets de loi) which should be sub- 
 mitted to it, and that it should not be expected to examine them 
 at a gallop. He adverted, on this subject, to the danger of the 
 laics of urgcncij passed during the Revolution, which had always 
 proved disastrous laws ; he asked why such care was taken to 
 hurry business so rapidly through the Tribunate ; why it was 
 already considered so hostile, that government was anxious to 
 abridge as much as possible the passage of the laws through 
 that house. "All this," he added, "proceeds from the false 
 idea that we are only an opposition body, destined to do nothing 
 but to thwart the government incessantly ; which is not the 
 case, which cannot be the case, which would lower us in public 
 opinion. This false notion has stamped all the clauses of this 
 plan with a restless and unreasonable impatience : the propo- 
 sitions are presented to us flying, as it were, in the hope that 
 we may not be able to lay hold of them ; they are to be hurried 
 away from our examination, like an enemy's army, and to be 
 transformed into laws before we can overtake them." 
 
 Many stinging reflections were mingled with this long speech, 
 which produced a very strong sensation. M. Constant had taken 
 particular care to insist that the Tribunate was not a body 
 specially devoted to contradiction ; that it would not contradict, 
 unless compelled by the public interest to do so ; but he had 
 repeated these protestations in a manner and tone designed to 
 belie their sincerity, and manifest the intention of systematic 
 opposition which he was taking such pains to deny. 
 
 Riouffe, the tribune, known for his faithful and courageous 
 friendship for the proscribed Girondins, was one of those whom 
 the horrors of '93 had so shocked, that they were ready to throw 
 themselves blindly into the arms of the new government, what- 
 ever that government might do. He, therefore, rose to repel 
 the attacks, in his opinion indecorous, of M. Constant. 
 
 "Distrust," said he, "so offensive as that manifested yester- 
 day, would be sufficient to break off all further communication 
 in the intercourse between man and man ; and it would be im- 
 possible that authorities destined to live together could long 
 treat with one another, if courtesy were not a sacred duty, from 
 which they must never depart." 
 
 The speaker then declared, that, for his part, he had an 
 
 vol. 1. f
 
 82 HISTORY OF THE jan. 1800 
 
 absolute confidence in the government ; and he entered upon a 
 panegyric of the First Consul, true, but too long, and in terms 
 not sufficiently measured. "When one speaker," said he, 
 "here praises Oamille Desmoulins, and another the National 
 Convention, I will not confine myself to a conspiratory silence ; 
 I too will praise him whom the whole world praises ; having 
 hitherto eulogised proscribed virtue alone, I will assume a new 
 kind of courage, that of celebrating genius in the bosom of power 
 and of victory ; I shall congratulate myself on beholding, at the 
 head of the Republic, him who has gained for the French nation 
 the title of the Great Nation ; I will proclaim him great, clement, 
 just. ..." Proceeding thus, M. Riouffe compared General 
 Bonaparte with Cassar and Hannibal ; and, by this avowal of 
 a legitimate but unseasonable admiration, he provoked a very 
 unlucky manifestation. Several voices interrupted him. " Keep 
 to the question," they cried. "I," replied M. Riouffe, "will 
 speak of the man whom the whole world admires. ..." " Ques- 
 tion, question," repeated the interrupters; and he was obliged 
 to confine himself to the subject under consideration. 
 
 Whether M. Riouffe had provoked the impatience of the 
 interrupters by the sincere, but diffuse and unskilful exposition 
 of his sentiments, or whether the admiration which he felt was 
 not shared in the same degree by the members of the Tribunate, 
 the effect produced by his speech was not happy. 
 
 M. de Chauvelin endeavoured to correct it by a speech in 
 favour of the proposed law. 
 
 He acknowledged its defects. "But the circumstances," said 
 he, "the circumstances in which we are placed, the state of 
 several departments, which may call for prompt, nay, even 
 urgent measures ; important political considerations ; caluinny, 
 which is watching us ; the divisions, which she already takes 
 delight in supposing the existence of ; the pressing need of 
 union between the powers — all induce us to vote the adoption 
 of the bill (prcy'et) that has been laid before us." 
 
 The bill was, in fact, put to the vote, and adopted by a 
 majority which ought to have satisfied and encouraged the 
 government ; 54 votes against 26 decided that the orators of 
 the Tribunate, commissioned to speak before the Legislative 
 Body, should support the proposed law. The Legislative Body 
 received it still more favourably, and adopted it by a majority of 
 203 voices against 23. This was as much as could be wished ; 
 for a majority of two-thirds, after all, in the Tribunate (a body 
 whose opposition decided nothing, since it did not vote the 
 laws), and a majority of nine-tenths in the Legislative Body 
 (the only body whose vote was decisive) ought to have satisfied 
 the First Consul and his adherents, and rendered them indif- 
 ferent to this last manifestation of liberal spirit, and indulgent
 
 .tan. 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 83 
 
 towards breaches of form, which, after all, were a right of 
 liberty itself. But the First Consul, who could not be seri- 
 ously alarmed, appeared, nevertheless, touched to the quick, and 
 expressed himself in the strongest terms. He began to make 
 frequent use of the press, and, though he was not fond of it, he 
 was, nevertheless, glad to employ it for his own interest. He 
 caused an article to be inserted in the Moniteur of the 8th of 
 January ( 1 8th Nivose), which was wholly improper, and in which 
 he himself undertook to demonstrate the insignificance of that 
 opposition, to show that it was no part of a systematic plan 
 to thwart the government, and attributed it, in some minds, to 
 a desire of visionary perfection in human laws, in others to 
 a wish to make a noise. " Thus," added the official journal, 
 " everything authorises us to conclude that there does not 
 exist in the Tribunate any combined and systematic opposition, 
 in short, any real opposition. But every one is athirst for 
 glory, every one wishes to consign his name to the hundred 
 tongues of Fame ; and some men have yet to learn that one 
 arrives with less certainty at consideration by the ambition of 
 making fine speeches, than by perseverance in serving usefully, 
 nay, obscurely, that public which applauds and judges." 
 
 This manner of treating a great body of the State was far 
 from becoming ; it proved, on the part of the First Consul, a 
 disposition to do just what he pleased, and, on the part of 
 France, a disposition to put up with everything. 
 
 These impressions, however, soon gave place to others. The 
 vast labours of the government, in which the Legislative Body 
 and the Tribunate were called to participate, soon attracted the 
 attention of all parties, and occupied them exclusively. The First 
 Consul caused two bills (projets de loi) of very great importance 
 to be submitted to the Legislative Body. One related to the 
 departmental and municipal administration, and became the 
 famous law of the 28th Pluviose, year VIII., which established 
 the administrative centralisation in France : the other had for 
 its object the organisation of justice — an organisation which 
 still exists. To these two bills (jrrojctH) were added others 
 relative to emigrants, whose condition it was urgently necessary 
 to regulate ; to the right of making wills, the re-establishment 
 of which was demanded by all families ; to the prize court, 
 which it was requisite to establish on account of our relations 
 with neutrals; to the appointment of new collectors of taxes, 
 who were found to be needed; lastly, to the receipts and 
 expenditure of the year VIII. 
 
 The administration of France, as we have shown above, was 
 in frightful disorder in 1799. In all countries there are two 
 kinds of business to be despatched ; that of the State, which 
 comprehends recruiting, taxes, works of public utility, the
 
 8 4 HISTORY OF THE j an. 1800 
 
 enforcement of the laws ; and that of the provinces and communes, 
 which consists in the management of the local interests of 
 every kind. If a country is left to itself, that is to say, if it is 
 not governed by a general administration, at once intelligent 
 and strong, the first kind of business, that of the State, is not 
 done at all ; the second finds, in the provincial or communal 
 interest, a principle of zeal, but of a zeal that is capricious, 
 unequal, unjust, and rarely enlightened. The provincial or 
 communal administrations are assuredly not wanting in inclina- 
 tion to attend to what particularly concerns them ; but they are 
 wasteful, annoying, and always hostile to the common rule. 
 The tyrannical singularities of the middle age in Europe had no 
 other origin. As soon as the central authority withdraws from 
 a country, there is no kind of disorder to which the local 
 interests are not ready to abandon themselves, their own ruin 
 included. In 1789, wherever the communes had enjoyed any 
 liberty, they were in a state of bankruptcy. Most of the free 
 cities of Germany, when they were suppressed in 1803, were 
 completely ruined. Thus, without a strong, general adminis- 
 tration, the business of the State is not done at all, and local 
 business very ill done. 
 
 The Constituent Assembly and the National Convention, 
 after they had successively remodelled the administrative or- 
 ganisation of France, arrived at a state of things which was 
 anarchy itself ; collective administrations of all degrees, per- 
 petually deliberating, never acting, having at their side com- 
 missioners of the central government, charged to press forward 
 either the despatch of the business of the State, or the execution 
 of the laws, but denied the power of acting themselves — such 
 was the departmental and municipal system in force on the 18th 
 Brumaire. As for the municipal system, in particular, there 
 had been formed a sort of cantonal municipalities, which only 
 increased this administrative confusion. 
 
 The number of the communes had been found too large, for 
 it exceeded 40,000. The superintendence over such a number 
 of petty local governments, already very difficult in itself, 
 became impossible for authorities constituted as the authorities 
 at that time were. The prefects are now adequate to it, with 
 the assistance of the sub-prefects, on condition that they are 
 very assiduous. But let us suppose that there were no prefects 
 and sub-prefects, but in their place petty deliberative assemblies, 
 and we shall comprehend what disorder must prevail in such 
 an administration. These forty and odd thousand communes 
 were, therefore, reduced to five thousand cantonal municipalities, 
 composed of the union of several communes into one. It 
 was intended, in thus uniting several communes under one 
 government, to give them a government in the first place, and,
 
 jan. 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 85 
 
 in the next, to place them nearer to the central authority, and 
 more under its eye. The consequence soon was, a still more 
 frightful confusion than that which this measure was designed to 
 put an end to. These five thousand cantonal municipalities were 
 too numerous, and too far distant from the central authority to 
 be under its eye; and, without being brought nearer to the 
 government, they were mischievously removed farther from the 
 population which they were destined to govern. The communal 
 administration is made to be placed as near as possible to the 
 spot. The magistrate, who registers the births, the deaths, and 
 the marriages, who attends to the police and the salubrity of the 
 place, who keeps in repair the fountain, the church, and the 
 hospital, of the village or town, ought to reside in the village or 
 the town itself, to live, in short, amidst his fellow-citizens. These 
 cantonal municipalities had, therefore, led to a useless displace- 
 ment of the domestic authority, without having brought the local 
 affairs sufficiently within the ken of government for it to watch 
 them. Add to this, that nothing was then properly done, owing 
 to the disorder of the time, and the reader may form some con- 
 ception of the confusion that must have resulted from the vice 
 of the institution, aggravated by the vice of circumstances. 
 
 A last cause of disorder had associated itself with all the 
 others. It is not only necessary to carry on the business of the 
 State and of the communes ; it is also requisite to judge ; for 
 the citizens may have reason to complain, sometimes that, in 
 marking out a street or a road, their property has been en- 
 croached on ; at others, that, in the valuation of their possessions 
 for the purpose of taxing them, they have been unjustly valued. 
 Under the ancient government, the ordinary justice, the only 
 curb at that time to the executive authority (as was so well ex- 
 pressed in the resistance of the parliaments to the court), the 
 ordinary justice had assumed cognisance in all cases of con- 
 tentieux administratif (points at issue between the authorities 
 and private individuals). This was a serious inconvenience, 
 for civil judges are bad dispensers of administrative justice, 
 being in a manner strangers to the subject. Our first legis- 
 lators, during the Revolution, perfectly sensible of this in- 
 convenience, imagined that they could resolve the difficulty 
 by relinquishing the whole of the contentieux administratif 
 to the petty local assemblies, to which they had consigned 
 the administration. Now, figure to yourself these collective 
 administrations superseding what, at this day, we call prefects, 
 sub-prefects, maircs, charged to do all that they do, and to 
 decide, moreover, all questions that are now submitted to the 
 councils of prefecture, and you will have a tolerably just 
 idea of the confusion which then reigned. Even with the 
 spirit of order which now prevails, the result would be a chaos :
 
 86 HISTORY OF THE J an. 1800 
 
 add to this the revolutionary passions, and you will comprehend 
 how much worse a chaos this must be. Hence it was that the 
 assessments of the contributions were never finished, that the 
 collection of the taxes was several years in arrear, that the 
 finances were in ruin, the armies in distress. The recruiting 
 alone was sometimes carried into execution, owing to the revo- 
 lutionary passions, which had produced the evil, but which had 
 contributed to remedy it in part; for, having for their prin- 
 ciple an inordinate but ardent love of France, her greatness, and 
 her liberty, they impelled the populace eagerly to join the army. 
 In such a posture of affairs the First Consul may be said to 
 have been a special envoy of Providence. His simple, clear 
 understanding, guided by an active and resolute character, was 
 destined to lead him to the solution of these difficulties. The 
 Constitution had placed at the head of the State an executive 
 power and a legislative power: the executive power concen- 
 trated almost entirely in a single hand ; and the legislative 
 power divided into several deliberative assemblies. It was 
 natural to place, at each step of the administrative ladder, a 
 representative of the executive power, specially charged to act ; 
 and, at his side, merely to check or to enlighten, but not to act 
 in his stead, a small deliberative assembly, such as a council of 
 department, of arrondissement, or of commune. To this simple, 
 luminous, fertile idea we owe the excellent administration which 
 exists at this day in France. The First Consul decided to have 
 in each department a prefect, charged not to urge a collective 
 administration to the despatch of the business of the State, but 
 to do it himself ; charged, at the same time, to manage the 
 departmental affairs, but conjointly with a council of department, 
 and from the resources voted by that council. As the system 
 of cantonal municipalities was universally condemned, and M. 
 Sieyes, author of all the circumscriptions of France, had, in the 
 new Constitution, laid down the principle of the circumscription 
 by arrondissement, the First Consul resolved to employ it, in 
 order to dispense with cantonal administrations. To begin with , 
 the communal administration was replaced where it ought to be, 
 that is, in the commune itself, town, or village ; and between the 
 commune and the department there was created an intermediate 
 administrative step, that is, the arrondissement. Between the 
 prefect and the maire there was to be a sub-prefect, charged, 
 under the superintendence of the prefect, with directing a certain 
 number of communes, sixty, eighty, a hundred, more or fewer, 
 according to the importance of the department. Lastly, in the 
 commune itself there was to be a maire, with executive power, 
 and possessing further, a deliberative voice in the municipal 
 council — a maire, a direct and dependent agent of the general 
 authority for the despatch of the business of the State ; the agent
 
 jan. 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 87 
 
 of the commune in all local affairs, managing the interests of the 
 latter jointly with it, under the superintendence, however, of the 
 prefect and of the sub-prefect, and consequently of the State. 
 
 Such is that admirable hierarchy, to which France owes an 
 administration incomparable for the energy, the precision of its 
 action, and the accuracy of its accounts, and which is so excellent, 
 that, in six months, as we shall see by-and-by, it was sufficient 
 to restore order in France, under the impulsion, it is true, of a 
 unique genius, the First Consul, and under a favour of circum- 
 stances unique also ; for there prevailed everywhere a horror of 
 disorder, an ardent longing for order, disgust with prating, and 
 a liking for prompt and positive results. 
 
 There was still left the question of the contentieux, that is to 
 say, of the administrative justice, charged to take care that the 
 tax-payer should not be burdened beyond his ability ; that those 
 having property on the bank of a rivulet or in a street, should 
 not be exposed to encroachments ; that the contractor for works 
 to be paid for by the town or the State should find a judge of 
 his contracts with the commune or the government — a difficult 
 matter, the ordinary tribunals being admitted to be improper 
 for deciding this kind of case. The principle of a judicious 
 division of powers was again applied here with great advan- 
 tage. The prefect, the sub-prefect, the maire, charged with the 
 administrative action, might be suspected of partiality, inclined 
 to make their will prevail, for the injured applicant for justice 
 usually has to complain of their own acts. The councils of 
 department, of arrondissement, and of commune, might and 
 ought to appear objectionable also, for they most frequently 
 have a contrary interest to the plaintiff. The administration of 
 justice, moreover, is a long and continual labour, and neither 
 the councils of department nor the communal councils were 
 meant hereafter to be permanent. The First Consul wanted 
 them for about a fortnight in the year, just long enough to 
 submit their affairs to them, to take their advice, to make them 
 vote their expenses. What was wanted, on the contrary, was 
 an administrative tribunal sitting without interruption. A 
 special court was, therefore, instituted, a tribunal of four or five 
 judges, sitting by the side of the prefect, judging with him, a 
 sort of miniature Council of State, expounding the law to the 
 prefect, as the Council of State lends its legal knowledge to 
 ministers, subject, moreover, to the jurisdiction of this Supreme 
 Council by way of appeal. These are the tribunals still called 
 at the present time councils of prefecture, and the equity of 
 which lias never been disputed. 
 
 Such was the provincial and communal government in France : 
 a single head, prefect, sub-prefect, or maire transacting all the 
 business; a deliberative council, the council of department, of
 
 88 HISTORY OF THE .tan. 1800 
 
 arrondissement, or of commune, voting the local expenses ; 
 then a small judicial body, placed beside the prefect merely 
 to dispense administrative justice ; a government subordinate, 
 in an absolute manner, to the general government in all affairs 
 of the State, superintended and directed, but having its own 
 views in all departmental and communal affairs. Order has 
 not ceased to reign, any more than justice, since this excellent 
 and simple institution has existed among us, that is to say, 
 for nearly half a century : be it understood, however, that the 
 words order and justice, like all the words of human language, 
 have but a relative value, and signify that there have been in 
 France, in the administrative department, as little disorder, as 
 little injustice, as can possibly be wished in a great country. 
 
 The First Consul naturally desired that the prefects, sub- 
 prefects, and maires should be in the nomination of the execu- 
 tive power, for they were its direct agents ; they ought to be 
 fraught with its will ; and even in local affairs which they had 
 to manage, according to local views, it was requisite that they 
 should render them subservient to the general policy of the 
 State. But it would not have been natural for the executive 
 power to nominate the members of the councils of department, 
 of arrondissement, and of commune, charged to check the 
 agents of the administration, and to vote them supplies. It 
 was the Constitution which led him to this claim, and which 
 justified it. " Confidence must come from below," said M. 
 Sieyes ; "power must come from above." According to this 
 maxim, the nation gave its confidence by inscription in the 
 lists of notability ; the supreme authority conferred power by 
 choosing its agents out of these lists. The Senate was charged 
 to elect all the political deliberative bodies. Now the councils, 
 engaged with local interests, being considered as forming part 
 of the general administration of the Republic, the executive 
 power, according to the Constitution, was to nominate them, 
 and to select them out of the lists of notability. By virtue, 
 therefore, of the spirit, and even of the letter of the Constitu- 
 tion, the First Consul was to choose out of the lists of the 
 departmental notability the members of the councils of depart- 
 ment ; out of the lists of the notability of arrondissement the 
 members of the councils of arrondissement; lastly, out of the 
 lists of the communal notability the members of the municipal 
 councils. This power, excessive in ordinary times, was neces- 
 sary at this moment. Election, in fact, was as impossible for 
 the formation of the local councils, as it was for the formation 
 of the great political assemblies. It would but have given 
 rise to mischievous agitations, and yielded petty triumphs to 
 all the extreme parties, instead of producing a peaceful and 
 salutary fusion of all the moderate parties — a fusion which was
 
 jan. 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 89 
 
 indispensable for founding a new society with the collected 
 wrecks of the old. 
 
 The judicial organisation was planned with equal skill. It 
 had the twofold object of placing justice nearer to those who 
 needed it, and, at the same time, of ensuring to them, above 
 the local justice, if they chose to have recourse to it, tribunals 
 of appeal, distant, but placed high, and possessing intelligence 
 and impartiality, in proportion to the height of their position. 
 
 Our first revolutionary legislators, owing to the aversion ex- 
 cited by the parliaments, had suppressed the courts of appeal, 
 and placed in each department a siugle tribunal, presenting 
 a first step of jurisdiction for litigants (justiciables) of the de- 
 partment, and a second step of jurisdiction, a tribunal of appeal, 
 for the neighbouring departments. The appeal was made, not 
 from an inferior tribunal to a superior tribunal, but from a 
 neighbouring tribunal to a neighbouring tribunal. Below, 
 were the justices of peace ; above, the Court of Cassation. The 
 single tribunal for the department being found too far distant 
 for those who had occasion to resort to it, the competence of 
 justices of peace had been extended, so as to dispense the 
 citizens from going too often to the chief town. There had 
 also been instituted four or five hundred correctional tribunals, 
 charged with repressing petty misdemeanours. The criminal 
 jury sat at the chief town, the seat of the central tribunal. 
 
 This judicial organisation had not succeeded better than the 
 cantonal municipalities. The justices of peace, whose compe- 
 tence had been extended too far, were not equal to their task. 
 The courts of the first class, being seated at the chief town, 
 were placed too far off; the courts of appeal became nearly 
 illusory, for appeal is useless, unless it be to a tribunal of 
 superior intelligence. Supreme courts, like the parliaments 
 formerly, like the royal courts at the present day, numbering 
 among their members many eminent magistrates, and around 
 them a renowned bar, present a superiority of knowledge to 
 which one may be tempted to recur; but to appeal from one 
 tribunal of first instance to another tribunal of first instance is 
 preposterous. The tribunals of correctional police were like- 
 wise too numerous, and confined, moreover, to a single purpose. 
 It was evidently necessary to reform this judicial organisation. 
 The First Consul, adopting the ideas of his colleague, Cam- 
 baceres, to whom he lent, on this occasion, the support of his 
 sound sense and of his courage, caused that organisation to 
 be adopted, which exists at the present day. 
 
 The circumscription of arrondissement, which had just been 
 devised for the departmental administration, offered very great 
 facility for the judicial administration. It presented the 
 means of creating a first local court, placed very near to the
 
 90 HISTORY OF THE jan. 1800 
 
 litigants, without prejudice to the right of recurring to a court 
 of appeal, placed farther off, and higher. There was instituted, 
 therefore, a tribunal of first instance for each arrondissement, 
 forming a first degree of jurisdiction ; then, without fear of 
 appearing to re-establish the ancient parliaments, the govern- 
 ment determined to create tribunals of appeal. One for each 
 department would be too much in point of number, too little 
 as regarded the elevation of jurisdiction. Twenty-nine were 
 created : this gave them nearly the importance of the ancient 
 parliaments, and they were stationed in places which had 
 formerly enjoyed the presence of those supreme courts. This 
 was a restoration of an advantage to the localities which had 
 been deprived of it. They were old depositaries of judical 
 traditions, the wrecks of which deserved to be collected. The 
 bars of Aix, Dijon, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Rennes, and Paris, 
 were so many constellations of science and of talent, which it 
 was necessary to light up again. 
 
 The tribunals of first instance, established in each depart- 
 ment, were charged, at the same time, with the correctional 
 police, which rendered them doubly useful, and placed civil 
 and repressive justice at the first step in the arrondissement. 
 Criminal justice, always confided to the jury, was to be ad- 
 ministered in the chief town of the department only, by means 
 of judges detaching themselves from the tribunals of appeal, 
 and coming to direct the jury ; in short, to hold assizes. This 
 part was not completed till a later period. 
 
 The department of justice, called the justice of peace, 
 was to be reduced to a more limited competence, by means 
 of the preceding arrangements. The law destined to reform 
 it was deferred till the following session, for it was impossible 
 to do everything at once. But the determination was to retain, 
 not without improving it, that justice of the people, paternal, 
 expeditious, and not expensive. Above the judicial edifice 
 was kept, with some modifications, and a repressive jurisdiction 
 over all the magistrates, the Tribunal of Cassation, one of the 
 best institutions of the French Revolution — a tribunal which 
 is not destined to decide a third time what the tribunals of 
 first instance and appeal have already tried twice, but which, 
 disregarding the merits of the suit, intervenes only when any 
 doubt arises relative to the construction of the law, deter- 
 mines that construction by a series of decrees, and thus adds 
 to the unity of the text, emanating from the legislature, the 
 unity of interpretation emanating from a supreme jurisdiction, 
 common to the whole territory. 
 
 It is, therefore, from this year 1800 — a year so eventful — 
 that our judicial organisation takes date : it has since con- 
 sisted of nearly two thousand juges de paix, popular magistrates,
 
 JAN. 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 91 
 
 dispensing justice to the poor at little expense ; of nearly three 
 hundred tribunals of first instance, one for each arrondissement, 
 dispensing civil and correctional justice at the first step ; of 
 twenty-nine supreme tribunals,* dispensing civil justice on 
 appeal, and criminal justice by means of detached judges, who 
 repair to the chief town of each department to hold assizes ; 
 lastly, of the Court of Cassation, placed above the whole 
 judicial hierarchy, interpreting the laws, and completing the 
 unity of legislation by the unity of jurisprudence. 
 
 The two laws in question were too urgently required, and 
 too ably conceived to meet with serious obstacles. They had, 
 nevertheless, to sustain more than one attack in the Tribunate. 
 Paltry objections were raised against the administrative system 
 proposed. Little complaint was made of the concentration 
 of authority in the hands of prefects, sub-prefects, maires, for 
 that was in unison with the ideas of the day, and copied from 
 the Constitution, which placed one sole chief at the head of the 
 State ; but there were persons who complained of the creation 
 of three steps in the administrative ladder — the department, 
 the arrondissement, the commune. They alleged, in particular, 
 that the commune ought not to be reconstituted, because 
 there would not be found maires sufficiently well informed. 
 It was, however, the restoration of domestic authority, and, in 
 this point of view, the most popular conception that could be 
 devised. As for the judicial organisation, some said it was a 
 restoration of parliaments ; they complained, in particular, of 
 the jurisdiction attributed to the Tribunal of Cassation over 
 the inferior magistrates — all of them objections scarcely worth 
 remembering. The two laws proposed were nevertheless 
 adopted. Twenty or thirty voices, composing the bulk of the 
 opposition in the Tribunate, voted against these laws, but 
 three-fourths declared in favour of them. By the Legislative 
 Body they were adopted almost unanimously. The law relative 
 to the departmental administration took the date, so celebrated 
 ever since, of the 28th Pluviose, year VIII. That relating to 
 the judicial organisation was dated 27th Ventose, year VIII. 
 
 The First Consul, having no intention to leave them a dead 
 letter in the Bulletin des Lois, nominated forthwith the prefects, 
 sub-prefects, and maires. He was liable to commit more than 
 one mistake, as must invariably happen when a great number of 
 functionaries are hastily chosen at once. But an enlightened 
 and vigilant government soon rectifies any errors in its first 
 appointments. It is sufficient if the general spirit of them has 
 
 * We here give only approximative numbers, because the number of the 
 tribunals has varied incessantly since that period, in consequence of the 
 changes of territory which France has undergone. At the present time, for 
 instance, there are but twenty-seven royal courts, or tribunals of appeal.
 
 92 HISTORY OF THE jan. 1800 
 
 been good. Now, the spirit of these appointments was excel- 
 lent; it was at once firm, impartial, and conciliatory. The 
 First Consul picked out from among all parties men reputed to 
 be honest and capable, excluding only such as were violent, and 
 even selecting some of the latter, if experience and time had 
 led them back to moderation, which then formed the essential 
 characteristic of his policy. He called to prefectures — which 
 were important and well-paid offices, for to some of them were 
 attached salaries of 12,000, 15,000, and as much as 24,000 francs; 
 equivalent to double what these amounts would be at present — to 
 prefectures he called persons who had figured with credit in the 
 great political assemblies, and who clearly indicated the tendency 
 of his selections ; for men, if they are not either things or 
 principles, represent them, at least, in the eyes of the people. 
 The First Consul appointed at Marseilles, for example, M. 
 Charles Lacroix, ex-minister of foreign affairs ; at Saintes, M. 
 Francois, of Nantes ; at Lyons, M. Verninhac, formerly ambas- 
 sador ; at Nantes, M. Letourneur, late a member of the Direc- 
 tory ; at Brussels, M. de Pontecoulant ; at Rouen, M. Beugnot ; 
 at Amiens, M. Quinette; at Ghent, M. Faypoult, formerly 
 minister of the finances. All these persons, and others, who 
 were picked out from among the Constituent Assembly, the 
 Legislative Assembly, the Convention, or the Five Hundred, 
 from among the ministers, directors, and ambassadors of the 
 Republic, were fitted to confer lustre on the new administrative 
 functions, and to give to the government of the provinces the 
 importance which it deserves to have. Most of them retained 
 their places during the whole reign of the First Consul and 
 Emperor. One of them, M. de Jessaint, was still prefect four 
 years ago. For the pi'efecture of Paris the First Consul chose 
 M. Frochot. He gave him, for colleague at the prefecture of 
 police, M. Dubois, a magistrate, whose energy was useful in 
 clearing the capital of all the evil-doers whom the parties had 
 vomited forth into its bosom. 
 
 The same spirit presided over the judicial appointments. 
 Honourable names, chosen from the ancient bar, the ancient 
 magistracy, were combined, as much as possible, with new names 
 borne by men of probity. When he could adorn these posts with 
 striking names, the First Consul never failed to do so, for he 
 was fond of Mat in everything, and the time had arrived when 
 it was possible, without too much danger, to borrow from the 
 past. A magistrate of the name of d'Aguesseau was first on the 
 list of judicial nominations, in quality of president of the tribunal 
 of appeal of Paris, now the Royal Court. No sooner were these 
 functionaries appointed, than they received orders to set out 
 immediately to take possession of their posts, and to contribute, 
 each in his line, to the work of reorganisation, which the vouno-
 
 jan. 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 93 
 
 general made his constant occupation, of which he purposed to 
 make his glory, and which, even after his prodigious victories, 
 has, in fact, remained his most solid glory. 
 
 It was necessary to attend to everything at once in that 
 society, turned completely topsy-turvy. The emigrants, at 
 the same time so criminal and so unfortunate, just objects 
 alike of interest and aversion, for in their ranks were to be 
 found men cruelly persecuted, and bad Frenchmen who had 
 conspired against their country — the emigrants deserved the 
 particular attention of the government. According to the last 
 legislative enactment, a decree of the Directory or of the de- 
 partmental administrations was sufficient to place any absent 
 individual on the list of emigrants ; from that moment all the 
 property of such absent person was confiscated, and, if he was 
 ever found upon the territory of the Republic, the law con- 
 demned him to death. A great number of persons, who had 
 really emigrated, or only concealed themselves, not having been 
 yet inscribed on the fatal list, either because they had been 
 forgotten, or because no enemy happened to denounce them, 
 were liable to be still inscribed there. Many lived in a state 
 of perpetual alarm. To place them on that list at this time, it- 
 was sufficient for that enemy once to fall in with them, and 
 thev were then exposed to the operation of the laws of proscrip- 
 tion. As for those who had been inscribed deservedly or not, 
 they were arriving in great numbers to obtain their erasure. 
 Their rash eagerness attested the confidence that was placed 
 in the humanity of the government, but gave offence to certain 
 revolutionists, some of whom had outrages against the return- 
 ing emigrants to reproach themselves with, while others had 
 acquired possession of their property. This was a new source 
 of disorder; and, if it was necessary to cease to proscribe, it 
 was equally necessary not to expose men who had taken part 
 in the Revolution, even violently, to lead an uneasy life. 
 To all those who had compromised themselves for it, the 
 Revolution owed an entire security ; for, unfortunately, men 
 are in general either coldly selfish, or violent partisans of the 
 cause which they have espoused, and. in this latter case, 
 moderation is not their usual merit. 
 
 This state of things called urgently for a remedy. The 
 government presented a bill (projet dc loi), the first clause of 
 which was designed to close the famous list of emigrants. 
 From the 4th Nivose, year VIII. (December 25, 1799), the 
 day on which the Constitution was put in force, the list was 
 declared to be closed ; that is to say. the fact of absence 
 posterior to that date could no longer be construed as emi- 
 gration, and visited with the same penalties. People were 
 permitted, in future, to absent themselves, to go from France to
 
 94 HISTORY OF THE .tan. 1800 
 
 foreign countries, to come from foreign countries into France, 
 without its being a punishable offence ; for it is true, that for 
 ten years to absent oneself had been a crime. Liberty to go 
 and come was thus restored to all the citizens. 
 
 To this first clause was added the following : persons who had 
 incurred, more or less, the charge of emigration, some of whom 
 had quitted the territory of the Republic but for a moment, 
 others merely concealed themselves to escape persecution, and 
 who had fortunately been omitted in the list of emigrants, could 
 not thenceforward be inscribed, unless by virtue of a decision of 
 the ordinary tribunals ; that is to say, of the jury. This was 
 closing the list, in some measure, for them also ; for, with the 
 present spirit of the tribunals, there was no danger of its being 
 increased by new names. 
 
 Lastly, while those who had not yet been inscribed were 
 handed over to the tribunals, and the guarantees of ordinary 
 justice were thus ensured to them, those who, having been un- 
 duly inscribed, or, alleging that they had been so, claimed their 
 erasure, were referred to the administrative authority. Here 
 the indulgent intention of the new government in regard to 
 them was perceptible ; for the new administrative authorities 
 chosen by it, full of its spirit, could not fail to lend a favourable 
 ear to claims of this kind. It was sufficient, in fact, to produce 
 certificates of residence in any place whatever in France, cer- 
 tificates frequently false, to prove that one had been unjustly 
 declared absent, and get one's name erased. With the general 
 disposition to violate tyrannical laws, this method of obtaining 
 erasure could not fail of succeeding. Emigrants desirous of 
 obtaining their erasure were, moreover, allowed to enter France, 
 under the surveillance of the political police. In the language 
 of the time, this was called obtaining surveillances; great 
 numbers of them were delivered ; and thus the emigrants who 
 were in most haste were enabled to anticipate the moment of 
 their erasure. These surveillances even became a definitive 
 recall for most of those who availed themselves of them. 
 
 As for the emigrants whose names could not be removed 
 from the fatal list, on account of the notoriety of their emigra- 
 tion, the existing laws in regard to them were retained. The 
 spirit of the time was such, that no other course could be 
 pursued ; for, if one felt pity for unfortunate persons, one was 
 irritated against guilty men, who had left the French territory 
 to bear arms against their native country, or to bring upon it the 
 arms of foreigners. For the rest, in all cases, the erased or not 
 erased had no claim upon their properties which had been sold. 
 The sales were irrevocable, both by virtue of the Constitution, 
 and in consequence of the dispositions of the new law. Those 
 who had obtained their erasure, and whose property had been
 
 JAN. 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 95 
 
 sequestrated without being sold, could alone indulge a hope of 
 its eventual recovery. 
 
 Such was the law proposed and adopted by an immense 
 majority, notwithstanding some censures in the Tribunate from 
 those who deemed that too much favour, or not enough, was 
 shown in it to the emigrants. 
 
 Among the legal enactments then in force, which appeared 
 intolerably tyrannical, was the interdiction of the right to be- 
 queath property by will. The then existing laws allowed a dying 
 person to dispose of no more than one-tenth of his fortune, if 
 he had children, and of one-sixth, if he had none. These dis- 
 positions had been the result of the first revolutionary indigna- 
 tion against the abuses of the ancient French society, aristocratic 
 society, in which paternal vanity, desirous sometimes to provide 
 for an eldest son, sometimes to force the affections of his children 
 by ill-assorted matches, despoiled some for the benefit of others. 
 Giving way to one of those gusts of indignation so common 
 to the human mind, the government, instead of reducing the 
 paternal authority within just limits, had completely fettered it. 
 A father could no longer reward or punish. He could, if he had 
 children, dispose of nothing, or very little more, in favour of him 
 who had deserved all his affection ; and what is more extraor- 
 dinary, if he had only nephews, near or distant, he could not 
 give away more than an almost insignificant part of his fortune, 
 namely, a sixth. This was a downright outrage on the right 
 of property ; and one of the severities of the revolutionary 
 system that was most keenly felt ; for Death sweeps off victims 
 every day, and thousands expired without having the power to 
 obey the dictates of their hearts in behalf of those who served, 
 attended, cheered them in their old age. 
 
 It was not possible that such a reform as this could be delayed 
 till the Civil Code should be drawn up. A law was proposed 
 for re-establishing the right to dispose of property by will within 
 certain limits. By virtue of this law, the dying father who had 
 fewer than four children might dispose by will of a fourth oi 
 his fortune, of a fifth if he had fewer than five, and so on in 
 the same proportion, lie might dispose of half when he had 
 only ascending or collateral relations, of the whole when he had 
 no kindred qualified to inherit. 
 
 This measure was most attacked in the Tribunate, particularly 
 by Andrieux, an honest, sincere man, but more sparkling than 
 enlightened, lie alleged that it was a return to the abuses of 
 the right of primogeniture, to the violences practised under the 
 ancient system upon children of* rank, &c. This law passed, 
 like the others, by an immense majority. 
 
 By another law the government instituted a tribunal of prizes, 
 which had become indispensable for rendering impartial justice
 
 96 HISTORY OF THE jan. 1800 
 
 to neutrals and for conciliating them by better treatment. 
 Lastly, it called the attention of the two assemblies to the laws 
 concerning the finances. 
 
 On this point there was little to say to the Legislative Body, 
 the two legislative commissions having already passed the re- 
 quisite laws. The administrative operations undertaken by the 
 government in pursuance of these laws, with a view to reorganise 
 the finances, were scarcely a subject for discussion. At any 
 rate, it was necessary to settle, were it but for form's sake, the 
 budget of the year VIII. If the collection had been regular, if 
 the taxes imposed had been punctually paid, and not only paid 
 by those on whom they were assessed, but faithfully handed 
 over by the depositaries of the public money, the finances of the 
 State would have been in a tolerable condition. The ordinary 
 taxes might produce about 430,000,000 f . ; and this was the 
 amount to which the government hoped to reduce the public 
 expenditure in time of peace ; nay, it even flattered itself with 
 the prospect of bringing it down considerably lower. Experi- 
 ence soon proved that it was not possible, even in time of peace, 
 to keep it under 500,000,000 f . ; but it proved also that it would 
 be easy to raise that sum from the taxes, without increasing the 
 rates. This estimate does not include the expenses of collection 
 or the local expenses, which would raise the budget of that period, 
 calculating as we now do, to 600,000,000 or 630,000,000 f . 
 
 It was only with reference to the war expenditure that the 
 insufficiency of the receipts was great and certain ; and in this 
 there is nothing extraordinary, for it is the same everywhere. 
 In no country whatever can war be carried on with the ordinary 
 revenues of peace. If it could be done, it would be a proof 
 that in time of peace the taxes were unnecessarily high. But, 
 owing to the confusion of late years, nobody could tell, if, with 
 war, the budget would amount to 600,000,000, 700.000.000. or 
 800,000,000 f. On this point each made different conjectures. Ex- 
 perience proved likewise that the addition of about 1 50.000,000!'. 
 to the ordinary budget would be sufficient to defray the expenses 
 of the war, that is, with victorious armies living in an enemy's 
 country. The budget of the year was therefore estimated at 
 6oo,ooo,OOOf. for receipts as well as expenditure. As the ordinary 
 revenues amounted to 430,000,000 f., there was a deficiency of 
 170,000,000 f. But this was not the real difficulty. On emerg- 
 ing from a financial chaos, it would have been too much to have 
 attempted to equalise, all at once, the receipts and the expendi- 
 ture. It was first necessary to get in the ordinary taxes. If 
 this first result could be attained, the government was sure to 
 have speedily wherewithal to meet the most urgent necessities, 
 for credit would very soon feel the effect, and, with the paper of 
 different kinds enumerated elsewhere, which had been created,
 
 JAN. 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 97 
 
 it had in its hands the means of obtaining from moneyed men 
 the funds requisite for all the services. Such was the object of 
 the unremitting efforts of M. Gaudin, seconded against all the 
 difficulties which he encountered by the resolute and persevering 
 will of the First Consul. The agents of the direct contributions 
 recently established displayed the greatest activity. The assess- 
 ments were far advanced, and already in the course of collection. 
 The bills of the receivers-general began to find their way into 
 the coffers of the treasury, and to be discounted at a rate of 
 interest that was not over usurious. The difficulty in carrying 
 out this system of bills consisted always in the quantity of paper 
 circulating, which it was difficult to ascertain, especially with 
 reference to each general receipt. A receiver who ought to 
 gather 20.000,000 f., for example, could not sign bills for that 
 sum, if he had to take 6,000,000 or 8,000,000 f. in dead assets, 
 in bons d'arrdraye, bons de requisition, &c. The minister applied 
 himself to withdraw these papers, to estimate what amount in 
 them was likely to figure in each general receipt, and to make 
 the receivers-general sign bills for the sum in cash which, as 
 he calculated, would come into their coffers. 
 
 During this same session, there was instituted a new class of 
 accountable officers destined to ensure the more punctual trans- 
 mission of moneys to the treasury; these were the receivers of 
 arrondissement. Hitherto there had been no other intermediate 
 person between the collectors placed near the tax-payers and the 
 receiver-general residing in the chief town, than the clerks of 
 receipts, agents of the receiver-general, dependents of his, telling 
 the truth to him alone. It was, nevertheless, one of the points 
 of passage where the payment of money into the public chests 
 might be best watched and ascertained. This point had been 
 unfortunately neglected. Particular receivers were now ap- 
 pointed in each arrondissement, dependent on the State, bound 
 to report to it what they received and what they paid to the 
 receiver-general, well-informed and disinterested witnesses as 
 to the sums actually collected, for they made no profit by the 
 stoppage of the public funds in the hands of the accountable 
 officers. From this institution the government derived the 
 advantage of being more accurately informed of the state of the 
 receipts, and of getting into its hands new securities in ready 
 money, which would be a matter of indifference now, but was 
 not so then; lastly, it had the further advantage of introducing 
 the system of circumscription by arrondissement, recently de- 
 vised. Civil and correctional justice and a considerable part of 
 the communal administration had been already established at 
 the centre of the arrondissement; by fixing there also part of 
 the financial administration greater benefit was derived from this 
 circumscription, which certain persons alleged to be only an 
 
 VOL. I. (i
 
 9 8 HISTORY OF THE jan. 1800 
 
 arbitrary subdivision of territory. Since it had, on certain 
 accounts, been deemed indispensable, one could not do better 
 than multiply the use of it, and render it real, instead of artificial, 
 as it was accused of being. The prefects and sub-prefects had 
 orders to visit the receivers, and, by inspecting their books, 
 to check the punctuality of their payments. For this there 
 is now, fortunately, no occasion ; but, at the period which we 
 are describing, when everything was but roughly sketched, it 
 was applying useful stimulants to accountable officers, to send 
 prefects and sub-prefects to inspect their chests. 
 
 The reorganisation of the finances could not, therefore, proceed 
 more rapidly. But public assemblies appreciate only realised 
 results. People could not see all the truly useful things intro- 
 duced into the interior of the administration. In the Tribunate 
 they descanted endlessly on the great question of the equalisation 
 of the receipts and the expenditure ; they complained of the 
 deficit ; they brought forward a thousand schemes, and there 
 were members so irrational as to propose to negative the financial 
 measures under discussion, till the government should find some 
 expedient for securing equilibrium between the receipts and 
 the expenditure. But all these propositions led to no results. 
 The proposed laws were adopted by a great majority in the 
 Tribunate, and almost unanimously in the Legislative Body. 
 
 An institution, worthy of being mentioned in history, was 
 added to those, the creation of which has already been recorded ; 
 this was the Bank of France. The old discounting establish- 
 ments had perished amidst the disorders of the Revolution ; it 
 was not possible, however, for Paris to dispense with a bank. 
 In every commercial centre, where a certain activity prevails, 
 there is wanted a convenient circulating medium for payments, 
 that is to say, a paper money, and an establishment discounting, 
 on a large scale, the bills of merchants. These two branches 
 of business, indeed, work well together ; for the cash received, 
 in exchange for circulating notes, furnishes the very funds 
 that may be lent to the community in the shape of discounts. 
 In fact, wherever there is any business doing, however incon- 
 siderable, a bank must prosper, if it discounts none but good 
 paper, and if it issues no more notes than are wanted ; in short, 
 if it confines its operations to the legitimate wants of the 
 place where it is established. This was what required to be 
 done in Paris, and what could not fail to succeed, if it were well 
 done. This new bank was to do business not only with jDrivate 
 persons, but also with the treasury, and thus if it made profits, 
 it had also services to render. The government had recourse 
 to the principal bankers of the capital ; M. Perregaux, a 
 financier whose name is connected with all the eminent services 
 rendered at that time to the State, put himself at their head,
 
 jan. 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 99 
 
 and an association of wealthy capitalists was formed for the 
 establishment of a bank, called the Bank of France, the same 
 that still exists. The capital was fixed at 30,000,000 francs. 
 This bank was to be managed by fifteen directors, and a com- 
 mittee of three persons, since replaced by a governor. According 
 to its statutes, it was to discount commercial paper, originating 
 in legitimate and not fictitious transactions, to issue notes circu- 
 lating like money, and to abstain from all speculations foreign 
 to discount and bullion business. Adhering to its statutes, 
 it has become the most flourishing establishment of the kind 
 known in the world. We shall see presently what was done 
 by the government to impart to the operations of this bank 
 that energy and scope which caused it to prosper from the 
 very first days of its existence. 
 
 While the consular government, in concert with the Legisla- 
 tive Body, was devoting itself to these vast labours of internal 
 administration, the negotiations with the powers, friendly or 
 belligerent, were continued without interruption. The letter of 
 the First Consul to the King of England elicited an immediate 
 answer. The First Consul had written on the 26th of December 
 (5th Nivose) ; the answer was dated the 4th of January (14th 
 Nivose). The resolution of the English cabinet was, in fact, 
 taken beforehand, and it had no need to deliberate. In 1797, 
 indeed, England might think of treating, and send Lord 
 Malmesbury to Lille, when her finances were embarrassed, 
 when Austria was obliged to sign the peace of the Continent at 
 Campo-Formio : but now that the income-tax had more than 
 replenished her exchequer, now that Austria, again at war with 
 us, had pushed her armies to our frontiers, now that she was 
 bent on wresting from us the important positions of Malta and 
 Egypt, and on avenging the affront of the Texel, peace could 
 not be very desirable to that power. She had, besides, a still 
 stronger reason for refusing it ; this was, that war suited the 
 passions and the interests of Mr. Pitt. This celebrated head of 
 the British cabinet had made the war with France his mission, 
 his glory, the foundation of his political existence. If peace 
 became necessary, he should, perhaps, be obliged to retire. He 
 brought to the conflict that obstinacy of character which, com- 
 bined with his rhetorical talents, had made him a powerful, 
 but not very enlightened statesman. The reply could not be 
 doubtful ; it was negative and uncivil. The answer was not 
 addressed directly to the First Consul ; but, adhering to the 
 custom, an excellent one, by-the-by, of communicating from 
 minister to minister, the English cabinet replied in a note from 
 Lord Grenville to M. de Talleyrand. 
 
 This note clumsily betrayed the displeasure caused to Mr. Pitt 
 by this challenge, not to war, but to peace, addressed by the
 
 ioo HISTORY OF THE jan. 1800 
 
 First Consul to England. It contained a recapitulation, ever- 
 lastingly repeated for several years, of the origin of the war ; it 
 imputed the first aggression to the French Republic ; reproached 
 it, in violent language, with the ravages committed in Germany, 
 in Holland, in Switzerland, and in Italy ; it made mention even 
 of rapine practised by our generals in the latter country ; and, 
 coupled with this reproach, that of a design to overthrow, every- 
 where, the throne and the altar ; and then, coming to the late 
 overtures of the First Consul, the English minister said that 
 these feigned pacific demonstrations were not the first of the 
 same kind ; that the various revolutionary governments, suc- 
 cessively erected and overthrown for ten years past, had more 
 than once made similar overtures ; that his Majesty the King 
 of Great Britain could not yet discover, in what was passing in 
 France, a change of principles capable of satisfying and tran- 
 quillising Europe ; that the only change which could give it 
 complete security would be the re-establishment of the house of 
 Bourbon ; that then alone social order would appear to be out 
 of danger ; that, for the rest, the re-establishment of that house 
 was not made the absolute condition of peace with the French 
 Republic, but that, until new symptoms more significant and 
 more satisfactory, England would persist in fighting as well for 
 her own safety as for that of her allies. 
 
 This indecorous note, which was disapproved by sensible men 
 in all countries, did little honour to Mr. Pitt ; it indicated in him 
 more passion than understanding. It proved that a new govern- 
 ment needs many victories to make itself respected ; for the 
 present government had already gained numerous and signal 
 victories, but evidently it needed still greater. The First Consul 
 was not disconcerted, and, wishing to profit by the favourable 
 position which the moderation of his conduct gave him in the 
 eyes of the world, he returned a mild but firm answer, not again 
 in the form of a letter to the king, but in the form of a despatch 
 addressed to Lord Grenville, the minister for foreign affairs. 
 Recapitulating, in a few words, the first events of the war, he 
 proved, in very temperate language, that France had taken up 
 arms solely for the purpose of resisting a European conspiracy, 
 formed against her safety; admitting the calamities which the 
 Revolution had brought upon the whole world, he insinuated, by 
 the way, that those who had persecuted the French Republic 
 with such rancour ought, by right, to reproach themselves 
 with being the real cause of the violences so often deplored. 
 " But," added he, " what is the use of reverting to these circum- 
 stances ? Here is now a government disposed to put an end to 
 the war ; is the war to be endless, because this or the other 
 was the aggressor? And, unless there is a desire to render it 
 interminable, ought not an end to be put to these incessant
 
 jan. 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 10 1 
 
 recriminations ? Assuredly no one can hope to obtain from 
 France the re-establishment of the Bourbons ; is it, then, 
 decorous to make insinuations such as those which have been 
 indulged in ? And what would be said, if France, in her com- 
 munications, were to call upon England to replace on the throne 
 that family of the Stuarts which descended from it only in the 
 last century ? But, setting aside all these irritating questions," 
 added the note dictated by the First Consul, "if you deplore, 
 like us, the evils of war, let us agree to a suspension of arms ; 
 let us fix upon a town, Dunkirk, for instance, or any other, 
 at your option, where the negotiators shall meet ; the French 
 government places at the disposal of Great Britain passports for 
 the ministers whom she shall have invested with her powers." 
 
 This calm attitude produced the effect usually produced by a 
 cool man on an angry man ; it drew from Lord Grenville a reply 
 still more vehement, more acrimonious, more illogical, than his 
 first note. In this reply, the English minister sought to palliate 
 the blunder which he had committed in adverting to the house 
 of Bourbon ; answered that it was not for that house that war 
 was waged, but for the safety of all governments, and again 
 declared that hostilities would be prosecuted without relaxation. 
 This last communication was dated the 20th of January (30th 
 Nivose). There was not another word to be said. General 
 Bonaparte had done enough : confiding in his glory, he had 
 not been afraid to offer peace ; he had offered it, without much 
 hope, but in perfect sincerity ; and by this step he had gained 
 the twofold advantage of unveiling the unreasonable passions 
 of Mr. Pitt, as well to the eyes of France as to the eyes of the 
 English opposition. Happy had it been, if he had at all times 
 united with his power that moderation of conduct so skilfully 
 turned to account ! 
 
 The communications of Austria were more decorous, without 
 affording more hope of peace. That power, not imagining that 
 the intentions of the First Consul, though very pacific, could go 
 so far as the relinquishment of Italy in her favour, was re- 
 solved to continue the war ; but, acquainted with the conqueror 
 of Castiglione and Rivoli, knowing that whoever had him for 
 adversary must not be too confident of victory, she would not 
 bar every way to ulterior negotiations. 
 
 As if Austria had an understanding with England respecting 
 form, the answer of the emperor to the First Consul was a 
 despatcli from M. Thugut to M. de Talleyrand. This despatch 
 was dated the 15th of .January (25th Nivose). The substance 
 was the same as that of the English notes. If war was carried 
 on, it alleged that it was only to preserve Europe from a general 
 convulsion : Austria wished for nothing more than to see France 
 disposed to peace : but what guarantee did she otter for her new
 
 io2 HISTORY OF THE jan. 1800 
 
 dispositions ? It was admitted, however, that, under the First 
 Consul, there was reason to hope for more moderation at home 
 and abroad, more stability of purpose, more fidelity to engage- 
 ments made ; and that there would thence result more chances 
 for a solid and lasting peace. This happy change was expected 
 from his eminent talents ; but, without saying so, it was in- 
 sinuated that, when it should be completely effected, it would be 
 time enough to think of negotiating. 
 
 The First Consul, acting with Austria as with England, was 
 not to be put off with this evasive explanation. Without being 
 discouraged by the vagueness of the answer, he resolved to re- 
 duce the cabinet of Vienna to the necessity of giving a positive 
 explanation, and of refusing or accepting peace in a categorical 
 manner. On the 28th of February (9th Ventose), M. de Talley- 
 rand was directed to write to M. de Thugut, and to offer to take 
 for the basis of negotiations the treaty of Campo-Formio. This 
 treaty, he said, had been an act of great moderation towards 
 the Emperor of Austria on the part of General Bonaparte ; for 
 having it in his power, in 1797, to extort great sacrifices from 
 that prince, owing to the threatening position of the French 
 army at the gates of Vienna, he had, in the hope of a durable 
 peace, preferred moderate advantages to more extensive advan- 
 tages ; he had even incurred the censure of the Directory, added 
 the French minister, by his clemency to the imperial court. 
 Lastly, M. de Talleyrand declared that Austria should receive 
 in Italy the indemnifications which, by the treaty of Campo- 
 Formio, were promised her in Germany. 
 
 To comprehend the drift of the propositions of the First 
 Consul, we must recollect that the treaty of Campo-Formio gave, 
 to France, Belgium and Luxemburg ; to the Cisalpine Republic, 
 Lombardy, Mantua, the Legations, &c. ; and that Austria re- 
 ceived, by way of indemnification, Venice and the greater part 
 of the Venetian States. With respect to the line of the Rhine, 
 embracing, besides Belgium and Luxemburg, the countries 
 comprised between the Meuse, the Moselle, and the Rhine, in 
 short, what we now call the Rhenish Provinces, Austria was to 
 mediate for the purpose of obtaining the cession of them to 
 France by the Germanic Empire. Austria, on her own part, 
 ceded, henceforward, the county of Falkenstein, situated be- 
 tween Lorraine and Alsace, and engaged to open to the French 
 troops the gates of Mayence, which she occupied on behalf of 
 the Empire. By way of compensation, Austria was to receive 
 the bishopric of Salzburg, contiguous to Bavaria, when the 
 ecclesiastical provinces should be secularised. These various 
 arrangements were to be negotiated at the congress of Rastadt. 
 terminated so tragically in 1799 by the murder of the French 
 plenipotentiaries. Such was the treaty of Campo-Formio.
 
 jan. 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 103 
 
 In offering this treaty as the basis of a new negotiation, the 
 First Consul, therefore, did not resolve the question of the line 
 of the Rhine in regard to the Rhenish Provinces ; he decided 
 only the question respecting Belgium, irrevocably ceded to 
 France, leaving the question of the Rhenish Provinces to an 
 ulterior negotiation with the Empire ; and, by offering in Italy 
 the compensations formerly stipulated in Germany, he insinuated 
 that the success obtained by Austria in Italy should be taken 
 into consideration, and have the effect of placing her in a better 
 position in that country. He added that, for the second-rate 
 powers of Europe, there should be stipulated a system of guaran- 
 tees, calculated to restore in its full force that law of nations, on 
 which the safety and the happiness of nations essentially depend. 
 This was an allusion to the invasion of Switzerland, of Pied- 
 mont, of Tuscany, of the Papal States, and of Naples, for which the 
 Directory was so bitterly reproached, and which had been made 
 the pretext for the second coalition ; it was a pretty clear offer 
 to re-establish those different States, and thus to make Europe 
 easy concerning the alleged invasions of the French Republic. 
 
 More could not be granted : and nothing but the need which 
 France then had of peace could have induced the First Consul 
 to make such offers. And, as he never did things by halves, he 
 addressed to Austria, as well as to England, the formal pro- 
 position of a suspension of arms, not only on the Rhine, where 
 that suspension already existed, but also on the Alps and the 
 Apennines, where it did not yet exist. 
 
 On the 24th of March (3rd Germinal), M. de Thugut replied, 
 and in very moderate terms, that the treaty of Campo-Formio, 
 violated as soon as concluded, did not contain a system of paci- 
 fication capable of satisfying the belligerent powers ; that the 
 true principle, adopted in all negotiations, was to take for basis 
 the state in which the fortune of arms had left each power ; that 
 this was the only basis on which Austria could treat. M. de 
 Thugut added that, before proceeding any farther, he had an 
 inquiry to make relative to the form of the negotiation ; that 
 it was important for him to know whether France would admit 
 the negotiators of all the States at war, in order to arrive at a 
 general peace, the only one which was fair and prudent, the only 
 one to which Austria could accede. 
 
 This language proved two things : firstly, that Austria, in pro- 
 posing for the point of departure the actual state, that is to say. 
 the situation in which the last campaign had left each power, 
 cherished high pretensions in regard to Italy; secondly, that she 
 would not separate from England, to whom she was closely bound 
 by subsidiary treaties. This fidelity to England was. on her part, 
 a duty imposed by her position, which, as we shall see by-and-by, 
 influenced the turn of the negotiations and of the war.
 
 io 4 HISTORY OF THE jan. 1800 
 
 Such an answer, though civil in its terms, left little hope of 
 coming to an understanding, since it made the conduct of a power 
 disposed to listen to some words of peace, depend on the conduct 
 of a power determined not to listen to any. General Bonaparte, 
 nevertheless, directed a reply to be sent to this effect : that, in 
 offering indemnifications in Italy, for those stipulated formerly 
 in Germany, he proposed implicitly to start, not from the status 
 ante helium, but from the status post helium, that is, to take into 
 account the successes of Austria in Italy ; that the overtures 
 made by him to England proved his desire to render the peace- 
 general ; that he had little hope, however, from a negotiation 
 common to all the belligerent powers, as England was adverse 
 to accommodation ; but that he admitted purely and simply the 
 propositions of Austria ; that he awaited, in consequence, the 
 designation of the place where they might treat ; and that, as 
 there was a determination to continue to fight, it ought to be 
 fixed out of the theatre of the war. 
 
 Austria declared that, such being the intentions of the French 
 cabinet, she would communicate with her allies ; but that, till 
 she had consulted them, it would be impossible to fix upon 
 any particular place. This was deferring the negotiation for an 
 indefinite term. 
 
 The First Consul, in addressing these overtures to England 
 and Austria, had not indulged in any allusion as to their result ; 
 but he wished to try the effect of pacific advances, in the first 
 place, because he desired peace, considering it as necessary for 
 the organisation of the new government ; secondly, because he 
 judged that this step would raise him in the estimation of France 
 and of Europe. 
 
 His calculations were completely justified by what passed in 
 the English parliament. Mr. Pitt, by his uncourteous manner of 
 replying to the overtures of France, drew upon himself violent and 
 deserved attacks. Never had the opposition of Fox and Sheridan 
 been more nobly inspired ; never had it shed such lustre, and 
 merited more justly the esteem of the honest men of all countries. 
 
 In fact, there was scarcely any motive to justify the continu- 
 ance of the war ; for England was then in a position to obtain 
 all that she could reasonably wish. It is true that she would 
 scarcely have obtained the relinquishment of Egypt ; but, as she 
 was willing, a few months afterwards, to leave it to us (the ulterior 
 negotiations will prove this), she might have consented to it at 
 once ; and, at this price, she would have retained her conquests, 
 the Indies included, and she would have spared herself the 
 immense dangers to which her obstinacy exposed her at a later 
 period. It was, therefore, at bottom, nothing but a ministerial 
 interest which induced the British cabinet to prosecute the war 
 with such rancour. The animadversions of the opposition were
 
 jan. 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 105 
 
 strong, and incessantly repeated. They demanded and obtained 
 copies of the papers relative to the negotiation, and the most 
 violent debates on the subject ensued. The ministers insisted 
 that it was impossible to negotiate with the French government, 
 because there was no safety in treating with it ; that by its bad 
 faith it had successively drawn upon itself war with the whole 
 world, Denmark and Sweden excepted, and that its relations, 
 even with these two countries, were impaired ; that peace with 
 this government was deceitful and ruinous, witness the States 
 of Italy ; that, after having been the aggressor towards all the 
 princes of Europe, it designed to dethrone them all ; for it was 
 consumed by an incessant thirst for conquest and destruction ; 
 that General Bonaparte offered no more guarantees than his 
 predecessors ; that, if the new French government was no longer 
 terrorist, it was still revolutionary, and with the French Revolu- 
 tion no hope of peace or truce could be indulged ; that, if it could 
 not be annihilated, it must at least be exhausted, till it was so 
 weakened that there was nothing further to be feared from it. 
 The English ministers, especially Lord Grenville, made use of 
 the most insulting language in speaking of the First Consul. 
 They treated him much as they had done Robespierre. 
 
 Fox, Sheridan, Tierney, the Duke of Bedford, and Lord Hol- 
 land, replied with the highest reason to these allegations. " You 
 ask who was the aggressor," said they, "and what signifies 
 that ? You say that it was France ; France says that it was 
 England. Must we then continue to tear each other in pieces 
 till we can agree about this point of history ? And of what con- 
 sequence is it who was the aggressor, if the one whom you accuse 
 of being so makes the first offer to lay down arms ? You say 
 that it is impossible to treat with the French government ; but 
 you yourselves sent Lord Malmesbury to Lille to treat with the 
 Directory. Prussia and Spain have treated with the French 
 Republic, and have had no reason to complain of it. You talk 
 of the crimes of that government ; but your ally, the court of 
 Naples, is committing crimes infinitely more atrocious than those 
 of the Convention ; for it has not the excuse of popular excite- 
 ment. You talk of ambition ; but Russia, Prussia, and Austria 
 have partitioned Poland ; but Austria has just reconquered Italy, 
 without restoring their dominions to the princes whom France 
 had dispossessed ; you are yourselves seizing India, part of the 
 Spanish colonies, and all the Dutch colonies. Who will dare to 
 proclaim himself more disinterested than another in this con- 
 flict of rage and avidity, in which all the States are engaged ? 
 Either you will never treat with the French Republic, or you 
 will never find a more favourable moment than the present ; for 
 an energetic man, a man who is obeyed, has just seized the 
 supreme power, and seems disposed to exercise it with justice and
 
 io6 HISTORY OF THE jan. 1800 
 
 moderation. Is it worthy of the English government to cover with 
 abuse an illustrious personage, the head of one of the first nations 
 in the world, and who is at least a great captain, whatever may 
 be the vices or the virtues which time shall hereafter develop in 
 him ? Unless we say that we are determined to exhaust Great 
 Britain, her blood, her treasures, all her most valuable resources, 
 for the re-establishment of the house of Bourbon, we can assign 
 no good reason for refusing to treat at this moment." 
 
 To arguments so conclusive and so clear, no reply could be 
 given. Mr. Tierney, seizing the occasion offered by the fault 
 which the English administration had committed, in adverting, 
 in its notes, to the re-establishment of the house of Bourbon, 
 made a special motion against that house. He proposed the 
 adoption of a formal resolution, declaring the separation of the 
 cause of England from the cause of the Bourbons, a race so 
 pernicious to both countries, he exclaimed, to Great Britain as 
 well as to France ! " I have heard," he continued, " I have heard 
 many partisans of the administration of Mr. Pitt assert, that the 
 French government, not having proposed a collective negotiation, 
 there might be just cause for refusing a separate negotiation, 
 which would weaken by severing us from our allies ; but I have 
 not met with one who did not severely censure this manner of 
 fixing the term of the war at the restoration of the house of 
 Bourbon." And it is true, as Tierney said, that everybody had 
 censured that fault, and that the cabinet of Vienna, less influenced 
 by passion than the British cabinet, had taken good care not to 
 imitate it. The English ministers replied that they had not 
 introduced that condition as absolute and indispensable, but 
 they were told, and truly, that the mention of it constituted a 
 violation of the law of nations — an attack on the liberty of 
 nations. "And what would you say," cried Mr. Tierney (re- 
 peating here the argument of the French cabinet), " what would 
 you say if General Bonaparte, when victorious, should declare 
 that he would not treat unless with the Stuarts? Besides," 
 added he, "is it out of gratitude to the house of Bourbon that 
 you are lavishing our blood and our treasure ? Recollect the 
 American war ! Or is it not rather for the principle that it 
 represents ? Will you, then, rouse against yourselves all the 
 passions that excited France to rise against the Bourbons? 
 Will you draw upon yourselves the animosity of all those who 
 will not have any more nobles — of all those who will not have 
 any more tithes or feudal rights — of all those who have acquired 
 national domains — of all those who have borne arms ten years 
 for the French Revolution ? Will you, then, drain to the last 
 drop the blood of so many Frenchmen, before you think of 
 negotiating? I move," concluded Mr. Tierney, "that England 
 separates her cause from that of the house of Bourbon."
 
 jan. 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 107 
 
 On another occasion, the celebrated Sheridan, always the 
 boldest and the most pungent of speakers, — Sheridan turned 
 the debate upon a very sore point for the British cabinet — the 
 expedition to Holland, in consequence of which the English 
 and Russians, defeated by General Brune, had been obliged 
 to capitulate. "It seems," said Mr. Sheridan, "that if our 
 government cannot conclude treaties of peace with the French 
 Republic, it can at least conclude capitulations. I ask it to 
 explain to us the motives of that which it has signed for the 
 evacuation of Holland." Mr. Dundas, thus challenged, assigned 
 three motives for the expedition to Holland : the first, to detach 
 the United Provinces from France ; the second, to diminish 
 the maritime strength of France, and to augment that of 
 England, by taking the Dutch fleet ; the third, to make a 
 useful diversion for the allies ; and he added, that the British 
 cabinet had succeeded in two points out of the three, since it 
 had possession of the fleet, and had contributed to the victory 
 gained at Novi, by drawing to Holland the troops destined for 
 Italy. No sooner had the minister finished, than Sheridan, 
 closing upon him, retorted, with incomparable point : " Yes, 
 you credited the reports of emigrants, and risked upon the 
 continent an English army, to cover it with disgrace. You 
 sought to detach Holland from France, and you have attached 
 it to her more strongly than ever, by filling it with indignation 
 at the iniquitous seizure of its fleet and of its colonies. You 
 have possession, you say, of the Dutch fleet; but by an unheard 
 of, an odious, proceeding, by exciting the crews to mutiny, by 
 exhibiting a spectacle of the most mischievous kind, that of 
 sailors revolting against their officers, violating that discipline 
 which constitutes the strength of navies and the greatness of 
 our nation. You have thus ignominiously seized on that fleet, 
 not for England, at any rate, but for the stadtholder ; for you 
 have been obliged to declare that it was tor him. and not for 
 England. Lastly, you have rendered a service to the Austrian 
 army at Novi; that is possible; but do you boast, then, 
 ministers of the Kins: of Great Britain, of having saved an 
 Austrian army by giving up an English army to slaughter?" 
 
 These virulent attacks did not prevent Mr. Pitt from obtaining 
 immense financial supplies, about ^44,000.000 sterling (nearly 
 double the budget of France at that period): the authorisation 
 to grant subsidies to Austria, and to the States of Southern 
 Germany ; important additions to the income-tax. which already 
 produced ,£7.200.000 sterling per annum : a new suspension of 
 the Habeas Corpus; and. lastly, the important measure of a 
 union with Ireland. But in England the public was deeply 
 moved by so much sound reason and eloquence. Rational 
 men throughout all Europe were struck by the wrongs done to
 
 io8 HISTORY OF THE JAN. 1800 
 
 France, and, victory siding with justice, Mr. Pitt was destined 
 ere long to atone, by severe humiliations, for the supercilious- 
 ness of his policy towards the First Consul. Meanwhile, Mr. 
 Pitt was enabled to furnish the coalition with the means for a 
 new campaign ; the last, it is true, on account of the exhaustion 
 of the belligerent parties, and the most fiercely contested, 
 precisely because it was to be the last. 
 
 In this critical juncture, the First Consul sought to derive 
 from the court of Prussia all the utility that could be expected 
 from it for the present. That court would not have been able, 
 in the face of such powerful adversaries, to restore peace in 
 any other way than by having recourse to an armed mediation, 
 a part not impossible for it to play, but totally inconsistent 
 with the views of the young king, who was applying himself 
 to recruit his treasury and his army, while all around him were 
 exhausting themselves. This prince had already sounded the 
 belligerent powers, and had found them so far from the mark, 
 that he had renounced the office of interposing between them. 
 Besides, the Prussian cabinet had certain interested views of 
 its own. It had no objection that France should exhaust 
 Austria, and that she should exhaust herself, in a prolonged 
 struggle ; but it would have wished her to relinquish part of 
 the line of the Rhine, and, contenting herself with Belgium and 
 Luxemburg, in that quarter, not to lay claim to the Rhenish 
 Provinces. It urged the First Consul to adopt these views, 
 hinting that France and Prussia, if .less close neighbours, would 
 be the better friends, while the European cabinets, soothed by 
 this moderation of France, would be the more inclined to peace. 
 But, though the First Consul had used great reserve in ex- 
 plaining himself on this point, at bottom there was very little 
 hope of deciding him to this sacrifice ; and in all this the cabinet 
 of Berlin could not perceive any prospect of such a peace as 
 could alone satisfy Prussia, and merit her active intervention. 
 It was, therefore, prodigal of advice, administered in a dogmatic 
 though friendly shape, but it abstained from acting. 
 
 Still this cabinet might be useful in maintaining the neutrality 
 of the north of Germany, in persuading as many German princes 
 as possible to enter into that neutrality ; lastly, in detaching 
 the Emperor Paul from the coalition. As for these objects, 
 it did labour with zeal to accomplish them, because it was 
 solicitous to strengthen and extend the neutrality of the north 
 of Germany, and particularly to bring over Russia to its views. 
 Paul, ever extreme in his sentiments, became every day more 
 exasperated against Austria and England ; he declared publicly 
 that he would certainly oblige Austria to replace the Italian 
 princes on their thrones, which she had reconquered with the 
 arms of Russia, and England to restore to the Order of Malta
 
 jan. 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 109 
 
 that island fortress, which she was on the point of reducing ; he 
 manifested a strange passion for that ancient order of chivalry, 
 and had made himself its Grand Master. He blamed the 
 manner in which the overtures of the First Consul had been 
 received in London and Vienna, and, from his communications 
 with Prussia, which had become confidential, it might be per- 
 ceived that he would have been glad if similar overtures had 
 been addressed to himself. The First Consul, in fact, had not 
 ventured upon this step, for fear of what might happen with 
 a character such as that of the Czar. Prussia, apprised of all 
 these particulars, communicated them to the French cabinet, 
 which turned them to its advantage. 
 
 Before opening the campaign, for the season for military 
 operations was approaching, the First Consul desired the atten- 
 dance of M. Sandoz, the Prussian minister, and on the 5th of 
 March (14th Ventose) had a distinct and complete explanation 
 with him. After recapitulating at length all that he had done 
 for restoring peace, and all the invincible obstacles and want of 
 courtesy which he had met with, he made known the extent 
 of his military preparations, and, without unveiling his pro- 
 found combinations, gave the Prussian minister a glimpse of 
 the magnitude of the resources which France still possessed. 
 He then declared that, full of confidence in Prussia, he ex- 
 pected her to make fresh efforts to reconcile the belligerent 
 powers, while he should be engaged in fighting ; that, in default 
 of a general peace, of which there was little probability before 
 a new campaign, he looked for two services from King Frederick 
 William — the reconciliation of the Republic with Paul I., and 
 a direct interposition with the Elector of Bavaria to withdraw 
 that prince from the coalition. " Make up matters for us with 
 Paul," said General Bonaparte ; " decide, at the same time, the 
 Elector of Bavaria to refuse his troops and his territory to the 
 coalition, and you will have rendered us two services which 
 shall not be forgotten. If the Elector accedes to our requisi- 
 tions, you may promise him all the consideration he can desire 
 during the war, and the best treatment at the peace." 
 
 The First Consul explained his ulterior views to the Prussian 
 envoy. He declared to him that, the treaty of Campo-Formio 
 being the basis offered for the future negotiation, our frontier 
 on the side of the Rhine would be a question to be discussed 
 afterwards with the Empire ; that the independence of Hol- 
 land, Switzerland, and the Italian States should be formally 
 guaranteed. Without explaining himself upon the point where 
 the Rhine should cease to bound the French frontier, he merely 
 said that nobody could suppose that France would relinquish 
 the left bank at all events above Mayence, but that, below that 
 place, the Moselle or the Meuse might serve 1 for boundary.
 
 no HISTORY OF THE jan. 1800 
 
 There could be no question as to France retaining Belgium 
 and Luxemburg. He added, in conclusion, that, if Prussia 
 rendered France the services which she was in a position to 
 render her, he would engage to leave to the cabinet of Berlin a 
 considerable influence in the negotiations for peace. This was, in 
 fact, the point of which Prussia was most tenacious, for she wished 
 to take part in these negotiations for the purpose of settling the 
 German frontiers in the manner best suited to her views. 
 
 This communication, so seasonably and frankly made, pro- 
 duced the best effect in Berlin. The king replied that, with 
 respect to the Emperor Paul, he had already employed his good 
 offices, and would further employ them, to reconcile him with 
 France ; that, as for Bavaria, encompassed on all sides by 
 Austria, he could do nothing; but that, if the Emperor Paul 
 could be brought, round, it might, perhaps, be possible, through 
 the combined efforts of Prussia and Russia, to withdraw the 
 Elector from the coalition. 
 
 After all these judiciously concerted proceedings, nothing- 
 remained but to open hostilities as speedily as possible. The 
 season for them, however, had not yet cpiite arrived, and it was 
 likely to arrive later than usual this year, because France had 
 to reorganise her armies, in part disbanded, and Austria had 
 to fill the chasm left by Russia in the ranks of the coalition. 
 The First Consul thought that the moment was come for settling 
 matters in La Vendee in the first place, for putting an end 
 to the odious spectacle of civil war ; and, in the second, for 
 rendering disposable, and transferring to the Rhine and the 
 Alps, the excellent troops which La Vendee detained in the 
 interior of the Republic. 
 
 The intimations addressed to the insurgent provinces, concur- 
 rently with the offers of peace made to the foreign powers, had 
 produced the greatest effect there. These intimations had been 
 supported by an imposing force of about 60,000 men ; drawn 
 from Holland, from the interior, and even from Paris. The 
 First Consul had had the boldness to stay in Paris, then full of 
 the scum of every party, with a garrison of 2300 men; and this 
 boldness he had carried to such a length as to publish the fact. 
 In reply to the English ministers, who alleged that the consular 
 government was not more solid than the preceding governments, 
 he had printed a comparative statement of the troops in London 
 and in Paris. The result showed that London was guarded by 
 14,600 men, Paris by 2300. This number was scarcely suffi- 
 cient to supply the ordinary police guards, which are stationed 
 at the great public establishments, and at the residences of the 
 high functionaries. Evidently the name of General Bonaparte 
 guarded Paris. 
 
 Be this as it may, the insurgent provinces found themselves
 
 JAN. 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 11 1 
 
 enveloped, before they were aware, by a formidable army, and 
 thus placed between an immediate and generous peace and the 
 certainty of a war of extermination. Messrs. d'Andigne and 
 Hyde de Neuville, after their interviews with the First Consul, 
 had dismissed all their illusions, and ceased to believe that he 
 would some day re-establish the Bourbons. No more did they 
 believe that there would be any chance of conquering such a 
 man. M. Hyde de Neuville, who had been sent by the Count 
 d'Artois to ascertain the state of things, determined to return to 
 London, unwilling, for his own part, to forsake the cause of the 
 Bourbons, but convinced of the impossibility of continuing the 
 war, and leaving to all the leaders the advice to do what the 
 necessity of times and places should command each of them, M. 
 d'Andigne returned to Vendee, to report what he had seen. 
 
 The term of the suspension of arms was about to expire. It 
 was requisite that the leaders of the royalist party should either 
 sign a definitive peace, or decide to engage immediately in a 
 mortal struggle with a formidable army. In 1793, in the first 
 enthusiasm of the insurrection, they had not been able to 
 conquer the 16,000 men of the garrison of Mayence, and had 
 fought heroic and sanguinary battles, with no other result than 
 to succumb at last. What could they now do against 60,000 
 men, the first troops in Europe, half of whom only had just 
 been sufficient to drive the Kussians and the English into the 
 sea ? Evidently nothing : and this opinion was universal in the 
 insurgent provinces ; at any rate, it was entertained, more or 
 less, in each of them. On the left bank of the Loire, between 
 Saumur, Nantes, and Les Sables, in short in old Vendee, drained 
 of men and of everything, people were wearied out : there they 
 estimated this last assumption of arms, occasioned by the weak- 
 ness and the severities of the Directory, at its real value, that is 
 to say, as a piece of folly. On the right bank, about Mans, a 
 country which had also been the theatre of a desperate struggle, 
 these sentiments predominated. In Lower Normandy, where 
 the insurrection was of more recent date, where M. de Frotte, 
 a young, active, crafty, and ambitious chief, was the leader of 
 the royalists, a greater disposition was shown to continue the 
 war. This was also the case in the Morbihan, where the distance 
 from Paris, the vicinity of the sea. and the nature of the ground, 
 offered more resources, and where Georges Cadoudal. a chief of 
 ferocious and indomitable energy, upheld the courage of his 
 partisans. In these two latter provinces, the more frequent 
 communications with the English contributed to produce a 
 more obstinate resistance. 
 
 From one end of La Vendee and Bretagne to the other, con- 
 sultations were held respecting the course to be pursued. The 
 emigrants paid by England, whose attachment to the cause was
 
 1 1 2 HISTOR Y OF THE jan. i 800 
 
 expressed in going incessantly to and fro, and who had not to 
 endure all the consequences of the insurrection, were in fierce 
 quarrel with the country people, on whom the burden of the 
 civil war pressed without intermission. The former insisted that 
 the struggle should be kept up ; the latter, on the contrary, that 
 it should be relinquished. These representatives of an interest 
 more English than royalist, said that the government of the 
 Consuls must perish, like all the other revolutionary govern- 
 ments, after a few days of deceitful appearance ; that it must 
 perish from the disorder of the finances and of the administra- 
 tion; that the Russian and English armies were to send a 
 detachment to Vendee, to lend a hand to the French royalists ; 
 that the latter, if they would but have patience for a few days, 
 would be enabled to reap the fruit of ten years' efforts and 
 combats ; and that, by persisting, they would probably have the 
 honour of conducting the victorious Bourbons to Paris. Those 
 insurgents, who were not in the habit of running off to London, 
 and living there upon English money, who stayed in the country 
 with their peasants, who saw their estates laid waste, their houses 
 burned, their wives and children exposed to hunger and to 
 death — these said that General Bonaparte had never failed in 
 what he had undertaken ; that in Paris, instead of believing that 
 all was falling into dissolution, people believed, on the contrary, 
 that all would be retrieved by the lucky hand of the new chief 
 of the Republic ; that this Republic, which was said to be ex- 
 hausted, had just shown them an army of 60,000 men ; that those 
 Russians and those English who were so extolled had recently 
 laid down their arms before one-half of this very army ; that it 
 was easy enough in London to form fine plans, to talk of attach- 
 ment and fortitude, when people were at a distance from the 
 spot, from events, and from their consequences ; that they ought 
 to be guarded in what they said on this subject, in the presence 
 of men who, for eight years, had borne alone the brunt of a 
 most calamitous civil war. Some of these exhausted royalists 
 even went so far as to insinuate that General Bonaparte, in his im- 
 pulsion towards what was right, after restoring peace, putting an 
 end to persecution, and raising the altars again, would, perhaps, 
 re-establish the throne also ; and they repeated the idle stories 
 which had ceased to be current among the leading royalists, since 
 the interviews between Messrs. d'Andigne and Hyde de Neuville 
 with the First Consul, but which still found some credence among 
 the lowest classes of the insurgent population, and contributed 
 to reconcile their minds to the new government. 
 
 In the heart of old Vendee, there was an humble priest, the 
 Abbe Bernier, cure' of St. Laud, destined soon to take part in 
 the affairs of the Republic and of the Empire, who, by supe- 
 rior intelligence and natural talents, had acquired a powerful
 
 jan. 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 1 1 3 
 
 ascendency over the royalist chiefs. He had closely observed that 
 long insurrection, which had led to nothing but calamities ; he 
 judged that the cause of the Bourbons was lost, at least for the 
 moment ; and he believed that it was not possible to save any- 
 thing from the general wreck produced by the French Revolution, 
 but the ancient altar of Christianity. Enlightened on this point 
 by the acts of the First Consul, and by frequent communica- 
 tions with General Hedouville, he felt no further doubt ; and he 
 reckoned upon it that, in submitting, the royalists might ensure 
 peace, the end of their persecutions, and toleration, at least, if 
 not protection, for their religious worship. He, therefore, re- 
 commended submission to all the old chiefs of the left bank, 
 and, by his influence, silenced the braggarts going aud return- 
 ing between La Vendee and London. A meeting took place at 
 Montfaucon, and there, in a council of the royalist officers, the 
 Abbe Bernier decided M. d'Autichamp, a young nobleman of 
 distinguished bravery, but docile towards superior intelligence, 
 to lay down arms on behalf of the province. The capitulation 
 was signed on the 18th of January (28th Nivose). The Re- 
 public promised an entire amnesty, respect for public worship, 
 remission of the taxes for some time in the ravaged provinces, 
 and erasure of all the chiefs from the list of emigrants. The 
 royalists promised, in return, complete submission, and the 
 immediate surrender of their arms. 
 
 On the same clay, January the 1 8th, the Abbe Bernier wrote 
 to General Hedouville, "Your wishes and mine are accomplished. 
 This day, at two o'clock, peace was thankfully accepted by all 
 the chiefs and officers of the left bank of the Loire. The right 
 bank will undoubtedly follow this example, and the olive of 
 peace will replace, on both banks of the Loire, the gloomy 
 cypresses which war has planted there. I charge Messrs. de 
 Baurollier. Duboucher, and Renou to carry you the happy 
 tidings. I recommend them to the kindness of the government 
 and to yours. Unjustly inscribed in the fatal list of 1 793, they 
 have been stripped of all their property. This sacrifice they 
 have made to the necessity of circumstances, and have been on 
 that account not the less desirous of peace. This peace is your 
 work; maintain it. general, by justice and beneficence. Your 
 glory and your happiness are linked to it. I will do all that 
 lies in my power in fulfilment of your salutary intentions ; 
 wisdom commands, humanity wills it. My heart belongs 
 entirely to the country wherein 1 dwell, and its happiness is 
 the most ardent of my wishes. Beuxikr." 
 
 This example produced its effect. Two days afterwards the 
 insurgents of the right bank, commanded by an old and brave 
 nobleman, M. de Chatillon, and disgusted, like him, of serving 
 
 VOL. I. II
 
 ii4 HISTORY OF THE jan. 1800 
 
 the views of England rather than the cause of royalism, sub- 
 mitted : all old Vendee was thus pacified. Extreme was the 
 joy, both in the country, where royalism prevailed, and in the 
 towns where reigned, on the contrary, the spirit of the Re- 
 volution. In several towns, such as Nantes and Angers, the 
 royalist chiefs, wearing the tri-coloured cockade, were received in 
 triumph, and entertained like brothers. In all quarters, people 
 began to surrender their arms, and to submit in good earnest, 
 under the influence of an opinion, which gradually became 
 general, that war, without restoring the Bourbons, would lead 
 to nothing but bloodshed and the devastation of the country ; 
 that submission, on the contrary, would ensure quiet, safety, 
 and the re-establishment of religion, which, of all things, was 
 most fervently desired. 
 
 In Bretagne and Normandy, however, the pacification met with 
 greater obstacles. The war in these parts was more recent, as 
 we have just observed, and had not so completely exhausted the 
 courage of those engaged in it ; besides, it produced there dis- 
 graceful emolument, while in La Vendee nothing accrued from 
 it but sufferings. It was in the centre of Bretagne and towards 
 Normandy, that all the Chouans, that is, men whom insurrection 
 had habituated to plunder, and who could not now do without 
 it, had taken refuge. They made war more fiercely upon the 
 chests of the tax-collectors, upon the diligences, and upon the 
 proprietors of national domains, than upon the Republic. They 
 were in connection with a troop of persons of infamous character 
 resident in Paris, and from these received the information which 
 guided them in their expeditions. Lastly, in Le Morbihan, which 
 was the seat of the most obstinate insurrection, Georges, the only 
 implacable one of all the Vendean chiefs, received from the Eng- 
 lish, money and supplies of different kinds, to enable him to pro- 
 long his resistance ; hence he was not at all disposed to submit. 
 
 But preparations had been made for crushing such of the 
 royalist chiefs as would not submit. On the 2 1st of January 
 (ist of Pluviose), General Chabot, breaking the suspension of 
 arms, marched against the bands in the centre of Bretagne. 
 commanded by Messrs. de Bourmont and de la Prevalaye. 
 Near the commune of Melay, he overtook M. de Bourmont, 
 who, at the head of 4000 Chouans, defended himself vigorously ; 
 but was, nevertheless, obliged to give way to the republicans, 
 accustomed to put to rout other soldiers than peasants. It 
 was not without great difficulty that he himself, after incur- 
 ring the greatest danger, found means to escape. Being soon 
 convinced that he could not do more for his own cause, he 
 surrendered his arms on the 24th of January (4th Pluviose). 
 
 General Chabot then marched upon Rennes. intending to 
 proceed thence towards the extremity of Bretagne, where
 
 jan. 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 115 
 
 General Bruue was concentrating a large force. On the 25th 
 of January (5th Pluviose), several columns, setting out from 
 Vannes, Auray, and Elven, under Generals Harty and Gency, 
 fell in at Grandcliamp with the bands of Georges. The two 
 republican generals were escorting towards Vannes a convoy 
 of corn and cattle, which they had seized in the insurgent dis- 
 trict. The Chouans, having attempted to retake this convoy, 
 the escorting columns enveloped them, and, in spite of the 
 most vigorous resistance, killed 400 men and several chiefs, and 
 completely routed them. Two days thereafter, on the 27th, 300 
 more Chouans perished in a very smart action at Hennebon, 
 which utterly destroyed all the hopes of the insurrection. Very 
 near the coast were lying an English 80-gun ship, and some 
 frigates, which could see how chimerical were the illusions with 
 which the British government had been amused. The truth 
 was, each party had deceived the other, the British government 
 in promising a new expedition like that to Holland, the Bretons 
 in announcing a general rising. Royalists, recently landed, had 
 great difficulty to get off in boats to the English squadron, 
 and were received like emigrants who had promised much, but 
 performed little. Georges was reduced to the necessity of laying 
 down his arms, and gave up 20,000 muskets and twenty pieces 
 of cannon, which he had just received from the English. 
 
 In Lower Normandy, Generals Gardanne and Chambarlhac, 
 detached from the garrison of Paris, were in pursuit of M. de 
 Frotte, a young chief full of devotion to the royalist cause, 
 and who, like Georges, was bent on continuing the struggle. 
 Some severe fighting took place at different points. At length. 
 on the 25th January (5th Pluviose), M. de Frotte was over- 
 taken by General Gardanne, at the iron-works of Cosse, near 
 La Motte-Fouquet, and lost many men. On the 26th (6th 
 Pluviose), Duboisgny, one of the chiefs, was attacked in his 
 chateau of the same name, near Fougeres, and like M. de Frotte, 
 sustained considerable loss. Lastly, on the 27th (7th Pluviose). 
 General Chambarlhac surrounded some companies of Chouans 
 in the environs of St. Christophe, not far from Alenc,on, and put 
 them to the sword. 
 
 M. de Frotte, perceiving, like the others, but unfortunately 
 too late, that all resistance was useless against the numerous 
 columns which had assailed the country, M. de Frotte thought 
 it high time to submit. He wrote, demanding peace, to General 
 Hedouville, who, at that moment, was at Angers, and, while 
 awaiting an answer, proposed a suspension of arms to General 
 Chambarlhac. The latter replied that he had no powers to 
 treat, that he would write to the government to obtain them, 
 but that, in the meantime, he could not take it upon him to 
 suspend hostilities, unless M. de Frotte consented to deliver up
 
 1 1 6 HIST OR Y OF THE feb. i 800 
 
 the arms of his soldiers immediately. This was precisely what 
 M. de Frotte had the greatest objection to do. He consented, 
 indeed, to submit, and to sign a momentary pacification, but 
 on condition of remaining armed, so that he might afterwards 
 seize the first favourable occasion for recommencing the war. 
 He even wrote letters to his lieutenants, in which, while en- 
 joining them to surrender, he recommended to them to retain 
 their arms. During this interval, the First Consul, irritated 
 at the obstinacy of M. de Frottd, gave orders that no quarter 
 should be given to him, and that an example should be made 
 on his person. M. de Frotte, uneasy at receiving no answer to 
 his propositions, wished to place himself in communication 
 with General Guidal, commanding the department of the Orne, 
 and was apprehended with six of his men while inquiring for 
 him. The letters found upon him, which contained orders to 
 his followers to surrender, but to keep their arms, were regarded 
 as treachery. He was conducted to Verneuil, and given up to 
 a military commission. 
 
 The news of his apprehension having reached Paris, a great 
 number of intercessors beset the First Consul, and obtained an 
 order for suspending the proceedings ; this was equivalent to a 
 pardon. But the courier bearing the order of the government 
 arrived too late. The Constitution being suspended in the in- 
 surgent departments, M. de Frotte had been tried summarily, 
 and, when the reprieve arrived, that young and valiant chief had 
 already suffered the penalty of his obstinacy. The duplicity of 
 his conduct, though clearly proved, was not so culpable but that 
 we must deeply regret such an execution, the only one, by-the-by, 
 which stained this happy conclusion of the civil war with blood. 
 
 From that day, the departments of the West were entirely 
 pacified. The discretion of General Hedouville, the vigour and 
 promptness of the means employed, the weariness of the insur- 
 gents, the mixture of confidence and fear infused into them by 
 the First Consul, brought about this rapid pacification. It was 
 completely finished by the end of February 1 800 (the first days 
 of Ventose). The disarming was carried into effect everywhere. 
 There were left only highway robbers, whom active and relent- 
 less justice was soon to overtake. The troops on duty in the 
 West were put in march for Paris ; they were required to carry 
 out the vast designs of the First Consul. 
 
 The Constitution, suspended in the four departments of the 
 Loire-Inferieure, Hie et Vilaine, Morbihan, and Cotes-du-Nord, 
 was again put in force, and most of the chiefs who came to lay 
 down their arms, were successively drawn to Paris, with the in- 
 tention of placing them in communication with the First Consul. 
 The latter was well aware that it was not sufficient to wrest the 
 arms from their hands, but that it was necessary to master their
 
 feb. 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 117 
 
 spirits, susceptible of enthusiasm, and to direct them toward 
 somen oble object. He wished to draw the royalist chiefs along 
 with him in the immense career opened at that moment to all 
 the French, to lead them to fortune, to glory, by the path of 
 danger, which they were accustomed to travel. He sent them 
 invitations to come to see him. His renown, which awakened a 
 strong desire to approach him in all those who had opportunity 
 for doing so; his beneficence, already much extolled in La 
 Vendue, and to which there had been occasion to appeal in 
 behalf of the numerous victims of the civil war, were, with the 
 royalist chiefs, so many honourable motives for visiting him. 
 The First Consul admitted, and favourably received, in the first 
 place, the Abbe* Bernier, then Messrs. de Bourmont, d'Auti- 
 champ, de Chatillon, and, lastly, Georges Cadoudal himself. 
 He took particular notice of the Abbe" Bernier, and resolved to 
 attach him to himself, by employing him in difficult affairs of 
 the Church. He conversed frequently with the military chiefs, 
 touched them bv his noble language, and induced some of them 
 to serve in the French armies. He even found means to win the 
 heart of M. de Chatillon, who returned to his retreat, married, 
 and became the usual intercessor, and one always listened to, for 
 his fellow-citizens, when they had any act of justice or humanity 
 to solicit of the First Consul. It is by means of glory, clemency, 
 and beneficence, that an end is put to revolutions. 
 
 Georges alone withstood this high influence. When he was 
 conducted to the Tuileries, the aide-de-camp ordered to introduce 
 him conceived such apprehensions from his look, that he deemed 
 it unsafe to shut the door of the First Consul's cabinet, and 
 went every now and then to steal a glance at what was passing. 
 The interview was long. In vain General Bonaparte addressed 
 the words " native country and glory " to the ears of Georges ; 
 in vain he held out even the bait of ambition to the heart of 
 that fierce champion of the civil war ; he had no success, and 
 he felt convinced himself that he had failed when he looked 
 at the face of his visitor. Georges, on leaving him, set out 
 for England with M. Hyde de Neuville. Several times, when 
 giving his fellow-traveller an account of this interview, he 
 exclaimed, showing his vigorous arms, " What a blunder I 
 committed in not strangling that fellow ! " 
 
 This prompt pacification of La Vendee produced a strong 
 effect on the public mind. Some malevolent persons, who would 
 not account for it by its natural causes, that is to say, by the 
 energy of the physical means employed, by the wisdom of the 
 moral means, and by the influence of the great name of the First 
 Consul, asserted that secret conventions had been made with 
 the Vendeans, in which some important satisfaction had been 
 promised them. They did not say plainly, but they insinuated.
 
 n8 HISTORY OF THE feb. 1800 
 
 that this would, perhaps, turn out to be much more than the 
 re-establishment of the principles of the ancient system, that of 
 the Bourbons themselves. It was the newsmongers of the revo- 
 lutionary party who circulated these ridiculous stories : but 
 sensible people, appreciating better the acts of General Bona- 
 parte, said to themselves that men never did such great things 
 for others, and felt convinced that, if he was not labouring solely 
 for France, it was at least for himself, and not for the Bour- 
 bons. On the whole, the pacification of La Vendee was, in the 
 estimation of all, one of the most fortunate events, foreboding a 
 more important and more difficult peace — the peace of Europe. 
 Before opening the campaign this year, the First Consul 
 hastened to close the session of the Legislative Body, and to 
 press the adoption of the numerous bills (projets de loi) which 
 he had presented. Some members of the Tribunate complained 
 of the rapidity with which they were required to discuss and vote. 
 "We are," said Sedillez, an impartial and moderate man, "we 
 are hurried away in a whirlwind of urgency , the rapid movement 
 of which is directed towards the object of our wishes. Is it not 
 better to give way to the impetuosity of this movement than to 
 run the risk of impeding its progress ? Next year we shall exa- 
 mine, with more deliberation, the bills (projets) presented, and 
 we shall rectify what may need rectifying." Everything, in 
 fact, was advancing hastily towards that goal which the First 
 Consul had proposed to himself. The laws voted were carried 
 into execution ; the functionaries appointed were repairing to 
 their posts. The new prefects entered upon office, and the ad- 
 ministration resumed, in all its parts, a harmony, an activity, 
 which it had never before had. The arrears of taxes flowed 
 into the coffers of the treasury, since the completion of the 
 assessments enabled the collectors to demand payment from the 
 tax-payers in legal form. Every day, new measures denoted 
 more clearly the political march of the government. A second 
 list of proscripts had just obtained the favour of recall. Among 
 these figured a number of writers. Messrs. de Fontanes, de la 
 Harpe, Suard, Sicard, Michaud, Fievee, were recalled from 
 exile, or authorised to leave their retreats. The members of the 
 Constituent Assembly, known for having voted the abolition of 
 the feudal institutions, were exempted from all the severities 
 launched at them under the Convention and the Directory. A 
 famous proscript of the 18th of Fructidor, who negotiated and 
 signed the first treaty of peace concluded by the Republic, the 
 ex-director, Barthelemy, was, on the proposition of the Consuls, 
 nominated Senator. Lastly, another proscript of the same date, 
 Carnot, recently returned from exile, and since then appointed 
 inspector of reviews, was now appointed minister of war, in lieu 
 of General Berthier, who was setting out to take the command
 
 feb. 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 119 
 
 of one of the armies of the Republic. The name of Carnot was 
 then a great military name, with which was associated the recol- 
 lection of the victories of the Convention in '93 ; and, though 
 the name of General Bonaparte was sufficient to make the 
 coalition tremble, still that of Carnot, added to his, produced an 
 additional sensation among the foreign staffs. 
 
 The session drawing towards a close, the opposition in the 
 Tribunate made a last effort, which caused some agitation, 
 though it was repulsed by a great majority. The Legislative 
 Body was to sit but four months. No term had been fixed 
 for the sessions of the Tribunate. That body, therefore, was at 
 liberty to meet, though the absence of the Legislative Body 
 left it without occupation. A motion was made that it should 
 create an employment for its time by means of the petitions 
 which it alone was charged to receive, and the wishes which 
 it was authorised to express concerning matters of general 
 interest. M. Benjamin Constant proposed to refer these 
 petitions to distinct commissions, to keep them continually at 
 work, and to reserve for themselves, by this method, not only 
 the discussion of all the acts of the government, a thing 
 perfectly legitimate in itself, but their permanent discussion 
 during the twelve months of the year. This proposition was 
 negatived, in so far as it was objectionable. It was decided 
 that the Tribunate should meet once a fortnight, to hear a report 
 on petitions, and that this report should be drawn up by the 
 bureau of the assembly, composed of the president and the 
 secretaries. Confined within these limits, the proposition gave 
 no cause for uneasiness. 
 
 With the exception of this last effort, the close of the 
 session was perfectly peaceable, even in the Tribunate. The 
 plans of the government had there obtained such a majority, that 
 it required very great susceptibility to be angry with that body 
 for the opposition of a score of its members. The First Consul, 
 disposed as he was not to put up with anything unpleasant, 
 resolved to let that pass. Thus this first session, termed that 
 of the year VIII., realised, in no respect, the fears which certain 
 propagators of bad news affected to entertain. If. at a later 
 period, tilings had continued at this point, people would have 
 made shift with this last semblance of deliberative assemblies. 
 That alarmed generation and the chief whom it had adopted 
 would alike have supported them. 
 
 Shortly before the close of the session, the First Consul took 
 a measure relative to the periodical press, which would now-a- 
 days be nothing less than utterly impracticable, but which, 
 at that time, owing to the silence of the Constitution, was a 
 measure perfectly legal, and, owing to the spirit of the time, 
 nearlv insignificant. The Constitution, in fact, took no notice
 
 120 HISTORY OF THE feb. 1800 
 
 of the periodical press, and it will appear astonishing that so 
 important a liberty as that of writing had not even obtained 
 special mention in the fundamental law of the State. But, in 
 those days, the tribune, as well that of the assemblies as that 
 of the clubs, had been, with the revolutionary passions, the 
 favourite channel for displaying themselves ; and the liberty of 
 speech had been so much used, that the liberty of writing was 
 thought little of. At the epoch of the 18th of Fructidor, the 
 press was rather more employed, but chiefly by the royalists, and 
 it excited such irritation against itself among the revolutionists 
 that they afterwards felt very little interest for it. It was, 
 therefore, suffered to be proscribed on the 1 8th of Fructidor, and 
 to be omitted in framing the Constitution of the year VIII., and 
 thenceforth abandoned to the good pleasure of the government. 
 
 The First Consul, who had endured with little patience the 
 attacks of the royalist journals, when he was merely general of 
 the army of Italy, began now to be uneasy about the indis- 
 cretions committed by the press in regard to his military 
 operations, and the virulent attacks against foreign governments 
 in which it indulged. Applying himself in a most particular 
 manner to reconcile the Bepublic with Europe, he was appre- 
 hensive lest the republican papers, launching out against foreign 
 cabinets, especially since the refusal of the offers of France, 
 should frustrate all his efforts at reconciliation. The King of 
 Prussia, in particular, had found reason to complain of some 
 French journals, and had expressed his displeasure. The First 
 Consul, who was desirous to efface everywhere the traces of 
 violence, and who, moreover, was not restrained, in regard to 
 the liberty of the press, by any firm and established public 
 opinion, such as exists in our days, took a decision by which lie 
 suppressed a great number of journals, and specified those which 
 should have the privilege of continuing to appear. This ar- 
 rangement was to remain in force till the general peace. The 
 journals retained were thirteen in number. These were, the 
 Moniteur Universel, the Journal des Debats, the Journal de Paris, 
 the Bien-Informe', the Publiciste, the Ami des Lois, the Clef du 
 Cabinet, the Citoyen Fraucais, the Gazette de France, the Jour- 
 nal des Homines Libres, the Journcd du Soir, the Journal des 
 Defenseurs de la Patrie, and the Decade PhilosojJdque. 
 
 These favoured journals were, moreover, apprised that such 
 of them as should publish articles against the Constitution, 
 against the armies, their glory, or their interest, or should pub- 
 lish invectives against any foreign government, friends or allies 
 of France, should be immediately suppressed. 
 
 This measure, which would appear so extraordinary at the pre- 
 sent day, was received without murmur and without astonishment, 
 for the value of things is dependent on the spirit that prevails.
 
 feb. 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 121 
 
 The votes required of the citizens on the subject of the new 
 Constitution had been collected and counted. The result of 
 this operation was communicated to the Senate, to the Legisla- 
 tive Body, and to the Tribunate, by a message from the Con- 
 suls. None of the anterior Constitutions have been accepted 
 by so large a number of votes. 
 
 In 1793, 1,800,000 votes had been recorded in favour of 
 the Constitution of that epoch, and 1 1 ,000 against it ; for the 
 Directorial Constitution of 1795, the numbers were 1,057,000 
 favourable votes, and 49,000 negative votes. This time, more 
 than 3,000,000 voters had come forward ; of these 3,000,000 
 adopted the Constitution, and 1500 only rejected it.* Most 
 assuredly these vain formalities have no weight with serious 
 minds. It is not from these vulgar and frequently lying signs, 
 but from the moral aspect of a society, that its will is to be in- 
 ferred. But the difference in the number of voters had, in this 
 case, an incontestable signification. It proved, at least, how 
 general was the sentiment that called for a strong and reparative 
 government, capable of ensuring order, victory, and peace. 
 
 The First Consul, before his departure for the army, at length 
 decided on an important step : he took up his abode in the 
 Tuileries. Considering the disposition of many to find in him 
 a Caesar, a Cromwell, destined to put an end to the reign of 
 anarchy by the reign of power, this removal to the palace of 
 kings was a bold and delicate step, not on account of any 
 resistance that it could provoke, but of the moral effect which 
 it might possibly produce. 
 
 The First Consul caused it to be preceded by an imposing 
 and skilfully contrived ceremony. Washington was just dead. 
 The decease of tins illustrious personage, who had filled the con- 
 clusion of the last century with his name, was a subject of regret 
 for all the friends of freedom in Europe. The First Consul, 
 judging that a manifestation on this subject would be oppor- 
 tune, addressed the following order of the day to the armies : — 
 
 "Washington is dead! That great man fought against 
 
 o O DO 
 
 tyranny ; he consolidated the independence of his country. 
 His name will ever be dear to the French nation, as to all the 
 free men of both worlds, and especially to French soldiers, who. 
 like him and his American soldiers, are fighting for equality 
 and liberty." In consequence, a ten days' mourning was 
 ordered. This mourning was to consist in a piece of black 
 crape suspended from all the colours of the Republic. The 
 First Consul did not stop there: he gave directions for a 
 
 * The exact numbers were as follow: in 1793, 1,801,918 favourable votes, 
 and 11,610 dissentient; in 1795, 1,057.390 favourable votes, and 49,955 dis- 
 sentient; in 1800, out of 3,012,569 voters, 3,011,007 were favourable, and 1562 
 dissentient.
 
 122 HISTORY OF THE mar. 1800 
 
 noble and simple ceremony to take place in the church of 
 the Invalides, called in the ephemeral language of the time, 
 " the Temple of Mars." The colours taken in Egypt had not 
 yet been presented to the government. General Lannes was 
 charged to deliver them, on this occasion, to the minister of 
 war, beneath the magnificent dome erected by the great king 
 for our country's veterans. 
 
 On the 9th of February (20th Pluviose), all the authorities 
 having assembled at the Invalides, General Lannes presented 
 to Berthier, minister of war, ninety-six pair of colours, taken 
 at the Pyramids, at Mount Tabor, and at Aboukir. He made 
 a short martial speech, to which Berthier gave a similar reply. 
 The latter was seated between two invalids a hundred years old, 
 facing the bust of Washington, overhung by a thousand flags, 
 trophies won from Europe by the armies of republican France. 
 
 Not far from this spot a tribune was prepared. A prescript, 
 who owed his liberty to the policy of the First Consul, ascended 
 to it : this was M. de Fontanes ; a pure and brilliant writer, 
 the last who employed that French language, formerly so per- 
 fect, but now swept with the eighteenth century into the abyss 
 of the past. In studied but splendid language, M. de Fontanes 
 delivered a funeral oration on the hero of America. He cele- 
 brated the military virtues of Washington, his valour, his wisdom, 
 his disinterestedness : he placed far above the military genius, 
 which knows how to gain victories, the reparative genius, 
 which understands how to put an end to civil wars, to close 
 the wounds of the country, and to give peace to the world. 
 Evoking the shade of Washington, he called also to witness 
 the shades of Turenne. of Catinat, of Conde, and speaking, as it 
 were, in the name of these great men, he delivered, in the most 
 delicate and appropriate language, a panegyric, which for once 
 was full of nobleness, because it was full of lessons of wisdom. 
 
 "Yes," he exclaimed in conclusion; "yes, thy counsels will 
 be listened to, Washing-ton ! warrior ! legislator ! 
 citizen without reproach ! He who while yet young surpassed 
 thee in battles, shall close, like thee, with his triumphant hands 
 the wounds of his country. Ere long — we have pledges for 
 it in his will, and in his martial genius, if that should unfor- 
 tunately be necessary — ere long the hymn of peace will resound 
 in this temple of war ; then will a universal feeling of joy efface 
 from memory all injustices and all oppressions . . . already 
 the oppressed forget their sufferings and put their trust in the 
 future ! . . . The acclamations of all ages will celebrate the 
 hero who shall confer this benefit on France, and on the world 
 which she has too long shaken." 
 
 This speech being finished, black crape was fastened to all 
 the colours, and the French Republic was deemed to be in
 
 mak. 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 123 
 
 mourning for the founder of the American Republic, like the 
 monarchies which put themselves in mourning for the losses 
 sustained by each other. What did this ceremony still require, 
 before it could equal in grandeur those funeral scenes at which 
 Louis XIV. was wont to be present, and to hear the praise of 
 one of his warriors from the lips of Flechier or of Bossuet ? Of 
 a surety it was neither in the greatness of the events or of the 
 men that aught was lacking ; for the orator was speaking of 
 Washington before General Bonaparte, he was speaking amidst 
 an audience which had also beheld Charleses ascending the 
 scaffold, and even crowned female heads following them to it. 
 He might introduce at choice the names of Fleurus, Arcole, 
 Rivoli, Zurich, the Pyramids, and these magnificent victories 
 would assuredly serve to impart not less grandeur to an 
 harangue, than those of the Dunes and Rocroy ! What, then, 
 was wanting to render this solemnity truly grand ? There was 
 wanting what the greatest of men himself could not infuse into 
 it ; there was wanting, in the first place, religion ; not that 
 which men affect and strain to possess, but that which is sincere 
 and spontaneous, and without which the dead are always but 
 coldly celebrated ; there was wanting the genius of Bossuet, for 
 there are species of greatness which never reappear in nations, 
 and if the Turennes and the Condes have successors, the 
 Bossuets have none ; lastly, there was wanting a certain sin- 
 cerity, for this homage to a hero renowned above all for his dis- 
 interestedness was too visibly affected. Still, let us not believe, 
 with the herd of vulgar interpreters, that on this occasion all 
 was pure hypocrisy : no doubt there was some, but there were 
 also the ordinary illusions of the time and of all times. Men, in 
 fact, deceive themselves more frequently than they deceive others. 
 Many Frenchmen, like the Romans under Augustus, still believed 
 in the Republic, because its name was assiduously pronounced ; 
 and it is not very certain that the institutor of this funeral cere- 
 mony, that General Bonaparte himself, did not deceive himself 
 while celebrating Washington, and fancy, in fact, that in France 
 as in America, a man might be the first citizen, without being 
 king or emperor. 
 
 This ceremony was the prelude to the installation of the three 
 Consuls in the Tuileries. The repairs required by that palace 
 had been for a considerable time in progress; the traces left by 
 the Convention were effaced : the red caps, which it had ordered 
 to be placed amidst the gilded ceilings, were removed. The 
 First Consul was to occupy the apartments on the first floor, the 
 same appropriated by the present reigning family for evening 
 receptions. His wife and her children were to occupy apart- 
 ments on the entresol. The gallery of Diana was. as at present, 
 the vestibule, through which one was obliged to pass, in order to
 
 124 HISTORY OF THE mak. 1800 
 
 reach the abode of the head of the State. The First Consul 
 caused it to be adorned with busts representing a series of 
 great men, and took pains to mark, by the choice of these busts, 
 the predilections of his mind : there were Demosthenes, Alex- 
 ander, Hannibal, Scipio, Brutus, Cicero, Cato, Cassar, Gustavus 
 Adolphus, Turenne, Conde, Duguai-Trouin, Marlborough, Eugene, 
 Marshal Saxe, Washington, Frederick the Great, Mirabeau, Du- 
 gommier, Dampierre, Marceau, Joubert, that is to say, warriors 
 and orators, champions of liberty and conquerors, heroes of the 
 ancient monarchy and of the Republic ; lastly, four generals of 
 the Revolution, who had fallen in battle. To assemble around 
 him the glories of all ages and of all countries, as he was desirous 
 of assembling all the parties around his government — such was 
 on all occasions the disposition which he was fond of manifesting. 
 
 But he was not to occupy the Tuileries exclusively. His 
 two colleagues were to reside there too. Lebrun was lodged in 
 the pavilion of Flora. As for Cambaceres, who ranked before 
 Lebrun, he refused to take up his abode in this palace of kings. 
 This personage, possessing consummate prudence, perhaps the 
 only man of his time who had not given way to any illusion, 
 this personage said to his colleague Lebrun, " It would be wrong 
 for us to go and live in the Tuileries ; it is not a fitting place for 
 us, and, for my part, I shall not go. General Bonaparte will 
 soon want to live there alone, and then we should have to move 
 out. 'Tis better not to go there at all. " Neither did he go, 
 but he contrived to get a handsome house in the Place du 
 Carrousel assigned to him, and this he retained as long as 
 Napoleon retained the Empire. 
 
 When all was arranged, a few clays after the funeral ceremony 
 at the Invalides, the First Consul resolved to take possession of 
 the Tuileries publicly. He did so, in great state. 
 
 On the 19th of February (the 30th Pluviose), he quitted the 
 Luxembourg to repair to his new palace, preceded and followed 
 by an imposing escort. The fine regiments which had recently 
 marched from Holland into La Vendue, from La Vendee to 
 Paris, and which were soon to signalise themselves for the 
 hundredth time on the plains of Germany and Italy, those regi- 
 ments, commanded by Lannes, Murat, Bessieres, opened the 
 procession. Then came, in carriages almost all hired, the 
 ministers, the Council of State, the public authorities; then in 
 a handsome coach, drawn by six white horses, the three Consuls 
 themselves. These horses were particularly suited to the occa- 
 sion ; they were the same that the Emperor of Germany had 
 given to General Bonaparte on concluding the peace of Campo- 
 Formio. The general had also been presented by that sovereign 
 with a magnificent sword, which he took care to wear on that 
 dav. Thus he exhibited about him all that served to remind the
 
 mar. 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 125 
 
 public of the warrior-peacemaker. The concourse of people col- 
 lected in the streets and on the quays leading to the Tuileries 
 hailed his presence with loud acclamations. These acclamations 
 were sincere, for they greeted in him the glory of France and 
 the commencement of her prosperity. On reaching the Car- 
 rousel, the coach of the Consuls was received by the consular 
 guard, and passed between two guard-houses, erected, one on 
 the right, the other on the left of the palace-yard. On one of 
 these was still seen this inscription: "Royalty in France is 
 abolished, and shall never be re-established." 
 
 No sooner had he entered the court than the First Consul 
 mounted a horse and reviewed the troops drawn up before the 
 palace. When opposite to the colours of the 96th, the 43rd, 
 and the 30th demi-brigades, colours blackened, torn by balls, he 
 saluted them, and was saluted in his turn by the shouts of the 
 soldiers. After passing along their ranks, he stationed himself 
 before the pavilion of Flora, and saw them defile before him. 
 Over his head, on the balcony of the palace, were the other two 
 Consuls, the principal authorities, lastly, his family, who began 
 to have rank in the State. When the review was over, he went 
 up to the apartments ; the minister of the interior presented to 
 him the civil authorities ; the minister of war presented the 
 military authorities ; the minister of the marine all the naval 
 officers who chanced to be in Paris. In the course of the day, 
 entertainments were given in the Tuileries and in the houses of 
 the ministers. 
 
 The service of the consular palace was regulated as follows : 
 M. Benezech, councillor of state, formerly minister of the in- 
 terior, was charged with the general administration of this 
 palace. The aides-de-camp, and Duroc in particular, were to do 
 the honours, and to supply the place of that multitude of officers 
 of all kinds that usually fill the spacious apartments of Euro- 
 pean sovereigns. Every fortnight, on the 2nd and 17th of each 
 month, the First Consul received the diplomatic body. Once in 
 the decade, on different days, but at fixed hours, he received the 
 Senators, the members of the Legislative Body, of the Tribunate, 
 and of the Tribunal of Cassation. The functionaries who wished 
 to have audience with him had to address themselves to the 
 ministers, to whose department they belonged, in order to be 
 presented to him. On the 2nd Ventose (the 21st of February), 
 two days after his installation at the Tuileries, he gave audience 
 to the diplomatic body. Surrounded by a numerous staff, he 
 received the envoys of the States who were not at war with the 
 Republic. Introduced by M. Benezech, presented by flic minister 
 for foreign affairs, they delivered their credentials to the First 
 Consul, who handed them to the minister, nearly in the same 
 manner as sovereigns do in monarchical governments. The
 
 126 HISTORY OF THE CONSULATE. mar. 1800 
 
 foreign ministers who figured at this audience were M. de 
 Musquiz, ambassador of Spain ; M. de Sandoz Rollin, minister 
 of Prussia ; M. de Schimmelpenninck, ambassador of Holland ; 
 M. de Serbelloni, envoy of the Cisalpine Republic; lastly, the 
 charges d'affaires of Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland, Baden, 
 Hesse-Cassel, Rome, Genoa, &c. (Moniteur, 4th Ventose, year 
 VIII) 
 
 The presentation over, these different ministers were intro- 
 duced to Madame Bonaparte. 
 
 Every five days, the First Consul reviewed the regiments pass- 
 ing through Paris on their way to the frontiers. It was then 
 that he showed himself to the troops and to the multitude, always 
 eager to see him. Thin, pale, stooping upon his horse, he inspired 
 not less interest than admiration by a severe and melancholy 
 beauty, by an appearance of ill-health, which began to excite 
 great uneasiness, for never was the preservation of any man so 
 ardently wished for as his. 
 
 After these reviews, the officers of the troops were admitted 
 to his table. The foreign ministers, the members of the assem- 
 blies, the magistrates and functionaries, were invited to enter- 
 tainments, at which a moderate luxury prevailed. At this nascent 
 court, there were not yet either ladies of honour or chamberlains : 
 its tone was certainly austere, but already rather elegant. Care 
 was taken to avoid the habits of the Directory, under which a 
 ridiculous imitation of ancient costume, joined to licentiousness 
 of manners, had taken away all dignity from the external repre- 
 sentation of the government. There was little conversation ; 
 people observed one another; their eyes were fixed upon the 
 extraordinary personage who had already achieved such great 
 things, and who gave reason to hope for still greater. They 
 waited for his questions ; they answered with deference. 
 
 The day after he had taken up his abode at the Tuileries, 
 General Bonaparte, going over the palace with M. de Bourrienne, 
 his secretary, said to him, "Well, Bourrienne, here we are, then, 
 in the Tuileries ! . . . . And here we must stav now. "
 
 BOOK III. 
 
 ULM AND GENOA. 
 
 AFTER addressing urgent overtures to Europe to obtain peace, 
 overtures which would not have been befitting from any 
 one but a general covered with glory, the Eirst Consul had no 
 course left but war, preparations for which had, indeed, been 
 making with great activity during the whole winter of 1799- 
 1800 (year VIII.). This war was at once the most legitimate, 
 and one of the most glorious, of those heroic times. 
 
 Austria, though observing greater moderation in forms than 
 England, had nevertheless come to the same conclusions, and 
 refused peace. The vain hope of keeping in Italy the advan- 
 tageous situation which she owed to the victories of Suwarow, 
 the English subsidies, the erroneous opinion that France, drained 
 of men and money, could not undertake another campaign, but 
 above all, the fatal obstinacy of M. de Thugut, who represented 
 the war party at Vienna, with as much infatuation as Mr. Pitt 
 in London, and who, in regard to this question, was instigated 
 much more by personal passion than by genuine patriotism — all 
 these causes conjoined had induced the Austrian cabinet to 
 commit one of the greatest political faults, that of not profiting 
 by a favourable situation for negotiating. It required a most 
 extraordinary blindness, to believe that such successes as had 
 been owing to the incapacity of the Directory would continue 
 to be obtained in the face of a new government, already com- 
 pletely organised, active even to prodigy, and directed by the 
 first captain of the age. 
 
 The Archduke Charles, who united to real military talents 
 great moderation and modesty, had pointed out all the dangers 
 incident to the continuance of the war, and the difficulty of 
 making head against the celebrated adversary, who was about 
 to enter the lists. By way of answer, the command of the Aus- 
 trian forces was taken from him ; and the government had thus 
 deprived itself of the only general who could command them 
 with any chance of success. His disgrace had been disguised 
 under the title of governor of Bohemia. The imperial army 
 bitterly regretted that prince, though the Baron de Kray, who 
 was appointed his successor, had highly distinguished himself
 
 128 HISTORY OF THE mar. 1800 
 
 during the last campaign in Italy. Kray was a brave, able, and 
 experienced officer, and proved himself not unworthy of the 
 command that had been conferred upon him. 
 
 To fill the chasm left by the Eussians in the ranks of the 
 coalition, Austria, seconded by the subsidies of England, obtained 
 from the States of the Empire a considerable addition to their 
 contingents. A special treaty, signed on the 16th of March, 
 by Mr. Wickham, British minister to the Elector of Bavaria, 
 bound that prince to furnish, besides his legal contingent as 
 a member of the Empire, a supplementary corps of 12,000 
 Bavarians. A treaty of the same kind, signed on the 12th of 
 April, with the Duke of Wiirtemberg, procured another corps of 
 6000 Wiirtembergers for the army of the coalition. Lastly, on 
 the 30th of April, the same negotiator obtained from the Elector 
 of Mayence a corps of from 4000 to 6000 of his subjects, on the 
 same financial conditions. Besides the expenses of recruiting, 
 equipment, and maintenance of their troops, England guaranteed 
 to the coalesced German princes, that no treaty should be made 
 with France without them, and engaged to obtain restitution of 
 their dominions, be the issue of the war what it might ; and she 
 made them promise in return not to listen to any proposition 
 for a separate peace. 
 
 Of these German troops, the Bavarians were the best ; next 
 came those of Wiirtemberg ; but the Mayence troops were but 
 militia, without discipline and without valour. Independently 
 of these regular contingents, the peasants of the Black Forest had 
 been instigated to arm by frightful accounts of the ravages of the 
 French, who, at this period, committed much less devastation than 
 the Imperialists in the fertile fields of unfortunate Germany. 
 
 The imperial army in Swabia, including all these auxiliaries, 
 amounted to nearly 1 50,000 men, 30,000 of whom were quartered 
 in the fortresses, and 1 20.000 present with the active army. It 
 was provided with a numerous artillery, good, though inferior to 
 the French artillery, and, above all, with a superb cavalry, such 
 as it is customary to have in the Austrian armies. The emperor 
 had, moreover, 1 20,000 men in Lombardy, under Baron de Melas. 
 An English squadron of considerable force, stationed in the 
 Mediterranean, and cruising incessantly in the Gulf of Genoa, 
 supported all the operations of the Austrians in Italy. It was 
 to disembark an auxiliary corps of English and emigrants, then 
 collected at Mahon, and amounting, it was said, to 20,000 men. 
 It was agreed that this corps should be landed at Toulon itself, in 
 case the imperial army, ordered to operate against the Apennines, 
 should be fortunate enough to force the line of the Var. 
 
 There had been hopes of uniting some Bussian with English 
 troops, and landing them on the coast of France, in order to 
 excite insurrections in Belgium, in Bretagne, and in La Vendee.
 
 mar. 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 129 
 
 The perfectly voluntary inaction of the Russians, and the paci- 
 fication of La Vendee, had thwarted that operation, from which 
 the allies had expected much. 
 
 It was, therefore, a mass of nearly 300,000 men; 150,000 in 
 Swabia, 1 20,000 in Italy, 20,000 at Mahon, supported by the 
 whole English navy, that was to prosecute the war against 
 France. This force, it must be allowed, would have been very 
 inadequate against France, reorganised and in possession of all 
 her means ; but, against France, scarcely emerged from the 
 chaos into which she had been plunged by the weakness of the 
 Directory, it was a considerable force, with which her enemies 
 might have obtained important results, had they known how to 
 employ it. It must be added, that it was a real force, liable to 
 suffer little diminution, because the 300,000 men of which it 
 was composed were seasoned to hardship, and already upon the 
 frontiers which they were to attack — an important circumstance, 
 for every raw army finds it difficult to withstand the first shocks 
 of war, and if it has, moreover, a long march to make before 
 it meets an enemy, it decreases in proportion to the distance 
 which must be traversed. 
 
 Let us now see how the allied troops were distributed, and 
 the plan according to which they were to act. 
 
 M. de Kray, at the head of the 1 50,000 men whom he com- 
 manded, occupied Swabia, posted in the middle of the angle 
 formed in that country by the Rhine, when, after running from 
 east to west, from Constance to Basle, it turns abruptly to the 
 north from Basle to Strasburg. In this position, Kray, having 
 Switzerland on his left flank, Alsace on his right, observed all 
 the passages of the Rhine by which the French might penetrate 
 into Germany. He had not the presumption to cross that 
 river, and to invade the territory of the Republic ; his part, at 
 the commencement of the campaign, required him to be less 
 active. The initiative of the operations was reserved for the 
 army of Italy, 120,000 strong, and posted, in consequence of 
 the advantages which it had obtained in 1799, at the very foot 
 of the Apennines. It was to blockade Genoa, to reduce it, if 
 possible, then to cross the Apennines and the Var, and to 
 march upon Toulon, — where the English, and the emigrants of 
 the South, commanded by General Willot, one of the prescripts 
 of Fructidor, were to join the Austrians. This new invasion of 
 a province containing our principal naval establishment was 
 particularly agreeable to the English ; and to them must be, in 
 a great measure, attributed this plan, afterwards so severely 
 criticised. When the Austrian army in Italy, which, owing to 
 the; climate of Liguria, could commence the campaign before 
 that in Swabia, should have penetrated into Trovence, it was 
 supposed that the First Consul would withdraw his troops from 
 
 VOL. 1, 1
 
 130 HISTORY OF THE mak. 1800 
 
 the Ehine to cover the Var, and that Marshal Kray would then 
 have the means of entering into action. Switzerland, being thus 
 hemmed in, and, as it were, strangled between two victorious 
 armies, must naturally fall, so that it would be unnecessary to 
 renew against it the impotent efforts of the preceding cam- 
 paign. The exploits of Lecourbe and Massena in the Alps had 
 given the Austrians a great distaste for any great operation, 
 especially directed against Switzerland. In regard to that 
 country, the intention was to confine themselves to mere obser- 
 vation. The extreme left of Marshal Kray was to take upon 
 itself this duty in Swabia ; the cavalry of Melas, useless in the 
 Apennines, was to perform it in Lombardy. The plan of the 
 Austrians consisted, therefore, in temporising in Swabia, in 
 operating early in Italy, in advancing on that side to the Var ; 
 then, when the French, drawn towards the Var, should strip 
 the Ehine, in crossing that river aad afterwards advancing in 
 two masses, one eastward by Basle, the other to the south by 
 Nice, and in thus levelling, without attack, the formidable 
 barrier of Switzerland. 
 
 Competent judges of military operations have severely cen- 
 sured Austria for having neglected Switzerland, as this per- 
 mitted General Bonaparte to debouch from it, and to throw 
 himself on the flank of Marshal Kray, and on the rear of Baron 
 Melas. We are of opinion that, as the reader will presently 
 be enabled to judge by the relation of the facts, no absolutely 
 sure plan was possible, in presence of General Bonaparte, and 
 with the irreparable disadvantage of Switzerland left in the 
 hands of the French. 
 
 To obtain a clear conception of this memorable campaign, 
 and to judge soundly of the precise designs of the belligerent 
 parties, we must figure to ourselves exactly the position of 
 Switzerland, and the influence which it must have upon the 
 military operations, at that point in particular at which the 
 operations had arrived. 
 
 It is towards the eastern frontiers of France that the Alps 
 begin to rise in the centre of the European continent. They 
 then run eastward, separating Germany from Italy ; and from 
 them descend on one side the Danube and its tributaries, on the 
 other, the Po and all the streams of which that large river is 
 composed. The part of the Alps nearest to France is that 
 which forms Switzerland. Their prolongation constitutes the 
 Tyrol, belonging for ages to Austria. 
 
 When Austrian armies advance towards France, they are 
 obliged to ascend the valley of the Danube on the one hand, 
 the valley of the Po on the other, divided into two acting 
 masses by the long chain of the Alps. While they are in 
 Bavaria and in Lombardy, these two masses can communicate
 
 mar. 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 131 
 
 across the Alps by the Tyrol, which belongs to the emperor ; 
 but, when they arrive in Swabia, on the Upper Danube, in 
 Piedmont, on the Upper Po, they find themselves separated 
 from one another, without any possible communication across 
 the Alps, because Switzerland, independent and neutral, is 
 usually closed against them. 
 
 This neutrality of Switzerland is a barrier which the policy 
 of Europe has wisely placed between France and Austria, to 
 diminish the points of attack between those two formidable 
 powers. If, in fact, Switzerland is open to Austria, the latter 
 may advance with her armies, communicating freely from the 
 valley of the Danube to the valley of the Po, and threatening 
 the frontiers of France from Basle to Nice. This is an immense 
 danger to France, for she is obliged to be on her guard every- 
 where, from the mouths of the Rhine to the mouths of the 
 Rhone ; whereas, if the Swiss Alps are closed, she can concen- 
 trate all her forces on the Rhine, regardless of the attack that 
 comes from the south, since the Imperialists never succeeded 
 in any operation upon the Var, on account of the length of the 
 circuit. The advantage of the Swiss neutrality is, therefore, 
 important for France. 
 
 But it is not less important for Austria, nay, perhaps even 
 more so. If, in fact, Switzerland becomes the theatre of hos- 
 tilities, the French army can overrun it first ; and, since its 
 foot-soldiers are intelligent, agile, brave, and as fit for mountain 
 warfare as for that of the plain, it has many chances of main- 
 taining its footing there. A proof of this is exhibited in this 
 very campaign of 1799. If, in fact, the Alps are attacked 
 by the great chain, on the side next to Italy, it offers the 
 resistance which Lecourbe offered to Suwarow, in the gorges of 
 the St. Gothard ; if they are attacked on the German side, in 
 the lower part, it offers, behind the lakes and rivers, the resist- 
 ance which Massena offered behind the Lake of Zurich, and 
 which terminated in the memorable battle of that name. ISTow, 
 when the French army retains possession of Switzerland, it 
 has a most threatening position, of which it can avail itself to 
 produce extraordinary results, as will be seen, by-and-by, in the 
 account of the operations of General Bonaparte. 
 
 In fact, the two Austrian armies, which are, the one in Swabia, 
 the other in Piedmont, separated by the whole extent of Switzer- 
 land, have no means of communicating with each other ; and the 
 French, debouching by the Lake of Constance, on the one hand, by 
 the high Alps on the other, may throw themselves either upon the 
 flanks of the army in Swabia, or on the rear of the army in Italy. 
 This danger it is impossible to avoid, whatever plan may be 
 adopted, unless, by retreating fifty leagues, retrograding as far as 
 Bavaria on the one side, and as far as Lombardy on the other.
 
 1 3 2 HIS TOE Y OF THE mar. i 800 
 
 The Austrians, then, must do one of these things — either, 
 giving up all the advantages of the last campaign, they must 
 abandon to us both Swabia and Piedmont ; or, refusing such a 
 sacrifice, they must endeavour to carry Switzerland by a prin- 
 cipal attack, in which they could not succeed, for it would be 
 attacking in front an almost insurmountable obstacle, against 
 which they had already failed ; or they must divide themselves 
 into two great armies, as they did, remaining separated by 
 Switzerland, which would thus be placed on their flanks and on 
 their rear. By this latter course they would have it in their 
 power, it is true, to diminish one of their armies considerably, 
 in order to strengthen the other, and, for instance, leave Baron 
 Melas but few troops, only just sufficient to keep Massena in 
 check, and increase the army in Swabia to 200,000 men ; or do 
 the contrary, by collecting their principal force in Piedmont. 
 But, in one case, it would be abandoning Italy — Italy, the sole 
 object and the ardently desired prize of the war ; in the other it 
 would be giving up, without a battle, the Khine, the Black Forest, 
 the sources of the Danube, and shortening, by so much, the route 
 of the French to Vienna ; it would be, in fact, in either case, 
 doing the most advantageous thing in the world for us ; for, by 
 the increase of one of the two armies to 200,000 men, the victory 
 would be given to that power of the two which had General 
 Bonaparte on its side. He was, in fact, the only general of that 
 time capable of manoeuvring 200,000 men at once. 
 
 There was then no perfectly safe plan for Austria, when the 
 French were masters of Switzerland, which, be it observed by- 
 the-by, proves that the Swiss neutrality is a very happy device 
 for both powers. It adds, in fact, to their defensive means, 
 by diminishing their offensive means ; that is to say, it gives 
 to their security all that it takes away from their aggressive 
 power. Nothing better could be contrived for the preservation 
 of general peace. 
 
 The Austrians, then, had not many courses to take, and, 
 notwithstanding all that has been said, they took, perhaps, the 
 only one they could take, by deciding to temporise in Swabia, 
 to operate energetically in Italy, remaining separated by the 
 barrier of Switzerland, which it was impossible for them to 
 remove. But in this position there was more than one way of 
 conducting themselves, and it must be acknowledged that they 
 did not adopt the best ; that they did not even foresee any of 
 the dangers which threatened them. Persisting in their belief 
 that the French armies were exhausted ; not supposing that 
 the army of Germany was capable of taking the offensive, 
 and crossing the lihine, before 1 50,000 Austrians posted in the 
 Black Forest ; still less supposing it possible to cross the Alps, 
 without road, and in the snowy season ; not seeing, besides,
 
 mar. 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 133 
 
 the third army which might be tempted to cross them, they 
 indulged a confidence which proved fatal to them. To do them 
 justice, it must also be acknowledged that many persons would 
 have made the same mistake which they did ; for their security 
 reposed on obstacles apparently invincible. But experience 
 soon taught them that, before an adversary like General Bona- 
 parte, all security, even though founded on insurmountable 
 barriers, whether rivers or mountains of ice, was deceitful, 
 and might become fatal. 
 
 France had two armies, that of Germany, increased by the 
 junction of the armies of the Bhine and of Helvetia to 1 30,000 
 men ; that of Liguria, reduced to 40,000 at most. In the 
 troops of Holland, La Vendee, and the interior, there were the 
 widely scattered elements of a third army ; but superior ad- 
 ministrative ability could alone assemble it, and on the sudden, 
 at the point where its presence was wanted. General Bonaparte 
 formed a plan for employing these various means as follows. 
 
 Massena, with the army of Liguria. not augmented, merely 
 supplied with provisions and ammunition, was ordered to keep 
 on the Apennines, between Genoa and Nice, and there take 
 post as at Thermopylae. The army of Germany, under Moreau, 
 strengthened as much as possible, was to make, along the whole 
 course of the Bhine from Strasburg to Basle, from Basle to 
 Constance, feigned demonstrations of crossing, then march 
 rapidly behind the curtain formed by that river, ascend it to 
 Schaffhausen, there throw over it four bridges at once, debouch 
 in mass on the flank of Marshal Kray, surprise him, drive him 
 in disorder upon the Upper Danube, outmarch him, if possible, 
 cut him off from the route to Vienna, perhaps envelop him, 
 and inflict on him one of those memorable disasters of which 
 the present century has furnished more than one example. If 
 the army of Moreau had not this luck, it might, at least, drive 
 Kray upon Ulm and Eatisbon, oblige him thus to descend the 
 Danube, and remove him from the Alps, so as to prevent him 
 from ever sending succours thither. This done, it had orders 
 to detach its right wing towards Switzerland, for the purpose of 
 seconding there the perilous operation which General Bonaparte 
 had reserved for himself to execute. The third army, called 
 the army of reserve, the elements of which scarcely existed, 
 was to form between Geneva and Dijon, and to await the issue 
 of the first events, in readiness to succour Moreau, in case of 
 need. But, if Moreau had succeeded in a part, at least, of his 
 plan, this army of reserve, advancing under General Bonaparte 
 to Geneva, from Geneva into the Valais, giving the hand to the 
 detachment drawn from the army of Germany, then crossing 
 the St. Bernard, over ice and snow, was. by a prodigy greater 
 than that of Hannibal, to fall upon Piedmont, to take the Baron
 
 i 3 4 HISTORY OF THE mar. 1800 
 
 de Melas, occupied with the siege of Genoa, in the rear, envelop 
 him, bring him to a decisive battle, and, if it won it, to oblige 
 him to lay down his arms. 
 
 Assuredly, if the execution were correspondent with such a 
 plan, never would a finer conception have honoured the genius 
 of a commander, ancient or modern. But it is the execution 
 alone that gives their value to great military combinations, for, 
 deprived of this merit, they are but vain chimeras. 
 
 The execution, in this case, consisted in an infinity of diffi- 
 culties to be overcome — in the reorganisation of the armies of 
 the Rhine and of Liguria, in the creation of the army of reserve, 
 in keeping secret the creation and destination of that army ; 
 lastly, in the twofold passage of the Ehine and of the Alps, — 
 the second equal to the most extraordinary things which the 
 art of war has ever attempted. 
 
 The very first care of General Bonaparte had been to recruit 
 the army. The desertions to the interior, disease, and battle, 
 had reduced it to 250,000 men, which one would scarcely 
 believe, at a moment when France made head against a general 
 coalition, if the fact were not attested by authentic documents. 
 Fortunately, these 250,000 men were perfectly inured to war, 
 capable of withstanding an enemy double in number. The 
 First Consul had demanded 100,000 conscripts of the Legis- 
 lative Body, which had granted them with truly patriotic cheer- 
 fulness. The war was so legitimate, so evidently necessary, 
 after the offers of peace were refused, that mere hesitation 
 would have been criminal. Of this, however, there was no 
 reason to be apprehensive, and the eagerness of the Legisla- 
 tive Body was carried to enthusiasm. These 100,000 young 
 conscripts, combined with 250,000 old soldiers, could not fail to 
 form an excellent composition for an army. The prefects re- 
 cently instituted, and who were already at their posts, imparted 
 to the recruiting an activity which it had never yet had. But it 
 would take five or six months before these conscripts could join 
 their corps, drilled and fit for service. The First Consul resolved 
 to keep in the interior all the corps exhausted by the war. and to 
 employ them as skeletons, in which the new levy should be placed. 
 On the other hand, he moved towards the frontiers all the corps 
 capable of taking the field, and took care to transfer all the 
 soldiers fit for service from the ranks of those who were to 
 remain in the interior into the ranks of those who were going to 
 fight. If, in proceeding thus, he could find 200,000 men to place 
 immediately in line, it was as much as he could do. Under his 
 powerful and skilful hand, however, this number was sufficient. 
 
 He made an appeal, at the same time, to the patriotic senti- 
 ments of France. Addressing himself to the soldiers of the 
 first requisitions, whom the general discouragement produced
 
 mar. 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 135 
 
 by our reverses had brought back to their homes, he made those 
 rejoin by force who had left their corps without leave, and he 
 appealed to the zeal of those who had regular furloughs ; he en- 
 deavoured to excite military tastes in all the young men whose 
 imaginations were inflamed by the name of General Bonaparte. 
 Though the enthusiasm of the first days of the Kevolution had 
 cooled, the sight of the enemy on our frontiers reanimated all 
 hearts ; and that assistance which was still to be derived from the 
 devotedness of volunteers was an advantage not to be despised. 
 
 To this attention bestowed on the recruiting the First 
 Consul added some useful reforms relating to the adminis- 
 tration and the composition of the army. In the first place, 
 he instituted inspectors of reviews, charged to ascertain the 
 number of men present under arms, and to save the treasury 
 from paying for soldiers who were present only on paper. In 
 the artillery he made a change of the greatest importance. 
 The horses which drew the gun-carriages were then driven by 
 men belonging to the waggon-train, who, not being restrained 
 by a sense of honour, like the other soldiers, cut the traces of 
 their horses at the first danger, and fled, leaving their guns in 
 the hands of the enemy. The First Consul justly thought that 
 the driver, whose duty it is to bring the piece to the place of 
 battle, renders as valuable a service as the gunner, whose busi- 
 ness it is to work it ; that he incurs the same danger, and needs 
 the same moral motive, that is, honour. He therefore converted 
 the artillery- drivers into soldiers, wearing the uniform, and 
 constituting part of the regiments of that arm. They formed 
 10,000 or 12,000 horsemen, who were expected to show as much 
 zeal in bringing up their guns before an enemy, or in carrying 
 them off with speed, as those did whose duty it was to load, 
 point, and fire them. This reform was only begun, and could 
 not produce all its useful consequences till a later period. 
 
 The artillery and the cavalry were likewise in want of horses. 
 The First Consul ordered a forced and extraordinary levy of every 
 thirtieth horse, having neither time nor means to make pur- 
 chases. It was a hard but inevitable necessity. The armies were 
 first to supply themselves in the country around them, and then, 
 by degrees, further and further off, in the contiguous provinces. 
 
 The First Consul had sent to Massena such pecuniary 
 supplies as could be spared, for the relief of the unfortunate 
 army of Liguria. From 60,000 men, of whom it was composed 
 by the junction of the army of Lombardy and that of Naples, 
 after the sanguinary battle of the Trebbia, it was reduced by 
 privations to 40,000 at most, presenting but thirty and some 
 odd thousand fighting men. Corn, which could neither come 
 from Piedmont, occupied by the Austrians, nor from the sea, 
 guarded by the English, was very scarce. These unfortunate
 
 136 HISTORY OF THE mar. 1800 
 
 soldiers had nothing to subsist upon but the crops of the 
 Apennines, little better than nothing, as everybody knows. 
 They would not go into the hospitals, destitute of the most 
 needful articles of food ; and they were seen, on the road from 
 Nice to Genoa, wasted by famine and fever, exhibiting the most 
 deplorable of sights — that of brave men left by the country 
 which they were defending to perish for want. 
 
 Massena, on receiving the money sent by the government, 
 had made some purchases at Marseilles, bought up all the corn 
 in that city, and shipped it for Genoa. Unfortunately, during 
 this winter, the wind, not less rigorous than the enemy, con- 
 tinually retarded arrivals at Genoa from Marseilles, and re- 
 placed, in some measure, the blockade which the English could 
 not keep up in the stormy season. A few vessels had, neverthe- 
 less, got in with their cargoes, and bread was again dealt out to 
 the soldiers of Liguria. The government had sent them arms, 
 shoes, some clothing, and hopes. As for military energy, 
 nothing needed to be done to inspire them with that ; for never 
 had France seen soldiers endure such reverses with such forti- 
 tude. Those conquerors at Castiglione, at Arcole, at Eivoli, 
 had borne unflinchingly the defeats of Cassano, of Novi, of the 
 Trebbia ; the temper which they had acquired could not be 
 impaired under the strokes of Fortune. Besides, the presence 
 of General Bonaparte at the head of the government, and of 
 General Massena at the head of the army, would have infused 
 into them new courage, had they needed it. So they were but 
 fed, clothed, and armed, the most important services might be 
 obtained from them. In these respects the government did its 
 best. Massena, by some examples of severity, re-established 
 discipline, shaken among them, and collected thirty and some 
 thousand men, impatient to start again, under his command, 
 for fertile Italy. 
 
 The instructions given by the First Consul for his guidance 
 were ably conceived. Three narrow passages led across the 
 Apennines from the inland slope to the maritime slope ; these 
 were the passage of the Bocchetta, debouching upon Genoa ; 
 that of Cadibona, upon Savona ; that of Tende, upon Nice. 
 The First Consul enjoined Massena to leave only weak de- 
 tachments at the Col de Tende and at the Col de Cadibona, 
 just sufficient to observe them, and to concentrate a force of 
 25,000 or 30,000 men upon Genoa. That city being strongly 
 occupied, an invasion of the south of France was scarcely to be 
 presumed, and, at any rate, not much to be feared ; for the 
 Austrians would certainly not be rash enough to advance 
 beyond the Var upon Toulon and the Bouches du Rhone, while 
 Massena was in their rear. Massena might, moreover, fall, 
 with his 30,000 assembled troops, upon those corps which
 
 mar. 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 137 
 
 should have passed the defiles of the Apennines. It was not 
 likely, considering the nature of the country, with its narrow 
 ravines and steep precipices, that he should meet with more 
 than 30,000 men at once. He had, therefore, the means of 
 making head everywhere against the enemy. Unluckily, this 
 plan could not be carried into execution but by a general pos- 
 sessing the prodigious dexterity of the conqueror of Montenotte. 
 For the rest, the First Consul was sure of having in Massena an 
 obstinate defender of the steep heights of the Apennines, and 
 who would find such employment for Melas as should detain 
 him in Liguria during the whole time necessary for the combined 
 movement of the French armies. 
 
 Nevertheless, it must be confessed, the army of Liguria was 
 treated somewhat like a sacrificed army : not an additional man 
 was sent to it ; it was merely supplied with some mntdriel, and no 
 more of that than was barely necessary. It was elsewhere that 
 the principal efforts of the government were directed, because 
 it was elsewhere that the great blows were to be struck. The 
 army of Liguria was exposed to the risk of perishing, in order to 
 give others time to be victorious. Such is that dire fatality of 
 war, which passes from the head of the one to the head of the 
 other, obliging these to die that those may live and triumph ! 
 
 The army treated with most particular attention was that 
 commanded by Moreau, and destined to act in Swabia. To this 
 was sent all that could be spared, both in men and in maUriel. 
 The utmost efforts were made to ensure to it a complete artillery 
 and abundant means of passage, that it might be able to cross 
 the Rhine on a sudden, and, if possible, at a single point. 
 General Moreau, of whom it has been said the First Consul was 
 so jealous, was, therefore, about to have under his command the 
 finest and most numerous army of the Republic, about 1 30,000 
 men, while Massena was to have no more than 36,000, and the 
 First Consul 40,000 at most. This was not, however, a mere 
 compliment paid to the vanity of Moreau. More serious motives 
 had determined this distribution of the forces. The operation 
 destined to throw Kray upon Ulm and Ratisbon was of the 
 highest importance for the general success of the campaign ; for, 
 in presence of those two powerful Austrian armies, which were 
 advancing towards our frontiers, it was requisite first to drive 
 back the one before it was possible to cross the Alps in the rear 
 of the other. This first operation, therefore, was to be attempted 
 with decisive means, which should render the success infallible. 
 The First Consul, highly as he estimated Moreau, estimated 
 himself much higher: if either of them must dispense with 
 great means, he thought that he could shift without them better 
 than Moreau. The sentiment which guided him on this occasion 
 was a nobler sentiment than even generosity in great affairs of
 
 138 HISTORY OF THE mar. 1800 
 
 State ; it was love of the public weal ; this he preferred to the 
 interest of every body, to that of others, and to his own. 
 
 This army of the Ehine, though wearing, like the other armies 
 of the Eepublic, the rags of indigence, was superb. Some con- 
 scripts had joined it, but in small number, just sufficient to infuse 
 youth into it. By far the greater part of it was composed of 
 those old soldiers, who, under the command of Pichegru, Kleber, 
 Hoche, and Moreau, had conquered Holland and the banks of 
 the Ehine, crossed that river several times, and even penetrated 
 to the Danube. It could not have been said, without injustice, 
 that they were braver than the soldiers of Italy ; but they 
 exhibited all the qualities of accomplished troops — they were 
 discreet, sober, well disciplined, intelligent, and intrepid. The 
 officers were worthy of the men. The distribution of this army 
 into detached divisions, complete in all arms, and acting in 
 separate corps, had developed to the highest point the talents of 
 each general of division. These generals had equal but diverse 
 merits. There was Lecourbe, the ablest officer of his time in 
 mountain warfare, — Lecourbe, whose glorious name was repeated 
 by the echoes of the Alps : there was Eichepanse, who combined 
 rare intelligence with audacious bravery, and who soon afterwards 
 rendered Moreau, in the fields of Hohenlinden, the most impor- 
 tant service that lieutenant ever rendered to his general : there 
 was St. Cyr, with a mind cool and profound, and a disposition 
 not the most sociable, but endowed with all the qualities of 
 commander-in-chief : there was, lastly, young Ney, whom heroic 
 courage, guided by a happy instinct for war, had already 
 rendered popular in all the armies of the Eepublic. At the 
 head of these lieutenants was Moreau, a man of sluggish, some- 
 times indecisive, but solid mind, and whose indecisions termi- 
 nated in wise and firm resolutions, when he was face to face with 
 the danger. Experience had singularly formed and extended 
 his military coup d'ceil. But, while his military genius expanded 
 in the school of war, his civil character, weak, yielding to all 
 influences, had already succumbed, and was destined again to 
 succumb, under the trials of politics, which strong and truly 
 exalted minds alone are capable of surmounting. At any rate, 
 the unhappy passion of jealousy had not yet stained the purity 
 of his heart and corrupted his patriotism. From his experience, 
 his habit of command, his high renown, he was, after General 
 Bonaparte, the only man capable, at that time, of commanding 
 100,000 men. 
 
 The plan of operations prescribed to him by the First Consul 
 consisted in debouching in Swabia, at the point which would 
 best permit him to act on the extreme left of Marshal Kray, in 
 such a manner as to outflank him, to cut him off from Bavaria, 
 to shut him up between the Upper Danube and the Ehine ; in
 
 mar. 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 139 
 
 which case the Austrian army in Swabia would be undone. To 
 accomplish this, it would be necessary to cross the Rhine, not 
 at two or three points, but at one only, the nearest possible to 
 Constance ; an operation singularly bold and difficult, for it con- 
 sisted in transporting across a river, and in presence of an enemy, 
 100,000 men, with all their materiel ; and, it must be confessed 
 that, before Wagram, no general ever crossed a river under the 
 conditions stated. Accordingly, it required great address to 
 deceive the Austrians as to the point that would be chosen ; with 
 great address, great boldness in the execution of the passage, 
 and, lastly, what is always needed, good luck. The First Consul 
 had ordered a considerable quantity of boats to be collected in 
 the tributaries of the Rhine, and particularly in the Aar, that 
 three or four bridges might be thrown over at once, at the dis- 
 tance of a few hundred fathoms from each other. The only point 
 then was to gain access for these combinations to the cold and 
 far from audacious mind of Moreau. 
 
 After these attentions paid with unremitting zeal to the 
 troops of Liguria and Germany, the First Consul had applied 
 his energies to the creation of an army which soon accomplished 
 the greatest things, under the title of army of reserve. 
 
 In order that it might fulfil its object, it was requisite not 
 only to create it, but to create it while encouraging an universal 
 disbelief in the possibility of the thing. We shall show in what 
 manner he proceeded to obtain this twofold result. 
 
 The First Consul had contrived to find in Holland, and in 
 the forces accumulated in Paris by the Directory, the means of 
 pacifying La Vendee at a seasonable time ; he contrived to find 
 in La Vendee, when pacified, the necessary resources for creat- 
 ing an army, which, thrown unexpectedly on the theatre of 
 military operations, must change the destinies of war. In 
 writing to General Brune, commander-in-chief in the West, he 
 addressed to him these beautiful words, which so well express 
 his manner of operating, and that of the great masters in the 
 art of administration and of war : — " Let me know if, besides 
 the five clemi-brigades for which I have applied to you by my 
 last courier, you can spare one or two demi-brigades more, on 
 condition of their being sent back in three months. We must 
 make up our minds to stride over France as we formerly did 
 over the valley of the Adige ; after all, it is only performing ten 
 days' march in one." (14th of Ventose, year VIII. ; March 5, 
 1800. Archives in the State Paper Office.) 
 
 Though the English must have conceived an aversion to 
 further descents on the continent since their adventure at the 
 Texel, and particularly since the withdrawal of the Russians 
 from the coalition, the immense extent of our coast from the 
 Zuyder Zee to the Gulf of Gascony, could not be relinquished
 
 140 HISTORY OF THE mar. 1800 
 
 to them without any means of defence, the pacification of La 
 Vendee being moreover so recent. The First Consul, therefore, 
 left in Holland a force half French, half Dutch, to guard that 
 valuable country : he gave the command of it to Augereau. It 
 was formed into active divisions, complete in all arms and ready 
 to march. When it was pretty certain, from the course of the 
 operations, that no landing was to be apprehended, this corps of 
 Augereau's was to march up the Rhine, and to cover the rear of 
 Moreau in Germany. Out of the 60,000 men collected on the 
 coast of Normandy and Bretagne, the First Consul selected the 
 thinnest demi-brigades, and charged them to guard the insur- 
 gent country. He took care still further to reduce their effec- 
 tive strength, by sending off to the active army the soldiers 
 capable of serving, and thus fitted them for receiving a greater 
 number of conscripts, whom they were to train at the same 
 time that they guarded the coast. He formed them into five 
 small camps, comprising artillery, cavalry, infantry, ready to 
 march at the first signal, and commanded by good officers. Two 
 of these camps were in Belgium, one at Liege, another at Maes- 
 tricht, both destined to secure that country, agitated by the 
 priests, and to co-operate, if need were, in the defence of Hol- 
 land. There was one at Lille, ready to throw itself upon the 
 Somme and Normandy, another at St. L6, and a third at Bennes. 
 This last was the most numerous : it contained from 7000 to 8000 
 soldiers. The others were from 4000 to 5000. The camps con- 
 tained about 30,000 men. They were about to be doubled, at 
 least, by the arrival of the fresh recruits. They were to per- 
 form the duty of the police both in the recently conquered 
 countries, such as Belgium, and in the recently pacified 
 countries, such as Normandy, Bretagne, and Boitou. The 
 First Consul had ordered search to be made in the woods 
 for concealed arms. He had begun to form, by the allurement 
 of high pay, three or four battalions, composed of all those 
 men who had contracted adventurous habits in the civil war ; 
 and he purposed, but without saying so, to send them to 
 Egypt. As for the chiefs, he had assigned to them residences 
 remote from the theatre of the civil war, and had soothed 
 the mortification of this exile by pensions amply sufficient to 
 make them truly comfortable. 
 
 These arrangements made, there remained, of the 60,000 
 men collected for the pacification of the interior, about 30,000 
 excellent soldiers, embodied in the demi-brigades which had 
 suffered least. Some had returned to Baris, after the operations 
 executed in Normandy against M. de Frotte. The others were in 
 Bretagne and in La Vendee. The First Consul formed them into 
 three fine war divisions, two in Bretagne itself, at Bennes and 
 at Nantes, the third in Baris. These divisions were to prepare
 
 mar. 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 141 
 
 for service with the utmost despatch, to provide themselves with 
 such materiel as was at hand, and to procure the rest on their 
 march, by such means as we shall presently specify. They had 
 orders to repair to the eastern frontier, with rapid strides, 
 to use the words of the First Consul, as the army of Italy for- 
 merly strode over the valley of the Adige. It was certain that 
 they would arrive in Switzerland in the month of April. 
 
 There was another resource, namely, the depots of the army 
 of Egypt, stationed in the south of France, and which had 
 never been able to send recruits to their corps, because it was 
 impossible for them to cross the sea, incessantly watched by the 
 English. By throwing a few conscripts into these depots, there 
 might be formed fourteen very line battalions, quite capable of 
 taking the field. Orders w T ere given to despatch them towards 
 Lyons, as soon as they should be equipped. This formed a fourth 
 excellent division, and capable of rendering good service. 
 
 What is most difficult and takes the longest time in the com- 
 position of an army is the organisation of the artillery. The 
 First Consul, by resolving to form this army of reserve in the 
 east, had, in the depots of Auxonne, BesaiKjon, and BrianQon, 
 the means of collecting, in personnel and materiel, a force of sixty 
 pieces of cannon. Two very able officers of artillery, Generals 
 Marmont and Gassendi, and who were devotedly attached to the 
 First Consul, were despatched from Paris with orders to get ready 
 these sixty pieces of cannon in the different depots, but without 
 divulging where they were to be concentrated or used. 
 
 A place of rendezvous for all these scattered forces was yet 
 to be indicated. If an attempt had been made to conceal such 
 preparations by silence, that very silence would have had the 
 effect of giving the alarm. The First Consul wished to deceive 
 the enemy by the very noise that he was about to make. He 
 inserted in the Monitair a decree of the Consuls for the crea- 
 tion of an army of reserve, which was to be formed at Dijon, and 
 to be composed of 60,000 men. Berthier set off post for Dijon, 
 to commence the organisation of it. The reader will recollect 
 that Berthier was more master of his time since the entry of 
 Carnot upon the ministry of war. A warm appeal was made 
 to the old volunteers of the devolution, who, after one or two 
 campaigns, had returned to their homes. They were beseeched 
 to repair to Dijon. A small quantity of materiel and a few 
 conscripts were sent thither with great parade. Old officers, 
 despatched to that point, exhibited an appearance of skeletons, 
 for commencing the instruction of the conscripts. The news- 
 paper writers, who were nut permitted to touch on military 
 affairs without great circumspection, were allowed to say what 
 they pleased about the army organising at Dijon, and to fill 
 their columns with particulars concerning it. This was sufficient
 
 142 HISTORY OF THE mar. 1800 
 
 to attract the spies of all Europe, and accordingly they did not 
 fail to repair thither in great number. 
 
 If the divisions formed at Nantes, Eennes, and Paris, with 
 the troops drawn from La Vendee ; if the division formed at 
 Toulon, Marseilles, Avignon, with the depots of the army of 
 Egypt ; if the artillery prepared at Besancon, Auxonne, and 
 Briancon, with the resources of these arsenals, had been 
 assembled at Dijon, it would have been all over with the 
 secret of the First Consul : everybody would have been aware 
 of the existence of the army of reserve. But he took good care 
 not to act in that manner. Those divisions were inarched off 
 towards Geneva and Lausanne by different routes, so that the 
 public attention was not particularly drawn to any one point. 
 They passed for reinforcements destined for the army of the 
 Rhine, which, being spread from Strasburg to Constance, might 
 well appear to be the goal towards which these reinforcements 
 were marching. The preparations in materiel, ordered in the 
 arsenals of Auxonne and Besancon, passed for a supplement 
 of artillery destined for the same army. Those making at 
 Briancon were supposed to relate to the troops in Liguria. The 
 First Consul caused a quantity of spirits to be sent to Geneva ; 
 but neither did this supply betray its real destination, since our 
 army in Germany had its base of operations in Switzerland. 
 He ordered 2,000,000 rations of biscuit to be made in the 
 departments bordering on the Rhone : these were destined for 
 the subsistence of the army of reserve amidst the sterility of 
 the Alps ; 1,800,000 rations were secretly sent up the Rhine to 
 Geneva, and the other 200,000 despatched with ostentation to 
 Toulon, to induce a belief that these unusual supplies were 
 made for the navy. Lastly, the divisions in march, conducted 
 slowly and without fatiguing them, towards Geneva and Lau- 
 sanne — they had, in fact, half of March and the whole of April 
 to perform the distance — received by the way such things as 
 they were in need of — shoes, clothing, muskets, horses. The 
 First Consul, having settled in his own mind the route which 
 they were to follow, and carefully ascertained the nature of 
 their wants, forwarded to every place through which they were 
 to pass a supply, sometimes of one thing, sometimes of another, 
 taking good care not to excite attention by a large assemblage 
 of stores at a single point. The correspondence relative to these 
 preparations was not carried on through the war-office, but con- 
 fined between himself and the commanders of corps, and sent by 
 trusty aides-de-camp, who travelled post to and fro, saw every- 
 thing with their own eyes, did everything directly, furnished 
 with the irresistible orders of the First Consul, and ignorant all 
 the while of the general plan which they were furthering. 
 
 The secret, confined to the First Consul and Berthier, and
 
 mae. 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 143 
 
 two or three generals of engineers and artillery, to whom it was 
 absolutely necessary to communicate the plan of the campaign 
 was strictly kept. None of them would have betrayed it, be- 
 cause secrecy is an act of obedience, which governments obtain 
 in proportion to the ascendency which they exercise. On this 
 ground, that of the First Consul had no indiscretion to fear. 
 The foreign spies who thronged to Dijon, finding there only a 
 few conscripts, a few volunteers, and a few old officers, fancied 
 themselves extremely shrewd in discovering that there was 
 nothing serious in the matter ; that the First Consul evidently 
 made all this noise merely to frighten Baron de Melas, to prevent 
 him from penetrating by the mouths of the llhone, and per- 
 suading him that he should find in the south of France an army 
 of reserve capable of stopping him. Such was the construction 
 put upon the matter by all who believed themselves to be good 
 judges of it ; and the English newspapers were soon filled with 
 thousands upon thousands of squibs. Among the caricatures 
 of the day, was one on the army of reserve ; it represented a 
 child leading an invalid with a wooden leg. 
 
 This was just what the First Consul wanted : his only wish 
 was to see himself laughed at for the moment. Meanwhile, 
 his divisions were marching, his materiel was preparing towards 
 the eastern frontiers, and, in the first days of May, an army, 
 formed in a trice, would be ready either to support Moreau, or 
 to throw itself on the other side of the Alps, and change the 
 face of events there. 
 
 The First Consul had not neglected the navy. After the 
 cruise which Admiral Bruix had made in the preceding year in 
 the Mediterranean, with the combined forces of France and 
 Spain, the grand fleet, under his command, had returned to 
 Brest. It was composed of fifteen Spanish ships, and about a 
 score of French, in the whole little short of forty sail. Twenty 
 English ships were blockading it at the moment. The First 
 Consul took advantage of the first financial resources which he 
 had succeeded in creating, to send some provisions and part of 
 the arrears of pay to this fleet. He enjoined it not to suffer 
 itself to be blockaded ; if it had but thirty sail against twenty 
 to put to sea on the first occasion, were it even obliged to light : 
 and if it was possible to keep at sea. to pass the Straits of 
 Gibraltar, to steer thence for Toulon, to take in convoy there 
 some vessels laden with supplies for Egypt, and then to raise 
 the blockade of Malta and Alexandria. The coast once clear, 
 commerce alone would suffice for revictualling the French gar- 
 risons scattered along the shores of the Mediterranean. 
 
 Such was the attention paid by the First Consul to military 
 affairs, while, with Messrs. Sieves, Cambaceres, Talleyrand, 
 Gaudin, and other participators in his labours, he was engaged in
 
 i 4 4 HISTORY OF THE mar. 1800 
 
 organising the government, in re-establishing the finances, in 
 creating a civil and judicial administration, lastly, in negotiating 
 with Europe. But it was not enough to conceive plans, to pre- 
 pare for the execution of them ; it was necessary to instil his 
 ideas into the heads of his lieutenants, who, though amenable 
 to his consular authority, were not so completely subservient 
 then as they were afterwards, when, with the titles of marshals 
 of the Empire, they obeyed an Emperor. The plan prescribed 
 to Moreau, in particular, had turned his cold and timid head 
 topsy-turvy. That general was frightened at the boldness of 
 the operation which he was ordered to perform. We have 
 already described the country on which he was to operate. The 
 Ehine, we have said, runs from east to west between Constance 
 and Basle, turns northward at Basle, passing by Brisach, Stras- 
 burg, and Mayence. In the angle which it thus describes is 
 what is called the Black Forest, a woody and mountainous tract, 
 intersected by defiles, which lead from the valley of the Rhine 
 to that of the Danube. The French army and the Austrian 
 army occupied, in some measure, the three sides of a triangle : 
 the French army occupied two, from Strasburg to Basle, from 
 Basle to Schaff hausen ; the Austrian army one only, from Stras- 
 burg to Constance. The latter, therefore, had the advantage of 
 a more easy concentration. Kray, having his left under Prince 
 Reuss in the environs of Constance, his right in the defiles of 
 the Black Forest, nearly to Strasburg, his centre at Donau- 
 Eschingen, at the point of intersection of all the roads, could con- 
 centrate his forces speedily before the very spot which Moreau 
 might choose for crossing the Rhine, whether between Strasburg 
 and Basle, or between Basle and Constance. Such was the sub- 
 ject of the French general's uneasiness. He feared that Kray, 
 presenting himself with his whole force at the point of passage, 
 might render that passage impracticable, perhaps even disastrous. 
 The First Consul had no such apprehensions. He conceived, 
 on the contrary, that the French army might very easily concen- 
 trate itself on the left flank of Kray, and thus turn it. On this 
 account, he desired, as we have already said, that, taking advan- 
 tage of the curtain which covered it, that is to say, of the Rhine, 
 it should ascend that river on a sudden ; that it should assemble 
 between Basle and Schaff hausen ; that, with boats secretly 
 provided in the tributary streams, it should throw across four 
 bridges on one and the same morning ; and that it should debouch 
 to the number of 80,000 or 100,000 men, between Stockach and 
 Donau-Eschingen, falling upon the flank of Kray, cutting him 
 off from his reserves and from his left, and driving him in dis- 
 order upon the Upper Danube. He thought that, if this operation 
 were executed with promptness and vigour, the Austrian army 
 in Germany might be destroyed. What he did at a later period,
 
 mar. 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 145 
 
 setting out from a different point, but in the same parts, about 
 Ulm ; what he did this same year by the St. Bernard, proves 
 that this plan had in it nothing but what was perfectly practi- 
 cable. He was of opinion that the French army, not operating 
 in an enemy's country, since it would ascend by the left bank, 
 having only to march without fighting, might, with certain 
 precautions, steal two or three marches upon Kray, and that 
 it would be at the point of passage before that general had 
 collected sufficient means to prevent it. 
 
 This was the plan which had disturbed the mind of Moreau, 
 unaccustomed to these bold combinations. He was fearful that 
 Kray, receiving timely intelligence, would advance with the mass 
 of his forces to meet the French army, and would drive it into 
 the river. Moreau would rather avail himself of the existing 
 bridges at Strasburg, Brisach, and Basle, for debouching in 
 several columns on the right bank ; he proposed in this manner 
 to divide the attention of the Austrians, to draw them princi- 
 pally towards the defiles of the Black Forest, corresponding 
 with the bridges of Strasburg and Brisach, then, after enticing 
 them into these defiles, slip away suddenly, march along the 
 Rhine with the columns which should have crossed that river, 
 and post himself before Schaffhausen, to cover the rest of the 
 army while debouching there. 
 
 Moreau's plan was not without merit, but neither was it 
 without serious inconveniences ; for, if it tended to avoid the 
 danger of a single passage executed in mass, it had, by dividing 
 this operation, the inconvenience of dividing the forces, of 
 throwing two or three detached columns upon the enemy's 
 ground, of making them perform a dangerous flank march as far 
 as Schaffhausen, where they were to cover the last and principal 
 passage of the river. Lastly, this plan had the disadvantage of 
 securing few or no results ; for it did not throw the French army 
 entire and all at once upon the left flank of Marshal Kray : 
 which would have been the only way to overpower the Austrian 
 general, and to cut him off from Bavaria. 
 
 It is a sight worthy of the attention of History, that of these 
 two men, opposed to each other in an interesting circumstance, 
 which exhibited so conspicuously their diversities in mind and 
 character. The plan of Moreau, as is frequently the case with 
 the plans of second-rate men, had only the appearances of 
 prudence; but it might succeed in the execution, for, we must 
 incessantly repeat it, the execution redeems everything: some- 
 times it causes the best combinations to miscarry, and the worst 
 to succeed. Moreau persisted, therefore, in his ideas. The 
 First Consul, wishing to persuade him by means of a chosen 
 agent, summoned to Paris General Dessoles, chief of the staff of 
 the army of Germany, possessing an acute, penetrating mind, 
 
 vol. 1. K
 
 146 HISTORY OF THE mar. i8co 
 
 worthy of serving for a link between two powerful and sus- 
 ceptible men ; for he had a desire to conciliate his superiors, 
 which is not always found in subordinates. The First Consul, 
 therefore, called him to Paris about the middle of March (end 
 of Ventose), and kept him there several days. After explaining 
 his ideas to him, he made him perfectly comprehend them, 
 and even prefer them to those of Moreau. General Dessoles, 
 nevertheless, persisted in advising the First Consul to adopt 
 Moreau's plan, because it was necessary, in his opinion, to leave 
 the general who operates to act according to his own ideas and 
 character, when he is moreover a man worthy of the command 
 entrusted to him. "Your plan," said he to the First Consul, 
 " is grander, more decisive, probably also more sure ; but it is 
 not adapted to the genius of him who is to execute it. You 
 have a way of carrying on war, which is superior to any other ; 
 Moreau has his, inferior, no doubt, to yours, but yet excellent. 
 Leave him to act; he will act well ; slowly perhaps, but surely; 
 and he will procure for you all the results that you need for 
 the success of your general combinations. If, on the other 
 hand, you insist on the execution of your ideas, you will upset 
 him, you will even offend him, and you will obtain nothing from 
 him, by wanting to obtain too much." The First Consul, as 
 well versed in the knowledge of men as in that of his profession, 
 appreciated the wisdom of the advice of General Dessoles, and 
 gave way. " You are right," said he ; " Moreau is not capable 
 of appreciating and executing the plan which I have conceived. 
 Let him do as he pleases, provided he throws Marshal Kray 
 upon Ulm and Eatisbon, and afterwards sends back his left 
 wing, in time, upon Switzerland. The plan, which he does not 
 comprehend, which he dares not venture to execute, I will 
 execute myself, on another part of the theatre of war. What 
 he dares not do on the Ehine, I will do on the Alps. He 
 may, by-and-by, regret the glory which he relinquishes to me." 
 Proud and profound words, containing an entire military pro- 
 phecy, as the reader will be able to judge presently.* 
 
 The manner of crossing the Ehine being thus left to Moreau, 
 there was still one point left to settle. The First Consul much 
 wished that the right wing, commanded by Lecourbe, should 
 remain in reserve on the Swiss territory, quite ready to support 
 Moreau, if he needed it, but that it should not penetrate into 
 Germany, if its presence there was not indispensable ; in order 
 that it might not have to retrograde for the purpose of co- 
 operating among the Alps. He knew, however, what a difficult 
 thing it is to take from a commander-in-chief a detachment 
 of his army, when operations are once commenced. Moreau 
 
 * I had the honour, in my youth, to receive this account from the lips of 
 General Dessoles himself.
 
 apkili8oo CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 147 
 
 insisted on having Lecourbe, engaging to return him to General 
 Bonaparte as soon as he should have driven Marshal Kray upon 
 Ulm. The First Consul complied with this desire, resolved to 
 concede everything to maintain harmony; but he required 
 Moreau to sign an agreement, by which he engaged, after he 
 had thrown the Austrians upon Ulm, to detach Lecourbe, with 
 20,000 or 25,000 men, towards the Alps. This agreement was 
 signed at Basle, between Moreau and Berthier, the latter being 
 officially considered as general-in-chief of the army of reserve. 
 
 General Dessoles had left Paris, after he had completely 
 settled all the points in discussion with the First Consul. Their 
 plans were concerted : everything was ready for opening the 
 campaign, and it was important to commence operations imme- 
 diately, in order that, Moreau having executed early the part of 
 the plan which concerned him, the First Consul might throw 
 himself to the other side of the Alps, and extricate Massena 
 before he was overwhelmed, for he was struggling with 36,000 
 men against 120,000. The First Consul wished that Moreau 
 should open the campaign by the middle of April, or the end of 
 that month at latest. But his solicitations were vain : Moreau 
 was not ready, and he had neither activity, nor a mind fertile in 
 resources, which make amends for the insufficiency of means. 
 While he was delaying, the Austrians, adhering to their plan 
 of taking the initiative in Italy, attacked Massena, and com- 
 menced with that general a struggle which the disproportion 
 of strength has rendered worthy of everlasting remembrance. 
 
 The army of Liguria comprehended, at most, 36,000 men fit 
 for active service, and distributed in the following manner. 
 
 Thirteen or fourteen thousand men, under General Suchet, 
 forming the left of the army, occupied the Col de Tende, Nice, 
 and the line of the Var. A corps detached from that wing, 
 about 4000 strong, under the command of General Thureau, 
 was posted on Mont Cenis. There were consequently 18,000 
 men engaged in guarding the frontier of France, from Mont 
 Cenis to the Col de Tende. 
 
 Ten or twelve thousand men, under General Soult, forming 
 the centre of the army, defended the two principal debouches 
 of the Apennines, that which descends from the Upper Bor- 
 mida upon Savona and Finale, and that of the Bocchetta, which 
 descends upon Genoa. 
 
 Seven or eight thousand men, very nearly, under the intrepid 
 Miollis, occupied Genoa, and a col which debouches near that 
 city, on the opposite side to that of the Bocchetta. Thus, the 
 second half of this army, iSpoo men, or thereabouts, defended 
 the Apennines and Liguria. The danger of a separation between 
 these two portions of the army, that which occupied Nice, and 
 that which occupied Genoa, was evident.
 
 148 HISTORY OF THE april 1800 
 
 These 36,000 French had opposed to them the 120,000 
 Austrians under the Baron de Melas, perfectly recruited, fed, 
 revictualled, thanks to the abundance of all things in Italy, 
 and to the subsidies with which England furnished Austria. 
 General Kaim, with the heavy artillery, the cavalry, and a 
 corps of infantry, in all 50,000 men, had been left in Piedmont, 
 to serve for rear-guard there, and to observe the debouches 
 from Switzerland. Melas, with 70,000 men, the greater part 
 infantry, had advanced towards the defiles of the Apennines. 
 He had, besides the superiority in number, the advantage of 
 concentric position ; for Massena was obliged with 30,000 men 
 (the surplus occupying Mont Cenis) to guard the semicircle 
 formed by the Maritime Alps and the Apennines, from Nice 
 to Genoa — a semicircle not less than forty leagues in extent. 
 General Melas, on the contrary, placed on the other side of 
 the mountains, in the centre of this semicircle, between Coni, 
 Ceva, and Gavi, had but a little way to go in order to reach 
 one or the other of the points which he proposed to attack. 
 He could easily make false demonstrations on one of these 
 points, and then, striking off rapidly for the other, act upon 
 it en masse. Massena, threatened in this manner, had forty 
 leagues to travel, in going from Nice to the relief of Genoa, 
 or from Genoa to the relief of Nice. 
 
 It was upon these circumstances viewed as a whole that the 
 instructions given by the First Consul to Massena were founded 
 — instructions already referred to in a general manner, but 
 which it is necessary to recapitulate rather more in detail. 
 Three roads, fit for artillery, led from one side of the mountains 
 to the other : that which, by way of Turin, Coni, and Tende, 
 debouches upon Nice and the A 7 ar ; the second, ascending the 
 valley of the Bormida, leads by the Col of Cadibona towards 
 Savona ; lastly, that of the Bocchetta, which, by Tortona and 
 Gavi, descends, on the left of Genoa, into the valley of the 
 Polcevera. The danger was lest Baron de Melas should bring 
 his whole force to bear upon the second of these debouches, 
 cut the French army in two, and throw half upon Nice and 
 half upon Genoa. Perceiving this danger, the First Consul 
 addressed to Massena, in letters full of admirable foresight 
 (March 5 th and 12th), instructions, the substance of which I 
 shall here give. " Beware," said he, " of having too extended a 
 line. Have few men upon the Alps and at the Col de Tende, 
 where the snow will defend you. Leave some detachments 
 about Nice and the surrounding forts ; have four-fifths of your 
 force at Genoa and in the environs. The enemy will debouch 
 upon your right towards Genoa, upon your centre towards 
 Savona, probably on both points at once. Refuse one of the 
 two attacks, and fall with your whole united force upon one
 
 apeili8oo CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 149 
 
 of the enemy's columns. The ground will not permit him to 
 avail himself of his superiority in artillery and cavalry; he 
 will be able to attack you with infantry alone ; yours is in- 
 finitely superior to his, and, favoured by the nature of the 
 ground, it may make amends for deficiency in number. In this 
 broken country, if you manoeuvre well, you may, with 30,000 
 men, beat 60,000, and to carry 60,000 infantry into Liguria, 
 M. de Melas must have 90,000, which presupposes a total 
 army of 120,000 men, at least. M. de Melas has neither your 
 activity nor your talents : you have no reason to be afraid of 
 him. If he appears towards Nice while you are at Genoa, let 
 him march ; don't stir : he will not venture to push very far 
 while you remain in Liguria, ready to fall upon his rear, or 
 upon the troops left in Piedmont." 
 
 Various causes prevented Massena from following this pru- 
 dent advice. In the first place, he was surprised by the sudden 
 irruption of the Austrians, before he had time to rectify the 
 position of his troops, and to make his definitive arrangements : 
 secondly, he had not sufficient provisions in the city of Genoa 
 to concentrate his whole army there. Fearful of consuming the 
 provisions, which the place would have great need of, in case of 
 a siege, he wished to make use of the resources of Nice, which 
 were much more abundant. Lastly, it must be confessed, 
 Massena did not sufficiently comprehend all the profundity of 
 the instructions of his superior, to disregard the inconveniences," 
 real enough, it is true, of a general concentration upon Genoa. 
 Massena was, perhaps, the first of the generals of his time on a 
 field of battle ; in point of character, he was equal to the most 
 resolute generals of any age ; but, though he had abundance of 
 natural talent, the extent of his views fell short of the prompt- 
 ness of his coujy d'ceil and the energy of his mind. 
 
 Thus, for want of time, for want of provisions, for want also 
 of being suificiently impressed with the importance of the step, 
 he did not concentrate his forces soon enough upon Genoa, and 
 was surprised by the Austrians. The latter opened the campaign 
 on the 5th of April (the 15th Germinal), that is to say, much 
 earlier than one would have expected hostilities to be resumed. 
 Baron de Melas advanced, with about 70,000 or 75,000 men, to 
 force the chain of the Apennines. His lieutenants, Ott and 
 Hohenzollern, were despatched with 25,000 men upon Genoa. 
 General Ott, with 15,000, ascending the Trebbia, approached 
 by the cols of Scoffera and Monte Creto, which debouch upon 
 the right of Genoa; Hohenzollern, with io.ooo, threatened the 
 Bocchetta, which debouches upon the left of that city. Baron 
 de Melas, with 50,000 men, ascended the Bormida, and attacked 
 simultaneously all the positions of what we have called the 
 middle road, which runs bv way of Cadi bona to Savona. His
 
 150 HISTORY OF THE aprili8oo 
 
 intention, as the First Consul had foreseen, was to force our 
 centre and to separate General Suchet from General Soult, who 
 gave the hand to each other at about this point. A violent 
 struggle ensued, from the sources of the Tarano and of the 
 Bormida to the scarped summits overlooking Genoa. Generals 
 Elsnitz and Melas sustained obstinate encounters with Suchet 
 at Kocca-Barbena, Sette-Pani, Melogno, and Santo Jacobo ; with 
 Soult at Montelegino, Stella, Cadibona, and Savona. The sol- 
 diers of the Eepublic, profiting by this mountainous country, 
 availing themselves of all the accidents of the ground, defended 
 themselves with incomparable bravery, inflicted on the enemy a 
 loss three times as great as their own, for their fire was poured 
 down upon dense and deep masses ; but, obliged to fight without 
 ceasing against troops continually renewed, they were at length 
 forced to fall back, vanquished by exhaustion and fatigue more 
 than by the Austrians. Generals Suchet and Soult were com- 
 pelled to separate, and to retire, the one upon Borghetto, the 
 other upon Savona. The French line was thus broken, as might 
 easily be foreseen ; one-half of the army of Liguria was thrown 
 upon Nice ; the other doomed to shut itself up in Genoa. 
 
 On the side of Genoa itself, the success had been equally 
 balanced. The attack on the Bocchetta, attempted by Count 
 Hohenzollern, with too few troops to worst the Trench, that 
 is, with about 10,000 men against 5000, was repulsed by Gazan's 
 division. But, on the right of Genoa, that is, towards the posi- 
 tions of the Monte Creto and of Scoffera, which afford access to 
 the valley of Bisagno, General Ott, having vanquished the division 
 of Miollis, which had not 4000 men to oppose to 15,000, de- 
 scended on the back slope of the Apennines, and, surrounding all 
 the forts which covered the city, displayed the Austrian colours 
 to the affrighted Genoese. The English squadron at the same 
 time hoisted the British flag. If the inhabitants of the city were 
 patriots and partisans of the French, the peasants of the neigh- 
 bouring valleys, attached to the aristocratic party, as the Cala- 
 brese in the kingdom of Naples were to Queen Caroline, as the 
 Vendeans in France were to the Bourbons, rose at the sight of 
 the soldiers of the coalition. They rang the alarm-bell in all the 
 villages. A Baron d'Aspres, attached to the imperial service, 
 and possessing some influence in the country, excited them to 
 revolt. In the evening of the 6th of April, the unfortunate 
 inhabitants of Genoa, seeing the fires of the Austrians on the 
 surrounding mountains, on the sea the English flag flying, began 
 to be afraid that the oligarchy, already mad with joy, would in 
 a few days re-establish its detested empire. 
 
 But the intrepid Massena was amidst them. Though sepa- 
 rated from Suchet by the attack directed against his centre, he 
 still numbered from 15,000 to 18,000 men; and, supported by
 
 apkili8oo CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 151 
 
 such a garrison, he could defy any enemy whatever to force 
 before his face the gates of Genoa. 
 
 To enable the reader to comprehend the operations executed 
 by the French general during the memorable siege, it is neces- 
 sary to describe the theatre on which it took place. 
 
 Genoa is seated at the very bottom of the beautiful gulf which 
 bears its name, at the foot of a spur of the Apennines. This 
 spur, running from north to south down to the very water, 
 before plunging into it, separates into two ridges, one turning 
 to the east, the other to the west, thus forming an inclined 
 triangle, the apex of which is connected with the Apennines, 
 while the base is supported upon the sea. It is at the base of 
 this triangle, and, be it remarked, with the ordinary irregularity 
 of nature, that Genoa spreads itself out in long streets, bordered 
 with magnificent palaces. Nature and art had done much for its 
 defence. On the side next the sea, two moles, running towards 
 one another so as almost to cross, formed the port, and defended 
 it against hostile squadrons. On the land side, a first bastioned 
 rampart surrounds the densest and most populous part of the 
 city. An outer rampart of vast extent, and bastioned like the 
 preceding, was carried along the heights, which, as we have just 
 said, describe a triangular figure around Genoa. Two forts, con- 
 structed storeywise, one above another, Spur Fort and Diamond 
 Fort, were placed at the apex of this triangular figure, and covered 
 by their commanding fire the whole of the fortifications. 
 
 But this was not all that was done to keep the enemy at a 
 great distance. If you turn your back to the sea and your face 
 to Genoa, you have the east on your right, the west on your left. 
 Two small rivers, the Bisagno on the east, or the right, the Pol- 
 cevera on the west, or the left, wash the two sides of the outer 
 rampart. The Bisagno descends from those same heights of the 
 Monte Creto and Scoffera, which you must cross when you come 
 from the back of the Apennines, in ascending the Trebbia. That 
 side of the valley of the Bisagno, which is opposite to the city, is 
 called the Monte Piatti, and presents several positions, from the 
 heights of which great mischief might have been done to Genoa, 
 if they had not been occupied. Great care had, therefore, been 
 taken to crown them with three forts, those of Quezzi, Kichelieu, 
 and St. Tecle. The valley of the Polcevera, on the contrary, 
 situated on the left of Genoa, and descending from the heights 
 of the Bocchetta, offers no commanding position requiring works 
 of art for the defence of the city. But a straggling suburb, on 
 the seaside, that of San Pietro di Arena, presented a mass of 
 building useful and easy to be defended. 
 
 Thus the fortification of Genoa presented a triangle, inclined 
 fifteen degrees to the horizon, having an extent of 9000 fathoms, 
 connected by its apex with the Apennines, washed at the base
 
 152 HISTORY OF THE apeili8oo 
 
 by the sea, and bordered on its two sides by the Bisagno on the 
 east, and the Polcevera on the west. The Spur Fort, and above 
 that Fort Diamond, covered its summit. Forts Richelieu, St. 
 Tecle, and Quezzi, prevented destructive fires from being poured 
 from the flanks of Monte Eatti upon the city of marble palaces. 
 
 Such was Genoa at that day ; such were its defences, which 
 art, time, and contributions imposed upon France have since 
 greatly improved. 
 
 Massena had it still in his power to assemble 18,000 men. 
 If, with such a garrison, in so strong a fortress, he had had a 
 sufficient stock of provisions, he would have been invincible. 
 We shall see what character can effect in war, for retrieving a 
 fault of combination or of foresight. 
 
 Massena, determined to oppose an energetic resistance to the 
 enemy, purposed to do immediately two very important things ; 
 the first consisted in driving back beyond the Apennines the 
 Austrians who pressed Genoa too closely ; the second in effect- 
 ing a junction with General Suchet, by a movement in concert 
 with that general, along the line of the Corniche. 
 
 To execute the first design, it was requisite that he should 
 dislodge the Austrians from the Bisagno on the one hand, 
 and the Polcevera on the other, and that he should drive them, 
 by the Monte Creto and the Bocchetta, to the other side of the 
 mountains from which they had come. Without losing a day, on 
 the very next after their first appearance, that is, on the 7th of 
 April (17th Germinal), he sallied from Genoa, on the east side, 
 and traversed the valley of the Bisagno, followed by the brave 
 division of Miollis, which had been obliged, two days before, to 
 withdraw from before the greatly superior forces of General Ott. 
 He reinforced it with part of the reserve, and, placing himself 
 at its head, marched in two columns : the right, under General 
 d'Arnaud, kept close to the shore, and proceeded towards Quinto ; 
 the left, under Miollis, directed its course towards the acclivities 
 of Monte Eatti. A third column, under General Petitot, followed, 
 marching up the bottom of the valley of the Bisagno, which 
 winds at the foot of Monte Eatti. Such was the precision of the 
 movement of these three columns, that their fire was heard at the 
 same moment on all the points at once. General d'Arnaud by 
 one slope, General Miollis by the other, forced their way with 
 the utmost vigour to the heights of the Monte Eatti. 
 
 The presence of Massena himself, and the desire of revenging 
 the surprise of the preceding day, animated the soldiers. The 
 Austrians were hurled into the torrents, and lost all their 
 positions. General d'Arnaud passed on, and, following the crest 
 of the heights, reached the very summit of the Apennines, the 
 Col of Scoffera, Massena, followed by some companies of re- 
 serve, descended into the valley of the Bisagno, to join Petitot's
 
 apkil 1 800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 153 
 
 column. Thus reinforced, this latter column repulsed the 
 enemy everywhere, and, ascending the river, lent its support 
 to General d'Arnaud's movement on Scoffera. Entangled in 
 the winding valleys, the Austrians left Masscma 1500 prisoners, 
 and at their head that Baron d'Aspres, who had instigated the 
 revolt of the peasants of La Fonte Buona. 
 
 When, on the evening of the same day, Massena returned to 
 Genoa, after delivering the Genoese from the sight of the enemy, 
 and bringing back as prisoner that officer whose speedy triumphal 
 arrival was announced, the joy of the patriotic, and most nume- 
 rous, portion of the population, was extreme. He was greeted 
 with acclamations. The inhabitants had provided litters for 
 carrying the wounded, and wine and broth to refresh them, and 
 they disputed the honour of receiving them into their houses. 
 
 After this act of vigour towards the east, the most important 
 side to clear, because upon that only the city was closely pressed 
 by the Austrians, Massena resolved to take advantage of the 
 respite procured him by the last success for making an effort 
 towards the west, that is, towards Savona, and thereby re- 
 establishing his communications with General Suchet. To secure 
 Genoa from all attack during his absence, he divided the troops 
 left him into two corps ; the right under General Miollis, the left 
 under General Soult. The corps of General Miollis was destined 
 to guard Genoa with two divisions. D'Arnaud's division was to 
 defend the east side, fronting the Bisagno ; Spital's division, the 
 west, fronting the Polcevera. The left corps, under General 
 Soult, was charged to keep the field with the two divisions of 
 Gardanne and Gazan. It was with this force, of about 10,000 
 men, that Massena purposed to approach Savona, sending a 
 secret express to Suchet, with orders to attempt a simultaneous 
 movement upon the same point. Gardanne' s division was 
 directed along the shore, and Gazan's upon the crests of the 
 Apennines, with the intention of inducing the enemy, by the 
 appearance of two separate columns, to split his forces. After- 
 wards manoeuvring rapidly on this ground, with which he was 
 perfectly acquainted, Massena meant, according to circumstances, 
 to unite these two divisions into one, so as to cut to pieces, either 
 on the tops of the Apennines, or along the coast, any corps of 
 the enemy that might be most exposed to his attacks. He com- 
 manded Gardanne' s division in person, and had consigned ( Jazan's 
 to General Soult. His intention was to follow the coast by Voltri, 
 Varaggio, and Savona : his lieutenant, General Soult, had orders to 
 ascend by Aqua Bianca and San l'ietro del Alba upon Sassello. 
 
 On the morning of the 9th of April, our troops commenced 
 their movement. The Baron de Melas, after cutting the French 
 army in two, purposed to shut up Massena in Genoa, and at 
 the same time to contract his own line, which was too extended,
 
 154 HISTORY OF THE apkil 1800 
 
 for it embraced a space of at least fifteen leagues, from the 
 valley of the Tanaro to that of the Trebbia. The two armies 
 met in their movement, and upon this broken ground ensued a 
 most obstinate and at the same time confused conflict. While 
 Massena marched in two columns, the Baron de Melas was 
 marching in three, and Count Hohenzollern, forming a fourth, 
 tried a new attack on the Bocchetta. Ten thousand French were 
 about to meet more than 40,000 Austrians. 
 
 General Soult, defiling by Voltri, perceived on his right the 
 Austrians, who had passed the Bocchetta, and crowned the sur- 
 rounding heights. On arriving at a place called Aqua Santa 
 they might threaten the rear of the French columns, and prevent 
 their return towards Genoa. General Soult thought it prudent 
 to drive them back : a brilliant action was the consequence ; 
 Colonel Mouton, since marshal, and Count Lobau, commanding 
 the 3rd demi-brigade, displayed extraordinary valour. General 
 Soult took some cannon and prisoners, and, in spite of a host of 
 enemies, gained the mountain road to Sassello. The time spent 
 in this action (which could not prevent the ulterior advance of 
 the Austrians upon the rear of our columns), made it impossible 
 for Soult to reach Sassello, on the other side of the Apennines, 
 by the time that General Massena was awaiting him there. The 
 latter had marched along the sea, and next day, April the 10th, 
 he was in the environs of Varaggio, formed into two columns, 
 and seeking to enter into communication by the heights with 
 the corps of General Soult, whom lie supposed to be at Sassello. 
 The enemy, whose force was ten times the number of ours, endea- 
 voured to envelop Massena's two small columns, and especi- 
 ally the left, which he commanded in person. Massena, relying 
 upon his right column and upon the movement of General 
 Soult towards Sassello, resisted for a long time, with 1 200 men, 
 a corps of from 8000 to 10,000, and displayed extraordinary 
 firmness on this occasion. Being obliged to retreat, and having 
 lost sight of his right column, which had fallen behind, in eon- 
 sequence of a tardy distribution of provisions, he set out in 
 search of it, amidst frightful precipices and bands of revolted 
 peasants. Having at last fallen in with it, he ordered it to 
 rejoin the rest of Gardanne's division, which had continued to 
 follow the coast by Varaggio and Cogoletto. The difficulty of 
 concerting his movements among this multitude of enemies, and 
 in so broken a country, having prevented the timely meeting of 
 General Soult' s corps with the corps of General Massena, the 
 latter resolved to rally his troops, to ascend the crest of the 
 Apennines on his right, to join his lieutenant, and then fall 
 upon the Austrian corps scattered in those valleys. But our 
 harassed troops had dispersed upon the roads, and could not be 
 collected in time. Massena then determined to send to General
 
 aprili8oo CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 155 
 
 Soult all who were capable of marching, to serve for a reinforce- 
 ment ; and with the rest, consisting of wounded and exhausted 
 soldiers, he continued to follow the sea-coast, and regained the 
 approaches of Genoa, in order to cover the retreat of the corps 
 d'arm4e, and to ensure its re-entry into the place. Eeduced 
 to a handful of men, he had several times to sustain the most 
 disproportionate conflicts ; and, in one of these actions, a French 
 battalion, taken unawares, having given way before a charge of 
 Szekler hussars, he himself charged those hussars with thirty 
 horse, and drove them back. He finally posted himself at Voltri, 
 for the purpose of awaiting there the return of General Soult. 
 The latter, thrown into the mountains, among detachments of 
 the enemy five or six times as numerous, was exposed to great 
 dangers there ; and, after the most glorious efforts, he must have 
 succumbed at last but for the succours so seasonably sent to him 
 by Massena. lieinforced in time, he was enabled to regain the 
 road to Genoa, after sustaining with advantage a most arduous 
 and most unequal contest. He at length rejoined his general-in- 
 chief, and both re-entered Genoa, cutting their way, and bringing 
 with them 4000 prisoners. General Suchet, on his part, had en- 
 deavoured to rejoin his general-in-chief, but lie had found it im- 
 possible to penetrate the enormous mass of the Austrian army. 
 
 The Genoese were transported with admiration at the sight 
 of the French general entering their city for the second time, 
 preceded by columns of prisoners. His ascendency had become 
 all-powerful. The army and the population obeyed him with 
 the profoundest submission. 
 
 Massena might, from that moment, consider himself as defi- 
 nitively shut up in Genoa ; but he had no intention to suffer 
 himself to be pressed too closely. His design was to keep the 
 enemy continually at a distance from the walls, to exhaust him 
 by incessant fights, to occupy him in such a manner that he 
 could neither force the A"ar, nor retire to Lombardy, nor oppose 
 the projected march of the First Consul across the Alps. 
 
 No sooner had he returned, on the 1 8th of April (28th Ger- 
 minal), than he directed his attention to the internal police and 
 the provisioning of the place. Fearful lest the Genoese nobles 
 might practise treachery, he took precautions against any sur- 
 prise on their part. The national guard, composed of Ligurian 
 patriots, supported by a French force, encamped in the principal 
 square in the city, with lighted matches to the guns, the national 
 guard was to assemble whenever the drums should beat to anus. 
 Such of the inhabitants as did not belong to it were ordered to 
 retire, at this signal, to their houses. The armed troops alone 
 were authorised to traverse the streets. At ordinary times, the 
 inhabitants were to be at home by ten (/clock at night, and 
 assemblages at any time were strictly prohibited.
 
 156 HISTORY OF THE apkili8oo 
 
 Massena had collected the corn to be found in Genoa, pro- 
 mising to pay, and actually paying for it, when it was brought 
 cheerfully ; seizing it by means of domiciliary visits when the 
 owners refused to deliver it. After securing all the corn, he 
 put both army and populace upon rations, and had thus pro- 
 cured wherewithal to feed his soldiers and the poor inhabitants 
 during the first fortnight of the siege. This fortnight had 
 nearly elapsed ; but there were still left provisions, which the 
 money of the wealthy drew forth at a high price from certain 
 secret stores, and for their sole use. By order of Massena a 
 fresh search was made, and there was found a sufficiency of the 
 ordinary kinds of grain, rye, oats, and others, to supply the citizens 
 and the army with coarse bread for another fortnight. It was 
 hoped that some lucky gale of wind might drive off the English, 
 and bring some cargoes of provisions into the harbour. Some as- 
 sistance was expected from the Corsican and Ligurian privateers, 
 which had been furnished with letters of marque for the capture 
 of vessels laden with corn. In short, Massena had determined 
 to hold out to the last extremities, and he had resolved, rather 
 than submit, to feed the troops upon the cacao with which the 
 warehouses of Genoa were abundantly stocked. Being supplied 
 with some money, sent by the First Consul, he hoarded this for 
 extreme cases, and also made use of it for affording occasional 
 relief to his unfortunate soldiers, under their cruel privations. 
 Already, in this series of encounters, several thousand men had 
 been put hors ale combat, and a great number were in the hospitals. 
 In the forts, upon the two ramparts of the place, and in reserve, 
 there was left an active force of about 12,000 combatants. 
 
 In this desperate state of things, Massena, appearing every 
 day with calm and serene countenance, at length communicated 
 to others the courage with which he was himself animated. His 
 aide-de-camp, Franceschi, embarked in a small boat to proceed 
 to the coast of Nice, and thence to repair to the First Consul, 
 in order to acquaint him with the hardships, the exploits, and 
 the pressing dangers of the army of Liguria. 
 
 On the morning of the 30th of April (10th Floreal), a general 
 cannonade, thundering on all points at once ; on the east towards 
 the Bisagno, on the west towards the Polcevera, lastly, along the 
 coast itself, proceeding from a division of gunboats, announced 
 some grand attempt of the enemy's. The Austrians, in fact, 
 brought forward a great force on that day. The Count of 1 lohen- 
 zollern attacked the plateau of the Two Brothers, on which Fort 
 Diamond was erected. After some fierce efforts, he made himself 
 master of the plateau, and summoned Fort Diamond. In reply 
 to this summons, the brave officer who commanded it declared, 
 that he would not surrender the post committed to his honour 
 till he was compelled by main force. This fort was of the greatest
 
 apmli8oo CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 157 
 
 importance, since it commanded the Spur Fort, and, consequently, 
 the whole ramparts. The Austrian camp of Coronata, situated 
 on the banks of the Polcevera, towards the west front, opened 
 a vehement fire on the suburb of San Pietro di Arena, and several 
 attacks were made at the same time, for the purpose of cooping 
 us in a narrower space than we occupied in this quarter. On the 
 opposite side, that is to say, towards the Bisagno, the enemy sur- 
 rounded Fort Richelieu, and unluckily took Fort Quezzi, which 
 was not completely finished when the siege began. Lastly, 
 he made himself master of the village of St. Martin d'Albaro, 
 situated below Fort St. Tecle, and he was near occupying a for- 
 midable position, that of La Madona del Monte, from which the 
 city of Genoa might be cannonaded. The soldiers of General 
 d'Arnaud had already abandoned the last houses of the village 
 of St. Martin d'Albaro ; scarcely any of them now kept their 
 ranks, many having dispersed themselves in irregular parties. 
 Massena hastened to the spot, rallied them himself, renewed 
 the fight, and arrested the enemy. 
 
 Half the day was already gone : it was high time to repair the 
 mischief. Massena instantly repaired to Genoa, and made suit- 
 able dispositions. He gave to General Soult the 73rd and 106th 
 demi-brigades, and ordered him to retake the plateau of the 
 Two Brothers. But, wishing first to recover Fort Quezzi, and to 
 force the enemy to evacuate St. Martin d'Albaro, he himself led 
 the Miollis division against that point, after reinforcing it with 
 battalions borrowed from the 2nd and the 3rd of the line. 
 
 D'Arnaud' s division, returning to the charge, turned St. 
 Martin d'Albaro, drove back the enemy who had occupied it 
 into the ravine of the Sturla, took from him some prisoners, and 
 thus covered the right of the French columns advancing upon 
 Fort Quezzi. While the brave Colonel Mouton, at the head of 
 two battalions of the 3rd, attacked this Fort Quezzi in front, 
 Adjutant-General Hector was directed to turn the Monte Ratti 
 by the heights of Fort Richelieu. In spite of unparalleled efforts, 
 the brave Colonel Mouton was repulsed, but he did not yield 
 ground till he received a ball which went through his chest, and 
 left him nearly dead on the field of battle. Massena, who had 
 no more than two battalions, pushed one upon the right ilank 
 of the position occupied by the enemy, and directed half of the 
 other upon the left Hank of the same position. A fierce encounter 
 took place around this Fort Quezzi. Too close to fire, the com- 
 batants fought with stones and with the butt of the musket. Our 
 soldiers were nearly overpowered by numbers. Massena then 
 took the half battalion which he had left, put himself at the 
 head of it, and decided the victory. Fort Quezzi was retaken. 
 
 The Austrians, driven from position to position, left a great 
 number of dead, wounded, and prisoners. At this instant
 
 158 HISTORY OF THE aprili8oo 
 
 Massena, who had deferred the attack on the plateau of the 
 Two Brothers, profiting by the effect produced by these advan- 
 tages, sent orders to General Soult to take it. The general 
 of brigade, Spital, was sent to attack this plateau, which was 
 long disputed. At length our soldiers retook it, and thus, after 
 a whole day's fighting, they recovered at once the plateau of 
 the Two Brothers, which commanded the extreme point of the 
 place, Fort Quezzi, the posts of St. Martin d'Albaro and of La 
 Madona del Monte, in short, all the important positions, without 
 which the siege of Genoa was impossible for the Austrians. 
 Massena returned in the evening to Genoa, carrying with him 
 the ladders which the enemy had provided for scaling the walls. 
 The Austrians had lost on this clay 1600 prisoners, 2400 killed 
 and wounded — about 4000 men. Including these, Massena 
 had taken from them, or killed, 12,000 or 15,000 men since 
 the opening of hostilities ; and, what was a still more serious 
 matter, he had exhausted the moral force of their army by the 
 unparalleled efforts which he had obliged them to make. 
 
 No time was lost in setting about the repair of Fort Quezzi. 
 This work, which seemed likely to take a month, was finished 
 in three days, by means of five or six hundred barrels of earth, 
 which were brought by the soldiers, and served to form the 
 entrenchments. On the 5th of May (15th Floreal), a small 
 vessel laden with corn brought a supply for five days. It was 
 a most valuable addition to the stock of provisions, by this 
 time reduced very low. But it became urgent to relieve the 
 place, otherwise it could not hold out long. Of bread it was 
 likely to be very soon destitute. 
 
 General Suchet, on his part, finding himself overpowered 
 from the crests of the Apennines, had been obliged to quit the 
 position of Borghetto, to abandon even the Boya, which was 
 no longer tenable, the enemy marching at full liberty by the Col 
 de Tende, and threatening Nice and the Var. Nice was even 
 occupied by the Baron de Melas, who entered that city trium- 
 phantly, glad to tread a soil which the Bepublic had declared 
 to be French territory. But General Suchet rallied behind the 
 Var, in a position which has long furnished a study for our 
 officers of engineers. The bridge of St. Laurent on the Var, 
 covered by a Utc de pont, presented a defile of 400 fathoms to 
 pass, and might be considered as an insurmountable obstacle. 
 The whole right bank, guarded by the French, was covered with 
 batteries, from the mouth of the river to the mountains. The 
 forts of Montalban and Vintimille, situated in advance of the 
 Var, had been occupied by French garrisons at the moment of 
 the evacuation of Nice. That of Montalban, situated on the 
 rear of the Austrians, at an elevation which rendered it visible 
 from the camp of the French, was surmounted by a telegraph,
 
 April 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 159 
 
 by means of which General Suchet received notice of all the 
 movements of the enemy. All the disposable troops of all arms 
 had been brought together from the contiguous departments, 
 so that he still numbered 14,000 men, who, screened by good 
 entrenchments, w T ere in a position difficult to be stormed. 
 
 On the receipt of these tidings from Liguria, the First Consul 
 despatched urgent remonstrances to Moreau, to decide him to 
 commence hostilities. It was a month since everything had 
 been settled between them, and no further difficulty imputable to 
 the government impeded the army of the Ehine. But Moreau, 
 naturally rather slow, unwilling to commit himself upon an 
 enemy's territory but with the full certainty of success, deferred 
 wrongly the commencement of the operations. In fact, any 
 delay made by him in opening the campaign was a delay to 
 the opening of the campaign by the army of reserve, and a 
 cruel prolongation of the extremities which Massena and his 
 brave soldiers were suffering. " Hasten " — such was the language 
 addressed to Moreau from Paris — " hasten, by your successes, to 
 accelerate the moment when Massena may be relieved. That 
 general is in want of provisions ; for this fortnight he has been 
 maintaining a desperate struggle with his emaciated soldiers. 
 I address myself to your patriotism, to your own interest ; for, 
 if Massena should be obliged to capitulate, it would be necessary 
 to take from you part of your forces, and hurry to the Rhone, to 
 the succour of the southern departments." At last a formal 
 order was given to him, by the telegraph, to pass the Rhine. 
 
 The reasons which prevented Moreau from opening the cam- 
 paign would have been good under less urgent circumstances. 
 Alsace was exhausted ; Switzerland, in particular, overrun for 
 two years by the armies of all Europe, was totally drained of 
 resources. The inhabitants, unable to support their children, 
 were under the necessity of emigrating with them from the 
 poor cantons into the rich ones. The ruined families thus con- 
 signed them to the bounty of families which still possessed 
 some means of subsistence. Nothing could be demanded from 
 such a country, which, besides, it would have been impolitic to 
 exasperate, for it was the point d'appui of our two principal 
 armies. Moreau, as we have seen, was living upon the stores 
 provided for our fortresses on the Rhine, in case of siege. This, 
 however, was not the real motive of his delay ; it would have 
 been a motive, on the contrary, for hastening, with all possible 
 speed, to procure subsistence in an enemy's country; but his 
 artillery and cavalry were in want of horses. He had no camp 
 equipage, no implements; if he had materials for throwing a 
 bridge, that was the utmost. Nevertheless, considering the 
 urgency of the circumstances, he consented to make shift 
 without such things as were yet wanting, hoping to procure
 
 160 HISTORY OF THE aprili8oo 
 
 them by the way. So excellent was the composition of his 
 army, that it could make amends for the deficiency of what it 
 had not, dispense with it, or take it by force. At the end of 
 April (the first days of Floreal), Moreau, therefore, decided to 
 open this campaign, the most glorious in his life, and one of the 
 most memorable in our annals. 
 
 He had at his disposal, as we have seen, about 1 30,000 men, 
 rather more than fewer. About 30,000 men occupied the for- 
 tresses of Strasburg, Landau, Mayence, the tetes de pont of Basle, 
 Brisach, Kehl, and Cassel. Out of these 30,000, 6000 or 7000, 
 under General Moncey, guarded the valleys of the St. Gothard 
 and the Simplon, to close them against the Austrians, in case they 
 attempted to penetrate into them. The active army thus num- 
 bered 100,000 men, ready to take the field. The infantry, in 
 particular, was superb ; it numbered 82,000 men ; the artillery 
 5000, with 116 pieces of cannon; the cavalry 13,000. As the 
 reader will perceive, the numbers of the artillery and the cavalry 
 were far below the usual proportions ; but their composition was 
 excellent ; and, besides, the quality of the infantry enabled it to 
 dispense with those auxiliary arms. 
 
 Moreau divided his army into four corps ; Lecourbe com- 
 manded the right, 25,000 strong, and stationed from the Lake of 
 Constance to Schaffhausen. A second corps, called the corps of 
 reserve, amounting to nearly 30,000 men, and under the imme- 
 diate command of Moreau, occupied the territory of Basle. A 
 third, of 25,000 men, forming the centre, under St. Cyr, was 
 distributed about Old and New Brisach. Lastly, General St. 
 Suzanne, at the head of about 20,000 men, after ascending from 
 Mayence to Strasburg, occupied Strasburg and Kehl, and formed 
 the left of the army. 
 
 Moreau had for years past adopted this system of splitting his 
 forces into separate corps, each complete in infantry, artillery, 
 and cavalry, capable of shifting for themselves, wherever they 
 might be, but subject to the inconvenience, as experience soon 
 demonstrated, of readily parting company and acting by them- 
 selves, especially when the commander-in-chief did not exercise 
 his authority with sufficient vigour to enforce at all times their 
 co-operation in the general plan. This inconvenience was further 
 aggravated by one step in particular, which Moreau adopted in 
 this campaign ; it was that of assuming to himself the direct 
 command of one of the corps d'armSe, under the name of reserve. 
 St. Cyr, who had long served with Moreau, and who had great 
 influence with him, strongly opposed this combination,* alleging 
 that it absorbed the general-in-chief, made him stoop to a part 
 that was not his, and, above all, that it was injurious to the other 
 portions of the army, rarely so well treated as the troops placed 
 
 * See on this subject the Mcmoircs du Marichal Saint-Cyr, campaign of 1800.
 
 aprili8oo CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 161 
 
 under the general staff. But these animadversions, the justice 
 of which was more than once demonstrated in this campaign, 
 did not prevail. Moreau persisted in his resolution, out of com- 
 plaisance for the wishes of a coterie. Having already entrusted 
 the direction of his staff to General Dessoles, and desirous, never- 
 theless, of creating an appointment for General Lahorie, one of 
 those dangerous friends who, at a later period, contributed to his 
 ruin, he made him second in command of the reserve. This 
 circumstance produced a coolness between Moreau and St. Cyr, 
 which soon waxed into open rupture. 
 
 M. de Kray, the" adversary of Moreau, had, as we have said, 
 1 50,000 men, 40,000 of whom were in the fortresses on the Bhine 
 and Danube, and 110,000 in the active army. The infantry, 
 mixed with Bavarians, Wurtembergers, Mayencers, was middling. 
 The cavalry was superb; it numbered 26,000 horse. The numer- 
 ous and well-served artillery consisted of 300 pieces of cannon. 
 The right of the Austrians, under the command of M. de Sztarray, 
 observed the course of the Rhine, between Mayence and Eastadt, 
 connecting itself witli the levies of Mayence peasants commanded 
 by the Baron d'Albini. General de Kienmayer covered the 
 lUboucM of Strasburg, in advance of Kinzig. Major Giulay 
 with a brigade, held the Hollengrund, and observed Old Brisach. 
 The bulk of the Austrian army was encamped behind the denies 
 of the Black Forest, at Donau-Eschingen and Willingen, at the 
 junction of the roads leading from the Ehine to the Danube. 
 Forty thousand men were assembled at this point. M. de Kray 
 had placed in the Forest Towns a strong advanced guard, under 
 the Archduke Ferdinand, with directions to observe the Basle 
 road ; he had left a numerous rear-guard, under Prince Joseph 
 of Lorraine, at Stockach, to cover the magazines established in 
 that town, to guard the roads to Ulm and Munich, and to connect 
 himself with the Lake of Constance, where Williams, an English- 
 man, commanded a flotilla. Lastly, Prince Eeuss, at the head 
 of 30,000 men, partly Austrian regiments, partly Tyrolese militia, 
 occupied the Eheinthal, from the Grisons to the Lake of Con- 
 stance. This was considered as the left of the imperial army. 
 M. de Kray, at the centre of this net, spread around him, 
 flattered himself that he should be informed of the slightest 
 movement of the French. 
 
 The plan of Moreau already detailed, and which consisted 
 in debouching by the three bridges of Strasburg, Brisach, and 
 Basle, and in then stealing away and ascending the Rhine to 
 Schaf'l'hausen. had been adopted without modification.* On the 
 
 * Marshal St. Cyr, in his Memoires, appears to be in error on this point. 
 The First Consul had adopted the plan entire. This fact is attested by a 
 letter of General Dessoles, contained in the Manorial de la Guerre, and by the 
 manuscript correspondence. 
 
 VOL. I. I.
 
 1 62 HISTORY OF THE aprili8oo 
 
 25th of April, Moreau put his troops in motion. He proceeded 
 himself to Strasburg, where he joined the corps of St. Suzanne, 
 that, by his presence at that point, he might cause it to be 
 inferred that it was his intention to act by the direct road 
 from Strasburg across the Black Forest. He had taken another 
 precaution the better to mask his movements, which was not to 
 assemble his forces beforehand. The de mi-brigades marched 
 from their very cantonments directly to the place where they 
 were to pass the Rhine, and thus joined on their route the corps 
 of which they formed part. Everything being thus arranged, 
 three imposing heads of columns, acting simultaneously within 
 a space of thirty leagues, crossed at the same instant the 
 bridges of Strasburg, Old Brisach, and Basle. This was on the 
 25 th of April. 
 
 General St. Suzanne, who commanded the extreme left and 
 had crossed at Strasburg, swept all that he found before him. 
 He fell in here and there with detached corps, which made 
 no great resistance. However, not desiring to involve himself 
 in serious actions, he halted between Eenchen and Offenburg, 
 threatening at once the valleys of the Renchen and of the 
 Kinzig ; but striving most especially to persuade the Austrians 
 that his intention was to gain the Danube by way of the Black 
 Forest, and by following the valley of the Kinzig. At the same 
 instant, St. Cyr debouched from Old Brisach, and advanced to 
 Freiburg, briskly driving the enemy's detachments before him ; 
 but observing, like St. Suzanne, the precaution not to push on 
 too far. He experienced some resistance before Freiburg. The 
 Austrians had entrenched the heights surrounding that town, 
 and placed behind the entrenchments troops of peasants, raised 
 in the mountains of Swabia, upon pretext of defending their 
 homes against the ravages of the French. These could not keep 
 their ground. Freiburg was occupied in a twinkling. Some of 
 these unfortunate peasants were slaughtered, and the others were 
 not again seen during the remainder of the campaign. St. Cyr 
 posted himself in such a manner as to induce a belief that he 
 had designs on the Hollengrund (Val d'Enfer). 
 
 The reserve debouched on the same day by the bridge of Basle, 
 and, not meeting with any obstacle, pushed a division, that of 
 Richepanse, towards Schlingen and Kandern, to give the hand 
 to St. Cyr's corps, which, in two days, was to ascend the Rhine. 
 
 During the whole of the 26th of April (6th Floreal), St. 
 Suzanne remained in position in advance of Strasburg, St. Cyr 
 in advance of Brisach. The reserve, which had debouched from 
 Basle, finished deploying, while awaiting the movement of the 
 two corps destined to ascend the Rhine, till they were in a 
 line with itself. Moreau left Strasburg, to return to his head- 
 quarters, which were in the centre of the reserve.
 
 april 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 163 
 
 The 27th was likewise spent in misleading the enemy as to 
 the direction of our columns. The Austrians might naturally 
 expect a decided movement by the Kinzig and the Hollengrund. 
 These two denies are, in fact, the most direct route for an army 
 advancing from the Rhine to the Danube, for they open at some 
 distance from one another, run in the same direction, and at 
 length unite between Donau-Eschingen and Hufingen, not far 
 from Schaffhausen, at which point was the corps of General 
 Lecourbe. It was natural to suppose that the two strong columns, 
 of from 20,000 to 25,000 men each, which appeared at the 
 entrance of these defiles, would really pursue that direction, to 
 give the hand to Lecourbe. In order to guard them the better, 
 M. de Kray detached twelve squadrons and nine battalions from 
 Willingen, and sent them as reinforcements to General Kien- 
 mayer. He was obliged to weaken Stockach, to supply the place 
 of the troops which he had detached from Willingen. 
 
 But, in the night of the 27th, and on the 28th, while M. de 
 Kray was falling into the snare, the direction of the French 
 columns was suddenly changed. St. Suzanne fell back upon 
 Strasburg, recrossed the Rhine with his whole corps, and 
 ascended the left bank, that he might not have to make too 
 long a flank movement in an enemy's country. On reaching 
 New Brisach, he again crossed to the right bank, and took the 
 place of St. Cyr before Freiburg, as if he was about to enter the 
 Hollengrund. St. Cyr, on his part, turning off to the right, but 
 without quitting the German side, marched along the bank of 
 the river with his artillery, his cavalry, and his baggage ; and, 
 while his heavy maUricl thus followed the level country, a great 
 part of his infantry marched on the flank of the mountains, by 
 St. Hubert, ISFeuhof, Todnau, and St. Blaise. Moreau's object in 
 pursuing this course was to avoid encumbering the banks of the 
 Rhine, to reconnoitre the heights of the Black Forest, full of 
 Austrian detachments, and to cross nearer to their sources the 
 rivers which descend from those heights to the Rhine, through 
 the territory of the Forest Towns. These rivers are the "Wiesen, 
 the Alb, and the Wutach. Unluckily, St. Cyr had reckoned on 
 finding roads where none reallv existed. He was obliged to 
 traverse ;i frightful country, always near the enemy, and without 
 artillery. Still lie was not too long delayed, nor prevented from 
 arriving at St. Blaise, on the Alb, by the appointed day. 
 
 At the same time, Moreau ascended the Rhine with the re- 
 serve, remaining, like St. ( 'yr, on the German bank. Richepanse, 
 who commanded the advanced guard, after he had seen St. Cyr's 
 artillery and cavalry debouch, which artillery and cavalry, as 
 we have just said, followed the bank of the Rhine, set out for 
 St. Blaise, to connect himself, in the mountains, with the in- 
 fantry of the same corps. Generals Delmas and Leclerc, who
 
 1 64 HISTORY OF THE may 1800 
 
 commanded the two other divisions of the reserve, were directed 
 upon Sockingen, and then upon Alb, before the Bridge of 
 Albruck. This bridge was covered by entrenchments. Adju- 
 tant-General Cohorn, marching at the head of a battalion of 
 the 14th light, two battalions of the 50th, and of the 4th hussars, 
 advanced in columns upon the entrenchments, and carried 
 them. He then leaped upon the shoulders of a grenadier, 
 passed the Alb in that manner, and did not leave the enemy 
 time to destroy the bridge. He took some cannon and prisoners. 
 On the 29th of April (9th Floreal), the centre, under St. Cyr, 
 and the reserve, under Moreau, were in line on the Alb, from 
 the abbey of St. Blaise to the influx of the Alb into the Ehine. 
 St. Suzanne arrived at New Brisach, by the left bank ; on our 
 extreme right, Lecourbe assembled his corps between Diesen- 
 hofen and Schaffhausen, ready to execute his passage, when St. 
 Cyr and Moreau should have ascended the Ehine till they were 
 on a line with him. On the 30th of April, St. Suzanne crossed 
 the Ehine, and appeared at the entrance of the Hollengrund. 
 St. Cyr remained in the environs of St. Blaise. Moreau 
 advanced towards the Wutach. At length, on the 1st of May 
 (1 ith Floreal), the army made its last and most decisive move- 
 ment, and made it successfully. M. de Kray had begun to 
 perceive his mistake, and now recalled the corps which had 
 entered too far into the defdes of the Black Forest. St. 
 Suzanne, who was to pass through the Hollengrund, which 
 debouches upon the very positions that the French army was 
 to occupy, when it should have completed its movement, found 
 the troops of Kienmayer in re treat, and closely pursued them. 
 St. Cyr kept on the skirts of the Archduke Ferdinand's corps, 
 and pushed it from Bettmaringen to Stiihlingen on the Wutach, 
 where he arrived in the evening. The troops of Moreau crossed 
 the Wutach without encountering much resistance, repaired the 
 bridge, which wanted scarcely anything but a few planks, and 
 endeavoured to connect themselves by their right with Schaff- 
 hausen, where Lecourbe was, and by their left with Stiihlingen, 
 where St. Cyr was. This was the moment that Lecourbe was 
 to choose for crossing the Ehine. On the very morning of the 
 1st of May, thirty-one pieces of cannon were placed on the heights 
 of the left bank of the river, to sweep by their fire the environs 
 of the village of Eeichlingen. Twenty-five boats transported 
 General Molitor, with two battalions, to the right bank, to pro- 
 tect the construction of a bridge, long prepared in the Aar. 
 In an hour and a half this bridge was thrown over. General 
 Vandamme crossed, with a great part of the troops of Lecourbe's 
 corps, and occupied in an instant the roads leading to Engen 
 and Stockach, important points of the enemy's line. He took 
 the small town of Stein and the fort of Hohentwiel, reputed to
 
 mayi8oo CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 165 
 
 be impregnable, and well supplied both with provisions and 
 artillery. Goulu's brigade, crossing at the same time towards 
 Paradis, met with a very smart resistance at the village of 
 Busingen, but soon overcame it. Lastly, Lorges' division entered 
 Schaffhausen in the evening, and effected its junction with 
 the troops of Moreau. 
 
 Thus, in the evening of the 1st of May, the whole army was 
 beyond the Rhine. The three principal corps, under command 
 of St. Oyr, Moreau, and Lecourbe, forming a mass of between 
 75.000 to 80,000 men, occupied a line which passed through 
 Bondorf, Stiihlingen, Schaffhausen, Radolfzell, to a point on the 
 Lake of Constance. They were ready to march upon Engen 
 and Stockach, threatening at once the line of retreat and the 
 magazines of the enemy. St Suzanne, with the left, 20,000 
 strong, pursued the Austrians in the defile of the Hollengrund, 
 waiting till the bulk of the French army should, in advancing, 
 have cleared the outlet of that defile, before he debouched on 
 the Upper Danube and joined the other corps. 
 
 This movement, then, was effected in six days, and in the 
 most successful manner. Moreau, presenting three heads of 
 columns by the bridges of Strasburg, Brisach, and Basle, had 
 drawn the enemy towards those three debouches; then, stealing 
 away all at once, and marching to the right along the Rhine, 
 two of his corps on the German bank, one on the French bank, 
 he had ascended as high as Schaffhausen, where he had covered 
 Lecourbe's passage. Fifteen hundred prisoners, six field-pieces 
 with their horses, forty pieces of ordnance in the fort of 
 Hohentwiel, and some magazines, had been taken. The men 
 had everywhere shown a steadiness, a resolution, which could 
 only be expected of veteran troops, full of confidence in them- 
 selves and in their leaders. 
 
 All the objections urged against this plan are certainly 
 silenced by its success. Rarely indeed do we see movements so 
 complicated succeed more completely, the enemy fall into the 
 snare with greater credulity, or the commanders of corps co- 
 operate with more precision. At the same time, this plan of 
 the prudent Moreau's was attended with at least as many dangers 
 as that of the First Consul, which lie rejected as too rash ; for 
 St. Cyr and Moreau had exposed their flank for several succes- 
 sive days, in their march along the Rhine, cooped up between 
 the mountains and the river; St. Cyr had been for an instant 
 separated from his artillery; and now St. Suzanne was engaged 
 alone in the Hollengrund. If Marshal Kray, by a sudden in- 
 spiration, had thrown himself upon St. Cyr, Moreau on St. Suz- 
 anne, he would have had a chance of routing a detached corps, 
 which might have caused a retrograde movement of the whole 
 French arniv. But Moreau had two advantages in his favour:
 
 1 66 HISTORY OF THE may 1800 
 
 in the first place, he took the offensive, which always disconcerts 
 the enemy ; secondly, he had excellent troops, who were capable 
 of repairing any unforeseen accident by their firmness ; who did 
 even repair, as we shall see presently, more than one fault of 
 the commander-in-chief's by their mettle in action. 
 
 The moment approached when the two armies, after manoeu- 
 vring, one to pass the Ehine, the other to prevent that passage, 
 were at length to meet beyond the river. On the 2nd of May 
 (12th Floreal), Moreau prepared for this encounter; but, not 
 supposing it to be so near as it really was, he neglected to take 
 measures of precaution, either sufficiently prompt or sufficiently 
 complete. He resolved to despatch Lecourbe, with his 25,000 
 men, for Stockach, where were at once the rear-guard of the 
 Austrians, their magazines, their communications with the Vorarl- 
 berg, and Prince Eeuss. This was following the letter of the 
 plan concerted with the First Consul ; for M. de Kray, cut off 
 from Stockach, would be separated from the Lake of Constance, 
 and consequently from the Alps. Moreau, therefore, ordered 
 Lecourbe to set out on the morning of the 3rd of May (13th 
 Floreal) to take Stockach from the Prince of Lorraine-Vaude- 
 mont, who with 12,000 men occupied that important point. As 
 for Moreau, he advanced himself with all the reserve upon Engen, 
 keeping an eye upon Lecourbe, and ready to fly to his assistance, 
 if that should be necessary. He directed St. Cyr to advance, 
 and occupy an extended position from Bettmaringen and Bondorf 
 to Engen, so as to connect himself with him on one side, and to 
 give a hand on the other to St. Suzanne, who was soon to issue 
 from the Hollengrund (Val d'Enfer). 
 
 Moreau marched then, in order of battle, having his back to 
 the Ehine, his right to the Lake of Constance, his left to the 
 cUbouchis of the Black Forest, presenting a front of fifteen 
 leagues, exactly parallel to the line of retreat which the Aus- 
 trians must pursue if they retreated from Donau-Eschingen to 
 Stockach, whither many interests summoned them. It was a 
 very extended position, especially so near to the enemy, and 
 which, before an active and resolute adversary, would have 
 exposed the French army to serious consequences. Fortunately 
 for us, the army of M. de Kray was still less concentrated than 
 Moreau's. M. de Kray, whose position was at first better adapted 
 than ours for a rapid concentration, since he occupied, from 
 Constance to Strasburg, the base of a triangle, the two sides of 
 which we occupied, M. de Kray, surprised now by our movement, 
 having already upon his left flank three-fourths of the French 
 assembled and transported across the river, was in a difficult 
 situation. He had given to the detachments of the Austrian 
 army which were near the Ehine hasty orders to fall back, by 
 the Black Forest, upon the Upper Danube ; but a prompt and
 
 mayiSoo CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 167 
 
 well-concerted operation could alone extricate them from the 
 danger. In order the better to comprehend the manoeuvres, let 
 us take a survey of the theatre of these operations. 
 
 That mountainous and wooded tract called the Black Forest, 
 around which the Ehine winds without penetrating into it, and 
 which it leaves to pursue its course northward, this tract con- 
 tains an insignificant spring which gives rise to a river, extremely 
 modest at its birth, but destined to become one of the largest 
 rivers in the world, namely, the Danube. It pours forth this 
 stream to the east, in which direction it flows, inclining, it is 
 true, a little to the north, being forced into that direction by 
 the projecting foot of the Alps, which it skirts all the way to 
 Vienna. It collects in its course all the streams that descend 
 from this long chain of mountains, which is the cause of its 
 sudden magnitude, after so humble an origin. 
 
 When an Austrian general defends against the French the 
 valley of the Danube, the ordinary route to his country, he has 
 two courses to pursue. He may, when the French have found 
 means to penetrate into it by Switzerland and the Black Forest, 
 — he may either skirt the foot of the Alps, supporting his left 
 upon the mountains, his right upon the Danube, and successively 
 defending all the rivers that run into it, such as the Iller, the 
 Lech, the Isar, the Inn ; or, quitting the Alps, place himself a 
 cheval (i.e., occupy both banks) on the Danube, descend the river, 
 making a stand at the important positions which it presents, as 
 those of Ulm, Ratisbon, &c, ready to cover himself with its bed, 
 which grows gradually wider, or to fall upon the imprudent ad- 
 versary who shall make a false manoeuvre. The latter course 
 has been the more generally preferred by Austrian tacticians. 
 
 Marshal de Kray had it in his choice to adopt the one or 
 the other ; either to support himself upon the Alps, or to man- 
 oeuvre on the Danube. In supporting himself upon the Alps, 
 he would unknowingly thwart the plan of the First Consul, 
 who, in order to descend in safety from those lofty mountains 
 upon the rear of the Baron de Melas, wished to keep the Im- 
 perial army in Swabia aloof from Switzerland and the Tyrol ; 
 but he would sacrifice his right wing, too far advanced towards 
 the Rhine, without knowing what would become of it. By 
 adopting, on the other hand, the plan of manoeuvring on both 
 banks of the Danube, he would certainly rally his right wing, 
 but would separate himself from his left wing, commanded by 
 Prince Eeuss, though without sacrificing it, for it had in the 
 Tyrol an asylum and an employment for its forces. lie would 
 fall in, it is true, with the views of the First Consul, still with- 
 out knowing it, by moving away from the Alps; this, however, 
 was a minor evil, for, were he even to support himself upon 
 them, he would probably never think of throwing himself into
 
 1 68 HISTORY OF THE may 1800 
 
 Lombardy, to succour the Baron de Melas. The plan, then, 
 which presented the least inconvenience, which was most accord- 
 ant with the course usually pursued by the Imperial armies, was 
 to concentrate himself on the Upper Danube. But, in order 
 to succeed, it was requisite to adopt this course promptly and 
 resolutely. Unfortunately for him, M. de Kray had immense 
 magazines at Stockach, near the Lake of Constance, with a strong 
 rear-guard of 1 2,000 men, under the command of the Prince of 
 Lorraine- Vaudemont. He ought, then, to have transported his 
 rear-guard immediately from Stockach to the Upper Danube, 
 and to have repaired thither himself, sacrificing his magazines, 
 which, at any rate, there would not have been time to evacuate. 
 This was not what he did ; but, with the intention, however, of 
 manoeuvring afterwards on the Danube, he sent M. de Nauen- 
 dorff, with the centre of the Austrian army, upon Engen, to 
 succour Stockach. He ordered Prince Ferdinand, who was in 
 the Black Forest, to repair to the same point, and his right, under 
 Messrs. Sztarray and de Kienmayer, to leave the Khine and to 
 rejoin him with the utmost expedition. 
 
 There is this great inconvenience attached to those vast maga- 
 zines of provisions customary among the Germans, that the 
 movements of an army must be thus regulated by them. The 
 French dispense with magazines, and spread themselves in the 
 evening over the country to procure subsistence, without dis- 
 cipline suffering to any extent from this practice. They are 
 active, industrious, and contrive to be at one and the same time 
 marauding and with their colours. The German troops are rarely 
 exposed to this trial, without dispersing and becoming disor- 
 ganised. There is certainly one advantage in possessing maga- 
 zines, that of bearing less heavily upon the country occupied, 
 and not exasperating it against the invading army. 
 
 Moreau, marching with his right upon Stockach, with his 
 reserve upon Engen. while the corps of St. Cyr extended itself to 
 give the hand to St. Suzanne, was likely, therefore, to meet with 
 the rear-guard of M. de Kray at Stockach, with his centre at 
 Engen, and to skirt the troops of Prince Ferdinand, who was in 
 march to rejoin the main body of the Austrian army. An unex- 
 pected battle must result from this meeting, a circumstance which 
 frequently happens in war, when plans have not been matured 
 by superior minds, capable of foreseeing and directing events. 
 
 Ever since morning, Lecourbe had been in inarch for Stockach, 
 throwing out Lorges' division on the left, to connect him with 
 Moreau, pushing Montrichard's division, with Nansouty's reserve 
 cavalry, straight forward on the highroad from Schaffhausen 
 to Stockach ; lastly, sending Vandamme's division to the right, 
 between Stockach and the Lake of Constance. The latter was 
 divided into two brigades ; one under General Leval, manoeuvring
 
 mayi8oo CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 169 
 
 in such a manner as to cut off Stockach from the Lake of Con- 
 stance by Bodmann and Sernadingen, met with no resistance, 
 for Prince Keuss, who might have shown himself there, took 
 little pains to communicate with his commander-in-chief ; the 
 other, under General Molitor, directed l>y Vandamme in person, 
 inarched to the rear of Stockach by a cross-road, while Nan- 
 souty and Montrichard proceeded thither direct by the highroad 
 from Schaffhausen. There were seen in the depths of the woods 
 infantry falling back, and cavalry reconnoitring the country 
 while falling back also. At length they arrived at the positions 
 which the Austrians seemed disposed to defend. Montrichard 
 found them in order of battle beyond the village of Steusslingen, 
 covered by a large body of cavalry. The French infantry passed 
 through that village in two columns, and deployed to the right 
 and left, threatening the enemy upon his flanks. At the same 
 moment, the cavalry of Montrichard's division, supported by 
 the whole of Nansouty's reserve, debouched from Steusslingen, 
 charged vigorously, and overthrew the Imperialists, who retreated 
 to Neuzingen. This position was the second, and the principal 
 of those which covered Stockach. It supported itself upon that 
 of Wahlwyes, which Vandamme threatened at the moment with 
 Molitor's brigade. A numerous infantry was perceived, barring 
 the extremity of the village of Neuzingen, supported on the 
 right and left upon woods, and covered by cannon. It would 
 require a very vigorous effort to dislodge it. Montrichard 
 caused it to be turned by a height called the Hellemberg, while 
 Vandamme, having passed Wahlwyes, debouched on the rear of 
 Neuzingen. The position was carried, and Lecourbe's whole corps 
 being united, debouched en masse upon Stockach, and took it. 
 The Austrians endeavoured to make one more stand against us 
 beyond Stockach, and to keep us in check. They presented 4000 
 men in order of battle, covered by all their cavalry. Nansouty's 
 regiments charged this cavalry, and threw it in disorder upon 
 the infantry, which this time thought only of surrendering. 
 Lecourbe took 4000 prisoners, 8 pieces of cannon, 500 horses, 
 and the immense magazines in Stockach. It could not be other- 
 wise. Lecourbe, with troops capable of fighting an enemy greatly 
 superior in number, had, moreover, twice the number of men 
 that the Prince of Lorraine had, though he had detached Lorges' 
 division to connect itself with Moreau. His task was finished 
 early; and, had more vigour and unity been displayed in these 
 operations, he might and he ought to have been employed else- 
 where, as we shall see presently. 
 
 Lorges' division, destined to serve for a link between Lecourbe 
 and Moreau. had separated into two brigades. Goulu's brigade 
 had marched upon Aach, to scour the country between Stockach 
 and Engcn, and, finding no enemy to fiirht, had turned off to
 
 170 HISTORY OF THE may 1800 
 
 Stockach, where it became useless. General Lorges, with the 
 rest of his division, having joined Moreau's troops, accompanied 
 them towards Engen. 
 
 Moreau, with all that was called the corps of reserve, had 
 been marching ever since morning upon Engen. M. de Kray, 
 at the same instant, passed through that place on his way to 
 Stockach, to save his magazines. He soon perceived, from the 
 number of troops deploying before him, that there would be a 
 battle, instead of a reconnaissance ; and he stopped short for the 
 purpose of giving battle, trusting to the mass of 40,000 men 
 which he had at hand, and to the strength of the positions to 
 which chance had just conducted him. On leaving, towards 
 Schaffhausen, the banks of the Rhine for those of the Danube, 
 in that confused, broken country, where the declivities are in- 
 considerable, there is a small valley, that of the Aach, which 
 conveys to the Lake of Constance those waters that do not run 
 either into the Rhine or into the Danube. In this valley is 
 seated the small town of Engen. To descend to Engen, you must 
 first climb a series of wooded heights, very difficult of access. 
 These heights the Austrians occupied with their infantry ; they 
 had their cavalry in the plain of Engen. It was requisite for 
 Moreau to dislodge them from these heights, and then to descend 
 into the plain and engage the imperial cavalry there. He marched 
 himself at the head of Delmas' and Bastoul's divisions, and half 
 of Lorges' division. He had directed Richepanse's division upon 
 his left, along what is called the Blumenfeld road. The latter, 
 passing though a series of valleys, was to turn the enemy's 
 positions by less defended approaches ; and all together, if they 
 succeeded, were then to descend en masse upon Engen. 
 
 Lorges, who had outstripped a little the reserve troops, found 
 a strong body of the enemy near Waterdingen, and, before 
 attacking, he waited for Delmas' division, which soon came up. 
 They then charged all together, and dislodged the Austrians. 
 Having arrived at this point, they had to climb the heights 
 which surround Engen, and for this purpose it was necessary for 
 them to traverse rather steep plateaux, commanded on the right 
 by a position called the Maulberg ; on the left, by a very lofty 
 peak, known by the name of the peak of Hohenhewen. Lorges 
 was charged to attack the Maulberg. After a slight cannonade 
 he charged that point. The enemy gave way. Delmas, then 
 turning to the left, directed his course to a wood, which sur- 
 rounded the peak of Hohenhewen, and which was occupied by 
 eight battalions of the enemy's infantry. Two battalions of 
 the 46th advanced upon this wood without firing, while Gene- 
 ral Grandjean, and Adjutant-General Cohorn turned it with a 
 detachment. No sooner had the two battalions of the 46th 
 received the enemy's fire, than they rushed upon him with bayo-
 
 may 1 800 CONSUL A TE AND THE EMPIRE. 1 7 1 
 
 nets fixed. The eight Austrian battalions, finding themselves so 
 vigorously attacked in front and turned on their right, abandoned 
 the wood. Our troops, having taken the principal positions that 
 defended the approaches to the valley of Engen, had only to 
 descend into that valley, through which runs a large rivulet. 
 The enemy had retired to the peak of Hohenhewen ; he had 
 placed his artillery and his infantry on the declivities, and 
 drawn up 1 2,000 cavalry in order of battle in the plain of Engen. 
 Moreau intended at first to take the peak of Hohenhewen, and 
 immediately ordered Delmas' division to attack it. That division, 
 on leaving the wood, of which it had gained possession, was ex- 
 posed to a destructive fire, which it bravely endured. General 
 Jocopin, putting himself at the head of the infantry, ascen- 
 ded the slopes of the peak, and received a ball in his thigh ; 
 but General Grandjean turned the position. Adjutant-General 
 Cohorn, whom we have seen crossing the Alb on the shoulders 
 of a grenadier, rushed to the summit with a battalion, and dis- 
 lodged the Austrians. Our troops were then in possession of 
 all the heights that commanded the plain of Engen, and could 
 deploy there without difficulty. The enemy retired to the other 
 side of the plain, beyond the rivulet which runs through it, and 
 to the foot of a chain of hills that form the opposite confine. 
 He had drawn up in front his numerous cavalry, with great 
 part of his artillery, and, in rear, in the hollow of a valley, at 
 the entrance of which stands the little village of Ehingen, a 
 strong reserve of grenadiers. Such was the imposing force still 
 to be overthrown ere the battle should be ours. 
 
 Meanwhile, a brisk fire was heard from beyond the peak of 
 Hohenhewen, and a great distance beyond it, along that belt 
 of wooded heights surrounding Engen. It was Richepanse's 
 division, engaged with the troops to which M. de Kray had 
 assigned this part of the field of battle. General Richepanse 
 had been obliged to separate his division into two brigades, to 
 take two positions, one called Leipferdingen, the other Water- 
 dingen, at the very extremity of the valleys into which he had 
 entered. There he maintained an obstinate action, alternately 
 successful and repulsed, when, luckily for him, the vanguard 
 of St. Cyr's corps began to make its appearance. These troops 
 came very late, owing to a want of harmony in Moreau's disposi- 
 tions. St. Cyr ought to have come to St. Suzanne's assistance 
 with one of those divisions ; he had been obliged to wait for Xey, 
 who was delayed by the want of provisions, to wait even for his 
 artillery, which had always been behind ever since the pas- 
 sage of the Rhine ; he had, moreover, had incessant encounters 
 with Prince Ferdinand during his march, and, having only one 
 division out of three to oppose to him, he had been obliged to 
 advance with care and caution. He came up at last to the
 
 1 7 2 HISTOB Y OF THE may i 800 
 
 assistance of Eichepanse, at the moment when M. de Kray was 
 making a last vigorous effort against the latter, to prevent him 
 from debouching upon Engen. 
 
 Moreau, judging of the danger of Eichepanse from the brisk- 
 ness of the fire, resolved to draw the Austrians upon their left, 
 and, to this end, he thought fit to attack the village of Ehingen, 
 which formed the support of their position on the other side of 
 the plain. Here, as we have just seen, the enemy had posted, 
 at the foot of a chain of hills, his artillery, his cavalry, besides 
 a reserve of grenadiers, in a valley the entrance to which was 
 formed by the village of Ehingen. General Bontemps pro- 
 ceeded thither with the 67th demi-brigade, two battalions of 
 the 10th light, and two squadrons of the 5 th hussars. General 
 d'Hautpoul followed him, with the reserve of the cavalry. These 
 troops, marching in columns in the plain, under the fire of a 
 battery of twelve pieces of cannon, dashed bravely upon the 
 village of Ehingen, and carried it. But, all at once, the eight 
 battalions of grenadiers in reserve charged them in turn. The 
 Austrian cavalry supported these eight battalions of grenadiers 
 by a vigorous charge, and this unexpected storm obliged our 
 soldiers to give up the village. The cavalry of General d'Hautpoul 
 was driven back by the great mass of Imperial cavalry. The 
 brave General Bontemps received a severe wound amidst this 
 confusion. At this moment, the firing on our left, beyond the 
 peak of Hohenhewen, redoubled in violence, proclaiming the 
 danger of Eichepanse, who persisted, but thus far unsuccessfully, 
 in the attempt to force the belt of heights. 
 
 Moreau, who in trying emergencies possessed the firmness 
 of a truly martial spirit, instantly appreciated the gravity of 
 this situation, and resolved upon a vigorous blow, that he might 
 remain master of the field of battle. He caused the remnant of 
 Bastoul's division to advance, placed himself at the head of a few 
 companies of grenadiers, inflamed their courage, led them to the 
 charge, overthrew all that came in his way, and restored Ehingen 
 to our victorious troops. While he was deciding the day at 
 that point, Eichepanse, on his part, was performing prodigies 
 of valour. St. Cyr, rejoined by Ney, and definitively delivered 
 from the Archduke Ferdinand, sent forward General Eoussel's 
 brigade. This brigade vied in courage with the troops of Eiche- 
 panse which had been so long engaged, and assisted them to 
 storm the heights so obstinately contended for. In all directions 
 our arms were successful, but at the cost of great efforts and 
 much bloodshed. The 4th demi-brigade alone had lost from 
 500 to 600 men in these conflicts. 
 
 Night began to fall ; the ardour of the French was redoubled, 
 while the courage of the Austrians sank on learning the tidings 
 of the rout of the Prince of Lorraine-Vaudemont at Stockach.
 
 may 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 171 
 
 M. de Kray, fearful of being turned by Stockach, gave orders 
 for retreat. He hastened to regain the Danube by Tuttlingen 
 and Liptingen. 
 
 The losses of the French army in this series of obstinate actions 
 were very considerable. In killed and wounded it had 2000 
 men hors de combat, but the Austrian army had more than 3000, 
 besides 4000 or 5000 prisoners remaining in our hands. The 
 French troops, by their extraordinary bravery, had corrected the 
 defects of the general plan. This plan, in fact, was far from 
 perfect, and its weak points can now be appreciated. In the 
 first place, it is easy to judge, from the results themselves, the 
 inconvenience of having passed the Ehine at several points. 
 Owing to this manner of operating, there were no more than 
 three corps ready to march together ; and even then the third, 
 that of St. Cyr, had been paralysed by the necessity of giving 
 the hand to the fourth, which was left behind. To this system 
 of crossing at several points was also chargeable the delay of St. 
 Cyr's artillery, which had contributed not a little to retard the 
 assistance given to Kichepanse. As for the battle itself, Moreau, 
 with 25,000 men, had been obliged to fight 40,000 at Engen, 
 while Lecourbe with 20,000 had only 1 2,000 to fight at Stockach, 
 while St. Cyr was nearly unoccupied, or confined to the part of 
 mere observation. The latter, accused of having arrived too late, 
 affirmed that he had not received during the day a single aide- 
 de-camp from the headquarters. Never, or very rarely, will such 
 things be seen on the fields of battle where the First Consul 
 commanded. Still, a general must possess high merit to act as 
 Moreau acted. Once in presence of danger, he had behaved with 
 a calmness, a vigour, that never forsook him ; and, seconded by 
 the valour of the troops, he had, after all, won the victory, and 
 acquired a decided superiority over the enemy. 
 
 He encamped with his army on the field of battle. If, on the 
 following day, he had vigorously pushed M. de Kray on the 
 road from Stockach to the Danube, he would probably have 
 thrown him into disorder. But Moreau had not ardour enough 
 in his character, and was too sparing of his troops, to execute 
 such rapid movements, which, no doubt, fatigue men at the 
 moment, but, in reality, save their blood and their strength, by 
 accelerating the results. The 4th of May (14th Floreal) was 
 employed in rectifying the position of the army and in marching 
 slowly towards the Danube. St. Cyr marched by Tuttlingen, 
 Moreau and Lecourbe by Mosskirch, keeping an eve continually 
 upon their right, and upon the lUbouclies from the Yorarlberg, 
 by which Prince Reuss might have arrived. 
 
 M. de Kray was not yet resigned to the idea of giving up the 
 ground without lighting. His army was already much discon- 
 certed, and reduced, moreover, by nearly 10,000 men. It was
 
 174 HISTORY OF THE may 1800 
 
 wrong in him to persist in exposing it to a new encounter with 
 the French, before he had passed the Danube, and been joined 
 by Generals Kienmayer and Sztarray, who were on march from 
 the banks of the Rhine through the Black Forest, at the same 
 time as the French corps of St. Suzanne. He needed the shelter 
 of a great river, the respite of a few days, and reinforcements, 
 that the moral energy of the Austrian army might recover itself. 
 The position of Mosskirch, which Moreau allowed him time to 
 reoccupy, inspired M. de Kray with the imprudent but courage- 
 ous resolution to give battle once more. 
 
 This position of Mosskirch is, in fact, very strong. The high- 
 road, which runs through Engen and Stockach to the Danube is 
 exposed, a little before reaching Mosskirch, to the fire of a large 
 and elevated plateau, called the plateau of Krumbach. It leaves 
 it on the left, then enters a tract covered with wood, in which 
 it forms a long defile. It afterwards debouches into open ground, 
 at the extremity of which are seen the little town of Mosskirch 
 on the right, and the village of Heudorf on the left. Behind 
 Mosskirch runs a line of heights stretching continuously from 
 Mosskirch to Heudorf, which latter place they also connect, in 
 the rear and on the left, with the plateau of Krumbach ; so 
 that the road, passing first under the plateau of Krumbach, then 
 burying itself in a wood, debouches at last uncovered, under the 
 fire of the heights, extending from Mosskirch to Heudorf. 
 
 M. de Kray had crowned this position with a formidable 
 artillery. The Prince of Lorraine, forming the left of the Aus- 
 trians, occupied Mosskirch and the surrounding heights. M. de 
 Nauendorf, forming their centre, was deployed above Heudorf, 
 with a reserve of grenadiers in his rear. M. de Wrede, with 
 the Bavarians, the Archduke Ferdinand, and General Giulay 
 united, composed the right of the Imperial army on the plateau 
 of Krumbach. 
 
 Moreau did not calculate much more on a battle at Mosskirch 
 than he had calculated upon one at Engen. Suspecting, how- 
 ever, that he might meet with some resistance at Mosskirch, he 
 had apprised Lecourbe of it, and sent him word that an effort 
 would probably be necessary at that point, without, however, 
 giving him the precise orders for concentration which comport 
 with the imminence of a great battle. Lecourbe, keeping at the 
 head of the army, and marching with three divisions, had thrown 
 Van damme' s division to some distance on his right, to continue 
 to observe the movements of Prince Eeuss towards the Vor- 
 arlberg. Part of this division, under General Molitor, was to 
 direct itself by the Pfiillendorf and Klosterwald road upon the 
 flank of Mosskirch. Lecourbe, with Montrichard's and Lorges' 
 divisions, and the reserve cavalry, was to advance by the high- 
 road which we have just described, and which, after passing
 
 mayi8oo CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 175 
 
 beneath Krumbach, debouches through the woods in front of 
 Mosskirch. Moreau followed the same road, keeping at some 
 distance in the rear. St. Cyr flanked at a considerable distance 
 the left of Moreau, occupying both banks of the Danube towards 
 Tuttlingen. These assuredly were not fitting dispositions for a 
 great battle. Vandamme ought not to have been thrown alone, 
 with half a division, upon the flank of the position of Mosskirch. 
 Lecourbe ought to have been directed with his whole corps upon 
 this quarter. Moreau should not have set out so late, nor have 
 crowded himself into the same road as Lecourbe, and into the 
 defile of a wood. Lastly, St. Cyr should not have been left at 
 such a distance. 
 
 Be this as it may, Lecourbe moved forward in the morning, 
 conformably with the dispositions adopted. When opposite to 
 Krumbach, he left that plateau on his left, and entered the 
 defile of the wood. Some advanced guards met with in this 
 defile were speedily driven back. He arrived at the dtbouchd. 
 Here was seen the uncovered ground at the extremity of which 
 Mosskirch is situated, bordered on all sides by heights crowned 
 with the artillery of the Austrians. As soon as the heads of 
 columns appeared, five pieces of artillery, firing in front from 
 the side next to Mosskirch, twenty others firing in flank, from 
 the side towards Heudorf, poured forth a shower of balls and 
 grapeshot. Two battalions of light infantry posted themselves 
 on the margin of the wood, and three regiments of cavalry, the 
 9th hussars, the 12th chasseurs, the nth dragoons, pushed 
 forward rapidly to protect the establishment of our artillery. 
 Under the fire of these twenty-five pieces, playing upon them 
 in all directions, our squadrons were obliged to fall back. 
 Fifteen pieces of cannon, which General Montrichard had 
 endeavoured to oppose to the Austrian artillery, were partly 
 dismounted. The light infantry itself was forced to take 
 shelter in the woods. The Austrian cavalry attempted to 
 charge us in its turn, but was vigorously repulsed. Still, as 
 often as General Montrichard tried to debouch from the woods, 
 a violent fire stopped his columns. It soon became evident 
 that this was not the true point of attack for forcing Moss- 
 kirch ; that, on the contrary, it was on the right, following 
 the cross-road from Klosterwald, by which Vandamme was 
 advancing. But the latter had not yet come up, on account 
 of the distance that he had to march. Meanwhile, Lecourbe 
 determined to make an attempt upon Heudorf by filing on his 
 left along the skirt of the woods. Tn spite of a violent lire of 
 artillery and musketry, the 10th light entered the village of 
 Heudorf; but it was repulsed by superior forces: and, while 
 the cavalry was hastening to its support, the Austrian artillery, 
 placed on the slope behind Heudorf, compelled it to make a
 
 176 HISTORY OF THE may 1800 
 
 retrograde movement. Thus this second attempt to debouch 
 on the left was not more successful than that which had been 
 made to debouch directly upon Mosskirch. 
 
 Encouraged by our check, the Austrians were then disposed 
 to assume the offensive, and endeavoured to debouch from the 
 village of Heudorf upon Lorges' division. But this was taking 
 too great a liberty with such brave troops. The 38th formed 
 into column and marched forward under a fire of grape-shot 
 from eight pieces of cannon. It advanced with admirable cool- 
 ness, and penetrated, with fixed bayonets, into Heudorf. On 
 a steep, rising ground behind this village were woods, and in 
 those woods dense masses of Austrian infantry. Superior forces 
 rushed upon this gallant demi-brigade ; overwhelmed by num- 
 bers, it fell back. The 67th came up to its assistance, and imme- 
 diately rallied it. Both together again charged. The entire 
 division hastened to the spot, carried the village, cleared those 
 redoubtable heights, and made itself master of that woody 
 retreat, from which the enemy had vomited upon us a terrific 
 fire. While this severe combat was taking place on our left 
 around the village of Heudorf, Vandamme, on our right, de- 
 bouched at last upon Mosskirch, at the head of Molitor's 
 brigade. He drew it up skilfully for the attack, in spite of the 
 Austrian infantry, which opened a destructive fire from the 
 suburb of Mosskirch. This brave band charged with fury, and 
 penetrated into Mosskirch. while two battalions turned the 
 position by the heights. Montrichard, still ensconced in the 
 woods, chose this movement for debouching on the open ground, 
 which had at first been so fatal to us. He threw himself upon 
 four columns, and that in the face of the artillery of the 
 Austrians, already somewhat staggered by the sight of these 
 simultaneous attacks. Montrichard's four columns came up, 
 passed a ravine which runs along the foot of the heights, gained 
 the plateau of Mosskirch, at the moment when Vandamme's 
 troops, which had entered Mosskirch, began to debouch from 
 it. The Austrians were everywhere put to flight. Their re- 
 serve, stationed a little in the rear, at Eohrdorf, would then 
 have acted in its turn, but was kept in check by the united 
 divisions of Vandamme and Montrichard. 
 
 We were now masters of the whole line from Mosskirch to 
 Heudorf. But M. de Kray, detecting with great judgment the 
 vulnerable point of our position, moved off part of his forces 
 in the direction of the plateau of Krumbach, on our left, whence 
 he threatened our flank and our rear. Lorges' division, which 
 occupied Heudorf, was in danger of being overpowered. The 
 entire reserve of the Austrian grenadiers had assailed that un- 
 fortunate division, which, after taking and retaking Heudorf 
 several times, was exhausted with fatigue. It could no longer
 
 mayi8oo CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 177 
 
 withstand the fire of the artillery and the mass of Austrian 
 infantry. Luckily Moreau, apprised by the violence of the 
 cannonade, had hastened his march. At length he arrived at 
 the entrance of the wood with his corps, formed of Delmas', 
 Bastoul's, and Eichepanse's divisions. He lost no time in send- 
 ing Delmas' division to the left upon Heudorf to the assist- 
 ance of Lorges' division. This brave detachment changed the 
 aspect of things, drove back the Austrian grenadiers, and retook 
 Heudorf, as well as the woods above it. But if we received 
 reinforcements, so did M. de Kray too. His right, composed of 
 the Archduke Ferdinand and General Giulay, whom St. Cyr had 
 followed, foot by foot, ever since the commencement of operations, 
 but followed at too great a distance — this right, rapidly brought 
 upon the field of battle, was directed between Heudorf and 
 Krumbach, upon the very flank of Delmas' division, and put it 
 in danger of being surrounded. Part of the latter instantly faced 
 about to the left. The 57th, which had earned in Italy the 
 surname of the Terrible, formed in order of battle, and disputed 
 the ground for more than an hour against the Austrian masses, 
 under the fire of sixteen pieces of artillery, to which General 
 Delmas could oppose no more than, five, that were soon dis- 
 mounted. This tremendous fire that heroic band endured with- 
 out flinching, and kept the enemy in check. Moreau, hastening 
 from one corps to another, to place or to support them, led 
 Bastoul's division to the assistance of Delmas' division. He 
 came up at the moment when the Austrians, unable to over- 
 throw Delmas' division, were seeking to deprive it of the aid of 
 Bastoul's division, by deploying on the plateau of Krumbach, 
 in order to intercept our communications. They were already 
 descending from that plateau, and had even reached our waggon 
 train. Thus the battle, after commencing at Mosskirch, ex- 
 tended to Heudorf, and from Heudorf to Krumbach, embracing 
 the entire angle of that vast position, and covering it with fire, 
 and blood, and devastation. At this critical moment, Bastoul's 
 division worthily supported the efforts of Delmas' division ; but 
 it was liable to be surrounded, if the enemy should succeed in 
 descending from the plateau of Krumbach, and gaining posses- 
 sion of the highroad by which our troops were arriving. For- 
 tunately, Eichepanse's division, brought up in time to the deci- 
 sive point, formed in columns of attack, climbed the plateau of 
 Krumbach under a destructive fire, and overwhelmed the Arch- 
 duke Ferdinand, who intended to overwhelm us. After thiseffort, 
 M. de Kray had no force left to act against Eichepanse, and was 
 obliged to give the signal for retreat. From Krumbach to Heu- 
 dorf, from Heudorf to Mosskirch, we were everywhere victorious. 
 
 At this moment, St. Cyr's corps was but a few leagues off, at 
 Neuhausen-ob-Eke. If he had debouched, the Austrian army 
 
 vol. 1. M
 
 178 HISTORY OF THE may 1800 
 
 must have been destroyed, and, instead of an ordinary victory, 
 we should have gained one of those splendid victories which put 
 an end to a campaign. "What fatal inaction, then, kept him use- 
 less, so near to the spot where he might have decided the issue 
 of the war ? This is a question which it is very difficult to 
 resolve. St. Cyr alleged, on the following clay, that no orders 
 had been sent to him. Moreau replied that he had sent orders 
 by several aides-de-camp. St. Cyr rejoined that he was so near 
 the place where the battle was fought, that, if a single officer 
 had been dispatched to him, that officer must have infallibly 
 arrived. Moreau's coterie insisted that St. Cyr, with a spite 
 unworthy of a brother in arms, had purposely left his comrades 
 to be crushed at Mosskirch, as he had done at Engen. 
 
 Thus, in military life as in civil life, men are jealous of, accuse, 
 calumniate one another ! Human passions are everywhere the 
 same, and war, most assuredly, is not capable of cooling them, 
 moderating them, and rendering them just. The truth is, that 
 St. Cyr, discontented with the coterie which had gained posses- 
 sion of Moreau's ear, affected to confine himself to the command 
 of his own corps, at the head of which he operated with extra- 
 ordinary perfection ; but he never made amends for oversights 
 of the commander-in-chief, and waited, before acting, for orders 
 which a lieutenant ought to be able to anticipate, especially when 
 he hears the cannon. St. Cyr, in alleging the proximity, to prove 
 that, if orders had been sent to him, he must have received them, 
 accused himself ; for this proximity rendered him inexcusable 
 for not hastening, with one division at least, to the spot where a 
 tremendous cannonade indicated a violent conflict, and perhaps 
 serious dangers. But whatever faults he committed upon this 
 occasion were ere long to be redeemed by important services. 
 
 Both Austrians and French were exhausted at the close of 
 this day. Amidst the confusion of battle, the number of dead 
 and wounded is never accurately known. At Mosskirch that 
 number must have been great. Three thousand men of the French 
 must have fallen, and nearly twice as many in the Austrian 
 army. But the French army was full of confidence ; it had 
 won the field of battle, and purposed to quit it next clay, and 
 to follow up that series of actions, which, without having yet 
 procured it any decisive results, nevertheless ensured to it an 
 uninterrupted superiority over the enemy. The Austrian army, 
 on the contrary, severely shaken, was not capable of keeping up 
 such a contest long. 
 
 After the account which we have just given, every reader may 
 easily conceive what censures have been passed upon the opera- 
 tions of Moreau.* He had marched upon a field of battle with- 
 out first reconnoitring it ; he had directed too few troops upon 
 
 * See Memoires de St. Cyr, torn. vi. p. 215 ct scq. Campaign 1800.
 
 mayi8oo CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 179 
 
 the true point of attack, which was the road from Klosterwald 
 to Mosskirch, debouching on the flank of that little town ; he 
 had set out late, had made all his corps, one after another, pass 
 through a wood, from which it was impossible to debouch with- 
 out losing a great many men ; lastly, he had not brought St. Cyr 
 upon the ground, where his presence would have been decisive. 
 M. de Kray, on his part, after he had judiciously directed his 
 effort upon the vulnerable point, upon our left, had committed 
 the fault of suffering Mosskirch to be taken ; but it must be 
 said, in his justification, that his troops were far from ermalling 
 the French troops in regard to intelligence and firmness. Be- 
 sides, they began to lose confidence, and it was no longer easy 
 to make them endure the sight and the attack of the French. 
 
 On the following day, the 6th of May (16th Floreal), M. de 
 Kray hastened to get behind the Danube, in order to connect 
 himself at last with that great line of operations. Now was the 
 time for following him up, for rendering the passage of the river 
 impossible, at least hazardous, for him. Moreau marched in line, 
 his left to the Danube, quite close to the point where the Austrians 
 were crossing, having it in his power to crush them, if he had 
 suddenly wheeled to his left. St. Cyr formed, at the moment, 
 the wing supported upon the Danube. Not having been engaged 
 on the preceding day, he was in a state to act, and was desirous 
 to act. He saw, with his own eyes, the Imperial troops crowding, 
 with a sort of precipitation, upon the point of Sigmaringen. The 
 Danube, making a bend there, formed a promontory, on which 
 the Austrian army had flocked together, in its anxiety to get to 
 the other side of the river. St. Cyr, distinctly perceiving it, at 
 the distance of short cannon-range, crowded into a space scarcely 
 sufficient for a division, and so much startled at the sight of the 
 French, that, before the mere brigade of Xey, it suspended its 
 passage, drew up in order of battle, and covered itself with the 
 fire of sixty pieces of cannon — St. Cyr, seeing it thus accumulated 
 and alarmed, felt sure he could drive it into the Danube by a 
 single charge of his whole corps. He ordered forward a few 
 pieces of cannon, every discharge of which swept away whole 
 tiles, but which could not be expected to remain in battery before 
 M. de Kray's sixty pieces of artillery. He hoped to draw the 
 attention of Moreau by the report of this cannonade, and to bring 
 him from the corps of reserve to the corps on the left. As he 
 did not come, he sent an officer to apprise him of the circum- 
 stances, and to obtain his order for attacking. But their union 
 was at an end. It was believed by the officers of the staff, or 
 they affected to believe, that St. Cyr wished again to move to 
 the left, with a view to detach himself more, and to act alone. 
 He was answered by an order to move to the right, to connect 
 himself more closely than he was accustomed to do with the
 
 180 HISTORY OF THE may 1800 
 
 corps of reserve, which formed the centre of the army. This 
 measure is indispensable, he was told, that the commander-in- 
 chief may have it in his power to dispose of your troops in case 
 of need.* The drift of this order plainly indicated the humour 
 of the general-in-chief and of those around him. It was evident 
 that Moreau suffered himself to be engrossed by the command 
 of a single corps, and that his weakness of character was giving 
 birth to intestine divisions, mischievous in any place, but still 
 more mischievous in armies than anywhere else. 
 
 M. de Kray could, therefore, flee without danger, and rally his 
 army beyond the Danube. M. de Kienmayer rejoined him there 
 with the troops arriving from the banks of the Ehine, and he 
 was closely followed by M. de Sztarray. 
 
 Moreau's army had found vast magazines at Stockach and 
 Donau-Eschingen : it was in want of nothing ; it was inspirited 
 by success and by the continual offensive which it had taken. 
 On the 7th and 8th of May (17th and 18th Floreal), Moreau 
 continued to march with his left to the Danube, presenting a 
 line of battle still too extended, and frequently halting, to give 
 St. Suzanne time to come. 
 
 On the 9th (19th Floreal) Moreau, knowing that St. Suzanne, 
 who had come along the left bank of the Danube, was at length 
 opposite to the army, left his headquarters for a clay, and crossed 
 the Danube to inspect the troops which had just arrived. These 
 troops formed thenceforward his left wing, while St. Cyr became 
 the centre, and the corps of reserve was really to be used as a 
 reserve, conformably with its appellation. 
 
 According to all probability, M. de Kray, intent on resting 
 his army, would keep beyond the Danube, and we might continue 
 on the 9th to make a march in advance, without encountering 
 the enemy. Moreau directed the right, that is to say, Lecourbe, 
 to proceed on the 9th to between Wurzach and Ochsenhausen, 
 the reserve to advance to Ochsenhausen itself ; lastly, the centre, 
 that is to say St. Cyr, to proceed beyond Biberach, the left in 
 observation on the Danube. In this order the army advanced 
 very near to the Iller, describing a line parallel to that tributary 
 of the Danube. Moreau set out on the morning of the 9th, 
 thinking to devote an entire day to the corps of St. Suzanne. 
 
 Now, M. de Kray had been induced to take a new and unex- 
 pected resolution by the advice of a council of war, which had 
 judged it prudent to save the immense magazines of Biberach, 
 and not abandon them, like those of Engen and Stockach, to the 
 French. He, therefore, crossed to the right bank of the Danube 
 with his whole army, by Kiedlingen, and posted himself in front 
 and rear of Biberach. This place had already been the theatre 
 of a battle gained in 1796 by Moreau, thanks more especially 
 
 * St. Cyr, torn. vi. p. 201.
 
 may 1 800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 181 
 
 to St. Cyr. This field was again to witness the success of our 
 troops, and of St. Cyr himself. 
 
 Biberach is situated in a valley overflowed by the Eiess. This 
 valley is so swampy that a man on horseback cannot attempt to 
 pass through it without perishing, so that people are obliged to 
 pass through Biberach itself, and over the little bridge conti- 
 guous to that small town. You penetrate into this valley by 
 following a sort of defile, formed between the heights, those of 
 the Galgenberg on the one hand, those of Mittelbiberach on 
 the other. On clearing this defile, Biberach suddenly appears 
 in view. You cross the marsh of the Eiess over the bridge 
 adjoining to the town, and beyond that marsh you perceive a 
 superb position called the Mettenberg, upon which an army well 
 provided with artillery might make a firm stand. M. de Kray 
 could not think of posting himself in advance of the defile, having 
 so narrow an outlet for retreat ; he could only place himself in 
 rear of Biberach, beyond the Biess, on the Mettenberg itself. 
 Neither could he leave Biberach uncovered. Accordingly, after 
 stationing the bulk of his army on the position of the Metten- 
 berg, he placed a corps of eight or ten battalions and a dozen 
 squadrons in advance of the defile of Mittelbiberach, to retard 
 the march of the French, and to give time for evacuating or 
 destroying the greater part of his magazines. 
 
 This plan was perilous, especially with a demoralised army. 
 St. Cyr having received orders to go and pass the night a little 
 beyond Biberach, soon discovered the position which the Aus- 
 trians had taken. He was deeply mortified at not having the 
 commander-in-chief, or at least the chief of his staff, near him, 
 that he might obtain suitable orders, and turn this meeting to 
 account. Moreau was absent ; General Dessoles was not there. 
 If St. Cyr had had his forces together, he would not have hesi- 
 tated to risk an attack with his corps alone : unfortunately, they 
 were partly dispersed. Being obliged to observe the Danube on 
 his left, he had devoted to this object the best of his divisions, 
 that of Xey. He dispatched several officers in search of General 
 Xey, but in consequence of the latter having followed the winding 
 banks of the river, and owing also to the frightful state of the 
 roads, it was not easy to reach him or obtain any support from 
 his division. To attack a mass of 60,000 men at least, St. Cyr 
 had but the two divisions of Tharreau and Baraguay d'Hilliers, 
 with the reserve cavalry of General Sahuc attached to his corps. 
 The demoralisation of the enemy tempted him strongly, but the 
 disproportion of strength made him hesitate, when, all at once, 
 was heard the firing of General Bichepanse, who, having orders 
 to keep himself in communication with St. Cyr, and to cross the 
 Biess by the bridge of Biberach, arrived at the same point by a 
 cross-road, that of Beichenbach. St. Cyr, having at his disposal
 
 1 82 HISTOB Y OF THE may i 800 
 
 the fine division of Richepanse, and being enabled to fill the gap 
 left in his corps by the absence of Ney, hesitated no longer. He 
 thought that, if the detachment left in advance of Biberach were 
 overthrown, the defeat of this corps of from 8000 to 10,000 men 
 would be rather more serious than the defeat of a mere advanced 
 guard, and that the courage of the enemy might be severely 
 shaken by it. Accordingly, without so much as halting to dis- 
 pose his troops for an attack, he gave orders to the eighteen 
 battalions and twenty-four squadrons which he had at hand to 
 advance at quick step, and charge the 10,000 Austrians who 
 barred the passage of the defile. Overthrown by this sudden 
 shock, the Austrians rushed pell-mell to Biberach and into the 
 valley of the Riess. It would have been easy to take almost 
 all of them, but St. Cyr would not, fearing lest, if he allowed his 
 soldiers to pursue them, he might not be able to rally his divisions, 
 and make use of them in the principal operation. He contented 
 himself with entering Biberach, establishing himself there, and 
 ensuring the preservation of the magazines. Having strongly 
 occupied that point, and provided a retreat for himself, let 
 what might happen, he crossed the Riess. Richepanse had just 
 arrived upon his right, by the Reichenbach road. Reinforced 
 by this new division, St. Cyr crossed the Riess by the bridge of 
 Biberach, and advanced himself to observe the position of the 
 enemy. At this moment, the some odd thousand men, so sud- 
 denly thrown into the Riess, were ascending through the ranks 
 of the Austrian army, which opened to let them pass, and at 
 sight of him, it was easy to discover how much that army was 
 alarmed. St. Cyr ordered forward a number of tirailleurs, who 
 approached and bearded the enemy without any of his tirailleurs 
 making their appearance to throw them into the ravine. These 
 detached soldiers were answered by general discharges, such as 
 proceed from an affrighted body of men, striving to keep up 
 their courage by making a noise. St. Cyr was, in an action, one 
 of the ablest of the tacticians that have appeared among us. 
 On perceiving the state of the Austrian army, he instantly 
 decided what was to be done. He ordered Tharreau's and 
 Baraguay's divisions to be drawn up in two columns, formed a 
 third of Richepanse's division, and placed the cavalry en delicious 
 on the wings. These arrangements made, he put all his columns 
 in motion at once. They ascended the acclivities of the Metten- 
 berg with unparalleled steadiness. The Austrians at the sight 
 of these soldiers climbing with such calmness a formidable 
 position, and from which an army thrice their number might 
 hurl them into the marshes of the Riess, were seized with 
 astonishment and terror. M. de Kray ordered a retrograde 
 movement ; his soldiers did not execute it according to his in- 
 tention, for, after a few volleys, they gave up the ground of the
 
 mayiSoo CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 183 
 
 Mettenberg, and at length fled in disorder, leaving to St. Cyr's 
 corps several thousand prisoners and immense magazines, which 
 served to victual the French army for a long time. Night pre- 
 vented the pursuit. In the midst of these events, Moreau 
 arrived, and though there was a coolness between him and St. 
 Cyr, yet the next day, in the presence of Carnot, minister of 
 war, he testified to him his sense of high satisfaction. Moreau, 
 separated at this moment from the mischievous friends by whom 
 he was beset at headquarters, could be just towards a lieu- 
 tenant who had fought and conquered without his presence 
 and without his orders. 
 
 The French army was completely victorious ; the Austrians 
 were no longer capable of making a stand, and it might now 
 advance unopposed. M. de Kray had sent, one cannot com- 
 prehend why, a detachment to defend the magazines of Mem- 
 mingen. Memmingen lay in Lecourbe's route. This place was 
 occupied, the detachment routed, and the magazines were taken. 
 This was the 10th of May (20th Floreal). On the nth and 
 1 2th, M. de Kray retired definitely upon Ulm, and Moreau 
 continued to march in an extended line nearly perpendicular 
 to the Danube. On the 13th of May, he was beyond the Iller, 
 without having encountered any serious resistance in the passage 
 of that river. The right and the reserve were at Ungerhausen, 
 Kellmuntz, Iller-Aicheim, and Illertissen. St. Cyr was placed at 
 the conflux of the Iller and the Danube, a dieted upon the Iller, 
 occupying the bridge of Unterkirchberg, and connecting himself 
 with St. Suzanne, who was advancing along the left bank of the 
 Danube. From the abbey of Wiblingen, where Xey's division 
 was, and where St. Cyr had his headquarters, the Austrian troops 
 might be distinctly seen in the vast entrenched camp of Ulm. 
 
 The two armies had just been rejoined by all their detached 
 corps. Marshal de Kray had recalled M. de Kienmayer to him 
 in the preceding days, and afterwards M. de Sztarray. Moreau, 
 having the corps of St. Suzanne at hand, was now in full force. 
 Both armies had sustained losses, but those of the Austrians 
 were far more considerable than ours. They were estimated at 
 30,000 men in prisoners, dead, and wounded. On this point 
 history is reduced to conjectures ; for, on days of battle, generals 
 always diminish their losses, and when they apply to their 
 governments for reinforcements, they as constantly exaggerate 
 the number of the dead, wounded, and sick. Thus one never 
 knows with perfect accuracy the total of the soldiers really present 
 under arms. M. de Kray, having taken the field with 1 10,000 
 or 1 15,000 men, composing the active army, and 35,00001-40000 
 in the fortresses, could now have had but So.ooo at most, and 
 those worn out with fatigue and completely demoralised. 
 
 The loss of the French army was estimated at 4000 killed,
 
 1 84 HISTORY OF THE may 1800 
 
 6000 or 7000 wounded ; some ill of fever, some prisoners ; in 
 all, 12,000 or 13,000 men actually unfit for service, 4000 or 
 5000 of whom were likely to be again fit for service after a 
 little rest. This calculation reduced Moreau's active force, for 
 the moment, to 90,000 men, or rather less. But he would soon 
 be obliged to part with a strong detachment, according to the 
 agreement signed with General Berthier at the opening of the 
 campaign. It was stipulated in this agreement that, as soon as 
 M. tie Kray was driven to the distance of eight or ten marches 
 from the Lake of Constance, Lecourbe should fall back upon the 
 Alps, to join the army of reserve. The position of Massena 
 urgently required the execution of this engagement ; and it was 
 not any silly desire to check Moreau amidst his successes which 
 caused Lecourbe's corps to be called off, but the most legitimate 
 of reasons, that of saving Genoa and Liguria. The army of reserve, 
 collected with such exertions, contained no more than 40,000 
 men belonging to troops inured to war : it certainly needed a re- 
 inforcement to place it in a condition to attempt the extraordinary 
 operation which it was about to undertake beyond the Alps. 
 
 The First Consul, impatient to act in the direction of Italy, 
 wishing at the same time to avoid offending Moreau, and yet to 
 ensure the execution of his orders, made choice of the minister of 
 war himself, of Carnot, to carry to the headquarters of the army 
 of the Bhine the formal injunction to detach Lecourbe towards 
 the St. Gothard. The letters which accompanied this order 
 were full of cordiality and irresistible in argument. The First 
 Consul was well aware that it was not Lecourbe and 25,000 
 men who would be sent him; but if 15,000 or 16,000 only were 
 sent, he should be satisfied. 
 
 Moreau received Carnot with chagrin : he, nevertheless, 
 punctually executed the orders which that minister brought him. 
 Carnot. like a good citizen, took pains to remove any feeling of 
 dissatisfaction on the part of the weak-minded general, ever so 
 easily deceived, and revived his confidence towards the First 
 Consul, which detestable busybodies were striving to destroy. 
 
 Some historians, flatterers of Moreau, but flatterers only 
 since 181 5, have raised the detachment taken from the army of 
 Germany to 25,000 men. Moreau himself, in his reply to the 
 First Consul, did not estimate it at more than 17,800; and this 
 number was exaggerated. Not more than from 1 5 .000 to 1 6,000 
 soldiers marched into Switzerland to climb the St. Gothard. 
 Moreau then had about 72,000 fighting men left, and soon after- 
 wards 75,000, through the recovery of his sick and disabled.* 
 It was more than were needed for beating 80,000 Austrians. 
 
 * It is from Moreau's own correspondence that I extract these figures. All 
 the calculations of that correspondence are exaggerated in Moreau's favour. 
 He estimates the battalions retained by him at 650 men, and those belonging
 
 mayi8oo CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 185 
 
 M. de Kray had no more, in fact, and they were altogether dis- 
 spirited, and incapable of standing the slighest serious encounter 
 with the French. 
 
 In order that the enemy might remain ignorant of this dimi- 
 nution of his forces, Moreau determined not to alter the former 
 distribution and positions of the army ; but to take the 16,000 
 men whom he destined for the First Consul out of all the exist- 
 ing corps. Each of these corps furnished its contingent, and 
 thus this reduction of strength was disguised in the best possible 
 manner. Moreau wished to keep Lecourbe, who, singly, was 
 worth many thousand men. Lecourbe was left him, and the 
 command of the detachment given to the brave General Lorges. 
 Carnot returned to Paris as soon as he had witnessed the 
 departure of the troops destined to cross the St. Gothard. 
 
 This operation took place on the nth, 12th, and 13th of 
 May (21st, 22nd, and 23rd Floreal). The French army under 
 Moreau numbered about 72,000 combatants, exclusively of the 
 garrisons of the fortresses, the division of Helvetia, and what 
 might be returned to it by the hospitals. It was, for the rest, 
 of the same effective strength as before the arrival of St. Suz- 
 anne's corps, a strength which had been sufficient to make it 
 invariably victorious. 
 
 M. de Kray had established himself at Ulm, where an en- 
 trenched camp had long been prepared for the purpose of afford- 
 ing a stronghold to the Imperial troops. Of the two systems 
 of defence which we have described, that which requires the 
 retreating army to skirt the foot of the Alps, covering itself 
 with all the tributaries of the Danube, or to keep a cheval upon 
 that river, in order to manoeuvre upon both banks, the second 
 had been preferred by the Aulic Council, and was skilfully 
 followed by M. de Kray. The first would be judicious in case 
 it were desirable to keep the two armies of Italy and Germany 
 in permanent communication. It presents but little strength 
 in its first stages ; for the Iller, the Lech, the Isar, the Inn, 
 become but successively obstacles of any consequence ; and 
 the last alone becomes a considerable obstacle, though not an 
 invincible one, for there is none of that kind in war. But an 
 army which, renouncing the communications with Italy, keeps 
 to the Danube itself, having all the bridges at its disposal, 
 destroying them successively as it retires, possessing the means 
 of crossing from one bank to the other, while the enemy is 
 fixed upon one only ; able, if that enemy attempts to push on 
 directly for Vienna, to follow him under shelter of the Danube, 
 
 to the detachment sent to Italy at 700. The calculation cannot be correct; 
 for, if he sent the corps just as they were, and the battalions were reduced to 
 650 in his army, they could not have been 700 in the corps which were 
 detached from it.
 
 1 86 HISTORY OF THE may 1800 
 
 and throw itself upon his rear, to punish him for the first 
 fault that he may commit ; an army so placed is in the position 
 generally regarded as the best for covering Austria. 
 
 M. de Kray, then, had posted himself at Ulm, where im- 
 portant works had been carrying on for his support. It is well 
 known that, at this point, the left bank of the Danube, formed 
 of the first acclivities of the mountains of Swabia, is always 
 higher than the right bank. Ulm is at the foot of the heights 
 of the left bank, on the Danube itself. Its walls had been 
 repaired. A tete de pont had been constructed on the opposite 
 bank. All the heights in the rear of Ulm, and particularly 
 the Michelsberg, were covered with artillery. If the French 
 approached by the right bank, the Austrian army, supporting 
 one of its wings upon Ulm, the other upon the elevated convent 
 of Elchingen, covered by the river, and sweeping with its fire 
 the low ground of the right bank, would be unassailable. If 
 the French approached on the left bank, then the Austrian 
 army had a position quite as secure. To form a correct idea of 
 it, the reader should know that the position of Ulm is covered 
 on the left bank by the river Blau, which descends from the 
 mountains of Swabia, and throws itself into the Danube quite 
 close to Ulm, forming at the same time a deep ravine. If, then, 
 the French crossed the Danube above Ulm to attack by the left 
 bank, the Austrian army would change position. Instead of 
 facing the banks of the Danube, it would turn its back on it, 
 and cover itself by the course of the Blau. It would have its 
 left wing upon Ulm, its centre at the Michelsberg, its right 
 wing at Lahr and Jungingen. It would be necessary to make 
 several marches upon the left bank, to turn this new position, 
 and then to abandon the right bank entirely, which might frus- 
 trate all the combinations of the campaign, by uncovering the 
 route to the Alps. Such was the camp in which the exhausted 
 soldiers of M. de Kray found shelter for a time. 
 
 St. Cyr was at the convent of Wiblingen. From the windows 
 of that convent he distinctly saw, even without telescope, the 
 position of the Austrians. Full of confidence in the daring of 
 the French, he offered, and several general officers along with 
 him, to take the enemy's camp by main force. They answered 
 for the success with their lives ; and it must be confessed that 
 if the audacity of some of them, such as Xey and Eichepanse, 
 might have excited mistrust, yet St. Cyr, the tactician, a man 
 of cool, methodical, sure mind, deserved the highest confidence. 
 But Moreau was too prudent to risk an attack of this kind, and 
 to afford M. de Kray the chance of gaining a defensive battle. 
 It is true that, if Moreau were successful, the Austrian army, 
 thrown into the Danube, would be half destroyed, and the cam- 
 paign finished. But if Moreau failed in his attack, he would
 
 mayi8oo CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 187 
 
 be obliged to fall back ; the campaign of Germany would be 
 endangered ; and, worse than all this, the decisive campaign in 
 Italy would perhaps be rendered impracticable. Moreau acted 
 in war, not grandly, but safely He let those brave men who en- 
 gaged to throw the Austrians into the river talk on, and refused 
 to attempt an attack by main force. The war of manoeuvres 
 was the course then left. The French might cross to the left 
 bank above Ulm, a movement which we have just described ; 
 but, in order to turn the Austrians in this position, they would 
 be obliged to proceed so far on the left bank, that Switzerland 
 would cease to be covered, and that the detachment sent towards 
 the Alps would be compromised. By continuing on the right 
 bank, they might descend the Danube to a good distance below 
 Ulm, cross it out of reach of the Austrians. and make themselves 
 masters of their position, by cutting them off from the Lower 
 Danube. But, by descending the river, the rear of the army 
 would be exposed, and the route to Switzerland again left un- 
 covered. Moreau, therefore, renounced all idea of dislodging 
 M. de Kray by any of these means ; and though, with troops 
 such as his, he might have hazarded anything, yet he is not to 
 be censured for such caution, and, above all, for being so scrupu- 
 lous in pursuing the plan which most effectually covered the 
 operations of the First Consul, his chief, but his rival. 
 
 He then resolved to adopt a manoeuvre which was the true 
 one, namely, to inarch for Augsburg, that is to say, to abandon 
 the course of the Danube, to cross its tributaries, and to demolish 
 all the lines of defence of the Austrians by a direct march 
 upon the heart of the empire. This manoeuvre, seriously exe- 
 cuted, would infallibly have induced M. de Kray to leave the 
 Danube and his camp at Ulm, and drawn him after the French 
 army. It was very bold, yet did not uncover the Alps, since it 
 placed Moreau constantly at their foot. But there was no half 
 course to take : he ought either to have remained inactive before 
 Ulm, or to have advanced resolutely upon Augsburg and Munich, 
 for a mere demonstration was not capable of deceiving M. de 
 Kray, and could only expose the corps left in observation near 
 Ulm. Moreau here committed a fault which had well-nigh pro- 
 duced serious consequences. 
 
 On the 13th, 14th, and 15th of May he crossed the Iller. 
 Leaving St. Suzanne by himself on the left bank of the Danube, 
 and St. Cyr at the conilux of the Iller and the Danube, he pushed 
 the corps of reserve upon the Guntz to Babenhausen, Lecourbe 
 beyond the Guntz to Erkheim, and a corps of Hankers to 
 Kempten, on the route of the Tyrol. In this singular position, 
 extending twenty leagues, touching Ulm on one side, threatening 
 Augsburg on the other, lie could not inspire M. de Kray with 
 the .slightest dread of a march upon Munich, and could at most
 
 1 88 HISTORY OF THE may 1800 
 
 but tempt him to throw himself en masse upon the corps of St. 
 Suzanne, remaining alone on the left of the Danube. Had M. de 
 Kray yielded to this last temptation, and employed his whole 
 force, it would have been all over with St. Suzanne. 
 
 The orders issued on the 15th (25th Eloreal) to St. Cyr were 
 executed on the morning of the 16th, when St. Suzanne was 
 attacked at Erbach by a prodigious mass of cavalry. His right 
 division, commanded by General Legrand, was at Erbach and 
 Papelau, along the Danube ; his left division, commanded by 
 Souham, was at Blaubeuren, a cheval on the Blau ; the reserve, 
 under General Colaud, a little in the rear of the two divisions. 
 The action commenced by a multitude of horse surrounding 
 our columns on all sides. While our soldiers were charged by 
 numerous squadrons, masses of infantry, sallying from Ulm and 
 ascending the Danube, threatened us with a more serious attack. 
 Two columns of infantry and cavalry advanced, the one upon 
 Erbach, to attack and envelop the two brigades composing 
 Legrand's division, the other on Papelau, to cut off' Legrand's 
 division from Souham's division. General Legrand then made 
 his troops perform a retrograde movement. They fell back slowly 
 through the woods, and then had to debouch on the plateaux 
 between Donaurieden and liingingen. The troops executed this 
 retreating movement with remarkable steadiness. They were 
 several hours giving up a small tract of ground, halting every 
 moment, forming in squares, and harassing with their terrible fire 
 the cavalry which pursued them. Souham's division, attacked 
 on both flanks, was obliged to execute a similar movement, and 
 to concentrate itself upon Blaubeuren, behind the Blau, driving 
 into the deep ravine formed by that river such of the Austrians 
 as pressed them too closely. 
 
 It was Legrand's division that was in most danger, because 
 it was placed near the Danube, and for this reason the enemy 
 wished to overwhelm it, in order to intercept all the succours 
 that might arrive from the other side of the river. The two 
 brigades of which it was composed continued valiantly to defend 
 themselves, till, at the moment when the infantry was retiring, 
 and the light artillery replacing its pieces on the forepart of the 
 carriages, to retire also, the enemy's cavalry, returning to the 
 charge, dashed suddenly upon that unfortunate division. The 
 brave adjutant-general, Levasseur, who had been dismounted in 
 a charge, sprung upon a horse, galloped to the 10th regiment of 
 cavalry, which was leaving the field of battle, brought it back to 
 the enemy, charged the Austrian squadrons, ten times superior 
 in number, and checked their progress. The artillery had time 
 to carry off their guns, to take a position in the rear, and in its 
 turn to protect the cavalry which had come to its rescue. 
 
 During this interval, General St. Suzanne had come up, with
 
 mayi8oo CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 189 
 
 part of Colaud's division, to the assistance of Legrand's division. 
 General Decaen, with the remainder, had gone to Blaubeuren, to 
 succour Souham's division. The action was therefore renewed ; 
 but, in spite of this effort, it might terminate in a disastrous 
 manner ; for there was reason to fear that the Austrian army 
 would fall en masse upon the corps of St. Suzanne. Fortunately, 
 St. Cyr. posted on the other side of the Danube, did not leave 
 his comrades to be routed this time, as he had been frequently 
 accused of doing : he hastened up with all possible expedition. 
 Hearing the cannonade on the left bank, he had sent off aides- 
 de-camp after aides-de-camp, to bring his divisions from the 
 banks of the Iller to the banks of the Danube. He had ordered 
 no time to be lost, the advanced posts to fall back immediately, 
 but the bulk of the troops to be dispatched at the instant, with- 
 out waiting for those posts. A corps left behind was to collect 
 them. As for himself, stationed on the bridge of Unterkirch- 
 berg, which is upon the Iller, as soon as a corps arrived, whether 
 infantry, cavalry, or artillery, he sent it with all speed towards 
 the Danube, preferring a momentary disorder to loss of time. 
 He had then repaired in person to the very bank of the Danube. 
 The enemy, fearing lest St. Suzanne might be succoured, had 
 destroyed all the bridges as high as Dischingen. Seeing St. Cyr 
 endeavouring to find a ford or to repair a bridge, he had drawn 
 up part of his troops along the left bank, to make head against 
 those of St. Cyr, posted upon the right bank. He had, more- 
 over, commenced a brisk cannonade, and St. Cyr had lost not a 
 moment in replying to it. This combat with artillery, kept up 
 from one side of the river to the other, excited in the Austrians 
 who had sallied from Ulm some fears for their retreat, caused 
 them to fall back, extricated St. Suzanne a little, and infused 
 into the ranks of our unfortunate soldiers, who had for above 
 twelve hours maintained a desperate conflict, the most lively 
 joy and quite new ardour. They applied to St. Suzanne for 
 permission to advance, which was granted them. All our 
 divisions then moved at once ; they drove back the Austrians 
 under the cannon of Ulm ; but, in traversing the field of battle, 
 which they were overjoyed to recover, they found it strewed with 
 our dead and wounded. For the rest, the loss of the Austrians 
 was not less than ours. Fifteen thousand French had fought all 
 day against 36,000 men, 12,000 of whom were cavalry. M. de 
 Kray was present the whole time on the field of battle. 
 
 But for the bravery of the troops and the energy and talents 
 of the generals, the fault which Moreau had committed would 
 have been punished by the loss of our left wing. Moreau imme- 
 diately repaired to that wing ; and, as if his thoughts had been 
 suddenly drawn to that quarter by mere accident, he resolved to 
 make his whole army cross to the left bank of the river.
 
 190 HISTORY OF THE may 1800 
 
 On the 17th (27th Eloreal), leaving St. Suzanne to rest himself 
 in the positions of the preceding day, he led back St. Cyr's corps 
 between the Iller and the Danube. He pushed the reserve, 
 which was under his own command, to Unterkirchberg on the 
 Iller itself, and ordered Lecourbe to fall back between the Guntz 
 and Weissenhorn. On the 18th, the army made a second move- 
 ment towards its left ; St. Suzanne was moved to beyond the 
 Blau ; St. Cyr to beyond the Danube ; the reserve to Gocklingen, 
 on the Danube itself, ready to cross the river. On the 19th, the 
 manoeuvre was still more decided ; St. Suzanne had completely 
 turned Ulm ; he had his headquarters at Urspring ; St. Cyr 
 was on both banks of the Blau, his headquarters being at Blau- 
 beuren ; the reserve had passed the Danube between Erbach and 
 the Blau ; and Lecourbe was ready to cross that river. 
 
 Everything seemed to denote an attack by main force on the 
 entrenched camp of Ulm. In this new position, M. de Kray 
 had his left at Ulm, his centre on the Blau, his right at 
 Elchingen. He had, therefore, his back to the Danube, and 
 defended the reverse of the position of Ulm. Moreau, after he 
 had made an attentive reconnaissance, disappointed the expec- 
 tations of his lieutenants, who fancied that they discovered a 
 serious plan in this movement upon his left, and who, moreover, 
 were desirous of a bold attempt on the camp of the Austrians, 
 because they considered success as infallible. St. Cyr again 
 insisted, but he was not listened to. Moreau resolved to be 
 gone, unwilling to risk an attack by main force along the 
 Blau, equally unwilling entirely to turn the position by its left, 
 for fear of uncovering Switzerland too much. He ordered the 
 whole army to cross once more to the right bank. On the 20th 
 of May and the following days, the army decamped, to the great 
 vexation of the soldiers and of the generals, who reckoned upon 
 an assault, and to the great astonishment of the Austrians, who 
 were in dread of one. 
 
 These false movements were attended with the great disad- 
 vantage of somewhat raising the courage of the Austrian army, 
 without, however, abating that of the French army, which it 
 was difficult to shake, so conscious was it of its own superiority. 
 Moreau might have attempted a movement which we have de- 
 scribed above, and which, executed subsequently, obtained him 
 a glorious triumph. This was to descend the Danube, to threaten 
 M. de Kray with a passage below Ulm, and to oblige him to 
 decamp, by making him uneasy about his line of communication. 
 But Moreau was still fearful of uncovering the route to the Alps. 
 He, therefore, had some thoughts of making a second demon- 
 stration upon Augsburg, to endeavour once more to deceive the 
 Austrians, and to persuade them that, leaving Ulm behind him, 
 he was marching definitely upon Bavaria, perhaps even upon
 
 mayi8oo CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 191 
 
 Austria. On the 22nd of May (2nd Prairial), the whole French 
 army had recrossed the Danube ; Lecourbe, with the right wing, 
 threatened Augsburg by Landsberg ; and St. Suzanne, with the 
 left wing, kept at some distance from the Danube, between 
 Dellmensingen and Achstetten. That same day, the 22nd, Prince 
 Ferdinand, at the head of 12,000 men, half of them, at least, 
 cavalry, with a view either to keep us near Ulm or to discover 
 our intentions, made an attack on St. Suzanne, which was 
 warmly repulsed. The troops behaved with their accustomed 
 vigour, and General Decaen distinguished himself. On the 
 following days, Moreau continued his movement. On the 
 27th of May (7th Prairial), Lecourbe, with equal boldness and 
 intelligence, made himself master of the bridge of Landsberg 
 on the Lech, and, on the 28th, entered Augsburg. M. de Kray 
 was not to be shaken by this demonstration, and remained 
 obstinately in Ulm. This, it must be confessed, was the best 
 of his determinations, and that which did most honour to his 
 firmness and his judgment. 
 
 From that moment, Moreau confined himself to a calculated 
 inaction. He rectified his position, and rendered it better. 
 Instead of forming a long line, the extremity only of which 
 touched the Danube, a position which exposed our left corps to 
 unequal combats with the whole Austrian army, he executed a 
 change of front, and, henceforward facing the Danube, he ranged 
 himself parallel to that river, but at a considerable distance, his 
 left supported upon the Iller, his right upon the Guntz, his rear- 
 guard occupying Augsburg, and a corps of flankers observing 
 the Tyrol. The French army thus formed a mass sufficiently 
 dense to have nothing to fear from a separate attack on one of 
 its wings, and could not incur any other risk but that of a 
 general engagement, which all in our ranks wished for, because 
 it would result in the utter ruin of the Imperial army. 
 
 In this position, now irreproachable, it was Moreau' s intention 
 to await the issue of the campaign which the First Consul was 
 at that moment undertaking beyond the Alps. His lieutenants 
 strongly urged him to resume active operations ; he persisted in 
 replying that it would be imprudent to do more till he had news 
 from Italy ; that, if General Bonaparte succeeded in that part of 
 the theatre of war, they should then try a decisive manoeuvre 
 against M. de Kray ; that, if the French army was not successful 
 beyond the Alps, they should be greatly embarrassed by the very 
 progress which they should have made in Bavaria. The enter- 
 prise of General Bonaparte, of which Moreau was in the secret, 
 had in it something extraordinary for a mind like his; it is not, 
 therefore, surprising that he should have felt anxiety, and have 
 determined not to advance farther, before he knew for certain 
 how it fared with the army of reserve.
 
 192 HISTORY OF THE may 1800 
 
 In consequence of this determination, Moreau had warm alter- 
 cations with some of his lieutenants, especially with St. Cyr. 
 The latter complained of the inaction to which they were con- 
 fined, and more particularly of the partiality that prevailed in 
 the distribution of rations to the different corps of the army. 
 His, he said, was often without bread, while that of the com- 
 mander-in-chief, beside which it was posted, wanted for nothing. 
 Not that there was any want of supplies since the capture of 
 the enemy's magazines, but of the means of conveyance. St. Cyr 
 had more than one altercation on this subject ; he had evidently 
 fallen out with the staff which was about Moreau, and this was, 
 at bottom, the cause of those unfortunate misunderstandings. 
 General Grenier had just arrived. St. Cyr wished Moreau to 
 give that general the command of the army of reserve, that he 
 might be able to release himself from prepossessions and par- 
 tiality — inevitable consequences of commanding in person. Un- 
 luckily, Moreau would not do anything of the kind : St. Cyr 
 then retired, upon the pretext of health, and deprived the army 
 of the ablest of its general officers. For the rest, St. Cyr was 
 made to command himself, not to obey. General Suzanne re- 
 tired also, in consequence of similar misunderstandings. He 
 was sent upon the Ehine, to form a corps destined to cover the 
 rear of the army of Germany, and to check the force under Baron 
 d'Albini. General Grenier took the place of St. Cyr, and 
 Eichepanse that of St. Suzanne. Moreau, whose soldiers were 
 well supplied with provisions, and who was strongly established 
 in his new position, resolved to wait, and wrote to the First 
 Consul in the following terms, which perfectly express his 
 situation and his intentions : — 
 
 " Babenhausen, yth Prairial, year VIII. (May 27th, 1800). 
 
 "We are looking with impatience, citizen Consul, for tidings of 
 your success. M. de Kray and I are fumbling here — he, to keep 
 about Ulm — I, to make him leave the post. 
 
 " It would have been dangerous, particularly for you, if I had 
 transferred the war to the left bank of the Danube. Our present 
 position has forced the Prince de Reuss to move off to the debouches 
 of the Tyrol, and to the sources of the Lech and the Iller ; so that he 
 cannot inconvenience you. 
 
 " Pray let me hear from you, and let me know how I can best 
 serve you. . . . 
 
 "Should M. de Kray move forward, I shall again fall back to 
 Memmingen; I shall make General Lecourbe join me there, and we 
 shall fight. Should he march upon Augsburg, I shall march thither 
 too ; he will lose the support of Ulm, and then we shall see what is 
 to be done to cover you. 
 
 "It would be more advantageous for us to operate upon the left 
 bank of the Danube, and make Wurtemberg and Franconia contribute
 
 mayi8oo CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 193 
 
 to our support ; but that would not suit you, since the enemy might 
 send detachments into Italy, while leaving us to ravage the territory 
 of the empire. 
 
 " Be assured of my attachment. 
 
 (Signed) " Moreau." 
 
 A month and two days had elapsed, and if Moreau had not 
 obtained those prompt and decisive results which terminate a 
 whole campaign at one blow, as he might have done by passing 
 the Ehine at a single point, towards Schaffhausen, by throwing 
 himself en masse upon the left of M. de Kray, and by fighting 
 the battles of Engen and Mosskirch with his undivided force ; 
 or as he might likewise have done by throwing the Austrian 
 army into the Danube at Sigmaringen, by dislodging it, by main 
 force, from the camp at Ulm, or by obliging it to decamp by a 
 serious manoeuvre upon Augsburg ; still he had fulfilled the 
 essential condition of the plan of the campaign ; he had passed 
 the Rhine without accident, in the teeth of the Austrian army ; 
 he had fought two great battles with it, and, though the con- 
 centration of his forces had been very defective, he had gained 
 those battles by his firmness and his superior generalship in the 
 hour of action ; lastly, notwithstanding \\\s fumbling before Ulm, 
 he had shut up the Austrians around that place, and kept them 
 blockaded there, cutting them off from the route to Bavaria and 
 the Tyrol, and having it in his power to await himself, in a good 
 position, the turn of events in Italy. If we do not find in him 
 those superior, decided talents, which distinguish great captains, 
 we find at least a prudent, calm mind, repairing, by its coolness, 
 the faults of too confined an understanding and too irresolute 
 a character ; in a word, we find an excellent general, such as 
 other nations would fain have possessed, and such as Europe had 
 none to equal ; for it was the lot of France, at that period, — of 
 France, which already had General Bonaparte, to possess also 
 Moreau, Kleber, Desaix, Massena, St. Cyr, that is to say, the 
 best second-rate generals ; and be it borne in mind that she had 
 already produced Uumouriez and Pichegru! Time of marvellous 
 memory! which ought to inspire us with some confidence in 
 ourselves, and prove to Europe that all our glory in the present 
 century is not due to a single man, that it is not the result of 
 that very rare chance which begets such geniuses as Hannibal, 
 Caesar, and Xapoleon. 
 
 What might chiefly be alleged against Moreau was a want of 
 vigour in command: his suffering himself to be surrounded, con- 
 trolled, by a military coterie ; his allowing misunderstandings to 
 arise around him, depriving himself, in consequence, of his best 
 officers, and not knowing how to correct, by force of character, a 
 vicious organ i sal ion of 1 lie army, which disposed his lieutenants to
 
 194 HISTORY OF THE CONSULATE. may 1800 
 
 part company, and to acts of bad military brotherhood. Moreau's 
 chief fault, as we have said several times, as we shall too often 
 have occasion to repeat, lay in his character. Would that there 
 were a veil to conceal from our view, and capable of concealing 
 from others, the sad sequel in after years ! Would that there 
 were nought to damp our admiration of the noble and wary 
 exploits of that warrior, whose heart jealousy and exile had not 
 yet estranged ! 
 
 We must now transport ourselves to a different theatre, to 
 witness also a very different spectacle. Providence, so rich in 
 contrasts, will there exhibit to us a different mind, a different 
 character, a different fortune, and, for the honour of our 
 country, soldiers still the same, that is to say, still intelligent, 
 devoted, and intrepid.
 
 BOOK IV. 
 
 MARENGO. 
 
 THE First Consul was only waiting for news of the success of 
 the army of the Ehine to descend into the plains of Italy : 
 for unless Moreau were successful, he could not spare a detach- 
 ment of his troops, and M. de Kray was not so completely 
 separated from M. de Melas as to render it safe to manoeuvre 
 with freedom on the rear of the latter. The First Consul, there- 
 fore, waited with extreme impatience, resolved to leave Paris and 
 to take the command of the army of reserve as soon as he should 
 have certain and perfectly satisfactory intelligence concerning 
 the operations of Moreau. Time pressed, in fact, for Massena was 
 reduced in Genoa to the most cruel extremities. "We left him 
 there, struggling against the whole force of the Austrians, with 
 an army worn out with fatigue, and, in spite of its prodigious 
 inferiority, daily inflicting on the enemy considerable losses. On 
 the ioth of May, General Ott, having indulged in an indecorous 
 bravado, and informed Massena that he should fire his guns for 
 a victory gained over General Suchet — a piece of news which 
 was false, by-the-by — the illustrious defender of Genoa made an 
 energetic reply to this bravado. He sallied from Genoa in two 
 columns. The left, commanded by General Soult, ascended the 
 Bisagno, and turned the Monte Eatti ; the other, under Miollis, 
 attacked the Monte Eatti in front. The Austrians, vigorously 
 assailed, were thrown into the ravines, and lost that important 
 position and 1500 prisoners. In the evening, Massena returned 
 triumphant to the city of Genoa ; and, on the following morn- 
 ing, he wrote to General Ott, that he was firing his guns for his 
 victory on the preceding day : an heroic revenge, and worthy 
 of his noble soul ! 
 
 But this was the last of his successes, for his debilitated 
 soldiers could scarcely support the weight of their arms. On 
 the 13th of May (23rd Floreal) this energetic officer, yielding 
 to the advice of his generals, consented, almost in spite of him- 
 self, to an operation, the result of which was most disastrous. 
 The object of this operation was to take the Monte Creto, an 
 important position, which it would certainly have been most 
 desirable to wrest from the Austrians, because they would then
 
 196 HISTORY OF THE may 1800 
 
 have been removed to a considerable distance from Genoa : but, 
 unfortunately, there was little chance of its success. Massena, 
 though he had the greatest confidence in his army, for he daily 
 required and obtained of it the most strenuous efforts, did not 
 think it capable of carrying a position which the enemy would 
 defend with all his forces. He would have preferred an expedi- 
 tion to Porto Fino, along the sea-coast, to seize a considerable 
 store of provisions which he knew there was in that quarter. 
 Contrary to his custom, however, he gave way to his lieutenants, 
 and, on the morning of the 13th, marched upon the Monte 
 Creto. The battle was at first extremely brilliant ; unluckily, 
 a terrible storm, which lasted some hours, broke the energies of 
 our troops. The enemy had concentrated a large force on this 
 point, and he drove back our soldiers, dying of hunger and 
 fatigue, into the valleys. General Soult, making it a point of 
 honour to succeed in an expedition which he had advised, rallied 
 around him the third demi-brigade, led it back against the 
 enemy, and might, perhaps, have triumphed, had not a ball, 
 fracturing his leg, extended him on the field of battle. His 
 men would have carried him off, but they had not time ; and 
 this general, who had zealously seconded Massena during the 
 whole siege, was left in the hands of the enemy. 
 
 The army returned much mortified to Genoa ; but still it 
 brought back some prisoners. During the engagement, a riot of 
 women had taken place in the city. These wretched creatures, 
 urged by want, ran through the streets ringing bells, and de- 
 manding bread. They were soon dispersed, and the French 
 general was thenceforward almost wholly occupied in providing 
 subsistence for the population of Genoa, which showed, in other 
 respects, the noblest devotedness. There had been successively 
 procured, as we have seen, corn for a fortnight at first, and after- 
 wards for another fortnight. Subsequently, a vessel entering 
 the harbour of Genoa unexpectedly, had brought enough for 
 five days, so that supplies had been obtained for above a month. 
 The place had been blockaded ever since the 5th of April, and 
 these resources had lasted till the 10th of May. Seeing the 
 store of provisions diminish, he had reduced the ration allowed 
 daily to the people and to the army. Soup, made with herbs 
 and a small quantity of meat still left in the city, was substituted 
 for it. The wealthy inhabitants, indeed, found means to supply 
 themselves, at a most exorbitant price, with victuals, which had 
 escaped the search made by the police, for the purpose of apply- 
 ing them to the general use. Thus Massena had occasion to 
 trouble himself about the poor only, by whom the dearth was 
 particularly felt. He had imposed a contribution on the opulent 
 class for their benefit, and had thus won them to the side of the 
 French. For the rest, the majority of the population, dreading
 
 mayi8oo CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 197 
 
 the Austrians, and the political system of which they were the 
 champions, were determined to second Massena by their resigna- 
 tion. Struck by the energy of his character, their obedience to 
 him was equal to their admiration. Nevertheless, the oligarchic 
 party, making tools of some famishing wretches, strove to annoy 
 him by all possible contrivances. To overawe them, Massena 
 made his battalions bivouac in the principal places of the city, 
 with lighted matches to their guns. But the bread upon which 
 the people were still subsisting, and which was made of oats, 
 beans, and all the sorts of grain that could be procured, was on 
 the point of being exhausted : of meat, too, the city was likely 
 to be destitute. On the 20th of May, there would be left only 
 such articles as it was almost impossible to use for food. It 
 was, therefore, urgent to raise the blockade of the place before 
 the 20th of May, in order to prevent Massena being made 
 prisoner, with his whole army, and Baron Melas, who would 
 then have 30,000 men more at his disposal, from returning to 
 Piedmont, to close the ddbuucltes of the Alps. 
 
 The aide-de-camp Franceschi, charged to carry this intelli- 
 gence to the government, and who had contrived, by means of 
 address and audacity, to pass through the Austrians and the 
 English, had communicated to the First Consul the deplorable 
 state of the fortress of Genoa,. In consequence, the First 
 Consul redoubled his efforts to put the army of reserve in a 
 condition to cross the Alps. It was on this account that he had 
 sent Carnot to Germany, with a formal order of the Consuls, 
 to send off' the detachment destined to pass the St. Gothard. 
 He himself, occupied day and night, corresponding with 
 Berthier, who was organising the divisions of infantry and 
 cavalry, with Gassendi and Marmont, who were organising the 
 artillery, with Marescot, who was making reconnaissances along 
 the whole line of the Alps, he urged them all with that 
 persuasive ardour, which enabled him to lead the French from 
 the banks of the Po to the banks of the Jordan, from the banks 
 of the Jordan to those of the Danube and the Borysthenes. He 
 was not to quit Paris himself till the last moment, unwilling 
 to relinquish the political government of France, and to leave 
 free scope to intriguers and plotters, any longer than he could 
 possibly help. Meanwhile, the divisions which had set out from 
 La Vendee, Bretagne, Paris, and the banks of the Phone wen' 
 traversing the vast extent of the territory of the Pepublic, 
 and their heads of columns already made their appearance in 
 Switzerland. There were still at Dijon the depots of the corps, 
 besides some conscripts and some volunteers, sent to that city, 
 to give currency in Europe to tin; opinion that the army of 
 Dijon was a mere fable, destined solely to frighten M. de Melas. 
 Thus far all had proceeded according to wish : the illusion
 
 198 HISTORY OF THE may 1800 
 
 on the part of the Austrians was complete. The movements 
 of troops that were making towards Switzerland, scarcely 
 perceived, owing to the dispersion of the corps, passed for 
 reinforcements sent to the army in Germany. 
 
 At length, everything being ready, the First Consul made 
 his last arrangements. He received a message from the Senate, 
 from the Tribunate, and from the Legislative Body, conveying 
 to him the wishes of the nation that he might soon return 
 conqueror and peacemaker. He replied with a studied solemnity. 
 His answer was intended to concur with the articles of the 
 Moniteur in proving that his journey, announced with so much 
 parade, was, like the army of reserve, a feint, and nothing more. 
 He charged Cambaceres, the Consul, to preside in his place over 
 the Council of State, which at that time was, in some measure, 
 the entire government. Lebrun, the Consul, was commissioned 
 to supervise the administration of the finances. He said to each 
 of them : " Be firm ; if any event happens, be not uneasy. I 
 will come back like lightning, to crush the audacious wretches 
 who shall dare to lay hands upon the government." He particu- 
 larly charged his brothers, who were attached to him by a more 
 personal interest, to inform him of everything, and to give him a 
 signal to return, if his presence should become necessary. While 
 he was ostentatiously publishing his departure, the Consuls and 
 the ministers, on the contrary, were to tell the newsmongers, in 
 confidence, that the First Consul was leaving Paris for a few 
 days, and merely to review the troops ready to take the field. 
 
 For the rest, he set out full of hope and satisfaction. His 
 army contained many conscripts, but it contained also, and in 
 much greater number, soldiers inured to war, accustomed to 
 conquer, commanded by officers trained in his school ; he had, 
 moreover, absolute confidence in the profound conception of his 
 plan. According to the most recent intelligence, M. de Melas 
 continued advancing into Liguria, half his forces against Genoa, 
 half against the Var. On these tidings, the First Consul had 
 not the least doubt of the success of his enterprise, nay, he 
 already fixed, in his ardent imagination, the very point where he 
 should meet and overwhelm the Austrian army. One day, before 
 he set out, lying upon his maps, and placing upon them marks of 
 different colours, to denote the position of the French and the 
 Austrians, he said before his secretary, who listened with surprise 
 and curiosity, " Poor M. de Melas ! He will pass through Turin, 
 fall back upon Alexandria. ... I shall cross the Po, overtake 
 him on the road to Piacenza, in the plains of the Scrivia, and I 
 will beat him there, just there ; " and, at these words, he laid down 
 one of his marks at San Giuliano. The reader will presently be 
 able to judge what an extraordinary vision of the future this was. 
 
 He left Paris on the morning of the 6th of May, before it was
 
 mayi8oo CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 199 
 
 light, taking with him his aide-de-camp, Duroc, and his secretary, 
 M. de Bourrienne. On reaching Dijon, he reviewed the depots, 
 and the conscripts, who had been assembled there, but without 
 materiel, without any of the accessories indispensable for an 
 army ready to take the field. After this review, which was 
 designed to confirm the spies still more in the belief that the 
 army of Dijon was a pure invention, he proceeded to Geneva, 
 and from Geneva to Lausanne, where all was really serious, 
 where everything that was done would tend to undeceive the 
 incredulous, but would undeceive them too late for them to send 
 off information that could still be useful to Vienna. 
 
 On the 1 3th of May, General Bonaparte reviewed part of his 
 troops, and conferred with the officers whom he had appointed to 
 meet him, for the purpose of giving him an account of what they 
 had done, and of receiving his last orders. General Marescot, 
 charged with the reconnaissance of the Alps, was the one whom 
 he was most impatient to hear. On a comparison of all the 
 passes, it was in favour of the St. Bernard that this officer of 
 engineers decided ; but he considered the operation as extremely 
 difficult. " Difficult, granted ; but is it possible ? " replied the 
 First Consul. " I think so/' rejoined General Marescot, " but 
 with extraordinary efforts." " Then, let us start," was the only 
 answer of the First Consul. 
 
 It is time to explain the motives which decided him to choose 
 the St. Bernard. The St. Gothard was reserved for the troops 
 coming from Germany, and led by General Moncey. This pas- 
 sage was situated on their route, and was capable of furnishing 
 subsistence for 15,000 men at most; for the valleys of Upper 
 Switzerland were totally spoiled by the presence of the belli- 
 gerent armies. There were left the passes of the Simplon, the 
 Great St. Bernard, and Mont Cenis. These were not, as at the 
 present day, crossed by highroads. It was necessary to dis- 
 mount the carriages at the foot of the mountain, to forward them 
 upon sledges, and to remount them on the other side. These 
 passes presented all three nearly the same difficulties. Still, 
 Mont Cenis being more frequented, more beaten than the others, 
 presented, perhaps, on that account, fewer material obstacles ; 
 but it debouched upon Turin, that is to say, in the midst of the 
 Austrians, too near them, and was not sufficiently adapted to 
 the plan for enveloping them. The Simplon, on the contrary, 
 the most distant of all from the point of departure, presented 
 the opposite inconveniences. It debouched, it is true, in the 
 environs of Milan, in a rich country, far enough from the Aus- 
 trians, and quite in their rear ; but it presented one very great 
 difficulty, namely, that of the distances. To get to it, in fact, 
 it would have been necessary to ascend the whole length of the 
 Valais with the materiel of the army, which would have required
 
 200 HISTORY OF THE may 1800 
 
 means of transport that we had not at our disposal. Amidst 
 the arid and ice-covered valleys, which the troops would have 
 to traverse, they would be obliged to carry everything with 
 them, and it was not a matter of indifference to have a score 
 leagues more to travel. In the case of the passage of the St. 
 Bernard, on the contrary, there was no farther to go than the 
 road from Villeneuve to Martigny, that is, from the extremity 
 of the Lake of Geneva, the point where the means of navigation 
 ceased, to the foot of the mountain. It was a very little dis- 
 tance across. Besides, the St. Bernard debouched in the valley 
 of Aosta upon Ivrea, between the two roads of Turin and Milan, 
 in a very favourable direction for enveloping the Austrians. 
 Though more difficult, perhaps more dangerous, it deserved the 
 preference, on account of the shortness of the passage. 
 
 The First Consul, therefore, decided to lead the principal 
 mass of his forces over the St. Bernard itself. He took with 
 him all that was best in the army of reserve, about 40,000 men, 
 35,000 infantry and artillery, 5000 cavalry. At the same time, 
 wishing to draw off the attention of the Austrians, he conceived 
 the idea of making some detachments, which could not be united 
 with the bulk of the army, descend by other passes. Not far 
 from the Great St. Bernard is the Little St. Bernard, which, 
 from the heights of Savoy, debouches also in the valley of Aosta. 
 The First Consul directed General Chabran, with the 70th demi- 
 brigade, and some battalions of the East, full of conscripts, upon 
 this pass. This division, numbering from 5000 to 6000 men, 
 was to rejoin the principal column about Ivrea. Lastly, General 
 Thurreau, who, with 4000 men, troops of Liguria, defended 
 Mont Cenis, had orders to perform that passage, and to attempt 
 to penetrate to Turin. Thus the French army was to descend 
 from the Alps by four passes at once, the St. Gothard, the Great 
 and Little St. Bernard, and Mont Cenis. The principal mass, 
 40,000 strong, acting in the centre of this semicircle, had the 
 certainty of being joined by the 15,000 troops coming from 
 Germany, as well as by the troops of General Chabran, and, 
 perhaps, those of General Thurreau, which would compose a 
 total force of about 65,000 men, and disconcert the enemy, not 
 knowing, from the appearance of all these corps, towards which 
 point to direct his resistance. 
 
 The points of passage being fixed upon, it was necessary to 
 turn attention to the operation itself, which consisted in throwing 
 60,000 men, with their materiel, to the other side of the Alps, 
 without beaten roads, across rocks and glaciers, at the most for- 
 midable season of the year, that of the melting of the snow. 
 It is a very troublesome thing to have a park of artillery only 
 to drag with you, for each piece of cannon requires several 
 carriages after it, and, for sixty pieces of cannon, it would be
 
 mayi8oo CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 201 
 
 necessary to have about 300 ; but, in those elevated valleys, 
 some of them doomed to sterility by everlasting winter, others 
 scarcely large enough to feed their scanty inhabitants, no means 
 of subsistence were to be found. Bread would have to be carried 
 for the men, and even forage for the horses. The difficulty, 
 therefore, was immense. From Geneva to Villeneuve all was 
 easy, thanks to Lake Leman, and a navigation, equally com- 
 modious and rapid, of eighteen leagues. But from Villeneuve, 
 the extreme point of the lake, to Ivrea, the debouche" by which you 
 enter the rich plain of Piedmont, you have forty-five leagues to 
 travel, ten of them over the rocks and the glaciers of the great 
 chain. The route to Martigny, and from Martigny to St. Pierre, 
 was good for the carriages. There they would begin to ascend 
 tracks covered with snow, scarcely more than two or three feet 
 wide, bordered by precipices, liable, in the heat of the day, to be 
 overwhelmed by frightful avalanches. In these tracks, they 
 would have about ten leagues to march, ere they reached, on the 
 other side of the St. Bernard, the village of St. Eemy, in the 
 valley of Aosta. There they would find a road passable for 
 carriages, which led through Aosta, Chatillon, Bard, and Ivrea 
 into the plain of Piedmont. Of all these points, one only was 
 mentioned as being capable of presenting any difficulty ; this was 
 that of Bard, where, it was said, there existed a fort, which some 
 Italian officers had heard talked of, but which did not seem likely 
 to offer any serious obstacle. They had, therefore, as we have just 
 said, forty-five leagues to travel, carrying everything with them, 
 from the Lake of Geneva to the plains of Piedmont, and, of these 
 forty-five leagues, ten without any roads passable for carriages. 
 The following were the dispositions devised by the First 
 Consul for the conveyance of the materiel, and executed under 
 the direction of the Generals Marescot, Marmont, and Gassendi. 
 Immense stores of corn, biscuit, and oats, had been sent by the 
 Lake of Geneva to Villeneuve. General Bonaparte, knowing 
 that, with money, the assistance of the robust mountaineers of 
 the Alps might easily be obtained, had sent to the spot a consi- 
 derable sum in hard cash. All the chars-d-banc of the country, 
 all the mules, and all the peasants, had therefore been drawn, at 
 a high price, to this point, but during the last days only. By 
 these means, bread, biscuit, forage, wine, brandy, had been con- 
 veyed from Villeneuve to Martigny, and from Martigny to St. 
 Pierre, at the foot of the mountain. A sufficient quantity of 
 live cattle had been driven to the same place. The artillery, 
 with its waggons, had been removed thither. A company of 
 workmen, stationed at the foot of the col, at St. Pierre, was 
 employed in dismounting the guns and taking the carriages 
 to pieces, which pieces were marked with numbers, in order 
 that they might he carried by mules. The guns themselves,
 
 202 HISTORY OF THE may 1800 
 
 separated from their carriages, were to be placed on sledges with 
 low wheels, prepared at Auxonne. As for the ammunition of 
 the infantry and artillery, there had been provided a multitude 
 of small chests, which might easily be placed upon mules and 
 conveyed, like all the rest, by means of the beasts of burden of 
 the country. A second company of workmen, provided with 
 camp-forges, was to cross the mountain with the first division, 
 to establish itself in the village of St. Eemy, where the beaten 
 road began again, to put the gun-carriages together, and to 
 remount the pieces. Such was the enormous task that was 
 undertaken. There had been added to the army a company of 
 pontonniers, unprovided with materials requisite for forming 
 bridges, but destined to employ such as could not fail to be 
 obtained by conquest in Italy. 
 
 The First Consul had, moreover, taken care to gain the 
 assistance of the monks residing in the Hospice of the Great 
 St. Bernard. The whole world knows, that pious recluses, settled 
 there for ages, live in these frightful solitudes, above the in- 
 habited regions, for the purpose of saving travellers overtaken 
 by bad weather, and sometimes buried in the snow. The First 
 Consul had sent them, at the last moment, a sum of money, 
 that they might collect a great quantity of bread, cheese, and 
 wine. An hospital was prepared at St. Pierre, at the foot of 
 the col, and a second on the other side of the mountains at St. 
 Eemy. These two hospitals were to forward the wounded and 
 the sick, if there were any, to larger hospitals established at 
 Martigny and at Villeneuve. 
 
 All these arrangements being completed, the troops began to 
 appear. General Bonaparte, established at Lausanne, inspected 
 them all, spoke to them, animated them with the ardour that 
 filled himself, and prepared them for the glorious enterprise, 
 which History would place beside the great expedition of Han- 
 nibal. He had taken care to order two inspections, a first at 
 Lausanne, a second at Villeneuve. There every infantry and 
 cavalry soldier was to be inspected, and, by means of temporary 
 magazines formed in each of those places, the men were fur- 
 nished with such shoes, clothing, and arms as they needed. The 
 precaution was useful, for, notwithstanding all the pains that he 
 had taken, the First Consul saw veterans arrive whose clothes 
 were worn out and whose arms were unserviceable. He com- 
 plained vehemently on this subject, and caused the omissions, 
 arising from the hurry or the negligence of the agents, always 
 inevitable to a certain degree, to be supplied. He had even 
 carried his foresight to such an extent as to cause saddlers' 
 workshops to be placed at the foot of the col, for repairing 
 the harness of the artillery. He had himself written several 
 letters on this subject, apparently so trivial ; and we mention this
 
 may 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 203 
 
 circumstance for the instruction of generals and the governments 
 to whom the lives of men are entrusted, and who have frequently 
 either the idleness or the vanity to neglect such details. Nothing, 
 in fact, that can contribute to the success of operations and to 
 the safety of the soldiers is beneath the genius or the rank of 
 the officers who command. 
 
 The divisions marched en Echelon from the Jura to the foot 
 of the St. Bernard, to avoid confusion. The First Consul was 
 at Martigny, in a convent of Bernardins. There he issued all 
 orders, and was in constant correspondence with Paris, and 
 with the other armies of the Republic. He received intelligence 
 from Liguria, that M. de Melas, still swayed by the greatest 
 illusions, was most zealously exerting himself to take Genoa, 
 and to force the bridge of the Var. Satisfied on this important 
 point, he at length gave orders for the passage. As for himself, 
 he remained on this side of the St. Bernard, that he might corre- 
 spond as long as possible with the government, and despatch 
 everything himself across the mountains. Berthier, on the con- 
 trary, was to proceed to the other side of the St. Bernard, to 
 receive the divisions and the maUriel, which the First Consul 
 was to send to him. 
 
 Lannes passed first, at the head of the advanced guard, in the 
 night between the 14th and 1 5th of May (24th and 25 th Floreal). 
 He commanded six regiments of picked troops, perfectly armed, 
 and which, under this fiery leader, sometimes insubordinate, but 
 always so able and so valiant, gaily commenced this adventurous 
 march. They set out between twelve o'clock and two in the 
 morning, to gain the start of the moment when the heat of the 
 sun, melting the snow, brings down mountains of ice upon the 
 head of the rash travellers who venture into these frightful 
 gorges. It took eight hours to reach the summit of the col, on 
 which the Hospice of St. Bernard is situated, and two hours only 
 to descend to St. Eemy : consequently, there was time to pass 
 before the moment of the greatest danger. The soldiers sur- 
 mounted with ardour the difficulties of this route. They were 
 heavily laden, for they had been obliged to carry biscuit for 
 several days, and along with the biscuit a great quantity of ball 
 cartridges. They climbed those steep tracks, singing amidst 
 the precipices, dreaming of the conquest of that Italy where 
 they had so often tasted the delights of victory, and having a 
 noble presentiment of the immortal glory which they were about 
 to acquire. The labour was not so great for the infantry as for 
 the cavalry. These walked themselves, leading their horses by 
 the bridle. There was no danger in ascending, but in the 
 descent, the path being very narrow 7 , obliging them to walk 
 before the horse, they were liable, if the animal made a false 
 step, to be dragged by him into the abyss. Some accidents of
 
 20 4 HISTORY OF THE may 1800 
 
 this kind, not many, did actually happen, and some horses 
 perished, but scarcely any of the men. Towards morning, they 
 reached the hospice, and there a surprise, provided by the 
 First Consul, renewed the strength and the good humour of those 
 brave troops. The monks, having supplied themselves with the 
 requisite provisions, had prepared tables, and served out a ration 
 of bread, cheese, and wine to every soldier. After resting for 
 a moment, they resumed their march, and descended to St. Eemy 
 without any unpleasant accident. Lannes immediately estab- 
 lished himself on the back of the mountain, and made all the 
 necessary dispositions for receiving the other divisions, and 
 particularly the mattriel. 
 
 One of the divisions of the army was to pass every day. 
 The operation would, therefore, last several days, especially on 
 account of the maUricl, which it was requisite to forward with 
 the divisions. While the troops were successively coming up, 
 others fell to work. The provisions and ammunition were moved 
 off first. For this part of the materiel, which might be divided, 
 and placed on the backs of mules in small chests, the difficulty 
 was not so great as for the rest. It consisted only in the 
 insufficiency of the means of transport ; for, notwithstanding 
 the lavish expenditure of money, there were not so many mules 
 as were required for the enormous weight that was to be carried 
 to the other side of the St. Bernard. However, the provisions 
 and ammunition, having crossed along with the divisions of the 
 army, and with the assistance of the soldiers, the artillery at 
 length demanded attention. The gun-carriages and the ammu- 
 nition waggons had been taken to pieces, as we have said, and 
 placed upon mules. The cannon themselves were still left, 
 and their weight could not be reduced by the division of the 
 load. With the twelve-pounders, in particular, and with the 
 howitzers, the difficulty was greater than had been at first 
 expected. The sledges upon wheels, constructed in the arsenals, 
 could not be used. A method was contrived, tried immediately, 
 and found to answer; this was, to split the trunks of fir-trees 
 in two, to hollow them out, to encase each piece of artillery 
 within two of these half trunks, and to drag it thus covered 
 along the ravines. Owing to these precautions, no collision 
 could damage it. Mules were harnessed to this singular load, 
 and served to draw several pieces to the summit of the col. 
 But the descent was more difficult : that could only be effected 
 by strength of arms, and by incurring infinite dangers, because 
 it was necessary to keep hold of the piece, and, while holding, 
 to prevent it from slipping down the precipices. Unfortunately, 
 the mules began to be knocked up. The muleteers also, a great 
 number of whom were required, were exhausted. It was then 
 proposed to have recourse to other means. The peasants of the
 
 may 1 800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 205 
 
 environs were offered so much as a thousand francs for every 
 piece of cannon which they should agree to drag from St. Pierre 
 to St. Eemy. It took a hundred men to drag each, one day to 
 get it up and another to get it down. Some hundreds of 
 peasants came forward, and actually took several pieces of 
 cannon across, under the direction of artillerymen. But even 
 the allurement of gain was not strong enough to induce them to 
 repeat the effort. All of them disappeared, and though officers 
 were sent in quest of them, and made large offers to bring them 
 back, these were of no avail, so that it was found necessary to 
 ask the soldiers of the divisions to drag their artillery themselves. 
 From such devoted soldiers, anything might be obtained. To 
 encourage them, they were promised the money which the dis- 
 heartened peasants would not earn ; but they refused it, saying 
 that it was a point of honour for a body of troops to save their 
 cannon, and they laid hold of the forsaken pieces. Parties of 
 one hundred men, successively quitting the ranks, dragged them, 
 each in its turn. The band played enlivening airs at difficult 
 points of the passage, and encouraged them to surmount obstacles 
 of so novel a nature. On reaching the summit of the mountain, 
 they found refreshment prepared by the monks of St. Bernard ; 
 and they took some rest before they made greater and more 
 perilous efforts in the descent. In this manner, Chambarlhac's 
 and Monnier's divisions dragged their artillery themselves ; and, 
 as the advanced hour did not permit them to descend the same 
 day, they chose rather to bivouac on the snow than to leave 
 their cannon. Luckily, the weather was serene ; so that they 
 had not its inclemency to endure, in addition to the difficulties 
 of the ground. 
 
 On the 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th, and 20th of May, the divisions 
 continued to cross, with the provisions, ammunition, and artillery. 
 The First Consul, still quartered at Martigny, urged the for- 
 warding of the materiel ; Berthier, on the other side of the St. 
 Bernard, received it, and had it repaired by the workmen. The 
 First Consul, whose foresight was ever active, bethought him 
 immediately of pushing Lannes. who already had his division 
 collected, and some four-pounders ready to start, upon the 
 cUbouchd of the mountains, for the purpose of securing it. He 
 ordered him to advance to Ivrea, and to take that town, with 
 a view to make himself master of the entrance to the plain of 
 Piedmont. Lannes marched, on the 16th and 17th of May, 
 upon Aosta, where lie found some Croats, who were driven into 
 the bottom of the valley; he then proceeded towards the little 
 town of Chatillon, when; he arrived on the iSth. A battalion 
 of the enemy, which happened to be there, was put to rout, and 
 lost a good number of prisoners. Lannes then entered the valley, 
 which, as the troops descended, gradually widened and exhibited
 
 206 HISTORY OF THE may 1800 
 
 to the delighted eyes of our men habitations, trees, cultivated 
 fields, all the forerunners, in short, of Italian fertility. These 
 brave fellows marched gaily forward, when the valley again con- 
 tracting, presented a narrow gorge, closed by a fort bristling 
 with cannon. This was the fort of Bard, already pointed out as 
 an obstacle by several Italian officers, but as an obstacle that 
 might be surmounted. The officers of engineers attached to the 
 advanced guard went forward, and, after a hasty reconnaissance, 
 declared that the fort completely obstructed the road through 
 the valley, and that it could not be passed without forcing this 
 barrier, which seemed nearly insurmountable. This intelligence, 
 circulated in the division, excited the most painful surprise. 
 The nature of that unforeseen obstacle was this : — 
 
 The valley of Aosta is traversed by a river, which receives 
 all the streams from the St. Bernard, and which, by the name 
 of Dora Baltea, discharges itself into the Po. On approaching 
 Bard the valley contracts ; the road, running between the foot 
 of the mountains and the bed of the river, becomes gradually 
 narrower, and, at length, a rock, which seems to have fallen 
 from the neighbouring heights into the middle of the valley, 
 closes it almost completely. The river then runs on one side 
 of the rock, the road on the other. This road, bordered by 
 houses, composes the whole town of Bard. On the summit of 
 the rock, a fort, impregnable from its position, though ill-con- 
 structed, sweeps with its fire, on the right, the course of the 
 Dora Baltea, on the left, the long street which forms the very 
 little town of Bard. Drawbridges closed the entry and the 
 outlet of this single street. A garrison, not numerous, but well 
 officered, occupied the fort. 
 
 Lannes, who was not a man to be daunted, immediately 
 despatched a few companies of grenadiers, who let down the 
 drawbridges, and entered Bard, in spite of a very brisk fire. 
 The commandant of Bard poured forth a shower of balls, chiefly 
 howitzer, upon the unfortunate town ; but, at length, he paused, 
 out of consideration for the inhabitants. Lannes' division posted 
 itself outside. It was evidently impossible for the maUriel of 
 an army to pass under the fire of the fort, which swept the 
 road in all directions. Lannes immediately made his report to 
 Berthier, who hastened to the spot, and perceived with horror 
 how difficult the obstacle which had just revealed itself was to 
 overcome. General Marescot was sent for ; he examined the 
 fort, and declared it to be almost impregnable, not on account 
 of its construction, which was indifferent, but its position, which 
 was completely detached. The steepness of the rock scarcely 
 admitted of escalade ; as for the walls, though they were not 
 covered by any earthworks, they could not be battered in breach, 
 because there were no means of establishing a battery suitably
 
 mayiSoo CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 207 
 
 placed for reaching them. Still, it was possible, by dint of 
 strength, to hoist upon the neighbouring heights a few pieces of 
 small calibre. Berthier gave orders accordingly. The soldiers, 
 who were made for arduous enterprises, laboured to get up two 
 four-pounders, and even two eight-pounders. They at length 
 succeeded in hoisting them up on the mountain of Albaredo, 
 which commands the fort and rock of Bard ; and a downward 
 fire suddenly opened, excited some astonishment in the garrison. 
 Not disheartened, however, it replied, and dismounted one of 
 our pieces, which was of too small calibre. 
 
 Marescot declared that there was no hope of taking the fort, 
 and that they must think of some other way of overcoming the 
 obstacle. Reconnaissances were made on the left, along the 
 windings of the mountain of Albaredo, and at length there was 
 found a path, which, amidst many dangers — many more than the 
 St. Bernard itself had presented — led to the highroad of the 
 valley, which rejoined below the fort, at St. Donaz. This path, 
 though crossing a mountain of the second order, was at least as 
 difficult to traverse as the St. Bernard, because it was fre- 
 quented only by shepherds and their flocks. If it should be 
 necessary to go through a second operation like that which had 
 just been executed, and pass this new col by again dismounting 
 and remounting of the artillery, and dragging it along with 
 similar efforts, the strength of the army might prove inade- 
 quate, and this maUriel, so often taken to pieces and put together, 
 might likewise be rendered unfit for use. Berthier, in alarm, 
 instantly issued counter-orders to the columns that were suc- 
 cessively arriving, and caused the advance of the men and the 
 maUriel to be everywhere suspended, that the army might not 
 come any further, lest it should at last have to turn back. In 
 a moment, an alarm was spread upon the rear, and the troops 
 imagined that they were stopped in this glorious enterprise. 
 Berthier sent several couriers to the First Consul, to apprise 
 him of this unexpected disappointment. 
 
 The latter was still at Martigny, purposing not to cross the 
 St. Bernard till, with his own eyes, he had seen the last portions 
 of the maUriel despatched. These tidings of an obstacle deemed 
 insurmountable gave him at first a kind of shock ; but he soon 
 recovered himself, and obstinately refused to entertain the idea 
 of a retrograde movement. Nothing in the world could have 
 induced him to submit to such an extremity. He thought that, 
 if one of the highest mountains of the globe had not stopped 
 him, a secondary rock would not be capable of battling his 
 courage and his genius. "They will take the fort," said lie, 
 "by a bold stroke: if it is not to be taken it must be turned. 
 Besides, provided the infantry and cavalry can pass with a few 
 four-pounders, they will proceed tolvrea, at the entrance of the
 
 208 HISTORY OF THE may 1800 
 
 plain, and there wait till the heavy artillery can follow them. 
 If this heavy artillery cannot clear the obstacle that has pre- 
 sented itself ; and if, to replace it, they must take that of the 
 enemy, the French infantry is numerous and brave enough to 
 fall upon the Austrian artillery, and to carry off their guns." 
 Again he resorted to the study of his maps ; he questioned a 
 great number of Italian officers, and, learning from them that 
 other roads led from Aosta to the surrounding valleys, he wrote 
 letter after letter to Berthier, forbidding him to interrupt the 
 movement of the army, and indicated with astonishing precision 
 the reconnaissances that ought to be made around the fort of 
 Bard. Satisfied that no serious danger could arise, except from 
 the arrival of a hostile corps to close the dflxmchd of Ivrea, he 
 enjoined Berthier to send Lannes on by the path of Albaredo, 
 and to make him there take a strong position, covered from the 
 Austrian artillery and cavalry. " Provided Lannes keep the 
 door of the valley," added the First Consul, " no matter what 
 may occur — at worst we can but lose a little time. We have a 
 sufficient quantity of provisions to wait, and we shall gain our 
 point at last, either by turning, or by overcoming the obstacle 
 which stops us at this moment." 
 
 Having given these instructions to Berthier, he addressed his 
 last orders to General Moncey, who was to debouch from the 
 St. Gothard ; to General Chabran, who, crossing the Little St. 
 Bernard, would come right upon the fort of Bard ; and he at 
 length determined to cross the mountains himself. Before he 
 set out, he received intelligence from the Var, that, on the 14th 
 of May (24th Floreal), the Baron de Melas was still at Nice. 
 As it was now the 20th of May, it was not to be supposed that 
 the Austrian general had hurried, in the space of six days, 
 from Nice to Ivrea. He set out, therefore, to cross the col, 
 before daylight on the 20th. He was accompanied by Duroc, 
 his aide-de-camp, and de Bourrienne, his secretary. Artists have 
 delineated him crossing the Alpine heights mounted on a fiery 
 steed. The plain truth is, that he ascended the St. Bernard in 
 that grey surtout which he usually wore, upon a mule, led by a 
 guide belonging to the country, evincing, even in the difficult 
 passes, the abstraction of a mind occupied elsewhere, conversing 
 with the officers scattered on the road, and then, at intervals, 
 questioning the guide who attended him, making him relate 
 the particulars of his life, his pleasures, his pains, like an idle 
 traveller, who has nothing better to do. This guide, who was 
 quite young, gave him a simple recital of the details of his 
 obscure existence, and especially the vexation he felt, because, 
 for want of a little money, he could not marry one of the girls 
 of his valley. The First Consul, sometimes listening, some- 
 times questioning the passengers with whom the mountain was
 
 mayi8oo CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 209 
 
 covered, arrived at the hospice, where the worthy monks gave 
 him a warm reception. No sooner had he alighted from his 
 mule than he wrote a note which he handed to his guide, desir- 
 ing him to be sure and deliver it to the quartermaster of the 
 army, who had been left on the other side of the St. Bernard. 
 In the evening, the young man, on returning to St. Pierre, 
 learned with surprise what powerful traveller it was whom he 
 had guided in the morning, and that General Bonaparte had 
 ordered that a house and a piece of ground should be given to 
 him immediately, and that he should be supplied, in short, with 
 the means requisite for marrying and for realising all the dreams 
 of his modest ambition. This mountaineer died not long since, 
 in his own country, the owner of land given to him by the ruler 
 of the world. This singular act of beneficence, at a moment 
 when his mind was engaged by such mighty interests, is worthy 
 of attention. If there were nothing in it but a mere conqueror's 
 caprice, dispensing at random good or evil, alternatively over- 
 throwing empires or rearing a cottage, it may be useful to 
 record such caprices, if only to tempt the masters of the earth 
 to imitation; but such an act reveals something more. The 
 human soul, in those moments when it is filled with ardent 
 desires, is disposed to kindness ; it does good by way of meriting 
 that which it is soliciting of Providence. 
 
 The First Consul halted for a short time with the monks, 
 thanked them for their attentions to his army, and made them a 
 magnificent present, for the relief of the poor and of travellers. 
 
 He descended rapidly, suffering himself, according to the 
 custom of the country, to glide down upon the snow, and arrived 
 the same evening at Etroubles. Next day, after paying some 
 attention to the park of artillery and to the provisions, he set 
 out for Aosta and Bard. Having ascertained that all he had 
 been told was true, he resolved to send the infantry, the cavalry, 
 and the four-pounders by the path of Albaredo, which would be 
 possible if the path were repaired. All the troops were to go 
 and take possession of the cUbouchd of the mountains in advance 
 of Ivrea, and the First Consul designed, meanwhile, to make some 
 attempt on the fort, or at least find means to turn this obstacle, 
 by making his artillery cross one of the neighbouring eols. He 
 ordered General Lecchi, at the head of the Italians, to ascend on 
 the left, to penetrate by the Grassoney road into the valley of the 
 Sesia, which terminates near the Simplon and Lake Maggiore. 
 
 The object of this movement was to keep the Simplon road 
 open, to give the hand to a detachment that was descending 
 by it, and to reconnoitre, in short, all the roads passable for 
 wheel-carriages. 
 
 The First Consul, at the same time, directed his attention to 
 the fort of Bard. The French were in possession of the only 
 
 vol. 1. O
 
 210 HISTORY OF THE may 1800 
 
 street composing the town, but could only pass through it under 
 such a shower of balls that it would be scarcely possible to get 
 through with artillery, though the distance was but two or three 
 hundred fathoms. The commandant was summoned, but he re- 
 plied with firmness, like a man fully sensible of the importance 
 of the post entrusted to his courage. Force alone, then, could 
 make us masters of the pass. The artillery which had been 
 planted on the mountain of Albaredo produced no great effect ; 
 an escalade was attempted on the outer in closure of the fort ; 
 but some brave grenadiers, and Dufour, an excellent officer, 
 were uselessly wounded or killed. All the while, the troops 
 were proceeding along the path of Albaredo. Fifteen hun- 
 dred labourers had done the most urgent repairs required 
 by that path. In places where it was narrow, it had been 
 widened by the removal of gravel from the sides ; too rapid 
 slopes had been diminished by cutting steps to prevent the feet 
 from slipping ; in other places, trunks of trees were thrown over 
 ravines, which it would otherwise have been too difficult to cross, 
 and used as bridges. The army advanced successively, man 
 by man, the cavalry leading their horses by the bridle. The 
 Austrian officer commanding the fort of Bard, seeing our troops 
 filing in this manner, and mortified at not having it in his power 
 to stop their march, sent word to M. de Melas, that he had 
 witnessed the passage of a whole army, infantry and cavalry, 
 without possessing the means of obstructing it, but he pledged 
 his life that it would arrive without a single piece of cannon. 
 
 Meanwhile, our artillery made a remarkably bold attempt ; 
 this was, to pass with a piece beneath the very guns of the fort, 
 under favour of the night. The enemy, unluckily warned by the 
 noise, threw pot-grenadoes, which lighted the road as though it 
 had been broad day, and enabled them to pour upon it a shower 
 of projectiles. Out of thirteen artillerymen who had volunteered 
 to draw that piece of cannon, seven were killed or wounded. 
 This was sufficient to dishearten the bravest men ; when an 
 ingenious method, though withal a very dangerous one, was 
 thought of. The street was covered with straw and dung; tow 
 was fastened about the pieces, so as to prevent the slightest sound 
 from the jar of those masses of metal upon their carriages ; the 
 horses were unharnessed, bold artillerymen, dragging them by 
 main strength, ventured to pass under the batteries of the fort, 
 along the street of Bard. This contrivance succeeded com- 
 pletely. The enemy, who fired from time to time, by way of 
 precaution, hit some of our gunners ; but very soon, in spite of 
 this fire, all the heavy artillery was removed beyond the defile, 
 and this formidable obstacle, which had given the First Consul 
 more concern than the St. Bernard itself, was overcome. The 
 artillery horses had taken the path of Albaredo.
 
 mayi8oo CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 211 
 
 While this bold operation was performing, Lannes, marching 
 at the head of his infantry, carried, on the 22nd of May, the 
 town of Ivrea, which had not been repaired since the wars of 
 Louis XIV., and which, from a singular but tardy presentiment, 
 the Austrian staff had just set about arming. The defences of 
 Ivrea consisted in a citadel, detached from the body of the place, 
 and in bastioned ramparts. The brave General Watrin, at the 
 head of his division, attacked the citadel ; Lannes himself 
 advanced against the body of the place, and the soldiers took 
 both by escalade. Five or six thousand Austrians, half of them 
 cavalry, who were there, retired in the utmost haste. Lannes 
 made some prisoners, drove them out of the valley, and took 
 up a position at the entrance of the plain of Piedmont, at the 
 points designated by the First Consul. Some days later, and 
 the town of Ivrea, defended by the Austrians, would have been 
 not an insuperable obstacle, but a serious annoyance. Cannon 
 and provisions were found there ; Lannes completed its arma- 
 ment, and victualled it, so as to make it, in case of reverse, one 
 of the supports of our line of retreat. 
 
 While these events were passing, General Chabran was de- 
 scending with his division by the Little St. Bernard ; and, as that 
 division contained many conscripts recently incorporated, it was 
 employed in the blockade of the fort of Bard, which would not 
 hold out long, when it should see itself without resource, and the 
 artillery beyond its reach, so that it could no longer stop its 
 march. General Thurreau, at the head of a corps of 4000 men, 
 carried the diboucliA of Susa, made 1500 prisoners, and took some 
 cannon. He was obliged to halt at the entrance of the valley, 
 between Suza and Bussolino. General Lecchi, with the Italians, 
 turning the valley of the Sesia, repulsed de Rohan's division, 
 took some hundreds of men from it, disengaged the debouche" of 
 the Simplon, and gave a hand to a detachment of the division left 
 in Switzerland at the commencement of the campaign. Lastly, 
 the coi*ps of General Moncey, distributed en ecliclon over a great 
 space in the valley of the St. Gothard, began to ascend the heights. 
 
 Thus the general movement of the army was effected upon all 
 points with complete success. It was time to leave the valley 
 of Aosta. Lannes, always at the advanced guard, quitted that 
 valley on the 26th of May (6th Prairial), and no longer hesitated 
 to show himself in the plain. The Austrian general, Haddick, 
 was charged to watch this debouchd of the Alps with some thou- 
 sand infantry and his numerous cavalry. He was covered by a 
 little river, the Chiusella, which falls into tin 1 Dora Baltea. A 
 bridge served for crossing this stream. Lannes marched briskly 
 thither with his infantry. A fire of artillery, sudden and well 
 directed, received our battalions, but did not prevent them from 
 advancing. The brave Colonel Macon entered the bed of the
 
 212 HISTORY OF THE may 1800 
 
 river with his demi-brigade, crossed it above and below the 
 bridge, and clambered up the opposite bank. The Austrian 
 cavalry, commanded by General Pally, then determined to charge 
 this demi-brigade. The general fell dead, and his men were 
 dispersed. The French, rejoined by the rest of Lannes' division, 
 advanced, pursuing the enemy with their accustomed vivacity. 
 General Haddick, taking advantage of the disorder of this pur- 
 suit, pushed on his squadrons at the most seasonable moment. 
 The 6th light was obliged to halt ; but the 22nd, formed in 
 close column, repulsed by its fire alone this new charge of the 
 Austrian cavalry. Some thousand horse then dashed forward 
 at once to try a last effort against our infantry. The 40th and 
 22nd demi-brigades, formed in square, sustained with extra- 
 ordinary firmness this formidable shock. Three times they were 
 charged, and three times the enemy's squadrons were foiled by 
 their bayonets. General Haddick, finding himself unable to 
 withstand the advanced guard of the French army, gave orders 
 for retreating, and, after losing many men, killed or wounded, 
 and some prisoners, he relinquished the plain of Piedmont to 
 Lannes, and retired behind the Oreo. Lannes continued his 
 march, and, on the 28th of May (8th Prairial), proceeded towards 
 Ohivasso, on the bank of the Po. The Austrians, alarmed at this 
 sudden invasion, hastened to evacuate Turin. Barks were de- 
 scending the Po, laden with corn, rice, ammunition, and wounded. 
 Lannes seized all these convoys. The abundance prepared by 
 the Austrians for their army was soon to give delight to ours. 
 
 Thirteen days had elapsed, and the stupendous enterprise of 
 the First Consul had completely succeeded. An army of 40,000 
 men, infantry, cavalry, artillery, had crossed, without beaten 
 roads, the highest mountains in Europe, dragging by main 
 strength its artillery over the snow, or pushing it under the mur- 
 derous fire of a fort, and almost close to the muzzle of its guns. 
 A division of 5000 men had descended the Little St. Bernard ; 
 another of 4000 had debouched by Mont Cenis ; a detachment 
 occupied the Simplon ; lastly, a corps of 15,000 French, under 
 General Moncey, was on the top of the St. Gothard. There 
 were thus in all sixty and odd thousand soldiers about to enter 
 Italy, still separated, it is true, from one another by considerable 
 distances, but certain of soon rallying around a principal mass 
 of 40,000 men, who were debouching by Ivrea, at the centre of 
 the semicircle of the Alps. And this extraordinary march was 
 not a whim of a general who, to turn an adversary, ran the risk 
 of being turned himself. Master of the valley of Aosta, of the 
 Simplon, and of the St. Gothard, General Bonaparte was certain 
 that, if he lost a battle, he should have it in his power to return 
 to the point from which he had set out ; at the worst, he could 
 only sacrifice some of his artillery, if he were closely pressed on
 
 mayi8oo CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 213 
 
 his march. Having thenceforward nothing to conceal, he re- 
 paired in person to Chivasso, harangued the troops, congratulated 
 them on their firmness before the Austrian cavalry, announced 
 the important results which he foresaw, showed himself not 
 only to his soldiers, but to the Italians, to the Austrians, that 
 he might now scare, by his formidable presence, the enemy whom 
 before he wished to lull into profound security. 
 
 What was Baron de Melas about in the meantime ? Made 
 quite easy, by the cabinet of Vienna and by his own agents, 
 respecting that fabulous army of reserve, this general continued 
 the siege of Genoa, and the attack on the bridge of the Var. 
 He had suffered considerable losses at these two points ; but, 
 for the rest, he persisted in believing that the assemblages made 
 at Dijon were but a rabble of conscripts, destined to fill the 
 gaps in the ranks of the two armies of the Rhine and of Liguria. 
 Intelligence, which reached him about the middle of May, gave 
 him some uneasiness about his rear ; nevertheless, he soon dis- 
 missed his apprehensions, and resumed the notion that the 
 troops collected at Dijon were to march direct down the Saone 
 and the Rhone, to join the corps of General Suchet on the Var. 
 Instead of sending troops by the Col de Tende into Piedmont, 
 he kept all his forces, under General Elsnitz, before the bridge 
 of the Var. At length the French columns, debouching from 
 all the valleys of the Alps at once, seen and described with the 
 most complete certainty by General Wukassowich, roused him 
 at last from his illusions, but still without entirely undeceiving 
 him. He left General Ott with 30,000 men before Genoa, 
 General Elsnitz with 20,000 before the bridge of the Var ; the 
 latter were to be reinforced by the troops of General St. Julien, 
 which became disposable after the reduction of Savona ; and he 
 turned back, with a detachment of 10. OOO men, across the Col 
 de Tende, for Coni. On the 22nd of May, he reached the latter 
 place. Till this moment, the Austrian general had conceived 
 that the French troops which had been met with were only 
 bodies of conscripts, employed to make a demonstration on his 
 rear, to induce him to break up the siege of Genoa ; and he 
 could not yet think that it was General Bonaparte himself, at 
 the head of a large army. But this last illusion of his speedily 
 vanished. One of his officers, who was perfectly acquainted with 
 the person of General Bonaparte, was sent to Chivasso, on the 
 bank of the Po. This officer beheld with his own eyes the con- 
 queror of Castiglione and Rivoli, and despatched intelligence to 
 that effect to his commander-in-chief, who, not till then, could 
 estimate the whole extent of his danger ; for it was not of an 
 assemblage of conscripts that the First Consul would have deigned 
 to take the command. This was not all ; it was doubted whether 
 the French had cannon, but the report of their artillery had just
 
 2 1 4 HIS TOR Y OF THE may i 800 
 
 been heard at the Chiusella. The estimable old general, who had 
 displayed incontestable ability during the preceding campaign, 
 was thenceforth a prey to the most cruel anxiety. Every day 
 added to his alarm, for he soon learned that General Moncey's 
 heads of columns were descending from the St. Gothard. 
 
 He was, in fact, in a situation peculiarly critical. Out of 
 120,000 men, he had lost at least 25,000 men before Genoa and 
 the Var. Those which he had left were dispersed : General Ott, 
 with 30,000 men, was before Genoa; General Elsnitz, with 
 25,000, before the bridge of the Var ; General Kaim, charged to 
 guard the dibouchds of Susa and Pignerol with about 12,000 
 men, had lost Susa, and was retiring upon Turin. General Had- 
 dick, who, with nearly 9000, was to guard the valleys of Aosta 
 and the Sesia, had just fallen back before Lannes ; General 
 Wukassowich, who, with 10.000 men, was observing the valleys 
 of the Simplon and of the St. Gothard — what was to become of 
 him before Moncey ? Baron de Melas himself was at Turin, 
 with a corps of 10,000 men, brought back from Nice. Was it not 
 General Bonaparte's intention to sweep down amidst all these 
 scattered corps, to beat them one after another, and to destroy 
 them ? Perhaps there would still have been time to take salu- 
 tary resolutions, provided they had been planned and executed 
 immediately ; but the Austrian general lost some days in re- 
 covering himself, in coming to a definitive opinion respecting the 
 plans of his adversary, in forming his own, and in making up 
 his mind to the sacrifices that must attend a concentration of his 
 forces ; for he should be obliged to abandon at once the Var, 
 perhaps Genoa, and certainly a great part of Piedmont. 
 
 While he was yet deliberating, General Bonaparte, on his 
 part, had formed his determinations with his accustomed prompt- 
 ness and resolution. The determinations which he had to take 
 were not less grave than those of his adversary. If the Austrians 
 were scattered, so were the French ; for they were descend- 
 ing by Mont Cenis, by the Great and Little St. Bernard, by 
 the Simplon, and by the St. Gothard. It was necessary to 
 unite them, then to cut off all retreat from Baron de Melas ; 
 and, lastly, to raise the blockade of Massena, who, at that 
 moment, must be reduced to the last extremity. 
 
 When he had descended the St. Bernard, General Bonaparte 
 had on his right Mont Cenis and Turin, on his left the St. 
 Gothard and Milan, and, fifty leagues before him, Genoa and 
 Massdna. What course was he to take ? To appuy on the 
 right upon Mont Cenis, in order to call in the 4000 men under 
 General Thurreau, would be of little advantage. He would thus 
 run the risk of meeting immediately with M. de Melas, which, 
 to be sure, would not be very dangerous, dispersed as his forces 
 were ; but, by appuying to the right, he should relinquish to
 
 mayi8oo CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 215 
 
 him on the left the Milan or Piacenza road to retreat by. It 
 was, indeed, not worth while to have made such great efforts to 
 throw himself across the Alps upon the communications of the 
 enemy, if, after having occupied them, he were to leave them 
 open. To proceed straight forward, to cross the Po, to fly to 
 Genoa, amidst dispersed corps of the Austrian army, neglecting 
 General Thurreau on his right, General Moncey on his left, and 
 endangering all his own communications, would not be wise, not 
 worthy of the prudence which had combined all the parts of this 
 plan with as much reflection as boldness. He knew not what 
 assemblage of forces might be met with upon that route ; he 
 should sacrifice his line of retreat towards the Alps, by leaving 
 to themselves Generals Thurreau and Moncey, who would most 
 probably he obliged to fall back on Mont Cenis and the St. 
 Gothard, God knows after what adventures. It had been better 
 to succour Massena direct by Toulon, Nice, and Genoa. From 
 all these considerations, there was evidently left but one course 
 to pursue ; namely, to appuy to the left towards the St. Gothard 
 and Milan, and to give the hand to General Moncey's 15,000 
 men. In that manner he should unite with himself the principal 
 detachment of the army, which would raise its number to 
 60.000 fighting men ; he should occupy the capital of Upper 
 Italy ; he should raise the people on the rear of the Austrians ; 
 he should take all their magazines ; he should make himself 
 master of the line of the Po, and of all the bridges over that 
 great river; lastly, by putting himself in a condition to attack 
 upon either bank, lie should stop M. de Melas, by whichever 
 route he should attempt to escape. It is true that, by this plan, 
 the succour to be sent to Massena would be delayed for eight 
 or ten days, which was unfortunate. But General Bonaparte 
 imagined that his presence in Italy would be sufficient to extri- 
 cate the army of Liguria ; for he believed that M. de Melas 
 would lose no time in calling in to him the corps which were 
 investing Genoa and the bridge of the Var. At any rate, 
 Generals Massena and Suchet had accomplished the object 
 assigned to them, by detaining M. de Melas on the Apennines, 
 by fatiguing him, by exhausting him, but, above all. by prevent- 
 ing him from closing the cUbouchis of the Alps. The defender 
 of Genoa, if he must succumb, would but consummate the long 
 series of sacrifices imposed upon the noble and unfortunate army 
 of Liguria, for the success of a vast combination. 
 
 Having formed his resolution, General Bonaparte made his 
 arrangements with the utmost promptness, and directed his 
 whole army upon the left bank of the Po. lie called in his 
 park of artillery, which had just been put in order: lie enjoined 
 Lannes to collect all the boats taken at Chivasso, to place them 
 as if he was about to throw a bridge, and to cross into Piedmont.
 
 2i6 HISTORY OF THE may 1800 
 
 His intention was to deceive M. de Melas a second time in 
 regard to his plans, and he was as successful as the first time. 
 On seeing the movements ordered by General Bonaparte, M. de 
 Melas, striving to flatter himself till the last moment, was fain 
 to hope that the French had been able to cross the Alps in 
 very small number only. He thought that General Bonaparte, 
 as everything induced him to suppose, had no other motive 
 for crossing the Po but to enter Turin, and to give the hand 
 towards Mont Cenis to General Thurreau ; he thought that he 
 might keep him in check by breaking down all the bridges, 
 and by disputing the passage of the Po with about 30,000 men. 
 He conceived, therefore, a hope to defend himself on this line, 
 without making the twofold sacrifice of the positions occupied 
 on the Var and of the advantages gained before Genoa. In 
 consequence, M. de Melas assembled General Haddick, who 
 had returned from the valley of Aosta, General Kaim, posted 
 at the ddbouchS of Susa, the 10,000 men brought with him 
 from Nice, besides a fresh detachment drawn from the Var ; 
 amounting, when united, to 30,000 men ; and supposing that 
 we had no more, he hoped with this force to dispute the river 
 which separated the two armies. 
 
 The First Consul took no pains to destroy this new illusion 
 of his adversary's, and, leaving him occupied towards Turin 
 with this concentration of force, he all at once fell back upon 
 Milan. Lannes, who was apparently destined to ascend the 
 Po, in order to march from Chivasso upon Turin, on the con- 
 trary, suddenly descended it. He advanced by Crescentino 
 and Trino upon Pavia, where the Imperialists had immense 
 magazines of provisions, ammunition, artillery, and the most 
 important of their communications, since it commanded the 
 passage both of the Po and of the Tessino. Murat marched 
 by Vercelli upon the point of Buffalora. The entire army 
 followed this general movement upon Milan ; it arrived on the 
 31st of May before the Tessino. That river is broad and deep. 
 The French had no craft for crossing, and on the other side 
 appeared a numerous cavalry belonging to the corps of Wukas- 
 sowich, which was guarding the Simplon and that part of the 
 ddboucMs of the Alps. Behind the Tessino runs the Naviglio 
 Grande, a large canal, which crosses the country to Milan. 
 This canal runs, for a certain distance, parallel to the course 
 of the river, from which it branches off ; it is, moreover, very 
 near it. The enemy's cavalry, cooped up on a narrow slip 
 of ground between the Tessino and the canal, was extremely 
 cramped in its movements, and could scarcely use its force. 
 Adjutant-General Girard took some craft, which the peasants 
 of the environs had concealed near Galiate, and with which 
 they were eager to furnish the army. He crossed with a small
 
 junei8oo CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 217 
 
 body of men, and fell upon the Austrian advanced guard. Suc- 
 cessively reinforced by these barks, which kept going and 
 returning, and supported by the fire of the artillery, he re- 
 pulsed the cavalry, which durst not advance too far on ground 
 so disadvantageous for it, and obliged it to recross the Naviglio 
 Grande at a point called the bridge of Turbigo. Thus, at one 
 blow, he cleared the Naviglio and the Tessino. But General 
 Wukassowich came up with Laudon's brigade of infantry, and 
 endeavoured to penetrate into the village of Turbigo. Girard 
 then had upon his hands four or five thousand infantry, while 
 he had no more than a few hundred men to oppose to them. 
 He kept his ground for several successive hours with great 
 presence of mind and courage, and finally saved the bridge of 
 Turbigo, the loss of which would have thrown the French on 
 this side of the Naviglio Grande, and, perhaps, even the Tes- 
 sino. While he was thus gallantly defending himself, General 
 Monnier, who had found means to cross a little below, came to 
 his assistance, and charging Laudon's troops, drove them from 
 Turbigo. This line, which was to check the French army, was 
 thus passed at the cost of a mere advanced guard action. Next 
 day, the 1st of June (12th Prairial), Boudet's division crossed 
 near Buffalora, and the whole army advanced upon Milan. 
 Wukassowich, apprehensive of being caught between the 
 main army, which was advancing in Lombardy, and Moncey's 
 corps, which was descending the St. Gothard, retired precipi- 
 tately, and ordered Dedovich's brigade, which was at the foot 
 of the mountains, to fall back behind the Adda by Cassano. 
 He himself went to seek refuge behind the Adda, by Milan and 
 Lodi, after leaving a garrison of 2800 men in the citadel of 
 Milan. There was now no obstacle to check the French army. 
 It could enter the capital of Lombardy, which had groaned for 
 above a year under the yoke of the Austrians. Thus far those 
 unfortunate Italians had heard talk of nothing but the successes 
 of M. de Melas and the distress of the French. The caricatures 
 on the army of reserve had circulated in Milan, as well as in 
 Vienna and London. They represented it as a crew of old 
 men and boys, armed with bludgeons, mounted on asses, and 
 having two blunderbusses for artillery. While derision, harm- 
 less enough, it is true, was thus poured forth upon the French 
 Republic, the unfortunate Italians were the victims of the most 
 cruel oppression. All the men in Lombardy most distinguished 
 by fortune and talents were in prison or in exile, especially if 
 they had taken any part in the affairs of the Cisalpine Republic. 
 It was remarkable enough that persecution had pressed less 
 heavily upon the hot-headed patriots, upon those who corre- 
 sponded with the French Jacobins, than upon the moderate 
 men, whose example might be more contagious for the people.
 
 218 HISTORY OF THE june 1800 
 
 Excepting some very few creatures of the Austrian govern- 
 ment, and some nobles belonging to the oligarchic party, all 
 were sighing for the return of the French. But they durst 
 scarcely hope for their return, especially when they saw the 
 Baron de Melas so far advanced into Liguria, so near taking 
 Genoa and passing the Var, and the First Consul so occupied, 
 at least apparently, with the dangers of invasion, which threat- 
 ened France upon her frontiers of the Rhine. A report was even 
 circulated among the people, that the General Bonaparte, so well 
 known in Italy, had died in Egypt ; that, a modern Pharaoh, 
 he had been engulfed by the Red Sea ; and that he whose 
 name was then figuring in Paris was one of his brothers. 
 
 It is easy to conceive the surprise of the Italians, when, all at 
 once, they were told that a French army had appeared at Ivrea, 
 that it was even debouching beyond that town, that it was in 
 march for the Tessino ; lastly, that it had crossed that river. Let 
 the reader figure to himself the agitation which prevailed in 
 Milan, the affirmations, the contradictions, which succeeded each 
 other for forty-eight hours ; lastly, the joy which burst forth 
 when the intelligence was confirmed by the appearance of General 
 Bonaparte himself, marching with his staff at the head of the 
 advanced guard. On the 2nd of June (13th Prairial), the entire 
 population, thronging to meet the French army, recognised the 
 illustrious general, whom they had so often seen within their 
 walls, welcomed him with transports of enthusiasm, and received 
 him as a saviour come down from heaven. The sentiments of 
 the Italians, always so strong, so demonstrative, had broken forth 
 with such force, because so many circumstances had never before 
 concurred to render the joy of the people sudden and profound. 
 The French general, on entering Milan, hastened to throw open 
 the prisons, and to restore the government of the country to the 
 friends of France. He gave a provisional administration to the 
 Cisalpine Republic, and composed this administration of the 
 most respected men. Adhering, however, in Italy to the system 
 which he followed in France, he would not permit either violence 
 or reaction ; and, in replacing power in the hands of the Italians 
 of his party, he did not allow them to exercise it against their 
 countrymen of the opposite party. 
 
 After these first attentions paid to the affairs of the Milanese, 
 he hastened to push his columns in all directions, to the lakes, 
 to the Adda, to the Po, so as to spread the insurrection for the 
 advantage of the French, to seize the enemy's magazines, to cut 
 off his communications, and to bar all retreat against him. Thus 
 far everything had gone on most prosperously, for Lannes, directed 
 upon Pavia, had entered that city on the 1st of June, and taken 
 immense magazines. That general had found at Pavia the 
 Austrian hospitals, considerable stores of corn, forage, ammuni-
 
 junei8oo CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 219 
 
 tion, arms, above all 300 pieces of cannon, half of them field- 
 pieces. He had procured there several bridge-equipages, which 
 the companies of French pontonniers, who had come without 
 materiel, were about to employ on the Po. Chabran's division, 
 left before the fort of Bard, had taken it on the 1st of June, and 
 found there eighteen pieces of cannon. General Chabran, after 
 putting a garrison into it, as well as into Ivrea, proceeded to 
 occupy the course of the Po, from the Dora Baltea to the Sesia. 
 Lannes occupied from that point to Pa via. The corps of General 
 Bethencourt, which had come from the Simplon, was posted 
 before Arona, towards the point of Lake Maggiore. The Italian 
 legion was despatched, by Brescia, after the Austrians, who were 
 retiring in the utmost haste. At the same time, Duhesme's and 
 Loison's divisions were crossing the Adda, and proceeding to 
 Lodi, Crema, and Pizzighittone. General Wukassowich, who no 
 longer pretended to guard the Adda, retired behind the Mincio, 
 under the guns of Mantua. 
 
 Nothing now impeded the march of General Moncey, except- 
 ing the difficulty of finding subsistence in the sterile valleys of 
 Upper Switzerland. His first columns were just appearing, but 
 it was necessary to wait a few days longer for the others, and 
 this was the greatest inconvenience of the situation, for it behoved 
 the First Consul to make haste, if he would not see Genoa fall 
 into the hands of the Austrians. General Bonaparte was now 
 certain of uniting all his columns, with the exception of one — 
 that was General Thurreau's, which was entrenched at the d£- 
 hoiiche' of Mont Cenis. without being able to advance. For the 
 rest, our army was strongly seated in the heart of the Milanese, 
 having its retreat secured by Mont Cenis, the St. Bernard, the 
 Simplon, and the St. Gothard. holding the Adda, the Tessino, 
 the Po, living upon the magazines of the Austrians. cutting them 
 off from all the routes, and capable of fighting a decisive battle 
 with them, after which they would have no other resource, if 
 they were beaten, but to lay down their arms. The surrender 
 of Genoa, if it were to take place, would be an unfortunate cir- 
 cumstance — unfortunate in the first place, for the brave army 
 which was defending it, unfortunate also because the Austrian 
 besieging corps would not fail to reinforce General Melas. and 
 would thus render the great battle that was to terminate the 
 campaign more difficult. But, if General Bonaparte gained the 
 victory, Genoa and Italy would be reconquered at one blow. lie 
 made, nevertheless, an especial point of saving Genoa: \n\{ he 
 could not hope for the junction of Moncey 's corps before the 
 5th or 6th of June, and he could not Hatter himself that Genoa 
 would hold out till then. 
 
 The Baron de Melas. whom the last news had completely en- 
 lightened, and who saw his adversary, after entering Milan, giving
 
 220 HISTORY OF THE june 1800 
 
 the hand to all the columns in succession as they descended the 
 Alps, now comprehended the vast plan projected against him. 
 To add to his misfortune, he had received intelligence of the 
 reverses of M. de Kray and his retreat upon Ulm. Abandoning, 
 at length, the system of half-measures, he issued imperative 
 orders to General Elsnitz to relinquish the bridge of the Var, 
 and to General Ott to raise the siege of Genoa, and both of them 
 to unite at Alexandria. This was just what General Bonaparte 
 had hoped for the salvation of Genoa. But that noble and un- 
 fortunate army of Liguria was doomed to pay to the very last 
 with its blood, with its sufferings, and finally with a mortifying 
 surrender, for the triumphs of the army of reserve. 
 
 To the very last, Massena maintained a noble countenance. 
 "Before he will surrender," said the soldiers, "he will make us 
 eat his very boots." The butchers' meat being consumed, they 
 ate horse-flesh, and, when that too failed them, they fed upon 
 the most loathsome animals. The wretched bread made of oats 
 and beans was consumed also. Ever since the 23rd of May (3rd 
 Prairial), Massena had been collecting starch, linseed, and the 
 cacao deposited in the warehouses of Genoa, and with these he 
 had caused a bread to be made, which the soldiers could scarcely 
 swallow, and which very few of them were able to digest. Almost 
 all of them went to crowd the hospitals. The populace, having 
 no other food but herb soup, experienced all the pangs of hunger. 
 The streets were strewed with wretches expiring from inanition, 
 emaciated women exposing to public charity the infants whom 
 they could no longer support. Another sight alarmed the city 
 and the army : it was that of the numerous prisoners whom 
 Massena had taken, and to whom he had no food to give. He 
 would not release them on parole, since he had seen those who 
 had been thus liberated appear again in the enemy's ranks. He 
 had therefore proposed to General Ott. and afterwards to Admiral 
 Keith, that they should furnish the provisions requisite for their 
 daily consumption, giving his word of honour that nothing should 
 be abstracted for the garrison. The word of such a man deserved 
 to be depended on. But such was the inveteracy, that the enemy 
 resolved to impose upon Massena the charge of feeding the 
 prisoners, even though they should have to suffer the most cruel 
 privations. The hostile generals had, therefore, the barbarity to 
 doom their soldiers to the severest pangs of hunger, in order to 
 aggravate the dearth in Genoa by leaving there some thousand 
 mouths more to feed. Massena supplied the prisoners with the 
 herb soup which he dealt out to the inhabitants. This was not 
 nutritious enough for robust men, accustomed to abundance in 
 the rich plains of Italy ; they were always on the point of revolt- 
 ing, and, to cure them of all thoughts of that, he caused them to 
 be confined in old hulls of ships, which were moored in the middle
 
 junei8oo CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 221 
 
 of the port, and on which a numerous artillery, constantly pointed, 
 was ready to pour destruction. So frightful was the howling 
 raised by these unfortunate men, that it harrowed the feelings of 
 a population already so deeply affected by its own sufferings. 
 
 The number of our soldiers diminished daily : they were seen 
 expiring in the streets, and so debilitated were they that it had 
 been found expedient to permit them to sit down while mounting 
 guard. The dispirited Genoese had ceased to do the duty of 
 the national guard, fearing lest they should be compromised 
 when, by-and-by, the Austrians should bring back the oligarchic 
 party. From time to time, vague rumours announced that the 
 despair of the inhabitants was about to burst forth ; and, to 
 prevent the explosion, battalions, with loaded cannon, occupied 
 the principal places. 
 
 Massena awed the people and the army by his impassible bear- 
 ing. The respect inspired by that hero, eating the same exe- 
 crable bread as the soldiers, living with them under the enemy's 
 fire, and submitting not only to their physical sufferings, but to 
 all the duties and anxieties of commander, with unshaken firm- 
 ness, the respect which he inspired kept all quiet ; he exercised, 
 amidst desolated Genoa, the ascendency of a superior spirit. 
 
 A feeling of hope, nevertheless, still supported the besieged. 
 Several of the general's aides-de-camp, after bold efforts, had 
 passed through the blockading force, and brought some intelli- 
 gence. Colonels Reille, Franceschi, Ortigoni, had passed, and 
 had learned, at one time, that the First Consul was setting out, 
 at another, that he was crossing the Alps. One of them, Fran- 
 ceschi, had left him descending the St. Bernard. But since the 
 20th of May no tidings of him had been received. Ten or twelve 
 days passed in this situation appeared ages ; and the officers 
 asked themselves, with despair, how it could happen that, in ton 
 days, General Bonaparte had not traversed the space which 
 separates the Alps from the Apennines. "We know him well 
 enough," said they, "to be certain that by this time he is either 
 conqueror or conquered ; if he does not arrive, he must have suc- 
 cumbed in this rash enterprise. Had he been able to debouch 
 in Italy, he would already have grappled the Austrian general, 
 and dragged him from the walls of Genoa." Others alleged, 
 that General Bonaparte had considered the army of Liguria as a 
 corps sacrificed to a great operation ; that he had but one thing 
 in view, that was, to detain Baron de Melas on the Apennines, 
 and. that object attained, he no longer concerned himself about 
 raising the blockade of Genoa, but was inarching to execute some 
 mightier plan. " Well ! " added the Genoese, and even our own 
 soldiers, "we have been sacrificed to the glory of France; but, 
 now the end is attained, is it intended that we should perish to 
 the last man ? If it were in fight, with arms in our hands, well
 
 222 HISTORY OF THE juke 1800 
 
 and good ! but of famine, of disease — 'tis impossible ! It is high 
 time to surrender." Several soldiers, in their despair, proceeded 
 so far as to break their muskets. At the same time, a plot of 
 some men, irritated by suffering, was discovered. Massena 
 addressed to them an admirable proclamation, in which he re- 
 minded them of the duties of the soldier, which consist as much 
 in enduring privations and hardships as in braving dangers ; he 
 pointed out to them the example of their officers, living upon 
 the same food, and daily exposing themselves, at their head, to 
 death or wounds. He told them that the First Consul was ad- 
 vancing with an army to deliver them ; that, by capitulating 
 to-day, they should lose in a moment the result of two months' 
 efforts and devotedness. " A few days, perhaps a few hours 
 longer," said he, " and you will be delivered, after having ren- 
 dered eminent services to your country." 
 
 Accordingly, at every report, every sound towards the horizon, 
 they imagined that they heard the cannon of General Bonaparte, 
 and eagerly thronged to look out. One day, they persuaded them- 
 selves that cannon were firing at the JBocchetta ; a mad joy burst 
 forth on all sides ; Massena himself repaired to the ramparts. 
 Vain illusion ! It was the sound of a thunderstorm in the gorges 
 of the Apennines. Again they sunk into the deepest dejection. 
 
 At length, on the 4th of June, there would be left but two 
 ounces of that horrid bread, made of starch and cacao, to each 
 man per day. The surrender of the place could be no longer 
 deferred ; our unfortunate soldiers could not be reduced to such 
 straits as to devour one another, and there was an inevitable 
 term to resistance in the material impossibility to support life. 
 Besides, the army was conscious that it had done all that could 
 be expected of its courage. It felt thoroughly convinced that it 
 no longer covered the Thermopylce of France, but that it was 
 made subservient to a manoeuvre, which, at the moment, must 
 have succeeded or miscarried. It began, in particular, to believe 
 that the First Consul was more solicitious to extend his com- 
 binations than to afford it succour. Massena shared this feeling, 
 without avowing it ; but he did not consider his task as com- 
 pletely accomplished till he had reached the last possible term 
 of resistance. When the two miserable ounces of bread left to 
 be dealt out to each man were consumed, he must surrender. 
 He made up his mind to it, at least, with deep chagrin. 
 
 General Ott had sent a flag of truce, for the Austrians were as 
 much pressed to bring the affair to a conclusion as the French. 
 That general had, in fact, the most positive orders to raise the 
 siege of Genoa, and to fall back upon Alexandria. The offers 
 of the enemy, say some historians, ought to have enlightened 
 Massena. No doubt, he knew that if he stood out one or two 
 days longer, he might, perhaps, be relieved ; but he could not
 
 junei8oo CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 223 
 
 wait. " Give me," said he to the Genoese, " two days' provisions, 
 one day's only, and I shall save you from the Austrian yoke ; I 
 shall save my army from the mortification of surrender." 
 
 At length, on the 3rd of June, Massena was obliged to nego- 
 tiate. The Austrians talked of capitulation ; he rejected the 
 idea in such a manner, that they refrained from recurring to it. 
 He insisted that the army should retire freely, with arms and 
 baggage, with colours flying, and at liberty to serve and fight as 
 soon as it should have passed the lines of the besiegers. "If 
 not," said he to the Austrian officers, sent with the flag of truce, 
 " I will sally from Genoa, arms in hand. With 8000 famished 
 soldiers, I will appear before your camp, and I will fight till I 
 force my way through." They agreed to allow the garrison to 
 depart, but required that he himself should remain prisoner, 
 because they were afraid lest, with such a commander, the 
 garrison, proceeding from Genoa to Savona, might join Suchet's 
 troops, and attempt some formidable enterprise in the rear of 
 Baron de Melas. To allay the indignation of Massena, they 
 avowed the motive, so honourable to him, of this condition. He 
 would not hear of it. They then insisted that the garrison 
 should retire by sea, that it might not have time to join Suchet's 
 corps. To all these propositions he returned his usual answer, 
 that he would cut his way through. At length they consented 
 to let 8000 men depart by land, in other words, all those who 
 could still support the weight of their arms. The convalescents 
 were to be successively embarked, and conveyed to the head- 
 quarters of General Suchet. There would be left behind 4000 
 sick, whom the Austrians engaged to victual, to take care of, and 
 to restore afterwards to the French army. General Miollis was 
 to be left in command of them. Massena made stipulations in 
 favour of the Genoese ; he required, as an express condition, that 
 none of them should be molested for opinions manifested during 
 our occupation, that persons and property should be rigidly 
 respected. M. do Corvetto, an eminent Genoese, afterwards 
 minister in France, had been admitted to these conferences, that 
 he might be able to attest the efforts made in behalf of his 
 countrymen. Massena wished, moreover, that they should be 
 permitted to retain the form of government which they then had, 
 and for which they were indebted to tin 1 French Revolution. On 
 this point the Austrian generals refused to enter into any engage- 
 ment. "Well, then." said Massena, "do as you please; but ] 
 declare to you that, before the fortnight's end. 1 will he back 
 again in Genoa" — a prophetic declaration, to which M. de St. 
 Julien made this noble and delicate reply : " You will find in this 
 place, general, men whom you have taught how to defend it." 
 
 The definitive conference was held on the morning of the 4th 
 of June, in a chapel at the bridge of Cornigliano. The article.
 
 224 HISTORY OF THE june 1800 
 
 stipulating that part of the army should be allowed to retire by 
 land, gave rise to a last difficulty. But Massena, leaving the 
 Austrian generals no other alternative than to consent to what 
 he desired, or to expect a desperate battle on the morrow, they 
 yielded the point. It was stipulated that this convention of 
 evacuation, from which the word capitulation was carefully 
 banished, should be concluded that same evening. The enemy's 
 officers, we may add, filled with admiration for the French general, 
 paid him all possible attention and marks of respect. 
 
 Evening having arrived, he still hesitated to sign, even then 
 hoping that he might be delivered. At length, when it was im- 
 possible to delay any longer without breaking his word, he affixed 
 his signature. On the following day, our troops marched out, 
 with General Gazan at their head, and found rations at the ad- 
 vanced posts. Massena himself embarked, that he might reach 
 the headquarters of Suchet the more expeditiously. He left 
 the port in a vessel carrying the tricoloured flag, and under the 
 guns of the English squadron. 
 
 Thus ended that memorable siege, during which the French 
 army had signalised itself by such eminent virtues and such 
 eminent services. It had made more prisoners, and slain more 
 enemies, than it numbered soldiers. With 15,000 men, it had 
 taken or put hors de combat more than 18,000 Austrians. It 
 had, above all, destroyed the confidence of the Austrian army, 
 by compelling it to make incessant and extraordinary efforts. 
 But would the reader like to know at what cost this brave 
 garrison of Genoa had held out so long? Out of 15,000 com- 
 batants, it had lost 3000 in fight ; 4000 others were wounded, 
 more or less severely ; 8000 only were fit to rejoin the active 
 army. Soult, the second in command, had fallen into the hands 
 of the enemy, after having had his leg broken. Out of three 
 generals of divisions, one, Marbot, died of epidemic disease ; 
 another, Gazan, was dangerously wounded. Out of six generals 
 of brigade, four were wounded, Gardanne, Petitot, Fressinet, 
 and cl'Arnaud. Out of twelve adjutant - generals, six were 
 wounded, one taken, one killed. Two officers of the staff were 
 killed, seven taken, fourteen wounded. Eleven colonels, out of 
 seventeen, were put hors de combat, or made prisoners. Three- 
 fourths of the officers had met with the like fate. Thus we 
 see that it was by setting an example of devotedness that the 
 leaders of this brave army supported it amidst such cruel trials. 
 In a word, it proved itself worthy of those who commanded it, 
 and never did the French soldier display more fortitude and 
 heroism. Honour, then, to the unfortunate bravery, which, by 
 its unbounded steadfastness, contributed to the triumphs of 
 that fortunate bravery, the exploits of which it is now our 
 province to record !
 
 june 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 225 
 
 While, urged to raise the siege of Genoa, General Ott was 
 granting to Massena the honourable conditions which we have 
 just specified, General Elsnitz, recalled by the orders of the 
 Baron de Melas, abandoned the bridge of the Var. The attacks 
 of the Austrians upon that bridge had been delayed, because 
 their heavy artillery, conveyed by sea, had been long in coming. 
 Various attempts had been successively made on the 22nd and 
 the 27th of May; the last, in particular, was a real effort of 
 despair, on the part of General Elsnitz, who was determined not 
 to spare any exertion before he withdrew. These attacks were 
 gallantly repulsed. General Elsnitz, convinced that there was 
 no chance of success, then thought of recrossing the mountains. 
 Suchet, forming a prompt and just conception of the intentions 
 of the Austrian general, laid his plans so as to prevent him 
 from executing his retreat in security. He clearly perceived 
 that, by continuing to manoeuvre by his left along the mountains, 
 he should place the Austrians in a perilous situation, and should 
 probably be enabled to take from them some detached corps. 
 Now, outside the line of the Var, which had stayed the invasion, 
 runs in a parallel direction the line of the Roya, the source of 
 which is situated at the Col de Tende itself. If the French, pro- 
 ceeding beyond the Var, were to reach the sources of the Roya 
 before the Austrians, they would oblige their adversaries to 
 move along the crests of the Apennines, in quest of a pass 
 through them. This correct conception of General Suchet, exe- 
 cuted with vigour, was crowned with complete success. He began 
 by dislodging General Gorupp from Ronciglione, continued to 
 march briskly by his left, on the shaken right of the Austrians, 
 took successively the Col de Rauss, which affords a pass from 
 the valley of the Var into that of the Roya, and the famous 
 camp of Mille Fourches, and, master of the Col de Tende, he 
 found himself, on the 1st of June, upon the line of retreat of 
 General Elsnitz. General Gorupp, thrown in disorder on the 
 Upper Roya, had still time to gain the Col de Tende, but left 
 many dead and prisoners by the way. General Elsnitz, with the 
 rest of his army, had no other course but to follow the maritime 
 slope, as far as Oneglia, and to return by Pieve and St. Jacques 
 into the valley of the Tanaro. He had to cross tremendous 
 mountains, with soldiers already demoralised by this species of 
 flight, and having at his heels a foe who passed with joy from 
 the defensive to the offensive. For five whole days the Aus- 
 trians were pursued without intermission, experiencing continual 
 checks ; and, at length, on the 6th of June, General Klsnitz. on 
 his arrival at Ormea, numbered not so many as 10.000 men. 
 On the 7th, he was at Ceva. General Gorupp had retired upon 
 Coni, with a weak division. The loss sustained by the Austrian 
 corps, since leaving the Var, was estimated at 10,000 men. 
 vol. 1. v
 
 226 HISTORY OF THE juneiSoo 
 
 General Suchet, so long separated from Massena, found him 
 again, in proceeding along the coast, in the environs of Savona. 
 The 12,000 French who had come from the Var, united with 
 the 8000 from Genoa, composed a corps of 20,000 men, advan- 
 tageously placed for falling upon the rear of M. de Melas. But 
 Massena had received, in landing, a very dangerous wound, which 
 prevented him from mounting on horseback ; the 8000 men whom 
 he was leading were emaciated with fatigue ; and, it must be 
 confessed, all the defenders of Genoa harboured in their breasts 
 a secret irritation against the First Consul, who was known to 
 be triumphing at Milan, while the army of Liguria was reduced 
 to the necessity of capitulating. Massena was unwilling that 
 General Suchet should run the risk of a descent into Italy, while 
 in ignorance of the movements about to be made beyond the Alps 
 by the two generals opposed to each other. The Baron de Melas, 
 rejoined by all his lieutenants, Haddick, Kaim, Elsnitz, and Ott, 
 might be at the head of a formidable force, fall upon Suchet, and 
 crush him before he went to meet General Bonaparte. Massena 
 permitted his lieutenant, Suchet, to cross the Apennines, to post 
 himself in advance of Acqui, and ordered him to remain in that 
 position, observing, harassing the Austrian army, and hanging 
 over its head like the sword of Damocles. We shall see presently 
 what further services the army of Liguria rendered by its mere 
 presence on the summit of the Apennines. 
 
 Massena thought that this brave army, in terminating by a 
 threatening movement the memorable defence of Genoa, had 
 done enough for the triumph of the First Consul, and that it 
 could not do more without imprudence : this great captain was 
 right. He turned over the Austrians, exhausted, reduced by 
 above one-third, to General Bonaparte. Of the 70,000 men 
 who had crossed the Apennines, there returned not more than 
 40,000, including the detachment brought back by M. de Melas 
 to Turin. The 50,000 left in Lombardy were also much re- 
 duced, and, moreover, widely dispersed. Generals Haddick and 
 Kaim, who guarded, the one the valley of Aosta, the other the 
 valley of Susa, had sustained very considerable losses. General 
 Wukassowich, thrown beyond the Mincio, and separated from his 
 commander-in-chief by the French army which descended from 
 the St. Bernard, was paralysed for the rest of the campaign. 
 A corps of some thousand men had ventured into Tuscany. By 
 immediately uniting Generals Elsnitz and Ott, who were re- 
 turning from the banks of the Var and from Genoa, with 
 Generals Haddick and Kaim, who were coming from the valleys 
 of Aosta and Susa, M. de Melas might still form a mass of about 
 75,000 men. But it was requisite that he should leave garri- 
 sons in the fortresses of Piedmont and Liguria, such as Genoa, 
 Savona, Gavi, Acqui, Coni, Turin, Alexandria, and Tortona; so
 
 junei8oo CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 227 
 
 that there would not be left him more than fifty and some odd 
 thousand soldiers to place in line on a day of battle, supposing 
 that he did not sacrifice too great a number to the guarding 
 of the fortresses, and that the junction of his generals was 
 effected without accident. 
 
 The situation of the Austrian generalissimo was, therefore, 
 extremely critical, even after the reduction of Genoa. It was 
 critical, not only on account of the dispersion and the diminution 
 of his forces, but also on account of the route to be pursued, in 
 order to get out of the cramped enclosure of Piedmont, in which 
 General Bonaparte had confined him. He would be obliged, 
 in fact, to recross the Po before the face of the French, and to 
 regain, through Lombardy, which they occupied, the highroad 
 to Tyrol and to the Friule. The difficulty would be immense in 
 presence of an adversary, who excelled, particularly in war, in 
 the art of great movements. 
 
 M. de Melas had remained master of the Upper Po. from its 
 source to Valenza. It would be easy for him to cross that river 
 at Turin, Chivasso, Casale, or Valenza, no matter which ; but 
 if he crossed at one of these points, he would fall upon the 
 Tessino, which General Bonaparte occupied, and upon Milan, 
 the centre of all the French forces. He had, therefore, but 
 little chance of escape in that quarter. Still he would have this 
 course left — to appuy on his right, to proceed towards the lower 
 part of the Po, that is, march to Piacenza or Cremona, in order 
 to gain the highroad to Mantua. If he pursued this plan, 
 Piacenza would become for both adversaries the capital point 
 to occupy. For M. de Melas, it would be almost the only way 
 to escape the Caudine Forks ; for General Bonaparte, it would 
 be the means of reaping the reward of his audacious march 
 across the Alps. If, in fact, the latter suffered the Austrians to 
 escape, though he should have delivered Piedmont, this would 
 be but a meagre result, in comparison with the perils which he 
 had braved ; he should even incur some ridicule in the eyes of 
 Europe, attentive to this campaign ; for his manoeuvre, the in- 
 tention of which was now manifest, would be baffled. Piacenza 
 was, consequently, the key of Piedmont ; it was indispensable, 
 as well to him who wanted to get out of it, as for him who 
 wished to shut up his adversary there. 
 
 From these considerations M. de Melas fixed upon two points 
 for the concentration of his troops : Alexandria for the troops 
 which were in Upper Piedmont ; Piacenza for those which 
 were about Genoa. He ordered Generals Haddick and Kaim to 
 march from Turin, by Asti, upon Alexandria : General Elsnitz, 
 who had returned from the banks of the Var, to proceed thither 
 by Ceva and Cherasco. These three corps, once united, were 
 to move from Alexandria to Piacenza. He enjoined General
 
 228 HISTORY OF THE junei8oo 
 
 Ott, returning from Genoa, to descend direct, by the Bocchetta 
 and Tortona, upon Piacenza. A corps of infantry, relieved 
 from all the incumbrances of an army, had orders to proceed 
 thither still more directly by the route of Bobbio, which runs 
 along the valley of the Trebbia. Lastly, General Oreilly, who 
 was already around Alexandria with a strong detachment of 
 cavalry, received instructions not to await the concentration of 
 the troops from Upper Piedmont, but proceed to Piacenza at 
 the utmost speed of his horses. The little corps hazarded in 
 Tuscany likewise received instructions to repair thither, through 
 the duchy of Parma, and by the road of Fiorenzuola. Thus, 
 while the principal part of the Austrian army was concentrating 
 itself upon Alexandria, for the purpose of thence marching to 
 Piacenza, the corps nearest to Piacenza itself had orders to 
 march thither in a direct line and instantaneously. 
 
 But it was doubtful whether it would be possible to anticipate 
 General Bonaparte in so important an object. He had lost at 
 Milan five or six days in waiting for the corps coming from the 
 St. Gothard — most valuable time, since Genoa had fallen in 
 that interval. But now that General Moncey, with the troops 
 detached from Germany, had crossed the St. Gothard, he was 
 not going to lose another minute. Placed on the route of the 
 couriers despatched from Vienna to M. de Melas at Turin, and 
 sent back by M. de Melas from Turin to Vienna, he was now 
 initiated in all the plans of the imperial government. He had 
 read, for example, the singular despatches, in which M. de 
 Thugut, cheering up the Austrian general, recommended to him 
 to be easy, and not suffer himself to be diverted from his object 
 by the fable of the army of reserve ; to possess himself as 
 speedily as possible of Genoa and of the line of the Var, that 
 he might be able to spare a detachment to reinforce the army of 
 Marshal de Kray, driven back upon Ulm. He had read also the 
 despatches of M. de Melas, at first full of confidence, and very 
 soon of anxiety and uneasiness. This satisfaction, however, was 
 somewhat disturbed on the 8th of June, when he learned from 
 this same correspondence that Massena had been obliged to 
 surrender Genoa on the 4th. This intelligence, it is true, made 
 no change in his plan for the campaign ; for, having determined 
 to get upon the rear of the enemy, in order to envelop him, and 
 to oblige him to lay down his arms, if he succeeded, Italy and 
 the city of Genoa would be reconquered at one blow. The really 
 serious inconvenience resulting from the reduction of Genoa 
 was, that he should have on his hands the disposable troops of 
 General Ott. But the intercepted despatch brought consolation 
 with it; for this despatch said that Massena's soldiers were 
 not prisoners of war. If, therefore, on the one hand, a more 
 considerable Austrian force was about to descend from the
 
 junei8oo CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 229 
 
 Apennines; on the other, French troops, which he could not 
 reckon upon at first, were to descend from the Apennines, at 
 the heels of the Austrian troops. 
 
 The First Consul, now that Genoa had opened its gates, was 
 in less hurry to meet M. de Melas. But it was most urgent 
 for him to occupy the line of the Po, from Pavia to Piacenza 
 and Cremona ; and he made dispositions quite as active as those 
 of M. de Melas, to possess himself of such important points, 
 and especially of Piacenza. While he was occupied at Milan in 
 collecting the troops which had come from the different points 
 of the Alps, he marched the troops which had come with him 
 by the St. Bernard upon the Po. Lannes had already taken 
 possession of Pavia with Watrin's division. This general was 
 directed to cross the Po a little below its junction with the 
 Tessino : that is to say, at Belgiojoso. Murat, with Boudet's 
 and Monnier's divisions, had orders to cross it at Piacenza ; 
 Duhesme, with Loison's division, at Cremona. 
 
 On the 6th of June, Lannes, having collected at Pavia, in the 
 Tessino, all the disposable craft, took them into the Po, and, on 
 arriving between Belgiojoso and San Cipriano, set about cross- 
 ing. General Watrin, who was placed under his command, 
 crossed the river with a detachment. No sooner had he reached 
 the right bank, than he was attacked by the troops which had 
 come from Yalenza and Alexandria, and were hastening to 
 Piacenza. He was in danger of being thrown into the river ; 
 but General Watrin stood firm, till the boats going and return- 
 ing had brought him reinforcements, and he was finally left 
 master of the ground. The remainder of Watrin's division, led 
 by Lannes, then passed over, and took a position a little farther 
 on, threatening the highroad from Alexandria to Piacenza. 
 
 The same day Murat arrived before Piacenza. The Austrian 
 commissariat was established in that town, with some hundreds 
 of men to guard the stores. On the approach of the danger, the 
 Austrian officer ordered cannon to be planted at the tetc du font 
 of Piacenza, situated on the left bank of the Po, and endeavoured 
 to defend himself there, till the corps, which were advancing on 
 all sides, should have come to his aid. The advanced guard of 
 Monnier's division, conceiving that it was approaching an un- 
 defended position, was received with a tremendous discharge 
 of grape-shot, and could make no impression on it by attacking 
 in front. It was therefore determined to wait till next day to 
 make a regular attack. 
 
 On the following day, the 7th, General Oreilly, who had re- 
 ceived orders from M. tie Melas to ride with all speed to Piacenza, 
 arrived there with his cavalry. The other Austrian corps, that 
 which was ascending from Parma by Fiorenzuola, that which 
 was descending with General Gottesheim by Bobbie, and that
 
 230 HISTORY OF THE junei8oo 
 
 coming with General Ott by Tortona, had not yet arrived. 
 General Oreilly alone, with his squadrons, could scarcely be 
 equal to the defence of Piacenza. The few hundred men who 
 had attempted to resist at the tetc du pont had lost one-fourth 
 of their number. In this situation the Austrian commandant 
 ordered all the artillery to be taken away, and the bridge of 
 Piacenza, formed of boats, to be cut ; and when General Boudet 
 hastened up to repair the check of the preceding day, he found 
 the tete du pont evacuated, and the bridge itself destroyed. But 
 part of the boats employed in its construction were still left. 
 Murat took possession of them, and caused Monnier's brigade 
 to be conveyed to the other side of the Po by successive trips, a 
 little lower down, at Nocetto. This brigade fell upon Piacenza, 
 and penetrated into it, after a very warm contest. General 
 Oreilly hastily fell back, that he might be in time to save the 
 park of artillery coming from Alexandria, and which would be 
 in danger of falling into the hands of the French, if it appeared 
 before Piacenza. He retreated, in fact, with such expedition as 
 to prevent that park from falling into the hands either of Murat 
 or of Lannes. He had to make more than one charge of cavalry 
 against the advanced troops of Lannes, which had crossed the 
 Po at Belgiojoso ; but he disengaged himself, and had time to 
 issue counter-orders to the park, which shut itself up in Tortona. 
 While General Oreilly, passing almost scathless through our ad- 
 vanced posts, was returning to Alexandria, the advanced guard 
 of the infantry of General Gottesheim, which had descended 
 along the Trebbia, by Bobbio, appeared before Piacenza. It was 
 Klebeck's regiment, which had thus come upon Boudet's entire 
 division, and got cut to pieces. This unfortunate regiment, 
 assailed by superior forces, lost a great number of prisoners, and 
 fell back in disorder upon Gottesheiin's principal corps, which 
 it preceded. General Gottesheim, alarmed at this rencontre, re- 
 ascended in all haste the slope of the Apennines, to return across 
 the mountains to Tortona and Alexandria, which caused him 
 to lose his way, and wander about for several successive days. 
 Lastly, the regiment returning from Tuscany, by the route of 
 Parma and Fiorenzuola, arrived the same day before the suburbs 
 of Piacenza. The consequence was a fresh rout of that detached 
 corps, which, falling unawares into the midst of an enemy's 
 army, was thrown back in disorder upon the Parma road. Thus, 
 out of the four corps marching upon Piacenza, three — the least 
 important, it is true — had been overthrown and fled, leaving 
 prisoners behind them. The fourth and most considerable, that 
 of General Ott, having a longer circuit to make, was still behind, 
 and was soon to fall in with Lannes, in advance of Belgiojoso. 
 Prom this moment the French were masters of the Po, and had 
 in their possession the two principal passages, that of Belgiojoso,
 
 junei8oo CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 231 
 
 near Pavia, and that of Piacenza itself. They soon occupied a 
 third ; for, on the following day, General Duhesme, at the head 
 of Loison's division, took Cremona from a detachment which 
 General Wukassowich had left in that city when he retired. He 
 took there a great quantity of materiel and 2000 prisoners. 
 
 General Bonaparte directed all these operations from Milan. 
 He had sent Berthier to the bank of the Po, and, day by day, 
 frequently hour by hour, prescribed, in an incessant correspon- 
 dence, the movements that were to be executed. 
 
 Though, by possessing himself of the Po from Pavia to Pia- 
 cenza, he was master of the line of retreat which M. de Melas 
 might be expected to attempt to follow, yet other points claimed 
 consideration : for what rendered the route of Piacenza the real 
 line of retreat for the Austrians was the presence of the French 
 behind the Tessino and about Milan. The French, in fact, in 
 this position closed the passage which the Austrians would have 
 had it in their power to open by crossing the Po between Turin 
 and Valenza ; but if now, for the purpose of going to meet M. 
 de Melas, the French were to cross the Po between Pavia and 
 Piacenza, and thus to abandon Milan and to weaken the Tessino, 
 they might again hold out to M. de Melas a temptation to cross, 
 either at Turin, or at Casale, or at Valenza, to harass our un- 
 covered rear, enter the city of Milan itself, and to serve us 
 nearly as we had served him in descending from the Alps. 
 
 Neither was it impossible that M. de Melas, sacrificing part 
 of his baggage and of his heavy artillery, which, besides, he 
 could leave in the fortresses of Piedmont, might retire upon 
 Genoa, then, ascending again by Tortona and Novi, as far as 
 the Bocchetta, and there striking into the valley of the Trebbia, 
 might contrive to reach the Po, below Piacenza, in the environs 
 of Cremona or Parma, and succeed in gaining Mantua and the 
 Austrian States by this out of the way route. This march across 
 Liguria and along the back of the Apennines, the same that had 
 recently been prescribed to General Gottesheim, was the least 
 probable, for it presented great difficulties, and would occasion 
 the sacrifice of part of the maUriel ; but it was strictly possible, 
 and it was necessary to provide against it as well as the others. 
 The whole attention of General Bonaparte was now engrossed 
 in securing himself against these various contingencies; and 
 History furnishes perhaps no example of combinations so skil- 
 ful, so profoundly conceived, as those which he devised on this 
 decisive occasion. 
 
 He had this triple problem to solve : to close by a barrier of 
 iron the principal route, that leading direct from Alexandria 
 to Piacenza; to occupy, in such a manner as to be able to 
 hasten thither in ease of need, that which, passing along the 
 Upper Po, fell upon the Tessino ; lastly, to retain the faculty of
 
 232 HISTORY OF THE june 1800 
 
 descending timely upon the Lower Po, if the Austrians, seeking 
 to fly along the back of the Apennines, should attempt to 
 cross the river below Piacenza, towards Cremona or Parma. 
 General Bonaparte, incessantly poring over the map of Italy 
 to find a post which fulfilled these three conditions, made a 
 choice worthy of being for ever admired. 
 
 If we examine the course of the chain of the Apennines, 
 we shall see that, in consequence of the curve which it forms 
 to embrace the Gulf of Genoa, it runs northward, and throws 
 out branches which approach very closely to the Po, from the 
 position of La Stradella to the environs of Piacenza. In all 
 this part of Piedmont and the duchy of Parma, the foot of 
 the heights advances so near to the river as to leave but a 
 very narrow space for the highroad to Piacenza. An army 
 posted in advance of La Stradella, at the entrance of a sort of 
 defile several leagues in length, its left upon the heights, its 
 centre upon the road, its right along the Po and the marshy 
 grounds that border it, is difficult to dislodge. It must be 
 added that the route is studded with hamlets and villages, built 
 of stone, and very capable of resisting cannon. Against the 
 imperial army, which was strong in cavalry and artillery, this 
 position, therefore, independently of its natural advantages, 
 possessed the property of annulling those two arms. 
 
 It had, moreover, other most peculiar advantages. It is 
 very near this position that the tributary streams on the other 
 side of the Po, most important to occupy, such as the Tessino 
 and the Adda, effect their junction. Thus the Tessino falls 
 into the Po, a little below Pavia and above Belgiojoso, nearly 
 opposite to La Stradella, at the distance of two leagues at most. 
 The Adda, running beyond and for a greater distance before 
 it unites with the Po, discharges itself into that river between 
 Piacenza and Cremona. The reader will at once comprehend 
 that, placed at La Stradella, and master of the bridges of 
 Belgiojoso, of Piacenza, and of Cremona, General Bonaparte 
 would be in possession of the most decisive points ; for he 
 would bar the principal road, that from Alexandria to Piacenza, 
 and he would have it in his power, at the same time, by a long- 
 march, to hasten to the Tessino, or to redescend the Po to 
 Cremona, and to fly towards the Adda, which covered his rear 
 against the corps of Wukassowich. 
 
 It was in this species of net, formed by the Apennines, the Po, 
 the Tessino, and the Adda, that he distributed his forces. He 
 resolved first to proceed to La Stradella himself, with the 30,000 
 best soldiers of his army, Watrin's, Chambarlhac's, Gardanne's, 
 Boudet's, and Monnier's divisions, placed under Murat, Victor, 
 and Lannes, in the position that we have described, the left to 
 the mountains, the centre upon the highroad, the right along
 
 junei8oo CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 233 
 
 the Po. Chabran's division, which had come by the Little St. 
 Bernard, and had at first been directed to occupy Ivrea, was 
 afterwards sent on to Vercelli, with orders to fall back upon 
 the Tessino, in case of the enemy's approach. Lapoype's 
 division, which descended the St. Gothard, was posted on the 
 Tessino itself, in the environs of Pavia. These were from 9000 
 to 10,000 men, who were to fall back upon one another, to dis- 
 pute the passage of the Tessino to the last extremity, and to give 
 General Bonaparte time to hasten in one day to their assistance. 
 The detachment of the Simplon guarded, under General B<jthen- 
 court, towards Arona, the route of the St. Gothard, the retreat 
 of the French army in case of disaster. Gilly's division was to 
 guard Milan : this was rendered necessary by the presence of an 
 Austrian garrison in the citadel of that city. There were three 
 or four thousand more men destined for this twofold purpose. 
 Lastly, Lorges' division, which had come from Germany, had 
 orders to establish itself at Lodi on the Adda. Loison's division, 
 which formed part of the army of reserve, was commissioned, 
 under the command of General Duhesme, to defend Piacenza 
 and Cremona. This was another force of 10,000 or 1 1,000 men 
 employed on these two last points. 
 
 Such was the distribution of the fifty odd thousand soldiers 
 whom General Bonaparte had at his disposal at the moment ; 
 32,000 were at the central point of La Stradella, from 9000 to 
 10,000 on the Tessino, 3000 or 4000 at Milan and Arona, lastly, 
 from 10,000 to 1 1,000 on the lower course of the Po and of the 
 Adda, all placed in such a manner as to support one another 
 reciprocally with extreme promptness. In fact, on receiving 
 notice from the Tessino, General Bonaparte could in a day fly 
 to the succour of the 10,000 French who guarded it. On notice 
 from the Lower Po, he could, in the same space of time, 
 descend upon Piacenza and Cremona, while General Loison, 
 defending the passage of the river, would give him time to 
 hasten up. All and each of them, on their part, could march 
 upon La Stradella and reinforce General Bonaparte in as short 
 a time as it would take him to reach them. 
 
 General Bonaparte seemed here to deviate from his usual 
 principle, that of concentrating his forces on the eve of a great 
 battle. If such a concentration passes for a masterpiece of art 
 when it is effected seasonably, at the moment of a decisive action, 
 and in the case of two adversaries anxious to measure their 
 strength, totally different tactics should be employed when one of 
 the two is attempting to escape, and the art consists in seizing 
 before fighting him ! Such was the case here. It was requisite, 
 in fact, that General Bonaparte should spread a net around the 
 Austrian army, and that this net should be strong enough to 
 detain it : for, if there had been on the Tessino or the Lower
 
 234 HISTORY OF THE junei8oo 
 
 Po nothing but advanced guards, proper at most for giving notice, 
 not for barring the road against an enemy, the aim would have 
 been totally missed. There were needed at all the points posts 
 capable at once of giving warning and of keeping the Austrians 
 in check, whilst a principal mass was retained at the centre ready 
 to hasten to any quarter with decisive means. It was impossible, 
 then, to combine with more profound art the employment of 
 his forces, and to modify more skilfully the application of his 
 own principles, than General Bonaparte did on this occasion. 
 It is in their manner of applying, according to circumstances, 
 a true but general principle, that we recognise superior men 
 of action. 
 
 This plan once decided upon, General Bonaparte gave his 
 orders accordingly. Lannes, with Watrin's division, had been 
 despatched to La Stradella by Pavia and Belgiojoso. It was 
 of importance that Chambarlhac's, Gardanne's, Monnier's, and 
 Boudet's divisions should carry to him the succour of their 
 forces before the Austrian corps — which, repulsed from Piacenza, 
 might join General Ott's force towards Tortona — should have 
 time to press him. This was what General Bonaparte had 
 foreseen with his prodigious sagacity. Being unable to leave 
 Milan till the 8th and to reach La Stradella before the 9th, he 
 despatched the following instructions to Berthier, Lannes, and 
 Murat. "Concentrate yourselves," said he, "at La Stradella. On 
 the 8th, or the 9th at latest, you will have upon your hands 
 15,000 or 18,000 Austrians, coming from Genoa. Go, meet 
 them, rout them. There will be so many the fewer Austrians 
 to fight on the day of the decisive battle which awaits us with 
 the whole army of M. de Melas." Having given these orders, 
 he set out on the 8th from Milan to cross the Po in person 
 and to be the next day at La Stradella. 
 
 It was impossible to divine more accurately the movements of 
 the enemy. We said just now that three Austrian detachments 
 had appeared uselessly before Piacenza ; that the detachment 
 which had arrived from Tuscany by Fiorenzuola had been driven 
 back ; that the detachment of General Gottesheim, who had 
 descended with infantry by the valley of the Trebbia, had been 
 thrown back into that valley ; lastly, that General Oreilly, has- 
 tening from Alexandria with cavalry, had been forced to return 
 towards Tortona. But General Ott, on his part, marching by 
 the road from Genoa to Tortona, arrived at La Stradella on the 
 morning of the 9th of June, as General Bonaparte had foreseen. 
 He brought along before him Generals Gottesheim and Oreilly, 
 whom he had met retreating, and determined to make a vigorous 
 effort upon Piacenza, not imagining that nearly the whole French 
 army could be posted en Echelon in the defile of La Stradella. 
 Including the troops that had just rejoined him, he had 17,000
 
 junei8oo CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 235 
 
 or 18,000 men. Lannes could not collect, on the morning of 
 the 9th, more than 7000 or 8000 ; but in consequence of the 
 repeated warnings of the commander-in-chief, from 5000 to 6000 
 more were to rejoin him in the course of the day. The field of 
 battle was that which we have described. Lannes presented 
 himself — his left on the heights of the Apennines, the centre on 
 the chaussde towards the hamlet of Casteggio, the right on the 
 plain of the Po. He had been wrong in proceeding a little too 
 far in advance of La Stradella, towards Casteggio and Montebello, 
 just where the road ceases to form a defile, owing to the extent 
 of the plain. But the French, full of confidence, though inferior 
 in number, were capable of the greatest efforts of devotedness, 
 especially under a leader like Lannes, who possessed in the highest 
 degree the art of inducing them to follow him anywhere. 
 
 Lannes, directing with vigour Watrin's division upon Cas- 
 teggio, beat back the advanced posts of Oreilly. His plan con- 
 sisted in making himself master of the hamlet of Casteggio, 
 lying before him on the road, either by attacking it in front, 
 or by turning it by the plain of the Po on the one hand, by 
 the acclivities of the Apennines on the other. The numerous 
 artillery of the Austrians, established on the road, swept the 
 ground in all directions. Two battalions of the 6th light strove 
 to take this murderous artillery by turning it by the right; 
 while the 3rd battalion of the 6th and the whole 40th en- 
 deavoured to gain the neighbouring hills, situated on the left. 
 and the rest of Watrin's division marched upon Casteggio itself, 
 where the centre of the enemy was. An obstinate combat 
 ensued at all these points. The French had well-nigh carried 
 the attacked positions, when General Gottesheim, hastening up 
 with his infantry to support Oreilly, overthrew the battalions 
 which had climbed the heights. Lannes, under a tremendous 
 fire, supported his troops, and prevented them from yielding to 
 numbers. They were, nevertheless, ready to succumb, when 
 Chambarlhac's division, forming part of General Victor's corps, 
 arrived. General Rivaud, at the head of the 43rd, climbed the 
 heights afresh, rallied the French battalions which had been re- 
 pulsed from them, and, after incredible efforts, finally maintained 
 himself there. At the centre, that is, on the highroad, the 96th 
 came to the assistance of General Watrin in his attack on the 
 hamlet of Casteggio ; and the 24th, extending itself to the right 
 in the plain, endeavoured to turn the left of the enemy, in order 
 to silence the fire of his artillery. During this combined effort 
 on the wings, the brave Watrin had to sustain a furious combat 
 in Casteggio ; he lost and retook the hamlet several times. Bui 
 Lannes, present everywhere, gave the decisive impulsion. P>y 
 his orders, General Pivaud, on the left, having remained master 
 of the heights and crossed them, descended on the rear of
 
 236 HISTORY OF THE june 1800 
 
 Casteggio ; the troops, sent into the plain on the right, turned 
 the hotly contested hamlet ; both marched to Montebello, while 
 General Watrin, making a last effort on the enemy's centre, 
 broke through it, and at length proceeded to beyond Casteggio. 
 The Austrians, finding themselves at this moment repulsed in 
 all quarters, fled to Montebello, leaving in our hands a con- 
 siderable number of prisoners. 
 
 The action had lasted from eleven in the forenoon till eight in 
 the evening. It was the Austrians who had blockaded Genoa, 
 trained by Masseria to the most furious fights, that were here, in 
 the plains of Piedmont, struggling with desperation to force their 
 way through. They were supported by a numerous artillery, and 
 they had displayed more than ordinary bravery. The First Consul 
 arrived at the very moment when the battle, the place and the 
 day of which he had so correctly foreseen, was just finished. He 
 found Lannes covered with blood, but intoxicated with joy, and 
 the troops enchanted with their success. They felt, as he has 
 since said, that they had behaved well. The conscripts had 
 proved themselves worthy to vie with the veteran soldiers. We 
 had taken 4000 prisoners, wounded or killed nearly 3000 men. 
 The victory had been difficult for us to gain, since 12,000 
 combatants, at most, had been opposed to 1 8,000. 
 
 Such was the battle of Montebello, which gave to Lannes and 
 his family the title that distinguishes it among the French 
 families of the present time — a glorious title, which his descen- 
 dants ought to be proud to bear ! 
 
 This first rencontre was a promising beginning, but it intimated 
 to M. de Melas the difficulty he would have in forcing his way. 
 General Ott, with a force diminished by 7000 men, retired in con- 
 sternation upon Alexandria. The courage of the French army 
 was raised to the highest degree of hardihood. 
 
 The First Consul lost no time in collecting his divisions, and 
 in strongly occupying that road from Alexandria to Piacenza. 
 which, in all probability, M. de Melas would follow. Lannes 
 having advanced too far, the First Consul fell back a little to 
 the very point which is called La Stradella, because the defile, 
 narrowed in this place by the approximation of the heights and 
 the river, renders the position more secure. 
 
 The 10th and 1 ith of June were passed in observing the move- 
 ments of the Austrians, in concentrating the army, in giving it 
 a little rest after its rapid marches, in organising the artillery 
 in the best possible manner ; for, till now, not more than forty 
 field-pieces could be brought together at this point. 
 
 On the 1 ith, one of the most distinguished generals of that 
 period, Desaix, who, perhaps, equalled Moreau, Massena, Kleber. 
 Lannes, in military talents, but who surpassed them all in the 
 rare perfections of his character, arrived at headquarters. He
 
 junei8oo CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 237 
 
 had just returned from Egypt, where Kleber had committed 
 political faults, which we shall soon have the chagrin to record, 
 which Desaix strove in vain to prevent, and, to escape the pain- 
 ful sight of which, he had fled to Europe. These faults, however, 
 had afterwards been gloriously retrieved. Desaix, stopped near 
 the coast of France, had been treated by the English in the most 
 shameful manner. He loved the First Consul with a sort of 
 passion ; and the First Consul, touched by the affection of such 
 a noble heart, requited it by the warmest friendship that he ever 
 felt in his life. They passed a whole night together, in relating 
 to each other what had happened in Egypt and in France, and 
 the First Consul immediately gave him the command of Monnier's 
 and Boudet's united divisions. 
 
 On the following day, June 1 2th, General Bonaparte, surprised 
 at seeing nothing of the Austrians, could not help feeling some 
 apprehensions. Astonished that, in such a situation, M. de 
 Melas should hesitate, lose time, and suffer all the outlets to be 
 closed around him, measuring his adversary too closely by his 
 own standard, he said that M. de Melas could not have wasted 
 such precious hours, and that he must have escaped, either by 
 ascending towards Genoa, or by crossing the Upper Po, with 
 the intention of forcing the Tessino. Tired of waiting, he left, 
 in the afternoon of the 12th, his position of La Stradella, and 
 advanced, followed by the whole army, to the height of Tortona. 
 He gave orders for the blockade of that fortress, and established 
 his headquarters at Yoghera. On the morning of the 1 3th, he 
 crossed the Scrivia, and debouched in the immense plain extend- 
 ing between the Scrivia and the Bormida, which, at the present 
 day, has no other name but the plain of Marengo. It was the 
 very same which, several months before, his imagination marked 
 out for the theatre of a great battle with M. de Melas. At this 
 place, the Po flows at a distance from the Apennines. The 
 intervening country is intersected by the Bormida and the 
 Tanaro, whose currents have become less rapid, and uniting 
 near Alexandria, afterwards discharge themselves into the bed 
 of the Po. The road skirting the foot of the Apennines to 
 Tortona separates from it opposite to that place, turns off to the 
 right, passes the Scrivia, and debouches in a vast plain. It 
 runs across it to a first village called San Giuliano. proceeds to 
 a second called Marengo, at length crosses the Bormida, and 
 leads to the celebrated fortress of Alexandria. " If the enemy 
 meant to follow the highroad from Piacenza to Mantua, it is 
 here that he would wait for me," said General Bonaparte to 
 himself; '"here his numerous artillery, his fine cavalry, would 
 have great advantages, and lie would fight with all his united 
 means." Having made this reflection, General Bonaparte, in 
 order to confirm himself in his conjectures, ordered the country
 
 238 HISTORY OF THE June 1800 
 
 to be scoured by light cavalry, which did not fall in with a single 
 Austrian outpost. Towards evening, he sent forward General 
 Victor's corps, composed of Gardanne's and Ohambarlhac's divi- 
 sions, to Marengo. At this point we encountered a detachment, 
 that of Oreilly, which defended for a moment the village of 
 Marengo, then abandoned it, and recrossed the Bormida. A 
 reconnaissance, not made with due care, even afforded room to 
 suppose that the enemy had no bridge upon the Bormida. 
 
 From all these signs, General Bonaparte ceased to doubt that 
 M. de Melas had, as he expressed it, given him the slip. He 
 would not have abandoned the plain, and particularly the village 
 of Marengo, which forms the entrance to it, if he had meant to 
 cross it, to fight a battle, and to conquer the route from Alexandria 
 to Piacenza. Misled by this most just reflection, General Bona- 
 parte left General Victor, with his two divisions, at Marengo ; 
 he placed Lannes en echelon in the plain with Watrin's division, 
 and galloped off for his headquarters at Voghera, to get intelli- 
 gence from General Moncey, stationed on the Tessino, from 
 General Duhesme, stationed on the Lower Po, and thus ascertain 
 what had become of M. de Melas. Officers of the staff, starting 
 from all points, were directed to meet him at his headquarters. 
 But the Scrivia was overflowed, and very fortunately he was 
 obliged to stop at Torre di Garofolo. Accounts from the Tessino 
 and the Po, dated that very day, intimated that all was perfectly 
 quiet. M. de Melas had attempted nothing in that quarter. 
 What could have become of him ? . . . General Bonaparte con- 
 ceived that he had marched back upon Genoa, by Novi, with the 
 intention of passing into the valley of the Trebbia, and again 
 falling upon Cremona. It seemed, in fact, that, as he was not 
 at Alexandria, as he was not on march for the Tessino, he could 
 not have taken any other course. It might also be conjectured 
 that, following the example of Wurmser at Mantua, he had 
 gone and shut himself up in Genoa, where, supplied by the 
 English, having a garrison of 50,000 men, he would have the 
 means of protracting the war. These ideas had taken snch 
 strong hold of the mind of the First Consul, that he directed 
 Desaix to march upon Rivalta and Novi with Boudet's single 
 division. It was, in fact, through Novi that M. de Melas would 
 have to pass, in going from Alexandria to Genoa. 
 
 However, from a lucky presentiment, he kept Monnier's divi- 
 sion, and the second of Desaix's divisions, at headquarters, and 
 he provided as far as possible for all contingencies, by leaving 
 Victor at Marengo with two divisions, Lannes with one in the 
 plain, Murat at his sides with all the cavalry. If we consider 
 the general distribution of the French forces at this moment, 
 spread partly on the Tessino, partly on the Lower Po and the 
 Adda, partly on the route to Genoa, we shall be struck with
 
 junei8oo CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 239 
 
 their dispersion. This was the necessary consequence of the 
 general situation and of the circumstances of the day. 
 
 The night of the 13th, which preceded one of the most glorious 
 days in history, General Bonaparte passed at the village of Torre 
 di Garofolo, and fell asleep, expecting to receive tidings on the 
 morrow. 
 
 Meanwhile, confusion reigned in Alexandria. The Austrian 
 army was in despair. A council of war had just been held, and 
 none of the resolutions which the French general was afraid of 
 had been adopted. There had indeed been some talk of retiring 
 by the Upper Po and the Tessino, or shutting themselves up in 
 Genoa, but the Austrian generals, like brave men, as they were, 
 had preferred following the suggestions of honour. After all, 
 said they, we have been fighting for these eighteen months, like 
 good soldiers ; we had reconquered Italy ; we were in march for 
 the frontiers of France ; our government urged us forward ; it 
 was but yesterday that it gave such orders : it behoved it to 
 apprise us of the danger which threatened our rear. If any 
 blame attaches to our situation, to the government that blame 
 belongs. All the means proposed for avoiding an engagement 
 with the French army are complicated, difficult, hazardous ; 
 there is but one simple and honourable course, it is to break 
 through. To-morrow we must open a way for ourselves at the 
 price of our blood. If we succeed, we will regain, after a 
 victoiy, the road to Piacenza and Mantua ; if not, after we have 
 done our duty, the responsibility for our disaster will fall upon 
 others, not upon ourselves. 
 
 The First Consul could not comprehend how so much time 
 could be thrown away in deliberating in such an emergency. 
 But there was none who equalled the promptness of his deter- 
 minations, and M. de Melas was in a position sufficiently des- 
 perate to cause the cruel perplexities which delayed his defi- 
 nitive resolution to be forgiven. In deciding to give battle, the 
 Austrian general behaved like a soldier full of honour ; but he 
 might be reproached for having left 25.000 men in the for- 
 tresses of Coni, Turin. Tortona, Genoa. Acqui, Gavi, and Alex- 
 andria, especially after the loss which Ott had sustained at 
 Montebello. With 25,000 men in the fortresses, 3000 in Tus- 
 cany, 12,000 between Mantua and Venice, he had left 40,000 
 men at most to bring upon the field of battle, where the issue 
 of the war was to be decided. To this number had dwindled 
 that fine army 120. OOO strong, which, at the commencement of 
 the campaign, was to force the southern frontiers of France! 
 40.000 had perished, 40.000 were scattered. 40,000 were about 
 to fight, in order to escape the Caudine Forks; but among these 
 la Q t were a powerful cavalry and 200 pieces of cannon. 
 
 It was decided that, on the following day, the whole army
 
 240 HISTORY OF THE junei8oo 
 
 should debouch by the bridges of the Bormida, for there were 
 two, covered by one and the same tete du pont, notwithstanding 
 the false intelligence given to General Bonaparte ; that General 
 Ott, at the head of 10,000 men, half cavalry, half infantry, should 
 debouch from the Bormida, and, turning to the left, proceed 
 towards a village called Castel Ceriolo ; that Generals Haddick 
 and Kaim, at the head of the main body of the army, about 
 20,000 men, should carry the village of Marengo, which forms 
 the entrance to the plain ; and that General Oreilly, with 5000 
 or 6000 soldiers, should turn to the right and ascend the Bor- 
 mida. A powerful artillery was to support this movement. A 
 considerable detachment, particularly strong in cavalry, was left 
 in the rear of Alexandria, on the Acqui road, to observe Suchet's 
 troops, of whose arrival vague accounts had been received. 
 
 We have described that vast plain, traversed throughout its 
 whole extent by the highroad from Alexandria to Piacenza, and 
 enclosed between the Scrivia and the Bormida. The French, 
 marching from Piacenza and the Scrivia, came first to San 
 Giuliano, then, three-quarters of a league further, to Marengo, 
 which was very near the Bormida, and formed the principal 
 cUhoucM that the Austrian army had to gain possession of, in 
 order to get out of Alexandria. Between San Giuliano and 
 Marengo ran, in a straight line, the road that was about to be 
 disputed, and on either side extended a plain covered with corn- 
 fields and vineyards. Below Marengo, and on the right of the 
 French, on the left of the Austrians, was Castel Ceriolo, a large 
 hamlet, through which General Ott would have to pass, in order 
 to turn the corps of General Victor stationed in Marengo. Upon 
 Marengo, then, the principal attack of the Austrians was to be 
 directed, since that village commanded the entrance to the plain. 
 
 At daybreak, the Austrian army crossed the two bridges of 
 the Bormida. But its movement was slow, owing to its having 
 but a single tete du pont to debouch by. Oreilly passed first, and 
 fell in with Gardanne's division, which General Victor, after he 
 had occupied Marengo, had sent forward. This division consisted 
 of only the ioist and the 44th demi-brigades. Oreilly, supported 
 by a numerous artillery, and having twice the force, obliged it to 
 fall back and to seek shelter in Marengo. Fortunately he did not 
 follow it into the place, but waited until the centre, under General 
 Haddick, was able to support him. The tardiness of the march 
 through the defile formed by the bridges caused the Aiistrians to 
 ' lose two or three hours. At length, Generals Haddick and Kaim 
 deployed in the rear of Oreilly, and General Ott crossed the same 
 bridges, to proceed to Castel Ceriolo. General Victor instantly 
 united his two divisions to defend Marengo, and sent word to 
 the First Consul, that the whole Austrian army was advancing, 
 with the evident intention of giving battle.
 
 junei8oo CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 241 
 
 A defence peculiar to the ground served most seasonably to 
 second the intrepidity of our soldiers. In advance of Marengo, 
 between the Austrians and the French, was a deep and muddy 
 rivulet, called the Fontanone. It ran between Marengo and the 
 Bormida, and emptied itself, a little lower down, into the Bor- 
 mida. Victor placed towards his right, that is, in the village 
 of Marengo, the 101st and 44th demi-brigades, under General 
 Gardanne ; to the left of the village, the 24th, the 43rd, and the 
 96th, under General Chambarlhac ; a little further back, General 
 Kellermann, with the 20th, 2nd, and 8th cavalry, and a squadron 
 of the 12th. The rest of the 12th was sent to the Upper Bor- 
 mida, to observe the distant movements of the enemy. 
 
 General Haddick advanced towards the rivulet, protected by 
 twenty-five pieces of artillery, which played upon the French. 
 He threw himself bravely into the bed of the Fontanone, at the 
 head of Bellegarde's division. General Rivaud, instantly leaving 
 the shelter of the village, with the 44th and the 101st, opened a 
 point-blank fire upon the Austrians, who were endeavouring to 
 debouch. A most obstinate conflict ensued along the Fontanone. 
 Haddick made repeated attempts ; but Rivaud,* keeping his 
 ground under the batteries of the Austrians, stopped Haddick's 
 corps by a fire of musketry within short range, and drove it back 
 in disorder to the other side of the rivulet. The unfortunate 
 General Haddick received a wound, which afterwards proved 
 mortal, and his soldiers retired. M. de Melas then ordered 
 General Kaim's troops to advance, and directed Oreilly to ascend 
 the bank of the Bormida to a place called La Stortigliona, with 
 the design of charging our left with Pilati's cavalry. But at 
 this moment General Kellermann was on horseback, at the 
 head of his division of cavalry, observing the movements of the 
 enemy's squadrons ; and Lannes, who had lain, the preceding 
 night, to the right of Victor, in the plain, had just placed himself 
 in line between Marengo and Castel Ceriolo. The Austrians, 
 then, made a second effort. Gardanne's and Chambarlhac's divi- 
 sions, drawn up in a semicircle, around the semicircular bed of the 
 Fontanone, were placed in such a manner as to pour a converg- 
 ing fire upon the point of attack. Their musketry spread havoc 
 among the troops of General Kaim. Meanwhile, General Pilati, 
 ascending higher, had succeeded in crossing the Fontanone, at 
 the head of 2000 horse. The gallant Kellermann, who on this 
 day added greatly to the glory he had acquired on the field of 
 Valmy, dashed upon Pilati's squadrons as soon as they attempted 
 to debouch, slaughtering and hurling them into the muddy bed 
 of that little stream, which art could not have formed better for 
 covering the position of the French. 
 
 At this moment, though our army, taken by surprise, had no 
 
 * Olivier Rivaud. 
 VOL. I. Q
 
 242 HISTORY OF THE june 1800 
 
 more than the two corps of Victor and Lannes in line, that is 
 to say, 15,000 or 16,000 men to resist 36,000, still, owing to 
 the fault committed by the Austrians on the preceding day, in 
 neglecting to occupy Marengo, a fault, however, which had 
 been productive of advantages to them, inasmuch as it had led 
 General Bonaparte into error, our army had time to wait the 
 arrival of its commander, and of the reserves remaining behind, 
 or sent by the route of Novi. 
 
 Such was the state of things, when M. de Melas determined 
 to make a desperate effort to save the honour and the liberty of 
 his army, and, gallantly seconded by his soldiers, all veterans, 
 whose victories in the preceding campaign had heightened their 
 courage, M. de Melas made another attack on the French line. 
 General Ott, who had taken a good deal of time in filing off, 
 began to be in a condition to act on the left of the Austrians. 
 He manoeuvred with a view to turn us, passed through Castel 
 Ceriolo, and fell upon Lannes, who, placed beside Victor, be- 
 tween Marengo and Castel Ceriolo, formed the right of our line. 
 While General Ott's corps occupied the attention of Lannes, the 
 corps of Oreilly, Haddick, and Kaim, having united, were directed 
 anew upon the Fontanone, in front of Marengo. A formidable 
 artillery supported all their movements. Lattermann's grena- 
 diers entered the brook, crossed it, and gained the other bank. 
 Chambarlhac's division, posted on the left of Marengo, and on 
 the flanks of the Austrian grenadiers, kept up a destructive fire 
 upon them. A battalion of these grenadiers, nevertheless, con- 
 trived to maintain its ground beyond the Fontanone. M. de 
 Melas redoubled the cannonade on Chambarlhac's division, which 
 was not covered by the houses of the village, like that which de- 
 fended Marengo itself. Meanwhile the Austrian pioneers hastily 
 constructed a bridge on trestles. The gallant Bivaud, at the 
 head of the 44th, issuing from the village of Marengo, and march- 
 ing up to the assailants, in spite of the grape-shot, was on the 
 point of driving them into the Fontanone, when tremendous dis- 
 charges of artillery stopped the 44th, exhausted by this obstinate 
 struggle, and Rivaud himself was wounded. Availing themselves 
 of this advantage, Lattermann's grenadiers advanced en masse, 
 and penetrated into Marengo. Rivaud, covered with blood, placed 
 himself once more at the head of the 44th, made a vigorous 
 charge on these grenadiers, and drove them out of Marengo ; but 
 received, as soon as he lost the shelter of the houses, by a fearful 
 fire of artillery, he could not force them to recross the brook, 
 which had hitherto so well protected our army. Weakened by 
 loss of blood, and scarcely able to support himself, this brave 
 officer was obliged to submit to be carried off the field of battle. 
 The Austrian grenadiers therefore retained possession of the 
 position which they had just carried. At the same instant,
 
 junei8oo CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 243 
 
 Chambarlhac's division, which, as we have said, was not protected 
 by any shelter, but completely exposed to the grape-shot, was 
 well-nigh mowed down. General Oreilly repulsed the 96th, 
 which formed our extreme left, and then began to act on the 
 offensive. Towards the right, Lannes, who, having at first the 
 single corps of General Kaim only to deal with, had been on the 
 point of driving it into the bed of the Fontanone, perceived that 
 he was all at once turned by General Ott, debouching from 
 Castel Ceriolo with a large body of cavalry. Champeaux's 
 brigade of cavalry, drawn up in rear of Lannes' corps, as was 
 Kellermann in rear of Victor's, made, but in vain, several brilliant 
 charges. The unfortunate Champeaux received a mortal wound. 
 Our army, severely pressed on both wings, separated from 
 Marengo, the point to which it had at first so strongly clung, 
 and, having no longer any support, ran the risk of being forced 
 back into the plain in the rear, where it could make no stand 
 against two hundred pieces of cannon and an immense cavalry. 
 
 It was ten o'clock in the morning. The carnage had been 
 frightful. A considerable mass of wounded encumbered the 
 road between Marengo and San Giuliano. Already part of 
 Victor's troops, overwhelmed by numbers, were retiring in dis- 
 order, crying that all was lost. All must have been lost, in fact, 
 without a reinforcement of troops, which were not exhausted, 
 and, more especially, without a great captain, capable of regain- 
 ing the victory wrested from us. 
 
 General Bonaparte, on receiving intelligence that the Austrian 
 army, which he so feared might escape him, had, on the con- 
 trary, taken his army by surprise, in that very plain of Marengo, 
 so deserted on the preceding day, hastened from Torre di Garo- 
 falo, congratulating himself on the lucky inundation of the 
 Scrivia, which had prevented him from passing the night at 
 Voghera. He brought with him the consular guard, a body not 
 very numerous, but of incomparable valour, and which became 
 subsequently the imperial guard ; he brought Monnier's division, 
 composed of three excellent demi-brigades ; he was followed at 
 a little distance by a reserve of two regiments of cavalry ; and 
 he further sent orders to Desaix to march with the utmost 
 expedition for San Giuliano. 
 
 The First Consul, at the head of these reserves, proceeded at 
 a gallop to the field of battle. He found Lannes attacked on 
 the right by the infantry and cavalry of General Ott. and en- 
 deavouring, nevertheless, to support himself 011 the left around 
 Marengo. Gardanne was defending himself in the hedges of 
 that village, the object of such a furious struggle ; and. on the 
 other side, Chambarlhac's division was dispersing under tin 1 
 heavy discharges of the Austrian artillery. A glance sufficed 
 for his military eye to perceive what was fitting to be done in
 
 244 HISTORY OF THE june 1800 
 
 order to retrieve the day. His mutilated left was absolutely 
 routed ; but his right, which was only threatened, still main- 
 tained its ground ; it was that, therefore, which ought to be 
 reinforced. By keeping a firm hold of Castel Ceriolo he should 
 have a point of support amidst that extensive plain ; he should 
 be able to make a pivot of his strengthened wing, and bring his 
 beaten wing into the rear, where it would be out of the reach of 
 the enemy. If he should lose by this movement the highroad 
 from Marengo to San Giuliano, the evil would be reparable ; for, 
 behind his new position, there would be another road, leading 
 to Sale, and from Sale to the banks of the Po. His line of 
 retreat to Pavia would thus be still secured. Placed, more- 
 over, on the right of the plain, he would be on the flank of the 
 Austrians, who would take the highroad from Marengo to San 
 Giuliano, if they meant to follow up the victory. 
 
 Having made these reflections with the rapidity of lightning, 
 General Bonaparte put instantly into execution the resolution 
 which he had just conceived. He sent forward into the plain, 
 to the right of Lannes, the 800 grenadiers of the consular 
 guard, ordering them to stop the Austrian cavalry till the arrival 
 of Monnier's three demi-brigades. These brave fellows, formed 
 in square, received with admirable coolness the charges of the 
 Lobkowitz dragoons, and stood unbroken by the repeated assaults 
 of a multitude of horse. A little on their right, General Bona- 
 parte ordered two of Monnier's demi-brigades, which arrived at 
 the moment, to proceed towards Castel Ceriolo. These two demi- 
 brigades, headed by General Carra St. Cyr, marched forward, 
 and, sometimes drawn up in square to stop the cavalry, some- 
 times in columns of attack to charge the infantry, they at length 
 recovered the lost ground, and lodged themselves in the hedges 
 and gardens of Castel Ceriolo. At the same moment, General 
 Bonaparte, at the head of the 72nd, lent his support to the left 
 under Lannes, while Dupont, the chief of the staff, went to rally 
 in the rear the wrecks of Victor's corps, pursued by Oreilly's 
 horse, but protected by Murat with the reserve of cavalry. The 
 presence of the First Consul, the sight of the bearskin caps of 
 his horse-guard, infused fresh spirit into the troops. The battle 
 recommenced with new fury. The brave Watrin, of Lannes' 
 corps, with the 6th of the line and the 22nd, drove Kaim's soldiers 
 into the Fontanone at the point of the bayonet. Lannes, firing 
 the 40th and the 28th with his own heroic spirit, pushed both of 
 them upon the Austrians. The battle raged fiercely over the whole 
 of the immense plain. Gardanne strove to reconquer Marengo ; 
 Lannes endeavoured to make himself master of the rivulet which, 
 at first, had so usefully covered our troops ; the grenadiers of the 
 consular guard, still in square, like a living citadel amidst that 
 field of battle, filled the gap between Lannes and the columns of
 
 junei8oo CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 245 
 
 Carra St. Cyr, which had entered the first houses of Castel Ceriolo. 
 But Baron de Melas, with the courage of despair, bringing up 
 his united masses upon Marengo, debouched at last from the 
 village, and drove back the exhausted soldiers of Gardanne, 
 who, in vain, took advantage of all obstacles. Oreilly continued 
 to overwhelm with grape-shot the division of Chambarlhac, 
 which was still left exposed to the fire of an immense artillery. 
 
 It was impossible for the French to keep their ground ; they 
 were obliged to give way. General Bonaparte ordered them to 
 fall back by degrees, at the same time keeping up a firm coun- 
 tenance. But, while his left, deprived of Marengo, and thence- 
 forward without support, retreated rapidly to San Giuliano, 
 where it might find shelter, he continued to hold the right of 
 the plain, and drew away from it slowly, thanks to the point of 
 Castel Ceriolo, thanks to the energy of the consular guard, and 
 thanks above all to Lannes, who made unparalleled efforts. 
 Provided only he holds his position on the right, the First 
 Consul still retains a line of retreat by Sale' towards the banks 
 of the Po ; and, if Desaix, sent the preceding day upon Novi, 
 should come up in time, he may still reconquer the field of 
 battle and bring back victory to his side. 
 
 It was at this moment that Lannes and his four demi-brigades 
 made efforts worthy of the admiration of posterity. The enemy, 
 who had debouched en masse from Marengo into the plain, 
 poured forth a shower of balls and grape-shot from eighty pieces 
 of cannon. Lannes, at the head of his four demi-brigades, was 
 two hours in retiring three-quarters of a league. When the 
 enemy approached and became too pressing, he halted and 
 charged with the bayonet. Though his artillery was dismounted, 
 a few light pieces, drawn by the best horses, and manoeuvred 
 with equal skill and boldness, were brought up, and assisted by 
 their fire the demi-brigades that were too much cramped, and 
 dared to place themselves in battery against the formidable 
 Austrian artillery. The consular guard, which could not be 
 broken by charges of cavalry, was now attacked with cannon. 
 The enemy strove to batter it in breach, like a wall, and then 
 charged it with Frimont's horse. It sustained considerable loss, 
 and fell back, but unbroken. Carra .St. Cyr fell back also, and 
 abandoned Castel Ceriolo, still retaining, however, a last support 
 in the vineyards in rear of that village We, nevertheless, re- 
 mained masters of the road from Castel Ceriolo to Sale. On all 
 sides, the plain exhibited a vast scene of carnage, where the roar 
 of explosions mingled with that of the artillery ; tor Lannes blew 
 up the ammunition-waggons which he could not carry oif. 
 
 Half the day was spent. M. de Melas fancied himself sure of 
 the victory, which he had so dearly purchased. This old warrior, 
 who, for courage at least, proved himself worthy of his adversary
 
 246 HISTORY OF THE junei8oo 
 
 on that memorable clay, returned to Alexandria, worn out with 
 fatigue. He left the command to M. de Zach, the chief of his 
 staff, and sent off couriers to all Europe, to proclaim his victory 
 and the defeat of General Bonaparte at Marengo. This chief of 
 the staff, invested with the command, then formed the bulk of 
 the Austrian army into marching column, on the highroad from 
 Marengo to San Giuliano. He put at the head two regiments 
 of infantry, and then the column of Lattermann's grenadiers, 
 followed by the baggage train. He placed General Oreilly on the 
 left, and Generals Kaim and Haddick on the right, and endea- 
 voured to gain in this order that highroad to Piacenza, the object 
 of so many efforts, and the salvation of the Austrian army. 
 
 It was now three o'clock. If no new circumstance intervened, 
 the battle might be considered as lost by the French, unless they 
 could, on the morrow, with the troops shifted from the Tessino 
 and the Adda to the Po, retrieve the misfortune of the day. 
 Desaix, however, with Boudet's whole division, had not yet come 
 up : would he arrive in time ? On this circumstance depended 
 the issue of the battle. The aides-de-camp of the First Consul 
 had been galloping in quest of him ever since morning. But, 
 long before they reached him, Desaix, on the first cannon-shot 
 fired in the plain of Marengo, had instantly wheeled about. 
 Hearing this distant report, he had concluded that the enemy, 
 whom he had been sent in search of to Novi, on the Genoa road, 
 was at Marengo itself. He had immediately despatched Savary, 
 with a few hundred horse, to Novi, to see what was o'oino; for- 
 ward, and had waited with his division, listening intently to the 
 cannon of the Austrians and the French, which never ceased 
 thundering in the direction of the Bormida. From Savary having 
 discovered no trace of the enemy in the environs of Novi, Desaix 
 was confirmed in his happy conjecture, and, without further 
 delay, marched for Marengo, sending before him several aides- 
 de-camp to apprise the First Consul that he was coming. He 
 had marched the whole day, and, at three o'clock, his heads of 
 columns at length appeared at the entrance into the plain, in 
 the vicinity of San Giuliano. He himself, preceding them at a 
 gallop, rode up to the First Consul. Happy inspiration of a 
 lieutenant equally intelligent and attached ! happy fortune of 
 youth ! If, fifteen years later, the First Consul, now so well 
 seconded by his generals, had found a Desaix on the field of 
 Waterloo, he would have preserved the empire, and France her 
 preponderant position among the powers of Europe. 
 
 The presence of Desaix changed the aspect of things. He 
 was surrounded ; he was made acquainted with the occurrences 
 of the day. The generals formed a circle about him and the 
 First Consul, and discussed with warmth the critical position of 
 the army. Most of them advised retreat. The First Consul
 
 junei8oo CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 247 
 
 was not of this opinion, and he earnestly pressed Desaix for his. 
 Desaix, surveying the devastated field of battle, then drawing 
 out his watch and looking at the hour, replied to General Bona- 
 parte in these simple and noble terms : " Yes, the battle is lost ; 
 but it is only three o'clock ; there is time enough to gain another." 
 General Bonaparte, delighted with the opinion of Desaix, pre- 
 pared to avail himself of the succour brought him by that general, 
 and of the advantages ensured to him by the position taken ever 
 since morning. He was, in fact, in the plain, on the right, while 
 the enemy was on the left, in marching column, on the highroad, 
 advancing towards San Giuliano. Desaix, arriving from San 
 Giuliano, with 6000 fresh troops, and facing the Austrians, 
 might stop them short, while the bulk of the rallied army should 
 fall upon their flank. Orders were forthwith issued in accord- 
 ance with this plan. 
 
 The three demi-brigades of Desaix were formed in advance 
 of San Giuliano, a little to the right of the highroad ; the 30th 
 deployed in line ; the 9th and 59th in close columns on the wings 
 of the former. A slight undulation of the ground concealed 
 them from the enemy. On their left were the rallied and some- 
 what recovered wrecks of Chambarlhac's and Gardanne's troops 
 under General Victor ; on their right, in the plain, Lannes, whose 
 retreating movement was suspended, then the consular guard, 
 then Carra St. Cyr, who had kept as near as possible to Castel 
 Ceriolo. The army then formed a long oblique line from San 
 Giuliano to Castel Ceriolo, and between Desaix and Lannes, and 
 a little in rear, was placed Kellermann's cavalry in the interval. 
 A battery of twelve pieces, the sole remnant of the whole artillery 
 of the army, was spread upon the front of the corps of Desaix. 
 
 These dispositions made, the First Consul rode through the 
 ranks of his soldiers, and addressed the different corps. " My 
 friends," said he, "we have fallen back far enough: recollect 
 that I am accustomed to lie on the field of battle." Having re- 
 animated the troops, who, inspirited by the arrival of the reserves, 
 burned with impatience to resume the fight, he gave the signal 
 for attack. A charge was beaten along the whole line. 
 
 The Austrians, in order of march rather than in order of battle, 
 were proceeding along the highroad. The column under the 
 command of M. de Zach came first. A little in rear came the 
 centre, half deployed in the plain, and making front to Lannes. 
 
 General Marmont all at once unmasked twelve pieces of cannon. 
 A thick shower of grape-shot fell upon the head of the surprised 
 Austrian column, which expected no further resistance ; for 
 the enemy believed that the French were decidedly retreating. 
 Scarcely had it recovered from this sudden shock, when Desaix 
 set the 9th light in motion. " Go and inform the First Consul," 
 said he to Savary, his aide-de-camp, "that I am charging, and
 
 248 HISTORY OF THE june 1800 
 
 that I am in want of cavalry to support me." Desaix, on horse- 
 back, led on this demi-brigade. He ascended with it the slight 
 rise of the ground which hid it from the view of the Austrians, 
 and abruptly revealed himself to them by a fire of musketry dis- 
 charged within a few paces of them. The Austrians returned it, 
 and Desaix fell, pierced by a ball in the chest. " Conceal my 
 death," said he to General Boudet, his chief of division; "it 
 might dishearten the troops." Useless precaution of that hero ! 
 His fall had been observed, and his soldiers, like those of Turenne, 
 insisted, with loud shouts, on avenging their leader. The 9th 
 light, which on that day earned the title of incomparable, which 
 it bore till the termination of our wars — the 9th light, having 
 poured forth its fire, formed in column, and fell upon the dense 
 mass of the Austrians. At sight of it, the first two regiments 
 which opened the march, taken by surprise, fell back in disorder 
 on the second line, and disappeared in its ranks. The column of 
 Lattermann's grenadiers was then alone at the head, and received 
 this shock like crack troops. It stood firm. The conflict extended 
 on both sides of the highroad. The 9th light was supported on 
 the right by Victor's rallied troops, on the left by the 30th and 
 59th demi-brigades of Boudet's division, which had followed the 
 movement. Lattermann's grenadiers were defending themselves 
 with difficulty, when an unforeseen storm suddenly burst over 
 their heads. General Kellermann, who, on the application of 
 Desaix, had received orders to charge, set off at a gallop, and, 
 passing between Lannes and Desaix, placed part of his squadrons 
 en potence, to make head against the Austrian cavalry, which he 
 saw before him ; then, with the rest, he fell upon the flank of the 
 column of the grenadiers, already attacked in front by Boudet's 
 infantry. This charge, executed with extraordinary vigour, cut 
 the column in two. Kellermann's dragoons slaughtered to the 
 right and to the left, till, pressed on all sides, the unfortunate 
 grenadiers laid down their arms. Two thousand of them sur- 
 rendered. At their head, General Zach himself was obliged to 
 deliver his sword. The Austrians were thus deprived of their 
 commander during the conclusion of the battle ; for M. de Melas, 
 as we have seen, thinking himself sure of the victory, had retired 
 to Alexandria. Kellermann did not stop there ; dashing upon 
 the Lichtenstein dragoons, he put them to flight. The latter fell 
 back upon the centre of the Austrians, which was deploying in 
 the plain, in face of Lannes, and threw it into some disorder. 
 Lannes then advanced, and attacked the shaken centre of the 
 Austrians with vigour ; while the grenadiers of the consular 
 guard and Carra St. Cyr again moved towards Castel Ceriolo, 
 from which they were not far distant. Along the whole line 
 from San Giuliano to Castel Ceriolo the French had resumed 
 the offensive ; they marched forward, intoxicated with joy and
 
 junei8oo CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 249 
 
 enthusiasm, on perceiving victory returning to them. Surprise 
 and discouragement had passed to the side of the Austrians. 
 
 Admirable determination of character, which persists, and, by 
 persisting, brings back Fortune ! From San Giuliano to Castel 
 Ceriolo, that oblique line of the French advanced at the charge- 
 step, driving back the Austrians, utterly astonished at having a 
 new battle to fight. Carra St. Cyr had soon retaken the village 
 of Castel Ceriolo, and General Ott, who had at first advanced 
 beyond that village, fearful of being overpowered, thought of 
 falling back, lest he should have his communication cut off. A 
 panic was communicated to the cavalry ; it fled at full speed, 
 shouting, " To the bridges ! " All, then, strove who should first 
 reach those bridges of the Bormida. General Ott, recrossing at 
 Castel Ceriolo with Vogelsang's troops, was obliged to force his 
 way through the French. He succeeded, and regained in haste 
 the banks of the Bormida, to which all hurried with furious 
 precipitation. 
 
 Generals Kaim and Haddick strove in vain to keep their 
 ground in the centre ; Lannes did not allow them the means of 
 doing so ; he drove them into Marengo, and prepared to push 
 them into the Fontanone, and, from the Fontanone, into the 
 Bormida. But Weidenf eld's grenadiers made head for a moment, 
 to give Oreilly, who had advanced as far as Cassina Grossa, time 
 to come back. The Austrian cavalry, on its part, attempted 
 several charges to stop the progress of the French. But it was 
 repelled by the horse grenadiers of the consular guard, led by 
 Bessieres and young Beauharnais. Lannes and Victor, with their 
 united corps, at last fell upon Marengo, and threw Oreilly 's as 
 well as Weidenfeld's grenadiers into disorder. The confusion 
 on the bridges of the Bormida increased every moment. Foot, 
 horse, artillery, were crowded together there in disorder. The 
 bridges being insufficient for all, many threw themselves into 
 the Bormida, for the purpose of fording it. An artillery-driver 
 attempted to cross with his gun. He succeeded, and the whole 
 of the artillery would then have followed his example, but part 
 of the carriages stuck fast in the bed of the river. The French 
 hotly pursuing them, took men, horses, cannon, and baggage. 
 The unfortunate Baron de Melas. who, two hours before 1 , had left 
 his army victorious, had hastened to the spot on hearing of this 
 disaster, and could not believe his eyes. He was a prey to vexa- 
 tion and despair. Such was the sanguinary battle el" Marengo, 
 which, as we shall presently see, had an immense influence en 
 the destinies of France and of the 1 world ; it gave, in fact, at the 
 moment, peace to the Republic, and. a little later, the Empire to 
 the First Consul. It was cruelly disputed, and it was worth the 
 disputing; for never was the issue of a battle more serious for 
 both adversaries. M. de Melas fought to avoid a humiliating
 
 250 HISTORY OF THE june 1800 
 
 capitulation ; General Bonaparte staked on that day his whole 
 fortune. The losses, considering the number of the combatants, 
 were immense, and out of all the usual proportions. The Austrians 
 lost about 8000 men in killed and wounded, and more than 4000 
 prisoners. Their staff was cruelly decimated. General Haddick 
 was killed; Generals Vogelsang, Lattermann, Bellegarde, Lamar- 
 saille, and Gottesheim were wounded ; and with them a great 
 number of officers. Thus they lost, in men hors de combat or 
 taken, one-third of their army, if it was from 36,000 to 40,000 
 strong, as it is generally said to have been. As for the French, 
 they had 6000 killed or wounded, and about 1000 of them were 
 taken prisoners, which again exhibits a loss of one-fourth out 
 of 28,000 soldiers present at the battle. Their staff suffered 
 as severely as the Austrian staff. Generals Mainony, Rivaud, 
 Malher, Champeaux, were wounded, the last mortally. The 
 greatest loss was that of Desaix. France had not sustained one 
 more to be regretted during a ten years' warfare. In the esti- 
 mation of the First Consul, this loss was great enough to dimi- 
 nish the joy that he felt for the victory. His secretary, M. de 
 Bourrienne, hastening to congratulate him on this miraculous 
 triumph, said to him, " What a glorious day ! " " Yes," replied 
 the First Consul, "it would have been glorious indeed, could I 
 but have embraced Desaix this evening on the field of battle. I 
 was going," added he, "to make him minister of war; I would 
 have made him a prince, if I could." The conqueror of Marengo 
 had as yet no notion that he should, at no distant day, have it 
 in his power to bestow crowns on those who served him. The 
 body of the unfortunate Desaix was lying near San Giuliano, 
 amidst that vast field of carnage. His aide-de-camp, Savary, 
 who had been long attached to him, sought out his body from 
 among the dead, and, recognising it by his profusion of hair, had 
 it removed, and wrapped in an hussar cloak ; then placing it on 
 his horse, he conveyed it to the headquarters at Torre di Garofalo. 
 Though the plain of Marengo was drenched with French 
 blood, joy pervaded the army. Soldiers and generals felt the 
 merit of their conduct, and appreciated the immense importance 
 of a victory gained on the rear of the enemy. The Austrians, on 
 the contrary, were in consternation ; they knew that they were 
 enveloped, and had no alternative but to submit to the law of 
 the conqueror. Baron de Melas, who, on this day, had two 
 horses killed under him, and who, in spite of his great age, had 
 behaved as well as the youngest and most valiant soldier in his 
 army could have done — Baron de Melas was overwhelmed with 
 the profoundest grief. He had returned to Alexandria, to rest 
 himself a little, in the belief that he was the victor. Now he 
 saw his army half destroyed, seeking flight by every outlet, 
 abandoning its artillery to the French, or leaving it swamped in
 
 junei8oo CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 251 
 
 the marshes of the Bormida. To complete the misfortune, Zach, 
 the chief of his staff, who enjoyed his entire confidence, was at 
 this moment a prisoner with the French. In vain he turned 
 his eyes from one of his generals to another ; none of them 
 would give an opinion, but all cursed the cabinet of Vienna, 
 which had kept them under such fatal illusions, and thus plunged 
 them into an abyss. It was imperative, however, to come to 
 some determination, but what ? . . . To fight, in order to clear 
 themselves a way ? They had just tried that plan, but not suc- 
 ceeded. To retire upon Genoa, or to cross the Upper Po, for 
 the purpose of forcing the Tessino ? These courses, difficult 
 before the battle, were impracticable since it had been fought 
 and lost. General Suchet was a few leagues in rear with the 
 army of Liguria, towards Acqui; General Bonaparte was in 
 advance of Alexandria, with the victorious army of reserve. 
 They were on the point of effecting their junction, and cutting 
 off the road to Genoa. General Moncey, who, with the detach- 
 ments which had come from Germany, was guarding the Tessino, 
 might be succoured by General Bonaparte in as short a time as 
 it would take to march to him. Thus there was no chance of 
 escape on any side, and they were compelled to adopt the cruel 
 idea of capitulating ; happy if, in abandoning Italy, they could 
 save the liberty of the Austrian army, and if they could obtain 
 from the generosity of the conqueror the concession that those 
 unfortunate troops should not be made prisoners of war. In 
 consequence, it was resolved that a flag of truce should be sent 
 to General Bonaparte, for the purpose of entering into negotia- 
 tions. Prince Lichteu stein was selected to repair, next morning, 
 June 1 5th (26th Prairial), to the French headquarters. 
 
 The First Consul, on his part, had many reasons for treating. 
 His principal aim was attained, for Italy was delivered by a 
 single battle. After the victory which he had just won, and 
 which enabled him completely to hem in the Austrians, he was 
 certain to obtain the evacuation of Italy ; he might even, in 
 strictness, require the vanquished to lay down their arms, and to 
 surrender themselves prisoners. But, by wounding the honour 
 of those brave men, he might, perhaps, urge them to an act of 
 despair. It would be spilling useless blood, and, above all, it 
 would be losing time. Having been absent from Paris for above 
 a month, he was sensible how important it was that he should 
 return as speedily as possible. We had a prisoner, who was 
 capable of being a most useful medium of communication. This 
 was General Zach. To him the First Consul opened his mind ; 
 he expressed, in his presence, his sincere desire to make peace, 
 his disposition to spare the imperial army, and to grant it 
 honourable terms. The Austrian flag of truce having meanwhile 
 arrived, he manifested before that envoy the same sentiments
 
 252 HISTORY OF THE june 1800 
 
 that lie had expressed to M. de Zach, and charged both of them 
 to return with Berthier to M. de Melas, to settle the bases of a 
 capitulation. According to his custom in all cases of this kind, 
 he declared irrevocably the conditions already fixed in his own 
 mind, adding that no parleying would induce him to modify them. 
 Thus he refrained from insisting that the army of the Austrians 
 should be declared prisoners of war ; he was willing to allow it 
 to pass with the honours of war ; but he required that all the 
 fortresses of Liguria, Piedmont, Lornbardy, and the Legations 
 should be immediately given up to France, and that the Austrians 
 should evacuate all Italy as far as the Mincio. The negotiators 
 set out forthwith for the Austrian headquarters. 
 
 The conditions which they brought, though rigorous, were 
 natural, one might even say generous. One only was mortify- 
 ing, almost humiliating ; this was the surrender of Genoa, after 
 such effusion of blood, and after an occupation of a few days 
 only ; but evidently the conqueror could not waive this point. 
 M. de Melas, nevertheless, sent his principal negotiator to the 
 First Consul, to make some remonstrances against the proposed 
 armistice. "Sir," said the First Consul, with warmth, "my 
 conditions are irrevocable. It was not yesterday that I began 
 my military life ; your position is as well known to me as to 
 yourselves. You are in Alexandi-ia, incumbered with dead, 
 wounded, sick, destitute of provisions ; you have lost the best 
 troops of your army, and are surrounded on all sides. There is 
 nothing that I might not require, but I respect the grey hair of 
 your general, and the valour of your troops, and I require 
 nothing more than is imperatively demanded by the present 
 situation of affairs. Return to Alexandria ; do what you will, 
 you shall have no other conditions." 
 
 The convention was signed at Alexandria on that same day, 
 the 15th, according to the bases proposed by General Bonaparte. 
 It was agreed, in the first place, that there should be a sus- 
 pension of arms in Italy till the receipt of an answer from 
 Vienna. If the convention was confirmed, the Austrians were 
 to be at liberty to retire with the honours of war behind the 
 line of the Mincio. They engaged, in retiring, to deliver up 
 to the French all the fortresses which they occupied. The 
 citadels of Tortona, Alexandria, Milan, Arona, and Piacenza 
 were to be delivered up between the 16th and the 20th of June 
 (27th Prairial, and 1st Messidor) ; the citadels of Ceva, Savona. 
 the fortresses of Coni and Genoa, between the 16th and the 
 24th of June ; and the fort of Urbino on the 26th. The Aus- 
 trian army was to be divided into three columns, which were 
 to retire one after another, as fast as the fortresses were 
 delivered up. The immense stores of provisions, accumulated 
 by M. de Melas in Italy, were divided equally ; the artillery of
 
 junei8oo CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 253 
 
 the Italian foundries was assigned to the French army, the 
 artillery of the Austrian foundries to the imperial army. The 
 Imperialists, after they had evacuated Lombardy as far as the 
 Mincio, were to confine themselves behind the following line 
 — the Mincio, the Fossa Maestra, the left bank of the Po, from 
 Borgo Forte to the mouth of the river in the Adriatic. Pes- 
 chiera and Mantua were left to the Austrian army. It was 
 stipulated, without any explanation, that the detachment of 
 that army, then in Tuscany, should continue to occupy that 
 province. Concerning the States of the Pope and the King of 
 Naples, no mention could be made in this capitulation, because 
 those princes had nothing to do with events passing in Upper 
 Italy. If this convention was not ratified by the emperor, ten 
 days' notice of the resumption of hostilities was to be given. 
 In the meantime, no detachment was to be sent off to Germany 
 by either party. 
 
 Such was the substance of the celebrated convention of 
 Alexandria, that in one day gained for France the restitution 
 of Upper Italy, which involved the restitution of the whole 
 of Italy. M. de Melas has since been censured much, and 
 much too severely, for this campaign and this convention. We 
 ought to be just towards misfortune, especially when it is re- 
 deemed by conduct full of honour. M. de Melas was deceived, 
 respecting the existence of the army of reserve, by the cabinet 
 of Vienna, which was incessantly feeding him with the most 
 mischievous illusions. When once undeceived, he may be cen- 
 sured for not having collected his troops either soon enough, or 
 completely enough, and for having left too many men in the 
 fortresses. It was, in fact, not behind the walls of those places, 
 but on the field of battle of Marengo, that they ought to have 
 been defended. Admitting this fault, it must be acknowledged 
 that M. de Melas conducted himself as brave men do when 
 they are surrounded ; he strove to cut his way through, sword 
 in hand. The attempt was most gallantly made, and he was 
 vanquished. From that time there was but one thing possible 
 for him to do, and that was, to save the liberty of his army, 
 for Italy was irrecoverably lost to him. He could not obtain 
 more than he did obtain : he might even, had the conqueror 
 so willed it, have been subjected to further humiliations. And 
 the conqueror himself did well not to require more, si net 1 , had 
 he determined to humble these brave men, he would have 
 incurred the risk of driving them to desperate extremities, and 
 of losing valuable time, his presence in Paris being at that 
 moment indispensable. Let us, then, pity M. de Melas, and 
 admire, without reserve, the conduct of the victor, who owed the 
 prodigious results of this campaign, not to chance, but to the 
 most profound and the most marvellously executed combinations.
 
 254 HISTORY OF THE juneiSoo 
 
 Some detractors of General Bonaparte have pretended to 
 attribute to General Kellermann the victory of Marengo and 
 all the results which that memorable battle brought in its train. 
 Why then, if General Bonaparte must be stripped of this glory, 
 not ascribe it to that noble victim of the happiest inspiration, 
 to that Desaix, who, anticipating the orders of his chief, sacri- 
 ficed his life, but won the day ? Or why not ascribe it to that 
 intrepid defender of Genoa, who, by detaining the Austrians on 
 the Apennines, gave General Bonaparte time to descend from 
 the Alps, and delivered them up to him almost half destroyed ? 
 According to some people, Generals Kellermann, Desaix, and 
 Massena would be the real conquerors of Marengo — all, ex- 
 cepting General Bonaparte. But, in this world, the voice of 
 nations has always decreed glory, and the voice of nations has 
 proclaimed conqueror him, who discovered, with the glance 
 of genius, the use that might be made of the High Alps for 
 debouching on the rear of the Austrians, who deceived their 
 vigilance for three successive months, who created an army 
 which did not exist, who caused its formation to be disbelieved 
 by all Europe, who crossed the St. Bernard without beaten road, 
 appeared unexpectedly in the midst of Italy ; confounded with 
 astonishment, surrounded his unfortunate adversary with mar- 
 vellous art, and fought with him a decisive battle, lost in the 
 morning, regained in the evening, and sure to have been re- 
 gained, if not on that day, yet on the next : for besides Desaix' s 
 6000 men, 10,000 hastening up from the Tessino, and 10,000 
 posted on the Lower Po, would have furnished infallible means 
 for destroying the hostile army. Let us suppose, in fact, the 
 Austrians, victorious on the 14th of June, entering the defile 
 of La Stradella, finding at Piacenza Generals Duhesme and 
 Loison, with 10,000 men, ready to dispute with them the pas- 
 sage of the Po, and at their heels General Bonaparte, reinforced 
 by Generals Desaix and Moncey; what would the Austrians 
 have done in that dangerous place, stopped by a well-defended 
 river, and pursued by an army superior in number? They 
 would have succumbed more disastrously than in the plains 
 of the Bormida. The real conqueror of Marengo was, there- 
 fore, he who chained Fortune by his combinations, profound, 
 admirable, unequalled in the history of great captains. 
 
 For the rest, he was ably served by his lieutenants, and there 
 is no need to sacrifice any glory for the purpose of building up 
 his. Massena, by an heroic defence of Genoa — Desaix, by the 
 most happy determination — Lannes, by incomparable firmness 
 in the plain of Marengo — Kellermann, by a splendid charge of 
 cavalry — all aided him in his triumph. He rewarded them 
 all in the most signal manner ; and, as for Desaix, he evinced 
 for his death the noblest sorrow. The First Consul decreed
 
 junei8oo CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 255 
 
 magnificent honours to the man who had rendered France so 
 important a service ; he even adopted his military family and 
 placed about his own person his two aides-de-camp, who were 
 thrown out of employment by the death of their general : these 
 were Colonels Kapp and Savary. 
 
 Before he left the field of battle of Marengo, the First Consul 
 resolved to write another letter to the Emperor of Germany. 
 Though the first had elicited only an indirect answer, addressed 
 by M. de Thugut to M. de Talleyrand, he conceived that in the 
 hour of victory he might condescend to renew his rejected over- 
 tures. At this moment he was most ardently desirous of peace : 
 he felt that, to give peace to France abroad, as he had pacified 
 it at home, was his real vocation, and that the accomplishment 
 of this task would legitimatise his nascent authority much more 
 than new victories could possibly do. Susceptible, moreover, 
 of the strongest impressions, he had been most deeply touched 
 on beholding that plain of Marengo, on which lay a fourth of 
 two armies : under the influence of these sentiments, he wrote 
 a singular letter to the emperor. "It is on the field of battle," 
 said he, "amidst the sufferings of a multitude of wounded, and 
 surrounded by 15,000 dead, that I beseech your Majesty to 
 listen to the voice of humanity, and not to permit two brave 
 nations to slaughter each other for interests whicli are foreign 
 to both. It is for me to urge your Majesty ; since I am nearer 
 than you to the theatre of war, your heart cannot be so strongly 
 impressed as mine." 
 
 The letter was long. The First Consul discussed in it, with 
 the eloquence peculiar to himself, and in language which was 
 not that of diplomacy, the motives which France and Austria 
 could still have for continuing armed against one another. " Is 
 it for religion that you are fighting?" said he. "In this case, 
 make war upon the Russians and the English, who are the 
 enemies of your faith, and be not their ally. Is it to check the 
 progress of revolutionary principles ? But the war has pro- 
 pagated them over half the continent, by extending the con- 
 quests of France, and it cannot but propagate them still farther. 
 Is it for the balance of power in Europe ? But the English 
 threaten that balance more than we do ; for they are become 
 the masters and the tyrants of commerce, and nobody can now 
 match them ; whereas Europe will always be able to control 
 France, if she were seriously to threaten the independence of 
 nations. [A proposition unfortunately but too well founded, as 
 a war of fifteen years has but too fully proved !] Is it."' added 
 the warrior diplomatist, "is it for the integrity of the Germanic 
 Empire ? But your Majesty has yourself given up to us Mayence 
 and the German States on the left bank of the Rhine. Besides, 
 the Empire is earnestly entreating you to give it peace. Is it,
 
 256 HISTORY OF THE June 1800 
 
 lastly, for the interests of the house of Austria ? Nothing is 
 more natural ; but let us carry out the treaty of Campo Formio, 
 which secures to your Majesty large indemnities in compensa- 
 tion of the provinces lost in the Netherlands, and ensures them 
 to you in that quarter where you had rather obtain them, that 
 is, in Italy. Let your Majesty send negotiators whithersoever 
 you please, and we will add to the treaty of Campo Formio 
 stipulations capable of satisfying you relative to the existence 
 of the secondary States, which the French Republic is charged 
 with having shaken." The First Consul here alluded to Hol- 
 land, Switzerland, Piedmont, the Roman States, Tuscany, and 
 Naples, which the Directory had revolutionised. " On these con- 
 ditions," he added, " peace is made ; let us extend the armistice 
 to both armies, and enter into immediate negotiations." 
 
 M. de St. Julien, one of the generals who possessed the confi- 
 dence of the emperor, was to be the bearer of this letter and of 
 the convention of Alexandria to Vienna. 
 
 Some days afterwards, his first impressions having somewhat 
 worn off, the First Consul felt that species of regret which he 
 often experienced, when he happened to write an important 
 paper from the first impulse, and without consulting cooler minds 
 than his own. In apprising the Consuls of the step he had taken, 
 he said, " I have despatched a courier to the emperor with a 
 letter which the minister of foreign affairs will communicate to 
 you. You will find it rather original ; but it was written on 
 the field of battle. (June 22nd.) 
 
 Having taken leave of his army, he set out for Milan on the 
 morning of the 17th of June (28th Prairial), three days after 
 the victory of Marengo. He was awaited there with keen im- 
 patience. He arrived about dark. The population, forewarned, 
 thronged the streets to see him pass. They raised shouts of 
 joy, and threw flowers into his carriage. The city was illumi- 
 nated with that brilliancy which the Italians alone understand 
 the art of displaying on such occasions. The Lombards, who 
 had just borne for ten or twelve months the Austrian yoke, 
 rendered more galling by the war and the violence of circum- 
 stances, trembled for fear of being replaced under their insup- 
 portable authority. During the various phases of this short 
 campaign, in which the most contrary reports reached them, 
 they had experienced the most painful anxiety, and they were 
 transported with joy to see their deliverance at last ensured. 
 General Bonaparte ordered the re-establishment of the Cisalpine 
 Republic to be immediately proclaimed, and hastened to intro- 
 duce some order into the affairs of Italy, the aspect of which 
 was completely changed by his recent victory. 
 
 We have already observed that the war, undertaken by the for- 
 midable coalition of the Russians, the English, and the Austrians,
 
 june r8oo CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 257 
 
 to re-establish in their dominions the princes overthrown by the 
 alleged encroachments of the Directory, had not replaced any 
 of them. The King of Piedmont was at Rome, and the Grand 
 Duke of Tuscany in Austria ; the Pope had died at Valence, 
 and his provinces were invaded by the Neapolitans. The royal 
 family of Naples, entirely devoted to the English, was alone in 
 its dominions. The Queen of Naples, Sir John Acton, and Lord 
 Nelson permitted, if they did not order, abominable cruelties. 
 The victory of the French Republic was destined to change all 
 this : humanity was as much interested in the matter as policy. 
 
 The First Consul instituted a provisional government in Milan, 
 till the Cisalpine could be reorganised, and definitive frontiers 
 assigned to it, which would not be possible before peace. He 
 did not conceive that he was obliged to pay more regard to the 
 King of Piedmont than Austria had shown for him, and there- 
 fore he was in no hurry to re-establish him in his dominions. 
 He appointed instead a provisional government, and nominated 
 General Jourdan commissioner to this government, with the 
 direction of which he was charged. The First Consul had long 
 wished to employ, and to withdraw from his enemies, this wise 
 and honest man, not at all fitted to be the head of the anarchists 
 in France. Piedmont, therefore, was held in reserve, with the 
 intention of disposing of it at the peace, either for the profit 
 of the French Republic, or as a pledge of reconciliation with 
 Europe, when reconstituting her secondary States, destroyed 
 under the Directory. Tuscany was to continue occupied by an 
 Austrian corps. The First Consul caused it to be watched, ready 
 to lay hands on it if the English should land, or if more men 
 should be raised against France. As for Naples, he said nothing, 
 he did nothing, waiting to see the effect of his victory on the 
 spirit of that court. The Queen of Naples, in affright, was 
 already preparing to set out for Vienna, to solicit the support 
 of Austria, and, more especially, that of Russia. 
 
 There remained the court of Rome : here temporal inte- 
 rests were bound up with the most important spiritual interests. 
 Pius VI., as we have seen, had recently died in France, the prisoner 
 of the Directory. The First Consul, true to his policy, had caused 
 funeral honours to be paid to him. A conclave had assembled at 
 Venice, and had, with great difficulty, obtained permission from 
 the Austrian cabinet to appoint a successor to the deceased Pope. 
 Thirty-five cardinals attended this conclave. A prelate was 
 secretary : this was Monsignor Consalvi, a Roman priest, young, 
 ambitious, remarkable for the pliancy, the penetration, the agree- 
 able qualities of his mind, and who has since been mixed up with 
 the most important affairs of the time. The conclave, as usual 
 in all elections, political or religions, was divided. Twenty-two 
 of its members sided with Cardinal Braschi. nephew of the late 
 
 vol. 1. rc
 
 258 HISTORY OF THE june 1800 
 
 Pope, and supported the pretensions of Cardinal Bellisomi, Bishop 
 of Oesena. Those who were unwilling to perpetuate at Rome 
 the all-powerful influence of the Braschi family joined Cardinal 
 Antonelli, who was in favour of Cardinal Mattei, who signed the 
 treaty of Tolentino. But they gave him only thirteen votes. 
 For several months this silent but obstinate contest had been 
 going on. Neither of the two competitors had as yet gained any 
 votes from the other. At length the learned Cardinal Gerdil, 
 who had figured in the controversies of the last century, was 
 thought of. This new candidate was a native of Savoy, and had 
 become, since the victories of the Republic, a subject of France. 
 Austria exercised her right of exclusion against him. To put 
 an end to the matter, two members of the conclave deserted 
 Cardinal Mattei, and promised to support Cardinal Bellisomi, 
 which ensured him twenty-four votes, that is, two-thirds, the 
 number rigorously required by the laws of the Church to render 
 an election valid. But, as the assembly was held in the dominions 
 of Austria, it was thought proper first to submit to her this 
 nomination, in order to obtain her tacit assent. The court of 
 Vienna had the discourtesy to let more than a month elapse 
 before returning an answer. The susceptibility of the princes 
 of the Church was wounded ; at the same time the plans of all 
 parties were upset, and the election of Cardinal Bellisomi became 
 impossible. This moment of disorder and fatigue the able 
 secretary of the conclave, the prelate Consalvi, had been waiting 
 for, to start a fresh candidate, the object of his long and secret 
 meditations. Addressing himself to each party in that language 
 which was most likely to touch it, he demonstrated to one the 
 inconveniences of the preponderance of the Braschi ; to another 
 the little reliance that could be placed on Austria, or the other 
 Christian courts : then, appealing to the old Roman interest, so 
 profound, so sagacious, he unfolded to their astonished eyes a 
 prospect absolutely new to them all. "It is from France," said 
 he to them, "that we have suffered persecution for these ten 
 years past. Well, it is from France that we may, perhaps, derive 
 future support and consolation. France, ever since the days of 
 Charlemagne, has always been the most useful, the least irksome 
 of protectors. A young and very extraordinary man, of whom it 
 is still very difficult to form a judgment, now rules that country, 
 and, depend upon it. he will very soon have reconquered Italy. 
 [The battle of Marengo had not then been fought.] Recollect 
 that he protected the priests in 1797, and that he has, quite 
 recently, paid funeral honours to Pius VI. Singular expressions 
 which he has been heard to use, on the subject of religion and 
 of the court of Rome, have been repeated to us by witnesses 
 worthy of credit. Do not neglect the support which you may 
 derive from that quarter. Let us make a final choice that cannot
 
 juneiSoo CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 259 
 
 be considered as an hostility to France ; that may even, up to a 
 certain point, be agreeable to her ; and we shall, perhaps, do a 
 thing more serviceable to the Church than applying for candi- 
 dates to all the Catholic courts in Europe." 
 
 This was certainly a flash from that genius of the court of 
 Rome which afterwards blazed forth at the commencement of 
 the present century. Monsignor Consalvi then put forward 
 the name of Cardinal Chiaramonti, Bishop of Imola. It was 
 impossible to make a choice more consonant with the end which 
 he had in view. Cardinal Chiaramonti, a native of Cesena, 
 aged fifty-eight years, related to Pius VI., elevated by him to 
 the Roman purple, had long been universally esteemed for his 
 understanding, his learning, and his aimable character. With 
 these attractive qualities he united great firmness ; and he had 
 been seen at an earlier period struggling with a victorious forti- 
 tude against the annoyances of his Order, that of St. Benedict, 
 and the persecutions of the Holy Office. His most recent and 
 most celebrated act was a homily written in quality of Bishop 
 of Imola, when his diocese had been united with the Cisalpine 
 Republic. He had then spoken of the French Revolution with 
 a moderation which had charmed the conqueror of Italy, and 
 scandalised the fanatics of the old order of things. Respected, 
 nevertheless, by everybody, he pleased the Braschi party, was 
 not disliked by the contrary party, suited all the cardinals, weary 
 of the length of the conclave, and was deemed a happy choice 
 by those who hoped much from the good-will of France in 
 future. The unexpected adhesion of an illustrious personage 
 decided his election, which, in fact, met with no real difficulty 
 but in his personal reluctance to accept such an honour. This 
 adhesion was that of Cardinal Maury. This celebrated cham- 
 pion of the ancient French monarchy had retired to the court 
 of Rome, where he lived, rewarded by a cardinal's hat for his 
 struggles with Barnave and Mirabeau. He was an emigrant, 
 but an emigrant endowed with a remarkable mind, extraordinary 
 sense, and cherishing with secret satisfaction the idea of attach- 
 ing himself again to the government of France, since glory re- 
 deemed the novelty of that government. He could dispose of 
 six votes, and gave them to Cardinal Chiaramonti, who was 
 elected Pope nearly at the moment of the arrival of General 
 Bonaparte at Milan, after crossing the St. Bernard. 
 
 The new Pontiff was at Venice, having been unable to obtain 
 from the court of Vienna permission to be crowned at St. Mark's, 
 or from the court of Naples the restitution of Home. However, 
 having set out almost suddenly to proceed to Ancona, he nego- 
 tiated in that city the evacuation of the States of the Church, 
 and his own return to the capital of the ( 'hristian world. France, 
 which had become friendly towards the Holy See. had it in her
 
 260 HISTORY OF THE june 1800 
 
 power to afford him very timely support in this precarious 
 position, and the singular foresight of Monsignor Oonsalvi 
 might receive its fulfilment in a manner which was altogether 
 unexpected. This meeting of Cardinal Chiaramonti and the 
 First Consul, the one raised to the pontifical throne, the other 
 to the republican dictatorship, nearly at the same time, was 
 not one of the least extraordinary or the least fertile in conse- 
 quences of the events of the present century. 
 
 Young Bonaparte, in 1796, the submissive general of the 
 Directory, unable as yet to dare everything, and not as yet pre- 
 tending to school the French Revolution, had maintained the 
 Pope by the treaty of Tolentino, and had taken from him nothing 
 but the Legations for the purpose of annexing them to the 
 Cisalpine Republic. Having now become First Consul, having 
 it in his power to do what he thought fit, determined to rectify 
 many of the things which the French Revolution had accom- 
 plished, he could not hesitate as to his conduct towards the re- 
 cently elected Pope. No sooner had he returned to Milan than 
 he had an interview with Cardinal Martiniana, Bishop of Vercelli, 
 a friend of Pius VII. 's, declared to him that he was resolved to 
 live on good terms with the Holy See, to reconcile the French 
 Revolution with the Church, even to support the latter against 
 her enemies, if the new Pope showed himself reasonable, and 
 thoroughly comprehended the then situation of France and of 
 the world. This intimation, dropped into the ear of the aged 
 cardinal, was not destined to be lost, and was soon to produce 
 abundant fruit. The Bishop of Vercelli despatched to Rome 
 his own nephew, Count Alciati, to open a negotiation. 
 
 To this overture General Bonaparte added an act which was 
 still bolder, and in which he durst not have indulged in Paris ; 
 but he was delighted to make the news of it travel from a dis- 
 tance into France, as a token of his future intentions. The 
 Italians had made preparations for a solemn Te Deum in the 
 ancient cathedral of Milan. He determined to be present at 
 the ceremony, and, on the 18th of June (29th Prairial), he 
 wrote these words to the Consuls : " To-day, in spite of all that 
 our Paris atheists may say, I am going in great state to the 
 Te Dcum which is to be sung in the cathedral of Milan." 
 (Archives of the State Paper Office.) 
 
 After he had thus turned his mind to the general affairs of 
 Italy, he made some indispensable arrangements for the distribu- 
 tion of the army in the conquered country, and for its subsistence 
 and reorganisation. Massena had just joined him. The ill- 
 humour of the defender of Genoa was dispelled by the flattering 
 reception which the First Consul gave him, and he was appointed 
 to the command of the army of Italy, to which he was so well 
 entitled. This army was composed of the corps which had
 
 junei8oo CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 261 
 
 defended Genoa, of that which had defended the Var, of the troops 
 which had crossed the St. Bernard, and of those under General 
 Moncey, which had come from Germany. These together formed 
 an imposing mass of 80,000 tried men. The First Consul quar- 
 tered them in the rich plains of the Po, to give them rest after 
 their fatigues, and to indemnify them for their privations by 
 the abundance which they would there enjoy. 
 
 With his accustomed foresight, the First Consul ordered the 
 forts and citadels which closed the passes between France and 
 Italy to be blown up. In consequence, the demolition of the 
 forts of Arona, Bard, and Seravalle, and of the citadels of Ceva 
 and Ivrea, was prescribed and executed. He fixed the extent 
 of the contributions, which were to serve for the subsistence 
 of the army, and the mode in which they were to be levied : 
 despatched the consular guard himself, calculating the days' 
 marches in such a manner that it should arrive in Paris in time 
 for the festival of the 14th of July,* which, according to his 
 intentions, was to be celebrated with great pomp. He took the 
 trouble while yet at Milan to regulate the details of that fete. 
 "It is necessary," he writes, " to study to make the solemnity 
 of the 14th of July a brilliant one, and not to let it ape the 
 rejoicings which have hitherto taken place. Chariot-races might 
 be very well in Greece, where they fought in chariots. They 
 are out of place and unmeaning in France." (Milan, June 22nd. 
 State Paper Office.) He forbade triumphal arches to be erected 
 for him, observing, that he wished for no other triumphal arch 
 than the public satisfaction. 
 
 If the First Consul, notwithstanding the urgent interests that 
 called for his presence at Paris, did tarry ten days at Milan, it 
 was that he might thoroughly assure himself of the punctual 
 execution of the convention of Alexandria. He mistrusted 
 Austrian honesty, and even imagined that he perceived some 
 delay in the delivery of certain places. He immediately stormed 
 against the weakness of Berthier, and ordered the second and 
 third columns of the army of M. de Melas to be detained. The 
 first had already set out. There was reason for some fears 
 respecting Genoa, in particular, which the Austrians might 
 easily be tempted to deliver up to the English, before the 
 French had time to take possession of it. In fact, the Prince 
 of Hohenzollern, either of his own accord, or instigated by the 
 English, refused at this moment to give up to Massena's troops 
 a place which the Austrians had found it so difficult to take. 
 M. de Melas, when informed of these demurs, enjoined his 
 lieutenant, in the most honourable manner, to fulfil the con- 
 vention of Alexandria, threatening, if he resisted, to give him 
 up to the consequences liable to be brought upon him by such 
 * The anniversary of the storming of the Bastille in 17S9.
 
 262 HISTORY OF THE june 1800 
 
 an act of perfidy. The injunction of M. de Melas was obeyed, 
 and Genoa was delivered to the French on the 24th of June, 
 amidst the rejoicings of the Ligurian patriots, freed in so few 
 days from the presence of the Austrians and the domination 
 of the oligarchy. Thus was fulfilled the spirited declaration of 
 Massena, " I swear to you that I will be back again in Genoa 
 before a fortnight is over ! " 
 
 All this being done, the First Consul set out from Milan 
 on the 24th of June, with Duroc, his favourite aide-de-camp, 
 Bessieres, commandant of the consular guard, M. de Bourrienne, 
 his secretary, and Savary, one of the two officers whom he had 
 attached to his person in memory of Desaix. He stopped a few 
 hours at Turin, to give orders for works at the citadel, crossed 
 Mont Cenis, and entered Lyons under triumphal arches, amidst 
 the population, amazed at the prodigies which had been just 
 accomplished. The Lyonnais, who were equally smitten with 
 his glory and his policy, beset the Hotel des Celestins, where he 
 had alighted, and absolutely insisted on seeing him. He was 
 obliged to show himself. Unanimous acclamations burst forth 
 at sight of him. He was so earnestly solicited to lay the first 
 stone of the Place Bellecour, the rebuilding of which was about 
 to be commenced, that he could not help complying. He passed 
 a day at Lyons, amidst the concourse of all the inhabitants of 
 the environs. Having addressed the Lyonnais in terms which 
 delighted them, relative to the speedy re-establishment of peace, 
 order, and commerce, he set out for Paris. The inhabitants of 
 the country thronged together at every place through which 
 he passed. This man, so kindly treated by Fortune, keenly 
 enjoyed his glory, and yet, conversing incessantly by the way 
 with his travelling companions, he made this grand remark, 
 which so finely expresses his insatiable thirst of renown. " Yes," 
 said he, " in less than two years I have conquered Cairo, Milan, 
 Paris ; and yet, were I to die to-morrow, I should not have half 
 a page in a Universal History." He arrived in the night 
 between the 2nd and 3rd of July at Paris. 
 
 His return was necessary, for, having been away from the 
 capital nearly two months, his absence, especially at the moment 
 of the false news of Marengo, had given rise to some intrigues. 
 It was even believed for a moment that he was either dead or 
 vanquished, and ambitious persons had set themselves to work. 
 Some thought of Carnot, others of M. de la Fayette, who had 
 been released from Olmiitz, through the kindness of the First 
 Consul, and returned to France. They were for making Carnot 
 or M. de la Fayette president of the Eepublic. M. de la Fayette 
 had no hand in these intrigues ; no more had Carnot. But 
 Joseph and Lucien Bonaparte conceived, and most unjustly, a 
 mistrust of the latter, which they infused also into their brother.
 
 junei8oo CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 263 
 
 Hence that unlucky resolution, which the First Consul executed 
 a little later, to take the portfolio of war from Carnot. Some 
 even imagined that they could perceive in Messrs. de Talleyrand 
 and Fouche, who hated one another, a tendency to be reconciled, 
 no doubt for the .purpose of concerting their schemes, and 
 profiting together by recent events. On this occasion not the 
 slightest symptom of stir was visible on the part of M. Sieyes, 
 the man best entitled to lead the country, in case General Bona- 
 parte should have disappeared from the scene. But he was the 
 only one who showed so much reserve. All this, however, had 
 scarcely time to betray itself, so speedily were the bad tidings 
 superseded by good. But what had passed was greatly exagger- 
 ated in the relation, and the First Consul conceived against certain 
 persons a resentment, which he had the good sense to conceal, 
 and even to forget entirely, in regard to all those who had been 
 mentioned to him, one only excepted, the illustrious Carnot. 
 The First Consul, moreover, wholly engrossed by joy at his 
 successes, was desirous that, at this moment, not the slightest 
 cloud should arise to overshadow the public felicity. He gave a 
 gracious reception to all, and was himself welcomed with trans- 
 port, especially by those who had reason to reproach themselves. 
 The populace of Paris, on hearing of his return, collected under 
 the windows of the Tuileries, and thronged, during the whole 
 day, the courts and the garden of the palace. The First Consul 
 was several times obliged to show himself to the crowd. At 
 night, the city of Paris was spontaneously illuminated. People 
 were eager to celebrate a miraculous victory, the certain presage 
 of an ardently desired peace. This day so deeply touched him 
 who was the object of this homage that, twenty years after- 
 wards, in loneliness, in exile, a prisoner amidst the solitude of 
 the Atlantic Ocean, he mentioned it among his recollections as 
 one of the happiest of his life. 
 
 On the following day, the bodies of the State waited upon 
 him, and set the first example of those congratulations, the irk- 
 some spectacle of which we have since seen so often repeated, 
 and in every reign. This spectacle was then new, and there 
 was an adequate motive for it. There appeared successively at 
 the Tuileries, the Senate, the Legislative Body, the Tribunate, 
 the chief tribunals, the Prefecture of the Seine, the civil and 
 military authorities, the directors of the Bank of France, lastly, 
 the Institute, and the scientific societies. These great bodies 
 hastened to compliment the conqueror of Marengo, and addressed 
 him in such lano-uaov as kings were formerly addressed, as thev 
 have since been addressed in. But it must be admitted that this 
 language, though uniformly that of praise, was dictated by a 
 sincere enthusiasm. In fact, the aspect of things changed in 
 a few months : security succeeding deep alarm ; an unparalleled
 
 264 HISTORY OF THE junei8oo 
 
 victory replacing France at the head of the powers of Europe ; 
 the certainty of a speedy peace putting an end to the anxieties 
 of a general war; in short, prosperity already showing itself 
 on all sides. How could such great results, so speedily realised, 
 fail to transport the nation? The president of the Senate 
 concluded his address, which may convey an idea of all the 
 others, in these terms : — 
 
 "We take pleasure in acknowledging that to you the country 
 owes its salvation ; that to you the Republic will owe its consoli- 
 dation, and the people a prosperity, which you have in one day 
 made to succeed ten years of the most stormy of revolutions." 
 
 While these things were passing in Italy and in France, 
 Moreau, on the banks of the Danube, continued his glorious 
 campaign against M. de Kray. We left him manoeuvring about 
 Ulm, to oblige the Austrians to quit that stronghold. He had 
 posted himself between the Iller and the Lech, supporting his 
 left and his right on those two rivers, turning his face to the 
 Danube, his back to the city of Augsburg, ready to receive M. 
 de Kray, if he chose to fight, and meanwhile barring the road 
 to the Alps, which was the essential feature of the general plan. 
 If the successes of Moreau had not been either prompt or 
 decisive, they had been steady and sufficient to allow the First 
 Consul to accomplish in Italy what he purposed to do there. 
 But the moment was come when the general of the army of the 
 Rhine, emboldened by time and by the success of the army of 
 reserve, was resolved on trying a serious manoeuvre, to dislodge 
 M. de Kray from the position of Ulm. Now that, though he 
 knew nothing about the battle of Marengo, he had heard, how- 
 ever, of the successful passage of the Alps, Moreau, no longer 
 fearful of uncovering the mountains, had full liberty in his 
 movements. Of the different manoeuvres possible for effecting 
 the fall of the position of Ulm, he preferred that which con- 
 sisted in crossing the Danube below that place, and forcing M. 
 de Kray to decamp, by threatening to cut off his line of retreat. 
 This manoeuvre was, in fact, the best ; for that which consisted 
 in pushing straight on by Munich for Vienna was too bold for 
 the character of Moreau, and perhaps premature, in the general 
 state of affairs. That which would have consisted in crossing 
 above and quite close to Ulm, and storming the Austrian camp, 
 was hazardous, like every attack by main force. But to cross 
 below Ulm, and, by threatening, to cut off M. de Kray's line of 
 retreat, to oblige him to retire and secure it, was at once the 
 most prudent and the safest manoeuvre. 
 
 From the 15th to the i8th of June, Moreau set himself in 
 motion to execute his new resolution. The organisation of his 
 army, as we have said, had been somewhat changed in conse- 
 quence of the departure of Generals St. Cyr and St. Suzanne.
 
 junei8oo CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 265 
 
 Lecourbe still formed the right, and Moreau the centre, at the 
 head of the corps of reserve. The corps of St. Cyr, transferred 
 to General Grenier, formed the left. The corps of St. Suzanne, 
 reduced to the proportions of a strong division, and given to 
 the daring Richepanse, was to perform the office of a corps of 
 flankers, which, at this moment, was employed in observing Ulm, 
 while the rest of the army was manoeuvring below it. 
 
 There had been some fighting about Ulm, in particular on the 
 5th of June, when two French divisions had made head against 
 40,000 Austrians. This was an expedient of M. de Kray's to 
 keep us before Ulm, by giving us plenty of occupation. On the 
 1 8th of June, Richepanse was in sight of Ulm; Grenier, with 
 the left, at Guntzburg; the centre, composed of the corps of 
 reserve, at Burgau ; Lecourbe, with the right, extended to 
 Dillingen. The enemy had cut all the bridges from Ulm to 
 Donauwerth. But a reconnaissance made by Lecourbe had 
 decided Moreau to choose the points of Blindheim and Grem- 
 heim for crossing the Danube, because at these two points the 
 bridges were imperfectly cut, and might easily be repaired. 
 Lecourbe was charged with this perilous operation. To facili- 
 tate it for him, he was reinforced by General Boyer with five 
 battalions, and by the whole reserve of cavalry, under the com- 
 mand of General d'Hautpoul. The centre, under the general-in- 
 chief, moved even from Burgau to Aislingen, to be at hand to 
 support the passage. Grenier, with the left, had orders to make 
 an attempt on his side to attract the attention of the enemy. 
 
 On the morning of the 19th of June, Lecourbe had posted 
 his troops between the villages of Blindheim and Gremheim, 
 the bridges of which were but half destroyed, and he took care 
 to shelter himself behind some clumps of trees. He had no 
 bridge equipage, in fact, nothing but a quantity of planks. He 
 made up by daring courage for the want of everything else. 
 General Gudin directed, under Lecourbe. this attempt to cross. 
 Some pieces of artillery were planted on the bank of the Danube, 
 to keep off the enemy ; at the same time, the Adjutant Quenot 
 bravely swam off, for the purpose of seizing two large craft, 
 which were lying on the other side. This courageous officer 
 brought them away under a shower of balls, and returned with 
 only a slight wound on the foot. The best swimmers in the 
 divisions were then selected ; they deposited their clothes and 
 their arms in the two barks, and plunged into the water under 
 the enemy's fire. On reaching the other bank, without even 
 taking time to put on their clothes, they seized their arms, 
 dashed upon some companies of Austrians who guarded that 
 part of the river, dispersed them, and took from them two pieces 
 of cannon with the ammunition waggons. This done, our men 
 hastened to the bridges, the props of which were still standing;
 
 266 HISTORY OF THE junei8oo 
 
 they worked away on both banks and made use of ladders 
 and planks to re-establish some sort of communication. Some 
 French artillerymen availed themselves of it to cross to the 
 other side of the Danube, and turned against the enemy the 
 two pieces of cannon which had been taken from him. We 
 were soon masters of both banks ; and the bridges were suffi- 
 ciently repaired to afford passage to the greater part of the 
 troops. The infantry and cavalry began to debouch. It was 
 to be expected that numerous Austrian reinforcements would 
 promptly ascend from Donauwerth, and others descend from 
 all the upper positions, Gundelfingen, Guntzburg, and Ulm. 
 Lecourbe, who had repaired himself to the spot, caused such 
 infantry as he could spare, and some troops of horse, to be 
 placed in the village of Schwenningen, which was on the road 
 to Donauwerth. This was an important point ; for it was that 
 way by which the Austrians ascending the Danube must come. 
 Accordingly, it was not long before 4000 infantry, 500 horse, 
 and six pieces of cannon made their appearance, and attacked 
 the village, which in less than two hours was several times lost 
 and retaken. The numerical superiority of the Austrians, how- 
 ever, and their obstinate determination to recover an important 
 position, had well-nigh triumphed over our troops, and obliged 
 them to abandon the village, when Lecourbe received a season- 
 able reinforcement of two squadrons of carabineers. He united 
 with them a few troops of the 8th hussars, which he had at hand, 
 and pushed them upon the enemy's infantry, extended over the 
 spacious plain to the banks of the Danube. This charge was 
 executed with such vigour and promptness that the Austrians 
 were driven back, and left us their artillery. 2000 prisoners, and 
 300 horses. Two battalions of Wurtembergers, endeavouring to 
 keep their ground by forming into squares, were broken like the 
 others. After this brilliant action, fought by Puthod's brigades, 
 Lecourbe had nothing more to fear from the quarter of the 
 Lower Danube. But that was not the side from which the 
 greatest danger was likely to come. The bulk of the Austrians 
 being posted above, that is to say, at Dillingen, Gundelfingen, 
 and Ulm, it was necessary to turn towards that side, to face the 
 enemy who was about to descend from it. Luckily, Montrichard's 
 and Gudin's divisions and d'Hautpoul's reserve had crossed by 
 the repaired bridges of Gremheim and Blindheim, and bordered 
 the celebrated plain of Hochstett, rendered sadly famous for us 
 in the time of Louis XTV. ( 1 3th of August 1 704). The enemy, 
 having hastened from the nearest points to Dillingen, at some 
 distance from Hochstett, was drawn up near the Danube, the 
 infantry on our left, along the marshes of the river, and behind 
 some clumps of trees ; the cavalry in very strong force on our 
 right. They thus presented themselves in good order, awaiting
 
 junei8oo CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 267 
 
 the reinforcements which were coming, and retiring slowly, to 
 draw nearer to those reinforcements. The 37th demi-brigade 
 and a squadron of the 9th hussars followed step by step the 
 retrograde movement of the Austrians. Lecourbe, having rid 
 himself by the action at Schwenningen of any enemy that could 
 come from the Lower Danube, had arrived at a gallop, at the 
 head of the 2nd regiment of carabineers, the cuirassiers, the 6th 
 and 9th cavalry, and lastly, the 9th hussars. This was nearly 
 the whole of General d'Hautpoul's reserve of cavalry. They 
 were on level ground, and separated from the enemy by a stream- 
 let, the ^>gge, on which was a village, that of Schrezheim. 
 Lecourbe, at the head of the cuirassiers, galloped through the 
 village, formed them on debouching, and pushed them upon 
 the Austrian cavalry, which, surprised by this vigorous and 
 sudden charge, fell back in disorder, leaving uncovered the 9000 
 infantry whom it was destined to protect. These foot-soldiers, 
 thus abandoned, would have thrown themselves into the ditches 
 which furrow the banks of the Danube about Dillingen ; but 
 the cuirassiers, judiciously commanded, cut the column, and 
 separated 1800 men, who became our prisoners. 
 
 This was the second successful action that day, gained in part 
 by the cavalry, and it was not the last. Lecourbe placed him- 
 self on the Egge, waiting for the rest of his reserves, which were 
 to arrive by the bridge of Dillingen, which had fallen into our 
 hands. But M. de Kray's cavalry hastened up with all possible 
 expedition, outstripping the infantry, and formed in two great 
 lines in the plain behind Lauingen. This was an opportunity 
 for our cavalry to profit by the ardour which the successes of the 
 morning had excited, and to measure themselves in the plain 
 with the numerous and brilliant squadrons of the Austrian army. 
 Lecourbe, having ordered his infantry to occupy Lauingen, 
 united all the cavalry of his divisions with d'Hautpoul's, and 
 deployed it in the plain, offering to the enemy a species of combat 
 which was likely to tempt him, on account of the number and 
 the quality of his horse. The first Austrian line charged ours 
 at full speed, with a regularity and a steadiness natural to highly 
 trained cavalry. It drove back, in fact, the 2nd regiment of 
 carabineers, which had behaved with such intrepidity in the 
 morning, and some squadrons of hussars, which had charged with 
 it. Our cuirassiers then advanced, rallied the carabineers and 
 the hussars, who faced about on seeing themselves supported, 
 and all together dashed with vigour upon the Austrian squadrons, 
 which they drove back in their turn. At this sight, the second 
 line of the enemy's cavalry advanced, and, having the advantage 
 of impulsion over our troopers, who had become separated in the 
 charge, obliged them to fall back precipitately. But the 9th was 
 in reserve. Mana3uvrin<)! , with skill and boldness, it took the
 
 268 HISTORY OF THE june 1800 
 
 Austrian cavalry in flank, surprised, threw it into confusion, and 
 secured to our victorious squadrons the plain of Hochstett. 
 
 The losses in killed, wounded, and prisoners could not be very 
 considerable, for it is only encounters of cavalry with infantry 
 that are very serious. But we remained in possession of the 
 plain, and our cavalry had just assumed a real superiority over 
 that of the Austrians, which it never had before. All our arms 
 had from this moment a decided ascendency over those of the 
 enemy. It was eight o'clock, and, in the long days of June, 
 there was still time left for the Imperialists to dispute with us 
 the left bank of the Danube, so gloriously conquered in the 
 morning. Eight thousand infantry advanced, in fact, to the 
 assistance of the corps already beaten, and they were followed 
 by a numerous artillery. Moreau came up, meanwhile, at the 
 head of all his reserves. A new and more obstinate battle 
 ensued. The French infantry, in its turn, attacked the Austrian 
 infantry, under a fire of balls and grape-shot. The soldiers of 
 M. de Kray, who fought for an important point, the preserva- 
 tion of the position of Ulm, displayed extreme vigour. Moreau 
 was several times personally engaged in the thick of the fray ; 
 but his infantry, supported by the cavalry, which had returned 
 to the charge, finally remained victorious about eleven at night. 
 At the same moment, the 37th demi-brigade entered Gundel- 
 fingen, and then all the positions in the plain were in our hands. 
 We had crossed the Danube, taken 5000 prisoners, twenty pieces 
 of cannon, 1 200 horses, 300 carriages, and the considerable 
 magazines of Donauwerth. The fighting had lasted eighteen 
 successive hours. This operation, which changed the melancholy 
 recollections of Hochstett into recollections of glory, was, next 
 to Marengo, the most brilliant operation of the campaign. It 
 was equally honourable to Lecourbe and to Moreau. The latter 
 had slowly warmed into boldness ; but at length, stimulated by 
 the examples set in Italy, he had displayed tactics of a higher 
 order, and he had just plucked a laurel from that tree from 
 which the First Consul had gathered such glorious wreaths. 
 Happy and noble rivalry, had it never extended any further ! 
 
 After so bold and so decided a manoeuvre on the part of his 
 adversary, M. de Kray could no longer remain at Ulm without 
 being cut off from his communication with Vienna. To march 
 direct upon the French, for the purpose of giving them battle, 
 would be too hazardous, with soldiers whose courage had been 
 again rudely shaken by the last engagements. He hastened, 
 therefore, to decamp that same night. He sent off before him 
 the park, consisting of nearly a thousand carriages, and fol- 
 lowed next day, with the main body of the army, by the Nbrd- 
 lingen road. He marched in dreadful weather, and on roads 
 which were in a shocking state from the rain. Such was,
 
 junei8oo CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 269 
 
 nevertheless, the rapidity of his retreat, that in twenty-four hours 
 he reached Neresheim. To cheer his dispirited troops, he put 
 in circulation a report that a suspension of arms had just 
 been signed in Italy, that it was to be extended to Germany, 
 and that peace could not fail to follow. This intelligence 
 diffused joy among his soldiers, and imparted a degree of 
 energy. They arrived at Nordlingen. 
 
 Moreau had been apprised too late of the departure of the 
 enemy. Richepanse was not able to perceive the evacuation of 
 Ulm till the last detachments were retiring, and he immediately 
 communicated the intelligence to the commander-in-chief. But 
 the Austrians had meanwhile gained the start, and the bad 
 weather, which prevailed for two days, prevented the French 
 from overtaking them by a forced march. Moreau, neverthe- 
 less, arrived at Nordlingen on the 23rd of June, in the evening, 
 closely pressing the rear-guard of M. de Kray, who continued 
 to retreat. Findiug that, owing to the badness of the roads, he 
 should not gain sufficiently upon the Austrian army to overtake 
 it, and that he might be drawn on in a fruitless pursuit to un- 
 known distances, Moreau resolved to halt, and to choose a 
 position adapted to the present state of things. M. de Kray, 
 concealing the joyful tidings of the victory of Marengo, which 
 were not yet known in the French camp, sent him word, how- 
 ever, of the suspension of arms concluded in Italy, and proposed 
 the like for Germany. Moreau, suspecting from this that im- 
 portant events had taken place beyond the Alps, and not doubting 
 that they were propitious, and expecting every moment to re- 
 ceive a courier to inform him of them, would not conclude any- 
 thing before he was acquainted with the particulars, and, above 
 all, before he had concjuered better cantonments for his troops. 
 He resolved to recross the Danube, to charge Richepanse with 
 the investment of the two principal places situated on that 
 river, Ulm and Iugolstadt, to proceed with the bulk of his 
 army beyond the Lech, to occupy Augsburg and Munich, and 
 thus to secure part of Bavaria to draw provisions from, and, 
 lastly, to make himself master of the bridges over the Isar and 
 of all the roads leading to the Inn. 
 
 Moreau accordingly recrossed the Danube and the Loch, at 
 Donauwerth and Rhain, and marched his different corps, by 
 Pottmess and Pfaffenhofen, to the banks of the Isar. We 
 occupied, on that river, the points of Landshut, Moosburg. and 
 Freisingen ; and detached Decaen to Munich, which the latter 
 entered, as in triumph, on the 28th of June. While he was 
 executing this movement, the two armies met for the last time, 
 falling in with each other unexpectedly, and being thus involved 
 in an aimless combat. It was at Neuburg, on the right bank 
 of the Danube, while both were marching for the Isar. A
 
 270 HISTORY OF THE july 1800 
 
 French division, having separated too far from the rest of the 
 army, had to sustain a long and obstinate action, in which it 
 finally triumphed, after suffering a most severe loss, that of the 
 brave Latour d'Auvergne. This illustrious soldier, honoured by 
 General Bonaparte with the title of First Grenadier of France, 
 was slain by the thrust of a lance which pierced his heart. The 
 army shed tears upon his grave, and did not leave the field of 
 battle till they had raised a monument over his grave. 
 
 On the 3rd of July (14th Messidor), Moreau was in the heart 
 of Bavaria, blockading Ulm and Ingolstadt on the Danube, 
 and occupying Landshut, Moosburg, Freisingen, and Munich 
 on the Isar. It was now high time to think of the Tyrol, and 
 to wrest from Prince Reuss the strong positions which he held 
 along the mountains, at the sources of the Iller, the Lech, and 
 the Isar — positions by means of which he could always annoy 
 the French. He was not dangerous, it is true, but his presence 
 obliged us to detach a considerable force, as he was an object 
 which our right wing could never lose sight of. To this end, 
 General Molitor was reinforced, and furnished with means for 
 attacking the Grisons and the Tyrol. The positions of Fussen, 
 Reitti, Immenstadt, and Feldkirch were successively taken in 
 a prompt and brilliant manner, and our establishment on the 
 Isar was thus perfectly consolidated. 
 
 M. de Kray had recrossed the Isar, and moved beyond the 
 Inn, occupying the camp of Ampfing, in advance of that river, 
 and the tetes du pant of Wasserburg and Muhldorf . It was now 
 the middle of July (the end of Messidor). The French govern- 
 ment had authorised General Moreau to act for what he might 
 consider the best, and to lay aside his arms whenever he should 
 judge fit. He thought, and very reasonably, that it was not 
 right for him to be left fighting alone. The rest enjoyed by 
 the troops in Italy was envied them by their fellow-soldiers in 
 Germany ; besides, the army of the Rhine, stationed between 
 the Isar and the Inn, had a much more advanced position than 
 the army of Italy, and thus had one of its flanks uncovered. 
 Though a stipulation of the convention of Alexandria forbade 
 the French, as well as the Austrians, to send detachments to 
 Germany, it was possible that this stipulation might not be 
 punctually observed, and that the army of the Rhine might 
 soon have an unexpected increase of enemies upon its hands. 
 Moreau, who had received several proposals from M. de Kray, 
 resolved at length to listen to them, and, on the 1 5th of July 
 (26th Messidor), he consented to sign, at Parsdorf, a place 
 situated in advance of Munich, a suspension of arms nearly 
 to the same purport as that of Italy. 
 
 The two armies were to retire each behind a line of demarca- 
 tion, which, commencing at Balzers, in the Grisons, skirted the
 
 julyi8oo CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 271 
 
 Tyrol, ran between the Isar and the Inn, at an equal distance 
 from both rivers, and then to the Danube, at Wilshofen, ascended 
 that river to the mouth of the Altmuhl, and followed the Alt- 
 muhl, the Rednitz, and the Mayn, to Mayence. The fortresses of 
 Philipsburg, Ulm, and Ingolstadt continued blockaded, but they 
 were to receive, every fortnight, a quantity of provisions, pro- 
 portionate to the strength of their garrisons. The two armies 
 had to give twelve days' notice, in case of the renewal of hos- 
 tilities. The French army would thus draw its provisions from 
 Franconia, Swabia, and a great part of Bavaria. Our soldiers, 
 posted on the Mincio, on one side of the Alps, on the Isar, on 
 the other side, were about to receive compensation, in the rich 
 plains of Italy and Germany, for their toils and their privations. 
 These brave fellows had earned it by the noblest exploits that 
 had yet signalised the arms of France. The army of the Rhine, 
 though it had not shed so bright a lustre as the army of Italy, had, 
 nevertheless, distinguished itself by a campaign conducted with 
 equal judgment and vigour. The last great event of this cam- 
 paign, the passage of the Danube at Hochstett, might rank with 
 the most glorious feats of our military annals. Public opinion, 
 which, in 1799, was not favourable to Moreau, had become almost 
 partial for him in 1 800. Next to the name of General Bonaparte, 
 at a great distance, it is true, but yet at such a distance that the 
 distinction was still nattering, was incessantly placed the name 
 of General Moreau ; and, as public opinion is ever fickle, the 
 fame of the latter eclipsed, this year, that of the conqueror of 
 Zurich, by whom it had been eclipsed in the preceding year. 
 
 The tidings of the brilliant successes of the army of the 
 Rhine crowned the satisfaction produced by the extraordinary 
 successes of the army of Italy, and changed into certainty the 
 hopes of peace that filled all minds. There was joy in every 
 heart. The public funds, denominated the Five per Cents., 
 which sold at thirteen francs before the 18th of Brumaire, had 
 risen to forty. A decree of the Consuls announced to the 
 stockholders that the dividends for the first six months of the 
 year IX., and which fell due on the 22nd September 1 800. 
 should be paid entirely in casli : happy intelligence, such as had 
 not for a long time been given to the unfortunate creditors of 
 the State ! All these benefits were attributed to the armies, to 
 the generals who had led them to victory, but principally to 
 young Bonaparte, who had shown that he could both govern and 
 light in a very superior manner. Hence the fete of the 14th 
 of July, one of the two Republican solemnities retained by the 
 Constitution, was celebrated with great pomp. Preparations 
 were made for a magnificent ceremony at the Invalides. Mehul, 
 the musician, had composed some appropriate pieces, and the 
 first singers of Italy, which began at this time to be stripped
 
 272 HISTORY OF THE CONSULATE. july 1800 
 
 both of its masterpieces of art and of its artists, were brought 
 to Paris to execute them. After the performance of these 
 pieces under the dome of the Invalides, the First Consul, ac- 
 companied by a numerous staff, repaired to the Champ de Mars, 
 to review the consular guard. It arrived that very morning, 
 covered with dust and in tatters, having been on march ever 
 since the day after the battle of Marengo, that it might be 
 punctual at the rendezvous appointed by the First Consul for 
 the 14th of July. It brought to the Invalides the colours taken 
 during the last campaign, to be placed in the general repository 
 of our trophies. The crowd which bordered both sides of the 
 Champ de Mars rushed forward to gain a closer view of the 
 heroes of Marengo. The public intoxication was carried to 
 such a length as well-nigh to produce accidents. The First 
 Consul was long pent up amidst this scene of popular con- 
 fusion. He returned to the Tuileries surrounded by the 
 multitude, who crowded about him. The whole day was 
 devoted to public rejoicings. 
 
 A few days afterwards, on the 21st of July (2nd Thermidor), 
 it was announced that Count de St. Julien, an officer in the 
 confidence of the Emperor of Germany, was on his way to 
 Paris ; that he was the bearer of the ratification of the conven- 
 tion of Alexandria, and charged to confer with the First Consul 
 on the conditions of the approaching peace. No doubt was any 
 longer entertained of the conclusion of that so ardently desired 
 peace, which was to put an end to the second coalition. France, 
 it may be said, had never seen such happy days.
 
 BOOK V. 
 
 HELIOPOLIS. 
 
 IN August 1799, General Bonaparte, being decided by news 
 from Europe to leave Egypt suddenly, ordered Admiral 
 Ganteaume to send out of the harbour of Alexandria the frigates 
 La Muiron and La Carrdre, the only ships left after the destruc- 
 tion of the fleet, and to cast anchor in the little roadstead of the 
 Marabout. It was there, about two leagues westward of Alex- 
 andria, that he purposed to embark. He took with him Generals 
 Berthier, Lannes, Murat, Andreossy, Marmont, and the two men 
 of science to whom he was more attached than to any of the 
 others belonging to the expedition, Monge and Berthollet. On 
 the 22nd of August (5th Fructidor, year VII.), he proceeded to 
 the Marabout, and precipitately embarked, in constant appre- 
 hension lest the English squadron should make its appearance. 
 The horses on which the party rode thither, being left upon the 
 beach, galloped back to Alexandria. The sight of these horses, 
 completely saddled, but without riders, excited a sort of alarm ; 
 it was supposed that some accident had befallen some of the 
 officers of the garrison, and a detachment of cavalry was 
 despatched from the entrenched camp. Presently, a Turkish 
 groom, who had been present at the embarkation, explained what 
 had happened, and Menou, who alone had been initiated into 
 the secret, made known in Alexandria the departure of General 
 Bonaparte, and the appointment which he had made of General 
 Kleber to succeed him. The latter had an appointment to meet 
 him at Rosetta, on the 23rd of August, but General Bonaparte 
 was so hurried to embark, that he had gone the day before. 
 Besides, in imposing upon Kleber the heavy burden of the com- 
 mand, he was better pleased to leave him an absolute order, 
 which admitted of neither objection nor refusal. 
 
 This intelligence caused a painful surprise throughout the 
 army. At first, it was discredited; General Dugua, commandant 
 of Rosetta, had it contradicted, not believing it himself, and fear- 
 ful of the bad effect which it was likely to produce. However, 
 it was not possible to doubt long, and Kleber was officially pro- 
 claimed the successor of General Bonaparte. Officers and soldiers 
 were in consternation. It had needed the ascendency exercised
 
 274 HISTORY OF THE attg. 1799 
 
 over them by the conqueror of Italy to draw them after him into 
 distant and unknown countries, and it had needed all his ascen- 
 dency to keep them there. Kegret for home is a passion, which 
 becomes violent, when the distance and the novelty of places, 
 and fears founded on the uncertainty of return, concur to irritate 
 it. In Egypt, this passion frequently burst forth in murmurs, 
 sometimes in suicide. But the presence of the commander-in- 
 chief, his language, his incessant activity, dispelled these gloomy 
 vapours. Well knowing how to occupy himself, and how to 
 occupy others, he captivated their minds to the highest point, 
 and either dissipated around him, or prevented the generation 
 of, those irksome feelings to which he was altogether a stranger. 
 The men often said to themselves that they should never see 
 France again, that they should never recross the Mediterranean, 
 especially now that the fleet had been destroyed at Aboukir ; but 
 General Bonaparte was there ; with him they could go anywhere, 
 find their way back to their country, or make a new country for 
 themselves. With his departure, the aspect of things was totally 
 changed. The intelligence of it came, therefore, like a thunder- 
 bolt. The most opprobrious epithets were applied to this depar- 
 ture. They did not consider that irresistible impulse of patriotism 
 and ambition, which, on the news of the disasters of the Republic, 
 had urged him to return to France. They perceived only the 
 forlorn state in which he left the unfortunate army, which had 
 felt sufficient confidence in his genius to follow him. They said 
 to themselves that he must then have convinced himself of the 
 imprudence of that enterprise, of the impossibility of its success, 
 since he had run away, and relinquished to others what seemed 
 to him thenceforward impracticable. But to sneak off alone, 
 leaving beyond sea those whom he had thus compromised, was 
 cruelty, nay, cowardice, said some traducers ; for he always had 
 some, and very near to his person, even in the most brilliant 
 epochs of his career. 
 
 Kleber was not fond of General Bonaparte, and endured his 
 ascendency with a sort of impatience. If he restrained himself 
 in his presence, he indulged elsewhere in unbecoming expres- 
 sions. A grumbler and whimsical man, Kleber had ardently 
 desired to accompany the expedition to Egypt, that he might get 
 out of that state of disgrace in which he had been left to live 
 under the Directory ; and he was now sorry that he had quitted 
 the banks of the Rhine for the banks of the Nile. With a weak- 
 ness unworthy of his character, he allowed that feeling to betray 
 itself. This man, so great in danger, gave way to it as much as 
 the meanest of his soldiers could have done. The chief command 
 did not counterbalance the necessity of remaining in Egypt, for 
 he was not fond of commanding. Encouraging the discontent 
 against General Bonaparte, he committed the fault, which would
 
 AUG. 1799 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 275 
 
 deserve to be called criminal, had it not been repaired by heroic 
 actions, of contributing himself to produce in the army an impres- 
 sion which soon became general. After his example, everybody 
 began to say that they could not stay any longer in Egypt, and 
 must absolutely return to France at all hazards. Other feelings 
 mingled with this passion for return to subvert the spirit of the 
 army, and to produce in it the most mischievous dispositions. 
 
 An old rivalry then divided, and long continued to divide, the 
 officers who had belonged to the armies of the Rhine and of Italy. 
 They were jealous of one another, each class pretending to carry 
 on war in a different and a superior manner ; and, though this 
 rivalry was repressed by the presence of General Bonaparte, it 
 was the principal cause of the diversity of their opinions. All 
 who had come from the armies of the Rhine showed but little 
 partiality for the expedition to Egypt ; on the other hand, the 
 officers originally attached to the army of Italy, though sorry to 
 be so far distant from France, were favourable to that expedi- 
 tion, because it was the work of the general-in-chief. After his 
 departure, all restraint was thrown off. Kldber's partisans rallied 
 tumultuously around him ; they loudly repeated with him what, it 
 is true, began to be the conviction of every one, that the conquest 
 of Egypt was a mad undertaking, which ought to be abandoned 
 as soon as possible. This opinion, however, found dissentients ; 
 some generals, such as Lanusse, Menou, Davout, Desaix in parti- 
 cular, dared to express other sentiments. The army was thence- 
 forward split into two parties ; the one was called the colonist, 
 the other the anti-colonist party. Unluckily, Desaix was absent. 
 He was completing the conquest of Upper Egypt, where he was 
 fighting brilliant battles, and governing with admirable wisdom. 
 His influence, therefore, could not be opposed at that moment 
 to Kleber's. To crown the misfortune, he was not to remain 
 in Egypt. General Bonaparte, wishing to have him about his 
 person, had committed the fault of not appointing him com- 
 mander-in-chief, and had left orders for him to return very soon 
 to Europe. Desaix, whose name was universally cherished and 
 respected in the army, whose administrative talents equalled his 
 military talents, would have governed the colony most ably, and 
 would have avoided all those weaknesses to which Kleber gave 
 way, at least for a moment. 
 
 Kleber, however, was the most popular of the generals among 
 the soldiery. His name was hailed by them with entire confi- 
 dence, and somewhat cheered them for the loss of the illustrious 
 commander who had just left them. The first impression once 
 past, their minds, though they had not recovered their wonted 
 tone, acquired more calmness and justice. Other language was 
 used: they said to themselves that, after all. it behoved General 
 Bonaparte to fly to the succour of France when in clanger; and
 
 276 HISTORY OF THE sept. 1799 
 
 that, the army once established in Egypt, the best thing he could 
 do for it was to go to Paris, to represent strongly its situation 
 and its wants, and to claim that assistance which he alone could 
 extort from their supine rulers at home. 
 
 Kleber returned to Cairo, assumed the command with a sort 
 of ostentation, and took possession of the fine Arabian mansion 
 which his predecessor had occupied in the Ezbekyeh Place. 
 He displayed a certain pomp, not so much to gratify his own 
 taste, as to make an impression on the Orientals, and resolved 
 to cause his authority to be felt, by exercising it with vigour. 
 But it was not long before the solicitudes of the chief command, 
 which were insupportable to him, the new dangers with which 
 the Turks and the English threatened Egypt, and the grief of 
 exile, which was general, filled his soul with the most gloomy 
 discouragement. A report of the state of the colony having 
 been made to him, by his order, he addressed to the Directory 
 a despatch full of errors, and accompanied it with a report of 
 Poussielgue's, administrator of the finances — a report in which 
 things were represented in the most false, and especially the 
 most inculpatory light, in regard to General Bonaparte. 
 
 In this despatch and report, dated the 26th of September 
 (4th Venclemiaire, year VIII. ), General Kleber, and Poussielgue, 
 the administrator, stated that the army, diminished by one-half, 
 was at this moment reduced to about 15,000 men ; that it was 
 nearly naked, which in that climate was extremely dangerous on- 
 account of the difference of temperature between day and night ; 
 that they were in want of cannon, muskets, projectiles, powder, 
 all which things it was difficult to replace, because cast-iron, lead, 
 timber for building, and materials for making gunpowder were 
 not to be had in Egypt ; that there was a considerable deficit in 
 the finances, for the sum of 4,000,000 (of francs) was due to the 
 soldiers for pay, and 7,000,000 or 8.000,000 to the contractors 
 for various supplies ; that the resource of levying contributions 
 was already exhausted, the country being ready to rise if new 
 ones were imposed ; that, the inundation having been scanty 
 this year, and the crops being thus likely to prove deficient, the 
 Egyptians would be alike destitute of the means and the will to 
 pay the tax ; that dangers of all kinds threatened the colony ; 
 that the two old chiefs of the Marnelukes, Murad Bey and 
 Ibrahim Bey, still maintained their ground, the one in Upper 
 Egypt, the other in Lower Egypt ; that Djezzar, the celebrated 
 pasha of Acre, was about to send to the Turkish army a rein- 
 forcement of 20,000 excellent soldiers, the former defenders of 
 St. Jean dAcre against the French ; that the grand-vizir himself, 
 having set out from Constantinople, was already in the environs 
 of Damascus, with a powerful army ; that the Russians and the 
 English were to join a regular force to the irregular forces of
 
 sept. 1799 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 277 
 
 the Turks ; that, in this extremity, they had but one resource 
 left, namely, to treat with the Porte ; and that, General Bona- 
 parte having set the example, and given express authority in 
 the instructions left for his successor, an attempt was about to 
 be made to negotiate with the grand- vizir a mixed domination, 
 by means of which the Porte should occupy the open country 
 of Egypt, and levy the miri or land-tax, while France should 
 occupy the towns and the forts, and levy the revenue of the 
 customs. Kleber added, that the commander-in-chief had seen 
 the crisis approaching, and this was the real motive for his 
 precipitate departure. M. Poussielgue concluded his report 
 with a calumny : General Bonaparte, when he left Egypt, had, 
 he said, carried away two millions. To complete this picture, 
 it should be known that General Bonaparte had heaped favours 
 on M. Poussielgue. 
 
 Such were the despatches sent to the Directory by Kleber and 
 M. Poussielgue. General Bonaparte was there treated as a 
 man who is supposed to be ruined, and to whom one need not 
 show indulgence. It was believed, in fact, that he was exposed 
 to the twofold danger of being taken by the English, or severely 
 condemned by the Directory for having quitted his army. What 
 would have been the embarrassment of the writers of those 
 despatches, had they known that they would be opened and 
 read by the man who was the object of so many calumnies, and 
 who had now become the absolute head of the government !. 
 
 Kleber, too careless to ascertain himself the real state of 
 things, not even taking the pains to examine whether the state- 
 ments which he was sending agreed with his own assertions — 
 Kleber did not think that he was advancing falsehoods ; he 
 transmitted, through negligence and ill-humour, the hearsays 
 which passion had multiplied around him to such a degree as to 
 give them a kind of public notoriety. These despatches were 
 entrusted to a cousin of Barras's, the Director, and accompanied 
 by a multitude of letters, in which the officers of the army gave 
 vent to a despair as unfounded as it was imprudent. This 
 cousin of Barras's was taken by the English ; he hastily threw 
 overboard the packet of despatches of which he was the bearer ; 
 but this packet floated, was perceived, picked up, and sent to 
 the British cabinet. We shall soon see what was the result 
 of these mischievous communications, which thus fell into the 
 hands of the English, and were made public to all Europe. 
 
 Kleber and M. Poussielgue, however, had sent duplicates of 
 their despatches to Paris. These dulplicates, transmitted by a 
 different channel, reached France, and were delivered to the 
 First Consul. 
 
 What truth was there in this picture, drawn by morbid 
 imaginations ? Of this we shall soon be enabled to judge with
 
 278 HISTORY OF THE sept. 1799 
 
 certainty by the events themselves ; but, meanwhile, we must 
 rectify the false assertions just laid before the reader. 
 
 The army, according to Kleber, was reduced to 15,000 men ; 
 yet the returns sent to the Directory made them amount 
 to 28,500. When, two years later, it was brought back to 
 France, it still numbered in its ranks 22,000 soldiers, and, in 
 these two years, it had fought several great battles and in- 
 numerable actions. In 1798 there had left France, in various 
 convoys, 34,000 men : 4000 were landed at Malta ; 30,000, 
 therefore, arrived at Alexandria. Subsequently, 3000 sailors, 
 wrecks of the crews of the fleet destroyed at Aboukir, rein- 
 forced the army, and again raised it to 33,000 men. In 1798 
 and 1799, it had lost from 4000 to 5000 soldiers ; it was, 
 therefore, reduced to about 28,000, of whom 22,000, at least, 
 were fit for duty. 
 
 Egypt is a healthy country, where wounds heal with ex- 
 treme rapidity : there were, this year, few sick, and no plague. 
 Egypt was full of Christians, Greeks, Syrians, or Copts, apply- 
 ing to be enlisted into our ranks, and capable of furnishing 
 excellent recruits, to the number of 15,000 or 20,000. The 
 Blacks of Darfur, bought and made free, added so many as 500 
 good soldiers to one of our demi-brigades alone. Egypt, more- 
 over, was subdued. The peasants who cultivate it, accustomed 
 to obey under all masters, never thought of lifting a musket. 
 With the exception of a few insurrections in the towns, there 
 was nothing to be feared but from undisciplined Turks, coming 
 from a distance, or English mercenaries, transported with great 
 trouble by sea. Against such enemies the French army was 
 more than a match, if it were commanded, not with genius, 
 but merely with ordinary judgment. 
 
 Kleber alleged in his despatches that the soldiers were 
 naked ; but General Bonaparte had left cloth for clothing them, 
 and, a month after the transmission of this despatch, they were 
 entirely new clothed. At any rate, Egypt abounded in cotton 
 stuffs ; it furnished all Africa with them. It could not be 
 difficult to procure these stuffs by purchase, or by demanding 
 them in part of the taxes. As for provisions, Egypt is the 
 granary of the countries destitute of corn. Wheat, rice, beef, 
 mutton, poultry, sugar, coffee, were then ten times as cheap 
 there as in Europe. So low were the prices of necessaries, 
 that the army, though its finances were not the most flourish- 
 ing, was able to pay for all that it consumed. Kleber asserted 
 that it was in want of arms ; and there were left 1 1 ,000 swords, 
 15,000 muskets, 1400 or 1500 pieces of cannon, 180 of which 
 were field-pieces. Alexandria, which, according to him, was 
 stripped of artillery ever since the siege of St. Jean d'Acre, 
 contained more than 300 pieces of cannon in battery. As for
 
 sept. 1799 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 279 
 
 ammunition, there remained 3,000,000 cartridges for infantry, 
 27,000 gun-cartridges made up, and resources for making 
 more ; for there were still in the magazines 200,000 projectiles, 
 and 1,100,000 pounds (500 tons) of powder. The subsequent 
 events demonstrated the truth of these allegations, since the 
 army continued to fight two years longer, and left the English 
 considerable stores. What, in fact, could have become, in so 
 short a time, of the immense materiel carefully accumulated 
 by General Bonaparte on board the fleet which conveyed the 
 army to Egypt ? 
 
 In regard to the finances, Kleber's report was equally false. 
 The soldiers were paid up. It is true that nothing had yet 
 been decided respecting the financial system best adapted for 
 provisioning the army, without draining the country ; but the 
 resources existed, and, by levying merely the taxes already 
 imposed, the troops might live in abundance. There was due 
 upon the imposts of the year sufficient to provide for all the 
 current expenses; that is to say, above 16,000,000 f. There 
 was, consequently, no need to drive the population to insurrec- 
 tion by the imposition of new taxes. The financial documents 
 subsequently made public proved that Egypt was capable of 
 furnishing 25,000,000 f. per year, and that with ease. At this 
 rate it paid but half the amount wrung from it, with a thou- 
 sand vexations, by the numerous tyrants who oppressed it by 
 the name of Mamelukes. According to the price of things 
 in Egypt, the army could be subsisted for 1 8,000,000 f. or 
 20,000,000 f. As for the chests, so far was General Bonaparte 
 from having exhausted them that, at his departure, he had not 
 even taken the whole of his pay. 
 
 As for the dangers with which the colony was threatened, 
 the truth was this : Murad Bey, disheartened, was a fugitive 
 in Upper Egypt with a few Mamelukes. Ibrahim Bey, who, 
 under the government of the Mamelukes, shared the sove- 
 reignty with him, was then in Lower Egypt, towards the 
 frontiers of Syria. He had not 400 horse, much less some 
 thousands. Djezzar Pasha was shut up in St. Jean d'Acre. 
 So far from preparing a reinforcement of 30,000 men for the 
 army of the grand-vizir, he viewed, on the contrary, with high 
 displeasure, the approach of a fresh Turkish army, now especi- 
 ally that his Pashalik was delivered from the French. As for 
 the grand-vizir, he was not yet across the Taurus. Hie English 
 had their troops at Mahon, and were thinking at this moment 
 of employing them in Tuscany, at Naples, or on the coast of 
 France. As for a Russian expedition, that was a mere fable. 
 The Russians never had any idea of taking so long a voyage, for 
 the purpose of furthering the policy of England in the Kast. 
 
 The inhabitants were not so disposed to insurrection as was
 
 280 HISTORY OF THE sept. 1799 
 
 represented. By humouring the sheiks, who are the priests 
 and the lawyers of the Arabs, as General Bonaparte had pre- 
 scribed, their attachment might soon be gained. We had 
 already begun to make ourselves a party among them. We 
 had, moreover, on our side the Copts, the Greeks, the Syrians, 
 who, being all Christians, behaved towards us as friends, and 
 as useful auxiliaries. Thus nothing imminent from that quarter 
 was to be apprehended. No doubt, if the French experienced 
 disasters, the Egyptians, with the fickleness of conquered 
 nations, would do as the Italians themselves had recently done, 
 they would join the conqueror of one day against the conqueror 
 of the preceding day. Still they appreciated the difference 
 between the sway of the Mamelukes, who fleeced them, and 
 never came but sword in hand, and that of the French, who 
 respected property, and rarely struck off their heads. 
 
 Kleber, then, had indulged in dangerous exaggerations, the 
 melancholy results of hatred, ennui, and exile. At his side, 
 General Menou, viewing everything under the most favourable 
 colours, believed the French to be invincible in Egypt, and 
 regarded the expedition as the commencement of a near and 
 momentous revolution in the commerce of the world. Men 
 never can sufficiently divest themselves of their personal im- 
 pressions in forming opinions of this kind. Kleber and 
 Menou were both honest, upright men ; but one wanted to 
 leave Egypt, the other to stay in it : the clearest, and the 
 most authentic returns, conveyed to them totally contrary 
 significations — misery and ruin to one, abundance and success 
 to the other. 
 
 At any rate, be the situation what it might, Kleber and his 
 party rendered themselves seriously culpable in thinking of 
 evacuation, for they had no right to do so. It is true that 
 General Bonaparte, in his instructions replete with wisdom, 
 examining all possible cases, had foreseen the very case in 
 which the army might be obliged to evacuate Egypt. "I am 
 going to France," said he, "either as a private man or as a 
 public man ; I will get succours sent to you. But if by next 
 spring (he was writing in August 1799) you have received no 
 succours, no instructions ; if the plague has carried off more 
 than 1500 men, independently of losses by war; if a consider- 
 able force, which you should be incapable of resisting, presses 
 you hard, negotiate with the vizir; consent even, if it must 
 be so, to an evacuation, subject to one condition, that of refer- 
 ring to the French government, and meanwhile continue to 
 occupy. You will thus have gained time, and it is impossible 
 that, during the interval, you should not have received suc- 
 cours." The instructions were very sound ; but the case fore- 
 seen was far from being realised. In the first place, it would
 
 NOV. 1799 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 281 
 
 have been requisite to wait till the spring of 1 800 ; it would 
 have been requisite that, at this period, no succours, no orders, 
 should have arrived in Egypt ; it would have been requisite 
 that the army should have lost part of its effective force by 
 the plague ; and, lastly, that it should be pressed by superior 
 forces: now, nothing of this sort had happened, or did happen. 
 A negotiation opened without these conditions was a real 
 transgression. 
 
 In September 1799 (Yendemiaire, year VIII.), Desaix, having 
 completed the conquest and subjugation of Upper Egypt, had 
 left two movable columns for the pursuit of Murad Bey, to 
 whom he had offered peace on condition of his becoming a vassal 
 of France. He had then returned to Cairo by order of Kleber, 
 who wished to make use of his name in those luckless negotia- 
 tions into which he was about to enter. During these proceed- 
 ings, the army of the grand-vizir, so long announced, was slowly 
 advancing. Sir Sidney Smith, who convoyed with his squadron 
 the Turkish troops destined to be transported by sea, had just 
 arrived off Damietta with 8000 Janissaries. On the 1st of 
 November 1799 (10th Brumaire, year VIII.), the landing of the 
 first division, of 4000 Janissaries, was effected, towards the Bogaz 
 of Damietta, that is, at the entrance of that branch of the Nile 
 which runs past this town. General Verdier, who had only 1000 
 men at Damietta, marched out with these troops, and proceeded 
 beyond the fort of Lesbeh, to a narrow tongue of land, on the 
 shore of which the Turks had disembarked, and, without giving 
 time for the other 4000 Janissaries to arrive, attacked the 4000 
 who had already landed. In spite of the fire of the English 
 artillery, advantageously placed upon an old tower, he beat them, 
 drowned or put to the sword 3000, and took the rest prisoners. 
 The landing craft, at this sight, returned to their ships, and did 
 not land the remainder of the Turkish troops. The French had 
 only twenty -two men killed and 100 wounded. 
 
 On the first tidings of this disembarkation. Kleber had de- 
 spatched Desaix with a column of 3000 men; but the latter, 
 uselessly sent to Damietta. had found the victory won. and 
 the French filled with unbounded confidence. This brilliant 
 achievement ought to have served to encourage Kleber; unfor- 
 tunately he was swayed at once by his own chagrin and by that 
 of the army, lie had before influenced the troops, who in 
 their turn hurried him into the fatal resolution of an immediate 
 evacuation. General Bonaparte became the theme of fresh 
 invectives. That rash young man, it was said, who had ex- 
 posed the French army to perils, and exposed himself to other 
 perils in braving the seas and the English cruisers in order to 
 return to France, that rash young man could not have escaped 
 the dangers of the passage. The wise generals trained in the
 
 282 HISTORY OF THE Nov. 1799 
 
 school of the Rhine ought to relinquish a mad scheme, and 
 to carry back to Europe brave soldiers, indispensable to the 
 Republic, now threatened in all quarters. 
 
 In this disposition of mind, Kleber had sent to the vizir, 
 who had entered Syria, one of his officers to make new overtures 
 of peace. General Bonaparte, with a view to embroil the vizir 
 with the English, had previously entertained the idea of setting 
 on foot negotiations, which, on his part, were nothing more than 
 a feint. His overtures had been received with great distrust and 
 pride. Kleber's met with a more favourable reception, through 
 the influence of Sir Sidney Smith, who was preparing to play a 
 prominent part in the affairs of Egypt. 
 
 This officer of the English navy had largely contributed to 
 prevent the success of the siege of St. Jean d'Acre ; he was 
 proud of it, and had devised a ruse de guerre, according to the 
 expression of the English agents, which consisted in taking 
 advantage of a momentary weakness to wrest from the French 
 their valuable conquest. Accordingly, as all the intercepted 
 letters of our officers clearly showed their impatient desire to 
 return to France, Sir Sidney Smith wished to induce the army 
 to negotiate and to sign a capitulation, and, before the French 
 government had time to give or to refuse its ratification, to ship 
 it off immediately and to throw it upon the coast of Europe. 
 With this view, he had disposed the grand-vizir to listen to 
 the overtures of Kleber. As for himself, studying to load the 
 French officers with civilities, he permitted the news from 
 Europe to reach them, taking care, however, that only such in- 
 telligence should pass as was anterior to the 18th of Brumaire. 
 Kleber, on his part, despatched a negotiator to Sir Sidney 
 Smith, for as the English were masters of the sea, he wished 
 to induce them to take part in the negotiation, so that the return 
 to France might be rendered possible. Sir Sidney lent a willing 
 ear to this message, and manifested a disposition to enter into 
 arrangements, adding, moreover, that, by virtue of a treaty of 
 the 5th of January 1799, negotiated by himself, there existed a 
 triple alliance between Russia, England, and the Porte ; that 
 those powers had bound themselves to do everything jointly ; 
 that, in consequence, no arrangement with the Porte could be 
 valid and carried into execution if it was not concurred in by 
 the agents of all the three courts. In his communications, Sir 
 Sidney Smith assumed the title of "Minister plenipotentiary of 
 his Britannic Majesty to the Ottoman Porte, commanding his 
 squadron in the waters of the Levant." 
 
 Sir Sidney Smith here attributed to himself a title which he 
 had had, but which he had ceased to hold since the arrival of 
 Lord Elgin as ambassador at Constantinople ; and, in reality, 
 he had at this moment no other power than what a military
 
 dec. 1799 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 283 
 
 commander always has — that of signing conventions of war, 
 suspensions of arms, &c. 
 
 Kleber, without closer examination, without knowing whether 
 he was treating with agents sufficiently accredited, entered blindly 
 into that perilous track into which he was hurried by a senti- 
 ment common to the whole army, and which would have ended 
 in ignominy, if, fortunately for him, Heaven had not endowed 
 him with an heroic soul, which could not fail to retrieve itself 
 with glory, as soon as he should discover the extent of his fault. 
 He entered, then, into negotiation, and offered to Sir Sidney 
 Smith, as well as to the vizir, who had advanced as far as Gaza 
 in Syria, to appoint officers furnished with full powers to treat. 
 Disliking to receive the Turks in his camp, and unwilling, on the 
 other hand, to risk his officers amidst the undisciplined army 
 of the grand-vizir, he resolved to propose Sir Sidney Smith's 
 ship Le Tigre for the place of the conferences. 
 
 Sir Sidney, who was cruising with two ships only — which, be 
 it observed by the way, sufficiently proved the possibility for 
 France to communicate with Egypt — Sir Sidney had at this 
 moment but one ; the other, the Theseus, was under repair at 
 Cyprus. Boisterous weather frequently obliging him to stand 
 off the coast, his communications with the land were neither 
 regular nor prompt. It took some time to obtain his assent. At 
 length his answer arrived : it intimated that he should appear 
 successively off Alexandria and Damietta, to take on board the 
 officers whom Kleber should send to him. 
 
 Kleber appointed Desaix and Poussielgue, the administrator, 
 the same who had so clumsily slandered General Bonaparte, and 
 whom the Egyptians, in their Arabic relations, have designated 
 Sultan Kleber s vizi?-. Poussielgue was an advocate for evacua- 
 tion, Desaix just the reverse. The latter had made the utmost 
 exertions to withstand the torrent, to raise the spirits of his 
 companions in arms, and he had undertaken the negotiation 
 commenced by Kleber solely in the hope of protracting it, and 
 gaining time for the arrival of succours and instructions from 
 France. Kleber, in order to excuse himself to Desaix, told him 
 that it was General Bonaparte who first began to parley witli the 
 Turks; that, moreover, he had himself provided for. and authorised 
 beforehand, a treaty of evacuation, in case of imminent danger. 
 Desaix, misinformed, still hoped that tin 1 first ship which should 
 arrive from France would clear up these obscurities and perhaps 
 change the deplorable dispositions of the staff of the army. 
 He set out with M. Poussielgue, and. unable to join Sir Sidney 
 Smith oil' Alexandria, he found him before Damietta. and went 
 on board Le Tigre on the 22nd of December 1799 ( r st Nivose, 
 year VIII.). It was just at this moment that General Bonaparte 
 was invested with the supreme power in France.
 
 284 HISTORY OF THE dec. 1799 
 
 Sir Sidney Smith, delighted to have on board such a pleni- 
 potentiary as Desaix, gave him a most flattering reception, and 
 strove by all the means of persuasion to bring him into the idea 
 of evacuating Egypt. 
 
 Desaix was perfectly competent to defend himself, and stood 
 out for the conditions which his principal had instructed him to 
 demand. These conditions, which were inadmissible by the 
 English commodore, were particularly convenient to Desaix, 
 who wished to gain time ; on the part of Kleber they were 
 extremely ill-advised, for their extravagance rendered any agree- 
 ment impossible. But Kleber sought in that very extravagance 
 an excuse for his fault. He demanded, for instance, that the 
 army, retiring with the honours of war, with arms and baggage, 
 should be allowed to land at any point of the continent that he 
 might be pleased to select, in order to afford the Republic the 
 aid of its presence, wherever it might be deemed most service- 
 able. He demanded that the Porte should restore to us im- 
 mediately the Venetian islands, which had become French 
 property by the treaty of Campo Formio, that is to say, Corfu, 
 Zante, Cephalonia, &c, and were occupied at the moment by 
 Turco-Russian garrisons ; that these islands, and above all, 
 Malta, a much more important one, should be given up to 
 France ; that the possession of them should be guaranteed to 
 her by the persons signing the treaty of evacuation ; that the 
 French army, on retiring, should have a right to reinforce and 
 revictual the garrisons ; lastly, that the treaty which united the 
 Porte, Russia, and England should be instantly annulled, and 
 the triple alliance of the East dissolved. 
 
 These conditions were unreasonable, it must be confessed : 
 not that they were an exorbitant equivalent for what was given 
 up in giving up Egypt, but because they were not feasible. Sir 
 Sidney made Kleber sensible of this. Officers treating for a 
 mere suspension of arms could not include other topics of such 
 vast extent in their negotiation. Zante, Cephalonia, Corfu, were 
 occupied by Turkish and Russian troops ; it was requisite, 
 therefore, to refer not only to Constantinople but also to Peters- 
 burg. Malta was held under the King of Naples as lord 
 paramount : it could not be disposed of without the consent 
 of that prince, who had always refused to cede it to France. 
 To land French troops in the island at that moment would be 
 in a manner deciding the question. There would be found 
 there cruisers or garrisons of all the coalesced powers, who would 
 not retire upon an order from Sir Sidney Smith or the grand- 
 vizir. Besides, England would never consent to a condition 
 ensuring Malta to France. To land a French army on a point 
 of the continent, where it might derange the combinations of 
 the war by its unexpected appearance, would be a step too bold
 
 dec. 1799 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 285 
 
 for a mere commodore to think of taking. Lastly, to demand 
 the abolition of the triple alliance was requiring Sir Sidney- 
 Smith to undo by himself alone, on board his ship, a treaty 
 ratified by three great powers, and which had acquired great 
 importance for the East. Supposing that all these stipulations 
 should be accepted by all the courts whose consent was requisite, 
 it would be necessary to send to Naples, to London, to St. 
 Petersburg, to Constantinople : of course this would no longer 
 be a military convention of evacuation, like that which was 
 signed at Marengo, and capable of being executed at the very 
 instant. If it were referred to London, it must consequently be 
 referred to Paris also, which Kleber had no wish to do. All this 
 evidently far surpassed the bounds of a military capitulation. 
 
 Sir Sidney Smith had no difficulty to make the French 
 negotiators feel the force of these reasons. But it was urgently 
 necessary to settle two poiuts immediately — the departure of 
 the wounded, and of the scientific men attached to the expedi- 
 tion, for whom Desaix solicited safe-conducts, and secondly, 
 a suspension of arms ; for the army of the grand-vizir, though 
 marching slowly, would soon be in presence of the French. It 
 had actually arrived before the fort of El Arisch, the first 
 French post on the frontiers of Syria, and had summoned it to 
 surrender. Kleber, apprised of this circumstance, had written 
 to Desaix and ordered him to require, as an indispensable con- 
 dition of these conferences, that the Turkish army should halt 
 on the frontier. 
 
 The first point, that relating to the departure of the wounded, 
 and the men of science, rested with Sir Sidney Smith. He 
 assented to it with great cheerfulness and courtesy. As for the 
 armistice, Sir Sidney declared that he would willingly propose 
 it, but he could not answer for obtaining it; for the Turkish 
 army was composed of fanatic and barbarous hordes, and it was 
 a difficult thine to make regular conventions witli it. and still 
 more so to ensure their execution. To remove this difficulty, 
 he resolved to go to the camp of the grand-vizir, which was in 
 the environs of Gaza. The negotiations, in fact, had been going 
 on for a fortnight on board Lc. Tigrc, while floating at the 
 pleasure of the winds off the coasts of Syria and Egypt : the 
 parties had said all that they had to say. and the negotiation 
 could not be continued to any useful purpose hut with the 
 grand-vizir. Sir Sidney Smith, therefore, proposed to repair 
 thither, to arrange there a suspension of arms, and to prepare 
 for the arrival of the French negotiators, if lie thought that 
 he could ensure them safety and respect. This proposal was 
 accepted. Sir Sidney, availing himself of a favourable moment, 
 pushed off in a boat which landed him on the coast, after in- 
 curring some dangers, and ordered the captain oi Le L hj re to
 
 286 HISTORY OF THE dec. 1799 
 
 meet him in the port of Jaffa, where Poussielgue and Desaix 
 were to be put ashore, if the conferences were to be transferred 
 to the camp of the grand-vizir. 
 
 At the moment when the English commodore reached the 
 camp, a horrible event had occurred at El Arisch. The Turkish 
 army, composed, for the smaller part, of Janissaries, and for the 
 greater part, of Asiatic militia, whom the Mussulman laws place 
 at the disposal of the Sultan, presented a confused and undis- 
 ciplined mass, extremely formidable to all who wore the Euro- 
 pean dress. It had been raised in the name of the Prophet ; 
 for the Turks were told that this was the last effort that would 
 be required to drive the Infidels out of Egypt ; that the re- 
 doubtable Sultan of Fire, Bonaparte, had left them ; that they 
 were weakened and disheartened ; that they must be conquered 
 if the Turks merely showed themselves ; that all Egypt was 
 ready to rise against their domination. These and other things, 
 repeated everywhere, had collected around the grand-vizir an 
 army of 70,000 or 80,000 fanatic Mussulmans. The Turks 
 were joined by the Mamelukes. Ibrahim Bey, who had some 
 time before retired to Syria, and Murad Bey, who had descended 
 by a long circuit from the cataracts to the environs of Suez, 
 had become the auxiliaries of their former adversaries. The 
 English had made for this army a sort of field-artillery, drawn 
 by mules. The Bedouin Arabs, in the hope of soon plundering 
 the vanquished, whichever they might be, had placed 15,000 
 camels at the disposal of the grand-vizir, to assist him to cross 
 the desert which separates Egypt and Palestine. The Turkish 
 generalissimo had in his semi-barbarous staff some English 
 officers, and some of those culpable emigrants, who had taught 
 Djezzar Pasha how to defend St. Jean d'Acre. We shall now 
 see what those wretched fugitives became the cause of. 
 
 The fort of El Arisch, before which the Turks were at this 
 moment, was, according to the declaration of General Bonaparte, 
 one of the two keys of Egypt : Alexandria was the other. Ac- 
 cording to him, too, an army arriving by sea could not land in 
 great number anywhere but on the beach of Alexandria. An 
 army advancing by land, and having to cross the desert of 
 Syria, would be obliged to pass by El Arisch, to get water at 
 the wells situated at that place. He had therefore ordered 
 important works to be constructed about Alexandria, and the 
 fort of El Arisch to be put into a state of defence. A body 
 of 300 men, supplied with provisions and ammunition, kept 
 garrison there, and it was commanded by a courageous officer 
 named Cazals. The Turkish advanced guard, having reached 
 El Arisch, Colonel Douglas, an English officer in the service of 
 Turkey, summoned Cazals, the commandant, to surrender. A 
 disguised French emigrant was the bearer of the summons. A
 
 dec. 1799 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 287 
 
 parley ensued, and the soldiers were told that the evacuation of 
 Egypt was imminent ; that it was already announced as resolved 
 upon ; that it would soon be inevitable ; and that it was cruel 
 to wish to oblige them to defend themselves. The culpable 
 sentiments which the officers had too much encouraged in the 
 army then burst forth. The soldiers in garrison at El Arisch, 
 vehemently longing, like their comrades, to leave Egypt, 
 declared to the commandant that they would not fight, and 
 that he must make up his mind to surrender the fort. The 
 gallant Cazals indignantly called them together, addressed them 
 in the noblest language, told them that if there were cowards 
 among them, they might leave the garrison and go to the camp 
 of the Turks, that he gave them full liberty to do so, but that 
 he would resist unto death with those Frenchmen who continued 
 faithful to their duty. These words revived for a moment the 
 feeling of honour in the hearts of the soldiers. The summons 
 was rejected, and the attack commenced. The Turks were not 
 capable of carrying a position that was ever so little defended. 
 The batteries of the fort silenced all their artillery. Directed 
 by English and emigrant officers, they nevertheless pushed their 
 trenches to the salient angle of a bastion. The commandant 
 ordered a few grenadiers to make a sortie, for the purpose of 
 driving the Turks from the first branch of the trench. Captain 
 Ferray, who was appointed to head the party, was followed by 
 three grenadiers only. Finding himself abandoned, he returned 
 to the fort. Meanwhile, the mutineers had struck the colours, 
 but a sergeant of grenadiers had hoisted them again. A 
 struggle ensued. During this contest, the recreants who 
 insisted on surrendering threw ropes to the Turks ; these 
 ferocious enemies, once hoisted up into the fort, rushed, sword 
 in hand, upon the dastardly beings who had given them ad- 
 mission into the fort, and slaughtered a great part of them. 
 The others, brought back to reason, joined the rest of the 
 garrison, defended themselves with desperate courage, and were 
 most of them cut in pieces. Some, in small number, obtained 
 quarter, thanks to Colonel Douglas, and owed their lives to the 
 interference of that humane, gallant, and distinguished officer. 
 
 Thus fell the fort of El Arisch. This was a first effect of the 
 deplorable disposition prevailing in the army, the first fruit 
 reaped by the leaders from their own faults. 
 
 It was now the 30th of December (9th Nivose) : the letter 
 written by Sir Sidney Smith to the grand-vizir, to propose to 
 him a suspension of arms, had not reached him in time to pre- 
 vent the melancholy catastrophe at El Arisch. Sir Sidney 
 Smith was a man of generous feelings. This barbarous mas- 
 sacre of a French garrison horrified him. and. above all. it made 
 him fearful of the rupture of the negotiations. lie lost no time
 
 288 HISTORY OF THE jan. 1800 
 
 in sending explanations to Kleber, both in his own name and 
 in that of the grand-vizir, and he added the formal assurance 
 that all hostility should cease during the negotiations. 
 
 At the sight of these hordes, which rather resembled a migra- 
 tion of savage tribes than an army going to battle, fighting 
 among themselves at night over provisions or the possession 
 of a well, Sir Sidney Smith felt alarmed for the safety of the 
 French plenipotentiaries. He insisted that the tents destined 
 for their reception should be pitched in the very quarter of the 
 grand-vizir and the reis-effendi, who were both present with the 
 army ; and that a guard of picked men should be stationed about 
 these tents ; he had his own placed near them ; and, lastly, he 
 provided a detachment of English seamen, to secure from all 
 violence both himself and the French officers committed to his 
 honour. Having taken these precautions, he sent to Jaffa, to 
 fetch Messrs. Poussielgue and Desaix to the place where the 
 conferences were to be held. 
 
 Kleber, when informed of the massacre of El Arisch, did not 
 manifest as much indignation as he ought to have done ; he was 
 aware that, if he was too warm upon that subject, all the nego- 
 tiations might be broken off. He was more urgent than ever 
 for a suspension of arms; and, at the same time, by way of 
 precaution, and to be nearer to the theatre of the conferences, he 
 left Cairo, and transferred his headquarters to Salahieh, on the 
 very border of the desert, two days' march from El Arisch. 
 
 In the meantime, Desaix and Poussielgue, detained by con- 
 trary winds, had not been able to land at Gaza till the 1 ith of 
 January (21st Nivose), and to reach El Arisch before the 13th. 
 The conferences commenced as soon as they arrived, and the 
 indignation of Desaix had well-nigh broken off the negotiations. 
 The Turks, ignorant and barbarous, interpreting in their way 
 the conduct of the French, attributed their disposition to treat, 
 not to an immoderate desire to return to France, but to fear of 
 fighting. They required, therefore, that the army should sur- 
 render themselves prisoners of war. Desaix was for putting an 
 end at once to all kind of communication, but Sir Sidney inter- 
 posed, prevailed on both parties to moderate their terms, and 
 proposed honourable conditions, if there could be such for a 
 resolution of this nature. It was no longer possible to put for- 
 ward the original conditions of Kleber. Of this he was himself 
 convinced, from the letters which had been written to him from on 
 board Lc Tigre, and he said no more about the Venetian islands, 
 Malta, and the revictualling of those islands. To give a colour, 
 nevertheless, to his capitulation, he still adhered to one point — 
 that the Porte should withdraw from the triple alliance. This 
 point, strictly considered, was susceptible of being negotiated 
 at El Arisch, since the grand-vizir and the reis-effendi were
 
 JAN. 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 289 
 
 at hand; but it could scarcely be demanded of the English 
 negotiator, whose intervention, however, was indispensable. This 
 condition, therefore, was set aside, like the others. It was a 
 vain artifice, which Kleber and his advisers employed towards 
 themselves, to conceal from their own eyes the indignity of 
 their conduct. 
 
 The pure and simple evacuation, and its conditions, soon 
 became the sole subject of negotiation. After long discussions, 
 it was agreed that all hostility should cease for three months ; 
 that those three months should be employed by the vizir in 
 collecting, in the ports of Rosetta, Aboukir, and Alexandria, the 
 vessels requisite for the conveyance of our army; by General 
 Kleber in evacuating the Upper Nile, Cairo, and the contiguous 
 provinces, and in concentrating his troops about the points of 
 embarkation; that the French should depart with arms and 
 baggage, that is to say, with the honours of war; that they 
 should take with them such military stores as they had need of, 
 and leave the rest ; that, from the day of the signature, they 
 should cease to impose contributions, and should abandon to 
 the Porte such as were still due ; but that, in return, the French 
 army should receive 3000 purses, equivalent at that time to 
 3,000,000 francs, and representing the sum necessary for its 
 subsistence during the evacuation and the passage. The forts 
 of Katieh, Salahieh, and Belbeis, forming the frontier of Egypt 
 towards the desert of Syria, were to be given up ten days after 
 the ratification ; Cairo forty days after. It was agreed that the 
 ratification should be given within eight days by General Kleber 
 alone, and without any reference to the French government. 
 Lastly, Sir Sidney engaged, in his own name, and in the name 
 of the Russian commissioner, to furnish the army with passports, 
 to prevent molestation from English cruisers. 
 
 The French commissioners here committed an error in form, 
 which was of serious consequence. The signature of Sir Sidney 
 Smith was indispensable, for, without that signature, the sea con- 
 tinued closed to them. They ought to have required Sir Sidney 
 Smith, since he was the negotiator of that convention, to sign 
 it. The mystery of his powers would then have been cleared up. 
 It would then have transpired that the English commodore, 
 though he formerly held powers to treat with the Porte, had 
 
 none at this moment, Lord Elgin having arrived as minister at 
 
 ^ . . . 
 
 Constantinople; that he had no special instructions for the present 
 
 case ; that he merely had very strong presumptions to hope that 
 his conduct would be approved in London. The French pleni- 
 potentiaries, not conversant with diplomatic usages, supposed 
 that Sir Sidney Smith, offering passports, was qualified to give 
 them, and that these passports would be valid. 
 
 The terms of the convention being arranged, then' was nothing 
 vol. 1. t
 
 290 HISTORY OF THE jan. 1800 
 
 more to be done but to sign it. The noble heart of Desaix re- 
 volted from what he was obliged to do. Before he placed his 
 name at the foot of such a paper, he sent for Savary, his aide-de- 
 camp, directed him to proceed to the headquarters at Salahieh, 
 where Kleber was, to communicate to him the draft of the con- 
 vention, and to declare that he would not sign it till he had 
 received from him a formal order to that effect. Savary came, 
 repaired to Salahieh, and delivered to Kleber the message with 
 which he was charged. Kleber, who had a vague feeling of his 
 fault, determined, in order to cover it, to assemble a council of 
 war, to which all the generals of the army were summoned. 
 
 The council met on the 2 1 st of January 1 800 ( I st Pluviose, 
 year VIIL). The minutes of it still exist. It is painful to see 
 brave men, who had spilt their blood, who were going to spill it 
 again for their country, heap up wretched falsehoods to colour 
 a criminal weakness. This example ought to serve for a lesson to 
 military officers ; it ought to teach them that it is not sufficient 
 to be firm in battle, and that the courage to brave balls and 
 bullets is the least of the virtues imposed by their noble profes- 
 sion. In this council of war, great stress was laid on the intelli- 
 gence which had then reached. Egypt, that the great combined 
 French and Spanish fleet had sailed out of the Mediterranean 
 into the ocean ; whence it was concluded that all hope of succour 
 from France was at an end. In proof of this, it was argued 
 that five months had elapsed since the departure of General 
 Bonaparte — five months, during which no despatch had arrived. 
 An argument was made of the discouragement of the army, 
 which the very persons who used it had themselves contributed 
 to produce. They adverted to what had recently happened at 
 Rosetta and Alexandria, where the garrisons had behaved like 
 that of El Arisch, threatening to revolt, if they were not im- 
 mediately taken back to Europe. They alleged that the active 
 army was reduced to 8000 men ; they exaggerated, beyond 
 measure, the force of the Turkish army ; they talked of a pre- 
 tended Russian expedition that was about to join the grand-vizir 
 — an expedition which had no existence but in the heated imagi- 
 nations of those who were desirous to forsake Egypt at any rate. 
 They asserted, as a positive fact, the impossibility of resistance 
 • — an assertion which was so soon to be contradicted, in an heroic 
 manner, by the very persons who so stoutly maintained it. 
 Lastly, to keep as closely as possible within the instructions of 
 General Bonaparte, they brought forward some cases of plague, 
 extremely doubtful, and, for the rest, absolutely unknown in 
 the army. 
 
 Notwithstanding all that was said, however, the partisans of 
 the evacuation were far from adhering to the instructions left 
 by General Bonaparte. He had laid down as conditions: — I.
 
 JAN. 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 291 
 
 That no succours, no orders, should have arrived by the spring 
 of 1800. 2. That the plague should have carried off 1500 men, 
 besides the losses from war. 3. That the danger should be so 
 great as to render all resistance impossible ; and, these circum- 
 stances being realised, he had recommended to his successor to 
 gain time in negotiating, and not to consent to the evacuation, 
 but on condition of its ratification by France. Now, it was still 
 only January 1 800 ; there was no plague, no pressing danger ; 
 and yet an immediate evacuation was the point to be decided, 
 and without any reference to France. 
 
 A man who has exhibited in war something superior to 
 courage, that is to say, character, General Davout, since marshal 
 and Prince of Eckmiihl, was the only one who durst withstand 
 this culpable impulsion. He was not afraid to oppose Kleber, 
 to whose ascendency all the rest bowed, and combated with 
 energy the proposed capitulation. But he was not listened to ; 
 and, from a mischievous complaisance, he consented to sign the 
 resolution of the council of war, by suffering an entry to be 
 made in the minutes that it had been adopted unanimously. 
 
 Davout, nevertheless, took Savary aside, and charged him to 
 assure Desaix that if he chose to break off the negotiation he 
 would find support in the army. Savary returned to the camp 
 at El Arisch, and communicated to Desaix what had passed, and 
 the message which Davout had desired him to deliver. Desaix, 
 finding Davout's name subscribed to the deliberations, replied 
 with warmth to Savary, " Whom then would you have me trust, 
 when the very man who disapproves the convention dares not 
 make his signature agree with his opinion ! He would have 
 me disobey, and yet dares not maintain to the end the senti- 
 ments which he has expressed ! " Desaix, though deeply grieved, 
 yet, on seeing the torrent, gave way to it himself, and affixed 
 his signature on the 28th of January to that unlucky conven- 
 tion, afterwards celebrated by the title of the convention of El 
 Arisch (8th Pluviose). 
 
 When the thing was done, people began to be sensible of its 
 importance. Desaix, on his return to the camp, spoke of it 
 with grief, and did not conceal his deep mortification at having 
 been selected for such a mission, and forced to fulfil it by an 
 order from the general-in-chief. Davout, Menou. and some 
 others launched out into bitter invectives : dissensions broke 
 forth on all sides in the camp at Salahieh. 
 
 Meanwhile, preparations were making for departure: the 
 great majority of the army were overjoyed at the prospect of 
 leaving these distant lands, and soon beholding France again. 
 Sir Sidney Smith had returned to his ship. The vizir advanced 
 and took possession, consecutively, of the entrenched positions 
 of Katieh, Salahieh, and Belbeis, which Kleber, in haste to
 
 292 HISTORY OF THE jan. 1800 
 
 execute the convention, faithfully delivered up to him. Kleber 
 returned to Cairo, to make his preparations for departure, to 
 call in the troops that were guarding Upper Egypt, to concen- 
 trate his army, and then to direct it upon Alexandria and 
 Rosetta, at the time stipulated for embarkation. 
 
 While these events were occurring in Egypt — baneful conse- 
 quences of a sentiment which the chiefs of the army had fanned 
 instead of stifling — other events, natural consequences of the 
 same causes, were taking place in Europe. In fact, the letters 
 and despatches, sent in duplicate, had, as we have seen, arrived 
 at the same time in London and Paris. The accusatory despatch 
 directed against General Bonaparte, and addressed to the Direc- 
 tory, had been delivered to General Bonaparte himself, who had 
 become the head of the government. He was shocked at so 
 many weaknesses and falsehoods ; but he was sensible how much 
 the army needed Kleber ; he appreciated the great qualities of 
 that general, and, not conceiving that his discouragement could 
 proceed to such a length as to induce him to give up Egypt, he 
 took no notice of his own grievances. He hastened, therefore, 
 to despatch from France instructions and an intimation of the 
 great succours which he was preparing to send. 
 
 The British government, on its part, having received a dupli- 
 cate of Kleber's despatches, and a great number of letters written 
 by our officers to their families, caused them all to be published, 
 with a view to exhibit to Europe the situation of the French in 
 Egypt, and to embroil Generals Kleber and Bonaparte. It was 
 a perfectly natural calculation on the part of an hostile power. 
 At the same time, the English cabinet had received advice of 
 the overtures made by General Kleber to the grand-vizir and to 
 Sir Sidney Smith. Believing that the French army was reduced 
 to the last extremity, it lost no time in sending off an express 
 order not to grant any capitulation, unless they surrendered 
 themselves prisoners of war. Mr. Dundas even made use, in his 
 place in parliament, of odious expressions. " An example," said 
 he, " must be made of that army, which, in a time of profound 
 peace, has dared to invade the dominions of one of our allies : 
 the interests of mankind require that it should be destroyed." 
 
 This language was barbarous ; it displays the violence of the 
 passions which then filled the hearts of the two nations. The 
 English cabinet had taken literally the exaggerations of Kleber 
 and of our officers ; it considered the French as reduced to submit 
 to any conditions that might be imposed upon them ; and, not 
 foreseeing what was passing, it had the imprudence to give 
 positive orders to Lord Keith, the admiral commanding in the 
 Mediterranean, not to sign any capitulation but on the express con- 
 dition that the French troops should become prisoners of war. 
 
 These orders, despatched from London on the 17th of December,
 
 FEB. 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 293 
 
 reached Admiral Keith in the island of Minorca in the first days 
 of January 1800; and, on the 8th of the same month that 
 admiral hastened to forward to Sir Sidney Smith the instruc- 
 tions which he had just received from his government. It 
 took time, especially at that season, to cross the Mediterranean. 
 The communications of Lord Keith did not reach Sir Sidney 
 Smith before the 20th of February. The latter was deeply 
 chagrined. He had acted without precise instructions from his 
 government, reckoning upon it that his acts would be approved. 
 He thus found himself in a false position with the French, for 
 they might, with apparent reason, accuse him of breach of faith. 
 Better acquainted, besides, with the real state of things, he was 
 well aware that Kleber would never consent to surrender him- 
 self prisoner of war ; and he saw the convention of El Arisch, 
 so adroitly wrung from the weakness of a moment, wholly set 
 aside. He lost no time in writing to Kleber, to express his 
 mortification, to apprise him honestly of what was passing, to 
 advise him to suspend immediately the delivery of the Egyptian 
 fortresses to the grand-vizir, and to conjure him to wait for fresh 
 orders from England before he took any definitive resolution. 
 
 Unfortunately, when these advices from Sir Sidney arrived at 
 Cairo, the French army had already executed in part the treaty 
 of El Arisch. It had delivered up to the Turks all the positions 
 on the right bank of the Nile, Katieh, Salahieh, Belbeis, and 
 some of the positions of the Delta, particularly the town of 
 Damietta and the fort of Lesbeh. The troops were already 
 on march for Alexandria, with their baggage and stores. The 
 division of Upper Egypt had put the Turks in possession of 
 the Upper Nile, and was falling back upon Cairo, for the pur- 
 pose of rejoining the rest of the army towards the sea. Desaix, 
 availing himself of the order which lie had received to return to 
 France, and disliking to have any hand in the details of that 
 ignominious retreat, had set out with Davout, who, for his part, 
 could not stay any longer with Kleber. Kleber, forgetting his 
 bickerings with Davout, was anxious to retain him, and had 
 offered him the rank of general of division, which he had 
 authority to confer as governor of Egypt. Davout refused it, 
 saying that he should not like his promotion to bear the date 
 of such a deplorable event. But, when Desaix and Davout 
 were embarking, M. de Latour Maubourg, arriving from France, 
 with the despatches of the First Consul, met them on the beach, 
 informed them of the Pievolution of the 1 8th of Brumaire, and 
 of the elevation of General Bonaparte to the supreme power. 
 Thus Kleber, at the moment when he had just given up the forti- 
 fied positions, learned that the convention of El Arisch would not 
 be executed, and received the intelligence, not less momentous 
 to him, of the establishment of the consular government.
 
 294 HISTORY OF THE feb. 1800 
 
 But there had been sufficient weakness for a great character : 
 an ignominious offer was now about to recall Kleber to himself, 
 and to make him what he really was — a hero. He was obliged 
 either to surrender himself prisoner, or to defend himself in a 
 much worse situation than that which he had declared to be 
 untenable in the council of war at Salahieh ; he was obliged 
 either to submit to dishonour, or to engage in a desperate 
 struggle. Kleber did not hesitate, and we shall see that, not- 
 withstanding his much worse situation, he contrived to do what 
 a few days before he judged to be impossible, and thus gave 
 the noblest of contradictions to himself. 
 
 Kleber instantly countermanded all the orders previously 
 given to the army. He brought back from Lower Egypt to 
 Cairo part of the troops that had already descended the Nile ; 
 he ordered his stores to be sent up again ; he urged the division 
 of Upper Egypt to make haste to rejoin him, and gave notice 
 to the grand-vizir to suspend his march towards Cairo, other- 
 wise he should immediately commence hostilities. The grand- 
 vizir replied that the convention of El Arisch was signed ; that 
 it must be executed ; that, in consequence, he should advance 
 towards the capital. At the same instant, an officer sent from 
 Minorca with a letter from Lord Keith to Kleber, arrived at 
 the headquarters. Among other expressions, that letter con- 
 tained the following: "I have received positive orders from his 
 Britannic Majesty, not to consent to any capitulation with the 
 army under your command, unless the troops lay down their 
 arms, surrender themselves prisoners of war, and give up all 
 the ships in the harbour of Alexandria." 
 
 Kleber, fired with indignation, caused Lord Keith's letter to 
 be inserted in the order of the day, adding to it these few 
 words : " Soldiers, to such insults, there is no other answer 
 than victory. Prepare for action." 
 
 This noble language found an echo in every breast. The 
 situation was greatly changed since the 28th of January, the 
 day on which the convention of El Arisch was signed. The 
 French then held all the fortified positions in Egypt ; they 
 ruled the Egyptians, who were quiet and submissive ; the grand- 
 vizir was on the other side of the desert. Now, on the contrary, 
 the most important posts were given up ; they had possession 
 of the plain only ; the population was everywhere awake ; the 
 inhabitants of Cairo, excited by the presence of the grand- vizir, 
 who was at the distance of five hours' march, was waiting only 
 for the first signal to rise. The dismal picture drawn in the 
 council of war, in which the convention of El Arisch was dis- 
 cussed — that picture, then false, was now strictly true. The 
 French army was about to fight in the plain which borders the 
 Nile, having in front the vizir, with 80,000 men, and on its
 
 mar. 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 295 
 
 rear the 300,000 inhabitants of Cairo ready to revolt ; and it 
 was without fear ! Glorious reparation of a great fault ! 
 
 Agents of Sir Sidney Smith's had hastened up, to interpose 
 between the French and the Turks, and to make fresh pro- 
 posals of accommodation. Letters, they said, had just been 
 written to London ; when the convention of El Arisch was 
 known there, it would be ratified to a certainty ; in this situa- 
 tion, it would be right to suspend hostilities, and wait. To 
 this the grand- vizir and Kleber consented, but on conditions 
 that were irreconcilable. The grand-vizir insisted that Cairo 
 should be given up to him; Kleber, on the contrary, that the 
 vizir should fall back to the frontier. In this state of things, 
 fighting was the ouly resource. 
 
 On the 20th of March 1800 (29th Ventose, year VIII.), 
 before daybreak, the French army marched from Cairo, and 
 deployed in the rich plains which border the Nile, having the 
 river ou the left, the desert on the right, and in front, but at 
 a distance, the ruins of ancient Heliopolis. Night, almost 
 luminous in this climate, facilitated the manoeuvres, but without 
 rendering them distinct to the enemy. The army formed itself 
 into four squares ; two on the left, under General Heynier, two 
 on the right, under General Friant. They were each composed 
 of two demi-brigades of infantry, drawn up in several lines. 
 At the angles and outside were companies of grenadiers, with 
 their backs to the squares, serving to reinforce them during the 
 march and in charges of cavalry, and separating from them to 
 attack defended positions when the enemy attempted to make 
 a stand. At the centre of the line of battle, that is to say, 
 between the two squares on the left and the two squares on 
 the right, the cavalry was disposed in a deep mass, having light 
 artillery on its wings. At some distance in the rear, and on 
 the left, a fifth square, smaller than the others, was destined to 
 act as a reserve. The number of the troops that Kle'ber had 
 collected in this plain of Heliopolis might be estimated at some- 
 what less than 10,000 men. They were firm and tranquil. 
 
 Day began to dawn. Kleber, who, since he had been com- 
 mander-in-chief, had displayed a sort of magnificence, in order 
 to make an impression on the Egyptians, was dressed in a rich 
 uniform. Mounted on a horse of great height, he exhibited to 
 the soldiers that noble countenance which they so much loved 
 to behold, and the manly beauty of which filled them with con- 
 fidence. "My friends," said he. as he rode through their ranks, 
 "you possess in Egypt no more than the ground under your 
 feet. If you recoil but a single step, you are undone!" His 
 presence and his words were everywhere hailed with the greatest 
 enthusiasm ; and, as soon as it was quite light, he gave orders for 
 marching forward.
 
 296 HISTORY OF THE mar. 1800 
 
 As yet, only part of the army of the grand- vizir was in sight. 
 In that plain of the Nile which extended before us appeared 
 the village of El Matarieh, which the Turks had entrenched. 
 Here was an advanced guard of from 5000 to 6000 Janissaries, 
 very good soldiers, escorted by some thousand horse. A little 
 beyond, another body appeared to harbour a design to glide be- 
 tween the river and our left wing, for the purpose of raising 
 Cairo in our rear. In front, and at a much greater distance, 
 the ruins of ancient Heliopolis, a wood of palm-trees, and con- 
 siderable undulations of the ground, hid the bulk of the Turkish 
 army from the view of our soldiers. The total number of all 
 these forces, including the principal body, the corps placed at 
 El Matarieh, and the detachment on march to penetrate into 
 the city of Cairo, might be computed at 70,000 or 80,000 men. 
 
 Kleber first ordered a squadron of mounted guides to charge 
 the detachment mano3uvring on our left, for the purpose of 
 introducing itself into Cairo. The guides dashed off at a gallop 
 upon this confused mass. The Turks, who never feared cavalry, 
 received and returned the shock. They completely enveloped 
 our horse, which was in danger of being cut to pieces, when 
 Kleber sent to their relief the 22nd regiment of chasseurs and 
 the 14th of dragoons, who, charging the dense mass by which 
 the guides were, in a manner, surrounded, used their swords 
 so well as to disperse and put them to flight. The Turks then 
 retired out of sight. 
 
 This done, Kleber hastened to attack the entrenched village 
 of El Matarieh, before the main body of the enemy's army had 
 time to come up. This duty he assigned to General Reynier, 
 with the two squares on the left ; and he himself, with the two 
 squares on the right, wheeling about, posted himself between 
 El Matarieh and Heliopolis, to prevent the Turkish army from 
 coming to the assistance of the attacked position. 
 
 Reynier, having reached the village of El Matarieh, detached 
 the companies of grenadiers which lined the angles of the 
 squares, and ordered them to charge the village. These com- 
 panies advanced, forming two small columns. The brave 
 Janissaries would not wait for them to come up, but went to 
 meet them. Our grenadiers, receiving them firmly, poured upon 
 them, when close to the muzzles of their pieces, a discharge of 
 musketry, which struck down a great number, and then charged 
 with fixed bayonets. While the first column was attacking the 
 Janissaries in front, the second took them in flank, and com- 
 pleted their dispersion. The two columns united then fell upon 
 El Matarieh, amidst a shower of balls. They rushed with the 
 bayou et on the Turks, who resisted, and, after a great carnage, 
 made themselves masters of the position. The Turks fled into 
 the plain ; and, joining those whom the guides, chasseurs, and
 
 mar. 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 297 
 
 dragoons had just before dispersed, ran in disorder towards 
 Cairo, with Nassif Pasha, the lieutenant of the grand-vizir, at 
 their head. 
 
 The village of El Matarieh, full of spoils in the Oriental 
 fashion, presented an ample booty to our soldiers. But they 
 did not stop there ; both generals and soldiers were aware how 
 important it was not to be surprised, in the midst of a village, 
 by the mass of the Turkish troops. The army, resuming by 
 degrees the same order as in the morning, advanced into the 
 plain, still formed into several squares, with the cavalry in 
 the middle. It passed the ruins of Heliopolis, and perceived 
 beyond them a cloud of dust rising on the horizon, and rapidly 
 advancing towards us. On the left appeared the village of 
 Seriaqous ; on the right, amidst a wood of palms, the village of 
 El Merg, situated on the margin of a small lake, called the Lake 
 of the Pilgrims. A slight elevation of ground ran from one to 
 the other of these villages. All at once, this moving cloud of 
 dust stood still, and was presently dispersed by a breeze, leaving 
 the Turkish army exposed to view ; it formed a long, floating 
 line from Seriaqous to El Merg. Placed on the elevation just 
 mentioned, it somewhat overlooked the ground upon which our 
 troops were deployed. Kleber then gave orders to advance. 
 Reynier, with the two squares on the left, marched towards 
 Seriaqous ; Friant, with the two squares on the right, moved 
 upon El Merg. The enemy had sprinkled a considerable number 
 of tirailleurs in advance of the palm-trees which surround El 
 Merg. But a fight of tirailleurs could scarcely be successful 
 against such soldiers as ours. Friant sent a few companies of 
 light infantry, which soon obliged these detached Turks to rejoin 
 the confused mass of their army. The grand-vizir was there, 
 in the midst of a group of horsemen, whose bright armour 
 glistened in the sun. Our howitzer fire soon dispersed this 
 group. The enemy brought forward his artillery, with the inten- 
 tion of replying; but his shot, ill-directed, passed over the heads 
 of our soldiers. His pieces were soon dismounted by ours, and 
 put Jwrs cle combat. The thousand colours of the Turkish army 
 were then seen waving, and part of its squadrons rushed out of 
 the village of El Merg upon the squares of Friant's division. 
 The deep fissures in the ground, the ordinary effect of a hot sun 
 upon a soil long inundated, fortunately checked the impetuosity 
 of the horses. General Friant. suffering these Turkish horse 
 to advance nearly to the muzzles of the guns, gave orders for 
 a sudden discharge of grape-shot, which swept them down by 
 hundreds. They retired in confusion. 
 
 This was but the prelude to a general attack. The Turkish 
 army was visibly preparing for it. ( )ur squares waited with firm- 
 ness, two on the right, two on the left, the cavalry in the centre.
 
 298 HISTORY OF THE mar. 1800 
 
 facing both before and behind, and covered by two lines of 
 artillery. At a signal given by the grand-vizir, the entire mass 
 of the Turkish cavalry set itself in motion, rushed upon our 
 squares, spread itself upon their wings, turned them, and soon 
 surrounded the four fronts of our order of battle. The French 
 infantry, unmoved by the shouts, the bustle, the tumult of the 
 Turkish cavalry, remained calm, with bayonet presented, keeping 
 up a continued and well-directed fire. In vain these thousand 
 groups of horse whirled round it : they fell under the grape-shot 
 and the balls, rarely coming up to its bayonets, expired at its 
 feet, or turned about and fled, never to show themselves again. 
 
 After a long and frightful confusion, the sky, darkened by 
 smoke and dust, suddenly became clear; the sun burst forth, 
 and our victorious troops beheld before them a mass of men and 
 horses, dead or dying ; and, at a distance, as far as the eye could 
 reach, bands of fugitives running away in all directions. 
 
 The main body of the Turks was retiring, in fact, towards El 
 Kangah, where they had encamped the preceding night, on the 
 road to Lower Egypt. A few groups only went to rejoin those 
 parties which, under Nassif Pasha, lieutenant of the grand-vizir, 
 had in the morning directed their steps towards Cairo. 
 
 Kleber resolved not to allow the enemy any rest. Our squares, 
 preserving their order of battle, crossed the plain at a rapid pace, 
 and, passing Seriaqous and El Merg, advanced to El Kangah. 
 We arrived there at night. The enemy, finding himself closely 
 pressed, again fled in disorder, leaving to our army the provisions 
 and baggage, of which we stood in great need. 
 
 Thus, in that plain of Heliopolis, 10,000 soldiers, by supe- 
 riority in discipline and quiet courage, dispersed 70,000 or 
 80,000 foes. But, to obtain a more beneficial result than that 
 of a few thousand killed, wounded, and stretched in the dust, it 
 would be necessary to pursue the Turks, to drive them into the 
 desert, and to cause them to perish there by hunger, thirst, and 
 the sword of the Arabs. The French army was exhausted with 
 fatigue. Kleber allowed it a little rest, and gave orders for the 
 pursuit on the following day. 
 
 We had scarcely 200 or 300 wounded or dead, for in this 
 species of combat, troops in a square, which preserve themselves 
 unbroken, sustain but little loss. Kleber, at this moment, hear- 
 ing cannon towards Cairo, had no doubt that the corps which 
 had turned his left had gone to second the revolt of that city. 
 Nassif Pasha, the vizir's lieutenant, and Ibrahim Bey, one of 
 the two Mameluke chiefs, had actually entered it with 2000 
 Mamelukes, 8000 or 10,000 Turkish horse, and some revolted 
 villagers of the environs, in all about 20,000 men. Kleber had 
 left scarcely 2000 in that great capital, distributed in the citadel 
 and the forts. He ordered General Lagrange to set out in the
 
 mar. 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 299 
 
 middle of that same night, with four battalions, and go to their 
 relief. He enjoined all the commandants of troops left at Cairo 
 to take strong positions, to keep in communication with one 
 another, but not to attempt any decisive attack before his return. 
 He was apprehensive of some false manoeuvre on their part, 
 which might uselessly endanger the lives of the soldiers, every 
 day more and more precious, now that they were absolutely 
 doomed to remain in Egypt. 
 
 During the whole time that the battle had lasted, the second 
 Mameluke chief, Murad Bey, who had formerly shared with 
 Ibrahim Bey the rule over Egypt, who was distinguished from 
 his colleague by brilliant valour, chivalrous generosity, and great 
 intelligence, had remained on the wings of the Turkish army, 
 motionless, at the head of 600 superb horse. When the battle 
 was over, he had plunged into the desert and disappeared. It 
 was in consequence of a promise given to Kleber that he had 
 thus acted. Murad Bey, who had recently arrived at the vizir's 
 headquarters, had felt the old jealousy which so long divided 
 the Turks and the Mamelukes spring up again within him. He 
 was aware that the Turks were anxious to recover Egypt, not to 
 restore it to the Mamelukes, but to possess it themselves. He, 
 therefore, thought to conciliate the French, under the idea of 
 allying himself with them, if they were victorious, or of suc- 
 ceeding them if they were vanquished. Acting, however, with 
 circumspection, he refrained from the manifestation of his senti- 
 ments till hostilities were definitively resumed, and had promised 
 Kleber to declare for him after the first battle. That battle was 
 fought; it was glorious for the French; and his sympathy for 
 them could not fail to be greatly augmented by it. There was 
 reason to hope that, in a few days, we should have him for our 
 professed ally. 
 
 In the middle of the very night which followed the battle, 
 after allowing the troops a few hours' rest, Kleber ordered the 
 drums to beat to arms, and marched for Belbeis, determined 
 not to give any respite to the Turks. He arrived there very 
 early in the day. This was the 21st of March (30th Ventose). 
 The vizir, in his rapid flight, was already beyond Belbeis. He 
 had left in the fort and town a corps of infantry, and in the 
 plain a thousand horse. On the approach of our troops these 
 horse fled. The Turks were driven out of the town ; they were 
 shut up in the fort, where, after exchanging a few cannon-shot, 
 want of water and fear induced them to surrender. So great 
 was the fanaticism of these Turkish troops, that sonic men chose 
 rather to be slaughtered than to give up their arms. Mean- 
 while, the cavalry of General Leclerc, scouring the plain, seized 
 a long caravan of camels proceeding towards Cairo, and laden 
 with the baggage of Nassif Pasha and Ibrahim Hey. This
 
 300 HISTORY OF THE mar. 1800 
 
 capture revealed more completely to Kleber the real design of 
 the Turks, which consisted in exciting not only the capital but 
 all the large towns in Egypt to rise against the French. 
 Apprised of this design, and finding that the Turkish army 
 made no stand anywhere, he detached General Friant with 
 five battalions for Cairo, to support the four battalions sent 
 in the night from El Kangah, under the orders of General 
 Lagrange. 
 
 Next day, March 22nd (1st Germinal), he set out for Salahieh. 
 General Reynier preceded him at the head of the left division : 
 he himself followed with the guides and the 7th hussars. 
 Lastly came General Belliard, with his brigade, the rest of 
 Friant's division. During the march, a message was received 
 from the grand-vizir, who desired to negotiate. The only 
 answer returned was a refusal. Not far from Kara'im, half-way 
 to Salahieh, a violent cannonade was heard ; soon afterwards 
 Reynier's division was seen formed in square and engaged with 
 a multitude of horse. Kleber sent word to Belliard to hasten 
 his march, and he himself, with the cavalry, proceeded with 
 the utmost expedition towards Reynier's square. But at this 
 sight the Turks, who were attacking Reynier's division, liking 
 better to have to do with the French cavalry than with the 
 infantry, fell upon the guides and the 7th hussars, whom Kleber 
 was bringing with him. Their charge was so sudden that the 
 light artillery had not time to place itself in battery. The 
 drivers were slaughtered on their guns. Kleber, with the 
 guides and the hussars, was for a moment in the greatest 
 danger, especially as the inhabitants of Kara'im, thinking that 
 it was all over with such a handful of French, had hastened 
 to the spot with pitchforks and scythes to finish them. But 
 Reynier immediately sent the 14th dragoons, which extricated 
 Kleber in time. Belliard, who had pushed on at a great rate, 
 came up soon afterwards with his infantry, and cut in pieces 
 some hundred men. 
 
 Kleber, anxious to reach Salahieh, hastened his march, de- 
 ferring till his return the punishment of Karaim. The heat of 
 the day was oppressive ; the wind blew from the desert, and 
 along with a scorching air was inhaled a fine, penetrating dust. 
 Men and horses were exhausted with fatigue. At length, 
 about nightfall, they arrived at Salahieh. They were now on 
 the very frontier of Egypt, at the entrance of the desert of 
 Syria, and Kleber expected to have on the morrow a final 
 engagement with the grand-vizir. But, on the morning of 
 the next day, March 23rd (2nd Germinal), the inhabitants of 
 Salahieh came to meet him, and informed him that the vizir 
 was continuiug his flight in the greatest disorder. Kleber 
 hastened forward, and with his own eyes beheld this sight,
 
 mar. 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 301 
 
 which proved how much he had exaggerated to himself the 
 danger of Turkish armies. 
 
 The grand- vizir, taking with him 500 of his best horse, had 
 penetrated with some baggage into the desert. The rest of his 
 army was fleeing in all directions ; one part was running towards 
 the Delta ; a second begged upon its knees for quarter ; a third, 
 seeking an asylum in the desert, was slaughtered by the Arabs. 
 These last, after convoying the Turkish army, had remained 
 on the frontier, knowing that one party or the other must be 
 vanquished, and that, of course, there would be booty to pick 
 up. Their conclusion was correct ; for, finding the Turkish 
 army completely demoralised and incapable of defending itself 
 even against them, they murdered the fugitives for the purpose 
 of plundering them. Just at the moment when Kleber arrived, 
 they had borne down to the deserted camp of the vizir, and 
 pounced upon it like a flock of birds of prey. At the sight of 
 our army, they flew away on their swift horses, leaving abun- 
 dant spoils to our soldiers. Here, in the entrenched space of a 
 square league, they found an infinite multitude of tents, horses, 
 cannon, and a great quantity of saddles and harness of all 
 sorts, 40,000 horse-shoes, a profusion of provisions and of rich 
 apparel, boxes already broken open by the Arabs, but still full 
 of perfumes of aloes, silk stuffs, in short, of all those articles that 
 compose the dazzling and barbarous luxury of Oriental armies. 
 Along with twelve litters of wood, carved and gilt, there was a 
 carriage hung on springs after the European fashion, of English 
 manufacture ; and pieces of cannon were found with the motto 
 Honi soit qui mal y pcnse ; a certain evidence of the very active 
 intervention of the English in this war. 
 
 Our soldiers, who had brought nothing with them, found, in 
 the Turkish camp, provisions, ammunition, a rich booty, and 
 objects the singularity of which made them laugh, as they 
 were always disposed to do after a brief moment of dejection. 
 Strange power of the mind over man ! Now, victorious, they 
 had no wish to leave Egypt, and no longer considered them- 
 selves doomed to perish in distant exile ! 
 
 When Kleber had ascertained with his own eyes that the 
 Turkish army had disappeared, he resolved to return and reduce 
 the towns of Lower Egypt, and Cairo in particular, to their 
 duty. He made the following dispositions : — Generals Rampon 
 and Lanusse were ordered to scour the Delta ; Rampon was to 
 march to the important town of Damietta, which was in the 
 hands of the Turks, and to retake it. Lanusse was to keep 
 in communication with Rampon, to sweep the Delta troni 
 Damietta to Alexandria, and to reduce successively the revolted 
 villages. Belliard had the general commission to support these 
 different operations, and the special commission to second
 
 3 o2 HISTORY OF THE mar. 1800 
 
 Rampon in his attack on Damietta, and to retake himself the 
 fort of Lesbeh, which commands one of the mouths of the Nile. 
 Kl^ber, moreover, left Reynier at Salahieh, to prevent the rem- 
 nants of the Turkish army, which had fled into the desert of 
 Syria, from coming back. The latter was to remain in obser- 
 vation on the frontier, till the Arabs had completed the dis- 
 persion of the Turks, and then return to Cairo. Lastly, Kleber 
 himself set out on the next day, March 24th (3rd Germinal), 
 with the 88th demi-brigade, two companies of grenadiers, the 
 7th hussars, and the 3rd and 14th dragoons. 
 
 He arrived at Cairo on the 27th of March. Important events 
 had occurred there since his departure. The population of that 
 great city, which numbered nearly 300,000 inhabitants, fickle, 
 inflammable, inclined to change, like all multitudes, had fol- 
 lowed the suggestions of Turkish emissaries, and fallen upon 
 the French the moment they heard the cannon at Heliopolis. 
 Pouring forth outside the walls during the battle ; and seeing 
 Nassif- Pasha and Ibrahim Bey, with some thousand horse and 
 Janissaries, they supposed them to be conquerors. Taking 
 good care not to undeceive the inhabitants, the Turks affirmed, 
 on the contrary, that the grand-vizir had gained a complete 
 victory, and that the French were exterminated. At these 
 tidings, 50,000 men had risen in Cairo, at Boulaq, and at 
 Gyzeh. Armed with swords, pikes, and old muskets, they 
 purposed to slaughter the French left among them. But 2000 
 men, entrenched in the citadel and in the forts which com- 
 manded the city, supplied with provisions and ammunition, 
 opposed a resistance difficult to overcome. Having almost all 
 of them fallen back in time, they had managed to shut them- 
 selves up in the fortified places. Some, however, had been in 
 great danger; it was those who, to the number of 200 only, 
 mounted guard at the headquarters. This noble edifice, 
 formerly occupied by General Bonaparte, and since by Kleber 
 and the principal administrations, stood at one of the ex- 
 tremities of the city, overlooking on one side the square of 
 Ezbekyeh, the finest in Cairo ; on the other, gardens stretching 
 to the Nile. The Turks and the insurgent populace intended 
 to storm this house, and to slaughter the 200 French by 
 whom it was occupied. This would have been the more easy 
 for them, since General Verdier, who guarded the citadel, 
 placed at the other extremity of Cairo, could not come to 
 their assistance. But the brave soldiers who were in the head- 
 quarters managed, sometimes by a well-supported fire, some- 
 times by daring sorties, to keep the ferocious multitude at bay, 
 and to give General Lagrange time to arrive. He had been 
 detached, as we have seen, the very night after the battle, 
 with four battalions. He arrived at noon the next day,
 
 apkili8oo CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 303 
 
 entered by the gardens, and rendered the headquarters thence- 
 forth impregnable. 
 
 The Turks, seeing no means of overcoming the resistance of 
 the French, reeked their revenge on such unfortunate Christians 
 as were in their power. They began by slaughtering part of 
 the inhabitants of the European quarter; they killed several 
 merchants, plundered their houses, and carried off their wives 
 and daughters. They then went in search of those Arabs who 
 were accused of living on good terms with the French, and of 
 drinking wine with them. They put them to death ; and 
 murder and plunder went hand in hand, as usual. They im- 
 paled an Arab, who had been chief of the Janissaries under the 
 French, and who was charged with the police of Cairo ; and 
 they treated in the same manner one who had been secretary 
 to the Divan instituted by General Bonaparte. Thence they 
 proceeded to the quarter of the Copts. These, as every one 
 knows, are descended from the ancient inhabitants of Egypt, 
 and have adhered to Christianity, in spite of all the Mussulman 
 dominations that have succeeded one another in their country. 
 They possessed great wealth, arising from the collection of the 
 taxes, which the Mamelukes had delegated to them. The in- 
 tention was, to punish in them, friends of the French, and 
 more especially to plunder their houses. Very fortunately for 
 these Copts, their quarters formed the left side of Ezbekyeh 
 square, contiguous to our headquarters. Their chief was, 
 moreover, rich and brave ; he defended himself well, and suc- 
 ceeded in saving them. 
 
 Amid these horrors, Nassif Pasha and Ibrahim Bey were 
 ashamed of themselves for what they did, or suffered to be 
 done. They saw that wealth wasted which would belong to 
 them, if they remained in possession of Egypt. But they 
 winked at all that was done by a populace of which they were 
 no longer masters, and thought, besides, by these massacres, 
 to keep up their animosity against the French. 
 
 During these transactions arrived General Friant, detached 
 from Belbeis, and lastly, Kleber himself. Both entered through 
 the gardens behind our headquarters. Though conqueror of 
 the grand-vizir's army, Kleber had a serious difficulty to sur- 
 mount, nothing less than to subdue an immense city, peopled 
 by 300,000 inhabitants, partly in a state of revolt, occupied by 
 20,000 Turks, and built in the Oriental style, that is to say. 
 having narrow streets, divided into piles of masonry, which 
 were real fortresses. These edifices receiving light from within, 
 and exhibiting without nothing but lofty walls, had terraces 
 instead of roofs, from which the insurgents poured a down- 
 ward and destructive fire. Add to this, that the Turks were 
 masters of the whole city, excepting the citadel and the square of
 
 304 HISTORY OF THE aprili8oo 
 
 Ezbekyeh. As for the latter, they had blockaded it in a manner 
 by closing the streets that ran into it with embattled walls. 
 
 The French had but two modes of attack ; either to keep up 
 a destructive fire of bombs and howitzers from the citadel, till 
 the city was reduced, or to debouch by the square of Ezbekyeh, 
 overthrowing all the barriers erected at the head of the streets, 
 and taking all the quarters by assault, one by one. The first 
 method was liable to cause the destruction of a great city, the 
 capital of the country, which the French needed for the supply 
 of necessaries ; the second exposed them to the risk of losing 
 ten times as many men as ten battles like that of Heliopolis 
 would have cost them. 
 
 In this case, Kleber showed as much prudence as he had 
 just shown energy in the field. He resolved to gain time, and 
 to let the insurrection wear itself out. He had sent almost 
 the whole of his maUriel to Lower Egypt, under the idea that 
 he should very soon embark. He enjoined Reynier, as soon as 
 the army of the vizir had entirely crossed the desert, and as 
 soon as Damietta and Lesbeh were retaken, to ascend the Nile 
 with his whole division and the stores necessary for Cairo. 
 Meanwhile, he caused all the outlets, by which the city could 
 communicate with the surrounding country, to be blockaded. 
 Though the insurgents had procured provisions by plundering 
 the houses of the Egyptians, in general amply supplied with 
 them, though they had cast balls, and even founded cannon, 
 they could not possibly help suffering very soon from dearth. 
 Nor could they fail at length to be undeceived respecting the 
 general state of things in Egypt, and to learn that the French 
 were everywhere victorious, and the vizir's army dispersed; 
 moreover, they were likely to fall out ere long, for their in- 
 terests were totally opposite. Nassif Pasha's Turks, Ibrahim 
 Bey's Mamelukes, and the Arab population of Cairo could not 
 agree together long. For all these reasons, Kleber thought it 
 advisable to temporise and to negotiate. 
 
 While he was gaining time, he completed his treaty of alli- 
 ance with Murad Bey, through the agency of the wife of that 
 Mameluke prince, a person universally respected, endowed with 
 beauty, and even with a superior understanding. He granted 
 to him the province of Said, under the supremacy of France, 
 on condition of paying a tribute equivalent to a considerable 
 part of the imposts of that province. Murad Bey engaged, 
 moreover, to fight for the French ; and the French engaged, 
 if they should ever quit the country, to facilitate for him the 
 occupation of Egypt. Murad Bey, as we shall see by-and-by, 
 faithfully adhered to the treaty which he had just signed, and 
 began by driving from Upper Egypt a Turkish corps which 
 had occupied it.
 
 April 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 305 
 
 By means of Murad Bey and the sheiks who were secret 
 friends of France, Kleber then opened negotiations with the 
 Turks who had entered Cairo. Nassif Pasha and Ibrahim Bey 
 began, in fact, to be afraid of being shut up in the city by the 
 French, and treated after the Turkish fashion. They knew, 
 besides, that the grand-vizir's army was completely dispersed. 
 In consequence, they cheerfully assented to conferences, and 
 agreed to a capitulation, by the terms of which they were to be 
 allowed to retire safe and sound. But, at the moment when 
 this capitulation was about to be concluded, the insurgents of 
 Cairo, finding themselves abandoned to the vengeance of the 
 French, were seized with consternation and rage, caused the 
 conferences to be broken off, threatened to despatch all those 
 who showed any determination to desert them, and even gave 
 money to the Turks to induce them to fight. An attack by 
 main force was, therefore, indispensable for completing the 
 reduction of the city. 
 
 Lower Egypt having returned to its duty, Reynier had 
 ascended with his corps and a convoy of military stores. He 
 assisted in investing that part of the outworks of Cairo which 
 stretch from north to east, that is to say, from Fort Camin 
 to the citadel ; General Friant encamped towards the west, 
 in the gardens behind our headquarters, between the city 
 and the Nile ; Leclerc's cavalry was posted between Reynier' s 
 and Friant's divisions, scouring the country ; General Yerdier 
 occupied the south. 
 
 On the 3rd and 4th of April (13th and 14th Germinal) a 
 detachment of General Friant's commenced the first attack. 
 Its chief object was to clear Ezbekyeh square, which was our 
 principal debouclid. A beginning was made with the Copt 
 quarter, which formed the left of it. The troops penetrated 
 with the greatest intrepidity into the streets which crossed this 
 quarter in all directions ; while several detachments blew up 
 the houses all round Ezbekyeh square, for the purpose of open- 
 ing avenues to the interior of the city. Meanwhile, the citadel 
 threw a few bombs to intimidate the population. These attacks 
 were successful, and made us masters of the heads of the 
 streets terminating in Ezbekyeh square. In the following 
 days, an eminence situated near Fort Sulkouskoi. which the 
 Turks had entrenched, and which commanded the Copt quarter, 
 was taken. Every preparation was thus made for a general 
 and simultaneous attack. Before he made this attack. Kleber 
 summoned the insurgents for the last time: they refused to 
 listen to the summons. Still making a particular point of 
 sparing the city, which, it is true, was not implicated in the 
 horrors committed by a few fanatics, he resolved to speak to 
 the eye by means of a terrible example. He gave orders for 
 
 vol. 1. i
 
 306 HISTORY OF THE aprili8oo 
 
 attacking Boulaq, a detached suburb of Cairo, on the banks 
 of the Nile. 
 
 On the 15th of April (25th Germinal) Friant's division sur- 
 rounded Boulaq, and poured upon that devoted suburb a shower 
 of bombs and howitzers. Favoured by this fire, the soldiers 
 rushed to the assault, but met with an obstinate resistance from 
 the inhabitants and the Turks. Every street, every house, be- 
 came the theatre of a desperate conflict. Kleber ordered this 
 horrible carnage to be suspended for a moment, to offer pardon 
 to the revolters : that pardon was rejected. The attack was 
 then resumed : the fire spread from house to house, and Boulaq, 
 in flames, experienced the twofold horror of a conflagration and 
 an assault. Meanwhile, the chiefs of the population having 
 thrown themselves at the feet of the conqueror, Kleber put a 
 stop to the effusion of blood, and saved the remnant of the 
 hapless suburb. It was the quarter which contained the ware- 
 houses of the merchants ; in these were found an immense 
 quantity of goods, which were preserved from the flames for the 
 use of the army. 
 
 This horrible sight was witnessed by the whole population of 
 Cairo. Taking advantage of the effect which it was likely to 
 produce, Kleber ordered the capital itself to be attacked. A 
 house adjoining to the headquarters had been undermined ; fire 
 was applied to the mine, and Turks and insurgents were blown 
 up together. This was the signal for the attack. Friant's and 
 Belliard's troops debouched by all the outlets from Ezbekyeh 
 square, while General Reynier entered at the north and east 
 gates, while Verdier, from tnhe elevated citadel, showered bombs 
 upon the city. The fight was obstinate. Reynier's troops 
 penetrated through the Bab-el-Charyeh gate, situated at the 
 extremity of the great canal, and, driving before them Ibrahim 
 Bey and Nassif Pasha, who defended it, at length cooped up 
 both of them between the 9th demi-brigade, which, having 
 entered at the opposite point, had driven back all they en- 
 countered in their victorious course. The two French corps 
 joined, after making a frightful carnage. Night separated the 
 combatants. Several thousand Turks, Mamelukes, and insur- 
 gents had fallen ; four hundred houses were in flames. 
 
 This was the last effort at resistance. The inhabitants, who 
 had long detained the Turks, now began to conjure them most 
 earnestly to quit Cairo, and thus leave them at liberty to negotiate 
 with the French. Kleber, who was averse to these sanguinary 
 scenes, and who was anxious to spare his soldiers, wished for 
 nothing better than to treat. The envoys of Murad Bey served 
 him for agents. The treaty was soon concluded. Nassif Pasha 
 and Ibrahim Bey were to retire to Syria, escorted by a detach- 
 ment of the French armv. The onlv terms granted them were.
 
 aprili8oo CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 307 
 
 that their lives should be spared. They set out from Cairo on 
 the 25 th of April (5th Flor^al), leaving to the mercy of the 
 French the wretches whom they had urged into revolt. 
 
 Thus terminated that sanguinary struggle, which had com- 
 menced with the battle of Heliopolis on the 20th of March, and 
 which ended on the 25th of April with the departure of the last 
 lieutenants of the vizir, after thirty-five days' fighting, between 
 20,000 French, on one side, and, on the other, the whole force 
 of the Ottoman Empire, seconded by the revolt of the Egyptian 
 towns. Great faults had occasioned this insurrection, and pro- 
 voked this horrible effusion of blood. If, in fact, the French 
 had not made preparations for departing, the Egyptians would 
 never have dared to rise. The contest would have been limited 
 to a brilliant but by no means dangerous battle between our 
 squares of infantry and the Turkish cavalry. But a commence- 
 ment of evacuation having produced a popular explosion in 
 several towns, it was necessary to retake them by assault, which 
 was more destructive than a battle. Let us forget Kleber's 
 faults in admiration of his glorious and energetic conduct ! He 
 had imagined that he could not defend Egypt, when subjugated 
 and peaceful, against the Turks ; and he had now conquered 
 it in thirty-five days, in spite of Turks and of the insurgent 
 Egyptians, with equal energy, prudence, and humanity. 
 
 In the Delta, all the towns had returned to a state of com- 
 plete submission. Murad 13ey had driven from Upper Egypt 
 the Turkish detachment of Dervish Pasha. The vanquished 
 everywhere trembled before the conqueror, and expected a 
 terrible chastisement. The inhabitants of Cairo in particular, 
 who had committed revolting cruelties upon the Arabs attached 
 to the French, and upon the Christians of all nations, were filled 
 with consternation. Kleber, who was humane and wise, took 
 good care not to repay cruelties with cruelties. He knew that 
 conquest, odious to all nations, never becomes tolerable in the 
 estimation of those on whom it falls, but at the price of a good 
 government, and cannot render itself legitimate in the eyes 
 of enlightened nations unless by the accomplishment of great 
 designs. He hastened, therefore, to use his victory with modera- 
 tion. The Egyptians were persuaded that they should be treated 
 harshly : they conceived that the loss of life and property would 
 atone for the crime of those who had risen in revolt. Kleber 
 called them together, assumed at first a stern look, but after- 
 wards pardoned them, merely imposing a contribution on the 
 insurgent villages. 
 
 Cairo paid 10,000.000 f.. a burden far from onerous for so 
 large a city. The inhabitants considered themselves as most 
 lucky to get off so easily. Kighl millions more were imposed 
 upon the rebel towns of Lower Egypt.
 
 3 o8 HISTORY OF THE may 1800 
 
 This sum sufficed for the immediate discharge of the arrears 
 of pay, and furnished funds for procuring the provisions needed 
 by the army, for supplying all the wants of the wounded, and 
 for completing the fortifications that were begun. It was a 
 precious resource, till the system of the impositions should be 
 improved and carried into execution. Another resource, equally 
 unexpected, presented itself at this moment. Seventy Turkish 
 vessels had just entered the Egyptian ports, to carry away the 
 French army. The late hostilities justified our detaining them. 
 They were laden with goods, which were sold for the benefit of 
 the chest of the army. Owing to these various resources, an 
 abundant provision was made for all the services, without any 
 requisition in kind. The army found itself in plenty, and the 
 Egyptians, who had not hoped to be let off so easily, submitted 
 with perfect resignation. The army, proud of its victories, con- 
 fident in its strength, knowing that General Bonaparte was at 
 the head of the government, ceased to doubt that it would soon 
 receive reinforcements. Kleber had in the plain of Heliopolis 
 made the noblest amends for his momentary faults. 
 
 He assembled the administrators of the army, the persons 
 best acquainted with the country, and turned his attention to 
 the organisation of the finances of the colony. He restored the 
 collection of the direct contributions to the Copts, to whom it 
 had formerly been entrusted ; he imposed some new customs' 
 duties and taxes on articles of consumption. The total of the 
 revenues was to amount to 25,000,000 f., and this was sufficient 
 for all the wants of the army, which did not exceed eighteen 
 or twenty millions. He admitted into the ranks of our demi- 
 brigades, Copts, Syrians, and even Blacks, bought in Darfur, 
 and whom some of the subalterns, beginning to speak the 
 lanefuaR-e of the country, undertook to drill. These new soldiers 
 placed in the regiments, fought there as stoutly as the French 
 with whom they had the honour to serve. Kleber gave orders 
 for the completion of the forts constructing around Cairo, and 
 set men to work at those of Lesbeh, Damietta, Burlos, and 
 Rosetta, situated on the sea-coast. He pressed forward the 
 works of Alexandria, and imparted fresh activity to the scientific 
 researches of the Institute of Egypt. From the cataracts to the 
 mouths of the Nile, everything assumed the aspect of a solid and 
 durable establishment. Two months afterwards, the caravans of 
 Syria, Arabia, and Darfur began to appear again at Cairo. The 
 hospitable welcome which they received ensured their return. 
 
 If Kleber had lived, Egypt would have remained in our pos- 
 session, at least till the time of our great disasters. But a 
 deplorable event snatched away that general, in the midst of 
 his exploits and of his judicious government. 
 
 It is always more or less dangerous to give a deep shock to
 
 junei8oo CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 309 
 
 the ruling principles of human nature. All Islamism had been 
 moved by the presence of the French in Egypt. The children 
 of Mahomet had felt somewhat of that enthusiasm which of 
 old inflamed them against the Crusaders. Cries of a holy war 
 were raised, as in the twelfth century ; and there were fanatic 
 Mussulmans who vowed to achieve the sacred fight, which con- 
 sists in slaying an Infidel. In Egypt, where people saw the 
 French closely, where they appreciated their humanity, where 
 they could compare them with the soldiers of the Porte, espe- 
 cially with the Mamelukes — in Egypt, where they witnessed 
 their respect for the Prophet (a respect enjoined by General 
 Bonaparte), less aversion for them was entertained ; and, when 
 they afterwards left the country, the fanaticism had consider- 
 ably abated. Indeed, during the late insurrection, there had 
 even been perceived, in some places, real signs of attachment 
 to our soldiers, to such a degree, that the English agents were 
 surprised at it. But, throughout the rest of the East, the 
 attention of all was engrossed by one subject, and that was the 
 invasion by Infidels of an extensive Mussulman country. 
 
 A young man, a native of Aleppo, named Suleiman, who 
 was a prey to extravagant fanaticism, who had performed the 
 pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina, who had studied at the 
 mosque El Azhar, the most celebrated and the wealthiest in 
 Cairo, that where the Koran and the Turkish law are taught, 
 who, finally, purposed to obtain admission into the body of the 
 doctors of the faith, chanced to be wandering in Palestine, 
 when the wrecks of the vizir's army passed through the country. 
 He witnessed the sufferings, the despair, of his co-religionists, 
 which violently affected his morbid imagination. The aga 
 of the Janissaries, who had chanced to see him, inflamed his 
 fanaticism still more by his own suggestions. This young 
 man offered to assassinate " the Sultan of the French," General 
 Kl<^ber. Furnished with a dromedary and a sum of money, he 
 repaired to Gaza, crossed the desert, proceeded to Cairo, and 
 shut himself up for several weeks in the great mosque, into 
 which students and poor travellers were admitted, at the cost of 
 that pious foundation. The rich mosques are in the Fast what 
 convents formerly were in Europe; there are found prayer, 
 religious instruction, and hospitality. The young fanatic inti- 
 mated his design to the four principal sheiks of the mosque, 
 who were at the head of the department of instruction. They 
 were alarmed at his resolution, and at the consequences to 
 which it was likely to lead; they told him that it would not 
 succeed, and that it would bring great disasters upon Egypt ; 
 but still they refrained from apprising the French authorities. 
 
 When this wretched man was sufficiently continued in his 
 resolution, he armed himself with a dagger, followed Klt'ber for
 
 310 HISTORY OF THE june 1800 
 
 several days, but, finding no opportunity to approach him, he 
 resolved to penetrate into the garden of the headquarters, and 
 to hide himself there in an abandoned cistern. On the 14th of 
 June he appeared before Kleber, who was walking with Protain, 
 the architect of the army, and showing him what repairs would 
 require to be done in the house, to obliterate the traces of the 
 bombs and balls. Suleiman approached him, as if to beg alms, 
 and, while Kleber was preparing to listen to him, he rushed 
 upon him, and plunged his dagger several times into his breast. 
 Kleber fell, under the violence of this attack. Protain, having 
 a stick in his hand, fell upon the assassin, struck him violently 
 on the head, but was thrown down in his turn by a stab with 
 the dagger. At the cries of the two victims, the soldiers ran 
 to the spot, raised their expiring general, sought and seized the 
 murderer, whom they found skulking behind a heap of rubbish. 
 
 A few minutes after this tragic scene Kleber expired. The 
 army shed bitter tears over him. The Arabs themselves, who 
 had admired his clemency after their revolt, united their regrets 
 to those of our soldiers. A military commission assembled 
 immediately to try the assassin, who confessed everything. He 
 was condemned, according to the laws of the country, and 
 impaled. The four sheiks to whom he had communicated his 
 intention were beheaded. These bloody sacrifices were deemed 
 necessary for the safety of the chiefs of the army. Vain pre- 
 caution ! With Kleber, the army had lost a general, and the 
 colony a founder, for whom none of the officers left in Egypt 
 was qualified to make amends. With Kleber Egypt was lost 
 for France. Menou, who succeeded him by right of seniority, 
 was a warm partisan of the expedition ; but, notwithstanding his 
 zeal, he was very far beneath such a task. One man alone could 
 have equalled Kleber, nay. surpassed him, in the government 
 of Egypt ; this was he, who, three months before, embarked in 
 the harbour of Alexandria for Italy, and who fell at Marengo, 
 on the same day, nearly at the same moment that Kleber was 
 murdered at Cairo ; this was Desaix. Both died on the 14th 
 of June 1800, for the accomplishment of the vast designs of 
 General Bonaparte. How singular the destiny of these two men, 
 constantly placed side by side during life, undivided in death, 
 yet withal so different in every quality whether of mind or body ! 
 
 Kleber was the handsomest man in the army. His lofty 
 stature, his noble countenance, expressing all the pride of his 
 soul, his valour at once intrepid and cool, his quick and solid 
 intelligence, rendered him a most formidable commander on 
 the field of battle. His mind was brilliant, original, bat un- 
 cultivated. He read incessantly and exclusively Plutarch and 
 Quintus Curtius ; there he sought the food of great souls, the 
 history of the heroes of antiquity. He was capricious, indocile,

 
 junei8oo CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 311 
 
 and a grumbler. It was said of him, that he liked not either 
 to command or to obey ; and this was true, lie obeyed under 
 General Bonaparte, but not without murmuring ; he sometimes 
 commanded, but in the name of another, under General Jourdan, 
 for example, assuming the command by a sort of inspiration 
 amidst the battle, exercising it like a superior captain, and, 
 after the victory, resuming his character of lieutenant, which 
 he preferred to any other. Kleber was licentious in his manners 
 and language, but upright, disinterested, as men were in those 
 days, for the conquest of the world had not yet corrupted their 
 dispositions. 
 
 Desaix was the reverse in almost every respect. Simple, 
 bashful, nay, somewhat awkward, his face hid by a profusion 
 of hair, he had not the look of a soldier. But, heroic in action, 
 kind to the soldiers, modest with his comrades, generous to the 
 vancjuished, he was adored by the army and by the people con- 
 quered by our arms. His solid and eminently cultivated mind, 
 his intelligence in war, his application to his duties, and his 
 disinterestedness, made him an accomplished model of all the 
 military virtues ; and while Kleber, indocile, refractory, could 
 not endure any superior authority, Desaix was obedient, as 
 though he had not known how to command. Under a rough 
 exterior, he concealed a soul ardent and susceptible of enthu- 
 siasm. Though trained in the severe school of the army of the 
 Rhine, he was a warm admirer of the campaigns in Italy, and 
 was desirous of inspecting with his own eyes the fields of battle 
 of Castiglione, Arcole, and Rivoli. While visiting those places, 
 the theatres of immortal glory, he accidentally fell in with the 
 commander-in-chief of the army of Italy, who conceived a strong 
 attachment for him. What an honourable homage was the 
 friendship of such a man! General Bonaparte was deeply 
 touched by it. He esteemed Kleber for his high military 
 qualities, but considered none as equal to Desaix either in talents 
 or character. Besides, he had an affection for him : surrounded 
 by companions in arms, who had not yet forgiven Ids elevation, 
 though feigning an obsequious submission to hi in, he appreciated 
 the more Desaix's pure disinterested devotedness. founded on 
 deep admiration. At the same time, keeping to himself the 
 secret of his preferences, affecting ignorance of Kleber's faults. 
 he treated him and Desaix both alike, and was desirous, as we 
 shall see. to unite in the same honours two men whom Fortune 
 had united in one and the same fate. 
 
 for the rest, all continued quiet in Kgypt after Kleber's 
 death. General Menou. on assuming the command, losl no 
 time in despatching the ship <).-<irix from Alexandria, to carry to 
 France tidings of the then flourishing state of the colony, and ol 
 the deplorable end of its second founder.
 
 BOOK VI. 
 
 ARMISTICE. 
 
 WHILE the Osiris was conveying to Europe the tidings of 
 what had happened on the banks of the Nile, orders 
 totally contrary to those before given were despatched from the 
 ports of England. The observations of Sir Sidney Smith had 
 been well received in London. The government had been fear- 
 ful of disavowing an English officer, who had come forward as 
 invested with its powers ; it had above all discovered the false- 
 hood of the intercepted despatches, and formed a more correct 
 estimate of the difficulty of wresting Egypt from the French 
 army. It had, therefore, ratified the convention of El Arisch, 
 and instructed Lord Keith to cause it to be executed. But 
 it was too late, as we have seen : the convention was at that 
 moment torn, sword in hand ; and the French, having recovered 
 possession of Egypt, were no longer disposed to abandon the 
 country. The English ministers were destined to experience 
 bitter regret for the levity of their conduct and violent attacks 
 in parliament. 
 
 The First Consul, on his part, was rejoiced by the intelligence 
 of the consolidation of his conquest. Unfortunately, the news 
 of Kl^ber's death reached him almost at the same moment as 
 the news of his exploits. His grief was intense and sincere. 
 He rarely dissembled, and only when obliged to do so by a duty 
 or by an important interest, but always with effort, because the 
 vivacity of his temper rendered dissimulation difficult. But 
 in the narrow circle of his family and his counsellors, he used 
 no disguise ; he manifested his affections, his antipathies, with 
 extreme vehemence. It was among these intimates that he 
 betrayed the profound sorrow which he felt for the death of 
 Kl^ber. In him, he regretted not a friend, as in Desaix; he 
 regretted a great general, an able chief, more capable than any 
 other to ensure the establishment of the French in Egypt — an 
 establishment which he regarded as his most glorious work, but 
 which definitive success alone could convert from a brilliant 
 attempt into a great and solid enterprise. 
 
 Time, that like a river sweeps along with it all that falls into 
 its rapid current, Time has engulfed the odious falsehoods then
 
 julyi8oo HISTORY OF THE CONSULATE. 313 
 
 invented by the hatred of parties. There is one of them, how- 
 ever, which it may be instructive to mention here, though long 
 since consigned to profound oblivion. The royalist agents 
 reported, and English newspapers repeated, that Desaix and 
 Kleber, having given umbrage to the First Consul, were 
 assassinated by his orders, the one at Marengo, the other at 
 Cairo. There were miserable and silly fools enough to believe 
 it, and now people are almost ashamed to recollect such impu- 
 tations. Those who fabricate these infamous calumnies ought 
 sometimes to place themselves in presence of posterity. They 
 would blush at the refutation which time has in store for them. 
 
 The First Consul had already given pressing orders to the 
 fleets at Brest and Rochefort to prepare to set sail for the 
 Mediterranean. Though our finances were in a much better 
 state, still, being obliged to make great efforts on land, the First 
 Consul could not accomplish all that our navy required. He 
 neglected nothing, however, to put the great Brest fleet in a 
 condition to put to sea. He solicited the court of Spain to send 
 the necessary orders to Admirals Gravina and Mazzaredo, com- 
 manding the Spanish division, to concur in the movements of 
 the French division. The squadrons of the two nations, blocked 
 up in Brest for a year past, when united, would form a force of 
 forty ships of the line. The First Consul proposed that, taking 
 advantage of the sailing of this immense naval force, the French 
 ships disposable at L'Orient, Rochefort, and Toulon, and the 
 Spanish ships disposable at Ferrol, Cadiz, and Carthagena, should 
 join the combined fleet, to increase its strength. These different 
 movements were to be directed in such a manner as to deceive 
 the English, to throw them into great perplexity, and mean- 
 while, Admiral Ganteaume, taking with him the quickest sailers. 
 was to slip away and to carry to Egypt 6000 picked troops, 
 numerous workmen, and an immense materiel. 
 
 Spain willingly assented to this combination, which would at 
 least have the advantage of bringing back into the Mediter- 
 ranean, and consequently into her ports, the squadron of Admiral 
 Gravina, uselessly shut up in the harbour of Brest. She saw no 
 other objection to this plan but the bad condition of her fleets 
 and their wretched equipment. The First Consul did his best 
 to remove this objection, and the ships of the two nations were 
 soon provided with the more necessary stores. In the meantime, 
 he was anxious that the army in Egypt should receive intelli- 
 gence from him every five or six days. He gave orders that. 
 from all the ports of the Mediterranean. Spain and Italy 
 included, there should sail brigs, avisoes, mere merchantmen, 
 carrying balls, bombs, lead, powder, muskets, swords, wood 
 for cartwrights' work, medicines, Jesuits' bark. coin. wine, in 
 short, all that the army in Egypt was likely to need. He ordere d
 
 314 HISTORY OF THE july 1800 
 
 moreover, that each of these small vessels should take out a 
 number of workmen, masons or smiths, some gunners, and some 
 picked cavalry soldiers. He directed them to charter vessels at 
 Carthagena, Barcelona, Port Vendre, Marseilles, Toulon, Antibes, 
 Savona, Genoa, Bastia, St. Plorent, &c. He even bargained 
 with merchants of Algiers to send to Egypt cargoes of wine, of 
 which the army was destitute. By his command a company of 
 actors was formed, the requisites for a theatre were provided, 
 and the whole was to be sent to Alexandria. The best Paris 
 newspapers were subscribed for, in order to be forwarded to the 
 principal officers of the army, that they might be made acquainted 
 with what was passing in Europe. In short, nothing was 
 neglected that could serve to keep up the courage of the exiled 
 soldiers, and to place them in constant communication with the 
 mother-country.* 
 
 Of course several of these vessels were liable to be taken, but 
 the greater number had a chance of arriving, and did actually 
 arrive, for the extensive coast of the Delta could not be strictly 
 guarded. The same success did not attend the attempts made 
 to revictual Malta, which the English kept closely blockaded. 
 They made an especial point of reducing this second Gibraltar ; 
 they knew that the blockade must in the long run produce here 
 a certain effect ; for Malta is a rock, which cannot be supplied 
 but by sea, whereas Egypt is a vast kingdom, which feeds both 
 itself and its neighbours. They steadfastly persevered, there- 
 fore, in investing the place and in inflicting upon it the horrors 
 of famine. The brave General Vaubois, having at his disposal 
 a garrison of 4000 men, was not afraid of their attacks ; but he 
 saw the provisions destined for the subsistence of his soldiers 
 hourly diminishing, and unfortunately did not receive from the 
 ports of Corsica sufficient resources to supply the place of those 
 that were every day consumed. 
 
 The First Consul also turned his earnest attention to the 
 selection of a chief capable of commanding the army in Egypt. 
 The loss of Kleber was distressing, especially in consideration 
 of those who might be called to succeed him. Had Desaix 
 remained in Egypt, the misfortune would have been easily 
 repaired. But Desaix had returned ; Desaix was dead. Those 
 who were left were not competent for such a command. Eeynier 
 was a good officer, brought up in the school of the army of 
 the Rhine, skilful, experienced, but cold, irresolute, without 
 ascendency over the troops. Menou was well informed, per- 
 sonally brave, an enthusiast in favour of the expedition, but 
 incapable of directing an army, and covered with ridicule be- 
 cause he had married a Turkish woman and turned Mahometan 
 
 * All these particulars are extracted from the voluminous correspondence 
 of the First Consul with the department of war and of the marine.
 
 julyi8oo CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 315 
 
 himself. He took the name of Abdallah Meuou, which was a 
 subject of mirth for the soldiers, and greatly abated the respect 
 with which a commander-in-chief needs to be surrounded. 
 General Lanusse, brave, intelligent, full of an ardour which he 
 understood the art of communicating to others, appeared to the 
 First Consul to deserve the preference, though he was deficient 
 in prudence. But General Menou had assumed the command 
 by right of seniority. It was difficult to ensure the arrival of 
 an order in Egypt; the English might intercept that order; 
 and, without communicating it literally, they might excite a 
 suspicion of its purport, in such a manner as to render the com- 
 mand uncertain, to produce dissension among the generals, and 
 to distract the colony. He therefore left things in the same 
 state, and confirmed Menou in the charge, not conceiving him 
 to be so utterly incapable as he really was. 
 
 We must now return to Europe, to see what was passing 
 on this theatre of the great events of the world. The letter 
 addressed from Marengo itself to the Emperor of Germany 
 reached him along with the news of the lost battle. The court 
 of Vienna was then aware of the faults which it had committed, 
 in rejecting the offers of the First Consul at the beginning of 
 winter, in persisting to consider France as exhausted and in- 
 capable of continuing the war, in refusing to believe the existence 
 of the army of reserve, and in blindly pushing M. de Melas into 
 the gorges of the Apennines. The credit of M. de Thugut was 
 considerably diminished, for to him alone were imputed all the 
 errors of want of conduct and foresight. However, to these 
 faults, already so serious, was added another not less important, 
 that of forming a closer alliance than ever with the English, 
 under the impression of the disaster of Marengo. Till now. the 
 cabinet of Vienna had declined their subsidies, but it thought it 
 right to procure immediately the means of repairing the losses of 
 this campaign, either to place itself in a condition to treat more 
 advantageously with France, or to be able to engage in a fresh 
 struggle with her, if her pretensions were too exorbitant. It 
 accepted, therefore, two millions and a half sterling (62.OOO.OOO 
 francs). In return for this subsidy, it engaged not to make 
 peace with France before the month of February following. 
 unless the peace were common to England and Austria. This 
 treaty was signed on the 20th of June, the very day on which 
 the news of the events in Italy reached Vienna. Austria. 
 therefore, bound herself to the fortunes of England for 
 seven months longer: but she hoped to pass the summer in 
 negotiations, and to get on till winter before hostilities could 
 be recommenced. For the rest, the imperial cabinet had 
 made up its mind to peace; it merely wished to negotiate 
 jointly with England, and especially not to make too great
 
 316 HISTORY OF THE julyi8oo 
 
 sacrifices in Italy. On this condition, it desired nothing better 
 than to conclude peace. 
 
 The emperor sent as bearer of his answer to the letter of 
 the First Consul, the same officer who had brought that letter, 
 namely, M. de St. Julien, in whom he reposed great confidence. 
 The answer on this occasion was direct and personally addressed 
 to General Bonaparte. It contained the ratification of the double 
 armistice, signed in Germany and in Italy, and an invitation 
 to explain himself confidentially and with perfect frankness 
 respecting the bases of the future negotiation. M. de St. Julien 
 was specially charged to sound the First Consul on the con- 
 ditions of peace, and on his part to say sufficient concerning the 
 intentions of the emperor to induce the French cabinet to 
 disclose its own. The letter of which M. de St. Julien was the 
 bearer, full of flattering and pacific protestations, contained a 
 passage in which the object of his mission was clearly specified. 
 " I am writing to my generals," said his imperial majesty, " to 
 confirm the two armistices, and to settle the details of them. 
 I have, moreover, sent to you the Count de St. Julien, major- 
 general in my army : he is charged with my instructions, and to 
 point out to you how essential it is not to enter into public 
 negotiations, likely to excite prematurely in so many nations 
 hopes perhaps illusory, till it is ascertained, at least in a general 
 manner, if the bases that you mean to propose for peace are 
 such as to afford a prospect of obtaining that desirable end. 
 
 " Vienna, July 5, 1800." 
 
 The emperor hinted, towards the conclusion of this letter, at 
 the engagements which bound him to England, and which made 
 him desirous of a peace common to all the belligerent powers. 
 
 M. de St. Julien arrived in Paris on the 21st of July (2nd 
 Thermidor, year VIII.), and was cordially received. He was 
 the first envoy from the emperor who had been seen for a long 
 time in France. He was welcomed as the representative of a 
 great sovereign and a messenger of peace. We have already 
 shown how earnestly the First Consul desired to put an end to 
 the war. Nobody contested with him the glory of battles ; he 
 now aspired to one of a different kind, less brilliant, but more 
 novel, and at this time more profitable to his authority, that of 
 giving peace to France and Europe. In his ardent soul desires 
 were passions. He then sought peace as we have since seen 
 him seek war. M. de Talleyrand desired it as much ; for he 
 was already fond of assuming the part of moderator about the 
 First Consul. It was an excellent part to play, especially at a 
 later period ; but to urge the First Consul to peace at this time 
 was adding one impatience to another, and endangering the 
 result by too great precipitation.
 
 julyi8oo CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 317 
 
 On the very day after his arrival, the 22nd of July (3rd 
 Thermidor), M. de St. Julien was invited to a conference with 
 the minister for foreign affairs. They conversed on the subject 
 of their reciprocal desire to terminate the war, and the best way 
 of accomplishing it. M. de St. Julien listened to all that was 
 said to him concerning the conditions on which peace might be 
 concluded, and hinted on his part at all that the emperor wished. 
 M. de Talleyrand concluded too hastily that M. de St. Julien had 
 secret and sufficient instructions for treating, and proposed that 
 they should not confine themselves to a mere conversation, but 
 draw up jointly preliminary articles of peace. M. de St. Julien, 
 who was not authorised to take such an important step, for 
 the engagements of Austria towards England were in abso- 
 lute opposition to it, M. de St. Julien objected that he had no 
 power to conclude a treaty. M. de Talleyrand replied, that 
 the emperor's letter completely authorised him, and that, if he 
 would agree to some preliminary articles and sign them, with 
 the proviso of their ulterior ratification, the French cabinet, 
 on the mere letter of the emperor, would consider him as suf- 
 ficiently accredited. M. de St. Julien, a soldier by profession, 
 and devoid of experience in diplomatic usages, had the simplicity 
 to avow to M. de Talleyrand his embarrassment and his ignorance 
 of forms, and to ask him what he would do in his place. " I 
 would sign," answered M. de Talleyrand. "Well then, be it 
 so," rejoined M. de St. Julien, "I will sign the preliminary 
 articles, which shall not be held valid till they have received 
 the ratification of my sovereign." "Most assuredly," replied 
 M. de Talleyrand, "no engagements between nations are valid 
 but such as have been ratified." 
 
 This singular manner of communicating their powers to each 
 other is specified at length in the minutes still existing of that 
 negotiation. They are dated the 231^1, 24th, 27th, and 28th of 
 July (4th, 5th, 8th, and 9th Thermidor, year VIII.). All the 
 important points to be arranged between the two nations were 
 discussed. The treaty of Campo Formio was adopted as the 
 basis, with the exception of some modifications. Thus the 
 emperor abandoned to the Republic the boundary of the Rhine, 
 from the point where that river leaves the Swiss territory to 
 that where it enters the Batavian territory. Jn regard to that 
 article M. de St. Julien demanded and obtained a change in the 
 wording. He wished the expression. "The emperor assents to 
 the line of the Rhine," to be altered as follows : •• The emperor 
 does not oppose the retaining of the boundary of the Rhine by 
 the French Republic." This mode of expression was adopted 
 in answer to the reproaches of the Germanic body, which had 
 accused the emperor of giving up to France the territory of the 
 confederation. It was agreed that France should not retain any
 
 318 HISTORY OF THE julyiSoo 
 
 of the fortified positions which operated upon the right bank 
 (Kehl, Cassel, Ehrenbreitstein), that their works should be 
 razed, but that, in return, Germany should not throw up any 
 entrenchment, either of earth or masonry, within three leagues 
 of the river. 
 
 So much for the boundary between France and Germany. 
 The limits between Austria and Italy yet remained to be settled. 
 The fifth secret article of Campo Formio had stipulated that 
 Austria should receive in Germany an indemnity for certain 
 lordships which she had given up on the left bank of the Rhine, 
 independently of the Netherlands, which she had long before 
 sacrificed to France. The bishopric of Salzburg was to com- 
 pose that indemnity. The emperor would have liked better to 
 be indemnified in Italy, for the acquisitions which he made in 
 Germany, especially in the ecclesiastical principalities, were 
 scarcely new acquisitions, the court of Vienna already possessing 
 in those principalities an influence and privileges nearly equiva- 
 lent to a direct sovereignty. On the contrary, the acquisitions 
 which he obtained in Italy had the advantage of giving him 
 territory, which he did not yet possess in any degree, and especi- 
 ally of extending his frontier and his influence in a country 
 which had been the constant object of the ambition of his 
 family. From these same motives it was natural that France 
 should be better pleased to see Austria aggrandise herself in 
 Germany than in Italy. This latter point, however, was con- 
 ceded. The treaty of Campo Formio threw Austria back upon 
 the Adige, and attributed to the Cisalpine Republic the Mincio 
 and the celebrated fortress of Mantua. The ambition of Austria 
 this time was to obtain the Mincio, Mantua, and the Legations 
 into the bargain, which was exorbitant. The First Consul went 
 so far as to grant her the Mincio and Mantua, but he would 
 not cede the Legations at any rate. The utmost he would 
 consent to was to give them to the Grand Duke of Tuscany, on 
 condition that, in return, Tuscany should be transferred to the 
 Grand Duke of Parma, and the Duchy of Parma to the Cisalpine. 
 The Grand Duke of Parma would have gained considerably by 
 this exchange, which was a satisfaction granted to Spain, with 
 what views we shall show by-and-by. 
 
 M. de St. Julien replied that, on this latter point, his sovereign 
 was not prepared to adopt a definitive resolution ; that these 
 removals of sovereign houses from one country to another were 
 by no means conformable with his policy ; that of course this 
 was a point which must be afterwards adjusted. To evade the 
 difficulty, the negotiators merely said, in the preliminary articles, 
 that Austria should receive in Italy the territorial indemnities 
 previously granted to her in Germany. 
 
 The Austrian officer, thus metamorphosed into plenipotentiary,
 
 julyiSoo CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 319 
 
 expressed in the name of his sovereign a warm interest for 
 the independence of Switzerland, but scarcely any for that of 
 Piedmont, and appeared to insinuate that France might pay 
 herself in Piedmont for what she ceded to the house of Austria 
 in Lombardy. 
 
 The parties, therefore, stopped short at very general conditions ; 
 the boundary of the Rhine for France, with the demolition of 
 Kehl, Cassel, and Ehrenbreitstein ; particular indemnities for 
 Austria, taken from Italy instead of Germany ; which signified 
 that Austria would not be confined within the limit of the Adige. 
 But, it must be confessed, not only was it vain to treat with a 
 plenipotentiary without powers, but something still more vain 
 was it to consider as articles of peace articles, the only con- 
 testable point in which, the only one for which the emperor 
 went to war, the boundary of Austria and Italy, was not even 
 resolved in a general manner : for, as to the boundary of the 
 Rhine, no one had seriously thought of disputing that with us 
 for a long time past. 
 
 To the preceding articles were added some accessory arrange- 
 ments : it was agreed, for example, that a congress should be 
 held immediately ; that, during this congress, hostilities should 
 be suspended, the levies en masse making in Tuscany disbanded, 
 and the English landings, with which Italy was threatened, 
 deferred. 
 
 M. de St. Julien, urged beyond all reasonable bounds by the 
 desire to play an important part, had from time to time scruples 
 respecting the strange and bold step which he had ventured to 
 take. To make him easy upon the matter, M. de Talleyrand 
 promised, on his word of honour, that these preliminary articles 
 should remain secret, and that they should not be considered 
 as having any value whatever till after their ratification by 
 the emperor. On the 28th of July 1800 (9th Thermidor, year 
 VIII.), these famous preliminaries were signed at the hotel of 
 foreign affairs, to the great joy of M. de Talleyrand, who. find- 
 ing M. de St. Julien so prepared upon every question, seriously 
 believed that he had secret instructions to treat. This, however, 
 was not the case, and, if M. de St. Julien was so well informed, 
 it was only because they wished at Vienna to enable him to 
 provoke and to receive the confidential communications of the 
 First Consul relative to the conditions of* the future peace. 
 The French minister had not been able to penetrate that cir- 
 cumstance; and, from the desire to sign an act resembling a 
 treaty, he had committed a serious error. 
 
 The First Consul, paying no attention to the ['onus observed 
 by the two negotiators, and trusting on that point entirely to 
 M. de Talleyrand, thought for his part of nothing hut making 
 Austria explain her views, in order to ascertain whether she
 
 320 HISTORY OF THE julyi8oo 
 
 wished for peace, and to force it from her by a new campaign, 
 if she appeared not to desire it. But, for this purpose, it would 
 have been better to have summoned her to explain herself 
 within a given time than to enter into an illusory and puerile 
 negotiation, in consequence of which the dignity of the two 
 nations was likely to be compromised, and their reconciliation 
 to be rendered more difficult. 
 
 M. de St. Julien thought it best not to wait in Paris for the 
 emperor's answer, as he was solicited to do ; he wished himself 
 to carry the preliminaries to Vienna, no doubt with a view to 
 explain to his master the motives of his extraordinary conduct. 
 He left Paris on the 30th of July ( 1 1 th Thermidor), accom- 
 panied by Duroc, whom the First Consul sent to Austria, as he 
 had previously sent him to Prussia, to observe the court there 
 closely, and to give it an advantageous opinion of the modera- 
 tion and policy of the new government. Duroc, as we have 
 elsewhere remarked, was well suited for missions of this kind 
 from his sound sense and elegant manners. The First Consul 
 had, moreover, given him written instructions, in which he had 
 provided with minute attention for every contingency. In the 
 first place, when any circumstance led to a presumption of the 
 intentions of Austria in regard to the preliminaries, Duroc was 
 instantly to send off a courier to Paris. It was recommended to 
 him until the ratification to keep an absolute silence, and to 
 appear totally ignorant of the intentions of the First Consul. 
 If the ratification was granted, he was authorised to declare, in 
 a positive manner, that peace might be signed in twenty-four 
 hours, if there was a sincere desire for it. He was to let it be 
 understood, in one way or another, that, provided Austria would 
 be content with the Mincio, the Fossa Maestra, and the Po, 
 which was the line marked out by the convention of Alexandria ; 
 and provided, moreover, that she agreed to the removal of the 
 Duke of Parma to Tuscany, and of the Duke of Tuscany to the 
 Legations, there was no obstacle to an immediate conclusion. 
 These instructions even contained rules respecting the language 
 to be held on all the subjects that might arise in conversation. 
 Duroc was forbidden to join in any sneers against Russia and 
 Prussia, which were then disliked at Vienna, because they had 
 withdrawn from the coalition. He was enjoined to maintain a 
 great reserve respecting the Emperor Paul, whose character was 
 a theme for raillery in every court : he was to speak highly of 
 the King of Prussia, to visit the Grand Duke of Tuscany, to 
 show none of those passions which the Revolution had excited, 
 either in one way or in another. Royalists and Jacobins were 
 all to be spoken of as though they were not less ancient in 
 France than the Guelfs and the Ghibellines in Italy. He was 
 particularly enjoined not to manifest any antipathy towards
 
 JULY1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 321 
 
 emigrants, excepting those, indeed, who had borne arms against 
 the Republic. He was ordered to assert on all occasions that, 
 of all the countries of Europe, France was most attached to its 
 government, because of all countries it was that which had 
 afforded the government occasion to do the most good. Lastly, 
 he was to represent the First Consul as having no prejudices, 
 neither those of other times nor those of the present day, and 
 as being indifferent to the attacks of the English press, for he 
 did not understand English. 
 
 Duroc set out with M. de St. Julien, and though the secret 
 of the preliminaries was kept, still the numerous conferences of 
 the emperor's envoy with M. de Talleyrand had been remarked 
 by everybody, and people said aloud that he was the bearer of 
 conditions of peace. 
 
 Oar prodigious successes in Italy and Germany had naturally 
 exercised a considerable influence, not upon Austria alone, but 
 upon all the courts of Europe, whether friendly or hostile. 
 
 On the news of the battle of Marengo, Prussia, still neutral 
 upon system, but kindly disposed towards us according to 
 events, Prussia had expressed warm admiration to the First 
 Consul, and from that moment had not said a single word 
 which could give rise to a doubt respecting the attribution to 
 France of the entire line of the Rhine. The only point now 
 to be studied, according to her, was to be just in the partition 
 of the indemnities due to all those who lost territories on the 
 left bank of the Rhine, and discreet in settling the general 
 limits of the great States. She even added that it was right 
 to be firm towards Austria, and to curb her insatiable ambi- 
 tion. Such was the language which she held every day to our 
 ambassador in Berlin. 
 
 M. d'Haugwitz, and King Frederick William in particular, 
 whose kindness was sincere, informed General Beurnonville 
 from day to day of the rapid progress which the First Consul 
 was making in the esteem of Paul I. As we have already 
 seen, that fickle and enthusiastic prince had for some months 
 been passing from a chivalrous animosity against the French 
 Revolution to an unbounded admiration of the man who was 
 now the representative of that Revolution. He had conceived 
 an absolute hatred for Austria and England. Though from 
 this change a first result of great importance had been obtained, 
 namely, the motionless attitude of the Russians on the Vistula, 
 still the First Consul aspired to something more. He wished 
 to enter into direct communication with tin 1 Emperor Paul, and 
 suspected Prussia of prolonging that equivocal state, thai she 
 might be the sole agent in our relations with the most powerful 
 of the courts of the North. 
 
 He devised a method, which was crowned with complete 
 
 vol. 1. 
 
 \
 
 322 HISTORY OF THE julyi8oo 
 
 success. There were still in France six or seven thousand Rus- 
 sians taken last year, and who could not be exchanged, because 
 Russia had no prisoners to release in return. The First Consul 
 had proposed to England and to Austria, which held in their 
 hands a certain number of our soldiers and seamen, to exchange 
 these Russians for a like number of French. Both of them 
 assuredly owed Russia such a courtesy, for these Russians had 
 incurred captivity solely by serving the purposes of English 
 and Austrian policy. The proposal was nevertheless rejected. 
 The First Consul immediately conceived the happy idea of 
 restoring unconditionally to Paul I. the prisoners in our hands. 
 This was an act of dexterous generosity, and not very burden- 
 some to France, which could do nothing with these prisoners, 
 since they could not procure her Frenchmen in exchange. The 
 First Consul accompanied this act with the attentions most 
 likely to touch the susceptible heart of the Emperor Paul. He 
 caused these Russians to be armed and clothed in the uniform 
 of their sovereign : he even gave up their officers, their colours, 
 and their arms. He then wrote a letter to Count de Panin, 
 minister of foreign affairs at St. Petersburg, informing him that, 
 Austria and England having refused to procure their liberty 
 for the soldiers of the Czar, who had become prisoners while 
 serving the cause of those powers, the First Consul would not 
 detain those brave men indefinitely, and that he sent them 
 back to the emperor unconditionally ; that this was on his 
 part a testimony of consideration for the Russian army, an 
 army which the French had learned to know and to esteem 
 on fields of battle. 
 
 This letter was sent by way of Hamburg. It was trans- 
 mitted by M. de Bourgoing, our minister in Denmark, to M. 
 de Muraview, minister of Russia at Hamburg. But such was 
 the fear excited by Paul I. in his agents, that M. de Muraview 
 refused to receive this letter, not daring to disobey the anterior 
 orders of his cabinet, which forbade him all communication 
 with the representatives of France. M. de Muraview merely 
 reported to his court what had passed, and made it acquainted 
 with the existence and contents of the letter, of which he had 
 refused to take charge. Upon this, the First Consul made 
 another, and still more efficacious advance towards the Russian 
 monarch. Seeing that Malta could not hold out lono\ and that 
 this island, strictly blockaded, would be obliged, by want of 
 provisions, to surrender to the English, he conceived the idea of 
 giving it to Paul. It is well known that this prince, an enthu- 
 siast on the subject of the ancient orders of chivalry, and that 
 of Malta in particular, had caused himself to be elected grand- 
 master of St. John of Jerusalem, that he was resolved to re- 
 establish that religious and chivalric institution, and that he
 
 July 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 323 
 
 frequently held at St. Petersburg chapters of the Order, for the 
 purpose of conferring its decoration on the princes and great 
 personages of Europe. It was impossible to take a more direct 
 course to his heart than by offering him the island that was 
 the seat of the Order, of which he had made himself the head. 
 The thing was ably conceived in all its bearings. Either the 
 English, who were on the point of taking it, would consent to 
 restore it, and then it would be out of their hands ; or they 
 would refuse, and Paul I. was capable enough to declare war 
 against them on that account. This time, M. de Sergijeff, a 
 Russian officer, and one of the prisoners detained in France, 
 was directed to proceed to Petersburg, as the bearer of the two 
 letters relative to the prisoners and the island of Malta. 
 
 When these different communications reached St. Petersburg, 
 they produced their inevitable effect. Paul was deeply touched, 
 and thenceforth indulged, without reserve, in the highest ad- 
 miration of the First Consul. He immediately selected an old 
 Finland officer, M. de Sprengporten, formerly a Swedish sub- 
 ject, a most respectable man, very well disposed towards 
 France, and in high favour at the court of Russia. He ap- 
 pointed him governor of the island of Malta, ordered him to 
 put himself at the head of the 6000 Russian prisoners in France, 
 and to go with this force perfectly organised, and to take 
 possession of the island of Malta, which would be delivered up 
 to him by the French. He ordered him to proceed to Paris, 
 and to thank the First Consul publicly. To tins demonstration 
 Paul added a much more effective step ; he enjoined M. de 
 Krudener, his minister in Berlin, who had been charged, some 
 months before, to renew the connection between Russia and 
 Prussia, to enter into direct communication with General Beur- 
 nonville, our ambassador, and furnished him with the necessary 
 powers for negotiating a treaty of peace witli France. 
 
 M. d'Haugwitz. who thought, perhaps, that the reconciliation 
 was proceeding too rapidly, for Prussia would lose her char- 
 acter of mediating agent the moment the cabinets of Paris and 
 St. Petersburg were in direct communication — M. d'Haugwitz 
 contrived to be the ostensible agent of this reconciliation. 
 Hitherto M. de Krudener and M. de Beurnonville had met in 
 Berlin, in the houses of the ministers of the different courts, 
 without speaking. One day, M. d'Haugwitz invited them both 
 to dinner ; after dinner, lie brought them face to face, then left 
 them tSte-a-tete in his own garden, to give them opportunity for 
 complete explanation. M. de Krudener expressed his regret 
 to M. de Beurnonville that it had not been in his power before 
 to se.-k the society of the French legation ; he excused the 
 refusal given at Hamburg to receive the First Consul's letter 
 by the existence of anterior orders ; and, lastly, he entered into
 
 324 HISTORY OF THE july 1800 
 
 a very long explanation respecting the new dispositions of his 
 sovereign. He informed him of the mission of M. de Spreng- 
 porten to Paris, and avowed the especial satisfaction which 
 Paul I. had felt at the restitution of the prisoners, and the offer 
 to restore Malta to the Order of St. John of Jerusalem. At 
 length, from all these subjects he passed to the most serious, 
 namely, the conditions of peace. Russia and France had 
 nothing to quarrel about. They had not gone to war for any 
 interest of territory or commerce, but for a dissimilarity in the 
 form of their government. As far as concerned themselves 
 directly, they had, therefore, but to write one article, to the 
 effect that peace was re-established between the two powers. 
 This circumstance alone showed how unreasonable the war had 
 been. But the war had brought with it alliances, and Paul, 
 who prided himself on strict fidelity to his engagements, desired 
 only one thing, that his allies should be treated indulgently. 
 They were four in number : — Bavaria, Wurtemberg, Piedmont, 
 and Naples. He demanded, on behalf of the four, the integ- 
 rity of their dominions. Nothing could be more easy, if an 
 explanatory clause were merely introduced to the effect, 
 that this condition should be considered as fulfilled, if those 
 princes obtained an indemnity for the provinces which the 
 French Republic should take from them. The point was thus 
 understood and admitted by M. de Krudener. In fact, the 
 secularisation of the ecclesiastical States of Germany, and their 
 proportionate partition among the lay princes who had lost the 
 whole or part of their dominions, in consequence of the cession of 
 the left bank of the Rhine to France, was a thing long agreed 
 upon by everybody. It had even been admitted at the congress 
 of Rastadt, under the Directory. An arrangement was equally 
 easy for the Italian princes, allies of Paul I. Piedmont was 
 to lose Nice and Savoy ; it might be indemnified in Italy, if 
 Austrian ambition were curbed in that country, and not suffered 
 to extend itself too far there. On this point, Paul I., greatly 
 irritated against the cabinet of Vienna, said, like Prussia, that 
 Austria must be kept down, and nothing granted her but what 
 could not be refused. As for the kingdom of Naples, France 
 had nothing to take from it, but she had odious proceedings to 
 punish, outrages to avenge. Still the First Consul was willing 
 to pardon, on one condition, of a nature to be particularly 
 pleasing to Paul I., who was not less hostile to the English 
 than to the Austrians, namely, that the cabinet of Naples 
 should atone for its faults by a formal rupture with Great 
 Britain. On all these points the parties were nearly agreed. 
 They could not fail to become still more so every day, 
 from the natural course of events, and from the impetuous 
 character of Paul I., who from a state of dissatisfaction with
 
 julyi8oo CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 325 
 
 his former allies, was about to pass, without transition, to a 
 state of open war. 
 
 The reconciliation of France with Russia was, therefore, 
 nearly accomplished, and even public ; for the departure of M. 
 de Sprengporten for Paris had just been officially announced. 
 Paul I., the furious enemy of France, thus became her friend, 
 her ally, against all the powers of the old coalition. The glory 
 and the profound address of the First Consul had wrought this 
 extraordinary change. A fortuitous and important circumstance 
 was about to render it still more complete ; this was the quarrel 
 of the neutral powers, exasperated by the violences of England 
 upon the seas. It seems as if everything concurred to favour 
 the designs of the First Consul, and one is tempted to admire, 
 at this moment, his good fortune as much as his genius. 
 
 On viewing the course of events in this lower world, one 
 would almost say, that Fortune loves to smile on youth, for she 
 seconds, in a wonderful manner, the early years of great men. 
 Let us not, however, like the ancient poets, make her blind and 
 capricious ; if she so often favours the youth of great men, as 
 she did that of Hannibal, of Cassar, of Napoleon, it is because 
 they have not yet abused her favours. General Bonaparte was 
 fortunate, then, because he had deserved to be so; because he was 
 in the right agaiust all the world ; at home, against party strife ; 
 abroad, against the powers of Europe. At home, he aimed only 
 at order and justice ; abroad, at peace, but an advantageous and 
 glorious peace, such as he has a right to desire who has not been 
 the aggressor, but who has been victorious through his superior 
 ability. Thus Europe sought anxiously to be reconciled to France, 
 represented by a great man, so just and so powerful. And if this 
 great man had met with auspicious circumstances, there was not 
 one which he had not brought about himself, or by which he had 
 not skilfully profited. It was but yesterday that one of his lieu- 
 tenants, anticipating his orders, had hastened, at the report of the 
 cannon, to gain for him the victory of Marengo ; but what had he 
 not done to pave the way to that victory ? Now, a prince, struck 
 with insanity, on one of the first thrones in the world, afforded an 
 easy prey to his diplomatic ability ; but with what masterly conde- 
 scension had he not contrived to flatter that monarch ! England, 
 by her conduct on the seas, was soon going to reconcile all the 
 maritime powers with France ; but we shall see what art he had 
 employed to soothe them, and to leave to England the part of 
 violence. Fortune, that capricious mistress of great men, is not. 
 then, so capricious as people are pleased to represent her. All 
 is not caprice when she smiles upon them, caprice when she 
 abandons them, and, in her alleged infidelities, the fault is. in 
 general not on her side. But let us speak a language more 
 true, more worthy of so grave a subject: Fortune, that pagan
 
 326 HISTORY OF THE julyi8oo 
 
 name given to the power which governs all things here below, 
 is Providence, befriending genius when walking in the path of 
 rectitude, that is, in the ways marked out by infinite wisdom. 
 
 The fortunate circumstance which was destined definitively to 
 rally the powers of the North around the politics of the First 
 Consul, and to procure for him auxiliaries upon the element on 
 which he had most need of them, that is, on the seas, was this : — 
 The English had just committed new violences against neutrals. 
 They could not suffer the Russians, the Danes, the Swedes, the 
 Americans, to frequent quietly all the ports of the world, and 
 to lend their flags to the commerce of France and Spain. They 
 had already violated the independence of the neutral flag, espe- 
 cially in regard to America, and it was because the Americans 
 had not sufficiently defended it that the Directory showed its 
 anger, by subjecting them to treatment almost as rigorous as 
 that which they experienced from the English. General Bona- 
 parte had repaired this fault by annulling the harshest of the 
 regulations enforced by the Directory ; by instituting the tri- 
 bunal of prizes, charged to administer better justice to captured 
 vessels ; by paying homage, in the person of Washington, to all 
 America; lastly, by inviting negotiators to Paris, for the pur- 
 pose of renewing relations of amity and commerce with her. 
 It was precisely at this moment that England, as if irritated by 
 the ill success of her policy, seemed to become more oppressive 
 towards neutrals. Odious acts had already been committed by 
 her upon the seas ; but the last exceeded all the bounds, not 
 only of justice, but of the most ordinary prudence. 
 
 This is not the place for entering into all the details of that 
 important dispute ; suffice it to specify its principal points. 
 The neutrals alleged that the war, which certain great nations 
 thought fit to wage with one another, ought not. in any way, 
 to cramp their own trade, nay, that they had a right to pick 
 up that commerce of which the belligerent powers voluntarily 
 deprived themselves. In consequence, they claimed the right 
 of frequenting freely all the ports of the world, of navigating 
 even between the ports of the belligerent nations ; of going, for 
 instance, from France and Spain to England, from England to 
 Spain and France, and, what was more disputable, of going from 
 the colonies to the mother-countries, of going from Mexico to 
 Spain, for the purpose of carrying thither the precious metals, 
 which, but for their intervention, could never have reached 
 Europe. They maintained that "the flag covers the merchan- 
 dise," which means, that the flag of a power, not implicated in 
 the war, covered from every kind of search the merchandise 
 transported in their vessels ; that, on board them, French 
 merchandise could not be seized by the English, nor English 
 merchandise by the French ; as a Frenchman, for instance,
 
 julyiSoo CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 327 
 
 would have been inviolable on the quays of Copenhagen and 
 St. Petersburg for the British power ; in short, that the vessel of 
 a neutral nation was as sacred as the very quays of its capital. 
 
 The neutrals consented to only one exception. They ad- 
 mitted that they ought not to carry goods specially used in 
 war, for it was contrary to the very idea of neutrality that they 
 should supply one of the belligerent nations with arms against 
 the other. But they sought to limit this interdiction solely to 
 articles fabricated for war, such as muskets, cannon, powder, 
 projectiles, materials for accoutrements of every kind, &c. ; and 
 as for provisions, they would not consider any provisions inter- 
 dicted but such as were prepared for the use of armies, such as 
 biscuit, for example. 
 
 If they admitted one exception as to the nature of transport- 
 able merchandise, they admitted another as to the places to bo 
 entered, but on condition that it should be accurately defined. 
 This second exception was relative to the ports bona fide 
 blockaded, and guarded by a naval force capable of laying 
 siege to them, or of reducing them by famine, by means of 
 blockade. In such a case they admitted that to run into a 
 blockaded port was thwarting one of the two nations in the 
 use of its right, by preventing it from taking the places of its 
 enemy by attack or by famine ; that if was consequently afford- 
 ing succour to one of the two against the other. But they 
 insisted that the blockade should be preceded by formal declara- 
 tions, that the blockade should be bond fide, executed by such 
 a force that there would be imminent danger in violating it : 
 and they did not admit that, by a mere declaration of blockade, 
 either party could interdict at pleasure, by means of a pure 
 fiction, the entry into such or such a port, nay, frequently the 
 entire extent of certain coasts. 
 
 Lastly, as it was necessary to ascertain whether a vessel 
 really belonged to the nation whose flag she hoisted, whether 
 or not she carried merchandise called contraband of war. the 
 neutrals consented to be searched, but required that tins search 
 should be made with certain courtesies to be agreed upon and 
 punctually observed. Above all. they considered it as an 
 essential rule that search should not take place if merchant 
 vessels were convoyed by a ship of war. The military or royal 
 fla<r, according to them, ought to enjoy the privilege of being 
 believed on its word, when it affirmed, upon the honour o| its 
 nation, that the vessels under convoy were, in the first place, ol 
 its nation, and, in the next, that they had on board no inter- 
 dicted articles. If it were otherwise, said they, a mere brig, 
 when cruising, might stop a convoy, and with that convoy a 
 fleet of war, perhaps an admiral. Who knows even ? a privateer 
 might stop either M. tie Suifren or Lord N'elx.n.
 
 328 HISTORY OF THE july 1800 
 
 Thus the doctrines maintained by the neutrals may be reduced 
 to four principal points. 
 
 The flag covers the merchandise, that is to say, no search 
 shall be made after an enemy's goods on board a neutral vessel, 
 foreign to the belligerent nations. 
 
 No merchandise is interdicted but contraband of war. This 
 contraband is confined solely to articles made for the use of the 
 armies. Corn, for instance, and naval stores, are not included. 
 
 Access cannot be interdicted to any port, unless it is bond 
 fide blockaded. 
 
 Lastly, no vessel under convoy can be searched. 
 
 Such were the principles maintained by France, Prussia, 
 Denmark, Sweden, Russia, and America, that is to say, by an 
 immense majority of nations : principles, founded on respect for 
 the rights of others, but pertinaciously contested by England. 
 
 She insisted, in fact, that, on these conditions, the commerce 
 of her enemies would be carried on without obstacle by means 
 of the neutrals (which, be it observed by the way, was not 
 correct, for that commerce could not be continued by means 
 of neutrals, without relinquishing to them the greater part of 
 the profits, and causing the nation obliged to have recourse to 
 them to sustain an enormous loss) ; she insisted then on seizing 
 French and Spanish merchandise on board whatever vessel it 
 might be. She maintained that certain commodities, without 
 being fabricated, such as corn and naval stores, were real succours 
 carried to a nation in time of war. She alleged that a declara- 
 tion of blockade was sufficient, without the presence of a naval 
 force, to interdict the entry of certain ports or coasts ; and 
 lastly, that neutrals, upon pretext of being under convoy, could 
 not escape the search of the belligerent powers. 
 
 If the reader wishes to know what was at the bottom of the 
 important interest concealed under these sophistries of the 
 public writers of England, here it is. England was bent on 
 preventing the precious metals of Mexico, the principal source 
 of the opulence of Spain, from being brought to the Spaniards ; 
 to the French sugar and coffee, which they cannot dispense 
 with ; to both the timber, hemp, and iron of the North, neces- 
 sary for their navy. She would fain have it in her power to 
 starve them, in case of a deficient harvest, as she had done in 
 1793, for instance; she sought a pretext for closing the ports 
 of entire countries, without having recourse to a bond fide 
 blockade; lastly, she purposed, by dint of searches, annoy- 
 ances, and obstacles of every kind, to ruin the commerce of all 
 nations, so that war, which, for commercial nations is a state of 
 distress, should become for her merchants, what it actually was, 
 a time of monopoly and of extraordinary prosperity. With 
 regard to the Americans, she had an intention still more unjust,
 
 july 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 329 
 
 namely, to rob them of their seamen upon pretext that they 
 were English, a confusion easy to make, owing to the similarity 
 of the languages. 
 
 In 1780, during the American war, Catherine the Great had 
 formed the league of the neutrals to resist these pretensions. 
 The First Consul, taking advantage of the nascent friendship of 
 Paul, of the increasing irritation of the neutrals, and of the 
 unparalleled violences of the English, made the utmost efforts 
 to form a similar one in 1 800. 
 
 At this moment, the dispute presented itself under one form 
 only, that of the right of search. The Danes and the Swedes, 
 to escape the vexations of the English cruisers, had devised the 
 expedient of sailing in numerous convoys, escorted by frigates 
 bearing the royal flag. It must be added that they never 
 tarnished the honour of their flag, and took good care not to 
 escort false Danes or false Swedes, or to cover contraband of 
 war, as it was called. They studied only how to escape vexa- 
 tions which had become intolerable. But the English, viewing 
 this as a mere subterfuge to elude a difficulty and continue the 
 commerce of neutrals, persisted in exercising the right of search, 
 even in regard to vessels under convoy. 
 
 In the preceding year, two Swedish frigates, the Troy a and 
 the Halla Ferscn, escorting Swedish merchantmen, had been 
 stopped by the English squadrons and obliged to submit to the 
 search of the convoy under their care. The King of Sweden 
 had sent the captains of the two frigates before a court-martial 
 for not defending them. This example had for a moment 
 checked the English, who were apprehensive lest they should 
 provoke a rupture with the northern powers. They had in con- 
 sequence shown a little more lenience to Swedish vessels. But 
 two recent instances had revived the difficulty, and driven 
 Sweden and Denmark to the last degree of exasperation. 
 
 In the winter of 1799-1800, the Danish frigate the Haufersen, 
 Captain Vandockum, who was convoying a fleet of merchantmen 
 in the Mediterranean, was stopped by the squadron of Admiral 
 Keith ; she attempted to resist, was fired upon, and carried into 
 Gibraltar. A most violent dispute ensued on this subject be- 
 tween the English cabinet and the Danish cabinet, and it was 
 still eroino- on. when, in the month of July, the Danish frigate, 
 the Frcya, escorting a convoy of her nation, was met in the 
 Channel by an English squadron. The latter insisted on exer- 
 cising the right of search ; Captain Krabe, commander of the 
 Freya, noblv resisted the summons of the English admiral, 
 and refused to suffer the convoy to be searched. Force was 
 employed with uncalled-for violence; Captain Krabe defended 
 himself; his ship was riddled, and he was obliged to surrender 
 to the superior force of the enemy, for he had but a single
 
 330 HISTORY OF THE july 1800 
 
 frigate to oppose to six men-of-war. The Freya was carried 
 into the Downs. 
 
 This occurrence was soon followed by another, of a different 
 nature, but more odious and more serious. Two Spanish frigates 
 were lying at anchor at the entrance of the road of Barcelona. 
 The English formed a plan for taking them. Here was no 
 question about the right of neutrals, but the perpetration of a 
 piece of downright knavery, for the purpose of entering an 
 enemy's port with impunity, without being recognised. They 
 perceived in these roads a Swedish galliot, the Hoff tiling, and 
 resolved to make use of her for accomplishing the piratical act 
 which they meditated. They manned their boats, boarded the 
 galliot, clapped a pistol to the breast of the Swedish captain, 
 and obliged him to sail quietly towards the Spanish frigates, 
 which, having no mistrust of the Swedish flag, since it was 
 neutral, suffered her to come alongside. The English imme- 
 diately rushed on board, surprised the two frigates, which had 
 few hands on board, took possession of them, and left the 
 harbour of Barcelona with their unworthily acquired prey. 
 
 This event produced an extraordinary sensation in Europe, 
 and incensed all the maritime nations, whose rights the English 
 were no longer satisfied with violating, but whose flag they out- 
 raged, by making it, unknown to itself, subservient to acts of 
 the most infamous piracy. Spain was already at war with Great 
 Britain ; she could do nothing more ; but she had recourse to 
 Sweden, whose flag had been usurped, to denounce this odious 
 fact, more offensive to Sweden than even to Spain. Nothing- 
 more was requisite to embitter the quarrel between England 
 and the neutrals. At this moment especially, the moderation 
 which the First Consul had manifested towards them was of 
 such a nature as to render British violence more glaring. Sweden 
 demanded reparations : Denmark had already demanded them. 
 Behind these two courts was Russia, which, ever since the 
 league of 1780, regarded herself as a copartner with the powers 
 of the Baltic in all questions that interested their maritime 
 rights. 
 
 On the part of Denmark, M. de Bernstorff kept up a brisk 
 controversy with the cabinet of London, by means of notes 
 which France published, and which do equal honour to the 
 minister who wrote them, and to the nation which gave them 
 its signature, and which had soon to support them with its 
 arms. "A mere gunboat," said the English, "carrying the 
 flag of a neutral, is to have a right then to convoy the trade 
 of the world, and to withdraw from our vigilance the commerce 
 of our enemies, which may be carried on as easily in time of war 
 as in time of peace!" "A whole squadron," replied M. de 
 Bernstorff, " would be obliged then to obev the summons of
 
 AUG. 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 331 
 
 the most paltry cruiser, to stop at her requisition, to suffer the 
 convoy which it is escorting to be examined before its face! 
 The word of an admiral, making a declaration upon the honour 
 of his nation, is not to weigh against the doubt of the captain of 
 a privateer, who is to have a right to verify the declaration by 
 a search ! One of these hypotheses is more inadmissible than 
 the other." 
 
 To support its doctrines by means of terror, the English 
 cabinet, which had just sent Lord Whit worth to Copenhagen, 
 despatched after him a squadron of sixteen sail, which was 
 cruising at this moment at the entrance of the Sound. The 
 presence of this squadron produced a strong sensation among 
 all the powers of the Baltic : it alarmed not only Denmark, 
 against which it was directed, but also Sweden, Russia, and 
 Prussia herself, whose commerce was likewise interested in the 
 free navigation of the seas. The four powers which signed the 
 old armed neutrality of 1780 commenced a negotiation, with the 
 avowed purpose of forming a new league against the maritime 
 tyranny of the English. The cabinet of London, which was, 
 nevertheless, afraid of such an event, insisted warmly at Copen- 
 hagen on settling the dispute ; but, so far from offering indem- 
 nities, it had the singular presumption to demand them. It 
 purposed, by frightening Denmark, to withdraw her from the 
 league before it was formed. Unfortunately, Denmark had 
 been taken by surprise ; the Sound was not in a state of de- 
 fence ; Copenhagen was not secured from a bombardment. In 
 this state of things, she was obliged to give way for the moment, 
 with a view to gain the winter season, during which ice would 
 defend the Baltic, and give all the neutrals time to make their 
 preparations for resistance. On the 29th of August (nth 
 Fructidor, year VIII.) Denmark was obliged to sign a conven- 
 tion, in which the question of the law of nations was adjourned, 
 and the last misunderstanding only, which had arisen on the 
 subject of the Frcya, was adjusted. The Freya was to be 
 repaired in the English dockyards and restored; but, for tin' 
 moment at least, the Danish government ceased to furnish 
 convoys for merchantmen. 
 
 This convention had settled nothing. The storm, so far from 
 being dispersed, soon gathered again, for the four northern 
 courts were extremely incensed. The King of Sweden, whose 
 honour was not yet satisfied, prepared for a journey to St. 
 Petersburg, to renew the ancient league of neutrality: and 
 Paul I., who was not fond of middle terms, took at the outlet 
 a most energetic step. Being informed of the dispute with 
 Denmark, and of the presence of a British fleet at the entrance 
 of the Sound, he sequestrated all property belonging to the 
 English, as a security for the injury that might be done to
 
 332 HISTORY OF THE aug. 1800 
 
 Kussian commerce. This measure was to be continued till the 
 intentions of the British government were completely elucidated. 
 
 In the northern courts, therefore, everything tended to 
 favour the designs of the First Consul. Events served him 
 according to his wish. Things went on equally well in the south 
 of Europe, that is, in Spain. Here one of the first monarchies 
 of the globe was seen sinking into dissolution, to the great 
 detriment of the balance of Europe, and to the great grief of a 
 generous nation, indignant at the part which it was made to act 
 in the world. The First Consul, whose indefatigable mind em- 
 braced all objects at once, had already directed the efforts of his 
 policy towards Spain, and sought to derive as much advantage 
 for the common cause as he could from that degenerate court. 
 
 We should not draw the melancholy picture that follows, if 
 it were not true, in the first place, and if it were not necessary, 
 in the next, for understanding the great events of the period. 
 
 The King, the Queen of Spain, and the Prince of Peace 
 had engaged for many years the attention of Europe, and ex- 
 hibited a spectacle extremely dangerous for royalty, at that time 
 already so much lowered in the estimation of nations. One 
 would have said that the illustrious house of Bourbon was des- 
 tined at the close of this century to lose their crowns in France, 
 in Naples, and in Spain : for, in these three kingdoms, three 
 sovereigns of imbecile weakness exposed their sceptres to the 
 derision and the contempt of the world, by leaving them in the 
 hands of three queens, either giddy, violent, or dissolute. 
 
 The Bourbons of France, whether by their own fault, whether 
 through misfortune, were swallowed up by the French Revolu- 
 tion ; by dint of foolishly provoking it, those of Naples had been 
 driven a first time from their capital ; those of Spain, before 
 they let their sceptre drop into the hands of the crowned soldier 
 whom that Revolution had produced, deemed it expedient to 
 pay their court to him. They had already allied themselves 
 with France in the time of the Convention ; they could not but 
 connect themselves with her much more cheerfully now that 
 the Revolution, instead of a sanguinary anarchy, exhibited to 
 them a great man, disposed to protect them if they followed 
 his advice. Happy had it been for these princes, if they had 
 followed the advice, at that time excellent, of this great man ! 
 Happy for himself had he done no more than give, it them ! 
 
 The King of Spain was an honest man, not harsh and blunt 
 like Louis XVI., more agreeable in person, but less informed, 
 and surpassing him in weakness. He rose very early, not to 
 attend to his royal duties, but to hear Masses, and then go 
 down to his workshops, where, surrounded by turners, smiths, 
 and armourers, and stripped of his clothes like them, he wrought 
 in their company at all sorts of work. Though very fond of the
 
 AUG. 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 333 
 
 chase, he liked still better to manufacture arms. From his shops 
 he went to his stables, to assist in dressing his horses, and in- 
 dulged in the most incredible familiarities with his grooms. 
 After spending the first half of the day in this manner, he took 
 a solitary repast, to which neither the queen nor even his chil- 
 dren were admitted, and devoted the rest of the day to the 
 chase. Several hundred horses and servants were set in motion 
 for this daily pleasure, which was his predominant passion. 
 After riding like a young man, he would return to his palace, 
 give a quarter of an hour to his children, half an hour to the 
 signature of the papers submitted to him by the queen and his 
 ministers, sit down to play with some of the nobles of his court, 
 sometimes take a nap with them, till the hour for his last meal, 
 which was followed immediately by his retirement to bed, always 
 at one and the same fixed time. Such was his life, without a 
 single variation throughout the year, unless during Passion 
 Week, which was devoted entirely to religious exercises. In 
 other respects, an honest man, faithful to his word, mild, humane, 
 religious, of exemplary chastity though not cohabiting with his 
 wife, ever since his physicians had, by her direction, ordered him 
 to abstain from it ; he had no other share in the scandals of his 
 court, in the faults of his government, than in suffering them 
 to be committed, without perceiving them, without believing 
 them, during the course of a long reign. 
 
 By his side, the queen, sister of the Duke of Parma, a 
 pupil of Condillac's, who wrote for her and her brother some 
 excellent works of instruction, led a totally different life, and 
 would do very little honour to the celebrated philosophic tutor 
 of her youth, if philosophers could in general answer for their 
 disciples. She was nearly fifty years old, and had still certain 
 vestiges of beauty, which she strove to perpetuate with infinite 
 pains. Going to Mass every day, like the king, she employed 
 in corresponding with a great number of persons, and particu- 
 larly with the Prince of Peace, those hours which Charles IV. 
 spent in his workshops and his stables. In this correspondence 
 she communicated to the Prince of Peace the affairs of court 
 and State, and received from him a report of all the puerilities 
 and scandal of Madrid. She finished her morning by giving 
 one hour to her children, and one to the duties of government. 
 Not a paper, not an appointment, not a pardon, went for the 
 royal signature, before it was submitted to her. The minister 
 who should have ventured upon such an infraction (if the 
 conditions of her favour would have been instantly dismissed. 
 She dined alone, like the king, in the middle of the day ; the 
 rest of the afternoon was devoted to receptions, in which she 
 acquitted herself very gracefully, and to the Prince of Peace, 
 on whom she bestowed several hours of her time every dav.
 
 334 HISTORY OF THE aug. 1800 
 
 The reader is aware that the Prince of Peace was no longer 
 minister, at the period of which we are treating. M. d'Urquijo, 
 whom we shall presently introduce, had succeeded him ; but 
 that prince was nevertheless the first authority in the kingdom. 
 This singular personage, ignorant, fickle, of no capacity, but 
 of handsome exterior, as it is necessary to be in order to suc- 
 ceed in a corrupt court, the arrogant ruler of Queen Louisa, 
 had reigned for twenty years over her vacant and frivolous 
 soul. Weary of his high favour, he shared it cheerfully with 
 obscure favourites, indulged in a thousand debaucheries, which 
 he recounted to his crowned slave, whom he delighted to mor- 
 tify by his stories, nay, even maltreated her, it is said, in the 
 grossest manner ; and yet he retained an absolute empire over 
 that princess, who was incapable of resisting him, who could 
 not be happy unless she saw him every day. After she had 
 long committed the government to him, with the official title 
 of first minister, she gave it up as much to him still, though he 
 no longer had that title ; for nothing was done in Spain but 
 according to his pleasure. He disposed of all the resources of 
 the State ; and he had at home enormous sums in cash, while 
 the treasury, reduced to the greatest straits, made shift with 
 a discredited paper-money, depressed to half its nominal value. 
 The nation was almost habituated to this spectacle; it mani- 
 fested indignation only when some new and extraordinary 
 scandal made the blood mount into the faces of the brave 
 Spaniards, whose heroic resistance soon afterwards proved that 
 they were worthy of a different government. At the moment 
 when Europe rang with the great events occurring on the 
 Po and the Danube, the court of Spain was the theatre of an 
 unheard-of scandal, which had well-nigh exhausted the patience 
 of the nation. The Prince of Peace, proceeding from one excess 
 to another, had finished by marrying a relation of the royal 
 family. A child was born from this union. The king and 
 queen, resolving themselves to stand sponsors for the new-born 
 infant, had the ceremony performed with all the etiquette 
 customary at the baptism of Infants of Spain. The highest 
 nobles of the court were obliged to perform the same duty that 
 would have been required of them if the child had been the 
 offspring of royalty. On this infant in long-clothes had been 
 conferred the great orders of the crown and magnificent pre- 
 sents. The grand-inquisitor had officiated at the religious 
 ceremony. This time, it is true, indignation had risen to the 
 highest pitch, and every Spaniard had considered himself as 
 personally insulted by this odious proceeding. Things had 
 come to such a pass that the Spanish ministers opened their 
 minds upon the subject to the foreign ambassadors, and par- 
 ticularly to the ambassador of France, to whom they usually
 
 AUG. 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 335 
 
 had recourse in most of their embarrassments, and who re- 
 ceived from their own lips the shocking particulars which we 
 are here relating. 
 
 Amidst these scandalous proceedings, the king alone, kept 
 under continual espionage by his wife, neither knew nor sus- 
 pected what was passing. Neither the outcry of his subjects, 
 nor the occasional revolt of some of the grandees of Spain, in- 
 dignant at the degradation that was required of them, nor the 
 inexplicable assiduities of the Prince of Peace, could open his 
 eyes. This poor good-natured king even used sometimes to 
 make this singular remark, which embarrassed all present who 
 were doomed to hear it : " My brother of Naples is a blockhead, 
 who suffers himself to be ruled by his wife." It should be 
 added that the Prince of the Asturias, since Ferdinand VII., 
 brought up at a distance from the court and with incredible 
 harshness, detested the favourite, whose criminal influence he 
 was aware of, and that his just hatred for the favourite was at 
 last converted in his mind into an involuntary hatred for his 
 father and mother. 
 
 What a spectacle, at the conclusion of the eighteenth and the 
 beginning of the nineteenth century, when the throne of France 
 had recently sunk with a crash, and when a young warrior, 
 simple, austere, indefatigable, full of genius, had just raised 
 himself upon its ruins ! How long could the Spanish monarchy 
 withstand the dangerous effect of this contrast ! 
 
 Amidst these disorders, the house of Spain was at times 
 overtaken by confused presentiments, and began to feel some 
 apprehensions of a Revolution. The ancient attachment of the 
 Spaniards to royalty and to religion served, it is true, to cheer 
 it ; but it was afraid that Revolution would come by the way of 
 the Pyrenees, and therefore sought to dispel the danger by im- 
 plicit deference towards the French Republic. The incredible 
 violence of the English cabinet, the passionate outbursts of 
 Paul I. against that house, on the formation of the second 
 coalition, had thrown it completely into our arms. It regarded 
 this as advantageous, nay, honourable, since General P.onaparte 
 had ennobled, by his presence in the seat of power, all the 
 relations of the cabinets with the government of the Republic. 
 
 The good king Charles IV. had conceived, though at a dis- 
 
 Oct > ct 
 
 tance, a sort of friendship for the First Consul. This feeling 
 became stronger every day, and il is painful to think how this 
 singular attachment was destined to terminate, without treachery 
 on the part of France, but by an inconceivable concatenation 
 of circumstances. "What a great man is General llona parte !"' 
 Charles IV. was incessantly saying. The queen said so too, 
 but more coldly, because the Prince of Peace, disposed some- 
 times to censure what the court of Spain did since he was no
 
 336 HISTORY OF THE atjg. 1800 
 
 longer minister, seemed to blame the partiality that was shown 
 to the government of France. Meanwhile the First Consul, 
 informed by M. Alquier, our ambassador, a man of superior 
 understanding and sagacity, that he must absolutely secure at 
 Madrid the good-will of the Prince of Peace, the First Consul 
 had sent to that favourite some magnificent arms, made at the 
 manufactory of Versailles. This attention on the part of the 
 greatest personage in Europe had touched the vanity of the 
 Prince of Peace. Some attentions of our ambassador had com- 
 pletely won him, and thenceforward the whole court of Spain 
 seemed to give itself up to us without reserve. 
 
 From d'Urquijo, the minister, alone was a slight resistance 
 experienced. He was a man of eccentric character, naturally 
 an enemy to the Prince of Peace, whom he had succeeded, and 
 liking General Bonaparte not much better. M. d'Urquijo, of 
 plebeian extraction, and endowed with some energy, having 
 drawn upon himself the enmity of the clergy and of the court 
 through some insignificant reforms which he had attempted, 
 inclined, in an astonishing manner for a Spaniard of that time, 
 towards revolutionary ideas. He was connected with many 
 French demagogues, and participated to a certain point in their 
 aversion for the First Consul. He had the merit of desiring 
 to reform the most crying abuses, of striving, for instance, to 
 diminish the revenues of the clergy and the jurisdiction of the 
 agents of the court of Kome. To these measures he was striving 
 to obtain his Holiness' assent ; and in making this attempt he 
 had exposed himself to serious dangers. Having, in fact, the 
 Prince of Peace against him, he must be undone, if the Piomish 
 influence were to unite with the domestic influence in the 
 palace to overthrow him. Touched with some attentions paid 
 him by M. Alquier, witnessing, moreover, the partiality of the 
 king and queen, M. d'Urquijo at length began, in his turn, to 
 admire General Bonaparte, whom it was not only natural, but 
 at that time quite the fashion, to admire. 
 
 The partiality of the king soon became unbounded. Having 
 seen the arms sent to the Prince of Peace, he conceived and 
 expressed a wish to have some of the same sort. Some mag- 
 nificent specimens were manufactured forthwith, and he re- 
 ceived them with real joy. The queen also wished for dresses, 
 and Madame Bonaparte, who was celebrated for her taste, sent 
 all the most exquisite and elegant productions of that kind in 
 Paris. Charles IV., generous as a Castilian, unwilling to be 
 behindhand, took care to make a right royal return. Knowing 
 that horses would be acceptable to the First Consul, he stripped 
 the studs of Aranjuez, Medina Coeli, and Altamira of their 
 handsomest inmates, to find first six, then twelve, then sixteen 
 horses, the finest in the Peninsula. One cannot tell where he
 
 AUG. 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 337 
 
 would have stopped, had he not been cheeked in his ardour. 
 He took two months to select them himself, and nobody could 
 have performed the task better, for he was a consummate 
 judge. He appointed, moreover, a numerous train to accom- 
 pany them to France, chose his best grooms for this mission, 
 clothed them in magnificent liveries, and imposed but one con- 
 dition on all this parade, namely, that, while travelling in 
 France, his grooms should attend Mass every Sunday. A 
 promise was given that his desire should be "complied with, 
 and his joy at making a handsome present to the First Consul 
 was then unalloyed. Though fond of France, this excellent 
 prince had a notion that it was impossible for a man to live in 
 that country many days, without wholly forsaking the religion 
 of his forefathers. 
 
 The 4clat of these demonstrations suited well the views of the 
 First Consul. It gratified him ; he thought it useful to show 
 to Europe, and even to France, the successors of Charles V., 
 the descendants of Louis XIV., taking honour to themselves 
 from their personal relations with him. But he sought more 
 solid advantages in his diplomatic relations, and aimed at a 
 more important object. 
 
 The King and Queen of Spain were passionately fond of one 
 of their children, the Infanta Maria Louisa, wife of the Here- 
 ditary Prince of Parma. The queen, sister, as we have said, of 
 the reigning Duke of Parma, had united her daughter to her 
 nephew, and concentrated upon this couple her fondest affec- 
 tions ; for she was most ardently attached to the house from 
 which she sprang. She meditated an aggrandisement for that 
 house in Italy, and, as Italy was at the disposal of the conqueror 
 of Marengo, it was on him that she rested all her hopes of 
 obtaining the accomplishment of her wishes. The First Consul, 
 apprised of those wishes, took care not to neglect this way of 
 arriving at his ends; and he despatched to Madrid his faithful 
 Berthier, in order to profit by the circumstance that presented 
 itself. This was the first subject of his attention on his return 
 from Marengo. If he had sent one of his aides-de-camp to 
 Berlin and to Vienna, he resolved to do more for the court of 
 Spain; he resolved to send thither the man who had the largest 
 share in his glory; for Berthier was then the Parmenio of the 
 modern Alexander. 
 
 It was at the very moment when the First Consul was nego- 
 tiating the preliminaries of peace with M. de St. Julicn. when 
 he was seducing the inflammable heart of Paul I., and fomenting 
 in the North the quarrel of the neutral powers; it was at this 
 moment that he despatched Ceneral Berthier in all haste to 
 Madrid. He set out towards the end of August (beginning 
 of Fructidor), without oilicial title, but with the certainty <>f 
 
 vol. 1. v
 
 338 HISTORY OF THE aug. 1800 
 
 producing a great effect by his mere presence, and with secret 
 powers for treating on the most important subjects. 
 
 His journey embraced several objects ; the first was, to visit 
 the principal seaports of the Peninsula, to ascertain their state 
 and their resources, and, money in hand, to urge expeditions for 
 Malta and for Egypt. Berthier quickly performed this task, and 
 then hastened to Madrid to fulfil the more important mission 
 with which he was charged. The First Consul was quite willing 
 to grant an increase of territory to the house of Parma ; he was 
 even disposed to add to this aggrandisement a new title, that 
 of king, which would have crowned the wishes of the queen ; 
 but he required to be paid for these concessions in two ways : 
 firstly, by the restitution of Louisiana to France ; secondly, by 
 a threatening injunction to the court of Portugal, for the purpose 
 of deciding it to make peace with the Republic and to break 
 with England. 
 
 The motives of the First Consul for requiring such conditions 
 were these : — Since Kleber's death, he began to be uneasy about 
 the preservation of Egypt, and he shared with all his contem- 
 poraries the ambition of distant possessions. The rivalry between 
 France and England, which, for a century past, had fought solely 
 for the East and West Indies, had inflamed to the highest degree 
 the passion for possessing colonies. In case of Egypt being 
 wrested from us, the First Consul wished to achieve something 
 for the colonial greatness of France. He cast his eye over the 
 map of the world, and beheld a magnificent province, situated 
 between Mexico and the United States, formerly belonging to 
 France, ceded, in a time of abasement, by Louis XV., to Charles 
 III., seriously threatened by the English and the Americans, so 
 long as it should be in the impotent hands of the Spaniards, of 
 little value to the latter, who possessed half the American con- 
 tinent, but of great value to the French, who had no possession 
 in that part of America, and capable of being made productive, 
 when the activity of the latter should be specially concen- 
 trated on its territory : this province was Louisiana. If Egypt, 
 lost to us, could no longer furnish us with a compensation for 
 St. Domingo, the First Consul hoped to find it in Louisiana. 
 
 He demanded it formally, therefore, of Spain, as the price of 
 an acquisition in Italy. He required, in addition, that part of 
 the Spanish fleet blocked up in the roads of Brest should be 
 given to him. As for Portugal, he wished to take advantage of 
 the geographical position of Spain in regard to that country, and 
 of the ties of consanguinity which united the two reigning houses 
 of the Peninsula, to detach it from the alliance with England. 
 The Prince of Brazil, Eegent of Portugal, was, in fact, son-in-law 
 of the King and Queen of Spain. The court of Madrid, there- 
 fore, possessed not only the power of neighbourhood, but also
 
 aug. 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 339 
 
 family influence, and it was a fit occasion for employing this 
 twofold medium for driving the English from this part of the 
 Continent. The English, once excluded from Portugal, when the 
 coasts of Prussia, Denmark, Eussia, and Sweden were about to 
 be closed against them, when Xaples, doomed to submit to the 
 will of France, was going to receive orders to forbid them her 
 ports — the English would soon be excluded from the whole of 
 the Continent. 
 
 Such were the proposals which Berthier was ordered to carry 
 to Madrid. He was cordially received by the king, the queen, 
 the Prince of Peace, and by all the grandees of Spain, curious 
 to see the man, whose name always figured beside that of 
 General Bonaparte in the military bulletins of these times. The 
 conditions of France appeared hard, yet no serious resistance 
 could be made to them. D'Urquijo, the minister, alone, fearing 
 the e fleet which this cession might produce upon the Spaniards, 
 showed rather more opposition than the court. Peasons incon- 
 testably good were adduced to make him easy. He was told 
 that it would take a large extent of territory on the yet unin- 
 habited banks of the Mississippi to form an equivalent for the 
 smallest possessions in Italy ; that the Spaniards needed, in the 
 Gulf of Mexico, allies such as the French against the English 
 and the Americans ; that, if Louisiana was of great value to 
 France, stripped of all her colonial possessions, it was of scarcely 
 any to Spain, already so rich in the Xew World; that an increase 
 of influence in Italy would be worth more to Spain than a 
 distant territory, situated in a region where she had more land 
 than she could work and defend ; that it was an ancient French 
 possession, wrung from the weakness of Louis XV, and which 
 Charles III. himself, with that upright spirit which was known 
 to all the world, had for a moment refused, so convinced was 
 he that it was not his due. These reasons were excellent, and 
 assuredly, under these circumstances, Spain was not asked to 
 give more than she received. But what decided M. d'Urquijo 
 more than all the best arguments, was the fear of offending 
 France, and thwarting a combination to which his court was 
 attached with a sort of passion. 
 
 An eventual treaty was agreed upon. By this treaty, the 
 First Consul promised to obtain for the Duke of Parma an in- 
 crease of dominions in Italy of about 1,200,000 souls ; to ensure 
 to him, moreover, the title of king, and the acknowledgment 
 of this new rank by all the sovereigns of Europe, at the general 
 peace. As soon as part of these conditions were fulfilled. Spain, 
 in return, was to cede back to France Louisiana, with the 
 same extent of territory which that province had when it was 
 ceded by Louis XV. to Charles III , and to give, moreover, six 
 ships of the line, rigged, armed, ready to receive their crews.
 
 340 HISTORY OF THE aug. 1800 
 
 This treaty, signed by Berthier at Madrid, filled the queen with 
 joy, and raised the infatuation of the court of Spain for the 
 First Consul to the highest pitch. 
 
 The last condition, which had for its object to force Portugal 
 to break with England, was easy, for it was as accordant with 
 the interests of Spain as with those of France. Spain, in fact, 
 was equally interested with France in weakening the power of 
 England, and above all in excluding her from the Continent. In 
 this the First Consul did no more than rouse her from her unpar- 
 donable apathy, and urge her to make use of an influence which 
 she ought long since to have employed. He went still further 
 in his plans relative to this point : he proposed to Charles IV., 
 if the court of Lisbon should not comply immediately with 
 the injunction given it, to pass the frontiers of Portugal with 
 an army, to seize one or two provinces, and to keep them as 
 pledges, for the purpose of afterwards obliging England to re- 
 store the Spanish colonies which she had taken, in order to save 
 the dominions of her ally. For his part, if Charles IV. did not 
 conceive himself strong enough to undertake this enterprise, 
 he offered him the assistance of a French army. That kind- 
 hearted king did not ask for so much. The Prince of Brazil 
 was his son-in-law ; he had no wish, therefore, to take provinces 
 from him, even though they were only to serve as pledges for 
 the restitution of Spanish provinces. But he addressed to him 
 the most pressing exhortations, and even added threats of war, 
 if his advice was not attended to. The court of Lisbon promised 
 to send a negotiator immediately to Madrid, to confer with the 
 ambassador of France. 
 
 Berthier returned to Paris loaded with the favours of the 
 court of Spain, and could assure the First Consul that he had 
 friends entirely devoted to him in Madrid. The magnificent 
 horses sent by Charles IV. arrived nearly about the same time, 
 and were presented to the First Consul in the Place du Carrousel, 
 at one of those great reviews, in which he delighted to show to 
 the Parisians and to foreigners the soldiers who had conquered 
 Europe. An immense concourse of curious persons came to 
 see those beautiful animals and those grooms in splendid live- 
 ries, which reminded the spectator of the pageantries of ancient 
 monarchy, and bore evidence to the respect, the extraordinary 
 attentions, of the oldest courts of Europe for the new head of 
 the French Eepublic. 
 
 At this moment, three American negotiators, Messrs. Oliver 
 Ellsworth, Bichardson Davie, and Van Murray, sent to reconcile 
 France and the United States, arrived in Paris. That Eepublic, 
 swayed by interest much more than gratitude, above all, 
 governed at that time by the policy of the Federalist party, 
 had drawn closer to Great Britain during the late war, and had
 
 aug. 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 341 
 
 been wanting not only to France but likewise to herself in desert- 
 ing the principles of the maritime neutrality. Forgetful of the 
 treaty of alliance of 1778, to which she owed her existence, a 
 treaty which bound her not to grant to others commercial advan- 
 tages which were not at the same time extended to the French, 
 she had conceded extraordinary and exclusive advantages to 
 Great Britain. Giving up the principle that " the flag covers 
 the goods," she had admitted that an enemy's property may be 
 searched for on board a neutral bottom, and seized if its origin 
 were ascertained. This conduct was alike impolitic and dis- 
 honourable. The Directory, naturally much irritated, had had 
 recourse to the system of reprisals, declaring that France would 
 treat neutrals as they suffered England to treat them. Proceed- 
 ing from one harsh step to another, it had come to a state of 
 almost declared war with America, but without actual hostilities. 
 
 Such was the state of things which the First Consul had it 
 much at heart to put an end to. We have seen what honours 
 he paid to Washington, with the twofold intention of produc- 
 ing an effect both at home and abroad : he appointed three 
 plenipotentiaries, his brother Joseph Bonaparte, and the two 
 councillors of State Fleurieu and Picederer, to arrange matters 
 with the American plenipotentiaries, and earnestly pressed the 
 conclusion of the negotiation, in order to give England very 
 soon a new adversary, by placing another power on the list of 
 those who would engage to cause the true principles of maritime 
 neutrality to be observed. The first obstacle to a reconciliation 
 was the article by which the United States promised to France 
 a share in the commercial advantages granted by her to all 
 nations. This obligation not to concede anything to others 
 without conceding as much to us occasioned the Americans 
 great embarrassment. Their negotiators manifested no dis- 
 position to yield on this point, but appeared ready to acknow- 
 ledge and to defend the rights of neutrals, and to re-establish. 
 in their stipulations with France, the principles which they 
 had abandoned in treating with England. The First Consul, 
 who was much more tenacious of the principles of the maritime 
 neutrality than of the commercial advantages of the treaty of 
 1778, which had become illusory in practice, the First Consul 
 directed his brother to waive the point, and to conclude an 
 arrangement with the American envoys, provided there could 
 be obtained from them a complete and formal recognition of 
 the principles of the law of nations which it was important to 
 enforce. This difficulty removed, the parties soon agreed about 
 all the rest, and at this moment a treaty of reconciliation was 
 preparing to be signed with the United States. 
 
 Another reconciliation, of much greater importance still, that 
 of the Kepublic with the Holy See, began to produce its fruit.
 
 342 HISTORY OF THE aug. 1800 
 
 The new Pope, elected in the vague hope of an accommodation 
 with France, had beheld this hope, to which he owed his 
 elevation, realised. General Bonaparte, as we have related, 
 returning from Marengo, had transmitted some overtures to 
 Pius VII. through Cardinal Martiniana, Bishop of Vercelli, assur- 
 ing him that he had no intention to re-establish the Roman 
 and Parthenopean Republics, instituted by the Directory. He 
 had certainly enough to do in Italy, with the Cisalpine Re- 
 public to constitute, to direct, and to defend against the policy 
 and the interests of all Europe. General Bonaparte required 
 in return that the new pontiff should lend the aid of his 
 spiritual authority in re-establishing peace and concord in 
 France. The Pope joyfully received Count Alciati, nephew of 
 Cardinal Martiniana, who was charged to carry the overtures 
 of the First Consul ; he sent him back immediately to Vercelli, 
 to declare, in his name, that though disposed to co-operate 
 with the First Consul, in effecting an object so important and 
 so dear to the Church, still he wished first to be made ac- 
 quainted in a somewhat more precise manner with the views 
 of the French cabinet. The cardinal, in consequence, wrote 
 from Vercelli to Paris, to communicate the dispositions and 
 the wishes of the new Pope. The First Consul, in reply, asked 
 for a negotiator, with whom he could enter into direct ex- 
 planation, and the Pope immediately appointed Monsignor 
 Spina, Bishop of Corinth, nuncio of the Holy See at Florence. 
 This envoy, having first repaired to Vercelli, resolved to set 
 out for France, at the urgent solicitation of the First Consul, 
 who, by bringing this negotiation under his own eye, thought 
 to make the more sure of its success. On the part of the First 
 Consul, it was a ticklish step to bring to Paris a representative 
 of the Holy See, especially in the state of the public mind, 
 which was not yet prepared for a sight of this kind. It was 
 agreed that Monsignor Spina should not have any official title, 
 and that he should profess himself to be Bishop of Corinth, 
 charged to treat with the French government on the affairs 
 of the Roman government. 
 
 During these negotiations, so actively and so ably conducted 
 with all the powers, M. de St. Julien, who had signed and was 
 the bearer of the preliminaries of peace, had proceeded for 
 Vienna, accompanied by Duroc. Aware of the imprudence of 
 his conduct, he had not concealed from M. de Talleyrand that 
 he was not sure he should be able to take Duroc on to Vienna. 
 The illusion of the minister would not allow him to give heed 
 to this difficulty ; and it was agreed that M. de St. Julien and 
 Duroc should take the headquarters of M. de Kray, established 
 at Alt-CEttingen, near the Inn, in their way, to obtain from 
 that general passports permitting Duroc to enter Austria.
 
 aug. 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 343 
 
 They reached the headquarters on the 4th of August 1800 
 (16th Thermidor, year VIIL), but Duroc was detained, and not 
 suffered to pass the limit fixed by the armistice. This was a 
 first and by no means favourable sign of the reception which 
 the preliminaries were likely to meet with. M. de St. Julien 
 then set off alone for Vienna, telling Duroc that he would 
 apply for passports for him and send them to the head- 
 quarters if he obtained them. M. de St. Julien then sought 
 audience of the emperor, and delivered to him the articles 
 which he had signed in Paris, on condition of ratification and 
 secrecy. The emperor was greatly surprised and dissatisfied 
 at the extraordinary latitude which M. de St. Julien had 
 given to his instructions. It was not precisely the conditions 
 contained in the preliminary articles which displeased him : 
 it was the fear of being compromised with England, which 
 had just assisted him with her money, and was extremely 
 suspicious. He was prepared, it is true, to go so far as to 
 communicate part of his intentions, for the purpose of dis- 
 covering those of the First Consul ; but he would not at any 
 price have signed any document whatever, for that would infer 
 a negotiation opened without the participation of the British 
 cabinet. Therefore, in spite of the danger of provoking a 
 storm on the part of France, the imperial cabinet resolved to 
 disavow M. de St. Julien. That officer was publicly very ill- 
 treated, and sent into a sort of exile in one of the remote 
 provinces of the empire. The preliminaries were considered 
 as null, having been signed, though provisionally, by an agent 
 without character and without powers. Duroc received no 
 passports, and, after waiting till the 13th of August (25th 
 Thermidor), he was obliged to return to Paris. 
 
 All this, independently of the delay in the conclusion of 
 peace which it created, was very disagreeable to say to the First 
 Consul; and Austria had reason to fear the effect of such a 
 communication on his irritable character. It was very possible 
 that he might leave Paris immediately, put himself at the head 
 of the armies of the Republic, and march upon Vienna. The 
 court of Austria resolved, therefore, while disavowing the pre- 
 liminaries, not to make a rupture of that disavowal, and to 
 propose to the French government the immediate opening of a 
 congress. Lord Minto, representative of the British cabinet at 
 Vienna, consented to suiter Austria to negotiate, but on con- 
 dition that England should be a party to the negotiation. It 
 was agreed with him to propose diplomatic conferences in which 
 England and Austria should alike take part. In consequence, 
 M. de Thugut wrote to M. de Talleyrand, under date of the 
 iith of August (23rd Thermidor), thai, though disavowing 
 the imprudent conduct of M. de St. Julien, the emperor was
 
 344 HISTORY OF THE aug. 1800 
 
 nevertheless earnestly desirous of peace ; that he, therefore, 
 proposed the immediate opening of a congress, in France itself, 
 at Schelestadt, or Luneville, whichever the French government 
 pleased ; that Great Britain was ready to send a plenipoten- 
 tiary ; and that, if the First Consul assented to this, a general 
 peace might soon be restored to the world. The whole was 
 clothed in the language most likely to soothe the impetuous 
 disposition of him who then governed France. 
 
 When the First Consul received these tidings, he was highly 
 irritated. He was offended, in the first place, at the disavowal 
 of the officer who had treated with him, and in the next, he 
 saw with mortification that peace was deferred. He perceived, 
 above all, in the presence of England at the negotiation, a cause 
 of interminable delays ; for there was much more difficulty in 
 concluding a maritime than a continental peace. On the spur 
 of the moment, and under the influence of a first impression, he 
 was for raising an outcry, denouncing Austria as having violated 
 her faith, and commencing hostilities forthwith. M. de Talley- 
 rand, sensible that he had himself done wrong in treating with 
 a plenipotentiary without powers, endeavoured to pacify the 
 First Consul. The matter was submitted to the Council of 
 State. This great body, which is now nothing more than an 
 administrative tribunal, was then a real council of government. 
 The minister laid before it a detailed report. " The First 
 Consul," said he in his report, " has thought fit to convoke an 
 extraordinary meeting of the Council of State, and, trusting to 
 its discretion as well as to its wisdom, he has charged me to 
 communicate to it the most minute details of the negotiation 
 which has taken place with the court of Vienna." Having 
 unfolded that negotiation, as one might have done before a 
 council of ministers, M. de Talleyrand acknowledged that the 
 Austrian plenipotentiary had no powers ; that, in negotiating 
 with him, the possibility of a disavowal ought to have been fore- 
 seen ; that, in consequence, there was no establishing a polemiquc 
 d'apparat on this subject ; and that a violent outbreak ought to 
 be avoided. But, referring to the example of the negotiations 
 for the peace of Westphalia, which had long preceded the sig- 
 nature of the treaty of Munster, and during which the parties 
 continued to negotiate and fight, he proposed that the opening 
 of a congress should be agreed to, and at the same time that 
 hostilities should be recommenced. 
 
 This was, in fact, the wisest course that could be pursued. It 
 was expedient to treat, since the hostile powers had made France 
 an offer to do so, but also to profit by the state of our armies, quite 
 ready to take the field afresh, and that of the Austrian armies 
 not yet recovered from their defeats, to force Austria to negotiate 
 in earnest, and to separate herself from Great Britain.
 
 aug. 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 345 
 
 There was, however, one thing which might be tried that had 
 also its advantages ; and the First Consul discovered it with 
 his usual sagacity. England proposed a joint negotiation. In 
 admitting her to a congress, there was a danger of introducing 
 a contracting party in no hurry to conclude, and the danger, 
 more especially, of clogging the continental peace with all the 
 difficulties of the maritime peace : time would, therefore, elapse 
 in negotiations either insincere or rendered more diificult ; the 
 season for fighting would be suffered to pass away, and thus the 
 Austrian armies would gain a respite which they greatly needed. 
 These were serious inconveniences. But a compensation might 
 be found for them all ; it was this : since England desired to be 
 admitted to the negotiation, to admit her, but on one condition, 
 that of concluding a naval armistice also. If England assented 
 to this, the benefits of the naval armistice would far surpass 
 the inconveniences of the continental armistice ; for our fleets, 
 navigating wherever they pleased, would be enabled to provision 
 Malta and to carry soldiers and mat&riel to Egypt. For such an 
 advantage, the First Consul would gladly have run the risk of 
 an extra campaign on the Continent. A naval armistice was 
 no doubt something quite new, quite unusual, in the law of 
 nations ; but it was fair that the Anglo-Austrian alliance should 
 pay in some manner for the sacrifice which we made on our 
 part in suspending the march of our legions for Vienna. 
 
 We had residing in London a discreet and skilful negotiator, 
 M. Otto, who was there for the purpose of treating of matters 
 relative to the prisoners of war. He had even been chosen by 
 our cabinet, with a view to make use of him on the first occasion, 
 either to make or to listen to overtures. He was instructed 
 specially to address himself to the British cabinet, and plumply 
 propose the question of a naval armistice. In this mode of 
 proceeding the First Consul found the advantage of getting on 
 faster, and of negotiating his business directly, which he always 
 liked to do better than to employ agents. On the 24th (if 
 August (6th Fructidor, year VIII.), instructions conformable 
 with this new plan of negotiation were sent to M. Otto. On the 
 same day, the communications from Vienna were answered in a 
 very harsh tone. In this answer, the refusal to admit the pre- 
 liminaries was attributed to the subsidiary treaty signed en the 
 20th of June last ; the French government disdainfully deplored 
 the dependence in which the emperor was placed in regard to 
 England; it assented to a congress at Luneville, hut added, that 
 they must nevertheless fight while negotiating, because, in pro- 
 posing a joint negotiation, Austria had not taken the precaution 
 to provide, as a natural condition, for a suspension of arms by laud 
 and sea. This was one way of inducing Austrian diplomacy itself 
 to make an effort in London for obtaining a naval armistice.
 
 346 HISTORY OF THE sept. 1800 
 
 Negotiations were opened in London between M. Otto and 
 Captain George, the head of the Transport Office. They lasted 
 during the whole month of September. M. Otto proposed, on 
 the part of France, that hostilities should be suspended by land 
 and sea ; that all the vessels both of commerce and war of the 
 belligerent nations should be allowed to sail freely ; that the 
 ports belonging to France, or occupied by her armies, such as 
 Malta and Alexandria, should be assimilated to the fortresses of 
 Philipsburg, Ulm, and Ingolstadt, in Germany, which, though 
 blockaded by our armies, were nevertheless to receive provisions 
 and supplies. M. Otto, treating frankly, admitted that France 
 would derive great advantages from this arrangement ; but he 
 added, that she ought to have very great advantages, to com- 
 pensate her for the concession which she made in suffering 
 the summer to pass away without completing the destruction 
 of the Austrian forces. 
 
 The sacrifice required of England in this demand was one 
 which nothing was capable of wringing from her. It would, in 
 fact, be permitting the revictualling of Malta and Egypt, and 
 thus perhaps ensuring for ever those two possessions to France ; 
 it would also be permitting the grand combined French and 
 Spanish fleet to leave Brest, to sail into the Mediterranean, and 
 to take a position there, which would render it afresh master of 
 that sea for a longer or a shorter time. England, therefore, 
 could not assent to such a proposal. Still the danger of Austria 
 touched her deeply ; she had an important interest in not 
 suffering her to be crushed ; for, if Austria were crushed, 
 General Bonaparte, having the full command of his means, 
 would be able to attempt some formidable enterprise against 
 the British Islands. In consequence, she deemed it expedient 
 to make sacrifices to an interest of this kind ; and, while crying 
 out against the strangeness of a naval armistice, she presented 
 a counter-project, dated the 7th of September 1800 (20th 
 Fructidor, year VIII.). To begin with, she assented to Lune- 
 ville as the place of the congress, and appointed Mr. Thomas 
 Grenville, brother of the minister for foreign affairs, to treat 
 for the general peace. She next proposed the following system 
 respecting the naval armistice. All hostilities were to be 
 suspended by land and sea : the suspension of arms was to 
 extend not only to the three belligerent parties, Austria, 
 England, and France, but to their allies. This arrangement 
 was designed to deliver Portugal from the threatening remon- 
 strances of Spain. The maritime places which were blockaded, 
 such as Malta and Alexandria, were to be assimilated to the 
 places in Germany and to be provisioned every fortnight in 
 proportion to the consumption which had taken place during 
 the interval of time elasped. The ships of the line lying at
 
 sept. 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 347 
 
 Brest and other ports were not to be at liberty to change their 
 station during the armistice. 
 
 This counter-project was, on the part of England, rather a 
 testimony of good-will towards Austria than an actual con- 
 cession on the important point of the negotiation. Malta 
 might, no doubt, gain something by being provisioned for a few 
 months ; but Egypt needed no provisions. It was soldiers, 
 muskets, cannon, that it wanted, and not corn, which it had to 
 spare to all the world. 
 
 France, however, by yielding on some points, might still find 
 in the naval armistice advantages sufficiently great to induce its 
 acceptance, even with modifications. 
 
 On the 21st of September (the 4th complementary day of the 
 year VIII.), the First Consul made a proposal, which was the 
 last. He consented that ships of the line should not be allowed 
 to change their station, which condemned the combined squadron 
 of Spain and France to remain blocked up in Brest ; he required 
 that Malta should be revictualled every tifteen days, at the rate 
 of 10,000 rations per day; he consented that Egypt should con- 
 tinue blockaded ; but he required that six frigates should have 
 liberty to leave Toulon, to sail to Alexandria, and to return 
 without being searched by the British cruisers. 
 
 His intention here was clear enough, and he was right not to 
 disguise an interest, which every one would have guessed at 
 first sight. He meant to arm these six frigates en jlutc, to load 
 them with men and munitions of war, and to send them to 
 Egypt. He hoped that they might be made to carry 4000 
 soldiers, a great quantity of muskets, swords, bombs, balls, &c. 
 He had, therefore, sacrificed everything, to confine himself to 
 his main object, the revictualling of Malta and the recruiting 
 of the army in Egypt. 
 
 But the difficulty, what effort soever might be made on both 
 sides to diminish it, remained at bottom the same. The object 
 was to preserve Malta and Egypt for France, two points upon 
 which England would not give way. Thus there were no means 
 of coming to an understanding. The negotiation was relin- 
 quished, on the refusal in London to admit the last plan for a 
 naval armistice. 
 
 Before these parleys were definitively broken oil', the First 
 Consul, by way of courtesy, made a final proposal to England. 
 He offered to renounce all armistice, and, nevertheless, to treat 
 with her, but in a separate negotiation from that which was 
 about to commence with Austria. 
 
 It was now September 1800. Several months had been spent 
 in sterile negotiations since the victories of Marengo and Hoch- 
 stett, and the First Consul would not waste any more time 
 without actinc:.
 
 348 HISTORY OF THE sept. 1800 
 
 Austria, when threatened, had replied that she could not force 
 England to sign a naval armistice ; that she offered, for her own 
 part, to negotiate immediately ; that she had appointed M. de 
 Lherbach to repair to Luneville ; that he was about to proceed 
 thither forthwith ; that Mr. Thomas Grenville was waiting, on 
 his part, for passports; that they could, therefore, negotiate 
 without delay ; but that it was not necessary to resume hos- 
 tilities during the negotiations, and to spill more torrents of 
 human blood. The First Consul, who perceived the secret 
 intention of protracting till winter should arrive, determined, 
 at length, on resuming hostilities, and had issued his orders 
 accordingly. He had employed to good purpose the two months 
 which had elapsed, and put a finishing hand to the organisation 
 of the armies. His new arrangements in respect to them were 
 as follows : — 
 
 Moreau, as we have said, had been obliged to send General 
 St. Suzanne upon the lihine with some detachments, for the 
 purpose of uniting the garrisons of Mayence and Strasburg, and 
 making head against the partisans raised by Baron d'Albini in 
 the heart of Germany. The army of Moreau was in conse- 
 quence weakened, and, at the same time, the force so collected 
 was insufficient to cover his rear. The First Consul, to ward 
 off all danger in that quarter, had hastened to complete the 
 Batavian army, placed under the command of Augereau. He 
 had formed it of 8000 Dutch and 12,000 French, drawn from 
 the troops which guarded Holland and the departments of the 
 North. These troops, the most worn down by the preceding 
 campaigns, reinvigorated since by rest, reinforced by recruits, 
 now constituted excellent corps. Augereau had marched to 
 Frankfort, where he awed by his presence the Mayence levies 
 of Baron d'Albini and the Austrian detachments left in the 
 environs. This precaution taken, the corps of St. Suzanne re- 
 organised, nearly 18,000 strong, had returned to the Danube, 
 and again formed the left wing of Moreau. His return raised 
 the active army of the Bhine to more than 100,000 men. 
 
 When the army of reserve had thrown itself into Italy, it had 
 been obliged to leave behind part of the corps destined to com- 
 pose it, and for the complete formation of which there had not 
 been time to wait. Instead of an effective force of 60,000 men, 
 as was intended, it had numbered only forty and some odd thou- 
 sand. The First Consul had formed with these corps left behind 
 a second army of reserve, 15,000 strong, given the command of 
 it to Macdonald, and posted it in the Grisons, facing the Tyrol, 
 which had permitted Moreau to draw him to his right wing, 
 commanded, as the reader is aware, by Lecourbe, and to unite, 
 in case of need, under his hand, the entire mass of his army, 
 if he should have to force the barrier of the Inn.
 
 sept. 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 349 
 
 The army of Italy, on its part, established on the banks of 
 the Mincio by the convention of Alexandria, relieved also by 
 the presence of Macdonald from all concern about Switzerland 
 and the Tyrol, had been enabled to draw its wings closer to its 
 main body, and to concentrate itself in such a manner that it 
 could enter into action at any moment. Composed of the troops 
 which had crossed the St. Bernard, of those which had been 
 drawn from Germany by the St. Gothard, lastly, of the troops 
 of Liguria, which had defended Genoa and the Var, rested and 
 recruited, it presented a total mass of about 120,000 men, 
 80,000 of whom were assembled on the Mincio. Massena had 
 at first been appointed commander-in-chief, and he was, in fact, 
 the only one capable of commanding it well. Unfortunately, 
 mischievous dissensions had arisen between the commissariat 
 of the army and the Italian governments. The army, though 
 stationed amidst fertile Italy, and in possession of the rich 
 magazines left by the Austrians, had nevertheless not enjoyed 
 all the plenty to which it was entitled by its long privations. 
 It was alleged that the commissariat officers had sold part of 
 these magazines. The governments of Piedmont and the Cis- 
 alpine, moreover, complained that they were drained by war 
 contributions, and refused to pay them. Amidst this confusion, 
 heavy charges were preferred against the French administra- 
 tion ; and in these complaints General Massena himself was 
 included. The clamour soon became so vehement, that the 
 First Consul thought himself obliged to recall Massena, and to 
 appoint General Prune in his stead. Prune, with abundance of 
 intelligence and courage, was but an indifferent general, and a 
 still more indifferent politician. He was one of the most zealous 
 leaders of the demagogue party, which, however, did not prevent 
 him from being devotedly attached to the First Consul, who was 
 thereby much gratified. Not having had it in his power to 
 assign him an active command during the spring campaign, the 
 First Consul determined to give him one during the autumn cam- 
 paign. His victory in Holland caused him to rank high in public 
 estimation ; but the recall of Massena was a misfortune for the 
 army, and for the First Consul himself. Massena, soured, was 
 about to become, in spite of himself, a subject of hope for a 
 multitude of intriguers, who at this moment were again stirring. 
 The First Consul was aware of this, but he would not suffer 
 irregularities anywhere, and one cannot blame him for it. 
 
 To these four armies the First Consul had added a fifth 
 assemblage of troops around Amiens. He had detached from 
 the demi-brigades left in the interior the skeletons of the com- 
 panies of grenadiers, recruited them with fine men, and formed 
 out of them a superb corps of 9000 or 10,000 picked soldiers, 
 whom he intended to despatch in haste to the coast, if the
 
 350 HISTORY OF TEE sept. 1800 
 
 English should effect a landing on any part of it, or into Italy, 
 to perform the duty which Augereau was performing in Germany, 
 that of covering the wings and the rear of the principal army. 
 Murat was appointed its commander-in-chief. 
 
 All this had been accomplished, as far as related to the 
 recruiting, by means of the levy ordered by the Legislative 
 Body, and, with reference to expense, by means of the financial 
 resources recently created. These different corps were now in 
 want of nothing ; they were well fed, well armed ; they had 
 horses, and a complete maUriel. 
 
 The First Consul was naturally impatient to avail himself of 
 such means to wring peace from Austria before winter. He, 
 therefore, ordered Moreau and Brune to repair to their head- 
 quarters, and to make preparations for recommencing hostilities. 
 He directed Moreau to give the Austrian general the notice 
 stipulated by the armistice, and not to allow any prolongation 
 of the suspension of arms, unless on one condition, that the 
 emperor should relinquish to the French the three fortresses 
 actually blockaded, Philipsburg, Ulm, and Ingolstadt. On this 
 condition he consented to grant a further respite of five or six 
 weeks. These fortresses, in fact, were worth the sacrifice. Once 
 in possession of them, the French would obtain an excellent 
 base of operation on the Danube ; they would be reinforced by 
 the corps which were blockading them ; they would, moreover, 
 have time left to push one wing of the army of Italy upon 
 Tuscany and the kingdom of Naples, countries in which levies 
 en masse were being raised at the instigation of Austria, and 
 with the money of England. Such were the orders despatched 
 to the headquarters of Moreau. 
 
 The Emperor of Germany, on his part, making good use of 
 the time, had employed with the greatest activity the subsidies 
 furnished by England. He hastened the new levies ordered in 
 Bohemia, Moravia, Hungary, Styria, and Carinthia. Wickham, 
 the English minister, had established a sort of offices in several 
 towns of Germany, for bribing soldiers to fight for the coalition. 
 By means of a fresh subsidy, the Bavarian and Wurtemberg 
 corps had been considerably augmented. Independently of the 
 sums paid to Austria, English recruiting officers had taken into 
 the direct pay of their government two regiments, composed of 
 boatmen plying on the rivers of Germany, and destined to facili- 
 tate the passage of them. Ten thousand peasants, hired for the 
 purpose, threw up, under the direction of Austrian engineers, 
 formidable entrenchments along the whole line of the Inn, from 
 the Tyrol to the junction of that river with the Danube. All 
 was bustle from Vienna to Munich. The staff of the Austrian 
 army had been totally changed. M. de Kray, notwithstanding 
 his experience and his vigour on the field of battle, had shared
 
 sept. 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 351 
 
 the disgrace of M. de Melas. The Archduke Ferdinand himself, 
 who served under him, had been removed. The Archduke 
 John, a young prince of highly cultivated mind and very brave, 
 but without experience in war, his head full of theories, his 
 imagination struck by the manoeuvres of General Bonaparte, 
 and anxious to imitate him at any rate, had been called to the 
 supreme command of the imperial armies. This was one of 
 those novelties, which people are fond of trying in desperate 
 circumstances. The emperor had repaired in person to the 
 army, to review it, and to excite the spirit of the soldiers by 
 his presence. 
 
 He passed several days with the army, accompanied by M. 
 de Lherbach, the negotiator appointed to proceed to Luneville, 
 and by the young Archduke John. Having seen everything, 
 examined everything, in company with his advisers, he ascer- 
 tained that nothing was ready, that the army was not yet 
 sufficiently recruited, either in point of materiel or courage, for 
 the immediate recommencement of hostilities. M. de Lherbach 
 was, therefore, commissioned to repair to Moreau's headquarters, 
 to learn whether a prolongation of the armistice for a few days 
 could not be obtained from the French government. M. de 
 Lherbach was informed by Moreau of the conditions fixed by 
 the First Consul for a new suspension of arms. He consented 
 reluctantly to these conditions, and, on the 20th of September 
 (the 3rd complementary day of the year VIII.), he concluded a 
 new prolongation of the armistice with General Lahorie, in the 
 village of Hohenlinden, which was destined so soon to become 
 celebrated. The fortresses of Philipsburg, Ulm, and Ingolstadt 
 were to be delivered up to the French army, to be disposed of 
 as it should think fit. In return, the armistice was prolonged 
 for forty-five days, reckoning from the 21st of September, 
 including fifteen days' notice of the resumption of hostilities, 
 if they were once more to recommence. 
 
 The emperor returned to Vienna, dissatisfied with the visit 
 which he had been induced to pay to the army, for that visit 
 had been productive of no other result than the surrender to 
 the French of the three strongest fortresses in the empire. 
 That prince was overwhelmed with chagrin. His subjects 
 shared his sentiments, and accused M. de Thugut of being a 
 complete tool of England. Queen Caroline of Naples had just- 
 arrived with Admiral Nelson and Lady Hamilton, to support 
 the war party in Vienna; but the public clamour was vehement. 
 M. Thugut was reproached for egregious faults, such as the 
 refusal, at the commencement of winter, to listen to the pacific 
 proposals of the First Consul, the vicious direction of the mili- 
 tary operations, his obstinacy in not admitting the existence of 
 the armv of reserve, even when it was crossing the St. Bernard,
 
 352 HISTORY OF THE sept. 1800 
 
 the concentration of the principal forces of the empire in Liguria, 
 with a view to please the English, who nattered themselves 
 that they should gain possession of Toulon ; lastly, the engage- 
 ment entered into with the British government not to treat 
 without it ; an engagement signed on the 20th of June, at a 
 moment when he ought, on the contrary, to have preserved his 
 freedom of action. These reproaches were, in great part, well 
 founded ; but, whether founded or not, they had the sanction 
 of events ; for nothing had succeeded with M. de Thugut, and 
 nations judge only from results. M. de Thugut was, therefore, 
 obliged to yield to circumstances, and retired, still retaining, 
 however, considerable influence over the Austrian cabinet. M. 
 de Lherbach was appointed to succeed him, and, as envoy to 
 the congress of Luneville, instead of M. de Lherbach, was 
 selected a well-known diplomatist, M. Louis Cobentzel, who 
 was personally acceptable to General Bonaparte, and who had 
 negotiated with him the treaty of Campo Formio. Hopes were 
 entertained that M. de Cobentzel would prove a fitter person 
 than any other for establishing amicable relations with the 
 French government, and that, placed at Luneville, at some 
 distance from Paris, he would occasionally visit that capital, to 
 have direct communication with the First Consul. 
 
 The delivery to the French army of the three fortresses of 
 Ulm, Ingolstadt, and Philipsburg took place most seasonably 
 for the celebration of the fete of the 1 st Vendemiaire. It could 
 not fail to revive the hopes of peace, by furnishing evidence of 
 the extremity to which Austria was reduced. This fete, one 
 of the two which the Constitution had retained, was destined 
 to celebrate the anniversary of the foundation of the Eepublic. 
 The First Consul determined that it should not be less pompous 
 than that of the 4th of July, so opportunely heightened by the 
 presentation to the Invalides of the colours taken in the last 
 campaign ; he resolved that it should be distinguished by a 
 character as patriotic, but more serious, from all those which 
 had been given during the course of the Eevolution, and, above 
 all, that it should be exempt from the ridicule attached to the 
 imitation of ancient customs in modern times. 
 
 Keligion, it must be confessed, leaves a great void in the 
 solemnities of nations, when it is excluded from them. Public 
 games, theatrical representations, and fires, illumining the night 
 with their brightness, may occupy, during several hours, the 
 multitude assembled to rejoice at any joyful occurrence, but 
 cannot fill up an entire day. In all ages, nations have been 
 disposed to celebrate their victories at the foot of their altars, 
 and they have converted their public ceremonies into an act of 
 thanksgiving to the Deity. But altars France then had none. 
 Those which had been erected to the goddess of Reason, during
 
 sept. 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 353 
 
 the Reign of Terror, those which the Theophilanthropists inno- 
 cently strewed with flowers, during the licentious system of the 
 Directory, were covered with a ridicule never to be effaced ; for, 
 in regard to altars, none are respectable but those which are 
 ancient. Now, the old Catholic altar of France had not yet 
 been restored. Nothing, consequently, was left but ceremonies 
 in some sort academic, beneath the dome of the Invalides ; 
 elegant discourses, such as M. de Fontanes could deliver; or 
 patriotic airs, such as a Mehul or a Lesueur could compose. The 
 First Consul, sensible of all this, sought, therefore, to supply the 
 place of the religious feature by a profoundly moral feature. 
 
 The homage to Washington, the presentation of the colours 
 taken at Marengo, had already supplied materials for the two 
 fetes celebrated during his consulship; he contrived to find, 
 in a great reparative act, the subject-matter of the fete of the 
 1st of Vendemiaire, year IX. (23rd September i8co). 
 
 At the time of the violation of the tombs at St. Denis, the 
 body of Turenne had been found in perfect preservation. 
 Amidst the excesses of the populace, an involuntary feeling of 
 respect had saved these remains from the general profanation. 
 Deposited at first in the Jardin des Plantes, they had afterwards 
 been consigned to the care of M. Alexandre Lenoir, a man 
 whose pious zeal, worthy of being recorded in history, had pre- 
 served for us a multitude of ancient monuments, which he had 
 collected in the museum of the Petits Augustins. There lay 
 these remains of Turenne, exposed to the curiosity, rather than 
 to the respect, of visitors. The First Consul conceived the idea 
 of depositing the relics of this great man beneath the dome of 
 the Invalides, and under the guard of our country's veterans. 
 To glorify an illustrious general and a servant of the ancient 
 monarchy was reconciling the glories of Louis XIV. with those 
 of the Republic; it was re-establishing respect for the past, 
 without offending the present ; it was, in short, the whole policy 
 of the First Consul, under the noblest and the most touching 
 form. This removal was to take place on the last comple- 
 mentary day of the year VIII. (22nd of September), and, on 
 the following day, the first stone of the monument to Richer 
 and Desaix was to be laid. Thus, at the moment when our 
 earth, in obedience to the laws which govern its motions, was 
 completing one great century, and giving birth to another (no 
 less famous in its turn, if it prove one day worthy of its com- 
 mencement), at this moment, the First Consul resolved to pay 
 a joint homage to the hero of past times and to the twin 
 heroes of the present time. To render these two ceremonies 
 the more striking, he imitated in some points what had been 
 practised at the Federation of 1790, and desired all the depart- 
 ments to send to him representatives, who, by their presence, 
 
 vol. 1. z
 
 354 HISTORY OF THE sept. 1800 
 
 should give to these fetes not merely a Parisian, but a national 
 character. The departments cordially responded to this appeal, 
 and chose distinguished citizens, whom curiosity, a desire to 
 see, with their own eyes, disorder succeeded by tranquillity, 
 the miseries of anarchy by prosperity, and the desire especially 
 to approach and to converse with a great man, drew in great 
 numbers to Paris. 
 
 On the 5th complementary day, in the year VIII. (September 
 22nd), the public authorities repaired to the museum of the 
 Petits Augustins, to fetch the car on which was laid the body 
 of Turenne. On this car, drawn by four white horses, was 
 placed the sword of the hero of the monarchy, preserved in the 
 family of Bouillon, and lent to the government for that noble 
 ceremony. Four old generals, mutilated in the service of the 
 Kepublic, held the slips of the car ; it was preceded by a pie- 
 bald horse, like one which Turenne frequently rode, harnessed 
 as horses were in his time, led by a black, and offering an 
 accurate representation of some scenes from the age to which 
 this homage was paid. Around the car inarched the invalids, 
 followed by some of those fine troops which had just returned 
 from the banks of the Po and of the Danube. This extraordinary 
 and noble procession passed through Paris, amidst an immense 
 concourse, and proceeded to the Invalides, where the First 
 Consul awaited it, surrounded by the envoys of the departments, 
 both those of the old France of Louis XIV., and those of new 
 France ; these latter representing Belgium and Luxemburg, 
 the Ehenish provinces, Savoy, and the county of Nice. The 
 precious relic borne by this train was placed under the dome. 
 Carnot, minister of war, delivered a simple and suitable address, 
 and, while music of a solemn kind pealed through the vaulted 
 edifice, the body of Turenne was deposited beneath the monu- 
 ment where it now reposes, and where it was soon to be re- 
 joined by his companion in glory, the illustrious and virtuous 
 Vauban ; where he was destined to be joined one day by the 
 author of the great things which we are here relating : where 
 he will certainly remain, surrounded by this august company, 
 throughout the ages which Heaven may reserve for France. 
 
 If, in times like ours, when faith is quenched, anything can 
 supply its place, and equal, perhaps, the pomp of religion, it is 
 such spectacles. 
 
 On the evening of that day, a gratuitous representation of 
 the Tartuffe and the Cid was given to the people of the capital, 
 with a view to afford them an amusement less coarse than usual. 
 The First Consul attended the performance. His presence, 
 his intention, instinctively guessed by that impressible and 
 intelligent populace, all concurred to maintain, in that tumul- 
 tuous assemblage, perfect decorum, a very unusual thing at
 
 sept. 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 355 
 
 gratuitous representations. The silence was interrupted only 
 by cries, a thousand times repeated, of Vive la Republique ! 
 Vive le Ge'ne'ral Bonaparte ! 
 
 On the following day, the First Cousul, accompanied, as on 
 the preceding, by the public authorities and the envoys of the 
 departments, repaired to the Place des Victoires. There was to 
 be raised a monument in the Egyptian style, destined to receive 
 the mortal remains of Kleber and Desaix, who, according to the 
 intention of the First Consul, were to rest side by side. He 
 laid the first stone, and then proceeded on horseback to the 
 Invalides. There the minister of the interior, who was his 
 brother Lucien, delivered a speech on the state of the Kepublic, 
 which made a strong impression. Certain passages were highly 
 applauded, among others the following, relative to the present 
 age and the age of Louis XIV. : " One might say, that at this 
 moment those two great ages have met to express mutual 
 admiration over that august tomb." The speaker, while pro- 
 nouncing these words, pointed to the tomb of Turenne. He was 
 answered by unanimous applause, proving that all hearts, with- 
 out derogating from the present, were willing to take again from 
 the past what deserved reviving. And, that the spectacle might 
 be complete, that the ordinary illusions of human nature might 
 have their share in these scenes, otherwise so noble, the orator 
 further exclaimed : " Happy the generation which sees a revolu- 
 tion begun under monarchy terminate in a republic ! " 
 
 During this ceremony, the First Consul had received a tele- 
 graphic despatch, announcing the armistice of Hohenlinden and 
 the cession of the three fortresses of Philipsburg, Ulm, and 
 Ingolstadt. He sent his brother Lucien a note, which was read 
 to those present, and greeted with greater applause than the 
 academic harangue of the minister of the interior. Xotvvith- 
 standing the respect due to the place, shouts of Vive Bonaparte! 
 Vive la Bfyublique ! shook the vaults of the noble edifice. An 
 immediate publication of the news in Paris produced a more 
 profound satisfaction than all the rejoicings destined for the 
 amusement of the multitude. People were not afraid of war ; 
 they were full of confidence in the genius of the First Consul 
 and in the courage of the French armies, if it must be con- 
 tinued ; but, after so many battles, after so many troubles, they 
 wished to enjoy in peace the glory acquired and the prosperity 
 that was beginning to dawn. 
 
 That prosperity was, indeed, making rapid advances. If the 
 mere presence of General Bonaparte had sufficed, on the iSth of 
 Brumaire, to soothe, to cheer men's minds, to revive their hopes, 
 the case must be very different now, when the successes of 
 our armies, the eager advances made by Europe towards us, the 
 prospect of a speedy and a glorious peace, and lastly, tranquillity
 
 3 5 6 HISTORY OF TEE sept. 1800 
 
 everywhere restored, had realised the hopes conceived in a first 
 moment of confidence. 
 
 These hopes had, in fact, become realities, and it may be 
 said that, in the ten months past, from November 1799 to 
 September 1800, the face of France was changed. The public 
 funds, the vulgar but true index to the state of public opinion, 
 had risen from twelve francs (the real price at which five per 
 cent, stock was sold the day before the 18th of Brumaire) to 
 forty francs. They promised to reach fifty. 
 
 The stockholders had just received a half-year's dividend in 
 cash, a thing which had not occurred since the commencement 
 of our Eevolution. This financial phenomenon had produced a 
 great effect, and it appeared to be not one of the least of the 
 victories of the First Consul. How had he been able to accom- 
 plish this prodigy? This was an enigma which the mass of 
 the public explained by that extraordinary power, which he 
 was already said to possess, of doing whatever he pleased. 
 
 But there is no miracle in this world : there is no other cause 
 for real successes but sound sense seconded by a strong will. 
 Such too was the sole cause of the happy results obtained by 
 the administration of the First Consul. He had, in the first 
 place, applied a remedy to the real evil, which consisted in the 
 delays in the collection of the taxes : he had, with this view, 
 instituted a special agency for the preparation of the assessments, 
 formerly left too complaisantly to the communes. This special 
 agency, stimulated by the prefects, another creation of the con- 
 sular government, had made out the assessments in arrear of 
 the year VII. and the year VIII. and finished those for the 
 year IX., the year just entered upon (September 1800 to 
 September 1801). Thus, for the first time since the Eevolu- 
 tion, the assessments of the current year were about to be 
 put into a train of collection, from the very first day of that 
 year. The receivers-general, having the revenue paid to them 
 punctually, were thus enabled to discharge punctually the 
 monthly bills which they had accepted, and had, in fact, 
 always paid them at the end of every month. We have already 
 said that to guarantee the solidity of these bills, the treasury 
 had required of the receivers a security in cash, which security, 
 deposited in the Sinking Fund, was to serve to retire such bills 
 as might be protested. Out of the 20,000,000 f . composing the 
 total amount of the securities, not more than 1,000,000 f. had 
 been required for the payment of dishonoured bills. Hence 
 they had obtained immediately a character equal to that of the 
 best commercial paper. At first, they could not be discounted 
 below three-fourths per cent, per month, that is, nine per cent, 
 per annum ; now, persons were willing to discount them at eight, 
 and even at seven. This was a very moderate rate, especially
 
 sept. 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 357 
 
 in comparison with that which the government had hitherto 
 been obliged to pay. Now, as the direct contributions in a 
 total budget of 500,000,000 amounted to about 300,000,000 f., 
 the treasury had, from the first day of that year's account, had 
 in its hands the 300,000,000 f. in assets easy to be realised. 
 Instead of receiving nothing, or nearly nothing, as formerly, 
 and receiving but tardily the little that was paid in, it had, 
 from the very 1st of Vendemiaire, the greater part of the public 
 revenue at its disposal. Such had been the result of the pre- 
 paration of the assessments in proper time, and of that system 
 of bills of exchange drawn, by the name of obligations, on the 
 chests of the receivers-general : by depriving the latter of the 
 pretext of delay in their receipts, the government had been 
 enabled to impose upon them the condition of paying on a 
 fixed day. 
 
 The year VIII. which had just closed (September 1799 to 
 September 1800), had not been so easily provided for as the 
 year IX. promised to be. It had been necessary to withdraw 
 all the papers previously issued, bons d' arrearage, bons de requisi- 
 tion, delegations, &c. These papers had been withdrawn either 
 by the discharge of anterior contributions, or by means of 
 certain arrangements entered into with the holders. The 
 revenue of the year VIII. had consequently been diminished 
 by so much, and there had resulted a deficit on that year's 
 account. But the victories of our armies having carried them 
 into the enemy's country, the treasury was immediately re- 
 lieved from the burden of their subsistence ; and, with some 
 national domains, which began to fetch advantageous prices, the 
 deficit of that year might afterwards be covered. No more 
 bons d'arrdrage had been issued, for the stockholders were in 
 future to be paid in cash ; no more bons de requisition, for the 
 armies were supported either by the French treasury, or by some 
 foreign treasury; lastly, no more delegations, for, as we have 
 elsewhere related, the First Consul had adopted an invariable 
 system in regard to persons having claims upon the State : he 
 either gave them nothing or cash ; and in cash be already gave 
 them more than the preceding governments. Every week he 
 held a council of finances ; at this council he required a state- 
 ment of the resources, and another of the wants, of each minis- 
 terial department, to be laid before him, selecting the most 
 urgent of those wants, and dividing among them the resources 
 which were sure to come in, but nothing more. With this 
 regularity, this firmness of conduct, there was no further 
 necessity for issuing paper; and, throwing no fictitious stock 
 into circulation, the government had ceased to have any to 
 redeem. The receipts of the treasury, during the year IX., 
 were therefore sure to be in specie.
 
 358 HISTORY OF THE sept. 1800 
 
 The public dividends had been paid by the Bank of France. 
 This bank had existed for only six months, and it was already 
 able to issue notes to a considerable amount, which were taken 
 by the public as readily as cash. The wants of trade and 
 the conduct of the government towards the new establishment 
 had occasioned this rapid success. The way in which the thing 
 was done was this. Out of the securities in cash, a million, at 
 most, had been sufficient to support the credit of the obligations. 
 The rest had been left unemployed ; and, strong as was the 
 temptation to employ the 1 8,000,000 or 1 9,000,000 f . remaining 
 to satisfy wants, all of which were urgent, the government had 
 not hesitated to impose upon itself the severest privations, in 
 order to devote 5,000,000 f. to the purchase, of bank shares, the 
 amount of which it had paid immediately. It had not stopped 
 there, but had deposited with it in account current the surplus 
 of the disposable funds. An account current is composed of 
 sums which are paid in on condition that they can be drawn out 
 at pleasure, according to the wants of each day. Having all at 
 once such resources at its disposal, the bank had lost no time 
 in discounting, in issuing notes, which, always paid in money, if 
 the holders so desired, had acquired in a few months the value 
 of cash. All this may now appear ordinary enough ; for we 
 see this phenomenon in every small town operating in the 
 easiest manner, and a great number of banks prospering from 
 the very day of their foundation. But, at that time, after so 
 many bankruptcies, after the aversion which the assignats had 
 excited for paper, it was a sort of commercial prodigy, wrought 
 by a government, which, of all sentiments, particularly inspired 
 that of confidence. 
 
 The treasury then resolved to entrust the bank with various 
 services advantageous for itself and for the State, especially that 
 of paying the rentes. It did this by means of a perfectly simple 
 process. The acceptances of the receivers-general were as good 
 as bills of exchange. The treasury, therefore, offered the bank 
 these bills to the amount of about 20,000,000 f . for discount ; an 
 operation highly advantageous to it, for discount was at six or 
 seven per cent., and an operation perfectly safe, as these accept- 
 ances had acquired an unexceptionable character. The bank 
 then undertook the payment of six months' dividend to the 
 stockholders, who received from it either cash or notes, at 
 their option. 
 
 Thus, in a few months, the government had, by submitting 
 to privations, already raised itself a powerful instrument, which, 
 for an aid of 10,000,000 or 1 2,000,000 f. that it had received for 
 the moment, could now render it services to the amount of 
 hundreds of millions. 
 
 Financial prosperity, therefore, revived on all sides. The
 
 sept. 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 359 
 
 only sensible depression amidst the general well-being was the 
 depression of landed property. In the height of our troubles, 
 the proprietors of land or of houses had enjoyed the advantage 
 of paying no taxes, owing to the delay in making out the assess- 
 ments, or in paying next to nothing, thanks to the assignats. 
 It was now otherwise. They were now obliged to pay, first the 
 arrears, next the current assessments, and the whole in cash. 
 For small proprietors, the burden was heavy. Allowance had 
 at first been made for 5,000,000 f. of non-available assets in the 
 budget, with the intention of exempting the taxpayers who were 
 too hardly pressed ; it was found necessary to devote to the same 
 object a much larger sum. It was a kind of profit and loss 
 account opened with the taxpayers, by the operation of which 
 the past was forgiven them, in order that punctual payment of 
 the present might be obtained. Landed property alone cannot 
 support in a State all the public burdens. These must partly be 
 met by excise, and other duties on articles of consumption. The 
 Eevolution, by abolishing the taxes on liquors, on salt, and on 
 other articles, had closed one of the two necessary sources of 
 the public wealth. Time had not yet opened it again. This 
 was one of the glories destined at a later period for the restorer 
 of order and of society in France. But he had first a great many 
 prejudices to overcome. By establishing octrois at the gates of 
 towns to provide for the wants of the hospitals, he had made 
 a first useful experiment, and which accustomed people to the 
 resumption of a measure, sooner or later indispensable. 
 
 Though landed property was for a moment heavily burdened, 
 a general feeling of ease was, nevertheless, diffused among all 
 classes. In all parts people felt themselves regenerated, and 
 they found within them courage for speculation and exertion. 
 
 But there was much more to be done in that convulsed 
 society, to restore everything, not to a perfect state, such as 
 one might aspire to in time, but merely to a state that was en- 
 durable. We have just seen what required to be done for the 
 finances : there was another service quite as important and quite 
 as much disorganised as that of the finances, namely, that of 
 the roads. They had become almost impassable. As everybody 
 knows, not a few years' but a few months' neglect is sufficient 
 to change into a quagmire the artificial strata which men make 
 upon the earth, for the transport of heavy loads. Now, it was 
 nearly ten years since the roads in France were left almost 
 without repairs. Under the old government, their repair was 
 provided for by corve'es, and since the Eevolution by means of a 
 sum which figured in the general budget, but had not been paid 
 more punctually than the sums destined for other services. The 
 Directory, seeing how things stood, had been led to the idea of 
 a special resource, which could not be misapplied, and which
 
 360 HISTORY OF THE sept. 1800 
 
 could never run short ; and, to attain this end, it had established 
 a toll for keeping up the roads, and erected gates for collecting 
 it. This toll had been farmed to the contractors for the roads 
 themselves, who, negligently superintended, defrauded both in 
 the collection of the toll and in the application of the produce 
 of it. Besides, it was insufficient. It yielded at most 13,000,000 
 or 14,000,000 f. per annum, and 30,000,000 f. would have been 
 required. In the three years VI., VII., and VIII. no more than 
 32,000,000 f. had been expended on the roads, and it would have 
 required at least 1 oo,oco,coo f. to remedy the ravages which 
 Time had made, and to provide for their annual repair. 
 
 The First Consul, adjourning the adoption of a complete 
 system, had recourse to the simplest expedient, that of applying 
 the general funds of the State to the succour of this important 
 service. He continued the toll, the mode of levying it, and its 
 application, confining himself to a stricter superintendence, and 
 gave immediately i2,cco,coo f. upon the year IX., a considerable 
 sum for that time. This sum was to serve for the repair of the 
 principal highroads running from the centre to the extremities 
 of the Eepublic, from Paris to Lille, from Paris to Strasburg, 
 from Paris to Marseilles, from Paris to Bordeaux, and from 
 Paris to Brest. He proposed to lay out afterwards on other 
 roads a similar amount to what he had thus devoted to them, 
 to augment this grant in proportion to the improved circum- 
 stances of the treasury, at the same time continuing the toll 
 till the roads of France were restored to the state in which 
 those of every civilised country ought to be. 
 
 The canals of St. Quentin and the Ourcq, commenced towards 
 the end of the old government, exhibited everywhere the appear- 
 ance of ditches half filled up, of hills half cut through, of ruins, in 
 short, rather than works of art. He immediately sent engineers 
 to survey them, went thither himself, and ordered definitive 
 plans, with the intention of signalising by works of great public 
 utility the first moments of the speedily expected peace. 
 
 It was not merely the wretched state of the roads which ren- 
 dered them unfit for travelling, but also the robbers by whom 
 they were infested in a great number of provinces. The Chouans 
 and the Vendeans, unemployed ever since the termination of 
 the civil war, and having contracted habits of life incompatible 
 with peace, pursued the trade of plunder on the highroads of 
 Bretagne, Normandy, and the environs of Paris. Refractory 
 persons running away from the conscription, and some soldiers 
 of the army of Liguria, impelled by privations to desert, were 
 committing the like depredations on the roads of the centre and 
 of the south. Georges Cadoudal, who had returned from Eng- 
 land with plenty of money, and was now concealed in the 
 Morbihan, secretly directed this new chouannerie. Numerous
 
 sept. 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 361 
 
 movable columns, accompanied by military commissions, were 
 requisite to suppress this disorder. The First Consul had 
 already formed some of these columns, but he had not sufficient 
 troops. While the Directory had kept too many troops at 
 home, he had kept too few. But he said to himself, most justly, 
 that, when he had beaten the enemies abroad, he should soon 
 put down those at home. ' : Have patience," he replied to those 
 who spoke to him in alarm about this kind of disorder ; " give 
 me a month or two ; by that time I shall have conquered peace, 
 and then I will do speedy and complete justice upon those high- 
 waymen." Thus, in every point of view, peace was then the 
 indispensable condition of well-being. Meanwhile, however, he 
 applied himself to remedy the most urgent disorders. 
 
 We have already related that he had consented to substitute 
 for the oath formerly required of priests a mere promise of 
 obedience to the laws, which could not offend their consciences 
 in any way. They had immediately availed themselves of this 
 in great numbers, and the clerical functions were at once dis- 
 puted by the constitutional priests, who had taken the oath to 
 the civil constitution of the clergy, the nonjuring priests, who 
 had given only a promise of obedience to the laws, and, lastly, 
 those who had neither taken the oath nor given the promise. 
 The priests belonging to the first two classes were competitors 
 with one another for obtaining the churches, which were granted 
 to them with more or less facility, according to the extremely 
 variable humour of the local authorities. Those who had refused 
 any sort of declaration performed the ceremonies of religion 
 clandestinely in private houses, and were held by many staunch 
 Catholics to be its only true ministers. Lastly, to add to the 
 confusion, there were the Theophilanthropists, who also made use 
 of the Catholic churches, and on certain days deposited flowers 
 on those altars at which the priests had been saying Mass. These 
 ridiculous sectaries held festivals in honour of all the virtues, 
 of courage, temperance, charity, &c. On All Saints' Day, for 
 example, they celebrated a festival in honour of ancestors. In 
 the eye of strict Catholics this was a profanation of the religious 
 edifices ; and sound sense and the respect due to the dominant 
 creeds commanded that it should be done away with. 
 
 For putting an end to this chaos, an agreement with the Holy 
 See was requisite ; an agreement by means of which those who 
 had taken the oath, those who had given the promise, and those 
 who had refused both, might be reconciled together. But Mon- 
 signor Spina, envoy of the Holy See, had but just arrived at 
 Paris, and, surprised to find himself there, kept out of every- 
 body's sight. The subject to be discussed was as delicate for 
 him as for the government. The First Consul, discerning with 
 extraordinary tact the characters of men and the employment
 
 362 HISTORY OF THE sept. 1800 
 
 for which they were fitted, had opposed to this wily Italian the 
 person most capable of coping with him, namely, the Abbe 
 Bernier, who, after having long directed La Vendee, had at length 
 reconciled it with the government. He had brought him to 
 Paris, attached him to himself by the most honourable of all ties, 
 the desire to contribute to the public welfare, and to share the 
 honour of doing so. To the Abbe Bernier to re-establish a good 
 understanding between Prance and the Romish Church was 
 like continuing and completing the pacification of La Vendee. 
 The interviews with Monsignor Spina had but just begun, and 
 the government could not promise itself an immediate result. 
 
 It was of importance to come to as speedy an arrangement of 
 religious affairs as possible ; for peace with the Holy See was 
 not less desirable for the quiet of people's minds than peace 
 with the great powers of Europe. But, meanwhile, there was 
 a multitude of irregularities, either mischievous or singular, 
 against which the First Consul strove to provide in the best 
 possible manner by consular ordinances. He had already, by 
 his ordinance of the 7th Nivose, year VIII. (28th of December 
 1799), forbidden the local authorities, frequently favourable to 
 the priests, to thwart them in the exercise of their religion. 
 Having charge of the religious edifices, as we have elsewhere 
 observed, they would frequently not allow the priests the use 
 of them on Sundays, but only on decadis, alleging that the 
 decadi was the only holiday recognised by the laws of the 
 Bepublic. The ordinance referred to above had provided for 
 this difficulty, by enjoining the local authorities to give up the 
 edifices for public worship to the priests on the days indicated 
 by each persuasion. But this ordinance had not smoothed all 
 the difficulties relative to Sundays and decadis. On this point 
 the laws and manners were at variance, a variance which it is 
 necessary to explain, in order to convey an idea of the state of 
 French society at that period. 
 
 The Bevolution, in its passionate fondness for uniformity 
 and symmetry, had not confined itself to the introduction of 
 uniformity into all measures of length, superficies, and weight, 
 and to the reduction of them to natural and immutable unities, 
 such as a fraction of the meridian, or the specific gravity of 
 distilled water ; it had aimed at introducing the same regularity 
 into the measure of time. It had therefore divided the year 
 into twelve equal months, of thirty days each, completing it 
 by the ingenious invention of five complementary days. It 
 had divided the months into three decades, or weeks of ten 
 days each, reduced in this manner the days of rest to three 
 per month, and substituted for the four Sundays of the Gre- 
 gorian calendar the three decadis of the Republican calendar. 
 Most assuredly, in all mathematical points of view, this latter
 
 oct. 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 363 
 
 calendar was far better than the old one ; but it offended religious 
 ideas ; it was not that of the generality of mankind, that of 
 history ; it could not overcome inveterate habits. The metrical 
 system, after forty years' efforts and legislative restrictions, and 
 notwithstanding its incontestable commercial advantages, has 
 scarcely yet been definitively adopted : how then could there 
 be any hope of supporting the Eepublican calendar against a 
 custom of twenty centuries, against universal usage, against 
 the power of religion ? When we reform, we must be content 
 to reform for the purpose of applying a remedy to real suffer- 
 ings, of re-establishing justice where it is wanting ; but to 
 reform for the pleasure of the eye or of the mind, for the 
 purpose of putting a straight line where there is none, is re- 
 quiring too much of human nature. You may form at pleasure 
 the habits of a child ; you cannot remould those of a grown 
 man. It is the same with nations : you cannot alter the habits 
 of a people after an existence of fifteen centuries. 
 
 Accordingly, Sunday was again observed in all quarters. In 
 certain towns, the shops were closed on Sundays, in others on 
 decadis ; frequently in the same town, in the same street, the 
 contrast existed, and exhibited the spectacle of a mischievous 
 conflict of ideas and manners. For the rest, Sunday would 
 have prevailed everywhere, but for the intervention of certain 
 authorities. The First Consul, by a new ordinance of the 7th 
 Thermidor, year VIII. (July 26, 1800), decided that every one 
 should be at liberty to keep holiday when he pleased, to adopt 
 for a day of rest the day most conformable with his tastes or 
 his religious opinions ; and that the public officers, bound to 
 adhere to the legal calendar, should alone be obliged to choose 
 the decadi for the suspension of their labours. This was 
 ensuring the triumph of Sunday. 
 
 The First Consul acted judiciously in encouraging the return 
 to an ancient and general habit, most judiciously, if he designed 
 re-establishing the Catholic religion, as he really did design, 
 and with good reason, to do. 
 
 The emigrants again engaged his attention. We have already 
 adverted to their eagerness to return ever since the very first 
 days of the Consulate ; this eagerness had kept increasing, on 
 observing what repose France enjoyed, in what security all the 
 inhabitants of its territory lived. But, desirous as the govern- 
 ment was to put an end to the proscription launched against 
 them, it was yet necessary, while putting down one disorder, 
 and proscription is one, to avoid falling into another, for a 
 precipitate reaction is a disorder too, and of the most serious 
 nature. These returned emigrants found on their estates 
 either old denouncers, who had contributed to persecute them, 
 or purchasers who had obtained possession of their property
 
 364 ' HISTORY OF THE oct. 1800 
 
 with paper : to both these classes they were disquieting 
 enemies, or at least troublesome neighbours ; and they were 
 not discreet enough not to abuse the clemency shown to them 
 by the government. 
 
 They availed themselves with alacrity of the law passed a 
 few months before, which declared that the list of the emigrants 
 was closed. Those who had been omitted in this list lost no 
 time in profiting by the clause respecting them. As they could 
 no longer be inscribed but by the authority of the ordinary 
 tribunals, which constituted but an inconsiderable danger for 
 them, they lived in quiet, and had almost all returned. Those 
 who had been entered in the list, and whom the law referred 
 to the administrative authorities to claim their erasure, took 
 advantage of the spirit of the times to get their names erased. 
 They applied, in the first instance, for surveillances, that is, 
 as we have already explained, the faculty of returning for a 
 time under the superintendence of the political police ; they 
 then obtained from friends, or from complaisant persons, false 
 certificates, attesting that they had not quitted France during 
 the Eeign of Terror ; that they had only kept concealed to 
 save themselves from the scaffold ; and in this manner they 
 obtained their erasure with incredible facility. The list drawn 
 up formerly by the local authorities, with the recklessness of 
 persecution, comprehended 145,000 persons, and formed nine 
 volumes. Now, names were erased with as much recklessness 
 as they had before been inscribed, and the emigrants were 
 reinstated by thousands in all their rights. Some, whose pro- 
 perties had not yet been sold, applied to the members of the 
 government to get the sequestration taken off; they solicited, 
 according to custom, the men whom they abused the day before, 
 whom they would again abuse on the morrow, and frequently 
 Madame Bonaparte herself, who had formerly been connected 
 with the French noblesse, in consequence of the rank which 
 she held in society. If the emigrants, whose estates were not 
 sold, recovered them at the price of abject solicitations followed 
 by ingratitude, there was no great mischief in that ; but those 
 whose property had been alienated went into the provinces, 
 addressed themselves to the new proprietors, and often, by 
 dint of threats, importunities, or religious suggestions at the 
 pillow of the dying, recovered their family possessions at a 
 low price, by means not much more creditable than those by 
 which they had been despoiled of them. 
 
 The tumult was at this moment so general as to attract the 
 attention of the First Consul. He wished to redress the wrongs 
 done by the Revolution, but above all he wished to avoid 
 alarming any of the interests which it had created, and which 
 had become legitimate with time. In consequence, he thought
 
 OCT. 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 365 
 
 it right to adopt a measure, which was only part of what he did 
 at a later period, but which introduced some order into that 
 chaos of claims, of precipitate returns, and of dangerous at- 
 tempts. After mature deliberation in the Council of State, the 
 following ordinance was issued on the 20th of October 1800 
 (28th Vendemiaire, year IX.). 
 
 In the first place, all those previously erased, no matter by 
 what authority, or with what negligence the proceedings in 
 regard to them had been conducted, were validly withdrawn from 
 the list of emigrants. Certain collective inscriptions, under 
 the designation of children or heirs of emigrants, were consi- 
 dered as not having taken place. Women, under the authority 
 of husbands when they quitted France, minors under the age of 
 sixteen years, priests who left the country in obedience to the 
 laws of banishment, persons comprehended under the head of 
 day-labourers, workmen, artisans, or domestic servants ; the 
 absent, whose absence was anterior to the Kevolution, the 
 Knights of Malta, residing in Malta during our troubles, were 
 all definitively erased. The names of the victims who had 
 perished on the scaffold were also withdrawn from the list : 
 this was a reparation due to their families and to humanity. 
 These modifications made, those were kept upon the list without 
 exception who had borne arms against France, those who held 
 offices in the civil or military household of the exiled princes, 
 those who had received rank or title from foreign governments, 
 without the authorisation of the French government. The 
 minister of justice was to appoint nine commissioners, the 
 minister of police a like number ; to these eighteen com- 
 missioners the First Consul was to add nine councillors of 
 State ; these twenty-seven persons collectively were charged to 
 make out the new list of emigrants upon the bases indicated. 
 The emigrants definitively erased were obliged to make a 
 promise of fidelity to the Constitution, if they wished to remain 
 in the country, or to obtain the removal of the sequestration 
 from their unsold property. They were condemned to remain 
 under the surveillance of the political police till a year after the 
 conclusion of a general peace. This precaution was designed 
 for the protection of the purchasers of national domains. As 
 for the emigrants definitively kept upon the list, nothing could 
 for the present be enacted relative to them : what concerned 
 them was deferred to a later period. 
 
 Under existing circumstances, this ordinance comprehended 
 all that could most reasonably be done ; it retrenched from the 
 proscription list the great mass of the inscribed; it reduced 
 that list to a small number of the declared enemies of the 
 Kevolution, and postponed the decision of the fate of all such to 
 a future period. Thus, when the Republic should be definitively
 
 366 HISTORY OF TEE oct. 1800 
 
 victorious over Europe, universally recognised, solidly estab- 
 lished, when the firm determination of the First Consul to pro- 
 tect the purchasers of national domains should have sufficiently 
 dispelled their alarms, the government would probably be able 
 to complete that act of clemency, and at length recall all the 
 proscribed, even those who had been traitors to France. For 
 the moment it went no further than to cut several embarrassing 
 questions and to put an end to many intrigues. 
 
 We see what difficulties of all kinds that government had to 
 surmount, to restore order in a subverted society, to be clement 
 and just towards the one, without alarming or being unjust 
 towards others. But toilsome as were its labours, they found 
 their reward in the plaudits, it may be said, of the entire 
 country. In the first days which succeeded the 18th Brumaire, 
 people had thrown themselves into the arms of General Bona- 
 parte, because they sought force, whatever it might be ; and 
 because, from the acts of the young general in Italy, they hoped 
 that this force would be enlisted into the service of sound sense 
 and justice. A single doubt was then felt, and somewhat 
 diminished the eagerness to give themselves up to him. Will 
 he keep his place longer than the governments which preceded 
 him ? Will he understand how to govern so well as he did how 
 to fight ? Will he put an end to the troubles, the persecutions? 
 Will he be of such or such a party ? The eleven or twelve past 
 months had effectually dispelled these doubts. His power was 
 gaining strength from hour to hour ; since Marengo, especially, 
 France and Europe bowed under his ascendency. As for his 
 political talents, there was but one voice on that subject among 
 those who approached him ; he was, at least, as great a statesman 
 as he was a commander. As for the tendency of his government, 
 that was as evident as his genius. He was of that moderate 
 party which deprecated persecution of every kind, which, dis- 
 posed to annul some of the tilings which the Eevolution had done, 
 was not for annulling all, but, on the contrary, was determined 
 to uphold its principal results. These doubts removed, people 
 rallied around him with the eagerness of joy and gratitude. 
 
 In all parties there are two sets of persons ; the one numerous, 
 and honest, whom a man may bring over to himself by realising 
 the wishes of the country ; the other, small in number, stubborn 
 and factious, which, far from contenting, you deeply mortify by 
 realising those wishes, because you deprive it of its grievances. 
 With the exception of this latter class, all the parties were 
 satisfied, and lent freely their support to the First Consul, or 
 resigned themselves, at least, to his government, if their cause 
 was irreconcilable with his, as the royalists, for example. The 
 patriots of '89, and ten years before these comprised nearly all 
 France, the patriots of '89, at first hurried on by enthusiasm
 
 OCT. 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 367 
 
 towards the Eevolution, soon borne back at the sight of the 
 bloody scaffold, now disposed to think that they had been mis- 
 taken on almost everything, conceived that they had at length 
 found, under the consular government, all that was possible to 
 be realised in their wishes. The abolition of the feudal system, 
 civil equality, a certain intervention of the country in its affairs, 
 no great deal of liberty, but much order, the triumphant position 
 of Prance in Europe — all this, very different, it is true, from 
 what they had at first wished for, but now sufficient in their 
 estimation, all this seemed ensured to them. M. de la Fayette, 
 who, in many respects, resembled those men, excepting that 
 he was less convinced — M. de la Fayette, released from the 
 dungeons of Olmiitz, through an act of the First Consul's, 
 proved, by his perfectly disinterested assiduities towards him, 
 the esteem which he felt for his government and the adhesion 
 of those who entertained sentiments like his own. As for the 
 more ardent revolutionists, who, without being attached to the 
 Eevolution from participation in its condemnable excesses, 
 adhered to it from conviction and from sentiment — these were 
 pleased with the First Consul for being the reverse of the Bour- 
 bons and ensuring their definitive exclusion. The purchasers 
 of national domains, though looking black at times, on account 
 of his indulgence towards the emigrants, had no doubt of his 
 resolution to uphold the inviolability of the new properties, 
 and clung to him as to an invincible sword, that secured them 
 from the only real danger with which they were threatened, 
 the triumph of the Bourbons and the emigrants by means of 
 the arms of Europe. 
 
 As for that timid and well-disposed portion of the royalist 
 party, which sought, above all, to be relieved from all further 
 dread of the scaffold, exile, or confiscation, which, for the first 
 time for ten years past, began not to have them before its eyes, 
 it was almost happy, for, with it, to have nothing to fear was 
 almost happiness. All that the First Consul did not yet grant, 
 it finally anticipated from him, if I may so express myself. 
 To see the people in their workshops, the tradesmen at their 
 counters, the nobility in the government, the priests at the 
 altar, the Bourbons in the Tuileries, and General Bonaparte at 
 their side, in the highest station imaginable for a subject, would 
 have been to these royalists perfection. Of these things there 
 were three or four, which already they clearly discerned in the 
 acts and plans of the First Consul. As for the last, that of 
 seeing the Bourbons again in the Tuileries, they were disposed, 
 in their good-natured credulity, to expect it of him, as one of 
 the miracles of his astounding genius ; and, if the difficulty of 
 believing that a man would thus give up to others a crown 
 which he held in his hand staggered those possessed of some
 
 368 HISTORY OF THE oct. 1800 
 
 perspicacity, their resolution was soon taken. " Let him make 
 himself king," said they, " but let him save us, for monarchy 
 alone can save us ! " A great man, in default of a legitimate 
 prince, seemed acceptable to them ; but a king they must 
 have at any rate. 
 
 Thus, by ensuring to the patriots of '89 civil equality ; to the 
 purchasers of the national domains, to the staunchest patriots, 
 the exclusion of the Bourbons ; to the moderate royalists per- 
 sonal safety, the re-establishment of religion ; to all, order, 
 justice, national greatness, he had won the honest and disin- 
 terested mass of all the parties. 
 
 There was still, what there always is, the implacable portion 
 of these parties, that which Time never changes but by con- 
 signing it to the grave. Those who compose it are, in general, 
 the most conscientious, or the most guilty of men, and these 
 are always last upon the breach. 
 
 The men who, in the course of the Eevolution, had imbrued 
 their hands in blood, or signalised themselves by excesses 
 which it was impossible to forget ; others who, though they had 
 nothing wherewith to reproach themselves, had been hurried 
 into demagogue turbulence by the violence of their character 
 or the turn of their mind ; the furious Mountaineers, the few 
 survivors of the famous Commune, the old Jacobins and Cor- 
 deliers, were irritated in proportion to the success of the new 
 government. They called the First Consul a tyrant, who 
 meant to effect a complete counter-revolution in France, to 
 abolish liberty, to bring back the emigrants, the priests, and 
 even the Bourbons, to make himself their base servant. Others, 
 less blinded by anger, said that he designed to make himself 
 tyrant for his own aggrandisement, to stifle liberty for his own 
 advantage. He was a Cscsar who ought to fall under the dagger 
 of a Brutus. They talked of daggers, but did nothing but talk 
 of them ; for the energy of these men, greatly exhausted by ten 
 years' excesses, began to turn into violence of language. We 
 shall soon see, in fact, that it was not in their ranks that 
 resolute assassins were likely to be found. The police was 
 incessantly at their heels, penetrating into their clandestine 
 meetings, watching them with incessant attention. There were 
 some who wanted nothing but bread ; the First Consul, by the 
 advice of Fouche, the minister, cheerfully supplied them with 
 it, or, if they were fit for anything, he did better, he gave them 
 employment. They then became, according to the account of 
 the others, nothing but wretches sold to the tyrant. If even 
 there were any, who, from sheer fatigue, became a little more 
 calm, as was at this time the case with some notorious per- 
 sonages, such as Santerre, and several others, they were imme- 
 diately branded with the appellation of hirelings. According to
 
 oct. 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 369 
 
 the custom of parties, these incorrigible demagogues sought, 
 among the real or supposed discontented men of the day, the 
 imaginary hero who was to realise their dreams. It is not 
 known from what indications Moreau had appeared to them 
 to be jealous of the First Consul ; it was, probably, because he 
 had acquired sufficient glory to be the second personage in the 
 State. They had instantly extolled him to the skies. But 
 Moreau had just arrived in Paris ; the First Consul had given 
 him a most flattering reception, made him a present of a pair 
 of pistols, enriched with precious stones, and inscribed with 
 the names of his victories ; he was now nothing but a lackey. 
 Brune, the demagogue, at first dear to their hearts, had, by 
 his intelligence, attracted the attention of the First Consul, 
 obtained his confidence, and been appointed to the command 
 of the army of Italy ; he, too, was a lackey. Massena, on the 
 contrary, deprived rather abruptly of the command of that 
 army, was dissatisfied, and could scarcely contain himself ; he 
 was immediately declared the future saviour of the Eepublic, 
 and ought to put himself at the head of the real patriots. Such 
 was the case with Carnot, whom they called a royalist of the 
 1 8th of Fructidor, whose proscription they then demanded and 
 obtained, and who, being now deprived of the portfolio of war, 
 again became, in their estimation, a great citizen ; such was the 
 case with Lannes, who, it is true, was attached to the First 
 Consul, but was a decided republican, and at times used ex- 
 tremely violent language relative to the return of the priests 
 and of the emigrants ; such was the case with M. Sieyes himself 
 — with M. Sieyes, odious at first to the republicans for having 
 been the principal accomplice of the 1 8th of Brumaire, then the 
 butt of their raillery, on account of the disappointment with 
 which the First Consul had repaid his services, and by this 
 time almost a favourite with them, because, dissatisfied with 
 being a cipher, he showed what he had shown to all the govern- 
 ments — a cold and disapproving mien. Carnot, Lannes, Sieyes, 
 were to join Massena to set up the Eepublic again on the first 
 occasion. Lastly, what will strikingly illustrate the silly 
 credulity of the expiring parties, the minister Fouche, one of 
 the two principal advisers of the First Consul, and who had 
 no object to gain — the minister Fouche, because he was well 
 acquainted with these patriots, not afraid of them, and occasion- 
 ally afforded them relief, knowing that it was rather tongues 
 which needed silencing than hands disarming — the minister 
 Fouche was to join Massena, Carnot, Lannes, and Sieyes, to over- 
 throw the tyrant, and save the liberties which were menaced. 
 
 The royalist faction had, like the revolutionary faction, its 
 implacable sectaries, equally credulous reasoners. but mure for- 
 midable conspirators. These were the great nobles of Versailles, 
 
 vol. 1. 2 a
 
 370 HISTORY OF THE oct. 1800 
 
 who had returned, or were about to return, intriguers charged 
 with the sorry affairs of the Bourbons, going to and fro between 
 France and foreign countries, to frame childish plots, or to earn 
 a little money ; lastly, desperadoes, devoted soldiers of Georges, 
 ready for any crimes. 
 
 The first, great nobles, accustomed to talk much, attacked 
 by words only the First Consul, his family, and his government. 
 They lived in Paris nearly like foreigners to the country, scarcely 
 deigning to notice what was passing there, sometimes soliciting 
 their erasure from the list of emigrants, or the removal of the 
 sequestration from their unsold property. For this purpose 
 they frequented Madame Bonaparte's, at least such of them as 
 had been acquainted with her when she was the wife of M. de 
 Beauharnais. They went in the morning, never in the evening, 
 were received in the entresol of the Tuileries, which she had 
 fitted up for her private apartments, warm solicitors while there, 
 excusing themselves as soon as they had left for having gone 
 thither, and attributing that step to a strong desire to oblige 
 unfortunate friends. Madame Bonaparte foolishly found plea- 
 sure in the society of these equivocal visitors ; and her husband, 
 though frequently annoyed by them, nevertheless endured them 
 out of complaisance to his wife, perhaps, too, from a desire to 
 know everything, and to have communications with all parties. 
 There were few of these solicitors who were not under obliga- 
 tions to the government, either on their own account, or on 
 account of relations ; but the freedom of their language was not 
 for this reason at all diminished. All that was done for them 
 was, in their estimation, no more than their due : they had been 
 robbed of their possessions, and, if they were restored to them, 
 this was but a duty, an act of repentance, for which they owed 
 no gratitude to any one. They jeered at everything and at 
 everybody, even at the embarrassment of Madame Bonaparte, 
 who, if she was proud to be the wife of the first man of the age, 
 seemed almost ashamed of being the wife of the chief of the 
 government, and who was at once too kind and too weak to 
 crush them with the legitimate pride which she ought to have 
 felt. They jeered, we said, at everybody, excepting, however, 
 the First Consul, whom they thought a great general, but a 
 middling politician, without consistency in his ideas, favouring 
 the Jacobins one day, the royalists the next, having no will but 
 in war, because war was his profession, and there too, inferior 
 to Moreau, in more than one respect. It is true, he had obtained 
 splendid successes ; that those gentlemen admitted ; thus far 
 everything had prospered with him, but how long would that 
 last ? Europe, indeed, was now incapable of resisting him ; but, 
 though conqueror abroad, would he overcome all the difficulties 
 with which he was surrounded at home ? The finances seemed
 
 OCT. 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 371 
 
 to improve, but paper, which had been the ephemeral expedient 
 of all the revolutionary governments, was also the expedient of 
 his. Nothing was to be seen but bills of the receivers-general, 
 notes of the Bank of France, &c. Would not this new paper 
 end as paper had always ended ? The government at this time 
 did make some sort of shift, because the armies were maintained 
 by the conquered countries ; but at the peace, when they should 
 return to their own territory, how were they to be provided 
 for ? Landed property was grievously burdened, and before long 
 those subject to the taxes neither could nor would pay them. 
 People talked, it was true, of the satisfaction of certain classes, 
 of priests and emigrants, who were well treated by the present 
 government ; but that government recalled the emigrants without 
 restoring their property to them. They were enemies whom it 
 brought from abroad into the country, and who were in conse- 
 quence the more dangerous. It recalled the priests, but without 
 giving them back their altars. To concede everything by halves 
 in this way, was to confer an obligation one day on people who 
 would not thank you for it the next. Bonaparte, as these 
 royalists called him, for they never deigned to give him his 
 proper title, Bonaparte knew not how to do anything but in an 
 incomplete manner. He had permitted Sunday to be kept, but 
 he had not dared to abolish the decadi, and France, left to 
 herself, had returned universally to Sunday. This was not the 
 only ancient custom to which she would return, as soon as an 
 example was set or liberty given. Bonaparte, by re-establishing, 
 now this, then that, was himself commencing a counter-revolu- 
 tion, which would soon hurry him further than he meant to go. 
 Since he was about reviving so much of the past, would he go 
 the length of restoring the monarchy, and even of restoring it 
 for himself, by making himself king or emperor ?• — if so, he would 
 only render the counter-revolution more certain, by undertaking 
 to effect it with his own hands. On this restored throne there 
 would very soon be wanted those princes who alone were worthy 
 to fill it ; and, in re-establishing the institution, he would have 
 re-established it for the Bourbons.* 
 
 It frequently happens that hatred guesses right, because it 
 takes delight in imputing faults, than which nothing is more 
 predicable of human conduct. Only, in its restless impatience, 
 it outstrips- Time. These shallow tattlers knew not how near 
 they came to the truth ; neither did they know that, before 
 
 * This picture of the emigrants of those days is not drawn from imagina- 
 tion. The language which I attribute to them is literally extracted from the 
 voluminous correspondence addressed to Louis XVIII., and brought by that 
 prince to France. Left, during the Hundred Days, at the Tuileries, and sub- 
 sequently deposited in the archives of the Foreign Office, it furnishes singular 
 evidence of the illusions and of the passions of that time. Some of these 
 letters are very witty, and all very curious.
 
 372 HISTORY OF THE oct. 1800 
 
 their predictions were accomplished, it was decreed that the 
 world should be convulsed for fifteen years, it was decreed that 
 the man of whom they thus spoke should have achieved sublime 
 things, committed prodigious faults, and that, ere the catas- 
 trophe arrived, they should have time to belie themselves, to 
 abjure their cause, to forsake the only legitimate princes in 
 their estimation, to serve this ephemeral master, to serve and 
 to adore him ; they knew not that, if France should one day 
 return to the feet of the Bourbons, she would approach them as 
 if thrown by the tempest to the foot of a time-honoured tree, 
 but thrown thither only for a moment. 
 
 In a lower sphere conspired otherwise than by words the 
 intriguers in the service of the Bourbons, and lower still, but 
 more dangerously, the agents of Georges, with their hands full 
 of money supplied by England. Georges, ever since his return 
 from London, was in the Morbihan, concealing himself from 
 observation, acting the part of a man who retires in resignation 
 to some rural retreat, but implacable in reality, having sworn in 
 his heart, having sworn to the Bourbons, to perish or to destroy 
 the First Consul. To attack in open fight the grenadiers of the 
 consular guard would be hopeless ; still there were among the 
 Chouans arms quite ready to have recourse to the last expedient 
 of vanquished parties, that is, to assassination. Among them 
 might be found a band ready for anything, for the blackest 
 crimes as well as the rashest attempts. Georges, still unde- 
 cided as to the moment and the place which ought to be chosen, 
 kept them to their purpose, communicating with them through 
 trusty persons, giving up to them the highroads for their sub- 
 sistence, or part of the money received in profusion from the 
 British cabinet. 
 
 The First Consul, satisfied with the homage of France, with 
 the unanimous adhesion of the sincere and disinterested men of 
 every party, gave himself little concern about the language of 
 the one class, or the plots of the other. Wholly engrossed by 
 business, he thought little of the empty talk of the idle, though 
 he was far from being insensible to it ; but, for the time being, 
 he was too much absorbed by his task to pay much attention 
 to such language. He thought very little more of the plots 
 directed against his person ; he considered them as one of those 
 dangers which he braved every day on the field of battle with 
 the indifference of fatalism. For the rest, he deceived himself 
 respecting the nature of his danger. Having, on the 18th of 
 Brumaire, wrested the supreme power from the revolutionary 
 party, and having it at the moment for his principal enemy, he 
 threw the blame of all that happened on this party, and seemed 
 to be irritated against it alone. The royalists, at least at that 
 time, were in his eyes but a persecuted party, which it was
 
 oct. 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 373 
 
 right to screen from oppression. He was well aware that there 
 were villains among them ; but he had contracted the habit, 
 from living with moderate men, of anticipating violence from 
 the revolutionists alone. One of his advisers, however, strove 
 to correct this error of his judgment : it was M. Fouche, the 
 minister of the police. 
 
 In this government, conducted almost by one man, all the 
 ministers had been cast into the shade, with the exception of 
 two, Messrs. Fouche and de Talleyrand. They alone were, at 
 times, faintly discernible through the halo of glory which en- 
 circled General Bonaparte, and the dazzling effulgence of which 
 threw all around him into comparative obscurity. General 
 Berthier had just succeeded Carnot in the department of war, 
 because he was more supple, more resigned to the modest part 
 of comprehending and rendering the ideas of his chief, which he 
 did with a clearness and a precision truly admirable. It was no 
 slight merit to be the worthy chief of the staff to the greatest 
 captain of the age, and perhaps of all ages. But Berthier, beside 
 the First Consul, could not have any importance as director of 
 the military operations. The navy, at the moment, attracted 
 very little attention. The finances required only the firm and 
 persevering, but unobtrusive application of certain principles of 
 order, laid down once for all. The police, on the contrary, was 
 of great importance, on account of the vast authority with which 
 the government was armed ; and, as well as the police, the 
 foreign affairs, on account of the relations to be re-established 
 with the whole world. As for the police, the First Consul 
 needed a man who was acquainted with the parties and with 
 the individuals of whom the parties were composed : this was 
 the cause of the influence acquired by Fouche, the minister. In 
 regard to the foreign affairs, though no person better qualified 
 than the First Consul could be presented to Europe, there needed 
 every moment an agent more mild, more patient than he ; and 
 this was the cause of the influence acquired by M. de Talleyrand. 
 Messrs. Fouche and de Talleyrand shared, therefore, the only 
 portion of political credit which the ministers then enjoyed. 
 
 The police was not at that period what fortunately it has 
 since become, a mere surveillance, without power, charged solely 
 with warning and giving information to justice. It was an 
 immense arbitrary authority deposited in the hands of a single 
 man. The minister of the police could exile these as revolu- 
 tionists, could recall those as emigrants, fix for all the place of 
 their residence, continue or remove the sequestration from the 
 property of returned emigrants, restore or take away his church 
 from a priest, suppress or reprimand a journal which had dis- 
 pleased him : lastly, point out any person to the mistrust or 
 the favour of a government, which then had an extraordinary
 
 374 HISTORY OF THE OCT. 1800 
 
 number of places to give away, and which soon had the wealth 
 of Europe to distribute among its creatures. The minister of 
 the police, on whom the institutions of the time conferred such 
 attributions, though placed under the supreme and vigilant 
 authority of- the First Consul, yet possessed a formidable power 
 over the whole nation. 
 
 M. Fouche, charged to exercise this power, formerly an Ora- 
 torian and a Conventionalist, was an intelligent and a crafty 
 personage, neither good nor wicked, well acquainted with men, 
 especially the bad, and despising them ; employing the funds of 
 the police in supporting the agents of troubles as much as in 
 watching them ; always ready to procure bread or a place for 
 every person weary of political agitations ; thus making friends 
 for the government, and more especially for himself ; creating 
 for himself obliged dependents, far superior to credulous and 
 deceitful spies, who never failed to inform him of everything 
 that it was his interest to know ; having persons under obliga- 
 tions to him in all the parties, even among the royalists, whom 
 he knew how to manage, and to repress at the right time ; 
 always forewarned, never overrating danger, nor exaggerating 
 it to his master ; clearly distinguishing an imprudent man from 
 one really to be feared, knowing when to caution the one, to 
 proceed against the other ; in short, managing the police better 
 than it ever was managed, for it consists in disarming animo- 
 sities as much as in repressing them ; a superior minister, if he 
 had had elevated intentions, if his indulgence had sprung from 
 any other principle than an indifference to good and evil, if his 
 activity had proceeded from any other motive than a passion 
 for interfering in everything, which rendered him irksome and 
 suspicious to the First Consul, and frequently gave him the 
 appearance of a vulgar intriguer. For the rest, his intelligent 
 but ignoble countenance was a faithful mirror of the qualities 
 and vices of his soul. 
 
 The First Consul, chary of his confidence, never granted it 
 freely, especially to men for whom he had no esteem. He made 
 use of M. Fouche, and at the same time distrusted him. Hence 
 he sometimes sought to dispense with or to control him, by 
 giving money to de Bourrienne, his secretary, to Murat, the 
 commandant of Paris, but especially to Savary, his aide-de- 
 camp, in order to compose in this way several contradictory 
 polices. But M. Fouche always contrived to convict these 
 bastard polices of awkwardness and puerility, proved himself 
 alone to be well informed, and, while frequently crossing the 
 First Consul, nevertheless made his peace with him by that 
 manner of treating men in which was mingled neither love nor 
 hate, but an incessant application to wean them, one by one, 
 from an agitated and factious existence.
 
 ocr. 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 375 
 
 M. Fouch e\ half faithful to the revolutionary party, took 
 pleasure in showing indulgence to his old friends, and dared, in 
 reference to them, to contradict the First Consul. Well knowing 
 their moral situation, appreciating, more especially, the villains 
 of royalism, he was incessantly repeating that the danger, if 
 there were any, was from the royalists much more than from 
 the revolutionists, and that they should soon have occasion to 
 perceive this. He had even the merit, but not for a long time, 
 of insisting that it would be well not to forsake the Revolution 
 anc its ideas quite so much. Hearing already the flatterers of 
 the day assert, that it was necessary to proceed more rapidly 
 in reaction, to disregard the prejudices of the Revolution, and 
 to return to something that should resemble monarchy, minus 
 the Bourbons, he dared to censure, if not the aim, at least the 
 imprudence with which certain persons pursued that track. 
 While admitting the justice of his opinions, given with good 
 sense, but without frankness and without dignity, the First 
 Corsul was struck, but not pleased, with them. He acknowledged 
 the services of this personage, but had no esteem for him. 
 
 M. de Talleyrand performed a totally contrary part ; he had 
 neither affection for M. Fouche nor resemblance to him. They 
 had both been formerly priests, the one having belonged to the 
 superior, the other to the inferior clergy, and yet they had 
 notning in common, but their having both taken advantage of 
 the Revolution to cast aside, the former the prelate's robes, the 
 latter the humble gown of the Oratorian professor. How strange, 
 it must be confessed, and how characteristic of that deeply con- 
 vulsed society, was the spectacle presented by this government, 
 composed of a soldier and two priests, who had abjured their 
 profession, and, though thus composed, having none the less 
 splendour, grandeur, and influence in the world. 
 
 M. de Talleyrand, descended from a family of the noblest 
 lineage, destined by his birth for the army, doomed to the 
 priesthood by an accident, which deprived him of the use of 
 one foot, having no liking for this imposed profession, succes- 
 sively bishop, courtier, revolutionist, and emigrant, then after- 
 wards minister for foreign affairs under the Directory, M. de 
 Talleyrand had retained something of all these different states ; 
 there was to be found in him a touch of the bishop, of the man 
 of quality, and of the revolutionist. Having no firmly lixed 
 opinion, but only a natural moderation, which was opposed to 
 every species of exaggeration ; capable of entering at once into 
 the feelings of those whom he wished to please, either from 
 liking or from interest ; speaking a unique language peculiar to 
 that society which had Voltaire for instructor; full of smart, 
 poignant repartees, which rendered him as formidable as he 
 was attractive ; by turns caressing or disdainful, demonstrative
 
 376 HISTORY OF THE oct. 1800 
 
 or impenetrable ; careless, dignified, lame without loss of grace- 
 fulness, in short, one of the most extraordinary personages, and 
 such a one as a revolution alone can produce, he was the most 
 seducing of negotiators, but at the same time incapable of 
 directing, as head, the affairs of a great State ; for every leader 
 should possess a resolute will, settled views, and application, 
 and he had none of these. His will was confined to pleasing, 
 his views consisted in the opinions of the moment, his applica- 
 tion was next to nothing. In a word, he was an accomplished 
 ambassador, but not a directing minister: be it understood, 
 however, that this expression is to be taken in its most elevated 
 acceptation. For the rest, he held no other post under the 
 consular government. The First Consul, who allowed no person 
 the right to give an opinion on the affairs of war and of 
 diplomacy, merely employed him to negotiate with the foreign 
 ministers, on bases previously prescribed, and this M. de Talley- 
 rand did with an art that will never be surpassed. He possessed, 
 however, a moral merit, that of being fond of peace under a 
 master who was fond of war, and of showing that he was so. 
 Endowed with exquisite taste, uniting with it unerring tact, 
 and even a useful indolence, he was able to render real services, 
 by simply opposing to the First Consul's exuberance of language, 
 pen, and action, his sobriety, his perfect moderation, and his 
 very propensity to do nothing. But he made little impression 
 on that imperious master, from whom he extorted no respect 
 either by genius or by conviction. Thus he had no more 
 empire than M. Fouche, nay, even less, though quite as much 
 employed, and more agreeable. 
 
 Then again, M. de Talleyrand said just the contrary to what 
 M. Fouche said. Attached to the ancient regime, minus the 
 persons and the ridiculous prejudices of other times, he recom- 
 mended the re-establishment of the monarchy as soon as pos- 
 sible, or an equivalent for it, by availing of the glory of the 
 First Consul in lieu of blood-royal, adding that, if we wished 
 to have a speedy and a durable peace with Europe, we ought to 
 make haste to resemble other States. And while his colleague, 
 Fouche, in the name of the Eevolution, advised that we should 
 not go too fast, M. de Talleyrand, in the name of Europe, 
 advised that we should not go so low. 
 
 The First Consul prized the plain good sense of M. Fouche, 
 relished the graces of M. de Talleyrand, but absolutely believed 
 neither the one nor the other on any subject, and, as for his 
 confidence, had given that, given it wholly and entirely, but 
 not to either of those two men — to his colleague Cambaceres. 
 The latter, with an understanding far from brilliant, had ex- 
 traordinary good sense, and an unbounded attachment to the 
 First Consul. Having trembled for ten years of his life under
 
 Oct. 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 377 
 
 proscribers of all sorts, he loved, with a kind of affection, the 
 powerful master, who at length procured him the faculty of 
 breathing at his ease. He loved his power, his genius, his 
 person, from which he had not received, and hoped never to 
 receive, anything but favours. Acquainted with the weak- 
 nesses of men, even of the greatest, he counselled the First 
 Consul, as one ought to counsel when one wishes to be attended 
 to, with perfect sincerity, with extreme discretion, never for 
 the purpose of showing off his own wisdom, but always to be 
 serviceable to a government which he loved as dearly as him- 
 self, always approving of all its acts in public, whatever they 
 might be, and never disapproving of them but in private, in 
 an absolute tete-a-tete with the First Consul ; keeping silence 
 when there was no good to be done, and when censure could 
 be but a vain pleasure of finding fault ; sure to speak his 
 mind, and with a courage highly meritorious in a man so ex- 
 tremely timid, when he was in time to prevent a blunder, or 
 influence the general conduct of affairs. And, as if a character 
 which is incessantly under self-restraint must needs be betrayed 
 into some weakness, the Consul Cambaceres exhibited a puerile 
 vanity with his inferiors, lived with some subaltern courtiers, 
 who paid him fulsome homage, walked every day in the Palais 
 Royal, in a ridiculously magnificent dress, and sought, in the 
 gratification of a gourmandise that has become proverbial, 
 pleasures which were suited to his vulgar but prudent soul. 
 Of what consequence, however, are a few foibles, redeemed by 
 superior reason ! 
 
 The First Consul cheerfully forgave these foibles in his col- 
 league, and made much of him. He appreciated that superior 
 good sense, which never wished to shine but to be useful, and 
 which threw a tempered and true light upon everything. He 
 appreciated, above all, the sincerity of his attachment, laughed 
 at his weaknesses, but always with delicacy, and paid him the 
 very high compliment of confiding everything to him alone, of 
 never being concerned but about his judgment. Hence, he 
 was susceptible of no influence but his — an influence scarcely 
 suspected, and on that account very great. 
 
 The Consul Cambaceres was qualified more especially to 
 temper his vehemence in regard to persons, and his precipita- 
 tion in regard to things. Amidst this conflict of two opposite 
 tendencies, one urging to a precipitate reaction, the other, on 
 the contrary, combating that reaction, M. Cambaceres, inflexible 
 when the maintenance of order was in question, was, in every- 
 thing else, always a decided advocate for not going too fast. 
 He did not oppose the end to which things were visibly tending, 
 for he kept incessantly repeating, " Let them in due time decree 
 as much power as they please to the First Consul, well and
 
 378 HISTORY OF THE oct. 1800 
 
 good, but not too soon." He wished especially that reality- 
 should always be preferred to appearance, real power to that 
 which was but ostentation. A First Consul, possessing the 
 power to do all that he pleased for the welfare of the State, 
 seemed to him far superior to a crowned prince, cramped in 
 his action. To act, and to keep out of sight, above all, never 
 to act too quickly, constituted the whole of his wisdom. This 
 most certainly is not genius, but it is prudence ; and, for 
 founding a great State, both are requisite. 
 
 M. Cambaceres was useful to the First Consul in another 
 way, besides advising him with superior judgment — that of 
 governing the Senate. That body, as we have said, was of 
 immense importance, owing to the patronage vested in it. In 
 the first moments, it had been relinquished, in some measure, 
 to M. Sieyes as a compensation for the executive power, vested 
 wholly in General Bonaparte. M. Sieyes was at first content to 
 abdicate, but, living on his estate of Crosne, began to feel some- 
 what vexed at his nullity ; for there never was abdication with- 
 out regret. Had he possessed firmness and consistency, he 
 might have wrested the Senate from the First Consul, who 
 would then have had no resource left but a coup d'etat. But 
 M. Cambaceres, without noise, without ostentation, insinuating 
 himself by degrees with that body, occupied the ground, which 
 the peevish negligence of M. Sieyes abandoned to him. People 
 knew that it was through him they could come at the First 
 Consul, the source of all favour, and to him they accordingly 
 addressed themselves. Of this he availed himself with infinite 
 and always concealed art, to repress or to regain opponents. 
 But this was done with such discretion, that nobody thought to 
 complain of it. At a time when repose had become true wisdom, 
 when repose was even necessary for reviving one day a taste 
 for liberty, we dare not censure, we dare not give the name 
 of corrupter to the man who, on the one hand, tempered 
 the master imposed by events, and, on the other, checked the 
 imprudences of an opposition without aim, unseasonable, and 
 politically unwise. 
 
 As for the Consul Lebrun, General Bonaparte treated him 
 with respect, even with affection, but as a person meddling 
 but little with public affairs, the administration excepted. To 
 him he consigned the superintendence over the details of the 
 finances, and charged him to keep him acquainted with the 
 proceedings and the sentiments of the royalists, by whom this 
 third consul was frequently surrounded. He had thus an ear 
 and an eye among them, but only from the mere interest of 
 curiosity as to what might be hatching in that quarter. 
 
 To convey an accurate idea of the circle surrounding the 
 First Consul, we must say a word concerning his family. He
 
 OCT. 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 379 
 
 had four brothers, Joseph, Lucien, Louis, and Jerome. The two 
 latter we shall notice in due time. Joseph and Lucien only 
 were then of any importance. Joseph, the eldest of all, had 
 married the daughter of a wealthy and respectable merchant of 
 Marseilles. He was mild, tolerably acute, agreeable in person, 
 and caused his brother less vexation than any of the others. 
 It was for him that the First Consul reserved the honour of 
 negotiating the peace of the Eepublic with the States of the 
 Old and the New World. He had charged him to conclude the 
 treaty which had been signed with America, and had just ap- 
 pointed him plenipotentiary to Luneville, thus seeking to assign 
 to him a part which should be popular in France. Lucien, at 
 present minister of the interior, was a clever man, but of an 
 unequal mind, restless, ungovernable, and, though possessing 
 talent, not having sufficient to make amends for what he 
 wanted in point of good sense. Both flattered the propensity 
 of the First Consul to raise himself to the supreme power ; and 
 this was but natural. The genius of the First Consul, like 
 his glory, were things personal to himself ; one quality only 
 could be transmissible to his family, that was the princely 
 quality, if he should one day assume it, in preference to that 
 of first magistrate of the Eepublic. His brothers were among 
 those who asserted, with least reserve, that the present form 
 of government was but one of transition, devised to lull revo- 
 lutionary prejudices; but that he ought to make up his mind, 
 and that, if he wished to found something truly stable, it was 
 indispensably necessary to introduce greater concentration, 
 unity, and durability. The drift of all this was very evident. 
 The First Consul, as every one knows, had no children, which 
 greatly embarrassed those who already dreamt of the transfor- 
 mation of the Eepublic into a monarchy. It was, in fact, an 
 inconsistency to pretend to be desirous of ensuring the regular 
 and natural transmission of the supreme power in the family 
 of a man who had no heirs. Thus though, hereafter, this default 
 of heirs might be a personal advantage for the brothers of the 
 First Consul, it was now an argument against their projects, and 
 they frequently reproached Madame Bonaparte for a misfortune, 
 of which, they said, she was the cause. Having quarrelled with 
 her, from sheer jealousy of her influence, they had not spared 
 her in conversation with her husband, and persecuted her with 
 their remarks, incessantly and loudly repeating that it was 
 absolutely necessary for the First Consul to have a wife who 
 should bring him children, that this was not a private but a 
 public consideration, and that a resolution on this point was 
 indispensable, in order to ensure the future welfare of France. 
 They caused these cruel sentiments, pregnant with the most 
 sinister consequences for her, to be repeated by all lips. The
 
 380 HISTORY OF THE oct. 1800 
 
 wife of the First Consul, apparently so fortunate, was, therefore, 
 at this moment very far from happy. 
 
 Josephine Bonaparte, who had been married first to the Count 
 de Beauharnais, then to the young general who had saved the 
 Convention on the 13th Vendemiaire, and now shared with him 
 a place which began to resemble a throne, was a Creole by birth, 
 and had all the graces, all the defects, usual in women who are 
 so born. Kind-hearted, profuse, and frivolous, not a beauty, 
 but perfectly elegant, and endowed with infinite fascination, she 
 could please much more than women who were superior to her 
 in understanding and personal charms. The levity of her con- 
 duct, depicted to her husband in the most unfavourable colours 
 when he returned from Egypt, filled him with anger. He had 
 thoughts of separating himself from a wife whom, right or 
 wrong, he believed to be culpable. She wept a long time at his 
 feet ; her two children, Hortense and Eugene Beauharnais, both 
 very dear to General Bonaparte, wept too ; he was overcome, 
 and yielded to a conjugal tenderness, which, for many years, 
 was with him paramount to policy. He forgot the real or 
 alleged faults of Josephine ; he loved her still, but not as in the 
 early period of their union. The unbounded extravagance, the 
 vexatious imprudences, in which she daily indulged, frequently 
 excited in her husband gusts of impatience which he could not 
 repress ; but he forgave her with the kindness which prosperity 
 inspires, and could not long be angry with a woman, who had 
 shared the first moments of his nascent greatness, and who, 
 from the day of their union, seemed to have brought fortune 
 along with her. 
 
 Madame Bonaparte was altogether a woman of the ancien 
 regime, devout, superstitious, nay, a royalist, detesting what she 
 called the Jacobins, who hated her in return ; seeking only the 
 society of the ancient nobility, who, returning in throngs, as we 
 have said, used to visit her in the morning. They had known 
 her the wife of an honourable man, pretty high in rank and in 
 military standing, the unfortunate Beauharnais, who died on 
 the revolutionary scaffold ; they found her the wife of a parvenu, 
 but of a parvenu more powerful than any prince in Europe ; 
 they did not hesitate to go and solicit favours, while affecting 
 to look down upon her. She was eager to make them partakers 
 of her power, and to render them services. She even took pains 
 to excite in them a sort of illusion which they were fond of in- 
 dulging, that, in reality, General Bonaparte was only waiting 
 for a favourable occasion to recall the Bourbons, and to restore 
 the inheritance which belonged to them. And, singularly enough, 
 this illusion which she delighted to instil into them, she would 
 almost fain have shared herself; for she would rather have 
 seen her husband a subject of the Bourbons, but a subject the
 
 OCT. 1800 CONSULATE AND TEE EMPIRE. 381 
 
 protector of his kings, surrounded by the homage of the ancient 
 French aristocracy, than crowned monarch by the hand of the 
 nation. She was a very faint-hearted woman. Though giddy, 
 she loved that man who covered her with glory, and loved him 
 the more since she was less beloved by him. Not conceiving it 
 possible that he could set his daring foot on the steps of the 
 throne, without falling immediately beneath the dagger of re- 
 publicans or royalists, she foresaw her children, her husband, 
 and herself overwhelmed in one general ruin. But, supposing 
 that he ascended safe and sound to that usurped throne, another 
 fear harrowed her heart — it would not be her lot to share his 
 elevation. If General Bonaparte should some day be made king 
 or emperor, it would evidently be under the pretext of giving 
 a stable government to France, by rendering it hereditary ; and 
 unfortunately her physicians left her no hope of ever having 
 more children. She recollected on this subject the extraordinary 
 prediction of a woman, a sort of Pythoness then in vogue* 
 who had told her : " You will occupy the first place in the 
 world, but only for a short time." She had already heard the 
 brothers of the First Consul pronounce the fatal word, divorce. 
 The victim of grandeur, whom, to judge of her lot from the 
 external splendour by which she was surrounded, the queens 
 of Europe might have envied, was a prey to corroding care. 
 Each advance of fortune added apparently to her happiness, but 
 really augmented her distress ; and if she did escape from her 
 keen anxieties, it was by a levity of character which saved 
 her long and intense thought. The attachment of General Bona- 
 parte for her, his gusts of passion, when he gave way to them, 
 repaired the next moment by demonstrations of the greatest 
 kindness, served also to cheer her. Hurried away, moreover, 
 like all the people of that time, by a stupefying whirlwind, 
 she reckoned upon the god of revolutions, upon chance ; and, 
 after painful agitations, she returned to the enjoyment of her 
 fortune. She strove, meanwhile, to divert her husband from 
 his ideas of an exaggerated greatness, ventured even to talk 
 to him of the Bourbons, at the risk of raising storms ; and, in 
 spite of her partialities, which ought to have led her to prefer 
 M. de Talleyrand to M. Fouche, she had taken a liking to the 
 latter, because, thorough Jacobin as he was, she said, he dared 
 tell the truth to the First Consul ; and to tell the truth to 
 the First Consul was, in her estimation, to advise him to 
 uphold the Republic, but to increase at the same time his 
 consular power. Messrs. de Talleyrand and Fouche, thinking 
 
 * Mademoiselle Le Normand, the celebrated fortune-teller, whom some 
 readers may have visited at her residence, No. 5 Hue do Tournon, Paris. 
 She published, in 1820, Me'moircs Historiqu.es <:t Stcretis <h I'lmperatricc Jose- 
 phine, in two volumes, containing very interesting particulars of her distin- 
 guished patroness, and died in 1S44. — Translator.
 
 382 HISTORY OF THE oct. 1800 
 
 to strengthen themselves by penetrating into the family of 
 the First Consul, introduced themselves into it by flattering 
 each as each liked to be flattered. M. de Talleyrand strove 
 to please the brothers, by saying that it was necessary to de- 
 vise for the First Consul a different position from that which 
 the Constitution conferred on him. M. Fouche endeavoured 
 to please Madame Bonaparte by saying, that to hurry things 
 would be the height of imprudence, and endanger the loss of 
 all. This method of insinuating themselves into his family, 
 and exciting disharmony by their interference, was excessively 
 displeasing to the First Consul. This feeling he often mani- 
 fested ; and when he had any communication to make to his 
 relations, he employed his colleague Cambaceres, who, with his 
 accustomed prudence, listened to everything, but said no more 
 than he was directed to say, and acquitted himself of this kind 
 of commission with equal delicacy and precision. 
 
 A very strange circumstance occurred to impart a present and 
 positive feature to all these internal agitations. The prince, who 
 was afterwards Louis XVIIL, then an exile, ventured upon a 
 singular and indiscreet step. Many royalists, to account for 
 and excuse their return towards the new government, affected 
 to believe, or really did believe, that General Bonaparte meant 
 to recall the Bourbons. These men, who had not read, or knew 
 not how to read, the history of the English Bevolution, and to 
 appreciate the terrible lessons with which it abounds, all at 
 once discovered in it an analogy which flattered their hopes ; 
 it was the recall of the Stuarts by General Monck. They said 
 nothing about Cromwell, who, however, acted a part great 
 enough not to be forgotten. The unfounded rumour had at 
 length gained currency, and reached Louis XVIIL This prince, 
 endowed with tact and a good understanding, had committed 
 the blunder of writing to General Bonaparte himself, and had 
 transmitted to him several letters which he thought seasonable, 
 but which were not, and which proved only one thing — the 
 ordinary illusions of the emigrants. The first of the letters 
 was as follows : — 
 
 "February 20, 1800. 
 " Men such as you, sir, whatever their apparent conduct may be, 
 never excite uneasiness. You have accepted an eminent post, and I 
 am glad you have done so. You know better than any one else how 
 much strength and power are required to secure the happiness of a 
 great nation. Save France from its own frenzy, and you will have 
 fulfilled the first wish of my heart ; restore her king to her, and future 
 generations will bless your memory. Your services will alway be found 
 too valuable to the State to admit of my discharging in full, and as 
 I could wish, the debt of my ancestors and my own, by the bestowal 
 of important posts. Louis."
 
 OCT. 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 383 
 
 The First Consul was extremely surprised on receiving this 
 letter, and was for some time undecided whether he ought to 
 reply. It had been transmitted to him by the Consul Lebrun, 
 who had received it himself from the Abbe" Montesquiou. 
 The First Consul, engrossed by a multiplicity of business, on 
 entering upon the government, had suffered some time to 
 elapse without answering it. The prince, impatient as an 
 emigrant, wrote a second letter, stamped still more with 
 the credulity of his party, still more derogatory to his dignity. 
 It was in these terms : — 
 
 " You must long have been aware, general, of the esteem in which 
 I hold you. If you doubt whether I am susceptible of gratitude, 
 mark your own place ; fix that of your friends. As for my prin- 
 ciples, they are those of the French character. I am clement by 
 disposition. I shall be so from reason also. 
 
 " No, the victor of Lodi, of Castiglione, and of Areola, the con- 
 queror of Italy and of Egypt, can never prefer a vain celebrity to 
 true glory. You are, nevertheless, losing valuable time : we can 
 ensure the repose of France ; I say we, because I need Bonaparte for 
 this purpose, and he could not accomplish it without me. 
 
 "General, Europe observes you, glory awaits you, and I am im- 
 patient to restore peace to my people. Louis." 
 
 This time the First Consul thought that he could not help 
 answering. At bottom he had never had any doubt as to the 
 course which he ought to pursue towards the deposed princes. 
 Ambition apart, he considered the recall of the Bourbons as 
 impracticable and fatal. It was from conviction that he re- 
 pelled them, earnestly as he might otherwise desire to be master 
 of France. His wife had been made acquainted with the 
 incident, so had his secretary ; and, though he did them not 
 the honour to admit them to such deliberations, he gave them 
 his motives. His wife had thrown herself at his feet to im- 
 plore him to leave at least some hope for the Bourbons ; he 
 repulsed her angrily, and addressing his secretary, " You do 
 not know those people," said he ; " if I were to give them 
 back their throne, they would fancy that they had recovered 
 it by the grace of God. They would soon be surrounded and 
 hurried away by the emigrants ; they would overturn, in pre- 
 tending to remodel, everything, even what cannot be remodelled. 
 What would become of the numerous interests created since 
 '89 ? What would become of the purchasers of national domains 
 and of the leaders of the army, and of all those who have em- 
 barked their lives and fortunes in the Revolution ? After 
 men, what would become of things ? What would become of 
 the principles for which we have fought so hard ? All this 
 would perish, but not perish without a struggle ; the contlict 
 would be tremendous ; thousands of men would perish. No,
 
 384 HISTORY OF THE oct. 1800 
 
 never will I take so fatal a resolution." He was right. Setting 
 aside all personal interest, he acted judiciously. His dictator- 
 ship, which retarded the establishment of public liberty in 
 France, a liberty, however, extremely difficult to establish at 
 that time, his dictatorship completed the triumph of the 
 French Revolution, which Waterloo itself, after a lapse of 
 fifteen years, could no longer destroy. 
 
 As might be expected, his answer was in unison with his sen- 
 timents, and did not hold out more hopes than he meant to 
 give. It is only from the very words of the letter that one can 
 judge of the grandeur of expression with which he replied to the 
 imprudent overture of the exiled prince :— 
 
 " Paris, the 20th Fructidor, year VIII. (Sept. 7, 1800). 
 
 " I have received your letter, sir, and thank you for the obliging 
 expressions which it contains regarding myself. 
 
 " You should renounce all hope of returning to France, you could 
 not do so but over the corses of half a million Frenchmen. 
 
 "Sacrifice your individual interest to the repose and happiness of 
 France ; history will give you credit for it. 
 
 " I am not insensible to the misfortunes of your family ; I will 
 contribute with pleasure to the ease and the tranquillity of your 
 retirement. Bonaparte." 
 
 Some portion of this got abroad, and the personal designs of 
 the First Consul became, in consequence, the more evident. 
 
 It is full often the attempts of parties to stifle an infant 
 power that accelerate its growth, and encourage it to dare all 
 that it meditates. An attempt more ridiculous than criminal 
 of the republicans against the First Consul hastened a demon- 
 stration quite as ridiculous on the part of the men who purposed 
 to hurry forward his elevation : both came to nothing. 
 
 The patriot declaimers, more noisy and far less formidable 
 than the agents of the Bourbons, met frequently at the house 
 of a man formerly employed by the Committee of Public 
 Welfare, now out of office. His name was Demerville ; he 
 talked a great deal, hawked about the pamphlets against the 
 government, and was scarcely capable of doing more. His 
 house was the resort of Arena, the Corsican, one of the members 
 of the Five Hundred, who had escaped by a window on the 18th 
 Brumaire ; of Topino Lebrun, a painter of some talent, pupil of 
 David, participating in the revolutionary extravagance of the 
 artists of that time ; and of many Italian refugees, who were 
 exasperated against General Bonaparte, because he protected 
 the Pope and did not re-establish the Roman Republic. The 
 principal and the most violent of these latter was a sculptor 
 named Ceracchi. These hot-brained men used to meet at 
 Demerville's, and made use of language the most absurd. It was
 
 oct. 1800 CONSULATE AND TEE EMPIRE. 385 
 
 requisite, they said, to put a finishing hand to the business ; they 
 had. plenty of people on their side ; Massena, Carnot, Lannes, 
 Sieyes, nay, Fouche himself. There was nothing to do but to 
 strike the tyrant, and all the genuine republicans would speak 
 out; all would unite to raise up the expiring Eepublic again. 
 But it was necessary to find a Brutus to strike the new Cassar. 
 Nobody came forward. A soldier out of employ, named Harrel, 
 leading a life of idleness and penury with these declaimers, 
 indigent and discontented like them, appeared to them the man 
 of action whom they needed. They made proposals to him 
 which alarmed him exceedingly. In his agitation, he com- 
 municated the matter to a commissary of war, with whom he 
 was somewhat intimate, and who advised him to report all he 
 knew to the government. This Harrel went to M. de Bourrienne, 
 secretary to the First Consul, and General Lannes, commandant 
 of the consular guard. The First Consul, apprised by them, 
 directed the police to give Harrel money and orders to consent 
 to all that his accomplices should propose to him. These miser- 
 able conspirators conceived that they had found in him the very 
 man for executing their purpose ; but they thought that one 
 was not sufficient. Harrel offered to bring some others. They 
 agreed to it, and Harrel brought to them some spies of M. 
 Fouche's. After they had fallen into this snare, they thought 
 of procuring daggers to arm Harrel and his companions. This 
 task they took upon themselves, and brought daggers purchased 
 by Topino Lebrun. At length, they chose the place for de- 
 spatching the First Consul, and this was the Opera, then called 
 the Theatre of the Arts. They fixed the moment, and that was 
 the 10th of October (18th Vendemiaire, year IX.), on which 
 day the First Consul was to attend the first representation of a 
 new opera. The police, being forewarned, had taken its pre- 
 cautions. The First Consul went to the Opera House followed 
 by Lannes, who, watching over him with the most anxious 
 attention, had doubled the guard, and placed the bravest of his 
 grenadiers around his box. The would-be assassins actually 
 came at the time agreed upon, but not all, and not armed. 
 Topino Lebrun was not there, neither was Demerville : Arena 
 and Ceracchi alone appeared. Ceracchi approached nearer to 
 the First Consul's box than the others, but he had no dagger. 
 The only bold fellows on the spot, and armed, were the conspi- 
 rators sent by the police to the theatre of crime. Ceracchi and 
 Arena were apprehended, as were successively all the others, 
 but most of them either at home or in the houses where they 
 had sought refuge. 
 
 This affair produced a great sensation; it was not deserving 
 of it. Assuredly the police, which ignorant men, not conver- 
 sant with such matters, in general charge with fabricating itself 
 
 vol. 1. - "
 
 386 HISTORY OF THE oct. 1800 
 
 such plots as it discovers, the police had not invented this, but 
 it must be admitted, that it had taken too great a part in it. 
 The conspirators wished, without the least doubt, the death of 
 the First Consul, but they were incapable of striking him with 
 their own hands ; and, by furnishing them with what was most 
 difficult to be found, pretended perpetrators, they had been led 
 further into the crime than they would have ventured had they 
 been left to themselves. If all this were to have terminated in 
 a severe but only temporary punishment, such as ought to be 
 inflicted on madmen, well and good ! but to put them to death 
 on such grounds is more than it is right to do, even when 
 the object is to protect a precious life. But at that time of 
 day people were not so nice ; proceedings were immediately 
 instituted, and these were destined to lead the unhappy wretches 
 to the scaffold. 
 
 This attempt excited a general alarm. Hitherto there had 
 been seen during the Eevolution only what were then called 
 journdes, or attacks by armed bands ; but people now felt 
 secured from such assaults by the military power of the govern- 
 ment. They had not yet thought of assassination, or of the 
 possibility of the First Consul being struck unawares, in spite 
 of the guard of grenadiers which surrounded him. The attempt 
 of Ceracchi, the ridiculous part of which was not known, was a 
 kind of forewarning which terrified all classes. A dread of 
 finding themselves plunged back into chaos seized everybody, 
 and generated a sort of enthusiasm in favour of the First Con- 
 sul. The populace crowded round the Tuileries. The Tribunate, 
 the only one of the assemblies of the State assembled at that 
 moment, since it met every fortnight in the interval between 
 the sessions, repaired thither in a body. All the public authori- 
 ties followed this example. Great numbers of addresses were 
 sent to the First Consul. They may all be summed up in these 
 words of the muncipal body of Paris : — 
 
 " General," it said, " we beg in the name of our fellow-citi- 
 zens to express the deep indignation which they have felt at 
 the news of the attempt meditated against your person. So 
 many interests are involved with your existence, that the plots 
 which have threatened it must necessarily be a subject of public 
 grief, as the vigilance which has preserved it will be a subject 
 of national gratitude and joy. 
 
 " That Providence, which in the year VIII. brought you back 
 from Egypt, which at Marengo seemed to protect you from all 
 dangers, which, lastly, on the iSth Vendemiaire, year IX., has 
 just saved you from the fury of assassins, is, permit us to say 
 so, the Providence of France much more than yours. It has 
 not willed that a year so brilliant, so full of glorious events, 
 destined to occupy so large a space in the recollection of men,
 
 OCT. 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 387 
 
 should terminate all at once in a detestable crime. May the 
 enemies of France cease to seek your destruction and ours ! 
 May they submit to that destiny, which, more mighty than all 
 plots, will ensure your preservation and that of the Republic ! 
 . . . We say nothing to you about the guilty ; justice lays claim 
 to them." 
 
 These addresses, all cast in the same mould, repeated to the 
 First Consul that he had no right to exercise clemency, that his 
 life belonged to the Republic, and ought to be defended like the 
 public welfare, of which it was the pledge. It must be added 
 that these manifestations were sincere. Every one thought 
 himself in danger along with the First Consul. Every one but 
 the factious wished for his preservation. The royalists believed 
 that, if he were to die, they should be sent back to the scaffold 
 or into exile ; the revolutionists imagined that they beheld 
 counter-revolution triumphant through the arms of foreigners. 
 
 The First Consul took particular and remarkable pains to 
 diminish the estimate that was formed of the danger to which 
 he had been exposed. He would not have it believed that his 
 life depended on the first comer ; and he conceived this to be 
 equally necessary for his safety and for his dignity. In con- 
 versing with the authorities deputed to congratulate him, he 
 told them all that the danger, about which they were so much 
 alarmed, had not been serious : he explained to them how, 
 surrounded by the officers of the consular guard and a picket 
 of his grenadiers, he was completely secure against the seven 
 or eight wretches who purposed to attack him. He was con- 
 vinced much more than his words coidd lead people to suppose 
 of the danger with which his life was threatened ; but he 
 thought it useful to exhibit himself to all imaginations sur- 
 rounded by the grenadiers of Marengo, and inaccessible amidst 
 them to the weapons of assassins. 
 
 More serious plots than this, about which so much fuss was 
 made, and framed by other hands, were preparing in the dark. 
 Under the influence of a vague presentiment, people said to one 
 another that these attempts would bo repeated. Hence the 
 partisans of the First Consul took occasion to insist that some- 
 thing more stable was requisite than an ephemeral power resting 
 on the head of a single man, to which the stab of an assassin's 
 dagger might at any time put an end. The brothers of the 
 First Consul, Messrs. Roederer, Regnault de St. Jean d'Angely, 
 de Talleyrand, de Fontanes, and many others, held these ideas, 
 some from conviction, others to please the master, all, as it 
 is usually the case, from a mixture of sincere and interested 
 motives. This led to the appearance of a very singular, and very 
 remarkable, anonymous pamphlet, said to have been written 
 by Lucien Bonaparte, but which, from the extraordinary ele-
 
 388 HISTORY OF THE oct. 1800 
 
 gance of the language, from the classic knowledge of history, 
 ought to have been attributed to its real author, who was 
 M. de Fontanes. This pamphlet excited so strong a sensa- 
 tion as to deserve mention here. It marks one of the steps 
 taken by General Bonaparte in the career of supreme power. 
 Its title was, " ParalUle entre Char, Cromwell, Monck et Bona- 
 parte." The author first compared General Bonaparte with 
 Cromwell, and found in him no resemblance to that leading 
 personage of the English Kevolution. Cromwell, as he said, 
 was a fanatic, a sanguinary leader of a faction, the murderer of 
 his king, victor only in the Civil War, conqueror of a few cities 
 or counties of England, in short, a barbarian who had ravaged 
 the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, a clever villain, but 
 no hero. The counterpart to Cromwell in the French Bevolu- 
 tion would be Kobespierre, if Bobespierre had possessed courage, 
 and if France, having nothing to subdue but La Vendee, he had 
 been the conqueror of it. General Bonaparte, on the contrary, 
 having no hand in the evils of the Bevolution, had compensated 
 by immense glory for crimes which were not his. He had 
 abolished the barbarous festival instituted in honour of regi- 
 cide ; he was putting an end to the horrors of the revolution- 
 ary fanaticism ; he honoured the arts and sciences, established 
 schools, opened the temple of the arts. He had not carried 
 on civil war : he had conquered not cities, but kingdoms. As 
 for Monck, what had that unsteady mind, that deserter from 
 all parties, who did not know whither he was steering, who 
 wrecked the vessel of the Bevolution upon monarchy, as he 
 might have wrecked it on the Bepublic, what had this sorry 
 personage in common with General Bonaparte, who possessed 
 a mind so firm, and knew so clearly what he purposed ! The 
 title of Duke of Albemarle might be enough to satisfy the 
 vulgar vanity of General Monck, "but is it to be supposed 
 that the truncheon of marshal or the sword of constable 
 would suffice for the man before whom the universe stands 
 aghast f . . . Does not every one know that there are certain 
 destinies which call to the loftiest station ? . . . And besides, 
 were Bonaparte ever to imitate Monck, is it not evident that 
 France would be again plunged into the horrors of a new 
 revolution ? The tempests, instead of being allayed, would 
 spring up again on all sides." 
 
 After rejecting these comparisons, the author found in the 
 whole range of history no counterpart to General Bonaparte but 
 Caesar. He discovers in him the same military greatness, the 
 same political greatness, but he discovers also one point of dis- 
 similarity. Csesar, at the head of the Boman demagogues, had 
 oppressed the party of the honest citizens and destroyed the 
 Bepublic ; General Bonaparte, on the contrary, had raised in
 
 oct. 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 389 
 
 France the party of the honest citizens and put down that of 
 the wicked. 
 
 All this was true ; the task undertaken thus far by General 
 Bonaparte was much more moral than that of Caesar. 
 
 After all these comparisons, it was necessary to draw a con- 
 clusion. Happy the Republic, exclaimed the author, if Bona- 
 parte were immortal ! " But where," he added, " where are his 
 heirs ? where are the institutions capable of upholding his bene- 
 fits and perpetuating his genius ? The destiny of 30,0x30,000 of 
 human beings hangs on the life of a single man ! Fellow-country- 
 men, what would become of you, if at this moment a funeral wail 
 were to announce that this man had ceased to live ? " 
 
 The author next examined the different chances that might 
 turn up at the death of General Bonaparte. Would the nation 
 return under the yoke of an assembly ? but the remembrance of 
 the Convention was there to exclude such a supposition from 
 every mind. Would it throw itself into the arms of a military 
 government ? but where was the equal of General Bonaparte ? 
 The Republic, no doubt, possessed great generals, but which of 
 them so far eclipsed all the rest as to extinguish all rivalry, and 
 to prevent the armies from slaughtering one another, in behalf 
 of their particular chief ? ... In default of the government 
 of assemblies, in default of the government of Praetorians, would 
 the country have recourse to the legitimate dynasty, which was 
 on the frontiers, stretching out its arms to France ? . . . But 
 this would be counter-revolution ; and the return of Charles II. 
 and James II. to England, and the blood which flowed at their 
 appearance, were examples sufficient to enlighten nations ; and, 
 were more recent examples needed, the late return of the Queen 
 of Naples and her imbecile husband to their unfortunate king- 
 dom was a lesson written in characters of blood. Frenchmen, 
 you are sleeping on the brink of an abyss ! Such were the con- 
 cluding words of this singular composition. 
 
 All that it contained, excepting the flatteries of language, 
 was true ; but those truths were very premature, to judge from 
 the impression which they produced. Lucien, minister of the 
 interior, employed the means at his disposal for circulating this 
 pamphlet over all France. He filled Paris and the provinces with 
 it, taking care to conceal its origin. The publication produced 
 a great effect. In reality it said only what everybody thought, 
 but it required of France an avowal which a very legitimate 
 pride did not yet permit her to make. Eight years before, the 
 French had abolished a royalty of fourteen centuries, and were 
 they to come so soon and confess, at the feet of a general of thirty, 
 that they were wrong, and beseech him to revive that royalty 
 in his person ? They were willing enough to invest him with a 
 power equal to that of kings, but it was necessary at least to save
 
 390 HISTORY OF THE CONSULATE. oct. 1800 
 
 appearances, were it merely for the sake of the national dignity. 
 True, this young warrior had already gained admirable victories, 
 and already restored, to some extent, security throughout the 
 country, but he had scarcely commenced the reconciliation of 
 parties, the reorganisation of France, the compilation of its laws, 
 and above all he had not yet given peace to the world. There 
 were then many titles yet left for him to acquire, but which he 
 was sure of soon concentrating on his glorious head. 
 
 The impression was general and painful. The prefects reported 
 from all quarters that the pamphlet produced a mischievous 
 effect; that it supplied the demagogue faction with some justifi- 
 cation ; that Caesars called forth Brutuses ; that the publication 
 was imprudent and to be regretted. In Paris the impression 
 was the same. In the Council of State the disapprobation was 
 not concealed. The first Consul, whether he had been con- 
 cerned in the pamphlet, or whether he had been compromised 
 without his knowledge by impatient and unskilful friends, 
 deemed it incumbent on him to disavow it, especially in the eyes 
 of the revolutionary party. He sent for M. Fouche\and asked him 
 publicly how he could suffer such publications to be circulated. 
 " I know the author," replied the minister. " If you know him, 
 you ought to have sent him toVincennes." "I could not send him 
 to Vincennes," rejoined M. Fouche, "for it is your own brother." 
 At these words General Bonaparte complained bitterly of that 
 brother, who had already compromised him oftener than once. 
 A feeling of displeasure with Lucien Bonaparte was the conse- 
 quence. One day, the latter not being punctual at the council 
 of the ministers, which was frequently the case, and many com- 
 plaints being preferred against his administration, the First 
 Consul expressed strong dissatisfaction, and seemed disposed to 
 dismiss him immediately. But Cambaceres advised him not to 
 proceed so harshly, and not to take the portfolio of the interior 
 from Lucien, without giving him a suitable compensation. The 
 First Consul complied. M. Cambaceres contrived the embassy 
 to Spain, and was directed to offer it to Lucien. He had no diffi- 
 culty in persuading him to accept it. Lucien set off, and before 
 long the imprudent pamphlet ceased to be thought of. 
 
 Thus a first attempt at assassination against the First Consul 
 had provoked in his favour a first attempt at elevation ; but the 
 one was as mad as the other was awkward. It was requisite 
 that General Bonaparte should purchase by fresh services an 
 augmentation of authority, which nobody yet defined with pre- 
 cision, but which all foresaw confusedly in the future, and to 
 which he or his friends already aspired in an open manner. At 
 all events his fortune was soon to furnish him, in services 
 rendered, in dangers encountered, with immense claims, which 
 France would no longer resist.
 
 BOOK VII. 
 
 HOHENLINDEN. 
 
 JOSEPH BONAPARTE had just signed at Morfontaine, with 
 u Messrs. Ellsworth, Davie, and Van -Murray, the treaty 
 which re-established peace between France and the United 
 States. It was the first treaty concluded by the consular gov- 
 ernment. It was natural that the reconciliation of France 
 with the different powers of the globe should begin with that 
 Republic, to which she had, in a measure, given birth. The 
 First Consul had allowed the difficulties relative to the treaty 
 of alliance of the 6th of February 1778 to be adjourned; but, 
 on the other hand, he had required the adjournment of the 
 claims of the Americans relative to captured vessels. He judged, 
 and very justly, that, at the moment, he ought to be satisfied 
 with the acknowledgment of the rights of neutrals. This was 
 giving to France one ally more, and to England one enemy more 
 upon the seas; it was a new leaven added to the maritime quarrel, 
 which was arising in the North, and which became from day 
 to day more serious. In consequence, the principal articles of 
 the law of neutrals, such, at least, as they are laid down by 
 France and all the maritime states, were inserted integrally in 
 the new treaty. 
 
 These articles were the same to which we have already 
 adverted. 
 
 1. The fla g covers the merchandise — consequently, the neutral 
 can carry the goods of any enemy without being searched. 
 
 2. There is no exception from this rule, unless for contraband 
 of war, and that contraband does not extend to alimentary sub- 
 stances, or to naval stores, timber, pitch, hemp, but solely to 
 manufactured arms and munitions of war, such as "powder, 
 saltpetre, petards, matches, balls, bullets, bombs, grenades, car- 
 casses, pikes, halberts, swords, sword-belts, or accoutrements, 
 pistols, scabbards, cavalry-saddles, harness, cannon, mortars with 
 their carriages, and generally all arms, munitions of war, and 
 implements for the use of troops." 
 
 3. Neutral bottoms can sail from any port to any port : there 
 is no exception to their freedom of navigating, unless in regard 
 to ports bond jlde blockaded; and only those ports are bond fide
 
 392 HISTORY OF THE oct. 1800 
 
 blockaded which are guarded by such a force that there is serious 
 danger in attempting to break the blockade. 
 
 4. The neutral is bound to submit to search, for the purpose of 
 ascertaining her real character ; but the visiting vessel must keep 
 at the distance of cannon-shot, and send only a boat and three 
 men to board her ; and, if the neutral is convoyed by a vessel of 
 war, no search can take place, the presence of the admiralty flag 
 being a sufficient guarantee against every species of fraud. 
 
 The treaty contained other stipulations of detail, but these 
 four principal clauses, which truly constitute the law of neutrals, 
 were an important victory ; for the Americans, in adopting 
 them, were obliged to insist on the application of them to their 
 vessels on the part of the English, or forced to go to war with 
 them. 
 
 The signature of this treaty was celebrated with Mat at Mor- 
 fontaine, a beautiful seat, which Joseph, who was richer than 
 his brothers, in consequence of his marriage, had some time 
 before purchased. The First Consul went thither, accompanied 
 by a numerous and brilliant party. Elegant decorations, set up 
 in the mansion and the gardens, everywhere exhibited France 
 and America united. Toasts suited to the occasion were drunk. 
 The First Consul proposed the following : " To the manes of 
 the French and the Americans who died on the field of battle 
 for the independence of the New World." Lebrun proposed, 
 " The union of America with the Northern powers, to enforce 
 respect for the liberty of the seas." Cambaceres gave for the 
 third, " The successor of Washington." 
 
 The French government waited with impatience for the arrival 
 of M. de Cobentzel at Luneville, to learn whether his court was 
 disposed to conclude peace. The First Consul, if he was not 
 satisfied with the progress of the negotiations, was determined 
 to renew hostilities, let the season be ever so far advanced. 
 Since he had crossed the St. Bernard, he reckoned obstacles as 
 nothing, and thought that men could fight just as well in snow 
 or on ice, as on ground covered with verdure or with crops. 
 Austria, on the contrary, wished to gain time, because she was 
 pledged to England not to make any separate peace before the 
 month of February ensuing, that is, February 1801 (Pluviose, 
 year IX.). Extremely apprehensive of the renewal of hostilities, 
 she had just applied for a third prolongation of the armistice. 
 The First Consul had peremptorily refused it, on the ground 
 that M. de Cobentzel had not yet arrived at Luneville. He 
 was resolved not to concede this point till the Austrian pleni- 
 potentiary should be on the very spot fixed for the negotia- 
 tion. At length, on the 24th of October 1800, M. de Coben- 
 tzel arrived at Luneville. He was received on the frontiers 
 and along the whole route with salutes of cannon, and with
 
 oct. 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 393 
 
 extraordinary demonstrations of respect. General Clarke had 
 been appointed governor of Luneville, to do the honours of the 
 place to the members of the Congress ; and, that he might be able 
 to discharge that duty in a suitable manner, a sum of money and 
 some crack regiments had been placed at his disposal. Joseph, 
 on his part, had repaired thither, accompanied by M. de Laforet, 
 for secretary. No sooner had M. de Cobentzel arrived, than 
 the First Consul, anxious to learn himself the dispositions of 
 the Austrian negotiator, sent him an invitation to come and 
 pass a few days in Paris.* M. de Cobentzel durst not refuse, 
 and proceeded to Paris with great deference. He reached it 
 on the 29th of October. A new prolongation of the armistice 
 for twenty days was at once granted him. The First Consul 
 then conversed with him on the peace, and the conditions upon 
 which it might be concluded. M. de Cobentzel's replies were 
 not very satisfactory on the question of a separate negotiation, 
 and as to the conditions, he put forward pretensions that were 
 totally out of place. Austria had views in regard to Italy which 
 it was impossible to satisfy, and she expected, if the indemnities 
 promised in Italy by the treaty of Campo Formio were granted 
 to her in Germany only, she expected that exorbitant concessions 
 of territory should be made to her either in Bavaria, or in the 
 Palatinate, or in Swabia. The First Consul gave way to some 
 sallies of passion. This he had done before in the negotiations 
 of Campo Formio with this same M. de Cobentzel ; but, with 
 increasing age and power, he controlled himself even less than 
 he had formerly done. M. de Cobentzel complained bitterly, 
 saying that he had never been treated in that manner, either 
 by Catherine, or by Frederick, or by the Emperor Paul himself. 
 In consequence, he desired to return to Luneville, and the First 
 Consul suffered him to depart, imagining that it would be better 
 to negotiate foot by foot with him, through the medium of 
 Joseph. The latter, mild, calm, and tolerably intelligent, was 
 fitter than his brother for this operation of patience. 
 
 M. de Cobentzel and Joseph Bonaparte having met at Lune- 
 ville, exchanged their full powers on the 9th of November ( 1 8th 
 Brumaire). Joseph had orders to put to him the three following 
 questions :— 1. Had he authority to treat? 2. Was he autho- 
 rised to treat separately from England? 3. Was he to treat 
 for the Emperor, in the name of the house of Austria alone, or 
 in the name of the whole Germanic Empire? 
 
 The powers being exchanged, and found to be valid, for which 
 purpose they were most minutely scrutinised, on account of the 
 misadventure of M. de St. Julien, they entered into explanations 
 
 * Napoleon said at St. Helena that M. de Cobentzel was desirous to come 
 to Paris in order to gain time. His memory deceived him. The diplomatic 
 correspondence proves what 1 advance.
 
 394 HISTORY OF THE nov. 1800 
 
 concerning the extent of those powers. M. de Cobentzel de- 
 clared, without hesitation, that he could not treat without the 
 presence of an English plenipotentiary at the congress. As to 
 the question whether he was to treat for the house of Austria 
 alone or for the whole empire, he said that he must refer to 
 Vienna for fresh instructions. 
 
 These answers were transmitted to Paris. The First Consul 
 immediately directed M. de Cobentzel to be informed that hos- 
 tilities should be renewed at the expiration of the armistice, 
 that is to say, in the last days of November ; that, nevertheless, 
 the congress need not break up ; that while the hostilities con- 
 tinued they might negotiate; but that the French armies would 
 not stop in their march till the Austrian plenipotentiary had 
 consented to treat without England. 
 
 During these transactions the First Consul had taken a pre- 
 caution, which had become indispensable, in regard to Tuscany. 
 The Austrian general, Sommariva, had remained there with a 
 few hundred men, agreeably to the convention of Alexandria, 
 but he continued to raise levies en masse with English money. 
 At the same moment intelligence was received of a landing at 
 Leghorn of those same English troops which had so long been 
 on their way from Mahon to Ferrol, from Ferrol to Cadiz. The 
 Neapolitans, on their part, were advancing towards Rome, and 
 the Austrians, spreading themselves in the Legations beyond 
 the limits marked out by the armistice, were thus endeavouring 
 to extend a hand to the Tuscan insurrection. The First Consul, 
 seeing that, while the Austrians were seeking to gain time, they 
 were preparing to place the French army between two fires, 
 directed General Dupont to march upon Tuscany, and Murat, 
 commanding the camp at Amiens, to proceed immediately to 
 Italy. He had several times warned the Austrians what he 
 meant to do, unless they suspended the movements of troops 
 begun in Tuscany ; and perceiving that they paid no attention 
 to these intimations, he had actually given orders accordingly. 
 General Dupont, with Pino's, Malher's, and Carra St. Cyr's 
 brigades, rapidly crossed the Apennines, and occupied Florence ; 
 while General Clement marched from Lucca to Leghorn. No 
 resistance was anywhere experienced. Meanwhile, the insur- 
 gents assembled in the town of Arezzo, which had already dis- 
 tinguished itself against the French at the time of Macdonald's 
 retreat in 1799. They were obliged to take it by assault and 
 to punish it. This was done less severely, perhaps, than it had 
 deserved for its conduct towards our soldiers. All Tuscany was 
 thenceforward submissive. The Neapolitans were stopped in 
 their march, and the English driven from the soil of Italy at 
 the very moment when they were about to enter Leghorn. 
 Two days afterwards they landed 12,000 men.
 
 nov. 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 395 
 
 The armies were in motion on all sides, from the banks of the 
 Mayn to the coast of the Adriatic, from Frankfort to Bologna. 
 Notice of hostilities had, moreover, been given. Austria, in 
 alarm, made a last attempt, through the medium of M. de 
 Cobentzel — an attempt which proved her desire to bring matters 
 to a conclusion, but also the embarrassment resulting from her 
 unfortunate engagements with England. M. de Cobentzel, there- 
 fore, addressed himself to Joseph Bonaparte, and assuming a 
 tone of confidence, asked him several times if the discretion of 
 the French government might be depended upon. Made easy 
 on this point by Joseph, he showed him a letter, in which the 
 Emperor, expressing the same fears that he himself had just 
 expressed relative to the danger of an indiscretion, but relying 
 upon his knowledge of men and things, authorised him to make 
 the following overture. Austria consented, at length, to detach 
 herself from England, and to treat separately, on two conditions, 
 on which she must insist in the most absolute manner : firstly, 
 inviolable secrecy till the 1st of February 1801, the period at 
 which her engagements with England terminated, with a formal 
 promise, if the negotiation should miscarry, to give up all the 
 papers written on both sides ; secondly, the admission of an 
 English plenipotentiary to Luneville, to mask the real negotia- 
 tion by his presence. On these two conditions, Austria con- 
 sented to treat immediately, and desired a fresh prolongation 
 of the armistice. 
 
 The proximity of Paris admitted of an immediate answer. 
 The First Consul would not, at any rate, admit an English 
 negotiator to Luneville. He consented, however, to suspend 
 hostilities again, on condition of a peace signed secretly, if that 
 suited Austria, but signed within forty-eight hours. The con- 
 ditions of this peace were already settled, in a great measure, by 
 the discussion on the preliminaries. They were the following : 
 — The Bhine as boundary of the French Kepublic in Germany ; 
 the Mincio for the boundary of Austria in Italy, instead of the 
 Adige, which she had in 1797, but with the cession of Mantua 
 to the Cisalpine ; the Milanese, the Valteline, Parma, and Modena 
 to the Cisalpine; Tuscany to the Duke of Parma; the Lega- 
 tions to the Duke of Tuscany : lastly, as general conditions, 
 the independence of Piedmont, Switzerland, and Genoa. These 
 were the groundwork of the St. Julien preliminaries, with a 
 single difference, the relinquishment of Mantua to the Cisalpine, 
 to punish Austria for the refusal of her ratification. But the 
 First Consul required that the treaty should be signed in forty- 
 eight hours, otherwise he threatened immediate war. and with 
 redoubled vigour. In case of acceptance, he bound himself to 
 absolute secrecy till the 1st of February, and to a new suspen- 
 sion of hostilities.
 
 396 HISTORY OF THE nov. 1800 
 
 Austria was not disposed either to proceed so expeditiously 
 or to assent to such sacrifices in Italy. Deceiving herself 
 respecting the conditions which she was able to obtain, she 
 rejected the French proposal. Hostilities were, therefore, re- 
 newed immediately. M. de Cobentzel and Joseph remained at 
 Luneville, waiting, before they made new communications to 
 one another, for the events that were about to take place at 
 once on the Danube, on the Inn, on the High Alps, and on 
 the Adige. 
 
 The renewal of hostilities had been announced for the 28th 
 of November (7th Frimaire, year IX.). Everything was ready 
 for this winter campaign, one of the most celebrated, and one 
 of the most decisive in our annals. 
 
 The First Consul had disposed five armies on the vast theatre 
 of this war. His intention was to direct them from Paris, with- 
 out putting himself personally at their head. Still he had not 
 renounced the idea of going to Germany or Italy, and assuming 
 the direct command of one of them, if an unforeseen reverse, 
 or any other cause, should render his presence necessary. His 
 equipages were at Dijon, quite ready to start for the point to 
 which he might be obliged to repair. 
 
 These five armies were those of Augereau on the Mayn, of 
 Moreau on the Inn, of Macdonald in the Grisons, of Brune on 
 the Mincio, and of Murat on march for Italy, with the grenadiers 
 of Amiens. Augereau had under his command 8000 Dutch, 
 12,000 French, in all 20,000 men; Moreau 130,000, of whom 
 1 10,000 belonged to the active army. The army of this latter 
 had been raised to this considerable force by recruiting, by 
 the return of sick and wounded, and by the junction of St. 
 Suzanne's corps. The delivery of Philipsburg, Ulm, and Ingol- 
 stadt had, moreover, permitted Moreau to concentrate all his 
 troops between the Isar and the Inn. Macdonald had at his 
 disposal 1 5 ,000 men in the Grisons. Brune in Italy was at the 
 head of 125,000 soldiers, 80,000 of whom were on the Mincio, 
 12,000 in Lombardy, Piedmont, and Liguria ; 8000 in Tuscany ; 
 and 25,000 in the hospitals. Murat's corps formed a force of 
 10,000 grenadiers. This constituted a total of 300,000 com- 
 batants. If we add to this number 40,000 men in Egypt and 
 in the colonies, 60,000 in the interior and on the coasts, we 
 shall find that, since the administration of the First Consul, the 
 Republic numbered nearly 400,000 soldiers under arms. The 
 300,000 posted on the theatre of war, 250,000 of whom were 
 effective, and capable of acting immediately, were provided with 
 everything, thanks to the united resources of the Treasury and 
 the contributions levied in the countries occupied. The cavalry 
 was well mounted, especially that in Germany. The parks 
 of artillery were large and in admirable condition. Moreau
 
 Nov. 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 397 
 
 possessed 200 pieces of cannon, Brune 180. We were, there- 
 fore, much better prepared than in spring, and our armies had 
 unbounded confidence in themselves. 
 
 Enlightened but rigid judges have asked why the First 
 Consul, instead of dividing the whole of his active forces into 
 five corps, had not, according to his own principle, formed two 
 great masses, one of 170,000 men under Moreau, marching for 
 Vienna through Bavaria; the other of 130,000 under Brune, 
 crossing the Mincio, the Adige, and the Alps, and threatening 
 Vienna by the Friule ? This was, indeed, the plan which he 
 adopted in 1805, but the exposition of facts will enable the 
 reader to comprehend his motives, and prove with what a 
 profound knowledge of men and things he understood how to 
 vary the application of the great principles of war according 
 to circumstances. 
 
 Our two principal armies, that of Moreau and that of Brune, 
 were posted on the two sides of the Alps, nearly on the same 
 meridian, the first along the Inn, the second along the Mincio. 
 Moreau was to force the line of the Inn, Brune that of the 
 Mincio. These two armies were at least equal in numerical 
 force, immensely superior in moral force, to those which were 
 opposed to them. Between the two lay the chain of the Alps, 
 forming in this part what is called the Tyrol. The Austrians 
 had the corps of General Iller in German Tyrol, and that of 
 General Davidovich in Italian Tyrol. General Macdonald, with 
 the 15,000 men placed under his command, and designated the 
 second army of reserve, was to occupy those two corps, and to 
 attract all their attention, by leaving them uncertain respecting 
 the point of attack which he should choose ; for, placed in the 
 Grisons, he had the option of throwing himself directly into 
 German Tyrol, or by the Splugen into Italian Tyrol. The 
 title borne by his army, and the doubts circulated respecting its 
 force, could not but excite apprehensions of some other extra- 
 ordinary stroke, and it was there to profit by the dread which 
 the passage of the St. Bernard had produced. People had not 
 given sufficient credit to the first army of reserve ; they were 
 ready to give too much to the second. Moreau and Brune, 
 thenceforth relieved from all uneasiness about the side next to 
 the Alps, could, without being alarmed for their flanks, push 
 forward with the whole of their forces. 
 
 Augereau's little army was destined to watch the levies en 
 masse of Franconia and Swabia, supported by the Austrian 
 corps of Simbschen. It covered, therefore, the left and the 
 rear of Moreau. Lastly, Murat, with 10,000 grenadiers ami a 
 powerful artillery, was to perform precisely the same part in 
 regard to Brune as Augereau was about to perform in regard 
 to Moreau. He was to cover the right and tin 1 rear of Brune
 
 398 HISTORY OF THE nov. 1800 
 
 against the insurgents of Central Italy, the Neapolitans, and 
 the English, &c. 
 
 These prudential precautions are such as it is right to take 
 when you are confined within the conditions of ordinary war- 
 fare. Now, the First Consul was necessarily confined within 
 them when he had for executors of his plans two such generals 
 as Brune and Moreau. Moreau, the best of the two, and one 
 of the best in Europe, was, nevertheless, not the man to do 
 what the First Consul, after he became emperor, himself did 
 in 1805, when, collecting a considerable force on the Danube, 
 and leaving a smaller force in Italy, he swept onwards like a 
 torrent upon Vienna, regardless either about his flanks or his 
 rear, and placing his safety in the overwhelming vigour of the 
 strokes which he dealt to the principal enemy. But Moreau, but 
 Brune, were not men to act thus. It was therefore necessary 
 that, in directing them, he should keep within the conditions of 
 methodical warfare ; it was necessary to guard their flanks and 
 their rear, to secure them against whatever might happen around 
 them ; for neither was capable of controlling accidents by the 
 grandeur and vigour of his resolutions. For this reason it was 
 that Macdonald was placed in the Tyrol, Augereau in Franconia, 
 Murat in Central Italy. 
 
 These dispositions did not admit of improvement, unless the 
 state of affairs at home had allowed the First Consul to assume 
 in person the command of one of the armies ; but everybody 
 agreed that at this moment he ought not to leave the centre of 
 the government. His absence during the short campaign of 
 Marengo had been attended with inconveniences serious enough 
 to prevent him from incurring them again without absolute 
 necessity. 
 
 The dispositions of the Austrians were, in all respects, inferior 
 to ours. Their armies, nearly equal in number to the French 
 forces, were not a match for them in any other respect. They 
 had not yet recovered from their recent defeats. The Archduke 
 John commanded in Germany, Marshal Bellegarde in Italy. 
 Simbschen's corps, destined to form the nucleus of the levies in 
 Swabia and Franconia, appuyed itself on General Klenau. The 
 latter commanded an intermediate corps, placed d cheval on the 
 Danube, connecting itself, on the right, with Simbschen's corps, 
 on the left with the principal army of the Archduke. Generals 
 Simbschen and Klenau had, between them, 24,000 men, ex- 
 clusively of the partisan troops raised in Germany. General 
 Klenau was destined to follow the movements of General St. 
 Suzanne, to approach the Archduke if St. Suzanne approached 
 Moreau, to join Simbschen's corps if St. Suzanne should join 
 the little army of Augereau. 
 
 The Archduke John had with him 80,000 men, of whom
 
 Nov. 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 399 
 
 60,000 were Austrians, in advance of the Inn, and 20,000 
 Wurtembergers or Bavarians behind the entrenchments of 
 that river. General Iller commanded 20,000 men in the Tyrol, 
 besides 10,000 Tyrolese. Marshal Bellegarde, in Italy, was at 
 the head of 80,000 soldiers, well established behind the Mincio. 
 Lastly, 10,000 Austrians, detached towards Ancona and La 
 Eomagna, were to second the Neapolitans and the English in 
 case these latter should make an attempt upon Central or 
 Southern Italy. They formed, therefore, a principal force of 
 224,000 men, which, with the Mayencers, the Tyrolese, the 
 Neapolitans, the Tuscans, and the English, might amount to 
 about 300,000. The First Consul, in causing the Tuscans to 
 be disarmed, in closing Leghorn against the English, in repress- 
 ing the Neapolitans, had taken very useful and proper precau- 
 tions for preventing the augmentation of the hostile forces. 
 
 By a sort of mutual resolution, both the belligerent parties 
 prepared to settle the quarrel in Germany between the Isar and 
 the Inn. The operations commenced on the 28th of November 
 (7th Frimaire), in severe weather, produced by a very cold 
 rain in Swabia, and intense frost in the Alps. While Augereau, 
 advancing by Frankfort, Aschaffenburg, Wurtzburg, and Nurem- 
 berg, fought a brilliant action at Burg-Eberach, separated the 
 Mayence levies from Simbschen's corps, and crippled the latter 
 for the rest of the campaign ; while Macdonald, after occupy- 
 ing the Austrians for a considerable time towards the sources 
 of the Inn, was preparing, in spite of the season, to cross the 
 great chain of the Alps, with the intention of boldly throwing 
 himself into Italian Tyrol, and facilitating for Brune the attack 
 of the line of the Mincio ; Moreau, with the principal mass of 
 his forces, advanced between the Isar and the Inn to a field of 
 battle which he had long studied, seeking a decisive engage- 
 ment with the great Austrian army. 
 
 It is necessary to give an accurate idea of the ground on 
 which the French and the Austrians were about to meet upon 
 one of the most important occasions of our long wars. AVe 
 have elsewhere described the basin of the Danube, watered by 
 that great river and a series of tributaries, which, descending 
 rapidly from the Alps, come in succession to swell the mass of 
 its waters. These tributaries, we observed, are lines which an 
 Austrian army, intending to cover Vienna, ought to defend, 
 and which a French army, purposing to march on that capital, 
 must force. In the summer campaign, Moreau. as it will be 
 recollected, after penetrating from the valley of the Iihine into 
 that of the Danube, and crossing the Iller, the Lech, the Isar, 
 had halted between the Isar and the Inn. lie was master of 
 the course of the Isar, all the principal points of which he 
 occupied ; first Munich, then Freising, Moosburg, Landshut, &c.
 
 400 HISTORY OF THE nov. 1800 
 
 He had advanced beyond that river, and was facing the Inn, 
 occupied in force by the Austrians. 
 
 The Isar and the Inn, both issuing from the Alps, run 
 together towards the Danube, separated by an almost invari- 
 able distance of between ten and twelve leagues. Proceeding 
 at first in a northward direction, the Isar to Munich, the Inn 
 to Wasserburg, they both turn off towards the east, till they 
 fall into the Danube ; the Isar at Deggendorf, the Inn at 
 Passau. We were masters of the Isar, and it was requisite 
 that we should force the Inn ; but the Inn, broad, deep, de- 
 fended at its outlet from the mountains by the fort of Kuf stein, 
 and in the lower part of its course by the fortress of Braunau, 
 covered between these two points by a vast number of intrench- 
 ments, the Inn was a difficult barrier to pass. If Moreau 
 attempted to force it in the upper part of its course, between 
 Kufstein, Eosenheim, and Wasserburg, he would meet with 
 almost insurmountable local difficulties ; he would, moreover, 
 have the army of Tyrol on his right flank. If he determined 
 on forcing it in the lower part of its course, between Braunau 
 and Passau, near the point where it falls into the Danube, he 
 would have to run the risk of a lengthened march upon the 
 left, through a difficult, wooded, marshy country, exposing his 
 flank to the Austrian army, which, advancing by Miihldorf 
 and Braunau, might throw itself upon the right wing of the 
 French army. These two inconveniences were judged extremely 
 serious. If the Austrians, taking care to guard themselves 
 properly, and to observe with vigilance all the passes of the 
 Inn, confined themselves to the defensive, Moreau might en- 
 counter almost invincible obstacles. But such was not their 
 design. The offensive was resolved upon in the Austrian staff. 
 The young Archduke John, with his head full of new theories 
 invented by the Germans, and emulous also to imitate some- 
 thing of the great movements of General Bonaparte, devised 
 a very extensive plan, which was not badly conceived either, 
 in the opinion of competent judges. Unluckily this plan was 
 inapplicable, because it was not based on the accurate apprecia- 
 tion of present circumstances. As far as it has come to our 
 knowledge, it was as follows : — 
 
 Moreau was established on the ground which separates the 
 Isar from the Inn. Between Munich and Wasserburg this 
 ground forms an elevated plain, covered with a thick forest, 
 subsides as it approaches the Danube, and, as it sinks, is rent 
 into numerous ravines, continues wooded in some parts, becomes 
 swampy in others, and, in short, is very difficult of access on 
 every side. Moreau was in possession of this plateau, of the 
 forest which covers it, and of the roads that intersect it. From 
 Munich, where he had his headquarters, two roads lead to the
 
 Nov. 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 401 
 
 Inn ; the one running direct through Ebersburg to Wasserburg, 
 the other in an oblique direction to the left, and passing through 
 Hohenlinden, Haag, Ampfing, and Miihldorf. Both crossed the 
 gloomy forest of pines which covers that elevated tract. It 
 was in this formidable retreat, formed by a hilly and wooded 
 country, approachable by two roads, both of which were held 
 by Moreau, that an assailing force must needs encounter him. 
 The other roads consisted of only very narrow paths, destined 
 solely for the conveyance of timber, and impassable for the 
 heavy waggon-train of an army. 
 
 The young Archduke projected a great manoeuvre. He pur- 
 posed not to attack Moreau's position in front, but to turn 
 it, in debouching by the bridges of Mtihldorf, Neu-Oetting, 
 and Braunau. Leaving about 20,000 men, Bavarians, Wurtem- 
 bergers, and Conde's emigrants, to dispute the Inn, he intended 
 to assume the offensive with 60,000 Austrians, and to march 
 on the left of Moreau, through that half woody, half swampy 
 country, which extends between the Inn and the Isar, near 
 the points where they fall into the Danube. If the young 
 Archduke proceeded rapidly through the difficult country by 
 Eggenfelden, Neumarkt, and Wilsburg, and arrived in time at 
 Landshut on the Isar, he would be able to ascend the Isar on 
 our rear to Freising, cross it at that place, and thence continue 
 his march upon a chain of heights which begins at Dachau, 
 and commands the plain of Munich. Occupying this point, 
 he would dangerously threaten Moreau's line of retreat, and 
 oblige him to evacuate the country between the Inn and the 
 Isar, and to pass through Munich with the utmost haste, in 
 order to take a retrograde position on the Lech. But, to ensure 
 the success of such a manoeuvre, one must have correctly 
 calculated all the means of execution, and, after engaging in 
 it, great firmness was requisite for encountering its perilous 
 chances; for there was an almost impassable country to traverse, 
 in horrible weather, and at the same time incessantly skirting 
 an enemy, who was not prompt and daring, it is true, but 
 intelligent, firm, and not easily disconcerted. 
 
 The troops of both nations were in motion on the 26th and 
 27th of November (5th and 6th Frimaire), to commence hos- 
 tilities on the 28th (7th Frimaire). The Austrian General 
 Klenau, stationed on the Danube to support Simbschen against 
 the little army of Augereau, had attracted the at t nit ion of 
 General St. Suzanne, commanding Moreau's fourth corps. Being 
 thus both of them removed to a considerable distance from 
 the principal theatre of events, they were on the Danube; 
 General St. Suzanne towards Ingolstadt, General Klenau towards 
 Ratisbon. 
 
 Moreau had moved his left wing, 26,000 strong, and under
 
 402 HISTORY OF THE nov. 1800 
 
 the command of General Grenier, along the highroad from 
 Munich to Miihldorf, by Hohenlinden, Haag, and Ampfing, thus 
 making it occupy the slopes of that species of plateau which 
 extends between the two rivers. His centre, which he com- 
 manded in person, and which amounted to about 34,000 men,* 
 occupied the direct road from Munich to Wasserburg by Ebers- 
 berg. The right wing under Lecourbe, of about 26,000 men, 
 was posted along the Upper Inn, in the environs of Eosenheim : 
 a division of it observed the Tyrol. Moreau had consequently 
 at hand only his left and his centre, nearly 60,000 men. He 
 had set his army in motion to make a strong reconnoissance 
 from Eosenheim to Miihldorf, and to force the enemy to dis- 
 close his intentions. Moreau, unable to anticipate, like Gene- 
 ral Bonaparte, the designs of his adversary, still less to dictate 
 them, as the latter did, by taking the initiative with a high hand 
 — Moreau was obliged to grope about to discover what he could 
 neither divine nor preinduce. But he advanced prudently, and 
 if he was surprised, he repaired expeditiously and with great 
 calmness the mischief of the surprise. 
 
 The 29th and 30th of November (8th and 9th Frimaire) were 
 spent by the French army in reconnoitring the line of the Inn ; 
 by the Austrian army, in crossing that line and traversing the 
 low tract between the Inn, the Danube, and the Isar. Moreau 
 forced the Austrian advanced posts to fall back, moved his 
 right under Lecourbe to Eosenheim, his centre, under his own 
 immediate command, to Wasserburg, his left, under Grenier, 
 to the heights of Ampfing. These heights command, but at a 
 great distance, the banks of the Inn. The left of the French 
 army was in some danger ; for, following the course of the Inn 
 to Miihldorf, it was fifteen leagues from Munich, while the rest 
 of the army was only ten. Moreau had, in consequence, taken 
 care that it should be supported by a division of the centre, 
 that which General Grandjean commanded. But it was a fault 
 to advance in this manner in three corps, so far separated from 
 one another, in place of marching on the Inn en masse, and pre- 
 senting himself before a single debouche, while he made false 
 demonstrations at several points. This fault had well-nigh been 
 productive of serious consequences. 
 
 The Austrian army had passed at Braunau, Neu-Oetting, 
 Miihldorf, and crossed the low tract which has been already 
 mentioned. Part of the Archduke's troops, recently arrived, 
 had scarcely had time to rest themselves. They were march- 
 ing laboriously in that region, sometimes wooded, sometimes 
 intersected by small rivers, the Wils, the Eott, the Isen, which 
 
 * The centre consisted of 30,000 men ; but the Polish division of Knia- 
 cewitz, which had rejoined General Decaen. and the artillery reserve, must 
 have augmented it to about 34,000 or 35,000 men.
 
 dec. 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 403 
 
 descend from the plateau occupied by the French army. The 
 narrow paths, which it was necessary to follow, were broken 
 up ; and it was with the utmost difficulty that the heavy park 
 of waggons could move along them. The young Archduke 
 and his advisers, who had not foreseen any of these circum- 
 stances, were alarmed at the undertaking, now that it was begun. 
 Our left wing, advanced nearly to Ampfing and Muhldorf, gave 
 them uneasiness, and made them apprehensive lest they should 
 be cut off from the Inn. They designed to turn Moreau, and 
 now they were fearful that they should themselves be turned 
 instead. This danger should have been foreseen, and a new 
 base of operations prepared on the Danube, between Ratisbon 
 and Passau, in case they should be separated from the Inn. But 
 nothing of this kind was done. In every bold operation it is 
 necessary to provide, in the first place, for difficulties of execu- 
 tion, and, in the next, after commencing the execution, to per- 
 severe with firmness in what one has planned, for it is very 
 rarely the case that we do not incur ourselves the dangers in 
 which we would involve our adversary. The Austrian staff, 
 from the very outset, was astonished, terrified, at what it had 
 projected, and suddenly changed its plan. Instead of persisting 
 in gaining the Isar, for the purpose of ascending on our rear, 
 it stopped short, and resolved to turn down upon our left, and 
 to give battle immediately. This was meeting the difficulty in 
 front and undiminished ; for it became necessary, in ascending 
 the bed of the rivers, to climb the elevated ground which we 
 occupied, and then penetrate into the forest, in which we had 
 been for a long time established. The enemy might at first 
 have an advantage over our left wing, which was somewhat 
 endangered, but this success obtained, he would find our army 
 concentrated in an absolute labyrinth, all the outlets of which 
 it knew and occupied. 
 
 Accordingly, on the 1st of December (10th Frimaire, year 
 IX.), the Archduke John moved the greater part of his army 
 upon our left by three roads at once ; the valley of the Isen, 
 the highroad from Muhldorf to Ampfing, lastly, the bridge of 
 Kraiburg on the Inn. The valley of the Isen, commencing on 
 the flanks of the woody plateau already described, permitted 
 the greatly lengthened position of our left to be turned. A 
 corps of 15,000 men ascended it. Another corps marched 
 direct for the highroad from Muhldorf, which, after ascend- 
 ing the heights of Ampfing, leads through the forest to Hohen- 
 linden and Munich. Lastly, a detachment, crossing the Inn at 
 Kraiburg, and passing through Aschau, took in Hank our left 
 wing, which had unluckily ventured as far as Ampfing. Forty 
 thousand men were going in a moment to fall upon 26,000. 
 
 These 26,000 men, commanded by General Grenier, had to
 
 404 HISTORY OF THE dec. 1800 
 
 sustain a severe and unequal contest. Ney, who defended the 
 heights of Ampfing, displayed that incomparable energy which 
 distinguished him in war. He performed prodigies of valour, 
 and contrived to retire without serious loss. Threatened by 
 the corps which had passed the Inn at Kraiburg and pene- 
 trated into the defile of Aschau, he was fortunately extricated 
 by Grandjean's division, which Moreau, as we have said, had 
 detached from his centre to support his left. Legrand's divi- 
 sion, which was in the valley of the Isen, ascended that valley 
 in retrograding upon Dorfen. Moreau, seeing the superiority 
 of the Austrians, had the good sense not to persist, and effected 
 his retreat in the best order. 
 
 It is obvious from these first movements that Moreau had 
 not been able to penetrate the designs of the enemy, and that. 
 in advancing upon all the de'bouche's of the Inn at once, instead 
 of making an attack upon a single point, he had compromised 
 his left. The extraordinary valour of his troops and the 
 vigour of his lieutenants, who in execution were accomplished 
 generals, had made amends for all. 
 
 But this was only an insignificant beginning. Moreau had 
 abandoned the outskirts of his position, and retired to the 
 centre of the extensive forest of Hohenlinden. It would be 
 requisite to force him in this formidable retreat. His coolness 
 and vigour were here about to be pitted against the inex- 
 perience of the Archduke, flushed by a first success. 
 
 We have already said that two roads ran through the forest : 
 one on the right, descending directly to the Inn, by Ebersberg 
 and Wasserburg ; the other, on the left, which passes through 
 Hohenlinden, Mattenboett, Haag, Ampfing, and joins the Inn 
 at Miihldorf, is rather longer. It was along this latter road 
 that the Austrians were proceeding en masse, some following 
 the defile which it forms through the forest, others laboriously 
 ascending the beds of the small rivers which gave access to 
 the flank of our position. Moreau immediately formed a judg- 
 ment, and a sound one, of this situation, and conceived an 
 idea from which he derived great results : it was to allow the 
 Austrians, already engaged with his left, to penetrate into the 
 forest, and then, when they should be pretty far advanced in 
 it, to transfer his centre from the Ebersberg road to the Hohen- 
 linden road, to surprise them in that dangerous place, and to 
 destroy them there. He made his dispositions accordingly. 
 
 The road on the left, or the Hohenlinden road, adopted by 
 the Austrians, after leaving the banks of the Inn and ascend- 
 ing the heights of Ampfing, passed over hills, alternately 
 wooded and naked, as far as Mattenboett, then through a 
 thick wood from Mattenboett to Hohenlinden, forming there a 
 long defile bordered by lofty pine-trees. At Hohenlinden itself
 
 dec. 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 405 
 
 the forest suddenly ceased. A small plain, free from wood, 
 studded with several hamlets, extended to the right and left 
 of the road ; in the middle were the village of Hohenlinden 
 and the post-house. Not only the principal column of the 
 Austrian army, marching in the defile of the forest, but also 
 the detachments ascending the river Isen, for the purpose 
 of debouching by different outlets on the left of our position, 
 would necessarily have to pass this spot. 
 
 In this little plain of Hohenlinden, Moreau deployed his 
 left wing under Grenier, Grandjean's division having been 
 previously detached from the centre, with all the reserves of 
 artillery and cavalry. 
 
 On the right of the road and village of Hohenlinden he 
 posted Grandjean's division, commanded on this day by General 
 Grouchy ; on the left, Ney's division ; still farther to the left, 
 on the skirt of the wood, and at the head of the roads by which 
 the Austrian columns ascending the valley of the Isen would 
 arrive, Legrand's and Bastoul's divisions, both drawn up in 
 advance of the villages of Preisendorf and Harthofen. The 
 reserves of cavalry and artillery were in rear of these four- 
 divisions of infantry, deployed in the middle of the plain. 
 The centre, reduced to Eichepanse's and Decaen's two divisions, 
 was at some leagues' distance, on the right-hand road, in the 
 environs of Ebersberg. Moreau sent to those two divisions 
 an order, somewhat vaguely expressed, but positive, to throw 
 themselves from the right-hand into the left-hand road, to get 
 into the latter in the environs of Mattenboett, and there sur- 
 prise the Austrian army entangled in the forest. This order 
 was neither precise, nor clear, nor circumstantial, as well con- 
 ceived and well expressed orders ought to be, and those of 
 General Bonaparte, for instance, invariably were. He neither 
 indicated the route to be pursued, nor provided against any 
 accidents which might occur ; he left everything that was to 
 be done to the intelligence of Generals Decaen and Richepanse. 
 They, however, might well be trusted to make up for all that 
 the commander-in-chief omitted to say. Moreau, moreover, 
 directed Lecourbe, who formed his right towards the Tyrol, 
 and General St. Suzanne, who formed his left towards the 
 Danube, to draw near in haste to the spot on which the deci- 
 sive event of the campaign was about to take place. But one 
 was fifteen leagues off, at least, the other twenty-five, and they 
 were consequently out of reach. It was not thus that General 
 Bonaparte acted on the eve of great battles: on these occasions 
 he did not leave half his forces at such distances. But to 
 bring up all the parts of which a numerous army is composed 
 in time to the point where the fortunes of war are decided, 
 there is required a superior foresight, which the greatest men
 
 406 HISTORY OF THE dec. 1800 
 
 alone possess, and without which it is still possible to be an 
 excellent general. Moreau was about to fight nearly 70,000 
 Austrians with fewer than 60,000 French ; this number was 
 more than sufficient, with the soldiers of whom our legions 
 were then composed. 
 
 The Archduke John, ignorant of all this, was intoxicated with 
 his success on the 1st of December (10th Frimaire). He was 
 young, and he had seen that formidable army of the Rhine, 
 which for many years the Austrian generals had not possessed 
 the skill to stop, falling back before him. He rested on the 
 2nd of December, which gave Moreau time to make the dis- 
 positions which we have just detailed ; and he prepared every- 
 thing for passing through the extensive forest of Hohenlinden 
 on the 3rd of December (12th Frimaire). This general, rather 
 raw in his profession, imagined that the French army could not 
 make the least resistance to him in the route which he was 
 about to pursue. He conceived at most that he should fall in 
 with it in advance of Munich. 
 
 He divided his army into four corps. The principal, that of 
 the centre, composed of the reserve, the Hungarian grenadiers, 
 Bavarians, the greater part of the cavalry, the baggage, and a 
 hundred pieces of cannon, was to follow the highroad from 
 Miihldorf to Hohenlinden, to traverse the defile which it forms 
 through the forest, and then debouch on the little plain of 
 Hohenlinden. General Riesch, who had crossed the Inn at Krai- 
 burg on the 1st of December with about twelve thousand men, 
 was to flank the centre, and to debouch in the open ground at 
 Hohenlinden, on the left of the Austrians, on the right of -the 
 French. At the other extremity of this field of battle, the corps 
 of Baillet-Latour and Kienmayer, which had entered the valley 
 of the Isen, were to continue to ascend it, and to debouch at 
 some distance from one another, the first by Isen upon Kron- 
 acker and Preisendorf, the second by Lendorf upon Harthofen, 
 both in the unwooded plain of Hohenlinden. They had orders 
 not to lose time, to leave even their artillery behind, the corps 
 of the centre taking a great quantity along with it by the prin- 
 cipal road, and to carry with them no more baggage than was 
 necessary for making soup for the soldiers. 
 
 Thus these four corps of the Austrian army, marching at a 
 considerable distance from each other in that thick forest, one 
 only, that of the centre, on a highroad, with causeway, the three 
 others by paths exclusively destined for the carriage of timber, 
 were to meet in the open space extending between Hohenlinden 
 and Harthofen, exposed to the risk of not arriving together, and 
 of encountering by the way many unforeseen adventures. The 
 Bavarians having rejoined the Austrians, the Archduke's army 
 amounted at this moment to 70,000 men.
 
 dec. 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 407 
 
 On the morning of the 3rd of December, the French were 
 deployed between Hohenlinden and Harthofen. Moreau, on 
 horseback before daybreak, was at the head of his staff, and, a 
 little farther off, Kichepanse and Decaen were executing the 
 movement which they were directed to make from the Ebers- 
 berg road to that of Hohenlinden. 
 
 The four Austrian corps, on their part, advanced simultane 
 ously, each as fast as it could, sensible of the value of time in a 
 season when there is so little daylight either for marching or for 
 fighting. A thick fall of snow darkened the air, and rendered 
 the nearest objects indistinguishable. The Archduke John, at 
 the head of the centre, had penetrated into the defile of the 
 forest from Mattenboett to Hohenlinden, and had almost cleared 
 it long before General Eiesch on his left, and Generals Baillet- 
 Latour and Kienmayer on his right, could reach the field of 
 battle, embarrassed as they were in those horrible roads. The 
 young prince at length appeared on the margin of the wood 
 facing Grandjean's and Ney's divisions, both drawn up in order 
 of battle, in advance of the village of Hohenlinden. The 108th 
 demi-brigade of Grandjean's division was deployed, having on 
 its wings the 46th and the 57th, formed in close column. The 
 4th hussars and the 6th of the line supported it in the rear. 
 A very brisk cannonade was opened on both sides. The Aus- 
 trians attacked the 108th, which made a firm resistance. Eight 
 battalions of Hungarian grenadiers were ordered to file through 
 the wood, in order to turn it on its right. On seeing this, 
 Generals Grandjean and Grouchy hastened with the 46th to 
 the assistance of the 108th, which was shaken, and began to 
 lose ground. They penetrated into the wood, and commenced 
 among the pine-trees a desperate struggle, almost man to man, 
 with the Hungarian grenadiers. A battalion of the 57th, push- 
 ing still deeper into it, turned the Hungarians, and obliged them 
 to seek refuge in the recesses of the forest. Thus Grandjean's 
 division remained victorious, and prevented the Austrian column 
 from deploying in the plain of Hohenlinden. 
 
 After a few moments' rest, the Archduke John made a new 
 attack on Hohenlinden and on Grandjean's division. This second 
 attack was repulsed like the first. At this moment, the Aus- 
 trian troops of Baillet-Latour began to be perceived towards 
 Kronaeker, making their appearance on our left, at the margin 
 of the wood, ready to debouch into the plain of Hohenlinden. 
 The snow having ceased falling for a few minutes, allowed them 
 to be easily discerned. But they were not yet in a state to act, 
 and besides, Bastoul's and Legrand's divisions were preparing 
 to receive them. All at once, a kind of agitation, a wavering, 
 was perceptible in the Austrian troops of the centre, which 
 had not vet been able to get out of the defile of the forest.
 
 408 HISTORY OF THE dec. 1800 
 
 Something extraordinary seemed to be taking place in their rear. 
 Moreau, with a sagacity which does honour to his military 
 intuition, remarked this circumstance, and said to Ney, " Now 
 is the moment to charge ; Eichepanse and Decaen must be 
 upon the rear of the Austrians." He immediately ordered 
 Ney's and Grandjean's divisions, which were on the right 
 and left of Hohenlinden, to form into columns of attack, 
 to charge the Austrians drawn up on the margin of the 
 forest, and to drive them back into that long defile in which 
 they had till then been shut up. Ney charged them in 
 front ; Grouchy, with Grandjean's division, took them in flank, 
 and both drove them impetuously into that gorge, where they 
 were crowded together pell-mell, along with their artillery and 
 cavalry. 
 
 At this very instant, the events which Moreau had foreseen 
 and prepared were taking place at the other extremity of the 
 defile, at Mattenboett, Eichepanse and Decaen, in obedience 
 to the orders which they had received from him, had struck off 
 from the Ebersberg road into that of Hohenlinden. Eiche- 
 panse, who was the nearest to Mattenboett, had started without 
 waiting for Decaen, and daringly penetrated into that tract of 
 thickets and ravines which separates the two roads, marching 
 while the fight was going on at Hohenlinden, and making in- 
 credible efforts to drag with him, over that inundated ground, 
 six pieces of small calibre. He had already passed, without 
 accident, the village of St. Christoph, when the corps of General 
 Eiesch, destined to flank the centre of the Austrians, arrived 
 there ; but he had proceeded onward from St. Christoph with 
 a single brigade, leaving the second, Drouet's, engaged with 
 the enemy. Eichepanse, reckoning upon Decaen to extricate 
 Drouet's brigade, had marched, without losing a moment, for 
 Mattenboett ; for his military instinct told him that there was 
 the decisive point. Though he had left but two demi-brigades 
 of infantry, the 8th and the 48th, a single regiment of cavalry, 
 the 1st chasseurs, and six pieces of cannon, with about 6000 
 men, he had continued his march, dragging his artillery by 
 hand, almost always through the quagmire. On reaching Mat- 
 tenboett, at the other extremity of the defile of the forest, the 
 head of which we have just said that Ney was attacking, he fell 
 in with a body of Austrian cuirassiers, dismounted, with their 
 horses' bridles over their arms ; he fell upon them, and made 
 them prisoners. Then deploying on the small open spot which 
 surrounds Mattenboett, he placed the 8th on the right, the 48th 
 on the left, and pushed the 1st chasseurs on eight squadrons 
 of cavalry, which, on seeing him, had formed to charge him. 
 The 1st chasseurs, after a vigorous charge, was repulsed, and 
 fell back behind the 8th demi-brigade. The latter, crossing
 
 dec. 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 409 
 
 bayonets, stopped the career of the Austrian cavalry. At this 
 moment, Richepanse's position became critical. Having left 
 behind his second brigade to make head against Riesch's corps, 
 surrounded himself on all sides, he thought that he ought not 
 to give the Austrians time to perceive his weakness. Commit- 
 ting to General Walther, with the 8th demi-brigade and the 1st 
 chasseurs, the duty of keeping in check the enemy's rear-guard, 
 which was preparing to fight, he himself, with the 48th alone, 
 fell to the left, and took the bold resolution to fall upon the 
 Austrian rear in the defile of the forest. Hazardous as was this 
 resolution, it was not less sensible than vigorous ; for the Arch- 
 duke's column, entangled in this defile, must have before it the 
 main body of the French army, and, by dashing furiously upon 
 its rear, it was probable that he should produce great disorder 
 in it, and obtain important results, liichepanse immediately 
 formed the 48th into columns, and marching sword in hand 
 amidst his grenadiers, penetrated into the forest, sustained 
 without flinching a violent discharge of grape-shot, then fell 
 in with two Hungarian battalions, which hastened up to bar 
 his passage, liichepanse would have inspirited his brave soldiers 
 with words and gestures, but they had no need of them. " Those 
 fellows are our prisoners," cried they, " let us charge ! " They 
 charged accordingly, and completely routed the Hungarian 
 battalions. Presently, they came to masses of baggage, artillery, 
 infantry, accumulated pell-mell at this spot, liichepanse struck 
 inexpressible terror into this multitude, and threw it into fright- 
 ful disorder. At the same moment, he heard confused shouts 
 at the other extremity of this defile. On advancing, these shouts, 
 becoming more distinct, revealed the presence of our troops. 
 It was Ney, who, marching from Hohenlinden, had penetrated 
 by the head of the defile, and pushed before him the Aus- 
 trian column, which liichepanse was driving the other way, by 
 attacking it in rear. 
 
 Ney and liichepanse met, recognised one another, and em- 
 braced, intoxicated with joy on seeing so glorious a result, 
 Their troops rushed, on all sides, upon the Austrians, who 
 sought shelter by flight in the woods, or begged quarter of the 
 conqueror. They took thousands of prisoners, the whole of 
 the artillery, and the baggage. Richepanse, leaving Nev to 
 secure these trophies, returned to Mattenboett, where General 
 Walther had remained with a demi-brigade ami a single regi- 
 ment of cavalry. He found this brave general, struck by a 
 ball, borne away in the arms of his soldiers, but his counten- 
 ance beaming with joy, and compensated for his sullerings by 
 flu; satisfaction of having contributed to a decisive nianuuivre. 
 liichepanse extricated his troops, and returned to St. (Jhristoph, 
 where he had left Drouet's brigade alone engaged with Kiesch's
 
 410 HISTORY OF THE dec. 1800 
 
 corps. But all his anticipations were verified on that auspicious 
 day. General Decaen had arrived in time, extricated Drouet's 
 brigade, and repulsed Eiesch's corps, after taking from it a great 
 number of prisoners. 
 
 It was by this time mid-day. The centre of the Austrian 
 army had been enveloped and entirely routed. The left, under 
 General Eiesch, arriving too late to stop Eichepanse, attacked 
 and driven towards the Inn by Decaen, was in full retreat, after 
 sustaining considerable losses. With such results at the centre 
 and on the left of the Austrians, the issue of the battle could 
 no longer be doubtful. 
 
 During these events, Bastoul's and Legrand's divisions, posted 
 on the left of the clear ground about Hohenlinden, had had 
 upon their hands the infantry of Generals Baillet-Latour and 
 Kienmayer. These divisions had been hard pressed, for they 
 were inferior by one-half to the enemy; they had, moreover, 
 the disadvantage of ground ; for the head of the wooded ravines, 
 by which the Austrians debouched into the little plain of Hohen- 
 linden, being rather higher than that open plain, enabled them 
 to pour a downward fire upon it. But Generals Bastoul and 
 Legrand, under the command of General Grenier, seconded by 
 the courage of their brave soldiers, made a vigorous stand. 
 Luckily, too, d'Hautpoul's cavalry was there to support them, 
 as well as Ney's second brigade, the latter general having entered 
 the defile with one only. 
 
 The two French divisions, at first overwhelmed by numbers, 
 had lost a little ground. Quitting the margin of the wood, they 
 had fallen back into the plain, but with extraordinary steadiness 
 and displaying to the enemy an heroic firmness. Two demi- 
 brigades of Legrand's division, the 51st and the 42nd, thrown 
 back towards Harthofen, had to oppose Kienmayer's infantry, 
 besides a division of cavalry attached to that corps. Sometimes 
 keeping up a well-sustained fire upon the infantry, at others 
 crossing bayonets against the cavalry, they opposed an invincible 
 resistance to all attacks. But at this moment, Grenier, being 
 apprised of the success obtained at the centre, formed Legrand's 
 division into columns, caused it to be supported by charges of 
 d'Hautpoul's cavalry, and drove back Kienmayer's corps to the 
 skirt of the wood. General Bonnet, on his side, with a brigade 
 of Bastoul's division, charged the Austrians, and overthrew 
 them in the valley from which they had endeavoured to issue. 
 Meanwhile, the grenadiers of Iola's brigade, Ney's second, 
 rushed upon Baillet-Latour and repulsed him. The impulsion 
 of victory communicated to these brave troops, redoubled their 
 ardour and their strength. They finally drove back the two 
 corps of Baillet-Latour and Kienmayer, the one towards the 
 Isen, the other towards Lendorf, in that low and difficult tract
 
 dec. 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 411 
 
 from which they had in vain attempted to debouch, in order to 
 gain possession of the plateau of Hohenlinden. 
 
 Moreau returned at this moment from the heart of the forest 
 with a detachment of Grandjean's division, to bring relief to his 
 left, which was so briskly attacked. But there, as at all the 
 other points, he found his soldiers victorious, transported with 
 joy, congratulating their general on such a glorious triumph. 
 That triumph was indeed glorious. The Austrian army had 
 greater difficulty to get out of those thickets than it had to 
 penetrate into them. There were seen everywhere straggling 
 corps, which, not knowing whither to nee, fell into the hands 
 of our victorious troops and laid down their arms. It was five 
 o'clock, and darkness shrouded the field of battle. The French 
 had killed or wounded 7000 or 8000 of the enemy, made 12,000 
 prisoners, taken 300 waggons, and eighty-seven pieces of cannon, 
 results very uncommon in war. Thus in one day the Austrian 
 army had lost nearly 20,000 soldiers, almost all its artillery, 
 its baggage, and, what was of still greater importance, its whole 
 moral courage. 
 
 This battle is the most brilliant of all that Moreau ever fought, 
 and certainly one of the greatest in the present century, which 
 has beheld such extraordinary conflicts. It has been wrong- 
 fully asserted that there was another conqueror of Marengo 
 than General Bonaparte, and that this was General Kellermann. 
 With much greater reason it might be alleged that there was 
 another conqueror of Hohenlinden than General Moreau, namely, 
 General Kichepanse, for he executed, upon a rather vague order, 
 a most brilliant manoeuvre. But though less unjust, this asser- 
 tion would still be unjust. Let us leave to every man the merit 
 of his deeds, and not imitate those paltry efforts of envy, which 
 is on all occasions bent on discovering a different conqueror 
 from the real one. 
 
 Moreau, in advancing along the Inn from Kufstein to Miihl- 
 dorf, without having chosen a precise point of attack, without 
 having concentrated all his forces upon that point, to make 
 nothing but mere demonstrations — Moreau had in this manner 
 exposed his left in the battle of the 1st of December. Still this 
 could prove but a momentary advantage to the enemy; and in 
 retiring into the recesses of the labyrinth of Hohenlinden, in 
 drawing the Austrians thither, in bringing down opportunely 
 his centre upon his left, from Ebersberg to Mattenboett, he had 
 executed one of the most successful manoeuvres known in the 
 history of modern warfare, it has been alleged that Uiche- 
 panse marched without orders:* that is incorrect : an order was 
 triven to him. as we have related, but it was loo -nicral, not 
 
 * So Napoleon erroneously asserted at St. Helena. The written orders 
 exist, and have been printed in the Memorial of the war.
 
 412 HISTORY OF THE dec. 1800 
 
 sufficiently detailed. None of the circumstances that might 
 have happened had been provided against. Moreau had merely 
 directed Eichepanse and Decaen to strike off from Ebersberg 
 for St. Christoph, without specifying the route, without provid- 
 ing against either the presence of Eiesch's corps, or any of the 
 possible and even probable accidents, amidst that forest full of 
 enemies ; and, with an officer less vigorous than Eichepanse, 
 he might have reaped a disaster instead of a triumph. But 
 fortune always has some share in military successes. All that 
 can be said is, that in this case it was very great, nay, greater 
 than usual. 
 
 Moreau has been censured because, while fighting with six 
 divisions out of twelve, he left three under General St. Suzanne 
 on the Danube, three under General Lecourbe on the Upper 
 Inn, and thus exposed his left, under General Grenier, to the 
 hazard of fighting in the proportion of one against two. This 
 reproach is certainly more weighty and more deserved ; but let 
 us not tarnish so glorious a triumph, and let us add, in order to 
 be just, that there are Haws in the finest works of men, that 
 in the most splendid victories there are faults — faults which 
 fortune repairs, and which must be admitted as an ordinary 
 accompaniment of great military exploits. 
 
 After this important victory, the conqueror would have done 
 well to pursue the Austrian army briskly, to inarch for Vienna, 
 to demolish, by pushing forward, the defences of the Tyrol, to 
 necessitate in this manner a retrograde movement in the whole- 
 line of the Austrians from Bavaria to Italy ; for the retreat of 
 the troops from the Inn would occasion that of the troops from 
 the Tyrol, and the retreat of these latter would render the 
 abandonment of the Mincio inevitable. But to obtain all these 
 results it would have been necessary to have forced the Inn, 
 then the Salza, which falls into the Inn, and forms a second line 
 to cross after the first. At the moment, all this might have 
 been accomplished from the impulsion given to our army by 
 the victory of Hohenlinden. 
 
 Moreau, as soon as he had allowed some rest to his troops, 
 moved his left and part of his centre into the Miihldorf road, 
 threatening at once the bridges of Kraiburg, Miihldorf, and 
 Braunau, to persuade the enemy that he intended to cross the 
 Inn in its lower course. But meanwhile, Lecourbe, who a few 
 months before had so gloriously passed the Danube at the battle 
 of Hochstett, was directed to cross the Inn, with the right, 
 near Eosenheim. This general had discovered a spot called 
 Neubeurn, where the right bank, which we occupied, com- 
 manded the left bank, occupied by the enemy, and where the 
 artillery might be advantageously employed to protect the 
 passage. This point was therefore chosen. Several days were
 
 dec. 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 413 
 
 unfortunately lost in collecting the necessary maUriel, and it 
 was not till the morning of the 9th of December, six days 
 after the great battle of Hohenlinden, that Lecourbe was 
 enabled to act. 
 
 Moreau had suddenly resumed his position on the Upper Inn. 
 The three divisions of the centre had been despatched from 
 Wasserburg to Aibling, at a little distance from Rosenheim, 
 ready to assist Lecourbe. The left had succeeded them in 
 their positions, and General Collaud, with two divisions of St. 
 Suzanne's corps, had been pushed forward from the Isar to 
 Erding. 
 
 On the morning of the 9th of December (18th Frimaire) 
 Lecourbe commenced the operations for the passage before 
 Neubeurn. Montrichard's division was to cross the Inn first. 
 General Lemaire placed on the heights of the right bank a 
 battery of twenty-eight pieces of cannon, and swept off every- 
 thing that appeared on the left bank. On this part of the 
 Inn there was nothing but Conde's corps, and this was too weak 
 to oppose any serious resistance. While all the enemy's de- 
 tachments were kept at a respectable distance by a continued 
 fire of artillery, the pontonniers threw themselves into boats, 
 accompanied by some battalions of dite, destined to protect 
 their operations. In two hours and a half a bridge was com- 
 pleted, and Montrichard's division could begin to debouch. It 
 advanced upon the Austrians, who retreated, and descended 
 the right bank of the Inn till they were opposite to Rosenheim. 
 They took a strong position at Stephans Kirchen. During this 
 movement the divisions of the centre, stationed before liosen- 
 heim itself, exerted themselves to prevent the Austrians from 
 destroying completely the bridge of that town. Having been 
 unsuccessful, they ascended the Inn and crossed at Neubeurn, 
 for the purpose of seconding Lecourbe. Conde's corps, rein- 
 forced by some succours, appuyed itself, on the one hand, upon 
 the destroyed bridge of liosenheim, on the other upon the small 
 lake of Chiemsee. Lecourbe sent a detachment to turn this lake, 
 which obliged the enemy to retire, after a resistance that was 
 not very bloody. The Inn was thus crossed, and that for- 
 midable obstacle, which it was alleged could not fail to stop the 
 French army, was surmounted. Thus Lecourbe had gathered 
 a fresh laurel in the winter campaign. The march was not 
 slackened. Next day, a bridge was thrown before Rosenheim 
 for the passage of the rest of the centre. Grenier, witli the left, 
 crossed the Inn over the bridges of Wasserburg and Miihldorf, 
 which the enemy had abandoned without destroying them. 
 
 It was expedient to lose no time in driving the Austrians to 
 the banks of the Salza, which runs behind the Inn and falls 
 into that river, a little above Lraunau. The Salza is like a
 
 4H HISTORY OF THE dec. 1800 
 
 second arm of the Inn itself. If you would cross the Inn near 
 the mountains, you are obliged to cross it twice, as it were ; 
 whereas, in passing it in the environs of Braunau, after its 
 junction with the Salza, there is but one passage to perform. 
 But then the volume of its waters is doubled, and the difficulty 
 of crossing by main force is proportionably increased. This 
 reason, and a desire to surprise the enemy, who did not expect 
 to see the French attempt the passage above Rosenheim, had 
 decided the choice of Moreau. 
 
 Lecourbe, supported by the divisions of the centre, advanced 
 rapidly, in spite of all the difficulties presented by that hilly 
 country, interspersed with woods, rivers, and lakes, — a country 
 difficult in any season, but still more so in the middle of 
 December. The Austrian army, though shaken by so many 
 reverses, still kept the field. The sentiment of honour, awak- 
 ened by the danger of the capital, caused it still to make noble 
 efforts to stop us. The Austrian cavalry covered the retreat, 
 and vigorously charged the French corps, which advanced too 
 rashly. The enemy crossed the Alz, which conveys the water 
 of the Chiemsee to the Inn; they passed Fraunstein, and at 
 length arrived near the Salza, not far from Salzburg. 
 
 There, before Salzburg itself, was still left a strong position 
 to occupy. The Archduke John thought that he might there 
 concentrate his troops, hoping to procure for them some success 
 which would raise their courage and somewhat slacken the 
 daring pursuit of the French. Accordingly, he did concentrate 
 them there on the 13 th of December (22nd Frimaire). 
 
 The town of Salzburg is seated on the Salza. In advance of 
 that river runs another small stream, the Saal, which descends 
 from the neighbouring mountains, and falls into the Salza below 
 Salzburg. The ground between the two is level, marshy, covered 
 with clumps of trees, everywhere difficult of access. Here the 
 Archduke John took a position, with his right to the Salza, his 
 left to the mountains, his front covered by the Saal. His artil- 
 lery swept this level tract. His cavalry, drawn up on the naked 
 and solid parts of the ground, was ready to charge the French 
 corps which should dare to take the offensive. His infantry 
 was solidly appuyed upon the town of Salzburg. 
 
 On the morning of the 14th, Lecourbe, impelled by his 
 ardour, forded the Saal, sustained several charges of cavalry on 
 the strand bordering the river, and bore them bravely ; but 
 presently, the thick fog which covered the plain clearing off, he 
 perceived, in advance of Salzburg, a formidable line of cavalry, 
 artillery, and infantry. It was the whole Austrian army. In 
 presence of this danger he behaved with great steadiness, but 
 suffered some loss. 
 
 Fortunately Decaen's division at this moment crossed the
 
 dec. 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 415 
 
 Salza towards Laufen, in an almost miraculous manner. On 
 the preceding day, the advanced guard of this division, finding 
 the bridge of Laufen destroyed, had explored the banks of the 
 Salza, everywhere covered by the enemy's tirailleurs, in search 
 of a passage. It had perceived a boat lying on the opposite 
 shore. At this sight, three chasseurs of the 14th swam across 
 to the other side, in spite of the most intense cold, and a 
 current still more rapid than that of the Inn. After fighting 
 hand to hand with several Austrian tirailleurs, they had taken 
 and brought across the boat. Some hundred French availed 
 themselves of it for crossing successively to the opposite bank, 
 occupied a village quite close to the destroyed bridge of Laufen, 
 and barricaded themselves there in such a manner that a small 
 number of them sufficed to defend it. The others had rushed 
 upon the Austrian artillery, taken it, seized all the craft on the 
 right bank of the Salza, and thus furnished the division re- 
 maining on the left bank with the means of crossing. On the 
 morning of the following day, the 14th, Decaen's whole division 
 having crossed, and ascending to Salzburg, came up at the very 
 moment when Lecourbe was engaged single-handed with the 
 whole Austrian army. It could not have arrived more oppor- 
 tunely. The Archduke, apprised of the passage of the French 
 and of their march upon Salzburg, hastily decamped, and thus 
 Lecourbe was extricated from the serious danger to which 
 chance and his ardour had exposed him. 
 
 All the defences of the Inn and the Salza were thus overcome. 
 From that moment there was no obstacle to cover the Austrian 
 army, or to give it courage to resist the French army. In 
 Tyrol, it is true, there were left 25,00x3 men, who might have 
 annoyed our rear, but it is not when you are victorious, and 
 demoralisation has seized your enemy, that you need fear bold 
 attempts. Moreau, having left St. Suzanne's corps behind, to 
 invest Braunau, and to occupy the tract of country between 
 the Inn, and the Isar, — Moreau, emboldened by the success 
 attending every step he took, marched towards the Traun and 
 the Ens, which were now incapable of stopping him. Kiche- 
 panse formed the advanced guard, supported by Grouchy and 
 Decaen. The retreat of the Austrians was effected in disorder. 
 The French picked up every moment men. carriages, or cannon. 
 Kichepanse fought brilliant actions at Frankenmarkt, at Vok- 
 labriick, and at Schwanstadt. Incessantly engaged with the 
 Austrian cavalry, he took so many as 1 200 horse at a time. 
 On the 20th of December (29th Frimaire) the French had 
 crossed the Traun, and were marching for Steyer, with the 
 intention of crossing the Ens at that place. 
 
 The young Archduke John, whom such a series of disasters 
 had completely disheartened, had just been superseded by the
 
 416 HISTORY OF THE dec. 1800 
 
 Archduke Charles, who was at length recalled from disgrace, to 
 have a task assigned to him, now impossible to be performed — 
 that of saving the Austrian army. He beheld with grief on his 
 arrival the spectacle exhibited by those soldiers of the empire, 
 who, after they had nobly resisted the French, desired that they 
 might no longer be sacrificed to a fatal and universally repro- 
 bated policy, He sent M. de Meerfeld to Moreau, to propose 
 an armistice. Moreau agreed to grant forty-eight hours, on 
 condition that within this time he would return from Vienna 
 furnished with the Emperor's powers ; but he stipulated, at the 
 same time, that the French army should meanwhile have the 
 faculty of advancing to the Ens. 
 
 On the 21st, he crossed the Ens at Steyer. His advanced 
 posts appeared on the Ips and the Erlaf. He was at the gates 
 of Vienna ; he might feel tempted to enter it, and to appropriate 
 to himself the glory which no French general had yet had, of 
 penetrating into the capital of the empire. But the moderate 
 spirit of Moreau was not fond of pushing fortune to extremities. 
 The Archduke Charles gave him his word that if hostilities were 
 suspended, Austria would treat immediately for peace, on the 
 conditions which France had always insisted upon, especially 
 that of a separate negotiation. Moreau, full of a just esteem 
 for that prince, showed a disposition to believe him. 
 
 Several of his lieutenants urged him to march to Vienna. 
 " It will be better," he replied, " to secure peace. ... I hear 
 nothing of Macdonald and Brune ; I know not whether the 
 one has succeeded in penetrating into the Tyrol, whether the 
 other has been able to cross the Mincio. Augereau is at a great 
 distance from me, in a critical situation. I might perhaps 
 drive the Austrians to despair, were I to persist in humbling 
 them. We had better halt and be content with peace, for it is 
 for that alone that we are fighting." 
 
 These were wise and praiseworthy sentiments. On the 25th 
 of December (4th Mvose, year IX.), he consented, therefore, 
 to sign, at Steyer, a new suspension of arms, the conditions of 
 which were the following : — There was to be a cessation of 
 hostilities in Germany between the Austrian armies and the 
 French armies commanded by Moreau and Augereau. Generals 
 Brune and Macdonald were to be invited to sign a similar armi- 
 stice for the armies of the Grisons and of Italy. The whole 
 valley of the Danube, including the Tyrol, was given up to the 
 French, besides the fortresses of Braunau and Wurtzburg, the 
 forts of Scharnitz, Kufstein, &c. The Austrian magazines were 
 placed at our disposal. No detachment of troops could be sent 
 to Italy, in case a suspension of arms should not be agreed to 
 by the generals commanding in that country. This stipulation 
 was obligatory on both armies.
 
 dec. 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 417 
 
 Moreau was satisfied with these conditions, calculating, with 
 reason, upon peace, and preferring it to more signal, but more 
 hazardous triumphs. A brilliant glory surrounded his name, 
 for his winter campaign surpassed that of the spring. After 
 crossing the Khine in that first spring campaign, and driving 
 the Austrians to the Danube, while the First Consul was cross- 
 ing the Alps; after having then dislodged them from their 
 camp at Ulm by the battle of Hochstett, and pushed them 
 back to the Inn, he had taken breath during the summer, and, 
 resuming his march in winter, during the most intense cold, he 
 had overwhelmed them at Hohenlinden, driven them from the 
 Inn to the Salza, from the Salza to the Traun and the Ens, 
 pushing them, in disorder, to the very gates of Vienna. At last, 
 halting a few leagues from the capital, he granted them time 
 for signing peace. In his conduct there had been irresolution, 
 dilatoriness, in short, faults which severe judges have since 
 keenly censured, as if to revenge, on the memory of Moreau, the 
 injustices committed upon the memory of Napoleon ; but there 
 was an unbroken series of successes, obtained by prudence and 
 firmness. We ought to respect all glories, and not destroy one 
 to avenge another. Moreau had proved himself capable of 
 commanding 100,000 men with prudence and vigour; no man, 
 excepting Napoleon, has manoeuvred such a force so well, in 
 the present century; and, although the place of the conqueror 
 of Hohenlinden be at an immense distance from that of the 
 conqueror of Eivoli, of Marengo, and of Austerlitz, that place 
 is, nevertheless, glorious, and would have remained glorious, 
 if criminal misconduct, the fatal effects of jealousy, had not 
 subsequently sullied a life till then noble and pure. 
 
 The armistice in Germany happened seasonably for extricat- 
 ing the Gallo-Batavian army, commanded by Augereau, from 
 its hazardous position. The Austrian general, Klenau, who had 
 always remained at a great distance from the Archduke John, 
 had suddenly formed a junction with Simbschen, and, by this 
 union of forces, had brought Augereau into danger. But the 
 latter had bravely defended the Eednitz, and maintained his 
 ground till the conclusion of hostilities. The retreat of the 
 Austrians into Bohemia relieved him from embarrassment, and 
 the armistice covered him from the dangers of a position too 
 destitute of support, since Moreau was at the gates of Vienna. 
 
 During these events in Germany, hostilities continued in 
 the Alps and in Italy. The First Consul, seeing, from the 
 commencement of the campaign, that Moreau could dispense 
 with the assistance of the army in the Orisons, had ordered 
 Macdonald to cross the Splugen, to throw himself from the 
 great chain of the Alps into the Valteline, and from the Valteline 
 into Italian Tyrol, then to proceed to Trent, and thus turn the 
 
 vor. 1. : i)
 
 4i 8 HISTORY OF THE dec. 1800 
 
 line of the Mincio, and, by this manoeuvre, put an end to the 
 resistance of the Austrians in the plains of Italy. No objection, 
 founded on the height of the Splugen or the inclemency of 
 the season, could shake the First Consul. He had invariably 
 replied that, wherever two men could set their feet, an army 
 had the means of passing, and that the Alps were easier to 
 cross in frost than when the snow was melting, the season in 
 which he had himself crossed the St. Bernard. This was the 
 argument of an absolute spirit, which is determined to attain 
 its end at any rate whatever. The event proved that, in the 
 mountains, winter is attended with dangers at least equal to 
 those of spring, and that, moreover, it dooms men to the most 
 frightful hardships. 
 
 General Macdonald prepared to obey, and he did it with all 
 the energy of his character. After leaving Morlot's division 
 in the Orisons, to guard the debouclids which communicate 
 between the Grisons and the Engadine (the upper valley of 
 the Inn), he approached the Splugen. For some time past, 
 the division of Baraguay d'Hilliers was in the Upper Valteline, 
 threatening the Engadine from the Italian side ; while Morlot 
 threatened it from the side next to the Grisons. With the 
 bulk of his army, about 12,000 men, Macdonald commenced 
 his movement, and climbed the first acclivities of the Splugen. 
 The passage of that lofty mountain, narrow and winding during 
 an ascent of several leagues, was attended with the greatest 
 dangers, especially at that season, when frequent tempests 
 covered the roads with enormous drifts of snow and ice. The 
 artillery and ammunition had been placed on sledges, and the 
 soldiers were laden with biscuit and cartridges. The first 
 column, composed of cavalry and artillery, began the passage 
 in fine weather, but it was all at once assailed by a tre- 
 mendous tempest. An avalanche precipitated one-half of a 
 squadron of dragoons into the abyss, and struck terror into 
 the soldiers. They, nevertheless, kept up their courage. In 
 three days, the storm having- ceased, a fresh attempt was made 
 to cross this formidable mountain. It was encumbered with 
 snow. Oxen were driven before the troops, to trample the 
 snow, into which they sank up to the belly ; then labourers 
 beat it down hard ; the infantry, in passing, rendered it quite 
 solid ; lastly, sappers widened the passes, when too narrow, by 
 cutting the ice with hatchets. These exertions were requisite 
 to render the road passable for cavalry and artillery. The first 
 days of December were thus spent in effecting the passage of 
 the first three columns. The soldiers endured these horrible 
 sufferings with admirable fortitude, living upon biscuit and a 
 small quantity of brandy. The fourth and last column had at 
 last nearly reached the summit of the mountain, when a fresh
 
 dec. 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 419 
 
 storm once more closed the passage, entirely dispersed the 104th 
 demi-brigade, and buried about 100 men. General Macdonald 
 was there. He rallied his soldiers, cheered them under dangers 
 and hardships, caused the road, barred by blocks of frozen snow, 
 to be again opened, and at length debouched with all the rest 
 of his corps into the Valteline. 
 
 This truly extraordinary enterprise had carried the greater 
 part of the army of the Grisons across the great chain, and to 
 the very threshold of the Italian Tyrol. General Macdonald, 
 as he had been ordered, sought, as soon as he had passed the 
 Splugen, to concert with Brune before proceeding to the sources 
 of the Mincio and the Adige, and thus demolishing the whole 
 defensive line of the Austrians, which extended from the Alps 
 to the Adriatic. 
 
 Brune would not deprive himself of a whole division to assist 
 Macdonald, but he consented to detach Lecchi's Italian division, 
 which was to ascend from the valley of the Chiesa to the 
 Kocca d'Anfo. Macdonald, therefore, resolved to ascend the 
 Valteline, and to attack Mont Tonal, which commands the pass 
 into the Tyrol and the valley of the Adige. But here, though 
 the height was inferior to that of the Splugen, the ice was as 
 deeply drifted ; and besides, General Wukassowich had covered 
 the principal approaches to Mont Tonal with entrenchments. 
 On the 22nd and 23rd of December, General Vandamme made 
 an attack at the head of a corps of grenadiers, and renewed it 
 several times with heroic courage. Those brave fellows made 
 incredible but useless efforts. Several times, inarching upon 
 the ice, and exposed to a most destructive fire, they advanced 
 to the very palisades of the entrenchment, and endeavoured to 
 pull them up, but, the ground being frozen, they were foiled in 
 the attempt. It was useless to persist further ; it was, there- 
 tore, resolved to pass into the valley of the Oglio, to descend it 
 to Pisogno, and then proceed into the valley of the Chiesa. 
 The intention in this was to cross the mountains in a less 
 elevated region, and by passes not so well defended. Mac- 
 donald, having descended to Pisogno, crossed the cols which 
 separated him from the valley of the Chiesa, formed his junction 
 with Lecchi's brigade towards the Bocca d'Anfo, and found him- 
 self beyond the obstacles which parted him from the Italian 
 Tyrol and the Adige. He was enabled to reach Trent before 
 General Wukassowich had effected Ins retreat from the heights 
 of Mont Tonal, and to take a position between the Austrians 
 who defended the sources of the rivers amidst the Alps and 
 the Austrians who defended the lower part of their courses in 
 the plains of Italy. 
 
 Brune, before he attempted to force the Mincio, had waited 
 till Macdonald had made sufficient progress for the attacks to
 
 420 HISTORY OF THE dec. 1800 
 
 be nearly simultaneous in the mountains and in the plain. 
 Out of 125,000 spread over Italy, he had, as we have observed, 
 100,000 effective men, tried soldiers, and recruited after their 
 privations, an artillery admirably organised by General Mar- 
 mont, and an excellent cavalry. Nearly 20,000 men guarded 
 Lombardy, Piedmont, Liguria, and Tuscany. A weak brigade, 
 commanded by General Petitot, observed the Austrian troops, 
 which, setting out from Ferrara, threatened Bologna. The 
 national guard of the latter city was ready, besides, to defend 
 itself against the Austrians. The Neapolitans were again pass- 
 ing through the Eoman States on their march to Tuscany ; but 
 Murat, with the 10,000 men from the camp of Amiens, was 
 gone to meet them. Brune, after providing for the guard of 
 the different parts of Italy, had about 70,000 men to direct 
 upon the Mincio. General Bonaparte, who was perfectly 
 acquainted with this theatre of operations, had recommended 
 to him carefully to concentrate his troops as much as possible 
 in Upper Italy ; to take no heed what the Austrians might 
 attempt towards the banks of the Po, in the Legations, or even 
 in Tuscany ; to remain steadily, as he had himself formerly done, 
 at the debouches of the Alps ; and he was incessantly repeating 
 that, when the Austrians should be beaten between the Mincio 
 and the Adige, that is to say, on the line by which they enter 
 Italy, all those who had passed the Po and penetrated into 
 Central Italy would be in so much the greater danger. 
 
 The Austrians did actually seem disposed to come out of 
 Ferrara and to threaten Bologna ; but General Petitot found 
 means to repress them, and the national guard of Bologna dis- 
 played on its part the firmest attitude. 
 
 Brune, straightways conforming to the instructions which he 
 had received, advanced to the Mincio, between the 20th and 
 24th of December (29th Frimaire to 3rd Nivose), took the 
 positions which the Austrians had occupied in advance of that 
 river, and made his dispositions for passing it on the morning 
 of the 25 th. General Delmas commanded his advanced guard, 
 General Moncey his left, General Dupont his right, and General 
 Michaud his reserve. Besides the cavalry and artillery distri- 
 buted in the divisions, he had a considerable reserve of both. 
 
 In recording the first campaigns of General Bonaparte* we 
 have already described this theatre as the scene of so many 
 memorable events ; we must, nevertheless, portray in a few 
 words the configuration of the country. The mass of the waters 
 of the Tyrol is discharged by the Adige into the Adriatic ; 
 hence the Adige forms a line of great strength. But, before 
 you reach the line of the Adige, you come to one of minor 
 importance, namely, that of the Mincio. The waters of several 
 
 * In the History of the French Revolution.
 
 dec. 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 421 
 
 valleys lateral to that of the Tyrol, at first accumulated in the 
 Lake of Garda, afterwards pour themselves into the Mincio, 
 tarry some time at Mantua, around which they form an inunda- 
 tion, and at last fall into the Po. There was, consequently, a 
 double line to cross, first that of the Mincio, then that of the 
 Adige, the latter being far the more considerable and the 
 stronger of the two. It was requisite to cross both, and if 
 this were done promptly enough to give a hand to Macdonald, 
 who was marching by the Kocca dAnfo and Trent to the 
 Upper Adige, it would be possible to separate the Austrian 
 army defending the Tyrol from the Austrian army defending 
 the Mincio, and to take the former. 
 
 The line of the Mincio, seven or eight leagues long at most, 
 appuying on the Lake of Garda on the one hand and Mantua 
 on the other, bristling with artillery, and defended by 70,000 
 Austrians, under the command of the Count de Bellegarde, was 
 not easy to force. The enemy had at Borghetto and Vallegio a 
 well entrenched bridge, which enabled him to act on both banks. 
 The river was not fordable at this season ; and the mass of its 
 waters had been further increased by closing all the canals 
 which are supplied by it. 
 
 Brune, after collecting his columns, conceived the singular 
 idea of crossing the Mincio at two points at once, at Pozzolo 
 and at Mozzembano. Between these two points the river 
 formed a bend, the convexity of which was turned towards 
 our troops ; moreover, the right bank, which we occupied, com- 
 manded the left bank occupied by the Austrians, so that at 
 Mozzembano, as well as at Pozzolo, we could open a converging 
 fire from higher batteries upon the enemy's bank, and thus 
 cover the operation of a passage. But at both points the 
 Austrians were found firmly seated behind the Mincio, covered 
 with solid entrenchments, appuyed either on Mantua or on 
 Peschiera. The advantages and the inconveniences of the pas- 
 sage were therefore nearly alike at Pozzolo and at Mozzembano. 
 But what ought to have decided Brune to prefer one of the 
 two points, no matter which, while he might have made a false 
 demonstration on the other, was that between these two points 
 there was a tetc de pont, then occupied by the enemy. The 
 Austrians, therefore, could debouch by this tete de pont, and 
 throw themselves on one of the two operations with a view 
 to interrupt it. It follows that only one should have been 
 attempted, and that with the whole of the forces. 
 
 Brune, nevertheless, persisted in his double plan, apparently 
 to divide the enemy's attention, and on the 25th of I)ecember 
 made all necessary dispositions for a double passage. But 
 difficulties which supervened in regard to carriage, difficulties 
 extremely great at this season, prevented everything from
 
 422 HISTORY OF THE dec. 1800 
 
 being ready at Mozzembano, the point at which Brune himself 
 was with the greater part of his troops, and the operation was 
 deferred till the next day. It would seem that, in this case, 
 the second passage ought to have been countermanded ; but 
 Brune, having always considered the attempt near Pozzolo as 
 a mere diversion, thought that the diversion would produce its 
 effect with the greater certainty, if it preceded the principal 
 operation by twenty-four hours. 
 
 Dupont, who commanded at Pozzolo, was an officer full of 
 ardour: he advanced, on the morning of the 25th, to the bank 
 of the Mincio, crowned with artillery the heights of Molino 
 della Volta, which commanded the opposite bank, threw a 
 bridge in a very short time, and, favoured by a thick fog, 
 succeeded in passing Wattrin's division to the right bank. 
 Meanwhile, Brune continued motionless with the left and the 
 reserves at Mozzembano. General Suchet, placed between the 
 two with the centre, masked the Austrian bridge of Borghetto. 
 General Dupont, then, was on the left bank with a single 
 corps, in presence of the whole Austrian army. It was easy 
 to foresee the result. The Count de Bellegarde, without loss 
 of time, directed the mass of his forces upon Pozzolo. General 
 Dupont sent to apprise his neighbour, Suchet, and the com- 
 mander-in-chief, of the success of the passage, and of the 
 danger to which that success exposed him. General Suchet, 
 like a brave and faithful comrade, hastened to the assistance 
 of Dupont's division ; but, on quitting Borghetto, he sent to 
 beg Brune to provide for the guard of that debouch^, which 
 he left uncovered by his movement towards Pozzolo. Brune, 
 instead of hurrying with all his forces to the point where a 
 lucky accident had opened the passage of the Mincio to his 
 army, Brune, still engrossed by his operation of the following 
 day upon Mozzembano, never quitted his position. He approved 
 the movement of General Suchet, at the same time recom- 
 mending to him not to compromise himself on the other side 
 of the river, and merely sent Boudet's division to mask the 
 bridge of Borghetto. 
 
 But General Dupont, eager to follow up his success, was ab- 
 solutely engaged. He had crossed the Mincio, taken Pozzolo, 
 which is situated on the left bank, and carried successively 
 Wattrin's and Mourner's divisions across the river. One of his 
 wings was appuyed on Pozzolo, the other on the Mincio, under 
 the protection of the elevated batteries of the right bank. 
 
 The Austrians marched with all their reinforcements upon 
 that position. They were preceded by a great number of pieces 
 of cannon. Fortunately, our artillery, placed at Molino della 
 Volta, and firing from one bank to the other, protected our sol- 
 diers by the superiority of its fire. The Austrians fell furiously
 
 dec. 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 423 
 
 upon Wattrin's and Monnier's divisions. The 6th light, the 
 28th, and the 40th of the line were well-nigh overwhelmed, but 
 they resisted, with admirable intrepidity, all the joint assaults 
 of the Austrian infantry and cavalry. Monnier's division, how- 
 ever, surprised in Pozzolo by a column of grenadiers, was dis- 
 lodged. At this moment, Dupont's corps, separated from its 
 principal pont d'appui, was on the point of being thrown into 
 the Mincio. But General Suchet, arriving on the other bank 
 with Gazan's division, and perceiving from the heights of Molino 
 della Volta the serious danger of his brother commander, en- 
 gaged with io,00O men against 30,000, hastened to send him 
 reinforcements. Restrained, at the same time, by the orders of 
 Brune, he durst not send him the whole of Gazan's division, and 
 threw Clauzel's brigade only to the other side of the river. This 
 brigade was insufficient ; and Dupont must have succumbed 
 notwithstanding these succours, when the rest of Gazan's 
 division, crowning the opposite bank, from which the Aus- 
 trians could be reached with grape-shot and even by musketry 
 poured on them a murderous fire, and thus stopped them short. 
 Dupont's troops, being supported, resumed the offensive, and 
 made the Austrians fall back. General Suchet, seeing that the 
 danger increased every moment, resolved to send Gazan's whole 
 division to the other bank. The important point of Pozzolo 
 was thenceforward most fiercely disputed. That village was 
 six times taken and retaken. At nine o'clock at night, the 
 combatants were still fighting by moonlight and in a severe 
 frost. The French finally remained masters of the left bank, 
 but they had lost the elite of four divisions. The Austrians had 
 left 6000 dead or wounded on the field of battle, the French 
 nearly as many. But for the arrival of General Suchet, our 
 left wing would have been destroyed ; and. as it was, he durst 
 not engage completely, his hands being tied by the orders of 
 the commander-in-chief. If M. de Bellegarde had directed his 
 whole forces upon that point, or if he had debouched from the 
 bridge of Borcrhetto. while Brune was immovable at Mozzembano, 
 he might have inflicted a disaster on the centre and on the right 
 of the French army. 
 
 Fortunately, he did nothing of the kind. The Mincio was 
 thus crossed at one point. Brune persisted in his plan of pass- 
 ing the next day, the 26th of December, towards Mozzembano, 
 thus exposing himself anew to the risks of an operation by 
 main force. He covered the heights of Mozzembano with forty 
 pieces of cannon, and. favoured by the fogs of the season, suc- 
 ceeded in throwing a bridge. The Austrians, fatigued with the 
 preceding day, doubting the intention of a second passage, made 
 less resistance than the dav lie fore, and suffered the neighbouring 
 positions of Sallionzo and Vallegio to be taken from them.
 
 424 HISTORY OF THE jan. 1800 
 
 The whole army debouched in this manner beyond the Mincio, 
 and was enabled to march, with all its divisions united, for the 
 second line, that of the Adige. The tete de pont of Borghetto 
 must have fallen, as a matter of course, from the offensive 
 movement of our columns. A fresh blunder was committed in 
 sacrificing several hundred of our brave soldiers for the conquest 
 of a point which was not tenable. Twelve hundred Austrians 
 were made prisoners there. 
 
 The French were victorious, but at the cost of valuable blood, 
 which Generals Bonaparte and Moreau would not have failed to 
 spare the army. Lecourbe passed the rivers of Germany in a 
 different manner. Brune, having forced the Mincio, advanced 
 towards the Adige, which he ought to have crossed imme- 
 diately. He was not ready to effect the passage till the 31st 
 of December (10th Niv&se). On the 1st of January, General 
 Delmas, with the advanced guard, crossed the river without acci- 
 dent at Bussolengo, above Verona. General Moncey, with the 
 left, was to ascend to Trent, while the rest of the army descended 
 again to envelop Verona. 
 
 Count de Bellegarde was at this moment in imminent danger. 
 Part of the troops of the Tyrol, under General Laudon, had 
 retired before Macdonald, and fallen back upon Trent. General 
 Moncey, with his corps, was marching thither also, in reascend- 
 ing the Adige. General Laudon, hemmed in between Mac- 
 donald's corps and Moncey's, must succumb, unless he had time 
 to escape into the valley of the Brenta, which, running beyond 
 the Adige, terminates, after numerous windings, at Bassano. 
 Brune, if he suddenly crossed the Adige, and vigorously pushed 
 Count de Bellegarde beyond Verona, to Bassano itself, might 
 anticipate at this latter point the corps of the Tyrol, and take it 
 entire by closing the dSoucliS of the Brenta. 
 
 An act not the most honourable of General Laudon's, and 
 the tardiness of General Brune, extenuated, it is true, by the 
 season, extricated the Tyrol corps from all these perils. 
 
 Macdonald had actually reached Trent, while Moncey's corps 
 was proceeding thither, on its side. General Laudon, hemmed 
 in between these two corps, had recourse to a falsehood. He 
 assured General Moncey that an armistice had just been signed 
 in Germany, and that this armistice extended to both armies, 
 which was false ; for the convention signed at Steyer by 
 Moreau applied only to the armies operating upon the Danube. 
 General Moncey, from a nice sense of honour, credited the 
 statement of General Laudon, and opened to him the passes 
 leading to the Brenta ; so that he was enabled to rejoin the 
 Count de Bellegarde in the environs of Bassano. 
 
 But the disasters in Germany were known. The Austrian 
 army, beaten in Italy, pressed by an army of 90,000 men, since
 
 jan. 1 80 1 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 425 
 
 the junction of Macdonald's and Brune's troops, could hold out 
 no longer. An armistice was proposed to Erune, who hastened 
 to accept it, and signed it on the 16th of January at Treviso. 
 Brune, impatient to settle matters, demanded no more than the 
 line of the Adige, with the fortresses of Ferrara, Peschiera, and 
 Portolegnago. He never thought of requiring the cession of 
 Mantua. Yet he had received specific orders not to halt till 
 he had entered Isonzo, and made himself master of Mantua. 
 That place was the only one which was worth the trouble ; for 
 all the others must have fallen as a matter of course. It was 
 of especial importance to occupy it, that there might be a 
 ground for demanding, at the congress of Luneville, its cession 
 to the Cisalpine Republic. 
 
 While these events were occurring in Upper Italy, the 
 Neapolitans penetrated into Tuscany. The Count de Damas, 
 who commanded a corps of 16,000 men, 8coo of whom were 
 Neapolitans, had advanced to Sienna. General Miollis, obliged 
 to guard all the posts of Tuscany, had not more than 3500 dis- 
 posable men, mostly Italians. He marched, nevertheless, to 
 meet the Neapolitans. The brave soldiers of Pino's division 
 rushed upon the advanced guard of the Count de Damas, 
 overthrew it, forced an entrance into Sienna, and put to the 
 sword a considerable number of the insurgents. The Count 
 de Damas was obliged to fall back. Besides, Murat was ad- 
 vancing with his grenadiers, to wring from him the signature 
 of a third armistice. 
 
 Thus the campaign was finished everywhere, and peace en- 
 sured. In every quarter our operations had been successful. 
 Moreau's army, flanked by that of Augereau. had penetrated to 
 the very gates of Vienna ; Brune's. seconded by that of Mac- 
 donald, had passed the Mincio and the Adige, and advanced 
 to Treviso. Though it had not entirely thrown the Austrians 
 to the other side of the Alps, it had dispossessed them of suf- 
 ficient territory to furnish the French negotiator at Luneville 
 with powerful arguments against the pretensions of Austria 
 in Italy. Murat was about to complete the submission of the 
 court of Naples. 
 
 On receiving intelligence of the battle of Hohenlinden. the 
 First Consul, who was said to lie jealous of Moreau, was filled 
 with sincere joy.* This victory lost none of its value in his 
 estimation because it was achieved by a rival. He deemed 
 himself so superior to all his companions in anus in mili- 
 tary glory and in political influence, that lie felt no jealousy of 
 any of them. Wholly devoted to the task of pacifying and 
 
 * M. de Bourriennc snys (hat " ho leaped for joy : '" and this biographer is 
 not to be suspected, for. though he owed everything to Napoleon he seems 
 not to have recollected this in his Memoirs.
 
 426 HISTORY OF THE jan. 1801 
 
 reorganising France, he derived warm satisfaction from every 
 event which contributed to facilitate his task, even when such 
 events added to the fame of those men, who were destined 
 afterwards to be set up for rivals to him. 
 
 What displeased him in this campaign was the useless effu- 
 sion of French blood at Pozzolo, and especially the grievous 
 fault of not demanding Mantua. He refused to ratify the con- 
 vention of Treviso, and declared that he would give orders for 
 the renewal of hostilities, if the fortress of Mantua were not 
 immediately delivered to the French army. 
 
 All the while, Joseph Bonaparte and M. de Cobentzel were 
 at Luneville, awaiting the events occurring on the Danube 
 and the Adige. It is a singular situation, that of two nego- 
 tiators, treating while hostilities are going on, witnesses, as it 
 were, of the duel between two great nations, expecting every 
 instant the news not of the death, but of the exhaustion of the 
 one or the other. On this occasion, M. de Cobentzel displayed 
 an energy of character, which may be held up as an example to 
 men who are called to save their country in disastrous circum- 
 stances. He did not suffer himself to be disconcerted by the 
 defeat of the Austrians at Hohenlinden, or by the passage of 
 the Inn, the Salza, the Traun, &c. To all these events he re- 
 plied, with imperturbable composure, that all this was certainly 
 unfortunate, but that the Archduke Charles had recovered from 
 his mortifications ; that he had arrived at the head of the extra- 
 ordinary levies of Bohemia and Hungary ; that he had brought 
 to the assistance of the capital 25,000 Bohemians and 75,000 
 Hungarians ; that, in advancing farther, the French would 
 meet with a resistance which they did not expect. At the 
 same time, he persisted in all the pretensions of Austria, par- 
 ticularly in that of not treating without an English pleni- 
 potentiary, who would at least mask by his presence the real 
 negotiations which might take place between the two legations. 
 Sometimes he went so far as to say, that he would retire to 
 Frankfort, and thus put an end to the hopes of peace, which 
 the First Consul needed for lulling people's minds. At this 
 threat, the First Consul, who never shuffled when any one tried 
 to intimidate him, sent word to M. de Cobentzel, that if he left 
 Luneville, all chance of an accommodation would be totally lost, 
 and that the war should be pushed to the utmost extremity, 
 even to the entire destruction of the Austrian monarchy. 
 
 Amidst this diplomatic struggle, M. de Cobentzel received 
 intelligence of the armistice of Steyer, the emperor's order to 
 treat on any terms, and, in particular, urgent injunctions to 
 obtain an extension to Italy of the armistice already agreed 
 on for Germany ; for there would be nothing gained, if, after 
 stopping one of the two French armies which were marching
 
 jan. 1 80 1 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 427 
 
 for Vienna, the other should be suffered to reach that capital 
 by the Friule and Carinthia. In consequence, M. de Cobentzel 
 declared, on the 31st of December, that he was ready to treat 
 without the concurrence of England, that he consented to sign 
 preliminaries of peace, or a definitive treaty, whichever the 
 French government pleased; but that, before he definitively 
 committed himself by separating from England, he desired that 
 an armistice common to Italy and Germany should be signed, 
 and that some explanation respecting the conditions of peace 
 should be entered into, at least in a general manner. For his 
 part, he proposed these conditions : the Oglio, for the boundary 
 of Austria in Italy, together with the Legations ; and at the 
 same time, the reinstatement of the Dukes of Modena and 
 Tuscany in their former dominions. 
 
 These conditions were unreasonable. The First Consul would 
 not have admitted them even before the successes of the winter 
 campaign, and still less after them. 
 
 The reader has not forgotten the preliminaries signed by the 
 Count de St. Julien. The treaty of Campo Forrnio was there 
 adopted for basis, with this difference, that certain indemnities 
 promised to Austria for various petty territories should be 
 granted in Italy, instead of Germany. We have already men- 
 tioned the drift of this alteration ; the treaty of Campo Formio 
 assigned the Adige for the boundary between the Cisalpine 
 Republic and Austria ; by promising Austria indemnities in 
 Italy, she was led to hope for the Mincio, for example, instead 
 of the Adige, as a boundary, but the Mincio at most, and never 
 the territory of the Legations, which the First Consul intended 
 to dispose of otherwise. 
 
 The ideas of the First Consul were thenceforth fixed. He 
 determined that Austria should pay the expenses of the winter 
 campaign ; he determined that she should have the Adige. and 
 nothing more, and that she should receive no indemnity, either 
 in Germany or Italy, for the small territories ceded on the left 
 bank of the Rhine. As for the Legations, he meant to reserve 
 them, and to make them subservient to various combinations. 
 Hitherto they had belonged to the Cisalpine Republic. His 
 design was either to leave them to it. or to devote them to the 
 aggrandisement of the house of Parma, promised, by treaty, to 
 the court of Spain. In this latter case, he should give Parma 
 to the Cisalpine. Tuscany to the house of Parma, which would 
 be a considerable aggrandisement, and the Legations to the 
 Grand Duke of Tuscany. As for the Duke of Modena. Austria 
 had promised, by the treaty of Campo Formio, to indemnify liini 
 for the loss of his duchy by means of the Brisgau. It was. there- 
 fore, for her to fulfil her engagements towards that prince. 
 
 The First Consul wished for somethimr else, that was
 
 428 HISTORY OF THE jan. 1801 
 
 thoroughly understood but very difficult to make Austria agree 
 to. He wished not to be obliged, as after the peace of Campo 
 Formio, to hold a congress with the princes of the empire, to 
 obtain from each individually the formal cession of the right 
 bank of the Rhine to France. He recollected the congress of 
 Rastadt, which terminated in the murder of our plenipoten- 
 tiaries ; he recollected the trouble it had been to treat with 
 each prince separately, and to agree with all those who had lost 
 territories upon a system of indemnities that would satisfy them. 
 In consequence, he required that the emperor should sign, as 
 head of the house of Austria, for what related to his house, and, 
 as emperor, for what related to the empire. In short, he wanted 
 to have, in a single stroke, an acknowledgment of our con- 
 quests, both on the part of Austria and on the part of the 
 Germanic confederation. 
 
 He, therefore, ordered his brother Joseph to notify to M. de 
 Cobentzel the following conditions, as definitively fixed : — The 
 left bank of the Rhine to France ; the boundary of the Adige 
 for Austria and the Cisalpine, without relinquishing the Lega- 
 tions ; the Legations to the Duke of Tuscany ; Tuscany to the 
 Duke of Parma ; Parma to the Cisalpine ; the Brisgau to the 
 Duke of Modena ; lastly, peace to be signed by the emperor, 
 both for himself and for the empire. As for the armistice in 
 Italy, he was willing to grant it, on condition of the immediate 
 delivery of the fortress of Mantua to the French army. 
 
 As the First Consul was acquainted with the Austrian manner 
 of negotiating, and particularly that of M. de Cobentzel, he 
 wished to cut short a great many difficulties, a great many 
 oppositions, a great many threats of a feigned desperation ; and 
 he devised a new way of signifying his ultimatum. The Legis- 
 lative Body had just assembled ; it was proposed to it on the 
 2nd of January (12th Nivose), to declare that the four armies 
 commanded by Generals Moreau, Brune, Macdonald, and Auge- 
 reau, were entitled to their country's thanks. A message, added 
 to this proposal, announced that M. de Cobentzel had at length 
 engaged to treat without the concurrence of England, and that 
 the definitive condition of peace was the Rhine for France, and 
 the Adige for the Cisalpine Republic. The message added that, 
 in case these conditions were not accepted, the French would 
 march on Prague, on Vienna, and on Venice, and there enforce 
 them. 
 
 This communication was hailed with transport in Paris, but 
 excited a strong emotion at Luneville. M. de Cobentzel raised 
 great outcries against the hardness of these conditions, and 
 particularly against their form. He complained bitterly that 
 France seemed to be making the treaty by herself, without 
 having to negotiate with anybody. He, nevertheless, continued
 
 JAN. 1 80 1 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 429 
 
 firm, and declared that Austria could not give way on all the 
 points, that she would rather fall with arms in her hand than 
 accede to such conditions. M. de Cobentzel consented, however, 
 to fall back from the Oglio to the Chiesa, which runs between 
 the Oglio and the Mincio, on condition of having Peschiera, 
 Mantua, and Ferrara, without obligation to demolish those for- 
 tresses. He consented to indemnify the Duke of Modena with 
 the Brisgau ; but he insisted on the restitution of the dominions 
 of the Duke of Tuscany. He spoke of formal guarantees to be 
 given for the independence of Piedmon f , Switzerland, the Holy 
 See, Naples, &c. As for peace with the empire, he declared 
 that the emperor was about to demand powers of the Germanic 
 Diet, but that this sovereign would never take it upon him to 
 treat for it without being authorised. He insisted further on 
 the signature of an armistice in Italy, declaring that, as for 
 Mantua, if Austria were to deliver that fortress to the French 
 army, she would put all Italy at once into the hands of the 
 French, and deprive herself of all means of resistance, if hos- 
 tilities should be renewed. Adding caresses to firmness, M. de 
 Cobentzel endeavoured to touch Joseph, by talking to him of 
 the favourable dispositions of the emperor towards France, and 
 particularly towards the First Consul, insinuating even that 
 Austria might probably ally herself with the French Republic, 
 and that such an alliance would be very serviceable against the 
 secret but real ill-will of the northern courts. 
 
 Joseph, who was extremely mild, could not help being affected, 
 to a certain degree, by the complaints, the threats, and the 
 caresses of M. de Cobentzel. The First Consul roused his energy 
 by numerous despatches. "You are forbidden," he wrote to 
 him, " to admit of any discussion on the principle laid down in 
 the ultimatum : the Rhine and the Adige. Stick to those two 
 conditions as irrevocable. Hostilities shall not cease in Italy 
 till Mantua is given up. If they begin again, the thahveg of 
 the Adige shall be carried back to the Julian Alps, and Austria 
 shall be excluded from Italy. If Austria," added the First 
 Consul, "should talk of her friendship and her alliance, reply 
 that those who have just shown themselves so attached to the 
 English alliance cannot care about ours. Assume, in negotiat- 
 ing, the attitude of General Moreau, and force M. de Cobentzel 
 to play the part of the Archduke John." 
 
 At length, after a further resistance of several days, intelli- 
 gence more and more alarming every moment arriving from 
 the banks of the Mincio — it must not be forgotten that hos- 
 tilities continued in Lombard}- longer than in Germany — M. 
 de Cobentzel consented, on the 151I1 of January 1S01 (25th 
 Nivose), that the Adige should be adopted for the boundary 
 of the possessions of Austria in Italy. lie ceased to mention
 
 430 HISTORY OF THE jan. 1801 
 
 the Duke of Modena, but renewed the formal demand of the 
 reinstatement of the Duke of Tuscany in his dominions. He 
 consented further to declare that the peace of the empire should 
 be signed at Luneville, but after the emperor should have ob- 
 tained powers from the Germanic Diet. In the same protocol, 
 this plenipotentiary again claimed an armistice for Italy, but 
 without assenting to the condition which France attached to it — 
 the immediate delivery of Mantua to our troops. His fear was, 
 that after giving up this point oVappui, France would impose 
 harder conditions ; and, alarming as the resumption of hostilities 
 appeared to him, he would not yet part with this pledge. 
 
 This persevering firmness in defending his country in so 
 difficult a situation was natural and honourable, but at last it 
 became imprudent, and led to consequences which M. de 
 Cobentzel had not foreseen. 
 
 The occurrences in the North contributed as much as the 
 victories of our armies to augment the pretensions of the First 
 Consul. He had hitherto sought anxiously for peace with 
 Austria, in the first place, to have peace, and, in the next, to 
 secure himself against one of those changes of humour so fre- 
 quent in the Emperor Paul. For some months past, it is true, 
 that prince had shown a keen resentment against Austria and 
 England ; but a manoeuvre of the Austrian or English cabinet 
 might bring back the Czar to the coalition, and then France 
 would again have all Europe upon her hands. It was this 
 apprehension which had induced the First Consul to brave the 
 inconveniences of a winter campaign, in order to crush Austria 
 while she was deprived of the support of the forces of the 
 Continent. The turn which events had recently taken in the 
 North having relieved him from all fear on this head, he had 
 become at once more patient and more exacting. Paul, in fact, 
 had formally broken with his late allies, and thrown himself 
 completely iuto the arms of France, with that warmth which 
 he showed in all his actions. Strongly disposed to this line of 
 conduct by the effect produced upon his mind by the victory 
 of Marengo, by the restitution of the Kussian prisoners, by the 
 offer of the island of Malta, lastly, by the adroit and delicate 
 flatteries of the First Consul, he had been definitively decided 
 by a recent event. It will be recollected that the First Consul, 
 despairing of saving Malta, strictly blockaded by the English, 
 had conceived the happy idea of offering that island to Paul I. ; 
 that this prince had received that offer with transport ; that he 
 had commissioned M. de Sprengporten to go to Paris, to thank 
 the head of the French government, to receive the Kussian 
 prisoners, and to conduct them to Malta, to form its garrison. 
 But, in the meantime, General Vaubois, reduced to the last 
 extremity, had been compelled to surrender the island to the
 
 JAN. 1 80 1 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 431 
 
 English. This event, which, under any other circumstances, 
 must have mortified the First Consul, grieved him but little. 
 " I have lost Malta," said he, " but I have put an apple of dis- 
 cord into the hands of my enemies." Paul hastened to claim 
 from England the seat of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem ; 
 but the British cabinet, instead of giving it up, replied by a 
 flat refusal. Paul was enraged beyond measure. He laid an 
 embargo on the English shipping, caused so many as three 
 hundred of their vessels at once to be seized in the ports of 
 Russia, and even ordered such as endeavoured to escape to be 
 sunk. This circumstance, added to the quarrel of the neutrals 
 noticed above, could not fail to produce a war. The Czar put 
 himself at the head of this quarrel, calling to his aid Sweden, 
 Denmark, and even Prussia, and proposing to them to renew 
 the league of maritime neutrality of 1780. He invited the 
 King of Sweden to repair to St. Petersburg, to confer with him 
 on this important subject. Gustavus went thither, and was 
 magnificently entertained. Paul, full of the mania with which 
 he was possessed, held at St. Petersburg a grand chapter of 
 Malta, admitted as knights the King of Sweden and all the per- 
 sonages who accompanied him, and conferred most lavishly the 
 honours of the Order. But he did something more serious — 
 he immediately renewed the league of 1780. On the 26th of 
 December, a declaration was signed by the ministers of Russia, 
 Sweden, and Denmark, by which those three maritime powers 
 engaged to maintain, even by arms, the principles of the law of 
 neutrals. They specified all these principles in their declaration, 
 without omitting one of those which we have mentioned, and 
 which France had just induced America to recognise. They 
 bound themselves, moreover, to unite their forces, and to direct 
 them in common against any power whatever that should violate 
 the rights which they alleged to belong to them. Denmark, 
 though extremelv zealous for the interests of the neutrals, would 
 have been glad not to proceed so fast ; but the ice defended her 
 for three months, and she hoped that, before her waters were 
 navigable, England would have given wav. or at least that the 
 preparations of the neutrals of the Baltic would be sufficient 
 to prevent the British fleet from appearing before the Sound, 
 as it had done in the month of August last. Prussia too. 
 which would rather have negotiated than proceeded with such 
 promptness, was hurried along like Sweden and Denmark, and 
 gave her adhesion two days afterwards to the declaration of 
 St. Petersburg. 
 
 These were important events, and ensured to France the 
 alliance of the whole North of Europe against Kngland : but 
 these were not all the diplomatic successes of the First Consul. 
 The Emperor Paul had proposed to Prussia to concur with
 
 432 HISTORY OF THE jan. 1801 
 
 France in what was passing at Luneville, and to agree to three 
 of the bases of the general peace. Now, the tenor of the com- 
 munications * of these two powers to our government entirely 
 coincided with those principles on which France had most 
 insisted at Luneville. 
 
 Prussia and Russia conceded the left bank of the Rhine, 
 without dispute, to the French Republic ; but they demanded 
 an indemnity for the princes who lost portions of territory, but 
 solely for the hereditary princes, and by means of the secu- 
 larisation of the Ecclesiastical States. This was precisely the 
 principle which Austria repudiated, and which France proposed. 
 Russia and Prussia demanded the independence of Holland, of 
 Switzerland, of Piedmont, and of Naples, which, at the moment, 
 was in no way contrary to the designs of the First Consul. 
 The Emperor Paul interfered in behalf of Naples and Piedmont, 
 solely on account of the treaty of alliance concluded with those 
 States in 1798, when it had been necessary to involve them in 
 the second coalition war ; but he meant to protect Naples only 
 on condition that this court should break with England. As 
 for Piedmont, he claimed but a slight indemnity for the cession 
 of Savoy to France. He thought it right, and Prussia with 
 him, that France should curb the ambition of Austria in Italy, 
 and confine her within the boundary of the Adige. Paul 
 became at last so ardent, that he proposed to the First Consul 
 to form a close alliance with him against England, and to 
 engage not to make peace with her until the restitution of 
 Malta to the Order of St. John of Jerusalem. This was more 
 than was desired by the First Consul, who was shy of such 
 absolute engagements. Paul, wishing appearances to corre- 
 spond with the real state of things, opened, instead of the 
 clandestine communications between M. de Krudener and 
 General Beurnonville in Berlin, a public negotiation in Paris 
 itself. He accordingly appointed M. de Kalitscheff as pleni- 
 potentiary to treat ostensibly with the French cabinet. M. de 
 Kalitscheff received orders to repair immediately to France. 
 This negotiator was the bearer of a letter addressed to the First 
 Consul, and, moreover, written by the Emperor Paul with his 
 own hand. We already had M. de Sprengporten in Paris ; we 
 were now about to have M. de Kalitscheff: it was not possible 
 to desire a more signal reconciliation of Russia with France. 
 
 Thus the face of things was changed in Europe, in the North 
 as well as in the South. In the North, the maritime powers, at 
 open war with England, sought to join with us against her, by 
 absolute engagements. In the South, Spain was bound to us 
 by the closest ties : she threatened Portugal, to compel her to 
 
 * Letter of the King of Prussia of the 14th of January, communicated by 
 M. de Lucchesini.
 
 JAN. 1 80 1 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 433 
 
 break with Great Britain. Lastly, Austria, worsted in Germany 
 and Italy, left by all the powers at our mercy, had nothing 
 but the daring obstinacy of her negotiator at Luneville to 
 defend her. 
 
 These events, the fruits of the ability of the First Consul, 
 followed each other in rapid succession in the first days of 
 January. Prussia and Russia, in fact, manifested their desire 
 for the peace of the Continent ; and Paul, with his own hand, 
 apprised the First Consul of the mission of M. de Kalitscheff, 
 at the very moment when M. de Cobentzel, giving way as to the 
 boundary of the Adige, but obstinately standing out in regard 
 to all the rest, refused the delivery of Mantua, as the price of 
 an armistice in Italy. 
 
 The First Consul immediately wished to retard the progress 
 of the negotiation at Luneville. He directed instructions to be 
 given to Joseph, and wrote to him,* prescribing a new line of 
 conduct to our legation. In a state of crisis, such as Europe 
 was in at that time, he thought it inexpedient to be in a hurry. 
 It was possible, in fact, that too much might have been ceded, 
 or something stipulated, which might have run counter to the 
 views of the northern courts. Anticipating besides, that M. de 
 Kalitscheff would arrive in a few days, he wished to see him, 
 before he concluded definitively. Instructions were therefore 
 transmitted to Joseph, to temporise for at least ten days before 
 he signed, and to require conditions still more stringent than 
 the preceding. 
 
 Austria had consented to confine herself within the Adige. 
 The construction which the First Consul now sought to put 
 upon this was, that the Duke of Tuscany was not to remain in 
 Italy, but should receive, like the Duke of Modena, an indemnity 
 in Germany. His ultimate object was not to leave a single 
 Austrian prince in Italy. To leave the Duke of Tuscany in 
 Tuscany, was, in his views, equivalent to giving Leghorn to the 
 English; to remove him to the Legations, was granting Austria 
 a footing beyond the Po. In consequence, lie adopted the idea 
 of transferring Tuscany to the house of Parma, as lie had stipu- 
 lated at Madrid, thereby converting Leghorn into a Spanish 
 arsenal, and of thenceforth including the whole valley of the 
 .Po in the Cisalpine Republic; for, according to this plan, it 
 would comprehend the Milanese, the Mantuan, Plaisance. Parma, 
 Modena, and the Legations. Piedmont, at the entrance of that 
 valley, would in future he hut a vassal of France. Austria, 
 limited by the Adige. would be thrown to one extremity of 
 Italy; Rome and Naples confined to the other extremity ; France, 
 with Tuscany and the Cisalpine for her advanced polls, would 
 control and sway that superb country. Joseph P>onaparte was 
 * Letter dated ist Pluviuse (21st Januaryl— State I';i[» r Otlire. 
 VOL. I. - '■
 
 434 HISTORY OF THE jan. 1801 
 
 therefore directed by his new instructions to require that the 
 Duke of Tuscany should, like the Duke of Modena, be removed 
 into Germany ; that the scheme for the .secularisation of the 
 ecclesiastical States should be realised to indemnify the here- 
 ditary German princes, as well as the Italian princes, dispossessed 
 by France ; that the peace with the empire should be signed at 
 the same time as the peace with Austria, without even waiting 
 for the sanction of the Diet ; that nothing should be stipulated 
 respecting Naples, Kome, and Piedmont, because France, though 
 willing to preserve those States, desired first to arrange with 
 them the conditions of their preservation ; lastly, that Mantua 
 should be delivered up to the French army, under threat of 
 immediate renewal of hostilities. 
 
 Nothing is more usual, when a negotiation is still pending, 
 when a treaty is not signed, nothing is more common than to 
 modify the proposed conditions. The French cabinet, there- 
 fore, was quite justified in departing from its first conditions; 
 but it must be confessed that, in this case, the alterations were 
 abrupt and extensive. 
 
 M. de Cobentzel, by waiting too long, by demanding too 
 much, by being wilfully blind to his real position, had lost the 
 favourable moment. According to his custom, he complained 
 bitterly, and threatened France with the desperation of Austria. 
 He was, nevertheless, pressed to obtain the armistice for Italy, 
 and made up his mind to concede Mantua ; but he feared lest, 
 after he had given up this bulwark, he should be at the mercy of 
 France, and that fresh demands should be brought forward. In 
 this frame of mind, he showed himself mistrustful and captious, 
 and would not relinquish Mantua till at the last extremity. At 
 length, on the 26th of January (6th Pluviose), he signed the 
 surrender of that fortress to the French army, to obtain an 
 armistice in Italy and a prolongation of the armistice in 
 Germany. The negotiators immediately despatched couriers 
 from Luneville to the Adige, to prevent an effusion of blood, 
 which was imminent. 
 
 Warm discussions ensued at the conferences, which were held 
 at Luneville, on the following days. M. de Cobentzel said that 
 he had been promised the re-establishment of the grand duke 
 on the very day that he had consented to the boundary of the 
 Adige. Joseph replied, that this was true, but that the re- 
 establishment of this prince was to be granted in Germany; that 
 every State availed itself of its present situation to treat more 
 advantageously ; that France, in acting thus, adopted the very 
 principles expressed by M. de Thugut in his letters of the pre- 
 ceding winter ; that, moreover, the grand duke, whose case was 
 under discussion, would be in Tuscany, cut off from Austria and 
 unsupported: that, in the Legations, on the contrary, he would
 
 jan. 1 80 1 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 435 
 
 be too well placed, as he would serve for a link between Austria, 
 Home, and Naples, that is to say, between the enemies of France, 
 an arrangement to which France would never consent. The 
 idea of placing him either in Tuscany or in the Legations 
 should, therefore, be relinquished. 
 
 After vehement controversies, M. de Cobentzel seemed at 
 last to consent that the indemnities for the grand duke should 
 be taken in Germany; but he would not admit the absolute 
 principle of the secularisation of the ecclesiastical States. The 
 ecclesiastical States were devoted to Austria, especially the three 
 archbishop-electors of Treves, Cologne, and Mayence, whereas 
 the hereditary princes, on the contrary, were often opposed to 
 her interest in the Germanic Diet. Austria assented to the 
 secularisations, understood in this way, that the small ecclesi- 
 astical States should serve to indemnify not only the hereditary 
 princes of Bavaria, Wurtemberg, and Orange, but the great 
 ecclesiastical princes, such as the archbishops of Treves, Cologne, 
 and Mayence; for then her influence in Germany would have 
 been in part maintained. Joseph Bonaparte had orders to 
 make an obstinate opposition to this proposal. He was to 
 admit the principle of secularisations solely for the benefit of 
 the hereditary princes. Lastly, M. de Cobentzel would not sign 
 the peace for the empire without powers from the Diet. This 
 refusal proceeded, according to him, from a reluctance to violate 
 forms ; but in reality from an unwillingness to render too 
 evident the part usually played by Austria in regard to the 
 members of the Germanic body, a part which consisted in com- 
 promising them with France, whenever it was to the interest of 
 Austria to do so, and afterwards deserting them, when the war 
 had been disastrous. In 1797, she had delivered Mayence to 
 the French, a proceeding most severely censured by all Germany; 
 and now to sign for the empire, without powers from the Diet, 
 seemed to M. de Cobentzel a new and very grievous act, to 
 add to all the anterior acts with which the German princes re- 
 proached their sovereign. To these reasons Joseph Bonaparte 
 replied, that it was easy to perceive the real motive of Austria ; 
 that she was afraid of committing herself with the Germanic 
 body, but that it was not for France to heed such considerations ; 
 that, as to form, there was a precedent in the peace of Baden, 
 signed by the emperor in 17 14, without powers from the Diet ; 
 that, besides, the emperor was now only asked to sanction what 
 the representatives of the empire had already assented to at 
 Rastadt, that is to say, the cession of the left bank of the 
 Rhine to France ; and that his refusal would be a sorry service 
 rendered to Germany, for the French armies would continue 
 in the territories occupied by them till peace was concluded 
 with the empire; whereas, if the peace were common to all
 
 436 HISTORY OF THE feb. 1801 
 
 the German princes, the evacuation would immediately follow 
 the ratifications. 
 
 These discussions lasted several days. M. de Cobentzel was, 
 nevertheless, anxious to conclude. The French negotiator, on 
 his side, though at first desirous to defer the signature of the 
 treaty for a few days, being now apprised that M. de Kalitscheff 
 would not arrive in Paris so soon as he was at first expected, 
 saw no further advantage in temporising : he too was desirous 
 to bring matters to a close. Orders had, in fact, been given to 
 the two plenipotentiaries to come to an agreement ; and, to 
 decide M. de Cobentzel, Joseph Bonaparte had been authorised 
 to make one of those concessions, which, at the last moment, 
 serve for a pretext to an exhausted negotiator for yielding with 
 honour. The thalweg * of the Rhine was the limit assigned to 
 France and Germany ; consequently Diisseldorf , Ehrenbreit- 
 stein, Philipsburg, Kehl, Old Breisach, situated on the right 
 bank, though attached to the left bank by many ties, were to 
 be left to the Germanic Confederation. But Cassel, a suburb of 
 Mayence, on the right bank, was a subject of dispute, for that 
 suburb could scarcely be separated from the city itself. Joseph 
 was authorised to cede Cassel, but on condition that it should 
 be dismantled. Mayence would thus cease to be longer a forti- 
 fied tete de pont, affording a passage at all times to the right 
 bank of the Rhine. 
 
 The last conference was held on the 9th of February 1801 
 (20th Pluviose, year IX.). As it usually happens, the nego- 
 tiators were never nearer to a rupture than when they were 
 on the point of agreeing definitively. M. de Cobentzel warmly 
 insisted on the maintenance of the Grand Duke of Tuscany 
 in Italy ; on the indemnity destined for the German princes, 
 an indemnity which he wished to extend to the ecclesiastical 
 princes of the first order ; lastly, on the inconvenience of sign- 
 ing for the Germanic body, without having powers from the 
 Diet. An article relative to the debts of Belgium also gave 
 rise to great difficulties. On all these accounts he at last de- 
 clared that he durst not conclude without referring to Vienna. 
 Joseph thereupon replied that his government enjoined him to 
 declare the negotiations at an end, unless they brought them to 
 a termination before they broke up ; he added that in the event 
 of another campaign Austria would be thrown back beyond the 
 Julian Alps. At length he ceded Cassel, besides all the fortified 
 positions on the right bank, but on condition that France should 
 demolish before she evacuated them, and that they should never 
 be reconstructed. 
 
 Upon this concession M. de Cobentzel yielded, and the treaty 
 was signed on the 9th of February 1801, at half-past five in 
 * The middle of the stream. — Translator.
 
 feb. 1 80 1 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 437 
 
 the evening, to the great joy of Joseph, to the great grief of 
 M. de Cobentzel, who, however, had nothing to reproach himself 
 with ; for, if he had endangered the interests of his court, it was 
 because he had persisted in defending them too warmly. 
 
 Such was the celebrated treaty of Luneville, which terminated 
 the war of the second coalition, and for the second time con- 
 ceded to France the left bank of the Rhine, with a commanding 
 situation in Italy. The principal clauses were as follows : — 
 
 The thalvjeg of the Rhine, from its exit out of the Helvetic 
 territory to its entry into the Batavian territory, formed the 
 boundary of France and Germany. Diisseldorf, Ehrenbreit- 
 stein, Cassel, Kehl, Philipsburg, Old Breisach, situated on the 
 right bank, were left to Germany, but were first to be dis- 
 mantled. The hereditary princes who suffered losses on the 
 left bank were to be indemnified. No mention was made of the 
 ecclesiastical princes or of the mode of fixing the indemnities ; 
 but it was perfectly understood that the whole or part of the 
 ecclesiastical territories were to serve for the indemnities. 
 
 The emperor, at Luneville as at Campo Formio, ceded the 
 Belgic provinces to France, as well as the small territories 
 which he possessed on the left bank, such as the county of 
 Falkenstein, and the Frickthal, which lay wedged in between 
 Zurzach and Basle. He gave up, moreover, the Milanese to 
 the Cisalpine. For these he obtained no other indemnity than 
 the Venetian States as far as the Adige, which had been pre- 
 viously ensured to him by the treaty of Campo Formio. He 
 lost the archbishopric of Salzburg, which had been promised 
 him by a secret article of the same treaty. His house was, 
 besides, deprived of Tuscany, which was ceded to the house of 
 Parma. An indemnity in Germany was promised to the Duke 
 of Tuscany. The promise of the Breisgau was still held out to 
 the Duke of Modena. 
 
 The territorial distribution of Italy was thus settled on a 
 much more advantageous basis for France than at the time of 
 the treaty of Campo Formio. Austria continued to have the 
 Adige for her boundary ; but Tuscany was taken from her 
 house and given to a house dependent on France; the English 
 were excluded from Leghorn ; the whole valley of the Po, 
 from the Sesia and the Tanaro to the Adriatic, belonged to 
 the Cisalpine Republic, a dependent daughter of the French 
 Republic; lastly, Piedmont, confined to the sources of the 
 Po, was dependent on us. Thus, masters of Tuscany and 
 the Cisalpine, we occupied all Central Italy, and prevented 
 Austria from giving a hand to Piedmont, the Holy See, 
 and Naples. 
 
 By the first coalition, Austria had lost Belgium and Lom- 
 bardv, besides Modena, for her familv. Hv the second, she
 
 438 HISTORY OF THE feb. 1801 
 
 lost the bishopric of Salzburg for herself, and Tuscany for her 
 house, which placed her in a position somewhat inferior in 
 Germany, but very inferior in Italy. This was certainly not 
 too much for all the bloodshed, for all the efforts imposed 
 upon France. 
 
 The principle of the secularisations was not explicitly but 
 implicitly laid down, since it was promised to indemnify the 
 hereditary princes without alluding to the ecclesiastical princes. 
 Evidently the indemnity could not be demanded of any but the 
 ecclesiastical princes themselves. 
 
 The peace was declared common to the Batavian, Helvetic, 
 Cisalpine, and Ligurian Republics. Their independence was 
 guaranteed : nothing was said concerning Naples, Piedmont, or 
 the Holy See. These States were dependent on the pleasure 
 of France, which, for the rest, was tied in regard to Piedmont 
 and Naples, by the interest which the Emperor Paul took in 
 behalf of those two courts, and in regard to the Holy See, by 
 the religious plans of the First Consul. 
 
 The First Consul, however, as we have seen, had not thought 
 fit to explain himself to any one relative to Piedmont. Dis- 
 pleased with the King of Sardinia, who gave up his ports to 
 the English, he was desirous of keeping himself at liberty in 
 regard to a territory situated so near to France and of such 
 high importance to her. 
 
 The emperor signed the peace for himself as sovereign of the 
 Austrian States, and for the whole Germanic body as Emperor 
 of Germany. France promised secretly to use her influence 
 with Prussia to dispose her to approve this mode of proceed- 
 ing of the emperor's. The ratifications were to be exchanged 
 in thirty days by Austria and by France. The French armies 
 were not to evacuate Germany till the ratifications had been 
 exchanged at Luneville, but were to have evacuated it entirely 
 a month after that exchange. 
 
 Here, as at Campo Formio, the liberation of all persons con- 
 fined for political offences was stipulated. It was agreed that 
 the Italians, shut up in the prisons of Austria, particularly 
 Moscati and Caprara, should be released. The First Consul 
 had not ceased to insist on this act of humanity ever since the 
 opening of the congress. 
 
 General Bonaparte had attained the supreme power on the 
 9th of November 1799 (18th Brumaire, year VIII.) ; it was 
 now the 9th of February 1801 (20th Pluviose, year IX.) ; con- 
 sequently just fifteen months had elapsed, and France, partly 
 reorganised at home, completely victorious abroad, was already 
 at peace with the Continent, and in alliance with the North and 
 the South of Europe against England. Spain was preparing 
 to march against Portugal ; the Queen of Naples had thrown
 
 feb. 1 80 1 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 439 
 
 herself at our feet ; the court of Rome was negotiating in Paris 
 the arrangement of religious affairs. 
 
 General Bellavene, appointed to carry the treaty, left Lune- 
 ville in the evening of the 9th of February, and arrived as an 
 extraordinary courier in Paris. The treaty which he brought 
 was immediately inserted entire in the Moniteur. Paris was 
 suddenly illuminated ; vehement and general joy burst forth on 
 all sides; and thanks without number were given to the First 
 Consul for this happy result of his victories and his policy.
 
 BOOK VIII. 
 
 INFERNAL MACHINE. 
 
 WHILE the external position of France was daily becoming- 
 more brilliant, while Germany and Austria were treating 
 for peace, while the northern powers were leaguing with us to 
 resist the maritime pretensions of England, while Portugal 
 and Naples were closing their ports against her, and while, in 
 short, everything was succeeding to the wish of a victorious 
 and moderate government, her internal situation exhibited a 
 spectacle, at times frightful, of the last convulsions of ex- 
 piring parties. We have already seen, in spite of the prompt 
 reorganisation of the government, robbery infesting the high- 
 roads, and factions, in despair, attempting the assassination of 
 the First Consul. These were the inevitable consequences of 
 our past disunion. The men whom civil war had trained to 
 crime, and who could no longer resign themselves to a peaceable 
 and honest life, sought employment on the highways. The 
 broken-down factions, despairing of overpowering the consular 
 guard, attempted to destroy, by atrocious means, the invincible 
 author of their defeat. 
 
 Robbery had increased on the approach of winter. It was 
 impossible to travel the roads without running the risk of being 
 plundered or murdered. The departments of Normandy, Anjou, 
 Maine, Bretagne, and Poitou, were, as formerly, the theatres of 
 these depredations. But the evil had spread. Several depart- 
 ments of the Centre and the South, as those of the Tarn, La 
 Lozere, the Aveyron, the Upper Garonne, l'Herault, the Gard, 
 the Ardeche, the Drome, Yaucluse, the Bouches du Rhone, the 
 Upper and Lower Alps, the Var, had been infested in their 
 turn. In these departments the bands of robbers had been 
 recruited by the assassins of the South, who, upon pretext of 
 chastising Jacobins, murdered, for the purpose of robbing, the 
 purchasers of national domains ; by young men who would not 
 submit to the conscription ; and by some soldiers whom want 
 had driven from the army of Liguria, during the cruel winter 
 of 1799 and 1800. These wretched men, having once entered 
 upon this criminal life, had taken a liking to it ; and nothing 
 but the force of arms and the severity of the laws could now
 
 dec. 1800 HISTORY OF THE CONSULATE. 441 
 
 divert them from those courses. They stopped the public con- 
 veyances ; they kidnapped from their homes the purchasers 
 of national domains, and frequently opulent landed proprietors 
 also, carried them into the woods, as they did the senator 
 Clement de His, for example, whom they detained for twenty 
 days, inflicted horrible tortures on their victims, sometimes 
 burning their feet, till they had paid considerable sums for 
 their ransom. They plundered more especially the public 
 chests, and even seized the funds of the State at the houses of 
 the collectors, upon pretext of making war upon the govern- 
 ment. Vagabonds, who, in these times of trouble, had left 
 their homes to follow a wandering life, served them for scouts, 
 by assuming the character of beggars in the towns. These 
 wretches, picking up all sorts of information while engaged 
 in begging, intimated to the robbers, their accomplices, what 
 carriages to stop and what houses to plunder. 
 
 Small bodies of troops had been required to repress these 
 bands. When any of them were taken, justice could not take 
 its course, for the witnesses durst not give evidence, aud the 
 juries were afraid to convict. Extraordinary measures are 
 always to be regretted, not so much on account of the severities 
 attendant on them, as the shock which they give to the con- 
 stitution of a country, especially when that constitution is new. 
 But, in this case, measures of that kind were indispensable ; for 
 ordinary justice, after it had been tried, was found to be power- 
 less. A bill {projet de hi) had been prepared for instituting 
 special tribunals for the suppression of highway robbery. This 
 bill, presented to the Legislative Body, which was then sitting, 
 was violently attacked by the opposition. The First Consul, 
 exempt from those scruples of legality which are felt only in 
 times of quiet, and which, even when they happen to be petty 
 or narrow, are at least a happy sign of respect for the authority 
 of the law, the First Consul had not hesitated to have recourse 
 to martial law till the plan under discussion should be adopted. 
 As it was necessary to employ bodies of troops to suppress 
 these bands of robbers, the gendarmerie not being strong 
 enough to cope with them, he thought that this situation 
 might be assimilated to a state of real war, which authorised the 
 application of the laws peculiar to the state of war. He formed 
 several small corps, which scoured the infested departments, 
 and were accompanied by military commissions. All t he robbers 
 taken in arms were tried within forty-eight hours and shot. 
 
 The horror excited by these villains was so great and so 
 general, that nobody durst raise a doubt as to the regularity 
 or the justice of ihese executions. Meanwhile, villains of 
 another stamp were meditating the destruction of the consular 
 government bv different and still more atrocious means. "While
 
 442 HISTORY OF THE dec. 1800 
 
 Demerville, Ceracchi, and Arena were undergoing judicial 
 examination, their adherents of the revolutionary party con- 
 tinued to form a thousand schemes, the one more insane than 
 the other. They had planned the assassination of the First 
 Consul in his box at the Opera, and had scarcely dared, as we 
 have seen, to grasp their daggers. Now, they were dreaming 
 of something else. One day they proposed to excite a disturb- 
 ance at the breaking up of one of the theatres, and to despatch 
 the First Consul amidst the tumult ; on another, to seize him 
 on his way to Malmaison, and to murder him after they had 
 carried him off. Like genuine declaimers at clubs, they talked 
 of these schemes everywhere and aloud, so that the police was 
 informed from hour to hour of each of their plans. But, while 
 they talked incessantly, not one of them was bold enough to act. 
 M. Fouche feared them but little, and yet watched them with 
 continual attention. However, among their numerous devices, 
 there was one more formidable than the rest, and which had 
 roused the particular vigilance of the police. One Chevalier, 
 a workman employed in the manufactories of arms established 
 in Paris under the Convention, had been found at work upon 
 a frightful machine. It was a barrel filled with powder and 
 langrage to which was adjusted a musket-barrel with a trigger. 
 This machine was evidently destined to blow up the First Consul. 
 The inventor was apprehended and thrown into prison. This 
 new contrivance made some noise, and contributed greatly to 
 keep all eyes fixed on those who were called Jacobins and 
 Terrorists. Their reputation of '93 caused them to be more 
 feared than they deserved to be. The First Consul, as we 
 have already said, participated in the error of the public 
 respecting them ; and, having continually to do with the re- 
 volutionary party, sometimes with honest men of that party 
 dissatisfied with too rapid a reaction, sometimes with villains 
 planning crimes which they no longer had the energy to com- 
 mit, he laid the blame of everything upon the revolutionists, 
 was angry with none but them, talked of punishing them alone. 
 M. Fouche persisted, but to no purpose, in directing his atten- 
 tion to the royalists. It would have required strong facts to 
 change the opinion of the First Consul and that of the public 
 on this subject. Unfortunately, atrocious facts were in course 
 of preparation. 
 
 Georges, having returned from London to the Morbihan, was 
 full of money, thanks to the English, and secretly directed the 
 plunderers of the diligences. He had sent some of his cut- 
 throats to Paris, for the purpose of murdering the First Consul. 
 Among them were two men, named Limoelan and St. lie j ant, 
 both practised in the horrors of the civil war, and the latter, 
 formerly a naval officer, having some knowledge of gunnery.
 
 dec. 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 443 
 
 To these two he added a third, called Carbon, a subordinate 
 person, the worthy tool of those great criminals. Arriving in 
 Paris one after another, towards the end of November (first days 
 of Frimaire), they sought the surest means of killing the First 
 Consul, and made more than one trial with air-guns in the 
 neighbourhood of Paris. Fouche, the minister, apprised of their 
 presence and of their errand, had them closely watched. But, 
 owing to the inefficiency of two agents employed to follow these 
 men, he had lost sight of them. While the police was making 
 every exertion to discover traces of them, these villains had 
 buried themselves in profound obscurity. Without declaiming, 
 like the Jacobins, or communicating their secret to any one, 
 they prepared for an atrocious deed, which has been equalled 
 but once, and in our own times. Chevalier's machine had 
 suggested to them the idea of destroying the First Consul by 
 means of a barrel of powder charged with langrage. They re- 
 solved to put this barrel into a small cart, and to place it in one 
 of the narrow streets which then led to the Carrousel, and through 
 which the First Consul very frequently passed in his carriage. 
 They bought a horse and a cart, and hired a cart-house, passing 
 themselves off for foreign traders. St. Rejant, who, as we have 
 just said, was a naval officer and artillerist, made the necessary 
 experiments, went several times to the Carrousel, to sec the 
 First Consul's carriage leave the Tuileries, to calculate how long 
 it took to reach the neighbouring streets, and to arrange every- 
 thing in such a manner that the barrel should explode at the 
 right time. These three men chose, for the accomplishment of 
 their plan, a day when the First Consul was to go to the Opera 
 to hear Haydn's oratorio of "The Creation," which was to be 
 performed for the first time. It was the 3rd Nivose ( December 
 24, 1800). They selected for the theatre of tin 1 crime the 
 Rue St. Nicaise, which ran from the Carrousel to the Rue de 
 Richelieu, and through which the First Consul was in the habit 
 of passing very often. Several successive windings in this street 
 must necessarily slacken the progress of the most expert driver. 
 The day having arrived. Carbon. St. Rejant, and Limoelan drove 
 their cart to the Rue St. Xicaise, and then separated. While 
 St. Rejant was to set fire to the barrel of powder, the two others 
 were to place themselves within sight of the Tuileries, and to 
 come and give him notice the moment they saw the First 
 Consul's carriage make its appearance. St. Rejanl had the bar- 
 barity to get a girl of fifteen to hold the horse harnessed t>> this 
 horrible machine. For his part, he kept himself in readiness to 
 set fire to it. 
 
 At this very moment, the First Consul, fatigued with busi- 
 ness, was hesitating about going to the Opera, bill he suffered 
 himself to be persuaded by the earnest solicitations of those
 
 444 HISTORY OF THE dec. 1800 
 
 about him, and set out from the Tuileries at a quarter past 
 eight o'clock. He was accompanied by Generals Lannes, 
 Berthier, and Lauriston, and escorted by a detachment of 
 mounted grenadiers. Most fortunately these grenadiers fol- 
 lowed, instead of preceding, the carriage. It arrived in the 
 narrow part of the Rue St. Nicaise, without having been 
 announced either by the detachment or by the accomplices. 
 The latter never came to apprise St. Rejant. Fear had pre- 
 vented their doing so, or perhaps they had not recognised the 
 First Consul's carriage. St. Rejant himself did not perceive it 
 till it was a little past the machine. He was violently jostled 
 by one of the horse-guards, but, not disconcerted, he set fire, 
 and instantly took to flight. The First Consul's coachman, who 
 was a capital whip, and usually drove his master with extreme 
 rapidity, had had time to pass one of the turnings of the street, 
 when the explosion was suddenly heard. The shock was tre- 
 mendous ; the carriage was nearly overturned ; all the windows 
 were broken, and the fronts of the neighbouring houses were 
 shattered by the discharge. One of the horse-grenadiers was 
 slightly wounded, and all the surrounding streets were instantly 
 strewed with a great number of persons dead or dying. The 
 First Consul and those who accompanied him, at first conceived 
 that they had been fired at with grape ; they stopped for a 
 moment, soon learned the real state of the case, and pursued 
 their way. The First Consul insisted on going to the Opera. 
 He appeared calm, unmoved, amidst the extraordinary agitation 
 that prevailed in all parts of the house. It was reported that, 
 in order to despatch him, banditti had blown up a whole quarter 
 of Paris. 
 
 He stayed but a few moments at the Opera, and returned im- 
 mediately to the Tuileries, where, on the report of the attempt, 
 an immense concourse had collected. His anger, which he had 
 before repressed, then burst forth. "It is the Jacobins, the 
 Terrorists," he exclaimed; "it is those wretches in permanent 
 revolt, in hattaillon carrS against every government, it is the cut- 
 throats of the 2nd and 3rd of September, the ringleaders of the 
 31st of May, the conspirators of Prairial ; it is those villains, 
 who, to assassinate me, have not scrupled to sacrifice thousands 
 of lives. I will do signal justice upon them." There was no 
 need for an impulsion from so high a quarter to inflame the 
 public opinion against the revolutionists. Their exaggerated 
 reputation, and their attempts for two or three months past, were 
 such as to cause every possible crime to be attributed to them. 
 In that saloon, thronged more especially by those who were 
 anxious that their attachment should be remarked, there was 
 soon but one cry against the Terrorists, as they were called. 
 The numerous enemies of M. Fouche hastened to profit by the
 
 dec. 1800 CONSULATE AND TEE EMPIRE. 445 
 
 occasion, and to launch forth into invectives agamst him. His 
 police, said they, sees nothing, allows anything to be done ; it 
 shows a criminal indulgence towards the revolutionary party. 
 This is owing to M. Fouche's fellow-feeling for his old accom- 
 plices. The life of the First Consul would no longer be safe in 
 his hands. In a moment the animosity against that minister 
 was at its height ; that very evening it was asserted that he had 
 been dismissed. As for M. Fouche\ retiring into a corner of the 
 saloon of the Tuileries, with a few persons who did not share 
 the general excitement, he listened to the accusations preferred 
 against him with the utmost composure. His air of incredulity 
 inflamed still more the anger of his enemies. Still he would not 
 disclose what he knew, for fear of marring the success of the 
 researches that were on foot. But, recollecting the agents of 
 Georges, dogged for some time by the police, and afterwards lost 
 sight of, he did not hesitate in his own mind to impute the crime 
 to them. Certain members of the Council of State would have 
 addressed some observations to the First Consul, and expressed 
 their doubts as to the real authors of the attempt in the Rue 
 St. Nicaise : he flew into a violent passion. " I am not to be 
 bamboozled," he exclaimed. " This is no attempt of Chouans or 
 emigrants, or ci-devant nobles and priests. I know the authors ; I 
 shall be sure to get at them, and to iuflict on them an exemplary 
 punishment." While uttering these words, his speech was vehe- 
 ment, his gesture threatening. His flatterers applauded and 
 excited that anger which should have been soothed, not inflamed, 
 after the horrible events which had just agitated all around. 
 
 On the following day, the same scenes were repeated. Accord- 
 ing to a custom recently introduced, the Senate, the Legisla- 
 tive Body, the Tribunate, the Council of State, the judges, the 
 administratives authorities, the staffs, waited upon the First 
 Consul, to express their grief and indignation, sentiments sin- 
 cerely and universally felt. Never, indeed, had such a thing 
 been seen. The Revolution had familiarised men's minds with 
 the cruelties of dominant factions, but not yet with the dark 
 plots of vanquished parties. People were filled with surprise and 
 dismay : they dreaded the repetition of these atrocious attempts, 
 and asked each other in consternation what would become of 
 France, if the man who alone curbed these wretches were to be 
 cut off. All the bodies of the State, admitted into the Tuileries, 
 expressed ardent attachment to the hero-pacificator, who had 
 promised to restore, and who was actually restoring, peace to the 
 world. The terms of these addresses were commonplace, but 
 the sentiment which pervaded them all was not less genuine than 
 profound. The First Consul replied to the Municipal Council: 
 " I have been touched by the proofs of affection which the people 
 of Paris have shown me on this occasion. I deserve them, because
 
 446 HISTORY OF THE dec. 1800 
 
 the only aim of my thoughts, of my actions, is to augment the 
 prosperity and the glory of France. While those banditti confined 
 themselves to direct attacks upon me, I could leave to the laws 
 the task of punishing them ; but, since they have just endangered 
 part of the population of the capital by a crime unexampled in 
 history, the punishment shall be equally speedy and terrible. 
 Assure the people of Paris, in my name, that that handful of 
 villains, whose crimes have gone far to dishonour liberty, shall 
 soon be deprived of the power to do mischief." 
 
 Every one applauded these words of vengeance, for there was 
 not a person but, for his own part, made use of similar expres- 
 sions. Men of reflection anticipated with pain that the enraged 
 lion might, perhaps, overleap the barrier of the laws ; but the 
 multitude called for punishment. In Paris, the agitation was 
 extreme. The royalists threw the guilt on the revolutionists, 
 and the revolutionists on the royalists. Both were equally 
 sincere, for the crime remained a profound secret to all but its 
 authors. Every one descanted on the subject, and, according to 
 his inclination to condemn one party rather than another, found 
 reasons equally plausible for accusing the royalists or the revo- 
 lutionists. The enemies of the Revolution, both old and new, 
 said that the Terrorists alone could have devised so atrocious 
 a scheme, and adduced as a conclusive proof of their opinion, 
 the machine of Chevalier, the gunsmith, recently discovered. 
 Sagacious persons, on the contrary, who had steadfastly clung 
 to the Revolution, asked why those highway robbers, those 
 Chauffeurs, who committed so many crimes, who daily displayed 
 an unparalleled refinement in cruelty, and who, in particular, 
 had just carried off the senator Clement de Ris, why these men 
 might not be the authors of the horrible explosion in the Rue 
 St. Nicaise as well as the so-called Terrorists. It should, more- 
 over, be borne in mind that persons of sedate minds could 
 scarcely obtain a hearing at that moment, so deeply was public 
 opinion agitated, and so strong was the tendency to condemn 
 the revolutionary party. But, will it be believed, amidst the 
 conflict of diverse imputations, there were men of both parties 
 inconsiderate or perverse enough to hold a totally different 
 language. Certain factious royalists longed for the destruction 
 of the First Consul at any rate, and adopting the general opinion 
 which attributed the crime to the Terrorists, admired the atro- 
 cious energy, the profound secrecy, which had been required 
 for the commission of such a deed. The revolutionists, on the 
 contrary, seemed almost to claim the merit for their party ; 
 and there were among them braggarts of crime, who had the 
 culpable folly of being almost proud of the execrable act that 
 was imputed to them. It is only in times of civil war that we 
 meet with such levity and such unprincipled language among
 
 dec. 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 447 
 
 men who would themselves be incapable of perpetrating the 
 deeds which they dare to approve. 
 
 We may further add, that all who talked of this event were 
 totally wrong. The minister Fouche alone suspected who were 
 the real culprits. 
 
 While he was engaged in searching after them, everybody 
 was asking what was to be done to prevent future attempts of 
 the same kind. People were, at that time, so accustomed to 
 violent measures, that they thought it almost natural to seize 
 the men known to have been formerly Terrorists, and to treat 
 them as they had treated their victims in '93. The two sec- 
 tions of the Council of State, to whose province this subject 
 more particularly belonged, the sections of legislation and of 
 the interior, assembled two days after the event, on the 26th 
 of December (5th Nivose), to inquire which of the various plans 
 proposed was most admissible. As the bill (projet de loi) to 
 institute special tribunals was then under discussion, it was 
 suggested that two clauses should be added to it. The first 
 instituting a military commission for the trial of crimes com- 
 mitted against the members of the government ; the second 
 investing the First Consul with authority to remove from Paris 
 men whose presence in the capital should be deemed dangerous, 
 and to punish them with transportation, if they should attempt 
 to disregard such first exile. 
 
 After the preliminary investigation of this subject in the two 
 sections of legislation and of the interior, the whole Council 
 of State met under the presidency of the First Consul. M. 
 Portalis reported what had passed in the morning in the two 
 sections, and submitted their propositions to the Council. The 
 First Consul, out of temper, thought these propositions defec- 
 tive. A mere change of jurisdiction appeared to him totally 
 inadequate to the circumstances. He was for apprehending the 
 Jacobins en masse, shooting those who should be convicted of 
 having had a hand in the crime, and transporting the others. 
 But it was his wish to accomplish this by means of an extra- 
 ordinary measure, in order to be more sure of the result. "The 
 proceedings of a special tribunal," said he. " will be slow, and 
 not reach the real criminals. Our business now is not to frame 
 a system of judicial metaphysics. Metaphysical minds have 
 ruined everything in France for the last ten years. We must 
 judge of the situation like statesmen, and apply a remedy to it 
 like resolute men. What is the evil that annoys us? There 
 are in France IO.OOO scoundrels, spread over the whole country, 
 who have persecuted all the honest people, and who are steeped 
 in blood. All are not guilty in the same degree, far from 
 it. Many are still open to repentance, and are not incorrigible 
 criminals; but, while thev see the headquarters established in
 
 448 HISTORY OF THE dec. 1800 
 
 Paris, and the chiefs concocting plots with impunity, they 
 retain hope, and keep up their spirits. Strike the chiefs boldly, 
 and the soldiers will disperse. They will return to those occupa- 
 tions from which they were driven by a violent revolution ; 
 they will forget that stormy passage in their lives, and again 
 become peaceable citizens. Honest men, who are now in con- 
 stant fear, will take courage, and attach themselves to a govern- 
 ment which has known how to protect them. There is no 
 middle course ; either we must pardon all, like Augustus, or 
 vengeance, prompt, terrible, and proportionate to the crime 
 must overtake them. As many of the guilty must be sacrificed 
 as there have been victims. Fifteen or twenty of these villains 
 must be shot, and 200 of them transported. By these means 
 we shall rid the Republic of agitators who convulse it ; we 
 shall clear it of such sanguinary scum." ... At each successive 
 sentence, the First Consul became more and more animated ; 
 and, nettled at the disapprobation even which he perceived in 
 certain countenances, "I am," he exclaimed, "I am so con- 
 vinced of the necessity and justice of a strong measure, to 
 purify, and, at the same time, to quiet France, that I am ready 
 to constitute myself sole judge, to have the culprits brought 
 before me, to examine them, to try them, and to order sentence 
 of condemnation to be executed. All France will applaud me, 
 for it is not my own person that I here seek to avenge. My 
 fortune, which has preserved me so often on the field of battle, 
 will continue to preserve me. I think not of myself ; I think 
 of social order, which it is my mission to re-establish, and of 
 the national honour, which it is my duty to purge from an 
 abominable stain." 
 
 This scene petrified part of the Council of State with surprise 
 and terror. Some members, sympathising with the sincere, but 
 intemperate feelings of the First Consul, applauded his speech. 
 A very decided majority discerned, with regret, in his words, 
 the language which the revolutionists had themselves held, 
 when they proscribed thousands of victims. They, too, had 
 said that the aristocrats endangered the Republic, that it was 
 necessary to get rid of them by the most speedy and by the 
 surest means, and that the public safety was worth a few sacri- 
 fices. The difference, to be sui^e, was great ; for, instead of a 
 bloodthirsty rabble, who, in their blind fury, at length took 
 each other for aristocrats, and slaughtered one another, here 
 was a man of genius, proceeding, with consistency and vigour, 
 towards a noble aim, that of setting convulsed society to rights. 
 Unfortunately, he endeavoured to succeed, not by the slow 
 observance of rules, but by prompt and extraordinary means, 
 like those which had been employed to overturn it. His good 
 sense, his generous heart, and the horror of shedding blood,
 
 dec. 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 449 
 
 then prevalent, were guarantees against sanguinary executions ; 
 but, with the exception of actual bloodshed, he was disposed to 
 resort to every severity towards those who were then denomi- 
 nated Jacobins and Terrorists. 
 
 Objections were raised in the Council of State, timidly, it is 
 true, for the indignation universally excited by the crime of the 
 Rue St. Nicaise checked the courage of those who would fain 
 have made some resistance to arbitrary proceedings. However, 
 one individual, who was not afraid to oppose the First Consul, 
 and who did so bluntly, and in a straightforward way, Admiral 
 Truguet, seeing that the intention was to strike the revolu- 
 tionists en masse, raised doubts respecting the real authors of 
 the crime. "Government," said he, "is desirous to get rid of 
 the villains who disturb the Republic ; well and good ; but 
 there are villains of more than one kind. The returned 
 emigrants threaten the purchasers of the national domains ; 
 the Chouans infest the highroads ; the reinstated priests 
 inflame the passions of the people in the South ; the public 
 mind is poisoned by pamphlets." . . . This last expression of 
 Admiral Truguet had reference to the famous pamphlet of M. 
 de Fontanes, to which we have before adverted. At these 
 words, the First Consul, stung to the quick, and, advancing 
 directly to the speaker, asked, " What pamphlets do you allude 
 to ? " " Pamphlets that are publicly circulated," replied Admiral 
 Truguet. " Specify them," rejoined the First Consul. " You 
 know them as well as I do," retorted this courageous man, who 
 thus dared defy such indignation. 
 
 A scene like this had never yet been witnessed within the 
 walls of the Council of State. The circumstances produced an 
 outburst of the impetuous temper of the man who then held 
 in his hands the destinies of France. He thereupon gave vent 
 to his passion, and displayed all the eloquence of wrath. " Do 
 people take us for children?" he exclaimed. "Do they think 
 to hurry us away with these declamations against the emigrants, 
 the Chouans. the priests? Because there are still some partial 
 attempts in La Vendee, are we to be required, as formerly, to 
 declare the country in danger? . . . Has France ever been 
 in a more brilliant situation, have the finances ever been in a 
 better state, the armies more victorious, has general peace ever 
 been nearer at hand? If the Chouans commit crimes. I will 
 have them shot. Hut must I begin again by proscribing on 
 account of the appellations of nobles, priests, or royalists? 
 Must I send into exile ten thousand old men. who only desire 
 to live peaceably, while paying respect to the established laws? 
 Have you not seen poor ecclesiastics put to deatli in Rretagne, 
 at the instigation of Georges himself, because he saw that they 
 were gradually becoming reconciled to the government . Musi 
 vol. 1. - '
 
 450 HISTORY OF THE dec. 1800 
 
 I again proscribe on account of rank or title ? Must I strike 
 some because they' are priests, others because they were 
 formerly nobles ? Do you not know, gentlemen, members of 
 the Council, that, with the exception of two or three, you are 
 all reputed royalists ? You, citizen Defermon, are you not 
 taken for a partisan of the Bourbons ? Must I send citizen 
 Portalis to Sinnamary, citizen Devaisne to Madagascar, and 
 then constitute myself a council a la Baboeuf? No, citizen 
 Truguet, I am not to be deceived : we have none who threaten 
 our quiet but the Septembrisers. They would not spare even 
 you ; in vain you might tell them, that you had defended them 
 to-day in the Council of State ; they would sacrifice both you 
 and me, as well as all your colleagues." 
 
 There was only one word to be said in reply to this vehement 
 apostrophe, that it was not right to proscribe any person for a 
 mere title, neither one party because they were styled royalists, 
 nor another party because they were revolutionists. The First 
 Consul had no sooner uttered his concluding words, than he rose 
 abruptly, and put an end to the sitting. 
 
 Cambaceres, the consul, always calm, possessed infinite skill 
 in obtaining by gentleness what his imperious colleague would 
 fain extort by the sole power of his will. He assembled the two 
 sections on the following day at his residence ; he endeavoured, 
 in a few words, to excuse the warmth of the First Consul, 
 affirming, what was true, that he had no dislike to contradic- 
 tion, when it was free from acrimony and personality ; and he 
 endeavoured to reconcile their minds to the idea of some extra- 
 ordinary measure. This was not worthy of his accustomed 
 moderation ; but, though in the habit of giving prudent advice 
 to the First Consul, he gave way when he saw that he was 
 absolutely resolved, and especially when the point in discussion 
 related to the curbing of the Terrorists. M. Portalis, who had 
 the merit of being averse to proscribe any one, though he had 
 been proscribed himself, adhered to the plan of the two sec- 
 tions, proposing to add two clauses to the law instituting the 
 special tribunals. Cambaceres, however, insisted, and obtained 
 a majority in favour of the adoption of an extraordinary 
 measure, upon the understanding that it should be discussed 
 afresh before the united sections. In this sort of meeting with 
 closed doors words again ran very high . M. Rcederer inveighed 
 vehemently against the Jacobins, imputed their crimes to the 
 indulgence of M. Fouche, and went so far as to move that the 
 Council of State should join in an address praying for the 
 dismissal of that minister. 
 
 M. Cambaceres repressed all these ebullitions of zeal, and 
 convoked the sections at the apartments of General Bonaparte, 
 in whose presence was held a sort of privy council, composed
 
 dec. 1800 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 451 
 
 of the Consuls, the two sections of the interior and legislation, 
 and the ministers of foreign affairs, of the interior, and of 
 justice. So strong were the prejudices against M. Fouche, 
 that he was not even summoned to these conferences. 
 
 The proposal of an extraordinary measure was again pre- 
 sented and discussed at great length. Several sittings of this 
 same privy council were held before the members could agree. 
 At length, it was resolved that a general measure should be 
 adopted against those who were called the Terrorists. But a 
 serious question yet remained to be settled ; that was the form 
 of that measure. The point to be decided was, whether that 
 measure should be carried into execution by a spontaneous act 
 of the government, or by means of a law. The First Consul, 
 generally so bold, was in favour of a law. He was averse to 
 compromise the great bodies of the State on this occasion, and 
 this he declared openly. "The Consuls are irresponsible," said 
 he, "but the ministers are not so, and any of them who sign 
 such a resolution may some day be called to account. Not a 
 single individual must be compromised ; the Legislative Body 
 must share in the responsibility of the proposed measure. The 
 Consuls themselves," he added, " know not what may happen. 
 As for myself, while I live, I am not afraid that any one will 
 dare to call me to account for my actions. But I may be 
 killed, and then I cannot answer for the safety of my two 
 colleagues. It would be your turn to govern," said he, laughing, 
 to the Second Consul, Cambaceres, " and you are not very firm 
 in the stimqjs. It will be better to have a law for the present, 
 as well as for the future." 
 
 A singular scene was passing at this moment. They who 
 were averse to the measure wished that it might be adopted, 
 not by means of a law, but through a spontaneous resolution of 
 the government. They were desirous to throw upon the govern- 
 ment the entire responsibility, without perceiving that they 
 were thus suffering it to acquire tin 1 mischievous habit of acting 
 alone, and on its arbitrary authority. It was said, in support 
 of this opinion, that the law would not pass, that opinions began 
 to be divided respecting the real authors of the crime, that the 
 Legislative Body would recoil from a proscription list, and that 
 the government would run the risk of incurring a most signal 
 defeat. Messrs. Hcederer and Regnault de St. dean d'Angely 
 expressed themselves to this effect. To the latter the First 
 Consul made this reply: •'Since the Tribunate has rejected one 
 or two laws, you are panic-struck. There are. it i> true, some 
 Jacobins in the Legislative Body, but not above ten or twelve at 
 most. Thev frighten the others, who know that, but for me. but 
 for the 1 8th of Brumaire, they would have been massacred. 1 hese 
 latter will stand by me on tins occasion : the law will pass. '
 
 452 HISTORY OF THE dec. 1800 
 
 The advocates of the other course persisted in their senti- 
 ments, and M. de Talleyrand, siding with those who were afraid 
 of the bill being thrown out, suggested an argument most likely 
 to make an impression on the First Consul, namely, that abroad 
 the measure would have a more salutary effect. "Foreigners," 
 he said, " would recognise in it the act of a government that 
 dared, and was able to defend itself against the anarchists." 
 The First Consul yielded to this argument, but he devised a 
 middle course, which was adopted : this was, to refer it to the 
 Senate, that this body might examine whether the act was, or 
 was not, an infringement of the Constitution. The reader will, 
 no doubt, recollect that, according to the Constitution of the 
 year VIII., the Senate did not vote the laws, but was em- 
 powered to rescind them, if it deemed them contrary to the 
 Constitution. It had not the same power with regard to the 
 measures of the government. The suggestion of the First 
 Consul was therefore approved, and M. Fouche was directed to 
 make out a list of the principal Terrorists, with a view to their 
 being transported to the deserts of the New World. The two 
 sections of the Council of State were charged to draw up a 
 declaration of the reasons for this act. The First Consul was to 
 sign the decree, and the Senate to declare whether it was, or 
 was not, contrary to the Constitution. 
 
 This measure against the Terrorists, illegal and arbitrary in 
 itself, had not even the justice which an arbitrary act may 
 sometimes carry with it, when it punishes those who are really 
 guilty; for the Terrorists were not the authors of the crime. 
 By this time, the truth began to be suspected. Fouche\ the 
 minister, and Dubois, prefect of police, had been incessantly 
 engaged in the most active search, and this search had not been 
 fruitless. The violence of the explosion had destroyed almost 
 all the instruments of the crime. The girl whom St. Re j ant had 
 employed to hold the horse had been blown to pieces ; nothing 
 was left of the unfortunate creature but her legs and feet. 
 The iron tires of the cart-wheels had been thrown to a great 
 distance. Fragments of the articles employed in the commission 
 of the crime, and which were likely to lead to the discovery of 
 the authors, had been found, at a great distance apart, in every 
 direction. There were also left some remains of the cart and 
 the horse. These remains were collected, a description of them 
 was drawn up, and made public through the newspapers, and 
 all the horse-dealers in Paris were invited to inspect them. By 
 a lucky chance, the original owner of the horse at once identified 
 him, and gave the name of the seedsman to whom he had sold 
 him. This seedsman, being summoned, declared with the utmost 
 frankness all that he knew about the matter. He had sold 
 the horse to two men, who represented themselves as foreign
 
 jan. 1 80 1 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 453 
 
 traders. He had had two or three interviews with them, and 
 described them very minutely. A man who kept carriages for 
 hire, and who had let for a few days the cart-house in which 
 the cart was deposited, made also a very circumstantial depo- 
 sition. He described the same persons, and furnished parti- 
 culars perfectly corresponding with those which had been 
 received from the seedsman. The cooper who had sold the 
 barrel, and who had put on the iron hoops, gave information 
 agreeing entirely with the preceding accounts. All these 
 depositions perfectly tallied as to the stature, features, dress, 
 and appearance of the suspected individuals. "When all these 
 witnesses had been heard, recourse was had to a decisive proof. 
 Upwards of two hundred revolutionists, apprehended on this 
 occasion, were taken from prison and brought before them. 
 These examinations lasted during the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th of 
 January (nth, 12th, 13th, and 14th Nivose), and led to the 
 conviction that not one of the revolutionists was concerned in 
 the crime, as not one was recognised. And no doubt could be 
 entertained of the veracity of the witnesses who furnished these 
 descriptions, for almost all of them had come forward spontane- 
 ously to give evidence, and manifested great zeal in seconding 
 the efforts of the police. Thus it was proved almost to a 
 certainty that the revolutionists were innocent. The fact, 
 however, could not be perfectly established, unless by the dis- 
 covery of the real authors. But an important circumstance 
 pointed to the agents of Georges, who had been sent upwards 
 of a month before to Paris, and who had always been considered 
 by M. Fouche as really the guilty parties. Though all trace of 
 them had been lost, yet down to the 3rd Nivose they had been 
 seen, sometimes in one place, sometimes in another, though the 
 police had not been able to apprehend them. But, since the 
 3rd Nivose, they had entirely disappeared, so that one would 
 almost have thought that they had concealed themselves under 
 ground. This disappearance, so sudden and so complete, ever 
 since the day of the crime, was a striking circumstance. Add 
 to this, that one of the descriptions given by all the witnesses 
 corresponded in every point to that of Carbon. M. Fouche. 
 more convinced than ever by all these indications that the real 
 authors were the Chouans, lost no time in despatching an 
 emissarv to watch Georges' motions, and to obtain information 
 relative to Carbon. St. Rejant, and Limoelan. In the mean- 
 time he had collected sufficient evidence to shake the conviction 
 of many, and even that of the First Consul, who, nevertheless, 
 would not relinquish his first opinion but upon the production 
 of actual proof. 
 
 Such was the state of the proceedings on the 4th of .January 
 (14th Nivose), the day on which the act that condemned so
 
 454 HISTORY OF THE jan. 1801 
 
 many men under the designation of Terrorists was definitively 
 decreed.* 
 
 The Council of State had successively come to an agreement 
 upon all the points ; it had never thought seriously of a tribunal 
 which should try in a summary manner, and sentence the 
 Terrorists to be shot ; it had always stopped short at the idea 
 of transporting a certain number of them; and, after many 
 discussions, it was agreed that they should be transported by 
 virtue of an act of the Consuls, submitted to the approbation 
 of the Senate. The affair having been arranged with the prin- 
 cipal members of the Council and the Senate, the rest could be 
 nothing but an empty formality. 
 
 M. Fouche, who, without knowing the whole truth, was never- 
 theless acquainted with it in part, and buffeted on all sides, 
 had the weakness to lend himself to a measure, directed, it is 
 true, against men stained with blood, but not the authors of the 
 crime, which it was intended to punish at the moment. Of all 
 those who participated in this act of proscription, he was there- 
 fore the most inexcusable ; but he was attacked in all quarters ; 
 he was accused of complaisance towards the revolutionists ; 
 and he had not the courage to resist. He himself drew up 
 the report for the Council of State, on which the decree of 
 the Consuls was founded. 
 
 In this report, presented to the Council of State on the ist of 
 January 1801 (nth Nivose), a class of men was denounced, 
 who for ten years had steeped themselves in crime of every 
 kind ; who had shed the blood of the prisoners in the 
 Abbaye, invaded and outraged the Convention, threatened 
 the Directory, and who now, driven to despair, had recourse 
 to the dagger, to strike the Republic in the person of the 
 First Consul. " All these men," it was said, " have not taken 
 up the dagger, but all are universally known to be capable of 
 pointing it, and of using it." It was added that the protec- 
 tive forms of justice were not made for them ; it was therefore 
 
 * I have compared the dates of all the documents in the case with the dates 
 of the measures passed against the revolutionary party, and the result is, that 
 between the nth and the 14th Nivose (the ist and the 4th of January), only 
 one thing was known, namely, that the personal examinations of the so-called 
 Terrorists had not led to the identification of any one of them. Conse- 
 quently, there were strong reasons for believing that the revolutionary party 
 was not concerned in the crime of the Eue St. Nicaise ; but this was not posi- 
 tively ascertained till much later, that is to say, till the 28th Nivose (18th of 
 January), the day of the apprehension and complete identification of Carbon 
 by the sellers of the horse, cart, and barrel. The act against the revolutionists 
 is dated the 14th Nivose (4th of January) : it is not true, therefore, as it has 
 been sometimes asserted, that the proscription took place in spite of a perfect 
 knowledge of the real authors of the crime, and that the government punished 
 the revolutionists knowing them to be innocent. The procedure was at all 
 events highly arbitrary ; but it is our duty to state the facts as they occurred, 
 without exaggeration or extenuation.
 
 JAN. 1 80 1 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 455 
 
 proposed to seize and to transport them from the territory of 
 the Republic. 
 
 The examination of the report gave rise to the question, 
 whether the Jacobins ought not to be denounced in it as the 
 contrivers of the 3rd Nivose. The First Consul took great 
 pains to oppose this. " We believe so," said he, " but we do 
 not know it;" — (he began, in fact, to be shaken in his con- 
 viction) — "they are transported for the deeds of the 2nd of 
 September, of the 31st of May, of the days of Prairial, for 
 Babceuf's conspiracy, for all that they have done, for all that 
 they might yet do." 
 
 A list of 130 persons doomed to transportation was annexed 
 to this report. The government did not confine itself to trans- 
 porting them ; but, what was perhaps more cruel, there was 
 added to the names of several of them the appellation Septem- 
 briser, without any other ground for thus stigmatising them 
 than public notoriety. 
 
 The Council of State manifested a visible repugnance on 
 hearing these 1 30 names ; for it might be said that it was called 
 upon to draw up a proscription list. Thibaudeau, the councillor, 
 said that such a list could not be prepared by the Council. " I 
 am not so silly," replied the First Consul angrily, " as to make 
 you pass sentence upon individuals ; I merely submit to you the 
 principle of the measure." The principle was approved, but 
 not without some dissentient votes. 
 
 The question was then proposed, whether the measure should 
 be an act of State police, on the part of the government, or a 
 law passed in the accustomed forms. This point had been pre- 
 viously arranged : the resolutions already secretly adopted were 
 confirmed, and it was decided that the measure should be a 
 spontaneous act of the government, but referred to the Senate, 
 which should pronounce upon the question of constitutionality. 
 
 On the 4th of January (14th Nivose), the First Consul having 
 had the definitive list prepared, drew up a decree, by which he 
 banished from the territory of the Republic the persons included 
 in that list, and without hesitation affixed his signature. 
 
 On the 5th of January (15th Nivose), the assembled Senate, 
 proceeding a step further than the decision of the Council of 
 State, declared that the resolution of the First Consul was a 
 measure essential to the preservation of the Constitution. 
 
 These unfortunate persons were collected on the following 
 day, and despatched to Nantes to be shipped and transported 
 to distant countries. There were among them some deputies 
 of the Convention, several members of the old Commune, all 
 that remained of the murderers of September, and the noto- 
 rious llossignol, who had been general of the revolutionary 
 army. Assuredly these men, at least most of them, deserved no
 
 456 HISTORY OF THE jan. 1801 
 
 sympathy ; but all the forms of justice were violated in regard to 
 them, and that which proves the danger of the violation of those 
 sacred forms is, that many of the denunciations made by the 
 police were disputed, and with a strong appearance of truth. 
 It required some moral courage at the moment to intercede 
 on behalf of these proscripts ; still there were some who, on the 
 recommendation of bold men, were properly erased from the list 
 of proscription, and spared at Nantes from the fatal embarkation. 
 That an individual should be able to obtain, or fail in obtaining, 
 the favour of a government, according as he can command, or 
 is unable to command, an influential recommendation, is a point 
 to which I shall not advert ; but that his exclusion from a pro- 
 scription list should depend upon the accidental circumstance, 
 whether he can or cannot find a courageous influential friend 
 to interfere on his behalf, must shock every feeling of justice, 
 and prove that when forms are violated, society is exposed to 
 all the horrors of arbitrary rule. And yet this period was re- 
 splendent with glory : it was distinguished by a love of order, 
 by an antipathy to blood. But the nation was emerging from 
 the revolutionary chaos ; it had no respect for rules ; it found 
 them inconvenient and insupportable. If ever this arbitrary act 
 were canvassed, a single word was sufficient to justify it. Those 
 wretches, it was said, were steeped in blood, they would wallow 
 in it again, if they were allowed free scope ; they are treated 
 much better than they had treated their victims. And, certainly, 
 if this act had many previous precedents at anterior epochs, in 
 regard to the violation of forms, it was marked by two peculiar 
 distinct features from the past : punishment fell mostly upon 
 villains, and their blood was not shed. A miserable excuse, 
 we admit, but which we must nevertheless urge in extenuation, 
 to show that the year 1800 had nothing in common with the 
 year '93. 
 
 While these unfortunate persons were on the road to Nantes, 
 it was with the greatest difficulty that they were saved from the 
 fury of the populace in all the towns through which they passed, 
 so strongly was public feeling expressed against them. Under 
 the dominion of this feeling, something still more deplorable 
 occurred; this was the condemnation of Ceracchi, Arena, Demer- 
 ville, and Topino Lebrun. It will be recollected that in the pre- 
 ceding October (Vendemiaire), these hot-headed men had entered 
 into a plot for the assassination of the First Consul at the Opera. 
 But none of them had had the courage, nor perhaps even any 
 decided intention, to assist in the execution of the plot. The 
 police agents, sent in as spies amongst them, and to whom they 
 gave daggers, urged them on to a degree of guilt, which before, 
 perhaps, they had not contemplated. But, at any rate, they did 
 not make their appearance at the place fixed for the execution
 
 JAN. 1801 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 457 
 
 of their plot ; and Ceracchi, the only one apprehended in the 
 Opera-house, was not even armed with one of the daggers which 
 had been distributed amongst them. They were declaimers, 
 who certainly wished for the destruction of the First Consul, but 
 would never have dared to consummate it. They were tried on 
 the 9th of January (19th Nivose), at the very moment when 
 the events just related were occurring. Their counsel, aware of 
 the fatal influence exercised upon the minds of the jury by 
 the catastrophe of the 3rd Nivose, strove in vain to weaken it. 
 That influence was irresistible upon the jury, which, of all 
 tribunals, is that most swayed by public opinion, and which has 
 the advantages and the inconveniences of that bias. Sentence 
 of death was passed on four of these wretched men : these were 
 Ceracchi, Arena, Demerville, and Topino Lebrun. The latter 
 deserved some sympathy, and became a striking example of the 
 cruel mutability of fortune during revolutions. This young 
 Topino Lebrun was a painter of some talent, and a pupil of 
 David. Participating in the extravagant ideas of the artists of 
 the time, he had been a juryman at the revolutionary tribunal, 
 but had there shown himself far more merciful than his col- 
 leagues. He brought forward the advocate Chaveau Lagarde, 
 the respectable defender of the victims of that time, who in vain 
 gave evidence in favour of his humanity. Extraordinary change 
 of fortune! the former juryman of the revolutionary tribunal, 
 now accused in his turn, calls to his assistance the former 
 defender of the victims of that sanguinary tribunal ! But this 
 assistance, generously afforded, could not save him. The whole 
 four, condemned on the 9th of January (19th Nivose), were, after 
 an unavailing appeal to the Court of Cassation, executed on the 
 31st of the same month of January. 
 
 Meanwhile, the horrible mystery of the infernal machine was 
 being gradually brought to light. M. Fouche had set agents to 
 work about Georges, to make inquiries concerning Carbon, what 
 had become of him, and where he lived. 1 le had learned through 
 this channel that Carbon had sisters residing in Paris, and he had 
 also discovered their abode. The police searched it, and found 
 a barrel of powder. They obtained, moreover, from Carbon's 
 youngest sister, the address of the new lodging in which he had 
 secreted himself. He was residing with very respectable persons, 
 the demoiselles de Cice, sisters of M. de Cice, formerly archbishop 
 of Bordeaux, and minister of justice. These ladies, taking him 
 for a returned emigrant, whose passport was not in order, had 
 procured him an asylum amongst a number of females, formerly 
 nuns, who lived together in a remote quarter of Paris. These 
 innocent women, who every day returned thanks to Heaven for 
 the preservation of the First Consul, as they would have given 
 themselves up for lost if he had fallen, had afforded a retreat.
 
 458 HISTORY OF THE jan. 1801 
 
 unconsciously, to one of his assassins. The police repaired 
 thither on the 18th of January (28th Nivose), and apprehended 
 Carbon, together with all the persons who had admitted him 
 into the house. He was confronted the same day with the 
 witnesses previously examined, and fully identified. At first, he 
 denied everything, but at length confessed his participation in 
 the crime, but an innocent participation, according to his account, 
 for he asserted that he was not aware of the purpose for which 
 the cart and the barrel were intended. He denounced Limoelan 
 and St. Rejant. Limoelan had had time to make his escape to a 
 foreign country, but St. Rejant, thrown down by the explosion, 
 and half dead for some minutes, had only time and strength to 
 change his lodging. An agent of Georges employed to attend on 
 him, and who had been left at liberty, in hopes by tracking him 
 to find St. Rejant, served to indicate his abode. On proceeding 
 thither, the police found that he was still very ill from the effects 
 of his wounds. He was soon confronted, identified, and con- 
 victed upon abundance of evidence, which left no room for doubt. 
 Under his bed was found a letter to Georges, in which he 
 related, with some ambiguity, the principal circumstances of the 
 crime, and justified himself to his chief for his miscarriage. Car- 
 bon and St. Rejant were sent to the criminal tribunal, which soon 
 sentenced these execrable assassins to the death they deserved. 
 
 When all these particulars were published, the obstinate ac- 
 cusers of the revolutionary party, and the complaisant defenders 
 of the royalist party, were alike surprised and confounded. The 
 enemies of M. Fouche also were disconcerted. The soundness of 
 his judgment was acknowledged, and he was re-established in the 
 favour of the First Consul. But he had furnished a weapon of 
 which his enemies, with justice, took advantage. Since he was so 
 sure of his point, said they, why did he suffer the revolutionists 
 to be proscribed ? He deserved, indeed, this keen reproach. 
 The First Consul, who was unconcerned about violated forms, 
 and cared for nothing but the results obtained, manifested no 
 regret. He thought that what was done, was well done in every 
 respect ; that he was rid of what he called the " staff of the 
 Jacobins," and that the 3rd Nivose proved merely one thing — 
 the necessity of watching the Royalists as well as the Terrorists. 
 '■ Fouche's opinion," said he, "was, after all, the only correct 
 one ; he is right ; we must keep an eye on the returned emigrants, 
 the Chouans, and all the members of that party." 
 
 This event greatly diminished the sympathy which had been 
 felt for the royalists, who had been complaisantly called the 
 victims of terror ; and likewise greatly diminished the animosity 
 against the revolutionists. M. Fouche had gained in credit, but 
 not in esteem. 
 
 The painful feelings created by the employment of the machine,
 
 jan. 1 80 1 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 459 
 
 since named infernal, were soon dispelled by the joy produced 
 by the peace of Luneville. All days are not auspicious, even 
 under the most prosperous governments. That of the Consulate 
 had the unexampled advantage, that, if sad impressions took 
 possession of the public mind one moment, they were dissipated 
 the next, by some grand, new, unforeseen result. Occasional 
 brief but mournful scenes, in which the First Consul was con- 
 spicuous as the saviour of France, which each faction was striving 
 to undo, and these scenes followed by victories, treaties, and 
 acts of reparation, which healed deep wounds, or restored public 
 prosperity — such was the spectacle which was then incessantly 
 exhibited. General Bonaparte always emerged from them 
 greater, dearer to France, more clearly destined for the supreme 
 power. 
 
 The second session of the Legislative Body had commenced. 
 It was engaged, at this moment, in the discussion and adop- 
 tion of several laws, the principal of which — that of the special 
 tribunals — was of no real importance, after what had just been 
 done. But the opposition in the Tribunate opposed these laws 
 against the government ; this was sufficient to induce the latter 
 to persevere in them. The first of them related to the archives 
 of the Republic. It had become necessary, since the abolition 
 of the ancient provinces had given up to neglect a great number 
 of old title-deeds and documents, still either very useful or 
 very curious, to decide in what place these and other ancient 
 records, such as laws, treaties, &c, should be deposited. This 
 was a measure of order, devoid of all political bearing. The 
 Tribunate voted against the law. and having, as usual, sent its 
 three orators to the Legislative Body, obtained its rejection 
 by a great majority. The Legislative Body, although strongly 
 attached to the government, was. like assemblies thus devoted, 
 sometimes jealous of showing its independence in measures of 
 detail; and it could certainly do this without danger, in the 
 discussion of a law, the object of which was to determine in 
 what place, or places, certain ancient records and papers should 
 be deposited. 
 
 The two assemblies had under their consideration, at the 
 moment, a law more important than the preceding, but equally 
 foreign to politics. It related to justices of peace, whose number 
 had been found too great. Six thousand having been appointed 
 at the time of their first institution, they had not answered the 
 purpose for which they were created, in many districts, men 
 capable of duly performing such functions were not to he found. 
 They had failed in another point. It had been resolved to assign 
 to them the judicial police; they had performed thi- duty very 
 indifferently, and besides, the paternal and benevolent character 
 of their jurisdiction had been, in a certain degree, impaired by it.
 
 460 HISTORY OF THE feb. 1801 
 
 The new plan of the government proposed two modifications 
 relative to the justices of peace : in the first place, their reduc- 
 tion from 6000 to 2600 ; and, in the next, the transfer of the 
 judicial police to other magistrates. The project was a reason- 
 able one, and presented with excellent intentions ; but it met 
 with violent opposition in the Tribunate. Several members 
 spoke against it, especially M. Benjamin Constant. It was, 
 nevertheless, carried in the Tribunate by 59 votes against 32 ; 
 and in the Legislative Body by 218 against 41. 
 
 Another law, more calculated to produce discussion, and of 
 an entirely political nature, was presented at this period : this 
 was the law which had for its object the institution of special 
 tribunals. But this had lost its chief utility since the First 
 Consul had appointed military commissions to accompany the 
 movable columns employed in the suppression of robbery ; and 
 especially since he had not hesitated to proscribe arbitrarily 
 such revolutionists as were deemed dangerous. These military 
 commissions had already produced salutary effects. The judges 
 in military uniform, who composed them, were not afraid of 
 the accused : they encouraged the witnesses who were to give 
 evidence, and frequently these witnesses were the very soldiers 
 who had seized the banditti, and surprised them with arms in 
 their hands. Prompt and vigorous justice, following the very 
 active employment of force, had singularly contributed to re- 
 establish safety on the roads. The deadly conflicts which had 
 ensued with the escorts placed on the imp&iales of the diligences 
 soon intimidated the robbers. Attacks became less frequent ; 
 and security began again to prevail, thanks to the vigour of the 
 government and of the tribunal, thanks also to the conclusion 
 of the winter. The proposed law, therefore, was introduced 
 when the evil was already abated ; but it was beneficial, inas- 
 much as it imparted regularity to the military tribunals estab- 
 lished on the highroads, and applied to highway robbery a 
 permanent and perfectly legal measure of punishment. The 
 projected organisation was this : — 
 
 The special tribunals were to be composed of three ordinary 
 judges, all of them members of the criminal tribunal, of three 
 military officers, with two assessors, the latter chosen by the 
 government, and duly qualified, by their standing at the bar, 
 to act as judges. Thus the military members could not have a 
 majority. The government was empowered to establish these 
 tribunals in those departments where they might be thought 
 useful. They were authorised to take cognisance of all crimes 
 committed by armed bands on the highroads and in the country, 
 of all outrages against the purchasers of national domains, and 
 lastly, of murders attempted with premeditation against the 
 heads of the government. This last clause comprehended such
 
 feb. 1 80 1 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 461 
 
 crimes as the infernal machine, the plot of Ceracchi, Arena, &c. 
 The Court of Cassation was empowered to decide in every case 
 of disputed jurisdiction, all other business before the court being 
 suspended. This institution was to be abolished, as a matter of 
 right, two years after the general peace. 
 
 These tribunals were obnoxious to every objection which can 
 attach to exceptional justice. But there was this to be urged 
 in their favour, that never had society, convulsed to the very 
 centre, required more prompt and more extraordinary measures 
 for tranquillising it. Under the pretext of an adherence to the 
 Constitution, recourse was had to that article of it, which per- 
 mitted the Legislative Body to suspend its provisions in the 
 departments where that might be deemed necessary. The case 
 of extraordinary jurisdictions was evidently comprehended in 
 this clause ; as the suspension of the Constitution necessarily 
 led to the immediate establishment of martial law. Moreover, 
 the discussion was altogether superfluous in a country, and at a 
 time when 130 persons had just been proscribed without trial, 
 and military commissions had been established in several de- 
 partments, without eliciting the slightest murmur from public 
 opinion. It must even be confessed that, as compared with 
 these acts, the proposed law was a return to constitutional 
 government. But it was vehemently, acrimoniously attacked 
 by the usual opponents, Messrs. Daunou, Constant, Ginguene, 
 and others. In the Tribunate it passed by a majority of only 
 49 votes to 41. In the Legislative Body, the majority was 
 much greater, for the bill obtained 192 votes against 88. But 
 a minority of eighty-eight votes exceeded the usual strength of 
 the minority in that assembly, wholly devoted to the govern- 
 ment. This great number of dissentient votes was attributed 
 to a speech of M. Franoais. of Nantes, who addressed language 
 perhaps a little too intemperate to the Legislative Body. " M. 
 Francais, of Nantes, .has done right." said the First Consul 
 to his colleagues, Cambaceres and Lebrun. who seemed to 
 disapprove that speech; "it is better to have fewer votes, and 
 to show that we feel insults and are determined not to put up 
 with them." 
 
 The First Consul made use of still stronger language to a 
 deputation of the Senate, which presented to him a resolution 
 of that bodv. He expressed himself in the boldest manner. 
 and on several occasions he plainly declared, that, if he was too 
 much annoyed, that if people would endeavour to prevent him 
 from restoring peace and order to France, he would rely upon 
 the opinion which the country had of him, and govern by con- 
 sular ordinances. J lis ascendency increased every moment with 
 success, his boldness with his ascendency, and he was no longer 
 at the pains of dissembling the extent of his designs.
 
 462 HISTORY OF TEE feb. 1801 
 
 He met with still stronger opposition on the questions of 
 finance, which were the last discussed during this session. This 
 was, nevertheless, the most meritorious work of the government, 
 and more particularly owing to the personal intervention of the 
 First Consul. 
 
 We have several times explained the means employed to 
 ensure the collection, and the regular payment into the treasury, 
 of the revenues of the State. These means had been com- 
 pletely successful. In the year VIII. (i 799-1800), there had 
 been received 518,000.000,* which equalled the amount of 
 the taxes for a whole year; for, in the budget, the expendi- 
 ture and the receipts did not at that period exceed 500,000,000. 
 Of these 518,000,000, a sum of 172,000,000 belonged to years 
 V., VI., and VII., and 346,000,000 to the year VIII. Some 
 items were still owing for those four years ; it was necessary 
 that they should be completely liquidated, in order that the year 
 IX. (1800- 1 801), which was the current year, might at length 
 proceed with perfect regularity. The income of the year IX. 
 was sure to be adequate to the expenses, as the taxes would 
 produce from 500,000.000 to 520,000,000; and this was suf- 
 ficient to cover the expenses of the peace establishment. A 
 system of annual accounts, distinguishing the income and ex- 
 penditure for each twelve months, had been introduced, and 
 thenceforth the receipts of the year IX. were to be exclusively 
 applied to the expenses of the year IX., and the receipts of the 
 year X. to the expenses of the year X., and so on ; provision 
 was thus made for the future. But for the past, that is to say, 
 for the years V., VI., VII., and VIII. . there was a deficit to be 
 made good. To this purpose, the daily receipts derived from 
 the arrears of the contributions of those respective years were 
 appropriated. But these arrears, which were chiefly owing by 
 the landed proprietors, reduced them to a state of great depres- 
 sion. At the meeting of the councils-general of the depart- 
 ments, a meeting then held for the first time, eighty-seven 
 councils-general out of 106 complained of the excessive burden 
 of the direct contributions. Government, therefore, had no 
 alternative, as we have before observed, but to remit a part of 
 the outstanding arrears, if it persevered in requiring in future 
 the punctual payment of the whole tax. A law was proposed 
 to authorise the local administrations to relieve the taxpayers 
 who were too heavily assessed. This bill passed without opposi- 
 tion. But this would occasion a considerable deficiency apper- 
 taining to the years V., VI., VII.. and VIII. This deficiency 
 was estimated for the three years V.. VI., VII., at 90.OOO.000. 
 and for the year VIII., separately, at 30.000.000. The year 
 
 * These figures express francs, twenty-five of which are equivalent to £1 
 sterling. — Translator.
 
 feb. 1 80 1 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 463 
 
 VIII. ( 1 799-1 800) was kept distinct from the years V., VI., 
 and VII., because the year VIII. belonged to the Consulate. 
 
 It was necessary to decide how these deficits were to be met. 
 There were national domains still undisposed of, to the extent 
 of about 400,000,000 ; and it was here that the sound sense 
 of the First Consul exercised the happiest influence on our 
 financial system, and caused the best possible employment to 
 be made of the public resources. 
 
 As the national domains were not always marketable, their 
 value had repeatedly been received in anticipation, by means of 
 a government paper, which had been issued under different 
 denominations, and which was receivable in payment of these 
 domains. Since the extinction of the assignats, this kind of 
 paper was known by the name of rescriptions. In the course of 
 the year VIII., some of these rescriptions had been negotiated 
 at less ruinous rates than before, but still at too great a sacri- 
 fice to render it prudent to have recourse to them. These 
 notes were negotiated at a loss from the very first day they 
 were issued, soon fell into discredit, then passed into the hands 
 of speculators, who, in this manner, purchased the national 
 domains for next to nothing. In this way a valuable resource 
 had been wasted, to the great detriment of the State, and to the 
 great advantage of stockjobbers. The remaining 400.000.000, 
 if they could be saved from the disorder, by which so many 
 other millions had been swallowed up. to this day. would soon 
 acquire, with time and peace, a three or fourfold value. The 
 First Consul was resolved not to squander them in the same way 
 that several thousand millions had already been thrown away. 
 
 Immediate funds were nevertheless required. The First 
 Consul endeavoured to obtain them by the emission of rentes * 
 (stock), which, since his accession, had already advanced con- 
 siderably in value. They had risen from the price of ten and 
 twelve to that of twenty-five and thirty after Marengo, and 
 above that of fifty since the peace of Luneville ; it was asserted 
 that they would rule as high as sixty at the general peace. At 
 this rate, the government could begin to negotiate them, as 
 there was less loss in selling rentes than national domains. The 
 First Consul, unwilling to open a lean, proposed to pay with 
 rentes certain creditors of the State, and to appropriate to the 
 Sinking Fund an equivalent sum in landed property, which that 
 Fund would sell by-and-by. slowly and at its full value, so as 
 to compensate in this manner for the augmentation about to 
 be made to the public debt. Such was the principle of the laws 
 of finance proposed this year. 
 
 * Rmt' signifies the animal dividend payable on stock: ilm-. 2=;o the per 
 cent, rentes (perpetual annuity of 250 franc- represents 50m francs capital 
 stoek. — Translator.
 
 464 HISTORY OF THE feb. 1801 
 
 The debts yet unpaid for the last three years of the Directory, 
 V., VI., and VII., passed for bad debts. They were the rem- 
 nant of the disgraceful contracts, to the amount of 600,000,000 f ., 
 made under the Directory. Upon commencing a new system, 
 the government resolved to respect these debts, notwithstanding 
 their origin and their nature. They amounted to a sum of 
 about 90,000,000!'., but, almost the whole being in the hands of 
 speculators, they were at a discount of seventy-five per cent, 
 in the market. It was proposed to pay them off by means of 
 a stock bearing interest at the rate of three per cent. The total 
 of these debts amounting to 90,000,000 f., it would require, 
 at three per cent., 2,700,000 f. to meet the dividends. This 
 stock, at the current price of the public funds (say 30 to 3 3 J), 
 represented a real value of 27,000,000 or 30,000,000!'., and could 
 not fail to represent one of 40,000,000 f . at least, in the eight or 
 ten months which must elapse before the operation was com- 
 pleted. The debts intended to be paid, being at a discount of 
 seventy-five per cent., and the capital of 90,000,000!'., of which 
 they were composed, being thus reduced in reality to 22,000,000 
 or 23,000,000 f., much more would be paid for them than they 
 were worth, if government granted a rente of 2.700,000!'. for 
 them, since that rente, sold immediately, would have produced 
 27,000,000 or 30,000,000 f., and soon was likely to produce 
 40,000,000 f. 
 
 The debts of the year VIII. to be still liquidated were of a 
 totally different nature. They were contracted for services per- 
 formed during the first year of the consular government, when 
 order already prevailed in the administration. These services, 
 rendered at a time when the distress was still great, had, it is 
 true, been paid for at a very high, rate ; but it would have 
 been derogatory to the honour of the consular government not 
 to have faithfully kept these engagements, which were recently 
 contracted, which had not beeu classed, like those of the 
 Directory, among discredited paper, nor negotiated as such, 
 and to have treated them in the same manner as those which 
 belonged to the years V., VI., and VII. Government, there- 
 fore, did not hesitate to pay in full, and at its nominal value, 
 the excess of the expenditure of the year VIII. It was now 
 estimated at 60,000,000 f., but the receipt of arrears of the con- 
 tributions of the year VIII. would reduce it to 30,000,000 f . It 
 was resolved to pay a portion of it, 20,000,000!'., wi!h a stock 
 bearing interest at five per cent., which made 1,000,000 f. 
 interest. We shall explain presently, in what way the balance 
 of 10,000,000 f. was provided for. 
 
 The income of the year IX. (1800-1801) seemed likely to 
 meet the expenses, on the nearly certain hypothesis of a speedy 
 termination of the war ; for the continental peace concluded
 
 FEB. 1 80 1 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 465 
 
 at Luneville must soon lead to a maritime peace. The budget 
 was not at that time voted a year in advance ; it was voted in 
 the same year, while the expenses were being incurred. The 
 budget of the year IX., for instance, was presented and dis- 
 cussed in Yentose, year IX., that is to say, the budget of 1801 
 in March 1801. The expenditure and the receipts of this year 
 were estimated at the moment at 41 5,000,000 f. (exclusively of 
 the expenses of collection and various local services, which may 
 be taken at 100,000,000 f. more, so that 41 5,000,000 f. must be 
 taken at 515,000,000!'.). But the estimate of 41 5,000,000 f. 
 for the expenditure and the receipts fell short of the truth, for 
 then, as now, the real charges always exceeded the estimates. 
 We shall even show, by-and-by, that the sum of 415,000,000!'. 
 was increased to 500,000,000 f . Fortunately, the produce of the 
 taxes exceeded the sum estimated, as well as the expenditure. 
 This excess on both sides was certainly calculated upon ; but 
 fearing, erroneously by-the-by, that the surplus receipts would 
 not cover the excess of the expenditure, government determined 
 to secure a supplementary resource. Ten millions yet remained 
 to be provided for, as we have just said, to complete the pay- 
 ments of the year VIII. ; it was supposed that 20,000,000 f . 
 would be required for the balance of the year IX. ; thus 
 30,000,000 f. would have to be raised in two years. It was 
 resolved to have recourse to a sale of national domains to 
 that extent only. The sale of fifteen millions' worth of these 
 domains might be effected with advantage and without con- 
 fusion in the course of each year. By placing this business 
 in the hands of the commissioners of the Sinking Fund, who 
 had already performed this duty with great ability, the govern- 
 ment was sure to dispose of this portion of the domains of the 
 State on advantageous terms. In this manner the previous 
 accounts would be liquidated, and the present balanced. There 
 was but one more operation requisite 1 to render the organisation 
 of the finances of the State complete, and that was the definitive 
 regulation of the public debt. 
 
 The moment was come, in fact, for fixing its amount, tor 
 adjusting the resources of the Sinking Fund to the amount 
 of the entire capital of the debt, and for applying to this object 
 the 400,000.000 f. of national domains, which were still at the 
 disposal of the State. 
 
 The public debt was just as it had been left by the bank- 
 ruptcy declared by the Directory, but attributable to the Con- 
 vention and the Constituent Assembly. One-third of this debt 
 had been placed upon the (J real Book: it was this portion 
 which was called, in the language of the time, the Consolidated 
 Third. Interest at five per cent, had b en allowed on this 
 third, saved from the bankruptcy. The amount of it inscribed
 
 466 HISTORY OF THE mar. 1801 
 
 in the Great Book was 37,000,000!'. (interest and not capital). 
 A very considerable sum had still to be inscribed. Two-thirds 
 had been mobilised, another expression of the time, that is to 
 say, struck out of the Great Book, and declared receivable in 
 payment of the national domains, so that, in point of fact, they 
 were clearly assignats. A subsequent law had completed their 
 depreciation, by restricting them to a single purpose, that of 
 being received in payment exclusively for the buildings, and 
 not for the lands or the woods, constituting part of the national 
 possessions. 
 
 It was necessary to put an end to this state of things, and for 
 that purpose to carry to the Great Book the remainder of the 
 Consolidated Third, which the preceding government had deferred 
 inscribing, that it might be dispensed from paying interest 
 upon it. Justice and regularity in the finances demanded that 
 an end should be put to this state of things. It was proposed 
 to enter in the Great Book Consolidated Third to the extent of 
 1,500,000 f., but to bear interest only from the commencement 
 of the year XII. This part of the debt, though the enjoyment 
 of the income from it was postponed for two years, yet acquired 
 immediately, from the mere circumstance of the inscription, a 
 value nearly equal to the portions already inscribed ; and a 
 very high value was moreover conferred on all that remained 
 of the Consolidated Third by this earnest of punctuality. There 
 was a considerable amount left uninscribed, either in Consolidated 
 Thirds, properly so-called, or in debts of the emigrants, which 
 the State had taken upon itself, in confiscating their property, 
 or in debts of Belgium, which had been a condition of the 
 conquest. Lastly, there were the mobilised two-thirds, now 
 extremely depreciated, and which it was but just to afford the 
 holders the means of realising. An offer was made to convert 
 them into Consolidated Thirds, funded at the rate of five francs 
 stock for one hundred francs nominal capital. It was probable 
 that the holders would eagerly accept this offer. It was pro- 
 posed to create for this purpose 1.000,000 f. of rentes, and if this 
 first trial succeeded, it was anticipated that the entire value of 
 the mobilised hoo-thirds would be soon absorbed. A fixed period 
 was also appointed, after which the two-third, bonds should no 
 longer be receivable in payment of the national domains. At 
 the expiration of this term, the domains purchased and not paid 
 for were to revert unconditionally to the State. 
 
 It was calculated that the addition of the sum of 20,000,000 f . 
 of rentes to the 37,000,000 f. of Consolidated Third already in- 
 scribed in the Great Book would suffice to meet the balance of 
 Consolidated Third still uninscribed, the mobilised tiro-thirds, 
 the conversion of which was contemplated, and lastly, the debts 
 of the emigrants and of Belgium. The national debt would
 
 mar. 1 80 1 CONSULATE AND TEE EMPIRE. 467 
 
 accordingly comprise 5 7,000,000 f. perpetual rentes. In addition 
 to that permanent charge there existed, however, 20,000,000 f . 
 of life annuities, 1 9,000,000 f. of civil and religious pensions (the 
 latter paid to the clergy who had been dispossessed of their pro- 
 perty), and lastly, 30,000,000 f . of military pensions ; thus, in all, 
 69,000,000 f. of terminable annuities, of which about 3,000,000 f. 
 would annually fall in. There was reason, therefore, to hope, 
 that in a few years, as the annuitants, pensioners, and others 
 died off, the saving under the head of life annuities would com- 
 pensate for the successive augmentations which the perpetual 
 debt would receive in consequence of new inscriptions in the 
 Great Book. Consequently, the entire annual charge for 
 interest on both branches of the debt, supposing provision to 
 be made for all old claims, could not possibly exceed the sum 
 of 100,000,000 f., about one-half of which consisted of perpetual 
 rentes, and the other of terminable rentes. Our financial position 
 then was this : a debt bearing 100,000,000 f. annual interest, and 
 a budget exhibiting a total expenditure (interest on the debt 
 included) of 500,000,000 f., with a clear net revenue of a like 
 amount, after deduction of 1 00,000.000 f. for the costs of col- 
 lection. This position was certainly far superior to that of 
 England, which had an annual debt of nearly 500,000,000 f., 
 with a revenue of 1 ,000,000,000 or 1, 100,000.000 f. Add to this 
 that France still had left the resource of the indirect contribu- 
 tions, that is to say, taxes on liquors, tobacco, salt, &c, not yet 
 re-established, and which were destined to furnish at a future 
 period an immense revenue. 
 
 The First Consul was desirous of augmenting the resources 
 of the Sinking Fund in proportion to the increase of the debt. 
 He had decided upon the creation of rentes to the amount of 
 2.700.000 f. to wipe off the deficit of the years V., VI., and 
 VII., of I. OOO.OOO f. for the deficit of the year VIII., and of 
 several more millions for the inscription of the balance of the 
 Consolidated Third, and for the conversion of the mobilised 
 two-thirds, &c. He caused a capital of 90.000.000 f. in national 
 domains, saleable at discretion, and applicable to the redemption 
 of rentes, to be assigned to the Sinking Fund. At the suggestion 
 of the First Consul, there was moreover transferred to the com- 
 missioners a rente of 5.400.000!'. belonging to the fund for 
 public instruction : we shall presently see how this sum was 
 made good. 
 
 Bv this arrangement, the national domains were preserved 
 from being frittered away ; for the commissioners of the Sink- 
 ing Fund, disposing of them slowly, and at seasonable times, 
 or keeping them, if it suited them, thus avoided the deplorable 
 dilapidations which had formerly taken place. To secure the 
 remainder with a greater degree of certainly, the First Consul
 
 4 68 HISTORY OF THE mar. 1801 
 
 resolved to apply a considerable portion of them to various other 
 branches of service, in which he took great interest, such as 
 public instruction and the maintenance of the invalids. Public 
 instruction appeared to him the most important service of the 
 State, that, in particular, for which an enlightened government 
 like his, having a new society to found, ought to lose no time in 
 providing. As for the invalids, that is to say, wounded soldiers, 
 they formed, as it were, his family ; they were the props of his 
 power, the instruments of his glory : all his attention was due to 
 them ; he owed them at least some instalment of the thousand 
 millions formerly promised by the Republic to the defenders of 
 the country. 
 
 The First Consul did not like to see these important services 
 dependent on the budget, on its fluctuations and contingencies. 
 In consequence, he caused 1 20,000,000 f. worth of national 
 domains to be allotted to public instruction, and 40,000,000 f. 
 to the support of the hospitals for the invalids. Here was 
 sufficient amply to endow the noble institution which he in- 
 tended one day to devote to the education of the French youth, 
 and wherewithal to endow also several similar hospitals upon 
 the same footing as that which owes its origin to Louis XIV. 
 Whether these assignments were or were not afterwards re- 
 spected, it was for the moment 160,000,000 f. rescued from 
 the improvident sales of public lands, and an annual relief for 
 the budget. Thus of the 400,000,000 f. worth of national 
 domains left, 10,000,000 f. were granted towards the expendi- 
 ture of the year VIIL, 20,000,000 f. for that of the year IX., 
 90,000,000! to the Sinking Fund, 1 20,000,000 f. to public 
 instruction, 40,000,000 f . to the invalids. These formed a total 
 sum of 280,000,000 f. out of 400,000,000 f., for which a useful 
 employment was immediately found, without having recourse to 
 the system of public sales. Out of this sum of 280,000,000 f., 
 10,000,000 f. only for the year VIIL, and 20,000,000 f. for the 
 year IX., were to be disposed of in the course of two years, 
 which would not be attended with any inconvenience ; the 
 90,000,000 f. assigned to the Sinking Fund were to be sold, 
 but very slowly, when the Fund should be in absolute want 
 of money, perhaps not at all. The 1 20,000,000 f. for public 
 instruction, the 40,000,000 f. for the invalids, were never to 
 be offered for sale. Out of the total of 400,000,000 f., there 
 would remain 1 20,000,000 f. disposable and unappropriated. 
 In reality, only 30,000,000 f . out of the 400,000,000 f . were to 
 be sold ; the rest remained in trust for different branches of 
 the services, or as a disposable reserve with a certainty of soon 
 increasing at least double or treble in value for the advantage 
 of the State. 
 
 To sum up : the government availed itself of the revival of
 
 mar. 1 80 1 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 469 
 
 credit to substitute the expedient of the creation of rentes to 
 that of the alienation of the national domains ; it discharged by 
 a very small portion of these domains, and by a creation of 
 rentes, the deficiencies left unpaid in the years V., VI., VII., 
 and VIII. ; it completed the liquidation of the floating public 
 debt, and ensured the payment of the interest in a certain and 
 regular manner. After having thus regulated old accounts, 
 saved the remnant of the domains of the State, and fixed the 
 amount of the debt, there would be an annual interest of 
 100.000,000 f., an ample Sinking Fund; and finally, a budget, 
 with an equal income and expenditure, of 500,000,000 f., ex- 
 clusive of the costs of collection, or of 600,000,000 f . including 
 those costs. 
 
 Such a distribution of the public property, conceived with not 
 less equity than sound sense, ought to have met with general 
 approbation. A violent opposition was nevertheless raised in 
 the Tribunate. The 41 5.000,000 f. demanded for the current 
 year, the year IX., were granted without difficulty ; but the 
 opposition complained that the budget was not voted a year in 
 advance ; an unfair reproach, for nothing was at that time ar- 
 ranged for such a mode of proceeding. It was not yet practised 
 in England, and it was even a disputed point among financiers. 
 The same opposition members complained of the regulation of 
 the arrears being an act of bankruptcy towards the creditors of 
 the years V., VI., and VII., whose debts were to be consoli- 
 dated at three per cent, only, instead of five, as was the case 
 with those of the year VIII. They found fault with the regu- 
 lation of the debt for depriving the holders of the Consolidated 
 Third of the interest of their stock for two years, since that 
 interest was to commence only with the year XII. For these 
 two complaints there was very little foundation : for. as we 
 have seen, the creditors of the years A".. VI., and VII., in 
 obtaining a permanent rente of three per cent., received more 
 than their debts were worth ; and as for the portion of the 
 Consolidated Third, the inscription of which was resolved upon. 
 a great service was rendered to the holders by tin 1 mere circum- 
 stance of that inscription. If, in fact, that inscription had 
 been deferred a year or two longer, as had been done by the 
 preceding government, the holders would have been deprived, 
 not only of the interest, but of the benefit of the definitive con- 
 solidation. To resume the process of that consolidation, so long 
 deferred, was of itself to place them in a much better position. 
 
 The Tribunate grew warm upon these trivial objections; paid 
 no regard to the answers that were addressed (o it; and re- 
 jected the plan of finance by a majority of fifty-six votes to 
 thirty, in the sitting of the 19th of March (28th Ventose). 
 Some cries of " Vive la Re'pv.bliquc ! " were even raised in the
 
 470 HISTORY OF THE mak. 1801 
 
 tribunes, a circumstance which had not happened for a long 
 time, and revived the remembrance of the tumultuous days 
 of the Convention. On the motion of Messrs. Riouffe and 
 Chauvelin, the president caused the tribunes to be cleared. 
 
 Two days later, on the 2ist of March (30th Ventose), the 
 last day of the session of the year IX., the Legislative Body 
 heard the discussion of the bill. Three tribunes were to attack, 
 and three councillors of State to defend it. M. Benjamin 
 Constant was one of the three tribunes. He urged in a 
 brilliant manner the objections raised against the plan of the 
 government. The Legislative Body, nevertheless, voted its 
 adoption by a majority of 227 to 58. The First Consul ought 
 to have been satisfied. But he knew not, neither did those 
 about him know, that we ought to do good without being 
 surprised, without being ruffled, by the injustice with which 
 we are frequently repaid. And what man ever had so much 
 glory as the First Consul to compensate him for these attacks, 
 so frivolous, so indiscreet ! Besides, notwithstanding these 
 attacks, the arrangements were excellent on the part of the 
 government. The majority in the Legislative Body was five- 
 sixths at least ; and in the Tribunate, the vote of which decided 
 nothing, it was two-thirds. There was nothing to be astonished 
 at, little to cause alarm in such inconsiderable minorities. But, 
 although the object of universal admiration, the man who then 
 governed France could not endure the petty censures passed 
 upon his administration. The time for a real representative 
 government had not yet arrived : the opposition had not its 
 principles or its manners any more than the government itself. 
 That which will completely portray the oppositionists of the 
 Tribunate is, that the odious precedure against the revolu- 
 tionists did not elicit from them a single observation. They 
 took advantage of the circumstance, of the act not having been 
 referred to the Legislature, to remain silent on the subject. 
 They declaimed on things that were of little importance or 
 unobjectionable, and winked at the unpardonable infringement 
 of all the rules of justice. Such, in almost all times, is the 
 conduct of men and of parties. 
 
 After all, the barren agitation of a few systematic opposi- 
 tionists, mistaking the general movement of minds, and the 
 exigencies of the time, produced little sensation. The public 
 was wholly engrossed by the spectacle of the immense efforts 
 which had achieved victory and a continental peace for France, 
 and which were soon to procure for her a maritime peace also. 
 
 As we have observed several times, the First Consul, amidst 
 his military and political occupations, never ceased to give his 
 attention to roads, canals, bridges, to manufactures, and to 
 commerce.
 
 mar. 1 80 1 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 471 
 
 We have already described the wretched state of the roads, 
 and the means employed by the First Consul to supply the 
 insufficiency of the produce of the tolls. He had given orders 
 for a thorough inquiry into this subject, but, as is mostly the 
 case, the difficulty consisted much more in the want of money 
 than in the choice of a good system. He proceeded direct to 
 the point, and in the budget of the year IX. he appropriated 
 fresh sums out of the general funds of the treasury for prose- 
 cuting the extraordinary repairs already begun. Canals were 
 also the subject of conversation. Men's minds, disgusted with 
 political agitations, gladly turned towards everything that con- 
 cerned industry and commerce. The canal now known by the 
 name of the canal of St. Quentin, connecting the navigation 
 of the Seine and of the Oise with that of the Somme and 
 the Scheld, that is to say, connecting Belgium with France, 
 had been abandoned. It had been found impossible to agree 
 upon the mode of executing the cutting, which was to afford 
 a passage from the valley of the Oise into those of the Somme 
 and the Scheld. The engineers were divided in opinion. The 
 First Consul went thither himself, heard what each had to say, 
 decided the question, and decided it well. The cutting was 
 determined upon, and continued in the best direction, the 
 identical one which has succeeded. The population of St. 
 Quentin received him with transport, and no sooner had he 
 returned to Paris, than the inhabitants of the Seine Inferieure 
 sent a deputation, to solicit him to grant them in their turn 
 forty-eight hours of his time. He promised a speedy visit 
 to Normandy. At his instigation, the erection of three new 
 bridges in Paris over the Seine was decided upon, and entrusted 
 to companies ; these were, that fronting the Jardin des Plantes, 
 and called the bridge of Austerlitz : that which unites the isle 
 of the City with the isle St. Louis ; lastly, that which connects 
 the Louvre with the palace of the Institute. He directed his 
 attention at the same time to the road of the Simplon, the 
 first project of his youth — a project ever dearest to his heart, 
 most worthy to rank, in future, beside the exploits of Rivoli 
 and Marengo. It will be recollected that the First Consul, as 
 soon as he had founded the Cisalpine Republic, was desirous 
 to connect it with France by a road, which, running from 
 Lyons or Dijon, passing through Geneva, traversing the Valais, 
 descending to the Lago Maggiore and Milan, should enable 
 an army of 50,000 men with 100 pieces of cannon to debouch 
 at any time in the heart of Upper Italy. For want of such a 
 road, he had been obliged to cross the St. Bernard. Now that 
 the Cisalpine Republic had been reconstituted at the congress 
 of Luneville, it was more than ever expedient to form a great 
 military communication between Lombardv and France. The
 
 472 HIS TOBY OF THE mar. 1801 
 
 First Consul had immediately issued orders for the necessary 
 works. General Thurreau, whom we have seen descending 
 the Little St. Bernard with the legions of conscripts, while 
 General Bonaparte was descending the Great St. Bernard with 
 his seasoned troops, received orders to fix his headquarters at 
 Domo d'Ossola, at the very foot of the Simplon. This general 
 was to protect the workmen, and his soldiers were to assist in 
 the completion of the undertaking. 
 
 To this magnificent work the First Consul resolved to add 
 another, in commemoration of the passage of the Alps. The 
 monks of the Great St. Bernard had rendered important ser- 
 vices to the French army. Supplied with some money, they had, 
 during ten days, supported the strength of our soldiers with 
 food and wine. The First Consul retained a deeply grateful 
 recollection of those services. He resolved upon the establish- 
 ment of two similar hospices, one on Mount Cenis, the other 
 on the Simplon, both auxiliary to the convent of the Great 
 St. Bernard. They were each to contain fifteen monks, and to 
 receive from the Cisalpine Republic a considerable endowment 
 in lands. That Republic could refuse nothing to its founder. 
 But as that founder liked prompt execution in all things, he had 
 the works necessary for the first establishment performed at the 
 expense of France, that these useful undertakings might experi- 
 ence no delay. Thus magnificent roads and institutions, founded 
 with a beneficence truly noble, were to attest to future ages the 
 passage of the Alps by the modern Hannibal. 
 
 Concurrently with these grand and beneficent views, a sub- 
 ject of another kind engaged his attention, which was no less 
 useful to the nation ; that is, the compilation of the Civil Code. 
 The task of digesting this code the First Consul had confided to 
 several eminent lawyers, Messrs. Portalis, Tronchet, and Bigot 
 de Pr^ameneu. Their labours were concluded, and the result 
 had been communicated to the Court of Cassation, as well as to 
 the twenty-nine tribunals of appeal, since called royal courts. 
 The opinions of the whole of the magistracy were thus collected, 
 and the work was now about to be submitted to the Council of 
 State, and gravely discussed under the presidency of the First 
 Consul. It was proposed, that it should then be presented to 
 the Legislative Body in the course of the ensuing session, that 
 of the year X. 
 
 Ever ready to undertake great works, and at the same time 
 to reward their authors munificently, the First Consul had just 
 used his influence to raise M. Tronchet to the Senate. By this 
 means he conferred a distinction upon an eminent jurisconsult, 
 one of the compilers of the Civil Code, and, what was not a 
 matter of indifference to him in a political point of view, the 
 courageous defender of Louis XVI.
 
 mar. 1 80 1 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 473 
 
 All things, therefore, were being organised at the same time, 
 with the harmony which a comprehensive mind is capable of 
 introducing into its works, with the rapidity which a resolute 
 energy, an authority already punctually obeyed, is capable of 
 imparting to them. The genius which accomplished these things 
 was without doubt extraordinary ; but, it must be confessed, 
 the situation was as extraordinary as the genius. General 
 Bonaparte had France and Europe to move, and victory for a 
 lever ; he had to digest all the codes of the French nation, but 
 then at the same time all ranks were disposed to submit to his 
 laws with implicit obedience ; he had roads, canals, bridges to 
 construct, and the necessary resources for these objects, at his 
 undisputed disposal ; he had even nations ready to furnish him 
 with their treasures, the Italians, for example, who cheerfully 
 contributed to the expense of opening the Simplon, and to the 
 endowment of the hospices raised on the summits of the Alps. 
 Providence does nothing by halves. For every mighty task, she 
 furnishes a great genius ; and to every great genius, she assigns 
 a mighty task.
 
 BOOK IX. 
 
 NEUTRAL POWERS. 
 
 PEACE between the emperor and the empire having been 
 concluded at Luneville in February 1801, the First Consul 
 was impatient to secure the results of his policy. These were 
 to conclude a peace with those continental States which had not 
 yet been reconciled to the Republic, and to compel them to close 
 their ports against England ; to direct against the latter the com- 
 bined strength of the neutral powers, and, in conjunction with 
 them, to strike some decisive blow against the British trade and 
 territory ; and by this combination of means attain a maritime 
 peace, without which the peace of the continent would be incom- 
 plete. Everything proclaimed that these happy results could 
 not be long delayed. 
 
 The Germanic Diet had ratified the signature affixed by the 
 emperor to the treaty of Luneville. There were no grounds for 
 supposing that there would be any demur, as Austria possessed 
 the power of influencing the ecclesiastical States, the only dis- 
 sidents opposed to the treaty. With respect to the secular 
 princes, as they were to be indemnified for their losses from the 
 territories proposed to be secularised, they had a strong interest 
 in accelerating the acceptance of the conditions stipulated be- 
 tween Austria and France. They were, moreover, under the 
 influence of Prussia, which power France had induced to view 
 favourably the proceedings at Luneville. Besides all this, every 
 one was anxious for peace, and was ready to contribute to pro- 
 mote it, even by sacrifices. Prussia alone, in ratifying the 
 signature of the emperor, which he had granted without the 
 authority of the Diet, appeared desirous to qualify her consent 
 in such a form as rather to assume the semblance of toleration 
 than that of approbation, thereby reserving for the future the 
 rights of the empire. But this proposition of Prussia, which 
 at the same time that it ratified the treaty implied an indirect 
 censure on the emperor, was not supported by the majority. 
 The treaty was ratified unconditionally in its original form by 
 a conclusum of the 9th of March 1801 (18th Ventose, year IX.). 
 The ratifications were exchanged at Paris on the 16th of 
 March (25th Ventose). There only remained to settle a plan
 
 mar. 1 80 1 HISTORY OF THE CONSULATE. 475 
 
 of indemnifications, which was to be the subject of ulterior 
 negotiations. 
 
 Peace was thus concluded with the greater part of Europe. 
 It was, indeed, not yet signed with Russia, but we were, as will 
 soon appear, engaged with her, and with the northern courts, in 
 one great maritime coalition. There were at the same moment 
 two Russian ministers at Paris : M. de Sprengporten on the 
 subject of the prisoners, M. de Kalitscheff for the adjustment of 
 general affairs. The latter had just arrived in the early part of 
 March (middle of Ventose). 
 
 There still remained the courts of Naples and Portugal to 
 coerce, in order to close the entire continent completely against 
 England. 
 
 Murat was advancing towards Southern Italy with a chosen 
 body of troops, which had beeu drawn from the camp at Amiens. 
 Reinforced by several detachments supplied from the army of 
 General Brune, he had proceeded as far as Foligno, with a view 
 to compel the court of Naples to yield to the will of France. 
 Had it not been for the interest evinced by the Emperor of 
 Russia in favour of this court, the First Consul would probably 
 at once have granted to the house of Parma the kingdom of the 
 Two Sicilies, with the view of depriving a hostile family of this 
 fine territory. But the disposition manifested by the Emperor 
 Paul would not allow him to carry this idea into effect. He 
 was desirous, moreover, to conciliate general opinion throughout 
 Europe, and for this reason it was expedient to avoid, as much 
 as possible, the overthrowing of the ancient kingdoms. He was 
 then willing to grant peace to the court of Naples, on the con- 
 dition that she should come to a rupture with England. But 
 to influence her to take this step was in the highest degree 
 difficult of accomplishment. Murat advanced to the frontiers of 
 the kingdom, taking care to avoid Rome, and lavishing upon the 
 Pope the greatest demonstration of respect. The court of Naples 
 no longer resisted, but signed an armistice which contained a 
 stipulation agreeable to the wishes of the First Consul, for the 
 exclusion of the English from the ports of the Two Sicilies. 
 Nevertheless, the armistice was only for the short term of thirty 
 days; at the expiration of which, a definitive treaty of peace 
 was to be signed. 
 
 The Marquis de Gallo, one of the negotiators at Canipo 
 Formio, who boasted of his intimacy with the First Consul, and 
 of having as much influence over him as M. de Cobentzel, had 
 repaired to Paris. Confiding on these personal recommenda- 
 tions, he flattered himself that, under the protection of the 
 llussian embassy, and at the instances of Austria, he should 
 obtain the conditions desired by the court of Naples, which 
 were confined to a simple neutrality. These pretensions were
 
 476 HISTORY OF THE mar. i8or 
 
 ridiculous, inasmuch as this court, which had given the signal 
 for the second coalition, which had waged against us an ob- 
 stinate war, which had, in short, treated the French with great 
 indignity, could not expect, now that we held her at our dis- 
 cretion, to escape upon the condition of a plain and simple 
 separation from England. The least we could do was to compel 
 her, either willingly or by force, to act as hostilely against 
 England as she had done against France. 
 
 M. de Gallo having betrayed considerable self-sufficiency at 
 Paris, having even appeared to depend more than was becoming 
 upon the Russian embassy, a prompt termination was put to his 
 negotiation. M. de Talleyrand notified to him that a French 
 plenipotentiary had set out for Florence, that the negotiation 
 was consequently transferred to that city, and that, moreover, 
 he could not treat with a negotiator who had not the power to 
 consent to the sole condition deemed indispensable, namely, the 
 expulsion of the English from the ports of the Two Sicilies — 
 a condition which the Emperor Paul had as much at heart as 
 the First Consul himself. Consequently, M. de Gallo found it 
 necessary to quit Paris without delay. We had, in fact, just 
 despatched to Florence M. Alquier, who had been recalled 
 from Madrid at the period when Lucien Bonaparte was sent 
 to Spain. M. Alquier was invested with full instructions and 
 powers to negotiate. 
 
 This plenipotentiary repaired to Florence with the utmost 
 haste, and found there Chevalier Micheroux, the same minister 
 who signed the armistice with Murat, who had just received 
 full powers from his court. The negotiations, transferred to that 
 city, and carried on under the bayonets of the French army, no 
 longer experienced the same difficulties as at Paris. A treaty 
 of peace was signed on the 18th of March 1801 (27th Ventose, 
 year IX.). The conditions may be pronounced moderate, if the 
 situation of the court of Naples be compared with that of the 
 French Republic. We permitted that branch of the house of 
 Bourbons to retain the whole of its dominions, which were pre- 
 served to them in their full integrity. We only exacted an in- 
 significant portion of territory which it possessed in the island 
 of Elba. This was Porto Longone, and the surrounding dis- 
 trict. The island of Elba, at that time, belonged partly to Tus- 
 cany, and partly to the Two Sicilies. The intention of the French 
 Consul was to annex it entirely to France. An historian of 
 these treaties has loudly inveighed against this alleged act of 
 spoliation, as if it were not plainly the natural right of the 
 victor. With the exception of this insignificant sacrifice, the 
 court of Naples lost nothing. She bound herself to close her 
 ports against the English, and to furnish France with three 
 frigates, to be delivered over, ready armed, at Ancona. The
 
 mak. 1 80 1 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 477 
 
 First Consul destined these for Egypt ; but the most important 
 article of the treaty was secret. It stipulated that the Neapo- 
 litan government should receive a division of 12,000 to 15,000 
 French troops in the Gulf of Tarentum, and should victual them 
 during the whole term of their occupying that station. The 
 real intention of the French Consul, without any reservation, 
 was to transport them to that spot, with a view to succour 
 Egypt. At that station they would be half-way on the route 
 to Alexandria. A last article required the restitution of all the 
 objects of art which had been selected at Rome by the French, 
 which were all packed up in cases when the Neapolitan army 
 penetrated into the Papal States in 1799, and which the court 
 of Naples had seized and appropriated to itself. An indemnity 
 of 500,000 f. was granted to the French who had been pillaged 
 or harassed by the marauding bands of Neapolitans. 
 
 Such were the terms of the treaty of Florence, which must 
 be viewed as an act of clemency when the previous conduct of 
 the court of Naples is taken into consideration ; but which was 
 perfectly in accordance with the intentions of the First Consul, 
 who was aiming exclusively at procuring the ports of the con- 
 tinent to be closed against England, and at securiug advan- 
 tageous positions to enable him to keep up communications 
 with Egypt. 
 
 Nothing was yet agreed upon with the Pope, whose plenipo- 
 tentiary was still negotiating at Paris upon the most important 
 of all, the religious question. He was dissatisfied with the King 
 of Piedmont, who had yielded up Sardinia to the English, and 
 also with the Piedmontese, who had manifested dispositions but 
 little friendly towards our troops. He was desirous, therefore, 
 of freeing himself from any engagement respecting that im- 
 portant part of Italy. 
 
 Let us now turn to Spain and Portugal. Everything pro- 
 ceeded favourably in that quarter. The court of Spain, delighted 
 with the stipulations agreed upon at Luneville, which secured 
 Tuscany to the young Infant of Parma, with the title of king, 
 appeared every day more and more devoted to the First Consul. 
 and to his views. An unexpected event, the fall of M. d'Urquijo, 
 far from injuring our relations, had only served to strengthen 
 them. This was not at first anticipated, as M. d'Urquijo was 
 in Spain a sort of revolutionist, from whom a greater degree 
 of favour was expected towards France than from any other 
 individual. Put the result proved this to be a misapprehension. 
 M. d'Urquijo had been at the In ad of affairs but a short time. 
 Desirous of correcting certain abuses, he had induced his roval 
 master, King Charles IV.. to send an autograph letter to the 
 Pope, recommending a series of propositions for the reform 
 of the Spanish clergy. The Pope, alarmed at perceiving a
 
 478 HISTORY OF THE mar. i8oi 
 
 reforming spirit arising in Spain, appealed to the old Duke 
 of Parma, brother to the queen, complaining of M. d'Urquijo, 
 whom he stigmatised as a bad Catholic. This was sufficient 
 to ruin M. d'Urquijo in the mind of the king. The Prince of 
 Peace, an avowed enemy of M. d'Urquijo, availed himself of 
 the opportunity, and struck the last blow during a royal pro- 
 gress. Through these combined influences, M. d'Urquijo was 
 stripped of power, and treated with an unexampled degree of 
 harshness and severity. He was seized in his own house, and 
 banished from Madrid, like a criminal of State. M. de Cevallos, 
 a relative and creature of the Prince of Peace, was appointed 
 his successor. This prince thus again became, from that 
 moment, the real prime minister of the court of Spain. As he 
 had sometimes shown some sort of opposition to an intimate 
 alliance with France, probably in order to have an opportunity of 
 thus throwing blame upon the Spanish ministry, it was feared 
 that this change of ministers might be prejudicial to the designs 
 of the First Consul. But Lucien Bonaparte, recently arrived at 
 Madrid, forming at once a correct opinion of the actual state of 
 things, neglected M. de Cevallos, a powerless subordinate, and put 
 himself in direct relations with the Prince of Peace. He gave 
 this prince to understand, that it was he who was considered at 
 Paris as in reality prime minister of Charles IV.. that to him 
 would be ascribed all the difficulties which French policy might 
 encounter in Spain, and that upon his own conduct would 
 depend whether we should regard him as a friend or as an 
 enemy. The Prince of Peace, who had provoked numberless 
 animosities, and, above all, that of the heir-presumptive, deeply 
 irritated with the state of oppression in which he was condemned 
 to live, and conscious that his ruin was inevitable if the king 
 and queen chanced to die, regarded the friendship of the Bona- 
 partes as most precious, and promptly preferred their alliance 
 to their hostility. 
 
 From that moment, business was conducted between the 
 Prince of Peace and Lucien directly. M. d'Urquijo, finding 
 himself too weak to bring this question of Portugal to a solution, 
 had from time to time postponed any positive explanation on 
 the subject. He had made France a thousand promises, un- 
 attended by any substantial results. The Prince of Peace ad- 
 mitted in his interviews with Lucien that up to that time they 
 had not been inclined to act, that M. d'Urquijo had cajoled 
 France with fine words ; but he declared that he was ready, as 
 far as regarded himself, to concert measures with the First 
 Consul to act effectually against Portugal, provided they could 
 come to an understanding upon certain points. He demanded 
 first, the co-operation of a French division of 25.000 men, as 
 Spain had it not in her power to raise a larger force than 20,000,
 
 mar. 1 80 1 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 479 
 
 to such a point of depression had that splendid monarchy been 
 reduced. As the presence of a French force might alarm the 
 king and queen, it would be necessary, therefore, in order to 
 reassure them both, that this force should be placed under the 
 command of a Spanish general. This general was to be the 
 Prince of Peace himself. Finally, the provinces of Portugal, of 
 which they were to take possession, were to remain as security 
 in the hands of the King of Spain until a general peace : in 
 the meantime, the ports of Portugal should be closed against 
 England. 
 
 These proposals were accepted by the First Consul with the 
 greatest eagerness, and returned in order to receive the sanction 
 of King Charles IV. This prince, governed by his queen, who, 
 in her turn, was under the influence of the Prince of Peace, 
 consented to the war against his son-in-law, on condition that 
 the latter should not be deprived of any portion of his territories ; 
 that he should be forced only to break with the English, and to 
 enter into an alliance with France and Spain. These views did 
 not coincide with those of the Prince of Peace, who was desirous, 
 it was alleged at Madrid, to secure for himself a principality in 
 Portugal. However this may be, he was obliged to submit, and 
 he received accordingly the rank of generalissimo. A summons 
 was sent to the court of Lisbon, to come to an explanation 
 within a fortnight, and to make election between England and 
 Spain, the latter supported by France. In the meantime, the 
 preparations for war were commenced on both sides of the 
 Pyrenees. The Prince of Peace, now created generalissimo of 
 the Spanish and French troops, carried off even the king's own 
 guards to enable him to complete his army. He amused the 
 court with reviews, with warlike spectacles, and indulged in the 
 wildest dreams of military glory. The First Consul, on his 
 part, hastened to direct towards Spain a portion of the troops 
 which were returning to France. He formed a division of 
 25,000 men, well armed and equipped. General Leclerc was 
 appointed to the command of the advanced guard. General 
 Gouvion St. Cyr, whom he justly regarded as one of the most 
 able generals of the time, was appointed to the command of the 
 entire army, in order to compensate for the utter incapacity of 
 the prince generalissimo. 
 
 It was arranged that these troops, set in motion in the month 
 of March, should be ready to enter Spain in the course of the 
 ensuing month of April. 
 
 The whole of Europe thus co-operated to aid our designs. 
 Under the influence of the First Consul, the States of the South 
 closed their ports against England, and the Northern States 
 entered into an armed league against her. Under these circum- 
 stances, this power was under the necessity of having troops
 
 480 HISTORY OF THE mar. 1801 
 
 everywhere ; in the Mediterranean in order to blockade Egypt ; 
 in the Straits of Gibraltar, to check the movements of the 
 French fleets passing from one sea to the other ; upon the coast 
 of Portugal, to succour their threatened ally ; before Rochefort 
 and Brest, in order to blockade the great French and Spanish 
 squadron which was ready to set sail ; in the North, to keep 
 the Baltic under control, and prevent the rising of the neutral 
 powers ; they were also necessary in India to maintain their 
 authority and conquests in that quarter. 
 
 The First Consul was desirous of seizing this peculiar moment, 
 when the British forces, required in all places at the same time, 
 had their strength necessarily widely scattered, to attempt some 
 great expedition. The principal object he had in view, that 
 which he the most cherished, was to succour Egypt. He 
 owed a great duty to the army led beyond the sea, and subse- 
 quently abandoned by him in order to return to the assistance 
 of France. He also considered the colony founded on the banks 
 of the Nile as the most glorious of his works. It was of impor- 
 tance to prove to the world that in transporting 36,000 men 
 to the East he had not yielded to the inspirations of a young 
 and ardent imagination, but had attempted a serious enterprise, 
 susceptible of being brought to a successful conclusion. We 
 have seen the endeavours made to negotiate a naval armistice, 
 the object of which was to permit six frigates to enter into the 
 port of Alexandria. This armistice, it will be recollected, had 
 not been concluded. Not having sufficient financial resources 
 for the equipment of armaments by sea and land, the First 
 Consul had not yet been able to undertake the vast operation 
 which he had in contemplation to succour Egypt. But now, 
 relieved from the continental contest, being able to direct all 
 his resources towards naval warfare, having almost entirely the 
 coasts of Europe at his disposal, he meditated, in order to pre- 
 serve Egypt, projects as extensive and as bold as those which he 
 had executed to achieve its conquest. The winter season con- 
 tributed to the success of his plans, by rendering the presence 
 of the English cruisers on the coasts quite impossible. 
 
 In the meantime, vessels of every description, trading vessels, 
 and ships of war from the smallest despatch boat up to frigates, 
 sailed from the various ports of Holland, France, Spain, Italy, 
 and even from the coast of Barbary, carrying to Egypt with 
 news from France, provisions, European goods, wines, and 
 munitions of war. Some of these vessels were captured, but 
 the greater part reached Alexandria, and not a week elapsed 
 without news from the government at home being received at 
 Cairo, together with signal proofs of the interest which he took 
 in the colony. 
 
 The First Consul also prepared a fleet adapted for the inland
 
 mar. 1 80 1 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 481 
 
 navigation of Egypt. He had executed a model of a seventy- 
 four gun ship, which would combine great strength with the 
 advantage of being able to navigate the shallow channels of 
 Alexandria without discharging her guns.* Orders were given 
 to build a certain number after this model. 
 
 Whilst he bestowed all this sedulous care to sustain the spirits 
 of the army of Egypt, transmitting to it frequently news, with 
 partial relief, the First Consul was, at the same time, preparing 
 a vast expedition in order to convey thither, by one mighty 
 effort, a powerful reinforcement of troops and materials of war. 
 The armies returned to the soil of France were about to add a 
 pressure on our finances ; but, on the other hand, they supplied 
 the government with great means to disquiet, perhaps to strike 
 a blow at England. Thirty thousand men remained in the 
 Cisalpine; 10,000 in Piedmont; 6000 in Switzerland; 15,000 
 were proceeding to the Gulf of Tarentum ; 25,000 were direct- 
 ing their march towards Portugal; 25,000 were stationed in 
 Holland: thus 111,000 men were to be supported by foreign 
 powers. The remainder were about to be thrown on the French 
 treasury, but nevertheless entirely at the disposal of the First 
 Consul. A camp was forming in Holland ; another in French 
 Flanders ; a third at Brest ; a fourth was already collected in 
 the Gironde, either destined for Portugal, or to furnish troops 
 for embarkation at Eochefort. The coqos returning from Italy 
 assembled between Marseilles and Toulon. The division of 1 5, coo 
 men appointed to the station in the Gulf of Tarentum was to 
 occupy Otrauto, in virtue of a secret article of the treaty of 
 Naples, to cover the surrounding roadsteads by numerous bat- 
 teries, to prepare a place of anchorage, where a fleet might 
 approach and embark a division of 10.OOO to 12,000 men in 
 order to transport them to Egypt. Admiral Villeneuve had 
 already set out to give the necessary orders on the spot for 
 such embarkation. 
 
 The naval forces of Holland, France, and Spain, with some 
 remains of the Italian navy, stationed near these several assem- 
 blages of troops, gave England reason to apprehend descents 
 contemplated upon different points at the same time ; upon 
 Ireland, upon Portugal, upon Egypt, or upon the East Indies. 
 
 The First Consul had concerted measures with Spain and 
 Holland, relating to the employment of their respective navies. 
 By collecting the wrecks of the ancient Dutch navy, five ships 
 of the line and a few frigates might be armed. Thirty vessels 
 were lying at Brest, fifteen French, and as many Spanish, which 
 had been detained two years in that harbour. The First Consul 
 had made the following arrangements with Spain. Five Dutch 
 ships combined with five French vessels, and live of the Spanish 
 
 * Letter dated 1st Nivosc, year IX. --State Paper Oflioe. 
 VOL. I. 2 II
 
 482 HISTORY OF THE mak. 1801 
 
 vessels lying at Brest, were to be despatched to Brazil, in order 
 to protect that fine kingdom, and to prevent England from in- 
 demnifying herself for the enterprise set on foot against Portugal, 
 by seizing on the Portuguese colonies. Twenty Spanish and 
 French ships, according to the convention, were to remain at 
 Brest, to be ready at any moment to throw an army into Ireland. 
 A French division was preparing under Admiral Gauteaume, in 
 the same port of Brest, destined, it was said, for St. Domingo, 
 there to re-establish the French and Spanish authority. Another 
 French division was being equipped at Rochefort, and a Spanish 
 division of five vessels at Ferrol, for the purpose of carrying 
 troops to the West India Islands, and recovering Trinidad, for 
 instance, or Martinique. Spain, by the treaty which secured 
 Tuscany to her in exchange for Louisiana, had engaged to 
 furnish France with six vessels fully equipped, placed in the 
 harbour of Cadiz, and to employ the resources of that ancient 
 arsenal to reorganise a portion of the forces which she formerly 
 possessed at that station. 
 
 The First Consul, in forming these arrangements, did not 
 communicate to the Spanish government his real intentions, as 
 he feared the indiscretion of that cabinet. He was desirous to 
 send a portion of the combined fleets to Brazil, and to the West 
 India Islands, to accomplish the avowed designs, and to attract 
 thither the English fleets ; but at Brest his paramount object 
 was the expedition under Gauteaume, ostensibly destined for 
 St. Domingo, but intended in reality for Egypt. He gave 
 orders for the selection of seven of the fastest sailing ships of 
 the squadron, with two frigates and a brig ; and these vessels 
 were to transport 5000 men to effect a landing, with an ample 
 supply of warlike stores of all kinds, timber, iron, medicines, 
 and a selection of European commodities most wanted in Egypt. 
 The First Consul gave orders to reland the cargoes of those 
 vessels which were already in a very advanced state of loading, 
 and to reload them in conformity with the fresh arrangements 
 which he had determined upon. He was anxious, in short, 
 that each vessel should contain a complete assortment of every 
 individual article prepared for the colony, and not an entire 
 cargo of one single description of articles ; so that in the case 
 of one of the vessels being captured, the expedition would not 
 be totally deficient of the precise article which the captured 
 vessel might contain. This arrangement being contrary to the 
 usage of the navy, rendered the stowage of these vessels more 
 difficult, but the absolute will of the First Consul overcame all 
 these obstacles. His aide-de-camp, Lauriston, was at Brest, 
 seconding the written instructions of which he was the bearer 
 by the influence of his presence, and by his urgent endeavours 
 to expedite their departure. The expedition from Rochefort,
 
 mar. 1 80 1 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 483 
 
 ostensibly announced for the West India Islands, was also 
 destined for Egypt. Its equipment was proceeding as rapidly 
 as possible. The aide-de-camp Savary urged its departure, and 
 drew thither a body of troops detached from the army of Por- 
 tugal. The division of 25,000 men, which was about to pass 
 the Pyrenees, being assembled in the Gironde, furnished con- 
 venient means for disguising the real object of the Rochefort 
 expedition. Without exciting the least suspicion, a few batta- 
 lions had been borrowed from this force with the intention of 
 embarking them in this squadron. The expedition was to be 
 confided to Admiral Bruix, perhaps the most distinguished naval 
 commander whom France at that time possessed. This admiral 
 united to a superior understanding, seldom found amongst either 
 civil or military men, a perfect knowledge of naval affairs, and 
 had distinguished himself by his successful and well-known 
 cruise of 1799 in the Mediterranean. When, at the last moment, 
 General Bonaparte should disclose his secret to the cabinet at 
 Madrid, xldmiral Bruix was to proceed to Ferrol, and, reinforced 
 by the squadron lying at that place, repair to Cadiz, there to be 
 joined by the division furnished by Spain, and then proceed 
 onwards to Otranto, embark the troops collected at that point, 
 and from thence set sail for Egypt. This division at Cadiz, 
 furnished by Spain, was composed of six fine vessels which were 
 being prepared in the greatest haste. Admiral Dumanoir had 
 just set out post to Cadiz, in order to urge on their equipment. 
 Bodies of sailors were proceeding by land towards this port. 
 Small vessels, filled with seamen, were sent also at the same 
 time, and these men, when transferred, helped to complete the 
 crews of the vessels of war. 
 
 These numerous expeditions would inevitably attract the 
 attention of England to all points at once, divide her forces, 
 cause her infinite confusion, and some of them taking advan- 
 tage of this confusion would be almost certain to reach Egypt. 
 Desirous of availing himself of the bad season, which rendered 
 the enemy's cruising off Brest both difficult and interrupted, 
 the First Consul intended to make Admiral Gauteaume sail 
 before spring. His orders to this effect were very precise ; but 
 it was not easy for him to inspire his naval commanders with 
 the same spirit that animated the generals of his land forces. 
 Admiral Gauteaume had seemed to him bold and successful, as 
 it was he who had brought him almost miraculously from Alex- 
 andria to Frejus. But in this opinion he was mistaken. This 
 officer, an experienced seaman, perfectly acquainted with the 
 navigation of the Levant, of undaunted bravery, was. never- 
 theless, of irresolute character, and incapable of sustaining 
 the burden of a heavy responsibility. The expedition was ready 
 for sea: several families of workmen were embarked, under the
 
 484 HISTORY OF THE mar. 1801 
 
 impression instilled into them, that they were bound to St. 
 Domingo, but still they hesitated to put to sea. Savary, armed 
 with the orders of the First Consul, overcame all the obstacles 
 which presented themselves, and compelled Gauteaume to set 
 sail. The enemy's cruisers descried them, and made signals to 
 the blockading squadron that the French fleet was leaving the 
 port, so that Gauteaume was under the necessity of returning 
 to the anchorage in the outer road of Bertheaume. He then 
 feigned to re-enter the inner roads, in order to induce the 
 English to believe that his only object was to exercise his crews 
 by performing these evolutions. 
 
 At last, on the 23rd of January (3rd Pluviose), the enemy's 
 cruisers being dispersed by a dreadful gale of wind, he set sail, 
 and, in spite of the greatest dangers, happily succeeded in getting 
 out of the port of Brest, and proceeded towards the Straits of 
 Gibraltar. The success of Gauteaume's enterprise was the more 
 desirable, as the famous expedition consisting of 15,000 or 
 18,000 English, destined one day for Ferrol, and another day 
 for Cadiz, or it might be the South of France, was at that 
 moment on its way to Egypt. It was lying in the road of 
 Maori, opposite the island of Rhodes, waiting the season for 
 landing, and the completion of the preparations of the Turks. 
 
 Orders were issued to the journals of the capital to make no 
 mention of the naval movements which might be remarked in 
 the ports of France, unless the intelligence was derived from 
 the Moniteur* 
 
 Before we trace the operations of our squadrons in the South, 
 we must revert to the North, and see what was passing between 
 England and the neutral powers. 
 
 Great Britain was, at this moment, menaced by an accumu- 
 lation of the greatest dangers. War had at length broken out 
 between that government and the Baltic powers. The declara- 
 tion of the neutrals, similar to that issued in 1780, being only 
 a simple declaration of their rights, England might still have 
 dissembled with them without construing this declaration, which 
 was directed in a general manner to all the belligerent parties, 
 as addressed especially to herself, and might have endeavoured, 
 for the moment, to avoid any collision, by taking care to respect 
 the Danish, Swedish, Prussian, and Russian flags. England 
 had, in fact, much greater interest in maintaining peace with the 
 
 * The following is a curious letter on this subject : — 
 
 " The First Consul to the Minister of General Police. 
 
 " Have the goodness, Citizen Minister, to address a short circular to the 
 editors of the fourteen journals, forbidding the insertion of any article cal- 
 culated to afford the enemy the slightest clue to the different movements 
 which are taking place in our squadrons, unless the intelligence be derived 
 from the official journal. 
 
 " Paris, 1st Ventose, year IX." — State Paper Office.
 
 mar. 1 80 1 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 485 
 
 northern powers of Europe, than in harassing the commerce of 
 the smaller maritime powers trading with France. Moreover, her 
 immediate want of foreign corn rendered even the freedom of 
 the neutrals temporarily expedient. Strictly considered, she was 
 only justified in making reprisals against Kussia ; inasmuch, as 
 amongst all the members of the neutral league, the Emperor Paul 
 was the only one who had added to the declaration, the hostile 
 act of an embargo on her vessels. Besides, the question of Malta 
 was much more the motive of this measure, than were any of the 
 contested points concerning maritime rights. 
 
 But England, in her pride, had met a simple exposition of 
 principles by an act of violence, and had placed under embargo 
 all the Russian, Swedish, and Danish vessels. She had only 
 excepted from these rigorous proceedings the commerce of 
 Prussia, towards which power she showed more moderation, in 
 the hopes of detaching her from the confederacy, and moreover, 
 because Hanover was at her mercy. 
 
 England, then, was actually at war at the same time with 
 France and Spain, her ancient enemies, and with the courts of 
 Russia, Sweden, and Prussia, her ancient allies ; she had been 
 abandoned by Austria since the peace of Luneville, and by the 
 court of Naples since the treaty of Florence. Portugal, her last 
 foothold on the continent, was about to be wrested from her. 
 Her situation was precisely similar to that in which France was 
 placed in 1793. She was reduced to struggle alone against all 
 Europe, exposed, however, it is true, to fewer dangers than 
 France, and entitled to less merit for being able to defend her- 
 self, inasmuch as her insular position protected her from the 
 peril of an invasion. But to render the parallel of their respec- 
 tive positions more remarkable and complete, England was a 
 prey to a frightful famine. The people were in want of food of 
 primary necessity. This state of things was entirely brought 
 about by the obstinacy of Mr. Pitt, and by the genius of General 
 Bonaparte. Mr. Pitt having refused to treat before Marengo, 
 and General Bonaparte having disarmed one 1 portion of Europe 
 by his victories, and turned the other against England by means 
 of his policy, were both incontestably the authors of this pro- 
 digious change of fortune. 
 
 The position of England was unquestionably most alarming, 
 and we must acknowledge that at this critical juncture she did 
 not give way to despondency. The harvest of the preceding 
 year having been less by one-third than an average crop, all the 
 preceding stock on hand had been consumed. The harvest of 
 the year 1 800 having again been deficient by one-fourth, the 
 present scarcity had followed. This scarcity was doubly aggra- 
 vated by the general war, and especially by the war with the 
 maritime powers, since the supplies of grain were usually derived
 
 486 HISTORY OF THE mar. 1801 
 
 from the Baltic. If, therefore, the bad harvest was the primary- 
 cause of the famine, it is true that the war greatly tended to 
 aggravate the calamity. Had it only raised the price of grain, 
 by interposing impediments in the way of the Baltic trade, even 
 then its influence upon the general distress must have been truly 
 disastrous. The revenue presented this year the most alarming 
 deficit. The income tax, customs, and excise gave apprehensions 
 that there would be a deficiency in the revenue of £3,000,000 
 to £4,000,000 sterling. The expenditure of the year was enor- 
 mous. To meet this it became necessary to borrow £25,000,000 
 to £26,000,000 sterling. The total expenses of the year for the 
 three kingdoms (Ireland having just become united by the Act 
 of Union), including the interest of the debt created by Mr. Pitt, 
 were estimated at £69,000,000 sterling, an enormous amount at 
 any time, but the more so in 1 800, as at that period the revenue 
 had not been augmented to that considerable amount to which a 
 subsequent interval of forty years has raised it in England and in 
 all the countries of Europe. France, as we have stated, had only 
 to support a burden of 600,000,000 f. (£24,000,000 sterling). 
 The exact total of the English debt was, as usually, stoutly dis- 
 puted; but, in taking only the statement of the government,* 
 it amounted in capital to £484,365,474 sterling. To meet the 
 interest of the debt and the Sinking Fund there was required 
 annually a sum of £20,144,000 sterling, without taking into 
 account the debt of Ireland, or the loans guaranteed to the 
 Emperor of Germany. Mr. Pitt was accused of having increased 
 the debt on account of the war of the Revolution more than 
 £300,000,000 sterling. On the showing of the government the 
 increase was £298,000,000. 
 
 But we must say that England presented a most surprising 
 improvement in every branch, and that her riches had aug- 
 mented in the same proportion as her burdens. Besides the 
 conquest of India, consummated by the destruction of Tippoo 
 Saib ; besides the conquest of a portion of the French, Spanish, 
 and Dutch colonies, to which was just added the acquisition of 
 the island of Malta, England had monopolised the commerce of 
 the whole world. According to the official returns, the imports, 
 which had been in 1781, towards the close of the American 
 war, £12,724,000 sterling, and which, in 1792, at the breaking 
 out of the war of the Revolution, were £19,659,000 sterling, 
 increased, in 1799, to £29,945,000. The exports of English 
 manufactured goods, which, in 1781, were £7,633,000, in 1792 
 were £24,905,000, and rose, in 1799, to £33,991,000. Thus 
 her foreign trade had tripled since the termination of the 
 American war, and had nearly doubled since the war of the 
 
 * These amounts are taken from the budget presented to Parliament in 
 June 1801, by Mr. Addington, successor to Mr. Pitt.
 
 mae. 1 80 1 CONSULATE AND TEE EMPIRE. 487 
 
 Revolution. In 1788, the English trade employed 13,827 
 vessels, and 107,925 seamen; it now, in 1801, employed 
 18,877 vessels, and 143,661 seamen. The excise and customs 
 had risen from £7,320,000 to £15,587,000. The Sinking 
 Fund, which was, in 1784, £1,000,000, had also increased, in 
 1800, to £5,500,000. 
 
 The resources of the British empire had, then, all doubled 
 or trebled -during the preceding twenty years; and, if the 
 pressure at the moment was great, there existed enormous 
 wealth to meet it. England, it is true, was encumbered by a 
 debt of more than £480,000,000, with an annual charge of 
 ^20,000,000, to meet the accruing interest ; she had to meet, 
 this year, an expenditure of £68,000,000, and to raise, by loan, 
 £24,000,000, to meet her exigencies. All this was enormous, 
 no doubt, if we, moreover, consider the value of money at the 
 time ; but England possessed resources within herself, pro- 
 portionate to these demands. Although not a continental 
 power, she had an army of 193,000 regular troops, 109,000 
 militia and fencibles, making a total of 302,000 men. She 
 possessed 814 vessels of war, of all sizes, either in course of 
 building or repairing, advance ships, or in commission at sea. 
 In this number were included 100 ships of the line, and 200 
 frigates, under sail, in all quarters of the world : twenty ships 
 of the line, and forty frigates in reserve, ready for sea. Her 
 effective force then could not be estimated at less than 120 
 line -of- battle ships, and 250 frigates, manned by 120,000 
 seamen. In addition to this stupendous force, England pos- 
 sessed a number of naval officers of great merit, and, at their 
 head, a renowned seaman in the person of Nelson. He was an 
 eccentric, violent man, not fit to be entrusted with authority, in 
 cases where diplomatic services were combined with his duties 
 as a naval commander ; and he had but recently given a proof 
 of this at Naples, by allowing his name to be tarnished by the 
 intrigues of women, during the bloody executions ordered by 
 the Neapolitan government ; but in the midst of danger he 
 was a hero ; and he displayed as much genius as courage : bis 
 country was justly proud of his glory. 
 
 England and France have filled the present age with the 
 fame of their formidable rival exploits. The period at which 
 we have now arrived in this recital is one of the most remark- 
 able during the struggle which they maintained against each 
 other. They both had waged war during eight years. France, 
 with financial resources far less vast, but perhaps more solid, 
 inasmuch as they were founded upon a territorial revenue, 
 with a population nearly double, with all the enthusiasm which 
 a good cause inspires, had successfully resisted all Europe. 
 had extended her territory to the Rhine and to the Alps, had
 
 488 HISTORY OF THE mar. 1801 
 
 acquired the dominion over Italy, and a decisive influence on 
 the continent. England, with the profits arising from the 
 commerce of the whole world, with a powerful navy, had 
 acquired a preponderance on the ocean equal to that which 
 France had acquired on land. England, by subsidising the 
 European powers, had incited them against her rival, had 
 urged them to fight, even to their destruction. But whilst 
 she exposed them to be crushed in her service, at the same 
 time she seized upon the colonies of all nations, oppressed the 
 powers which remained neutral, taking revenge, for the success 
 of France on land, by an oppressive tyranny on the ocean ; and, 
 although victorious upon this element, she could not prevent 
 France from creating a magnificent maritime station in Egypt, 
 threatening even the British dominions in the East Indies. 
 
 A strange revulsion of public opinion, as we have said 
 elsewhere, resulted from this concatenation of events. France, 
 admirably governed, appeared, in the eyes of the world, humane, 
 wise, tranquil, evincing moderation in her victories — a combi- 
 nation of meritorious qualities as rare as they are admirable. 
 Whilst the various cabinets were becoming reconciled to her, 
 they perceived at once how they had all, till then, been the 
 dupes of England's policy. Austria had been urged on to 
 fight for the cause of England, as if she were struggling for 
 her own existence. For this same England the Germanic 
 empire had been dismembered. The powers of the North, with 
 Russia at their head, discovered, at length, that under pretext 
 of prosecuting a moral purpose, and contending against the 
 French Revolution, they had only contributed to procure for 
 England the commerce of the whole universe. Thus the whole 
 world at this moment turned against the mistress of the seas. 
 Paul I. had given the signal with the accustomed impetuosity of 
 his character. Sweden imitated his example without hesitation. 
 Denmark and Prussia followed in the same steps, although with 
 a less degree of resolution. Austria conquered, and now re- 
 covered from her delusions, digested her spleen in silence, and, 
 for the moment, at least, gave signs of resisting, for a long- 
 period to come, the baneful influence of the British subsidies. 
 
 England reaped the fruits of the policy she had pursued ; 
 she had doubled her colonies, her commerce, her revenue, her 
 navy ; but she had also doubled her debt, her expenditure, her 
 burdens, her enemies, and she presented a spectacle of immense 
 wealth, with all the frightful misery attending a people dying 
 from hunger. France, Spain, Russia, Prussia, Denmark, 
 and Sweden were leagued against her. France, Spain, and 
 Holland united possessed eighty ships, fully equipped, and were 
 capable of arming a greater number. Sweden had twenty- 
 eight, Russia thirty-five, Denmark twenty-three, making a
 
 mar. 1 80 1 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 489 
 
 total together of 166 ships of the line — a force superior to 
 that of the British navy. But England, on her side, enjoyed 
 one great advantage, in having to contend with a coalition ; 
 moreover, her armaments surpassed, in effectiveness, those of 
 the coalition. The French and Danish vessels were the only 
 ones which could cope with theirs ; and these found it difficult, 
 when fighting in large squadrons, as the manoeuvres of the 
 English navy excelled all others in the world. Nevertheless, 
 the danger was becoming imminent, for, if the struggle were 
 prolonged, General Bonaparte was capable of undertaking 
 some formidable expedition, and, if he succeeded in crossing 
 the English channel with an invading army, England was lost. 
 
 The long-continued good fortune of Mr. Pitt, like that of 
 M. de Thugut, was now on the wane, before the rising star of 
 young General Bonaparte. Mr. Pitt had enjoyed the most 
 brilliant destiny of his time, after that of the Great Frederick ; 
 he was only forty-three years of age, and had already held the 
 reins of power during seventeen years, a power almost absolute 
 in a free country. But his fortune was declining with years, 
 and that of General Bonaparte, on the contrary, was rising — it 
 was just dawning. The fortunes of men succeed each other in 
 the history of the world, like beings in the universe : they have 
 their youth, their decrepitude, and their death. The incom- 
 parably more brilliant fortune of General Bonaparte was also 
 destined one day to decline, but meanwhile it was reserved for 
 it to witness the fall of the greatest statesman England ever 
 had, sinking beneath its bright ascendant. 
 
 Great Britain seemed menaced by a sort of internal convul- 
 sion. The people, suffering from a frightful scarcity, were 
 rising in different parts of the kingdom, pillaging the magnifi- 
 cent country seats of the English aristocracy, and in the cities, 
 plundering the bakers' shops and the provision warehouses. 
 There were in London in 1801, as in Paris in 1792. misguided 
 friends of the people, who incited proceedings against the 
 alleged engrossers, and, in fact, insisted upon a measure which 
 differed only in name from a maximum in the price of bread. 
 Nevertheless, neither the government nor the parliament 
 appeared in the least degree disposed to yield to these sense- 
 less demands. The masses reproached Mr. Pitt with being the 
 cause of all their present distresses, they alleged it was he, 
 who, by loading the country with taxes, by doubling the debt, 
 had raised the prices of articles of primary necessity to an 
 exorbitant degree ; thai it was he. who. in persisting in pro- 
 secuting a mad war. in refusing to treat with France, had 
 ended by turning all the maritime nations against England, 
 and by depriving the English people of a supply of foreign 
 grain from the Baltic, now become indispensable. The opposition,
 
 49Q HISTORY OF THE mar. 1801 
 
 seeing for the first time for seventeen years Mr. Pitt's power 
 shaken, redoubled their energy. Mr. Fox, who had so long 
 absented himself from Parliament, again resumed his seat. 
 Sheridan, Tierney, Lords Grey and Holland, renewed their 
 attacks, and (that which rarely happens in excited parties of 
 an opposition) on this occasion, when contending with their 
 political adversaries, they had right on their side. Mr. Pitt, 
 in spite of his accustomed self-possession, had little in fact to 
 urge in reply, when the question was asked, why he had not 
 treated with France when the First Consul proposed peace 
 before the battle of Marengo ? Why, and that recently before 
 Hohenlinden, why had he not consented, if not to a naval 
 armistice which might have given the French a chance of 
 maintaining themselves in Egypt, at least to the separate 
 negotiation which they had proposed? Why had he so un- 
 towardly let slip the opportunity of securing the evacuation 
 of Egypt, by refusing to ratify the convention of El Arisch ? 
 Why had he not temporised with the neutral powers in order 
 to gain time with them ? Why had he not imitated Lord 
 North, who, in 1780, avoided answering a manifesto of mari- 
 time powers, by a declaration of war? Why had he thus 
 drawn all Europe in array against England on account of 
 doubtful questions of the law of nations upon which all 
 countries entertained conflicting opinions, and which at the 
 moment did not materially affect the interests of England ? 
 Why, with the view of preventing France from obtaining for 
 her dockyards, timber, iron, and hemp, which were not suf- 
 ficient to recruit its navy, why had he exposed England to 
 be wholly deprived of foreign corn ? Why, in short, had 
 an English army been uselessly transported from Mahon to 
 Ferrol, and from Ferrol to Cadiz, without any practical result ? 
 The opposition, contrasting the management of the affairs of 
 England with that of the affairs of France, inquired of Mr. 
 Pitt, with bitter irony, what he had to say of this young 
 Bonaparte, of this rash youth, who. according to the ministerial 
 language, was only doomed to enjoy a brief existence like his 
 predecessors, so ephemeral that it did not entitle him to be 
 treated with ? 
 
 Mr. Pitt had great difficulty in maintaining his ground 
 against Fox, Sheridan, and Tierney, Lords Grey and Holland, 
 when in the face of all England he was pressed by these 
 urgent questions, but became alarmed at the number of his 
 enemies, and disconcerted at the clamour of a famished people, 
 in vain demanding bread. 
 
 Mr. Pitt made but a feeble defence to all these reproaches. 
 He constantly repeated his favourite argument, that if he had 
 not made war, the English constitution would have perished ;
 
 mar 1 80 1 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 491 
 
 and he cited as examples, Venice, Naples, Piedmont, Switzer- 
 land, Holland, and the ecclesiastical States of Germany, as if it 
 could be believed that what had occurred to some third-rate 
 Italian or German powers must necessarily have happened to 
 powerful England, and to her liberal constitution. He replied, 
 and on this occasion with more truth, that if France had 
 greatly increased her territory by land, England had equally 
 augmented her power by sea ; that her navy was crowned with 
 glory, that if her debts and her taxes had doubled, her riches 
 had also doubled, and that all circumstances considered, England 
 was more powerful at that moment than before the war. All 
 this could not be disputed. Mr. Pitt added, moreover, that as 
 the First Consul appeared to be more permanently established 
 in authority, they were about to treat with him. But on the 
 question of neutral rights he remained inflexible. " If England," 
 said he, " subscribed to the doctrines laid down by the neutral 
 powers, a small armed sloop would suffice to convoy the trade 
 of the whole world. England would be precluded from taking 
 any steps against the trade of her enemies, and she could no 
 longer prevent Spain from receiving the precious metals of the 
 New World, nor France from obtaining the naval munitions 
 of war supplied by the North. We must," he exclaimed, 
 " envelop ourselves in our own flag, and proudly find our grave 
 in the deep, rather than admit the validity of such principles 
 in the maritime code of nations." 
 
 Two sessions of Parliament succeeded each other without any 
 interval of repose. In November 1800. the last meeting took 
 place of what was called the Parliament of England and Scot- 
 land ; in January 1 80 1, the united Parliament of the three 
 kingdoms assembled for the first time in virtue of the act which 
 united Ireland with Great Britain. During these two sessions 
 the most vehement discussions had been carried on without 
 intermission. Mr. Pitt was visibly weakened, not as respected 
 his numerical majority in the Parliament, but as regarded his 
 popular influence, and moral power out of doors. Every one 
 felt that in persisting in making war against France, he had 
 overshot the mark, and had missed, on the eve of Marengo as 
 on that of Hohenlinden, the favourable opportunity of treating 
 advantageously. To miss an opportunity is for a statesman, as 
 well as for a military man, an irreparable misfortune. The 
 moment for making peace once past, fortune turned against 
 Mr. Pitt, He felt himself, and the people perceived that he 
 was vanquished by the talents of young General Bonaparte. 
 
 We must, however, do him. and also England, the justice to 
 acknowledge, that the measures adopted during this frightful 
 scarcitv were marked by great moderation. The proposal of a 
 maximum was rejected. They went no further than to grant
 
 492 HISTORY OF THE mab. 1801 
 
 considerable bounties upon the importation of corn, to prohibit 
 the use of grain in the distilleries, and to discontinue all paro- 
 chial relief in money, lest it might raise the price of bread, 
 affording, however, that relief in food, such as salted provisions, 
 vegetables, &c. A royal proclamation was addressed to all 
 classes in easy circumstances, and who had it in their power to 
 vary their diet, urging them to use the utmost economy in the 
 consumption of bread in their respective families. In addition 
 to this they despatched numerous fleets to obtain rice in the 
 East Indies, corn in America, and in the Mediterranean. They 
 even endeavoured to procure it from France, by a contraband 
 trade on the coast of Brittany and La Vendee. 
 
 Nevertheless, in the midst of this distress, which was borne 
 with great fortitude, Mr. Pitt did not neglect the prosecution of 
 the war, and he had made every arrangement for a bold expedi- 
 tion into the Baltic as soon as_ the season would permit. He was 
 desirous to aim a blow first at Denmark and then at Sweden, 
 and proceed even to the extremity of the Gulf of Finland, with 
 a view of menacing Russia. But it is not known even in his 
 own country whether he seriously wished to continue at the 
 head of affairs in England. Two questions were constantly 
 agitated by him in the cabinet, one of which, most inopportune 
 at such a moment, led to his retirement. It has been seen, that 
 after strenuous exertions made in the preceding year, he had 
 obtained what is called the Act of Union with Ireland, that 
 is to say, the union of the Parliaments of England, Scotland, 
 and Ireland into one imperial legislature. This measure had 
 appeared like a sort of party victory, especially in the face 
 of the reiterated attempts of the French Republic to stir up 
 an insurrection in Ireland. But they had only succeeded in 
 stripping Ireland of her independence, by giving the Catholics 
 a formal pledge that emancipation should be granted to them. 
 The Catholics were told, that they never would obtain their 
 enfranchisement, from the prejudices of the Irish Parliament, 
 which was undoubtedly true ; but it appears that promises were 
 actually made, amounting to a positive pledge, which must be 
 considered as a serious political error, if it be true, that Mr. 
 Pitt was bound, by the tenor of these engagements, to grant 
 emancipation, or to retire. It was a pledge at that time im- 
 possible of performance. Be this as it may, in the month of 
 February 1801, at the opening of the first united Parliament, 
 Mr. Pitt asked the consent of George III. to an emancipation 
 bill. The king, a staunch Protestant, conceived this to be an 
 infringement of his coronation oath, and obstinately refused it. 
 Mr. Pitt made another request, which was a most reasonable 
 one : namely, not to consider the occupation of Hanover by 
 Prussia as an act of hostility, but to keep on terms with that
 
 mar. 1 80 1 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 493 
 
 power, in order to preserve at least one friendly relation on the 
 continent. The sacrifice was too great for a prince of the house 
 of Hanover. The dispute between the king and the minister 
 grew warm, and on the 8th of February 1 801, Mr. Pitt, together 
 with the majority of his colleagues, Messrs. Dundas and Wind- 
 ham, Lord Grenville, and others, tendered their resignation. 
 This resignation, after an administration of seventeen years, 
 under circumstances so extraordinary, caused the greatest sen- 
 sation. The people could not view it as arising out of natural 
 circumstances, but ascribed secret motives to Mr. Pitt ; and an 
 opinion at that time took possession of the public mind, which 
 historians have zealously perpetuated ever since, that Mr. Pitt, 
 perceiving the necessity of a temporary peace, consented to 
 stand aloof during a few months, in order to allow this peace 
 to be brought about by others, rather than by himself, and then 
 afterwards to return to the helm of affairs, when the political 
 exigency of the moment should have been provided for. Such 
 are the motives which the multitude generally ascribe to public 
 men, and which ill-informed writers repeat as they have heard 
 them. Mr. Pitt neither foresaw the peace of Amiens, nor its 
 short duration,* nor did he conceive, moreover, that peace was 
 incompatible with his continuance in the ministry, as he had 
 consented to the famed negotiations at Lille in 1797, and even 
 recently he had selected Mr. Thomas Grenville to represent 
 England at Luneville. But Mr. Pitt had gone to great lengths 
 with the Catholics ; he had committed a blunder, of which 
 public men are often guilty, that of sacrificing the interest of 
 the future, to secure the advantages of the moment. Having 
 promised too much, he felt all the embarrassment of not fulfill- 
 ing those promises, and that in a critical state of parties, when 
 a small accession of strength to his adversaries would suffice 
 to overwhelm him. It is true that subsequently, he denied 
 positively that he had ever given any distinct pledge respecting 
 Catholic emancipation, and this denial was indeed wanting to 
 defend him from such a charge of imprudence. Whatever 
 opinion may be entertained on this point, there never was a 
 period when the clangers of any country justified to the same 
 degree, or even required, the postponement of solemn engage- 
 ments, for in 1 80 1, England was a prey to a famine within, 
 while abroad she was at war with the whole of Europe. Never- 
 theless, Mr. Pitt withdrew from office, and his retirement can 
 only be regarded as the weakness of a superior mind. It is 
 evident that, every where surrounded by fearful embarrassments, 
 
 * I am indebted for the above details to several cotemporaries of Mr. Pitt, 
 who were on the most intimate terms with him ; who were engaged in the 
 ministerial negotiations of that period, and who fill, even tit the present day, 
 some of the highest oilices in England.
 
 494 HISTORY OF THE mar. 1801 
 
 Mr. Pitt was not sorry to be relieved from his situation, under 
 the honourable pretext of an inviolable fidelity to his own 
 engagements. He sent in his resignation to the great grief of 
 the king, to the great dissatisfaction of the ministerial party, 
 and to the great apprehension of all England, which viewed 
 with alarming anxiety a set of new and inexperienced men 
 seize the helm of affairs at this critical juncture. Mr. Pitt 
 caused himself to be succeeded by Mr. Addington, who was his 
 creature, and had for many years past held the speakership of 
 the House of Commons. Lord Hawkesbury, afterwards Lord 
 Liverpool, succeeded Mr. Grenville at the foreign office. They 
 were moderate, prudent men, but of second-rate ability, both 
 friends of Mr. Pitt, and for some time followed his advice. This 
 it was which contributed, more than any other cause, to give 
 currency to the report that the retirement of Mr. Pitt was 
 ostensible rather than real. 
 
 The feeble intellect of George III. was unequal to bear the 
 violence of the political crisis. He was seized with a fresh 
 attack of insanity, and during a month was incapable of fulfilling 
 the functions of royalty. Mr. Pitt had sent in his resignation. 
 Mr. Addington and Lord Hawkesbury were the ministers ap- 
 pointed to succeed him, but had not yet received the seals of 
 office. Mr. Pitt, although he had ceased to be minister, was 
 still, in fact, King of England, during this crisis of nearly a 
 month's duration, and was so by the consent of the whole 
 nation. Explanations took place upon the subject in the House 
 of Commons. They were of a very delicate nature ; they were 
 demanded by Mr. Sheridan, and given in noble, statesmanlike 
 language by Mr. Pitt. The various motions, usually made in 
 the English Parliament, upon the state of the country, were 
 postponed, and it perhaps occurred to some distrustful minds 
 that Mr. Pitt prolonged, without reluctance, the sort of royal 
 authority which he enjoyed. He trusted it would be believed, 
 to use his own language at the time, that in the event of ministers 
 being no longer able to receive the commands of his Majesty 
 from his own mouth, they would propose measures to which it 
 was unnecessary to allude more distinctly, but which they should 
 not delay for one single day. They found themselves placed by 
 their duty in an unprecedented situation, which they should not 
 wish, on any account, to prolong one instant more than strict 
 necessity required. Mr. Sheridan replied to this, by expressing 
 the utmost confidence, that neither Mr. Pitt nor any other 
 minister would ever presume to take advantage of the unhappy 
 condition of the king's health, to prolong, for one moment, a 
 power equal to that of the sovereign himself. 
 
 The most delicate reserve was observed. The word which 
 characterised the real condition of the kino-, that of madness,
 
 mar. 1 80 1 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 495 
 
 did not escape the lips of any one ; and the nation waited with 
 anxiety, but with perfect composure, the issue of this extra- 
 ordinary crisis. During this period, Mr. Pitt induced subsidies 
 to be voted, which no one opposed ; the English fleets were got 
 ready for sea, and Admirals Parker and Nelson left Yarmouth 
 with forty-seven sail, and proceeded towards the Baltic. 
 
 In the middle of March, the king's health was restored. Mr. 
 Pitt transferred the reins of government to Mr. Addington and 
 Lord Hawkesbury. The new ministers, when giving explana- 
 tions, as usual, on assuming office, did not omit to state, from 
 their seats in Parliament, that they entertained the highest sen- 
 timents of esteem for their predecessors ; that they considered 
 the course of policy they had adopted as highly salutary, and 
 that it had, in fact, saved England ; they consequently declared, 
 that they should be guided by the same principles, and follow 
 in the same steps. " Why, then, have you come into power ? " 
 asked Messrs. Sheridan, Grey, and Fox. " If you mean to pur- 
 sue the same line of policy as your predecessors, the ministers 
 who have retired were much more capable than yourselves of 
 carrying on the affairs of the kingdom." 
 
 Impartial men, members of Parliament, censured Mr. Pitt for 
 having relinquished the government of the nation at such a 
 critical moment, and for retiring without valid and sufficient 
 reasons. Even the opposition was so far in the wrong, as to 
 reproach him with retiring at the expense of the king's popu- 
 larity, by giving out, that the king refused to grant emancipation, 
 which measure was generally acceptable to the country. This 
 reproach was both unreasonable, and at variance with true con- 
 stitutional principles. Mr. Pitt, in resigning, was under the 
 necessity of publicly stating the reasons for his withdrawal from 
 office ; and if the king did really refuse his sanction to an eman- 
 cipation bill, Mr. Pitt had a perfect right to proclaim it. He 
 made it known, however, in language eminently suitable to the 
 occasion. But it plainly appeared, that this refusal was rather 
 a pretext than a real motive, and that Mr. Pitt yielded to a 
 state of things with which he was unequal to contend. The 
 lustre of his star faded before one that was now rising, and 
 which was destined to diffuse a far brighter splendour than his 
 own. Although he afterwards appeared at the head of affairs, 
 and actually died in office, the expiration of his political exist- 
 ence may be dated at this period. Mr. Pitt, after having con- 
 tinued seventeen years in power, left his country loaded at once 
 with increased riches and increased debt, with greater burdens, 
 and with greater resources. He was an accomplished orator, if 
 viewed as an organ of the government ; an able and powerful 
 leader, but with little enlightened views as a statesman. He 
 had committed grievous errors, and was ever warped by all
 
 496 HISTORY OF THE mar. 1801 
 
 the prejudices of his countrymen. No Englishman ever enter- 
 tained a more deadly hatred towards France ; but we must 
 guard against being unjust towards him on this account, and 
 evince our impartiality by honouring patriotism, even when 
 engaged in a contest with our own. 
 
 Although Mr. Addington and Lord Hawkesbury were not to 
 be compared, in talent, to Mr. Pitt, the impulse had been given, 
 and the vessel of the State was borne onwards, for a time, by 
 the momentum imparted to it by the fallen minister. The sub- 
 sidies had been asked and voted ; the English fleets were launched 
 towards the Baltic, in order to settle the question of the rights 
 of neutrals ; and an army, transported on board the fleet of 
 Admiral Keith, was on its way to the East, in order to dispute 
 the possession of Egypt with the French. 
 
 Admiral Parker, an old experienced officer, whose judgment 
 could be relied upon in critical emergencies, commanded the 
 Baltic fleet. Nelson was next in command, ready to act 
 whenever battle was necessary ; the latter, in fact, was only 
 qualified to fight, but nature had endowed him with a happy 
 instinct for warfare, and he reasoned ably upon subjects con- 
 nected with his profession. He proposed, that without waiting 
 for the second division of the English fleet, they should pass the 
 Sound, proceed direct to Copenhagen, and there, by some act 
 of vigour, detach Denmark from the coalition ; then afterwards 
 repair to the Baltic, throw themselves into the midst of the 
 combined fleets, prevent their junction, and thus, from that 
 time, dictate terms at discretion. This plan was well conceived, 
 for it was now the month of March, the northern waters were 
 still covered with ice, and this alone was sufficient to prevent 
 the fleets of the neutrals from effecting their junction ; which, 
 indeed, Nelson had good reason to fear, as it must greatly have 
 endangered the British squadron. 
 
 This squadron, consisting of seventeen ships of the line, and 
 thirty frigates, or smaller vessels, appeared on the 30th of 
 March in the Cattegat. The Cattegat is the first gulf formed 
 by the northern extremity of Denmark, when it approaches the 
 opposite coast of Sweden. 
 
 The neutral powers Avere proceeding with extreme activity in 
 their preparations. The Emperor Paul, animated by his accus- 
 tomed ardour, had urged and incited on Sweden, Denmark, 
 and Prussia, and threatened with his enmity those who did not 
 manifest the same zeal as himself. Denmark and Prussia would 
 have preferred negotiating in the first instance ; but the menaces 
 of Paul, and the stern, but no ways menacing admonitions of the 
 First Consul, accompanied with a formal promise of assistance 
 from France, had prevailed with these two cabinets. Denmark, 
 besides, seeing the English respond to a simple declaration of
 
 mar. 1 80 1 CONSULATE AND TEE EMPIRE. 497 
 
 principles by a declaration of war, did not consider herself at 
 liberty to recede, and accordingly took energetic measures to 
 repel the enemy. Prussia, perplexed in the extreme by the 
 intimidation of Russia on the one side, and France on the other, 
 having ceased any longer to play the part of mediatrix, now 
 that Paul I. and the First Consul were upon amicable terms, 
 instead of taking the lead as before, was now reduced to the 
 position of an obsequious follower, and from that time could 
 rely upon their friendly dispositions alone for a share of the 
 Germanic indemnities advantageous to her interests, and was 
 therefore anxious to please those powers by her consistent firm- 
 ness. She accordingly declared against England, and replied 
 to her overtures by protestations of fidelity to the cause of the 
 neutrals. She prohibited the English from entering any of the 
 northern ports situated between Holland and Denmark ; she 
 closed the mouths of the Ems, the Weser, and the Elbe, and 
 stationed troops and raised batteries at the principal points of 
 the entrances to these rivers. To crown all, she marched a 
 body of troops, and took possession of Hanover. This proceed- 
 ing was of all the rest the most serious and decisive. The First 
 Consul requited it by the warmest proofs of his satisfaction, 
 and by the most positive pledge to her of an advantageous 
 participation in the Germanic indemnities. 
 
 Denmark, on her part, took possession of Hamburg and Lu- 
 beck ; the small port of Cuxhaven, which belonged to Hamburg, 
 and which was the only place to which the English could have 
 access, had been already occupied by Prussia. Thus, then, the 
 English were left nothing but the sea and their vessels. They 
 had not a place where they could cast an anchor. They now 
 had the task to procure by force a readmittance for their ships 
 into the continental ports. 
 
 It is necessary, in order to reach the Baltic from the Cattegat, 
 to pass through the celebrated straits of the Sound. These 
 straits are formed by the contiguity of the coasts of Denmark 
 and Sweden. Between Elsinore and Hessingborg it is about 
 three miles in width. The guns placed on the batteries of the 
 two opposite banks can just reach a vessel passing in the 
 middle of the channel, but without being able to do much 
 damage to a fleet of ships. Nevertheless, as the channel is 
 deeper on the Swedish side, ships of war of a large size are 
 obliged to approach nearer to lliis coast, and by fortifying it 
 with batteries the passage could have been rendered more 
 difficult to the English. But the Swedish coast had at that 
 time no batteries, and. indeed, had never had any at any 
 previous period ; in fact, it lias no port which merchant vessels 
 could be tempted to frequent. There is no other port in the 
 Sound, except that of Elsinore, belonging to Denmark, and on 
 vol. 1. 2 1
 
 498 HISTORY OF THE mar. 1801 
 
 this account batteries have been erected for the defence of the 
 Danish coast only, with scarcely any on the Swedish side. On 
 the Danish side stands the fortress of Kronenberg, regularly 
 fortified. For these reasons the usage has originated of paying 
 to the Danes, and not to the Swedes, the dues levied in the 
 Sound. In such a state of things, it would have been requisite 
 to construct works on the coast of Sweden, of which they were 
 deficient. King Gustavus Adolphus, who, next to Paul, was 
 the most violent of the members of the league, had consulted 
 the Czar on the subject, when he was at St. Petersburg, on his 
 recent visit, but they were aware of the impossibility of exe- 
 cuting the least work during the present winter season, when 
 the soil, indurated by the frost, would resist the pickaxe and 
 the spade to such a degree as to render any labour upon it 
 wholly impracticable. Gustavus Adolphus had also just had 
 an interview with the Crown Prince of Denmark, at that time 
 regent of the kingdom, the same who died some years ago, in 
 1 84 1, after a long and glorious reign. They conferred together 
 upon this subject, and the Crown Prince, from private reasons 
 by which Denmark was influenced, did not seem to attach much 
 importance to the fortifying of the Swedish coast.* The Sound 
 then was but feebly defended on the Swedish side. There was 
 only an old battery of eight pieces of cannon, constructed a long 
 time ago upon the most salient point of the shore. Although 
 this neglect has been greatly blamed since, it is certain that the 
 Sound, even if it had been strongly fortified on both sides, 
 would not have presented any serious dangers to the English, as 
 the width of the channel being about three miles, vessels passing 
 in the midst of the straits would be at a distance of a mile and 
 a half from the batteries, and would therefore, being almost 
 out of the range of their guns, escape with only perhaps some 
 damage to their sails and rigging. 
 
 There is also another approach to the Baltic besides that of 
 the Sound, which is formed by the two arms of the sea which 
 separate, the one the island of Zealand from the island of 
 Funen, the other the island of Funen from the coast of 
 Jutland, passages well known by the names of the Great and 
 Little Belt. The English would be but little inclined to sail by 
 
 * Very erroneous assertions have been made on this subject. I have had 
 recourse to the highest and most authentic authorities. The archives of 
 France, Sweden, and Denmark contain the proofs of what I here advance. 
 Those who have written to the contrary, Napoleon amongst others, have 
 only repeated the allegations made at the time. The second passage of the 
 Sound, which took place in 1807, at a period when Sweden was at war with 
 Denmark, and viewed with pleasure the triumph of the English, has contri- 
 buted to confirm the idea, that the Swedes had acted perfidiously. But on 
 the first occasion, that is, in 1801, Sweden acted with perfect good faith ; she 
 was anxious for the general success, and would have done everything in her 
 power to secure it.
 
 mar. 1 80 1 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 499 
 
 this passage, in which they would be exposed to the fire of 
 more than one Danish fort ; but still more to the shoals, which 
 rendered the navigation extremely dangerous for ships of the 
 line ; they were, therefore, most likely to decide upon going 
 through the passage of the Sound. 
 
 The Danes concentrated all their defences, not exactly at the 
 Sound, but lower down, in the channel which forms the con- 
 tinuation of the Sound, that is to say, before Copenhagen. The 
 two coasts of Denmark and of Sweden, after having approxi- 
 mated to each other at the Sound, now stretch out to an extent 
 varying in width from three to twelve leagues, forming a strait 
 about twenty leagues in length, abounding with reefs and 
 shoals, through which a vessel can only navigate by steering 
 through the narrow channels, carefully ascertaining the depth 
 of water by incessant soundings. The city of Copenhagen is 
 situated on the most important of these channels, about twenty 
 leagues from the Sound, in a direction towards the south. It 
 was at this spot that the Danes had made immense preparations, 
 waiting for the approach of the enemy. The post which they 
 occupied did not exactly close the entrance to the Baltic, as we 
 shall presently explain, but it compelled the English to risk an 
 attack on a well-defended position, strongly fortified before- 
 hand. The Crown Prince had taken prompt and numerous 
 preliminary measures for defence. He had stationed before 
 Copenhagen a number of vessels, cut down so as to form 
 formidable floating batteries, and he had armed besides ten 
 line-of-battle ships, which were only waiting for seamen from 
 Norway to complete their crews. It is well known that the 
 Danish navy is the best in the whole North. 
 
 Sweden and Russia, on their parts, had also made prepara- 
 tions for resistance. Sweden had placed troops on the coasts 
 from Gottenburg to the Sound, and fortified Carlscrona, in the 
 Baltic, as well as all the other accessible points on that coast. 
 King Gustavus Adolphus was urging on Admiral Cronstedt to 
 complete the equipment of the Swedish fleet. This fleet already 
 consisted of seven ships of the line and two frigates, ready to 
 set sail the moment the sea was disencumbered of the winter 
 ice. The Russians had twelve ships (if the line all ready at 
 Revel, and which, like the Swedish vessels, wovo only detained 
 by the ice. The coalitionists had not accomplished, doubtless. 
 all that would have been possible, if they had had at their head 
 an energetic government, like France at that period, but by 
 assembling, in time, the seven Swedish, the twelve Russian, and 
 ten Danish ships before Copenhagen, there would have been 
 formed a fleet of thirty ships of the line, and of from ten to 
 twelve frigates, stationed in a formidable position, where the 
 English could not have come to an engagement without danger,
 
 500 HISTORY OF TEE mar. 1801 
 
 and still less could have passed by and disregarded. To have 
 passed it, without attacking it, in order to embark in any enter- 
 prise in the Baltic, would have been to incur the danger of 
 leaving an imposing force in their rear, capable of closing up 
 the sole outlet of this sea, and of preventing their egress there- 
 from, in case of reverses. But to collect together these naval divi- 
 sions, in proper time, required a celerity of movements of which 
 these three neutral governments were hardly capable. They 
 used every despatch, doubtless, but relying too much upon the 
 continuance of severe weather, they had not commenced their 
 preparations sufficiently early, and the energetic promptitude of 
 the English greatly surpassed theirs. 
 
 On the 2 1st of March, an English frigate touched at Elsinore, 
 bringing Mr. Vansittart, who was commissioned to make a last 
 application to the Danish government. Mr. Vansittart delivered 
 to Mr. Drumraond, the English char g 4 d'affaires, the ultimatum 
 of the British cabinet. The terms of this ultimatum required 
 the Danes to withdraw from the naval confederacy of the neutral 
 powers ; to open their ports to the English ; and adhere to the 
 provisional arrangement of the preceding August, by virtue of 
 which, they had engaged no longer to convoy their merchant 
 vessels. The Crown Prince of Denmark promptly refused to 
 entertain the idea of such a defection, and replied that Den- 
 mark and her allies had not made a declaration of war, and that 
 they had confined themselves to the publication of their prin- 
 ciples of maritime law : that the English were the aggressors, as 
 they had retaliated to a mere assertion of a dogma in the law of 
 nations, by an embargo ; that Denmark would not commence 
 hostilities, but she would energetically repel force by force. The 
 gallant people of Copenhagen nobly seconded, by their steady 
 allegiance, the prince who represented them with so much 
 dignity. The whole population took up arms ; and, at the call 
 of their noble leader, formed themselves into corps of militia and 
 volunteers. Eight hundred students rushed to arms ; every one 
 who could handle a pickaxe assisted the engineers in completing 
 the defensive works : redoubts were thrown up in every direction. 
 Mr. Drummond and Mr. Vansittart abruptly left Copenhagen, 
 threatening this unhappy city with all the thunders of England. 
 
 On the 24th, they rejoined the admirals of the fleet, who from 
 that moment began to arrange their plan for immediate hostilities. 
 
 Nelson and the commander-in-chief, Parker, held a council of 
 war, on board the fleet. The plan of operation was discussed. 
 Some proposed to pass by Avay of the Sound, and others by way 
 of the Great Belt. Nelson maintained that it was of little con- 
 sequence by which strait the fleet should pass, only that not an 
 hour should be lost in getting into the Baltic, and beai'ing up to 
 Copenhagen, in order to prevent the junction of the coalitionists.
 
 mar. 1 80 1 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 501 
 
 Once in the Baltic, a part of the English fleet should be directed 
 against Copenhagen, to strike a blow against the Danes, and a 
 part against Sweden and Russia, to destroy the northern fleets. 
 They had twenty sail of the line, twenty -five or thirty frigates, 
 and vessels of all descriptions. He would undertake with twelve 
 ships to destroy all the Swedish and Ilussian fleets; the re- 
 mainder must attack and bombard Copenhagen. As to which 
 of the passages they should navigate, Nelson preferred braving 
 some of the cannon-shot to which they might be exposed in 
 passing the Sound, to encountering the dangerous shoals of the 
 Great and Little Belt. 
 
 Admiral Parker, less enterprising, made an attempt, by the 
 Great Belt, on the 26th of March. Several light vessels of the 
 flotilla having grounded, the commander-in-chief recalled the 
 squadron, and determined to force the Sound. Early on the 
 morning of the 30th of March, they commenced this arduous 
 passage. At the time, it blew a topsail breeze from the north- 
 west, favourable for navigating this strait, which runs in a 
 direction from north-west to south-east, as far as Elsinore, after 
 which it continues almost due north and south. The squadron, 
 favoured by the wind, advanced boldly, at an equal distance 
 from the two opposite shores. Nelson led the van, Parker took 
 the command of the centre, and Admiral Graves brought up the 
 rear. The line-of-battle ships formed a single column in the 
 middle of the channel. On each side a flotilla of gun and bomb 
 vessels approached nearer to the coast of Denmark and Sweden, 
 in order to engage the enemy's batteries at a shorter range. As 
 soon as this squadron came in sight of Elsinore, the fortress of 
 Kronenberg immediately opened a fire upon them. One hun- 
 dred pieces of heavy cannon vomited forth a volley of shells 
 and redhot balls. But the English admiral, perceiving that the 
 fire on the Swedish side did little or no execution, as the old 
 battery of eight guns scarcely fired, immediately approached 
 nearer to that side of the coast, and passed the straits amidst 
 the jeers of the English sailors at the Danes, whose shells and 
 balls fell 600 yards short of the enemy's ships. The flotilla of 
 bomb and gun vessels, which had approached quite close to the 
 Danish coast, poured forth, and received, an immense quantity 
 of shells, but little bloodshed ensued, as four men only were 
 wounded on the side of the Dane-, two of whom were severely 
 wounded, and two died. In Elsinore, only one house suffered 
 from the fire of the English, and that was. singularly enough, 
 the house of the English consul. 
 
 The whole fleet anchored, towards noon, in the middle of the 
 gulf, off the island of linen. 
 
 The gulf, as we have just said, runs from north to south, for 
 the distance of about twenty leagues, varying in width, as the
 
 502 HISTORY OF THE mar. 1801 
 
 shores advance or recede, from three to twelve leagues, and 
 has only a few channels that are navigable. At about twenty- 
 leagues towards the south, stands Copenhagen, situated on the 
 west side of the gulf, on the coast of Denmark, at a small eleva- 
 tion above the level of the sea, and forming a slightly inclined 
 plane, from which a cannon-ball would just skim over the sur- 
 face of the sea. The gulf is very wide at this spot, and divided 
 by the low island of Saltholm into two navigable channels : the 
 one, called the passage of Malmo, runs along the Swedish coast, 
 and is scarcely accessible for large vessels : the other, called 
 Drogden, skirts along the coast of Denmark, and is generally 
 preferred by navigators. The latter is again divided by a sand- 
 bank, which is called the Middle Ground, into two passages : 
 one, called the King's Channel, forms the entrance to Copen- 
 hagen ; the other, called the Dutch Channel, runs on the outer 
 side of the Middle Ground. The Danes had taken up a position 
 in the King's Channel, leaving the other open to the English, 
 having in view rather the defence of Copenhagen, than to pre- 
 vent the enemy entering into the Baltic. But it was very certain 
 that Parker and Nelson would not venture into the Baltic, with- 
 out first destroying the defences of Copenhagen, together with the 
 maritime forces that the neutrals might have assembled there. 
 
 The means of defence, on the side of the Danes, consisted of 
 land batteries, constructed on the right and left of the harbour, 
 and of a line of razeed vessels, or floating batteries, moored in 
 the middle of the King's Channel, the whole length of Copen- 
 hagen, with the view of keeping the enemy's fire at a distance. 
 Commencing at the northern position was a battery called the 
 Three Crowns, constructed of stone work, almost completely 
 closed at the gorge, commanding even the entrance to the port, 
 and connecting its fire with the citadel of Copenhagen. It was 
 fortified with seventy pieces of cannon of the largest calibre. 
 Four ships of the line, of which two were under sail, and two 
 at anchor, besides a frigate under way, completely blocked up 
 the entrance to the stream which led to the port. In proceeding 
 from this fort, that is, the Three Crowns, towards the south, 
 twenty hulks of large ships, armed with guns, and strongly 
 moored, filled up the passage of the King's Channel, and was 
 thus connected with the batteries on land, placed on the island 
 of Amak. Thus the line of defence of the Danes was supported 
 on the left by the Three Crowns battery, and on the right by 
 the island of Amak ; its length occupying, and completely block- 
 ing up, the middle of the passage of the King's Channel. The 
 works of the Three Crowns could not be forced, defended as 
 they were by seventy yawning cannon mouths ; and also by five 
 vessels, three of which were under sail. The line of defence, 
 consisting of the rafts and stationary hulks, on the contrary.
 
 apeili8oi CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 503 
 
 was of too great length, not sufficiently close, and incapable of 
 manoeuvring; and, owing to the object they had in view, of 
 obstructing the middle of the passage, was placed too much in 
 advance of the point of support on the right, that is to say, the 
 fixed batteries on the island of Amak. This island is but a 
 continuation of the coast on which Copenhagen is seated. The 
 line of floating batteries could, therefore, be attacked on the 
 right. If it had been formed of a division of vessels, under 
 sail, capable of shifting their position, or even if it had been 
 more concentrated, more strongly supported on the bank, the 
 English would not have come out of this attack altogether safe 
 and sound. But the Danes set great value upon their naval 
 squadron, which they had not the means of replacing if it was 
 destroyed ; and not having, besides, received all the seamen from 
 Norway to man it completely, they kept it protected in the 
 inner basin of the harbour, thinking that old unserviceable 
 vessels were sufficient to answer the purpose of floating batteries 
 against the English fleet. 
 
 Their bravest seamen, commanded by intrepid officers, worked 
 the guns, mounted on these old hulks, which were strongly 
 moored and chained together. 
 
 The English having arrived off Copenhagen, long before the 
 junction of all the neutral maritime powers at this point, might 
 have passed to the eastward of the Middle Ground, disregarding 
 the Danes stationed in the King's Channel, and have proceeded 
 by the before-mentioned Dutch Channel into the Baltic. They 
 might have accomplished this beyond the reach of the guns of 
 Copenhagen ; but they would have left in their rear an impos- 
 ing force, capable of cutting off their retreat, in case any un- 
 toward event should force them back weakened, and in want 
 of shelter, through the passage of the Sound. It was better to 
 take advantage of the isolated position of the Danes, and, by 
 striking a decisive blow, detach them from the confederacy, 
 and, after having, by this means, seized the keys of the Baltic, 
 proceed, with all expedition, against the Swedes and the Rus- 
 sians. This plan was. at the same time, bold and prudent; 
 and it received that which rarely occurred — the concurrent 
 approbation of both Parker and Nelson. 
 
 The entire days of the 31st of March and 1st of April were 
 occupied in examining the Danish line, in sounding the channel, 
 and in concerting the plan of attack. Nelson and Parker, 
 accompanied by the oldest officers of the fleet, with the chief 
 officer of engineers, reconnoitred, in person, in the midst of the 
 ice, the position of the enemy, being sometimes within reach of 
 the enemy's shot. Nelson maintained t liar, with ten ships, he 
 would undertake to attack, and break the right line of the 
 Danes. I lis plan was In proceed down the whole length of
 
 504 HISTORY OF THE apkili8oi 
 
 the Middle Ground, by passing through the Dutch Channel, 
 doubling round the farther extremity, and reascending by way 
 of the King's Channel, and then take his station, ship against 
 ship, about a cable's length from the enemy. He arranged, 
 moreover, that a division of the fleet, under a brave officer, 
 Captain Riou, should attack the land battery of the Three 
 Crowns, and, after having silenced their guns, disembark iooo 
 men, and take it by storm. The commander-in-chief, Admiral 
 Parker, with the remainder of the fleet under him, was not to 
 engage in this bold manoeuvre; it was agreed that he should 
 remain in the rear, to cannonade the citadel, and cover the 
 disabled vessels as they retired from the action. 
 
 This manoeuvre, as daring as that of Aboukir, could only 
 succeed through great ability and good fortune. Admiral 
 Parker gave his assent to it, on condition that it should not be 
 carried too far, if the difficulties should be found insurmount- 
 able ; and placed at Nelson's disposal twelve ships, instead of 
 ten, for which he had applied. On the evening of the I st of 
 April, Nelson dropped through the Dutch Channel, and came 
 to an anchor, considerably below Copenhagen, at a place on 
 the island of Amak, called Draco. In order to get into the 
 King's Channel, and traverse its entire length, a totally dif- 
 ferent wind was wanting to that which had brought him down 
 the Dutch Channel. The next morning, the wind having 
 opportunely shifted from its direction on the night before, he 
 ascended the King's Channel, steering his fleet between the 
 Danish line and the shoals of the Middle Ground. The whole 
 channel had been sounded, but, notwithstanding this precaution, 
 three ships struck on the Middle Ground, and Nelson took up 
 his position with the remaining nine only. He was not dis- 
 heartened, but anchored broadside on, within half a cable's 
 length of the Danish line, a distance which must render the 
 effect of the cannonading most terrific. The want of the three 
 vessels aground was greatly felt, more particularly for the 
 attack of the Three Crowns battery, which thus was obliged 
 to be attempted by frigates. 
 
 At ten o'clock in the morning, the whole English squadron 
 had taken up its position, and received and poured forth a 
 frightful volley of artillery. A division of bomb and gun-ships, 
 drawing but little water, was placed upon the shoal of the 
 Middle Ground, and discharged their shells upon Copenhagen, 
 over the masts of the two squadrons. The fire from the Danish 
 batteries, consisting of 800 guns, inflicted considerable damage 
 on the English. The officers in command of the rafts displayed 
 great intrepidity, and their gunners exhibited the most heroic 
 courage. The commander of the Provesten, in particular, who 
 occupied the extremity of the line towards the south, conducted
 
 April 1 80 1 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 505 
 
 himself with the most distinguished gallantry. Nelson, per- 
 ceiving the importance of at once depriving the Danish line of 
 the support which it received from the batteries of the island of 
 Amak, directed four vessels against the Provesten alone. M. 
 de Lassen, captain of the Provesten, defended himself until he 
 had lost 500 out of his 600 gunners ; he then threw himself 
 into the sea, with the 100 remaining, and swam on shore from 
 his vessel, which he left in flames. He thus had the glory of 
 not striking his flag. Nelson then directed all his efforts 
 against the other rafts and floating batteries, and succeeded in 
 silencing several. In the meantime, at the other end of the 
 line, Captain Riou suffered severely. Three English vessels 
 being fast on the Middle Ground, he had only frigates to 
 oppose to the Three Crown batteries, and he was exposed to a 
 frightful and destructive fire from their guns, without any 
 hope of silencing them, or of being able to take them by 
 storm. Parker, perceiving the resistance of the Danes, and 
 fearing that the English ships, too much injured in their 
 rigging, would be exposed to be run aground, gave orders to 
 discontinue action. Nelson perceiving this signal thrown out 
 at Admiral Parker's masthead, gave way to a noble expression 
 of indignation. He had lost the use of one eye, and, taking 
 up the glass, and placing it to his blind eye, he said sarcasti- 
 cally, "I really don't see Parker's signal for leaving off action," 
 and he kept his signal for closer battle still flying. This was 
 a noble act of imprudence, and was followed, as it often happens 
 to audacious boldness, by a successful result. 
 
 The floating batteries of the Danes, not being able to move, 
 or seek shelter under the land batteries, were exposed to a most 
 destructive fire. The Danebrog blew up with a terrific explo- 
 sion ; several others were disabled, and drifted from their moor- 
 ings, after having suffered an enormous loss of men. But the 
 English, on the other side, did not suiter less severely, and were 
 placed in the greatest peril. Nelson, in endeavouring to take 
 possession of the Danish vessels which had struck, received, as 
 he neared the batteries on the island of Amak. a deadly dis- 
 charge from their guns. At this moment, three or four of his 
 vessels were so completely shattered as to be almost unmanage- 
 able ; and, on the side of the Three Crown batteries. Captain 
 Riou, compelled to draw off his vessels to a distance, was cut 
 in two by a chain-shot. Nelson, almost beaten, was not dis- 
 concerted, and conceived the idea of sending a flag of truce to 
 the Prince of Denmark, who was present, on one of the batteries. 
 at this horrible scene. He told him that, if he did not stop the 
 firing, which prevented him taking possession of his prizes. 
 which, by right, belonged to him, since they had struck their 
 flags, he should be obliged to blow them up. with all their
 
 506 HISTORY OF THE April 1 80 1 
 
 crews ; that the English were the brothers of the Danes, that 
 both had fought sufficiently to attest their valour, and ought to 
 avoid the further effusion of blood. 
 
 The prince, moved by this appalling spectacle, fearing also 
 for the city of Copenhagen, now deprived of the protection of 
 the floating batteries, gave orders for the firing to cease. This 
 was a mistake, for a few moments longer, and Nelson's fleet, 
 almost disabled, would have been obliged to retire half destroyed. 
 A sort of negotiation ensued, and Nelson took advantage of it 
 to quit his place of anchorage. Whilst he was in the act of 
 retiring, three of his vessels, considerably damaged, being no 
 longer manageable, struck on the Middle Ground. If, at this 
 moment, the fire had still continued, these three vessels must 
 have been lost. 
 
 The next day, Nelson and Parker, after great efforts, got 
 afloat the three vessels which had grounded, and opened a 
 negotiation with the Danes for the purpose of obtaining a sus- 
 pension of hostilities. They stood as much in need of this as 
 the Danes, as they had 1200 men killed and wounded, and the 
 havoc in six of their vessels was horrible. The loss of the Danes 
 was not much greater, but they had relied too much upon the 
 line of their floating batteries, and now that these batteries 
 were destroyed, the lower part of the city, which is open to the 
 sea, was exposed to a bombardment. They were also appre- 
 hensive for their vessels of war, which, half equipped, immov- 
 able, and locked in the basin, might have been set fire to, and 
 totally consumed. This apprehension was to them most alarm- 
 ing. They, in fact, clung to their squadron as to their very 
 maritime existence ; and this squadron, once destroyed, they 
 were not in a position to replace it. At this instant, under the 
 momentary irritation of suffering and danger, they complained 
 of their allies, without reflecting upon the difficulties which had 
 prevented them from repairing to the walls of Copenhagen. 
 The contrary winds, the ice, and the shortness of time, had 
 detained the Swedes and the Russians, without any blame being 
 fairly attributable to them. It is true, that had they arrived 
 with their twenty ships and joined the Danish fleet in the 
 straits, where the engagement took place, Nelson would have 
 failed in his daring enterprise, and the cause of the maritime 
 neutral confederacy would have triumphed on that day. But 
 there had not been time for any of them to get ready, and the 
 promptitude of the English changed the fortune of the war. 
 
 Admiral Parker, who was greatly alarmed at the temerity of 
 Nelson, during the battle of the 2nd, formed now a correct 
 opinion of the position of the Danes, and knew how to derive 
 every advantage from the battle which had been fought. He 
 required the Danes to withdraw from the confederacy of the
 
 april 1 80 1 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 507 
 
 neutral powers, to open their ports to the English, and to 
 receive, moreover, an English force, under the pretence of 
 protecting them against the resentment of their allies. Nelson 
 had the courage to land on the 3rd of April to carry these 
 proposals to the Crown Prince. He went in a boat to Copen- 
 hagen, heard the murmurs of this brave people, who were filled 
 with indignation at seeing him, but found the Crown Prince 
 inflexible. This prince, more alarmed, the evening before, than 
 the actual danger of Copenhagen justified, would not, never- 
 theless, consent to the ignominious defection proposed to him. 
 He replied, that he would sooner be buried in the ashes of his 
 city than betray the common cause. Nelson returned on board 
 the flag-ship without having obtained any concession. 
 
 During this interval, the Danes, seeing themselves exposed to 
 the dangers of a second conflict, set to work, and added new 
 defences to those which before existed. They rendered the 
 battery of the Three Crowns more formidable, covered the 
 island of Amak with guns, as well as the lower part of the city. 
 They transported their vessels of war, the paramount objects of 
 their solicitude, into the innermost basins of the harbour, the 
 farthest from the sea, carefully covering them with dung and 
 blindage, so as to protect them against fire ; and were at length 
 reassured, when they perceived the hesitation of the English, 
 who did not evince much eagerness to renew this terrific struggle. 
 The whole of the available population lent their aid ; one part 
 was placed under arms, and the other part employed in prepar- 
 ing the means for extinguishing the conflagration. At length, 
 after waiting five days, Nelson returned to Copenhagen, not- 
 withstanding the threatening aspect of the preparations of the 
 Danes. The discussion was animated, and he took upon himself 
 to make concessions, which Admiral Parker had not authorised. 
 He agreed upon an armistice which amounted virtually to a 
 statu quo. The Danes did not withdraw from the confederacy, 
 but all hostilities were suspended between them and the English 
 for fourteen weeks ; at the expiration of which period, they were 
 to return to the same position as on the day on which this sus- 
 pension of hostilities was signed. The terms of the armistice 
 embraced only the Danish islands and Jutland, but not Holstein, 
 so that hostilities might be continued in the Elbe, and that from 
 that time the English were prohibited the navigation of that 
 river. The English were to keep at a cannon-shot distance from 
 all the Danish ports and vessels, with the exception of the King's 
 Channel, which they were free to navigate, in order to reach the 
 Baltic. They were forbidden, consequently, to establish them- 
 selves upon any points of the Danish territory, and they were 
 only allowed to put into any pert for the purpose of refresh- 
 ment, or to take in a supply of provisions.
 
 508 HISTORY OF THE apriliSoi 
 
 These terms were all Nelson could obtain, and they were, we 
 must confess, all that his victory entitled him to demand. But, 
 as he was on the point of leaving Copenhagen, a very untoward 
 report obtained currency, and the Crown Prince, who had been 
 influenced thereby to enter into negotiations, succeeded in keep- 
 ing the knowledge of it from him. The report was in truth, at 
 the moment, that Paul I. had just died suddenly. Nelson left 
 the place, without being aware of this intelligence, which would 
 doubtless have greatly increased his pretensions. The armistice 
 was immediately ratified by Admiral Parker. The Crown Prince 
 also intimated to the Swedes, that it was useless to expose 
 themselves unavailingly to the attacks of the English, which 
 they would be unequal to resist. This advice was not uncalled 
 for, inasmuch as, after great efforts, Gustavus Adolphus had 
 succeeded in getting his fleet ready to sail. He had in the 
 earnestness of his zeal dismissed one rear-admiral the service, 
 and sent another admiral before a court-martial, in order to 
 punish them for an alleged dilatoriness, which could not justly 
 be laid to their charge. 
 
 All these efforts were, however, superfluous. Paul I., in fact, 
 had breathed his last, at St. Petersburg, on the night between 
 the 23rd and 24th of March. This event put an end much 
 more effectually than the incomplete victory of Nelson to the 
 maritime confederacy of the northern powers. Paul I. had 
 been the chief promoter of that confederacy ; he had applied 
 all the impetuous energy of his character to secure its success, 
 and assuredly he would have exerted himself to the utmost to 
 repair the disaster, in other respects pretty equally shared, of 
 the battle of Copenhagen. He would have sent his land forces 
 to Denmark, despatched the whole of the neutral fleet to the 
 Sound, and probably have made the English rue their bar- 
 barous enterprise against the capital of the Danes. But this 
 prince had driven the patience of his subjects to the last 
 extremity, and he had just been put to death, a wretched victim 
 of a tragical revolution at the palace. 
 
 Paul I. was of a lively disposition, but all his opinions were 
 carried to the extreme, and as usual, with persons of his 
 temperament, capable of good or evil actions, according to the 
 temporary impulse of his weak, excitable, ill-regulated mind. 
 If the temper of private individuals so constituted is fatal, it be- 
 comes still more so in the case of princes, especially when they 
 are invested with absolute power. With them it often borders 
 on madness, assuming sometimes even symptoms of a sanguinary 
 character. Thus, at St. Petersburg, every man trembled for his 
 own fate ; even the favourites of Paul, who were treated with 
 the greatest kindness, were not certain but that the favour they 
 at present enjoyed might terminate in an exile to Siberia.
 
 april 1 80 1 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 509 
 
 This prince, both sensitive and chivalrous, felt a lively- 
 sympathy for the victims of the French Revolution, and a 
 vehement hatred against the Revolution itself. Thus, whereas 
 the able Catherine had wisely, during her reign, confined her- 
 self to exciting all Europe against France, without setting a 
 single soldier in motion, Paul, on his accession to the throne, 
 had sent Suwarrow with 100,000 Russians into Italy. In the 
 warmth of his zeal, he had interdicted from his dominions 
 every article which came from France, books, fashions, and 
 dress. This more than sufficed to give umbrage to the Rus- 
 sian nobility, who, like the whole of the aristocracy of Europe, 
 delighted in reviling France, but nevertheless with the reserva- 
 tion, of enjoying her wit, her manners, and her highly advanced 
 civilisation. They found this anti-revolutionary zeal intolerable, 
 when carried to such an excess. 
 
 In a short time, however, Paul was seen to change these 
 opinions and go to the very opposite extreme, conceiving a 
 great hatred for his allies, and receiving his enemies into 
 favour, crowding his apartments with the portrait of General 
 Bonaparte, drinking publicly to his health, and carrying the 
 contrast so far as actually to declare war against Great Britain. 
 This step rendered him not only irksome, but actually odious 
 to the Russian nobility, for he not only interfered with their 
 tastes, but injuriously affected their material interests. 
 
 The vast extent of his dominions, occupying almost the whole 
 of the northern part of Europe, abounding in grain, timber, 
 hemp, and ores, requires the aid of foreign merchants, who seek 
 these indigenous commodities, and give in exchange, either 
 money, or manufactured goods. The English in their trade with 
 Russia, supply her, in return for the raw produce of her soil, 
 with the articles manufactured by their own labour, and thus 
 the Russian farmers are enabled to pay to their landlords the 
 rents of their land. The English then engross the most im- 
 portant branches of trade with St. Petersburg, and this is the 
 tie by which, in some measure, the policy of Russia is fettered 
 to English interests, and that rivalry, which sooner or later 
 must inevitably break out between these two great co-partners 
 in the possession of Asia, is modified. 
 
 The Russian aristocracy was accordingly highly exasperated 
 with the newly adopted policy of Paul. If they had blamed, in 
 this prince, an excess of hatred against France, they found still 
 greater fault with an excess of affection towards her. especially 
 when this surprising attachment was carried to such an extent as 
 to adopt steps ruinous to the interests of the landed proprietors. 
 Besides this obnoxious interference with their 1a>tes and their 
 interests, Paul was still further guilty of cruelties, to which, 
 however, he was not naturallv addicted, being rather of a good.
 
 5 1 o HIST OB Y OF THE april i 80 i 
 
 than of a mischievous disposition. He had sent a multitude 
 of unhappy wretches to Siberia ; afterwards, affected by their 
 sufferings, he recalled them, but without reinstating them in 
 their property. These unfortunate creatures filled all St. Peters- 
 burg with their complaints, and with their lamentable misery. 
 Annoyed by these spectacles, he exiled them a second time. 
 Becoming every day more and more distrustful, in proportion as 
 the hatred of his subjects became more apparent to him, he 
 threatened the lives of every one around him. He conceived 
 sinister designs against his ministers, sometimes against his wife 
 and children, and this prince, who was all but mad, assumed 
 habitually the behaviour of a tyrant. He surrounded the palace 
 Michael, which was his usual residence, like a fortress, with 
 bastions and ditches. One would have said that he seemed to 
 anticipate a sudden attack. At night he even barricaded the door 
 which separated his apartments from those of the empress, and 
 thus unwittingly predisposed everything for his tragical end. 
 
 Such a state of things could not long continue, and must 
 inevitably terminate in some deed of violence, similar to that 
 which, more than once, had been witnessed in this empire, where, 
 it is true, rapid advances have been made towards civilisation, 
 but where actual barbarism was the point of starting. The idea 
 of getting rid of the unhappy Paul by the accustomed means, 
 that is to say, by a revolution at the palace, there where the 
 palace is the nation, suggested itself to every mind. Let us set 
 a proper value upon the advantages of institutions. At another 
 extremity of Europe, upon one of the greatest thrones of the 
 universe, sat a prince afflicted also with insanity, a headstrong, 
 but pious and good prince, George III. This king, occasionally 
 deprived of his reason during whole months, had just experienced 
 a relapse of his malady, at one of the most critical moments for 
 England. Nevertheless, the business of the nation proceeded in 
 the most regular and ordinary course. The constitution provid- 
 ing the king with ministers, who conduct the government on 
 his behalf, this aberration of the royal mind did not, in any way, 
 prejudice the affairs of the nation. Mr. Pitt held the govern- 
 ment for George III., precisely as he had held it during seventeen 
 years ; the thought of an atrocious crime never entered into the 
 imagination of any one ! At St. Petersburg, on the contrary, 
 the spectacle of an insane prince on the throne gave rise to the 
 most sinister projects. 
 
 There was at that time, at the court of Russia, one of those 
 men, dreaded by all, who never shrink from the perpetration of 
 any audacious deed. In a regular government, such men may 
 rise, perhaps, to the station of eminently good citizens, but in a 
 despotic government, they become criminals, if crime is, in cer- 
 tain cases, one of the expedients not actually sanctioned by the
 
 apkili8oi CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 511 
 
 government, but incidental to its administration. Crime must be 
 condemned in every country where it prevails, but we must con- 
 demn still more the institutions by which it is engendered. 
 
 Count Pahlen had served in the Russian army with distinc- 
 tion. He possessed a commanding person, and concealed beneath 
 the rough, and sometimes familiar manner of a soldier, a deep 
 and acute mind. He was endowed, moreover, with singular 
 audacity, and an imperturbable presence of mind. As governor 
 of St. Petersburg, entrusted with the police of the empire, and 
 initiated, thanks to the confidence of his master, into all the 
 great affairs of State, he was, in point of fact, though not by 
 office, the principal personage in the Russian government. His 
 political opinions respecting the public policy of the country 
 were very decided. The crusade against the French Revolution 
 seemed to him as unreasonable as the new-born zeal against 
 England was intemperate. A prudent reserve, a neutrality 
 skilfully maintained, in the midst of the formidable contest 
 between France and England, appeared to him the only advan- 
 tageous policy which Russia could pursue. Entertaining neither 
 English nor French views, but being wholly Russian in his 
 opinions, he was also a Russian in his manners, and a Russian 
 such as existed in the days of Peter the Great. Being persuaded 
 that everything was hastening towards ruin, unless the reign of 
 Paul were curtailed, having even conceived some alarm for him- 
 self personally, from certain indications of dissatisfaction which 
 had escaped the emperor, he boldly formed his resolution, and 
 communicated it confidentially to Count Panim, vice-chancellor, 
 who was at the head of foreign affairs. They both were of 
 opinion that it was necessary to terminate this state of things, 
 which had become as alarming for the empire as for individual 
 safety. Count Pahlen took upon himself the execution of the 
 terrible project upon which they had resolved.* The heir to the 
 
 * The following details arc the most authentic that can be procured con- 
 cerning the death of Paul T. This is the source from which they are derived. 
 The court of Prussia, greatly shocked at the news of the death of Paul I., was 
 still more highly indignant at the unparalleled effrontery with which some of 
 the accomplices in the crime dared to boast of it at Berlin. The court ob- 
 tained, through various channels, and principally from a well-informed person, 
 some curious details, which were collected in a minute, and transmitted to 
 the First Consul. These are the particulars which M. Hignon, at that time 
 secretary of our embassy to the court of Prussia, was enabled to procure, and 
 which he lias introduced into his work. Put the most private circumstances 
 still remained unknown, when a singular accident placed France in possession 
 of the only account worthy of credit concerning the death of Paul 1 . which 
 perhaps is in existence. A French emigrant, who had passed his life in the 
 service of Russia, and who had acquired some military renown, became the 
 friend of Count Pahlen and General lienningsen. Being at t he country-seat 
 of Count Pahlen, he obtained, from their own lip^, a circumstantial detail of 
 everything which took place in St. Petersburg on the tragical night between 
 the 23rd and 24th of March. As the emigrant was very careful in taking 
 notes of evcryt liing he saw and heard, he immediately committed to paper an
 
 5 1 2 HIST OR Y OF THE apeil i 80 i 
 
 throne was the Grand Duke Alexander, of whose reign we have 
 been contemporaries — a young prince, who gave every promise 
 of superior qualities, and who appeared at that time, what he did 
 not prove subsequently, easy to be led. He it was whom Count 
 Pahlen desired to raise to the throne, by some catastrophe 
 brought about suddenly, without disturbance or confusion. It 
 was indispensably necessary to come to some understanding 
 with the heir, the Grand Duke, to have his concurrence, in order 
 to avoid, after the deed was perpetrated, being treated like a 
 vulgar assassin, who is sacrificed, whilst, at the same time, ad- 
 vantage is taken of his crime. It was embarrassing to him to 
 break the matter to this prince, who, governed by amiable feel- 
 ings, was incapable of lending his countenance to an attempt 
 against the life of his father. Count Pahlen, without disclosing 
 his whole mind, without revealing any distinct project, dis- 
 cussed with the Grand Duke the affairs of State, and, at each 
 successive extravagance of Paul, endangering the empire, com- 
 municated the fact to him, then remained silent, without deduc- 
 ing any consequences therefrom. Alexander, in receiving these 
 communications, cast down his eyes, and also remained silent. 
 These mute but expressive scenes were of frequent occurrence. 
 At length, it was requisite to come to some clearer explana- 
 tion. Count Pahlen, at last, gave this young prince to under- 
 stand that such a state of things could not be prolonged, 
 without bringing ruin to the empire ; and, taking care to avoid 
 the mention of a crime, to which Alexander would not have 
 listened, he insinuated to him that it was necessary to depose 
 Paul, to provide for him a quiet retreat, but at all hazards, to 
 wrest from his hands the helm of power, and prevent him from 
 driving the vessel of State to utter destruction. 
 
 Alexander shed a flood of tears, disclaimed any wish to dis- 
 pute the throne with his father, but yielded, by degrees, before 
 fresh proofs of the danger to which Paul exposed the affairs of 
 the country, and even the imperial family itself. Paul, in fact, 
 dissatisfied with the supineness of Prussia, in the affairs of the 
 neutral league, even talked of marching 80,000 men upon Berlin. 
 Besides this, in the delirium of his arrogant pride, he wished 
 the First Consul to take him as his adviser in all things, and 
 
 account of the particulars given by these principal actors, and inserted it in 
 the valuable memoirs he has left behind him. These manuscript memoirs are 
 now the property of France. They correct numerous inaccurate or vague 
 statements, and, moreover, do not compromise more than they were previously, 
 the names already involved in this dark event. They furnish, however, more 
 precise and probable details, instead of the false and exaggerated accounts 
 already known. After comparing this report, emanating from a quarter per- 
 fectly well-informed, with the details furnished by the court of Prussia, we 
 have drawn up the historical recital which follows, and which seems to us the 
 only one truly worthy of credit, perhaps the only complete one which posterity 
 will ever obtain of this tragical catastrophe.
 
 April 1 80 1 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 513 
 
 that this powerful personage should not make peace with 
 Germany, nor with the cabinets of Piedmont, Rome, Naples, or 
 the Porte, excepting upon terms laid down by Russia ; so that 
 it was soon greatly to be feared that he would not remain long 
 on amicable terms with France, whose policy he had so warmly 
 espoused. To these suggestions Count Pahlen added the expres- 
 sion of his uneasiness concerning the safety of the royal family, 
 of whom Paul, it was said, began to harbour suspicions. 
 
 Alexander acquiesced at length ; but, at the same time, ex- 
 acted from Count Pahlen the most solemn oath, that no attempt 
 should be made against the life of his father; Count Pahlen 
 swore to everything desired by this inexperienced youth, who 
 imagined that a sceptre could be wrested from the grasp of an 
 emperor, without depriving him of life. 
 
 The requisite actors in the scene yet remained to be provided, 
 as Count Pahlen, in conceiving this scheme, deemed it beneath 
 him to take any personal share in its execution. He fixed upon 
 them accordingly, but decided upon only entrusting them, sooner 
 or later, with the part they were destined to perform, according 
 as they, by degrees, acquired his conlidence. The brothers 
 Soubow, upstarts raised by the favour of Catherine, were chosen 
 as the chief instruments of the plot. Count Pahlen only re- 
 vealed it to them at a late period. Plato Soubow, the favourite 
 of Catherine, supple, restless, was worthy of figuring conspi- 
 cuously in the revolution of a palace. His brother Nicholas, 
 remarkable only for great personal strength, was well qualified to 
 play a subordinate part; Valerien Soubow, a brave and honour- 
 able soldier, a friend of the Grand Duke Alexander, deserved, 
 from his merit, to have been excluded from the plot. They had 
 a sister, intimately connected with all the English faction — 
 a friend of Lord Whitworth, the English ambassador — who 
 inflamed them with zeal for the British policy. Count Pahlen 
 engaged many other accomplices, and brought them to St. 
 Petersburg, under various pretences, but still without disclosing 
 anything to them. There was one other individual whom lie had 
 summoned to St. Petersburg, upon whose co-operation he knew 
 he could rely, as well as upon his formidable courage ; this was 
 the famous General Eenningsen, a Hanoverian, in the service, of 
 Russia, the first officer in the Russian service at that time, and 
 who, at a later period, in 1 807, had the honour to check, in 
 Poland, the victorious march of Napoleon, and whose hands, 
 worthy, indeed, of wielding a sword, should never have been 
 sullied by a poniard. 
 
 Benningsen had retired into the country, dreading the effects 
 of Paul's anger, which he had incurred; Count Pahlen withdrew 
 him from his retreat, initiated him into the plot, but proposed 
 nothing further to him, if General Benningsen can !><• credited, 
 
 VOL. I. 2 K
 
 514 HISTORY OF THE afril 1801 
 
 than the project of deposing the emperor. Benningsen pledged 
 his word, and kept it with an appalling courage. 
 
 They resolved to fix upon some day for the execution of their 
 project, when the regiment of Semenourki, wholly devoted to 
 the Grand Duke Alexander, should be on duty at the palace 
 Michael. They were obliged to wait. But time pressed, for 
 Paul's malady made rapid progress, became every day more 
 alarming, and placed the interests of the empire, as well as the 
 safety of his attendants, in greater jeopardy. One day Paul laid 
 hold of the imperturbable Pahlen by the arm, and addressed 
 him in these singular terms : — " Were you at St. Petersburg 
 in 1762?" (It was in that year that the emperor, the father 
 of Paul, was assassinated, to transfer the throne to the Great 
 Catherine.) "Yes," answered Count Pahlen, quite coolly, "I 
 was." "What part did you take in the event of that time?" 
 " That of a subaltern cavalry officer in the ranks of his regiment. 
 I was a witness of, but not an actor in, that catastrophe." 
 " Well," continued Paul, casting a look of distrust and of accusa- 
 tion at his minister, " they want to re-enact to-day the revolu- 
 tion of 1762.''' "I am aware of it," replied Count Pahlen, 
 without betraying the least emotion. " I know all the plot ; 
 I am a party to it." "What!" exclaimed Paul, "are you one 
 of the conspirators?" "Yes! but to be better apprised of 
 it, and that I may be in a position more effectually to watch 
 over your safety." The calmness of this formidable conspirator 
 quite set all Paul's conjectures at defiance, and disarmed his 
 suspicions respecting him ; but he still continued discomposed 
 and excited. 
 
 An event of almost public interest, if such a term may be 
 employed with reference to such a crime, concurred to hasten 
 their proceeding. Paul ordered a despatch to be written, on 
 the 23rd of March, to M. de Krudener, his minister at Berlin, 
 enjoining him to declare to the court of Prussia, that if she 
 did not promptly act against England, he would order an army 
 of 80,000 men to march upon the Prussian frontiers. Count 
 Pahlen, desirous, without saying too much, to induce M. de 
 Krudener to attach no importance to this declaration, added, in 
 his own handwriting, the following postscript : — " His Imperial 
 Majesty is labouring under indisposition to-day ; the consequences 
 may prove serious." * 
 
 The 23rd of March was fixed upon for the execution of the 
 plot. Count Pahlen, under colour of giving a dinner-party, 
 assembled at his house the Soubows, Benningsen, and several 
 general officers upon whom he thought he could rely. Wines 
 of all kinds were served with profusion. Pahlen and Benningsen 
 
 * This despatch was shown to the French ambassador, General Beurnon- 
 ville, who instantly forwarded these particulars to his government.
 
 april 1 80 1 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 515 
 
 did not drink any. When dinner was over, they unfolded to 
 the conspirators the project for which they were assembled. 
 The most part were now, for the first time, made acquainted 
 with this terrible plot. They were not told that they would 
 be required to assassinate Paul, as almost every one would have 
 shrunk with dismay from the perpetration of such a crime. They 
 were told, that they must proceed to the palace, and compel 
 him to abdicate, that thus they would deliver the empire from 
 an imminent danger, and that they would save a multitude of 
 innocent lives, at present threatened by the sanguinary madness 
 of Paul. At last, in order to succeed in persuading them, it 
 was affirmed that the Grand Duke Alexander himself, convinced 
 of the necessity of saving the empire, was acquainted with the 
 project, and approved it. Then these men, already excited with 
 wine, no longer demurred, and, for the most part, with only 
 three or four exceptions, set out under the impression that they 
 were going to depose a mad emperor, and not to shed the blood 
 of an unfortunate master. 
 
 The night appearing sufficiently advanced, the conspirators, 
 to the number of about sixty, sallied forth, divided into two 
 bands. Count Pahlen took one under his direction, General 
 Benningsen the command of the other; both officers, dressed 
 in their full uniform, and wearing their sashes and orders, 
 marched forward, sword in hand. The palace Michael was 
 constructed and guarded like a fortress ; but the bridges were 
 lowered and the gates thrown open to the chiefs of the con- 
 spirators. Benningsen's party marched first, and proceeded 
 direct towards the emperor's apartments. Count Pahlen re- 
 mained behind, with his reserved body of conspirators. This 
 man. who had organised the conspiracy, disdained to assist 
 personally in its execution. He was only there to provide for 
 any unexpected emergencies. Benningsen penetrated into the 
 apartment of the sleeping monarch. Two heyduks were on 
 duty as his bodyguard. These brave and faithful attendants 
 attempted to defend their sovereign. One was struck down 
 by a blow from a sabre, the other took flight, crying out for 
 help — cries utterly unavailing in a palace, the guards of which 
 are almost all accomplices in the plot! A valet, who slept in 
 a room adjoining that of the emperor, ran to the scene : they 
 compelled him, by force, to open the door of his master's 
 chamber. The unhappy Paul might have found a refuge in 
 the apartments of the empress; but, in his distrustful sus- 
 picions, he had taken the precaution, every night, to barricade 
 the door which led to them. All escape being cut off. he flung 
 himself to the bottom of the bed. and concealed himself behind 
 the folds of a screen. Plato Soubow ran to the imperial bed. 
 and, finding it empty, cried out, in alarm. ''The emperor lias
 
 5 1 6 HISTOR Y OF THE april i 80 i 
 
 escaped; we are lost!" But, at the same instant, Benningsen 
 caught sight of the prince, rushed towards him, sword in hand, 
 and presented to him the act of abdication. " You have ceased 
 to reign ! " he exclaimed to him ; "the Grand Duke Alexander 
 is now emperor. I summon you, in his name, to resign the 
 empire, and to sign this act of abdication. On this condition 
 alone I answer for your life." Plato Soubow repeated the same 
 summons. The emperor, confused and lost in dismay, demanded 
 of them what he had done to deserve such treatment. " For 
 years past you have never ceased to persecute us," retorted the 
 half-intoxicated assassins. They then pressed upon the unhappy 
 Paul, who struggled hard, expostulated, and implored them in 
 vain. At this moment a noise was heard ; it was the footsteps 
 of some of the conspirators who had remained behind ; but the 
 assassins, believing that some one was coming to the assistance 
 of the emperor, fled in disorder. Benningsen alone, inflexibly 
 resolute, remained in the presence of the monarch, and, advanc- 
 ing towards him, with his sword pointed at his breast, prevented 
 him stirring from the spot. The conspirators having recognised 
 each other, re-entered the chamber, the theatre of their crime. 
 They again hemmed in the unfortunate monarch, in order to 
 force him to subscribe his abdication. The emperor for an 
 instant tried to defend himself. In the scuffle, the lamp which 
 gave light to the frightful scene was overturned and extin- 
 guished ; Benningsen ran to procure another, and, on his return, 
 discovered Paul expiring under the blows of two assassins ; one 
 had broken in his skull with the pommel of his sword, whilst 
 the other was strangling him with his sash. 
 
 Whilst this scene was enacting, Count Pahlen had remained 
 outside, with the second band of conspirators. When he was 
 told that all was over, he ordered the body of the emperor to be 
 laid out on the bed, and placed a guard of thirt}^ men at the door 
 of the apartment, with orders not to admit any one, even the 
 members of the imperial family. He then repaired to the Grand 
 Duke, to announce to him the terrible occurrence of the night. 
 
 The Grand Duke, in a state of violent agitation, demanded of 
 him, when he approached, what had become of his father. The 
 silence of Count Pahlen soon dissipated the fatal illusions he 
 had cherished, in imagining that an act of abdication was only 
 contemplated. The grief of the young prince was profound ; it 
 continued to be, we are told, the secret remorse of his life, as he 
 was naturally of a good and generous nature. He threw himself 
 upon a chair, and burst into tears ; would listen no longer to 
 anything, but loaded Pahlen with bitter reproaches, which the 
 latter received with an imperturbable composure. 
 
 Plato Soubow went in quest of the Grand Duke Constantine, 
 who was wholly ignorant of what was going on, but who has
 
 april 1 80 1 CONS ULA TE A ND THE EMPIRE. 5 1 7 
 
 been unjustly accused of having been implicated in this bloody 
 catastrophe. He came to the spot trembling, believing that all 
 his family were to be sacrificed, found his brother overwhelmed 
 with despair, and then learnt everything which had taken place. 
 Count Pahlen had desired a lady of the palace, who was very 
 intimate with the empress, to acquaint her with the fact of her 
 tragical widowhood. This princess rushed in haste towards her 
 husband's apartments, and attempted to reach his deathbed ; 
 but the guards kept her back. Having for an instant recovered 
 from her first paroxysm of grief, she felt, together with the 
 emotions of sorrow, the rising impulses of ambition awaken in 
 her breast. She thought of the Great Catherine, and wished to 
 reign. She despatched several persons to Alexander, who was 
 about to be proclaimed, telling him that the throne belonged 
 of right to her, and that it was she, and not he, who ought to 
 be proclaimed as successor. This was a new embarrassment; 
 this was increased anguish for the already lacerated heart of 
 the son, who, about to ascend the steps of the throne, had to 
 pass between the corpse of a murdered father, and an agonised 
 mother, in tears, frantically demanding, by turns, her husband 
 or the sceptre. The night was consumed while these appalling 
 and tragical events were passing ; the day approached ; it was 
 necessary to leave no time for reflection ; it was of importance 
 that the death of Paul and the accession of his successor should 
 be proclaimed at the same time. Count Pahlen approached 
 the young prince : " You have wept sufficiently as a child," 
 said he; "come now and reign." He tore him from this house 
 of mourning, and. followed by Benningsen, hastened to present 
 him to the troops. 
 
 The first regiment they met was that of Preobrajesnky. As 
 it was entirely devoted to Paul L. their reception was very cold. 
 But the others, who were attached to the Grand Duke, and who, 
 besides, were under the influence of Count Pahlen, who pos- 
 sessed considerable ascendency over the army, did not hesitate 
 to cry "Long live Alexander." The example was followed, and 
 soon the young emperor was proclaimed, and placed in posses- 
 sion of the throne. He returned, and took up his residence with 
 his wife, the Empress Elizabeth, at the Winter Palace. 
 
 St. Petersburg was filled with consternation at the news of this 
 bloody catastrophe. The impression it created, proved that the 
 manners of the empire had undergone a change, and that since 
 1762, Russian manners had become modified by the influence of 
 European civilisation. It may be said to the honour of Russia, 
 that if she had already progressed since 1762. she has equally 
 advanced since 1 Soo. The Russians exhibited on that, occa- 
 sion feelings which did them honour. They feared Paul I. and 
 his insanity more than they hated him, as he was not of a
 
 5 1 8 HIS TOE Y OF THE apeil i 80 i 
 
 sanguinary character. The horrible circumstances of his death 
 were immediately known, and inspired the deepest commisera- 
 tion. His body lay in state according to usage, but infinite pre- 
 cautions were used to disguise his wounds. Military gloves 
 concealed the mutilation of his hands. A large hat completely 
 covered his head. His face was disfigured by contusions, but 
 it was given out that he had died of apoplexy. 
 
 This barbarous event produced an extraordinary effect through- 
 out Europe. The news spread like lightning to Vienna, Berlin, 
 London, and Paris. It caused the deepest horror and consterna- 
 tion. Some years previously, Paris had terrified all Europe by 
 shedding royal blood ; but at present, Paris exhibited a spectacle 
 of order, humanity, and tranquillity ; it was now the ancient 
 monarchies which in their turn scandalised the whole civilised 
 world. A year before, the Neapolitan sovereign had imbrued 
 his hands in the blood of his subjects ; now a revolution in the 
 palace bathed the imperial throne of Russia in blood, j 
 
 Thus, in this agitated age, every country in succession fur- 
 nished melancholy examples, and supplied deplorable subjects of 
 animadversion to its enemies ! Truly, if nations wish to revile 
 each other, their several histories furnish ample materials for 
 mutual recrimination ; but let us avoid recurring to these sad 
 reminiscences for such a purpose. If we relate these horrible 
 details, it is because truth is the first duty of the historian ; it is 
 because truth is the most useful, the most powerful of lessons, the 
 most effectual in averting the recurrence of similar scenes; and 
 thus, without offending any nation, let us say again, that the in- 
 stitutions are more to be blamed than the people ; and that if, 
 at St. Petersburg, an emperor was murdered in order to bring 
 about a change of policy ; at London, on the contrary, without 
 any sanguinary crisis, a peace policy followed a war policy, by the 
 mere substitution of Mr. Addington in the place of Mr. Pitt. 
 
 The particulars of this catastrophe soon became public, through 
 the indiscretion of the assassins themselves. At Berlin espe- 
 cially, where the court was closely connected with that of St. 
 Petersburg, the details of the crime spread with singular rapidity. 
 The sister of the Soubows had taken refuge in that city, and 
 had manifested, it was said, certain symptoms of uneasiness 
 and anxiety, like one who awaits some great event. It so 
 happened that her son was the very officer appointed to 
 announce to Prussia the accession of Alexander. This young 
 man, with all the indiscretion of his age, partially divulged the 
 particulars of the assassination, and thus occasioned at Potsdam 
 a scandal which gave great offence to the young and virtuous 
 King of Prussia. The court made this young man feel the 
 impropriety of his conduct ; but hence arose a foul calumny. 
 This sister of the Soubows was on terms of intimate friendship
 
 APiiiLi8oi CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 519 
 
 with the English ambassador, Lord Whitworth, who figured 
 afterwards at Paris, and played there a very conspicuous part. 
 The death of the Emperor Paul was so highly advantageous to 
 the English, it occurred so opportunely to complete the doubt- 
 ful victory of Copenhagen, that the vulgar throughout Europe 
 readily ascribed the perpetration of this crime to British policy. 
 The intimacy of the English ambassador with a family so 
 deeply implicated in the assassination of Paul furnished strong 
 plausible surmises confirmatory of the calumny, together with 
 fresh arguments for those who can never perceive that events 
 may originate in general and natural causes. 
 
 Nevertheless, none of these conjectures were founded in truth. 
 Lord Whitworth was an honourable man, incapable of partici- 
 pating in such a plot. The cabinet by which he was accredited 
 had committed numerous unpardonable acts during many pre- 
 vious years, and, soon after, was guilty of others still more 
 difficult to justify, but it was as much taken by surprise as the 
 rest of Europe by the death of the Czar. And yet, the First 
 Consul himself, notwithstanding the unquestionable impartiality 
 of his judgment, could not help entertaining some suspicions, 
 and he gave rise to still more, by the terms in which the death 
 of the Emperor Paul was announced in the Moniteur. " It is 
 for history," says this official journal, "to develop the mystery 
 which surrounds this tragical death, and to declare which cabinet 
 in the world was the most deeply interested in bringing about 
 such a catastrophe." 
 
 This event delivered England from a relentless enemy, and 
 deprived the First Consul of a powerful ally, but one that 
 latterly was becoming embarrassing, and almost as dangerous as 
 he was serviceable. It is certain that the deceased emperor, in 
 the fulness of his arrogance, believing that the First Consul 
 could no longer refuse him anything in return for his alliance, 
 had required conditions with regard to Italy, Germany, and 
 Egypt, which France could never have conceded, and these 
 demands must have interposed great obstacles to the re-estab- 
 lishment of peace, a desire for which was now becoming general 
 throughout Europe. The First Consul selected his favourite 
 aide-de-camp, Duroc, who had been previously sent to Berlin 
 and to Vienna, and despatched him to Russia. He ordered 
 him to repair to St. Petersburg, with an autograph letter, to 
 congratulate the new emperor on his accession, and to bring to 
 bear all the powers of flattery and persuasion of a great man. in 
 order to instil, if possible, into his mind, sound ideas concerning 
 the relations between France and Russia. 
 
 Duroc set out instantly with orders to proceed by way of Berlin. 
 He was to visit Prussia for the second time, collect more correct 
 information respecting the recent events which had occurred in
 
 520 HISTORY OF THE apkil 1801 
 
 the North, and thus reach St. Petersburg better acquainted with 
 the men and the facts with which he would there have to deal. 
 
 England was delighted, as well she might be, with receiving 
 at the same time the news of the victory of Copenhagen, and 
 the death of the formidable adversary who had originated the 
 league of the neutral powers against her. The valour of the 
 British hero, the gallant Nelson, was exalted to the skies, and 
 that with a most natural and legitimate enthusiasm, for nations 
 do well, in the first ecstasies of their joy, to celebrate, and even 
 exaggerate their triumphs. Nevertheless, the first transports 
 of enthusiasm being over, when the nation became more calm, 
 the victory of Copenhagen was more correctly appreciated. 
 The passage of the Sound had been, it was said, not very diffi- 
 cult to force ; the attack on Copenhagen in a narrow strait, 
 where the English ships could not manoeuvre without great 
 peril, was an adventurous, bold act, worthy of the victor at 
 Aboukir. But the English fleet had been seriously disabled, 
 and if it had not been for the too great eagerness of the Crown 
 Prince of Denmark to listen to Nelson's flag of truce, the day 
 would probably have been lost. The victory had been very 
 close upon a defeat, and moreover, the results obtained were 
 quite unimportant, since the English had only extorted from 
 the Danes a simple armistice, at the expiration of which the 
 struggle must be renewed. If the Emperor Paul had not died, 
 this naval enterprise which the English must have prosecuted, 
 in the midst of an enclosed sea, in which they could not put 
 into any port, and the outlet from which might be shut against 
 them, must have had many terrible dangerous chances against 
 its success. But the blow struck so opportunely against the 
 power which commanded the entrance to the Baltic, that is to 
 say, the Danes, was decisive ; Paul was no longer there to take 
 iip the gauntlet, and to continue the contest. This is an 
 additional proof, illustrating the numberless others with which 
 history abounds, that there are in this world many propitious 
 chances in favour of boldness, especially when its efforts are 
 seconded by sufficiently commanding ability. 
 
 The English immediately proceeded to take advantage of this 
 fortunate change of sovereigns, by relaxing the rigour of the 
 principles they had laid down respecting the maritime law of 
 nations, so as to arrive at some honourable adjustment with 
 Russia, and, after Russia, with all the remaining powers. They 
 were well aware of the kind and amiable character of the young 
 prince who had ascended the throne of Russia, as at that period 
 it was pronounced to be rather bordering on weakness ; and, 
 besides, they flattered themselves with having regained consider- 
 able influence at St. Petersburg. They sent Lord St. Helens to 
 that capital, with the necessary powers to effect an arrangement.
 
 aprili8oi CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 521 
 
 M. de Woronzoff, ambassador of Russia to the court of George 
 III., wholly wedded to the cause of British policy, having even 
 incurred the sequestration of his property on account of his not 
 having quitted London, his accustomed place of residence, re- 
 ceived an invitation to appear there in his official capacity, which 
 he forthwith accepted. The vessels belonging to the neutral 
 powers, detained in the English ports, were released. Nelson, 
 by order of his government, continued inactive in the Baltic, 
 and was instructed to intimate to the courts of the North, that 
 he should refrain from any act of hostility, unless they determined 
 to put their fleets to sea, in which case he should engage with 
 them ; but if, on the contrary, these fleets should remain in their 
 respective ports, and not attempt to make the long threatened 
 junction with the Danish squadron, he should abstain from any 
 hostile act against the coasts of Denmark, of Sweden, and of 
 Russia ; that he should allow free passage to all the merchant 
 vessels, and the relations between the countries should be upon 
 the same footing as before the rupture. 
 
 The blow struck against Copenhagen had unfortunately pro- 
 duced its effect. The minor neutral powers, such as the Danes 
 and the Swedes, although deeply irritated on their own account 
 against England, had only been forced into the league by the 
 menacing influence of Paul I. Prussia, who regarded her mari- 
 time interests as quite secondary compared with her other national 
 interests, and who strongly inclined towards peace, had only 
 engaged in the dispute, when urged on by the twofold influence 
 of Paul I. and the First Consul : she, accordingly, felt overjoyed 
 on finding herself extricated from such an embarrassment. She 
 was, like the rest, eagerly disposed to co-operate in the re-estab- 
 lishment of commercial relations. 
 
 In a short time the trading vessels of all nations, English, 
 Swedish, Danish, and Russian, reappeared in the Baltic ; and 
 trade and navigation resumed their accustomed activity. Nelson 
 allowed them to pass unmolested, and received in return, along 
 the northern coasts, the refreshments of which he stood in need. 
 This virtual armistice was, therefore, generally acceded to. The 
 Russian cabinet, directed by Count 1 'allien, without yielding 
 unbecomingly to British influence, showed a disposition to ter- 
 minate the maritime dispute, by such an adjustment as would 
 secure, up to a certain point, the rights of the neutrals. It 
 intimated that they would receive Lord St. Helens. Already 
 it had authorised the return of M. do Woronzoff to London, 
 whither M. de Bernestoff also repaired, as the representative of 
 Denmark. 
 
 The First Consul, who had ably contrived and elaborated 
 this formidable coalition against Great Britain, a coalition 
 founded moreover upon the interests of all the maritime nations,
 
 522 HISTORY OF THE aprili8oi 
 
 viewed with regret its dissolution, occasioned as it was by the 
 weakness of the confederates. He tried to make them ashamed 
 of the promptitude with which they receded ; but each excused 
 his conduct by the example of his neighbour. Denmark, justly 
 proud of the bloody engagement of Copenhagen, declared that 
 she had done her part, and that it was the duty of the others to 
 perform theirs. Sweden expressed herself ready to fight ; but, 
 she added, that as the Danish, Prussian, and, above all, the 
 Russian flags, were freely traversing the seas, she could not see 
 why her subjects alone should be debarred from the benefits of 
 trade. Prussia excused her inaction by the change which had 
 happened at St. Petersburg, but, at the same time, reiterated to 
 France the warmest assurances of steadfast constancy. She 
 declared that a just estimate would be formed of her perseverance 
 in the cause, when the proper time arrived for concluding an 
 arrangement, and the articles of the maritime law of nations 
 should be definitively settled. Russia affected not to neglect the 
 rights of the neutrals, but avowedly confined her endeavours to 
 the accomplishment of one thing only, which was the cessation 
 of hostilities commenced upon insufficient grounds. 
 
 The First Consul, who was desirous of retarding an accom- 
 modation between Prussia and England as long as possible, con- 
 ceived a very ingenious expedient to prolong the dispute. He 
 had offered Malta to Paul, and he now tendered Hanover to 
 Prussia. We have seen that Prussia had occupied that province, 
 so dear to the heart of George III., by way of reprisals for the 
 violent acts which the English government had committed against 
 the neutral flags. Prussia had lent herself with considerable 
 hesitation to this act of aggression, but the secret longing which 
 she has always felt for the possession of that province, the most 
 desirable for her, that which would most conveniently enlarge 
 and round off the frontiers of her territory, prompted her to 
 seize upon it, notwithstanding her anxiety for peace and repose. 
 Other motives also had influenced her. She had, besides, an 
 indemnity to claim in Germany, as she was amongst the number 
 of the secular princes who were to be indemnified for their losses 
 on the left bank of the Rhine by the secularisation of the 
 ecclesiastical States. These claims were very large, and in the 
 hope that the First Consul would favour them, she was anxious 
 to propitiate him, by taking possession of Hanover. General 
 Bonaparte declared at once, that if she wished to keep Hanover, 
 and indemnify herself thereby, although this indemnity was of 
 ten times greater value than the amount to which she was entitled, 
 he would willingly consent, without giving way to any jealousy 
 at this great augmentation, conceded to a power whose territory 
 was conterminous with France. This proposal at once delighted 
 and disturbed the young monarch. The offer was a seductive
 
 april 1 80 1 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIBE. 523 
 
 one, but the chief stumbling-block was, the resentment of 
 England. Nevertheless, without accepting the proposal in a 
 definitive manner, the cabinet of Berlin replied, that the king, 
 Frederick William, was fully sensible of the friendly dispositions 
 of the First Consul, that he had come to no resolution yet, that 
 it was better to defer the consideration of this territorial question 
 till the negotiations for a general peace throughout Europe ; 
 and he added, that grounding his conduct upon the present 
 state of things, which was an armistice tacitly acquiesced in, 
 rather than formally stipulated, he should continue to keep 
 possession of Hanover. 
 
 The First Consul did not require more, being content with 
 having thereby involved the courts of London and Berlin in a 
 question of the most complicated solution, and placed in the 
 hands of a power which was devoted to him, a precious pledge, 
 which could be most advantageously used in the negotiations 
 with England. 
 
 The period of these negotiations at length approached. 
 England had seized with avidity the opportunity of relaxing 
 the rigour of her maritime principles, with a view of quelling 
 the danger which threatened her in the North ; she was now 
 anxious to terminate this state of things, and to conclude peace, 
 not only with the neutrals, but with a power still more formi- 
 dable than they ; with France, which during the last ten years 
 had convulsed all Europe, and which began to threaten the 
 British soil with serious dangers. At one period, thanks to the 
 obstinacy of Mr. Pitt, and the talents of General Bonaparte, 
 she found herself alone, contending against all the world ; 
 having extricated herself from this position by a successful act 
 of temerity, by a fortuitous stroke of good fortune, she was 
 averse to again incur similar dangers, through a repetition of 
 similar errors. England, moreover, could now treat with honour, 
 and it was expedient, after having lost so many good oppor- 
 tunities, not to miss the one which now presented itself. Why, 
 reasoned the people of England, why prolong the war ? We 
 have taken all the colonies worth having: France, at the same 
 time, has vanquished all the allies to which we have been 
 attached ; she has aggrandised herself at their expense, and 
 has become the most formidable power in the universe. Every 
 day added to the struggle renders it more serious, especially 
 through her successive conquest of all the European coasts and 
 harbours. She has reduced Holland and Naples, and at the 
 present moment is marching against Portugal. We must not 
 render her more powerful, by pertinaciously persisting in the 
 prosecution of the war. If it was for the maintenance of the 
 most salutary principles that we contended some years past ; 
 if it was for social order menaced by the French Revolution ;
 
 5 24 HIS TOE Y OF THE april i 80 i 
 
 that is now no longer the case, since France affords the brightest 
 example of order and of wisdom. Can we think to re-establish 
 the Bourbons ? There, indeed, was Mr. Pitt's grand error, his 
 mistaken policy ; and if his great influence, his great talents 
 are lost to us, we must secure the only advantage we can from 
 his retirement, that is to say, we must relinquish that unre- 
 mitting, malignant spirit of hatred, which dictated the most 
 imprudent and gross personalities between him and General 
 Bonaparte. 
 
 All sensible, reflecting men in England were in favour of 
 peace. This feeling had the powerful support of the king and 
 the people. The pious and obstinate King of England, who 
 refused the emancipation of the Catholics to Mr. Pitt, out of 
 fidelity to the Protestant cause, did not the less rejoice at the 
 restoration of Catholicism in France, a re-establishment which 
 was expected soon to take place. He viewed in that, the 
 triumph of religious principles, and was content. He had a 
 great aversion to the French Revolution, and although General 
 Bonaparte had thwarted and seriously counteracted the policy 
 of England, he was greatly pleased with him for the reaction 
 against that Revolution, and for reinstating true social principles 
 in public opinion. France, which possesses in such an eminent 
 degree the power of communicating to other nations the feelings 
 she herself experiences, being now calmed down, brought back 
 to sound notions, King George III. regarded the blessings of 
 social order as preserved to mankind. If with Mr. Pitt the war 
 had been one of national ambition, as respected George III. it 
 had been a war of principle. General Bonaparte might, there- 
 fore, consider him as a friend, but a friend of a very different 
 stamp from Paul I. Having recovered from the attack which 
 had obscured his reason during several months, he was now 
 decidedly inclined to peace, and pressed his ministers to con- 
 clude it. The English people, fond of novelty, looked upon a 
 peace with the French as the greatest of novelties ; for they 
 had slaughtered each other, during the last ten years, in every 
 quarter of the world ; ascribing also the prevailing scarcity to 
 the sanguinary struggle which desolated both land and sea, 
 they called loudly for a reconciliation with France. Moreover, 
 the new prime minister, Mr. Addington, unfit to aspire to the 
 same glory as Mr. Pitt, to whom he was greatly inferior in 
 talents, in celebrity, and in general administrative capacity, had 
 but one plain intelligible object in view, which was to make 
 peace. He accordingly desired to bring it about, and Mr. Pitt, 
 still powerful in Parliament, counselled him to this step, as the 
 most expedient. The events in the North, far from swelling 
 the pride of England, disposed her, on the contrary, to seize a 
 very convenient and very honourable opportunity of negotiating.
 
 april 1 80 1 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 525 
 
 The new minister had determined upon this on the day he 
 assumed office ; and he was only confirmed in his resolution, 
 when the intelligence reached him of what had taken place at 
 Copenhagen and at St. Petersburg. Going still further, he 
 decided upon making a direct overture to the First Consul, 
 which would correspond with the initiative taken by the latter 
 towards England upon his accession to power. 
 
 Lord Hawkesbury, who presided over the foreign office in 
 Mr. Addington's administration, sent for M. Otto. This gentle- 
 man transacted in London, as we have already seen, the diplo- 
 matic business relative to the prisoners, and had been six 
 months before entrusted with the duties connected with the 
 naval armistice. He was, therefore, the natural medium of 
 fresh communications, which were about to take place between 
 the two governments. Lord Hawkesbury informed J\l. Otto 
 that the king had confided to him a most agreeable task, the 
 knowledge of which would no doubt cause as much pleasure in 
 France as in England, and this was, to propose peace. He 
 said, that His Majesty was even ready to send a plenipotentiary 
 to Paris, if it were so desired, or to any other city more agree- 
 able to the French Consul. Lord Hawkesbury added, that the 
 conditions which it was his intention to propose were perfectly 
 honourable to both countries, and as a proof of the sincerity of 
 this reconciliation, he declared, that from that day, every design 
 directed against the present government of France should be 
 discountenanced by the British cabinet. He expected a full 
 reciprocity on the part of the French Republic. 
 
 This was disavowing the antecedent policy of Mr. Pitt, who 
 had always pretended to aim at the re-establishment of the 
 Bourbons, and who had unremittingly fomented the attempts 
 of the emigrants and the Vendeans by English gold. The 
 negotiations could not have been opened in a more dignified 
 manner. Lord Hawkesbury, however, required a prompt reply. 
 
 The First Consul, who at that time only aimed at keeping 
 faithfully the pledge made to France, to procure for the country 
 peace and tranquillity, was delighted with this solution of the 
 question, which he had, in fact, obtained by his successes, and 
 by the wisdom of his policy. He accepted the overtures of 
 England with as much eagerness as she had shown in propos- 
 ing them. Nevertheless, a negotiation of formality appeared 
 to him tedious, and not sufficiently efficacious. The remem- 
 brance of that of Lord Malmesbury, in 179", which was but 
 an empty demonstration on the part of Mr. Pitt, had left 
 an unpleasant impression on his mind. He thought that, if 
 they were really sincere at London, as indeed they appeared 
 really to be, it was quite sufficient to confer directly with the 
 foreign office, and there discuss, with frankness and candour, the
 
 526 HISTORY OF THE CONSULATE. apkili8oi 
 
 conditions of peace. He considered these easy of arrangement, 
 if a reconciliation were sincerely intended. " For," said he, 
 " England has taken the Indies, and we have taken Egypt : if 
 we mutually agree, each to preserve these rich conquests, the 
 rest is but of little importance. Of what importance are, in 
 fact, a few islands in the West Indies, or elsewhere, which 
 England keeps from us, or our allies, compared with the vast 
 conquests we have made ? Can she refuse to restore them, 
 when Hanover is in our hands, when Portugal will soon be so, 
 and we offer to evacuate these kingdoms in return for a few 
 islands in America ? Peace is therefore easy to be brought 
 about," so ran his despatch to M. Otto ; " if the English desire 
 it. I empower you to treat, but directly only with Lord 
 Hawkesbury." 
 
 Full powers were sent to M. Otto, with a recommendation 
 not to make anything public, to write as little as possible, to 
 negotiate verbally, and only to exchange written notes upon 
 the most important questions. It was impossible to keep such 
 a negotiation an absolute secret ; but the First Consul enjoined 
 M. Otto to require and, on his part, to observe the greatest 
 discretion, relative to those questions which must necessarily 
 on both sides be raised and discussed. 
 
 Lord Hawkesbury, in the name of the King of England, 
 consented to this mode of proceeding, and it was agreed that 
 the conferences should commence at once at London, between 
 him and M. Otto. They did really open in the early part of 
 April 1 80 1 (middle of Germinal, year IX.). 
 
 From the 18th Brumaire, year VIII. (9th of November 
 1799), to the month of Germinal, year IX. (April 1801), 
 eighteen months had elapsed, and France, at peace with the 
 Continent, engaged in a frank and sincere negotiation with 
 England, was about to obtain, for the first time for ten years, 
 a general peace on land and at sea. The condition of this 
 general peace, admitted by all the contracting parties, was the 
 preservation of our brilliant conquests. 
 
 END OF VOL. 1.
 
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