Adventure | Science Fiction | Ghost stories | Poetry | Children | History BookOpen Original Text --Count d'Artois enters Paris.
_April 16th._--Convention between Eugene and Austrian General
Bellegarde. Emperor of Austria sees Marie Louise at the little
Trianon, and decides upon his daughter's return to Vienna.
_April 18th._--Armistice of Soult and Wellington.
_April 20th.--Napoleon leaves Fontainebleau, and bids adieu to his
Old Guard: "Do not mourn over my fate; if I have determined to
survive, it is in order still to dedicate myself to your glory; I
wish to write about the great things we have done together."_
_April 24th._--Louis XVIII. lands at Calais, and
_May 3rd._---Enters Paris.
_May 4th.---Napoleon reaches Elba._
_May 29th.--Death of Josephine, aged 51._
_May 30th.--Peace of Paris._
FOOTNOTES
[40] Averaged from early historians of the campaigns. Marbot gives the
numbers 155,400 French and 175,000 Allies. Allowing for the
secession of the Austrian and Prussian contingents and for
30,000 prisoners, he gives the actual French death-roll by
February 1813 at 65,000. This is a minimum estimate.
NOTES
_THE ITALIAN CAMPAIGNS, 1796-97_
SERIES A
(_The numbers correspond to the numbers of the Letters._)
No. 1.
_Bonaparte made Commander-in-Chief of the Army of Italy._--Marmont's
account of how this came to pass is probably substantially correct, as
he has less interest in distorting the facts than any other writer as
well fitted for the task. The winter had rolled by in the midst of
pleasures--soirees at the Luxembourg, dinners of Madame Tallien,
"nor," he adds, "were we hard to please." "The Directory often
conversed with General Bonaparte about the army of Italy, whose
general--Scherer--was always representing the position as difficult,
and never ceasing to ask for help in men, victuals, and money. General
Bonaparte showed, in many concise observations, that all that was
superfluous. He strongly blamed the little advantage taken from the
victory at Loano, and asserted that, even yet, all that could be put
right. Thus a sort of controversy was maintained between Scherer and
the Directory, counselled and inspired by Bonaparte." At last when
Bonaparte drew up plans--afterwards followed--for the invasion of
Piedmont, Scherer replied roughly that he who had drawn up the plan of
campaign had better come and execute it. They took him at his word,
and Bonaparte was named General-in-Chief of the army of Italy (vol. i.
93).
"_7 A.M._"--Probably written early in March. Leaving Paris on March
11th, Napoleon writes Letourneur, President of the Directory, of his
marriage with the "citoyenne Tascher Beauharnais," and tells him that
he has already asked Barras to inform them of the fact. "The
confidence which the Directory has shown me under all circumstances
makes it my duty to keep it advised of all my actions. It is a new
link which binds me to the fatherland; it is one more proof of my
fixed determination to find safety only in the Republic."[41]
No. 2.
"_Our good Ossian._"--The Italian translation of Ossian by Cesarotti
was a masterpiece; better, in fact, than the original. He was a friend
of Macpherson, and had learnt English in order to translate his work.
Cesarotti lived till an advanced age, and was sought out in his
retirement in order to receive honours and pensions from the Emperor
Napoleon.
"Our good Ossian" speaks, like Homer, of the joy of grief.
No. 4.
"_Chauvet is dead._"--Chauvet is first mentioned in Napoleon's
correspondence in a letter to his brother Joseph, August 9, 1795.
Mdme. Junot, _Memoirs_, i. 138, tells us that Bonaparte was very fond
of him, and that he was a man of gentle manners and very ordinary
conversation. She declares that Bonaparte had been a suitor for the
hand of her mother shortly before his marriage with Josephine, and
that because the former rejected him, the general had refused a favour
to her son; this had caused a quarrel which Chauvet had in vain tried
to settle. On March 27th Bonaparte had written Chauvet from Nice that
every day that he delayed joining him, "takes away from my operations
one chance of probability for their success."
No. 5.
St. Amand notes that Bonaparte begins to suspect his wife in this
letter, while the previous ones, especially that of April 3rd, show
perfect confidence. Napoleon is on the eve of a serious battle, and
has only just put his forces into fighting trim. On the previous day
(April 6th) he wrote to the Directory that the movement against Genoa,
of which he does not approve, has brought the enemy out of their
winter quarters almost before he has had time to make ready. "The army
is in a state of alarming destitution; I have still great difficulties
to surmount, but they are surmountable: misery has excused want of
discipline, and without discipline never a victory. I hope to have all
in good trim shortly--there are signs already; in a few days we shall
be fighting. The Sardinian army consists of 50,000 foot, and 5000
horse; I have only 45,000 men at my disposal, all told. Chauvet, the
commissary-general, died at Genoa: it is a heavy loss to the army, he
was active and enterprising."
Two days later Napoleon, still at Albenga, reports that he has found
Royalist traitors in the army, and complains that the Treasury had not
sent the promised pay for the men, "but in spite of all, we shall
advance." Massena, eleven years older than his new commander-in-chief,
had received him coldly, but soon became his right-hand man, always
genial, and full of good ideas. Massena's men are ill with too much
salt meat, they have hardly any shoes, but, as in 1800,[42] he has
never a doubt that Bonaparte will make a good campaign, and determines
to loyally support him. Poor Laharpe, so soon to die, is a man of a
different stamp--one of those, doubtless, of whom Bonaparte thinks
when he writes to Josephine, "Men worry me." The Swiss, in fact, was a
chronic grumbler, but a first-rate fighting man, even when his men
were using their last cartridges.
"_The lovers of nineteen._"--The allusion is lost. Aubenas, who
reproduces two or three of these letters, makes a comment to this
sentence, "Nous n'avons pu trouver un nom a mettre sous cette
fantasque imagination" (vol. i. 317).
"_My brother_," viz. Joseph.--He and Junot reached Paris in five days,
and had a great ovation. Carnot, at a dinner-party, showed Napoleon's
portrait next to his heart, because "I foresee he will be the saviour
of France, and I wish him to know that he has at the Directory only
admirers and friends."
No. 6.
_Unalterably good._--"C'est Joseph peint d'un seul trait."--Aubenas
(vol. i. 320).
"_If you want a place for any one, you can send him here. I will give
him one._"--Bonaparte was beginning to feel firm in the saddle,
while at Paris Josephine was treated like a princess. Under date
April 25th, Letourneur, as one of the Directory, writes him, "A vast
career opens itself before you; the Directory has measured the
whole extent of it." They little knew! The letter concludes by
expressing confidence that their ge Previous Next |