Adventure | Science Fiction | Ghost stories | Poetry | Children | History BookOpen Original Text y did Napoleon resemble David in
his supposititious sin, which was, that when the child was dead, he
had neither time nor temperament to waste in futile regrets. As he
said on another occasion, if his wife had died during the Austerlitz
Campaign it would not have delayed his operations a quarter of an
hour. But he considers practical succour to the living as the most
fitting memorial to the dead, and writes on June 4th to De Champagny:
"Twenty years ago a malady called croup showed itself in the north
of Europe. Some years ago it spread into France. I require you to
offer a prize of L500 (12,000 francs), to be given to the doctor who
writes the best essay on this malady and its mode of treatment."
Commenting on this letter Bignon (vol. vi. p. 262) adds, "It is,
however, fortunate when, on the eve of battles, warlike princes are
pondering over ways of preserving the population of their states."
No. 71.
_May 20th._--On this date he writes Hortense: "My daughter, all the
news I get from the Hague tells me that you are not rational. However
legitimate your grief, it must have limits: never impair your health;
seek distractions, and know that life is strewn with so many rocks,
and may be the source of so many miseries, that death is not the
greatest of all.--Your affectionate father, NAPOLEON."
No. 74.
_I am vexed with Hortense._--The same day he encloses with this a
letter to Hortense. "My daughter, you have not written me a line
during your great and righteous grief. You have forgotten everything,
as if you had nothing more to lose. They say you care no longer for
any one, that you are callous about everything; I note the truth of it
by your silence. This is not well, Hortense, it is not what you
promised me. Your son was everything for you. Are your mother and
myself nothing? Had I been at Malmaison I should have shared your
grief, but I should have wished you at the same time to turn to your
best friends. Good-bye, my daughter, be cheerful; it is necessary to
be resigned; keep well, in order to fulfil all your duties. My wife is
utterly miserable about your condition; do not increase her
sorrow.--Your affectionate father, NAPOLEON."
Hortense had been on such bad terms with her husband for several
months past that Napoleon evidently thinks it wiser not to allude to
him, although he had written Louis a very strong letter on his
treatment of his wife two months earlier (see letter 12,294 of the
_Correspondence_, April 4th). There is, however, a temporary reunion
between husband and wife in their common sorrow.
No. 78.
_Friedland._--On this day he wrote a further letter to the Queen of
Holland (No. 12,761 of the _Correspondence_): "My daughter, I have
your letter dated Orleans. Your grief pains me, but I should like you
to possess more courage; to live is to suffer, and the true man is
always fighting for mastery over himself. I do not like to see you
unjust towards the little Napoleon Louis, and towards all your
friends. Your mother and I had hoped to be more to you than we are."
She had been sent to take the waters of Cauterets, and had left her
child Napoleon Louis (who died at Forli, 1831) with Josephine, who
writes to her daughter (June 11th): "He amuses me much; he is so
gentle. I find he has all the ways of that poor child that we mourn."
And a few days later: "There remains to you a husband, an interesting
child, and a mother whose love you know." Josephine had with women the
same tact that her husband had with men, but the Bonaparte family,
with all its good qualities, strained the tact and tempers of both to
the utmost.
No. 79.
_Tilsit._--Referring to Napoleon and Alexander at Tilsit, Michaud
says: "Both full of wiles and devices, they affected nevertheless the
most perfect sentiments of generosity, which at the bottom they
scarcely dreamed of practising. Reunited, they were the masters of the
world, but such a union seemed impossible; they would rather share it
among themselves. Allies and rivals, friends and enemies, all were
sacrificed; henceforth there were to be only two powers, that of the
East and that of the West. Bonaparte at this time actually ruled from
the Niemen to the Straits of Gibraltar, from the North Sea to the base
of the Italian Peninsula."
FOOTNOTES
[60] Bouillet, _Dictionnaire Universelle_, &c.
[61] "The Queen of that Court was the fair Madame Tallien. All that
imagination can conceive will scarcely approach the reality;
beautiful after the antique fashion, she had at once grace and
dignity; without being endowed with a superior wit, she
possessed the art of making the best of it, and won people's
hearts by her great kindness."--_Memoirs of Marmont_, vol. i.,
p. 887.
[62] This brave general was mortally wounded in the cavalry charge
which saved the battle, and the friends of Bernadotte assert
that the message was never given--an assertion more credible if
the future king's record had been better on other occasions.
[63] Alison says 75,000 allies, 85,000 French, but admits allies had
100 more cannon.
[64] Augereau, says Meneval, went out of his mind during this battle,
and had to be sent back to France.
SERIES H
No. 1.
_Milan._--Magnificent public works were set on foot by Napoleon at
Milan, and the Cathedral daily adorned with fresh marvels of
sculpture. Arriving here on the morning of the 22nd, Napoleon goes
first to hear the _Te Deum_ at the Cathedral, then to see Eugene's
wife at the Monza Palace; in the evening to the La Scala Theatre, and
finishes the day (to use an Irishism) by working most of the night.
_Mont Cenis._--"The roads of the Simplon and Mont Cenis were kept in
the finest order, and daily attracted fresh crowds of strangers to the
Italian plains." So says Alison, but on the present occasion Napoleon
was overtaken by a storm which put his life in danger. He was
fortunate enough to reach a cave in which he took refuge. This cave
appeared to him, as he afterwards said, "a cave of diamonds"
(Meneval).
_Eugene._--The writer in _Biog. Univ._ (art. Josephine) says: "During
a journey that Napoleon made in Italy (November 1807) he wished, while
loading Eugene with favours, to prepare his mind for his mother's
divorce. The Decree of Milan, by which, in default of male and
legitimate children[65] of _the direct_ _line_, he adopted Eugene for
his son and his successor to the throne of Italy, gave to those who
knew how to read the secret thoughts of the Emperor in his patent acts
the proof that he had excluded him from all inheritance in the
Imperial Crown of France, and that he dreamed seriously of a new
alliance himself."
No. 2.
_Venice._--The Venetians gave Napoleon a wonderful ovation--many
nobles spending a year's income on the fetes. "Innumerable gondolas
glittering with a thousand colours and resounding with the harmony of
instruments, escorted the barges which bore, together with the master
of the world, the Viceroy and the Vice-Queen of Italy, the King and
Queen of Bavaria, the Princess of L Previous Next |