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when forwarding the letter: "I advise you to write to him immediately
that you have anticipated his intentions, and that your children are
with me: that you have only had them a few days in order to see them,
and to give them a change of air. The page who is announced in
Meneval's letter has not yet arrived. I hope he will bring me a letter
from the Emperor, and that at least he will not be as vexed with me
for your being at Baden. Your children have arrived in excellent
health."
_The Duke of Montebello, who died this morning._--The same day he
writes to La Marechale as follows:--
"_Ma Cousine_,--The Marshal died this morning of the wounds that he
received on the field of honour. My sorrow equals yours. I lose the
most distinguished general in my whole army, my comrade-in-arms for
sixteen years, he whom I looked upon as my best friend. His family and
children will always have a special claim on my protection. It is to
give you this assurance that I wished to write you this letter, for I
feel that nothing can alleviate the righteous sorrow that you will
experience." The following year he bestowed the highest honour on the
Marechale that she could receive.
_Thus everything ends._--The fourteenth bulletin says that the end was
caused by a pernicious fever, and in spite of Dr. Franck, one of the
best physicians in Europe. "Thus ends one of the most distinguished
soldiers France ever possessed."[77] He had received thirteen wounds.
The death of Lannes, and the whole of the Essling period, is best
told by Marbot. The loss of Lannes was a more serious one to Napoleon
than the whole 20,000 men lost in this battle. The master himself has
told us that "in war men are nothing, a man is everything." They could
be replaced: Lannes never. Like Kleber and Desaix, he stood on a
higher platform than the older Marshals--except Massena, who had
serious drawbacks, and who was the only one of Napoleon's best
generals that Wellington met in the Peninsula. Lannes had always the
ear of the Emperor, and always told him facts, not flattery. His life
had been specially crowded the last few weeks. Rebuked by Napoleon for
tardiness in supporting Massena at Ebersberg, his life was saved by
Napoleon himself when he was thrown from his horse into the flooded
Danube; and finally, on the field of Essling, he had under his orders
Bessieres, the man who had a dozen years before prevented his
engagement to Caroline Bonaparte by tittle-tattling to Napoleon.
No. 9.
_Eugene won a battle._--The remnant of the Archduke John's army,
together with Hungarian levies, in all 31,000 men, hold the
entrenched camp and banks of the Raab. Eugene defeats it, with a
loss of 6000 men, of whom 3700 were prisoners. Napoleon, in
commemoration of the anniversary of Marengo (and Friedland) calls it
the little granddaughter of Marengo.
No. 11.
The curtain of the war's final act was rung up in the twenty-fourth
bulletin. "At length there exists no longer the Danube for the French
army; General Count Bertrand has completed works which excite
astonishment and inspire admiration. For 800 yards over the most rapid
river in the world he has, in a fortnight, constructed a bridge of
sixteen arches where three carriages can pass abreast."
_Wagram_ is, according to Pelet, the masterpiece of _tactical_
battles, while the five days' campaign (Thann to Ratisbon) was one
long _strategic_ battle. Nevertheless, respecting Wagram, had the
Archduke John, with his 40,000 men, turned up, as the Archduke had
more right to expect than Wellington had to expect Blucher, Waterloo
might have been antedated six years.
_Lasalle_ was a prime favourite of Napoleon, for his sure eye and
active bearing. His capture of Stettin with two regiments of hussars
was specially noteworthy. Like Lannes he had a strong premonition of
his death. Marbot tells a story of how Napoleon gave him 200,000
francs to get married with. A week later the Emperor asked, "When is
the wedding?" "As soon as I have got some money to furnish with,
sire." "Why, I gave you 200,000 francs to furnish with last week! What
have you done with them?" "Paid my debts with half, and lost the other
half at cards." Such an admission would have ruined any other general.
The Emperor laughed, and merely giving a sharp tug at Lasalle's
moustache, ordered Duroc to give him another 200,000.
_I am sunburnt_, and, as he writes Cambaceres the same day, tired out,
having been sixty out of the previous seventy-two hours in the
saddle.
No. 12.
_Wolkersdorf._--On July 8th he writes General Clarke: "I have the
headquarters lately occupied by the craven Francis II., who contented
himself with watching the whole affair from the top of a tower, ten
miles from the scene of battle." On this day also he dictated his
twenty-fifth bulletin, of which the last portion is so skilfully
utilised in the last scene of Act V. in L'Aiglon. One concluding
sentence is all that can here be quoted: "Such is the recital of the
battle of Wagram, a decisive and ever illustrious battle, where three
to four hundred thousand men, twelve to fifteen hundred guns, fought
for great stakes on a field of battle, studied, meditated on, and
fortified by the enemy for many months."
_A surfeit of bile._--His usual source of relief after extra work or
worry. In this case both. Bernadotte had behaved so badly at Wagram,
that Napoleon sent him to Paris with the stern rebuke, "A bungler like
you is no good to me." But as usual his anger against an old comrade
is short-lived, and he gives General Clarke permission to send
Bernadotte to command at Antwerp against the English.
No. 16.
_My affairs follow my wishes._--In Austria, possibly, but not
elsewhere. Prussia was seething with conspiracy, Russia with
ill-concealed hatred, the English had just landed in Belgium, and
Wellesley had just won Talavera. Soult was apparently no longer
trustworthy, Bernadotte a conceited boaster, who had to be publicly
snubbed (see The Order of the Day, August 5th, No. 15,614). Clarke and
Cambaceres are so slow that Napoleon writes them (August 10th) "not to
let the English come and take you in bed." Fouche shows more energy
than every one else put together, calls out National Guards, and sends
them off to meet the northern invasion. The Minister of the Interior,
M. Cretet, had just died, and the Emperor had wisely put Fouche, the
most competent man available, into his place for the time being.
No. 17.
_August 21st._--The list of birthday honours (August 15th) had been a
fairly long one, Berthier becoming Prince of Wagram, Massena of
Essling, Davoust of Eckmuehl. Marshals Oudinot and Macdonald, Generals
Clarke, Reynier, Gaudin and Champagny, as also M. Maret, became Dukes.
Marmont had already, says Savary, been made delirious with the joy of
possessing a baton.
No. 18.
_Comedians._--Napoleon found relaxation more after his own heart in
conversing with the savants of Germany, including the great mechanic
Maeelzel, with whose automaton chess-playe Previous Next |