Adventure | Science Fiction | Ghost stories | Poetry | Children | History BookOpen Original Text the date of this letter. While there he had
been in the best of humours. On his return he finds it necessary to
write his future wife and to her father--and to pen a legible letter
to the latter gives him far more trouble than winning a battle against
the Austrians, if not assisted by General Danube.
_Adieu._--Sick and weary, Josephine returns to Malmaison, Friday,
March 9th, and even this is not long to be hers, for the new Empress
is almost already on her way. The marriage at Vienna took place on
March 11th, with her uncle Charles,[87] the hero of Essling, for
Napoleon's proxy; on the 13th she leaves Vienna, and on the 23rd
reaches Strasbourg. On the 27th she meets Napoleon at Compiegne,
spends three days with him in the chateau there, and arrives at St.
Cloud on April 1st, where the civil marriage is renewed, followed by
the triumphal entry into Paris, and the religious ceremony on April
2nd. This day Josephine reaches the chateau of Navarre.
FOOTNOTES
[78] By here subordinating himself to the Senate, the Emperor was
preparing a rod for his own back hereafter.
[79] This clause gives considerable trouble to Lacepede and Regnauld.
They cannot even find a precedent whether, if they met,
Josephine or Marie Louise would take precedence of the other.
[80] In addition to this, Napoleon gives her L40,000 a year from his
privy purse, but keeps most of it back for the first two years
to pay her 120 creditors. (For interesting details see Masson,
_Josephine Repudiee_.)
[81] Which agrees with Madame d'Avrillon, who says they left the
Tuileries at 2.30. Meneval says Napoleon left for Trianon a few
hours later. Savary writes erroneously that they left the
following morning.
[82] M. Masson seems to indicate a visit on December 16th, but does
not give his authority (_Josephine Repudiee_, 114).
[83] _Correspondence of Napoleon I._, No. 15,952.
[84] _New Letters of Napoleon_, 1898.
[85] Canon Ainger's comparison.
[86] See Baron Lejeune for an interesting account of a chess quadrille
at a dance given by the Italian Minister, Marescalchi.
SERIES N
_Navarre_, on the site of an old dwelling of Rollo the Sea-King, was
built by Jeanne of France, Queen of Navarre, Countess of Evreux. At
the time of the Revolution it belonged to the Dukes of Bouillon, and
was confiscated. In February 1810, Napoleon determined to purchase it,
and on March 10th instructed his secretary of state, Maret, to confer
the Duchy of Navarre, purchased by letters patent, on Josephine and
her heirs male. The old square building was, however, utterly unfit to
be inhabited: not a window would shut, there was neither paper nor
tapestry, all the wainscoting was rotten, draughts and damp
everywhere, and no heating apparatus.[88] What solace to know its
beautiful situation, its capabilities? No wonder if her household,
banished to such a place, sixty-five miles from the "capital of
capitals," should rebel, and secessions headed by Madame Ney become
for a time general. Whist and piquet soon grow stale in such a house
and with such surroundings, and even _trictrac_ with the old bishop of
Evreux becomes tedious. Eugene as usual brings sunshine in his path,
and helps to dispel the gloom caused by the idle gossip imported from
Paris--that Josephine is not to return to Malmaison, and the like.
No. 1.
This was Josephine's second letter, says D'Avrillon, the first being
answered _viva voce_ by Eugene.
_To Malmaison._--Napoleon had promised Josephine permission to return
to Malmaison, and would not recant: his new wife was, however, very
jealous of Josephine, and very much hurt at her presence at Malmaison.
Napoleon managed to be away from Paris for six weeks after Josephine's
arrival at Malmaison.
No. 1A.
_It is written in a bad style._--M. Masson, however, is loud in
its praises, and adds, "Voila donc le protocol du tutoiement"
re-established between them in spite of the second marriage, and
their correspondence re-established on the old terms.
No. 2.
This letter seems to have been taken by Eugene to Paris, and thence
forwarded to the Emperor with a letter from that Prince in which he
enumerates Josephine's suggestions and wishes--(1) that she will not
go to Aix-la-Chapelle if other waters are suggested by Corvisart;
(2) that after stopping a few days at Malmaison she will go in June
for three months to the baths, and afterwards to the south of
France; visit Rome, Florence, and Naples incognito, spend the winter
at Milan, and return to Malmaison and Navarre in the spring of
1811; (3) that in her absence Navarre shall be made habitable, for
which fresh funds are required; (4) that Josephine wishes her
cousins the Taschers to marry, one a relative of King Joseph, the
other the Princess Amelie de la Leyen, niece of the Prince Primate.
To this Napoleon replies from Compiegne, April 26th, that the De Leyen
match with Louis Tascher may take place,[89] but that he will not
interest himself in the other (Henry) Tascher, who is giddy-headed
and bad-tempered. "I consent to whatever the Empress does, but I will
not confer any mark of my regard on a person who has behaved ill
to me. I am very glad that the Empress likes Navarre. I am giving
orders to have L12,000 which I owe her for 1810, and L12,000 for 1811
advanced to her. She will then have only the L80,000 from the public
treasury to come in.... She is free to go to whatever spa she cares
for, and even to return to Paris afterwards." He thinks, however, she
would be happier in new scenes which they had never visited together,
as they had Aix-la-Chapelle. If, however, the last are the best she
may go to them, for "what I desire above all is that she may keep
calm, and not allow herself to be excited by the gossip of Paris."
This letter goes far to soothe the poor chatelaine of Navarre.
No. 2A.
_Two letters._--The other, now missing, may have some reference to the
pictures to which he refers in his letter to Fouche the next day. "Is
it true that engravings are being published with the title of
_Josephine Beauharnais nee La Pagerie_? If this is true, have the
prints seized, and let the engravers be punished" (_New Letters_, No.
253).
No. 3.
Probably written from Boulogne about the 25th. His northern tour
with Marie Louise had been very similar to one taken in 1804,
but his _entourage_ found the new bride very cold and callous
compared to Josephine. Leaving Paris on April 29th Napoleon's
_Correspondence_ till June is dated Laeken (April 30th); Antwerp
(May 3rd); Bois-le-Duc; Middleburg, Gand, Bruges, Ostend (May
20th); Lille, Boulogne, Dieppe, Le Havre, Rouen (May 31st). He
takes the Empress in a canal barge from Brussels to Malines and
himself descends the subterranean vault of the Escaut-Oise canal,
between St. Quentin and Cambrai. He is at St. Cloud on June 2nd.
Josephine has felt his wanderings less, as she has the future
Emperor, her favourite grandson, with her, the little Oui-Oui, as she
calls him, and for whom the damp spring weather of Hol Previous Next |