Napoleon

by Emil Ludwig

  Lucien as Rival

  reminds him of the freedom of the press, he answers : " Do you think that, in such a situation, we can allow public meetings ? . . And is not every journalist an orator ? Do not the subscribers to his newspaper really form a club ? Calumny is like an oil spot, which always leaves traces. ... In England it is different; there the Government is old-established ; here it is new. People would write worse things about me day by day ; saying, for instance, that I am so afraid of being poisoned that I dare not eat! . . . The only way of keeping the political parties in check is to deprive them of their battle-ground."

  Sound reasoning, appropriate measures. But the spirit of free thought stands weeping at the door; her fascinated gaze is fixed upon power enthroned.

  The man who was certainly in part responsible for the before-mentioned pamphlet, perhaps its author, the man who had thus inflicted a grave injury upon the First Consul, was the very man who had been his main buttress on the Eighteenth Brumaire, and who had saved the situation that day—Brother Lucien. The most gifted of Napoleon's four brothers, six years younger than the Consul, scaling the heights of ambition at an even earlier age than his great brother, though helped in his upward progress by that brother's prestige, Lucien coveted the highest for himself. To stand in the shadow of Napoleon's great name, to be under his protection, and even to be the object of his love—these were more galling to Lucien than Napoleon's disfavour in later days. He never forgot the incidents of the coup d'etat. He had been the king-maker. How, then, could he obey the man whom he had raised to the throne ?

  Needs must, however. Shortly after Brumaire, he becomes Minister for Home Affairs, a mere instrument of the master brain. Is it not natural that he should critically examine all that

  (Photograph in the Kircheisen Collection.)

  Bonaparte as First Consul. Painting by Girodet. Musee Nationale, Versailles.

  Breach Between the Brothers

  comes to him from the chief, wondering whether he can make a better job ? Hostile to Josephine, he is hostile to her confidants. This brings him into conflict with Fouche, who is always ready to blame the Minister for Home Affairs for anything untoward, like the publication of the pamphlet.

  By temperament, Lucien was as unscrupulous and amoral as his brother. Though very like his brother, he lacked the boldly calculating brain, and may even be said to have had semi-criminal traits beneath his smiling exterior. A Napoleon, like the other, but one degree more adventurer and several degrees less statesman. At twenty-five years of age, Lucien was powerful and yet embittered, his audacious spirit urging him to more and yet more hazardous adventures. His first wife was an innkeeper's daughter; he sold monopolies ; speculated in grain; lived beyond his means, instead of setting to work; bought the finest house in Paris, furnished it sumptuously, rebuilt it, and refurnished it; gave splendid banquets, indulged in amateur theatricals, wrote verses. All these extravagances were undertaken in the half-conscious desire to eclipse his brother.

  Between two such men, in such a relationship, how can a breach be avoided ! Lucien taunts the Consul, saying that he, Lucien, had won the victory on the Nineteenth Brumaire. In the first flush of his wrath, Napoleon has it in mind to banish Lucien ; but, in the end, he is content to deprive the young man of ministerial office. This will put a term to the monetary scandals attaching to Lucien's abuse of his position. Lucien goes to Madrid as envoy. His ability in this new post enables him to work successfully against England, and also to divert the flow of a good many millions into his own pockets. Being now a widower, he soon returns, and marries his lady love, a beauty whose reputation is of the same sort as Josephine's in earlier days. The First Consul is furious, for he has been working to promote a marriage that would have brought political advantages.

  Brothers and Sisters

  Joseph, too, man of the world and good fellow, is inclining to join the ranks of the sceptics, now that, with his brother's aid, he has risen to wealth and power; he frequents Madame de Stael's circle, and speaks critically of the Consul. He is no longer content with the position of envoy in Rome, refuses the presidency of the Italian Republic and the chancellorship of the Senate; cannot forget that he is the eldest; looks upon himself as head of the family.

  Louis still vacillates, the poet in his temperament taking charge from time to time. For years he is in love with one of Josephine's relatives, and has no affection for Hortense, whom he is forced to marry. Years afterwards he will sing the love of his heart.

  Jerome, the youngest, good-natured and frivolous, is brought up by his brother with paternal strictness. " I send you Citizen Jerome Bonaparte, who is to serve as a midshipman. As you know, he must be kept under strict discipline. See to it that he fulfils all his duties."

  His sisters, again; he has loaded them with money and honours, but they give him little thanks, and are incessant in their demands for more. There is Elise ! She and Lucien, her favourite brother, vie with one another in escapades that are the talk of Paris. At amateur theatricals, they disport themselves in pink tights, and the Consul thunders: " Disgraceful behaviour! While I am wearing myself out trying to make people moral and respectable once more, my brother and my sister appear before the footlights almost naked! " But as soon as his back is turned, they laugh merrily, and follow their own bent.

  Caroline, who has married General Murat, is already involving her husband and Bernadotte in intrigues against the Consul. The public learns nothing of these matters, but they come to Napoleon's ears, and he says angrily that Murat deserves to be shot.

  Pauline loses her husband in a colonial campaign. She does

  Opening of the Family Dramas

  not regret the loss. By her second marriage, she becomes Princess Borghese in Rome. Her innocence is no more than a cynical pose, but her brother remains fonder of her than of any of the others. Even when the looseness of her life imperils his reputation, and he thinks it necessary to remonstrate, he words his remonstrances cautiously.

  Uncle Fesch, at first a priest, and then an army contractor, now enters political life and resumes the clerical habit. Napoleon secures his appointment as archbishop and then as cardinal. All the Bonapartes exploit the man of power, that they may win money and position, lead a splendid life, and enjoy themselves, whereas in his life of superhuman toil there is little scope for pleasure.

  Only his mother continues to hold aloof. Although she is not better pleased with Josephine now than formerly, although she is still the woman of Corsica and continues to talk an island dialect, he invites her, immediately after the coup d'etat, to come and live with him in the Tuileries. She refuses, prefers to stay with Joseph. At the first great parade he holds in the courtyard of the palace, when she appears on the balcony among the highest State officials, she is very simply dressed, all in black, and yet looks prouder than Josephine, hard by, decked out in peacock array. Letizia mistrusts all this splendour, being now inured to the vicissitudes of life. When any one tries to flatter her by speaking of her son's greatness and power, she sagely answers, in her Italian French : " Pourvou que cela doure."

  What is the source of these family dramas, some of which will end in farce, others in tragedy ?

  In Napoleon's heart, had he been nothing more than a parvenu of the familiar type, he would, when pressed by his nearest and dearest for a share in his good fortune, graciously or ungraciously, but infallibly, have kept this dozen or so of men and women far from his circle of influence, for he would have been fain to conceal an origin which conflicted with his

  Tragedy of Childlessness

  affectation of French nationalism. He is dictator of France, and yet every time his mother opens her mouth she reminds all the nationalists of his foreign birth. Here is the sister of a man who ranks with kings, and she plays the maddest pranks before the eyes of the monarchs of Europe, who naturally delight in pointing the finger of scorn at the ill-breeding of the upstart's relatives. His brothers wallow in the practice of corrupt methods which it was a primary
aim of the revolution to abolish. All this occurs in Paris, where irony has ever been the fundamental tone of criticism!

  Yet he does not merely tolerate these embarrassing kinsfolk; he is continually showering honours on them, promoting them to high office, making them his representatives abroad.

  Herein we see the working of his Italian blood, and, above all, of his island upbringing. Every Corsican family, patriarchal by tradition, is clannish to the core, while filled with sentiments of hatred and vengefulness towards the rival houses of the puny isle. Such traditions are older than those of many of the royal families, and as a result of them the urge towards the gratification of pride and towards the vindication of honour is more powerful than the desire for wealth. With this inborn clannishness is associated and intertwined the intense longing of a conqueror to preserve for the heirs of his body all that he has snatched for himself by the strength of his genius and through the favour of fortune. Nevertheless, destiny (tragical in its working, being conditioned by his innermost sentiments, and therefore inexorable) has made this man childless. The wife, into whose arms he has been driven by all the passion of love, the wife who has borne two healthy children in previous marriage, remains barren in her second union; and the infirmity of barrenness, but for which the history of Europe would have taken a different turn, is obviously a consequence of her devotion to the art of love, of the facile amorousness with which she won Bonaparte's affection and held him for a time in thrall. For, when she first met him, she was little over thirty; and, as

  Search for an Heir

  for him, in subsequent relationships with other women, he was able to procreate three sons. He urgently needs a legitimate heir. Even an heiress would serve his turn. There can be no doubt that Josephine's failure to satisfy him in this crucial instance had a decisive effect on his plans.

  In view of the plenitude of his powers, how could it be otherwise ? During the first years of his rise, Roederer propounds the great theme : " The Royalists are saying : ' Who will be Bonaparte's successor ? ' If you die to-morrow, what will happen to us ? You must nominate your successor."

  " What you suggest would not be a strong policy."

  " France would be more at ease if she knew who was to succeed you."

  " I have no children."

  " You could adopt one."

  " That would not meet the difficulties of the moment. I can see no other way out than that the Senate should appoint my successor. Only three of the senators and myself should know his name. But who is it to be ? "

  " They had better choose a lad of twelve."

  " Why do you want him to be a child ? "

  " A boy who can grow up in your school; one whom you can train and love."

  At length the Consul, driven into a corner, exclaims : " My natural heir is the French people."

  The man who speaks is not old. He is little more than thirty. Though he is appointed dictator for ten years only, he plainly foresees that he will be monarch. But he is already alarmed by the dangers of the position. When he looks round in search of an heir, his only hope is in his brothers. The best return they can make for the gifts he showers on them is that they should raise up heirs to his name, heirs who will at least have the advantage of Bonapartist blood. That is why Napoleon is so furious with Lucien, not because he has taken a wife with a bad name, but because he has taken a wife with no name. Lucien must get a

  Amours

  divorce, and thus win freedom to marry a woman of royal blood.

  Lucien refuses, quite as much owing to spite for his all-powerful brother as owing to affection for his wife. He is, indeed, fond of her; but he is so ambitious that he would sacrifice anything in the world for the sake of supreme power. After a stormy scene between the pair, Bonaparte comes into Josephine's room, and his voice is shaken with emotion as he says : " It is all over ! I have given Lucien his dismissal."

  Similar considerations explain the long-lasting quarrel with Louis, to whom Josephine looks for the salvation of her own line. He cannot endure Josephine's daughter Hortense, who reciprocates the dislike and loves another man. Josephine, however, forces her to marry Louis, and the son of this ill-assorted union becomes Napoleon's darling, and is looked upon as likely to be the heir. Thereupon, his sisters begin to intrigue, spreading abroad the report that Napoleon is really the father. Through these disputes, the unity of the family is shattered, at the very time when Europe envies it for its good fortune. Letizia sides with the young people who have been forced into a marriage; and also espouses the cause of the ostracised Lucien, whom she follows to Rome. There she can live happily, far from the glowing star that has sprung from her womb. There she can live as an Italian, a wealthy and respected associate of Rome's leading families, and treated by the pope with all the honours due to a woman of royal blood.

  What if Bonaparte were to divorce Josephine ? His sisters, who hate " the old woman," do what they can, and trot attractive beauties up and down in full view. As Josephine grows older, Napoleon's relations with her become more tranquil, but he needs her friendship. He has ceased to be fastidious and has transient love affairs with one pretty actress after another, or makes this or that companion of his sisters the mistress of a few evenings or a night or two.

  Georges, who, like all the rest, is afraid of him, describes

  Josephine's Anxieties

  him as " an amiable and considerate man," who plays hide and seek with her, helps her to undress, and bends to her " childish caprices." Since her Christian name is Josephine, he refuses to call her by it, and invents for her an Italian name. She is Giorgina. He asks her to tell him her own story, listens attentively, and nods approvingly—for he has taken care to learn all about her, and is pleased that she tells him the truth.

  Sometimes the Consul's servants catch sight of him in the evening, as, in his stockinged feet, he steals up a secret winding staircase to visit the lovely Duchatel. She is gentle, slender, and blonde—the type he prefers. Duchatel is one of Josephine's ladies-in-waiting. He likes to play cards with her sometimes, talking to her in an undertone about matters of love, while the uneasy Josephine, at another card table, strains her ears to catch what he is saying. The lady-in-waiting retires. Napoleon follows, to find her in the place of assignation. His wife, beside herself, pursues them, rattles the door-handle. Napoleon comes to the door in a rage. Next day he threatens her with divorce, but he is softened by her tears.

  These amours are but occasional. He is always up to the eyes in work. Besides, he has made up his mind to avoid what has proved disastrous to so many kings. He will not squander his resources on inamoratas, and he will not allow them to interfere in matters of State. As regards affairs of love, he is prematurely old. It is with a sense of shock that we find this man of thirty writing in a letter to a friend: " My old heart, which now knows human beings for what they are ..."

  Josephine is racked with anxiety about his conduct, just as formerly he was racked with anxiety about hers. She relies on dresses, hats, the arts of the toilet; spends more than the late queen of France; and has still so little reticence that, though she is the first lady in the land, she cannot refrain from telling her maid when the Consul has spent the night with her. He forgives her much. Sometimes she sits at the weary man's bedside, reading to him in her lovely alto voice. He thanks her with his

  Mystifications

  eyes. He is conservatively inclined, this man of the revolution. Rarely does he part with a general, dismiss an official. How, then, shall he divorce this woman whom he loves, despite her faults ?

  In the pleasant gardens at Malmaison, where during his year's absence in Egypt she lived with her light-of-love, Hippo-lyte, he runs races with Bourrienne, Rapp, and a few men of letters, while Eugene and Hortense look on. When he trips and falls, he joins merrily in the others' laughter. Then he gets into his carriage for the drive to Paris, saying :

  " Now I can put my head in the collar once more."

  VI

  " Bonaparte very sel
dom writes with his own hand. He dictates everything, while walking up and down his study ; dictates to a young man of twenty named Meneval, the only one who has the entry to this study and the three other rooms of the private suite. No use approaching Meneval; nothing to hope in that quarter; indeed, no one would dare to try. But the First Consul himself jots down the memoranda that relate to his most important plans. This . . . very special map, he locks up with his own hand, and always carries the key about with him. If he leaves his study, Meneval has to put the map away in a cupboard screwed to the floor. Of course the map might be stolen, but it would instantly be missed. Suspicion would at once fall upon Meneval and the underling, who cleans the study and lights the fire, so the underling would have to make a bolt for it. ... All the secret memoranda concerning his military operations must be in it, and since the only way of overthrowing his power would be to destroy his plans, the theft of this map would bring everything to naught."

  Who writes the foregoing ? A Bourbon spy ? Or is it a traitor among the Consul's intimates ?

  Neither the one nor the other. The young man of twenty

  Plot and Counterplot

  named Meneval writes it; and it is dictated to him by his chief, the First Consul, who is walking up and down the study. Acting on Bonaparte's orders, the Minister for Justice is sending a provocative agent to Munich, where the man is to get in touch with English agents of the Bourbons. The letter is to be part of the outfit. Many other details are given. We are told more about the royalist menial who cleans the study and lights the fire ; what this fellow will get if he brings off the coup successfully ; where he will spend the night during his escape. The commander is drafting the plan of a little campaign directed against himself.