Napoleon

by Emil Ludwig

  The Apostolical Emperor

  inflicted upon him by the little Corsican ; for, as soon as the gates of the Hofburg had closed behind Marie Louise, he could not but regard the marriage as detrimental to his dignity. To appease his legitimist misgivings, the Habsburg ruler had a search for Buonaparte ancestors made in musty old Tuscan documents, and when next he met his son-in-law was able to assure the latter that the Buonaparte lineage had been traced as far back as the eleventh century. At that time, said Francis, there had been members of the family in Treviso. Thereupon the first and last of the Buonaparti made the delicious answer:

  " Thank you, Sire. I prefer to be the Rudolf of my race ! "

  Witty, but unwise, for such words from an upstart sovereign could not but rankle in the mind of this descendant of an ancient line ! When, as would soon come to pass, the question whether the emperor of Austria was to take sides for or against his son-in-law was to be decided by Francis' mood, the memory of this and similar slights may have played a considerable part. Napoleon recognised this when it was too late. " Had I but made myself agreeable to that simpleton, who knows but that in the plains of Leipzig there might have been a hundred thousand fewer men in the opposing army! "

  All the same, the revolutionist admired many of the ways of the legitimate ruler. One day he caught sight of a letter his wife had addressed to her father as follows : " His Sacred Majesty, the Apostolical Emperor." Napoleon considered this an excellent idea; and in private, no doubt, his thoughts turned to Alexander of Macedon, who had declared himself to be the son of Jupiter.

  The apostolical emperor was especially out of humour with his son-in-law on the pope's account. Napoleon was continually tightening the bonds round the Holy Father. Pius VII. was kept at Savona. A man by no means learned in canon law, he was cut off from his advisers, and subsequently deprived of his papers, in order to make him pliable. A schism was threatening. Thirteen of the cardinals had failed to put in an appearance at

  " My Sceptre Is from God"

  the Emperor's wedding, for the pope would not recognise the divorce which Fesch had pronounced. Now Napoleon has cases filled with the Vatican State papers brought to Paris, thus arousing the belief that he really intends to make this city the capital of Christendom ; he summons a council at which the prelates of his European realm appear; he extorts a decree depriving the pope of the investiture in case of dissent, and ultimately compels Pius to agree to this—at any rate for France.

  Europe is troubled by these matters, and split into factions. On the whole, the Russians and the Poles are glad that things are going ill with the Roman pontiff; the Prussians and the English are, of course, delighted; but what arouses general surprise is that the inhabitants of the Papal States are also on the side of the Emperor. This little country, now doubly robbed of its master, is glad to accept the Code Napoleon, modern education, a rational system of administration, vigorous road construction, and the draining of the Pontine marshes. Whereas the son of the revolution has long since brought back the old spirit of Rome to Paris, he now transplants young revolutionary practice from Paris to Rome. Thus does Napoleon build bridges.

  The excommunicated Emperor cunningly tries to turn the curse against the pope. When, in newly annexed Holland, he receives the clergy in the presence of the Protestants, he rebukes the bishops as follows : " Are you of the religion of Gregory VII. ? I am not. My religion is that of Jesus Christ, who said : ' Render unto Csesar the things which are Caesar's.' In accordance with the same text, I render unto God the things which are God's. I have received my sceptre from God. But I wear a worldly sword, and know how to use it! God erects thrones. I did not raise myself to my throne : God set me upon it! You poor mortals wish to resist ? You will not pray for your monarch, because the priest of Rome has excommunicated him ? Do you think I am the sort of man to kiss the pope's toe ? . . . Prove to me, imbeciles, that Jesus has appointed the

  Plans for World Conquest

  pope his vicegerent, and that the pope has power to excommunicate a monarch ! ... Be good citizens, and sign the Concordat. You, Mr. Prefect, must take such measures as will prevent my hearing any more of these matters."

  To so preposterous a travesty of his own innermost thoughts has Napoleon come. He does not believe a word of what he is here thundering out; and in private mocks at this official doctrine, as he has always done. Nonetheless, to the circlet of golden laurels with which he had crowned himself before the eyes of the priest of Rome, there now attaches a vestige of divine right which makes the crown a heavy one to wear.

  II

  " Kindly inform me why the price of salt in the neighbourhood of Strasburg has risen one sou."

  Closely following upon the heels of this enquiry to the Ministry for War, comes a command to the Admiralty : two entire fleets are to be constructed in the course of the next three years, one Atlantic fleet and one Mediterranean fleet; the latter against Sicily and Egypt, the former against Ireland. As soon as the Spanish affair is in better case, preparations are to be made for an expedition to the Cape in 1812. An army of from sixty to eighty thousand men is to be got ready for an attack on Surinam and Martinique. " Having eluded the enemy cruisers," the expeditionary forces are to share out the two hemispheres.

  We see how closely at this date, when imaginative fantasies threaten to develop into adventures, the exact observations of the father of his country are allied to the rhapsodical plans of the world conqueror. For that is what Napoleon now attempts : he is actually trying to realise his old dream of world conquest.

  " You want to know whither we are going ? We shall have

  The Fated War

  done with Europe ; then, as robbers of robbers less bold than ourselves, we shall march to the attack, seize India, over which they have made themselves masters. ... I must take India ... in the rear, if I am to strike successfully at England. . . . Just imagine Moscow occupied, the tsar conciliated or killed by his people, perhaps a new, dependent throne,—and tell me whether an army of Frenchmen, reinforced by auxiliary troops from Tiflis, cannot press forward to the Ganges, and thence, at a touch, destroy the whole structure of English commerce ! ... At one blow, France would have established the independence of the West and the freedom of the seas ! " A witness reports that while he was voicing these ideas " his eyes shone with a wonderful light, and he went on to point out the reasons for the adventure, all the difficulties it entailed, the means of achievement, and the prospects of success."

  Shall the tsar be conciliated or killed ? That is the question which troubles the Emperor the whole year round. Calculations and presentiments make him desire to have Alexander as his friend rather than his enemy. Napoleon has nothing to gain by a defeat of Russia. On the contrary ! He dreads being forced into this war, and endeavours, as on former occasions, to avoid it; though only if the tsar, as previously agreed, shall participate in the great final struggle as an ally. Napoleon keeps the tsar under observation, and perceives that suggestions are having less and less effect upon Alexander. He therefore writes to a prince of the Confederation of the Rhine in these amazing terms : " This war will break out in spite of the tsar, in spite of me, and in spite of the interests of the two empires."

  Never before had the Emperor or the Consul declared, in such words, that war was unavoidable. Precisely because all rational need for the campaign was lacking this time, he found it necessary to proclaim the war with the tsar to be the work of fate. At the very first handclasp, in the peace tent on the Memel, the seed of this war was sown. During the days of intimacy

  Rival Imperialists

  which followed, when the encounter blossomed into friendship, that seed invisibly took root and grew. In later days, Talleyrand's treacherous diplomacy cherished its growth; and when, at Erfurt, the emperors embraced, they could already feel between them the coils of the snake. That they did not become related by marriage was neither an accident nor the outcome of a conscious desire : it was consequent upon the mistrust which had invaded the tsar's
mind, a mistrust of which he could not rid himself and which was to prove well founded. Two men wishing to divide Europe between them, could not see with complacency the half in a rival's hands. Their intentions were honourable at the outset; but they were impossible of fulfilment. The day of contest must inevitably come at last. " He alone is still weighing upon the pinnacle of my edifice. My rival is young ; daily his strength is waxing; daily mine is waning." This gloomy recognition spurs him ever onward.

  It is useless to try to interpret such decrees of destiny as the outcome of political causes.

  Somewhat earlier, the Emperor has asked the tsar to lay an embargo on all neutral ships, as he himself has done, and thus give England the death-blow. The tsar cannot agree to this, for it would fatally injure his own sea-borne trade ; he will only continue, as before, to confiscate all the prohibited goods he discovers, but he needs colonial wares from the neutrals. Being unable to stop this leak in the East, the Emperor has to exercise redoubled care on the German coast, and he therefore annexes the mouths of the Weser and the Elbe with the Hansa towns and part of Hanover. " Circumstances demand these new guarantees against England." Oldenburg is swallowed up with the rest, though the heir to this duchy has married Alexander's sister.

  The Emperor's high-handed proceedings were a logical outcome of his policy, but they were necessarily an offence to the tsar. Alexander regarded them as a breach of the treaty of

  Stroke and Counterstroke

  Tilsit, in which the integrity of Oldenburg had been guaranteed. He issued a circular to the powers protesting against this insult to his house, a remonstrance almost equivalent to a declaration of war. In this document he enquired what could be the use of alliances unless the treaties in which they were incorporated were strictly observed, so that the cabinets of Europe could not but smile at the concluding words of the circular, in which he described the alliance between Russia and France as permanent. His next step was a ukase in which he threw Russia open to colonial goods, while imposing prohibitive import duties on wine and silk, the products of French industry.

  The maps lie spread on the tables in St. Petersburg and Paris. Where can either power best harass the other ? The tsar proposes to make peace with Turkey. The Emperor incites Austria to seize Serbia, to advance towards Moldavia and Wallachia, promising not to interfere ; this will keep Alexander busy. Metternich nods assent, but does not move. " What about Poland ? " thinks Alexander. " Has not Napoleon already enlarged the duchy of Warsaw by the addition of Galicia ? Is there any guarantee that he will not re-establish the kingdom of Poland ? " Caulaincourt, French ambassador in Russia, who admires the tsar and wants peace, gives the desired guarantees. But the Emperor would only agree to a secret ratification. If the differences between France and Russia should culminate in war, he will need Poland for his operations against the tsar ; Polish hopes must, therefore, be fostered. Penetrating this design, Alexander demands an open treaty, which shall put an end to Polish expectations.

  When Massena is defeated in Spain, the Emperor entertains fresh doubts. Caulaincourt, who is back in Paris, does his utmost to intensify these misgivings, dilates on the tsar's will-to-peace, and ventures far in his defence of Alexander. The Emperor leads him on ; hears all he has to say ; asks a thousand

  Forgotten !

  questions concerning the tsar and the court, Alexander's piety, the nobles, and the peasants ; takes Caulaincourt by the ear, a sign of affability.

  " You must be in love with him ! "

  " I am in love with peace."

  " So am I. But I will not allow any one to dictate to me. Evacuate Danzig, forsooth ! Next I shall have to ask Alexander's permission before I can hold a review in Mainz. You are a fool. I am an old fox, and know the people with whom I am dealing. . . . We must deprive this Russian colossus and his hordes of the power to inundate the south once more. ... I shall advance northwards, and reestablish there the old boundaries of Europe."

  Quite unsubstantial reasons, masks, mere pretexts. Warn-ingly Caulaincourt quotes Alexander's words : " I shall learn from his own teachings, which are those of a master. Our climate will make war for us. The French are not inured to it as we are. Miracles only happen when the Emperor is present, and he cannot be everywhere." Napoleon is greatly moved by these words ; he tramps restlessly up and down the room ; the conversation lasts for hours. Since he cannot refute Caulain-court's arguments, he makes vague answers behind which his titanic wishes loom.

  " A well-fought battle will put an end to the fine resolves of your friend Alexander, ... He is false, ambitious, and weak ; he has the character of a Greek. Believe me, it is he, not I, who wants this war, for he cherishes a hidden design. ... He is out of humour because I did not take his sister." When Caulaincourt gives proofs to the contrary, Napoleon says : "I have forgotten the details."—Forgotten ! This is a new word in the Emperor's mouth. He knows his position to be weak ; himself a man of facts, he now brushes away those which he finds inconvenient.

  He sends a more resolute envoy to the tsar. When a proposal comes from St. Petersburg that Warsaw shall be exchanged for

  " Not One Polish Village!"

  Oldenburg, the Emperor says threateningly to the Russian ambassador, raising his voice so that every one in the room may hear : " Not one Polish village ! "

  But these political incidents and discussions are merely the forms of destiny. Schemes flash like lightning through his brain ; his soul is devoured by wishes : and he will rather reveal these things to a dangerous enemy like Fouche than to a shrewd adherent like Caulaincourt. He cannot rid himself of the ex-Jacobin and ex-cleric. Last year, he had cashiered the Minister of Police, for Fouche was obviously intriguing with England. But Napoleon was as lenient as he had been at the time of the conspiracy which had brought him back hot foot from Astorga. Instead of banishing the man, the Emperor had appointed him senator—at the same time writing to him words which give a glimpse into the inferno of these struggles between the monarch and the spy : " Although I do not doubt your devotion, I find it necessary to have you watched all the time. This is a fatiguing necessity, and I should not be called upon to do anything of the kind."

  But though he dismisses Fouche from his ministerial post, and has the watcher watched, Napoleon cannot get on without him, and talks to him about the most private matters.

  " Since my marriage, people fancy that the lion is asleep. They will soon learn whether I am asleep. I need eight hundred thousand men, and have them; I shall tow all Europe in my wake. Europe is nothing more than an old woman, and with my eight hundred thousand men I can make her do whatever I please. . . Did not you yourself say to me : You let your genius have its way, because it does not know the word impossible.' How can I help it if a great power drives me on to become dictator of the world ? You and the others, who criticise me today and would like me to become a good-natured ruler—have not you all been accessories ? I have not yet fulfilled my mission, and I mean to end what I have begun. We need a European legal code, a European court of appeal, a unified

  United States of Europe

  coinage, a common system of weights and measures. The same law must run throughout Europe. I shall fuse all the nations into one. . . . This, my lord duke, is the only solution that pleases me. . . ." Having said this, he suddenly sends Fouche from the room.

  Here we have it plainly disclosed, Napoleon's vision of the United States of Europe. The plan is recorded by one who, in his memoirs, would fain have discredited the Emperor—this plan with its extremely rational deductions and its daimonic inspiration. Europe is no longer a " mole-hill " as it was in the days of Milan and Rivoli, when he was nothing more than General Bonaparte, and when to the young man of genius all possible adversaries seemed too petty. Fifteen years later, Europe has become a plastic material; and Bonaparte is the emperor, the legislator, the great orderer, the enemy of the anarchy out of which he sprang, the modeller who would mould the clay into a splendid whole. Throughout the intervening years he has been marching
along a predestined path; now he displays before us, in this statement of his aims, the productive consequences towards which he has been moving along that road of force through ever new hecatombs of slaughter. Behind him lie Charlemagne's visions of a united Europe; in front of him glide new forms ; and Csesar, half way towards the realisation of his dream, is well aware that the spirit will ultimately overpower the sword. He has himself said this ; and what he is now striving to establish by force with the aid of eight hundred thousand men, will some day come into existence as a voluntary amalgamation based upon reason and necessity. All the nations will fuse into one.

  This, my lord duke, is the only solution that pleases me.

  Ill

  While Napoleon is pouring his thoughts into Fouche's ears, Alexander is pouring gold into Talleyrand's pockets, and no

  The Limping Mephistopheles

  doubt Talleyrand is going shares with Fouche. The bank could have informed Napoleon to whom Count Nesselrode, the new secretary to the Russian embassy, was paying out such large sums of money. From month to month Talleyrand lets Russia know how the French preparations for war are advancing, and when they will be completed. The limping Mephistopheles must have smiled to himself, sometimes, when Russia paid him for his information with licenses for the import of English goods into Russian harbours—documents which he could sell for hard cash in Paris !

  Is the tsar richer than the Emperor ? Russia is still allied to France, but the Russian market has been closed to French goods, and the famous 1811 vintage has one purchaser the less. Since England and Spain have long ceased to be customers, French industry is in a bad way. But when the Minister for Finance urges peace because tranquillity is essential to the restoration of French finances, the Emperor cuts him short by saying: " Not at all! It is true that our finances are disordered, but that is why we need war! "