by Mark Braude
When Santini started: Chautard, Santini, 12–13.
Accustomed to commandeering: Ussher, Napoleon Banished, 12. Ussher said he told Napoleon “that I was astonished His Majesty should give such an order, as it was contrary to his system to denationalize. He turned round and gave me a pretty hard rap, saying ‘Ah, Capitaine!’”
“leaned on my arm”: Ussher, Napoleon Banished, 12. Peyrusse was also proud of being so physically near to Napoleon aboard the ship. He boasted to his father how each day brought the two men into closer contact, and that he even had the chance to help Napoleon locate some maps.
The Royal Navy: MacKenzie, The Escape from Elba, 61.
His face would: For contemporary renderings of Napoleon, including the variations I’ve described, see Ashton, English Caricature. Concerning Napoleonic visual culture, I have also consulted Hanley, Napoleonic Propaganda, and Jourdan, Napoléon: Héros, imperator, mécène. “With reference to caricatures,” wrote Campbell during the crossing, “I told Napoleon that no one in England was exempt from them, neither our Sovereign nor the ministers. Napoleon remarked that there were plenty of him, at any rate in England, and that no doubt his present voyage would form a fertile subject for them. Captain Ussher said it would immortalize the Undaunted.” We can add “pulverized dead King” to the list of materials used to create depictions of Napoleon. Luc Sante notes that the poet Blaise Cendrars spoke of “a black tint sold to painters under the brand name Égalité, alleged to have been derived from a royal cadaver, perhaps that of Louis XV, exhumed from the crypt at Saint-Denis during the Revolution. David may have employed it in his Coronation of Napoleon (1806) and Ingres in his Portrait of Monsieur Bertin (1832).” Campbell, Napoleon, 211–12; Sante, The Other Paris, 56.
“He laughed at”: Ussher, Napoleon Banished, 19.
“The portrait . . . a great compliment”: Ussher, Napoleon Banished, 12–20.
He hadn’t visited: Palmer, Napoleon and Marie Louise, 17. Englund describes a state dinner in which Napoleon was pulled aside by the king of the northern Italian territory of Etruria, who “said to him in Italian, ‘But honestly, you’re one of us.’” Napoleon had answered, “Je suis français.” Englund, Napoleon, 203.
Instead, Campbell had: MacKenzie, The Escape from Elba, 63.
Napoleon walked away: Campbell, Napoleon, 213.
Among them was a travelogue: Branda, La guerre secrète, 61; MacKenzie, The Escape from Elba, 65.
“roads rugged . . . of sorrow”: Berneaud, A Voyage, 94.
“endowed . . . with ribbons”: Berneaud, A Voyage, 11–12.
Seafaring people had: Gillis, Islands of the Mind, 2. “There have been times when it was continents that were remote and isolated, the outposts of islands,” writes Gillis. “Up to the end of the eighteenth century insularity was associated with mainlands, not islands.”
He’d once controlled: Houssaye, Retour, 4.
The French commander: Dallas, The Final Act, 262; MacKenzie, The Escape from Elba, 68; Marchand, Mémoires, II; Rebuffat, “Portolongone,” 294–95.
On the first: MacKenzie, The Escape from Elba, 71.
It was replaced: MacKenzie, The Escape from Elba, 68–71; Marchand, Mémoires, II.
“Each of us”: “G. Peyrusse à son père (en mer et à l’île d’Elbe, 28 avril–2 mai 1814),” Peyrusse, Lettres, 204.
Dalesme ordered them: MacKenzie, The Escape from Elba, 69.
“The inhabitants”: Campbell, Napoleon, 214.
“whose integrity”: MacKenzie, The Escape from Elba, 69.
“It would have been”: Pons, Souvenirs, 9.
“republican before there was”: Pons, Souvenirs, 11.
“Now I was . . . a frightful dream”: Pons, Souvenirs, 13.
“carefully dressed . . . a soldier”: Pons, Souvenirs, 14. “This wasn’t Themistocles banished from Athens,” wrote Pons. “This wasn’t Marius at Minturnae. His physiognomy could belong to no one else but him.” On people immediately noticing Napoleon as he entered a room, even in the early days of his career when he was still relatively obscure, see Englund, Napoleon, 89.
“the perfection of”: Pons, Souvenirs, 10.
“a violent intriguing”: Campbell, Napoleon, 382.
Pons recalled that: Pons, Souvenirs, 14.
He would have seen: Pons, Souvenirs, 10.
5: GILDED KEYS
Napoleon had “chosen”: Marchand, Mémoires, II.
Following Bertrand’s request: Pons, Souvenirs, 28.
Some of the more prosperous: Pons, Souvenirs, 28.
The white with red: MacKenzie, The Escape from Elba, 73.
“What a childish”: Ussher, Napoleon Banished, 15.
“Evidently he is greatly”: Campbell, Napoleon, 215. Napoleon may have found comfort in the following bit from Berneaud’s Elban travelogue, if he had spotted it: “The practice of carrying stilettoes, and of employing them on the most trivial quarrels, a practice so common among the Genoese and Romans, does not exist in the island of Elba. . . . There has not occurred a single assassination of this sort within the memory of man.” Berneaud, A Voyage, 16.
“The peasants, considering”: Ussher, Napoleon Banished, 13.
Napoleon heard people: While waiting on board, Campbell told Bertrand that Elba reminded him of the colonies. Colonel Vincent, who had spent sixteen years in Saint-Domingue, was inclined to agree. “Henri Bertrand to Fanny, May 4, 1814,” Bertrand, Lettres à Fanny, 432.
“good health and better luck”: MacKenzie, The Escape from Elba, 62. On Napoleon’s rewarding loyalty with food and other supplies, see Bell, Total War, 197.
This was an old trick: MacKenzie, The Escape from Elba, 76. Some historians have suggested that Napoleon may have had an eidetic memory. See, for instance, Chandler, The Campaigns, xxxvi.
“pretty little faces”: “G. Peyrusse à son père (en mer et à l’île d’Elbe, 28 avril–2 mai 1814),” Peyrusse, Lettres, 206.
Napoleon had a crowd: Pons, Souvenirs, 43, makes a similar point.
There they heard: For insight on the Te Deum in France, see Chartier, Cultural Origins, 128; Jones, Great Nation, 4; Kroen, Politics and Theater, 28.
There were N’s: Chateaubriand, Memoirs, 276; Peyrusse, Mémorial, 234; Pons, Souvenirs, 40–41.
“What is a throne?”: Herold, The Mind of Napoleon, 83.
The fortifications, the church: Christophe, Napoleon on Elba, 91. Piazza d’Armi is now known as the Piazza della Repubblica.
“Anyone who thought”: Pons, Souvenirs, 42.
On a thin mattress: Campbell, Napoleon, 218.
“I’ve arrived in”: “Napoleon to Marie Louise, May 4, 1814,” Palmstierna, My Dearest Louise, 203.
6: ROUGH MUSIC
Before marrying him: Her full name before marriage was Maria Ludovica Leopoldina Franziska Therese Josepha Lucia von Habsburg-Lothringen.
“was with much joy”: Palmer, Napoleon and Marie Louise, 79.
The Habsburg empire: King, Vienna, 19. While negotiating the Austrian surrender, Napoleon survived yet another assassination attempt, botched by a teenaged German patriot named Friedrich Saps.
“for the welfare of the nation”: Palmer, Napoleon and Marie Louise, 88; Hibbert, Napoleon, 173–76. “The secret of nobility,” Karl Marx would later write, “is zoology.” Palmer is among those writers who suggest that Napoleon, with the help of his sister Caroline, also conducted an earlier experiment with one of Caroline’s ladies-in-waiting, Eléonore Denuelle, who gave birth to a son, though no one could be sure the father was Napoleon. There were also rumors that the father was Caroline’s husband, Joachim Murat. As Palmer writes, the only thing that was certain was that the baby was not Eléonore’s husband’s, as he was in jail for forgery at the time of her pregnancy. Palmer, 76; Marx quoted in Wilson, Victoria, 19.
The split with Joséphine: Englund,
Napoleon, 203.
Napoleon sent her: Hibbert, Napoleon, 176.
Napoleon wanted to combine: Sebag Montefiore, The Romanovs, 295.
“that to see this creature”: Palmer, Napoleon and Marie Louise, 86.
“I’m only sorry for”: Roncière, Napoleon’s Letters, 4.
“I’m certain . . . dearest Papa”: Palmer, Napoleon and Marie Louise, 90.
Francis was unmoved: Palmer, Napoleon and Marie Louise, 91. Palmer points out that there appears to be no prior or future mention of a romance with the archduke.
He had Metternich: Metternich had in turn written to Schwarzenberg prepping him on how to handle Marie Louise if she went to him for advice on the matter, telling him, “You will assert as a private remark coming from yourself, my Prince, that though no secondary consideration, no prejudice will ever influence the decisions of the Emperor, there are laws to which he will always submit. His Majesty will never force a beloved daughter to a marriage which she abhors, and he will never consent to a marriage which would not be in conformity with the principles of our religion.” “Metternich to Schwarzenberg, December 25, 1809,” Metternich, Memoirs, II, 371.
“I desire only”: Marie Louise, The Private Diaries, 26.
“brilliant qualities . . . your regard”: “Napoleon to Marie Louise, February 23, 1810,” Roncière, Napoleon’s Letters, 5.
He’d never met: Hibbert, Napoleon, 178–79; Roncière, Napoleon’s Letters, 5.
“When I heard”: Gourgaud, Talks, 134.
“Madame my Sister”: “Napoleon to Marie Louise, February 25, 1810,” Roncière, Napoleon’s Letters, 7.
Maria Luisa asked: Hibbert, Napoleon, 180.
A proxy wedding: Palmer, Napoleon and Marie Louise, 95. At this point she received her trousseau of twelve dozen embroidered chemises, three dozen petticoats, two dozen jackets, more than sixty dresses from the famed Parisian couturier Leroy, various nightcaps, stockings, dressing gowns, cashmere wraps, fichus and handkerchiefs, and a diamond parure said to be worth more than three million francs. Hibbert, Napoleon, 179–80.
“meant to excel”: Palmer, Napoleon and Marie Louise, 97.
For many observers: Michelet described the marriage as “a human sacrifice. Marie-Louise, for all her rosy luster and the freshness of a girl of twenty, was like a dead woman. She was handed over to the Minotaur, to the great enemy of her family. . . . Would he not devour her?” Barthes, Michelet, 112.
At court in Vienna: King, Vienna, 17.
Marie Louise painted: Palmer, Napoleon and Marie Louise, 105.
“she liked it so much”: I have used Palmer’s translation. In his footnotes Palmer cites Gourgaud, while Kauffman writes that Napoleon actually said this to Bertrand and translates it as, “The first night she asked for more.” Palmer, Napoleon and Marie Louise, 99; Kauffmann, The Black Room at Longwood, 141.
Napoleon sent some: Hibbert, Napoleon, 171.
“save the mother”: Palmer, Napoleon and Marie Louise, 111.
The commandant of: Fayot, Précis, 1.
“Never would I believe”: Palmer, Napoleon and Marie Louise, 113.
He promised that: Napoleon tried, through the family physician Corvisart, to persuade Francis to let Marie Louise skip Vienna and instead allow her to take the waters in the French spa town of Aix-les-Bains, but he denied this request. Roncière, Napoleon’s Letters, 262–63.
“Would you ever”: “Marie Louise to Napoleon, April 16, 1814,” Palmstierna, My Dearest Louise, 181–82.
“I’m hoping . . . deeply unhappy”: “Marie Louise to Napoleon, April 16, 1814,” Palmstierna, My Dearest Louise, 181–82.
In notes omitted: Caulaincourt’s private notes are quoted in Price, Napoleon, 242–43. Other secondary sources, likely not privy to these private notes, remark more vaguely that Joseph made “amorous advances” (as in Zamoyski, Rites, 186) to Marie Louise at Rambouillet.
“that she was willing”: Price, Napoleon, 242–43. For Caulaincourt’s published version, see Caulaincourt, Mémoires, 385–88.
7: THE ROBINSON CRUSOE OF ELBA
“He liked every”: MacKenzie, The Escape from Elba, 136.
Decades earlier, the governor’s: MacKenzie, The Escape from Elba, 77–78.
Along with a hexagonal: Branda, La guerre secrète, 67.
“made a better bargain”: MacKenzie, The Escape from Elba, 77.
“about two leagues”: Ussher, Napoleon Banished, 16.
When Ussher commented: Ussher, Napoleon Banished, 16.
Years later, Napoleon: Napoleon, Correspondance, XXXI, 12.
On approaching Napoleon’s: Concerning Napoleon’s visit to the mines, see Pons, Souvenirs, 45–54.
He caught a: Pons, Souvenirs, 46.
“have never agreed”: Bartlett, Elba, 38.
“Babbo! [Father!]”: Pons, Souvenirs, 48.
Napoleon bristled at: Regarding Corsica and Paoli, see Englund, Napoleon, 6. Englund renders the word in Corsican as “Babbu.”
“He asked . . . you going?”: Pons, Souvenirs, 50.
Pons had been: Branda, La guerre secrète, 126–33; Napoleon, Correspondance, XXXI, 13; Pons, Napoléon (Bourachot edition), 11.
“it was easier”: Bartlett, Elba, 27.
Napoleon laughed off: Concerning honorifics, see Bell, Napoleon, 30–31, and Total War, 197.
“But you’ve written”: Pons, Souvenirs, 52.
Remembering their exchange: Pons, Souvenirs, 52.
“He was right”: Pons, Souvenirs, 53–54.
A few months later: “Napoleon to Peyrusse, undated (but written in response to news from August 27, 1814),” Napoleon, Le registre, 93.
8: MY ISLAND IS VERY LITTLE
“isle of rest”: “Napoleon to Marie Louise, April 19, 1814,” Palmstierna, My Dearest Louise, 187; Houssaye, 1814, 5.
“I have never”: Campbell, Napoleon, 243.
“What a pity”: Roberts, Napoleon, 285. As the historian H. A. L. Fisher put it in one of his series of lectures on Bonapartism in 1906, Napoleon was “one of those rare men who assume that everything they come across, from a government to a saucepan, is probably constructed on wrong principles and capable of amendment.” Fisher, Bonapartism, 75.
“common devotion . . . very little!”: Campbell, Napoleon, 225.
“with great ease”: Campbell, Napoleon, 219.
“Italian music, which”: Campbell, Napoleon, 219.
“enumerate his greatest”: Campbell, Napoleon, 219.
Even the most casual: There had long been fierce competition among the island’s respective villages and towns. Describing the people of Marciana, for instance, Pons said that they considered themselves “at least the equals of the Portoferrese,” which meant that “when Portoferraio says white, Marciana says black, even when black is against its interests.” Bartlett, Elba, 38.
“firing of musketry . . . devout”: Campbell, Napoleon, 233.
“education at the hands”: Campbell, Napoleon, 219. For a sense of Porto Longone during this time, see Rebuffat, “Portolongone.”
On such surveys: Descriptions of Elba based on my own observations, as well as various primary and secondary sources too numerous to list, but especially Bartlett, Elba; Branda, La guerre secrète; Christophe, Napoleon on Elba; Campbell, Napoleon; Gruyer, Napoleon; King, Vienna; MacKenzie, The Escape from Elba (especially 65–66); Marchand, Mémoires; and Pons, Souvenirs; as well as Napoleon’s recollections in Correspondance, XXXI.
“isle renown’d for steel”: Aeneid, Dryden translation.
“deserters and robbers”: Laflandre-Linden, Napoléon et l’île d’Elbe, 82. Prior to the French taking possession its territory had been split among three dynastic powers: the Grand Duchy of Tuscany had controlled Portoferraio, Sicily controlled Porto Longone, and the prince of Piombino had controlled the rest.
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sp; Portoferraio was populated mainly: Bartlett, Elba, 30–31, 38–39; Branda, La guerre secrète, 64; Dallas, The Final Act, 261. Napoleon later said that when he arrived on Elba it seemed made of three separate “islets” that had been forced together. The first of these imagined islets, at the west end of Elba, housed the granite vault of Monte Capanne and the main communes of Marciana and Campo; the second, separated from the first by the plains of Campo, stretched from Portoferraio to the hilltop settlement of Capoliveri; the third, to the northeast, featured Monte Grosso and the mines of Rio. Napoleon, Correspondance, XXXI, 12.
Soil tended to run: Dallas, The Final Act, 261.
With so many men: Branda, La guerre secrète, 64.
It was a landscape: Napoleon claimed that he introduced potatoes to Elba, a crop that no one had tried to cultivate before his arrival. Napoleon, Correspondance, XXXI, 13.
“passion for monuments”: Englund, Napoleon, 304.
“knew his island”: Pons, Souvenirs, 142.
9: LOUIS THE GOUTY AND THE WEATHERVANE MAN
“Sire, you are”: Sauvigny, Bourbon Restoration, 51. Concerning Louis’s exile, see Mansel, Louis XVIII and Paris, 3. Nagel, Marie-Thérèse, was also helpful.
“At this present”: “Lord Byron to Thomas Moore, April 20, 1814,” Moore, Letters and Journals.
London had just: Dallas, The Final Act, 31. The Russian grand duchess Catherine, freshly arrived in London, wrote to her brother that the joy there bordered on madness. Wherever she went, she told him, they begged to see “the sister of Emperor Alexander, the deliverer of the world.” “Catherine to Alexander, London April 4, 1814,” and “Catherine to Alexander, London April 11, 1814,” Alexander I and Grand Duchess Catherine, Scenes, 220, 225.
People rushed out: I draw heavily on Uglow’s excellent research to understand British reactions to the events of 1814–15, and am grateful for her archival finds. See Uglow, In These Times. I have also consulted Alger, Napoleon’s British Visitors, and Semmel, Napoleon and the British. Though I focus here on anti-Napoleon sentiment, nuanced studies such as Semmel’s remind us that British feelings toward Napoleon and the French were varied and that minds could be changed as the facts did.
