by Mark Braude
After Cambronne became: Fleury, Mémoires, 104.
Former revolutionaries were feeling: MacKenzie, The Escape from Elba, 198.
“a general insurrection”: Fleury, Mémoires, 115.
“Yes, Sire, and”: Fleury, Mémoires, 112.
After the interview: Fleury, Mémoires, 118.
A few months later: King, Vienna, 247.
“disagreeable . . . remaining at Elba”: Campbell, Napoleon, 367.
Either way, Campbell’s: Campbell, Napoleon, 367.
“a short excursion”: Campbell, Napoleon, 362.
“visit Palmaiola for my”: Campbell, Napoleon, 362.
37: THE EAGLE PREPARES FOR FLIGHT
He specified that: Napoleon, Correspondance, XXVII, 449.
He told Drouot: See the full transcript of Drouot’s trial in Saint-Edmé, Repertoire.
“humanly possible . . . be staying”: Saint-Edmé, Repertoire, 398–400, 409. During his trial Drouot highlighted the fact that he’d drawn none of the pay rightfully owed to him as a French officer during his time in exile, just as he’d rejected Napoleon’s monetary gift for joining the exile.
“I do not allow”: Roberts, Napoleon, 730.
“Abandoning the sovereign”: Saint-Edmé, Repertoire, 409.
Then he called: Branda, La guerre secrète, XXVI; Napoleon, Correspondance, XXVII, 450.
The gunners were drilled: Branda, La guerre secrète, XXVI; Pellet, Napoléon à l’île d’Elbe, 152–53.
38: THE OIL MERCHANT RETURNS
“more as if”: Pellet, Napoleon à l’île d’Elbe, 159.
“several interviews with”: Pellet, Napoleon à l’île d’Elbe, 152.
All of the isolated: Branda, La guerre secrète, XXVI; MacKenzie, The Escape from Elba, 210, 237; Pellet, Napoleon à l’île d’Elbe, 154, 158–59, 161.
39: CAMPBELL IN FLORENCE
Castlereagh, in his: Concerning Burghersh’s admonishing Campbell, writing to Castlereagh, and Castlereagh’s response, see “Castlereagh to Burghersh, January ?, 1815,” Weigall, Correspondence, 88, and “Burghersh to Castlereagh, March 3, 1815,” Weigall, Correspondence, 108–9.
“that everything is”: Campbell, Napoleon, 363.
“I did feel”: Campbell, Napoleon, 363.
“very absurd, contradictory”: Campbell, Napoleon, 365.
“The troops,” wrote Ricci: Campbell, Napoleon, 365.
“prepared to quit”: Campbell, Napoleon, 366.
“My access to Napoleon”: Campbell, Napoleon, 367–68.
40: MARDI GRAS
Peyrusse ended his meeting: Peyrusse, Mémorial, 269–70.
“pay . . . but don’t pay”: Peyrusse, Mémorial, 270.
Drouot, however, was: Saint-Edmé, Repertoire, 400.
Peyrusse left Drouot’s: Peyrusse, Mémorial, 270; Nollet-Fabert, Drouot, 122.
The night of February 22: Pons, Souvenirs, 243–44.
“exquisite taste”: Pons, Souvenirs, 243.
Amazingly, no one: MacKenzie, The Escape from Elba, 209.
“absurd reports . . . only fools”: Gourgaud, Talks, 168.
“One can’t take a step”: Pellet, Napoléon à l’île d’Elbe, 162.
“I begged, I offered bribes”: Pellet, Napoléon à l’île d’Elbe, 162.
Campbell’s Elban contact: The most detailed source concerning Adye’s brief return to Portoferraio comes from Adye’s debriefing to Campbell of what he’d seen, repeated verbatim in Campbell, Napoleon, 369–70. See also Napoleon’s version, as recalled to Gourgaud on Saint Helena, in Gourgaud, Talks, 168–69. Additional details can be found in Branda, La guerre secrète, XXVI; MacKenzie, The Escape from Elba, 210; Marchand, Mémoires, VI; Pellet, Napoleon à l’île d’Elbe, 162; Peyrusse, Mémorial, 271–72; Pons, Souvenirs, 379–82.
41: TOWER OF BABEL
“I seem . . . in Spain”: Pellet, Napoléon à l’île d’Elbe, 163–64.
While it remained: MacKenzie, The Escape from Elba, 210.
But that evening: Campbell, Napoleon, 370.
From Antibes they would march: The plan for the landing and march on Paris has been described in many sources. See, for instance, Hazareesingh, The Legend of Napoleon, 17–18; Thiry, Le vol de l’aigle.
An Italian landing: Historians have offered different theories as to why Napoleon chose France over Italy as the landing destination. Branda, for instance, makes the point that an Italian landing would have been unwise because the peninsula was then almost completely administered by former enemies of Napoleon: Field Marshal Bellegarde oversaw Milan; Stahremberg, Florence; General Spannochi, Livorno; Cardinal Pacca, Rome; and the cardinal’s nephew, Civitavecchia. In their communications these officials referred to Napoleon as their “bad neighbor” or simply as “questo signore” (this mister). The Austrians had also beefed up their presence on the Italian peninsula, increasing a force of 50,000 in May 1814 to 150,000 by early 1815, mostly centered around Milan. MacKenzie suggests that Napoleon would have foreseen that he had little to gain by teaming “with his unstable brother-in-law at the bottom of the Italian peninsula, far from the centres of power and the classic battlefields of Europe. On the contrary, he was well aware that such a flight would confirm every suspicion of collusion and lead at once to war with Austria, France, and possibly England.” Branda, La guerre secrète, 263–66; MacKenzie, The Escape from Elba, 203–4.
But he’d enjoyed: MacKenzie, The Escape from Elba, 191.
Unknown to anyone: Concerning the Corsican plans, see Branda, La guerre secrète, XXVI; du Casse, Le général Arrighi, 52, 89–93; Napoleon, Correspondance, XXXI, 37; Pons, Souvenirs, 382.
“I have reason to believe”: Du Casse, Le général Arrighi, 67.
She pressed a diamond: MacKenzie, The Escape from Elba, 211; Marchand, Mémoires, VI. The necklace was later discovered in Napoleon’s carriage after Waterloo by some looting Prussian soldiers.
“That’s not how”: Marchand, Mémoires, VI.
“if Heaven intends”: MacKenzie, The Escape from Elba, 211.
“doomed herself to live”: Las Cases, Memorial, 308–9.
Before retiring: Roberts, Napoleon, 730.
He was worried: Fleury, Mémoires, 403. Fleury remarks on Bertrand’s refusing to sign a decree that would seize the property of several former enemies and arguing that Napoleon was in this case reneging on his earlier promise not to seek harsh reprisals.
“there was, on my”: “Henri Bertrand to his father, undated,” Bertrand, Lettres à Fanny, 447.
“Our children . . . tender affection”: “Henri to Fanny, undated,” Bertrand, Lettres à Fanny, 443.
The letter, discovered: Bertrand, Lettres à Fanny, 441.
He’d pictured her: Bertrand, Lettres à Fanny, 447.
42: EVERYTHING WAS QUIET AT ELBA
He wrote to Castlereagh: Campbell, Napoleon, 364.
“throw down the gauntlet”: Campbell, Napoleon, 368.
“to intercept, and”: Campbell, Napoleon, 368.
“be justified by”: Campbell, Napoleon, 368.
It had taken: MacKenzie, The Escape from Elba, 218.
“would neither be”: Campbell, Napoleon, 370.
“everything was quiet”: Campbell, Napoleon, 369.
“it might not”: Campbell, Napoleon, 369.
Campbell figured that: Campbell, Napoleon, 369–70. See also Adye’s full report as cited in the notes below Campbell’s entry, in Campbell, Napoleon, 363–64.
“I think he will leave”: Campbell, Napoleon, 370–71.
Campbell had likely also: MacKenzie, The Escape from Elba, 203–4. As MacKenzie has suggested, it was an error “to see Napoleon as an enthusiast for the liberation of Italy when his whole career showed that he would cynically encourage or betray the Italian patriots as it suited him.”
That way if British: Campbell, Napoleon, 371.
Adye predicted they: These events are recorded in Campbell’s journal entry under the heading “February 15,” presumably written in intervals from that date onward, and ending on the morning of February 27, as the next entry is dated February 28. The last section of this long “February” entry, presumably written aboard the Partridge while bound for Elba, is tantalizing in its ambiguity, and gives little detail about Campbell’s actions on the key night of February 26. Campbell, Napoleon, 359–72.
43: INCONSTANT
A soft breeze: Pons, Souvenirs, 381–82.
He took special care: MacKenzie, The Escape from Elba, 212.
“I leave you peace”: Bartlett, Elba, 105.
Pons thought he: Pons, Souvenirs, 381–82.
An officer rushed: Laborde, Napoleon et sa Garde, 48.
Murat would wait: MacKenzie, The Escape from Elba, 208.
Luckily a nearby: Pellet, Napoléon à l’île d’Elbe, 166.
At around two: Pellet, Napoléon à l’île d’Elbe, 166; MacKenzie counters the Oil Merchant by writing that the sailor’s announcement came at eleven. MacKenzie, The Escape from Elba, 213.
“tonight’s ball has been”: Bartlett, Elba, 111.
“to cede to no one”: Branda, La guerre secrète, Conclusion.
Napoleon burned some: MacKenzie, The Escape from Elba, 213–14.
Mayor Traditi, struggling: Grattan’s account, in Campbell, Napoleon, 372–73; Pons, Napoléon (Bourachot edition), 7.
“was sobbing all around”: Pons, Souvenirs, 384.
“Elbans! Our august”: Peyrusse, Mémorial, 275; Napoleon’s original letter to Lapi in Napoleon, Correspondance, XXVII, 451.
“in violent agitation”: Peyrusse, Mémorial, 272.
Peyrusse handed the captain: Peyrusse, Mémorial, 273.
Six hundred members: Peyrusse, Mémorial, 275.
Just under five hundred: Marchand, Mémoires, VI.
Even with all the: Branda, La guerre secrète, XXVI.
Whatever minuscule lead: MacKenzie, The Escape from Elba, 217.
44: AT SEA
It took until: Napoleon, Correspondance, XXXI, 37–38.
To look less conspicuous: Napoleon, Correspondance, XXXI, 38.
At midday the topsails: Napoleon, Correspondance, XXXI, 37–38; MacKenzie, The Escape from Elba, 217–18.
By early afternoon: MacKenzie, The Escape from Elba, 220.
Napoleon might also: MacKenzie, The Escape from Elba, 220.
The log from the Partridge: MacKenzie, The Escape from Elba, 220.
Merchant vessels sailed: MacKenzie, The Escape from Elba, 220.
“At 9 p.m.”: Campbell, Napoleon, 371–72.
This could have been: MacKenzie, The Escape from Elba, 221.
“we must have been”: Campbell, Napoleon, 372. It is possible, though very unlikely, that Adye and Campbell did in fact recognize Napoleon’s ships and simply chose not to pursue them.
The ship’s captain: MacKenzie, The Escape from Elba, 220.
“We knew enough”: Napoleon, Correspondance, XXXI, 38.
“against deceiving himself”: MacKenzie, The Escape from Elba, 221.
The captains of: MacKenzie, The Escape from Elba, 221.
The day’s most baffling: Branda, La guerre secrète, XXVII; MacKenzie, The Escape from Elba, 222; Peyrusse, Mémorial, 276.
When the Zéphir: Peyrusse, Mémorial, 276.
He later claimed: Napoleon, Correspondance, XXXI, 40.
On Saint Helena: Napoleon, Correspondance, XXXI, 40; Gourgaud, Talks, 169–70.
Andrieux, for his part: Branda, La guerre secrète, XXVII; MacKenzie, The Escape from Elba, 222–23.
Peyrusse claimed that: Peyrusse, Mémorial, 276. “Ali,” Napoleon, 102, also mentions Andrieux asking after Napoleon’s health.
Later, the Polish: Broughton (Hobhouse), The Substance of Some Letters, 54. Mariotti later claimed that if the Zéphir had only reached him two days earlier than it did, “I should have given such instructions that the Inconstant would either have been captured or sent to the bottom with her cargo,” but Andrieux’s actions indicate that Mariotti’s orders, however cunning, might not have been obeyed. In early March 1815, an Italian spy would swear in a letter to his superior that he had been at a dinner in Livorno with both Campbell and Mariotti in which a French captain was also present who said that he had encountered Napoleon’s ships and let them pass. See MacKenzie, The Escape from Elba, 223; Weil, Les dessous du Congrès de Vienne, 324.
“a day to match”: Peyrusse, Mémorial, 276.
“their Gallic heritage”: Marchand, Mémoires, VII.
It was a variation: Several biographers and historians have similarly made the point that Napoleon was adept at convincing his soldiers they would be remembered for their actions, but here I draw most specifically on Andrew Roberts, who has written that Napoleon’s “constant references to the ancient world had the intended effect of giving ordinary soldiers a sense that their lives—and should it come to that, their deaths in battle—mattered, that they were an integral part of a larger whole that would resonate in French history. There are few things in the art of leadership harder to achieve than this, and no more powerful impetus to action. Napoleon taught ordinary people that they could make history, and convinced his followers they were taking part in an adventure, a pageant, an experiment, an epic whose splendour would draw the attention of posterity for centuries to come.” Roberts, Napoleon, 134–35.
“I know . . . at Portoferraio”: From Drouot’s trial, in Saint-Edmé, Repertoire, 400. See also Branda, La guerre secrète, XXVI. Marchand, Mémoires, VII, alludes to Drouot’s lack of participation by claiming that he spent the crossing seasick in his cabin.
“the moon was full”: Marchand, Mémoires, VII.
45: CAMPBELL LANDS AT ELBA
Campbell set off: Campbell, Napoleon, 372.
The port was quiet: As the Oil Merchant had noted in his journal the day before, the only remnants of Napoleon’s entourage were “the women, and some of the household staff.” Pellet, Napoléon à l’île d’Elbe, 168.
Campbell headed toward: Alger suggests that this man was likely the father of the novelist and traveler Thomas Colley Grattan. Alger, Napoleon’s British Visitors, 302.
“fired at or seized”: Campbell, Napoleon, 372–75. Grattan’s account, as recorded in Campbell’s journal, is the most detailed description we have of Napoleon’s last day on Elba. Some of Grattan’s details may be embroidered, though Campbell noted in his journal that a few hours after talking with Grattan he talked with a Piedmontese surgeon with whom he had often dined at the Bertrands’, and this surgeon’s account corroborated Grattan’s account of the escape. As far as Campbell’s own account of returning to Portoferraio on the twenty-eighth, the details of his journal entry are corroborated by the Oil Merchant’s report from February 28, in Pellet, Napoléon à l’île d’Elbe, 169–70.
“alternately smiling . . . at first”: Campbell, Napoleon, 374–75. According to Fanny’s later recollection of the same conversation, Campbell said that he knew for certain Napoleon was heading to Naples, which reassured her that he had been bluffing about the capture, because by that point she knew they were heading to France. Napoleon, Correspondance, XXXI, 39. See also MacKenzie, The Escape from Elba, 224.
“as one of the Commissioners”: Campbell, Napoleon, 375.
Though bluffing, Campbell: MacKenzie, The Escape from Elba, 223. This “rash threat,” writes MacKenzie, “can only be explained by the fact that Campbell was beside himself with rage, or by some undisclosed knowledge that the Allies would treat any escape as the signal for a new conflict.”
“to prevent misery”: Campbell, Napoleon, 376.
He also hoped: Campbell, Napoleon, 376.
“drawi
ng her chair”: Campbell, Napoleon, 376.
“She asked me”: Campbell, Napoleon, 377.
“laid hold of”: Campbell, Napoleon, 377.
“two or three minutes”: Campbell, Napoleon, 377.
“more reconcilable . . . considered traitors”: Campbell, Napoleon, 379.
“No part of Napoleon’s”: Campbell, Napoleon, 379.
“and thus made”: Campbell, Napoleon, 379.
“restless and . . . that quarter”: Campbell, Napoleon, 380–81.
“With the free sovereignty”: Campbell, Napoleon, 381.
46: OUR BEAUTIFUL FRANCE
“We’re either . . . Not quite”: Laborde, Napoleon et sa Garde, 51-52.
“revived our spirits”: Peyrusse, Mémorial, 277.
Napoleon teased him: Peyrusse, Mémorial, 277.
“join the other”: Austin, 1815, 18.
“had learned . . . badge of shame!”: The proclamations can be found in Marchand, Mémoires, VII. For excerpts in English, see MacKenzie, The Escape from Elba, 228.
“were made by hand”: Gourgaud, Talks, 171.
Drouot signed his name: Saint-Edmé, Repertoire, 416.
Napoleon later claimed: Austin, 1815, 289.
“There is no precedent”: Peyrusse, Mémorial, 278.
Marchand wrote that: Marchand, Mémoires, VII. “Never has the old saying that no man is a hero to his valet been less true than of the twenty-four-year-old Louis Marchand,” writes Paul Britten Austin: 1815, 20.
“Look at our”: Pons, Mémoire de Pons de l’Hérault aux puissances alliées, 138.
The final evening: Pons, Mémoire de Pons de l’Hérault aux puissances alliées, 138.
47: THE PARTRIDGE IN PURSUIT
The captain, de Garat: Campbell, Napoleon, 383–87. Campbell describes the meeting with de Garat in detail and the published version of his journal contains de Garat’s later testimony concerning the same events. As MacKenzie points out, de Garat’s testimony is confusing. He made, writes MacKenzie, the “forceful and misleading claim that the Inconstant and the rest of the flotilla could not have passed Capraia, because he [de Garat] was lying to the north-west of the island all Monday afternoon and north-east of it on Monday night and Tuesday morning. Since Napoleon undoubtedly sailed north of Capraia on Monday afternoon de Garat was not telling the truth. Either he had been away from his station and had let the convoy through by default, or he had been where he claimed to be and let it pass by design. But whatever his reason for deceiving Campbell his story had serious consequences.” MacKenzie, The Escape from Elba, 226.
