The Invisible Emperor
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48: GOLFE-JUAN
At sunrise on: For details about the landing at Golfe-Juan, my main sources are “Ali,” Napoleon, 103–5; Austin, 1815, 22–28; Gourgaud, Talks, 170–73; Houssaye, 1815, 206–10; Laborde, Napoleon et sa Garde, 70–79; MacKenzie, The Escape from Elba, 228–29; Marchand, Mémoires, VII; Napoleon, Correspondance, XXXI, 40–43; Peyrusse, Mémorial, 279–81. For descriptions of Golfe-Juan and Vallauris as they would have looked then, I have drawn on Bartoli, Vallauris.
“I have long weighed”: Broughton (Hobhouse), The Substance of Some Letters, 55. Napoleon’s speech is quoted by Hobhouse, who claimed to have written it verbatim from the recollection of Colonel Jerzmanowski.
“Where are you off to”: Austin, 1815, 22.
The commander and: Austin, 1815, 23.
“a great . . . this narrative”: Gourgaud, Talks, 170–71.
Peyrusse, who for: Peyrusse, Mémorial, 279.
“find only friends”: Houssaye, 1815, 209.
“I heard . . . organize themselves”: Gourgaud, Talks, 172.
The prisoners were transferred: Campbell, Napoleon, 390.
Filidoro, the Elban portmaster: Filidoro lived the rest of his life as a wandering mariner, forever looking over his shoulder, surviving in this peripatetic existence for decades, and never caught by Bourbon officials. Branda, La guerre secrète, Conclusion.
49: MOST RELUCTANTLY I HAVE FELT CALLED UPON TO MENTION IT
The Oil Merchant finally: Pellet, Napoléon à l’île d’Elbe, 170–73.
He arrived at Livorno: Branda, La guerre secrète, Conclusion.
In Florence, Mariotti: Branda, La guerre secrète, Conclusion.
“It is . . . been avoided”: “Burghersh to Castlereagh, March 3, 1815,” Weigall, Correspondence, 108–9.
50: IN AN IRON CAGE
Word of Napoleon’s landing: Sauvigny, Bourbon Restoration, 93.
A line of: Houssaye, 1815, 225.
No one was sure: O’Brien, Mrs. Adams, 198; Lefebvre, Napoléon, 580.
At the Tuileries: Sauvigny, Bourbon Restoration, 93.
“It is just as well”: Schom, One Hundred Days, 12.
“in an iron cage”: Alexander, Bonapartism, 1.
“Let’s pack it up!”: L’enjambée imperiale (Paris, March 1815), Bibliothèque nationale de France, Estampes et Photographes, QB-370 (72)-FT; Broadley, Napoleon in Caricature, II, 62. See also Waresquiel, “Talleyrand au congrés de Vienne”; and the University of Warwick’s rich online resource, “The Last Stand: Napoleon’s 100 Days in 100 Objects,” which sheds light on the history of these kinds of “enjambée” images. The Order of the Extinguishers was a creation of the satirical French newspaper Le Nain Jaune.
“temerity . . . with apprehension”: Burney, Diaries and Letters, 301.
“a torpor indescribable”: Burney, Diary and Letters, 301.
She knew his character: Burney, Diary and Letters, 301.
“so degraded and”: Berry, Extracts, 43.
51: URGENT
“The English Commissary”: Metternich, Memoirs, II, 254. King helpfully points out that Metternich, writing years after the event, had mistakenly remembered the letter coming from Genoa; King points to contemporary sources confirming that the letter had in fact been sent from Livorno. King, Vienna, 335.
“said to me . . . with me”: Metternich, Memoirs, II, 254.
“The war”: Metternich, Memoirs, II, 254.
He was speaking figuratively: King, Vienna, 229.
When Metternich told: Metternich, Memoirs, II, 254; “Report to Hager, March 12, 1815,” Weil, Les dessous du Congrès de Vienne, 320. Metternich, in recalling this conversation long after the fact, made the dubious claim that he had by then already guessed that Napoleon would land in France and head straight for Paris.
“be seized the moment”: King, Vienna, 230.
“believe that he would”: “Talleyrand to Louis, March 7, 1815,” Talleyrand-Périgord, The Correspondence of Prince Talleyrand and King Louis XVIII, 197–99.
“the consequences of this”: “Talleyrand to Louis, March 7, 1815,” Talleyrand-Périgord, The Correspondence of Prince Talleyrand and King Louis XVIII, 197–99; on Talleyrand’s implying that they could do away with both Napoleon and Murat, see Harris, Talleyrand, 254.
“I will . . . against him”: “Talleyrand to Louis, March 7, 1815,” Talleyrand-Périgord, The Correspondence of Prince Talleyrand and King Louis XVIII, 197–99.
Back at Schönbrunn: Palmer, Napoleon and Marie Louise, 196.
“There was dinner”: Méneval, Memoirs of Napoleon, 1129.
“At this moment when”: Palmer, Napoleon and Marie Louise, 196; Weil, Les dessous du Congrès de Vienne, 303. On the reason for writing in French, see Palmer, Napoleon and Marie Louise, 196.
But speculation about: King, Vienna, 230.
“Though there was every”: Castlereagh, Correspondence, X, 264–65.
“The events . . . invisible magician”: Eynard, Journal, 21.
“Are we Napoleon’s keepers?”: “Reports to Hager, March 8 and 12, 1815,” Weil, Les dessous du Congrès de Vienne, 298, 318. Talleyrand, in his letter to Louis XVIII, wrote that “the English, whose duty it was to watch his movements, were guilty of a negligence which they will find it difficult to excuse.” Tallyrand-Périgord, The Correspondence of Prince Talleyrand and King Louis XVIII, 198.
“as if they had”: King, Vienna, 232.
“the news spread”: Garde-Chambonas, Fêtes, 507–8.
“All festivities ceased”: Méneval, Memoirs of Napoleon, 1130.
His governess, Madame: Palmer, Napoleon and Marie Louise, 197; King, Vienna, 243–44.
“beyond the pale”: “Déclaration des Puissances signataires du Traité de Paris, réunies au Congrès de Vienne au sujet de l’évasion de Napoléon de l’île d’Elbe, March 13, 1815,” d’Angeberg, Le Congrès, II, 912–13.
To rhetorically place: Price, Napoleon, 252.
52: LAFFREY
They shouted their vivas: Concerning Laffrey, my main sources have been Austin, 1815, 142–49; Bell, Napoleon, 1–4; Houssaye, 1815, 240–46; Laborde, Napoleon et sa Garde, 88–94; Marchand, Mémoires, VII. Napoleon’s words are commemorated with a plaque at Laffrey, placed there in 1843. Bell reminds us that this dramatic confrontation was in some ways “stage-managed,” as “one of Napoleon’s officers had met with a royalist officer before the confrontation, and the royalist had confessed that his men would probably refuse to fire on their former sovereign. Napoleon’s envoy then suggested, with a crowd of royalist soldiers listening in, that Napoleon could make a personal appeal. While the emperor could not know for sure that the royalists would hold their fire, when he opened his coat on the afternoon of March 7, he did so with reasonable confidence that his gesture would have the intended effect.” More details about the preparations for Laffrey can be found in Houssaye, 1815, 240–44. Bell argues that “this stage-management is, in its own way, as important as the drama itself for understanding Napoleon’s life,” as it demonstrates how much he keenly understood the political value of a well-crafted public image. Bell has written that Napoleon “was a product of the first great modern age of celebrity, and he understood, viscerally, how to manage celebrity in the service of power.”
53: TO CONTEMPLATE ALL OBJECTS AT A CERTAIN ANGLE
“the glorious chance”: Campbell, Napoleon, 388.
Only after two: Austin, 1815, 22; Campbell, Napoleon, 389.
Campbell found it: Campbell, Napoleon, 390.
He stayed in the area: Campbell, Napoleon, 394.
His ensuing journal entries: Campbell, Napoleon, 395–98.
His journal leaves: Campbell, Napoleon, 398.
His younger brother: “Hobhouse diary, March 21, 1815,” Cochran, Byron, Napoleon, 51.
“inconceivable why so”: “Ha
mburgh Mail,” Times (London), March 23, 1815.
“too much . . . in Germany”: “Hobhouse Diary Entry, April, 18, 1815,” Cochran, Byron, Napoleon, 119.
Though Campbell’s full journal: Broughton (Hobhouse), The Substance of Some Letters, 5.
“a very commonplace . . . of stature”: Broughton (Hobhouse), The Substance of Some Letters, 5.
EPILOGUE: NAPOLEON, MARIE LOUISE, CAMPBELL, AND ELBA
“They let me come”: Guizot, Mémoires, I, 57.
He wrote to Marie Louise: Palmer, Napoleon and Marie Louise, 198; Palmstierna, My Dearest Louise, 176.
He wanted her and: Palmer, Napoleon and Marie Louise, 198.
She said she would rather enter: “Hager report, April 14, 1815,” Weil, Les dessous du Congrès de Vienne, 465.
Caulaincourt returned the: Palmstierna, My Dearest Louise, 176.
One morning in May: Palmer, Napoleon and Marie Louise, 198–99; Guedalla, The Hundred Days, 84.
“We are all . . . be forgotten”: “Lord Liverpool to Lord Castlereagh, July 21, 1815,” Castlereagh, Correspondence, X, 434.
Though the results: On the Napoleonic myth, see Hazareesingh, The Legend of Napoleon and Saint-Napoleon; Jourdan, Mythes.
“had portrayed himself”: Hazareesingh, The Legend of Napoleon, 17.
In 1836, Joseph Beaume: Beaume’s work is among the collection at Versailles, though it was also on loan for a time to the Naval and Napoleonic Museum on the boulevard John F. Kennedy in Antibes.
Two years later: Faure, Au pays de Stendhal, 59–61.
“Bonaparte, in debarking”: Chateaubriand, Memoirs, 323.
“walking on the same”: Faure, Au pays de Stendhal, 59–61.
“a return which was”: Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo, chapter 13.
“the extraordinary episode”: Las Cases, Memorial, November 4, 1816.
“The Emperor is”: Bertrand, Cahiers de Sainte-Hélène, III, 168.
She finally attained: d’Angeberg, Le Congrès, II, 1426.
“I hope that we”: Palmer, Napoleon and Marie Louise, 201.
Facing a firing squad: Palmer, Napoleon and Marie Louise, 205.
She married Neipperg: Palmer, Napoleon and Marie Louise, 207–15.
“speak truthfully . . . while”: Castelot, Napoleon’s Son, 195.
“The love of glory”: Englund, Napoleon, 149. Englund points out that the valediction of the will constituted Napoleon’s final public utterance.
Unlike so many: Englund notes Marie Louise’s distinction in being one of the few people close to Napoleon to produce no memoir. Englund, “Napoleon: The Unsolved Enigma,” New York Review of Books.
“was feared that my”: Campbell, Napoleon, 112.
He rejoined the regiment: Campbell, Napoleon, 112–13.
He continued to be: Napoléon quittant l’Ile d’Elbe pendant que les gardiens sont endormis, undated, unsigned, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Estampes et Photographes, QB-201 (156).
“England had favored: “Exposé in Justification of Marshal Ney,” Times (London), September 6, 1815.
“an excess of . . . navy of Britain”: House of Commons, The Times (London), April 7, 1815.
“as to diplomatic agents”: “House of Commons,” Times (London), April 7, 1815. A rebuttal came in another session of the House of Commons a few days later: Why, Mr. Elliott asked Castlereagh, had “the noble lord consented to place [Bonaparte] near to France and Italy, and after having placed him there, took no precaution for his return? . . . If he had an officer of great merit in the island, in what situation was he to be considered? Was he there in a diplomatic character, or was he in a confidential situation? If Colonel Campbell was placed there for the purpose of corresponding with the government, [he] should like to know what communications had been made to ministers.” Had Campbell informed ministers that Napoleon had raised troops on the island, as was clear from his escape? And did Castlereagh pass along that information to his allies? Campbell’s nephew inserted the following version of Castlereagh’s speech from the same day: “With respect to the residence and situation of this personage at Elba, whatever may be my own individual opinion upon the subject of the arrangement which gave to him that jurisdiction—whatever objections I may have had to this settlement from the beginning, and the opportunities of its locality afforded for the realization of what has unhappily since occurred—there can, I trust, exist but one feeling among liberal minds, and that is, that when this island was given to Bonaparte for his residence, that residence should comprise the portion of fair and free liberty which was then due to a person in his situation. When the island was secured to him by treaty; it was of course done with as much exercise of personal liberty as became the compact; it was never in the contemplation of the parties that he should be a prisoner within that settlement, that he should be the compulsory inmate of any tower, fortress, or citadel; they never meant that he should be so placed, or that he should be deprived of sea excursions in the vicinity of the island for the fair purposes of recreation.
The Allied Powers who concurred in the Treaty of Fontainebleau never undertook to conduct a system of espionage, either within or without the residence which they had ceded to him; it was never in their contemplation to establish a naval police to hem in, or prevent this man’s committing himself, as he has done, to his fortunes. In fact, if they were so inclined, they were without the means of enforcing such a system; for the best authorities in our Government were of opinion; that it was absolutely and physically impossible to draw a line of circumvallation around Elba; and for this very conclusive reason—that, considering the variation of weather, and a variety of other circumstances, which could not be controlled, the whole British navy would be inadequate for such a purpose. I repeat that our Government never took a police establishment at Elba. Colonel Campbell was certainly there, for the purpose of occasionally communicating with our Government upon such matters as might pass under his observation both there and in Italy; where at that time we had no accredited agents: he was there at first merely as one of the conductors, according to the treaty; and I afterwards suffered him to remain between that island and Livorno for the purpose I have mentioned; but nothing more was contemplated. It would have been out of Colonel Campbell’s power to have attempted anything further—he could not have done it; for the fact was that, although at first treated with familiarity by Bonaparte, his visits were subsequently disapproved of: latterly he found the greatest difficulty in obtaining an interview with him, so completely did the latter surround himself with imperial etiquette.” Campbell, Napoleon, 105–6; “House of Commons,” Times (London), April 20, 1815.
In 1826, restless: Note that between the terms of the governor killed by an Ashanti soldier (Charles MacCarthy, 1821–24) and the governor who died of yellow fever (Charles Turner, 1824–26) there were two brief periods where Sierra Leone was controlled by acting governors.
He ruled ruthlessly: Campbell’s post-Waterloo biography is traced in Campbell, Napoleon, 125–50.
He was buried: Fyfe, “Circular Road Burial Ground.”
“I attach . . . a casino”: Napoleon, A Selection from the Letters, 356.
POSTSCRIPT
“My great talent”: Englund, Napoleon, 59.
“What a pity”: Leys, The Death of Napoleon, 2.
“In man’s life”: Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 15.
“In his ‘romantic and epic dream’”: Herold, The Mind of Napoleon, xxxiv.
He and his collaborators: In using the term “collaborators,” I draw on the work of Isser Woloch.
“I walk with”: Bell, Napoleon, 41.
“respected abroad and”: Englund, Napoleon, 173.
To walk with gods: Bell argues that Napoleon, “despite his taste for conquest, was no conscious advocate of total war (still less was he the bloodthirsty megalomaniac of legend). But it wa
s the radical intensification of war that brought him to prominence and power, and in the end, he could not contain it. He was, in turn, the product, master, and victim of total war.” Bell also cites François Furet’s description of Napoleon’s apotheosis at Marengo as “the result of the most one-sided contract that a nation had ever made with its leader, who was forced into a commitment never to be beaten.” Bell, Total War, 8, 227.
“It may be a costly”: Herold, The Mind of Napoleon, xxxix.
“so well off”: Gourgaud, Talks, 167–68. I’ve translated the French idiomatic expression “Ma foi! [literally, My faith!],” meant to sum up a statement with emphasis, as “Well!” Others might choose to translate “Ma foi!” as “Frankly!”; “Honestly!”; or “Indeed!” Napoleon also told Gourgaud “that what also induced him to return to France was that people said he had shunned death, and was a coward.”
BIBLIOGRAPHY
CORRESPONDENCE, MEMOIRS, AND OTHER PRIMARY SOURCES
d’Abrantès, Laure Junot, duchesse. Memoirs of Napoleon, His Court, and Family. Bentley, 1836.
Alexander I and Grand Duchess Catherine. Scenes of Russian Court Life: Being the Correspondence of Alexander I and His Sister Catherine. Translated by Henry Havelock. Jarrolds, 1917.
“Ali” (Louis-Étienne Saint-Denis). Napoleon from the Tuileries to St. Helena. Translated by Frank Potter. Harper, 1922.
d’Angeberg, comte. Le Congrès de Vienne et les traités de 1815, précédé et suivi des actes diplomatiques qui s’y rattachent. Amyot, 1863, 2 vols.
Bainvel, Pierre-Marie. Souvenirs d’un écolier: Épisode de 1815. Pillet, 1846.
Barras, Paul. Mémoires. Edited by George Duruy. Hachette, 1895–96, 4 vols.