Life of Napoleon Bonaparte. Volume I

172

"Guerre aux châteaux, paix aux hamaux."

173

Clootz was born at Cleves in 1755. Being suspected by Robespierre, he was, in May, 1794, sent to the guillotine.

174

Menou was born at Boussay de Loches in 1750. After Buonaparte's flight from Egypt, he turned Mahometan, submitted to the peculiar rites of Islamism, and called himself Abdallah James Menou. He died at Venice in 1810; of which place he had been appointed Governor by Napoleon.

175

Lacretelle, tom. ix., p. 52.

176

See Burke's Works, vol. viii., p. 272.

177

Their number was at this time, with their families, nearly a hundred thousand. – See Burke, vol. viii., p. 72, and Lacretelle, tom. viii., p. 117.

178

See Lacretelle, tom. viii., p. 117.

179

Jomini, tom. i., p. 265; Lacretelle, tom. viii., pp. 334, 439; De Bouillé, p. 422.

180

See two articles on the pretended treaties of Pavia and Pilnitz, signed Detector, in the Anti-jacobin Newspaper, July 2, 1798. They were, we believe, written by the late Mr. Pitt. [Since this work was published it seems to have become certain that the letters there referred to were the productions of Lord Grenville, at that time Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.] – "As far as we have been able to trace," said Mr. Pitt, in 1800, "the declaration signed at Pilnitz referred to the imprisonment of Louis: its immediate view was to effect his deliverance, if a concert sufficiently extensive could be formed for that purpose. I left the internal state of France to be decided by the King restored to his liberty, with the free consent of the states of the kingdom, and it did not contain one word relative to the dismemberment of the country." —Parliamentary History, vol. xxxiv., p. 1316. – S.

181

Lacretelle, tom. ix., p. 61; Thiers, tom. ii., p. 48.

182

Lacretelle, tom. ix., p. 48.

183

"The adoption of this oppressive decree was signalized by the first open expression of atheistical sentiments in the Assembly. 'My God is the Law; I acknowledge no other,' was the expression of Isnard. The remonstrance of the constitutional bishops had no effect. The decree was carried amidst tumult and acclamation." – Lacretelle, tom. ix., p. 46.

184

Lacretelle, tom. ix., p. 46.

185

Mignet, tom. i., p. 164; Lacretelle, tom. ix., p. 74. "The war department was intrusted, in December, 1791, to M. de Narbonne. He employed himself with unfeigned zeal in all the preparations necessary for the defence of the kingdom. Possessing rank and talents, the manners of a court, and the views of a philosopher, that which was predominant in his soul was military honour and French valour. To oppose the interference of foreigners under whatever circumstances, always seemed to him the duty of a citizen and a gentleman. His colleagues combined against him, and succeeded in obtaining his removal. He lost his life at the siege of Torgau, in 1813." – M. de Staël, vol. ii., p. 39.

186

Lacretelle, tom. ix., p. 77.

187

This strange argument reminds us of an Essay read before a literary society in dispraise of the east wind, which the author supported by quotations from every poem or popular work, in which Eurus is the subject of invective. The learned auditors sustained the first part of this infliction with becoming fortitude, but declined submitting to the second, understanding that the accomplished author had there fortified himself by the numerous testimonies of almost all poets in favour of the west, and which, with logic similar to that of M. Brissot in the text, he regarded as indirect testimony against the east wind. – S.

188

"On Sunday, the 30th October, 1791, the gates were closed, the walls guarded so as to render escape impossible, and a band of assassins, commanded by the barbarous Jourdan, sought out in their own houses the individuals destined for death. Sixty unhappy wretches were speedily thrust into prison, where, during the obscurity of night, the murderers wreaked their vengeance with impunity. One young man put fourteen to death with his own hand, and only desisted from excess of fatigue. Twelve women perished, after having undergone tortures which my pen cannot describe. When vengeance had done its worst, the remains of the victims were torn and mutilated, and heaped up in a ditch, or thrown into the Rhone." – Lacretelle, tom. ix., p. 54.

189

Lacretelle, tom. ix., p. 75.

190

"After a long exposition by Dumouriez, the King, with a tremulous voice, pronounced these words: – 'You have heard, gentlemen, the result of my negotiations with the Court of Vienna: they are conformable to the sentiments more than once expressed to me by the National Assembly, and confirmed by the great majority of the kingdom. All prefer a war to the continuance of outrages to the national honour, or menaces to the national safety. I have exhausted all the means of pacification in my power; I now come, in terms of the Constitution, to propose to the Assembly, that we should declare war against the King of Hungary and Bohemia.'" – Mignet, tom. i., p. 168; Annual Register, vol. xxxiv., p. 201; Dumouriez, vol. ii., p. 272.

191

"I was present at the sitting in which Louis was forced to a measure which was necessarily painful to him in so many ways. His features were not expressive of his thoughts, but it was not from dissimulation that he concealed them; a mixture of resignation and dignity repressed in him every outward sign of his sentiments. On entering the Assembly, he looked to the right and left, with that kind of vacant curiosity which is usual to persons who are so shortsighted that their eyes seem to be of no use to them. He proposed war in the same tone of voice as he might have used in requiring the most indifferent decree possible." – M. de Staël, vol. ii., p. 40.

192

The site of the old convent of the Feuillans.

193

Lacretelle, tom. ix., p. 76.

194

Servan was born at Romans in 1741, and died at Paris in 1808. "He was," says Madame Roland, "an honest man in the fullest signification of the term; an enlightened patriot, a brave soldier, and an active minister; he stood in need of nothing but a more sober imagination, and a more flexible mind." —Memoirs, part i., p. 72.

195

Clavière was born at Geneva in 1735, "where," says M. Dumont, "he became one of the popular leaders: shrewd and penetrating, he obtained the credit of being also cunning and artful: he was a man of superior intellect: deaf from his youth, and, deprived by this infirmity of the pleasures of society, he had sought a compensation in study, and formed his education by associating politics and moral philosophy with trade." – Being denounced by Robespierre, to avoid the guillotine, he stabbed himself in his prison, June 9, 1793. His wife poisoned herself on the following day.

196

Duranthon was born at Massedon in 1736. In December, 1793, he was dragged before the revolutionary tribunal, and guillotined. "He was an honest man, but very indolent: his manner indicated vanity, and his timid disposition and pompous prattle made him always appear to me no better than an old woman." – Mad. Roland, part i., p. 71.

197

"A true jack-in-office of the old order of things, of which he had the insignificant and awkward look, cold manner, and dogmatic tone. He was deficient both in the extensive views and activity necessary for a minister." – Mad. Roland, p. 70. He died in 1803.

198

Thiers, tom. ii., p. 59; Mignet, tom. i., p. 64; Lacretelle, tom. ix., p. 89.

199

So says Des Ferrieres, and pretends that Madame Roland's pretensions to be presented at the ministerial parties being rejected, was the first breach to the amicable understanding of the ministers. But nothing of this sort is to be found in her Memoirs, and we are confident she would have recorded it, had the fact been accurate. – S.

200

The court nicknamed the new ministry, "Le Ministère sans culottes."

201

When Roland, whose dress was somewhat like that of a Quaker, appeared at court in shoestrings, the usher approached him with a severe look, and addressed him, "How, sir, no buckles?" – "Ah," said Dumouriez, who laughed at all and every thing, "all is lost." – S. – Roland, part ii., p. 8; Mignet, tom. i., p. 166.

202

Lacretelle, tom. ix., p. 109.

203

Prudhomme, tom. ii., p. 271.

204

Bouillé's Memoirs, p. 215.

205

Mignet, tom. i., p. 172; Lacretelle, tom. ix., p. 114; Dumouriez, vol. ii., p. 350.

206

Dumouriez, vol. ii., p. 353.

207

Lacretelle, tom. ix., p. 116; Mignet, tom. i., p. 173; Dumouriez, vol. ii., p. 360.

208

"Je sais que le langage austère de la vérité est rarement accueillé près du trone." – See the Letter in Prudhomme, tom. iii., p. 82.

209

Prudhomme, tom. iii., p. 92.

210

Dumouriez, tom. ii., p. 392; Mignet, tom. i., p. 173; Lacretelle, tom. i., p. 240.

211

Lacretelle, tom. ix., p. 136.

212

Lacretelle, tom. ix., p. 131.

213

The passage of the procession lasted three hours. – See Lacretelle, tom. ix., p. 135; Thiers, tom. ii., p. 133

214

It may be alleged in excuse, that the Assembly had no resource but submission. Yet, brave men in similar circumstances have, by a timely exertion of spirit, averted similar insolencies. When the furious Anti-Catholic mob was in possession of the avenues to, and even the lobbies of, the House of Commons, in 1780, General Cosmo Gordon, a member of the House, went up to the unfortunate nobleman under whose guidance they were supposed to act, and addressed him thus: "My lord, is it your purpose to bring your rascally adherents into the House of Commons? for if so, I apprise you, that the instant one of them enters, I pass my sword, not through his body, but your lordship's." The hint was sufficient, and the mob was directed to another quarter. Undoubtedly there were, in the French Legislative Assembly, men capable of conjuring down the storm they had raised, and who might have been moved to do so, had any man of courage made them directly and personally responsible for the consequences. – See Wraxall, vol. i., p. 247, for the story of Lord George Gordon and General Gordon; but the Editor is informed, that the person who really threatened Lord George in the manner described, was Colonel Holroyd, now Lord Sheffield.

215

Dryden has expanded these magnificent lines, without expressing entirely either their literal meaning or their spirit. But he has added, as usual, beautiful ideas of his own, equally applicable to the scene described in the text: —

"A mighty breach is made; the rooms conceal'dAppear, and all the palace is reveal'd;The halls of audience, and of public state —And where the lovely Queen in secret sate,Arm'd soldiers now by trembling maids are seenWith not a door, and scarce a space between." Æneid, book ii. – S.

216

Prudhomme, tom. iii., p. 117; Lacretelle, tom. ix., p. 139; Madame Campan, vol. ii., p. 212.

217

Prudhomme, tom. iii., p. 117; Mignet, tom. i., p. 178; Lacretelle, tom. ix., p. 142; Campan, vol. ii., p. 212.

218

Napoleon was a witness of this scene from the gardens of the Tuileries. "While we were leading," says De Bourrienne, "a somewhat idle life, the 20th June arrived. We met that morning, as usual, in a coffee-room, Rue St. Honoré. On going out we saw approaching a mob, which Buonaparte computed at five or six thousand men, all in rags, and armed with every sort of weapon, vociferating the grossest abuse, and proceeding with rapid pace towards the Tuileries. 'Let us follow that rabble,' said Buonaparte to me. We got before them, and went to walk in the gardens, on the terrace overlooking the water. From this station he beheld the disgraceful occurrences that ensued. I should fail in attempting to depict the surprise and indignation aroused within him. He could not comprehend such weakness and forbearance. But when the King showed himself at one of the windows fronting the garden, with the red cap which one of the mob had just placed upon his head, Buonaparte could no longer restrain his indignation. 'What madness!' exclaimed he; 'how could they allow these scoundrels to enter? They ought to have blown four or five hundred of them into the air with cannon; the rest would then have taken to their heels.'" – De Bourrienne, tom. i., p. 49.

219

"By eight o'clock in the evening they had all departed, and silence and astonishment reigned in the palace." – Mignet, tom. i., p. 178.

220

Jomini, Hist. des Guerres de la Révolution, tom. ii., p. 53; Dumont, p. 343.

221

For the letter itself, see Annual Register, vol. xxxiv., p. 206.

222

Thiers, tom. ii., p. 154; Lacretelle, tom. ix., p. 153.

223

Madame Campan, tom. ii., p. 224.

224

"He was burnt in effigy by the Jacobins, in the garden of the Palais Royal." – Prudhomme, tom. iii., p. 131.

225

Lacretelle, tom. ix., p. 161. After the dissolution of the Legislative Assembly, L'Amourette returned to Lyons, and continued there during the siege. He was afterwards conducted to Paris, condemned to death, and decapitated in January, 1794. The abbé was the author of several works, among others, "Les Délices de la Religion, ou Le Pouvoir de l'Evangile de nous rendre heureux."

226

"The expression of the Queen's countenance on this day will never be effaced from my remembrance; her eyes were swollen with tears; the splendour of her dress, the dignity of her deportment, formed a contrast with the train that surrounded her. It required the character of Louis XVI., that character of martyr which he ever upheld, to support, as he did, such a situation. When he mounted the steps of the altar, he seemed a sacred victim, offering himself as a voluntary sacrifice. He descended; and, crossing anew the disordered ranks, returned to take his place beside the Queen and his children." – M. De Staël, vol. ii., p. 53.

227

"To the astonishment of both parties, the accusation against La Fayette was thrown out by a majority of 446 to 224," – Lacretelle, tom. ix., p. 190.

228

Le Fanatisme.

229

Madame Roland describes him as one "whose features no painter would disdain to copy for the head of an Antinous." —Memoirs, part i., p. 146.

230

"I never," says Madame de la Rochejaquelein, "heard any thing more impressive and terrible than their songs."

231

Espremenil suffered by the guillotine in June, 1793; but Pétion, becoming at that time an object of suspicion to Robespierre, took refuge in the department of the Calvados, where he is supposed to have perished with hunger; his body being found in a field half devoured by wolves.

232

See Annual Register, vol. xxxiv., p. 229.

233

Thiers, tom. ii., p. 145.

234

Lacretelle, tom. ix., p. 172.

235

"The question of abdication was discussed with a degree of frenzy. Such of the deputies as opposed the motion were abused, ill-treated, and surrounded by assassins. They had a battle to fight at every step they took; and at length they did not dare to sleep in their houses." – Montjoie.

236

Thus imitated by the dramatist Lee, from the historian Davila: —

"Have you not heard – the King, preventing day,Received the guards within the city gates;The jolly Swisses marching to their pipes,The crowd stood gaping heedless and amazed,Shrunk to their shops, and left the passage free." – S.

237

M. de Staël, tom. ii., p. 59.

238

When they were, in similar circumstances, maltreated by the national guard. – See ante, p. 119. – S.

239

"M. de St. Souplet, one of the King's equerries, and a page, instead of muskets, carried upon their shoulders the tongs belonging to the King's ante-chamber, which they had broken and divided between them." – Mad. Campan. vol. ii., p. 246.

240

Lacretelle, tom. ix., p. 201.

241

Dernier Tableau de Paris, tom. i., p. 176.

242

"The King ought then to have put himself at the head of his troops, and opposed his enemies. The Queen was of this opinion, and the courageous counsel she gave on this occasion does honour to her memory." – M. de Staël, tom. ii., p. 60.

"This invasion of the 10th of August, was another of those striking occasions on which the King, by suddenly changing his character, and assuming firmness, might have recovered his throne. The mass of the French people were weary of the excesses of the Jacobins, and the outrage of the 20th of June roused the general indignation. Had he ordered the clubs of the Jacobins and Cordeliers, to be shut up, dissolved the Assembly, and seized upon the factions, that day had restored his authority: but this weak prince, unmindful that the safety of his kingdom depended upon the preservation of his own authority, chose rather to expose himself to certain death, than give orders for his defence." – Dumont, p. 362.

243

Mignet, tom. i., p. 190; Lacretelle, tom. ix., p. 208.

244

"The muscular expansion of his tall person, the sonorous hoarseness of his voice, his rough manners, and his easy and vulgar eloquence, made him, of course, a hero among the rabble. In truth, he had gained a despotic empire over the dregs of the Fauxbourgs. He could excite them at will; but that was the extent of his skill and capacity." – Montjoie, Hist. de Marie Antoinette, p. 295.

245

"I was at a window looking on the garden. I saw some of the gunners quit their posts, go up to the King, and thrust their fists in his face, insulting him by the most brutal language. He was as pale as a corpse. When the royal family came in again, the Queen told me that all was lost; that the King had shown no energy, and that this sort of review had done more harm than good." – Mad. Campan, vol. ii., p. 245.

246

Lacretelle, tom. ix., p. 214.

247

Mémoires de Barbaroux, p. 69.

248

"And I," exclaimed the King, "I, too, say 'Vive la Nation!' – its happiness has ever been the dearest object of my heart." – Lacretelle, tom. ix., p. 214.

249

Prudhomme, tom. iii., p. 198; Mad. Campan, vol. ii., p. 247.

250

"'Oui,' disait-elle à MM. de Briges et de Saint Priest, 'j'aimerais mieux me faire clouer aux murs du château que de choisir cet indigne refuge.'" – Lacretelle, tom. ix., p. 216.

251

Lacretelle, tom. ix., p. 219; Mad. Campan, vol. ii., p. 247.

252

Mad. Campan, vol. ii., p. 429; Lacretelle, tom. ix., p. 220.

253

"The Queen told me, that the King had just refused to put on the under-waistcoat of mail which she had prepared for him; that he had consented to wear it on the 14th of July, because it was merely going to a ceremony, where the blade of an assassin was to be apprehended; but that, on a day in which his party might have to fight against the revolutionists, he thought there was something cowardly in preserving his life by such means." – Mad. Campan, vol. ii., p. 243.

254

Chabot.

255

Lacretelle, tom. ix., p. 223.

256

Lacretelle, tom. ix., p. 227.

257

Lacretelle, tom. ix., p. 231; Mignet, tom. i., p. 195; Thiers, tom. ii., p. 263.

258

"S'il y avait eu trois cents cavaliers fidèles pour marcher à la poursuite des rebelles, Paris était soumis au roi, et l'Assemblée tombait aux pieds de son captif." – Lacretelle, tom. ix., p. 230.

259

Lacretelle, tom. ix., p. 233; Toulongeon, tom. ii., p. 253.

260

"L'histoire ne peut dire les obscènes et atroces mutilations que d'impudiques furies firent subir aux cadavres des Suisses." – Lacretelle, tom. ix., p. 240.

261

Prudhomme, tom. iii., p. 202; but see Lacretelle, tom. ix., p. 241.

262

Mémoires de Barbaroux. "L'anecdote," says Lacretelle, "est fausse; mais quelle fiction atroce!" tom. ix., p. 243.

263

Mignet, tom. i., p. 195; Thiers, tom. i., p. 263; Lacretelle, tom. ix., p. 244.

264

"For fifteen hours the royal family were shut up in the short-hand writer's box. At length, at one in the morning, they were transferred to the Feuillans. When left alone, Louis prostrated himself in prayer. 'Thy trials, O God! are dreadful; give us courage to bear them. We bless thee in our afflictions, as we did in the day of prosperity: receive into thy mercy all those who have died fighting in our defence.'" – Lacretelle, tom. ix., p. 250.

"The royal family remained three days at the Feuillans. They occupied a small suite of apartments, consisting of four cells. In the first were the gentlemen who had accompanied the King. In the second we found the King: he was having his hair dressed; he took two locks of it, and gave one to my sister and one to me. In the third was the Queen, in bed, and in an indescribable state of affliction. We found her attended only by a bulky woman, who appeared tolerably civil; she waited upon the Queen, who, as yet, had none of her own people about her. I asked her Majesty what the ambassadors from foreign powers had done under existing circumstances? She told me that they could do nothing, but that the lady of the English ambassador had just given her a proof of the private interest she took in her welfare by sending her linen for her son." – Mad. Campan, vol. ii., p. 259.

"At this frightful period, Lady Sutherland," [the present Duchess and Countess of Sutherland,] "then English ambassadress at Paris, showed the most devoted attentions to the royal family." – Mad. de Staël, tom. ii., p. 69.

265

Lacretelle, tom. ix., p. 265; Mignet, tom. i., p. 197.

266

Bursau de Pucy, Latour Maubourg, and Alexander Lameth. Their intention was to proceed to the United States of America.

267

"I never saw any countenance that so strongly expressed the violence of brutal passions, and the most astonishing audacity, half-disguised by a jovial air, an affectation of frankness, and a sort of simplicity." – Mad. Roland, part i., p. 88.

268

"In 1789, he was a miserable lawyer, more burdened with debts than causes. He went to Belgium to augment his resources, and now had the hardihood to avow a fortune of 1,400,000 livres, (£58,333,) and to wallow in luxury, whilst preaching sans-culottism, and sleeping on heaps of slaughtered men. O, Danton! cruel as Marius, and more terrible than Cataline, you surpass their misdeeds, without possessing their good qualities." – Mad. Roland, part ii., p. 59.

269

"Il avait une manière de prononcer pauvre peuple et peuple vertueux, qui ne manqua jamais son effet sur de feroces spectateurs." – Lacretelle, tom. ix., p. 15.