Joseph Bonaparte

Joseph sternly reproved him for his senseless conduct, and ordered him to retire immediately from the protection of the Embassy, and to take his comrades with him, or severe measures would be resorted to. One of the officers said to the artist scornfully, "Where would your pretended liberty be, should the governor of the city open fire upon you?"

Invasion of the Palace.

The artist retired in confusion. But the tumult around the palace increased. Joseph's friends saw, in the midst of the mob, well-known spies of the Government urging them on, shouting Vive la Republique, and scattering money with a liberal hand. The insurgents were availing themselves of the palace of the French ambassador as their place of rendezvous, and where, if need be, they hoped to find a sanctuary. Joseph took the insignia of his office, and calling upon the officers of his household to follow him, descended into the court, intending to address the mob, as he spoke their language. In leaving the cabinet, they heard a prolonged discharge of fire-arms. It was from the troops of the Government; a picket of cavalry, in violation of the established usages of national courtesy, had invaded the jurisdiction of the French ambassador, which, protected by his flag, was regarded as the soil of France, and, without consulting the ambassador, were discharging volleys of musketry through the three vast arches of the palace. Many dropped dead; others fell wounded and bleeding. The terrified crowd precipitated itself into the courts and on the stairs, pursued by the avenging bullets of the Government. Joseph and his friends, as they boldly forced their way through the flying multitude, encountered the dying and the dead, and not a few Government spies, who they knew were paid to excite the insurrection and then to denounce the movement to the authorities.

Account of the Insurrection.

Just as they were stepping out of the vestibule they met a company of fusileers who had followed the cavalry. At the sight of the French ambassador they stopped. Joseph demanded the commander. He, conscious of the lawlessness of his proceedings, had concealed himself in the ranks, and could not be distinguished. He then demanded of the troops by whose order they entered upon the jurisdiction of France, and commanded them to retire. A scene of confusion ensued, some advancing, others retiring. Joseph then facing them, said, in a very decisive tone, "that the first one who should attempt to pass the middle of the court would encounter trouble."

He drew his sword, and Generals Duphot and Sherlock and two other officers of his escort, armed with swords or pistols and poniards, ranged themselves at his side to resist their advance. The musketeers retired just beyond pistol-shot, and then deliberately fired a general discharge in the direction of Joseph and his friends. None of the party immediately surrounding the ambassador were struck, but several were killed in their rear.

Joseph, with General Duphot, boldly advanced as the soldiers were reloading their muskets, and ordered them to retire from the jurisdiction of France, saying that the ambassador would charge himself with the punishment of the insurgents, and that he would immediately send one of his own officers to the Vatican or to the Governor of Rome, and that the affair would thus be settled. The soldiers seemed to pay no regard to this, and continued loading their muskets. General Duphot, one of the most brave and impetuous of men, leaped forward into the midst of the bayonets of the soldiers, prevented one from loading and struck up the gun of another, who was just upon the point of firing. Joseph and General Sherlock, as by instinct, followed him.

Death of Duphot.

Some of the soldiers seized General Duphot, dragged him rudely beyond the sacred precincts of the ambassador's palace and the flag of France, and then a soldier discharged a musket into his bosom. The heroic general fell, and immediately painfully rose, leaning upon his sabre. Joseph, who witnessed it all, in the midst of this scene of indescribable confusion called out to his friend, who the next day was to be his brother-in-law, to return. General Duphot attempted it, when a second shot prostrated him upon the pavement. More than fifty shots were then discharged into his lifeless body.

Peril of Joseph.

The soldiers now directed their fire upon Joseph and General Sherlock. Fortunately there was a door through which they escaped into the garden of the palace, where they were for a moment sheltered from the bullets of the assassins. Another company of Government troops had now arrived, and was firing from the other side of the street. Two French officers, from whom Joseph had been separated, now joined him and General Sherlock in the garden. There was nothing to prevent the soldiers from entering the palace, where Joseph's wife and her sister, who the next day was to have become the wife of General Duphot, were trembling in terror. Joseph and his friends regained the palace by the side of the garden. The court was now filled with the soldiers, and with the insurgents who had so foolishly and ignominiously caused this horrible scene. Twenty of the insurgents lay dead upon the pavement.

Note to Talleyrand.

"I entered the palace," Joseph writes in his dispatch to Talleyrand; "the walks were covered with blood, with the dying, dragging themselves along, and with the wounded, loudly groaning. We closed the three gates fronting upon the street. The lamentations of the betrothed of Duphot, that young hero who, constantly in the advance-guard of the armies of the Pyrenees and of Italy, had always been victorious, butchered by cowardly brigands; the absence of her mother and of her brother, whom curiosity had drawn from the palace to see the monuments of Rome; the fusillade which continued in the streets, and against the gates of the palace; the outer apartments of the vast palace of Corsini, which I inhabited, thronged with people of whose intentions we were ignorant: these circumstances and many others rendered the scene inconceivably cruel."

Joseph immediately summoned the servants of the household around him. Three had been wounded. The French officers, impelled by an instinct of national pride, heroically emerged from the palace, with the aid of these domestics, to rescue the body of their unfortunate general. Taking a circuitous route, notwithstanding the fusillade which was still continued, they succeeded in reaching the spot of his cowardly assassination. There they found the remains of this truly noble young man, despoiled, pierced with bullets, clotted with blood, and covered with stones which had been thrown upon him.

Imbecility of the Papal Government.

It was six o'clock in the evening. Two hours had elapsed since the assassination of Duphot; and yet not a member of the Roman Government had appeared at the palace to bring protection or to restore order. Joseph was, properly, very indignant, and resolved at once to call for his passports and leave the city. He wrote a brief note to the Secretary of State, and sent it by a faithful domestic, who succeeded in the darkness in passing through the crowd of soldiers. As the firing was still continued, Joseph and his friends anxiously watched the messenger from the attic windows of the palace till he was lost from sight.

The Ministers of Tuscany and Spain.

An hour passed, and some one was heard knocking at the gate with repeated blows. They supposed that it was certainly the governor or some Roman officer of commanding authority. It proved to be Chevalier Angiolini, minister from Tuscany, the envoy of a prince who was in friendly alliance with the French Republic. As he passed through the soldiery they stopped his carriage, and sarcastically asked him "if he were in search of dangers and bullet-wounds." He courageously and reproachfully replied, "There can be no such dangers in Rome within the jurisdiction of the ambassador of France." This was a severe reproach against the officers of a nation who were indebted to the moderation of the French Republic for their continued political existence. The minister of Spain soon also presented himself, braving all the dangers of the street, which were truly very great. They were both astonished that no public officer had arrived, and expressed much indignation in view of the violation of the rights of the Embassy.

Ten o'clock arrived, and still no public officer had made his appearance. Joseph wrote a second letter to the cardinal. An answer now came, which was soon followed by an officer and about forty men, who said that they had been sent to protect the ambassador's communications with the Secretary of State. But they had no authority or power to rescue the palace from the insurgents, who were crowded into one part of it, and from the Government troops, who occupied another part. No attention had been paid to Joseph's reiterated demands for the liberation of the palace from the dominion of the insurgents and the troops.

Joseph then wrote to the secretary, demanding immediately his passport. It was sent to him two hours after midnight. At six o'clock in the morning, fourteen hours after the assassination of General Duphot, the investment of the palace by the troops and the massacre of the people who had crowded into it, not a single Roman officer had made his appearance charged by the Government to investigate the state of affairs.

Joseph leaves Rome.

Joseph, after having secured the safety of the few French remaining at Rome, left for Tuscany, and in a dispatch to the French Government minutely detailed the events which had occurred. In the conclusion of his dispatch he wrote:

"This Government is not inconsistent with itself. Crafty and rash in perpetrating crime, cowardly and fawning when it has been committed, it is to-day upon its knees before the minister Azara, that he may go to Florence and induce me to return to Rome. So writes to me that generous friend of France, worthy of dwelling in a land where his virtues and his noble loyalty may be better appreciated."

Letter of Talleyrand.

In reply to this dispatch the French minister, Talleyrand, wrote to Joseph, "I have received, citizen, the heart-rending letter which you have written me upon the frightful events which transpired at Rome on the 28th of December. Notwithstanding the care which you have taken to conceal every thing personal to yourself during that horrible day, you have not been able to conceal from me that you have manifested, in the highest degree, courage, coolness, and that intelligence which nothing can escape; and that you have sustained with magnanimity the honor of the French name. The Directory charges me to express to you, in the strongest and most impressive terms, its extreme satisfaction with your whole conduct. You will readily believe, I trust, that I am happy to be the organ of these sentiments."

CHAPTER III

JOSEPH THE PEACE-MAKER

1798-1802

Elected to the Council of Five Hundred.

Joseph, after a short tarry at Florence, returned to Paris, where he again met his brother. Napoleon was much disappointed with the result of the embassy to Rome, for he had ardently hoped to cultivate the most friendly relations with that power. Joseph was favored with a long interview with the Directory, by whom he was received with great cordiality. In testimony of their satisfaction, they offered him the embassy to Berlin. He, however, declined the appointment, as he preferred to enter the Council of Five Hundred, to which office he had been nominated by the Electoral College of one of the departments. The Government of France then consisted of an Executive of five Directors, a Senate, called the Council of Ancients, and a House of Representatives, called the Council of Five Hundred.

Preparations were now making for the expedition to Egypt. The command was offered to Napoleon. For some time he hesitated before accepting it. One day he said to his brother Joseph,

Remarks of Napoleon.

"The Directory see me here with uneasiness, notwithstanding all my efforts to throw myself into the shade. Neither the Directory nor I can do any thing to oppose that tendency to a more centralized government, which is so manifestly inevitable. Our dreams of a republic were the illusions of youth. Since the ninth Thermidor,4 the Republican instinct has grown weaker every day. The efforts of the Bourbons, of foreigners, sustained by the remembrance of the year 1793, had re-united against the Republican system an imposing majority. But for the thirteenth Vendemiaire5 and the eighteenth Fructidor,6 this majority would have triumphed a long time ago. The feebleness, the dissensions of the Directory, have done the rest. It is upon me that all eyes are fixed to-day. To-morrow they will be fixed upon some one else. While waiting for that other one to appear, if he is to appear, my interest tells me that no violence should be done to fortune. We must leave to fortune an open field.

"Many persons hope still in the Republic. Perhaps they have reason. I leave for the East, with all means for success. If my country has need of me – if the number of those who think with Talleyrand, Siéyes, and Roederer should increase, should war be resumed, and prove unfriendly to the arms of France, I shall return more sure of the opinion of the nation. If, on the contrary, the war should be favorable to the Republic, if a military statesman like myself should rise and gather around him the wishes of the people, very well, I shall render, perhaps, still greater services to the world in the East than he can do. I shall probably overthrow English domination, and shall arrive more surely at a maritime peace, than by the demonstrations which the Directory makes upon the shores of the Channel.

"The system of France must become that of Europe in order to be durable. We see thus very evidently what is required. I wish what the nation wishes. Truly I do not know what it wishes to-day, but we shall know better hereafter. Till then let us study its wishes and its necessities. I do not wish to usurp any thing. I shall, at all events, find renown in the East; and if that renown can be made serviceable to my country, I will return with it. I will then endeavor to secure the stability of the happiness of France in securing, if it is possible, the prosperity of Europe, and extending our free principles into neighboring states, who may be made friends if they can profit from our misfortunes."

Napoleon's Patriotism.

"Such," says Joseph, "were the habitual thoughts of General Bonaparte. His happiness was not to depend merely upon the possession of power. He wished to merit the gratitude of his country and of posterity by his deeds, and to conform his life to duty, sure that it was by such renown alone that his name could pass down to future ages."

Joseph was now a member of the Council of Five Hundred. His brother Lucien, though he was still very young, had also been elected a member of the same body. The brilliant achievements of the young conqueror in the East roused the enthusiasm of France. The conquest of Malta, the landing at Alexandria, the battle of the Pyramids, and the entrance into Cairo, had been reported through France, rousing in every hill and valley shouts of exultation. Napoleon was rapidly gaining that renown which would enable him to control and to guide his countrymen.

The Directory.

The Directory still nominally governed France, though the affairs of the nation, under their inefficiency and misrule, were passing rapidly to ruin. The Directors contemplated with alarm the rising celebrity which Napoleon was acquiring in the East. They made a formidable attack upon him, through a committee, in the Council of Five Hundred. Joseph defended his absent brother with so much eloquence and power, as to confound his accusers, and he obtained a unanimous verdict in his favor.

State of France.

The state of things in France was now very deplorable. The Allies with vigor had renewed the war. The Austrian armies had again overrun Italy, and were threatening to scale the Alps, and to rush down upon the plains of France. The British fleet, the most powerful military arm the world has ever known, had swept the commerce of France from all seas, had captured many of her colonies, and was bombarding, with shot and shell, every city of the Republic within reach of its broadsides. The five Directors were quarrelling among themselves, some favoring monarchy, others republicanism. The two councils, that of the Ancients and that of the Five Hundred, were at antagonism. Many formidable conspiracies were formed, some for the support of the Allies and the restoration of the Bourbons, others for the re-introduction of the Jacobinical Reign of Terror.

Anarchy.

Joseph sends to Napoleon.

France was in a state of general anarchy. There was no man of sufficient celebrity to gain the confidence of the people, so that he could assume the office of leader, and bring order out of chaos. The once mighty monarchy of France was in the condition of a mob, without a head, careering this way and that way, in tumultuous and inextricable confusion. Joseph sent a special messenger, a Greek by the name of Bourbaki, to Jean d'Acre, to communicate to Napoleon the state of affairs.

Return of Napoleon.

Informed of these facts, at this momentous crisis Napoleon, having attained renown which caused every eye in France to be fixed upon him, landed at Frejus, and was borne along, with the acclamations of the multitude, to Paris. Immediately upon the young general's arrival, General Moreau hastened to his humble residence in the Rue de la Victoire, and earnestly said to him,

Remarks of Moreau.

"Disgusted with the government of the lawyers, who have ruined the Republic, I come to offer you my aid to save the country."

A number of the most distinguished men of France crowded the small parlors of General Bonaparte. As he was speaking, with that genius which ever commanded attention and assent, of the political condition and wants of France, Moreau interrupted him, saying,

"I only desire to unite my efforts with yours to save France. I am convinced that you only have the power. The generals and the officers who have served under me are now in Paris, and are ready to co-operate with you." The little saloon was crowded. General Macdonald was present. Generals Jourdan and Augereau had conversed with Salicetti, and reported that Bernadotte and a majority of the Council of Five Hundred were in favor of the movement.

Joseph co-operated diligently with Napoleon in the measures now set on foot to rescue France from destruction. Joseph dined with Siéyes. At the table Siéyes said to his guests,

"I wish to unite with General Bonaparte, for of all the military men he is the most of a statesman."

18th Brumaire.

On the 18th Brumaire7 the Directory was overthrown, and, without one drop of blood being shed, a new government was organized, and Napoleon was made consul. The world is divided, and perhaps may forever remain divided, in its judgment of this event. Some call Napoleon a usurper. France then called him, and still calls him, the saviour of his country.

In the midst of these tumultuary scenes, when it was uncertain whether Napoleon would gain his ends or fall upon the scaffold, General Augereau came, in great alarm, to St. Cloud, and informed Napoleon that his enemies in the two councils were proposing to vote him an outlaw.

"Very well," said Napoleon calmly, "you and I, General Augereau, have long been acquainted with each other. Say to your friends the cork is drawn, we must now drink the wine."

Character of Joseph.

Joseph Bonaparte, who a little before these events had withdrawn from the Council of Five Hundred, was with his brother constantly through these momentous scenes. Immediately after the establishment of the new government he was appointed a member of the legislative body, and soon after of the Council of State. Joseph had become a very wealthy man, having acquired a large fortune by his marriage. He owned a very beautiful estate at Mortfontaine, but a few leagues from Paris. Both Joseph and his wife were extremely fond of the quiet, domestic pleasures of rural life. Neither of them had any taste for the excitement and the splendors of state. But France, in her condition of peril, assailed by the allied despotism of Europe without, and agitated by conspiracies within, demanded the energies of every patriotic arm. Joseph was thus constrained to sacrifice his inclinations to his sense of duty. He rendered his brother invaluable assistance by the energy and the conciliatory manners with which he endeavored to carry out the plans of the First Consul. Lucien Bonaparte, eight years younger than Joseph, accepted the post of Minister of the Interior.

Plans and Measures of Napoleon.

Before the overthrow of the Directory mob law had reigned triumphant in Paris. Napoleon, as first consul, immediately took up his residence in the palace of the Tuileries. It was proposed to him that he should close the gates of the garden of the Tuileries, that it might no longer be a place of public resort. Joseph strenuously opposed the measure, and it was renounced. The great object Napoleon aimed at was to ascertain the wishes of the people, that he might be the executor of their will. His only power consisted in having cordially with him the masses of the population. He was untiring in his endeavors to ascertain public sentiment, and endeavored to adopt those measures which should, from their manifest wisdom and justice, secure public approbation. In this service Joseph was invaluable to his brother. He gave brilliant entertainments at his chateau at Mortfontaine; and being a man of remarkably amiable spirit and polished manners, he secured the confidence of all parties, and exerted a very powerful influence in healing the wounds of past strife. At these entertainments Joseph made it his constant object to study the wishes and the opinions of the different classes of society.

Joseph an Ambassador.

The Directory had involved the public in serious difficulties with the United States. Napoleon immediately appointed Joseph, with two associates, to adjust all the differences between the two countries. As both parties were disposed to friendly relations, all difficulties were speedily terminated, and a treaty was signed on the 30th of September, 1800, at Joseph's mansion at Mortfontaine.

Peace of Luneville.

England and Austria, with great vigor, still pressed the war upon France, notwithstanding the earnest appeals of Napoleon to the King of England and the Emperor of Austria in behalf of peace. This refusal to sheathe the sword rendered the campaign of Marengo a necessity. Napoleon crossed the Alps, and upon the plains of Marengo almost demolished the armies of Austria. The haughty Emperor was compelled to sue for that peace which he had so scornfully rejected. The commissioners of the two powers met at Luneville. Napoleon, highly gratified at the skill which Joseph had displayed in adjusting the difficulties in the United States, appointed him as the ambassador from France to secure a treaty with Austria. The two brothers were in daily, and sometimes in hourly conference in reference to the questions of vast national importance which this treaty involved. But Joseph was again entirely successful. On the 9th of February, 1801, the peace of Luneville was concluded, to the great satisfaction of the Emperor, and to the great gratification of France. Napoleon says, in the conclusion of a letter which he wrote to Joseph upon this subject, "The nation is satisfied with the treaty, and I am exceedingly pleased with it."

Hostility of England.

France was now at peace with all the Continent. England alone implacably continued the war. But England was inaccessible to any blows which France could strike without making efforts more gigantic than nation ever attempted before. Napoleon resolved to make these efforts to attain peace. He prepared almost to bridge the Channel with his fleet and gun-boats, that he might pour an army of invasion upon the shores of the belligerent isle, and thus compel the British to sheathe the sword. While these immense preparations were going on, the First Consul devoted his energies to the reconstruction of society in France.

Religious Reaction.

Revolutionary fury had swept all the institutions of the past into chaotic ruin. The good and the bad had been alike demolished. Christianity had been entirely overthrown, her churches destroyed, and her priesthood either slaughtered upon the guillotine, or driven from the realm. France presented the revolting aspect of a mighty nation without morality, without religion, and without a God. The masses of the people, particularly in the rural districts of France, had become disgusted with the reign of vice and misery. They longed to enjoy again the quietude of the Sabbath morning, the tones of the Sabbath bell, the gathering of the congregations in the churches, and all those ministrations of religion which cheer the joyous hours of the bridal, and which convey solace to the chamber of death. The overwhelming majority of the people of France were Roman Catholics. Among the millions who peopled the extensive realm there were but a few thousands who were Protestants. Napoleon had not the power, even had he wished it, of establishing Protestantism as the national religion.