Part 23
This letter seems to have been taken by Eugene to Paris, and thence forwarded to the Emperor with a letter from that Prince in which he enumerates Josephine's suggestions and wishes--(1) that she will not go to Aix-la-Chapelle if other waters are suggested by Corvisart; (2) that after stopping a few days at Malmaison she will go in June for three months to the baths, and afterwards to the south of France; visit Rome, Florence, and Naples incognito, spend the winter at Milan, and return to Malmaison and Navarre in the spring of 1811; (3) that in her absence Navarre shall be made habitable, for which fresh funds are required; (4) that Josephine wishes her cousins the Taschers to marry, one a relative of King Joseph, the other the Princess Amelie de la Leyen, niece of the Prince Primate. To this Napoleon replies from Compiegne, April 26th, that the De Leyen match with Louis Tascher may take place,[89] but that he will not interest himself in the other (Henry) Tascher, who is giddy-headed and bad-tempered. "I consent to whatever the Empress does, but I will not confer any mark of my regard on a person who has behaved ill to me. I am very glad that the Empress likes Navarre. I am giving orders to have L12,000 which I owe her for 1810, and L12,000 for 1811 advanced to her. She will then have only the L80,000 from the public treasury to come in.... She is free to go to whatever spa she cares for, and even to return to Paris afterwards." He thinks, however, she would be happier in new scenes which they had never visited together, as they had Aix-la-Chapelle. If, however, the last are the best she may go to them, for "what I desire above all is that she may keep calm, and not allow herself to be excited by the gossip of Paris." This letter goes far to soothe the poor chatelaine of Navarre.
No. 2A.
_Two letters._--The other, now missing, may have some reference to the pictures to which he refers in his letter to Fouche the next day. "Is it true that engravings are being published with the title of _Josephine Beauharnais nee La Pagerie_? If this is true, have the prints seized, and let the engravers be punished" (_New Letters_, No. 253).
No. 3.
Probably written from Boulogne about the 25th. His northern tour with Marie Louise had been very similar to one taken in 1804, but his _entourage_ found the new bride very cold and callous compared to Josephine. Leaving Paris on April 29th Napoleon's _Correspondence_ till June is dated Laeken (April 30th); Antwerp (May 3rd); Bois-le-Duc; Middleburg, Gand, Bruges, Ostend (May 20th); Lille, Boulogne, Dieppe, Le Havre, Rouen (May 31st). He takes the Empress in a canal barge from Brussels to Malines and himself descends the subterranean vault of the Escaut-Oise canal, between St. Quentin and Cambrai. He is at St. Cloud on June 2nd.
Josephine has felt his wanderings less, as she has the future Emperor, her favourite grandson, with her, the little Oui-Oui, as she calls him, and for whom the damp spring weather of Holland was dangerous. She was also at Malmaison from the middle of May to June 18th. The original collection of _Letters_ (Didot Freres, 1833) heads the letter correctly to the Empress Josephine at _Malmaison_, but the _Correspondence_, published by order of Napoleon III., gives it erroneously, to the Empress Josephine, _at the Chateau of Navarre_ (No. 16,537).
_I will come to see you._--He comes for two hours on June 13th, and makes himself thoroughly agreeable. Poor Josephine is light-headed with joy all the evening after. The meeting of the two Empresses is, however, indefinitely postponed, and Josephine had now no further reason to delay her departure. Leaving her little grandson Louis behind, she travels under the name of the Countess d'Arberg, and she is accompanied by Madame d'Audenarde and Mlle. de Mackau, who left the Princess Stephanie to come to Navarre. M. Masson notes that Madame de Remusat needs the Aix waters, and will rejoin Josephine (within a week), under pretext of service, and thus obtain her cure gratuitously. They go _via_ Lyons and Geneva to Aix-les-Bains. M. Masson, who has recently made a careful and complete study of this period, describes the daily round. "Josephine, on getting out of bed, takes conscientiously her baths and douches, then, as usual, lies down again until _dejeuner_, 11 A.M., for which the whole of the little Court are assembled at _The Palace_--wherever she lives, and however squalid the dwelling-place, her abode always bears this name. Afterwards she and her women-folk ply their interminable tapestry, while the latest novel or play (sent by Barbier from Paris) is read aloud. And so the day passes till five, when they dress for dinner at six; after dinner a ride. At nine the Empress's friends assemble in her room, Mlle. de Mackau sings; at eleven every one goes to bed." This programme, however, varies with the weather. Here is St. Amand's version (_Dernieres Annees de l'Imperatrice Josephine_, p. 237): "A little reading in the morning, an airing (_le promenade_) afterwards, dinner at eight on account of the heat, games afterwards, and some little music; so passed existence."
No. 4.
_July 8th._--On July 5th, driving along the Chambery road, Josephine met the courier with a letter from Eugene describing the terrible fire at Prince Schwartzenberg's ball, where the Princess de la Leyen, mother of young Taschre's bride-elect, was burnt. It is noteworthy that the Emperor makes no allusion to the conflagration. As, however, this is the first letter since the end of May, others may have been lost or destroyed.
_You will have seen Eugene_--_i.e._ on his way to Milan, who arrived at Aix on July 10th. He had just been made heir to the Grand Duchy of Frankfort--a broad hint to him and to Europe that Italy would be eventually united to France under Napoleon's dynasty. This was the nadir of the Beauharnais family--Josephine _repudiee_, Hortense unqueened and unwed,[90] and Eugene's expectations dissipated, and all within a few short months. Eugene had left his wife ill at Geneva, whither Josephine goes to visit her the next day, duly reporting her visit to Napoleon in her letter of July 14th (see No. 5). Geneva was always the home of the disaffected, and so the Empress had to be specially tactful, and the De Remusat reports: "She speaks of the Emperor as of a brother, of the new Empress as the one who will give children to France, and if the rumours of the latter's condition be correct, I am certain she will be delighted about it."
_That unfortunate daughter is coming to France_--_i.e._ to reside when she is not at St. Leu (given to her by Napoleon) or at the waters. On the present occasion she has been at Plombieres a month or more. On July 10th Napoleon instructs the Countess de Boubers to bring the Grand Duke of Berg to Paris, "whom he awaits with impatience" (_Brotonne_, 625).
No. 5.
_The conduct of the King of Holland has worried me._--This was in March, and by May the crisis was still more acute and Napoleon's patience exhausted. On May 20th he writes: "Before all things be a Frenchman and the Emperor's brother, and then you may be sure you are in the path of the true interests of Holland. Good sense and policy are necessary to the government of states, not sour unhealthy bile." And three days later: "Write me no more of your customary twaddle; three years now it has been going on, and every instant proves its falsehood! This is the last letter I shall ever write you in my life."
Louis at one time determined on war, and rather than surrender Amsterdam, to cut the dykes. The Emperor hears of this, summons his brother, and practically imprisons him until he countermands the defence of Amsterdam.
On July 1st Louis abdicated and fled to Toeplitz in Bohemia. Napoleon is terribly grieved at the conduct of his brother, who would never realise that the effective Continental blockade was Napoleon's last sheet-anchor to force peace upon England.
No. 6.
_To die in a lake_--_i.e._ the Lake of Bourget, shut in by the Dent du Chat, where a white squall had nearly capsized the sailing boat. Josephine had been on July 26th to visit the abbey Haute-Combe, place of sepulture of the Princes of Savoy, and the storm had overtaken her on the return voyage.
No. 8.
_Paris, this Friday._--A very valuable note of M. Masson (_Josephine Repudiee_, 198) enables us to fix this letter at its correct date. He says: "It has to do with the exile of Madame de la T---- (viz., the Princess Louis de la Tremoille), which takes place on September 28th, 1810, and this 28th September is also a Friday: there is also the question of Mlle. de Mackau being made a baroness" (and this lady had not joined the Court of Josephine till May 1810); "lastly, the B---- mentioned therein can only be Barante, the Prefect, whose dismissal (from Geneva) almost coincides with this letter." It may be added that the La Tremoille family was one of the oldest in France, allied with the Condes, and consequently with the Bourbons. Barante's fault had been connivance at the letters and conduct of Madame de Stael.
No. 9.
_The only suitable places ... are either Milan or Navarre._--Milan had been her own suggestion conveyed by Eugene, but Napoleon, two months later, had told her she could spend the winter in France, and in spite of danger signals ("inspired by diplomacy rather than devotion" [91]) from Madame de Remusat (in her fulsome and tedious "despatch" sent from Paris in September, and probably inspired by the Emperor himself) she manages to get to Navarre, and even to spend the first fortnight of November at Malmaison. Before leaving Switzerland Josephine refuses to risk an interview with Madame de Stael. "In the first book she publishes she will not fail to report our conversation, and heaven knows how many things she will make me say that I have never even thought of."
No. 10.
In spite of the heading Josephine was at Malmaison on this day, and Napoleon writes Cambaceres: "My cousin, the Empress Josephine not leaving for Navarre till Monday or Tuesday, I wish you to pay her a visit. You will let me know on your return how you find her" (_Brotonne_,721). The real reason is to hasten her departure, and she gets to Navarre November 22nd (Thursday).
_The Empress progresses satisfactorily._--Napoleon writes to this effect to her father, the Emperor of Austria, on the same day: "The Empress is very well.... It is impossible that the wife for whom I am indebted to you should be more perfect. Moreover, I beg your Majesty to rest assured that she and I are equally attached to you."
FOOTNOTES
[87] On this occasion Baron Lejeune sees the Archduke Charles, and remarks: "There was nothing in his quiet face with its grave and gentle expression, or in his simple, modest, unassuming manner, to denote the mighty man of war; but no one who met his eyes could doubt him to be a genius."
[88] "This gloomy and forsaken chateau," says St. Amand, "whose only attraction was the half-forgotten memory of its vanished splendours, was a fit image of the woman who came to seek sanctuary there."
[89] He endows the husband with L4000 a year, and the title of Count Tascher.
[90] "Une epouse sans epoux, et une reine sans royaume"--St. Amand.
[91] Aubenas.
SERIES O
No. 1.
_The New Year._--On this occasion, instead of her usual gifts (_etrennes_) she organised a lottery of jewels, of which Madame Ducrest gives a full account. Needless to say, Josephine worked the oracle so that every one got a suitable gift--including the old Bishop (see next note).
_More women than men._--The Bishop of Evreux (Mgr. Bourlier) was the most welcome guest. He amused Josephine, and although eighty years of age, could play _trictrac_ and talk well on any subject. Madame de Remusat wrote her husband concerning him, "We understand each other very well, he and I."
_Keep well._--At Navarre Josephine lost her headaches, and put on flesh.
No. 2.
There is a full account of the birth of the King of Rome in Napoleon's letter to the Emperor of Austria on March 20 (No. 17,496). The letter of this date to Josephine is missing, but is referred to by D'Avrillon. It began, "My dear Josephine, I have a son. I am _au comble de bonheur_."
_Eugene._--Josephine much appreciated this allusion. "Is it possible," she said, "for any one to be kinder than the Emperor, and more anxious to mitigate whatever might be painful for me at the present moment, if I loved him less sincerely? This association of my son with his own is well worthy of him who, when he likes, is the most fascinating of all men." She gave a costly ring to the page who brought the letter.
On the previous day Eugene had arrived at Navarre,--sent by the Emperor. "You are going to see your mother, Eugene; tell her I am sure that she will rejoice more than any one at my happiness. I should have already written to her if I had not been absorbed by the pleasure of watching my boy. The moments I snatch from his side are only for matters of urgent necessity. This event, I shall acquit myself of the most pleasant of them all by writing to Josephine."
No. 4.
Written in November 1811.
_As fat as a good Normandy farmeress._--Madame d'Abrantes, who saw her about this time, writes: "I observed that Josephine had grown very stout[92] since the time of my departure for Spain. This change was at once for the better and the worse. It imparted a more youthful appearance to her face; but her slender and elegant figure, which had been one of her principal attractions, had entirely disappeared. She had now decided _embonpoint_, and her figure had assumed that matronly air which we find in the statues of Agrippina, Cornelia, &c. Still, however, she looked uncommonly well, and she wore a dress which became her admirably. Her judicious taste in these matters contributed to make her appear young much longer than she otherwise would. The best proof of the admirable taste of Josephine is the marked absence of elegance shown by Marie Louise, though both Empresses employed the same milliners and dressmakers, and Marie Louise had a large sum allotted for the expenses of her toilet."
St. Amand says that 1811 was for Josephine a happy year, compared to those which followed.
SERIES P
No. 1.
Written from Konigsberg (M. Masson, in _Josephine Repudiee_, says Dantzig; but on June 11th Napoleon writes to Eugene, "I shall be at Konigsberg to-morrow," where his correspondence is dated from henceforward). A day or two later he writes the King of Rome's governess that he trusts to hear soon that the fifteen months old child has cut his first four teeth.
No. 2.
_Gumbinnen, June 20th._--From this place and on this date goes forth the first bulletin of the _Grande Armee_. It gives a _resume_ of the causes of the war, dating from the end of 1810, when English influence again gained ascendency.
On July 29th he writes Hortense from Witepsk to congratulate her on her eldest son's recovery from an illness. A week later he writes his librarian for some amusing novels--new ones for choice, or old ones that he has not read--or good memoirs.
Josephine meanwhile has permission to go to Italy. Owing to her grandson's illness she defers starting till July 16th. Through frightful weather she reaches Milan _via_ Geneva on July 28th, and has a splendid reception. On the 29th she writes to Hortense: "I have found the three letters from Eugene, the last one dated the 13th; his health is excellent. He still pursues the Russians, without being able to overtake them. It is generally hoped the campaign may be a short one. May that hope be realised!" Two days later she announces the birth of Eugene's daughter Amelia, afterwards Empress of Brazil. Towards the end of August Josephine goes to Aix and meets the Queen of Spain with her sister Desiree Bernadotte, the former "kind and amiable as usual," the latter "very gracious to me"--rather a new experience. From Aix she goes to Pregny-la-Tour, on the Lake of Geneva, and shocks the good people in various ways, says M. Masson, especially by innuendoes against Napoleon; and he adds, "if one traces back to their source the worst calumnies against the morals of the Emperor, it is Josephine that one encounters there." She gets to Malmaison October 24th. Soon after his return from Moscow Napoleon pays her a visit, and about this time she begins to see the King of Rome, whose mother has always thought more of her daily music and drawing lessons than of whether she was making her son happy or not.
1812 closed in gloom, but 1813 was in itself terribly ominous to so superstitious a woman as Josephine. Thirteen is always unlucky, and moreover the numbers of 1813 add up to 13; also the doom-dealing year began on a Friday. Every one felt the hour approaching. As Napoleon said at St. Helena: "The star grew pale; I felt the reins slipping from my hand, and I could do no more. A thunderbolt could alone have saved us, and every day, by some new fatality or other, our chances diminished. Sinister designs began to creep in among us; fatigue and discouragement had won over the majority; my lieutenants became lax, clumsy, careless, and consequently unfortunate; they were no longer the men of the commencement of the Revolution, nor even of the time of my good fortune. The chief generals were sick of the war; I had gorged them too much with my high esteem, with too many honours and too much wealth. They had drunk from the cup of pleasure, and wished to enjoy peace at any price. _The sacred fire was quenched._"
Up to August Fortune had smiled again upon her favourite. With conscripts for infantry and without cavalry he had won Lutzen, Bautzen, and Dresden; and even so late as September Byron was writing that "bar epilepsy and the elements he would back Napoleon against the field." But treachery and incompetence had undermined the Empire, and Leipsic (that battle of giants, where 110,000 soldiers were killed and wounded) made final success hopeless. In 1814 his brothers Lucien and Louis rallied to him, and Hortense was for the only time proud of her husband. She thinks if he had shown less suspicion and she less pride they might have been happy after all. "My husband is a good Frenchman ... he is an honest man." Meanwhile, Talleyrand is watching to guide the _coup de grace_. Napoleon makes a dash for Lorraine to gather his garrisons and cut off the enemy's supplies. The Allies hesitate and are about to follow him, as per the rules of war. Talleyrand, the only man who could ever divine Napoleon, sends them the message, "You can do everything, and you dare nothing; dare therefore _once_!" Hortense is the only _man_ left in Paris, and in vain she tries to keep Marie Louise, whose presence would have stimulated the Parisians to hold the Allies at bay. It is in vain. Unlike Prussia or Austria who fought for months, or Spain who fought for years, after their capitals were taken:--
"Like Nineveh, Carthage, Babylon and Rome, France yields to the conqueror, vanquished at home."
After Marmont's betrayal Napoleon attempts suicide, and when he believes death imminent sends a last message to Josephine by Caulaincourt, "You will tell Josephine that my thoughts were of her before life departed."
It was on Monday, May 23rd, that Josephine's illness commenced, after receiving at dinner the King of Prussia and his sons (one afterwards Wilhelm der Greise, first Emperor of Germany). Whether the sore throat which killed her was a quinsy or diphtheria[93] is difficult to prove, but the latter seems the more probable. Corvisart, who was himself ill and unable to attend, told Napoleon that she died of grief and worry. Before leaving for the Waterloo campaign Napoleon visited Malmaison, and there, as Lord Rosebery reminds us, allowed his only oblique reproach to Marie Louise to escape him: "Poor Josephine. Her death, of which the news took me by surprise at Elba, was one of the most acute griefs of that fatal year, 1814. She had her failings, of course; _but she, at any rate, would never have abandoned me_."
FOOTNOTES
[92] Mlle. d'Avrillon says that during the Swiss voyage Josephine found it desirable, for the first time, to "wear whalebone in her corsets."
[93] The same question may be asked respecting the death of Montaigne.
APPENDIX (1)
A REPUTED POEM BY NAPOLEON I.
LE CHIEN, LE LAPIN, ET LE CHASSEUR.
FABLE.--_Composee a l'age de 13 ans, par_ NAPOLEON I.
Cesar, chien d'arret renomme, Mais trop enfle de son merite, Tennait arrete dans son gite Un malheureux lapin de peur inanime. "Rends-toi!" lui cria-t-il, d'une voix de tonerre Qui fit au loin trembler les peuplades des bois. "Je suis Cesar, connu par ses exploits, Et dont le nom remplit toute la terre." A ce grand nom, Jeannot Lapin, Recommandant a Dieu son ame penitente, Demande d'une voix tremblante: "Tres-serenissime matin, Si je me rends quel sera mon destin?" "Tu mourras." "Je mourrai!" dit la bete innocente. "Et si je fuis?" "Ton trepas est certain." "Quoi!" reprit l'animal qui se nourrit de thym, "Des deux cotes je dois perdre la vie! Que votre auguste seigneurie Veuille me pardonner, puisqu'il me faut mourir, Si j'ose tenter de m'enfuir." Il dit, et fuit en heros de garenne. Caton l'aurait blame; je dis qu'il n'eut pas tort. Car le chasseur le voit a peine Qu'il l'ajuste, le tire--et le chien tombe mort Que dirait de ceci notre bon La Fontaine? Aide-toi, le ciel t'aidera. I'approuve fort cette methode-la.
APPENDIX (2)
GENEALOGY OF THE BONAPARTE FAMILY
Many more or less fictitious genealogies of the Bonapartes have been published, some going back to mythical times. The first reliable record, however, seems to be that of a certain Bonaparte of Sarzana, in Northern Italy, an imperial notary, who was living towards the end of the thirteenth century, and from whom both the Corsican and the Trevisan or Florentine Bonapartes claim their origin. From him in direct line was descended Francois de Sarzana, who was sent to Corsica in 1509 to fight for the Republic of Genoa. His son Gabriel, having sold his patrimony in Italy, settled in Ajaccio, where he bore the honourable title of Messire, and where, being left a widower, he assumed the tonsure and died Canon of the cathedral.
From him an unbroken line of Bonapartes, all of whom in turn were elected to the dignity of Elder of Ajaccio, brings us to Charles Bonaparte Napoleon, father of the Emperor.
APPENDIX (3)
REPUTED LETTERS OF NAPOLEON TO JOSEPHINE. TAKEN FROM THE MEMOIRS OF MADAME DUCREST.