The Project Gutenberg Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte

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LETTER XXXV.

PARIS, October, 1805.

MY LORD:--The plan of the campaign of the Austrians is incomprehensible
to all our military men--not on account of its profundity, but on account
of its absurdity or incoherency. In the present circumstances,
half-measures must always be destructive, and it is better to strike
strongly and firmly than justly. To invade Bavaria without disarming the
Bavarian army, and to enter Suabia and yet acknowledge the neutrality of
Switzerland, are such political and military errors as require long
successes to repair, but which such an enemy as Bonaparte always takes
care not to leave unpunished.

The long inactivity of the army under the Archduke Charles has as much
surprised us as the defeat of the army under General von Mack; but from
what I know of the former, I am persuaded that he would long since have
pushed forward had not his movements been unfortunately combined with
those of the latter. The House of Lorraine never produced a more valiant
warrior, nor Austria a more liberal or better instructed statesman, than
this Prince. Heir to the talents of his ancestors, he has commanded,
with glory, against France during the revolutionary war; and, although he
sometimes experienced defeats, he has rendered invaluable services to the
chief of his House by his courage, by his activity, by his constancy, and
by that salutary firmness which, in calling the generals and superior
officers to their duty, has often reanimated the confidence and the
ardour of the soldier.

The Archduke Charles began, in 1793, his military career under the Prince
of Coburg, the commander-in-chief of the Austrian armies in Brabant,
where he commanded the advanced guard, and distinguished himself by a
valour sometimes bordering on temerity, but which, by degrees, acquired
him that esteem and popularity, among the troops often very advantageous
to him afterwards. He was, in 1794, appointed governor and
captain-general of the Low Countries, and a Field-marshal lieutenant of
the army of the German Empire. In April, 1796, he took the
command-in-chief of the armies of Austria and of the Empire, and, in the
following June, engaged in several combats with General Moreau, in which
he was repulsed, but in a manner that did equal honour to the victor and
to the vanquished.

The Austrian army on the Lower Rhine, under General Wartensleben, having,
about this time, been nearly dispersed by General Jourdan, the Archduke
left some divisions of his forces under General Latour, to impede the
progress of Moreau, and went with the remainder into Franconia, where he
defeated Jourdan near Amberg and Wurzburg, routed his army entirely, and
forced him to repass the Rhine in the greatest confusion, and with
immense loss. The retreat of Moreau was the consequence of the victories
of this Prince. After the capture of Kehl, in January, 1797, he assumed
the command of the army of Italy, where he in vain employed all his
efforts to put a stop to the victorious progress of Bonaparte, with whom,
at last, he signed the preliminaries of peace at Leoben. In the spring
of 1799, he again defeated Jourdan in Suabia, as he had done two years
before in Franconia; but in Switzerland he met with an abler adversary in
General Massena; still, I am inclined to think that he displayed there
more real talents than anywhere else; and that this part of his campaign
of 1799 was the most interesting, in a military point of view.

The most implacable enemies of the politics of the House of Austria
render justice to the plans, to the frankness, to the morality of
Archduke Charles; and, what is remarkable, of all the chiefs who have
commanded against revolutionary France, he alone has seized the true
manner of combating enthusiasts or slaves; at least, his proclamations
are the only ones composed with adroitness, and are what they ought to
be, because in them an appeal is made to the public opinion at a time
when opinion almost constitutes half the strength of armies.

The present opposer of this Prince in Italy is one of our best, as well
as most fortunate, generals. A Sardinian subject, and a deserter from
the Sardinian troops, he assisted, in 1792, our commander, General
Anselm, in the conquest of the county of Nice, rather as a spy than as a
soldier. His knowledge of the Maritime Alps obtained, in 1793, a place
on our staff, where, from the services he rendered, the rank of a general
of brigade was soon conferred on him. In 1796 he was promoted to serve
as a general of division under Bonaparte in Italy, where he distinguished
himself so much that when, in 1798, General Berthier was ordered to
accompany the army of the East to Egypt, he succeeded him as
commander-in-chief of our troops in the temporary Roman Republic. But
his merciless pillage, and, perhaps, the idea of his being a foreigner,
brought on a mutiny, and the Directory was obliged to recall him. It was
his campaign in Switzerland of 1799, and his defence of Genoa in 1800,
that principally ranked him high as a military chief. After the battle
of Marengo he received the command of the army of Italy; but his
extortions produced a revolt among the inhabitants, and he lived for some
time in retreat and disgrace, after a violent quarrel with Bonaparte,
during which many severe truths were said and heard on both sides.

After the Peace of Luneville, he seemed inclined to join Moreau, and
other discontented generals; but observing, no doubt, their want of views
and union, he retired to an estate he has bought near Paris, where
Bonaparte visited him, after the rupture with your country, and made him,
we may conclude, such offers as tempted him to leave his retreat. Last
year he was nominated one of our Emperor's Field-marshals, and as such he
relieved Jourdan of the command in the kingdom of Italy. He has
purchased with a part of his spoil, for fifteen millions of
livres--property in France and Italy; and is considered worth double that
sum in jewels, money, and other valuables.

Massena is called, in France, the spoiled child of fortune; and as
Bonaparte, like our former Cardinal Mazarin, has more confidence in
fortune than in merit, he is, perhaps, more indebted to the former than
to the latter for his present situation; his familiarity has made him
disliked at our Imperial Court, where he never addresses Napoleon and
Madame Bonaparte as an Emperor or an Empress without smiling.

General St. Cyr, our second in command of the army of Italy, is also an
officer of great talents and distinctions. He was, in 1791, only a
cornet, but in 1795, he headed, as a general, a division of the army of
the Rhine. In his report to the Directory, during the famous retreat of
1796, Moreau speaks highly of this general, and admits that his.
achievements, in part, saved the republican army. During 1799 he served
in Italy, and in 1800 he commanded the centre of the army of the Rhine,
and assisted in gaining the victory of Hohenlinden. After the Peace of
Lundville, he was appointed a Counsellor of State of the military
section, a place he still occupies, notwithstanding his present
employment. Though under forty years of age, he is rather infirm, from
the fatigues he has undergone and the wounds he has received. Although
he has never combated as a general-in-chief, there is no doubt but that
he would fill such a place with honour to himself and advantage to his
country.

Of the general officers who command under Archduke Charles, Comte de
Bellegarde is already known by his exploits during the last war. He had
distinguished himself already in 1793, particularly when Valenciennes and
Maubeuge were besieged by the united Austrian and English forces; and, in
1794, he commanded the column at the head of which the Emperor marched,
when Landrecy was invested. In 1796, he was one of the members of the
Council of the Archduke Charles, when this Prince commanded for the first
time as a general-in-chief, on which occasion he was promoted to a
Field-marshal lieutenant.

He displayed again great talents during the campaign of 1799, when he
headed a small corps, placed between General Suwarow in Italy, and
Archduke Charles in Switzerland; and in this delicate post he contributed
equally to the success of both. After the Peace of Luneville he was
appointed a commander-in-chief for the Emperor in the ci-devant Venetian
States, where the troops composing the army under the Archduke Charles
were, last summer, received and inspected by him, before the arrival of
the Prince. He is considered by military men as greatly superior to most
of the generals now employed by the Emperor of Germany.




LETTER XXXVI.

PARIS, October, 1805.

MY LORD:--"I would give my brother, the Emperor of Germany, one further
piece of advice. Let him hasten to make peace. This is the crisis when,
he must recollect, all States must have an end. The idea of the
approaching extinction of the, dynasty of Lorraine must impress him with
horror." When Bonaparte ordered this paragraph to be inserted in the
Moniteur, he discovered an 'arriere pensee', long suspected by
politicians, but never before avowed by himself, or by his Ministers.
"That he has determined on the universal change of dynasties, because a
usurper can never reign with safety or honour as long as any legitimate
Prince may disturb his power, or reproach him for his rank." Elevated
with prosperity, or infatuated with vanity and pride, he spoke a language
which his placemen, courtiers, and even his brother Joseph at first
thought premature, if not indiscreet. If all lawful Sovereigns do not
read in these words their proscription, and the fate which the most
powerful usurper that ever desolated mankind has destined for them, it
may be ascribed to that blindness with which Providence, in its wrath,
sometimes strikes those doomed to be grand examples of the vicissitudes
of human life.

"Had Talleyrand," said Louis Bonaparte, in his wife's drawing-room, "been
by my brother's side, he would not have unnecessarily alarmed or awakened
those whom it should have been his policy to keep in a soft slumber,
until his blows had laid them down to rise no more; but his soldier-like
frankness frequently injures his political views." This I myself heard
Louis say to Abbe Sieyes, though several foreign Ambassadors were in the
saloon, near enough not to miss a word. If it was really meant as a
reflection on Napoleon, it was imprudent; if designed as a defiance to
other Princes, it was unbecoming and impertinent. I am inclined to
believe it, considering the individual to whom it was addressed, a
premeditated declaration that our Emperor expected a universal war, was
prepared for it, and was certain of its fortunate issue.

When this Sieyes is often consulted, and publicly flattered, our
politicians say, "Woe to the happiness of Sovereigns and to the
tranquillity of subjects; the fiend of mankind is busy, and at work,"
and, in fact, ever since 1789, the infamous ex-Abbe has figured, either
as a plotter or as an actor, in all our dreadful and sanguinary
revolutionary epochas. The accomplice of La Fayette in 1789, of Brissot
in 1791, of Marat in 1792, of Robespierre in 1793, of Tallien in 1794, of
Barras in 1795, of Rewbel in 1797, and of Bonaparte in 1799, he has
hitherto planned, served, betrayed, or deserted all factions. He is one
of the few of our grand criminals, who, after enticing and sacrificing
his associates, has been fortunate enough to survive them. Bonaparte has
heaped upon him presents, places, and pensions; national property,
senatories, knighthoods, and palaces; but he is, nevertheless, not
supposed one of our Emperor's most dutiful subjects, because many of the
late changes have differed from his metaphysical schemes of innovation,
of regeneration, and of overthrow. He has too high an opinion of his own
deserts not to consider it beneath his philosophical dignity to be a
contented subject of a fellow-subject, elevated into supremacy by his
labours and dangers. His modesty has, for these sixteen years past,
ascribed to his talents all the glory and prosperity of France, and all
her misery and misfortunes to the disregard of his counsels, and to the
neglect of his advice. Bonaparte knows it; and that he is one of those
crafty, sly, and dark conspirators, more dangerous than the bold
assassin, who, by sophistry, art, and perseverance insinuate into the
minds of the unwary and daring the ideas of their plots, in such an
insidious manner that they take them and foster them as the production of
their own genius; he is, therefore, watched by our Imperial spies, and
never consulted but when any great blow is intended to be struck, or some
enormous atrocities perpetrated. A month before the seizure of the Duc
d'Enghien, and the murder of Pichegru, he was every day shut up for some
hours with Napoleon Bonaparte at St. Cloud, or in the Tuileries; where he
has hardly been seen since, except after our Emperor's return from his
coronation as a King of Italy.

Sieyes never was a republican, and it was cowardice alone that made him
vote for the death of his King and benefactor; although he is very fond
of his own metaphysical notions, he always has preferred the preservation
of his life to the profession or adherence to his systems. He will not
think the Revolution complete, or the constitution of his country a good
one, until some Napoleon, or some Louis, writes himself an Emperor or
King of France, by the grace of Sieyes. He would expose the lives of
thousands to obtain such a compliment to his hateful vanity and excessive
pride; but he would not take a step that endangered his personal safety,
though it might eventually lead him to the possession of a crown.

From the bounty of his King, Sieyes had, before the Revolution, an income
of fifteen thousand livres--per annum; his places, pensions, and landed
estates produce now yearly five hundred thousand livres--not including
the interest of his money in the French and foreign funds.

Two years ago he was exiled, for some time, to an estate of his in
Touraine, and Bonaparte even deliberated about transporting him to
Cayenne, when Talleyrand observed "that such a condemnation would
endanger that colony of France, as he would certainly organize there a
focus of revolutions, which might also involve Surinam and the Brazils,
the colonies of our allies, in one common ruin. In the present
circumstances," added the Minister, "if Sieyes is to be transported, I
wish we could land him in England, Scotland, or Ireland, or even in
Russia."

I have just heard from a general officer the following anecdote, which he
read to me from a letter of another general, dated Ulm, the 25th instant,
and, if true, it explains in part Bonaparte's apparent indiscretion in
the threat thrown out against all ancient dynasties.

Among his confidential generals (and hitherto the most irreproachable of
all our military commanders), Marmont is particularly distinguished.
Before Napoleon left this capital to head his armies in Germany, he is
stated to have sent despatches to all those traitors dispersed in
different countries whom he has selected to commence the new dynasties,
under the protection of the Bonaparte Dynasty. They were, no doubt,
advised of this being the crisis when they had to begin their
machinations against thrones. A courier from Talleyrand at Strasburg to
Bonaparte at Ulm was ordered to pass by the corps under the command of
Marmont, to whom, in case the Emperor had advanced too far into Germany,
he was to deliver his papers. This courier was surprised and interrupted
by some Austrian light troops; and, as it was only some few hours after
being informed of this capture that Bonaparte expressed himself frankly,
as related above, it was supposed by his army that the Austrian
Government had already in its power despatches which made our schemes of
improvement at Paris no longer any secrets at Vienna. The writer of this
letter added that General Marmont was highly distressed on account of
this accident, which might retard the prospect of restoring to Europe its
long lost peace and tranquillity.

This officer made his first campaign under Pichegru in 1794, and was, in
1796, appointed by Bonaparte one of his aides-de-camp. His education had
been entirely military, and in the practice the war afforded him he soon
evinced how well he remembered the lessons of theory. In the year 1796,
at the battle of Saint-Georges, before Mantua, he charged at the head of
the eighth battalion of grenadiers, and contributed much to its fortunate
issue. In October of the same year, Bonaparte, as a mark of his
satisfaction, sent him to present to the Directory the numerous colours
which the army of Italy had conquered; from whom he received in return a
pair of pistols, with a fraternal hug from Carnot. On his return to
Italy he was, for the first time, employed by his chief in a political
capacity. A republic, and nothing but a republic, being then the order
of the day, some Italian patriots were convoked at Reggio to arrange a
plan for a Cisalpine Republic, and for the incorporation with it of
Modena, Bologna, and other neutral States; Marmont was nominated a French
republican plenipotentiary, and assisted as such in the organization of a
Commonwealth, which since has been by turns a province of Austria or a
tributary State of France.

Marmont, though combating for a bad cause, is an honest man; his hands
are neither soiled with plunder, nor stained with blood. Bonaparte,
among his other good qualities, wishes to see every one about him rich;
and those who have been too delicate to accumulate wealth by pillage, he
generally provides for, by putting into requisition some great heiress.
After the Peace of Campo Formio, Bonaparte arrived at Paris, where he
demanded in marriage for his aide-de-camp Marmont, Mademoiselle
Perregeaux, the sole child of the first banker in France, a well-educated
and accomplished young lady, who would be much more agreeable did not her
continual smiles and laughing indicate a degree of self-satisfaction and
complacency which may be felt, but ought never to be published.

The banker, Perregeaux, is one of those fortunate beings who, by drudgery
and assiduity, has succeeded in some few years to make an ample fortune.
A Swiss by birth, like Necker, he also, like him, after gratifying the
passion of avidity, showed an ambition to shine in other places than in
the counting-house and upon the exchange. Under La Fayette, in 1790, he
was the chief of a battalion of the Parisian National Guards; under
Robespierre, a commissioner for purchasing provisions; and under
Bonaparte he is become a Senator and a commander of the Legion of Honour.
I am told that he has made all his money by his connection with your
country; but I know that the favourite of Napoleon can never be the
friend of Great Britain. He is a widower; but Mademoiselle Mars, of the
Emperor's theatre, consoles him for the loss of his wife.

General Marmont accompanied Bonaparte to Egypt, and distinguished himself
at the capture of Malta, and when, in the following year, the siege of
St. Jean d'Acre was undertaken, he was ordered to extend the
fortifications of Alexandria; and if, in 1801, they retarded your
progress, it was owing to his abilities, being an officer of engineers as
well as of the artillery. He returned with Bonaparte to Europe, and was,
after his usurpation, made a Counsellor of State. At the battle of
Marengo he commanded the artillery, and signed afterwards, with the
Austrian general, Count Hohenzollern, the Armistice of Treviso, which
preceded shortly the Peace of Luneville. Nothing has abated Bonaparte's
attachment to this officer, whom he appointed a commander-in-chief in
Holland, when a change of Government was intended there, and whom he will
entrust everywhere else, where sovereignty is to be abolished, or thrones
and dynasties subverted.




LETTER XXXVII.

PARIS, October, 1805.

MY LORD:--Many wise people are of the opinion that the revolution of
another great Empire is necessary to combat or oppose the great impulse
occasioned by the Revolution of France, before Europe can recover its
long-lost order and repose. Had the subjects of Austria been as
disaffected as they are loyal, the world might have witnessed such a
terrible event, and been enabled to judge whether the hypothesis was the
production of an ingenious schemer or of a profound statesman. Our
armies under Bonaparte have never before penetrated into the heart of a
country where subversion was not prepared, and where subversion did not
follow.

How relatively insignificant, in the eyes of Providence, must be the
independence of States and the liberties of nations, when such a
relatively insignificant personage as General von Mack can shake them?
Have, then, the Austrian heroes--a Prince Eugene, a Laudon, a Lasci, a
Beaulieu, a Haddick, a Bender, a Clairfayt, and numerous other valiant
and great warriors--left no posterity behind them; or has the presumption
of General von Mack imposed upon the judgment of the Counsellors of his
Prince? This latter must have been the case; how otherwise could the
welfare of their Sovereign have been entrusted to a military quack, whose
want of energy and bad disposition had, in 1799, delivered up the capital
of another Sovereign to his enemies. How many reputations are gained by
an impudent assurance, and lost when the man of talents is called upon to
act and the fool presents himself.

Baron von Mack served as an aide-de-camp under Field-marshal Laudon,
during the last war between Austria and Turkey, and displayed some
intrepidity, particularly before Lissa. The Austrian army was encamped
eight leagues from that place, and the commander-in-chief hesitated to
attack it, believing it to be defended by thirty thousand men. To decide
him upon making this attack, Baron von Mack left him at nine o'clock at
night, crossed the Danube, accompanied only by a single Uhlan, and
penetrated into the suburb of Lissa, where he made prisoner a Turkish
officer, whom, on the next morning at seven o'clock, he presented to his
general, and from whom it was learnt that the garrison contained only six
thousand, men. This personal temerity, and the applause of Field-marshal
Laudon, procured him then a kind of reputation, which he has not since
been able to support. Some theoretical knowledge of the art of war, and
a great facility of conversing on military topics, made even the Emperor
Joseph conceive a high opinion of this officer; but it has long been
proved, and experience confirms it every day, that the difference is
immense between the speculator and the operator, and that the generals of
Cabinets are often indifferent captains when in the camp or in the field.

Preceded by a certain celebrity, Baron von Mack served, in 1793, under
the Prince of Coburg, as an adjutant-general, and was called to assist at
the Congress at Antwerp, where the operations of the campaign were
regulated. Everywhere he displayed activity and bravery; was wounded
twice in the month of May; but he left the army without having performed
anything that evinced the talents which fame had bestowed on him. In
February, 1794, the Emperor sent him to London to arrange, in concert
with your Government, the plans of the campaign then on the eve of being
opened; and when he returned to the Low Countries he was advanced to a
quartermaster-general of the army of Flanders, and terminated also this
unfortunate campaign without having done anything to justify the
reputation he had before acquired or usurped. His Sovereign continued,
nevertheless, to employ him in different armies; and in January, 1797, he
was appointed a Field-marshal lieutenant and a quartermaster-general of
the army of the Rhine. In February he conducted fifteen thousand of the
troops of this army to reinforce the army of Italy; but when Bonaparte in
April penetrated into Styria and Carinthia, he was ordered to Vienna as a
second in command of the levy 'en masse'.

Real military characters had already formed their opinion of this
officer, and saw a presumptuous charlatan where others had admired an
able warrior. His own conduct soon convinced them that they neither had
been rash nor mistaken. The King of Naples demanding, in 1798, from his
son-in-law, the Emperor of Germany, a general to organize and head his
troops, Baron von Mack was presented to him. After war had been declared
against France he obtained some success in partial engagements, but was
defeated in a general battle by an enemy inferior in number. In the
Kingdom of Naples, as well as in the Empire of Germany, the fury of
negotiation seized him when he should have fought, and when he should
have remembered that no compacts can ever be entered into with political
and military earthquakes, more than with physical ones. This imprudence,
particularly as he was a foreigner, excited suspicion among his troops,
whom, instead of leading to battle, he deserted, under the pretence that
his life was in danger, and surrendered himself and his staff to our
commander, Championnet.