The Project Gutenberg Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte

B >> Bourrienne, Constant, and Stewarton >> The Project Gutenberg Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte


The Emperor Francis, notwithstanding his counsellors, hesitated about
taking the first step; but at length, yielding to the solicitations of
England and the secret intrigues of Russia, and, above all, seduced by
the subsidies of Great Britain, Austria declared hostilities, not at
first against France, but against her allies of the Confederation of the
Rhine. On the 9th of April Prince Charles, who was appointed
commander-in-chief of the Austrian troops, addressed a note to the
commander-in-chief of the French army in Bavaria, apprising him of the
declaration of war.

A courier carried the news of this declaration to Strasburg with the
utmost expedition, from whence it was transmitted by telegraph to Paris.
The Emperor, surprised but not disconcerted by this intelligence,
received it at St. Cloud on the 11th of April, and two hours after he was
on the road to Germany. The complexity of affairs in which he was then
involved seemed to give a new impulse to his activity. When he reached
the army neither his troops nor his Guard had been able to come up, and
under those circumstances he placed himself at the head of the Bavarian
troops, and, as it were, adopted the soldiers of Maximilian. Six days
after his departure from Paris the army of Prince Charles, which had
passed the Inn, was threatened. The Emperor's headquarters were at
Donauwerth, and from thence he addressed to his soldiers one of those
energetic and concise proclamations which made them perform so many
prodigies, and which was soon circulated in every language by the public
journals. This complication of events could not but be fatal to Europe
and France, whatever might be its result, but it presented an opportunity
favourable to the development of the Emperor's genius. Like his
favourite poet Ossian, who loved best to touch his lyre midst the
howlings of the tempest, Napoleon required political tempests for the
display of his abilities.

During the campaign of 1809, and particularly at its commencement,
Napoleon's course was even more rapid than it had been in the campaign
of 1805. Every courier who arrived at Hamburg brought us news, or rather
prodigies. As soon as the Emperor was informed of the attack made by the
Austrians upon Bavaria orders were despatched to all the generals having
troops under their command to proceed with all speed to the theatre of
the war. The Prince of Ponte-Corvo was summoned to join the Grand Army
with the Saxon troops under his command and for the time he resigned the
government of the Hanse Towns. Colonel Damas succeeded him at Hamburg
during that period, but merely as commandant of the fortress; and he
never gave rise to any murmur or complaint. Bernadotte was not satisfied
with his situation, and indeed the Emperor, who was never much disposed
to bring him forward, because he could not forgive him for his opposition
on the 18th Brumaire, always appointed him to posts in which but little
glory was to be acquired, and placed as few troops as possible under his
command.

It required all the promptitude of the Emperor's march upon Vienna to
defeat the plots which were brewing against his government, for in the
event of his arms being unsuccessful, the blow was ready to be struck.
The English force in the north of Germany amounted to about 10,000 men:
The Archduke Charles had formed the project of concentrating in the
middle of Germany a large body of troops, consisting of the corps of
General Am Eude, of General Radizwowitz, and of the English, with whom
were to be joined the people who were expected to revolt. The English
would have wished the Austrian troops to advance a little farther. The
English agent made some representations on this subject to Stadion, the
Austrian Minister; but the Archduke preferred making a diversion to
committing the safety of the monarchy by departing from his present
inactivity and risking the passage of the Danube, in the face of an enemy
who never suffered himself to be surprised, and who had calculated every
possible event: In concerting his plan the Archduke expected that the
Czar would either detach a strong force to assist his allies, or that he
would abandon them to their own defence. In the first case the Archduke
would have had a great superiority, and in the second, all was prepared
in Hesse and in Hanover to rise on the approach of the Austrian and
English armies.

At the commencement of July the English advanced upon Cuxhaven with a
dozen small ships of war. They landed 400 or 600 sailors and about 50
marines, and planted a standard on one of the outworks. The day after
this landing at Cuxhaven the English, who were in Denmark evacuated
Copenhagen, after destroying a battery which they had erected there.
All the schemes of England were fruitless on the Continent, for with the
Emperor's new system of war, which consisted in making a push on the
capitals, he soon obtained negotiations for peace. He was master of
Vienna before England had even organised the expedition to which I have
just alluded. He left Paris on the 11th of April, was at Donauwerth on
the 17th, and on the 23d he was master of Ratisbon. In the engagement
which preceded his entrance into that town Napoleon received a slight
wound in the heel. He nevertheless remained on the field of battle. It
was also between Donauwerth and Ratisbon that Davoust, by a bold
manoeuvre, gained and merited the title of Prince of Eckmuhl.

--[The great battle of Eckmuhl, where 100,000 Austrians were driven
from all their positions, was fought on the 22d of April.-Editor of
1836 edition.]--

At this period fortune was not only bent on favouring Napoleon's arms,
but she seemed to take pleasure in realising even his boasting
predictions; for the French troops entered Vienna within a month after a
proclamation issued by Napoleon at Ratisbon, in which he said he would be
master of the Austrian capital in that time.

But while he was thus marching from triumph to triumph the people of
Hamburg and the neighbouring countries had a neighbour who did not leave
them altogether without inquietude. The famous Prussian partisan, Major
Schill, after pursuing his system of plunder in Westphalia, came and
threw himself into Mecklenburg, whence, I understood, it was his
intention to surprise Hamburg. At the head of 600 well-mounted hussars
and between 1500 and 2000 infantry badly armed, he took possession of the
little fort of Domitz, in Mecklenburg, on the 15th of May, from whence he
despatched parties who levied contributions on both banks of the Elbe.
Schill inspired terror wherever he went. On the 19th of May a detachment
of 30 men belonging to Schill's corps entered Wismar. It was commanded
by Count Moleke, who had formerly been in the Prussian service, and who
had retired to his estate in Mecklenburg, where the Duke had kindly given
him an appointment. Forgetting his duty to his benefactor, he sent to
summon the Duke to surrender Stralsund.

Alarmed at the progress of the partisan Schill, the Duke of Mecklenburg
and his Court quitted Ludwigsburg, their regular residence, and retired
to Doberan, on the seacoast. On quitting Mecklenburg Schill advanced to
Bergdorf, four leagues from Hamburg. The alarm then increased in that
city. A few of the inhabitants talked of making a compromise with Schill
and sending him money to get him away. But the firmness of the majority
imposed silence on this timid council. I consulted with the commandant
of the town, and we determined to adopt measures of precaution. The
custom-house chest, in which there was more than a million of gold, was
sent to Holstein under a strong escort. At the same time I sent to
Schill a clever spy, who gave him a most alarming account of the means of
defence which Hamburg possessed. Schill accordingly gave up his designs
on that city, and leaving it on his left, entered Lubeck, which was
undefended.

Meanwhile Lieutenant-General Gratien, who had left Berlin by order of the
Prince de Neufchatel, with 2500 Dutch and 3000 Swedish troops, actively
pursued Schill, and tranquillity was soon restored throughout all the
neighbouring country, which had been greatly agitated by his bold
enterprise. Schill, after wandering for some days on the shores of the
Baltic, was overtaken by General Gratien at Stralsund, whence he was
about to embark for Sweden. He made a desperate defence, and was killed
after a conflict of two hours. His band was destroyed. Three hundred of
his hussars and 200 infantry, who had effected their escape, asked leave
to return to Prussia, and they were conducted to the Prussian general
commanding a neighbouring town. A war of plunder like that carried on by
Schill could not be honourably acknowledged by a power having, any claim
to respect. Yet the English Government sent Schill a colonel's
commission, and the full uniform of his new rank, with the assurance that
all his troops should thenceforth be paid by England.

Schill soon had an imitator of exalted rank. In August 1809 the Duke of
Brunswick-OEls sought the dangerous honour of succeeding that famous
partisan. At the head of at most 2000 men he for some days disturbed the
left bank of the Elbe, and on the 5th entered Bremen. On his approach
the French Vice-Consul retired to Osterhulz. One of the Duke's officers
presented himself at the hones of the Vice-Consul and demanded 200 Louis.
The agent of the Vice-Consul, alarmed at the threat of the place being
given up to pillage, capitulated with the officer, and with considerable
difficulty got rid of him at the sacrifice of 80 Louis, for which a
receipt was presented to him in the name of the Duke. The Duke, who now
went by the name of "the new Schill," did not remain long in Bremen.

Wishing to repair with all possible speed to Holland he left Bremen on
the evening of the 6th, and proceeded to Dehnenhorst, where his advanced
guard had already arrived. The Westphalian troops, commanded by Reubell,
entered Bremen on the 7th, and not finding the Duke of Brunswick,
immediately marched in pursuit of him. The Danish troops, who occupied
Cuxhaven, received orders to proceed to Bremerlehe, to favour the
operations of the Westphalians and the Dutch. Meanwhile the English
approached Cuxhaven, where they landed 3000 or 4000 men. The persons in
charge of the custom-house establishment, and the few sailors who were in
Cuxhaven, fell back upon Hamburg. The Duke of Brunswick, still pursued
crossed Germany from the frontiers of Bohemia to Elsfleth, a little port
on the left bank of the Weser, where he arrived on the 7th, being one day
in advance of his pursuers. He immediately took possession of all the
transports at Elsfleth, and embarked for Heligoland.

The landing which the English effected at Cuxhaven while the Danes, who
garrisoned that port, were occupied in pursuing the Duke of Brunswick,
was attended by no result. After the escape of the Duke the Danes
returned to their post which the English immediately evacuated.




CHAPTER XIX.

1809.

The castle of Diernstein--Richard Coeur de Lion and Marshal Lannes,
--The Emperor at the gates of Vienna--The Archduchess Maria Louisa--
Facility of correspondence with England--Smuggling in Hamburg--Brown
sugar and sand--Hearses filled with sugar and coffee--Embargo on the
publication of news--Supervision of the 'Hamburg Correspondant'--
Festival of Saint Napoleon--Ecclesiastical adulation--The King of
Westphalia's journey through his States--Attempt to raise a loan--
Jerome's present to me--The present returned--Bonaparte's unfounded
suspicions.

Rapp, who during the campaign of Vienna had resumed his duties as aide de
camp, related to me one of those observations of Napoleon which, when his
words are compared with the events that followed them, seem to indicate a
foresight into his future destiny. When within some days' march of
Vienna the Emperor procured a guide to explain to him every village and
ruin which he observed on the road. The guide pointed to an eminence on
which were a few decayed vestiges of an old fortified castle. "Those,"
said the guide, "are the ruins of the castle of Diernstein." Napoleon
suddenly stopped, and stood for some time silently contemplating the
ruins, then turning to Lannes, who was with him, he raid, "See! yonder
is the prison of Richard Coeur de Lion. He, like us, went to Syria and
Palestine. But, my brave Lannes, the Coeur de Lion was not braver than
you. He was more fortunate than I at St. Jean d'Acre. A Duke of Austria
sold him to an Emperor of Germany, who imprisoned him in that castle.
Those were the days of barbarism. How different from the civilisation of
modern times! Europe has seen how I treated the Emperor of Austria, whom
I might have made prisoner--and I would treat him so again. I claim no
credit for this. In the present age crowned heads must be respected. A
conqueror imprisoned!"

A few days after the Emperor was at the gates of Vienna, but on this
occasion his access to the Austrian capital was not so easy as it had
been rendered in 1805 by the ingenuity and courage of Lannes and Murat.
The Archduke Maximilian, who was shut up in the capital, wished to defend
it, although the French army already occupied the principal suburbs. In
vain were flags of truce sent one after the other to the Archduke. They
were not only dismissed unheard, but were even ill-treated, and one of
them was almost killed by the populace. The city was then bombarded, and
would speedily have been destroyed but that the Emperor, being informed
that one of the Archduchesses remained in Vienna on account of
ill-health, ordered the firing to cease. By a singular caprice of
Napoleon's destiny this Archduchess was no other than Maria Louisa.
Vienna at length opened her gates to Napoleon, who for some days took up
his residence at Schoenbrunn.

The Emperor was engaged in so many projects at once that they could not
all succeed. Thus, while he was triumphant in the Hereditary States his
Continental system was experiencing severe checks. The trade with
England on the coast of Oldenburg was carped on as uninterruptedly as if
in time of peace. English letters and newspapers arrived on the
Continent, and those of the Continent found their way into Great Britain,
as if France and England had been united by ties of the firmest
friendship. In short, things were just in the same state as if the
decree for the blockade of the British Isles had not existed. When the
custom-house officers succeeded in seizing contraband goods they were
again taken from them by main force. On the 2d of July a serious contest
took place at Brinskham between the custom-house officers and a party of
peasantry, in which the latter remained masters of eighteen wagons laden
with English goods: many were wounded on both sides.

If, however, trade with England was carried on freely along a vast extent
of coast, it was different in the city of Hamburg, where English goods
were introduced only by fraud; and I verily believe that the art of
smuggling and the schemes of smugglers were never before carried to such
perfection. Above 6000 persons of the lower orders went backwards and
forwards, about twenty times a day, from Altona to Hamburg, and they
carried on their contraband, trade by many ingenious stratagems, two of
which were so curious that they are worth mentioning here.

On the left of the road leading from Hamburg to Altona there was a piece
of ground where pits were dug for the purpose of procuring sand used for
building and for laying down in the streets. At this time it was
proposed to repair the great street of Hamburg leading to the gate of
Altona. The smugglers overnight filled the sandpit with brown sugar, and
the little carts which usually conveyed the sand into Hamburg were filled
with the sugar, care being taken to cover it with a layer of sand about
an inch thick. This trick was carried on for a length of time, but no
progress was made in repairing the street. I complained greatly of the
delay, even before I was aware of its cause, for the street led to a
country-house I had near Altona, whither I went daily. The officers of
the customs at length perceived that the work did not proceed, and one
fine morning the sugar-carts were stopped and seized. Another expedient
was then to be devised.

Between Hamburg and Altona there was a little suburb situated on the
right bank of the Elbe. This suburb was inhabited, by sailors, labourers
of the port, and landowners. The inhabitants were interred in the
cemetery of Hamburg. It was observed that funeral processions passed
this way more frequently than usual. The customhouse officers, amazed at
the sudden mortality of the worthy inhabitants of the little suburb,
insisted on searching one of the vehicles, and on opening the hearse it
was found to be filled with sugar, coffee, vanilla, indigo, etc. It was
necessary to abandon this expedient, but others were soon discovered.

Bonaparte was sensitive, in an extraordinary degree, to all that was said
and thought of him, and Heaven knows how many despatches I received from
headquarters during the campaign of Vienna directing me not only to watch
the vigilant execution of the custom-house laws, but to lay an embargo on
a thing which alarmed him more than the introduction of British
merchandise, viz. the publication of news. In conformity with these
reiterated instructions I directed especial attention to the management
of the 'Correspondant'. The importance of this journal, with its 60,000
readers, may easily be perceived. I procured the insertion of everything
I thought desirable: all the bulletins, proclamations, acts of the French
Government, notes of the 'Moniteur', and the semi-official articles of
the French journals: these were all given 'in extenso'. On the other
hand, I often suppressed adverse news, which, though well known, would
have received additional weight from its insertion in so widely
circulated a paper. If by chance there crept in some Austrian bulletin,
extracted from the other German papers published in the States of the
Confederation of the Rhine, there was always given with it a suitable
antidote to destroy, or at least to mitigate, its ill effect. But this
was not all. The King of Wurtemberg having reproached the
'Correspondant', in a letter to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, with
publishing whatever Austria wished should be made known, and being
conducted in a spirit hostile to the good cause, I answered these unjust
reproaches by making the Syndic censor prohibit the Hamburg papers from
inserting any Austrian order of the day, any Archduke's bulletins, any
letter from Prague; in short, anything which should be copied from the
other German journals unless those articles had been inserted in the
French journals.

My recollections of the year 1809 at Hamburg carry me back to the
celebration of Napoleon's fete, which was on the 15th of August, for he
had interpolated his patron saint in the Imperial calendar at the date of
his birth. The coincidence of this festival with the Assumption gave
rise to adulatory rodomontades of the most absurd description. Certainly
the Episcopal circulars under the Empire would form a curious collection.

--[It will perhaps scarcely be believed that the following words
were actually delivered from the pulpit: "God in his mercy has
chosen Napoleon to be his representative on earth. The Queen of
Heaven has marked, by the most magnificent of presents, the
anniversary of the day which witnessed his glorious entrance into
her domains. Heavenly Virgin! as a special testimony of your love
for the French, and your all-powerful influence with your son, you
have connected the first of your solemnities with the birth of the
great Napoleon. Heaven ordained that the hero should spring from
your sepulchre."--Bourrienne.]--

Could anything be more revolting than the sycophancy of those Churchmen
who declared that "God chose Napoleon for his representative upon earth,
and that God created Bonaparte, and then rested; that he was more
fortunate than Augustus, more virtuous than Trajan; that he deserved
altars and temples to be raised to him!" etc.

Some time after the Festival of St. Napoleon the King of Westphalia made
a journey through his States. Of all Napoleon's brothers the King of
Westphalia was the one with whom I was least acquainted, and he, it is
pretty well known, was the most worthless of the family. His
correspondence with me is limited to two letters, one of which he wrote
while he commanded the 'Epervier', and another seven years after, dated
6th September 1809. In this latter he said:

"I shall be in Hannover on the 10th. If you can make it convenient
to come there and spend a day with me it will give me great
pleasure. I shall then be able to smooth all obstacles to the loan
I wish to contract in the Hanse Town. I flatter myself you will do
all in your power to forward that object, which at the present
crisis is very important to my States. More than ample security is
offered, but the money will be of no use to me if I cannot have it
at least for two years."

Jerome wanted to contract at Hamburg a loan of 3,000,000 francs.
However, the people did not seem to think like his Westphalian Majesty,
that the contract presented more than ample security. No one was found
willing to draw his purse-strings, and the loan was never raised.

Though I would not, without the Emperor's authority, exert the influence
of my situation to further the success of Jerome's negotiation, yet I did
my best to assist him. I succeeded in prevailing on the Senate to
advance one loan of 100,000 francs to pay a portion of the arrears due to
his troops, and a second of 200,000 francs to provide clothing for his
army, etc. This scanty supply will cease to be wondered at when it is
considered to what a state of desolation the whole of Germany was reduced
at the time, as much in the allied States as in those of the enemies of
France. I learnt at the time that the King of Bavaria said to an officer
of the Emperor's household in whom he had great confidence, "If this
continues we shall have to give up, and put the key under the door."
These were his very words.

As for Jerome, he returned to Cassel quite disheartened at the
unsuccessful issue of his loan. Some days after his return to his
capital I received from him a snuffbox with his portrait set in diamonds,
accompanied by a letter of thanks for the service I had rendered him.
I never imagined that a token of remembrance from a crowned head could
possibly be declined. Napoleon, however, thought otherwise. I had not,
it is true, written to acquaint our Government with the King of
Westphalia's loan, but in a letter, which I addressed to the Minister for
Foreign Affairs on the 22d of September, I mentioned the present Jerome
had sent me. Why Napoleon should have been offended at this I know not,
but I received orders to return Jerome's present immediately, and these
orders were accompanied with bitter reproaches for my having accepted it
without the Emperor's authority. I sent back the diamonds, but kept the
portrait. Knowing Bonaparte's distrustful disposition, I thought he must
have suspected that Jerome had employed threats, or at any rate, that he
had used some illegal influence to facilitate the success of his loan.
At last, after much correspondence, Napoleon saw clearly that everything
was perfectly regular; in a word, that the business had been transacted
as between two private persons. As to the 300,000 francs which the
Senate had lent to Jerome, the fact is, that but little scruple was made
about it, for this simple reason, that it was the means of removing from
Hamburg the Westphalian division, whose presence occasioned a much
greater expense than the loan.




CHAPTER XX.

1809.

Visit to the field of Wagram.--Marshal Macdonald--Union of the Papal
States with the Empire--The battle of Talavera--Sir Arthur
Wellesley--English expedition to Holland--Attempt to assassinate the
Emperor at Schoenbrunn--Staps Interrogated by Napoleon--Pardon
offered and rejected--Fanaticism and patriotism--Corvisart's
examination of Staps--Second interrogatory--Tirade against the
illuminati--Accusation of the Courts of Berlin and Weimar--Firmness
and resignation of Staps--Particulars respecting his death--
Influence of the attempt of Staps on the conclusion of peace--
M. de Champagny.

Napoleon went to inspect all the corps of his army and the field of
Wagram, which a short time before had been the scene of one of those
great battles in which victory was the more glorious in proportion as it
had been valiantly contested.

--[The great battle of Wagram was fought on the 6th of July 1809.
The Austrians, who committed a mistake in over-extending their line,
lost 20,000 men as prisoners, besides a large number in killed and
wounded. There was no day, perhaps, on which Napoleon showed more
military genius or more personal courage. He was in the hottest of
the fight, and for a long time exposed to showers of grapeshot.--
Editor of 1836 edition.]--