The Private Life of Napoleon Bonaparte, Complete

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RECOLLECTIONS OF THE PRIVATE LIFE OF NAPOLEON, Complete

By CONSTANT

PREMIER VALET DE CHAMBRE

TRANSLATED BY WALTER CLARK

1895




PREFACE.

Though this work was first published in 1830, it has never before been
translated into English. Indeed, the volumes are almost out of print.
When in Paris a few years ago the writer secured, with much difficulty,
a copy, from which this translation has been made. Notes have been added
by the translator, and illustrations by the publishers, which, it is
believed, will enhance the interest of the original work by Constant.

"To paint Caesar in undress is not to paint Caesar," some one has said.
Yet men will always like to see the great 'en deshabille'. In these
volumes the hero is painted in undress. His foibles, his peculiarities,
his vices, are here depicted without reserve. But so also are his
kindness of heart, his vast intellect, his knowledge of men, his
extraordinary energy, his public spirit. The shutters are taken down,
and the workings of the mighty machinery are laid bare.

The late Prince Napoleon (who was more truly "the nephew of his uncle"
than was Napoleon III.), in his Napoleon and His Detractors, bitterly
assails this work of Constants attacking both its authenticity and the
correctness of its statements. But there appears no good reason to doubt
its genuineness, and the truthfulness of many of its details is amply
supported by other authorities. Notwithstanding its excesses and
follies, the great French Revolution will ever have an absorbing interest
for mankind, because it began as a struggle for the advancement of the
cause of manhood, liberty, and equal rights. It was a terribly earnest
movement; and, after the lapse of a century, interest continues unabated
in the great soldier who restored order, and organized and preserved the
new ideas by means of his Civil Code and a firm government.

Countless memoirs have been published by those who lived in those heroic
times. Yet everything which will cast new light upon the chief actors in
that great drama of humanity is still seized upon with avidity,
especially whatever concerns the Emperor.

This is not merely because he was a great conqueror; for such were, after
their fashion, Genghis Khan and Timour, and hundreds of others. But it
is because of the human interest which attaches to the wonderful career
of Napoleon and the events of which he was the central figure.

Never did poet or novelist imagine scenes so improbable. The son of an
obscure lawyer in an unimportant island becomes Emperor of the French and
King of Italy. His brothers and sisters become kings and queens. The
sons of innkeepers, notaries; lawyers, and peasants become marshals of
the empire. The Emperor, first making a West India Creole his wife and
Empress, puts her away, and marries a daughter of the haughtiest and
oldest royal house in Europe, the niece of a queen whom the people of
France had beheaded a few years before. Their son is born a king--King
of Rome. Then suddenly the pageantry dissolves, and Emperor, kings, and
queens become subjects again. Has imagination ever dreamed anything
wilder than this? The dramatic interest of this story will always
attract, but there is a deeper one. The secret spring of all those rapid
changes, and the real cause of the great interest humanity will always
feel in the story of those eventful times, is to be found in Napoleon's
own explanation--"A career open to talents, without distinction of
birth." Till that day the accident of birth was the key to every honor
and every position. No man could hold even a lieutenancy in the army who
could not show four quarterings on his coat of arms.

It was as the "armed apostle of democracy" that Napoleon went forth
conquering and to conquer. He declared at St. Helena that he "had always
marched supported by the opinions of six millions of men."

The old woman who met him incognito climbing the hill of Tarare, and
replying to his assertion that "Napoleon was only a tyrant like the
rest," exclaimed, "It may be so, but the others are the kings of the
nobility, while he is one of us, and we have chosen him ourselves,"
expressed a great truth. As long as Napoleon represented popular
sovereignty he was invincible; but when, deeming himself strong enough to
stand alone, he endeavored to conciliate the old order of things, and,
divorcing the daughter of the people, took for a bride the daughter of
kings and allied himself with them--at that moment, like another Samson,
"his strength departed from him." Disasters came as they had come to him
before, but this time the heart of the people was no longer with him. He
fell.

This man has been studied as a soldier, a statesman, an organizer, a
politician. In all he was undeniably great. But men will always like to
know something about him as a man. Can he stand that ordeal? These
volumes will answer that question. They are written by one who joined
the First Consul at the Hospice on Mt. St. Bernard, on his way to
Marengo, in June, 1800, and who was with him as his chief personal
attendant, day and night, never leaving him "any more than his shadow"
(eight days only) excepted until that eventful day, fourteen years later,
when, laying aside the sceptre of the greatest empire the world had known
for seventeen centuries, he walked down the horseshoe steps at
Fontainebleau in the presence of the soldiers whom he had led to victory
from Madrid to Moscow, once more a private citizen.

That men of Anglo-Saxon speech may have an opportunity to see and judge
the Emperor from "close at hand," and view him as he appeared in the eyes
of his personal attendants, these volumes have been translated, and are
now submitted to the public. Though the remark of Frederick the Great
that "No man is a hero to his valet" is not altogether borne out in this
instance, still it will be seen that there is here nothing of that
"divinity which doth hedge a king." In these volumes Napoleon appears as
a man, a very great man, still a mere man, not, a demigod. Their perusal
will doubtless lead to a truer conception of his character, as manifested
both in his good and in his evil traits. The former were natural to him;
the latter were often produced by the exceptional circumstances which
surrounded him, and the extraordinary temptations to which he was
subjected.

Certainly a truer and fuller light is cast by these volumes, upon the
colossal figure which will always remain one of the most interesting
studies in all human history.

THE TRANSLATOR.




INTRODUCTION.

By Constant.

The career of a man compelled to make his own way, who is not an artisan
or in some trade, does not usually begin till he is about twenty years of
age. Till then he vegetates, uncertain of his future, neither having,
nor being able to have, any well-defined purpose. It is only when he has
arrived at the full development of his powers, and his character and bent
of mind are shown, that he can determine his profession or calling. Not
till then does he know himself, and see his way open before him. In
fact, it is only then that he begins to live.

Reasoning in this manner, my life from my twentieth year has been thirty
years, which can be divided into equal parts, so far as days and months
are counted, but very unequal parts, considering the events which
transpired in each of those two periods of my life.

Attached to the person of the Emperor Napoleon for fifteen years, I have
seen all the men, and witnessed all the important events, which centered
around him. I have seen far more than that; for I have had under my eyes
all the circumstances of his life, the least as well as the greatest, the
most secret as well as those which are known to history,--I have had, I
repeat, incessantly under my eyes the man whose name, solitary and alone,
fills the most glorious pages of our history. Fifteen years I followed
him in his travels and his campaigns, was at his court, and saw him in
the privacy of his family. Whatever step he wished to take, whatever
order he gave, it was necessarily very difficult for the Emperor not to
admit me, even though involuntarily, into his confidence; so that without
desiring it, I have more than once found myself in the possession of
secrets I should have preferred not to know. What wonderful things
happened during those fifteen years! Those near the Emperor lived as if
in the center of a whirlwind; and so quick was the succession of
overwhelming events, that one felt dazed, as it were, and if he wished to
pause and fix his attention for a moment, there instantly came, like
another flood, a succession of events which carried him along with them
without giving him time to fix his thoughts.

Succeeding these times of activity which made one's brain whirl, there
came to me the most absolute repose in an isolated retreat where I passed
another interval of fifteen years after leaving the Emperor. But what a
contrast! To those who have lived, like myself, amid the conquests and
wonders of the Empire, what is left to-day? If the strength of our
manhood was passed amid the bustle of years so short, yet so fully
occupied, our careers were sufficiently long and fruitful, and it is time
to give ourselves up to repose. We can withdraw from the world, and
close our eyes. Can it be possible to see anything equal to what we have
seen? Such scenes do not come twice in the lifetime of any man; and
having seen them, they suffice to occupy his memory through all his
remaining years, and in retirement he can find nothing better to occupy
his leisure moments than the recollections of what he has witnessed.

Thus it has been with me. The reader will readily believe that I have
had no greater pleasure than that of recalling the memories of the years
passed in the service of the Emperor. As far as possible, I have kept
myself informed as to everything that has been written of my former
master, his family, and his court; and while listening to these
narrations read by my wife and sister at our fireside, the long evenings
have passed like an instant! When I found in these books, some of which
are truly only miserable rhapsodies, statements which were incorrect,
false, or slanderous, I, took pleasure in correcting such statements, or
in showing their absurdity. My wife, who lived, as I did, in the midst
of these events, also made her corrections, and, without other object
than our own satisfaction, made notes of our joint observations.

All who came to see us in our retreat, and took pleasure in having me
narrate what I had seen, were astonished and often indignant at the
falsehoods with which ignorance or malevolence had calumniated the
Emperor and the Empire, and expressing their gratitude for the correct
information I was able to give them, advised me also to furnish it to the
public. But I attached no importance to the suggestion, and was far from
dreaming that some day I should be the author of a book, until M.
Ladvocat came to our hermitage, and urged me earnestly to publish my
memoirs, offering himself to become the publisher.

At the very time my wife and I received this unexpected visit, we were
reading together the Memoirs of Bourrienne, which the Ladvocat
publishing-house had just issued; and we had remarked more than once how
exempt these Memoirs were from both that spirit of disparagement and of
adulation which we had noticed with disgust in other books on the same
subject. M. Ladvocat advised me to complete the sketch of the Emperor,
which, owing to his elevated position and habitual occupations,
Bourrienne had been able to make only from a political point of view; and
in accordance with his advice, I shall relate in simple words, and in a
manner suited to my relations with the Emperor, those things which
Bourrienne has necessarily omitted, and which no one could know so well
as I.

I candidly admit that my objections to M. Ladvocat's advice were entirely
overcome when he called my attention to this passage in the introduction
to Bourrienne's memoirs: "If every one who had any relations with
Napoleon, whatever the time and place, will accurately and without
prejudice record what he saw and heard, the future historian of his life
will be rich in materials. I hope that whoever undertakes that difficult
task will find in my notes some information which may be useful in
perfecting his work."

Having re-read these lines attentively, I said to myself that I could
furnish memoranda and information which would refute errors, brand
falsehoods, and bring to light what I knew to be the truth. In a word, I
felt that I could give in my testimony, and that it was my duty to do so,
in the long trial which has been held ever since the overthrow of the
Emperor; for I had been an eye-witness, had seen everything, and could
say, "I was there." Others also have been close to the Emperor and his
court, and I may often repeat what they have said, for the feats which
they describe I had the same opportunity of witnessing; but, on the other
hand, whatever I know of private matters, and whatever I may reveal which
was secret and unknown, no one till this time could possibly have known,
or consequently have related.

From the departure of the First Consul for the campaign of Marengo,
whither I went with him, until the departure from Fontainebleau, when I
was compelled to leave him, I was absent only twice, once for three days
and once for seven or eight days. Excepting these short leaves of
absence, the latter of which was on account of my health, I quitted the
Emperor no more than his shadow.

It has been said that no one is a hero to his valet de chambre. I beg
leave to dissent from this. The Emperor, as near as I was to him, was
always a hero; and it was a great advantage also to see the man as he
was. At a distance you were sensible only of the prestige of his glory
and his power; but on getting closer to him you enjoyed, besides, the
surprising charm of his conversation, the entire simplicity of his family
life, and I do not hesitate to say, the habitual kindliness of his
character.

The reader, if curious to learn beforehand in what spirit these Memoirs
are written, will perhaps read with interest this passage of a letter
that I wrote to my publisher:

"Bourrienne had, perhaps, reason for treating Napoleon, as a public
man, with severity. But we view him from different standpoints, and
I speak only of the hero in undress. He was then almost always
kind, patient, and rarely unjust. He was much attached to those
about him, and received with kindness and good nature the services
of those whom he liked. He was a man of habit. It is as a devoted
servant that I wish to speak of the Emperor, and in no wise as a
critic. It is not, however, an apotheosis in several volumes that I
wish to write: for I am on this point somewhat like fathers who
recognize the faults of their children, and reprove them earnestly,
while at the same time they are ready to make excuses for their
errors."

I trust that I shall be pardoned the familiarity, or, if you will, the
inappropriateness of this comparison, for the sake of the feeling which
dictates it. Besides, I do not propose either to praise or blame, but
simply to relate that which fell within my knowledge, without trying to
prejudice the opinion of any one.

I cannot close this introduction without a few words as to myself, in
reply to the calumnies which have not spared, even in his retirement, a
man who should have no enemies, if, to be protected from malice, it were
sufficient to have done a little good, and no harm to any one. I am
reproached with having abandoned my master after his fall, and not having
shared his exile. I will show that, if I did not follow the Emperor, it
was because I lacked not the will but the power to do so. God knows that
I do not wish to undervalue the devotion of the faithful servants who
followed the fortunes of the Emperor to the end. However, it is not
improper to say that, however terrible the fall of the Emperor was for
him, the situation (I speak here only of the personal advantages), in the
island of Elba, of those who remained in his service, and who were not
detained in France by an inexorable necessity, was still not without its
advantages; and it was not, therefore, my personal interests which caused
me to leave him. I shall explain hereafter my reasons for quitting his
service.

I shall also give the truth as to the alleged abuse of confidence, of
which, according to others, I was guilty in respect to the Emperor.
A simple statement of the mistake which gave rise to this falsehood,
I trust, will clear me of every suspicion of indelicacy; but if it is
necessary to add other proofs, I could obtain them from those who lived
nearest to the Emperor, and who were in a condition to both know and
understand what passed between us; and lastly, I invoke fifty years of a
blameless life, and I can say: "When I was in a situation to render great
services, I did so; but I never sold them. I could have derived
advantages from the petitions that I made for people, who, in consequence
of my solicitations, have acquired immense fortunes; but I refused even
the proper acknowledgment which in, their gratitude (very deep at that
time) they felt compelled to offer me, by proposing an interest in their
enterprises. I did not seek to take advantage, for my own benefit, of
the generosity with which the Emperor so long deigned to honor me, in
order to enrich or secure places for my relatives; and I retired poor
after fifteen years passed in the personal service of the richest and
most powerful monarch of Europe."

Having made these statements, I shall await with confidence the judgment
of my readers.




RECOLLECTIONS OF THE PRIVATE LIFE OF NAPOLEON

CHAPTER I.

I shall refer to myself very little in these memoirs, for I am aware the
public will examine them only for details concerning the great man to
whom fortune attached me for sixteen years, and whom I scarcely quitted
during the whole of that time. Notwithstanding, I ask permission to say
a few words as to my childhood, and the circumstances which made me valet
de chambre of the Emperor.

I was born Dec. 2, 1778, at Peruelz, a town which became French on the
annexation of Belgium to the Republic, and which then belonged to the
Department of Jemmapes. Soon after my birth at the baths of Saint Amand,
my father took charge of a small establishment called the Little Chateau,
at which visitors to the waters were boarding, being aided in this
enterprise by the Prince de Croi, in whose house he had been steward.
Business prospered beyond my father's hopes, for a great number of
invalids of rank came to his house. When I attained my eleventh year,
the Count de Lure, head of one of the chief families of Valenciennes,
happened to be one of the boarders at the Little Chateau; and as that
excellent man had taken a great fancy to me, he asked my parents
permission that I should become a companion to his son, who was about.
the same age. My family had intended me for the church, to gratify one
of my uncles, who was Dean of Lessine, a man of great wisdom and rigid
virtue; and thinking that the offer of the Count de Lure would not affect
my intended destination, my father accepted it, judging that some years
passed in a family so distinguished would give me a taste for the more
serious studies necessary to fit me for the priesthood. I set out,
therefore, with the Count de Lure, much grieved at leaving my parents,
but pleased also at the same time, as is usual with one at my age, with
new scenes. The count took me to one of his estates near Tours, where I
was received with the greatest kindness by the countess and her children,
with whom I was placed on a footing of perfect equality.

Unfortunately I did not profit very long by the kindness of the count and
the lessons. I was taught at his house, for hardly a year had passed at
the chateau when we learned of the arrest of the king at Varennes. The
count and his family were in despair; and child as I was, I remember that
I was deeply pained at the news, without knowing why, but doubtless
because it is natural to share the sentiments of those with whom you
live, when they treat you with as much kindness as the count and countess
had treated me. However, I continued to enjoy the happy freedom from
care natural to youth, till one morning I was awakened by a loud noise,
and was immediately surrounded by a great number of people, none of whom
I knew, and who asked me countless questions which I could not answer.
I then learned that the count and his family had emigrated. I was
carried to the town hall, where the same questions were renewed, with the
same fruitless result; for I knew nothing of the intentions of my late
protectors, and could only reply by a flood of tears when I saw myself
abandoned and left to my own resources, at a great distance from my
family.

I was too young then to reflect on the conduct of the count; but I have
since thought that his abandonment of me was an act of delicacy on his
part, as he did not wish to make me an emigre without the consent of my
parents. I have always believed that, before his departure, the count
had committed me to the care of some one, who subsequently did not dare
to claim me, lest he should compromise himself, which was then, as is
well known, exceedingly dangerous. Behold me, then, at twelve years of
age, left without a guide, without means of support, without any one to
advise me, and without money, more than a hundred leagues from my home,
and already accustomed to the comforts of a luxurious life. It is hardly
credible that in this state of affairs I was regarded almost as a
suspect, and was required each day to present myself before the city
authorities for the greater safety of the Republic. I remember well that
whenever the Emperor was pleased to make me relate these tribulations of
my childhood, he never failed to repeat several times, "the fools,"
referring to these same city authorities. However that may be, the
authorities of Tours, coming to the conclusion, at last, that a child of
twelve was incapable of overthrowing the Republic, gave me a passport,
with the injunction to leave the city within twenty-four hours, which I
proceeded to do with a hearty good-will, but not without deep grief also
at seeing myself alone, and on foot, with a long journey before me.
After much privation and many hardships I arrived at last in the
neighborhood of Saint-Amand, which I found in the possession of the
Austrians, and that it was impossible for me to reach the town, as the
French surrounded it. In my despair I seated myself on the side of a
ditch and was weeping bitterly, when I was noticed by the chief of
squadron, Michau,

[I afterwards had the happiness of obtaining for him, from the
Emperor, a position he wished, as a place of retirement, having lost
the use of his right arm.--CONSTANT.]

who afterwards became colonel and aide-de-camp to General Loison. Michau
approached me, questioned me with great interest, and made me relate my
sad adventures, which touched him deeply, while he did not conceal his
inability to send me back to my family. He had just obtained leave of
absence, which he was going to spend with his family at Chinon, and
proposed to me to accompany him, which invitation I accepted with
gratitude. I cannot say too much of the kindness and consideration shown
me by his household during the three or four months I spent with them.
At the end of that time he took me to Paris, where I was soon after
placed in the house of M. Gobert, a rich merchant, who treated me with
the greatest, kindness.

I lately visited M. Gobert; and he recalled to me that, when we traveled
together, he gave up to me one of the seats of his carriage, upon which I
was permitted to stretch myself out and sleep. I mention this
circumstance, otherwise unimportant, to show the kindness he always
showed me.

Some years later I made the acquaintance of Carrat, who was in the
service of Madame Bonaparte while the general was absent on the Egyptian
expedition. Before relating how I came to enter her household, it is
proper to mention how Carrat himself came into her service, and at the
same time narrate some anecdotes in regard to him, which will show what
were the pastimes of the inhabitants of Malmaison at that date.

Carrat happened to be at Plombieres when Madame Bonaparte

[Madame Bonaparte, nee Marie Joseph Rose Tascher de la Pagerie,
was born in Martinique, 1763; became the widow of Viscount Alexander
de Beauharnais, 1794; married Napoleon Bonaparte March, 1796; became
Empress May 18, 1804; was divorced Dec. 16, 1809; died at Malmaison,
May 20, 1814.--TRANS.]

went there to take the waters. Every day he brought her bouquets, and
addressed to her little complimentary speeches, so singular and so droll,
that Josephine was much diverted, as were also the ladies who accompanied
her, among whom were Mesdames de Cambis and de Criguy, and especially
her own daughter Hortense, who was convulsed at his oddities. The truth
is, he was exceedingly amusing, by reason of a certain simplicity and
originality of character, which, however, did not prevent him from being
a person of intelligence; and his eccentricities did not displease Madame
Bonaparte. A sentimental scene took place when this excellent lady left
the springs. Carrat wept, bemoaned himself, and expressed his lasting
grief at not being able to see Madame Bonaparte daily, as he had been
accustomed; and Madame Bonaparte was so kind-hearted that she at once
decided to carry him to Paris with her. She taught him to dress hair,
and finally appointed him her hair-dresser and valet, at least such were
the duties he had to perform when I made his acquaintance. He was
permitted a most astonishing freedom of speech, sometimes even scolding
her; and when Madame Bonaparte, who was extremely generous and always
gracious towards every one, made presents to her women, or chatted
familiarly with them, Carrat would reproach her. "Why give that?" he
would say, adding, "See how you do, Madame; you allow yourself to jest
with your domestics. Some day they will show you a want of respect."
But if he thus endeavored to restrain the generosity of his mistress
towards those around her, he did not hesitate to stimulate her generosity
towards himself; and whenever he took a fancy to anything, would simply
say, "You ought to give me that."