napoleon and robespierre—out of work—general-in-chief of the army of the interior
the favors granted napoleon for his services at toulon were extended to his family. madame bonaparte was helped by the municipality of marseilles. joseph was made commissioner of war. lucien was joined to the army of italy, and in the town where he was stationed became famous as a popular orator—“little robespierre,” they called him. he began, too, here to make love to his landlord’s daughter, christine boyer, afterwards his wife.
the outlook for the refugees seemed very good, and it was made still brighter by the very particular friendship of the younger robespierre for napoleon. this friendship was soon increased by the part napoleon played in a campaign of a month with the army of italy, when, largely by his genius, the seaboard from nice to genoa was put into french power. if this victory was much for the army and for robespierre, it was more for napoleon. he looked from the tende, and saw for the first time that in italy there was “a land for a conqueror.” robespierre wrote to his brother, the real head of the government at the moment, that napoleon possessed “transcendent merit.” he engaged him to draw up a plan for a campaign against piedmont, and sent him on a secret mission to genoa. the relations between the two young men were, in fact, very close, and, considering the position of robespierre the elder, the outlook for bonaparte was good.
44that bonaparte admired the powers of the elder robespierre, is unquestionable. he was sure that if he had “remained in power, he would have re?stablished order and law; the result would have been attained without any shocks, because it would have come through the quiet exercise of power.” nevertheless, it is certain that the young general was unwilling to come into close contact with the terrorist leader, as his refusal of an offer to go to paris to take the command of the garrison of the city shows. no doubt his refusal was partly due to his ambition—he thought the opening better where he was—and partly due, too, to his dislike of the excesses which the government was practising. that he never favored the policy of the terrorists, all those who knew him testify, and there are many stories of his efforts at this time to save émigrés and suspects from the violence of the rabid patriots; even to save the english imprisoned at toulon. he always remembered robespierre the younger with kindness, and when he was in power gave charlotte robespierre a pension.
things had begun to go well for bonaparte. his poverty passed. if his plan for an italian campaign succeeded, he might even aspire to the command of the army. his brothers received good positions. joseph was betrothed to julie clary, and life went gayly at nice and marseilles, where napoleon had about him many of his friends—robespierre and his sister; his own two pretty sisters; marmont, and junot, who was deeply in love with pauline. suddenly all this hope and happiness were shattered. on the 9th thermidor robespierre fell, and all who had favored him were suspected, napoleon among the rest. his secret mission to genoa gave a pretext for his arrest, and for thirteen days, in august, 1794, he was a prisoner, but through his friends was liberated. soon after his release, came an appointment to join an expedition against corsica. he set 45out, but the undertaking was a failure, and the spring found him again without a place.
in april, 1795, napoleon received orders to join the army of the west. when he reached paris he found that it was the infantry to which he was assigned. such a change was considered a disgrace in the army. he refused to go. “a great many officers could command a brigade better than i could,” he wrote a friend, “but few could command the artillery so well. i retire, satisfied that the injustice done to the service will be sufficiently felt by those who know how to appreciate matters.” but though he might call himself “satisfied,” his retirement was a most serious affair for him. it was the collapse of what seemed to be a career, the shutting of the gate he had worked so fiercely to open.
he must begin again, and he did not see how. a sort of despair settled over him. “he declaimed against fate,” says the duchess d’abrantès. “i was idle and discontented,” he says of himself. he went to the theatre and sat sullen and inattentive through the gayest of plays. “he had moments of fierce hilarity,” says bourrienne.
a pathetic distaste of effort came over him at times; he wanted to settle. “if i could have that house,” he said one day to bourrienne, pointing to an empty house near by, “with my friends and a cabriolet, i should be the happiest of men.” he clung to his friends with a sort of desperation, and his letters to joseph are touching in the extreme.
46
napoleon in prison.
after a lithograph by motte. bonaparte, master of toulon, had already attained fame when the events of thermidor imposed a sudden check on his career. his relations with the younger robespierre laid him open to suspicion; he was suspended from his functions and put under arrest by the deputies of the convention.
47love as well as failure caused his melancholy. all about him, indeed, turned thoughts to marriage. joseph was now married, and his happiness made him envious. “what a lucky rascal joseph is!” he said. junot, madly in love with pauline, was with him. the two young men wandered through the alleys of the jardin des plantes and discussed junot’s passion. in listening to his friend, napoleon thought of himself. he had been attracted by désirée clary, joseph’s sister-in-law. why not try to win her? and he began to demand news of her from joseph. désirée had asked for his portrait, and he wrote: “i shall have it taken for her; you must give it to her, if she still wants it; if not, keep it yourself.” he was melancholy when he did not have news of her, accused joseph of purposely omitting her name from his letters, and désirée herself of forgetting him. at last he consulted joseph: “if i remain here, it is just possible that i might feel inclined to commit the folly of marrying. i should be glad of a line from you on the subject. you might perhaps speak to eugénie’s [désirée’s] brother, and let me know what he says, and then it will be settled.” he waited the answer to his overtures “with impatience”; urged his brother to arrange things so that nothing “may prevent that which i long for.” but désirée was obdurate. later she married bernadotte and became queen of sweden.
yet in these varying moods he was never idle. as three years before, he and bourrienne indulged in financial speculations; he tried to persuade joseph to invest his wife’s dot in the property of the émigrés. he prepared memorials on the political disorders of the times and on military questions, and he pushed his brothers as if he had no personal ambition. he did not neglect to make friends either. the most important of those whom he cultivated was paul barras, revolutionist, conventionalist, member of the directory, and one of the most influential men in paris at that moment. he had known napoleon at toulon, and showed himself disposed to be friendly. “i attached myself to barras,” said napoleon later, “because i knew no one else. robespierre was dead; barras was playing a r?le: i had to attach myself to somebody and something.” one of his plans for himself was to go to turkey. for two or three years, in fact, napoleon had thought of the orient as a possible field for his genius, and his mother had often worried lest he should go. 48just now it happened that the sultan of turkey asked the french for aid in reorganizing his artillery and perfecting the defences of his forts, and napoleon asked to be allowed to undertake the work. while pushing all his plans with extraordinary enthusiasm, even writing joseph almost daily letters about what he would do for him when he was settled in the orient, he was called to do a piece of work which was to be of importance in his future.
the war committee needed plans for an italian campaign; the head of the committee was in great perplexity. nobody knew anything about the condition of things in the south. by chance, one day, one of napoleon’s acquaintances heard of the difficulties and recommended the young general. the memorial he prepared was so excellent that he was invited into the topographical bureau of the committee of public safety. his knowledge, sense, energy, fire, were so remarkable that he made strong friends and became an important personage.
such was the impression he made, that when in october, 1795, the government was threatened by the revolting sections, barras, the nominal head of the defence, asked napoleon to command the forces which protected the tuileries, where the convention had gone into permanent session. he hesitated for a moment. he had much sympathy for the sections. his sagacity conquered. the convention stood for the republic; an overthrow now meant another proscription, more of the terror, perhaps a royalist succession, an english invasion.
“i accept,” he said to barras; “but i warn you that once my sword is out of the scabbard i shall not replace it till i have established order.”
it was on the night of 12th vendémiaire that napoleon was appointed. with incredible rapidity he massed the men and cannon he could secure at the openings into the palace 49and at the points of approach. he armed even the members of the convention as a reserve. when the sections marched their men into the streets and upon the bridges leading to the tuileries, they were met by a fire which scattered them at once. that night paris was quiet. the next day napoleon was made general of division. on october 26th he was appointed general-in-chief of the army of the interior.
at last the opportunity he had sought so long and so eagerly had come. it was a proud position for a young man of twenty-six, and one may well stop and ask how he had obtained it. the answer is not difficult for one who, dismissing the prejudices and superstitions which have long enveloped his name, studies his story as he would that of an unknown individual. he had won his place as any poor and ambitious boy in any country and in any age must win his—by hard work, by grasping at every opportunity, by constant self-denial, by courage in every failure, by springing to his feet after every fall.
he succeeded because he knew every detail of his business (“there is nothing i cannot do for myself. if there is no one to make powder for the cannon i can do it”); because neither ridicule nor coldness nor even the black discouragement which made him write once to joseph, “if this state of things continues i shall end by not turning out of my path when a carriage passes,” could stop him; because he had profound faith in himself. “do these people imagine that i want their help to rise? they will be too glad some day to accept mine. my sword is at my side, and i will go far with it.” that he had misrepresented conditions more than once to secure favor, is true; but in doing this he had done simply what he saw done all about him, what he had learned from his father, what the oblique morality of the day justified. that he had shifted opinions and allegiance, is equally true; but he who in the french revolution did not shift opinion was he who regarded “not what is, but what might be.” certainly in no respect had he been worse than his environment, and in many respects he had been far above it. he had struggled for place, not that he might have ease, but that he might have an opportunity for action; not that he might amuse himself, but that he might achieve glory. nor did he seek honors merely for himself; it was that he might share them with others.
50
pen portrait of bonaparte in profile.
by gros. this drawing, which i discovered among the portfolios of the louvre, is one of the most precious documents of napoleonic portraiture. it was the gift of monsieur delestre, the pupil and biographer of gros. in this clear profile we see already all that characteristic expression sought for by gros above everything, and superbly rendered by him soon after in the portrait of bonaparte at arcola. i imagine that this pen sketch was preparatory to a finished portrait.—a. d.
51the first use bonaparte made of his power after he was appointed general-in-chief of the army of the interior, was for his family and friends. fifty or sixty thousand francs, assignats, and dresses go to his mother and sisters; joseph is to have a consulship; “a roof, a table, and carriage” are at his disposal in paris; louis is made a lieutenant and his aide-de-camp; lucien, commissioner of war; junot and marmont are put on his staff. he forgets nobody. the very day after the 13th vendémiaire, when his cares and excitements were numerous and intense, he was at the permons, where monsieur permon had just died. “he was like a son, a brother.” this relation he soon tried to change, seeking to marry the beautiful widow permon. when she laughed merrily at the idea, for she was many years his senior, he replied that the age of his wife was a matter of indifference to him so long as she did not look over thirty.
the change in bonaparte himself was great. up to this time he had gone about paris “in an awkward and ungainly manner, with a shabby round hat thrust down over his eyes, and with curls (known at that time as oreilles des chiens) badly powdered and badly combed, and falling over the collar of the iron-gray coat which has since become so celebrated; his hands, long, thin, and black, without gloves, because, he said, they were an unnecessary expense; wearing ill-made and ill-cleaned boots.” the majority of people saw in him only what monsieur de pontécoulant, who took 52him into the war office, had seen at their first interview; “a young man with a wan and livid complexion, bowed shoulders, and a weak and sickly appearance.”
but now, installed in an elegant h?tel, driving his own carriage, careful of his person, received in every salon where he cared to go, the young general-in-chief is a changed man. success has had much to do with this; love has perhaps had more.