Napoleon

by Emil Ludwig

  What really cuts him to the heart is that the man who has been his close companion for so many years should now let long-hidden truths peep out. He has had an argument with Bertrand, who says : " It would have been the happiest day in my life if, after the deposition of the king, the Convention had raised the duke of Orleans to the throne." The Emperor makes no immediate rejoinder, but afterwards says bitterly: " Bertrand,

  Last Will and Testament

  who owes everything to me, whom I made one of the grand officers of my empire ! "

  As his strength wanes, he looks round for something to lean on, and, for the first time in his life, he appeals to his relatives for help. Pauline is the dearest of them. Dictating a letter to her in the third person, he gives a bulletin of his condition, and ends as follows : " The Emperor earnestly hopes that Your Highness will acquaint influential Englishmen with his situation. He is dying on this dreadful rock, forsaken by all. His death struggle is terrible."

  In the middle of April, three weeks before the end, behind locked doors, he dictates his will to Montholon. Then the amanuensis has to redictate the document to the Emperor, for it must be in his own handwriting, that it may be above suspicion. The Emperor sits writing for five hours, in a cold sweat. The testament is characterised alike by statesmanlike greatness and by human feelings; it represents, as it were, a survey of his whole life.

  XVIII

  He begins his testament by declaring that he dies in the apostolical and Roman religion, in the bosom of which he was born,—the faith which he re-established in France, which he always protected, although, in his innermost soul, he never accepted its teachings. Then his thoughts turn to the glory of a hero's grave, and, with a turn of phrase which shows that he regards himself as a Frenchman by choice rather than by birth, he writes : " It is my wish that my ashes shall be laid to rest on the bank of the Seine, in the midst of the French people, which I have loved so well."

  Next come thoughts of his son, upon whom are lavished all the hopes a man can entertain concerning what will happen after his own death, and for whom he wishes to concentrate such rights as he may possess, such treasures as he may own, and

  Preamble

  such teachings as he may utter. He tells his " beloved wife " that he retains for her the most tender sentiments, and beseeches her to watch over their son, since the lad is being brought up as an Austrian prince. She is never to forget that the young Napoleon was born a Frenchman. She must never allow the boy to become a tool in the hands of the triumvirs who oppress the peoples of Europe—among whom the greatest oppressor is the child's own grandfather.

  Then comes a last thrust at the enemy : " I am dying before my time, murdered by the English oligarchy and its hired assassins." But, in the challenging tone of a tribune, he adds : "The English people will not be slow to avenge me." He closes this part of his will by declaring that he had been defeated " through the treachery of Marmont, Augereau, Talleyrand, and Lafayette." Though he adds, " I forgive them," behind this mask of Christian charity the warrior's steel glitters in the words : "May the France that is yet unborn forgive them as I do."

  Now, quite in the patrician style, he thanks his beloved mother and his brothers and sisters for the interest they have continued to feel in him. " I pardon Louis for the libel he published in 1820 : it is full of false assertions and falsified documents." Then come the actual bequests.

  The main substance of what he has to leave consists of his savings out of the civil list during fourteen years, together with all the furniture, plate, etc., he had himself bought for his palaces ; and also his Italian property. He estimates it as amounting to more than frs. 200,000,000, and points out that, as far as he is aware, no law has deprived him of it. Half of it is bequeathed to the surviving officers and men who had fought in the glorious campaigns from 1792 to 1815, in sums proportional to their rates of pay on active service ; the other half is to go to the provincial towns and communes that had suffered in the two invasions. His aim, in these provisions, is to put the Bourbon government in the wrong for laying an

  Ninety-Seven Legatees

  embargo, at the time of his abdication, upon all his money and securities. These clauses in his will are to promote a Napoleonic sentiment among soldiers and civilians alike ; his secret hope being that his testament will exercise an influence in favour of his dynasty, like Csesar's will when disclosed to the Roman populace by Mark Antony.

  Now comes legacies to ninety-seven specified individuals. The list was drawn up in the course of ten days. " His mind is continually at work discovering new objects for his liberality; day after day he recalls the names of additional old servants whom he wants to remember in his will." The bequests are to come from a special property of frs. 20,000,000, of whose ownership he feels more secure than of the great imperial treasure. Frs. 6,000,000 had been deposited in hard cash on leaving Paris in 1815.

  Who are the legatees ?

  Montholon is to have frs. 2,000,000 ; Bertrand and the valet Marchand, about half a million each. The valet is the only one whom Napoleon honours with the name of friend, and he adds : " It is my wish that he should marry the widow, sister, or daughter of an officer of my old guard." Marchand, Bertrand, and Montholon are to be the executors, and all three of them have to affix their seals to each page of the will. Thus the last document penned by Napoleon's hand bears four seals : the Emperor's eagle volant, the arms of the two counts of the old noblesse, and the plain monogram of the man of the people in whom the Emperor showed supreme confidence by appointing him one of his executors. " The services he has rendered me are those of a friend."

  Every one of the servants on St. Helena receives a competence ; so do the three surgeons Larrey, Percy, and Emmery. Of Larrey, Napoleon adds : " He is the most virtuous man I have ever known." Similar large sums, frs. 100,000 in most instances, are left to various generals who had been closely associated with him, to his secretaries, to two authors, the Elba

  Family Bequests

  guards, and the children of generals killed in battle. The stablemen, the valets, the orderly officers, the huntsmen, a house-porter, a librarian, the children or grandchildren of old family friends in Corsica; the children or grandchildren of his nurse (if in need, despite previous benefactions); the children or grandchildren of his sometime tutor in Auxonne ; those of the general in command at Toulon under whom he had had his first experience of active service; those of the deputy who had helped him to get his plans put in force against Toulon ; those of Muiron, " our aide-de-camp, killed at our side at Areola, covering us with his body "—all are remembered. The next item to the Muiron bequest is a legacy " to the subaltern officer Cantillon," who had been acquitted of the charge of attempting to assassinate Wellington. " Cantillon had as much right to assassinate that oligarch, as the latter had to send me to perish upon the rock of St. Helena. Wellington, who proposed this outrage, attempted to justify himself by pleading the interest of Great Britain. Cantillon, if he had really assassinated that lord, would have excused himself, and have been justified, by the same motives, the interest of France."

  This revolutionary outcry about Cantillon concludes the list of legatees. In the instructions to the executors, the following items are enumerated : the malachite furniture from Russia ; the golden table service (which was presented to him by the town of Paris); a small farm on the island of Elba which had been purchased with Pauline's money; a store of quicksilver at Venice, reckoned to be worth frs. 5,000,000 ; gold and jewels in a hiding-place at Malmaison; and so on, the fantastic inventory of a monarch and an adventurer.

  To his mother, he leaves his silver night-lamp which has lighted many a sleepless night during his sojourn on St. Helena; each brother and sister receives a special bequest; Joseph and Lucien, as if no cloud had ever shadowed his relations with them, are mentioned calmly one after the other, each receiving "an embroidered mantle, vest, and small-clothes," though the

  His Son's Heritage

  living Napoleon had given a c
rown to one and offered a crown to the other.

  But the principal legatee of Napoleon is his son. First of all, the boy is to have all his " arms, field-beds, saddles, spurs, snuff-boxes, orders, books, body linen, which I have been accustomed to wear and use. ... It is my wish that this slight bequest may be dear to him, as recalling to him the memory of a father of whom the universe will discourse to him." Amid the inventories, which mention such items as two pairs of night-drawers and two pillow-cases, there flash out such entries as the following : " My sword, the one I wore at Austerlitz; . . . my gold travelling box, the one I made use of on the morning of Ulm, of Austerlitz, of Jena, of Eylau, of Friedland, of the island of Lobau, of Borodino, and of Montmirail; . . . four boxes found on the table of Louis XVIII. in the Tuileries on March 20, 1815; . . . my alarm-clock, it is the alarm-clock of Frederick II. which I took at Potsdam (in box No. Ill); ... a blue cloak (that which I had at Marengo); ... a consular sword; ... a grand collar of the Legion of Honour." Each list of items finishes with a charge to one or other of his confidants to take care of the articles named, " and to convey them to my son when he shall attain the age of sixteen years."

  Here is another entry: " Marchand shall preserve my hair, and cause a bracelet to be made of it, with a gold clasp, to be sent to the empress Marie Louise, to my mother, and to each of my brothers, sisters, nephews, nieces, the cardinal, and one of larger size to my son."

  Various persons and places are named in which his son is likely to be interested. " I wish my executors to make a collection of engravings, pictures, books, and medals which may give my son sound ideas, and destroy the erroneous ideas which the policy of a foreign land may have tried to impress on him. I want him to be able to see things as they really were. . . . My memory will be the glory of his life. ... I do not expect my son to benefit by my mother's will, for he is likely to be wealthier

  To Resume the Name of Napoleon

  than her other children, but I hope that she will leave him some such precious legacy as her own portrait and my father's, or some trinkets which he will know have come down to him from his grandparents."

  It may seem as if his life were ending with very simple thoughts, since he makes this touching reference to his parents ; but in the next clause the abyss yawns. Those who are about his son, Bertrand's children perhaps, or Montholon's, are " to see to it that he resumes the name of Napoleon as soon as he comes of age, and is able to do so without inconvenience."

  After this sedulous care for the legitimate heir, there follows, at the very last, a clause of a few lines, § 37, in which Napoleon writes : " I should not complain if little Leon were to enter the civil service, should he be so disposed. I should like Alexandre Walewski to serve France in the army." The writer could not foresee that, some decades after the death of his legitimate son, Leon was to end his ne'er-do-well life in America as the husband of a cook; but that Count Walewski was to attain high distinction, as a diplomat under Louis Philippe, and as minister of State and senator during the second empire. By his talent and good looks, Marie's son was to show that he had, in very truth, been a love child.

  But there is a second testament for the legitimate heir. Two weeks before his death, towards three in the morning, the Emperor sends for Montholon, who has been tending him faithfully for the last few weeks : " When I entered the room, I found him sitting up, and the fire glancing in his eyes made me fear a fresh attack of fever. He perceived my uneasiness, and said kindly: ' I am not worse, but my mind has been roused by discussing with Bertrand what my executors ought to say to my son when they see him ... it is better, therefore, that I should, in a few words, give you a summary of the counsels which I bequeath to my son. Write :''

  There follow twelve printed pages, containing the Emperor's political testament. Not a word about war, but a great many

  Political Testament

  words about peace ; and, as regards Europe, we find almost all the leading thoughts of the century which opened with his rise to power. We are given a glimpse of a fancied second reign. He tells us how he would govern, loftily criticising his own previous work. He looks forward to new political forms, and, with a seer's vision, contemplates the twentieth century. From the rock, he issues an appeal for the union of Europe, a manifesto on behalf of an understanding among the peoples to promote liberty, equality, civilisation, talent, and commerce. All these thoughts form themselves in the mind of the dying Napoleon during one of the last restless nights of his illness :

  " My son should not think of avenging my death ; he should profit by it. ... The aim of all his efforts should be, to reign by peace : if he should recommence my wars out of pure love of imitation and without any absolute necessity, he would be a mere ape. To do my work over again would be to suppose that I had done nothing; . . . the same thing is not done twice in a century. / was obliged to daunt Europe by arms; in the present day, the way is to convince her reason. ... I have implanted new ideas in France and in Europe ; they cannot retrograde: let my son bring into blossom all that I have sown. . . .

  " It is possible that the English, in order to efface the remembrance of their persecutions, will favour my son's return to France; but in order to live in a good understanding with England it is necessary, at any cost, to favour her commercial interests : this necessity leads to one of these two consequences —war with England, or a sharing of the commerce of the wo rid with her. This second condition is the only one possible in the present day; questions of foreign policy will, in France, for a long time, take precedence of questions of home policy. I bequeath to my son sufficient strength and sympathy to enable him to continue my work with the sole aid of a lofty and conciliatory diplomacy. . . .

  " Let not my son ever mount the throne by the aid of foreign influence; his aim should not be to fulfil a desire to reign, but to

  The French Are Easy to Rule

  deserve the approbation of posterity. Let him cherish an intimacy with my family, whenever it shall be in his power. My mother resembles the great women of classical antiquity. . . . The French nation, when it is not taken the wrong way, is more easily governed than any other ; its prompt and easy comprehension is unequalled; it immediately discerns who labours for, and who against it; but then it is necessary always to speak to its senses, otherwise its uneasy spite gnaws, it ferments and explodes. . . .

  " Let him despise all parties ; let him only see the mass. Excepting those who have betrayed their country, he should forget the previous conduct of all men, and reward talent, merit, and services, wherever he finds them. . . .

  " France is the country where the chiefs of parties have the least influence : to rest for support on them, is to build on sand. Great things can only be done in France by having the support of the masses. . . .

  " I relied on the whole mass of the people without exception; I set the example of a government which favoured the interests of all. ... To divide the interests of a nation is ... to engender civil war. A thing indivisible by nature cannot be divided; it can only be mutilated. I attach no importance to the constitution ; but its fundamental principle should be universal suffrage.

  " The nobility I created will not be a buttress to my son. . . .

  " My dictatorship was indispensable, and the proof of this is that I was always offered more power than I wanted. ... It will not be the same with my son : his power will be disputed ; he must anticipate every desire for liberty. . . . The aim of a sovereign is not only to reign, but to diffuse instruction, morality, and wellbeing. Anything false is an untrustworthy prop... .

  " The French people is animated by two equally powerful passions, which seem opposed, but which, nevertheless, are derived from one and the same feeling, namely, love of liberty

  United Europe

  and love of distinction. A government can only satisfy these two wants by the most exact justice. ... In order to govern, it is not necessary to pursue a more or less perfect theory, but to build with the materials which are under one's hand; to submit to necess
ities, and profit by them. . . .

  " The liberty of the press ought to become, in the hands of the government, a powerful auxiliary in diffusing, through all the most distant corners of the Empire, sound doctrines and good principles. To leave it to itself would be to fall asleep beside a danger. . . . Under pain of death, nowadays, one must either direct or hinder everything.

  " My son ought to be a man of new ideas, and of the cause which I have made triumphant everywhere : ... to reunite Europe in the bonds of an indissoluble federation. . . .

  " Europe is moving towards an inevitable transformation: to endeavour to retard this progress, would be to waste strength in a useless struggle ; to favour it, is to strengthen the hopes and wishes of all. . . .

  " My son's position will not be free from immense difficulties. Let him do by general consent what circumstances forced me to work for by force of arms. If I had remained victorious over Russia in 1812, the problem of peace would have been solved for a hundred years to come. I cut the Gordian knot of nations ; at the present day it must be untied. ... It is no longer in the north that great questions will be decided, but in the Mediterranean ; on the shores of the Mediterranean, there is enough to content all the ambitions of the different powers, and the happiness of civilised nations may be purchased with fragments of barbarous lands. Let the kings listen to reason;-Europe will no longer provide matter for maintaining international hatreds. Prejudices are dispersing ; interests are widening and becoming fused; trading routes are being multiplied. No longer can any one nation monopolise commerce. . . .