by A G Mogan
It is somewhat stimulating to think of Napoleon as a domestic sort of person. Indeed, it is actually a hard thing to do. When we think of Napoleon, we picture the warrior leading his armies to a bloody victory. He is a man who could make even the toughest man tremble in fear, but he is not a household model. We know many details of Napoleon, such as the harsh way he would speak to women, his shocking manners at the dinner-table many other details which Mme. de Remusat has reported. Of course, many suspected her of inventing some of these outlandish tales to make up for the fact that she was never able to win Napoleon’s favor.
But all of these stories are related Napoleon’s role and nature in courts and palaces, and not to the Napoleon’s life at home. In his private life, he was warm and generous, and his one weakness would be how he allowed his relatives to prey upon him almost without end.
Like the Italians, he was very extravagant with his family. When Napoleon was a petty officer, he nearly starved himself in order to give his younger brother, Louis, a military education. He was devoted to children, and they were quite fond of him, as many stories show. He was quite generous with the people that he loved, even when they disappointed him. Learning of Josephine’s infidelity and becoming disillusioned with her in that way did not diminish his feelings for her and in fact, he was still extravagant with her, despite the fact that she was paying Fouche a thousand francs a day to spy upon Napoleon's every action.
He named his oldest brother, Joseph, as King of Spain, and Spain proved to be quite deadly. He made his youngest brother, Jerome, King of Westphalia, and Jerome disgraced the family name and turned the palace into a messy pit. He placed his brother Louis, for whom he had sacrificed to provide an education, upon the throne of Holland. Almost at once, Louis dedicated himself to his own interests and there were many times where his interests led to schemes that were hostile to France. He was planning high advancement for his brother Lucien when Lucien suddenly married a dishonorable actress and fled with her to England, where he was received with pleasure by the most tenacious of all Napoleon's enemies.
So all of Napoleon’s brothers were inept and just plain ungrateful. But his three sisters did not turn out to be any better. They were called "the three crowned courtesans," and they have been criticized as being completely void of character and incredibly rude.
Much of this criticism was well deserved. However, if we look closer at some of the facts, we can see there were things that made Pauline stand out from her sisters. She was the only Bonaparte who was able to demonstrate loyalty and gratitude to her brother. Even Mme. Mere, Napoleon's mother did nothing for him. At the height of his glory, she stockpiled sous and francs and remarked:
"All this is for a time. It isn't going to last!"
Unlike the rest of her family, Napoleon did very little for Pauline. Napoleon made Elise a princess and gave her the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. He married Caroline to Marshal Murat, and they became King and Queen of Naples. But despite the lack of action by her brother, she alone stood by him to the end.
Considered beautiful and frivolous, Pauline had the manners of a kitten and the morals of a cat and she was not wholly unworthy to be Napoleon's sister. Even with all the difficult things that have been said of her, it is easy to make excuses for her because of her complete devotion to Napoleon. Caroline, Queen of Naples, urged her husband to turn against her brother. Elise, sour and greedy, threw in her fortunes with the Murats. Pauline, as we can see, had the one redeeming trait of gratitude.
As a girl, many stated that she was the embodiment of what used to be called "femininity." To her peers, and to many modern writers, she seemed to be first of all woman—"woman to the tips of her rosy finger-nails," says Levy. Those who saw her were distracted by her loveliness. They say that no one can form any idea of her beauty from her pictures. "A veritable masterpiece of creation," she had been called. Frederic Masson declares:
“She was so much more the typical woman that with her the defects common to women reached their highest development, while her beauty attained a perfection which may justly be called unique.”
When people speak of Pauline Bonaparte, they never speak of her character or her intellect; instead, they focus on her beauty and charm, and also her complete lack of anything resembling morality.
When the Bonapartes left Corsica and moved to Marseilles, she was a child of only thirteen and even then, she attracted attention by her eyes, her grace, and also by her complete lack of propriety. At this time, the Bonaparte girls at this time lived on charity. Napoleon was then a captain of artillery and his pay was very scarce, so he was unable to help as much as he would have liked.
Pauline—or, as they called her in those days, Paulette—wore unsuitable hats and shabby gowns, and shoes that were full of holes. Nonetheless, there were several men who competed for her affections, among them Freron, a commissioner of the Convention. He visited Pauline quite often as he was in love with her, and she fell in love with him as much as she was capable of doing so. She used to write him love letters in Italian, which were certainly not lacking in passion. Here is the end of one of them:
“I love you always and most passionately. I love you forever, my beautiful idol, my heart, my appealing lover. I love you, love you, love you, the most loved of lovers, and I swear never to love any one else!”
Despite her passionate letters to Freron, she soon she fell in love with Junot, who became a famous marshal. But her love affairs were never very serious; and the three sisters, who now began to feel the influence of Napoleon's rise to power, enjoyed themselves as they had never done before. At Antibes, they had a beautiful villa, and later a mansion at Milan.
By this time Napoleon had routed the Austrians in Italy, and all of France saw him as a hero. What was Pauline like as a young girl? Arnault says:
“She was an extraordinary combination of perfect physical beauty and the strangest moral laxity. She was as pretty as you please, but utterly unreasonable. She had no more manners than a school-girl—talking incoherently, giggling at everything and nothing, and mimicking the most serious persons of rank.”
General de Ricard, who knew her during this time, tells in his book of the private theatricals in which Pauline took part, and of the sport that they had behind the scenes. He says:
“The Bonaparte girls used literally to dress us. They pulled our ears and slapped us, but they always kissed and made up later. We used to stay in the girls' room all the time when they were dressing.”
Napoleon was eager to see all of his sisters settled. He proposed to General Marmont that he should marry Pauline. The girl was only seventeen, and one might have had some faith in her character. But Marmont was perceptive and knew her too well. The words in which he declined the honor are interesting:
"I know that she is charming and exquisitely beautiful; yet I have dreams of domestic happiness, of fidelity, and of virtue. Such dreams are seldom realized, I know. Still, in the hope of winning them—"
And then he paused, coughed, and completed what he had to say in a sort of mumble, but his meaning was wholly clear. He would not accept the offer of Pauline in marriage, even though she was the sister of his mighty chief.
Then Napoleon turned to General Leclerc, with whom Pauline had for some time flirted, as she had flirted with almost all the officers of Napoleon's staff. Leclerc was only twenty-six. He was serious and in poor health, but he was rich and of good manners. When looked at a little closer, this was not a suitable match for Pauline, but it served Napoleon's purpose and did not interfere with his sister's machinations.
Leclerc grew to really love Pauline and still, he grew thin, and extremely grave. He was sent to Spain and Portugal, and finally was made commander-in-chief of the French expedition to Haiti, where the famous black rebel, Toussaint l'Ouverture, was heading an uprising of the negroes.
Napoleon ordered Pauline to go with her husband. Pauline refused, although she made this an occasion for ordering "mountains of pretty clothes and pyramids of
hats." But still she refused to go on board the flag-ship to join her husband. Leclerc protested and begged his wife, but it was reported that she laughed in his face and still insisted that she would never go.
Word was brought to Napoleon, who decided to take matters into his own hands.
"Bring a litter," he said, with one of his steely glances. "Order six grenadiers to thrust her into it, and see that she goes on board forthwith."
And so she was carried on board, screeching like an angry cat, and set sail with her husband, as well as one of her former lovers. She found Haiti and Santo Domingo more pleasant than she had imagined. Since she was a sort of queen there, she was able to do what she pleased and her orders were always obeyed. Her debauchery was frightful and her foolishness and her arrogance were beyond belief.
But at the end of two years both she and her husband fell ill. He developed yellow fever and Pauline was suffering from the results of her life in a tropical climate. Leclerc died, the expedition was abandoned, and Pauline brought the general's body back to France. When he was buried she was still recovering from her fever. She had him buried in an expensive coffin and in tribute to her late husband, she off her hair and buried it with him.
"What a touching tribute to her dead husband!" said some one to Napoleon.
The emperor smiled cynically as he remarked:
"H'm! Of course she knows that her hair is bound to fall out after her fever, and that it will come in longer and thicker for being cropped."
Napoleon appeared to love Pauline better than his other sisters and because of this, he was very strict with her. He pleaded with her to wear mourning, and to observe some of the proprieties, but it was hard to reign in his sister.
Presently, there was a rumor that Prince Camillo Borghese was intimate with her. The prince was an excellent example of the fashionable Italian. He had a vast amount of wealth and his palace at Rome was crammed with pictures, statues, and every sort of artistic treasure. He was the owner of the famous Borghese jewels, the finest collection of diamonds in the world.
Napoleon was very firm in his insistence that his sister marry Borghese. Fortunately, the prince was very willing to be connected with Napoleon. Pauline’s motive was the idea of owning diamonds that would surpass all the gems which Josephine possessed; for, like all of the Bonapartes, she hated her brother's wife. So she would be married and show her diamonds to Josephine. It was somewhat spiteful, but she could not resist.
Because of the absence of Napoleon, the wedding was at Joseph Bonaparte's house, but the newly made princess was invited to visit Josephine at the palace of Saint-Cloud. This was going to be her highest achievement. She spent many days in planning a wardrobe designed to devastate Josephine. Whatever she wore must be a background for the famous diamonds. Finally, she decided on green velvet.
When the day came, Pauline had diamonds glistening in her hair and around her neck. She also had many fastened to her green velvet gown and the sight of herself in the mirror brought her great joy. Then she entered her carriage and drove to Saint-Cloud.
But Josephine was a woman of great refinement and charm. She had heard stories about the green velvet gown and she made the decision to redecorate her drawing-room in a blue color that clashed completely with the green velvet. As for the diamonds, she met that scheme by not wearing any gems at all. Her dress was Indian muslin with a broad hem of gold.
Josephine’s minimalist appearance and her extreme poise made the Princess Pauline, with her shower of diamonds, and her green velvet displayed against the blue, seem tasteless. Josephine was very generous in her admiration of the Borghese gems, and she kissed Pauline on parting. The victory was hers.
There is another story of a defeat that Pauline met from another lady, one Mme. de Coutades. Pauline intended to attend a splendid ball in Paris and intended, in her own phrase, “to blot out every woman there.” She refused to give an hints regarding her wardrobe ahead of time and she entered the ballroom at the precise moment when all the guests had assembled.
At the sight of her, the music stopped and the crowd grew silent. Her costume was of the finest muslin bordered with golden palm-leaves. Four bands, spotted like a leopard's skin, were wound about her head, while these, in turn were supported by little clusters of golden grapes. She had copied the head-dress of a Bacchante in the Louvre. All over her person were cameos, and just beneath her breasts she wore a golden band held in place by an engraved gem. Her wrists, arms, and hands were bare. She had, in fact, blotted out her rivals.
Nevertheless, Mme. de Coutades decided to take her revenge. She went up to Pauline, , who was lying on a divan and began gazing at the princess through a double eye-glass. Pauline felt flattered for a moment, and then became uneasy at the attention. The lady who was looking at her said to a companion, in a tone of compassion:
"What a pity! She really would be lovely if it weren't for THAT!"
"For what?" returned her escort.
"Why, are you blind? It's so remarkable that you SURELY must see it."
Pauline was beginning to lose her self-composure. She flushed and looked wildly about, wondering what was meant. Then she heard Mme. Coutades say:
"Why, her ears. If I had such ears as those I would cut them off!"
Pauline gasped and fainted immediately. Despite the fact that her ears were not that bad, from that moment no one could see anything else. Her ears were simply very flat and colorless, but thereafter the princess wore her hair low enough to cover them.
This may be seen in the statue that was done by Canova. It was considered very brave of her to pose in the nude, especially since only a bit of drapery is thrown over her lower limbs. Yet this statue was considered very classical and people may have grown more interested in it because of how she afterward styled herself, with true Napoleonic pride—"a sister of Bonaparte."
Pauline was quite pleased when Napoleon divorced Josephine since she hated her. She also disliked Napoleon’s second wide, the Austrian archduchess, Marie Louise. On one occasion, at a great court function, she got behind the empress and stuck out her tongue at her, in full view of all the royals and distinguished persons present. Napoleon's eagle eye flashed upon Pauline and blazed like fire upon ice. She took to her heels, rushed out of the ball, and never visited the court again.
Much is known of Pauline’s other many quirks, her schemes and her breaks in decorum that stunned the people of Paris. One of these was her choice of a huge negro to bathe her every morning. When some one ventured to protest, she answered, naively:
"What! Do you call that thing a MAN?"
And she decided to force her black servant to marry at once, so that he might continue his attentions properly.
Napoleon was far more severe with Pauline than he was with either Caroline or Elise. He gave her a marriage dowry of half a million francs when she became the Princess Borghese, but after that he continued to look after her and check her spending. Yet in 1814, when Napoleon was sent into exile at Elba, Pauline was the only one of all his relatives to remain loyal and she spent a lot of time with him on the island. His wife went back to her Austrian relatives. Of all the Bonapartes, only Pauline and Mme. Mere remained loyal.
Even then Napoleon refused to pay a bill of hers for sixty-two francs and he only allowed her a small stipend for the maintenance of her horses. But she was very generous with her brother and gave him a great part of her fortune. When he escaped from Elba and began the campaign of 1815, she presented him with all the Borghese diamonds. In fact, he had them with him in his carriage at Waterloo, where the English captured them. When you compare her actions with the meanness of her siblings, it is easy to believe that she was sincerely proud of what it meant to be la soeur de Bonaparte.
When he was sent to St. Helena, she was ill and unable to accompany him. Nevertheless, she tried to sell all her jewels that meant so much to her in order to help him. When he died, she received the news with bitter tears "on hearing all the particulars of that long agony."
As for herself, she did not survive long after her brother. She died at the age of forty-four. Knowing that she was to die, she sent for Prince Borghese and sought reconciliation. But she died as she had lived—"the queen of trinkets" (la reine des colifichets). She asked the servant to bring a mirror. She gazed into it with her dying eyes; and then, as she sank back, it was with a smile of deep content.
"I am not afraid to die," she said. "I am still beautiful!"
* * *
7
Marie Louise & Count Neipperg
There is one famous woman whom history condemns while shielding any facts that might mitigate this criticism. This woman is Marie Louise, Empress of France, companion of the great Napoleon, and archduchess of imperial Austria. When he was in exile on the island of Elba, the empress was about to become a mother and the father of her unborn child was that of another man and not Napoleon. Most people only remember the fact that she was unfaithful to Napoleon and that she abandoned him when he needed her most and that she gave herself to another who was inferior, yet with whom she lived for years, and to whom she bore what a French writer called "a brood of bastards."
Austrian and German historians do not have much to say of Marie Louise, mainly because she brought disgrace upon the proudest reigning family in Europe. Even French writers who are hostile to Napoleon, do not care to dwell upon the story because the country of France felt a great humiliation when Napoleon was deceived by his wife. Therefore, there are still many who know little beyond the fact that the Empress Marie Louise threw away her pride as a princess, her reputation as a wife, and her honor as a woman.