Napoleon bombarded Joseph with instructions on how to manage public opinion, sending him material, such as accounts of atrocities committed by foreign troops, to be inserted in Le Moniteur. He was furious when he heard that Marie-Louise, remembering what she had done in Vienna when it was being bombarded by him, proposed holding public prayers for the success of the campaign. He was alert to anything that might weigh in the propaganda war, and, realising that detachments of cossacks were roaming the countryside, instructed Joseph to have the silver, the portraits of the imperial family, and ‘anything that could be made to look like a trophy’ at Fontainebleau packed up and removed to a place of safety.9
Napoleon agreed to Schwarzenberg’s request for an armistice, but when negotiations opened on 24 February he tried to use them to affect the subsequent peace talks by suggesting a demarcation line close to France’s ‘natural frontiers’, and after days of fruitless talks, on 5 March the negotiations broke down. By then he was in a much weaker position.
On 20 February he received news of Murat’s defection. Ten days later he heard that on 27 February Soult had been beaten at Orthez by Wellington, who was marching on Bordeaux. Assuming that Murat might be swayed by news of his recent successes, Napoleon instructed Joseph to send someone to talk to him. He also suggested he make a renewed effort to bring Bernadotte over to the French side. He wanted Eugène to forget about defending Italy, which could be easily reconquered at a later stage; instead, he should march into France, collect the 5,000 men at Chambéry, another 8,000 at Grenoble and Augereau’s force at Lyon, which would give him at least 50,000 men with which he could sweep into the enemy rear and up into Lorraine.10
The negotiations had resumed at Châtillon, but they were ineffectual, since Caulaincourt did not have a free hand and Napoleon was in no mood to give way. The situation had revived his deepest insecurities, and he could not face Paris otherwise than as a victor. Molé records him saying that he was in bond to his glory: ‘If I sacrifice that, I am nothing, it is from her that I hold all my rights.’11
The desperate situation also brought out his finest qualities as a tactician and a leader of men, and galvanised his faculties. General Ricard was astonished when he called at headquarters to hear Napoleon tell Berthier, ‘Sit down and write!’ and proceed to dictate orders enumerating the strength and giving the position of nineteen different units, and the time it would take each of them to concentrate at a given point, without referring to a single note.12
Spotting a chance to defeat Blücher, who was moving away from Schwarzenberg, he pursued him and attacked him at Craonne on 7 March, and after one of the bloodiest battles of the campaign drove him back. He was able to exploit intimate knowledge of the terrain by seeking out his old friend from Auxonne, Belly de Bussy, who lived nearby. Two days later he came up against Blücher’s main force at Laon. He had underestimated the Prussian’s strength, which was twice his own, and was forced to retreat after an inconclusive engagement. He refused to accept the hopelessness of his situation, and accused those who advised suing for peace of cowardice. ‘Today, I am the master, like at Austerlitz,’ he wrote to Joseph on 11 March. That was not how it looked in Paris, where those who had supported him in the interests of rebuilding France were growing disenchanted as they watched him bring her to her knees.13
‘The situation is grave, and becomes worse with the passing of every day,’ Cambacérès wrote the same day. ‘We are in dire poverty and surrounded by people who are either spent or angry. Elsewhere it is even worse; official reports and private correspondence alike make it clear that we can no longer defend ourselves, that despondency has become general, that signs of discontent are evident in various quarters and that we are about to witness the most sinister events if the strong arm of Your Majesty does not come promptly to our aid.’ Like some frantic gambler, Napoleon clung to the hope that another throw of the dice could still reverse the situation; now, more than ever, he needed to establish his right to rule.14
Two days earlier, on 9 March, the allies had signed the Treaty of Chaumont, which bound Britain, Russia, Prussia and Austria, henceforth identifying themselves as ‘the Great Powers’, to fight Napoleon to the end and oversee the reorganisation of Europe after his removal. They were divided as to who should succeed him, Britain and Austria favouring the Bourbons, Alexander supporting Bernadotte, who now made a dash for Paris, adopting an equivocal pose that left it open for him, if he failed to gain the throne, to become an enabling lieutenant either for a republic or for a Bourbon restoration – either a Cromwell or a Monck.
On 13 March Napoleon routed an isolated Russian corps at Reims. He then went after Schwarzenberg and caught up with him at Arcis-sur-Aube, but when the Austrian turned about and brought his 90,000 men to bear against Napoleon’s 20,000 the following day, Napoleon had to withdraw. He saved the day when retreating French cavalry had threatened to cause panic in the ranks; when a shell landed in front of them and they drew back, he rode forward and stopped his horse over it, and although the horse was killed he escaped unscathed. Some believed he may have been seeking death; there were other moments in this campaign when he led from the front, sword in hand, apparently courting a glorious end.
On the retreat, ‘discouragement overwhelmed our spirits’, recalled General Boulart. On 25 March Marmont and Mortier were mauled at La Fère Champenoise; Augereau had surrendered Lyon. The troops were still capable of flashes of enthusiasm, but the mood in the higher ranks was defeatist, and generals talked openly of the hopelessness of further action. According to one police source there was even a plot by a group of generals to do away with Napoleon.15
Cambacérès’ advice that he return to Paris was based on sound calculation: the inhabitants of the poorer quartiers were overwhelmingly loyal and patriotic, and the allies would not have dared attempt to storm the city, with its huge population and its revolutionary legacy (and no Bourbon would be mad enough to agree to ascend a throne over the bodies of the capital’s defenders). More important, as it turned out, his presence would have prevented his enemies from making a deal with the allies behind his back. But Napoleon did not heed it.
Instead, he decided to slip past the allied armies, penetrate into their rear, disorient them and oblige them to halt their advance, collect troops from the fortresses along France’s eastern border and strike at them from the rear. It was a bold plan which would have worked back in 1797, but the allies did not panic, and when a messenger carrying a note to Marie-Louise which revealed his plan was caught, along with others carrying various orders, they immediately moved on Paris. Realising his mistake, Napoleon hastened back, racing ahead on horses and vehicles borrowed along the way, leaving his troops to follow. He could hear the sound of guns in the distance as he hurried on, but he was too late.
Paris had been without news of him since 25 March, and as the enemy drew near Joseph grew nervous. Marmont’s and Mortier’s corps were on their way, but all the city’s military governor General Moncey could muster in its defence was a mixed bag of troops, veterans, national guards, armed firemen and gendarmes totalling no more than about 25,000. On 28 March Joseph held a meeting of the Regency Council to decide whether the empress and the King of Rome should leave the capital for a place of safety. Most of those present felt they should remain, fearing the instability that might follow their departure. Joseph then read out letters he had received from Napoleon in February instructing him to make sure that his wife and child did not fall into enemy hands. ‘Do not leave my son, and remember that I would prefer to see him drowned in the Seine than in the hands of the enemies of France; the fate of Astyanax as a prisoner of the Greeks has always seemed to me the most unhappy one in history,’ he had written on 16 March, adding that every time he watched Racine’s tragedy Phèdre he wept over the fate of the grandson of the King of Troy. In the light of this, most of those present gave way and agreed that the empress should leave. She protested, but was persuaded, and on the following day she and her son left for Rambouille
t, accompanied by Cambacérès and other members of the Regency Council, as well as a number of other dignitaries and ministers, and most of her maison.16
Joseph, who remained in Paris, issued a call to arms and went to the heights of Montmartre to oversee the defence of the city, which began with the first allied attacks in the early morning of 30 March. It soon became evident that the situation was desperate, and he conferred with Marmont and others on what to do. The troops were determined to defend the city to the last man, and were joined by volunteers from every class of the population, and a stiff resistance was put up at various points. At the same time, ladies in carriages drove out to watch as though going to a day at the races. Late that afternoon, judging the situation to be hopeless, against the advice of Lavalette, who expected Napoleon to arrive at any moment, Joseph sent Marmont to allied headquarters to negotiate a capitulation. He then left to join Marie-Louise and the rest of the Regency Council. Not long afterwards, news arrived from Napoleon announcing that he was on his way, so Marmont asked for a twenty-four-hour ceasefire, but Alexander, who was at headquarters, refused and threatened to sack the city unless it capitulated immediately. Terms were agreed, and Marmont’s units began withdrawing in the direction of Fontainebleau while his aides attended to the formalities.17
At ten o’clock that evening at La Cour de France, a couple of hours’ drive from Paris, Napoleon met General Belliard, leading Marmont’s cavalry, who informed him that Paris had capitulated. He was stunned. His immediate reaction was to go on, but after a short distance he turned back. He walked up and down along the road, giving way to conflicting emotions, raging against the ‘coward’ and ‘cunt’ Joseph, against his marshals and against fate, alternating between exaltation and despair, between the determination to march on Paris and to negotiate peace. He then went back to the post house, where he sat down with his head in his hands and remained motionless for some time.18
Around three o’clock in the morning he roused himself, wrote to Marie-Louise and despatched Caulaincourt to Paris to see the tsar. He then drove to nearby Fontainebleau, where over the next few days he was joined by the remnants of his army. Along with the units that had come out of Paris, they amounted to no more than 40,000 operational troops, but wishful thinking inflated their number in his mind (he kept writing down Marmont’s corps, which now amounted to no more than 5,200 effectives, as being 12,400 strong). On 1 April he held a council of war to consider the options. Most of those present were for withdrawing behind the Loire, linking up with the remains of Soult’s Army of Spain and Augereau’s corps, and joining the empress and the King of Rome. Napoleon again wanted to march on Paris, convinced that his appearance would galvanise the population, and ordered Marmont, whose corps was camped in forward positions at Essonnes, to prepare for action. The following morning, as he was reviewing troops in the great courtyard of the palace, Caulaincourt returned from Paris with a gloomy countenance. Napoleon dismissed the parading troops and went inside to hear his news.19
Manipulated deftly by Talleyrand, who had avoided leaving the capital with the rest of the Regency Council, Alexander had accepted that the Bourbons should be reinstated. Talleyrand was forming a provisional government, and, fearing any resurgence of Napoleon’s influence, was exploring the possibility of having him assassinated. The tsar had succumbed to his influence and was determined not to negotiate with Napoleon, but did give assurances that he would be provided with a refuge in which he could continue as a sovereign, mentioning Corfu, Sardinia, Corsica and Elba as possibilities. All that afternoon and late into the night Napoleon listened impassively as Caulaincourt went over every detail of his interviews with Alexander and everything he had seen and heard in Paris, where most people were busy looking to their future under the new regime, without a thought for him. ‘I do not care about the throne,’ Napoleon said. ‘Born a soldier, I can, without feeling sorry for myself, become a citizen again. My happiness is not in grandeur. I wanted to see France great and powerful, and above all happy. I prefer to leave the throne than to sign a shameful peace. I am glad that they did not accept your conditions, as I would have been obliged to subscribe to them, and France and history would have reproached me for such an act of weakness. The Bourbons alone can accommodate themselves to a peace dictated by the cossacks.’ Caulaincourt told him his only option was to abdicate, warning him that he was about to be toppled.20
Napoleon was outraged, and the next day, as the Old Guard paraded before him, he told them that traitors had handed over Paris to the enemy and they must go to its rescue. The men shouted ‘To Paris!’ and appeared keen to fight, so he began making plans. That evening news arrived that Talleyrand had assembled a rump of the Senate, sixty-four members out of 140, which had voted his deposition on the grounds that he had violated the constitution and subjected the interests of France to his own. It had also approved the formation of a provisional government under Talleyrand, whose first action was to release all Frenchmen from their oath of loyalty to the former emperor.
The following morning, 4 April, after the usual parade he conferred with Marshals Berthier, Ney, Lefèbvre, Moncey, Oudinot and Macdonald, along with Caulaincourt and Maret. He kept bringing up the possibility of marching out and inflicting a stinging defeat on the allies, if only to be in a better position to negotiate. They all frankly told him the troops were no longer up to fighting, and that even if they had been, a victory would yield nothing. They were unanimous that he should abdicate. He told them he would think about it and give them an answer the next day, but afterwards in conversation with Caulaincourt he again suggested carrying out military operations alongside peace talks. In the end he was persuaded to sign a proposal to present his abdication to the Senate once the Powers had recognised the succession of his three-year-old son as Napoleon II, with Marie-Louise as regent. The proposal was to be carried to Alexander by Caulaincourt as foreign minister, assisted by Marshals Ney and Macdonald to make it clear to Alexander that the army was behind the Bonaparte dynasty and opposed to the Bourbons. The three of them set off, accompanied by a numerous escort of senior officers.21
Along their way, at Essonnes they called on Marmont, only to discover that he had been engaged in negotiations of his own. Having been fed misinformation by Talleyrand and others, he had been in touch with the Austrian commander, Schwarzenberg, to arrange the defection of his corps from Napoleon’s side to that of the allies. The operation was to be carried out that night. He pretended that it had merely been discussed, and gave instructions for nothing to be done, while volunteering that he join Caulaincourt and his two comrades on their mission to Paris, where they arrived late that night.
Despite efforts on the part of Talleyrand to prevent it, they were accorded an audience with Alexander at three o’clock on the morning of 5 April. He listened for half an hour to their arguments and showed some sympathy, as he despised the Bourbons and felt no enthusiasm to reinstate them. He told them to come back after noon the next day, which would give him time to consider the matter, and they left in positive mood, enhanced by the worried looks of Talleyrand and his colleagues whom they encountered on the way out (Alexander had put up at Talleyrand’s residence). They went off to sleep, and agreed to meet for breakfast at eleven at Ney’s house.
As the four of them began their breakfast they were interrupted by the arrival of a breathless Colonel Fabvier, who announced that during the night Marmont’s corps had gone over to the enemy. Marmont went pale, jumped up and, seizing his sword, blurted out that he must go and ‘repair’ things. He then rushed out, leaving his colleagues gaping with astonishment. By the time they called on Alexander the whole of Paris knew of Marmont’s defection, and their argument that the army was solidly behind Napoleon no longer held. The tsar told them that Napoleon must abdicate unconditionally. In return he would be given the Mediterranean island of Elba to rule in full sovereignty, and generous provision would be made for him and his family.22
As Alexander was speaking, Napoleon was makin
g alternative plans. He had attended his usual parade that morning, and the sight of his troops had filled him with military ardour once more. He began dictating orders for a withdrawal behind the Loire, where he would join the empress and the King of Rome, who had taken up residence in the Renaissance château at Blois with her maison and enough silver to fill a palace, as well as the entire imperial treasure from the Tuileries. Napoleon’s brothers were also lodged in the castle, while Cambacérès, Molé, Clarke, Montalivet, Regnaud and other members of the Regency Council and various dignitaries accommodated themselves as best they could in the small town.
Cambacérès valiantly kept up his standards, sticking to his official dress and having himself carried around the old town, whose streets were too narrow for carriages, in a sedan chair. The others tried as best they could not to show that they realised they had been outmanoeuvred and sidelined by their former colleague Talleyrand. Savary had already entered into negotiations with him regarding his own future. Marie-Louise was hoping to join Napoleon, and wrote to him asking for guidance and support, and to her father for help. The Buonaparte men reverted to their native instincts as they contemplated a future in which they would not be able to rely on their brother for a life of grandeur and luxury. Joseph attempted to play the head of the family and make all the decisions, seconded by Jérôme. Napoleon had for some time suspected him of wishing to seduce Marie-Louise, and he now seized the opportunity to try and rape her. For his part, Louis added a sudden surge of religious zeal to his neurotic behaviour.23
Napoleon Page 69