Joseph Bonaparte Part 15

"You must not allow, happen what may, the Empress and the King of Rome to fall into the hands of the enemy. Never lose sight of my son, and remember that I would rather know that he was in the Seine, than that he was in the hands of the enemies of France. The fate of Astyanax, prisoner to the Greeks, has always seemed to me the most lamentable in history."

This settled the question. The situation of affairs was so desperate that for the Empress to remain in Paris would be extremely perilous. It was therefore decided that she, with the Government, should retire to Chartres, and thence to the Loire. But Joseph stated that it was important to ascertain the real force of the hostile army, which was driving before them the two marshals, Marmont and Mortier. He therefore offered to remain in the city, making all possible arrangements for its defense, till that fact should be ascertained. Should it be found that resistance was quite impossible, he would rejoin the Government upon the Loire.

It is very evident that Joseph and the a.s.sembled Senate, and that Napoleon himself, hoped that Maria Louisa, from her own inward impulse, would soar to the heights of a heroine. Napoleon could not ask her to come thus to his defense. At St. Helena the Emperor allowed the regret to escape his lips that Maria Louisa was not able to rise to the sublimity of the occasion. The Empress, however, was but an ordinary woman, incapable of a grand action, and it is to be remembered that she must have been embarra.s.sed by the thought that, in striving to arouse France for the defense of her husband, she was arraying the empire against her own father. Maria Louisa, as regent, presided over this private council. The session was prolonged until after midnight. Joseph and the arch-chancellor accompanied the Empress to her home. It is evident, even then, that Joseph hoped that the Empress would a.s.sume the responsibility of a heroic act. M. Meneval, the secretary of the Empress, who was present at this interview, says:

"After the exchange of a few words upon the disastrous consequences of abandoning Paris, Joseph and the arch-chancellor ventured to say that the Empress alone could decide what course it was her duty to pursue.

The Empress replied 'that they were her appointed advisers, and that she could not undertake any course unless she was advised to do it by them, over their own seal and signature.' Both declined to a.s.sume this responsibility."

The departure of the Empress was fixed at eight o'clock the next morning. Joseph had already pa.s.sed the barriers, to proceed to the advance posts of the army to reconnoitre the foe. The day had not yet dawned, when the saloons of the palace were filled with those who were to accompany the Empress in her flight. Anxiety sat upon every countenance, and the solemnity of the occasion caused every voice to be hushed, so that impressive silence reigned. Early as was the hour, the alarming rumor that the Empress was to abandon Paris had reached the ears of the National Guard. Suddenly the officers of the guard who were stationed at the palace, with several others who had joined them, precipitately entered, and, by their earnest request, were conducted to the Empress. They entreated her not to leave Paris, promising to defend her to the last possible extremity.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ANGUISH OF MARIA LOUISA.]

The Empress was moved to tears by their devotion, but alleged the order of the Emperor. Nevertheless, conscious of the discouraging effect of her departure, she delayed hour after hour, hoping without venturing to avow it that some chance might arise which would enable her to remain.

M. Clarke, the Minister of War, alarmed at the danger that soon all egress would be impossible, sent an officer to the Empress to represent to her the necessity of an immediate departure. Thus urged by some to go, by others to remain, the Empress was agitated by the most distracting embarra.s.sment. She returned to her chamber, threw her hat upon her bed, seated herself in a chair, buried her face in her hands, and burst into an uncontrollable flood of tears. "O my G.o.d," she was heard to exclaim, "let them decide this question among themselves, and put an end to this my agony."

About ten o'clock the Minister of War sent again to her a message stating that she had not one moment to lose, and that unless she left immediately she was in danger of falling into the hands of the Cossacks.

As Joseph was now absent, and she could receive no further counsel from him, she hastened her departure. It was indeed true that the delay of a few hours would have rendered her escape impossible, for that very day the banners of the Allies presented themselves before the walls of the metropolis.

Joseph had returned rapidly to the city, to make as determined a defense as possible. The National Guard hastened to the posts a.s.signed them.

Volunteers, many of them armed with shot-guns, advanced to operate as skirmishers against the foe. The students of the Polytechnic School served the artillery confided to their "young and brilliant" valor. The thunders of the cannonade were soon heard, rousing the populace to a frenzy of courage. They rushed through the streets demanding arms, but there were none to be given them. The a.r.s.enals were all empty.

The allied troops came pouring on like the raging tides of the sea.

Their numbers in advance and in the rear far exceeded a million of bayonets. It was all dynastic Europe arrayed against one man. Distinctly the allied kings had declared to the world that they were not fighting against France, but against Napoleon.

The next day, the 30th, Joseph received a note from General Marmont, written in pencil, from the midst of the conflict, stating that it would be impossible to prolong the resistance beyond a few hours, and that measures must immediately be adopted to save Paris from the horrors of being carried by storm. Joseph instantly convoked a council, and the opinion was unanimous that a capitulation was inevitable. Accordingly Joseph at once sent General Stroltz, his aide-de-camp, to Marshals Marmont and Mortier, authorizing them to enter into a conference with the enemy, while they were to continue their resistance as persistently as possible.

All hope of defending Paris was now abandoned. In accordance with the instructions of the Emperor, it was the duty of Joseph to join himself to the Empress and her son. At four o'clock he crossed the Seine. A few moments after the bridges were seized by the enemy. Napoleon had retired to Fontainebleau. Pa.s.sing through Versailles, where he ordered the cavalry in that city to follow him, Joseph proceeded to Chartres, where he joined the Empress and her son, and with them advanced to Blois. He hoped to join his brother at Fontainebleau, there to confer with him upon the measures to be adopted in these hours of disaster. With this intention he set out from Blois, but squadrons of hostile cavalry were sweeping in all directions, and his communication beyond Orleans was cut off. He was therefore compelled to return to Blois. There he was in the greatest peril, for the Cossacks were in his immediate vicinity. He could neither reach the Emperor nor communicate with him. Neither could he ascertain the result of the negotiation entered into at Paris with the foe.

Almost immediately the news came of the Emperor's abdication. The Cossacks escorted Maria Louisa and the King of Rome to Rambouillet, where they were placed under the care of her father, the Emperor of Austria. The Emperor was sent to Elba. Joseph, who was still wealthy, purchased the estate of Prangins, on the border of the lake of Geneva.

Here he had a brief respite from the terrible storms of life, with his wife and children, in that retirement which he loved so well.

CHAPTER XI.

LIFE IN EXILE.

1815-1832

Attempt to a.s.sa.s.sinate Napoleon.--Landing of Napoleon in France.

--Attempt to Escape.--Vigilance of the Allies.--Generosity of Joseph.--Joseph escapes from France.--Selects Point Breeze.--Calumnies of the Allies.--n.o.ble Character of Joseph Bonaparte.--Death of the Emperor.--Letter of General Bertrand.--Marriage of Princess Charlotte.

--The Crown of Mexico.--Visit of La Fayette.--General Lamarque.--Letter from General Lamarque.--Letter to Francis Leiber.--Letter to La Fayette.--Letter to Maria Louisa.--Letter to Prince Metternich.--Letter to the Emperor of Austria.--Appeal to the Chamber of Deputies.--Letter to General Lamarque.--Letter to General Bernard.--Letter to La Fayette.--Letter to the Duke of Reichstadt.

While Joseph was enjoying his peaceful residence upon the sh.o.r.es of Europe's most beautiful lake, Madame de Stael hastened to inform him of a plot which had been revealed to her for the a.s.sa.s.sination of the Emperor at Elba. The evidence was conclusive. Joseph was at breakfast with the celebrated tragedian Talma. Both Talma and Madame de Stael were anxious to hasten to Elba to inform the Emperor of his danger.

But Joseph sent a personal friend, and two of the a.s.sa.s.sins were arrested.[AB]

[Footnote AB: "I thanked them for their generous offer, but preferred to charge with that difficult commission M. Boisneau, whose patriotism and personal attachment to Napoleon I had known at the siege of Toulon. You know with what success he fulfilled his commission."--Memoires du Roi Joseph, tome dixieme, p. 342.]

At Prangins, in 1815, Joseph learned that Napoleon had landed in France, had advanced as far as Lyons, and was desirous of seeing him in Paris as soon as possible. Joseph's wife, Julie, was then in Paris, having been drawn there by the sickness and death of the mother, Madame Clary.

He immediately left his chateau, after having buried all his valuable papers in a box in the forest, setting out secretly at ten o'clock at night, accompanied by the two princesses, his daughters. A few hours after his departure, an armed band, sent by the influence of the Allies, arrived at the chateau to arrest him. Joseph upon his arrival in France, immediately, with characteristic devotion, placed himself entirely at the disposition of the brother he loved so well.

As Joseph traversed France, he was everywhere met with great enthusiasm, the people shouting, "Napoleon the Emperor of our choice;" "The nation desires him alone;" "No aristocracy;" "Away with the old regime."

Before the departure of the Emperor for Waterloo, many distinguished persons, among others Benjamin Constant, who a.s.sisted in drawing up the celebrated Additional Act, were introduced to him by Joseph. One day he conducted to the Tuileries the son of Madame de Stael, who bore a letter from his mother to the Emperor, in which, speaking of the _Additional Act_, she said, "It is every thing which France can now need; nothing but what it needs, nothing more than it needs."

In speaking of the "_Acte Additionel_" Mr. Alison says, "It excited unbounded opposition in both the parties which now divided the nation, and left the Emperor in reality no support but in the soldiers of the army." A few paragraphs later, when stating that the "_Acte_" was submitted to the people to be adopted or rejected by popular suffrage, he says truthfully, though in manifest contradiction to his former statement:

"The '_Acte Additionel_' was approved by an immense majority of the electors; the numbers being fifteen hundred thousand to five hundred."

After the disaster at Waterloo, Joseph was the constant companion of his brother during those few days of anguish in which he remained in Paris.

On the 29th of June he left the metropolis to join his brother, who had preceded him, at Rochefort, where the two intended to embark for America in two different s.h.i.+ps, the _Saale_ and the _Medusa_. After several days of necessary delay, at four o'clock in the afternoon of July 8th Napoleon was rowed out to the _Saale_, which was anch.o.r.ed at a distance from the quay. But the Bourbons and the Allies were now in power in France, and British guard-s.h.i.+ps were doubled along the French coast. No vessel was allowed to leave.

Joseph, who had received letters from his wife informing him of all that had transpired in Paris, proposed that the Emperor should return to land, place himself at the head of the Army of the Loire, summon the population of France to rise _en ma.s.se_, and again appeal to the fortunes of war. But the Emperor could not be persuaded to resort to a measure which would enkindle the flames of civil war in France, and which might also expose the kingdom to dismemberment, since the Allies already held a considerable portion of its territory.

Joseph then urged his brother to embark in a small American vessel which chanced to be in the port, while Joseph, personating Napoleon, whom he strongly resembled, should surrender himself as the Emperor. It was thought that the British cruisers, thus deceived, would allow the American vessel to sail without a very rigid search. But the Emperor declined the offer to escape at the hazard of his brother's captivity.

Neither would his pride of character allow him to seek flight in the garb of disguise. He therefore urged Joseph to leave him to his destiny, and to provide immediately for his own safety.

During the whole of Napoleon's career there were always mult.i.tudes ready to lay down their lives at any time for his protection. The captain of the _Medusa_, a sixty-gun frigate, offered to grapple the English frigate _Bellerophon_, of seventy-four guns, and to maintain the unequal and desperate conflict until the _Saale_ could escape with the Emperor.

But as this would be sacrificing many lives to his personal safety, Napoleon declined the magnanimous offer.

Leaving matters in this state of uncertainty, Joseph retired from Rochefort to the country-seat of a friend, at the distance of a few leagues. He left his secretary behind, to keep him informed of all that transpired. Two days after he received a letter announcing that the Emperor had taken the fatal resolution to surrender himself to the British Government. Joseph could no longer be of any a.s.sistance to his brother, and he decided to leave France as soon as possible. Under the a.s.sumed name of M. Bouchard, he embarked at Royan on the 29th of July, with four of his suite, on board the bark _Commerce_, bound for the United States. The vessel was visited several times by the British cruisers without his being recognized. On the 28th of August, 1815, Joseph landed at New York. Captain Misservey, of the bark, was not aware of the ill.u.s.trious rank of his pa.s.senger, but supposed him to be General Carnot. The Mayor of New York, under the same impression, called upon him as General Carnot, to congratulate him upon his safe pa.s.sage.

There were at the time two English frigates cruising before the harbor of New York, to search all vessels coming from Europe. One of these frigates bore down upon the _Commerce_, but the wind, and the skill of the American pilot, saved the s.h.i.+p from a visit. If the English had succeeded in seizing the person of Joseph, they would have taken him back to England, and thence to Russia, where the Allies had decided to hold him in captivity.

It was not known in America until Joseph's arrival that Napoleon had confided himself to the English. The ill.u.s.trious exile, much broken in health by care and sorrow, a.s.sumed the t.i.tle of the Count of Survilliers, the name of an estate which he held in France, and sought the retreat of a quiet, private life, as a refuge from the storms by which he had so long been tossed.

After having travelled through many of the States of the Union, and having visited most of the princ.i.p.al cities, he purchased in New Jersey, upon the banks of the Delaware, a very beautiful property, called _Point Breeze_. Here he lived the sad life of an exile, reflecting upon the ruin and dispersion of his family, and exposed to every species of contumely from the European press, then controlled by the triumphant dynasties of the old feudal oppression. It was for the interest of all these regal courts to convince the world that the Bonapartes were the enemies, not the friends of humanity; that they were struggling, not for the rights of mankind, but to impose upon the world hitherto unheard-of despotism; and that in principles and practice they were the most G.o.dless and dissolute of men. In this they succeeded for a time, and there are thousands who still adhere to the senseless calumny. Terrible indeed is the condition of a family when it is for the vital interests of all the crowns of Europe to consecrate their influence, and lavish their money to blacken the character of all its members.

But the n.o.ble character of Joseph Bonaparte could not be concealed. His record had been written in ineffaceable lines. His ill.u.s.trious name, purity of morals, large fortune, simple and cordial manners, and his wide-reaching liberality, endeared him greatly to his neighbors and multiplied his friends. His wife was in such extremely delicate health that it was not deemed safe for her to undertake a voyage across the ocean. But his two daughters, the Princess Zenade and Charlotte, and subsequently his son-in-law, Charles Bonaparte, elder brother of the present Emperor, Napoleon III., shared with him his exile.

The entire overthrow of the popular governments which had been established by the aid of Napoleon, and the relentless spirit manifested by the conquerors, filled all lands with exiles. Many of the most distinguished men of Europe sought a refuge with Joseph, where they were received with the most generous hospitality. When the tidings reached Point Breeze of the dest.i.tution in which Napoleon was living in the dilapidated hut at St. Helena, Joseph immediately placed his whole fortune at the disposal of his brother. It was, however, too late, and the Emperor profited but little from this generous offer. A few years pa.s.sed wearily away, when in May, 1821, Napoleon, through dest.i.tution, insults, and anguish, sank sadly into his grave. General Bertrand, who had so magnanimously accompanied the captive in his imprisonment at Saint Helena, and had shared in all his sufferings, communicated the tidings of the death of the Emperor to Joseph in the following touching letter. General Bertrand had returned from Saint Helena, and his letter was dated London, September 10, 1821:

"PRINCE,--I write to you for the first time since the awful misfortune which has been added to the sorrows of your family. Your Highness is acquainted with the events of the first years of this cruel exile. Many persons who have visited Saint Helena have informed you of what was still more interesting to you, the manner of living and the unkind treatment which aggravated the influence of a deadly climate.

"In the last year of his life, the Emperor, who for four years had taken no exercise, altered extremely in appearance. He became pale and feeble. From that time his health deteriorated rapidly and visibly. He had always been in the habit of taking baths. He now took them more frequently, and staid longer in them. They appeared to relieve him for the time. Latterly Dr. Antommarchi forbade him their use, as he thought that they only increased his weakness.

"In the month of August he took walking exercise, but with difficulty; he was forced to stop every minute. In the first years he used to walk while dictating. He walked about his room, and thus did without the exercise which he feared to take out-of-doors, lest he should expose himself to insult. But latterly his strength would not admit even of this. He remained sitting nearly all day, and discontinued almost all occupation. His health declined sensibly every month.

"Once in September, and again in the beginning of October he rode out, as his physicians desired him to take exercise; but he was so weak that he was obliged to return in his carriage. He ceased to digest; s.h.i.+vering fits came on, which extended even to the extremities. Hot towels applied to the feet gave him some relief. He suffered from these cold fits to the last hour of his life. As he could no longer either walk or ride, he took several drives in an open carriage at a foot pace, but without gaining strength.

"He never took off his dressing-gown. His stomach rejected food, and at the end of the year he was forced to give up meat. He lived upon jellies and soups. For some time he ate scarcely any thing, and drank only a little pure wine, hoping thus to support nature without fatiguing the digestion; but the vomiting continued, and he returned to soups and jellies. The remedies and tonics which were tried produced little effect. His body grew weaker every day, but his mind retained its strength. He liked reading and conversation. He did not dictate much, although he did so from time to time up to the last days of his life. He felt that his end was approaching, and frequently recited the pa.s.sage from 'Zare,' which closes with this line:

"'A revoir Paris je ne dois plus pretendre.'

"Nevertheless the hope of leaving this dreadful country often presented itself to his imagination. Some newspaper articles and false reports excited our expectations. We sometimes fancied that we were on the eve of starting for America. We read travels, we made plans, we arrived at our house, we wandered over that immense country, where alone we might hope to enjoy liberty. Vain hopes! vain projects! which only made us doubly feel our misfortunes.

"They could not have been borne with more serenity and courage--I might almost add gayety. He often said to us in the evening, 'Where shall we go? to the Theatre Francais or to the Opera?' And then he would read a tragedy by Corneille, Voltaire, or Racine; an opera of Quinault's, or one of Moliere's comedies. His strong mind and powerful character were perhaps even more remarkable than on that larger theatre where he eclipsed all that is brightest in ancient and in modern history. He often seemed to forget what he had been. I was never tired of admiring his philosophy and courage, the good sense and fort.i.tude which raised him above misfortune.