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 Makers of History

 Joseph Bonaparte

 BY

 JOHN S. C. ABBOTT

 WITH ENGRAVINGS

 NEW YORK AND LONDON
 HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS
 1902




 Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1869, by

 HARPER & BROTHERS,

 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for
 the Southern District of New York.

 Copyright, 1897, by SUSAN ABBOTT MEAD.




PREFACE.


The writer trusts that he may be pardoned for relating the following
characteristic anecdote of President Lincoln, as it so fully illustrates
the object in view in writing these histories. In a conversation which
the writer had with the President just before his death, Mr. Lincoln
said:

"I want to thank you and your brother for Abbotts' series of Histories.
I have not education enough to appreciate the profound works of
voluminous historians, and if I had, I have no time to read them. But
your series of Histories gives me, in brief compass, just that knowledge
of past men and events which I need. I have read them with the greatest
interest. To them I am indebted for about all the historical knowledge I
have."

It is for just this purpose that these Histories are written. Busy men,
in this busy life, have now no time to wade through ponderous folios.
And yet every one wishes to know the general character and achievements
of the illustrious personages of past ages.

A few years ago there was published in Paris a life of King Joseph, in
ten royal octavo volumes of nearly five hundred pages each. It was
entitled "_Memoires et Correspondance, Politique et Militaire, du Roi
Joseph, Publies, Annotes et Mis en Ordre par A. du Casse, Aide-de-camp
de S. A. I. Le Prince Jerome Napoleon._" These volumes contained nearly
all the correspondence which passed between Joseph and his brother
Napoleon from their childhood until after the battle of Waterloo. Every
historical statement is substantiated by unequivocal documentary
evidence.

From this voluminous work, aided by other historical accounts of
particular events, the author of this sketch has gathered all that would
be of particular interest to the general reader at the present time. As
all the facts contained in this narrative are substantiated by ample
documentary proof, the writer can not doubt that this volume presents an
accurate account of the momentous scenes which it describes, and that it
gives the reader a correct idea of the social and political relations
existing between those extraordinary men, Joseph and Napoleon Bonaparte.
It is not necessary that the historian should pronounce judgment upon
every transaction. But he is bound to state every event exactly as it
occurred.

No one can read this account of the struggle in Europe _in favor of
popular rights_ against the old dynasties of _feudal oppression_,
without more highly appreciating the admirable institutions of our own
glorious Republic. Neither can any intelligent and candid man carefully
peruse this narrative, and not admit that Joseph Bonaparte was earnestly
seeking the welfare of the _people_; that, surrounded by dynasties
strong in standing armies, in pride of nobility, and which were
venerable through a life of centuries, he was endeavoring to promote,
under monarchical forms, which the posture of affairs seemed to
render necessary, the abolition of _aristocratic usurpation_, and the
establishment of _equal rights for all men_. Believing this, the writer
sympathizes with him in all his struggles, and reveres his memory.
The universal brotherhood of man, the fundamental principles of
Christianity, should also be the fundamental principles in the State.
Having spared no pains to be accurate, the writer will be grateful to
any critic who will point out any incorrectness of statement or false
coloring of facts, that he may make the correction in subsequent
editions.

This volume will soon be followed by another, "The History of Queen
Hortense," the daughter of Josephine, the wife of King Louis, the mother
of Napoleon III.

                         JOHN S. C. ABBOTT.

 FAIR HAVEN, CONN.,
    May, 1869.




 CONTENTS


 Chapter                                                    Page

    I. SCENES IN EARLY LIFE                                  13

   II. DIPLOMATIC LABORS                                     36

  III. JOSEPH THE PEACE-MAKER                                67

   IV. JOSEPH KING OF NAPLES                                 93

    V. THE CROWN A BURDEN                                   135

   VI. THE SPANISH PRINCES                                  166

  VII. JOSEPH KING OF SPAIN                                 199

 VIII. THE SPANISH CAMPAIGN OF NAPOLEON                     229

   IX. THE WAR IN SPAIN CONTINUED                           264

    X. THE EXPULSION FROM SPAIN                             291

   XI. LIFE IN EXILE                                        319

  XII. LAST DAYS AND DEATH                                  365




 ENGRAVINGS.

                                                            Page

 JOSEPH AND NAPOLEON--TOUR IN CORSICA                        28

 JOSEPH GIVING HIS CLOAK TO HIS BROTHER LOUIS                41

 CORNWALLIS AND JOSEPH                                       88

 JOSEPH AT MALMAISON                                         98

 JOSEPH ON HIS NEAPOLITAN TOUR                              155

 QUEEN JULIE LEAVING NAPLES                                 187

 JOSEPH RECEIVING THE ADDRESSES OF THE SPANISH
      SENATE                                                198

 JOSEPH ENTERING MALAGA                                     261

 SACK OF CIUDAD RODRIGO                                     286

 ANGUISH OF MARIA LOUISA                                    314

 DEATH OF THE DUKE OF REICHSTADT                            363




JOSEPH BONAPARTE.




CHAPTER I.

SCENES IN EARLY LIFE.

1768-1793

Corsica.--Parentage.--Birth of Joseph Bonaparte.--Journey to
France.--Fraternal Attachment.--Character of Joseph.--Prince of
Conde.--Anecdote.--Letter to Napoleon.--Return to Corsica.--Death
of his Father.--Letitia.--Her Character.--Madame Permon.--Lucien.
--Habits of Napoleon.--Studies of the Brothers.--Mirabeau.--Joseph
studies Law.--Commences Practice.--Treatise of Napoleon.--Testimony
of Joseph.--Ambition of Napoleon.--Foresight of Napoleon.--Constituent
Assembly.--Gratitude of Napoleon.--Anecdote.--Tour in Corsica.
--Characteristics.--Testimony of Louis Napoleon.--Death of Mirabeau.
--French Revolution.--Anecdote.--The Emigrants.--The Republicans.
--Paoli.--His Appreciation of Napoleon.--Corsican Peasantry.--Flight
of the Bonapartes.--Their Arrival in France.


The island of Corsica, in the Mediterranean Sea, sixty miles from the
coast of Tuscany, is about half as large as the State of Massachusetts.
In the year 1767 this island was one of the provinces of Italy. There
was then residing, in the small town of Corte, in Corsica, a young
lawyer nineteen years of age. He was the descendant of an illustrious
race, which could be traced back, through a succession of distinguished
men, far into the dark ages. Charles Bonaparte, the young man of whom
we speak, was tall, handsome, and possessed strong native powers of
mind, which he had highly cultivated. In the same place there was
a young lady, Letitia Raniolini, remarkable for her beauty and her
accomplishments. She also was of an ancient family. When but sixteen
years of age Letitia was married to Charles Bonaparte, then but
nineteen years old.

About a year after their marriage, on the 7th of January, 1768, they
welcomed their first-born child, Joseph Napoleon Bonaparte. In nineteen
months after the birth of Joseph, his world-renowned brother Napoleon
was born. But in the mean time the island had been transferred to
France. Thus while Joseph was by birth an Italian, his brother Napoleon
was a Frenchman.

Charles Bonaparte occupied high positions of trust and honor in
the government of Corsica, and his family took rank with the most
distinguished families in Italy and in France. Joseph passed the first
twelve years of his life upon his native island. He was ever a boy of
studious habits, and of singular amiability of character. When he was
twelve years of age his father took him, with Napoleon and their elder
sister Eliza, to France for their education. Leopold, the grand duke
of Tuscany, gave Charles Bonaparte letters of introduction to Maria
Antoinette, his sister, who was then the beautiful and admired Queen
of France.

Leaving Joseph at the college of Autun, in Burgundy, the father
continued his journey to Paris, with Napoleon and Eliza. Eliza was
placed in the celebrated boarding-school of St. Cyr, in the metropolis,
and Napoleon was taken to the military school at Brienne, a few miles
out from the city. The father was received as a guest in the gorgeous
palace of Versailles. Joseph and Napoleon were very strongly attached
to each other, and this attachment continued unabated through life.
When the two lads parted at Autun both were much affected. Joseph,
subsequently speaking of it, says:

"I shall never forget the moment of our separation. My eyes were flooded
with tears. Napoleon shed but one tear, which he in vain endeavored to
conceal. The abbe Simon, who witnessed our adieus, said to me, after
Napoleon's departure, 'He shed only one tear; but that one testified to
as deep grief in parting from you as all of yours.'"

The two brothers kept up a very constant correspondence, informing each
other minutely of their studies, and of the books in which they were
interested. Joseph became one of the most distinguished scholars in the
college of Autun, excelling in all the branches of polite literature. He
was a very handsome young man, of polished manners, and of unblemished
purity of life. His natural kindness of heart, combined with these
attractions, rendered him a universal favorite.

Autun was in the province of Burgundy, of which the Prince of Conde,
grandfather of the celebrated Duke d'Enghien, was governor. The