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LIFE OF NAPOLEON

POCKET EDITION

VOL. I.

[Illustration: NAPOLEON BONAPARTE

1802]




LIFE OF

NAPOLEON BONAPARTE

BY SIR WALTER SCOTT, BART.

VOL. I.

[Illustration: Napoleons Logement Qua Cont]

EDINBURGH; A. & C. BLACK.

1876




ADVERTISEMENT


The extent and purpose of this Work, have, in the course of its
progress, gradually but essentially changed from what the Author
originally proposed. It was at first intended merely as a brief and
popular abstract of the life of the most wonderful man, and the most
extraordinary events, of the last thirty years; in short, to emulate the
concise yet most interesting history of the great British Admiral, by
the Poet-Laureate of Britain.[1] The Author was partly induced to
undertake the task, by having formerly drawn up for a periodical
work--"The Edinburgh Annual Register"--the history of the two great
campaigns of 1814 and 1815; and three volumes were the compass assigned
to the proposed work. An introductory volume, giving a general account
of the Rise and Progress of the French Revolution, was thought
necessary; and the single volume, on a theme of such extent, soon
swelled into two.

As the Author composed under an anonymous title, he could neither seek
nor expect information from those who had been actively engaged in the
changeful scenes which he was attempting to record; nor was his object
more ambitious than that of compressing and arranging such information
as the ordinary authorities afforded. Circumstances, however,
unconnected with the undertaking, induced him to lay aside an
_incognito_, any farther attempt to preserve which must have been
considered as affectation; and since his having done so, he has been
favoured with access to some valuable materials, most of which have now,
for the first time, seen the light. For these he refers to the Appendix
at the close of the Work, where the reader will find several articles of
novelty and interest. Though not at liberty, in every case, to mention
the quarter from which his information has been derived, the Author has
been careful not to rely upon any which did not come from sufficient
authority. He has neither grubbed for anecdotes in the libels and
private scandal of the time, nor has he solicited information from
individuals who could not be impartial witnesses in the facts to which
they gave evidence. Yet the various public documents and private
information which he has received, have much enlarged his stock of
materials, and increased the whole work to more than twice the size
originally intended.

On the execution of his task, it becomes the Author to be silent. He is
aware it must exhibit many faults; but he claims credit for having
brought to the undertaking a mind disposed to do his subject as
impartial justice as his judgment could supply. He will be found no
enemy to the person of Napoleon. The term of hostility is ended when the
battle has been won, and the foe exists no longer. His splendid personal
qualities--his great military actions and political services to
France--will not, it is hoped, be found depreciated in the narrative.
Unhappily, the Author's task involved a duty of another kind, the
discharge of which is due to France, to Britain, to Europe, and to the
world. If the general system of Napoleon has rested upon force or fraud,
it is neither the greatness of his talents, nor the success of his
undertakings, that ought to stifle the voice or dazzle the eyes of him
who adventures to be his historian. The reasons, however, are carefully
summed up where the Author has presumed to express a favourable or
unfavourable opinion of the distinguished person of whom these volumes
treat; so that each reader may judge of their validity for himself.

The name, by an original error of the press, which proceeded too far
before it was discovered, has been printed with a _u_,--Buonaparte
instead of Bonaparte. Both spellings were indifferently adopted in the
family; but Napoleon always used the last,[2] and had an unquestionable
right to choose the orthography which he preferred.

EDINBURGH, _7th June, 1827._




ADVERTISEMENT TO EDITION 1834.


Sir Walter Scott left two interleaved copies of his LIFE OF NAPOLEON, in
both of which his executors have found various corrections of the text,
and additional notes. They were directed by his testament to take care,
that, in case a new edition of the work were called for, the annotations
of it might be completed in the fashion here adopted, dates and other
marginal elucidations regularly introduced, and the text itself,
wherever there appeared any redundancy of statement, abridged. With
these instructions, except the last, the Editor has now endeavoured to
comply.[3]

"Walter Scott," says Goëthe, "passed his childhood among the stirring
scenes of the American War, and was a youth of seventeen or eighteen
when the French Revolution broke out. Now well advanced in the fifties,
having all along been favourably placed for observation, he proposes to
lay before us his views and recollections of the important events
through which he has lived. The richest, the easiest, the most
celebrated narrator of the century, undertakes to write the history of
his own time.

"What expectations the announcement of such a work must have excited in
me, will be understood by any one who remembers that I, twenty years
older than Scott, conversed with Paoli in the twentieth year of my age,
and with Napoleon himself in the sixtieth.

"Through that long series of years, coming more or less into contact
with the great doings of the world, I failed not to think seriously on
what was passing around me, and, after my own fashion, to connect so
many extraordinary mutations into something like arrangement and
interdependence.

"What could now be more delightful to me than leisurely and calmly to
sit down and listen to the discourse of such a man, while clearly,
truly, and with all the skill of a great artist, he recalls to me the
incidents on which through life I have meditated, and the influence of
which is still daily in operation?"--Goëthe's _Posthumous Works_, vol.
vi., p. 253.

                    Sed non in Cæsare tantum
    Nomen erat, nec fama ducis; sed nescia virtus
    Stare loco: solusque pudor non vincere bello.
    Acer et indomitus; quo spes quoque ira vocasset,
    Ferre manum, et nunquam temerando parcere ferro:
    Successus urgere suos: instare favori
    Numinis: impellens quicquid sibi summa petenti
    Obstaret: gaudensque viam fecisse ruina.

        LUCANI, _Pharsalia_, Lib. I.[4]



FOOTNOTES:

[1] Southey's _Life of Nelson_, 2 vols. fcap. 8vo. 1813.

[2] Barras, in his official account of the affair of the 13th
Vendémiaire, (Oct. 5, 1795,) calls him General _Buonaparte_; and in the
contract of marriage between Napoleon and Josephine, still existing in
the registry of the second arrondissement of Paris, dated March 9, 1796,
his signature is so written. No document has ever been produced, in
which the word appears as _Bonaparte_, prior to Napoleon's appointment
to the command of the Army of Italy.

[3] [Sir Walter Scott's Notes have the letter S affixed to them, all of
the others having been collected by the Editor of the 1843 Edition.]

[4]

    "But Cæsar's greatness, and his strength, was more
    Than past renown and antiquated power;
    'Twas not the fame of what he once had been,
    Or tales in old records and annals seen;
    But 'twas a valour restless, unconfined,
    Which no success could sate, nor limits bind;
    'Twas shame, a soldier's shame, untaught to yield,
    That blush'd for nothing but an ill-fought field;
    Fierce in his hopes he was, nor knew to stay
    Where vengeance or ambition led the way;
    Still prodigal of war whene'er withstood,
    Nor spared to stain the guilty sword with blood;
    Urging advantage, he improved all odds,
    And made the most of fortune and the gods;
    Pleased to o'erturn whate'er withheld his prize,
    And saw the ruin with rejoicing eyes."--ROWE.




CONTENTS


VIEW OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.

PAGE

  CHAP. I.--Review of the state of Europe after the Peace of
  Versailles--England--France--Spain--Prussia--Imprudent Innovations
  of the Emperor Joseph--Disturbances in his
  Dominions--Russia--France--Her ancient System of Monarchy--how
  organised--Causes of its Decay--Decay of the Nobility as a body--The
  new Nobles--The Country Nobles--The Nobles of the highest Order--The
  Church--The higher Orders of the Clergy--The lower Orders--The
  Commons--Their increase in Power and Importance--Their Claims
  opposed to those of the Privileged Classes,                          1

  CHAP. II.--State of France continued--State of Public Opinion--Men
  of Letters encouraged by the Great--Disadvantages attending this
  Patronage--Licentious tendency of the French Literature--Their
  Irreligious and Infidel Opinions--Free Opinions on Politics
  permitted to be expressed in an abstract and speculative, but not in
  a practical Form--Disadvantages arising from the Suppression of Free
  Discussion--Anglomania--Share of France in the American
  War--Disposition of the Troops who returned from America,           22

  CHAP. III.--Proximate Cause of the Revolution--Deranged State of the
  Finances--Reforms in the Royal Household--System of Turgot and
  Necker--Necker's Exposition of the State of the Public Revenue--The
  Red-Book--Necker displaced--Succeeded by Calonne--General State of
  the Revenue--Assembly of the Notables--Calonne dismissed--Archbishop
  of Sens Administrator of the Finances--The King's Contest with the
  Parliament--Bed of Justice--Resistance of the Parliament and general
  Disorder in the Kingdom--Vacillating Policy of the Minister--Royal
  Sitting--Scheme of forming a Cour Plénière--It proves
  ineffectual--Archbishop of Sens retires, and is succeeded by
  Necker--He resolves to convoke the States-General--Second Assembly
  of Notables previous to Convocation of the States--Questions as to
  the Numbers of which the Tiers Etat should consist, and the Mode in
  which the Estates should deliberate,                                39

  CHAP. IV.--Meeting of the States-General--Predominant Influence of
  the Tiers Etat--Property not represented sufficiently in that
  Body--General character of the Members--Disposition of the Estate of
  the Nobles--And of the Clergy--Plan of forming the Three Estates
  into two Houses--Its advantages--It fails--The Clergy unite with the
  Tiers Etat, which assumes the title of the National Assembly--They
  assume the task of Legislation, and declare all former Fiscal
  Regulations illegal--They assert their determination to continue
  their Sessions--Royal Sitting--Terminates in the Triumph of the
  Assembly--Parties in that Body--Mounier--Constitutionalists--
  Republicans--Jacobins--Orleans,                                     58

  CHAP. V.--Plan of the Democrats to bring the King and Assembly to
  Paris--Banquet of the Garde du Corps--Riot at Paris--A formidable
  Mob of Women assemble to march to Versailles--The National Guard
  refuse to act against the Insurgents, and demand also to be led to
  Versailles--The Female Mob arrive--Their behaviour to the
  Assembly--To the King--Alarming Disorders at Night--La Fayette
  arrives with the National Guard--Mob force the Palace--Murder the
  Body Guards--The Queen's safety endangered--Fayette's arrival with
  his Force restores Order--Royal Family obliged to go to reside at
  Paris--The Procession--This Step agreeable to the Views of the
  Constitutionalists, Republicans, and Anarchists--Duke of Orleans
  sent to England,                                                    88

  CHAP. VI.--La Fayette resolves to enforce order--A Baker is murdered
  by the Rabble--One of his Murderers executed--Decree imposing
  Martial Law--Introduction of the Doctrines of Equality--They are in
  their exaggerated sense inconsistent with Human Nature and the
  progress of Society--The Assembly abolish titles of Nobility,
  Armorial bearings, and phrases of Courtesy--Reasoning on these
  Innovations--Disorder of Finance--Necker becomes unpopular--Seizure
  of Church lands--Issue of Assignats--Necker leaves France in
  unpopularity--New Religious Institution--Oath imposed on the
  Clergy--Resisted by the greater part of the Order--General View of
  the operations of the Constituent Assembly--Enthusiasm of the People
  for their new Privileges--Limited Privileges of the Crown--King is
  obliged to dissemble--His Negotiations with Mirabeau--With
  Bouillé--Attack on the Palace--Prevented by Fayette--Royalists
  expelled from the Tuileries--Escape of Louis--He is captured at
  Varennes--Brought back to Paris--Riot in the Champ de Mars--Louis
  accepts the Constitution,                                          102

  CHAP. VII.--Legislative Assembly--Its Composition--Constitutionalists--
  Girondists or Brissotins--Jacobins--Views and Sentiments of Foreign
  Nations--England--Views of the Tories and Whigs--Anacharsis
  Clootz--Austria--Prussia--Russia--Sweden--Emigration of the French
  Princes and Clergy--Increasing Unpopularity of Louis from this
  Cause--Death of the Emperor Leopold, and its Effects--France
  declares War--Views and Interests of the different Parties in France
  at this Period--Decree against Monsieur--Louis interposes his
  Veto--Decree against the Priests who should refuse the
  Constitutional Oath--Louis again interposes his Veto--Consequences
  of these Refusals--Fall of De Lessart--Ministers now chosen from the
  Brissotins--All Parties favourable to War,                         128

  CHAP. VIII.--Defeats of the French on the Frontier--Decay of
  Constitutionalists--They form the Club of Feuillans, and are
  dispersed by the Jacobins--The Ministry--Dumouriez--Breach of
  confidence betwixt the King and his Ministers--Dissolution of the
  King's Constitutional Guard--Extravagant measures of the
  Jacobins--Alarms of the Girondists--Departmental Army proposed--King
  puts his Veto on the decree, against Dumouriez's
  representations--Decree against the recusant Priests--King refuses
  it--Letter of the Ministers to the King--He dismisses Roland,
  Clavière, and Servan--Dumouriez, Duranton, and Lacoste, appointed in
  their stead--King ratifies the decree concerning the Departmental
  Army--Dumouriez resigns, and departs for the Frontiers--New
  Ministers named from the Constitutionalists--Insurrection of 20th
  June--Armed Mob intrude into the Assembly--Thence into the
  Tuileries--La Fayette repairs to Paris--Remonstrates in favour of
  the King--But is compelled to return to the Frontiers--Marseillois
  appear in Paris--Duke of Brunswick's manifesto,                    152

  CHAP. IX.--The Day of the Tenth of August--Tocsin sounded early in
  the Morning--Swiss Guards, and relics of the Royal Party, repair to
  the Tuileries--Mandat assassinated--Dejection of Louis, and energy
  of the Queen--King's Ministers appear at the Bar of the Assembly,
  stating the peril of the Royal Family, and requesting a Deputation
  might be sent to the Palace--Assembly pass to the Order of the
  Day--Louis and his Family repair to the Assembly--Conflict at the
  Tuileries--Swiss ordered to repair to the King's Person--and are
  many of them shot and dispersed on their way to the Assembly--At the
  close of the Day almost all of them are massacred--Royal Family
  spend the Night in the Convent of the Feuillans,                   172

  CHAP. X.--La Fayette compelled to Escape from France--Is made
  Prisoner by the Prussians, with three Companions--Reflections--The
  Triumvirate, Danton, Robespierre, and Marat--Revolutionary Tribunal
  appointed--Stupor of the Legislative Assembly--Longwy, Stenay, and
  Verdun, taken by the Prussians--Mob of Paris enraged--Great Massacre
  of Prisoners in Paris, commencing on the 2d, and ending 6th
  September--Apathy of the Assembly during and after these
  Events--Review of its Causes,                                      182

  CHAP. XI.--Election of Representatives for the National
  Convention--Jacobins are very active--Right hand Party--Left hand
  side--Neutral Members--The Girondists are in possession of the
  ostensible Power--They denounce the Jacobin Chiefs, but in an
  irregular and feeble manner--Marat, Robespierre, and Danton,
  supported by the Commune and Populace of Paris--France declared a
  Republic--Duke of Brunswick's Campaign--Neglects the French
  Emigrants--Is tardy in his Operations--Occupies the poorest part of
  Champagne--His Army becomes sickly--Prospects of a
  Battle--Dumouriez's Army recruited with Carmagnoles--The Duke
  resolves to Retreat--Thoughts on the consequences of that
  measure--The retreat disastrous--The Emigrants disbanded in a great
  measure--Reflections on their Fate--The Prince of Condé's Army,    199

  CHAP. XII.--Jacobins determine upon the Execution of Louis--Progress
  and Reasons of the King's Unpopularity--Girondists taken by
  surprise, by a proposal for the Abolition of Royalty made by the
  Jacobins--Proposal carried--Thoughts on the New System of
  Government--Compared with that of Rome, Greece, America, and other
  Republican States--Enthusiasm throughout France at the
  Change--Follies it gave birth to--And Crimes--Monuments of Art
  destroyed--Madame Roland interposes to save the Life of the
  King--Barrère--Girondists move for a Departmental
  Legion--Carried--Revoked--and Girondists defeated--The Authority of
  the Community of Paris paramount even over the Convention--Documents
  of the Iron-Chest--Parallel betwixt Charles I. and Louis
  XVI.--Motion by Pétion, that the King should be Tried before the
  Convention,                                                        208

  CHAP. XIII.--THE TRIAL OF LOUIS--Indecision of the Girondists, and
  its Effects--The Royal Family insulted by the Agents of the
  Community--The King deprived of his Son's society--The King brought
  to Trial before the Convention--His First Examination--Carried back
  to Prison amidst Insult and Abuse--Tumult in the Assembly--The King
  deprived of Intercourse with his Family--Malesherbes appointed as
  Counsel to defend the King--and De Seze--Louis again brought before
  the Convention--Opening Speech of De Seze--King remanded to the
  Temple--Stormy Debate--Eloquent attack of Vergniaud on the
  Jacobins--Sentence of DEATH pronounced against the King--General
  Sympathy for his Fate--Dumouriez arrives in Paris--Vainly tries to
  avert the King's Fate--LOUIS XVI. BEHEADED on 21st January,
  1793--MARIE ANTOINETTE on the 16th October thereafter--The Princess
  ELIZABETH in May 1794--The Dauphin perishes, by cruelty, June 8th,
  1795--The Princess Royal exchanged for La Fayette, 19th December,
  1795,                                                              236

  CHAP. XIV.--Dumouriez--His displeasure at the Treatment of the
  Flemish Provinces by the Convention--His projects in
  consequence--Gains the ill-will of his Army--and is forced to fly to
  the Austrian Camp--Lives many years in retreat, and finally dies in
  England--Struggles betwixt the Girondists and Jacobins--Robespierre
  impeaches the Leaders of the Girondists, and is denounced by
  them--Decree of Accusation against Marat--Commission of
  Twelve--Marat acquitted--Terror of the Girondists--Jacobins prepare
  to attack the Palais Royal, but are repulsed--Repair to the
  Convention, who recall the Commission of Twelve--Louvet and other
  Girondist Leaders Fly from Paris--Convention go forth in procession
  to expostulate with the People--Forced back to their Hall, and
  compelled to Decree the Accusation of Thirty of their
  Body--Girondists finally ruined--and their principal Leaders
  perish--Close of their History,                                    258

  CHAP. XV.--Views of Parties in Britain relative to the
  Revolution--Affiliated Societies--Counterpoised by Aristocratic
  Associations--Aristocratic Party eager for War with France--The
  French proclaim the Navigation of the Scheldt--British Ambassador
  recalled from Paris, and French Envoy no longer accredited in
  London--France declares War against England--British Army sent to
  Holland, under the Duke of York--State of the Army--View of the
  Military Positions of France--in Flanders--on the Rhine--in
  Piedmont--Savoy--on the Pyrenees--State of the War in La
  Vendée--Description of the Country--Le Bocage--Le Louroux--Close
  Union betwixt the Nobles and Peasantry--Both strongly attached to
  Royalty, and abhorrent of the Revolution--The Priests--The Religion
  of the Vendéans outraged by the Convention--A general Insurrection
  takes place in 1793--Military Organisation and Habits of the
  Vendéans--Division in the British Cabinet on the Mode of conducting
  the War--Pitt--Wyndham--Reasoning upon the subject--Vendéans
  defeated--They defeat, in their turn, the French Troops at
  Laval--But are ultimately destroyed and dispersed--Unfortunate
  Expedition to Quiberon--La Charette defeated and executed, and the
  War of La Vendée finally terminated--Unsuccessful Resistance of
  Bourdeaux, Marseilles, and Lyons, to the Convention--Siege of
  Lyons--Its Surrender and dreadful Punishment--Siege of Toulon,     274

  CHAP. XVI.--Views of the British Cabinet regarding the French
  Revolution--Extraordinary Situation of France--Explanation of the
  Anomaly which it exhibited--System of Terror--Committee of Public
  Safety--Of Public Security--David the Painter--Law against Suspected
  Persons--Revolutionary Tribunal--Effects of the Emigration of the
  Princes and Nobles--Causes of the Passiveness of the French People
  under the Tyranny of the Jacobins--Singular Address of the Committee
  of Public Safety--General Reflections,                             307

  CHAP. XVII.--Marat, Danton, Robespierre--Marat poniarded--Danton and
  Robespierre become Rivals--Commune of Paris--their gross
  Irreligion--Gobel--Goddess of Reason--Marriage reduced to a Civil
  Contract--Views of Danton--and of Robespierre--Principal Leaders of
  the Commune arrested--and Nineteen of them executed--Danton arrested
  by the influence of Robespierre--and, along with Camille Desmoulins,
  Westermann, and La Croix, taken before the Revolutionary Tribunal,
  condemned, and executed--Decree issued, on the motion of
  Robespierre, acknowledging a Supreme Being--Cécilée
  Regnault--Gradual Change in the Public Mind--Robespierre becomes
  unpopular--Makes every effort to retrieve his power--Stormy Debate
  in the Convention--Collot D'Herbois, Tallien, &c., expelled from the
  Jacobin Club at the instigation of Robespierre--Robespierre
  denounced in the Convention on the 9th Thermidor, (27th July, 1794,)
  and, after furious struggles, arrested, along with his brother,
  Couthon, and Saint Just--Henriot, Commandant of the National Guard,
  arrested--Terrorists take refuge in the Hotel de Ville--Attempt
  their own lives--Robespierre wounds himself--but lives, along with
  most of the others, long enough to be carried to the Guillotine, and
  executed--His character--Struggles that followed his Fate--Final
  Destruction of the Jacobinical System--and return of
  Tranquillity--Singular colour given to Society in Paris--Ball of the
  Victims,                                                           321

  CHAP. XVIII.--Retrospective View of the External Relations of
  France--Her great Military Successes--Whence they arose--Effect of
  the Compulsory Levies--Military Genius and Character of the
  French--French Generals--New Mode of Training the Troops--Light
  Troops--Successive Attacks in Column--Attachment of the Soldiers to
  the Revolution--Also of the Generals--Carnot--Effect of the French
  principles preached to the Countries invaded by their Arms--Close of
  the Revolution with the fall of Robespierre--Reflections upon what
  was to succeed,                                                    364




[Illustration]

CHAPTER I.

VIEW OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.

    _Review of the state of Europe after the Peace of
    Versailles--England--France--Spain--Prussia--Imprudent
    Innovations of the Emperor Joseph--Disturbances in his
    Dominions--Russia--France--Her ancient System of Monarchy--how
    organized--Causes of its Decay--Decay of the Nobility as a
    body--The new Nobles--The Country Nobles--The Nobles of the
    highest Order--The Church--The higher Orders of the Clergy--The
    lower Orders--The Commons--Their increase in Power and
    Importance--Their Claims opposed to those of the Privileged
    Classes._


When we look back on past events, however important, it is difficult to
