The Life of Napoleon I Part 59

Vandamme. Comte.

*Victor. Duc de Belluno.

APPENDIX II

THE BATTLE OF WATERLOO

Some critics have blamed me for underrating the _role_ of the Prussians at Waterloo; but after careful study I have concluded that it has been overrated by some recent German writers. We now know that the Prussian advance was r.e.t.a.r.ded by Gneisenau's deep-rooted suspicion of Wellington, and that no direct aid was given to the British left until nearly the end of the battle. Napoleon always held that he could readily have kept off the Prussians at Planchenoit, that the main battle throughout was against Wellington, and that it was decided by the final charge of British cavalry. The Prussians did not wholly capture Planchenoit until the French opposing Wellington were in full flight. But, of course, Blucher's advance and onset made the victory the overwhelming triumph that it was.

An able critic in the "Sat.u.r.day Review" of May 10, 1902, has charged me with neglecting to say that the French left wing (Foy's and Bachelu's divisions) supported the French cavalry at the close of the great charges. I stated (p. 502) that French infantry was not "at hand to hold the ground which the cavaliers seemed to have won." Let me cite the exact words of General Foy, written in his Journal a few days after the battle (M. Girod de L'Ain's "Vie militaire du General Foy,"

p. 278): "Alors que la cavalerie francaise faisait cette longue et terrible charge, le feu de notre artillerie etait deja moins nourri, et notre infanterie ne fit aucun mouvement. Quand la cavalerie fut rentree, et que l'artillerie anglaise, qui avait cesse de tirer pendant une demi-heure, eut recommence son feu, on donna ordre aux divisions Foy et Bachelu d'avancer droit aux carres qui s'y etaient avances pendant la charge de cavalerie et qui ne s'etaient pas replies. L'attaque fut formee en colonnes par echelons de regiment, Bachelu formant les echelons les plus avances. Je tenis par ma gauche a la haie [de Hougoumont]: j'avais sur mon front un bataillon en tirailleurs. Pres de joindre les Anglais, nous avons recu un feu tres vif de mitraille et de mousqueterie. C'etait une grele de mort. Les carres ennemis avaient le premier rang genoux en terre et presentaient une haie de baonettes. Les colonnes de la 1're division ont pris la fuite les premieres: leur mouvement a entraine celui de mes colonnes.

En ce moment j'ai ete blesse...."

This shows that the advance of the French infantry was far too late to be of the slightest use to the cavalry. The British lines had been completely re-formed.

FOOTNOTES TO VOLUME I:

[Footnote 1: From a French work, "Moeurs et Coutumes des Corses"

(Paris, 1802), I take the following incident. A priest, charged with the duty of avenging a relative for some fourteen years, met his enemy at the gate of Ajaccio and forthwith shot him, under the eyes of an official--who did nothing. A relative of the murdered man, happening to be near, shot the priest. Both victims were quickly buried, the priest being interred under the altar of the church, "because of his sacred character." See too Miot de Melito, "Memoires," vol. i., ch.

xiii., as to the utter collapse of the jury system in 1800-1, because no Corsican would "deny his party or desert his blood."]

[Footnote 2: As to the tenacity of Corsican devotion, I may cite a curious proof from the unpublished portion of the "Memoirs of Sir Hudson Lowe." He was colonel in command of the Royal Corsican Rangers, enrolled during the British occupation of Corsica, and gained the affections of his men during several years of fighting in Egypt and elsewhere. When stationed at Capri in 1808 he relied on his Corsican levies to defend that island against Murat's attacks; and he did not rely in vain. Though confronted by a French Corsican regiment, they remained true to their salt, even during a truce, when they could recognize their compatriots. The partisan instinct was proof against the promises of Murat's envoys and the shouts even of kith and kin.]

[Footnote 3: The facts as to the family of Napoleon's mother are given in full detail by M. Ma.s.son in his "Napoleon Inconnu," ch. i. They correct the statement often made as to her "lowly," "peasant" origin.

Ma.s.son also proves that the house at Ajaccio, which is shown as Napoleon's birthplace, is of later construction, though on the same site.]

[Footnote 4: See Jacobi, "Hist. de la Corse," vol. ii., ch. viii. The whole story is told with prudent brevity by French historians, even by Ma.s.son and Chuquet. The few words in which Thiers dismisses this subject are altogether misleading.]

[Footnote 5: Much has been written to prove that Napoleon was born in 1768, and was really the eldest surviving son. The reasons, stated briefly, are: (1) that the first baptismal name of Joseph Buonaparte was merely _Nabulione_ (Italian for _Napoleon_), and that _Joseph_ was a later addition to his name on the baptismal register of January 7th, 1768, at Corte; (2) certain statements that Joseph was born at Ajaccio; (3) Napoleon's own statement at his marriage that he was born in 1768. To this it maybe replied that: (_a_) other letters and statements, still more decisive, prove that Joseph was born at Corte in 1768 and Napoleon at Ajaccio in 1769; (_b_) Napoleon's entry in the marriage register was obviously designed to lessen the disparity of years of his bride, who, on her side, subtracted four years from her age. See Chuquet, "La Jeunesse de Napoleon," p. 65.]

[Footnote 6: Nasica, "Memoires," p. 192.]

[Footnote 7: Both letters are accepted as authentic by Jung, "Bonaparte et son Temps," vol. i., pp. 84, 92; but Ma.s.son, "Napoleon Inconnu," vol. i., p. 55, tracking them to their source, discredits them, as also from internal evidence.]

[Footnote 8: Chaptal, "Mes Souvenirs sur Napoleon," p. 177.]

[Footnote 9: Joseph Buonaparte, "Mems.," vol. i., p. 29. So too Miot de Melito, "Mems.," vol. i., ch. x.]

[Footnote 10: Chaptal, "Souvenirs sur Napoleon," p. 237. See too Ma.s.son, "Napoleon Inconnu," vol. i., p. 158, note.]

[Footnote 11: In an after-dinner conversation on January 11th, 1803, with Roederer, Buonaparte exalted Voltaire at the expense of Rousseau in these significant words: "The more I read Voltaire, the more I like him: he is always reasonable, never a charlatan, never a fanatic: he is made for mature minds. Up to sixteen years of age I would have fought for Rousseau against all the friends of Voltaire. Now it is the contrary. _I have been especially disgusted with Rousseau since I have seen the East. Savage man is a dog._" ("Oeuvres de Roederer,"

vol. iii., p. 461.)

In 1804 he even denied his indebtedness to Rousseau. During a family discussion, wherein he also belittled Corsica, he called Rousseau "a babbler, or, if you prefer it, an eloquent enough _idealogue_. I never liked him, nor indeed well understood him: truly I had not the courage to read him all, because I thought him for the most part tedious."

(Lucien Buonaparte, "Memoires," vol. ii., ch. xi.)

His later views on Rousseau are strikingly set forth by Stanislas Girardin, who, in his "Memoirs," relates that Buonaparte, on his visit to the tomb of Rousseau, said: "'It would have been better for the repose of France that this man had never been born.' 'Why, First Consul?' said I. 'He prepared the French Revolution.' 'I thought it was not for you to complain of the Revolution.' 'Well,' he replied, 'the future will show whether it would not have been better for the repose of the world that neither I nor Rousseau had existed.'" Meneval confirms this remarkable statement.]

[Footnote 12: Ma.s.son, "Napoleon Inconnu," vol. ii., p. 53.]

[Footnote 13: Joseph Buonaparte, "Memoires," vol. i, p. 44.]

[Footnote 14: M. Chuquet, in his work "La Jeunesse de Napoleon"

(Paris, 1898), gives a different opinion: but I think this pa.s.sage shows a veiled hostility to Paoli. Probably we may refer to this time an incident stated by Napoleon at St. Helena to Lady Malcolm ("Diary,"

p. 88), namely, that Paoli urged on him the acceptance of a commission in the British army: "But I preferred the French, because I spoke the language, was of their religion, understood and liked their manners, and I thought the Revolution a fine time for an enterprising young man. Paoli was angry--we did not speak afterwards." It is hard to reconcile all these statements.

Lucien Buonaparte states that his brother seriously thought for a time of taking a commission in the forces of the British East India Company; but I am a.s.sured by our officials that no record of any application now exists.]

[Footnote 15: The whole essay is evidently influenced by the works of the democrat Raynal, to whom Buonaparte dedicated his "Lettres sur la Corse." To the "Discours de Lyons" he prefixed as motto the words "Morality will exist when governments are free," which he modelled on a similar phrase of Raynal. The following sentences are also noteworthy: "Notre organisation animale a des besoins indispensables: manger, dormir, engendrer. Une nourriture, une cabane, des vetements, une femme, sont donc une stricte necessite pour le bonheur. Notre organisation intellectuelle a des appet.i.ts non moins imperieux et dont la satisfaction est beaucoup plus precieuse. C'est dans leur entier developpement que consiste vraiment le bonheur. Sentir et raisonner, voila proprement le fait de l'homme."]

[Footnote 16: Nasica; Chuquet, p. 248.]

[Footnote 17: His recantation of Jacobinism was so complete that some persons have doubted whether he ever sincerely held it. The doubt argues a singular _navete_ it is laid to rest by Buonaparte's own writings, by his eagerness to disown or destroy them, by the testimony of everyone who knew his early career, and by his own confession: "There have been good Jacobins. At one time every man of spirit was bound to be one. I was one myself." (Thibaudeau, "Memoires sur le Consulat," p. 59.)]

[Footnote 18: I use the term _commissioner_ as equivalent to the French _representant en mission,_ whose powers were almost limitless.]

[Footnote 19: See this curious doc.u.ment in Jung, "Bonaparte et son Temps," vol. ii., p. 249. Ma.s.son ignores it, but admits that the Paolists and partisans of France were only seeking to dupe one another.]

[Footnote 20: Buonaparte, when First Consul, was dunned for payment by the widow of the Avignon bookseller who published the "Souper de Beaucaire." He paid her well for having all the remaining copies destroyed. Yet Panckoucke in 1818 procured one copy, which preserved the memory of Buonaparte's early Jacobinism.]

[Footnote 21: I have chiefly followed the careful account of the siege given by Cottin in his "Toulon et les Anglais en 1793" (Paris, 1898).

The following official figures show the weakness of the British army.

In December, 1792, the parliamentary vote was for 17,344 men as "guards and garrisons," besides a few at Gibraltar and Sydney. In February, 1793, 9,945 additional men were voted and 100 "independent companies": Hanoverians were also embodied. In February, 1794, the number of British regulars was raised to 60,244. For the navy the figures were: December, 1792, 20,000 sailors and 5,000 marines; February, 1793, 20,000 _additional_ seamen; for 1794, 73,000 seamen and 12,000 marines. ("Ann. Reg.")]

[Footnote 22: Barras' "Memoires" are not by any means wholly his. They are a compilation by Rousselin de Saint-Albin from the Barras papers.]

[Footnote 23: Jung, "Bonaparte et son Temps," vol. ii.]

[Footnote 24: M.G. Duruy's elaborate plea (Barras, "Mems.,"

Introduction, pp. 69-79) rests on the supposition that his hero arrived at Toulon on September 7th. But M. Chuquet has shown ("Cosmopolis," January, 1897) that he arrived there not earlier than September 16th. So too Cottin, ch, xi.]

[Footnote 25: As the burning of the French s.h.i.+ps and stores has been said to be solely due to the English, we may note that, _as early as October 3rd_, the Spanish Foreign Minister, the Duc d'Alcuida, suggested it to our amba.s.sador, Lord St. Helens: "If it becomes necessary to abandon the harbour, these vessels shall be sunk or set on fire in order that the enemy may not make use of them; for which purpose preparations shall be made beforehand."]

[Footnote 26: Thiers, ch. x.x.x.; Cottin, "L'Angleterre et les Princes."]

[Footnote 27: See Lord Grenville's despatch of August 9th, 1793, to Lord St. Helens ("F.O. Records, Spain," No. 28), printed by M. Cottin, p. 428. He does not print the more important despatch of October 22nd, where Grenville a.s.serts that the admission of the French princes would tend to invalidate the const.i.tution of 1791, for which the allies were working.]