08 - Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte, Volume III by Louis Antoine Fauvelet de Bourrienne

Dive into the captivating world of Napoleon Bonaparte through the eyes of his private secretary. This remarkable memoir, forged from years of close friendship and professional collaboration, offers a unique glimpse into the life and mind of one of historys most enigmatic figures. - Summary by Gillian Hendrie and Wikipedia

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chapter twenty two of Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte, Volume three
by Louis Antoine Follilet de Bouriennese. This LibriVox recording is
in the public domain, read by Jillian Henry, Chapter twenty two,
seventeen ninety nine. Effect produced by Bonaparte's return, his justification,

(00:22):
melancholy letter to my wife, Bonaparte's intended dinner at Sance,
Louis Bonaparte and Josephine, he changes his intended route, melancholy
situation of the provinces, necessity of a change, Bonaparte's ambitious views,
influence of popular applause, arrival in Paris, his reception of Josephine,

(00:48):
their reconciliation, Bonaparte's visit to the directory, his contemptuous treatment
of says. The effect produced in France and throughout Europe
by the mere intelligence of Bonaparte's return is well known.
I shall not yet speak of the vast train of
consequences which that event entailed. I must, however, notice some

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accusations which were brought against him. From the time of
our landing to the ninth of November. He was reproached
for having left Egypt, and it was alleged that his
departure was the result of long premeditation. But I, who
was constantly with him, am enabled positively to affirm that

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his return to France was merely the effect of a
sudden resolution of this. The following fact is in itself
sufficient evidence. While we were at Cairo a few days
before we heard of the landing of the Anglo Turkish fleet,
and at the moment when we were on the point
of setting off to encamp at the Pyramids, Buonaparte dispatched

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a courier to France. I took advantage of this opportunity
to write to my wife. I almost ad her an
eternal adieu. My letter breathed expressions of grief such as
I had not before evinced. I said, among other things,
that we knew not when or how it would be
possible for us to return to France. If Bonaparte had

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then entertained any thought of a speedy return, I must
have known it, And in that case I should not
certainly have distressed my family by a desponding letter when
I had not had an opportunity of writing for seven
months before. Two days after the receipt of my letter,
my wife was awoke very early in the morning to

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be informed of our arrival in France. The courier who
brought this intelligence was the bearer of a second letter
from me, which I had written on board ship and
dated from Frejus. In this letter I mentioned that Bonaparte
would pass through Sans and dine with my mother. In
fulfillment of my direction, Madame de Bourienne set off for

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Paris at five in the morning. Having passed the first
post house, she met at Berlin, containing four travelers, among
whom she recognized Louis Bonaparte, going to meet the general
on the Lyon road. On saying Madame de Bourienne, Louis
desired the postilion to stop and asked whether she had

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heard from me. She informed him that we should pass
through Sans, where the General wished to dine with my mother,
who had made every preparation for receiving him. Louis then
continued his journey. About nine o'clock, my wife met another
Berlin in which where Madame Bonaparte and her daughter. As
they were asleep and both carriages were driving at a

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very rapid rate, Madame de Bourienne did not stop them.
Josephine followed the route taken by Louis, both missed the General,
who changed his mind at Leon and proceeded by way
of Bourbons. He arrived fifteen hours after my wife and
those who had taken the Burgundy road proceeded to Lyon,

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uselessly determined to repair in all haste to Paris. Bonaparte
had left Frasius on the afternoon of the day of
our landing. He himself had dispatched the courier to Soans
to inform my mother of his intended visit to her,
and it was not until he got to Lyon that
he determined to take the Bourboney road. His reasons for

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doing so will presently be seen all along the road.
At X at Lyon, in every town and village he
was received, as at Frigius, with the most rapturous demonstrations
of joy. Footnote from Frejus to x A crowd of
men kindly escorted us, carrying torches alongside the carriage of

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the General, not so much to show their enthusiasm as
to ensure our safety note Burien EndNote. These brigands became
so bad in France that at one time soldiers were
placed in the imperials of all the diligences receiving from
the wits the curiously anticipative name of imperial armies and footnote.

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Only those who witnessed this triumphal journey can form any
notion of it, and it required no great discernment to
foresee something like the eighteenth Brumaire. The provinces, a prey
to anarchy and civil war, were continually threatened with foreign invasion.
Almost all the South presented the melancholy spectacle of one

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vast arena of conflicting factions. The nation groaned beneath the
yoke of tyrannical laws. Despotism was systematically established, The law
of hostages struck a blow at personal liberty, and forced
loans menaced every man's property. The generality of the citizens

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had declared themselves against a penterke devoid of power, justice
and morality, and which had become the sport of faction
and intrigue. Disorder was general, but in the provinces abuses
were felt more sensibly than elsewhere. In great cities it
was found more easy to elude the hand of despotism

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and oppression. A change so earnestly wished for could not
fail to be realized and to be received with transport.
The majority of the French people longed to be relieved
from the situation in which they then stood. There were
two dangers to cope with, anarchy and the Bourbon Everyone

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felt the urgent and indispensable necessity of concentrating the power
of the government in a single hand, at the same
time maintaining the institutions which the spirit of the age demanded,
and which Franz, after having so dearly purchased, was now
about to lose. The country looked for a man who

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was capable of restoring her to tranquility, but as yet
no such man had appeared. A soldier of fortune presented
himself covered with glory. He had planted the standard of
France on the capitol and on the pyramids. The whole
world acknowledged his superior talent, his character, his courage, and

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his victories had raised him to the very highest rank.
His great works, his gallant actions, his speeches, and his
proclamations ever since he had risen to eminence, left no
doubt of his wish to secure happiness and freedom to France,
his adopted country. At that critical moment, the necessity of

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a temporary dictatorship, which sometimes secures the safety of a state,
banished all reflections on the consequences of such a power,
and nobody seemed to think glory incompatible with personal liberty.
All eyes were therefore directed on the general, whose past
conduct guaranteed his capability of defending the republic abroad and

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liberty at home. On the general whom his flatterers, and
indeed some of his sincere friends, styled the hero of
liberal ideas, the title to which he aspired under every
point of view. Therefore, he was naturally chosen as the
chief of a generous nation, confiding to him her destiny,

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in preference to a troop of mean and fanatical hypocrites, who,
under the names of republicanism and liberty, had reduced France
to the most abject slavery. Among the schemes which Bonaparte
was incessantly revolving in his mind may undoubtedly be ranked
the project of attaining the head of the French government.

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But it would be a mistake to suppose that on
his return from Egypt he had formed any fixed plan.
There was something vague in his ambitious aspirations, and he was,
if I may so express myself fond of building those
imaginary edifices called castles in the air. The current of

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events was in accordance with his wishes, and it may
truly be said that the whole French nation smoothed for
Bonaparte the road which led to power. Certainly, the unanimous
plaudits and universal joy which accompanied him along a journey
of more than two hundred leagues must have induced him

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to regard as a national mission that step which was
at first prompted merely by his wish of meddling with
the affairs of the republic. This spontaneous burst of popular feeling,
unordered and unpaid for, largely proclaimed the grievances of the
people and their hope that the man of victory would

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become their deliverer. The general enthusiasm excited by the return
of the conqueror of Egypt delighted him to a degree
which I cannot express, and was, as he has often
assured me, a powerful stimulus in urging him to the
object to which the wishes of France seemed to direct him.

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Among people of all classes and opinions, an eighteenth Brumre
was desired and expected. Many royalists, even believed that a
change would prove favorable to the king. So ready are
we to persuade ourselves of the reality of what we wish.
As soon as it was suspected that Bonaparte would accept

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the power offered him, an outcry was raised about a
conspiracy against the republic, and measures were sought for preserving it.
But necessity, and indeed, it must be confessed the general
feeling of the people consigned the execution of those measures
to him who was to subvert the rep public. On

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his return to Paris, Bonaparte spoke and acted like a
man who felt his own power. He cared neither for flattery, dinners,
nor balls. His mind took a higher flight. We arrived
in Paris on the twenty fourth Londimier the sixteenth of October.
As yet he knew nothing of what was going on,

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for he had seen neither his wife nor his brothers,
who were looking for him on the Burgundy road. The
news of our landing at Fregios had reached Paris by
a telegraphic dispatch. Madame Bonaparte, who was dining with Monsieur
Goier when that dispatch was communicated to him, as president
of the Directory, immediately set off to meet her husband,

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well knowing how important it was that her first interview
with him should not be anticipated by his brothers. The
imprisoned communications of Juneau at the fountains of Musudia will
be remembered. But after the first ebulition of jealous rage,
all traces of that feeling had apparently disappeared. Bonaparte, however,

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was still harassed by secret suspicion, and the painful impressions
produced by Juno were either not entirely effaced or were
revived after our arrival in Paris. We reached the capital
before Josephine returned. The Recollection of the Past, the ill
natured reports of his brothers footnote. Joseph Bonaparte remarks on

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this that Napoleon met Josephine at Paris before his brothers
arrived there. Note Compare DeVante, Volume one, pages two hundred
and sixty to two hundred and sixty two and lem
Usa Tom One, pages one hundred and forty seven to
one hundred and forty eight. D footnote The Recollection of

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the Past, the ill natured reports of his brothers and
the exaggeration of facts had Irritatedapoleon to the very highest pitch,
and he received Josephine with studied coldness and with an
air of the most cruel indifference. He had no communication
with her for three days, during which time he frequently

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spoke to me of suspicions, which his imagination converted into certainty,
and threats of divorce escaped his lips with no less
vehemence than when we were on the confines of Syria.
I took upon me the office of conciliator, which I
had before discharged with success. I represented to him the

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dangers to be apprehended from the publicity and scandal of
such an affair, and that the moment when his grand
views might possibly be realized was not the fit time
to entertain France and Europe with the details of a
charge of adultery. I spoke to him of Ortense and Ugene,
to whom he was much attached. Reflection, seconded by his

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ardent affection for Josephine, brought about a complete reconciliation. After
these three days of conjugal misunderstanding. Their happiness was never
afterwards disturbed by a similar cause. Cout note in speaking
of the unexpected arrival of Bonaparte and of the meeting
between him and Josephine. Madame Jounau says quote on the

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tenth of October, Josephine set off to meet her husband,
but without knowing exactly what road he would take, she
thought it likely he would come by way of Burgundy,
and therefore Louis and she set off for Lyon. Madame
Bonaparte was a prey to great and well founded aspersions,
whether she was guilty or only imprudent. She was strongly

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accused by the Bonaparte family, who were desirous that Napoleon
should attain a divorce. The elder Monsieur de Conencourt stated
to us his apprehensions on this point, but whenever the
subject was intrude, my mother changed the conversation, because knowing
as she did the sentiments of the Bonaparte family, she

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could not reply without either committing them or having recourse
to falsehood. She knew moreover, the truth of many circumstances,
which Monsieur de Cencourt seemed to doubt, and which her
situation with respect to Bonaparte prevented her from communicating to him.
Madame Bonaparte committed a great fault in neglecting at this

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juncture to conciliate her mother in law, who might have
protected her against those who sought her ruin and affected
it nine years later. For the divorce in eighteen o
nine was brought about by the joint efforts of all
the members of the Bonaparte family, aided by some of
Napoleon's most confidential servants, whom Josephine, either as Madame Bonaparte

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or as Empress, had done nothing to make her friends. Bonaparte,
on his arrival in Paris, found his house deserted, but
his mother, sisters and sisters in law, and in short,
every member of his family except Louis, who had attended
Madame Bonaparte to Lyon, came to him immediately. The impression

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made upon him by the solitude of his home and
its desertion by its mistress was profound and terrible, and
nine years afterwards, when the ties between him and Josephine
were severed forever, he showed that it was not effaced
from not finding her with his family. He inferred that
she felt herself unworthy of their presence and feared to

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meet the man she had wronged. He considered her journey
to Leon as a mere pretense. Monsieur de Bourienne says
that for some days after Josephine's return, Bonaparte treated her
with extreme coldness, as he was an eyewitness. Why does
he not state the whole truth and say that on

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her return Bonaparte refused to see her and did not
see her. It was to the earnest and treaties of
her children that she owed the recovery, not of her
husband's love, for that had long ceased, but of that
tenderness acquired by habit, and that intimate intercourse which made

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her still retain the rank of consort to the greatest
man of his age. Bonaparte was at this period much
attached to Eugene Bourne, who, to do him justice, was
a charming youth. He knew less of Ortense, but her
youth and sweetness of temper, and the protection of which,

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as his adopted daughter she besought him not to deprive
her proved powerful advocates, and overcame his resistance. In this
delicate negotiation. It was good policy not to bring any
other person into play, whatever might be their influence with
Bonaparte and Madame Bonaparte did not therefore have rec court

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either to Barras, Boullienne or Bertier. It was expedient that
they who interceded for her should be able to say
something without the possibility of a reply. Now Bonaparte could not,
with any degree of propriety explain to such children as
Eugene or Ortense the particulars of their mother's conduct. He

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was therefore constrained to silence, and had no argument to
combat the tears of two innocent creatures at his feet, exclaiming,
do not abandon our mother. She will break her heart
and ut injustice to take from us poor orphans whose
natural protector, the scaffold, has already deprived us of the

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support of one whom Providence has sent to replace him.
The scene, as Bonaparte has since stated, was long and painful,
and the two children at length introduced their mother and
placed her in his arms. The unhappy woman had awaited
his decision at the door of a small back staircase

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extended at almost full length upon the stairs, suffering the
acutest pangs of mental torture. Whatever might be his wife's errors,
Bonaparte appeared entirely to forget them, and the reconciliation was
complete of all the members of the family. Madame Leclire
was most vexed at the pardon which Napoleon had granted

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to his wife. Bonaparte's mother was also very ill pleased,
but she said nothing. Madame Joseph Bonaparte, who was always
very amiable, took no part in these family quarrels. Therefore
she could easily determine what part to take when fortune
smiled on Josephine. As to Madame Baccioci, she gave free

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vent to her ill humor and disdain. The consequence was
that her sister in law could never endure her. Christine,
who was a beautiful creature, followed the example of Madame Joseph,
and Caroline was so young that her opinion could have
no weight in such an affair. As to Bonaparte's brothers,

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they were at open war with Josephine and footnote. On
the day after his arrival, Bonaparte visited the director's footnote.
The directors at this time were Barras, C. S. Mulla,
Gouier and Lorre Ducout and footnote. The interview was cold.

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On the twenty fourth of October, he said to me, quote,
I dined yesterday at Goye's. Yes was present, and I
pretended not to see him. I observed how much he
was enraged at this mark of disrespect end quote. But
are you sure he is against you? Inquired I quote.

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I know nothing yet, but he is a scheming man,
and I don't like him. End quote. Even at that time,
Bonaparte had thoughts of getting himself elected a member of
the Directory in the room of c s end of
Chapter twenty two.