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Page 20
Lannes hastened to the First Consul. "What!"--he exclaimed, "is it
possible you can be guilty of such baseness as this? To treat me in such
a manner! To lay such a foul snare for me after all that I have done for
you; after all the blood I have shed to promote your ambition! Is this
the recompense you had in store for me? You forget the 13th Vendemiaire,
to the success of which I contributed more than you! You forget
Millesimo: I was colonel before you! For whom did I fight at Bassano?
You were witness of what I did at Lodi and at Governolo, where I was
wounded; and yet you play me such a trick as this! But for me, Paris
would have revolted on the 18th Brumaire. But for me, you would have
lost the battle of Marengo. I alone, yes, I alone, passed the Po, at
Montebello, with my whole division. You gave the credit of that to
Berthier, who was not there; and this is my reward--humiliation. This
cannot, this shall not be. I will----" Bonaparte, pale with anger,
listened without stirring, and Lannes was on the point of challenging him
when Junot, who heard the uproar, hastily entered. The unexpected
presence of this general somewhat reassured the First Consul, and at the
same time calmed, in some degree, the fury of Lannes. "Well," said
Bonaparte, "go to Lisbon. You will get money there; and when you return
you will not want any one to pay your debts for you." Thus was
Bonaparte's object gained. Lannes set out for Lisbon, and never
afterwards annoyed the First Consul by his familiarities, for on his
return he ceased to address him with thee and thou.
Having described Bonaparte's ill-treatment of Lannes I may here subjoin a
statement of the circumstances which led to a rupture between the First
Consul and me. So many false stories have been circulated on the subject
that I am anxious to relate the facts as they really were.
Nine months had now passed since I had tendered my resignation to the
First Consul. The business of my office had become too great for me,
and my health was so much endangered by over-application that my
physician, M. Corvisart, who had for a long time impressed upon me the
necessity of relaxation, now formally warned me that I should not long
hold out under the fatigue I underwent. Corvisart had no doubt spoken to
the same effect to the First Consul, for the latter said to me one day,
in a tone which betrayed but little feeling, "Why, Corvisart says you
have not a year to live." This was certainly no very welcome compliment
in the mouth of an old college friend, yet I must confess that the doctor
risked little by the prediction.
I had resolved, in fact, to follow the advice of Corvisart; my family
were urgent in their entreaties that I would do so, but I always put off
the decisive step. I was loath to give up a friendship which had
subsisted so long, and which had been only once disturbed: on that
occasion when Joseph thought proper to play the spy upon me at the table
of Fouche. I remembered also the reception I had met with from the
conqueror of Italy; and I experienced, moreover, no slight pain at the
thought of quitting one from whom I had received so many proofs of
confidence, and to whom I had been attached from early boyhood. These
considerations constantly triumphed over the disgust to which I was
subjected by a number of circumstances, and by the increasing vexations
occasioned by the conflict between my private sentiments and the nature
of the duties I had to perform.
I was thus kept in a state of perplexity, from which some unforeseen
circumstance alone could extricate me. Such a circumstance at length
occurred, and the following is the history of my first rupture with
Napoleon:
On the 27th of February 1802, at ten at night, Bonaparte dictated to me a
despatch of considerable importance and urgency, for M. de Talleyrand,
requesting the Minister for Foreign Affairs to come to the Tuileries next
morning at an appointed hour. According to custom, I put the letter into
the hands of the office messenger that it might be forwarded to its
destination.
This was Saturday. The following day, Sunday, M. de Talleyrand came as
if for an audience about mid-day. The First Consul immediately began to
confer with him on the subject of the letter sent the previous evening,
and was astonished to learn that the Minister had not received it
until the morning. He immediately rang for the messenger, and ordered me
to be sent for. Being in a very. bad humour, he pulled the bell with so
much fury that he struck his hand violently against the angle of the
chimney-piece. I hurried to his presence. "Why," he said, addressing me
hastily, "why was not my letter delivered yesterday evening?"--"I do not
know: I put it at once into the hands of the person whose duty it was to
see that it was sent."--"Go and find the cause of the delay, and come
back quickly." Having rapidly made my inquiries, I returned to the
cabinet. "Well?" said the First Consul, whose irritation seemed to have
increased. "Well, General, it is not the fault of anybody, M. de
Talleyrand was not to be found, either at the office or at his own
residence, or at the houses of any of his friends where he was thought
likely to be." Not knowing with whom to be angry, restrained by the
coolness of M. de Talleyrand, yet at the same time ready to burst with
rage, Bonaparte rose from his seat, and proceeding to the hall, called
the messenger and questioned him sharply. The man, disconcerted by the
anger of the First Consul, hesitated in his replies, and gave confused
answers. Bonaparte returned to his cabinet still more irritated than he
had left it.
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