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Page 8
CHAPTER X.
1802.
General Bernadotte pacifies La vendee and suppresses a mutiny at
Tours--Bonaparte's injustice towards him--A premeditated scene--
Advice given to Bernadotte, and Bonaparte disappointed--The First
Consul's residence at St. Cloud--His rehearsals for the Empire--
His contempt of mankind--Mr. Fox and Bonaparte--Information of plans
of assassination--A military dinner given by Bonaparte--Moreau not
of the party--Effect of the 'Senates-consultes' on the Consulate for
life--Journey to Plombieres--Previous scene between Lucien and
Josephine--Theatrical representations at Neuilly and Malmaison--
Loss of a watch, and honesty rewarded--Canova at St. Cloud--
Bonaparte's reluctance to stand for a model.
Having arrived at nearly the middle of the career which I have undertaken
to trace, before I advance farther I must go back for a few moments, as I
have already frequently done, in order to introduce some circumstances
which escaped my recollection, or which I purposely reserved, that I
might place them amongst facts analogous to them: Thus, for instance, I
have only referred in passing to a man who, since become a monarch, has
not ceased to honour me with his friendship, as will be seen in the
course of my Memoirs, since the part we have seen him play in the events
of the 18th Brumaire. This man, whom the inexplicable combination of
events has raised to a throne for the happiness of the people he is
called to govern, is Bernadotte.
It was evident that Bernadotte must necessarily fall into a kind of
disgrace for not having supported Bonaparte's projects at the period of
the overthrow of the Directory. The First Consul, however, did not dare
to avenge himself openly; but he watched for every opportunity to remove
Bernadotte from his presence, to place him in difficult situations, and
to entrust him with missions for which no precise instructions were
given, in the hope that Bernadotte would commit faults for which the
First Consul might make him wholly responsible.
At the commencement of the Consulate the deplorable war in La Vendee
raged in all its intensity. The organization of the Chouans was
complete, and this civil war caused Bonaparte much more uneasiness than
that which he was obliged to conduct on the Rhine and in Italy, because,
from the success of the Vendeans might arise a question respecting
internal government, the solution of which was likely to be contrary to
Bonaparte's views. The slightest success of the Vendeans spread alarm
amongst the holders of national property; and, besides, there was no hope
of reconciliation between France and England, her eternal and implacable
enemy, as long as the flame of insurrection remained unextinguished.
The task of terminating this unhappy struggle was obviously a difficult
one. Bonaparte therefore resolved to impose it on Bernadotte; but this
general's conciliatory disposition, his chivalrous manners, his tendency
to indulgence, and a happy mixture of prudence and firmness, made him
succeed where others would have failed. He finally established good
order and submission to the laws.
Some time after the pacification of La Vendee a rebellious disposition
manifested itself at Tours amongst the soldiers of a regiment stationed
there. The men refused to march until they received their arrears of
pay. Bernadotte, as commander-in-chief of the army of the west, without
being alarmed at the disturbance, ordered the fifty-second demi-brigade--
the one in question--to be drawn up in the square of Tours, where, at the
very head of the corps, the leaders of the mutiny were by his orders
arrested without any resistance being offered. Carnot who was then
Minister of War, made a report to the First Consul on this affair, which,
but for the firmness of Bernadotte, might have been attended with
disagreeable results. Carnet's report contained a plain statement of the
facts, and of General Bernadotte's conduct. Bonaparte was, however,
desirous to find in it some pretext for blaming him, and made me write
these words on the margin of the report: "General Bernadotte did not act
discreetly in adopting such severe measures against the fifty-second
demi-brigade, he not having the means, if he head been unsuccessful, of
re-establishing order in a town the garrison of which was not strong
enough to subdue the mutineers."
A few days after, the First Consul having learned that the result of this
affair was quite different from that which he affected to dread, and
being convinced that by Bernadotte's firmness alone order had been
restored, he found himself in some measure constrained to write to the
General, and he dictated the following letter to me:
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