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Page 16
CHAPTER XXIX.
1804.
England deceived by Napoleon--Admirals Missiessy and Villeneuve--
Command given to Lauriston--Napoleon's opinion of Madame de Stael--
Her letters to Napoleon--Her enthusiasm converted into hatred--
Bonaparte's opinion of the power of the Church--The Pope's arrival
at Fontainebleau--Napoleon's first interview with Pius VII.--
The Pope and the Emperor on a footing of equality--Honours rendered
to the Pope--His apartments at the Tuileries--His visit to the
Imperial printing office--Paternal rebuke--Effect produced in
England by the Pope's presence in Paris--Preparations for Napoleon's
coronation--Votes in favour of hereditary succession--Convocation of
the Legislative Body--The presidents of cantons--Anecdote related by
Michot the actor--Comparisons--Influence of the Coronation on the
trade of Paris--The insignia of Napoleon and the insignia of
Charlemagne--The Pope's mule--Anecdote of the notary Raguideau--
Distribution of eagles in the Champ de Mars--Remarkable coincidence.
England was never so much deceived by Bonaparte as during the period of
the encampment at Boulogne. The English really believed that an invasion
was intended, and the Government exhausted itself in efforts for raising
men and money to guard against the danger of being taken by surprise.
Such, indeed, is the advantage always possessed by the assailant. He can
choose the point on which he thinks it most convenient to act, while the
party which stands on the defence, and is afraid of being attacked, is
compelled to be prepared in every point. However, Napoleon, who was then
in the full vigour of his genius and activity, had always his eyes fixed
on objects remote from those which surrounded him, and which seemed to
absorb his whole attention. Thus, during the journey of which I have
spoken, the ostensible object of which was the organisation of the
departments on the Rhine, he despatched two squadrons from Rochefort and
Boulogne, one commanded by Missiessy, the other by Villeneuve--I shall
not enter into any details about those squadrons; I shall merely mention
with respect to them that, while the Emperor was still in Belgium,
Lauriston paid me a sudden and unexpected visit. He was on his way to
Toulon to take command of the troops which were to be embarked on
Villeneuve's squadron, and he was not much pleased with the service to
which he had been appointed.
Lauriston's visit was a piece of good fortune for me. We were always on
friendly terms, and I received much information from him, particularly
with respect to the manner in which the Emperor spent his time. "You can
have no idea," said he, "how much the Emperor does, and the sort of
enthusiasm which his presence excites in the army. But his anger at the
contractors is greater than ever, and he has been very severe with some
of them." These words of Lauriaton did not at all surprise me, for I
well knew Napoleon's dislike to contractors, and all men who had
mercantile transactions with the army. I have often heard him say that
they were a curse and a leprosy to nations; that whatever power he might
attain, he never would grant honours to any of them, and that of all
aristocracies, theirs was to him the most insupportable. After his
accession to the Empire the contractors were no longer the important
persons they had been under the Directory, or even during the two first
years of the Consulate. Bonaparte sometimes acted with them as he had
before done with the Beya of Egypt, when he drew from them forced
contributions.
--[Lauriston, one of Napoleon's aides de camp, who was with him at
the Military School of Paris, and who had been commissioned in the
artillery at the same time as Napoleon, considered that he should
have had the post of Grand Ecuyer which Caulaincourt had obtained.
He had complained angrily to the Emperor, and after a stormy
interview was ordered to join the fleet of Villeneuve--In
consequence he was at Trafalgar. On his return after Austerlitz
his temporary disgrace was forgotten, and he was sent as governor to
Venice. He became marshal under the Restoration.]--
I recollect another somewhat curious circumstance respecting the visit of
Lauriston, who had left the Emperor and Empress at Aix-la-Chapelle.
Lauriston was the best educated of the aides de camp, and Napoleon often
conversed with him on such literary works as he chose to notice.
"He sent for me one day," said Lauriston, "when I was on duty at the
Palace of Lacken, and spoke to me of the decennial prizes, and the
tragedy of 'Carion de Nisas', and a novel by Madame de Stael, which he
had just read, but which I had not seen, and was therefore rather
embarrassed in replying to him. Respecting Madame de Stael and her
Delphine, he said some remarkable things. 'I do not like women,' he
observed, 'who make men of themselves, any more than I like effeminate
men. There is s proper part for every one to play in the world. What
does all this flight of imagination mean? What is the result of it?
Nothing. It is all sentimental metaphysics and disorder of the mind. I
cannot endure that woman; for one reason, that I cannot bear women who
make a set at me, and God knows how often she has tried to cajole me!'"
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