The Mentor Napoleon Bonaparte 2
From a painting by Sir Thomas Lawrence of the unfortunate little son
of Napoleon and Marie Louise. His unhappy story is told by the French
dramatist Rostand, in the play “L’Aiglon.”]
EMPEROR OF THE FRENCH
What Napoleon aimed at was to fit together all the different elements
that had made France, under a government that he should direct, and
then to impose upon them all peace, industry, and loyalty. Considering
the character and history of the elements he was working with, the
degree of his success is one of the wonders of statecraft. As time went
on, however, he was subjected to more and more jealousy, criticism, and
intrigue. And as he saw his power questioned his grasp tightened. He
even began to employ the tactics of despots,--espionage, censorships,
summary punishments. The upshot of the attacks upon him and of his
determination to impose his own will was that in 1804, when he was
thirty-five years old, he had himself made emperor of the French.
I think there is no doubt that Napoleon believed that this was the
only method by which he could make the position of France in Europe
impregnable; but that he was willing to play the emperor there is no
doubt. The dream of a throne where he should rule--for the welfare and
happiness of everybody concerned, no doubt, but rule--brilliantly and
absolutely--had never left his mind since boyhood--and now it was a
fact accomplished!
The spectacle that followed is almost unbelievable. Napoleon with
perfect seriousness set about to train himself, his lovable, but vain
and unprincipled empress, Josephine, his selfish and vulgar family,
his train of rough intimates of the battlefield, to the etiquette,
ceremonies, and dignity of a court. He worked with the same energy,
attention to details, and with the same insistence on complete
obedience as when directing a campaign. The Napoleonic court achieved
real brilliance and dignity; but to those born to the purple it was
always an upstart’s court. That it was far and away more moral,
economic, and orderly, as well as more serviceable to France, counted
for little with those of the old régime.
NAPOLEON THE CONQUEROR
[Illustration: NAPOLEON AND QUEEN LOUISA OF PRUSSIA AT TILSIT]
The year after Napoleon was crowned emperor of the French (1804) he had
himself crowned king of Italy. The territory he now governed included
not only these two countries, but several Germanic states. It was an
enormous power, and the old kingdoms of Europe, England, Austria, and
Russia looked on in dismay. It was not only his power, backed as it
was by his genius, but it was the ideas he was spreading. Everywhere
he went he put his new code of laws into force, and preached, even if
he did not always practise, personal liberty, equality before the law,
religious tolerance,--ideas that many of his enemies feared more than
they did armies.
A coalition against him was inevitable, and in 1805 he took the field
again. The campaigns that followed closely in the next four years
include some of his most interesting military feats,--the battle of
Austerlitz, of which he was proudest himself; the campaign of Jena, by
which he humbled Prussia, increased French territory largely, and won
the czar of Russia as an ally; the war on Spain, which ended in his own
deserved defeat (Napoleon at St. Helena characterized his attack on
Spain as “unjust,” “cynical,” “villainous”); the campaign of Wagram,
which finally humbled his persistent enemy Austria.
[Illustration: NAPOLEON’S FAREWELL TO JOSEPHINE
For reasons of state Napoleon divorced the Empress Josephine to marry
Marie Louise, the daughter of the emperor of Austria. His last words to
the woman who loved him were: “My destiny and France demand it!”]
At the end of these four years Napoleon was himself the practical
master of Europe; the only nation not recognizing his power being
England, which was at least temporarily quiet. He had created an
empire; but what was he to do with it? He had no heir. To provide
for one he carried out a plan long considered,--he divorced Empress
Josephine and married again. The new empress was the daughter of the
old and now humbled enemy of France, the emperor of Austria. Napoleon
apparently believed that on the birth of an heir France would accept
him fully, and that Europe would cease to fear and resent his power. He
was wrong. He had stripped too many of wealth and position, outraged
too many social and religious conventions, set in motion too many
ideas hostile to those that Europe as a whole lived by. His demands on
subjects and allies were too heavy, and particularly the one that he
had most at heart,--that no continental nation should allow a dollar’s
worth of England’s goods to cross its borders. His punishment of those
who displeased him and disobeyed his orders was too severe. A revolt
against his monstrous assumption was inevitable.
[Illustration: NAPOLEON BONAPARTE
From a portrait of the Emperor painted by Paul Delaroche.]
THE SETTING STAR
[Illustration: THE BATTLE OF WATERLOO]
It was with his ally, Russia, that the first break came. That Napoleon
was startled by the idea of war with Alexander and sought to prevent
it, is certain; but Alexander refused to yield to his demand that the
embargo against English goods be enforced. The embargo he had set
down as the “fundamental law of the Empire.” There was nothing to do
but settle it by arms, and in the summer of 1812, with an army of
over half a million men, he began a reluctant and hesitating march
against Russia. It was a campaign of terrible disasters. The Russians
retreated before him, letting cold and hunger do the work of battles.
So effectively did they work that the French army was practically
destroyed. The Russian campaign is one of the most appalling in
history. It was but the beginning of his overthrow. Alexander raised
the cry “Deliver Europe!” Stein and other liberal minds rallied the
youth of the German states into a league, pledged to fight for
national freedom. His allies and dependences began to demand the return
of lost territories as a price of loyalty. France revolted at the
prospects of continued bloodshed. The campaigns thrust upon him by all
these forces were fought; but frequently without his old genius.
It was June of 1812 when Napoleon began the Russian campaign.
Twenty-one months later Paris capitulated to his allied enemies, and a
few weeks later he had lost the greatest empire modern Europe had seen
gathered under one man, and was an exile in the little island of Elba.
[Illustration: LONGWOOD
Napoleon’s residence during his captivity at St. Helena.
AN EXILE’S GRAVE
The spot where Napoleon was buried in May, 1821. His body was removed
to Paris in 1840.]
WATERLOO AND ST. HELENA
His dramatic escape from Elba; the scurry out of France at news of
his arrival of all who had opposed him, leaving the coast practically
clear for him; the rally of the army and people to him; the immediate
attack upon him by the allied powers of Europe; his defeat at Waterloo
and speedy exile to St. Helena,--these make perhaps the most dramatic
succession of events in all history, and it was not he who lost by the
record of them, though it ended in his captivity. Napoleon a prisoner
on an island six hundred miles from land was Napoleon still. He was
there because of his conquerors’ fear of him. No greater tribute to
one man’s power was ever paid than that of Europe when under English
leadership she consented to confine Napoleon Bonaparte on the island of
St. Helena. It was all that was needed to impress him forever on the
world as one of heroic mold.
SUPPLEMENTARY READING.--“Short Life of Napoleon Bonaparte,”
Ida M. Tarbell; “The First Napoleon,” John C. Ropes; “Napoleon
Bonaparte, First Campaign,” H. H. Sargent; “Life of Napoleon,”
Las Casas; “Napoleon, the Last Phase,” Lord Rosebery; “Letters
and Papers of Napoleon”; “Napoleana,” Frédéric Masson.
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_Editorial_
For some time past we have felt that the cover of The Mentor has been
of rather a “severe and formal” cut, and that it would be well for us
to adopt a design that was composed of lines that were somewhat more gracious and flowing.
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