Recollections of the Private Life of Napoleon - Volume 08 , livre ebook

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pubOne.info present you this new edition. Towards the end of September the Emperor made a journey to Raab; and, as he was mounting his horse to return to his residence at Schoenbrunn, he saw the bishop a few steps from him. "Is not that the bishop? " said he to M. Jardin, who was holding his horse's head. "No, Sire, it is Soliman. "- "I asked you if that was not the bishop, " repeated his Majesty, pointing to the prelate. M. Jardin, intent on business, and thinking only of the Emperor's horse which bore the name of Bishop, again replied, "Sire, you forget that you rode him on the last relay. " The Emperor now perceived the mistake, and broke into a laugh. I was witness at Wagram of an act which furnished a fine illustration of the Emperor's kindness of heart and consideration for others, of which I have already given several instances; for, although in the one I shall now relate, he was forced to refuse an act of clemency, his very refusal challenges admiration as an exhibition of the generosity and greatness of his soul.

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Publié par	Pub One Info
Date de parution	06 novembre 2010
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9782819949220
Langue	English

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RECOLLECTIONS OF THE PRIVATE LIFE OF NAPOLEON,V8
By CONSTANT
PREMIER VALET DE CHAMBRE
TRANSLATED BY WALTER CLARK
1895
CHAPTER XXII.
Towards the end of September the Emperor made ajourney to Raab; and, as he was mounting his horse to return to hisresidence at Schoenbrunn, he saw the bishop a few steps from him.“Is not that the bishop? ” said he to M. Jardin, who was holdinghis horse's head. “No, Sire, it is Soliman. ”— “I asked you if thatwas not the bishop, ” repeated his Majesty, pointing to theprelate. M. Jardin, intent on business, and thinking only of theEmperor's horse which bore the name of Bishop, again replied,“Sire, you forget that you rode him on the last relay. ” TheEmperor now perceived the mistake, and broke into a laugh. I waswitness at Wagram of an act which furnished a fine illustration ofthe Emperor's kindness of heart and consideration for others, ofwhich I have already given several instances; for, although in theone I shall now relate, he was forced to refuse an act of clemency,his very refusal challenges admiration as an exhibition of thegenerosity and greatness of his soul.
A very rich woman, named Madame de Combray, wholived near Caen, allowed her chateau to be occupied by a band ofroyalists, who seemed to think they upheld their cause worthily byrobbing diligences on the highway. She constituted herselftreasurer of this band of partisans, and consigned the funds thusobtained to a pretended treasurer of Louis XVIII. Her daughter,Madame Aquet, joined this troop, and, dressed in men's clothing,showed most conspicuous bravery. Their exploits, however, were notof long duration; and pursued and overcome by superior forces, theywere brought to trial, and Madame Aquet was condemned to death withher accomplices. By means of a pretended illness she obtained areprieve, of which she availed herself to employ every means in herpower to obtain a pardon, and finally, after eight months ofuseless supplications, decided to send her children to Germany tointercede with the Emperor. Her physician, accompanied by hersister and two daughters, reached Schoenbrunn just as the Emperorhad gone to visit the field of Wagram, and for an entire dayawaited the Emperor's return on the steps of the palace; and thesechildren, one ten, the other twelve, years old, excited muchinterest. Notwithstanding this, their mother's crime was a terribleone; for although in political matters opinions may not becriminal, yet under every form of government opinions are punished,if thereby one becomes a robber and an assassin. The children,clothed in black, threw themselves at the Emperor's feet, crying,“Pardon, pardon, restore to us our mother. ” The Emperor raisedthem tenderly, took the petition from the hands of the aunt, readevery word attentively, then questioned the physician with muchinterest, looked at the children, hesitated— but just as I, withall who witnessed this touching scene, thought he was going topronounce her pardon, he recoiled several steps, exclaiming, “Icannot do it! ” His changing color, eyes suffused with tears, andchoking voice, gave evidence of the struggle through which he waspassing; and witnessing this, his refusal appeared to me an act ofsublime courage.
Following upon the remembrance of these violentcrimes, so much the more worthy of condemnation since they were thework of a woman, who, in order to abandon herself to them, wasforced to begin by trampling under foot all the gentle and modestvirtues of her sex, I find recorded in my notes an act of fidelityand conjugal tenderness which well deserved a better result. Thewife of an infantry colonel, unwilling to be parted from herhusband, followed the march of his regiment in a coach, and on thedays of battle mounted a horse and kept herself as near as possibleto the line. At Friedland she saw the colonel fall, pierced by aball, hastened to him with her servant, carried him from the ranks,and bore him away in an ambulance, though too late, for he wasalready dead. Her grief was silent, and no one saw her shed a tear.She offered her purse to a surgeon, and begged him to embalm herhusband's corpse, which was done as well as possible under thecircumstances; and she then had the corpse wrapped in bandages,placed in a box with a lid, and put in a carriage, and seatingherself beside it, the heart-broken widow set out on her return toFrance. A grief thus repressed soon affected her mind; and at eachhalt she made on the journey, she shut herself up with her preciousburden, drew the corpse from its bog, placed it on a bed, uncoveredits face, and lavished on it the most tender caresses, talking toit as if it was living, and slept beside it. In the morning shereplaced her husband in the box, and, resuming her gloomy silence,continued her route. For several days her secret remained unknown,and was discovered only a few days before she reached Paris.
The body had not been embalmed in such a manner asto preserve it long from decay; and this soon reached such a point,that, when she arrived at an inn, the horrible odor from the boxaroused suspicion, and the unhappy wife's room was entered thatevening, and she was found clasping in her arms the already sadlydisfigured corpse of her husband. “Silence, ” she cried to thefrightened innkeeper. “My husband is asleep, why do you come todisturb his glorious rest? ” With much difficulty the corpse wasremoved from the arms of the insane woman who had guarded it withsuch jealous care, and she was conveyed to Paris, where sheafterward died, without recovering her reason for an instant.
There was much astonishment at the chateau ofSchoenbrunn because the Archduke Charles never appeared there; forhe was known to be much esteemed by the Emperor, who never spoke ofhim except with the highest consideration. I am entirely ignorantwhat motives prevented the prince from coming to Schoenbrunn, orthe Emperor from visiting him; but, nevertheless, it is a fact,that, two or three days before his departure from Munich, hisMajesty one morning attended a hunting-party, composed of severalofficers and myself; and that we stopped at a hunting-box called laVenerie on the road between Vienna and Bukusdorf, and on ourarrival we found the Archduke Charles awaiting his Majesty,attended by a suite of only two persons. The Emperor and thearchduke remained for a long while alone in the pavilion; and wedid not return to Schoenbrunn until late in the evening.
On the 16th of October at noon the Emperor left thisresidence with his suite, composed of the grand marshal, the Dukeof Frioul; Generals Rapp, Mouton, Savary, Nansouty, Durosnell andLebrun; of three chamberlains; of M. Labbe, chief of thetopographical bureau; of M. de Meneval, his Majesty's secretary,and M. Yvan; and accompanied by the Duke of Bassano, and the Dukeof Cadore, then minister of foreign relations.
We arrived at Passau on the morning of the 18th; andthe Emperor passed the entire day in visiting Forts Maximilian andNapoleon, and also seven or eight redoubts whose names recalled theprincipal battles of the campaign. More than twelve thousand menwere working on these important fortifications, to whom hisMajesty's visit was a fete. That evening we resumed our journey,and two days after we were at Munich.
At Augsburg, on leaving the palace of the Elector ofTreves, the Emperor found in his path a woman kneeling in the dust,surrounded by four children; he raised her up and inquired kindlywhat she desired. The poor woman, without replying, handed hisMajesty a petition written in German, which General Rapptranslated. She was the widow of a German physician named Buiting,who had died a short time since, and was well known in the armyfrom his faithfulness in ministering to the wounded French soldierswhen by chance any fell into his hands. The Elector of Treves, andmany persons of the Emperor's suite, supported earnestly thispetition of Madame Buiting, whom her husband's death had reducedalmost to poverty, and in which she besought the Emperor's aid forthe children of this German physician, whose attentions had savedthe lives of so many of his brave soldiers. His Majesty gave ordersto pay the petitioner the first year's salary of a pension which heat once allowed her; and when General Rapp had informed the widowof the Emperor's action, the poor woman fainted with a cry ofjoy.
I witnessed another scene which was equally astouching. When the Emperor was on the march to Vienna, theinhabitants of Augsburg, who had been guilty of some acts ofcruelty towards the Bavarians, trembled lest his Majesty shouldtake a terrible revenge on them; and this terror was at its heightwhen it was learned that a part of the French army was to passthrough the town.
A young woman of remarkable beauty, only a fewmonths a widow, had retired to this place with her child in thehope of being more quiet than anywhere else, but, frightened by theapproach of the troops, fled with her child in her arms. But,instead of avoiding our soldiers as she intended, she left Augsburgby the wrong gate, and fell into the midst of the advance posts ofthe French army. Fortunately, she encountered General Decourbe, andtrembling, and almost beside herself with terror, conjured him onher knees to save her honor, even at the expense of her life, andimmediately swooned away. Moved even to tears, the general showedher every attention, ordered a safe-conduct given her, and anescort to accompany her to a neighboring town, where she had statedthat several of her relatives lived. The order to march was givenat the same instant; and, in the midst of the general commotionwhich ensued, the child was forgotten by those who escorted themother, and left in the outposts. A brave grenadier took charge ofit, and, ascertaining where the poor mother had been taken, pledgedhimself to restore it to her at the earliest possible moment,unless a ball should carry him off before the return of the army.He made a leather pocket, in which he carried his young