Today | News | Books | Recipes Adventure | Science Fiction | Ghost stories | Poetry | Children | History BookRome, whose mother has always thought more of her daily music and drawing lessons than of whether she was making her son happy or not. 1812 closed in gloom, but 1813 was in itself terribly ominous to so superstitious a woman as Josephine. Thirteen is always unlucky, and moreover the numbers of 1813 add up to 13; also the doom-dealing year began on a Friday. Every one felt the hour approaching. As Napoleon said at St. Helena: "The star grew pale; I felt the reins slipping from my hand, and I could do no more. A thunderbolt could alone have saved us, and every day, by some new fatality or other, our chances diminished. Sinister designs began to creep in among us; fatigue and discouragement had won over the majority; my lieutenants became lax, clumsy, careless, and consequently unfortunate; they were no longer the men of the commencement of the Revolution, nor even of the time of my good fortune. The chief generals were sick of the war; I had gorged them too much with my high esteem, with too many honours and too much wealth. They had drunk from the cup of pleasure, and wished to enjoy peace at any price. _The sacred fire was quenched._" Up to August Fortune had smiled again upon her favourite. With conscripts for infantry and without cavalry he had won Lutzen, Bautzen, and Dresden; and even so late as September Byron was writing that "bar epilepsy and the elements he would back Napoleon against the field." But treachery and incompetence had undermined the Empire, and Leipsic (that battle of giants, where 110,000 soldiers were killed and wounded) made final success hopeless. In 1814 his brothers Lucien and Louis rallied to him, and Hortense was for the only time proud of her husband. She thinks if he had shown less suspicion and she less pride they might have been happy after all. "My husband is a good Frenchman ... he is an honest man." Meanwhile, Talleyrand is watching to guide the _coup de grâce_. Napoleon makes a dash for Lorraine to gather his garrisons and cut off the enemy's supplies. The Allies hesitate and are about to follow him, as per the rules of war. Talleyrand, the only man who could ever divine Napoleon, sends them the message, "You can do everything, and you dare nothing; dare therefore _once_!" Hortense is the only _man_ left in Paris, and in vain she tries to keep Marie Louise, whose presence would have stimulated the Parisians to hold the Allies at bay. It is in vain. Unlike Prussia or Austria who fought for months, or Spain who fought for years, after their capitals were taken:-- "Like Nineveh, Carthage, Babylon and Rome, France yields to the conqueror, vanquished at home." After Marmont's betrayal Napoleon attempts suicide, and when he believes death imminent sends a last message to Josephine by Caulaincourt, "You will tell Josephine that my thoughts were of her before life departed." It was on Monday, May 23rd, that Josephine's illness commenced, after receiving at dinner the King of Prussia and his sons (one afterwards Wilhelm der Greise, first Emperor of Germany). Whether the sore throat which killed her was a quinsy or diphtheria[93] is difficult to prove, but the latter seems the more probable. Corvisart, who was himself ill and unable to attend, told Napoleon that she died of grief and worry. Before leaving for the Waterloo campaign Napoleon visited Malmaison, and there, as Lord Rosebery reminds us, allowed his only oblique reproach to Marie Louise to escape him: "Poor Josephine. Her death, of which the news took me by surprise at Elba, was one of the most acute griefs of that fatal year, 1814. She had her failings, of course; _but she, at any rate, would never have abandoned me_." FOOTNOTES [92] Mlle. d'Avrillon says that during the Swiss voyage Josephine found it desirable, for the first time, to "wear whalebone in her corsets." [93] The same question may be asked respecting the death of Montaigne. APPENDIX (1) A REPUTED POEM BY NAPOLEON I. LE CHIEN, LE LAPIN, ET LE CHASSEUR. FABLE.--_Composée a l'âge de 13 ans, par_ NAPOLEON I. César, chien d'arrêt renommé, Mais trop enflé de son mérite, Tennait arrêté dans son gîte Un malheureux lapin de peur inanimé. "Rends-toi!" lui cria-t-il, d'une voix de tonerre Qui fit au loin trembler les peuplades des bois. "Je suis César, connu par ses exploits, Et dont le nom remplit toute la terre." A ce grand nom, Jeannot Lapin, Recommandant a Dieu son âme pénitente, Demande d'une voix tremblante: "Trés-sérénissime mâtin, Si je me rends quel sera mon destin?" "Tu mourras." "Je mourrai!" dit la bête innocente. "Et si je fuis?" "Ton trépas est certain." "Quoi!" reprit l'animal qui se nourrit de thym, "Des deux côtés je dois perdre la vie! Que votre auguste seigneurie Veuille me pardonner, puisqu'il me faut mourir, Si j'ose tenter de m'enfuir." Il dit, et fuit en héros de garenne. Caton l'aurait blamé; je dis qu'il n'eut pas tort. Car le chasseur le voit à peine Qu'il l'ajuste, le tire--et le chien tombe mort Que dirait de ceci notre bon La Fontaine? Aide-toi, le ciel t'aidera. I'approuve fort cette méthode-là. APPENDIX (2) GENEALOGY OF THE BONAPARTE FAMILY Many more or less fictitious genealogies of the Bonapartes have been published, some going back to mythical times. The first reliable record, however, seems to be that of a certain Bonaparte of Sarzana, in Northern Italy, an imperial notary, who was living towards the end of the thirteenth century, and from whom both the Corsican and the Trevisan or Florentine Bonapartes claim their origin. From him in direct line was descended Francois de Sarzana, who was sent to Corsica in 1509 to fight for the Republic of Genoa. His son Gabriel, having sold his patrimony in Italy, settled in Ajaccio, where he bore the honourable title of Messire, and where, being left a widower, he assumed the tonsure and died Canon of the cathedral. From him an unbroken line of Bonapartes, all of whom in turn were elected to the dignity of Elder of Ajaccio, brings us to Charles Bonaparte Napoleon, father of the Emperor. APPENDIX (3) REPUTED LETTERS OF NAPOLEON TO JOSEPHINE. TAKEN FROM THE MEMOIRS OF MADAME DUCREST. The author asked the advice of Monsieur Frédéric Masson about these Letters, to which he at once received the courteous reply, "Il faut absolument rejeter les Lettres publiées par Regnault Varin[94] et reproduites par Georgette Ducrest; pas une n'est authentique." No one who has read much of Napoleon's correspondence can in fact believe for a moment in their authenticity. They are interesting, however, as showing the sort of stuff which went to form our grandfathers' fallacies about the relations of Napoleon and Josephine. Madame Ducrest occasionally played and sang for Josephine after the divorce. Her father was a nephew of Madame de Genlis. Madame Ducrest married a musical composer, M. Bochsa, the then celebrated author of _Dansomanie_ and _Noces de Gamache_. He afterwards deserted her, and |