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Lewis Goldsmith >> Memoirs of the Court of St. Cloud, Volume 3
MEMOIRS OF THE COURT OF ST. CLOUD
By Lewis Goldsmith
Being Secret Letters from a Gentleman at Paris to a Nobleman in London
Volume 3
LETTER XXIII.
PARIS, August, 1805.
MY LORD:--No Sovereigns have, since the Revolution, displayed more
grandeur of soul, and evinced more firmness of character, than the
present King and Queen of Naples. Encompassed by a revolutionary volcano
more dangerous than the physical one, though disturbed at home and
defeated abroad, they have neither been disgraced nor dishonoured. They
have, indeed, with all other Italian Princes, suffered territorial and
pecuniary losses; but these were not yielded through cowardice or
treachery, but enforced by an absolute necessity, the consequence of the
desertion or inefficacy of allies.
But Their Sicilian Majesties have been careful, as much as they were
able, to exclude from their councils both German Illuminati and Italian
philosophers. Their principal Minister, Chevalier Acton, has proved
himself worthy of the confidence with which his Sovereigns have honoured
him, and of the hatred with which he has been honoured by all
revolutionists--the natural and irreconcilable enemies of all legitimate
sovereignty.
Chevalier Acton is the son of an Irish physician, who first was
established at Besancon in France, and afterwards at Leghorn in Italy. He
is indebted for his present elevation to his own merit and to the
penetration of the Queen of Sardinia, who discovered in him, when young,
those qualities which have since distinguished him as a faithful
counsellor and an able Minister. As loyal as wise, he was, from 1789, an
enemy to the French Revolution. He easily foresaw that the specious
promise of regeneration held out by impostors or fools to delude the
ignorant, the credulous and the weak, would end in that universal
corruption and general overthrow which we since have witnessed, and the
effects of which our grandchildren will mourn.
When our Republic, in April, 1792, declared war against Austria, and
when, in the September following, the dominions of His Sardinian Majesty
were invaded by our troops, the neutrality of Naples continued, and was
acknowledged by our Government. On the 16th of December following, our
fleet from Toulon, however, cast anchor in the Bay of Naples, and a
grenadier of the name of Belleville was landed as an Ambassador of the
French Republic, and threatened a bombardment in case the demands he
presented in a note were not acceded to within twenty-four hours. Being
attacked in time of peace, and taken by surprise, the Court of Naples was
unable to make any resistance, and Chevalier Acton informed our grenadier
Ambassador that this note had been laid before his Sovereign, who had
ordered him to sign an agreement in consequence.
When in February, 1793, the King of Naples was obliged, for his own
safety, to join the league against France, Acton concluded a treaty with
your country, and informed the Sublime Porte of the machinations of our
Committee of Public Safety in sending De Semonville as an Ambassador to
Constantinople, which, perhaps, prevented the Divan from attacking
Austria, and occasioned the capture and imprisonment of our emissary.
Whenever our Government has, by the success of our arms, been enabled to
dictate to Naples, the removal of Acton has been insisted upon; but
though he has ceased to transact business ostensibly as a Minister, his
influence has always, and deservedly, continued unimpaired, and he still
enjoys the just confidence and esteem of his Prince.
But is His Sicilian Majesty equally well represented at the Cabinet of
St. Cloud as served in his own capital? I have told you before that
Bonaparte is extremely particular in his acceptance of foreign diplomatic
agents, and admits none near his person whom he does not believe to be
well inclined to him.
Marquis de Gallo, the Ambassador of the King of the Two Sicilies to the
Emperor of the French, is no novice in the diplomatic career. His
Sovereign has employed him for these fifteen years in the most delicate
negotiations, and nominated him in May, 1795, a Minister of the Foreign
Department, and a successor of Chevalier Acton, an honour which he
declined. In the summer and autumn, 1797, Marquis de Gallo assisted at
the conferences at Udine, and signed, with the Austrian
plenipotentiaries, the Peace of Campo Formio, on the 17th of October,
1797.
During 1798, 1799, and 1800 he resided as Neapolitan Ambassador at
Vienna, and was again entrusted by his Sovereign with several important
transactions with Austria and Russia. After a peace had been agreed to
between France and the Two Sicilies, in March, 1801, and the Court of
Naples had every reason to fear, and of course to please, the Court of
St. Cloud, he obtained his present appointment, and is one of the few
foreign Ambassadors here who has escaped both Bonaparte's private
admonitions in the diplomatic circle and public lectures in Madame
Bonaparte's drawing-room.
This escape is so much the more fortunate and singular as our Government
is far from being content with the mutinous spirit (as Bonaparte calls
it) of the Government of Naples, which, considering its precarious and
enfeebled state, with a French army in the heart of the kingdom, has
resisted our attempts and insults with a courage and dignity that demand
our admiration.
It is said that the Marquis de Gallo is not entirely free from some
taints of modern philosophy, and that he, therefore, does not consider
the consequences of our innovations so fatal as most loyal men judge
them; nor thinks a sans-culotte Emperor more dangerous to civilized
society than a sans-culotte sovereign people.
It is evident from the names and rank of its partisans that the
Revolution of Naples in 1799 was different in many respects from that of
every other country in Europe; for, although the political convulsions
seem to have originated among the middle classes of the community, the
extremes of society were everywhere else made to act against each other;
the rabble being the first to triumph, and the nobles to succumb. But
here, on the contrary, the lazzaroni, composed of the lowest portion of
the population of a luxurious capital, appear to have been the most
strenuous, and, indeed, almost the only supporters of royalty; while the
great families, instead of being indignant at novelties which levelled
them, in point of political rights, with the meanest subject, eagerly
embraced the opportunity of altering that form of Government which alone
made them great. It is, however, but justice to say that, though Marquis
de Gallo gained the good graces of Bonaparte and of France in 1797, he
was never, directly or indirectly, inculpated in the revolutionary
transactions of his countrymen in 1799, when he resided at Vienna; and
indeed, after all, it is not improbable that he disguises his real
sentiments the better to, serve his country, and by that means has
imposed on Bonaparte and acquired his favour.
The address and manners of a courtier are allowed Marquis de Gallo by all
who know him, though few admit that he possesses any talents as a
statesman. He is said to have read a great deal, to possess a good
memory and no bad judgment; but that, notwithstanding this, all his
knowledge is superficial.
LETTER XXIV.
PARIS, August, 1805.
MY LORD:--You have perhaps heard that Napoleon Bonaparte, with all his
brothers and sisters, was last Christmas married by the Pope according to
the Roman Catholic rite, being previously only united according to the
municipal laws of the French Republic, which consider marriage only as a
civil contract. During the last two months of His Holiness's residence
here, hardly a day passed that he was not petitioned to perform the same
ceremony for our conscientious grand functionaries and courtiers, which
he, however, according to the Emperor's desire, declined. But his
Cardinals were not under the same restrictions, and to an attentive
observer who has watched the progress of the Revolution and not lost
sight of its actors, nothing could appear more ridiculous, nothing could
inspire more contempt of our versatility and inconsistency, than to
remark among the foremost to demand the nuptial benediction, a
Talleyrand, a Fouche, a Real, an Augereau, a Chaptal, a Reubel, a Lasnes,
a Bessieres, a Thuriot, a Treilhard, a Merlin, with a hundred other
equally notorious revolutionists, who were, twelve or fifteen years ago,
not only the first to declaim against religious ceremonies as ridiculous,
but against religion itself as useless, whose motives produced, and whose
votes sanctioned, those decrees of the legislature which proscribed the
worship, together with its priests and sectaries. But then the fashion of
barefaced infidelity was as much the order of the day as that of external
sanctity is at present. I leave to casuists the decision whether to the
morals of the people, naked atheism, exposed with all its deformities, is
more or less hurtful than concealed atheism, covered with the garb of
piety; but for my part I think the noonday murderer less guilty and much
less detestable than the midnight assassin who stabs in the dark.
A hundred anecdotes are daily related of our new saints and fashionable
devotees. They would be laughable were they not scandalous, and
contemptible did they not add duplicity to our other vices.
Bonaparte and his wife go now every morning to hear Mass, and on every
Sunday or holiday they regularly attend at vespers, when, of course, all
those who wish to be distinguished for their piety or rewarded for their
flattery never neglect to be present. In the evening of last Christmas
Day, the Imperial chapel was, as usual, early crowded in expectation of
Their Majesties, when the chamberlain, Salmatoris, entered, and said to
the captain of the guard, loud enough to be heard by the audience, "The
Emperor and the Empress have just resolved not to come here to-night, His
Majesty being engaged by some unexpected business, and the Empress not
wishing to come without her consort." In ten minutes the chapel was
emptied of every person but the guards, the priests, and three old women
who had nowhere else to pass an hour. At the arrival of our Sovereigns,
they were astonished at the unusual vacancy, and indignantly regarded
each other. After vespers were over, one of Bonaparte's spies informed
him of the cause, when, instead of punishing the despicable and
hypocritical courtiers, or showing them any signs of his displeasure, he
ordered Salmatoris under arrest, who would have experienced a complete
disgrace had not his friend Duroc interfered and made his peace.
At another time, on a Sunday, Fouche entered the chapel in the midst of
the service, and whispered to Bonaparte, who immediately beckoned to his
lord-in-waiting and to Duroc. These both left the Imperial chapel, and
returning in a few minutes at the head of five grenadiers, entered the
grand gallery, generally frequented by the most scrupulous devotees, and
seized every book. The cause of this domiciliary visit was an anonymous
communication received by the Minister of Police, stating that libels
against the Imperial family, bound in the form of Prayer-books, had been
placed there. No such libels were, however, found; but of one hundred
and sixty pretended breviaries, twenty-eight were volumes of novels,
sixteen were poems, and eleven were indecent books. It is not necessary
to add that the proprietors of these edifying works never reclaimed them.
The opinions are divided here, whether this curious discovery originated
in the malice of Fouche, or whether Talleyrand took this method of duping
his rival, and at the same time of gratifying his own malignity. Certain
it is that Fouche was severely reprimanded for the transaction, and that
Bonaparte was highly offended at the disclosure.
The common people, and the middle classes, are neither so ostentatiously
devout, nor so basely perverse. They go to church as to the play, to
gape at others, or to be stared at themselves; to pass the time, and to
admire the show; and they do not conceal that such is the object of their
attendance. Their indifference about futurity equals their ignorance of
religious duties. Our revolutionary charlatans have as much brutalized
their understanding as corrupted their hearts. They heard the Grand Mass
said by the Pope with the same feelings as they formerly heard
Robespierre proclaim himself a high priest of a Supreme Being; and they
looked at the Imperial processions with the same insensibility as they
once saw the daily caravans of victims passing for execution.
Even in Bonaparte's own guard, and among the officers of his household
troops, several examples of rigour were necessary before they would go to
any place of worship, or suffer in their corps any almoners; but now,
after being drilled into a belief of Christianity, they march to the Mass
as to a parade or to a review. With any other people, Bonaparte would
not so easily have changed in two years the customs of twelve, and forced
military men to kneel before priests, whom they but the other day were
encouraged to hunt and massacre like wild beasts.
On the day of the Assumption of the Holy Virgin, a company of gendarmes
d'Elite, headed by their officers, received publicly, and by orders, the
sacrament; when the Abbe Frelaud approached Lieutenant Ledoux, he fell
into convulsions, and was carried into the sacristy. After being a
little recovered, he looked round him, as if afraid that some one would
injure him, and said to the Grand Vicar Clauset, who inquired the cause
of his accident and terror: "Good God! that man who gave me, on the 2d of
September, 1792, in the convent of the Carenes, the five wounds from
which I still suffer, is now an officer, and was about to receive the
sacrament from my hands." When this occurrence was reported to
Bonaparte, Ledoux was dismissed; but Abbe Frelaud was transported, and
the Grand Vicar Clauset sent to the Temple, for the scandal their
indiscretion had caused. This act was certainly as unjust towards him
who was bayoneted at the altar, as towards those who served the altar
under the protection of the bayonets.
LETTER XXV.
PARIS, August, 1805.
MY LORD:--Although the seizure of Sir George Rumbold might in your
country, as well as everywhere else, inspire indignation, it could
nowhere justly excite surprise. We had crossed the Rhine seven months
before to seize the Duc d'Enghien; and when any prey invited, the passing
of the Elbe was only a natural consequence of the former outrage, of
audacity on our part, and of endurance or indifference on the part of
other Continental States. Talleyrand's note at Aix-la-Chapelle had also
informed Europe that we had adopted a new and military diplomacy, and, in
confounding power with right, would respect no privileges at variance
with our ambition, interest or, suspicions, nor any independence it was
thought useful or convenient for us to invade.
It was reported here, at the time, that Bonaparte was much offended with
General Frere, who commanded this political expedition, for permitting
Sir George's servant to accompany his master, as Fouche and Real had
already tortures prepared and racks waiting, and after forcing your agent
to speak out, would have announced his sudden death, either by his own
hands or by a coup-de-sang, before any Prussian note could require his
release. The known morality of our Government must have removed all
doubts of the veracity of this assertion; a man might, besides, from the
fatigues of a long journey, or from other causes, expire suddenly; but
the exit of two, in the same circumstances, would have been thought at
least extraordinary, even by our friends, and suspicious by our enemies.
The official declaration of Rheinhard (our Minister to the Circle of
Lower Saxony) to the Senate at Hamburg, in which he disavowed all
knowledge on the subject of the capture of Sir George Rumbold, occasioned
his disgrace. This man, a subject of the Elector of Wurtemberg by birth,
is one of the negative accomplices of the criminals of France who, since
the Revolution, have desolated Europe. He began in 1792 his diplomatic
career, under Chauvelin and Talleyrand, in London, and has since been the
tool of every faction in power. In 1796 he was appointed a Minister to
the Hanse Towns, and, without knowing why, he was hailed as the point of
rally to all the philosophers, philanthropists, Illuminati and other
revolutionary amateurs, with which the North of Germany, Poland, Denmark,
and Sweden then abounded.
A citizen of Hamburg--or rather, of the world--of the name of Seveking,
bestowed on him the hand of a sister; and though he is not accused of
avarice, some of the contributions extorted by our Government from the
neutral Hanse Towns are said to have been left behind in his coffers
instead of being forwarded to this capital. Either on this account, or
for some other reason, he was recalled from Hamburg in January, 1797, and
remained unemployed until the latter part of 1798, when he was sent as
Minister to Tuscany.
When, in the summer of 1799, Talleyrand was forced by the Jacobins to
resign his place as a Minister of the Foreign Department, he had the
adroitness to procure Rheinhard to be nominated his successor, so that,
though no longer nominally the Minister, he still continued to influence
the decisions of our Government as much as if still in office, because,
though not without parts, Rheinhard has neither energy of character nor
consistency of conduct. He is so much accustomed, and wants so much to
be governed, that in 1796, at Hamburg, even the then emigrants, Madame de
Genlis and General Valence, directed him, when he was not ruled or
dictated to by his wife or brother-in-law.
In 1800 Bonaparte sent him as a representative to the Helvetian Republic,
and in 1802, again to Hamburg, where he was last winter superseded by
Bourrienne, and ordered to an inferior station at the: Electoral Court at
Dresden. Rheinhard will never become one of those daring diplomatic
banditti whom revolutionary Governments always employ in preference. He
has some moral principles, and, though not religious, is rather
scrupulous. He would certainly sooner resign than undertake to remove by
poison, or by the steel of a bravo, a rival of his own or a person
obnoxious to his employers. He would never, indeed, betray the secrets
of his Government if he understood they intended to rob a despatch or to
atop a messenger; but no allurements whatever would induce him to head
the parties perpetrating these acts of our modern diplomacy.
Our present Minister at Hamburg (Bourrienne) is far from being so nice. A
revolutionist from the beginning of the Revolution, he shared, with the
partisans of La Fayette, imprisonment under Robespierre, and escaped
death only by emigration. Recalled afterwards by his friend, the late
Director (Barras), he acted as a kind of secretary to him until 1796,
when Bonaparte demanded him, having known him at the military college.
During all Bonaparte's campaigns in Italy, Egypt, and Syria, he was his
sole and confidential secretary--a situation which he lost in 1802, when
Talleyrand denounced his corruption and cupidity because he had rivalled
him in speculating in the funds and profiting by the information which
his place afforded him. He was then made a Counsellor of State, but in
1803 he was involved in the fraudulent bankruptcy of one of our principal
houses to the amount of a million of livres--and, from his correspondence
with it, some reasons appeared for the suspicion that he frequently had
committed a breach of confidence against his master, who, after erasing
his name from among the Counsellors of State, had him conveyed a prisoner
to the Temple, where he remained six months. A small volume, called Le
Livre Rouge of the Consular Court, made its appearance about that time,
and contained some articles which gave Bonaparte reason to suppose that
Bourrienne was its author. On being questioned by the Grand Judge
Regnier and the Minister Fouce, before whom he was carried, he avowed
that he had written it, but denied that he had any intention of making it
public. As to its having found its way to the press during his
confinement, that could only be ascribed to the ill-will or treachery of
those police agents who inspected his papers and put their seals upon
them. "Tell Bonaparte," said he, "that, had I been inclined to injure
him in the public opinion, I should not have stooped to such trifles as
Le Livre Rouge, while I have deposited with a friend his original orders,
letters, and other curious documents as materials for an edifying history
of our military hospitals during the campaigns of Italy and Syria all
authentic testimonies of his humanity for the wounded and dying French
soldiers."
After the answers of this interrogatory had been laid before Bonaparte,
his brother Joseph was sent to the Temple to negotiate with Bourrienne,
who was offered his liberty and a prefecture if he would give up all the
original papers that, as a private secretary, he had had opportunity to
collect.
"These papers," answered Bourrienne, "are my only security against your
brother's wrath and his assassins. Were I weak enough to deliver them up
to-day, to-morrow, probably, I should no longer be counted among the
living; but I have now taken my measures so effectually that, were I
murdered to-day, these originals would be printed to-morrow. If Napoleon
does not confide in my word of honour, he may trust to an assurance of
discretion, with which my own interest is nearly connected. If he
suspects me of having wronged him, he is convinced also of the eminent
services I have rendered him, sufficient surely to outweigh his present
suspicion. Let him again employ me in any post worthy of him and of me,
and he shall soon see how much I will endeavour to regain his
confidence."
Shortly afterwards Bourrienne was released, and a pension, equal to the
salary of a Counsellor of State; was granted him until some suitable
place became vacant. On Champagny's being appointed a Minister of the
Home Department, the embassy at Vienna was demanded by Bourrienne, but
refused, as previously promised to La Rochefoucauld, our late Minister at
Dresden. When Rheinhard, in a kind of disgrace, was transferred to that
relatively insignificant post, Bourrienne was ordered, with extensive
instructions, to Hamburg. The Senate soon found the difference between a
timid and honest Minister, and an unprincipled and crafty intriguer. New
loans were immediately required from Hanover; but hardly were these
acquitted, than fresh extortions were insisted on. In some secret
conferences Bourrienne is, however, said to have hinted that some
douceurs were expected for alleviating the rigour of his instructions.
This hint has, no doubt, been taken, because he suddenly altered his
conduct, and instead of hunting the purses of the Germans, pursued the
persons of his emigrated countrymen; and, in a memorial, demanded the
expulsion of all Frenchmen who were not registered and protected by him,
under pretence that every one of them who declined the honour of being a
subject of Bonaparte, must be a traitor against the French Government and
his country.
Bourrienne is now stated to have connected himself with several
stock-jobbers, both in Germany, Holland, and England; and already to have
pocketed considerable sums by such connections. It is, however, not to
be forgotten that several houses have been ruined in this capital by the
profits allowed him, who always refused to share their losses, but,
whatever were the consequences, enforced to its full amount the payment
of that value which he chose to set on his communications.
A place in France would, no doubt, have been preferable to Bourrienne,
particularly one near the person of Bonaparte. But if nothing else
prevented the accomplishment of his wishes, his long familiarity with all
the Bonapartes, whom he always treated as equals, and even now (with the
exception of Napoleon) does not think his superiors, will long remain an
insurmountable barrier.
I cannot comprehend how Bonaparte (who is certainly no bad judge of men)
could so long confide in Bourrienne, who, with the usual presumption of
my countrymen, is continually boasting, to a degree that borders on
indiscretion, and, by an artful questioner, may easily be lead to
overstep those bounds. Most of the particulars of his quarrel with
Napoleon I heard him relate himself, as a proof of his great consequence,
in a company of forty individuals, many of whom were unknown to him. On
the first discovery which Bonaparte made of Bourrienne's infidelity,
Talleyrand complimented him upon not having suffered from it. "Do you
not see," answered Bonaparte, "that it is also one of the extraordinary
gifts of my extraordinary good fortune?
"Even traitors are unable to betray me. Plots respect me as much as
bullets." I need not tell you that Fortune is the sole divinity
sincerely worshipped by Napoleon.