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Title: The Mentor: Napoleon Bonaparte, Serial No. 38
Author: Ida M. Tarbell
Release Date: August 29, 2015 [EBook #49810]
Language: English
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THE MENTOR
SERIAL NUMBER 38
[Illustration]
NAPOLEON BONAPARTE
BY
IDA M. TARBELL
_Author of “Short Life of Napoleon Bonaparte,” “He Knew Lincoln,” etc._
EMPEROR NAPOLEON · BRIDGE AT ARCOLE · FRIEDLAND--1807 ·
RETREAT FROM MOSCOW · ABOARD THE BELLEROPHON · ST. HELENA
Nobody who has lived in modern times has so stirred up the world as
Napoleon Bonaparte. Nobody has upset so many old things, and started
so many new ones. No man ever lived who had more faith in his own
powers--and less respect for those of other men. Napoleon had, too,
an unusual combination of those personal qualities which excite and
interest men. It is nearly a hundred years since he dropped out of
active life; but his story is more rather than less thrilling as time
goes on.
There was nothing in his birth or schooling or his first activities in
life to lead one to expect an unusual career. His family was poor and
servile; his father trading on his name and his acquaintances to feed,
educate, and place his family. The most promising thing about young
Bonaparte was his resentment of this servility and his own flat refusal
to participate in it to help himself. Throughout his boyhood in the
island of Corsica, where he was born in 1769, during the six years he
spent at school in France and the eight years of intermittent military
service that followed his first appointment at the age of sixteen to
a second lieutenancy, he lived a tempestuous inner life. Ambition
for himself, devotion to his family, love for Corsica, hatred of
France, sympathy for the new ideas of human rights that were stirring
Europe,--these sentiments kept the mind and heart of the young officer
in tumult and made him waver between allegiance to the land in which
he was born and the land that had trained him; between the career of
a soldier that was his passion and a career of money making, in order
to educate his brothers, settle his sisters, and put his mother into a
secure position.
NAPOLEON THE OPPORTUNIST
It is quite fair, I think, to characterize his early career as that of
an adventurer. He was watching for a chance, and had determined to take
it, regardless of where it offered itself. It was at a moment when he
was in disgrace for having refused the orders of his superiors in the
army that the chance he wanted came.
[Illustration: LÆTITIA BONAPARTE
The Mother of Napoleon.]
The convention in which at that moment the French government centered
was attacked by the revolting Parisians. Bonaparte had no particular
sympathy with the convention,--in fact, he had more with the
rebels,--but when one of his friends in the government who knew his
ability as an artillery officer asked him to take charge of the force
protecting the Tuilleries, where the convention sat, he accepted--with
hesitation; but, having accepted, he did his work with a skill and
daring that earned him his first important command, that of general in
chief of the French Army of the Interior. Four months later he was made
commander in chief of the Army of Italy, the army that was disputing
the conquest of northern Italy with Austria.
THE ITALIAN CAMPAIGN
[Illustration: WHERE AN EMPEROR WAS BORN
In this room Napoleon was born in 1769.]
It was a ragged, disgusted, and half-revolting body, this Army of
Italy, one that for three years had been conspicuous mainly for
inactivity. Without waiting even for shoes, the new commander started
it out swiftly on a campaign that for clever strategy, for rapidity of
movement, for dash and courage in attack, was unlike anything Europe
had ever seen. In less than two months he drove his opponents from
Lombardy and had shut up the remnant of their army in Mantua. The
Austrians shortly had a new army in the field. It took eight months to
defeat it and capture Mantua; but it was accomplished in that period.
Austria then called her ablest general, Archduke Charles, and gave him
one hundred thousand men with which to avenge her disasters. With half
the number Bonaparte advanced to meet the archduke, and drove him step
by step to Vienna.
After a year and seven months of campaigning General Bonaparte, now
twenty-eight years old, signed his first treaty. By that treaty he
formed a new republic in northern Italy and made a new eastern frontier
for France. Before the treaty, however, he had filled her empty
treasury, had loaded her down with works of art, and had given her a
new place in Europe; a place that he had proved he could sustain.
The glory of the Italian campaign thrilled the French people; but
it disturbed the politicians in power. Bonaparte saw that if the
government could manage it he would have no further opportunities for
distinguishing himself. It was this sense that led him to urge that
England, the only nation then in arms against France, be attacked by
invading Egypt. The government consented promptly. It was a way of
disposing of Bonaparte. What the government did not dream, of course,
was that Bonaparte with this army hoped to found an oriental kingdom of
which he should be the ruler.
But nothing went as he expected. He suffered terrible reverses, which
he knew the government at home was using to break his hold on the
people; his supplies and information were cut off; his prestige in his
own army weakened; his faith in his destiny was shaken. That the effect
of this bad fortune was not more than skin deep was clear enough when
he accidentally learned that things were in a very bad way in France,
that much of what he had gained in Italy had been lost, and that
Austria and Russia were preparing an invasion.
[Illustration: BIRTHPLACE OF NAPOLEON
In this house, on the little island of Corsica, the first emperor of
France spent his boyhood.]
FIRST CONSUL OF FRANCE
Promptly and secretly Bonaparte slipped out of Egypt, and before the
powers at home knew of his intention he was in France and the people
were welcoming him as their deliverer. He was ready to be just that. It
was no great trick for a man of his daring and sagacity, adored by the
populace, to overturn a discredited and inefficient government and make
himself dictator. It was done in a few weeks, and France had a new form
of government, a consulate, of which the head was a first consul, and
Bonaparte was the first consul.
The most brilliant and fruitful four years of Napoleon Bonaparte’s
life followed; for it was then that he set out to bring order and
peace to a country demoralized and exhausted by generations of
plundering by privileged classes, followed by a decade of revolution
against privileges. France needed new machinery of all kinds, and this
Bonaparte undertook to supply. There were many people who regarded him
as a great general; but to their amazement he now proved himself a
remarkable statesman.
NAPOLEON THE STATESMAN
He attacked the question of the national income like a veteran
financier. The first matter was reorganizing taxation. He succeeded in
distributing the burden more justly than had ever been known in France.
The taxes were fixed so that each knew what he had to pay, and the
inordinate graft that tax collectors and police had enjoyed was cut
off. New financial institutions were devised; among them the Bank of
France. The economy he instituted in the government, the army, his own
household, everywhere that his power extended, was rigid and minute; as
he personally examined all accounts, there was no escape. The waste and
parasitism that pervaded the country began to give way for the first
time since the Revolution.
[Illustration: EMPRESS JOSEPHINE
From a painting by Pierre Paul Prud’hon.]
Industries of all kinds had sickened in the long period of war.
Bonaparte undertook their revival by one of the most severe
applications ever made of the doctrine of protection,--he even
attempted to make his women folk wear no goods not made in France!
His interest in agriculture was as keen as in manufacturing, and
his personal suggestions and interference of the same nature. The
prosperity of the country was stimulated greatly by the public works
Bonaparte undertook. One can go nowhere in France today without finding
them. It was he who set the country at road building. Some of the most
magnificent highways in Europe were laid out by him, including those
over four Alpine passes. He paid great attention to improving harbors.
Those now at Cherbourg, Havre, and Nice, as well as at Flushing and
Antwerp, Bonaparte planned and began. As for Paris, his ambition for
the city was boundless. He was responsible for some of her finest
features and monuments.
His greatest civil achievement was undoubtedly the codification of the
laws, and it was the one of which he was proudest. That he contributed
much to the Code Napoleon besides the driving power that insisted that
it be promptly put through, there is no doubt. His great contribution
was the inestimable one of commonsense. He had no patience with
meaningless precedents, conventions, and technicalities. He wanted laws
that everybody could understand and would recognize as necessary and
just.
[Illustration: NAPOLEON AS FIRST CONSUL]
Nothing more daring was undertaken in this period by Bonaparte than his
reëstablishment of the Catholic Church and his recall of thousands of
members of the old régime driven out of the country by the Revolution.
It was an attempt to reconcile and restore the two most powerful
enemies of the Revolution, the two that the first consul knew Europe
would never cease to fight to restore to power. There was of course
great opposition in radical and republican circles to both ventures.
[Illustration: NAPOLEON BONAPARTE
From the painting by Delaroche.]
[Illustration: LIEUTENANT OF ARTILLERY
From a painting of Napoleon by Greuse.]
[Illustration: KING OF ROME
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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[Illustration: NAPOLEON AT ARCOLE--BY ANTOINE JEAN GROS]
NAPOLEON AT ARCOLE, from the painting by Antoine Jean Gros,
is the subject of one of the intaglio-gravure pictures
illustrating “Napoleon Bonaparte.”
MONDAY DAILY READING IN THE MENTOR COURSE
PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
AT THE BRIDGE AT ARCOLE
“Follow your general!” was the cry with which young Bonaparte urged his
army to victory at Arcole. He was only twenty-seven years old at the
time--and yet was commander in chief of the army of Italy. The years
that brought Napoleon into prominence had been troublous ones. He was
born in Corsica, and in moderate circumstances. The exact date of his
birth is uncertain. At school he said it was 1768. It is stated that he
gave this date because that made him a citizen of Genoa, inasmuch as
Corsica was at that time a dependency of Genoa. Later on he said that
he was born in 1769; for Corsica had then become a French possession,
and this made him a Frenchman by birth. After early schooling at
Brienne young Napoleon entered the military academy of Paris in 1784.
After a year he was commissioned as a sublieutenant in the regular
army, and made rapid progress from the start. As lieutenant colonel he
distinguished himself in the wars of Spain. He held the mobs boldly and
in masterful manner during the turbulent scenes in the early days of
the Revolution. Barras, a high official, recognized his military genius
and gave Bonaparte command of the army of Italy.
The capture of the bridge at Arcole was essential to the success of the
Italian campaign. For three days the Austrian army gallantly opposed
the attacks of Napoleon’s forces, and it was only by the personal
courage of the young general that victory was finally won. Bonaparte
personally led a rush across the bridge at Arcole, and he was the real
vital force in the battle. He saw his staff killed or wounded about him
during the onslaughts. Once he himself was swept by a counter attack of
the Austrian forces into a swamp, where he nearly perished.
Napoleon’s army consisted of 18,000 men, which he had moved over the
narrow and rugged roads with heavy baggage at a rate of fourteen miles
a day for three consecutive days,--the same rate at which Stonewall
Jackson made his marches through the Shenandoah Valley. It was a
remarkable achievement under the conditions Napoleon had to face.
And with this force he met an Austrian army of 40,000 and defeated it
signally after a bitter engagement.
COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.
[Illustration: EMPEROR NAPOLEON--BY FRANCOIS GÉRARD]
EMPEROR NAPOLEON, from the painting by François Gérard, is the
subject of one of the intaglio-gravure pictures illustrating
“Napoleon Bonaparte.”
TUESDAY DAILY READING IN THE MENTOR COURSE
PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
EMPEROR NAPOLEON
“I shall now give myself to the administration of France.” That was
the statement of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1802 after he had overthrown
the government and had instituted a consulate, to which he was elected
first for ten years, and then for life. There were three consuls, and
Napoleon was known as the first consul. To one of his sublime ambition,
however, the thought of association in government was unbearable. Two
years later, despite his attitude expressed in his own words, “I am a
friend of the Republic; I am a son of the Revolution; I stand for the
principles of liberty, equality, and fraternity,” Napoleon determined
to make an office for himself that would be absolute and hereditary.
The title of king had grown hateful to the people of France; so
Napoleon chose “emperor” instead, and in 1804 he assumed the title and
the office.
Many were shocked; but none could resist his assumption of imperial
power. A popular vote showed that only 2,500 people opposed the new
government. Pope Pius VII accepted Napoleon’s request to take part in
the coronation ceremony on December 2, 1804. The event occurred at
Notre Dame Cathedral. The pope poured the mystic oil on the head of
the kneeling sovereign. It was ten centuries since any pope had left
Rome for a coronation, and in the minds of the Latin peoples this was
a consecration of a monarch that put him on an equal plane with the
proudest rulers of Europe, whose power reposed on the basis of Divine
Right. When the pope lifted the crown Napoleon performed an act so
striking in its originality that the people held their breath. He took
the crown from the pope’s hands and placed it on his own head. He then
crowned Empress Josephine.
A few months later Napoleon journeyed to Milan, the capital of what
was called the Cisalpine Republic, and there proclaimed the kingdom of
Italy. He crowned himself then with “the iron crown of the Lombards”
and named Prince Eugène, his stepson, heir to the throne.
During the ceremonies the republic of Genoa sent ambassadors to Paris
with the request to be incorporated into the French empire. This
offended Austria, and led to the third war with that empire since 1792,
when the republic of France was proclaimed.
[Illustration: FRIEDLAND--“1807”--BY MEISSONIER]
FRIEDLAND--“1807,” from the painting by Meissonier, is the
subject of one of the intaglio-gravure pictures illustrating
“Napoleon Bonaparte.”
WEDNESDAY DAILY READING IN THE MENTOR COURSE
PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
FRIEDLAND--“1807”
Emperor Napoleon’s brilliant victory at Friedland was the event that
placed him at the topmost height of his military power. In a fierce
battle, noted for the strategy characteristic of Bonaparte, he defeated
a large Russian army. This was on June 14, 1807.
Czar Alexander of Russia had refused to comply with the demands of
Napoleon regarding trade with England. England would not recognize
Napoleon as emperor, and he retorted by forcing several of the European
nations to sever commercial connections with England. Czar Alexander
held out. The forces of both emperors met at a small town called
Heilsberg, near Friedland. Napoleon disposed his army in such a way
that he led the Russian general, Bennigsen, to believe that he had to
conquer only a small number at Friedland. Part of the French army was
hidden in the semi-circle of wooded hills that surrounded Friedland.
From one of these hills Napoleon watched the movement of Bennigsen and
his army of 30,000. The Russian general believed that a corps of 1,500
men in command at Lannes, stationed at Friedland, was the extent of the
forces opposing him. Bennigsen engaged in a skirmish with this corps,
and drove it back into the city. The Russian army then followed, and
crossed the River Albe. Napoleon waited, feeling assured that Bennigsen
would not have time to retreat. Then he brought his army of 60,000 men
to the aid of Lannes, and surrounded the Russians, pouring upon them
a converging fire which worked disastrous results. The fragments of
Bennigsen’s army retreated to the Russian border, whither Napoleon’s
forces pursued them.
At the Russian frontier Napoleon received a communication from Czar
Alexander requesting peace. It was agreed that the two emperors should
meet on a floating raft near the city of Tilsit.
The result of this conference was the foundation of what has been
called “Napoleon’s dream to build a vast European empire.”
Whatever may be said of that, it was surely the beginning of his
downfall.
[Illustration: NAPOLEON IN THE CAMPAIGN OF FRANCE--BY
MEISSONIER]
RETREAT FROM MOSCOW, from the painting by Meissonier, is the
subject of one of the intaglio-gravure pictures illustrating
“Napoleon Bonaparte.”
THURSDAY DAILY READING IN THE MENTOR COURSE
PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
RETREAT FROM MOSCOW
Napoleon’s invasion of Russia was one of the most disastrous military
enterprises in the history of the world. It was not the Russians that
defeated the emperor. During much of his advance he was left alone.
Sometimes he was harrassed by skirmish forces. Several great battles
were fought, notably that of Borodino. But for the most part he was
allowed to go on his way; for his enemies knew that he had greater
than human forces to face and battle with,--the vast Russian solitudes
and the cruel, killing Russian winter. The terrible story is summed
up in the statement that Napoleon invaded Russia with an armed force
numbering more than 500,000 men, and that he returned with less than
30,000.
Bonaparte had once said, “I will never lead an army to destruction as
did Charles XII on the steppes of Russia. My soldiers are my children.”
However, when Czar Alexander of Russia refused to accept his terms,
Napoleon assembled his grand army of Frenchmen, Italians, Austrians,
and Germans and invaded Russia as far as Moscow, a distance of 2,000
miles from Paris.
He was victorious at Moscow; but the Russians burned the city, and
thus destroyed it for purposes of winter quarters. The czar delayed
in his negotiations for peace so long that Napoleon was compelled to
order a retreat, which began on October 19, 1812. His army was then
harassed from the rear, and many lives were lost in these engagements.
After two weeks of marching the soldiers met the first wave of Russian
winter. The roads were frozen sheets of ice, and in a week nearly all
the horses perished. The cavalry could no longer ward off the attacks
of Cossacks. Many of the guns had to be abandoned. The army lacked the
artillery necessary to fight a big battle. Food supplies had to be
abandoned, as there were no horses to draw them. Thousands stretched
out by the fire at night never to awaken in the morning. Cold and
starvation killed them.
At Smolensk the army presented an appalling spectacle. Napoleon headed
it, clad in furs, his expression set and stern. Behind him came the
captains, majors, and lieutenants, then a few harnessed wagons with the
emperor’s war chest and papers; after that the straggling forces, many
of them unarmed, limping, half frozen, some wandering away with wild
looks, others falling by the roadside never to rise again.
At the frontier Napoleon left this pitiful fragment of an army in
charge of the king of Naples, took a horse, and rode to Paris.
[Illustration: NAPOLEON ON BOARD THE BELLEROPHON--BY W. Q.
ORCHARDSON]
NAPOLEON ON BOARD THE BELLEROPHON, from the painting by W.
Q. Orchardson, is the subject of one of the intaglio-gravure
pictures illustrating “Napoleon Bonaparte.”
FRIDAY DAILY READING IN THE MENTOR COURSE
PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ON BOARD THE BELLEROPHON
The Battle of Waterloo, June 18, 1815, was the final blow to Napoleon’s
power. On that day hung the fate of Europe. Napoleon faced the
allied forces of Prussia, England, Germany, and the Dutch, and had
assembled an army of 70,000 to meet them. The allied forces were under
command of the Duke of Wellington. They were bound together by one
stern purpose,--to annihilate once for all the man whom they called
the scourge of Europe. A heavy rainstorm prevented the emperor from
carrying out his original plan of attack, which was to meet the enemy
in two sections. The night of June 17 was stormy. A heavy rainstorm
made the roads so heavy that the emperor could not move his cannon
into the place desired until a short time before the enemy’s forces
joined. Then, too, General Grouchy had been instructed to intercept the
Prussian forces under Blücher, and hold them back while Napoleon fought
his fight with Wellington. If he could not do that, he was at least to
follow Blücher to Waterloo. The arrival, therefore, of Blücher and his
forces in good fighting trim put the French into such confusion that a
crushing defeat was inevitable. In the rout men had to save themselves
as best they could.
Napoleon left the field, and took the road to Paris, where he found
his power gone. He resigned as emperor in favor of his son, and went
to Rochefort in hope of finding a ship going to the United States. The
English vessel Bellerophon blockaded the harbor, and Napoleon boarded
it, throwing himself on the mercy of Great Britain. He reckoned,
however, without his host; for England had never forgotten that
Napoleon had threatened an invasion of Great Britain. Moreover, within
the year Napoleon had been declared an international outlaw, “outside
the pale of social and civil relations, and liable to public vengeance.”
So, as Napoleon crossed the English Channel from Rochefort to
Portsmouth, with Captain Maitland, on board his Majesty’s ship
Bellerophon, he had sought safety in the lion’s mouth. England assumed
charge of him on behalf of all Napoleon’s European enemies, and
consigned him to exile on the island of St. Helena.
[Illustration: NAPOLEON AT ST. HELENA--BY PAUL DELAROCHE]
NAPOLEON AT ST. HELENA, from the painting by Paul Belaroche,
is the subject of one of the intaglio-gravure pictures
illustrating “Napoleon Bonaparte.”
SATURDAY DAILY READING IN THE MENTOR COURSE
PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
AT ST. HELENA
On a rock-bound island in the South Atlantic the greatest military
genius of all time spent the last six years of his life. There
Napoleon dragged out the months in company with a number of his former
associates, recalling the glories of the past and complaining of the
bitter conditions of the present. There he wrote interesting memorial
papers and gave expression to the ripe results of his military training.
Sir Hudson Lowe, a British military officer with little tact or
diplomacy, was his jailer. It was not possible for such a man and
Napoleon Bonaparte to meet on terms of amity. Writers on the subject
differ, as they do on almost all the episodes of Napoleon’s life. Some
say that Sir Hudson abused and insulted Napoleon shamefully. However,
there are French writers who try to prove that Napoleon continually
lied to and intrigued against the governor.
Napoleon’s mind during these days turned frequently toward his son,
“the little king of Italy,” and he dictated many instructions as to the
boy’s future. It might have been with the hope that at some future time
an empire might come to his son that he also dictated those elaborate
memoirs in which he gave an account of himself.
During a terrific storm of wind and rain on the night of May 5, 1821,
Napoleon died. The dash of the waves and the roar of the storm seemed
to stir his fading faculties and to arouse in him a memory of the din
of battle; for his last words were “Tête d’armée” (the head of the
army), and with that ejaculation in a sharp military tone his lips
closed forever.
He was buried near his favorite haunt,--a fountain shaded by weeping
willows, at Longwood, the estate on which he had lived at St. Helena.
British soldiers accompanied his body to rest with reversed arms and
fired a parting salute over his grave.
In his will the following extraordinary statement appeared: “My wish
is to be buried on the banks of the Seine, in the midst of the French
people, whom I so dearly loved.”
In 1840 his body was ceremoniously transferred to Paris and buried in
the Hôtel des Invalides with every circumstance of military pomp and
national mourning.
Transcriber’s Notes
Simple typographical errors were corrected; punctuation, hyphenation,
and spelling were made consistent when a predominant preference was
found in this book; otherwise they were not changed.
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