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$Title{Life Of Napoleon Bonaparte And Life Of Josephine
Chapter XV}
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$Author{Tarbell, Ida M.}
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$Subject{napoleon
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$Date{1906}
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Title:       Life Of Napoleon Bonaparte And Life Of Josephine
Book:        Life Of Napoleon Bonaparte
Author:      Tarbell, Ida M.
Date:        1906

Chapter XV

Disaster In Spain - Alexander And Napoleon In Council - Napoleon At Madrid

     Napoleon amazed at this unexpected popular uprising in Spain, and angry
that the spell of invincibility under which his armies had fought, was broken,
resolved to undertake the Peninsular war himself.  But before a campaign in
Spain could be entered upon, it was necessary to know that all the inner and
outer wheels of the great machine he had devised for dividing the world and
crushing England were revolving perfectly.

     Since the treaty of Tilsit he had done much at home for this machine. The
finances were in splendid condition.  Public works of great importance were
going on all over the kingdom; the court was luxurious and brilliant, and the
money it scattered, encouraged the commercial and manufacturing classes.
Never had fetes been more brilliant than those which welcomed Napoleon back to
Paris in 1807; never had the season at Fontainebleau been gayer or more
magnificent than it was that year.

     All of those who had been instrumental in bringing prosperity and order
to France were rewarded in 1807 with splendid gifts from the indemnities
levied on the enemies.  The marshals of the Grand Army received from eighty
thousand to two hundred thousand dollars apiece; twenty-five generals were
given forty thousand dollars each; the civil functionaries were not forgotten;
thus Monsieur de Segur received forty thousand dollars as a sign of the
emperor's gratification at the way he had administered etiquette in the young
court.

     It was at this period that Napoleon founded a new nobility as a further
means of rewarding those who had rendered brilliant services to France.  This
institution was designed, too, as a means of reconciling old and new France.
It created the title of prince, duke, count, baron, and knight; and those
receiving these titles were at the same time given domains in the conquered
provinces, sufficient to permit them to establish themselves in good style.

     The drawing up of the rules which were to govern this new order occupied
the gravest men of the country, Cambaceres, Saint-Martin, Hauterive, Portalis,
Pasquier.  Among other duties they had to prepare the armorial bearings.
Napoleon refused to allow the crown to go on the new escutcheons.  He wished
no one but himself to have a right to use that symbol.  A substitute was found
in the panache, the number of plumes showing the rank.

     Napoleon used the new favors at his command freely, creating in all,
after 1807, forty-eight thousand knights, one thousand and ninety barons,
three hundred and eighty-eight counts, thirty-one dukes, and three princes.
All members of the old nobility who were supporting his government were given
titles, but not those which they formerly held. Naturally this often led to
great dissatisfaction, the bearers of ancient names preferring a lower rank
which had been their family's for centuries to one higher, but unhallowed by
time and tradition.  Thus Madame de Montmorency rebelled obstinately against
being made a countess, - she had been a baroness under the old regime, - and,
as the Montmorencys claimed the honor of being called the first Christian
barons, she felt justly that the old title was a far prouder one than any
Napoleon could give her.  But a countess she had to remain.

     In his efforts to win for himself the services of all those whom blood
and fortune had made his natural supporters, the emperor tried again to
reconcile Lucien.  In November, 1807, Napoleon visited Italy, and at Mantua a
secret interview took place between the brothers.  Lucien, in his "Memoirs,"
gives a dramatic description of the way in which Napoleon spread the kingdoms
of half a world before him and offered him his choice.

          "He struck a great blow with his hand in the middle of the immense
     map of Europe which was extended on the table, by the side of which we
     were standing.  'Yes, choose,' he said; "you see I am not talking in the
     air.  All this is mine, or will soon belong to me; I can dispose of it
     already.  Do you want Naples?  I will take it from Joseph, who, by the by,
     does not care for it; he prefers Mortefontaine.  Italy - the most
     beautiful jewel in my imperial crown?  Eugene is but viceroy, and, far
     from despising it, he hopes only that I shall give it to him, or, at
     least, leave it to him if he survives me; he is likely to be disappointed
     in waiting, for I shall live ninety years.  I must, for the perfect
     consolidation of my empire.  Besides, Eugene will not suit me in Italy
     after his mother is divorced.  Spain?  Do you not see it falling into the
     hollow of my hand, thanks to the blunders of my dear Bourbons, and to the
     follies of your friend, the Prince of Peace?  Would you not be well
     pleased to reign there, where you have been only ambassador?  Once for
     all, what do you want?  Speak!  Whatever you wish, or can wish, is yours,
     if your divorce precedes mine.'"

     Until midnight the two brothers wrestled with the question between them.
Neither would abandon his position; and when Lucien finally went away, his
face was wet with tears.  To Meneval, who conducted him to his inn in the
town, he said, in bidding him carry his farewell to the emperor, "It may be
forever." It was not.  Seven years later the brothers met again, but the map
of Europe was forever rolled up for Napoleon.

     The essential point in carrying out the Tilsit plan was, the fidelity of
Alexander; and Napoleon resolved, before going into the Spanish war, to meet
the Emperor of Russia.  This was the more needful, because Austria had begun
to show signs of hostility.

     The meeting took place in September, 1807, at Erfurt, in Saxony, and
lasted a month.  Napoleon acted as host, and prepared a splendid entertainment
for his guests.  The company he had gathered was most brilliant.  Beside the
Russian and French emperors, with ambassadors and suites, were the Kings of
Saxony, Bavaria, and Wurtemberg, the Prince Primate, the Grand Duke and Grand
Duchess of Baden, the Dukes of Saxony, and the Princes of the Confederation of
the Rhine.

     The palaces where the emperors were entertained, were furnished with
articles from the Garde-Meuble of France.  The leading actors of the Theatre
Francais gave the best French tragedies to a house where there was, as
Napoleon had promised Talma, a "parterre full of kings." There was a hare hunt
on the battle-field of Jena, to which even Prince William of Prussia was
invited, and where the party breakfasted on the spot where Napoleon had
bivouacked in 1806, the night before the battle.  There were balls where
Alexander danced, "but not I," wrote the emperor to Josephine; "forty years
are forty years." Goethe and Wieland were both presented to Napoleon at
Erfurt, and the emperor had long conversations with them.

     In spite of these gayeties Napoleon and Alexander found time to renew
their Tilsit agreement.  They were to make war and peace together. Alexander
was to uphold Napoleon in giving Joseph the throne of Spain, and to keep the
continent tranquil during the Peninsular war.  Napoleon was to support
Alexander in getting possession of Finland, Moldavia, and Wallachia.  The two
emperors were to write and sign a letter inviting England to join them in
peace negotiations.

     This was done promptly; but when England insisted that representatives of
the government which was acting in Spain in the name of Ferdinand VII. should
be admitted to the proposed meeting, the peace negotiations abruptly ended.
Under the circumstances Napoleon could not recognize that government.

     The emperor was ready to conduct the Spanish war.  His first move was to
send into the country a large body of veterans from Germany.  Before this time
the army had been made up of young recruits upon whom the Spanish looked with
contempt.  The men, inexperienced and demoralized by the kind of guerrilla
warfare which was waged against them, had become discouraged.  The worst
feature of their case was that they did not believe in the war.  That brave
story-teller Marbot relates frankly how he felt:

          "As a soldier I was bound to fight any one who attacked the French
     army, but I could not help recognizing in my inmost conscience that our
     cause was a bad one, and that the Spaniards were quite right in trying to
     drive out strangers who, after coming among them in the guise of friends,
     were wishing to dethrone their sovereign and take forcible possession of
     the kingdom.  This war, therefore, seemed to me wicked; but I was a
     soldier, and I must march or be charged with cowardice.  The greater part
     of the army thought as I did, and, like me, obeyed orders all the same."

     The appearance of the veterans and the presence of the emperor at once
put a new face on the war; the morale of the army was raised, and the respect
of the Spaniards inspired.

     The emperor speedily made his way to Madrid, though he had to fight three
battles to get there, and began at once a work of reorganization. Decree
followed decree.  Feudal rights were abolished, the inquisition was ended, the
number of convents was reduced, the custom-houses between the various
provinces were done away with, a political and military programme was made out
for King Joseph.  Many bulletins were sent to the Spanish people.  In all of
them they were told that it was the English who were their enemies, not their
allies; that they came to the Peninsular not to help, but to inspire to false
confidence, and to lead them astray. Napoleon's plan and purpose could not be
mistaken.

          "Spaniards [he proclaimed at Madrid], your destinies are in my hands.
     Reject the poison which the English have spread among you; let your king
     be certain of your love and your confidence, and you will be more powerful
     and happier than ever.  I have destroyed all that was opposed to your
     prosperity and greatness; I have broken the fetters which weighed upon the
     people; a liberal constitution gives you, instead of an absolute, a
     tempered and constitutional monarchy.  It depends upon you that this
     constitution shall become law.  But if all my efforts prove useless, and
     if you do not respond to my confidence, it will only remain for me to
     treat you as conquered provinces, and to find my brother another throne.
     I shall then place the crown of Spain on my own head, and I shall know how
     to make the wicked tremble; for God has given me the power and the will
     necessary to surmount all obstacles."

     But a flame had been kindled in Spain which no number of Napoleonic
bulletins could quench - a fanatical frenzy inspired by the priests, a blind
passion of patriotism.  The Spaniards wanted their own, even if it was feudal
and oppressive.  A constitution which they had been forced to accept, seemed
to them odious and shameful, if liberal.

     The obstinacy and horror of their resistance was nowhere so tragic and so
heroic as at the siege of Saragossa, going on at the time Napoleon, at Madrid,
was issuing his decrees and proclamations.  Saragossa had been fortified when
the insurrection against King Joseph broke out.  The town was surrounded by
convents, which were turned into forts.  Men, women, and children took up
arms, and the priests, cross in hand, and dagger at the belt, led them.  No
word of surrender was tolerated within the walls.  At the beginning Napoleon
regarded the defence of Saragossa as a small affair, and wished to try
persuasion on the people.  There was at Paris a well-known Aragon noble whom
he urged to go to Saragossa and calm the popular excitement.  The man accepted
the mission.  When he arrived in the town the people hurried forth to meet
him, supposing he had come to aid in the resistance.  At the first word of
submission he spoke he was assailed by the mob, and for nearly a year lay in a
dungeon.

     The peasants of the vicinity of Saragossa were quartered in the town,
each family being given a house to defend.  Nothing could drive them from
their posts.  They took an oath to resist until death, and regarded the
probable destruction of themselves and their families with stoical
indifference.  The priests had so aroused their religious exultation, and were
able to sustain it at such a pitch, that they never wavered before the daily
horrors they endured.

     The French at first tried to drive them from their posts by sallies made
into the town, but the inhabitants rained such a murderous fire upon them from
towers, roofs, windows, even the cellars, that they were obliged to retire.
Exasperated by this stubborn resistance they resolved to blow up the town,
inch by inch.  The siege was begun in the most terrible and destructive
manner, but the people were unmoved by the danger.  "While a house was being
mined, and the dull sound of the rammers warned them that death was at hand,
not one left the house which he had sworn to defend, and we could hear them
singing litanies.  Then, at the moment the walls flew into the air and fell
back with a crash, crushing the greater part of them, those who had escaped
would collect about the ruins, and sheltering themselves behind the slightest
cover, would recommence their sharpshooting."

     Marshal Lannes commanded before Saragossa.  Touched by the devotion and
the heroism of the defenders, he proposed an honorable capitulation. The
besieged scorned the proposition, and the awful process of undermining went on
until the town was practically blown to pieces.

     For such resistance there was no end but extermination.  For the first
time in his career Napoleon had met sublime popular patriotism, a passion
before which diplomacy, flattery, love of gain, force, lose their power.

     It was for but a short time that the emperor could give his personal
attention to the Spanish war.  Certain wheels in his great machine were not
revolving smoothly.  In his own capital, Paris, there was friction among
certain influential persons.  The peace of the Continent, necessary to the
Peninsular war, and which Alexander had guaranteed, was threatened. Under
these circumstances it was impossible to remain in Spain.