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$Title{Life Of Napoleon Bonaparte And Life Of Josephine
Chapter VI}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Tarbell, Ida M.}
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$Subject{napoleon
army
france
french
paris
egypt
battle
bonaparte
first
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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 VI

Napoleon's Return To Paris - The Egyptian Campaign - The 18th Brumaire

     In December, 1797, he returned to Paris.  His whole family were collected
there, forming a "Bonaparte colony," as the Parisians called it. There were
Joseph and his wife; Lucien, now married to Christine Boyer, his old
landlord's daughter, a marriage Napoleon never forgave; Eliza, now Madame
Bacciochi; Pauline, now Madame Leclerc.  Madame Letitia was in the city, with
Caroline; Louis and Jerome were still in school.  Josephine had her daughter
Hortense, a girl of thirteen, with her.  Her son Eugene, though but fifteen
years old, was away on a mission for Napoleon, who, in spite of the boy's
youth, had already taken him into his confidence. According to Napoleon's
express desire, all the family lived in great simplicity.

     The return to Paris of the commander-in-chief of the Army of Italy was
the signal for a popular ovation.  The Directory gave him every honor,
changing the name of the street in which he lived to rue de la Victoire, and
making him a member of the Institute; but, conscious of its feebleness, and
inspired by that suspicion which since the Revolution began had caused the
ruin of so many men, it planned to get rid of him.

     Of the coalition against France, formed in 1793, one member alone
remained in arms - England.  Napoleon was to be sent against her.  An invasion
of the island was first discussed, and he made an examination of the north
coast.  His report was adverse, and he substituted a plan for the invasion of
Egypt - an old idea in the French government.

     The Directory gladly accepted the change, and Napoleon was made
commander-in-chief of the Army of Egypt.  On the 4th of May he left Paris for
Toulon.

     To Napoleon this expedition was a merciful escape.  He once said to
Madame Remusat:

          "In Paris, and Paris is France, they never can take the smallest
     interest in things, if they do not take it in persons.  . . . The great
     difficulty of the Directory was that no one cared about them, and that
     people began to care too much about me.  This was why I conceived the
     happy idea of going to Egypt."

     He was under the influence, too, of his imagination; the Orient had
always tempted him.  It is certain that he went away with gigantic projects -
nothing less than to conquer the whole of the East, and to become its ruler
and lawgiver.

          "I dreamed of all sorts of things, and I saw a way of carrying
     all my projects into practical execution.  I would create a new
     religion.  I saw myself in Asia, upon an elephant, wearing a turban,
     and holding in my hand a new Koran which I had myself composed.  I
     would have united in my enterprise the experiences of two hemispheres,
     exploring for my benefit and instruction all history, attacking the
     power of England in the Indies, and renewing, by their conquest, my
     relations with old Europe.  The time I passed in Egypt was the most
     delightful period of my life, for it was the most ideal."

     His friends, watching his irritation during the days before the
campaign had been decided upon, said: "A free flight in space is what such
wings demand.  He will die here.  He must go." He himself said: "Paris
weighs on me like a leaden mantle."

     Napoleon sailed from France on May 19, 1798; on June 9th he reached
Malta, and won for France "the strongest place in Europe." July 2d he entered
Alexandria.  On July 23d he entered Cairo, after the famous battle of the
Pyramids.

     The French fleet had remained in Aboukir Bay after landing the army, and
on August 1st was attacked by Nelson.  Napoleon had not realized, before this
battle, the power of the English on the sea.  He knew nothing of Nelson's
genius.  The destruction of his fleet, and the consciousness that he and his
army were prisoners in the Orient, opened his eyes to the greatest weakness of
France.

     The winter was spent in reorganizing the government of Egypt and in
scientific work.  Over one hundred scientists had been added to the Army of
Egypt, including some of the most eminent men of the day: Monge,
Geoffroy-St.-Hilaire, Berthollet, Fourier, and Denon.  From their arrival
every opportunity was given them to carry on their work.  To stimulate them,
Napoleon founded the Institute of Egypt, in which membership was granted as a
reward for services.

     These scientists went out in every direction, pushing their
investigations up the Nile as far as Philoe, tracing the bed of the old canal
from Suez to the Nile, unearthing ancient monuments, making collections of the
flora and fauna, examining in detail the arts and industries of the people.
Everything, from the inscription on the Rosetta Stone to the incubation of
chickens, received their attention.  On the return of the expedition, their
researches were published in a magnificent work called "Description de
l'Egypte." The information gathered by the French at this time gave a great
impetus to the study of Egyptology, and their investigations on the old Suez
canal led directly to the modern work.

     The peaceful work of science and law-giving which Napoleon was conducting
in Egypt was interrupted by the news that the Porte had declared war against
France, and that two Turkish armies were on their way to Egypt.  In March he
set off to Syria to meet the first.

     This Syrian expedition was a failure, ending in a retreat made horrible
not only by the enemy in the rear, but by pestilence and heat.

     The disaster was a terrible disillusion for Napoleon.  It ended his dream
of an Oriental realm for himself, of a kingdom embracing the whole
Mediterranean for France.  "I missed my fortune at St. Jean d'Acre," he told
his brother Lucien afterward; and again, "I think my imagination died at St.
Jean d'Acre." The words are those of the man whose discouragement at a failure
was as profound as his hope at success was high.

     As Napoleon entered Egypt from Syria, he learned that the second Turkish
army was near the Bay of Aboukir.  He turned against it and defeated it
completely.  In the exchange of prisoners made after the battle, a bundle of
French papers fell into his hands.  It was the first news he had had for ten
months from France, and sad news it was: Italy lost, an invasion of Austrians
and Russians threatening, the Directory discredited and tottering.

     If the Oriental empire of his imagination had fallen, might it not be
that in Europe a kingdom awaited him?  He decided to leave Egypt at once, and
with the greatest secrecy prepared for his departure.  The army was turned
over to Kleber, and with four small vessels he sailed for France on the night
of August 22, 1799.  On October 16th he was in Paris.

     For a long time nothing had been heard of Napoleon in France.  The people
said he had been exiled by the jealous Directory.  His disappearance into the
Orient had all the mystery and fascination of an Eastern tale.  His sudden
reappearance had something of the heroic in it. He came like a god from
Olympus, unheralded, but at the critical moment.

     The joy of the people, who at that day certainly preferred a hero to
suffrage, was spontaneous and sincere.  His journey from the coast to Paris
was a triumphal march.  Le retour du heros was the word in everybody's mouth.
On every side the people cried: "You alone can save the country.  It is
perishing without you.  Take the reins of government."

     At Paris he found the government waiting to be overthrown.  "A brain and
a sword" was all that was needed to carry out a coup d'etat organized while he
was still in Africa.  Everybody recognized him as the man for the hour.  A
large part of the military force in Paris was devoted to him. His two
brothers, Lucien and Joseph, were in positions of influence, the former
president of the Five Hundred, as one of the two chambers was called.  All
that was most distinguished in the political, military, legal, and artistic
circles of Paris rallied to him.  Among the men who supported him were
Talleyrand, Sieyes, Chenier, Roederer, Monge, Cambaceres, Moreau, Berthier,
Murat.

     On the 18th Brumaire (the 9th of November), 1799, the plot culminated,
and Napoleon was recognized as the temporary Dictator of France.

     The private sorrow to which Napoleon returned, was as great as the public
glory.  During the campaign in Egypt he had learned beyond a doubt that
Josephine's coquetry had become open folly, and that a young officer,
Hippolyte Charles, whom he had dismissed from the Army of Italy two years
before, was installed at Malmaison.  The liaison was so scandalous that
Gohier, the president of the Directory, advised Josephine to get a divorce
from Napoleon and marry Charles.

     These rumors reached Egypt, and Napoleon, in despair, even talked them
over with Eugene de Beauharnais.  The boy defended his mother, and for a time
succeeded in quieting Napoleon's resentment.  At last, however, he learned in
a talk with Junot that the gossip was true.  He lost all control of himself,
and declared he would have a divorce.  The idea was abandoned, but the love
and reverence he had given Josephine were dead. From that time she had no
empire over his heart, no power to inspire him to action or to enthusiasm.

     When he landed in France from Egypt, Josephine, foreseeing a storm,
started out to meet him at Lyons.  Unfortunately she took one road and
Napoleon another, and when he reached Paris at six o'clock in the morning he
found no one at home.  When Josephine arrived Napoleon refused to see her, and
it was three days before he relented.  Then his forgiveness was due to the
intercession of Hortense and Eugene, to both of whom he was warmly attached.

     But if he consented to pardon, he could never give again the passionate
affection which he once had felt for her.  He ceased to be a lover, and became
a commonplace, tolerant, indulgent, bourgeois husband, upon whom his wife, in
matters of importance, had no influence.  Josephine was hereafter the
suppliant, but she never regained the noble kingdom she had despised.

     Napoleon's domestic sorrow weakened in no way his activity and vigor in
public affairs.  He realized that, if he would keep his place in the hearts
and confidence of the people, he must do something to show his strength, and
peace was the gift he proposed to make to the nation.  When he returned he
found a civil war raging in La Vendee.  Before February he had ended it.  All
over France brigandage had made life and property uncertain.  It was stopped
by his new regime.

     Two foreign enemies only remained at war with France - Austria and
England.  He offered them peace.  It was refused.  Nothing remained but to
compel it.  The Austrians were first engaged.  They had two armies in the
field; one on the Rhine, against which Moreau was sent, the other in Italy -
now lost to France - besieging the French shut up in Genoa.

     Moreau conducted the campaign in the Rhine countries with skill, fighting
two successful battles, and driving his opponent from Ulm.

     Napoleon decided that he would himself carry on the Italian campaign, but
of that he said nothing in Paris.  His army was quietly brought together as a
reserve force; then suddenly, on May 6, 1800, he left Paris for Geneva.
Immediately his plan became evident.  It was nothing else than to cross the
Alps and fall upon the rear of the Austrians, then besieging Genoa.

     Such an undertaking was a veritable coup de theatre.  Its accomplishment
was not less brilliant than its conception.  Three principal passes lead from
Switzerland into Italy: Mont Cenis, the Great Saint Bernard, and the Mount
Saint Gothard.  The last was already held by the Austrians.  The first is the
westernmost, and here Napoleon directed the attention of General Melas, the
Austrian commander.  The central, or Mount Saint Bernard, Pass was left almost
defenceless, and here the French army was led across, a passage surrounded by
enormous difficulties, particularly for the artillery, which had to be taken
to pieces and carried or dragged by the men.

     Save the delay which the enemy caused the French at Fort Bard, where five
hundred men stopped the entire army, Napoleon met with no serious resistance
in entering Italy.  Indeed, the Austrians treated the force with contempt,
declaring that it was not the First Consul who led it, but an adventurer, and
that the army was not made up of French, but of refugee Italians.

     This rumor was soon known to be false.  On June 2d Napoleon entered
Milan.  It was evident that a conflict was imminent, and to prepare his
soldiers Bonaparte addressed them:

          "Soldiers, one of our departments was in the power of the enemy;
     consternation was in the south of France; the greatest part of the
     Ligurian territory, the most faithful friends of the Republic, had been
     invaded.  The Cisalpine Republic had again become the grotesque plaything
     of the feudal regime.  Soldiers, you march - and already the French
     territory is delivered!  Joy and hope have succeeded in your country to
     consternation and fear.

          "You give back liberty and independence to the people of Genoa.  You
     have delivered them from their eternal enemies.  You are in the capital of
     the Cisalpine.  The enemy, terrified, no longer hopes for anything, except
     to regain its frontiers.  You have taken possession of its hospitals, its
     magazines, its resources.

          "The first act of the campaign is terminated.  Every day you hear
     millions of men thanking you for your deeds.

          "But shall it be said that French territory has been violated with
     impunity?  Shall we allow an army which has carried fear into our families
     to return to its firesides?  Will you run with your arms?  Very well,
     march to the battle; forbid their retreat; tear from them the laurels of
     which they have taken possession; and so teach the world that the curse of
     destiny is on the rash who dare insult the territory of the Great People.
     The result of all our efforts will be spotless glory, solid peace."

     Melas, the Austrian commander, had lost much time; but finally convinced
that it was really Bonaparte who had invaded Italy, and that he had actually
reached Milan, he advanced into the plain of Marengo.  He had with him an army
of from fifty to sixty thousand men well supplied with artillery.

     Bonaparte, ignorant that so large a force was at Marengo, advanced into
the plain with only a portion of his army.  On June 14th Melas attacked him.
Before noon the French saw that they had to do with the entire Austrian army.
For hours the battle was waged furiously, but with constant loss on the side
of the French.  In spite of the most intrepid fighting the army gave way.  "At
four o'clock in the afternoon," says a soldier who was present, "there
remained in a radius of two leagues not over six thousand infantry, a thousand
horse, and six pieces of cannon.  A third of our army was not in condition for
battle.  The lack of carriages to transport the sick made another third
necessary for this painful task. Hunger, thirst, fatigue, had forced a great
number to withdraw.  The sharp shooters for the most part had lost the
direction of their regiments."

     "He who in these frightful circumstances would have said, 'In two hours
we shall have gained the battle, made ten thousand prisoners, taken several
generals, fifteen flags, forty cannons; the enemy shall have delivered to us
eleven fortified places and all the territory of beautiful Italy; they will
soon defile shamefaced before our ranks; an armistice will suspend the plague
of war and bring back peace into our country,' - he, I say, who would have
said that, would have seemed to insult our desperate situation."

     The battle was won finally by the French through the fortunate arrival of
Desaix with reenforcements and the imperturbable courage of the
commander-in-chief.  Bonaparte's coolness was the marvel of those who
surrounded him.

     "At the moment when the dead and the dying covered the earth, the Consul
was constantly braving death.  He gave his orders with his accustomed
coolness, and saw the storm approach without seeming to fear it.  Those who
saw him, forgetting the danger that menaced them, said: 'What if he should be
killed?  Why does he not go back?' It is said that General Berthier begged him
to do so.

     "Once General Berthier came to him to tell him that the army was giving
way and that the retreat had commenced.  Bonaparte said to him: 'General, you
do not tell me that with sufficient coolness'.' This greatness of soul, this
firmness, did not leave him in the greatest dangers.  When the Fifty-ninth
Brigade reached the battle-field the action was the hottest.  The First Consul
advanced toward them and cried: 'Come, my brave soldiers, spread your banners;
the moment has come to distinguish yourselves.  I count on your courage to
avenge your comrades." At the moment that he pronounced these words, five men
were struck down near him. He turned with a tranquil air towards the enemy,
and said: 'Come, my friends, charge them.'

     "I had curiosity enough to listen attentively to his voice, to examine
his features.  The most courageous man, the hero the most eager for glory,
might have been overcome in his situation without any one blaming him.  But he
was not.  In these frightful moments, when fortune seemed to desert him, he
was still the Bonaparte of Arcola and Aboukir."

     When Desaix came up with his division, Bonaparte took an hour to arrange
for the final charge.  During this time the Austrian artillery was thundering
upon the army, each volley carrying away whole lines.  The men received death
without moving from their places, and the ranks closed over the bodies of
their comrades.  This deadly artillery even reached the cavalry, drawn up
behind, as well as a large number of infantry who, encouraged by Desaix's
arrival, had hastened back to the field of honor. In spite of the horror of
this preparation Bonaparte did not falter.  When he was ready he led his army
in an impetuous charge which overwhelmed the Austrians completely, though it
cost the French one of their bravest generals, Desaix.  It was a frightful
struggle, but the perfection with which the final attack was planned, won the
battle of Marengo and drove the Austrians from Italy.

     The Parisians were dazzled by the campaign.  Of the passage of the Alps
they said, "It is an achievement greater than Hannibal's;" and they repeated
how "the First Consul had pointed his finger at the frozen summits, and they
had bowed their heads." At the news of Marengo the streets were lit with "joy
fires," and from wall to wall rang the cries of Vive la republique!  Vive le
premier consul!  Vive l'armee!

     The campaign against the Austrians was finished December 3, 1800, by the
battle of Hohenlinden, won by Moreau, and in February the treaty of Luneville
established peace.  England was slower in coming to terms, it not being until
March, 1802, that she signed the treaty of Amiens.

     At last France was at peace with all the world.  She hailed Napoleon as
her savior, and ordered that the 18th Brumaire be celebrated throughout the
republic as a solemn fete in his honor.

     The country saw in him something greater than a peacemaker.  She was
discovering that he was to be her law giver, for, while ending the wars, he
had begun to bring order into the interior chaos which had so long tormented
the French people, to reestablish the finances, the laws, the industries, to
restore public works, to encourage the arts and sciences, even to harmonize
the interests of rich and poor, of church and state.