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$Title{Life Of Napoleon Bonaparte And Life Of Josephine
Chapter XI}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Tarbell, Ida M.}
$Affiliation{}
$Subject{napoleon
crown
first
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emperor
napoleon's
ceremony
de
josephine
madame}
$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 XI

Opposition To Napoleon - The Establishment Of The Empire - King Of Italy

     While the preparation for the invasion was going on, the feeling against
England was intensified by the discovery of a plot against the life of the
First Consul.  Georges Cadoudal, a fanatical royalist, who was accused of
being connected with the plot of the 3d Nivose (December 24), and who had
since been in England, had formed a gigantic conspiracy, having as its object
nothing less than the assassination of Napoleon in broad daylight, in the
streets of Paris.

     He had secured powerful aid to carry out his plan.  The Bourbon princess
supported him, and one of them was to land on the north coast and put himself
at the head of the royalist sympathizers as soon as the First Consul was
killed.  In this plot was associated Pichegru, who had been connected with the
18th Fructidor.  General Moreau, the hero of Hohenlinden, was suspected of
knowing something of it.

     It came to light in time, and a general arrest was made of those
suspected of being privy to it.  The first to be tried and punished was the
Duc d'Enghien, who had been seized at Ettenheim, in Baden, a short distance
from the French frontier, on the supposition that he had been coming secretly
to Paris to be present at the meetings of the conspirators.  His trial at
Vincennes was short, his execution immediate. There is good reason to believe
that Napoleon had no suspicion that the Duc d'Enghien would be executed so
soon as he was, and even to suppose that he would have lightened the sentence
if the punishment had not been pushed on with an irregularity and inhumanity
that recalls the days of the Terror.

     The execution was a severe blow to Napoleon's popularity, both at home
and abroad.  Fouche's cynical remark was just: "The death of the Duc d'Enghien
is worse than a crime; it is a blunder." Chateaubriand, who had accepted a
foreign embassy, resigned at once, and a number of the old aristocracy, such
as Pasquier and Mole, who had been saying among themselves that it was their
duty to support Napoleon's splendid work of reorganization, went back into
obscurity.  In society the effect was distressing.  The members of Napoleon's
own household met him with averted faces and sad countenances, and Josephine
wept until he called her a child who understood nothing of politics.  Abroad
there was a revulsion of sympathy, particularly in the cabinets of Russia,
Prussia, and Austria.

     The trial of Cadoudal and Moreau followed.  The former with several of
his accomplices was executed.  Moreau was exiled for two years. Pichegru
committed suicide in the Temple.

     This plot showed Napoleon and his friends that a Jacobin or royalist
fanatic might any day end the life upon which the scheme of reorganization
depended.  It is true he had already been made First Consul for life by a
practically unanimous vote, but there was need of strengthening his position
and providing a succession.  In March, six days after the death of the Duc
d'Enghien, the Senate proposed to him that he complete his work and take the
throne.  In April the Council of State and the Tribunate took up the
discussion.  The opinion of the majority was voiced by Regnault de Saint-Jean
d'Angely: "It is a long time since all reasonable men, all true friends of
their country, have wished that the First Consul would make himself emperor,
and reestablish, in favor of his family, the old principles of hereditary
succession.  It is the only means of securing permanency for his own fortune,
and to the men whom merit has raised to high offices.  The Republic, which I
loved passionately, while I detested the crimes of the Revolution, is now in
my eyes a mere Utopia.  The First Consul has convinced me that he wishes to
possess supreme power only to render France great, free, and happy, and to
protect her against the fury of factions."

     The Senate soon after proceeded in a body to the Tuileries.  "You have
extricated us from the chaos of the past," said the spokesman; "you enable us
to enjoy the blessings of the present; guarantee to us the future." On the
18th of May, 1804, when thirty-five years old, Napoleon was first addressed as
"sire," and congratulated on his elevation to the throne of the French people.

     Immediately his household took on the forms of royalty.  His mother was
Madame Mere; Joseph, Grand-Elector, with the title of Imperial Highness;
Louis, Constable, with the same title; his sisters were Imperial Highnesses.
Titles were given to all officials; the ministers were excellencies;
Cambaceres and Le Brun, the Second and Third Consuls, bcame Arch Chancellor
and Arch Treasurer of the Empire.  Of his generals, Berthier, Murat, Moncey,
Jourdan, Massena, Augureau, Bernadotte, Soult, Brune, Lannes, Mortier, Ney,
Davoust, and Bessieres were made marshals. The red button of the Legion of
Honor was scattered in profusion.  The title of citoyen, which had been
consecrated by the Revolution, was dropped, and hereafter everybody was called
monsieur.

     Two of Napoleon's brothers, unhappily, had no part in these honors.
Jerome, who had been serving as lieutenant in the navy, had, in 1803, while in
the United States, married a Miss Elizabeth Patterson of Baltimore.  Napoleon
forbade the recording of the marriage, and declared it void.  As Jerome had
not as yet given up his wife, he had no share in the imperial rewards.  Lucien
was likewise omitted, and for a similar reason.  His first wife had died in
1801, and much against Napoleon's wishes he had married a Madame Jouberthon,
to whom he was deeply attached; nothing could induce him to renounce his wife
and take the Queen of Etruria, as Napoleon wished.  The result of his refusal
was a violent quarrel between the brothers, and Lucien left France.

     This rupture was certainly a grief to Napoleon.  Madame de Remusat draws
a pathetic little picture of the effect upon him of the last interview with
Lucien:

          "It was near midnight when Bonaparte came into the room; he was
     deeply dejected, and, throwing himself into an arm-chair, he exclaimed in
     a troubled voice, 'It is all over!  I have broken with Lucien, and ordered
     him from my presence.' Madame Bonaparte began to expostulate.  'You are a
     good woman,' he said, 'to plead for him.' Then he rose from his chair,
     took his wife in his arms, and laid her head softly on his shoulder, and
     with his hand still resting on the beautiful head, which formed a contrast
     to the sad, set countenance so near it, he told us that Lucien had
     resisted all his entreaties, and that he had resorted equally in vain to
     both threats and persuasion.  'It is hard, though,' he added, 'to find in
     one's own family such stubborn opposition to interests of such magnitude.
     Must I, then, isolate myself from every one?  Must I rely on myself alone?
     Well!  I will suffice to myself; and you, Josephine - you will be my
     comfort always."

     A fever of etiquette seized on all the inhabitants of the imperial palace
of Saint Cloud.  The ponderous regulations of Louis XIV. were taken down from
the shelves in the library, and from them a code began to be compiled.  Madame
Campan, who had been First Bedchamber Woman to Marie Antoinette, was summoned
to interpret the solemn law, and to describe costumes and customs.  Monsieur
de Talleyrand, who had been made Grand Chamberlain, was an authority who was
consulted on everything.

     "We all felt ourselves more or less elevated," says Madame de Remusat.
"Vanity is ingenious in its expectations, and ours were unlimited.  Sometimes
it was disenchanting, for a moment, to observe the almost ridiculous effect
which this agitation produced upon certain classes of society.  Those who had
nothing to do with our brand new dignities said with Montaigne, 'Let us avenge
ourselves by railing at them.' Jests, more or less witty, and puns, more or
less ingenious, were lavished on these new-made princes, and somewhat
disturbed our brilliant visions; but the number of those who dare to censure
success is small, and flattery was much more common than criticism."

     No one was more severe in matters of etiquette than Napoleon himself. He
studied the subject with the same attention that he did the civil code, and in
much the same way.  "In concert with Monsieur de Segur," he wrote De
Champagny, "you must write me a report as to the way in which ministers and
ambassadors should be received. . . . It will be well for you to enlighten me
as to what was the practice at Versailles, and what is done at Vienna and St.
Petersburg.  Once my regulations adopted, everyone must conform to them.  I am
master, to establish what rules I like in France."

     He had some difficulty with his old comrades-in-arms, who were accustomed
to addressing him in her the familiar second singular, and calling him
Bonaparte, and who persisted, occasionally, even after he was "sire," in using
the language of easy intimacy.  Lannes was even removed for some time from his
place near the emperor for an indiscretion of this kind.

     In August, 1804, the new emperor visited Boulogne to receive the
congratulations of his army and distribute decorations.  His visit was
celebrated by a magnificent fete.  Those who know the locality of Boulogne,
remember, north of the town, an amphitheatre-like plane, plain, in the centre
of which is a hill.  In this plain sixty thousand men were camped.  On the
elevation was erected a throne.  Hereby stood the chair of Dagobert; behind it
the armor of Francis I.; and around rose scores of blood-stained, bullet-shot
flags, the trophies of Italy and Egypt.  Beside the emperor was the helmet of
Bayard, filled with the decorations to be distributed.  Up and down the coast
were the French batteries; in the port lay the flotilla; to the right and left
stretched the splendid army.

     Just as the ceremonies were finished, a fleet of over a thousand boats
came sailing into the harbor to join those already there, while out in the
Channel English officers and sailors, with levelled glasses, watched from
their vessels the splendid armament, which was celebrating its approaching
descent on their shores.

     On December 1st the Senate presented the emperor the result of the vote
taken among the people as to whether hereditary succession should be adopted.
There were two thousand five hundred and seventy-nine votes against; three
million five hundred and seventy-five thousand for - a vote more nearly
unanimous than that for the life consulate, there being something like nine
thousand against him then.

     The next day Napoleon was crowned at Notre Dame.  The ceremony was
prepared with the greatest care.  Grand Master of Ceremonies de Segur, aided
by the painter David, drew up the plan and trained the court with great
severity in the etiquette of the occasion.  He had the widest liberty, it even
being provided that "if it be indispensable, in order that the cortege arrive
at Notre Dame with greater facility, to pull down some houses," it should be
done.  By a master stroke of diplomacy Napoleon had persuaded Pope Pius VII.
to cross the Alps to perform for him the solemn and ancient service of
coronation.

     Of this ceremony we have no better description than that of Madame Junot:

          "Who that saw Notre Dame on that memorable day can ever forget it?
     i?  I have witnessed in that venerable pile the celebration of sumptuous
     and solemn festivals; but never did I see anything at all approximating in
     splendor the spectacle exhibited at Napoleon's coronation.  The vaulted
     roof re-echoed the sacred chanting of the priest, priests, who invoked the
     blessing of the Almighty on the ceremony about to be celebrated, while
     they awaited the arrival of the Vicar of Christ, whose throne was prepared
     near the altar.  Along the ancient walls covered with magnificent tapestry
     were ranged, according to their rank, the different bodies of the state,
     the deputies from every city; in short, the representatives of all France
     assembled to implore the benediction of Heaven on the sovereign of on the
     people's choice.  The waving plumes which adorned the hats of the
     senators, counsellors of state, and tribunes; the!the splendid uniforms of
     the military; the clergy in all their ecclesiastical pomp; and the
     multitude of young and beautiful women, glittering in jewels, and arrayed
     in that style of grace and elegance which is only seen in Paris; -
     altogether presented a picture which has, perhaps, rarely been equalled,
     and certainly never excelled.

          "The Pope arrived first; and at the moment of his entering the
     Cathedral, the anthem antem Tu es Petrus was commended. commenced.  His
     Holiness advanced from the door with an air at once majestic and humble.
     Ere long, the firing of a cannon announced the departure of the procession
     from the Tuileries.  From an early hour in the morning the weather had
     been ben exceeding unfavorable.  It was cold and rainy,!m and appearances
     seemed to indicate that the procession would be anything but agreeable to
     those who joined it.  But, as if by the especial favor of Providence, of
     which so many instances are observable in the career of Napoleon, the
     clouds suddenly dispersed, the sky brightened up and the multitudes who
     lined the streets from the Tuileries to the Cathedral, enjoyed the sight
     of the procession without being being, as they had anticipated, drenched
     by a December rain.  Napoleon, as he passed along, was greeted by
     heartfelt expression expressions of enthusiastic love and attachment.

          "On his arrival at Notre Dame, Napoleon ascended the throne, which
     was erected in front of the grand altar.  Josephine took her place beside
     him, surrounded by the assembled sovereigns of Europe.  Napoleon appeared
     singularly calm. clam.  I watched him narrowly, with a view of discovering
     whether his heart beat more highly beneath the imperial trappings than
     under the uniform of the guards; but I could observe no difference, and
     yet I was at the distance of only ten paces from him.  The length of the
     ceremony, however, seemed to weary him; and I saw him several times check
     a yawn.  Nevertheless, he did everything he was required to do, and did it
     with propriety.  When the Pope anointed him with the triple unction on his
     head and both hands, hands.  I fancied, from the direction of his eyes,
     that he was thinking of wiping off the oil rather than of anything else;
     and I was so perfectly acquainted with the workings of his countenance,
     that I have no hesitation in saying that was really the thought that
     crossed his mind at that moment.  During the ceremony of anointing, the
     Holy Father delivered that impressive prayer which concluded with these
     words: 'Diffuse, 'Diffuse, O Lord, by my hands, the treasures of your
     grace and benediction on your servant Napoleon, whom, in spite of our
     personal unworthiness, we this day anoint emperor, in your name.' Napoleon
     listened to this prayer with an air of pious devotion; but just as the
     Pope was about to take the crown, called the Crown of Charlemagne, from
     the altar, Napoleon seized it, and placed it on his own head.  At that
     moment he was really handsome, and his countenance was lighted up with
     an expression of which no words can convey an idea.

          "He had removed the wreath of laurel which he wore on entering the
     church, and which encircles his brow in the fine picture of Gerard.  The
     crown was, perhaps, in itself, less becoming to him; but the expression
     excited by the act of putting it on, rendered him perfectly handsome.

          "When the moment arrived for Josephine to take an active part in the
     grand drama, she descended from the throne and advanced towards the altar,
     where the emperor awaited her, followed by her retinue of court ladies,
     and having her train borne by the Princesses Caroline, Julie, Eliza, and
     Louis.  One of the chief beauties of the Empress Josephine was not merely
     her fine figure, but the elegant turn of her neck, and the way in which
     she carried her head; indeed, her deportment altogether was conspicuous
     for dignity and grace.  I have had the honor of being presented to many
     real princesses, to use the phrase of the Faubourg Saint-Germain, but I
     never saw one who, to my eyes, presented so perfect a personification of
     elegance and majesty.  In Napoleon's countenance I could read the
     conviction of all I have just said.  He looked with an air of complacency
     at the empress as she advanced towards him; and when she knelt down, when
     the tears, which she could not repress, fell upon her clasped hands, as
     they were raised to Heaven, or rather to Napoleon, both then appeared to
     enjoy one of those fleeting moments of pure felicity which are unique in a
     lifetime, and serve to fill up a lustrum of years.  The emperor performed,
     with peculiar grace, every action required of him during the ceremony; but
     his manner of crowning Josephine was most remarkable: after receiving the
     small crown, surmounted by the cross he had first to place it on his own
     head head, and then to transfer it to that of the empress.  When the
     moment arrived for placing the crown on the head of the woman whom popular
     superstition regarded as his good genius, his manner was almost playful.
     He took great pains to arrange this little crown, which was placed over
     Josephine's tiara of diamonds; he put it on, then took it off, and finally
     put it on again, as if no to promise her she should wear it gracefully and
     lightly."

     The fate of France had no sooner been settled, as Napoleon believed, than
it became necessary to decide on what should be done with Italy.  The crown
was offered to Joseph, who refused it.  He did not want to renounce his claim
to that of France, and finally Napoleon decided to take it himself.  A new
constitution was prepared for the country by the French Senate, and, when all
was arranged, Napoleon started on April 1st for Italy.  A great train
accompanied him, and the trip was of especial interest.  The party crossed the
Alps by Mont Cenis, and the road was so bad that the carriages had to be taken
to pieces and carried over, while the travellers walked.  This trip really led
to the fine roads which now cross Mont Cenis.  At Alessandria Napoleon halted,
and on the field of Marengo ordered a review of the manoeuvres of the famous
battle.  At this review he even wore the coat and hat he had worn on that
famous day four years before.

     By the time the imperial party was ready to enter Milan, on May 13, it
had increased to a triumphal procession, and the entry was attended by most
enthusiastic demonstrations.  On May 26 the coronation took place. The iron
crown, used so long for the coronation of the Lombard kings, had been brought
out for the occasion.  When the point in the ceremony was reached where the
crown was to be placed on Napoleon's head, he seized it, and with his own
hands placed it on his head, repeating in a loud voice the words inscribed on
the crown: "God gives it to me; beware who touches it." Josephine was not
crowned Queen of Italy, but watched the scene from a gallery above the altar.

     Napoleon remained in Italy for another month, engaged in settling the
affairs of the country.  The order of the Crown of Iron was created, the
constitution settled, Prince Eugene was made viceroy, and Genoa was joined to
the Empire.