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DOMESTIC LIFE OF NAPOLEON.

From the Foreign Quarterly Review.

kept him aloof from the crowd around him, elbowing, pushing, and scrambling for profit and place; and which offered a passive reNapoléon et Marie Louise, Souvenirs His- sistance to the contagion of fashionable toriques de M. le Baron Meneval, ancien manners; detracted from his qualities as a Secrétaire du portefeuille de Napoléon, &c. chronicler. His observation does not ap(Historical Recollections of Napoleon pear to have been keen, nor his memory and Maria Louisa). 2 vols. Paris. 1843. retentive. Of the thousand noticeable THIS is an addition to the number of me- traits of character in Napoleon, and remoirs of the Emperor of France, by indi-markable occurrences of his private life, viduals in his service and attached to his which Meneval must have had peculiar opperson, from which the future biographer portunities of witnessing, his book contains and historian will draw materials: for the but few; and they are for the most part life of that extraordinary man is yet to be trivial in themselves, and poorly told. The written. The work of Sir Walter Scott, style of the whole book indeed is meager, admirable in parts, is, as a whole, a crude and destitute of that vivacity, lightness, compilation, swelled hastily to its enormous and happy art of story-telling, for which bulk to meet financial difficulties. He gave French memoir-writers have ever been prehimself no time to weigh conflicting au- eminent. thorities, with the load of which his own The author tells us that he wrote these biographer describes him oppressed and memoirs in compliance with the wish of overwhelmed; and the result was a pro- the emperor himself. Napoleon, he says, duction of the most unequal kind, in which in his last moments at St. Helena, among we find clear and animated narrative, other recommendations in the instructions graphic description, depth of thought, and left to his executors, expressed his desire. eloquence of language, blended with loose that certain persons, of whom M. Meneval and prolix composition, trivial details treated at disproportioned length, and apocryphal stories told as if they were ascertained facts. It may be remarked that among all the memoirs and other books, towards a life of Napoleon, which have appeared in France, that country has not yet produced the life itself, while England has produced several. Apparently the French are better aware than the English, of the difficulties of the task.

was one, should undertake to give his son just ideas on facts and circumstances of great interest to him. M. Meneval adds, that so long as the emperor's son lived, reserve was imposed on him; but that, since the young prince's death it was no longer necessary to remain silent. There is something here which we do not understand; an inconsistency arising probably from want of clearness in the author's language. The circumstances most interesting to the From the Baron Meneval's opportunities, young prince must naturally have been the his memoirs ought to have been more in-union between his parents and their ultimate structive as well as more interesting than separation; and these (as is shown by its they are. From the year 1802 to the ca- title) properly form the subject of M. Metastrophe of Waterloo, he was attached to neval's book. the person of Napoleon, whose favor and "To conform as much as possible to the emconfidence he enjoyed without interrup-peror's desire, which I look upon as a command, tion: a circumstance which says much for the usefulness no less than the fidelity of his services. His name is never mentioned by his contemporaries as involved in the tracasseries and intrigues of the imperial court; he seems to have conducted himself with straightforwardness and singleness of purpose. His book also gives that idea of An interesting subject: which in M. Mehis character. It is written with simpli-neval's hands might have been more intercity, and is as free from the tinsel of French fine writing as from the easy style of French fine morals. There is nothing of "la jeune France" in the pages of M. Meneval; a rare merit in a French literary production of the present day. But the quietness of temper, which made him a correct and plodding functionary; which

have thought it proper to choose the times which followed his second marriage. The narrative which I publish is intended to recall some scattered traits of his private history during that period; not to paint the conqueror and the legislator, but Napoleon in his privacy, as a hus

band and a father."

esting than he has made it, had be better known how to gather and to use the materials within his reach. "Napoleon et Marie-Louise" is prefaced by an "introduction" containing some of the least known circumstances, anterior to the year 1810, of which M. Meneval was himself an eyewitness. This part of the work is exceed

:

who, even in her imperial days, came little before the public, and, since her separation from Napoleon, has been almost wholly lost sight of by the world, except as the occasional subject of vague rumors and calumnies, from which M. Meneval vindicates her.

ingly barren almost every thing worth telling which it contains having been told over and over again. Throughout the whole book, Napoleon is painted en beau; there is not a shade in the picture; a fault which is not less wearisome because there is no wilful dishonesty in it, but simply the natural feeling of affection which lingers. The Archduchess Maria Louisa was the in the heart of an old and faithful servant, eldest daughter of the late Emperor Frantowards the memory of a master who had cis the Second, and Maria Theresa of Naloved and trusted him, and in whose fall the ples. She was educated in the usual mansunshine of his own life had passed away ner of the royal family of Austria. Brought for ever. The same amiable feeling height up under the eye of their parents till their ened the author's prejudice, no doubt, marriage, the Archduchesses live in comagainst his master's great and fatal enemy, plete retirement, at a distance from court, England; but it is not the less absurd and and with no society but that of their ladies tiresome to have him to talk continually, af- and attendants, whom they are accustomed ter the ordinary French fashion, of our perfi- to treat with great kindness and familiarity. dy, ambitious rapacity, and so forth; and to Maria Louisa's education was carefully atobserve the gravity with which he seems tended to. She spoke several languages, to have swallowed any absurd story that and had even learned Latin, a living lancould by possibility make Englishmen ap-guage in Hungary. She was an excellent pear odious or ridiculous. One of his im- musician, and was accomplished in drawportant anecdotes is, that during the nego-ing and, painting. One circumstance in tiation of the treaty of Amiens, our plenipotentiary Lord Cornwallis every day after dinner retired to his room, along with his natural son Captain Nightingale, and passed the evening over the bottle till both were regularly carried dead-drunk to bed. He tells, however, another story, more to the honor of that excellent nobleman; though to us it possesses as much novelty, and may possibly have as much authority, as the

other.

this mode of education is worth noticing:

"The most minute precautions were taken to preserve the young Archduchesses from impressions which might affect their purity of mind. The intention, doubtless, was laudable; but the means employed were not very judicious. Instead of keeping improper books altogether out of the way of the princesses, the plan had been pages of these books, but lines, and even single adopted of cutting out with scissors, not only words, the sense of which was deemed improper or equivocal. Such a blundering censor"The following trait of loyauté was a worthy ship was calculated to produce the opposite termination to the mission of this respectable effect to what was intended: the expunged pasminister. The protocol of the last diplomatic sages, which might have remained unnoticed meeting had been settled, the definitive treaty thousand ways by young imaginations, the more had they been let alone, were interpreted in a agreed on, and an appointment made for its signature next day at the Hôtel de Ville active that they were stimulated by curiosity. On the night before the day of signature, a courier from The evil meant to be prevented was thus inLondon brought Lord Cornwallis an order to creased. On the other hand, their books bemodify some articles of the treaty, relative to came, to the royal pupils, objects of indifference the balance in favor of England of the sum due-bodies without souls, deprived of all interest for the subsistence of the prisoners of war. The after the mutilations they had undergone. The article of the protocol on this subject had been Archduchess Maria Louisa, after she became settled between the two ministers. Lord Corn-empress, confessed that her curiosity had been wallis had declared to Joseph Bonaparte, that, happen what might, it should not prevent the signature of the treaty: at the moment when it was about to be signed, he received from his government this order to insist on an additional payment to England. Holding however that his word was pledged, he declared that he could not retract; and the treaty was signed with solemnity, while the hall resounded with the acclamations of the spectators."

Passing the introductory chapters, we proceed to the book itself, in which, as its title indicates, Maria Louisa holds a principal place. It contains a good deal of new information respecting this princess,

excited by the absence of these passages, and that, when she had obtained the control of her own reading, her first idea was to seek, in complete copies of the works, the expunged passages, in order to discover what it was that had been concealed from her."

When the youthful Archduchess first heard of her projected marriage with the French Emperor, she looked upon herself (says M. Meneval) as a victim devoted to the Minotaur. She had grown up with feelings of dread and aversion towards the man who had been so terrible an enemy to her family and country. It was an ordinary amusement with her and her brother and

sisters, to draw up in line a troop of little wooden or waxen figures to represent the French army, placing at their head the ug; liest and most forbidding figure they could find; and then to make an attack on this formidable enemy, running him through with pins, and beating and abusing him till they had taken full vengeance for the injuries he had done their house. As soon, however, as she found the matter determined on, her quiet disposition and Austrian habits of obedience, made her willing to resign herself to her destiny. She endeavored to learn the character of her future husband, and was entirely occupied by the wish to please before she had ever

seen him.

M. Meneval gives full details of the marriage, and all its ceremonies and festivities, dull as such things always are. He describes, after the following fashion, the person of the bride:

"Maria Louisa was in all the brilliancy of youth; her figure was of perfect symmetry; her complexion was heightened by the exercise of her journey and by timidity; a profusion of beautiful chestnut hair surrounded a round, fresh countenance, over which her mild eyes diffused a charming expression; her lips, somewhat thick, belonged to the features of the Austrian royal family, as a slight convexity of nose distinguishes the Bourbons; her whole person had an air of ingenuousness and innocence, and a plumpness, which she did not preserve after her accouchment, indicated the goodness of her health."

Among the emperor's rich presents, and attentions to his young consort, nothing is said about the oft-repeated circumstance of his having, in anticipation of her arrival, had her chamber at St. Cloud made so com

plete a fac-simile of that which she had quitted at Schonbrunn, that she started on entering it, thinking she had been transported by magic back to her paternal home. At all events the story, if not true, was ben

trovato.

The description given by M. Meneval of the domestic life of the imperial pair, after the birth of their ill-fated son, is so pleasing a family picture that we shall extract a few of its features.

side holding her by the hand, while the groom
held the bridle of her horse; he thus calmed
did honor to her teacher, the lessons were con-
her fears and encouraged her. When her skill
tinued in a private alley of the park. The em-
peror, when he had a moment's leisure after
breakfast, ordered the horses, mounted himself,
in his silk stockings and shoes, and cantered by
the empress's side. He urged her horse and
made him gallop, laughing heartily at her cries,
but taking care that there should be no danger,
by having servants stationed all along the path,
ready to stop the horse and prevent a fall.
"Meanwhile the king of Rome grew in
strength and beauty under the watchful eye of
Madame de Montesquiou, who loved him as her
own child. He was carried every morning to
his mother, who kept him till it was time to
dress. During the day, in the intervals between
her lessons in music and drawing, she went to
see him in his apartment and sat by him at her
needlework. Sometimes, followed by the nurse
who carried the child, she took him to his father
while he was busy. The entry to his cabinet
was interdicted to every body, and the nurse
could not go in. The emperor used to ask Ma-
ria Louisa to bring in the child herself, but she
seemed so much afraid of her own awkwardness
in taking him from the nurse, that the emperor
hastened to take him from her, and carried him
off covering him with kisses. That cabinet,
which saw the origin of so many mighty plans,
so many vast and generous schemes of admin-
istration, was also witness to the effusions of a
father's tenderness. How often have I seen the
emperor keeping his son by him, as if he were
impatient to teach him the art of governing!
Whether, seated by the chimney on his favorite
sofa, he was engaged in reading an important
document, or whether he went to his bureau to
sign a despatch, every word of which required
to be weighed, his son, seated on his knees, or
pressed to his breast, was never a moment away
from him. Sometimes, throwing aside the
thoughts which occupied his mind, he would lie
down on the floor beside this beloved son, play-
ing with him like another child, attentive to

every thing that could please or amuse him.

"The emperor had a sort of apparatus for trying military manoeuvres it consisted of pieces of wood fashioned to represent battalions, When he wanted to regiments, and divisions. try some new combinations of troops, or some new evolution, he used to arrange these pieces on the carpet. While he was seriously occupied with the disposition of these pieces, working out some skilful manœuvre which might ensure the success of a battle, the child, lying at his side, would often overthrow his troops, and put into confusion his order of battle, perhaps at the most critical moment. But the emperor would recommence arranging his men with the utmost good humor.

"The emperor appeared happy. He was affable in his family, and affectionate to the empress. If he found her looking serious he amused her with lively talk, and disconcerted her grav- "The emperor breakfasted alone. Madame ity by a hearty embrace; but in public he treat-de Montesquiou every morning took the boy to ed her with great respect, and a dignity not inconsistent with polished familiarity.

"The emperor wished her to learn to ride on horseback. Her first lessons were taken in the riding-school at St. Cloud. He walked by her

his father's breakfast-table. He took him on his knee, and amused himself with giving him morsels to eat, and putting the glass to his lips. One day he offered him a bit of something he had on his plate, and, when the child put for

ward his mouth to take it, drew it back. He the hands of the enemy. I am going to mawished to continue this game, but, at the second nœuvre in such a way that you may possibly be trial, the child turned away his head; his father several days without hearing from me. Should then offered him the morsel in earnest, but the the enemy advance on Paris in such force as to boy obstinately refused it. As the emperor render assistance impossible, take measures for looked surprised, Madame de Montesquiou said, the departure, in the direction of the Loire, of that the child did not like to be deceived; he the Empress-regent, my son, the grand dignitahad pride, she said, and feeling. Pride and ries, the ministers, the great officers of the crown, feeling! Napoleon repeated, that is well-that and the treasure. Do not quit my son, and reis what I like.' And, delighted to find these member that I would rather know that he was qualities in his son, he fondly kissed him.” in the Seine than in the hands of the enemies of France. The lot of Astyanax, prisoner among the Greeks, has always appeared to me the saddest in history."

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Joseph and the archchancellor laid this letter before the empress, making at the same time some remarks on the bad effects which might ensue from this abandonment of Paris, but leaving the decision to her, and refusing to incur the responsibility of counselling her to act in opposition to the emperor's order. On this she declared, that though, as the emperor had said, she as well as her son should fall into the Seine, she would not hesitate a moment to depart: the desire he had so distinctly expressed being a sacred order for her. The order was obeyed, and on the 29th of March, Maria Louisa and her son left Paris for

ever.

M. Meneval's subsequent narrative contains other traits of Napoleon's domestic life. The empress, it appears, was mild and good-natured, placid and yielding in her temper, with little strength either of intellect or of passions. Her mind seems at all times to have taken the tone of surrounding circumstances with the utmost ease and quickness. We have seen how readily her fear and hatred of Napoleon were changed into a predisposition, at least, to affection, before she had ever seen him. Settled in France, she almost instantly acquired French feelings and habits. To such an extent had she, in two or three years, been transformed into a French-woman, that in her German correspondence with her family she was often obliged to have recourse to French expressions, because she had forgotten the equivalent words in "When it was time to set out, the young her mother-tongue. At a later period, King of Rome refused to leave his apartment. when, finally separated from her husband It seemed as if a fatal presentiment had gifted and from France, she found herself once bouillet,' he cried to his mother, 'it is an ugly him with the second sight. 'Don't go to Rammore an Austrian Archduchess in the midst house-let us stay here.' He struggled in the of her own relatives, we observe in the arms of M. de Canisy, the gentleman-usher who quickness with which she forgot both him carried him, repeating again and again, 'I will and it, and in the ease with which her mind not leave my house; I will not go; since papa took the hue of her altered fortunes, but is away, it is I who am master!' and he clung another illustration of this chameleon-like to the doors and the banisters of the staircase. quality, which she possessed in so remark-produced melancholy forebodings in those who This obstinacy excited a painful surprise, and able a degree. witnessed it. The carriages defiled slowly, and When Napoleon, after his disasters in as if in expectation of a countermand, by the Russia, commenced the terrible struggle wicket of the Pont Royal. Sixty or eighty peowhich ended in his ruin in 1814, he invest-ple gazed in silence on this cortege, as if it were ed the Empress with the character of re- a funeral procession passing by: it was, indeed, gent. During this period her affection for her husband and zeal in the cause of her adopted country suffered no abatement, even though her own father was now among the number of their enemies. At last, when the Allies had forced their way almost to the gates of Paris, Napoleon sent instructions that his wife and child should leave the capital. His letter to his brother Joseph, written from Rheims, on the 16th of March, 1814, is striking:

"Conformably to the verbal instructions which I have given you, and to the spirit of all my letters, you are not to permit that in any case the Empress and the King of Rome shall fall into

the funeral of the empire. Their feelings did not a voice was raised to express sorrow for this not betray themselves by any manifestation: cruel separation. Had any one been inspired to cut the traces of the horses, the empress would have remained. She passed the gate of the Tuileries, with tears in her eyes and despair in her soul. When she reached the Champs rial city which she left behind her, and which Elysées, she saluted for the last time the impeshe was never more to behold."

When Napoleon, fallen from his high estate, and no longer emperor of France, had become emperor of Elba, and had gone to take possession of that second Barataria, his consort, with their son, was sent to

Neipperg accompanied her in the remainder of her tour, and returned with her to Vienna, where he still further gained her favor by his zeal and activity in her affairs, particularly in removing difficulties attending her obtaining the sovereignty of Parma and Placentia.

At this time arrived the news of Napoleon's return from Elba, and his being once more at the head of a formidable army. In such an alarming crisis, it was judged necessary to keep stricter watch over his son. The child had hitherto lived with his mother, at Schonbrunn, under the care of his governess, Madame de Montesquiou. From this lady he was now separated and brought to Vienna, where he was lodged in the palace under the care of another governess, the widow of an Austrian general.

Vienna; and it henceforward became her father's policy to detach her thoughts and feelings from her husband, and to break the ties which united her to France. He knew her character, doubtless, and succeeded as easily as he could have expected. She was separated as much as possible from her French friends and attendants, induced to adopt her old habits and occupations, and amused with journeys and parties of pleasure. But, whatever she did, and whereever she went, she was carefully watched, and every precaution was taken to obliterate French reminiscences and associations. In a visit to the baths of Aix-la-Chapelle, an Austrian general introduced himself into her society, and a division of troops under his command was stationed in the neighborhood. This officer, General Neipperg, was an emissary of Metternich, and, according to M. Meneval, a perfect serpent| Soon after this, M. Meneval, finding his in matters of seduction. When Austrian situation in Vienna become every day more minister at Stockholm, in 1812, he was and more disagreeable, in consequence of no stranger to the concoction of the the jealousy and suspicions shown towards treaty of Örebro, whereby Bernadotte took the French members of Maria Louisa's up arms against the sovereign to whom he suite, returned to Paris. Before his deowed his rise in the world, and agreed to parture, he went to take leave of the young deliver him up to his enemies. If this be prince, whom he never saw again. There true, it argues consummate duplicity on is something touching in his account of the part of the Austrian cabinet, at a mo- this final parting. The boy was then about ment when Austria was still in alliance four years old. with Napoleon, and when Austrian troops "I observed, with pain, his serious and even were actually co-operating with his own. melancholy air. He had lost his gaiety and From Stockholm, Neipperg was sent to Na- childish prattle. He did not run to meet me as ples, where his arts and persuasions se- he was wont, and did not even seem to know duced the unfortunate Murat into that coa-me. Though he had been already more than lition with the allies against his relative six weeks with the persons to whom he had and ancient comrade, remorse for which been entrusted, he had not become accustomed led him into the desperate enterprise which ed by new faces. I asked him in their presence to them, and still looked as if he were surroundcost him his life. The successful tempter was then directed to turn his battery against Prince Eugene, but that chivalrous soldier was proof against his wiles.

This personage, according to our author, was employed by Metternich to work the desired change in the thoughts and feelings of Maria Louisa.

"He was then a little turned of forty, of middle stature, but of a distinguished air. His hussar uniform, and his fair, curled hair, gave him a youthful appearance. A broad black bandeau concealed the loss of an eye; his look was keen and animated; his polished and elegant man. ners, insinuating language, and pleasing accomplishments, created a prepossession in his favor. He speedily got into the confidence and good graces of a good and easy-tempered young woman, driven from her adopted country, withdrawn from the devotion of the few French who had adhered to her evil fortunes, and trembling at the further calamities which might still be in store for her."

if he had any message for his father, whom I was going to see again. He looked at me sadly and significantly without saying any thing; and then, gently withdrawing his hand from mine, walked silently to the embrasure of a distant window. After having exchanged a few ed the place where he was standing, apparently words with the persons in the room, I approachwatching my motions. As I leaned towards him, to say farewell, he drew me towards the window and said softly, looking earnestly in my face, Monsieur Meva, you will tell him that I always love him dearly. The poor orphan felt already that he was no longer free, or with his father's friends. He had difficulty in forgetting his 'Mama Quiou,' as he called her, and constantly asked for her of Madame Marchand, his nurse, an excellent woman, who had been allowed to remain with him, and of whom he was very fond. She, too, returned to France the following year; another source of grief for the young prince."

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The history of this ill-fated youth is brief, like his life. In 1818, he received

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