Part 35

The horror with which the Austrian sway inspired the Italians, the attachment they retained to Napoleon, and the joy they displayed on hearing of his departure from the island of Elba, persuaded the King, that he should find no difficulty in raising Italy; and he flattered himself with bringing the allies, either by force of arms, or by way of negotiation, to guaranty to him irrevocably the possession of his kingdom.

Desirous on the other hand of securing the protection of Napoleon, in case of failure of success, he secretly despatched an emissary to congratulate him; and announce, that, with a view of seconding his operations, he was about to attack the Austrians, and, if his wishes were answered by victory, he would soon join him with a formidable army: "in fine," he wrote, "the moment of atoning for the wrong I have done your Majesty, and of proving my attachment, is now arrived; I will not let it escape."

This letter, which I deciphered, reached the Emperor at Auxerre; and he immediately enjoined the King, to continue his preparations, but wait for his giving him the signal, before he commenced hostilities. The natural impetuosity and impatience of this Prince did not allow him, to wait for the answer of Napoleon, and when his despatches arrived, the gauntlet had been thrown down.

The better to disguise his intentions, Joachim had summoned the ambassadors of Austria and England, immediately on hearing of the landing of Napoleon, and had assured them, that he would remain faithful to his engagements. When he had assembled his army (put in motion under pretence of reinforcing his troops in the March of Ancona), he fell unexpectedly on the Austrians; and announced to the Italians, by a proclamation dated at Rimini the 31st of March, that he had taken up arms to liberate Italy from a foreign yoke, and restore its ancient freedom and independence.

"Italians," said he to them, "the moment is arrived, when the great decrees of destiny are to be fulfilled. Providence at length calls you, to become an independent people: one cry resounds from the Alps to the straits of Scylla, the independence of Italy. By what right would foreigners rob you of your independence, the first right, and the first good, of all nations?

"Formerly masters of the world, you have expiated this fatal glory by an oppression of twenty centuries. Let your glory now be, to have no more masters.

"Fourscore thousand Italians hasten to you under the command of their king. They swear not to rest, till Italy is free. Italians of all countries, second their magnanimous efforts ... let those, who have borne arms, resume them, let the unpractised youth exercise themselves in the use of them, let all the friends of their country raise up one generous voice for liberty.

"Can England refuse you her suffrages, she whose noblest claim to glory is to spend her blood and treasure for the independence and freedom of nations?

"I call on all the brave, to come and fight with me; I call on all men of enlightened understandings, to prepare, while the passions are silent, the constitution and laws, that ought henceforward to govern happy and independent Italy."

This proclamation, to the great astonishment of Italy and France, did not once mention the name of Napoleon. It kept the most profound silence respecting his return, his intercourse with Joachim, and the hopes their combined efforts must inspire.

Joachim however was not ignorant of the ascendancy, which the name of Napoleon had on the spirit and courage of the Italians. But he knew also, that this name was odious to the English, and dared not invoke it, for fear of displeasing them. He thought he was sufficiently powerful of himself, to act independently of the Emperor; and that it would be enough, if he showed himself in arms to the Italian nation, and offered it independence, to raise it at his pleasure. He deceived himself: all his strength was borrowed from Napoleon: personally he enjoyed no weight, no influence, in Italy. The Italians could not forgive him for having betrayed his brother-in-law and benefactor in 1814, or for having revealed to Austria the patriotic conspiracy of Milan in 1815.

Thus prejudiced, they durst not confide in him; his intentions appeared doubtful, his promises vague, his resources uncertain; and they remained quiet spectators of the combat.

It is not, in fact, by concealments, that people are reduced or hurried away: to subjugate them, it is necessary, to convince their hearts and their understandings; and the heart and the understanding comprehend no language but the straight forward voice of truth. Unhappily this language was no longer known to Murat. Since his accession to the throne, he had adopted the system of dissimulation and duplicity, which pretty generally characterise Italian politics. These narrow politics, which support themselves by cunning and temporizing, were incompatible with the French blood, that circulated in his veins; and the continual conflicts, that arose between his novel inclinations and his natural petulance, were incessantly rendering his words and actions at variance, and leading him into devious paths, where he could not fail, to go astray and meet his ruin.

Nevertheless, such is the magic power of the sacred words of liberty and our country, that Murat did not utter them in vain. Bologna and a few cities declared for him; and a number of young Italians ran to enlist under his standards. Victory favoured their first steps; but Napoleon did not deceive himself: the moment had been ill-chosen, he foresaw the defection or ruin of Murat, and what passed beyond the Alps no longer inspired him with any thing but disgust. From that time he turned his attention with more ardor than ever to the means of struggling alone against his adversaries, whose proceedings began to assume a threatening appearance.

The royal government, partly through fear, partly from economy, had disorganized the army, reduced the regiments one half, changed their denominations, and dispersed the soldiers among new battalions.

Napoleon re-established the regiments on their ancient footing; restored to them their glorious surnames of Invincible, Incomparable, Terrible, One to Ten, &c. &c., which they had acquired and merited in the field of battle. He recalled to their standards the brave men who had been banished from them; and the army, which was scarcely fourscore thousand strong, soon reckoned on its lists near two hundred thousand fighting men.

The marines and guards of the coasts, who so brilliantly signalized their courage in the plains of Lutzen and Bautzen, were united under the command of their officers, and formed a body of fifteen or eighteen thousand men, who were appointed to protect our maritime establishments, or, in case of necessity, reinforce the active army.

The cavalry of the imperial guard and the old grenadiers opened their ranks to ten thousand soldiers selected from the flank companies; the light artillery was re-organized; and the young guard received an addition of several regiments.

But it was not sufficient to restore to the army the forces, of which it had been deprived; it was equally necessary, to repair its destitution: the foot wanted arms and clothing, the cavalry had neither saddles nor horses.

The Emperor looked to all these things.

Levies and purchases of horses were made at once in all the departments.

The gendarmerie, by giving up the ten thousand horses belonging to it, which it replaced immediately, supplied the heavy cavalry with so many horses already trained, which in ten days rendered its numerous squadrons complete.

Spacious manufactories of clothing, arms, and equipage, were opened at once in all parts.

The Emperor caused an account of the number of workmen, and the produce of their labour, to be delivered to him every morning. He knew how long it took a tailor to finish a soldier's dress, a wheelwright to construct a carriage, or an armourer to fit up a musket. He knew the quantity of arms, in a good or bad state, contained in the arsenals. "You will find," he wrote to the minister at war, "in such an arsenal, so many old muskets, and so many broken up. Set a hundred men at work there, and arm me five hundred men a week." Such was the extent and variety of Napoleon's genius, that he soared without effort to the loftiest abstractions of the art of governing, and descended with the same facility to the minutest details of management.

Extraordinary commissioners were employed at the same time to direct the repairing and fortifying of the frontier towns. They employed themselves day and night on this important business. But the slightest delay appeared to the Emperor an age of expectation, and frequently he put his hand to the work himself. He was perfectly acquainted with the nature of the fortifications of every place, the number of men it ought to contain, and the approaches necessary to be defended; and in a few hours he settled what the most experienced engineer would have found it difficult to conceive and determine in several days. And let it not be supposed, that the works he thus ordered bore any marks of precipitancy. At the head of his topographical cabinet he had one of the first engineer officers in France, General Bernard; and this general, too brave, too loyal, to be a flatterer, could never enough admire the profound knowledge the Emperor possessed of the art of fortification, and his happy and prompt application of it.

The zeal and joint efforts of these committees, and of the Emperor, produced, in a short time, effects truly miraculous. All France seemed an intrenched camp. Napoleon, in the articles he wrote, frequently gave an account of the progress of his armament, of the fortified places, and of the works of defence. I will transcribe here one of these articles, which, exclusive of the merit of depicting the aspect of France at that period, in a better manner than I could, appears to me well adapted to convey an idea of the fervid activity of Napoleon, and the immensity of the objects his eye embraced.

"All the strong places on the northern frontier, from Dunkirk to Charlemont, are furnished with ordnance, provision, and stores: the sluices are put into order, and the country will be inundated at the first hostile movement: field-works have been laid out in the forest of Mormale: measures are taken for throwing up intrenchments in the different passes of the forest of Aregonne: all the strong places of Lorraine are prepared: intrenchments are formed at the five passes of the Vosges: the fortresses of Alsace are equipped: orders are given for the defence of the pass of Jura, and all the frontiers of the Alps. The passes of the Somme, which are in the third line, are putting into order. In the interior, Guise, la Ferte, Vitry, Soissons, Chateau Thierry, and Langres, are equipping and fortifying. Orders have been issued even for constructing works on the heights of Montmartre and Menilmontant, and furnishing them with three hundred pieces of ordnance: they will be formed at first of earth, and the solidity of permanent fortifications will be given them in succession.

"His Majesty has ordered, that Lyons should be put into a state of defence: a tete-de-pont will be established at Broteaux. The drawbridge at La Guillotiere is replacing. The space between the Saone and the Rhone will be fortified: some redoubts are preparing to be constructed in advance of this space. A redoubt will be constructed on the height of Pierre en Size, to support a work, that closes the city on the right bank. The heights, that command the quarter of St. Jean, on the right bank of the Saone, will be defended by several redoubts: a train of eighty pieces of cannon, with the necessary stores, is sent off for Lyons. Sisteron and the bridge of St. Esprit will be placed in a state of defence. Eight armies or corps of observation are formed: namely