I am well aware, citizen general, that even the most deserved praise adds nothing to the glory of heros. But I am also well aware that legitimate incense, called recognition, cannot displease them.
An immense republic, saved at the moment when it was falling, rival powers, conspiring for a long time to destroy her, bowing today before her;finally, her most formidable enemies vanquished, disarmed and submissive: such is your work, such are your titles to the affection of the French people, who do not boast either of having discovered you or of the choice they made of you to avenge them.
When I ran over the annals of nations I found there many successful warriors and hardly a single conquering philosopher. It is really much easier to make oneself feared by the force of arms than to make oneself admired by the luster of one's virtues.
I shall not speak of yours; your delicacy does not permit me to do that. I content myself with observing that our enemies, struck by the wisdom of your plans for conquests, by the moderation which characterizes your victories, and the humanity without precedence which presides over your treaties of peace, speak of you as do we ourselves. Instructed by the knowledge of their esteem for you, allow us, as the interpreter of their sentiments and ours, to offer you homage in the name of all Europe, which has its eyes on you, and whose admiration places the final seal on your immortality.
If I have dared to write an abstract of your history, it is not that I presume that my abilities
are capable of painting you in a manner worthy of you and of posterity. But if my talents are not
up to the dignity of my subject, I shall have at least the satisfaction of having undertaken it
for your glory.
Although common opinion connects the life and actions of a man to his origins, never the less I have never believed and I never shall that it is necessary to be born of illustrious blood to be oneself illustrious, nor that a man born in obscurity cannot become a great man. Consul Marius, Marshal Fabert, Lt. General Chevert, etc., all generals of the highest reputation, came from the class of working people.
I swear that the careful education which the great people give to their children contributes not a little to develop in their children the gifts which they have received from nature; but it is also necessary to admit that in every century there have escaped and will continue to escape from the crowd privileged beings who from the extended sweep of their genius know how to raise themselves by their own efforts to immortality. There are perhaps no nations known which do not offer striking examples of this.
Since I don't have any particular information about the ancestry of General Buonaparte and since anyway his ancestry doesn't have any connection with his glory, it is enough for my readers to know that he was born in Ajaccio, in Corsica, on August 15, 1769, and that he was transplanted into France by events more closely determined by chance that by fixed ideas. At the military school he received a superior education, to which he perhaps owes the vigor of that vast and powerful genius which unites to the eminent qualities of a hero all the virtues of an honorable man.
This is the place to insert a fact almost generally ignored, which is that in his earliest years and after rigorous examinations he was admitted with honor into the artillery, the science of which is known to require the rarest talent. But the day of his glory had not yet arrived.
Ordinarily great souls are formed in the calm of obscurity. Buonaparte, buried in the masses of this enormous capital, here cultivated in peace his heart, his spirit, and his calling, when the implacable demon of human revolutions struck this empire with his deadly breath. Our hero was still ignorant of his brilliant destinies; a simple manner of living, laborious and concealed, actually seemed to distance him from fortune, and Fortune, more careful for his lot that he himself, secretly prepared for him the path to greatness.
Meanwhile, robbery had already put weapons in the hands of assassins everywhere. Already one saw nothing more than chains, scaffolds, citizens slaughtered or trembling; already a thousand diverse factions planned to divide the bloody spoils of a people always credulous, always seduced, always victims. Already, to finish, the devouring fire of civil wars enveloped our provinces, which three rival powers flattered themselves they could invade, favored by our troubles, when the genius of Buonaparte finally soared into action. But before following the hero in his military career I think I have to describe the memorable circumstance where he first showed his powers in the art of commanding.
While Buonaparte was occupied solely in his studies and in the education of one of his young brothers, the south was the prey of the horrors of war, resounding afar with the cries of rebellion. The sparks which ignited the blast in that stormy country emanated from London, Paris, Lyon, Nimes, Marseille, and almost all the provinces suffered the violent shocks of a general uprising. Blood flowed in the Vendee; treason had become frequent among generals, and the ineptitude of the men in office contributed quite a bit toward delaying the success of our armies; such was the deplorable situation of France armed against herself when Buonaparte was sent to the siege of Toulon (in 1792) with an artillery company in which he was an officer. There, witnessing his valor and intelligence, the representatives made him brigadier general, and it was in that rank that he performed prodigies of bravery and of military science in the attack and the reduction of the city of Toulon.
The following year the representative Beffroi had him arrested in Nice as a terrorist. His papers were examined with an attention and an ardor which bore witness to how much his enemies wanted to find him guilty. But to the shame of Beffroi nothing was found except an irreproachable correspondence; drawings and notes about the war, with some letters which breathed nothing except patriotism and honor. He was turned loose, but it is said that afterwards they wanted to rob him of his corps, which he had covered with glory, to make him serve in the infantry. He came to Paris to appeal that, at the time that Aubry was head of the military section of the Committee of Public Safety, but in spite of the justice and the soundness of his complaint Buonaparte did not obtain anything. Indignant at the lack of attention paid to his claims, he requested permission to withdraw to Constantinople, a request likewise denied.
Finally the thirteenth of Vendemiaire arrived. I shall not retell here the memory of that day, fateful for the republicans although they were victorious. It will be remarked only that Buonaparte was given the command of the troops of the line who were hastily assembled to support the Convention, which was in danger. It was also in those circumstances that Beruyer commanded the legion of police, accompanied by craftsmen and laborers (which well-bred people called terrorists), zealous but unskilled in the craft of war.
This famous expedition, the bizarre details of which no one can be ignorant, was the dawning of the rise of Buonaparte. Since this young warrior had played the part of a great man in it he made some powerful friends but even more enemies who would never pardon him for acquiring glory or for showing the tireless zeal with which, in that disastrous and critical moment he had put the authorities out of the reach of the blows which a faction of misled citizens was going to aim against them, for the purpose of which the ambition of some of them had put weapons in their hands.
However that was, Buonaparte became after that the unique object of public admiration and the hope of the government which in large part owed to him the safety of its members.
However much the modesty of superior talents, they are not concealed from the malignantly jealous regard of envy, which, always outraged by the prosperity of famous men, never ceases, in accord with its own baseness, to connect to their actions odious hints of suspicion and of disfavor. Buonaparte experienced that more than once. However, like a majestic river which fertilizes even the ungrateful fields it meets in its passage, our hero continued the route which Fortune had marked out for him with that calm and that sublime tranquility which characterize him even in the heat of combat. What is even more astonishing is that many times there was a question of recalling him from Italy to France under specious pretexts which did not deceive him. These various attempts would make one presume that the government did not have many generals at its disposition in whom to put its trust, or that they were the effect of the machiavellianism of that incorrigible faction which was always the enemy of the present order of things, who feared the results of the esteem which the nations Buonaparte had conquered devoted to him. Really, that esteem could not but accelerate the peace, and peace would rein in the terrible brigandage of which we are the unhappy witnesses. In the one or the other case the treacherous recall of Buonaparte offers to the soul of one who has sinister ideas funereal forebodings of new evils. However, I leave to my readers the duty of considering that duplex observation, of which they will have no trouble perceiving the basis and the importance.
I return to our hero, and without entering into the details of the disagreements which he had to face before reaching the so well deserved rank of general in chief of the army in Italy, I shall draw a rapid sketch of his conduct and his conquests.
It had no sooner been learned that the French army entered Italy than the troops of the Emperor and of the kings of Sardinia and Naples lay in ambush in the Alpine gorges, but whether because of lack of courage or ability on the part of their generals or because a panic terror seized them, as soon as the French general appeared, they disappeared like a cloud at the beginning of a fine day.
Meanwhile Ceva, Mondovi, Ceraxo, Fossano, and many other important places were already in the power of our army. The king of Sardinia, fearful, requested peace and obtained it. What a brilliant career was opening to the one entrusted with the destinies of France! Like a rapid torrent Buonaparte penetrated into the territory of Milan. In vain Beaulieu tried to prevent him from entering; Beaulieu, vanquished, took to flight; the bridge of Lodi was carried.
The Austrians, shaking with fear, abandoned their camp, and without counting the prisoners, they left on the battlefield their cannon, their baggage, with four thousand dead, .I am well aware that that loss does not lessen ours, which is sometimes not less than that of the enemy. But in the end we won, a little like the Battle of Fontenoy, where the English lost ten thousand men and we as many.
Some days later the Austrian general Wurmser showed up and fought a battle, This general was defeated in his turn. The territory of Milan was invaded and occupied by our troops. They gave new luster to the reputation of their chief by respecting everywhere both people and the proprieties. From then on was recognized the delicacy of his spirit and the elevation of his feelings; one could even say that from this moment the respect for his wise conduct disconcerted the policies and the firmness of our enemies; also Buonaparte, certain of his success in battles, never avoided any.
While this great man unconceitedly triumphed at Castiglione, where he completely defeated the Austrians, General Massena occupied Verona, Corona, and Montebaldo. At the same time Generals Soret and Guieux, fired up by the incredible zeal inspired in them by the ardor and fearlessness of their chief, captured at the battle of Lodon six cannon and eleven hundred prisoners. The Austrians were overwhelmed everywhere or put to flight. Riva, which had been retaken, fell into our hands again, and the fleet of the emperor was burned on the Lago di Garda. It should be noted here that all these victories were only results of the great plan Buonaparte conceived at the time of his invasion into Italy and his first successes over General Wurmser.
Humiliated, crushed by so many defeats, Austria, still not conceiving the control which a great genius can have over the outcome of battles and always believing she could repair her losses, , named other generals and prepared for new battles; but she did not know that the wise inheritor of the spirit and talents of the first Caesar was at the head of our armies. All Italy, fearing the dreadful advance of the conqueror, hastened to ask for peace, and the hero, far from taking wrongful advantage of the superiority of his weapons, became the peace maker after his own conquests. However, no to interrupt the course of his victories I shall put off to the end of this work the analysis of his treaties.
Meanwhile, the emperor and his cabinet, disconcerted, assembled new forces. Field Marshal Dalvinzi and General Davidovich invaded Italy at the head of fifty thousand men. A battle began at Arcole, and after a few hours of combat all Arcole became a theater of humiliation for Austria and a field of glory and of laurels for us.
Human revolutions always offer prodigies of all sorts. While Buonaparte covered France with glory, France, at war with herself, covered herself with ignominy and opprobrium. But since I have no other intention than to retrace the actions of our hero, I return my attention to him; and without stopping to describe the smaller battles which followed that of Arcole I shall content myself with adding that the astonishing capture of Mantua and the uselessness of the vain attempts of the enemy to retake that place put the last seal on the profound humiliation of Austria.
At the news of the reduction of that unfortunate city alarm spread through Rome. The Pope, whose feeble forces were still in the field, was advised to immediately abandon the capital of the world and to get to safety.The advisors were divided; while one fluttered uncertainly another heard from all sides that Buonaparte, being filled with respect for the Italians and of veneration for the august chief of the Catholic religion, had no other aim than to destroy in these various courts the powerful influence of the house of Austria, which had or believed it had to avenge at the same time its ancient defeats, the death of a princess of its blood (Marie Antoinette, formerly queen of France), and France is now too well informed of the horrors which intrigues connected with this suspicion have produced for me to permit myself to give fuller details. [28] When the Pope was informed of the sentiments and the real intentions of General Buonaparte, from then on he devoted to him feelings of esteem which honored Buonaparte no less than his conquests.
Such prodigious successes would have made the consuls of the best times of the Roman republic proud. Buonaparte, as if accustomed to triumphs, seemed as tranquil in the midst of his victories and the congratulations of his army as if he were nothing but a passive instrument, and not the moving genius and the soul of his conquests; and that is precisely the thing which heros of antiquity and modern warriors of whom history has transmitted to us the great deeds.
Once the bridge at Arcole was taken , proud Mantua reduced and almost buried in ruins, the empire and its generals discouraged, Rome consternate and trembling, both Germany and Italy plunged into the horrors of uncertainty and fear, finally, all the powers of Europe dejected spectators of our glory and the incalculable losses of their allies; all that offered to the eyes of the universe the most astonishing and most remarkable scene which had ever been noted in the course of human revolutions in the nearly five thousand years that the demon of war has troubled the repose of nations.
After these reflections, which are part of my subject, I take up again the chain of events.
I said that the Pope, reassured by Buonaparte [30]himself about the destiny of the capital of the world and the noble dispositions of the conqueror on the subject of the ancient cult of the Catholic religion, rejected the advice he had been given to flee to Terracina to be safe. This pontiff, of whom our invincible conqueror had won the esteem, more by his moderation than by his bravery, made peace with him, but on the condition that the articles of the treaty be inviolably observed by his successors.This treaty will be placed with the others at the end of this work, of which it is well understood that I could not break the thread without weakening the interest.
That's how things were when the emperor made a new attempt, hoping to restore the courage of his own humiliations. But that attempt was no happier than the others. The powerless ferocity of the agricultural inhabitants of the Tyrol, into whose hands Austria had put weapons, failed against the iron of our soldiers just as the foam of agitated waves breaks against the rocks of the Adriatic Sea. Everywhere the Austrian generals were defeated; everywhere the imperial eagles disappeared. Everywhere Buonaparte controlled victory and the outcome of combats. It would have been the end of the empire if our hero, faithful to his principles and to his love for peace had not in indulgence for the weakness of our enemies facilitated overtures of accommodation and of pacification.
The emperor, touched perhaps by the appearance of a treaty so extraordinary and so little expected, was quick to have propositions sent him. Trustfulness, openness and honor seemed to reign in the first interviews.
Archduke Charles appeared to be content with the reception by Buonaparte. and Buonaparte with the dispositions of the emperor, everything took place in the greatest calm and to the satisfaction of both parties, both the one and the other tired of shedding blood at the desire of England, who alone profited from it, occupied themselves with the means for putting an end to the ills of Europe.
However, while the negotiations were under way our soldiers had their throats slit in the Venetian states. This infamous conduct, undertaken in spite of the trust in treaties, should have deserved that our vengeance bring arms and fire into the very senate of that perfidious republic. However, Buonaparte, far from using the rights of war, contented himself with requesting reparations for the outrage committed against trust, honesty, honor and the public faith all at once. What there was in particular was that the government of Venice, in tearing out its own guts, as is known, by its intestine divisions, itself avenged us by the baseness and atrocity of its treason. Since no one can be unaware of the disastrous situation of that dismembered state at the time that I am writing, I do not think I have to expatiate further on the punishment for her crime. Besides, my aim is much less to describe the horrors which accompany war than to give[34] a correct and precise idea of the spirit and character of the warrior philosopher whose history I sketch.
After concluding peace with the pope, Buonaparte gave a speech to his army full of that nobility and grandeur which one remarks with so much pleasure in the eloquent speeches of the generals of ancient Rome. It was on this occasion that his troops, inflamed by the desire to win, with one common voice asked to march at the same time against Austria, already too nervous at the alarming nearness of the French not to be able to prevent by peaceful overtures an immediate invasion so they took the most immediate steps to enter into negotiations with us.
Meanwhile, the Tyrol remained calm. There was a prodigious fermentation in the courts of the German princes. Hungary, quite uncertain of the part she should take, divided into factions. In short, the entire embroiled empire seems to want to dissolve, but England, which took every means to hinder or break off the negotiations, maintaining her influence over the spirit of the emperor, whose cabinet she insidiously directed. On the one hand that prince, seduced by the tricky advice of the creatures of Pint, wanted to continue the war. On the other hand, by prolonging it he ran the risk of shamefully losing his throne and his states.
In this humiliating flux[36] of contrary interests Prudence imperiously required of that prince that he avert the storm ready to break about his head. That is really the direction Buonaparte made him take, whether from fear of his arms or by his offers of peace.
During these various movements all Europe kept their eyes on our hero. It could not be understood how this young general, loaded with laurels, commanding an army covered with glory and nearly at the gates of Vienna,could suddenly suspend the course of his conquests to offer peace to our enemies. Really, this astonishing action reawaked the hatred of Buonaparte's enemies and they then cast every suspicion of treason on his humane and wise conduct.[37]But like the light of day which illuminates his career without paying the least attention to the ingrates it discloses, Buonaparte, firm in his purpose and his resolution, did not and still does not, in spite of the vain chatter of envy, concern himself with anything but the desired return of peace.
I shall not examine the secret reasons which could delay the conclusion of peace. The policy of the French government is impenetrable. If, embarrassed by hidden interests, the weapons of Austria are so formidable and so numerous, the letters and papers published by the two governments contain so many contradictions; the other crowns display so much defiance and so little interest in promoting affairs;[38] the forces of Buonaparte increase with so much ardor and rapidity; finally, the complication of affairs is such that it would be imprudent to predict the destinies of France and the empire. What is certain is that peace is to be desired by both the parties: it would bring about the destruction of the greatest of the plagues inflicted upon humanity. These reflections, dictated by a knowledge unconnected with ambition, will not, I presume, be disavowed by honorable men; they bring to a close this work, which I dedicate to the glory of the most valiant,the most able, and the most fortunate of warriors.
If I have not entered into all the details of the events which accompanied and followed the French Revolution, it is because they are foreign to the life of the hero which is the object of my work. I leave it to the journalists, the mob of which increases terribly every day, the job of spreading news and rumors; the lure of money directs their pens, almost all of them are prostituted to special interests or to falsehoods.
For me, I can say what Tacitus himself said of the personages of his time, nec beneficio, nec injuria cognita. I have sought nothing but the truth, without feelings, without hopes; and not having any other design that to do justice to the virtues, talents, and the vast genius of a young man whose exploits will astonish men to the end of time.
When time, which unfeelingly buries in oblivion the journalists and their journals, shall have brought the entire truth to light, I shall give the public the continuation of my work, that is, the continuation and the fleshing out of the story which I have dared to begin, both for the honor of my nation and for the glory of my hero, who doubtlessly will pardon my audacity in favor of my zeal and my devotion to public affairs, the cause and interests of which have been entrusted to me on more than one occasion in serious circumstances, when I have always been able to show delicacy, probity, and the detachment of an honorable man.
This is not all. Oh no, this is not all. I shall, God willing, continue the translation.
The translator.
