|
As I passed near Vienna, on
my way to Styria, I went into the capital, which I had not been able to
visit as 1 came, and thence to Schonbrunn, the Emperor's headquarters,
and hitherto the summer residence of the Emperor of Austria. Napoleon
received me somewhat coldly, partly perhaps owing to some remnants of
former recollections, and also partly because rumour said, both in the
army and in Austria, that it was I who had gained the battle. There were
plenty of people ready to repeat this most improper speech to the
Emperor—a speech to which I was a stranger, as I only appropriated to
myself that which had been really personal, and mine by right. The
country and the people at Schönbrunn were alike new to me—I mean the
imperial Court, which greeted me very coldly: I limited myself to
returning their courtesy.
However, the Emperor
retained me to breakfast, together with Marshal Marmont, who had just
arrived ; Berthier, the Major-General, was the third guest. Conversation
at first turned upon the battle, and it was then that the Emperor made
the remark to me that I have already quoted, respecting the Guards who
did not act, and the slowness of Nansouty. Since then he had again
visited the battlefield, and gone over the positions that I had
successively occupied, deeply regretting the serious losses I had
suffered. My squares, outlined by the dead bodies, were still in regular
order.
During breakfast a
despatch was brought to him from General Vandamme.
'Do you know what he
tells me?' he said. 'Look, read for yourself '
This General, who was in
command of the Wurtemburg corps, and was preceding me on the road to
Gratz in order to take possession of the town and castle according to
the terms of the armistice, announced that on the way he had met the
Austrian army from Croatia, led by General Gyulai, on the way to Vienna
under orders from the Archduke John. Vandamme added that at a conference
a temporary suspension of arms had been agreed upon, each army to retain
its position pending fresh orders. We had risen from table, and while I
was reading the letter the Emperor called in all the soldiers who had
come to pay him their respects. When I returned him the letter he said
quickly and aloud, so that all could hear:
Where is your force
to-day? Hasten its march—start in person; I put Vandamme under your
orders. Such and such divisions will join you; take entire direction of
everything. March against that army and crush it.'
However, while I was
taking my leave, he drew me aside and whispered:
'Be prudent; try not to
renew hostilities; we need rest in order to recover ourselves.'
General Vandamme,
informed of the Emperor's arrangements, received me very coldly,
although he had often before served under my orders, and instead of
considering how to carry out the fresh ones he had just received, he
began to declaim against the Marshals Oudinot and Marmont, who had been
given that rank after me. He was quite ready to admit that I had earned
it, but as for the others, no name was too had for them. He was
especially violent against the Emperor, who, at the beginning of the
campaign, he said, had promised that within three months he would make
him a Marshal and a Duke.
'He is a poltroon,' he
went on —'a forger, a liar! and had it not been for me, Vandarnme, he
would still be keeping pigs in Corsica.'
This language was used in
presence of thirty military men most of them generals and superior
officers of his own army corps, and Wurtemburgers Wheri he had cooled
down, he told me that an Austrian general officer had come with a
message, and was waiting to see me. It was General Zach, chief of
General Gyulai's staff. I knew him personally, as he had been made
prisoner at the Battle of Marengo, and taken to Paris, where I
frequently saw him.
After exchanging
greetings with him, I said
'How comes this? Are we
at war while our principal armies have agreed to an armistice?'
He replied that the
Archduke, under whom his chief was serving, was independent of his
brother, Prince Charles, notwithstanding the latter's title of
Generalissimo of the Austrian armies, and that he would not recognise
the truce.
'But,' I answered, 'the
Emperor of Austria has sanctioned it.'
'I am not aware of it,'
was his answer.
I put an end to the
conversation, the only object of which clearly was to gain time.
'Monsieur le Gánëral,' I
said firmly, 'my orders are imperative to march upon Gratz. I shall move
to-morrow morning at five o'clock, and shall attack you if I meet your
troops ; from that moment the suspension of arms is at an end.'
He calculated that there
would not be time enough to communicate my determination to General
Gyulai, and to transmit to me that General's answer. lie begged for an
extension of two hours, to which I agreed, convinced that by then the
enemy would have decamped; and this proved to be the case. I had them
followed, but after giving strict injunctions that no hostilities were
to be attempted. Our troops soon caught up their rear-guard, and marched
it in front of them without striking a blow, and thus we conducted the
Archduke John's army into Croatia, while we ourselves went into Styria
and Gratz.
The Archduke at length
recognized the armistice, and evacuated the fort; his armament was
composed of field-guns, which the Emperor ordered me to bring to his
headquarters at Schönbrunn. My line of demarcation with the Austrians
was the frontier of Hungary, and Croatia as far as Trieste. I improved
the defences of the castle; after arming and provisioning it, I
established my camp on the left bank of the Mühr, and my headquarters at
the castle of Eckenberg.
Negotiations were carried
on during the armistice, and during several months nothing occurred save
alternations of peace and fresh outbreaks of hostilities. Peace was
concluded at last; it was known as the Peace of Vienna.
On the Emperor's birthday
(August 15) I received the 'grand cordon' of the Legion of Honour, the
title of DUKE OF TARENTUM, and a present of 60,000 francs (2,400).
Previously to this, Generals Lamarque and Broussier had been promoted to
the rank of Grand Officer of the Legion; but this did not prevent the
former from carrying on petty intrigues—it seems to have been his
element. He displayed more talent in this direction than in military
matters, although he believed himself the best General in the French
service, as he modestly remarked to General Pully, who repeated it to
me. Shortly afterwards I was able to get rid of him. At the time when I
received the three favours that I have mentioned, the Emperor showered a
large number upon my corps d'armée; but the recipients did not all seem
equally satisfied, and some of them were certainly very small. I do not
mention those who were dissatisfied at having received nothing.
While the armistice
lasted, and even after the peace, fighting continued in the Tyrol
against the insurgents in that country whom we had failed to reduce. My
entire army corps was sent there except myself and my staff. I was very
grieved to part with such brave troops, and they displayed great regret
at quitting me for other leaders. General Grenier's corps replaced mine
in Styria; that General was only half pleased at having me for a chief,
and also complained that he had only received the 'grand cordon' for his
wound.
After the ratification of
peace, the Emperor returned to Paris, and the Viceroy to Milan; I had
command of the Army of Italy. Shortly afterwards I heard of the
Emperor's divorce, and rumours were current of a fresh marriage with a
Princess of Saxony or Russia. Indeed, negotiations were instituted with
the latter Power, but the opposition of the Empress-mother caused them
to he suddenly broken off.
The period for the
evacuation of Austrian territory had been settled by a convention, but
contingent upon the delimitation of the frontiers, the return of our
prisoners, and the payment of a war indemnity. I was on the point of
beginning my retrograde movement, when I received counter-orders through
two couriers from Paris, who arrived within an hour of each other—one
through Austria, the other through Italy.
The counter-order was
based upon the idea that the Government at Vienna was not fulfilling the
three conditions; but they were misinformed in Paris. I had already
received the prisoners who were nearest at hand, and Austrian
commissioners had long since arrived at Gratz to determine the frontier,
which they could not do until the French arrived, and they tarried. As
to the indemnity, it was to be paid at Vienna. I sent word of these
facts to Paris ; at the same time, Marshal Davoust, acting as commander
of the Grand Army, stated, on his side, that the first payment had been
made, and the other conditions performed—if not willingly, at any rate
punctually.
This suspension of the
evacuation might produce serious consequences, and an evilly-disposed
person would have had no difficulty in bringing about a renewal of
hostilities. The Austrians were to follow a day's march behind us,
consequently they had to stop and put up with very bad quarters. My
correspondence with them on this subject was not friendly. Finally, the
orders for departure arrived. The States of Styria came to hid me
farewell, and to offer me a present of considerable value for the care I
had taken of their country, and the exemplary disipline I had
maintained. I refused it, and, as they insisted, I said
'Well, if you really
think you owe me anything, I can tell you how to acquit your debt in a
manner more agreeable to me. Look after the sick and wounded whom I am
obliged to leave here for the time being, as well as the detachment and
the medical officers of whom they have charge.' They promised. The
weather was too severe to remove the sick; humanity forbade it at the
risk of exposing the live of these brave fellows.
The members of the States
asked me if I knew anything of a piece of news that had reached Vienna
through commercial channels—namely, the sudden arrival of Prince
Schwarzenberg, Austrian Ambassador in Paris, to ask the hand of one of
the princesses for the Emperor. I replied that I was ignorant of it but
that such a step, contrary to diplomatic forms and customs, would only
increase my doubt. I thought to myself that had there been any truth in
it, the Emperor would have been more gallant and less suspicious, and
would not have suspended our departure on the grounds I have mentioned;
that, moreover, he would have sent a French Ambassador to make a request
which, in affairs of this kind, is purely a matter of fortune and
ceremony, as everything has been agreed upon beforehand.
They replied that the
earliest intelligence always came from commercial quarters, and that,
doubtless, the next post would bring a confirmation of the story. They
begged me to remain until its arrival ; but, as my last troops were to
leave next morning, I did not like to part from them, and I made these
gentlemen promise to send an express to me at Marburg, where I intended
to sleep. The express came; but the news was not confirmed, though there
was some truth in it, as I shall show later. They had confounded the
title of the Ambassador with that of the First Secretary of the Austrian
Legation, who had, as a matter of fact, been sent as a courier to
Vienna.
I continued my movement
of evacuation, and found at Laybach Marshal Marmont, Duke of Ragusa, and
at Trieste General Count Louis of Narbonne, Governor of the town. They
had both recently arrived from Paris, and told me that the negotiations
for a marriage with a Russian Princess were talked about, and seemed
impending; they treated my news from Gratz as apocryphal.
On returning into the
kingdom of Italy, the army that I commanded was broken up. I sent troops
into the garrisons assigned to them. I myself received orders to go to
Milan, and on reaching there found fresh ones summoning me to Paris. The
Viceroy, was not yet returned, but I met him between Cosne and Neuvy,
and he told me that the agreement for the Emperor's marriage had been
signed, but with an Austrian, and not a Russian, Princess ; it seems
that the Empress-mother had opposed and displayed objections to the
marriage of her daughter, who afterwards married the Crown-Prince of the
Netherlands, and that thereupon the Emperor had sent for him, Prince
Eugene, and had despatched him to the Austrian Ambassador to discover
whether he had power to treat; that, on receiving an affirmative answer
from the Ambassador, the marriage- contract had been drawn up, the
Prince of Neuchâtel sent to Vienna to make the official demand, and that
he was on his way to Milan to fetch the Vice-Queen, who, with him, was
to assist at the rnarriae-ceremony, which was already fixed for April 2.
When I reached Paris, I
found the Court and town ringing with the news of the day ; but I was
anxious to fathom what I had heard at Gratz. At last, by dint of
inquiring, I got the following explanation from the Duke of Bassano:
The Austrian Ambassador,
Prince Schwarzenherg, foreseeing that the negotiations with Russia would
very likely fall through, and considering that this alliance would be of
great value to his sovereign and country, asked for instructions in case
application should be made to him. The answer was affirmative and eager.
Monsieur de Florett, First Secretary of the Austrian Legation, carried
the Ambassador's despatch, and brought back the plenary powers; his
mission became bruited abroad, and thus the first news of it had reached
Gratz. Fortified with the necessary authorization, Schwarzenberg, like a
clever diplomat, let it be known secretly that he had plenary powers.
The Emperor, who was always hasty, dissatisfied with the answers of
Russia, which he regarded as evasive, seized the opportunity, broke with
Russia, and treated with Austria.
The Emperor received me
with the utmost kindness; he had* had very satisfactory accounts of the
behaviour and conduct of the troops that I had just taken back into
Italy. I fancy also that he had heard something about my refusal to
accept the present offered to me at Gratz, and of my recommendation for
kind treatment of the sick whom the bad weather had compelled me to
leave behind in the town. He made minute inquiries concerning my
financial position, said that I ought to have a hotel in Paris, that he
knew I was not rich, that he had adopted me, and would treat me like the
other Marshals. Some had been given 1,000,000 francs (£40,000), others
600,000 francs (£24,000), independently of their more or less high
endowments. I discreetly waited, and the question was never mooted
again.
About this time, however,
I received a proposal for the hand of your sister in marriage; and the
Emperor, hearing of this, and knowing that I could give her but a small
portion, promised, of his own accord, a dowry of 200,000 francs
(£8,000), which he afterwards converted into an endowment. |
