Biographical notes on the chief titled persons of the narrative will be found on page 403.
The ukase of December 31, 1810, which prohibited the entry of foreign merchandise and silks, was intended to remedy the falling rate of exchange brought about by the constant drain of capital abroad to pay for imported goods, Russia being unable to export anything herself. It was also intended to encourage the development of home industries.—Caulaincourt’s note.
Caulaincourt’s successor as French Ambassador to St. Petersburg.
The Emperor Alexander’s aide-de-camp. He was present at the battle of Wagram, and stood beside Napoleon, who decorated him with the Legion of Honour.
The Russian Foreign Minister.
“Everyone’s very satisfied here; the master and the rest of them.”—Caulaincourt to Talleyrand, St. Petersburg, February 25, 1810.
Hugues-Bernard Maret, created Duke of Bassano by Napoleon. Minister for Foreign Affairs, 1811.
Adrienne-Hervé-Louise de Carbonnel de Canisy, 1785-1876. Appointed lady-in-waiting to Josephine, 1805, and later to Marie Louise. Deserted by her husband, to whom she had been married at thirteen, she now wished to divorce him and marry Caulaincourt. But Napoleon, who feared that further divorces at Court would add scandal to his own, had refused consent; and so Mme. de Canisy had been in exile since the close of 1810.
Russian Ambassador to France from 1808 to 1812.
Identifiable as Lacuée Cessac, head of the ordnance department since January 3, 1810.
Actually there was at this time about three hundred and eighty millions in the cellars of the Tuilerles.—Caulaincourt’s note.
Mme. de Canisy was permitted to return to Paris in August, 1811.
In peacetime Caulaincourt, as Master of Horse, was responsible in particular for the planning and conduct of all Imperial journeys. He also had charge of all couriers and despatch riders, and he commanded the corps of orderly officers. Those were but a few of his duties which, in time of war, were greatly extended. He was then responsible for moving and provisioning the Imperial headquarters. His travelling carriage preceded the Emperor’s; on horse he was on the Emperor’s left hand and accompanied him into battle; and his quarters were always as close as possible to the Imperial lodging, so that he could receive the first and last orders of the day.
The Grand Duke of Weimar was the Tsar’s brother-in-law. 1 At the opening of the campaign the Russian forces on the Niemen were composed of three armies. The First Army of the West, commanded by Barclay, had its right wing (Wittgenstein) on the Baltic, its left wing (Doctorov) in the environs of Grodno, its headquarters at Wilna. The Second Army of the West, under Bagration, was extended from Grodno to the Muchaviec, with headquarters at Wolkowysk. The Army of the Reserve, under Tormasov, was extended beyond the Wolhynian marshes, with headquarters at Luck. Opposite these forces the French army was divided into two parts. One part, composed of the corps of Davout, Oudinot, Ney, Eugène, Saint-Cyr, the Guard (Mortier) and Murat’s cav-
At the opening of the campaign the Russian forces on the Niemen were composed of three armies. The First Army of the West, commanded by Barclay, had its right wing (Wittgenstein) on the Baltic, its left wing (Doctorov) in the environs of Grodno, its headquarters at Wilna. The Second Army of the West, under Bagration, was extended from Grodno to the Muchaviec, with headquarters at Wolkowysk. The Army of the Reserve, under Tormasov, was extended beyond the Wohynian marshes, with headquarters at Luck. Opposite these forces the French army was divided into two parts. One part, composed of the corps of Davout, Oudinot, Ney, Eugène, Saint-Cyr, the Cuard (Mortier) and Murat’s cav airy, was under the direct orders of the Emperor. The other, composed of the corps of Poniatowski, Reynier, Vandamme and the cavalry under Latour-Maubourg, was commanded by Jerome. The left wing, under Macdonald, was at Tilsit with orders to operate against Riga; the right wing, under Schwarzenberg, was on the Bug. After the twenty-sixth the First Russian army beat a retreat from Wilna on to Drissa. The Second Russian army got into motion on the twenty-ninth and retreated from Wolkowysk to Nikoliaev. As soon as they had cleared the Niemen Napoleon sent Oudinot and Ney in pursuit of Barclay, and Davout in the direction of Minsk to separate Bagration from Barclay.—Clausewitz, La Campagne de 1812 en Russie, Paris, 1900, 37 et seq.
Alexander I, who held no actual command himself, left for Moscow on July 14 at the instance of his generals, who were apprehensive of his incapacity. —Cf. K. Waliszewski, Le Regne d’Alexandre I, II, 59.
The Duke of Bassano, Minister for Foreign Affairs, was at Wilna.
It is interesting to compare this passage with what Ségur says: “Each of these ministers and generals, in whatsoever concerned his own department, did not conceal the truth from the Emperor. If he then grew angry, Duroc, without yielding, wrapped himself up in a cloak of impassiveness; Lobau became rude; Berthier groaned and went away with tears in his eyes; as for Caulaincourt and Daru, one pale and the other flushed with anger, they vehemently repelled the Emperor’s denials, the first with impetuous doggedness and the other with cold and dry firmness.”—Ségur, Histoire et Memoires, IV, 93.
The Russians had actually decided to take the offensive, in three columns, on August 7. They gave up this plan on the eighth.
Junot, ill and discouraged after crossing the Dnieper at Prouditchevo, had been seized with a fit of indecision from which Gourgaud, sent to him by the Emperor, was unable to rouse him.—Cf. Gourgaud, Napoléon et la Grande Armée en Russie, Paris, 1825, 172. 1 Auguste-Jean-Gabriel de Caulaincourt, younger brother of the Duke of Vicenza. Born September 15, 1777—killed September 7, 1812, at Borodino. General-officer of the Imperial cavalry since 1808: now aide-de-camp to the Emperor. Auguste Caulaincourt was promoted general of division in 1809, after he had distinguished himself during the crossing
Auguste-Jean-Gabriel de Caulaincout, younger brother of the Duke of Vicenza. Born September 15, 1777-killed September 7, 1812, at Borodino. General-officer of the Imperial cavalry since 1808: now aide-de-camp to the Emperor. Auguste Caulainocourt was promoted general of division in 1809, after he had distinguished himself during the crossing of the Tagus at Arzobispo. He had been invalided early the next year, but was recalled to active service in the Russian campaign. Since July 7, 1812, he had been commandant of the Imperial general headquarters; and it was said (cf. p. 140) that the Emperor was grooming him to relieve Murat in command of cavalry.
Count Matthew Ivanovitch Platow, general of cavalry and ataman of the Don Cossacks. Thiers, who was acquainted with this incident, confused the Cossack and the negro and combined them into a single person, whom he made “a Cossack, gunner in Platow’s corps.”—Thiers, XIV, 288.
It is to be observed that Caulaincourt makes no mention of Napoleon’s violent rating of Berthier, which took place at Ghjat, and as a result of which the chief-of-staff ceased to take his meals with the Emperor until they reached Mojaisk. This is related in several contemporary memoirs, notably by Denniée, Itinéraire, 62.
Correspondance, 19182.
Writing of these events, Ségur says: “Messengers were hastened to inform the Emperor of this victory and this loss. The Master of Horse, brother of the unfortunate general, heard the news. At first he was overcome, but he soon steeled himself in face of this misfortune and, save for the tears that rolled silently down his cheeks, he appeared impassive. The Emperor said, ‘You have heard the news; would you like to retire?’ He accompanied these words with an exclamation of sympathy. But at that moment we were advancing against the enemy. The Master of Horse made no reply; he did not retire, he merely lifted his hat slightly as a token of his gratitude and refusal.”—Ségur, Histoire de Napoléon et de la Grande Armée, Paris, 1925, I, 401. Castellane (Journal, I, 150) confirms Ségur’s account: “His brother, the Duke of Vicenza, learned the news in a cruel manner. He was at the Emperor’s side; and an aide-de-camp came up sobbing, to announce the death of his general. The Emperor turned round and said to the Duke of Vicenza, ‘You have heard the sad news; go to my tent.’ The Master of Horse remained in the saddle.”
It would be superfluous to emphasize the importance of Caulaincourt’s testimony on the subject of the intervention and opinion of Berthier and Murat. The Emperor’s hesitation at this juncture surprised all observers, but historians have attributed it either to the state of Napoleon’s health, or to the impression created in his mind by the hecatomb of the battlefield. It is clear that Berthier and Murat themselves judged it useless and dangerous to order the intervention of the Guard, which was the only corps left intact to enable the Emperor to consolidate his victory.
“The returns I compiled from reports sent to the major-general by the chiefs-of-staff of the different army corps... showed forty-nine general officers killed and wounded.”—Denniée, Itinéraire, 80.
Murat entered Moscow at midnight, September 14, 1812.
“The gunners and soldiers of the Guard, apprehensive at seeing Napoleon expose himself to such great danger, only added to it by their eagerness. General Lariboisière begged the Emperor to go away, pointing out to him that his presence was making the gunners lose their heads.”—Fain, Manuscrit de 1812, II, 91.
Larrey (Chirurgie Militaire, IV) estimates that the provisions found in Moscow would have been sufficient to feed the whole army for six months.
Napoleon ordered Murat to proceed from the Riazan road to the Toula road and to advance until he had obtained some news of Kutusof.
“Magnificent weather; the inhabitants say: ‘God must be with you, it is usually much colder.’”—Castellane, Journal, I, October 8.
To make this passage clear I ought to observe that the orderly officers, all the aides-de-camp of generals on the Emperor’s staff, interpeters, and all generals or officers attached by the Emperor to his headquarters, were under the orders of the Master of Horse.—Caulaincourt’s note.
In his interview with Lauriston, Kutusof refused any kind of armistice; but he had agreed that the advance-posts should cease fire. Kutusof reserved his freedom of action, however, in the two extreme wings, thus leaving the field free to the raids of Cossacks.
The beautiful Josephine Carcano, wife of François Visconti, was Berthier’s mistress; and the château of Grosbois, near Boissy Saint-Léger, was Berthier’s estate. His hunting parties were famous.
February 21 to March 31, 1807. An allusion to the offers of alliance made to Russia before the Friedland campaign.
“Malo-Jaroslawetz stands on heights at the foot of which the river Luja runs through a marshy bed. The French, coming from Moscow, had to cross the river, then climb the heights, and maintain themselves in MaloJaroslawetz. The Russians, marching on the other side of the river, had merely to enter the town.”—Thiers, XIV, 476.
Denniée (Itineraire, III) is probably more exact when he says: “It was in this skirmish that Emmanuel Lecouteulx, aide-de-camp to the Prince of Neuchâtel, armed himself with a lance snatched from one of the Cossacks: whereupon a mounted grenadier of the Guard, deceived by his appearance, pursued him in turn and wounded him with a sword-thrust. By a miracle, the blade went under his collar-bone without damage to the artery.” Lecouteulx lived until 1844.
The Guard had four generals-in-command: Gouvion Saint-Cyr (cuirassiers), Eugène (chasseurs), Baraguey d’Hilliers (dragoons), and Junot (hussars).
Ferdinand Charles Frederic Guillaume de Wintzingerode, born at Allendorf, near Göttingen in Württemberg, on February 15, 1770, died at Wiesbaden on June 17, 1818. He had been one of the authors of the Coalition of 1809.
The Emperor’s violence “was disapproved; no one took any notice of it, but on the contrary everyone hastened to wait upon the captive general to reassure and condole with him.”—Ségur, Histoire de Napoléon, II, 145.
When they left the sick-ward they were given provisions for two days. This was a quite insufficient supply, since those to whom the wounded were given in charge, having for the most part no provisions themselves, could not come to their help. Moreover, a considerable number, hurrying to get away and reach those fatal transports in which they thought they saw their salvation, and already greatly inconvenienced by being outside the town, did not take these rations. They soon regretted them; for though on the first and second day some of them moved men to pity, they were not long in learning that hunger makes those who suffer it insensible to all humane feeling.—Caulaincourt’s note.
In another connection, Caulaincourt wrote of these scenes:
“... Bad luck for the horse that fell! It was pounced on at once, and its driver could seldom protect it. The first-comers attacked the rump. The more expert cut open the flank and took the best morsel, the liver, which was of course the tenderest. While all this went on, no one ever thought to knock the poor beast in the head; everyone was too anxious to get back on the march.
“The most fortunate stragglers made gruel, if that name can be given to dirty flour—more often it was bran—that was swept up from the dust of granaries and mixed with water. Lucky for those who had saved any kind of utensil to cook it in. Such men went pot in hand, and treasured their skillets more carefully than their cash. But since we had to laugh despite our misery, the wretches who marched with skillets were called the pastry-cooks; and even those who were starving joked at the expense of the clever fellows who had saved the means of keeping alive. If you were one of the pastry-cooks, and came up to a fire to cook your gruel, men who had no pot queued up behind you to get the loan of yours. Anyone who found some potatoes was the object of universal envy. Once we were in Poland the big estates offered a plentiful supply, but they were remote and widely scattered, and none wished to stray so far off the road. Master and servant, colonel and private—all alike lacked everything.”
In June, 1804, when Malet commanded the troops at Angoulême, the prefect requested that he should be cashiered. The First Consul was content to change his station, and sent him to Sables-d’Olonne.—On March 2, 1805, Malet was put on the retired list, on account of further brushes with the civil authorities of the Vendee. He appealed to the Emperor, who recalled him to active service on August 26.—On May 31, 1806, he was retired on account of financial irregularities, but this decree was never put into force and Malet continued to draw his active service pay.—For attempting a conspiracy against the Emperor in 1808 he was detained as a political prisoner at Sainte-Pélagie; and thence he was transferred, in June, 1810, to Doctor Dubuisson’s private asylum.
Among the trophies lost was the cross of Ivan Veliki, which Napoleon had intended for the dome of the Invalides.—Castellane, Journal, I, 187.
Junot, marching on Orcha, formed the advance-guard of the column. 3 Davout with the First Corps passed through Krasnoë on the seventeenth, in the evening, on, his way to Liadouï, following behind Mortier. He bivouacked between the two towns. Ney with the Third Corps left the out-
Davout with the First Corps passed through Krasnoë on the seventeenth, in the evening, on his way to Liadouï, following behind Mortier. He bivouacked between the two town.s Ney with the Third Corps left the out- skirts of Smolensk early on the seventeenth. Thus, at this time, there was a considerable interval between the two marshals.
The first messenger had been sent on the same day, just when the fighting had begun.
What was called the State Secretariat’s correspondence was very considerable; the mere administrative details of the army during the campaign amounted to a mass of papers. In addition, there were all the reports and projected decrees of the various French ministries—the portfolios, so-called—work that an auditor brought in each week. There were twenty-seven unreturned portfolios that had piled up.—Caulaincourt’s note.
On November 23, Tchitchagoff started from Borissow in the direction of Bobr. He believed that there was only Dombrowski’s division in front of him. His advance-guard, commanded by Count Pahlen, came in contact with Oudinot’s corps near Losnitza, was thrown into confusion, and was driven back to the right bank of the Beresina by the Fourth Cuirassiers, who recaptured Borissow. It was found that the better part of the bridge there had been destroyed.
At seven A.M. Battle of the Beresina.
The Emperor was very hard on Partouneaux. In Bulletin 29, he said of him: “Rumours are current that the general of division was not with his troops, and had been marching on his own.” Later on, however, Napoleon forgave Partouneaux; for on July 14, 1813, while their father was still in captivity, he decided that the general’s three sons should be educated at the State’s expense.
Caulaincourt is mistaken: cf. Fain, Manuscrit de 1812, II, 409; Castellane, Journal, II, 199; Denniée, Itinéraire, 163; Lejeune, Souvenirs, II, 441. All agree that this episode took place at Plechnitsie (Plaszczenitzy), not at Kamen. Caulaincourt is, therefore, confused in his recollection of some of the events of the two days November 29-30.—The Duke of Reggio had taken a bullet in his side on the twenty-eighth. Lanskoï’s bombardment wounded him again; a cannon-ball came through the roof, sending a splinter into his thigh. Oudinot was wounded thirty-four times during his military career.
Napoleon had just formed what was called the escadron sacré, less to furnish himself with a personal bodyguard than to provide a centre for rallying the officers who had no longer any men under them.
The Emperor was going to travel under the name of Count F. J. M. Gérard de Rayneval, at that time first embassy secretary attached to the Duke of Vicenza.
If one could put any faith in the spurious memoirs of Constant (Mémoires, III, 472), one would have to believe that he travelled alone and arrived in Paris five or six days after the Emperor.
Cf. Bourgoing, Souvenirs, 178. One should bear in mind that for this period the Souvenirs militaires du Baron de Bourgoing are especially valuable because the author had before him an unpublished account, prepared by Wonsowicz himself, from which to draw his history of the Emperor’s journey.
“The berline [mounted on sleigh-runners] was harnessed without delay, and the Emperor took his seat in it, together with the Duke of Vicenza and Count Wonsowicz. The Mameluke [Roustam] was put on the driver’s seat.... General Lefebvre-Desnouettes alone was able to follow, in a little sleigh which he had promptly obtained.”—Bourgoing, Souvenirs, 194.
The Emperor had entered the Duchy of Warsaw by crossing the Niemen at Kowno.
Since January 1, 1810, Davout had been in command of the Army of Germany which, after November 1, 1811, was called the Army of Observation of the Elbe. 6 The decree of the Senate dated December 13, 1810, in addition to regularizing the annexation of Holland, had joined with France the Hanseatic
The decree of the Senate dated December 13, 1810, in additon to regularizing the annexation of Holland, had joined with France the Hanseatic towns and a large strip of territory extending as far as Lübeck. These annexations had been divided into ten Departments of France.
Napoleon was to return to this line of reasoning at St. Helena. On September 29, 1817, he said to Gourgaud: “My great mistake was in staying too long in that city [Moscow]. But for that, my undertaking would have been successful in the end.”—Gourgaud, Sainte-Hélène, Journal inédit de 1815 à 1818, edited by Grouchy and Antoine Guillois, II, 337.
The Emperor was referring here to the Duchess of Bassano, as is proved by a later passage. She had indeed done everything possible to prevent Talleyrand from being appointed to the Embassy at Warsaw.
This was precisely the prize promised to the Austrians in the Treaty of Paris, March 14, 1812, as compensation for Galicia in the event of the restoration of Poland.
Constance Poniatowska, niece of King Stanislas.
Mexico in September, 1810, Venezuela, New Granada, Chile, and the Argentine, in 1810 or 1811, had all gone into more or less open revolt against the dominion of Spain. Paraguay had declared its independence in 1811.
In this proclamation Godoy, the “Prince of Peace,” summoned the Spaniards to arms without, however, telling them what enemy threatened them. Cf. Geoffroy de Grandmaison, l’Espagne et Napoléon, Paris, 1908, I, 67.—Godoy’s proclamation was not posted in Madrid until October 15, the day after the battle of Jena.
Only these initials appear in the manuscript. It is safe, however, to read them as Champagny and Maret, of whom the first was then Minister of the Interior and the second Secretary of State.
In the Council held on March 9, 1802, at which were present the three Consuls, the Chief Justice, Talleyrand, and Fouché, “the two leaders of the opposing parties were M. Talleyrand and M. Cambacérès. M. Talleyrand advised the utmost rigour against the Prince.”—Pasquier, Memoires, I, 178.
It is known that even in his testament (April 15, 1821) Napoleon maintained this statement. “I had the Duke of Enghien. arrested and sentenced because it was necessary to the security of the French people, in the interest of whose honour it was done.... If a similar circumstance arose, I should do the same thing again.”—After these phrases, quoted by Montholon, there is an added note by the latter: “This passage was written in between two lines after he had heard read, from an English review, an article in which the Dukes of Vicenza and Rovigo were outrageously at. tacked.”—Montholon, Récits de la captivité, II, 510.
Caulaincourt is mistaken in this. Chambray, Bourgoing, Countess Potocka and de Pradt (Histoire de l’ambassade dans le grand-duché de Varsovie en 1812, 209) agree in saying that the Emperor put up at the Hôtel d’Angleterre, and not the Hôtel de Saxe.—The Abbé de Pradt, whose hatred and dishonesty render his narrative so suspect, cannot, however, have had any inducement to be other than truthful when he described the Emperor’s apartment in the following terms: “He was in a low-ceilinged little room, freezing cold, with the shutters half-drawn to prevent his being recognized. A wretched Polish maidservant was on her knees puffing at a fire of green wood which rebelled at her efforts, sputtering out more damp into the chimney than heat into the room.”
M. de Pradt, who has travestied this interview of December 10 into a caricature, in his Histoire de l‘ambassade, 207, says: “The doors of my room were flung open and gave entrance to a tall man who stalked in, supported by one of my embassy secretaries. ‘Let us go; come, follow me!’ said this phantom. His head was enveloped in a silken shawl, his face lost to sight in the depths of the fur in which he seemed buried, his gait hampered by fur-lined top-boots. It was a kind of ghost-scene.”
This paper, as it transpires later, was an order to instruct Maret to arrange the immediate replacement of M. de Pradt. The latter had observed the incident; at a later period Vitrolles, who enjoyed his confidence, was to write: “While the Archbishop was carrying on his impertinent discourse, Bonaparte took up a pencil as though to write some urgent order, and passed over to M. de Caulaincourt a paper on which he had scribbled, ‘Délivrez-moi de ce faquin.’ The Master of Horse left the room as though to carry out the order, and shortly afterwards called the Archbishop and sent him away, I know not on what pretext.”—Vitrolles, Mémoires, I, 195.
See Countess Potocka’s account (Mémoires, 332) of the interview between Napoleon and Potocki. Her concluding remarks are: “The fascination that this extraordinary man exercised over all who heard him was so powerful that my father-in-law, who had been in the depths of gloom when he left us, returned full of hope.”
In the Convention, Cambacérès voted “Yes” on the question of the guilt of Louis XVI, but on the question of the application of the death penalty he voted for a reprieve until the cessation of hostilities.
In 1806 Fontanes, at that time president of the Legislature, had inserted in the Mercure de France the advance notice of a book he had written in support of absolute monarchy. It was this that drew the reply from Napoleon quoted here.
At Posen the Emperor regained the line of communication between France and the army, which he had left at Mariampol.
Bulletin 29, dated from Molodetchna, December 3, and sent direct from Smorgoni to Paris, appeared in the Moniteur Universel of December 16, 1812.
On the Bober, in Silesia; the morning of December 13.—The whole of this account furnishes hitherto unknown details as to the Emperor’s journey.
Later, in reviewing these traits of the Emperor, Caulaincourt wrote:
“... He often referred, and with a certain air of affectation, to the fine company he had kept in his youth. He loved to talk about his successes with women. In short, if this great and astonishing character had a flaw, it was through the conceit of past achievements; as though so much glory and such genius had need of antecedents.” “... It is incorrectly thought that he had many mistresses. His head was turned sometimes, no doubt; but for him love was seldom a necessity, or perhaps even a pleasure. He lived too much in the public eye to give himself over to private distractions which, in reality, amused him little and lasted but a moment. He was, however, actually in love with Mme. D[uchâtel] for a few days. As a pastime, and to break with the Empress Josephine, he devoted himself between the divorce and the Archduchess’s arrival to Mme. Gaz[zani] and Mme. Mat[his]. During the last years of the Empress Josephine’s sway he had Mlle. George and several other women—though more out of curiosity than to avenge the jealous scenes which these infidelities provoked. Mlle. Wal[ewska] gave in to him at Warsaw. He had a child from that affair, and felt more sentimental attachment for it than for all the rest. But none of these passing fancies ever occupied him enough to divert him for a moment from affairs of State.
“His haste to recount his successes was so great that one would have thought he pursued them merely to make them public. The Empress was always his first confidant. Woe to the beauty who had surrendered, unless she were the Venus de’ Medici’s equal; for not the least items escaped either his appraisal or the pleasure he took in going over them with several people, in whose presence he enjoyed the retailing of his bonne fortune. Josephine had, on the very night, full particulars of the conquest of Mme. D[uchâtel]. The morning after the first rendezvous the Emperor also told me all about it, without omitting a thing that would have flattered or hurt the lady’s self-esteem. That grenadier at the Boulogne encampment was not far wrong, when he replied to one of his comrades who asked him if the Little Corporal had any children: ‘F—! Don’t you know that all his loves are in his own head?’ ”
Napoleon had undertaken the restoration of the basilica in 1805. After the violation of the royal tombs during the Revolution, the church, robbed of the lead on its roof, had served as a storehouse for wheat and flour.
It had been said about the equestrian statue of Louis XV, with its pedestal adorned with female figures representing the cardinal virtues: “The Virtues go on foot, Vice on horseback.”
The “extraordinary domain,” created by the Senatus Consultus of January 30, 1810, consisted of the portable and fixed valuables acquired by conquest and treaty. The Emperor disposed of the revenues according to his sovereign will, either on the army, or for the encouragement and reward of eminent civil or military services rendered to the State.
The United States declared war against England on June 18, 1812. The cause of this war was the refusal of the English Cabinet to abolish the Order in Council which made it necessary for all neutral vessels to call in at London or Malta for permission to navigate.
When I returned to Dresden in 1813 I was assured that an Englishman had bought it as a historical relic, and that everyone had come to look at it, when the Allies were in occupation.—Caulaincourt’s note.
An allusion to Alexander’s passion for Marie-Antovna Narishkin. According to the Grand Duke Nicolas Mikhailowitch (l’Empereur Alexandre Ier, I, 48, 56), the affair lasted from 1804 until 1818.
As Colonel of the Second Carabineers, Caulaincourt had made the campaign of 1800 in the army of the Rhine, under the command of Moreau.
Lannes had died May 31, 1809. The Emperor’s use of the present tense, as recorded by Caulaincourt, must be the result of an error on the part of whoever copied the MS.
The meaning of the word “courier,” as it is used here, has become a little obscured. In the days of stage-coaches it was applied to the man who went ahead to prepare the changes of horses and see to the travellers’ accommodation.
Pius VII, arrested at Rome on July 6, 1809, had been held prisoner at Savone for three years and then transferred to Fontainebleau in June, 1812. 7 The final disasters were in progress while this conversation took place. As Caulaincourt has noted, the thermometer was falling when the Emperor started from Smorgoni on December 5. Two days later it had reached 34° F. below zero. The King of Naples then kept himself as warm as he could in Wilna, and left the troops to do likewise. Wilna was evacuated in panic on the tenth; Murat and the generals rode on ahead; and two miles beyond the town what remained of the artillery and supply-waggons was abandoned in a great dump. None even paused to set fire to it, though the enemy was off guard; only the Treasury funds were salvaged on horse-
The final disasters were in progress while this conversation took place. As Caulaincout has noted, the thermometer was falling when the Emperor started from Smorgoni on December 5. Two days later it had reached 34° F. below zero. The King of Naples then kept himself as warm as he could in Wilna, and left the troops to do likewise. Wilna was evacuated in painc on the tenth; Murat and the generals rode don ahead; and two miles beyond the twon what remained of the artillery and supply-waggons was abandoned in a great dump. None even paused to set fire to it, though the enemy was off guard; only the Treasury funds were salvaged on horse- back. Kowno was pillaged on the twelfth. On the fourteenth, four days before Napoleon reached Paris, all that was left of the Grand Army had crossed the Niemen into East Prussia. Berthier fell ill of exhaustion, and of chagrin at having seconded the King of Naples’s appointment. The rout continued. On January 16, 1813, at Posen, Murat left the army without a commander and fled in disguise to Naples. When orders had had time to come through from Napoleon, Prince Eugène rallied the remnant of the six hundred thousand that had entered Russia the preceding June. Of the sur vivors, a thousand men of the Guard eventually reached Paris in formation.
Right of way through the Arc de Triomphe was reserved for the Emperor’s carriage.