Joseph Bonaparte. Abbott John Stevens Cabot
with him accompanied a generous thought, he said, 'His pardon is in my heart, since it is in my power to pardon him. But that is not enough for me. I wish that the grandson of Condé should serve in our armies. I feel myself sufficiently strong for that.'
Madame de Staël.
"With these impressions I returned to Mortfontaine. The family were at the dinner-table. I took a seat by the side of Madame de Staël, who had at her left M. Mathieu de Montmorency. Madame de Staël, with the assurance which I gave her of the intention of the First Consul to pardon a descendant of the great Condé, exclaimed in characteristic language,
"'Ah! that is right; if it were not so, we should not see here M. Mathieu de Montmorency.'
"But another nobleman present, who had not emigrated, said to me, on the contrary: 'Will it then be permitted to the Bourbons to conspire with impunity? The First Consul is deceived if he think that the nobles who have not emigrated, and particularly the historic nobility, take any deep interest in the Bourbons.' Several others present expressed the same views.
Execution of the Duke d'Enghien.
"The next day, upon my return to Malmaison, I found Napoleon very indignant against Count Real; whose motives he accused, reproaching him with having employed in his government certain men too much compromised in the great excesses of the Revolution. The Duke d'Enghien had been condemned and executed even before the announcement of his trial had been communicated to Napoleon.
"Subsequently he was convinced of the innocence of Real, and of the strange fatality which had caused him for a moment to appear culpable in his eyes. In the mean time, resuming self-control, he said to me, 'Another opportunity has been lost. It would have been admirable to have had, as aid-de-camp, the grandson of the great Condé. But of that there can be no more question. The blow is irremediable. Yes; I was sufficiently strong to allow a descendant of the great Condé to serve in our armies. But we must seek consolation. Undoubtedly, if I had been assassinated by the agents of the family, he would have been the first to have shown himself in France, arms in his hands. I must take the responsibility of the deed. To cast it upon others, even with truth, would have too much the appearance of cowardice, for me to be willing to do it.'
Statement of Joseph Bonaparte.
"Napoleon," continues Joseph, "has never appeared with greater éclat than under these sad and calamitous circumstances. I only learned, several years afterward, in the United States, from Count Real himself, the details of that which passed at the time of the death of the Duke d'Enghien. It was at New York, in the year 1825, at Washington Hall, where we met, by an arrangement with M. Le Ray de Chaumont, the proprietor of some lands, a portion of which he had sold to me and to M. Real, that he informed me how a simple emotion of impatience on his part had very involuntarily the effect of preventing the kindly feeling which the First Consul cherished in favor of the Duke d'Enghien.
"M. Real, one of the four counsellors of state charged with the police of France, had charge of the arrondissement of Paris and of Vincennes. A dispatch was sent to him in the night, informing him of the condemnation of the prince. The police clerk, attending in the chamber which opened into his apartment, had already awoke him twice for reasons of but little importance, which had quite annoyed M. Real. The third dispatch was therefore placed upon his chimney, and did not meet his eye until a late hour in the morning.
Statement of Count Real.
"Opening it, he hastened to Malmaison, where he was preceded by an officer of the gendarmerie, who brought information of the condemnation and execution of the prince. The commission had judged, from the silence of the Government, that he was not to be pardoned. I need not dwell upon the regret, the impatience, the indignation of Napoleon."
The crown of Lombardy was, about this time, offered to Joseph, which he declined, as he did not wish to separate himself from France. The kingdom of Naples was now influenced by England to make an attack upon Napoleon. The King of Naples supposed that France could be easily vanquished, with England, Russia, Austria, and Naples making a simultaneous attack upon her. But the great victory of Austerlitz, which compelled Austria and Russia to withdraw from the coalition, struck the perfidious King of Naples with dismay. France had done him no wrong, and the only apology the Neapolitan Court had for commencing hostilities was, that if the French were permitted to dethrone the Bourbons and to choose their own rulers, the Neapolitan might claim the same privilege.
Expulsion of the English.
A few days after the battle of Austerlitz Joseph received orders from his brother to hasten to the Italian Peninsula, and take command of the Army of Italy, and march upon Naples. The King of Naples had, in addition to his own troops, fourteen thousand Russians and several thousand English auxiliaries. Joseph placed himself at the head of forty thousand French troops, and in February, 1806, entered the kingdom of Naples. The Neapolitans could make no effectual resistance. Joseph soon arrived before Capua, a fortified town about fifteen miles north of the metropolis of the kingdom. Eight thousand of the Neapolitan troops took refuge in the citadel, and made some show of resistance. They soon, however, were compelled to surrender.
Conquest of Naples.
The Neapolitan Court was in a state of consternation. The English precipitately embarked in their ships and fled to Sicily. The Russians escaped to Corfu. The Court, having emptied the public coffers, and even the vaults of the bank, took refuge in Palermo, on the island of Sicily. The prince royal, with a few troops of the Neapolitan army, who adhered to the old monarchy, retreated two or three hundred miles south, to the mountains of Calabria. On the 15th of February, Joseph, at the head of his troops, marched triumphantly into Naples. He not only encountered no resistance, but the population, regarding him as a liberator, received him with acclamations of joy.
On the 30th of March, 1806, Napoleon issued a decree, declaring Joseph king of Naples. The decret was as follows:
"Napoleon, by the grace of God and the constitutions, Emperor of the French and King of Italy, to all those to whom these presents come, salutation.
"The interests of our people, the honor of our crown, and the tranquillity of the Continent of Europe requiring that we should assure, in a stable and definite manner, the lot of the people of Naples and of Sicily, who have fallen into our power by the right of conquest, and who constitute a part of the grand empire, we declare that we recognize, as King of Naples and of Sicily, our well-beloved brother, Joseph Napoleon, Grand Elector of France. This crown will be hereditary, by order of primogeniture, in his descendants masculine, legitimate, and natural," etc.
Debasement of the Neapolitans under the Old Régime.
Debasement of Naples.
The former Government of Naples was detested by the whole people. The warmest advocates of the Allies have never yet ventured to utter a word in its defense. Even the grandees of the realm were heartily glad to be rid of their dissolute, contemptible, and tyrannical queen, who regarded the inhabitants of the kingdom but as her slaves, and the wealth of the kingdom but as her personal dowry, to be squandered for the gratification of herself and her favorites. With great energy Joseph immediately commenced a reform in all the administrative departments. He carefully sought out Neapolitan citizens of integrity, intelligence, and influence, to occupy the important public stations. Accompanied by a guard of chosen men, he made a tour of the country; thus informing himself, by personal observation, of the character of the inhabitants, and of the wants and capabilities of the kingdom. It was indeed a gloomy prospect of indolence and poverty which presented itself to his eye, though the climate was enchanting, with its genial temperature, its brilliant skies, and its fertile soil. The landscape combined all the elements of sublimity and of beauty, with towering mountains and lovely meadows, streams and lakes watering the interior, and harbors inviting the commerce of the world. But the condition of the populace was wretched in the extreme. The Government, despotic and corrupt, seized all the earnings of the people, and consigned nearly the whole population to penury and rags. King Ferdinand and his dissolute queen, Louisa, made an effort to rouse the people to resist the French. Their efforts were, however, entirely in vain. Joseph issued the following proclamation to the Neapolitans, which they read with great satisfaction:
Конец