Citizeness Bonaparte

Text extracted from opening pages of book: CITIZENESS BONAPARTE BY IMBERT DE SAINT-AMAND TRANSLATED BY THOMAS SERGEANT PERRY WITH PORTRAIT NEW YORK CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 1899 jv 1 1 i s juvuo UJ y y COPYRIGHT, 1890, BY CHARLES SCBIBXER'S SONS MANHATTAN PRESS 474 W. BROADWAY NEW YORK CONTENTS. CHAPTER PAGE I. THE DAY AFTER THE WEDDING-... 1 II. THE FESTIVAL OF THE VICTORIES 14 III. BONAPARTE'S ENTRANCE INTO MILAN 25 IV. MAI> AME BONAPARTE'S ARRIVAL. IN ITALY 34 V. JOSEPHINE AT THE WAR 46 VI. BETWEEN CASTIGLIONE AND ARCOLE 59 VII. ARCOLE 70 VIII. AFTER ARCOLE 83 IX. THE END OP THE CAMPAIGN 95 X. THE SERBELLONI PALACE 105 XI. THE COURT OF MONTEBELLO 114 XII. JULY 14 AT MILAN 123 XIII. BONAPARTE AND THE 18TH ITRUCTIDOR 134 XIV. PASSERIANO 143 XV. JOSEPHINE AT VENICE 151 XVI. CAMFO PORMIO 158 XVII. BONAPARTE'S RETURN TO FRANCE 166 JCVIII. THE FESTIVITY AT THE LUXEMBOURG 172 XIX. AN ENTERTAINMENT AT THE MINISTRY OF POREIGN RELATIONS .*, .. 184 v CONTENTS. CHAPTER PAGE XX. BONAPARTE AND JOSEPHINE BEFORE THE EXPE DITION TO EGYPT 193 XXI, THE FAREWELL AT TOULON 202 XXII. PARIS DURING THE TEAK YH 212 XXIII. JOSEPHINE DURING THE EGYPTIAN CAMPAIGN 220 XXIY. BONAPARTE IN EGYPT 232 XXY. THE RETURN FROM EGYPT 246 XXYI. THE MEETING OF BONAPARTE AND JOSEPHINE 254 XXVII. THE PROLOGUE OP THE 18TH BRUMAIRE 2G3 XXYIII. THE 18rn BRUMAIRE 271 XXIX. THE 19m BRUMAIRE 280 XXX. EPILOGUE 292 CITIZENESS BONAPARTE. I. THE DAY AFTEB, THE WEDDING. JjlOR two days the Viscountess of Beauharnais JL had borne the name of Citizeiiess Bonaparte. March 9, 1796 ( 19th Ventfese, year IV.), she had married the hero of the 13th Vend niiaire, the saviour of the Convention; and two regicides, Barras and Tallien, had been presentas witnesses at the wedding. Her husband had spent only two days with her, and during these forty-eight hours he had been obliged more than once to lock himself up with his maps and to plead the urgency of an imperative task in excuse, shouting through the door that he should have to postpone love till after the victory. And yet, although younger than his wife, she was nearly thirty-three, he only twenty-six, Bonaparte was very much in love with her. She was graceful and attractive, although she had lost some of her freshness, and she had the art of pleasing her young husband; moreover, it is well known, as the Duke of Eagusa says in Ms Memoirs, that in love it is i CITIZENESS BONAPARTE. idle to seek for reasons; one loves because one loves, and nothing Is less capable of explanation and analy sis than this feeling. . . . Bonaparte was in love in every meaning of the word. It was, apparently, for the first time; and lie felt it with all the force of his character. But he had just been appointed com inander-in-chief of the Army of Italy. He was obliged to turn his back on love, to fly to peril and glory. March 11, he wrote this letter to Letourneur, Presi dent of the Directory, to tell him of his marriage two days before: I had commissioned Citizen Barras to inform the Executive Directory of my mar riage with Citizeness Tascher Beauharnais. The confidence which the Directory has shown me in all circumstances makes it my duty to inform it of all my actions. This is a new tie of attachment to my country; it is an additional guarantee of my firm resolution to have no other interests than those of the Republic. My best wishes and respects. The same day he left Paris, bidding farewell to hiswife and to his little house in the rue Chantereine ( later the rue de la Victoire), where his happiness had been so brief. Accompanied by his aide-de camp, Junot, and his commissary-general, Chauvet, he carried with him forty-eight thousand francs in gold, and a hundred thousand francs in drafts, which were in part protested. It was with this modest purse that the commander of an army that had long been in want was to lead it to the fertile plains of Lombardy. He stopped at the house of Marmont's TEE DAT AFTER THE WEDDISG. 3 father, at CMtilloii-sur-Se