REMARKS ON HOCHE AND VARIOUS OTHER GENERALS.
10th.—The weather was very bad, and the Emperor, finding it impossible to go out, walked up and down in the dining-room. He afterwards ordered a fire to be kindled in the drawing-room, and sat down to play at chess with the Grand Marshal. After dinner he read to us the history of Joseph from the Bible, and the Andromache of Racine.
The Bengal fleet arrived yesterday evening. The Countess of Loudon and Moira, the wife of the Governor-General of India, was among the passengers.
To-day, in the course of conversation, the name of Hoche having been mentioned, some one observed that at a very early age he had inspired great hope. “And what is still better,” said the Emperor, “you may add that he fulfilled that hope.” Hoche and Napoleon had seen each other, and had conversed twice or thrice together. Hoche esteemed him even to admiration. Napoleon did not hesitate to say that he possessed over Hoche the advantages of extensive information and the principles of a good education. There was, he said, in other respects a great difference between them. “Hoche,” said he, “endeavoured to raise a party for himself, and gained only servile adherents. For my part, I had created for myself an immense number of partisans, without in any way seeking popularity. Hoche possessed a hostile provoking kind of ambition; he was the sort of man who could conceive the idea of coming from Strasburg, with 25,000 men, to seize the reins of government by force. But my policy was always of a patient kind, led on by the spirit of the age, and the circumstances of the moment.”
The Emperor added that Hoche would ultimately either have yielded to him, or must have subdued him, and, as he was fond of money and pleasure, he doubted not that he would have yielded to him. Moreau, observed he, in similar circumstances, knew not how to decide. Thus Napoleon attached but little importance to him, and regarded him as totally wanting in ability; without however extending this opinion to his military talent. “But he was a weak man,” said the Emperor, "guided by those who surrounded him, and slavishly subject to the control of his wife: he was a general of the old monarchy.
“Hoche,” continued the Emperor, "died suddenly and under singular circumstances; and as there existed a party who seemed to think that all crimes belonged to me of right, endeavours were made to circulate a report that I had poisoned him. There was a time when no mischief could happen that was not imputed to me; thus, when in Paris, I caused Kleber to be assassinated in Egypt; I blew out Desaix’s brains at Marengo: I strangled and cut the throats of persons who were confined in prisons; I seized the Pope by the hair of his head: and a hundred similar absurdities were affirmed. However, as I paid not the least attention to all this, the fashion passed away, and I do not see that my successors have been very eager to revive it; and yet, if any of the crimes imputed to me had had any real existence, the documents, the perpetrators, the accomplices, &c. might have been brought forward.
“However, such is the influence of report that these stories, however absurd, were credited by the vulgar, and are perhaps still believed by a numerous class of persons. Happily the statements of the historian who reasons are divested of this pernicious effect.”
Then, returning to the former topic of conversation, he said, "What a number of great Generals arose suddenly during the revolution: Pichegru, Kleber, Massena, Marceau, Desaix, Hoche, &c., and almost all were originally private soldiers. But here the efforts of nature seem to have been exhausted; for she has produced nothing since, or at least nothing so great. At that period every thing was submitted to competition among thirty millions of men, and nature necessarily asserted her rights: whereas, subsequently, we were again confined within the narrower limits of order and the forms of society. I was even accused of having surrounded myself, in military and civil posts, with men of inferior ability, the better to display my own superiority. But now, when the competition will not certainly be renewed, it remains for those who are in power to make a better selection. We shall see what they will do.
"Another circumstance, not less remarkable, was the extreme youth of some of these Generals, who seemed to have started ready made from the hands of nature. Their characters were perfectly suited to the circumstances in which they were placed, with the exception of Hoche, whose morals were by no means pure. The others had no object in view save glory and patriotism, which formed their whole circle. They were men after the antique model.
"Desaix was surnamed by the Arabs the Just Sultan; at the funeral of Marceau, the Austrians observed an armistice, on account of the respect they entertained for him: and young Duphot was the emblem of perfect virtue.
"But the same commendations cannot be bestowed on those who were farther advanced in life: for they belonged in some measure to the era that had just passed away. Massena, Augereau, Brune, and many others, were merely intrepid plunderers. Massena was, moreover, distinguished for the most sordid avarice. It was asserted that I played him a trick which might have proved a hanging matter; that, being one day indignant at his last depredations, I drew on his banker for 2 or 3,000,000. Great embarrassment ensued: for my name was not without its weight. The banker wrote to intimate that he could not pay the sum without the authority of Massena. On the other hand, he was urged to pay it without hesitation, as Massena, if he were wronged, could appeal to the courts of law for justice. Massena however resorted to no legal measures, and suffered the money to be paid.
"O ——, Murat, and Ney, were common-place Generals, having no recommendation but personal courage.
"Moncey was an honest man: Macdonald was distinguished for firm integrity; I was deceived with respect to the character of B——.
"S—— also had his faults as well as his merits. The whole of his campaign in the south of France was admirably conducted. It will scarcely be credited that this man, whose deportment and manners denoted a lofty character, was the slave of his wife. When I learned at Dresden our defeat at Vittoria, and the loss of all Spain through the mismanagement of poor Joseph, whose plans and measures were not suited to the present age, and seemed rather to belong to a Soubise than to me, I looked about for some one capable of repairing these disasters, and I cast my eyes on S—— who was near me. He said that he was ready to undertake what I wished; but entreated that I would speak to his wife, by whom, he said, he expected to be reproached. I desired him to send her to me. She assumed an air of hostility, and decidedly told me that her husband should certainly not return to Spain; that he had already performed important services, and was now entitled to a little repose. ‘Madam,’ said I to her: ‘I did not send for you with the view of enduring your scolding. I am not your husband, and if I were I should not be the more inclined to bear with you.’ These few words confounded her; she became as pliant as a glove, turned quite obsequious, and was only eager to obtain a few conditions. To these, however, I by no means acceded, and merely contented myself with congratulating her on her willingness to listen to reason. In critical circumstances, Madam, said I, it is a wife’s duty to endeavour to smooth difficulties; go home to your husband, and do not torment him by your opposition."