World's Best Histories — Volume 7: France

by François Guizot; Madame de Witt

Only a protest by the holy father, conceived in the most moderate terms, was affixed to the walls of Rome: "Not having been able to comply with all the demands which have been made to him on the part of the French Government, because the voice of his conscience and his sacred duties forbade it, his Holiness Pius VII. has believed it his duty to submit to the disastrous consequences with which he has been threatened as the result of his refusal, and even the military occupation of his capital. Resigned in the humility of his heart to the unsearchable judgments of heaven, he commits his cause into the hands of God; but at the same time, unwilling to fail in his essential obligations to guarantee the rights of his sovereignty, he has given orders to protest, as he protests daily, against every usurpation of his dominions, his will being that the rights of the Holy See should be and remain always intact."

The times of supreme violence had not yet come, and the emperor himself had not perhaps foreseen to what extremities he would be led, by the aggression he had just committed, and the underhand struggle he had been maintaining for three years against the conscientious will of an unarmed old man. However, the habitual roughness of his arbitrary proceedings did not fail to manifest themselves from the beginning. Champagny had been ordered to declare to the Cardinal de Bayanne that the French soldiers established at Rome would remain there until the Pope should have entered into the Italian Confederation, and should have consented to make common cause with the powers composing it, in every case and against all enemies. "This condition is the sine qua non of his Majesty's proposal. If the Pope does not accept it, his Majesty will not know how to recognize his temporal sovereignty. He has decided to transfer the power of Rome into secular hands."

At the same time, and as a necessary commentary on these imperious injunctions, the foreign cardinals in the pontifical states received orders from Napoleon to quit Rome. The Neapolitan cardinals, to the number of seven, had up to that time refused to take an oath to King Joseph. At the first news of the measure which threatened them, the Pope ordered them to remain near himself, "for the service of the Holy See;" they were seized in their houses, and conducted to the frontiers of the kingdom of Naples by gendarmes. On March 10th the same order was addressed by the emperor to the vice-King of Italy for fourteen new members of the Sacred College. "Let Litta return to Milan; let the Genoese return to Genoa, the Italians to the kingdom of Italy, the Piedmontese to Piedmont, the Neapolitans to Naples. This measure is to be executed by fair means or foul. Since it is the cardinals who have lost the states of the Church by their evil counsels, let them return every one to his own place." Cardinal Casoni, till recently Secretary of State to the Pope, and Cardinal Doria Pamphili, now officiating—the one born at Sarzana, the other a Genoese— were prevented by this interdiction from living in the Roman States. Alquier, the minister of France, was quietly recalled to Paris; a simple secretary of legation remained at Rome to represent the diplomatic service. General Miollis well seconded the intentions of the emperor with regard to the Holy See. Against the advice of his counsellors, the Pope sent to Cardinal Caprara an order to quit Paris. "Violence has been resorted to," wrote Pius VII. to his easygoing legate, "even to laying hands on four of our cardinals and conducting them to Naples in the midst of an armed force; an excess which only requires the violation of our own personal freedom for the scandal to be complete. We cannot, by the residence of our representative with the French Government, give occasion for thinking any longer that we are not deeply wounded by the persecution we have been made to suffer, and the oppression manifested towards the Holy See. Our intention is, then, if our capital is not without delay evacuated by the French troops, that you should demand your passports, and that you should set out with the Cardinal de Bayanne, our legate extraordinary, in order to come and share with us and your brothers the lot which is reserved for us."

I wished to tell in some detail the relations of Napoleon with the court of Rome, because they clearly point out the first steps decidedly taken along a path that grew more and more daring. Conquest had for a long time borne its bitter fruits. Conquered sovereigns had submitted to the yoke and to the haughty requirements of the conqueror; such was the absolute right of victory, and those who suffered from it recognized a power which in all time had belonged to the conqueror. The emperor henceforth went much further than this; he did not confine himself to fighting, conquering, and dispossessing those he had vanquished, and dividing their spoils. He began at Rome to impose his arbitrary caprices upon a prince who had never taken up arms against him. At the same time, and by a manoeuvre concocted in the most masterly manner, and yet most inexcusable, he was about to dethrone a king, his ally, humbly submissive to his power and his exactions. The throne of Spain was the only one still occupied by a prince of the house of Bourbon. Napoleon had resolved upon seating a Bonaparte upon it. Already the troops destined for this enterprise were quitting Paris, marching, without knowing it, towards long disasters. Yielding to the irresistible impulses of absolute power without limits and without a curb, Napoleon was led into having recourse to every description of violence, and making use of every kind of perfidy. He wished to be everywhere and always obeyed. For six years past no one had resisted his will without being crushed; he was at last about to meet with a check—at Rome, in the conscience of the Pope; in Spain, in the passions of an aroused people.

The situation of Spain had for a long time been sad and wretched. Governed by a favorite, whose crimes he ignored, King Charles IV. had abandoned power into the hands of the Prince de la Paix. At his side, and in a condition of suspicion which resembled captivity, the heir to the throne, Ferdinand, Prince of Asturias, had become the idol of the people, as a consequence of the scorn and aversion inspired by the favorite. The young prince, weak and cunning, submissive in his turn to his old tutor, the Canon Escoiquiz, was carrying on underhand intrigues with a few great lords who were devoted to him. He had attached to himself Beauharnais, the ambassador of France, an upright and sincere man, with no great political penetration. The little council of the prince had thought themselves capable of concluding an alliance between Ferdinand and the all-powerful sovereign of France. On the 11th of October, 1807, the Prince of Asturias sent by Beauharnais a letter addressed to the "hero who threw into the shade all those who had preceded him;" Ferdinand solicited the hand of a princess of the imperial house.

It was the moment of the negotiation of the treaty of Fontainebleau and the anticipated partition of Portugal. On the same day on which the signatures were exchanged (October 27th, 1807) the Prince of Asturias, for a long time suspected of criminal intrigues, was arrested at Madrid, as well as his accomplices. On the 29th, King Charles IV. wrote to the emperor, in order to make him acquainted with the sad discovery which had just wounded all his paternal sentiments. "I pray your Majesty," added the unfortunate monarch, "to aid me with your knowledge and advice."

The troops that were to enter Spain were ready, and the first movement of Napoleon was to march them forward immediately. The trouble existing in the royal house afforded a ready excuse for an intervention entreated at once by both father and son. The King of Spain himself invoked assistance. The army of the Gironde was immediately reinforced and provisioned. A second corps was already preparing, but the Prince de la Paix discovered in the correspondence of Ferdinand the proof of his relations with Beauharnais. He did not wish to compromise his principality of Algarve by exciting the anger of Napoleon: the Prince of Asturias was exempted from the law, and his pardon solemnly proclaimed in an official decree by Charles IV. Only his accomplices were prosecuted, but the tribunals acquitted them. Meanwhile the army of the Gironde, under General Dupont, had entered Spain. The corps for watching the sea coasts, commanded by Marshal Moncey, followed in the same direction. Other detachments seized upon the fortresses of the frontiers. "On arriving at Pampeluna, General Duhesme will take possession of the town," wrote the emperor to General Clarke, Minister of War (January 28th, 1808), "and without making any show he will occupy the citadel and the fortifications, treating the commandants and the inhabitants with the greatest courtesy, making no movement, and saying that he is expecting further orders."

The orders were not long in arriving; 100,000 men of the grand army were effecting a backward movement, approaching France, and consequently Spain. At the same time, Joachim Murat, the living hero of hazardous and doubtful enterprises, had just been appointed general-in-chief of the armies in Spain. His instructions were all military. "Do not disturb in any manner the division of Duhesme," wrote the emperor to his lieutenant, on the 16th of March, 1808; "leave that where it is. It guards Barcelona and holds that province, and fulfils its purpose sufficiently. When the 3000 men of the reinforcement who are about to rejoin this division, and who will be at Barcelona towards the 5th or 6th of April, shall have arrived, it will be another thing. Then he will have an army capable of carrying him anywhere. At the moment when you receive this letter, the head of General Verdier's corps will touch the borders of Spain, and General Merle ought to find himself at Burgos. Continue to speak smooth words. Reassure the king, the Prince de la Paix, the Prince of Asturias, and the queen. The great thing is to arrive at Madrid, and there let your troops rest, and replenish their stores of provisions. Say that I am soon coming in order to reconcile and arrange matters; above all, do not commit any hostilities, if it can possibly be helped. I hope that everything may be arranged, and it would be dangerous to scare these folks too much."

Murat had conceived intoxicating hopes which did not tend to the tranquillity of the Spanish court. He had asked for political instructions, which were refused to him. "What I do not tell you is what you ought not to know," wrote Napoleon to his lieutenant. Uneasiness and fear reigned in the household of the king, under the outside show of welcome lavished on the French soldiers. Already the Prince de la Paix was preparing for the flight of the royal family. That which the house of Braganza had done by setting out for Brazil, the house of Bourbon could do by taking refuge in Peru. The departure of the court for Seville was announced; it was the first step in a longer journey, of which the project had not yet been revealed to Charles IV. The royal family were besides profoundly divided. The Prince of Asturias swore that he would not quit Aranjuez; his uncle Don Antonio supported him in resistance. A few of the ministers were seemingly throwing off the yoke of the Prince de la Paix. The Marquis of Caballero, the Minister of Justice, refused to sign the orders necessary for the departure. "I command it," said the Prince de la Paix imperiously. "I only receive orders from the king," said the Spanish nobleman in a tone to which the favorite was not accustomed.

Meanwhile the population of Madrid, and the peasants in the environs of Aranjuez, were stirred up by the reports of the departure which circulated in the country; the preparations carried on by the confidants of the Prince de la Paix, excited much anger and uneasiness. An agitated and inquisitive crowd ceaselessly surrounded the palace, carefully watching all the movements of the inmates: a proclamation of the King, promising not to withdraw, did not suffice to allay suspicion. On the night of March 17th, a veiled lady came forth from the house of the Prince de la Paix to a carriage which was waiting for her. The multitude thought they had discovered a prelude to the departure; all hands were extended to stay the fugitive. In the struggle a shot was fired; the crowd immediately rushed forward, forcing the gates, and overturning the guards who protected the palace of the favorite. In an instant his dwelling was pillaged, his art treasures destroyed, his tapestries torn up and scattered to the winds. We have been witnesses of the sorrowful results of popular fury. The Princess de la Paix alone, trembling for her life in the palace where her just pride had so often suffered, was spared by the vengeance of the multitude; they brought her in triumph to the house of the king. "Behold innocence!" cried the people. The Prince de la Paix had disappeared.