S.M. renvoie les gens et lit Andromaque. Elle critique les vers : « Je viens chercher ou la vie ou la mort. » (1) Elle dit quâil faudrait mettre « trouver » ; Mme de Montholon est aussitĂŽt de cet avis, je suis contre : « chercher » laisse du vague car elle peut ne pas trouver. Coucher Ă 10 heures.
---
10 March, 1817 :
After a ride, I return at 6.30. His Majesty asks for me, tells me to be gay, and maintains that Iâm a child. He asks why it is that I grieve. I donât reply. He has me play chess, treats me very kindly.Â
Dinner. His Majesty speaks to me frequently and - an extraordinary thing - does for me what he has done only once before, and then only for Las Cases : he dips a spoon in the macaroni and offers some to me, saying « Here you are Gourgaud, let me give you some macaroni ! » He serves me twice, asks me how I find it. « Excellent, Sire, » I reply. « The best Iâve ever had. » The Montholons are furious ; all the servants are stupefied ; itâs been a long time since someone has received such attentions.Â
His Majesty sends away the servants and reads Andromache. He critiques the line : « seek either life or death [whether life or death to contemplate] » (1) He says it would be better to say « to find » ; Mme de Montholon agrees immediately. I am of another opinion : « seek » remains ambiguous - the end is not necessarily found. Bed at 10 oâclock.
Emphasis in the original (maintained by the 2019 Thierry Lentz edition.)
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Do you have any details regarding how Napoleon reacted to Junotâs death? I havenât really come across much, which seems strange given how close theyâd once been + the extraordinary nature of Junotâs demise.
First of all, Iâm SO sorry for the long response time on this ; Iâm currently at my Paris appartment and I left the Dubief book and all of my other Junot texts (i.e. three books) back at my country house. So I meant to wait to respond until I could get back and check exactly what he has to say about Napoleonâs reaction to Junotâs death as the most recent/thorough biographer, but I just ⊠havent gone back yet.
And itâs been weeks. đŹÂ
When I do, Iâll be sure to let you know how he - and the other Junot biographers - describe the aftermath, but in the meantime, here are a couple of other sources on Napoleonâs response to the news :
For one, thereâs this letter from Napoleon to Savary. And for all the possible partiality of correspondance like this, at least this one probably exists :
Iâve received your letter from 2 August. I was truly pained by what you wrote me about poor Junot. He had lost my esteem in the last campaign [Russia], but I hadnât ceased to be attached to him because of it. Today he has regained that esteem, since I see that his cowardice was already the effect of his illness âŠÂ »Â
My own personal guess is that this is probably pretty close to how he reacted across the board as regards Junotâs death. They might not have been that close anymore by the end, but Napoleon probably regretted the loss of a very old friend, and may have felt bad about how heâd treated Junot, especially in the last years.Â
And then of course thereâs Laureâs side of the story. She says :
- Voilà encore un de mes braves de moins ! ⊠Junot ! ⊠O mon Dieu ! ... »
-----
« When Albert's despatch reached him, he immediately opened it, and, holding it with his left hand after having read the first lines, he struck his brow violently with the right ; in that movement the despatch slipped from his grasp ... he picked it up with lightning speed .. and then he cried out, with a heart-rendingly expressive tone :
- Junot ! ⊠Junot ! ⊠My God âŠÂ
And he clasped his hands so tightly that the despatch was quite crumpled ⊠Junot ! he repeated with that expression which came from the heart, and which spoke of real pain ! ... But, having looked around, and seeing that he was being watched, he did not want to be a man in front of an observant eye ! ... he smiles with a sad, indefinable expression, and says in a loud, albeit distorted voice :
- There we have it, one fewer of my brave men ! ⊠Junot ! ⊠My God ! âŠÂ »
One more thing thatâs sort of interesting, which Iâve seen referenced a couple of times, is this apparent order by Napoleon - as soon as he heard about Junotâs death - to send someone to his house and to destroy all of the correspondance that had passed between them. Iâll have to see if Dubief talks about that at all, because the other sources Iâve seen that mention it donât bother to say where they got that info from. (If anybodyâs read all of Savary, you may have heard about this - I think it might have been him that was sent with the order.)
Remember that giant portrait of Junot in the Invalides ?
Well itâs been displaced by this almost as giant picture of bucket hats. Apparently the artist was told he could do absolutely whatever he wanted on the theme of Napoleon, and this was the direction he preferred to take :Â
And itâs even better (worse ?) because the curators chose not to make it particularly clear whether something is or is not part of this temporary installation. So if youâd never been to the Invalides before, you might be forgiven for thinking thereâs always just this huge picture of hats in pride of place amidst all the stuff youâd normally expect to find in an army museum.Â
From the Army Museum, a tiny infantry briquet belonging to the King of Rome. My hand for arbitrary scale ; Iâm as close to the glass as I could get without touching it, and Iâm 1,69m (RIP đą). At a guess, Iâd say itâs about half the size of a regulation model - maybe a little more - and the length along the guard is proportionally a bit larger.
French link :Â https://www.musee-armee.fr/au-programme/expositions/detail/napoleon-nest-plus.html
English link :Â https://www.musee-armee.fr/en/programme/exhibitions/detail/napoleon-is-no-more.html
And then thereâs this, also at the Army Museum. Which, from the vagueness of the video could be ... just about anything. Who knows.Â
But you are exceptionally allowed to go at night after the museum-proper closes (so you can brush shoulders with all the people going to see the sound-and-light show happening at the same time and wish you were doing that instead).
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I have come across this online article of âLâestafetteâ, which quotes from a letter Junot wrote to EugĂšne in - I assume - 1813. Does anybody happen to know anything more about it? Whatâs the source? Where is it from? From what date?
English translation:
I donât want to talk about war, I am thinking only of peace and I have an immense project which I am sure will succeed with the sovereigns of the world and of which the great Napoleon will be the leader. I make you, by my personal authority, king from the Adige to Cattaro. I give you all that the Turks possess in Bosnia, inâŠ, inâŠ, as far as the Trace Bosporus. I give you an island in the Adriatic, one in the Black Sea, one in the Red, one in the Mediterranean, one in the Ocean, one in the Indian. Sixteen portions of the gold, silver and diamond mines are distributed in the following manner; to H. M. the great Napoleon: four to His Imperial Highness the Viceroy [Eugene], whom I make Emperor, or as Napoleon wills: two to the Prince of NeuchĂątel [Berthier] whom I make Emperor of Austria, one and a half to the kings of the Confederation, to the Emperor of Austria whom the Emperor will make Emperor of Spain or king as he will, to the King of Naples [Murat], to the King of Holland [Louis], to the King of Westphalia [Jerome], to the king and all the kings whom the Emperor will make again: four to the English, half; and to me: half to govern Brazil, Portugal, half of North America, of which the English shall have the other half, the islands of the South Sea, the great Indies and China, if the Emperor wills. We will take everything and be crowned in the midst of ten million soldiers, all of them friends, in the middle of Peking, and in ten years everything will be executed. I will tell you all the details in person.
@joachimnapoleon , Iâve looked around for the original source of this letter and havenât had much more luck than you, @josefavomjaaga. Dubief isnât too helpful here, unfortunately.
The letter does show up again as a one-sentence anecdote in a doctoral thesis by Charles Hugh MacKay thatâs more about Junotâs career than his personal character. (Any chance you know of him, @maggiec70 ? It was a thesis defended in 1995 at Florida State Univ., and directed by Donald Howard.) He seems to have got it from a 1913 text by Henri Marguy, Un centenaire, la mort de Junot, duc d'AbrantĂšs, 1771-1813, and he gives the date as 6 July, 1813.
And hereâs where the trail runs cold, Iâm afraid, because that text hasnât been digitized (at least as far as I can tell). But thereâs a copy at Tolbiac, so Iâll see if I canât have a look at it sometime over the summer.Â
Dubief himself doesnât cite the letter in his bio, but he does use both Lucas-Dubreton and Marguy, so I think itâs safe to assume heâd at least heard of it and either simply chose not to use it, or else found its provenance too suspect to be trusted.
As for the cause of Junotâs death, Dubief keeps his options open, landing somewhere between the protracted effects of a bunch of bad head wounds, possible syphilis, and the more recently suggested bipolar disorder (made progressively more debilitating by either one or both of the other two things) as leading up to the jumping-out-of-the-window incident and eventual death from sepsis. He doesnât rule out the syphilis per se, but he does suggest that it may have been used as a sort of catch-all diagnosis at a time before widespread psychiatric study, to the exclusion of other possible underlying conditions.
@joachimnapoleonâ âs cool VoilĂ app reminded me so much of that one snapchat filter that I figured Iâd run the usual crew through that as well, just for good measure.
Did alright with Les Trois Stooges Mousquetaires :
And some others :
But three things that appear to be beyond its cartoony powers :
I canât even begin to tell how much I love this event. Lannes and Murat at their best! (Even if I still donât quite understand how Tolstoiâs version fits into historical events. He makes it sound as if the French took the Tabor Bridges first and got into Vienna because of that. But the bridges over the Danube are to the East of Vienna, so they must have conquered the capital first? But I guess Tolstoiâs version makes it sound more dramatic.)
@josefavomjaaga , thatâs partially my fault for cutting out all of the context before and after this scene. đŹ
The exchange happens in BrĂŒnn, after Vienna has already been abandoned and the principal interest for the Russians is now making sure Kutuzovâs army doesnât go the same way Mackâs did. Itâs more or less alright for them if Napoleon ends up taking Vienna, as long as he stays over there.Â
Prince Andrey arrives the day before this scene, to bring his sort-of-good news from DĂŒrenstein (Kutuzov beats Mortier, whoâs on the wrong side of the river with just Gazanâs division, takes some trophies, etc.) to the Austrian Emperor, but by the time he arrives, the news isnât really that great (nobody captured Mortier, Gen. Schmitt killed in the process, and by now Viennaâs actually occupied).Â
He gives his report the next morning anyway, and by 5 in the evening the diplomat Bilibin is packing up to leave and gives him the Tabor Bridge update.Â
But youâre right about the drama - and it doesnât help that the guy telling Bolkonsky the story just canât get enough of his own gossip, so heâd rather be flashy than clear. And then gives the whole thing in the present tense.Â
âNo, no, confess that this is charming,â he [Bilibin, Russian diplomat to Austria] said, âthis story of the bridge of Tabor. They have crossed it without striking a blow.â
Prince Andrey could not understand.
âWhy, where do you come from not to know what every coachman in the town knows by now?â
âI come from the archduchess. I heard nothing there.â
âAnd didnât you see that people are packing up everywhere?â
âI have seen nothing âŠÂ But whatâs the matter?â Prince Andrey asked impatiently.
âWhatâs the matter? The matter is that the French have crossed the bridge that Auersperg was defending, and they havenât blown up the bridge, so that Murat is at this moment running along the road to BrĂŒnn, and to-day or to-morrow theyâll be here.â
âHere? But how is it the bridge wasnât blown up, since it was mined?â
âWhy, thatâs what I ask you. No oneânot Bonaparte himselfâcan tell why.â Bolkonsky shrugged his shoulders.
âBut if they have crossed the bridge, then it will be all over with the army; it will be cut off,â he said.
âLeave off jesting,â said Prince Andrey, with mournful seriousness. The news grieved Prince Andrey, and yet it gave him pleasure. As soon as he heard that the Russian army was in such a hopeless position, the idea struck him that he was the very man destined to extricate the Russian army from that position, and that it had comeâthe Toulonâthat would lift him for ever from out of the ranks of unknown officers, and open the first path to glory for him! As he listened to Bilibin, he was already considering how, on reaching the army, he would, at a council of war, give the opinion that alone could save the army, and how he would be entrusted alone to execute the plan.
âLeave off joking,â he said.
âIâm not joking,â Bilibin went on. âNothing could be more truthful or more melancholy. These three gentlemen advance to the bridge alone and wave white handkerchiefs; they declare that itâs a truce, and that they, the marshals, are come for a parley with Prince Auersperg. The officer on duty lets them into the tĂȘte du pont. They tell him a thousand Gascon absurdities; say that the war is over, that Emperor Francis has arranged a meeting with Bonaparte, that they desire to see Prince Auersperg, and so on. The officer sends for Auersperg. These Gascon gentlemen embrace the officers, make jokes, and sit about on the cannons, while a French battalion meantime advances unnoticed on the bridge, flings the sacks of inflammable material into the river, and marches up to the tĂȘte du pont. Finally the lieutenant-general himself appears, our dear Prince Auersperg von Mautern. âMy dear enemy! Flower of Austrian chivalry! hero of the Turkish war! Hostility is at end, we can take each otherâs hands âŠÂ the Emperor Napoleon burns with impatience to make the acquaintance of Prince Auersperg.â In a word, these gentlemenânot Gascons for nothingâso bewilder Auersperg with fair wordsâhe is so flattered at this speedy intimacy with French marshals, so dazzled by the spectacle of their cloaks, and of the ostrich feathers of Muratâthat their fire gets into his eyes and makes him forget that he ought to be firing on the enemyâ (in spite of the interest of his story, Bilibin did not omit to pause after this mot, to give time for its appreciation). âA French battalion runs into the tĂȘte du pont, spikes the cannons, and the bridge is taken. No, but really the best part of the whole episode,â he went on, his excitement subsiding under the interest of his own story, âis that the sergeant in charge of the cannon which was to give the signal for firing the mines and blowing up the bridge, this sergeant seeing the French troops running on to the bridge wanted to fire, but Lannes pulled his arm away. The sergeant, who seems to have been sharper than his general, goes up to Auersperg and says: âPrince, theyâre deceiving you, here are the French!â Murat sees the game is up if he lets the sergeant have his say. With an affectation of surprise (a true Gascon!) he addresses Auersperg: âIs this the Austrian discipline so highly extolled all over the world,â says he, âdo you let a man of low rank speak to you like this?â It was a stroke of genius. The Prince of Auersperg is touched in his honour and has the sergeant put under arrest. No, but confess that all this story of the bridge of Tabor is charming. It is neither stupidity, nor cowardice ⊠"
"It is treason, perhaps,â said Prince Andrey, vividly picturing to himself grey overcoats, wounds, the smoke and sound of firing, and the glory awaiting him. »
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Another banger from the bible of probably-apocryphal Napoleonic anecdotes (Napoleonic Anecdotes, by Louis Cohen) :Â
« Lefebvre once fell ill of fever, and his attendant, an old soldier, contracted the illness at the same time. The servant got well quickly, but the malady clung to the marshal till it occurred to the wife of his bosom that the doctor had made a mistake â âcomme un Ăąneâ â by prescribing for the Duke the same doses as for a private soldier. Cheered by this happy thought, she rapidly enumerated on her fingers the different rungs of the military ladder. âTiens, bois! en voilĂ Pour ton grade,â she observed decisively, holding a full tumbler to her resigned husbandâs lips. The marshal, having gulped down a dozen doses at one effort, was soon, strange to say, on his legs again. âTâas beaucoup Ă apprendre, mon garçon,â she remarked triumphantly to the mystified medico, who felt that science had suffered a severe shock. »
A dreadful day, that July 27, 1794: itâs 9 Thermidor, Year II. Maximilian "The Bloody" is finally declared an outlaw, and Augustin, protesting the guilt of his brother, asks to share his sentence; a request which is granted him immediately ... They die together the next day on the scaffold.
Suddenly, as if by magic, what - even a few days before - seemed impossible ... becomes possible again! The arrogant and implacable Jacobins are holed up, not daring to go out, bowing their heads, vainly attempting to make the public forget their misdeeds, while the new representatives of the People hunt them down, seeking out all those who may have aided in the blood-shedding of the true patriots.
Bonaparte understands, as soon as he hears the news, that his fate will play out in the days to come: one must remain calm, as an innocent person should remain, a man who has nothing to be ashamed of, and - even more - a man who has already rendered great service to the Nation.
Commissioners Albitte, Salicetti, and Laporte declare, on behalf of the French people, that General Bonaparte has lost their confidence completely, by the most suspicious conduct and, above all, by the trip he has recently made to Genoa ... they therefore decree the following:
âGeneral Buonaparte, Commander-in-Chief of the Army of Italy's artillery, is provisionally suspended from his duties. He will be placed under the surveillance and responsibility of the General-in-Chief of said army, arrested and brought before the Committee of Public Safety in Paris, under good and sure escort. Seals will be affixed to all papers and effects⊠â
The general must concede to his strict confinement within the bounds of the house where he rents a room, the villa of Count Laurenti, under the guard of three gendarmes.
As for Junot, unlike his general, he is far from calm and flies in all directions. Bonaparte in court? Condemned? Guillotined? Marmont humors this agitation: they must, together, find a way to save him. They quickly develop an escape scenario worthy of two fiery young soldiers: theyâll simply kill the gendarmes and then flee to Italy.
Letizia hesitates. She knows her Napoleon well; itâs better to consult him beforehand, rather than make a move that might thwart his designs. Wise decision.
The next day, the aide-de-camp discreetly passes on this daring project to his general and receives this note in return:
âI recognize your friendship, my dear Junot, in the offer you are making me; You know well enough my own attachment, which I have long devoted to you, and I hope you count upon it. Men can be unjust to me, my dear Junot, but it is enough to be innocent: my conscience is the tribunal where I speak of my conduct. This conscience is calm when I question it; do nothing - you would compromise me.
Farewell, my dear Junot, be assured of my friendship, and all my best."
Bonaparte is right and, after having dictated to Junot himself, on 25 Thermidor, Year II (12 August, 1794) a letter - Â so clear and convincing - addressed to the representatives of the people, he is cleared of all suspicion and released on August 20. Everything is in order once again.
....
Many thanks to @joachimnapoleonâ for mentioning the book ! Itâs been enjoyable so far, well-written and engaging, and more exact than the other two Junot bios.Â
(Even if he does cite that one super wild novel-thing from the Mercure de France ...)
Probably the greatest toy of all time (marshal-approved).
If anyoneâs at the end of their rope and looking for a new quarantine pastime, look no further. Get ready for a toy thatâs apparently so fun that it managed to keep everyone occupied from 1789 to the fall of the Empire.
In the imperial gardens of the Tuileries, in the majestic avenues of the park of Saint-Cloud, as under the cool shade of Malmaison, the "Devil's game" was played at all hours of the day. Napoleon's marshals, like the great statesmen, did not disdain to bait the "Devil" at the tips of two frail sticks. An old print shows the little King of Rome playing with a diabolo. Elsewhere, a caricature of the time, certainly of English origin, represents Lord Wellington throwing into the air, on the string, Napoleon himself. Another entitled âThe Good Devil, how he goes!â likewise depicts a woman who launches a man dressed in the style of the old regime, from whose pockets a rain of gold falls. In another, two men and two women play « Devil to Pay » [idiomatic trans.] in a living room, overturning the furniture, breaking mirrors. An 1812 engraving attests that the fashionable game had lost nothing of its appeal since 1789. We read in a newspaper of the time:Â
The great preoccupation of the moment is not the noise of the immense preparations which the Empire makes for the Russian campaign; above all, the dominant thought, the obsession of all minds, is the Devil! Not the dark genius of evil, that impertinent and cold mocker, with his thin face and pointed features, his slender fingers and strident laughter, not the Devil of Michelangelo or Milton, but a toy, a kind of top with two ends, made to turn quickly on itself and propelled by means of a cord fixed to two sticks. In the Tuileries, in the gardens, in the salons, all the ladies, all the children are busy enticing this diabolo to purr. Fashion, always on the lookout for any extravagance, does not fail to mark this name among its splendors.
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Welcome to Napoleonâs House - may I or one of my 437 employees take your coat ?
In case anyoneâs interested in Durocâs crazy system of managers, sub-managers, and assistant sub-managers for his catering/interior decorating/personal security service.
The employees of the Imperial Household were subject to a very precise hierarchy. At the top, the Grand Officers, the Steward, the Treasurer, or the Secretary of State occupied the tip of the pyramid. In personal service, the civil officers came second. They were called up on an interim basis, or according to their tour of service. On a day-to-day basis, the lower-ranking employees also answered to a service manager or director. Each department of the household was classically ordered and included, depending upon its scale, a manager and one or several sub-managers. This supervisory staff was fairly considerable ; by 1 January, 1812, there were no less than 18 directors, 156 managers, and 26 sub-managers. Depending on the branch of occupation, a system of classification could also exist between ordinary employees. There were thus first, second, and third-class coachmen. At the bottom of the ladder, the young employees (assistants, etc.) completed their apprenticeships. This was notably the case for the whippers-in [huntersâ assistants who keep the pack in check] in-training, and those on third-pay or two-thirds pay.
The duties of the employees were assigned according to several registers of regulations - some general, others specific. The general regulations laid out the chain of command and the principle characteristics of the occupation (dress, timetables, work rate and hours, or punishments). The specific regulations concerned more distinct aspects of the work that were deemed particularly note-worthy. In terms of organisation, the Imperial Household was every bit as precise as the army. In Durocâs service, there was a rule or regulation for practically everything.
In all fairness to Joseph, apparently the Pepe-botella thing (« Jojo-Bottles » ?) caught on because parts of his early legislation had to do with alcohol and gambling, so some of his many detractors started depicting him as a fat, gaming drunk. Which upset him quite a bit, because he wasnât really any of those things.
See : Jean Tulard, Le Grand Empire : 1804-1815. 1982, p. 161.