MARMONT'S MEMOIRS.*

DURING the earlier portion of Marmont's memorials of his time, we found him enjoying the full tide of prosperity: he had the luck to be engaged against inferior generals, and he gained a considerable portion of renown, not justified by ensuing events. name had, indeed, become so great, that Napoleon selected him to superThe prestige attaching to his sede Masséna in the Peninsula, and had ample reason to regret his choice. Instead of Marmont maintaining the reputation of the French arms, he, by his own showing, spent his time in unworthy disputes with the other generals holding separate command, and thus strengthened the English power. On his own ex parte evidence, he was no match for Wellington; and, disguise it as he may, he was out-generalled at Salamanca. But we shall have occasion to refer to this subject presently.

At the end of the second volume we left Marmont at Zara, opposed to the Russians and Montenegrins. Various skirmishes took place during the winter, and the rebels (as Marmont chooses to call them) suffered very condign punishment by his burning the town of Castelnovo over their heads. The next step proposed was a combined operation of the French and Austrians to capture Cattaro, but it ended in nothing; fortunately, perhaps, for Marmont, as the Russian naval force was very large, and it would have been unfavourable to contest the sovereignty at sea with them. In the mean while the Dalmatians, who had been amicably disposed to the French at the outset, began to grow discontented at the prolonged occupation, and aided the Russians in carrying out their numberless intrigues. Hence it is not surprising that Marmont felt greatly disposed to take an active part in the war between the English and Turks, which Duckworth's forcing of the Dardanelles appeared strongly to suggest, and proposed to join the Turks with 25,000 men. assent, and opened negotiations with Mustapha Bairaktar, so celebrated He obtained the emperor's for his devotion to the unhappy Selim; with Passwan Oglou, and with the celebrated Ali Pacha, of Janina, to the latter of whom a field battery and abundance of matériel were sent. place in the conduct of the Porte, however, overthrew all these laboured The sudden change which took schemes, and the retreat of the Russian fleet enabled Marmont to devote his attention to a branch of military occupation for which he always showed a remarkable genius. In the expectation that his long-cherished dream would be fulfilled, and that Turkey in Europe would be broken up, and subjected to a Polish partition, Marmont paved the way by opening up roads into the interior of Dalmatia. By these means he regained a great portion of his popularity with the inhabitants, who said, in their flowery language: "During eight years the Austrians drew up and discussed plans for roads, without carrying them out: Marmont mounted on horseback to have them made, and lo! ere he descended, they were finished." About this time, too, an envoy from Ali Pacha visited Marmont, who gives the following account of his mission:

* Mémoires du Maréchal Duc de Raguse, &c. Vols. III. and IV. Paris Perrotin.

Feb.-VOL. CIX. NO. CCCCXXXIV.

This envoy was en route for Poland, in order to meet the emperor. Mehemet Effendi had experienced strange fortunes. He was a Roman and a priest, whom we found at Malta performing the duties of inquisitor, on our capture of that island. He followed us to Egypt, where we gave him employment as a civil servant. Not finding in that department the advantages he had anticipated, he determined on returning to Europe in the company of two French officers. A corsair took them, and they were carried to Janina and put in prison. One day the ci-devant inquisitor announced that he had been favoured with a vision; Mohammed had appeared to him and demonstrated that the Christian religion was false, and so our friend decided on embracing the Koran. He was immediately set at liberty. He was employed by Ali Pacha, and soon taken into favour. When he came to me, his master had authorised him to enter into negotiations with Napoleon. The vizir had decided that peace was near at hand, and foreseeing that the emperor would demand possession of Corfu and the seven islands, Ali Pacha sent Mehemet to ask that they might be handed over to him, his sole argument to convince Napoleon being: "Ali Pacha loves the French; a French general will come to take the command at Corfu; this vicinity will engender quarrels, and it will be unjustly said that Ali Pacha does not love the French. In order to prevent such injustice it would be better to give the island to Ali Pacha." Mehemet Effendi joined the emperor just as the peace was being signed. The conditions were still kept secret. He made his request, and supported it by the powerful argument I have quoted, while the emperor replied: "But how am I to take Corfu it does not belong to me." "But your majesty will have it,” the renegade said. "How am I to take it?" the emperor continued; and he never altered this mode of argument, which could not possibly compromise him. Mehemet Effendi's mission was fulfilled, and he returned to his master. Afterwards, I was told, the wretched man went back to Rome, and made a public recantation.

The peace of Tilsit, and the emperor's wish to interfere in Spain, put a final check to the designs on Turkey; Cattaro was handed over to the French, and tranquillity restored to the world for a short period. Marmont received his reward in the title of Duc de Raguse, which he considered the greatest compliment that could be paid him. During the peace, Marmont was engaged in negotiations with the Montenegrins, in the vain hope of inducing them to accept the government of the emperor; and, from his own showing, he could always know the state of the political thermometer, as regarded Austria, by the language held by the Vladika. When, therefore, the Montenegrins broke out into hostility, he could not entertain the slightest doubt but that a war with Austria was imminent. Nor were his expectations frustrated. As soon as hostilities commenced in Italy, Marmont received orders to make a diversion in favour of the army of Italy. After some unimportant movements, he was summoned by the Archduke John to evacuate Dalmatia, but thought it beneath him even to answer the summons. Napoleon's march on Vienna altered the aspect of things materially. The viceroy recommenced the offensive by entering Friuli, while Marmont hurried to join him. On the route, he fought and won the battle of Gospich against a very superior force, on the same days, the 21st and 22nd of May, as the terrible battle of Essling was being fought on the left bank of the Danube. From the correspondence in the third volume we will here show that, while engaged in fighting his own battles, Napoleon found time to carefully watch his generals, as will be seen from the two following letters:

NAPOLEON TO MARMONT.

Bayonne, 8th May, 1808. MONSIEUR LE GENERAL MARMONT,-The pay of the army of Dalmatia is in arrears, because you have diverted 400,000 francs from the paymaster's chest to meet other expenses. Things cannot go on in this way. The paymaster was very wrong to obey your orders. As it is the treasury which pays the expenses, this branch of the service cannot be kept straight with such irregularity. You have no right, under any pretext, to force the chest. You ought to demand credits from the minister; if he do not grant them, you must not incur such expenses.

This matter was evidently rankling in Napoleon's mind, for we find him writing again on May 16, 1808:

MONSIEUR LE GENERAL MARMONT,-There is great disorder in the administration of my army in Dalmatia. You have authorised a violation of the chest, amounting to nearly 400,000 francs. And yet the same amount was placed to your credit for the engineer and artillery works. It is a very considerable sum. How is it that it was not sufficient? Dalmatia costs me an immense sum; there is no regularity there, and all this causes a degree of irregularity in our accounts, to which we are not accustomed. The paymaster is responsible for all these sums; I have ordered his recal, and he had better make haste and send in all the vouchers to certify his accounts. But all this does not justify the expense. You have no right to spend a farthing which the minister has not placed at your disposal. When you want a credit, you must ask for it.

The terms on which the archduke had entered on the campaign were very favourable. The French army, or at least the greater part of its forces, and especially those troops who had made the campaigns of 1805, 1806, and 1807, were in Spain and Italy; Davoust's corps alone, about 30,000 strong, and a few other troops hurriedly organised in the depôts at home, were in Germany. Thus the allies represented the largest integer of the French army. Without wishing to treat them unjustly, we may assume that our readers are aware how mediocre these soldiers were. The archduke opened the campaign with a firm and numerous army, perfectly equipped, and marched with the confidence imparted by his immense superiority. This confidence was universal, but a change soon came over the troops in the following simple way:

A French prisoner was taken on the field of the battle of Ratisbon. He was questioned, and he announced the arrival of the emperor to take the head of the army. They refused to believe him, but every prisoner repeated the same tale. From that moment, I was told-from the instant when the fact was confirmed, the archduke, who till then had displayed coolness and talent, lost his head, and only committed absurdities. "And I," Bubna, who told me the story, added, "in order to recal him to his senses, said to him, 'But, monseigneur, why trouble yourself? suppose Jourdan had just arrived instead of Napoleon?' This amusing incident never left my memory. It does not attach much credit to Jourdan; but Bubna chose his name, because the archduke had fought against him for two campaigns and had always beaten him.

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And it was fortunate for the French army that Napoleon was present, for the check at Essling had almost destroyed it. At that moment, so Marmont tells us, Prince Charles had in his hands the destiny of the French army he could have destroyed it; but it appeared to him so wonderful and extraordinary that he had not been beaten, that he almost

doubted his victory, when it only depended on him to render it decisive. The French army was divided by the Danube, which is of immense width near Vienna; the two portions could only communicate by means of uncertain navigation. The troops on the left bank were utterly worn out by the obstinate struggle, and had no ammunition or space to move in on the island of Lobau. If the Austrian army had forced a passage, and if the population of Vienna had revolted, which they were much inclined to do, Lannes and Masséna's corps, and the cavalry of the Guard, must have been captured or cut to pieces. Fortunately for Napoleon, the time had not yet come for his star to set.

During the period that Marmont was detached at Laybach, the Austrians moved down a large force on Gratz, where the 84th Regiment defended the town against overwhelming numbers for fourteen hours. For this brilliant service Napoleon ordered the regiment to bear on its standard the motto, "Un contre dix," while Marmont received his reward in the shape of the following letter:

NAPOLEON TO MARMONT.

Schönbrunn, 28th June, 1809, Nine in the Morning. MONSIEUR LE DUC DE RAGUSE, On the 27th you were not at Gratz. You have committed the greatest fault of which a general can be guilty. You ought to have arrived there by midnight of the 23rd, or the morning of the 24th. You have 10,000 men under your command, and you do not know how to enforce obedience; in fact, your corps is only a division. I believe that Montrichard is not a splendid officer; but you complain with a bad grace. What would it be if you commanded 120,000 men? Besides, a formal act of disobedience would be criminal; it is a misunderstanding, and how can that occur, when a general only commands 10,000 men? Marmont, you have under you the best corps of my army; I desire your presence at a battle I propose fighting, and you cause me a delay of several days. You will possibly have beaten Giulay this day. It is very necessary I should know what I have to depend on, where you are, and whether the enemy will collect his forces in the neighbourhood of Gratz. It is important that his troops should be so scattered that they cannot be reassembled for many days.

At the commencement of July, Marmont proceeded to Vienna, in order to have an interview with the emperor. He met him at a fortunate moment, on his return from an inspection of the works thrown up for the protection of the French army. According to our author, Napoleon was subjected to a species of intoxication when he had a large number of troops at his command, and his resolutions were influenced by the lively impression such a scene caused him. "A man of his superiority ought to have been free from such a degree of intoxication (enivrement); his feelings ought not to have had such an empire over his mind; for, before seeing them, he was aware of the number of his troops." The reception was sufficiently gracious, and Marmont was ordered to cover the approaches to the island of Lobau. A few days later the battle of Wagram was fought, which the French won, owing to the errors of the Austrian commanders. The Archduke Charles complained greatly of the conduct of his brother John, and a public discussion commenced between them. The fact is, that though Prince John halted his men to boil their soup, and so delayed his arrival on the battle-field, the French had 35,000 fresh troops prepared to receive him. After the battle a sudden panic took place, and

the entire plain was covered with fugitives: nearly ten thousand men rushed precipitately on the Danube in the most disgraceful state of fear. They had been terrified by the outposts of the Archduke John's army; but such a panic throws a strange light on the components of the French army of Wagram. We do not think that the troops who won Jena and Austerlitz would have been guilty of such conduct. The battle of Wagram is one of the greatest of modern times, if we regard the number of combatants collected. There were 300,000 men in the two armies, and, from the end of one wing to that of the other, about two leagues and a half distance. The French had 700 field-pieces; the Austrians 500. though the French gained the victory, they did not take a single prisoner, except some wounded men left on the field of battle. The French captured seven guns from the Austrians, but not a single flag; while the Austrians, on the contrary, took nine guns. If it was a victory, as the French are so fond of asserting, at any rate it opened up the prospect of many more battles to be fought. The following curious anecdote seems to throw a strange light on the character of the Emperor Napoleon:

But

The day after the battle the emperor mounted his horse, and, in accordance with his usual custom, rode over a portion of the field. The part he visited was where Macdonald had been stationed. I never could understand the sort of curiosity he experienced in seeing the dead and dying thus covering the ground. He stopped before an officer dangerously wounded in the knee, and had the strange idea of having the amputation performed by Yvan, his surgeon, in his presence. The latter had great difficulty in making him understand that this was not the proper place, that the operation was impossible at the moment, and he invoked my testimony in support of his own.

By the battle of Zuaim, Marmont had a glorious revenge on the Archduke John, for the proposed evacuation of Dalmatia, in the benefit of an offer to conclude an armistice. The next morning, on hastening to receive the congratulations of the emperor, he was disagreeably disappointed by having to listen to a detailed criticism of the campaign in Croatia, in which the emperor tried his best to prove him guilty of all possible faults. The reward for his patient reception of the remarks was the maréchal's bâton. We think he could well afford to let Napoleon speak his mind

for such a reward.

The new marshal, as junior, had to read the despatches aloud, and then Marmont broke the news to the emperor of the loss of the battle of Talavera, at which he was furious. The reason Marmont insinuates for the escape of the English army upon its retreat to Corunna, was, that Soult had an intense ambition to gain the throne of Portugal for himself. But we had better quote his character to show what Marmont thought of one of his rivals:

Soult, who possessed very little mind, and was excessively passionate, suffered from unlimited ambition. His reputation for finesse was founded on his custom of always expressing the opposite of his thoughts, while this finesse and art disappeared as soon as his passions spoke, for then his intelligence was obscured to such a degree that he would fall into incredible aberrations. We have seen generals dream of crowns after lengthened war, in times of disorder and anarchy, and when they commanded troops without a fatherland-mercenaries whom habit, interest, and esprit de bande attached solely to their chiefs; but in a period of order and discipline, with a sovereign to whom Europe was subjected, with a national army, and when the chief of the state was pre-eminently chief of the