CHAPTER XX. THE GUESTS OF GENERAL BONAPARTE
Josephine, in spite of her thirty-four years, or possibly because ofthem (that enchanting age when woman hovers between her passing youthand her corning age), Josephine, always beautiful, more graceful thanever, was still the charming woman we all know. An imprudent remarkof Junot's, at the time of her husband's return, had produced a slightcoolness between them. But three days had sufficed to restore to theenchantress her full power over the victor of Rivoli and the Pyramids.
She was doing the honors of her salon, when Roland entered the room.Always incapable, like the true Creole she was, of controlling heremotions, she gave a cry of joy, and held out her hand to him. She knewthat Roland was devoted to her husband; she knew his reckless bravery,knew that if the young man had twenty lives he would willingly havegiven them all for Bonaparte. Roland eagerly took the hand she offeredhim, and kissed it respectfully. Josephine had known Roland's mother inMartinique; and she never failed, whenever she saw Roland, to speakto him of his maternal grandfather, M. de la Clemenciere, in whosemagnificent garden as a child she was wont to gather those wonderfulfruits which are unknown in our colder climates.
A subject of conversation was therefore ready at hand. She inquiredtenderly after Madame de Montrevel's health, and that of her daughterand little Edouard. Then, the information given, she said: "My dearRoland, I must now pay attention to my other guests; but try to remainafter the other guests, or else let me see you alone to-morrow. I wantto talk to you about _him_" (she glanced at Bonaparte) "and have athousand things to tell you." Then, pressing the young man's hand with asigh, she added, "No matter what happens, you will never leave him, willyou?"
"What do you mean?" asked Roland, amazed.
"I know what I mean," said Josephine, "and when you have talked tenminutes with Bonaparte you will, I am sure, understand me. In themeantime watch, and listen, and keep silence."
Roland bowed and drew aside, resolved, as Josephine had advised, to playthe part of observer.
But what was there to observe? Three principal groups occupied thesalon. The first, gathered around Madame Bonaparte, the only womanpresent, was more a flux and reflux than a group. The second,surrounding Talma, was composed of Arnault, Parseval-Grandmaison, Monge,Berthollet, and two or three other members of the Institute. The third,which Bonaparte had just joined, counted in its circle Talleyrand,Barras, Lucien, Admiral Bruix, [Footnote: AUTHOR'S NOTE.--Not to beconfounded with Rear-Admiral de Brueys, who was killed at Aboukir,August 1, 1798. Admiral Bruix, the negotiator with Talleyrand ofthe 18th Brumaire, did not die until 1805.] Roederer, Regnaud deSaint-Jean-d'Angely, Fouche, Real, and two or three generals, among whomwas Lefebvre.
In the first group they talked of fashions, music, the theatre; in thesecond, literature, science, dramatic art; in the third, they talkedof everything except that which was uppermost in their minds. Doubtlessthis reserve was not in keeping with Bonaparte's own feeling at themoment; for after sharing in this commonplace conversation for a shorttime, he took the former bishop of Autun by the arm and led him into theembrasure of the window.
"Well?" he asked.
Talleyrand looked at Bonaparte with that air which belonged to no onebut him.
"What did I tell you of Sieyes, general?"
"You told me to secure the support of those who regarded the friends ofthe Republic as Jacobins, and to rely, upon it that Sieyes was at theirhead."
"I was not mistaken."
"Then he will yield?"
"Better, he has yielded."
"The man who wanted to shoot me at Frejus for having landed withoutbeing quarantined!"
"Oh, no; not for that."
"But what then?"
"For not having looked at him or spoken to him at Gohier's dinner."
"I must confess that I did it on purpose. I cannot endure that unfrockedmonk."
Bonaparte perceived, too late, that the speech he had just made waslike the sword of the archangel, double-edged; if Sieyes was unfrocked,Talleyrand was unmitred. He cast a rapid glance at his companion's face;the ex-bishop of Autun was smiling his sweetest smile.
"Then I can count upon him?"
"I will answer for him."
"And Cambaceres and Lebrun, have you seen them?"
"I took Sieyes in hand as the most recalcitrant. Bruix saw the othertwo."
The admiral, from the midst of the group, had never taken his eyes offof the general and the diplomatist. He suspected that their conversationhad a special importance. Bonaparte made him a sign to join them. A lessable man would have done so at once, but Bruix avoided such a mistake.He walked about the room with affected indifference, and then, as if hehad just perceived Talleyrand and Bonaparte talking together, he went upto them.
"Bruix is a very able man!" said Bonaparte, who judged men as much bylittle as by great things.
"And above all very cautious, general!" said Talleyrand.
"Yes. We will need a corkscrew to pull anything out of him."
"Oh, no; on the contrary, now that he has joined us, he, will broach thequestion frankly."
And, indeed, no sooner had Bruix joined them than he began in words asclear as they were concise: "I have seen them; they waver!"
"They waver! Cambaceres and Lebrun waver? Lebrun I can understand--asort of man of letters, a moderate, a Puritan; but Cambaceres--"
"But it is so."
"But didn't you tell them that I intended to make them each a consul?"
"I didn't get as far as that," replied Bruix, laughing.
"And why not?" inquired Bonaparte.
"Because this is the first word you have told me about your intentions,Citizen General."
"True," said Bonaparte, biting his lips.
"Am I to repair the omission?" asked Bruix.
"No, no," exclaimed Bonaparte hastily; "they might think I needed them.I won't have any quibbling. They must decide to-day without any otherconditions than those you have offered them; to-morrow it will be toolate. I feel strong enough to stand alone; and I now have Sieyes andBarras."
"Barras?" repeated the two negotiators astonished.
"Yes, Barras, who treated me like a little corporal, and wouldn't sendme back to Italy, because, he said, I had made my fortune there, and itwas useless to return. Well, Barras--"
"Barras?"
"Nothing." Then, changing his mind, "Faith! I may as well tell you. Doyou know what Barras said at dinner yesterday before me? That it wasimpossible to go on any longer with the Constitution of the year III. Headmitted the necessity of a dictatorship; said he had decided to abandonthe reins of government, and retire; adding that he himself was lookedupon as worn-out, and that the Republic needed new men. Now, guess towhom he thinks of transferring his power. I give it you, as Madamede Sevigne says, in a hundred, thousand, ten thousand. No other thanGeneral Hedouville, a worthy man, but I have only to look him in theface to make him lower his eyes. My glance must have been blasting!As the result, Barras came to my bedside at eight o'clock, to excusehimself as best he could for the nonsense he talked the night before,and admitted that I alone could save the Republic, and placed himselfat my disposal, to do what I wished, assume any role I might assign him,begging me to promise that if I had any plan in my head I would count onhim--yes, on him; and he would be true to the crack of doom."
"And yet," said Talleyrand, unable to resist a play upon words, "doom isnot a word with which to conjure liberty."
Bonaparte glanced at the ex-bishop.
"Yes, I know that Barras is your friend, the friend of Fouche and Real;but he is not mine, and I shall prove it to him. Go back to Lebrun andCambaceres, Bruix, and let them make their own bargain." Then, lookingat his watch and frowning, he added: "It seems to me that Moreau keepsus waiting."
So saying, he turned to the group which surrounded Talma. The twodiplomatists watched him. Then Admiral Bruix asked in a low voice:"What do you say, my dear Maurice, to such sentiments toward the man whopicked him out, a mere lieutenant, a
t the siege of Toulon, who trustedhim to defend the Convention on the 13th Vendemiaire, and who named him,when only twenty-six, General-in-Chief of the Army in Italy?"
"I say, my dear admiral," replied M. de Talleyrand, with his pallidmocking smile, "that some services are so great that ingratitude alonecan repay them."
At that moment the door opened and General Moreau was announced. At thisannouncement, which was more than a piece of news--it was a surpriseto most of those present--every eye was turned toward the door. Moreauappeared.
At this period three men were in the eyes of France. Moreau was one ofthese three men. The two others were Bonaparte and Pichegru. Each hadbecome a sort of symbol. Since the 18th Fructidor, Pichegru had becomethe symbol of monarchy; Moreau, since he had been christened Fabius,was the symbol of the Republic; Bonaparte, symbol of war, dominated themboth by the adventurous aspect of his genius.
Moreau was at that time in the full strength of his age; we wouldsay the full strength of his genius, if decision were not one of thecharacteristics of genius. But no one was ever more undecided than thefamous cunctator. He was thirty-six years old, tall, with a sweet, calm,firm countenance, and must have resembled Xenophon.
Bonaparte had never seen him, nor had he, on his side, ever seenBonaparte. While the one was battling on the Adige and the Mincio, theother fought beside the Danube and the Rhine. Bonaparte came forward togreet him, saying: "You are welcome, general!"
"General," replied Moreau, smiling courteously, while all present made acircle around them to see how this new Caesar would meet the new Pompey,"you come from Egypt, victorious, while I come, defeated, from Italy."
"A defeat which was not yours, and for which you are not responsible,general. It was Joubert's fault. If he had rejoined the Army of Italyas soon as he had been made commander-in-chief, it is more than probablethat the Russians and Austrians, with the troops they then had, couldnot have resisted him. But he remained in Paris for his honeymoon! PoorJoubert paid with his life for that fatal month which gave the enemytime to gather its reinforcements. The surrender of Mantua gave themfifteen thousand men on the eve of the battle. It was impossible thatour poor army should not have been overwhelmed by such united forces."
"Alas! yes," said Moreau; "it is always the greater number which defeatsthe smaller."
"A great truth, general," exclaimed Bonaparte; "an indisputable truth."
"And yet," said Arnault, joining in the conversation, "you yourself,general, have defeated large armies with little ones."
"If you were Marius, instead of the author of 'Marius,' you wouldnot say that, my dear poet. Even when I beat great armies with littleones--listen to this, you young men who obey to-day, and will commandto-morrow--it was always the larger number which defeated the lesser."
"I don't understand," said Arnault and Lefebvre together.
But Moreau made a sign with his head to show that he understood.Bonaparte continued: "Follow my theory, for it contains the whole artof war. When with lesser forces I faced a large army, I gathered minetogether, with great rapidity, fell like a thunderbolt on a wing of thegreat army, and overthrew it; then I profited by the disorder into whichthis manoeuvre never failed to throw the enemy to attack again, alwayswith my whole army, on the other side. I beat them, in this way, indetail; and the victory which resulted was always, as you see, thetriumph of the many over the few."
As the able general concluded his definition of his own genius, the dooropened and the servant announced that dinner was served.
"General," said Bonaparte, leading Moreau to Josephine, "take in mywife. Gentlemen, follow them."
On this invitation all present moved from the salon to the dining-room.
After dinner, on pretence of showing him a magnificent sabre he hadbrought from Egypt, Bonaparte took Moreau into his study. There the tworivals remained closeted more than an hour. What passed between them?What compact was signed? What promises were made? No one has ever known.Only, when Bonaparte returned to the salon alone, and Lucien asked him:"Well, what of Moreau?" he answered: "Just as I foresaw; he prefersmilitary power to political power. I have promised him the command ofan army." Bonaparte smiled as he pronounced these words; then added, "Inthe meantime--"
"In the meantime?" questioned Lucien.
"He will have that of the Luxembourg. I am not sorry to make himthe jailer of the Directors, before I make him the conqueror of theAustrians."
The next day the following appeared in the "Moniteur":
PARIS, 17th Brumaire. Bonaparte has presented Moreau with a magnificent Damascus sword set with precious stones which he brought from Egypt, the value of which is estimated at twelve thousand francs.