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39 - A Brief History of France From Caesars to Waterloo by Agnes Mary Frances Robinson · A Brief History of France From Caesars to Waterloo

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  Speaker 1: Section thirty nine of a short History of France by
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  Speaker 1: Mary Duclo. This librovox recording is in the public domain.
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  Speaker 1: Read by Pamelinagami, Part four, Chapter four, the Return of
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  Speaker 1: the Bourbon. Eight days after the departure of Napoleon for
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  Speaker 1: his microscopic Empire of Elba, the Count of Artois entered
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  Speaker 1: France at Nulcy as Lieutenant General of the Kingdom. The
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  Speaker 1: first of the royal princes to leave France, he was
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  Speaker 1: also the first to return. Though something of a fool
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  Speaker 1: and not over fond of risking his skin. Artois was
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  Speaker 1: every inter royal figure, handsome, elegant, generous. He was at
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  Speaker 1: once very religious and essentially frivolous, devout, noble, courteous. There
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  Speaker 1: was enough of the night about him to please the
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  Speaker 1: taste of a romantic age, and we are just coming
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  Speaker 1: to the Romantics. But fate was unkind to Artois in
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  Speaker 1: bringing him into power. He was cast by nature for
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  Speaker 1: the part of a pretender, and had not learned how
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  Speaker 1: to play the king. Chateau Brillon dubbed him the Christian Knight,
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  Speaker 1: and added, he has aged a good deal since I
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  Speaker 1: sketched him thus, but there is still a likeness. Poetic
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  Speaker 1: stories were rife concerning him. How for instance, on the
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  Speaker 1: death of Madame de Poulastran, he had sworn never to
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  Speaker 1: love another woman, and had kept his word. Mere Lothario
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  Speaker 1: as he had been until then, he was as full
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  Speaker 1: of prejudices and obstinacies and ignorances as a charming, narrow
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  Speaker 1: minded prince may be on the shady side of fifty.
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  Speaker 1: His brother was a very different person. The staunchest royalists
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  Speaker 1: quailed a little when they thought of Louis the eighteenth,
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  Speaker 1: entering critical and half disaffected Paris, as the successor of Napoleon.
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  Speaker 1: Artois had been first and foremost in all the Royalist interest.
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  Speaker 1: That at least you knew where you had him. There
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  Speaker 1: was something selfish and neutral about the skeptical Louis. Generally
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  Speaker 1: inclined like his brother, Louis says to think that in
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  Speaker 1: every question there was a great deal to be set
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  Speaker 1: on both sides, naturally liberal. The circumstances of his life
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  Speaker 1: in exile hunted from refuge to refuge, as the advance
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  Speaker 1: of Napoleon dislodged him from Poland, from Prussia, from Italy,
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  Speaker 1: and the haunting memory of his murdered kinsfolk had fostered
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  Speaker 1: in him incoherent rankers and sudden transitory rages, little less
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  Speaker 1: violent than his brother's convictions. Such explosions were rare. All
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  Speaker 1: these chances and changes had developed in Louis the eighteenth
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  Speaker 1: a certain moral indifference, a detachment from men and things,
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  Speaker 1: an absence of belief in anything, A disenchanted misanthropy natural
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  Speaker 1: under the circumstances, in a prince whose experience had been
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  Speaker 1: so cruel, and whose nature was shrewd wise delicate, intelligent
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  Speaker 1: but bitter and small, a quota of horace, a lover
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  Speaker 1: of letters, perhaps an author under the rose. This fastidious,
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  Speaker 1: gouty and indolent valetudinarian saw himself promoted to the stormiest
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  Speaker 1: throne in Europe. Louis the eighteenth accumulated in his person
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  Speaker 1: all sorts of reasons why Paris should dislike him. Some
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  Speaker 1: of the citizens could remember how Monsieur had solemnly sworn
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  Speaker 1: never to leave the kingdom in February seventeen ninety one,
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  Speaker 1: and had successfully decamped in June. The soldiers knew that
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  Speaker 1: he had fought with the Prussians at val Mii. He
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  Speaker 1: had more physical courage than his brother, when the first
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  Speaker 1: victory of the Republic had put him and his emigres
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  Speaker 1: to the route, and for years now he had lived
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  Speaker 1: in England, returning in the unpopular character of a country
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  Speaker 1: squire from Buckinghamshire, a gouty old anglais of sixty, impotent,
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  Speaker 1: enormous in bulk, his helpless legs wrapped to the knees
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  Speaker 1: in wadded gaiters. Ignorant of the recent growth of France.
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  Speaker 1: He was, however, dignified and liberal in mind. He had
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  Speaker 1: not lived so many years in England for nothing. His
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  Speaker 1: first act was to grant it charter, that is to say,
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  Speaker 1: a political constitution, which established in France the parliamentary system,
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  Speaker 1: insured the liberty of public worship, while declaring the Catholic
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  Speaker 1: Church the religion of the state, professed all men equal
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  Speaker 1: before the law, and the tax collector admitted in a
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  Speaker 1: certain degree the liberty of the press, confirmed the existence
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  Speaker 1: of Napoleon's new nobility, recognized all the debts of the state,
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  Speaker 1: whatever their origin, and guaranteed the holders of confiscated estates
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  Speaker 1: in the possession of their lands, by whomsoever forfeited. It
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  Speaker 1: was a charter informed with the spirit of eighty nine.
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  Speaker 1: But the king returned to France surrounded by a world
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  Speaker 1: of emegree who would die rather than countenance that spirit.
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  Speaker 1: Far more than the King, and even more than Artois,
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  Speaker 1: they had learned nothing and forgotten nothing. What were the
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  Speaker 1: feelings of the French when the Allies, with their triumphant
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  Speaker 1: armies escorted the Boupon to Paris. The prospect of peace,
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  Speaker 1: so long desired in Vain, made at the first blush
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  Speaker 1: any change appear acceptable. Twenty years of constant battle had
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  Speaker 1: exhausted the nation, and the last two wars Russia Spain
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  Speaker 1: had brought home to the people the terrible conviction that
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  Speaker 1: under Napoleon, peace would never be attained, since he would
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  Speaker 1: fight for the pleasure of it, for mere conquest and magnificence,
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  Speaker 1: in spite of the despair of his subjects. Doubtless, the
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  Speaker 1: first movement at the fall of Bonaparte was not unlike
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  Speaker 1: that which saluted the fall of Robespierre. There were those who,
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  Speaker 1: like Necaire's daughter Madame de Staal, said openly that the
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  Speaker 1: defeat of Bonaparte meant the happiness of France. But when
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  Speaker 1: the people of Paris saw the conquering armies, those armies
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  Speaker 1: they had been used to vanquish, marching proudly through their streets.
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  Speaker 1: There came a sudden revulsion of feeling listened to the same,
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  Speaker 1: Madame de Staal, When I saw Paris occupied by their
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  Speaker 1: foreign armies, ignorant of our language, our history are great men,
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  Speaker 1: and the Tartar sentries pacing in front of the Tuileries
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  Speaker 1: and the Louver, I felt a pain beyond endurance. Chateaubrion,
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  Speaker 1: another enemy of Bonaparte, who like Germenecier, had returned to Paris,
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  Speaker 1: and the train of the allies shall be our next
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  Speaker 1: witness my own. He says that I dreaded the first
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  Speaker 1: impression produced by the king. The impotent, old gentleman from Buckinghamshire,
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  Speaker 1: was so strange, an equivalent for the terrible, adored and
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  Speaker 1: dreaded Emperor. Yet above those swollen feet, those legs muffled
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  Speaker 1: in their ludicrous gaiters, all antique, above that huge belly,
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  Speaker 1: that on wheel deframe, there was a firm, pink face,
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  Speaker 1: not unhandsome, rather noble, an eye, witty and wise, an
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  Speaker 1: expression of unruffled majesty. Louis the eighteenth had no doubts
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  Speaker 1: as to his rights or his reception. He was merely
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  Speaker 1: the first monarch in Europe returning home. And this is
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  Speaker 1: what Chateaubriand saw at his entry. On the third of
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  Speaker 1: May eighteen fourteen, when the king went to Notre Dame
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  Speaker 1: to spare the sovereign the spectacle of a foreign army
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  Speaker 1: occupying his capital, the streets were lined with the soldiers
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  Speaker 1: of Napoleon's old guard, and they contemplated the man who
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  Speaker 1: had vanquished their emperor. I think I have never seen
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  Speaker 1: on any human visage and expression so threatening, so terrible
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  Speaker 1: as I saw on all of theirs. These grenadiers, the
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  Speaker 1: conquerors of Europe, covered with wounds, deprived of their leader,
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  Speaker 1: and forced to salute an old king invalided not by
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  Speaker 1: his victories but by his years under compulsion of the Russians,
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  Speaker 1: Austrians Prussians who occupied Napoleon's invaded capital, some of them
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  Speaker 1: frowning under their huge fur busbies till they masked their eyes,
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  Speaker 1: affected not to see their sovereign. Others drew down the
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  Speaker 1: corners of their mouth in the bitterest grimace of contempt
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  Speaker 1: and rage. And there were some who snarled like tigers,
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  Speaker 1: their teeth gleaming through their fierce mustaches. When the time
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  Speaker 1: came to present arms, their aspect was such as to
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  Speaker 1: make the mere spectator tremble. It was a strange Paris.
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  Speaker 1: White scarves and ribbons fluttered everywhere in the streets. The
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  Speaker 1: quaintly shabby figure of the emigres, hastening home from all
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  Speaker 1: the corners of Europe, greeted each other with a courtliness
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  Speaker 1: of phrase and a grace of gesture. Unknown to the
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  Speaker 1: magnificent barbarity of the Empire. The streets were full of Cossacks,
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  Speaker 1: Pomeranian grenadiers, and diplomatists from every court. There were as
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  Speaker 1: many sovereigns in Paris as during the palmy days of
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  Speaker 1: the Empire. But though Louis the eighteenth slept in the
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  Speaker 1: bed of Bonaparte, the real king of Paris was Alexander.
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  Speaker 1: The two monarchs were on less enthusiastic terms than France
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  Speaker 1: and Russia had been at Tilsit and at Rfort. The
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  Speaker 1: haughty calm of Louis displeased the young autocrat who had
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  Speaker 1: brought him back from exile. Thrones fall, republics are reversed,
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  Speaker 1: Emperors banished, kings come to their own again. The surface
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  Speaker 1: of French history appears a sequence of whirlpools, and yet
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  Speaker 1: life continues, and France has to be administered, and in
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  Speaker 1: fact is administered with a continuity of order, which at
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  Speaker 1: first sight appears miraculous. Behind the facade of sovereignty, which
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  Speaker 1: so often tumbles down and has hastily to be replaced
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  Speaker 1: in another style, there is a solid rock of building
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  Speaker 1: which contains the government offices. The King and Artois knew
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  Speaker 1: nothing of the needs and requirements of the France they
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  Speaker 1: revisited after a lapse of thirty years. Since their departure,
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  Speaker 1: the country had been subject to many affays of power,
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  Speaker 1: the Republic, the Reign of Terror, the Directory, the Consulate,
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  Speaker 1: the Empire, and had survived them all thanks to the
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  Speaker 1: admirable civil service working steadily in the background. Unfortunately, there
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  Speaker 1: still remained in France two ministers who had been through
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  Speaker 1: most of these administrations, men of great capacity, one of
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  Speaker 1: whom at least had the advantage of being personally known
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  Speaker 1: to the Allied sovereigns. These were Taleran and Fouchet. The
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  Speaker 1: King of France refused at first the services of Fouchet,
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  Speaker 1: who had voted the death of Louis Says, and was
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  Speaker 1: in part responsible for the massacre of the Royalists at
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  Speaker 1: Leon under the Terror, but he accepted the ministry of Taleran,
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  Speaker 1: a man of birth and breeding on whom b p
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  Speaker 1: This was the king's graceful fashion of alluding to his predecessor.
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  Speaker 1: Boona Parte had conferred no additional honor when he dubbed
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  Speaker 1: him Prince of Benevento. Taleran had been, for five and
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  Speaker 1: twenty years a moving force in French history. We saw
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  Speaker 1: him first on the Chan de Mars, when, as Bishop
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  Speaker 1: of Autin, he said the massive federation before the King
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  Speaker 1: and the assembled people. A little later he organized for
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  Speaker 1: the Constituent Assembly a scheme of popular education. Next, he
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  Speaker 1: was Danton's colleague and collaborator. Under Robespierre, he had fallen
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  Speaker 1: into disgrace, and no circumstance could better have favored his fortunes.
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  Speaker 1: In eighteen fourteen he had been a pillar of the Directory,
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  Speaker 1: and yet he had helped to overthrow it in order
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  Speaker 1: to establish the Consulate. In seventeen ninety seven, he was
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  Speaker 1: Bonaparte's councilor and confidante. Between them they arranged the invasion
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  Speaker 1: of Egypt, and throughout the first glorious years of empire
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  Speaker 1: Talerand had administered the conquests of Napoleon. Then came their
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  Speaker 1: quarrel in eighteen ten, and here was Taleran back again,
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  Speaker 1: and the emperor at Elba. Taleran had now in front
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  Speaker 1: of him the most difficult task of all his career.
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  Speaker 1: After a preliminary treaty at Paris, it was decided that
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  Speaker 1: the sovereigt Verans and statesmen of Europe should meet in
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  Speaker 1: congress at Vienna in order to divide among themselves the
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  Speaker 1: spoils of Napoleon's empire. The Allied armies, in their thousands,
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  Speaker 1: continued to occupy France, while the French continued to hold
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  Speaker 1: some fifty European citadels, including such strong places as Hamburg, Antwerp, Mantua,
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  Speaker 1: the fortresses of Belgium, the Rhine. In Piedmont there was
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  Speaker 1: still the magnificent remnant of the French army. It is
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  Speaker 1: just possible that the country might have made better terms
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  Speaker 1: than were offered for the Treaty of Paris, but France
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  Speaker 1: panted for peace with a sort of exasperation. The foreign
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  Speaker 1: armies were there in possession Cossacks, Russians, Austrians, Croats, Germans, Prussians, English,
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  Speaker 1: dangerous tenants, each with their wrongs to avenge. It was better,
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  Speaker 1: if possible, to remain with them on amicable terms. Besides,
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  Speaker 1: Talerand's manner was seldom the manier fote. He was yielding, insidious, perfidious,
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  Speaker 1: claiming nothing, yet little by little filching appropriating a great deal.
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  Speaker 1: Nothing could have been humbler than his advent at the
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  Speaker 1: Congress of Vienna. He was no longer the brilliant host,
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  Speaker 1: the great statesman of the Rue Saint Florentin, who had
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  Speaker 1: housed the Emperor Alexander as his guest. The objection of
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  Speaker 1: France was expressed in his very mien. He represented a
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  Speaker 1: sort of poor relation of the great powers whose bankruptcy
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  Speaker 1: was putting them to a great deal of trouble. Humble, serviceable,
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  Speaker 1: amiable Taleran was content with anything they offered. His great
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  Speaker 1: phrase was la France nis demandarien. In the ambassador saloon,
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  Speaker 1: the four great powers England, Austria, Russia Prussia confabulated apart
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  Speaker 1: by an insolent protocol. They had arranged that they alone
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  Speaker 1: should distribute the spoils of Napoleon, while France, so the
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  Speaker 1: speaker was left to wait outside in the hall, with Spain, Portugal, Sardinia, Naples,
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  Speaker 1: the Netherlands, Bavaria of Wootenberg, Saxony, Denmark and Sweden. In
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  Speaker 1: this humiliation, Taleran found his opportunity. He reverted to the
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  Speaker 1: classic policy of France, the policy of Richelia, which always
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  Speaker 1: has been to constitute the King of France the champion
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  Speaker 1: and elder brother of the smaller sovereigns. And as Richelia
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  Speaker 1: had opposed this following of small states to the mighty
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  Speaker 1: agglomerations of Austria and Spain, so Taleran intended to counterbalance
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  Speaker 1: the Foreign Council by a sort of league or entant
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  Speaker 1: of the lesser thrones, who on some country hillside has
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  Speaker 1: not seen the kestrel or the cuckoo put to flight
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  Speaker 1: by a flock of doves or swallows. True policy of
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  Speaker 1: France has always been to neutralize, ruin or disperse the
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  Speaker 1: great agglomerations in order to secure the advantage of the
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  Speaker 1: secondary powers. While Talieran consulted his companions in exclusion the
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  Speaker 1: Mighty Four, who thought to dispose of Europe at their
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  Speaker 1: own sweet will, found it increasingly difficult to agree among
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  Speaker 1: themselves a general conflagration appeared imminent. The King of Prussia
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  Speaker 1: wanted Saxony, which Russia was half inclined to let him
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  Speaker 1: have in exchange for his share of Poland. Austria meant
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  Speaker 1: at all costs to regain her Suzerainti in Italy. Toligran,
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  Speaker 1: as spokesman of the smaller powers, could not have cornered
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  Speaker 1: a united four. He found them almost the Daggers drawn
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  Speaker 1: and profited by the occasion to reintroduce France into the
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  Speaker 1: Upper Room on equal terms as a welcomed fifth welcome,
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  Speaker 1: that is, by two of the disputants. While he organized
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  Speaker 1: with a view to balancing the friendship between Russia and Prussia,
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  Speaker 1: a new and surprising entant between Austria, England and France.
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  Speaker 1: A war between the two leagues appeared close at hand. Bavaria,
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  Speaker 1: Wurttenberg and the Netherlands signified their adhesion to the Franco
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  Speaker 1: Austrian English alliance. The Coalition of the Forest destroyed, wrote
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  Speaker 1: Tolerant to Louis. The eighteenth France marches with two of
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  Speaker 1: the greatest powers in Europe, with three secondary states and
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  Speaker 1: others will join us. All those whose principles and maxims
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  Speaker 1: are opposed to the revolution. France is the soul and
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  Speaker 1: the leader of a union formed to put in practice
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  Speaker 1: the principles she has proclaimed. In fact, Toleran was radiant
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  Speaker 1: so far as that cold and distant face could reveal
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  Speaker 1: an emotion. But one evening in March, at a ball
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  Speaker 1: given by Metternich, he was seen to turn paler than ever.
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  Speaker 1: He had received news troublesome, distracting news. It was evident
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  Speaker 1: that the cards would have to be reshuffled. Indeed, when
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  Speaker 1: he had imparted this surprising message, there was an end
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  Speaker 1: of all the baiten rivalry between the powers, who, during
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  Speaker 1: six months had quarreled and bargained interminably. There was some
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  Speaker 1: question of war, indeed, but not war among themselves. The
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  Speaker 1: lion had got loose. Napoleon was in France. End of
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  Speaker 1: Section thirty nine