Letter from Napoleon.
"In whatever circumstances fortune may place you, you well know, my dear friend, that you can never have a better friend, one to whom you will be more dear, and who desires more sincerely your happiness. Life is but a transient dream, which is soon dissipated. If you go away, to be absent any length of time, send me your portrait. We have lived so much together, so closely united, that our hearts are blended. I feel, in tracing these lines, emotions which I have seldom experienced; I feel that it will be a long time before we shall meet again, and I can not continue my letter."
Again Napoleon writes on the 12th of August: "As for me, but little attached to life, I contemplate it without much anxiety, finding myself constantly in the mood of mind in which one finds himself on the eve of battle, convinced that when death comes in the midst to terminate all things, it is folly to indulge in solicitude."
In these letters we see gradually developed the supremacy of the mind of Napoleon, and that soon, almost instinctively, he is recognized as the head of the family. On the 6th of September he writes from Paris:
Louis Bonaparte.
"I am very well pleased with Louis.2 He responds to my hopes, and to the expectations which I had formed for him. He is a fine fellow; ardor, vivacity, health, talent, exactness in business, kindness, he unites every thing. You know, my friend, that I live for the benefits which I can confer upon my family. If my hopes are favored by that good-fortune which has never abandoned my enterprises, I shall be able to render you happy, and to fulfill your desires. I feel keenly the absence of Louis. He was of great service to me. Never was a man more active, more skillful, more winning. He could do at Paris whatever he wished."
Louis Napoleon.
Anecdote.
None of the members of the Bonaparte family were ever ashamed to remind themselves of the days of their comparative poverty and obscurity. "One day," writes Louis Napoleon, now Napoleon III., "Joseph related that his brother Louis, for whom he had felt, from his infancy, all the cares and tenderness of a father, was about to leave Marseilles to go to school in Paris. Joseph accompanied him to the diligence. Just before the diligence started he perceived that it was quite cold, and that Louis had no overcoat. Not having then the means to purchase him one, and not wishing to expose his brother to the severity of the weather, he took off his own cloak and wrapped it around Louis. This action, which they mutually recalled when they were kings, had always remained engraved in the hearts of them both, as a tender souvenir of their constant intimacy."3
Marriage of Napoleon.
On the 6th of March, 1796, Napoleon was married to Josephine Beauharnais. "Thus vanished," writes Joseph Bonaparte, "the hope which my wife and I had cherished, for several years, of seeing her younger sister Eugenie united in marriage with my brother Napoleon. Time and separation disposed of the event otherwise."
Carnot.
A few days after Napoleon's marriage he took command of the Army of Italy, and hastened across the Alps to the scene of conflict. After the victory of Mondovi, Napoleon, cherishing the hope of detaching the Italians from the Austrians, sent Joseph to Paris to urge upon the Directory the importance of making peace with the Court of Turin. General Junot accompanied Joseph, to present to the Directory the flags captured from the enemy. The astonishing victories which Napoleon had gained excited boundless enthusiasm in Paris. Carnot, one of the Directors, gave a brilliant entertainment in honor of the two ambassadors, Joseph and Junot. During the dinner he opened his waistcoat and showed the portrait of Napoleon, which was suspended near his heart. Turning to Joseph, he said,
"Say to your brother that I wear his miniature there, because I foresee that he will be the saviour of France. To accomplish this, it is necessary that he should know that there is no one in the Directory who is not his admirer and his friend."
Joseph an Ambassador.
The measures which Napoleon had suggested were most cordially approved by all the members of the Government. One of the most important members of the Cabinet proposed that Joseph Bonaparte should immediately, upon the ratification of peace, be appointed ambassador of the French Republic to the Court of Turin. Joseph, with characteristic modesty, replied, that though he was desirous of entering upon a diplomatic career, he did not feel qualified to assume at once so important a post. He was however prevailed upon to enter upon the office.
From this mission, so successfully accomplished, Joseph returned to his brother, and joined him at his head-quarters in Milan. Napoleon pressed forward in his triumphant career, drove the Austrians out of Italy, and soon effected peace with Naples and with Rome.
Reconquest of Corsica.
Having accomplished these results, Napoleon immediately fitted out an expedition for the reconquest of Corsica, his native island, which the British fleet still held. The expedition was placed under the command of General Gentili. The troops sailed from Leghorn, and disembarked at Bastia. Joseph accompanied them. Immediately upon landing, the Corsicans generally rose and joined their deliverers, and the English retired in haste from the island. Joseph gives the following account of his return to his parental home:
Reception in Corsica.
"I was received by the great majority of the population at the distance of a league from Ajaccio. I took up my residence in the mansion of Ornano, where I resided for several weeks, until our parental homestead, which had been devastated, was sufficiently repaired to be occupied. I could not detect the slightest trace of any unfriendly feelings toward our family. All the inhabitants, without any exception, hastened to greet me. In my turn, I reorganized the government without consulting any other voice than the public good. A commissioner from the Directory soon arrived, and he sanctioned, without any exception, all the measures which I had adopted.
Return to the Continent.
"Having thus fulfilled, according to my best judgment, the mission which fraternal kindness had intrusted to me, and leaving our native island tranquil and happy in finding itself again restored to the laws of France, I prepared to return to the Continent, having made a sojourn in Corsica of three months."
Joseph at Parma.
On the 27th of March, 1797, Joseph was appointed ambassador to the Court of Parma. He presented to the duke credentials from the Directory of the French Republic, containing the following sentiments:
"The desire which we have to maintain and to cherish the friendship and the kind relations happily established between the French Republic and the Duchy of Parma, has induced us to appoint Citizen Bonaparte to reside at the Court of your Royal Highness in quality of ambassador. The knowledge which we have of his principles and his sentiments is to us a sure guarantee that the choice which we have made of his person to fulfill that honorable mission will be agreeable to you, and we are well persuaded that he will do every thing in his power to justify the confidence we have placed in him. It is in that persuasion that we pray your Royal Highness to repose entire faith in every thing which he may say in our behalf, and particularly whenever he may renew the assurance of the friendship with which we cherish your Royal Highness."
The Duke and Duchess.
Anecdote.
The Duke of Parma had married an Austrian duchess, sister of Maria Antoinette. She was an energetic woman, and in conjunction with the ecclesiastics, who crowded the palace, had great control over her husband. But the spirit of the French Revolution already pervaded many minds in Parma. Not a few were restive under the old feudal domination of the duke and the arrogance of the Church. One day Joseph was walking through the gardens of the ducal palace with several of the dignitaries of the Court. He spoke with admiration of the architectural grandeur and symmetry of the regal mansion.