Part 1 (1/2)

Memoirs of the Court of St Cloud

by Lewis Goldsmith

SECRET COURT MEMOIRS

THE COURT OF ST CLOUD

INTRODUCTORY LETTER

PARIS, November 10th, 1805

MY LORD,--The Letters I have written to you were intended for the private entertaineneral perusal of a severe public Had I iined that their contents would have penetrated beyond your closet or the circle of your intimate acquaintance, several of the narratives would have been extended, while others would have been compressed; the anecdotes would have been more numerous, and my own remarks fewer; some portraits would have been left out, others drawn, and all better finished I should then have attempted more frequently to expose meanness to contempt, and treachery to abhorrence; should have lashed ible vice, and oftener held out to ridicule puerile vanity and outrageous ambition In short, I should then have studiedmyself seldomer to the reason than to the passions

I subscribe, nevertheless, to your observation, ”that the late long war and short peace, with the enslaved state of the Press on the Continent, would occasion a chas period of modern history, did not independent and judicious travellers or visitors abroad collect and forward to Great Britain (the last refuge of freedoh scanty and insufficient upon the whole, may, in part, rend the veil of destructive politics, and enable future ages to penetrate into mysteries which crime in power has interest to render impenetrable to the just reprobation of honour and of virtue” If, therefore, my humble labours can preserve loyal subjects frons and civilized society of the alarainst them, I shall not think either ers to which publicity lican author Before the Letters are sent to the press I trust, however, to your discretion the reht produce a discovery, or indicate the source froh it is not usual in private correspondence to quote authorities, I have sometimes done so; but satisfied, as I hope you are, with ht the frequent productions of any better pledge than the word of a s I have, besides, not related a fact that is not recent and well known in our fashi+onable and political societies; and of ALL the portraits I have delineated, the originals not only exist, but are yet occupied in the present busy scene of the Continent, and figuring either at Courts, in caust, 1805

MY LORD:--I promised you not to pronounce in haste on persons and events passing under my eyes; thirty-one months have quickly passed away since I became an attentive spectator of the extraordinary transactions, and of the extraordinary characters of the extraordinary Court and Cabinet of St Cloud If my talents to delineate equal my zeal to inquire and my industry to exaable observer, you will be satisfied, and with your approbation at once sanction and reward my labours

Withfavourite have greater influence than the profound statesman and subtle Minister; and the determinations of Cabinets are, therefore, frequently prepared in drawing-rooms, and discussed in the closet The politician and the counsellor are frequently applauded or censured for transactions which the intrigues of antechaave power to proined, but falsely, that Napoleon Bonaparte governs, or rather tyrannizes, by hi to his own capacity, caprices, or interest; that all his acts, all his changes, are the sole consequence of his own exclusive, unprejudiced will, as well as unlireatness and his littleness, his successes and his criinate entirely with himself; that the fortunate hero who marched triuraced human nature at Jaffa, because the same person, owed victory to himself alone, and by hienius, unbiased and unsupported, crushed factions, erected a throne, and reconstructed racks; that the same mind restored and protected Christianity, and proscribed and assassinated a D'Enghien

All these contradictions, all these virtues and vices, may be found in the same person; but Bonaparte, individually or isolated, has no claim to them Except on some sudden occasions that call for in rules less by hin is more surrounded by favourites and counsellors, by needy adventurers and crafty intriguers

What Sovereign has more relatives to enrich, or services to recompense; ers to fear, more clamours to silence; or stands more in need of inforoverns eo coo was only a military chieftain The difference is as immense, indeed, between the sceptre of a Monarch and the sword of a general, as between the wise legislator who protects the lives and property of his conteh rivers of blood to obtain plunder at the expense and enerations The lower classes of all countries have produced persons who have distinguished themselves as warriors; but what subject has yet usurped a throne, and by his e on the laws and liberties of his country, proved hin? Besides, the education which Bonaparte received was entirely military; and aor excellent) who, during the first thirty years of his life, has made either military or political tactics or exploits his only study, certainly cannot excel equally in the Cabinet and in the camp It would be as foolish to believe, as absurd to expect, a perfection almost beyond the reach of any man; and of Bonaparte more than of any one else A man who, like him, is the continual slave of his own passions, can neither be a good nor a just, an independent nor i the courtiers who, ever since Bonaparte was reat ascendency over hieneral of division, Duroc With so man is destined by his master to occupy the most confidential places near his person; and to his care are entrusted the n Courts When he is absent froer; and when in the Tuileries, or at St Cloud, Bonaparte thinks himself always safe

Gerard Christophe Michel Duroc was born at Ponta-Mousson, in the department of Meurthe, on the 25th of October, 1772, of poor but honest parents His father kept a petty chandler's shop; but by the interest and generosity of Abbe Duroc, a distant relation, he was so well educated that, in March, 1792, he became a sub-lieutenant of the artillery In 1796 he served in Italy, as a captain, under General Andreossy, by whom he was recommended to General l'Espinasse, then commander of the artillery of the army of Italy, who made him an aide-de-camp In that situation Bonaparte remarked his activity, and was pleased with his manners, and therefore attached him as an aide-de-camp to himself Duroc soon becaues of his rivals, he has continued to be so to this day

It has been asserted, by his eneeneral's orders, by an unresisting co, without hesitation, the most cruel mandates of his superior, he has fixed hiood opinion that he is irremovable It has also been stated that it was Duroc who co alive of the wounded French soldiers in Italy, in 1797; and that it was he who inspected their poisoning in Syria, in 1799, where he ounded during the siege of St Jean d' Acre He was a the few officers whom Bonaparte selected for his coypt, and landed with him in France in October, 1799

Hitherto Duroc had only shown himself as a brave soldier and obedient officer; but after the revolution which made Bonaparte a First Consul, he entered upon another career He was then, for the first time, employed in a diplomatic mission to Berlin, where he so far insinuated hiraces of their Prussian Majesties that the King admitted him to the royal table, and on the parade at Potsdaenerals and officers as an aide-de-caave him a scarf knitted by her own fair hands

The fortunate result of Duroc's intrigues in Prussia, in 1799, encouraged Bonaparte to despatch him, in 1801, to Russia; where Alexander I

received hireat and good Prince He succeeded at St Petersburg in arranging the political and coreements between France and Russia; but his proposal for a defensive alliance was declined

An anecdote is related of his political can in the North, upon the barren banks of the Neva, which, in causing much entertainment to the inhabitants of the fertile banks of the Seine, has not a little displeased the ents sent to cajole Paul I during the latter part of his reign, was a Madame Bonoeil, whose real name is De F-----

When this unfortunate Prince was no uers in Russia thought it necessary to shi+ft their quarters, and to expect, on the territory of neutral Prussia, farther instructions from Paris, where and how to proceed Mada In the second week of May, 1801, when Duroc passed through that town for St Petersburg, he visited this lady, according to the orders of Bonaparte, and obtained from her a list of the names of the principal persons ere inclined to be serviceable to France, and ht be trusted by him upon the present occasion By inattention or mistake she had misspelled the name of one of the most trusty and active adherents of Bonaparte; and Duroc, therefore, instead of addressing himself to the Polish Count de S--------lz, went to the Polish Count de S-----tz This latter was asan aide-de-camp and envoy of the First Consul of France enter his aparta the object of this visit, began to think either the envoy , however, that money would be of little consideration, if the point desired by the First Consul could be carried, he detere of this fortunate hit, and invited Duroc to sup with hi; when he promised him he should meet with persons who could do his business, provided his pecuniary resources were as ample as he had stated