Germaine de Staël

MOTHER AND DAUGHTER

AND so when, a little later, she heard that a plot was being formed to assassinate Napoleon in Elba, she offered to go herself to that island to warn the victim.  But the news of his return from Elba struck her nevertheless with panic.  “I felt,” she wrote, “that the ground was opening under my feet.”¹  Someone tried to reassure her.  “He’ll arrive,” she cried.  “He’ll be here in a day or two, I’ve got no illusions.”  She added, as she ordered the berline :  “He hates me.  In me, too, he hates my father, my friends, all our views, the spirit of 1789, the Charter, the liberty of France.”²

She went to the Tuileries and bade the King farewell.  She looked ill with misery and was speechless.  At midnight on March 9, 1815, she drove out of Paris.  Her thoughts turned again to Benjamin, who had just published a violent denunciation of Napoleon, and she wrote, in her carriage, to Juliette :

“ Do me a favour ;  make Benjamin Constant go away.  I feel the greatest anxiety about him after what he has written.  The road on which I’m travelling is perfectly safe.  Nothing ought to keep him in Paris.  Ah !  if you would only rejoin me on the shores of the lake. . . . Ah ! what sorrow.”

She need not have worried.  Napoleon had heard about her offer to go to Elba ;  and in any case he was concerned no longer to ruin the world for France.  That hope, as he very well knew and said, was extinguished for ever.

“I’ve been wrong,” he said to his brother Lucien ;  “ Madame de Staël has made me more enemies in her exile than she would have made if she had stayed in France.”³

He told Fouché to write to her, and a courier came to Coppet with this letter :⁴

“ It gives me great pleasure to tell you that the Emperor has shown interest in the condition of your affairs and in the delicate position in which Mademoiselle de Staël finds herself.  I’ve just got back from the Council of Ministers.  I’ve only just got time to offer you my homage and to tell you that I’ll be very glad when the day comes on which I can contribute to hasten the conclusion of the marriage of your dear daughter.  I can well understand the impatience of the young man who has had the happiness to win her hand.  Believe, Madame, that I hold you in my memory.  It is not only your mind which attaches me to you but your excellent heart.”

So Napoleon was offering to pay the £100,000 !  He, at any rate, understood her importance.  Her heart warmed to him ;  they were necessary, it seemed, to each other’s greatness.  But did he mean what he said ?  “ When the Devil was sick. . .”  She wrote to her old friend Joseph Bonaparte for confirmation.  He replied :

“ Paris, April 5, 1815.

“ Madame, I’ve received your letter of March 30.  I’ll be delighted to do all I can to obtain for you the justice which you ask for ;  feeling is very friendly towards you, and I have no doubt that I shall succeed.  Just now we are much occupied with the great questions of internal solidarity on which depend the interests and the relations of France with foreign powers.  France is to-day one with the Emperor ;  he wants to give her more liberty even than you have wished for her ;  his feelings and his views are in accord with his words and with the wishes of men of good sense.  These men of good sense seem to me, to-day, to be all Frenchmen.  Never, not even in ’89, has there been such an unanimity of opinion and of movement towards a stable and reasonable state of public affairs.  I see you are happy where you are and I hope you will be happy everywhere.  Your feelings, your views can be freely expressed to-day ;  they are those of the whole nation and I am much mistaken if the Emperor will not prove greater in this new phase of his life than he has ever been, greater indeed than any other prince whose virtues and moderation historians have held up to honour.  Those who attack him will find a Hercules. . . If he is left in peace he will be the happiness of France and will contribute powerfully to that of Europe.

“ You can’t be insensible to anything that is great and generous ;  I shall, therefore, be delighted at the fresh titles you will acquire to spread abroad the doctrines of eternal truth which have brought such great honour to you.  No doubt it will please you to know that I heard the Emperor say, when he abolished the Censorship :

“ ‘ There is nothing against Madame de Staël’s last book (on Germany) which the censors made me ban.  I read it at Elba.  There isn’t a thought in it which should be suppressed.  I want no more censorship.  Let people say what they think, and think what they choose.’

“ I beg you to count on me, . . . I assure you that your personal affairs are being dealt with.  Farewell.”

She had no difficulty in believing this old friend.  She knew that Napoleon had summoned Benjamin and asked for his help in drafting a Constitution.  That Constitution was called officially the “Additional Act,” popularly it was known as “Le benjamin.”  She replied to Joseph :⁵

“ The additional articles are all that France needs, only what France needs, and not more than France needs.  Your brother’s return is prodigious and baffles all imagining.  I recommend my son to you.”

She wrote to Benjamin to tell him that his Constitution pleased her and to urge him to use his new position of influence to obtain her £100,000.  This matter was of very great importance because the money was needed urgently for Albertine’s dot.  As she had already informed Meister :⁶

“ If the King had not had the goodness to promise two-thirds of my father’s deposit (without interest) this marriage must have been a very difficult one to arrange, for the Duc de Broglie has every good quality except a fortune.”

She grew more and more uneasy.  Did Napoleon mean to pay ?  Would Benjamin help ?  In any case, was the Emperor’s position really strong ?  She had just had a letter from Talleyrand, from Vienna, where the Allied Sovereigns, in council, had declared Napoleon the enemy of the human race and had sworn to wage eternal war against him.  Talleyrand wrote :⁷

“ Ignorant as I am of your whereabouts and your views, I’ll write only four words.  I want Benjamin Constant to come here of his own will.  Bring him to that way of thinking and tell him that I’m not the only person here who wants him.  To some extent I write on behalf of those who signed the declaration of March 13 (against Napoleon).

“ Tell me about your daughter’s affairs.

“ Farewell.  Send me a letter by the hand of the Austrian agent. . . . A thousand tender regards.”

This letter made her still more uneasy about Napoleon’s position.  She began to think that, after all, Louis XVIII might come back, and wrote to his Minister, the Comte de Blacas :⁸

Coppet, April 17, 1815.

“. . . Lucien (Bonaparte) doesn’t wish to accept the position of a French prince until after the Constitution has been made.  He has come to stay very near here and his conversation is very amusing, but I can’t any longer enjoy even mental exercise. . . . Do please lay my regards at the feet of the King.  All that remains in France now is love for him but a great hatred also against the foreigners.”

Meanwhile she had been invited from Paris to write a letter to some friend in England which could be placed in the American Minister’s wallet⁹ and brought ultimately, in the most artless way, to the notice of her old friends the Prince Regent and his Ministers.  On April 23 she produced this document.  It proclaimed Napoleon’s pacific intentions, declared that his army, purged of traitors, was now very formidable and promised that if England abstained from war France would give no occasion of anxiety.  This precious mixture of threats and cajolery, which affected to give an accurate picture of the state of France, ended with an appeal to the Prince Regent :

“ The Prince Regent can prevent all these calamities.  Oh, how great, how magnanimous he will be if he acts as mediator and uses his name, his strength, his glory to say to all nations :  ‘ I want peace and you will remain in peace.’ ”

The Prince Regent was asked, further, if he wished the Emperor of Russia to play again the part of “the Agamemnon, the King of Kings,” as in the previous year, and urged to replace the “vanity” of Alexander by his own wisdom in making himself the “God of the peace.”  Napoleon, it was stated finally, was more anxious for peace even than his army, which burned to be avenged.  It was a handsome tribute, but its value as proof of its author’s patriotism is diminished by the letter she wrote to Talleyrand two days later :¹⁰

“ I’ve been greatly moved that you should have written to me in my retreat.  You ask me what I think ?  Can you doubt ?  Had you been in Paris you would have said effectively what I keep saying in vain :  ‘ Your Congress has done us harm ;  you’ve obeyed your instructions with plenty of cleverness but these instructions have wrought our ruin.’  There was only one thing that mattered—namely, Elba.  All the rest was merely yesterday’s bother.  But we were so happy, they were all so kind, so just.  Such a year can never be forgotten ;  if any hope still exists it is that that time will remain enshrined in the hearts of all honest Frenchmen.  How difficult your position is now !  The nation loves the King, but it hates the foreigners.  How can you present him as a mediator¹¹ when he has the air of making an appeal (to foreigners) ?  Work on that, for there lies the difficulty.  Lucien is staying three miles from here.  He’s been to the gates of Paris, but not having got the guarantees he wants, he waits at the frontier to find out what the position of a French prince will be under the new Constitution. . . .¹²  Joseph has informed me that his brother is very much pleased that I wrote nothing against him during his time of misfortune and that he invites me to come to Paris.  He writes :  ‘ In the Constitution that is suggested there will be more liberty than even you wish.’  I await this superfluity ;  that’s very necessary.  My Benjamin is in Paris and has seen The Man twice.  For all you say, he (i.e. Napoleon) is the more formidable in that he possesses inconceivable faculties.  I’m sending your offers on to Benjamin :  I’d accept them with all my heart if I was in his place.  But I don’t budge from here.  Some day I’ll begin my tour of Europe again, but before that I’ve got to know what I’m going to do with my daughter.  Is it not a singular mishap that HE should appear exactly four days before I was due to be paid.  M. de Broglie has little or no fortune and mine is so much reduced by all that has happened that I don’t know whether or not I ought to break off the marriage.¹³  I’ll decide one way or the other when I know further from my son, who is collecting all he can of what remains to me in France.

“ Don’t hide from yourself that in the army there’s a terrible impulsion (towards Napoleon) and that the inhabitants of the northern departments share it.  I’m not sure that a Continental blockade of France might not serve better than an attack.  In short, you should judge everything in the light of your experience of the past and by means of your own excellent acumen ;  for you mustn’t be led away by the illusions of the emigrées.  Courage meanwhile from the feeling of righteousness and divine approval !  All the art, all the power of evil is in HIM ;  but there’s a supernatural cleverness in a good conscience.  Your enlightened mind is, meanwhile, in the right place.  At this moment it is you who have in your hands the issues for us and for our children.  I hope to see you again soon.  Until then I beg of you a few lines to tell me what you are doing. . . . ”

Five days later, on the 30th, she wrote to Benjamin :

“ It’s left to you to persuade the Emperor that I’m a person whose gratitude is stronger than her memory.”

On May 4 she wrote to Bernadotte :¹⁴

“ Monseigneur,

“ Lucien has received this evening a courier from Prince Joseph urging him to return to Paris, and, because he is satisfied with the terms of the Constitution, he has agreed to go.  But it seems that, in Paris, the Jacobin party is in full cry against the hereditary chamber and does not wish to agree to it.  The Emperor, in consequence, speaks of convoking the old Corps legislatif, which leads back at once to the old despotic Imperial Constitution.  There is undoubtedly, according to all I have learned from the Princes,¹⁵ a great eagerness to stand firm and repulse the foreigners ;  but it doesn’t seem to me that the Emperor is as strong as he was in the country itself.  Your name has been mentioned in the Journal de Paris with the suggestion that the Emperor of Russia wishes to see you at the head of affairs in France.  Others think of the Duc d’Orleans, others still of a Republic.  In short, it’s rather by the memory of the past than by the present state of affairs that one forms ideas about the stability of existing institutions . . . I’d give a great deal, Monseigneur, to know what part your Royal Highness thinks of taking.  If you come into the Low Countries I’ll certainly come and see you.  Louis XVIII has left behind him regrets rather than a party.¹⁶  Meanwhile his name . . . still possesses influence.  There’s no trace of insurrection in the Midi but it’s from that quarter that the foreigners will be most clearly seen. . . .”

She had exhausted all the “possibles”—Napoleon, Louis XVIII, Bernadotte—and put herself right at the same time with Talleyrand.  What more could a woman do for her daughter ?  Meanwhile Benjamin’s reply came to hand :  “On dit que le Duc de Broglie pense à votre fille.”  And he was Albertine’s father !  She thought of all the money she had lent him¹⁷ and the large salary he was now receiving from Napoleon as a Councillor of State and, on May 25, wrote to him :

“ What a man, who, being to-day in fortunate circumstances . . . does not try to be useful to my daughter !  What a man, who injures as greatly the child as he has injured the mother !  What a man !  Imagination chills with horror at this revelation. . . . However, all is over between you and me, between you and Albertine, between you and anyone capable of decent feeling.  In future I shall deal with you only through my lawyers.”¹⁸

She wrote again on May 28 :

“ It’s worthy of you !  To threaten a woman with the publication of intimate letters which may compromise her and her family !  And for the purpose of avoiding payment of money he owes her !  You owe me £4000. . . . If I should die of grief to-morrow that would upset you much less than if you had to pay your debts. . . . You say you wanted to break with me and that I held you by . . . money.  I believe it’s true ;¹⁹ but it’s vile to say it. . . The horror of the memory of my youth, devastated by your frightful temper ! ”

She felt sure now that Napoleon had no intention of paying ;  Benjamin’s letters were proof enough of that.  She felt, too, more and more doubtful about the Emperor’s chances.  So on June 8 she wrote once more to Alexander of Russia :²⁰

“ Everything, sire, points to the need which exists that you should begin your work again.  In your name, be ever yourself.  That’s my only prayer.”

She called Napoleon “the Man we loathe.”  Four days later she wrote again to Benjamin :

“ You’re the bitterest and most coarse-minded man in the world.  You say that for six thousand years women have abused men for not loving them. . . You say that there was a time when my sadness made more impression on you.  Did it prevent you marrying when you had made me a promise of marriage ?  There’s no place in my heart which your continuing hate has not desolated.  I tried to find refuge in the past ;  you thought it necessary to tell my daughter and me that you had never loved any woman ! ”

Within a week Waterloo had been fought.

¹ Considerations, Part V, p. 143.

² Villemain :  Souvenirs, Vol. II.

³ Jung :  Lucien Bonaparte et ses Mémoires, Vol. III.

⁴ Quoted by Paul Gautier, Madame de Staël et Napoléon, p. 372, from the Archives de Broglie.

⁵ Sismonde de Sismondi :  Examen de la Constitution Française. Gautier :  Madame de Staël et Napoléon, p. 381.

⁶ Madame de Staël à Henri Meister, p. 231.

⁷ Gautier, Madame de Staël et Napoléon, p. 383, from the Archives de Broglie.

⁸ Madame de Staël et Maurice O’Donnell, p. 328.  Taken from the Archives of the foreign office at Vienna.

⁹ The American Minister’s name was Crawfurd.  The letter is given in the Letters and Dispatches of Lord Castlereagh, Vol. 2, p. 336.  Its authenticity has been denied.  But see the conclusive arguments in favour of its authenticity in Madame de Staël et Napoldon, by Gautier, p. 387.

¹⁰ Madame de Staël et Maurice O’Donnell, p. 329. M. Mistler has performed a real service in unearthing this letter from the Foreign Office in Vienna.

¹¹ It is interesting to note that this word mediator (médiateur) appears also in the letter carried by Crawfurd.  The Prince Regent, according to the letter in Crawfurd’s post-bag, was to be the mediator.  The idea that mediation between France and the Allies was necessary was uppermost in Madame de Staël’s mind.

¹² Lucien Bonaparte had early removed himself from his brother’s jurisdiction.  They quarrelled over Lucien’s second marriage, and Lucien refused, at Napoleon’s dictation, to divorce his wife.  Lucien at last took ship for America, but fell into English hands and spent the years of his brother’s greatness in an easy captivity.  He was shy of putting himself in Napoleon’s power even in 1815.

¹³ Madame de Staël, like most very rich people, was apt to minimise her wealth.  She had £150,000 in American real estate.  See Madame de Staël and the United States, R.L. Hawkins.  This was a prodigious fortune at that period.

¹⁴ Madame de Staël et Maurice O’Donnell, p. 331.

¹⁵ Princes, i.e. Joseph and Lucien.

¹⁶ Compare this with the statements to Blacas, Louis XVIII’s Minister.

¹⁷ Adolphe Strodtmann :  Profils et Poètes et caractères de la littérature étrangère, Vol. II.

¹⁸ The lawyers agreed that Benjamin was in the right, and Madame de Staël, angry no longer, assured Benjamin :  “Your justification is perfect.  There is no possibility of asking you legally.  Do not think any more of what is in question between us.”  After her death her family praised Benjamin’s behaviour.

¹⁹ Many of her other lovers had been held in the same way.

²⁰ Quoted by Gautier (Madame de Staël et Napoléon, p. 390).