NAPOLEON’S FIRST MARRIAGE.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5034, 12 May 1877, Page 3

NAPOLEON’S FIRST MARRIAGE.

{Church Quarterly Review.)

The Directory was established. It had now to reward its champion. Barras, having become chief of the Directors, resigned his military appointment—the command of the Army of the Interior, as it was called—and procured it for his recent coadjutor. But such a post, which must either keep him out of actual warfare or confine his energies to civil contests, if any more should arise, was far from satisfying the ambition of Buonaparte. It was equally far from meeting the requirements of the State. The Republic was at war on all sides—in Germany, in Spain, and in Italy. In the other quarters it had not been unsuccessful; but in the north of Italy a series of disasters had befallen its arms, and the feeling of dissatisfaction with its general, Schdrer, was universal. A change was evidently required there ; and Buonaparte, who was perhaps alone in his perception how grand a field for exertion and distinction was open in that country, conceived an earnest desire to obtain the command, for which the experience of the state and character of the adjacent districts, which he had acquired while serving in the Alps, was some recommendation. And while his mind was full of this hope, chance threw him in the way of a lady who had great influence with Barras. Among the victims of the “ Terror” had been a General Beauharnais. He had left a widow and two children ; and, while Buonaparte was General of the Army of the Interior, his son, a fine boy of twelve years old, came to him one day to beg that his father’s sword might be, returned to him. Buonaparte complied with the request, the very character of which commended it to his favor, and spoke to the child with such encouraging kindness that his mother visited him a few days afterwards to thank him for his notice of her boy. Madame Beauharnais was handsome and pre-eminently graceful and attractive. She had shared her husband’s prison, but had been released at the fall of Robespierre ; since which event she had been on terms of the closest intimacy with Barras. Her graces now made a deep impression on the young general, whose previous circumstances had not thrown him much into the society of ladies of high-breeding. After a short acquaintance he sought her in marriage. She hesitated. Some of those who envied him had fixed on him the nickname of the General Venddmiaire ; as if the only triumphs which he was qualified to gain were over citizen soldiers. And there were not wanting friends of her own to ridicule his somewhat wild appearance ; his meagre face, and long hair hanging down on his shoulders; and, what was a greater objection still, his evident poverty. But she, too, was ambitious; he had an enthusiastic way of talking which persuaded her that he was capable of great deeds; and Barras promised her that, if she would consent to marry him, he would procure for him as her husband the command of the army of Italy. His argument prevailed; the lady consented; the Director kept his promise; the marriage took place on March 9, 1796; and, two days afterwards, the young commander-in-chief quitted his bride's arms to commence a campaign which was to lead to the attainment of a loftier destiny than either of them had as yet ventured to expect.