NAPOLEON AS LOVER

Wairarapa Times-Age, 21 April 1938, Page 12

NAPOLEON AS LOVER

1 DISCLOSURES IN BERTHIER LETTERS DELICATE MISSION RECALLED Another glimpse of Napoleon as the impetuous and impatient lover has been given by Southerby’s, writes A. Carter in the “Daily Telegraph,” 'and “Morning Post.” The letters brought £2469. Historians know that Louis Alexandre Berthier, afterwards Prince of Wagram. Sovereign Prince of Neufchatel, and Marshal of the French Empire was not only Napoleon’s incomparable Chief of Staff, but also his trusted envoy to the Court of Vienna in 1810 on the mission to make the “demande solenelle” for the hand of Marie Louise. Berthier, moreover, was charged with carrying out the multifarious detailed orders for his Imperial master. These covered every duty connected with the marriage by proxy at Vienna on March 10, 1810, the wedding presents, and the ceremonial receptions—even to the choice of bouquets—given to Marie Louise at the various stop-ping-places on her progress to meet Napoleon at Compiegne nearly three weeks later. We know that the ardent Emperor could not adhere to his own orders and that, in his eagerness to welcome his bride, he drove through the blinding rain to Courcelles. At every stage of the journey Berthier found a letter from. Napoleon awaiting him for an immediate answer. In the last, signed “Nap,” and dated March 26, 1810, Compiegne, he tells Berthier to recall the days of his own “cheres amours,” so that he may understand his impatience—and hurry up. Yet Napoleon could be considerate in this “extreme impatience,” as, four days earlier, he says that the Empress must not be fatigued, because she has written to him from Munich to tell him that she has caught a bad cold. But in the same letter he complains that Berthier does not state whether his presents to Marie Louise were more costly than those given by the Austrian Court. In the meantime, Napoleon is trying to ease his mind by a day’s hunting in the forest at Compiegne. By that time, too, he had received the long-expected portrait of his bride, which was affording “grand plaisir” to him. This section of the Berthier dossier is complementary to the long series of letters which Napoleon wrote to Marie Louise. It will be recalled that, after having been found in an old case in a disused cupboard in an Austrian schloss, these historic and unpublished letters were brought at Southerby’s in December, 1934, by the agent of the French Government for £15,000. Following this, these letters were published in the “Daily Telegraph,” which had acquired the exclusive serial rights in Britain. These Berthier letters, which were sent for sale by the descendants of the plenipotentiary, are, naturally of not such importance, but the general collection has great interest on account of its many sidelights on historical events.

Indeed, Berthier must have preserved every scrap of paper that came his way. He even contrived to keep the autograph manuscript of the reply by Marie Louise consenting to her marriage with Napoleon after Berthier had made the “demande solenelle" for her hand in audience with the Emperor Francis on the evening of March 7, 1810. By all the rules of the diplomatic game this precious manuscript should have been handed to Napoleon. But Berthier “bagged” the prize. There is no girlish nervousness in the firm, concise penmanship of this historic document, but an accent or two are missing in this formal letter of consent:—La volonte demon Pere a constamment etc la mienne. Mon bonheur rester toujours le sien. C'est dans ses principles que Sa Majeste I’Empereur Napoleon ne peut que trouver le gage des sentimens que je vouerai toujours a mon Epoux. Heureuse si je puis contribuer a son bonheur et e celui d’une grande nation. Je donne avec le permission demon Pere mon consentement a mon union avec I'Empereur Napoleon. Berthier also treasured a letter which the Empress Josephine had written to him. four years before, imploring him anew to watch over Napoleon in his arduous campaigning and to spare him from undue fatigue. These masses of papers prove once more that every cell in Napoleon's brain must have been a munition shed of activity. He seemed to see and foresee everything.