THE SKETCHER.

Otago Witness, Issue 2651, 4 January 1905, Page 71

THE SKETCHER.

tt NAPOLEON'S GREEN-ROOM.* """" (T.P.'s Weekly.) There is always something fascinating in ■a peep behind the %pents. To ,thoso who ] know -the inside of any spiers of human life, especially-- of. life ' confronts the public," these "glimpses "are" particularly welcome. '' They- know -that there is : always a jrivate-~side -to thjL public view, and -that, vei-j' offceir there '-is little' reseniblaiiee ' be-, tween !the one -and the other. -^This is'the j sensation I had whea" reading the interest- j #12 volume "before' me. 'Itadmits us to the.i gre^n-room. of , Napoleon. '' Do you ever, ; waiting for som; great procession to pass — lit© a coronation' celebration — do you ev*r realise the agonies, the nervous twitch- J, ing.' perhaps the little outbursts of temper - and impatience .through, which those have , passed who are the chief figures of the day? . You see them all their' trappings, .with their prancing, guards around them, and j their long lines of soldiers; and their gor*- j geous coanhes, and their .beautiful robes ;, 1 and^their faces wear the mechanical and ; instinctive smile which the great have been', taught to present to the public- when they appear before them. But if you have, only , a little imagination and sympathy you can realise thaTTthey have wakened up to a laborious and trying day after a sleepless night, and with nerves 'that are not quite firm — i-hat they, have had all- kinds of little disap-•pc-intmsnfcs - and jars ;' the dress has not been brought in time by the dressmaker to -the lady ; • the gentlemai has been kept waiting *or the finish of the lady's toilet, and there have some awkward and" ridiculous questions _of personal vanity, of erifishiiess, or folly. And so 'one might go on, elaborating all the flurry, and hatred, and sometimes even, tfos tqualor that underlie that handsome and ~braggart show at' ■which people gaze with open-eyed admiration and unsuspicious^ faith.. It is in this sense that I am seeing all this side of ,a "grand day in history, and it is that that makes up" to m©. the fascination of this volume.v^ : Jt is really the history of a curious and tiny .conspiracy against the reign of Napoleon ; but it is not chief themg, that I seize upon. In its introductory- pages there,. is v a. sight of Napolecnfin his greenroom, and it is to' that part of ■ the work I shall devote all my] remarks. But I,promise the reader that' if he go further and read the volume through he" will get a glimpse of a very remarkable and pic-tur-esoue episode in the history of France and Napoleon- From me he must not expect more than a' description of the episode in the book which has attracted # me. I. . - " I deal with but one day. in the life of Kapo-leoir/ -That is- Easter Day, 1802. The i day has opened with _a salvo" of 60 guns, "triumphant, ringing, and joyful," as our French author has it. Napoleon is First Consul, but he lias two ' colleagues. The r-?3son of this wondrous opening, with all this fanfaronade, is that, Napoleon has already thought himself strong enough, to bring to an encTtfoe frightful war of classes and creeds of which the Revolution was tli a outcome and, to a certain extant, the cause. A short time ago it was still apparently in the full, tide of its force, and at only the beginning/of its doings. . Dan-ic-n had b*een calling upon France to throw at Europe the head of a decapitated King ; Robespierre had been strutting- through the. streets as the high priest and^ pontiff of a 'Supreme Being lie had fashioned some •what after his own not very attractive •jik-eness ; and" there had been all kinds of shows — meant to-be solemn, and in reality grotesque — nightmares and caricatures of Iniman nature when it, has left the safe morning of reason and tradition and embarked on the tempestuous seas of a new epoch. It was part of this upheaval that ihe old faith should not only be abandoned, 3wt; that everyone who professed it should he proscribed. And now all this was to be transformed. For this is the day when Napoleon is to * "The Plot of tho Placards," by Gilbert Augustin-Thierry. Translated bj Arthur G. Chuter. (Smith Elder^

proclaim the end of the religious war. That Concordat betwoen him and. the Pope had been concluded which modern France is engaged at this moment, in tearing up ; and people were to be free once more to exercise their religious faith after their own conscience. It wns to celebrate this turning 1 point in tile history of France, to mark 1 solemnly this final farewell to the era. of violence, of persecution, of the guillotine j as a. method of Government, that Napoleon has -proclaimed this day of sabred festivity j.. and" as .-Notre. Dame, has, been the scene of all theObuffooneries and blasphemies of I the Revolutionary epoch, it is chosen as i tho proper centre" to celebrate -, France's | change of heart.- And so . j '•. .l . ' The ' Palais dv Gouvernement ' 1 —the Tuileries, dwelt Bonaparte, who already embodied the government in ' "himself — shook with the thunder of a bat- ; tery of .the Consular Guard,' drawn up bs- ' fore the railings of the Carrousel. At the I same moment a graver, more religious sound arose, and above the swelling muri irar of Paris floated the pealing of the great bell of Notre Dame — the 'Emma I nuel,' N _re-hung in its tower, and swaying' .its "'timbers. That 'Octidi,' the 28th Ger-^ ; ininal, year X (Aprib'3,B. 1802, Easter Sun-, day),,wasito be "one of the .most memorable, day-> of the nineteenth century ; , bell and cannon were proclaiming to the -102 departments .of the Continental Republic the ' pacification of consciences.' 'General peace and religious- peace"!' had been the announcement., of the 'Moniteur,' with its ■ official emphasis; General peace : the Treaty of Amiens"; religious peace: the Concordat. 'The temple of Janus wa.s closed- henceforward,' and henceforward also -'God ~Vas no longer exiled from Nature.' "And- while the cannon of the Invalides "replied to the^battery of the Carrousel a strange 'cayalcade emerged from the Rue I de- Jerusalem and entered the Quai dcs I Orfevres. Preceded by gendarmes, -ushers and trumpeters. Citizen Piisf the secretarygeneral of the Prefecture of Police, was setting out on the round of the town. He was to -halt at 12 public squares, there to read- a proclamation of the Consuls, to stir up enthusiasm, and call for cheers : ' theusual custom on solemn public occasions." Arriving" at the PJace dv Tribunat — formerly Place dv Palais Royal — the procession made its first halt ; _the trumpets sounded, and the reading began. . . . "The sun of Germinal was hardly jlear of the morning mists., but already the workmen of the faubourgs and the tradesmen of the town'beganv to collect in the neighbourhood of the Carrousel. 'They knew, one .and all, N -that presently the- 'Great Consul' would proceed to Notre Dame to hear a To Deum, and they made haste, delighted' to have a chance of cheering, him as he passed. . . . For the rest, the cerelp.ony at Notre Dame promised to be magI nificentA There would be uniforms to • admira, coaches and liveries, generals, Mamelukes and bishops ; above all, dear little Bonaparte would be seen., . . . ' So long live the Concordat, the Pope, and the cures !' " And Paris accordingly began to give itself up heartily to Its full enjoyment of a, scene like- that itself. And there began Ho appear that procession in .all its bravery which the First Consul had so elaborately prepared, at once to amuse, to dazzle, and to terrorise that population which he knew so well. in. I do not pause to describe the Council of State and l the other great officials. Nor must I dwell even on the appearance of the central figure .of the procession ; that little.-man of only 32 who is already well on the way to Imperial dignity and power. At this moment he is passing through the intermediate stage between the hungry soldier with a troublesome and wearying skin disease to the stout?— not to say obese — figure he had become in the days of his omnipotence : "A celebrated portrait by Gros reproduces* in a striking way the features of tiie Napoleon of lbO2. Under a stretch of cloudless blue sky— an allegory in itself — clad .in red^ his 'Consular purple,' mounted on Desire, the white horse which paws the ground ancL.arches its neck, Bonap?rte is reviewing his Guard and addressing his grenadiers. The head is no longer the same that Alessi drew before Castig-

lie me, and Guerin painted, after Leoben, thin and bony, with fiery eyes expressing ali the unrest of a soul in torment. The cheeks are filling out ; the oval of the face is more regular ; but the complexion has retained its sickly green shade, the taint of hereditary cancer. The flowing mane of the standard-bearer of Arcola has disappeared ; the hair is cut short, and under \ the cockaded hat one imagines the flattened lock upon the forehead. It is already the face of the Napoleon of legend, of that man whom his contemporaries — the go&sips especially — found 'wildly ugly,' of that "'shaveling,' that 'little green monkey' who was taunted by the bewigged foolishness of the emigre ; but who,- in the fai distance of a century, haloed by glory and deified by apotheoses, appears to us superb in his classical beauty." IV. So far for the public side of this great day. I now come to that side of it which, as I have said, fascinates me — namely, ■?rhat is going on behind the scenes. - And first let us get inside the great and solemn cathedral, and see how people are getting on there. There has been a tremendous delay, two hours have gone past the stated time*, and Nanoleon has not yet come. And people are getting angry,' and many of the congregation are but imperfectly cured -of their old Revolutionary hatred of all religion and of all its ministers. The result is a very/discreditable exhibition: "Many N pf these high personages assembled in the nave, the great men of Fortune, lacked education. For the most part very Voltairian, they paraded their irreverence. They talked aloud, compli-nip-nted the handsome citiaenesses, quizzed' them playfully. Many of these goddesses, divinities of the 'Groves of Tivoli,' had brought a collation with them. They made a little dinner ; shared, simpering, the cake from La Rose or the pie from Corcelet : a chattering picnic, as in the grottos of Mousseaux, with Noire Dame for refectory. Aijd down at the. end of the choir the Cardinal-Legate, the Archbishop of "Paris, and 24 bishops in rochet and hood, watched the repugnant spectacle in consternation." V. But there is a scene which, though not so noisy, -is more remarkable in its way, anc 7 causes Napoleon great annoyance. At this time Napoleon has one rival be hates and fears above all others, General Moreau, that splendid strategist and frequent victor whom we are ready* to regard as far more entitled to rule than this little Co'rsican upstart. And what do you think the wife and the mother -in-laV^ of this insolent and dangerous rival "had done? There had been two great" chairs reserved in front of the choir for the ladies who were entitled to regard themselves as already the two greatest ladies, in the land : the wife and the mother of the First Consul — the terlible, graceful Josephine and the terrible Letizia. And this isf what happened : • "But, a little before noon, two women presented thenis-elves at this entrance and parleyed with the sentinel : 'No admit- - tance? <. I am tlie wife of General Moreau. ' At -this name the soldier had drawn aside, giving* way at once. Two chairs had been provided in the tribune ; they took possession of them both. They were stared at from belcw ; the whole official world knew them, well: the one, Mme. Hulot, a eitizenes3 of political tastes, at the head of a little band of opposition hostile to Bonaparte, and taunting him unceasingly ; the other, her- daughter, <the ether eal- o Alexandrine Eugenic, married 18 months ago to General Moreau : a ', woman of feeling, ' pupil of the singer Elleviou, who knew how to coo the plaintive romance, to touch th> harp, and dance' Gardel's gavotte with the "dainty grace of a Bigottini. . . . Meanwhile, preceded, by the prefects of the Palace, I;he.. Bonaparte ladies, Mme.. Letizia and her daughter-in-law, had just arrived. At. the sight -of the intruders, Josephine stepped in surprise. That Perine Hulot! She detested her and feared her ; a Creole like herself, like herself a ' merveilleuee ' in the days of the Directory ; the friend of old times, the enemy of to-day ; jealous, ill-tempered, slanderous, what bitter tears Perine had cost her ! But by this the prefect of the Palace, Didelot, was phrasing remonstrances. Feline amenities followed, bitter words, and delicate impertinences. Mme. Hulot protested : \ 'An affront ! .. -. Very 'well, she would complain to her son-in-law, and they would soon find out what sprt of a man her son-in-law was !' Then come a ridiculous attack of nerves : the sensitive Eugenic feigned a swoon. Tired of the quarrel, Mme. Letizia at last gave up her place, and the Generale Moreau was allowed to keep her seat by the side ol the Generale Bonaparte."

VI. | There was another scene also which must i be noted. The marshals and other big generals had come to the cathedral in a very bad humour. They were still jealous of the extraordinary rise of Napoleon ; they hated the old faith, and they had i lunched copiously. When they came to ' the cathedral, judge of their amazement to find no place for them. "They stalked up the nave in a rage, their plumed hats on their heads, clattering their swords, jingling their spurs. At the same time they cursed and swore ; ' A fine way to treat honour, glory, the very segis of the country ! ' — all in the figurative language of the hussars who captured a fleet, of grenadiers charging 'kaiserlicks.' Around the pulpit they caught sight of some 30 clerics, grouped) in good order ; monsignori in violet stockings, abbes in ultramontane short cassocks — the followers of the Car-dinal-Legate — also many Gallican churchmen in short cloaks, bands, and French dress. The ingenious Bernier had mar- , shalled them thus, to form an audience of diiscreet applauders for the critical moment of the sermon. The" sight of the generals in distress amused these gentlemen ; they chuckled. Suddenly Massena's fist comes down on one of the laughers : 'Up with ' you, abbe, I want your ©hair ! ' It was like a signal of attack. The cocked hats fall upon, the cassocks, hustle them, put them to flight; and seize their places. There was applause in the church." VII. And in the midst of it all suddenly open the great portals, and to the beat of a drum and to the noise of cannon, and of the voices of the -bishops and priests, the First Consul enters. Hut lam not concerned with him at this "moment or in this' position. I follow him to the privacy of his apartment at the end of the show and hear what he has to say. He has seen with that brilliant and cruel eye of his much that has taken place ; he suspects more ; he hears the rest. And, characteristically, what he dwells most upon is the conduct of the two ladies who have dared to interfere with the places of his mother, and wife. During the service he had been seen now and then to lift his eyes to the seat where Madame Hulot stared insolently at him, -.and be had 'frowned in anger.' When he is with lais f trembling Minister- in the private -.rooms of the Tuileries he descends^ upon him in fury, and returning, as he often did, to "the free language ' of the barrack : room, he pours forth a loud, invective on, the head of" Madame Hulot. "Then, in his figurative, emphatic, and rather vulgar language, Bonaparte lavished upon the lady his usual amenities : ' Very spiteful, that old Hulot ! She keeps her son-in-law tiedi to her apron-strings, and leads him so well that he'll break his nose ! . . . What a plague, those two women ! The mother, a corporal ; the daughter, a nut-cracker ! '" j Isn't it a wonderful glimpse into the great man's green-room? ' Ending a day of such glory with an outburst against a couple- of women, and, vying with' even fishwife in the violence "and vulgarity of his epithets! It is all so like him, so gigantic, so petty ; so wondrous, so squalid ! — T. P.