NINE
In Search of Napoleon
1797-8
Napoleon had come a long way since the recapture of Toulon in 1793. His role in the battle for the port had earned him the praise of his commanding officer and promotion to the rank of brigadier-general. The next milestone in his astonishing rise to power took place on a wet and windy day in Paris on 4 October 1795, when an armed and rebellious mob of some 30,000 royalists, anarchists and others opposed to the republican government marched on the Tuileries. Their aim was to overthrow the ruling Convention and overturn the Revolution. Napoleon, who was in Paris at the time, had been introduced the day before to Paul Barras, the newly appointed commander-in-chief. He agreed to take charge of the local forces and arranged for forty field guns to be rushed into the city. He carefully positioned them so that they commanded the approaches to the Tuileries and, when the rebels attacked, he fired round after round of grapeshot into their leading ranks. Grapeshot, or case shot, consisted of dozens of small iron balls enclosed in a canvas case which opened up when fired and scattered a murderous hail of missiles. It was particularly effective when fired into a packed crowd. The bombardment lasted only a few minutes and scattered the rebels, who fled, pursued by Government troops.
Napoleon's 'whiff of grapeshot' had proved decisive and Barras was able to announce to the Convention, 'The Republic has been saved.' Two weeks later Napoleon was made a full general and given command of the Army of the Interior. He was twenty-six years old. A few months later, in March 1796, the Directory of the French Republic, which had replaced the Convention, put him in command of the Army of Italy with orders to conquer northern Italy. This was to be achieved by attacking and defeating the armies of Austria and Piedmont and occupying the Austrian duchy of Milan. Within thirteen months Napoleon had not only achieved these objectives but had also occupied the Papal States. He had won a dozen major battles by using the tactics which later routed armies across Europe: he imposed a rigid discipline on his troops and was able to move them from place to place at a speed which astonished his enemies; he used a combination of flanking movements and clever feints with a devastating concentration of force; he made the best possible use of the terrain because, like Wellington, he knew how to read the topography of the landscape; and he used his training as an artillery officer to position and use his field guns to maximum effect.
We get a glimpse of the charisma and force of character which he demonstrated during the Italian campaign in the heroic portrait painted by the young French painter Antoine-Jean Gros around this time. Napoleon had given the artist three brief sittings and from these sessions Gros produced an iconic image of the young general advancing on the bridge at Arcole where one of the key battles of the campaign had taken place. The hawklike face, piercing glance, flowing hair and vigorous pose are in marked contrast to the later images of a stocky, plump figure with thinning hair and a glowering expression. Fanny Burney described meeting Napoleon in Paris in the summer of 1802: 'I had a view so near, though so brief of his face, as to be much struck by it. It is of a deeply impressive cast, pale even to sallowness, while not only in the eye but in every feature - care, thought, melancholy and meditation are strongly marked, with so much of character, nay, genius, and so penetrating a seriousness, or rather sadness, as powerfully to sink into an observer's mind.'
After his victories on the battlefield Napoleon revealed his diplomatic and political skills during the negotiations which followed. Having driven the Austrians out of Italy, his aim was to bring the liberties and benefits of the French Republic to the northern Italians. With the backing of the Directors in Paris he set up the Cisalpine Republic as a free and independent state with a constitution modelled on that of France. This proved so successful that the people of Genoa overthrew their feudal and aristocratic government and Napoleon set up the Ligurian Republic in its place. In May, following riots and disturbances in Verona, he marched his army from Milan and occupied Venice. And in October, after months of negotiations, he successfully concluded a peace treaty with Austria at Campo Fornio. When he returned to Paris in December he was greeted as a hero and cheered wildly in a public ceremony at the Luxembourg.
To the Directors who were now governing France, Napoleon must have seemed like a man who could achieve miracles. It was therefore not so surprising that they should give him his most challenging task to date. He was made commander of the Army of England and given the job of masterminding the invasion of the only country which was still at war with France. Accompanied by two aides, his secretary and a courier, he travelled north in a coach to inspect the ports and harbours of Normandy and Flanders. He reached the coast on 10 February 1798 and spent the next eight days visiting Boulogne, Calais, Dunkirk and Antwerp, as well as several of the smaller fishing ports like Etaples.
The weather was atrocious, with bitterly cold north-easterly gales sending flurries of snow and sleet across the heaving grey seas and breaking waves of the English Channel. Napoleon interviewed army officers and naval officers and cast a critical eye over the troops as well as the transport vessels and barges which were being built or converted to carry infantry and cavalry. He had told his aides that he wished his identity to be concealed during his visit but this did not prevent the Paris newspapers from printing details of his progress. Within twelve days of his arrival on the coast the readers of The Times in London learnt that General Napoleon had alighted from his coach at the Silver Lion Hotel in Calais and visited a coffee-house. They were informed that he intended to inspect a chain of military camps which had been established along the coast. 'It appears that the invasion of England will be a general attack, not partial ones.'
In London the threatened invasion seems to have had little effect on most people's lives. The King and Queen set the tone. During the week that Napoleon was inspecting the invasion troops, the royal family went on an excursion to Kew. The King took an airing on horseback and returned to Buckingham House to give an audience to the Duke of York. On the evening of 16 February their Majesties, accompanied by four of the princesses, went on one of their regular visits to the theatre, this time to Covent Garden to see a new comedy, He's much to blame, followed by a new production of Joan of Arc. The latter was 'a grand historical ballet of action', and was an odd choice of subject to stage in the circumstances. The Times thought that the principle of the ballet was bad and degraded British humanity. The horrific ending, in which the French heroine was burnt at the stake by the British, had been toned down by the time the royal family saw the show, and the ballet attracted a full house and was much applauded.