Worlds Best Histories France Vol 7 by M. Guizot and Madame Guizot De Witt

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In all the manifestly criminal acts of his powerful career--in the fatal
resolves of his mistaken and culpable caprices, whether it was a question
of the assassination of the Due d'Enghien or the brutal removal of the
Pope from Rome--Napoleon always chose his part in the complete isolation
of his soul, and by the spontaneous act of a personal decision; he made
sure of the execution of his will with minute precautions: he did not the
less subsequently seek to throw back the responsibility of the acts
themselves upon the instruments too ready to obey him. When Europe
suddenly learnt that the Pope had been removed from the states henceforth
united to the French Empire, Napoleon wrote to Fouche, "I am vexed that
the Pope has been arrested; it is a great folly. It was necessary to
arrest Cardinal Pacca, and leave the Pope in tranquillity at Rome;" and to
Cambaceres, the 28th July: "It is without my orders, and against my will,
that the Pope has been made to leave Rome."

Measures had, however, been taken with that provident exactitude which
characterized the personal orders of the Emperor Napoleon. Immediately he
had resolved upon the confiscation of the Roman States he had divined the
consequence and importance of this act; the new government was organized,
Murat had been charged with the command of the troops, and to hold himself
ready for any event. "Since your Majesty has made me aware of your
intentions as to Rome, I shall not withdraw from Naples," wrote Murat to
the emperor. "Word has been sent me that the Pope wished to send forth an
excommunication, but that the majority of the Consistory were opposed to
it. All your orders will be fulfilled, and I hope without trouble."

This was hoping for much from the patience of the holy father, and
maintaining great illusions as to the decision long since taken by the
Court of Rome. The project of the spoliation of the pontifical states had
not been kept so secret that the Pope and his minister had not been
apprised of it; and several times Pius VII. had let it be understood that
he was prepared for resistance. "We see plainly that the French wish to
force us to speak Latin," he had said quite recently; "ah, well! we will
do it."

General Miollis, supported and directed by the King of Naples, did not
take much account of the Latin of the court of Rome when it was a question
of obeying the orders of the Emperor Napoleon. The military preparations
completed (the 10th June, 1809), the tricolor flag was mounted upon the
castle of St. Angelo in place of the pontifical arms, and the imperial
decrees were everywhere read before the population of Rome and the
assembled troops. The report of these things soon reached the Quirinal. "I
rushed suddenly into the apartment of the holy father," writes Cardinal
Pacca, "and on meeting we both pronounced the words of the Redeemer,
_Consummatum est!_ I was in a condition difficult to describe, but the
sight of the holy father, who maintained an unalterable tranquillity, much
edified me, and reanimated my courage. A few minutes afterwards my nephew
brought me a copy of the imperial decree. Observing the Pope attentively
at the first words, I saw emotion on his countenance, and the signs of
indignation only too natural. Little by little he recovered himself, and
he heard the reading with much tranquillity and resignation." Cardinal
Pacca was even obliged to urge the pope to promulgate the bull of
excommunication, which had been prepared already since 1806. Pius VII.
still hesitated. "Raise your eyes towards heaven, Thrice Holy Father,"
said the secretary of state, "and then give me your order, and be sure
that that which proceeds from your mouth will be the will of God." "Ah,
well! let the bull go forth," cried the Pope; "but let those who shall
execute your orders take great care, for if they are discovered they will
be shot, and for that I should be inconsolable."

The bull of excommunication against the Emperor Napoleon was everywhere
placarded in Rome, without the agents of Cardinal Pacca undergoing the
vengeance dreaded by the Pope. Anger and fear were wrestling in a higher
sphere. The instructions of the emperor had been precise: "I have confided
to you the care of maintaining tranquillity in my Roman states," he wrote
to General Miollis. "You are to have arrested, even in the house of the
Pope himself, those who plot against public tranquillity, and against the
safety of my soldiers. A priest abuses his character, and merits less
indulgence than another man, when he preaches war and disobedience to
temporal power, and when he sacrifices spiritual things for the interest
of this world, which the Scripture declares not to be his." And to the
King of Naples, in two different letters, of the 17th and 19th of June:
"If the Pope wishes to form a reunion of caballers like Cardinal Pacca, it
will be necessary to permit nothing of the kind, and to act at Rome as I
should act towards the cardinal archbishop of Paris.... I have given you
to understand that my intention was that the affairs of Rome should be
quickly settled, and that no species of opposition should take place. No
asylum ought to be respected, if my decrees are not submitted to; and
under no pretext whatever ought any resistance to be allowed. If the Pope,
in opposition to the spirit of his office and of the Gospel, preaches
revolt, and wishes to make use of the immunity of his house for the
printing of circulars, he ought to be arrested. The time for this sort of
thing is past. Philippe le Bel caused Boniface to be arrested; and Charles
V. kept Clement VII. in prison for a long time, for far less cause. The
priest who to the temporal powers preaches discord and war, instead of
peace, abuses his character."

The orders were precise, and admitted of no hesitation. The confiscation
of the papal states had been responded to by the papal bull; open war had
broken out between Pius VII., and the Emperor Napoleon. The latter was
desirous of insuring the execution of his will by sending to Rome General
Radet, less honorably scrupulous than General Miollis; an instrument
docile and daring, as regards the details of the general scheme. Radet has
himself given an account of the removal of the Pope in a report to the
minister of war, dated July 13th, 1809. In 1814, he had forgotten the
existence of this letter, and vainly sought to minimize the importance of
the part which he played on the 6th of July. History must preserve for
General Radet his place in her annals. The man to carry out the projects
of Napoleon had been well chosen.

Already for several months the Pope had been carefully guarding himself in
the Quirinal; the precautions had been redoubled since the decrees, and
the publication of the bull. Pius VII. and his counsellors foresaw the
removal. General Radet took all possible measures to turn aside suspicion.
"On the 5th, at the break of day," he himself wrote, "I made the necessary
arrangements, which I succeeded in screening from the eyes of the Romans
by double patrols and measures of police. I kept the troops in the
barracks all day, in order to lull the public and the inhabitants of the
Quirinal into a feeling of security. From that spot the Pope governed with
his finger more than we did with our bayonets. At nine o'clock, I caused
the military chiefs to come to me, one after another, and gave them my
orders. At ten o'clock, we were collected in the place of the Holy
Apostles, and at the barracks of La Pilota, which was the centre of my
operations. At eleven o'clock I myself placed my patrols, my guards, my
posts, and my detachments for carrying out the operations, whilst the
governor-general caused the bridges of the Tiber and the castle of St.
Angelo to be occupied by a Neapolitan battalion."

General Radet had received a written order from General Miollis, for the
arrest of Cardinal Pacca. The order to arrest the Pope was not written
down. Nobody had dared to put his signature to it; verbal instructions
only were given.

Three detachments of soldiers, furnished with scaling-ladders, ropes and
grappling-irons, surrounded the Quirinal. At half-past ten, the sentinel
who kept guard on the tower of the Quirinal disappeared. The signal was
immediately given. With varying success the small battalions introduced
themselves into the palace. The Swiss guard was disarmed; it had for a
long time previously received orders to make no resistance. The chief
anxiety of the Pope had always been that he might be up and about when
they should come to arrest him. He had gone to bed late, and was roused up
by the noise in the middle of his first sleep. Cardinal Pacca, however,
found him completely dressed, when the former rushed precipitately into
his chamber. The gate was already yielding to the efforts of the
assailants. Pius VII. seated himself under a canopy; making a sign to the
secretary of state, and to Cardinal Desping, to place themselves near him.
"Open the gate," said he.

General Radet had never seen the Pope; he recognized him by the attitude
of his guides; and immediately sending back the soldiers, he caused the
officers to enter with drawn swords; a few gendarmes, with muskets in
their hands, also glided into the chamber. The priest was waiting in
silence; the soldier was hesitating. At length the latter, hat in hand,
spoke: "I have a sorrowful mission to accomplish," said General Radet; "I
am compelled by my oaths to fulfil it." Pius VII. stood up. "Who are you,"
said he, "and what is it you require of me, that you come at such an hour
to trouble my repose and invade my dwelling-place?" "Most Holy Father,"
replied the General, "I come in the name of my government to reiterate to
your Holiness the proposal to officially renounce your temporal power. If
your holiness consents to it, I do not doubt but that affairs may be
arranged, and that the emperor will treat your holiness with the greatest
respect." The Pope was resting one hand upon the table placed before him.
"If you have believed yourself bound to execute such orders of the emperor
by reason of your oath of fidelity and obedience, think to what an extent
we feel compelled to sustain the rights of the holy see, to which we are
bound by so many oaths? We can neither yield nor abandon that which
belongs to it. The temporal power belongs to the Church, and we are only
the administrator. The emperor may tear us in pieces, but he will not
obtain from us what he demands. After all that we have done for him, ought
we to expect such treatment?"

"I know that the emperor is under many obligations to your holiness!"
replied Radet, more and more troubled. "Yes, more than you are aware of;
but, finally, what are your orders?"--"Most Holy Father, I regret the
commission with which I am charged, but I must inform you that I am
ordered to take you away with me." The pontiff bent slightly towards the
speaker, and said in tones of sweet compassion, "Ah! my son, your mission
is one that will not draw down upon you the divine blessing." Then,
turning again towards the cardinals, and appearing to speak to himself,
"This, then, is the recognition which is accorded to me of all that which
I have done for the emperor! This, then, is the reward for my great
condescension towards him and towards the Church of France! But perhaps in
this respect I have been culpable towards God. He wishes to punish me; I
submit with humility."

General Radet had sent for the final orders of General Miollis. The
brigadier of gendarmerie charged with this commission re-entered the
chamber of the Pope. "The order of his excellency," said he, "is, that it
is necessary for the holy father and Cardinal Pacca to set out at once
with General Radet: the other persons in his suite will follow after." The
Pope rose up; he walked with difficulty. Moved in spite of himself, Radet
offered his arm to support him, proposing to retire, in order to leave the
holy father free to give his orders and dispose of any valuable objects
that he might have a fancy for. "When one has no hold upon life, one has
no hold upon the things of this world," replied Pius VII., taking from a
table at the side of his bed his breviary and his crucifix. "I am ready,"
said he.

The carriage was already at the palace gate, the postillions ready to
start. The Pope stood still, giving his benediction to the city of Rome,
and to the French troops ranged in order of battle on the place. It was
four o'clock in the morning; the streets were deserted. The Pope got into
the carriage beside Cardinal Pacca; the doors were locked by a gendarme.
General Radet and a marshal of the household got on to the box-seat; the
horses set off at a quick trot along the road to Florence.

General Radet offered a purse of Gold to the Pope, which the latter
refused. "Have you any money?" asked the holy father of his companion. "I
have not been permitted to enter my apartment," said the cardinal; "and I
did not think of bringing my purse." The Pope had a papetto, value twenty
sous. "This is all that remains tome of my principality," said he,
smiling. "We are travelling in apostolic fashion," responded Pacca. "We
have done well in publishing the bull of the 10th of June," replied Pius
VII.; "now it would be too late."

For nineteen hours the coach rattled along; the stores were getting low.
Everywhere, and in spite of a few accidents, the passage of the Pope
forestalled the news of his capture. The suite of the holy father joined
him on the morrow; the Pope was suffering, he was in a fever. The populace
began to be stirred up with the rumors which were circulating: they
crowded round the carriages. "I disembarrassed myself of them," writes
Radet, "by calling out to them to place themselves on their knees on the
right and left of the road, in order that the holy father might give him
his benediction; then all of a sudden I ordered the postillions to dash
forward. By this means the people were still on their kness whilst we were
already far away, at a gallop. This plan succeeded everywhere."

Arrived on the 8th of July at the chartreuse of Florence, Pius VII.
expected to rest there a few days: but the Princess Baciocchi had not
received instructions from the emperor: she hurried the departure. "I see
well that they want to cause my death by their bad treatment," said the
exhausted old man; "and if there is but a little more of it I feel that
the end will not be far off." Cardinal Pacca was no longer with him. At
Genoa the Prince Borghese, who was commanding there, was seized with the
same panic as the Princess Baciocchi. After a few moments of repose at
Alexandria, Pius VII. was carried, by way of Mondovi and Rivoli, towards
Grenoble. In the last stages, in the little Italian villages, the bells
pealed forth, and the crowd who besought the benediction of the prisoner
everywhere retarded the advance. It was the same in all the districts of
Savoy and Dauphiny. When the Pope made his entry into Grenoble, on the
21st of July, the ardor of the population had not diminished, but the
bells rang no longer; the clergy had been forbidden to present themselves
before the pontiff. The prefect was absent, Fouche having been designedly
detained at Paris. The orders of the emperor had at length arrived from
Schoenbrunn. "I received at the same time the two letters of General
Miollis and that of the Grand Duchess," he wrote, on the 18th of July, to
Fouche. "I am vexed that the Pope has been arrested; it is a great folly.
It was needful to arrest Cardinal Pacca, and to leave the Pope quietly at
Rome. But there is no remedy for it now; what is done is done. I know not
what the Prince Borghese will have done, but my intention is that the Pope
should not enter France. If he is still in the Riviere of Genoa, the best
place at which he could be placed would be Savona. There is a house there
large enough, where he would be suitably lodged until we know what course
he decides upon. If his madness terminates, I have no objection to his
being taken back to Rome. If he has entered France, have him taken back
towards Savona and San Remo. Cause his correspondence to be examined. As
to Cardinal Pacca, have him shut up at Fenestrella; and let him understand
that if a single Frenchman is assassinated through his instigation, he
will be the first to pay for it with his head."

Fifteen days later (August 6th, 1809), in the midst of his prudent and
foreseeing preparations for the possible resumption of hostilities,
enlightened by reflection, or by the report of the popular emotion in the
provinces traversed by Pius VII., Napoleon modified his orders as to the
residence of the Pope. "Monsieur Fouche, I should have preferred that only
Cardinal Pacca had been arrested at Rome, and that the Pope had been left
there. I should have preferred, since the Pope has not been left at Genoa,
that he had been taken to Savona; but since he is at Grenoble, I should be
vexed that you should make him set out to be re-conducted to Savona; it
would be better to guard him at Grenoble, since he is there; the former
course would have the appearance of making sport of the old man. I have
not authorized Cardinal Fesch to send any one to his holiness; I have only
had the minister of religion informed that I should desire Cardinal Maury
and the other prelates to write to the Pope, to know what he wishes, and
to make him understand that if he renounces the Concordat I shall regard
it on my side as null and void. As to Cardinal Pacca, I suppose that you
have sent him to Fenestrella, and that you have forbidden his
communication with any one. I make a great difference between the Pope and
him, principally on account of his rank and his moral virtues. The Pope is
a good man, but ignorant and fanatical. Cardinal Pacca is a man of
education and a scoundrel, an enemy of France, and deserving of no regard.
Immediately I know where the Pope is located I shall see about taking
definitive measures; of course if you have already caused him to set out
for Savona, it is not necessary to bring him back."

The Pope was at Savona, where he was long to remain. Already the
difficulties of religious administration were commencing, and the
emperor's mind was engrossed with the institution of bishops to the vacant
sees. He had ordered all the prelates to chant a public _Te Deum_ with
reference to the victory of Wagram. The bishops of Dalmatia alone had
frankly and spiritedly replied to the statement of reasons which preceded
the circular. In France the silence was still profound. The emperor had
beforehand forbidden the journals to give any news from Rome. "It is a bad
plan to let articles be written," he wrote to Fouche; "there is to be no
speaking, either for or against, and it is not to be a matter for
discussion in the journals. Well-informed men know perfectly that I have
not attacked Rome. The mistaken bigots you cannot alter. Act on this
principle." The _Moniteur_ held its tongue. All the journals followed its
example. No one talked of the bull of excommunication. The circuits of the
missionary priests were forbidden, as well as the ecclesiastical
conferences of St. Sulpice. "The missionaries are for whoever pays them,"
declared the emperor, "for the English, if they are willing to employ
them. I do not wish to have any missions whatever; get me ready a draft of
a decree on that subject; I wish to complete it. I only know bishops,
priests, and curates. I am satisfied with keeping up religion in my own
country; I do not care about propagating it abroad." All the cardinals
still remaining at Rome were expelled. In the depths of his soul, and in
spite of the chimerical impulses of his irritated thoughts, Napoleon was
already feeling the embarrassments which he had himself sown along his
path. The Pope a prisoner at Savona, indomitable in his conscientious
resistance, might become more dangerous than the Pope at Rome, powerless
and unarmed. The struggle was not terminated; a breath of revolt had
passed over Europe. Henceforth Napoleon was at war with that Catholic
religion, the splendor of whose altars he had deemed it a point of honor
to restore; he struggled at the same time violently against that national
independence of the peoples which he had everywhere in his words invoked
in opposition to the arbitrary jealousy of the monarchs. The Spanish
sovereigns had succumbed to his yoke; the Spanish people, henceforth
sustained by the might of England, courageously defended its liberties. At
the moment when the supreme effort of the victory of Wagram was about to
snatch humiliating concessions from the Emperor Francis, the captive Pope
and the Spanish insurgents were presenting to Europe a salutary and
striking contrast, the teachings of which she was beginning to comprehend.

Not the least significant of the lessons on the frailty of the human
colossi raised by conquerors is the impossibility of tracing their history
on the same canvas. For a long time Napoleon alone had filled the scene,
and his brilliant track was easily kept in view. In proportion as he
accumulated on his shoulders a burden too heavy, and as he extended his
empire without consolidating it, the insufficiency of human will and human
power made itself more painfully felt. Napoleon was no longer everywhere
present, acting and controlling, in order to repair the faults he had
committed, or to dazzle the spectators with new successes. In vain the
prodigious activity of his spirit sought to make up for the radical defect
of his universal dominion. The Emperor Napoleon was conquered by the very
nature of things, before the fruits of his unmeasured ambition had had
time to ripen, and before all Europe, indignant and wearied out, was at
length roused up against him.

There was already, in 1809, a confused but profound instinctive feeling
throughout the world that the moment for resistance and for supreme
efforts had arrived. The Archduke Charles had proved it in Austria by the
fury of his courage; the English cabinet were bearing witness to it by the
great preparations they were displaying on their coast and in their
arsenals, as well as by the ready aid lent by them to the insurgents of
the Peninsula. The Emperor Napoleon on quitting Spain, in the month of
January, had left behind him the certain germs of growing disorder.
Obliged of necessity to commit the chief command to King Joseph, he had
been desirous of remedying the weakness and military incapacity of the
monarch whom he had himself put on the throne by conferring upon the
marshals charged with continuing the war an almost absolute authority over
their _corps d'armee_. Each of them was to correspond directly with the
minister of war, supremely directed by Napoleon himself. Deprived thus of
all serious control over the direction of the war, King Joseph saw himself
equally thwarted in civil and financial affairs. Spanish interests were
naturally found to conflict with French interests. King Joseph defended
the former; an army of imperial functionaries were charged with the
protection of the second. In this mission they proceeded at times even to
insult. King Joseph threatened to place in a carriage M. de Freville,
administrator for the treasury of confiscated goods, and to send him
directly to France. The complaints of the unfortunate monarch to his
brother were frequent and well founded. "Your Majesty has not entire
confidence in me," he wrote on the 17th of February to Napoleon, "and
meanwhile, without that, the position is not tenable. I shall not again
repeat what I have already written ten times as to the situation of the
finances; I give all my faculties to business from eight o'clock in the
morning to eleven o'clock in the evening; I go out once a week; I have not
a sou to give to any one; I am in the fourth year of my reign, and I still
see my guard with the first frock-coat which I gave it, three years ago; I
am the goal of all complaints; I have all pretensions to overcome; my
power does not extend beyond Madrid, and at Madrid itself I am daily
thwarted. Your Majesty has ordered the sequestration of the goods of ten
families, it has been extended to more than double. All the habitable
houses are sealed up; 6000 domestics of the sequestrated families are in
the streets. All demand charity; the boldest of them take to robbery and
assassination. My officers--all those who sacrificed with me the kingdom
of Naples--are still lodged by billets. Without capital, without income,
without money, what can I do? All this picture, bad as it is, is not
exaggerated, and, bad as it is, it will not exhaust my courage; I shall
arrive at the end of all that. Heaven has given me everything needful to
overcome the hindrances from circumstances or from my enemies; but that
which Heaven has denied me is an organization capable of supporting the
insults and contradictions of those who ought to serve me, and, above all,
of contending with the dissatisfaction of a man whom I have loved too well
to be ever willing to dislike him. Thus, sire, if my whole life has not
given you the fullest confidence in me; if you judge it necessary to
surround me with petty souls, who cause me myself to redden with shame; if
I am to be insulted even in my capital; if I have not the right to appoint
the governors and commandants who are always under my eyes,--I have not
two choices to make. I am only King of Spain by the force of your arms. I
might become so by the love of the Spaniards; but for that it would be
necessary to govern in my own manner. I have often heard you say, 'Every
animal has its instinct, and each one ought to follow it.' I will be such
a king as the brother and friend of your Majesty ought to be, or I will
return to Mortefontaine, where I shall ask for nothing but the happiness
of living without humiliation, and of dying with a tranquil conscience."