Memoirs of Napoleon, vol 11 | Page 4

sample the author's ideas before
making an entire meal of them. D.W.]

MEMOIRS OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE, VOLUME 11.
By LOUIS ANTOINE FAUVELET DE BOURRIENNE

His Private Secretary
Edited by R. W. Phipps Colonel, Late Royal Artillery
1891

CONTENTS:

CHAPTER XIX.
to
CHAPTER XXVII.
1809-1812

CHAPTER XIX.
1809.
The castle of Diernstein--Richard Coeur de Lion and Marshal Lannes,
--The Emperor at the gates of Vienna--The Archduchess Maria
Louisa-- Facility of correspondence with England--Smuggling in
Hamburg--Brown sugar and sand--Hearses filled with sugar and
coffee--Embargo on the publication of news--Supervision of the
'Hamburg Correspondant'-- Festival of Saint Napoleon--Ecclesiastical
adulation--The King of Westphalia's journey through his
States--Attempt to raise a loan-- Jerome's present to me--The present
returned--Bonaparte's unfounded suspicions.
Rapp, who during the campaign of Vienna had resumed his duties as
aide de camp, related to me one of those observations of Napoleon
which, when his words are compared with the events that followed
them, seem to indicate a foresight into his future destiny. When within
some days' march of Vienna the Emperor procured a guide to explain to
him every village and ruin which he observed on the road. The guide
pointed to an eminence on which were a few decayed vestiges of an old
fortified castle. "Those," said the guide, "are the ruins of the castle of
Diernstein." Napoleon suddenly stopped, and stood for some time
silently contemplating the ruins, then turning to Lannes, who was with
him, he raid, "See! yonder is the prison of Richard Coeur de Lion. He,
like us, went to Syria and Palestine. But, my brave Lannes, the Coeur

de Lion was not braver than you. He was more fortunate than I at St.
Jean d'Acre. A Duke of Austria sold him to an Emperor of Germany,
who imprisoned him in that castle. Those were the days of barbarism.
How different from the civilisation of modern times! Europe has seen
how I treated the Emperor of Austria, whom I might have made
prisoner--and I would treat him so again. I claim no credit for this. In
the present age crowned heads must be respected. A conqueror
imprisoned!"
A few days after the Emperor was at the gates of Vienna, but on this
occasion his access to the Austrian capital was not so easy as it had
been rendered in 1805 by the ingenuity and courage of Lannes and
Murat. The Archduke Maximilian, who was shut up in the capital,
wished to defend it, although the French army already occupied the
principal suburbs. In vain were flags of truce sent one after the other to
the Archduke. They were not only dismissed unheard, but were even
ill-treated, and one of them was almost killed by the populace. The city
was then bombarded, and would speedily have been destroyed but that
the Emperor, being informed that one of the Archduchesses remained
in Vienna on account of ill- health, ordered the firing to cease. By a
singular caprice of Napoleon's destiny this Archduchess was no other
than Maria Louisa. Vienna at length opened her gates to Napoleon, who
for some days took up his residence at Schoenbrunn.
The Emperor was engaged in so many projects at once that they could
not all succeed. Thus, while he was triumphant in the Hereditary States
his Continental system was experiencing severe checks. The trade with
England on the coast of Oldenburg was carped on as uninterruptedly as
if in time of peace. English letters and newspapers arrived on the
Continent, and those of the Continent found their way into Great
Britain, as if France and England had been united by ties of the firmest
friendship. In short, things were just in the same state as if the decree
for the blockade of the British Isles had not existed. When the
custom-house officers succeeded in seizing contraband goods they
were again taken from them by main force. On the 2d of July a serious
contest took place at Brinskham between the custom-house officers and
a party of peasantry, in which the latter remained masters of eighteen

wagons laden with English goods: many were wounded on both sides.
If, however, trade with England was carried on freely along a vast
extent of coast, it was different in the city of Hamburg, where English
goods were introduced only by fraud; and I verily believe that the art of
smuggling and the schemes of smugglers were never before carried to
such perfection. Above 6000 persons of the lower orders went
backwards and forwards, about twenty times a day, from Altona to
Hamburg, and they carried on their contraband, trade by many
ingenious stratagems, two of which were so curious that they are worth
mentioning here.
On the left of the road leading from Hamburg to Altona there was a
piece of ground where pits were dug for