The Shadow of the Eagle (39 page)

At the time of Napoleon’s abdication, negotiations between Talleyrand and Tsar Alexander, who was then resident at the chateau of Bondy, were conducted by Caulaincourt and Count Mikhail Orlov. Among the subjects discussed was the most suitable place to exile Napoleon. St Helena and the Azores were suggested. In the event Elba was chosen, with the inevitable consequence that discontent at the resumption of Bourbon rule allowed Napoleon to return and seize power again, only to suffer final defeat at Waterloo in June 1815. Although it was to be Alexander who approved Elba in the teeth of opposition from the British and the Austrians, Alexander’s complex but essentially vacillating, capricious and quixotic nature was such that so clement and generous a decision may easily have contradicted an earlier, harsh and extreme one. As the most charismatic sovereign among the crowned heads, the role of allied leader fell to Alexander almost by default. He had been captivated by the spell of Napoleon’s personality and suborned by the insidious influence of Talleyrand. Alexander nevertheless saw himself as the implacable enemy of Napoleon, the usurper, who challenged the concept of legitimate monarchy with a new, unorthodox and dangerous creed.

From Alexander’s meeting with Talleyrand at Erfurt in 1808, the wily Frenchman had begun manipulating the Tsar, insisting the peace of Europe rested with him, not to mention the future of France. Alexander’s own position rested almost entirely upon two props; the weight of his armies, with their patient, peasant soldiery, and the British gold which kept them in the field. And along with the implicit expectations of Britain, he had to balance the demands of Austria. Both countries were represented by brilliant statesmen, Castlereagh and Metternich, whose intellects far surpassed Alexander’s own. Among them all, however, Talleyrand must be regarded as the most able. He was careful to distance himself from the more disreputable goings-on, but we know he was distantly party to a number of stratagems which he doubtless encouraged as a means of distracting attention from his own plans. There was, for instance, a group who wished to assassinate Napoleon, so the humbling of Britain in the wake of the humiliation of Napoleon is a not improbable option considered during the negotiations between Bondy and Paris in the uncertain spring of 1814.

The atmosphere was thus ripe for plots by officers loyal to Napoleon, and there existed a number of these groups pledged to restore the Emperor. A growing Bonapartist faction laboured under the impositions of the first Bourbon restoration, increased the discontent among the middle classes and ensured Napoleon received a rapturous reception when he finally returned from his Elban exile. Most significant was the loyalty of the French army in its entirety. It is said that when the former Imperial Guard paraded for Louis XVIII, they had murder in their eyes.

As for Louis, I have taken few liberties with the sparse accounts of his Channel crossing. Prince William Henry had formerly commanded the frigate
Andromeda
and while accounts vary as to whether he was aboard the
Royal Sovereign,
the
Impregnable
or the
Jason
at the time of the return of the Bourbon king, I have followed Admiral Byam Martin’s recollections, which seemed the most credible, as he knew the Prince well and had a low opinion of him. In a letter to his son, George FitzClarence, Prince William Henry himself boasted he commanded ‘our fleet’ off Calais. The squadron under his flag did, however, include French and Russian warships as well as the principal Trinity House yacht. A painting of the event was exhibited by Nicholas Pocock at the Royal Academy in 1815. HMS
Impregnable
was commanded by Henry Blackwood who had been captain of the
Euryalus
at Trafalgar. Blackwood had been created a baronet and hoisted his flag as an admiral before the end of 1814. Sir Peter Parker of the
Menelaus
was less fortunate; he was killed later that year in the United States near Baltimore, where he had landed to create a diversion during operations against the Americans.

During the period of Napoleon’s exile on Elba, the allied plenipotentiaries assembled at Vienna to determine the future shape of Europe after the fall of Napoleon and break-up of the First French Empire. The congress was characterized by its dances more than its debates and the former allies nearly came to a renewed war, with Britain and Russia leading opposite factions. Napoleon’s father-in-law, the Emperor Francis of Austria, was vigorously opposed to the deposed Emperor’s presence so close to his own possessions in northern Italy, as well as against any further intimacy between Napoleon and his daughter, Marie-Louise. To effect the latter policy he appointed Count Neipperg to her entourage with instructions to seduce the Arch-duchess. Neipperg’s successful debauchery ensured the intellectually dull Marie-Louise forgot her husband and, after Napoleon’s death, married the one-eyed, but dashing count.

During the tortuous negotiations in Vienna and Napoleon’s occupation of the Elban throne, his ultimate fate continued to be discussed, and both the Azores and St Helena were again suggested as possible final solutions to the problem of what to do with the quondam Emperor. At one point the purchase of an Azorean island from the Portuguese was considered. In the event, the dilatory nature of the debates, the increasing discontent in France and the refusal of Louis XVIII to pay Napoleon his pension, guaranteed a brief, heady success for Napoleon as he returned to France for what history knows as ‘The Hundred Days’. The action however, immediately united the congress, which unanimously declared Napoleon an outlaw with the consequence of ultimate defeat for his cause at Waterloo, and his final exile on St Helena.

Taking advantage of the wranglings and intrigues at Vienna, Talleyrand skilfully rehabilitated France among the first rank of European powers. Indeed at one point when a new war seemed inevitable, the idea was mooted that Napoleon himself be brought home from exile in order to command French armies in the field against the Russian faction!

Thus was the eagle finally caged, though Captain Nathaniel Drinkwater was to play one last part in the drama during the Hundred Days.

notes

Footnotes

1

See
1805 

2

See
In Distant Waters 

3

See
The Bomb Vessel
 

4

See
Under False Colours
 

5

See
A King’s Cutter
 

6

See
Beneath the Aurora

7

See
An Eye of the Fleet

8

See
The Flying Squadron
 

9

See
Beneath the Aurora

10

See
The Corvette
 

11

See
Under False Colours
 

12

See
The Flying Squadron