BERNADOTTE. 



295 



the preliminaries of an accommodation had been 

 signed in October 1797, Bernadotte was quartered 

 at Treviso with his division, when he received the 

 appointment from the directory of ambassador at 

 Vienna. He accepted this embassy, and was re- 

 ceived at the imperial court with every ;tiark of' 

 distinction. An unfortunate event, however, soon j 

 put an end to his diplomatic mission. On the 

 occasion of a public festival, he outraged the feel- 

 ings of the people by hoisting the tri-coloured flag, 

 and was near falling a victim to their vengeance. 

 As the directory did not take up the case with the 

 ardour he had anticipated, he threw up the embassy, 

 and retired with disgust to Paris. The directory 

 offered him in consolation a command of one of the i 

 interior provinces of France, which he indignantly 

 declined. At a subsequent period the embassy to 

 Holland was proffered him ; but in his letter to the 

 directory, he expressed the repugnance he felt for 

 all diplomatic concerns, and it was not until 1799 

 that he again took an employment, when the com- 

 mand in chief of the army of observation was con- 

 ferred upon him, and he afterwards went into active 

 service at the head of the army of the Lower 

 Rhine, under the superior command of General 

 Jourdan. Reverses were now crowding thick upon 

 the arms of France, owing principally to the un- 

 skilful management of affairs at home by the direc- 

 tory. With the view of giving a fresh impetus to 

 the war department, Bernadotte was recalled from 

 the army, and placed at its head. During his short 

 administration, the most vigorous measures for sup- 

 plying the armies were taken, but mutual disgusts 

 and suspicions sprung up between him and the 

 directory, and he once more retired from office. 

 He took shelter in a small house in the Faubourg 

 du Mousseaux, and gave himself up to domestic 

 enjoyments. In August 1798, he had married 

 Mademoiselle Clary, sister to the wife of Joseph 

 Bonaparte, with which latter personage this con- 

 nection drew closer his previous bonds of friend- 

 ship. 



The occurrences of the 18th Brumaire, which 

 unseated the directory, and placed Bonaparte at 

 the head of affairs as first consul, met with neither 

 decided opposition nor participation on the part of 

 Bernadotte ; and if he disapproved of the proceed- 

 ings of Bonaparte, and offered his services to the 

 directory to oppose his attempt, as the more ardent 

 admirers of Bernadotte allege, it is at all events 

 certain, that, upon the accomplishment of the re- 

 volution, he accepted the office of counsellor of 

 state, and the command of the army destined to 

 eradicate the royalists from La Vendee. In this 

 harassing and dangerous expedition he met with 

 great success ; and though the letters he wrote to 

 Bonaparte from the scene of his operations evince 

 a perfect submission to his will and attachment to 

 his person, a discovery of treason in his aid-de- 

 camp Marbot, caused Bernadotte to lose the confi- 

 dence of the first consul, and, consequently, both 

 his employments. 



The assumption by Bonaparte of the imperial 

 dignity, again brought Bernadotte on the stage. 

 He was one of the first who signed the document 

 by virtue of which Napoleon was elected emperor 

 of the French ; and, on the inauguration, he ad- 

 dressed to him a very flattering harangue, in which 

 he took formal leave of those republican doctrines 

 which he had through life so ardently professed. 

 In these acts, Bernadotte WHS probably actuated by 

 very sincere affection for his country, being con- 



vinced, in common with many of the staunchcst 

 defenders of extreme ideas of equality, that a tem- 

 porary dictatorship, in the hands of an energetic 

 individual, was necessary to suppress the disorders 

 which had so long produced instability and confu- 

 sion. One of the first acts of Bonaparte, as 

 emperor, was to appoint Bernadotte a marshal of the 

 empire, and general of the army in Hanover. In 

 September 1805, the campaign opened, which was 

 concluded on the 2d of December by the battle of 

 Austerlitz, and the annihilation of the Austrian 

 power. In that series of events, Bernadotte bore 

 a conspicuous part; and the emperor's gratitude 

 was evinced by creating him, on the 5th of June, 

 1806, Prince and Duke of Ponte Corvo. At this 

 period he possessed the confidence and favour of 

 Napoleon in an eminent degree ; and in the war 

 which now broke out with Prussia, he received the 

 command of one of the centre divisions of the grand 

 army. The victory of Jena laid Prussia at the feet 

 of Napoleon. Bernadotte put a finishing hand to 

 the Prussian forces, by defeating their body of re- 

 serve under Prince Eugene of Wirtemburg, and 

 afterwards in receiving the surrender of General 

 Bliicher and his corps, in conjunction with Murat 

 and Marshal Soult. Before the conclusion of the 

 campaign, which was illustrated by the fiercely con- 

 tested battles of Eylau and Friedland, Bernadotte 

 was wounded at the bridge of Spandau, which 

 obliged him to quit the army, and surrender his 

 command to Marshal Victor. In 1808, he was sent 

 with an army into Denmark ; and when, in 1809, 

 a fresh war broke out with Austria, he was 

 entrusted with the command of the Saxon army. 

 A mistake alleged to have been committed by him 

 in the battle of Wagram, drew down the censure 

 of Napoleon, and he quitted the army on the plea 

 of ill health ; but he was afterwards given the com- 

 mand at Antwerp, upon the landing of the British 

 forces at Walcheren. This was his last employ- 

 ment under Napoleon, and it was withdrawn from 

 him under rather irritating circumstances. 



One of the results of the famous conferences at 

 Tilsit, between the emperors of France and Russia, 

 was the invasion of Finland, a province of Sweden, 

 by the latter; which was conquered in one cam- 

 paign. In the midst of this invasion, the country 

 was paralysed by civil strifes, which were ulti- 

 mately appeased by the forcible, though bloodless, 

 dethronement of the reigning monarch, Gustavus 

 IV., and the election of the Duke of Sudermania 

 to the throne, under the title of Charles XIII. 

 This event took place in June 1809, when the con- 

 stitution of the state was settled on a liberal repre- 

 sentative basis. An alliance with France followed, 

 and Napoleon was applied to by the new king, to 

 use his all-commanding influence with Russia, to 

 procure for Sweden the restitution, at all events, 

 of the islands of Aland. Napoleon returned an 

 answer, brief and bitter " Apply to the Emperor 

 Alexander ; he is great and generous 1" Thus left 

 to itself, Sweden was at the mercy of Russia, and 

 was compelled to cede, by treaty, what had been 

 taken by force; thus advancing the Russian fron- 

 tiers within a few hours' sail of Stockholm. By 

 the constitution of the 6th of June 1809, the death 

 of the heir to the throne was to be followed by an 

 election of a crown prince by the states-general, on 

 the nomination of the king. The violent death of 

 Charles Augustus, crown prince of Sweden, on the 

 'JOth June 1810, created a vacancy; and to supply 

 it, four candidates declared themselves the eldest 



