46 NAPOLEON BONAPARTE bark instantly for the United States. But Na- poleon, arriving at Rochefort with a view to fly, found that there would be little probability of escaping the vigilance of the British cruisers, and voluntarily surrendered himself to Capt. Maitland, of the British war ship Bellerophon. The British government ordered his detention as a prisoner, and finally consigned him to the island of St. Helena for life. He landed at his place of imprisonment Oct.. 16, 1815, and re- mained there, alternately fretting at the re- straints imposed upon him and dictating me- moirs of his extraordinary career, till May 5, 1821, when he died of an ulcer of the stomach, the same disease which had carried off his father. On the 8th of May his remains were interred beneath some weeping willows, near a fountain in Slane's valley; but 20 years afterward the king of the French, Louis Philippe, procured the removal of his ashes to France, where they were deposited Dec. 15, 1840, beneath a mag- nificent monument, in the Hotel des Invalides. Napoleon's marvellous character and career have occupied numberless pens, and the most divergent judgments have been passed upon them ; but he has almost universally been ac- corded the possession of unsurpassed military ability, of indomitable self-reliance, of prodi- gious energy, and of a lofty and commanding intellect. The bibliography of Napoleon forms a literature, and we can therefore refer only to a few of the leading works in French and Eng- lish. The Memoires by Bourrienne, the Sou- venirs historiquea by the duchess d'Abrantes, the Memorial de Sainte-HeUne by Las Cases, and the "Voice from St. Helena" by Barry O'Meara, are widely known, as are also the biographies of Napoleon by Sir Walter Scott, Lockhart, and Hazlitt. Besides these we must mention the various complete and selected edi- tions of (Enures de Napoleon; Recueil par ordre cJironologique de ses lettres, proclamations, &c. (2 vols., Paris, 1855); Le consulut et Vem- ?ire by Thiers (20 vols.), and Le eonsulat et 'empire, ou Hutoire de France et de Napoleon Bonaparte, by Thibaudeau (10 vols.) ; the works of Montholon aud Gourgaud, under Napoleon's dictation (respectively 4 vols. and 2 vols.) ; Vie politigue et militaire de Napoleon, by Jomini (4 vols.); Documents particuliers sur Na- poleon: Court diplomatique et politigue, ex- trait du Moniteur (7 vols.) ; Memoires pour sermr a Vnistoire, by Savary (4 vols.) ; Precis des etenements militaires, by Mathieu Dumas (19 vols.) ; " History of the Captivity of Na- poleon at St. Helena, from the Letters and Journals of the late Lieut. Gen. Sir Hudson Lowe " (3 vols.). Among valuable later histo- ries of Napoleon are those by Elias Regnault (4 vols., 1846), by M. de Norvins (4 vols., 21st ed., 1851), by Begin (5 vols., 1853-'4), by Baron Mar- tin (de Gray), (3 vols., 2d enlarged ed., 1858), and by Pierre Lanfrey (Paris, 1867 et serf. ; Eng- lish, London, 1871). See further, Correspon- dance de Napoleon 1" (32 vols., 1858-'69, the latter part edited under Prince Napoleon's di- rection as president of the committee of publi- cation ; abstract in German by Kurz, 3 vols., 1868-'70). Josephine (MARIE JOSEPHS ROSE TASCHEE DB LA PAOEEIE), first wife of the pre- ceding, born at Trois-Ilets, Martinique, in June, 1763, died at Malmaison, near Paris, May 29, 1814. Her father derived his surname Pagerie from a family estate near Blois, whence he had emigrated to Martinique, to serve as a naval officer under the marquis de Beauharnais, then in command of that island. Her mother, Rose Claire des Verges de Sannois, belonged to a family which had likewise settled in the colonies. In December, 1779, she was married at Noisy-le-Grand, France, to the viscount do Beauharnais, then about 18 years of age. She went with her husband to Paris, where in the house of her mother-in-law, Mme. Fanny de Beauharnais, she became acquainted with literary society. Her grace and loveliness were admired, but the education which she had received at the convent of Port-Royal, adequate for colonial life, did not fit her for the society in which the viscount moved. The imhappiness arising from this cause was soon aggravated by the husband's gallantries and the wife's complaints. Beauharnais finally brought suit for divorce in 1785. After a trial lasting nearly a year the court exonerated Josephine from all charges, authorized a sep- aration, and ordered the husband to provide for her support and that of her daughter, but awarded him the custody of the son. The whole Beauharnais family siding with Jose- phine, she took up her residence with her father-in-law, and in June, 1788, she visited her parents in Martinique. On her return to Paris in the autumn of 1790 she became recon- ciled with her husband, and after his imprison- ment she was arrested herself while attempt- ing to release him, and narrowly escaped shar- ing his death by the guillotine (1794). Mme. de Fontenay, afterward Mme. Tallien, one of her fellow prisoners, on recovering her liberty, procured the liberation of Josephine, and aft- erward the restoration to her of -a portion of her husband's confiscated estates. Among the many stories of the origin of her acquaint- ance with Bonaparte, that relating to the ap- plication of her son Eugene for his father's sword, and Josephine's visit to thank him for his kindness to her son, is regarded as the most authentic. At this time she had removed from the rue de 1'Universite to a house in the rue Chantereine which she had purchased from Talma, and here she received many visitors, Bonaparte habitually spending his evenings in her society. She was married to him March 9, 1796, and in less than a fortnight afterward her husband went to the seat of war in Italy. She joined him at his request, but was ap- palled at the sight of the battlefield, and soon returned. Bonaparte continued in the midst of his arduous labors to address to her tender epistles, and to complain of her lukewarm return of his love. She was with him at
Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume III.djvu/52
This page needs to be proofread.
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b1/The_American_Cyclop%C3%A6dia_%281879%29_Volume_III.djvu/page52-1024px-The_American_Cyclop%C3%A6dia_%281879%29_Volume_III.djvu.jpg)