The Generals

Chapter 20

She arched her back and thrust against him as Napoleon groaned, his body shuddering as he climaxed. He pressed against her and held himself there until the moment had passed.Then he slumped forward on to Josephine with a gasp, his heart pounding and his breath swift and ragged from his exertions. She gently placed her arm round his clammy shoulder and kissed the top of his head.

‘Worth waiting for?’ she whispered, giving him a squeeze.

‘What?’ he murmured dozily, still awash with the warm bliss of their lovemaking. ‘What did you say?’

‘Was it worth waiting for? I just wondered, after all those letters you wrote to me. Quite the passionate husband - on paper. I just wondered if you felt the same here in the flesh.’

Napoleon eased himself up on an elbow and gazed down at her, grinning. ‘What do you think? There hasn’t been a day when I haven’t imagined this moment. To be back together, making love, just like that. I feel whole again.’ His expression became serious. ‘Josephine, you are all the world to me.There is no other who moves me as you do. I love every inch of you.’ His hand cupped her breast and he nuzzled her nipple, savouring the sensation of its budlike hardness against his lips.

‘Oh, I’m sure you say that to all your women!’

He rolled off her, and frowned. ‘There aren’t any other women. I swear on my life.’

‘Of course not.’ She cupped his cheek in her hand and gave him a quick kiss. ‘But I wouldn’t really blame you if there were.

From what I understand of soldiers it is all part of your way of life. A wife at home and more than one kind of conquest when you are on campaign. And your campaign has been so successful, my darling.You are the toast of Paris.’

Napoleon ignored the flattering remark. ‘I swear there has been no other.’

‘If you say so.’ She shrugged.‘All I am saying is that I wouldn’t mind if there had been, as far as this is concerned.’ She reached down and gave his penis a gentle tweak.‘Just as long as your heart is mine.’>

‘My heart, body and soul . . .’ Napoleon whispered, and then a dark thought rose into his consciousness and he was seized by a sense of uncertainty and fear. ‘And have you been faithful to me, Josephine?’

There was a brief pause before she replied. ‘Of course I have. What do you take me for? One of your cheap army tarts?’

‘Be serious with me. Tell me the truth.’

‘I am telling you the truth.’

‘On your life, swear it.’

‘I will not swear it, Napoleon. You either trust me or you don’t. What difference would swearing on my life make? I’m telling you, I have been faithful. That should be enough for you, if you really love me, as you say you do.’

Napoleon stared at her a moment longer, looking deep into her eyes for the slightest hint of betrayal, and then he rolled on to his back and shut his eyes.

‘If I thought that you were unfaithful, Josephine, it would break my heart. I could not go on. I could not live knowing that another man has lain with you, like this. That another man has . . .’ He could not say the words. Just the bare thought of it made his stomach clench into a knot. He tried to shake the feeling off by forcing himself to think of something else.

‘Why did you stay in Paris for so long? I thought we had agreed that you would follow me as soon as possible.’

‘I have come to you as soon as I was able,’ Josephine replied evenly. ‘But I had to sort out my travelling chests, and make sure that the house was left in good order for our return. Then I was ill for some weeks. Too ill to travel, at least.’ She fumbled for his hand and squeezed it. ‘I had hoped that I was with child, but nothing came of it. It was just a chill. But I hope we will be blessed one day, even though I will not remain in my childbearing years for ever. Besides,’ her tone took on a lighter note,‘I am sure that I would have been an unwelcome distraction for the only general who seems to be winning any battles for France.’

‘A distraction, yes. But not an unwelcome one.’

‘A distraction all the same.’ She laughed. ‘I doubt France would ever forgive me if I caused your concentration to slip from the task of beating the Austrians. And forgive me for saying this, but I am not terribly interested in military matters. I am only really at home in society, and would rather share that world with you than a humble campaign tent and the rough company of your soldiers.’

‘This is hardly a humble campaign tent.’ Napoleon gestured round the room, a fine bedchamber in one of the best houses in Milan. It was far larger and more gracious than the bedroom they had shared in the brief period between their marriage and his departure to take up command of the Army of Italy. ‘I can keep you far more comfortably here in Italy than in Paris.You would not want for anything.’

‘Apart from all my friends.’

‘I am sure you will make new friends here,’ Napoleon said quietly. ‘Besides, is being with your friends preferable to being with your husband?’

‘Of course not! But you cannot expect me to so easily give up my home, my friends, everything that was part of my life long before you appeared. As it is, I have brought some of my friends with me. And Hortense and Eugène, I hope you will try to become a good father to them. They need one.’

‘I will do my best.’ Napoleon yawned, his weariness creeping up on him like a soft warm shroud. ‘I will find a post for Eugène on my staff. As for your friends, I will make them feel welcome. While the campaign against Austria lasts we can create our own social life here in Italy.You’ll be treated like a princess, I promise.

And I’ll have my family join us. My mother, sisters and brothers.’ He smiled fondly. ‘To have all those I love close to me. I’ve not known that since I was a child. Not since I was sent away to school.’

Josephine shifted next to him, and he sensed a slight stiffening of her body.

‘What’s the matter, my love?’

There was a pause before Josephine replied.‘Your family is the matter.They’ve made little secret of their dislike for me, especially your mother and sisters. It seems that they don’t consider me worthy to be your wife. As if I was some common slut.’

‘That’s the Corsican blood. They tend to see the rest of the world as somehow beneath them.’

‘But not you?’

‘My future is tied to that of France. Paoli and his henchmen threw us out of Corsica. I owe Corsica nothing. But my family still feel as if they belong to the island, particularly the women, and Mother most of all.You must try to ignore them, Josephine. All that matters is how I feel about you. You married me, not them.’

‘I married into your family,’ Josephine responded. ‘That’s how they see it. And for that they treat me like a trespasser, or a poacher.’

‘A poacher,’ Napoleon mused sleepily. ‘Then I must be your game.’

‘Oh, you!’ She punched him playfully, then leaned over to kiss him on the lips, and rested her head on his shoulder as he drifted off to sleep.

Josephine’s entourage was everything Napoleon had feared. A string of brightly dressed women, all big mouths and small talk - some of the smallest talk he had ever encountered. They proved to be an unwelcome distraction for his staff officers and senior generals, who found every excuse to visit the army’s headquarters and stay long after the briefings and meetings were over. In addition to her female coterie a number of young men had travelled to Milan with her. Some were on official business: art specialists sent to select the finest works of art to be shipped to Paris under the terms of various treaties that had been imposed by France; scientists and topographers to select various papers and maps from the most prestigious academies of Italy; and a handful of officers in glittering uniforms that had never been near a battlefield, or a field of any kind, Napoleon mused. There was one in particular who caught his eye. A tall, fair lieutenant of hussars who seemed to follow Josephine everywhere, carrying her pug, Fortuné, tucked under his arm.

‘Who is he?’ Napoleon nodded towards the hussar as they walked with a small crowd of guests around the ornate gardens of the mansion he had chosen for his quarters.

Josephine turned to look in the direction her husband had indicated and smiled. ‘That’s Hippolyte Charles. Rather elegant, don’t you think? Quite a catch for my salon in Paris. The ladies adore him.’

‘Why is he not on active service?’

‘He’s incompetent as a cavalry officer, by all accounts - despite being what one might describe as a fine mount in other ways. Anyway, he has a private fortune, very few duties, and a desire to see how well my husband and his army are performing. So I invited him along. You don’t mind? He’s devoted to my dog.’

‘No, of course not, my dear,’ Napoleon replied evenly, though he could think of better uses to which he might put a cavalry officer than looking after a lap dog. On the other hand, anyone who kept that wretched pug away from him should be considered a blessing, he reflected, recalling a nasty bite that Fortuné had once inflicted on him when the little beast had refused to give up his space on Josephine’s bed to him. Napoleon frowned at the memory. ‘Would you like me to find a place for him on my staff ?’

Josephine shrugged. ‘If you like. But I warn you, the man has air for brains. I can’t think that he would be of any value to you.’

‘Perhaps not, but if it would please you?’

‘You’re very kind.’ Josephine smiled. ‘But I think a man of his intellectual pedigree is best suited to serving as my dog groom.’

Napoleon laughed. ‘Very well. I cannot think of a man I’d rather wish Fortuné on.’

Josephine turned and swatted him on the shoulder with her fan. ‘What is wrong with my darling dog?’

Napoleon glanced at the pug, which promptly bared its teeth at him. ‘Let’s just say his bite is worse than his bark.’

The time that Napoleon could spare for Josephine was as precious to him as any treasure, especially since the Austrians were intent on relieving the fortress at Mantua. Towards the end of July a new offensive was launched from the Tyrol under an old veteran, General Wurmser. Napoleon was roused from the bed he shared with Josephine in the early hours, and for several days he hardly left his saddle as the French army was driven back by the enemy advancing in three columns. For his men, so used to advancing, being forced on to the defensive was an unfamiliar and dispiriting experience. So dangerous was the situation that Napoleon was forced to summon Serurier from Mantua, with orders to spike all the siege guns that had just been laboriously positioned to bombard the fortress. With all his men concentrated into a single force, Napoleon fell on each enemy column in turn and defeated them all. The routes down which the Austrians retreated were choked with bodies, abandoned cannon and wagons. Muskets and other equipment had been cast aside as they fled, and all that remained were the stragglers and the wounded, sitting amid the wreckage of their proud army as they waited to be taken prisoner.

Even so, before falling back with his battered army Wurmser had managed to reinforce and resupply Mantua and now, to Napoleon’s intense frustration, the fortress would be able to hold out for several more months. Serurier’s men, who returned to the siege, rapidly began to succumb to the unhealthy conditions in the surrounding marshes and by August over fifteen thousand of his men were on the sick list. Every large building in the country around Mantua was packed with suffering soldiers, racked by fever and hunger, while outside the lines of the graves lengthened day by day. There was no question of an assault on the fortress. The best that could be done was to blockade the garrison and hope to starve them out.

‘It’s impossible!’ he raged at Berthier one evening in August, after reading the latest dispatches from his masters in Paris. ‘They might have abandoned that absurd plan to split the army, but how can we defeat Austria when the Directory starves us of reinforcements? Now it seems they want us to launch an attack on Naples. With what?’ He threw the letter aside with a look of bitter contempt. ‘I have barely enough men to hold the line against Wurmser. Do they think I can conjure soldiers out of thin air?’

Berthier waited a moment for his general to calm down, and then spoke quietly. ‘You must write to them, sir.’

‘Another letter?’ Napoelon shook his head. ‘What use would it serve?’

‘We have to keep trying, sir. Tell them that they must make peace with Naples. It is the price of victory against Austria. Once Wurmser is defeated there will be plenty of time to turn on Naples. But if we fight on two fronts now, we’ll surely be defeated.’

Napoleon stabbed a finger towards the discarded letter. ‘You think they don’t know that? What’s worse is that it seems they are intent on breaking the armistice with Rome. Already our agents tell me the Pope is negotiating with Naples and Venice to form a coalition against us. I tell you, Berthier, it’s almost as if the Directory is hell bent on sabotaging all that I have achieved here in Italy.’

‘It wouldn’t be the first time that you suspected them of undermining you,’ Berthier said quietly.

‘Undermining me?’ Napoleon laughed. ‘Hardly that. They’re betraying me. Me and every single soldier of the Army of Italy. And why do they do it? Do they imagine I have designs on their power? What cause have I given them to suspect that?’ He paused, rose from his chair and crossed to the window to stare down into the garden. Josephine and her coterie were sitting listening to a string quartet. As usual Hippolyte Charles was at her side with Fortuné curled up on his lap. Napoleon frowned. He dearly longed to be as close to Josephine, yet the pressures of his command seemed to demand his attention to the exclusion of almost everything else. He turned back to his chief of staff wearily.

‘I’ll write to Barras. I’ll tell him that unless we make peace in Italy, then it is only a question of time before the army collapses under assault from Austria and the papal allies. We need time to rest our men. Time for those who are ill to recover. If the Directory refuses to negotiate for peace, then I will resign from command of the Army of Italy.’

‘Resign?’ Berthier shook his head.‘You can’t do that, sir. Without you, the army would still be wasting away in Piedmont.You must convince the Directors to come to terms with our enemies.’

‘You and I know that,’ Napoleon replied bitterly. ‘But we don’t make policy. That is the job of men who live far from the consequences of their decisions. That’s what it means to be a politician. Sometimes I wonder if a nation at war can afford to be ruled by politicians.’ He smiled quickly. ‘Not a wise thought for a soldier to speak aloud, eh, Berthier?’

‘That may be true, sir, but it’s a thought that has occurred to most soldiers at some time or other.’

‘Then it’s just as well that our Austrian and Italian friends are keeping us occupied.’ Napoleon waved Berthier towards the small writing desk in the corner. ‘I’ll send two letters. One to Paris, and one to Wurmser.’

‘General Wurmser?’

Napoleon nodded. ‘If we can’t depend on our own government to make peace then let’s see if we can make the enemy see sense. I’ll ask them for terms for the surrender of Mantua and an armistice.’

‘Do you really think they will accept, sir?’

‘I don’t know. All I can do is put it to them while we wait for a reply from Paris.We’ll just have to wait and see if anyone comes to their senses.’

There was no response from the Austrians and Napoleon could understand why. Despite having been defeated in the recent campaign they could draw on more men for the next attempt. At the same time their diplomacy with the Italian states hostile to France was bearing fruit. The King of Naples marched north at the head of his army to join Wurmser. Napoleon immediately sent a message to the King warning him that Naples would share the fate of Pavia if he advanced any further north than Rome, and for a while at least the Neapolitans halted, no doubt waiting to see how the French fared against the Austrian army, which was preparing to launch yet another attack. From the Directory came mere words of encouragement and a plea for Napoleon to retain his command.

Encouragement did not win battles, he fumed, and he dispatched another letter promising the Directory to squeeze further money out of the Italians, if he was sent thirty thousand more men. Otherwise, Napoleon might not be able to defeat the next Austrian army sent against him.Then, late in October, came the news he was dreading. A new Austrian commander had been appointed, General Alvinzi, and he had already advanced as far as the Piave river.While Napoleon gathered his men to counter the latest attack the Austrians drove into the first line of defence, at Corona, and forced Masséna to retreat.As early winter set in with cold rain and bitter winds the French troops continued to give ground, pressed by the Austrian vanguard.

Outnumbered almost two to one Napoleon finally saw a slim chance of snatching back the initiative in November.

‘The enemy think they have us beaten,’ he told his senior commanders in his headquarters tent. Overhead rain drummed steadily on the canvas, forcing him to raise his voice to ensure that everyone heard his words and no misunderstandings would occur. ‘So, we will indulge them.Tomorrow we will continue the retreat towards Verona. As soon as night falls we will march back, round their advance units, and strike them in the rear, at Villanova. If we can destroy their baggage train and supplies Alvinzi will be forced to abandon his attack on Verona. I’ll be taking Masséna’s and Augereau’s divisions. Masséna will cross the Adige near Ronco, then march north to attack the enemy flank. Meanwhile the main attack will come from Augereau’s division.’

‘Where will I cross the river?’ General Augereau asked.

Napoleon turned to the map frame that had been erected at the head of the table. He ran his finger down the line of the river until it came to a bridge over the Alpone - a tributary of the Adige.

‘Here, at Arcola.’ Napoleon turned to Augereau. ‘We have to secure the crossing or there will be no chance of surprising the Austrians. Arcola is the key. If we win the coming battle, gentlemen, then we win the campaign. If we lose, then the Army of Italy will be smashed and scattered and our men will be at the mercy of every Italian peasant with a grievance. It all depends on this battle.’ He turned back to the map. ‘It all depends on the crossing at Arcola.’