Читать книгу The Golden Bees - Daniel Henderson - Страница 14

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If Betsy Patterson were a wild swan, Robert Patterson, her eldest brother, was of the same feather as his father—a domesticated young man who had yet sufficient poise and shrewdness to make his way round the world, form friendships with influential persons, and advance the family's fortunes. If Betsy's romance upset her parents, Robert could be depended upon to give them no concern about his own choice of a mate. It was a surety that he would wed an American girl of fine family. He was a frequent visitor at the Catons', was paying special attention to pretty Mary, and it was rumored that their engagement would soon be announced.

It was Robert who had vigorously supported his father's efforts to check Betsy's headlong leap into uncertain matrimony. However, now that his sister was married, he had become just as energetic in obtaining Napoleon's acknowledgment of the marriage.

In a family gathering, when Betsy had adroitly brought up the topic of how soon and by what means they might sail for France, and when the still enamored Jerome had announced vehemently his intention of finding a swift way of taking his bride to Paris, Robert volunteered to go to France ahead of them in one of his father's ships to enlist the aid of the American Minister and other persons of influence.

"It'll be well for me," he advised Betsy, "to feel the pulse of Napoleon before you sail. He is ruthless in his dealings with any one who interferes with his ambitions. Now that England is at war with France, he must be persuaded that an alliance with America, by marriage, is more important than an alliance with some small kingdom. They are saying in Washington that if there were not war at this time between England and France, the French arms would be turned against the United States on account of the marriage."

"I did not dream," mocked Betsy, "that I could become a modern Helen—inciting nations to war. I intend, my dear brother, to make such charms as I have, weapons for peace!"

To Jerome she said: "Probably Robert is wise. Our engagements in Philadelphia and New York will occupy us for months. It will be nice to meet the French people of Philadelphia and Boston and New York, and to be entertained in New York by the officers of the French fleet. In the meantime Robert can be showing your brother that you have married into a family of wealth and influence—one that may some day offer him, if he has ill fortune, a sanctuary not to be scorned."

In France at this time was sojourning Captain Paul Bentalou, of Baltimore, who had served with distinction in Count Pulaski's legion of cavalry during the American Revolution.

"I can visit Bentalou," Robert suggested to his father, "and he can act as my interpreter if I manage to see Napoleon or his brothers."

William Patterson consented, especially since Robert could combine business with this family duty, the son having become attorney for some American gentlemen who wanted to press certain claims against France.

Bearing an appealing letter from Jerome to the First Consul, Robert went first to London. There James Monroe, American envoy to England and France, a friend of the Pattersons, met him.

"My sister Elizabeth, sir, desires to be remembered to you," Robert said.

Mr. Monroe chuckled.

"And what does that lovely disturber of nations desire me to do? It would be highly indiscreet for me to add anything to what the President has written."

"You know men in Paris who—"

"Oh, letters of introduction, eh? Of course I'll give you those. Would I could do more to pry open the doors of the French court for the charming Elizabeth."

To Barbé-Marbois, an influential French gentleman who had acted as a negotiator for President Jefferson in the Louisiana purchase, Monroe wrote:

"You have doubtless heard that Jerome Bonaparte is married to Miss Patterson of Baltimore. Her father is wealthy and one of the most respectable citizens of that town, or rather of the State of Maryland. Her mother is a sister of General Smith, a member of the Senate of the United States, the officer who defended Mud Island below Philadelphia in our Revolution. The young lady is amiable, very handsome, and perfectly innocent. The bearer of this is her brother, who goes to Paris, from this place, to carry a letter from Jerome to the First Consul, which was transmitted to me by her father."

The envoy's immensely interested daughter, having been a schoolmate of Madame Louis Bonaparte at Madame Campan's Academy in Paris, supplied Robert with a letter to that lady, and added for good measure a letter to Madame Campan herself, who was on intimate terms with the family of the First Consul. Thus fortified, the herald and advocate of the Jerome Bonapartes sailed for Paris.

Unfortunately for the youngest brother of Napoleon in his hope of winning the First Consul's approval of his marriage to a girl of the people, his brother Lucien had already set Napoleon aflame by his union with Madame Jouberthon, a beautiful young woman of twenty-four, widow of a Paris stock-jobber.

The scheming First Consul, on the death of the puppet King of Etruria, had planned to promote the interests of France in Italy and Spain by marrying Lucien to the King's widow, the Infanta Maria Louisa, daughter of Carlos IV of Spain, even though Lucien had protested that she was "ugly, fat, lame, crooked, and almost a dwarf."

Terrible was the wrath of Napoleon when he learned that Lucien had contracted a civil and legal marriage with Madame Jouberthon—and realized that by the ceremony Lucien had recognized as his legitimate son a boy born to Madame Jouberthon in the previous May. This meant that if Napoleon or Joseph failed to have sons, a boy that was "the fruit of a union that a tardy marriage alone had legitimated," would become the heir to the throne of France. This fact had given the Royalists, and other foes of the Bonaparte dynasty, a choice weapon.

Napoleon had furiously forbidden Lucien to permit his wife to bear his name and had demanded that he divorce her.

"See how far," he stormed, "you have carried your infatuation for a femme galante."

"At least," Lucien retorted, alluding to Josephine, "mine is young and pretty!"

The boldness of the reply had enraged the First Consul beyond all bounds. He had in his hands at that moment his watch. Dashing it with all his might to the floor, he cried:

"Since you will listen to nothing, see, I will break you like this watch!"

Lucien, still defiant, not only had directed his wife to take the name Bonaparte, but also had induced his mother and Joseph and his wife to receive her. Napoleon's treatment of him, however, remained bitter and oppressive.

If Lucien had offended against the personal Napoleon, that might have been condoned, but instead—let Jerome take warning—he had committed the unforgivable sin of hindering the dynasty the First Consul planned to establish.

*****

Paris, at the time of Robert's visit, had become the capital of the civilized world. The too simple manners and coarse language of the Republic under the convention had been succeeded by politeness in speech and elegance in manners and dress. Fashion had resumed her sway. The streets were thronged with foreigners, to the delight of the shop-keepers, who applauded Napoleon for having brought them trade.

Robert went at once in search of the American Minister, whom he found occupying modest lodgings, seemingly lost in the swarm of diplomats surrounding Napoleon.

Mr. Livingston, with little ceremony, demolished the none-too-ardent hopes of the young man.

"I can offer you not even a shadow of encouragement," he said. "Though I have made every possible effort to influence Napoleon favorably, I have had no success. Upon this matter it has been impossible for me to obtain an audience with the First Consul, nor can I promise that he will give you an interview. Joseph Bonaparte, who acts as his Grand Vizier, has made one little concession. He will see you privately and alone, and will give his porter orders accordingly. I confess I felt shocked at the proposal and observed with some warmth that it would be unbecoming for you to introduce yourself in that mysterious way, and perhaps meet with a humiliating reception."

Robert brooded upon his information.

"I quite agree with you, sir," he said, "that it would be humiliating both to me and my family to approach the Bonapartes in the way suggested. I would rather return to America without seeing them."

"It will not be necessary to go that far," said Mr. Livingston. "Now that I have warned you of the apparent hopelessness of the case, let me give you this word of encouragement. Mr. Lucien Bonaparte has returned to Paris and intends to invite you to call on his family. Lucien is adored by his mother, who is none too well pleased with the First Consul's autocratic sway over the family.

"'Madame Mère,' as we call the mother of the Bonapartes, is an important person for you to meet, for I understand that so long as she withholds her consent to Jerome's marriage it is invalid in France—and Napoleon is coercing her not to give that consent. Lucien may prove to be your key to the old lady's heart."

From the American Minister's, Robert went in search of Captain Paul Bentalou, whose welcome was far more inspiring.

"Whatever your errand, the gods be blest for sending you to Paris!" cried that gay-hearted gentleman, his spirits bubbling with the wine he poured. "So you have come yourself to plead in behalf of the adorable Betsy with the Eagle of France! I fear you will have small success, for the Eagle is spreading his wings to fly to a royal perch and your sister, attractive as she is, has no kingdom to offer him. However, be sure that I will be a devoted servant in her cause!"

Robert produced the letters he had brought.

"Ah," said the Pole, as he fingered the notes, "this one from Miss Monroe to Madame Louis Bonaparte—Josephine's daughter, Hortense Beauharnais, you know—should carry weight. Lucien, however, is your best approach. He is the least under the influence of Napoleon—he scorns the First Consul's ambitions to be Emperor, and he has influence with his mother. If Napoleon sees that the entire family is on Jerome's side—he may yield. But I warn you that the chances are instead that he will use titles and gold lavishly in his efforts to win them to his side. It has got to be that to resist Napoleon's slightest wish is the most serious offense a Frenchman can commit!"

The next morning a messenger brought Robert a note from Lucien Bonaparte:

"Mr. and Mrs. Lucien Bonaparte are extremely desirous of seeing Mr. Patterson, brother-in-law of Mr. Jerome. They will both remain at home the whole morning in hopes he will have the goodness to call on them."

"The Bonaparte door is an inch open," Robert cried to Bentalou as he summoned the Captain to be his interpreter in the approaching interview.

"Would that I with a blow on Monsieur Napoleon's nose could knock it off its hinges!" whispered the gallant Pole, in his zeal careless of how he mixed his symbols.

Lucien and his wife, a pretty, animated little woman, received the pair with sincere cordiality. Robert saw before him a gentleman who lacked the handsomeness of Jerome, but who yet seemed more dependable. His host appeared to be under thirty. He was tall and ungainly, having huge limbs and a small head. He had, however, an agreeable smile which redeemed his plain features, and because of that smile Robert dared to hope.

After Lucien had inquired earnestly concerning the health of "Madame Jerome Bonaparte," and had read to him by Robert certain letters showing the high position occupied in American society by the Patterson family, he said to Robert through Captain Bentalou:

"Tell Mr. Patterson, and let his father know, that our mother, myself and the whole family, with one voice, and as heartily as I do, highly approve of the match. The Consul, it is true, does not for the present concur with us, but he is to be considered as isolated from his family. Placed on the lofty ground on which he stands as the first magistrate of a great and powerful nation, all his actions and ideas are directed by a policy with which we have nothing to do.

"We still remain plain citizens; and, as such, from all we have learned of the young lady's character and the respectability of her friends, we feel highly gratified with the connection—they need not in the least be hurt by the displeasure of the Consul; I myself, although of an age to be my own master, and occupying distinguished places under the Government, have also by my late marriage incurred his displeasure, so that Jerome is not alone. But, as when we do marry, we are to consult our own happiness and not that of another, it matters not who else is, or is not, to be displeased. Our present earnest wish is that Jerome may remain where he now is, and take the proper steps to become, as soon as possible, a citizen of the United States."

"Pardon me, sir," said Captain Bentalou, "that is not such an easy matter as you perhaps think—it requires an ordeal of seven years previous thereto; and then he would have formally to swear fidelity to the United States, and to renunciation of all titles of nobility, places of honor or profit, allegiance or attachment to all other countries, and particularly to the one of his nativity."

"Very well," retorted Lucien, "Jerome must do all that; he must go through that novitiate. The dignified attainment of a citizen of the United States is well worth it. His situation is much preferable to ours. We are yet on a tempestuous sea, and he is safely moored into a safe, and incomparably happy harbor. He must positively change his mode of living, and must not, as he has hitherto done, act the part of a prince of royal blood; not to think himself anything more than he really is, and to strive as soon as possible to assimilate himself to the plain and uncorrupted manners of your incomparable nation, of which we will all rejoice to see him a worthy member. We are now making arrangements to provide genteelly for him. We wish him to live on equal footing with your most respectable citizens, but never beyond any of them."

At parting, Lucien exerted himself to show that he considered Robert rather in the light of a relative than of a friend.

"I shall expect you gentlemen to dine with me tomorrow. I shall expect to see you every three or four days, and if you disappoint me I shall be obliged to quarrel with you."

*****

"That," said William Patterson, as he read to Betsy from Robert's letters that the Bonaparte family desired Jerome to reside permanently in America, "is a most sensible proposition. I can make something of Jerome if he enters my employ. This Napoleon skyrocket will come to earth in a shower of sparks some day—why should Jerome be one of those sparks?"

Betsy's heart had sunk as she read the letter. This would never do. She had married Jerome to gain a distinguished place in Europe. She might as well have married James Randolph if she was to spend her life in America. Jerome must be persuaded not to yield to Lucien's appeal. It relieved her to see that he was not enthusiastic concerning the proposal.

"It is a foolish thing to do," Betsy said to her father. "You forget the joy of being a skyrocket—of flaming across the skies of Europe—even if just for a moment. But we are to be stars, not cinders."

*****

It was at a later meeting that Robert told Lucien of his brother Joseph's desire to receive Robert Patterson secretly.

"Your Minister has certainly misunderstood!" he said. "Joseph is eager to see you. He is now at Malmaison, the Consul's residence, but when he returns he will see you. I shall be glad to attend you there!"

With particular interest the American brother-in-law of the Bonapartes looked forward to meeting Hortense, wife of Louis. Had not her mother come a stranger to France from western shores? Surely she of all this ambitious family was the one most fitted to sympathize with Betsy. But, because she was overruled by the First Consul, no notice was paid by her to the letter of introduction Robert had conveyed to her.

Failing to receive encouragement from Hortense, Robert took comfort from Bentalou's comment on Joseph's career, which tended to prove that Joseph, Napoleon's eldest brother, by birth the head of the family, should by his own marriage be bound by a common sentiment with Jerome.

"Whom," asked Bentalou of Robert and the ceiling, "did Joseph Bonaparte marry? Was his bride of as high a station as your lovely sister? I think not! She was Julie Clary, daughter of the wealthy soap-maker of Marseilles, and it is known to all of France that while his wife has a good heart and an affectionate disposition, she is singularly unprepossessing in appearance, with a dowdy figure, a flat nose and a shapeless mouth. But that was a time when the Bonapartes needed gold—if Napoleon were poor today and needed money as a stepping-stone there would be no opposition to a Bonaparte-Patterson marriage!

"And what of Napoleon's own marriage? Did he not, putting ambition foremost, shock his mother and family by marrying a woman of thirty-four who had grown-up children, a woman with far from a spotless reputation—a ci-devant viscountess, needy, frivolous, extravagant—with relatives, friends and ex-lovers ready to contend with them for the crumbs that fall from the Corsican's table!"

"Hush, Captain," laughed Robert; "it is not fitting that I, who am asserting my right to enter this family, should hear members of it pictured so bluntly."

"Your pardon," said Bentalou. "I but repeat what any man in the street will tell you. If ambition is a sin, your sister is not the only erring one!"

*****

For two weeks Robert waited an opportunity to see Joseph Bonaparte. That disappointing meeting, when it occurred, Robert thus described in a letter to his father:

"On Saturday I had the honor of dining with Mr. Joseph Bonaparte. None of the family were present but his lady. It is a little singular he did not throughout the evening speak a word of his brother's marriage, and only mentioned his name when I was departing, to request I would forward him the letter which I now enclose. As he possesses the confidence of the First Consul, he probably for this reason declined saying anything on that subject, lest I might imagine he gave the sentiments of his brother. My being admitted to his table cannot but argue more favorable to our wishes than otherwise; though it had been infinitely more satisfactory and pleasing had he been less reserved.

"Lucien is a firm and decided character. On all occasions he thinks and acts independently. On this one he nobly and candidly uttered what he thought. The consular recognition or disavowal of the marriage will probably be determined by future occurrences. Much will depend on Jerome. If he acts the part of an honorable man everything must go right.

"I have been asked if I have the portrait of Madame Jerome, more than once. The family is desirous of seeing a miniature of her. If one has not been taken already, it may not be amiss to have it done, and sent either to some of the family or to me, that I may present them with it."

*****

Robert, as he read the French periodicals and listened to the talk of the people, became more depressed than his letters home showed. He saw that a throng of senators, army officers and other persons of note were constantly being admitted to the chambers of the First Consul. He saw in the procession a substantiation of the rumor that the army and a great number of the citizens—who idolized Napoleon as the hero of Italy and Egypt, and the potential conqueror of England—openly desired to see him wear a title worthy of his renown. They desired France to be an Empire and the First Consul to become its Emperor, and it became plain that the humbly born Corsican was not only listening to their pleas with a receptive mind, but was also planning actively to assume the throne and hear himself addressed no longer as "Citizen" but instead as "Your Majesty."

Robert Patterson waited and waited, but no invitation came from Napoleon himself. He read in the public hints that the wrath of the First Consul toward Jerome was coming to a boiling-point; that he would soon define his opinion weightily with respect to the marriage; that it would be suggested to Robert Patterson that he go home; and that Jerome would be dismissed from the service and severed from his French associations. Mr. Livingston had also had no conversation with the Consul about his brother's marriage, but continued his attempts to reconcile him through his Ministers. They, however, had informed the American Minister that when they introduced the subject he had remained silent. At this sign of his displeasure, they had dropped the matter.

Robert meanwhile, heartsick at the failure of his mission, turned his attention to money-making schemes, and showed that he was a worthy son of his father.

The United States Government was then negotiating with Spain for a cession of East Florida. Young Patterson became a promoter, and endeavored to obtain a grant from the court of Madrid for part of the East Florida country before it was ceded to the United States.

"Be assured," he wrote his father, while asking him to invest from $25,000 to $30,000 in the project, "that I prize too much your good opinion and confidence to embark you in a speculation in which I do not see my way very clear. If I could with propriety mention the name of the person with whom the scheme originated, you would be satisfied it is well conceived.

"I imagine there are about three million acres unlocated, which may probably be purchased at three, four or five cents per acre. This business has appeared to me so important that I have written to Lucien, to induce him to take an interest in it for himself or Jerome, to whom it would secure a brilliant fortune."

Before the father could say yes or no to the ambitious project, word came from Robert that the negotiations were becoming difficult. "The United States expects," he wrote, "to get East Florida as a recompense for the claims of its citizens against Spain for depreciations, and, thinking it has a right to the country, will probably take it by force of arms."

The letter ended with a warning to Betsy: "As for Napoleon, he still remains obdurate; it is the duty of my sister, as a wife, to maintain and increase the affections of her husband; and her exertions ought, if possible, to be doubled, from the peculiarity of her situation."

Betsy mocked as she read the closing admonition. "There is not be found in Europe or America," she said, "a more devoted, more affectionate, wife. Do you see any signs of a diminishing of Jerome's ardor?"

She was now desperately impatient to go to Europe. Robert's letters had made her fearful. She regretted that she had committed her cause to blundering man. She felt confident that if she stood face to face with the mighty Napoleon she could sway him.

To Jerome she said: "It hasn't worked out well, our sending Robert as the herald of our wedding. I am woman enough to know that we are overlooking our best chance. The Emperor is notoriously susceptible to pretty women. You say that my beauty surpasses that of those of whom he is fond. Then take me where his eyes may rest upon me, where my wit may match his, where any charms I possess may plead our cause. Every month's delay will make the task a harder and more uncertain one."

"I would sail tomorrow if there were a ship available that could outsail those British sea-hounds," Jerome returned. "It is my hope to find a fast frigate in New York harbor."

"If not," said Betsy determinedly, "we will take passage in one of Father's clippers. There is no English warship on the seas that can overtake one!"