Читать книгу The History of Waterloo - John Codman Ropes - Страница 8

The opinion expressed here in regard to the health of the Emperor is substantially that entertained by Thiers and Chesney. The former says that the Emperor’s brother Jerome, and also one of the surgeons on the Emperor’s staff, both told him that Napoleon was a sufferer at this time from an affection of the bladder. But this was, he says, denied by Marchand, the Emperor’s valet. “Whatever may have been the health of Napoleon at this epoch, his activity was not diminished.”39

To the same effect is Chesney’s opinion,40 opposing that of Charras.41 Further evidence on the subject has been collected by Mr. Dorsey Gardner.42 His conclusion is entirely opposed to that of Colonel Chesney, and in our judgment he places altogether too much reliance on that delightful, but gossipy, writer, the Comte de Ségur. Ségur’s History of the Russian Campaign is the best known work on the subject, but it is essentially a romance. In it he advances with great boldness his favorite theme of the breaking down of Napoleon’s health.43 But the Emperor’s health was able to endure without injury that terrible strain; he certainly showed in 1813 and 1814 every evidence of physical vigor. No doubt the peculiar maladies from which he suffered occasionally impaired the activity of both mind and body; but the talk of Ségur verges at times on puerility. Gourgaud’s Examen Critique of Ségur’s work points out its defects cleverly and unsparingly. As for the conversation, referred to by Gardner, which the Earl of Albemarle44 reports as having taken place in 1870 between his son and General Gudin, who was, in 1815, a page in waiting on the Emperor, to the effect that Napoleon secluded himself all the forenoon of the day of the battle of Waterloo, and that “it was nearly noon when the Emperor descended the ladder that led to the sleeping room and rode away,” it is really impossible to accept the story. Charras, who for his own reasons (and, by the way, not for the reasons which Chesney very naturally supposes actuated him), endeavors to magnify Napoleon’s inactivity throughout this campaign, represents him as, on this morning of the 18th, reconnoitring the position after eight o’clock,45 giving his orders for the marshalling of the army, watching the deployment of the troops between nine and half-past ten, riding along the lines, and dictating the order of battle before eleven o’clock. On all such points we are quite safe in following Charras, and we must consider Gudin’s story as having (to say the least) suffered greatly in its transmission. Besides, there was no “ladder that led to the sleeping room,” in the house46 in which Napoleon slept the night before Waterloo.

To repeat, then, once more. Napoleon in this campaign was troubled by and doubtless suffered considerably from some painful maladies; and, even apart from this fact, we cannot look for the youthful vigor and activity of 1796 or 1805 in the year 1815. He was not in these respects equal to his former self; and it was further to be expected that the deficiency of his physical energy would be accompanied by a diminished mental alertness and vigilance. All the same, we think it will be found that he showed in this campaign a very fair degree of strength and activity. But we shall know more about this as we proceed with the narrative.