were constantly threatened. Campbell wrote to Castlereagh: 'If pecuniary
difficulties press on Napoleon much longer, I think he is capable of
crossing over to Piombino with his troops, or of any other eccentricity.'
The Foreign Office in London made light of Campbell's fears, but
Castlereagh raised the issue of non-payment with Louis XVIII. The
bloated Bourbon monarch made no direct reply, but suggested Napoleon
should be removed to the Azores.
This talk of the Azores deeply worried the Emperor, and there were
other possible fu ture places of exile mentioned, among them St Helena
and the West Indies. Once the fu ture of Europe was settled by the peace
talks in Vienna, might not Britain, Russia and the German allies lose
interest in him, thus giving the vengeful Bourbons their chance for a final
settling of accounts? Were they not being urged on by Fouche, who said
that Napoleon on Elba was to Europe as Vesuvius to Naples? Given the
extent of murderous hatred towards him by Louis XVIII's brother, the
comte d' Artois, Bonaparte might even count himself lucky if he got as far
as the Azores. An assassin's dagger or a hit man's bullet would be a more
likely fate.
There were other reasons for the Emperor's extreme frustration on
Elba. The extent of Metternich's double-cross over Marie-Louise became
clear when Napoleon heard the full story. In September, still hoping to
rejoin her husband, she set out to take the waters at Aix-les-Bains.
Metternich, reading her mind, sent with her as aide-de-camp a man
sometimes described as his physical double, the one-eyed Count Adam
Albrecht von Neipperg, a man with a reputation as a ladykiller even
greater than Metternich's. Marie-Louise, whose appetite for sex was not
far short of Josephine's or Pauline's, soon succumbed to his subtle
charms. Chateaubriand cynically described Neipperg as 'the man who
dared to lay his eggs in the eagle's nest', but the eagle was by this time
wounded and flightless. Marie-Louise eventually bore Neipperg two
children, the first in r8r5. Apart from a formal New Year's greeting in
r8r5, Napoleon never heard from her again.
If the need for money and the desire for revenge were powerful
personal motives for a return to the mainland, Napoleon was also greatly
encouraged by all he heard from his spies there. Particularly encouraging
was a visit in February r8r5 from Fleury de Chaboulon, former sub
prefect of Rheims, who reported his eyewitness impressions and brought
confirmation in a letter from former minister Maret, the Bonapartist
Duke of Bassano. Both spoke of dissension among the Allies and huge
levels of discontent in France.
There were rumours that Austria, France and England were bound by
marcin
(Marcin)
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