for he was perceived in Paris as a military technician par excellence and in
the very month of Thermidor had become a general-elect and sworn an
oath to the Revolution itself. That may be true in a general sense, but
unfortunately for him, at the very moment of Thermidor, Napoleon
found himself in a compromising situation through having undertaken a
secret mission to Genoa.
There was really no great mystery about this visit. Napoleon was
authorized to go to Genoa by Ricord, one of the political commissars, as
part of the general scheme for preparing a counter-stroke against Austria
in Piedmont. But it was unfortunate that just before he went he fell out
with Saliceti. The reasons are obscure, but there was a persistent rumour
that they had been rivals for the favours of the same girl in Nice.
Annoyed by Napoleon's refusal to leave the amatory field clear for him,
after all he had done for the Bonapartes, Saliceti also had to save his own
skin after Thermidor, so came forward to denounce the chief of artillery.
Saliceti now claimed that Napoleon had gone to Genoa on secret
instructions from the Robespierres, to hatch a contingency plan with the
enemy, to be activated in case the brothers fell from power; in his letter to
the Committee of Public Safety on 6 August, Saliceti spoke of dark
deeds, including the deposit of French gold in a Genoese bank account.
The accusation was preposterous, but in the feverish, paranoid
atmosphere after Thermidor anything was believed possible. On 10
August Napoleon was placed under house arrest at his residence in the
rue de Villefranche in Nice and later lodged either in the prison of Fort
Carre in Antibes or under house arrest with Comte Laurenti in Nice -
incredibly the record is confused, with evidence pointing either way and
partisans for one or other view claiming that the documentation
supporting the rival view is 'forged'. His papers were seized and sent to
Saliceti for examination, and Lucien Bonaparte was arrested as an
accomplice. The different attitudes of the two brothers are instructive.
Lucien grovelled, debased himself and asked for mercy. Napoleon wrote a
dignified rebuttal, rehearsing his services to the Republic and his exploits
at Toulon. In confinement he showed himself an optimist by reading and
taking notes on Marshal Maillebois's account of his campaign in
Piedmont in 1745. But in his heart he thought his number was up, and
discussed with Junot plots to spring him from ca ptivity.
Suddenly, on 20 August, Saliceti and his fellow commissars announced
that Napoleon's papers and his meticulous accounts completely vindi
cated him. The explanation for Saliceti's volte-face was that he realized
the men of Thermidor were not calling for extensive blood sacrifices, and
that he himself was in the clear. Executing Napoleon was a pointless
marcin
(Marcin)
#1