more embittered enemy of France than Rome was. He was also mindful
of the likely consequence that he would ignite a second Vendee or
religious war in Italy if he pressed the Pope too hard; the invasion of
Austria would then be delayed indefinitely.
Making the obvious contrast between French failures on the Rhine and
the spectacular successes achieved by Bonaparte in Italy, the Directory
decided to concentrate on the Italian 'soft underbelly' approach to
Austria. They reinforced Napoleon to a strength of 8o,ooo by sending
him the divisions of Generals Bernadotte and Delmas, who had
previously been operating in Germany.
The arrival of Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte signalled the advent in
Napoleon's life of one of the three most bitter and devious enemies he
would ever encounter in his career. Bernadotte's fundamental problem
was that his proper mark was as a second-rate regimental colonel, yet he
considered himself a genius. Tall, immaculately dressed, a vainglorious
genius of the mouth who put new meaning into the term 'gasconnade',
Bernadotte was born in Pau, joined the army at seventeen and worked his
way up through the ranks, rising rapidly on the great surge of
revolutionary promotions. An opportunist and adventurer who masked
his egomania beneath a profession of extreme Jacobin principles,
Bernadotte was promoted to general in 1794 at the age of thirty-one, in
the very year that his close associate St-Just perished on the guillotine.
Nothing better illustrated the vulpine nature of the man who outdid his
fellow Gascon, La Fontaine's fox, in humbug.
During the Rhine campaign of 1796 Bernadotte threatened to burn the
German university town of Altdorf to the ground when the academics
objected to his troops' rape and pillaging. A notable hothead, Bernadotte
once fought a duel with his own chief of staff and, when the Altdorf
incident was reported in the Paris press, asked the Directors to imprison
the offending editor. When they demurred, Bernadotte fumed that his
honour had been impugned and was prevented from throwing up his
command only by the shrewd advice of his friend and fellow Jacobin
General Kleber. Bernadotte had barely set foot on Italian soil than he was
at odds with Napoleon's indispensable chief of staff, Berthier. Berna
dotte's ability to start a row in an empty room can perhaps be inferred
from the trivial pretext he used to challenge Berthier to a duel. Berthier
addressed all generals as 'Monsieur' but the Jacobin firebrand Bernadotte
insisted that the only proper form of greeting was 'citoyen'; Napoleon
had to intervene to compose this storm in a teacup.
Predictably, the first meeting between Napoleon himself and Berna
dotte was scarcely propitious. Bernadotte thought, on no grounds
marcin
(Marcin)
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