their own advantage or disobeyed them when it suited their book; far less
often do we hear of a subordinate disregarding Napoleon's orders to the
leader's eventual disadvantage. Brueys was just one of many in a long list
of unimaginative or self-serving commanders that would include such
names as Villeneuve, Bernadotte, Ney and Grouchy.
Whatever the rights and wrongs of the Battle of the Nile, it was a
major disaster for the French and perceived as such by Napoleon, who
tried to put a brave face on circumstances and make a virtue of necessity.
The French army was now marooned in Egypt it was true, but did not all
great conquerors, from Alexander to Cortes, dispense with their fleets in
order thereby to win even greater glory? Yet in his heart he knew the
Battle of the Nile was a grave setback and would have dire political
consequences. He was right: Turkey immediately broke off talks with
France and prepared for a fu:ll alliance with France's enemies; the Second
Coalition, formed in February r799, would contain Turkey, Naples and
Portugal as well as Britain, Austria and Russia.
Napoleon could slough off responsibility for naval defeat, but there
was no hiding from the humiliation when his cuckolding by Hippolyte
Charles passed into the public domain. Two days before the Battle of the
Nile Junot took it into his head to divulge to his chief all that he knew
and he knew everything-about Josephine's affair with Hippolyte Charles.
He produced letters detailing Josephine's return from convalescence in
Plombieres, full of circumstantial evidence making it clear that she and
Charles were lovers. This he did in the presence of Bourrienne and
Berthier. Napoleon turned pale and reproached the other two for not
having told him what they must have known.
This scene has been consistently misrepresented, and it is alleged that
Junot thereafter fell from favour, a victim of 'shoot the messenger'. It is
true that Junot did fall from favour as a result of this incident, but not
because he told Napoleon something hitherto unknown to him. Napoleon
had his spies everywhere, he had expressly been given the same
information by Joseph in March, and Josephine had already confessed.
What was unpardonable about J unot's action was that he made the
knowledge public, that he told the story in the presence of others. This
meant Napoleon could not feed his masochistic fantasies but had to act.
Hence the histrionics as reported by Bourrienne. 'Divorce, yes, divorce -
I want a public and sensational divorce! I don't want to be the laughing
stock of Paris. I shall write to Joseph and have the divorce pronounced
... I love that woman so much I would give anything if only what Junot
told was not true.'
Misrepresentation of Junot's famous gaffe extends to character
marcin
(Marcin)
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