The terms dictated by Napoleon after Jena were harsh. Prussia was to
cede all territory between the Rhine and the Elbe, which meant the end
fo r the Duke of Brunswick, the Prince of Orange and the Elector of
Hesse-Cassel. A huge indemnity of I59,425,0 00 francs was levied (after
Austerlitz Austria paid only fo rty millions in reparations) and Prussia was
in effect turned into a French satellite. Napoleon pardoned Saxony on
condition she joined the Confederation of the Rhine, along with Saxe
Weimar, Gotha, Meiningen, Hildburghausen and Coburg. Even though
the army was shattered, rso,ooo prisoners of war were in French hands
and three-quarters of Prussia (including Berlin) was occupied, Qu een
Louise announced that the struggle would go on and put herself at the
head of Prussian partisans who fled to the east to join the Russians. To
Napoleon's consternation, he realized that the great victory of Jena
Auerstadt was not going to be a second Austerlitz and provide a knock
out blow.
To Josephine, whom he had left in Mainz when he began campaigning,
the Emperor wrote with words of complaint about the Prussian Qu een:
'How unhappy are those princes who permit their wives to interfere in
affairs of state.' Josephine construed this as an attack on women in
general and wrote back protestingly. Napoleon endeavoured to put her
right: 'You seem displeased by my speaking ill of women. It is true that I
detest scheming women. I am accustomed to ones who are gentle, sweet
and captivating. It is your fault - it is you who have spoiled me for the
others.' The tenor of this letter was of a piece with all his missives to
Josephine that winter. He wrote tenderly, sometimes twice a day,
invariably ending with the fo rmulaic 'I love and embrace you' or 'I love
and desire you.' The prevailing tone was very much that of an old
married couple, with the Emperor complaining that he was putting on
weight even though he rode up to seventy miles a day on horseback.
When Napoleon had written during the Italian campaign that he
desired Josephine, it was literally true. Now the sentiment was a mere
fo rmal expression of regard, fo r the Emperor was used to satisfying his
carnal appetites elsewhere. One such occasion was on the road to Berlin,
on 23 October, when he took refuge fr om a hail storm in a hunting lodge
and dallied with the young widow of an officer fr om the Egyptian
campaign. On 27 October he entered Berlin, having spent the previous
night at Sans Souci in Potsdam, where he visited the tomb of his idol
Frederick the Great. Hearing that Mortier had successfully taken the port
of Danzig, he wrote that he would be leaving fo r Poland in a few days. He
was beginning to toy with the idea of a permanent occupation of the
territory between the Oder and the Vistula and to this end asked Fouche
marcin
(Marcin)
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