The Memoirs of General the Baron de Marbot

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The French ration was composed of a quarter of a pound of
disgusting bread and an equal amount of horse flesh; the
prisoners were given only half this amount! This was fifteen days
before the end of the siege. For fifteen days, these poor devils
remained on this regime!. Every two or three days Messena renewed
his offer to the enemy general; he never accepted, perhaps out of
obstinacy, or perhaps because the English admiral, Lord Kieth,
was unwilling to employ his long-boats for fear, it is said, that
they would bring typhus back to the fleet. However that may be,
the wretched Austrians were left howling with rage and hunger in
their floating prison. It was truly appalling! In the end, having
eaten their boots and packs, and perhaps some dead bodies, they
nearly all died of starvation! There were hardly more than seven
or eight hundred left when the place was surrendered to our
enemies. The Austrian soldiers, when they entered the town,
hurried to the harbour and gave food to their compatriots with so
little caution that many of them died as a result.

I have described this horrible episode, firstly as an example of
the sort of ghastly event which war brings in its train, but
principally to brand with shame the conduct and lack of good
faith of the Austrian general, who forced soldiers who had been
captured and released on parole, to take up arms against us once
more, although he had promised to send them back to Germany.

In the course of the fighting which took place during the siege,
I ran into a number of dangers but I shall limit myself to
mentioning two of the more serious.

I have already said that the Austrians and the English took it in
turns to keep us constantly in action. The first attacked us at
dawn, on the landward side, and we fought them all day; at night,
Lord Kieth's fleet would begin its bombardment, and try, under
cover of darkness, to seize the harbour; which forced the
garrison to keep a keen look-out on the seaward side, and
prevented it from having any rest or relaxation. Now, one night,
when the bombardment was more violent than usual, the
commander-in-chief was warned that the light of Bengal flares
burning on the beach had disclosed numerous boat loads of English
soldiers heading for the harbour breakwater. Massena, his staff,
and the squadron of guides which went everywhere with him,
immediately mounted their horses. We were about a hundred and
fifty to two hundred horsemen when, passing through a little
square called Campetto, the general stopped to speak to an
officer who was returning from the harbour. Someone shouted "Look
out for bombs!" And at that moment, one fell onto the crowded
square.

I and several others had pushed our horses under a balcony which
overhung the door of an hotel, and it was on this balcony that
the bomb fell. It reduced the balcony to rubble, and bounced onto
the road, where it exploded with a fearful bang in the middle of
the square, which was lit for an instant by its malevolent light,
after which there was complete darkness. One expected many
casualties. There was the most profound silence, which was
broken by the voice of General Massena, asking if anyone was
hurt. There was no reply, for by some miracle, not one of the
horses or men had been hit by the flying fragments. As for those
who, like me, had been under the balcony, we were covered with
dust and bits of building material, but nobody was injured.

I have said that the English bombarded us only at night. However,
one day, when they were celebrating some occasion or other, their
ships, dressed overall, approached the town in broad daylight,
and amused themselves by hurling at us a large number of
projectiles. Those of our batteries which were in the best
position to reply to this fire, were located near the breakwater
on a big bastion in the form of a tower, known as the Lanterne.
The general ordered me to take a message to the officer in charge
of this battery, instructing him to direct all his efforts on an
English brig, which had insolently anchored a short distance from
the Lanterne. Our gunners fired with such accuracy that one of
our large bombs fell on the English brig, piercing it from deck
to keel so that it sank almost immediately. This so infuriated
the English admiral that he had all his guns trained on the
Lanterne, on which they now opened a violent fire. My mission
being completed, I should have returned to Massena; but it is
rightly said that young soldiers, not recognising danger,
confront it more coolly than those with more experience. The
spectacle of which I was a witness, I found very interesting. The
platform of the Lanterne was floored with flagstones and was the
size of a small courtyard. It was equipped with twelve cannons on
enormous wooden mountings. Although it may be very difficult for
ship at sea to aim its fire with sufficient accuracy to hit such
a small target as was the platform of the Lanterne, the English
managed to land several bombs there. As these bombs descended,
the gunners took shelter behind or underneath the massive timbers
of the gun mountings. I did the same; but this shelter was not
entirely safe, because the flagstones presented a great
resistance to the bombs, which, being unable to bury themselves,
rolled unpredictably about the platform in all directions, and
the fragments from their explosion could pass under or behind the
mountings. It was, therefore, absurd to stay there when, like me,
one was not obliged to do so. But I experienced a fearful
pleasure, if one can describe it thus, in running here and there
with the gunners whenever a bomb fell, and emerging with them as
soon as the fragments from its explosion had settled. It was a
game which could have cost me dear. One gunner had his legs
broken, others were wounded by bomb fragments, lumps of metal
which did terrible damage to anything they hit. One of them
sliced through the thick timber baulk of a mounting behind which
I was sheltering. However, I remained on the platform until Col.
Mouton, who later became Marshal the Comte de Lobeau, and who,
having served under my father, took an interest in me, while
passing, caught sight of me. He came over to the Lanterne and
ordered me sharply to come down and return to my post beside
General Massena. He added, "You are still very young, but you
should realise that, in war, it is stupid to expose yourself to
needless danger. Would you be any better off if you had a leg
smashed for no good reason?"

I never forgot this lesson, and I have often thought of the
difference it would have made to my life, if I had lost a leg at
the age of seventeen.

Chap. 13.

The courage and tenacity with which Massena had defended Genoa
would have very important results. Major Franceschi, sent by
Massena to contact the First Consul, had managed to slip through
the enemy fleet at night, both in going and coming. On arriving
back in Genoa he said that he had left Bonaparte descending the
St. Bernard at the head of the army of reserve. Field-marshal
Melas was so convinced of the impossibility of bringing an army
across the Alps, that while part of his force, under General Ott
was blockading us, he had gone with the remainder fifty leagues
away, to attack General Suchet on the Var. This gave the First
Consul the opportunity to enter Italy without resistance, so that
the army of reserve had reached Milan before the Austrians had
ceased to regard its existence as imaginary. The First Consul,
once in Italy, would have liked to go straight away to the aid of
the town's brave garrison, but to do that it was necessary for
him to unite all the elements of his force, such as the artillery
and military supplies, whose passage across the Alps had proved
extremely difficult. This delay gave Marshal Melas the time to
hurry with his main force from Nice in order to oppose Bonaparte,
who was then unable to continue his march towards Genoa without
defeating the Austrian army.

While Bonaparte and Melas were engaged in marches and
countermarches in preparation for a battle which would decide the
destiny of France and Italy, the garrison of Genoa found itself
reduced to its last extremity. The typhus epidemic was raging.
The hospitals had become ghastly charnel houses; starvation was
at its worst. Nearly all the horses had been eaten, and though
for a long time the soldiers had had no more than half a pound of
rotten food daily, the distribution for the following day was not
assured. There was absolutely nothing left when, on the 15th
Prairial Massena gathered all his generals and colonels together
and announced that he had decided to attempt a breakout with
those remaining men who were fit for duty, to try to reach
Livorno; but his officers declared unanimously that the troops
were no longer in a state to engage in combat, or even a simple
march, unless they were given sufficient food to restore their
strength, and the stores were completely empty! General Massena
then considered that, having carried out the orders of the First
Consul and facilitated his entry into Italy, that it was his duty
to save the remains of a garrison which had fought so valiantly,
and which it was in the country's interest to preserve. He
therefore resolved to treat for the evacuation of the place, for
he would not allow the word capitulation to be uttered. The
English admiral and General Ott had, for more than a month, been
making proposals for a parley, which Massena had always turned
down; but now, compelled by circumstance, he told them that he
would accept. The conference took place in the little chapel
which is situated in the middle of the bridge of Conegliano, and
which is, as a result, between the sea and the French and
Austrian lines. The French, English, and Austrian staffs occupied
each end of the bridge. I was present at this most interesting
event.

The foreign generals treated Massena with much respect and
consideration, and although he demanded favourable conditions,
Admiral Kieth said more than once that the defense had been so
heroic that they did not wish to refuse them. It was then agreed
that the garrison would not be made prisoners, that they could
retain their weapons and could go to Nice, and that having
reached there they would be free to engage in further
hostilities.

Massena, who realised how important it was that the First Consul
should not be led into making any false move because of his
anxiety to go to the aid of Genoa, asked that the negotiations
should permit the safe passage of two officers through the
Austrian lines, whom he proposed to send to Bonaparte to inform
him of the evacuation of the town by the French. General Ott
opposed this because he intended to leave with some twenty-five
thousand men of the blockading force to go and join Field-marshal
Melas, and he did not want these French officers to warn General
Bonaparte of his movements. But Admiral Kieth overruled this
objection. The treaty was about to be signed when, from far away,
in the midst of the mountains, came the distant sound of gunfire.
Massena held up his pen, saying, "That is the First Consul, who
has arrived with his army." The foreign commanders were much
taken aback, but after a long pause it was realised that the
sound was that of thunder, and Massena appended his signature.

It is to be regretted that the garrison and its commander were
deprived of the fame which would have been theirs if they had
been able to hold Genoa until the arrival of Bonaparte; and
furthermore, Massena would have liked to hold out for a few more
days, to delay the departure of General Ott's men to join in the
battle, which was inevitable, between the First Consul and
Field-marshal Melas. In the event, General Ott was unable to join
the main Austrian army until the day after the battle of Marengo,
the result of which might have been very different if the
Austrians, whom we had great difficulty in overcoming, had had
twenty-five thousand more men with which to oppose us. The
Austrians took possession of Genoa on the 16th Prairial(May)
after a siege which had lasted two whole months.

Massena, as has been said, considered it so important that the
First Consul was informed immediately about the situation that he
had demanded a safe conduct for two aides-de-camp, so that if any
thing untoward befell one of them, the other could carry his
despatch. As it would be useful if an officer going on such a
mission spoke Italian, Massena chose a Major Graziani, an Italian
who was in the French service, but being a most suspicious man,
Massena feared that a foreigner might be corrupted by the
Austrians and delay his journey, so he sent me to make sure that
he made all possible haste. This precaution was unnecessary as
Major Graziani was a man of probity who knew the urgency of his
mission.

On the 16th Prairial we departed from Genoa where I left Colindo,
whom I expected to collect in a few days time, as we knew that
the First Consul's army was not very far away. Major Graziani and
I reached it the next day at Milan.

General Bonaparte spoke to me with sympathy about the loss which
I had suffered, and promised that he would be a father to me if I
behaved myself well, a promise which he kept. He asked us endless
questions about the events which had occurred in Genoa, and about
the strength and movements of the Austrian forces we had come
through to reach Milan; he kept us by him, and had horses
provided for us from his stable, since we had travelled on post
mules.

We followed the First Consul to Montebello and then to the
battlefield of Marengo, where we were employed to carry his
orders. I shall not go into any details about this battle, where
I ran into no danger; one knows that we were on the brink of
defeat, and might have fallen if General Ott's men had arrived in
time to take part in the action. The First Consul, who feared
that he might see them appear at any moment, was very anxious,
and did not relax until our cavalry and the infantry of General
Desaix, of whose death he was still unaware, had ensured victory
by overwhelming the Grenadiers of General Zach. Seeing that the
horse which I was riding was slightly wounded on a leg, he took
me by the ear, and said, laughing, "I lend you my horses, and
look what happens to them!" Major Graziani having died in 1812, I
am the only French officer who was present at the siege of Genoa
and the battle of Marengo.

After this memorable affair, I went back to Genoa, which the
Austrians had left as a result of our victory at Marengo. There I
rejoined Colindo and Major R***. I visited my father's grave,
then we embarked on a French brig, which in twenty-four hours
carried us to Nice. Some days later, a ship from Leghorn brought
Colindo's mother, who had come in search of her son. This fine
young man and I had come through some very rough times together,
which had strengthened the friendship between us, but our paths
were divergent and we had to part, albeit with much regret.

I have said earlier, that about the middle of the siege,
Franceschi, carrying despatches from General Massena to the First
Consul, had reached France by passing through the enemy fleet at
night. He took with him the news of my father's death. My mother
had thereupon nominated a council of guardians, who sent to the
aged Spire, who was at Nice with the coach and my father's
baggage, an order to sell everything and return to Paris, which
he then did. There was now nothing to detain me on the banks of
the Var, and I was in a hurry to rejoin my dear mother; but this
was not so easy; public coaches were, at the time, very scarce;
the one that ran from Nice to Lyon went only every second day and
was booked up for several weeks by sick or wounded officers,
coming, like me, from Genoa.

To overcome this difficulty, Major R***, two colonels, a dozen
officers and I decided to form a group to go to Grenoble on foot,
crossing the foothills of the Alps by way of Grasse, Sisteron,
Digne and Gap. Mules would carry our small amount of baggage,
which would allow us to cover eight to ten leagues every day.
Bastide was with me and was a great help to me, for I was not
accustomed to making such long journeys on foot, and it was very
hot. After eight days of very difficult walking, we reached
Grenoble, from where we were able to take coaches to Lyon. It was
with sorrow that I saw once more the town and the hotel where I
had stayed with my father in happier times. I longed for and yet
dreaded the reunion with my mother and my brothers. I fancied
that they would ask me to account for what I had done with her
husband and their father! I was returning alone, and had left him
in his grave in a foreign land! I was very unhappy and had need
of a friend who would understand and share my grief, while Major
R***, happy, after so much privation, to enjoy once more,
abundance and good living, was madly jolly, which I found most
wounding; so I decided to leave for Paris without him; but he
claimed, now that I had no need of him, that it was his duty to
deliver me to the arms of my mother, and I was forced to put up
with his company as far as Paris, to where we went by mail coach.

There are scenes which are perhaps better left to the
imagination, so I shall not attempt to describe my first
heartbreaking meeting with my widowed mother and my brothers. You
can picture it for yourselves.

My mother had a rather pretty country house at Carriere, near the
forest of Saint-Germain. I spent two months there with her, my
uncle Canrobert, who had returned from emigration, and an old
knight of Malta, M. d'Estresse, a friend of my late father.
Adolphe was not in Paris, he was in Rennes with Bernadotte, the
commander-in-chief of the army of the west, but my younger
brothers and M. Gault came to see us from time to time. In spite
of the kindness and shows of affection which were lavished on me,
I fell into a state of sombre melancholy, and my health
deteriorated. I had suffered so much, physically and mentally! I
became incapable of doing any work. Reading which I had always
loved became insupportable. I spent the greater part of the day
alone in the forest, where I lay in the shade absorbed in my
sorrowful reflections. In the evenings, I accompanied my mother,
my uncle, and the old knight on their usual walk along the bank
of the Seine; but I took very little part in the conversation,
and hid from them my sad thoughts, which revolved always about my
poor father, dying for want of proper care. Although my condition
alarmed my mother, Canrobert, and M. d'Estresse, they had the
good sense not to make matters worse by any remarks which would
have only irritated a sick mind, but they sought gradually to
chase away the unhappy memories which were so affecting me by
bringing forward the holidays of my two younger brothers, who
came to live with us in the country. The presence of these two
children, whom I dearly loved, eased my mind of its sorrows, by
the care I took to make their stay at Carriere a happy one. I
took them to Versailles, to Maisons and to Marly, and their
childish happiness slowly brought back to life my spirits which
had been so cruelly crushed by misfortune. Who could have thought
that these two children, so lovely and full of life would soon be
no more?

Chap. 14.

The end of the autumn of 1800 was approaching; my mother went
back to Paris, my young brothers went back to school, and I was
ordered to join Bernadotte at Rennes.

Bernadotte had been my father's best friend, and my father had
helped him in various ways on many occasions. In recognition of
the debt owed to my family, he had written to me saying that he
had reserved a place for me as his aide-de-camp. I received this
letter at Nice when I returned from Genoa, and on the strength of
it, I refused an offer from General Massena to take me on as a
permanent aide-de-camp, and to allow me to spend several months
with my mother before joining him and the army of Italy.

My father had arranged that my brother Adolphe should continue
his studies in order to enter the polytechnic; so he was not a
soldier when my father died; but on hearing this sad news, he
rebelled at the thought that his younger brother was already an
officer, and had been in action, while he was still on a school
bench. He gave up the studies required for the technical arms,
and opted to join the infantry instead, which allowed him to
leave school.

He was presented with a good opportunity. The government had
ordered a new regiment to be raised in the department of the
Seine. The officers for this regiment were to be selected by
General Lefebvre, who, as you know, had replaced my father in
command of the Paris division. General Lefebvre was only too
pleased to do something for the son of one of his old companions
who had died in the service of his country; he therefore awarded
my brother the rank of sous-lieutenant in this new unit. So far,
so good! But instead of going to join his company, and without
waiting for my return from Genoa, Adolphe hurried off to General
Bernadotte, who, without further ado, handed the vacant post to
the first brother to arrive, as if it was the prize in a race! So
when I went to join the general staff at Rennes, I learned that
my brother had been gazetted as permanent aide-de-camp, and I was
only a supernumerary, that is to say temporary. I was very
disappointed, because, had I expected this, I would have accepted
the proposal made by General Massena. But this opportunity had
now passed. It was in vain that General Bernadotte assured me
that he would obtain an increase in the establishment of his
aides-de-camp, I did not think this likely, and was convinced
that I would soon be moved elsewhere.

Bernadotte's staff was made up of officers who nearly all reached
senior positions; four were already colonels. The most
outstanding was, undoubtedly, Gerard. He was very clever, brave
and had a natural talent for warfare. He was under the command of
Marshal Grouchy at Waterloo, and gave him some sound advice,
which could have led us to victory. Out of the eleven
aides-de-camp attached to Bernadotte's staff, two became
marshals, three lieutenant-generals, four were brigadiers and one
was killed in action.

In the winter of 1800, Portugal, backed by the English, had
declared war on Spain, and the French government had resolved to
support the latter. In consequence, troops were sent to Bayonne
and Bordeaux, and the companies of Grenadiers who belonged to
various regiments scattered throughout Brittany and the Vendee
were gathered together at Tours. This corps d'elite was intended
to be the nucleus of the so-called army of Portugal, which
Bernadotte was destined to command. The general had to move his
headquarters to Tours; to where had to be sent all his horses and
equipment, as well all that was required for the officers
attached to his service. But the general, partly to receive his
final orders from the First Consul and partly to take Madame
Bernadotte back, had to go to Paris; and as it was customary in
these circumstances during the absence of the general for the
officers of his staff to be permitted to go and take leave of
their families, it was decided that all the permanent aides could
go to Paris, and that the supernumeraries would go to Tours with
the baggage to supervise the servants, pay them every month,
arrange with the supply commission for the distribution of
forage, and the allotment of lodgings for the great number of men
and horses. This disagreeable duty fell to me and my fellow
supernumerary Lieutenant Maurin.

In the depths of winter and the most atrocious weather, we made
on horseback the long eight days journey from Rennes to Tours,
where we had all sorts of difficulties in setting up the
headquarters. We had been told that we would not be there for
much more than a fortnight, but we stayed there, bored stiff, for
six weary months, while our comrades were disporting themselves
in the capital. That was a foretaste of the unpleasant duties
which fell to me as a supernumerary aide-de-camp. So ended the
year 1800, during which I had undergone so much mental and
physical suffering.

The town of Tours had many inhabitants, and there were many
diversions; but although I received many invitations I did not
accept any of them. Fortunately my time was fully occupied in
looking after the large collection of men and horses, without
which the isolation in which I lived would have been
insupportable. The number of horses belonging to the
commander-in-chief and the officers of his staff amounted to more
than eighty, and all were at my disposal. I rode two or three
every day, and went for some long rides round Tours, which
although solitary, had for me much charm, and gave me gentle
solace.

Chap. 15.

The First Consul now changed his mind about the army of Portugal.

He gave the command to his brother-in-law, General Leclerc, and
kept General Bernadotte in command of the army of the west. In
consequence, the general staff, which my brother and the other
aides-de-camp had just joined at Tours, was ordered to return to
Brittany and betake itself to Brest, where the commander-in-chief
was to be stationed. It is a long way from Tours to Brest, but
the weather was fair, we were a young crowd, and the trip was
great fun. I was unable to ride on horseback, because of an
accidental injury to my hindquarters, so I rode in one of the
commander-in-chief's coaches. We found him awaiting us at Brest.