Able was I . . .
Douglas Johnson
The Escape from Elba: The Fall and Flight of Napoleon 1814-1815 Norman Mackenzie (Oxford £12.50)
Napoleon's Great Adversaries: The Arch- duke Charles and the Austrian Army 1792-1814 Gunther E. Rothenberg (Batsford £9.95)
t has been said that the story of Napoleon
is one dominated by islands. He was born on an island and he died on one. His most Persistent enemies lived on an island. And what was perhaps the most characteristic episode of his remarkable career derived from an island. After the defeats of 1814 he had been relegated to the island kingdom of Elba, and it was from there that he made his escape and returned to France for the s 0-called Hundred Days, which terminated in Waterloo, exile and death on St Helena.
Everything that is most dramatic in his legend is to be found in this adventure. The boldness of the enterprise, the good luck Which enabled Napoleon's boat to avoid detection as favourable winds took it to the mainland, the bravado with which he won over those troops who had been sent to cap- ture him, the flight of the eagle which flew from church top to church top until it land- ed on the towers of Notre Dame.
The story has often been told, and has sometimes been presented as the key, not Only to Napoleon's character but also to his ideas. Norman Mackenzie explains that he understood the basis of his power in France: he depended upon those who had gained property from the Revolution and who did not want to give this property back to the Bourbon aristocracy, as they did not want to lose their heads to the Jacobins. As Napoleon on Elba had listened to the ac- counts of rising discontent in France, with rumours of noble landowners plotting to recover their land, with scares of the Catholic Church re-asserting old feudal rights, he had seen his opportunity. But was this the only reason which Prompted Napoleon to escape? Professor Mackenzie has, for the first time, explored the Elba aspect of the adventure. A week after he had landed there he rode with Col- onel Campbell, the British Commissioner, to the top of Monte Orello, and surveyed h. is domain. 'It certainly is a very small island', he commented ruefully. As he remarked some years later there was the danger of dying of sheer boredom unless he escaped by some heroic venture. Conscious of his wide experience of war and govern- ment, well aware of his talents, feeling still the force of the energy that compelled him to work tirelessly, the tedium of life on Elba vas wearisome. It is true that Napoleon had little sense of the ridiculous. But how could
he who had had Europe and the world for his stage accustom himself to a daily inspec- tion of this island's storehouses and for- tifications?
Of course Napoleon was not isolated on Elba. Much of the interest of this lively book lies in the account of the many visitors who called upon him. Napoleon was always a calculating man. He knew that he should not give the impression that he was bored or that he was wanting to break out from his confinement. Therefore he repeatedly pro- tested that he was contented in his new life, and that he thought of nothing outside his small domain. He was totally preoccupied he said with his family, his cows and mules. This mock modesty appealed particularly to the English, who were often convinced by it and who were all the more ready to believe Napoleon because they were disappointed to find him an undistinguished figure, rather fat, 'without majesty in his air or still less terror in his look' (as the future Prime Minister, Lord John Russell, put it), with dirty, snuff-stained clothes. But Napoleon was eager to elicit information; he asked questions, he stored up information in his remarkable memory, he was always on the alert for information as well as for gossip.
And amongst the rumours that grew in Elba, as it became a remarkable meeting- place and centre of intrigue and conspiracy, was that the Great Powers, meeting in Vien- na, were worried at Napoleon's nearness to France and concerned by the freedom of movement he enjoyed. It became increas- ingly certain that they would remove him from his kingdom and send him to some more distant, isolated and unpleasant exile. St Helena was already being mentioned.
Napoleon, therefore, saw himself as threatened and, as always in battle, he determined to take the initiative. The escape and the landing at Golfe Juan were typical of Napoleonic tactics. He moved quickly and he took the enemy by surprise. Many examples of this are given in Gunther Rothenberg's account of the Austrian army, a subject which has been neglected by historians. One thinks, for example, of the 1805 campaign. Napoleon was slow to believe that a massive force was being built up against him in Germany, but once he realised what was happening he moved some 200,000 men with extraordinary rapidity. As he put it, writing of the Austrian commander, Mack, 'if he dreams away another three or four days then I shall have encircled him.' And that was what happened. Mack did not know what Napoleon was doing. He lost the initiative and found himself besieged and out- numbered in Ulm. He surrendered and returned to Vienna to be court-martialled.
Only Napoleon, writes Dr Rothenburg, could have moved so many men, so far and so quickly. Some of them came from the Breton coast to the banks of the Danube. Only Napoleon, suggests Professor Mackenzie, would have attempted the adventure of the Hundred Days, and could have lived through this period of sudden fall and spectacular resurrection. He adds somewhat sententious comments on Napoleon's choice of costly glory rather than of 'true greatness', as if he regrets that Napoleon were not a Gladstonian Liberal. But he has obviously enjoyed writing this enjoyable book. With Napoleon, as with de Gaulle, there is no such thing as boredom.
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