was above all his mother, fully confident of the future destiny of the Bonapartes, who impressed on him the idea that he would be king, or at any rate, that he would accomplish some great works. “With your name,” she said, “you will always count for something, whether in the old world of Europe or in the new.” If we may believe Mme Cornu, he already at the age of twelve had dreams of empire.
In 1823 he accompanied his mother to Italy, visiting his father at Florence, and his grandmother Letitia at Rome, and dreaming with Le Bas on the banks of the Rubicon. He returned to Arenenburg to complete his military education under Colonel Armandi and Colonel Dufour, who instructed him in artillery and military engineering. At the age of twenty he was a “Liberal,” an enemy of the Bourbons and of the treaties of 1815; but he was dominated by the cult of the emperor, and for him the liberal ideal was confused with the Napoleonic.
The July revolution of 1830, of which he heard in Italy, roused all his young hopes. He could not return to France, for the law of 1816 banishing all his family had not been abrogated. But the liberal revolution knew no frontiers. Italy shared in the agitation. He had already met some of the conspirators at Arenenberg, and it is practically established that he now joined the associations of the Carbonari. Following the advice of his friend the Count Arese and of Menotti, he and his brother were among the revolutionaries who in February 1831 attempted a rising in Romagna and the expulsion of the pope from Rome. They distinguished themselves at Civita Castellana, a little town which they took; but the Austrians arrived in force, and during the retreat Napoleon Louis, the elder son, took cold, followed by measles, of which he died. Hortense hurried to the spot and took steps which enabled her to save her second son from the Austrian prisons. He escaped into France, where his mother, on the plea of his illness, obtained permission from Louis Philippe for him to stay in Paris. But he intrigued with the republicans, and Casimir-Périer insisted on the departure of both mother and son. In May 1831 they went to London, and afterwards returned to Arenenberg.
For a time he thought of responding to the appeal of some of the Polish revolutionaries, but Warsaw succumbed (September 1831) before he could set out. Moreover the plans of this young and visionary enfant du siècle were becoming more definite. The duke of Reichstadt died in 1832. His uncle, Joseph, and his father, Louis, showing no desire to claim the inheritance promised them by the constitution of the year XII., Louis Napoleon henceforth considered himself as the accredited representative of the family. Those who came in contact with him noticed a transformation in his character; he tried to hide his natural sensibility under an impassive exterior, and concealed his political ambitions. He became indeed “doux entête” (gentle but obstinate) as his mother called him, persistent in his ideas and always ready to return to them, though at the same time yielding and drawing back before the force of circumstances. He endeavoured to define his ideas, and in 1833 published his Rêveries politiques, suivies d’un projet de constitution, and Considérations politiques et militaires sur la Suisse; in 1836, as a captain, in the Swiss service, he published a Manuel d’artillerie, in order to win popularity with the French army. A phrase of Montesquieu, placed at the head of this work, sums up the views of the young theorist: “The people, possessing the supreme power, should do for itself all that it is able to do; what it cannot do well, it must do through its elected representatives.” The supreme authority entrusted to the elect of the people was always his essential idea. But the problem was how to realize it. Louis Napoleon could feel vaguely the state of public opinion in France, the longing for glory from which it suffered, and the deep-rooted discord between the nation and the king, Louis Philippe, who though sprung from the national revolution against the treaties of 1815, was yet a partisan of peace at any price. Both Chateaubriand and Carrel had praised the prince’s first writings. Bonapartists and republicans found common ground in the glorious tradition sung by Béranger. A military conspiracy like those of Berton or the sergeants of La Rochelle, seemed feasible to Napoleon. A new friend of his, Fialin, formerly a non-commissioned officer and a journalist, an energetic and astute man and a born conspirator, spurred him on to action.
With the aid of Fialin and Eleonore Gordon, a singer, who is supposed to have been his mistress, and with the co-operation of certain officers, such as Colonel Vaudrey, an old soldier of the Empire, commanding the 4th regiment of artillery, and Lieutenant Laity, he tried to bring about a revolt of the garrison of Strassburg (October 30, 1836). The conspiracy was a failure, and Louis Philippe, fearing lest he might make the pretender popular either by the glory of an acquittal or the aureole of martyrdom, had him taken to Lorient and put on board a ship bound for America, while his accomplices were brought before the court of assizes and acquitted (February 1837). The prince was set free in New York in April; by the aid of a false passport he returned to Switzerland in August, in time to see his mother before her death on the 3rd of October 1837.
At any other time this attempt would have covered its author with ridicule. Such, at least, was the opinion of the whole of the family of Bonaparte. But his confidence was unshaken, and in the woods of Arenenberg the romantic-minded friends who remained faithful to him still honoured him as emperor. And now the government of Louis Philippe, by an evil inspiration, began to act in such a way as to make him popular. In 1838 it caused his partisan Lieutenant Laity to be condemned by the Court of Peers to five years’ imprisonment for a pamphlet which he had written to justify the Strassburg affair; then it demanded the expulsion of the prince from Switzerland, and when the Swiss government resisted, threatened war. Having allowed the July monarch to commit himself, Louis Napoleon at the last moment left Switzerland voluntarily. All this served to encourage the mystical adventurer. In London, where he had taken up his abode, together with Arese, Fialin (says Persigny), Doctor Conneau and Vaudrey, he was at first well received in society, being on friendly terms with Count d’Orsay and Disraeli, and frequenting the salon of Lady Blessington. He met with various adventures, being present at the famous tournament given by Lord Eglinton, and yielded to the charm of his passionate admirer Miss Howard. But it was a studious life, as well as the life of a dandy, that he led at Carlton House Terrace. Not for a minute did he forget his mission: “Would you believe it,” the duke of Wellington wrote of him, “this young man will not have it said that he is not going to be emperor of the French. The unfortunate affair of Strassburg has in no way shaken this strange conviction, and his chief thoughts are of what he will do when he is on the throne.” He was in fact evolving his programme of government, and in 1839 wrote and published his book: Des Idées napoléoniennes, a curious mixture of Bonapartism, socialism and pacificism, which he represented as the tradition of the First Empire. He also followed attentively the fluctuations of French opinion.
Since 1838 the Napoleonic propaganda had made enormous progress. Not only did certain newspapers, such as the Capilole and the Journal du Commerce, and clubs, such as the Culottes de peau carry it on zealously; but the diplomatic humiliation of France in the affair of Mehemet Ali (q.v.) in 1840, with the outburst of patriotism which accompanied it, followed by the concessions made by the government to public opinion, such as, for example, the bringing back of the ashes of Napoleon I., all helped to revive revolutionary and Napoleonic memories.
The pretender, again thinking that the moment had come, formed a fresh conspiracy. With a little band of fifty-six followers he attempted to provoke a rising of the 42nd regiment of the line at Boulogne, hoping afterwards to draw General Magnan to Lille and march upon Paris. The attempt was made on the 6th of August 1840, but failed; he saw several of his supporters fall on the shore of Boulogne, and was arrested together with Montholon, Persigny and Conneau. This time he was brought before the Court of Peers with his accomplices; he entrusted his defence to Berryer and Marie, and took advantage of his trial to appeal to the supremacy of the people, which he alleged,
