Of Napoleon 100 Years After His Downfall

In the Path of Napoleon 100 Years After His Downfall

* \ ^ Crossing the Alps by the Great St. Bernard

Bv JAMES MORGAN

Napoleon’s secret passage of the Alps six months after he became the first consul of France and his un- heralded descent from the clouds upon the rear of an Austrian army as it was about to invade France, was not only one of the boldest feats of his military career, but also one of his most important and decisive move- ments. Mr. Morgan tells today the dra- matic story of the celebrated march of more than 30,000 men over the Al- pine heights and sketches his own journeys :n “The Path of Napoleon” through the pass of the great St. Bernard. A visit to the house Napo- *' leon gave his guide and to the famous hospice on the summit of the lofty mountain, where, amid eternal snows, the good monks and their faithful dogs after a thousand years still keep watch over the storm-beaten way- fa rers. DATES AND EVENTS—AGE 30. April 5. 1880—Austrian army under Me* las opened its campaign in Italy. April 10. 1800—Mclas shut French army tinder Massena within the walls of J -r) 1 Genoa. 25. 1880—Austrian under de April army or rzzr y^zrs, Kray opened its campaign in Germany. *~Zzrr Snvrrs fjj May 0, 1800—De Kray driven across JV/7VZ Sr/irczr or Sr. 23rz?Mnrz> ■ the Danube by French rnder Moreau. May 6, 1800—Napoleon left Paris, destination unknown. May 13, 1800—Reviewed his army at Lau- sanne. May 14, 1800— His army began the passage of the Alps. May 20, 1800—He himself crossed the Great Si. Bernard.

is a little cottage a Bourg o Paris 81. Pierre, the tiny Swiss hamlet that lies on a shelf more than half-way up the snowy the Great St. Bernard in "The CHEREPath of Napoleon" across the Alps. Its Reality unpainted walls have been stained by Tfie Ideality & David (no.not.) Tfie syBdilandz brown like <*"** wind and rain a deep, rich TVA POLEON CPOES/NG THE ALPS Co“nTVsj£") all the rest of the "/> or GO habitations In that rude and lonely Alpine village. Tet it has Its distinguishing mark, and every one in the place calls it "The "House With Three Windows." But vil- lagers have found that for some reason or other the stranger is more impressed if they point it out as "The House of the Guide of Napoleon. Before I was introduced to this Mui- son du Guide de Napoleon I made the acquaintance of the inn of St. Pierre, the Hotel an Dejeuner do Napoleon. As //apolaons 3/erAJcrAsr I drew up beneath !t3 swinging sign, Tabza amv Caala.aata Nosrs the very sight of the hotel of Napol- at A a Dejunzp be Napoleon. eon’s breakfast whetted to a fine edge Sr. Pizppz the appetite which had been sharpened liy a drive through the keen mountain serve was the butt of the caricatur- air. ists and the jest of London and Vienna. There the curious traveler may sit in The foreign goverrments, however, the veritable chair and at the veritable £ did not know that his extraordinary table of the historic dejeuner and listen success in hastily patching up a peace m i,-—--S to the story of it from the lips of the ----s ftm with the revolted provinces of western joj of the innkeeper who " granddaughter France and ids general pacification of „4 Napoleon = served it. until he is so distracted by the country had released, for the first iS hrELCOA7ED the feast of memory she spreads before time since the revolution began. all v : by Nonns him he can hardly do single-minded jus- the forces and ot thy Bernard military strength M or St. even tlie straw for their hors* to li tice to her worthy omelet. The old pic* * republic foi foreign service. II*' needed on. of the grandparents and their im- l —J tpres no army to defend Ids government at mortal hanging on the paneled y guest home, and even in the of The Call of the Cross garrisons Tli*- line of march, starting in an almof t great Napoleon paused entranced by the walls and the china and pewter acces- Paris he left 2&K> men*, a much so even n«t-v 'll The air is as unfavorable to human only barren region, soon left all vegetatlo music of hia noontime hell, the ?J sories of that dejeuner 113 years ago are life us it is to tiie dumb animals. Can smaller force than wav employed to pre- behind; lie arranged for the army to cart*; : mountaineer who walked beside the a in themselves. diduloH for tiie brotherhood, who have banquet serve the in London itself. man in the peace every morsel of food and forage for me: mule of Hie little greni big six As the of the old inn- .served their or seven years' novi- granddaughter While his he was phantom army at Dijon was and boasts. There was a weight of 00 t gray coat did not dream that tiate at the Hospice, rarely keep their keeper presides now over the Hotel au contributing to the ga:eiy of natians, a 70 pounds for the back of each man. ; uiding Napoleon to l ls destiny. Peus- strength until middle ng« When th* of Dejeuner de Napoleon, so a grandson ruler rhatted on terms as of health regiment was quietly !owning here, a ant and easy dread signs failing: appear, the guide in the Maison du Guide they, tolled together up the gorges of usually while the brothers are yet only dwells brigade there in various parts of Franc** His Baltic With the Alps de Together they industrious- 'riie road from Martigny to the valle the St. Bernard, while the’stranger ques- in their O' s, the strongest are sent to Napoleon. and marching itself toward stealthily by -to mile tioned and the countryman explained his be cures in the lower Country, the memory of Aosta in Italy is more than parish ly polish and keep shining Switzerland. Its own officers had no long. But from Bourg St. Pierre tlier little world. Tempted to confidences, the (o '*) I while the weaker take refuge in the of the great little man, all buttoned up in the val- | Xa idea of its real destination. Even the was no road at all in Napoleon’s day- guide told of his sweetheart | monastery at Martlgny. where to the chin in a big gray overcoat, who of th and how had baffled their made his It Is minister ol‘ war was net in only a path up to the summit ley poverty polenon headquarters. the secret. ■ sr ms Hossrcs rode out of St. Pierre on a mule one St. Bernard, eight miles, and then fo mating, of his humble life and modest Ztestf/xf Mom/srsj/r tailed the House of Convalescence, but As those mysterious and mystified St ambitions. it is almost certain to he their house May morning in the year 1800, a Swiss another seven or eight miles down to commands coming by many roads, met couli I “What above all things deal rest thou of death. beside him. Rhemy on the Italian side. Nothing peasant walking on the t- on the banks of Lake Geneva at Lau- go over that, part of the pass on wheels most at tills instant to make thee hup- They return to tiie Hospice sanne were found a of l py?“ the traveler asked. mountain only to rest beneath the 1 they amazed to find them* The artillerymen gang exper Why He Crossed the Alps Pierre to take thei “That mule you arc tiding,” the peas* chapel Moon, with the brothers* who .selves an army—the real of the workmen at St. ready was the first consul of France Army of a thou- The rider gun carriages and ammunition wagon ant replied without need hesitating. have been gathering there for Reserve—under the command of Na- A Skilled Workman who in six months had restored peace to pieces and pack the parts, properl; Not only did he get his wish and re- sand years and more, where even the poleon himself. who marched them turn to his the and of the ice and the snow and at home, but had failed to obtain peace numbered, on the backs of mules. neighbors proud crashing squarely against the Alps at Sledges had been for the can nappy owner of the? coveted animal, but the howling tempest cannot disturb abroad. As it is said of a man who takes Martlgny. provided not afterward an of the their slumber. Their Is guarded He was going to st^al up the Alpine non, but they proved to be useless. There long agent repose a land title that "he has bought In the Trade of War a disputed tire trees were cut down and thei: French n\lnlster to Switzerland sought by St. Bernard de Manthon from wail and jump down on the unsuspect- upon a lawsuit,’’ so Napoleon, assuming charge trunks split In two and hollowed out him out with a gift beyond his dreams. frame on tiie wall of tiie chapel above, ing Austrians! of tlie first consul of into the ten- of the French government, took upon Then the gun was laid In ono half o Py the command There is nothing in war that I cannot do tor a faithful dog looking: up the while the other hal : France the agent came to arrange for myself. der eyes of the young dreamer, who In himself an irrepressible conflict with the hollowed log. a house and a His Scorn of Difficulties was fastened over it us a covering. the purchase or erection of If 1 have no one to make I can do it; gun car the depth of the dark ages quit other nations of gunpowder, Europe. no : to provide the means for the guide's world tilled with hate and war to b< r Magnificent highways run over the Alps It was found that even this could Vfhile he is blamed foi loving war too 1 can build I can cast if some cross on the and be hauled up the pass byr the mules. Thi > marriage. riages, them; cnnnori, them; up the lofty peaceful today and luxurious express run trains The little man’s activities as a of the ns a beacon along much, had he loved it less France would peasant mountaineers were called in ant great one is wanted to instruction in details of I can heights Alps under them—It Is hardly more than an give drill, road to Rome as a not have loved him at all. The revolu- Napoleon offered to pay them 1200 franc; ; matchmaker and promoter of weddings the pilgrimage | hour from way- Martlgny itself to Italy by ;.24d for each cannon transported have fallen under the censure of hlstor- Roedcrer in his “Memoires.” sanctuary for tin* storm-beaten tion its tricolored on the they give it.—Napoleon, quoted by had hoisted flag must all him the great Simplon tunnel. But there was But it took J00 men two days to drag ; ians. But surely they forgive fa ror. castles of lands, and it was conquered after a few > tills time. »- j Although the railroads and highroads not a wagon track for "the Path of Na- gun over the path, and gang in chain have n rot for him to haul it down, to sur- had attempted it the peasants gave ii| » For myself? there is no other place under and over the Alpine poleon." Among the mere foot trails over head, the white August ininn cord around A little* structure in tin* yard curried a for tide render what the French bad purchased the task. my journey from Ajaccio to Waterloo largel> reduced tiie necessity the his morbid suggestion. This is the morgue. steep passes, he chose the steepest were to which memory revisits oftener and with neck. rescue work in our time, gentle souls with their blood. The wars Then the soldiers appealed Napoleonic Happily it seldom receives a guest now- St Ber- of all. the Great St. Bernard, because it find they threw themselves at the Alp quite the same pleasure us that little Like a brother indeed, he took the still hearken to the call of wore the inevitable sequence of the wars adays and 1 did not visit it to verify tin* self and a was the shortest and is if were an enemy m arms, whih unpointed, weather stained cottage in a stranger in. leading him upstairs to a nard's cross and, leaving would take hint they of of the revolution. Three Win- gruesome tale Its huddled company world of self fish strife below, go up closest to lands and drummers and buglers, postc* L Swiss hamlet, the House with long, narrow room with three high piled the rear of the Austrians. of frozen unfortunates waiting the slow their lives Austria had yielded to Napoleon three it the hardest played the stir dows at Bourg St. Pierre. That simple single hods standing in a row along the* in the mountains to devote As another points, <»f In that youth with the same sail of the of of his process decay atmosphere, still to an ideal. years before, but not until ho had whip- ring-tunes of the revolution. Patriotisn monument gratitude Napoleon wall—when, to the amazement brow and standing or sitting just as they stood or Hashing blue eye, who bore mid lid what gold could not do. lias outlasted ids magnilicent palaces and 'shivering guest, he switched on the elec- Pence and War ped five of her armies. While he was sat when death found them. Some of snow and ice a btfnner with a strange As each division of troops mounted t< > oven the splendid edifice of his great ein- tric light and turned on the steam radia- The of the peace loving founder before the walls of the town them, it is said, ,have waited as as portrait far-away at th When not one stone remains upon tor! The of those modern com- long device, was warned by the prudent the top of the pass and arrived pire. presence oi the order lias a strange companion of the French ambassadors to the 2ft years to return to the dust from which Acre, of 8t. Bernard it was greets l another at the Tuileries and at Ht. Cloud, forts, gifts to the Hospice, may seem It: Hie the monument of against the roaring torrent and the awful Hospice came. Pitiless nature chapel, sculptured do still the they not only d« nies congress of peace at Rastadt were mur- by the monks, who having laid in abund the Matson du Guide Napoleon to the reader soft impeachments of a war loving youth. Tills is General De- avalanche of the St. Bernard, the them life, but denied them the soli in army ant at Napoleon's request am l stands and shelters the grateful posterity asceticism of a monastic life. But in a to death in buttle we shall dered by Austrians, and, rushing into a supplies to rest when an jx, whos** engineers, from 1 works which their struggles against, returning their inspec- expense, gave the soldiers a delightfu of the guide. Mighty wrought by region where it is not summer even in lie a witness in another chapter. Tha new war, Austria took from France all her were over. tion shook their cautious heads at the jurprise, every man receiving bis brea< i the power of Napoleon and dedicated to July, where the. climate is the same as at white marble memorial of him at the lie her in the ground had won for Italy. wine. Down at St ids have passed away, but a sim- wh^rc the sun is a rare and as a tes- young First Consul and echoed, "try not and cheese and glory Hpitzbergen, Hospice was set up by Napoleon Aided a from Great Brit- ended on th deed of kindness endures. is The Beni St. Bernard a by subsidy the Rhemy. where the path ple fugitive visitor and where one's head I)or timony to his admiration and regret for pass” In with the ain she was preparing now to invade Italian side and the road oegan, not onl; almost always in the clouds, steam heat Keeping considerate hos- brilliant young general, who crossed the "Difficult, granted," he replied to the was a set. but all manne and incandescent are not mere of tin* the of France herself and dictate terms of hospital up The Famous I'ass Today lights lux* pitality Hospice dogs did not Alps only to meet his death on the Held engineers: "but is It a possible?” They ad- ot craftsmen were assembled. If stra] J pursued the “Path of Napoleon” uries. On the walls of the chamber hung bark until it was time for t<» Marengo. peace to the French people from their every one mitted the “Then let us on a mule was broken, saddlers wer across the Alps by the carriage engravings of religious subjects with the I was turning a way from the chapel possibility. road, be and then two e own An Austrian of up, elders of the rat capital. army 120,000 there to it, while other work lias taken the the of their givers, (lie late Em- l to see on its start!” He did not cry "Excelsior!” But ready repair Which place of rough autographs emitted thunderous salvos as when chanced dimly lighted l they ran men had marched across Germany and men put together the gun carriages am trail he followed over the wild, ra- peror and Empress Frederick of Ger- wall a little box, on which were printed no doubt lie had his secret watchword— deep hack and forth in the echoing hall. They around the end of the Al- ammunition wagons and remounted th • vine of the Valsorey, where the army many, sometime guests of tin.1 monks. the words: "Offendi'e Four THospice.” We upper long "Empire!" were only sounding their breakfast hour, cannon as fast as they’ arrived. found its through the for- all read of the shameful neglest of pine wall which defends the approaches steepest climb; and when an attendant appeared they have If Charlemagne had led an over est Ht. where the to leave a to the Hos- army of Pierre, trees make A N at the Monastery rushed out of doors to the cellar many travelers gift to France; but only to be hurled back ight _ entry the St. Bernard 1000 final stand against the desert return for tie- hospi- years before and Han- The Man on the Mule their wintry After half a hundred little maids, all There they boomed again until this floor pice in open-handed from the Rhine to tlie Daunbe by a horn, » and nibal had crossed Napoleon stayed at the lowland of stone, and then on to the lust inhab- was tality which it offers without price the Alps 2000 years be- unwary from a ladies’ seminary, who hud opened and the rest of the pack—14 under General Mo- mon creed or great French army of the monks of St. Bernard, the ited house, where even man surrenders to in all—were let out. without thought Qf nationality. fore with troops reared beneath a in hob-nailed * tropic the oh I the de tramped up t!\e mountain that little that reau. astery which still stands by the arid heights- Cantine Proz. Please don’t he deceived the But the sight of box, sun and encumbered with a by pic- train of ele- church in Martigny, until he had seei More than 1000 feet below the Ilospice boots, left the lining hull ringing with shy little hint tucked away in (lie chapel Another Austrian army of nearly 120,- tures of untraveled artists. The pam- phants, why should be and th is Its the little stone or were w it would be easv not to see it, Napoleon daunted? to the last detail dispatched outpost, hospltalet their mirth, the score of other guests pered St. Bernard of the suburban here 000 men in Italy, however, had caught ■ piaz- "An battle th. there a tree that tiie failure of some of the army can pass at all times,” he said, last division. His against refuge. Here and solitary called to the evening meal. The brother za is a very different suggests little force Mas- animal from he a French under General was won. rose from the stones to stand like a sen- who acted as at the head of Hie to their hosts maj be due "wherever two men can set their feet." Alps host smaller, short-haired, sober, almost un- guests requite term and shut it up within the wails As he rode out of Bourg St. Pierre tinel at his guarding the lowlands table united the of na- In a measure to the excessive modesty of post, company many friendly «iog, reared on Alpine snow and celebrated am l of Geonoa. Its surrended was a ques- after the now dejeuner, against the advance of desolation. Even tions as well as he could with his pretty monastic fare. the latter, us well us to the heedlessness How He Provided as his mule plodded up. the hight in the drear Combe des Morts, the Valley French and tor the rest the ice of the former. tion only of days, and then the Aus- speech, Baedeker, the crabbed old disilluslou- For nearly a week he sent his out St. Pierre by the bank of tli of beautiful hard* was smile. One traveler at least, the most cele- army above Death, Alpine Mowers, melted by his gracious ist of travel, says the St. Bernard v around breed trians would be free to march of with Bour in the Moral the of St. Bernard, did Martlgny, a division a day, to scale the tumoling, rushing Valsorey, lest dwellers world, garland* in the big drawing room, after dinner, is extinct at the Hospice, but the brated of guests the lower end of the Alpine wall, where rienne and Duros following, Napoleoi ed the shoulders of the mountain, and tlie 60 restless little maids from school not forget his obligations, tor Napoleon 6600-foot wall that to wear above the town brothers insist it is not. Only a few' its base is the waters of the seemed to have freed his mind of anx fuln would have crowned the last drummed for a on the old left with the monks a purse of $20,WO. washed by and front it him; while piano Newfoundland dogs were culled in at a stop to let themselves down ■ and to have no more serious inter I chanced to see the of them have cherished tiie Mediterranean. and enter southern iety struggling against given to the monks by a one-time guest, time of great mortality in the 100 Generations (AOO feet Into the ■ pack valley of Aosta on the cats than the curiosity cf an Idle trav snow was a tiny blue blossom. Was it a tiie late King Edward, when he was traditions of his hour of rest at the Hos- France. They were confident of vic- years ago and much breeding back to other side. For two months he had been eler. Te listened to the roaring am l forget-me-not from mother nature? Prince of awhile serin- and the goblet from which he drunk Waies; for they the original stock was required to get pice. tory and all Europe seemed to share noises that broke the silenc • it was this considering the providing for the march. crashing Although July, the shoveled road bled messages on picture postcards ami rid of the long coat the strangers is treasured to day. V their confidence. of the lonely pass and the musical cal l mounted between snow banks six and tilled the all the time with the un- He had collected all the necessary sup- place brought and which Interfered with the of the herdsmen from peuk to peak seven feet high to the little plain where wonted ciiutter of giiii voices. When work in as as he the show. Another familiar Nepoleon Toboggan plies secretly had assembled charmed by the sound of ; walls of How He Fooled Europe Always the gvu}9 the Hospice of St. the drawing room was deserted for the pictorial feature now missing from the As Napoleon came away from the mon- the army Itself. well lie hearkened to the loud tnkllnj ! Bernard rose out of the white earth in bedrooms there floated from tlie Napoleon could not send a great army chapel real dog is the little barrel of brandy astery and proceeded past the lonHy His cowbellsnis cold haze toward the troops marching In a few hours of the big Alpine they rani ! a somber sky, as through the stillness of the evening a rich, about the it on the bleak against th 3 Austrians ir. as he had neck, for was found that statue of St. Bernard plain Italy torrent a scene as from the warm sunshine of the low- out above the singing from loft; melancholy could be imag- detp-thi oated chorus, calming tli^* spirit prowling topers were that the lake, he saw a wonderful in Germany, because and the Brit- converting beyond they whose steeps are better suite* l The carriage stopped beneath an like a lullaby, of into In the lands Into the Ice and snow of the sun- pastures ipod. agency mercy a relief for their toboggan chute glistening Italian ish gunboats together could easily de- flies than cattle. This pic inclosed bridge that connects two less gorges might succumb to the foi pretty severely thirst. sun. It had been worn smooth by the change stone fend the narrow path along the moun- ture lias been transferred by Emersoi plain buildings, standing on either us heavenward The not who had seated and the cold; he had laid dogs only fail of a Tull thousands of soldiers in an immense of history to the » side of the road. One is the* of St. tainous shore. Apparently he must wait from the pages page monastery The pious monks Bernard growth at the great altitude ot the themselves in the snow and slid down stock of clothing and shoes, am! lie saw in his and the other the Hotel St. of and philosophy “Eucl Louis, a neces- I’ttered the oft-repeated prayer, Hospice, If lit their lives also are mountain side. the to accept battle on French soH, and he poety stunted tiie steep Following to it that man sary for the brothers in case every was properly clad and All:" of Mro. and they seldom live more than seven example of his men. he himself took the \ roirdy proclaimed th** formation of the which also serves as a for than all and shod. As the day grew warmer and lodging poor It is liard|\ more a gray dawn years. Hells, too. full a prey to the toboggan and was fairly shot into Italy, a Army or Reserve at Dijon, obviously The heifer that lows in the upland farm wayfarers and shelter for the horses of on the clouded, sunless heights of Hi. air as to ^ the snow began to melt, the perils from day blighting and last but a brief while v'oere the Austrians were surprised ear to for the purpose of meeting the invaders Far heard, lows not thine charm ; traveler*. Bernard, and a thick mist shut in lUe A little herd of five cows were see descend them a a If he had avalanches would he let out. him upon Increase: ordered sexton his bell at noon, the earliest of m the of tlu* Rhone. But the The tolling At the Celebrated Hospice Hospice through hours of the baseetnnt; in the three open dropped from Mars with a parachute. Valley division to be at each the foot of 'lie Dreams not that great Napoleon Two clogs of the renowned breed of Ht. I could see from my window months of the ► morning. year these beasts hav** (Copyright, 1918-14, by James Morgan.) pies of the enemy ami the represen- and and lists with mountain ready to start befor 2 Stops his l orse. delight Bernard gazed at the strangers from the only little by little the clothes yard from a beneficial change in n dallv drlv tatives of the foreign press, who rushed o’clock in the files round morning, thus making the Whilst his swoop yon Alpim doorway of the monastery, but there was which the snow had been cleared and down to the pasture land some 1 .'»*»•» Next Bunda.v. "The Battle of Marengo.” to found tlm a with ice. Dijon, only skeleton <»f most dangerous part of the passage in hight: mother sight nor sound of a human be- then the tiny lake covered feet below. Through *!! the rest of the a battle that was lost and won. which Nor knowest thou what argument the I entered the I was In next the highest hab- year are military tody there. This exposure of the night. To fortify the weaker for the ing. Cliniblng steps. Although they fed on fodder that has secured the peace of RUropa for five years creed has Thy life to thy neighbor's lent door, but not seeing the bell rope inside. itation on tin* Alps, tile eye looked up the to be brought many miles, for there Mr. story of a strange, eventful his feeb!e resources brought upon Na- crossing and to resusltate them at the Morgan’s 1 waited in the silent hall until T saw in steep sides of .Mont Velan, where It was is not a mouthful of grass for them day. when Napoleon was beaten at * poleon the derisive laughter of the na- end of their arduous he set hos- tramp, up Napoleon and Hi» Guide the dusk a black-roped brother. Ins cowl lost in (lie clouds us it rose 2600 feet anywhere near tlm Hospice. The car- o'clock and victorious at •>, and his skatch tions. His boasted of the Re- Army pitals on either aida ot the mountains. IX the sexton did uot deem that th* > thrown back from his handsome young higher than the Hospice. riage drivers have to bring with them of a visit to tha battlefield.

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