CHAPTER XXVIII.

1813.

Riots in Hamburg and Lübeck--Attempted suicide of M. Konning--

Evacuation of Hamburg--Dissatisfaction at the conduct of General St.

Cyr--The Cabinets of Vienna and the Tuileries--First appearance of

the Cossacks--Colonel Tettenborn invited to occupy Hamburg--Cordial

reception of the Russians--Depredations--Levies of troops--

Testimonials of gratitude to Tettenborn--Napoleon's new army--Death

of General Morand--Remarks of Napoleon on Vandamme--Bonaparte and

Gustavus Adolphus--Junction of the corps of Davoust and Vandamme--

Reoccupation of Hamburg by the French--General Hogendorff appointed

Governor of Hamburg--Exactions and vexatious contributions levied

upon Hamburg and Lübeck--Hostages.

A considerable time before Napoleon left Paris to join the army, the

bulk of which was in Saxony, partial insurrections occurred in many

places. The interior of France proper was indeed still in a state of

tranquillity, but it was not so in the provinces annexed by force to

the extremities of the Empire, especially in the north, and in the

unfortunate Hanse Towns, for which, since my residence at Hamburg, I

have always felt the greatest interest. The intelligence I received was

derived from such unquestionable sources that I can pledge myself for

the truth of what I have to state respecting the events which occurred

in those provinces at the commencement of 1813; and subsequently

I obtained a confirmation of all the facts communicated by my

correspondence when I was sent to Hamburg by Louis XVIII. in 1815.

M. Steuve, agent from the Court of Russia, who lived at Altona

apparently as a private individual, profited by the irritation produced

by the measures adopted at Hamburg. His plans were so well arranged that

he was promptly informed of the route of the Grand Army from Moscow, and

the approach of the Allied troops. Aided by the knowledge and activity

of Sieur Hanft of Hamburg, M. Steuve profited by the discontent of

a people so tyrannically governed, and seized the opportunity for

producing an explosion. Between eight and nine o'clock on the morning

of the 24th of February 1813 an occurrence in which the people were

concerned was the signal for a revolt. An individual returning to

Hamburg by the Altona gate would not submit to be searched by a fiscal

agent, who in consequence maltreated him and wounded him severely. The

populace instantly rose, drove away the revenue guard, and set fire to

the guard-house. The people also, excited by secret agents, attacked

other French posts, where they committed the same excesses. Surprised at

this unexpected movement, the French authorities retired to the

houses in which they resided. All the respectable inhabitants who were

unconnected with the tumult likewise returned to their homes, and no

person appeared out of doors.

General Carry St. Cyr had the command of Hamburg after the Prince of

Eckmuhl's departure for the Russian campaign.

--[General Carry St. Cyr is not to be conFused with the Marshal

Gonvion de St. Cyr; he fell into disgrace for his conduct at

Hamburg at this time, and was not again employed by Napoleon. Under

the Restoration he became Governor of French Guiana.]--

At the first news of the revolt he set about packing up his papers, and

Comte de Chaban, M. Konning, the Prefect of Hamburg, and M. Daubignosc,

the Director of Police, followed his example. It was not till about four

o'clock in the afternoon that a detachment of Danish hussars arrived

at Hamburg, and the populace: was then speedily dispersed. All the

respectable citizens and men of property assembled the next morning and

adopted means for securing internal tranquillity, so that the Danish

troops were enabled to return to Altona. Search was then made for

the ringleaders of the disturbance. Many persons were arrested, and a

military commission, ad hoc; was appointed to try them. The commission,

however, condemned only one individual, who, being convicted of being

one of the most active voters, was sentenced to be shot, and the

sentence was carried into execution.

On the 26th February a similar commotion took place at Lübeck. Attempts

were made to attack the French Authorities. The respectable citizens

instantly assembled, protected them against outrage, and escorted them

in safety to Hamburg, where they arrived on the 27th. The precipitate

flight of these persons from Lübeck spread some alarm in Hamburg. The

danger was supposed to be greater than it was because the fugitives were

accompanied by a formidable body of troops.

But these were not the only attempts to throw off the yoke of French

domination, which had become insupportable. All the left bank of the

Elbe was immediately in a state of insurrection, and all the official

persons took refuge in Hamburg. During these partial insurrections

everything was neglected. Indecision, weakness, and cupidity were

manifested everywhere. Instead of endeavours to soothe the minds of

the people, which had been, long exasperated by intolerable tyranny,

recourse was had to rigorous measures. The prisons were crowded with a

host of persons declared to be suspected upon the mere representations

of the agents of the police. On the 3d of March a special military

commission condemned six householders of Hamburg and its neighbourhood

to be shot on the glacis for no other offence than having been led,

either by chance or curiosity, to a part of the town which was the

scene of one of the riots. These executions excited equal horror

and indignation, and General Carra St. Cyr was obliged to issue a

proclamation for the dissolution of the military commission by whom the

men had been sentenced.

The intelligence of the march of the Russian and Prussian troops;

who were descending the Elbe, increased the prevailing agitation in

Westphalia, Hanover, Mecklenburg, and Pomerania, and all the French

troops cantoned between Berlin and Hamburg, including those who occupied

the coast of the Baltic, fell back upon Hamburg. General Carra St. Cyr

and Baron Konning, the Prefect of Hamburg, used to go every evening to

Altona. The latter, worn out by anxiety and his unsettled state of

life, lost his reason; and on his way to Hamburg, on the 5th of May, he

attempted to cut his throat with a razor. His 'valet de chambre' saved

his life by rushing upon him before he had time to execute his design.

It was given out that he had broken a blood-vessel, and he was conveyed

to Altona, where his wound was cured, and he subsequently recovered from

his derangement. M. Konning, who was a native of Holland, was a worthy

man, but possessed no decision of character, and but little ability.

At this juncture exaggerated reports were circulated respecting the

approach of a Russian corps. A retreat was immediately ordered, and it

was executed on the 12th of March. General Carra St. Cyr having no money

for the troops, helped himself to 100,000 francs out of the municipal

treasury. He left Hamburg at the head of the troops and the enrolled men

of the custom-house service. He was escorted by the Burgher Guard, which

protected him from the insults of the populace; and the good people of

Hamburg never had any visitors of whom they were more happy to be rid.

This sudden retreat excited Napoleon's indignation. He accused General

St. Cyr of pusillanimity, in an article inserted in the 'Moniteur',

and afterwards copied by his order into all the journals. In fact, had

General St. Cyr been better informed, or less easily alarmed, he might

have kept Hamburg, and prevented its temporary occupation by the

enemy, to dislodge whom it was necessary to besiege the city two months

afterwards. St. Cyr had 3000 regular troops, and a considerable body of

men in the custom-house service. General Morand could have furnished him

with 5000 men from Mecklenburg. He might, therefore, not only have kept

possession of Hamburg two months longer, but even to the end of the war,

as General Lexnarrois retained possession of Magdeburg. Had not General

St. Cyr so hastily evacuated the Elbe he would have been promptly aided

by the corps which General Vandamme soon brought from the Wesel, and

afterwards by the very, corps with which Marshal Davoust recaptured

Hamburg.

The events just described occurred before Napoleon quitted Paris. In the

month of August all negotiation was broken off with Austria, though that

power, still adhering to her time-serving policy, continued to protest

fidelity to the cause of the Emperor Napoleon until the moment when her

preparations were completed and her resolution formed. But if there was

duplicity at Vienna was there not folly, nay, blindness, in the Cabinet

of the Tuileries? Could we reasonably rely upon Austria? She had seen

the Russian army pass the Vistula and advance as far as the Saale

without offering any remonstrance. At that moment a single movement of

her troops, a word of declaration, would have prevented everything. As,

therefore, she would not avert the evil when she might have done so with

certainty and safety, there must have been singular folly and blindness

in the Cabinet who saw this conduct and did not understand it.

I now proceed to mention the further misfortunes which occurred in the

north of Germany, and particularly at Hamburg. At fifteen leagues east

of Hamburg, but within its territory, is a village named Bergdorf. It

was in that village that the Cossacks were first seen. Twelve or fifteen

hundred of them arrived there under the command of Colonel Tettenborn.

But for the retreat of the French troops, amounting to 3000, exclusive

of men in the customhouse service, no attempt would have been made upon

Hamburg; but the very name of the Cossacks inspired a degree of terror

which must be fresh in the recollection of every one. Alarm spread in

Hamburg, which, being destitute of troops and artillery, and surrounded

with dilapidated fortifications, could offer no defence. The Senator

Bartch and Doctor Know took upon themselves to proceed to Bergdorf to

solicit Colonel Tettenborn to take possession of Hamburg, observing that

they felt sure of his sentiments of moderation, and that they trusted

they would grant protection to a city which had immense commercial

relations with Russia. Tettenborn did not place reliance on these

propositions because he could not suppose that there had been such a

precipitate evacuation; he thought they were merely a snare to entrap

him, and refused to accede to them. But a Doctor Von Hess, a Swede,

settled in Hamburg some years, and known to Tettenborn as a decided

partisan of England and Russia, persuaded the Russian Commander to

comply with the wishes of the citizens of Hamburg. However, Tettenborn

consented only on the following conditions:--That the old Government

should be instantly re-established; that a deputation of Senators in

their old costume should invite him to take possession of Hamburg, which

he would enter only as a free and Imperial Hanse Town; that if those

conditions were not complied with he would regard Hamburg as a French

town, and consequently hostile. Notwithstanding the real satisfaction

with which the Senators of Hamburg received those propositions they

were restrained by the fear of a reverse of fortune. They, however,

determined to accept them, thinking that whatever might happen they

could screen themselves by alleging that necessity had driven them to

the step they took. They therefore declared their compliance with

the conditions, and that night and the following day were occupied in

assembling the Senate, which had been so long dissolved, and in making

the preparations which Tettenborn required.

At four o'clock in the afternoon of the 17th of March a picket of

Cossacks, consisting of only forty men, took possession of a town

recently flourishing, and containing a population of 124,000, but ruined

and reduced to 80,000 inhabitants by the blessing of being united to

the French Empire. On the following day, the 18th, Colonel Tettenborn

entered Hamburg at the head of 1000 regular and 200 irregular Cossacks.

I have described the military situation of Hamburg when it was

evacuated on the 12th of March, and Napoleon's displeasure may be easily

conceived. Tettenborn was received with all the honours usually bestowed

upon a conqueror. Enthusiasm was almost universal. For several nights

the people devoted themselves to rejoicing. The Cossacks were gorged

with provisions and drink, and were not a little astonished at the

handsome reception they experienced.

It was not until the expiration of three or four days that the people

began to perceive the small number of the allied troops. Their amount

gradually diminished. On the day after the arrival of the Cossacks a

detachment was sent to Lübeck, where they were received with the same

honours as at Hamburg. Other detachments were sent upon different

places, and after four days' occupation there remained in Hamburg only

70 out of the 1200 Cossacks who had entered on the 18th March.

The first thing their commander did was to take possession of the

post-office and the treasuries of the different public offices. All the

movable effects of the French Government and its agents were seized and

sold. The officers evinced a true Cossack disregard of the rights of

private property. Counts Huhn, Buasenitz, and Venechtern, who had joined

Tettenborn's staff, rendered themselves conspicuous by plundering the

property of M. Pyonnier, the Director of the Customs, and M. Gonae,

the Postmaster, and not a bottle of wine was left in their cellars.

Tettenborn laid hands upon a sum of money, consisting of upwards of

4000 Louis in gold, belonging to M. Gonse, which had been lodged with

M. Schwartz, a respectable banker in Hamburg, who filled the office of

Prussian Consul. M. Schwartz, with whom this money had been deposited

for the sake of security, had also the care of some valuable jewels

belonging to Mesdames Carry St. Cyr and Daubignoac; Tettenborn carried

off these as well as the money. M. Schwartz remonstrated in his

character of Prussian Consul, Prussia being the ally of Russia, but

he was considered merely as a banker, and could obtain no redress.

Tettenborn, like most of the Cossack chiefs, was nothing but a man for

blows and pillage, but the agent of Russia was M. Steuve, whose name I

have already mentioned.

Orders were speedily given for a levy of troops, both in infantry and

cavalry, to be called Hanseatic volunteers. A man named Hanft, who had

formerly been a butcher, raised at his own expense a company of foot and

one of lancers, of which he took the command. This undertaking, which

cost him 130,000 francs, may afford some idea of the attachment of the

people of Hamburg to the French Government! But money, as well as men,

was wanting, and a heavy contribution was imposed to defray the expense

of enrolling a number of workmen out of employment and idlers, of

various kinds. Voluntary donations were solicited, and enthusiasm was

so general that even servant-maids gave their rings. The sums thus

collected were paid into the chest of Tettenborn's staff, and became

a prey to dishonest appropriation. With respect to this money a Sieur

Oswald was accused of not having acted with the scrupulous delicacy

which Madame de Stael attributes to his namesake in her romance of

Corinne.

Between 8000 and 10,000 men were levied in the Hanse Towns and their

environs, the population of which had been so greatly reduced within two

years. These undisciplined troops, who had been for the most part levied

from the lowest classes of society, committed so many outrages that they

soon obtained the surname of the Cossacks of the Elbe; and certainly

they well deserved it.

Such was the hatred which the French Government had inspired in Hamburg

that the occupation of Tettenborn was looked upon as a deliverance. On

the colonel's departure the Senate, anxious to give high a testimonial

of gratitude, presented him with the freedom of the city, accompanied by

5000 gold fredericks (105,000 francs), with which he was doubtless much

more gratified than with the honour of the citizenship.

The restored Senate of Hamburg did not long survive. The people of the

Hanse Towns learned, with no small alarm, that the Emperor was making

immense preparations to fall upon Germany, where his lieutenants could

not fail to take cruel revenge on those who had disavowed his authority.

Before he quitted Paris on the 15th of April Napoleon had recalled under

the banners of the army 180,000 men, exclusive of the guards of honour,

and it was evident that with such a force he might venture on a great

game, and probably win it. Yet the month of April passed away

without the occurrence of any event important to the Hanse Towns, the

inhabitants of which vacillated between hope and fear. Attacks daily

took place between parties of Russian and French troops on the territory

between Lüneburg and Bremen. In one of these encounters General Morand

was mortally wounded, and was conveyed to Lüneburg. His brother having

been taken prisoner in the same engagement, Tettenborn, into whose hands

he had fallen, gave him leave on parole to visit the General; but he

arrived in Lüneburg only in time to see him die.

The French having advanced as far as Haarburg took up their position on

the plateau of Schwartzenberg, which commands that little town and the

considerable islands situated in that part of the river between Haarburg

and Hamburg. Being masters of this elevated point they began to threaten

Hamburg and to attack Haarburg. These attacks were directed by Vandamme,

of all our generals the most redoubtable in conquered countries. He was

a native of Cassel, in Flanders, and had acquired a high reputation for

severity. At the very time when he was attacking Hamburg Napoleon said

of him at Dresden, "If I were to lose Vandamme I know not what I would

give to have him back again; but if I had two such generals I should be

obliged to shoot one of them." It must be confessed that one was quite

enough.

As soon as he arrived Vandamme sent to inform Tettenborn that if he did

not immediately liberate the brother and brother-in-law of Morand, both

of whom were his prisoners, he would burn Hamburg. Tettenborn replied

that if he resorted to that extremity he would hang them both on the

top of St. Michael's Tower, where he might have a view of them. This

energetic answer obliged Vandamme to restrain his fury, or at least to

direct it to other objects.

Meanwhile the French forces daily augmented at Haarburg. Vandamme,

profiting by the negligence of the new Hanseatic troops, who had the

defence of the great islands of the Elbe, attacked them one night in

the month of May. This happened to be the very night after the battle

of Lutzsn, where both sides claimed the victory; and Te Deum was sung in

the two hostile camps. The advance of the French turned the balance of

opinion in favour of Napoleon, who was in fact really the conqueror on

a field of battle celebrated nearly two centuries before by the victory

and death of Gustavus Adolphus. The Cossacks of the Elbe could not

sustain the shock of the French; Vandamme repulsed the troops who

defended Wilhelmsburg, the largest of the two islands, and easily took

possession of the smaller one, Fidden, of which the point nearest the

right bank of the Elbe is not half a gunshot distant from Hamburg. The

9th of May was a fatal day to the people of Hamburg; for it was then

that Davoust, having formed his junction with Vandamme, appeared at the

head of a corps of 40,000 men destined to reinforce Napoleon's Grand

Army. Hamburg could not hold out against the considerable French force

now assembled in its neighbourhood. Tettenborn had, it is true, received

a reinforcement of 800 Prussians and 2000, Swedes, but still what

resistance could he offer to Davoust's 40,000 men? Tettenborn did not

deceive himself as to the weakness of the allies on this point, or the

inutility of attempting to defend the city. He yielded to the entreaties

of the inhabitants, who represented to him that further resistance must

be attended by certain ruin. He accordingly evacuated Hamburg on the

29th of May, taking with him his Hanseatic legions, which had not held

out an hour in the islands of the Elbe, and accompanied by the Swedish

Doctor Von Hess, whose imprudent advice was the chief cause of all the

disasters to which the unfortunate city lied been exposed.

Davoust was at Haarburg, where he received the deputies from Hamburg

with an appearance of moderation; and by the conditions stipulated at

this conference on the 30th of May a strong detachment of Danish troops

occupied Hamburg in the name of the Emperor. The French made their

entrance the same evening, and occupied the posts as quietly as if they

had been merely changing guard. The inhabitants made not a shadow of

resistance. Not a drop of blood was issued; not a threat nor an

insult was interchanged. This is the truth; but the truth did not

suit Napoleon. It was necessary to getup a pretext for revenge, and

accordingly recourse was had to a bulletin, which proclaimed to France

and Europe that Hamburg had been taken by main force, with a loss

of some hundred men. But for this imaginary resistance, officially

announced, how would it have been possible to justify the spoliations

and exactions which ensued?

The Dutch General, Hogendorff, became Governor of Hamburg in lieu of

Carra St. Cyr, who had been confined at Osnabruck since his precipitate

retreat. General Hogendorff had been created one of the Emperor's

aides de camp, but he was neither a Rapp, a Lauriston, nor a Duroc. The

inhabitants were required to pay all the arrears of taxes due to the

different public offices during the seventy days that the French had

been absent; and likewise all the allowances that would have been paid

to the troops of the garrison had they remained in Hamburg. Payment was

also demanded of the arrears for the quartering of troops who were fifty

leagues off. However, some of the heads of the government departments,

who saw and understood the new situation of the French at Hamburg,

did not enforce these unjust and vexatious measures. The duties on

registrations were reduced. M. Pyonnier, Director of the Customs, aware

of the peculiar difficulty of his situation in a country where the

customs were held in abhorrence, observed great caution and moderation

in collecting the duties: Personal examination, which is so revolting

and indecorous, especially with respect to females, was suppressed. But

these modifications did not proceed from the highest quarter; they were

due to the good sense of the subordinate agents, who plainly saw that

if the Empire was to fall it would not be owing to little infractions in

the laws of proscription against coffee and rhubarb.

If the custom-house regulations became less vexatious to the inhabitants

of Hamburg it was not the same with the business of the post-office. The

old manoeuvres of that department were resumed more actively than

ever. Letters were opened without the least reserve, and all the old

post-office clerks who were initiated in these scandalous proceedings

were recalled. With the exception of the registrations and the customs

the inquisitorial system, which had so long oppressed the Hanse Towns,

was renewed; and yet the delegates of the French Government were the

first to cry out, "The people of Hamburg are traitors to Napoleon: for,

in spite of all the blessings he has conferred upon them they do not say

with the Latin poet, 'Deus nobis haec otia fecit."

But all that passed was trifling in comparison with what was to come. On

the 18th of June was published an Imperial decree, dated the 8th of

the same month, by virtue of which were to be reaped the fruits of the

official falsehood contained in the bulletin above mentioned. To expiate

the crime of rebellion Hamburg was required to pay an extraordinary

contribution of 48,000,000 francs, and Lübeck a contribution of

6,000,000. The enormous sum levied on Hamburg was to be paid in the

short space of a month, by six equal instalments, either in money,

or bills on respectable houses in Paris. In addition to this the new

Prefect of Hamburg made a requisition of grain and provisions of every

kind, wines, sailcloth, masts, pitch, hemp, iron, copper, steel, in

short, everything that could be useful for the supply of the army and

navy.

But while these exactions were made on property in Hamburg, at Dresden

the liberties of individuals and even lives were attacked. On the 15th

of June Napoleon, doubtless blinded by the false reports that were laid

before him, gave orders for making out a list of the inhabitants of

Hamburg who were absent from the city. He allowed them only a fortnight

to return home, an interval too short to enable some of them to come

from the places where they had taken refuge. They consequently remained

absent beyond the given time. Victims were indispensable but assuredly

it was not Bonaparte who conceived the idea of hostages to answer

for the men whom prudence kept absent. Of this charge I can clear his

memory. The hostages, were, however, taken, and were declared to be

also responsible for the payment of the contribution of 48,000,000. In

Hamburg they were selected from among the most respectable and wealthy

men in the city, some of them far advanced in age. They were conveyed to

the old castle of Haarburg on the left bank of the Elbe, and these men,

who had been accustomed to all the comforts of life, were deprived even

of necessaries, and had only straw to lie on. The hostages from Lübeck

were taken to, Hamburg: they were placed between decks on board an old

ship in the port: this was a worthy imitation of the prison hulks

of England. On the 24th of July there was issued a decree which

was published in the Hamburg Correspondent of the 27th. This decree

consisted merely of a proscription list, on which were inscribed the

names of some of the wealthiest men in the Hanse Towns, Hanover, and

Westphalia.