Baron Fain and the 1805 campaign …

Agathon-Jean-François Fain (1778-1837), assigned to the offices of Secretary of State Maret by Napoleon, who had noticed him during his duties at the Convention and the Directory, became the secretary-archivist of the Emperor in 1806, and subsequently his first secretary, replacing Ménéval from 1813 up to the abdication of Napoleon and during the Hundred Days, while in the meantime being appointed baron and Master of Requests. He passed away as a Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour.

During the Restoration, Fain published his ‘Manuscrits’, which were the first historical documents to emanate from the French Imperial Chancellery [better known as the Manuscripts of 1812, 1813 and 1814]. Fain’s ‘Mémoires’, published by his great-grandsons in 1908, is a most significant and revealing source of information on the secretary’s working methods during the Empire. Yet, alongside knowing this senior civil servant to Napoleon, it is interesting to understand the man himself.

This account was published in the Revue de l’Institut Napoléon of January-April 1952.

It’s noticeable Fain wrote this journal for a woman. Was she his wife (most likely), a sister or a relative? There is alas no indication on this matter …

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Strasbourg, 7 Vendémiaire, Year XIV – The Emperor left this morning to join the army.

We ourselves have crossed the Rhine, but soon after, as gentlemen who know how to maintain themselves, we crossed the river again to move closer to our dinner.

Strasbourg, 16 Vendémiaire – The Emperor has already travelled more than seventy leagues from us. We are having a foretaste of Germany by not leaving the German theatre.

Strasbourg, 19 Vendémiaire – I have just paid a visit to Madame de Lavalette who is here with the Empress; she told me to pass on a thousand kind words to you. The cold and the bad weather have replaced the brief summer here that we had been allowed to enjoy during our arrival; so long, walks! The war is raging and we are fighting fiercely.

According to the first manoeuvres, there are insiders who already predict that the Emperor will be even more formidable in this campaign than in the previous ones. The horses taken from the enemy begin to arrive: for three louis, one can own a decent steed.

Strasbourg, 28 Vendémiaire – At the time when I least expected it, I was received as a Mason in a lodge which follows the Court. Will the banquets and the masonic sessions offer us some distractions?

Strasbourg, 30 Vendémiaire – Our lodges follow one another without interruption: yesterday we received Madame de Lavalette. Friday we will have the lodge presided over by the Empress herself. Now we are Masons all up to little Joanne (a relative of Fain?).

Strasbourg, the 3rd of Brumaire – We just departed from a charming party which the lodge has just hosted in honour of the Empress. The banquet was very good and for the Masons, that is the most important thing. The mood was also something to behold, as Etienne was able to brighten up the party with some very nice verses. We were invited to the Empress’ ball yesterday, but we were unable to attend.

Strasbourg, 4 Brumaire – The order finally arrived to travel to Munich in Bavaria. The mail arrived this evening and we leave tonight. I write to you in haste in the middle of the embarrassments of such a precipitous relocation. Moreover, the army is moving so fast that when we get to Munich, we will still find ourselves in the rear, as we are located at Strasbourg.

Munich, 8 Brumaire – Leaving Strasbourg, we first crossed the whole of Swabia. We successively sighted the beautiful cities of Rastatt and Stuttgart and after having passed by the famous Black Forest, we arrived at Ulm, where eight days before, thirty thousand Austrians had put down their weapons. The roads around this city were still littered with Austrian muskets and helmets.

Finally, after spending three days and three nights on the road, we entered this beautiful capital of Bavaria. However, the Emperor was no longer there.

He was pursuing the Russians who had just arrived to disengage the Austrians. Mr. Maret in his ardour had rushed after the headquarters by himself. We who remained here without really knowing what would become of us, were temporarily accommodated at Mr. de Talleyrand’s quarters …

Munich, 11 Brumaire – We must leave. We did, however, resided in a very nice hotel in Munich, but we left it in a hurry to proceed to Braunau in Austria where Mr. Maret had already arrived. We will be sleeping on straw and we are bringing our bread there: great prospects!

Braunau, 16 Brumaire – We will advance today and tomorrow on the road to Vienna. We must be in Lintz the day after tomorrow. We have just crossed Bavaria; we are in Austria amidst the army. Your last letter was delivered to me when we were stuck in the mud and I was trying to drive my carriage up a steep hill.

We could only get here by forcing poor peasants to provide us with eleven horses per carriage and we made them travel twenty-two leagues without unhitching the wagons. The post office has no more horses, such is war! All this is a little different from our Parisian ways of doing things.

Lintz, 18 Brumaire Year XIV – As we arrived in this city, the army departed from it to move forward. The Emperor is already at the convent of Moelk and it is said that our vanguard is located at Saint-Hippolyte, sixteen leagues from Vienna. We will hurry to dispatch the business which was left to us here and we will leave immediately afterwards to join the general headquarters. Since we left Munich, our march has been completely militaristic in character.

We proceed at a walking pace. Two chasseurs escort and guard our carriages, they have carbines at the ready; then follow two sedans pulled by peasant horses placed at requisition. At the door of the Minister, we find the quartermaster who commands the escort, and behind the carriages we have our well-equipped saddle horses, with pistols loaded in the trunks and ready to be driven by ourselves if we find ourselves in need of abandoning our carriages.

The march is completed by a peasants’ cart which carries our heaviest luggage, our food and the horses’ fodder. This is how we travel through looted and almost deserted villages. At bedtime, we throw mattresses on the floor and lie on top of them. For four days now, I have been wearing neither boots nor spurs but without being all too tired. All this is very bearable and I am doing wonderfully well. To complete the picture at the risk of being scolded, I will tell you that I smoke a pipe like a corporal and that I have allowed myself to let my moustaches grow.

Today we are accommodated with the Bishop of Lintz. There will be more ceremonies, and I will sleep between two bedsheets.

Enns, near Moelk, 20 Brumaire Year XIV – We are still on the road to Vienna. A courier passes by and I hand him over this note.

From the Palace of Schönbrunn, near Vienna, 24 Brumaire – For four days, we have not slept in an inhabited house. All the villages along the road are deserted; no fodder, no bread. In the evening, for want of accommodation, we bivouac in the carriage.

This is the life we have been leading for the last eight days. Yesterday we would not have had supper if the chasseurs of the escort had not snatched a sheep, two leagues from the road. The cook had to prepare some chops and a lamb’s leg for us, and the rest served the caravan well. But at last, God be praised, the wilderness has been overcome! And here we are in the promised land, we are in Vienna.

That is to say, the army is there, but we are kept at the entrance. The Emperor halted in the palace from which I am writing, which is as far from Vienna as the Ecole Militaire is from Paris [this institution was at that time located outside the walls of the capital], and here we are, to our great regret, quartered in barracks. If I manage to escape this plight, I’ll be sure to stick my nose in like the others did.

Vienna, Tuesday 28 Brumaire Year XIV – The Emperor having left Schönbrunn to fight the Russians, nothing retains us any more in this [illegible], and we immediately made our great entry in Vienna. They were waiting for us at the Imperial Palace. We were lodged in the private quarters of the Emperor and it is I who has the honour of sleeping in his bed.

Vienna is a beautiful city, with five major theatres that are open every evening.

Vienna, 2 Frimaire Year XIV – The Emperor has driven the Russians back to the far border of Moravia. There is mention of his return and then we will have to leave Vienna to go and stand guard at the gloomy Schönbrunn Castle, although we are very well accommodated here.

The Emperor of Austria has us serve a table which is shared by the two ministers, Misters de Talleyrand and Maret, and their secretaries. We therefore all live together, and in the evenings we attend performances; the lodgings of the Emperor of Austria are always reserved for us.

One noteworthy observation is that the inhabitants of Vienna, as a sign of grief, refrain from frequenting public places; there are only Frenchmen to be found on the ground floor [of the theatre].

Vienna, 8 Frimaire – There is much talk of negotiations. It is to be hoped that they will end up with an agreement, and that this most brilliant campaign will at the same time be the shortest. Meanwhile, we are killing time; in the morning visiting the facilities in the city, and in the evening attending the performances. The most competent performance group is without doubt the Italian one. We met here three talents more impressive than we have ever heard in Italy: Crescentini, Madame Botta and Madame Canepi.

All this is very lovely, but the Boulevard theatre, which only represents melodramas [illegible], the pantomime is universal and I can at least understand something of this language.

Did I tell you that I encountered Sailor Grivel, who travelled here to manoeuvre on the Danube? My patience is beginning to wear thin with this wandering bureaucracy. I’ve been on the road for three years now; that’s enough for me, and I’m getting too old to be merely a minister’s aide-de-camp.

Vienna, 11 Frimaire – We are still living here in the same manner. However, the delegates who have arrived are about to make our dinners take on a more imposing form; they will join us every day to eat at the table of our ministers.

Vienna, 15 Frimaire – The Emperor has just gained a victory on the Russians at thirty-six leagues from here. It seems that the enemy find themselves in complete disarray. The two emperors of Austria and Russia were present at the battle.

Vienna, 15 Frimaire – The great victory is already succeeded by a great advantage. The emperor of Austria has visited us at the outposts. He succeeded in obtaining an agreement stating that there would be no more hostilities and that the Russians would be allowed to return home. Thus there is already an armistice and Mr. de Talleyrand has just departed at once to finalise the treaty.

Did I tell you that money was no longer common in Vienna? Trade there is only conducted with paper, and we Frenchmen are astonished to find ourselves back in the time when assignats were used.

Brünn, 19 Frimaire – Yesterday, I stood on the battlefield. What a sad, horrible spectacle! It has been eight days since they buried [the dead] and the plain is still covered with corpses. This field is more than four leagues long from left to right. We rode across it and then dined at Austerlitz, the little town which lends its name to the battle.

I recovered from the battlefield a black [Russian] Chevalier-Guard plume and a Tartar prayer book. I will take them home as trophies and souvenirs of the first battlefield I have witnessed. May it be the last! It is assured that the Emperor returns to Vienna tomorrow.

Schönbrunn, 26 Frimaire – We are not certain yet whether peace will be concluded. The Germans are so slow at everything that it will perhaps be necessary to wait a fortnight to obtain a yes or a no …

Munich, 3 January 1806 – I could have gone first; I did not, in order to display courage and to do things right up till the end. However, this is my last effort and the Secretariat of State will henceforth proceed without me.

Munich, 7 January 1806 – Are you aware of the reason why we are here? It is due to the marriage of Prince Eugene to the Bavarian lady [Princess Augusta]. We are to act as notary and registrar here, and that will earn me a little snuff box with diamond specks for you to scrape off of it. That is all I can tell you concerning the cause of our tiresome delay.

Munich, 13 January 1806 – What is the use of writing to you? If I were to leave, I would travel faster than my letter, yes; however it is necessary to engage in smuggling and under this respectable postmark, you will find three English dresses. From Stuttgart, capital of the kingdom of Württemberg of new manufacture, 19 January 1806.

Another thirty-five leagues and we will reach France. When the new king has expressed his gratitude, we will not halt any longer, and on the 25th or 26th of January at the latest, we will be in Paris.

Baron FAIN.