On Sunday the 15 May 1796, Bonaparte made his entry into Milan through streets lined by the National Guard, commanded by the Duc de Serbelloni. When the general arrived at the Porta Romana the soldiers presented arms. Preceded by a large detachment of infantry, and surrounded by his guard of cavalry, he proceeded to the archducal palace, where he took up his residence. In the evening, there was a large dinner given in his honor, followed by a brilliant ball.

But in the midst of his triumphs, Bonaparte was far from happy. His adored wife failed to respond to his letters praying her to join him in Italy, and he had just received news of the proposal of the Directory to divide his forces, giving the northern army to Kellermann, while he was to be sent with the balance of the troops to conquer the southern part of the Peninsula. He immediately wrote the Directory that he considered it most unwise to divide the Army of Italy into two parts, and against the best interests of the Republic to have two different generals. The majority of the Directory accepted his view of the situation and the order was at once cancelled.

Bonaparte found it more difficult, however, to overcome the resistance of his wife. Joséphine was more interested in enjoying at Paris the triumphs of her husband than in going to join him at Milan. She was perfectly happy in her life at home, and had no desire to leave her children and her friends. She loved the theatres, the manners of the Ancien Régime, which were beginning to reappear, and the receptions at the Luxembourg, where she was treated like a queen. It certainly was not customary, since the beginning of the wars of the Republic, to see the wives of the generals accompany the armies, and it was too much to demand of the Creole nature of Joséphine that she should rush to Italy at the first call of her husband, and expose herself to the fatigues and dangers of a great war.

But Napoleon could not understand her hesitation. He wrote her letter after letter, each one more burning and more pressing than the one before. Murat, who carried to Paris the papers of the armistice, was also the bearer of a letter to Joséphine urging her to rejoin him. This letter, which she did not hesitate to show to her friends, was characterized by the most violent passion, not entirely free from jealousy. Arnault writes: “I can still hear her reading a passage in which her husband cries, ‘What are you doing? Why do you not come to me? If it is a lover who detains you beware of the poinard of Othello!’ And Joséphine, smiling with amusement at his exalted sentiments, says with her funny Creole accent, ‘Il est drôle, Bonaparte!’”

In his Life of Napoleon, Sir Walter Scott writes that the correspondence of Bonaparte with Joséphine reveals the curious character of a man as ardent in love as in war: the language of the conqueror who disposed of States according to his good pleasure, and beat the most celebrated generals of his time, is as enthusiastic as that of an Arcadian shepherd. The statements of the great English writer are certainly borne out by the tone of the long passionate and eloquent letter which Napoleon wrote Joséphine on the 15 June 1796 from Tortona. It was despatched by a special courier, who had orders to remain only four hours in Paris, and to bring back her answer. Joséphine could not resist this final touching appeal; and she decided, although with great regret, to leave for Italy.

Her friend Arnault, in his interesting memoirs, gives us a curious insight of the feelings of Joséphine at this time. He says that the love which she inspired in a man so extraordinary as Bonaparte evidently flattered her, although she took the matter much less seriously than he; she was proud to see that he loved her almost as much as his glory; she enjoyed this fame which increased from day to day; but she wished to enjoy it at Paris, in the midst of the acclamations which hailed her appearance, on the receipt of each new bulletin from the Army of Italy. Her chagrin was great when she saw that there was no chance for further hesitation. She would not have exchanged her little hôtel in the Rue Chantereine for the palace prepared for her reception at Milan—in fact, for all the palaces in the world. It was from the Luxembourg that she finally set out for Italy, after having supped there with a few friends. “Poor woman!” says Arnault, “she broke out in tears, and sobbed as if she were going to the scaffold. She was going to reign!”

Joséphine arrived at Milan the 9 July 1796, escorted by her brother-in-law Joseph, by Napoleon’s aide de camp Junot, and by a young officer on the staff of General Leclerc, named Hippolyte Charles, whom we shall encounter later on in close connection with Joséphine.

Bonaparte, who had not expected so prompt a response to his last appeal, was absent on a tour of the principal cities of northern Italy. The first day of July he paid a visit to the Grand Duke Ferdinand at Florence. From there he went to Bologna and Verona, and did not reach Milan until the middle of the month.

What a change in the situation of Bonaparte in the four short months since he parted from Joséphine at Paris! In order not to excite the jealousy of the Directory he had abandoned the archducal palace, but was lodged in almost regal state in the Serbelloni Palace on the Corso Venezia, a few squares behind the cathedral. The Serbelloni is far handsomer than the Royal Palace and perhaps the most beautiful of all the palaces of Milan. Since the opening of the campaign in April his troops had overrun nearly all of northern Italy. Piedmont, delivered from the yoke of Austria, had made peace with France, and the remainder of the Imperial army was blockaded at Mantua. He had treated as an equal with the King of Sardinia, the Pope, the Duke of Modena, and the Grand Duke of Tuscany, all of whom owed to his generosity their political existence. Genoa and Venice, Rome and Naples, had all withdrawn from the coalition. The great cities of northern Italy had surrendered their most celebrated works of art to enrich the collections of the Louvre. Millions of francs had been levied on the different States, part of which had supplied his army, while the balance had been transmitted to Paris to fill the empty coffers of the Directory. What wonder that the name of Bonaparte was everywhere acclaimed!

Joséphine passed the summer at Milan, except for a short visit to headquarters before the battle of Castiglione. Having resumed the siege of Mantua after this victory, Napoleon went to Milan where he spent only twenty-four hours with his wife before rejoining his troops.

While Bonaparte was gaining his victories Joséphine was bored to death in Italy. The feeling of sadness which oppressed her is shown in a letter which she wrote at this time to her aunt Madame Renaudin, who had finally married her old lover the Marquis de Beauharnais. The Duc de Serbelloni who was going to Paris was charged with the delivery of this epistle which ran as follows:

“Monsieur Serbelloni will tell you, my dear aunt, of the manner in which I have been received in Italy. All the princes have given me fêtes, even the Grand Duke of Tuscany, the brother of the Emperor. Well, I prefer to be a simple private individual in France! I do not care for the honors of this country; I am much bored. It is true that my health contributes much to make me sad; I am often indisposed. If good fortune could assure good health, I ought to be well. I have the most amiable husband that a woman could hope for. I have no chance to desire anything: my wishes are his. All day long he is in a position of adoration before me, as if I were a divinity. I could not have a better husband. He often writes my children of whom he is very fond. He is sending Hortense by M. Serbelloni a beautiful enamelled repeating-watch; to Eugène a handsome gold watch.”

Comparatively few of the letters of Joséphine have been preserved for us, and this one is particularly interesting because it displays more appreciation of her husband’s devotion than we should expect to find.

Ten days after the battle of Arcole, on the 27 November, Napoleon returned to Milan, where he expected to find Joséphine. Great was his surprise and disappointment to learn that she had accepted an invitation from Genoa to pay a visit to the city. There she was given a magnificent reception by the citizens who were favorable to the French.

On learning of Napoleon’s arrival Joséphine returned at once to Milan, where they spent the month of December together at the Serbelloni Palace. It was really their “lune de miel,” the first time that they had been united for more than a few hours since their marriage nine months before.

Lavalette, who had then just been appointed one of Bonaparte’s aides de camp, gives us in his Mémoires an interesting picture of this kind of military court. He says: “The general-in-chief was then in all the intoxication of his marriage. Madame Bonaparte was charming, and all the cares of his command, all the tasks of the government of Italy, did not prevent her husband from fully enjoying his domestic happiness. It was during this short sojourn at Milan that the young painter Gros made the first portrait that we have of the general. He represents him upon the bridge of Lodi at the moment that he seized the flag and called upon the troops to follow him. The artist could not obtain time for a sitting, so Madame Bonaparte took her husband upon her knees, after déjeuner, and kept him there for several minutes. I was present at three of these sittings: the age of the young couple, the modesty of the painter, and his enthusiasm for the hero excuse this familiarity.”

With the beginning of the new year Austria resumed hostilities, and Bonaparte left Milan to take command of his army. On the 14 January he won the brilliant victory of Rivoli, and two days later that of La Favorita, which settled the fate of Mantua. Without waiting to receive the surrender of the fortress, he proceeded to Tolentino, where on the 19 February he concluded a treaty with the Pope. Two months later, at Leoben, he signed the preliminary articles of peace with Austria, which marked the end of the great Campaign of Italy.

During his absence from Joséphine, Napoleon as usual wrote her nearly every day. Madame de Rémusat, who is always reluctant to admit that Napoleon was ever more controlled by his heart than by his head, is nevertheless struck by the passion revealed in every line of this correspondence. In her Mémoires, she says: “I have seen the letters of Napoleon to Madame Bonaparte at the time of the first campaign of Italy.... These letters are very singular: a writing almost illegible, a faulty spelling, a style bizarre and confused; but withal, a tone so passionate, sentiments so strong, expressions so animated and at the same time so poetic, a love so apart from all other loves, that there is no woman who would not prize having received such letters.”

As Milan is one of the hottest places in Italy, during his second summer Napoleon resided at the magnificent château of Montebello (or Mombello), which is situated on the old Como road a few miles from the city. It was then a great country villa sitting far back from the highroad in a large park with cool shady avenues, pretty fountains and all the exquisite loveliness of an Italian retreat. From the broad high terrace that ran around the front and the sides of the château, the Alps could be seen on one side and the beautiful spires of the Milan cathedral on the other.

Here most of the Bonaparte family were reunited for the first time since they left Corsica four years before. Madame Bonaparte came to secure Napoleon’s approval of the marriage of his eldest sister Élisa to Félix Bacciochi, which had been celebrated at Marseille the first of May, and to persuade him to furnish a dot. Napoleon finally yielded to his mother’s wishes, and at the same time informed her of a marriage which he had arranged between General Leclerc and his sister Pauline. The marriage was celebrated on the 14 June, with both civil and religious forms, by the express orders of Napoleon, and the civil union of Bacciochi and Élisa was blessed by the Church at the same time.

This family meeting was not prolonged. After a visit of two weeks Madame Letitia left for Corsica, accompanied by Élisa and her husband. At the same time Joseph set out for Rome, where he had just been made minister, taking with him his wife and his youngest sister, Caroline. Jérôme was sent back to college at Paris, and Pauline remained in Italy with Leclerc, who had been named chief of staff in the army.

The three months which Napoleon and Joséphine passed at Montebello were perhaps the happiest of their lives. The Conqueror of Italy lived in regal style, surrounded by his military court. The attention of Europe was more drawn to this château than to all the palaces of the emperors and kings. At Milan, as later at Paris, Joséphine admirably served the interests of her husband. By her antecedents, her relations, her character, she formed a connecting link between him and the old aristocracy: without her, by his own admission made later on, he never could have had any natural rapport with the old régime. The salon of the former Vicomtesse de Beauharnais recalled the traditions of the most brilliant circles of the Faubourg Saint-Germain. Joséphine received the noble families of Milan with an exquisite grace, and there reigned a kind of etiquette which contrasted in a singular manner with the democratic air affected by the general.

On the 18 August Napoleon and Joséphine made a short excursion to Lake Maggiore, accompanied by Berthier and Miot. Immediately upon their return they set out for Udine where Napoleon was to meet the Austrian plenipotentiaries. On the 27 August they arrived at Passeriano where they took up their residence in a château still in existence which had formerly belonged to a doge of Venice. It was a fine country residence situated upon the left bank of the Tagliamento about ten miles from Udine.

The peace negotiations had dragged along through the summer and far into the autumn of 1797 mainly owing to the hope of the Emperor that events in France might turn to his advantage. The coup d’état of the 18 Fructidor (4 September) had destroyed the last hope of the Royalists, and Bonaparte’s victorious army was still in Venetia ready to march on Vienna, so nothing remained except to conclude peace. The final treaty was signed on the 17 October: it bore the name of the Peace of Campo-Formio from a village situated halfway between Passeriano and Udine.

On the second day of November Napoleon and Joséphine were again back at Milan. Leaving his wife there, Bonaparte started two weeks later for Rastadt, travelling by way of Geneva, where he stopped for a day. He was accompanied by his aides de camp, Duroc, Lavalette and Marmont; his secretary, Bourrienne, and his physician, Yvan.

On the 25 November Bonaparte reached Rastadt, where he remained only long enough to exchange with the Austrian plenipotentiaries the ratification of the Treaty of Campo-Formio, and then left for Paris. He arrived home on the 5 December, and took up his residence in the little hôtel in the Rue Chantereine, from which he had set out twenty-one months before an obscure man, to which he returned as a celebrity. On the 29 December, by decree of the department of the Seine, the Rue Chantereine was changed in his honor to Rue de la Victoire.