The women Bonapartes: the mother and three sisters of Napoléon I . auffremont to France to ask for instruc-tions. The Emperor replied that Murat must con-tinue his preparations for war, but on no accountcommence hostilities without o-ivinj; him duewarning of his intention. His object, of course,was to use his brother-in-law as a lever to detachAustria from the Coalition, since he was ofopinion that the fear of a national rising in Italywith the King of Naples at its head would besufficient to induce the Court of Vienna to re-main neutral, even if other arguments , therefore, was hi
The women Bonapartes: the mother and three sisters of Napoléon I . auffremont to France to ask for instruc-tions. The Emperor replied that Murat must con-tinue his preparations for war, but on no accountcommence hostilities without o-ivinj; him duewarning of his intention. His object, of course,was to use his brother-in-law as a lever to detachAustria from the Coalition, since he was ofopinion that the fear of a national rising in Italywith the King of Naples at its head would besufficient to induce the Court of Vienna to re-main neutral, even if other arguments , therefore, was his consternation when helearned, a few days later, that Murat, withoutwaiting for the return of Bauffremont, had de-clared war on Austria. Murats conduct, though rash to the point offolly, is not difficult to understand. He and theEmperor were at cross-purposes. Napoleon, aswe have said, intended to use Murat to detachAustria from the Coalition, and, in the event ofthe failure of his negotiations with that Power, toreinforce the Neapolitan army by a French corps,. CAROLINE BONAPARTE, QUEEN OF NAPLES FROM AN ENGRAVING AFTER THE DRAWING BV FLAMENG. (BRITISH MUSEUM) THE WOMEN BONAPARTES 333 and employ it to create a diversion in Italy, which,he judged, would prevent Austria from under-taking any effective operations against desired to take advantage of the conster-nation caused by the Emperors reappearance onthe scene to realise his own ambitious dreams,and, in the persuasion that his declaration of warupon Austria would be followed by a generalrising of the Italian patriots, believed himselfcapable of conquering the peninsula without anyassistance from France, and of thus establishinga claim to the throne of Italy which Napoleon,if victorious, would be unable to dispute. It has been repeatedly asserted that a largemeasure of responsibility for this fatal step restswith Caroline, and that, but for the influence ofhis wife, Murat would never have declared the t
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