THE TROMBINOSCOPE
PONS DE L'HÉRAULT (André then Marat-Pelletier Pons known as) naval officer, artillery commander, revolutionary, prefect, engineer, historiographer - whom Napoleon would have nicknamed the Swiss army knife of the island of Elba if the multi-tool -task had existed in his time - born 250 years ago, June 11, 1772. The municipal administration of This where he was born decided in 1793 to rename itself Sète. A boldness that will remain a dead letter for 135 years. Pons was undoubtedly at the origin of this initiative, when he decided, during the Convention, to call himself Marat-Lepelletier Pons, in homage to the two martyrs of the Revolution.
Son of a poor innkeeper of Spanish origin who intended him for the priesthood, Pons was the second of 4 brothers. The eldest will stay in his native town to toil in a shipyard, another will become a ship's captain, the youngest will take the religious habit in Spain that André had refused. However, he began his primary studies with the Picpusiens of Cettois, a congregation dedicated mainly to the formation of seminarians. But he could not long develop the qualities of a hardworking schoolboy, endowed with a valiant memory. Fortunately, the instinct of the journey and the maritime mastery, flattered by the family indigence, awoke with a bang. At 10, he embarked as a ship's boy on a merchant vessel; at 17, he was second in command on his ship.
This maritime career which promised to be so promising was quickly interrupted by events. When the constitutional monarchy was succeeded by the Republic, Pons prided himself on republicanism. During the siege of Toulon occupied by the English, he was appointed commander of the gunners and artillery of Bandol. Bonaparte then designates him for the command of the infantry. Pons freed 32 citizens accused of federalism and promised to the guillotine by a zealous revolutionary tribunal, if we accept this pleonasm. This heroic act goes back to Robespierre. His return from Toulon to Cette was glorious and celebrated. In 1794, the local Popular Society made him its president. As such, he gave a resounding speech “for the celebration of the abolition of slavery”.
The republican regime of the National Convention, between 1792 and 1795, saw an anthroponymic madness take hold of the revolutionaries and their supporters. After laying in a henhouse in the Tuileries a farmer's calendar for the use of the city dweller, many of them attacked, in the birth registers, their own surname files or those of their descendants. During the Terror or after the death of Robespierre, a period during which noble particles became toxic, a solution was found to give oneself the appearance of dyed-in-the-wool revolutionaries: the traditional first names, crossed out, were taken by the name of revolutionary martyrs.
Pons himself, a fervent Republican and finding André unappetizing, gave himself the surnames Marat and Pelletier before taking the nickname Pons de l'Hérault, no doubt to avoid confusion with a namesake, Pons de Verdun, deputy of the Meuse and secretary of the Convention. Because the origin of the choice of a first name or a new patronymic, in addition to the vegetable and floral calendar, could be a city, a canton, a province. Almost exclusive to the aristocracy, by deciding to seize its privileges to give themselves this kind of name from 1790, the revolutionaries and their flocks only aped those they were fighting.
He married on June 5, 1802 with Catherine Bouilhon, who gave birth to 2 daughters, Hermine and Cécile. A Masonic favor from the Comte de Lacépède propelled him, at the end of 1809, director of the iron mines of the island of Elba, property of the Legion of Honor of which the naturalist was the Grand Chancellor. At the forefront of the helping hand, even aristocratic, is often found Freemasonry, a notable employment agency for insiders, even Republicans, in search of a career.
The island of Elba was allocated to Napoleon, deposed sovereign, in perpetual pied-à-terre. Pons acted as real estate agent when the new owner, landing on May 4, 1814 in his imperial asylum, found it sparsely furnished and with low ceilings. The penultimate act of the Napoleonic drama opened small before a guest who was nevertheless going to discover a literary vocation. Pons will become the emperor's historiographer at his request. He will form the highest opinion of his duty, imagining himself the bearer of an almost divine priesthood. But this mission, depicted in 2 works (read the following box), did not trouble him. Pons offers this singular example of a historian who was both republican and Napoleonic, as he liked to say, a witness for the defense rather than a defender. However, the Robespierrist Republican and staunch opponent of the Emperor was soon to be embarrassed by his genius and his magnetism. For more than 300 days, Pons would keep the diary of the Emperor in his Principality and paint the most authentic portrait of him: his weaknesses and his seigniorial affections, his theatrical vanities, with a casualness that his republican opinions certainly did not hinder. . A sovereign sometimes majestic, sometimes enraged, by turns good-natured and deceitful, optimistic and disillusioned. Intimacies so researched, a wealth of expressions so precise and sure - far from the condescending and haughty representations that line the walls of our republican palaces - that it is easy for us to be convinced with Pons that "it is only on the island of Elba that we were able to really study and get to know Napoleon".
The emperor lodged in the town hall which he had had a flag of his own composition surmounted. The standard — an oblique red band on a white background, decorated with 3 golden bees — was also hoisted on the highest point of the island where it met with such success that barbarian pirates saluted it as they passed, seeing in it the symbol of their warrior hero. The detailed inspection of his "little shack" and its forts, the taking possession of neighboring islets, his latest conquests, had whetted his appetite. Pons invited him to his house to taste his famous bouillabaisse, which officer Bonaparte had already enjoyed in Bandol in gratitude for his host's rapid military advancement. Napoleon had remembered it. The comparison between Marseille bouillabaisse and Sétoise did not fail to fuel the conversation. And when the Emperor told him of the Marseillaise that “it was worth an army”, was he talking about the bouillabaisse or the national anthem? Because on the Canebière side as on the singular island, we do not take this emblematic dish lightly, which alone can raise legions of praise. After the compliments of rigor, the guest, who had not neglected to inspect the residence of his host, also found it to his liking. As soon as the Elba peach had been swallowed, he invited his aide-de-camp to raise it to settle there in less time than he needed to raise an army.
That which he raised shortly before breaking the lease of his rock for legitimate and serious reasons—a little less than 700 soldiers—was going to prove sufficient to reconquer his imperial domain. Pons had noted Napoleon's growing lack of interest in the embellishment of his square. So he offered her a new bouillabaisse during a fishing trip to Cap Stella. He suspected that the Emperor was cooking up a snack to go that would leave bones in the throats of many Republicans. When the latter told him “you're coming with me and you won't leave me again”, Pons noticed that his bourride had once again cheered up his guest and noted above all the strengthening of the military organization of the island. Missioned to prepare the return of the emperor, he will follow him in the last act of the Napoleonic drama.
Léon-Gabriel Pélissier (1863-1912) historian and dean of the University of Montpellier published 2 works from the bundles of historical notes of Pons de l'Hérault. They are accessible on the Gallica platform of the BnF.
In his introductions and numerous footnotes, Pélissier in no way hides his sympathy for the character, even if it means sometimes lacking distance.
His 2 books are:
Souvenirs et anecdotes de l'île d'Elba by Pons de l'Hérault (Librairie Plon - 1897) published from the original manuscript and accompanied by a photogravure portrait of Pons.
Napoleon sovereign of the island of Elba – Memoirs of Pons de l'Hérault (Librairie Plon - 1934)
He signed his memoirs: A companion in misfortune of the Emperor Napoleon.
Pons de l'Hérault overflowed with literary energy to the point of setting down on paper, in addition to his memoirs, Political and Military Dreams, Ideas on the Government of Tuscany, Journals of Travels in Italy, Comedies in Rhyme, Poems in French and Languedoc, the beginning of a comparative study of the Directory with the imperial regime…
The Hundred Days began with the landing at Vallauris on March 1, 1815 and the increasingly triumphant march to Paris, a period nicknamed the flight of the Eagle. The expression will continue to tear historians apart, on the meaning of the word theft, between flight and break-in.
Appointed commissioner for the southern departments, Pons was responsible for paving the imperial road by putting the last recalcitrant royalists in his pocket. On the side of Marseilles, those were not convinced by his qualities as a negotiator and threw him in the dungeon like a brigand. Condemned to be shortened, Pons only saved his life through the old friendship that bound him to the powerful Freemason Masséna, Marshal of the Empire who rallied to the Bourbons… who granted him a protective stay in the prison of the Château d'If. Pons ruminated there while grilling Montecristo but left after 35 days to join the Emperor in Paris. After refusing the Ministry of the Navy, he was appointed prefect of the Rhône in Lyon – a strategic place – but his assignment was short-lived. However, he inaugurated it with a proclamation that made a captivated Napoleon nod in his cocked hat: "M. Pons is the only prefect who frankly said what had to be said." For his part, the Emperor never ceased to consult him and to trust him. His favorite stallion was going to maintain order there as he used to in Bandol, where he knew how to reconcile discipline and humanity. Ten days after Waterloo, on June 28, 1815, he had Napoleon II recognized in Lyon, the Aiglon proclaimed successor, in leaden silence, by a resigned father. It was Pons' last Napoleonic day. But that was without counting on the unexpected return of Louis XVIII and the White Terror. He presided over the entry of the Austrians into Lyon, wrote a farewell message to the Lyonnais, and continued to manage the day-to-day affairs of the prefecture. He was offered to remain in office if he adhered to the royalist government. He withdrew, considering himself bound to an overthrown cause.
Pons de l'Hérault pleaded in vain with Vienna for permission to join Napoleon in Saint Helena. Fearing reprisals from the Counter-Revolution, he returned to the island of Elba where his family was dawdling while waiting for him. His popularity had no effect on the island's new Tuscan governor. Having become undesirable, he was taken prisoner in Genoa in 1817 but managed to have his sick wife return to France. She settled in the Var with their daughters. He began to wander until he obtained a family passport for Genoa in 1818. They lived there until 1821, but his liberal ideas caused him to be expelled and he obtained a passport for Paris. Everywhere it is welcomed with joy. It is only in This, where he brings his family, that he is ignored, arguing that any demonstration in his favor could upset the authorities. The city hesitated a long time to, on the sly and in the shadow of its theatre, dedicate a small street to Pons de l'Hérault. In 1823, he moved to Paris and began to write his memoirs, memories and anecdotes as he had promised the Emperor. The hero of Pons had made Elba an island as singular as that which saw the birth of his biographer. He died in Paris on March 3, 1853.
Pons de l'Herault's trombine hid, under the guise of a clerical official, a servant of the State of prodigious energy and power for work. During the four hundred days—for as many blows—that saw their destinies linked, Pons spared no effort to besiege the Emperor and record his actions, small and large, in detail.
Universal suffrage recognizes the right to vote for all citizens, an expression of popular sovereignty in a democratic regime. The Constitution of 1793 - which will not be applied because of the war and will be suppressed during the Thermidorian reaction - provided for the first time universal suffrage (or more adequately semi-universal because reserved for men until... 1944) and a semi-direct democracy.
If universal suffrage had great difficulty in being born, it was going to have much more to live with. The various monarchies stubbornly wanted to make the plebiscite pass for universal suffrage. Thus, from 1815 to 1848, the people were totally excluded from the vote.
Pons, who had opposed Bonaparte's coup d'etat - which earned him his ousting - will end his life by opposing that of the nephew, in 1851, testifying to the fidelity of this minor civil servant to his youthful ideals. . He was also rewarded for this in 1848, when the new Republic introduced semi-universal suffrage for the first time, recognizing him as one of its oldest workers and offering him a seat on the Council of State.
