Notwithstanding his superior acquirements, and his good conduct, the year 1789 found Bernadotte only a serjeant; but after the revolutionary torrent swept away the artificial distinctions of society, and cleared the military stage for the exhibition and success of plebeian merit, his rise was most rapid. In 1792 he was colonel in the army of General Custines: the year following, he served under Kleber, with so much ability and zeal, that he was promoted to the rank of general of brigade, and almost immediately afterwards to that of general of division.

In the ensuing campaigns, the new general served both on the Rhine and in Italy, and on every occasion with distinguished reputation; but he kept aloof from the conqueror of Italy -- having even thus early taken up an ominous foreboding of his designs.

The weakness of the existing government, the talents, popularity, and character of the hero, and above all, the contempt which he exhibited for the orders of the Directory, when opposed to his own views, might well create distrust in a mind so sagacious as Bernadotte's. He was so little disposed to become the instrument of Buonaparte's ambition, that after the peace of Campo-Formio, he flatly refused to serve in the army of England. With some difficulty he was persuaded to accept an embassy to Vienna, the chief object of which, he was informed, was to satisfy the court of Austria, that in marching on Rome, the French army had no intention of interfering with the Papal government, but merely to obtain reparation for the murder of the republican ambassador. But, about a week after his arrival, he received intelligence that Switzerland was invaded, and Rome declared a republic by Berthier, and feeling humbled and insulted, he forbore to re-appear at a court which must necessarily regard him with suspicion.

Nor was the issue of the embassy itself calculated to put him in a good humour. A mob assembled to pull down the republican ensign he had hoisted at his official residence, and proceeded even to break open his doors; he was compelled to fire in his own defence; and more than once his life was in danger. This incident occasioned his immediate departure from the Austrian capital; and, angry with the Directory for not insisting on satisfaction for so gross an insult, he for some time refused to serve them in any capacity.

1799.] The following year, war with Austria having been declared, Bernadotte, now tired of inactivity, accepted the command of the Army of Observation on the Rhine. in this capacity, as Italy was the great theatre of bloodshed, his services were of a civil rather than of a military nature. He was recalled to assume the important duties of Minister at War. The Directors hoped to find in him a colleague, too exclusively military in his habits ever to become a leading statesman; but they soon found that, whatever might be his military talents, his political capacity was yet superior. He possessed a sound judgment, an honest desire for the public weal, and a moral courage, which enabled him to defy all opposition in the execution of what he regarded as his duty. Scarcely did he occupy his post, before he convinced the Directors that he might become their master, never their tool. He wrote to the generals to excite their patriotism, and that of their soldiers; to both he recommended discipline and harmony; he made several changes in the more important military charges; urged Moreau to institute an inquiry into the conduct of the governors who had surrendered the Italian fortresses to the enemy; he augmented or re-modelled several divisions of the army, and infused into the whole service a spirit which had ceased to animate it from the time of Buonaparte's departure for Egypt. His deserved popularity, and the influence of the party which supported him in the Council of Five Hundred, disquieted the Directors; and their uneasiness rose to alarm, on learning that he bad actually been solicited by numbers to dismiss them, and to reconstruct the government. They had no time to lose. "Barras and I," says Fouché -- and when Fouché speaks in favour of human nature, his testimony cannot be disputed -- "undertook to divert Bernadotte from an enterprise, which might have rendered him the Marius of France; but, indeed, such an enterprise was neither in his character nor his habits. Doubtless he was devoured by ambition, but it was an ambition useful and noble, and he was a true friend to liberty. "We touched him in the sensible part, and thereby softened him." From these expressions it would appear that he had been seriously disposed to relieve France from the load of a government equally feeble and rapacious, but that his humanity shrunk at the prospect of the disasters which another revolution, however laudable in its purpose, might bring in its train. Being removed from the ministry, on the plea that he was required to resume the active duties of his profession -- which his disgust with the government would not permit him to do -- Bernadotte retired to the country until the return of Napoleon.

There is no doubt that Bernadotte wished Buonaparte to be arrested for abandoning the army in Egypt; and it is equally plain that he would have protected the Directorial Government, had he been placed at the head of a sufficient body of troops: for he was not so much displeased with the form of that government, as with the individuals who composed it. Buonaparte, with some difficulty, obtained from him a promise of neutrality; which he would never have given, had he penetrated the real designs of the conspirators of Brumaire*. [* See Life of Napoleon.] He had, therefore, no share in the revolution which established the Consular authority. He did not, however, refuse the advantages which it offered him. He was made Councillor of State, and General-in-chief of the Army of the West. In the latter capacity his conduct was wise and firm: he quelled some dangerous insurrections, prevented the disembarkation of an English armament at Quiberon; and acquired a reputation for ability and humanity, superior to that of any other lieutenant of Napoleon. This roused jealousy; and knowing the First Consul's ill-will towards him, persons were not wanting to increase it. It was insinuated that he connived at a conspiracy, the object of which was no less than to subvert the government. Napoleon affected to believe the report, dissolved Bernadotte's staff, which was implicated, arrested several of its members, and displaced the general himself. "Bernadotte is in disgrace," cried some. "He is sick: he has been poisoned like Hoche!" cried others. All knew that he had never been the friend, the tool, or the flatterer of Buonaparte; and little would have been their surprise had he shared the fate of Pichegru or of Moreau. But he was not to be treated so lightly by the First Consul, who well knew the strength of his character, and the extent of his abilities, and who was more than once heard to exclaim concerning him: "He has a Roman heart and a French head!" Something like a reconciliation between them was at length effected by Joseph Buonaparte, whose wife and Madame Bernadotte were sisters.

The assumption of the imperial dignity by Napoleon was no less favourable to Bernadotte than to other distinguished chiefs. He received a marshals truncheon, with the command of the army of Hanover, and of the eighth cohort of the Legion of Honour. In March, 1805, he was chosen President of the Electoral College of Vaucluse, and returned to the Conservative Senate, by the Department of the Upper Pyrenees. About the same time he was decorated with the orders of the Black and Red Eagle of Prussia, and with the Grand Cross of St. Hubert of Bavaria. It may, however, be doubted, whether all these honours reconciled him to an elevation which laid prostrate the hopes of France. Not only did he appreciate thoroughly the character of the emperor, but he was at that time deeply impressed with admiration for a republican form of government. He was mortified to find that so much blood had been shed in vain. Like many others, however, he bowed to an influence which he was unable to resist, and continued to serve with unabated fidelity.

1806.] Whatever might be the dislike entertained towards him by the emperor before the commencement of this year's campaign, he was invested with the principality of Ponte-Corvo. At the head of the First Corps he hastened to signalise his gratitude and zeal; and in almost all the successes of this fiercely contested war, he had an ample share; though from the lingering influence of the old jealousy, he was rarely noticed in the bulletins.

The prince was now placed over a considerable combined force of French, Dutch, and Spaniards, in the vicinity of Hamburg. He passed into Fionia and Jutland, which were intrusted to his government, but with all his vigilance, he could not prevent the escape of the Spanish general La Romana, with some thousand troops of that nation; and for this he was censured, though undeservedly, by Napoleon. The mildness of his administration, and his zealous efforts to repair the disasters of war, procured him a high reputation, not only in those countries, but throughout the north. His conduct in this respect presented a striking contrast to that of most of his brother marshals -- and, as we shall soon see, it was nobly rewarded.

The renewal of the war with Austria (1809) summoned the prince to the field of honour; but in the career of success, he was arrested by a singular circumstance. At the battle of Wagram, he commanded a considerable body of Saxons, and a few French, who occupied the left wing of the Grand Army. The Saxons fought with great bravery, but were unable to resist the attack of the Austrians. They were giving way, when he ordered one of the generals under him -- Dupas, who headed a French division -- to support them. The general replied that he had received strict orders not to leave his position. The marshal -- surprised, as he might well be, at so gross a breach of military regulations, hastily secured the safety of the Saxons, flew to head-quarters, and urged his complaint in undisguised terms. He said, that if Dupas had acted on higher orders, with the purpose of destroying him, there were other means of accomplishing that, without involving so many brave men in his fate. The observation might be petulant, but it throws much light on the footing on which the master and the servant had long been, and on the sort of opinion which the latter entertained of the former. Napoleon endeavoured to pacify him, by saying, that what occasioned his just surprise, was merely one of the oversights inevitable in such complicated movements. This did not satisfy him: his freedom -- which, if his suspicions were unfounded, was wholly inexcusable -- displeased the emperor; a dispute arose; he demanded and obtained his dismissal, and returned to Paris in complete disgrace.

Just as the prince reached the French capital, news arrived of the disembarkation of the English at Walcheren. Napoleon's ministers promptly put in motion a force to defend Antwerp; and the command was offered to Bernadotte. At first he refused it: he was too deeply wounded to affect much zeal for the service of his arbitrary master: but the judicious advice of Fouché, who urged him not to afford the emperor an opportunity of stigmatizing him as one that had neglected to serve his country on an occasion so momentous, decided him to undertake the command. He forced the invaders to evacuate first the isle of South Beveland, then that of Walcheren; but no sooner did Napoleon hear of his nomination by the ministry, than he sent two or three secret agents to watch the motions of his marshal; and the conduct of these fellows was so galling that he was not perhaps, displeased at being ordered back to Paris, immediately on the conclusion of peace with Austria.

From this time, the prince, unwilling to appear at court, led a retired life, until circumstances too extraordinary to have been anticipated, too favourable to have entered into his most sanguine dreams of ambition, called him to another and a higher sphere.

In March, 1809, Gustavus IV. of Sweden was deposed and banished with the universal consent of nobles and people. His administration had been that of a madman; and to save the kingdom, no alternative remained, but to sacrifice the king. His uncle, the Duke of Sudermania, was raised to the throne; and as the latter had no children, the succession vested in Christian, Prince of Sleswic Augustenberg. This extraordinary revolution arrested the destruction of Sweden as an independent nation. She had already lost Pomerania and Finland: France had seized on the one; Russia, more iniquitously, because wholly unprovoked, on the other. By the peace into which the new king had entered with Napoleon, she had recovered Pomerania and the Isle of Rugen; but Finland was fast in the fangs of Russia, and could not be extracted. The death of the Crown Prince in May, 1810, and the increasing infirmities of the aged king, plunged the nation into its former alarm. The throne was again without a successor. It was resolved to elect one, and a diet was convoked for the purpose.

At this time the condition of the kingdom was indeed precarious. Her unprincipled neighbour might not much longer remain satisfied even with Finland. At an hour's warning, the legions of that power might be put in motion, to win the crown of the Goths for the successor of Rurick. Again, France might reward the alliance of Denmark, at the expense of Swedish independence. What the nation wanted, was a prince of valour sufficient to defend her diminished territories from foreign aggression, and of ability sufficient to promote her internal welfare. Several candidates -- among others, the king of Denmark -- were proposed and rejected; and after a deliberation of two months, the choice of the diet fell on the Prince of Ponte-Corvo.

In electing Bernadotte, the States were influenced, first, by his high reputation throughout Europe; and next, by the hope that such an election would be agreeable to Napoleon, and transform the most formidable of their enemies into a steadfast friend. Of the more than coolness between the emperor and his marshal, they had not and could not have any knowledge. The Swedes also remembered that Bernadotte had been reared a Protestant, and had little doubt that his present profession of Catholicism was merely nominal. But what weighed as much at least with the electors, as all the preceding considerations, was the justice, humanity, mildness, activity, firmness, and wisdom he had exhibited during his administration of Fionia and Jutland.

Unexpected as such a choice must have been to all Europe, little could be said against it when announced. If a great soldier were wanted, where look but among the conquering heroes of France? and of those heroes, who stood higher than the Prince of Ponte-Corvo? If he had not the desperate reckless courage of a Ney, a Murat, or a Lannes, he was probably superior to all these collectively, in the qualities necessary to form the general. If the victories gained by his unaided skill were not so splendid as those of a few other marshals, this was to be imputed to want of opportunity alone; certain it is, that both officers and men had a firmer reliance on his talents and character than on those of almost any other general. If he had not the comprehensive military genius of a Massena, he was fully equal to that veteran in science. In short, he was such a soldier as the occasion required; bold enough to bid defiance to the most dreaded enemies of Sweden, and prudent enough not to risk her fate on a desperate struggle.

The elevation of Bernadotte was any thing but agreeable to Napoleon. When some deputies from the diet at Orebro waited on the former to learn whether, in the event of his election he would accept the offered dignity, he replied, that, as far as regarded himself, he had no objection; but that, being a subject and servant of the emperor, he could do nothing without his permission. The latter consented that he should become a candidate, yet, at the same time, secretly instructed his ambassador to support the interests of the Danish king. He sometimes endeavoured in an indirect manner to dissuade the prince from going. "You will probably be called to Sweden," said he, one day. "I had formed the design of giving you Arragon and Catalonia, for Spain is too great a country for my brother's capacity." But Bernadotte was not to be duped: he well knew that Spain was not Napoleon's to give, and that if it were, he should be, at best, the lieutenant of Napoleon. Again, when he applied for letters-patent to emancipate him from his allegiance to France, he met with a new obstacle. The emperor asked him to engage never to bear arms against France! Bernadotte exclaimed with indignant surprise against a proposition which would have made the sovereign of Sweden a vassal of Napoleon. The other was ashamed to insist, and bade him adieu, with these ominous words: "Go! our destinies are about to be accomplished!"

Buonaparte durst not act as his inclinations prompted him: if he opposed the elevation of his marshal, might not the Swedes look to England, or to Russia?

Before Bernadotte's departure, Napoleon, willing to make the most of what he could not decently or even safely prevent, endeavoured to attach the other to his interests, by promising various concessions in favour of Sweden. As an indemnity too for the principality of Ponte-Corvo, he agreed to give the marshal two millions of francs. Of these concessions, however, not one was ever made good; and of the money, half only was paid. The reader will, therefore, be little surprised at the serious misunderstanding which soon took place. The reception of the Crown Prince in Sweden was as gratifying to himself, as it was mortifying to Napoleon. It was on the first of November (1810) that he made his public entry into Stockholm. By the aged Charles XIII., he was immediately adopted as a son, on which occasion he assumed the name of Carl Johan, or Charles John. His adopted father was now too old to discharge the duties of royalty, so that the burden of administration was at once thrown on his shoulders, as it had been on those of Prince Christian.

For some time the Emperor and the Crown Prince concealed their mutual dislike under the veil of courtesy; but the former never ceased to enforce on the Swedish ruler his favourite continental system; and after some ineffectual struggles to evade it, Charles John found himself compelled to have war either with France or with England. Prudence taught him to prefer as an adversary the power from which he had the least to apprehend; but his hostility to England, nominal as it was, he looked on as a very temporary measure, which he should seize the very first favourable opportunity of rescinding. He, in a word, connived at the intercourse of his people with the English. This could not be concealed from the ever active vigilance of the emperor, who began to treat the Crown Prince with as little ceremony as he bad been used to bestow on such. kings as Murat and Jerome. He was rash enough to exclaim, that he had "a good mind to make the Crown Prince finish his course of the Swedish language at Vincennes." It is even said, that he employed some secret agents to seize the prince, as the Duke of Enghien had been dealt with and bring him by sea to France, and that the enterprise was abandoned through a mere accident. The finishing hand was put to Bernadotte's indignation, the unprovoked seizure of Pomerania, which, to render it the more insulting, Napoleon had fixed for the prince's birthday (Jan. 26th, 1812), but which could not be carried into effect before the morning of the succeeding day. The spirit of the Goths was not extinct among their descendants: they breathed vengeance, smothered indeed, but deep, and Charles John listened to the voice. In March, he had an interview with the Emperor Alexander at Abo, and from that moment he was ranged on the side of Russia and England, though he took no active part in the war, before the retreat of the French from Moscow.

In adopting Sweden as his country, in engaging to defend its interests and honour against all assailants, he had clearly been relieved from all obligation towards France. On leaving Paris he hoped indeed -- and there is something amiable in his honest avowal of the fact -- that he should always be able to reconcile his personal feelings with the interests of his new country. His earliest, and dearest recollections rested in the land of his birth; but at the same time he felt that he was a Swede by honour and duty; and when the struggle between his affections and these sacred obligations arrived, he had no other course than to prove himself worthy of the confidence reposed in him by a generous people. Doubtless it would have pleased France to behold Sweden as dependent on her as a feeble colony on the mother-country; but had the Crown Prince hesitated for a moment to sacrifice his inclination to his duty, he would have been the most ungrateful of traitors. Perhaps, however, his best justification may rest on the fact, that he armed -- not against France, but the oppressor of his native country.

1813.] On the 18th of May, the Crown Prince disembarked at Stralsund, with 30,000 Swedes. Besides these he had soon placed under his orders several corps of Russian and Prussian troops, -- in all near 100,000 men; forming the right wing of the grand allied army. With this imposing force he commenced hostile operations. The first advantage which he gained was at Gros Beeren; but this was eclipsed by the victory of Dennewitz over the united forces of Oudinot and Ney. This success saved Berlin, the inhabitants of which sent a deputation to express their gratitude to him. It did more -- it decided in a great measure the fate of the campaign by preventing Napoleon from profiting by the advantages he had previously gained, especially at Dresden. But in the midst of success he thought of France: he wrote to his friend Ney, urging that great soldier to prevail on the emperor to accept the honourable conditions proposed by the allies -- but in vain. He then advanced by forced marches to Leipsic, with the intention of cutting off Napoleon's retreat, and arrived in time to share in the three terrific struggles of October 16, 17, and 18. On the 7th of December he wrote from Lubeck a letter to his son Oscar, which does him more honour than the most glorious of his military deeds:--

"My dear Oscar,

"Formerly the inhabitants of Lubeck assisted Gustavus I. to restore liberty to his country. I have just discharged the debt of the Swedes; Lubeck is again free: I have had the good fortune to obtain possession of the city without loss of blood. This is more gratifying to my feelings than the gain of a battle would have been, however few the number of victims. How fortunate we should esteem ourselves, my son, when we can prevent tears! Our sleep is truly serene. Would that all men were penetrated with this truth! Then conquerors would no longer be heard of, and the world would be governed by just kings. To-morrow I set out for Oldeslohe; afterwards whithersoever events may lead me. I shall do what I can to make them turn to the advantage of the good cause, and the welfare of my country: and all the reward I ask is, that this may second you, my son, in the efforts you will one day make for its prosperity and happiness."

From Lubeck be directed his course towards the Rhine; but for some time hesitated to pass that river, from motives which will be readily conceived, and appeciated. At length he crossed over to Cologne, whence he addressed a proclamation to the French people: the conclusion of which proved that in discharging duty to Sweden, he had not forgotten his native country. He was not friendly to the invasion of France; he endeavoured, it is said, to dissuade the Russian Emperor from such a measure. Through the same delicacy, and not from any disagreement with his allies, he forbore to take any active part in the campaign of 1814; perhaps he wished only to humble, not to dethrone his former master. He remained at Cologne and Liege until the abdication of Fontainebleau, and then entered Paris, -- where his reception was not, as we might naturally suppose, very enthusiastic.

Soon after his return to the North, Charles John went to take possession of Norway, which had been ceded to him by the Allied Powers, partly as a compensation for the loss of Finland, partly as a reward for his adhesion to the common cause. To reconcile the inhabitants to the change, he permitted them to frame their own constitution, and granted them many privileges which they had never enjoyed under the Danish kings; nor if regard be had only to the geographical position of Sweden and Norway, can it be denied that nature designed the Scandinavian peninsula to be united under the same government. In this, however, as in many other instances, proximity of situation appears to have produced any thing but good will. The Norwegians have never loved the Swedes, and they regret to this hour their forcible separation from their ancient protectors, the Danish kings, whose truly paternal sway had ever been gratefully acknowledged by them. To dissever a connexion which had subsisted for so many ages, and been consecrated by the dearest recollections of history, was equally arbitrary and cruel; -- time will prove whether it was less impolitic.

In 1817 the Swedes were alarmed by the report that a plot had been formed to poison their prince. On the fullest investigation, however, the charge was found to be utterly unsupported, and the delator was justly punished. But the occasion drew forth renewed protestations of attachment to his person; and his reply to an affectionate address from the citizens of Stockholm is too remarkable to be wholly overlooked:--

"When I came among you, said he, I brought nothing beyond my sword and my actions as my title and guarantees. If I could have brought you a succession of ancestors from Charles Martel downwards, I should have valued the distinction for your sakes only. For my part, I am satisfied with the remembrance of the services I have performed, and with the glory which has exalted me. My claims in other respects rest on my adoption by the king, and on the unanimous choice of a free people. On these I found my rightful pretensions; and so long as honour and justice are esteemed on earth, my rights will be accounted more legitimate, more sacred, than if I were descended from Odin. History informs us that no prince ever mounted a foreign throne but by election or by conquest. I have not opened my way to the Swedish throne by the latter; I have been invited to it by the former; and this is my best, my proudest claim."

The old king died February 5th, 1818, and the Crown Prince succeeded by the title of Charles XIV. His coronation as King of Sweden took place in the capital, May 11th; as King of Norway at Drontheim, September 7th.

Both before and since his accession to the throne, Charles John has laboured with unceasing activity and acknowledged ability for the good of his people. His fidelity in the execution of the laws, his respect for the rights of his subjects, his anxiety for their lasting welfare, are acknowledged by all. He is a great encourager of arts and letters; among other proofs of which may be reckoned the society which he has established for the Improvement of Agriculture, and the valuable library which he purchased for the university of Upsal -- both at his own private expense.

His son, Oscar, Duke of Sudermania, born July 4th, 1799, is spoken of as worthy of his excellent father: but whether the heir of the old race of kings may not one day ascend the Swedish throne in preference to him, appears extremely doubtful. That prince (who assumes the title of Count Itterburg) is possessed of many admirable personal qualities; he is high in the military service of Austria, and above all, he is nephew to the Emperor of Russia. His father, the dethroned Gustavus, is still living in obscurity somewhere in Germany, where he takes no higher title than that of Colonel Gustaffson.