It seems strange, but two diaries relating to the invasion of Malta by Napoleon’s troops and the subsequent two years of the blockade of Valletta lay in the National Library of Malta for all those years but were never, until recently, been translated.

One of these diaries was translated and published two years ago. The other will be published in the coming weeks.

Both have been translated by Joseph Scicluna who has recently written and published a story, Ricasoli Soldier, relating to roughly the same time.

To consider them together, the three books are like a series.

First comes Malta Surrendered: the Doublet Memoirs which tells the story of the arrival of the French force and the capitulation by the Knights which brought to an end the Order’s stay in Malta.

Then comes Blockade: Malta 1798-1800 which tells the story of Valletta under blockade.

And then finally there is Ricasoli Soldier, which tells the fictitious story of an Italian man who came to Malta to enrol in a British regiment and fight Napoleon.

Mr Scicluna has also translated another French work, which has so far been published only as an e-book. This is Sword-Lily: The Last Days of the Knights of Malta – 1798, an  English translation of Auguste-Émile Cillart De Kermainguy’s third and last novel about the Knights of Malta in which he tells the story of Sword-Lily and her love for a young French nobleman who came to Malta from Brittany to become a Knight.

This is how Mr Scicluna introduces himself in his Amazon page: “I was born and raised on the island of Malta but have spent most of my life living in the alpine valley of Gresivaudan in southeast France, arguably one of the most beautiful valleys in the world. I draw a sense of balance from the stark contrast between this mountainous region and the sun-baked Mediterranean island which I still call home. As I get older, the more passionate I am becoming about the culture, the heritage and the rich history of the Maltese Islands. It is precisely this passion that motivated me to publish my first two books which were translations from French of eyewitness accounts during the period of Napoleon’s invasion and the subsequent occupation in 1798.”

Malta Surrendered, the first book in this trilogy of sorts, is a translation of the memoirs of Pierre-Jean-Louis-Ovide Doublet who was then the Grand Master’s secretary for the French Langue. He witnessed the events as they unfolded and left a detailed account of what took place and what, in his view, led to such an unpredictable outcome.

The memoirs, in French, were in book form and were preserved at the National Library but they were only translated and published (Allied Publications) two years ago.

Along with Ransijat, the author of the second book, Doublet was not Maltese and has always been considered, by the Order if not also by the Maltese, as one of the ‘traitors’ who delivered Malta to Napoleon.

In his memoirs, Doublet tries to justify his actions and to explain how the Order in Malta had reached by then the end of its useful life and how it was completely unable to defend Malta from Napoleon.

Doublet had been secretary to two grand masters – firstly De Rohan and subsequently Hompesch. He was not a Knight, whereas Bosredon Ransijat, as we shall see, was both wealthy and a highly-placed Knight. Although both men were involved in the Order, both embraced the French Revolution and the principles of the Enlightenment.

The Order, which had been in Malta for more than 200 years, lost property in the French Revolution and, the Knights being nobility, was against the Revolution. The Knights treated the Maltese badly and the Maltese became restless. An appeal to De Rohan for the Maltese to have their own langue in the Order was turned down and when, after the Treaty of Amiens, the man who was reported to soon become the new grand master, De Tommasi, asked again if the Maltese could have their own langue, replied haughtily that the Maltese were “vermin” who could not associate with the noble Knights.

Doublet and Ransijat, being both French in the small French community in Malta under the Order, and being both liberals and in favour of the Revolution, knew each other quite well.

They both write of the eventful days when Napoleon was in Malta. Doublet had himself rowed out to the French flagship to negotiate the capitulation of the Order. Napoleon knew about him and called for him. The first thing he demanded to know was the contents of a secret letter his agents had intercepted in Genoa. Doublet tried to delay answering, but he then capitulated.

For this he was referred to as the man “who sold the key to Malta”. Ironically, once he was back in Valletta, he was chided by Hompesch for not having given in sooner and letting Napoleon have the code.

Both Doublet and Ransijat were in Valletta during the blockade, but so far only Ransijat’s memoirs from those days have been found. More on this later.

The aim of Doublet in his memoirs was defensive: he wanted to defend his honour. “My heart was torn between reason, honour and necessity,” he wrote. It is easy to find out from his memoirs the people whom he disliked.

Ransijat, on the other hand, was more objective and while, for instance, Doublet never mentions any conflict among the French blockaded in Valletta, Ransijat is more objective and admits to many conflicts. In particular, the French commander in Valletta, Vauban, never liked him.

Ransijat describes the hardships suffered by all, Maltese and French, during the blockade of Valletta. He tells how the French, from the bastions, followed the manoeuvres of a French ship, The Guillaume Tell, as it tried to evade the British warships and so escape from Malta, and how they despaired when it was eventually captured by the British.

Ransijat is the more numerate: he constantly tells what stocks of grain remained, the numbers of the dead and wounded, etc.

On the other hand, when the highly unpopular French governor of Valletta, Jean de Angelis, escaped to France, Doublet was appointed in his stead. Doublet soon countermanded a very unpopular de Angelis order that no bells be rung since he suspected that the residents of Valletta were sending out messages through ringing their bells.

In the end, after the French capitulation, both Doublet and Ransijat were exiled from Malta. Ransijat was a Knight and thus not married, but Doublet had a large family in Malta. Doublet was exiled to Marseilles but his family remained in Malta. Later on, under the British, he was allowed back to Malta many times to see his family and, in the end, to remain here. He died in Malta and is buried in the Carmelite church in Valletta.

The third book in this trilogy of sorts is Sword-Lily, The Last Days of the Knights of Malta – 1798, the translation of a historical novel written by Auguste-Émile Cillart de Kermainguy in 1843.

Auguste-Émile Cillart de Kermainguy was born on 26 August 1809 at Chateau Locmaria in the French Province of Brittany. He hailed from an old and illustrious noble family with a strong military background. Had the Order and the Knights still existed in his youth he may have well been sent to Malta to join that once highly-regarded and prestigious institution.

He was a brilliant scholar and finished his studies in Paris where he became a lawyer. But he was more passionate about literature, history and poetry than he was about law. He travelled extensively in Europe and the Mediterranean and while he was in Malta he wrote three novels in which he describes what the island was like during the times of the Order of St John.

His novels were based not only on historic documents but also on interviews he had with some of the last remaining witnesses of those eventful times. According to the Annuaire de la Noblesse de France of 1854, De Kermainguy died at the young age of 45 after having contracted a disease from which he was unable recover due to his heartbreak from a love affair gone wrong.

The story is quite autobiographical: it tells of a young Frenchman from Brittany who, aged 16, was sent to Malta armed with his papers and a letter to De Rohan.

But the papers were stolen by a vagabond and the young man, almost penniless, arrived in Malta without any exalted status.

Worse, he found that someone had somehow got hold of his papers and was impersonating him.

It is a tragic and sad story which also includes scenes from the Malta of those days, such as the attempted stealing of the Order’s most treasured icon, the Madonna of Filermos from St John’s Church.

 

A historical mystery

There is still a mystery surrounding these memoirs.

The title page of Doublet’s memoirs says the book is about the arrival of the French and the blockade, but the book, as it is found in the National Library, stops with the capitulation of the Order.

The manuscript had been sent from Marseilles in 1820 but the book in French was only published in 1863, long after the death of its author.

Mr Scicluna thus suspects there is yet another volume of Doublet’s memoirs but he cannot find it.

He believes it is possible that the second part is preserved at the Chateau Loubay but when he (Mr Scicluna) wrote to the present count to inquire if there was such a manuscript there, he received no reply.

He seems to think that the second copy of this second part of the manuscript can be found among the papers of Sir Frederick Cavendish Ponsonby, Governor of Malta from February 1827 to May 1835, but so far he has not been able to ascertain where these papers are and whether this manuscript is with them.