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+<title>The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, Vol. 10, Supplementary Number, Issue 263, 1827, by Various</title>
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+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and
+Instruction, Vol. 10, Supplementary Number, Issue 263, 1827, by Various
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, Vol. 10, Supplementary Number, Issue 263, 1827
+
+Author: Various
+
+Posting Date: December 5, 2011 [EBook #9883]
+Release Date: February, 2006
+First Posted: October 27, 2003
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MIRROR OF LITERATURE, ISSUE 263, 1827 ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Jonathan Ingram and Project Gutenberg
+Distributed Proofreaders
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+ <br />
+ <br />
+<hr class="full" />
+ <span class="pagenum"><a id="page17" name="page17"></a>[pg 17]</span>
+ <!-- Mirror of Literature header -->
+ <h1>THE MIRROR<br />
+ OF<br />
+ LITERATURE, AMUSEMENT, AND INSTRUCTION.</h1>
+ <hr class="full" />
+ <table width="100%">
+ <tr>
+ <td align="left"><b>Vol. 10, No. 263.]</b></td>
+ <td align="center"><b>SUPPLEMENTARY NUMBER.</b></td>
+ <td align="right"><b>[PRICE 2d.</b></td>
+ </tr>
+ </table>
+ <hr class="full" />
+ <!-- end of header -->
+ <h2>SIR WALTER SCOTT'S LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE.</h2>
+ <h4>(<i>Continued from page 5.</i>)</h4>
+ <p>Robespierre was a coward, who signed death-warrants with a hand that shook, though
+ his heart was relentless. He possessed no passions on which to charge his crimes;
+ they were perpetrated in cold blood, and upon mature deliberation.</p>
+ <p>Marat, the third of this infernal triumvirate, had attracted the attention of the
+ lower orders, by the violence of his sentiments in the journal which he conducted
+ from the commencement of the revolution, upon such principles that it took the lead
+ in forwarding its successive changes. His political exhortations began and ended like
+ the howl of a blood-hound for murder; or, if a wolf could have written a journal, the
+ gaunt and famished wretch could not have ravened more eagerly for slaughter. It was
+ blood which was Marat's constant demand, not in drops from the breast of an
+ individual, not in puny streams from the slaughter of families, but blood in the
+ profusion of an ocean. His usual calculation of the heads which he demanded amounted
+ to two hundred and sixty thousand; and though he sometimes raised it as high as three
+ hundred thousand, it never fell beneath the smaller number. It may be hoped, and for
+ the honour of human nature we are inclined to believe, there was a touch of insanity
+ in this unnatural strain of ferocity; and the wild and squalid features of the wretch
+ appear to have intimated a degree of alienation of mind. Marat was, like Robespierre,
+ a coward. Repeatedly denounced in the assembly, he skulked instead of defending
+ himself, and lay concealed in some obscure garret or cellar among his cut-throats,
+ until a storm appeared, when, like a bird of ill omen, his death-screech was again
+ heard. Such was the strange and fatal triumvirate, in which the same degree of
+ cannibal cruelty existed under different aspects. Danton murdered to glut his rage;
+ Robespierre to avenge his injured vanity, or to remove a rival whom he envied; Marat,
+ from the same instinctive love of blood, which induces a wolf to continue his ravage
+ of the flocks long after his hunger is appeased.</p>
+ <p>Passing by the horrors of the reign of terror, we shall close the second volume
+ with a vivid and powerful picture, which we cannot refrain quoting&mdash;</p>
+ <h4>THE DEATH OF ROBESPIERRE.</h4>
+ <p>Meantime the convention continued to maintain the bold and commanding front which
+ they had so suddenly and critically assumed. Upon learning the escape of the arrested
+ deputies, and hearing of the insurrection at the Hotel de Ville, they instantly
+ passed a decree outlawing Robespierre and his associates, inflicting a similar doom
+ upon the mayor of Paris, the procureur and other members of the commune, and charging
+ twelve of their members, the boldest who could be selected, to proceed with the armed
+ force to the execution of the sentence. The drums of the National Guards now beat to
+ arms in all the sections under authority of the convention, while the tocsin
+ continued to summon assistance with its iron voice to Robespierre and the civic
+ magistrates. Every thing appeared to threaten a violent catastrophe, until it was
+ seen clearly that the public voice, and especially amongst the National Guards, was
+ declaring itself generally against the Terrorists.</p>
+ <p>The Hotel de Ville was surrounded by about fifteen hundred men, and cannon turned
+ upon the doors. The force of the assailants was weakest in point of number, but their
+ leaders were men of spirit, and night concealed their inferiority of force.</p>
+ <p>The deputies commissioned for the purpose read the decree of the assembly to those
+ whom they found assembled in front of the city-hall, and they shrunk from the attempt
+ of defending it, some joining the assailants, others laying down their arms and
+ dispersing. Meantime the deserted group of Terrorists within conducted themselves
+ like scorpions, which, when surrounded by a circle of fire, are said to turn their
+ stings on each other, and on themselves. Mutual and ferocious upbraiding took place
+ among these miserable men. "Wretch, were these the means you promised to furnish?"
+ said Payan to Henriot, whom he found intoxicated and incapable of resolution or
+ exertion; and seizing on him as he spoke, he precipitated the revolutionary general
+ from a window. Henriot survived the fall only to drag himself into a drain, in which
+ he was afterwards discovered and brought out to execution. The younger <span
+ class="pagenum"><a id="page18" name="page18"></a>[pg 18]</span> Robespierre threw
+ himself from the window, but had not the good fortune to perish on the spot. It
+ seemed as if even the melancholy fate of suicide, the last refuge of guilt and
+ despair, was denied to men who had so long refused every species of mercy to their
+ fellow-creatures. Le Bas alone had calmness enough to despatch himself with a
+ pistol-shot. Saint Just, after imploring his comrades to kill him, attempted his own
+ life with an irresolute hand, and failed, Couthon lay beneath the table brandishing a
+ knife, with which he repeatedly wounded his bosom, without daring to add force enough
+ to reach his heart. Their chief, Robespierre, in an unsuccessful attempt to shoot
+ himself, had only inflicted a horrible fracture on his under-jaw.</p>
+ <p>In this situation they were found like wolves in their lair, foul with blood,
+ mutilated, despairing, and yet not able to die. Robespierre lay on a table in an
+ anti-room, his head supported by a deal-box, and his hideous countenance half-hidden
+ by a bloody and dirty cloth bound round the shattered chin.<a id="footnotetag1"
+ name="footnotetag1"></a><a href="#footnote1"><sup>1</sup></a></p>
+ <p>The captives were carried in triumph to the convention, who, without admitting
+ them to the bar, ordered them, as outlaws, for instant execution. As the fatal cars
+ passed to the guillotine, those who filled them, but especially Robespierre, were
+ overwhelmed with execrations from the friends and relatives of victims whom he had
+ sent on the same melancholy road. The nature of his previous wound, from which the
+ cloth had never been removed till the executioner tore it off, added to the torture
+ of the sufferer. The shattered jaw dropped, and the wretch yelled aloud, to the
+ horror of the spectators.<a id="footnotetag2" name="footnotetag2"></a><a
+ href="#footnote2"><sup>2</sup></a> A mask taken from that dreadful head was long
+ exhibited in different nations of Europe, and appalled the spectator by its ugliness,
+ and the mixture of fiendish expression with that of bodily agony.</p>
+ <p>Thus fell Maximilian Robespierre, after having been the first person in the French
+ republic for nearly two years, during which time he governed it upon the principles
+ of Nero or Caligula. His elevation to the situation which he held involved more
+ contradictions than perhaps attach to any similar event in history. A low-born and
+ low-minded tyrant was permitted to rule with the rod of the most frightful despotism
+ a people, whose anxiety for liberty had shortly before rendered them unable to endure
+ the rule of a humane and lawful sovereign. A dastardly coward arose to the command of
+ one of the bravest nations in the world; and it was under the auspices of a man who
+ dared scarce fire a pistol, that the greatest generals in France began their careers
+ of conquest. He had neither eloquence nor imagination; but substituted in their stead
+ a miserable, affected, bombastic style, which, until other circumstances gave him
+ consequence, drew on him general ridicule. Yet against so poor an orator, all the
+ eloquence of the philosophical Girondists, all the terrible powers of his associate
+ Danton, employed in a popular assembly, could not enable them to make an effectual
+ resistance. It may seem trifling to mention, that in a nation where a good deal of
+ prepossession is excited by amiable manners and beauty of external appearance, the
+ person who ascended to the highest power was not only ill-looking, but singularly
+ mean in person, awkward and constrained in his address, ignorant how to set about
+ pleasing even when he most desired to give pleasure, and as tiresome nearly as he was
+ odious and heartless.</p>
+ <p>To compensate all these deficiencies, Robespierre had but an insatiable ambition,
+ founded on a vanity which made him think himself capable of filling the highest
+ situation; and therefore gave him daring, when to dare is frequently to achieve. He
+ mixed a false and over-strained, but rather fluent species of bombastic composition,
+ with the grossest flattery to the lowest classes of the people; in consideration of
+ which, they could not but receive as genuine the praises which he always bestowed on
+ himself. His prudent resolution to be satisfied with possessing the essence of power,
+ without seeming to desire its rank and trappings, formed another art of cajoling the
+ multitude. His watchful envy, his long-protracted but sure revenge, his craft, which
+ to vulgar minds supplies the place of wisdom, were his only means of competing with
+ his distinguished antagonists. And it seems to have been a merited punishment of the
+ extravagances and abuses of the French revolution, that it engaged the country in a
+ state of anarchy which permitted a wretch such as we have described, to be for a long
+ period master of her destiny. Blood was his element, like that of the other
+ Terrorists, and he never fastened with so much pleasure on a new <span
+ class="pagenum"><a id="page19" name="page19"></a>[pg 19]</span> victim, as when he
+ was at the same time an ancient associate. In an epitaph, of which the following
+ couplet may serve as a translation, his life was represented as incompatible with the
+ existence of the human race:&mdash;</p>
+ <blockquote class="poetry">
+ "Here lies Robespierre&mdash;let no tear be shed;<br />
+ Reader, if he had lived, thou hadst been dead."
+ </blockquote>
+ <p>The commencement of the third volume introduces us to the family of Bonaparte, who
+ resided in the island of Corsica, which was, in ancient times, remarkable as the
+ scene of Seneca's exile, and in the last century was distinguished by the memorable
+ stand which the natives made in defence of their liberties against the Genoese and
+ French, during a war which tended to show the high and indomitable spirit of the
+ islanders, united as it is with the fiery and vindictive feelings proper to their
+ country and climate.</p>
+ <h4>BIRTH OF BONAPARTE.</h4>
+ <p>Charles Bonaparte, the father of Napoleon, died at the age of about forty years,
+ of an ulcer in the stomach, on the 24th of February, 1785. His celebrated son fell a
+ victim to the same disease. During Napoleon's grandeur, the community of Montpellier
+ expressed a desire to erect a monument to the memory of Charles Bonaparte. His answer
+ was both sensible and in good taste. "Had I lost my father yesterday," he said, "it
+ would be natural to pay his memory some mark of respect consistent with my present
+ situation. But it is twenty years since the event, and it is one in which the public
+ can take no concern. Let us leave the dead in peace."</p>
+ <p>The subject of our narrative was born, according to the best accounts, and his own
+ belief, upon the 15th day of August, 1769, at his father's house in Ajaccio, forming
+ one side of a court which leads out of the Rue Charles.<a id="footnotetag3"
+ name="footnotetag3"></a><a href="#footnote3"><sup>3</sup></a> We read with interest,
+ that his mother's good constitution, and bold character of mind, having induced her
+ to attend mass upon the day of his birth, (being the Festival of the Assumption,) she
+ was obliged to return home immediately, and as there was no time to prepare a bed or
+ bedroom, she was delivered of the future victor upon a temporary couch prepared for
+ her accommodation, and covered with an ancient piece of tapestry, representing the
+ heroes of the Iliad. The infant was christened by the name of Napoleon, an obscure
+ saint, who had dropped to leeward, and fallen altogether out of the calendar, so that
+ his namesake never knew which day he was to celebrate as the festival of his patron.
+ When questioned, on this subject by the bishop who confirmed him, he answered
+ smartly, that there were a great many saints, and only three hundred and sixty-five
+ days to divide amongst them. The politeness of the pope promoted the patron in order
+ to compliment the god-child, and Saint Napoleon des Ursins was accommodated with a
+ festival. To render this compliment, which no one but a pope could have paid, still
+ more flattering, the feast of Saint Napoleon was fixed for the fifteenth August, the
+ birthday of the emperor, and the day on which he signed the Concordat. So that
+ Napoleon had the rare honour of promoting his patron saint.</p>
+ <h4>NAPOLEON'S EARLY LIFE.</h4>
+ <p>The young Napoleon had, of course, the simple and hardy education proper to the
+ natives of the mountainous island of his birth, and in his infancy was not remarkable
+ for more than that animation of temper, and wilfulness and impatience of inactivity,
+ by which children of quick parts and lively sensibility are usually distinguished.
+ The winter of the year was generally passed by the family of his father at Ajaccio,
+ where they still preserve and exhibit, as the ominous play-thing of Napoleon's
+ boyhood, the model of a brass cannon, weighing about thirty pounds.<a
+ id="footnotetag4" name="footnotetag4"></a><a href="#footnote4"><sup>4</sup></a> We
+ leave it to philosophers to inquire, whether the future love of war was suggested by
+ the accidental possession of such a toy; or whether the tendency of the mind dictated
+ the selection of it; or, lastly, whether the nature of the pastime, corresponding
+ with the taste which chose it, may not have had each their action and reaction, and
+ contributed between them to the formation of a character so warlike.</p>
+ <p>The same traveller who furnishes the above anecdote, gives an interesting account
+ of the country retreat of the family of Bonaparte during the summer.</p>
+ <p>Going along the sea-shore from Ajaccio towards the Isle Sanguiniere, about a mile
+ from the town, occur two stone pillars, the remains of a doorway, leading up to a
+ dilapidated villa, once the residence of Madame Bonaparte's half-brother on the
+ mother's side, whom Napoleon created Cardinal Fesch.<a id="footnotetag5"
+ name="footnotetag5"></a><a href="#footnote5"><sup>5</sup></a> The house is approached
+ by an avenue, surrounded and overhung by the cactus and other shrubs, which luxuriate
+ in a warm climate. It has a garden and a lawn, showing amidst <span
+ class="pagenum"><a id="page20" name="page20"></a>[pg 20]</span> neglect vestiges of
+ their former beauty, and the house is surrounded by shrubberies, permitted to run to
+ wilderness. This was the summer residence of Madame Bonaparte and her family. Almost
+ enclosed by the wild olive, the cactus, the clematis, and the almond-tree, is a very
+ singular and isolated granite rock, called Napoleon's grotto, which seems to have
+ resisted the decomposition which has taken place around. The remains of a small
+ summer-house are visible beneath the rock, the entrance to which is nearly closed by
+ a luxuriant fig-tree. This was Bonaparte's frequent retreat, when the vacations of
+ the school at which he studied permitted him to visit home. How the imagination
+ labours to form an idea of the visions, which, in this sequestered and romantic spot,
+ must have arisen before the eyes of the future hero of a hundred battles!</p>
+ <p>Bonaparte's ardour for the abstract sciences amounted to a passion, and was
+ combined with a singular aptitude for applying them to the purposes of war, while his
+ attention to pursuits so interesting and exhaustless in themselves, was stimulated by
+ his natural ambition and desire of distinction. Almost all the scientific teachers at
+ Brienne, being accustomed to study the character of their pupils, and obliged by
+ their duty to make memoranda and occasional reports on the subject, spoke of the
+ talents of Bonaparte, and the progress of his studies, with admiration. Circumstances
+ of various kinds, exaggerated or invented, have been circulated concerning the youth
+ of a person so remarkable. The following are given upon good authority.<a
+ id="footnotetag6" name="footnotetag6"></a><a href="#footnote6"><sup>6</sup></a></p>
+ <p>The conduct of Napoleon among his companions was that of a studious and reserved
+ youth, addicting himself deeply to the means of improvement, and rather avoiding than
+ seeking the usual temptations to dissipation of time. He had few friends, and no
+ intimates; yet at different times, when he chose to exert it, he exhibited
+ considerable influence over his fellow-students, and when there was any joint plan to
+ be carried into effect, he was frequently chosen dictator of the little republic.</p>
+ <p>In the time of winter, Bonaparte, upon one occasion, engaged his companions in
+ constructing a fortress out of the snow, regularly defended by ditches and bastions,
+ according to the rules of fortification. It was considered as displaying the great
+ powers of the juvenile engineer in the way of his profession, and was attacked and
+ defended by the students, who divided into parties for the purpose, until the battle
+ became so keen that their superiors thought it proper to proclaim a truce.</p>
+ <p>The young Bonaparte gave another instance of address and enterprise upon the
+ following occasion. There was a fair held annually in the neighbourhood of Brienne,
+ where the pupils of the Military School used to find a day's amusement; but on
+ account of a quarrel betwixt them and the country people upon a former occasion, or
+ for some such cause, the masters of the institution had directed that the students
+ should not on the fair-day be permitted to go beyond their own precincts, which were
+ surrounded with a wall. Under the direction of the young Corsican, however, the
+ scholars had already laid a plot for securing their usual day's diversion. They had
+ undermined the wall which encompassed their exercising ground, with so much skill and
+ secrecy, that their operations remained entirely unknown till the morning of the
+ fair, when a part of the boundary unexpectedly fell, and gave a free passage to the
+ imprisoned students, of which they immediately took the advantage, by hurrying to the
+ prohibited scene of amusement.</p>
+ <p>But although on these, and perhaps other occasions, Bonaparte displayed some of
+ the frolic temper of youth, mixed with the inventive genius and the talent for
+ commanding others by which he was distinguished in after time, his life at school was
+ in general that of a recluse and severe student, acquiring by his judgment, and
+ treasuring in his memory, that wonderful process of almost unlimited combination, by
+ means of which he was afterwards able to simplify the most difficult and complicated
+ undertakings. His mathematical teacher was proud of the young islander, as the boast
+ of his school, and his other scientific instructors had the same reason to be
+ satisfied.</p>
+ <p>In languages Bonaparte was less a proficient, and never acquired the art of
+ writing or spelling French, far less foreign languages, with accuracy or correctness;
+ nor had the monks of Brienne any reason to pride themselves on the classical
+ proficiency of their scholar. The full energies of his mind being devoted to the
+ scientific pursuits of his profession, left little time or inclination for other
+ studies.</p>
+ <p>Though of Italian origin, Bonaparte had not a decided taste for the fine arts, and
+ his taste in composition seems to have <span class="pagenum"><a id="page21"
+ name="page21"></a>[pg 21]</span> leaned towards the grotesque and the bombastic. He
+ used always the most exaggerated phrases; and it is seldom, if ever, that his
+ bulletins present those touches of sublimity which are founded on dignity and
+ simplicity of expression.</p>
+ <p>Notwithstanding the external calmness and reserve of his deportment, he who was
+ destined for such great things had, while yet a student at Brienne, a full share of
+ that ambition for distinction and dread of disgrace, that restless and irritating
+ love of fame, which is the spur to extraordinary attempts. Sparkles of this keen
+ temper sometimes showed themselves. On one occasion, a harsh superintendant imposed
+ on the future emperor, for some trifling fault, the disgrace of wearing a penitential
+ dress, and being excluded from the table of the students, and obliged to eat his meal
+ apart. His pride felt the indignity so severely, that it brought on a severe nervous
+ attack; to which, though otherwise of good constitution, he was subject upon
+ occasions of extraordinary irritation. Father Petrault, the professor of mathematics,
+ hastened to deliver his favourite pupil from the punishment by which he was so much
+ affected.</p>
+ <p>It is also said that an early disposition to the popular side distinguished
+ Bonaparte even when at Brienne. Pichegru, afterwards so celebrated, who acted as his
+ monitor in the military school, (a singular circumstance,) bore witness to his early
+ principles, and to the peculiar energy and tenacity of his temper. He was long
+ afterwards consulted whether means might not be found to engage the commander of the
+ Italian armies in the royal interest. "It will be but lost time to attempt it," said
+ Pichegru. "I knew him in his youth&mdash;his character is inflexible&mdash;he has
+ taken his side, and he will not change it."</p>
+ <p>In 1783, Napoleon Bonaparte, then only fourteen years old, was, though under the
+ usual age, selected by Monsieur de Keralio, the inspector of the twelve military
+ schools, to be sent to have his education completed in the general school of Paris.
+ It was a compliment paid to the precocity of his extraordinary mathematical talent,
+ and the steadiness of his application. While at Paris he attracted the same notice as
+ at Brienne; and among other society, frequented that of the celebrated Abb&eacute;
+ Raynal, and was admitted to his literary parties. His taste did not become correct,
+ but his appetite for study in all departments was greatly enlarged; and
+ notwithstanding the quantity which he daily read, his memory was strong enough to
+ retain, and his judgment sufficiently ripe to arrange and digest, the knowledge which
+ he then acquired; so that he had it at his command during all the rest of his busy
+ life. Plutarch was his favourite author; upon the study of whom he had so modelled
+ his opinions and habits of thought, that Paoli afterwards pronounced him a young man
+ of an antique caste, and resembling one of the classical heroes.</p>
+ <p>Some of his biographers have about this time ascribed to him the anecdote of a
+ certain youthful pupil of the military school, who desired to ascend in the car of a
+ balloon with the a&euml;ronaut Blanchard, and was so mortified at being refused, that
+ he made an attempt to cut the balloon with his sword. The story has but a flimsy
+ support, and indeed does not accord well with the character of the hero, which was
+ deep and reflective, as well as bold and determined, and not likely to suffer its
+ energies to escape in idle and useless adventure.</p>
+ <p>A better authenticated anecdote states, that at this time he expressed himself
+ disrespectfully towards the king in one of his letters to his family. According to
+ the practice of the school, he was obliged to submit the letter to the censorship of
+ Monsieur Domairon, the professor of belles lettres, who, taking notice of the
+ offensive passage, insisted upon the letter being burnt, and added a severe rebuke.
+ Long afterwards, in 1802, Monsieur Domairon was commanded to attend Napoleon's levee,
+ in order that he might receive a pupil in the person of Jerome Bonaparte, when the
+ first consul reminded his old tutor good-humouredly, that times had changed
+ considerably since the burning of the letter.</p>
+ <p>Napoleon Bonaparte, in his seventieth year, received his first commission as
+ second lieutenant in a regiment of artillery, and was almost immediately afterwards
+ promoted to the rank of first lieutenant in the corps quartered at Valence. He
+ mingled with society when he joined his regiment, more than he had hitherto been
+ accustomed to do; mixed in public amusements, and exhibited the powers of pleasing,
+ which he possessed in an uncommon degree when he chose to exert them. His handsome
+ and intelligent features, with his active and neat, though slight figure, gave him
+ additional advantages. His manners could scarcely be called elegant, but made up in
+ vivacity and variety of expression, and often in great spirit and energy, for what
+ they wanted in grace and polish.</p>
+ <p>He became an adventurer for the honours of literature also, and was anonymously a
+ competitor for the prize offered by the Academy of Lyons on Raynal's question, "What
+ are the principles and <span class="pagenum"><a id="page22" name="page22"></a>[pg
+ 22]</span> institutions, by application of which mankind can be raised to the highest
+ pitch of happiness?" The prize was adjudged to the young soldier. It is impossible to
+ avoid feeling curiosity to know the character of the juvenile theories respecting
+ government, advocated by one who at length attained the power of practically making
+ what experiments he pleased. Probably his early ideas did not exactly coincide with
+ his more mature practice; for when Talleyrand, many years afterwards, got the essay
+ out of the records of the academy, and returned it to the author, Bonaparte destroyed
+ it after he had read a few pages. He also laboured under the temptation of writing a
+ journey to Mount Cenis, after the manner of Sterne, which he was fortunate enough
+ finally to resist. The affectation which pervades Sterne's peculiar style of
+ composition was not likely to be simplified under the pen of Bonaparte.</p>
+ <p>Sterner times were fast approaching, and the nation was now fully divided by those
+ factions which produced the revolution. The officers of Bonaparte's regiment were
+ also divided into royalists and patriots; and it is easily to be imagined, that the
+ young and friendless stranger and adventurer should adopt that side to which he had
+ already shown some inclination, and which promised to open the most free career to
+ those who had only their merit to rely on. "Were I a general officer," he is alleged
+ to have said, "I would have adhered to the king; being a subaltern, I join the
+ patriots."</p>
+ <p>There was a story current, that in a debate with some brother officers on the
+ politics of the time, Bonaparte expressed himself so outrageously, that they were
+ provoked to throw him into the Rhone, where he had nearly perished. But this is an
+ inaccurate account of the accident which actually befell him. He was seized with the
+ cramp when bathing in the river. His comrades saved him with difficulty, but his
+ danger was matter of pure chance.</p>
+ <p>Napoleon has himself recorded that he was a warm patriot during the whole sitting
+ of the National Assembly; but that on the appointment of the Legislative Assembly, he
+ became shaken in his opinions. If so, his original sentiments regained force, for we
+ shortly afterwards find him entertaining such as went to the extreme heights of the
+ revolution.</p>
+ <p>Early in the year 1792, Bonaparte became a captain in the artillery by seniority;
+ and in the same year, being at Paris, he witnessed the two insurrections of the 20th
+ of June and 10th of August. He was accustomed to speak of the insurgents as the most
+ despicable banditti, and to express with what ease a determined officer could have
+ checked these apparently formidable, but dastardly and unwieldy masses. But with what
+ a different feeling of interest would Napoleon have looked on that infuriated
+ populace, those still resisting though overpowered Swiss, and that burning palace,
+ had any seer whispered to him, "Emperor that shall be, all this blood and massacre is
+ but to prepare your future empire!" Little anticipating the potent effect which the
+ passing events were to bear on his own fortune, Bonaparte, anxious for the safety of
+ his mother and family, was now desirous to change France for Corsica, where the same
+ things were acting on a less distinguished stage.</p>
+ <h4>BONAPARTE'S FIRST MILITARY EXPLOIT.</h4>
+ <p>Napoleon's first military exploit was in the civil war of his native island. In
+ the year 1793, he was despatched from Bastia, in possession of the French party, to
+ surprise his native town Ajaccio, then occupied by Paoli or his adherents. Bonaparte
+ was acting provisionally, as commanding a battalion of National Guards. He landed in
+ the Gulf of Ajaccio with about fifty men, to take possession of a tower called the
+ Torre di Capitello, on the opposite side of the gulf, and almost facing the city. He
+ succeeded in taking the place; but as there arose a gale of wind which prevented his
+ communicating with the frigate which had put him ashore, he was besieged in his new
+ conquest by the opposite faction, and reduced to such distress, that he and his
+ little garrison were obliged to feed on horse-flesh. After five days he was relieved
+ by the frigate, and evacuated the tower, having first in vain attempted to blow it
+ up. The Torre di Capitello still shows marks of the damage it then sustained, and its
+ remains may be looked on as a curiosity, as the first scene of <i>his</i> combats,
+ before whom</p>
+ <blockquote class="poetry">
+ &mdash;"Temple and tower<br />
+ Went to the ground.&mdash;
+ </blockquote>
+ <p>A relation of Napoleon, Masserio by name, effectually defended Ajaccio against the
+ force employed in the expedition.</p>
+ <p>The strength of Paoli increasing, and the English preparing to assist him, Corsica
+ became no longer a safe or convenient residence for the Bonaparte family. Indeed,
+ both Napoleon and his brother Lucien, who had distinguished themselves as partisans
+ of the French, were subjected to a decree of banishment from their native island; and
+ Madame Bonaparte, with her three daughters, and Jerome, who was as yet but a child,
+ set sail under their protection, and settled for a time, <span class="pagenum"><a
+ id="page23" name="page23"></a>[pg 23]</span> first at Nice, and afterwards at
+ Marseilles, where the family is supposed to have undergone considerable distress,
+ until the dawning prospects of Napoleon afforded him the means of assisting them.</p>
+ <p>Napoleon never again revisited Corsica, nor does he appear to have regarded it
+ with any feelings of affection. One small fountain at Ajaccio is pointed out as the
+ only ornament which his bounty bestowed on his birthplace. He might perhaps think it
+ impolitic to do any thing which might remind the country he ruled that he was not a
+ child of her soil, nay, was in fact very near having been born an alien, for Corsica
+ was not united to, or made an integral part of France, until June, 1769, a few weeks
+ only before Napoleon's birth. This stigma was repeatedly cast upon him by his
+ opponents, some of whom reproached the French with having adopted a master, from a
+ country from which the ancient Romans were unwilling even to choose a slave; and
+ Napoleon may have been so far sensible to it, as to avoid showing any predilection to
+ the place of his birth, which might bring the circumstance strongly under the
+ observation of the great nation, with which he and his family seemed to be
+ indissolubly united. But, as a traveller already quoted, and who had the best
+ opportunities to become acquainted with the feelings of the proud islanders, has
+ expressed it,&mdash;"The Corsicans are still highly patriotic, and possess strong
+ local attachment&mdash;in their opinion, contempt for the country of one's birth is
+ never to be redeemed by any other qualities. Napoleon, therefore, certainly was not
+ popular in Corsica, nor is his memory cherished there."<a id="footnotetag7"
+ name="footnotetag7"></a><a href="#footnote7"><sup>7</sup></a></p>
+ <p>The feelings of the parties were not unnatural on either side. Napoleon, little
+ interested in the land of his birth, and having such an immense stake in that of his
+ adoption, in which he had every thing to keep and lose,<a id="footnotetag8"
+ name="footnotetag8"></a><a href="#footnote8"><sup>8</sup></a> observed a policy
+ towards Corsica which his position rendered advisable; and who can blame the
+ high-spirited islanders, who, seeing one of their countrymen raised to such exalted
+ eminence, and disposed to forget his connexion with them, returned with slight and
+ indifference the disregard with which he treated them?</p>
+ <p>The siege of Toulon was the first incident of importance which enabled Bonaparte
+ to distinguish himself in the eyes of the French government and of the world at
+ large. Shortly afterwards he was appointed chief of battalion in the army of Italy,
+ and on the fall of Robespierre, Bonaparte superseded in command. At the conflict
+ between the troops of the Convention under Napoleon, and those of the Sections of
+ Paris under Damican, the latter was defeated with much slaughter, and Bonaparte was
+ appointed general-in-chief in command of the army of the interior.</p>
+ <h4>BONAPARTE'S FIRST MARRIAGE.</h4>
+ <p>Meantime circumstances, which we will relate according to his own statement,
+ introduced Bonaparte to an acquaintance, which was destined to have much influence on
+ his future fate. A fine boy, of ten or twelve years old, presented himself at the
+ levee of the general of the interior, with a request of a nature unusually
+ interesting. He stated his name to be Eugene Beauharnois, son of the ci-devant
+ Vicomte de Beauharnois, who, adhering to the revolutionary party, had been a general
+ in the republican service upon the Rhine, and falling under the causeless suspicion
+ of the committee of public safety, was delivered to the revolutionary tribunal, and
+ fell by its sentence just four days before the overthrow of Robespierre. Eugene was
+ come to request of Bonaparte, as general of the interior, that his father's sword
+ might be restored to him. The prayer of the young supplicant was as interesting as
+ his manners were engaging, and Napoleon felt so much interest in him, that he was
+ induced to cultivate the acquaintance of Eugene's mother, afterwards the empress
+ Josephine.</p>
+ <p>The lady was a Creolian, the daughter of a planter in St. Domingo. Her name at
+ full length was Marie Joseph Rose Tascher de la Pagerie. She had suffered her share
+ of revolutionary miseries. After her husband, General Beauharnois, had been deprived
+ of his command, she was arrested as a suspected person, and detained in prison till
+ the general liberation, which succeeded the revolution of the 9th Thermidor. While in
+ confinement, Madame Beauharnois had formed an intimacy with a companion in distress,
+ Madame Fontenai, now Madame Tallien, from which she derived great advantages after
+ her friend's marriage. With a remarkably graceful person, amiable manners, and an
+ inexhaustible fund of good-humour, Madame Beauharnois was formed to be an ornament to
+ society. Barras, the Thermidorien hero, himself an ex-noble, was fond of society,
+ desirous of enjoying it on an agreeable scale, and of washing away the dregs which
+ Jacobinism had <span class="pagenum"><a id="page24" name="page24"></a>[pg 24]</span>
+ mingled with all the dearest interests of life. He loved show, too, and pleasure, and
+ might now indulge both without the risk of falling under the suspicion of incivism,
+ which, in the Reign of Terror, would have been incurred by any attempt to intermingle
+ elegance with the enjoyments of social intercourse. At the apartments which he
+ occupied, as one of the Directory, in the Luxemburg Palace, he gave its free course
+ to his natural taste, and assembled an agreeable society of both sexes. Madame
+ Tallien and her friend formed the soul of these assemblies, and it was supposed that
+ Barras was not insensible to the charms of Madame Beauharnois,&mdash;a rumour which
+ was likely to arise, whether with or without foundation.</p>
+ <p>When Madame Beauharnois and General Bonaparte became intimate, the latter assures
+ us, and we see no reason to doubt him, that although the lady was two or three years
+ older than himself,<a id="footnotetag9" name="footnotetag9"></a><a
+ href="#footnote9"><sup>9</sup></a> yet being still in the full bloom of beauty, and
+ extremely agreeable in her manners, he was induced, solely by her personal charms, to
+ make her an offer of his hand, heart, and fortunes,&mdash;little supposing, of
+ course, to what a pitch the latter were to arise.</p>
+ <p>Although he himself is said to have been a fatalist, believing in destiny and in
+ the influence of his star, he knew nothing, probably, of the prediction of a negro
+ sorceress, who, while Marie Joseph was but a child, prophesied she should rise to a
+ dignity greater than that of a queen, yet fall from it before her death.<a
+ id="footnotetag10" name="footnotetag10"></a><a href="#footnote10"><sup>10</sup></a>
+ This was one of those vague auguries, delivered at random by fools or impostors,
+ which the caprice of fortune sometimes matches with a corresponding and conforming
+ event. But without trusting to the African sibyl's prediction, Bonaparte may have
+ formed his match under the auspices of ambition as well as love. The marrying Madame
+ Beauharnois was a mean of uniting his fortune with those of Barras and Tallien, the
+ first of whom governed France as one of the Directors; and the last, from talents and
+ political connexions, had scarcely inferior influence. He had already deserved well
+ of them for his conduct on the Day of the Sections, but he required their countenance
+ to rise still higher; and without derogating from the bride's merits, we may suppose
+ her influence in their society corresponded with the views of her lover. It is,
+ however, certain, that he always regarded her with peculiar affection; that he relied
+ on her fate, which he considered as linked with and strengthening his own; and
+ reposed, besides, considerable confidence in Josephine's tact and address in
+ political business. She had at all times the art of mitigating his temper, and
+ turning aside the hasty determinations of his angry moments, not by directly
+ opposing, but by gradually parrying and disarming them. It must be added to her great
+ praise, that she was always a willing and often a successful advocate in the cause of
+ humanity.</p>
+ <p>They were married 9th of March, 1796; and the dowry of the bride was the chief
+ command of the Italian armies, a scene which opened a full career to the ambition of
+ the youthful general. Bonaparte remained with his wife only three days after his
+ marriage, hastened to see his family, who were still at Marseilles, and, having
+ enjoyed the pleasure of exhibiting himself as a favourite of fortune in the city
+ which he had lately left in the capacity of an indigent adventurer, proceeded rapidly
+ to commence the career to which fate called him, by placing himself at the head of
+ the Italian army.</p>
+ <p>The renowned Italian campaigns occupy the remainder of the third, and some part of
+ the fourth volume, to which we now proceed. It will be remembered that the war in
+ Egypt being triumphantly concluded on the part of Great Britain, the news of the
+ contest reached France some time before the English received it. Napoleon, on
+ learning the tidings, is reported to have said, "Well, there remains now no
+ alternative but to make the descent on Britain."</p>
+ <h4>PROPOSED INVASION OF GREAT BRITAIN.</h4>
+ <p>As the words of the first consul appeard to intimate, preparations were resumed on
+ the French coast for the invasion of Great Britain. Boulogne and every harbour along
+ the coast was crowded with flat-bottomed boats, and the shores covered with camps of
+ the men designed apparently to fill them. We need not at present dwell on the
+ preparations for attack, or those which the English adopted in defence, as we shall
+ have occasion to notice both, when Bonaparte, for the last time, threatened England
+ with the same <span class="pagenum"><a id="page25" name="page25"></a>[pg 25]</span>
+ measure. It is enough to say, that, on the present occasion, the menaces of France
+ had their usual effect in awakening the spirit of Britain.</p>
+ <p>The most extensive arrangements were made for the reception of the invaders should
+ they chance to land, and in the meanwhile, our natural barrier was not neglected. The
+ naval preparations were very great, and what gave yet more confidence than the number
+ of vessels and guns, Nelson was put into command of the sea, from Orfordness to
+ Beachy-head. Under his management, it soon became the question, not whether the
+ French flotilla was to invade the British shores, but whether it was to remain in
+ safety in the French harbours. Boulogne was bombarded, and some of the small craft
+ and gun-boats destroyed&mdash;the English admiral generously sparing the town; and
+ not satisfied with this partial success, Nelson prepared to attack them with the
+ boats of the squadron. The French resorted to the most unusual and formidable
+ preparations for defence. Their flotilla was moored close to the shore in the mouth
+ of Boulogne harbour, the vessels secured to each other by chains, and filled with
+ soldiers. The British attack in some degree failed, owing to the several divisions of
+ boats missing each other in the dark; some French vessels were taken, but they could
+ not be brought off; and the French chose to consider this result as a victory, on
+ their part, of consequence enough to balance the loss at Aboukir;&mdash;though it
+ amounted at best to ascertaining, that although their vessels could not keep the sea,
+ they might, in some comparative degree of safety, lie under close cover of their own
+ batteries.</p>
+ <p>The preliminaries of peace, however, were signed, and the treaty was confirmed at
+ Amiens, on the 27th of March, 1802. Napoleon still prosecuted his ambitious projects,
+ extended his power in Italy, and caused himself to be appointed consul for life, with
+ the power of naming his successor.</p>
+ <h4>SCHEME OF INVASION RENEWED.</h4>
+ <p>It must be in the memory of most who recollect the period, that the kingdom of
+ Great Britain was seldom less provided against invasion than at the commencement of
+ this second war; and that an embarkation from the ports of Holland, if undertaken
+ instantly after the war had broken out, might have escaped our blockading squadrons,
+ and have at least shown what a French army could have done on British ground, at a
+ moment when the alarm was general, and the country in an unprepared state. But it is
+ probable that Bonaparte himself was as much unprovided as England for the sudden
+ breach of the treaty of Amiens&mdash;an event brought about more by the influence of
+ passion than of policy; so that its consequences were as unexpected in his
+ calculations as in those of Great Britain. Besides, he had not diminished to himself
+ the dangers of the undertaking, by which he must have staked his military renown, his
+ power, which he held chiefly as the consequence of his reputation, perhaps his life,
+ upon a desperate game, which, though he had already twice contemplated it, he had not
+ yet found hardihood enough seriously to enter upon.</p>
+ <p>He now, however, at length bent himself, with the whole strength of his mind, and
+ the whole force of his empire, to prepare for this final and decisive undertaking.
+ The gun-boats in the Bay of Gibraltar, where calms are frequent, had sometimes in the
+ course of the former war been able to do considerable damage to the English vessels
+ of war, when they could not use their sails. Such small craft, therefore, were
+ supposed the proper force for covering the intended descent. They were built in
+ different harbours, and brought together by crawling along the French shore, and
+ keeping under the protection of the batteries, which were now established on every
+ cape, almost as if the sea-coast of the channel on the French side had been the lines
+ of a besieged city, no one point of which could with prudence be left undefended by
+ cannon. Boulogne was pitched upon as the centre port, from which the expedition was
+ to sail. By incredible exertions, Bonaparte had rendered its harbour and roads
+ capable of containing two thousand vessels of various descriptions. The smaller
+ sea-ports of Vimereux, Ambleteuse, and Etaples, Dieppe, Havre, St. Valeri, Caen,
+ Gravelines, and Dunkirk, were likewise filled with shipping. Flushing and Ostend were
+ occupied by a separate flotilla. Brest, Toulon, and Rochefort, were each the station
+ of as strong a naval squadron as France, had still the means to send to sea.</p>
+ <p>A land army was assembled of the most formidable description, whether we regard
+ the high military character of the troops, the extent and perfection of their
+ appointments, or their numerical strength. The coast, from the mouth of the Seine to
+ the Texel, was covered with forces; and Soult, Ney, Davoust, and Victor, names that
+ were then the pride and the dread of war, were appointed to command the army of
+ England, (for that menacing title was once more, assumed,) <span class="pagenum"><a
+ id="page26" name="page26"></a>[pg 26]</span> and execute those manoeuvres, planned
+ and superintended by Bonaparte, the issue of which was to be the blotting out of
+ Britain from the rank of independent nations.</p>
+ <p>Far from being alarmed at this formidable demonstration of force, England prepared
+ for her resistance with an energy becoming her ancient rank in Europe, and far
+ surpassing in its efforts any extent of military preparation before heard of in her
+ history. To nearly one hundred thousand troops of the line, were added eighty
+ thousand and upwards of militia, which scarce yielded to the regulars in point of
+ discipline. The volunteer force, by which every citizen was permitted and invited to
+ add his efforts to the defence of the country, was far more numerous than during the
+ last war, was better officered also, and rendered every way more effective. It was
+ computed to amount to three hundred and fifty thousand men, who, if we regard the
+ shortness of the time and the nature of the service, had attained considerable
+ practice in the use and management of their arms. Other classes of men were embodied,
+ and destined to act as pioneers, drivers of wagons, and in the like services. On a
+ sudden, the land seemed converted to an immense camp, the whole nation into soldiers,
+ and the good old king himself into a general-in-chief. All peaceful considerations
+ appeared for a time to be thrown aside; and the voice, calling the nation to defend
+ their dearest rights, sounded not only in Parliament, and in meetings convoked to
+ second the measures of defence, but was heard in the places of public amusement, and
+ mingled even with the voice of devotion&mdash;not unbecoming surely, since to defend
+ our country is to defend our religion.</p>
+ <p>Beacons were erected in conspicuous points, corresponding with each other, all
+ around and all through the island; and morning and evening, one might have said,
+ every eye was turned towards them to watch for the fatal and momentous signal.
+ Partial alarms were given to different places, from the mistakes to which such
+ arrangements must necessarily be liable; and the ready spirit which animated every
+ species of troops where such signals called to arms, was of the most satisfactory
+ description, and afforded the most perfect assurance, that the heart of every man was
+ in the cause of his country.</p>
+ <p>Amidst her preparations by land, England did not neglect or relax her precautions
+ on the element she calls her own. She covered the ocean with five hundred and seventy
+ ships of war of various descriptions. Divisions of her fleet blocked up every French
+ port in the channel; and the army destined to invade our shores, might see the
+ British flag flying in every direction on the horizon, waiting for their issuing from
+ the harbour, as birds of prey may be seen floating in the air above the animal which
+ they design to pounce upon. Sometimes the British frigates and sloops of war stood
+ in, and cannonaded or threw shells into Havre, Dieppe, Granville, and Boulogne
+ itself. Sometimes the seamen and marines landed, cut out vessels, destroyed signal
+ posts, and dismantled batteries. Such events were trifling, and it was to be
+ regretted that they cost the lives of gallant men; but although they produced no
+ direct results of consequence, yet they had their use in encouraging the spirits of
+ our sailors, and damping the confidence of the enemy, who must at length have looked
+ forward with more doubt than hope to the invasion of the English coast, when the
+ utmost vigilance could not prevent their experiencing insults upon their own.</p>
+ <p>During this period of menaced attack and arranged defence, Bonaparte visited
+ Boulogne, and seemed active in preparing his soldiers for the grand effort. He
+ reviewed them in an unusual manner, teaching them to execute several manoeuvres by
+ night; and experiments were also made upon the best mode of arranging the soldiers in
+ the flat-bottomed boats, and of embarking and disembarking them with celerity. Omens
+ were resorted to for keeping up the enthusiasm which the presence of the First Consul
+ naturally inspired. A Roman battle-axe was said to be found when they removed the
+ earth to pitch Bonaparte's tent or barrack; and medals of William the Conqueror were
+ produced, as having been dug up upon the same honoured spot. These were pleasant
+ bodings, yet perhaps did not altogether, in the minds of the soldiers, counterbalance
+ the sense of insecurity impressed on them by the prospect of being packed together in
+ these miserable chaloupes, and exposed to the fire of an enemy so superior at sea,
+ that during the chief consul's review of the fortifications, their frigates stood in
+ shore with composure, and fired at him and his suite as at a mark. The men who had
+ braved the perils of the Alps and of the Egyptian deserts, might yet be allowed to
+ feel alarm at a species of danger which seemed so inevitable, and which they had no
+ adequate means of repelling by force of arms.</p>
+ <p>A circumstance which seemed to render the expedition in a great measure hopeless,
+ was the ease with which the English <span class="pagenum"><a id="page27"
+ name="page27"></a>[pg 27]</span> could maintain a constant watch upon their
+ operations within the port of Boulogne. The least appearance of stir or preparation,
+ to embark troops, or get ready for sea, was promptly sent by signal to the English
+ coast, and the numerous British cruisers were instantly on the alert to attend their
+ motions. Nelson had, in fact, during the last war, declared the sailing of a hostile
+ armament from Boulogne to be a most forlorn undertaking, on account of cross tides
+ and other disadvantages, together with the certainty of the flotilla being lost if
+ there were the least wind west-north-west. "As for rowing," he adds, "that is
+ impossible.&mdash;It is perfectly right to be prepared for a mad government,"
+ continued this incontestable judge of maritime possibilities; "but with the active
+ force which has been given me, I may pronounce it almost impracticable."</p>
+ <p>Before quitting the subject, we may notice, that Bonaparte seems not to have
+ entertained the least doubts of success, could he have succeeded in disembarking his
+ army. A single general action was to decide the fate of England. Five days were to
+ bring Napoleon to London, where he was to perform the part of William the Third; but
+ with more generosity and disinterestedness. He was to call a meeting of the
+ inhabitants, restore them what he calls their rights, and destroy the oligarchical
+ faction. A few months would not, according to his account, have elapsed, ere the two
+ nations, late such determined enemies, would have been identified by their
+ principles, their maxims, their interests. The full explanation of this gibberish,
+ (for it can be termed no better, even proceeding from the lips of Napoleon,) is to be
+ found elsewhere, when he spoke a language more genuine than that of the
+ <i>Moniteur</i> and the bulletins. "England," he said, "must have ended, by becoming
+ an appendage to the France of <i>my</i> system. Nature has made it one of our
+ islands, as well as Oleron and Corsica."</p>
+ <p>It is impossible not to pursue the train of reflections which Bonaparte continued
+ to pour forth to the companion of his exile, on the rock of Saint Helena. When
+ England was conquered, and identified with France in maxims and principles, according
+ to one form of expression, or rendered an appendage and dependency, according to
+ another phrase, the reader may suppose that Bonaparte would have considered his
+ mission as accomplished. Alas! it was not much more than commenced. "I would have
+ departed from thence [from subjugated Britain] to carry the work of European
+ regeneration [that is, the extention of his own arbitrary authority] from south to
+ north, under the Republican colours, for I was then Chief Consul, in the same manner
+ which I was more lately on the point of achieving it under the monarchical forms."
+ When we find such ideas retaining hold of Napoleon's imagination, and arising to his
+ tongue after his irretrievable fall, it is impossible to avoid exclaiming, Did
+ ambition ever conceive so wild a dream, and had so wild a vision ever a termination
+ so disastrous and humiliating!</p>
+ <p>It may be expected that something should be here said, upon the chances which
+ Britain would have had of defending herself successfully against the army of
+ invaders. We are willing to acknowledge that the risk must have been dreadful; and
+ that Bonaparte, with his genius and his army, must have inflicted severe calamities
+ upon a country which had so long enjoyed the blessings of peace. But the people were
+ unanimous in their purpose of defence, and their forces composed of materials to
+ which Bonaparte did more justice when he came to be better acquainted with them. Of
+ the three British nations, the English have since shown themselves possessed of the
+ same steady valour which won the fields of Cressy and Agincourt, Blenheim and
+ Minden&mdash;the Irish have not lost the fiery enthusiasm which has distinguished
+ them in all the countries of Europe&mdash;nor have the Scots degenerated from the
+ stubborn courage with which their ancestors for two thousand years maintained their
+ independence against a superior enemy. Even if London had been lost, we would not,
+ under so great a calamity, have despaired of the freedom of the country; for the war
+ would in all probability have assumed that popular and national character which
+ sooner or later wears out an invading army. Neither does the confidence with which
+ Bonaparte affirms the conviction of his winning the first battle, appear go certainly
+ well founded. This, at least, we know, that the resolution of the country was fully
+ bent up to the hazard; and those who remember the period will bear us witness, that
+ the desire that the French would make the attempt, was a general feeling through all
+ classes, because they had every reason to hope that the issue might be such as for
+ ever to silence the threat of invasion.</p>
+ <p>The next most important occurrence that claims our notice in this volume, and
+ which fully delineates the nature and character of this wonderful and ambitious
+ individual, is the account of his declaration as Emperor of France, and his
+ subsequent coronation.</p>
+ <span class="pagenum"><a id="page28" name="page28"></a>[pg 28]</span>
+ <h4>CORONATION OF NAPOLEON.</h4>
+ <p>Measures were taken, as on former occasions, to preserve appearances, by
+ obtaining, in show at least, the opinion of the people, on this radical change of
+ their system. Government, however, were already confident of their approbation,
+ which, indeed, had never been refused to any of the various constitutions, however
+ inconsistent, that had succeeded each other with such rapidity. Secure on this point,
+ Bonaparte's accession to the empire was proclaimed with the greatest pomp, without
+ waiting to inquire whether the people approved of his promotion or otherwise. The
+ proclamation was coldly received, even by the populace, and excited little
+ enthusiasm. It seemed, according to some writers, as if the shades of D'Enghien and
+ Pichegru had been present invisibly, and spread a damp over the ceremony. The Emperor
+ was recognised by the soldiery with more warmth. He visited the encampments at
+ Boulogne, with the intention, apparently, of receiving such an acknowledgment from
+ the troops as was paid by the ancient Franks to their monarchs, when they elevated
+ them on their bucklers. Seated on an iron chair, said to have belonged to king
+ Dagobert, he took his place between two immense camps, and having before him the
+ Channel and the hostile coasts of England. The weather, we have been assured, had
+ been tempestuous, but no sooner had the Emperor assumed his seat, to receive the
+ homage of his shouting host, than the sky cleared, and the wind dropt, retaining just
+ breath sufficient gently to wave the banners. Even the elements seemed to acknowledge
+ the imperial dignity, all save the sea, which rolled as carelessly to the feet of
+ Napoleon as it had formerly done towards those of Canute the Dane.</p>
+ <p>The Emperor, accompanied with his Empress, who bore her honours both gracefully
+ and meekly, visited Aix-la-Chapelle, and the frontiers of Germany. They received the
+ congratulations of all the powers of Europe, excepting England, Russia, and Sweden,
+ upon their new exaltation; and the German princes, who had everything to hope and
+ fear from so powerful a neighbour, hastened to pay their compliments to Napoleon in
+ person, which more distant sovereigns offered by their ambassadors.</p>
+ <p>But the most splendid and public recognition of his new rank was yet to be made,
+ by the formal act of coronation, which, therefore, Napoleon determined should take
+ place with circumstances of solemnity, which had been beyond the reach of any
+ temporal prince, however powerful, for many ages. His policy was often marked by a
+ wish to revive, imitate, and connect his own titles and interest with, some ancient
+ observance of former days; as if the novelty of his claims could have been rendered
+ more venerable by investing them with antiquated forms, or as men of low birth, when
+ raised to wealth and rank, are sometimes desirous to conceal the obscurity of their
+ origin under the blaze of heraldic honours. Pope Leo, he remembered, had placed a
+ golden crown on the head of Charlemagne, and proclaimed him Emperor of the Romans.
+ Pius VII. he determined should do the same for a successor to much more than the
+ actual power of Charlemagne. But though Charlemagne had repaired to Rome to receive
+ inauguration from the hands of the Pontiff of that day, Napoleon resolved that he who
+ now owned the proud, and in Protestant eyes profane, title of Vicar of Christ, should
+ travel to France to perform the coronation of the successful chief, by whom the See
+ of Rome had been more than once humbled, pillaged, and impoverished, but by whom also
+ her power had been re-erected and restored, not only in Italy, but in France
+ itself.</p>
+ <p>Humiliating as the compliance with Bonaparte's request must have seemed to the
+ more devoted Catholics, Pius VII. had already sacrificed, to obtain the Concordat, so
+ much of the power and privileges of the Roman See, that he could hardly have been
+ justified if he had run the risk of losing the advantages of a treaty so dearly
+ purchased, by declining to incur some personal trouble, or, it might be termed, some
+ direct self-abasement. The Pope, and the Cardinals whom he consulted, implored the
+ illumination of heaven upon their councils; but it was the stern voice of necessity
+ which assured them, that, except at the risk of dividing the Church by a schism, they
+ could not refuse to comply with Bonaparte's requisition. The Pope left Rome on the
+ 5th of November. He was everywhere received on the road with the highest respect, and
+ most profound veneration; the Alpine precipices themselves had been secured by
+ parapets wherever they could expose the venerable Father of the Catholic Church to
+ danger, or even apprehension. Upon the 25th of November, he met Bonaparte at
+ Fontainbleau; and the conduct of the Emperor Napoleon was as studiously respectful
+ towards him, as that of Charlemagne, whom he was pleased to call his predecessor,
+ could have been towards Leo.</p>
+ <p>On the 2nd of December, the ceremony <span class="pagenum"><a id="page29"
+ name="page29"></a>[pg 29]</span> of the coronation took place in the ancient
+ cathedral of Notre Dame, with the addition of every ceremony which could be devised
+ to add to its solemnity. Yet we have been told that the multitude did not participate
+ in the ceremonial with that eagerness which characterises the inhabitants of all
+ capitals, but especially those of Paris, upon similar occasions. They had, within a
+ very few years, seen so many exhibitions, processions, and festivals, established on
+ the most discordant principles, which, though announced as permanent and
+ unchangeable, had successively given way to newer doctrines, that they considered the
+ splendid representation before them as an unsubstantial pageant, which would fade
+ away in its turn. Bonaparte himself seemed absent and gloomy, till recalled to a
+ sense of his grandeur by the voice of the numerous deputies and functionaries sent up
+ from all the several departments of France, to witness the coronation. These
+ functionaries had been selected with due attention to their political opinions; and
+ many of them holding offices under the government, or expecting benefits from the
+ Emperor, made up, by the zealous vivacity of their acclamations, for the coldness of
+ the good citizens of Paris.</p>
+ <p>The Emperor took his coronation oath, as usual on such occasions, with his hands
+ up on the scripture, and in the form in which it was repeated to him by the Pope. But
+ in the act of coronation itself, there was a marked deviation from the universal
+ custom, characteristic of the man, the age, and the conjuncture. In all other similar
+ solemnities, the crown had been placed on the sovereign's head by the presiding
+ spiritual person, as representing the Deity, by whom princes rule. But not even from
+ the head of the Catholic Church would Bonaparte consent to receive as a boon the
+ golden symbol of sovereignty, which he was sensible he owed solely to his own
+ unparalleled train of military and civil successes. The crown having been blessed by
+ the Pope, Napoleon took it from the altar with his own hands, and placed it on his
+ brows. He then put the diadem on the head of his Empress, as if determined to show
+ that his authority was the child of his own actions. <i>Te Deum</i> was sung; the
+ heralds, (for they also had again come into fashion,) proclaimed, "that the thrice
+ glorious and thrice august Napoleon, Emperor of the French, was crowned and
+ installed." Thus concluded this remarkable ceremony. Those who remember having beheld
+ it, must now doubt whether they were waking, or whether fancy had framed a vision so
+ dazzling in its appearance, so extraordinary in its origin and progress, and so
+ ephemeral in its endurance.</p>
+ <p>The very day before the ceremony of coronation, (that is, on the 1st of December,)
+ the senate had waited upon the Emperor with the result of the votes collected in the
+ departments, which, till that time, had been taken for granted. Upwards of three
+ millions five hundred thousand citizens had given their votes on this occasion; of
+ whom only about three thousand five hundred had declared against the proposition. The
+ vice-president, Neufchateau, declared, "this report was the unbiassed expression of
+ the people's choice. No government could plead a title more authentic."</p>
+ <p>Sir Walter occupies his sixth volume with details of the celebrated battles that
+ were fought between the French and English armies in the Spanish territories, and
+ which are told with great truth and develope the extraordinary powers of this
+ celebrated writer. The divorce of Josephine, and marriage of Maria Louisa, commence
+ the succeeding volume. The sterility of Bonaparte's wife was now an irremediable
+ evil; and political motives were to supersede the ties of endearment, affection,
+ talents, and virtue. Fouch&eacute; the minister of police, made Josephine the means
+ of suggesting to Napoleon, the measure of her own divorce, and subsequently Napoleon
+ made Josephine acquainted with the cruel certainty, that the separation was
+ ultimately determined upon.</p>
+ <h4>NAPOLEON DIVORCED FROM JOSEPHINE.</h4>
+ <p>When this sentence had finally dissolved their union, the emperor retired to St.
+ Cloud, where he lived in seclusion for some days. Josephine, on her part, took up her
+ residence in the beautiful villa of Malmaison, near St. Germains. Here she
+ principally dwelt for the remaining years of her life, which were just prolonged to
+ see the first fall of her husband; an event which might have been averted had he been
+ content to listen more frequently to her lessons of moderation. Her life was chiefly
+ spent in cultivating the fine arts, of which she collected some beautiful specimens,
+ and in pursuing the science of botany; but especially in the almost daily practice of
+ acts of benevolence and charity, of which the English <i>detenus</i>, of whom there
+ were several at St. Germains, frequently shared the benefit. Napoleon visited her
+ very frequently, and always treated her with the respect to which she was entitled.
+ He added also to her dowry a third million of <span class="pagenum"><a id="page30"
+ name="page30"></a>[pg 30]</span> francs, that she might feel no inconvenience from
+ the habits of expense to which it was her foible to be addicted.</p>
+ <h4>BONAPARTE MARRIES MARIA LOUISA.</h4>
+ <p>This important state measure was no sooner completed, than the great council was
+ summoned, on the 1st of February, to assist the emperor in the selection of a new
+ spouse. They were given to understand, that a match with a grand duchess of Russia
+ had been proposed, but was likely to be embarrassed by disputes concerning religion.
+ A daughter of the king of Saxony was also mentioned, but it was easily indicated to
+ the council that their choice ought to fall upon a princess of the house of Austria.
+ At the conclusion of the meeting, Eugene, son of the repudiated Josephine, was
+ commissioned by the council to propose to the Austrian embassador a match between
+ Napoleon and the archduchess Maria Louisa. Prince Schwarzenberg had his instructions
+ on the subject; so that the match was proposed, discussed, and decided in the
+ council, and afterwards adjusted between plenipotentiaries on either side, in the
+ space of twenty-four hours. The espousals of Napoleon and Maria Louisa were
+ celebrated at Vienna, 11th March, 1810. The person of Bonaparte was represented by
+ his favourite Berthier, while the archduke Charles assisted at the ceremony, in the
+ name of the emperor Francis. A few days afterwards, the youthful bride, accompanied
+ by the queen of Naples, proceeded towards France.</p>
+ <p>With good taste, Napoleon dispensed with the ceremonies used in the reception of
+ Marie Antoinette, whose marriage with Louis XVI., though never named or alluded to,
+ was in other respects the model of the present solemnity. Near Soissons, a single
+ horseman, no way distinguished by dress, rode past the carriage in which the young
+ empress was seated, and had the boldness to return, as if to reconnoitre more
+ closely. The carriage stopped, the door was opened, and Napoleon, breaking through
+ all the tediousness of ceremony, introduced himself to his bride, and came with her
+ to Soissons. The marriage ceremony was performed at Paris by Bonaparte's uncle, the
+ Cardinal Fesch. The most splendid rejoicings, illuminations, concerts, festivals,
+ took place upon this important occasion. But a great calamity occurred, which threw a
+ shade over these demonstrations of joy. Prince Schwarzenberg had given a
+ distinguished ball on the occasion, when unhappily the dancing-room, which was
+ temporary, and erected in the garden, caught fire. No efforts could stop the progress
+ of the flames, in which several persons perished, and particularly the sister of
+ Prince Schwarzenberg himself. This tragic circumstance struck a damp on the public
+ mind, and was considered as a bad omen, especially when it was remembered that the
+ marriage of Louis XVI. with a former princess of Austria had been signalized by a
+ similar disaster.</p>
+ <p>As a domestic occurrence, nothing could more contribute to Bonaparte's happiness
+ than his union with Maria Louisa. He was wont to compare her with Josephine, by
+ giving the latter all the advantages of art and grace; the former the charms of
+ simple modesty and innocence. His former empress used every art to support or enhance
+ her personal charms; but with so much prudence and mystery, that the secret cares of
+ her toilette could never be traced&mdash;her successor trusted for the power of
+ pleasing to youth and nature. Josephine mismanaged her revenue, and incurred debt
+ without scruple. Maria Louisa lived within her income, or if she desired any
+ indulgence beyond it, which was rarely the case, she asked it as a favour of
+ Napoleon. Josephine, accustomed to political intrigue, loved to manage, to influence,
+ and to guide her husband; Maria Louisa desired only to please and to obey him. Both
+ were excellent women, of great sweetness of temper, and fondly attached to Napoleon.
+ In the difference between these distinguished persons, we can easily discriminate the
+ leading features of the Parisian, and of the simple German beauty; but it is
+ certainly singular that the artificial character should have belonged to the daughter
+ of the West Indian planter; that marked by nature and simplicity, to a princess of
+ the proudest court in Europe.</p>
+ <p>Bonaparte, whose domestic conduct was generally praiseworthy, behaved with the
+ utmost kindness to his princely bride. He observed, however, the strictest etiquette,
+ and required it from the empress. If it happened, for example, as was often the case,
+ that he was prevented from attending at the hour when dinner was placed on the table,
+ he was displeased if, in the interim of his absence, which was often prolonged, she
+ either took a book, or had recourse to any female occupation,&mdash;if, in short, he
+ did not find her in the attitude of waiting for the signal to take her place at
+ table. Perhaps a sense of his inferior birth made Napoleon more tenacious of this
+ species of form, as what he could not afford to relinquish. On the other hand, Maria
+ Louisa is said to have expressed her surprise at her husband's dispensing with the
+ use of arms and attendance <span class="pagenum"><a id="page31" name="page31"></a>[pg
+ 31]</span> of guards, and at his moving about with the freedom of an individual;
+ although this could be no great novelty to a member of the imperial family of
+ Austria, most of whom, and especially the Emperor Francis, are in the habit of mixing
+ familiarly with the people of Vienna, at public places, and in the public walks.</p>
+ <p>From this date may be traced the declination of Napoleon's greatness. In the field
+ he was generally unsuccessful, and occasionally murmurs of discontent were whispered
+ by citizen and soldier. The plot thickens in the eight volume, and his abdication of
+ the throne of France, and subsequent journey to Elba, are feelingly narrated by our
+ author.</p>
+ <h4>RETURN OF MARIA LOUISA TO HER FATHER, AND DEATH OF JOSEPHINE.</h4>
+ <p>Maria Louisa made more than one effort to join her husband, but they were
+ discouraged on the part of Napoleon himself, who, while he continued to ruminate on
+ renewing the war, could not desire to have the empress along with him in such an
+ adventure. Shortly afterwards, the emperor of Austria visited his daughter and her
+ son, then at Rambouillet, and gave her to understand that she was, for some time at
+ least, to remain separate from her husband, and that her son and she were to return
+ to Vienna along with him. She returned, therefore, to her father's protection.</p>
+ <p>It must be also here mentioned, as an extraordinary addition to this tale of
+ calamity, that Josephine, the former wife of Bonaparte, did not long survive his
+ downfall. It seemed as if the Obi-woman of Martinico had spoke truth; for at the time
+ when Napoleon parted from the sharer of his early fortunes, his grandeur was on the
+ wane, and her death took place but a few weeks subsequent to his being dethroned and
+ exiled. The emperor of Russia had visited this lady, and showed her some attention,
+ with which Napoleon, for reasons we cannot conjecture, was extremely displeased. She
+ was amply provided for by the treaty of Fontainbleau, but did not survive to reap any
+ benefit from the provision, as she shortly after sickened and died at her beautiful
+ villa of Malmaison. She was buried on the 3rd of June, at the village of Ruel. A vast
+ number of the lower class attended the obsequies; for she had well deserved the title
+ of patroness of the poor.</p>
+ <p>The residence at Elba, the return, the treachery of Ney, the arrival at Paris, and
+ Napoleon's repossession of the throne, now occupy the page. The battle of Waterloo is
+ briefly, but finely described, and indeed the whole of the ninth volume, to which we
+ have now arrived, is deeply interesting. We find, however, that we have nearly
+ reached our limits, and as we shall take an early opportunity of again referring to
+ this elaborate history, we shall now close with the following extracts;&mdash;</p>
+ <h4>CONDUCT OF NAPOLEON ON HIS WAY TO ST. HELENA.</h4>
+ <p>Upon the Northumberland crossing the line, the emperor desiring to exhibit his
+ munificence to the seamen, by presenting them with a hundred louis d'or, under
+ pretext of paying the ordinary fine, Sir George Cockburn, considering this tribute to
+ Neptune as too excessive in amount, would not permit the donative to exceed a tenth
+ part of the sum; and Napoleon offended by the restriction, paid nothing at all. Upon
+ another occasion, early in the voyage, a difference in national manners gave rise to
+ one of those slight misunderstandings which we have noticed. Napoleon was accustomed,
+ like all Frenchmen, to leave the table immediately after dinner, and Sir George
+ Cockburn, with the English officers, remained after him at table; for, in permitting
+ his French guests their liberty, the admiral did not choose to admit the right of
+ Napoleon to break up the party at his, Sir George's, own table. This gave some
+ discontent. Notwithstanding these trifling subjects of dissatisfaction, Las Cases
+ informs us that the admiral, whom he took to be prepossessed against them at first,
+ became every day more amicable. The emperor used to take his arm every evening on the
+ quarter-deck, and hold long conversations with him upon maritime subjects, as well as
+ past events in general.</p>
+ <p>While on board the Northumberland, the late emperor spent his mornings in reading
+ or writing; his evenings in his exercise upon deck, and at cards. The game was
+ generally <i>vingt un</i>. But when the play became rather deep, he discouraged that
+ amusement, and substituted chess. Great tactician as he was, Napoleon did not play
+ well at that military game, and it was with difficulty that his antagonist,
+ Montholon, could avoid the solecism, of beating the emperor.</p>
+ <p>During this voyage, Napoleon's <i>jour de f&ecirc;te</i> occurred, which was also
+ his birthday. It was the 15th of August; a day for which the Pope had expressly
+ canonized a St. Napoleon to be the emperor's patron. And now, strange revolution, it
+ was celebrated by him on board of an English man-of-war, which was conducting him to
+ his place of imprisonment, and, as it proved, his tomb. Yet Napoleon <span
+ class="pagenum"><a id="page32" name="page32"></a>[pg 32]</span> seemed cheerful and
+ contented during the whole day, and was even pleased at being fortunate at play,
+ which he received as a good omen.</p>
+ <p>Upon the 15th of October, 1815, the Northumberland reached St. Helena, which
+ presents but an unpromising aspect to those who design it for a residence, though it
+ may be a welcome sight to the seaworn mariner. Its destined inhabitant, from the deck
+ of the Northumberland, surveyed it with his spy-glass. St. James' Town, an
+ inconsiderable village, was before him, enchased, as it were in a valley, amid arid
+ and scarped rocks of immense height; every platform, every opening, every gorge, was
+ bristled with cannon. Las Cases, who stood by him, could not perceive the slightest
+ alteration of his countenance. The orders of government had been, that Napoleon
+ should remain on board till a residence could be prepared suitable for the line of
+ life he was to lead in future. But as this was likely to be a work of time, Sir
+ George Cockburn readily undertook, on his own responsibility, to put his passengers
+ on shore, and provide in some way for the security of Napoleon's person, until the
+ necessary habitation should be fitted up. He was accordingly transferred to land upon
+ the 16th of October; and thus the emperor of France, nay, wellnigh of Europe, sunk
+ into the recluse of St. Helena.</p>
+ <h4>DEATH OF NAPOLEON</h4>
+ <p>During the 3rd of May, it was seen that the life of Napoleon was drawing evidently
+ to a close; and his followers, and particularly his physician, became desirous to
+ call in more medical assistance;&mdash;that of Dr. Shortt, physician to the forces,
+ and of Dr. Mitchell, surgeon of the flag-ship, was referred to. Dr. Shortt, however,
+ thought it proper to assert the dignity belonging to his profession, and refused to
+ give an opinion on a case of so much importance in itself, and attended with so much
+ obscurity, unless he were permitted to see and examine the patient. The officers of
+ Napoleon's household excused themselves, by professing that the emperor's strict
+ commands had been laid on them, that no English physician, Dr. Arnott excepted,
+ should approach his dying bed. They said, that even when he was speechless they would
+ be unable to brook his eye, should he turn it upon them in reproof for their
+ disobedience.</p>
+ <p>About two o'clock of the same day, the priest Vignali administered the sacrament
+ of extreme unction. Some days before, Napoleon had explained to him the manner in
+ which he desired his body should be laid out in state, in an apartment lighted by
+ torches, or what Catholics call <i>une chambre ardente</i>. "I am neither," he said
+ in the same phrase which we have formerly quoted, "a philosopher nor a physician. I
+ believe in God, and am of the religion of my father. It is not everybody who can be
+ an atheist. I was born a Catholic, and will fulfil all the duties of the Catholic
+ church, and receive the assistance which it administers." He then turned to Dr.
+ Antommarchi, whom he seems to have suspected of heterodoxy, which the doctor,
+ however, disowned. "How can you carry it so far?" he said. "Can you not believe in
+ God, whose existence every thing proclaims, and in whom the greatest minds have
+ believed?"</p>
+ <p>As if to mark a closing point of resemblance betwixt Cromwell and Napoleon, a
+ dreadful tempest arose on the 4th of May, which preceded the day that was to close
+ the mortal existence of this extraordinary man. A willow, which had been the exile's
+ favourite, and under which he had often enjoyed the fresh breeze, was torn up by the
+ hurricane; and almost all the trees about Longwood shared the same fate.</p>
+ <p>The 5th of May came amid wind and rain. Napoleon's passing spirit was deliriously
+ engaged in a strife more terrible than that of the elements around. The words
+ "<i>t&ecirc;te d'arm&eacute;e</i>" the last which escaped his lips, intimated that
+ his thoughts were watching the current of a heady fight. About eleven minutes before
+ six in the evening, Napoleon, after a struggle which indicated the original strength
+ of his constitution, breathed his last.</p>
+ <h4>HIS FUNERAL.</h4>
+ <p>Bonaparte was buried on the 8th of May, in a small secluded recess called Slane's,
+ or Haine's Valley, where a fountain arose, at which his Chinese domestics used to
+ fill the silver pitchers, which they carried to Longwood for Napoleon's use. "All the
+ troops were under arms upon the solemn occasion. As the road did not permit a near
+ approach of the hearse to the place of sepulture, a party of British grenadiers had
+ the honour to bear the coffin to the grave. The prayers were recited by the priest,
+ Abb&eacute; Vignali. Minute guns were fired from the admiral's ship. The coffin was
+ then let down into the grave, under a discharge of three successive volleys of
+ artillery, fifteen pieces of cannon firing fifteen guns each. A large stone was then
+ lowered down on the grave, and covered the moderate space now sufficient for the man
+ for whom Europe was once too little."</p>
+ <hr class="full" />
+ <blockquote class="footnote">
+ <a id="footnote1" name="footnote1"></a> <b>Footnote 1</b>: <a
+ href="#footnotetag1">(return)</a>
+ <p>It did not escape the minute observers of this scene, that he still held in his
+ hand the bag which had contained the fatal pistol, and which was inscribed with the
+ words, <i>Au grand monarque</i>, alluding to the sign, doubtless, of the gunsmith
+ who sold the weapon, but singularly applicable to the high pretensions of the
+ purchaser.</p>
+ </blockquote>
+ <blockquote class="footnote">
+ <a id="footnote2" name="footnote2"></a> <b>Footnote 2</b>: <a
+ href="#footnotetag2">(return)</a>
+ <p>The fate of no tyrant in history was so hideous at the conclusion, excepting
+ perhaps that of Jugurtha.</p>
+ </blockquote>
+ <blockquote class="footnote">
+ <a id="footnote3" name="footnote3"></a> <b>Footnote 3</b>: <a
+ href="#footnotetag3">(return)</a>
+ <p>Benson's "Sketches of Corsica," p. 4.</p>
+ </blockquote>
+ <blockquote class="footnote">
+ <a id="footnote4" name="footnote4"></a> <b>Footnote 4</b>: <a
+ href="#footnotetag4">(return)</a>
+ <p>"Sketches of Corsica," p. 4.</p>
+ </blockquote>
+ <blockquote class="footnote">
+ <a id="footnote5" name="footnote5"></a> <b>Footnote 5</b>: <a
+ href="#footnotetag5">(return)</a>
+ <p>The mother of Letitia Ramolini, wife of Carlo Bonaparte, married a Swiss officer
+ in the French service, named Fesch, after the death of Letitia's father.</p>
+ </blockquote>
+ <blockquote class="footnote">
+ <a id="footnote6" name="footnote6"></a> <b>Footnote 6</b>: <a
+ href="#footnotetag6">(return)</a>
+ <p>They were many years since communicated to the author by Messrs. Joseph and
+ Louis Law, brothers of General Baron Lauriston, Bonaparte's favourite aid-de-camp.
+ These gentlemen, or at least Joseph, were educated at Brienne, but at a later
+ period than Napoleon. Their distinguished brother was his contemporary.</p>
+ </blockquote>
+ <blockquote class="footnote">
+ <a id="footnote7" name="footnote7"></a> <b>Footnote 7</b>: <a
+ href="#footnotetag7">(return)</a>
+ <p>Benson's "Sketches of Corsica," p. 121.</p>
+ </blockquote>
+ <blockquote class="footnote">
+ <a id="footnote8" name="footnote8"></a> <b>Footnote 8</b>: <a
+ href="#footnotetag8">(return)</a>
+ <p>Not literally, however: for it is worth mentioning, that when he was in
+ full-blown possession of his power, an inheritance fell to the family, situated
+ near Ajaccio, and was divided amongst them. The first consul, or emperor, received
+ an olive-garden as his share.&mdash;<i>Sketches of Corsica</i>.</p>
+ </blockquote>
+ <blockquote class="footnote">
+ <a id="footnote9" name="footnote9"></a> <b>Footnote 9</b>: <a
+ href="#footnotetag9">(return)</a>
+ <p>Bonaparte was then in his twenty-sixth year. Josephine gave herself in the
+ marriage contract for twenty-eight.</p>
+ </blockquote>
+ <blockquote class="footnote">
+ <a id="footnote10" name="footnote10"></a> <b>Footnote 10</b>: <a
+ href="#footnotetag10">(return)</a>
+ <p>A lady of high rank, who happened to live for some time in the same convent at
+ Paris, where Josephine was also a pensioner or boarder, heard her mention the
+ prophecy, and told it herself to the author, just about the time of the Italian
+ expedition, when Bonaparte was beginning to attract notice. Another clause is
+ usually added to the prediction&mdash;that the party whom it concerned should die
+ in an hospital, which was afterwards explained as referring to Malmaison. This the
+ author did not hear from the same authority. The lady mentioned used to speak in
+ the highest terms of the simple manners and great kindness of Madame
+ Beauharnois.</p>
+ </blockquote>
+ <hr class="full" />
+ <p><i>Printed and published by J. LIMBIRD, 143, Strand, (near Somerset House,) and
+ sold by all Newsmen and Booksellers.</i></p>
+ <hr class="full" />
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Mirror of Literature, Amusement,
+and Instruction, Vol. 10, Supplementary Number, Issue 263, 1827, by Various
+
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