Part 2 (2/2)
Joseph Bonaparte was of very essential service to Napoleon in the diplomatic intercourse of the times Lucien also was employed in various ways, and the whole family were taken under the protection of the First Consul At St Helena Napoleon uttered the following graphic and truthful eulogium upon his brothers and sisters: ”What family, in similar circumstances, would have acted better? Every one is not qualified to be a statesman That requires a combination of pohich does not often fall to the lot of any one In this respect all ularly situated; they possessed at once tooto resign the counselor, and yet too weak to be left entirely to theood reason to be proud of my family Joseph would have been an honor to society in any country, and Lucien would have been an honor to any assembly; Jerome, as he advanced in life, would have developed every qualification requisite in a sovereign Louis would have been distinguished in any rank or condition of life My sister Eliza was endoith masculine powers of mind; she must have proved herself a philosopher in her adverse fortune Caroline possessed great talents and capacity
Pauline, perhaps the e, has been and will continue to the end of her life, the most amiable creature in the world As to my mother, she deserves all kinds of veneration
How seldom is so numerous a fa aside the jarring of political opinions, we sincerely loved each other For my part, I never ceased to cherish fraternal affection for them all And I am convinced that in their hearts they felt the same sentiiven me every proof of it”
The proud old nobility, whom Napoleon had restored to France, and upon many of whoratitude toward their benefactor They were sighting for the re-enthroneood old times, when all the offices of emolument and honor were reserved for them and for their children, and the people were but their hewers of wood and drawers of water In the ars, they would crowd the audience-chamber of the First Consul with their petitions In the evening they disdained to honor his levees with their presence They spoke contemptuously of Josephine, of her kindness and her desire to conciliate all parties They conde that Napoleon did He, however, paid no heed to their lect In that most lofty pride which induced him to say that, in his administration he wished to imitate the elemency of God , he endeavored to consult for the interests of all, both the evil and the unthankful His fa hi France
At this time Napoleon's establishentleman, than the court of a monarch Junot, one of his aids, waslady whose name will be remembered in connection with the anecdote of ”Puss in Boots” Her hty of the ancient nobility, who affected to look upon Napoleon with contee Madame Junot was to be presented to Josephine After the Opera she drove to the Tuileries It was near eleven o'clock As Josephine had appointed the hour, she was expected Eugene, hearing the wheels of the carriage, descended to the court-yard, presented his arether It was a nificently furnished Two chandeliers, surrounded with gauze to soften the glare, shed a subdued and grateful light over the roo upon eure, and surpassingly gentle and graceful in hernear Josephine, with his hands clasped behind hihter Upon the entrance of Madame Junot Josephine immediately arose, took her two hands, and, affectionately kissing her, said, ”I have too long been Junot's friend, not to entertain the same sentiments for his wife; particularly for the one he has chosen”
”Oh, Josephine!” said Napoleon, ”that is running on very fast
How do you know that this little pickle is worth loving Well, Madeet the na this, he gently took her hand and drew her toward hi bride was led to retain her pride of birth ”General!” she replied, s, ”it is not for me to speak first”
”Very well parried,” said Napoleon, playfully, ”the mother's spirit!
And how is Madaeneral! For two years her health has caused us great uneasiness”
”Indeed,” said Napoleon,” so bad as that? I aards to her It is a wrong head, a proud spirit, but she has a generous heart and a noble soul I hope that we shall often see you, Madame Junot My intention is to draw around enerals and their young wives They will be of my wife and of Hortense, as their husbands are my friends But you must not expect to meet here your acquaintances of the ancient nobility I do not like the”
This was but the ht of that imperial splendor which afterward dazzled the most powerful potentates of Europe Hortense, who subsequently became the wife of Louis Bonaparte, and the mother of Louis Napoleon, who, at the overne ”She was,” Madah her fair coh to produce that freshness and blooht hair played in silken locks around her soft and penetrating blue eyes The delicate roundness of her figure, slender as a pale of her head But that which forrace and suavity of her manners, which united the Creole nonchalance with the vivacity of France She was gay, gentle, and amiable She had hich, without the s A polished and well-conducted education had i harmoniously, and perforirl She afterward became one of the most amiable princesses in Europe I have seen many, both in their own courts and in Paris, but I have never known one who had any pretensions to equal talents
She was beloved by every one Her brother loved her tenderly The First Consul looked upon her as his child”
Napoleon has been accused of an improper affection for Hortense The world has been filled with the slander Says Bourrienne, ”Napoleon never cherished for her any feeling but a real paternal tenderness
He loved her after his e with her mother, as he would have loved his own child At least for three years I was a witness to all theirthat could furnish the least ground for suspicion, nor the slightest trace of a culpable inti those which hts to take in the character of htly and without reflection Napoleon is no ood or bad, which really took place Let not this reproach be ainst him by the impartial historian
I must say, in conclusion, on this delicate subject, that his principles were rigid in an extreed, neither entered his mind, nor was in accordance with his morals or his taste”
At St Helena Napoleon was one day looking over a book containing an account of his a, ”I do not even know the names of most of the females who are mentioned here This is all very foolish Every body knows that had no ti, in the year 1815, the parish priest of San Pietro, a village a few ued to his little cottage, where he found his aged housekeeper, the Senora Margarita, watching for hiht of poverty in Spain, it was i struck by the utter of destitution which appeared in the house of the good priest; the inable contrivance had been restored to, to hide the nakedness of the walls, and the shabbiness of the furniture Margarita had prepared for her a , which consisted, to say the truth, of the rereat skill, and with the addition of some sauce, and a nameAs she placed the savory dish upon the table, the priest said: ”We should thank God for this good supper, Margarita: this olla-podriga rateful for finding so good a supper at the house of your host!” At the word host, Margarita raised her eyes, and saw a stranger, who had followed her ed, and she looked annoyedShe glanced indignantly first at the unknown, and then at the priest, who, looking down, said in a low voice, and with the tih for three; and surely you would not wish that I should allow a Christian to die of hunger? He has not tasted food for two days”
”A Christian! He isloudly enough to be heard
Meanwhile, the unwelco at the door
He was a s and covered with ave hi, was certainly interesting ”Must I go?” said he
The priest replied with an e under my roof are never driven forth, and are never unwelcoo to table”
”I never leave my carbine, for, as the Castilian proverb says, ”Two friends are one' My carbine is h you allow e me to leave until I wish to do so, there are others ould think nothing of hauling ood health, mine host, and let us to supper”
The priest possessed an extreer soon obliged hi, or rather devouring, nearly the whole of the olla-podriga, the guest finished a large loaf of bread, without leaving a cru round with an expression of inquietude: he started at the slightest sound; and once, when a violent gust of windto his feet, and seized his carbine, with an air which showed that, if necessary, he would sell his life dearly Discovering the cause of the alarm, he reseated himself at table, and finished his repast
”Now,” said he, ”I have one thing ht days s, and you shall be no longer burdened with o,” replied the priest, whose quest, notwithstanding his constant watchfulness, had conversed very entertainingly ”I know soery, and will dress your wound”
So saying, he took fro necessary, and proceeded to do as he had said The stranger had bled profusely, a ball having passed through his thigh; and to have traveled in this condition, and while suffering, too, froth, which seemed hardly human
”You can not possibly continue your journey to-day,” said the host ”You et up your strength, dio to--day, and ier
”There are soh--”and there are some, too,who follow me” And the momentary look of softness passed froave place to an expression almost of ferocity ”Now, is it finished?
That is well See, I can walk as firh I had never been wounded Give me some bread: pay yourself for your hospitality with this piece of gold, and adieu”
The priest put back the gold with displeasure ”I am not an innkeeper, said he; ”and I do not sell my hospitality”