Part 5 (2/2)
The Expedition to Egypt was one of the nificent enterprises which human ambition ever conceived The Return to France combines still more, if possible, of the elements of the moral sublime
But for the disastrous destruction of the French fleet the plans of Napoleon, in reference to the East, would probably have been triumphantly successful At least it can not be doubted that a vast change would have been effected throughout the Eastern world
Those plans were now hopeless The army was isolated, and cut off fro which Napoleon could do for his troops in Egypt was to return to France, and exert his personal influence in sending them succor His return involved the continuance of the most honorable devotion to those soldiers whom he necessarily left behind him The secrecy of his departure was essential to its success Had the bold attempt been suspected, it would certainly have been frustrated by the increased vigilance of the English cruisers The intrepidity of the enterprise must elicit universal admiration
Conte
A nation of thirty itated by the most terrible convulsions There is no atrocity, which the tongue can name, which had not desolated the doorade the heart of fallen man, had sith sies of France
Conflagrations had laid the palaces of the wealthy in ruins, and the green lahere their children had played, had been crihters A gigantic system of robbery had seized upon houses and lands and every species of property and had turned thousands of the opulent out into destitution, beggary, and death Pollution had been legalized by the voice of God-defying lust, and France, la belle France , had been converted into a disgusting warehouse of infamy Laith suicidal hand, had destroyed itself, and the decisions of the legislature swayed to and fro, in accordance with the hideous clautters ever clotted with huument which anarchy condescended to use Effectually it silenced every reue
Constitution after constitution had risen, like ht, and likewith bloodhound fury in France, Monarchists and Jacobins grappling each other infuriate with despair The allied kings of Europe, who by their alliance had fanned these fla with terror upon the portentous prodigy, and were surrounding France with their navies and their armies
The people had been enslaved for centuries by the king and the nobles
Their oppression had been execrable, and it had become absolutely unendurable ”We, the er minister to your voluptuousness, and pride, and lust”
”You shall, you insolent dogs,” exclai” ”You shall,” reiterated the Pope, in the portentous thunderings of the Vatican ”You shall,” came echoed back from the palaces of Vienna, frolio of the Turk, and, in tones deeper, stronger, , happy England Then was France a volcano, and its lava-streaed Europe The people were desperate In the blind fury of their frenzied self-defense they lost all consideration The castles of the nobles were but the monuments of past taxation and servitude With yells of hatred the infuriated populace razed thes, where, for uncounted centuries, dissoluteand heaven-forbidden pleasures, were but national badges of the bondage of the people The indignant throng swept through the upon s, the ie At one bound France had passed froolden crown and iron sceptre, surrounded by wealthy nobles and dissolute beauties, had disappeared, and a ar and revolting, had eed from mines and workshops and the cellars of vice and penury, like one of the spectres of fairy tales to fill his place France had passed from Monarchy, not to healthy Republicanisn of theHe also utterly abhorred the despotisuinary Jacobin nance than the forain, ”that if I must choose between Bourbon oppression, and mob violence, I infinitely prefer the former
Such had been the state of France, essentially, for nearly ten years The great ed for repose The land was filled with plots and counterplots
But there was no one man of sufficient proovernarded France was in a state of chaotic ruin Many voices here and there, began to inquire ”Where is Bonaparte, the conqueror of Italy, the conqueror of Egypt? He alone can save us” His world-wide renown turned the eyes of the nation to him as their only hope
Under these circu e, and who, but three years before, had been unknown to fame or to fortune, resolved to return to France, to overthrow the raced, to subdue anarchy at horession from abroad, and to rescue thirty millions of people frorandeur and noble in its object He had two foes to encounter, each formidable, the royalists of co self-confidence hich he entered upon this enterprise, is one of the most remarkable events in the whole of his extraordinay career He took with hied in no deep-laid and wide-spread conspiracy Relying upon the energies of his own reat mass of the people, he went alone, with but one or two coather into his hands the scattered reins of power
Never did he encounter land, Russia, Turkey, of allied Europe in ared the Mediterranean How could he hope to escape theuillotine was red with blood Every one who had dared to oppose the le-handed, to beard this terrible lion in his den?
It was ten o'clock at night, the 22d of August, 1799, when Napoleon ascended the sides of the frigate Muiron, to France A few of his faithful Guards, and eight companions, either officers in the army or members of the scientific corps, accompanied him There were five hundred soldiers on board the shi+ps The stars shone brightly in the Syrian sky, and under their soft light the blue waves of the Mediterranean lay spread out ates unfurled their sails Napoleon, silent and lost in thought, for a long ti upon the low outline of Egypt as, in the diht, it faded away
His coain returning to France Napoleon was neither elated nor depressed
Serene and silent he coli the ih Napoleon was in the habit of visiting the soldiers at their careatest freedom and familiarity, the majesty of his character overawed his officers, and adoration and reserve blended with their love Though there was no haughtiness in his deion of elevation above them all Their talk was of cards, of wine, of pretty wohts were of e the destinies of nations They regarded him not as a companion, but as a master, whose wishes they loved to anticipate; for he would surely guide them to wealth, and fame, and fortune He conte friends, but as efficient and valuable instruments for the accomplishment of his purposes Murat was to Napoleon a body of ten thousand horsee Lannes was a phalanx of infantry, bristling with bayonets, which neither artillery nor cavalry could batter down or break Augereau was an armed column of invincible troops, black, dense, antic tread wherever the finger of the conqueror pointed These were but the hty soul which swayed thehts, they were only the servants of his will The number to be found hom the soul of Napoleon could dwell in sympathetic friendshi+p was few--very few
Napoleon had formed a very low estireat allowance for the infir, ”Friendshi+p is but a name I love no one; no, not even my brothers Joseph perhaps a little And if I do love him, it is from habit, and because he is my elder Duroc! Ah, yes! I love him too But why? His character please me He is cold, reserved, and resolute, and I really believe that he never shed a tear As toas I continue what I am, I may have as many pretended friends as I please We must leave sensibility to the wo to do ar or government I am not amiable No; I am not amiable I never have been But I am just”
In another mood of mind, more tender, more subdued, he rereat severity was conde those who abandoned Napoleon in his hour of adversity: ”You are not acquainted with men They are difficult to comprehend if one wishes to be strictly just Can they understand or explain even their own characters? Almost all those who abandoned me would had I continued to be prosperous, never perhaps have dreamed of their own defection There are vices and virtues which depend upon circuth! Besides I was forsaken rather than betrayed; there was more weakness than of perfidy around me It was the denial of St PeterTears and penitence are probably at hand And where will you find in the page of history any one possessing a greater number of friends and partisans? Who was ever more popular and retted? Here fro the present disorders in France ould not be teht have appeared in a ht”
Las Casas, who shared with Napoleon his weary years of imprisonment at St Helena says of him: ”He views the coh a point that individuals escape his notice He never evinces the least syht be supposed he has the greatest reason to coest mark of reprobation, and I have had frequent occasions to notice it, is to preserve silence with respect to them whenever they are mentioned in his presence But how often has he been heard to restrain the violent and less reserved expressions of those about him?”
”And here I must observe,” say Las Casas, ”that since I have become acquainted with the Emperor's character, I have never known hier or aniainst those who had most deeply injured him He speaks of the their conduct in so the rest to the account of human weakness”
Marmont, who surrendered Paris to the allies was severely condemned by Las Casas Napoleon replied: ”Vanity was his ruin Posterity will justly cast a shade upon his character, yet his heart will be more valued than the memory of his career” ”Your attachment for Berthier,” said Las Casas, ”surprised us He was full of pretensions and pride” ”Berthier was not with out talent” Napoleon replied, ”and I a to disavow his merit, or my partiality; but he was so undecided!” He was very harsh and overbearing” Las Casas rejoined ”And what,than weakness which feels itself protected by strength! Look at women for example” This Berthier had with the utmost meanness, abandoned his benefactor, and took his place in front of the carriage of Louis XVIII as he rode triue I wish on this poor Berthier,” said Napoleon at the time, ”would be to see hiuard of Louis”
Says Bourrienne, Napoleon's rejected secretary, ”The character of Napoleon was not a cruel one He was neither rancorous nor vindictive None but those who are blinded by fury, could have given hiula I think that I have stated his real fault with sufficient sincerity to be believed upon my word I can assert that Bonaparte, apart fro kind, and accessible to pity He was very fond of children, and a bad man has seldom that disposition In the habits of private life he had and the expression is not too strong, ence for human weakness A contrary opinion is too firmly fixed in some minds for me to hope to remove it I shall, I fear, have opposers; but I address myself to those who are in search of truth I lived in the e of thirty-four years, and I advance nothing lightly” This is the admission of one who had been ejected from office by Napoleon, and who become a courtier of the reinstated Bourbons It is a candid adhed anchor in the darkness of the night, hoping before the day should dawn to escape the English cruisers which were hovering about Alexandria Unfortunately, at ht, the wind died away, and it beca captured, soain the shore ”Be quiet,”
said Napoleon, ”we shall pass in safety”
Admiral Gantheaume wished to take the shortest route to France
Napoleon, however, directed the ad as near as possible the coast of Africa, and to continue that unfrequented route, till the shi+ps should pass the Island of Sardinia ”In the lish fleet present itself, ill run ashore upon the sands, and march, with the handful of brave men and the few pieces of artillery we have with us, to Oran or Tunis, and there find means to re-embark” Thus Napoleon, is this hazardous enterprise braved every peril The most imminent and the lish prison
For twenty days the as so invariable adverse, that the shi+ps did not advance three hundred ed and so apprehensive of capture that it was even proposed to return to Alexandria Napoleon was much in the habit of peaceful sub all these trying weeks he appeared perfectly serene and contented To theof his companions he replied, ”We shall arrive in France in safety I am determined to proceed at all hazards Fortune will not abandon us” ”People frequently speak,” says Bourrienne, who accoood fortune which attaches to an individual, and even attends him this sort of predestination, yet, when I call to ers which Bonaparte escaped in so many enterprises, the hazards he encountered, the chances he ran, I can conceive that others th of time studied the 'man of destiny', I have reenius; that his success was the consequence of his ad, and of the conviction that boldness is often the truest wisdoypt to France, he had not i a course different from that usually taken, and which usual course was recommended by the admiral, would he have escaped the perils which beset his path! Probably not And was all this the effect of chanceCertainly not”
During these days of suspense Napoleon, apparently as serene in spirit as the calm which often silvered the unrippled surface of the sea held all the energies of his mind in perfect control A choice library he invariably took with hi study, finding recreation in solving thechemistry and other scientific subjects of practical utility He devoted uished scholars whorossed in the pursuit of literary and scientific attainments He also carefully, and with most intense interest, studied the Bible and Koran, scrutinizing, with the eye of a philosopher, the antagonistic system of the Christian and the Mosleain and again, with deep admiration, Christ's sermon upon the mount and called his companions forht also appreciate its , become devout yourself,” said one of his infidel coht become so,” Napoleon replied ”What a solace Christianityconviction of its truth” But practical Christianity he had only seen in thethe fasts, the vigils, the penances, the cloisters, the scourgings of a corrupt Christianity, and contrasting them with the voluptuous paradise and the sensual houries which inflaer vision of the Mosleenius, ”The religion of Jesus is a threat, that of Mohah the wrath of God shall fall upon the children of disobedience, our Saviour invites us, in gentle accents, to the green pastures and the still waters of the Heavenly Canaan; to cities resplendent with pearls and gold; to s of seraphi on tireless pinion the wonders of infinity; to peace of conscience and rapture dwelling in pure heart and to blest co and beloved; to majesty of person and loftiness of intellect; to appear as children and as nobles in the audience-chaion of Jesus is not a threat, though it has too often been thus represented by its roup of officers were conversing together, upon the quarter deck, respecting the existence of God Many of the It was a calht The heavens, the work of God's fingers, canopied theloriously The moon and the stars, which God had ordained beamed down upon the utterance to the arguments of atheis no part in the conversation, and apparently absorbed in his own thoughts Suddenly he stopped before thenity which ever overawed, ”Gentleu so gloriously above us? Can you tell me that?” No one answered Napoleon resumed his silent walk, and the officers selected another topic for conversation